PLATTSMOUTH  A man who tried to ram a car off a Cass County road and then run away from authorities in a Plattsmouth cemetery received a prison sentence Monday morning.

Montrose, Colo., resident Timothy A. Rider, 38, appeared in Cass County District Court for sentencing on three criminal charges. He pled guilty in July to one Class IIIA felony count of attempted second-degree assault, one Class I misdemeanor count of resisting arrest and one Class W misdemeanor count of driving under the influence of alcohol-first offense.

Rider had been drinking on May 7 and began driving on Platteview Road in Sarpy County. Another car had stopped at the intersection of Platteview Road and Highway 75 and was preparing to turn south towards Plattsmouth at 11:30 p.m. Rider approached the other car in his vehicle and drove around it. He then went southbound on Highway 75 after cutting them off.

Deputy County Attorney Steven Sunde said the two people in the other car caught up with Rider on the highway. The two people made an obscene gesture towards Riders vehicle at the time. Rider responded to the gesture by turning his car into their vehicle in Sarpy County. Sunde said Rider then rammed into the other car twice on Highway 75 when they reached Cass County.

The people in the second vehicle called authorities soon after the incident. Cass County Sheriffs Office deputies and Plattsmouth police saw Riders car by the Plattsmouth Hy-Vee parking lot. They then watched him flee the vehicle on foot into Oak Hill Cemetery.

Numerous officers from both agencies soon arrived on scene to search for him. Authorities spotted Rider about 12:50 a.m. and surrounded him in a small section of the cemetery. Rider yelled profane words at authorities and then attempted to flee. A CCSO deputy chased him and made a diving tackle on a piece of cement that was slanted downhill.

The deputy who tackled Rider suffered injuries to his left and right knees and left shoulder, arm and elbow. Plattsmouth Rescue transported him to Bellevue Medical Center for treatment.

Authorities gave Rider a chemical breath test after they transported him from the cemetery to Cass County Jail. His blood-alcohol content level was .115.

Sunde told the court Monday that Rider had been incarcerated in Colorado from 1996-2006 and had committed a burglary in Colorado in 2014. He said he felt a jail sentence was appropriate in the Cass County case.

Interim District Court Judge Paul Korslund followed recommendations of the plea agreement. He sentenced Rider to two years in the Nebraska Department of Corrections on the first charge, one year on the second charge and six months on the third charge. Rider will serve all three sentences on a concurrent basis. He will be given credit for 128 days he has already spent in jail.
Co-working space has enjoyed tremendous growth in recent years, supported by the start-up boom; demand for greater flexibility among both employees and corporates.

Advances in technology allowing people to work anywhere at any time; and its appeal as a cost effective alternative to traditional offices.

Flexible co-working spaces are increasingly edging out the old guard of traditional serviced offices in Asia, according to several reports by commercial real-estate firm like Colliers International and CBRE.

Several reasons are suggested for the rise of co-working. The first is the growth of the millennial workforce, set to represent half of the global workforce by 2020.

Another factor is growth in the technology sector. The CBRE report highlights Fintech as an industry seeking flexible, non-traditional solutions to meet the demands of their rapid growth.

 There are around 300 co-working spaces located in Asia Pacific gateway cities including Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney and Melbourne.

 Competition among co-working space operators is intensifying as they open more centres, lease larger spaces and increase their presence in prime areas. CBRE Research believes the key to running a successful co-working space is creating an experience; building a community; and facilitating business and learning opportunities for end-users.

 The rise of co-working space in Asia Pacific is encouraging occupiers to rethink their traditional use of office space. It is also prompting landlords to consider whether to lease space to co-working operators or develop their own co-working platform.

The rise of the millennial workforce

With the rise of the millennial workforce, which is estimated will make up 50% of the global workforce by 2020, and growth in the technology sector, in particular FinTech, more occupiers are seeking flexible, non-traditional solutions to meet the demands of their rapid growth.

Conventional lease terms of 3 to 5 years, commonly offered in Asia, do not fit in line with the pace of their growth.

Additionally, we are now seeing established MNCs seek flexible solutions and shorter lease terms to address the challenges they face within the current economic climate.

In the 2016 Hong Kong Budget, the Hong Kong Government allocated HKD 2 billion to fund and co-invest in Hong Kong startups. This will inevitably lead to further growth in the start-up technology sector and increase demand. This demand will not be satisfied in the

This demand will not be satisfied in the government-backed Cyberport  hence growth in the number of co-working space operators, albeit slower than in Beijing and Shanghai due to limited stock and traditional institutional Landlords holding a tighter grip on the office market.

Interestingly, Singapore is ahead of Hong Kong in the technology sector due to the regulation in place there helping stimulate growth.

However, we expect Hong Kong to catch up, particularly now that the Government are putting in funding and, of course, Hong Kongs geographical location as a gateway to the Mainland will aid this growth once regulation issues are resolved.
Thailands Prime Minister recently thanked the tourists from the Peoples Republic of China for choosing Thailand as a holiday destination and for making up the largest numbers of visitors to the kingdom over the last few years.

Indeed, almost one tourist out of three entering Thailand is now coming from mainland China, and the country should attract more than 10 million Chinese visitors by the end of 2016.

Mr Yuthasak Supasorn, Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) said, The Chinese market has totally transformed tourism in Thailand with around 5.8 million visitors having already visited Thailand between January and July of 2016.

China is Thailands leading source market and its fastest growing. In 2015, Thailand attracted 7.9 million Chinese visitors, generating over 376 billion Baht in revenue, up respectively 71 percent and 87 percent over 2014.

This year, from January to July, Chinese visitors to Thailand totalled 5,764,839, or a year-on-year increase of 20.54 percent.

TAT is projecting to welcome about 10.5 million Chinese visitors with a projected expenditure of 509 billion Baht for the entire 2016.

According to Mr Yuthasak, in the first nine months of 2016, Thailands tourism industry is expected to generate a total of 1.88 trillion Baht (US$53.7 billion) for the Thai economy, representing a year-on-year increase of 14 percent.

Of the total, some 1.25 trillion Baht (US$35.7 billion, up 17 per cent) has been raised by 24.94 million inbound tourists (up 13 per cent) and another 629 billion Baht (US$18 billion, up 6 percent) has come from domestic tourism with 111 million trips having been taken by locals (up 4 per cent on last year).

Other contributing factors to the growth prospects for the October to December period, 2016 include the fact that Thailand is entering the high season with forward bookings for air travels to Thailand already showing an 8 per cent increase.

There are also new air links that have been established, including those from Russia (Moscow, Vladivostok and Yekaterinburg), the Middle East (Tehran, Dubai and Doha), and Asia (Hong Kong, Mandalay, Luang Prabang and Vientiane). In addition, in the days either side of the National Day of the Peoples Republic of China or Golden Week, as it is known, from 1 to 9 October, a total of 39 chartered flights with 7,594 seats have confirmed services to Bangkok and Phuket from nine cities in China.

Source: Thai PM thanks Chinese tourists for choosing Thailand as arrivals reach record numbers
An image supplied by Cho Ray Hospital doctors shows a water melon-sized tumor on the breastbone of a female patient.

Doctors in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday said a woman with a large tumor developing from her breastbone for more than a decade has fully recovered from a surgical procedure to have it removed.

To Thuy Trang, 48, said that the tumor first appeared as a pea-sized growth on one of her breasts, before growing to the size of a water melon over the next years.

Vu Huu Vinh, chief surgeon at Cho Ray Hospital, said doctors had to remove her breastbone and replaced it with titanium plates.

They had to give the patient three liters of blood during the five-hour procedure on November 21.

According to doctors, the tumor weighed down on her heart and lungs and could have killed her.

It's the biggest breastbone tumor we have ever seen in Vietnam, Vinh said.
Many flights were delayed at Ho Chi Minh Citys Tan Son Nhat Airport Sunday by heavy rain triggered by a tropical depression off the central coast that could intensify in the next few days.

A Vietjet Air spokesperson said four flights were diverted to Cam Ranh, Da Lat and Can Tho Sunday afternoon due to heavy rain and strong winds at Tan Son Nhat Airport.

Another 22 flights were also delayed.

Vietnam Airlines said four flights had to fly overhead for 30-45 minutes to wait for better weather, while another flight from Phnom Penh had to land at Cam Ranh Airport.

A Philippine Airlines flight had to land in Thailand before resuming its journey to HCMC.

A projection of the tropical depression on Vietnam's East Sea. Photo credit: NCHMF Heavy rain that began at around 1 p.m. also inundated parts of Tan Son Nhat Airport. Flights were able to land at the airport from 4:30 p.m.

Heavy rains are forecast in central and southern Vietnam in the next three days as the tropical depression in the East Sea could intensify and become a typhoon, the National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting said in a release Monday morning.

The tropical depression lay centered some 220 km north-northwest of Vietnams Truong Sa (Spratly) Islands at 4 a.m. Monday.

It is moving north-northwest at 15 kph and may become more powerful and hit the central coastal provinces of Quang Nam and Binh Dinh.

There would be heavy rains in most central and southern provinces, the center said.
A general view shows the unfinished New Yalu River bridge that was designed to connect China's Dandong New Zone, Liaoning province, and North Korea's Sinuiju, September 11, 2016.

Towering above the murky waters, the New Yalu River Bridge was supposed to symbolize a new era in relations between China and North Korea, helping bring investment to landmark free trade zones jointly run with the impoverished and isolated state.

Costing 2.2 billion yuan ($330 million) and partially completed last year, the dual-carriageway bridge today sits abandoned, the impressive border post on the Chinese side deserted and locked, not a soul to be seen.

On the North Korean side the unfinished bridge ends abruptly in a field, with little sign of infrastructure work happening.

Launched with great fanfare at a five-star Beijing hotel in 2012, the free trade zones close to the Chinese border city of Dandong were meant to be part of China's efforts to coax its erstwhile diplomatic ally into cautious, export-oriented economic reforms, rather than saber rattling and nuclear tests.

China's anger at North Korea for carrying out its fifth and biggest nuclear test last week means the bridge looks unlikely to open any time soon, especially as Pyongyang is already under wide-ranging UN sanctions China has promised to uphold.

The lonely streets of the Dandong New Zone stand testimony to the failure of those engagement efforts. Apartment complexes with fancy names like "Singapore City" lie bare or half-finished, and shopping malls empty or at very low capacity.

At the Guomen Wanjia Home & Life Square Mall, Sun Lixia sits waiting for customers at a lighting store.

"North Korea hasn't opened their end of the bridge and we can't really do anything about it. It's been bad for the local economy here. Who knows when they'll open it?" Sun said.

"Apartments haven't been selling quickly, a lot of people aren't willing to move here," she added. "There isn't even a proper hospital here, it's only been half completed."

The sun rises behind the bridge over Yalu River that connects China's Dandong, Liaoning province, and North Korea's Sinuiju, September 11, 2016.

It's far cry from what one Dandong official told state media in 2012: that the development would resemble Causeway Bay, one of Hong Kong's busiest commercial areas, and the bridge handle 50,000 people and 20,000 vehicles a day to North Korea.

"Abundant resources"

The Hwanggumphyong and Wihwa Islands economic zones, along with one at the other end of the border at Rason, had high level support. Late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il inked an agreement for them during a trip to China in 2010.

The Rason zone has been more successful, though, with much more development, including a Chinese-built road into town and a new bridge being built at its border crossing.

Kim's son, the youthful current leader Kim Jong Un, has yet to visit China, and seems unlikely to be invited any time soon as he pursues an accelerated nuclear weapons and missile testing program to the increasing alarm of the outside world.

A glossy promotional booklet from 2012 shows an artist's rendering of gleaming tower blocks in Hwanggumphyong and wide, tree-line avenues.

"North Korea has not only abundant, high-quality human resources, but also rich capital resources and enormous land to develop," the bilingual Chinese-English booklet reads, promising legal protection for investors and tax breaks.

When Reuters visited this week, only farmland and barbed wire fencing could be seen from the Chinese side.

A woman walks across the destroyed bridge over the Yalu River that once linked North Korea's Sinuiju and Dandong in China's Liaoning province, September 10, 2016.

"The government was counting on trade between China and North Korea to drive economic growth here but that hasn't happened," said a security guard who gave his family name as Liu, standing in front of an office building on the optimistically named Commercial Street.

"To be honest, the main reason the new zone hasn't developed is because the bridge isn't open," Liu added.

War ties

The new link is meant to supplement Dandong's old "Friendship Bridge", with its lone lane for both vehicles and people running parallel to a single-line railway track.

About three-quarters of bilateral trade flows through the city, and statistics show how limited that still is.

China's trade with the North is dwarfed by that with capitalist South Korea, which was worth 908 billion yuan ($136 billion) between January and July, compared to just 17.7 billion yuan between China and North Korea.

Dandong's emotional ties with North Korea run deep, thanks to its front line position during the 1950-53 Korean War when China and North Korea fought against a U.S.-led UN coalition.

Shops are packed with often low quality-looking North Korean goods, including ginseng and spirits infused with snakes and medicinal herbs, and North Korean waitresses sing patriotic songs at government-run restaurants for curious tourists.

Those relations have been severely strained by North Korea's nuclear and missile tests and periodic shootings and murders blamed on North Korean residents and security forces.

An empty street runs in front of the unfinished New Yalu River bridge (L) and the empty Chinese customs building in Dandong, Liaoning province, China, September 11, 2016. The bridge was designed connect China's Dandong New Zone and North Korea's Sinuiju.

"I don't like North Korea. The police on the other side used to shoot farmers who'd go over to sell potatoes, corn, things like that, in the winter," said Dandong farmer Zhao Guangfu, 70.

Jin Qiangyi, Director of Yanbian University's Centre for North and South Korea Studies, said China found itself in a "distressing" position on what to do with North Korea.

"We have a choice about whether we can push them to reform and open up, to get them to change," Jin said. "Of course political and military sanctions need to be stepped up, but civilian opening up and exchanges must be strengthened too."

Shutting the door won't work, Jin added.

"Can it really change that way?"
A man injects heroin into his arm along a street in Man Sam, northern Shan state, Myanmar July 11, 2016.

The Philippines has launched a bloody "war on drugs" that has killed at least 2,400 people in just two months, while neighboring Indonesia has declared a "narcotics emergency" and resumed executing drug convicts after a long hiatus.

In Thailand and Myanmar, petty drug users are being sentenced to long jail terms in prisons already bursting at the seams.

The soaring popularity of methamphetamine - a cheap and highly addictive drug also known as meth - is driving countries across Asia to adopt hardline anti-narcotics policies. Experts say they are likely to only make things worse.

Geoff Monaghan has seen it all before. He investigated narco-trafficking gangs during his 30-year career as a detective with London's Metropolitan Police, then witnessed the impact of draconian anti-drug policies as an HIV/AIDS expert in Russia.

"We have plenty of data but often we forget the history," said Monaghan. "That's the problem."

He believes President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-drugs campaign in the Philippines will fuel more violence and entrench rather than uproot trafficking networks. "I'm very fearful about the situation," he said.

Buddhist novice monks walk past a drug user in Man Sam, northern Shan state, Myanmar July 11 , 2016.

Reflecting the regional explosion in use, the amount of meth seized in East and Southeast Asia almost quadrupled from about 11 tons in 2009 to 42 tons in 2013, said the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The only region seizing more meth was North America, where the booming trade inspired the popular television series "Breaking Bad".

Meth was the "primary drug of concern" in nine Asian countries, the UNODC said, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Japan and South Korea.

Playing catch-up

A rising chorus of experts blame this surge in production and use of meth in Asia on ineffective and even counterproductive government responses.

They say national drug-control policies are skewed towards harsh measures that criminalize users but have failed to staunch the deluge of drugs or catch the kingpins behind it.

They also want a greater emphasis on reducing demand through more and better quality drug rehabilitation.

"There is so much scaremongering and hysteria surrounding the issue of drugs," says Gloria Lai of the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), a global network of 154 non-governmental groups. "That's a disincentive for challenging old ways of thinking."

Men inject heroin into their arms along a street in Man Sam, northern Shan state, Myanmar July 11, 2016.

Meth is a transnational business, worth around $15 billion in mainland Southeast Asia alone in 2013, the UNODC says.

Much of the production takes place in laboratories in lawless western Myanmar. Ingredients such as pseudoephedrine and caffeine are smuggled across porous borders from India, China and Vietnam.

Laos and Thailand are major trafficking routes, with the finished product traveling by road or along the Mekong River for distribution throughout Southeast Asia and China.

Meth is sold in cheap pills called "ya ba", a Thai name meaning "crazy medicine", or in a more potent, crystalline form known as "crystal meth", "ice" or "shabu".

Contraband is effectively hidden amid rising volumes of regional trade, leaving law enforcement to play catch-up, said Jeremy Douglas, the UNODC's Asia Pacific chief.

"We need to start thinking about big-time regional engagement, up to the highest level. It's impossible to deal with the problem on a country-by-country basis," he said.

A man prepares to inject heroin along a street in Man Sam, northern Shan state Myanmar July 11, 2016.

"I can't recall the last time a major trafficking kingpin was caught."

Social cost

The meth explosion carries huge social consequences: overburdened health services, overcrowded prisons, families and communities torn apart.

Small-time users and dealers bear the brunt of unsparing law enforcement that is popular in crime-weary communities. In mid-July, as drug war killings escalated in the Philippines, one survey put President Duterte's approval rating at 91 percent.

Thailand launched an equally popular "war on drugs" in 2003 that killed about 2,800 people in three months. But figures show it had no lasting impact on meth supply or demand in Thailand.

"The world has lost the war on drugs, not only Thailand," the country's justice minister Paiboon Koomchaya told Reuters in July.

Paiboon hinted at a radical shift in policy, saying he wanted to reclassify meth to reduce sentences for possessing and dealing the drug.

For now though, Thailand continues to jail thousands of petty drug users, with about 70 percent of its 300,000 or so prisoners jailed on drugs offences, according to government data.

Tough to treat

Police officers burn seized drugs by setting them on fire during an event to mark International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, outside Yangon, Myanmar June 26, 2016.

Meth addiction is tough to treat, ideally requiring costly and time-consuming counseling. Long-term use can cause changes in brain structure and function.

In March, U.S. President Barack Obama said drug dependency should be seen as "a public health problem and not a criminal problem", part of a bid to roll back a "war on drugs" begun in the 1970s and now widely seen as a failure.

Policy in Asia is largely moving in the opposite direction, with drug rehabilitation underfunded and inadequate.

Less than 1 percent of dependent drug users in Indonesia got treatment in 2014, said the UNODC. Lacking alternatives, desperate Indonesians resort to herbal baths, Islamic prayer and other remedies of unproven efficacy.

"Rehab" in many countries often means detention at a state facility. In Thailand, thousands of users are held at army camps for four months. Relapse rates at drug detention centers range from 60-90 percent, says the World Health Organization.

"Often, the government response causes more harm to an individual than the drug itself," said the IDPC's Lai.

Men use drugs on a street in Man Sam, northern Shan state, Myanmar July 11, 2016.

Evidence shows that the most effective treatment is voluntary and community-based. A 2015 study in Malaysia found that half the people at compulsory centers relapsed within 32 days of release, compared with 429 days for those who had volunteered for treatment.

Tackling demand is complicated by meth's broad appeal across different ages, professions and social classes.

In Myanmar, manual laborers claim that smoking ya ba boosts their stamina, while students say it boosts their grades.

A Yangon student who asked to be identified by the nickname "Nick" told Reuters at a grim state-run rehab clinic that he smoked ya ba to help him concentrate on his studies.

When asked how many of his fellow students also used it, Nick replied: "Almost all of them."
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday called for the withdrawal of U.S. military from a restive southern island, fearing an American troop presence could complicate offensives against Islamist militants notorious for beheading Westerners.

Duterte, who was in the spotlight last week over his televised tirade against the United States and President Barack Obama, said special forces now training Filipino troops were high-value targets for the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf as counter-insurgency operations intensify.

"These special forces, they have to go," Duterte said in a speech during an oath-taking ceremony for new officials.

"I do not want a rift with America. But they have to go."

He added: "Americans, they will really kill them, they will try to kidnap them to get ransom."

The comment by Duterte, a former southern mayor known for his terse words and volatile temperament, adds to uncertainty about what impact his rise to the presidency will have on one of Washington's best alliances in Asia.

Duterte wants an independent foreign policy and says close ties with the United States are crucial, but he has frequently accused the former colonial power of hypocrisy when criticized for his deadly drugs war. He denied on Friday calling Obama a "son of a bitch".

Some U.S. special forces have been killed in the southern Philippines since 2002, when Washington deployed soldiers to train and advise local units fighting Abu Sayyaf in Operation Enduring Freedom, part of its global anti-terror strategy.

At the height of that, some 1,200 Americans were in Zamboanga City and on Jolo and Basilan islands, both strongholds of Abu Sayyaf, which is known for its brutality and for earning huge sums of money from hostage-taking.

The U.S. program was discontinued in the Philippines in 2015 but a small troop presence has remained for logistics and technical support. Washington has shifted much of its security focus in the Philippines towards the South China Sea.

In his speech to officials on Monday, Duterte repeated comments from last week when he accused the United States of committing atrocities against Muslims over a century ago on Jolo island.
As residents in Pyongyang express pride in their nation conducting its fifth nuclear test, their neighbours across the border in China are exasperated.
Syria's president Bashar al-Assad(4th R), prays at a mosque in a Damascus suburb of Daraya, Syria in this handout picture provided by SANA on September 12, 2016.

An emboldened President Bashar al-Assad vowed on Monday to take back all of Syria, hours before the start of a Russian and American-backed ceasefire, which Assad's opponents described as stacked in his favor.

In a gesture loaded with symbolism, state television showed Assad visiting Daraya, a Damascus suburb long held by rebels but recaptured last month after fighters there surrendered in the face of a crushing siege. The Syrian leader performed Muslim holiday prayers alongside other officials in a bare hall in a Daraya mosque.

"The Syrian state is determined to recover every area from the terrorists," Assad said in an interview broadcast by state media, flanked by his delegation at an otherwise deserted road junction.

He made no mention of the ceasefire agreement, but said the army would continue its work "without hesitation, regardless of any internal or external circumstances".

The ceasefire is due to take effect at sundown, and includes improved humanitarian aid access and joint U.S. and Russian targeting of hardline Islamists. But it faces big challenges, including how to separate nationalist rebels from the jihadists.

The rebels say the deal benefits Assad, who appears stronger than at any point since the early days of the war, with military support from Russia and Iran.

The capture of Daraya, a few kilometers (miles) from Damascus, followed years of siege and bombardment and has helped the government secure important areas to the southwest of the capital near an air base.

Backed by Russian air power and Iranian-backed militias, the army has also completely encircled the rebel-held half of Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the war, which has been divided into government and opposition-held zones for years.

In the footage of his visit to Daraya, Assad, 51, appeared to be driving his own vehicle, a silver SUV, as he arrived at the mosque. He smiled and waved as he entered.

Fighting continues

Russia's intervention in the Syrian war a year ago has tilted it in Assad's favor, after rebel advances had posed a growing threat to his rule. It has also given Russia decisive leverage over international diplomacy that has thus far failed to make any progress towards a political settlement.

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with NBC News in this handout picture provided by SANA on July 14, 2016.

The Russia-U.S. deal is the second attempt to bring about a ceasefire this year, after an agreement concluded in February collapsed as each side blamed the other for violations.

Washington, which supports some rebel factions, has been seeking to refocus the fighting in Syria on the Islamic State group, which still controls swathes of the country and has not been included in any ceasefires.

Fighting raged on several key frontlines on Monday, including Aleppo and the southern province of Quneitra.

The commander of a Free Syrian Army (FSA) group in northern Syria said government warplanes had been bombing "like crazy" on Monday, hitting one of his bases.

"They are using their planes to hit everywhere - Aleppo, Idlib, the rural areas," Hassan Haj Ali, commander of the Suqour al-Jabal group, told Reuters.

The Syrian war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced 11 million people from their homes in the world's worst refugee crisis. The new truce has official support from countries on both sides, including both Iran, Assad's ally, and Turkey, a major sponsor of the insurgency against him.

Tricky

Under the agreement, Russian-backed government forces and opposition groups, which are supported by the United States and Gulf States, would halt fighting for a while as a confidence building measure.

A girl fills a container with water on the first day of Eid al-Adha celebrations in the rebel held Douma neighbourhood of Damascus, Syria September 12, 2016.

During this time, opposition fighters will have the chance to separate from militant groups in areas such as Aleppo.

But distinguishing rebels protected by the ceasefire from jihadists who are excluded from it is tricky, particularly with regards to a group formerly called the Nusra Front, which was al Qaeda's Syria branch until it changed its name in July.

The group, which now calls itself Jabhet Fateh al-Sham, is playing a vital role in the battle for Aleppo allied with other rebel factions, but is still outside the ceasefire.

The United States has said the deal includes agreement that the government will not fly combat missions in an agreed area on the pretext of hunting fighters from the former Nusra Front. However, the opposition says a loophole would allow the government to continue air strikes for up to nine days after the ceasefire takes effect.

Nationalist rebel groups, including factions backed by Assad's foreign enemies, wrote to Washington on Sunday to express deep concerns over the truce. The letter, seen by Reuters, said the opposition groups would "cooperate positively" with a ceasefire but believed the terms favored Assad.

It said the ceasefire shared the flaw that allowed the government to scupper the previous truce: a lack of guarantees, monitoring mechanisms or sanctions against violators.

It also said Jabhet Fateh al-Sham should be included in the truce, as the group had not carried out attacks outside Syria despite its previous ties to al Qaeda. Jabhet Fatah al-Sham said the deal aimed to weaken the "effective" anti-Assad forces, and to "bury" the revolution.

Rebel fighters rest on a double bed in Jubata al-Khashab, in Quneitra countryside, Syria September 11, 2016.

A source in the opposition told Reuters the powerful Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham, which fights in close coordination with Jabhet Fatah al-Sham, would back the cessation of hostilities in an announcement later on Monday.

The government has made no comment on the agreement, but Syrian state media quoted what it called private sources as saying the government had given its approval.

The previous cessation of hostilities agreement resulted in a U.N.-led attempt to launch peace talks in Geneva. But these broke down before getting started in earnest.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said a new round of talks between the Syrian government and opposition may be held in early October, the RIA news agency said.

"I think that probably at the very beginning of October (U.N. Syria envoy Staffan) de Mistura should invite all the parties," Bogdanov was quoted as saying.
PLATTSMOUTH  A Union man and a Louisville man were both sentenced Monday morning for their roles in separate cases involving the use of guns.

Union resident Jamie M. Biodrowski, 42, was sentenced in the first case. Biodrowski pled guilty in July to one Class II felony charge of attempted possession of firearm by prohibited person. The state agreed to reduce its original Class ID felony charge of possession of firearm by prohibited person as part of the plea bargain.

Biodrowski was convicted of second-degree forgery in 1997, third-degree assault on an officer in 1999 and burglary in 2000. The felony convictions meant he was prohibited from owning or handling any firearm in any capacity.

A local citizen contacted Cass County Sheriffs Office in March after they watched a video of Biodrowski on YouTube. A teenager had posted the video after he went to a remote location southeast of Union with four other juveniles and four adult males. The group drove to a spot by a bridge just south of East A Street and began taking target practice at a nearby tree.

Deputy County Attorney Steven Sunde told the court in July that the video showed the residents using a .25 handgun, a .45 handgun and a 12-gauge shotgun for the target practice. Biodrowski appeared in the video handling and using the guns.

A CCSO deputy later interviewed several people who had been at the scene. They confirmed Biodrowski had been at the location and had been using the guns for target practice. All of the weapons were owned by another person, but Biodrowski was not authorized by state law to touch or use any of them.

Interim District Court Judge Paul Korslund said he would follow sentencing recommendations contained in the plea agreement. He sentenced Biodrowski to one year in the Nebraska Department of Corrections. Biodrowski will receive credit for 30 days he has already spent in jail. He will be eligible for parole in five months.

Louisville resident Terry L. Richards, 60, was sentenced in the second case. Richards pled guilty earlier this year to one Class I misdemeanor count of third-degree assault. The state agreed to reduce its original felony-level charge of terroristic threats in exchange for the plea. The state also agreed to dismiss a Class IC felony charge of use of a firearm to commit a felony.

Sunde told the court Monday that Richards house in Louisville had been consumed by a fire in July 2014. Emergency crews from multiple surrounding towns came to Louisville to fight the blaze. The heat from the fire affected the siding of a neighboring house.

Sunde said the neighbors had parked a van in an alleyway in February 2016 and were attempting to work on their house. Sunde said Richards became upset after noticing the van was parked at the location. He left his vehicle with a gun and began yelling at the neighbors. Sunde said the other adults and children were alarmed because of the presence of the gun.

Defense attorney Steven Lefler told the court his client had not intended to bring the weapon with him to the argument. Lefler said Richards had spotted the gun falling out of the car as he left the drivers seat and had grabbed it to stop it from landing on the ground. Lefler also said Richards had agreed to give up his concealed carry weapon permit as a condition of the plea bargain.

Richards told the court he had not meant to use the gun to threaten anyone. He said he had believed the van was trespassing on his property and was asking the neighbors to remove the vehicle.

Korslund told Richards his actions merited some type of legal consequences. He said the inclusion of the gun with the argument turned the incident into a serious situation.

Regardless of the intent, the victims were scared, Korslund said.

Korslund sentenced Richards to serve 15 days in Cass County Jail. Richards will be given credit for four days he has already served.

Korslund also ordered Richards to spend 18 months on probation. Richards must complete 20 hours of community service, abstain from alcohol and pay all probation fees. The probation order also includes a no-contact clause with the victims.
Government troops and insurgents fought in several parts of Syria on Sunday, apparently seeking to strengthen their positions on the eve of a ceasefire that Free Syrian Army rebels said they would observe but with major reservations.

The Free Syrian Army groups wrote to the United States on Sunday about the deal it agreed on with Russia, saying that while they would "cooperate positively" with the ceasefire, they were concerned it would benefit the government.

Although the letter did not explicitly say the groups would abide by the ceasefire, two rebels who confirmed its text to Reuters said they would respect the ceasefire when it comes into force on Monday evening.

But according to the letter, the groups are worried by the absence of enforcement mechanisms, a lack of provision for besieged areas and clauses letting army jets fly for up to nine days after the deal comes into effect.

The influential hardline Islamist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham issued a statement late on Sunday attacking the ceasefire deal, but stopping short of explicitly saying it would not abide by its terms.

A war monitor reported clashes around Aleppo and Damascus, but pushes by the government in the mountainous northwest and rebels in the southwest indicated an effort to improve their positions before fighting is due to stop on Monday.

Syria's five-year civil war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced 11 million - half the country's prewar population - causing a refugee crisis in the Middle East and Europe and inspiring jihadist attacks around the world.

Underscoring the war's global impact, President Bashar al-Assad is backed by Russia's air force, Iran's Revolutionary Guards and Shi'ite militias from Iraq and Lebanon, while the rebels are supported by the United States, Turkey and Gulf Arab states.

Previous peace agreements crumbled within weeks, with the United States accusing Assad and his allies of attacking opposition groups and civilians. On Saturday, air strikes on rebel-held areas killed scores of people.

"A big part of the agreement serves the regime and doesn't apply pressure on it and doesn't serve the Syrian people," said Zakaria Malahifji of the Aleppo-based rebel group Fastaqim.

Syria's government has not issued an official comment on the truce, but Syrian state media on Saturday quoted what it called private sources as saying the government had given its approval. Iran welcomed the deal on Sunday.

Islamic State excluded

The ceasefire will not apply to the jihadist groups Islamic State or Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, known as the Nusra Front until it broke formal allegiance to al Qaeda and changed its name.

The rebel groups writing to the United States said the exclusion of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, which operates only inside Syria, while including Iran-backed foreign Shi'ite militias that operate across international borders showed a double standard.

They added in their letter that its exclusion from the ceasefire would be used by Russia as a pretext to bomb other rebel groups, citing their experience of a failed cessation of hostilities earlier this year.

The Syrian air force bombed Islamic State targets near Palmyra, state television reported on Sunday, while rebels clashed with the group northeast of Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor said.

The United States warned insurgents on Saturday they would face "dire consequences" if they cooperated with Jabhet Fateh al-Sham, which fought alongside a range of mainstream and Islamist rebel groups during intense battles in recent weeks in southern Aleppo.

Ahrar al-Sham, one of the largest Islamist groups among the rebels, which has fought alongside Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, criticized the deal in a videotaped speech celebrating Islam's Eid al-Adha festival, which falls on Monday, without rejecting it outright.

It said the deal failed to meet the minimum goals of the movement and would increase the suffering of the Syrian people. It also attacked what it called the "singling out" of particular groups, apparently a reference to the exclusion of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.

Illustrating how widely insurgents work with the former al Qaeda affiliate, Ahrar al-Sham was one of several rebel groups to announce the launch of an offensive in the southwest in coordination with Jabhat Fateh al-Sham on Saturday.

Insurgents posted footage said to show battles on that front on Sunday which Reuters could not verify.

In Latakia province, violent clashes continued on Sunday two days after the army and its allies launched an offensive around several villages near the main coast road to Aleppo using heavy artillery fire and dozens of air strikes, the Observatory said.

More air strikes were reported in Aleppo and Idlib province on Sunday after scores of people were killed in aerial bombardment on Saturday. One in the town of Saraqeb hit a civil defense center where civilian rescuers are based, injuring several, according to the Observatory.
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Avoyelles Parish District Attorney Charles Riddle III plans to convene a grand jury to examine state auditors allegations that former prison official Tonia Cain directed subordinates to change or shred records showing more than $30,000 in cash was missing from concession sales over an 18-month period.

Tonia Cain, who was the business manager at Avoyelles Correctional Center in Cottonport, is married to Nate Cain, who was the prisons warden at the time the money went missing. Both resigned their posts in May amid a series of investigations.

The $31,170 that auditors discovered missing at the prison was supposed to have been deposited in the accounts of five clubs that aim to help inmates rehabilitate themselves. The money is generated by the sale of food and other items, which are purchased with tickets dispensed by a vending machine that accepts cash.

The system is designed to keep cash out of the hands of inmates. Prison officials are responsible for counting the cash and depositing it in the appropriate accounts.

The audit took direct aim at Tonia Cain, saying she was the only employee of the prison who routinely counted cash from the machine alone. Auditors also wrote that other employees told them that Tonia Cain had directed them to delete her initials from some paperwork and in at least one case to replace certain financial records with an altered set.

Tonia Cain, through her attorney, Jill Craft, has strongly denied the allegations in the audit.

Craft has said that Tonia Cain never counted cash alone, and that the vending machines often jammed when dispensing tickets, making them prone to theft. She also said the report relied extensively on the word of inmates.

Riddle said the grand jury will likely convene in November. In such cases, he said, anyone with firsthand knowledge of the information in the audit is generally asked to appear before the grand jury.

The presumed target  in this case, Tonia Cain  also receives a target letter and an invitation to testify, Riddle said. Riddle added that its possible the grand jury probe will have more than one target.

Craft did not immediately return phone and email messages from The Advocate.

Tonia Cain's legal troubles could go beyond the grand jury that Riddle plans to convene. Investigators from the state Office of Inspector General have also been conducting a criminal inquiry into items purchased with state credit cards, a probe that led them to conduct a raid on the Cain's home at the Cottonport prison.

An affidavit filed in support of that search warrant accuses the couple of spending thousands of dollars of taxpayer money on personal items, including gun parts, and of attempting to make the purchases seem legitimate. The warrant was signed by an Avoyelles Parish judge.

Inspector General Stephen Street said recently that his office's investigation continues. The FBI is also involved in that probe, according to a source with knowledge of it.
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Recent flooding has complicated the expansion plans of charter schools in East Baton Rouge Parish, but supporters see potential opportunity arising from the destruction.

The flooding that began Aug. 12 closed 12 public schools in the parish as well as a handful of private schools. That in turn set off a scramble for space as those schools quickly relocated.

Two of the 12 flooded public schools are charter schools in north Baton Rouge. Charter schools are public schools run by private organizations via contracts, or charters. The number of charter schools in the parish has grown from just a handful a few years ago to 26 today.

One of the three Baton Rouge schools run by Los Angeles-based Celerity Schools flooded. Celerity Lanier, which operated out of the former Lanier Elementary, quickly relocated its 400 students to vacant space at the organizations Celerity Crestworth, housed at the former Crestworth Middle School, which did not flood.

New York City-based Democracy Prep wasnt so lucky. The charter groups lone Baton Rouge school, located at the former Prescott Middle School, flooded. The school reopened a week later at the Baranco Clark YMCA, 1735 Thomas H. Delpit Drive.

Celerity and Democracy Prep leaders say they plan to return to their school buildings that flooded, though they are not sure how soon.

Were working collaboratively with East Baton Rouge Parish  they own the building, said Craig Knotts, superintendent of Celerity Schools Louisiana.

Our priority is to reopen in our building, make it clean and safe and welcoming for kids, said Michelle Gieg, Democracy Preps executive director. Were not looking at substantial changes. But speed is important.

Gieg said shes hoping to return to Prescott in a few weeks but the plan is at first to repair only one of the three buildings on the Prescott campus and fix up the rest later.

We can function out of one, she said. It wont be an ideal situation.

Finding space for school was a concern for charter schools before the flooding.

Five other non-flooded charter schools, all launched in the past two years, have been outgrowing their space. Their plans call for them to move in the near future so they can reach their full authorized capacity.

Meanwhile, more charter schools are on the way in the next two years as a handful of big-name charter school management organizations look to set up in Baton Rouge. They are trying to nail down places to hold school.

The flooding, though, has depleted the stock of available school buildings, at least until some flooded schools are repaired.

The East Baton Rouge Parish school system, which had several partially full buildings before the flooding, is now using almost all of its unused space. Its plan is to repair all eight of its schools that flooded, which would again free up some real estate. The other two public schools that flooded are Baker High school and Tanglewood Elementary in Central.

Were moving forward as if everything will be rebuilt as it is, said Adonica Duggan, a spokeswoman for the school system, the second largest in Louisiana.Jefferson Parish school district is the largest.

Repairs to Twin Oaks Elementary have been fast-tracked. It is set to reopen Oct. 3. Plans for the district's seven other flooded schools, however, are still up in the air and waiting for money to do the work. The school system is trying to first settle its flood insurance claim, expected to top out at $10 million, and then will shift its attention to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to seek reimbursement for those costs insurance doesnt cover.

Duggan said the decision-making process is just beginning, and repair plans may change.

Were in the process of hiring a FEMA consultant, and once that person is on board, we can start looking at what those options are, she said.

Despite the flooding and the displacement of thousands of commercial businesses, the Baton Rouge commercial real estate market still appears to have some supply, according to a recent Advocate survey. At least one charter school group recently considered but passed on space at the Cortana Mall, a representative of a property management organization told The Advocate.

New Schools for Baton Rouge, which recruited most of the new and expanding charter schools, is also planning to add to the supply of buildings. In April, the nonprofit, which formed in 2011, announced plans to build as many as five new school campuses.

Baton Rouge charter organization to build five schools, aims to 'transform' educational possibilities A prominent nonprofit group that has helped lure several charter schools to Baton Rouge anno

Chris Meyer, president and CEO of New Schools for Baton Rouge, said two schools are in development. The first one, which is being designed by GraceHebert Architects of Baton Rouge, should break ground later this year and a second one will come shortly after that, Meyer said.

The first one is meant to be an incubation space for charter schools just starting out. Meyer said he is talking to UP Elementary, one of three small charter schools housed in the former Glen Oaks Middle School, about locating there. UP founder Meghan Turner said shes been speaking with Meyer but said her school is still exploring its facility options.

The second school will likely house New Orleans-based Collegiate Academies, which is expected to open a high school in 2017, Meyer said. Collegiate received a charter to start a high school in Baton Rouge in 2013 but has yet to exercise it.

In June, New Schools for Baton Rouge started a new construction company, called NSBR Facilities LLC, to handle the construction. Its two officers are Meyer and Adam Knapp, president and CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber. NSBR Facilities is in turn teaming up with Commercial Properties Realty Trust, the for-profit real estate arm of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, Meyer said. The new company is still raising the money it needs to build all five schools it wants to build, he said.

New Schools for Baton Rouge has in the past tried, without success, to interest the East Baton Rouge Parish school system in teaming up on either leasing or building new buildings for the charter schools New Schools is trying to bring to town.

Meyer said hes hoping to get those conversations restarted. He acknowledged that he and Superintendent Warren Drake didnt get off to the best start after Drake took over in the summer of 2015.

Our bridges are still being repaired, Meyer said.

Meyer said the School Boards decision in May to approve charters for two large charter groups, IDEA Public Schools based in Rio Grande Valley, Texas, and Inspire New Orleans Charter Schools, was a welcome sign of renewed openness to charter schools. He said he hopes New Schools can build on those approvals.

East Baton Rouge School Board accepts 2 of 10 charter school applications The East Baton Rouge Parish School Board on Wednesday approved a charter school group from t

New Schools has at least one other prominent charter school group that wants to come to Baton Rouge: Tucson, Arizona-based BASIS Schools. BASIS had planned to apply for a charter earlier this year but opted not to at the last minute. Instead, it is looking to apply in 2017 for a charter with a start date in 2018, Meyer said. BASIS also is looking to New Schools for at least one of its school buildings.

Superintendent Drake has signaled that the recent flooding is likely to spark a top-to-bottom review of public school facilities in Baton Rouge. Drake said last week that school officials will have to carefully consider its rebuilding plans, as well as future projects, specifically pointing to plans to rebuild Park Elementary as well as a new middle school in southeast Baton Rouge.

The school system has three other major construction projects scheduled to start soon: a new Career Academy, the demolition and rebuilding of Broadmoor Elementary, and renovations to Istrouma High School.
The public school agendas of Gov. John Bel Edwards and state Superintendent of Education John White appear to be on a collision course.

White's state Department of Education is in the midst of a year-long review of state education policies, which was prompted by a new federal law called the Every Student Succeeds Act.

But Edwards, who is no friend to White, has named an advisory council to do a review of its own, and the group is top-heavy with critics of the superintendent.

Rival school review panel named by Gov. John Bel Edwards Gov. John Bel Edwards named nine members to a panel Wednesday to recommend changes in public

The governor's panel may recommend changes in how public schools' letter grades are formulated and call for changes to other accountability measures, which would trigger controversy.

Scott Richard, executive director of the Louisiana School Boards Association and a member of Edwards' advisory council, said one purpose of the panel is to "really look at the various initiatives that we have bounced around with in Louisiana and determine if they are truly working."

Debra Schum, executive director of the Louisiana Association of Principals and another task force member, made a similar point.

"The advisory council will make sure that we are looking at the right changes for our accountability system," Schum said. "I think ESSA opens a lot of doors."

Critics contend the governor's panel would like to use its review to try to undo key parts of the public school overhaul in place since 2012, including letter grades, testing and other areas.

"I think it is a shame that certain people would fail to understand that it is time to let the reforms that we put in place take effect and start having an impact," said former Senate Education Committee Chairman Conrad Appel, R-Metairie. He is now a rank-and-file member of the committee.

The new federal law that states have to comply with replaced the No Child Left Behind Act. It is aimed at improving student achievement by requiring schools meet certain benchmarks.

The review by the state Department of Education is not expected to recommend sweeping changes on public school letter grades or other key accountability measures.

Louisiana kicks off review of public school policies LAFAYETTE -- The state should take a new look at its public school testing policies, the val

"It should not substantially change what we already have in place," said Brigitte Nieland, who follows public school issues for the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry.

However, dueling reviews that put Edwards and White on different sides will highlight previous disagreements.

Despite earlier comments, governor stands down on bid to replace Education Superintendent John White Gov. John Bel Edwards is putting off his vow to try to replace state Superintendent of Educa

The governor vowed to replace White during his campaign last year, then backed off that promise in January amid a lack of support for such a move on the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Education Department officials announced Thursday that, after nine hearings statewide and other meetings with civil rights and other groups, key points raised so far include better aligning public schools with colleges and the workforce; improved assistance for struggling students; and upgrading teacher training.

But the makeup of Edwards' advisory council, and members' early comments, suggest that it plans to go for bigger changes.

The 15-member panel  14 have been named so far  includes several who often disagree with White on key education issues, including Richard, Schum, and Debbie Meaux, president of the Louisiana Association of Educators.

In an email, Richard said there should be no anxiety about the advisory council because local school leaders will have to live with the results of the state plan.

"In contrast, the state superintendent that will have a heavy hand in crafting a state plan for the purposes of the new federal law is on a month-to-month employment agreement," he wrote.

Asked if the governor wanted to comment, Shauna Sanford, a spokeswoman for the governor, said in an email, "We are coordinating our efforts with the Department of Education to work to avoid any potential conflicts of interest."

Taking a new look at how letter grades are assigned to public schools and districts is one issue already gaining traction on the panel.

Under current rules, schools and districts get grades annually based on student test scores.

Meaux, a longtime critic of the grading system, said it should be changed to include items like school safety, extracurricular activities and the condition of the school facilities themselves.

"The concern is that a single summative grade does not give you the full story," Meaux said.

Backers say the letter grades give parents and others an easy way to see how schools are performing.

Schum, a former assistant state superintendent, principal and teacher, disagreed.

"I don't think people really understand our current system," she said. An A-rated school? "What does it mean?" she asked.

The Baton Rouge Area Chamber just released a report that said teacher unions hope to use the review sparked by ESSA "as an excuse to advocate for reducing state testing and eliminating school letter grades."

Nieland agreed.

"I am sure they are going to attack testing," she said. "I am sure they are going to attack letter grades."

Richard said Louisiana already gives students more tests than are required by the federal government and the list needs to be trimmed.

Bid to trim student testing may spark political tug-of-war A push is underway to cut testing in public schools, and the issue is shaping up as a possi

White said in July that time spent on state exams was trimmed 38 percent this year and high school test-taking time is in line for reduction too.

The superintendent plans to submit a state plan to BESE early next year, then send it to the U.S. Department of Education by July so changes can take effect for the 2017-18 school year.

Exactly how the governor's advisory council's recommendations will be used is unclear.

The federal law says the governor will have input in the state plan.

One route would be to try to make it part of any plan approved by BESE.

Legislation is another possibility.

Meaux noted that the advisory panel has yet to hold its first meeting.

"I would hope that the governor would have a discussion with the superintendent and see where things can be married together, where there might be room for compromise," she said.
The Louisiana Democratic Party has rescheduled this year's Jefferson-Jackson Dinner for Oct. 1.

The Louisiana Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, which takes place annually in New Orleans and is typically the largest gathering of Democrats from across the state, was originally scheduled for last month, but was postponed when floods swept across south Louisiana, killing 13 people and leaving thousands displaced from their homes.

Democrats postpone annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner due to severe weather The Louisiana Democratic Party is postponing tonight's Jefferson-Jackson Dinner due to the s

It now will take place just a month ahead of the presidential election and Louisiana's hotly-contested U.S. Senate race to replace retiring Republican David Vitter.

The state Democratic Party has, so far, declined to endorse a candidate in the race.

Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards has endorsed Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell, while New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu is expected to throw his support behind Democrat Caroline Fayard, a New Orleans lawyer.

Twenty-two other candidates will also appear on the ballot, including a packed slate of Republicans. Under Louisiana's unique "jungle primary" system, the top two candidates, regardless of party, will face off in a Dec. 10 runoff if no one gets more than 50 percent of the vote on Nov. 8.

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas will be the featured speaker at the rescheduled J-J dinner next month.

La. Democrats cast presidential nomination votes during Democratic convention Louisiana Democrats at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Tuesday cheered

Castro, the twin brother of U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, has served in Congress since 2013. He has recently made headlines as he has weighed a run for U.S. Senate. He currently serves as chief deputy whip for the U.S. House Democratic leadership.

Castro has been a vocal critic of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and a prominent advocate of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. His appearance at the Louisiana Democrats event follows his speech at the Democratic National Convention.

Having a rising star like Congressman Joaquin Castro headlining this years Jefferson-Jackson dinner is a tremendous honor, and a cause for celebration, State Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, chair of the Louisiana Democratic Party, said in a statement announcing his appearance last month. Congressman Castro has proven himself to be a remarkable leader and an inspiring speaker, and we look forward to welcoming him to Louisiana next week.

Tickets for this year's dinner, which will take place at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans, cost $175 per person and are still available online.
When Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, several local mayors and others took part in a congressional hearing last week on the federal government's response to the catastrophic flooding that swept across the state last month, some leaders say one face was noticeably not in the room.

The absence of Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate, who has led FEMA since 2009, has stirred ire among some of Louisiana's congressional delegation, as well as lawmakers from other states. Regional Administrator Tony Robinson appeared in his place.

U.S. Rep. John Mica, the Florida Republican who chairs the House Oversight committee that oversees FEMA, repeatedly called Robinson's answers and Fugate's absence "unacceptable."

U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-Metairie, is also weighing in. Vitter penned a letter to Fugate venting his frustration over the FEMA chief's decision to skip the U.S. House hearing last week and miss a hearing Thursday in Vitter's Small Business Committee.

Louisianians have long felt that FEMA is a big bureaucracy that simply goes through the motions, and so it is very disappointing that the hundreds of thousands of Louisiana small businesses and homeowners who have lost everything will not have the opportunity to hear an update on the flood recovery directly from the horses mouthit is a chance to make things right, Vitter said.

FEMA spokesman Rafael Lemaitre said Robinson was picked to testify so that he would have more details about the immediate response.

While Fugate traveled to Louisiana last month to overview recovery efforts and accompany President Barack Obama on his tour, Robinson has been the point person on the ground in Louisiana.

"Tony leads the region that includes the state of Louisiana," Lemaitre said. "He's been actively engaged in the response effort since before there was a declaration, and has been in Baton Rouge working beside the federal coordinating officer, the governor and his team, including the state coordinating officer. It is through his leadership that assistance has been moving quickly in Louisiana, and why he represented FEMA at the hearing."

U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, has also publicly questioned why Fugate is sending surrogates to congressional hearings on the FEMA response, rather than attending them in person.

Robinson was unable to answer some questions during Friday's hearing, and mayors from Central, Walker and Denham Springs each expressed frustration over FEMA's responses in the hearing and the recovery effort.

"I think we would have liked more direct answers from FEMA," Walker Mayor Rick Ramsey said as he left the hearing.

Graves said he felt that was largely attributable to the fact that FEMA didn't send its top leader.

"He didn't come," Graves said.

Edwards, a Democrat, has generally spoken positively about the federal response and Fugate, though he opened the door to some criticism on Friday, particularly of the speed at which manufactured housing units were being rolled out for families whose homes are not currently livable because of the flood.

"We can always improve our response to disasters," Edwards said. "We're all frustrated to one degree or another."

Edwards is expected to return to Washington this week for more meetings to woo support for a $2.8 billion flood relief package. He is scheduled to meet with President Barack Obama on that trip.
Six of the seven major candidates for Louisiana's open U.S. Senate seat are backing their partys presidential nominee, with only Foster Campbell declining to say whether hell support Hillary Clinton, the Democratic standard-bearer.

This is a race about Louisiana, Campbell, a Democrat from Bossier Parish who is a member of the Public Service Commission, said in an interview. Talking about Hillary Clinton distracts people.

Campbell declined to commit to supporting either Clinton or Donald Trump, the Republican Party nominee.

Caroline Fayard, the other major Democratic candidate, had no hesitation in voicing her support for Clinton, the former secretary of state, New York senator and first lady.

Secretary Clinton is very qualified, is confident and has a viewpoint on the challenges that face the country, Fayard said. She has been tested.

Fayard noted that, with her family having ties to Arkansas, she has gotten to know Bill and Hillary Clinton through her father, Calvin, a prominent trial attorney from Denham Springs. Caroline Fayard interned in Hillary Clintons office during Bill Clintons second term in the White House, and her father hosted a fundraiser for Clinton in January in New Orleans.

Asked whether she differed from Clinton on any issues, Fayard said she opposes allowing women the right to have an abortion and supports building the Keystone XL pipeline that would connect Canadian oil with refineries in Texas.

Louisiana Spotlight: What's the strategy in packed U.S. Senate race? When Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter announced he wouldnt seek re-election after his fail

The five major Republican candidates all said they support Trump, whose controversial comments have caused many well-known Republicans elsewhere to distance themselves from him.

Its unusual to find unanimity among the Republican candidates, said Ed Chervenak, a political science professor at the University of New Orleans. This is a safe state for Republicans, so its safe to endorse Donald Trump. He has a high probability of winning the state.

Political experts estimate that Trump will carry Louisiana with about 58 percent of the vote on Election Day, Nov. 8.

Chervenak said Clintons unpopularity in Louisiana probably explains why Campbell is not endorsing her.

Hes running a localized campaign, said Chervenak, noting that Campbell is establishing his Democratic bona fides more through the endorsement of the states top Democrat, Gov. John Bel Edwards.

Along with the five major Republican candidates, Troy Hebert, the leading independent candidate in the race, also strongly endorsed Trump.

We tried the politicians in Washington, said Hebert, who spent 15 years in the Legislature representing a district near Lafayette. That didnt work out. Why dont we try a businessman?

The views of the eight candidates solicited by The Advocate on their presidential choice could help voters begin to differentiate among them in a race with a total of 24 candidates.

The Senate race has attracted little public attention, even with less than 60 days until the Nov. 8 primary to replace Sen. David Vitter, who announced on the night that he lost last years governors race in November that he wouldnt seek re-election to a third Senate term in 2016.

Based on polling, money raised and support in past elections, the newspaper chose to seek interviews with eight of the 24 candidates. All but David Duke and U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany agreed to the interviews.

Rob Maness, a former colonel who has not held elected office, voiced perhaps the strongest support for the Republican nominee.

It didnt even take a second thought about endorsing Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, Maness said in an interview. One of the most important jobs as a U.S. senator will be confirming Supreme Court judges. I couldnt see myself confirming any justices nominated by Hillary Clinton. Also, President Trump is going to secure our border. That is something I can help do in the United States Senate. By building that wall, we will stop illegal immigration.

State Treasurer John Kennedy, who is the front-runner according to polls, said he agrees with Trump on a number of issues, including opposition to limiting purchases of guns, to abortion and to the health plan revamp known as Obamacare.

Asked where he differed from Trump, Kennedy cited Trumps opposition to having the federal government bar funding to Planned Parenthood, which performs abortions and provides health care to poor women.

Kennedy also objected to Trump having said of U.S. Sen. John McCain, I like people who werent captured. (McCain spent five and a half years as a prisoner of war after his plane was shot down during the Vietnam War.) We should honor our P.O.W.s, Kennedy said.

In another difference, Kennedy said he favors a tax plan that gives greater benefits to the middle class, as opposed to Trumps plan, which he said favors the wealthy.

U.S. Rep. John Fleming also expressed strong support for Trump in an interview.

He wants to bring lawfulness to our borders," said Fleming, a family doctor from Minden, east of Shreveport. I agree that we should not have sanctuary cities. He has a rational immigration policy to follow the laws weve had for a long time. I agree that while we should have trade with other countries, it should be an even playing field or we should at least be equally competitive with our competitors.

Asked how he differs from Trump, Fleming replied, Im sure we have some disagreements, but I cant think of one offhand.

Duke, a white supremacist who lost the 1991 governors race to Edwin Edwards, said in a written statement that he is supporting Trump because he is championing issues that I brought forward decades ago. I was right about these issues then, and I continue to be right regarding these issues today.

What issues Duke was referring to was not made clear.

Duke is so notorious nationally, given his past leadership of a Ku Klux Klan faction, that Trump has disavowed his support.

Boustany, a heart surgeon from Lafayette, also offered a written statement in support of Trump.

We need a leader that will strengthen our national security, grow our economy and protect the values that made this country truly great, he said. Hillary Clinton would continue the Obama legacy of weak foreign policy and national security, a stagnant economy, and she would nominate liberal justices that could tip the balance of the Supreme Court for a generation.
Sandbags and other material block a culvert near Guedry Street along La. 22 in Sorrento sometime during flooding the week of Aug.15. Tim Hebert, 48, a Sorrento resident, says this and other culvert blockages along La. 22 worsened flooding in his neighborhood northwest of the highway.
If this years sprawling U.S. Senate field can be divided into a series of mini-primaries, the most distinct contest within a contest is the showdown between the two Democrats who have managed to make a dent in the polls.

Republicans are favored to hold on to outgoing U.S. Sen. David Vitters seat, given Louisianas overall party preferences. But in any given race, about 40 percent of voters, give or take a few percentage points, usually choose a Democrat.

If Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell or lawyer Caroline Fayard were the sole well-known, well-funded Democrat, either would easily land in the runoff. The fact that they are competing for that same vote, in a 24-candidate race in which the difference between second and third or fourth may be minuscule, means that neither could. So theres no coasting into the second round.

Thats one thing that makes this years contest a bit unusual.

Another is that, while Louisiana Democrats running statewide normally distance themselves from the national party, both candidates look at the crazy presidential landscape and pick out signs of encouragement.

Fayard, 38, who has never held office before, sees hope in the general anti-incumbent mood.

"I think there is a sentiment, sweeping the country, that feels that frankly both parties are broken," she said recently. Its not Democrats are better than Republicans or Republicans are better than Democrats, it's just that parties have generally failed people on issues such as keeping young people from being crushed by student debt.

People are really looking for something different and fresh. They've had it the Bobby Jindal way. They've had it the Barack Obama way. They've just had it, she said.

Campbell, 69, is no fresh face, having served in the Legislature and the Public Service Commission so long that hes already been inducted into the states political hall of fame. But the old-school populist looks at the unexpected strength of another long-timer, Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, and says he can relate.

Im the only Democrat with a record, he said, and that record involves taking on more special interests than anyone in Louisiana, including big oil and gas, his focus when he ran for governor in 2007. This year hes talking about closing the revolving door that lets lawmakers quickly cash in as lobbyists once they leave Congress.

This is the year to let Foster be Foster, Campbell quoted his own pollster as saying. I've been doing what Bernie Sanders has been doing for years."
Fifty-seven flood-stricken small businesses have been awarded $350,000 in grants from the Louisiana Small Business Rebirth Fund.

The businesses receiving grants included day cares, restaurants, grocery stores, contractors and doctor's offices. The vast majority of recipients expressed plans to reopen their businesses in the current location once repairs are made. Only a fraction of the businesses had flood insurance coverage. Roughly half of the businesses are owned by minorities, women or veterans and, on average, the number of employees of small businesses awarded grants is fewer than 10.

Merian Carter, chief executive officer and owner of Helping Hands Consultation, said the grant will mean a lot for her mental health counseling business.

We lost everything in the flood, said Carter, who was forced to temporarily move her business from Baker to Baton Rouge. This will help us with the basic startup, to get the things we need.

Helping Hands was awarded $10,000, the maximum amount of money that could go to a business. Carter said her 13 employees are back on the job. Some of our people lost a lot of things, but we need to provide support to our clients, she said. Employees were carpooling and offering counseling to clients that were forced to stay in shelters because of the flooding, she said.

Carter plans to reopen her business on Groom Road, but doesnt know when that will happen. The landlord is going to have to rebuild our building, she said.

Kevin Rogers, owner of grant recipient Central Eye Center in Greenwell Springs, said he will use his money to rebuild, which will allow him to again offer medical eye care.

The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, GNO Inc., the Louisiana Chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business, the Louisiana Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives and One Acadiana teamed up for the fund.

Stephen Waguespack, president of LABI, said more than 600 small businesses applied for the grants. The need is much greater than the current supply, he said. We pretty much used up all of the money in the initial round of fundraising, but were hoping to have at least one more round.

An independent review team went through the applications and awarded the grants. The team was heartbroken by the volume of applications and the needs of businesses, Waguespack said. There are a lot more deserving applications out there, he said.

While LABI didnt put a thumb on the scale to influence what businesses got awards, Waguespack said the organization wanted to see the grants go where they would have the biggest impact in the community, such as child care and medical facilities.

Fund now open for small businesses affected by flooding South Louisiana small businesses that have been impacted by this month's historic flooding c

We are glad to be of help, but, frankly, current federal and state resources are falling far short of the needs of small businesses. We have pledged to Rebirth Fund applicants that we will continue to aggressively advocate on their behalf for additional financial support to rebuild better and stronger, Waguespack said.

Donations to the fund are tax deductible and 100 percent is awarded directly to affected small businesses. Contributions to the Louisiana Small Business Rebirth Fund can be made at www.LaBizRebirth.org.
Labor Day is a holiday many people reserve for barbecues, one last beach visit or just a day to relax, but it lived up to its name for many Ea
Livingston Parish students will regain a sense of routine Monday, returning to classes for the first time since nearly a month ago when floodwaters ravaged a third of the districts campuses and displaced thousands of families. But with six of the hardest-hit schools still closed for untold repairs, the districts long-term plan for recovery remains unclear.

Students from those six campuses  constituting about 16 percent of the districts 26,000 enrollment, according to last years count  will be divided among surrounding schools, some of which still bear signs of having sustained significant damage themselves.

Livingston students return to class Monday, many at new school, different times When Livingston Parish students return to school Monday, many will be at a new campus, and s

At Denham Springs Junior High, teachers and staff worked feverishly Friday to assemble bookshelves, align desks and prepare classrooms for students return. Baseboards are still missing, and the tile flooring has crumpled in places, but inspirational messages written on each classrooms whiteboard show the spirit of those who will return: Accept what is. Let go of what was. Believe in what will be.

Another severely damaged campus, Freshwater Elementary, will not only reopen for its students but also will welcome three grade levels from Denham Springs Elementary, one of five campuses in and around the city that must undergo extensive repairs or reconstruction before they can reopen. The sixth school that remains closed is Springfield High School.

How long those students will remain stationed on other campuses is uncertain.

Superintendent Rick Wentzel said repairs to Springfield High may take only a few weeks, allowing its nearly 400 students to return after a short stint at the middle school. But the more extensively damaged Denham Springs High School  home to about 1,600 students and located in a city that saw flood damage to 90 percent of its structures  is likely to take months or more.

The long-term goal for me, in a sense, would be to have all of our students back to their normal sites by midterm. Thats the hope, Wentzel said. But we really dont know what our timeline or our costs will be until we have an architect assess those campuses and give us a scope of work that needs to be done to get the kids back in there.

Wentzel said he hopes to have a clearer picture in the next two to three weeks.

In the event repairs or reconstruction will take longer than a semester or so, Wentzel said, district officials have discussed other options beyond the current arrangement of dividing elementary students among other campuses and sending junior high and high school students to afternoon classes at nearby schools.

Platooning them like that is just a temporary fix. Its not a long-term solution, Wentzel said. So yeah, weve looked at other avenues as well, though were hoping we wont have to resort to that.

Other options being considered include setting up temporary school sites with modular buildings for classroom space, similar to what was done in Slidell after Hurricane Katrina and in St. John the Baptist Parish after Hurricane Isaac.

We havent moved too far in that direction, Wentzel said. Were still looking at whether that will be needed.

Much of that determination could hinge on whether the schools suffered substantial damage and what steps the district will have to take to reduce the chances of future flooding  questions Wentzel said he and his staff cannot yet answer at this early stage.

'A lot of inconveniences'

Bringing campuses back to life after severe flood damage has proven to be a lengthy process in other parishes, complicated at times by funding and logistical delays.

After Hurricane Katrina swept through St. Tammany Parish in 2005, inundating all 55 school campuses and destroying Salmen High School in Slidell, district officials established what they later termed the Katrina Shuffle, scattering students of the hardest-hit campuses among the schools that were able to reopen a month after the storm, then shifting them again as each campus reopened.

+2 St. Tammany looks to its schools in remembering Katrina The photographs that lined Salmen High Schools cafeteria Friday morning testified to the de

For Salmen High, that meant sending students to afternoon classes at Northshore High School, with Northshores students attending classes in the mornings.

Students, teachers, administrators, transportation  everything from both schools was housed on that one campus and switched out between morning and afternoon, Superintendent Trey Folse said.

After a few months of the platooning arrangement, the district relocated Salmens students to St. Tammany Junior High for the second semester of the 2005-2006 school year, while a temporary school of modular buildings was built on the Salmen campus.

Students moved into the modulars in August 2006 and remained there until the new Salmen High School was built on the same property and opened four years later, on Aug. 9, 2010.

Every day, you had students sitting in those modular buildings, watching the new school being built right outside their windows, Folse said. The young ones would go on to attend classes in the new building, but the seniors could not.

St. John the Baptist Parish had a similar experience after Hurricane Isaac severely damaged both East St. John High School in Reserve and Lake Pontchartrain Elementary in LaPlace.

The high schools students were shifted to Leon C. Godchaux High School  which for many years had been used for special programs  while East St. John High was renovated. It reopened to students in August 2015, three years after the storm.

Meanwhile, students from Lake Pontchartrain Elementary were first divided among other campuses, then moved into temporary buildings on a neighboring elementary school campus while a new Lake Pontchartrain Elementary is built where its flooded predecessor once stood. That project is still underway and slated to open in January 2018.

+2 Progress finally being made on storm-damaged St. John Parish schools After years of delays, demolition work soon could begin at a LaPlace elementary school that

Folse, the St. Tammany Parish superintendent, said Livingston Parish families should support their school system through the recovery process.

When you have parental support, its so important and a signal to teachers and administrators and central office staff that the community believes in you, Folse said. I would encourage them to work through the challenges. There will be a lot of inconveniences, but believe in the system and its going to come back strong.

'Better and stronger'

The financial toll of the flooding on Livingstons school system has yet to be calculated.

We really have no idea at this point, but its pretty huge. Its enormous, Wentzel said.

The schools were not covered by flood insurance, which the School Board repeatedly has declined through the years, but may recoup some costs through other property insurance policies, business manager Terry Hughes said.

The school system also is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to try to expedite funding through the agencys public assistance grants program, she said.

The White Houses announcement Thursday that the federal government would pick up 90 percent, rather than 75 percent, of the tab for eligible flood-related expenses will help reduce the districts out-of-pocket costs under those grants.

Aside from repair and construction costs, which are not yet known, the district will have to spend millions of dollars replacing equipment and supplies.

Textbook replacement costs are expected to top $2 million for a district that spent $1.7 million on textbooks a year ago. Combined with the $2 million increase that already had been budgeted to support a revamped social studies curriculum, the districts book costs will effectively triple in a single year, Hughes said.

Flooded buses  59 of which were destroyed with another 50 requiring major repairs  will drive up transportation costs as well, adding a projected $4.5 million to the $1.5 million already budgeted for purchases, Hughes said.

Wentzel said the district has had to buy everything from classroom desks to kitchen freezers to get its most-damaged campuses back up and running before Monday, but cash and supply donations from across the country have helped lighten the load.

We did have a little money in reserves, so some (flood-related expenses) will come from that, Wentzel said. Were hoping possibly to be able to apply for some grants as well. But its really amazing when you start looking at all the money invested in equipment and supplies on our campuses over many years, and then in an instant its gone.

The Oct. 1 enrollment count that helps determine the level of state funding each public school system receives also weighs heavy on administrators minds. Some students displaced by the flooding already have enrolled in schools outside Livingston Parish. How many will return is unknown.

Despite the devastation the flood left, personally and professionally, for many of the districts employees, Livingston school officials remain upbeat and determined.

I really cant find the right words to say what it means to us educationally in Livingston Parish that the people of this parish have stepped forward  to get our schools back to where we can start educating our kids again, School Board President Malcolm Sibley said Thursday night during the boards first meeting since the flood.

Board member Karen Schmitt said she never would have imagined in her 70 years of living in Denham Springs that the city would have been so inundated.

I know what a mess our schools were, and I know what theyve been through, Schmitt said. Its hard to describe. You have to see it to believe it . But well get through this, and were going to be better and stronger.

Wentzel said he appreciated all the support the community and parents have given the system.

The community needs us, and we need them, he told the board. There may be some hiccups in the days to come. It wont be perfect, but its going to be good  Greater things are yet to come, and may God bless Livingston Parish and the people of this parish because they are LP strong and LP proud, and I am proud to be a part of Livingston Parish.
When it comes to writing, people love to advise write what you know.

But Scott Silveri, creator and showrunner of ABCs new family comedy Speechless, would be the first to tell you that crafting a narrative out of your own experiences is nowhere near as easy as it seems.

Its like where comedy meets therapy, Silveri said of the series, based on his life growing up in a family that included his brother, who has special needs.

Its actually gotten easier and easier the farther away Ive gotten from my actual experience, Silveri said during a break in production on the Fox Studios lot. There are things that are sacrosanct, things that Im determined to portray, but around the margins its served us well to move away from my exact experience.

Speechless, which premieres Sept. 21, centers its comedy on Jimmy (John Ross Bowie) and Maya DiMeo (Minnie Driver) and their children, J.J. (Micah Fowler), Ray (Mason Cook) and Dylan (Kyla Kenedy) as they search for the best possible school to provide support for J.J.s cerebral palsy and the family as a whole.

Perhaps the most important aspect of his childhood that Silveri wanted to depict accurately was the set of unique challenges facing a family that has a child with special needs. To help preserve that experience, the series brought in an expert to guide the process.

Richard Ellenson, chief executive of the Cerebral Palsy Foundation and consultant for Speechless, recalled telling Silveri and his team during an early phone call: Its cerebral palsy. Youre not going to get it right. The point is, lets not get it wrong.

For his part, Ellenson is excited for the opportunity the series offers to get people talking about cerebral palsy.

What the show is doing is being brave and honest and using humor to avoid pussyfooting around. Its allowing us to start conversations that people are uncomfortable starting, he said.

Ellenson began his career in advertising before transitioning to advocacy after his son Thomas, now 18, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Driver, who plays fierce DiMeo matriarch Maya, is no stranger to the concept.

As a mother, inherent in that title is advocate, Driver said. You advocate for your child on a daily basis.

Those impulses are only increased for Maya, who tries to level the playing field for J.J., often to abrasive (if hilarious) ends.

When you have a child with special needs, like Maya does, it is different. You really are trying to break down societal walls, said Driver, who relishes the opportunity to play a woman who doesnt shy from being wholly unlikable.

(Speechless) has edges and angles that require quick turns and the accommodation of big feelings. I like difficult things like that, and I wonder if we can pull it off. Oh, God, I really hope we can, said the veteran British actress, who is keeping her native accent for the show.

Whether Speechless can successfully portray those big swings of emotion hinges primarily on Drivers performance, according to Silveri.

Minnie allows us to tell these stories and depict a mom that, hopefully, resonates to people in this experience, Silveri said. Not to sugarcoat it, not to make it seem too easy, to hold on to that fight, but to keep her someone you root for.

The only person other than Driver who could do it? Silveris mom. But, Silveri quipped, She didnt want to travel.

The other vital cast component for Speechless: Micah Fowler, who plays J.J.

Silveri reported that when his friend and casting director Susie Farris saw Fowlers audition tape, she sent it along to him and said: I found the kid. Were done.

J.J.s cerebral palsy, which Fowler also has, is the impetus for the series title. The pilot sees the family in search of someone who can serve as the characters voice.

Ive been around a lot of people with special needs, but not on a daily basis, Driver said of working with Fowler. I hate using the word inspiration because it just feels patronizing, but Micah is inspiring.

Driver went on to detail that not only is her costar always in a good mood, even when everyone on set is exhausted, but hes also wickedly funny and a great actor.

Fowlers sense of humor was evident at the Television Critics Association summer press tour held in Beverly Hills in August, where, unlike his character, he was able to field questions without assistance.

J.J. has a lot of personality to him, Fowler told the assembled journalists when asked about advice for writers when it comes to scripting his character, adding later that the character was funny, a departure from previous roles he had played.

Later the actor quipped about his favorite comedy, Probably this show, a response that drew laughter and applause from his cast mates.

Joining an ABC comedy lineup that has been hailed for its diversity, with black-ish and Fresh Off the Boat, Speechless (which shares producers Jake Kasdan and Melvin Mar with the latter) is notable not just for its representation of a family with a child with cerebral palsy but also for the economic diversity coded in its DNA.

Early in the first episode, the DiMeo children hunker down and discuss what their new school might be like, ribbing one another from their respective bunks, illuminated by a single lamp.

Its a cozy scene, one that plays like a throwback to family sitcoms of a bygone era without ever explicating why. But the reason is right there: The children, two teenage boys and their sister, are sharing a single bedroom.

This is about a family that is relatable, Driver said. They have no money. They move into a (crummy) house in a great neighborhood, so their kids will qualify to go to a great school, which tons of families do.

Diversity can mean a lot of things, Silveri said of the choice to portray the reality of a middle-class family. That too was my experience, and I thought itd be refreshing to depict that on TV.

Networks, though not in this case, Silveri hastened to add, often have notes about wish-fulfillment: Lets have the house be prettier, lets have it be bigger, lets have the car be nicer.

In choosing to draw from his own experiences growing up, Silveri opted to depict a family that has challenges but makes things work.

Not everything has to be pretty, not everything has to be perfect, Silveri said. I was looking for a different kind of wish-fulfillment.
Ten years ago, Jeffery Vannor was a high school dropout with little hope for his future. But he mustered the will to apply to Cafe Reconcile, 
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Delgado's planned closing of Slidell campus upsetting to many of its students
The nation's capital has been rated in the top 20 most "sustainable cities" in the world, beating Sydney and Melbourne on the global index.

Canberra was rated 18th on the new sustainable cities index compiled by the Centre for Economic and Business Research for design firm Arcadis and published Tuesday.

A spectacular view of Canberra on a winter's morning. Credit:Matt Roberts

It beat Sydney (at 20th), Brisbane (30th) and Melbourne (32nd), as well as Madrid, Rome and New York.

The top five cities on the list were, from one to five: Zurich, Singapore, Stockholm, Vienna and London.
There are few times and places in which a mass dance event seems appropriate, outside of a Bollywood film, that is.

But you'd be disappointed in yourself if you happened to be in Civic Square on Saturday and didn't find yourself spontaneously joining in the free Bollywood workshop that's happening as part of the Confluence Festival of India in Australia.

A mass Bollywood workshop will aim to get people moving in Civic Square. Credit:Christopher Pearce

Dancer and choreographer Gilles Chuyen has run mass Bollywood workshops around the world and will be leading the charge from 5-7pm in the forecourt of the Canberra Theatre.

By all accounts, such events  often involving thousands of people  are every bit the personal inhibition-busting phenomena you'd expect, with a build-up of joyous energy as the two-hour workshop reaches its climax.
Online merchants need to do more to reassure their customers their credit card details are in safe hands, a leading online security expert has said.

New research has found while three-quarters of Canberrans made purchases online, the vast majority were uneasy about it.

A balance transfer deal can help you pay off a debt, but only if you're disciplined and smart. Credit:Jim Rice

The survey by Sensis found 96 per cent of ACT residents were paranoid about the theft of their credit details or private information online, compared to the nationwide average of 85 per cent.

Nigel Phair, director of the Centre for Internet Safety at the University of Canberra, said online businesses needed to put as much effort into their back-of-house security as their front-of-house web store.
Adelaide have been breathtaking to watch at times in 2016, and after their round 23 disappointment against West Coast they bounced back impressively with a 62-point elimination final win over North Melbourne. But now the more difficult task of playing Sydney away lies ahead. We look at five key questions for Don Pyke's side ahead of Saturday night's SCG semi-final.

1. Can their explosive forward line get the better of Sydney's stingy defence?

There is probably no forward combination in the AFL as fearsome as that of the Crows. With 14 goals between them on the weekend, Eddie Betts, Tom Lynch, Taylor Walker and Josh Jenkins were far too strong for a tiring North outfit. But as has been the case for well over a decade, the Swans are a defensive juggernaut. While Jeremy Cameron got the better of Dane Rampe on Saturday, Greater Western Sydney were still restricted to just 12 goals. Sydney conceded the fewest points of any club during the home and away rounds, while the Crows racked up more points than their 17 rivals. It is a tantalising prospect that awaits.

2. Is their midfield deep enough to match the Swans?
It was the elephant in the room, but Matthew Boyd didn't want to talk about it.

Put up by the Western Bulldogs for a Whitten Oval press conference on Monday - days after his manager had claimed that the Dogs had withdrawn a 2017 contract offer for the veteran - Boyd was inevitably going to be asked about his playing future at the club.

But Boyd, 34, was having nothing of it. Ahead of the Dogs' MCG semi-final date with Hawthorn this Friday night, the former captain - an All-Australian this year - refused to entertain questions about a new deal, especially the comments late last week of his agent Bruce Kaider.

"I'm pretty sure we're here to talk about our finals chances and the fact that we had a fantastic win on the weekend so I'm not going to comment on my personal situation," Boyd said, before eventually confirming there would be no announcement about next season until after the Dogs' current campaign had finished.
Geelong chief executive Brian Cook says the Cats should be playing AFL home finals at Simonds Stadium from 2017 onwards.

Cook has described the league's decision to hold the September 24 preliminary final between Greater Western Sydney and either Hawthorn or the Western Bulldogs at the 24,000-capacity Spotless Stadium as a game-changer.

Once the ongoing redevelopment of Simonds Stadium is completed, the venue's capacity will increase to 36,000.

The Cats will host the other preliminary final against either Sydney or Adelaide at the MCG.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has instituted legal proceedings against an educational consultancy group and its sole director for alleged misleading and unconscionable conduct.

As revealed by Fairfax Media earlier this month, the ACCC successfully brought a freezing order against Get Qualified Australia Pty Ltd pending legal action, after a large number of consumer complaints with the potential to result in refunds in excess of $1 million.

On Monday the regulator confirmed it had begun proceedings in the Federal Court, alleging that Get Qualified Australia had made false or misleading representations and engaged in misleading and unconscionable conduct through its supply of services to consumers.
Mr Palmer's wife stumbled down stairs as four security guards ushered Mr Palmer to a waiting car. Mr Palmer's security has again clashed with media as the businessman fronted Federal Court on Monday. Credit:Jorge Branco It appeared a security guard made contact with her, before grabbing her as he and a photographer rushed down the stairs but Mr Palmer claimed she was assaulted "by members of the media". His legal team applied for Mr Palmer to be allowed a "special arrangement" to be dropped off and picked up from the car park because of "safety concerns" over the media. Tense scenes outside court in Brisbane. Credit:Jorge Branco

His barrister, Nicholas Ferrett, told the court Mr Palmer's wife, Anna Palmer, was elbowed "reasonably violently" by a "cameraman trying to get footage", saying he had an affidavit from Mrs Palmer he was prepared to read. Mr Palmer is expected to be questioned again over a "little green notebook" he claimed authorised wide-ranging authority over Queensland Nickel, via a joint venture owners committee of which he was chairman and secretary, and a series of emails from his Terry Smith account. Liquidators PPB Advisory are trying to establish if Mr Palmer acted as a shadow director at Queensland Nickel before it failed with debts of about $300 million and the loss of almost 800 Townsville refinery jobs. Mr Palmer has denied acting as a shadow director. On Monday morning, the court heard Mr Palmer had lost the personal phone he used to communicate about Queensland Nickel in 2015, including via text message, eight weeks ago, possibly from the Black Angus Bar and Grill at Sanctuary Cove.

It had not been plugged into any computer, he said, adding his staff had made contact with Telstra about the data stored on the phone. He was barred from referring to notes created by his solicitors whilst answering questions. He referred extensively to a similar document on Friday, prompting Mr Sullivan to apply to see a copy of the notes. On several occasions, the resources tycoon said he couldn't answer a question without examining the notes. The former Fairfax MP also said several other people would send emails to his Terry Smith alias email account.

His Monday-morning statement criticised PPB Advisory barrister Tom Sullivan QC, for not asking why the company went into liquidation. "The liquidator knows the answer does not reflect well on professional liquidators," Mr Palmer said. He said the structure was established by the Queensland government, not himself, and said no loans were forgiven. "The reason Queensland Nickel was placed in liquidations was because (administrator John) Park refused to allow Queensland Nickel to transfer the JVA assets to the new manager of the joint venture as he was legally required to do so as I, yet again, could provide $23 million to continue operations and keep people employed," he said. Liquidators are also trying to locate Mr Palmer's nephew and Queensland Nickel director Clive Mensink, who has proved elusive.

They want to question Mr Mensink but haven't been able to find him to serve him with a summons. Mr Palmer told the Federal Court on Friday that he had spoken to Mr Mensink over the phone the previous week, when his nephew was in Berlin, but did not say when he would be returning to Australia. However, Mr Mensink's likely location was dramatically further north by Friday afternoon. "He's up towards the Arctic as I understand it ... on a ship," Mr Palmer told the court. "Well, he might be in the Arctic. He could be in the North Sea."
"Melbourne is in the grip of an unprecedented wave of gun violence." With these words, The Age this week began a three-day investigative series that should concern every citizen of a metropolis that has repeatedly snared the accolade of "world's most liveable city". Our comprehensive package is about more than liveability; it is a matter of life and death. As gun-related crime has surged, innocent people have been killed in the crossfire, and more will be unless concerted action is taken by those who make laws and those who enforce them. Melbourne has become a gun city. The facts are chilling and compelling. In as little as five years, gun crimes have more than doubled. Some very dangerous people are involved; in 2015 alone, more than 750 people with serious criminal convictions were caught carrying guns. That's up a staggering five times since 2011. Shootings have literally become a weekly event. Crimes related to firearm possession have more than doubled in the past five years. The number of young criminals has rocketed; almost 1500 people aged between 20 and 34 committed a gun offence last year, more than twice the number five years ago. A culture of carrying, and using, guns is becoming worryingly entrenched in criminal circles. The escalation rivals the Underbelly War between drug syndicates that shook the city between 1999 and 2005. Drugs are again involved, particularly illicit stimulants, but insidiously those with the guns are not only dealing the drugs, they're consuming them, which adds to the volatility and danger.

What to do? We believe one important response would be to replicate the buyback policy then prime minister John Howard adopted after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, Australia's biggest gun tragedy. Indeed, we believe the policy should be extended to some handguns, which were not part of an amnesty that nevertheless netted 700,000 firearms. Many of the illegal handguns on the streets today date from before 1996. And legal guns have been stolen from their owners and passed on to the illegal market. It is high time there was another buyback. For the past two years, there have been more legally owned guns in Australia than there were before the Port Arthur massacre. The Age is always on guard against undue legislation. But we believe there is a clear need to strengthen the law around guns, so we support mooted moves by the Victorian government. Set for the first half of next year, they come after an eight-month review by Victoria Police of firearms laws, and would include a specific offence for drive-by shooting, as well as special new powers, called prohibition orders, for the police, and harsher penalties for the judiciary to impose. The orders would allow police to subject prohibited persons to warrantless searches and ban them from being in proximity to a gun. These laws have been used more than 500 times in NSW since being introduced in 2013. There should be uniform gun laws across the nation, to prevent loopholes. We must catch up with technology, by prohibiting the use of 3D printers to create firearms.
Replicate experience in other faculties Some good news at last. Latrobe University law students are helping asylum seekers complete their paperwork, part of a "backlog of claims that have not been assessed since the Rudd/Gillard era" (The Age, 12/9). This help recognises and validates asylum seekers' stories and gives students an insight into human rights violations. Perhaps this integrated learning experience could be replicated in other faculties around Australia. What a "win win" for all concerned. Anne Dynon, Brighton THE FORUM Investing is not a cost

So Australian defence uniforms are to be cut and sewn overseas, because there is a "significant cost saving". What the government fails to understand in letting manufacturing contracts be fulfilled overseas is that a contract to manufacture goods in Australia is also an investment in employment, in training, in hope for the large number of citizens who don't just want a desk job or a job in the mines. Defence chose to buy a cheaper imported product purely on cost alone without understanding the leverage that an investment in our own community provides. For every cent of public money spent on goods produced in this country we avoid paying unemployment benefits, we upskill our workforce, and we give people a real sense of pride and achievement from making a contribution. The debt and deficit mantra has continued to prove counterproductive, with investments yet again misconstrued as costs. Kim Andrews, Hawthorn If the public had known If the public had known before the election that a Turnbull government would allow Defence uniforms to be made in Communist China in sweat shop factories to save a few dollars while Australian workers lost out on a contract, I suspect there would not be a Liberal government today. What will be next?

Warren Thomas, Ivanhoe Shades of Menzies Shades of the Menzies government before World War II selling scrap metal to the Japanese. They sent it back in the form of bombs on Darwin. Some political parties never change. Charles Naughton, Princes Hill Prowling far-right felines

Cathy Wilcox's cartoon showing a maliciously grinning tomcat slipping into Mr Turnbull's office to wreck the joint during its occupant's absence was timely (Letters, 12/9). When, 12 months ago, outgoing PM Tony Abbott pledged "there will be no wrecking, no undermining, and no sniping", there was no mention of how long that promise would apply. Now we know. Those mild sounds of fabric scratching we've heard in the past few months have turned into full-on shredding, emboldened by the example of other far-right felines in the neighbourhood. Robyn Walton, Toorak No thanks to Howard Why do we take so much notice of the reflections of John Howard? Apart from his strong response to the Port Arthur massacre, his government did little that benefited Australia. He became a part of the "Coalition of the Willing", and without parliamentary debate, decided to invade Iraq without good reason and which has left the world in an ongoing state of insecurity. His WorkChoices legislation was an attack on ordinary people, restricting their rights regarding dismissal and fair working conditions. The electorate so resented the attack that Howard lost his seat. And but for him, we could now be a republic rather than still a nation with a foreigner as head of state.

Graeme Lee, Fitzroy Sam earns his stripes The headline read "Dastyari quits" (The Age, 8/9). No he hasn't, he's still getting a huge income and perks, paid for by the public; he'll still "retire" from the public service with an obscene superannuation package, paid for by the public; and he will no doubt go on to get a "real good job" with private enterprise. Sam Dastyari has not quit; he has just earned his stripes. Colin Patterson, Nuggetty As for personal ethics

Is there a difference, in law, between a policeman or other public servant corruptly receiving payments in return for future favours or services and a politician receiving donations for similar things? I also find it extraordinary that politicians defer to "community acceptance" of certain actions rather than having a strong personal ethical standard in the first place that tells them what is the right thing to do. Jim Corcoran, South Yarra Free to criticise I hope the writers of letters about Sam Dastyari are suitably thankful they are free to write such letters. In China, such public criticisms of a Communist Party official would result in arrest, years of imprisonment and probable torture. Andrew Powell, Caulfield

Neutralise propaganda In the article on propaganda and the information war ("Monsters abroad crash the party line", 10/9), the ANU's Matthew Sussex points to the widespread mistrust among voters of politics and government. He says he believes Australia will eventually have to "re-nationalise" its internet. But is government control of the internet really the answer to the campaigns of lies and misinformation propagated worldwide? Or does the answer lie in reducing their power to persuade through a global effort to reduce inequality, which would in turn spur economic growth, increase employment and contribute to social wellbeing? Nicholas Low, Port Melbourne Sheds for probation I'd guess that few participants in car-jackings or home invasions are studying or employed. More likely they are poorly educated, looked-down-upon youths with bitter memories and time on their hands. Locking them up for longer will simply mean more and tougher criminals are released back into society.

Why don't we instead make young people who are released on probation after being convicted of such crimes attend a skills training centre at least three days a week. Non-attendance or non-effort and back into detention they go. Skill-based learning in the community would become part of the probationary system. "Boys' sheds" would require funding for buildings, teachers, equipment and mentors, but it would cost less money than keeping young offenders in jail for longer. After completing their sentences, the young men would hopefully move into jobs rather than the underworld of crime. Chris Taylor, Hawksburn Expelling is no answer The issue of school discipline and expulsions affects us all. The suspended/expelled students only create more serious problems when left unsupervised and on the streets. The answer is restorative justice programs, which are used in the US. They can be time-consuming and frustrating but usually have a happy ending. "Sinners" sit in the middle of a circle and listen to what they have done, and then have to explain it. They are surrounded by patient, experienced teachers. The young people eventually see "another perspective", and then take responsibility for their behaviour. In the present system, once students are suspended or expelled, they forget or misunderstand what they did, and then they, and often their parents and friends, blame the system.

Retired, gifted teachers would be an asset in implementing such programs. The expertise is there: we just need the political will. Jeff McCormack, Hangelsberg, Germany Who do we dress for? Western women brought up to be independent can have difficulty understanding why Muslim women cover their hair but I'm reminded of a cartoon in this paper some time ago. A woman in hijab, dress over trousers and boots, is going out the door; and a woman in the lounge room, long hair, short crop top, short shorts (bare midriff) and high-heeled sandals says: "You're not going out dressed like that! The boys will think you're oppressed and servile." Some women's states of undress at the beach surely aren't always just about getting sun on skin. There's a fine line. Do women dress for men, fashion (who is that for), comfort or ...? Chris Hooper, Castlemaine

Celebrate the burkini I am glad burkini bans have been lifted because it's hard to see that burkinis pose any threat to security. My objection to the wearing of the burqa, and even the hijab, has nothing to do with security. I object to women feeling obliged to wear any garment that interferes with their ability to participate in physical activity, which is both enjoyable and essential for health. The burkini is quite the opposite of this. It enables Muslim women to swim at beaches and in swimming pools without feeling they're breaking any rules of their religion/culture. This is surely something to celebrate, not condemn. Julia Blunden, Hawthorn Insidious violence

As ardent AFL supporters, we have become alarmed by the increasing levels of violence seen regularly both on and off the ball during matches. Our society is now more aware of the repercussions for creeping dementia of accumulated trauma and the copycat effect it can have with domestic violence. AFL management appears to condone the on-field violence by the inaction of the field umpires and AFL judicial reviewers. Drs Robert Cerny and Zephie Cerny, Newcastle, NSW Cut out Easter holiday To partly balance the millions of dollars of lost productivity caused by the grand final public holiday I suggest that the Easter Monday holiday should be eliminated. After all, our current "religion" of sport easily overrides any traditional theistic observances. In a period of economic constraints we can't afford the luxury of losing yet another day's productivity. Geoff Perston, Yarram

AND ANOTHER THING... I hope the army uniforms to be made in China unravel the way society is unravelling because of such decisions. Another disgrace. Nola Cormick, South Melbourne Should any tensions arise between Australia and China our defence personnel could end up defending our freedom while in their underpants.

Jon Jovanovic, Lenah Valley, Tas Politics Howard? Abbott? Turnbull? Will the real prime minister please stand up. Tony Lenten, Glen Waverley Abbott with a hint of charisma.

Lance Williams, Upotipotpon Enough about Sam Dastyari. Doesn't the government have any policies to offer us? Katriona Fahey, Alphington After Amanda Vanstone's analysis last week on Bill Shorten, I was so looking forward to her critique of Turnbull's leadership. Imagine my disappointment when all we got was a re-run on poor Sam Dastyari. Paul Carolan, Brighton

If prime ministers can go to war without consulting parliament, then surely parliament can vote on marriage equality without going to the people. Kevan Porter, Alphington John Howard was some oracle, losing the 2007 election in a landslide and his own long-held blue riband seat. Peter McNamara, Canterbury "Chinese take-away". Once it meant Australians doing the taking away.

Barry Lamb, Heidelberg West Such profligacy. First its millions on a plebiscite, then a $340,000 survey on the management and low staff morale at the CSIRO. Staff could have told you that for nothing. Harriet Farnaby, Geelong West And finally A week of rain ahead. And rainbows. Wonderful.
Former Labor frontbencher Sam Dastyari praised the Chinese Communist Party's official propaganda outlet for its "incredible work" in building relations with Australia.

In a 2015 Chinese New Year message he recorded for People's Daily Online Australia, Senator Dastyari said the state-run newspaper provided a "strong voice" for Chinese Australians.

Senator Dastyari was one of many MPs to record a Chinese New Year message for the People's Daily, but appeared to be the only one to praise the newspaper directly.

"As we head into the new year, it's an important time to acknowledge the incredible contribution that Australian Chinese are marking in business, in arts and throughout the community," he said.
1. Cameron quits

David Cameron promised in March that he would serve out his full term even if he lost the so-called Brexit referendum in June. Despite pledging "Brits don't quit" as part of that campaign, Cameron has announced he is resigning, just two months since the result. [Nick Miller/Fairfax]

This sets up a by-election in his plum Oxfordshire seat of Witney. Let the jostling begin.

David Cameron has announced he's leaving parliament, effective immediately. Credit:Bloomberg

Cameron has been an MP and a PM before he has even turned 50. A remarkable achievement even if his legacy will always be clouded by his failed referendum campaign - as former Conservative minister Ken Clarke said today. [itvNews] Cameron says he thought long and hard about his future over the summer and what's next is unclear. [Transcript] His former Communications Director Craig Oliver predicted a public role, saying the former PM cares a lot about "certain issues" but said he would let his former boss make his own announcements.
But that is where I will leave you.

What have we learned?

The Senate ran out of work to do. On the fourth sitting day.

The Auditor-General report into Parakeelia found 'no evidence' the Liberal Party had broken the rules.

Sam Dastyari made an awkward video praising the Communist party mouthpiece.

And just in case you missed it - the Senate ran out of work to do. It bears repeating. Here's Jame's Massola's take.

Stephanie and the team will be back tomorrow at about 9am for more fun and games.

Have a lovely night and thank you for joining us.
Gun crime in Melbourne is soaring and it's only a matter of time before an innocent person gets caught in the crossfire.



When we wake up to hear the third news item on the radio is yet another non-fatal shooting we normally wait for something more interesting, such as the weather report or an update on the state of Cyril Riolis hamstring.

Such shootings are so routine they no longer hold much interest with most of the victims being minor crooks and most of the offenders one step up on the underworld food chain. Think eels feeding on worms.

It was not always that way with random shootings once making big news. The fact they are routine is proof they are now commonplace.

Jane Thurgood-Dove was murdered in her Niddrie home in 1997 in what police believe was a case of mistaken identity.

Police pulling over an armed offender was once a rarity. Now patrol officers are trained to be aware that any driver may be ice-affected and carrying a gun. It has been an incremental but troubling change in day-to-day law enforcement.

Todays routine shootings, often to the legs or arms, are warnings over bad behaviour or reminders to pay out drug debts. The victims say nothing either out of fear or abiding by the gangland code of silence. But the trouble is while most agree that carrying a gun is incredibly stupid the real worry is it is the stupid who are carrying guns. And as the number of firearms increase the IQ of the offenders appears to be reducing.

As a general rule, police say many of the gun carriers out in the east carry firearms almost as a gangster fashion accessory while those out west see them as a necessary part of a crooks survival kit.

But the maths is simple, the more guns are in the hands of wannabe gangsters the more likely innocents will be involved. There are tragic examples in Australia, the US and Canada of bystanders being shot dead when outlaw bikie gangs go to war.

In Victoria, there have been several cases of people being murdered simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In April, 1973, a 10-year-old boy, Nicholas Kolourat, was shot dead while drinking lemonade in a Fitzroy hotel. The intended target, painter and docker Lawrence Chamings, was also murdered.

In September, 1984, Lindsay Simpson was shot dead when he was mistaken for his brother-in-law, drug dealer Alan Williams.

In 1982, Norman McLeod was shot dead in an underworld feud when he was mistaken for his brother-in-law Vincent Mikkelsen.

In November 1997, mother-of-three Jane Thurgood-Dove was killed by a hitman in the driveway of her Niddrie home. Police are convinced the target was the wife of a well known-criminal who lived in the same street.

In June 2003, Jason Moran was shot dead along with his friend Pasquale Barbaro as they sat in a van watching an Auskick clinic in Essendon North. The hitman later told police he didnt even notice Barbaro in the car.

It was that shooting in a public place filled with kids that hardened the publics view on the so-called Underbelly War. Perhaps it will take a similar event to remind us (and the courts) there is no excuse for carrying an unlicensed firearm.

Melburnians were horrified when the city's underworld war led to the public slaying of gangland identities near an Auskick clinic in Essendon North.



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Yet family experts warn that bird's nest parenting is not for every separated couple. It comes with its own unique challenges, and while it can be useful during the transition to divorce, is rarely sustainable in the long term. "It sounds good ... but you rarely see experts recommend it," says family lawyer Melinda Winning. "While it can be good for the kids, not many people can sustain it. Most people do need privacy and it provides for very little." Family therapist Bernie Brown says women who experienced divorce as children are especially inclined towards bird-nesting to minimise any damage to their kids. And many men see it as a way to maintain their relationship with their children post-separation, rather than being relegated to weekends and school holidays. Some parents try a variation, staying over at each other's houses occasionally (as Sunday Life columnist Meshel Laurie has been doing), sharing regular family meals, or even holidaying together. "The desire to do this comes from a good place," says Anne Hollonds, the director of the Australian Institute of Family Studies. "Divorce can bring with it a whole lot of issues, not only for adults, but also children, into the future.

"It's a fabulous thing that parents have cottoned on to this. They don't want to disrupt their kids' lives, their schooling - a lot of the time they don't want the kids to notice anything has changed." The Morgans didn't announce their new arrangement to their then four-year-old son and two-year-old daughter; they simply started doing it in mid-2014 and the kids barely registered the change. "To all intents and purposes nothing is really different for them," says Lara. "Their bedroom is the same, it's just that Mummy is in Mummy's bedroom and Daddy is in Daddy's bedroom. They've got their routine and they're happy - that's the biggest bonus of all of it." Two years on, the kids know about the apartment, and enjoy visiting there. Maintaining up to three separate homes (one for the kids, one for mum and one for dad) is beyond the financial reach of many. But if you've got a cheap alternate residence, or can crash at a friend's or relative's place, bird-nesting can stave off the financial burden of divorce.

Bird-nesting is relatively uncommon in Australia, and usually an arrangement separating couples come up with. Judges and therapists are reluctant to recommend it as it can complicate already messy breakups, and prevent one or both partners from moving on with their lives. It is inappropriate in cases of domestic violence or mental illness. "You can't use it in high-conflict situations," Gloria Hawke warns. "It creates more opportunities for parents to have high-level disputes, cross paths and find fault with each other." Privacy is hard to maintain, and already fragile trust can be easily shattered when you're still sharing a house with your former partner. One of Hawke's clients would go through his ex's emails and filing cabinet when it was his turn to stay at the house, and photocopy documents. Another client would keep all his sensitive paperwork locked in the boot of his car rather than risk his ex rifling through it when he wasn't there.

Even if they remain on fairly good terms with their former partners, sharing the same house can still create issues. How do you split bills? Who is responsible for doing the shopping? Do you have a cleaning roster or share the cost of a cleaner? Are there no-go zones in the house so each parent has a modicum of privacy? The Morgans keep their own bedrooms in both the family home and the flat, with an understanding these are off-limits to the other person. If they're staying at one residence and need to go to the other to pick up something, they will always call or text first as a courtesy. "We're really respectful of each other's privacy and space," says Lara. "I don't go into his bedroom at all; he doesn't come into mine as far as I'm aware. We've got a pretty good working relationship. There is no way you could do this if you didn't, there is no way it would work." But Hawke's warning that it creates opportunities for conflict also rings true for the Morgans. For example, paying bills and doing the cleaning have become bones of contention. They initially kept a joint account for groceries and kids' expenses, but Lara wasn't impressed when Harry started dipping into that for the occasional bottle of wine.

They dissolved the account and Lara stopped cooking and freezing meals for Harry and the kids. Now that they've let the cleaner go, Harry's lax housekeeping is starting to grate on Lara. "That's the thing that's got to me the most," she says. "It's no different to when we were married. He'll pull his act together and then he'll just let it slip. I came in the other day and the house was absolutely putrid. I put the kids on a bit of a working bee for two hours. I was tempted to send him an email saying, 'This is just gross', but for the sake of the kids I just sucked it up and did it." And of course there are the everyday hassles of living in two places, realising that the ripe avocado you wanted for lunch, or that pair of high heels you need for a night out, are at the other house. "Living out of a suitcase as a female is so hard - I live like a gypsy," says Lara. "If it was about me I'd love to have all my stuff in one spot. Eventually I will." At a deeper level, bird's nest parents often don't feel like they've got their own home with their own space.

"They're kind of camping," says Hollonds. "It's going to start creating problems eventually." Letting go of a failed relationship can be hard when you're still living among mementos and memories of happier times together. As Gloria Hawke points out, "Coming into the family home and seeing all the family photos still on the walls can be difficult if one parent is still really heartbroken over the marriage ending." The Morgans have deliberately kept the family home the same for their kids' sake, right down to leaving the photos taken pre-separation on the bedside tables in the master bedroom. Yet this hasn't prevented either Lara or Harry from starting new relationships. "I know my new partner has some reservations about [our arrangement]," Lara admits. "He's not jealous, but he says, 'Don't you feel like you are still tied to him?' He wants me to move on." Experts say most bird's nest arrangements tend to be temporary while people finalise their financial and custodial agreements, and to give themselves and their children time to adjust to the reality of divorce.

"Six to 12 months is sensational," Hawke says. "It minimises the disruption to kids so they're not changing everything at once. They slowly get used to the separation and new way of life." Eventually that has to include both mum and dad setting up new homes for themselves. Family experts say it is more important for kids to see that their parents can still be amicable than that they all remain under the same roof. "At some point they're going to have to adjust to two households - that's the reality of separation," lawyer Melinda Winning says. "It's more about the attachment to the parent they're spending time with you've got to worry about than the actual house they're in." While the Morgans' arrangement may seem unusual to outsiders, Lara says it has become the normal way of life for them all. "We're both reasonably happy with the houses we're in, we're accustomed to the arrangement. If I didn't have a relationship and Harry didn't have a relationship I could probably keep it going." As successful as their arrangement has been for the last two years, the Morgans are now starting to think about dismantling their bird's nest. Once they finalise their financial settlement, Lara expects to move into the apartment permanently, while Harry will keep the family home.
One woman has died and several people are said to be unwell after what a family member said was an outbreak of gastroenteritis on a cruise ship off the coast of Queensland.

The P&O Pacific Jewel cruise ship left from Sydney on September 6 for a 10-night "Barrier Reef Discovery" cruise. P&O said there had not been a gastro outbreak on the ship.

Margaret Carlson boarded with her daughter and teenage grandson. It was the 79-year-old's seventh cruise in 10 years after her husband passed away, and she was looking forward to the journey after being upgraded to a luxury cabin.

She soon began showing signs of gastro and was told by medical staff that she had probably brought the bug onto the ship with her, her family says. Her daughter and grandson also fell ill after boarding the ship.
Pharmaceutical companies have spent millions of dollars wining and dining Australian nurses in recent years, as well as paying for them to attend overseas conferences, training courses and even coffee meetings.

Nurses were also involved in nearly 40 per cent of the 90,000 medical events sponsored by drug companies over the four years to September 2015, twice as many as those that doctors attended.

Drug companies have spent millions on events for nurses over the past four years, a study says. Credit:Gillianne Tedder

The cash splash was revealed after academic analysis of member data reported by industry group Medicines Australia and has raised concerns that it could influence decision-making.

It showed of $12.5 million spent on functions for nurses about $3 million was for "food and beverages". The remainder was spent on things such as conference sponsorship, flights and accommodation.
The Northern Territory will have the largest female majority cabinet in Australian history after the Labor government elected five women to its eight person leadership team.

On Sunday, Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner described the announcement as a "watershed moment."

"This Labor Cabinet mirrors the diversity, aspirations and life experience of Territorians," he said in a statement.

The comments were echoed by newly elected Attorney General Natasha Fyles who told the ABC the "parliament is a reflection" of the Australian political scene's move towards gender equality.
The long-running child sexual abuse royal commission has indicated the number of public hearings will slow down with the final case study to be heard in March next year.

Chairman of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Peter McClellan announced public hearings would be drawing to a close in his remarks ahead of an inquiry into convicted paedophile priest John Joseph Farrell.

John Joseph Farrell during a hearing at Armidale Court. Credit:Barry Smith

Justice McClellan told the Sydney hearing that the inquiry into Farrell would be the last dealing with Catholic institutions.

"After the present case study has been completed the commission will turn its attention in a public hearing to harmful sexual behaviours of children within schools," he said.
Senior members of the Catholic Church were first informed a priest had molested young boys in 1984 but he continued to move around parishes in NSW for almost a decade before being suspended, a royal commission has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is holding a public hearing into former priest John Joseph Farrell who was jailed for a minimum term of 18 years in May after being found guilty of a string of sexual offences against children.

John Joseph Farrell during a previous hearing. Credit:Barry Smith

In her opening address, senior counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness said Farrell's offences first came to light when he was a priest in Moree in 1984.

When Farrell was confronted with the allegations, the commission heard he admitted to church officials "he had done something stupid".
Premier Mike Baird has brushed aside swings against Liberal candidates at Saturday's local government elections, even as numerous candidates said state policies such as council mergers and the greyhound ban were factors at polling booths.

Candidates both victorious and unsuccessful said voters had reacted against a general sense the government was not listening, and was imposing policies in an autocratic style.

"People weren't happy with the fact some of these things were just being pushed through," the Liberal candidate for Liverpool mayor, Tony Hadchiti, said of the council merger and greyhound policies.

"Some people weren't affected by greyhound racing, it was the way that that was being handled," said Cr Hadchiti, who conceded that Labor's Wendy Waller would win the mayoralty.
An anonymous caller who gave police detailed information about the 2004 deaths of Brisbane brother and sister Ian and April Bailey is being urged to call investigators back.

The caller was among more than 15 people who phoned police with information after 34-year-old Danielle Lee Fels was arrested over the double homicide on Saturday.

Detective Inspector Damien Hansen said the caller had provided detailed information and urged the person to phone again.

"It is obvious from the detail that this person's gone into that they're a close associate of those involved," Inspector Hansen said on Monday.
Melbourne Express: Tuesday, September 13, 2016

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Monash University has defended killing greyhounds in the name of science, arguing an experiment where dogs had their hearts removed and new ones inserted before being euthanased will have a "valuable influence" on the thousands of people around the world in need of a heart transplant.

Humane Research Australia recently revealed 12 greyhounds were part of an experiment, funded by The Alfred hospital, designed to test how well hearts can be preserved when the organ donor has already died.

Veterinarian Belinda Oppenheimer rescued her greyhound Till from Melbourne University's now defunct greyhound blood-bank program. Credit:Arsineh Houspian

The greyhounds, which were anaesthetised for the entire experiment, were hooked up to a ventilation system that was switched off before having their hearts removed.

Another group of greyhounds then received a new heart and were monitored for four hours before being euthanased.
Police have arrested a 16-year-old boy after swooping on a Victorian private school that some parents say is the base of a "sophisticated drug syndicate".

The arrest unfolded in the Girton Grammar schoolyard on Friday, as police took the year 10 student into custody and then interviewed him about a number of drug offences.

A school spokeswoman said the student was likely to be expelled. "There is a process to go through, but that's the likely outcome," she said.

Parents allege that a sophisticated drug syndicate has been operating at the school, and say drugs have been easily obtainable on school grounds and at school events.
A man has been charged following a dramatic car chase in Victoria's north-east on Sunday afternoon in which a police officer opened fire at a vehicle.

Police allege a 22-year-old Albury man ran from a stolen car before stealing a second vehicle and ramming a garage door and several cars, including three police vehicles.

The Border Mail reported police had been searching for the man in Wodonga on Sunday and were told he was on Castle Creek Road.

They attended the area and searched backyards, before being told he was inside a property.
Transperth train users are a happy lot who love their trains, are carefree about terrorism and endure few delays  but their pet hate is others' loud phone conversations, a new survey shows.

Transperth topped customer satisfaction ratings for the fifth year running, shows consumer research company Canstar Blue's latest annual review of Australia's metropolitan railways.

The survey of 6000 Transperth, Adelaide Metro, Queensland Rail, Sydney Trains and Melbourne Metro users won Transperth five stars in six of eight categories, including overall satisfaction.

Perth punters' only sore spots were ticket price and safety, which got four stars each, but there were scant grounds for complaint  daily commuters spent less than those on any other network at an average of $33 a week, while Brisbane commuters spent $46, Sydney $43, Adelaide $38 and Melbourne $35.
Beirut: The capture this week of three women over planning attacks in France marks the first time an all-female cell has been identified as suspected perpetrators of jihadist attacks in Europe.

But for more than two years, the most wanted female terrorist has been Sally Jones, who is still at large.

Since she fled to Syria from Kent to marry Junaid Hussain, an Islamic State (IS) fighter from Birmingham, a handful of social media messages were the only clues to Jones' life in the terror group's "caliphate".

But thanks to information from activists in Syria and an IS defector in southern Turkey, fresh light has been shed on the movements of Jones and her 11-year-old son, Joe "JoJo" Dixon, who is reportedly being groomed to become an executioner for IS.
Indonesian president Joko Widodo caused a storm of controversy on Monday when he appeared to indicate the Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte had given Indonesia the green light to execute Filipina maid Mary Jane Veloso.

Mr Duterte's presidential spokesman sought to clarify reports, insisting there had been no endorsement and Mr Duterte had merely told Mr Joko to follow his own country's laws.

"Follow your own laws. I will not interfere," is what Mr Duterte had actually said when he met Mr Joko in Jakarta last week, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella was quoted saying by Philippines website GMA News Online.

The Department of Foreign Affairs in the Philippines later issued a statement saying that Mr Duterte had not given the "so-called green light" to the execution of Veloso.
if the people of Biafra want Republic of Biafra, it will be a reality during my administration. ----Donald Trump Donald Trump I wi...
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Monday 05 September, 2016 Reliable information reaching Biafra writers desk has it that the life of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indi...
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Last July, just over a year ago, Green Beret Tim Brumit made the wrong call.

Thinking he saw a drowning girl in stormy seas a short distance from his boat, he dove into the choppy surf, but misjudged the depthand instantly broke his neck. The missing girl was later found safe on shore.

Now paralyzed from the chest down, Sergeant First Class Brumit is being forced to endure a whole new kind of hardship.

The U.S. Army just informed him that it judged his actions on that July day reckless due to alcohol and drugs. Now the veteran of hundreds of raids and deadly firefights in eight combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq is fighting to save his military career. He has roughly three weeks to get the Armys decision overturned or face a possible other-than-honorable discharge from service and possible loss of his military medical care.

Speaking exclusively to The Daily Beast, the 33-year-old Brumit admits the facts on the surface are against him. He had 0.1 percent blood alcohol in his system at the time of the injury, though that wasnt illegal because he wasnt driving, just sitting on a boat with friends.

Worse, Brumits hospital toxicology report showed traces of cocaine and amphetamines in his system, and an Army buddy told investigators hed seen an apparent drug dealer at Brumits condo the night before selling other members of Brumits unit a white powdered substance.

Im going to take responsibility for the fact that I had a coping problem that he dealt with by drinking and sometimes taking drugs, Brumit told The Daily Beast. But the day of the injury, I had not used anything, and I wasnt even drunk.

He says he was clear-headed when he heard the Coast Guard alert about a missing girl, first discussing it with friends and then spotting what he thought was the girl struggling in the choppy channel.

She did not seem too far. I was a good swimmer. I felt the responsibility and felt very capable of doing something, even with the storm, Brumit said. I have a daughter. I would want someone to do the same for her.

He said he calmly removed his cellphone and wallet, told his boat companions that this was something he had to do, and made what he thought was a shallow dive into the water, which he thought was chest-deep. But the storm-churned waves were ebbing, turning the water momentarily more shallow.

When I dove in, the water seemed to slip away and the sand bar was right there, and there was no turning back, and I hit my head, Brumit said, describing the instant his life changed forever.

I tried to shake it off and realized Id heard something break. I thought, oh my God, Ive broken my neck.

His friends saw him face down in the water, not moving, and jumped in to pull him out, calling the Coast Guard, which was still looking for the missing girl, to come rescue him.

Army officials who came to visit him in those hours afterward at the hospital somehow obtained his toxicology report, without his permission, leading to the year-long legal fight first to prove the facts and then to fight a judgment against him.

Brumit admits that he hasnt always been a model soldier, addicted to alcohol and answering with his fists when the towering Ranger was taunted by his new Green Beret brothers after work. But emails reviewed by The Daily Beast show that Brumit and his father had begged his commanding officers for more than a year for help to stop usingto find a different way to cope with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury.

The commanders response: deny Brumit had any serious psychological, neurological, or substance abuse problems at all.

Brumit says his problems started when he left a high-achieving career as a U.S. Army Ranger to qualify as a Green Beret, eventually being assigned in 2013 to the 7th Special Forces Group at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. He and his wife separated during Green Beret training, and later divorced, and the young children stayed with her, after symptoms of his multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan started emerging: nightmares and sleeplessness; hypervigilance that meant he was always on guard in any public setting for possible danger; and violent mood swings from anger to depression that he would suppress with an emotional numbness to function at work.

His father, Randy, a retired Green Beret, said during this time that Brumit became distant from his mom and dad, even as his father pleaded with him to get help.

It was hard to convince the younger soldier. Although senior Army officers go through the motions of telling their troops to use the psychological help confidentially available at the base, many troops still believe that a diagnosis of PTSD on a soldiers permanent record can stunt or end their career. While numbers of active duty troops suffering from PTSD are harder to come by because of privacy regulations, its estimated that 15 to 20 percent of veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are thought to have PTSD, according to Dr. Brian Marx, at the VAs National Center for PTSD.

The father had finally convinced his son to go to a 7th Special Forces Group chaplain, then-Captain Ralph Nab, in the summer of 2013. Chaplains are often the first port of call for a struggling soldier to confide about personal, professional, or family issues. The clergymen and -women are trained to recognize signs of mental health issues like PTSD that would require greater care than they can provide, and usually try to steer troops to psychologists or other specialists who can help.

Struggling soldier Brumit said he told the chaplain of his grief over his wifes departure along with their toddler and infant. He discussed his drinking to alleviate his sleeplessness and nightmares. And he detailed his obsessive thoughts over one raid in particular in Afghanistana 22-hour firefight infamous at the 75th Ranger Regiment that pitted a couple dozen Rangers against an estimated 500 Taliban. The 2009 battle cost Brumit one of his best friends, Staff Sergeant Jason Dahlke, 29, as well as a 19-year-old Ranger, Private First Class Eric Hario. Brumit had just taken Hario to task before takeoff for the mission because something minor was wrong with his gear.

I told him to fix it or he was going to get himself killed, Brumit said. Hario did as he was told, and quickly, Brumit said, because he was a good soldier.

Hario was shot by a hidden enemy just after running off the helicopter, as was Staff Sergeant Dahlke.

Losing a young kid that I was a father figure to, led to the loss of hope, and fear, Brumit said. I kept feeling like if I kept doing things like this, my number was coming up. For me, it turned into an isolating numbness. He said the coldness seeped into his relationship with his wife and kids.

I had nightmares. I was on guard more, especially in public and crowds, he said. I coped with alcohol and later with other means.

Brumit recalls describing this to the chaplain, and adding, Ive been on a thousand raids, but this one bothers me like no other.

Within days, it appeared to Brumit that the chaplain had broken faith and revealed his conversation to his chain of command. Phrases Brumit had shared in confidence and bits of his life story were spat back at him by senior members of 7th Group.

So you think youve got PTSD from your 1,000 raids, theyd sneer at him. Youre not going to blame your poor performance on that, he remembered them sayingconversations he memorialized in notes he wrote at the advice of his father.

Brumit said Nab later became supportive of him, inviting him to his church and home, but the original breach of trust had done its damage. Nab, now an Army major, refused to speak to The Daily Beast directly but said Sunday through an Army spokesman that he did not recall meeting with the soldier. Brumit identified Nab by this Army bio (PDF) as the chaplain he spoke to and exchanged emails with when he first arrived at 7th Special Forces Group.

Brumits problems mounted. He got into a bar fight with his team sergeant, who nearly sliced Brumits left ear off, but it was Brumit who got written up for the infraction.

He was then charged with a DUI that local police later dropped for lack of evidence. Brumit said he was the designated driver that night, taking another drunk soldier home, and said it was fumes from that man emanating from the car that led to the charge, though Brumit didnt help his case by refusing to take a breathalyzer test.

As his son was fighting the DUI charge, Randy Brumit started reaching out to a multitude of senior special operations officers for his son to get help for his still-undiagnosed PTSD, in emails shared with The Daily Beast.

He has tried to hide the PTSD as the vast majority of Type A, SOF (special operations forces) Warriors do, the elder retired Green Beret wrote to 7th Group Command Sergeant Major Amil Alvarez in a January 2015 email.

The command sergeant major wrote back that he wasnt aware of Tim Brumits post-traumatic stress issues, but would look into it.

Threatened with an administrative letter over the DUI allegations that could have ended his career, Brumit shared his troubles with his then 7th Group commander, Col. Chris Riga, and Alvarez, the command sergeant major. They came through, helping him fight the letter of censure hed received for the now-dismissed DUI allegation. They also recommended he seek help for his alcohol issues.

SFC Brumit is a seasoned and decorated Special Operations Warrior that is being treated for his issues with alcohol abuse, as a result of possible post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Alvarez wrote in a letter of support to Army commanders. His combat record and performance under some of the most dangerous conditions in defense of our nation should be considered.

In the same letter, Alvarez went on to cite another non-commissioned officer about Brumits recent poor performance review at 7th Groupwhich was in stark contrast to his performance as a Ranger.

He stated that his intent was to perhaps slow SFC Brumits advancement and give him more time to work through his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) issues, Alvarez wrote.

Brumit reported to Alvarez by email a short time later that hed enrolled himself in the Air Force alcohol and drug abuse program known as ADAPT. Brumit added that he was scheduled to meet the 7th Group psychologist, saying he was hopeful to discuss options with PTSD treatment opportunities.

So Brumit avoided military punishment that time, but his meeting with the Army psychologist did not lead to treatment for his PTSD.

Instead, he was diagnosed with adjustment disorder, the same diagnosis hed received a year earlier from an Air Force psychologist, which Brumit understood to mean he was depressed about his difficult transition to a new unit and his divorce. That meant no specific counseling would be available for what he strongly believed was PTSD.

Worse, with senior leaders apparently unaware, Brumits company sergeant major kept pulling him out of the ADAPT course, making him miss meetings repeatedlyan action later protested by Brumits alcohol abuse counselors in a memo to 7th Group. His prognosis at program termination was very guarded due to his lack of participation due to his command requiring him to be on the job, wrote Air Force ADAPT supervisor James Gwyn in an August 2015 memo.

7th Groups answer to keeping a now-acknowledged addict away from alcohol? They told him to stay away from bars.

I was still in a downward spiral, but tried to mask it at work. Off work, I was using alcohol, he said, and harder drugs.

Being Special Forces, after being in South America, my dependence changed from just alcohol to cocaine because it was something that would counteract alcohol, which is a depressant, and bring you up, a rollercoaster of briefly rocketing up before crashing down again.

It was six weeks after being withdrawn from the ADAPT course that Brumit had his fateful encounter with the sea floor, while trying to reach what he thought was a girl struggling against high waves in the sea channel.

After any such injury or accident, the Army carries out what is called a Line of Duty investigation to determine whether the soldier was reckless. The Brumits believe the Army investigator had his mind made up that Brumit was a bad soldier from the startthat perhaps the original toxicology report the investigator mysteriously obtained changed everything. The day after the incident, when Brumit was still in the hospital, 7th Special Forces Group went cold. The sympathetic Riga had departed for another command already, but Alvarez and the other senior officers never visited Brumit during his long ordeal in the hospital, his father said.

The Army investigator, Special Forces Captain Adam Bolton, even tried to argue in the original Line of Duty finding that there was no missing girl and no storm, and that the Brumits had fabricated the rescue story to get the Army to pay for the soldiers drunken error.

Subsequent versions of the thrice-updated investigation provided by the Brumits show the Armys allegations against the paralyzed soldier were corrected to reflect that the Coast Guard had reported a missing girl, one 13-year-old Mary Sane. But the investigator still concluded that Brumits drinking on the boat before the accident was to blame for the tragedy.

SFC Brumits injuries were proximately caused by his erratic and reckless behavior, the result of cognitive impairment from his consumption of alcohol, Capt. Adam Bolton wrote. Brumit also had cocaine and amphetamines in his system at the time of the injury which further impaired his cognitive abilities.

Brumit argued that the drugs were traces from the day before, with no lasting intoxicating effect almost a day later. He also said that 0.1 percent blood alcohol was not enough to impair a diagnosed alcoholic maleespecially one of his size.

Me being 260 pounds and 6 foot 4, and an alcoholic, what I learned at ADAPT is that I would need a .3 blood alcohol to affect me, Brumit said. A functioning alcoholic has to have a .3 to be drunk.

The surgeon who later operated on him wrote a letter of support, saying that just an hour or so after the injury, Brumit was lucid and alert, showing no signs of alcohol impairment.

Multiple current and former senior commanders and congressional staffers said theyd almost never heard of such a finding going against a dead or injured soldier.

Even if the guy killed himself driving his motorcycle drunk at high speed, we try to find a way to make sure his family gets his benefits, one former senior commander said, speaking anonymously in order to discuss confidential personnel decisions.

The Armys point of view through the concluding investigation document and the letter of reprimand are clear: The investigator says Brumit is a soldier with a history of performance problems and alcohol abuse who blames everything on PTSD the Army says doesnt exist.

SFC Brumit has been screened for substance, behavioral and TBI-related conditions and has no evidence of symptoms or experiences that warrant the diagnosis of PTSD or TBI predating his injury on 25 July 2015, writes battalion surgeon Capt. Christopher Brooks in a November 2015 email. I agree with the diagnosis by Eglin AFB psychology that the diagnosis of Adjustment Disorder made in 2014 is the most appropriate diagnosis given his multiple stressors at home.

The Brumits have since turned to Emory Healthcare Veterans Program in Atlanta, where Brumit was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder, according to a letter from Dr. Laura Loucks. Brumit also made his raw medical diagnosis available to The Daily Beast, which includes mention of suicidal thoughts, stemming from the Afghan firefight.

Brumit is still waiting for the results of testing for traumatic brain injury, after roughly 700 missions as the lead breacher using high explosives to blast through doors during raids, and training missions where he would fire the Carl Gustav recoilless rifle until his nose would bleed and hed cough up blood.

For the elder Brumit, the Emory diagnosis is vindicating, but also speaks to what he sees as the Armys neglect of his son.

If theyd listened to me, my son wouldnt be paralyzed right now, the retired Green Beret said.

A U.S. Army spokesman declined to comment on the Brumit case, but a spokesman for the U.S. Armys Special Operations Command based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, said Lt. Gen. Ken Tovo is studying the case.

First and foremost, the command is sympathetic to SFC Brumits tragic injury. The USASOC Commander is currently considering providing support to SFC Brumits request for reconsideration, Lt. Col. Rob Bockholt emailed Friday. LTG Tovo is not questioning the decisions of the subordinate commanders, but is considering the totality of SFC Brumits service to the nation and factors that could have led to this unfortunate accident. The spokesman pointed out that the Armys Human Resources Command is the ultimate decider of the case.

A number of members of Congress are looking into the case, including Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), a former Marine who has championed many cases of troops in the crosshairs of what he sees as unjust military punishment.

Brumit was denied the opportunity to not only receive a full diagnosis, he was also prevented from obtaining treatment that he and otherswith the exception of his commandrecognized was necessary, Hunter wrote in a letter Friday to Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning. Now that Brumit will require a lifetime of medical care, an unfavorable discharge of any type fails to account for the Armys failure to support one of its top-rate warriors, he concluded.

The military leadership comes in and tells Congress and tells the American people that the most important thing to them is their soldiers, Hunter said in an interview Friday. They talk about a brotherhood and... about how important it is to take care of them. The reality is, their actions prove otherwise. They look for the first opportunity to drop these people.

The retired Green Beret community is rallying around the Brumits, writing letters of support to the Army board that could potentially overturn the finding against him. The Green Beret Foundation, which supports active and retired Special Forces soldiers, has set up a fund for Brumits care.

Brumits lawyer Will Helixon, a veteran officer of the Armys Judge Advocate General Corps, thinks they have a good case to overturn the decision, based on 7th Groups prior actions.

When they take him out of a program which is basically one of the first steps to recover it speaks volumes, he said. That 7th Group thought their training was more important than this soldier.

Tim Brumit now spends his days trapped in a wheelchair, living at his parents house, which theyve spent roughly $100,000 adapting to his needs, his dad says. The younger Brumit has some use of his arms, but his hands and fingers dont work, so he needs help with everything from bathing and dressing to eating, and of course, moving his still-massive frame from bed to wheelchair. Hes had multiple complications and multiple emergency surgeries over the past year, and still feels diffuse burning nerve pain that shoots from his chest through the rest of his body that nerve blockers dont stop and doctors cant seem to fix. Brumit says he refused to take opiates because of the addiction risk, and they wouldnt stop this type of pain anyway.

The only upside is that now his ex-wife lets him see his children two to three times a week, as hes no longer the distant father, working obsessively to prove himself and drinking himself senseless to sleep every night.

That still leaves a lot of time in Brumits days to think about the Armys ruling against him, which he sees as the final insult following years of risking his life for his country and its people, no matter what the cost.

Im now paralyzed for trying to do the right thing, and you want to turn it against me? You broke me and now you want to strip me of the benefits I earned in my 12-plus years of service, and you want to hit me while Im down, and take it from me? he said of the Army that was his life.

He said one senior officer said to him, Hey, Tim, youre a great soldier. Youre awesome at work, but you have some issues off duty. We all saw this coming. Id love to say we could help you with this, but we cant.

Well, if you all saw it coming, why didnt you intervene and help me? Brumit said in frustration.

I had a problem, and I told you I did. You guys take no ownership of it, he said.

The Army broke me. I believe they owe me an honorable discharge, my record clean, and a lifetime of medical care that Im going to require to live a normal life, he said.

Updated 2pm 9/14/16: This article was amended at Tim Brumits request to reflect that he and his ex-wife decided mutually to separate.
If some Americans in their late mornings or early afternoons Sunday heard cries of Yesss and possibly the sound of tears too, they may have been in near proximity to a fan of the BBC Radio 4 serial The Archers.

After suffering years of torment and, it emerged, rape at the hands of her abusive husband, Rob, Helen Titchener was acquitted of his attempted murder and wounding with intent (although he dearly deserved both and more) in a dramatic court trial, after five months in jail separated from her young son Henry, who is still in Robs insidious clutches.

If the jurys verdict seemed like a happy climax, think again: The last moments of the episode saw Helen come face-to-face with her evil husband, who told her she would never be free of him.

He not only has present full-time guardianship Henry, but they also share a son, Jack, whom Rob insists on calling Gideon. His deviousnessand real and present dangerknows no bounds: Insanely, Rob told Helen she had lied in court when he is the liar, and then, the warped wretch, how much he still loved to look at her. Mind games are a full-time occupation for Rob Titchener.

The Helen storyline has had an immense public impact in the U.K., with one listener setting up a fund in aid of the real-life charity Refuge, which has so far raised nearly $212,000. Calls to domestic violence helplines have increased. The crime of coercive control, which Rob practiced so ruthlessly on Helen, is now enshrined in British law.

#FreeHelen became a hashtag, and people were shown drinking from mugs of tea in solidaritea with Helen. Celebratory tuna pasta bakesRobs most hated dishwere being prepared for the verdict.

Sundays episode was the Archers swansong of Sean OConnor, the programs editor, who is now series producer of the BBCs TV soap opera EastEnders. Some listeners criticized him for bringing that hard-edged sensationalism to The Archers. But this was unfair: The power of Helens abuse storyline was in its intricate, tortuous pacing.

As I have written before, the long-running radio serialwhich has been running since 1951 and currently has 18,000+ episodes to its nameis set in the village of Ambridge, somewhere in the Midlands.

Its reputation for many years was bucolic and banal: farming, flower shows, cake-making, withas modern times rolled inaffairs, love children, and, with Rob and Helen, a truly shocking storyline that outdid anything on television in its portrayal of unfolding domestic violence.

The medium of radiowhere you make up the images in your head, and where the voices go straight into your ears, firing every individual listeners horrified imaginationmade it all the more powerful.

The storyline of Helen and Rob (brilliantly played by Louiza Patikas and Timothy Watson) has been hellish to listen to for us fans, because, unlike on television, this was no short, dramatic arc, but a slow burn over years. We know Helen. It always felt as if she had never gotten over the suicide of her partner, Greg. She is withdrawn, thorny, though after she conceived her son Henry via sperm donor, some kind of happiness seemed due her.

Rob was the tall, dark, handsome stranger who seemed to promise that happiness, except he turned out to be anything but. His coercive control over Helen, his relentless gas-lighting of herwhich would lead to her being robbed of her identity, her friends, and family, with everyone remaining unawarebegan with comments over her clothes and hair.

Robs campaign of terror escalated as Helens pregnancy with his child progressed. Soon his equally despicable mother, Ursula, moved in to further torture and destabilize Helen. Rob destroyed Helens friendship with her friend Ian, by implicating her in the revelation that Ians husband, Adam, had cheated on him.

Finally, Helens good friend Kirsty returned to the village (after having her heart broken by Helens brother Tom on their wedding day!) and noticed that something was wrong with Helen, but Helen was so worn down and psychologically damaged by Robs scheming and mind games that she tried to turn her away.

Finally, thanks to Robs ex-wife, Jess, Helen realized the destructive nature of her marriage and resolved to escape it. That night, Rob violently tried to stop her, threatening little Henry in the process, picking up a kitchen knife, and goading her to commit suicide. She stabbed him instead. We cheered. And after all hed done, it was Helen who was arrested.

Robs games have continued while Helen has been awaiting trial in jail, with her parents over their one measly day a week to see Henry, trying to intimidate Jess into not giving evidence, and menacing other locals, including poor Ianwho finally and gratifyingly told him that, despite his best efforts to wreck his and Helens friendship, he couldnt wait to be a character witness for her in court. (In court, Robs lawyer tried to smear Ians homosexuality.)

The trial itself has been, until Sundays verdict episode, both painful and heartening. Helen has found her voice, revealing something we had all suspectedthat Rob had raped her.

We as listeners didnt know this had become systematic marital rape. The scale of Robs mental torture of Helen was laid bare, but not his possible role in the flood that nearly destroyed the village last year, and his assault on a hunt saboteur (witnessed by the achingly pious Shula, who waited too long to reveal the truth about it for it to be any use to Helen).

Rob lied and lied in court, naturally. Helens family, having blamed themselves for not noticing what Rob was doing to their loved one, have united and mother Pat (oh Pat!) finally seems to have reclaimed the feminist cojones old-time listeners recall of herand couldnt quite figure out how and where she had lost them.

The trial was gripping, until Sundays strange episode when a number of well-known British actorsDame Eileen Atkins, Nigel Havers, Catherine Tate, and Rakhee Thakraramassed as the voices of the jury for deliberations. Imagine Twelve Angry Men become A Few Angry Middle Englanders.

For some reason, The Archers felt the need to have every modern stereotype and prejudice on vivid display in their deliberations, including around Brexit. This added to the tension and cliffhanger-ishness around the verdict, as many of their prejudices seemed to spell disaster for Helen. But it also felt like a bit of needless sadism: The listener knows the truth, so simply listening to an hour of yet more anti-Helen prejudice and pro-Helen sentiment (much lesser than the former) felt unnecessary.

Sure, it gave the writers the chance to air both sides of the court case, but they had done so already, and the listeners know that only one side is the true side: There is nothing to debate. For this listener, it simply extended the Archers writers torture of Helen for another 50 minutes.

When the verdict was revealed, fans may have not only cried out yes, they may have cried a little bit when Helen was reunited with her father and mother, who held her and told her how much she was loved. Her simple denunciation of Rob scored another yes, until his renewed threat and malign flirtation seemed to signal a fresh outbreak of torture and hideousness coming Helens way. How will she cope with it, when she already has so much recovering to do anyway?

For this special episode, the programs famous Barwick Green theme was played in full, with a cast list read out, just as in full-length radio drama. It was well-deserved, given the effect of the Helen storyline not just on Archers fans but also in the wider public, political, and cultural sphere.

But really, listeners will only be happy when Rob Titchener is fully and properly exposed for the despicable animal he is, and ejected from Ambridge. However, Rob may not be so easily displacedunless he faces the force of the law for coercive control, rape, and who knows what else. This is a soap opera, though, and that will take time. Helen and Rob may be far from over.
When Hillary Clinton began mapping out her presidential campaign, she knew that clearing the hurdle to become the first woman commander in chief would be paramount. What she didnt know or fully understand 18 months ago was how her age would work against her in subtle and cruel ways, and how ageism and sexism can combine in a double whammy undermining her candidacy.

Unfounded rumors spread by Donald Trump and his allies about Clintons allegedly poor health and lack of stamina found their mark Sunday in a video gone viral that shows Clinton stumbling as aides help her into a waiting car. Her doctors statement released several hours later revealed Clinton had been diagnosed the previous Friday with pneumonia, a common and treatable condition, but which takes longer to recover from if youre over 65; Clinton is 68, soon to be 69.

CNN covered Clintons near collapse all afternoon, bringing in Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the networks chief medical correspondent, to recall Clintons 2012 concussion and her history of blood clots. NPRs Cokie Roberts said on Mondays Morning Edition that Democrats were discussing sotto voce how to replace Clinton as their candidate should that become necessary. Joe Biden is their top choice, she said, and hes five years older than Clinton with a history of brain aneurysms.

Its worth pointing out that Trump is 70 and while he doesnt have pneumonia, hes not exactly a picture of health. The point is that we as a society give the guys a lot more leeway than we give the women. Were accustomed to older men in leadership positions. John McCain and Bob Dole were both over 70 when they ran for president. The media didnt obsess over it, though we rightly scrutinized their vice-presidential picks, and McCains choice of an obviously unqualified Sarah Palin cost him votes.

Both these older candidates lost, and the contrast of youthful energy conveyed by their much younger opponents, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, contributed to those losses.

If Democrats are saying anything sotto voce, its how grateful they are that Clinton isnt facing Marco Rubio.

The problem Clinton has there is no Golda Meir leading the way for her. The Iron Lady of Israel was elected prime minister when she was 70, and she successfully prosecuted the Yom Kippur war when she was 75. She was ageless, and given her age and demeanor, sexless. In the first days of the 1973 war, it was said she smoked 90 cigarettes a day instead of her usual 60.

We think of ourselves as a youthful country even though the U.S. population is aging. We like more recently to elect presidents who are in their prime, in their forties and fifties, and we indulge them in their inexperience. Clinton defies recent history as someone who is highly qualified but struggles to excite and inspire. Bernie Sanders surprised everybody becoming a rock star as a septuagenarian. He even had a doppelganger in the comedian Larry David to connect with voters.

Clinton is on her own to make her way. There is no template for a woman of her vintage. Ageism is rampant these days, but of course its worse for a woman, says Deborah Tannen, a professor of linguistics at Georgetown University. Why is there more fuss about Hillarys age than Donalds? Because an older man looks distinguished, she says, although thats not the first adjective one would apply to Trump.

Older women are invisible, says Tannen, in the sense they are insignificant in public life. The medical flap sticks to Clinton and becomes Healthgate in a way it wouldnt for a man because it plays into an existing suspicion that a woman in this role is not quite right for this, says Tannen.

The point is were not sure what to make of an older woman with ambition vying for the most powerful job in the world. Women who support Clinton and are her age or older admire her for her resilience and wonder why she would want to put herself through such a wringer. Younger women seem to regard her as something out of Jurassic Park. They cant relate to her, and they dont get Trump either. Hes like a corporate version of the Kardashians.

The real problem isnt Clintons age or her health; its her lack of transparency. Millennials embrace transparency as the religion of the internet. People want to know everything, and Clinton is an old school candidate who wants things kept private. But the 90-minute gap on Sunday before her campaign released a statement about what was happening may be the last gasp of privacy for Clinton.

Her campaign announced on Monday that it would be releasing more information about her general health. If there are lessons to be learned from this for Clinton, its to heed a health warning and not try to power through, and to let go of that 20th century notion of a zone of privacy.

Her bout of pneumonia has gotten more attention than FDRs polio or JFKs multiple ailments at comparable points in their campaigns. If the voters knew more about their health challenges, we might have missed out on their leadership. Clinton needs to convince the voters and the right-wing conspiracy theorists that she doesnt have some underlying condition that shes hiding. And she needs to convince the rest of us, and perhaps herself, that at her age she has the wisdom to take a health scare seriously.
A Carlsbad, California, mom faces up to 25 years in prison after she allegedly conspired with her shooting instructor to kill her estranged husband, police said.

The husband was injured in a Sept. 1 sniper attack but survived, and Diana Lovejoy, 43, and Weldon McDavid Jr., 49, were arrested on Thursday. Police say the two came up with the plan together but it was McDavid, Lovejoys instructor, who pulled the trigger in the attack. They are being charged with attempted murder, conspiracy, assault with a deadly weapon, and assault with great bodily injury, according to the Carlsbad Police Department. McDavid faces up to 50 years in prison.

We also believe that McDavid called the victim and arranged to meet the victim on the access road off Avenida Soledad, the police said in a statement. Next, while hiding in the bushes, McDavid shot at the victim, hitting him once in the side. McDavid then fled the area.

Police say the duo began planning their attack as early as Aug. 1, according to the Los Angeles Times. They met at an Oceanside shooting range, where McDavid taught and where Lovejoy took lessons.

The shooting happened a little after 11 p.m. on Sept. 1. A reverse 911 call went out to residents, warning them to stay inside until 3 a.m. as SWAT teams crawled the area.

The police are still investigating what motivated the shooting and the extent of the suspects relationship. There are no outstanding suspects in the attack, which sent shockwaves through the community.

Lovejoys husband was rushed to the hospital, where he underwent surgery for a gunshot wound to his side. He was in stable condition after the surgery.

Lovejoy filed a complaint against her husband in July 2014, according to San Diego County court records. He filed for divorce the next month.

The Daily Beast is not identifying the victim, a 45-year-old man, because his name was not released by police.

But his split from Lovejoy included a custody battle over their young son. Social media accounts for the parents show each posing with the boy in their profile photos.

McDavid is also the father of a young son, according to Facebook.

McDavids Twitter account says the gun range instructor was in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1997 to 2009. The Daily Beast was not immediately able to confirm his service record on Sunday.

On a website for his business, McDavid claimed he was an instructor in the Marine Corps, teaching urban warfare, combat marksmanship, and primary marksmanship.

His social media accounts feature many items branded with the companys name, McDavid Firearms Training.

McDavid Firearms Training is dedicated to increasing the firearms community by providing the education and knowledge necessary for beginning to advanced shooters to utilize firearms safely, his business webpage says. Safety is our first priority.

He frequently spoke out on social media against gun laws and against Hillary Clintons presidential bid.

Before being arrested on Thursday, McDavid cheered news that a shotgun maker was moving more jobs to Texas. Leave the anti gun states and stop selling even to law enforcement in those states, he wrote.

On July 5, he tweeted a self-authored blog post titled Why I can NEVER vote for Hillary. It was just three passionate sentences long.

Supporting gun control is like supporting slavery, wrote McDavid, who is black. The gun control laws in this country have historically designed to keep minorities disarmed and in need of protection. The only change is were all minorities in the eyes of people like Hillary.

Lovejoy and McDavid will be arraigned Monday, but they likely wont be getting out to the shooting range anytime soon. On Friday, a judge ordered them held on $2 million bail.
An Indianapolis fertility doctor is facing criminal charges for allegedly lying to state investigators about using his own sperm on patients.

Donald L. Cline, 77, is charged with two felony counts of obstruction of justice for allegedly making false statements to the state attorney generals office in 2015.

Prosecutors say the now-retired specialist may have used his own semen on patients 50 times during the 1970s and 1980s.

The investigation was sparked by two Indiana women, now in their mid-thirties, who matched as siblings on a DNA testing website. Indeed, a paternity test revealed Cline as the womens biological father in August, court papers reveal.

On Monday, Cline surrendered during a court appearance in Marion County and was released on his own recognizance. He has pleaded not guilty.

If convicted on both counts, Cline would face a maximum five years in prison, deputy prosecutor Tim DeLaney told The Daily Beast.

For our purposes, this is an obstruction of justice case. Its important, no matter what the passage of time is, to respond completely to the best of your ability. Lying gets you in as much trouble as the act itself, DeLaney added.

Clines attorney, Tracy Betz did not return messages left by The Daily Beast but provided a statement to the media noting that the charges arise solely from his written response to inquiries from the Indiana Attorney Generals office and nothing more.

The Marion County prosecutors office began investigating Cline after four siblings filed complaints against him with the Indiana attorney general in December 2014. The probe was also spurred by a Fox 59 story.

In May 2015, two unidentified women told the TV station they suspected Cline was their father after they matched in a 23andMe online genetic test, which traces ancestry through saliva samples.

I went from being an only child to having at least eight siblings overnight, one woman, identified only as Carrie, told Fox 59 last year. (Her claims were echoed in court papers in Clines criminal case.)

Carrie thought she was an only child until a DNA test revealed a family secret: Her biological father wasnt her dad, Fox 59 reported.

She said her parents fertility specialist claimed to use fresh sperm from a doctor-in-training and that he assured the couple the donor sperm would not be used for more than three successful pregnancies.

I dont think it is fair to have to have my children, if they start dating someone, to have to have a DNA test just to make sure they arent cousins, said another sister, identified as Julie, in the Fox 59 segment.

The women found six other siblings, all born over a span of eight years, through DNA testing. They questioned how one medical resident could be a sperm donor at the clinic during that period of time, Fox 59 reported.

Indeed, the time span between the youngest and oldest sibling is eight years, a probable cause affidavit filed Sept. 9 states.

The affidavit identifies Cline as the biological father of two women, whose parents used him as a fertility doctor in the early 1980s.

In a meeting with the siblings this spring, the bearded and bespectacled specialist allegedly admitted to utilizing his sperm whenever a donor wasnt availableand that his sperm could have been used up to 50 times, the affidavit says.

One woman had called Cline after learning her parents used a fertility doctor, the affidavit says. The doc allegedly told her he recognized her parents names but their records were shredded. There was no way to find her sperm donor, he said.

So she signed up for the Donor Offspring, Parent & Sibling Registry on amfor.net in an attempt to find potential siblings, court papers say. She soon discovered she had at least two sisters, the affidavit states.

The newfound sisters took DNA tests on 23andMe in 2014 and matched to five other potential siblings sired by Cline, court papers allege.

Then the women fashioned a family tree through the genetic testing site and learned they were genetically related to 70 of Clines relatives, the closest being Dr. Clines first cousin, the affidavit says.

But without a DNA test from Dr. Cline, the siblings werent positive if Cline or his kin was the sperm donor, court papers say.

One sibling sent a Facebook message to Dr. Clines family. Clines son, Doug, allegedly responded. The women met with Doug Cline, along with his sister Donna, at a church in Brazil, Indiana, court documents reveal.

During the March 2016 meeting, the Clines allegedly claimed their dad told them he donated to a sperm bank eight times or less. When the women balked, Doug Cline went back to his father, who then changed his story, the affidavit states. The doctor allegedly confessed that he had other children out there and that he provided his sperm over a seven-year period.

One woman again contacted Doug Cline, who asked her to keep the story a secret, court papers allege. She refused, and asked to meet Dr. Cline face to face, prosecutors say.

The women got a meeting with Dr. Cline at the Almost Home restaurant in Greencastle, Indiana, where Cline allegedly claimed his wife was supportive of his sperm donations.

When asked how many times he donated his genetic material, Cline replied, around 50 times, the affidavit alleges.

Cline felt that he was helping women because they really wanted a baby, the document claims.

The fertility doc also felt pressure to use his own sperm because he didnt always have access to fresh sperm, the affidavit says.

Cline allegedly told the women he never used a sperm bank at his clinic, contradicting Doug and Donnas previous claims.

Rather, Dr. Cline explained that he kept track of which patients received his sperm because he put an asterisk on their charts, the affidavit says.

If parents wanted another baby, Cline would again use his sperm to produce full siblings, court papers state. The doctor allegedly claimed the medical records were destroyed long ago, since the law requires records to only be kept for seven years.

Dr. Cline allegedly told the siblings he didnt know when he stopped using his own sperm to inseminate women, the affidavit says. Still, the youngest of his fertility clinic offspring was born in 1986, prosecutors say.

He told the siblings if he would have known that DNA would have come this far and this would have come out, he would not have done it, the affidavit states.

Dr. Cline thought he was just helping people have babies, court papers added. [He] apologized for what he did and said that since he has found God, he now knows what he did was wrong because he hurt a lot of people.

One woman recorded a phone call with Dr. Cline in which he begged for her to keep the revelation quiet, court papers say.

The doc said Fox 59 was hounding him and that the news would affect his marriage. He said his wife considers what he did adultery, the affidavit states. He asked [the woman] to help him by not telling the world of their secret.

In the call, Cline allegedly said he thought he was doing the right thing and was helping people with no other recourse.

Four siblings filed complaints with the Office of the Indiana Attorney General in December 2014, the affidavit says. (In a statement, an AG spokeswoman said the office has not filed any formal action against Dr. Clines license, which is inactive.)

The attorney general then asked Cline for written responses to the allegations, prosecutors say.

In his responses, Cline stated he practiced under Indianapolis Infertility Inc. from 1979 through 2009, when he retired, and that his donors were either resident doctors at various hospitals or resident dentists specializing at the Indiana University School of Dentistry.

Cline said he matched female patients with donors of the same blood type and physical traits as their husbands and did not treat single women, the affidavit says.

In the early 1980s, Cline claimed, he stopped using fresh semen and turned to frozen samples from Follas Laboratories.

I can emphatically say that at no time did I ever use my own sample for insemination nor was I donor at Follas Laboratories, Cline wrote, before accusing one female complainant of libel and slander.

But a subpoena sent to Follas Laboratories in February 2016 found no records pertaining to Dr. Cline or his clinic, prosecutors say. The lab did not act as a distributor of frozen sperm samples, court papers state.

In July 2016, a search warrant granted investigators to obtain a cheek swab from Dr. Cline for a DNA comparison to two women. The results, returned one month later, showed Cline matched the women by more than 99.9 percent.

The women, who have wished to remain anonymous in local reports, did not return messages left by The Daily Beast.

I want to know every sibling that I have, one sibling told Fox 59. I dont think that is ever going to be a possibility.
The watchdog group Media Matters, which has accused Fox News of spying on one of its employees, says the practice of targeting journalists goes backway back, to the late 1990s.

It also appears that Fox News Channel previously obtained telephone records of Media Matters founder David Brock in 1997, the groups attorney wrote on Friday to senior Fox executives and the attorney for Roger Ailes, the news channels founder and former chief. In a move that amounts to a prelude to potential litigation, the letters demanded that Fox preserve all information related to what Media Matters termed surveillance of its employees.

As shown by earlier hacking scandals involving News Corpaffiliated entities, initial reports of these sorts of activities often reveal only the tip of the iceberg, wrote the attorney, Marc Elias, who is also counsel for Hillary Clintons presidential campaign. We expect to discover additional wrongdoing in the course of our investigation.

The allegation is significant in that it tries to describe Fox News surreptitious gathering of phone records not as a one-time event, but as a pattern of behavior.

Media Matters president Bradley Beychok had previously told The Daily Beast that his group was aware of allegations of email and phone records being obtained of more than one Media Matters employee, but he didnt specify Brock at the time.

The new reference to Brock appears to concern an allegation by a former Fox News executive, Dan Cooper, who spoke to Brock for a profile of Ailes in New York magazine in 1997. Cooper has said that he spoke to Brock on condition that he not be identified in the story. But before the story was published, Cooper says his agent got a threatening call from Ailes, who said hed refuse to do business with any of the agents clients unless he dropped Cooper.

Ive thought to myself on many occasions, how did Roger find out prior to publication that Brock had interviewed me? Cooper told The Daily Beast. Cooper concluded that Ailes may have obtained Brocks phone records and saw that the two had been in communication with each other.

Cooper first made his allegations in 2008 in a lengthy post about his career as one of the architects of Fox News. That account grew into a self-published book that was critical of Ailes.

Ailes knew I had given Brock the interview, Cooper wrote. Certainly Brock didnt tell him. Of course. Fox News had gotten Brocks telephone records from the phone company, and my phone number was on the list.

Coopers charge resurfaced in 2011 amid the furor over phone hacking by Murdoch-owned journalistic outfits in Britain. While greeted skeptically by some at the time, his story appears to be gaining new traction as Media Matters considers whether to sue over the alleged targeting of its reporter, Joe Strupp. The allegations were first reported by Gabriel Sherman, a reporter for New York magazine and author of a book on Fox News and Ailes, The Loudest Voice in the Room.

Cooper told The Daily Beast that in order to rule out Brock having told Ailes himself that he spoke to the ex-Fox exec, he tried on numerous occasions to contact Brock and ask him. But, Cooper said, he never received a reply.

Finally, Cooper said, he persuaded a Media Matters employee to ask Brock.

I want you to tell him, I have to have a denial, a definitive denial from David that he did not give up to Roger that I gave an interview, Cooper said.

Cooper said the employee called back and said that shed talked to Brock, and that he denied ever having told Ailes of their conversation.

According to Sherman, who cited two sources with direct knowledge of the incident, Foxs general counsel, Dianne Brandi, hired a private investigator in late 2010 to obtain the personal home- and cell-phone records of Strupp. At the time, he had written articles quoting anonymous sources at Fox, and the network wanted to determine who was talking to him, Sherman reported.

Through a spokesperson, Brandi denied the allegations.

Legal experts told The Daily Beast that they knew of no way that a private investigator could legally obtain someones phone records without his consent. Shermans story made no claims on how the records were obtained.

In 2011, the FBI opened an investigation into News Corp. phone hacking and whether any illegal activity occurred in the United States. Specifically, investigators wanted to know if the phones of victims of the 9/11 attacks had been hacked.

Strupp confronted Murdoch that year about allegations of phone hacking in England and asked whether he could assure Americans that there wont be any phone hacking by the New York Post, a News Corp. property, or by Fox News.

Murdoch repeatedly declined to answer Strupps questions, in an exchange that the reporter captured on video.
Hillary Clintons replicant respectfully requests you stop tweeting at her.

I hope you can straighten this all out and get people to quit buggin me, Teresa Barnwell told The Daily Beast.

Barnwell has been a Clinton impersonator for 23 years, but shes never had a morning like Monday. After Clinton (the real one) appeared to faint outside of the 9/11 Memorial in Manhattan on Sunday, then reappeared hours later outside of her daughters apartment appearing much healthier, Internet conspiracy theorists thought she was using a body doubleand they were certain it was Barnwell.

Although she might be a little to blame for that.

The rumors, which started on Twitter and Reddit, fast made their way to right-wing blogs. By the time Barnwell woke up in her Palm Desert, Calif., home on Monday morning, #HillarysBodyDouble was the No. 2 trend on Twitterwith Barnwells face and name usually appearing right next to it.

Barnwell was sitting around and eating lunch in Los Angeles, waiting to shoot an episode of Spike TVs Lip Sync Battle (alongside a Bill impersonator, naturally) when she first heard about it.

I got some kind of notification: When Hillary left Chelseas home, she looked so different. Was it a body double? she remembers reading. Then my picture started appearing. I was like, What? What is going on?

Bored in her dressing room, she then thought, Should I have a little fun?

Barnwell posted a picture she took of herself in front of Chelsea Clintons apartment back in August, along with the caption, Maybe I was in New York today!

The picture was harmless back in August. After going to a Broadway show, her friend asked, Do you wanna see where Chelsea Clinton lives?

Im cautious about things. I didnt want to go stand in front of her place. I dont want to look like Im stalking her, she said, through a thick Southern drawl. She walked with her friend to a very nice little park (which was Madison Square Park) across the street from where her doppelgangers daughter lives.

I thought, Ill make this look mysterious looking. Ill just put a corner of my face, she said.

One month later, the conspiracy was on.

Oh my God, the conspiracy theories. These ugly comments, on and on, driving home last night. My phone was just dinging, dinging, dinging, dinging.

She had to put up another post:

Im in Los Angeles today! Not NYC! Then a picture with John Legend on the set of Lip Sync Battle. None of that was enough. Finally, late last night, she posted this:

OK people, calm down. I was in LA today, all day. Was just messin with your crazy conspiracy minded little heads. Go to bed.

By the time she woke up, she had to return a phone call to Inside Edition about her newfound life as a political operative of the New World Order.

Now shes getting conspiracies to counteract the conspiracies from worried friends. People are like, Watch out. The Clintons do away with people, she said. Im like, Come on.

While #HillarysBodyDouble was still the No. 2 trend on Twitter at press time, even conspiracy theorists were working to disavow it. InfoWarss Paul Joseph Watson, a prominent conspiracy theorist who believes Clinton has Parkinsons or syphilis or a brain tumor or all of them, tweeted: The #HillarysBodyDouble narrative was probably started by the Clinton campaign to discredit genuine questions about her health on Monday afternoon.

The Internets largest online Donald Trump community, Reddits /r/The_Donald, is now alleging that #HillarysBodyDouble is NOT Truly Trending on Twitter, But They Stuck it on the Trends to Make Us Look Nuts. Dont Fall For it!

In the meantime, Barnwell has some advice from a Pope John Paul II impersonator.

He said to me, Teresa, after youve done an appearance, go to the restroom and wash your hands. Do everything you can to limit your exposure to germs. Shes out there kissing babies. Shes gonna catch a bug, she said. I wish I had her stamina. I do. I hope I have the stamina to survive until Nov. 8.

As for non-germ-related wisdom, Barnwell has a new saying after today.

Three little words, she said. People are crazy.
Scan a menu in a craft cocktail bar and its a lead-pipe cinch youll find something on it made with ryestraight rye whiskey, that is, made right here in the United States. For drinkers under, say, 35, its even a given. But those of us older than that can recall the days when if you asked for a rye Manhattan they would give you something made with Canadian rye, which oddly enough can be made with no rye in it at all. Indeed, things got so bad that the whole category almost completely disappeared. The troubles really began at the turn of the century with World War I and Prohibition on the horizon and then they only got worse.

The story of Old Overholt, which I began in my last column, is really the story of the whole Mid-Atlantic rye whiskey industry, and of industrial America. The rise, the fall and the rebirthits a history that to my knowledge has never been fully explored and needs to be for this style of whiskey to be more than a fad. Here is the full unabridged story of how rye whiskey, our first indigenous distilled spirit (it goes back to 1648) almost became a footnote in American history.

In 1910, when Overholt rye whiskey celebrated its 100th anniversary, things were going very well for the company. After beginning in a small log still-house in 1810, the Overholt whiskey enterprise had grown and grown until it was one of the largest and most respected whiskey-makers in the country.

It was still owned, at least in part, by its founders grandson, Henry Clay Frick, one of the richest and smartest businessmen in the country. Its distillery at Broad Ford, Pennsylvania, 30 miles south of Pittsburgh, although not the largest or most modern in the industry, was still plenty large and modern, with a new bottling line and a new cooperage. (It was making its own barrels for the first time in years as a measure to improve quality.) Its stocks of aging whiskey were vast. Its reputation for quality was strong and long-established.

From its headquarters in Pittsburghs modern Frick building it administered a network of sales offices around the country. There were few distillers, if any, better equipped to survive the high winds and breaking waves of the 20th century, a century that, it turned out, didnt like rye whiskey and it really didnt like local traditions, local ownership or local markets.

As if to announce that animus, the new century inflicted a near-death experience on Old Overholt practically right out of the gate. On the afternoon of Nov. 19, 1905, a young bottling-line worker noticed flames coming out of an upper story of Warehouse D at the Broad Ford distillery. Within minutes, the whole warehouse, which held 16,000 barrels of rye, was on fire, sending whiskey-fueled flames shooting high into the sky. By dint of and heroic effort from the distillery workers and the local fire departments and quick thinking from the plant engineer, who knocked the valves off the heating pipes in the other warehouses to fill them with fire-suppressing steam, the fire was contained to that one warehouse and the 810,000 gallons of whiskey it containedsome three months worth of production.

But Overholt could always build more warehouses and make more whiskey. What it couldnt do is make more voters.

As Prohibition crept over the landby 1913, nine states were completely dry and another 31 were dry by local optionthings began to get grim for the American alcohol industry and distillers in particular, with brewers and winemakers trying to throw them over the side in an effort to keep beer and wine legal. In some markets, Overholts advertisements switched from cornily-illustrated appeals to taste and tradition to assertions of the brands medicinal value. Some of these ads, showing a canny understanding of the prohibition movement, even appealed to women by positioning Overholt as a traditional item in the familys medicine cabinet, there to be drawn on by the lady of the house as part of her role as the guarantor of the familys health. Grandmother knows well the value of a hot toddy for a coldan unfailing remedy since her girlhood days, says one, while another, under a picture of a stylishly-dressed young matron opening a medicine cabinet, proclaims Overholt the premiere whiskey for medicinal use in the home. Other ads claim it was just the thing for everything from La Grippe to preventing serious developments, whatever those might be, and one even goes so far as to depict a nurse handing a bottle of the whiskey to a bearded, bespectacled doctor, while noting that it was the choice of a large majority of hospitals. If you detect an odor of desperation here, youre not wrong.

By 1907 Frick and his business partner and old friend Andrew W. Mellon, had applied to remove their names from A. Overholt & Co.s distilling license, although their ownership of the company remained. It did not pay to be too closely associated with the rum interest, as the prohibitionists labeled their opponents. The window for making and selling fine whiskey was closing.

Then America entered the war raging in Europe. Suddenly, there was nationwide wartime Prohibition. You could still make whiskey, though, even if you couldnt sell itbut grain prices were so high that it didnt pay. The distillery suspended operations for the duration. In January 1919, however, two months after the guns fell silent, the 18th amendment was ratified. As if in sympathy with the old family business, Frick shuffled off this mortal coil a few months later, leaving his share of the company to Mellon, his executor. This ended the companys family ownership.

The company did what it could. In 1918, it hired as many young women as it could find to run the bottling line, to flood the market with whiskey for those who were stocking up (they included Mellon; Christies auctioned off the last 50-odd cases of Old Overholt from his cellar last fall for as much as $18,000 a case). In 1920, distillery staff and federal gauging agents worked night and day to prepare 5,000 barrels of ryetwo whole freight trains worthfor shipment to Philadelphia and from there to France, accompanied by the companys director to make sure it sold. That doesnt sound like all that much whiskey, but once reduced for bottling it makes almost 1.3 million fifths of rye. (What happened to those I have no idea, although theres a good chance they were smuggled right back into the U.S.)

Fortunately, the Overholt company had managed to secure one of the small handful of permits the government issued for selling medicinal whiskey. The fact that Andrew Mellon was sworn in in 1921 as Warren G. Hardings Secretary of the Treasury might have had something to do with that. The permit allowed them to bottle existing stocks of their whiskey and that from other distilleries (pint bottles only) and sell it to druggists, who would then dispense it to anyone with a prescription. There were numerous restrictions, but it kept the company alive. Meanwhile, its colleagues and competitors, Gibson, Guckenheimer, Hannisville, Mount Vernon and Tom Moore, all widely popular whiskies and benchmarks of quality, had to shut their doors. Only the nearby Large distillery secured a permit.

Not surprisingly, Prohibitions proponents did not like the fact that the man in charge of the department tasked with enforcing it had an interest in a distillery and Mellon was forced to sell Overholt & Co. to the Union Trust Co. (of which he was a board member). In 1925, that company sold Overholt to New Yorks Park & Tilford company, retail grocers (and, formerly, wine and spirit merchants) extraordinaire. That sale marked the end of Overholts local ownership. David Schulte, Park & Tilfords president, promptly offered the U.S. Government all 1,800,000 gallons of the companys stock at cost, to be bottled as medicinal whiskey. This wasnt sheer altruism: The company hadnt made any whiskey since 1916, and those barrels were getting older and woodier by the day. In any case, the offer was rejected.

In 1928 and again in 1931, permit holders were allowed to fire up their stills again. As Prohibition dragged on, the diseases that seemed to respond to pints of medicinal whiskey showed no signs of going away. Stocks needed replenishing. But here a fundamental shift occurred. In 1899, almost 375,000 gallons of whiskey were bottled in bond in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky; Pennsylvania rye made up nearly 38% of that, and rye in general just under half. During these distilling holidays, however, Overholt and Large, the two permitted Eastern rye distilleries, were only allowed a quarter of the total, while the rest went to Kentucky bourbon distilleries. This would prove a harbinger of things to come.

In 1932, with Repeal in the offing, Park & Tilford renovated and enlarged the Broad Ford distillery. Then, a few months later, it turned around and sold the brand, the distillery and all its whiskey to the industrialist Seton Porter, a canny Yale man who had family roots in the business. Porter saw Repeal coming before many of his contemporaries did and went around buying up closed distilleries and dead liquor brands while they were still cheap. When the great day finally came his National Distillers Products Co. owned more than 200 brands and fully half of the nations whiskey stocks. Only a few of those brands would be revived, however, and fewer still promoted. Old Overholt was one of them.

At first glance, things looked good for Abraham Overholts old enterprise. The distillery was running, his face was back on the label (which was virtually unchanged from the one before Prohibition) and sales were strong. Old Overholt was one of NDPs big four flagship whiskey brands, along with a Maryland rye, Mount Vernon, and two bourbons, Old Taylor and Old Grand Dad. But now Overholt was a part of a portfolio, and its owners treated it accordingly. When stocks of four-year-old Overholt ran short, they filled some of the bottles with rye made at Large, one of six distilleries now operating in Pennsylvania and some with rye less than four years old. (Some said they even put Canadian rye in Overholt bottles.)

By 1938, such shenanigans had largely stopped. Broad Ford had pumped out the whiskey and socked it away, and now those barrels were four years old. Old Overholt went back to being a fully-bonded brand. But things werent quite right. One can tell by the neck bands on the bottles. Sure, Old Overholts main labels said bonded, and that was supposed to mean four years old. But as the 1930s edged into the 1940s, the bottles began bearing bands that touted the whiskey within as five or even six years old. Now, this sort of thing is very, very good for drinkers. Its just not good for accountants, as it means that whiskey is sitting around unsold.

The old, thick-bodied, rich and spicy style of Eastern rye was falling out of popular favor. The drinkers who came of age during Prohibition were used to Canadian whisky and Scotch whisky and blended American whiskey. Straight bourbon still had a constituency (well get into that), but the one for rye was shrinking with every passing year. The company may have tried to adapt its product to meet the trend: In 1941, a Consumer Union evaluator, tasting the current Overholt, thought it lacked the characteristic brand flavor it one possessed and found it much lighter bodied.

Even worse, now there was a war. The government immediately commandeered all the countrys distilleries to make industrial alcohol, essential for all sorts of useful, deadly things such as fueling torpedoes and making explosives. National Distillers parceled out their vast stocks according to the ration system, but even then it soon ran low. In 1942, Old Overholt launched a new, 86-proof version, for use in bars (the 100-proof was reserved for home sales). By 1944, American whiskey of any kind was practically as hard to find as Pappy Van Winkle is today. By then, victory was approaching and distillers were allowed to divert some of the torpedo juice to filling barrels, but that would take years to mature.

In the meanwhile, the public was given blended whiskey: a little of the aged stuff, cut with a lot of neutral sprits and water. This was meant to keep the whiskey drinkers sated until stocks of straight whiskey could rebound. However, funny thing, a surprisingly large part of that drinking public basically said, You know, you can hold the whiskey part and just give us the neutral spirits and water. Between 1949 and 1950 sales of vodkai.e., neutral spirits and waterin the U.S. went up by 300 percent, and that kind of growth would continue through the decade. Meanwhile, the Overholt in the bottle got older and oldersix years, seven years, eight years.

In 1951, NDP closed the stillhouse at Broad Ford, after just short of 100 years of operation, although it kept the warehouse and bottling lines open. (As far as can be determined, the whiskey that was going into those barrels and bottles then came from Large.) The company was losing interest in the whiskey business; indeed, it merged the next year with US Industrial Chemicals. In 1955, with Porter safely dead, they sold off Broad Ford and their last Maryland rye distillery, Baltimore Pure Rye, to the Schenley company to get capital for the chemical business. The next year, they sold the Large distillery to Westinghouse, who turned it into a nuclear research facility.

NDP kept the Overholt brand, though, and kept making the whiskey in Pennsylvania, although nobody is sure precisely where or howwhiskey distilleries were thin on the ground by then (the leading candidates are the Schenley distillery near Pittsburgh and the Bomberger one in Schaefferstown, some 200 miles to the east; it could have been made in both). Old Overholt still had its fans, though. One of them was Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, who, according to a 1954 article, had an Old Overholt on the rocks every night before dinner, wherever he happened to be. To facilitate that, his plane was stocked with the whiskey, as were most U.S. Embassies. But Dulles was 66 years old in 1954; not a viable demographic on which to hang a brand.

There were at least some younger drinkers. Indeed, John F. Kennedy appears to have been one: When he was in Nashville in 1963, the owner of a local liquor emporium later recalled, he sent a man around asking specifically for a bottle of Overholt. If so, he was in a rare minority. By then, rye drinkers were getting truly scarce. NDP stopped advertising Overholt nationally around that time, sticking to the Pennsylvania market. In 1963, it adopted a still-lighter formula (todays Old Overholt is lighter, milder, smoother, proclaimed the desperate ad that announced the change). The next year, it dropped the proof to 86. There has been no official bonded Old Overholt since. Some time around then, NDP began bottling the brand in Cincinnati, although the small quantities needed were still being made in Pennsylvania. At this point, it was the only nationally-distributed straight rye whiskey, such as it was.

Of the 1970s, there is nothing to say. Overholt struggled on. The Broad Ford distillery started to slide into ruin. Americans drank vodka, tequila and Bacardi Rum. In 1983, the old distillery burned, for the last time. In 1987, the National Distillers and Chemicals Corp., as it was now called, sold all of its spirits brands to a subsidiary of American Brands, the company that made Lucky Strikes. That subsidiary was the James B. Beam Distilling Co.

The first thing Overholts new owners did was consolidate its production, which is to say make it in Kentucky, according to Kentucky norms. Or maybe that was the second thing, after dropping the proof to 80, which happened by 1990. In any case, Overholt was no longer a Pennsylvania rye in anything but legend. Although it kept Abraham Overholts face on the label, there is no evidence whatsoever that Beam attempted to maintain any of his companys particular distilling technologies, or even give Overholt its own mashbill. As far as anyone can determine (the company aint saying), Beam makes only one rye mashbill, and thats the corn-rich one they have always used for their Jim Beam rye. (Eastern ryes traditionally eschewed the use of that grain.) Overholt was not a brand the company cared to emphasize.

Theres no reason they should have, not in 1987 or even in 1997. Beam is a Kentucky company, and it had enough trouble telling its own story and preserving its own Kentucky traditions. But if bourbon was struggling in the last decades of the 20th century, and it was, at least it stood for something. Its image was traditional, agrarian, ornery, and insurgent.

Ryewell, some time in the mid-1990s, I found myself watching a Fourth of July parade in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, in the northeast corner of the state. Among the marchers was a little clutch of high school boys and girls clad in the jaunty blue uniform of the Grand Army of the Republic, waving a flag, rapping on drums and blowing fifes. In the crowd stood many of their peers, including a surprising number sporting the Confederate Stars and Bars in one form or another. These were kids whose great-great-grandfathers and uncles had fought and, all too often, died at Shiloh and Antietam and Fredericksburg and Cold Harbor to defeat that very ensign. That was ryes problem, right there.

Rye whiskey has a heartland of its own, a place it comes from and an ethos it stands for. If bourbon and Tennessee whiskey were (in the popular imagination, at least) made up on hills, on the banks of creeks and down in hollows, rye was always a proudly industrial spirit, something made in smoke-belching factories by the railroad tracks in coal towns and mill towns and river towns. Its Bardstowns and Lynchburgs (pop. 361) were cities the ornery likes of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Baltimore (pop. millions). Its not a whiskey for gentlemen of elegant leisure to sip on the verandah. Sharp and stimulating, its a fuel for work and talk and invention.

When American heavy industry began to falter; when the Rust Belt became the Rust Belt, nobody found that sexy. What people found sexy was the independent, agrarian lifenot to live it, mind you, but to dress it and fantasize about it. When I was in high school on Long Island in the 1970s, the boys all wanted to look like Gregg Allman and the girls like Carly Simon. I went to my senior prom dressed (OK, ridiculously) as a riverboat gambler, long hair, black Stetson, string tie, silver cane and all. I drank Wild Turkey bourbon, Jack Daniels, and Southern Comfort.

But thats all different now. That smoke-rolling, steel-belching industrial Mordor is so far into the past as to seem sexy in its own way, and the cities of the Rust Belt are in full-blown revival. Rye whiskey itself is also in full-blown revival, although that revival is still too young and too tentative to completely embrace the spirits past; to make a sweet-mash whiskey from local Pennsylvania or Maryland rye (no corn, please) distilled in three-chamber stills and aged in heated warehouses on the banks of the Monongahela or the Potomac. That will come, I have no doubt, whether its from one of the areas pioneering craft distillers, such as Wigle, Dads Hat, or Catoctin Creek, as they grow to meet demand, orwho knowsmaybe even from Overholt itself.

Thats not impossible: Fortune Brands, as American brands renamed itself, spun off its liquor division, Jim Beam, which was later acquired by Suntory. The Japanese whisky company has its own rich heritage and knows the value of tradition and especially the value of quality.

Were they to focus on Overholt; to refurbish it and, more importantly, to reconnect it to its roots and its traditions by bringing it back to Pennsylvania, they would essentially own the whole category of rye whiskey. Hey, it could happen. (And if they wont do that, maybe they can sell it to someone who will.)
Globe-trotting antivirus inventor, gun-happy wackadoo, and failed 2016 Libertarian presidential hopeful John McAfee hasnt yet outrun his troubles in Belize, from whence he fled in 2012 as local authorities sought him in connection to the brutal murder of his neighbor. In the explosive new documentary Gringo, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Nanette Burstein unveils new information tying McAfee to the killing of American expat Greg Faullas well as stunning allegations accusing the tech magnate of an unrelated rape and murder in the Central American paradise.

Burstein premiered the Showtime documentary Sunday night at the Toronto International Film Festival ahead of its Sept. 24 broadcast debut, delivering no shortage of shocksquite an achievement, given her already shocking subject. Intrigued by the eccentric tech trailblazers increasingly erratic and unapologetically hedonistic public profile, Burstein begins by tracking her attempts to reach out to McAfee via email and triggers a yearlong digital pas de deux filled with answers, combative replies, and eventually, menacing threats from the multimillionaire.

She travels to Belize to interview locals, employees, gangsters, and several of the teenage girlfriends McAfee kept as he lived large, greased the government, and bought up an entire town between 2008 and 2012. The recollections of those closest to McAfee paint a portrait of a sometimes generous, definitely paranoid benefactor who surrounded himself with heavily armed bodyguards and fancied himself the Colonel Kurtz of Belize: Tan, tattooed, and given to posing for pictures with guns and girls in bikinis.

A few of those young women, who say they accepted McAfees financial support in exchange for living with him as his girlfriends, also have no qualms about spilling details of McAfees sex lifeand his proclivity for scat sex. As one former Belizean ladyfriend plainly puts it, He used to make you shit in his mouth.

He was Belizes Donald Trump, laughs McAfees former masseuse.

Another former employee of McAfees, biologist Allison Adonizio, was, like many, taken in by his charms and fiscal generosity. When he offered to fund her research into plant-based antibiotics in Belize, she quit her job and moved into his compound. Eventually, however, their business relationship soured and she fled back to the States following a violent outburst, which, she previously reported to the press, caused her to lock herself in her lab out of fear for her safety.

In Gringo, Adonizio alleges that her decision to leave the lab and sever ties with McAfee was preceded by an incident in which she believes he drugged and sexually assaulted her.

She tells Burstein that McAfees increasingly alarming behavior made her decide to walk out on their professional partnership. He talked about taking over the Belize government, referred to men as hitmen, she said. He would talk about how he could have people hurt or killed, and honestly I was scared.

While discussing her leaving to go back to America, she continues, he allegedly gave her a glass of laced orange juice that knocked her out. I told him I had a headache and he went into the other room and he brought me two pills and a glass of orange juice. I took them, and I took a sip of the orange juice and it tasted foul, claimed Adonizio. It tasted bitter.

She says she remembers only flashes of what happened next. He was standing over me naked. I woke up the next morning. I was sick, I was dry heaving. I was dizzy. I grabbed my clothesI dont even remember taking them off. I went back to my house, I locked the door, and I sat in the shower until the water ran cold and I was crying and I was bleeding.

When she confronted McAfee about it, she alleges he acted as if nothing had happened. She says she asked him to buy her out of the company and he became enraged. He went from zero to crazy in like two seconds. He called me all kinds of names and pushed me through the door of his Orange Walk compound. I locked myself in the lab and thought hes dangerous.

Adonizio says she had just enough time to email her father and buy a plane ticket when McAfee cut the power. Then, she says, He left and he got a gun. Adonizio texted local friends for help and was able to sneak away and fly home the next day. Im mad at myself for not realizing who he was sooner, she laments, cause hes dangerous. Adonizio says she called the FBI to report McAfee but they have no authority in Belize.

Amazingly, thats not the half of what Burstein uncovers in Gringo.

Local denizens and former employees of McAfees claim he ordered the intimidation of a local man named David Middleton, believed to have broken into McAfees home, to send a message that he was not to be messed with. McAfees former driver Tom Mangar says McAfee called him and asked him to recruit three men to chastise this guy, to teach him a little respect.

Another man who remains anonymousbut identifies himself as one of those men that nightremembers chasing Middleton into the bush. They beat him bad, he says. His whole face, full of torture. Steak knife, cut him up.

Middleton was tased in the mouth, face, and genitals, he says. That guy was screaming for his life. Then they called McAfee.

Mangar claims that McAfee demanded to see Middleton face-to-face, so he was brought to McAfees vehicle, driven to town, and dumped out in front of onlookers. I think he wanted to make his point like Dont fuck with me, says Mangar.

Burstein tracks down a friend of the victim, a local thug called MAC-10, who gregariously explains how he and McAfee nearly came to deadly odds after Middletons death following the alleged intimidation episodeuntil McAfee recruited him to work for him. These wild threads converge when Burstein uncovers evidence suggesting that McAfee paid MAC-10 $5,000 to kill his neighbor, Faulls, over a bitter quarrel involving McAfees dogs.

Gringos saddest revelation comes when a local detective informs Burstein that few homicide cases in Belize ever get solvedbecause there is not a single DNA lab in the entire country. That means a fingernail found on Faulls body cant be tested. Incredibly, Burstein seems to be getting further in her private investigations than the local authorities have gotten but realizes, she tells her audience, that playing sleuth in some of Belizes most dangerous neighborhoods is no longer a wise or safe choice.

Returning to America where McAfee is in the throes of his presidential run, Burstein confronts her elusive subject at a campaign eventone that took place only a few months ago. She spooks him, and later shares another email ominous message from McAfee: You are my final battle, he writes. I am merely doing what I always do, which is fuck with the media as much as I possibly can. You are my magnum opus.
Whether out of desperation or by design, the so-called Islamic State has turned to women and children to try to carry out a new wave of attacks in France, and possibly elsewhere.

The first disturbing hint of the conspiracy came Sunday a week ago, when a car was found abandoned early in the morning near Notre Dame Cathedral, a prime tourist destination at the historical and religious heart of Paris. In the trunk were five large canisters of cooking gas, and three bottles of diesel fuel.

From the beginning, it looked like the kind of low-grade soft-target terror plot that the self-proclaimed ISIS caliphate has made a key part of its strategy to demoralize the West, and especially France.

But there was this critical difference: Investigators found that almost all the alleged conspirators were women, and that a male French jihadist known as Rachid Kassim had run them by remote control from his base in ISIS-controlled areas of Iraq and Syria.

In the last few days and hours, a terrorist cell was dismantled, composed of young women totally receptive to the deadly Daesh ideology, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins told the press on Friday, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

The terrorist organization uses not only women, but young women, who get to know each other and develop their plot from a distance, said Molins.

Fortunately, they proved to be inept bombers. They tried to light a fuel-soaked rag with a half-smoked cigarette, hoping the flame would catch and detonate the gas canisters. It didnt.

But as police tracked them down in the days that followed, some proved to be ferocious.

The alleged central figure in the cell has been identified in the French press as 19-year-old Ines Madani, who had taken her fathers car to use as an IED near Notre Dame. When police went to arrest her and her alleged accomplices in the town of Boussy-Saint-Antoine on Thursday night, one reportedly stabbed a cop in the stomach. Madani was was shot and wounded in the thigh and ankle.

She and the others were planning to attack Paris train stations, possibly as suicide bombers, according to investigators.

To date, five women have been detained. On Saturday a 15-year-old boy was picked up as well. He reportedly had been in touch with Kassim and was about to carry out a knife attack, according to police.

As details continue to emerge, it appears there are close links among some of the women and men who previously carried out terrorist acts in France.

One of those arrested, according to Molins, had been engaged to two murderers:

One fiance was Larossi Abballa, who stabbed to death two police officials in June in front of their 3-year-old son, and bragged about the carnage on Facebook Live before more cops appeared on the scene and killed him.

The other fiance was Adel Kermiche, one of the fanatics who cut the throat of an aged priest in Normandy in July. (The womans current fiance, who also has jihadist connections, was arrested on Thursday.)

According to an article published by the French news magazine LExpress in August, the 29-year-old French Svengali of ISIS, Rachid Kassim, had been using encrypted communications on the Telegram app to direct the deadly knife attacks carried out by Abballa, Kermiche, and Kermiches accomplice Abdel Malik Petitjean.

Kassim, according to press reports, had also directed the women terrorists by telegram to use gas canisters and diesel in their makeshift car bomb.

This is a significant shift for ISIS.

In many cases, women extremists are thought to have encouraged or incited their spouses to seek martyrdom, and several Islamist terror organizations have used women to stage attacks in the past. The black widows of Chechnya were infamous during the wars there; women suicide bombers were active in Lebanon from the mid-1980s; and several Palestinian women bombers attacked Israelis in the last decade. ISIS affiliate Boko Haram in Nigeria uses women, and even little girls, in suicide attacks.

But ISIS in Syria and Iraq, even though it has mounted a concerted campaign to recruit women, always made it clear their role would be to serve the male jihadis as wives and mothers.

Now, theyre nothing but more fodder for its war.
President Obamas decision to veto a bill that would allow 9/11 families to sue the Saudi government put him a precarious political position: between the victims of the greatest terror attack on American soil and the U.S. service members under his command who could be a greater risk if other nations pass similar laws.

But it puts the woman he wants to succeed him in office, Hillary Clinton, in an even worse position, forcing to stake out a stance that pits her between her former New York constituents, her former employees at the State Department, and her nations long-time ally in Middle East. Politically, the smart move for Clinton is to back the bill to the hilt. As a matter of policy, however, such support could backfire rather horribly.

Maybe thats why her past statements on the bill, called the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act or JASTA, havent exactly been definitive.

The Clinton campaign did not respond to an email seeking comment on the veto.

The bill would allow victims of terror attacks on U.S. soil to sue the governments of states that support terrorism. Backers of the bill said it would allow the victims to sue the governments that funded al Qaeda, like Saudi Arabia.

The White House argues that such legislation could also alter diplomatic immunity protection around the world, putting both diplomats and troops at risk for lawsuits in the nations they serve. Other states could follow the U.S. lead and pass their own form of JASTA, the White House argues.

Perhaps because of this, even the Pentagon has expressed reservations about the bill, and on Monday, the White House said Obama would veto the bill.

Its not hard to imagine other countries using this law as an excuse to haul U.S. diplomats or U.S. service members or even U.S. companies into courts all around the world, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Monday. I do anticipate the president would veto this legislation when it is presented to him.

That is, Clintons would-be predecessor, and one of her most important backers, said it hurts U.S. national security because of the potential lawsuits. Just as important, but not nearly as talked about, is such a bill could also jeopardize U.S. relations in the oil rich Persian Gulf.

But in Clintons home state of New York, which she represented in the U.S. Senate form 2001 to 2009, there is less concern about the long-term implications on American foreign policy. The families of the victims want to chance to make a case in courtand to force the Saudis to testify on what they knew about the attacks.

While Saudi officials have long denied any involvement, and the 9/11 Commission failed to find an official government link, there has been widespread speculation that lower level Saudi officials had information about the attack beforehand.

Politically, there is no reason to not support it. But in the long term, it is risky. It sets precedent, Lawrence Korb, a defense analyst at the Center for American Progress explained to the Daily Beast.

Indeed, Clinton has arguably already played politics with the issue, notably before New Yorks April 19 primary. Clinton said she would support the bill, even as Obama hinted for months he would not. But her support appeared tepid. In one interview, she said she would support the idea of such a billthen added that she didnt know much about the details of the measure.

Obviously, weve got to make anyone who participates in or supports terrorism pay a price, and we also have to be aware of any consequences that might affect Americans, either military or civilian or our nation, Clinton said in the days before the primary during an appearance ABCs This Week. I know theres been an issue about it for quite some time, I dont know about the specific legislation that youre referring to. But obviously, Ill look into it.

Minutes after the interview, her campaign issued a statement, reasserting she supported the bill.

If elected president, Clinton may not be able to maintain that position, however.

The Saudis have launched an aggressive campaign against the bill. Saudi officials reportedly informed the Obama administration they would liquidate $750 billion in U.S. assets, like treasury securities, if the bill passed.

And minutes after Earnest made his comments, governments from around the Gulf released their own statements praising the presidents decision.

In an increasingly volatile Middle East, Saudi Arabia is among the U.S.s most consistent Arab partners in the region. The U.S. military currently is providing weapons and surveillance for the Saudi war in Yemen, to take one example among many.

Should the bill pass, she could find herself commander in chief of troops deployed under her orders around the world and susceptible to similar legislation. Will she still support the bill if it leads to charges against a soldier as well?

We understand and sympathize with the motivation behind the JASTA legislation. The proposed remedy, however, would enact broad changes in long-standing international law regarding sovereign immunity that, if applied globally, could have serious implications for U.S. interests, a senior administration official told The Daily Beast in a statement.

JASTA is not the first major foreign policy division between Obama and Clinton. As Secretary of State, Clinton supported a more robust campaign to arm moderate factions opposing Syrian President Bashar al Assad while Obama resisted.

Korb said that the presidents veto buys Clinton time before she would have to address the issue again, if elected president. If Obama does indeed veto, the bill goes through the legislative process again. And in that time, Clinton could refine her stance.

I would advise her to say that she needs time to review Obamas reasons for vetoing and Congresss decision to support it, he said. As president, she could say she has a new position after reviewing it further.

That assumes, of course, that Donald Trump lets his rival for the presidency get away with such fence-sitting. And Trump is not exactly known for his grasp of the subtleties of foreign policy.
For the past 13 years at an unknown cost to taxpayers a federal program has failed to accurately track the number of Americans who die each year at the hands of law enforcement.

The Arrest Related Death program, by the Justice Departments own admission, has failed to account for as much as half of law enforcement homicides annually, according to an internal report released last year and never previously reported until now.

In 2003, the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, a division of the Justice Department, started the ARD program in response the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2000. States are required to submit data to the program, which must include information about each death such as name, age, race, sex, and the circumstances of death.

Several states and the District of Columbia have not reported any data on arrest-related deaths despite being required to do so by law. According to the Justice Department, from 2003 to 2011, Arkansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Wyoming have, in several of those years, not reported to the program. Georgia has never reported to the program (PDF).

A 2015 Bureau of Justice Statistics report that took two years to complete notes that the program has methodological limitations because it relied on voluntary reporting from law enforcement agencies (PDF).

The program should have captured an estimated 928 law enforcement homicides a year, the authors of the report wrote, but managed to capture only 453 annually over a six-year period.

Because reporting is voluntary, the authors concluded, the numbers of law enforcement homicides submitted by states to the program do not reflect reality.

From 2003 to 2009 an estimated 42 to 55 percent of all police killings were reported by law enforcement agencies to states that then submitted the numbers to the ARD program, according to last years report. (Data collection for 2010 was handled by a contractor through a competitive award, Justice Department spokeswoman Kara McCarthy told The Daily Beast. McCarthy did not say who the contractor was, how much they were paid, or who has access to the data.)

The numbers only came closer to reality when, in 2011, researchers began using web searches. That year the program saw a 39 percent increase in the number of police killings recordedfrom 496 in 2009 to 689 in 2011.

By simply using search engines to find media reports of law enforcement homicides and other arrest-related deaths, the program became more effective. Why it took eight years for the Justice Department to use Google is anyones guess.

What the program costs is another unknown. McCarthy said that in 2014 the program was funded out of a $26 million fund that covers several other data collection programs. When asked specifically what the ARD program has cost annually for the past 13 years, McCarthy provided partial information.

Between 2003 and 2011, state agencies have been paid roughly $730,000 by the Bureau of Justice Statistics to collect data on arrest-related deaths, according to McCarthy. Over the same time period, Research Triangle Institute, a nonprofit, had been paid just more than $830,000 for its data collection services with the latest contract ending in 2014, McCarthy said.

The authors of the report also concluded that the program could be improved by providing incentives to law enforcement agencies to entice them to submit data on arrest-related deaths. One such incentive already exists in the form of a punishment mechanism provide by federal law (PDF).

In 2014, Congress reauthorized the Death In Custody Reporting Act with an important addition: The attorney general could revoke up to 10 percent of federal law enforcement grantsknown as Justice Assistance Grants or JAGfrom states that failed to report police killings and other arrest-related deaths to the program.

There is no indication that this punishment mechanism has ever been implemented, and Justice Department officials have failed nearly a years worth of requests for information regarding whether or not JAG funds have been revoked in the 13-year history of the ARD program.

Recently, a group of 67 civil rights organizations, including the NAACP and the ACLU, wrote to Attorney General Loretta Lynch last month urging her to utilize the 10 percent reductions, The Guardian reported.

The financial penalty is critical to the program reaching a more accurate count of arrest-related deaths, the authors of the letter wrote.

But a reduction in JAG funds is not enough to incentivize states and law enforcement to work more effectively at capturing accurate data. The funds do not make up significant portions of law enforcement budgets, and are designed primarily for wishlist extras like body cameras, money for indigent criminal defense, and improving mental health services for those caught up in the criminal justice system.

Last year, $179.6 million in JAG funds were distributed to all 50 states, U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia.

Georgia, which has received $5.3 million in JAG funds so far this year, is the only state to have never reported data on arrest-related deaths. Wyoming, which has not reported data since 2003, has received more than $530,000 in JAG funds in 2016.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics has not publicly released any data from the Arrest Related Death program from 2012 onward.
Donald Trumps sandy-haired head is superimposed onto Sylvester Stallones muscular neck. On his right is the Pepe the Frog version of the real estate mogul, an iteration of a popular Alt-Right meme that has become a persistent visual aid to the fever swamps of the 2016 internet.

Its a play on the poster for the 2014 film The Expendables 3 and an intentional ribbing of Hillary Clintons remarks at a Friday fundraiser where she characterized some of Trumps supporters as deplorables.

Rounding out the rest of the row of The Deplorables is a crazed-looking Ben Carson, InfoWars radio host and Trump acolyte Alex Jones screaming his head off, and a pumpkin-colored Donald Trump Jr. smiling mischievously.

Trump Jr. proudly shared it on his Instagram late Saturday. Roger Stone, a conspiracy theory peddler and informal adviser for Trump, did the same earlier in the afternoon. And like many images that emanate from the Trump campaign and its nexus of allies, it appears to have originated on 4chan, a consortium of Trump fanboys where prospective school shooters have been urged to act out their darkest fantasies and where overtly racist memes flourish.

An anonymous 4chan user posted the image in a thread on Saturday afternoon where a number of different mock-ups were crafted. (One featured Brexit leader Nigel Farage and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.)

It is unclear how Trump Jr. got the image and the Trump Organization has not responded to a voicemail from The Daily Beast seeking additional information. Stone didnt respond to a text message asking where he got it from either. But hours after it appeared on the site, it made its way to a personal account belonging to the Republican candidates son.

A friend sent me this, Trump Jr. wrote in an Instagram post on Saturday. Apparently I made the cut as one of the Deplorables All kidding aside I am honored to be grouped with the hard working men and women of this great nation that have supported @realdonaldtrump and know that he can fix the mess created by politicians in Washington.

David Duke, an ex-KKK Grand Wizard and current Louisiana Senate candidate, tweeted his own version of the image on Saturday as well.

His version of the poster featured Hulk Hogan and Ann Coulter in a cowboy hat.

Dukes campaign manager Mike Lawrence told The Daily Beast that this particular picture was made in-house and not ripped from 4chan.

We have two graphics folks on staff, Lawrence said via text. Why is Trump using our stuff again lol? he said, tying his candidate once again to Trump.

In August, Trump used a chart at one of his rallies featuring an anti-Clinton meme Duke has previously tweeted out.

InfoWars founder Alex Jones, who believes that the Sandy Hook shooting was fake and who Trump has praised as having an amazing reputation, approvingly commented on Trump Jr.s post: hahaha! Nice.

Not only was the picture housed on 4chanwhich among other things has attempted to jokingly misidentify mass shooters in the pastbut the photoshop was also featured on Vanguard News Network, an anti-Semitic and white supremacist forum on the same weekend Donald Trump Jr. brought it to mainstream eyes.

VNN is operated by Alex Linder, a Holocaust denier who created the sites catchphrase, No Jews. Just right.

Linder did not respond to a request for comment via email.

The Trump campaign is not new to carelessly disseminating images that generate from white supremacist sources. He has retweeted memes from Twitter accounts with handles like @WhiteGenocideTM (that tweet has still not been deleted). Trump faced widespread criticism for sharing an image of Clinton next to a Star of David on top of a pile of money that was first housed on a white supremacist forum.

As the campaign responds to accusations that some of its supporters are bigoted, sharing pictures from racist message boards will do little to help quell those rumors.
Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump has said repeatedly the United States should take Iraqs oil as the spoils of war. With him, its an old refrain that goes back at least five years.

But Trump never says what taking the oil of Iraq really means: an endless occupation army in the Persian Gulf surrounded by enemies, without allies, and isolated hopelessly from the Islamic world. It would have to be an open-ended occupation, which would polarize America more than ever. It would reinvigorate the global jihad, and it would disgrace our fundamental values as a nation.

There have been several foreign policy debacles over the last 15 years, but with this the Republican Party would own the greatest foreign policy disaster in American history.

Iraqs oil is distributed across the country with deposits in the north and south, but the largest quantity is in the south in and around Basra province. Since Trump says he opposed the Iraq war he would not want to take all of Iraq. So the less costly approach would be to seize Basra and the oil infrastructure around it. Last week he said he would leave a certain group behind to hold the oil wealth for America. That group would have to be the United States military.

Obviously Iraqis will resist the loss and indefinite occupation of the most lucrative part of their country so a permanent American military presence will be necessary in Basra. How large that presence would be would depend on how much resistance it faced.

Since Basra province has over 2.5 million people, almost all Shia Arabs, their resistance alone would be challenging. But they would not be alone. The Shia-dominated government in Baghdad would support its citizens, adding to the struggle. It will turn attention away from fighting for Mosul, and focus on recovering Basra.

It will be a grueling war. The city of Basra, the provincial capital, is the hottest place on earth and this summer posted the all-time highest temperature on the planet.

Basra sits immediately next to Iran, which controls the eastern side of the Shatt al Arab waterway, which is Iraqs only outlet to the sea. Tehran would certainly back the Shia resistance in Basra, as it did when the British occupied the province after the 2003 invasion. For the British army it was a painful, expensive, and thankless mission.

Iran might be careful to avoid provoking all-out war with Trump by a too-overt backing of the resistance, but it would be well positioned to cause constant frictions and difficulties for the occupation forces and for oil extraction. Irans own oil is next door in its Khuzistan province. Iran fought an eight-year war to prevent Saddam Hussein from taking its oil. It would certainly revisit its decision to put off getting the bomb.

To escape the narrow bottleneck of Iraqs access to the sea, Trump could expand the oil takeover further south into Kuwait. After all, we liberated Kuwait from Saddam Hussein a quarter-century ago. By Trumps logic, why not take their oil (and their country) as overdue spoils of war?

That would unite the Arab and Muslim world against America, if the takeover of Basra had not already done so.

Taking Kuwait adds another 3 million people to the occupied zone. It also adds a lot more oil and a major port on the Gulf. The U.S. already has a sizable military presence in Kuwait that could form the nucleus of the occupation force. But many more would be needed.

All the oil-exporting countries of the region would oppose the takeover since theyd obviously be thinking they might be next. They could embargo oil exports to create a global oil crisis, but that would hurt Europe, China and India more than America. They would complain to the United Nations but the veto would make that a useless gesture.

They could support resistance to the American occupation. Trump could then just take more oil. Saudi Arabias Eastern Province and Qatar would be obvious targets. A large takeover like this would give Washington control of the global energy system. It would also mean more territory and people under an occupation force numbering into the many hundreds of thousands of American men and women.

Trump started talking this way long before the so-called Islamic State threatened the region or the United States, but now he says hed take it as part of the fight against ISIS.

In fact, America taking the oil would destroy immediately the coalition fighting the Islamic State and eviscerate the struggle against al Qaeda as well. Both terrorist groups would argue they had been right all along: America only wanted Islams oil. The two rivals might reunite. Recruitment of extremist fighters would skyrocket.

No Muslim state would host American troops or cooperate with counter-terrorist operations. Friendly Arab governments like Jordan would have to break ties with Washington or face massive unrest. Americans traveling in the Islamic world from Morocco to Indonesia would be at risk. Sunnis and Shia alike would stalk Americans.

None of our Western allies would support taking the oil. (Canada would have to wonder if Alberta is next.) The Europeans would see such a naked land grab as a return to the era of Hitler and Stalin.

Russia, on the other hand, would claim its seizure of Crimea was post facto legitimized. Trump and Vladimir Putin would be fellow war criminals. China would be tempted to go for more influence in the South China Sea. The growing American-Indian rapprochement would be endangered, if not broken completely.

Pakistan would redouble its efforts to build more nuclear weapons to prevent a fate like Iraq. The Saudis would offer Islamabad a fortune for the bomb. Pakistans generals would be tempted.

In short, the world order based on the principle that seizing territory by force of arms is inadmissible would collapse. The world order fashioned by generations of American leaders from both parties would be threatened as never before by our own country.

This is not the first time the idea of taking the Arabs oil has surfaced in the U.S. In 1973-1974, after Saudi Arabias King Faisal imposed an oil embargo on America for supporting Israel in the 1973 war, the idea of seizing the kingdoms oil fields was openly discussed in the nations foreign policy think tanks. If President Richard Nixon had ordered a takeover, Faisal undoubtedly would have called for a jihad to defend Islams birthplace. His brother King Salman would do the same today.

Taking the oil is the most dangerous and irresponsible of all of the Republican nominees policy proposals. Its one he has repeated often. If you want permanent war in the Middle East and a titanic clash of cultures between Islam and America, its your best bet.
Dear Congress,

I hope you enjoyed your Summer Vacation! Youve been back for a week, and you still havent funded the Zika response. Maybe you are waiting for back to Congress night before getting serious?

Lets recap how we got here. Though President Obama promptly submitted a Zika response request back in February for a (relatively) modest $1.9 billion to control mosquitos, battle the disease, and accelerate vaccine development, you left town for the summer without passing any of itnot a penny. Instead, you voted on a series of half-baked efforts designed primarily to confuse the question of who was to blame for congressional inaction on Zika. A House bill funded only a fraction of what was needed, and did that by slashing ongoing work to make sure that Ebola is finally extinguished. (Really? Do we really want to risk a resurgence of Ebola? Really?).

This drew a strong rebuke from the President, who remembered when you were busy excoriating him for not taking the Ebola threat seriously enough. The Senate took up a bill that was loaded up with political poison pills (including a provision on Confederate flags on federal land) that was destined for failure. I will give you credit: if the goal was to confuse casual observers about why Congress has not acted on Zika, what I have seen on social media and in blog post comments suggests that you succeeded spectacularly.

But do you know who wasnt confused by the inaction? The mosquitoes. They just kept working away while you were gone. And by the way, they did not ask anyones party affiliation before they bit them. Ill get back to that in a second.

In the weeks before you left, you were deluged with increasingly dire op-eds, tweets, and statements about the consequences of inaction. I wrote one in May that suggested we would see, in the then-upcoming summer, the first-ever travel warnings by the Centers for Disease Control against travel to parts of the continental United States. We were called alarmists and were scolded that Zika wouldnt be a disaster. Certainly no reason to postpone or interrupt a nearly two month Congressional vacation from mid-July to early September.

So can we talk about what happened with Zika while you were away?

First, it exploded in Puerto Rico. The official case count was about 3,000 as you wound things down for vacation in mid-July; last weeks total had the number of cases at over 15,000. Viruses can do that in the time it takes to enjoy two political party conventions and a few weeks at home seeing the voters. And those are just the officially counted casesthere are certainly tens of thousands of more people with Zika on the island who have not yet been tested.

Second, Zika also had a big boom in the continental United States as well. There were about 1,300 cases in the 50 states when you left for break; now the total is 3,000and again, thats laboratory confirmed cases, the actual count is several times higher. (Zika symptoms show up only in about 20 percent of people with the virus, and generally, health officials dont test people who dont show symptoms.) Not quite as scary as Puerto Ricobut still, more than a doubling in eight weeks.

Third, we had the first transmission of the disease, via mosquitoes, in the United States. Right now, almost 50 Americans have gotten Zika herenot by travelling to some foreign country, but by walking around Florida. And the risk of local Zika transmission seem to be spreading, with cases now popping up outside of Miami-Dade County including one as far away as Tampa.

We also foundfor the first time everZika in the mosqutoes flying around Florida, more indication of sexual transmission of the virus, evidence of male-to-male sexual transmission of Zika, and more suggestions that Zika is going to be with us for a while. The FDA announced that all blood donations would now have to be tested for Zika. Drs. Anthony Faucci and Tom Friedennonpartisan heroes who have saved untold numbers of liveshave all but held a telethon to try to get the money to fight the growing threat.

And yes, while you were gone, for the first time ever in U.S. history, the CDC was forced to tell pregnant women, women thinking about becoming pregnant, and their partners, not to travel to parts of the continental United States. While you were off vacationing, public health authorities were warning citizens that there are parts of our own country where it is not safe to vacation. (And what about the pregnant women who actually live in these areaswho dont have a choice about being in these areas?)

So a lot happened with Zika while you were gone. And to put it mildly, all of it was awful.

Also, we had floods in Louisiana while you were gone, and a hurricane hit Florida. We dont know if local transmission of Zika will get worse because of these events, or how much worse, but, it does provide a reminder that Mother Nature definitely did not take the summer off.

So Congress, you are back. I would like to say that you are back in the nick of time, but, the nick of time came and past months ago.

Just fund the Zika response, this coming week, please. Pick something else to score partisan points on, something else to bicker about. Because in a few more weeks, you are going to leave again, for another recess, and the babies born to mothers infected with Zika will start to arrive in larger numbers (beyond the 17 tragic cases we have seen already). And thats a while you were away letter that will be too heart-breaking for me to write.

Sincerely,Ron KlainWhite House Ebola Response Coordinator,Oct 2014-Feb 2015
Julia Roberts Says MLK Jr. Paid Hospital Bill For Her Birth

YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT

The actress said her parents were friends with King and his wife, and the couple helped out when they couldn't afford the bill.
HENSLER, North Dakota -- Dwight Duke farms hard all day without worrying a wink about sliding commodity prices up on the board of trade.

He grows peas, beans and corn just like the big boys with the big farm "toys," The Bismarck Tribune (bit.ly/2bev4ZP ) reported. But his crops go from field directly to table, unlike the processing plant versions grown on mega farms. It is he, not some futures market analyst, who sets the value of what he grows.

Duke, 66, is so far from that realm of futures-trading farming it's like another planet, and he is proof that a sustainable living can come from 25 acres and four greenhouses, instead of 25,000 acres and four green "Deeres."

Skyline Ranch Produce is located just outside Hensler not far from the Missouri River. Duke has been raising produce there on a full-time basis since 1994, steadily diversifying and expanding the greenhouse side of the operation. Most of his produce, ranging from ferny fennel to gigantic red peppers, to Yukon gold potatoes and sweet corn, is grown in the great outdoors. He is as dependent on weather and as wary of hail as any farmer, with the exception of a drip watering system that aids, but doesn't replace, rainfall.

"The Lord makes this stuff grow. All I have to do is tend to it, and I'm happy to be able to get up every day and do it," he said.

Most of the labor at Skyline Ranch Produce sans machinery, including the sales from his hands to customers' hands at six area farmers markets in Beulah, Hazen, Washburn and Bismarck. He also supplies produce to the new Bisman Food Cooperative. There is money in the produce business -- he grosses six figures annually on food he sells by the pound -- but physical labor is involved in every penny.

"You have to be fast, love hard work and be able to put up with some weeds," he said.

Vegetable farming isn't for everyone, but it is for a growing number of people, said Jamie Good, local foods specialist with the State Agriculture Department.

He keeps a local foods directory of 125 to 150 participants, most of them selling raw produce, though some sell jellies, jams or flour ground from small grains at about 50 farmers markets around the state.

Good said Duke is a go-to guy for others interested in making income off the land from smaller-scale produce production rather than a full-on farm or ranch.

"Duke's customers are buying quality week in and week out. His produce is just phenomenal," Good said. "He's one who others look to as someone who's doing it right."

People generally are becoming more aware of where their food is sourced and enjoy buying locally grown produce when they can, according to Good.

Duke said there is a relationship between good health and eating produce enriched with minerals from home ground and acclimated specifically to North Dakota. No chemicals of any kind are applied to his produce, including herbicides to hold down the weeds that have sprouted like, well, weeds in the recent rains.

"Most of the time, it's just hoe, hoe, hoe," he said.

Duke experiments every year, adding produce that catches his interest or is requested by customers.

"I love this," he said, opening the door to one of the greenhouses, where the opalescent light illuminates sprawling green sweet potato vines.

Digging into the soil, he pulls up a few of the orangey tubers, still lanky, but gradually filling out as harvest comes on. It's likely he'll be among the very few growers selling fresh sweet potatoes later this fall to roast for an autumn dinner.

Good said local growers always are looking for a niche and said, like any farm operation, no matter how big or small, it pays to "not put all your eggs in one basket." Diversification is as important in produce as in any crop production.

"There is no magic bullet, but there is value in fresh," Good said.

He urges anyone interested in growing and selling local foods to contact him at the ag department and check in with the local public health district to be in sync with any codes and other growers.
Sept. 11 dawned cool and gray in New York City as mourners gathered in Lower Manhattan for an annual act of remembrance.

At the same moment, 300 miles to the east, hundreds more mourners gathered near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at the site of the Flight 93 National Memorial.

On this day in 2001, nearly 3,000 people died at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania. In New York, the yearly ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial commemorating the victims at Ground Zero began at 8:40 a.m.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was in attendance, as were presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, who was a U.S. senator for New York when the attack occurred, and Donald Trump.

President Barack Obama addressed the nation in a video released Saturday by the White House. He praised the resilience of Americans. We stand with the survivors who still bear the scars of that day. We thank the first responders who risked everything to save others. And we salute a generation of Americans - our men and women in uniform, diplomats, and our intelligence, homeland security and law enforcement professionals - who serve, and have given their lives, to help keep us safe, he said.

But though he touted the gains America had made in fighting terrorism, he also cautioned against divisiveness, saying: We cannot give in to those who would divide us. We cannot react in ways that erode the fabric of our society. Because its our diversity, our welcoming of all talent, our treating of everybody fairly - no matter their race, gender, ethnicity or faith. Thats part of what makes our country great.

Sunday, in remarks at the Pentagon, Obama praised the military and paid homage to those who lost their lives in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania that day. But his remarks also carried a more pointedly political message.

At a time when Trump has called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, Obama outlined a contrasting vision. He offered a different definition of American strength.

Groups like al-Qaida and ISIL know that they will never be able to defeat a nation as great and as strong as America, Obama said, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State militant group. The goal of those terrorist groups, he said, is to stoke enough fear that we turn on each other as a nation, that we change who we are and how we live.

He urged Americans to view the anniversary of the attacks as an opportunity to reaffirm our character as a nation and, in what could be interpreted as a veiled reference to Trumps immigration proposals, not to let others divide us.

In the end, the most enduring memorial to those we lost is ensuring the America we continue to be, Obama said. That we stay true to ourselves. That we stay true to whats best in us.

Obama described an America made up of people drawn from every corner of the world, every color, every religion every background.

We know that our diversity, our patchwork heritage is not a weakness, Obamae said. This is the America that was attacked that September morning.

The presidents speech was preceded by more bellicose remarks from Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, who warned that terrorists who threaten the United States will come to feel the righteous fist of American might.

Our memory is long, and our reach and resolve is endless, Carter said.

Much has changed in the 15 years since the attacks. One World Trade Center now glistens above a revitalized Lower Manhattan. On most weekdays, thousands of New Yorkers teem through the streets below, but in the early hours Sunday, the narrow roads were sparsely occupied.

The family of Erwin Erker, who perished in the North Tower, were among many quietly making their way toward the memorial. Erkers sister-in-law, Margaret Schmidt, recalled him as a man who loved life, camping and his family.

Schmidt said that although the family does not come to the ceremony each year, they try to come on the bigger years - the fifth anniversary, 10th and this years 15th.

If you count every year, its overwhelming. But we remember every day, she said.

In Pennsylvania, hundreds gathered to honor the 40 passengers and crew of the United Airlines jet that crashed there.

The crash site commemorates the spontaneous actions of those on board who rebeled against the planes four hijackers, forcing the aircraft down in the rural valley of the Allegheny mountains in western Pennsylvania.

Firefighters arrived Sunday to pay homage in uniform. So too did United flight attendants who laid roses at the marble wall bearing the names of their seven colleagues.

Any one of us could have been flying that day, said Ernie Cornejo, a United flight attendant.

Evidence gathered after the fact concluded that passengers and crew had tried to re-take control of the flight - beginning their attack with Lets roll, a mantra that came to that the embody national resolve. The terrorists were planning to strike the U.S. Capitol building.

The jet was just 20 minutes from Washington when it went down in the Pennsylvania field, leaving the ground smoldering.

Today, the area around the site is a quiet field of wildflowers.
In theory, carbon trading reduces emissions in one place and allows them to continue somewhere else. In practice, the clean development mechanism massively increased production of HFC coolant gases purely to profit from carbon trading and in the process making climate change worse.

The entire point of a market-based mechanism (or carbon trading, as it used to be known, before the term became too controversial) is that it gives the impression that something is being done, without the necessity to actually reduce emissions from burning fossil fuels.

Aviation offsets: A lifeline for REDD?

ICAO's next General Assembly will take place in Montreal from 27 September to 7 October 2016. During the meeting ICAO is supposed to reach a decision on what this carbon market will look like.

On 3 September 2016, the USA and China put out a joint statement supporting an agreement in Montreal: "Today, the United States and China are expressing their support for the ICAO Assembly reaching consensus on such a measure."

But the discussions so far have not gone well. There's a repeat of the debate from the UNFCCC negotiations between the rich countries and the Global South about whose responsibility it is to reduce emissions. That's 'common but differentiated responsibilities' in UN jargon.

Even if ICAO does agree a carbon trading deal in Montreal, it will be voluntary for the first five years. Bill Hemmings of Brussels-based NGO Transport and Environment told Reuters: "Aviation, in particular, will need to make a fair contribution on the needed emissions reductions. A voluntary scheme will not achieve this."

But this is a bit of a red herring. A voluntary carbon trading scheme would make a completely useless proposal to address climate change even more useless. With the prospect of introducing the completely useless version at some point in the future.

One of the discussions in Montreal will be whether to include REDD offsets in ICAO's offsetting scheme.

As a way of addressing climate change, offsetting flying against the carbon stored in forests would be insane. Not only would such a scheme allow the aviation sector to continue expanding and to continue burning fossil fuels, it would rely on carbon being stored in forests. Yet as climate change worsens, the risk of these forests burning and returning the carbon to the atmosphere is increasing.

REDD proponents such as Kevin Conrad and Norway's Per Pharo are in favour. But more than 80 NGOs (including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth International) have signed on to a statement opposing ICAO's offsetting plans.

Offsetting: 'Worse than doing nothing'

Climate change is getting worse. The last 12 months has been the hottest on record. Glaciers and sea ice are shrinking. In 2015, James Hansen and a team of climate scientists warned that sea level could rise 10 times faster than previously predicted.

Heatwaves are longer and more intense. Heatwaves last year in India and Pakistan killed thousands of people. In May 2016, India recorded its highest temperature ever. Forest fires, flooding and droughts are getting worse. Hurricans in the North Atlantic are getting more frequent and more intense. Permafrost is melting. As it melts it's releasing methane. And anthrax. Permafrost covers 20% of the earth's land surface.

In 2011, Professor Kevin Anderson, Deputy Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, said:

"Offsetting is worse than doing nothing. It is without scientific legitimacy, is dangerously misleading and almost certainly contributes to a net increase in the absolute rate of global emissions growth."

The last thing we need now is a massive new carbon trading mechanism that will allow hundreds of millions of tons of fossil fuel carbon to be emitted to the atmosphere. But that is precisely what ICAO is proposing.

Chris Lang runs REDD-Monitor, which aims to facilitate discussion about the concept of reducing deforestation and forest degradation as a way of addressing climate change.

This article was originally published on REDD Monitor.
Last month, Massachusetts passed a new law, which will take effect in July 2018, and make it illegal for employers to ask about a job applicants salary history before making an offer of employment. As Stacy Cowley at The New York Times reports (here), the impetus for the new law is to reduce the wage gap between men and women:

By barring companies from asking prospective employees how much they earned at their last jobs, Massachusetts will ensure that the historically lower wages and salaries assigned to women and minorities do not follow them for their entire careers. Companies tend to set salaries for new hires using their previous pay as a base line.

Now, three members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, the first woman to chair the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), plan to introduce similar legislation federally.

You can read more on this forthcoming bill here. Ill post a link to the legislation when it is officially introduced.

Good or bad for employees?

Run a Google search on the Massachusetts law and youll find scores of article touting its benefits.

But, could restricting company access to salary history actually hurt employees? Well, Rachel Greszler, reporting here, at the right-leaning publication The Daily Signal notes that the new Massachusetts law may bring more harm than good:

When it comes to matching employees with employers, more information is always better. The more employers know about potential employees, and the more job seekers know about potential employees, the more likely there will be a successful match. Previous pay indicates an employees value to their past employers. Often times, pay is even more telling than education or experience. Withholding valuable information from an employer will only lead to wasted time, low-ball salary offers, and more job turnover.

How should employers respond if a federal version of the Massachusetts law passes?

A SHRM article from Lisa Nagele-Piazza highlights the changes that companies will need to make if the law in Massachusetts becomes the law of the land:

Job applicants must be updated to remove salary history questions

Hiring managers must be trained not to ask salary-related questions

Other potential interviews must also learn the cans and cant-dos of the new law.

She also underscores the benefits of a self-audit. I agree.

Run the numbers for your similarly-situated employees and, be prepared to explain pay disparities based on a objective criteria. Otherwise, eliminate pay disparities that are potentially based on race/ethnicity and gender.
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WILTON  More than 70 people gathered at the Trackside Teen Center on Wednesday night to pray for world peace and unity. The event welcomed all religions.

Spiritual counselor Anna Raimondi facilitated the Alliance for Peace meeting, which she had planned for a year with Monika Sywak, founder of Pawels Children Inc., a nonprofit organization that supports schools in India with funds to cover costs for tuition, meals, construction and school supplies.

After meeting Father Adrian Santarelli, an ordained Argentine Diocesan priest, at a cafe in Bosnia and Herzegovina, they both wanted to share his mission of Alliance for Peace with the community.

God does not discriminate based on religion, creed, color or gender or anything else, she told the crowd. And together we can find peace in the world if we recognize this.

Before Father Adrian came up to give his message, Raimondi led the group in a time of brief mediation.

Recognize that as you breathe in, youre breathing in all that is good, all that is right, all that is perfect in the universe, Raimondi said. As you breathe out, breathe out all stress and anything that would get in the way of receiving all that God wants to give you.

Shortly after, Adrian approached the stage and began his message by explaining his mission.

Alliance for peace is alliance between religions, between towns, between people all over the world, he said.

We all have the desire for peace - Its what unites us, he added in Spanish.

He then showed a clip of birds flying in complete unison and posed this question to the audience: How can they move like that without bumping into each other?

His answer: A greater power that evokes a spirit of unity that allows them to move in that way.

But that supernatural peace has been broken by different social, economic and political barriers that date back to the biblical times, Adrian explained. And the only way to restore that peace is to recognize were all united under one God, he said.

God bless America, Iran, Afghanistan, Europe  all nations, Adrian said.

Justice is for everyone, but we need to build it for everyone without leaving anybody out, he added in Spanish.

Adrian closed his two-part, hour-long message with a prayer recited by the Pope: You have to be very strong to love. Love is always stronger. Amen.

The group then chanted Universal Mother Prayers in one voice, while holding onto the Rosary beads. Afterwards, Adrian invited people to come up to the front of the room to receive healing through prayer.

Raimondi explained that the energy of God moves through his hands and into the recipients body in a process thats similar to Reiki, a healing technique in which a therapist can channel energy into a patients body. She cautioned that oftentimes people may be overcome with the energy and fall to the floor, which is called being slain in the spirit or resting in the spirit.

Romina Levy, a Catholic believer from Pelham Manor, N.Y., was one who appeared to have experienced this spiritual phenomenon. She said she felt a sense of peace when Adrian prayed over her.

When it happened, I felt I knew everything that was happening inside of me. It was very strange. My head was moving as I was lying down, but I wasnt moving it, Levy said. Its my first experience. Ive never done this before, but Im loving it.

The healing service continued with more people being slain in the spirit. Some laid motionless on the ground, while others broke down into tears. Yet, there were some who stood perfectly still while Adrian prayed.

Sitting in the back row of the room during this time was Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, who came with a friend who recently lost her husband. Boucher said she felt it would be a helpful healing process to attend the event together.

Given the turbulent times we live in these days, if we all come together to promote peace universally throughout any denomination, its a special and comforting experience, said Boucher, who identifies herself as Catholic. We can all use a little bit more prayer in our lives.

The prayer night started at 7:30 p.m. and continued after 10 p.m., with music performed by Adrienne Reedy, Raissa Katona Bennett, Kenneth Gartman and Ricky Mitarotonda throughout the night. The gathering was sponsored by Pawels Children Inc., which was founded in memory of Sywaks son Pawel, who died unexpectedly four years ago.

Sywak said she connected with Adrians mission and hoped the community would, too, by the end of the night.

Deep down, we all need love. We need peace. We need hope, Sywak said.

SKim@hearstmediact.com; 203-354-1044; @stephaniehnkim
Treat others as you would want to be treated, the Golden Rule is short, succinct and powerful.

Having been taught this age-old concept from the time we were young, most of recognize its place in our personal lives.

When it comes to the world of business, though, this rule isnt applied nearly as fervently.

Sure, wed like to say that we uphold this rule in our professional lives -- but when it comes down to it, do we really? How often do we ensure that ethics are held in the same regard as, say, our financial goals? Are morals ever measured as diligently or given as much consideration as our ROI spreadsheets?

Its easy to dismiss the concept of ethics as less important than other areas of business; to stuff them into our business values page, but to leave them out of the day-to-day processes. But far from being "fluffy" concepts with no real place in the business world, its important to recognize that ethics are directly tied to a companys long-term success.

Related: The Ethics Coach: In Tough Conversations, Do This

When you think about it from a practical standpoint, applying the Golden Rule in business makes a lot of sense. Treat your customers right and theyll be happier, more likely to come back -- and more inclined to recommend you to friends and family. Treat your workers fairly, and theyll be motivated to provide excellent service, which leads to satisfied and committed customers. And the numbers dont lie. In most industries, companies that are the loyalty leaders have a compound annual growth rate that is more than twice that of their competitors. Likewise, treating your workers well has been shown to lead to excellence, which of course, results in increased profits.

When it comes to the Golden Rule, this simple yet timeless guideline holds more value than first meets the eye. In a world where the question of ethics and moral dilemmas often arises, having a standard that you can refer to in your decision-making process can be invaluable.

Likewise, in todays ultra-competitive marketplace, where companies start and fail at a drastic rate, having a solid set of ethics could be just what your company needs to stand head and shoulders above the rest. With this in mind, lets take a look at how the Golden Rule breaks down practically and see how implementing it into your business strategy and daily operations can pay off.

Building your reputation.

One of the most valuable possessions that you have is your reputation -- and its important to guard it at all costs. Profits can be lost and regained, but rebuilding a damaged reputation -- thats far more difficult.

Related: How To Be An Ethical Leader

Ensuring that you follow the Golden Rule in your interactions with others and your decision-making processes in business -- is a simple way to keep your reputation intact.

Each time you live up to the Golden Rule, your reputation is enhanced; each time you fail, it is diminished, writes author and speaker Fred Reichheld in an article in Harvard Business Review.

As it turns out, rising above the situation and treating others decently is just as important in the business world as it is in our personal lives. A cut-throat business strategy may work at first, but as scientist Robert Axelrod argues, over time it will, ironically, destroy the very environment it needs for its own success.

Build your business sustainably. Dont step on others to climb the corporate ladder. Treat your team, your customers, your vendors, and competitors fairly. Go above and beyond whats required of you. Doing so will help to preserve your reputation and pay off significantly in the long run.

Improving the customer experience.

The secret to a satisfied customer base is your ability to put yourself in your clients shoes.

Henry Ford recognized the value of this simple concept. If there is any one secret of success -- Ford is quoted as saying, -- it lies in the ability to get the other persons point of view and see things from that persons angle as well as from your own.

While its fairly easy for small companies to give customers the attention that they need, as a company expands, this concept usually becomes more difficult. But even as a company grows, its important for them to remain true to their roots -- to continue to recognize and meet their customers expectations -- and to provide excellent service. In short, to treat their customers how they want to be treated.

The sobering fact is that customer satisfaction works both ways. When customers feel mistreated or misled, they give what they got, writes Fred Reichheld, highlighting the reality of dissatisfied customers. They leave -- if they can -- and complain if they cant. They demoralize your employees. And they badmouth your company, alienating your prospects. Theyre costly.

Related: Are Business Ethics at a Low Ebb?

How costly? Studies show that people are far more likely to complain about a negative experience than they are to talk about a good one. News of bad customer service reaches more than twice as many people as praise for a good service experience, and a whopping 91 percent of unhappy customers -- will leave and wont come back.

As it turns out, treating customers well is important for their satisfaction and retention -- helping to keep them happy -- and coming back for more.

Leading to a satisfied workforce.

One of the best ways to assemble a team thats driven, motivated and on board, is by treating them well.

A satisfied workforce will be motivated to provide great service to your customers, and theyll be more loyal to your company as well. Not surprisingly, studies show that pure, simple appreciation can go a long way towards motivating employees.

Harry C. Handlin, former President of Lincoln Electric, believed in applying the Golden Rule in the workplace -- and the importance of putting others first -- not only in the more obvious area of customer relations, but the employer-employee relationship as well.

If, as managers, we treat our employees the way that we would like to be treated, we are rewarded with a dedicated, talented and loyal work force that will consistently meet the needs of the marketplace, Handlin said.

Its easy to spot a company that treats its team well. Workers are motivated, turnover is lower, and customers are happier as well.

Having a satisfied and happy team thats committed to meeting customers needs is important for sustainable growth. Ive seen this concept myself during my time at Renters Warehouse. As founder and CEO, I was committed to providing the best work environment for my team -- and in return, they were motivated and driven to provide excellent service to our clients.

For companies today, dusting off the Golden Rule and putting it to work in your customer service department would be a good start but I would argue that employing this rule throughout every aspect of your company, and professional career, is an even better approach. Using it to guide your actions in business may not instantly put you on the fast-track for success -- but it will most definitely pave the way for sustainable, long-term growth.

The best companies know that relationships rather than transactions are what matter; something that is at the heart of the Golden Rule. Treat others like people, not numbers and put yourself in their place once in a while. Its not as complex as some of the other business philosophies out there, but it undoubtedly encompasses many of them as well. As it turns out, following the Golden Rule will help you to go far -- in life and in business as well.

Related:

If You're Not Solving Somebody's Problem It's Time to Reconsider Why You're an Entrepreneur

Why the Golden Rule Must Be Practiced in Business

Risk, the Entrepreneur and Intelligent Disobedience



Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
Every now and again a left wing academic (pardon the redundancy) states his prejudices so baldly and unselfconsciously that he provides a highly useful insight into the mind of his class. Such is the case with an essay published in the Raleigh News & Observer by William Snider, a professor in the department of neurology at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Snider was upset that a local state legislator, Phil Berger, blamed the 12:1 ratio of Democrats to Republicans in faculty positions at the University of Norther Carolina on partisan anti-Republican attitudes. Mr. Berger even suggests that Republican job candidates are discriminated against when they apply for university positions unless they toe the line from the left.

Dr. Snider rightly points out that there is no overt questioning of the political affiliation of candidates for academic positions at most universities. Then again, many of us who call ourselves conservative, and are called right-wing by our ever-so-open-minded colleagues, are not affiliated with either political party. The question asked by faculty at interviews is not, after all, are you now or have you ever been a Republican? The question, at interviews and at faculty meetings and informal gatherings right up until tenure, is rather do you hold the proper, enlightened views we demand on all important questions of the day? Or, more accurately you agree with all of us right-minded people on issues of race, sex, sexual-orientation, and the governments role in enforcing good, leftist policies in all these areas, right?

More entertaining, in an unselfconsciously ironic way, is Dr. Sniders assertion that it seems likely that there may be other, more objective explanations for the imbalance of party affiliation. What are those explanations? Why, the stupidity and anti-science bigotry of right-wingers, of course. And there are facts, Dr. Snider insistsfacts! A Pew Research Survey in 2013 found that only 43 percent of Republicans believe that humans have evolved over time. What is more, Republican presidential candidates these last few months did not express explicit support for evolutionary theory, with the exception of the non-starter, Jeb Bush. And this means that Republicans have no place in academia.

Im sorry, how does that follow?

The theory of evolution is the central organizing principle of modern biology, Dr. Snider insists, and Republicans deny it, even sending voucher monies to schools that teach the theory as false. Now, as a Catholic, I have no dog in the evolution fight; as a religious matter it makes no difference to Catholics whether evolution is true or not in the sense of providing some grand, consistent explanation of the development of human life. But to claim that this theory is the central organizing principle of modern biology is to raise scientific theory to the level of political ideology. Whether a particular gene therapy is beneficial, for example, has little to do with whether the scientist working on it buys every speculation advanced by evolutionary theorists concerning how natural selection produced broad trends of evolution or specific human traits. To claim otherwise is to insist on blind, affirmative obedience to a rather intricate and abstract theory, not diligence and adherence to the scientific method.

There is more, of course. According to Dr. Snider, Republicans are Climate Science Deniers. The science tells us that the earth is warming, that it is the fault of manmade carbon emissions, and that the results will be disastrous. This is settled, Dr. Snider tells us, even though he confesses that he has not looked into the actual data. Our intellectual leaders at the National Academy of Science in the U.S. and the Royal Society in the U.K. have told us that the science is settled, and therefore it is settled. And this makes any further questioning of climate models or policy prescriptions based on them a matter of conspiracy theorizing and capture by economic interests. So much for that liberal mantra telling us all to question authority. After all, UNC has its own new center to staff (and use as a source for grants and other, I am certain, purely scientific, non-moneymaking purposes), so, he explains, shut up.

Finally, there are social issues. Dr. Snider chooses to leave aside the latest assaults on traditional values, the LGBTQ agenda and the campaign to take away the rights of students accused of sexual misconduct. Instead, he focuses on discussions of abortionor rather, the need to police said discussions. He swings away at catch phrases like protecting womens health which he asserts lack merit, being merely manufactured to appeal to a political base. In other words, we can talk about controversial issues, provided we do so only using arguments and facts of which Dr. Snider approves.

The life of the university depends on rational discourse, Dr. Snider asserts. But this rational discourse could not possibly include discussion of womens health in the context of the abortion debate. Statistics regarding the impact of abortion procedures on mothers ongoing physical and mental health apparently are by nature manufactured. Perhaps the Royal Society has made a declaration on these issues as well? Doubtful, for these statistics are real, if inconvenient.

And this is the thrust of Dr. Sniders problem with Republicans. Anyone who disagrees with him on issues he would like to treat as if they are settled is an ignorant conspiracy theorist. How convenient.

There is a 12:1 ratio of Democrats to Republicans on campuses like the University of North Carolina (the disparity is even worse in places like New England, especially at prestigious institutions). This ratio exists because people like Dr. Snider are not just running the universities; in important ways they have become the universities. When you have a 12:1 ideological advantage you need not take seriously the ideas of those with whom you disagree on political, philosophical, or moral issues. The positions of the few dissenters clearly are stupid because you know of no one, or almost no one, in your class (intellectuals) who shares them. Thus, you can safely demonize people who hold these views and see to it that almost none of them get onto your faculty, or get hired as petty administrators running the dorms, for example. As to anyone from the outside who tells you that you are being an intellectual bigot, they clearly are ignorant themselves. After all, Mr. Berger, the state legislator who piqued Dr. Sniders ire, may not even hold a higher degree. And if he does, well, it is probably just a law degree, and we all know that people with law degrees who are not left wing professors are merely rabble rousers seeking their own political power.

It must be nice to be one of the nations elite, too smart to be fooled into, you know, questioning the smart elites. Now, if we can just get those stupid and evil Republicans to stop messing with our budgets, we can really get some good things done. If these attitudes are not clear examples of intellectual bigotry, then there is no such thing as intellectual bigotry. And I think we all are aware that that is not true.

Books on the topic of this essay may be found in The Imaginative Conservative Bookstore.
Astros strike back to win Game 2 vs. Phillies, evening up World Series

The Houston Astros won Game 2 on Saturday night to send the World Series back to Philadelphia at 1-1.
As U.S. Steels Granite City Works plant continues to remain idled, leaving more than 1,500 steelworkers in the lurch, calls have been increasing this summer to extend their unemployment benefits for an additional 26 weeks.

Theyre not laid off by any fault of their own, they got laid off because of unfair labor practices, said Madison County Board Chairman Alan Dunstan. If there was a level playing field, they wouldnt be unemployed now.

The current law allows the unemployed steelworks who lost their jobs due to the plants idling to collect unemployment insurance for 26 weeks.

A proposed law would double that to 52 weeks.

The plant in Granite City was idled in late 2015. Many of those workers have already seen their benefits run out.

But lawmakers arent scheduled to return to Springfield until after the general election in November. State Rep. Jay Hoffman and others have said they would like to make the benefits retroactive. Hoffman and another state representative, Dan Beiser, both Democrats, have been urging Gov. Bruce Rauner and lawmakers to call an emergency session to vote on the bill. Rauner is a Republican and the state House and Senate are currently controlled by Democrats.

But Dunstan said the issue should be above politics.

Its just time for the state to really step up and help the people in Granite City right now, because a lot of them are hurting, he said. Im optimistic that the steel mill is going to re-open. The people have been suffering and we just need to get out there and support them."

Union leaders have criticized steel producers in seven countries for allegedly violating international trade laws by improperly subsidizing their steel producers and by dumping hot-rolled steel onto the U.S. market at below market prices.

Hot rolled steel is used in automotive applications, pipe, tubing, transportation equipment, appliances, heavy machinery and machine parts.

The U.S. Department of Commerce has been investigating the issue for more than a year and over the summer they produced a ruling that increased duties on the seven steel-importing countries and helped level the playing for U.S. manufactures and steelworkers.

In a recent news release, Dunstan said he has been encouraged by recent steel talks at the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China, though more action needs to be taken.

At the talks, President Obama and other world leaders were said to have had direct talks with Chinese officials, another country that has been accused of illegal trade practices and illegal government subsidies.

The fact that thousands of area steelworkers have exhausted their unemployment eligibility has put a strain on local food banks and will likely lead to more home foreclosures, according to a Madison County news release.

Other states that have been affected include Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Alabama and Kentucky.

The latest figures place the unemployment rate in Madison County at 6.1 percent, slightly more than the state average.
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Linkedin Ni Nyoman Wira (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, September 12, 2016

Japanese rock band One Ok Rock is set to release a new digital single on Sept. 16.

Available on iTunes, "Taking Off" will reportedly be the theme song of Japanese movie Museum, slated to be released this year. Directed by Keishi Otomo and starred Shun Oguri and Shuhei Nomura, the film follows a serial killer who hides his face behind a frog mask. The murder investigation is led by detective Hisashi Sawamura (Oguri) who soon finds out that the killers next target will be his family.

(Read also: Simple Plan rocks thousands in Jakarta)

Keishi Otomo has previously collaborated with One Ok Rock in his other projects, namely Rurouni Kenshin (2012), Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno (2014) and Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends (2014). Each of projects features the bands singles, namely "The Beginning, Mighty Long Fall" and "Heartache".

Formed in 2005, One Ok Rock is known worldwide for its collaborations with international bands, such as Simple Plan and Kellin from Sleeping with Sirens. Following the release of its latest album 35xxxv (2015) and its Special Live in Nagisaen in September, the band will perform on a show dubbed Air Jam 2016 at the Fukuoka Yahuoku! Dome, Japan. (kes)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post)  Sat, September 10 2016

Words Bruce Emond Illustration Mufty Fairuz

Moza Pramita is taking a hiatus from her radio and TV hosting activities, but she still has a lot to keep her occupied. Her eponymous false eyelashes line, launched in 2014, is now set to enter major retail stores in Indonesia. She also runs the popular website www.liburkeluarga.com that provides ideas for weekend getaways and vacation information for local and foreign destinations. She is also part of an image consulting company and is helping people develop their public image. It has been an amazing journey and people have to understand that people like Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama werent just born like that, it takes practice, said the mother of two. Here she talks about frank conversations with her kids, musical accompaniment in the shower and a fabulous fruit juice.



My mood right now 



Uplifted, because a friend just sent me some red lipstick.



My best trait 



I am cheerful. So when I see somebody who looks annoyed or unhappy, I try to talk to them to cheer them up.



And my worst 



I can be blunt. If I dont like something, I really cannot pretend that I do. I have to be honest and say what I think, but I will always start out by saying, excuse me  so its easier for other people to accept my logic.



I am listening to now 



Every morning when I take a shower right now, I put on YouTube and search for Peabo Bryson songs. So 90s!



My social media favorite 



Instagram of course. You can post whats happening in your life and it also keeps you up to date with the hot news.



My greatest achievement 



It would be my son and my daughter. Now they can criticize us as parents, and we also can discuss many things, even some subjects that are taboo for most Indonesian parents and their children. Other people will say to me, how can you discuss that with them? To me, religion teaches us that we should not judge others even if we do not agree with them or their choices.



I admire 



My mom [businesswoman Dewi Motik Pramono]. Its so obvious.



I would never 



Hit someone. Of course.



Favorite destination 



Bali. It sounds biased, but there are lots of secret beaches and its accessible.



I am bored by 



Those who talk big about themselves when we really know that they are fake. I dont want to waste my time listening to them.



My motivation 



I always try to see the good and the bad in people. You cannot just see the bad in people, because then you cannot go anywhere in the relationship.



My new food discovery 



Kedondong (Ambarella) fruit juice, with everything. Its so good. Its better than green tea.



A great weekend for me 



Getting up early with my kids and husband to exercise and finishing by 9 a.m. and then having something to eat. Its a really enjoyable way to spend the weekend. And there are so many public parks now that we can embrace.



My biggest challenge 



To become part of an organization, with all its good and bad, and with people of different ages involved, and to be able to work successfully to have everybody find common ground and a shared perspective.



My life motto 



Always be grateful whatever the condition.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, September 10 2016

Indonesia is set to strengthen its food and beverage industry following the launch of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by gathering international companies and local stakeholders at an upcoming exhibition and conference in Jakarta.

The Sept. 21 to 23 event at the JIExpo, Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, is to be divided into two parts: a Food Innovations conference and a Food Ingredients (Fi) Asia exhibition.

The Food Innovations conference  jointly organized by the Indonesian Food Technologists Association (PATPI), the Southeast Asian Food and Agricultural Science and Technology (Seafast) Center and the Bogor Institute of Agricultures (IPB) food science department  will discuss the potential and challenges of the countrys food and beverage industry, including the regulatory environment and product innovations.

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OSAGE  The residents of the Osage Community School District will head to the polls Tuesday, Sept. 13, where they will express their opinion regarding the districts proposed $14.9 million in general obligation bonds. A 60 percent yes vote is needed for the referendum to pass.

A set of preliminary plans was first developed by the districts previous administrator, Steve Bass. However, shortly after beginning as new district superintendent, Barb Schwamman saw the need to look at the plans a little closer.

To pay for the GO bonds, property taxes would increase $2.70 per $1,000 of assessed property value. For the average assessed home in Mitchell County, which is $95,000, property taxes would increase by $10.79 per month or $129.59 per year.

Since July 2015, a group of approximately 35-40 members of the Osage School Districts Build our Future committee have been meeting to discuss and plan the future of the district, specifically the future of its buildings.

The plans proposed for Lincoln Elementary include the addition of a new full-size gymnasium, an addition of two preschool rooms, which would also serve as the buildings tornado-safe rooms, and the remodeling of the current gymnasium into a larger music classroom. Other remodeling would take place in the administrative office area.

At the middle school and high school building, a major focus was having more dedicated space for middle school students at the west end of the building and high school students at the east end, with shared space in the middle.

Major additions and renovations would include a second competitive gymnasium, new music suite (vocal and instrumental), new office space including new secure entrances to the building, new cafeteria/kitchen space along with reconfigured driveways and parking.

On Wednesday, Jan. 13, members first heard presentations from Ed Wineinger, architect with Waggoner & Wineinger Architects, Mason City, regarding preliminary site plans for Lincoln Elementary as well as the middle school and high school buildings, and from Matt Gillaspie, senior vice president of Piper Jaffray & Co., Des Moines, on a discussion on the districts financing capacity.

During this meeting, preliminary plans for both the middle school and high school buildings were released to the public. Over the course of the past six months, no major changes have occurred with the plans.

On Wednesday, Jan. 27, committee members heard a presentation from Wineinger regarding preliminary costs for the remodeling and addition projects. Wineinger stated preliminary costs could total as much as $18.5 million, if all aspects of the project were completed. An additional $2 million will be needed to upgrade heating and cooling systems in the districts buildings.

When we began working with the committee, it was made clear: building functionality and safety of students were two big concerns, said Wineinger. I believe these plans cover all the concerns expressed by members.

Following Wineingers presentation, Matt Gillaspie, of Piper Jaffrey & Co, informed the committee the district is in a great place financially to pursue these projects.

In his presentation, Gillaspie stated the district has four funding streams through which to pay for the projects  cash/grants, local options sales tax funds, physical plant and equipment levy (PPEL) funds and general obligation school bonds.

We are in great financial shape with capacity to borrow $6 million available in the capital and PPEL funds, and we continue to monitor the general fund, said Schwamman. We are looking at such a great all-encompassing project for the future of the Osage School District.

The decision was made at the Monday, March 21, Osage School Board meeting to hire Waggoner & Wineinger Architects, Mason City, as the project architects and Dean Snyder Construction, Mason City, as construction managers.

The cost for both project architects and construction managers will be determined upon successful financing of the proposed building project.

Even though we are in great financial shape, the success of the project is the need for the community to understand the importance of the project, said Schwamman.

We feel we have an educationally sound proposal which goes back to the goals of increased safety and security, updated classrooms and new additions to address the needs of the school for the next 50 years.
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post)  Sat, September 10 2016

Words Rain Chudori Illustration Budhi Button

Part One



Our whole life consists of waiting. Whether it is for a person, a moment or a sign, you cannot avoid the languorous, beautiful act of waiting. Batas learned to wait from her mother. No, that is not true. She inherited it. She waited when her mother was asleep, and her father was in his lovers house. When he returned, he would tuck her in and tell her stories from his travels. They are not like us, he would say, they have centuries of brutality within them, and you must protect yourself from them.



One day, he left their house with a suitcase, and it was the last time she would ever see him. At 10, she would wait for his postcards to arrive and follow his travels across a map. At 15, she became restless and began working after school at an art gallery, waiting to save all her wages to search for him. And now, at 20, shes leaving home, with only the memory of her fathers back.



Marked in a postcard from Frankfurt was his address  which he had never written down before. It was as if he was God, who spoke but never listened. He was a careful man, so she took this as a sign for her to come visit.



She arrived at his apartment and waited for him. She waited, and waited, and waited, until someone told her that he had moved away some months ago. She waited, still, roaming the city for a while; attending every exhibition to find his photographs and walking through the streets wishing that they would run into each other. But the world works differently. The world does not grant your wish, it knows that your dreams are what sustains you and your devotions are what makes you a whole person. So the world never sent her father her way.



The world sent him instead.



Can I help you? asked the young man. He sat among several stacks of books.



Is this postcard from your store? she said, handing him the postcard emblazoned with the bookstores logo.



On the back, it says, Happy birthday, my love. Remember there is always some kind of beauty in this world, even if you are a stranger to it. Love, Dad.



Yes, but we dont sell these anymore. Someone probably bought this last year.



She looked around and imagined her father there. She measured everything by his footsteps, by the things she thinks he was fond of and things he found distasteful, looking at a world that she never knew.



What are you looking for? the young man asked her. She always hid her true intentions whenever she was asked this question. Im a student looking for a textbook. Im a traveler looking for a motel. Im an immigrant looking for a life.



Im looking for my father.



Part Two



Batas lives for him. No, that is not true. She waits for him. She wakes early, preparing sweet tea and a plate of croissants in the kitchen, while hanging his pressed work clothes. She holds him until he comes awake. She washes the dishes and he reads the newspaper; he translates sometimes, but mostly, their mornings are quiet. If time allows for it, they would make love. She wants her scent to cling to him. She wants him to remember her.



Do you love me? she asks him.



He brushes her off and turns away, saying how exhausted he is. But sometimes, he holds her and tells her, Yes, of course, of course, I love you.



Do you love only me? she asks him.



He would say that it hurts him to hear such a question and dismisses her. But sometimes, he kisses her and tells her, Yes, of course, of course, only you.



Do you know what my name means? she asks as they lay in bed. Their fingers are interlaced, like constellations. He shakes his head.



It means limit, she tells him. My mother slept after the birth and my father only named me the next day. I was nameless for a whole day.



She feels like he is not listening. His mind travels far when they talk, and he seldom displays interest whenever she talks about her past. It is like talking to an empty room, but she appreciates the fact that his warm, faithful body is next to hers.



She wants him to comfort the pain in her past and say, Dont worry, Im here now. Im here and Ill take care of you. But he wont. He will only rise from bed, shower and dress, kiss her forehead quickly and leave her for the day.



She tries to learn his language. It is difficult, filled with an austerity that she cannot identify. It comes from a kind of pain different from her own language. Hers is simple, earnest in its intentions and forgiving in its behavior. Hers is the language of prey, his is the language of hunters.



In his city, she talks to the shopkeeper who keeps his favorite cigarettes and chocolates. She talks to old ladies who sit on benches waiting for evening to arrive. She searches for herself within this language, but the more she does, the more she is lost.



He is always quiet after work. She sees his responsibilities, his dedications, his worries and doesnt want her insufficiencies to be a burden. She wants to show him how far she has come, yet she knows she is full of mistakes.



Part Three



Her mother stopped waiting. There were too many parts of her father that she could not hold. Batas could tell the exact moment she stopped. It sounded like a loud splash, as if the moon had just fallen into the river. As she slept, her mothers hand searched for a body next to hers that she couldnt find. He was not there. He was never there.



When are you coming home? she asked. There were sounds of conversations, of laughter, of unfaithfulness.



Soon, he would say, Go back to sleep and Ill be there when you wake up. I promise. I am faithful to you. Only you, only yours.



Batas and her mother sat at the window, each holding a warm cup of tea. They lived, just the two of them, in that house. They were quiet, but they understood each other. Their love of each other was born from the shared act of waiting.



I heard something in my sleep last night, Batas said to her mother.



Did you?



It was the sound of your heart surrendering, Batas said.



No, my love. It is the sound of my heart falling into yours, her mother answered. Outside, the moon was moving, ever so slowly, as if tiptoeing across the abyss.



When are you leaving? her mother asked.



Soon, Batas said. When Ive taken care of everything.



Have you thought of what you will bring from here? her mother asked.



Nothing, Batas said. I have him.



Part Four



Batas stops waiting. There are too many parts of him that she cannot hold on to. Batas can tell the exact moment she stops waiting. It sounds like a loud splash, as if the moon has just fallen into the river. When she sleeps, her hand reaches out to a body next to hers that she cant find. He is not there. He is never there.



When are you coming home? she asks him. There are sounds of conversations, of laughter, of unfaithfulness.



Soon, he says, Go back to sleep and Ill be there when you wake up. I promise. I am faithful to you. Only you, only yours.



Batas sits by the window, holding a cold cup of tea. She lives, for the two of them, in that apartment. They are quiet, but it is because she carries her silence for him. Theirs is a love born from her waiting.



I heard something in my sleep last night, Batas tells her mother on the phone.



Was it the sound of your heart surrendering? her mother said.



No, mother. It was the sound of your heart falling into mine, Batas answers. Outside, the moon is moving, ever so slowly, as if tiptoeing across the abyss.



When are you leaving? her mother asks her.



Soon, Batas says. When Ive taken care of everything.



Have you thought of what you will bring from there? her mother asked.



Nothing, Batas tells her. I have lost him.



Part Five



Batas stops waiting for him. No, that is not true. She stops living for him. She prepares sweet tea and a plate of croissants in the kitchen, and hangs up his pressed work clothes. She holds him until he comes awake. She washes the dishes while he reads the newspaper. It is a quiet morning. On that day, they find time to make love. Her scent clings to him. On that day, he tries to remember her.



Do you love me? she asks him. On that day, he holds her and tells her: Yes, of course, of course, I love you.



Do you love only me? she then asks him. On that day, he kisses her and tells her: Yes, of course, of course, only you.



Do you want to know why I was named Batas? she asks him. He nods. Their fingers are interlaced, like constellations.



He believed that everyone has a limit, and he wanted me to be someones limit someday.



Why does he want that?



Because he never found his.



He isnt listening. His mind travels far when they talk, and he never displays interest when she talks about her past. It is like talking to an empty room. Yet his warm body is next to hers, and not someone elses.



She realizes that he will never comfort the pain of her past, he will never say, Dont worry, Im here now. Im here and Ill take care of you. He only rises out of bed, showers and gets dressed, kisses her forehead quickly and leaves her for the day.



He is difficult, filled with an austerity that she cannot identify. He has a different kind of pain. She is simple, earnest in her intentions, forgiving in her behavior. She is the prey; he is the hunter.



Before leaving, she thanks the shopkeeper who keeps his favorite cigarettes and chocolates. She leaves flowers for the old ladies who sit on benches waiting for evening to arrive. She looks for herself within him, but the

more she searches, the more she is lost herself.



He does not find her when he arrives home at work, and suddenly, he is no longer quiet. He realizes his responsibilities, his dedications, his worries and his insufficiencies have burdened her. He wants to show her how far he can go, yet he knew he is full of mistakes.



Part Six



Our whole life consists of finding. Whether it is a person, a moment or a sign, you cannot avoid the languorous, beautiful act of finding. Batas inherits the act of finding from her mother. No, that is not true. She found it. She realizes that she will never again wait, and she will only live to find. Before, she would find her father asleep in his room. She wrapped his arms around her, and told him her stories. They are just like us, she would say, they have centuries of beauty within them, and we must protect them from the rest of the world.



When she found him packing his suitcase, it was the last time she would ever see him. As she turned 22, she found the cities without her fathers presence. When she was 23, she worked at an art gallery, and found paintings and people that did not cause her pain. At 24, she left Frankfurt, with only the memory of her lovers back.



Marked in a postcard from Frankfurt, was his love  which he never wrote before. She never responded, as if she was God, who only wanted to listen but not speak. Her lover was a careful man, and she took this as a sign that he is waiting, still. One day, he found her apartment and waited for her to open the door. He waited, and waited, and waited, until her neighbor informed him that she was away for business. But he waited still; attending every exhibition hoping that she organized them, walking along streets and wishing he would run into her. But the world works differently. The world does not grant your wish, it knows that your dreams are what sustain you and your devotions are what make you whole. So the world never sent her to him.



The world made him wait instead.



Can you help me? Batas asked. He was sitting in between several stacks of books. He was reading a book, and did not look up.



Is this postcard from your store? she said, handing him a postcard with the bookstores logo emblazoned on it.



He looked up and saw her. They had aged, considerably. On the back, he wrote, Happy birthday, my love. Remember that there is always some kind of beauty in this world, and all of it is within you. Love, A.



Yes, we dont sell these anymore. I bought this for you last year.



She looked through the books and he followed. He measured everything by her footsteps, by the things he thinks she is fond of and things she finds distasteful, looking at a world he never knew.



What are you looking for? he asked her.



She always hid her true intentions whenever she was asked this question. Im an academic looking for a textbook. Im a curator looking for a painting. Im an immigrant looking for a life.



Im looking for you.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post)  Sat, September 10 2016

More than 2 million people from around the world, including nearly 170,000 Indonesians, have traveled to the Saudi city of Mecca to perform the annual pilgrimage, the fifth pillar of Islam.

On Friday they began to leave for the valley of Mount Arafah to mark the most important haj rituals during the five-day pilgrimage, where they pray until sunset before going to Mina, some eight kilometers away, to prepare for other rituals, including a symbolic throwing of stones at the devil ritual, which in the past had often turned into a deadly stampede.

This year, however, a major change in human traffic management and security has been in place to prevent a repeat of past incidents. Several times they occurred at an intersection of streets leading to Jamaraat Bridge, near Mecca, where the stone-throwing ritual is conducted. Some others took place close to the bridge, where a sea of pilgrims usually throng as they wait for their turn to perform the ritual.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, September 12, 2016

State-owned fishery firm Perikanan Nusantara (Perinus) exhibited a giant yellowfin tuna weighing around 40 kilograms during the Indonesia Business and Development Expo held for four days at the Jakarta Convention Center in Senayan, Central Jakarta, from Thursday to Sunday.

Visitors attending the expo were curious to see and touch the giant fish, a very rare lifetime opportunity for them.

This yellowfin tuna is amazing. We have to support Indonesias fishery products, Jakarta resident Hapotosan Jonathan told The Jakarta Post at the convention center on Sunday.

Perinus corporate secretary Sunarto said the fishery firms workers caught the giant yellowfin tuna on Bitung waters in North Sulawesi.

We auctioned the fish to visitors here. Unfortunately, nobody bought it until the closing of the expo, Sunarto told the Post Sunday.

Perinus is among 102 state-owned firms participating in the expo. Apart from exhibiting the giant fish, the fishery company also offered sea products such as tuna steak, fish balls and fish sausage.

We sold 250 gram tuna steak slices at Rp 50,000 (US$ 3.7), Sunarto said. (rez/ebf)
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Linkedin Fadli (The Jakarta Post) Batam  Mon, September 12, 2016

The Batam, Rempang and Galang (Barelang) Police have named a man a suspect in connection with an alleged prostitution ring, accusing him of procuring and pimping out male migrants from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The police also arrested a woman suspected to have paid for sex services provided by a male prostitute, who is still underage, from the network.

The Barelang Polices criminal investigation unit head Comr. Memo Ardian said investigators found evidence of the alleged involvement of the suspect, who was identified only by his initials, BS, in the male prostitution ring, in which they claim his role was to search for clients. BS was arrested on Saturday.

The woman, who was identified only by the initial S, has been accused of promising to give Rp 20 million (US$1,510) to a 15-year-old male from Pakistan and has also been named a suspect. She paid him in stages, via BS, said Memo.

The 15-year-old was one of 10 migrants arrested on Sept. 6 for their alleged involvement in a prostitution ring. Only one of the migrants is from Pakistan while the nine others are from Afghanistan. Eight of the 10 migrants are asylum seekers while the remaining two migrants are refugees who are still waiting for placement in a third country. They are all currently detained at the Batam Immigration detention facility.

The police chief said all of the suspects would be charged under Law No. 21/2007 on human trafficking eradication, which carries a maximum sentence of six years in prison upon conviction.

Separately, S denied the polices accusation, although she admitted she was acquainted with the 15-year-old Pakistani migrant. S claimed she had known him since March and said she gave him money only as a friend, not for sex. (ebf)
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Linkedin Fadli (The Jakarta Post) Batam  Mon, September 12, 2016

Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa has called on Batam authorities to thoroughly investigate an alleged underage male prostitution ring involving migrants from Afghanistan and Pakistan as part of the states efforts to protect children from prostitution networks.

The minister said she had met and spoken with Batam, Rempang and Galang (Barelang) Police officials to more deeply explore the matter.

We have to separate two issues in this matter: namely immigration and prostitution problems. On immigration-related issues, it has been handled by the Law and Human Rights Ministry and Foreign Affairs Ministry, but for prostitution-related aspects, I have coordinated with Barelang Police officials, said Khofifah on Saturday.

Ive been informed they have investigated this case and the [alleged] perpetrators have been arrested.

Speaking on the sidelines of her visit to Batam on Saturday, Khofifah said investigation and law enforcement were part of the efforts to establish a layered alertness so that no boy or girl becomes trapped by a prostitution network.

Currently, we are preparing anticipatory measures to protect not only girls but also boys from falling into a prostitution network. This is because child prostitution syndicates have begun to target male victims, said Khofifah.

On Sept. 6, Batam Immigration officials revealed the alleged involvement of 10 migrants in a male prostitution ring offering sex services not only to female but also to male clients in Batam.

Khofifah said the government was aiming to close 99 prostitution complexes in areas across Indonesia, including one in Batam, by 2019. (ebf)

Suspected -- A Batam Immigration officer inspects four of the 10 migrants arrested for alleged involvement in a male prostitution ring. (JP/Fadli)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, September 12, 2016

President Joko Jokowi Widodo said on Monday that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had given the green light for the execution of Filipina death row inmate Mary Jane Veloso.



"President Duterte has given the go-ahead to proceed with the execution, Jokowi was quoted as saying by Antara news agency in Serang, Banten.

(Read also: PH denies Duterte gave go-ahead for Veloso execution)

According to Jokowi, the legal process will be followed up by Attorney General M. Prasetyo.

I have explained to [Duterte] about Mary Janes situation and I told him that Mary Jane [has been found guilty] for carrying 2.6 kilograms of heroin. I also told him about the delay in the execution during the meeting, Jokowi said.

Veloso was arrested at Adisucipto Airport in Yogyakarta in April 2010.

Veloso was excluded from the list of the third round of executions prepared by the Attorney Generals Office (AGO) in April, as legal procedures continue in a separate but related case in her country. Veloso was on the execution list last year but was granted a stay of execution because her alleged boss had been arrested in the Philippines, and the authorities there requested Indonesian assistance in pursuing the case. (dmr)
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Linkedin Panca Nugraha (The Jakarta Post) Central Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara  Mon, September 12, 2016

State-owned tourism company PT Indonesia Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) president director Abdulbar M.Mansoer said the development of the Mandalika special economic zone (KEK), including its grand mosque, in Central Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), would hopefully boost tourism in the province.

For the Mandalika tourism area, this mosque is really strategic to support the halal tourism destination concept along with the NTB administrations tourism program, he said on the sidelines of the groundbreaking ceremony for the development of Mandalika Grand Mosque inside the KEK Mandalika complex on Saturday.

Abdulbar said the Mandalika Grand Mosque would cost an estimated Rp 28 billion (US$2.11 million) to build. The mosque would adopt the building model of the old Bayan Beleq mosque in North Lombok and have an environmentally friendly building concept, with a total visitor capacity of 2,000.

This is part of our role to help preserve the culture and historic heritage of the Lombok people, he said about the mosque, which is to be built on a five-hectare plot of land.

In 2015, the Mandalika special economic zone currently being built by ITDC on 1,175 hectares received Rp 250 billion from the government to start the development of basic infrastructure facilities inside the area.

Abdulbar said ITDC was currently developing a 11-kilometer road for access, a clean water treatment facility using seawater reverse osmosis technology to fulfill the water needs of Mandalika hotels in the future.

We are also preparing 60 hectares of land for the development of a solar-powered electricity plant [PLTS], he said, adding that PLTS Mandalika would hopefully start operating in 2017.(ebf)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, September 12, 2016

Luar Batang mosque caretakers and residents in North Jakarta have refused to accept two cows reportedly donated by Jakarta Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama on the occasion of Idul Adha or the Islamic Day of Sacrifice.

Luar Batang mosque secretary Mansur Amin said the decision had been made after the mosque caretakers met with several neighborhood leaders.

Mansur said the residents declined the donation in protest of the Jakarta administrations plans to demolish their houses as part of the revitalization of the citys religious tourism destination.

We will send the cows back today, Mansur said as quoted by kompas.com on Monday.

Ahok has reportedly donated 7,000 kilograms of beef and 55 cows to 22 low-cost apartments across the capital. He had not previously announced his donation of the cows to the Luar Batang residents. (dmr)
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Linkedin Panca Nugraha (The Jakarta Post) Central Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara  Mon, September 12, 2016

State Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarno has said her ministry and related state-owned companies were striving to avoid overly burdening the state budget in their development of the Mandalika Special Economic Zone (KEK) in Central Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, although the project may cost up to Rp 3.3 trillion (US$249.06 million).

We have asserted that for the development of KEK Mandalika, we will not depend on the state budget. We are striving to attract alternative funding sources, including by increasing collaboration among state-owned companies, said the minister.

She was speaking after a ground-breaking ceremony for the development of Mandalika Grand Mosque inside the KEK Mandalika complex on Saturday.

In the beginning of 2016, President Joko Jokowi Widodo promised a Rp 1.8 trillion budgetary allocation for the development of the special economic zone.

Rini acknowledged that the Rp 1.8 trillion fund had been offered during the discussion of the revised 2016 state budget (APBN-P). However, she added that the funds could not be realized as, for various reasons, the State Enterprises Ministry did not propose the inclusion of the project in the budget.

She further explained that many Indonesians still relied on subsidy schemes and poverty alleviation programs. So, we dont want to burden the state budget even more. It will be better for the state to pay more close attention to programs that will have a direct impact on the peoples prosperity."

Nevertheless, Rini said, she was certain that progress in the development of the KEK Mandalika would be seen by 2018. We are optimistic that during the 2017-2018 period, all supporting infrastructure facilities will have been completed and 1,500 rooms of the four hotels being developed will be available, she said. (ebf)
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Linkedin Rod McGuirk (Associated Press) Canberra, Australia  Mon, September 12, 2016

Relatives of some of the 239 passengers and crew on missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 called Monday for more of its possible debris to be examined to define a new search area.

Malaysia, China and Australia agreed in July that the search in the southern Indian Ocean would be suspended after the current 120,000-square kilometer (46,000-square mile) expanse has been thoroughly examined with deep sea sonar equipment in the absence of credible new evidence that identified the plane's location.

Eight relatives of lost passengers who met with Australian officials coordinating the search on behalf of Malaysia expressed frustration that they were not given a definition of what constituted credible new evidence that would result in a continuation of the search.

American wreckage hunter Blaine Gibson attended the meeting at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau headquarters with the relatives from Malaysia, China, Australia and Indonesia and handed over to investigators five pieces of potential debris that he found on beaches in Madagascar. Two of the pieces were burnt, which could indicate a disastrous fire on board, he said.

Gibson previously found a panel from Flight 370 in Mozambique. Malaysia has yet to collect other potential debris that Blaine has found washed up on Madagascar since June and handed to authorities there.

"I hope that the search will go on and in my amateur opinion this constitutes new, credible evidence that justifies continuing the search," Gibson told reporters of his unconfirmed debris find.

Some confirmed pieces of debris have washed ashore in the western Indian Ocean, and the families believe other items yet to be examined may be clues to the plane's location.

Grace Nathan, a Malaysian whose mother was on the Boeing 777 that vanished during a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing on March 8, 2014, said governments should be coordinating a search for debris and using drift modeling to define a new area to search after the current search is to be completed in December.

"We want to call on the three nations  Australia, China and Malaysia  to make a concerted effort to go out and look for this credible new information," Nathan said.

"It's very impressive that one private individual citizen, Blaine Alan Gibson, has managed to find up to 15 pieces of aircraft debris and we hope that these three nations do more than just hope by fluke people find more debris," she added.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau confirmed in a statement that it had received debris from Gibson and was seeking advice from Malaysia on how Australia should proceed.

Jennifer Chong, a Melbourne-based Malaysian-Australian dual citizen whose husband was aboard Flight 370, wondered why Malaysia had not sent diplomats to the five-hour meeting with Australian search officials. China and Indonesia both sent diplomats to support their citizens.

Oceanographers are analyzing the first piece of wreckage found, a wing flap known as a flaperon that washed up on Reunion Island off the African coast in July last year  16 months after the plane went missing  in the hope of narrowing a possible next area adjoining the current search boundary through drift modeling.

A wing flap found on Tanzania is also being examined at Australian Transport Safety Bureau headquarters for clues. Search officials expect more Flight 370 wreckage to wash up in the months ahead.

Sheryl Keen, chairwoman of Air Crash Support Group, which is supporting the relatives during their week in Australia, called on Malaysia to collect the debris found by Gibson on Madagascar and to consider handing responsibility for the search to Australia. (dan)
DES MOINES -- Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein told about 150 supporters in Iowa Sunday they can help transform their futures for the better by voting their convictions in November rather the settling for someone who represents the lesser evil in the politics of fear.

Stein said Americans who are the underdogs in society and the economy can become "the top dogs" by flexing their strength in numbers at the polls in support of her "New Green Deal" that would slash military spending, transform health care, transition to 100 percent renewable energy by 2030, and erase student debt for millions of forward-thinking young people who would be free to pursue their dreams rather than work multiple jobs to pay off college obligations.

"Forget this lesser to two evils propaganda," she said of a 2016 presidential race that mostly has focused on two major-party candidates -- Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, who are viewed unfavorably by large blocs of prospective voters. "It's politics of fear that tells us to vote our fears rather than our vision and our values.

"What did we get from the politics of fear? We got everything we were afraid of," Stein told supporters who gathered on the Iowa Capitol grounds. "The lesser evil and the greater evil are in a race to the bottom."

A number of people at the rally were former Bernie Sanders supporters who said they felt betrayed when he endorsed Clinton and now view Stein as the best hope to carry on the quest for a political revolution in America.

"I just felt disillusioned," said Jason Carsello, a Drake University student who supported Sanders in the 2016 Iowa Democratic caucuses but now backs Stein.

Daniel Clark, 25, of Mount Pleasant, who was a Sanders delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, said the experience was "eye opening" for him in regards to the corruption of the two-party system and noted Stein "has always been my plan B."

Stein said the 2016 election should not be about "want we don't want" but rather about what the American people do want, and the only way to give them the opportunity to choose among the current field of candidates is to open up the televised debates that start later this month to more participants.

"This is no ordinary moment. This is an absolutely transformational moment," she told rally attendees.

Stein -- who was arrested when she showed up for a presidential debate in 2012 and this year faces misdemeanor criminal charges in North Dakota stemming from a recent protest against the Dakota Access pipeline -- said she is willing to risk arrest again with a "direct action" at the first scheduled presidential debate in New York on Sept. 26 and she urged supporters Sunday to rent buses and join her.

"If we can't have an open discussion now, when can we actually have it?" asked Stein, a 66-year-old Harvard-educated retired medical doctor who described herself as a "mother of fire" because of the limitations she believes are being placed on young people who offer the best hope for dealing with immigration, gay rights and racial injustice issues facing the nation.

Stein said there are 43 million young people who are "locked into debt' who could prove to be the winning plurality in a three-way presidential vote if they shook off the apathy and hopelessness they are being served by the major political parties she says have "sort of thrown them under the bus."

"We want to put you in the driver's seat. We want you to come out and vote so that we can cancel this debt, so we can make higher education free and we can insure there are jobs through a green new deal and we can end these wars for oil -- which are also a cross for you to bear -- and fix the climate crisis," she told the rally-goers.
Our friends at Chatham Square Library are hosting a new Chinese in America Film Series, devoted to exploring the diverse stories of those with Chinese heritage. First up in the series is the documentary Reunification (2015), directed by Alvin Tsang. They write:

When his mother and two siblings first emigrated from Hong Kong to Los Angeles in the early 1980s, six-year-old Alvin was forced to stay behind with his working, and consequently absent, father. Spending the following three years often alone in an empty apartment, he longed for his familys reunification. However, upon Alvin and his fathers arrival to America, that dream was utterly and permanently shattered under circumstances the filmmaker has yet to fully comprehend to this day.

Reunification is Tsangs poetic and self-reflexive exploration of many unresolved years  poetic in its wonderfully articulated narration and in its restraint as he grasps for any semblance of explanation. Backed by an achingly beautiful score, the film moves moodily across different channels and modes, bending into labor histories and Hong Kongs colonial trajectories, wading in the mire of nostalgia, grief, and confusion that is his past. And in his search for answers, Tsang turns the camera on his own family, cautiously prodding for answers, but fully acknowledging that the only closure he can get will be from deciding for himself how to move on. Brandon Yu
CEDAR RAPIDS | In the race for the U.S. House in Iowas 1st District, Republican Rep. Rod Blum and Democratic challenger Monica Vernon agree on the importance of trade.

Thats where the agreement ends.

Vernon, a former Cedar Rapids business owner again Monday voiced her opposition to President Barack Obamas 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership proposal that he says will open doors for made-in-America products.

That puts her at odds with Blum, a Dubuque business owner who said one in five jobs in Iowa depends on trade.

Its not that shes against trade, Vernon told The Gazette Editorial Board. The 20-county northeast Iowa district that includes Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Cedar Falls, Waterloo and Marshalltown relies on trade.

We grow things and we make things. We know how to build a lot of stuff, the former Cedar Rapids City Council member said. Trade is really important. My thing is that we need fair trade.

In positioning herself with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, Vernon said TPP, as written, harms our country, hurts our district.

Vernon is willing to consider future trade pacts that spread the benefit to more Americans. Although data show the TPP would be a net gain for the country, it lands in the hands of a very, she said, very few. In fact, its negative for the majority of people  up to 95 percent.

In promoting the TPP, the Obama administration said the $2.34 trillion in goods and services sold abroad result in more higher-paying jobs because companies that export pay up to 18 percent more than companies that dont.

However, Vernon said she doesnt want another NAFTA situation that took away so many factories, so many jobs and really incented companies to off-shore work and off-shore all of that.

She wants to stop incenting corporations from doing inversions (and) stop allowing that sort of thing.

Instead, she wants to level the global playing field for American workers and business. That would include cutting red tape that businesses complain about.
This September will see Phyllida Lloyd return to The Donmar Warehouse with her Shakespearean Trilogy, starring Jade Anouka (pictured). Her all-female cast will be tackling Julius Caesar, Henry IV and The Tempest.

Anouka, who trained at the Guilford School of Acting, has worked on both sides of the Atlantic and her Shakespeare credits range from Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet to Phyllida Lloyd's current trilogy.

Jade has worked with Phyllida since 2012, when she first appeared in the all-female production of Julius Caesar - an experience she describes as "like walking into the unknown."

"We knew it would be all female and we knew it would be set in a prison," she says.

Over time this 2012 production grew from one play to two with Henry IV, before finally adding adding The Tempest this year.

This time around, Jade will be tacking Hotspur in Henry IV, Ariel in The Tempest and Mark Anthony in Julius Cesear. She says the experience is exciting, but that it is intense to be playing all three back to back. She describes the Donmar as a "great venue" with "great atmosphere."

When discussing how the show is developing she says it is "important to ask: why tell the story again?" In other words, what is going to make this relevant to the audience once more?

She believes that as an actor it's important to "find a through line" and

ask '"Why have I been cast?"



Jade believes that the audience must draw links between the three characters, to work out why her prisoner has been given these roles.

She describes Hotspur as a very physical character, whom she has reimagined as a boxer. It wasn't just the physical challenge she took on for the trilogy, though - she describes her other character, Mark Anthony, as a 'talker'. She constantly revisits the fact that her initial character is a prisoner, "training and trying to better themselves."

She believes having an all female cast is important as "women are unrepresented in the theatre" and "ethnicities are also under represented" too.

She also believes the all-female cast is a very "original idea" because "it's always important to reimagine" when it comes to Shakespeare.

A trilogy of Shakespeare may seem daunting to some younger audiences however Jade thinks that "if it's performed well, it's easy to understand" and that you don't necessarily "need to understand every word." She says that as long as audiences come in "with an open mind" and follow the story it can be accessible to everyone.

It's safe to say this show is going to be innovative, and will once again bring Shakespeare to a modern audience.

The Donamar Warehouse's YOUNG+FREE scheme makes 25% of all tickets free to those aged 25 and under. Tickets are released on a weekly basis (every Friday) from 2nd September. You can sign up

here

.
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MASON CITY  Actress Dana Delany, best known for her roles in China Beach and Desperate Housewives, will campaign for Hillary Clinton on Monday, Sept. 12, in Mason City.

She will host a Women Win event to celebrate the historic nature of the Democratic ballot and to discuss how Iowans can help elect Hillary Clinton to the White House, according to a news release.

The event will be at 10 a.m. at the Mason City Iowa Together Office at 219 N. Federal Ave.

She will then appear at a similar event in Waterloo at 12:30 p.m. at 307 E. 4th St., and will attend a Winning Women reception in Cedar Rapids at 5 p.m. at 7725 Kirkwood Boulevard.
MASON CITY  Actress Dana Delany stopped by the Mason City Democratic headquarters Monday morning in support of Hillary Clinton.

Delany, best known for her roles in China Beach and Desperate Housewives, told a group of about 12 supporters, Shes ready and, more important, the countrys ready for Clinton to be president.

This is an election where you cant afford not to vote, she said.

After giving a brief pitch for Clinton, she sat at a table and chatted with local Democrats.

When told of how well-organized the campaigns are going, she laughed and said, Dont you think the Democrats have finally gotten their s- together?

Delany also praised Iowans for the commitment to politics.

Nobody starts earlier than Iowans, she said.

Im really impressed with the caucus thing.

She was introduced by former state Democratic Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky, who is traveling with her for several appearances across the state.
British man killed in Phuket as motorbike collides with pickup truck

PHUKET: A British man was killed in Phuket on Saturday night (Sept 10) after the motorbike he was riding collided with a pickup truck on Kwang Rd in Wichit.

transportaccidentsdeathpolice

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Monday 12 September 2016, 11:02AM

The fatal collision occurred while Mr Niphon was turning right into the Baan Maneekram housing estate on Kwang Rd, Wichit. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

The fatal collision occurred while pickup truck Mr Niphon, with his wife and daughter in the vehicle, was turning right into the Baan Maneekram housing estate on Kwang Rd, Wichit. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Capt Patcharee Wongboon of the Wichit Police was notified of the accident, at the intersection in front of the entrance to the Baan Maneekram housing estate, at 8:30pm.

Police arrived with rescue workers from Wichit Municipality and Ruamjai Kupai rescue foundation to find an Isuzu pickup stopped askew in the middle of the entrance road to Baan Maneekram.

The driver, Niphon Kanprakob, 39, was standing by with his wife and daughter.

In the middle of the road was a wrecked Honda motorbike and nearby was the body of its driver, identified by police as a British national Michael Fraser MacPherson, 44, from Gloucester.

Mr MacPherson was unconscious and fully unresponsive at the scene, and later confirmed dead on arrival at Vachira Phuket Hospital.

No helmet was found at the scene of the crash.

Mr Niphon told police that he was turning right into Moo Baan Maneekram when the motorcycle approaching from the oncoming lane skidded out of control and crashed into the pickup truck.

Mr Niphon was taken to Wichit Police Station for more questioning.

Police have yet to confirm whether Mr Niphon was subjected to any alcohol test, and have also yet to reveal whether or not Mr Niphon will face any charges for the accident.

Police told The Phuket News said that they had notified the British Embassy of the accident.
Chinese man, 66, pulled unconscious from water, dies on Phuket tour to Phi Phi

PHUKET: Police have cited an existing medical condition as to blame for a 66-year-old Chinese man dying after falling unconscious while swimming with a life jacket on during a boat tour to Phi Phi Island yesterday (Sept 11).

Chinesemarineaccidentsdeathpolice

By Yutthawat Lekmak

Monday 12 September 2016, 04:33PM

Police are citing doctors at Phi Phi Island Hospital saying that Chinese tourist He Renfu, 66, suffered a pre-existing medical condition that caused him to fall unconscious in the water, ultimately leading to his death. Photo: Phi Phi Island Hospital / Facebook

The man, identified as He Renfu, was among 30 tourists on board the Jupiter 2 tour boat, which arrived at Ao Sam, Phi Phi Island, from Phuket at about 11:30am, said Phi Phi Police Chief Lt Col Chetthapan Wichaidit. The boat captain, Surachai Pramongkij, 37, told us that Mr He went into the water for a swim with his life jacket on, Col Chetthapan said. After five minutes of swimming, the group alerted the captain that one of the tourists had lost consciousness, that Mr He was face down in the water, motionless, he added. They jumped in to help and took him [Mr He] to Phi Phi Island Hospital, but he was pronounced dead a short time later, Col Chettapan said. Doctors believe that Mr He suffered a pre-existing medical condition that caused Mr He to fall unconscious while swimming, Col Chetthapan said. However, Col Chetthapan did not clarify what the pre-existing medical condition was. Tourist Police have notified the Chinese Embassy of the incident and providing assistance to the victims family, he said.
Police hunt woman driver, suspected Russian, for slamming car into pickup truck, fleeing scene by hitching ride

PHUKET: Police are looking for a foreign woman, believed to be Russian, who abandoned her vehicle and fled the scene after her car slammed into the back of a pickup truck in Srisoonthorn, central Phuket, yesterday morning (Sept 11).

Russianaccidentstransportpolice

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Monday 12 September 2016, 03:17PM

Police are trying to track down the driver, a woman believed to be Russian, after she fled the scene by hitching a ride. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Police are trying to track down the driver, a woman believed to be Russian, after she fled the scene by hitching a ride. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Police are trying to track down the driver, a woman believed to be Russian, after she fled the scene by hitching a ride. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Police are trying to track down the driver, a woman believed to be Russian, after she fled the scene by hitching a ride. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Capt Sunan Petchnoo of the Thalang Police was called to the accident, at a bend near the Tha Ruea shrine on Thepkrasattri Rd northbound, at 6am.

Police arrived at the scene to find a Toyota Vios with its front end demolished by the impact. About 100 metres away was 62-year-old Sommart Longrak was standing next to his Isuzu pickup truck with a damaged rear end.

Mr Sommart told police that he and his nephew were heading home in Pa Khlok when a Toyota Vios slammed into the back of his pickup at high speed.

My nephew suffered an injury to his back. Kusoldharm rescue workers have already taken him to Thalang Hospital, said Mr Sommart told police when they arrived.

Mr Sommart said that the driver of the Vios was a foreign woman.

She got out of the car after the crash, but as we speak different languages, we could not understand each other  I think she is Russian, Mr Sommart said.

She then hitched a ride with a passing vehicle and left her car behind, he said.

Officers have seized the Toyota and had it towed to Thalang Police station while we try to track down the vehicles registered owner and locate the foreign woman who was driving the vehicle at the time of accident, said Capt Sunan.
Uni denies hazing put student in coma

CHONBURI: Kasetsart University (KU) has denied hazing activities have caused one of its freshmen to lapse into a coma at a hospital.

accidents

By Bangkok Post

Monday 12 September 2016, 09:17AM

Photo from Facebook account of Kasetsart University lecturer Weerachai Phutdhawong shows the pond, which the school says is a rainwater collection, not wastewater.

The Facebook post by user Nan Suratchawadee that launched the frenzied social media outrage against Kasetsart University yesterday (Sept 11).

The university has been ordered to launch a probe into the incident. Two of the Facebook posts that started the story of a hazing incident were no longer on the site by early today (Sept 12).

Korchoke Chantawarangul, acting deputy rector of KUs Si Racha campus in Chonburi, said yesterday

9Sept 11) that the 19-year-old male first-year student swam in the campus pond during a physical training session which was part of a study course at the universitys International Maritime College. The incident did not take place during a hazing ceremony as claimed in social media.

Mr Korchoke also denied the pond was for wastewater treatment. It was in fact dug to collect rainwater for the colleges training, he said, adding students have used it regularly over the years.

The activity was also overseen by professors and senior students as it was attended by about 100 other freshmen. The students are required to undergo physical training in preparation for marine operations during their third and fourth years in the college, he added.

Mr Korchokes comment came after Chokchai Thongnuakhao was rushed to Laem Chabang Hospital and later referred to an intensive care unit at Chonburi Hospital with a lung infection on Sept 8. The incident was reported: in social media alleging the freshman was told by senior students to dip into a two-metre-deep wastewater treatment pond as part of hazing activities the same day.

The social media quoted one of Mr Chokchais relatives but the persons name was not given.

The quoted person allegedly said Mr Chokchai struggled to swim and started to sink.

The relative said it reportedly took about two minutes to get Mr Chokchai out of the pond.

The post that started the social media outrage was no longer available late yesterday on the Facebook page of Nan Suratchawadee, who is self-described on the page as a model based in Hua Hin.

Also unavailable by early today was the post shown above on the Facebook page of Pook Sukonta Berthebaud, who claims to be living in Noumea, New Caledonia.

Amporn Thongnuakhao, 54, Mr Chokchais father, yesterday travelled from Phatthalung to visit his son at the hospital.

Mr Amporn said doctors told him his son was gradually convalescing but the recovery will take some time.

Mr Korchoke said university executives and senior students regretted the accident and the university will help Mr Chokchais family to pay for his medical expenses. He added the university would review its training courses.

Meanwhile, the Office of the Higher Education Commission secretary-general Arporn Kaenwong said she instructed KU to investigate the incident and submit a report to the office.

Mr Arporn said Ohec will meet to discuss hazing activities with university executives nationwide. Such activities must not harm students or violate their basic rights.

Read original story here.
FOREST CITY  The Iowa Supreme Court last week denied further review of an appeals court decision to suppress evidence against a former Forest City police officer charged with burglary and arson.

The Iowa Court of Appeals ruled in June that statements Thaddeus Ellenbecker made to law enforcement while under the influence of opioid-based painkillers should not be used as trial evidence.

Ellenbecker, 42, was accused of starting an October 2011 fire that extensively damaged the Forest City police station. He also allegedly stole a fellow police officers Smith and Wesson AR-15 assault rifle from the trunk of a vehicle.

Evidence suppressed in burglary, arson case against former Forest City police officer FOREST CITY  The Iowa Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that evidence should be suppressed i

He was convicted on felony charges of second-degree burglary and second-degree arson in separate bench trials in November 2012.

However, the Iowa Court of Appeals overturned those convictions in May 2014, finding his alleged confession was invalid because agents with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation failed to read him his Miranda rights.

The case was sent back to district court for a new trial, but before it could take place, District Court Judge DeDra Schroeder ruled the allegedly stolen rifle and gun store records related to it should not be allowed as evidence because that evidence was obtained during the invalid confession.

The state appeals court upheld Schroeders decision. Winnebago County Attorney Adam Sauer told the Globe Gazette Monday that his office has not made a decision yet as to whether Ellenbecker will be tried again.
11AAA semis will be awesome and more from HS football quarterfinals

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GARNER | A Kanawha man found with meth and other drugs while authorities were executing a search warrant faces criminal charges, documents say.

Jackson Cook, 52, of Kanawha, was charged with felony possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver, a misdemeanor marijuana possession -- second offense and possession of Hydrocodone.

Hancock County sheriff's deputies found .67 grams of meth, .36 grams marijuana and two tablets of the prescription painkiller Hydrocodone while searching Cook and his vehicle on Feb. 18, according to court documents.

"A search warrant executed on the defendant's cell phone clearly indicates that some, if not all, of this methamphetamine was for distribution," Hancock County Deputy Andrew Klein wrote in a criminal complaint.

Cook's next hearing is set for Sept. 15 in District Court in Garner.

He made an initial court appearance last week.

-- Molly Montag
MASON CITY  Cerro Gordo County and county Treasurer Patricia Wright are being sued by a former employee who was fired earlier this year.

Natasha Lewerke was fired in January after a state audit showed a shortfall of nearly $284,000 in taxes that should have been collected. Wright said at the time the audit and subsequent investigation dealt with money the county should have received, and did not involve misuse of funds coming in and out of the treasurers office.

Wright said she requested the investigation when she suspected vehicle registrations and title transactions were not being properly processed in her office.

Lewerke, a deputy treasurer, was placed on paid administrative leave July 22, 2015, and was terminated Jan. 4, 2016. She supervised five office staff, processed motor vehicle transactions and oversaw the work of staff work in processing the transactions.

Lewerke is suing Wright in both her personal and professional capacities, claiming illegal retaliation and termination.

The state audit report said certain required fees were not collected for title and registration transactions for a local dealership.

The report said the state Department of Transportation investigated specific allegations related to the transactions between a dealer and another company which upfitted the vehicles prior to their final sale to the end user.

The dealership only paid the first-time registration fee and use tax on five of 157 vehicles purchased, resulting in a shortfall of $283,867.50 in first-time registration fees and use tax, according to the audit. The dealership was not named.

In her suit, Lewerke claims two of Treasurer Wrights personal friends came to the treasurers office to transfer title to a large, enclosed, double-axle trailer they claimed to have purchased for $1,000.

Lewerke thought the purchase price seemed too low and contacted an Iowa DOT investigator who agreed, and asked her to provide him with copies of the paperwork.

According to the suit, when Lewerke reported the situation to Wright, Wright told Lewerke, Im so disappointed in you and that was none of your business.

Lewerke alleges the next day, Wright told her the people being investigated are friends of mine and Lewerke acted outside the scope of her duties by contacting the DOT.

On May 21, 2015, Human Resources Director Tom Drzycimski suspended Lewerke for one day, primarily because of her contact with the DOT investigator.

In a meeting with Drzycimski and Wright July 11, Lewerke was placed on administrative leave, accused of vehicle title irregularity, and banned from the courthouse for the duration of the leave.

Lewerke claims she did not hear from the county until October when she was contacted by Drzycimski to come to the courthouse to meet with a representative of the state auditors office.

A week later, Lewerke met with Drzycimski who told her he had examined 11,000 of her emails from January through July of 2015 and called them disgusting. The lawsuit did not describe what disgusting meant.

On Dec. 15, Lewerke was asked to resign and she refused. On Jan. 4, 2016, she was fired.

Lewerkes suit claims the state auditors report found Wright failed to properly process title transactions, failed to follow DOT procedures and to collect certain fees and failed to pay the state its share of fees.

The suit accuses Wright and the county of taking retaliatory actions against Lewerke for her disclosing information that showed evidence of possible law violations and mismanagement and abuse of authority.

The suit further claims the countys actions violate the state policy requiring employees to report potential fraudulent practices.

Lewerke is seeking a jury trial. She is represented by Paige Fiedler of the Fiedler & Timmer law firm of Johnston.

Drzycimski said the lawsuit was a personnel matter and declined comment Monday.
MASON CITY  A Mason City mom accused of making her children sleep in a feces-covered room faces criminal charges.

Alexis Rae Martinez, 25, was arrested Monday morning on three counts of felony neglect of a dependent person.

According to court documents, Martinez forced three children, ages 2, 4 and 6, to sleep for a week in a room with feces on the walls and floors.

The child was placed in this room and the door was then locked from the outside, Mason City Police Investigator Seth McChesney wrote in three criminal complaints that covered all three children.

The alleged incident was listed in court documents as having happened the end of August.

Martinez was arrested on a warrant Monday morning at a Mason City apartment. She remained in jail late Monday afternoon in Cerro Gordo County on a $30,000 bond.

 Molly Montag
MASON CITY  Some North Iowans are among the many who have been victims of scams involving Craigslist and real estate listings.

Amber Scholl, executive officer of the Greater Mason City Board of Realtors, said thieves are stealing photos from various public websites and posting homes for rent or sale on Craigslist.

They are scamming money from unsuspecting members of the public, said Scholl.

People are sending deposits sight unseen for homes that are not available for rent or sale at all. Once deposits are collected, the ads come down.

She said some complaints involve people filling out what have turned out to be fake rental applications.

The thieves have gone so far as to add well-known company logos to paperwork, making the scam seem legitimate, said Scholl.

She said the most recent scams in North Iowa are properties for sale.

Potential victims are being told to pick up keys from the real estate agent who has the property listed.

This is typically when we realize someone has been scammed, she said.

Scholl said the scam has been reported to Mason City police.

Real estate personnel have been urged to search Craiglist listings for fraudulent listings.
Montreal, CA (H4T1V6)

Today

Sunny, along with a few afternoon clouds. High 59F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies in the evening, then becoming cloudy overnight. Low 39F. Winds light and variable.
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, center, walks on a street with officials after performing the morning Eid al-Adha prayers in Daraya, a blockaded Damascus suburb, Syria, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Syrian President Bashar Assad says his government is determined to "reclaim every area from the terrorists, and to rebuild" the country. His remarks came just hours ahead of the start of a cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia. (SANA via AP)
MASON CITY  RSVP volunteers thanked emergency responders Sunday in remembrance of 9/11.

Volunteer Karen Dole delivered a box of snacks and treats to the Cerro Gordo County SheriffsDepartment.

Its a simple way to say thank you for all they do for us, Dole said.

Dole is part of the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) of North Central Iowa, which partners those age 55 and older with area elementary and middle school students in literacy programs.

About 30 Senior Corps RSVP volunteers were scheduled to make deliveries of baked goods to police, fire and first responders across North Iowa, said RSVP Director Molly Anderegg.

To me, I guess its a reminder for how important it is that we thank the people who serve and protect us everyday, she said.

Anderegg gave birth to her now 15-year-old daughter the week before 9/11 and remembers vividly watching these burning buildings and people running live on television the morning of the attacks.

With no memory of the attacks, her daughter couldnt relate in the same way when they visited the National Sept. 11 Memorial in New York City.

When 9/11 happened, it brought our country together, Anderegg said. This is a way to say thank-you and hopefully bring their spirits up. They are so touched by a simple gesture.

Anderegg helped make the delivery to the Sheriffs Department. Dispatcher Denise Largent said she was grateful for the delivery of healthier snacks like Chex Mix, apples and oranges.

Nice to have something other than cookies, Largent said.

Though there were no deputies available at the time of delivery, Largent said she would make sure they got the treats.
A "For Sale" sign hangs in the window of the former Briggs Hotel building on South Main Street in Attleboro.
As tension escalated in Karnataka over the Cauvery water dispute, the Union home ministry stepped in on Monday assuring central assistance to maintain law and order in the state. Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi spoke to Karnataka Chief Secretary Arvind Jadhav in this regard.

"I am in touch with the chief secretary of Karnataka and whatever help is required, will be provided," Mehrishi told reporters. Officials in the home ministry said that if tension escalated further, the central paramilitary forces and additional forces including the Rapid Action Force could be used to contain the civil unrest.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh also telephonically talked to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and enquired about the situation. Singh assured full central assistance to deal with the situation.

Reports said metro and bus services had to be suspended in Bengaluru after shops were vandalised and vehicles torched by pro-Kannada activists even as rumours were being spread by mischief mongers to incite civil unrest. Section 144 has been imposed in the city as a preventive measure.

The MHA was keeping a close watch on the situation and was in direct touch with the state government, sources said. They added that violence in both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu would be contained by the law enforcement agencies and that action would be taken by the state authorities against those inciting violence.

Even as the Centre is exploring ways to resolve the long pending water dispute, the protests escalated in both the states after the Supreme Court on September 5 directed Karnataka to release 15000 cusecs of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu everyday for the next ten days to meet the demands of the summer crop.
A relative of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose demanded that the central government constitute another inquiry commission to unearth the mystery over his death. Chandra Bose, grand nephew of the freedom fighter and a senior BJP leader from West Bengal, also urged the NDA government to table the report of the Mukherjee commission in both houses of Parliament.

Talking to THE WEEK, Chandra Bose said, We have requested the prime minister to constitute another commission. We have also requested him to set up a committee to look into the files being released by the central government. Most of those files are codified and very tough to understand. There should be a committee to unravel the mystery within the files.

Netaji's death mystery was earlier investigated by Khosla commission constituted by Indira Gandhi government and Mukherjee commission set up by Atal Behari Vajpayee government. Before them, Jawharlal Nehru had in 1956 set up a probe panel led by Netajis comrade in arms Shah Nawaz Khan. While both Khosla commission and Shah Nawaz commission said Netaji died in a plane crash, Mukherjee commission disputed that theory.

The Mukherjee commission was constituted by the Vajpayee government, but its findings were rejected by the UPA government. So the current NDA government needs to look into the findings of the commission in details, Bose told THE WEEK.

Mukherjee commission headed by retired justice Manoj Mukherjee had said that Netaji did not die in plane crash in Taiwan. However, it also rejected the claims that he was still alive.

Bose said the files being classified by the Indian government were not conclusive as many of the earlier files could have been destroyed over the years. Also, there have been a lot of technicalities attached to the files which is difficult for common people to understand. Intelligence officials in those days referred to Bose in different codes, he said.

Bose said the new commission could be headed by a former judge but they should be empowered to look into all the files in India in details, and the central government should write to Russian government to give the commission access to their files as well.

Only then the truth will come out. We must know whether Netaji arrived Russia after August 18, 1945 or not, said Bose. He said the Netaji mission, set up by many of his family members, will take to street to press this demand.

Bose also ridiculed the recent Japanese report on Netaji which said he had died in the air crash. Earlier also, the Japanese government had said similar things, he said.

Bose said he found Prime Minister Modi very much interested in finding out the truth about Netaji. However, others in the government were not as effective as the PM, he said.

PMs nod alone will not do. The entire government should take up the challenge to help PMs wish come true. Not everyone in the government is as committed as PM to get the truth unearthed, he said.
Police probing the alleged sexual assault on at least eight children by the driver and the cleaner of their school bus in Wani village here, have arrested the president of the education society that runs the school and seized two buses.

'Swastik Bahuuddeshiya Shikshan Sanstha' president Deepak Jiwne was arrested on Friday for negligence in connection with the incident, police said.

With Jiwne's arrest, the number of persons arrested so far has reached four. Police had earlier arrested bus driver Surendra Sav, cleaner Kiran Brahmane and a woman bus assistant on the basis of a joint complaint filed by eight parents, on Friday.

Police also seized two buses in which the alleged crime was suspected to have taken place, a police officer said.

The play school consists of students from Nursery to KG-II in age group of 2.5-6 years. There are a total of 150 students in the school.

Police are also investigating the role, if any, of the lady principal and one of the female directors of the school.

At least eight children were allegedly sexually assaulted in their school bus by its driver and cleaner in presence of a woman assistant in Wani.

The next day the trio was produced before a court , which remanded them in police custody till September 11.

"We received a joint complaint from eight parents of the victims of Wani-based 'Dream Play School', alleging that their minor kids have been sexually assaulted by the driver and the cleaner for the last one month and they were assisted by the lady escort of the bus," said police sub-inspector Rakhi Gedam.

"Surendra and Kiran have been booked under sections 376/2 i (rape), 354 a (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354 b (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe), 506 (criminal intimidation) and under various provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, while the assistant under section 109 (punishment of abetment) of IPC," she added.

As per preliminary investigation, Surendra and Karan allegedly sexually assaulted the children in the school bus itself while the woman assistant remained a mute spectator, police said.

Meanwhile, Wani police has written to the Assistant Charity Commissioner, Yavatmal, and the Assistant Registrar of Co-Operative Societies requesting them to disclose the names of the trustees of the school so that necessary legal action could be initiated against them too.

Jiwne said he could not lodge a complaint against the driver and the cleaner with police earlier "as the parents did not want the identity of their children to be revealed."
Violence erupted in Bengaluru and several other parts of Karnataka over the Supreme Court verdict on the Cauvery issue on Monday, even as the apex court modified its earlier order and directed Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu daily till September 20.

Reports of violence against Kannadigas in Tamil Nadu served as a trigger for the unrest in Karnataka. Rioters took siege of the state capital, attacking vehicles with Tamil Nadu registration and vandalising hotels belonging to Tamils in the city. By evening, violence spread across Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mandya and Hassan. Arson and stone pelting by pro-Kannada groups forced the police to clamp prohibitory orders and deploy the forces across the state. KSRTC, BMTC and Metro services have been suspended. Schools have been declared closed for four days in Mandya.

Said Home Minister G. Parameshwar, "Violence has broken out in the state and we have deployed 10 companies of RAF and CRPF, and 182 companies of KSRP. More than 200 rioters have been detained and section 144 has been clamped in the entire city."

The police opened fire to disperse the mobs who attacked a police patrol van and pelted stones.

The Siddaramaiah government, which called an emergency meeting on Tuesday, has appealed to the people to maintain peace and assured of sound legal remedy to tackle the crisis. Siddaramaiah, in his letter, has urged his Tamil Nadu counterpart J. Jayalalithaa to ensure safety of Kannadigas living in Tamil Nadu. "We are committed to maintaining law and order in our state and protecting call our citizens, including Tamil speaking people. Violence against Kannadigas in Tamil Nadu will incite passions here. So, I urge you to direct your authorities to bring perpetrators of violence to book and protect the Kannadigas in your state," said Siddaramaiah in his letter.

Earlier in the day, Karnataka submitted that it had already released 84,168 cusecs of water (between September 5 and 12), and sought the earlier order directing 15,000 cusecs to be kept in abeyance as the supervisory committee was to meet on Monday to decide on further releases. However, the apex court rejected this plea and posted the next hearing on September 20. The supervisory committee is postponed to September 19.

Expressing unhappiness over the manner in which Karnataka had filed its interim application, the SC observed that "spontaneous agitation" by people could not be the ground for seeking modification of the order. "It is obligation of executive to comply with SC order, citizens cannot become law unto themselves" rapped Justice Dipak Mishra.
Some 300 IDF rescue workers are still operating on the scene of the collapsed underground parking lot construction site in the Ramat HaChaiyal area of Tel Aviv. Now in day three, most feel the rescue operation has become a recovery mission as some people are still believed trapped under the concrete slabs. That said, rescuers have not given up hope of finding people alive. The death toll stands at four as the efforts continue.

The four-story underground parking structure collapsed on Monday, 2 Elul, apparently an accident that is the result human error/negligence. The police investigation into the incident continues.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem/Photo Credit: Police spokesman unit)
[COMMUNICATED CONTENT]

A group of singles in the Tri state area that are looking to get married and build their own beautiful homes, got together and decided to start a campaign to raise funds to finish building a Shabbas Mikvah in Monsey. Monsey expanded over the past few years and the main Mikvah is not in walking distance to a very large part of the community.

Since the mitzvah of Mikvah is known to bring Yeshuos they did this for a zechus for themselves as well as a zechus for others that need a Yeshuah.(Shidduch, children, parnassah, refuah, and shalom bayis).

Rabbi Moshe Neuschloss ZTL Interpreted a verse in Yirmiyahu Mikveh Yisroel, Moshia Bees Tzarah The Mikveh will help Yisroel in time of difficulty. The word Mikvah means hope as well.

It is said that those that finish a Mitzvah get the Sechar (reward) for entire Mitzvah. They would like to give others the opportunity to take part in this great Mitzvah as an extra zechus before Yom Kippur. When the fund reached $18,000.00 a few people that donated substantial funds BH saw tremendous miracles!

A father was on a respirator and the doctors said there was nothing to be done.

A young mother had a cancer that spread all over her body and was told devastating news.

Rabbi Moshe Neushloss zaztal gave a special blessing to those that contribute to the Monsey Mikvah of Rockland.

We started this fund. The day we reached $18,000, we were told that both of these people saw a miracle!

One Doctor said There is no sign of disease.

With tremendous gratitude to Hashem for the miracles he performs daily!

The zechus is eternal and the Mitzvah is tremendous! We feel blessed that we were able to help fund this great Mitzvah and we extend our appreciation to all those that contributed and continue to contribute to this great Mitzvah.

We hope this Mitzvah will bring you and your family the Yeshuos you need!

To donate to this great fund click on link below.

https://matchathon.com/ matchathon?campaign_id=243

To hear more miracles or email us any yeshuos you had after donating

to this fund email [email protected] gmail.com

Tizku lemitzvos,

A very grateful group of singles

Under the Hashgacha of M.O.R.C
HaGaon HaRav Meir Mazuz Shlita, Rosh Yeshivas Kisei Rachamim is not remaining quiet but connects recent tragedies to growing Chilul Shabbos in Eretz Yisrael.

Rav Mazuz on motzei Shabbos announced the collapse of the Tel Aviv parking lot and the explosion of the Amos 6 Satellite on takeoff are not coincidences but the direct result of the chilul Shabbos in Israel.

During his weekly shiur from Bnei Brak, the rav addressed the chilul Shabbos explaining They dont understand that Shabbos will ultimately demand an end to the insult. This has occurred in this country more than once and more than twice.

The rav explained that hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in the satellite which blew up because the launch was scheduled for Shabbos. He reminded listeners that back in 2001 when a large component of an oil refinery had to be moved, while it was planned for Friday night in response to chareidi protests, the operation was moved to a weekday. In that case, it dealt with an item that was 50 meters long and weighed 450 tons and despite the difficulties involved, there was no Shabbos desecration while in the case of Israel Railways work and Amos 6, this was not the case.

Shifting to the parking lot collapse, the rav explains that there are dozens of engineers, inspectors and other professionals involved, yet the structure collapsed and people were buried alive. Rav Mazuz called on state agencies to cease the chilul Shabbos, stating that this type of activity cannot continue with impunity.

Before ending his shiur, Rav Mazuz addressed the case of IDF Sgt. Elor Azariya, who is on trial for manslaughter. He stated that according to Torah Law, the soldier is not guilty. He also spoke out against sending children to the states religious public schools, stating one who does must do so with the awareness that his grandchildren may be goyim.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
During recent years, the Ministry of Education has been investing considerable resources to track and eliminate double funding for students. At times, a student is listed in more than one institution and while considerable progress is reported, the trend is still ongoing. Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) conducted a probe and reveals on Sunday 8 Elul that there are still Mosdos Chabad that benefit from the double billing.

According to Galei Tzahal, a number of Chabad schools have two names, one listing as a chareidi school and the second as a yeshiva. Galei Tzahal checked 10 Chabad schools and learned that in seven of them, talmidim are double listed. Ninety talmidim are present on lists for two schools simultaneously, of which 29 received double funding and this is just from ten schools.

Galei Tzahal points out this phenomenon is abnormal but perhaps it is the result of internal correspondence by agencies dealing with the funding  highlighting the need for computerized cross-checking between the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Religious Services. Faulty communications is viewed as the possible cause for the double billing which apparently hasnt been detected by the Education Ministry.

The ministry responded to the report and stated the matter will be probed and funding offset in line with the findings if they are verified.

Chabads response to the report: The matter of funding for institutions is incorrect or distorted at best and being maliciously misrepresented as worst. The yeshivos that allegedly received double funding do not even appear on the list of yeshivos, and therefore the claim is unfounded. Directors insist no such thing occurred and this is nothing more than baseless slander.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
TORONTO, Sept. 11, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mandalay Resources Corporation ("Mandalay" or the "Company") (TSX:MND) regretfully announces the fatality of a contractor in an incident that occurred yesterday at its Cerro Bayo operation in Aysen, Chile.



The incident occurred underground and was reported to the Chilean authorities; an investigation into the incident has been initiated. Mining operations at Cerro Bayo are temporarily suspended and the Company is now working closely with the contractor, authorities, and our employees to respond effectively.

Dr. Mark Sander, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mandalay, commented: We deeply regret this incident and are working closely with the contractor and the authorities to understand the cause of the fatality. We are focused on the providing support for our employees on site and extend our sincerest condolences to the family of the deceased.

About Mandalay Resources Corporation:

Mandalay Resources is a Canadian-based natural resource company with producing assets in Australia, Chile, and Sweden, and a development project in Chile. The Company is focused on executing a roll-up strategy, creating critical mass by aggregating advanced or in-production gold, copper, silver and antimony projects in Australia, the Americas, and Europe to generate near-term cash flow and shareholder value.
Relatives of some of the 239 passengers and crew on missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 called Monday for more of its possible debris to be examined to define a new search area.

Malaysia, China and Australia agreed in July that the search in the southern Indian Ocean would be suspended after the current 120,000-square kilometer (46,000-square mile) expanse has been thoroughly examined with deep sea sonar equipment in the absence of credible new evidence that identified the planes location.

Eight relatives of lost passengers who met with Australian officials coordinating the search on behalf of Malaysia expressed frustration that they were not given a definition of what constituted credible new evidence that would result in a continuation of the search.

American wreckage hunter Blaine Gibson attended the meeting at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau headquarters with the relatives from Malaysia, China, Australia and Indonesia and handed over to investigators five pieces of potential debris that he found on beaches in Madagascar. Two of the pieces were burnt, which could indicate a disastrous fire on board, he said.

Gibson previously found a panel from Flight 370 in Mozambique. Malaysia has yet to collect other potential debris that Blaine has found washed up on Madagascar since June and handed to authorities there.

I hope that the search will go on and in my amateur opinion this constitutes new, credible evidence that justifies continuing the search, Gibson told reporters of his unconfirmed debris find.

Some confirmed pieces of debris have washed ashore in the western Indian Ocean, and the families believe other items yet to be examined may be clues to the planes location.

Grace Nathan, a Malaysian whose mother was on the Boeing 777 that vanished during a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing on March 8, 2014, said governments should be coordinating a search for debris and using drift modeling to define a new area to search after the current search is to be completed in December.

We want to call on the three nations  Australia, China and Malaysia  to make a concerted effort to go out and look for this credible new information, Nathan said.

Its very impressive that one private individual citizen, Blaine Alan Gibson, has managed to find up to 15 pieces of aircraft debris and we hope that these three nations do more than just hope by fluke people find more debris, she added.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau confirmed in a statement that it had received debris from Gibson and was seeking advice from Malaysia on how Australia should proceed.

Jennifer Chong, a Melbourne-based Malaysian-Australian dual citizen whose husband was aboard Flight 370, wondered why Malaysia had not sent diplomats to the five-hour meeting with Australian search officials. China and Indonesia both sent diplomats to support their citizens.

Oceanographers are analyzing the first piece of wreckage found, a wing flap known as a flaperon that washed up on Reunion Island off the African coast in July last year  16 months after the plane went missing  in the hope of narrowing a possible next area adjoining the current search boundary through drift modeling.

A wing flap found on Tanzania is also being examined at Australian Transport Safety Bureau headquarters for clues. Search officials expect more Flight 370 wreckage to wash up in the months ahead.

Sheryl Keen, chairwoman of Air Crash Support Group, which is supporting the relatives during their week in Australia, called on Malaysia to collect the debris found by Gibson on Madagascar and to consider handing responsibility for the search to Australia.

(AP)
A group of six Gulf Arab countries expressed deep concern Monday over a bill passed by the U.S. Congress that would allow families of Sept. 11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia over the attacks.

The head of the Saudi-dominated Gulf Cooperation Council, Abdullatif al-Zayani, said in a statement that the legislation runs against the principles of international law and sets a dangerous precedent for foreign relations.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved the legislation last Friday, following earlier passage by the Senate. The White House has signaled President Barack Obama would veto the proposed law over concerns that it could backfire by opening up the U.S. to similar lawsuits from other countries.

The legislation could also further strain relations between Washington and the oil-rich kingdom, which is wary of the Obama administrations outreach to its regional rival, Iran.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers on the planes that killed thousands in New York, the Washington, D.C. area and Pennsylvania were Saudi nationals.

Congress in July released 28 declassified pages from a congressional report into 9/11 that rekindled speculation that some of the hijackers had ties to Saudi government officials. Later U.S. investigations into the attacks were unable to substantiate the allegations.

Saudi Arabia welcomed the release of the declassified files, saying they contained no surprises and should end speculation of official Saudi involvement. But the kingdom has strongly objected to the proposed legislation allowing 9/11 lawsuits, which would give victims families the right to sue Saudi Arabia in U.S. courts over any role that the Saudi government may have played in the 2001 attacks.

The United Arab Emirates, which has the second-largest economy in the GCC after Saudi Arabia, issued its own statement echoing the Gulf blocs concerns Monday.

This law is not equal with the foundations and principles of relations among states, and represents a clear violation given its negative repercussions and dangerous precedents, said Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the federations foreign minister.

The seven-state Emirates federation is one of Washingtons closest Arab allies. Two of the 9/11 hijackers were Emirati.

(AP)
Police were summoned on Monday morning 9 Elul to investigate a graffiti attack against a shul on Yossi Ben Yoezer Street in the Katamonim neighborhood of the capital. As seen in the photos, crucifixes were painted on the wall and windows of the shul.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem/Photo Credit: Police spokesman unit)
An atzeres was held on Sunday night 8 Elul commemorating the destruction of Gush Katif. The event was held in the shul in Amona, which is slated for destruction in line with a High Court ruling, which must be carried out by the end of the Gregorian year.

Among the prominent rabbonim present were Rabbi Chaim Druckman Shlita, Rabbi Yaakov Ariel Shlita, Rabbi Yisrael Ariel Shlita, and Rabbi Zalman Melamed Shlita. Public officials were also in attendance including MK (Likud) Miki Zohar and MK (Bayit Yehudi) Betzalel Smotrich.

The rav of the community of Emanuel, Rabbi Yair Frank opened the event saying There will not be more destruction of a Jewish community in Eretz Yisrael. We must begin the tikun with Amona. We are here to announced Eretz Yisrael belongs to Am Yisrael. Enough! We will not move from our place!

Rabbi Frank read a letter from Rav Shar Yashuv in Gush Katif which says If chas vsholom the state destroys shuls, it will be an enormous chilul Hashem

Rav Frank warned that the destruction of Amona will be a major mistake, nothing more than destruction for the sake of destruction by the left-wing.

Rabbi Druckman, who heads the Yeshivot Bnei Akiva, explained he was compelled to come to cry out and be heard. He called for finding a way to prevent yet more destruction of communities in Eretz Yisrael by the State of Israel.

Rabbi Yisrael Ariel questioned how there are persons among Am Yisrael wishing to uproot homes from Derech HaAvot, then speaking about how he was among those evicted from Yamit. He warned We already saw mesirus nefesh at Amona along with bloodshed. Amona has become a symbol.

Rabbi Zalman Melamed quoted Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook saying at the Kosel We have returned home and we will not budge from here. The main error of governments throughout history is not deciding all of Eretz Yisrael including Yehuda and Shomron belongs to the State of Israel.

Rav Melamed added while the nations will not like it, we are commanded not to fear them and the Torah prohibits us to fear the nations. They have different means to apply pressure; political, economic and diplomatic. However, the Torah commands us not to be afraid. If we arent afraid, then as a result there will be less intimidations.

Rabbi Melamed then spoke of the removal of the Ulpana neighborhood of Beit El three years ago, explaining the government must understand We are against destruction but we lack the koach to stand up to the High Court ruling but we have decided from here on in, things would be different. This will be the basis for our agreement that there would not be active resistance. This pertains specifically to Amona.

He reminded those present that Ministers Erdan and Elkin promised him in the name of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to build 300 housing units in exchange for agreeing to leave the Ulpana neighborhood but this has not happened. When I make a promise I keep my word explaining Rabbi Melamed. He blames PM Netanyahu for holding up the construction.

Rabbi Melamed then turned to the dati leumi party in Knesset, Bayit Yehudi, calling on the party to refrain from voting with the government coalition until such time legislation is introduced to circumvent the High Court ruling and prevent the destruction of Amona.

Rabbi Yaakov Ariel also spoke, calling on lawmakers to legislate a law that will circumvent the High Court and prevent the destruction and removal of Jews from their homes.

MK Smotrich stated that a government that brings about such destruction will not last. He expressed criticism against the High Court ruling, which he insists is contrary to the will of the nation.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Recent polls continue to show that Yair Lapid and his Yesh Atid party may become the largest party in Knesset. This means it is extremely likely that Lapid will become Israels next Prime Minister.

Some chareidim are beginning to ponder how they would address such a reality, which may soon pose new challenges for chareidi parties in Knesset.

This leads us to Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, who is the only elected chareidi officials who still will not speak to Lapid. Since Lapids share the burden efforts directed against the chareidim in the previous Knesset, Litzman has decided there is nothing to speak with him about as he is an enemy of chareidi Jewry. He feels that despite Lapids public apologizes and gestures of peace-making, nothing has changed as he still believes in the same platform, which is anti-chareidi.

At a Ramat Gan event on Sunday, 8 Elul, Litzman discussed relations between chareidim and Lapid, and it appears nothing has changed in his eyes. When asked what he thinks with polls showing Yesh Atid earning 24 seats, Litzman said permit me to calm everyone. He will not become Prime Minister.

He opted to add I still do not speak with Lapid and do not plan to do so. He has not changed his positions and wearing a kippa at the Kosel means nothing. When he votes in favor of our laws then we can speak.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday 9 Elul, in his office, met with Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel. The visit is the first by a Prime Minister of Luxembourg to Israel. The meeting was very good and was held in a warm and friendly atmosphere. Luxembourg Prime Minister Bettel invited Prime Minister Netanyahu to visit his country. Topics discussed at the meeting included bilateral economic relations and ways to deepen them as well as various regional issues.

PM Netanyahu said, This is your first visit, the first in Israel and I hope its not the last. You invited me to Luxembourg. Ive already visited Luxembourg once and I intend to do it again.

You come obviously at a time of great turmoil in the Middle East, the world looks with horror as hundreds of thousands are slaughtered in Syria and millions stream to Europe, fleeing for their lives. We spoke about that at some length but I think this is a time of great opportunity as well. And that gives me a great deal of hope. Israels partnerships and alliances around the world and in the region are growing broader and deeper. We stand together with many countries to defend civilization against the forces of militant Islamic barbarism and we stand together in the face of resurgent anti-Semitism. I expressed my appreciation for the forthright positon that you took in Luxembourg regarding the events there during the Second World War and your apology to the Jewish community was deeply appreciated.

We also spoke about the future. We stand together to innovate and seize the future. Innovation is the key to economic growth, to turn the promise of tomorrows technologies to better the lives of our peoples and I think for the peoples around the world. Israel and Luxembourg are two small countries but weve shown that two small countries can be, we shouldnt be judged by our size, we can do a lot of great things and we are doing them. And I think our small countries possess great strength and together well be stronger.

We had very fruitful discussions. I believe in this partnership and I look forward to continuing this discussion with you in Luxembourg or any other place. So, come back again and welcome.

Mr. Netanyahu added, Prime Minister Bettel invited me to Luxembourg but he also said maybe the Palestinians will come there. Well, its either Moscow or Luxembourg. Well see, one of them or anywhere else. Were always prepared to have direct negotiations without preconditions.

PM Bettel responded, Im very glad to be here in Israel today with my delegation. Its the first time a Luxembourgish Prime Minister is visiting your country and Im very happy to hear also that the position of my Government, 70 years later, to apologize to the Jewish community by saying that we were not all heroes in my country, was deeply appreciated. For me it was important to do that step because its never too late to recognize errors but the biggest error is not to recognize errors. So Im happy that we did it.

We are friends, Luxembourg and Israel, and our bilateral relations are excellent on the political level but also on the business level and we have a big economic delegation that is also now discussing with its counterparts here in Israel.

We are both innovative economies, based on innovative economies. We are smart countries, as I like to call also Luxembourg. This reason why besides the political purpose of the visit we had also meetings to strength also the economic relations between both countries. Just give you an example: For example, Luxembourg and Israel trade has nearly doubled from 2014 to 2015. There is still a large potential but Im also happy that we opened, in 2010, a Trade and Investment Office here in Israel.

After this meeting I will go now to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to sign an agreement between universities to strengthen cooperation on the academic and student levels.

We discussed also about the situation we have now in the world. It is, for us as Luxembourg, as I told you Prime Minister, important that we respect each other, that we are able to find solutions. We want, I know that we offered also the opportunity to speak together which is the most important thing for us  to be able to have dialogue. I will visit, continue my visit tomorrow and for me to bring people together, to speak together, to find solutions together is the most important thing.

Young people in Europe should know that we live in peace since the Treaty of Rome was signed in 1957, and that peace is not taken for granted. And we should work together to respect it because this is the most important thing  to preserve peace which is for me as a political leader my biggest aim and goal  to respect, to listen, to understand and to work together. So Im very happy about the discussion we had today and Im very confident for the future discussions we will have together in this hope because we have common goals. Its the best for all of us.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem/Photo Credit: Haim Zach, GPO)
Donald Trump criticized Hillary Clinton Monday for her characterization that half of his supporters belonged in a basket of deplorables, denouncing the comment as an explicit attack on the American voter and suggesting that it makes her unfit for the presidency.

No stranger to making his own sweeping negative characterizations of large groups of people, Trump nonetheless deployed the remark as the foundation for a new campaign theme. The message: Clinton is divisive, while Trump is the only candidate representing all Americans.

You cannot run for president if you have such contempt in your heart for the American voter, Trump said. You cant lead this nation if you have such a low opinion of its citizens.

In a speech to the National Guard Association conference in Baltimore, Trump said Clintons comments were aimed at those in uniform, whether in the military or in law enforcement.

These were the people Hillary Clinton so viciously demonized, said Trump, who demanded that Clinton issue a full apology. She divides people into baskets as though they were objects not human beings.

Clinton has said she regrets using the term, half, to describe the proportion of Trump supporters she considers deplorables. But she didnt back down from describing his campaign as largely built on prejudice and paranoia. The comments, though, combined with Clintons health scare Sunday at the 9/11 memorial  she was captured on video struggling to step into a waiting van and her doctor later announced that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia  could reshape the race, in which Clinton holds slim leads in several battleground states.

Trump and his allies pounced on Clintons deplorables remark, but remained mostly disciplined and silent on Clintons health. A new ad, set to air in the battleground states of Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, is squarely aimed at the voters the Trump campaign says Clinton is vilifying.

You know whats deplorable? Hillary Clinton viciously demonizing hard working people like you, concludes the ad.

Clinton, who has said she is the candidate to unify a divided country, made the deplorables comment at a fundraiser Friday night in New York. She has made similar comments recently, including on an Israeli television station.

To just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trumps supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic  you name it, she said, before stressing that other Trump supporters are frustrated and need sympathy.

Trump and his aides have predicted that Clintons statement would be more damaging than the gaffe to which it has been frequently compared, when Mitt Romney four years ago suggested that 47 percent of voters wouldnt back him because they were dependent on government.

When I saw this in its full form and I saw the anger with which she said it, Trump told the Fox News Channel early Monday, I think its the single biggest mistake of the political season.

But Trump has also attacked Americans who dont intend to vote for him.

When he trailed Dr. Ben Carson in the polls last December in Iowa, he mocked his opponents claim that he had tried to stab a family member only to fail after the blade hit a belt buckle.

How stupid are the people of Iowa? he asked. How stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap?

He also criticized voters in Iowa by retweeting a supporters jab that the Midwestern states number one commodity export  Monsantos genetically engineered corn  creates issues in the brain. Trump has also suggested that those who vote for Clinton would try to rig the election away from his supporters and, in a 2015 interview with Sean Hannity, made comments that appeared to echo Romneys damaging remarks.

The problem we have right now, we have a society that sits back and says, We dont have to do anything. And eventually, the 50 percent cannot carry, and its unfair to em, but cannot carry the other 50 percent.

Trump, meanwhile, set aside his recent digs at Clintons health and told Fox that he hopes she gets well and gets back on the trail and well be seeing her at the debate. In recent weeks, Trump has suggested that Clinton lacked the stamina to president and criticized her campaign schedule.

(AP)
MARTINSRIED / MUNICH, Germany, Sept. 12, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MorphoSys AG (FSE: MOR; Prime Standard Segment, TecDAX; OTC: MPSYY) today announced the appointment of four leading experts to its newly formed Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). The SAB is set up to consult the Company with regard to strategic options and future perspectives within its research and development activities. The goal of the SAB is thus to further strengthen MorphoSys's leadership position in discovery and clinical development of antibody and peptide-based therapies for cancer, inflammation and other therapeutic fields of high medical need.

The inaugural members of MorphoSys's Scientific Advisory Board are:

Dr. Gunther R. Adolf (former Vice President Pharmacology and Deputy Head of Oncology Research at Boehringer Ingelheim, Vienna, Austria),

Prof. Dr. Bruce D. Cheson (Professor of Medicine & Deputy Chief, Division of Hematology and Oncology, Georgetown University Hospital, Washington D.C., USA),

Dr. Sergio Quezada (Professorial Research Fellow and Group Leader, Immune Regulation and Tumor Immunotherapy, University College London Cancer Institute, London, UK), and

Dr. Raymond W. Sweet (former Senior Director and Fellow, Biologics Research at Janssen, J&J, Pennsylvania, USA).

"It is a great pleasure to welcome our new Scientific Advisory Board members to MorphoSys," said Dr. Marlies Sproll, Chief Scientific Officer of MorphoSys AG. "Their strong drug discovery and development expertise in therapeutic fields of key interest to MorphoSys such as oncology, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases will perfectly support our ongoing and future discovery and development activities."

"We are excited to inaugurate a Scientific Advisory Board with highly experienced experts, who will support us in growing and maturing our proprietary pipeline of promising drug candidates," added Dr. Arndt Schottelius, Chief Development Officer of MorphoSys AG. "Their scientific and clinical insight and guidance will further help us to exploit the full potential of our portfolio."

About MorphoSys:

MorphoSys developed HuCAL, the most successful antibody library technology in the pharmaceutical industry. By successfully applying this and other patented technologies, MorphoSys has become a leader in the field of therapeutic antibodies, one of the fastest-growing drug classes in human healthcare.

Together with its pharmaceutical partners, MorphoSys has built a therapeutic pipeline of more than 100 human antibody drug candidates for the treatment of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and Alzheimer's disease, to name just a few. With its ongoing commitment to new antibody technology and drug development, MorphoSys is focused on making the healthcare products of tomorrow. MorphoSys is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol MOR. For regular updates about MorphoSys, visit http://www.morphosys.com.

HuCAL, HuCAL GOLD, HuCAL PLATINUM, CysDisplay, RapMAT, arYla, Ylanthia, 100 billion high potentials, Slonomics, Lanthio Pharma and LanthioPep are registered trademarks of the MorphoSys Group.

This communication contains certain forward-looking statements concerning the MorphoSys group of companies. The forward-looking statements contained herein represent the judgment of MorphoSys as of the date of this release and involve risks and uncertainties. Should actual conditions differ from the Company's assumptions, actual results and actions may differ from those anticipated. MorphoSys does not intend to update any of these forward-looking statements as far as the wording of the relevant press release is concerned.

For more information, please contact:

MorphoSys AG

Dr. Claudia Gutjahr-Loser

Head of Corporate Communications & IR

Jochen Orlowski

Associate Director Corporate Communications & IR

Alexandra Goller

Senior Manager Corporate Communications & IR

Tel: +49 (0) 89 / 899 27-404

investors@morphosys.com

Media Release http://hugin.info/130295/R/2041087/761484.pdf
VANCOUVER, Washington, Sept. 12, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CytoDyn Inc. (OTC.QB:CYDY), a biotechnology company focused on the development of new antibody therapies for combating human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, today announced that it has entered into definitive agreements with healthcare dedicated institutional investors for an offering of 13,333,334 shares of common stock, at a price per share of $0.75, and warrants to purchase 6,666,667 shares of common stock with gross proceeds of approximately $10.0 million in a registered direct offering. The warrants have an exercise price of $1.00 per share and will expire five years from the date of issuance. The closing of the offering is expected to take place on or about September 15, 2016, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.



Rodman & Renshaw, a unit of H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC, acted as the exclusive placement agent in connection with this offering.

Net proceeds from the offering are expected to be approximately $9.0 million. CytoDyn intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to fund clinical trials for its product candidates and for general corporate purposes.

The securities described above are being offered by CytoDyn pursuant to a shelf registration statement (File No. 333-213349) previously filed with and subsequently declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC). A prospectus supplement relating to the offering will be filed with the SEC and will be available on the SECs website at http://www.sec.gov and following such filing, copies of the prospectus supplement and the accompanying base prospectus relating to this offering may be obtained at the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov, or from H.C. Wainwright & Co. by e-mailing placements@hcwco.com.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein. There shall not be any offer, solicitation of an offer to buy, or sale of securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offering, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

About CytoDyn

CytoDyn is a biotechnology company focused on the clinical development and potential commercialization of humanized monoclonal antibodies for the treatment and prevention of HIV infection. The Company has one of the leading monoclonal antibodies under development for HIV infection, PRO 140, which has completed Phase 2 clinical trials with demonstrated antiviral activity in man and is currently in Phase 3. PRO 140 blocks the HIV co-receptor CCR5 on T cells, which prevents viral entry. Clinical trial results thus far indicate that PRO 140 does not negatively affect the normal immune functions that are mediated by CCR5. Results from seven Phase 1 and Phase 2 human clinical trials have shown that PRO 140 can significantly reduce viral burden in people infected with HIV. A recent Phase 2b clinical trial demonstrated that PRO 140 can prevent viral escape in patients during several months of interruption from conventional drug therapy. CytoDyn intends to continue to develop PRO 140 as a therapeutic anti-viral agent in persons infected with HIV and to pursue non-HIV indications where CCR5 and its ligand CCL5 may be involved. For more information on the Company, please visit www.cytodyn.com.

About PRO 140

PRO 140 belongs to a new class of HIV/AIDS therapeutics  viral-entry inhibitors  that are intended to protect healthy cells from viral infection. PRO 140 is a humanized IgG4 monoclonal antibody directed against CCR5, a molecular portal that HIV uses to enter T-cells. PRO 140 blocks the predominant HIV (R5) subtype entry into T-cells by masking this required co-receptor, CCR5. Importantly, PRO 140 does not appear to interfere with the normal function of CCR5 in mediating immune responses. PRO 140 does not have agonist activity toward CCR5 but does have antagonist activity to CCL5, which is a central mediator in inflammatory diseases. PRO 140 has been the subject of seven clinical trials, each demonstrating efficacy by significantly reducing or controlling HIV viral load in human test subjects. PRO 140 has been designated a fast track product candidate by the FDA. The PRO 140 antibody appears to be a powerful antiviral agent leading to potentially fewer side effects and less frequent dosing requirements as compared to daily drug therapies currently in use.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of United States securities laws, including statements regarding the completion of the offering, use of proceeds and size of the offering. These statements and information represent CytoDyns intentions, plans, expectations, and beliefs and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, many beyond CytoDyns control. These factors could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements or information. The words believe, estimate, expect, intend, attempt, anticipate, foresee, plan, and similar expressions and variations thereof identify certain of such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, which speak only as of the date on which they are made.

CytoDyn disclaims any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. While it is impossible to identify or predict all such matters, these differences may result from, among other things, the inherent uncertainty of the timing and success of and expense associated with research, development, regulatory approval, and commercialization of CytoDyns products and product candidates, including the risks that clinical trials will not commence or proceed as planned; products appearing promising in early trials will not demonstrate efficacy or safety in larger-scale trials; future clinical trial data on CytoDyns products and product candidates will be unfavorable; funding for additional clinical trials may not be available; CytoDyns products may not receive marketing approval from regulators or, if approved, may fail to gain sufficient market acceptance to justify development and commercialization costs; competing products currently on the market or in development may reduce the commercial potential of CytoDyns products; CytoDyn, its collaborators or others may identify side effects after the product is on the market; or efficacy or safety concerns regarding marketed products, whether or not scientifically justified, may lead to product recalls, withdrawals of marketing approval, reformulation of the product, additional pre-clinical testing or clinical trials, changes in labeling of the product, the need for additional marketing applications, or other adverse events.

CytoDyn is also subject to additional risks and uncertainties, including risks associated with the actions of its corporate, academic, and other collaborators and government regulatory agencies; risks from market forces and trends; potential product liability; intellectual property litigation; environmental and other risks; and risks that current and pending patent protection for its products may be invalid, unenforceable, or challenged or fail to provide adequate market exclusivity. There are also substantial risks arising out of CytoDyns need to raise additional capital to develop its products and satisfy its financial obligations; the highly regulated nature of its business, including government cost-containment initiatives and restrictions on third-party payments for its products; the highly competitive nature of its industry; and other factors set forth in CytoDyns Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2016 and other reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

CONTACTS:

Investors:

LHA

Jody Cain

Office: 310-691-7100

E-mail: jcain@lhai.com

Media:

RooneyPartners

Marion Janic

Office: 212-223-4017

Email: mjanic@rooneyco.com








Coal might be all but dead in the UK  but worldwide prices are enjoying a surprise resurgence.

Britains last deep mine  Kellingley colliery in north Yorkshire  closed last December with the loss of around 450 jobs. It followed a slump in prices to near-decade lows because of falling demand.

Cutting edge: An unexpected surge in Chinese imports to compensate for lower domestic production has seen European prices leap to near an 18-month high

In China the International Energy Agency declared the fuels golden age was over in order to curb pollution.

But an unexpected surge in Chinese imports to compensate for lower domestic production has seen European prices leap to near an 18-month high. The price of coal needed to make steel has surged more than 45 per cent over the past three weeks.

And the price for premium coking coal exported from Australia jumped to more than $158 a ton last week, more than double the $78 a ton sellers were getting at the start of the year.
Luxury greetings card seller Paperchase is gearing up for a 150m float on the stock market, sources claim.

The chains private equity backer Primary Capital is understood to be looking for an exit after six years of ownership.

It has previously mulled over a private sector sale, hiring Financo and PwC to assess options in 2014. But the chains management is said to be keen to go public.

Paperchase was founded by art students Judith Cash and Eddie Pond in 1968. The company later became part of US bookseller Borders, operating out of its stores. But after spinning out of its American parent, the UK part of Borders collapsed into administration in 2009 and Paperchase lost 38 concessions as a result.

This spurred chief executive Timothy Melgund, who is the Earl of Minto, to lead a management buyout from Borders Inc, which was still trading in the US.
MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 12, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vital Images, Inc. (Vital), a Minneapolis-based advanced medical imaging and informatics company, is pleased to announce the support of Nuance PowerScribe 360 Reporting and PenRad PenLung Lung Screening Management system in its comprehensive Lung Screening solution. The Vitrea CT Lung Analysis application helps clinicians standardize the diagnosis of lung nodules, while the solutions workflow system facilitates management of lung screening treatment plans.



Nuances PowerScribe 360 is the market-leading speech recognition technology for radiology, providing accurate, flexible and rapid reporting that is consistent and actionable. The high-quality reports generated by PowerScribe 360 can help healthcare organizations improve both patient care and physician satisfaction, and optimize billing and reimbursement.

PenLung by PenRad is a unified software solution that helps radiology departments and imaging facilities manage patients participating in low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) lung screening programs. It collects smoking and environmental risk history through automated web and tablet calculators to manage patient eligibility and export of the lung registry for reimbursement.

We are excited to announce the support of PowerScribe 360 and PenLung as part of our comprehensive Lung Screening solution offering to healthcare organizations, says Jim Litterer, President and CEO of Vital. The integration of these powerful tools with CT Lung Screening can help providers continue to improve patient outcomes by streamlining both workflow and treatment plan management.

About Vital Images, Inc.

Vital Images, Inc., a Toshiba Medical Systems Group company, is a leading provider of diagnostic imaging and enterprise informatics solutions to help healthcare organizations deliver exceptional care while optimizing resources across multi-facility organizations. The company's solutions are scalable to meet the unique needs of hospitals and imaging centers and are accessible throughout the enterprise anytime, anywhere. For more information, visit www.vitalimages.com or join the conversation on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Vitrea is a trademark of Vital Images, Inc.

Marks not owned by Vital Images, Inc. are the property of their respective holders.
Blue-blooded bank NM Rothschild is facing an embarrassing lawsuit from four British pensioners who claim it mistreated them over mortgages.

The investment house lent them cash worth up to 75 per cent of the value of their Spanish homes, it is alleged, with the proceeds then invested in an insurance company. The aim was to provide the pensioners with income. But they claim it did not perform as well as promised, leaving them unable to pay off their debts.

They claim that Rothschild abused its position as a highly respected bank.

Unable to pay: Rothschild denied the allegations and said it had acted as a lender, not an adviser

After being invited to a meeting by now-defunct financial adviser Henry Woods, Michael and Roberta Carney, aged 72 and 71, took out a 247,500 loan in 2006 on their Malaga home, investing most of it in a fund run by Aspecta Assurance. The couple claim to have lost 105,500, according to The Sunday Times.

Brian and Pamela Fox, 84 and 81, said they had lost 213,000 after agreeing to a similar scheme in 2005.
Associated British Foods' shares took a tumble as sales at its flagship Primark stores unit declined, while the group's pension scheme moved from a surplus to a deficit.

In an trading update, the FTSE 100-listed firm said overall group underlying profit was ahead of expectations and better than last year, but added that full year like-for-like sales at Primark are expected to have fallen 2 per cent as unseasonably warm weather last Christmas and a 'very cold' March and April dampened its performance.

The firm also warned that margins at the discount fashion retail chain are likely to be hit in the year ahead as a result of the weakening of the pound.

Bags of concerns: AB Foods warned that margins at its Primark discount clothing retail chain are likely to be hit in the year ahead as a result of the weakening of the pound

Primark's weak like-for-like sales figures, however, masked expectations for overall annual sales growth of 9 per cent for the full year due to a number of new store openings, including its first one in Italy.

Nevertheless, with Primark being the biggest part of ABF's business, accounting for 45 per cent of group sales, AB Foods shares topped the FTSE 100 fallers list in late morning trade, dropping 7 per cent, or 216p to 2,940p.

George Salmon, Equity Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: 'Reaction to this mornings update serves as a timely reminder of how important the Primark division is to ABF.

'Despite conditions in the groups other divisions improving, the shares fell by over 4 per cent as the market focused on the declining like-for-like sales at Primark and the likelihood of lower margins next year.'

He added: 'ABF is one of the more highly rated UK clothing retailers, with high hopes for its plans to expand into the US following the successful roll-out into Europe.

'In the longer term, success here is critical; a Primark that trades well in the US will have vast growth potential, but if the brand fails to gain traction in the notoriously competitive US apparel sector, then a lot of hopes will have been dashed.'

Analysts also expressed concern that the group's UK pension scheme has plunged from a small surplus this time last year to a 200million deficit, which resulted in 'an increased service cost and a higher interest charge next year'.

Since the UK voted to leave the EU in June, gilt yields have plunged amid expectations for lower economic growth and a splurge of stimulus measures from the Bank of England, causing the total deficit for UK pension funds to balloon to a record higher past 400billion.

Sweet: AB Foods, which owns Silver Spoon sugar on its food side, also confirmed it had agreed to sell its cane sugar business in southern China to a consortium

Henry Croft, Research Analyst at Accendo Markets, said: 'Associated British Foods shares are the worst performer on the FTSE this morning, despite what on the surface looks like a positive trading update.

'Investors will like the sound of 2016 operating profit but on the one hand its balance sheet now suffers from a 200million hole (previously a surplus) on its pensions scheme as well as a likely higher debt by year end.

He added: 'Even worse, perhaps, is the forecast for sales at its flagship Primark brand to be down 2 per cent like-for-like due to bad weather and FX moves.

'A mid-September heatwave could even make things worse for Primark delaying the start of the all-important Autumn/Winter season and those big ticket purchases. Is the food/ingredients side of the business enough keep the shares in fashion?'

The conglomerate, which owns Twinings tea, Kingsmill bread and Silver Spoon sugar on the food side, also confirmed it had agreed to sell its cane sugar business in southern China to a consortium led by Shenzhen-listed Nanning Sugar Industry.

AB Foods did not disclose the value of the deal but according to Reuters the transaction value, including debt, was about $500million.
The Bank of England will start circulating its first ever plastic 5 note tomorrow which will feature legendary former Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

The new banknote is printed on polymer rather than paper, a thin flexible plastic film which the Bank says is cleaner, stronger and more secure.

It will print 440million of the notes, which can last around five years longer than paper note, which will be phased out.

They feature prison reformer Elizabeth Fry and can be used in shops until it is withdrawn from circulation in May 2017.

Scroll down for video

Churchill note: The fiver stars the former Prime Minister and is made from polymer

After May 2017, paper 5 notes can only be exchanged with the Bank of England.

The new 5 note paves the way for a new generation of security features, making the note harder to counterfeit, the Bank of England claims.

They include a see-through window featuring the Queen's portrait as well as Big Ben shown in gold foil on the front of the note and silver on the back.

The new notes are also 15 per cent smaller than the ones currently used.

Mark Carney, Bank of England governor, said: 'The new fiver will commemorate the achievements of the only prime minister to win the Nobel Prize for literature and one of the greatest statesmen of all time - Sir Winston Churchill.

'As he himself said, "a nation that forgets its past has no future". Our banknotes are repositories of the United Kingdom's collective memory and like Churchill, our new polymer notes will stand the test of time.'

Next Tuesday: The new notes will start being dished out from Tuesday

While the new fiver is the first Bank of England note to be printed on polymer, some parts of the UK have already experienced plastic banknotes.

In March 2015 in Scotland, Clydesdale Bank issued two million 5 polymer banknotes to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the opening of the Forth Bridge.

More than 30 countries issue polymer notes, including Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Singapore and Canada.

Novelist Jane Austen will be the face of the new 10 note from summer 2017.

Artist JMW Turner will appear on the next 20 banknote, due to be issued by 2020.

Like the Churchill fiver, the new 10 and 20 notes will also be printed on polymer.

Plastic note: More than 30 countries use polymer notes, including Australia and Canada

Born at Blenheim Palace on November 30, 1874, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was elected as a Conservative MP for Oldham in 1900.

In May 1940 he became Prime Minister, replacing Neville Chamberlain and leading the newly-formed national government.

In his first speech to the new administration, he declared: 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat' - words which are depicted on the new 5 note.

Sir Winston's strong leadership qualities during the Second World War earned him a vast international following, particularly in the United States where he was granted honorary US citizenship.

He has been portrayed on the postage stamps of 150 nations.

During his lifetime, Sir Winston received 37 orders, decorations and medals including Companion of Honour, Order of Merit, Order of the Garter and in 1953 the Nobel Prize for literature.

He died at the age of 90, on January 24, 1965, and was given a state funeral. Sir Winston was also the first commoner to be portrayed on a British coin - the 1965 crown or five shilling piece.
Families are being financially crippled by county court judgments they knew nothing about, the Daily Mail reveals today.

Hard-working professionals have had to sell their homes and even their businesses after rulings that they had no chance to contest.

Banks, utility companies and parking cowboys are obtaining the judgments (CCJs) at an anonymous building in Northampton over alleged debts as small as 1p. Last night, the Ministry of Justice launched an investigation into the Mails findings, as campaigners compared them to the PPI scandal over mis-sold insurance.

The heart-breaking stories we uncovered included:

Newlyweds who lost their dream house because a water bill was sent to the grooms old university digs;

A family who found themselves homeless because of someone elses parking ticket;

A jeweller who was forced to sell his home and shop because a mistaken parking ticket cost him 30,000.

More than 2,000 judgments are being signed off every day, without the cases being defended or heard by a judge in open court. The number of CCJs has risen by more than a third in just three years  almost 900,000 were issued last year, and 85 per cent were uncontested.

Car crash: Sue and Antony Evans couldn't get a mortgage because of a CCJ which was on Antony's file which he didn't know about

The judgments  which stay on a persons credit file for six years  are issued against people who fail to pay a bill.

But the Mail has discovered that a growing number of financially responsible people are having CCJs obtained against them without their knowledge.

They often result from the chaos of a house move, when people forget to update their utility provider, bank or phone company promptly. Bills and CCJ claims are then sent to the old address and they have no chance to dispute the order or pay.

In other cases, people have had CCJ claims sent to old addresses even though they have updated all their records.

Many only find out about the judgments years later when they are refused mortgages or business loans.

Those who have CCJs taken out against them include customers of HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays, NatWest, Vodafone, O2, npower, United Utilities and parking companies.

Courts minister Sir Oliver Heald said last night: These are serious claims which will be looked at urgently. Our legal system is world-leading and we are determined to ensure that it is not open to abuse.

Lost their dream house: Kristian and Laura Hancocks with their children Charlie and Bethan - they found out he had a CCJ against when he was declined a mortgage at the last minute

County courts have an important role to ensure debts are paid, and to protect people and businesses from crooks.

Those found not to have paid back money they owe have CCJs placed on their official credit records as a warning to banks, landlords and employers.

But in an apparent perversion of the system, hundreds of thousands of consumers are having CCJs obtained against them every year over alleged debts, without any defence being heard in open court.

Private parking firm ParkingEye  which runs car parks at hospitals, supermarkets and hotels  made more than 60,000 CCJ claims against drivers in the past three years, with its smallest judgment being for 1p.

The Ministry of Justice figures do not provide any more information about the victims or what happened in their cases.

The companies have been allowed to file bulk claims for CCJs to a court office building in Northampton using an electronic system.

When they make a claim, the firms provide the office with address details for the customer they are pursuing. Claim forms are then posted out by the court and if there is no reply in 14 days, the CCJ is automatically processed by administrative staff.

Crucially, the court does not check the addresses or ask for proof that they are correct.

Almost every person who spoke to the Mail about unfairly receiving a CCJ said they knew nothing about the claims at the time because correspondence had been sent to old addresses.

Mortgage refused: Media consultant James Smith was turned down because of a CCJ he knew nothing about

Mason Bullock Solicitors, which specialises in the cases, said it was contacted by at least two people every day who had discovered they had a CCJ passed against them that they were not warned about.

Bob Neill, Tory MP and chairman of the Commons justice committee, said last night: The Mails investigation raises very serious issues. People should always know if court proceedings are being taken against them and have the chance to defend claims.

Political campaigner Baroness Ros Altmann said the CCJ system was giving unscrupulous firms a licence to steal. She added: There is a serious flaw in the UK legal system. If big companies are relying on this as a means of income then they should be forced to repay, like with PPI.

People can apply to have CCJs set aside, but it costs 255 and can take up to a year. Three out of four people applying to have them set aside are successful.

Barclays, NatWest, HSBC and Lloyds Banking Group, which owns Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, said they made every effort to contact customers who they believed owed them money, and CCJs were a last resort.

Vodafone, O2 and npower said they did not pursue CCJs themselves, while Severn Trent Water and United Utilities said they took multiple steps to contact customers, and only took them to court over debts of more than 100.
The following companies are subsidiares of Mueller Industries: ATCO Rubber Products, ATCO Rubber Products Inc., Aegis Oil and Gas Leasing Ltd., Amwest Exploration Company, Arava Exploration Company, Arava Natural Resources Company Inc., B & K Industries Inc., B&K Industries, B&K LLC, Bayard Mining Corp., Canco Oil & Gas Ltd., Carpentertown Coal & Coke Company, Changzhou Mueller Refrigerant Valve Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Climate Components LLC, DENO Holding Company Inc., DENO Investment Company II Inc., DENO Investment Company Inc., Die-Mold Tool Limited, Extruded Metals, Extruded Metals Inc., Great Lakes Copper Ltd., H&C Flex, Halstead Industries, HeatLink Group, Heatlink Group Inc., Heatlink Group USA LLC, Howell Metal Company, Itawamba Industrial Gas Company Inc., Jungwoo Metal Ind. Co. LTD, Jungwoo Metal Ind. Co. Ltd., Kessler Sales & Distribution, Kessler Sales & Distribution LLC, King Coal Company, Leon Water Enterprises Inc., Lincoln Brass Works, Lincoln Brass Works Inc., Linesets, Linesets Inc., MA Industrial Secured Lending LLC, MII Financial Corporation, Macomber Building and Land Corporation, Macomber Construction Company, Macomber Incorporated, Micro Gauge, Micro Gauge Inc., Microgauge Machining Inc., Mining Remedial Recovery Company, Mueller Advanced Connections LLC, Mueller Brass Co., Mueller Brass Forging Company Inc., Mueller Brass Holding Company Inc., Mueller Canada Holding Co. Ltd., Mueller Casting Company Inc., Mueller Comercial de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Mueller Copper Tube Company Inc., Mueller Copper Tube Products Inc., Mueller East Inc., Mueller Europe Investment Company Ltd., Mueller Europe Limited, Mueller Fittings Company Inc., Mueller Fittings LLC, Mueller Formed Tube Company Inc., Mueller Impacts Company Inc., Mueller Industrial Realty Co., Mueller Industries Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Mueller LBHC Inc., Mueller Middle East, Mueller Middle East B.S.C., Mueller Packaging LLC, Mueller Plastics Corporation Inc., Mueller Plastics Holding Company Inc., Mueller Press Company Inc., Mueller Refrigeration Holding Company Inc., Mueller Refrigeration LLC, Mueller Refrigeration Products Company Inc., Mueller Southeast Inc., Mueller Streamline, Mueller Streamline China LLC, Mueller Streamline Co., Mueller Streamline Holding S.L.U., Mueller Streamline II LLC, Mueller Streamline Trading LLC, Mueller Tool and Machine Inc., Mueller de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Muellux Holding Company I SARL, Muellux Holding Company II SARL, NICNA Mexico Servicios S. de R.L. de C.V., Overstreet Hughes, Overstreet-Hughes Co. Inc., PexCor, Precision Tube Company LLC, Propipe Technologies, Propipe Technologies Inc., Sherwood Valve LLC, Sherwood Valve Products Inc., Shoals Tubular, Southland Pipe Nipples Company Inc., Summit Systems Inc., Tecumseh Products Co., Tecumseh Products Holdings LLC, The Mosack Group LLC, Tube Forming, Turbotec Products, Turbotec Products Inc., U.S.S. Lead Refinery Inc., USSRAM Exploration Company, United States Fuel Company, Vemco Brasscapri, WTC HoldCo I LLC, WTC HoldCo II LLC, WTC Holding Company, Washington Mining Company, Westermeyer Industries, Westermeyer Industries Inc., and White Knob Mining Company.

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The Progressive Corporation, an insurance holding company, provides personal and commercial auto, personal residential and commercial property, general liability, and other specialty property-casualty insurance products and related services in the United States. It operates in three segments: Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Property. The Personal Lines segment writes insurance for personal autos and recreational vehicles (RV). This segment's products include personal auto insurance; and special lines products, including insurance for motorcycles, ATVs, RVs, watercrafts, snowmobiles, and related products. The Commercial Lines segment provides auto-related primary liability and physical damage insurance, and business-related general liability and property insurance for autos, vans, pick-up trucks, and dump trucks used by small businesses; tractors, trailers, and straight trucks primarily used by regional general freight and expeditor-type businesses, and long-haul operators; dump trucks, log trucks, and garbage trucks used by dirt, sand and gravel, logging, and coal-type businesses; and tow trucks and wreckers used in towing services and gas/service station businesses; as well as non-fleet and airport taxis, and black-car services. The Property segment writes residential property insurance for homeowners, other property owners, and renters, as well as offers personal umbrella insurance, and primary and excess flood insurance. The company also offers policy issuance and claims adjusting services; and acts as an agent to homeowner general liability, workers' compensation insurance, and other products. In addition, it provides reinsurance services. The company sells its products through independent insurance agencies, as well as directly on Internet through mobile devices, and over the phone. The Progressive Corporation was founded in 1937 and is headquartered in Mayfield, Ohio.
DENVER, Sept. 12, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FORTRUST, a leading data center and colocation services provider, marked its 15-year anniversary on September 12, 2016. FORTRUST has maintained continuous critical systems uptime since opening its doors on September 12, 2001 in Denver, Colorado.



Since its inception, FORTRUST has continued to grow. In the last 12 months, the company has seen a staff increase of 30 percent. Some 41.5 percent of FORTRUST employees are veterans. The number of customers has increased more than 20 percent in the last year, with a 28 percent increase in total contract value.

In 2016, FORTRUST was awarded a Tier III Gold Certification of Operational Sustainability by the Uptime Institute, the global data center authority. The Tier III Gold Certification of Operational Sustainability included a Tier Certification of Constructed Facility, which was previously awarded, along with a Tier Certification of Operational Sustainability. FORTRUST is the only colocation data center in the United States to receive the coveted Tier III Gold Certification of Operational Sustainability.

Our success is a direct result of our talented staff and dedication to quality and customer service, says Robert D. McClary, COO at FORTRUST. Its an honor to serve the technology community, and we look forward to continued growth in the future.

About FORTRUST

FORTRUST is one of the most progressive high-availability data center services providers in North America, serving clients across the globe who depend on colocation services for the critical lifeline of their business. FORTRUST was awarded a Tier III Gold Certification of Operational Sustainability and a Tier III Certification of Constructed Facility by Uptime Institute. FORTRUST Denver is the largest colocation data center in the region. FORTRUST offers agile, reliable, sustainable and secure raised floor and modular data center capacity for any-size enterprise supported by optimal power infrastructure and connectivity to safeguard mission-critical business services. www.FTDC.com
Our portfolio of high quality UK commercial property is focused on London Offices and Retail around the UK. We own or manage a portfolio valued at 13.7bn (British Land share: 10.3bn) as at 30 September 2020 making us one of Europe's largest listed real estate investment companies. Our strategy is to provide places which meet the needs of our customers and respond to changing lifestyles - Places People Prefer. We do this by creating great environments both inside and outside our buildings and use our scale and placemaking skills to enhance and enliven them. This expands their appeal to a broader range of occupiers, creating enduring demand and driving sustainable, long term performance. Our Offices portfolio comprises three office-led campuses in central London as well as high quality standalone buildings and accounts for 65% of our portfolio. Our Retail portfolio is focused on retail parks and shopping centres, and accounts for 31% of our portfolio. Increasingly our focus is on providing a mix of uses and this is most evident at Canada Water, our 53 acre redevelopment opportunity where we have plans to create a new neighbourhood for London. Sustainability is embedded throughout our business. Our places, which are designed to meet high sustainability standards, become part of local communities, provide opportunities for skills development and employment and promote wellbeing. In April 2016 British Land received the Queen's Award for Enterprise: Sustainable Development, the UK's highest accolade for business success for economic, social and environmental achievements over a period of five years.
MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 12, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cachet Financial Solutions (OTCQB:CAFN), a leading mobile fintech provider of cloud-based remote deposit capture (RDC) and mobile money solutions, will exhibit and speak at the 2016 PayThink Conference at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans, Louisiana, September 12-14, 2016.



The annual PayThink conference, sponsored by SourceMedia, is focused on the important inter-connected markets of debit, prepaid, mobile, digital payments and ATM. Innovative leaders from across the industry come together to share best practices and identify profitable growth strategies. PayThink 2016 will share insights from leading card issuers as well as the innovative disruptors who are changing the dynamics of the industry.

During the conference, Cachet will showcase industry-leading mobile money technologies that help financial services organizations to compete more effectively, enhance customer experience and meet their mobile-first customers demand for on-the-go banking services:

Select Mobile Money : Award-winning mobile prepaid platform with option for white label app or end-to-end card program, both offering a suite of valuable financial services in one convenient mobile application.

: Award-winning mobile prepaid platform with option for white label app or end-to-end card program, both offering a suite of valuable financial services in one convenient mobile application. Select Mobile Account Opening: Innovative mobile account opening solution using photo imaging to enable faster, easier mobile enrollment for checking, savings, credit card and other account types.

Cachets SVP Mobile Innovations, Walt Granville, will also speak at the event. Mr. Granville will be joined by Evan Zachmann, Creative Marketing Manager for SOLE Financial, in presenting a session titled: Increasing Loyalty Through Innovations in Prepaid. The session will be held on Wednesday, September 14, at 11:30 am CT.

Cachet is pleased to participate in this key industry event, said Jeffrey Mack, Cachet president and CEO. Cachets industry-leading mobile money technologies are a catalyst for attracting and retaining profitable customer relationships, and enabling competitive advantage for both traditional financial institutions and todays innovative industry disruptors.

To learn more about Cachets innovative mobile solutions, visit www.cachetfinancial.com or email info@cachetfinancial.com.

About PayThink

PayThink is the premier bank-focused forum to hear from leading debit issuers, mobile payments mavens, prepaid executives, merchants and merchant acquirers, and ATM tacticians on the strategies that are driving growth in 2016. It is the place to see innovative startups and solution providers demonstrate the best of today and tomorrow's capabilities. PayThink is sponsored by SourceMedia, publishers of PaymentsSource, American Banker, and Bank Technology News and a number of other financial services industry publications.

About Cachet Financial Solutions, Inc.

Cachet Financial Solutions is a leading cloud-based, SaaS technology provider serving the financial services industry with mobile money and remote deposit capture solutions for PC, Mac and mobile. Founded in early 2010, Cachet has quickly grown into a technology leader and trusted partner of some of the largest and most respected financial organizations. With remarkable growth, an impressive client base and award-winning technology, Cachet continues to drive innovation and deliver world-class solutions to financial institutions of all sizes.

Cachet believes that its industry-leading solutions can help the companys clients increase customer retention and revenue opportunities. Cachet's cloud-based technology platform simplifies development, deployment and servicing of consumer and commercial solutionsminimizing cost and accelerating speed-to-market for Cachets clients. Enabled by Cachet's suite of business and consumer solutions, financial institutions can better serve the needs of all their customers. For more information, visit www.cachetfinancial.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain statements that would be deemed "forward-looking statements" under Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1933. Words such as "may," "likely," "anticipate," "expect" and "believes" indicate forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements reflect our current views with respect to future events, are based on assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties. We discuss many of these risks in greater detail in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 14, 2016, under the heading "Risk Factors" and in the other reports we file with the Commission. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Also, forward-looking statements represent our estimates and assumptions only as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in any forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.
sidoknowia wrote:

Hi Mike,



I got this question on my VP exam. I was extremely uncomfortable using the phrase "All told".

I thought answer should be between C & D( as others seems to be distorting meaning ), but for me decision point was "All told" vs "with four having", and so I went with D.

In similar questions how should one think ? as in there might be phrase, which makes you uncomfortable, but that could be correct answer.



Siddharth

no practice questions from any private company are at the level of the official verbal questions

sidoknowia wrote:



That was really good explanation of present perfect tense. I always found perfect tenses bit difficult to master ( and I think GMAT knows that )



As a thumb rule for perfect tenses :



1.Past perfect : Timeline of 2 events which were completed in past are compared -> had + participle for 1st event and 2nd event must be in simple past.

2.Future perfect : Timeline of 2 events which will be completed in future are compared -> will/shall + participle for 1st event and 2nd event in simple future.

3.simple perfect : event started in past but is continuing in preset (or it just got over) -> has/have + participle



Is my understanding correct ?



In above 3 statements there is no use of 'been'. when do we use 'been' ?



- Siddharth Hi,That was really good explanation of present perfect tense. I always found perfect tenses bit difficult to master ( and I think GMAT knows thatAs a thumb rule for perfect tenses :1.Past perfect : Timeline of 2 events which were completed in past are compared -> had + participle for 1st event and 2nd event must be in simple past.2.Future perfect : Timeline of 2 events which will be completed in future are compared -> will/shall + participle for 1st event and 2nd event in simple future.3.simple perfect : event started in past but is continuing in preset (or it just got over) -> has/have + participleIs my understanding correct ?In above 3 statements there is no use of 'been'. when do we use 'been' ?- Siddharth

been

I have been reading this book since

By the Third Punic War, Carthage had been reduced to

The US Bill of Rights was framed to protect individuals from the federal government

The US Bill of Rights has been framed to protect individuals from the federal government



Magoosh Test Prep





Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.  William Butler Yeats (1865  1939) Mike McGarryEducation is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.  William Butler Yeats (1865  1939) Signature Read More

Dear Siddharth,I'm happy to respond.My friend, the first point I will say is that. It's relatively easy to write math questions that are just as good as official questions. The official verbal questions, though, are in another league, and a question of a private test prep company, however high quality, rarely approaches that sublime level. I say this as someone who writes questions as part of my job. All this is to say: do not make any judgments about how an official question will "feel" unless you are dealing with official questions.First of all, I will that students often mistakenly believe that the GMAT SC is primarily a test of grammar. In fact, grammar and logic and rhetoric are all equally important. In particular, use of the perfect tenses is as much a logical issue as a grammatical issue.BTW, the "" shows up either in the relatively rare perfect progressive combinations (". . . ") or in passive construction in perfect tenses, (". . . ")The past perfect is tricky on the GMAT, because it is one way to indicate a sequence of events in the past, but not the only way. If other words in the sentence make clear that past event A was before past event B, then the GMAT would consider it redundant to use the past perfect also. We don't have to use more than one indicator to communicate the same piece of the meaning.The future perfect is exceedingly rare. I don't remember seeing any official question that uses it: perhaps one does somewhere, but it almost never shows up.The present perfect is extremely subtle, because it could mean that the action started in the past and is still continuing, or it could mean that the action happened and finished in the past, but in some meaningful way, the effects still continue in the present moment. Consider these two sentences1)2)This actual event is far in the past: the US Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791. Both sentences are grammatically correct, but logically they have different connotations. The first is presenting this information as over and done: that happened long ago and is a finished fact. We would almost expect the author saying #1 to continue by explaining how the Bill of Rights no longer serves it purpose, or its role has changed, or something of that sort. The speaker, by using the simple past, is separating the effects of the Bill of Rights from our present circumstances.By contrast, the use of the present perfect in #2 deeply affirms that the Bill of Rights continues to play this same role today, that it is essentially just as meaningful to modern Americans as it was to Americans in 1791. The author of #2 has a profoundly different emotional agenda than the author of #1 has.As this example shows, the use of the present perfect delves deeply into questions of meaning, of what the deep intention of the author. These are the kinds of questions that the official GMAT SC questions regularly explore, and student who simply skate along the surface looking a grammar rules are continually befuddled by such questions. A good GMAT SC question used grammar and logic and rhetoric in a combine effort to produce a deep coherent meaning. If you appreciate a sentence at that level, then you are are on your way to GMAT SC mastery.Does all this make sense?Mike_________________
Global Partners LP engages in the purchasing, selling, gathering, blending, storing, and logistics of transporting gasoline and gasoline blendstocks, distillates, residual oil, renewable fuels, crude oil, and propane to wholesalers, retailers, and commercial customers in the New England states, Mid-Atlantic region, and New York. The company is also involved in the transportation of petroleum products and renewable fuels through rail from the mid-continent region of the United States and Canada. Its Wholesale segment sells home heating oil, branded and unbranded gasoline and gasoline blendstocks, diesel, kerosene, residual oil, and propane to home heating oil retailers and wholesale distributors. It also aggregates crude oil through truck or pipeline in the mid-continent region of the United States and Canada, as well as transports it through rail and ships it through barge to refiners. The company's Gasoline Distribution and Station Operations segment sells branded and unbranded gasoline to gasoline station operators and sub-jobbers; operates gasoline stations and convenience stores; and provides car wash, lottery, and ATM services, as well as leases gasoline stations. Its Commercial segment sells and delivers unbranded gasoline, home heating oil, diesel, kerosene, residual oil, and bunker fuel to customers in the public sector, as well as to commercial and industrial end-users; and sells custom blended fuels. As of December 31, 2021, the company had a portfolio of 1,595 owned, leased, and supplied gasoline stations, which included 295 directly operated convenience stores; and owned, leased, or maintained storage facilities at 26 bulk terminals with a collective storage capacity of 11.9 million barrels. Global GP LLC serves as the general partner of the company. The company was incorporated in 2005 and is based in Waltham, Massachusetts.
KeyCorp operates as the holding company for KeyBank National Association that provides various retail and commercial banking products and services in the United States. It operates in two segments, Consumer Bank and Commercial Bank. The company offers various deposits, investment products and services; and personal finance and financial wellness, student loan refinancing, mortgage and home equity, lending, credit card, treasury, business advisory, wealth management, asset management, investment, cash management, portfolio management, and trust and related services to individuals and small and medium-sized businesses. It also provides a suite of banking and capital market products, such as syndicated finance, debt and equity capital market products, commercial payments, equipment finance, commercial mortgage banking, derivatives, foreign exchange, financial advisory, and public finance, as well as commercial mortgage loans comprising consumer, energy, healthcare, industrial, public sector, real estate, and technology loans for middle market clients. In addition, the company offers community development financing, securities underwriting, brokerage, and investment banking services. As of December 31, 2021, it operated through a network of approximately 999 branches and 1,317 ATMs in 15 states, as well as additional offices, online and mobile banking capabilities, and a telephone banking call center. KeyCorp was founded in 1849 and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, a pharmaceutical company, develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes generic medicines, specialty medicines, and biopharmaceutical products in North America, Europe, and internationally. The company offers sterile products, hormones, high-potency drugs, and cytotoxic substances in various dosage forms, including tablets, capsules, injectables, inhalants, liquids, transdermal patches, ointments, and creams. It also develops, manufactures, and sells active pharmaceutical ingredients. In addition, it focuses on the central nervous system, pain, respiratory, and oncology areas. Its products in the central nervous system include Copaxone for the treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis; AJOVY for the preventive treatment of migraine; and AUSTEDO for the treatment of tardive dyskinesia and chorea associated with Huntington disease. The company's products in the respiratory market comprise ProAir, QVAR, ProAir Digihaler, AirDuo Digihaler, and ArmonAir Digihaler, BRALTUS, CINQAIR/CINQAERO, DuoResp Spiromax, and AirDuo RespiClick/ArmonAir RespiClick for the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Its products in the oncology market include Bendeka, Treanda, Granix, Trisenox, Lonquex, and Tevagrastim/Ratiograstim. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited has a collaboration MedinCell for the development and commercialization of multiple long-acting injectable products, a risperidone suspension for the treatment of patients with schizophrenia. The company was founded in 1901 and is headquartered in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel.
A witness claims he saw a carriage horse driver overwork a horse until it collapsed in the middle of a Midtown street last week, sparking outrage from various anti-carriage horse groups. Im 100 percent positive, witness Bogdan Paul Angheluta, who snapped the photo above, told The Post about the incident. He was forcing [the horse] to make the light. The horse was tired."

Angheluta came upon the scene at 50th Street and 12th Avenue around 2 a.m. on September 2nd. He saw the driver, whose name hasn't been released, "screaming for the horse to make the green light" just outside nightclub Space Ibiza. The horse then collapsed, and was breathing slow and hard. The horse lay in the street for more than 20 minutes, with one conscientious police officer stopping traffic, then getting on his knees and "cradling the horses head and trying to calm him down."

Angheluta sent his photos to the animal-rights group NYCLASS, which alerted the NYPD, the Mayors Office and the Health Department. They released this statement about the incident:

It is outrageous that in the year 2016, there are still carriage horses collapsing on Hell's Kitchen streets at 2:00 AM. Mayor de Blasio has epically failed our city's gentle giants. This Mayor has said nothing about the injured horse, despite claiming that hes an advocate for animals. His excuses for lack of action are lamer than an overworked carriage horse. Had this witness not come forward to report the incident to animal advocates, the public never would have known it even happened. How many other horse incidents have been hidden from the public? We are calling on city officials to allow an independent veterinarian to examine the horse, and calling on Mayor de Blasio to stop with the same old empty rhetoric and keep his promise to protect these horses.

Christina Hansen, a spokeswoman for the carriage industry, said in a statement that the horse "didnt collapse, he tripped himself...Hes kind of a klutz." A Health Department spokesperson echoed that to the Post: "We found that the horse had tripped and fell."

The Coalition To Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages wasn't convinced by their statement: "Sure he did, Christina. Sure he did. And the Department of Health took her word for it rather than calling in an outside vet to determine what happened and grilling the driver. No surprise there. The carriage industry continues to be one of the most protected businesses in this city."

They added that they spoke to a second witness to the incident, who told them, "This was so violent and sad. I called 911 and the operator sent the police. Please investigate this because it can probably help with the ban on HDC. It's so sad that this had to happen and I never want to see such terrible mistreatment of animals ever again."

In response to the incident, NYCLASS plan on protesting Mayor de Blasio at Gracie Mansion this Thursdayyou can find information about that here.

The carriage horse issue continues to cause problems for de Blasio, who angered anti-carriage horse organizations for not keeping his campaign promise to ban horse carriages. In February, de Blasio's attempt at a compromise imploded after the City Council decided it would not vote on a controversial deal that would have restricted horse-drawn carriage operations to Central Park, thereby banning pedicabs from operating in the park below 86th Street. And in April, the Manhattan DA's office and the FBI began an investigation focusing in part on a $100,000 donation made by an anti-horse-carriage-industry group to de Blasio's now-disbanded Campaign for One New York.

Update: Hansen sent a longer a statement about the condition of the horse, whose name is Norman, and her interview with the driver, which you can read below.


(Photo courtesy of Chris Gethard)

Chris Gethard sure keeps busy. Hes a veteran of stand-up and UCB Theatre, the honcho of Fusions The Chris Gethard Show, featured actor in Broad City and this summers ode to improv, Don't Think Twice (in which he exposes a more dramatic side), host of the popular Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People podcast, and part-time rock star. Quite the resume indeed. And now a Judd Apatow-backed run of his one-man show Career Suicide, in which he dives deeper into the mental struggles that have helped shape his comedy, has been announced. The show, which opens at the Lynn Redgrave Theatre in October, has already found great fanfare from sold-out shows at Edinburghs Fringe Festival, so we chatted with Chris over the phone to get a hint of what we should expect here in the States.

How did this show come about? Well, Im really dependent on Mike Birbiglia. I was going on the road with him a lot, opening for him. And when youre on the road, you just wind up talking just about anything and he was asking me, I know youve talked a little bit about some of your depression stuff. What are the real stories? I told him a couple of stories that I thought were super dark and he was like, Dude, you have to talk about that on stage! And I was like, No! Absolutely not! Those are the darkest stories I have. And he was like, Dude, if you can make those funny, youve got something really special on your hands.

So I took that as a real challenge, and started doing some standup bits that revolved around this stuff, and it was getting a good response. Soon I realized I had enough pieces of it that I could maybe figure it out as a show and I did it a few times at UCB and then really sunk my teeth into it at Union Hall in Park Slope and they took really good care of me. So Ive been working on it over two years. But it really did start with Birbiglia in the middle of the night while driving through the Midwest saying, basically, I dare you to talk about that stuff on stage. Hes a very smart guy in many ways, especially when it comes to storytelling, so I never should have doubted his instincts on that.

Youre in his new movie Dont Think Twice as well. How did it feel to be a part of this film in particular? It was a great experience, because Mike and I are friends, and I do trust him so much. Ive done OK as a character actor and Ive done a lot of parts where I play weird nerds. Im really psyched about that, but I knew he was gonna come at it from a different angle than that. It was some actual heavy lifting. He gave me some of the more emotional parts to actually fill out some of the plot. It felt good to be challenged, put my best foot forward. You try to do things your own way, try to build your own thing in life and not go the traditional route and what happens is you meet some allies along the way who are doing it with a sort of similar mindset and I think he and I have been that for each other.

Going back to the show, the title Career Suicide, was that a title you had in mind for awhile? Yeah, that actually came about pretty early. It was something I was brainstorming some potential titles with a few friends, Birbiglia among them. I know Im painting this whole interview as though Im a weird puppet democracy under the dictatorial rule of Mike Birbiglia. I promise not. [The show] obviously deals with some depression stuff and I talk about some experiences with suicidal thoughts and situations. Trying to build one of the bigger things youve ever done in your career around the idea of suicide is, in itself, career suicide. To put the rest of my creative pursuits on hold to get on stage and talk about depression for an hour, its not always the most appealing topic to people but I think its one thats worth talking about and Im happy to get in there and go for it.

Were there any stories that you tried to discuss on stage, but it just didnt work out? Maybe because of how emotional they were for you? Yeah. To be honest I thought there were going to be more that I was just going to be too shaken up to tell. For the first six months I did this show, maybe the first sixteen or twenty times I did it, I would get off stage and consistently be shaking and just need to go sit by myself. This kind of feeling like, I cant believe Im sharing this type of stuff I havent told my own family, and Im telling a room full of strangers about it. There are a handful of things that just go beyond being a comedian at a certain point. I really need to be a comedian. I really want this show to be unpretentious, I want it to be something that anyone can have access to. I very much identify as a native son of New Jersey and that attitude is to really keep it open to everybody. I never wanted to get on a soapbox, I want to put on a comedy show. Just so happens that I have a lot of honest things to make jokes about that come from a dark place.

Im working with a director now, Kimberly Senior... if you look her up, shes just a true badass and I cant believe shes giving me any of her time. Having worked on the show for two years, I kind of thought I had taken it as far as I was willing to take it. I did the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Kimberly came and met me out there and she was like, Nope, you gotta cut deeper, go further. The most recent iteration of the show and the one thats heading towards the Lynn Redgrave Theater, its definitely as personal as its ever been and Im sticking my neck out further than I ever have.

You seem pretty available to your fans. Did anybody come up to you and really commiserate with a lot of what you were feeling? Oh, every single night! Thats one of the most beautiful things for me doing this show, just connecting with people and hearing some of the things people had to say and their reactions to it. I think I did the show twenty six nights, and every single night someone came up to me and told me their story, their story of having dealt with some of this stuff. Even stretching back to Union Hall, the thing that means even more is people who come up to me and theyre not the one suffering. I remember a girl came up to me and said she had dated a guy who was suffering from some really sick depression, and she was like, I found it to be just kind of really irritating and unfair to me. I kind of just bounced, just left one day and I feel really horrible right now cause I watched your show and it was really funny, but I realize now that he was actually dealing with a lot. And she asked, What can I do? What should I do? And I was like, I dont know! Like Im just a comedian, but I did say, You know, I bet if you just reached out to him and told him some version of what you just told me, that might go a long way.

I really have it in my head that, if I could have made a show that would have made it easier for my parents to deal with what I went through, thats kind of more important to me. My parents are really great, loving people. They werent neglectful at all, they didnt have bad intentions. But its just hard to hear that your kid is messed up in this way that nobody really wants to talk about. My parents are blue-collar people from northern New Jersey, theyre Irish-Catholics, we dont talk about stuff like this. If I can make a show that maybe puts some cracks in that kind of attitude, it would really mean a lot to me.

Did you find that its easier once you started comedy to talk about this stuff or were you sort of liberated to talk about it before you got into it? Comedy was really a big factor in me becoming comfortable with myself. Anyone who comes to see the show, youll see its sort a thing I explore about how comedy was this thing I found as pre-existing therapy. I didnt see a shrink until I was twenty-two, and I started doing comedy in New York when I was nineteen. I think it was the very first thing that allowed me to feel comfortable in my own skin and confident in who I am and that went a long way. I started as an improviser at UCB. I spent many years where my focus was improv, it was not stand-up or solo work of any kind. I remember being a kid, nineteen, twenty years old and playing characters who had depression or playing characters who wanted to figure out how they could talk to their parents in a more direct way. It was a lot of me pretending to be someone on stage, but not actually making them that far away from who I actually was. I dont know if thats always been the healthiest thing that comedys been what I lean on but it has been a running trend in my life, for sure.

In your eyes, since youve been in it a long time, how is New York comedy shaping out? New York is the only place in the world that has this many shows and this many types of comedians. I always tell people, the most beautiful thing about New York comedy is that if I come up with a new joke, I can do so many shows in front of so many different kinds of audiences that Ill know if that joke is legit within three or four days. In the same night I can go do a club where the whole crowd is going to be Australian tourists, and I can do another club twenty minutes away where its going to be blue-collar Jersey and Long Island people coming in for a night on the town, and I can head out to Brooklyn and do something where everybody in the room is probably an artist of some sort in their own right. And I can do the same joke in front of all three of those crowds within a couple of hours and I can know if that joke has legs and if its universal or kind of bullshitty. You can do that every night.

I feel like theres this whole new version of the alt scene out in Brooklyn where youve got people like Jo Firestone, Brett Davis, and Julio Torres who are leading the charge on doing experimental work. And theyre all young people who have come on in the past handful of years. Its super inspiring to see. Im buddies with Tim Dillon. Hes loud and brash and so jarring to the audience and hes nothing like me but I get to do shows with him and I get to turn around and the next night Im on stage with Jo Firestone whos doing these gentle, weird high-concept performance art things. How do you beat that? Im like really grateful that I get to do this where I do it. I was gone for six weeks, and I land back in New York and Im like, All right, OK. This is my home. Nothing is going to be handed to you, you have to go stand out in front of the crowd. You can just be better and faster here than you could anywhere else. The city will work you to the bone, and just make you keep up with everyone else whos working even harder somehow. Its a beautiful, challenging thing.

Youve definitely benefited from a hard work ethic. Do you think that comes from your blue-collar upbringing? My dad was a complete workaholic. My parents are both funny people. I think I got a little bit more of my moms humor, but Im really blessed I got my dads work ethic. That dude just broke his back for years and years and years to take care of his family, and when I was a kid, he would just work such long hours and be tired all the time. I saw how hard he worked and how things got better. My parents didnt let me know how much of a struggle it was until they kind of got past the struggle and were able to make some jokes about it. They were scraping by. They were scared, and my dad just worked his ass off. It was pretty inspiring. I came up out of UCB as it exploded into this thing. I was always doing shows with Zach Woods and Bobby Moynihan. I remember when I started doing AssssCat on Sunday nights, the line-up would honestly be Amy Poehler, Seth Meyers, Jason Sudeikis, Rachel Dratch, Jack McBrayer, Horatio Sanz, Chris Gethard. It was like, this is impossible. I committed from a really young age, Im never going to be the funniest one but I can probably be the most stubborn and work the hardest. Ive just tried to live and die by that.

With TCGS, is anything coming up with that? Is that going to come back to Fusion? I hope so. Everything looks good. Theyve been super accommodating, all those discussions are happening. Theres nothing I can say yet, but Im feeling extremely positive. I also felt so great about season two of the show. I really think its the best the show has ever been. Our first season on Fusion, a lot of the old school fans were like, We miss public access! And I think season two, they were all like, Fuck public access! If youve never seen the show, theres an episode where Jason Mantzoukas and Paul Scheer are the guests and they have to just guess whats in the dumpster and thats the whole episode. And I know that sounds completely idiotic but it has been widely embraced as the best episode weve ever done. I feel so positive about what we did creatively and everything with the network still feels so positive that I hope we get to come back and build on the momentum because we have even dumber ideas than that. And I really hope we get to do them.

One last thing before I let you go: The Smiths cover band. I just want to know where that started and where thats going. (chuckle) Theres this festival in Gainesville every Halloween weekend called The Fest, appropriately enough. Its a lot of punk bands, and I really quite enjoy that genre of music and I enjoy a lot of those bands and a lot of them played on my show. I started going down there to do comedy, and they do this thing because its Halloween where theyll let bands play cover set, you can pretend to be another band. And I asked if I could head up a Smiths cover band because Im a big Smiths devotee. I got Alex from Hiccup whos a great guitarist, Mikey Erg on drums - one of the things Im most proud about in season two is that we got the Ergs to reunite - and John DiNominice on bass. These are legit, pro-level guys who can play and I cant sing so its just me screaming as Morrissey. I dress up, I dye my hair every show and we did the one at Fest just as a gag and people really kind of flipped out. We did another show back in Brooklyn, Chumpeds final show, and were opening for a big show at Rough Trade Records in September, which is like so dumb. We put a lot of heart into it. Back to Career Suicide, its a real look at how some of Morrisseys lyrics have helped me out over the years so it all ties together in my head.

Im just glad I get to be a part of so many dumb things. A lot of the Gerhard Show is intentionally very goofy and bizarre. And [Career Suicide] is really just from the heart and trying to just attack it from that angle in a hard way. So I hope people come out. Im really hoping that people come on out and it means a lot to me to stay in New York and do comedy on a bigger level in New York. I hope it goes well, well see.
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By Patrick Donachie

Jamaica Bay will soon be populated with 50,000 new oysters, thanks to a plan announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city Department of Environmental Protection.

The project, conducted in partnership with the Billion Oyster Project, will be the single largest installation of breeding oysters into an environment in New York City, according to the mayors office.

This oyster bed will serve multiple purposes  protecting our wetlands from erosion, naturally filtering our water and providing a home for our sea dwellers are just a few, de Blasio said. More broadly, this oyster bed is a small but necessary step in our broader OneNYC commitment to create a more sustainable and resilient city.

Oysters help to extract pollutants from water, assist in protecting wetlands and shorelines from erosion and storm surges and also help create adequate and healthy habitats for fish and other wildlife. The project will be funded with a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, with the DEP contributing an additional $375,000.

The city said the installation would include a central donor bed composed of adult and spat-on-shell oysters and four smaller receiving beds composed of clam and oyster shells, made in part of broken porcelain attained from nearly 5,000 inefficient and recycled toilets. The oysters will be placed on the beds, and after the adult oysters spawn, fertilized eggs will float until young oysters attach themselves to the shells of the older oysters. Over time, the oyster population should begin to spawn seasonally.

Oysters were reintroduced to Jamaica with two pilot studies that began in 2010, including the design and construction of an oyster bed off of Dubos Point as well as the placement of oyster reef balls in Gerritsen Creek, Brooklyn. After four years, analyses indicated that the oysters were alive and healthy. The hope is that a more robust and widespread oyster population could reproduce more substantively to help stem the erosion of marshes and shorelines in Jamaica Bay.

Dan Mundy, a Broad Channel resident and a member of the Jamaica Bay Ecowatchers, praised the DEP for its role in getting the oysters into Jamaica Bay.

The restoration of oysters back into the waters of Jamaica Bay is one of the key remaining goals to fully restore this great and unique ecosystem. This vital species naturally filters the waters of the bay while providing unique habitat for fish, Mundy said. This project will see the first major initiative to bring back this keystone species to Jamaica Bay where they once flourished!
JetBlue allegedly tried to preempt a lawsuit by offering to pay off a woman whose child they placed on the wrong flight and lost for more than three hours, the Daily News reports.

Maribel Martinez booked her five-year-old son, Andy Martinez Mercado, a ticket on a JetBlue flight from Santiago, Dominican Republic to JFK on August 17th, and paid an additional $100 fee for an airline representative to escort him onto the plane. But when the flight arrived in JFK, the airline presented a different child to Martinezthe two children had somehow swapped passports, and the airline had placed Andy on a flight to Boston and sent a different child to JFK in his place.

Martinez allegedly received a call from JetBlue's corporate headquarters on September 3rd, two days after the incident made news. An airline supervisor named Joanne spoke to Martinez through a Spanish-language translator.

"She apologized for what happened and said she was a mother, too, and felt bad about what happened," Martinez told the News. "They wanted to give me a gift of $10,000 for what happened." JetBlue had already refunded her $475 for her son's flight and had given her a $2,100 credit for future flights, but Martinez says her family won't be flying with the airline again.

Martinez told them to speak to her high profile attorney, Sanford Rubenstein, who had previously said the airline's employees "should be ashamed of themselves" after the initial incident. Rubenstein claims the airline was probably trying to get Martinez to sign a document releasing JetBlue from any damages and wrote a letter to Joanne Geraghty, JetBlue's general counsel, ordering the airline to not have further contact with his client.

JetBlue did not respond to a request for comment on the $10,000 overture.
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Hopewell Community Park remains a 'labor of love' for local community

The lush green park is a product of the combined efforts of the Hopewell Township community and a symbol of decades of conservation efforts in Beaver County.
North Central Texas College-Bowie has been open for 10 years.

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By Barbara Green, The Bowie News

The Bowie 4B Sales Tax Corporation Board of Directors is moving forward with plans that could build a new information technology center at North Central Texas College-Bowie branch.

During recent weeks, the board has met with architects as well as college officials to hammer out more details on the project before a recommendation goes before the Bowie City Council for consideration.

In a late August meeting, the board met with Dick Bundy of Bundy, Young, Sims and Potter Inc. to discuss designing a center that would be smaller than the 10,000-square-foot center on the Gainesville campus.

The new ITC building has a 22-booth fundamental welding lab to complement the 16-booth lab currently located across from the Career Technology Center. The goal is to replicate what students will experience in a real plant environment.

It also contains a fabrication lab with a 12-foot overhead crane and a plasma cutting table and new machining lab with five state-of-the-art CNC machines, automated milling machines that make industrial components. Estimated cost of a building ranged from $2.5 to $3 million.

Executive Director Janis Crawley said in the spring they talked with Bundy about locating the same type of "building footprint" at the Bowie location; however, the board has decided it is too expensive and too big for the site.

"We asked them to come up with a smaller-scale plan that will help us develop cost estimates. It would then be taken to the city council for final approval," Crawley said.

During that same meeting, the board met with college officials to discuss future growth and expansion of the Bowie site.

They talked about the types of programs the board would like to see offered and how the overall larger program could be downsized to fit what we can create. Those technical programs that would like to be considered include welding, electronics, machining and HVAC skills.

Crawley added they also want to see about moving the oil and gas technology center to the site to provide its lab more space, while freeing up space in the main building.

The board and college staff also are finalizing a contractual working agreement between the two entities which outlines building ownership, maintenance and other operational details.

During the Sept. 1 meeting, the 4B directors discussed creating an incentive policy program. Crawley said it would relate to issues such as helping with code compliance in relation to things like handicap accessibility, sidewalks, electric wiring and fire suppression. The corporation has done some of these incentives in the past, but there is no established policy other than state law.

The board submitted its recommendations to the city council to reappoint James Scruggs, Barbara Winingham and Tim Hall to the board for another two-year term.
Christopher Walker/Times Record News The Wichita Falls City Council is considering raising bus fares on city routes.

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By Christopher Collins of the Times Record News

The city of Wichita Falls this week was awarded a $1.3 million grant to buy new buses, though it likely will be at least a year before they are put into service, a city official said.

The award was part of $211 million in grants given to local governments by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Transit Administration.

In a news release, the agency said the money was disbursed to provide a "more modern, reliable bus service for transit riders across the country." Grants also funded multimillion-dollar projects in Austin, Laredo and elsewhere in the U.S.

In May, Wichita Falls city councilors approved the city transportation department's request for funding for new buses. John Burrus, city aviation and transportation director, told councilors that the money would meet demand from businesses, downtown residents and airmen for better public transportation.

A resolution approved at the meeting allowed the city to apply for the Bus and Bus Facilities Section 5339 grant through the Federal Transit Administration for four 35-foot, low-floor transit buses.

The city's busiest routes are from the travel center downtown to Sikes Senter; the East Side to central connector; and the central city route. There are seven routes served at any given time in the city.

Burrus said the new buses may allow the city to add another route. Interval times could be cut from one hour to 30 minutes or less.

But getting the federal funding for the buses is just the first step in the process  the procurement process for the vehicles will take at least a year. Because of the project's cost, competitive bids must be sought.

Burrus said the bidding process is expected to begin this month.

"We are very fortunate to receive such a significant grant. It is a highly competitive process, and Wichita Falls was one of three Texas cities to receive support," Burrus said. "We look forward to beginning the bus procurement process so that we can eventually provide the expanded services."
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There was a time when one of the worst sins you could commit on the American Right was to buy into "false moral equivalence."

During the Cold War, this usually meant saying we were no better than the Soviet Union. For example, Democratic Sen. William J. Fulbright said of the Soviet Union in 1971, "Were it not for the fact that they are Communists  and therefore 'bad' people  while we are Americans  and therefore 'good' people  our policies would be nearly indistinguishable."

My old boss William F. Buckley famously had the best retort to this kind of myopic asininity. "To say that the CIA and the KGB engage in similar practices is the equivalent of saying that the man who pushes an old lady into the path of a hurtling bus is not to be distinguished from the man who pushes an old lady out of the path of a hurtling bus: on the grounds that, after all, in both cases someone is pushing old ladies around."

After the Cold War, the false moral equivalence arguments didn't stop. The isolated abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were expanded into an indictment of America itself. "Shamefully," Sen. Ted Kennedy declared in 2005, "we now learn that Saddam's torture chambers reopened under new management: U.S. management." Sen. Dick Durbin claimed American policies were indistinguishable from those of the Nazis, the Soviets and Pol Pot. Amnesty International dubbed the prison at Guantanamo Bay "the Gulag of our time."

The problem with this sort of rhetoric should be obvious; however bad Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay may be in your eyes, logic and facts can't make them the moral equivalents of genocidal mass slaughter. Nor is locking up terrorists and enemy combatants anything like imprisonment of dissidents, intellectuals and other civilians.

Last year, President Barack Obama went for a personal best in the worst moral equivalence Olympics. At a National Prayer Breakfast, he argued that those who condemn the tactics of the Islamic State must understand that Christians did some very bad things 10 centuries ago during the Crusades.

Conservatives, including yours truly, ran to their respective rhetorical garages to get as many brickbats, crowbars and sledgehammers as necessary to demolish that specious nonsense.

So it's interesting to see how conservatives have been responding to the Republican nominee's own adventures in moral equivalence. Last December in an interview with MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, Donald Trump was asked about his sometimes lavish praise of Vladimir Putin.

Scarborough noted that Putin "kills journalists, political opponents, and invades countries. Obviously that would be a concern, would it not?"

"He's running his country, and at least he's a leader," Trump replied. "Unlike what we have in this country."

Scarborough persisted: "But again: He kills journalists that don't agree with him."

Trump's answer: "I think our country does plenty of killing, also, Joe, so, you know."

More than nine months later Trump was asked again about his so-called bromance with the Russian autocrat. In a "Commander-in-Chief forum," NBC's Matt Lauer confronted Trump with some of his past quotes about Putin, including Trump's claim that, "in terms of leadership, he's getting an A, our president is not doing so well."

When Lauer ran through just a few of Putin's offenses, including his alleged involvement in the hacking of the Democratic Party's computers, Trump responded: "Well, nobody knows that for a fact. But do you want me to start naming some of the things that President Obama does at the same time?

I take a back seat to no one as a critic of Barack Obama, but this is repugnant. Barack Obama has done some terrible, foolish and deplorable things as president. But all of his transgressions are measured against the standards of our constitutional system and our political culture. For instance, in 2009, the Obama Justice Department outrageously monitored the phone calls and emails of my Fox News colleague James Rosen. To get the warrants, they hilariously named Rosen a "criminal co-conspirator" of one of his sources. That's really bad. But it is not the moral equivalent of having Rosen gunned down in the street.

That Donald Trump cannot see such distinctions is no longer shocking. That many of his conservative supporters can't either grows less shocking by the day.

Jonah Goldberg is an editor-at-large of National Review Online and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Email him at JonahsColumn@aol.com.
Albany

In the 15 years since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the nature of terrorism threats has undergone a fundamental shift while the rising investment of an ever-expanding anti-terrorism infrastructure has struggled to respond and stay ahead of looming dangers.

"It looks very different than it did in 2001. There are fewer big threats and more small threats," said Brian Nussbaum, an assistant professor in the University at Albany's new College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity. His expertise is cybersecurity and terrorism threats.

"It's much more diffuse today compared to 2001, when there were a small number of Al-Qaeda components and three or four hot spots in the world," he said. "Now with the Islamic State and others, there are a lot more threat actors, they're spread out and they are more likely to be radicalized online. The primary concern was the Afghanistan-Pakistan border 15 years ago and today there are threats throughout North Africa, Libya, the Sinai Peninsula, Nigeria and elsewhere."

Nussbaum said the terror attacks in Paris and Brussels also highlighted a deep concern that today's terrorist networks have established themselves in Western Europe. "That's of great concern for a host of reasons, including the fact that Europeans have a much easier time traveling to the U.S. The other change is that some of the recent terrorists were only vaguely inspired by ISIS rather than directly dispatched by them."

Nussbaum said that his field did not exist in 2001 and there are no signs that its growth is slowing. In fact, he and his UAlbany colleagues were astonished when more than 300 students signed up as minors or majors this fall in the first full academic year for the new college. "We were expecting we'd slowly grow to maybe 50 majors after a few years," he said. "The level of student interest has been amazing."

Nussbaum did not hesitate when asked a standard question: Are we safer today than we were in 2001?

"Yes, in many ways we are safer because we got a lot of low-hanging fruit," he said. "Hardening cockpit doors on commercial airplanes was a huge return on investment that didn't sacrifice much in terms of civil liberties. It's a lot harder to achieve big goals. In a free society, we have to accept the fact that a rogue lone gunman can shoot a lot of people. That is not a failure of the counterterrorism process."

Nussbaum wants to see tougher scrutiny on the expansion of Internet access when it comes to sensitive security operations that are vulnerable to hackers.

"For instance, we don't connect nuclear power control systems to the Internet because the risk is too serious to account for the upside of more convenience," he said. "Moving forward, we have to weigh convenience very carefully against the vulnerability of systems connected to the Internet that can be breached by malicious actors."

Nussbaum attended a meeting last week with cybersecurity professionals regarding larger issues of counterterrorism.

He said he does not have trouble sleeping at night, despite how deeply he delves each day into the possibility of a terrorist attack.

"It can be a little overwhelming, but it's hard to get too depressed when you put it in perspective," he said. "I used to work on the law enforcement side with issues of child neglect and exploitation and that was much more jarring."

Nussbaum urged the public to look at terrorism threats rationally.

"Bees are far more lethal than sharks on the whole, but we're much more afraid of sharks than we are of bees," Nussbaum said. "In the U.S., we're far more likely to be killed by a taxicab than a terrorist. We haven't been good about communicating relative risk. Active shooter events get so much attention and fuels gun debates. But the fact is that the vast majority of people who are killed by guns each year are by suicide."

pgrondahl@timesunion.com  518-454-5623  @PaulGrondahl
The Manhattan Democratic Party is reportedly planning to include tenant-friendly Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Doris Ling-Cohan on its reelection ballot at the Democratic county convention later this month, defying a down-vote from an independent panel tasked with deciding which judges should be considered for inclusion on the ticket come November.

The decision follows a vote in Ling-Cohan's favor from the party's executive committee, according to the New York Post. The tabloid cited anonymous sources; the Manhattan Democrats could not immediately be reached for comment.

Party operatives control which judge candidates get listed on the party line, and, generally, who gets elected. And it's rare for the party panelmade up primarily of local lawyers and activiststo bar a sitting judge from the ballot.

The narrow 12-10 vote against Ling-Cohan surprised many tenant, LGBT, and Asian-American advocates last week, who accused real estate lawyers on the panel of targeting a judge with a history of making pro-tenant rulings. The NY Post first reported on the vote, citing anonymous sources who described Ling-Cohan as "lazy" and "slow." More than 100 local Democrats and advocates rallied against these allegations last week, and retired Supreme Court judge Emily Jane Goodman dismissed them in full, saying that "none of the things that are being written about her have I ever heard inside 60 Centre Street."

Assemblyman Keith Wright, head of the New York County Democrats, also spoke out against the panel's ruling, saying, "I fundamentally disagree with the panel's decision," and that Ling-Cohan "is the author of ground-breaking decisions and a standard bearer for her community."

In 2002, Ling-Cohan became the first female Asian judge in New York Supreme Court history. Her legacy includes the landmark 2005 decision ordering New York City to issue marriage licenses to gay couples (which then-mayor Michael Bloomberg went on to successfully appeal).

The director of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which spoke out strongly in Ling-Cohan's favor last week, cautioned on Monday that this reported decision does not guarantee the judge's reelection. Also, while it's good news for Ling-Cohan, it raises questions about the legitimacy of the independent panel, and the entire election process of judges in New York.

"How did the panel reach a decision that wasn't based on the right standards?" said Margaret Fung. "Voters need to think about whether this is the way they want judges to be elected."

The Post addressed last week's allegations that Ling-Cohan was unfit in a follow-up piece on Monday, writing, "Court insiders say her statistical record in handling and disposing of cases put her in the middle of the pack, not at the bottom."

The New York Law Journal reports that Ling-Cohan will have to get majority approval from the 140-odd convention delegates in order to land on the ballot.

Delegates to the convention will be elected by registered Democrats at the ballot box during tomorrow's primary, unless of course there aren't enough delegate candidates to make a given district contested, in which case, whoever is nominated as a delegate automatically proceeds to the convention. Yes, we know, this makes no sense.
Two Greene County Sheriff's deputies, who are cousins, were disciplined last month for attending a party where there was underage drinking.

Greene County Sheriff Gregory Seely confirmed that there was an internal investigation of deputies Joe and Ray Feml after a photo was shared over social media this past summer that showed one of the Femls attending a party where people under the age of 21 were drinking.

Seely said after a three-week investigation in which attendees at the party were interviewed, it was determined the Femls did not provide anyone with alcohol and did not commit a crime. But Seely said they did not intervene, therefore violating departmental policies and procedures.

He said one deputy was docked vacation time and the other was suspended for 10 days.

"They're good employees. It was a stupid move. They should have known better," Seely said.

Both Joe and Ray Feml, who have been with the sheriff's office for less than five years, also work part time for the Cairo Police Department. They were taken off that department's schedule while the sheriff's office's internal probe was ongoing.

Cairo Officer-in-Charge Sgt. Richard Busch said he was awaiting word from the sheriff's office on the outcome of its investigation before allowing Joe and Ray Feml to go back to work.

In October, Ray Feml, who is also the chief of the Cairo Fire Department, was credited with saving a woman's life who was choking at a Thruway rest area, according to an account published in the Catskill Daily Mail.

lstanforth@timesunion.com  518-454-5697
ALBANY -- Dozens gathered outside the Capitol on Monday as clergy and activists joined their counterparts in 27 other state capitals for a "Moral Day of Action."

The rallies were held to deliver a "Higher Ground Moral Declaration" to governors and other elected officials, organizers said, calling on them to respond to the urgent needs of the poor, people who are ill, children, immigrants, communities of color and religious minorities.
Beirut

Rebel factions in Syria are prepared to honor a U.S.-Russian-brokered cease-fire while communicating deep reservations about its terms, according to a leader in the powerful Ahrar al-Sham militia.

The agreement is set to come into effect in stages beginning with a limited cease-fire Monday night that allows the Syrian government to continue to strike at al-Qaida-linked militants, until the U.S. and Russia take over the task in one week's time.

The arrangement has divided rebel factions, who have depended on the might of a dominant al-Qaida-linked faction to resist government advances around the contested city of Aleppo. The leader of at least one U.S.-backed rebel faction has publicly called the offer a "trap."

The deal has received the endorsement of President Bashar Assad's government and its key allies  Russia, Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
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Hillary Clinton's abrupt departure from a 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York after falling ill on Sunday, and the subsequent disclosure that she has pneumonia, are likely to intensify scrutiny on the Democratic presidential nominee's health and potentially inject a new campaign issue into a race between two of the oldest candidates ever to seek the White House.

Clinton supporters had long dismissed concerns about her health as baseless, insisting that she only had allergies. But Sunday's incident  and a video appearing to show Clinton having difficulty standing on her own  will amplify such questions just as the race enters its final weeks.

The incident also could increase pressure on both Clinton, 68, and Republican nominee Donald Trump, 70, to release more information about their health. Clinton has disclosed less than many previous candidates. Trump has released almost nothing.

"This is the kind of thing that voters have a right to understand before they cast a vote," said Katie Packer, a GOP strategist.

"Both Trump and Hillary are elderly. They are obligated to release full medical records and full tax returns to the American people. And the media, party leaders and American people should settle for nothing less."

The pneumonia diagnosis came as the campaign enters its most grueling phase, weeks before the first presidential debate and as voters start voting early. Her doctor, who made the diagnosis on Friday, advised Clinton to curtail her schedule. But the Democratic candidate did not appear to skip any planned events over the weekend, including a fundraiser in New York headlined by Barbra Streisand.

After the incident Sunday, Clinton's campaign said it was reviewing possible revisions to her schedule. She had planned to fly to California Monday for fundraisers and an appearance on "The Ellen Show" the following day.

Clinton's lung infection capped a tough week for her campaign, with polls showing a tightening of the race against Trump. Then over the weekend, Clinton was forced to partially retract comments she made referring to half of Trump's supporters as "deplorables."

The new scrutiny of her health will add to those problems.

"Forty-eight hours ago, this was something for the Flat-Earth Society and the birth-certificate deniers," Dan Schnur, director of the University of Southern California's Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics, said of the speculation about Clinton's health. "Now it's a topic of legitimate, mainstream political discussion."

Some critics complained that Clinton did not reveal the condition Friday, when it was first diagnosed. And after she fell ill Sunday morning, her campaign initially attributed it to "overheating" and waited nearly seven hours before disclosing the pneumonia.
LUANNE M. FERRIS

Within two months, the citizens of the United States will cast a vote for president. We are being told the two major-party candidates will create jobs, beat ISIS, stop illegal immigration, provide health care for all and many other empty promises to help them get elected.

If Americans read the Constitution, they would realize how far we have fallen from the original intent of the Republic that we are supposed to represent. The power of the federal government, according to James Madison in Federalist Paper 45, is clear and defined, not vague and unlimited.
Too often, when writers try to write an essay, they stumble on common pitfalls like cramming too much information into too small a space, giving too much back story, or trying to write an essay for a particular column rather than writing an emotionally true one. We all have read memoirs that take our breath away, but how does a writer manage to produce that effect in under 3,000 words?

In this lecture from our 2014 Summer Writers Workshop, Ann Hood offers up ten steps to help you write a kick-ass essay.
[September 12, 2016] Americares Unveils New Brand Identity

Americares, the world's leading nonprofit provider of donated medicines and medical supplies, today unveiled a new logo and visual identity that's reflective of its growth and transformation to a global organization and a key player in the global health field. The new identity, revealed today on Facebook (News - Alert) LIVE and in a video narrated by actor, director, producer Tony Goldwyn, is the first logo change in the organization's nearly 40-year history. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912006107/en/ Pediatrician Dr. Helene Gutierrez examines a patient at the Americares Family Clinic in Santiago de Maria, El Salvador. Photo by Marc Birnbach/Americares The rebranding reinforces the organization's long-standing commitment to life-changing health programs for people affected y poverty or disaster, while communicating its global presence. Americares reaches more than 90 countries every year, filling empty hospital shelves in Africa, rebuilding earthquake-damaged health centers in Nepal and supporting quality health care in rural communities throughout the United States, where even basic health care is often out of reach.



"The launch of our new logo better reflects the global community we serve and kicks-off a new era at Americares that better speaks to who we are as an organization - multi-dimensional, modern and bold," said Americares President and CEO Michael J. Nyenhuis. "Our new brand identity illustrates how far Americares has come as we've evolved from a single office in the U.S. to a truly global organization with staff, programs and partners around the world." Nyenhuis is in Mumbai today, where the Americares India office is simultaneously launching the new logo.

At the center of the rebranding initiative is a new icon that translates across cultures - a human form with a red and blue body symbolizing the organization's U.S. roots. With the new icon and a customized, authentic typeface that evokes a handmade feel, Americares new visual identity illustrates that humanity is at the heart of everything the organization does. The rebranding also aims to modernize the brand for digital platforms and appeal to a new generation of supporters, ensuring Americares life-saving health programs continue for years to come. The rebranding initiative is spearheaded by Americares SVP and Chief Marketing Officer Jed Selkowitz, who honed his marketing expertise at The Coca Cola Company and iHeartMedia. Harley & Co., a boutique design firm based in New York, was enlisted to create the graphic elements and design a new website. "We have a new look, but our purpose and mission have not changed," Selkowitz said. "It was important that the brand reflect the organization we have become and where we are headed." The rebranding comes at a time when Americares, best known for its emergency relief work and medical aid deliveries, is expanding its programming to include more clinical services and community health programs in under-resourced countries. Since its founding in 1979, Americares has provided more than $12 billion in aid to 164 countries including the U.S. Americares is recognized for creating unparalleled leverage for donors; for every $10 donated it can deliver $200 in aid to help communities prepare, respond and recover from disasters, prevent disease and promote good health. About Americares Americares is a health-focused relief and development organization that responds to people affected by poverty or disaster with life-changing health programs, medicine and medical supplies. Each year, Americares reaches more than 90 countries and all 50 U.S. states with over $600 million in innovative health programs and quality medical aid. Americares is the world's leading nonprofit provider of donated medicine and medical supplies. americares.org View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912006107/en/

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In 2014, riders on Metro-North's New Haven line chugged their final Budweiser, when the MTA decommissioned the last bar car to make way for the fleet of new M-8 trains. And thus it was back to furtive sips from paper bags for daily commuters to Connecticut. There's room for hope, however, with a rumor the bar cars are set to return, once again bringing happy hour to the rails.

Governor Dannel P. Malloy may be announcing the return of bar cars as early as this Friday, sources told the CT Post. The Governor is expected to reveal plans to purchase 60 new M-8 rail cars, 10 of which are expected to be of the bar variety. The Governor's office did not immediately return requests for comment and CT Department of Transportation declined to comment when asked about the bar cars' return.

But this move tracks with statements by transit officials, who've hinted at the possibility of outfitting their new fleet with special compartments for drinking.

While bar sales may have been in decline, there was a steadfast group of regulars who mourned the bars' retirement. "This commute is miserableand there's one car on this train where everyone is happy," one rider told the Associated Press. Fans say the bar cars offered a sense of community, much like a beloved dive or neighborhood pub. And a way to get sloshed before retreating back to one's miserable life and horrible children in the suburbs.
[September 11, 2016] Australia-based Tego Signs with Collaborus Cloud

SYDNEY and SHANGHAI, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- eBaoTech, the leading global digital insurance solution provider for the life and the property & casualty (general) insurance industries, today announced Tego will implement Collaborus Cloud, a full lifecycle insurance distribution and policy processing platform. This becomes the second installation of Collaborus Cloud within three months after US-based AmFed, highlighting the product's strong capabilities and advantages with cloud approach to enable rapid customer success in fast changing digital age. Tego is an underwriting agency specialising in the healthcare sector providing doctors with a new choice in medical indemnity insurance, supported by a technically strong underwriting and claims handling team. As a recent start up in Australia, Tego wishes to significantly expand their business via distribution to brokers and was looking for a robust and agile system as the backbone to support their growth strategy. Eric Lowenstein, CEO of Tego, commented, "As a new market entrant unencumbered by legacy, we had the opportunity to think differently and we aim to be highly responsive to the needs of doctors to bring a new and different perspective to risk selection, pricing, claims and cover. We were imprssed by the strong capabilities and flexibility of Collaborus Cloud which allows full policy lifecycle for brokers, internal insurance processing staff and underwriters. The Cloud approach and out-of-box iform functions will enable us to provide an integrated application form on our website and quickly expand our business."



"We are delighted to be selected by Tego as their software partner to support their expansion in Australia. We believe our digital insurance distribution platform will quickly deliver business values to insurance carriers, underwriters and brokers, especially to those start-ups and underwriting agency firms. We look forward to assisting Tego in achieving the maximum effect and promise of Collabrous Cloud," said Ken Slevin, GM of Collaborus Business Unit and Corporate VP, eBaoTech. Collaborus is a global digital insurance platform, providing multi-lingual (real time language switch) and multi-currency capability that also allows country level product configuration.

Insurance carriers such as AIG in nearly 10 countries and US-based AmFed are leveraging eBaoTech Collaborus to quickly roll new products and further optimize their operation processes. For more product information and updates within Australia, please email [email protected] or [email protected] and follow us at LinkedIn and Twitter. About Tego Tego offers medical indemnity insurance for doctors using the expertise of their own insurance broker bringing additional choice, flexibility and financial security to Australian doctors. Tego's products include professional indemnity insurance for individual medical practitioners, medical centres and day clinics. www.tego.com.au. About eBaoTech

eBaoTech's mission is to "make insurance easy". With more than 150 installations in more than 30 countries, eBaoTech is one of the global leaders in insurance technology. From its inception in 2000, eBaoTech has been an innovation leader at the intersection of insurance and internet. eBaoTech offers world leading insurance software solutions for both life and general insurances. eBaoTech's hallmark is "Rapid Customer Success" (RCS), with a strong focus on delivering business value to its customers fast. Digital insurance is the central theme in the coming years and eBaoTech is well positioned to be a global leading partner for insurance industry to move to the digital age. For more information, please visit www.ebaotech.com.

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[September 12, 2016] CenturyLink completes largest deployment of G.fast technology in North America

PLATTEVILLE, Wis., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL), a leading broadband services provider in the United States, today announced that it has installed G.fast technology in Platteville, Wis., resulting in the largest G.fast deployment in North America. Using existing copper and internal coaxial cable infrastructure, CenturyLink installed G.fast technology in 44 multi-dwelling units (MDUs) to provide internet speeds of up to 500 Mbps and higher to nearly 800 apartments in Platteville. "CenturyLink's commercial G.fast deployment in Platteville, Wisconsin is the largest single G.fast implementation in the U.S. to date, highlighting the company's commitment to delivering ultra-broadband services  including Gigabit access  to its customer base," said Erik M. Keith, principal analyst of broadband networks and multiplay services at Current Analysis. "With the ongoing evolution towards unicast, OTT streaming video services, including 4KTV, demand for ultra-broadband connectivity continues to escalate. To this end, CenturyLink is leveraging extensive fiber network build-outs in conjunction with key endpoint technologies, with G.fast providing de facto FTTH services over existing copper access lines." In 2015, CenturyLink deployed fiber-to-the-premises technology to the majority of residential and business customers in Platteville to upgrade the CenturyLink Televideo TV service to CenturyLink Prism TV service. That fiber network enhancement also enabled most residential and business customers in Platteville access to broadband speeds up to 1 gigabit per second. Many apartment complexes in this area that did not have access to those faster speeds are now able to connect to speeds up to 500 Mbps and higher, and to Prism TV service, through this G.fast deployment.



"We saw a great opportunity to use existing copper assets in our Platteville network to bring ultra-fast internet speeds to customers who live in areas that typically don't have access to these new broadband technologies delivering higher speeds," said Aamir Hussain, CenturyLink executive vice president and chief technology officer. "We take a fiber-first approach when deploying faster broadband speeds but enabling G.fast over copper infrastructure helps us reduce costs, speed time to market and effectively connect our customers to the power of the digital world in areas where fiber deployment is less feasible." CenturyLink is evaluating other locations, beyond MDUs, where G.fast technology can be used to give customers access to faster speeds, such as fiber-fed multi-tenant units (MTUs) and neighborhoods where fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) allows for G.fast to push higher speeds over the short amount of copper into the home. CenturyLink is utilizing other new technologies on its existing network infrastructure to accommodate the growing broadband needs of its customers, including the delivery of internet speeds up to 100 Mbps to nearly 1 million homes and businesses using VDSL2 vectoring.

CenturyLink is utilizing the Calix AXOS G.fast solution for its G.fast deployment in Platteville, with all systems and services managed via the cloud through Calix's Compass Consumer Connect Plus software. About CenturyLink

CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) is a global communications, hosting, cloud and IT services company enabling millions of customers to transform their businesses and their lives through innovative technology solutions. CenturyLink offers network and data systems management, Big Data analytics and IT consulting, and operates more than 55 data centers in North America, Europe and Asia. The company provides broadband, voice, video, data and managed services over a robust 250,000-route-mile U.S. fiber network and a 300,000-route-mile international transport network. Visit CenturyLink for more information. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140806/134213 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/centurylink-completes-largest-deployment-of-gfast-technology-in-north-america-300325687.html SOURCE CenturyLink, Inc.

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[September 12, 2016] Church Pension Group Appoints William F. Murray Senior Vice President and General Manager of The Church Insurance Companies

The Church Pension Group (CPG), a financial services organization that serves the Episcopal Church and its people, today announced the appointment of William "Bill" F. Murray as Senior Vice President and General Manager of The Church Insurance Companies (CIC). In this role, he will be responsible for the management and oversight of CIC, which provides property and liability coverage for Episcopal Church institutions. He will report directly to CPG's Chief Operating Officer, Frank Armstrong, and will be based in Bennington, Vermont. Murray will replace Rod Webster, current Senior Vice President and General Manager of CIC, who recently announced his intention to retire. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912005992/en/



The Church Pension Group appoints William "Bill" F. Murray as Senior Vice President and General Manager of The Church Insurance Companies. (Photo: Business Wire)

"I am pleased to welcome Bill to CPG as the new head of The Church Insurance Companies," said Mr. Armstrong. "His industry knowledge and expertise will help us continue our commitment to service and financial sustainability. Our efforts to provide competitive property and casualty insurance offerings, coupled with comprehensive risk management tools and strategies, will be at the forefront of Bill's efforts while serving our clients. "I also wish to thank Rod for his leadership and for his dedication and focus on client service over the past 20 years. We wish him the very best in his retirement," added Armstrong. Prior to CPG, Murray served as Chief Underwriting Officer, Casualty/Public Risk, of Houston Casualty Company, a provider of property and casualty insurance products and services. Before this, he held senior management positions in several midsize insurance organizations throughout the United States. He also served as Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy, and was a Lance Corporal in the United States Marine Corps. Murray holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Loyola University of Chicago and is a graduate of the Executive Management Program of the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College. About The Church Pension Fund The Church Pension Fund (CPF) is an independent financial services organization that serves the Episcopal Church. With approximately $12 billion in assets, CPF and its affiliated companies, collectively the Church Pension Group (CPG), provide retirement, health, and life insurance benefits to clergy and lay employees of the Episcopal Church. CPG also offers property and casualty insurance as well as book and music publishing, including the official worship materials of the Episcopal Church. Learn more at cpg.org. About The Church Insurance Companies Founded in 1929, The Church Insurance Companies offer churches, dioceses, and institutions property and liability coverage, as well as risk management tools and strategies. It consists of The Church Insurance Company, The Church Insurance Company of New York, The Church Insurance Company of Vermont, and The Church Insurance Agency Corporation. Learn more at cpg.org/churchinsurance. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912005992/en/

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[September 12, 2016] CyberVista Reveals Expert Speaker Line-Up for First Board and Executive Cyber Literacy Seminar

Cybersecurity education and workforce development company CyberVista today announced speakers for a board and executive cybersecurity education workshop, to be held October 24-26 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Select cybersecurity experts and business leaders include Yong-Gon Chon, chief executive officer, Cyber Risk Management; Phil Gardner, founder & chief executive officer, IANS; Siobhan Gorman, director, The Brunswick Group; Jennifer Martin, privacy and cybersecurity counsel, Covington & Burling LLP; Gerald Czarnecki, board member, National Leadership Institute; and Dennis Devlin (News - Alert), board member, Savanture. These seminar speakers and panelists will provide attendees the knowledge and understanding they need to oversee and manage cyber risks facing businesses today. "Corporate board members and executives need to learn about cybersecurity in their own language," said CyberVista CEO Amjed Saffarini. "We are particularly excited to assemble a mix of business leaders and cyber experts that can help translate the complex world of cybersecurity into what matters most for corporate leaders-topics like risk and reputation. I'm confident that attendees will come away from this workshop with actionable steps that will help them enhance their organizations' cybersecurity posture." Each board and executive seminar is an interactive experience designed to familiarize business leaders with governance-related cybersecurity topics. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in strategic discussions and activities, including an immersion breach simulation that will provide attendees with actionable steps for managing cyber risks facing their organization. Speakers Yong-Gon Chon, chief executive officer, Cyber Risk Management, will lead a session to help attendees manage cyber risk in a uniquely-challenging digital world. Chon has more than 20 years of experience building and leading global security and risk management teams. Chon is a publishedauthor and frequent speaker at industry events, TV and radio including ABC, FOX, MSNBC, CNN and Federal News Radio.



Phil Gardner, founder & chief executive officer, IANS, will lead a session titled "Inside the Shoes of the CISO: What the CISO Won't Tell You." Having built the end user research offering for the information security advisory and consulting firm, Gardner now oversees all strategic and operational decisions at IANS. Siobhan Gorman, director, The Brunswick Group, will serve as a featured panelist discussing response planning and ensuring organizational cohesion during a cyber crisis. At the Brunswick Group, Gorman focuses on cybersecurity and privacy, specializing in breach preparedness, breach crisis response, and thought leadership initiatives in the cybersecurity arena.

Jennifer Martin, privacy & cybersecurity counsel at Covington & Burling LLP, will serve as a featured panelist focusing on response planning and ensuring organizational cohesion during a cyber crisis. Martin will also speak about keeping pace in an evolving legal and regulatory cyber environment. Martin has worked at the intersection of law and cybersecurity for the past 15 years, with uniquely-honed expertise through experience managing cyber risks and responding to threats from a variety of perspectives. Gerald Czarnecki, board member, National Leadership Institute, will co-lead several sessions to help attendees prepare for, monitor, react to and recover from cyber attacks. Czarnecki has been a board member of more than 50 international and local nonprofit organizations, including the United Way, the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, Dallas Theater Center, Dallas Opera, Junior Achievement of South Florida, the Nature Conservancy, and Inroads, Inc. Dennis Devlin, board member, Savanture, will co-lead several sessions and facilitate throughout the seminar. Devlin is co-founder of Savanture, with previous senior leadership security roles at The George Washington University, Brandeis, Thomson-Reuters (News - Alert), and Harvard University. Additional speakers and panelists include Tony Urbanovich, head of operations, Cyber Global Risk Exchange, Inc. (CyberGRX); Chris Rezendes, founder & managing director at IoT IMPACT LABS; Amy Mushahwar, counsel & chief information security officer at ZwillGen PLLC; Gail Arkin, senior vice president & general counsel, Berkley Cyber Risk Solutions; and Howard Foard, lead associate, Booz Allen Hamilton (News - Alert). The two-day October event is one in a series of seminars CyberVista is hosting around the country as part of its board and executive cyber literacy program, which aims to provide business leaders and corporate governance professionals with a comprehensive understanding of cyber issues that affect their organizations. Registration for the October 24-26 workshop in Scottsdale is open until October 7, 2016. For more information or to reserve a spot, visit www.cybervista.net or contact Jeff Welgan, Head of Executive Training programs, at [email protected] or 703-345-6435. About CyberVista CyberVista is a cybersecurity training and workforce development company whose mission is to create a cyber-ready workforce through personalized training programs that provide organizations with the people, knowledge and skills required to defend their most critical assets. With parent Graham Holdings Company and sister company Kaplan, Inc.'s innovative education technologies and personalized approach to learning, CyberVista offers a new vision for board, executive, and workforce cybersecurity education. For more information, visit www.cybervista.net. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912006197/en/

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[September 12, 2016] European Data Centre Association Announces New Managing Director

London, England  9th September 2016 - The European Data Centre Association has today announced the appointment of Nicola Hayes as Managing Director of the organisation. Nicola will be responsible for the day to day running of the association and will work closely with the chairman and board to ensure that its members are effectively represented and strategic objectives communicated and implemented.







The decision is part of a long term plan to widen the associations membership and relevance across Europe. During its annual meeting in June, the board recognised that the industry is in a period of change and determined that the association needed to be able to evolve in order to best serve its members. The task of leading the association during this period falls to the new chairman, Apostolos Kakkos, CEO of Lamda Helix, the Greek Data Centre Operator together with a newly appointed board. Speaking about Nicolas appointment, Apostolos says in order to ensure the growth of the association and its relevance to operators of all sizes across Europe, it was determined that a managing director, independent of the member organisations, should be taken on. We are delighted to have Nicola on board. Her long history of working within the industry at both European and International levels as well as her experience of working with other national trade associations will prove invaluable to the long term success of the European Data Centre Association.



The association has also announced the addition of international operators Equinix and Digital Realty to its membership and board. Apostolos states the European Data Centre Association now has as members the three largest pan-European operators, all of whom fully support our updated aims and objectives and will play a large role in ensuring the associations success and relevance to the industry, both commercially and politically.





Michael Winterson, VP Sales Equinix was appointed to the board at the June meeting. Speaking about Equinixs decision to join the association, Michael commented it has become increasingly obvious that there is a need for an industry body representing data centres across Europe. On a political level, whilst some counties have effective national trade associations working on our behalf, this isnt always the case. Commercially, there is a strong argument for an organisation offering the dissemination of information; representation outside the continent; and a forum for discussion. Equinix is confident that the European Data Centre Association is strategically well placed to serve the interests of European data centre operators and I look forward to working with the organisation.



Nicola Hayes together with board members will be present at the BroadGroup DataCloud Nordic event in Stockholm on the 20th October, www.datacloudnordic.com, where a briefing will be held explaining the Associations aims, objectives and member benefits. If you are interested in attending please contact Nicola Hayes, [email protected]



About The European Data Centre Association The European Data Centre Association is a not-for-profit industry trade association with Royal Assent in Belgium. Membership is open to all commercial data centre operators with a presence in Europe. Its mission is to support and develop the data centre industry in Europe and this includes commercial as well as political aims. For further information please contact Nicola Hayes, [email protected] As a community-building service, TMCnet allows user submitted content which is not always proofed by TMCnet editors. If you feel this entry is of inferior quality or wish to report it for some reason, please forward the URL to "webedit [AT] tmcnet [DOT] com" with your comments.

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[September 12, 2016] Harris Corporation Joins Indian River Lagoon Innovators and Investors Network

Harris Corporation (News - Alert) is boosting efforts to improve the Indian River Lagoon's health by partnering with the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program (IRLNEP) in its conservation and protection efforts. The IRLNEP board voted Friday to add Harris to the IRL-Innovators and Investors network (IRL-I2), which includes industry and community groups dedicated to taking an active role in achieving the goals of a clean and healthy ecosystem. Harris (NYSE:HRS) is now the largest industry partner to join the IRL-I2. The Indian River Lagoon is one of 28 Estuaries of National Significance designated under the National Estuary Program, a non-regulatory, community-based effort established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1987. The IRLNEP connects policy makers, resource managers, communities, scientists and citizens who work to conserve and improve the lagoon. Members of IRL-I2 work to link innovation in thought, knowledge, science and technology to identify and implement solutions to the complex problems the lagoon faces. In recent years, algae blooms have been a recurring symptom of issues caused primarily by excessive nutrient inputs from muck (a black ooze containing silt and clay mixed with decaying plant and animal material), septic tank effluent and fertilizers that get introduced into the lagoon by storm water runoff. "The Indian River Lagoon is the lifeblood of communities along Florida's East Coast that are home t Harris as well as thousands of employees," said Tom Campbell, Harris Space and Intelligence Systems innovation director. "We are excited to partner with the IRLNEP and to work together to save this natural treasure."



Harris is one of the largest public companies headquartered in Florida and has about 6,500 employees in 19 locations throughout the state, including about 6,000 in Brevard County. The company does $228 million in annual business with Florida suppliers and has contributed more than $13 million to community and academic organizations in the state over the last five years. "We appreciate Harris Corporation stepping up to become a champion of the Indian River Lagoon," IRLNEP Executive Director Duane De Freese said. "Stewardship of the Lagoon requires that we work together as a regional community. Partnership with industry leaders like Harris Corporation provides exciting opportunities for innovation, technology development and employee volunteer initiatives."

About Harris Corporation Harris Corporation is a leading technology innovator, solving customers' toughest mission-critical challenges by providing solutions that connect, inform and protect. Harris supports customers in more than 100 countries and has approximately $7.5 billion in annual revenue and 21,000 employees worldwide. The company is organized into four business segments: Communication Systems, Space and Intelligence Systems, Electronic Systems and Critical Networks. Learn more at harris.com. About the IRLNEP The IRLNEP is a non-regulatory, community-based program established to protect and restore the Indian River Lagoon. The IRLNEP is sponsored locally by the IRL Council, and includes representatives of the five counties bordering the lagoon (Volusia, Brevard, the Indian River County Lagoon Coalition, St. Lucie and Martin counties), the St. Johns River and South Florida Water Management Districts, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). More information is available at irlcouncil.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912006075/en/

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[September 12, 2016] H.I.G. Capital Portfolio Company LG Lugar de Gente Acquires E-Guru, a Leading Provider of Human Capital Management Solutions in Brazil

H.I.G. Capital ("H.I.G."), a leading global private equity and alternative asset investment firm with over $20 billion of equity capital under management, is pleased to announce that its portfolio company, LG Lugar de Gente ("LG"), a leading human resources software provider in Brazil, has acquired E-Guru Servicos em Tecnologia Educacional ("E-Guru" or the "Company"), a leading provider of Human Capital Management ("HCM") solutions to further strengthen its position as the only HR focused software company in Brazil offering a complete set of HCM solutions to its clients. Since H.I.G.'s investment, LG has completed two add-on acquisitions, including acquiring W3 last year. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Sao Paulo, E-Guru is a leading developer of cloud-based solution for employee recruiting and training such as learning games, e-learning, LMS platform, among others. The Company is the pioneer and leader in the development of assessment games in Brazil, which "collect" information about the player's decision-making process enabling profile mapping and identification of areas to be further developed by the employee, allowing for better resource allocation in employee training and retention efforts as well as more effective employee recruiting. Felipe Azevedo, founder of E-Guru, will serve as HCM director of LG and will lead the Company's growth and integration efforts. Fernando Marques Oliveira, Head of H.I.G. Brasil and H.I.G. Latin America, commented "With this acquisition, LG will further expand its software platform and be able to offer a complete solution not only for the core HR market (payroll, benefits, etc) but also for the strategic part of HR (recruiting, talent management, HR analytics, etc), becoming a one-stop-shop for tech-related HR solutions in Brazil. E-Guru has a very complementary offering to LG's applcation suite, and has a high commitment to product quality and client service. We are confident the two companies will benefit greatly from working together".



About E-Guru Founded by Felipe Azevedo in 2001 and headquartered in Sao Paulo, E-Guru is a leading developer of cloud-based solution for employee recruiting and training. E-Guru is also the pioneer and leader in the development of assessment games in Brazil. For further information, please visit www.eguru.com.br.

About LG Lugar de Gente Founded in 1985, LG provides products and services that support human resources departments of over 350 companies in different industries across Brazil. The Company's payroll solution is primarily targeted at large corporations with over 5,000 employees. For more information, visit www.lg.com.br. About H.I.G. Capital H.I.G. is a leading global private equity and alternative asset investment firm with over $20 billion of equity capital under management.* Based in Miami, and with offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Atlanta in the U.S., as well as international affiliate offices in London, Hamburg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Bogota and Rio de Janeiro, H.I.G. specializes in providing both debt and equity capital to small and mid-sized companies, utilizing a flexible and operationally focused/value-added approach: 1. H.I.G.'s equity funds invest in management buyouts, recapitalizations and corporate carve-outs of both profitable as well as underperforming manufacturing and service businesses. 2. H.I.G.'s debt funds invest in senior, unitranche and junior debt financing to companies across the size spectrum, both on a primary (direct origination) basis, as well as in the secondary markets. H.I.G. is also a leading CLO manager, through its WhiteHorse family of vehicles, and manages a publicly traded BDC, WhiteHorse Finance. 3. H.I.G.'s real estate funds invest in value-added properties, which can benefit from improved asset management practices. Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 300 companies worldwide. The firm's current portfolio includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of $30 billion. For more information, please refer to the H.I.G. website at www.higcapital.com. * Based on total capital commitments managed by H.I.G. Capital and affiliates. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912005704/en/

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[September 12, 2016] Ingenious Med Appoints Joe Marabito as Chief Executive Officer

Ingenious Med, developer of the nation's leading point-of-care platform for aligning physicians, their care teams, and their extended care teams, today announced that it has added Joe Marabito to its executive team as chief executive officer. Marabito is joining Ingenious Med to replace retiring president and CEO S. Hart Williford. Williford will serve as chairman of Ingenious Med's board of directors. With over 25 years of healthcare industry experience, Marabito brings extensive operational, consulting, and strategic experience to the company from his various executive roles at healthcare organizations, leading providers of software solutions, and other services organizations within the healthcare IT sector. "For the past eight years Ingenious Med has experienced explosive growth. Under Joe's leadership, I am certain Ingenious Med will continue along that path, which has earned us a spot on the coveted Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies four times," said Williford. Marabito formerly served as president and CEO of ikaSystems, which offers an enterprise-level, cloud-based platform that administers Commercial, Medicare, Medicaid, and Health Exchange lines of business for payers and providers. He also held senior executive positions at Medco, Accentre, NaviNet, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri.



"Ingenious Med is a terrific company, with the right solution at the right time for professionals and institutions who deliver quality healthcare. Its innovative platform improves care delivery every day for its customers. Ingenious Med's IM1 platform has been chosen by a marquee list of customers, including nine of the 10 largest healthcare systems in the nation, as well as eight of the 10 largest hospitalist companies in the nation. That definitively demonstrates Ingenious Med's solutions are closely aligned with critical needs of leading healthcare organizations," said Marabito. "The industry is at an inflection point, as the U.S. healthcare system accelerates its journey from volume to value, and Ingenious Med is at the center of that movement. I look forward to helping the company continue along its stellar growth path, and to tackling some of the biggest challenges facing the healthcare industry." About Ingenious Med

Ingenious Med is an Inc. 5000 and Deloitte (News - Alert) Technology Fast 500 company that delivers the nation's leading patient encounter and physician and care team alignment platform, IM1. The largest healthcare systems in the U.S. utilize IM1 to coordinate care, document encounters, capture charges, and analyze and improve operations. The award-winning, No. 1 in KLAS IM1 automates workflows at the point of care by offering mobile and web applications for physicians, care teams and administrators. By seamlessly integrating into a health system's electronic records and billing ecosystem, IM1 creates efficiencies that lower costs while improving the quality of care. IM1 is accelerating the industry's move toward "The Right Side of Healthcaresm." Learn more about how you can capture additional revenue, lower costs and improve quality at www.IngeniousMed.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912005852/en/

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[September 12, 2016] Luis A. Aguilar Joins Falcon Cyber Investments, LLC As Partner

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Falcon Cyber Investments, LLC today welcomes the addition of the Honorable Luis A. Aguilar, former Commissioner at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as a new partner to the firm. "The Falcon Cyber team is proud and humbled to welcome Luis, a recognized leader at the nexus of cybersecurity, investor protection and publicly traded companies," said Rick Berry, partner at Falcon Cyber. "Luis' wealth of experience in law, the financial markets, investment banking and his most recent role at the Securities and Exchange Commission will help sharpen our focus on creating value for our investors and the investee companies. The cybersecurity market is unique, and our team is exceptionally positioned to help foster the innovative cybersecurity products and services to protect our most sensitive information." "Cybersecurity is a major threat across all industries," said Luis Aguilar. "I spent a lot of time in my last two years at the Securities and Exchange Commission on this issue, and worked closely with Chair Mary Jo White in putting together the first cybersecurity roundtable in 2014. I understand firsthand thethreats we face, and since leaving the SEC, I've been searching for the right platform to continue contributing to the cybersecurity field and work against the harm cyberattacks can cause. After careful consideration of the capabilities, opportunities and market reach of Falcon Cyber  I'm extremely excited to join the team."



Commissioner Aguilar is a member of the Board of Directors of Envestnet, Inc., a NYSE-traded company that is a leading provider of unified wealth management technology and services to investment advisors. His previous experience includes serving as the general counsel, head of compliance, executive vice president, and corporate secretary of Invesco, with responsibility for all legal and compliance matters regarding Invesco Institutional. He was also Invesco's Managing Director for Latin America in the 1990's, and president of one of Invesco's broker-dealers. His professional career also includes tenure as a partner in various prominent national law firms.

Falcon Cyber was formed, from day one, to focus on the unique cybersecurity market by investing in companies that bring exciting new technologies and services to the marketplace. The addition of Luis Aguilar's expertise allows Falcon to continue to affiliate with the best and brightest in the cybersecurity ecosystem. Falcon Cyber Investments is a multistage equity vehicle exclusively focused on Cybersecurity Investments  we partner with our portfolio companies to help them accelerate their success as they seize market opportunities to reduce the cyberattack surface for corporations, governments, and individuals around the globe. www.FalconCyber.com

[email protected] To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/luis-a-aguilar-joins-falcon-cyber-investments-llc-as-partner-300325589.html SOURCE Falcon Cyber Investments, LLC

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[September 12, 2016] Maine Medical Association Selects DrFirst's Rcopia and EPCS Gold Software as Recommended E-prescribing Solution

The Maine Medical Association (MMA) has selected DrFirst software as its recommended e-prescribing solution in the run-up to the July 1, 2017 legal deadline set by the state in requiring the electronic prescribing of opioid medications. DrFirst, a pioneer in providing e-prescribing solutions for both legend drugs and controlled substances, is one of a select handful of vendors that meet federal regulatory requirements for electronically sending controlled substance prescriptions to pharmacies. The company's Rcopia and EPCS Gold solutions have been growing in all 50 states. They have been widely deployed in New York, following that state's landmark move, effective March 27, 2017 to require that all prescriptions -- including those for controlled substances -- be transmitted electronically. In December 2014, the Medical Society of the State of New York (MSSNY) selected DrFirst as its official e-prescribing solution. Now Maine's statewide medical association - a non-profit organization that advocates for the interests of Maine physicians and their patients -- is following in MSSNY's footsteps in a trend that is likely to expand nationwide as states grapple with the growing opioid-abuse crisis. MMA's exclusive endorsement last week of DrFirst's Rcopia and EPCS (E-Prescribing of Controlled Substances) platform will result in DrFirst marketing its products to MMA members in partnership with the association. Maine's mandate requiring the electronic prescription of opioid medications - an "Act to Prevent Opiate Abuse by Strengthening the Controlled Substance Prescription Monitoring Program" - was signed into law in April 2016. The bill also mandates prescriber participation in the state's Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP), sets limits for the strength and duration of opioid prescriptions and requires that prescribers undergo addiction training every two years. "It's critical that we address the growing opioid crisis in our country, and we believe moving opioid prescribing into a more controllable and auditable electronic environment is important to helping address this issue," said Gordon Smith, executive vice president of the MMA. "Having researched the best, most practical e-prescribing systems available to Maine providers -- and having seen DrFirst's success working with providers in New York -- we made the decision to officially endorse DrFirst and to work closely with them to ensure that MMA members needing this capability enjoy rapid access and customer support from this leading e-medication management company," Smith added. "We are extremely pleased to have been selected as the MMA's exclusive partner for EPCS," said G. Cameron Deemer, president of DrFirst. "We believe that providers and patients in Maine will be well served by our platform based on our extensive experience working with hysicians and health systems in New York during the implementation of the I-STOP program in that first-mover state."



"Having recently gone through the similarly-legislated experience in New York, we've honed our customer experience services nationwide to include increased educational support for doctors and staff unfamiliar with e-prescribing, as well as white-glove support to help prescribers successfully complete the identity-proofing process required by the DEA," Deemer continued. "We are committed to helping ensure that Maine's transition to electronic prescribing is as seamless and painless as possible." MSSNY's decision to search for, evaluate and officially endorse an e-prescribing vendor was spurred by the New York Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing (I-STOP) legislation, which mandated that all patient medications be e-prescribed from March 27, 2016.

The I-STOP mandate was put in place by New York state legislators to help mitigate prescription drug over-use and abuse, which has risen to epidemic levels nationwide. E-prescribing software has long been proven to provide substantial benefits to doctors and their patients, and has most recently been recognized as an effective way (as in the case with Maine's PMP) to reduce drug diversion and "doctor shopping," which are leading causes of the misuse of high profile narcotics, such as hydrocodone drug combinations. Many doctors are familiar with legend drug e-prescribing, but far fewer have experience with controlled substance e-prescribing. However, according to a recently published survey by Surescripts and confirmed by data trends from DrFirst, EPCS grew more than 600 percent between 2014 and 2015. This striking increase is likely a result of growing general awareness of the benefits of EPCS as well as the growth in the number of pharmacies that are EPCS-enabled. "Currently, more than 55,000 doctors use our e-prescribing and e-medication management solutions to improve patient safety and enhance clinical outcomes," added DrFirst's Deemer. "We believe that providers are more likely to make a more informed decision when they have the right data at the right time. This is especially true for prescribing controlled substances, like OxyContin." Dr. Thomas Sullivan, DrFirst's chief privacy and strategic officer, observed,: "In the most recent study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), opioids were involved in over 28,000 deaths in 2014 nationwide and opioid overdoses have quadrupled since 2000. Of the 14 states the CDC identified as having a 'statistically significant' increase in opioid abuse deaths between 2013 and 2014, three - Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire - are in New England." Sullivan, the former chair, Council on Medical Service of the American Medical Association, added, "At the end of the day, adopting EPCS achieves two goals: addressing the opioid epidemic and pursuing patient safety. E-prescribing allows patients and doctors to better guard against medication errors, such as drug-to-drug interactions, and it reduces common errors inherent in paper-based prescribing, including illegible handwriting, misinterpreted abbreviations and unclear dosages - and it's much more convenient for patients." The MMA-endorsed software includes DrFirst's Rcopia legend drug e-prescribing and DrFirst's EPCS Gold controlled substance e-prescribing platforms, packaged for MMA as a seamless, stand-alone solution. Providers using Rcopia and EPCS Gold will be able to e-prescribe legend drugs and controlled substances within a single workflow. The software will also support doctors with real-time prescription monitoring, instant access to medication histories for their patients, patient-specific formulary data, and clinical alerts such as drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction warnings. DrFirst will guide MMA members through the identity proofing and authentication processes that are required by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to allow a doctor to prescribe controlled substances electronically. The e-prescribing software also includes DrFirst's Patient AdvisorSM service, which helps doctors monitor and improve patient adherence to medication therapy, and allows doctors and their staff to process and complete medication prior authorizations electronically, right within the e-prescribing workflow. About DrFirst DrFirst pioneers technology solutions that inform the doctor-patient point of encounter, optimizing provider access to patient information, enhancing the doctor's clinical view of the patient, and improving care delivery and clinical outcomes. Our growth is driven by a commitment to innovation, security, and reliability across a wide array of services, including Medication Management, Medication Adherence, and Secure Communication and Collaboration. We are proud of our track record of service to more than 320 EMR/EHR/HIS vendors and an extensive network of providers, hospitals and patients. For more information, please visit www.drfirst.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912005395/en/

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A 36-year-old woman was window shopping on Fifth Avenue in Midtown on Saturday night when a man walked up to her and set her blouse on fire with a lighter, according to a complaint filed with the NYPD. The woman was wearing hijab, and the NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident as a possible bias attack.

Police said that the woman was standing outside of the Valentino boutique at 693 Fifth Avenue looking at the front window display when she "felt something warm on her left arm." She looked down and realized that the left sleeve of her blouse was on fire. A man standing next to her allegedly had a lighter in his hand. The woman didn't know the man, who proceeded to head east on 54th Street without speaking to her. She managed to put out the flames, and was uninjured.

No arrests have been made as of Monday afternoon.

Last week, a Brooklyn woman was arrested after she allegedly attacked two Muslim women pushing their babies in strollers in Bath Beach. Prosecutors say she attempted to rip off their hijabs and told them, "Get the fuck out of America, bitches."

Emirjeta Xhelili, 32, has been charged with misdemeanor assault as a hate crime, and was ordered held on $50,000 bond or $25,000 cash bail.

"I'm running out of things to say, really," said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "Each [incident] is followed by another." He mentioned the Florida mosque of Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen, which police believe was intentionally set on fire this morning. And yesterday, the 15th anniversary of 9/11, someone threw a rock through a window at a mosque in Nashua, New Hampshire.

"We've been seeing an unprecedented rise in anti-Muslim incidents in the last year," he added. "Anti-Muslim bigotry is on the rise thanks to people like Donald Trump, and we're definitely seeing the impact of that."
[September 12, 2016] NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes Adds Regulatory Affairs and Engineering Leaders to its Management Team

NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes LLC has hired James Brodack, Ph.D. as vice president of regulatory affairs/quality assurance and Rim Milunas as vice president of engineering. Brodack oversees day-to-day regulatory and quality operations at NorthStar. Milunas spearheads research and development, product design and engineering, with a strong focus on product development and production efficiency. The hiring of the two industry veterans comes as NorthStar advances toward U.S. Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approval of its RadioGenix intelligent isotope separation system and commercialization of the two new processes it is developing for producing the medical radioisotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99). "Rim and James bring nearly 60 years of combined experience in research, product development, product management and regulatory affairs/quality assurance," said NorthStar President and CEO George P. Messina. "They have been senior leaders with some of the premier companies in our industry. They have long track records of successfully bringing complex new medical devices and pharmaceuticals to market. Those resumes make them ideal additions to our management team as we take the final steps toward becoming the first domestic supplier of Mo-99 since 1989." James Brodack - Vice Pesident of Regulatory Affairs/Quality Assurance



Brodack has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for more than 26 years, holding multiple management positions with leading global companies. He comes to NorthStar from Guerbet, where he was director of regulatory affairs for the company's Liebel-Flarsheim Company LLC business. Prior to that, he worked for Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals' imaging business for 25 years, holding a series of increasingly responsible positions in both regulatory affairs and research and development. Before joining Mallinckrodt, he held several academic posts at Washington University in St. Louis, pursuing research interests involving positron-emitting radiopharmaceuticals and the use of robotics to automate radiopharmaceutical production. Brodack has a doctorate in inorganic chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Eastern Illinois University.

Rim Milunas - Vice President of Engineering Milunas has more than 30 years of engineering experience encompassing medical devices, mobile devices and automotive control systems, as well as extensive knowledge in hardware and software engineering. Milunas comes to NorthStar from Baxter International Inc., where he was senior director, global product management for the company's infusion systems business. Before that, he was director, program management - new product development for Baxter's renal business. Prior to joining Baxter, he worked for Motorola (News - Alert) Mobile Devices, Motorola Automotive and Industrial Electronics Group, Tenneco Corporation and General Motors Company's Saturn Corporation subsidiary. Milunas has a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois. NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes LLC Based in Beloit, Wisconsin, NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes LLC (northstarnm.com) was founded in 2006 to address the needs of the nuclear medicine market in the United States. A wholly owned subsidiary of NorthStar Medical Technologies LLC, the company is committed to resolving industry-wide supply challenges that have caused shortages of vital medical isotopes, negatively impacting patient care and stalling clinical research. Its patented technologies include innovative non-uranium based molybdenum-99 production methods, a novel separation chemistry system and tools for the nuclear medicine market. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912005995/en/

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[September 12, 2016] Project Management Consultants Expands in Cleveland

Project Management Consultants (PMC), a subsidiary of Thompson Hine LLP, is pleased to announce that R. Douglas (Doug) Myers, former Director of Planning, Design and Construction at Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C), has joined the organization as a Senior Project Consultant. Myers has extensive experience in campus planning and higher education construction, which includes working at the University Architect's Office at Cleveland State University and at several Cleveland, national and international architecture firms prior to his nine-year tenure at Tri-C. Myers, a licensed architect, has nearly 30 years of experience in project management and architecture, including project creation; programming and planning; design and review of schematic, design development and construction documents; value engineering and constructability review; construction management/administration; and project close-out. As the owner's project director/manager for two major higher education institutions, he has supervised the work of more than 40 architecture, engineering, construction management and specialty consulting firms. As Director of Project Management at Tri-C, Myers was responsible for overseeing the Project Management team, construction managers, architects, commissioning agents and testing agents as well as the management of fixtures, furnishings and equipment (FF&E), owner occupancy, prevailing wages and major project and legal issues. Myers lead the program management team during team building, bidding/award and construction during Tri-C phase one master plan execution. During te master plan execution, Myers played a key role in developing all the standards and procedures with which 27 architecture/engineering and 7 construction management firms were required to comply.



Myers has designed or managed projects totaling more than $300 million under various delivery methods, including general contracting, multiple-prime, construction management (agency) and construction management-at-risk (CMR). While at Tri-C, Myers managed the college's first CMR and LEED-certified projects. Having served as owner, project architect and construction manager brings to PMC proven leadership and substantive industry expertise. "We are thrilled to have Doug join PMC," said Jeffrey R. Appelbaum, managing director of PMC. "His expertise in the area of campus improvements, specifically at colleges and universities, will be a tremendous resource to our clients. In addition, his experience proves he is adept at successfully managing multiple-capital and locally-funded projects, adhering to the projects' scope-of-work, budgets, schedules and quality. Myers played a key role in planning, facilitating and directing Tri-C's largest building program since its opening and we enjoyed working with him on the project."

Myers received Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Architecture degrees from Kent State University in 1994. He is a Registered Architect in Ohio and Indiana and received the Project Leadership Award from the Construction Owners Association of America (COAA) in 2012. "The services provided by PMC are in perfect alignment with my professional experiences," said Myers "I was attracted to the high level of work conducted by PMC and its strong reputation in the market. I have enjoyed working with Jeff Appelbaum and Steve Zannoni in the past and am so pleased to be a part of the team. PMC's level of expertise is unparalleled and I look forward to all of the opportunities to come." Myers' leadership and management philosophy is a perfect fit for PMC and its focus on planning, efficiency and alignment with client goals. He understands the importance of schedule and budget management, as well as the timely identification of major challenges that can impact a project. PMC has successfully completed projects for Bowling Green State University, Case Western Reserve University, Central State University, Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, Cleveland State University, Cuyahoga Community College, Miami University, The Ohio State University, Ohio University, University of Chicago, University of Colorado and University of Illinois, among other higher education institutions. PMC served as owner's representative for several community impact projects prior to Cleveland's hosting of the Republican National Convention in July 2016 including Cleveland's Public Square Renovation and the new Hilton Cleveland Downtown. About PMC. Founded in 1997, Project Management Consultants LLC (PMC) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Thompson Hine LLP. PMC's professionals have extensive experience in design, finance, construction consulting, construction management, partnering facilitation and owner's representation, and they work seamlessly with Thompson Hine lawyers to provide integrated services to the marketplace. Our four primary services for the real estate, design and construction industry are owner's representation, public and private financing consulting, project and risk management consulting, and design and construction partnering facilitation and mediation. For more information, please visit aboutPMC.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912006345/en/

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[September 12, 2016] Teradata Announces the World's Most Powerful Analytic Database, Available Everywhere

ATLANTA, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- TERADATA PARTNERS CONFERENCE -- Teradata (NYSE: TDC), a leading analytics solutions company, today announced Teradata Everywhere, an industry first that brings the world's most powerful massively parallel processing (MPP) analytic database to multiple public clouds, managed cloud, and on-premises environments including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Teradata Managed Cloud, VMware virtualization software, and the Teradata IntelliFlex platform. As companies move toward hybrid cloud architectures, Teradata is leading the industry by offering customers choice and ensuring database compatibility across deployment modes. Teradata Everywhere delivers the flexibility to implement a hybrid architecture with a common database that enables shifting of workloads between environments as business needs evolve, supporting a company's changing deployment strategy and economic needs. To deliver optimal performance and flexibility across these deployment options, Teradata is enhancing core features of the Teradata Database. The newest MAPS architecture will provide elasticity to seamlessly expand or shrink a Teradata data warehouse to scale alongside changing business needs. MAPS will also provide higher concurrency and more consistent performance of tactical queries. Additionally, the Teradata Database's Adaptive Optimizer will automatically adjust to its host environment to provide the most efficient query plans, fastest query execution, and the most efficient system utilization. "It's all about customer choice without sacrifice. Companies need their data and analytic environment to be agile, multi-faceted, and flexible," said Oliver Ratzesberger, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer at Teradata. "Teradata Everywhere means that the exact same Teradata Database can be deployed on-premises and in the cloud. Regardless of the combination, Teradata is leading the industry in delivering this capability. Companies can concentrate their energy on running analytics to improve their business rather than engineering compatibility between their environments." Teradata Database is the first MPP analytic database customizable across multiple public clouds, managed cloud, VMware virtualization, and purpose-built appliances. Teradata Everywhere brings Teradata performance to these systems, and it is available globally unless otherwise indicated: Teradata Database on Amazon Web Services Teradata Database, already available on AWS Marketplace in nearly a dozen geographic regions around the world, is now available in a massively parallel processing configuration, scalable up to 32 nodes. The latest iteration of Teradata Database on AWS includes powerful performance, reliability, and convenience updates including: automatic node failure recovery; backup, restore, and querying of data in Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3); and one-click deployment automation via software ecosystem launch templates. Teradata Database on AWS is available now in all regions except AWS GovCloud, South America, and China. Teradata Database on Microsoft Azure Teradata Database will be available for the first time on Microsoft Azure Marketplace, giving customers the choice of full Teradata Database capabilities on-demand and on a pay-as-you-go basis. Coming soon to Azure Marketplace, Teradata Database on Azure will offer full features and a massively paralel processing configuration, scalable to up to 32 nodes. Teradata Database on Azure is targeted to be available in most regions in Q4, 2016, except US Gov Iowa, US Gov Virginia, West India, and China.



Teradata Managed Cloud in Germany In addition to being served from Teradata-provisioned data centers in the United States, the Teradata Database is now available in the Teradata Managed Cloud in Europe, hosted on data center infrastructure in Germany. Monitored and overseen by dedicated Teradata experts, Teradata Managed Cloud allows customers to focus on analytics and business insight rather than on IT infrastructure management. Target availability in Europe is Q3, 2016.

Teradata Database on VMware Teradata Virtual Machine Edition (TVME) delivers the full-featured Teradata Database in a preconfigured, ready-to-run virtual machine image for any company's VMware environment. Companies can utilize their existing virtualization infrastructure to deploy a Teradata data warehouse on up to 32 virtual nodes. TVME comes with flexible licensing terms which allow companies to scale configurations up or down as requirements change, even employing multiple instances for special purposes such as test or development. Target availability is Q3, 2016. Teradata Database on IntelliFlex Teradata Database takes full advantage of Teradata's next-generation IntelliFlex platform that offers independent scaling of processing power and storage capacity, advanced in-memory computing, and reduced downtime for system expansions. Teradata's cutting-edge platform will be further enhanced with even more powerful features: 2x performance density with up to 12 nodes per cabinet

2x memory with up to 1TB per node

All SSD configurations for maximum query responsiveness IntelliFlex is available now, with new features targeted for Q4, 2016. Teradata Database MAPS architecture The Teradata Database MAPS architecture will provide high data availability across the analytical ecosystem. The feature eliminates data redistribution time following a system expansion by performing table-at-a-time online reconfiguration, selectively redistributing tables at the most convenient time. MAPS will provide: ~ 90% reduction in downtime when a system is being expanded

Cloud elasticity to expand/shrink a Teradata Database system

More consistent tactical query performance with higher query concurrency Targeted availability is Q2, 2017. Teradata Database Adaptive Optimizer The Teradata Database's optimizer has long been heralded by customers and analysts as the gold standard for optimizers. Beginning in Q2, 2017, the Optimizer feature will be enhanced with in-stream query re-planning which modifies query steps during query execution using actual versus estimated results. New, adaptive platform-specific costing will recognize and adapt to the host platform, enabling Teradata Everywhere to deliver optimized, platform-specific performance. "The ability of an organization to manage, analyze, and derive value from data will increasingly depend on optimal data management, which can be enhanced by having platform choices  ones that a business can quickly adapt to changing business requirements," said Dan Vesset, GVP, Analytics and Information Management, IDC. "Platform choices can help ensure that technology doesn't get in the way of business  rather choices support adaptability and optimal data management." "Having the same Teradata Database with the same capabilities and SQL in our on-premises IDW and in the Teradata Managed Cloud gives us a live test system which also serves as an off-site disaster recovery system without using any data center floor space or management resources," said Brian Tournier, Director of BI Technology and Infrastructure, Meredith Corporation. "Adding the same Teradata Database in the public cloud to our mix would give us the perfect hybrid environment to cost-effectively handle peak loads or unexpected new applications without budgeting for excess capacity." Teradata Everywhere works in tandem with Teradata Borderless Analytics to power business transformation and new business models. The various Teradata Everywhere product enhancements announced today will become generally available beginning in Q3 2016 through Q2 2017. Relevant News Links Gartner report: "Hybrid DBMS Cloud Defined, and Why You Want to Know!"  insight on the ramifications of hybrid cloud. To download this report, click here. A new blog on Teradata Everywhere by Oliver Ratzesberger is posted here.

is posted here. The Teradata Borderless Analytics press release can be accessed here. About Teradata Teradata empowers companies to achieve high-impact business outcomes. Our focus on business solutions for analytics, coupled with our industry leading technology and architecture expertise, can unleash the potential of great companies. Visit teradata.com. Get to know Teradata: Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/teradata

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Teradata

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/teradata

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV559dNBu0FRpuNLsrEKbzA Teradata, Aster, and the Teradata logo are registered trademarks of Teradata Corporation and/or

its affiliates in the U.S. and worldwide. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160911/406271-INFO Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130716/CL47933LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/teradata-announces-the-worlds-most-powerful-analytic-database-available-everywhere-300325929.html SOURCE Teradata

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[September 12, 2016] Thinfilm Progresses With Expansion Plans in US and China

Thin Film Electronics ASA ("Thinfilm") (OSE:THIN.OL; OTCQX:TFECY), a global leader in printed electronics and smart systems, today announced key progress on several strategic initiatives related to a new US facility, business expansion in China, and its Quality Management program. In May, Thinfilm announced its intent to lease a new, state-of-the-art production facility and communicated plans to relocate its current US headquarters to the new building in early 2017. The planned upgrade, which features a significantly larger manufacturing clean room, enables Thinfilm to support its plans to scale current production and implement a high-volume roll-to-roll manufacturing line. Thinfilm expects to gain access to the building in October, subject to approval from municipal authorities and the final agreement between the seller and the developer. In addition, Thinfilm has signed a lease with the developer, hired an architect and general contractor, and is making preparations to begin with construction and related tenant improvements. Thinfilm has also taken steps to expand its sales and business development operatons in China. The expansion is in response to growing interest among Asia-based businesses in Thinfilm's NFC (Near Field Communication) technology, particularly SpeedTap and OpenSense. The initiative gives Thinfilm a valuable sales and business development presence in China, enables the Company to leverage local manufacturing support, and improves its overall ability to successfully conduct business in the APAC region.



As part of its ongoing commitment to quality, Thinfilm successfully completed a surveillance audit as part of a required process to maintain the firm's ISO 9001:2008 certification. The certification is an industry standard that verifies the integrity of an organization's Quality Management Systems (QMS) and recognizes its ability to meet customers' quality requirements while continually improving operational processes. The recent, two-day onsite audit by a leading ISO registrar rigorously examined Thinfilm's current business practices and processes, and the positive results reflect the continuous improvements made to Thinfilm's QMS. About Thin Film Electronics ASA

Thinfilm is a leader in the development and commercialization of printed electronics. The first to commercialize printed, rewritable memory, the Company is creating printed systems that include memory, sensing, display, and wireless communication, all at a low cost unmatched by any other electronic technology. Thinfilm's roadmap integrates technology from a strong and growing ecosystem of partners to enable the Internet of Everything by bringing intelligence to disposable goods. Thin Film Electronics ASA ("Thinfilm") is a publicly listed Norwegian company with headquarters in Oslo, Norway; product development and production in Linkoping, Sweden; product development, production, and business development in San Jose, California, USA; and sales offices in the United States, Hong Kong, and Singapore. For more information, visit www.thinfilm.no. This information is subject of the disclosure requirements acc. to 5-12 vphl (Norwegian Securities Trading Act). View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912005511/en/

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[September 12, 2016] VizExplorer Opens OI Summit 2017 Call for Speakers

VizExplorer, a leading provider of operational intelligence solutions to the gaming industry, today announced that it has opened the VizExplorer OI Summit 2017 Call for Speakers. OI Summit is VizExplorer's annual conference showcasing its best-in-class operational intelligence solutions for the gaming industry, attracting industry experts and casino management teams from around the country. VizExplorer will host the OI Summit 2017 on January 17-19, 2017 at The Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The company invites gaming experts, industry consultants and casino management to present their thinking, strategies and success stories in case study, how-to, single presenter or panel formats. With three established conference tracks--Strategy and Technology, Marketing and Player Development, and Gaming Operations--the conference agenda will cover a wide range of topics relevant to the casino gaming industry. "At VizExplorer, we're proud of our comprehensive training programs that drive our customers' success," said Angela Ahmet, VizExplorer's VP of Customer Success. "At OI Summit, customers and those considering our solutions will gain from best practice trainings and deep dives into our applications alongside many beneficial panels featuring industry leaders discussing trending topics in gaming today." "OI Summit is a way for VizExplorer to connect casino operators with their successful peers, and to brng valuable case studies and real-world expertise and insights to the stage," said Andrew Cardno, VizExplorer's CTO. "We want operators who have succeeded by putting the player's needs at the heart of all business efforts to join us and share their transformational stories, enthusiasm and expertise with their peers."



Call for GENERAL SESSIONS (Individual presenters and panelists):

Individual presentations and panel topics must explore one of the three conference tracks or address relevant trends related to data analytics and operational intelligence in the gaming industry. Apply now.

Individual presentations and panel topics must explore one of the three conference tracks or address relevant trends related to data analytics and operational intelligence in the gaming industry. Apply now. Call for CASE STUDY SESSION presenters:

Case study presentations will share how VizExplorer solutions have impacted their operations and quantify the transformational effects on the business of using operational intelligence solutions. Apply now.

Case study presentations will share how VizExplorer solutions have impacted their operations and quantify the transformational effects on the business of using operational intelligence solutions. Apply now. Call for HOW-TO SESSION presenters:

How-to presentations will lead the audience step-by-step through the thinking and tactics behind a successful initiative at their property, and provide expert advice backed by research and real-world experience. Apply now. Speaker submissions will be accepted through November 15, 2016. Submissions will be reviewed and selected speakers will be notified in the first week of December. Learn more. About VizExplorer

VizExplorer offers Operational Intelligence (OI) solutions to the gaming industry. The next generation in data-driven decision making, OI delivers on the promise of business intelligence by letting businesses analyze live, fast-changing data and take immediate action using a single toolset. VizExplorer's applications and tools enable enterprises to address smart space and profit optimization, marketing campaign management, CRM and customer service, and service and dispatch management. VizExplorer is led by a team of distinguished OI experts, seasoned industry veterans and world class software developers devoted to building the very best products backed by extraordinary support. VizExplorer is headquartered in San Diego, with offices in Las Vegas and Wellington, New Zealand. www.vizexplorer.com View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912005272/en/

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[September 11, 2016] Metamako Opens Tokyo Office & Appoints Denis Sweeney

SYDNEY, NEW YORK and LONDON, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Continued stellar growth necessitates first office in Asia Pacific Metamako, the leading specialist in deterministic network devices for the world's financial institutions, announced today the appointment of Denis Sweeney as Business Development Director for Asia Pacific. Sweeney will be heading operations in the region from Metamako's newly-opened Tokyo office. On his appointment, Sweeney says: "I've been watching Metamako make waves in the financial markets for the last two years and I'm very excited by their commitment to bringing truly disruptive technology to the market; I'm impressed with their rate of growth and the instant benefits they're bringing to clients. I've worked in Asia for more than 20 years, representing some of the biggest names in the FinTech sector and thought I'd seen some fast-track companies, but Metamako's growth and success are impressive; I'm really looking forward to being a part of the Metamako team." Kevin Covington, CEO of Metamako, says: "We're very happy to welcome Denis to our team and I know he will be an asset in our expansion trategy, both in Tokyo and across Asia. He has an excellent track record in the region, having represented major service providers at the highest level. I'm sure our clients will be quick to appreciate not only his financial knowledge and technical capabilities, but also his commitment to operational and service management."



With two decades of specialist fintech experience in Tokyo and across Asia Pacific, and having worked for NYSE Technologies, Sungard, Misys and Credit Suisse in Tokyo, Sweeney brings strong local and regional connections, which will quickly benefit Metamako. Named one of KPMG's top 50 Emerging Stars, Metamako has continued its whirlwind growth; in 2015 it relocated its HQ and development centre to Stone & Chalk's tech-hub in Sydney, becoming a key participant in the FinTech ecosystem.

About Metamako Metamako, founded in 2013, develops the world's fastest network devices, with the goal of simplifying networks, reducing latency, improving determinism and increasing flexibility. To date Metamako has brought the following high-performance devices to market: MetaConnect 16, MetaConnect 48, MetaMux 32, MetaApp 32 and MetaMux 48. In addition, Metamako has released the MetaMux and MetaWatch applications to run on the Metamako platform. In 2014 KPMG named Metamako in its first Global Top 50 FinTech Innovators report, and in 2015 Metamako was listed as an emerging star in KPMG's global Fintech 100. The founders, Scott Newham, Dave Snowdon and Charles Thomas, have extensive experience engineering high-performance hardware and software for financial markets as well as other verticals, where keeping latency to a minimum and having a high degree of determinism are vitally important. Metamako's solutions have built-in intelligence and are rich in features, using state-of-art technology. For more information visit http://www.metamako.com Editorial contacts

Anne-Charlotte Duhaut / Alla Lapidus

Moonlight Media

Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

Tel: +44(0)20-7250-4770



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[September 11, 2016] Strong Strategic Alliance Between OConnect and Major -- Russia Sourcing Fair

MOSCOW, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- After successfully holding the China-Russia e-commerce summit in April, OSell Group's offline affiliate Global OConnect will organize a sourcing fair in Russia on 12th September. Providing overseas buyers an opportunity to access Chinese products in their home country, linking China's capacity with overseas channels and creating a win-win situation for suppliers and buyers. Around 355 local purchasers will attend, displaying electronic and household products. There will be more than 1,110 products on display. One highlight is a strategic cooperation agreement that will be signed at the event between OConnect and Major, one of the largest logistics companies in Russia. As OSell Group's overseas business developed rapidly, it is devoted to create a cross-border e-commerce ecosystem covering both online and offline services. OSell realized the need to cooperate with tird-party firms and utilize local resources. After signing a contract with Comex in May, joining hands with Major reflect OConnect's determination to further integrate and optimize global resources.



With a wide range of services in the field of transportation and customs clearance, Major will assist OConnect solve problems that often happen in Russia. Although there are numerous logistics firms in Russia, most only provide part of the services, either transportation or warehouse storage. Information delivered by logistics firms and received by clients is uncoordinated due to the lack of transparent procedures. Working with top logistics firms will ensure service efficiency. Major's advanced management system will facilitate OConnect to create an intelligent logistics system; for instance, adopting API technology will make the whole logistics procedure transparent. Combing with overseas warehouses helps OConnect to achieve a cross-border e-commerce closed-loop ecosystem, which eventually benefits local buyers and consumers. In turn, OConnect will bring Major massive business opportunities in all kinds of fields including logistics, customs clearance and warehousing. In the background of global economic recession, alliance with OConnect is a good way for Major to develop business in China.

The event provides a platform for suppliers and buyers to communicate, which will promote trade and benefit both parties. OConnect's strategy of connecting China's overcapacity to overseas channels so that to create a circle of cross-border e-commerce ecosphere has not only attracted overseas buyers but also third-party service providers. With more powerful strategic alliances established, OConnect's service will be upgraded and better meet clients' needs. It is a significant move to complete OConnect's full-chain service.





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[September 12, 2016] Abilix 2016 New Product Release Conference Successfully Held in Shanghai

SHANGHAI, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- On September 8, some 800 distributors, 200 media as well as 500 Abilix fans from 23 countries gathered to attend the Abilix New Product Release Conference at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center for the debut of Abilix's new educational robots. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160907/404962 Educational robots, with their significant mission of education, are hi-tech products that are born to cultivate preteens and teens' success. With a mission to assist youngsters to succeed in their lives, Abilix has exclusively made 4 educational robots series for home education that come with 9 new products. These products possess major patents in eduational robotics that are recognized around the world, including 161 authorized and pending patents, building an indestructible protection system.



The Krypton series brick robot has a unique six-side attachable building mechanism which makes it the world's first brick robot with the most mechanical possibilities. Preteens and teens can build planes, motorcycles, or even an Eiffel Tower with the Krypton series, just to name a few.

brick robot has a unique six-side attachable building mechanism which makes it the world's first brick robot with the most mechanical possibilities. Preteens and teens can build planes, motorcycles, or even an Eiffel Tower with the Krypton series, just to name a few. The Oculus series mobile robot possesses the fanciest appearance, the most powerful brain and a unique vacuum cleaning system, making it one of the leading mobile educational robots in the world.

mobile robot possesses the fanciest appearance, the most powerful brain and a unique vacuum cleaning system, making it one of the leading mobile educational robots in the world. The Sinus series flying robot is the first flying robot exclusively made for preteens and teens. Not only does it demonstrate outstanding performance in safety and durability, but also does well in taking photos and recording videos with various robot APPs, such as the air combat APP and the air ballet APP.

flying robot is the first flying robot exclusively made for preteens and teens. Not only does it demonstrate outstanding performance in safety and durability, but also does well in taking photos and recording videos with various robot APPs, such as the air combat APP and the air ballet APP. The Everest series humanoid robot owns the first 2-DOF hip-joint intelligent servo motors which make it more flexible than any other robot products in the market. With technological breakthrough, the price of Abilix educational robots is also revolutionary. Abilix intends to break the price barrier, trying to bring these robots in every homes that allow broader usage among youngsters, and eventually realizes Abilix's ultimate goal -- Improving success ability, taking youngsters further.

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[September 12, 2016] Hisense Showcases World's First Triple-Drum Washing Machine at IFA 2016

QINGDAO, China, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Hisense rolled out the world's first innovative Triple-Drum washing machine at this year's IFA in Berlin, one of the world's largest trade shows for consumer electronics. Hisense attracted much attention worldwide with this innovation. Several consumer electronics rivals from around the globe visited the Hisense booth to get a look at the new washing machine. Unlike a traditional single drum washing machine, the Triple-Drum from Hisense comes equipped with three drums, a novel approach to a common household device taken by China's home appliance giant, allowing homemakers to separate the laundry by placing regular clothing, underwear and socks into three specialized drums. The unusual approach to the design provides consumers with an unprecedented option for sorting the laundry prior to washing and with a washing experience previously only availabe from professional laundry services. The multi-purpose Triple-Drum washing machine is expected to take the lead in addressing Chinese consumers' growing demand for high-quality home appliances.



With this innovative product, Hisense was able to demonstrate its extensive expertise and many years of experience, in tandem with the company's spirit for innovation and the excellence of its international technology development team. The result is the creation of an industry-disruptive revolutionary product, a front-loading washing machine based on a redesigned platform with optimized system matching, including several breakthrough changes in the structural configuration as well as the design of the drive and shock absorption systems, culminating in a device capable of handling three drums within one machine without having to make the machine taller or wider. Hisense has redefined the washing machine. At this year's IFA, Hisense also displayed its Huanxi washing machine, which combines the design of a traditional front-loading washing machine with a new wash basin. The space-saving Huanxi a multi-purpose piece of equipment, responding to the demand for a device that fits snugly into a compact modern kitchen and bathroom environment.

Hisense's original Pin-Zhijing and Huanxi washing machines, which have not been available in China, made their debuts at IFA 2016. These new exhibits from Hisense demonstrated the company's vision and commitment to expanding its presence in the international high-end home appliance market. Hisense aims to build a new identity across the global market for made-in-China washing machines, characterized by proprietary innovations and products powered by advanced technologies. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160912/406317 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hisense-showcases-worlds-first-triple-drum-washing-machine-at-ifa-2016-300325994.html SOURCE Hisense's Washing Machine Business Department

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[September 12, 2016] Secretary of State reminds Pennsylvanians of October 11 voter registration deadline

HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Secretary of State Pedro A. Cortes today reminded Pennsylvanians there is one month until the voter registration deadline for the November election. He encouraged applicants to use the state's online voter registration system. Eligible citizens have until Tuesday, October 11, to apply for a new voter registration or make changes to their existing registration. "The deadline is approaching quickly," Secretary Cortes said. "Registering is the first step in exercising our fundamental right to vote. The online system makes registration convenient, accessible and secure." The online registration site can be found at register.votesPA.com. Applications for a new registration, or a change of name, address or party affiliation must be submitted online by midnight on October 11. Traditional paper registration applications must be postmarked no later than that date. Eligible Pennsylvanians may also use 2Vote, a new voter registration text messaging service. Simply text "PA" to "2Vote" (28683) on a smartphone. The user will receive a link that provides direct access to the online voter registration application. Also included are links to check voter registration status, locate your polling place and find contact information for county offices and the Department of State. Voters planning to vote by absentee ballot are advised to pay close attention to important deadlines. Although the deadline to request an absentee ballot is Tuesday, November 1, the voted ballots must be recived by the county election office no later than 5 p.m. Friday, November 4.



Due to the 3-day time frame and cutbacks in service by the U.S. Postal Service, voters are strongly urged to mail their absentee ballot request no later than October 21, two weeks before the voted ballot must be received by the county office. Voters may deliver their voted absentee ballots in person to county election offices or mail them if there is adequate time for delivery. A postmark is not sufficient for the ballot to be counted.

Pennsylvania voters will be electing the U.S. President and Vice President, one U.S. Senator and 18 U.S. House members, as well as the statewide offices of attorney general, auditor general and treasurer. Odd-numbered state Senate districts and all state House seats will also be on the ballot. Individuals wishing to register to vote in the November 8 general election must be: A citizen of the United States for at least one month before the election.

for at least one month before the election. A resident of Pennsylvania and the election district in which the individual desires to register and vote for at least 30 days before the election.

and the election district in which the individual desires to register and vote for at least 30 days before the election. At least 18 years of age on or before the date of the election. The Department of State's website votespa.com, available in English and Spanish, offers printable voter registration applications, a polling place locator and county boards of elections contact information. It also includes tips for first-time voters and members of the military. In addition, voters can familiarize themselves with the voting system they will use in their home county on Election Day. For more information on voter registration, call the Department of State's toll-free hotline at 1-877-VOTESPA (1-877-868-3772) or visit VotesPA.com. MEDIA CONTACT: Wanda Murren (717) 783-1621 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/secretary-of-state-reminds-pennsylvanians-of-october-11-voter-registration-deadline-300326103.html SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of State

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Periodically, Gothamist sits down with teachers at different stages in their careers to talk shop. For the first week of school, we spoke with three teachers about why they chose to teach, what they're doing in their classrooms, and their goals for the year.



Arun has been teaching math for 11 years. Currently, he teaches seventh grade at a middle school in Brooklyn. A child of educators, Arun says he saw came to see the value of a good teacher at an early age. He incorporates social justice themes into his lessons to get kids thinking about how they can effect change in the world.

Both of my parents are college professors. My mom is a lit professor and my dad is a biochemistry researcher. Which is a nice balancevery complementary. For me, the idea that being an educator is an important role to play in society was always there. And I respected the work my parents did. When I went to college, I was going to be a computer engineering major. And I just didn't like it, largely because I really wanted to do a job where I was directly working with people. Any time I tutored in college, it felt really good. Working with the kids had a stronger connection to my life.

As much as we try to create objective measures for learning, I think most of the process is subjective. Most of your relationships with other people are subjective, including those you have with students. I liked the idea of a profession where what you do is get to know kids really well and try to support them as they grow into adulthood. I lucked outteaching was my first and only career, the only adult job I have ever had.

I grew up all over. I was born in India. I moved between Buffalo, Boston and Milwaukee. When I look back on my academic experience, I was luckyI had really good teachers. My seventh grade teacher, Mr. Borowiec, I remember a lot. I'm a seventh grade teacher now and I really like teaching middle school. One thing I learned from him is that it's really important to love the age group you are working with. In his class, it always seemed like he was having a good time. That's really important in teaching because the narratives around what school is like describe these draconian, cold spaces where kids are forced to learn and it's a battle. But it never felt like that in his classroom. It always felt like he had this talent for being serious and getting the message across that education is important, but he would also make us understand that we should be having fun learning. That message played a big role in my life.

Ms. Barone, my eighth grade literature teacher, had a huge influence on me. In her class we would do journaling, so I would read books and write about what I thought. And she would journal back. I saved all those notebooks. When I became a teacher, I looked back at them and I appreciated how much work she put into each individual student. It is really time consuming to journal back to 30 students every single week. But she did that. I never appreciated that as a kid because I didn't understand how much work that must have entailed. Reading back her notes to me and my responses to her, I was able to watch this process of me becoming better at critical thinking, which is a cool document to have. I'm really glad she made us do it that way. It's obviously stuck with me because I've kept those booksI was 13 then and I'm 33 now.

I teach middle school math in downtown Brooklyn at a very diverse school with about 200 students. It draws from a lot of neighborhoods because it's centrally located, near Jay Street-MetroTech. We have a diverse student body, which is part of what drew me to the school. I had never worked in a school that was not segregated on one line or another, so I jumped at the opportunity.

I have been working there for four years. It's a school that is still figuring itself out. We are going through administration changes right now. But we have a really nice staff, diverse in terms of teaching experience. It's the school I have worked at with the most veteran corps of teachers working at one time. Young teachers are able to learn from veteran teachers and feel like they are supported as they transition into teaching. It can be a nightmare to be a first-year teacher, but I think our school is a good place to start your career without immediately questioning whether you are doing the right thing. We are working on a lot of big questions, like restorative justice, that are really important to me. Working at this school, I realize how important it is to take on those issues, but also how hard it is to implement programs and team build with such a diverse group of people.

I taught high school for a summer and one of the things I learned from that experience was that you lose out on the ability to impact struggling students the older they are. I knew that I wasn't suited to teach elementary school because I don't think I would work well with very small children. And I had had a hard time getting an in with high school students. But with middle school, I felt this nice balance. They were different. They were less resistant to trying out new things because they hadn't yet decided, as some kids do, for understandable reasons, that school wasn't going to work for them.

In middle school, as difficult as they can be behaviorally and emotionally and with all the millions of things going on in their lives, kids are very open to trying things. They will try almost anything you ask, if you can build a relationship where they trust you. You lose that somewhere in between sixth grade and ninth grade. The idea of working with seventh graders appealed to me because it was this stage where kids are transitioning into adulthood and asking some big questions for the first time. And standing up to adults for the first time. That's a cool thing to be able to see.

I like to bring social justice into my classroom when I can. Math gets caught up in the idea that there is always a right answer and there's always a wrong answer. That's true to some extent, but even when you get the answer, there are bigger questions to think about. When we do percentages, I like to bring in wage gap issues and look at them across gender, across race.

Because my school is diverse, you see these conversations that happen as a result of people's lived experiences. And it's also interesting because it creates a connection to home. I find that students go home and, because they have moms and dads who work, they ask their parents questions about their experiences. It helps bring this moment of learning organically outside the classroom. I like the idea of building threads in education where kids are thinking about topics they find compelling and talking about these ideas with people outside of school.

This year, I'm looking forward to working with the same team of teachers I worked with last year. We all agree that our content areas are broken down artificially. Math, science, social sciences, these are subjects that are constructed to an extentwe work within them because it's convenient to break learning down into these pods. But a lot of learning isn't like that, especially in the real world, where you are applying a lot of ideas at the same time. So we are kicking around ways to do units that are more holistic, where we ask a big question and we are teaching things in English and science and math that go into answering that big question.

That's a complex challenge, but it's one of the nice things that you can work on when you have been doing the job for a very long time. Eleven years in, there are still things that are rewarding and challenging about the job and that I'm uncovering, that make me think, "Oh, now I see things a little more clearly, I can do a better job next year." I'm excited about that and seeing how kids look at learning more holistically, more naturally, more organically, instead of approaching these atomized subjects.

This interview has been edited and condensed.



Jennifer Preissel is a New York City high school teacher.

Read our entire New York City teacher interview series here.
[September 12, 2016] Kate Conyers to Receive the 2016 American Inns of Court Sandra Day O'Connor Award for Professional Service

Kate Conyers, Esquire, has been selected to receive the prestigious Sandra Day O'Connor Award for Professional Service by the American Inns of Court. The award will be presented at the annual American Inns of Court Celebration of Excellence at the Supreme Court of the United States in November; the event will be hosted by Associate Jstice Samuel Alito.



Conyers is a felony attorney with the Salt Lake Legal Defender Association, where since 2011 she has represented hundreds of indigent defendants in all aspects of their criminal cases. She has defended clients at dozens of jury trials and bench trials. She also worked at SLLDA as a clerk before two stints in private practice, at Snell & Wilmer, LLP, and Lokken and Associates. In addition to public service at SLLDA, Conyers devotes 150 to 300 hours annually to helping Utah citizens in civil matters on a pro bono basis. She has served on the executive committee of Emerging Legal Leaders for the "And Justice for All" program, an umbrella organization that provides resources to Utah's nonprofit civil legal aid agencies. She has been an active volunteer in bar-related programs including Wills for Heroes and Serving Our Seniors.

Conyers was elected by members of the Utah State Bar to the Board Bar of Commissioners, where she serves as the Bar liaison to the Pro Bono Commission. She spearheaded the Veterans' Legal Clinic at the VA Hospital on the University of Utah campus. She has been recognized with many awards including the Utah State Bar Young Lawyer of the Year Award and the Utah State Bar Pro Bono Publico Young Lawyer of the Year Award. She is an active member of the David K. Watkiss-Sutherland II American Inn of Court. Conyers earned her J.D. from the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah, where she served as the note and comment editor on the Journal of Law and Family Studies. She also holds master's and bachelor's degrees from the University of Utah. The Sandra Day O'Connor Award for Professional Service is awarded each year to honor an American Inn of Court member in practice for ten or fewer years for excellence in public interest or pro bono activities. The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, fosters excellence in professionalism, ethics, civility, and legal skills. The organization's membership includes more than 30,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in more than 360 chapters nationwide and more than 100,000 alumni members. More information is available at www.innsofcourt.org. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912005006/en/

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[September 12, 2016] Viamedia's Becky Jones Named Chief Marketing & People Officer

NEW YORK and LEXINGTON, Ky., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Viamedia, the largest independent cable TV ad management company, announced today that Becky Jones, who has served as the company's senior vice president, marketing & research, has been promoted to chief marketing & people officer, a new position created to drive Viamedia's unique employee and customer service culture. As one of Viamedia's very first employees and recipient of numerous industry awards and honors, Jones has been responsible for overseeing Viamedia's marketing -- including its branding, market positioning, corporate communications and research support for Viamedia's 250 sales people in the field. In her new role Jones will remain based in Lexington, Kentucky, and wil add oversight of the company's human resources functions, including recruitment, training and employee relations, among other responsibilities. Jones will continue to oversee all aspects of the company's marketing, research and creative services.



"Becky has been an integral part of Viamedia since the company's inception 15 years ago, bleeds Viamedia purple and has always played a key role in initiatives impacting our employees and our overall culture," said Mark Lieberman, Viamedia president & CEO. "Our people are our #1 priority, and in her new role Becky will be working with all our outstanding employees to infuse the voice of the customer across everything we do." Jones began her cable television career at TCI just prior to its acquisition by AT&T. In 2014, Jones was the recipient of a Top Ops Award and was named 'Cable Marketer of the Year' by Cablefax Daily. She also was honored for Affiliate and Partnership Marketing with a Faxie Award in 2014. She has also been recognized as one of the cable and telecommunications industry's '40 Under 40' by Multichannel News; recognized in Cablefax's Sales Executive of the Year Awards program for multiple years; and has been named as one of the Most Powerful Women in Cable, also by Cablefax.

Jones holds a Bachelor of Communications from Eastern Kentucky University. About Viamedia

Headquartered in New York City, Viamedia is the largest independent cable TV ad management company for local, regional and national advertising, programmatic and ad tech solutions, responsible for nearly one million spots per day on behalf to over 12,000 advertisers. The company specializes in selling advertising on behalf of 60 U.S. cable and telecommunications service providers, utility companies and municipalities, and employs approximately 380 people across the country. The company also operates placemedia, a programmatic data-driven TV ad platform, which aggregates ad inventory from Viamedia, major MVPDs and more than 40 national cable networks across 210 DMAs. For more information, please visit www.viamediatv.com and www.placemedia.com. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20101115/CL01765LOGO

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/viamedias-becky-jones-named-chief-marketing--people-officer-300325875.html SOURCE Viamedia

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Martinsville handles Bedford North Lawrence to reach sectional final

Martinsville defeated Bedford North Lawrence on the back of strong defensive play and a huge game from the Artesians' offense.
Preserving the history of the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest takes a lot of hands.

From experts in archeology, wilderness packers and volunteers who care about history, maintaining important sites is a product of partnerships. In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act, the Forest Service last month honored nearly 50 volunteers, partner organizations and employees for their contributions to historic preservation.

This is a once-in-50-year award, said Mark Bodily, Forest Service archeologist and heritage program manager. For what we house on the forest, it takes a team effort. We have limited resources and funding so we actively go out and solicit volunteers and partners to help maintain these resources.

Each forest was asked to decide how it would recognize the 50th anniversary of the NHPA. The Helena-Lewis and Clark saw the awards as a way to honor those who have worked across multiple areas such as education, maintaining historic cabins and mines and prehistoric archeological sites.

The forest typically tackles two to three major historic preservation projects each year with a recent focus on historic cabins and other administrative facilities, Bodily said.

The Forest Service and Carroll College partnered in 2010 for an archeological project in the Big Belts. The project allows Carroll to take about 10 student each year to the site, said Dr. Lauri Travis, where they focus on impacts of climate change on prehistoric people.

It enables us to have students do hands-on archaeology which is really nice, she said. This is all within one drainage and excavating a site back to 8,500 years, which is an old site for this area.

Findings thus far suggest prehistoric residents adapted to changing climates. A pair of droughts about 2,000 years ago and 8,000 years ago coincided with changes in hunting habits. They stopped hunting big game in favor of smaller game and sourced local materials for tools, suggesting that drought may have temporarily broken the trade network, Travis said.

Receiving the NHPA is a wonderful recognition, she noted, as the project not only educates students but also educates the public to the heritage in their area.

This would not be possible, any of this research, without the partnership giving these students the opportunity to do hands on research, Travis said.

Another award recipient, Last Chance Backcountry Horsemen, played an important role in getting Carroll College to a site in the Gates of the Mountains, packing in enough gear to allow students to stay and work for a week. The organization has also been instrumental in reclamation of the Tizer Cabin in the Elkhorns.

Part of our mission is to assist our public land managers with stock to get to all these places in the backcountry and wilderness, said LCBH President Sherri Lionberger. Were often utilized for moving people as much as for moving stuff.

The organization sees the importance of maintaining remote cabins such as the Tizer. As Forest Service use has declined, the cabins can fall into disrepair if no one is able to work on them, she said.

LCBH volunteers replaced the roof on the Tizer Cabin in July and helped build corrals and a better water source for stock animals. There are always trees to clear and trails to maintain, Lionberger said.

With the Forest Service no longer keeping its own stock for the Helena and Townsend ranger districts, she expects demand to continue for packers whether to transport camps or fellow volunteers deep into Montanas public lands.

It meant a lot to the group to get that award, Lionberger said. When youre a volunteer you dont expect to get recognition so that was very special.

The Montana Discovery Foundation spends much of its resources doing interpretations for historic locations across the Helena-Lewis and Clark. Staff and volunteers lead tours at places such as Charter Oak Mine in the Little Blackfoot drainage and pictographs in Hellgate Canyon as a way to connect the public to historic places.

These places will be around long after were gone so these heritage sites are one of the things the forest needs to focus on, said Debbie Anderson, executive director for the foundation. Theres such a vast amount of history on the forest, and bringing it to the forefront is important to us.

Anderson sees a lot of interest in local history, with tours typically full and fundraisers for places like the Moose Creek Cabin near Rimini always well attended.

Its always nice to be recognized, she said of receiving the NHPA award. I feel really privileged to be able to do what I do.
This month, we celebrate the Montana families who go to work every day to support their loved ones, their communities, and our economy.

Montana is a state built by the hands of working men and women -- from the farms and ranches of the Hi-Line, to the mines of Butte, the natural resource industries in eastern Montana, to the teachers who educate our children, the nurses who take care of our vulnerable, and the entrepreneurs who turn good ideas in businesses and jobs for fellow Montanans.

Thanks to the work of Montanans, our states economy is strong and getting stronger every day.

While other states face stagnant wages and limited job growth, here in Montana more folks are on the job than ever before, wages are rising, and unemployment remains low.

Montanas GDP is growing fifth fastest in the nation, wage growth is ranked 6th in the country, and our payroll employment is growing nearly two times faster than the historic average.

Montana continues to be the best in the nation for entrepreneurs and new business start-ups. We are consistently ranked by outside entities as among the top 10 in the nation for innovation, entrepreneurship, business tax climate and income growth.

There is plenty for Montanans to be proud of. But were not stopping here.

As your governor, I have a responsibility to keep an eye toward the future and to seek out ways to build on our strengths and make improvements wherever we can; to lift each other up, not to bet against Montana. Where others may see obstacles, we see opportunities.

We are a state of just over 1 million people spread out over 147,000 square miles. We have an aging workforce. Montana businesses are looking for workers that have the skills, knowledge, and training to fill good-paying, in-demand jobs.

This presents us with an opportunity -- an opportunity to invest in Montana workers. To find innovative ways to bridge gaps that have made it difficult for businesses to find the right workers with the right qualifications.

Ample opportunities exist for Montanans to join the workforce in new and high-paying jobs due to continued job growth, combined with many upcoming retirements in the aging populations.

We are already taking important steps. Weve brought together businesses, educators, and workforce professionals to ensure that we have a pipeline for young Montanans to get the skills they need and for experienced workers to up-skill to continue to compete for the jobs of tomorrow -- in growing fields like health care, welding, bioscience and high-tech manufacturing.

Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney and I get out of Helena as often as we can to hear from hard-working Montanans all across the state, and to reaffirm our commitment to protecting Montana workers and their families and their jobs, always looking for better-paying jobs and new ways to save taxpayers money and to live within our means as Montana families do.

How? By making responsible decisions about the states finances. By improving health care and access to mental health services. By improving transparency in our government and our elections. By serving our kids and teachers with the best public education possible. By protecting the rights and freedoms of all Montanans. And by fighting for equal pay for equal work for all Montana workers.

By working with Republicans, Democrats and independents alike, we are turning our challenges into opportunities to ensure a stronger, better economy for all Montanans.

A state built by workers deserves no less.

Steve Bullock is the governor of Montana.


Goodbye to Lumia, hello to Surface Phone?



Microsoft hasn't announced anything official, but a report on WinBeta claiming that the company plans to stop selling its largely overlooked smartphones has the tech world buzzing that a new mobile device may be in the works.





The WinBeta report cites an anonymous Microsoft employee who says the company will simply stop selling Lumia phones by this December. Microsoft declined comment to WinBeta, telling the site that there's "nothing to share" about the Lumia's future.

MORE: Windows 10 Mobile Isn't Dead Until a Surface Phone Flops

Confirmed or not, it would hardly be surprising to see Microsoft pull the plug on the Lumia brand, given the downward spiral Lumia devices have found themselves in since Microsoft's multibillion-dollar purchase of Nokia's phone and services division in 2013. Microsoft has since written off that acquisition as a loss and eliminated thousands of jobs in its smartphone business.

These days, Microsoft sells just a handfull of Lumia devices and hasn't introduced any new phones this year. Lumia wasn't even mentioned during the keynote at the company's developer conference in March. At that event, Microsoft executive vice president Terry Myerson told The Verge that Windows Phone wouldn't be a focus for the company this year.



In a way, it's a shame. I've always appreciated the Tiles-based approach of Windows Phone and the emphasis Lumia devices placed on the camera. Other capabilities, like the Continuum feature that turns your Lumia 950 into a portable PC, have also been impressive.



What hasn't impressed me, though, is the paucity of apps, as software developers have largely ignored Windows Phone for Android and iOS. As a result, consumers have shown little interest in Microsoft's phones.



Ending Lumia sales could be the first step in Microsoft's attempt to turn that around. The same reports that have Microsoft shuttering Lumia also say the company could be getting ready to debut its long-rumored Surface Phone, which would try to translate Microsoft's success with tablets to the smartphone world.



Microsoft has hinted at a Surface Phone before, describing it as a kind of hybrid device that would blend mobility with the ability to be your primary computer when you're at a desk. WinBeta notes that Microsoft has dropped further hints teasing a Surface Phone in a pair of since-deleted tweets from the company's director of engineering.



We could find out about Microsoft's phone plans sooner rather than later. Microsoft is rumored to be planning an event later this fall, where it could announce new products  ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley speculates that it could be a Surface all-in-one. Maybe Microsoft will use that venue to make its mobile plans more transparent.

This post has been updated to correct a reference to a rumored Microsoft event this fall.
Tesla Motors yesterday (Sept. 11) announced the latest version of its Autopilot self-driving software for its cars, Version 8.0. In a conference call with reporters, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the new version of Autopilot could have saved the life of Joshua Brown, an Ohio man who died in May when Brown's Tesla T-boned a tractor-trailer while he was using an older version of Autopilot.





(Image credit: A Tesla Model S at a charging station. Credit: Taina Sohlman / Shutterstock.com)

The Autopilot update, which should be pushed out over-the-air to Tesla vehicles in the next few weeks, moves up radar detection in Autopilot's decision-making priority list.

Previously, Autopilot regarded radar detection as a "supplementary sensor" to complement the camera and image processor. In other words, if the Tesla's radar detected an obstacle in the road, Autopilot would wait until it got visual confirmation of the obstacle before making a driving decision, such as to swerve around the object or hit the brakes.

Now, radar will "be used as a primary control sensor without requiring the camera to confirm visual image recognition," the Tesla blog post making the update announcement said. The updated Autopilot software will also require drivers to keep their hands on the wheel for longer periods of time.

MORE: How to Use Tesla's Autopilot (and How Not to)

Brown was killed May 7 when his Tesla Model S drove into a tractor-trailer that was crossing a divided highway in Florida. Neither Brown nor the car apparently hit the brakes before impact. Analysis of the accident scene indicates that the Tesla's cameras may not have been able to distinguish the off-white trailer from the sky in the background.

In theory, Musk said, the Autopilot update could have prevented Brown's death, because the car wouldn't have waited for the camera to confirm what the radar would have seen. On June 30, Tesla Motors issued a statement on Brown's death and reminded users that Autopilot is a "public beta."

"Impact probability would be assessed as high and it would probably brake," Musk said, according to The New York Times. "These things cannot be said with absolute certainty, but we believe it is very likely that, yes, it would have" saved Brown's life, he said, but added that "perfect safety is an impossible goal."

There will never be a point where there are no deaths or injuries, Musk said. Many computer-security experts argue that even now, autonomous driving software such as Tesla's Autopilot is not ready for the road. A team of Chinese researchers recently showed it was easy to fool sensors on Teslas and other autonomous driving systems.

Promoting radar detection to a primary sensor comes with its own risks, the Tesla blog post said.

"The big problem in using radar to stop the car is avoiding false alarms. Slamming on the brakes is critical if you are about to hit something large and solid, but not if you are merely about to run over a soda can. Having lots of unnecessary braking events would at best be very annoying and at worst cause injury."

But, the blog post explained, improvements in the radar components Tesla buys from third-party suppliers allows the system to be more sensitive and hence learn which detected objects to ignore. Crowd-sourcing of radar data from many Tesla vehicles passing by a stationary object will also help discern between safe and dangerous objects.

"If several cars drive safely past a given radar object, whether Autopilot is turned on or off, then that object is added to the geocoded whitelist," the blog post said.

Neither Musk nor Tesla Motors have publicly admitted responsibility for Brown's death. The suggestion that Brown might have lived had he had better Autopilot software indicates that Tesla knows its self-driving systems need some serious changes.


If a vendor offered the PM961 in a factory notebook, we wouldn't turn it down. The drive offers higher performance than any of the SATA options. The price is simply too high for the upgrade market, and the accessory package, along with a solid warranty, are nonexistent from resellers. The PM961 is simply a precursor to a retail product that we feel will hit store shelves in the next 30 days.

Why you can trust Tom's Hardware Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test .

Specifications & Features

Everyone in the inner circle of the SSD world is buzzing about the successor to Samsung's 950 Pro NVMe. We already tested the Samsung SM961 several times in the past, and it should be representative of the new 960 Pro. The low-cost EVO variant is even more exciting because it features the same Samsung Polaris controller and DRAM as the SM961 but uses 48-layer 3-bit per cell (TLC) flash. We're testing the PM961, which is the TLC version of the SM961, and likely the close cousin to the 960 EVO that will possibly launch in the next month.

Since its inception, the EVO series has dominated retail sales. Samsung actively monitors the price of competing products and maneuvers the EVO models appropriately, so the EVO products often cost a little more compared to entry-level and mainstream products. The strategy only works because the EVO series typically delivers significant improvements over competing products.

The improvements are not just performance-based, although it plays a key role. Samsung delivers an all-round package with higher performance, best-in-class software packages, high availability (products sold in local retail stores) and excellent reliability. It's difficult for non-fab SSD manufacturers to compete with Samsung's all-bases-full strategy. Even fab competitors (those that make NAND flash) that aren't fully vertically integrated (the ability to make controllers, DRAM and NAND flash) have a hard time competing with Samsung.

Samsung's big advantage isn't just its crafty strategy, accessories or price; it's the flash. Samsung was the first to release retail products with 3D NAND, and its dual plane design maximizes parallel operations to the controller. Until the PM961, we didn't know how fast Samsung's TLC V-NAND really was because the SATA ceiling limited most of its products. The PM961 will finally give us a chance to see if Samsung's 3D NAND has a lead over IMFT's (Intel/Micron) new 384Gbit TLC 3D NAND.

Technical Specifications

Product Samsung PM961 Pricing Unknown Controller Samsung Polaris Protocol NVMe Form Factor PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 Single-Sided 2280 NAND Samsung 48-Layer TLC V-NAND DRAM Samsung LPDDR3 Available Capacity Sizes 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB Sequential Read Up To 3,000 MB/s Sequential Write Up To 1,150 MB/s Random Read Up To 360,000 IOPS Random Write Up To 280,000 IOPS Endurance Unknown Warranty Varies By Seller

We still don't know a lot about the Polaris controller, other than the fact that Samsung uses it in the fastest consumer NVMe SSD ever made (the SM961). The PM961 uses the same controller and low-power DDR3 DRAM as the SM961, but Samsung changed the flash from 2-bit MLC to 3-bit per cell (TLC) V-NAND. Samsung's 3rd generation V-NAND is somewhat special and comes with a 48-layer 256Gbit die. Samsung designed the flash to reduce manufacturing costs by ramping up the capacity within roughly the same wafer footprint. Samsung's 48-layer NAND has been successful, but the company already announced the technical details of its 60-layer successor. Samsung's next generation NAND provides 512Gbit of capacity per die, but we don't expect products with the new V-NAND to ship until 2017.

Just because we know about the next generation doesn't mean we should overlook the importance of the current 48-layer flash. Only a few retail products have shipped with the 48-layer 256Gbit die. Samsung launched the Portable SSD T3 this year, retooled the higher capacity 850 EVO SSDs, and slowly trickled out the SM961 with the new flash. The PM961 is only the fourth product we've tested with 48-layer V-NAND.

The only PM961 performance specifications we have come from a Samsung event held earlier this year in Japan. The specifications in the chart come from a place card pictured at the event, and we don't have specifications for individual capacities or endurance. We do have the PM961 512GB, which will give us a taste of what Samsung has on the grill.

Samsung used new multi-manager test methods to achieve the high performance values cited in its specifications. We still use industry-standard testing that is more representative of normal user workloads, so you shouldn't expect to see 3,000 MB/s in our tests. We used multi-manager test methods only to validate Samsung's claims, and we actually achieved slightly better performance. The PM961 is impressive with 3,000 / 1,500 MB/s of sequential read/write speed. The random read performance surpasses 360,000 IOPS, and random writes are not far behind with 280,000 IOPS. On paper, the PM961 appears to give the 950 Pro with 32-layer MLC V-NAND a run, but in practice, the additional TLC latency hinders performance. Still, this high-performance product will eventually make an excellent mainstream NVMe SSD for shoppers looking to break free from the bonds of SATA. It will come at a friendlier price point, too.

The PM961 also supports several advanced features. The drive can operate in L1.2 low power states and employs TurboWrite technology, which is an SLC-mode buffer that absorbs random writes to increase performance and reduce flash wear. The PM961 does not support some features that we expect from the retail model, such as Rapid Mode and full-disk AES hardware encryption.

Pricing, Warranty And Accessories

Securing a PM961 isn't easy, but you can find them for $549 with a lead-time of 1 to 2 months. We paid $313 for a PM961 512GB to make this 960 EVO preview possible. Our drive took just over a week to arrive, and there isn't a warranty to speak of, though we did get an M.2 screw with the drive as a consolation prize. Some notebooks do not include the M.2 screw, particularly if you order the system without an M.2 SSD.

We don't recommend buying a PM961 because the price is very high due to the limited availability. The OEM products also do not work with Samsung's Magician Software. This isn't much of an issue, but with the 960 Series so close to launch, we would wait another month and compare the OEM SSDs to the retail products. The retail versions, which will presumably come to market bearing 960 Pro and 960 EVO branding, will work with Magician. The 960 EVO may include access to Rapid Mode, which is a system-level RAM buffer that increases performance and reduces NAND flash wear. Samsung's retail SSDs also work with the company's disk cloning software. The big takeaway is the Rapid Mode software and easy access to Samsung's NVMe driver, which we will cover later in the review.

A Closer Look

Image 1 of 5

The drive doesn't offer us a lot of insight into the new PM961, or its potential 960 EVO retail counterpart. The SSD appears to be identical to the SM961 that we already tested, and it features the same controller and DRAM. The Polaris controller is at the heart of the SSD and Samsung LPDDR3 backs it up. Two packages of Samsung 48-layer TLC flash round out the major components, and each package contains eight 256Gbit (32GB) die stacked on top of one another.

The PM961 uses a single-sided design to increase compatibility with OEM designs. The single-sided design features all of the surface mount components on one side of the printed circuit board, which allows OEMs to place the drive closer to the motherboard, and thus design slimmer products. Eventually, many of the slim products will get a storage upgrade, but the dual-sided products will not work in some of them. We've already seen a Lenovo Carbon X1 with the issue. The Lenovo motherboard has another chip package under the M.2 area, so it is impossible to install a dual-sided M.2 SSD and reassemble the case.

MORE: Best SSDs

MORE: Latest Storage News

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Following rumours suggesting Jet are set to reunite to support Bruce Springsteen on The Bosss alleged forthcoming Australian tour, the Australian rockers have apparently responded to the chatter with a very promising tease.

Taking to their official Facebook page recently, the band shared an old clip of them performing their breakthrough hit Are You Gonna Be My Girl at Big Day Out back in the day, writing, Come Around Again ..?

As Tone Deaf wrote last week, a report from the Sydney Morning Herald suggests the Melbourne outfit, who disbanded in 2012 after releasing three albums, are working on a reunion set to hit us early next year.

According to Fairfax, Jet will support Bruce Springsteen on an upcoming Australian tour. Australian music industry mogul Michael Gudinski had previously teased that an Australian Springsteen tour was on the books for 2017.

There was talk of Jet potentially reforming to support AC/DC during their Australian tour last year, though these rumours never came to fruition.

I think Id prefer to get up [on stage] under our own steam but theyre an amazing band and I do love them very much, Jet bassist Mark Wilson said at the time.

I think it would be a tough gig to get up before them. I dont think youd have the crowd on your side necessarily.

Wilson also said that relations between bandmates are positive. Were like brothers, he said. I text Chris all the time. Cam and I live around the corner from each other. Weve been through a lot together.
The dates of Bruce Springsteens rumoured 2017 Australian tour look to be set to drop tomorrow after Australian tour promoter Frontier Touring teased an announcement via their official Twitter account.

Last week the Sydney Morning Herald reported that the tour is on, with The Boss reportedly set to tour Australia in January/February next year and dates possibly announced later this month.

The tour will be a mix of outdoor and arena shows, the SMH claimed, including a performance at Victorias Hanging Rock. A reformed Jet are said to be supporting, which the band have seemingly teased.

Frontier Touring have tweeted an image that reads, Now sometimes TOMORROW comes soaked in treasure. This is a line from the Springsteen favourite Jack of All Trades, which appeared on his 2012 album Wrecking Ball.

Frontier Touring chief Michael Gudinski first stoked the rumour mill after an appearance on Triple M, when he told the hosts and listeners to expect a massive February and March of rock and hinted at a 2017 Springsteen tour.

That was an interesting visit from Michael Gudinski, the official Triple M Hot Breakfast account tweeted. Weve been warmed up to expect a MASSIVE February/March of rock! The tweet was post-scripted with the hashtag #TheBoss.

They followed up the tweet by addressing rumours that Springsteen, whose memoir is set to drop this month, could play Victorias Hanging Rock, where The Rolling Stones were set to play before the show was cancelled due to Mick Jaggers illness.
"While Kander has spent millions of dollars attacking Blunt for his wifes occupation, new facts are coming to light that suggest that the Kanders havent always had such a pessimistic view of the lobbying profession.





"Diana Kander worked for Lathrop & Gage from 2005 to 2006, following a law school internship in Washington with the prestigious firm, which features a large government relations practice. During her time at the firm, Mrs. Kanders biography, listed on the Lathrop & Gage website, stated that she assisted in lobbying efforts before Congress.





She has also spent time working with the Washington D.C. affiliate of Lathrop & Gage by assisting in the lobbying efforts of major Midwest companies before the U.S. Congress, reads her biography. This work includes finding and advocating for new funding opportunities for special projects and monitoring critical developments in specific areas of the law.





"The Kander campaign pushed back aggressively, stating that her biography was an aspirational biography, and it was not truly representative of her work at the firm. Regardless of whether the biography was aspirational, one key distinction between the Kanders family and Blunts is that her work with the firm was done before her husband filed to run for a seat in the Missouri House of Representatives in 2008.





"Diana Kander forcefully responded to questions about Lathrop & Gages biography.





I am not a lobbyist, have never been a lobbyist, and have never lobbied state or federal government in my entire life. Senator Blunt is maliciously spreading misinformation for his political gain about the beginning of my career, when I was an intern in Washington doing legal research and then was a first-year associate in Kansas City focusing on real estate law and representing clients in front of local boards for legal purposes. Missourians deserve better from Senator Blunt . . ."

WAS DIANA KANDER A LOBBYIST WHILST HER HUSBAND JASON HELD OFFICE???

Kansas City political insiders know thatwas formerly one of the influential young people this town has ever seen in biz, tech and politics.Over the years she transformed herself into a New York Times best selling author and sought-after consultant for start-ups and all kinds of biz.However, now that her husband. . . The career track of Diana Kander is now in play.The argument here is that Diana Kander transitioned out of politics as Jason Kander's career took off . . . Also there's a laughable line about anthat's pure political spin but still worthy of noteand a giggle.To shed light on some of the info out there . . . While Ms. Kander was never a "formal" lobbyist working behind the scenes for Mayor Sly James and as a campaigner for City Council Candidate Doug Gamble . . . Like her husband, she was a strong advocate for the candidacy of Mayor Sly James while Jason Kander served as a Missouri House Rep.Here she is getting huggy with former Mayoral Chief of Staff John McGurk at the inauguration of Mayor Sly years ago . . .More importantly, here's "DK" shaking her fist at the Blunt campaign and Missouri media asking the question about her alleged lobbyist career . . .Money line . . .The question is simple and we're putting it out here because it's yet another topic that Kansas City media will ignore . . .It's not the worst thing in the world and I admire the profession much more than self-help book author . . . Still, given the SecState's full frontal assault on the Blunt family . . . The question is now fair play.You decide . . .
British citizens may have to apply online and pay to travel to Europe after the UK leaves the EU, under plans being drawn up by the bloc for a visa waiver programme similar to the US system, the Guardian reports.

The European commission is due to unveil draft legislation for the EU travel information and authorisation system (Etias) later this year as part of a broader response to calls for greater security across the continent following recent terror attacks in France and Belgium.

The scheme would cover all visitors to the passport-free 26-nation Schengen zone  of which Britain is not a member  from countries that do not need a visa to enter, EU sources confirmed.

France and Germany both back a system based on the US ESTA scheme, under which visitors from countries that do not require full visas must apply online for permission to travel, preferably 72 hours before they leave, at a cost of $14 (10).

Valid passport

Currently, as citizens of the EU but not part of Schengen, UK nationals must show a valid passport to enter the zone but can then travel freely within it. But after Brexit, British citizens could have to apply through the Etias scheme and pay to visit, legal experts said.

In theory UK citizens, as third-country nationals, would certainly be subject to the obligations of such a scheme, said Camino Mortera-Martinez, a research fellow specialising in justice and home affairs at the Centre for European Reform. This will have to be part of the Brexit talks. It will all have to be negotiated.

Steve Peers, a professor of EU law at the University of Essex, said he could envisage British holidaymakers having to apply online through a future EU electronic visa waiver scheme before travelling to Spain or France, for example.

Its going to annoy a lot of people, he said. We can ask for full free movement, but any arrangement is going to have to be reciprocal, so you have to ask what Nigel Farage and the others will accept. We have no idea what the rules will be.

Peers said the only guarantee that British citizens would not be subject to any future EU ESTA-style system and instead would still be able, for example, to use fast-track channels at EU airports would be if the government negotiated a deal similar enough to Norways or Switzerlands to satisfy Brussels on free movement.

British residents made more than 30m holiday trips to EU countries last year, according to the Office for National Statistics, with Spain (13m visits) and France (8.8m) the most popular destinations.

The EU plan is part of series of measures planned in the wake of the Paris attacks in January and November last year and the Brussels airport and metro bombings in March this year, which exposed serious failings in the EUs external and internal border security systems.

The plan for a European ESTA was first outlined in 2011. The French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said last month after talks with his German counterpart, Thomas de Maiziere, that the two countries wanted a European ESTA, like that in the US, Canada and Australia.

Under the US system, introduced in 2009, immigration authorities assess whether a visitor is eligible to enter the country under its visa waiver programme before they arrive at the border.

Security portfolio

Citing Brussels sources, the specialist EU news site Euractiv said the UK government was not involved in Etias, which is the responsibility of Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EUs migration and home affairs commissioner, and not Britains future EU commissioner Julian King, who will take over the security portfolio.

The Schengen zone includes all 27 other EU member states except Ireland, which opted out like Britain, and Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, and Romania, which are waiting to join the zone. Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland have signed Schengen association agreements.

The British government has given no clear indication of the form its preferred Brexit model will take, but appears to be aiming for a bespoke agreement that would give it control over EU immigration, possibly at the expense of single market membership, rather than a deal based on that of Norway and Switzerland.

Negotiations with the EU are likely to be long and tough, with European leaders repeatedly stressing that privileged access to the EUs single market will not be on offer unless Britain accepts the fundamental principle of free movement.

Britain has also so far refused to guarantee the residence and other rights of EU citizens already in Britain unless it receives assurances from the EU on the status of British nationals on the continent.

Mortera-Martinez said Etias may be some time coming and stressed that that in practice Britains future deal with the EU would almost certainly include some form of provision for free travel  as opposed to the right to live and work  on the continent. But the free travel question will be one of many bargaining chips.

Britain is a neighbouring country, it is a safe country, this would be very bad for business and there would always be a possibility of retaliation, Mortera-Martinez said. But this question will have to be dealt with. The two are not remotely comparable of course, but after Brexit Britain will be a third country like Turkey.

The Paris and Brussels attacks exposed the ease with which even people flagged by police and intelligence services can move around the Schengen zone once they have crossed the EUs external border, prompting France and some other countries to temporarily reinstate internal border controls.

Among a raft of new security measures, the EU has already adopted a passenger name record, obliging airlines to hand EU countries their passengers data, and is working on an advanced entry-exit system aimed at registering all border crossings by third-country nationals in the Schengen area.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
I ask other Montana voters to join me in supporting Judge Dirk Sandefur for the Montana Supreme Court.

Judge Sandefur has been endorsed by people across the political spectrum. Supporters include Republicans, Democrats and every living retired Supreme Court Justice -- conservatives, liberals and those in between.

Judge Sandefur has a deep knowledge of the court system from 25 years as a police officer, prosecutor, defense attorney and District Court Judge. Unlike his opponent, he comes without a partisan agenda. As a District Court Judge in Great Falls, he decided some of the most serious and complex cases that come before our courts.

A vote for Judge Dirk Sandefur is a vote for fairness, non-partisanship and experience.

Linda Gryczan

Helena
Russia is seeking talks with Egypt over the North African country's recent delays in approving Russian wheat supplies, Russia's food safety watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said on Monday.



Egypt, the world's biggest wheat importer and the largest buyer of Russian wheat, has not issued approvals for Russian wheat shipments since Cairo adopted a zero tolerance policy on the ergot fungus in late August, according to the watchdog.



"There is no official rejection (from the Egyptian side)," Rosselkhoznadzor spokesman Aleksey Alekseenko told Reuters. "I think this question can be decided during talks between the two countries. We are preparing the official request this week."



Russia is the second country to experience difficulties with wheat supplies to Egypt, after Egyptian inspectors rejected a Romanian wheat shipment. A Romanian trading house later said it had declined to ship the 63,000-tonne cargo to Egypt due to the country's ergot policy.



The common grain fungus has become a cornerstone of Egypt's import policy this year, according to traders, limiting the purchasing power of Cairo's state grain buyer GASC. It has also been the subject of a debate between and within ministries which have sometimes undertaken different policies.



Ergot, which can cause hallucinations when consumed in large amounts, is considered harmless in low quantities and the standard international policy is to allow 0.05 percent ergot content in wheat imports.



Russia's wheat crop is expected to reach a post-Soviet record this year, making exports to Egypt even more important than normal.



Once started, the talks will run simultaneously with discussions on the possible resumption of Russian passenger flights to Egypt. After a Russian passenger plane was blown up in the air killing all on board last October, Moscow suspended flights to the country, hammering Egypt's tourist industry - a vital source of income for a battered economy.  Reuters
Wyndham Hotel Group, the world's largest hotel company with nearly 8,000 hotels across a portfolio of 16 brands, has appointed Philippe Bijaoui to the role of chief development officer for Europe, Middle East, Eurasia and Africa (EMEA).



In this role Bijaoui will oversee the Company's rapid expansion across the region, introducing additional brands to established markets and building on the 73 countries where Wyndham Hotel Group hotels can already be found.



Bijaoui has more than 20 years of hotel real estate and development experience in markets across EMEA and most recently served as Vice President Development Europe for InterContinental Hotel Group, where he defined and implemented the development strategy for the region.



He has also previously held senior development roles with Rezidor, Club Med, HVS International, City Hotels S.A. and Groupe Immobiliere Hoteliere. Bijaoui has a Master of Business Administration with a focus on hotel and catering management from I.M.H.I. Cornell, and speaks multiple European languages.



"All around the world a rapidly growing middle class is discovering the excitement of international travel. Wyndham Hotel Group's development strategy is bold but simple  we work with local partners to bring quality accommodation to a diverse number of locations, so that, no matter where adventure leads, our guests can find the hotel brands they know and love," said Daniel Ruff, president and managing director EMEA for Wyndham Hotel Group.



"Philippe has a stellar reputation in the EMEA development community, and I am confident he is the best person to lead our aggressive expansion plans for the region."



"I am very much looking forward to accelerating Wyndham Hotel Group's growth in EMEA. Destinations across the region are in need of an international standard of hotel accommodation for growing inbound and domestic visitor numbers, and Wyndham Hotel Group has only begun to tap the potential in these markets," said Bijaoui.



"In addition, the breadth of brands ranging from economy to luxury, as well as the power of being part of Wyndham Hotel Group and Wyndham Worldwide, gives us tremendous opportunity to introduce new innovative products in markets where certain segments may be currently under represented."



This year Wyndham Hotel Group has reached important development milestones in EMEA, including introducing the Super 8 brand to Europe, opening the 50th hotel in Turkey, expanding into Greece with the Wyndham Grand Athens and announcing new hotels in emergent destinations such as Oman, Iraq and Ethiopia.  TradeArabia News Service
London's Heathrow Airport handled a record 7.34 million passengers in August, with traffic to Middle East rising by 9.1 per cent year-on-year helped by increased use of larger aircraft.



Heathrow, which is battling Gatwick for government approval for an extra runway, said passenger traffic rose by 5.8 per cent to Latin America and 5.1 per cent to East Asia.



Heathrow operates at about 98 per cent capacity and struggles to add new flights. The British government is expected to rule in the coming weeks on whether to build a third runway at Heathrow or its rival Gatwick after a drawn-out process.



Europe's busiest airport said numbers grew by 0.1 per cent on the previous year, showing there was no dip in traffic following Britain's June vote to leave the European Union.



Heathrow has argued that Britain's vote to leave the EU makes it more important that it secures approval to expand, enabling it to build more routes with trading nations. Gatwick says it can build a new runway at a lower cost and with less environmental impact.



Passenger growth to these countries outweighed falls on internal flights in Britain and to North America and Africa.



The airport, whose biggest shareholder is Spanish infrastructure firm Ferrovial, said passenger volumes were up 0.7 per cent in the first eight months of 2016, compared to the same period in the previous year.



It said cargo traffic to emerging markets also rose, by 5.7 per cent to the Middle East, 12 per cent to Latin America and 3.7 per cent to East Asia, supporting its case for a new runway.



"We can get exporters, large and small, from all across Britain connected to the growing markets of the world, and it is urgent that we get on with it," Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said in a statement.



The decision has repeatedly been delayed over pollution concerns and local opposition.



Heathrow's figures come after Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel, said last week that passenger traffic jumped 14 per cent from a year earlier to a monthly record of 7.62 million people in July.



Growing tourism and trade ties with the rest of the Middle East, Asia and other regions of the world are fuelling traffic growth at Dubai's airport.  Reuters
Saudi businesses catering to Haj visitor have taken a hit this year as far fewer pilgrims arrive and those who come have less cash to spend.



Saudi authorities say only about 1.86 million pilgrims, including around 1.3 million coming from outside the country, are attending this year's Haj, down from peak figures that approached 3 million a few years ago.



The number of visitors from abroad has fallen by around 20 per cent and the number from within Saudi Arabia has fallen by half, said Marwan Abbas Shaaban, head of the kingdom's National Committee for Haj and Umrah. Overall, Haj-related business was down by half, he said.



Those who are still coming have less to spend, said Ali al-Hirabi, who hawks gleaming gold necklaces and rings from a shop in the holy city. "They come, but their situation isn't like it was when there was peace in the world," he said. "It's the Arab countries that are the problem."



Saudi Arabia itself and many of its Arab neighbours are suffering from the fall in global oil prices that has cut state budgets, lowered wages and reduced lavish domestic spending. War across the Middle East has also hit the Haj.



Officials give a variety of reasons for the declining visitor numbers. One of the most obvious is a boycott by Iran, which barred its citizens from attending this year's Haj after a diplomatic row with Saudi Arabia.



Shabaan said Iranians typically made up 7 per cent of foreign Haj visitors, and their absence did not account for the bulk of the fall-off in numbers.



He said another factor was the construction under way in Makkah itself, which is designed to increase its capacity to accept Haj pilgrims in future, but means there is less room while the building is still under way.



"Over the last three years there has been a reduction in the number of pilgrims because of the expansion of the Two Holy Mosques and the massive infrastructure improvements," he said, also citing "political conditions in some countries and economic conditions."



Wars in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya, which have brought down numbers in past years as well, have worsened this year. Most Syrians and Yemenis now live in territory controlled by warring sides opposed by Saudi Arabia, making it difficult to get visas.



RENOVATIONS



Makkah's mayor Osama bin Fadl Al-Bar played down the lull.



"There is certainly an effect on economic sectors, but the private sector is always looking toward the light at the end of the tunnel and the investment opportunities that are present."



He said the renovations to expand Makkah's Grand Mosque and nearby hotels, which have turned the area into a tangle of cranes, would drive future business and let the city accommodate 3.7 million Haj pilgrims in 2020 and 6.7 million by 2042.



As part of a reform plan to wean Saudi Arabia off its dependency on oil, the government aims to encourage even more visits to Makkah outside of Haj season, raising annual pilgrim numbers to 30 million by 2030 from 8 million at present.



Meanwhile, despite the smaller crowds, merchants in Makkah do not seem to be lowering their prices. The high cost of basic goods, especially near the Grand Mosque, is a perennial complaint for pilgrims.



Senior Saudi cleric Sheikh Abdullah Bin Sulaiman al-Manea told Okaz newspaper businesses should not gouge customers, and criticized the spread of billboards in the city: "The duty of haj should not become a venue for trade, profit and gain."



Fatima al-Murabit, a Moroccan who together with her husband was visiting for the second year in a row, said prices had gone up since last year.



"Even dates are expensive, and bad manners are a general feature of traders and workers in the markets," she lamented.

- Reuters
Daily seasonal service to add two new European destinations next summer

American Airlines announced last week that it will launch new daily service from Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport to Rome, Italy as well as to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, beginning in May of 2017. Both new flights will be operated daily on a seasonal basis, from May to September for the summer travel season.

"The new American Airlines flights to Rome and Amsterdam represent great news for our customers and the entire Dallas Fort Worth region," said Sean Donohue, chief executive officer at DFW Airport. "One of our top goals at DFW Airport is to grow international passenger and cargo air service in order to spur new business and travel opportunities in our home region, and the addition of these new flights will certainly help connect the Dallas Fort Worth area to more of Europe."

"We are excited to offer these new seasonal routes from our largest hub, connecting North Texas to popular leisure destinations in Europe," said Vasu Raja, American's vice president  Network and Schedule Planning. "This announcement is further confirmation of American's long-term plan to enhance its global network."

When the flight begins in May, DFW customers will enjoy nonstop service to Rome for the first time ever, and that flight connects DFW to its largest unserved international market. American will fly from DFW to Rome's Leonardo da VinciFiumicino Airport with Boeing 777-200 aircraft

American will serve the route from DFW to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol with Boeing 767-300 aircraft.

"We are also looking forward to welcoming customers arriving from Rome and Amsterdam with our renowned Texas hospitality, whether they are visiting the Dallas Fort Worth area or connecting to another destination," said Mr. Donohue. "Our new additions to International Terminal D including the new duty free retail complex will let visitors know they are in for a world-class customer experience at our Airport."

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Search News Archive : Fast Travel News Promotion Via Search, Social Media + Email Follow Us On : SANCTUM INLE RESORT MYANMAR CELEBRATES PAGODA FESTIVAL Industry: Travel Offers

Luxurious resort unveils new package to mark Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda Festival on Inle Lake



(TRAVPR.COM) MYANMAR - September 12th, 2016 - Pilgrims from across Myanmar and travelers alike will descend on Inle Lake in October for the anticipated Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda Festival. Reknown as southern Shan State's holiest site, Phaung Daw Oo houses precious 800-year-old Buddha images.



During the annual festival, Myanmar's remarkable 'Four Buddha Images' are paraded around the storied lake in a gilded barge pulled by iconic Intha fishermen propelling long boats with a singular, one-legged rowing style. The procession passes by villages where the locals greet the images with fanfare. Boat races, martial art performances and dances on a ceremonial boat are among the festivities.



To experience the festival, held from October 2-19, book Sanctum Inle Resort's Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda Festival Package featuring Cloiser Deluxe accommodation, daily breakfast and a set dinner for 2 persons at US$140 net per night. The package is applicable for stays from October 1 to 31, 2016.



The 94-room Sanctum Inle Resort is preparing for its grand opening on October 1, when it will unveil new facilities including an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Opening its doors to affluent travellers in May 2015, the resort boasts a classic yet contemporary design, with arches and cloisters referencing monastic life in Myanmar.



For bookings, contact reservation@sanctum-inle-resort.com / +959 252 818800. For further information about Sanctum Inle Resort, visitwww.sanctum-inle-resort.com. ### Please contact the person or company listed above for information regarding the content of this press release. TravPR.com are not the issuers of this press release and are not responsible for the accuracy of the content. Share Release :



CONTACT INFORMATION Name: Ms. Mar Lar Swe Company: Sanctum Inle Resort Phone: +959 252 818800 Email: reservation@sanctum-inle-resort.com Web: PRESS RELEASE TAGS
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MISSOULA -- More than 11 million out-of-state travelers come to Montana every year, yet it is only one of five states in the country with no statewide sales tax.

Proponents of a sales tax say its a giant missed opportunity to generate revenue from those tourists. Detractors say it would disproportionately hurt lower-income residents.

A sales tax was one of the many issues brought up by officials with the Montana Chamber of Commerce during a roundtable discussion with business leaders at the Missoula Area Chamber of Commerce last week.

A sales tax would generate revenue that would be new to Montana because its being paid by people from out of state, explained Montana Chamber President Webb Brown. And thats the best tax of all -- when somebody else is paying it. We have a little bit of a gas tax and a little bed tax and (tourists) are happy to pay it because its so cheap here. We could get some help" from a sales tax.

Brown said that while other industries such as forest products and oil production are declining, tourism in Montana is increasing every year.

Foreign tourists would gladly pay (a sales tax) because its still so cheap here for tourists, Brown said. The biggest chunk of visitor spending is on gasoline, so a gas tax would tap more into them. And yet you have truckers and folks who have higher gasoline uses, and that would hurt them. Im not saying theres an easy answer but something should be done.

The problem, Brown said, is that Montanans are damn proud about not having a sales tax. There are places like Red Lodge and Whitefish that have a resort tax because so many tourists visit them, but his organization believes a statewide tax is the best option because it would eliminate disparity and confusion.

Bridger Mahlum, the government relations director for the Montana Chamber, said that surveys have shown that people are slowly coming around to supporting a statewide sales tax here.

Because we are having more tourists, people are a little bit more open to it now, he said. But that pride is embedded. But a sales tax could provide some property tax relief in some cases.

Top priorities for 2017

Representatives from the Montana Chamber were in Missoula to discuss their top priorities for the 2017 legislative session and to hear concerns from business owners.

"Gauging statewide perspectives assists us in setting priorities, Brown said. We've learned the best way to do that is not through phone calls or tracking the news, but to travel the state and hear directly from those invested in the business climate of Montana.

Brown said the most pressing issues for the chamber in the next legislative session are reducing costs for businesses such as workers compensation insurance and the business equipment tax, getting an infrastructure upgrade bill passed and increasing entrepreneurship.

Montana businesses have some of the highest workers compensation premiums in the country, Brown said. He also said that the American Society of Civil Engineers gave Montana a C-minus for the quality of dams, schools, transportation and waste treatment infrastructure in 2014.

Generating revenue

The sales tax discussion took up a good chunk of time at the meeting, as business leaders talked about ways Montana could generate revenue to pay for things that the state needs.

Its going to be a tough session to talk about additional spending, Brown said.

Dick Barrett, a Democrat from Missoula running for re-election in Montanas Senate District 45, has spent eight years in the Legislature and was a member of the taxation committee in both the House and the Senate. He said in all his time, there has never been a bill to establish a statewide sales tax introduced. He also said that he is opposed to it, as are many Democrats and labor unions.

I think traditionally, the opposition from Democrats and labor is because a (sales tax) is quite regressive, he said. That is to say, the lower your income, the larger the share of your income you pay in taxes if its a sales tax. You can make a sales tax less regressive by making it selective, meaning it only applies to items that are relatively unimportant in the budgets of lower-income households. But as you narrow your tax base you have to raise the tax rate to make the same amount of money.

A sales tax could become something of a luxury tax if it only applied to things tourists primarily buy, Barrett said.

We know how those folks spend their money, he said. You could specifically tax items on which they spend money like restaurants, bars, hotels, gasoline, ski passes and things like that. You could easily tap into that particular revenue source without having a statewide sales tax.

However, Barrett said that he feels that is only a good idea in places like Whitefish where resort taxes are already in place. He said any time the idea of a sales tax is raised at the state level, its associated with offsetting income or property taxes.

Occasionally people have favored a sales tax but only if its to replace part of those other taxes, he said. In other words, it would be used not to raise taxes but to diversify the sources from which tax is collected. There are a variety of arguments made on behalf of that notion but again, resistance to that would be strong, particularly if you used a sales tax to replace income tax. You are replacing a progressive tax with a regressive tax, and thats the basis for a lot of opposition.

Mary Windecker, the past president of the Missoula Area Chamber of Commerce, said that Missoulians have a tax fatigue on property taxes because of the $158 million worth of schools bonds that past last year and the $42 million parks and trails bond that voters approved in 2014.

Its tough, especially on small businesses, she said. Windecker added that it might be a good idea to diversify the tax revenue sources.

Child care struggles

The discussion then turned to other topics.

Kelly Rosenleaf, the executive director of Childcare Resources in Missoula and a former city council member, said that child care providers across the state are struggling in the state.

There are 1,100 small child care providers, and theres probably a lot more than that illegally operating, but we have seen a precipitous drop in them because of the low unemployment rate and the inability of child care businesses to attract and retain employees, she said. Right now, its an employees' marketplace.

Rosenleaf said that a lack of options for child care disproportionately negatively affects working mothers.

Thats who is going to have to stay home, most likely, she said.

Brown said he was glad to listen to the concerns of business owners like Rosenleaf during the chamber's current statewide tour the chamber. He said the organization puts out a pamphlet recording the voting record of all legislators and they also have picked endorsements for statewide office. The main goal, he said, is to ensure Montana has an attractive business climate.

We have to have people afford to live here and make a decent living, he said. Because, as we say, you cant eat the snowdrifts.
Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 12

FieldFresh Foods (P) Ltd., a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Del Monte Pacific Ltd., plans to export frozen baby corn and chillies from to the UK and European countries in the current fiscal. These will be procured from the farmers of Punjab and Maharashtra, with whom FieldFresh is doing collaborative farming.

In the last fiscal, we exported 1,500 tonnes of fresh baby corn to the UK and European countries. Buoyed by the response, we are planning to export frozen baby corn and chillies to these countries. It will be available in jars and cans, said Rakesh Bharti Mittal, vice-chairman, Bharti Enterprises and co-founder, Bharti Foundation, while talking to The Tribune over the phone.

For the produce, it is working with 5,000 farmers in Punjab and Maharashtra. It also has an Agriculture Centre of Excellence (ACE) at Ladhowal, Ludhiana, which is one of the largest agricultural R&D facilities of its kind.

Bharti Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Bharti Enterprises, today signed an MoU with the University of Cambridge to conduct corn and baby corn crop improvement research programme in India. The programme is scheduled to be funded by Bharti Foundation.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 10

The poor face great hardship in getting justice and the judiciary and lawyers need to work together for this. Justice V Gopala Gowda, Judge, Supreme Court, made this observation during a conference on Constitutional perspectives and role of lawyers organised by the Indian Association of Lawyers (IAL), Punjab and Haryana, at Chandigarh Judicial Academy today.

Though the rights are provided in the constitution, their real implementation is yet to be achieved. We should rise to defend the constitution and the rights enshrined in it and the welfare state to be created under it and we should take it to the masses. Though the judiciary at all levels has tried to act for the people, still the poor and backward face hardships in living a respectable life and getting justice and equality for which the judiciary and the lawyers have to work together, he said.

The conference was also addressed by Justice Suryakant, Judge, Punjab and Haryana High Court. Justice Sabina, Judge, Rajasthan High Court, was also present on the occasion. Justice V Gopala Gowda, Judge, Supreme Court, who was the chief guest, addressed the gathering on the subject.

Earlier, senior advocate S Sarjit Singh welcomed the guests.

Indian Association of Lawyers elects officer-bearers

Earlier, the Punjab branch of the Indian Association of Lawyers (IAL) elected its office-bearers. Senior advocates HS Baath and Sampuran Singh were elected as general secretary and president, respectively. The Haryana branch, under the presidentship of senior advocate RS Cheema, has also formed a working committee of 20 members.
Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 12

Manav Malhotra, owner of realty firm Gauransh Associates, who duped several persons, including serving Colonels and the brother of Shimla MP Virender Kashyap, of around Rs 2 crore, has been awarded two-year rigorous imprisonment by a local court for issuing cheques to a customer, which bounced.

Malhotra was later granted bail on a bond of Rs 40,000. The court of Judicial Magistrate Kanwal Kumar also asked him to refund Rs 10 lakh in two months to the complainant. In case of default of payment, he will further have to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two months.

Akhil Deep, a resident of Sector 15, Chandigarh, stated in his complaint that Malhotra, a resident of Mansa Devi Complex, Sector 5, Panchkula, took Rs 10,00,000 from him through a cheque on July 14, 2011, for the transfer of a residential unit of Bhoomi Infrastructure Corporation Limited.

After receipt of the cheque, Malhotra executed an affidavit in favour of the complainant and agreed to refund the amount within a period of 30 days on demand. The project of the company did not mature following which Akhil asked for the refund of his money.

In discharge of his legal and financial liability, the owner issued two cheques for Rs 5,00,000 each in 2014, which bounced due to insufficient funds.

Cops found wanting

Though the owner of the Panchkula-based firm allegedly cheated several persons of their hard-earned money in the name of providing them property during the past few months, the Panchkula police failed to arrest him. This, despite the fact that Malhotra attended hearings in a neighbouring city court and was also present when the sentence was pronounced. After the district police failed to take action against Malhotra in the high-profile property fraud case, the Haryana Police had ordered a high-level inquiry into the matter. Inspector General of Police (CID) Anil Rao had sought a detailed report on the whole case. However, that also did not help.
Ishrat S Banwait

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 12

The Chandigarh international airport is all set to launch its first international flight to Sharjah this Thursday, but security at the airport seems to be a casualty. No lessons seem to have been learnt from the Pathankot airbase attack on January 2 this year even though six suspected terrorists were spotted near the airport on August 7.

A visit to the airport reveals how easy it is for one to carry absolutely anything in a car and enter the airport building with the luggage. There is no checking of cars at any point and one can choose not to go to the designated parking area. One can park a car unchecked right in front of the "Arrival" or "Departure" area.

The luggage is not checked if you are not boarding a flight as checking is done only at that particular gate. This is not the only entry to the main building as one can enter through the first gate, which has counters of various airlines. There are no checks at the gate or inside and no security personnel are present.

Another way to enter the main building is through the last gate which takes one into the office of the airport manager. Once again, there are no security personnel present. Airport Chief Executive Officer Sunil Dutt, however, says, There are no such checks at any airport. We have adequate personnel as per security norms.

The first international flight from the airport will take off on Thursday to Sharjah, followed by a flight to Dubai on September 26. Next in line is a flight to Singapore in November this year, the official announcement for which will be made on Thursday. Currently, 21 flights take off daily from the airport and the number of passengers visiting annually is 15 lakh.
Tribune News Service

Mohali, September 12

The local police today arrested an employee of the Air Force canteen at Mullanpur for stealing Rs 1.77 lakh from its safe.

The suspect, Kuldip Singh (29), a resident of Bharonjia village, broke the glass of the canteen door and then broke open the upper portion of the safe with a rod to steal the amount. The theft took place around 2 am today.

The police have recovered the entire amount from Kuldip Singh's house.

Earlier, canteen manager BS Joseph made a complaint in this regard to the police. He alleged that he had kept Rs 3.31 lakh in the safe on Saturday. The crime came to light when Jospeh came to his workplace this morning.

Giving details, Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said the suspect had been working in the canteen for around four years.

After finishing his duty, Kuldip Singh went to his house at Bharonjia village, located near the Air Force Station. Being an insider, he knew that cash was lying in the safe. He came to the canteen around 2 am today and committed the crime, said the SSP.

The suspect came under the police radar when he did not attend duty this morning. He was called up by the manager several times. He told the manager that he had met with an accident and was not in a position to attend duty.

We found blood stains at the spot. When we checked, we found an injury on Kuldip Singhs hand. Kuldip tried to befool us by saying that he sustained the injury in a motorcycle mishap. Later, during interrogation, he confessed to his crime, said the SSP, adding that the suspect's hand got injured while breaking the glass of the door.

Kuldip Singh stole Rs 1.77 lakh after breaking the upper part of the safe. The remaining amount was lying in the lower part of the safe, which he could not break open, said Bhullar.

On Joseph's complaint, the police have registered a case under Section 3 of the India Official Secrets Act, 1923, and Sections 457, 380 and 427 of the IPC at the Mullanpur police station.

The accused will be produced before the court tomorrow.
Jayshree Sengupta

The recently concluded G20 summit at Hangzhou, China, has struck a dark note in its communique regarding the state of global recovery. They have pointed out that growth is still weaker than desirable. On the economic side, the warning about the general economic conditions of the world economy and commodity prices, fluctuations in trade and investment, slow productivity and growth has come close to the IMF's recent warning. But what the G20 has managed to achieve is something laudable in forcing the IMF to undertake quota reforms and in including Chinese yuan (RNB) in the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket. SDRs are an international reserve asset created by the IMF in 1969 to supplement its member countries' official reserves. SDRs can be exchanged for freely usable currencies.

The G20, though formed in 1999 after the Asian financial crisis, was chosen as a forum to discuss reforms in the international financial architecture after the next global financial crisis in 2008. It has been described as "an informal forum that promotes open and constructive discussion between industrial and emerging market countries on key issues related to global economic stability." Though the G20 remained dormant after its inception in 1999, it became very important as the main forum for spearheading reforms in the international financial architecture.

In the G20's various annual meeting in Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Seoul, Cannes, Los Cabos, St. Petersburg, Brisbane and Antalya, decisions for taking steps to help initiate reforms in the IMF were taken. They also decided to expand the Basel-based organisation, Financial Stability Facility ( FSF), for banks' surveillance. Earlier the FSF had a membership of developed countries only and was formed after the Asian financial crisis to bring together key national and international regulators to eliminate the regulatory gaps which enabled financial contagion to spread. The G20 renamed FSF as the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and all G20 countries were included as members. Thus for the first time, the Emerging Market Economies (EMEs) became members of an important international financial regulatory body.

After the G20 summit in Washington, the IMF came out stronger than before in the new financial architecture and G20 basically replaced G8 in taking important decisions regarding international-level financial sector reforms. The G20 meeting in London in 2009 pledged to provide more resources to the IMF and other multilateral institutions by $1.1 trillion.

In Pittsburgh the World Bank was given the task to advise on progress of promoting development and poverty reduction. At the Seoul summit in November 2010 the members proposed strengthening the international regulatory system and agreed that it would have to be tightened. It was the G20 members who agreed to improve the quantity and quality of bank capital as per the Basel III norms. The Basel III framework sets out higher and better quality of bank capital, better risk coverage, introduces a leverage ratio as a backdrop to risk-based requirement measures to promote the build-up of capital that can be drawn during periods of stress and introduces two global liquidity standards.

The IMF was elevated to the position of an innovative crisis handler provided it introduced governance and quota reforms to take into account the growing importance of BRICS and other EMEs. IMF quotas are calculated through a complex formula regarding each member country's macroeconomic indicators like the size of the GDP. It allows the members to borrow from the IMF according to their quotas. The US and the EU have disproportionately high quotas.

At Cannes the G20 urged the IMF to increase the quotas for the EMEs and strengthen its surveillance. At the Los Cabos G20 summit in 2012, it was decided that the IMF quota reform should be speeded up from 2013. But nothing was done because the US, the biggest quota holder, vetoed the reform. The G20 also wanted to increase the allocation of SDRs in 2009 to 5 per cent of the IMF's total non-gold reserves. In Antalya also the G20 complained about the tardiness of the IMF reforms. Surprisingly, the US relented and the quota reforms (under the IMF's 14th Review of Quotas) took place in January 2016.

In Cannes the G20 agreed that the SDR basket composition should continue to reflect the role of currencies in the global trading and financial system. It should be adjusted over time to reflect key currencies' changing role and characteristics. It said that a broader SDR basket composition should be an important determinant for its attractiveness and in turn influence its role in a global reserve asset. In Antalya the G20 again reaffirmed that the SDR basket composition should continue to reflect the role of currencies in the global trading and financial system and hoped for completion of the review of the method of valuation of the SDR. This has also been done and surprisingly the Chinese yuan will be included in the SDR basket from October 2016.

The G20 in Hangzhou has observed with some satisfaction, "We welcome the entry into effect the 15th General Review of Quotas, including a new quota formula, by the 2017 annual meetings (of IMF-World Bank). We reaffirm that any realignment under the 15th review in quota shares is expected to result in increased shares for dynamic economies in line with their relative positions in the world economy and hence likely in the share of emerging market and developing countries as a whole"

They also affirmed: "Following the IMF's decision, we welcome the inclusion of the RMB into the Special Drawing Right currency basket on October 1st. We support the ongoing examination of the broader use of the SDR, such as broader reporting in SDR and the issuance of SDR-denominated bonds, as a way to enhance resilience."

The G20 has also welcomed the second annual report of the Financial Stability Board on implementation and effects of reforms and will continue to enhance the monitoring of implementation and effect of reforms to ensure their consistency without overall objectives, including by addressing any material unintended consequences."

The G20's role has indeed been significant in reforming the international financial architecture though it has not addressed adequately the serial financing needs of developing countries which can only be fulfilled by more regional banks and not by the World Bank-IMF sisters.
Rajmohan Gandhi

Thankfully for us, Indias independence struggle was firmly joined to a pledge of individual liberty. Passed in Karachi in 1931  at the threshold of a crucial London conference on Indias political future  the Indian National Congresss Resolution on Fundamental Rights asked a future free India to ensure every citizens liberty of thought, belief and expression.

Vallabhbhai Patel presided at that Karachi session. Subhas Bose played an active part in its deliberations. Gandhi and Nehru drafted the fundamental rights resolution. Though hanged a few days previously, young Bhagat Singh was a powerful presence.

The Karachi session was also impacted by Badshah Khan, whose nonviolent Khudai Khidmatgars had dramatically defied the Empires horses and guns in Peshawar only a year earlier, and by Delhis champion of Hindu-Muslim unity, Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari, whose participation in the London conference had been barred by the Empire.

Blessed by stalwarts, Karachis commitment of personal liberty was duly enshrined, 19 years later, in the Constitution of our republic. Although that pledge has been fulfilled for some citizens, a great many adult daughters and sons in independent India are not at liberty today to think, speak, eat or marry as they like. They face zabardasti or coercion from powerful neighbourhood groups, with whom relatives are frequently allied.

The Indian state too has been coercive at times, memorably during the Emergency forty-plus years ago. Some population segments and geographical regions have faced the states rough arm almost continuously. Yet non-state coercion may be Indias greater challenge.

Over several decades before and after Independence, leaders loved and respected by the masses spoke out against social or mob pressures. Individual freedoms were stoutly defended by personalities like Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, C.R., Sarojini Naidu, Azad, Ambedkar, Radhakrishnan, Zakir Hussain and J.P., if not always by the state.

When reformers were attacked in those times, or vulnerable groups threatened, Indias Hindus as also Indias Muslims heard unambiguous condemnation from persons they esteemed and in some cases adored. Liberty was bolstered and bullies were sidelined.

Today individual Indians have to fend for themselves. At times a gallant reporter may provide publicity and therefore some protection; at other times a courageous judge may come to the rescue; but very few leaders of national stature seem willing to guide the common Hindu or the common Muslim on the question of coercion.

Whether it is the brazen defence of triple talaq, or the hounding of Muslims and Dalits under the pretext of beef, we do not hear people in charge clearly condemning zabardasti. And we have hardly seen a sustained effort to catch the killers of Narayan Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and Malleshappa Kalburgi, three outstanding thinkers who were murdered for their opinions (separately but perhaps connectedly) between 2013 and 2015.

Personal liberty is not an issue that separates one Indian group from another. Individuals inside every Indian community seem to face coercion. Some positive changes may be acknowledged. In recent times, the RSS has condemned the exclusion and ill-treatment of Dalits.

But Muslims are conspicuously absent from RSS calls for tolerance and inclusion. When extreme Hindu groups target vulnerable Muslims, not only is the RSS silent, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his senior Cabinet colleagues also refuse to speak out against the extremists.

The message sent to bullies is that they are free to coerce. To the police, the signal is, Do not go after the bullies. To the targeted, the message is, Best of luck, or, Make peace with the bullies. Or, Go to a safer place.

Repeated day after day from a range of platforms, the unconstitutional notion that Muslims are not equal citizens finds no refutation either from the RSS or from the government.

Defenders of the government plead that Mr Modi cannot afford to alienate those who helped him gain his office. They should recognise that by firmly upholding what the republics founders bequeathed, namely equality and liberty for all, he would draw support from many among the two-thirds of all Indian voters who voted against the BJP in 2014.

We may not know just why Mr Modi hesitates to chastise the intimidators, but it is undeniable that his reluctance has damaged his and Indias image. The world abhors ISIS but it also dislikes anti-Muslim discrimination.

Few countries stand more firmly against Islamist terrorism than the US, but when the Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump, proposed a ban on the entry of Muslims, many in his party joined the nationwide outcry triggered against it.

The impression that persons in authority in India regard its Muslims as less than equal, and not entitled to personal liberty, is now a major obstacle on Indias path to global influence.

More importantly, that impression puts Indias security and stability at risk. No country, no matter its size, can afford to view close to 200 million of its people as less worthy than the rest.

But Indias Muslim leadership is also under the scanner. The heartlessness of ISIS and its like-minded associates requires the firm articulation of a vision for Indias Muslims that honours personal liberty and repudiates zabardasti, whether within or outside the Muslim community. This articulation cannot be left to a few courageous individuals in the film world.

When on January 1, 1948 (29 days before being killed), he was complimented by a Thai visitor on Indias independence, Gandhi remarked: Today not everybody can move about freely in the Capital. Indian fears his brother Indian. Is this independence? (Pyarelal, Last Phase, 2: 697.) Almost 70 years later, citizens should be asking the question in all our towns and villages.





The writer is a historian and well known commentator.
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 12

The Delhi Government today decided to "relax" its rules and grant admission in its school to Madhu, a Pakistani migrant girl, thereby ending her months of struggle in securing admission because of lack of requisite documents.

The decision came after Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj intervened last week taking a note of the reports about how Madhu in the absence of school leaving certificate (SLC), date of birth certificate, among others, had been trying hard to get admission in a government school. Swaraj also spoke to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal last week on the issue.

Sixteen-year-old Madhu, who has written a letter addressed to Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia requesting for the same, had migrated to India two years ago with her mother, siblings, uncle and cousins after they escaped religious persecution in Pakistan.

The girl had approached the co-ed senior secondary school in Sanjay Colony, but was refused admission to ninth class as she did not have the relevant documents.

Approving her request for admission, Sisodia issued the order today in which he said, "Due to peculiar circumstances, she (Madhu) is not in possession of any school-leaving certificate or date of birth certificate. She wants to study and on humanitarian grounds, it is my considered opinion that we need to walk extra mile to accommodate her...."

"To accommodate the request of Madhu, the government can consider relaxing whatever rules and regulations, if they come in way of her joining our school," Sisodia, who is also the Education Minister, said in the official order.

"Accordingly admission to Madhu may immediately be provided at any of our government schools located in Sanjay Colony, Bhati Mines, Fatehpur Beri, New Delhi. She would also be given necessary books and uniform etc and we may facilitate whatever is required for the girl to study in our school," the order further added.
Both AAP and the Congress promise a loan waiver to check farmer suicides. A state can only persuade local cooperative or rural banks to write off farmer loans. Its writ does not extend to national banks. Capt Amarinder Singh believes he can persuade the Modi government to use oil savings to rid farmers of debt. On bank loans and minimum support prices only the Centre decides. Experts say loan waivers encourage defaults and are bad for healthy banking operations. The Akali Dal-BJP regime and the Congress government before it have patronised arhitiyas, who charge hefty interest on farmer loans. AAP promises to stop their loot. Going by the numbers at their rallies, people do seem to trust them.

All political parties pursue politics of appeasement and offer few solutions to empower farmers. If agriculture grows at zero to three per cent, farmers can't grow beyond the subsistence level. Pouring more money into farmer subsidies makes little sense without a clear-headed, workable policy to end stagnation in agriculture. Brazil's farmers with small land-holdings got out of their miserable state by taking to vegetables in a big way. Vegetable cultivation is a labour-intensive enterprise and generates jobs at the village level. Since some 30 per cent of vegetables and fruits go waste, post-harvest produce management requires a serious rethink. AAP has stuck to the existing government-run supply system. Punjab needs super markets to reduce or eliminate waste of agricultural produce. A demand/export push by large retailers will raise farm product prices and foreign funding can help build a strong supply chain. Followed the BJP line on FDI in multi-brand retail, the Badals did not let in retail giants nor did they spend enough to improve the storage/supply system.

Since Akali politicians are well ensconced in agricultural produce marketing operations and the state earns substantial revenue from farmers' produce, the Badal government has not warmed up to the e-NAM, a system of online sale/purchase of farm produce. The Badals have not convincingly explained the RBI finding of banks losing Rs 12,000 crore on account of missing food grains. The status-quoist vested interests do not want farming to change.
Sumedha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Gurgaon, September 12

They told us that they were punishing us for eating beef. We repeatedly pleaded that we did not eat beef but they did not listen and gang-raped us, said one of the two victims gang-raped in Dingerheri village in August.

The revelation by the victims has intensified the beef controversy in the area this Eid. The victims along with a section of lawyers addressed the media wherein they not only highlighted this aspect but also went ahead accusing the police of investigating the matter without any sensitivity.

However, IG Mamta Singh, who headed the SIT that probed the case, said: They have said nothing of this sort in their statement to the police or in front of the magistrate. They can always come to the police to update their statements or accusations.

The police have been trying to defend accused from day one. That the accused tried to punish these girls for allegedly eating beef needs state intervention as it is a hate crime, said advocate Ramzan Chwodhary.
San Juan

It began with what felt like a punch in the throat.

I assumed it was irritation from the cigar I'd smoked on my deck that afternoon in mid-June. But the sensation hung on.

Within three days, I had a 102-degree Fahrenheit (38.9 degrees Celsius) fever, chills and bed-drenching night sweats.

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For two weeks, symptoms came in waves. A skin rash. Joint pain. Then a dull throbbing behind my eyes. There was pain and redness too, in a certain exclusively male region, which ibuprofen didn't relieve.

Then, I felt better. But a week later, the symptoms staged a comeback, with more eye pain and something new - small welts on my eyelids and temples. I had sporadic headaches, was so exhausted I slept 10 hours a night and even failed to wake up for a flight.

My mother was the first to suspect I was infected with the virus that arrived in Puerto Rico in December 2015, four months after I'd begun an assignment as Reuters' San Juan bureau chief.

Initially, I laughed off her internet diagnosis as the overwrought worries of a long-distance mom. But I agreed to see my long-time physician during a visit home in late June.

After listening to my symptoms and learning I'd been working in San Juan, Dr. Kevin Wallace of Murray Hill Medical Group called the New York City Health Department and arranged to have my blood sent for screening. Eight days later, I got the news.

Mom was right. I had Zika.

EVOLVING KNOWLEDGE

Hundreds of thousands of people are estimated to have been infected with Zika in the Americas since the virus was detected in Brazil early last year. Most have no symptoms or experience only a mild illness.

But it can penetrate the womb in pregnant women, causing a rare but crippling birth defect known as microcephaly. In adults, it has been linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome, a temporary paralysis. And it can be passed on through sex, a unique characteristic among mosquito-borne viruses. There is no vaccine or treatment.

Last month, the US government declared a public health emergency in Puerto Rico, the hardest hit among states and territories. More than 17,800 infections have been reported on the island, including more than 1,500 among pregnant women, and one case of microcephaly in an aborted fetus.

As a journalist and a patient, I've had access to some of the brightest minds studying Zika. But the virus has confounded experts at the highest levels and launched a global race to understand its risks.

Each month, new findings have led to changes in how the public is advised to stay safe. Compared to what we know about other diseases, such as flu and even Ebola, we are in new territory.

In my case, doctors were hard-pressed to explain why my symptoms returned about three weeks after the initial infection.

Nor could they tell me how long I could be at risk for Guillain-Barre. Another mystery: were condoms enough to protect against sexual transmission?

In the weeks since I've recovered, that is proving to be one of the toughest questions to live with.

Both men and women can infect their sexual partners. In one case, scientists identified Zika virus in semen six months after the man's symptoms appeared, though it's not clear how long it can cause new infections.

Public health officials have warned couples not to conceive for at least six months after either a man or woman returns from a Zika outbreak area, even if they show no symptoms.

My wife and I, both in our early 30s, have had to consider how dangerous my bout with Zika could be to our plans to have children some day.

Our most intimate decisions now are affected by the uncertainty surrounding Zika: how long can I infect my partner?

How likely is it that my baby would become sick if I do? Given how rapidly the expertise about Zika has evolved so far, how much faith should we put in the current thinking?

SHRUGGING IT OFF

When I took the one-year post in Puerto Rico, I figured my biggest health risk would be sunburn.

Even when Zika began circulating on the island, I didn't worry. My wife Julie, a lawyer and publishing industry pro, had decided to stay at home in Brooklyn during my assignment, and we weren't planning to have kids for at least a couple of years. So we gave Zika little more than a shoulder shrug.

I'm not sure when I was infected. I picked up more mosquito bites in San Juan than Twitter followers. I didn't always use bug spray. I worked from home, an apartment in a colonial building without window screens, and kept the deck doors open to save money on air conditioning.

Locals are used to mosquito-borne illnesses, including dengue and chikungunya. Some, more concerned about pesticides than Zika, successfully fought aerial spraying with Naled. Many also are concerned about Zika's threat to tourism, which could compound the island's vast economic challenges.

One friend grew indignant when I mentioned writing this piece. "You're a journalist," she said. "You have a responsibility not to perpetuate hysteria." When I got sick, I didn't consider going to a doctor in Puerto Rico. The economic crisis has made medical care unpredictable, and the waits are long. When I sought treatment for allergic reactions earlier in my stay, doctors refused my corporate health insurance and demanded cash.

Instead, I waited a few days to see Dr. Wallace during my visit to New York. I was his second potential Zika patient, though the first ultimately tested negative for the virus.

Eight days after my blood sample was submitted, a woman from the city health department called.

Have you heard from your doctor? she asked.

"No."

"Oh?" she said. "You haven't spoken to your doctor at all?" I broke a long pause, saying, "Feel free to let the cat out of the bag."

"Well," she said, "you tested positive for Zika." The way it is supposed to work, the results are sent to the patient's doctor in time to break the news before the city "interviewer" calls to address public health concerns. But Dr Jay Varma, deputy commissioner of the New York City Health Department, acknowledged that doesn't always happen.

MIXED REACTIONS

Some friends in Puerto Rico teased me when they learned I had Zika. Many of them had experienced chikungunya or dengue, and had stories about months of muscle pain or weeks in bed.

Friends from the states, on the other hand, showed grave concern, offering thoughts, prayers and condolences. Some kept their distance for weeks. A few questioned whether it was safe for me to be around babies.

The evidence shows Zika clears the bloodstream quickly, and the virus doesn't spread through casual interactions.

Julie and I weren't quite sure how to react. We didn't take it too seriously at first. I posted a glamour-shot selfie on Facebook with the caption: "This is the face of a man with Zika."

As the weeks passed, it became clear that Julie and I were also a little rattled - and not fully on the same page. She canceled a planned long weekend visit to Puerto Rico. She wanted to minimize her exposure to Zika and arranged instead for us to meet in Florida.

This disappointed me. I had hoped to show her my new favorite places on the island. I clung stubbornly to the view that Zika fears were largely overblown. She reminded me that, given the unknowns about Zika's impact on pregnancy, I was in no position to call the shots.

"Try to see it from a woman's perspective," she said.

We have heard a lot of different things about Zika, even from doctors, and she doesn't totally trust the idea that the virus is manageable with the current medical advice.

What if Zika poses a threat for months or years after infection? If so, could that jeopardize our future plans to start a family? What if we got pregnant before we planned to?

We've had to manage our different anxieties over the "what ifs" of Zika.

FOR SCIENCE

There's plenty the experts are still figuring out, and that has been reflected in the shifting opinions about my case.

Ingrid Rabe, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told me Zika generally lasts a few days. While she couldn't address my specific case, she speculated that a return of symptoms like mine could indicate the presence of a second virus.

A few weeks later, Dr. Varma told me it was possible, in severe cases, for symptoms to last longer or recur.

Of three acquaintances in Puerto Rico who developed Zika, all have complained, like me, of lingering health problems, in one case for longer than a month.

Two weeks into my infection, Dr. Wallace couldn't tell me whether I remained at risk for Guillain-Barre. The city health interviewer, after consulting with doctors, told me the paralyzing condition would most likely have set in within days of Zika infection, so I was probably out of the woods.

Again, the information shifted over time. The CDC's Rabe later told me it could take "a few weeks" for Guillain-Barre to appear. So far, I haven't had any symptoms consistent with Guillain-Barre, and here's hoping it stays that way.

Guidance on sex lacked precision as well. The city health interviewer recommended we "use condoms every time" for six months, reflecting CDC guidelines.

When I asked whether Zika can spread via saliva or oral sex, the city health interviewer didn't answer directly. She said it can spread via "sexual activity," and that saliva is "currently not being tested." Rabe later told me "there's been no evidence" that saliva can spread Zika.

The city health interviewer asked if I would join a CDC study gauging how long Zika can be spread through semen and urine. I'm one of 140 participants, though protocol calls for up to 250.

The study is a bit awkward. But, as a writer always looking for a good story, I could not pass it up.

Every two weeks, a study test kit arrives by FedEx in a box with dauntingly detailed instructions on how to produce and package my samples, then overnight them back to the center's Colorado lab. I also answer a somewhat blush-inducing questionnaire about my recent sexual activity.

The CDC staffer assigned to my case sends cheery emails to let me know she has received my samples and sex report, an interaction that feels slightly too intimate. But I endure it in exchange for a $50 Visa gift card for each sample, and, more importantly, for the chance to learn and to contribute to science.

The downside: I don't learn my results until the study ends in December.

By Nick Brown, Reuters
Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, September 12

Acute water shortage has hit several localities in the state capital Shimla. People are up in arms against the Shimla Municipal Corporation and the state government for the problem.

The residents allege that about a dozen localities are without water for past four days and they have been forced to fetch water from baolies(natural perennial water sources) while water was coming in trickles in several areas and at irregular hours without any intimation to residents.

The Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) has resorted to supply of water on alternate days but even this system has failed to work and people are facing great hardships. The government has already handed over the pumping to SMC following the High Court intervention. Now both the pumping and distribution are with the SMC but still the situation has not improved.

Home-maker Mala Devi, a resident of Chakkar, alleged that water comes for one hour after five days. We are planning to shift from here if the present condition persists, she said.

Another resident Amit Kumar said that he had to go to his friend house in Bemloe to take bath.

Massive leakage in pipelines of Giri water supply scheme that supplies about 15 to 20 MLD of water and a fault in power transmission lines that affected pumping for over 26 hours caused water shortage as the supply was badly affected.

The persistent water crisis in the town was reviewed at a high level meeting convened by the Mayor and Deputy Mayor and the crisis was attributed to massive leakage due to worn out pipes which do not lift water as is pumped from the source. It was revealed that the scheme with installed capacity of 20 MLD was supplying less water. Two separate pipelines of 1,000 m length are being laid to plug the leakages.

Mayor Sanjay Chauhan said, It was astonishing that the Giri supply scheme which has not even been formally inaugurated is on the verge of collapse. Already Rs 1 crore has been spent by the SMC on improving the pipelines.

The interruption in power supply for more than 26 hours also affected pumping from Giri water supply scheme but things are improving and 32 MLD of water was available today and we are making efforts to supply of water to consumers daily, said a senior official of Water Works Department.

The situation would be better in the next three-four days and about 37 MLD of water would be available for supply and the distribution system would be improved, he added.

The supply of water on alternate days in the town was encouraging the tendency to store excess water, causing scarcity. Daily water supply would check this trend and efforts for equitable water would yield results.

The SMC has also mooted 24X7 supply of water in three wards. It will be started from December under the World Bank project and in case it proves a success, other wards would also be covered.
Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, September 12

As many as 150 MBBS aspirants, who were given admission in Kumarhatti-based Maharishi Markandeshwar Medical College through the governments centralised counselling on September 3, failed to make it to the college even today.

This despite the fact that the government had served a notice to the college management to admit 150 students by today, failing which action would be taken against it. They were supposed to be admitted through the state quota.

The students accompanied by their parents failed to find any official of the college for completing the admission procedure.

Chief Secretary VC Pharka said the state government was seized of the matter and necessary directions had already been issued to the institute to admit the students. In case, the directions are not followed, they will take suitable action against the college as per the prevailing rules on Wednesday as it is a holiday tomorrow.

Since the MBBS classes will start in other medical colleges from September 14, the fate of these aspirants hangs in balance.

The college management had represented its case for the enhancement of fee for the general quota from Rs 5 lakh and for the NRI quota from Rs 9 lakh as it had completed three years and as per norms, it could seek a revision in the fee. It also demanded an increase in the seats under the NRI quota on the plea that the college was incurring losses in the prevailing fee structure.

Ritu Sethi, spokesman, BJP, while terming it a cruel joke on the MBBS aspirants, said it was

lamentable that the government had failed to safeguard the interest of the students whose future

was at stake. She said the BJP would soon initiate an agitation in support of the students if the issue was not resolved at the earliest.

Deepak Aggarwal, a parent, said it was appalling to note that the government had failed to resolve the issue before the commencement of the academic session and any further delay would cost the students dear.
Our Correspondent

KULLU, SEPTEMBER 12

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said those officials who did not adhere to the government orders had no right to remain on their posts. While addressing the gathering after inauguration and laying foundation stone of various schemes and buildings in Banjar valley of this district today he rebuked Kullu Deputy Commissioner for inaction on the government orders.

The government had issued a notification on July 25 for formation of trust of Raghunath temple located at Sultanpur region of Kullu. Maheshwar Singh, scion of the erstwhile royal family, who is also the chharibardar (chief caretaker) of Lord Raghunath temple, challenged the governments decision in the High Court on July 30. Sources stated the Chief Minister was infuriated due to the delay in the takeover of the Raghunath temple.

The Chief Minister stated that the Raghunath temple was not a private property of anyone. He said that Kullu Dasehra festival revolved around the chief deity and people had unflinching faith on Lord Raghunath. He said, We all are well wishers of royal family of Kullu but the formation of the trust was far better and in the overall interest of the people of the valley.

The Chief Minister stated that the Raghunath Temple Trust was formed in order to carry out proper audit of the temple and ensure its security and proper upkeep, adding that even Maheshwar Singh should understand the importance of formation of Trust for the Raghunath temple.

He said a Directorate of Inspection was being constituted which would conduct sudden inspections and checks in schools. He also spoke against the grading system in schools and said that now proper exams would be held right from class V onwards. He said that an amount of Rs 773 crore had been spent on various water supply schemes during the last three years. An area of 10,586 hectares has been provided irrigation facility.

He announced a sub depot of the HRTC at Banjar and shifting of PWD Division-I from Kullu to Banjar. He announced construction of Panchayat Bhawan at Banjar.

Irrigation and Public Health Minister Vidya Stokes said the state government was spending a sum of Rs 2,292 crore on drinking water supply and irrigational schemes in the state during the current fiscal.

She stated that the state government has launched World Bank-funded Himachal Pradesh Horticulture Development Project with an outlay of Rs. 1,115 crore for strengthening horticulture sector.

Ayurveda Minister Karan Singh earlier welcomed the Chief Minister on the occasion and honoured him.
Amir Karim Tantray

Tribune News Service

Doda, September 12

In the backdrop of the Kashmir unrest, which affected Doda and Kishtwar districts as well, two youths from Doda  Hassan Babar Nehru and Rehmatullah Bhat  had been booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA).

However, a dossier prepared by the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Doda against Nehru does not mention the current Kashmir unrest anywhere.

Rather, the DC has levelled charges of dividing society on communal lines, a charge which Nehrus family has refuted. Now, Nehrus family has challenged these charges in the High Court and the hearing is scheduled for October 7.

In the dossier, Doda DC Bhupinder Kumar has levelled nine charges against Nehru, including one in connection with a case registered at the Gandhi Nagar police station in Jammu in 2010, when he was studying in Jammu University. Nehru had got bail in that case from court.

The second charge levelled against him is of communalising the situation after a drum beater of Radhay Sham Yatra was beaten up on July 1 last year by a cousin of the former Minister of State for Home.

Another charge is of participating in the funeral procession of two SPO-turned-militants and raising pro-freedom slogans.

Taking out a demonstration to protest the death of a baby at the hands of a paediatrician and communalising the situation is another charge levelled against him. Supporting college students for their demands and participating in their protest is also a charge against him.

Protesting against non-implementation of decisions taken during earlier District Development Board meetings of Doda when the meeting was taking place inside the DC office, where the youth National Conference district president was accompanying Nehru, is yet another charge against him.

There are a few other charges against him on the basis of which provisions of the PSA have been slapped against him. Nehrus family refutes all these charges. They believe that his NGO Ababeel is working for the welfare of people irrespective of religion.

He never brought any communal thing into his work. Members of the Hindu community who got benefit are witness to it. All charges levelled against him seem to be politically motivated, which are aimed at keeping him away from his social work, Dr Shanaza, Nehrus wife, told The Tribune.

She believes that when an infant died at the hands of a doctor, he had protested against the doctor along with the family and the doctor was suspended for dereliction of duty.

There was no issue of communalising the situation as he supported getting another paediatrician, also a Hindu. He donated blood often, not for Muslim patients only, but for all, she added.

Dr Shanaza alleged that Nehru used to expose administrative failure in the district and this could be one of the reasons for the DC having some personal grudges against him.
Arteev Sharma & DK Sudan

Tribune News Service

Jammu/Poonch, September 11

A policeman and three militants were killed in an 11-hour-long fierce gunbattle near the 93 Brigade Headquarters in Poonch this morning even as the security forces repelled three infiltration attempts in North Kashmir.

Four heavily-armed militants sneaked into Tut-Mari-Gali in Nowgam sector, Kupwara. They were killed in an encounter. Also, infiltration bids were foiled in Tangdhar and Gurez sectors and the intruders were pushed back.

The attack in Poonch took place at 7.10 am after Constable Rajinder Kumar of the Jammu and Kashmir CID wing, acting on a tip-off, approached a house in an isolated area. He was shot by militants taking refuge there. Sub-Inspector Manzoor Hussain rushed to Kumars help but was injured.

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The operation, which was conducted with the assistance of the Army and the CRPF, is over but we will have to wait till the morning to sanitise the area, said Jhonny William, DIG, Rajouri-Poonch. He said the militants were in Army uniform.

Official sources said an Army convoy was to pass through the area at 7.25 am. But the militants were forced to open fire on Constable Rajinder Kumar, who was killed in the initial exchange of fire. This alerted the security agencies.

After killing the Constable, two militants fled into an under-construction three-storeyed mini-secretariat building located at the rear of Poonch SPs office. The Army and the police requisitioned the help of the elite Para commandos to neutralise the holed-up militants.

Sources said the house where the militants had taken shelter belonged to a relative of Congress MLC Jehangir Mir, who is also Deputy Chairman of the J&K Legislative Council. The owner, Haji Nazir, and his wife were inside and were rescued by the security personnel. Their domestic help received a bullet injury.
Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 12

In an unprecedented move, the J&K government has decided to impose curfew across Kashmir Valley on Eid-ul-Azha being celebrated on Tuesday. The government will also press into service unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as drones, for aerial surveillance to ensure peace.

This was decided at a high-level meeting attended by top police, civil, Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) and intelligence officials in Srinagar.

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The J&K government is fearing large-scale violence as Kashmiri separatist leaders have called for a march to the United Nations Military Observers Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) on Tuesday.

At the meeting, it was decided to impose curfew across the Valley to prevent loss of life and property.

It was also decided to put all places under aerial surveillance by pressing UAVs/drones into service to keep a tab on the activities of miscreants and subversive elements. It was also decided to press chopper fitted with high-tech gadgets into service to keep surveillance all over the valley, a senior official said.

Moreover, the already placed high resolution video cameras at vantage positions will keep eye on the streets, market throughout Srinagar city and other major towns of the Valley for real-time monitoring of the situation, the official said.

The government said these measures have been taken to stop mass gathering which may lead to large-scale violence in the wake of the separatists call to march to UNMOGIP.
Vikram Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, September 12

Amidst the ongoing unrest in the Kashmir valley, the Eid celebrations in Jammu are all likely to be a low-key affair this time.

With 78 protesters having been killed in the Valley and thousands injured, including security personnel, the Jammu Muslim community said the bloodshed had cast a shadow on the festival hence they would not observe Eid, that falls on Tuesday, with the usual pomp and show.

Islam is for peace. On Eid, all Muslims pray to Allah, seeking peace, prosperity and happiness. Kashmir has been on the boil for now more than two months where youths have been killed on streets which is very unfortunate, said Saqlain Imtiyaz, a boutique owner at Dalpatian Mohalla.

Similarly, the butcher shops, which used to do a brisk business a week ahead of Eid in Jammu, have reported a huge dip in the sale of sacrificial animals.

Every year, before the celebrations, we used to get bulk orders from people. We eagerly wait for such occasions as our profit swells. This year even we are not upbeat about Eid as the state has been on the edge for the past more than two months now, said Razzak Mohammad, a wholesale meat seller at Janipur.

Even those people who used to celebrate the occasion on a large-scale by inviting the entire village for the sumptuous feasts on Eid have decided to keep it a low-key affair.

I saved for an extravagant feast on the occasion. Normally, the whole village participate and exchange greetings during festivities. On earlier occasions, many Hindu friends too attended the feast which presented a unique example of brotherhood and communal harmony. The disturbance in Kashmir does not allow my conscience to hold festivities this year, said Hassan Din, a milk vendor from Kot Bhalwal.

Jammu Muslim Front president Imran Qazi said this year Eid would be a festivity-cum-prayer for peace and prosperity in the state.

Rather than celebrations, we will observe Eid as a pious event with prayers for return of peace and normalcy in the state. Jammu holds a distinct character of brotherhood among all religions. Be it Eid, Diwali, Christmas or Gurpurb, we all, irrespective of caste, creed or religion unite in celebrations. Besides, our state is also has a great unity in diversity. We hope this Eid brings peace, said Qazi.
Rifat Mohidin

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 12

On the evening of July 9, Saniya, 23, and her cousins at her home in Rawalpora, Srinagar, were planning to go on a picnic the next day as it was the third day of Eid-ul-Fitr.

All cousins and family members had gathered to celebrate Eid with their families in Kashmir. Little did they know how the situation was to unfold. It has been nine weeks since Saniya has been confined to her home as killings and protests continue in the Valley.

We were sitting in a room and there was a news flash that Burhan Wani had been killed. What followed were protests and slogans from mosques. Suddenly, everyone was on roads. People forgot celebrations and festivities. Since then, every day has been same, says Saniya, an Islamic studies student.

It is just a day to go for another important festival, Eid-ul-Azha, but markets are deserted. At some places, people are observing civilian curfew. No one wants to celebrate. There is no festivity. For many people, the two festivals of Eid connects this unrest.

We celebrated two days of Eid in July. Then, everything suddenly changed. We did not have an idea that it would take so long. Now, we do not want a sudden end to it. We want normalcy, but with a permanent resolution, says Bashir Ahmad of Mahraja Bazar.

Since July 9, there has been no let-up in protests, particularly in south Kashmir. The government has deployed additional forces in all sensitive areas, but people still come out in large numbers to protest.

The people who have been caged in their homes due to restrictions have no joy for the upcoming festive day. They expect Eid to be no better than all days in the last nine weeks.

I am sure that there will be curfew. It will be no different. These days will be remembered as the period between two important occasions, the two Eids, says Fardeea Begum of Srinagar.
Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 12

For the first time since militancy erupted in Kashmir, the state government has decided to impose curfew across the Kashmir valley on Eid-ul-Azha tomorrow. The Army will be deployed at sensitive points across the Valley.

The government will also press into service unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as a drones, for aerial surveillance to ensure peace. This was decided at a high-level meeting attended by top police, civil, Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) and intelligence officials in Srinagar.

It was also decided to put all places under aerial surveillance by pressing UAVs into service to keep tabs on the activities of miscreants. It was also decided to press choppers fitted with high-tech gadgets into service to maintain surveillance all over the Valley, a senior official said.

The high-resolution video cameras already placed at vantage positions will monitor streets and markets in Srinagar city and other major towns of the Valley for real-time monitoring of the situation, the official said.

Meanwhile, tension mounted in Kashmir a day ahead of Eid-ul-Azha as protests continued for the 66th consecutive day. Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Baseer Ahmad Khan said the restrictions had been necessitated in view of the strike and protest call given by the separatists on Eid-ul-Azha.

Kashmiri separatists have called for a march to United Nations Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan office on Tuesday.

Amid the mounting tension and fear of violence, the J&K Government also suspended internet services and mobile telephony from Monday evening. Only postpaid mobile phones of BSNL are working, but the outgoing call facility on all pre-paid phones remains suspended.

Meanwhile, a policeman was injured as militants opened fire in north Kashmirs Sopore. The police said militants opened fire from within the crowd when they were dealing with protests. One of our men was hit by a bullet fired from the mob by the militants. We did not retaliate, said Superintendent of Police, Sopore, Harmeet Singh.

Restrictions remained imposed in Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama towns of south Kashmir while there were reports of 50 persons getting injured in clashes in many parts of the Valley. Normal life remained affected for the 66th consecutive day on Monday.

In Srinagars volatile old city a large posse of police and CRPF men remained deployed to ensure peace. Inspector General of the CRPF Atul Karwal said all measures were in place to ensure a peaceful Eid.

We are hopeful that day will pass peacefully, Karwal told the Tribune.

While there are apprehensions of large-scale protests on Eid, this is for the first time that government is imposing strict curbs to prevent Eid congregations in the Valley. The mood in the Valley is sombre as shops in Srinagar and other major towns and villages of the Valley are mostly shut. Unlike the past, there are no queues outside bakery and sweet shops even when shops open in the evening during the relaxation period given by separatists.
Arteev Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, September 12

Another militant was killed by security forces in the ongoing gunfight at the mini-secretariat building near the 93 Brigade Headquarters at Allah Pir Mohalla in Poonch town.

With this the number of militants killed in the operation that started on Sunday morning has risen to four.

#WATCH Exchange of fire b/w security forces&terrorists underway in Poonch,J&K (Visuals deferred by unspecified time) pic.twitter.com/JjZpAyJW6F  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

The operation is still in progress. We have retrieved the body of another terrorist from the old house. On Sunday, the body of a terrorist was recovered from the same house. Two terrorists were killed in the mini-secretariat building. There is possibility that another terrorist might be holed up inside the building. Our Special Operation Group (SOG) personnel, along with army jawans, have moved closer to the building to end the operation, Jhonny William, DIG, Rajouri-Poonch Police Range told The Tribune.

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He said Director General of Police K Rajendra Kumar is personally supervising the operation as he rushed to Poonch town on Monday morning. The DGP also visited the family of slain policeman Rajinder Kumar who was killed in the gun fight on Sunday.

The building and adjacent areas were cordoned off and the holed-up terrorists, if any, have no way to escape, the police officer said.

The police said the gun fight erupted again at the under-construction mini-secretariat building around 6.30 am after the remaining militants, one or two in number, opened fire on the security personnel who were sanitising the area.

The police said while carrying out room-to-room searches in the old house, security forces found the body of a militant, taking the toll of killed militants since Sunday to four. However, only two bodies have been recovered so far.

On Sunday, a policeman was killed while five otherstwo police officials, a civilian and two soldierswere injured. The army has been using a drone to ascertain the exact location of militants to pin them down inside the building.
New Delhi, September 12

The Delhi government on Monday decided to "relax" its rules and grant admission in its school to Madhu, a Pakistani migrant girl, who has been struggling to secure admission due to lack of required documents.

The decision comes after Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj took note of the reports of Madhu's struggle to secure admission and raised the issue with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

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According to 16-year-old Madhu, she had come to India with her mother, siblings, her uncle and cousins two years ago after they fled religious persecution in Pakistan's Punjab province.

A co-educational senior secondary school in Sanjay Colony refused to enrol her in ninth standard as she did not have the necessary documents required to complete the formalities. The migrant girl also wrote to Kejriwal seeking intervention.

Approving the request for her admission, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said, "Due to peculiar circumstances, the girl is not in possession of any school leaving certificate or date of birth certificate. She wants to study and on humanitarian grounds it is my considered opinion that we need to walk extra mile to accommodate her.

"To accommodate Madhu's request, the government can consider relaxing whatever rules and regulations, if they come in way of her joining our school," Sisodia, who is also the education minister, said in an official order.

"Accordingly, admission to Madhu may immediately be provided at any of our government schools located in Sanjay Colony, Bhati Mines, Fatehpur Beri, New Delhi. She would also be given necessary books and uniform and we may facilitate whatever is required for the girl to study in our school," the order further added.  PTI
Lucknow, September 12

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today sacked state Mining Minister Gayatri Prajapati and Panchayati Raj Minister Rajkishore Singh who were facing allegations of corruption.

Yadav was said to be unhappy with Prajapati who was mired in controversy over allegations of promoting illegal mining, while allegations of land grabbing and corruption had been levelled against Singh.

Read: (BJP attacks Akhilesh for keeping silence on tainted ministers for 2 years)

The action comes close on the heels of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav sounding a warning to party leaders, saying that action needed to be taken against those involved in land grabbing and other corrupt activities if the party wanted to return to power in the 2017 Assembly elections.

The Chief Minister has sacked Gayatri Prajapati and Rajkishore Singh. A letter in this regard has been received by the Raj Bhawan, a senior official told PTI.

Prajapati's sacking comes days after the high court rejected the SP government's plea to withdraw an order for a CBI probe into alleged illegal mining in the state.

The opposition, however, alleged that the sacking of the ministers was just an eyewash.

Taking a grim view of illegal mining in Uttar Pradesh, the Allahabad High Court on July 28 directed the CBI to investigate the matter across the state, including the role of government officials in facilitating the same, and submit a report within six weeks.

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The high court on September 9 rejected an application by the state government for withdrawal of its order.

"Illegal mining is rampant in the state and it is an open secret that he was promoting it. Now when the HC has taken serious view of the matter and ordered CBI probe, the chief ministers decision is mere an eyewash. It will not help as people know the reality," Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi said.

BJP state general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak said it was good that the chief minister has taken the decision to sack the ministers.

"Our party has been raising the matter of illegal mining in the state. The decision should have been taken earlier," Pathak said.

Prajapati began as Minister of State for Irrigation in February 2013 and was moved to the lucrative berth of mining, directly under Yadav who handled that portfolio.

In July 2013, Yadav elevated Prajapati to MoS (Independent Charge) and in January 2014, he was made a cabinet minister. PTI
Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, September 12

Distancing himself from the two Cabinet ministers facing corruption charges, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today dismissed Mining Minister Gayatri Prajapati and Panchayti Raj Minister Raj Kishore Singh. The CMs office had dispatched formal letters of dismissal to the Raj Bhawan, confirmed a senior official said.

Illegal mining in Uttar Pradesh is reportedly to the tune of Rs 4,000 crore per month. Prajapati is reportedly close to SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav as well as his younger son, Prateek Yadav. An MLA from Amethi, Prajapati had been given a clean chit by the Lokayukt some time back. Strangely, while corruption charges against him were being probed he was promoted.

His dismissal comes days after the Allahabad High Court rejected the Uttar Pradesh governments plea to withdraw an order for a CBI probe into allegations of illegal mining. Taking a serious view of a large-scale illegal mining in UP, the High Court on July 28 had ordered a CBI probe and asked it submit a report in six weeks.

The Opposition has alleged that the sacking of the ministers was just an eyewash to save the skin of the bigger fishes in the mining scam.

The suspension of IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal in 2013 had created a national indignation as she had reportedly paid the price for trying to stop illegal mining in Greater Noida.

Allegations of corruption and land grabbing by the other dismissed minister Raj Kishore Singhs kin had reached the Chief Minister, resulting in his ouster. Representing Haraiya in Basti district, Singh is alleged to have demanded money from the Zila Panchayat members in his constituency.
New Delhi, September 12

Arunachal Pradesh Governor Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa was dismissed from his position on Monday, a few days after he refused to quit despite gentle nudges from the central government.

The development comes after the central had asked him to quit over Supreme Courts strictures against him over the political crisis in Arunachal Pradesh.

Rajkhowa "shall cease to hold the office of the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh", said a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique.

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President Pranab Mukherjee has asked Meghalaya Governor V Shanmuganathan to hold the position temporarily.

Appointed Governor of Arunachal Pradesh on May 12 last year, Rajkhowa is the first NDA-appointed gubernatorial to be dismissed after the central government told the President that he no longer had its confidence.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh called on the President last week and conveyed to him that Rajkhowa's continuance in the post has become untenable after the Supreme Court's observations against him over dismissal of the Congress government in the state.

The Home Minister's meeting with the President came after Rajkhowa refused to step down despite being asked to resign after the Supreme Court passed strictures against him over the dismissal of the Congress government last year.

A defiant Rajkhowa claimed he would rather be dismissed than resign.

"I want the President to dismiss me. I will not resign. Let the President express his displeasure. Let the government use provisions of Article 156 of the Constitution," the Governor had told a Guwahati-based TV news channel last Monday.

Rajkhowa claimed he had been asked to resign "on health grounds" weeks after the Supreme Court had restored the Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh and censured him.

Rajkhowa, a 1968 batch IAS officer, had retired as Chief Secretary of Assam before his appointment as Governor.  PTI
Bengaluru/Chennai, Sept 12

One person was killed and another injured in police firing in Karnataka as the Cauvery water sharing row with Tamil Nadu turned violent today, escalating tensions between the two states.

Widespread violence erupted today in Bangaluru and some other parts of Karnataka, while sporadic trouble was witnessed in Tamil Nadu following SC's modified order on sharing water by the two states.

The police opened fire when a mob tried to attack a patrol vehicle at Hegganahalli in Rajagopal Nagar police limits as violence flared up in Bengaluru city with rampaging mobs setting fire to buses and trucks with Tamil Nadu registration plates. Two were brought with bullet injuries. One with bullet injury near the heart has died. The other is being operated for injury on right thigh, said Dr Giridhar, Managing Director of Lakshmi Multi-Speciality Hospital.

Violence and arson flared up in Bengaluru, with rampaging mobs setting afire at least 30 vehicles bearing Tamil Nadu number plates.

As violence broke out sending a wave of panic across Bengaluru, the city was brought under prohibitory orders till September 14.

A prominent transport company depot in the city bore the brunt with at least 40 buses going up in flames. Managing Director of Salem headquartered KPN Tours and Travels Limited Rajesh Natarajan claimed in Chennai 40 of his buses were set on fire.

Incidents of arson came even as police said they have made elaborate security arrangements with 15,000 policemen being deployed, bolstered by Karnataka State Reserve Police, City Armed Reserve Police, Rapid Action Force, Quick Reaction Teams, special forces, Central Industrial Security Force and Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force.

In view of the deteriorating situation, the Centre rushed 10 companies (about 1,000 personnel) of the special anti-riot paramilitary force RAF to Karnataka.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh called up the CMs of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu tonight and assured them all central assistance in handling the situation.

Parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry too saw protests by fringe outfits, with some commercial and government establishments of Karnataka coming under attack, in retaliation to incidents in Karnataka.  PTI
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 12

The Union Cabinet today approved the inking of an extradition treaty between India and Afghanistan.

The treaty will provide a legal framework for seeking extradition of terrorists, economic offenders and other criminals from and to Afghanistan.

The Cabinet approval comes ahead of Afghan President Ashraf Ghanis two-day visit to India starting September 14. The highlight of Ghanis brief visit here will be defence and sources indicate that the Afghan President is going to present a wish list to India with the expectation that India would be willing to step up military assistance to Afghanistan.

In May 2013, then Afghan President Hamid Karzai had presented India with a list of arms and equipment that his country desired from India. India then had been wary of stepping up military assistance to the Afghan forces. The list now has been revised and the sources indicate that Afghanistan will ask for more Mi-25 and Mi-35 attack helicopters.

Afghanistan is also expected to ask for tanks, artillery and ammunition, as well as training for more Afghan forces. In addition to the 1,000 Afghan officers that India trains every year, the figure is likely to go up with India now set to train the Afghan Special Forces.

The US has already agreed to supply Afghanistan with light McDonnell Douglas MD 530 helicopters, which can be fitted with weapons, but the Afghan officers prefer the bigger, sturdier Russian machines. That is also where Indias role becomes crucial because India can provide spare parts for many of the Russian weapons.

It is important to note two factors here that have added to this engagement. One, Afghan President Ghani, who initially reached out to Pakistan with the hope that it would help in bringing the Taliban to the talking table, now realises this is not going to happen. Hence, he has moved away from Pakistan to India. Two: the US has now publicly come out and stated that India should provide military equipment to Afghanistan.
New Delhi, September 12

Details of the multi-billion euro contract for 36 Rafale fighter aircraft have been finalised and the government is now working on the inter-governmental agreement (IGA) with France.

Sources said the cost, offsets and service details have been finalised and now the effort is to firm up IGA as envisaged in a pact signed in January when French President Francois Hollande was in Delhi.

The work on the inter-governmental agreement with France has started and would be finalised soon, a source said.

Sources said the text and language of the agreement is being fine-tuned. The deal is in final stage, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told reporters when asked if it has been cleared by the government. Last month, a report submitted by the team negotiating the deal with France was cleared by the Defence Ministry. The file was then sent to the PMO for review and clearance.  PTI
Seema Kaul

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 12

In a bid to boost innovation and build research-oriented infrastructure at premier institutions such as IITs and IIMs, an agency will soon be set up with government equity of Rs1,000 crore.

The HRD Ministrys proposal to this effect was today approved by the Union Cabinet, which also cleared the third phase of Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP) to enhance teaching-learning experience at educational institutions.

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said a Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) would be jointly promoted by an identified promoter and his ministry.

The HEFA would be formed as a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) with a PSU bank or a government-owned NBFC as promoter. It would also mobilise Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds from PSUs and corporates, which would be released to promote research and innovation in these institutions on grant basis. The HRD Higher Education Secretary has been appointed as the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the SPV. HEFA will be run by the public sector bank within which it will be created. A decision in this regard will be taken within a month.

All centrally funded higher education institutes are eligible to be HEFA members provided they agree to escrow a specific amount from their internal accruals to HEFA for 10 years. These secured funds from institutions will be used by HEFA to mobilise funds from the market. Each member institution is eligible for a credit limit to be decided by HEFA.

The HEFA will finance civil and lab infrastructure projects. The principal portion of the loan will be repaid through internal accruals (earned by institutes through fee receipts, research earnings etc).

One third of the funds will be reserved for research infrastructure such as libraries and laboratories. There will be no increase in fee in any institute because of HEFA, Javadekar said.

The government announced Rs2,660 crore outlay for the third phase of TEQIP that involves equal contribution from Centre (Rs1,330 crore) and World Bank (Rs1,330 crore).

The focus states for TEQIP are Himachal, J&K, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, MP, UP, Rajasthan and eight Northeastern states and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The project will be implemented with the facility of direct funds transfer to the accounts of beneficiary institutes. It will be initiated in the current year and will be co-terminus with Fourteenth Finance Commission (2019-20).
Pratapgarh (UP), September 12

An FIR was lodged against 158 people for allegedly misbehaving with Union Minister and Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel during a roadshow here.

An FIR was registered against local leader Vinod Dubey and over 157 others last night for allegedly misbehaving with Patel and Apna Dal workers during their partys roadshow, a senior police official said.

The FIR has been lodged at Raniganj police station.

The incident had occurred on Sunday afternoon when Apna Dal workers were attending a roadshow with the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare and party MLA RK Verma.

Police said the procession came face to face with the supporters of Dubey, who is planning to contest the state Assembly polls as an Independent candidate, leading to an argument.

The Union minister had said the incident was a conspiracy to disturb her partys procession.

I think it was a conspiracy (of ruling SP). I was not provided with security and even after complaining, the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police did not reach the spot immediately, she had said.

She said if such was the response of the law enforcement agencies to a request by the minister, then one could easily understand the plight of common people regarding law and order matters.

Alleging misbehaviour with their leaders, Apna Dal workers had blocked traffic on Raebareli-Varanasi highway and later, when the Union Minister left, they sat on a dharna.  PTI
Panaji, September 12

Backing rebel RSS leader Subhash Velingkar for leading a black-flag protest during BJP national president Amit Shahs visit to Goa in August, newly appointed state RSS chief Lakshman Behare said that Shah should have met the protesters and tried to understood the issue first hand.

Behare also gave a clean chit to Velingkar, who has started a rebel RSS state unit, saying the now former Goa sangha chalak had given 100 per cent to the Sanghs cause in Goa and that his agitation against the BJP-led coalition government in Goa, in partnership with a regional languages forum, was justified.

They were showing black flags only to highlight the problems in Goa. Amit Shah should have met them and tried to understand their issues. But instead he chose not to meet them. That was not right, Behare told IANS on Sunday in a telephonic interview. He also said that Shahs inability to meet protesters, including Velingkar, could have deepened the rift in the Goa RSS and BJP ranks.

Behare has been associated with the RSS in Goa for over 47 years and has been in-charge of several responsibilities allotted to him by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

He was appointed as the Goa regions sangh chalak on Saturday, after the unceremonious sacking of Subhash Velingkar, days after he showed black flags to Amit Shah during his visit to Goa in August.

Velingkar has over the last few months, accused the Goa BJP and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, accusing both of allegedly cheating voters over the issue of medium of instruction in Goas primary schools, also blaming the latter for his sacking.

After his removal, Velingkar has formed a rebel unit of the RSS in Goa.

Behare said that the Velingkar-led agitation against the Goa BJP government was valid and said that the ex sangha chalak had been asked to step aside as Goa chief, only to ensure that he could focus better on the medium of instruction agitation.

The newly appointed RSS Goa chief also said that another reason why Velingkar was asked to relinquish the charge, was a possibility that his movement could go political in nature.

According to Sangh system, office bearers cannot work in the political sphere. Subhash Velingkar cannot accept both responsibilities, that of being a sangha chalak and participate in politics. Therefore, he has been relieved of responsibilities in order to allow him to dedicate himself for BBSM (Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch) work, Behare said, adding that while the agitation for education in the mother tongue in primary schools was justified, his original RSS faction would not participate in it.

BBSMs work has support of the Sangh, but the issue cannot be resolved by agitations and joining politics. We can find a solution at our daily shakhas and by training of our cadre, this is what we think. He (Velingkar) is also our swayamsevak. Only difference is, he wants to be part of the agitation. We cannot stop him, he said.

But we believe that all Sangh swayamsevaks are one. We also share the BBSMs belief that education should happen with mother tongue. We support it. Do away with of English medium. In the world over, it is accepted that primary education should be in mother tongue, for better future education. Goa governments grants to primary school is not right. Government spends money from peoples taxes. People want education in mother tongue, he also said.

Behare also said that he would reach out to Velingkars rebel faction and added that his predecessor had made big sacrifices for building the RSS in Goa.

He has made great sacrifices and his contribution is 100 per cent as far as RSS work in Goa goes. He thinks about the Sangh 24x7, he said, adding that he did feel saddened by his removal as sangh chalak.

I felt hurt, but the (RSS) structure has to be put in place. He is not against us, he cannot be. I have spoken to Velingkar, he said.IANS
Ranchi, September 12

Security forces have gunned down a top Maoist commander, carrying a reward of Rs 25 lakh, in an encounter in Jharkhands Gumla.

Officials said a joint squad of the CRPF and state police killed Ashish Yadav, a member of the Bihar-Jharkhand Special Area Committee (BJ-SAC), in the jungles of Boradih forests of the district on Sunday after a gunbattle.

They said Yadav had a reward of Rs 25 lakh on his head and was instrumental in launching many Naxal attacks on security forces in the two states.

An INSAS rifle, an SLR and another high-calibre rifle have been seized after the operation.  PTI
Bengaluru/Chennai, September 12

Protests escalated in Karnataka on Monday after the Supreme Court modified its order to direct it to release 12,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu until September 16.

As tensions rose between the two states, protests were reported in Bengaluru, Mandya, Mysuru, Chitradurga and Dharwad. Incidents of stone throwing were reported in Bengaluru, where schools closed early to avoid trouble.

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More than 30 buses belonging to a private operator from Tamil Nadu was set alight at Bengalurus KPN depot.

Rajesh Natarajan, Managing Director of KPN Tours and Travels Limited  a company that has its headquarters in Tamil Nadus Salem  claimed the number was 40.

#WATCH: More than 20 buses set on fire by protesters in #Bengaluru's KPN bus depot #CauveryProtests pic.twitter.com/akqL7MDghr  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Bengalurus metro services were halted for 20 minutes after the order. The state bus transport corporation has temporarily suspended bus services from Bengaluru to Tamil Nadu.

After fresh protests, we have completely shut down Metro services till further orders, BMRCLs Vasant Rao said.

News channels showed protesters pulling Tamil Nadu registered trucks and motorcycles to the side, pelting them with stones and sticks and even setting some vehicles aflame in Bengaluru. Similar incidents were reported in Bengaluru, Mandya, Mysuru, Chitradurga and Dharwad districts as Kannada activists gave vent to their anger over reported attacks on state vehicles and property of Kannadigas in the neighbouring state.

At least one truck driver was beaten with a stick. The protesters let Karnataka-registered vehicles through the makeshift roadblock.

A Chennai-based mobile shop and two hotels were attacked in Bengaluru, city police said.

"Rapid Action Force Teams have been deployed all over the city," city police said on Twitter on Monday. Director General of Police Om Prakash said the situation was "tense, but under control".

Police said that more than 15,000 officers had been deployed to keep the peace, including riot police and border security forces. They denied media reports that forces had imposed prohibitory orders on crowds gathering in public places.

Karnataka State Reserve Police, City Armed Reserve Police, Rapid Action Force, Quick Reaction Teams, special forces, Central Industrial Security Force and Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force and 3000 home guards were deployed across the city.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has called a cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning to discuss the court's order.

The central government promised assistance to Karnataka government as protests escalated.

Bengaluru is home to top Indian IT companies such as Infosys Ltd, Wipro Ltd and Mphasis as well has offices of several multinational companies like Samsung Electronics.

Farmers in the state will suffer this year," former prime minister HD Devegowda said.

'Injustice'



Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara said the government did not foresee the sscale of protests.

"We expected that if the decision goes against us, there would be some protest, but definitely not to this extent. This is all hit-and-run kind of thing where 20-30 people join together to protest where police are not there, then they suddenly run away, he said, adding that 200 people were detained. Our appeal is if you are protesting, please protest peacefully. We know that injustice has been done to Karnataka".

Also read: SC modifies order, asks Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery water

Tamil Nadu 'responds'

Protests were also reported from Tamil Nadu, where a hotel owned by Kannadigas was attacked by a group of Tamil protesters in Chennai in the small hours of Monday. Protesters gathered outside the Mylapore hotel and threw rods and logs at the hotels windows. No injuries were reported in the incident.

Four people of an outfit called the Thanthai Periyar Dravida Kazhagam were arrested over the incident.



Police have secured all branches of the Karnataka Bank after it was attacked by incensed mobs.

Protests were also reported in Puducherry, where 25 people have been detained, as well as others parts of the state.

The protests came a day after a video showing a 22-year-old Tamil man being beaten up by a group of men in Bengaluru for "derogatory" remarks on social media against Kannada film actors went viral.

Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have been locked in a bitter dispute over waters of the Cauvery for decades. The dispute turned violent in 1991, when an interim court order telling Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu sparked riots against Tamils in Bengaluru, leaving more than 18 people dead.

On September 5, the Supreme Court ordered Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of water to its neighbour for agriculture. The order sparked protests in several parts of the state, prompting the state government to ask the country's highest court to modify it.  Agencies
Amaninder Pal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 12

After 54 years, Punjab has finally clinched a Rs 8.5 crore deal to purchase three aircraft for three flying clubs in the state.

One club is lying defunct and two are currently running their operations using aircraft taken on lease from flying clubs located outside the state.

It was away back in 1962 when the then state government of joint Punjab had purchased aircraft for flying clubs.

The Partap Singh Kairon-led state government had then purchased Pushpak aircraft to train commercial pilots in the states flying clubs.

As of now, the flying clubs are paying a heavy amount as annual lease money to a Delhi-based flying club from where they have taken these aircraft on lease.

Sources said the state government-managed Punjab State Civil Aviation Council has already made the payment of Rs 4.5 crore to purchase two Cessna 172S aircraft from the US.

Besides, the council has also finalised the purchase of one twin-engine Technam P2006 T aircraft from Italy, which will cost around Rs 3.5-3.75 crore. Some part of the payment has already been made.

APS Virk, Special Secretary, Department of Civil Aviation, told The Tribune, Two Cessna aircraft are almost ready. Our Chief Flying Instructor has reached the US to conduct their inspection. They are likely to be flown to Punjab by professional pilots in the first week of October.

The Italian firm has started manufacturing Technam P2006 T on our order. This aircraft will land here in the next 2-3 months, said Virk, who is also Chief Executive Officer of the council, which was constituted by the state government last year to revive the states flying clubs and aviation engineering college at Patiala.

Purchased with the financial aid provided by the state government in March last year, all the three new aircraft are meant to train commercial pilots at flying clubs in Amritsar, Patiala and Ludhiana.
Kulwinder Sandhu

Tribune News Service

Moga, September 12

Activists of the Akali Dal allegedly attacked AAP volunteers and injured three of them late last night. The incident took place when the workers returned home after attending the party rally at Baghapurana.

Gobind Singh and Balwinder Singh, both residents of Alamwala village, were injured. They were admitted to the district hospital here. Gobind Singhs son Shankar also sustained minor injuries.

The police have registered a case against Akali councillor Satnam Singh and his associates Bittu Singh, Chinda Singh, Manpreet Singh, Jagga Singh, all residents of Baghapurana, and 15 unidentified persons.

Balwinder Singh told the police that the Akalis also fired shots in the air and damaged two vehicles parked outside their dairy. They told us that they wanted to teach us a lesson for pasting Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwals posters in the town, he added.

Kejriwal released the partys manifesto for the farmers at a rally at Baghapurana yesterday. The local Akali leaders are agitated over the huge gathering at AAP rally yesterday. They attacked the party volunteers in desperation, alleged Sadhu Singh AAP MP from Faridkot, who visited the hospital to meet the injured workers. He demanded the immediate arrest of the accused.

Former MP Jagmeet Singh Brar and former MLA Vijay Sathi, who recently joined hands with Kejriwal, also condemned the attack.
Sanjeev Singh Bariana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 12

Ruckus marred the Question Hour today as the Bains brothers  Independent MLAs Simarjit Singh Bains and Balwinder Singh Bains  and the Congress took turns to hold the House to ransom. They also raised anti-Speaker and anti-government slogans.

At the beginning of the session, the Bains brothers questioned the Speaker why the House did not accept their Bill seeking pending arrears worth nearly Rs 15,34,400 crore from the Rajasthan government for using the state waters for over five decades.

The brothers accompanied by their newly-launched outfit Awaaz-e-Punjabs founder member Pargat Singh stepped into the well and squatted there. Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal told them: I have rejected it (the Bill) and it cannot be tabled according to the Assembly rules.

The MLA brothers accused Atwal of being sarkari Speaker and showed a newspaper clip alleging the Speakers biased conduct.

The Congress then took up the issue of mid-day meal workers being paid only Rs 33 per day, the lowest in the country. The issue was in fact raised by Chatin Singh Samoan, an Akali MLA, who asked whether the government had any plans to increase the wages.

The Congress leaders stormed the well of the House twice. Tarlochan Singh, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot and Kuljit Nagra led the Congress brigade.

Not satisfied with Health Minister Surjit Kumar Jyanis answer that the government was spending Rs 43 crore to upgrade facilities in government hospitals, Congress MLA Sundar Sham Arora said a survey showed that most hospitals did not have doctors, pharmacists and technicians.

Former CLP leader Sunil Jakhar pointed out that the government had given nothing to the farmers out of Rs 717 crore that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had sought from the Centre for damage to crops. Ferozepur MLA Parmider Pinki then pointed out that the areas that faced crop failure due to rain had not been uniformly compensated.

Pargat Singh chose to occupy a chair along with the Bains brothers and an objection in this regard was raised by Daljit Singh Cheema.
New York, September 11

A Sikh subway driver who saved countless lives by reversing a train headed for ground zero on 9/11 and a decorated Sikh-American army veteran are among the several men and women from the community profiled in an art exhibition to showcase their perseverance in the face of backlash against them after the terror attack.

As the US commemorates the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks today, the photography exhibition Sikh Project will run from September 17-25 here to highlight the aesthetics of the Sikh articles of faith, including the turban and beard.

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The exhibition is a collaboration between civil rights group The Sikh Coalition and acclaimed British photographers Amit and Naroop.

Featuring nearly 40 powerful portraits of Sikh-Americans of various ages, the exhibition will tell the story of the triumphs and perseverance of the community that has overcome great challenges in the 15 years since the attacks in 2001.

Among those featured in the exhibition is Sat Hari Singh, a New York City train operator who saved countless lives on the fateful day of 9/11 when he reversed the train headed for ground zero, sending it in the opposite direction.

It also features renowned Sikh-American designer and actor Waris Ahluwalia, who was not allowed to board a plane from Mexico City in February this year because of his turban.

Also profiled in the exhibition is Ishprit Kaur, a nursing student in Connecticut, and Major Kamaljeet Singh Kalsi, a Bronze Star Medal recipient and the first Sikh American to be granted a religious accommodation to serve in the US military since the ban on Sikhs in the 1980s.

Amit and Naroop, in an email response, said through the exhibition they want to break the ignorant stereotypes made in the US that all Sikhs look like terrorists.

The duo added that the exhibition wants to enlighten people about the Sikh faith and encourage them to embrace their identity with pride, celebrating diversity.

While there are an estimated 500,000 Sikh-Americans in the US, who have been an integral part of the American fabric for generations, the first post-9/11 fatal hate crime victim was a Sikh.  PTI
GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 12

A mural is being built at the upcoming Punjab State War Heroes Memorial-cum-Museum here to commemorate the Battle of Saragarhi, the 119th anniversary of which fell today. The names of the 21 Sikh martyrs would be engraved on the mural.

Brig JS Arora (retd), Director, Defence Services Welfare, said the memorial, being built at a cost of Rs 150 crore along the Amritsar-Attari road, was expected to be inaugurated on October 23.

A MiG-23 and a model of the decommissioned aircraft carrier ship, INS Vikrant, are the latest additions to the museum.

Three tanks have also been displayed  a Sherman Pakistan tank which was captured in 1965 by Indias 7th Light Cavalry; a Pakistani Patton tank that the Indian Army secured in 1971; and Indias Centurion Tank that figured prominently in the 1965 and 1971 Wars.

Meanwhile, the SGPC today organised Akhand Path at Gurdwara Saragarhi, raised in memory of the war heroes, near the Golden Temple. The kin of the martyrs were honoured with siropas (robes of honour).
PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 11

Balwinder Kaur, the prime accused in a case pertaining to the desecration of Guru Granth Sahib at Babe De Ber Gurdwara in November last year, was brutally murdered late last night.

The injury marks on the legs revealed she was attacked with sharp-edged weapons, police officials said, adding she had bled to death.

A resident of Vairoke village in Chogawan block, Balwinder, who was arrested by the Lapoke police under Sections 295-A, 506 and 511 of the IPC, was out on bail because of her poor mental health.

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Amritsar (Rural) SSP Harkamalpreet Singh said three unidentified persons dragged Balwinder out of her house and attacked her with sharp-edged weapons even as her husband Labh Singh, an alcoholic, slept inside.

Unable to walk and bleeding profusely, Balwinder crawled to her house to wake up her husband, but in vain. She then woke up her eight-year-old granddaughter but died of excessive bleeding. A case has been registered.

This is the second incident of its kind. Earlier, Balwinder Kaur of Ghawaddi village in Ludhiana was shot dead in July. She too had been booked for desecration.
Lucknow, September 12

As part of the ongoing Indo-US defence cooperation, a joint military training exercise Yudh Abhyas-2016 will be conducted in the foothills of the Himalayas at Chaubattia in Almora district of Kumaon from September 14 to 27.

Under the aegis of the Headquarters Central Command, the venture is a series of one of the longest running joint military trainings and major ongoing bilateral defence cooperation efforts between India and the USA. This was stated in an official note issued here.

This will be the 12th edition of the exercise hosted alternately by both countries.

The exercise Yudh Abhyas-2016 will simulate a scenario where both nations are working together in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism environment in the mountainous terrain under the UN charter, the statement says.

About 225 personnel of the US army and a similar strength of the Congo Brigade of the Indian Army will take part in the exercise.

Its curriculum is progressively planned where the participants are initially made familiar with each others organisational structure, weapons, equipment and tactical drills. Subsequently, the training advances to joint tactical exercises wherein battle drills of both armies are coherently unleashed.

The training will culminate with a final validation exercise in which troops of both countries will jointly carry out an operation against terrorists in a realistic like setting.

The exercise will witness a Brigade Headquarters-based Command Post Exercise, an infantry company carrying out Field Training Exercise and discussions on issues of mutual interest by experts of both countries.

Both armies have a vast experience in active counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations and sharing each others tactics and drills in such diverse environment is of immense value, it states.

The joint venture is a great step for the armies of the two democracies to train together and gain together from each others rich operational experiences. The latest exercise will help further build interoperability between the forces of both nations, the statement adds. PTI
Lucknow, September 12

As part of the ongoing Indo-US defence cooperation, a joint military training exercise, 'Yudh Abhyas 2016' is set to be conducted in Uttarakhand from September 14 to 27, a military official said on Monday.

The exercise in Chaubattia was being conducted by the headquarter Central Command.

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"It is a series of one of the longest running joint military training and a major ongoing bilateral defence cooperation endeavours between India and the US. It is the 12th edition of the joint military exercise hosted alternately by the two countries" the official said.

The exercise is aimed at simulating a scenario where both nations were working together to counter insurgency and terrorism in mountainous terrain under UN charter.

The two week exercise will witness participation of about 225 personnel of the US Army and similar strength of Congo Brigade of the Indian Army.

The exercise curriculum is progressively planned where the participants are initially made to get familiar with each other's organisational structure, weapons, equipment and tactical drills, the official said.

Subsequently, the training advances to joint tactical exercises wherein the battle drills of both the armies are coherently unleashed.

The training will culminate with a final validation exercise in which troops of both countries will jointly carry out an operation against terrorists in a fictitious but realistic setting, the official added.

IANS
Istanbul, September 12

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday Turkey has evidence that Mayors removed from two dozen Kurdish-run municipalities had sent support to Kurdish militants, and said they should have been stripped of office sooner.

Turkey appointed new administrators in the 24 Kurdish-run municipalities on Sunday, triggering pockets of protest in parts of the largely-Kurdish southeast. The main pro-Kurdish opposition party called it an administrative coup.

It is a step taken too late in my opinion. It should have been taken sooner, and it was my advice to do so earlier, Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul after attending prayers to mark the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.

They sent the support they received to the mountains, but this has all been discovered, Erdogan said, referring to Kurdish militant bases in the mountains of southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. Our government took this decision based on all of this evidence.

Erdogan said last week that the campaign against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy, was now Turkeys largest ever and that the removal of civil servants linked to them was a key part of the fight.

The 24 municipalities had been run by the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), the third largest in parliament, which denies direct links to the militants. It said it did not recognise the legitimacy of the mayors removal.

The U.S. embassy said on Sunday that while it supported Turkeys right to combat terrorism, it hoped the appointment of government administrators would be temporary and that local citizens could soon choose new representatives.

The United States and European Union both list the PKK as a terrorist organisation.  Reuters
New York, September 12

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has been diagnosed with pneumonia after she fell ill during a ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks here, forcing her to cancel a trip to California to attend fundraising events.

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Clinton, 68, has been advised rest and to modify her schedule, as concerns over her health grew after she abruptly left the 9/11 commemoration ceremony at the memorial in Ground Zero in lower Manhattan yesterday from feeling "overheated".

Her doctor Lisa Bardack released a statement yesterday saying the former Secretary of State has been experiencing a cough related to allergies.

During a follow-up evaluation of her prolonged cough, "she was diagnosed with pneumonia. She was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule," Bardack said.

Bardack added that Clinton became "overheated and dehydrated" at the ceremony.

"She is now rehydrated and recovering nicely," Bardack said.

The Clinton campaign said a planned trip to California Monday or Tuesday has been cancelled.

"Secretary Clinton will not be traveling to California (Monday) or Tuesday," spokesman Nick Merrill said. Merrill had indicated she had returned to her residence in Chappaqua north of New York City sometime after 1 pm, and was not seen publicly the rest of the day.

Clinton had been scheduled to spend two days in the state for fundraisers and the taping of an appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show".

Clinton abruptly left the 9/11 memorial where she had gone to pay respects to the victims of the 2001 terror attacks. Her campaign said she had felt "overheated" and was taken to her daughter Chelsea's apartment in the city. Temperatures were in the high 70s F in New York, and humidity was also high.

"During the ceremony, she felt overheated so departed to go to her daughter's apartment, and is feeling much better," Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill had said in a statement.

However, a video posted on Twitter by a person who was at the memorial showed Clinton, surrounded by her staff and Secret Service agents, stumble and her legs buckle as she tried to get into her car. Two Secret Service agents then held on to her arms and helped her get into the car. The footage shows that she could not get into the vehicle on her own and was hoisted into the car by the Secret Service agents.

Later Clinton, coming out of her daughter's apartment, waved and smiled to the people waiting outside. Asked by reporters waiting outside if she's feeling better, Clinton wearing trousers and coat, replied, "Yes. Thank you very much," as she smiled and waved and got into her car.

Clinton and her Republican rival Donald Trump had arrived separately at the 9/11 memorial in downtown Manhattan.

The Clinton campaign has been refuting allegations that her health is failing and has criticised Republican rival Trump for parroting "lies" based on fabricated documents.

Trump had said at an election rally that Clinton "lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS".

Earlier this month, Clinton's opponents latched on to a coughing fit she had on a campaign trail to undermine her ability to lead the country.

Clinton was afflicted by an uncontrollable cough for several minutes which forced her to stop speaking during a rally in Cleveland. She had to take cough drops and drank water while the audience waited for her to recover. PTI
Manila, September 12

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday called for the withdrawal of US military from a restive southern island, fearing an American troop presence could complicate offensives against Islamist militants notorious for beheading Westerners.

Duterte, who was in the spotlight last week over his televised tirade against the United States and President Barack Obama, said special forces now training Filipino troops were high-value targets for the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf as counter-insurgency operations intensify.

These special forces, they have to go, Duterte said in a speech during an oath-taking ceremony for new officials. I do not want a rift with America. But they have to go. He added: Americans, they will really kill them, they will try to kidnap them to get ransom.

The comment by Duterte, a former southern mayor known for his terse words and volatile temperament, adds to uncertainty about what impact his rise to the presidency will have on one of Washingtons best alliances in Asia.

Duterte wants an independent foreign policy and says close ties with the United States are crucial, but he has frequently accused it of hypocrisy when criticised for his deadly drugs war. He denied on Friday calling Obama a son of a bitch.

Some US special forces have been killed in the southern Philippines since 2002, when Washington deployed soldiers to train and advise local units fighting Abu Sayyaf in Operation Enduring Freedom, part of its global anti-terror strategy.

At the height of that, some 1,200 Americans were in Zamboanga City and on Jolo and Basilan islands, both strongholds of Abu Sayyaf, which is known for its brutality and for earning huge sums of money from hostage-taking.

The US programme was discontinued in the Philippines in 2015 but a small troop presence has remained for logistics and technical support. Washington has shifted much of its security focus in the Philippines towards the South China Sea.  Reuters
Kabul, September 12

Two gunmen entered a hospital in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Monday, setting off a gunbattle with security forces in which one of the attackers was killed, officials said.

It was not immediately clear who the gunmen were or whether they were affiliated with any insurgent group.

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Samim Khpalwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor of Kandahar, said security forces were at the Mirwais Hospital, a large regional facility that provides health services to war victims, including members of the Army and police.

He said one of the gunmen had been killed but security forces were moving carefully to avoid casualties and damage to the hospital.

"So far, no patients, visitors, hospital personnel or our security forces have been hurt," he said. "We are taking steps forward very carefully." Reuters
Beijing, September 12

Most Chinese don't regret and back Air China's offensive advice asking travellers to be cautious in areas populated by "Indians, Pakistanis and black people" when visiting London, the state media on Monday said, terming the flag carrier's racially-charged warning a "careless mistake".

"Most Chinese on social media are not expressing much regret over the incident. Many have shown understanding of the Chinese airline, suggesting that it had done something right, but unfortunately not in an appropriate way," an article in the Global Times said.

"The travel alert, however, has unintentionally insulted Londoners and many other people who are inclined to use euphemisms to imply the connections between race and crimes.

As wonderfully diverse as London may be, harmonious it is not," it said.

The travel advice in Air China's in-flight magazine 'Wings of China' had warned passengers that London is generally a safe place to travel, but "precautions are needed when entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and Black people."

It triggered a huge controversy after journalists noticed the tip and tweeted the picture to Sadiq Khan, London's mayor, who is of Pakistani origin on September 8.

The magazine's publisher has since apologised and withdrawn the controversial issue, saying it was an editorial mistake. Chinese Foreign Ministry too has asked the airline to investigate the incident.

The article on Monday suggested that the airline "should have just named boroughs and streets that have high crime rates without mentioning who lives there, a lesson for other Chinese companies that must keep in mind the sensitivity of racial issues in many Western societies."

"Air China's careless mistake is not an example of how racism is tolerated in China," it said. "It is merely a reflection of the Chinese' unawareness of racial issues because of their much less exposure to other groups compared to most Westerners. Though many may seem prejudiced, they are not racist."

Referring to the protest lodged by British MP Virendra Sharma, the article said: "For these British politicians who are making a fuss over the incident, perhaps they should just make their constituencies safer for both local citizens and travellers, so that travel alerts are no longer necessary".

"As China's population diversifies, it would benefit greatly to do away with prejudice and nurture trust among different people," it said.  PTI
SEOUL, September 12

North Korea is ready to conduct an additional nuclear test at any time, South Korea's Defence Ministry said on Monday, three days after the reclusive North's fifth test drew widespread condemnation.

Pyongyang set off its most powerful nuclear blast to date on Friday, saying it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile and ratcheting up a threat that its rivals and the United Nations have been powerless to contain.

"Assessment by South Korean and US intelligence is that the North is always ready for an additional nuclear test in the Punggye-ri area," the site of the North's five nuclear explosions, South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun told a news briefing.

"North Korea has a tunnel where it can conduct an additional nuclear test," Moon said.

South Korea is pushing for more sanctions against Pyongyang to close what it says were loopholes left in the last United Nations Security Council resolution adopted in March.

Both China and Russia backed sanctions imposed in March following the North's January nuclear test, but their apparent ambivalence about fresh sanctions cast doubt on the Security Council's ability to quickly form a consensus.

"We expect that China, as one of the Security Council member states, should take this issue seriously and play a very constructive role to come up with a very effective and strong sanctions resolution," a South Korean foreign ministry official said.

New sanctions?

The Security Council denounced the latest test on Friday and said it would begin work immediately on a resolution. The United States, Britain and France  three of the five veto-wielding permanent members  pushed for the 15-member body to impose new sanctions.

However, China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said sanctions alone could not solve the North Korean nuclear issue. The crux of the issue lay with the United States, not China, she added.

On Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said a "creative" response was needed.

Speaking to Lavrov on Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China "strongly urged North Korea and other relevant parties to remain calm and exercise restraint, and not take any new steps to intensify tensions", China's Foreign Ministry said.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said Lavrov and Wang condemned North Korea's latest nuclear test in a phone conversation on Monday. Russia and China are the remaining veto powers on the Security Council.

As tensions rose on the Korean peninsula in the week of last week's test, South Korea's President Park Geun-hye said that North Korea's nuclear weapons and missiles posed an "imminent threat.

"As North Korea has publicly said nuclear warheads have been standardised and customised to mount on ballistic missiles, we should keep in mind that North Korea's nuclear missiles are a realistic, imminent threat targeting us, not a simple threat for negotiations," Park said in a meeting with major political party leaders.

Pyongyang's assertions that it is able to miniaturise a nuclear warhead have never been independently verified.

Bomber flight delayed

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, formerly the country's chief nuclear negotiator, arrived in Beijing on Monday and was seen entering the country's embassy, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.

Ri left Pyongyang on Monday to attend a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement countries in Venezuela and later the UN General Assembly, the North's official KCNA news agency said.

A US special envoy for the isolated state, Sung Kim, will travel to Seoul on Monday. Kim met Japanese officials on Sunday and said the United States may launch unilateral sanctions against North Korea, echoing comments by US President Barack Obama on Friday in the wake of the test.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that bad weather had delayed the flight of an advanced U.S. B-1B bomber to the Korean peninsula, a show of strength and solidarity with ally Seoul, scheduled for Monday.

The flight from the US base in Guam would now take place on Tuesday, a US Forces in Korea official said, declining to identify the type of aircraft involved.

A group of 31 South Korean conservative lawmakers said the country should have nuclear weapons, either by acquiring its own arms or asking the Americans to redeploy tactical nuclear weapons that were withdrawn from the South under a 1991 pact for the denuclearisation of the peninsula.

"We should discuss every plan including an independent nuclear armament programme at the level of self-defence to safeguard peace," Won Yoo-chul, a senior lawmaker for the ruling Saenuri Party, said in a statement.

South Korea's defence ministry said there was no change in its policy barring nuclear weapons.  Reuters

North Korea, another nuclear test, South Korea, US, China, Russia, restraint, sanctions, re-impose
Islamabad, September 12

Pakistan and Russia are set to hold their first-ever joint military exercises later this year, media reported on Sunday, reflecting increased military cooperation between the two former Cold War rivals.

Around 200 military personnel from the two sides would take part in the joint military exercises, The Express Tribune quoted a senior Pakistani official as saying.

The move comes amidst increasing defence cooperation between Moscow and Islamabad as the latter was also thinking to buy advanced Russian warplanes.

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Pakistan's Ambassador to Moscow Qazi Khalilullah told the newspaper that this is the first time that military personnel from the two countries would be taking part in joint military drills called 'Friendship-2016'.

He, however, did not divulge further details about the nature of the exercises or dates.

The development, Khalilullah said, reflected increased cooperation between the two countries.

"This obviously indicates a desire on both sides to broaden defence and military-technical cooperation," he told a Russian news agency last week.

The joint military drill is seen as another step in growing military-to-military cooperation, indicating a steady growth in bilateral relationship between the two countries, whose ties had been marred by Cold War rivalry for decades, the paper said.

Islamabad decided to broaden its foreign policy options after its relations with the US deteriorated after secret CIA raid in Abbottabad killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in May 2011.

Pakistan's relations with the US were soured recently when US lawmakers blocked funds for the sale of eight Lockheed Martin Corporation's F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan.

Pakistan decided to look at alternative sources to purchase the aircraft, including from Jordan.

Over the last 15 months, the chiefs of Pakistan's Army, Navy and Air Force travelled to Russia. The flurry of high-level exchanges between the two nations resulted in the signing of a deal for the sale of four MI-35 attack helicopters to Islamabad.

The formal agreement, which was signed in Moscow in August 2015, was considered a major policy shift on part of Russia in the wake of growing strategic partnership between the US and India.

Islamabad is eager to improve its ties with Moscow to diversify its options in the event of any stalemate in ties with Washington, The Express Tribune said.

After securing a deal of MI-35 helicopters, Pakistan is also exploring options to buy Su-35 fighter jets from Russia, it said.

For this purpose, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman visited Moscow in July.

The Pakistani ambassador said the PAF chief held 'fruitful' discussions with Russian authorities but would not provide further details of new military purchases, including the multirole, air superiority fighter Sukhoi Su-35.  PTI
BEIRUT, September 12

A nationwide ceasefire in Syria brokered by the United States and Russia came into effect at 7 pm (1600 GMT) on Monday, the second attempt this year by Washington and Moscow to halt the five-year-long civil war.

Neither the Syrian government nor the constellation of rebel groups fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad have publicly declared they would respect the ceasefire, but sources on both sides have indicated they will.

Russia, which said the "cessation of hostilities" was to start at 1600 GMT, is a major backer of Assad, while the United States supports some of the rebel groups fighting to topple him, as does Turkey, which has stated its support for the agreement.

The agreement's initial aims include allowing humanitarian access and joint US-Russian targeting of jihadist groups, which are not covered by the agreement. These include Islamic State and al Qaeda's former Syria branch, known as the Nusra Front until it changed its name and cut ties to al Qaeda in July.

The Russian Defence Ministry called on the Free Syrian Army to stop fighting Kurdish units in the run-up the ceasefire.

The ministry made its comments in a Moscow news conference after an emboldened President Bashar al-Assad vowed to take back all of Syria, hours before the start of a Russian and American-backed ceasefire, which Assad's opponents described as stacked in his favour.

Lieutenant-General Sergei Rudskoi, a senior Russian Defence Ministry official, said Moscow was considering a Syrian military request to supply equipment that would allow Damascus to monitor artillery fire in and around Aleppo.  Reuters
Note: This blog is part of a series in which an intrepid group from the Herald & Review has set out to find the best cheese toastie in the city. I'll be joined by Ashley Fenner, online technician, and Bridget Sibthorp-Moecker, regional digital director, as we try a different restaurant each week and report back our findings.

Note II: Illness and other factors have caused us to miss a few weeks. We're catching up now!

We headed back downtown this week to Dohertys, 242 E. William St. The cheese toastie comes with American and Swiss on whole wheat bread. All sandwiches come with kettle chips, but you can pay extra to substitute another side.

Here are our observations:

Allison: This is another great, if simple, toastie. The American and Swiss melt really nicely for an almost liquid center, but the bread was perfectly flavorful and crunchy on the outside. I have actually ordered this sandwich once before from Dohertys on a cold day and paired it with the roasted red pepper soup, which I HIGHLY recommend. It was too hot to replicate that experience on this day, so I ordered it with sweet potato fries, which were awesome.

Also, the sweet potato fries came with a cup of creamy dipping sauce. I asked the waiter what it was and he called it potion and said it was really good  He was right. He didnt know exactly what was in it, but Im guessing brown sugar, cinnamon, maybe some cream cheese? Anyway, I recommend them, too.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Ashley: The cheese toastie at Doherty's was honestly a really good sandwich. It was served with American and Swiss cheese on whole wheat bread with kettle chips, but I opted for french fries which were really delicious. The sandwich is one that I can see going well with soup and is something I would definitely order again when it is less hot outside. The bread was very crispy, which is nice and thick enough that it held up against the two cheeses which were abundant.

This was a sandwich that had the melty cheese stretch in between when you pulled it apart, which makes it even more appealing. Yes, the cheese got a little hard from cooling down on the second half of my sandwich. However, I forgive it for that. The cheese toastie at Doherty's is overall a really authentic cheese toastie that doesn't try to be fancy and it is really delicious. Overall, I would rate this sandwich a solid 3.5 stars out of 5 stars.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Bridget: I'll be honest guys, I have never ordered this many cheese toasties concurrently in my life. Not that I'm complaining - Im glad to do the Lords work  but I was concerned I would be too tired of grilled cheeses to be objective.

However, when I bit into Dohertys cheese toastie this week, I was reminded of how very tasty this sandwich can be when everything is in balance. Like last weeks cheese toasty at Krekels, the sandwich was very simple  no bacon, tomatoes or extra fillers.

The difference was the higher-quality ingredients.

It comes on firm, wide pan, multi-grain bread, with American and Swiss cheese. This might have been my favorite cheese combination of any of the sandwiches we tasted so far. The American kept it melty, in the Swiss balanced out the richness.

One of the best things about a good cheese toastie is the texture. My favorites always have nicely crunchy grilled bread in contrast to the soft, gooey center. This bread made it for me, with a nice bite, and it held up to all of that cheese quite well.

The outside was slathered in butter, which I found quite pleasant. As I devoured the sandwich, I wondered if it had a little garlic in the butter, perhaps?

I couldn't quite pinpoint the extra flavor notes, but frankly I didn't care, as the sandwich was phenomenal. If it hadn't been so hot out, I would have enjoyed it with their famous red pepper Gouda soup.

Because a grilled cheese sandwich and greasy chips aren't quite decadent enough for me, I forced the girls into sharing a brownie dessert. It was just as tasty as you would expect it to be.

I give this cheese toastie 4.5 out of 5 stars for quality ingredients and balance.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Our overall (average) rating for the Dohertys cheese toastie is 4 out of 5 stars. Where should we go next? Email suggestions to apetty@herald-review.com.

Catch up here:

Week 2: Taproot

Special Edition: Say Cheese at Decatur Celebration
Beirut, September 12

A nationwide ceasefire brokered by the US and Russia went into effect in Syria on Monday evening, the second attempt this year by Washington and Moscow to halt the five-year civil war.

The Syrian army, announced the truce at 7 pm, the moment it took effect, saying the seven-day regime of calm would be applied across Syria. It reserved the right to respond with all forms of firepower to any violation by armed groups.

Rebel groups fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad had decided to respect the ceasefire, while expressing their deep reservations about the overall agreement, said Zakaria Malahifji of the Aleppo-based rebel faction Fastaqim.

Regarding a truce, a ceasefire, the delivery of aid, this is a moral question and there is no debate around this, we absolutely welcome this, but there are other articles around which there are reservations, he said.

Combatant sources on both sides said calm was prevailing in the first hours of the ceasefire. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, shared that assessment.

Russia is a major backer of Assad, while the US supports some of the rebel groups fighting to topple him.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said early reports suggested there had been some reduction in violence. He told reporters at the State Department that it was too early to draw a definitive conclusion about how effective the truce will be, and that there would no doubt be some reports of violations here and there.

The agreements initial aims include allowing humanitarian access and joint US-Russian targeting of jihadist groups, which are not covered by the agreement. Reuters
DECATUR  The solemn memory of the 9/11 attacks on their 15th anniversary was commemorated Sunday in Decatur with the dedication of one memorial project and the announcement of a second one.

More than 50 people gathered near the Beach House restaurant on the shores of Lake Decatur for the dedication of what's known as the 9/11 Memorial, which will hold a more than 13-foot-long chunk of steel I-beam from one of the destroyed World Trade Center Towers that stood in New York City.

The beam, which has the remains of a file cabinet crushed into it, was on display Sunday after first arriving in Decatur in October after an extraordinary four-day journey in which it became the center of attention in every town it passed through.

It was during that trip that a first responder who had been at the scene of the crash of Flight 93  which plowed into a field in Pennsylvania after brave passengers took on a group of 9/11 hijackers  handed a piece of the plane wreckage he had kept as a keepsake to Decatur man John Axe, who was driving the truck hauling the beam.

He said 'I want you to do something with it for a memorial,'  Axe recalled. 'It's very special, very important.'

Axe spoke to Lt. Jonathan Butts of the Macon County Sheriff's Office and, working with Presiding Judge A.G. Webber IV and the Decatur Public Building Commission, came up with a project to house the roughly 6-inch-long and 2-inch-wide artifact in a memorial set into the wall just inside the main entry of the courthouse. It will feature all the names of the 33 passengers and seven flight crew and will be topped by a stenciled eagle and flanked by flags.

The courthouse is a place where many victims' stories are told through the words of other people, said Butts, addressing Sunday's dedication audience. This memorial will be seen every day... it will tell the lives and stories of those 40 victims of Flight 93 who aren't here to tell their own.

Butts said he hopes the memorial will be in place by the end of the year and urged the backers of the ambitious I-beam memorial to surge ahead in their campaign to raised a total of $240,000 to complete their project. The hope is to have the memorial ready for unveiling by July.

Dreams come true because of people like you who take that first step to lead, Butts told the crowd.

This extraordinary project had begun back in 2014 after local businessman Eric Mueller, owner of the George A. Mueller Beer Co., had visited New York and met a former firefighter who had worked at Ground Zero. Told that pieces of the twin tower wreckage might be available for use as memorials, Mueller asked his company controller, Lauren Axe, to see if she could hunt one down.

The result, after much maneuvering, pleading and letters of support from a galaxy of national and local politicians, police and fire departments, was the release of the 13-foot-6-inch, 1,500-pound section of I-beam. The plan is to house it vertically in one metal frame next to a second vertical frame, both 28 feet tall and oriented the same way as the original towers, on a spit of land right by the lake shore.

A one-fifth scale model of the completed memorial was on hand at Sunday's dedication. The illuminated vertical frames will include a design that features the shape of doves rising skyward and will sit on a pentagon-shaped base to memorialize the plane that crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The base will feature benched seating and the inset logos of police, fire and medical first responders. Viewed as if it were a clock face, the base will also have sections highlighted in red at the nine and three positions, symbolizing Flight 93.

And while one vertical frame dominating the memorial holds the damaged old I-beam, a new and shiny beam will be housed in the second frame, symbolizing the rebuilding and national will to carry on in the wake of tragedy.

We want to incorporate everything that happened that day so that we don't forget, said Lauren Axe. The whole thing is about remembering, rebuilding from the ashes so that something good can come.

Harriet Sadowski, 75, a Red Cross volunteer from Decatur who worked at both Ground Zero in New York and near the Pentagon site in the wake of the attacks, praised the 9/11 memorial and hoped it will prompt fellow Americans to roll up their sleeves and help.

Sadowski won't be renewing her nursing license after this year and says that will leave only one other nurse working with the Red Cross in the Decatur area. She says people need to step up and volunteer because the lasting message of 9/11 is the need to be prepared.

I think the new memorial will wake people up and let them know that this is a piece of tragedy; and it could happen anywhere, she added, her voice still raspy from health effects caused by exposure to Ground Zero's toxic air.

Another speaker Sunday was former Marine Corey Kistner, 41. He maintained helicopters for the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which was among the first forces deployed to Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11. One of the helicopters was shot down, with the loss of nine men, and he has felt that pain keenly, and the wider tragedy of the nearly 3,000 civilian and first responder lives lost on 9/11, after visiting the memorial site in New York City.

Addressing the audience Sunday, he said standing by the Ground Zero memorial invoked a powerful cocktail of emotions: A sense of sorrow and sadness and memory and pride and anger and every human emotion you can imagine, all kind of balled-up as a result of those attacks, he told his audience.

He said not everyone will get the chance to visit the New York site but, he added, he experienced the same emotions looking at the battered I-beam on display Sunday. He hoped others would come and see it and experience their own sense of 9/11, and remember the spirit of unity it once sent flooding through the nation like adrenalin.

Since them, we have lost some of that, added Kistner, who lives in Decatur. And while we are a country divided right now, I hope that something like this in Decatur can bring people back together so we can remember what it all meant on 9/11.
ARGENTA -- During a town meeting led by a development group called Argenta In Motion, members did their best to live up to their name.

Their proposals to the community ranged from a bike path connecting Prairie Park with Friends Creek Campground toward the northeast to a moderate-value subdivision toward the southwest, plus plenty of other ideas for in-between.

Guest speaker Larry Altenbaumer, executive director of the Midwest Inland Port, made no attempt to hide his admiration.

I have the opportunity to visit a lot of communities, and you guys dont know just how impressive what you have going here really is, Altenbaumer said before giving a presentation on the inland port and how Argenta and the surrounding area could benefit.

His audience was more than 100 people gathered in the Argenta-Oreana High School cafeteria.

Sundays town meeting was the culmination of a MAPPING the Future of Your Community process begun earlier this year with the help of the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs at Western Illinois University in Macomb.

Our program is about getting people to think beyond planting flowers in the downtown, said Gisele Hamm, program manager. You need strong local leadership, and you are very blessed with that here in Argenta.

The meeting was also the kickoff of the next step, which is to engage more citizens to help make the goals of Argenta In Motion a reality.

Those goals include resurrecting Argentas fireworks display but at a time other than July 4, organizing dances at the Friends Creek Community Center, helping businesses get signs directing Interstate 72 traffic to them, starting a farmers market, and attracting warehouse/storage businesses and light industry such as an equipment dealership, a trucking firm or warehouse, along the Illinois 48 corridor southwest of town.

Were not envisioning an ADM North or a Caterpillar North here, said John White, a member of the entrepreneurs and light industry team. Our goals are much more modest.

Accomplishments made by Argenta In Motion over the summer include showing movies in the park and making curb improvements and plantings downtown.

People in attendance also voted on new logo and slogan for the village: Argenta  Small town. Big Heart.

I have been a resident of Argenta for the past 10 years, said Mindy Cook, a member of Argenta In Motions housing action team. I chose to be a part of AIM because of my children, and I hope that youll join us in making Argentas future a bright one.
Two people were struck by gunfire in a drive-by shooting in north Tulsa in what police described as an apparent domestic-related incident.

Police on Sunday afternoon were called to a residence near Quaker Avenue and East Virgin Street, where several shots were fired from a vehicle, striking two people, Tulsa police Capt. Brian Carlisle said.

The victims were hospitalized, but he said their condition appeared to be stable and their wounds were not life-threatening.

The shooting occurred following a dispute between a man and his girlfriend earlier in the day, Carlisle said. The woman was reportedly at the residence during some type of gathering at the time of the shooting.

Police on Sunday afternoon were searching for the vehicle and the shooters. A description of the vehicle was not immediately available, Carlisle said.

Weve got an idea who the parties are, he said.

Asked if the shooting was gang-related, Carlisle said, We think its more of a family dispute ... a domestic-related type thing.

He said the victims were not cooperating with police.
The CEO of Ramps Logistics says he is "really really disappointed" with the Guyana Revenue A
SBS has released a ripping trailer for its upcoming 4 part drama Deep Water, based on gay hate murders of the 80s and 90s in Sydney.

The drama stars Yael Stone, Noah Taylor, William McInnes, Danielle Cormack, Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Craig McLachlan, Geoff Morrell, Dan Spielman, Ben Oxenbould, Simon Burke, John Brumpton, Victoria Haralabidou, Simon Elrahi, Renee Lim, George H. Xanthis and Julian Maroun.

In addition to the contemporary drama SBS will screen a feature documentary Deep Water: The Real Story and host an online interactive hub Deep Water: Investigations.

SBS Director of Television and Online Content, Marshall Heald said: SBS is a true champion of captivating and compelling storytelling, and always looks for new ways it can share stories with Australian audiences. The Deep Water drama and documentary by the talented team at Blackfella Films, alongside a truly innovative online hub and social media experience gives audiences multiple ways to explore and connect with these important events of the recent past which have shaped our society.

Deep Water.

SBS introduces Deep Water; a network event that unearths a gripping true crime story and a buried chapter of Australias recent history.

In the 1980s and 1990s a wave of murders bloodied the idyllic coastline of Sydneys eastern suburbs.

There were 80 murders, 30 unsolved cases and thousands of assaults. The victims: young homosexual men.

SBSs Deep Water brings these events of the past to life with a compelling new crime drama inspired by these events, a feature-length documentary and an interactive, immersive online and social media experience.

The Deep Water drama and documentary is a Blackfella Films production for SBS, with major production investment from Screen Australia, with Screen NSW as a partner for the drama. This is the first time Screen Australia has funded a drama and documentary on the same subject matter airing at the same time.

Deep Water is a fictional, four-part drama series inspired by these events. Set in contemporary Bondi, featuring a stellar cast of Australian actors and airing over two big weeks, Deep Water premieres Wednesday October 5 at 8.30pm on SBS.

Directed by Shawn Seet (Peter Allen: Not The Boy Next Door) and written by Kris Wyld (East West 101) and Kym Goldsworthy (Love Child, Serangoon Road) the drama unfolds when detectives Tori Lustigman, played by Yael Stone (Orange in the New Black) and Nick Manning, played by Noah Taylor (Game of Thrones) are assigned to a brutal murder case. Lustigman and Manning begin to uncover mounting evidence to suggest the killing is connected to a spate of unexplained deaths, suicides and disappearances throughout the 80s and 90s. Is this the result of shoddy police work, indifference, or something far more sinister?

The cast also features a line-up of renowned Aussie actors including William McInnes (The Slap, Blue Heelers), Danielle Cormack (Wentworth, Underbelly), Jeremy Lindsay Taylor (Puberty Blues, Sea Patrol), Craig McLachlan (The Doctor Blake Mysteries), Dan Spielman (The Code, Accidental Soldier), Ben Oxenbould (The Kettering Incident), Simon Burke (Devils Playground), John Brumpton (Catching Milat) and Victoria Haralabidou (Barracuda, The Code), Simon Elrahi (Janet King, The Code), and Renee Lim (Please Like Me, East West 101). Drama also features up and coming actors George H. Xanthis (The Principal, Open Slather) and Julian Maroun.

Deep Water begins 8.30pm Wednesday, 5 October, and continues Thursday 6th, Wednesday 14 and Thursday 15 on SBS.

Deep Water: The Real Story is a feature-length documentary premiering Sunday October 16 at 8.30pm on SBS.

Directed by Amanda Blue, Deep Water  The Real Story is a 90 minute feature presenting first-hand accounts of Sydneys gay hate killings in the 1980s and 1990s.

This documentary unravels the stories of a society in the grips of homophobia as gangs stalked vulnerable victims on the coastline cliffs, brutal gay bashings were carried out, and lives were ended on the rocks below.

Many of those involved at the time, including police, advisors, victims and families of those murdered speak out on the crimes of the past in the hope that new evidence will rise to the surface in the pursuit of peace for the dead and justice for their loved ones.

Deep Water: Online Investigations

Deep Water  Online Investigations is an online interactive hub developed by Blackfella Films and SBS, and produced by SBS. It includes content that is released across September and October. The site will include a special illustrated long form feature; a true crime podcast series; and an interactive site delving into 30 cold cases, allowing users to explore the unsolved murders, both within Bondi and wider Australia, for themselves.

Deep Water  Online Investigations also features both in-depth extras around the Deep Water drama and Deep Water  The Real Story; with behind-the-scenes videos of the drama, including cast and crew interviews; sneak-peek extras; deleted scenes from the drama and a photo-gallery showcasing Bondi Beach  all available now.

During the broadcast of the Deep Water, the drama series, audiences will also be able to delve further into the investigation as it unfolds during each episode by following an immersive extended narrative experience on Twitter. In partnership with Screen Australia and Twitter, the initiative will provide viewers with exclusive access to evidence and crime scene material from the drama, providing another layer to the gripping story. Photos and footage, previews of episodes and personal insight into the lead character of Detective Tori Lustigman (Yael Stone) will be shared on Twitter handles @DeepWaterSBS and @ToriLustigman. Viewers can also follow the investigation using #DeepWater and as the drama unfolds on screen, they will feel like theyre investigating the crime right alongside the Bondi detectives.

The four-part series and documentary will also available after broadcast, anytime, on your favourite streaming device, SBS On Demand.

Deep Water begins 8.30pm Wednesday,5 October, and continues Thursday 6th, Wednesday 12 and Thursday 13 on SBS.

Deep Water: The Real Story Sunday October 16 at 8.30pm on SBS.
This week on Foreign Correspondent is Family Business shot by Stephen Dupont.

Filmmaker Bob Connolly reunites with the characters of his acclaimed PNG Highlands trilogy (First Contact, Joe Leahys Neighbours, Black Harvest) and is shocked at how their fortunes have changed.

ABC iview is now showing the original Highlands Trilogy films by Connolly and his partner the late Robin Anderson, as well as two of their other classics.

The last time filmmaker Bob Connolly was in PNGs Highlands he was caught up in one of the bloodiest and most destructive tribal wars in the regions recorded history.

Now, 25 years on, Connolly returns to the Highlands for Foreign Correspondent to catch up with key characters from the masterful trilogy of documentaries he made with his late partner Robin Anderson  Academy Award-nominated First Contact (1983), Joe Leahys Neighbours (1989) and Black Harvest (1992).

At the heart of it all is Joe Leahy, the son of an Aussie gold prospector who was the first European to make contact with the local Ganiga tribe, and a Highlands woman. As Connolly puts it: Western-oriented, mixed race coffee millionaire surrounded by tribal subsistence farmers  fertile ground for a clash of values.

Joe Leahy had big dreams for his coffee plantations. So too did the Ganiga people who wanted to grow rich from them. That was until the coffee price suddenly tanked and a tribal war exploded, scenes dramatically captured in Black Harvest, the last film in the trilogy.

Fast forward to 2016. Coffee prices have recovered and a quarter century has passed. So by now, surely, war will be a distant memory, and Joe Leahy and the Ganiga finally will be reaping their shared riches? That is the rough scenario Bob Connolly hopes he will find as he drives into the Highlands to pick up with Joe Leahy and Ganiga leaders.

But from day one the signs are bad. Its harvest time. There are 60,000 coffee trees but only two pickers.

Why do I have to give them money and all these things? Joe is railing against the Ganiga. Im sick of it now.

But Joe, now 77, cant bring himself to leave the plantation, despite pleas from his son Jim. In turn Jim is resisting pressure from Joe  to take over when Joe dies.

I dont want to be Joe Leahy when I turn 80, says Jim. Hes angry all the time and I dont want to be like that.

Wrangling over the succession is imperilling the Leahy coffee dynasty  but whats left anyway? As Connolly digs deeper it becomes clear that the old tribal war is still playing itself out, with insidious effect, long after the last arrow flew.

9.30pm on Tuesday September 13 on ABC.

To mark this special report by one of Australias finest filmmakers, ABC iview is now showing the original Highlands Trilogy films by Connolly and his partner the late Robin Anderson, as well as two of their other classics.

First Contact (1983)

Three Australian gold prospectors  brothers Michael, Dan and James Leahy  encounter thousands of highlanders seeing white men for the first time. This Oscar-nominated documentary includes remarkable footage shot by Michael Leahy in the 1930s and interviews with the surviving brothers and highlanders 50 years later.

Joe Leahys Neighbours (1989)

Sequel to First Contact illustrates the conflict between old ways and new. Michael Leahys mixed race son Joe buys tribal land to establish a coffee plantation and grows rich while all around him his tribal neighbours maintain their subsistence lifestyle.

Black Harvest (1992)

Joe Leahys Ganiga tribal neighbours are finally about to share in the wealth of the coffee plantation  but the golden opportunity is let slip when the price of coffee collapses and tribal warfare explodes.

Rats in the Ranks (1996)

A fly on the wall expose of the machinations behind Leichardt mayor Larry Hands bid for a fourth term, and the rats in the Labor Party caucus who want to bring him down but cant agree how to do it.

Facing the Music (2001)

Sydney University music professor Anne Boyd strives to bring the best out of her talented students. But years of funding cuts make it a struggle to maintain standards, forcing the composer/teacher into unfamiliar territory as she scraps for every dollar and makes some unpleasant decisions
UK comedy Still Open All Hours will be back for a third season.

The BBC has previously confirmed the renewal for the show, a sequel to Open All Hours, which sees Sir David Jason reprise his role of Granville.

Now it adds a Christmas special to the order.

Since 2014, the series written by Roy Clarke, has been a hit with audiences, with the most recent UK run being the highest rated comedy of the past 12 months.

I cant wait for viewers to see the scrapes Granville gets into this series, almost as much as I cant wait to start filming them. Roy Clarke has once again written seven fantastically warm, funny and inventive scripts, full of the humour and eccentric characters that the nation has come to love over the years, said Jason.

Returning are Maggie Ollerenshaw, Johnny Vegas, Kulvinder Ghir, Brigit Forsyth, Nina Wadia and Geoffrey Whitehead.

However, Lynda Baron is not returning as Nurse Gladys Emmanuel, unable to fit it in her schedule.

I am disappointed not least because it is beyond doubt the nicest cast and crew a girl could wish for. There are as many laughs off the set as there are on. Long may they stay Open All Hours, she said.

Still Open All Hours screens in Australia on ABC.

The series opens with a Christmas special where Granville and Gastric (Tim Healy) find themselves playing marriage counsellors, whilst Leroy (James Baxter) adopts a festive disguise to avoid relationship trouble of a different kind. Meanwhile, Mrs Featherstone (Stephanie Cole) struggles to get into the Christmas spirit and Kath (Sally Lindsay) attempts to bring the street together as one harmonious choir of carollers and beat Finkle Street once and for all  but does Granville have a trick up his sleeve to help them out?

Location filming will begin in the coming weeks.
Hi, my name is Scott C. Waring and I wrote a few books and am currently a ESL School Owner in Taiwan. I have had my own UFO sighting up close and personal, but that's how it works right? A non believer becomes a believer when they experience their first sighting. You witnessed it, your perceptual field changes, so now you need to share it.





I created this site to help the UFO community get a little bit organized. I noticed that there was a lot of chaos when searching for UFO sighting reports, so I hope this site helps. I wanted to support those eyewitnesses who have tried to tell others about what they have seen, yet were laughed at by even closest of friends.





More and more each day the governments of the world leak bits and pieces of UFO information to the public. They have a trickle down theory in hopes of slowly getting citizens use to the idea that we are not alone in universe and never have been. The truth is being leaked drop by drop until one day we look around and find ourselves neck high in it.





The discovery of alien species in existence is the most monumental scientific event in human history, suppression of that information is a crime against humanity.





About me:

I live in Taiwan. I OWN MY OWN ENGLISH SCHOOL, AND ONCE HAD 5 SCHOOLS.

Am Former USAF at SAC base (flight line).

Age: 42

Educ: BA in Elem ed. Masters in Counseling ed.





I had two UFO sightings, (30+bus size orbs) in military and in 2012 personally saw the UFO over Taipei 101 building on New Years Day (and recored it).
The Ukrainian Justice Ministry and the National Police of Ukraine have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation in the fight against company raiding.

The memorandum was signed by Ukrainian National Police Chief Khatia Dekanoidze and Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko in Kyiv on Monday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Todays signing of Memorandum is the binding of actions weve been jointly carried out during the last several months," Justice Minister Petrenko said during the signing of the document.

The minister stressed that an effective mechanism to combat raiding is needed in a form of criminal responsibility and the right to confiscate property from the persons involved in raiding.

National Police Chief Dekanoidze, in turn, stressed that the memorandum will not be effective unless there is a common political will. She also added that sometimes very powerful people are behind raiding.

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The Ukrainian Army sustained no losses over the past 24 hours in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone in Donbas, eastern Ukraine; no Ukrainian soldiers were wounded.

Presidential Administration Spokesman on ATO issues Andriy Lysenko stated this on Monday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. No Ukrainian soldiers were killed or wounded as a result of combat actions over the last twenty-four hours, Lysenko said. iy
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has stated that Russia will cast its vote against providing IMF next tranche to Ukraine, but admitted it wont be possible to block it.

"We today are giving all the necessary instructions to our IMF representative concerning examination of the issue of providing an IMF loan tranche to Ukraine. We will vote against this decision, since we believe that it was not approved in accordance with the existing rules," Siluanov said, Interfax reports.

According to him, Russia's observations will be sent to IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Monday.

However, Siluanov admitted that Russia would not be able to block the allocation of a tranche.

The IMF program to 2018 for Ukraine does not provide money for repaying debt to Russia.

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President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and U.S. President Barack Obama will hold a meeting during the session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said this on Inter TV Channel on Sunday.

I believe that a brief meeting will take place, Klimkin said, noting that President Obama paid special attention to the Ukrainian issue during the recent meeting of G20 leaders.

According to Foreign Minister Klimkin, President Poroshenko will make a speech at the UN General Assembly, and will hold many meetings: There will be a lot of meetings, in particular, they will be focused not only on Europe, but the U.S. too, he said.

The 71st session of the UN General Assembly is to begin on September 13 in the organizations headquarters in New York.

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1,583 students of Ukrainian universities will participate in the short-term exchange with the European universities.

This is reported by the press service of the Education and Science Ministry of Ukraine.

"2,220 people will participate in the short-term exchange with the European universities. It is planned that 1,583 scholarship holders from Ukraine will be able to learn or get professional experience in Europe. Accordingly, 637 scholarship holders from Europe will visit Ukraine for a short-term training and experience exchange," the statement reads.

The students of Ukrainian universities have got such an opportunity due to Ukraines accession to the Erasmus+ European Union Programme for the period of 2014-2020, which supports partnership projects, events and mobility in the field of education, training, youth and sport.

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Five paintings, which were stolen from the Westfries Dutch museum in Horn in 2005 and found recently in Ukraine, will soon be sent to the Netherlands.

This was reported by the NOS Dutch broadcaster.

"Ukrainian and Dutch law enforcement agencies have agreed on the transfer of stolen artworks", the statement reads.

As noted, the paintings will be transferred to the Embassy of the Netherlands in Kyiv and then sent to the Netherlands.

This information was confirmed by the Ukrainian Embassy in the Netherlands.

As reported, January 9-10, 2005, the collection of 24 paintings and 70 pieces of silverware were stolen from the Westfries Museum in Horn (Netherlands).

In April this year, the Ukrainian Security Service reported it had found four stolen paintings. Subsequently, the information about another picture from the collection appeared.

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WASHINGTON -- The smell of fresh paint greeted lawmakers reacquainting themselves with their workplace after their seven-week break.

The scaffolding was coming down, revealing a gleaming dome and, underneath it, restored friezes, oil paintings and statues. The Capitol has been returned to its former glory.

If only they could do the same to Congress.

After their seven-week recess, which was the longest break since at least 1960, the people's representatives in the House are back for just four weeks before recessing again until the election -- and there has been talk of cutting those four weeks of work to three or even two.

They might as well go home, because the House to-do list could end up looking something like this: Impeach the IRS commissioner. Punish the Democrats. Sue the Saudis.

This is how Donald Trump happened.

Americans are worried and angry about the big issues: stagnant wages, immigration, trade deals, health care, entitlement programs, the Zika virus. Yet the best Congress can do for the moment is to keep the government running on autopilot for a few more months, and even this isn't guaranteed.

With three weeks to go in the fiscal year, Congress has enacted not one of the 12 annual appropriations bills (the House has passed six). While leaders struggle to pass a temporary "continuing resolution," Republicans fight among themselves about how long it should last and hard-liners threaten to derail it by adding language banning Syrian refugees.

As Republicans sat down for their caucus meeting Wednesday morning, the conversation wandered -- this member's new grandchild, that member's engagement, various anecdotes and talking points. GOP leaders held a news conference after the meeting, at which they voiced enthusiastic support for ... a new soapbox that had appeared over the recess to help shorter members of the caucus be seen behind the lectern.

"You could put three people on that thing," House Speaker Paul Ryan said upon entering the room and spying the new piece of furniture.

"Gee whiz!" exclaimed Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan., trying it out.

With so little happening, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy tried to create the illusion of activity, asserting that in this Congress "a total of 219 bills have been enacted into law. That's an increase over the 25-year average."

Actually, the average number of bills enacted into law in previous Congresses going back to 1991 is 435 -- double the current output. McCarthy's spokesman said the claim was based on when Congress went on its long summer holiday. But as of now, McCarthy's 219 bills are well below the 25-year average of 257 enacted at this point by previous Congresses. And most have been minor "suspension" bills, such as post-office namings.

"People want a positive vision and a clear direction for solving the country's big problems," Ryan declared at his news conference.

But instead, they're getting:

An attempt to impeach the IRS commissioner. Some hard-liners, still angry about the IRS' treatment of conservative groups, are trying to force leaders to hold a vote to impeach the current commissioner, John Koskinen, who took over after the alleged wrongdoing occurred.

A bid to punish two dozen House Democrats, led by civil rights icon John Lewis, who staged a sit-in on the House floor in June to protest Republicans' refusal to bring up gun-control legislation.

Legislation allowing the families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia in federal courts, a bill with no chance of getting enough votes.

Instead, House Republicans could spend their fleeting time at work resolving an impasse blocking funds to fight the Zika infection. The Senate reached a bipartisan deal in May to provide $1.1 billion for the effort, but the agreement fell apart when House Republicans added a provision restricting funds from going to Planned Parenthood.

At Wednesday's news conference, CNN's Manu Raju asked Ryan why he wouldn't accept a "clean bill" without the poison pill.

"Look, give me a break," Ryan said, blaming the Senate.

But even some of Ryan's Republicans aren't giving him a break. Rep. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y., told Bloomberg's Billy House that "we become obstructionists" with the Planned Parenthood gambit.

And Rep. David Jolly, R-Fla., carried a jar full of Florida mosquitoes onto the House floor. "During the seven weeks ... we were gone, cases of Zika rose from 4,000 to by some estimates over 16,000 in the country," he said. His constituents "are demanding action and they are seeing inaction, and in that inaction they are angry."

Yes, but have they seen that new soapbox for members of Congress? Gee whiz!
The United Nations Foundation today announced its partnership with ColorComm, the premier organization for women of color in all areas of communications including Public Relations, Corporate Communications, Advertising Print Media, Broadcast, Digital, and more. The UN Foundation will host its first annual ColorComm fellowship in New York, to coincide with the UN General Assembly, the High-Level Summit on Managing Movements of Migrants and Refugees, and the 2016 Social Good Summit. The objective of the ColorComm fellowship is to connect participants to events and issues relevant to the UN and UN Foundation in addressing global challenges.

This 3-day fellowship, held September 17-19, will include access to the 2016 Social Good Summit and Social Good Master Class, during which fellows will have the opportunity to interact with speakers and experts dedicated to human rights, international development, girls and women, refuges, global health, and climate. This collaboration will allow the UN Foundation to gain insight on messaging and the impact of global and UN-focused events from diverse-minded communications experts.

Fellows will participate in fireside chats, networking receptions/dinner, and conversations with influencers discussing the power of communications and storytelling in seeking global solutions.

To learn more about how to apply, follow ColorComms Instagram for details and follow the hashtags #ColorComm5 and #2030Now.

####

Contact

Claire Ross, United Nations Foundation, Communications Associate

cross@unfoundation.org

(202)-372-9069

About the United Nations Foundation

The United Nations Foundation builds public-private partnerships to address the worlds most pressing problems, and broadens support for the United Nations through advocacy and public outreach. Through innovative campaigns and initiatives, the Foundation connects people, ideas, and resources to help the UN solve global problems. The Foundation was created in 1998 as a U.S. public charity by entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner and now is supported by philanthropic, corporate, government, and individual donors. Learn more at: www.unfoundation.org.

About ColorComm Network

ColorComm is an essential professional membership organization for women of color in communications. The ColorComm mission is to personally connect women with other like-minded individuals to build a strong network of leaders by creating mentors/mentees, business relationships and friendships. The organization has chapters in Washington, DC, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles and San Francisco. For more information: www.colorcommnetwork.com.
UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Cate Blanchett and actors (left to right ) Stanley Tucci, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kit Harington, and Douglas Booth rehearse for a filmed performance of a rhythmic poem by Jenifer Toksvig called 'What They Took With Them.'  Rich Hardcastle

GENEVA  In the moment they flee, refugees cast a last desperate look around their homes and grab a few vital possessions to take into exile.

Highlighting their harrowing choices, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Cate Blanchett today launched a powerful video, supporting UNHCRs #WithRefugees campaign and petition exclusively on the Facebook platform.

The video is based on a rhythmic poem entitled What They Took With Them by Jenifer Toksvig, inspired by first person testimony from refugees of items they took with them when they were forced to flee.

As soon as I read Jenifer Toksvigs poem, and even more so after I took part in an early performance of it, I was struck by its immense power, said Blanchett.

The rhythm and words of the poem echo the frenzy and chaos and terror of suddenly being forced to leave your home, grabbing what little you can carry with you, and fleeing for safety, she added.

Blanchett performs the poem alongside fellow actors Keira Knightley, Juliet Stevenson, Peter Capaldi, Stanley Tucci, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kit Harington, Douglas Booth, Jesse Eisenberg and Neil Gaiman.

Over 65 million people across the world have been forced to leave everything behind them  everything  and start their lives again from scratch, Blanchett said. As a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, I believe the very least each of us can do is work together to ensure refugees have the basics with which to build back their lives  an education, somewhere safe to live, the ability to work. I hope this film will urge people to go to withrefugees.org and sign the petition.

The video is exclusively released on the Facebook platform. The centre-piece of the UN Refugee Agencys #WithRefugees campaign is a petition asking governments to ensure all refugee children can go to school, all refugees have a safe place to live and that all refugees can work and contribute to their local community.

It already has nearly 900,000 signatures and will be delivered to the UN Secretary General and the President of the UN General Assembly on Friday September 16 ahead of the historic UN Summit on Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants on September 19.

The film of What They Took With Them is also being released on UNHCRs Facebook page at 09.00 BST on September 12 as part of a Facebook live from Australia with Cate Blanchett.

During the broadcast, Blanchett talks about her personal experience of meeting refugees in Lebanon and Jordan with the UN Refugee Agency, and why the #WithRefugees campaign is so critical in the run up to the Summit on Refugees and Migrants. She will also be answering questions related to her work as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador submitted by viewers.

This broadcast will be the first in series of Facebook live events with UNHCR high profile supporters that will sweep across the world encouraging people in every region to sign the #WithRefugees petition, building momentum and support for the campaign in the lead up to the hand-in moment on September 16.

One of the sources for the poem was Brian Sokols photography project, The Most Important Thing, made in collaboration with UNHCR. Many of Brian's photos, along with firsthand accounts from the refugees he photographed, are featured in the film.

Sign the #WithRefugees petition and see the full version of the film here.
SPRINGFIELD  Independent congressional candidate David Gill is asking a federal appeals court to reconsider its decision to temporarily halt a lower courts order that his name should appear on the Nov. 8 ballot in the 13th Congressional District.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order Friday blocking the earlier decision from U.S. District Judge Sue Myerscough until the appeal is settled. She ruled last month that the Illinois State Board of Elections should allow Gill to appear on the ballot even though he didnt gather the required number of signatures on his nominating petitions. The Illinois Attorney Generals Office, which is representing the elections board, appealed Myerscoughs decision.

After Gill, a Bloomington physician whos previously run for Congress four times as a Democrat, collected only 8,593 of the 10,754 valid signatures he needed to earn a spot on the ballot, he challenged the requirement in federal court. He argues that its unconstitutional because its out of line with the requirements for major party candidates. Gills would-be opponents, U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, and Democratic challenger Mark Wicklund of Decatur, each had to collect fewer than 740 signatures.

While she didnt rule on the merits of Gills argument, Myerscough issued her Aug. 25 ruling because she said the candidate showed that he and his supporters would be irreparably harmed if he was left off the ballot. The elections board certified the ballot the next day with Gills name on it.

In its appeal, the attorney generals office argued that the signature requirement is valid because the state has an interest in preventing ballot overcrowding and potential voter confusion. Allowing judges to override signature requirements would sow uncertainty over the whole process, the state argues.

Gills attorneys are asking the full 7th Circuit to vacate Fridays order and hear the case because the temporary decision could effectively settle the matter before all the facts are heard. Local election authorities are required to have absentee ballots ready to be mailed to military and overseas voters by Sept. 23.

Meanwhile, the elections board is scheduled to hold a hearing Sept. 19 on objections to Gills nominating petitions.

Some of the objections former Macon County Republican Party Chairman Jerry Stocks filed against Gills petitions were put on hold after it was determined that hed failed to collect enough signatures. After Myerscoughs ruling, however, the board decided to allow those matters to proceed.

This story will be updated.
SPRINGFIELD  Part of a mental health center in suburban Chicago is being repurposed to provide treatment to Illinois inmates who have serious mental illnesses, Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration has announced.

The move is part of a settlement of a 2007 lawsuit against Illinois that resulted in the state being ordered to provide better care for its mentally ill inmates.

An agreement between the Illinois Departments of Corrections and Human Services will change two sections of the Elgin Mental Health Center to accommodate 44 beds for inmates who require inpatient care. The transition will happen over the next four months, according to a copy of the agreement.

Rauner's administration hailed the plan as a positive step to improve how mentally ill inmates are treated. But the state's largest employee union, which represents the workers at Elgin, says the change comes at the cost of beds that provide services to the public.

"Prisons were not designed to be mental health facilities, but we must adjust to this reality," said John Baldwin, director of the Illinois Department of Corrections. "This new inpatient treatment program will allow us to provide focused care for seriously mentally ill offenders and help them deal with daily stressors of a prison environment."

Elgin currently has 344 beds for people who were deemed unfit for trial or were found not guilty by reason of insanity, and another 75 are "civil" beds, meaning they're meant to provide mental health services to the public.

Rauner's office says no service reductions to the public are expected, and that civil patients currently in Elgin will have been discharged by the time the transition is finalized or transferred to other facilities in the state.

But Anders Lindall, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in Chicago, the union representing state workers, said the changes at Elgin will wipe out 50 beds that hundreds of people use every year.

Lindall said there are already fewer places for people to go for mental health services in the Chicago area and the 14 counties the Elgin center serves. He agreed with the need to provide mental health services to inmates outside of prison, but added that "it has to come from expanding capacity."

"The Rauner administration should not cannibalize what little capacity for mental health services still remains," he said.
New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Sunny along with a few clouds. High 78F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds from time to time. Low 53F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.
At a public rally on September 10 in Yerevan, Civil Contract (Kaghakatsiakan Paymanagir) Party Council member Lena Nazaryan declared that, on behalf of the party she was nominating MP Nikol Pashinyan as the future prime minister of Armenia, proposing that he start to form a shadow government.

Nazaryan argued that with the transition of governance in Armenia from a presidential to a parliamentary system, in 2018, the post of prime minister would be a crucial one.

Sasoun Mikayelyan, a member of the Civil Contract Council, declared that he regarded armed struggle as the only way out left to the people given the current political and economic climate in Armenia.

Mikayelyan, an Artsakh War vet, told the crowd that the recent call by President Sargsyan to form a national unity government is merely a ploy on the eve of local elections to shift the peoples attention from the correct path of struggle.

Alen Simonyan, president of the partys council, opened the rally by referring to the recent resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan, noting that it would change nothing.

Those individuals, those ministers and prime ministers, have only one important task to perform from the day they are appointed. They must, at the necessary time and place, lie on the sacrificial altar and save Serzh Sargsyan, Simonyan said.

Civil Contract President Arayik Haroutyunyan noted that the partys main aim was a happy individual and a considerate public, and to have a strong state.

Dear compatriots, we have serious plans to bring serious changes to Armenia. We are that force that has learnt form the failures of the opposition movements and political forces of the past 25 years. Thats the reason why we do not scream and yell 2-3 times daily that we will do regime change. We dont want to annoy our citizens, parents, making promises above our capabilities, Haroutyunyan declared.
Starving the Beast is a term in politics. It is a kind of political strategy that is being used by American conservatives. Starving the Beast's aim is to limit government spending.

They can do so by cutting taxes in order to deprive the government of revenue in an effort to force the federal government to minimize its spending on education, welfare, Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

Which is why Steve Mims put out a documentary that showcases the "ideological war over public higher education", quotes NY Times. Starving the Beast is real and the states are doing it. Education has now become a business and no longer a public responsibility.

In order to starve the beast, states are cutting university funds. In turn, it forces tuition fees to rise, as well as student fees. Steve Mims, in his film, reviews the educational conflicts in the states of Texas, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Virginia and North Carolina. Mims interviews conservative reformed individuals. However, Mims is not shy in letting them know that he is a traditionalist.

The first time the term starving the beast was used was in 1985. A Wall Street Journal article quotes a man named Reagan. The term was used to refer to a political-fiscal strategy. Now, it is being used as a common reference to budget and spending cuts.

The film, Starving the Beast, looks into the on-going power struggle in different colleges across the United States. It takes into account the political and business related forces that aims to disrupt and reform American public universities and colleges.

Steve Mims focuses on University of Wisconsin, University of North Carolina, University of Virginia, Louisiana State University, University of Texas and Texas A&M. These schools are showing a reframing of public higher education as a "value proposition" which will be borne by the students rather than a "public good" for the society.

Who do you think the financial winners are? Tell us your thoughts below.

Not familiar with the film? Watch the trailer below:
September 12 2016

Govanhill Housing Association has moved on-site with a 5.5m development of 42 affordable homes on the corner of Victoria and Butterbiggins Road, Glasgow.Rising to seven storeys at its highest point the prominent Collective Architecture designed scheme will bring back into productive use a prominent plot of derelict land and complements ongoing work to rehabilitate substandard accommodation in the area.Govanhills vice chairperson, Annie Macfarlane, said, This development, which is part of our overall regeneration strategy for Govanhill, will provide much-needed social housing for people in the community. It involves significant investment in a key site, which has been vacant for a considerable time.Other initiatives to regenerate the area and provide affordable homes include the pilot South-West Govanhill Property Acquisition and Repair Programme, which met its two-year target to buy around 80 properties after just one year.The aim of that programme, which complements our work on new developments, is to buy, repair, let and then manage flats in four tenement blocks that include some of Govanhills poorest quality housing.Completion is scheduled for January 2018.
The European Union (EU) has just transferred 7 million Euros to the Armenian government as part of a 20 million Euro three-year project to sustain agriculture and rural development in the country.

In 2014, the EU confirmed financial support with total value of 25 million to the Armenian government, within ENPARD (European NeighbourhoodProgramme for Agriculture and Rural Development) Armenia.

This programme is being implemented over three years, providing 20 million of budget support for the Government of Armenia to sustain agricultural and rural development. A further 5 million is being provided to support the Ministry of Agriculture and to promote the development of farmers groups and value adding chains throughout Armenia.

The budget support payments are being made over three years, and the 2016 payment of 7 million has just been transferred to the Government of Armenia. In confirming the payment, Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Piotr Switalski, commented:"I very much welcome the progress achieved in the implementation of this programme as a whole, including the valuable role played by the complementary assistance. I would therefore like to congratulate the Government and the Ministry of Agriculture in particular for the achievements in the context of this support."

The EUs Delegation to Armenia says that ENPARD is improving the lives of nearly 800 farmers directly, and indirectly 3,200 people, through the creation of agricultural cooperatives.

The cooperatives have been provided with the latest equipment and technology, and their staff trained in the production of high quality products.55 cooperatives have been formed and registration initiated under the Law on Agricultural Cooperatives. The farmer groups are producing buckwheat, European type high value cheeses, non-traditional vegetables such as broccoli, and dried fruits and herbs.
UTSAs Mission

The University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.

UTSAs Vision

To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.

UTSAs Core Values

We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.

UTSAS Destinations

UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education.

Our Commitment to Inclusivity

The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to ending generations of discrimination and inequity. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.
FCAC Subcommittee Schedules UW Staff Listening Sessions

A subcommittee of the University of Wyomings Financial Crisis Advisory Committee and UW Staff Senate invite UW staff members to attend upcoming listening sessions.

The two groups request input on the current budget situation, potential efficiencies at UW, staff morale and other items or issues that staff members would like to share.

Sessions are scheduled:

-- Tuesday, Sept. 13, 11 a.m.-noon, Aven Nelson Building, Room 212.

-- Wednesday, Sept. 14, 10-11 a.m., College of Business Building, Room 129.

-- Thursday, Sept. 15, 2-3 p.m., Classroom Building, Room 133.

For those who are unable to attend a listening session, they can submit their input by email at uwpres@uwyo.edu or staffsen@uwyo.edu, or via a Staff Senate anonymous form by clicking here.
I am person who is uncompromisingly black and unapologetically gay. Deal with it.

I am person who is uncompromisingly black and unapologetically gay. Deal with it. Alvin McEwen

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It took a lot of guts for these ten players to speak their truths.

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The soap opera that commenced after Elon Musk proposed to buy Twitter in April has finally come to an end. Well, at least the buying part. Complex melodram...
Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.
RACINE COUNTY  This summer, Racine-based Case IH planted a Kentucky soybean field with a tractor that had no cab or driver.

That was just one of the successful tests of an autonomous, driverless Case IH Magnum tractor that reportedly starred at the recent, three-day Farm Progress Show in Boone, Ill.

The tractor is a concept vehicle: proven but not yet being manufactured, explained Rob Zemenchik, Case IH AFS global marketing manager. However, he said manufacturing of the tractor is a matter of when  not if.

Before the vehicles unveiling at the show, which ran from Aug. 30-Sept. 1, Case IH executives played a video of the tractor tilling and planting on land in the southeastern United States earlier this summer.

We were the featured act, if you will, of the Farm Progress Show, Zemenchik said. People from all over the world came to see the tractor. And visitors were taking videos and selfies with it.

No wonder; the tractor is a technological wonder that can operate with a wide range of field implements. It was devised by Case IH, a brand owned by CNH Industrial, and CNHs Innovation Group in collaboration with CNH Industrials long-standing technology provider Utah-based Autonomous Solutions Inc.

Case IH Brand President Andreas Klauser said the concept tractor was created to validate the technology and collect customer feedback regarding their interest and need for future autonomous products.

In many parts of the world, finding skilled labor during peak use seasons is a constant challenge for our customers, Klauser stated.  (T)his autonomous tractor concept demonstrates how our customers and their employees could remotely monitor and control machines directly. This technology will offer our customers greater operational efficiencies for tasks such as tillage, planting, spraying and harvesting.

Capabilities

A bundle of technology enables this independent worker, and the vehicle was built to allow for remote monitoring of preprogrammed operations. Case IH says the onboard system automatically accounts for implement widths and plots the most efficient paths depending on the terrain, obstructions and other machines in use in the same field. The remote operator can supervise and adjust pathways via a desktop computer or portable tablet interface.

Through the use of radar, laser and onboard video cameras, the vehicle can sense stationary or moving obstacles in its path and will stop on its own until the operator, notified by audio and visual alerts, assigns a new path.

Theyre redundant systems that work together, Zemenchik said.

Radar, which allows the tractor to operate at night or in dusty conditions, will detect metal or water in its path, he said. That would include animals, which have a high percentage of water in their bodies.

The vehicle will also stop immediately if GPS signal or position data is lost. Its like a string being cut, Zemenchik remarked.

Other possibilities

A farm manager can supervise the activities of multiple machines via a mobile tablet interface while he tends to other tasks or even operates another vehicle, Zemenchik said.

Multiple autonomous tractors can work as one fleet or simultaneously in multiple sub-fleets assigned to separate fields, each assigned with preprogrammed maps and prescriptions, he said. So you could have one tractor pulling a chisel plow followed closely by another one operating a planter.

Case IH installed the technologies on a Magnum tractor, and Magnums are manufactured at CNH Industrials local plant at 2701 Oakes Road. So (Mount Pleasant) and other plants would have a big role to play, Zemenchik said, in manufacturing the driverless tractor.

However, manufacturing will not begin inside of the next three years, he said, because the tractor would drive from farm to farm on public roads.

We need definition for how they will operate on public roads and drive through towns, Zemenchik pointed out. That will involve the government and also the auto industry, which is on a similar path toward driverless cars.

At some point, these two worlds will intersect, he said.

Surprisingly, Zemenchik said the driverless tractors could be comparable in price to those that require a person inside. As the cost of sensors comes down and resources are reallocated from the cab  which can add more than $50,000 in cost  to those technologies, he said the driverless tractor could compete on price with a human-driven tractor.
The injury curse of 2015/16 took a number of wrestling careers with it such as Daniel Bryan and the legendary Sting.

One name that may have flown under the radar was Tyson Kidd who suffered a severe neck injury during a dark match in June of last year.

Tyson Kidd's contract expiring?

Tyson Kidd and Cesaro walked out of WrestleMania 31 as World Tag-Team champions (image: dailyddt.com)

The career of the 36-year-old has been up in the air for a number of months with many questioning the Canadian's ability to perform following his neck surgery.

Kidd was injured during a dark match before Monday Night Raw with Samoa Joe in June of last year resulting in him remaining unable to compete ever since with medics refusing to clear him.

The injury was so severe that only a small percentage of those who suffer it actually survive, and a large portion of the rest often become paralyzed or die.

No doubt Kidd is one tough cookie but with WWE being a business more than anything else, many questioned how long they could keep an inactive performer on their payroll.

There was recent suggestion that the former WWE and World Tag-Team champion's contract was about to expire; however these reports are completely false.

Just a few months ago the two parties come to an agreement on a new deal but no word onto what the official agreement actually was.

The WWE curse

It seemed what could go wrong for WWE did actually go wrong in the run up to WrestleMania as a number of injuries hit their high profile stars.

John Cena, Seth Rollins, Randy Orton and Cesaro all suffered injuries ruling them out of competing at The Grandest Stage of Them All.

All of the talent that walked out as champions at WrestleMania 31 picked up legitimate injuries forcing WWE to alter their storylines.

While the curse now seems to be fading, despite the injury suffered by Finn Balor at SummerSlam, it became a hugely troubled time for the wrestling promotion who still managed to put on an entertaining show in Texas.
PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc introduces Vietnamese coffee to Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli on the sidelines of the 2016 CAEXPO in Nanning on September 11, 2016.

The 13th China-ASEAN Expo, with the theme Jointly Building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, taking place this week on September 11-14, will highlight the International Economic and Industrial Capacity Cooperation Exhibition.

Prioritising infrastructure construction and equipment supply, this exhibition will be enriched with innovations in science and technology, metallurgy, and building materials, as well as financial services, aiming at practically strengthening industrial cooperation, equipment manufacturing, economy, trade, and investment among China, the ASEAN, and other countries along the Belt and Road.



China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) is co-sponsored by ministries and departments of commerce or industry and trade from China and the ten ASEAN member states as well as the ASEAN Secretariat, and is organized by the Peoples Government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The leaders of China and the 10 ASEAN participants will be presenting the opening ceremony and jointly inaugurating both events.

The opening ceremony was held at a new venue, the Osmanthus Hall of Nanning International Convention & Exhibition Centre. It is the first time that an art performance has been arranged as a pre-show warm-up. Artists from Vietnam (Country of Honour at the 13th CAEXPO) were invited to play the single-string instrument, enchanting the audience with the charm unique to Vietnamese folk art.

This year also marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the China-ASEAN dialogue, the first year of the ASEAN Community, and the efforts to upgrade the China-ASEAN FTA.

At the ceremony, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that Vietnam stands ready to do its part as a bridge between the ASEAN Economic Community and China, work with other ASEAN countries to strengthen all-round cooperation, maintain peace and stability, and settle differences in a mutually beneficial way for all sides in order to contribute to the peace, cooperation, development and prosperity in the region.

He stated that the ASEAN-China partnership looks back on number major achievements over the past 25 years, to many of which Viet Nam has made significant contributions.

On the same day, Phuc chatted with Chinese business chief executive officers at a roundtable talk, where he called for investments as well as clarified Vietnams requirements on technology, environmental issues, and labour.
The $278-million Danang IT Park, originally invested by Rocky Lai & Associates from the US and KDDI from Japan, is lying uncompleted three years after construction started. Following the withdrawal of the original investors, Trung Nam Land JSC (Trung Nam) and its partner Trung Nam Construction & Engineering Corporation (Trung Nam E&C) have stepped up and expressed interest in taking over.

However, the project has yet to be transferred to the new developers. According to Tran Van Mien, deputy chairman of the Danang Peoples Committee, there are serious doubts about the developers capacity to complete the park.

At the March 3 meeting with the Peoples Committee and government agencies of Danang, Trung Nam said it would pay off all debts burdening Danang Information Technology Park Development Co., Ltd. (DITP), which was established by the old investors to develop the project. The Danang Tax Department said that Trung Nam would have to pay VND222.4 billion ($10 million) in land lease fees, to which Trung Nam gallantly agreed. The only condition Trung Nam had was that the city agrees in principle to make it the new owner of DITP.

As of now, the Peoples Committee has not yet signed any agreements with DITP and Trung Nam in order to either transfer the project so the new developers can pay the debts and continue the construction works or revoke if DITP and Trung Nam do not keep their commitments to the committee.

Still, at the site, Trung Nam is already deploying equipment. It has put up some components and changed the name of the developer on the project sign.

VIR is unable to contact Bui Xuan Dinh, general director of Trung Nam Land.

Danang IT Park was designed tofollow the model of the US Silicon Valley and Hshinchu Science Park in Taiwan. It was expected to lure foreign scientists, engineers, as well as IT and hi-tech specialists to Danang, and encourage training at universities.

The IT Park was designed with six functional areas: a production area, an area for research and development and training-consulting, an office area, an area for technical infrastructure, an area for product exhibition, and one for healthcare services, supermarkets, and a school.
Alstom has said it will find jobs for Belfort workers at other sites around France, but unions say most of those affected are not in a position to move, leaving them facing redundancy. (AFP/Sebastien Bozon)

Trainmaker Alstom announced this week that it would cease production in the eastern city of Belfort, a symbol of French industrial prowess that produced Alstom's first steam train in 1880.

Alstom said it would centralise its train production at a site 200 kilometres further north in Alsace and promised to offer the 400 workers in Belfort other jobs.

Valls, however, criticised the move by Alstom, in which the French state has a minority stake. "The method used by Alstom is unacceptable," Valls said. "We can still save Alstom, as long as its leaders fully play their part.

Valls said he and Hollande would hold talks on Monday at the Elysee Palace with the economy, industry and transport ministers to discuss the situation.

The prospect of job losses in Belfort is of concern to the Socialist government, with polls showing Hollande and his party facing a drubbing in presidential and legislative elections in the spring, partly because of their failure to make a serious dent in high unemployment.

While Alstom has said it will find jobs for the Belfort workers at other sites around France, unions say most of those affected are not in a position to move, leaving them facing redundancy.

On Thursday, Alstom's chief executive Henri Poupart-Lafarge was summoned by Economy Minister Michel Sapin to explain the move out of Belfort.

The French government has a habit of intervening when it deems French companies or jobs to be under threat, particularly from multinationals.

When US conglomerate GE announced a bid for Alstom's energy assets in 2014 the state got involved, getting German group Siemens to put up a rival bid before finally coming down on the side of GE.
Jerome Pecresse

What specific steps are GE taking to carry out this plan?

As per the agreement, GE will utilise its global wind development expertise and work with local developers to identify potential projects. Furthermore, the corporation will support the implementation of Vietnams national target programme through local manufacturing of wind turbine equipment and components at GEs Haiphong facility, and by collaboration with other local suppliers. We are working to identify suitable projects. At the moment, we have projects saved up that would be good because the land is ready, the wind conditions are good, and the connection will be easy. We will probably work with internationally competent partners.

We are engaged in conversations with the government on how we can turn the MoU into real wind power projects as fast as possible, because this is imperative in the countrys renewable development. It is also important for Vietnam, as for many countries in the world, to develop resources at hand, instead of importing locally scarce resources, like gas or coal. It can also be very positive for the country as far as jobs are concerned. We already have a facility in Haiphong with 700 people assembling some important turbine components, but we are confident it would create more jobs in Vietnam for Vietnamese nationals.

Vietnam has already licensed almost 50 wind projects. Will there be overlap with GEs projects?

Some of the projects we have identified are among those already licensed. We have been discussing co-operation opportunities with the developers of these projects.

The Vietnamese policy on feed-in tariffs has discouraged many investors. How is it going to affect wind power development in the country?

First of all, we want to stress that wind power has become cheaper and cheaper thanks to the technology evolution and it is now able to compete with thermal power, and Vietnam has the resources to produce it competitively. With the turbine components produced locally, the production costs are poised to be even more competitive. With proper financing, it is entirely possible to develop wind energy in Vietnam at more competitive costs.

However, the issue is with the capital framework that allows the project to be financed at a normal cost. When you compare Vietnam and Thailand, for example, Vietnam has higher wind value as it has a bigger seashore. However, Thailand is more mature in wind power development because local banks lend to such projects more easily, while Vietnam will depend more on foreign funding. Therefore, with a proper capital framework and a secured buyer for the wind energy produced, lenders are likely to be more open to talks. Then we can get a normal financing cost and wind energy will be competitive. Wind energy is extremely competitive in many parts of the world, and I see no reason for it to be different in Vietnam.

We will not only supply turbines, but also act as advisors to the government to make a more conducive legal framework that will allow competitive wind power production. There are international standards on how such a framework should be and with GEs experience we can provide valuable insight.

Does the grid have to evolve to adapt to wind energy?

GE did a study on the Vietnamese grids ability to absorb wind energy, which was co-funded by the US Trade and Development Agency three years ago. One of the findings was that Vietnam can put additional wind energy on the grid without having to change its infrastructure. This is a definitive advantage for Vietnam.

Still, wind is a natural source that is a bit unpredictable. Sometimes, there is a lot of wind and sometimes not so much, and we still need to have stable energy when the wind farms are not running on full capacity, which means we have to secure other sources of energy to make up for the difference. In that context, Vietnams power system has a great deal of hydropower which is very flexible, to make up for that difference.

When GE purchased Alstom Grid, the world leader in managing transmissions, we did so to develop the capacity to provide solutions at all levels, including the grid level, to build stronger, more reliable lines as well as software that allows real time management of the grid. Our software can help Vietnam manage the national grid more efficiently, so that it can work at higher levels of stability and accommodate different sources of energy to make up for one another.
illustration photo - source: internet

As reported by newswire vneconomy, at a meeting between Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Phan Tam and Vijay Pattabhiraman, CIO of Asian Infrastructure Group under J.P. Morgan Institutional Asset Management on September 9, the deputy minister congratulated J.P. Morgan on picking Gtel Mobile for cooperation in Vietnam.

Phan said that J.P. Morgan Chases investment in the Vietnamese telecom market comes at a very opportune moment as the market is stepping into a new era of explosive growth, and wishes J.P. Morgan Chase success.

According to Phan Tam, the Ministry of Information and Communications wants to establish a competitive telecom market featuring a number of big operators. The Ministry thus supports the participation of foreign operators in order to increase competition and breathe new life into the market.

He also said Vietnam is going to pilot a scheme where users can change their networks but keep their phone numbers and that this is going to be a big chance for new operators if they can provide good services to compel a change of subscriptions.

At the moment, the two sides have yet to announce concrete cooperation plans or the details of their agreement.

In March, it was rumoured that Gtel Mobile was set team up with a foreign partner for its telecommunications network and service development.

In Vietnam, J.P. Morgan has offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, providing treasury services, corporate banking, foreign exchange, and money markets.

Gmobile is Vietnams smallest mobile network in terms of users, with a market share of 3.22 per cent as of the end of 2014. It was once expected to leave the market. For the past two years, the number of users has been low and their activity was also relatively low. Gmobile has not issued new promotions recently.

Gmobile, previously Beeline, is operated by Gtel Mobile, a joint venture between Vietnamese company Global Telecommunications Corporation and Russian VimpelCom. Beeline started operation in 2009. In 2011, VimpelCom planned to invest another $500 million, bringing its total investment in the venture to $1 billion. However, it only disbursed $200 million, and raised ownership in the venture to 49 per cent. A year later it sold its stake to Gtel.
How is the global working environment changing? And what do you think are the causes behind these developments?

Its evident that technology and innovation are changing various aspects of the world, including businesses. Thanks to technological developments, companies can expand their businesses across countries and cultures more easily. There are other distinct factors like climate change and changing demographics that offer companies the opportunities to explore different products and solutions for newer markets across the globe.

Asia is home to more than 4 billion people with rising incomes and needs. This has created a distinct focus towards Asia and specifically developing markets within the continent. While opportunities exist, companies will also have to recognize the different needs of the customer and other stakeholders. Collaboration, working together and creating an environment that encourages creativity and innovation will be the key to successful partnerships.

With changing demographics, emerging markets such as Vietnam enjoy a young, growing population, who are both potential workers and consumers. There is a shift in the customer base, talent pool and rapid technological advances. The global workplace is therefore becoming more multi-cultural, diverse and change continues to be the only constant.

In what ways do these changes affect companies human resources? What are the new competencies that employers look for in their staff?

As customer needs become more localised, complex and the need for technology to provide solutions become more evident, businesses around the world will increasingly depend on specialists, both technical and otherwise. Their HR strategies are likely to focus on creating a strong talent base of technical experts, specialist skills, creativity and flexible mindsets. Importantly, a culture that fosters leadership through inclusion, influence, innovation and collaboration in an increasingly multi-cultural and diverse workplace will be critical.

Learning will continue to be a critical aspect of an individuals career. This is very likely to be at a much more dramatic scale. Fast changing technologies and solution delivery platforms are likely to force a continuous process of learning, unlearning and relearning.

I think these strategies will reflect the glocal mind-set that is so important in this era. Interactions across countries and cultures in such a large scale will be more commonplace than ever before.

How is Monsanto incorporating these new HR strategies into its business practices?

Monsanto is working together with our stakeholders for sustainable agriculture by bringing a broad range of solutions to help nourish our growing world and collaborate to help tackle some of the worlds biggest challenges in agriculture. Technology is changing the agricultural sector that we operate in very rapidly due to break-through innovations in farming and cultivation.

We always put our customers, who are our farmers, at the heart of our business and we strive to solve problems for our customers through our products and solutions leveraging our focus on technology. The technical skills of our employees continue to be a core focus area. We emphasise on leading through influence, and our leaders are encouraged to focus on developing our people and teams. Our employees learn through intentional on the job experiences, coaching, mentoring as well as conventional learning sessions delivered through classroom sessions as well as learning sessions online.

We have been recognised as a company that encourages diversity and we strive to create an inclusive environment for a productive multi-cultural talent pool. We have also been recognised as a Great Place to Work across multiple geographies.

Can you elaborate on what Monsanto has done in Vietnam to help cultivate the next generation of employees, who are currently university students?

Our focus is helping Vietnamese students develop key competencies for the international working environment. Every year, we visit various universities across the country to hold seminars and share sessions on workplace skills. Weve joined numerous job fairs and exhibitions at universities to meet students. We always welcome them to do internships at our company and some of them become employees at a later stage.

Most notably, weve signed Memorandums of Understanding with the University of Agriculture and Forestry in Ho Chi Minh City and the Vietnam National University of Agriculture in Hanoi (VNUA).

Over five years, weve committed VND1.5 billion ($67,200) for the scholarship fund with the VNUA. Each year, five students from the biotechnology department are awarded $2,000 each, and $5,000 is granted to research projects at the VNUA.
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PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc addresses the round-table dialogue with Chinese chief executive officers in Nanning, China on September 11, 2016. Photo: VGP

Beside political stability, Viet Nam is featured with golden population and cheap labor force, the Government chief said.

The country has signed 12 free trade agreements is now joining talks on other four agreements, including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership grouping of ten ASEAN members and China.

Related to foreign investment attraction, PM Phuc said Viet Nam is home to 21,000 projects with total registered capital of US$300 billion from over 100 nations and territories.

Of the total figure, Chinese investors have poured some US$11 billion in 1,500 project, ranking 9th among foreign investors in Viet Nam.

The two-way trade volume reached over US$66 billion last year and the revenue increased by 1.5% to US$38.2 billion in the first seven months this year.

PM Phuc re-affirmed the Vietnamese Governments position to build up an open environment conducive to business development, considering the success of investors as its own success.

He stressed the Governments resolve to build a developmental Cabinet, a Cabinet of integrity that serves citizens and businesses.

The Government will also focus on institutional development, administrative reform, and improvement of business environment in order to enhance the competitiveness of the economy, PM Phuc said.

Many kinds of business licenses can be issued within one day, PM Phuc gave an example of the Governments efforts to improve the business environment.

According to the World Bank, Viet Nams business environment jumped three notches, ranking 5th among 10 ASEAN member countries.

PM Phuc also stressed the Governments view not to barter the environment for economic growth.
Stocks retreated from Friday's gains as investors were cautious with new trading regulations and lower oil prices put pressure on energy firms.- Photo vietnamplus.vn

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange dropped 1.2 per cent to close at 658.77 points.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange fell 0.8 per cent to end at 83.78 points.

Investors remained cautious in the early session as new trading regulations issued by the two local exchanges came into effect today, resulting in low market liquidity.

More than 60.5 million shares were exchanged in the early session, worth VND1.25 trillion (US$55.7 million).

Energy stocks were the worst hit after crude prices plunged on Friday following a four-day rally. They continued to decline during the early session.

US crude was being traded at near $45 per barrel, down 1.7 per cent from Friday and 5.3 per cent after two sessions.

Leading oil stocks such as PetroVietnam Gas Corp (GAS) and PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corp (PVD) lost 1.6 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively.

Leading blue chips fell on foreign selling as foreign investment funds were set to conclude their third-quarter review of portfolios.

Vietcombank (VCB) slumped 3.1 per cent, consumer goods producer Masan Group (MSN) was down 2.3 per cent and steel maker Hoa Phat Group (HPG) decreased by 1.5 per cent.
At last weeks Global Green Growth Week 2016, organised by Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) on South Koreas Jeju Island, Vietnams Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) and GGGI signed an agreement on a five-year partnership strategy, which aims to ensure Vietnams rapid economic growth is accompanied by a sustainable, inclusive and comprehensive environmental strategy.

This strategy, known as the GGGI Vietnam Country Planning Framework 2016-2020 (CPF), outlines three main objectives.

Firstly, green growth should be integrated into socio-economic planning strategies to ensure the economy expands while protecting environmental integrity.

Secondly, Vietnams rapidly growing cities should meet citizens needs by promoting sustainable production and consumption of energy and natural resources.

Lastly, public and private finance should be channeled toward energy, transportation, and industrial infrastructure that is environmentally sound.

MPI Deputy Minister Nguyen The Phuong, who signed the CPF, stated that the strategy will help Vietnam realise green growth goals in both the short and long term.

In the short-term, the first priority is co-operation to strengthen institutions and policies regarding green growth. The second priority is to support capacity building for the social and economic development associated with green growth, including the mobilisation of resources for implementation, he said.

Adam Ward, GGGIs country representative for Vietnam, told VIR that this five year (2016-2020) country strategy of GGGI and Vietnams government shows GGGIs and Vietnams strong commitment to working together to deliver green growth in the finance, urban and energy sectors.

The strategy was developed under the guidance of the MPI to identify niche areas for GGGI given their skills and the demands of the government.

The work cuts across policy, right through to the development of bankable projects to access finance for implementation. The strategy benefited from input from all relevant ministries, development partners, civil society, and the private sector, Ward said.

According to the CPF, over the next five years, Vietnams Government and GGGI will support delivery of Vietnams Nationally Determined Contribution, Sustainable Development Goals, and GGGIs corporate strategy by working across three outcomes.

With outcome one, green growth objectives are mainstreamed into development planning processes and national financing arrangements. Specifically, GGGI will work to mainstream green growth into the Socio-Economic Development Strategy and Plan, as well as roll out the Investment Guidelines for Green Growth. In addition, GGGI will work to strengthen an existing national financing vehicle, and partner with MPI and Vietnam Development Bank (ADB) on greening their lending portfolios.

In outcome two, green energy uptake is increased through enhanced enabling environments and the development of bankable projects. This outcome will focus in the geothermal, waste-to-energy and solar sub-sectors, and work on strategic policy advice such as the necessary feed-in tariffs. GGGI will partner with ADB and GIZ to develop bankable projects.

Meanwhile, for outcome three, green growth is integrated into Vietnams urban development strategies and bankable projects are developed. GGGI will develop a national urban green growth strategy, green master planning guidance for cities and a national programme on green urban development. Bankable projects will be developed in infrastructure gaps such as urban wastewater.

According to GGGI, in Vietnam, urban populations have increased at 3 per cent annually, which has resulted in worsening air and water quality. Vietnams most recent greenhouse gas emissions inventory shows a 602 per cent increase since 1990.

Moreover, emissions growth per unit of GDP has surpassed all other Asia-Pacific developing countries except China. The emissions are a result of the power generation, transport, industrial and cement sectors.

The burning of coal is a major contributor; coal currently occupies over 36 per cent of electricity capacity, and by 2030, coal-fired stations are expected to supply 56 per cent of national electricity demand.

GGGI began working in Vietnam in 2011, with Vietnam being a founding member country of GGGI. GGGI has collaborated on implementing the countrys Green Growth Strategy, spanning the finance, water and urban sectors.
Zika is primarily transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, and also by sexual contact AFP/Marvin Recinos

Residents in the Thai capital were urged not to be alarmed after the cases were confirmed in the Sathorn area of the city, an up-market neighbourhood popular with the city's expatriate community and part of the capital's business district.

"Of the 21 cases confirmed in the Sathorn area there was one pregnant woman who recovered and gave birth successfully," Ministry of Public Health spokesman Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoenchai told Reuters by telephone.

"Mother and newborn are safe," he said, adding that the pregnant woman's husband had recently returned from Singapore.

Thailand first recorded the Zika virus in 2012 and the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority conducts regular testing for the virus.

The new Thai cases follow confirmation from Malaysia on Wednesday of its first case of the Zika virus in a pregnant woman, a 27-year-old living in a southern city next to Singapore.

Singapore reported its first locally infected Zika patient on Aug 27 and since then, the number of reported infections has swelled to more than 300.

Zika infections in pregnant women have been shown to cause microcephaly, a severe birth defect in which the head and brain are undersized, besides other brain abnormalities.

Suwannachai said that 30 pregnant women with Zika were being monitored in Thailand. So far, six of the women had given birth without complications or any birth defects.

Sixteen out of Thailand's 76 provinces have confirmed cases of Zika since January this year, according to the health ministry, but no birth defects or deaths have been reported.

"There have been no deaths or complications so far, so I urge our brothers and sisters not to be alarmed," said Suwannachai.

Although microcephaly is typically detected during ultrasounds in the late second and early third trimester of pregnancy, it can be detected as early as 18-20 weeks gestation, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
illustration photo - source: Dantri

Incoming capital

Data from the General Statistics Office (GSO) revealed that in the last two years, new Korean and Japanese investments topped the list of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam.

Korea registered 505 new investment projects in 2014 and 702 projects in 2015, boasting a combined registered capital of $8.8 billion. In the first eight months of 2016, the nation rolled out some $3.84 billion in registered capital for another 517 new projects in Vietnam.

According to Shinhan Bank Vietnam general director Shin Dong Min, last years enactment of the Vietnam-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (VKFTA) has facilitated the flow of Korean businesses into Vietnam.

Vietnam is Koreas third-largest export market. In the year to the end of July, the value of goods  mostly raw and supporting materials  and services reached $18 billion. This accounts for 6.4 per cent of Koreas total export turnover. Vietnam has been acting as a critical manufacturing hub for Korean enterprises, Shin said.

Japan, meanwhile, has secured second place on the FDI board in terms of new investment projects. It launched roughly 300 projects in both 2014 and 2015, with its registered capital for the two years standing at $1.21 billion and $1.28 billion, respectively. In terms of total foreign investment, the Japanese projects accounted for 7.7 per cent in 2014 and 8.2 per cent in 2015.

During January-August this year, some $552 million invested in 220 new projects was registered by Japanese investors, accounting for 5.6 per cent of total foreign investment.

Among potential markets, Vietnam emerges as a fast-growing economy with a huge population base. As such, consumer demand is enormous, said Japanese banking expert Norichika Ikeda in an interview in Hanoi. So its an ideal country that attracts many Japanese investors.

Many would agree with Ikeda. Masanobu Nakanishi, country head for Vietnam of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), said, Vietnam is a burgeoning economy and a key player in leading growth in Southeast Asia. Its attractiveness is boosted by its highly-qualified but low-cost labour, and its relaxing regulations.

In recent years, free trade agreements and changing regulations have given rise to the influx of foreign companies entering the country. SMBCs business in Vietnam is, as such, increasing in proportion [to the number] of non-Japanese corporates eager to tap into this vibrant market.

Financial needs

In step with the growing interest of their investors in the Vietnamese market and increasing FDI inflows in Vietnam, Korean and Japanese financial institutions have taken the initiative to strengthen their commercial presence, to cater to their customers financial needs here in Vietnam.

These investors are bank customers, so when they go overseas, their banks also want to go after them, to continue providing financial services for these businesses in the invested countries, said banking expert Ikeda.

In addition, according to Ikeda, as competition heats up and the business environment in Japan grows less forgiving, Japanese financial institutions ought to factor in tighter profit margins. Looking to expand elsewhere would be a smart play, rather than solely focusing on their traditional market.

The markets significance to SMBC is elevated thanks to the strong bilateral relations between our governments, making Japan one of the top investors in the country, Nakanishi commented.

In the last decade, the large Japanese banks SMBC, Mizuho Bank, and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) upgraded their Vietnamese presence from representative offices to branches. Japans Bank of Fukuoka also established a representative office in Ho Chi Minh City in July, to conduct market surveys and investment promotion in Vietnam.

SMBC firmly believes that Vietnam has high medium-to-long-term growth potential, and the country is an important part of our multi-franchise strategy as we strive to become a key financial player in the Asia region, said Nakanishi. We believe in the potential of the country to grow, with its talent and young population, and we remain committed to growing with the country and serving companies operating here.

Koreas biggest lender in terms of consolidated assets, Woori Bank, has recently been licensed to operate as a 100 per cent foreign-owned unit in Vietnam. They will join a cadre of six other wholly foreign-owned banks, set to address the financial needs of a mounting number of Korean investors.

In 2015 and 2016, Shinhan Vietnam opened several branch offices in the north of Vietnam  in Haiphong, Thai Nguyen, and Vinh Phuc areas that have drawn investment from large Korean enterprises like Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics.

According to Shinhan Bank Vietnams general director, the regions potential does not stop at the conglomerates like Samsung or LG that chose Haiphong for their plant bases. There are also many other Korean enterprises currently based in other countries, like China, who could well be moving to Vietnam in the time to come.

Betting on the lucrative market

These large-scale Asian banks have enough capacity to serve both their home country clients and Vietnams 90-plus million. But so far, these banks have taken cautious steps into the local financial market.

While our bank will continue to focus on corporate banking services, we will leverage our innovation to help companies in Vietnam leapfrog in the digital space, said SMBCs Nakanishi. For example, we announced last November a memorandum of understanding with Hitachi and Vietnam Post to offer prepaid services, including applications such as online shopping and cash transfers via the mobile phone.

According to Nakanishi, the retail banking space is highly challenging, and a foreign bank must have scale and local know-how in order to succeed in the market. With its 15 per cent stake investment in Eximbank, the lender looks to extend its services to local companies. We will continue to strengthen our alliances and explore opportunities that match with our expertise when making decisions on furthering our investments in this space and delivering quality services to clients, Nakanishi said.

The other Japanese entries to Vietnams financial world have also been following the strategic partnership template. MUFG injected some $743 million into Vietnams largest bank in terms of registered capital, Vietinbank, for a 19.73 per cent stake, while Mizuho Bank spent $567 million on a 15 per cent stake in Vietcombank.

Taku Ishikawa, general director of Mizuhos Hanoi branch, said the bank will leverage its strong customer base in Japan to expand its business in Vietnam, to support its customers when investing in Vietnam. The banks collaboration with Vietcombank as a strategic partner is a good opportunity for us to enhance our services to customers in Vietnam, he noted.

General director Shin said Shinhan Bank Vietnam so far has 18 units operating across the nation, and not all of these branches focus on Korean corporate clients. Weve been working hard to balance our Korean clients and Vietnamese ones, in both our corporate and retail segments.

Shin shared that by the end of 2012, the lenders outstanding loans to individuals came to some $7 million, but at present, the figure has reached up to $177 million. By the end of the year, Shinhan Bank Vietnam might achieve roughly $200 million in total outstanding loans to individuals.

What it means it that in merely four years, our outstanding loans to individuals has climbed by 30-fold, said Shin. With the enormous potential retail market, we are focusing all resources and efforts to increase our revenue in this segment.
The company expects to complete the purchase in early 2017, however, it has declined to disclose the name of its US partner or the deal value.

Chief executive officer Mai Kieu Lien said that the US is the most difficult market, thus if Vinamilk can set a firm foothold there, it will likely be able to penetrate other markets and boost its growth.

Lien added that Vinamilk is intensifying efforts to acquire foreign dairy companies, as the Vietnamese dairy market is less developed than that of neighbouring countries. Notably, according to Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI)s statistics, in 2015, the annual dairy consumption in Vietnam is 19 litres per person, much lower than the 51 litres in Malaysia and the 34 litres in Thailand .

Besides, Vinamilk will increase its funds for M&A deals in order to reach $3 billion in revenue by the end of 2017. It is also aiming for an average annual growth of at least 10 per cent.

Earlier in May, Vinamilk completed the $3 million sale of its remaining shares in US dairy and food company Driftwood Dairy Holding Corporation, after spending $7 million on buying 70 per cent of the company in December 2014.

Outside of Vietnam and the US , Vinamilk has operations in New Zealand , with a 22.8 per cent stake in Miraka, and a 51 per cent holding in a $23-million dairy processing plant in Cambodia .
File photo PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

William E. Hart, director of employer management for the Philadelphia Department of Prisons, talks about re-entry services in a trailer outside the Curran Fromhold Correctional Facility.


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Mindful Eating: Slower Consumption for Better Health

With tight schedules and busy lives, sitting down to a meal free of distraction can be more of a luxury than the norm. Mindful eating gets pushed aside for many reasons. Taking a break to satisfy your hunger may also seem like the perfect opportunity to catch up on social
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday sentenced the deputy leader of Cambodias opposition party, Kem Sokha, to five months in prison for failing to appear for questioning over a separate charge.

He was also fined about $200 by the court.

Sokha had failed to show up for questioning over his alleged affair with a hairdresser, Khom Chandaraty.

Investigating Judge Keo Mony said on Friday that Sokha had been found guilty in absentia.

Immediately after the ruling, the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party issued a statement calling the decision politically motivated.

Chan Cheng, Sokhas lawyer, said the verdict did not consistently comply with the law and violated the constitution as Sokha was protected from prosecution by parliamentary immunity.

The ruling Cambodian Peoples Party has previously argued that there was enough evidence in the case so that his immunity did not apply.

Ly Sophanna, a court spokesman, said Sokha had the right to appeal the verdict.

During Fridays hearing Sokhas supporters scuffled with district security guards deployed outside the court. One protester was arrested and later released.

Speaking at the party headquarters, Sokha said he was committed to struggle and sacrifice for Cambodia without any hesitation even though they have harassed me with the power of the state, and used the courts as a tool to attack my political rights and end my life in politics.

Am Sam Ath, a senior investigator at local rights group Licadho, said the ruling did not bode well for upcoming local elections due to be held next year before a general election in 2018.

In pluralist societies, all the parties act based on the principle of equality ... and when any political party is put under pressure, it means that the election will be not free and fair, he said.
Friday marked the 40th anniversary of the death of Mao Zedong, who founded the People's Republic of China in 1949 and ran it virtually uncontested until his death.

While his reputation was deeply tarnished by the chaos and destruction of the ultra-radical 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, subsequent generations have generally accepted the ruling Communist Party's official verdict that he was on balance 70 percent right and 30 percent wrong.

Here are some ways Mao's influence lingers in today's very-different China.

Still revered: Mao's birthplace in the village of Shaoshan in Hunan province receives millions of visitors a year, and his embalmed corpse lies within a hulking mausoleum in the center of sprawling Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing. His portrait still hangs from iconic Tiananmen Gate, from which he proclaimed the establishment of the new communist state on October 1, 1949, and his visage peers from every denomination of Chinese currency.

All are signs of how he has become a virtual symbol of state, even while in a modern industrial and increasingly capitalistic China that has veered greatly from his ideal of a radical communist state steeped in peasant virtues and egalitarian ideals.

Legacy of unity: Among Mao's key achievements was the welding of a fractious China into a unitary state by overthrowing Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government, defeating warlord factions and cementing control over the peripheral western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang. Mao's state has actually grown with the reabsorption in recent decades of the former British colony of Hong Kong and Portuguese colony of Macau. China has also moved aggressively to assert its claim to virtually the entire South China Sea, sparking frictions with its southern neighbors.

One territory remains outside Beijing's control, however: the self-governing island of Taiwan, to which Chiang's defeated forces retreated in 1949.

Party control: Mao advocated strict Communist Party control over all aspects of life, and while his totalitarian state is a thing of the past, the party maintains an iron grip on political power. The last major challenge it faced, the 1989 pro-democracy protests centered on Tiananmen Square, were brutally suppressed and remain a taboo subject.

China continues to imprison Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo for co-authoring a call for ending the communist monopoly on power, and civic and legal groups outside party control face constant harassment and persecution. A roundup of activist lawyers in June 2015 has sent a chill through the activist community, and the prospects for a movement arising to oppose the party seem next to nil.

Powerful military: One of Mao's most famous dictums was that political power came from the barrel of a gun, and the People's Liberation Army remains the party's house guard, despite calls for it to shift loyalty to the government instead. In addition to retaining a monopoly on force at home, the PLA has become a growing force in regional and even global military affairs. With 2.3 million members, it is the world's largest standing military, although plans call for it to shrink by 300,000.

Years of double-digit-percentage increases in China's military budget  now the world's second-largest  have transformed the army into an increasingly high-tech and battle-proficient force, despite not having engaged in any major conflict since 1979.

Systematic weaknesses: Not all is smooth sailing. The party Mao bequeathed to his successors remains brittle and intolerant, opaque and exclusive, placing hundreds of millions of Chinese outside the decision-making process. Pent-up frustrations occasionally burst into episodes of unrest, although the massive security state has shown its ability to suppress them.

In addition, the nationalism unleashed by Mao may force the government to take hard-line positions that imperil its goal of being viewed as a responsible player in global society.

Economic tensions deriving from Mao's command economy also linger. In a move that might have pleased the revolutionary Mao, if not the later authoritarian leader, workers in China's bloated state industries are growing restive over layoffs and cutbacks at a time when overall economic growth, while still robust, is slowing.
Who is the man behind U.S. President Barack Obamas witticisms? And what school does one need to attend to become the joke writer for the occupant of the Oval Office? Thats what Ihar Tsikhanenka of VOAs Russian Service set out to discover.
The controversy still rages over Russia's possible hacking into computer systems used by American political entities. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has warned Russia not to try to interfere with the U.S. general election in November. Yet Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says he doubts that Russia is involved. VOA's Carolyn Presutti sorts it all out.
For anyone fleeing Syrias civil war, the journey to safety is hazardous, sometimes deadly. For disabled refugees, the challenges are immense  but not insurmountable. Henry Ridgwell reports on the extraordinary story of two siblings who fled Islamic State, despite being confined to wheelchairs.
Afghan security forces Monday killed two armed suicide bombers to end a two-hour siege of a main hospital in the southern city of Kandahar, officials said.

The firefight also left dead an officer of Afghanistans intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS).

The siege began after two assailants wearing suicide vests stormed the Mirwais Hospital compound in Kandahar and opened fire on security guards there, witnesses and officials said.

The assault took place shortly before the provincial governor was due to arrive to inquire about the well-being of patients in connection with Eid festivities, his spokesman, Sameem Khapalwak, told VOA.

He said patients, their attendants and hospital staff were all not harmed.

No claims of responsibility



There were no immediate claims of responsibility, though suspicions fell on the Taliban because Kandahar is known as the birthplace of the Islamist insurgency.

The rebel group has lately intensified activity on battlefields and attacks on Afghan officials. On Sunday, a roadside bomb killed the anti-Taliban police chief of eastern Nangarhar province.

Peace deal

Meanwhile, speaking in Kabul to mark the beginning of the three-day Muslim Eid festival, President Ashraf Ghani promised a long-awaited peace deal with an Afghan insurgent group is close to being finalized.

There are some problems that would be very important for implementing peace," said Ghani, vowing the issues would be resolved very soon. He did not elaborate.

Months of reconciliation talks with the Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) faction, led by controversial warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, enabled the two sides to agree on a draft peace accord weeks ago.

Ghani praised efforts that have been made by the government-appointed High Peace Council and representatives of Hekmatyar in order to negotiate a peace deal.

"There is hope that, God willing, the agreement will be finalized soon and we will witness a major step towards establishing a peaceful environment and ending the conflict, said the Afghan president.

The landmark truce was due to be announced last week, but political rivalries within the government forced the delay, claimed Hekmatyar in his Eid message delivered to media late Sunday.

Government blamed for delay

He asserted he signed the document Friday because all issues between his group and the government stand settled.

But once again problems within the (Afghan) ruling system have prevented it from announcing the deal, Hekmatyar said.

The notorious commander went on to say he believed continuation of war in Afghanistan would only serve the interests of internal and external enemies, and not of the Afghan nation.

Without directly commenting on Hekmatyars assertions, President Ghani in his Monday statement suggested there are no problems from the government side.

"I dont accept any unreasonable hurdle in this sacred process. If there are obstacles in the way of peace, it is my duty as president to share it with the people and urge them to stand united for peace," said Ghani.

'Global terrorist'



Hekmatyar is a longtime guerrilla commander whose forces fought against the Soviet Union in the 1980s, using equipment supplied by the CIA.

Later, his militias battled the Taliban for control of Afghanistan during the brutal civil war of the 1990s. Human rights groups accused Hekmatyar of committing massive rights abuses among other atrocities.

The ethnic Pashtun warlord was designated a "global terrorist" by the United States in 2003 for allegedly participating in and supporting attacks by al-Qaida and Taliban forces against American forces in the country.

Hekmatyar and his commanders are allegedly sheltering in neighboring Pakistan where Taliban leaders also have their sanctuaries; charges Islamabad rejects.

Critics say a peace deal with Hekmatyars group, which has fought alongside the Taliban against the U.S.-backed Afghan government, could weaken the Taliban insurgency in parts of Afghanistan and encourage it to come to the table for talks with Kabul.

Unlike the Taliban, influence of Hekmatyars group is limited to a very few Afghan provinces.
Police in southeastern Turkey said a car bombing Monday in the city of Van wounded at least 48 people.

The blast happened in an area between the local offices of the ruling AKP party and the governor's office.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible.

The explosion came a day after the government dismissed 28 mayors in the mainly Kurdish southeast because of alleged ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday the officials should have been removed from their posts long ago.
A blaze that investigators believe was deliberately set caused significant damage Monday to a mosque in the southeastern U.S. state of Florida where Orlando massacre shooter Omar Mateen prayed and worshiped.

Firefighters found flames shooting through the roof of the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce after they received an emergency call just after midnight. No one was in the mosque at the time and no one was injured, but the fire gutted much of the building.

"Evidence has revealed that this fire was set intentionally," one law enforcement official said.

"A fire at any place of worship is alarming, regardless of the circumstances," authorities said in a statement. "Video captured at the Fort Pierce Islamic center shows an individual approached the east side of the building just moments before a flash is seen and the fire starts."

The officials said they soon plan to release the video in hopes that someone might recognize the individual seen near the mosque.

Mateen, who lived in Fort Pierce, killed 49 people at a gay night club in Orlando in June in an hours-long assault before police raided it and killed him in a shootout. He was known to worship at the Fort Pierce mosque.

The Islamic Center of Fort Pierce said the fire "is a terrible tragedy, not only for the Islamic Center, but for our community."

Monday is the beginning of Eid al-Adha, the four-day Islamic festival of sacrifice, but because of the fire, religious leaders advised the faithful to attend prayers at other mosques.
New anti-terrorism laws will be introduced into the Australian parliament this week. They will allow authorities to continue to detain convicted terrorists after they have completed serving their prison sentences if they are considered to pose a significant risk to the community.

The new laws will allow Australias security agencies to monitor terrorism suspects as young as 14. So-called control orders that require individuals to submit to a curfew and limit their contacts with others will also be made stricter. High-risk convicted extremists could also be held indefinitely in detention at the end of their prison terms by an order of a court under the new measures.

Australian Justice Minister Michael Keenan said the nation must boost its defenses against extremism.

It is a very big challenge for us but that is why we have spent a lot of time over the past two years changing the environment in which our law enforcement and intelligence communities operate. We need to make sure that they operate in an environment that is up to this new challenge. The challenge has changed very significantly over two years. We'll be passing, we'll be introducing legislation into the parliament which is the latest iteration to update the legislation under which they operate, said Keenan.

Last month, the president of Australia's Human Rights Commission Gilliam Triggs accused the Federal Parliament of seeking to pass anti-terror laws that were "disproportionate to any legitimate aim to protect national security."

Australian authorities have said they disrupted about 10 planned terrorism incidents since September 2014.

A 22-year-old man has been charged with a terrorist attack after a man walking his dog was repeatedly stabbed in a suburban park in Sydney Saturday. Investigators in the state of New South Wales have alleged the suspect was inspired by the Islamic State militant group. They have also said the man tried to stab a police officer.

Last month, a teenager who planned to behead an Australian police officer as part of an Anzac Day terrorist attack was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

A propaganda magazine produced by Islamic State recently called for 'lone wolf' attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.

Australias national security threat level was raised from high to probable two years ago.
Jerry Huffman posing behind bars in 2001 with a group of Uzbek colleagues at a local television station. To harass the media, government security police ordered the bars put up so terrorists couldnt take over the station. The next week fire officials ordered personnel to take the bars down as they were a fire hazard. The other faces are blurred because of the threat of government reprisals.
Voters in Belarus went to the polls Sunday in a legislative election marred by the kind of irregularities that have characterized previous ballots in the former Soviet state.

Still, two female opposition leaders managed to win seats in the parliament's lower house.

In Sunday's election, 484 candidates, most of them current government officials, competed for the lower parliamentary house's 110 seats.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which independently monitored the vote, said Monday that while the vote was "efficiently organized, and there were visible efforts to address some long-standing issues," a number of "systemic shortcomings" were apparent.

Belarus' "legal framework restricts political rights and fundamental freedoms and was interpreted in an overly restrictive manner," the OSCE said. "Media coverage did not enable voters to make an informed choice and, despite an overall increase in the number of candidates, including a significant number from the opposition, the campaign lacked visibility."

Despite some "positive efforts" by the Belarusian authorities, it said, "early voting and counting and tabulation procedures were still marred by a significant number of procedural irregularities and a lack of transparency."

According to observers of Sunday's vote in Belarus, election monitors were kicked out of voting sites, voter turnout numbers were inflated, and prisoners, as well as patients in mental hospitals, voted in large numbers.

Opposition victories

In spite of the irregularities, two opposition candidates won seats in the parliament's lower house  Anna Kanopatskaya of the United Civil Party and independent candidate Alena Anisim. They were the first opposition members to win parliamentary seats in 20 years.

Despite the authorities' widely touted liberalization of the election process, Belarus' latest legislative contest proceeded much like previous ones: Most independent candidates were blocked from participating, and prison inmates as well as patients in mental health institutions were able to vote by means of absentee ballots.

Suspicious numbers

As in previous elections, the authorities also encouraged early voting  thereby allowing it to conceal a large number of voters from the scrutiny of the public and independent observers, say critics. According to polls, 30 percent or more of the country's voters cast their ballots early.

Students gave accounts via social media about being forced to vote early under the threat of being evicted from their dorm rooms or expelled from college. Human rights activists reported that prisoners voted in large numbers under the control of the authorities.

City Hospital No. 10 in Belarus' capital Minsk reported a 100 percent voter turnout, meaning that all of its 605 patients  including people in intensive care, those in a coma and those under anesthesia  voted.

Among those who voted Sunday was Belarus' authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, who was first elected to lead the country in 1994.

After a decade in power, Lukashenko held a referendum in 2004 eliminating presidential term limits  a move that was condemned by the United States and the European Union.
Health issues engulfed the U.S. presidential campaign Monday, with Democrat Hillary Clinton resting from a bout with pneumonia while Republican Donald Trump wished her well, even as he suggested "something is going on" with her well-being.

Clinton recuperated at her suburban New York home, canceling a planned two-day trip across the country to California to raise money for her campaign and talk about the U.S. economy.

Trump has repeatedly raised doubts about Clinton's stamina and physical strength to be president. In interviews Monday, he raised questions about the Clinton campaign's account of her illness. It was diagnosed Friday by her personal physician but not disclosed until Sunday after a video showed her stumbling as she abruptly left a New York memorial ceremony on the 15th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks and had to be helped into a van.

WATCH: Hillary Clinton after leaving 9/11 ceremony Sunday

Trump questions sincerity of disclosure



"Because they say pneumonia on Friday," Trump told one interviewer, "but she was coughing very, very badly a week ago and even before that if you remember, and this was not the first time."

Trump said he had a physical exam last week and will release statistics from his tests when the results are known.

He said, "I feel great but when the numbers come in, I'll be releasing very, very specific numbers."

To date, Clinton has released more information about her health than Trump, but not a detailed accounting of her health history. Her campaign said more information will be forthcoming later this week.

The two candidates are among the oldest to ever seek the U.S. presidency. Clinton is 68 and Trump is 70. If Trump were elected, he would be the oldest U.S. president in history. Clinton, if elected, would be the second-oldest U.S. president in history.

Trump and some of his most vocal supporters have suggested, without offering proof, that she suffers from the lingering effects of a 2012 fall in which she sustained a concussion and had a blood clot on her brain and double vision before doctors said she fully recovered.



WATCH: Trump responds to Clinton's "basket of deplorables comment"

Some media critics of Clinton complained about the two-day lag in announcing that she had pneumonia, as did David Axelrod, a former White House aide to President Barack Obama.



"Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia," Axelrod said on his Twitter account. "What's the cure for an unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?"

Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri conceded that "we could have done better [Sunday in releasing information], but it is a fact that the public knows more about [Clinton] than any nominee in history."

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine remarks on Hillary Clinton's health:

Candidate swap?



One U.S. political analyst, Cokie Roberts of National Public Radio, suggested that some Democrats are "nervously beginning to whisper about her stepping aside and finding another candidate" to face Trump, even as Clinton continues to hold a narrow edge over him in national U.S. political surveys.

But Roberts said she thought such a turn of events is "unlikely to be a real thing," more the product of "an over-reaction" by Democrats nervous about the November 8 national election.

No U.S. presidential candidate has ever had to be replaced on the national Republican or Democratic tickets once they have been nominated by their political parties. If such an event were to occur, both parties have procedures in place to name new candidates, with their national committees voting on the selection.

U.S. presidential elections are not decided by a national popular vote, but rather in contests in each of the country's 50 states, with each state's importance in the overall outcome weighted by its population. The winning candidate has to collect a majority of at least 270 of the 538 votes in the Electoral College.

What happens if a candidate dies?



If a presidential or vice presidential candidate were to die between the date of the national popular vote and the time when the Electoral College meets, usually about six weeks later, the party leadership would name a replacement.



If a death occurred after the Electoral College certified the White House winner, the U.S. Constitution decrees that the vice president-elect would become the president-elect.

Deaths of top U.S. political figures in the immediate time frame of presidential elections have been rare.

In 1872, Horace Greeley, called the Liberal Republican nominee for president, died after the national election but before the Electoral College vote. But it mattered little because he already had lost the election to President Ulysses S. Grant, a Republican, who was running for a second term.

However, on two occasions, vice presidential candidates have had to be replaced after the political parties nominated them but before the national elections were held.

Vice President James Sherman, a Republican seeking re-election, died in 1912. Sixty years later, in 1972, Democratic vice presidential contender Thomas Eagleton withdrew from the ticket before the election after acknowledging that he had been hospitalized three times for depression and stress and had undergone electric shock therapy.
For anyone fleeing Syrias civil war, the journey to safety is hazardous, sometimes deadly. For disabled refugees, the challenges are immense  but as siblings Alan and Gyan Mohammed proved, they are not insurmountable.

Alan, 30, and his sister, Gyan, 28, both have muscular dystrophy and are confined to wheelchairs.

Their extraordinary journey began in 2014 as the terror group Islamic State advanced toward their hometown, Al-Hasakah in northeast Syria.

The entire family tried several times to escape across the border to Turkey, but each time they say they were fired on by Turkish border guards and forced to turn back.

So they fled instead to the Kurdistan region of Iraq. A year and four months later, Islamic State fighters swept across the region, forcing Alan, Gyan and their family to escape once more across the hostile, mountainous border with Turkey.

When we arrived at the top of the mountains, we took two horses, one for me and my disabled sister and one for our wheelchairs, Alan said.

With Alan and Gyan strapped to either side of a horse, they eventually reached Turkey, where they paid people smugglers $750 each to take them on a boat to Greece. Alan says their small inflatable dinghy carried 60 refugees.

Every time I looked around I saw babies, children, crying inside the boat. It was a very difficult moment.

The engine cut out soon after they left the Turkish shore. After 4 hours, they were spotted by EU patrol boats and taken to the Greek island of Chios.

Monica Costa Riba of Amnesty International found the disabled siblings and their family living in a makeshift refugee camp an hour outside Athens. She says their story is inspiring, but it also highlights policy failures.

This is a remarkable story that shows strength and resilience," said Costa Riba. "But also it shows the failure of the European states to offer safety to these people that are fleeing persecution and war in their countries.

The Mohammed familys arrival in Greece came just days before the European Union struck a deal with Ankara to return all refugees back to Turkish soil. But the route to Western Europe was now closed, and like 60,000 other migrants and refugees, the Mohammed family is now stranded in Greece.

What needs to happen is for the Greek authorities, with the assistance of the EU, to improve the living conditions of these people stranded in Greece. But ultimately, what really needs to happen is for the European governments to accept more refugees in their countries, said Riba.

The EUs proposed refugee relocation scheme is delayed amid growing opposition in Europe.

Alan Mohammed passes the time teaching English to refugee children. His familys escape from terror marks a victory over adversity; but he says his journey is not yet finished.
A cease-fire in Syria entered its first full day Tuesday with reports of widespread calm and a few instances of violence.

The halt in fighting went into effect after sundown Monday. Hours later, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry declared it may be the last chance to preserve the country fractured by five years of civil war.

He said it is premature to make a determination on the U.S. and Russian brokered cease-fires effectiveness.

The agreement was announced early Saturday in Geneva by Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. It is supported by a number of other nations, including Iran, which is a backer of the Syrian government, and Turkey, which wants the removal of President Bashar al-Assad from power in Damascus.

Making an appeal from the State Department podium for all parties to observe the cessation of hostilities, Kerry predicted there will be challenges in the immediate days ahead for the cease-fire to hold, and clearing the way for significant humanitarian access to some of the hardest-hit areas to resume.

Seven days of relative calm under the agreement would lead to U.S.-Russian coordinated air strikes against Islamic State and the al-Nusra Front (which now calls itself Jabhat Fateh al-Sham), considered to be a branch of al-Qaida.

The agreement "makes no provision whatsoever for the U.S. and Russia to approve strikes by the Syrian regime, and this is not something we could ever envision doing," said State Department spokesman John Kirby. "A primary purpose of this agreement, from our perspective, is to prevent the Syrian regime air force from flying or striking in any areas in which the opposition or Nusra are present."

Kerry characterized the situation in Syria as the most complex conflict he has confronted in his decades of his service as a U.S. senator and Americas top diplomat, because there are a bunch of wars going on there.

Both the White House and the State Department on Monday characterized the agreement as one that places a lot of pressure on Russia, a longtime supporter of the Syrian president, to deliver.

Humanitarian Aid to Begin

Russias foreign ministry on Monday said humanitarian aid to Aleppo via the northern road of Castello was to start immediately.

The Syrian army command announced on state television that the truce was applied nationwide from 7 pm local time Monday (coinciding with the start of Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim holiday), but that it reserves the right to respond decisively to any violations of the cease-fire by armed groups.

The Syrian state is determined to recover every area from the terrorists, President Assad said in an interview aired by state media.

While some key insurgent leaders have criticized the agreement and expressed skepticism that it can succeed, they apparently are accepting it in hopes it eventually can lead to political talks to remove the defiant president.

Targeting Nusra

Some rebel groups in Syria are concerned about the targeting of Nusra, which they see as an ally in defending insurgent held districts from a protracted Syrian government offensive in eastern Aleppo.

The armed opposition in Syria now faces what is perhaps its biggest and most momentous decision since they chose to take up arms against the Assad regime in 2011, says Charles Lister, an analyst at the Middle East Institute and author of the book The Syrian Jihad.

Lister adds that mainstream opposition forces are extensively marbled or coupled with Nusra forces on some of the front lines, from Deraa in the south to Damascus and throughout the northwest of the country.

The years of convict have left hundreds of thousands of people dead in Syria and created about 12 million refugees, one of the worlds worst humanitarian crises.

VOA's Jamie Dettmer contributed reporting to this story.
Gulf Arab states have expressed concern over a bill passed by the U.S. Congress that would allow families of the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks to sue the Saudi government for allegedly supporting terrorism.

The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, of which Saudi Arabia is a key member, said the legislation "contravenes the foundations and principles of relations between states, notably sovereign immunity."

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the legislation Friday, despite White House threats to veto the bill. The Senate passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) in May.

The White House's opposition to the legislation stems from concern it could weaken U.S. ties with Saudi Arabia, expose U.S. citizens overseas to legal risks and open the door to lawsuits against the U.S. from foreign countries. A White House veto can be overridden with votes from at least two-thirds of House and Senate members.

Fifteen of the 19 airline hijackers involved in the September 11 attacks were Saudi nationals, but Riyadh has denied allegations it had any role in the attacks or supported organizations with ties to terrorist groups.

The House vote on Friday came two months after Congress released 28 declassified pages from a congressional report about suspected Saudi connections to the attacks. The papers did not significantly add to information that was publicly disclosed in other reports and documents.
The West African nation of Mali has undergone an extraordinary transformation since 2012. Events have included a military coup, a foreign military operation to battle Islamist insurgents in the north and a presidential election; but, many young people in Mali who have lived through the turmoil are now asking, What about us?

Recent demonstrations in northern cities like Gao and Timbuktu reveal that a 2015 peace agreement designed to end conflict in Mali has left the youth feeling left out of the promised benefits of peace.



In Gao, young people held signs with the slogan trop cest trop or enough is enough, which has become the rallying cry of the movement. In July, security forces opened fire on protesters, killing three and wounding more than 30.



Another set of protests followed when popular radio personality Mohamed Youssouf Bathily, commonly known by the alias Ras Bath, was arrested for condemning corruption in the government.



Abdoulaye Coulibaly Fama, a resident of Bamako who participated in demonstrations, said these events reveal the deep dissatisfaction of the youth in Mali.

There are many incidents lately which are a sign of a widespread malaise that characterizes the Malian population, he said. He [Bath] should not have been arrested in the first place. His releaseshows a weak government - a government which cannot take responsibility - a government Malian people cannot trust.



Similarly, a young man in Gao told VOA Afrique that the promise of the presidency of Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, elected in 2013, has not been realized. He pointed to the fact that the city of Kidal, a flashpoint of the 2012 rebellion, is still not under government control.

The state does not want to take responsibility. I really think these three years have been wasted, he said.

Sidelined by peace agreement

Observers think that even though events like the arrest of the media personality triggered demonstrations, the core issues are linked to governance and dissatisfaction with the peace agreement.

Kamissa Camara, a West and Central Africa political analyst and the senior program officer for Africa at the National Endowment for Democracy, said that youth in the north believe they played a critical role during the crisis of 2012, but were all but forgotten during the peace process.

They were protecting communities from the rebels, from the jihadists, she said. And because they played such a huge role in stabilizing northern Mali, when the government of Mali signed a peace agreement with the rebels, the youth thought or felt that they were being put aside; they were sidelined by the agreement when they should have also been part of the peace benefits.

Many young people were particularly incensed that an internationally-funded process for disarmament and reintegration is offering former rebels incentives like job training and stipends in order to lay down arms; but, non-combatants are largely left out of this process.

The youth are further upset that former rebels are now being named to leadership roles in Gao.



The rebels, the people who picked up the arms and raped women in northern Mali defeated the Malian army - killed Malian soldiers - are the ones being rewarded when they, the youth, played a positive role in stabilizing northern Mali and didnt get the result and didnt get rewarded for that, Camara said.



The years of violence have shattered an already fragile economy in the north, making employment opportunities rare. Although the World Bank says youth employment in Mali is only 10.5 percent, the number is much higher in the north and dissatisfaction is growing.

What the youth are looking for is to be reintegrated into the civil service, for example, and to actually get jobs the same way these rebels are being rewarded right now, Camara said.

Threat of extremism is real



As disaffected young people take to the streets, militant groups are offering a paycheck and a sense of camaraderie. Extremist groups including the al-Qaida-affiliated Ansar Dine and the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) have continually launched attacks in the north since 2012.

Lori-Anne Theroux-Benoni is a senior researcher with the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) based in Dakar, Senegal. She was part of a research team from ISS that collected testimony from 63 young people who have been involved with Malian extremist groups, including 19, who are in jail.

The report, titled Malis Young Jihadists, is challenging preconceptions of the reasons why young people join extremist and jihadist armed groups.



The researchers identified 15 factors that lead to youth involvement. Some of the factors are psychological, historical or political, while some are linked to coercion or the environment. She said contrary to popular conception, many dont join primarily for religious reasons or money.

Theroux-Benoni said that there needs to be a more complex understanding of these reasons that underlie youth involvement instead of the labeling all of militants as unemployed and fanatical.
Turkey's crackdown on the outlawed Kurdish rebel group the PKK is increasingly targeting the country's legal pro-Kurdish movement. On Sunday, 24 elected mayors of the main pro-Kurdish party, the HDP, were removed from office and replaced by government appointees called "trustees."

"To me, it is a step that came late. It should have been taken long before," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared Monday. "You, as mayors and municipal councils, cannot stand up and support terrorist organizations. You do not have such an authority."

Along with the 24 Kurdish mayors, four others accused of being linked July's failed coup attempt also lost their jobs.

An Interior Ministry website post defended the removals. "The state has exercised its fundamental duty to take necessary precautions against those infringing the will of nation," it said. The statement, without citing evidence, accused the mayors of providing financial and logistical support to terrorist organizations.

Special powers passed by a government decree were used to oust the mayors. Turkey is under emergency rule following July's failed coup, which allows for rule by decree.

Critics denounce move

Most of the Kurdish mayors in question were elected with massive majorities, including Leyla Imret, who secured a record 81.6 percent of the vote in Cizre. The consequences could be far-reaching, warns international relations expert Soli Ozel of Istanbul's Kadir Has University.

"To say you can actually disregard the will of the people, who with their votes have elected certain people into certain positions, is truly unacceptable, and it would mean an open declaration of political war against Kurdish citizens who are sympathetic to the HDP and probably some of them to the PKK," Ozel said.

The ruling AK Party had for many years electorally tried to break the power of the HDP in the predominantly Kurdish region. Although many local mayors had been under investigation for alleged links to the PKK, the government had balked at trying to remove so many by legal means.

Western pushback deemed unlikely

Analysts point out that the controversial move comes with Ankara aware there would likely be little pushback from its Western allies, which are courting Ankara for cooperation against Islamic State and regarding refugees.

The U.S. embassy in Turkey did not criticize the mayors' dismissals. The embassy only called for their replacement by elected representatives as soon as possible, and urged that due process be respected. The European Union, too, has offered little in the way of criticism.

The mayors' removals are part of a wider campaign. Last week, the government suspended more than 11,000 teachers accused of links to the PKK, mainly across Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast.

"It [the teachers' suspension] will be perceived as a racist, discriminatory cleansing, because they are all Kurds who've been chased away from the public sector," said political columnist Kadri Gursel of Turkey's Cumhuriyet newspaper.

Gursel warns it could add to growing alienation from the Turkish state by all opponents of the ruling party. "These Kurds are also secular Kurds; these are probably left-leaning Kurds. This is a historical and total estrangement between the state and non AKP segments of society."

Turkey's only Kurdish-language newspaper, Azadiya Welat, was closed by a court, along with the main pro-Kurdish newspaper Ozgur Gundem, on charges of supporting terrorism. Legal proceedings against parliamentary deputies of the HDP are also accelerating, with arrest warrants being issued.

New Turkish state

International relations expert Ozel says the crackdown on the PKK and the pro-Kurdish legal movement could be part of a wider strategy of redefining Turkey in the aftermath of a failed coup in July.

"The ruling AKP and, in particular, the president want to put in place their project for a new Turkish state, before people come to their senses, Ozel said. For this you need a justification, ammunition, and the ammunition is the war against the PKK."

The crackdown on the Kurdish movement plays well with Turkish nationalists, and the AKP has the strong support of the nationalist MHP, whose parliamentary support would give it enough votes to rewrite the constitution, a goal of Erdogan.

HDP deputy Ertugrul Kurkcu, who is himself facing court, warns the space for a democratic legal Kurdish movement is being closed. "This promises us not a path of democratic progress, but a deeper conflict, which would shatter the foundations of Turkish statehood. If a space of maneuver is not maintained, then we can in one night plunge into civil war. This is a very, very risky situation."

Erdogan and his government insist the country has no Kurdish problem, rather only a terrorist one, accusing the PKK and what it says is its political affiliate, the HDP, of seeking to create and exploit ethnic tensions. The government policy appears determined not only to eradicate the PKK, but also pursue its battle against the legal Kurdish movement, which observers warn will likely close the door to a peaceful resolution of the nearly four-decade conflict.
Scientists continue to learn more about black holes in space, places where the pull of gravity is so strong that not even light can escape. Black holes occur after supergiant stars explode into brilliant but short-lived supernovas. All the matter dispersed by that titanic explosion collapses in a few weeks or months, and gravity crushes it all into a tiny space. Now, data from a Japanese satellite is helping decipher the secrets of these invisible singularities.

Black holes are invisible to the human eye. But telescopes with special tools can help find them by revealing how they affect nearby stars.

In February, Japans space agency rocketed its Astro-H satellite into orbit to examine large-scale structures in the cosmos, like supermassive black holes that exist at the center of most galaxies.

Unfortunately, after only about a month in space, the satellite fell apart. But before it went out of commission, it was able to gather vital data about the Perseus cluster, consisting of hundreds of galaxies 240 million light years from earth.

On board Astro-H was a unique X-ray spectrometer, which showed that superheated gas at the cluster's heart flows much more calmly than expected.

"And that gives us a very precise measurement of how much energy is being pumped into this gas by supermassive black holes, and so it allows us to form a more complete picture of how galaxies evolve, how the stars and the gas that will eventually cool out like rain to form the stars, evolves over cosmic time, explained Brian McNamara, an astrophysicist at the University of Waterloo in Canada.

Researchers are also closely looking at the hot plasmaa type of matter--and gases that surround the galaxies.

"This is gas that has not cooled out and condensed out like rain in our atmosphere to form stars, planets, life, for example. So it's the potential for the future, and we're trying to understand what the future destiny of this galaxy and many other galaxies would be, said McNamara.

Supermassive black holes may manipulate how galaxies form and evolve.

The energy released by these giant black holes is very tightly coupled to these atmospheres, which is the stuff out of which future stars will form, said McNamara.

And this means the invisible giant at their heart influences the rate at which a galaxy grows.
The Philippine president says he wants all U.S. forces out of his country's south, where they have been advising local troops battling Muslim extremists.

Speaking before newly-appointed government officials Monday, Rodrigo Duterte blamed the U.S. for the restiveness of Muslim militants in the region, marking the first time he has publicly opposed the presence of American troops in the country.

Duterte did not set any deadline or say how the withdrawal would proceed, but said the Americans were high-value targets for the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf as counterinsurgency operations intensify.

Those special forces, they have to go, they have to go... I do not want a rift with America, but they have to go...It will just get more tense. If they [Muslim militants] see Americans there, they will really kill them. They will try to get ransom, then kill them," he said.

The State Department characterized Duterte's comments as "unhelpful."

State Department spokesman John Kirby said, We're not aware of any official communication by the Philippine government to that effect and to seek that result .... More critically, we are going to remain committed to our alliance commitments in the Philippines.

Duterte's statement came a week after his televised tirade against the U.S. and President Barack Obama, causing Obama to cancel their scheduled bilateral meeting at a summit in Laos. The two, however, later met informally during the summit.

Duterte has had a tumultuous relationship with the U.S. since becoming president in June and openly criticized U.S. security policies. During his election campaign, Duterte said he would chart a foreign policy that would not depend on America, the Philippines treaty ally.



In 2002, the U.S. military deployed troops to train, advise and provide intelligence and weapons to Philippine troops battling the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf militants in the southern Philippines.

When U.S. forces withdrew in February 2015, U.S. officials said a smaller contingent of military advisers would stay.
The controversy still rages over Russia's possible hacking into computer systems used by American political entities. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has warned Russia not to try to interfere with the U.S. general election in November. Yet Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says he doubts that Russia is involved.

The election -- the heart of U.S. democracy -- is at the center of the debate. But before we tell you how ... a little background.

The system is decentralized. Votes are collected where people live, and then each state sets up its own security, in its own electoral system, to tabulate its votes. This method is intended to reduce fraud.

So imagine the shock when the FBI told Arizona election officials that Russians had hacked into their system. Experts also blame Russia for hacking into Democratic party emails.

A former U.S. ambassador to Georgia and Kazakhstan, William Courtney, writes that Russia will be seen as a "rogue elephant" if it continues its disruptions.

"Great powers have to work with each other to accomplish objectives. So the United States and China are working together on the global warming issue. A great power can't exist in isolation," said Courtney.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump told an interviewer on a Russian TV network that he doubts Russia was involved, and Russian President Vladimir Putin denies any connection to the cyberattacks.

Democratic Senator Ben Cardin believes any attacks would have to have been approved by key leaders.

"You have to believe that at the highest levels, that these strategies have been agreed to," said Cardin.

The worry now for Republican Senator Bob Corker is of any Russian tampering in the general election, which will choose the next U.S. president.

"If they can demonstrate that ... maybe they affected it, obviously that creates distrust in the outcome, [and] instability, so thats a big win for them," said Corker.

Remember the separate state electoral systems? Courtney suggests the Department of Homeland Security should protect election systems as part of the nation's "critical infrastructures."

"That would mean that the U.S. government will be actively involved to encourage those organizations that have good cyber hygiene, to have good anti-virus protections and other things," said Courtney.

But that may be too late to do that for the presidential election, now less than 60 days away.
A human rights group says it has found evidence of huge war profiteering by some of South Sudan's top political leaders, including the heads of the two sides in the country's civil war.

The rights group's co-founders, Hollywood star George Clooney and activist John Prendergast, shared the findings Monday at a news conference at Washington's National Press Club.

The report from their group, called The Sentry, accused South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, former first vice president Riek Machar and South Sudanese generals of stealing millions of dollars from state coffers since 2005, when a peace agreement that paved the way for the south's independence from Sudan was signed.

WATCH: George Clooney on report findings

"The simple fact is, they're stealing the money to fund their militias to attack and kill one another. The evidence is thorough, it is detailed and it is irrefutable," said Clooney.

"It involves arms dealers, international lawyers, international banks, international real estate. And it is because of these international actors that we are also able to provide solutions to help end this criminal behavior to protect innocent civilians," he said.

Prendergast urged the United States and other governments around the world to stop the stolen money from moving through the international financial system. He said The Sentry is proposing a new approach which would use "precision guided financial policy tools normally reserved for countering terrorism, for fighting organized crime, for halting the proliferation of nuclear weapons. But this time we want to use these policy tools in the service of human rights and peace and good governance in South Sudan.

The 65-page report, entitled War Crimes Shouldnt Pay, says South Sudans nearly three-year-old conflict has been fueled by battles over control of state assets and the country's natural resources.



President Kiir earns about $60,000 per year, according to The Sentry's investigation. But the president and his family are accused of spending millions of dollars on real estate outside of South Sudan, including a two-story, 460-square meter villa in the gated community of Lavington, an upscale neighborhood in Nairobi.





The Sentry also reports that former first vice president Riek Machar has a home in the same neighborhood.

It says four of President Kiirs children attend a private school outside Nairobi where tuition is about $10,000 per year.

The Sentry says General Reuben Riak who oversees logistics and weapons procurement in the army, has moved over $3 million through his personal bank account at Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) since 2012.

Documents also reveal that General Jok Riak, who is under a U.N.-backed travel ban and asset freeze, had more than $360,000 deposited in his personal bank account at KGB during 2014. The Sentry says money was transferred to the account from Dalbit International, which deals with the trade, transport and management of petroleum products in Africa.

Army chief of staff General Paul Malong, who the Sentry calls the architect of immense human suffering in South Sudan reportedly has a government salary of $45,000 per year but somehow owns two homes in Uganda, along with a $2 million mansion in Nairobi, according to the report.



The Sentry describes itself as a collaborative effort between three other rights groups, including the Enough Project. It says its goal is to dismantle the financing of Africa's deadliest conflicts.
The U.S. and its allies have responded to North Koreas fifth nuclear test conducted on Friday with calls for new sanctions, but China continues to give off ambiguous signals about whether it will support any further punitive action against its traditional ally.

In response to reports that Pyongyang may already be planning another nuclear test, South Koreas Defense Ministry on Monday said the North has the capability and an unused tunnel at its mountainous test site to do so.

With regards to possibility of North Korea's additional nuclear test, South Korea and the U.S. intelligence assess that it is always ready to conduct an additional nuclear test, said South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun.

The U.S. military will bring in a B-1B bomber from Guam to South Korea in a show of force, but that deployment has been delayed due to bad weather conditions.

Sanctions

South Korean President Park Geun-hye held an emergency meeting on Monday with leaders from both her ruling Saenuri Party and the two main opposition parties, the Minjoo Party and the Peoples Party to urge for unity in response to the growing North Korean nuclear threat.

South Korea is coordinating with the U.S., Japan and other countries to press for increased sanctions against North Korea at the United Nations Security Council.

These new measures could add to the list of banned export items, and expand the number of blacklisted North Korean individuals and entities connected to the Norths military and weapons programs.

Sung Kim, the U.S. special envoy on North Korea policy said Washington and its allies in the region are also considering additional unilateral sanctions to impose as well.

However North Korea, through its state media KCNA news agency on Sunday, called the U.S. led push for new sanctions meaningless and highly laughable.

In defiance of the last round of international sanctions imposed in March, North Korea has accelerated its weapons development efforts, conducting two nuclear tests this year as well 21 missiles tests, including a long range rocket in February and advancing its submarine based missile launch capability.

China

While these restrictive measures imposed on North Korea have caused some economic pain in trade, shipping and finance, the impact has reportedly been mitigated through black market dealings, integration with foreign companies, and a lax approach to enforcement by China.

Beijings cooperation on sanctions is considered crucial because 90 percent of North Korean trade flows either to or through China.

The U.S. has called upon China to exert more pressure on the North to give up its nuclear program in return for economic aid and security assurances.

While Beijing has called on Pyongyang not to take any more provocative actions, Northeast Asia analyst Daniel Pinkston with Troy University in Seoul said even now the Chinese remain reluctant to impose measures that could trigger regional instability or the collapse of the Kim Jong Un government.

I think they will keep the lifeline in place for North Korea, said Pinkston.

China's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that sanctions alone cannot solve the North Korean nuclear issue and that unilateral action can only lead to a dead end

Military option

But Beijing is also growing more upset with Pyongyang.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, formerly the country's chief nuclear negotiator, arrived in Beijing on Monday and was seen entering the country's embassy, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.

Professor Woo Su-keun, of Donghua University in Shanghai, says China is becoming increasingly concerned that North Koreas unchecked nuclear and missiles tests could at some point provoke a military response.

China knows well that the U.S. conducted independent military actions against Afghanistan and Iraq, as it judged they could be threats to its national security in the past, said Professor Woo.

North Korea had earlier this year threatened preemptive nuclear strikes against the U.S. for conducting joint military drills with South Korea.

U.S. President Barack Obama has said he will never accept North Korea as a nuclear state.

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party candidate for president, said over the weekend she would seek to impose tougher sanctions, but also left open the possibility for restarting international talks with North Korea, if she is elected.

Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for president did not say what he would do to restrain North Korea, but his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said, if Trump is elected North Korea will know that the Americans "aren't messing around."

Trump has also indicated that he might support allowing South Korea and Japan to develop nuclear weapons of their own to defend against a nuclear North Korea.
A U.S.-Russia mediated ceasefire went into effect Monday in Syria, hours after government warplanes launched airstrikes around Aleppo and other Syrian provinces, prompting mounting skepticism and anger among rebel leaders who are already highly suspicious of the deal. They have said the ceasefire will only serve to boost President Bashar al-Assads regime.



Syrias armed opposition issued a series of demands as well as requests for clarifications to the United States about the cessation of hostilities Monday, coinciding with the start of Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim holiday.

WATCH: Kerry on Syria cease-fire start



President Assad didnt help efforts to get rebels on board by pledging Monday to take back all of Syria. State television showed Assad visiting Daraya, a Damascus suburb recaptured last month by the government. The Syrian leader prayed alongside officials in a Daraya mosque and in a broadcast interview said: The Syrian state is determined to recover every area from the terrorists.

He said the army would continue operations without hesitation, regardless of any internal or external circumstances.



On Sunday, several insurgent leaders criticized the cease-fire agreement, but stopped short of saying they wouldnt accept it. The ultra-conservative Ahrar al-Sham, a close ally of the former al Qaida affiliate Jabhat Fateh al-Sham Front, previously known as Jabhat al-Nusra, announced Sunday it wont honor the cease-fire. The group had condemned the deal earlier, but withheld full rejection.



In a video statement, the militias second in command condemned the superpower accord, dubbing it an effort to secure Syrian President Bashar al-Assads government and divide rebel factions.

A rebellious people who have fought and suffered for six years cannot accept half-solutions, said Ali al-Omar. But there were reports Monday the decision by Ahrar al-Sham wasn't unanimous among the factions leadership.



Not optimistic



Opinion appeared to be hardening among other rebel leaders, who say they hold out little hope the deal will last or that the Assad regime will observe it.



Reflecting their concerns, the Syrian oppositions High Negotiations Committee says it is calling for guarantees on the implementation of the truce before endorsing it. Salem al-Muslet, a spokesman for the HNC, raised concerns about the armed militias who have been left out of the deal because Russia and the U.S deem them terrorists.



We want to know what the guarantees are, he said. What is the definition that has been chosen for terrorism, and what will the response be in case of violations? Will Russia abide by it, will the regime abide by it and halt its bombing and its crimes? We are asking for guarantees especially from the United States, which is a party to the agreement," the HNC spokesman told the AFP news agency.



HNC leaders say they have not received details about how the truce will be implemented nor the areas the truce covers. There are fears among rebels that the Assad regime will use the cease-fire to mop up pockets of insurgency around the capital Damascus. Insurgents are demanding also the release of prisoners and say that without an agreed political transition plan; the cease-fire will allow Assad to strengthen his military position.



The U.S.-Russia mediated truce deal, the second the superpowers have struck this year, calls for an initial 48-hour, renewable, cease-fire anywhere where the opposition is present. It also stipulates that aid agencies should not be blocked or impeded from accessing besieged towns and areas.





New terms



Some rebel factions, but mainly the Assad regime, were faulted after the last cease-fire deal for blocking aid access. Under the terms of the new cease-fire accord Washington and Moscow will begin joint targeting of jihadists including Fateh al-Sham in a week.



For many rebel groups the proposed targeting of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (JFS) remains a key concern. For them the jihadist militia has been a crucial ally in defending insurgent-held districts in eastern Aleppo from a months-long brutal Assad regime offensive. Very big questions remain surrounding how exactly the U.S. and Russia plan to determine areas where the opposition is sufficiently distant from Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and where they are in fact too close and thus legitimate counterterrorism targets, warns Charles Lister, an analyst at the Middle East Institute and author of the book The Syrian Jihad.



He adds, The armed opposition in Syria now faces what is perhaps its biggest and most momentous decision since they chose to take up arms against the Assad regime in 2011. There is no hiding the fact that mainstream opposition forces are extensively marbled or coupled with JFS forces on front-lines from Deraa in the south, to Damascus and throughout the northwest of the country.



Among ordinary Syrians a deadly weekend of airstrikes dimmed hopes about the cease-fire. At least 90 people were killed in weekend airstrikes in northwestern Syria, a monitoring group estimated. The airstrikes were focused on rebel-held areas in Idlib and Aleppo, according to the monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The worst were in Idlib where monitors said 61 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in a strike on a crowded market.
The U.S.-Russia sponsored cease-fire in the Syrian war may allow the U.S. and its coalition partners, as well as Russia and the Syrian regime, to concentrate on ridding the country of the Islamic State.

The possibilities depend on how the cease-fire holds, analysts say. And its unlikely the various military units will work in concert  though Washington and Moscow said there will be some joint efforts.

The cease-fire gives a chance for the Russians and Americans to coordinate more effectively in their separate wars on IS, said Radwan Badini, a professor at Salahaddin University in Irbil, Iraq.

Purging IS is the one thing the various parties in Syrias conflict agree on, Badini said. IS fighters are scattered in Syria with IS maintaining a stronghold in its de-facto capital, Raqqa.

The cease-fire is being viewed with skepticism since previous attempts have faltered, but it would probably free up some forces on [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad's side for other tasks like battling IS, said Aron Lund, a Middle East analyst with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington-based think-tank.

The cease-fire formally went into effect Monday with Russia announcing a halt to its aerial campaign in Syria, excluding terrorist-controlled areas.

If the truce holds, regime troops will attempt to battle IS in important areas like the Aleppo countryside and the region east of Homs, said Syria analyst Faysal Itani of the Atlantic Council in Washington.

Government forces and IS fighters have also been battling in the oil-rich eastern province of Deir Ezzor, where IS controls much of the countryside.

Any resources and manpower accruing to the [Assad] regime will also be deployed in Deir Ezzor, Itani told VOA.

With major defeats from Turkey-backed rebels and U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in northern Syria, IS fighters have been looking for new areas of control.

Since last week, IS has been trying to hold territory in a rebel-held area in the Damascus countryside. The Mount Qalamoun region is strategically important for both rebels and government forces.

If we accept the assumption that the cease-fire will hold, more rebel fighters will be willing and available to fight IS in Aleppo province and perhaps Raqqa as well, analyst Lund told VOA.

U.S. and Turkish officials recently discussed the role local forces could play in liberating Raqqa, ISs self-proclaimed capital in Syria.

Turkey backs some rebel factions who played a major role in ridding IS fighters from the border town of Jarablus, while the United States has been supporting a Kurdish-led coalition that has made significant gains against IS in north and eastern Syria.

At this point, IS represents a threat for both Syrian government and rebel forces, said Badini of Salahaddin University. So an effective cease-fire means that both sides would be more encouraged fighting them [IS], instead of fighting each other.

Analysts predict that if IS crumbles, a solution to Syrias complex civil war could evolve.

That scenario would give more power to certain players and [help] forge new alliances, as we've already seen with the Americans and the Kurds, and the growing cooperation between Washington and Moscow, Lund said.
As they waited in a refugee camp to come to America, Syrian couple Abdullah and Fatema were assured that the United States welcomes all people and that being Muslim would not be a problem.

Those expectations were first dashed when, upon arrival in the U.S. in November, Indiana Republican Gov. Mike Pence blocked their entry into his state and they were diverted to Connecticut.

In their new home state, they have been received warmly by many, including Connecticut's Democratic governor, but they say they also have faced difficulties with finding work and with discrimination. On balance, it has been a year of struggle for the family, who were among the first of the 10,000 Syrians resettled in the United States over the last year.

There are people who are really good to us and try to help us every day,'' Fatema said through an interpreter at the Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services office in New Haven as her 5-year-old son, Ayham, napped beside her. But there are other people. We hear them and we feel unsafe. I feel bad for my child. Is something bad going to happen to us? We don't know.''

The couple gave only their first names out of security concerns.

Struggles with language

Abdullah owned a clothing store in Homs before it was destroyed in Syria's civil war. He would like to work at a store or dry cleaning business in Connecticut, but he has struggled to learn English. He works two days a week as a dishwasher as he continues looking for a full-time job.

This is the hardest thing, he said. If I have the language, things would be better.

Ayham is currently repeating kindergarten. His teachers feel he also needs to improve his English before moving on to first grade, his mother said.

IRIS, the resettlement agency, found housing for the family in New Haven and helped pay their rent. They also have assisted with the paperwork needed to apply for state benefits and have provided translators, transportation, food, cultural support, English classes and other necessities. But most of the financial support ended after about four months.

The philosophy of refugee resettlement is the agencies like IRIS are responsible to get them off to a good start, said Chris George, the agency's executive director. Don't help them with rides or rent subsidies any longer than they need that. It's a tough, demanding self-help, pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps kind of program.

Fatema said the family was surprised and confused when they landed in the U.S., after learning about Indiana and making contacts there, to find out that Pence wanted to block Muslims from entering his state after Islamic extremists killed 130 in Paris.

Hope, despite broken heart

It broke our hearts, she said. If you are in a group and one person did a bad thing, it doesn't mean the whole group is bad.

A federal judge overturned attempts by Pence, the GOP's vice presidential nominee, to block resettlement efforts in Indiana.

That was the only family that was moved, in spite of the number of governors that protested the placement of Syrians in their state, said Barbara Day, the U.S. State Department's domestic resettlement section chief.

The family said they have become friendly with other refugees at IRIS. They help each other, sharing tips on cultural differences, or the best markets for shopping.

When I feel bad about something, I come to IRIS, Abdullah said. When I feel happy about something, I come to IRIS. They have helped me a lot.

The couple, who fled Syria in 2011 and underwent a lengthy vetting process while living in Jordan, said Americans should have no reason to fear them. They said they are hopeful about their future in this country, but after several years of fleeing violence and living in chaos, they have learned not to look too far ahead.

We don't know what is going to happen, Fatema said. What we care about is just make us safe today.
In Zimbabwe, a human rights commission reports that the government is giving food aid to supporters and withholding it from opponents. A coalition of aid groups has voiced concern about the report, while the government has denied the allegations.

Last week, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission said it found evidence of political bias in the distribution of relief aid by the government. Areas that support the ruling ZANU-PF party were getting food, it said, while areas that support opposition parties were not.

The Ministry of Social Welfare denied the allegations Monday as unsubstantiated and seemingly malicious. It said the charges denigrate a program that has the keen interests of President Robert Mugabe.

During the weekend, the 92-year-old leader weighed in on the issue.

"And the information, which some stupid people and stupid spokesman of is it Human Rights [Commission] put out, say grain is being distributed along party lines, is completely false, absolutely false," Mugabe said.

He added that Human Rights Commission chairman Elston Mugwadi had been influenced by Western countries who he said sponsor the commission.

Early this year, Zimbabwe made a plea for assistance to feed more than four million people -- nearly a third of the population -- after a severe drought reduced the harvest.

Oxfams director in Zimbabwe, Machinda Marongwe, says his aid agency was deeply concerned with the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission findings. He called for aid to be distributed according to principles of humanity, neutrality and impartiality.

A coalition of more than 20 NGOs said it welcomed the bold and timely intervention by the Human Rights Commission, and called on the government to refrain from manipulating food aid as a way of gaining political support before Zimbabwes next elections in 2018.
Health issues engulfed the U.S. presidential campaign Monday, with Democrat Hillary Clinton resting from a bout with pneumonia while Republican Donald Trump wished her well, even as he suggested "something is going on" with her well-being.

Clinton recuperated at her suburban New York home, canceling a planned two-day trip across the country to California to raise money for her campaign and talk about the U.S. economy.

Trump has repeatedly raised doubts about Clinton's stamina and physical strength to be president. In interviews Monday, he raised questions about the Clinton campaign's account of her illness. It was diagnosed Friday by her personal physician but not disclosed until Sunday after a video showed her stumbling as she abruptly left a New York memorial ceremony on the 15th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks and had to be helped into a van.

WATCH: Hillary Clinton after leaving 9/11 ceremony Sunday



Trump questions sincerity of disclosure



"Because they say pneumonia on Friday," Trump told one interviewer, "but she was coughing very, very badly a week ago and even before that if you remember, and this was not the first time."

Trump said he had a physical exam last week and will release statistics from his tests when the results are known.

He said, "I feel great but when the numbers come in, I'll be releasing very, very specific numbers."

To date, Clinton has released more information about her health than Trump, but not a detailed accounting of her health history. Her campaign said more information will be forthcoming later this week.

The two candidates are among the oldest to ever seek the U.S. presidency. Clinton is 68 and Trump is 70. If Trump were elected, he would be the oldest U.S. president in history. Clinton, if elected, would be the second-oldest U.S. president in history.

Trump and some of his most vocal supporters have suggested, without offering proof, that she suffers from the lingering effects of a 2012 fall in which she sustained a concussion and had a blood clot on her brain and double vision before doctors said she fully recovered.



WATCH: Trump responds to Clinton's "basket of deplorables comment"

Some media critics of Clinton complained about the two-day lag in announcing that she had pneumonia, as did David Axelrod, a former White House aide to President Barack Obama.



"Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia," Axelrod said on his Twitter account. "What's the cure for an unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?"

Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri conceded that "we could have done better (Sunday in releasing information), but it is a fact that the public knows more about (Clinton) than any nominee in history."

Candidate swap?



One U.S. political analyst, Cokie Roberts of National Public Radio, suggested that some Democrats are "nervously beginning to whisper about her stepping aside and finding another candidate" to face Trump, even as Clinton continues to hold a narrow edge over him in national U.S. political surveys.

But Roberts said she thought such a turn of events is "unlikely to be a real thing," more the product of "an over-reaction" by Democrats nervous about the November 8 national election.

No U.S. presidential candidate has ever had to be replaced on the national Republican or Democratic tickets once they have been nominated by their political parties. If such an event were to occur, both parties have procedures in place to name new candidates, with their national committees voting on the selection.

U.S. presidential elections are not decided by a national popular vote, but rather in contests in each of the country's 50 states, with each state's importance in the overall outcome weighted by its population. The winning candidate has to collect a majority of at least 270 of the 538 votes in the Electoral College.

What happens if a candidate dies?



If a presidential or vice presidential candidate were to die between the date of the national popular vote and the time when the Electoral College meets, usually about six weeks later, the party leadership would name a replacement.



If a death occurred after the Electoral College certified the White House winner, the U.S. Constitution decrees that the vice president-elect would become the president-elect.

Deaths of top U.S. political figures in the immediate time frame of presidential elections have been rare.

In 1872, Horace Greeley, called the Liberal Republican nominee for president, died after the national election but before the Electoral College vote. But it mattered little because he already had lost the election to President Ulysses S. Grant, a Republican, who was running for a second term.

However, on two occasions, vice presidential candidates have had to be replaced after the political parties nominated them but before the national elections were held.

Vice President James Sherman, a Republican seeking re-election, died in 1912. Sixty years later, in 1972, Democratic vice presidential contender Thomas Eagleton withdrew from the ticket before the election after acknowledging that he had been hospitalized three times for depression and stress and had undergone electric shock therapy.
Hillary Clinton's doctor says the Democratic presidential candidate has been diagnosed with pneumonia, but is "recovering nicely."

Doctor Lisa Bardack made the announcement Sunday after Clinton left a September 11 commemoration ceremony in New York. She stumbled and her knees appeared to buckle as she was helped into her car.

Aides drove her to her daughter Chelsea's New York apartment to rest, and later Clinton emerged looking rested. She hugged a child on the street and waved to supporters.

"I'm feeling great. It's a beautiful day in New York," Clinton said as she left in her car.

Doctor Bardack said the 68 year-old Clinton's unsteadiness was caused by being "overheated and dehydrated."

The doctor examined Clinton Friday for a prolonged cough and she diagnosed pneumonia, a lung infection. She put Clinton on antibiotics and advised her to rest and modify her schedule.

Clinton campaign officials have not yet announced whether any events will be canceled.

Her Republican rival for the White House, Donald Trump, has said Clinton does not have the stamina to handle the presidency. Some of his supporters have tried to make her health a campaign issue.

The 70-year-old Trump released a letter from a physician late last year claiming he would be "the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency."

But the doctor has since acknowledged he dashed off the note in five minutes while a Trump campaign limousine waited nearby.
Americans paused and reflected Sunday as the nation marked the 15th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that left thousands dead and propelled the United States into its longest-ever wars.

Somber ceremonies, from New York to Pennsylvania to the Pentagon, were held against the backdrop of a presidential race in which national security is a prominent theme.

The day of remembrance featured reminders that the fight against adherents of radical Islam continues.

"What we face in the context of the global terrorist movement is a long term problem associated with social, economic and political issues across that region and the world, which has created such a widespread radicalization that one group after another has sprung up over the years," said Retired Marine Gen. John Allen on ABC's This Week program.

U.S. officials know the threat has evolved.

We are safer when it comes to protecting against another 9/11-style terrorist-directed attack from overseas, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson told ABC. We are in a new environment, however, where we have to be prepared against and try to prevent lone wolf-style attacks, the self-radicalized actor.

The administrations critics want a more muscular U.S. posture on the world stage.

Were sitting back waiting for the next attack. We should be on offense, said former New York City mayor Rudi Giuliani.

We will remember those three very famous words: peace through strength, said Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a recent campaign rally. Nobodys going to mess with us.

But a modicum of restraint is also required, according to the administrations defenders.

Youve heard Donald Trump say he would order our troops to torture. Youve heard him say he would order troops to kill family members of terrorists, said Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton late last week. You would know that he is advocating illegal actions against our own laws as well as the laws of war.

While a ferocious presidential contest exposes rifts in a bitterly polarized nation, the 9/11 anniversary recalls a time when Americans rallied as one.
The United States is marking the 15th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, when al-Qaida terrorists hijacked four planes and flew them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon near Washington, while one crashed in rural Pennsylvania.

President Barack Obama observed a moment of silence at the White House Sunday at 8:46 a.m., when the first of the four hijacked planes slammed into the World Trade Center, before speaking at a ceremony at the Pentagon, the U.S. military headquarters, honoring those killed in the attacks.

"We remember and we will never forget the nearly 3,000 beautiful lives taken from us so cruelly," Obama said. "We wonder how their lives might have unfolded, how their dreams might have taken shape."

WATCH: President Obama Apeaks at Pentagon Memorial

He vowed that terrorists "will never be able to defeat a nation as great and as strong as America," praising the country's diverse ethnic population comprised of people of all races and religions as "one of our greatest strengths."

Obama, commemorating the September 11, 2001 attacks for the last time as president before leaving office in January, said, "This is the America that was attacked that September morning. This is the America that we must remain true to."

IN PICTURES: 15th Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks



Victims killed in the attack on the World Trade Center were remembered in New York, where the country's leading 2016 presidential candidates, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, paid their respects at Ground Zero but halted their political campaigns for the day.

As they have been in past 9/11 commemorations in New York, the names of the 2,983 killed that horrifying day were read slowly by their relatives as music played in the background.

WATCH: 9/11 Commemorations in New York

As daylight ends Sunday in New York, spotlights will project two giant beams of light into the sky to represent the fallen twin towers of the World Trade Center.

"Fifteen years ago, a September day that began like any other became one of the darkest in our nation's history," Obama said Saturday in his weekly address.

The president said those killed were "from all walks of life, all races and religions, all colors and creeds, from across America and around the world." It was the worst attack on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941 at the start of World War II.

View the photo gallery of 9/11 attacks:



Nineteen hijackers, 15 of them from Saudi Arabia, were killed in the attacks, which led directly to the U.S. war in Afghanistan, where al-Qaida trained attackers against the United States, and indirectly to the war in Iraq. The U.S. still has thousands of forces in Afghanistan and Iraq even as it has ended large-scale combat operations.

Writing on Twitter Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry said, "On 9/11, we remember those we lost, those who tried to save them. We honor them by pursuing peace, security, justice worldwide."

Near Shanksville in western Pennsylvania Sunday, the Flight 93 National Memorial stands in memory of the passengers and crew members who carried out a sustained assault against the hijackers for control of the plane 15 years ago.

A September 11 Museum has been erected on the New York site where the World Trade Center once stood, housing artifacts and photographs connected to the attack.

At the Pentagon, the 184 people who died on September 11, 2001 are honored with 184 benches over pools of water. A huge American flag was draped from the roof of the headquarters of the country's Defense Department on the side of the building where the attack occurred.
A burglar who first broke a window into an East Side bank then broke into a teller drawer didn't get much for the work.

The only thing missing were several rolls of coins.

The break-in happened at US Bank, 6401 Cottage Grove Road, Madison police said.

"The burglar broke a window then used some type of pry tool to gain entry into the drawer," said police spokesman Joel DeSpain. "It houses rolled coins, and some were stolen."

No description of the burglar was given.
An unknown number of Zimbabwean illegal miners are part of dozens still trapped underground George Harrison Park, a disused gold mine in Langlaagte, Johannesburg. The mine collapsed last week when the victims were panning for gold.

Police say an additional 16 people went down the mine in search of the victims but they were trapped inside as well.

Some Zimbabweans with relatives trapped inside the collapsed mine tried to forcibly enter the mine shaft but were discouraged by the police.

People, who were pulled out of the mine alive without any injuries, were immediately taken to the nearest police station for questioning.

According to police, the illegal miners that sustained injuries have been ferried to hospital where there are set to be monitored by the police.

Mines Minister Mosebenzi Zwane has appealed to relatives of the people who are trapped in the mine to be patient saying the South African government is doing all it can to rescue the trapped miners, whose numbers has not yet been determined.
Marion Louise Dahlke, 86, died on October 23rd at Grace Pointe Crossing in Cambridge, MN. Visitation will be held from 5:00 to 7:00 PM on Friday, October 28th at Anderson Funeral Home.
(File photo) Large pans with propane were used with the "practice jet." Alex Fire Chief Jeff Karrow conducted an exercise with the jet during the state fire fighters convention and worked to bring it to Alexandria for local departments to use. The Area Emergency Management leadership was able to implement it into their drill Monday night.
Prolific even in death. Photo: Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images

David Bowie may have released his final album days prior to his death, in January, but those were not the last songs he ever recorded. The rock legend also performed versions of songs from his Lazarus musical  which opened in New York last December and is now headed to London  that will be released on the cast album on October 21. Along with the previously heard title track are his takes on No Plan, Killing a Little Time, and When I Met You, all recorded with his longtime producer Tony Visconti and the band Bowie performed with on Blackstar. Keep in mind that final recordings means these are the last songs he put on wax, but not the only unreleased Bowie music in existence; his never-before-heard The Gouster album will finally be released on September 23 as part of a new box set with more remastered Bowie albums. Michael C. Hall, who stars in the show, will perform Lazarus at this Fridays Mercury Prize awards show, where Bowie is a nominee. Meanwhile, Bowies son has denied a report that some of Bowies ashes were scattered at this years Burning Man.
L-R: Tracee Ellis Ross and Anthony Anderson Photo: Richard Cartwright/ABC

If Black-ish wins this years Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, it would give creator Kenya Barris, the cast, and the crew a well-timed recognition boost ahead of the shows third season, which begins just three days after the September 18 ceremony. But a Black-ish victory also would mark something more significant: the first time in 31 years and only the second time ever that a show principally about African-Americans has won the outstanding comedy Emmy.

That number sounds ridiculously large  more than three decades??  but isnt surprising at all when one considers the history of both the Emmys and television in general, both of which have skewed  I know, its a real news flash  white.

The comedy with an all-black cast that won that aforementioned Emmy back in 1985 was, of course, The Cosby Show, the sitcom about an upper-middle-class Brooklyn brood that became the decades defining family comedy. While the sexual-assault charges facing Cosby have cast a disturbing and unfortunate pall over that programs legacy, there is no denying it was a groundbreaking series. Yet whats fascinating about that win, the first in Emmy history for a show focused exclusively on the experiences of African-Americans, is that most of the print-media coverage at the time didnt even acknowledge the milestone. (The only reference to black in the L.A. Times summary of the evening appears in the word black-tie.)

One would think that 1985 Cosby Show victory, achieved in its debut season, would have been the first of many outstanding comedy Emmys for what was the most watched program in America during the entire latter half of the decade. But while it was nominated in the category twice more, it never won again. The only other comedy with a predominantly black cast that received a nomination in its wake was CBSs short-lived, New Orleansset Franks Place, starring Tim Reid. It was nominated in 1988 and lost to The Wonder Years. That was the last time a show focused on black characters was nominated, until Black-ish got its outstanding comedy nod earlier this year.

Again, it is challenging to read that last sentence and not go: Wait, what? Its not as if there have been zero shows about the black experience on television since the 1980s, or before it for that matter. The 1970s gave us Good Times, which Black-ish paid homage to in its season-two finale; it was never nominated for best comedy. Same goes for The Jeffersons, though at least Weezy, Isabel Sanford, got an Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a comedy. (Like Robert Guillaume, who won for outstanding lead actor in a comedy in 1985 for Benson, she remains the only African-American winner in that category. Both of these facts could change if Anthony Anderson or Tracee Ellis Ross wins this year.)

While the disco decade is known for television shows that more frankly confronted racial issues, only two such comedies, The Bill Cosby Show and Sanford and Son, were nominated for best comedy during that ten-year period, and neither won. The late 80s and 1990s were filled with popular shows with predominantly black casts, no doubt because The Cosby Shows success paved the way for their existence. A Different World, Family Matters, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Living Single, Martin, Hangin With Mr. Cooper, and Malcolm and Eddie all found audiences, but no Emmy nominations. (The Keenen Ivory Wayanscreated sketch-comedy hit In Living Color did win an Emmy in 1990, but in the Outstanding Variety Series category.)

The same can be said of the 2000s, when African-American-focused comedies that also enjoyed great critical acclaim  specifically, Everybody Hates Chris and The Bernie Mac Show  were still left off Emmys outstanding comedy series list, even though they received other nominations. Of the two, The Bernie Mac Show fared better with Emmy voters; its star was nominated twice for lead actor, and the sitcoms writing also was nominated twice, winning in 2002 for its Larry Wilmorescripted pilot.

Why have black shows been left out of this category for so long? Well, certainly some of the ones mentioned here, popular though they may have been, didnt rise to the outstanding comedy level. With all due respect to Steve Urkel, I am not going to sit here and make a case that Family Matters should have been nominated for an Emmy instead of Cheers or Seinfeld. But could or should The Bernie Mac Show have gotten one of the slots that went to, say, the ninth season of Friends or the fifth season of Will & Grace? Yes. I would say yes.

That gets to what has been a longtime issue for the Emmys, and not just in the comedy category: a tendency to stick with the status quo. In the 90s, Frasier won the outstanding series Emmy for five years in a row  half the decade. The 00s mixed things up a little more  Everybody Loves Raymond won twice and 30 Rock won, at decades end, for three back-to-back years, but there was also room to give deserved Emmys to Arrested Development, Sex and the City, and The Office. In the current decade, the wins in this category were owned by a single show  ABCs Modern Family  until Veep won last year.

In terms of whats nominated, the increase in the number of scripted comedies overall has yielded a bit more variety in the category, even if the winner has rarely changed. Shows like Girls, Transparent, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Master of None, and Orange Is the New Black (before it switched its genre of competitive choice to drama) have all managed to earn outstanding comedy nominee distinction, something that would have been harder to do in, say, the 90s, when a handful of comedies (Frasier, Seinfeld, The Larry Sanders Show, Murphy Brown, Mad About You) generally ran the table. But while some of these aforementioned shows featured prominent black characters  including Kimmy Schmidt, Orange Is the New Black, 30 Rock, and Master of None, which makes a point of reflecting New Yorks melting-pot makeup  none of them is a show specifically about African-Americans.

Which brings us to a broader industry issue, the same one raised by the #OscarsSoWhite controversy: that because of racism at worst or unconscious bias at best, TVs gatekeepers historically have been more welcoming to shows made by and about white people, and less so to those by and about African-Americans and other people of color. When its time to cast Emmy ballots, voters have followed the same pattern set by the industry overall and tended to skew white. That industry tendency has been evolving a lot in recent years, and some of this falls new offerings  Atlanta, Insecure, Loosely Exactly Nicole on MTV  in addition to already established TV phenomena  Empire, The Carmichael Show, pretty much everything Shonda Rhimes does  reflect that.

Black-ish was nominated this year, not because its a show that, like The Cosby Show before it, is about an upper-middle-class African-American family. It was nominated because its a good show, period, one whose episodes have specifically focused on race, but also about the plain old stuff of suburban family life. It faces incredibly tough competition from several terrific comedies, including a couple whose victories (Transparent, Master of None) would be culturally significant as well.

If it wins, the moment will stand as another Emmy milestone for African-Americans, one that I am pretty sure more media outlets will openly acknowledge this time. But as The Cosby Show victory three decades ago reminds us, that a single win would not, in and of itself, guarantee wider representation among future Emmy nominees. Progress, in TV and in general, is notoriously slow. But the fact that so-called Peak TV continues to allow us access to worlds and perspectives that television has previously ignored suggests that Black-ish, and shows like it, have a better chance of being recognized in the future. To borrow a word from the moving season-two episode of this outstanding comedyworthy series, lets hope so.
Four farm buildings were destroyed Sunday night in a fire at a town of Vienna farm, with nobody hurt in the blaze.

The fire was reported at about 7:10 p.m. at 7026 Patton Road, the Dane County Sheriff's Office said.

Fire departments from nine communities responded to the blaze, including departments from DeForest, Dane, Waunakee, Maple Bluff, Marshall, Lodi, Arlington, Middleton and Sun Prairie.

A home close to the fire was evacuated before firefighters arrived, the Sheriff's Office said.

The fire was in a large tobacco barn and three out buildings, all considered a total loss.

No cause of the fire or damage estimate was given, but the fire didn't appear suspicious, the Sheriff's Office said.
Before we delve into this weeks mess, its worth taking a moment to remember there are real problems in the world. At the end of the day, The Real Housewives of New Jersey is here to entertain us, but these women must also deal with lifes misfortunes.

Late in the hour, recurring cousin Kathy references her daughter Victorias recent brain tumor relapse and fainting spells. Weve seen a little bit of Kathy over the last few weeks, but this is the first were hearing about Victorias health issues. Having watched the kid grow up for several years, I think I speak for all of us when I say this is a chilling turn of events. On behalf of everyone at the Housewives Institute, I wish Victoria Wakile a complete recovery.

Another serious issue, although thankfully not life-threatening: This episode touches on Jacquelines son Nicholass autism. Teresa brings her daughters over to play with Nick for the first time since reconciling with Jax, and the play date goes well. (Milania was especially good with him.) Jacqueline shows immense gratitude for the day, revealing in a roundabout way just how much concern she feels about her sons future. Even the littlest interactions mean the world to her.

All of Teresas daughters have grown up considerably over the last year, perhaps more than she even realized. Over a Thai yoga massage, Joe explains what weve all been thinking whenever Tre referenced her time away as research for a book: The girls have computers; they know the truth. The new namaste Teresa takes it in stride. There is no screeching or defensiveness, just quiet acceptance  health, health, health as Edina Monsoon would say on Absolutely Fabulous. (Is Teresa the Eddy of RHONJ? Whos the Patsy? Is it Jacqueline? Its probably Jacqueline.)

Sidebar: Lets quickly memorialize one of the all-time great Real Housewives malapropisms: Joe calls Brussels sprouts muscle sprouts. I mean, so perfect, right? Kind of like Old Timers Disease or all intensive purposes.

During a sit-down over green tea, Lawyer Jim focuses on Joes impending departure and the importance of him staying out of trouble in prison. Clearly, no ones worked up over whatever Joe drunkenly said to Teresa last week. On the cusp of his incarceration, their relationship seems about as solid as can be. Not for nothing, though, everybody agrees that time away will be good for Joes liver.

Meanwhile, Siggy sends her daughter Sophie off to a Jewish Federation weekend, where shell learn about tradition and remember that her grandparents are Holocaust survivors. Sophela didnt seem too excited, but I couldve relieved her of any trepidation. I used to go on those things (Havurat Noar and Dor Hadash  or Baruch Habarbecue as my mother called it) and Im here to tell you it was a weed-fueled sex party for Jewish teens from neighboring school districts. Of course, I mostly stayed in my bunk listening to the Israeli cast recording of Evita starring Riki Gal, but I heard the cool kids got into some hot-and-heavy stuff. This getaway allows Siggy, her ex, and his new wife, Thuy (along with their toddler, Liam), to focus on their son Joshie. He just passed his driving test and they celebrated with a dinner at Delmonicos, where they present him with a shiny new SUV with black-rim tires. Ive never heard of that kinda thing, but it seems really cool.

The next day at wine oclock, Siggy pops by Melissas place to offer a little relationship expertise, mostly in the form of You and Joe have a good marriage. I guess Siggy is unfooled by the endless dog-and-pony show of Joe and Melissa pretending to fight over who wears the pants and who takes them off. Although it doesnt mean I support this stupid subplot, I will say that this weeks installation of Joe versus Mel is a little less boring. I mean, she lands some pretty good zingers: Welcome to the New Millennium and something about him not picking her up on 42nd Street, which is funny for a few reasons. I mean, 42nd Street probably is where he would pick her up nowadays, after she takes the kids to see Aladdin on Broadway and eat dinner at Red Lobster or Chevys Fresh Mex. And also, just like, you know, reasons. A stripper says what?

In an even less interesting battle of the gender roles, albeit one between two divorced hotties who still have chemistry, Frankie and Dolores might as well be married. Id say the conflict is more between Dolores and her business partner. Or maybe its between Dolores and her objectively attractive son? (Im just saying.) Or Dolores and her farting dog? Or, I dont know, Dolores and some tertiary character we havent noticed who will be back to cause trouble next season? Who in their right mind could fight with Dolores? Shes so pretty and cool and she could definitely kick your ass.

Dolores even gets along with personas non grata Kathy and Rosie (and ugh, Richie). They get together to foreshadow Kathy and Rosies big confrontation at Teresas book signing, which weve all been waiting for. This preamble is where Kathy drops the bomb about Victoria. It starts with questions about Teresas namaste-ness. How can you really be at peace when youre holding a grudge against your own family? After that, I was ready to judge Kathy because Ive always felt she was way out of line on the whole Teresa thing. Yes, Teresa was pretty rude to her, but she really didnt give a pasta e fagioli and Kathy kept crying out for relevance by weighing in unnecessarily.

But then Kathy mentioned her daughter. I cant explain how deeply this affected me. I knew about Victorias history because it was part of the exposition when Kathy first joined the show, but I just took it for granted she was out of the woods. I thought I lived in a universe where Victoria getting sick again was impossible.

In terms of sympathy, though, it certainly helps Kathys case after she and Rosie use Teresas book signing to surprise her with a lunch invitation. (On me, Rosie proffers, ever the gentleman.) Unsurprisingly, Teresa is cordial, superficial, and just this side of cold. Undeterred, Rosie and Kathy push on. And heres where Teresas strategic prowess really shines through: She still dodges the invitation. Im spending time with my husband before he leaves, she says. Every moment with my kids is precious, she says. Just one hour, Teresa! The Skinny Italian wouldnt give an inch!

You know when people push you for plans and youre running out of excuses, but you just dont want to see them? How many times have you gotten stuck with an undesirable dinner date when all you wanted was down time and me time? Its happened to me more than I care to remember. Thats why Teresa is my inspiration. Its a simple No, thank you! and roll credits. Whats gonna happen next? Will they keep pushing? Will Tre have to come right out and say she doesnt want to go? Will anybody mention Victoria? I cant imagine that wouldnt shake things up. Que sera sera, what will Tre, will Tre.
Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

After suffering the indignity of having a lime thrown at her because she was dancing at a Kraftwerk concert with her family, Solange Knowles also faced backlash because of her tweets about the incident. Acknowledging that she, her husband, her young son, and her sons friend were four of a small minority of African-American faces in the audience in New Orleans last Friday, Knowles tweeted, Im just going to share my experience  So that maybe someone will understand, why many of us dont feel safe in many white spaces. We dont bring the drama. Fix yourself. The internet, being full of atrocious trolls, took this opportunity to claim Solange was just playing the race card, and to pretend the incident was somehow Solanges fault for choosing to live in a Southern city, because obviously people arent racist anywhere but the South.



Knowles explained the situation more in depth with an essay on Saint Heron, where she placed her story into a bigger narrative. She wrote about the more minute details of the incident, including the tone and language used by the older white women who threw the lime, as well as her familys expectations that theyd be able to, you know, actually dance at an electronic dance bands concert, even if it was just for the four songs that you really connect with and plan on getting down to. She writes about her motive to share the experience on social media, using the second-person to describe herself: Youre full of passion and shock, so you share this story on Twitter, hands shaking, because you actually want these women to face accountability in some kind of way. You know that you cannot speak to them without it escalating because they have no respect for you or your son, and this will only end badly for you and feel its not worth getting the police involved. She goes on to explain how the media misrepresented her story, because she never wrote that the women who harassed her were racist, only that the experience exemplified the mistreatment and lack of respect POC face regularly at such events. She wrote, again in the second-person, You constantly see the media having a hard time contextualizing black women and men as victims every day, even when it means losing their own lives. Knowles was especially upset that her son, who is 11 years old, had to witness such gross behavior.
Vulture gave Toronto the sweetest party of the festivals opening weekend when it partnered with A24 to celebrate the TIFF screening of director Andrea Arnolds Cannes-winning American Honey at the Rock n Horse Saloon. Around 9 p.m., the films breakout star Sasha Lane joined co-star Riley Keough and Arnold for a serious session of line-dancing (the U.K. native Arnold donned a cowboy hat and displayed limitless enthusiasm for a string of country kitschy hits like Achy Breaky Heart). Joining the down-home fun was Arnolds pal and Transparent creator Jill Soloway (Arnolds a frequent director on the show) and members of Soloways producing team on the Emmy-nominated series.

Around 10:30 pm, as the bars giant-size blended margaritas started to kick in, the dance floor became flooded with other Honey talent as the cast stood on speakers  an effort led by Lane  and pulsated to the films unofficial anthem We Found Love in a Hopeless Place. Across the saloon, the Rock n Horses signature attraction, its mechanical bull, had numerous guests attempting and failing rodeo glory, including documentarian Morgan Spurlock and actress Anne Heche. Also spotted at the event was one of the young stars of A24s other buzzy title Moonlight, Ashton Sanders, and none other than Pharrell Williams. You can check out highlights from the party here.
This afternoon at the Toronto Film Festival, as the third season of the acclaimed Transparent premiered in a special screening, a more disreputable project debuted across town starring Michelle Rodriguez as a hit man forced into a sex change. Dubbed (re)Assignment, it may be 2016s biggest what-were-they-thinking fiasco, and when it comes to trans issues, this throwback movie is about as woke as a coma.

What happened to me  I guess it was a lot better than what I deserved, growls hit man Frank Kitchen at the top of (re)Assignment. Played by Rodriguez, the ostensibly macho Frank carries out a series of for-hire murders while sporting a messy ponytail, a spirit-gummed beard, and the fakest chest rug this side of Austin Powers. With her manicured facial hair, Rodriguez looks more like an unenthusiastic A.J. McLean cosplayer than a hardened hit man, and every time she appeared onscreen in her male guise, I found myself longing for the verisimilitude of The Tyra Banks Show. Butch though Rodriguez may be, even she cant sell the effects-aided moment when Frank steps out of the shower, fake chest hair matted with water, and lets his dick swing toward the camera. Audiences have been agitating for gender equality when it comes to screen nudity, but I suspect this isnt quite what they had in mind.



Glowering Frank just wants to go about his lonely life as a vodka-swilling, blonde-banging hit man, but after murdering a rich drug addict, he comes into the orbit of the marks unhinged sister, Dr. Jane (played by Sigourney Weaver, for some reason!). Dr. Jane has Frank abducted and enacts her awfully complicated revenge by forcing him through gender-reassignment surgery, buying him a starter wardrobe of feminine clothes, and giving him a steady supply of hormone pills plus a per diem for sundries. Ive liberated you from the macho prison youve been living in, says the mad doctor, though Frank doesnt take it so well: Clad in nothing but a merkin, we watch as Rodriguez examines her nude, feminine body in the mirror and collapses to the ground, screaming.



Needless to say, in the year 2016, a movie that treats gender reassignment as the ultimate karmic punishment for mass murder might be a little out of step with the times. Trans people have already begun protesting the film on Twitter, and I suspect theyll soon be joined by fans of good cinema. Directed by veteran filmmaker Walter Hill (The Warriors) working in Uwe Boll mode, (re)Assignment is a mess that mixes way too many framing devices, shoots random scenes in black and white and forgets to subtitle others, and relentlessly time-stamps every moment as though its crucial to know that a barely glimpsed scene of Frank committing his umpteenth murder happened at 4:19 p.m.



Rodriguez has been magnetic in other movies yet seems ill at ease here as she slips in and out of a meatball-smacking hey, whatsa matta you accent and eyes every scene like shes looking for the door, but its Weavers presence that proves the most confounding. Sigourney, why? It pains me to dislike a film where this 66-year-old icon of cinema wears menswear and hisses, None of you are worthy of my time, but alas, (re)Assignment merits no love. At the very least, Weavers overwritten, over-the-top scenes do provoke their fair share of b-movie laughs: Im afraid Ive been a very naughty lady, she murmurs at one point to a hapless psychiatrist (Tony Shalhoub! Hes in this, too!), while in another scene, the Shakespeare-quoting doc hints at a rapacious sex life, but sniffs, Ive never concerned myself with my partners pleasure. Still, (re)Assignment is too hapless to become a cult classic.



Last year, the Toronto Film Festival had a clutch of films that were ostensibly about queer and trans people but were really centered around straight characters; already, this year rates better on the representation front thanks mostly to the terrific, sensitive Moonlight. So as not to step on that films significant moment, lets make like Sigourney Weavers lifetime-achievement montage and pretend (re)Assignment never existed. (Unless the Kennedy Center Honors someday want to use Weavers line Goodnight, moon. Go fuck yourself as a button. Its no Get away from her, you bitch, but if (re)Assignment is worth anything, its as a reminder that Sigourney Weaver knows her way around a good profanity.)
In the great tradition of Japanese horror cinema, two villains stand out among the rest: Sadako Yamamura from the Ring trilogy and Kayako Saeki of the Ju-on franchise. While Sadako, the terrifying girl who crawls out of TVs, was known as Samara in the 2002 American adaptation of The Ring, Kayako kept her name in the 2004 American adaptation of Ju-on, called The Grudge. Now, director Koji Shiraishi is bringing you the ultimate unholy showdown of J-horror with Sadako vs. Kayako. Think of it as the Freddy vs. Jason of Japan, in which two mythical baddies battle it out, since humanity can only truly be spared from their wrath if they take on each other. The movie makes its international premiere this Saturday at the Toronto International Film Festival, where its screening in the Midnight Madness section, but we have an exclusive clip in advance of the showing. Youll be able to see Sadako vs. Kayako later this year when it comes to the horror-specific streaming service Shudder.
Expanding the Community Restorative Court and creating alternatives to jail sentences should be priorities in efforts to reduce racial disparities in Dane Countys criminal justice system, a new report focused on diversion strategies concluded.

The report released Friday ahead of Tuesdays Dane County Public Protection and Judiciary Committee meeting includes a handful of overarching recommendations that range from reducing the number of people jailed for missed court appearances to connecting people with mental illnesses to services.

The recommendations are the result of a special work group made up of prominent Dane County criminal justice officials and leaders of organizations that work closely with offenders. They support many of the suggestions made by citizen-led committees in a report released last year and are intended to inform spending decisions as the county begins its budgeting for 2017, said Sup. Paul Rusk, chairman of the Public Protection and Judiciary Committee.

Rusk said last summers report on alternatives to arrest, incarceration and mental health was meant to merge input from citizen leaders with a handful of criminal justice system officials. The latest report focuses more on guidance from participants in the system, including the District Attorneys Office, the Public Defenders Office, judges and offender programs, he said.

The recommendations go deeper, Rusk said. Fortunately, the recommendations are very consistent with all of the recommendations that came last summer from the three work groups, which means were onto something here.

Rusk said he believes the reports most urgent suggestion is to implement a countywide Community Restorative Court. The pilot court on Madisons South Side has offered young and generally low-level offenders a chance to take responsibility for their actions through community service and, sometimes, financial restitution, but also avoid jail time and a criminal record.

If you can just keep people out of the criminal justice system until they get older, it should make a huge change over time, Rusk said. Ive always thought that if you can keep people out of the system, theres more time to mature.

Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne agreed that expanding the restorative court could have a widespread positive effect on 17-to-25-year-old offenders and said it also has potential to improve the relationship between law enforcement and the community. But Ozanne highlighted a recommendation to create a fast-track intake unit in his office that would more quickly review cases for eligibility into diversion programs.

One of the big issues we have with addressing bail rules  is a shortened timeline for decision making before peoples information gets onto CCAP, Ozanne said, citing the online court records system. We need more resources to safely plan with victims and to make the appropriate decisions, not just for bail information, but potentially for diversion.

The report suggested other restorative measures, such as developing a comprehensive community service program that could be used for alternative sentencing.

It also reiterated many well-discussed diversion tactics, including court date text message reminders, bail monitoring program expansions and creation of a mental health restoration center.

The report did not include costs associated with implementing the recommendations, but Rusk said the county would look into the cost of expanding the restorative court in the near future.

The Public Protection and Judiciary Committee will hear a presentation on the report and discuss it at its Tuesday meeting, which begins at 5:15 p.m. in Room 357 of the City-County Building, 210 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
A state agency that oversees public employee union re-certification elections improperly withheld data about Madison School District employees that had or had not cast ballots during an election last year, a Dane County judge ruled Monday.

Dane County Circuit Judge Peter Anderson said that the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission should have provided Madison Teachers Inc. with data about who had or had not voted because those records are presumed to be open under state law and WERC provided insufficient justification for denying MTIs request for them during the 20-day voting period in November 2015.

I think everyones better off by having a plain, clear declaration by this court that on this record, the reasons given were plainly outweighed by the strong presumption in favor of disclosure, he said.

MTI sought the records under the state open records law so it could urge district employees who had not yet voted to do so. The union was overwhelmingly re-certified.

Johnny Koremenos, spokesman for the state Department of Justice, which represented WERC in the case, said DOJ had no comment on the ruling.

Under Act 10, which took effect in 2011, public employee unions must annually get the support of 51 percent of all eligible voters in their bargaining units in order to remain certified. Act 10 significantly reduced collective bargaining rights of most public workers in Wisconsin.

WERC denied MTIs records request because it feared coercion of voters by the union. It cited a report that coercion had happened in the Racine school district, but that report was never investigated.

WERC also cited voter privacy as a reason for not releasing the data. By state law, employees who dont vote are counted as no votes after the voting period has ended. By seeing who had not voted while the voting period was still under way, WERC argued, it was possible for MTI to assume that those who hadnt voted were votes against re-certification.

Anderson sounded skeptical about that justification during brief arguments before he made his ruling. He said a non-vote that became a no vote was even more apparent after the election because a person who had not yet voted during the election period could still vote either way.

Anderson also questioned the fairness of that aspect of the re-certification law, asking whether anyone would think it was fair, for example, if those who sat out the presidential election in November were counted as automatic votes for Hillary Clinton. He called it the state putting a finger on the scale.

State Assistant Attorney General Steven Kilpatrick argued that WERC properly balanced MTIs records request at the time that it was made.

It is true the chairman (James Scott) is supposed to do a balancing, Anderson said, but the balance is between a strong presumption of openness versus whatever policy he has on the other side.

Anderson said that short of voter coercion, there was nothing wrong with MTI wanting to use the information to get out the vote.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials have launched an investigation into an incident at Baylor University earlier this month in which a construction worker fell four stories through a refuse chute and fractured his skull.

Jose Vicente Campuzano, a 23-year-old construction worker from Waco, remains hospitalized in serious condition after his fall Sept. 1 from the top of Martin Hall at Baylor left him with life-threatening injuries.

Campuzano, who works for Northstar Demolition and Remediation Co., underwent surgery and doctors inserted a steel plate in his skull, said Campuzanos attorney, Vuk Vujasinovic, of Houston.

Baylor spokeswoman Lori Fogleman said Baylor officials are aware of the incident. She deferred additional comment to officials at Whiting-Turner, the general contractor overseeing the renovation of the 62-year-old mens dormitory at 1101 S. Fifth St.

Oscar Vasquez, a supervisor at Whiting-Turner in San Antonio, declined comment Monday.

Gary Thibodeaux, safety director at Northstar, did not return phone messages left at his Beaumont office Monday.

Juan J. Rodriguez, an OSHA public affairs director in Dallas, would confirm only that OSHA officials are investigating the incident in which Campuzano was injured.

We cannot comment on anything further while the investigation is ongoing, but if violations of OSHA standards are found, OSHA can issue citations that could carry monetary penalties, Rodriguez said.

Vujasinovic said he sent letters Monday to officials at Baylor and the two construction companies informing them that he represents Campuzano and asking them to preserve evidence at the scene and to allow him to visit the site as soon as possible.

We are going to find out why Mr. Vicente fell four stories while working on the Martin Residential Hall refurbishment project, and hold accountable anyone who caused that to happen, Vujasinovic said.

Campuzano was assisting in the removal of asbestos from Martin Hall when he fell four stories through the refuse chute to the ground, Vujasinovic said.

At this time, we have no idea how or why this happened, he said.

The building opened in 1954 and is named for 1900 Baylor graduate D.K. Dock Martin, who was appointed chairman of the Texas Highway Commission in the 1920s by then-Texas Gov. Pat Neff. The dorm is closed this year during the renovation project.

Vujasinovic represented the family of Jose Dario Suarez, a 55-year-old construction worker from Manor who drowned in 2014 while working on the pedestrian bridge over the Brazos River that leads to Baylors McLane Stadium.

In April, a Harris County jury awarded Suarezs family $17.72 million, ruling that general contractor Austin Bridge and Road Co. was responsible for Suarezs death.

Baylor was named as a defendant in the original pleadings, but 151st State District Judge Mike Engelhart dismissed the school from the lawsuit last year.

Suarez drowned Jan. 28, 2014, after a hydraulic lift he and another worker, Terry Watson, were strapped to rolled from a modular barge into the Brazos River as the men worked on the bridge.

Watson was able to free himself and swim to the surface, where he was pulled from the cold river.
Last month comedian John Oliver unleashed a caustic  and funny  broadside on charter schools in America. He spotlighted the worst of the worst charters, the ones that fail students, escape rigorous oversight and cost taxpayers. If you want to know how any of that is funny, well, just watch the video.

The pro-charter Center for Education Reform, however, wasnt amused. The attack was a very unfair, unfortunate, unbalanced, unwarranted and generally unhinged tirade against charter schools, it harrumphed in a statement.

But then the group cleverly responded with a video contest, Hey John Oliver, Back off My Charter School! The center offers a $100,000 prize to the chosen school of the winner who shows John Oliver why making fun of charter schools is no laughing matter ... and why we need more opportunity, not less.

What a great opportunity for the winner, whoever she or he will be, to dispense with defensiveness and respond in kind to Olivers tirade: with facts and with a dollop of humor, we hope.

Whats not amusing, though, is the NAACPs updated stance on charters. In July, NAACP delegates passed a resolution calling for a moratorium on charter schools, pending an October vote of its national board. The NAACP justified its wrong-headed move by asserting that charters have aggravated school segregation, eroded local control of schools, wasted public funds, and disproportionately disciplined minority students. The NAACP is joined by The Movement for Black Lives, an alliance of more that 50 advocacy groups, in declaring charters the wrong antidote to failing schools.

But theyre missing the point. As with all public schools  and remember, charters are public schools  there are good ones and bad ones. Charters have freedom to innovate in educating children and a limited-time contract to produce results. If they fail, they should close. And district leaders should make sure that happens.

Charters grow not because district officials lavish resources on them  they dont  but because the schools deliver results. A 2015 Stanford University study of charters in 41 urban areas in 22 states showed significant long-term gains: Low-income black students received the equivalent of 59 days of additional learning in math and 44 days of additional learning in reading compared with their peers in traditional schools.

We anticipate watching the winning video in the Beat John Oliver contest. We hope its a hoot.

And we hope NAACP board members take their own look, and consult with many parents of charter students, before the October vote.
Andrew Mackenzie and Graham Kerr. Illustration: John Shakespeare. This easily pips the $US4.6 million that Mackenzie earned in 2015  which translates to $6 million Aussie at current exchange rates. Kerr's lode should also surpass Mackenzie's pay for last year given BHP has already stated he will not receive a bonus in 2016 due to the fatal dam collapse at Samarco mine in Brazil. "The tailings dam failure at Samarco in November 2015 was a key consideration, along with the ongoing decline in commodity markets," said a BHP spokeswoman. CBD might suggest it would be a bad look in the wake of its $8.3 billion loss as well, but that's just me.

Speaking about losses, South32 was $2.1 billion in the red last year. And, given his remuneration is so high, people might be worried about what reception Kerr will get from investors at the company's shareholder meeting in November. So it might be a good thing there should be many less shareholders to cause a ruckus if the 125,739 of them who hold a less than marketable parcel of securities take up the company's offer and sell their stock to the sale facility it has set up. Giant steps We don't know if this reflects the ABC's sporting ambitions, but CBD could not help but notice chief Aunty, Michelle Guthrie, watching the Greater Western Sydney Giants slay the Swans at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night. There was nothing inconspicuous about her appearance in a corporate box alongside AFL chief, Gillon McLachlan, and NSW Premier, Mike Baird.

The real powerplay was between the big chairs, of course. The win gave Giants' chairman, former Business Council of Australia chair Tony Shepherd, bragging rights over his Swans equivalent, Moelis & Co boss, Andrew Pridham. Shortlife Aussie/Irishman Alan Shortall still casts a long shadow over the injectable syringe maker he headed for so many years: Unilife. As we have reported, the company accounts were in a little disarray after Shortall's departure earlier this year due to "violations of company policies and procedures and possible violations of law and regulation" which surfaced.

The ASX-listed Unilife issued its preliminary final report (unaudited) this month for the year ending June 30, but warned its "audited" financial statements are expected to "vary in material respects" to the unaudited financial statements it has just issued. "Accordingly, investors are urged not to place undue reliance on the unaudited financial Information in making an investment decision about the company's securities," Unilife said in a refreshingly honest statement that should be adopted more widely on the ASX. How different would things be if Dick Smith had this sort of disclaimer on its accounts last year? Unilife has repeated its claim that the investigation into the "possible violations of law and regulation" by Shortall and former chairman Jim Bosnjak "has not identified any material financial loss to the company". Unfortunately, it appears that one section of the unaudited report that we can rely on is the update on the company's cash position.
WASHINGTON  Donald Trump, who had five draft deferments, never had to fight in the jungles of Vietnam.

But he had a different sort of war record, as he told radio host Howard Stern years ago: He slept with many women without getting STDs. It is my personal Vietnam, he said. I feel like a great and very brave soldier. Whats more, Trump added: This is better than Vietnam. Its more fun.

Said Stern: Every vagina is a land mine. Havent we both said that in private?

Trump concurred: I think it is a potential land mine. Theres some real danger there.

I recalled this Trump war story after his latest disparagement of the U.S. military Wednesday night. Asked to elaborate on his previous boast that I know more about ISIS than the generals do, Trump said at NBCs Commander-in-Chief Forum that, under the Obama administration, the generals have been reduced to rubble. They have been reduced to a point where its embarrassing for our country.

Trump later implied he would fire current generals  who, in the American tradition, are avowedly nonpartisan  and replace them with retired generals who have supported him politically. His advisers on defeating Islamic State will probably be different generals from the current ones. My former Washington Post colleague Tom Ricks, author of The Generals and four other books on the military, tells me this would be banana Republicanism.

Its difficult to think of a major political figure who has belittled the U.S. military as Trump has. Sunday was the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, which ushered in a support our troops spirit that has endured regardless of party or opinion of the wars that followed. But Trump goes beyond the standard criticism of the president and civilian leaders to condemn the military itself.

Our military is a disaster, he has said.

And: The military is in shambles.

Soon after launching his campaign, Trump said John McCain, the prisoner-of-war-cum-senator, is not a war hero and that I like people who werent captured. He later backtracked but said he didnt regret the remarks because my poll numbers went up.

He said he felt that I was in the military because as a boy he went to a military-themed boarding school, where he got more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.

He recently accepted a wounded-in-action veterans Purple Heart, saying: I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier.

He said, before backtracking, that he would order the military to torture detainees and to target innocent family members of terrorists  even though its illegal: If I say do it, theyre going to do it.

He later engaged in a high-profile squabble with the Gold Star parents of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq because they criticized him at the Democratic convention. Though Trump talks often about veterans, he didnt make good on a promised contribution to veterans charities after a fundraiser earlier this year until the Post noted his failure to do so. (Years ago, he opposed veterans working as street vendors on New Yorks Fifth Avenue, calling it deplorable to have them on the prestigious shopping street.)

Trump has called John Allen, the retired officer who led the fight against Islamic State and now backs Clinton, a failed general. And, though Trump said at Wednesdays forum that the body language of the intelligence officials in his security briefings indicated they disagree with Obama administration policies, he previously said he didnt trust U.S. intelligence officials.

Polling shows Trump leads among veterans and active-duty military members, though by less than Republicans typically do. Perhaps members of the military will change their views if a President Trump does, as he suggested, replace current generals with some of the dozens of retired military officials who signed a letter endorsing his candidacy last week.

These include retired Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, now an official at the Family Research Council, who believes Satan is working through Islam and who says gay rights are an evil that must be opposed by Gods army. Also on Trumps list is retired Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, a Fox News commentator who supported an Army officer who refused to deploy to Afghanistan, claiming President Obama was foreign-born and therefore an illegitimate commander in chief.

The officer, Lt. Col. Terry Lakin, was sentenced to military prison in a court-martial. But if Trump wins, perhaps the political supporters he appoints to replace the nations nonpartisan generals will reinstate and promote him.
"If you push my wife again, you'll be sorry." Credit:Jorge Branco When asked what Mr Mensink was covering his arse about, Mr Palmer said he didn't know. What had the resources magnate told him to do? He didn't know. How would he "f--- everything"? Again, Mr Palmer said he didn't know without the context of the rest of the emails. He also couldn't recall reducing the use of the Terry Smith account to talk with his nephew from that date and denied talking about keeping their communications "largely oral". "Then why were you telling him not to contact you by email," an exasperated-sounding Mr Sullivan asked.

"It depends where I was," Mr Palmer replied. "If I was close by, I'd prefer him come and see me so we can discuss things face to face. "You achieve a lot more in a face to face meeting than by you do by email correspondence or texting, which are so popular these days." Mr Palmer left the court in much calmer scenes than Friday, when a photographer was pushed into a bush and the mining mogul accused the media of assaulting his wife. On Monday afternoon, registrar Murray Belcher knocked back a request for a "special arrangement" to let Mr Palmer enter court through the carpark because of "safety concerns".

Mr Belcher said he wasn't going to "buy into" the barrister's argument that Mr Palmer shouldn't have to face questions about an ongoing hearing. He said the application would have to be made administratively, out of court. The hearing continues on Thursday. EARLIER Clive Palmer has accused federal and state governments of being "determined to put Queensland Nickel out of business" as he faces prolonged questioning over the company's collapse.

The self-declared billionaire told the Federal Court he came to the conclusion after a meeting with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on October 9 last year, which convinced him not to offer to prop up the ailing Townsville refinery to the tune of $23 million of his own money. "It would have been just after that time that I realised that political forces which were against me personally we're going to make the whole workforce in north Queensland suffer regardless of what I did," he said, as court proceedings broke for lunch just after 1pm. Mr Palmer said he'd offered the money to QNI financial officer Daren Wolfe earlier in the year but was told it wasn't necessary. He clashed with liquidators repeatedly on Monday morning, again maintaining any decision he made was on behalf of a committee he had complete control over, and not his own personal decision. Mr Palmer claimed to not recall whether he had approved Queensland Nickel, via the Joint Venture Owners Committee, paying the barrister's bills of another Palmer company as it faced legal action in Western Australia.

Another email showed Mr Palmer replying "not approved" to QNI managing director and his nephew, Clive Mensink's, comment of "good to go" on a $1.3 million Microsoft contract. Liquidators are examining whether Mr Palmer acted as a shadow director of the company before it collapsed with the loss of almost 800 jobs and with debts of about $300 million, which he denies. He was again questioned repeatedly on Monday over more emails to and from his "Terry Smith" alias account, appearing to ask for his approval of QNI expenditure. On several occasions he refused to confirm the emails were directed to him, even when they began "Hi Clive" and signed off "Clive". He told the court he was in the habit of getting other people to write emails from the address but couldn't name one of them.

The phone he used to conduct QNI business, which liquidators wanted to examine, was lost two months ago at a steak restaurant and his staff had contacted Telstra about recovering data, the court heard. In one email trail from mid-2015, Mr Palmer was asked to approve Queensland Nickel paying legal fees for his company Mineralogy, which was involved in a legal conflict with Chinese company CITIC over the Sino Ore project. He told the court the request came to him as his role as a director of Mineralogy and as a representative of the Joint Venture Owners Committee governing QNI. On Friday, Mr Palmer was questioned extensively about a "little green book", filled out entirely in pencil, which purported to give him full authority to wield the power of the committee on his own. A variation to the joint venture agreement, again written in the outdated diary, purported to give QNI the ability to donate to Mr Palmer's political party and lend money to other Palmer companies, among other things.

Mr Mensink was the only other member of the committee, but Mr Palmer had 80 per cent of the voting rights, ultimate power as chairman and secretary and would often hold meetings with himself or "jot down" ideas, which would "become a resolution". Mr Mensink featured in many of the emails examined on Monday as he apparently made his way north through Europe. Liquidators PPB Advisory have been unable to question Mr Mensink, who Mr Palmer said was on a boat somewhere between St Petersburg and Helsinki the last he knew. After his bodyguards pushed at least one journalist on the way into court, the resources tycoon appeared more animated than his Friday appearance, regularly leaning forward in his chair and gesturing to make a point, and even smiling on a couple of occasions. Terry Smith is the email address. I'm not Terry Smith, no. My name is Clive Palmer," the magnate responded when barrister Tom Sullivan, QC, asked him whether he was Terry Smith, in relation to an email.

When the barrister asked if Mr Mensink accidentally finished a question about a may 2015 email with "Martin Brewster was your nephew at the time?", Mr Palmer quipped: "he still is." The former Fairfax MP made his own slip ups, at one stage claiming "prejudice" instead of "privilege" and repeatedly referring to the Joint Venture Owners Committee as the Joint Venture Operating Committee. Things were much less cordial for most of the session, as Mr Palmer accused the QC of looking at the JVOC agreement "simplistically, like a child" and was accused in turn of being "unresponsive" to questions. Mr Palmer labelled the examination into the collapse of Queensland Nickel as a "political withchunt", implying Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull influenced the banks against him. The mining magnate said MrTurnbull promised to speak to the heads of the big banks, which refused QNI's request for a $25 million overdraft in September last year, in a meeting between the pair on October 9.

"The Prime Minister assured me, at my meeting on the ninth of October, he would talk to the heads of all those banks and I'm sure he did, " he said. "I'm sure they're all contributors to the Liberal Party who are my political opponents. "You may well ask why are we he today, why aren't we here for someone else, that's because it's a political withchunt. "Last night I recieved an email from cabinet ministers of the Turnbull government saying have I enjoyed myself." Mr Palmer said he was happy to show the email to the court.

He earlier told the court that meeting convinced him not to tip his own money into the failing venture, because state and federal governments were "determined to put Queensland Nickel out of business". Mr Palmer denied Queensland Nickel was trading insolvent as early as June 2015, despite a $5 million gap between available cash and debts. He agreed a financial document from June 25 showed QNI had about $8 million cash available, with about $13 million in debt. But he disagreed the document showed the debts were due and owing on that date, saying they could have been met by a cash advance from the joint venture ultimately controlling the refinery. Loading
As a psychiatrist I have cared for a large number of asylum seekers and former detainees. All are refugees and a substantial proportion were survivors of war, persecution and torture. They are resilient people and under the right conditions most will recover and prosper. Under the wrong conditions they cannot, and may not even survive.

A recent open letter from Robert Manne, Frank Brennan, Tim Costello and John Menadue proposed a pragmatic way forward, drawing heavily on the track record of the Howard government resettling refugees in Australia from offshore detention without any surge of new boats. Earlier this month, Paris Aristotle, CEO of refugee organisation Foundation House, issued a public statement. He appealed for urgent action to change the current policy settings, which he confirmed are inflicting escalating levels of harm. This is highly significant. He always chooses his words carefully when dealing with these complex issues. We should listen.

Recently it has been expressed freely in Australia in the public and governmental responses to a range of social evils, notably child abuse, domestic violence, mental illness and suicide. Governments have acted in a decisive and bipartisan way to tackle these scourges. The opposite has been the case in relation to the plight of asylum seekers who have arrived by boat and the unremitting suffering of refugees, currently trapped in PNG and Nauru. Our natural instincts have been blocked with disastrous effects on the mental health of thousands of human beings and on our national psyche and reputation.

The impulse to relieve suffering is a basic human instinct. As Australians, when we encounter a lost child, or one battling painful and life-threatening illness, or a young man lying in pain at the scene of an accident, our natural response is compassionate and we offer help. This instinct inspires the values of many religions and society itself.

Extensive research and clinical experience shows that incarceration for long periods, and without a sense of any hope of a safe future, is a recipe for despair, serious mental illness and suicide. Suicide is always the end result of a complex cocktail of social entrapment, unbearable emotional pain, anger and despair. So often it is triggered by the "after-dinner mint" of a further setback, which intensifies the emotional pain or removes the last vestige of hope. The asylum seekers on Manus and Nauru are drinking this cocktail every day. The mental state and behavioural responses that we read about are inevitable and beyond their control, or indeed that of any system that can be put in place to care for them.

I can share the recent example of a young schoolgirl I have treated at headspace, who spent two years in detention and is now struggling to engage at high school on a bridging visa in Melbourne. Her father was severely tortured in a war-torn Middle Eastern country and they arrived by boat in early 2013. In detention she became seriously ill with depression and psychosis, and became suicidal. Treatment of these conditions in detention was completely ineffective, but now she is beginning to respond. But she has been severely harmed by a long period of unremitting illness and full recovery will be elusive.

Psychological counselling during indefinite detention or where hope is extinguished, such as in Nauru and PNG, is like tackling a bushfire with a water pistol. This means that routine treatment in detention centres comprises widespread use of powerful psychotropic drugs, notably antidepressant, sedative and antipsychotic medications. They are often used well beyond usual therapeutic boundaries to ease mental pain, and would be unnecessary if the patients were not in indefinite detention. This is hugely conflicting ethically for doctors and health professionals, whose first rule is "to do no harm", and helps to explain why doctors and their national organisations are so firmly opposed to indefinite detention.

I have not commented publicly on these matters for some time, discouraged by the fact that neither appeals from more eloquent commentators, nor hard facts, nor even the huge expense and collateral damage to Australia has failed to break the deadlock. Now that the "turn back" strategy has prevented any successful arrivals, the equation has clearly changed. There is simply no need to employ further deterrents. Causing suffering to complement and reinforce the turn back strategy was always morally questionable, but it is now unnecessary. Based on the ends justifying the means, some tried to argue that such harm is preferable to drownings. But the indefinite detention policy is currently contributing to more deaths than drownings, as well as manufacturing new mental illness.

The time has come, before it is too late, to resettle those fellow human beings, and not just the children, but all of those who qualify as genuine refugees and who deserve a second chance for life. I am in full agreement with the statement from Foundation House which urges the government and Opposition to facilitate "resettlement in countries including Australia which offer the opportunity for refugees to become integral members of society, to live in security and participate in the economic, social and cultural life of their new homes".
International Yoga Day at Bondi Beach in Sydney. Credit:AP "It's very clear that the Modi government has been working to harness Indian soft power and Indian cultural appeal more effectively that previous Indian governments have," he says. Australia will get to sample a little of this cultural charm offensive over the next two months as a program of Indian dance, theatre, music  and of course, yoga  rolls out across seven cities. The Confluence Festival of India in Australia, billed as "the biggest showcase of Indian arts and culture ever to be staged in Australia" is sponsored by the Indian government. Organisers say it will have a "strong and positive impact on the bilateral relationship, fostering mutual cultural connections, promoting tourism and migration and highlighting business opportunities between Australia and India." Modi himself announced the festival during his historic 2014 visit. Modi often talks about yoga in speeches and during meetings with world leaders. Credit:AP Suri, who took up his post as India's High Commissioner in April last year, was previously the head of public diplomacy at the Indian foreign ministry and has been involved with festivals sponsored by the Indian government in South Africa and Egypt.

"I'm a great believer in the power of cultural diplomacy, whether you call it soft power or anything else," he says. Suri says staging cultural festivals enabled diplomats to "get out of the box" of routine government-to-government interactions. "What we've found is they have allowed us to very significantly broaden the range of contacts that we have from the narrow bureaucratic circles into the arts, the writers, intellectuals and people who are public figures - culture became a great way to connect with them," he says. "In democracies like India and Australia centres of power are dispersed. It's a 21st century diplomat's task to connect with a much broader range of actors as compared to the traditional diplomacy of engaging on a government to government basis." Buddhism, Bollywood and India's most potent cultural exports The rich performance traditions that will feature in the Confluence festival are often overshadowed by Indian cinema. Bollywood has won global recognition and now rates among India's most potent cultural exports. The film industry has a major following in many parts of Asia and the Middle East. India also boasts a cadre of globally renowned writers and public intellectuals including Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Amartya Sen.

But maybe India's greatest cultural export is Buddhism, which originated in north India and has gradually gained adherents through much of Asia. The region would be very different if not for that ancient manifestation of Indian soft power. Modi has appealed to the vast Buddhist populations in east and south-east Asia by emphasising India's historic connections to this spiritual tradition. In a speech in September last year he said: "India is taking the lead in boosting the Buddhist heritage across Asia." Indian scholars have dubbed this "Buddhist diplomacy". "The prime minister is diligently pursuing India's 'Buddhist agenda' and taking it beyond its borders, emphasising the Indian and Hindu links with Buddhism," wrote Indian academic Rishika Chauhan in a recent paper titled Modi and Buddhism: Between Cultural and Faith-Based Diplomacy. India's more assertive use of soft power has sparked inevitable comparisons with its giant regional counterpart, China. Professor Michael Wesley, director of the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Studies at ANU, says the key difference is that China starts out with a "significant set" of disadvantages.

"China has an authoritarian regime and people are very aware of that," he says. "India is far from perfect but it doesn't have a Tiananmen Square in its recent past. India is a much more benign presence internationally  it is simply less of a threat." Wesley says the recent controversies over Chinese influence in Australian politics had underscored a "nasty side" to China's attempts to wield soft power. "India starts from a much easier position to create positive attitudes," he says. Medcalf says it would be a mistake for India's "global cultural offensive to look anywhere near as orchestrated" as China's. "The good news is India is a long, long way from that," he says.
Todays column is presented as a public service.

It is for serious politicians both Democratic and Republican  and also for Donald Trump. The urgent need for this service has been painfully obvious for many years and never more so than today. So, lets get right to it. This is: How to Talk to Black People in Eight Easy Lessons.

1. Go where we are.

Youd think that pretty obvious. Then you remember Trump purporting to speak to black people whilst addressing audiences whose aggregate melanin wouldnt fill a Dixie cup.

2. Dont act as if going where we are requires machetes and a supply line.

Some have said that Im either brave or crazy to be here, Republican Sen. Rand Paul once told a black audience. He said this at Howard University, which is about 15 minutes from the White House. They have cell service there and everything.

3. Stop confusing the NAACP with the Nation of Islam.

Donald Trump recently snubbed an invitation to address the venerable civil rights group. Bob Dole once did, too, claiming they were trying to set me up. Right. Because the NAACP has such a long history of incendiary rhetoric. As one of its founders, the great scholar W.E.B. DuBois, never really said, Im bout to bust a cap on these honkies if they dont give me my freedom.

4. Dont use Ebonics unless you are fluent.

I still have nightmares about Hillary Clinton crying out, I dont feel no ways tired in that black church in Selma. Stick to Ivorybonics. Most of us are bilingual.

5. Dont make a CP time joke unless you are a CP.

When candidate Obama sauntered onstage about 15 minutes after the start time of a black journalists event and quipped, I want to apologize for being a little bit late  but you guys keep on asking whether Im black enough, it was cool and funny. When Bill de Blasio joked in a scripted exchange with Hillary Clinton about running on CP Time  cautious politician time  it was, well, not.

6. Dont make a slavery joke, period.

Joe Biden once warned a black audience that Republicans are going to put yall back in chains. Can you imagine him warning a Jewish crowd how the GOP is going to put yall back in the gas chambers? Can you imagine how offensive that would be?

7. Dont talk to the black people in your head.

This is what Donald Trump was doing when he told black people they lived in the suburbs of hell and had nothing to lose by voting for him. He was speaking, not to black people, but to black people as he imagines them to be, based on lurid media imagery and zero actual experience. In this, he was much like Bill OReilly, in whose world black folks all have tattoos on their foreheads.

8. Know what you dont know.

Im here to learn, said Trump at a black church in Detroit a few days ago. It was a powerful expression of humility  or would have been, had it been said by someone who wasnt an OG of the birther movement, a serial re-tweeter of supremacist filth and the star of David Dukes bromantic fantasies. Still, he had the right idea. Politicians too often purport to lecture us about us without having the faintest idea who we even are.

The truth is, How to Talk to Black People isnt all that difficult.

The candidate who wants African-American support should pretend black folks are experts on our own issues and experiences  because we are. He should learn those issues, tap that experience, formulate some thoughtful ideas in response. Then he should do what he would for anyone else:

Ask for our vote. Tell us what hed do if he got it.
I have learned the hard way not to put my personal life on the Internet. But suffice it to say that, God willing, things should be pretty much back to norm...

2 weeks ago
I am Kerry Burgess. This is what I think.
Capital One Financial Corporation was founded in 1988 with the goal of revolutionizing the credit card industry. The companys ground-breaking services were data-driven, opened the doors of credit to millions of people, and today Capital One is one of the worlds largest banks.

The companys commitment to connecting people with responsible credit helped to rank it 10th in the US in regard to total assets and 72nd globally. The company has nearly $400 billion in assets in late 2022 and operated a network of subsidiary institutions including Capital One bank. Capital One Financial Corporation is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, and operates a network of branches and offices throughout the US, Canada, and the UK.

Capital One Financial Corporation is the holding company for Capital One Bank (USA), National Association; and Capital One, National Association, which provides various financial products and services in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Capital One Financial Corporation operates in three segments: Credit Card, Consumer Banking, and Commercial Banking. The Credit Card segment operates a wide range of revolving consumer credit cards while the Consumer Banking segment offers a range of traditional banking and investment products including auto and home loans, savings, and certificates of deposit. The Commercial segment offers business accounts, financing, commercial and multifamily real estate, and commercial and industrial loans.

In the US, the company serves its clients through digital channels, branches, cafes, and other distribution channels located in New York, Louisiana, Texas, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, and California. Digital services include online accounts, account services, loan applications, and investments. Among the many features of banking with Capital One are fee-free checking accounts, cloud-based financial tracking services, and Capital One Cafes. The company operates more than 40 cafes across the US where anyone, not just account holders, can get a coffee or snack as well as improve their financial education. The cafes are equipped with ample public space, nooks for private work, and even event space for meetings.

Capital One continues to advance the digital financial industry to this day. The company was among the first to move its operations to the cloud, doing so in 2012, and it is now developing machine learning, open source, and cloud technology applications to help detect and prevent fraud, secure accounts, and improve banking services.

Capital One is committed to aiding the worlds fight against climate change. To that end, it is pursuing several avenues that include influencing its value chain, fostering a sustainable office culture that is in sync with its surroundings, promoting and financing sustainable energy projects, and transparency in regard to its climate goals.
Leading Civil War Expert to Lecture At WSU

September 12, 2016

OGDEN, Utah  One of the countrys leading authors on Abraham Lincoln, will present Lincoln and the Uncivil War on Immigration at Weber State University for the annual Lampros Lecture on Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. in the Hurst Center Dumke Legacy Hall.

Harold Holzer was senior vice president for Public Affairs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City from 1992 to 2015, chairman of the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and a member of the New York Historical Society.

Holzer has authored or co-authored and edited more than 50 books and hundreds of articles. His most recent book, A Just and Generous Nation: Abraham Lincoln and the Fight for American Opportunity co-authored with Norton Garfinkle, presents a new account of the reasons Lincoln declared war when the Confederacy seceded. Other works include 1863: Lincolns Pivotal Year, co-authored with Sara Gabbard, and Lincoln: How Abraham Lincoln Ended Slavery in America, the official young-adult companion book to director Steven Spielbergs film Lincoln.

"Harold Holzer's presentation offers an opportunity to see how past generations - and past leaders - dealt with questions of immigration and diversity," said Susan Matt, chair of WSUs history department.

The annual Lampros Lecture is sponsored by Jack and Betty Lampros, the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences, the Department of History and the WSU Alumni Association. Thanks to the support of generous donors WSU has offered a Civil War presentation free to the campus community for almost 20 years.

For more information visit weber.edu/History/weberhistoricalsociety.html.

Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University.
Thai Students Present Culture Through Musical Production at WSU

September 12, 2016

OGDEN, Utah  The cultures and customs of two countries will collide on stage at Weber State University when underprivileged Thai students present Moradokmai Thai Plays Sept. 21 from 5-7 p.m. in the Shepherd Union Wildcat Theater.

photo courtesy of Nopadon Wongsuwan

Students of the Moradokmai Theatre Community in Pathum Thani, Thailand, study and live at the boarding school dedicated to the arts and to teaching self-reliance.

These teenagers and young adults, ages 16-22, were left to survive in an environment rife with poverty, narcotics, gambling, video game addiction and materialism, wrote the schools principal, Pobchan Leelasartsuntorn in an email. We encourage them to believe in a new possibility of life through theater, traditional and western music, self-sufficient community and Thai roots.

The Thai Association of Utah, WSUs Asian Students Senator Zoe Hall, international Thai students attending WSU and the WSU Office of Access & Diversity collaborated to bring the Moradokmai students to Weber State.

The Moradokmai Thai Plays are just one of the many culturally diverse experiences Weber State has to offer, Hall said. We are lucky to attend a university that hosts events such as this, allowing students to explore cultures and the various qualities of humanism.

The theater company will perform the play Ramakien, which tells the Thai war epic between Rama, the rightful king of Ayutthaya, and Totsakan, the evil king of the island of Lanka. The interactive play, presented in English, includes a combination of traditional Thai and western music and dance.

Over the years, the group has performed at various locations throughout the United States, including at the Wat Layton Buddhist Temple of Utah in March 2016

photo courtesy of Nopadon Wongsuwan

Theater gives our students a place to belong and a chance to express themselves, which translates to a glimpse of a better, brighter future, said Leelasartsuntorn.

Michiko Nakashima-Lizarazo, director of Center for Multicultural Excellence at WSU, hopes hosting the play at WSU will strengthen the relationship with the Thai community and is excited to embrace the rich Thai culture.

This play supports the universitys mission encouraging freedom of expression and valuing diversity, said Nakashima-Lizarazo. We want to promote increased participation and collaboration with various departments that support diverse students at WSU.

The production is free and open to the public. Donations are encouraged. All proceeds will benefit the Moradokmai Home School.

Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University.
Fort Polk, LA (71446)

Today

Intervals of clouds and sunshine in the morning with more clouds for later in the day. High 72F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 53F. Winds light and variable.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Sep. 12, 2016 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Sep. 12, 2016 | 01:30 PM | PADUCAH, KY

Paducah Parks Services and the Veterans Day Planning Committee are accepting nominations for the 2016 Distinguished Veteran and the 2016 Patriot Awards through Oct. 14.



The City of Paducah says the award winners will be honored during Paducahs annual Veterans Day Ceremony and Parade on Nov. 11 at Dolly McNutt Memorial Plaza. The ceremony begins around 10:15 am. The award winners will then ride in the Veterans Day Parade at 11 am.



For the Distinguished Veteran Nomination, priority will be given to nominees who currently reside or work in Paducah or McCracken County and who continue to stay active and involved in their community. Each letter of nomination should state why the person deserves the honor and how their service has made a difference in the community. For the Patriot Award, the committee is looking for non-veteran candidates who dedicate their time to serving veterans and veteran causes in this community.



All nominations must include the name and phone number of the person making the nomination. Nomination forms and award criteria are available in the Parks Office or online at www.paducahky.gov.



A Veterans Selection committee of five to seven people will judge all entries. Then the Nominator, Judging Committee, and Parks staff will work to surprise the Distinguished Veteran and Patriot Award winners who will be honored at a ceremony in the days leading up to their riding in the parade on November 11.



The deadline to submit award nominations is Friday, Oct. 14 at 5 pm. Entries can be hand-delivered to the Parks office at 1400 H.C. Mathis Drive or mailed to the following address:



Paducah Parks Services

Attn: Veterans Day Committee

P.O. Box 7265

Paducah, KY 42002-7265



The Parks Department also is accepting entry forms for the Veterans Day Parade. Entries will be accepted until October 21 at 5 pm. Entry forms are available at the Parks Department office or online.
By Paul Schaumburg, Graves County Schools Sep. 11, 2016 | 08:07 PM | FARMINGTON, KY

Farmington Elementary School's first Born Learning Academy session will take place at the school at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 12. All families with children from ages birth to 5 are invited to attend. Supper and child care will be provided for children of all ages.

According to the Governors Office of Early Childhood, only 50 percent of Kentuckys children are prepared to enter and perform well in kindergarten! Only one-half, one of every two children is equipped with school readiness.

Farmington Elementary School and the SAFE (Symsonia and Farmington Elementary) Family Resource Center can assist in preparing young children with a solid learning foundation, making them ready to soar in their educational careers!

The Farmington Family Resource Center offers a program called Toddler Time for any 2- or 3-year-old child in the community. Accompanied by an adult, the program is held in the Farmington Elementary preschool room for one hour, once a month. The childrens librarian at the Graves County Public Library leads children and parents in story time and making arts and crafts, incorporating early learning skills. This program is designed for toddlers to have interaction with other children as well as to become familiar with the school and staff.

In addition to Toddler Time, Farmington Elementary is fortunate to have the United Way Born Learning Academy. The Academy consists of six session workshops which provide families with tools to prepare their children for kindergarten by turning everyday moments into learning opportunities.

Families of children from birth to age 5 (including expectant parents) are engaged in hands-on activities and discussion about what it means to be ready to enter school. They also are offered strategies they can use at home to maximize their childs learning and development.

The academys intentional placement in the school setting allows an increase in comfort when the time to transition to school comes later. This is also an opportunity for school staff to get to know families early, leading to long-standing and positive parent-teacher relationships.

Families are served a meal at each session. Afterwards, children activities are provided while the caregivers participate in a presentation. Families are brought back together for the families to practice their strategies before going home.

The Farmington Family Resource Center also has information of additional programs in the community that can benefit young children and families in preparing for school success.

Farmington Elementary and the SAFE Family Resource Center want all students to reach their full learning potential. A few hours of investment now can reap great results for children in the future. These programs are completely free of charge.

Farmington Toddler Time Dates

All sessions are 9:30-10:15 a.m.

Sept. 30

Oct. 28

Nov. 18

Jan. 27

Feb. 24

March 31

May 5

Farmington Born Learning Academy Dates

All sessions are 6-7:30 p.m.

Sept. 12

Oct. 17

Nov. 21

March 20

April 17

May 8

Three other Graves County elementary schools also offer Born Learning Academy sessions to interested parents.

Fancy Farm Elementary holds its Born Learning Academy sessions through the end of 2016 from 5:30-7 p.m. Sept. 20, Oct. 18, Nov. 15, and Dec. 6.

Lowes Elementary holds its Born Learning Academy sessions through the end of 2016 from 5:30-7 p.m. Sept. 22, Oct. 20, Nov. 17, and Dec. 1.

Wingo Elementary holds its Born Learning Academy sessions through the end of 2016 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Sept. 8, Oct. 13, and Nov. 10.

Several Graves County elementary schools also offer Toddler Time and other early childhood learning opportunities. Check with the local school to learn more.

For more information about these, or other early childhood programs, contact Jennifer Morris at 270-328-4994 or jennifer.morris@graves.kyschools.us.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Sep. 11, 2016 | BENTON, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Sep. 11, 2016 | 09:24 PM | BENTON, KY

Marshall County Schools Superintendent Trent Lovett says school officials got a report Friday about a possible Hit List at Marshall County High School, but he says the rumors are unsubstantiated.



"We along with the Marshall County Sheriffs Department spent the entire day on Friday and most of the weekend investigating this report. We have found no one that has actually seen a hit list, only students who have heard this from other students." Lovett said.



Lovett says school officials also received a report of a text message that was sent, which was also investigated. He says officials have taken appropriate action and have found no threat of harm to students. Lovett says he has been in contact with several people who posted on social media about the alleged list.



"Social media reports what people believe to be true without actually having facts," Lovett said. "Due to student privacy laws, we are not at liberty to disclose all facts or discipline of students. I can assure you, we are continuing to investigate as we strive to provide a safe environment for all of our students."



Lovett is asking anyone with information to email him at trent.lovett@marshall.kyschools.us.
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It's been two years since 276 Nigerian schoolgirls were kidnapped by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram. Though some escaped, and a few have been found, more than 200 of them remain unaccounted for. Their plight continues, but their story has fallen from the front pages.

Theresa Ikoko's play, winner of the Alfred Fagon award for black British dramatists, imagines three such lives in captivity. Three teenage girls, no more than 14, are stuck in a cell somewhere off-map, held by an unnamed terrorist organisation. They sustain themselves by imagining their families back home, still searching, and playing out typical teenage fantasies. Ikoko presses the point that this has become their norm, and, as the girls giggle over sex and gossip about Beyonce and Lady Gaga, you get glimpses of the lives denied to them.

They are a well-balanced trio. Haleema (Anita-Joy Uwajeh) addresses their situation frankly, furtively sharpening a stone knife and plotting to escape, while Ruhab (Yvette Boakye) falls in line in order to secure sympathetic treatment. Taking the hijab and joining daily prayers, she marries one of their captors and conceives a child. The youngest, Tisana (Abiola Ogunbiyi), clings to hope and to her Christian faith, for which she is mercilessly whipped.

Ikoko does something rather daring, and Girls draws a parallel between the terrorists and the patriarchy as a whole. Dependent on them for food and, indeed, life, the three girls collude with their captors, appearing in propaganda videos and sewing the black flags of fundamentalism. Rozanna Vize's design imprisons them in a pink holding pen, aligning their confinement with their gender, and each of their survival tactics  Ruhab's acquiescence, Tisana's resolve and Haleema's defiance  stands as much a stance against a system as well as their actual situation. Patriarchy is a prison, Ikoko insists.

However, as a result, her writing pulls in two directions at once. Girls' characters are both abstract and real. To make points about the media landscape and its portrayal of women, Ikoko affords the three hostages a level of knowledge they wouldn't have. It's not that they're au fait with Beyonce and James Bond, but they understand the Twitter campaigns running in their name and the newspaper coverage of their plight. They are privy to our perspective of their situation. Yet at the same time, Ikoko wants to show the grinding reality of that situation. Elayce Ismail's production, staged in situ, never quite finds a way to have it both ways.

It is, however, passionately played, even if the cast struggle to maintain momentum through the play's short, staccato scenes. Ogunbiyi, in particular, is touchingly restrained as Tisana, holding in tears as her back becomes a mesh of open wounds, and Uwajeh's Haleema is a striking presence as she prepares to fight for freedom. Boakye ensures Ruhab's obedience remains a reasonable response, rather than a personal defeat. An ambitious, eloquent piece of writing, Girls is a mark of Ikoko's promise, even if it hasn't yet found its form.

Girls runs at the HighTide Festival until 17 September, then at Soho Theatre from 27 September until 29 October.
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Mountaineering becomes a metaphor for masculinity in Elinor Cook's layered and lyrical three-hander. Will and Dan, old friends from Wales, are climbing a peak that's never been scaled, pitting themselves against the world and pushing themselves to prove themselves. Back home, exploring unchartered territory of her own with a PhD in folk stories, is Rachel, the woman they both love.

Pilgrims isn't just a protest about the way women get sidelined in stories  that men get to be heroes, and women, their prizes  it dares to suggest there's a reason for that. Cook unpicks the underlying psychology: the masculine impulse to leave one's mark combined with the stubbornness to steamroll one's will.

We know the climb is doomed from the off. Jumping back and forth in time, Pilgrims opens with Will (Steffan Donnelly) lying flat on his backpack, breathing heavily through pain as Dan (Jack Monaghan) tries to keep him awake. Flashbacks unfurl their friendship, and their burgeoning rivalry over Rachel (Amanda Wilkin). While Will gets in first with a cocksure flirtation, she leaves him for the quieter, more ruminative Dan. Their ambitions pull against each other: she has a place at Harvard, he's tied to Wales.

Halfway up, the two climbers hit an impasse: Will wants to turn back; Dan, to plough on. Whosoever digs their cramponed heels in deepest wins their way. When Dan strides ahead, Will drains their drinking water. The same struggle plays out between the sexes and, Cook suggests, it's often women that give way. The stories that survive, of historic, heroic achievements, are reflections of that  at least, until Rachel rebels.

Cook's characters are beautifully drawn and brilliantly played. Her male protagonists reflect twin peaks of masculinity. Donnelly's self-assured Will is imposing but never intimidating, while Monaghan is a deeper, darker soul, capable of disappearing for days. Pilgrims nails not only the indulgence of their adventures, costly as they are, but the insecurities built up beneath. It couples the brilliance of masculinity with its self-destructive, reckless, hubristic streak. Wilkin's Rachel might be modest and unassuming by comparison, but she's more grounded and set. Tamara Harvey's staging, gently insistent, elicits care for these characters, even as they stand for more than themselves, and Pilgrims is both poetic and political at once.

There's an extraordindary economy to Cook's writing. Her spare sentences double up as dialogue and statement, and she weaves layered ideas and images together. James Perkins delivers one of the richest designs of the year: a raised platform of white and blue tiles set on a golden grid. Not only does it form an abstract landscape, actors clambering around it or abseiling down it, it teases meaning out of the writing. The tiles, the sort that survive for centuries, are embossed with commemorative images of stories that, likewise, stick around. Nic Holdridge lights it superbly, with Welsh dusks and snow glare, and Jared Zeus's folk music floats through the action. A gorgeous piece gorgeously produced, Pilgrims is playwriting at its peak.

Pilgrims runs at the HighTide festival until 17 September, then at the Yard Theatre, London from 20 September to 16 October. It then runs at Theatr Clwyd from 18 to 29 October.
Native Americans protesting construction of a North Dakota oil pipeline near land they consider sacred on Saturday quietly celebrated the U.S. government's decision to pause construction on federally owned land, and vowed to press for a full halt to the project.construction on federal land of the planned pipeline that has angered the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and asked the company behind the project to suspend nearby work.The move came shortly after a federal judge in Washington rejected a request from Native Americans for a court order to block the project.The government's action reflected the success of growing protests over the proposed $3.7 billion pipeline crossing four states which have sparked a renewal of Native American activism.The Standing Rock Sioux, whose tribal lands are a half-mile south of the proposed route, say the pipeline would desecrate sacred burial and prayer sites, and could leak oil into the Missouri and Cannon Ball rivers, on which the tribe relies for water.On Saturday, many activists in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, touted the latest victory, but said its temporary nature meant they would not end their protests, echoing Friday statements by Standing Rock Sioux leaders."This could go all winter, and into next summer, said Lance Dorian, spokesman for a group from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota that has set up camp on the south side of the Cannon Ball River, on Standing Rock land. Were in it for the long haul.His tribe had set up big Army-style tents as well as a kitchen.With prayer and song as well as the occasional drum beat in the background, activists vowed not to leave.We won the day, said environmental activist John Wauthen from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.Speaking from the red carpet at the Toronto International Film Festival world premiere of "Snowden" on Friday, actress Shailene Woodley, who has backed efforts to halt the pipeline, lauded the U.S. government's decision."It's about time," she said. "I'm extremely grateful and I hope that momentum continues to move forward."Dakota Access, subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners LP that is building the pipeline, declined to comment on Saturday.Brigham McCown, an industry consultant and former head of pipeline regulator U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, said the federal action came "out of left field" and was unprecedented."We dont know what the implications are, other than that it's going to have a huge chilling effect on our national ability to move forward with infrastructure projects," he said.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 12/09/2016 (2239 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nova Scotias the Barra MacNeils will help Winnipeg get into the Christmas spirit with at the Centennial Concert Hall.

Tickets go on sale to the general public Sept. 16 at 10 a.m. at Ticketmaster and range in price from $29 to $75, plus fees.

The Barra MacNeils will celebrate 30 years of touring and recording with the show. Traditional holiday favourites such as O Holy Night and Auld Lang Syne mix with Celtic classics like A Christmas in Killarney and comedy and seasonal stories.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Sam Roberts of the Sam Roberts Band belts it out on Main Stage to close opening night of the Winnipeg Folk Festival this summer. The Sam Roberts Band, along with the Barra MacNeils, will be back in the city for An East Coast Christmas concert Nov. 29.

Another Canadian group, the Sam Roberts Band, will take the stage at the Burton Cummings Theatre on Jan. 31. Tickets also go on sale on Sept. 16 at 10 a.m. at Ticketmaster, and range in price from $29 to $63.50 plus fees.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 12/09/2016 (2239 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mondays six-pack of new shows includes a heavenly comedy, a time-warped drama, a couple of brand-new sitcoms that are already past their best-before dates, a format-faithful legal drama and a homegrown thriller thats a bit too overdone to be believed. All in all, a very mixed bag of TV offerings:

KEVIN CAN WAIT

Where and when: CBS/Global  Sept. 19, 7:30 p.m.

Kevin James and Erinn Hayes in 'Kevin Can Wait.'

Starring: Kevin James, Erinn Hayes, Taylor Spreitler, Mary-Charles Jones and James DiGiacomo

Premise: A newly retired police officer has dreams of a relaxing, fun-filled existence with his fellow former cops, but finds that life at home with three kids is more challenging than anything he faced on the big-city mean streets.

Lowdown: James returns to the CBS comedy roster in a show thats as old-school sitcommy as his previous effort, The King of Queens. The genres format was tired and predictable during that shows nine-season (1998-2007) run, and its absolutely on life support as this threadbare effort arrives on the scene. Lame setups, telegraphed punchlines, overwrought laughtrack, cute-kid actors  this ones got it all if all youre looking for are circa-1978-style sitcom laughs.

Bottom line: Kevin wont have to wait long for the viewing publics verdict.

THE GOOD PLACE

Where and when: NBC  Sept. 19, 9 p.m.

Justin Lubin/NBC Kristen Bell thinks she's in the wrong place with Ted Danson in NBC's The Good Place.

Starring: Kristen Bell, Ted Danson and William Jackson Harper

Premise: A decidedly less-than-perfect woman (Bell) meets with an unfortunate demise, and because of a clerical error winds up in The Good Place, where the worlds very best souls spend an idyllic afterlife, rather than The Bad Place, where she definitely belongs. Once there, however, she tries to stay out of view of The Good Places primary architect (Danson) long enough to improve her outlook and become the kind of person who truly belongs.

Lowdown: Theres a whole lot to like about this unconventional and extremely bright comedy from executive producer Michael Schur (Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine), starting with brilliant work from sneaky-funny star Bell and reliable TV-series hand Danson. The writing is clever (theres a great running gag involving the notion that no one  including mistaken arrival Eleanor, whos rather adept with profanity  is allowed to curse in TGP), and the pilot will leave viewers eager to learn what happens next. After its sneak-preview Monday debut, the series will relocate to its regular Thursday 7:30 p.m. timeslot.

Bottom line: If theres an afterlife for failed TV sitcoms, heres hoping this one doesnt head there anytime soon.

CONVICTION

Where and when: ABC/CTV  Oct. 3, 9 p.m.

ABC/Bob D'Amico ABC's "Conviction" stars Hayley Atwell as Hayes Morrison.

Starring: Hayley Atwell, Eddie Cahill, Shawn Ashmore, Merrin Dungy, Emily Kinney, Manny Montana and Daniel di Tomasso

Premise: A fast-living lawyer, whos also the former First Daughter, cuts a deal that will allow her to avoid jail time for cocaine possession in exchange for being the figurehead of the New York district attorneys high-profile wrongful-conviction task force. Once in the job, she begins to realize its an opportunity to really shake up the system.

Lowdown: If nothing else, Convictions engaging pilot episode is very much in keeping with ABCs current drama-series brand  filled with smart, sexy, mostly shady people whose often-bad behaviour produces good (and, more importantly, entertaining) outcomes. Atwell (Marvels Agent Carter) is strong  though not immediately likable  as corner-cutting lawyer Hayes Morrison, Cahill is a good match as her boss, primary antagonist and possible down-the-road love connection. Given its style, the most surprising thing about Conviction is that Shonda Rhimes name isnt attached to it.

Bottom line: The jurys out on this one  it could become a hit if enough viewers are willing to give it a try, but the decision to air it behind Dancing With the Stars deprives it of the lead-in strength thats available elsewhere in ABCs drama-heavy schedule.

TIMELESS

Where and when: NBC/Global  Oct. 3, 9 p.m.

Joe Lederer/NBC Timeless stars (from left): Malcolm Barrett, Matt Lanter, Abigail Spencer and a top-secret time machine.

Starring: Abigail Spencer, Matt Lanter, Malcolm Barrett and Goran Visnjic

Premise: After a band of presumed terrorists steals a top-secret time machine, seemingly with the intention of destroying the U.S. by going back and changing key events in its history, the government scrambles a special team to use an earlier prototype of the machine to chase them through time and prevent the future-altering damage.

Lowdown: One of a couple of new dramas pondering the consequences of tinkering with the past (the other is Foxs Frequency), this occasionally entertaining adventure is weighed down by the convoluted nature of the pilot episodes baseline premise  that changing even small events in the past could have a massive impact on the present and future  and seems destined to quickly undermine its own narrative logic. Its clear from the outset that neither the good guys or the bad guys are going to leave the past alone, so each weeks time-sensitive mission is going to make the present messier and more difficult. Were doomed.

Bottom line: One neednt have travelled to the past to understand that this show has a limited future.

SHOOT THE MESSENGER

Where and when: CBC  Oct. 10, 9 p.m.

Starring: Elyse Levesque, Lyriq Bent, Lucas Bryant, Alex Kingston, Hannah Anderson and Ari Cohen

Premise: A made-in-Toronto drama that explores the complex  and sometimes ethically compromised  relationship between crime reporters and the police.

Lowdown: At the intersection of steamy illicit romance and grisly big-city crime, youll find the tightly entangled lives of the cops who fight crime and the newspaper scribes who cover it  at least, thats the heightened reality in this somewhat overwrought drama that focuses on an ambitious young reporter who straddles the line between personal relationships and professional pursuits in an attempt to get her stories on the front page. From a newspaper writers perspective, its rather far-fetched; the betting here is that most viewers will find it a bit overdone, as well.

Bottom line: This Messenger is a very long shot, indeed.

MAN WITH A PLAN

Where and when: CBS/Global  Oct. 24, 7:30 p.m.

Starring: Matt LeBlanc, Liza Snyder, Kevin Nealon, Grace Kaufman, Matthew McCann, Hala Finley and Jessica Chafin

Premise: A contractor agrees to spend more time at home with the family in order to support his wifes decision to go back to work, and quickly learns that building well-behaved and well-rounded kids is a lot tougher than constructing houses.

Lowdown: We could probably save each other a bit of time if you just referred back to the description (above) of Kevin Jamess new sitcom; like that tepid effort, this one also features the star of a successful old-school sitcom returning to the genre in a show that feels sadly out of step with contemporary TV comedy. After his sharp and funny self-mocking run on the made-for-cable series Episodes, one cant help wondering what LeBlanc was thinking when he signed on for this.

Bottom line: OK, heres the plan: everybody start looking for another job.

RETURNING SHOWS:

Dancing With the Stars (Sept. 12, ABC)

The Voice (Sept. 19, NBC)

The Big Bang Theory (Sept. 19, CBS)

Lucifer (Sept. 19, Fox)

Scorpion (Oct. 3, CBS/Citytv)

Murdoch Mysteries (Oct. 10, CBC)

Supergirl (Oct. 10, CW  new network)

2 Broke Girls (Oct. 10, CBS)

Jane the Virgin (Oct. 17, CW)

The Odd Couple (Oct. 17, CBS/Citytv)

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @BradOswald

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Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 12/09/2016 (2239 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

You might see it three or four miles off before you come around the bend, and then you say, That is a basket. That is unquestionably a basket, said Tom Rochon.

It is a basket, or rather, a seven-storey office building shaped like one  a massive facsimile of the signature picnic basket made by the company once headquartered there. Some 65 kilometres outside Columbus, Ohio, the basket building, as its locally known, is one of the areas grandest attractions, inviting quirky selfie-seekers, architecture nerds and, of course, basket enthusiasts.

Despite its celebrity, its owner has had trouble off-loading the gargantuan basket, due to its size, location and-well, youve seen it, right?

When the property  slightly larger than another Ohio landmark, Clevelands Rock and Roll Hall of Fame  was listed 18 months ago, the asking price was US$7.5 million. Now its on the market for US$5 million, or about US$28 a square foot, about half of what traditionally shaped office buildings in the area usually sell for, according to Columbus real estate adviser Bradford L. Kitchen, president of the real estate advisory firm Alterra.

The basket buildings listing agent, Michael Guagenti of Cushman & Wakefield, said commercial property in the area typically ranges from US$50 to $80 a square foot.

The basket was built for about US$32 million and finished in 1997, said Guagenti, as a home for the Longaberger Company. Known for its kitschy baskets, both decorative and functional, Longaberger has been around since the 1970s and once boasted sales of US$1 billion, largely the result of direct-sales agents who hawked baskets at Tupperware-esque parties.

But its sales reportedly fell to US$100 million in 2012. As Longaberger moved workers from the basket building to a nearby factory, its Dallas-based holding company, JRJR Networks, for which Rochon works, decided to sell to consolidate and streamline our operations, chief financial officer Chris Brooks said in June.

Guagenti admitted its the most unusual property hes tried to sell. Its a very challenging building, he said. We have had a couple (offers) but nothing that materialized. Thus far, only developers have shown interest, though Guagenti declined to specify the number or size of the bids.

At 180,000 square feet, the basket is one of the largest buildings for kilometres around. Guagenti has reached out to local businesses in an effort to convince them to move, playing up the baskets discounted price, but the space is too large for most. Just no one is big enough to take that kind of basket on.

And its not without other flaws. Paint has trouble adhering to its massive handles, which are heated to prevent snow buildup, and as a result they look chipped, said Rochon.

The entire basket could use a paint job, Guagenti agreed, though he said the interior is pristine and modern. Theres nothing baskety inside, he said. Nothing makes you feel like its in a basket. You feel like youre in a nice, highrise office building.

To lure a buyer, Guagenti has explored marketing it as ripe for being repurposed as an educational facility, nursing home or call centre. Experts agree it might fare best as a hotel or convention centre, using the buildings esthetic to attract tourists.

 Bloomberg News
George Soros gave Ivanka's husband's business a $250 million credit line in 2015 per WSJ. Soros is also an investor in Jared's business.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 12/09/2016 (2239 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There are just a few small mounds of freshly turned earth  a bouquet of red roses marks an infants final resting place on one  but no visible sign this is the Muslim section of this city-owned cemetery.

Theres no crescent moon on a gate or any Islamic symbol to indicate a newly allocated section at the Transcona Cemetery is for Muslim burials. The only visible difference from the rest of the graves is the Muslims arent buried east to west in straight rows but diagonally, facing northwest, in the direction of Mecca.

A row of young trees planted beside the road separates the big, empty field set aside for Muslim burials from the rest of the graves with Christian crosses, Virgin Mary statues and non-religious headstones. Its much-needed room for the fastest-growing faith group in Canada.

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Abdul Aziz kneels in the Muslim section of the Transcona cemetery.

The community is growing  especially in the last five years, said Abdul Aziz, the volunteer who oversees the Manitoba Islamic Associations funeral committee.

We use to have three to five funerals per year, he said. Now, we are having 30 to 50 funerals per year.

For years, the association had a partnership with a private cemetery, Aziz said, but cemetery rules were changing, making it difficult to follow Muslim burial guidelines. The association started to explore other options, including a Muslim community-owned cemetery, but the legal and financial requirements turned out to be too onerous, Aziz said.

Next, they checked out city-owned cemeteries to see if there was room for a Muslim section, said city councillor Brian Mayes, who has many Muslims in his St. Vital ward and who worked with city staff and the association when it started to look for a cemetery home.

Brookside was full, St. Vital was pretty full, but Transcona had space, said Mayes. Allocating space for the Muslims, however, meant changing a bylaw to allow shroud burials there, he said.

The City of Winnipeg has made some significant strides in accommodating Islamic burials, both in terms of allowing burials in shrouds and allowing burials at a city cemetery, Mayes said.

After two years of negotiating, the Manitoba Islamic Association signed an agreement earlier this year with the City of Winnipeg allocating a section of Transcona Cemetery for the Muslim community, he said. Now they have their own space surrounded by sunflower fields, the Perimeter Highway and the other graves.

A few things set Muslim burials apart, said Aziz.

The body should be buried as soon as possible from the time of death, which means that funeral planning and preparations begin immediately, he said. Routine autopsies are not acceptable in Islam unless required by law. Cremation of the body is forbidden.

There are other steps that have to be followed.

Once the deceased is in MIA care, we bathe the body and shroud the body, Aziz said. The association has an arrangement with a funeral home that provides the facility to bathe the body. The Manitoba Islamic Association has a group of trained volunteers to help the deceaseds loved ones with the ritual.

Those performing the bathing must be of the same sex as the deceased unless it is the spouse, said Aziz. Once the body is prepared, it is transported to the familys preferred mosque for the funeral prayer performed by community members.

Those praying should face the qiblah that is, toward Mecca. After the funeral prayer, the body is transported to the cemetery for burial.

Once the body arrives in the cemetery, it is carried on foot to the burial plot followed by the funeral-goers. The shrouded body is then placed on its side facing in the direction of Mecca. It is important to make sure that the body faces toward Mecca, Aziz said.

Like many Christian, Jewish and secular funerals, the immediate family gathers after the burial to receive visitors. Members of the community bring food to the grieving family.

Like in many other cultures, offering help and condolences to the mourning family is considered an essential part of dealing with death, Aziz said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 11/09/2016 (2240 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  The federal Liberals want to change how the next government is elected, but getting Canadians to tune in to the process is proving a monumental task.

Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef arrives in Winnipeg Monday for two town hall events on electoral reform. The government has asked every individual MP to hold a town hall. There is also the Electoral Reform Committee of the House of Commons, which spent the summer holding hearings in Ottawa and this fall is travelling the country. It will be in Winnipeg and St. Pierre Jolys on Sept. 20.

Monsef said her biggest take away from her events so far is Canadians want to be engaged.

Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press files Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef will be in Winnipeg Monday holding public meetings on democratic reform.

However, an Ipsos Reid poll released last month suggests fewer than one in five Canadians is aware there is an electoral reform process underway and only about one in six is following the process closely.

Monsef said Sunday she knows this is not the first thing people think about when they wake up in the morning but she still thinks Canadians do care when asked about it.

Its true there is no crisis right now but our government isnt waiting for a crisis, she said.

The Liberals promised 2015 would be the last federal election held using the first-past-the-post system, in which the candidate in each riding with the most votes wins regardless of whether they get a majority of votes.

Critics of that system argue it allows parties to form majority governments with less than half the support of the electorate. Both the current Liberal and previous Conservative majorities saw the government hold 54 per cent of the seats and all of the power with not quite 40 per cent of the vote.

Evan Krosney, the regional captain for Manitoba of Fair Vote Canada, said the first-past-the-post system has to go. He wants it replaced with a form of proportional representation, in which the number of seats in the House of Commons is allocated, at least in part, on their share of the popular vote.

Krosney, a former provincial NDP staffer, cites the position common to the NDP. The Liberals claim not to have a specific system in mind although Trudeau has in the past advocated for the alternative-vote system. The Conservatives are in favour of keeping the existing system.

However, this year, their biggest concern is ensuring the electoral system is decided using a referendum. Monsef reiterated Sunday a referendum is still an option. She said she personally doesnt think its the way to go, but it will be considered if the committee recommends it.

Chris Adams, a political expert and rector of St. Pauls College at the University of Manitoba, said the government will either have to have a referendum or prove there is all party or at least multi-party consensus on an option.

He said he believes we need a change but also thinks the government might be best advised not to rush a new system in for the next election despite the promise made by Trudeau last year.

Monsef, however, is adamant the government can do this in the allotted time frame. Elections Canada CEO Marc Mayrand said he would need at least two years from the time legislation is in place to prepare Elections Canada for the changes. A referendum would require a minimum of six months and cost an estimated $300 million.

Monsef intends to receive the report from the House committee by Dec. 1, and will introduce legislation in the spring.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 12/09/2016 (2239 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 22-year-old Winnipeg man has been arrested in connection with a month-long spree of violent robberies with weapons and a car theft.

Kyle Aron Parisian was arrested in the early hours of Sunday and has been charged with 16 offences including five counts of robbery, five counts of possessing a weapon and two outstanding arrest warrants.

He is charged in connection with two males being robbed and assaulted with a knife and a board on Aug. 4 in the area of Balmoral Street and Cumberland Avenue and a Honda Civic being stolen on Aug. 8 from the 400 block of Stella Avenue.

He is also facing charges related to a string of robberies this month. On Sept. 5, a male suspect robbed a bakery in the 1000 block of Keewatin Street and then on Sept. 7, a suspect armed with a knife robbed a bakery in the 700 block of Keewatin Street.

On the morning of Sept. 10, a suspect driving the stolen Honda Civic used a knife to rob a restaurant in the 200 block of Henderson Highway. Later that morning, a suspect driving the stolen Honda used a knife in an attempt to rob a gas bar in the 900 block of Jefferson Avenue, but was unsuccessful.

A few hours later, the Honda was crashed into a parked car in the 700 block of Flora Avenue and the driver fled the scene. At about 10:30 a.m., a suspect stole an unspecified quantity of cigarettes from a gas bar in 1000 block of Keewatin Street. At about 7:30 p.m. a suspect used a knife to rob a second gas bar in the 1000 block of Keewatin Street.

Parisian was arrested just after midnight Sunday and is being held in custody.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 12/09/2016 (2239 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Goodbye and good riddance. That was the response of several Free Press readers to an editorial that offered a balanced commentary on the legacy of former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper following his resignation as a MP.

For these and other critics, Harpers deft handling of the economy, principled foreign policy and uniting of the Tories are outweighed by his many negatives: his dictatorial approach to governing; control-freakish behaviour; hyper-partisanship; refusal to engage the media; and his alleged indifference to the poverty and suffering of First Nations people (as one letter to the editor put it).

He wasnt perfect by any means, thats for certain. But what prime minister was?

GRAHAM HUGHES / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (centre), with former prime ministers Brian Mulroney (left) and Paul Martin, at a funeral for a former cabinet minister. Liberal PMs tend to fare better in opinion polls compared to Conservative ones.

The fact is, like the late comedian Rodney Dangerfieled, nearly all of Canadas Conservative PMs cant get any respect, and Harper is no exception.

Has it been that their legacies are so much worse than their Liberal opponents? That they themselves are to blame for their less-than-positive historical reputations because of their prickly personalities and polarizing policies? Or has there been an unfair ingrained historical bias against the Tory leaders?

The answers are, as a Liberal fence-sitter might put it, yes and no. Certainly, for the past 120 years, Canadian voters have frequently embraced the Liberals middle-of-the-road, sunny ways policies and vision of the country.

Since 1896, when Liberal leader Wilfrid Laurier defeated Conservative Charles Tupper (one of John A. Macdonalds successors), the Liberals have dominated federal politics. In that period, the Liberals have ruled for about 79 years and counting; while the Conservatives (or Progressive Conservatives, as the party was known from 1942 to 2003) for 41 years. From Laurier to Justin Trudeau, there have been 17 PMs, and only eight of them have been Tories: Robert Borden, Arthur Meighen, R.B. Bennett, John Diefenbaker, Joe Clark, Brian Mulroney, Kim Campbell and Stephen Harper. Of those, Meighen, Clark and Campbell were in power for a total of 33 months.

Robert Borden, who led the country during the First World War, is the most highly regarded of the bunch. Meighen, on the other hand, epitomized the futility of the Conservatives.

During the 20s, while Mackenzie King was finding his way as Liberal leader (and often poorly doing so), Meighen, an otherwise intelligent man and skilled orator, refused to compromise. Adhering to unpopular policies, he alienated French-Canadians in Quebec, western farmers and labour. As acting justice minister, he is remembered for his harsh dictatorial tactics during the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919.

The Conservatives failure to reach out to Quebec especially played into the hands of the Liberals. From 1896 to 1958, the Liberals paid close attention to Quebec and were guaranteed the majority of the provinces seats election after election (an exception was 1930). When Quebec turned against the Liberals, as it did in 1958 for Diefenbaker and then in 1984 and 1988 for Mulroney, the Conservatives won elections. Though Harper was able to unite the right and counter the rise of the Reform party in the 1980s, he was never able to attract the Tory voters who had opted for the nationalist Bloc Quebecois in the decisive 1993 federal election, which had decimated the party.

There is no denying otherwise successful Conservative PMs such as Diefenbaker and Mulroney, like Harper, were responsible for many of the problems that led to their downfalls. Diefenbaker, who was a moderate and charismatic leader, frittered away his power by fighting with his cabinet and adopting a controversial foreign policy. Mulroney, on the other hand, won two majority governments, yet decided to resign rather than be defeated in 1993, as he surely would have been. He designated Kim Campbell as the sacrificial Tory lamb, who paid the heavy price for Mulroneys growing unpopularity.

Still, it is not as if the Liberals were all saints and the Conservatives all sinners. The Tories were responsible for giving the federal vote to women, and for the CBC, the Canadian Wheat Board, the Bank of Canada, the Bill of Rights and the 1988 Free Trade Agreement.

The Liberals, meanwhile, stacked the Senate with partisan hacks, were immersed in numerous scandals and adopted policies that are today held in disrepute: increasing the head tax on Chinese immigrants and then banning them, expanding residential schools for First Nations children, shutting the country to German-Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany, the internment of the Japanese in 1942 and the relocation of Manitobas Sayisi Dene in 1956, among other historical wrongs.

Moreover, Harper who has been castigated for his arrogance and loathing of the media, followed closely in the footsteps in two Liberal PMs who adopted exactly the same strategy: Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chretien, who have been remembered much more fondly.

The Conservatives must be scratching their heads at the unfairness of this twisted interpretation. If it is a contest between an aloof Harperesque figure and a handsome, outgoing, sensitive selfie PM, Canadians will opt for the latter almost every time. Its 2016, after all.

Now & Then is a column in which historian Allan Levine puts the events of today in a historical context.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the recovery of stolen firearms or the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the burglary of Millville Gun and Rod, a federal firearm licensee, in Millville, Minn.

Approximately 80 firearms were reported stolen from the business on Sept. 2. Often times, stolen firearms end up in the hands of violent criminals, the ATF said, making it a priority to recover stolen firearms before they can be used in other crimes.

Through investigative efforts, ATF, together with the Wabasha County Sheriffs Office, Winona County Sheriffs Office, the Winona Police Department and the Winona County Attorneys office, has recovered several of the stolen firearms.

ATF and its local law enforcement partners are asking the public to provide any information that may aid the recovery of the remaining missing firearms.

Tips may be submitted by calling 1-800-ATF-GUNS (283-4867) or Crime Stoppers 507-457-6530, by visiting www.reportit.com or through the mobile ReportIt app, available both on Google Play and the Apple App Store. All information may be given anonymously. Contact information can also be provided, should you wish to do so.
MILWAUKEE (AP)  U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson says he wants answers from Veterans Affairs after a Wisconsin veteran killed himself after he was reportedly turned away from the troubled VA facility in Tomah this summer.

Johnson on Friday sent a letter to Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald, asking for all documents about 29-year-old Brian Rossell of Wausau, whose body was found Thursday in Lake Wausau after he went missing earlier in the week. Rossells mother says her son, a U.S. Army veteran, had sought help from the Tomah VA during the summer and was turned away.

Police said Rossell suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, paranoia and schizoaffective disorder.

In his letter to McDonald, Johnson asked for the agency to produce all documents and communications referring or relating to Mr. Rossell. In addition, I request that VA employees provide a staff-level briefing about the circumstances leading up to this tragedy.

Johnson chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. In his letter, the Oshkosh Republican said Rossells apparent suicide underscores concerns that the VA has yet to take full ownership of the systemic failures of the Tomah facility.

The Tomah facility was dubbed Candy Land by some veterans for its prescribing practices. Jason Simcakoski, a 35-year-old Marine veteran, died from mixed drug toxicity at Tomah in 2014. Earlier this year, the VA acknowledged failures at the Tomah facility and said it was working to prevent similar problems in the future.

The VA did not immediately respond to requests from The Associated Press for comment Saturday.

On Thursday, Johnson wrote to VA Inspector General Michael Missal asking him to open a new inquiry into the Tomah facility. Citing information received from a whistleblower last month, Johnson said the facilitys mental health clinic suffers from a shortage of providers despite an increase in veterans seeking treatment at the clinic.

A representative said Missal is reviewing that letter and will respond directly to Johnson.

Whats such a paradox in this is when you go visit the facilities, you walk the halls and veterans come up to you and theyre just thank you for the service, Im getting great care. And yet we have these tragedies, Johnson said in an interview.

Wisconsins other senator, Democrat Tammy Baldwin, said Friday she has sent a letter to the VA inspector general asking him to pursue an appropriate and transparent review of Rossells treatment.

I think in light of the public attention that has been drawn to the type of services that our veterans get, that they have earned and deserved, transparency is always important, Baldwin said.
If you have lived in Minnesota the past 30 years, this past week an old wound was opened and pain has been felt by many.

Last week, we finally found out what happened to 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling, who vanished 27 years ago this October in the town of St. Joseph. There are moments you remember, and as Minnesotans, most of us can recount how we felt and what we did. Parents were worried for the safety of their own children, people volunteered in the search efforts, and suddenly the safe feeling of living in Minnesota vanished.

I was just a few years older than Jacob at the time, and his story made all of the parent and teacher safety lectures about abduction and talking to strangers become a reality.

Time went on and we all continued to wonder what had happened. Jacobs parents became proactive to ensure others wouldnt suffer as they had. Jacob Wetterling became a household name, a part of our lives along with the mystery of what had happened  until last week.

There are no words that can be printed that can describe how we feel about Danny Heinrich, and there are no words to describe how we again are fearful for the safety of our children, no matter where we live.

I have always said Winona is a great place to raise children, and it is, but I imagine most thought the same of St. Joseph, a small community with a college not far from the Twin Cities. Like Winona, most crime probably centered around a few rowdy college students; one wouldnt be concerned about their children heading outside to play.

The wounds that have been opened center around fears as a parent, the what-ifs that are unimaginable. Do I worry when my children go to the park or ride their bikes? Absolutely. But after last week that worry has changed to fear. Yet I cant limit their childhood, so how do we as parents find a balance? Its not easy.

My children have heard the name Jacob Wetterling; they had a vague idea of who he was and how he vanished. But now, with every newspaper and television headline screaming What did I do wrong?, they have doubt about their safety as well, and how can I reassure them when I feel the same way?

Twenty-seven years ago we didnt have the internet, cellphones and social media at our fingertips allowing anyone into our private lives; today we are at an even greater risk.

The answers to my fears and those of my children have come from one strong person, Patty Wetterling. Patty has never given up, and from the day her son disappeared, she didnt hide. She worked to prevent child abduction and abuse, she worked to support other whose children were missing.

From pushing states to have sex offender registries to chairing the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Patty has made a difference and has saved children and parents. Her strength is an inspiration and has given us resources on local, state and federal levels.

Even after learning what happened last week as we grieved, not just as a state but as a nation Patty tried to console us with her statement which was passed along through news media and social media. She mentioned several things that we could do that would bring her comfort, Say a prayer, light a candle, be with friends, play with your children, giggle, hold hands, eat ice cream, create joy, help your neighbor.

Asking us to do those things doesnt just bring comfort to Patty, but to each other as we move forward, heal the reopened wound, knowing the future is uncertain and every moment is precious.
Heres an easy assignment for state lawmakers who oppose wasteful spending and who favor personal responsibility: Stop paying tens of thousands of dollars a year to irresponsible bear hunters whose hounds are killed by wolves.

Wisconsin is the only state in the nation that compensates hunters when wolves kill their animals. A hunter gets up to $2,500 per dog  even when a hunter violates state rules or releases hounds in areas the state Department of Natural Resources has mapped as dangerous because of wolf activity.

So far this year, a record 28 hunting dogs have been killed by wolves, the State Journal just reported. That could cost the public some $70,000 in unjustified payments. And bear season is just beginning.

Most of the dogs that have been killed were being trained for hunting on public land. Owners release their dogs to track and chase bears up trees, where the bears easily can be shot.

Thats not much of a challenge, which is why most hunters dont use dogs to tree bears. Bear hunting with dogs is expensive and cruel to the animals that are hurt.

Wisconsin has more than doubled the number of bear hunting licenses it issues over the last decade. But only 10 percent to 15 percent of the bears taken from the woods were killed by hunters using dogs to tree them, according to the DNR.

That begs the question: Why does Wisconsin even allow bear hounding? Many states dont.

State wildlife experts arent sure why more dogs are being killed this year. Wisconsins wolf population has grown, but not significantly in the areas where the dogs are being attacked.

Wisconsin has relaxed its hunting regulations. A license no longer is needed to train dogs in the summer, which is when wolves are raising their pups. That may cause wolf packs to be more aggressive about protecting their territory and young when they spot a hunting dog nearby.

Another factor is Wisconsins liberal law on baiting bears. While some states limit baiting to 30 days a year, Wisconsin permits the practice for about 145 days.

Besides killing hunting dogs, some wolves have attacked livestock. In total, about 58 domesticated animals (including the dogs) have been killed or injured by wolves this year, mostly in northern Wisconsin.

The state compensates farmers for lost livestock at market value. That seems fair, since farmers arent creating the conflict, and the cost is less than for dogs. The DNR, for example, reimbursed a farmer $800 for a calf last year.

Despite some difficulties, the return of the wolf to Wisconsin after near-extinction is welcome. The DNR counted nearly 900 wolves last winter. The wolves help control deer and other animals that damage crops, and they restore ecological balance to our forests.

The state shouldnt pay hunters who lose hounds to wolves after disregarding rules and the DNRs advice. The Legislature should stop the offensive payouts to a minority of bear hunters who dont deserve compensation for risky behavior.
HORICONThe first meeting of the 2016-17 season of the Horicon Marsh Bird Club will be held Thursday at 7 p.m. in the lower level of the Horicon Marsh Education and Visitor Center, N7725 Highway 28.

Featured speaker will be Paul Samerdyke, who works in Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources wildlife programs. His presentation will focus on bird banding in the area. The three primary surveys he does are Canada goose banding, mourning dove banding and waterfowl banding. Over the course of the year Samerdyke participates in other surveys and habitat projects. He will touch on these activities as time allows.

He has been working in the WDNR wildlife program since 1990 except for a year when he worked for a private construction firm. His workstations have been Oshkosh, Waupaca, Wautoma and Horicon. He has spent many hours both on the ground and in the air doing a variety of bird and mammal surveys.

As the wildlife biologist and property manager for Dodge County, Samerdyke helps direct management of a variety of habitats for grassland, woodland and wetland birds using everything from water level manipulation, to prescribed fire. The goal is to provide a diversity of habitat for resident and migratory birds.

Bird club programs are free and open to the public. For more information, call 387-7893 or visit horiconmarshbirdclub.com.
When someone you love has Alzheimers disease or another form of dementia, it may seem like youre the only person in the world whos struggling and sacrificing.

Hundreds of people in purple gathered Sunday at Riverside Park to make one thing clear: Nobody walks alone.

The 10th annual Columbia/Marquette County Alzheimers Walk focused a spotlight not only on various forms of dementia, but also on Portages leadership in serving the families of people who have everything from occasional but worrisome memory lapses to severe and debilitating memory loss.

Paul Rusk, executive director of the Alzheimers and Dementia Alliance of Wisconsin, cited as an example the recent efforts to make Portage a dementia-friendly community. As of last month, 37 groups in Columbia County  35 of them in Portage  completed training offered by the Alzheimers and Dementia Alliance of Wisconsin. Those who have received training include caregivers, transportation drivers, city workers, senior meal site managers, public safety workers and those who work with older people.

Rusk also cited the founding of Memory Cafes, including the one held in the Portage Public Library on the fourth Wednesday every month, where people with dementia and their caregivers can get together.

Youre providing a great deal of leadership, Rusk said.

The money raised at the walk, and similar events throughout Wisconsin, stays in the state to provide services for people who have dementia and those who care for them.

Larry Day, honorary family chairman of Sundays walk, spoke about how vital it is for caregivers to have support of all kinds.

Care giving is a tough job. Take care of yourself, he said. I know youre all sacrificing on a continuous basis. If you have a family member youre caring for, its very important that youre there.

Cheryl Kearns can attest to the challenges of care giving.

Before her team, called Team Sonic Booms, started off on the walk, Kearns had a purple heart painted on her cheek, in memory of her mother, Joan Ricks, who died on Dec. 29, 2013 at age 77.

Ricks enjoyed her job at the Portage Walmart store, which shed held for 15 years. But in 2008, at about the time the store was being remodeled, she started getting lost inside what was once a familiar place.

Theyd find her in different areas, and shed have trouble remembering how she got there, Kearns said.

When Ricks retired from Walmart, her husband, Lloyd Ricks Sr., was her primary caregiver, until she moved to the Willow Court memory care area of the Columbia Health Care Center in Wyocena (where another daughter, Dianna Lang, is activities director).

When her mother was living at home, Kearns said, help was scarce in the rural area around Pardeeville where they lived, and Joan Ricks was prone to wandering away.

But until her last years, Kearns said, her mother walked in Alzheimers Walks, under the watchful eyes of loved ones.

Her health was wonderful, Kearns said. Its just her memory that failed her.

Janet Wiegel, outreach specialist for Alzheimers and Dementia Alliance of Wisconsin, said help is available  from the Alliance, and from other people who know, firsthand, what its like to love someone whose memory is fading.

This, she said Sunday, is why we get together.
One key to igniting a successful car dealership is traffic. With its location on bustling South Boulevard, a few miles from Devils Lake, Oliver Motors has a prime spot.

Were on probably the busiest street in Baraboo, said general manager Norris Crowe. Its like an ant colony. Ive got traffic streaming by 24-7.

In July, he and Tony Bauernhuber took over the former home of Daves Auto World. Their dealership works closely with neighboring businesses, such as Pit Stop Auto Care and the Mobil station. Oliver Motors, named after owner Bryan Folzs son, sold 11 of the 30 used cars it had on the lot last month. To turn your inventory that fast is really good, Bauernhuber said.

He and Crowe hope things will only accelerate once a U.S. Highway 12 bypass route  and its off-ramp onto Sauk County Highway W, which leads to South Boulevard  opens to traffic. Crowe predicted the bypass will drive residential growth on Baraboos west side, which could become a popular spot for Madison commuters. I think we can capitalize on that significantly, he said.

Another key to igniting a successful car dealership is experience. Crowe and Bauernhuber each has more than a decade of experience selling cars at several dealerships. Theyve seen the best and worst of industry practices, and are working to adopt all the former  and none of the latter  at their independent dealership. This includes fostering a relaxed, low-pressure atmosphere, and paying attention to details that can get overlooked. They detail vehicles and fill their gas tanks before finishing sales, and follow up with buyers to ensure theyre pleased with their purchases.

We dont want to sell somebody one car: We want to create a relationship, Crowe said.

Another key to igniting a successful car dealership is service. When customers dont see what theyre looking for on the lot, Crowe and Bauernhuber try to locate just the thing. Follow-up is key, Bauerhuber said. Youve got to exceed peoples expectations.

Another key to igniting a successful car dealership? Selection. Oliver Motors inventory hovers around 40 cars, from sedans to SUVs to trucks. Rather than the vintage cars Daves Auto World sold, the new dealership brings in vehicles designed for everyday use. The dealership serves customers who cant afford a new $75,000 rig but need a $15,000 vehicle with low mileage that will last several years. We want to cater to that 80 percentile, Crowe said.

A final key to igniting a successful car dealership is goal-setting. Crowe has short- and long-term plans for the business. In the near future, hed like to add five people to the sales staff. Down the road, he wants Oliver Motors to become the largest independent dealer of pre-owned vehicles in Wisconsin.

Truly, I think we can do it, he said. I feel like Ive got a Hellcat on the highway and a full tank of gas, and Im ready to put the pedal to the metal.
If a proposed merger of Prairie du Sacs Badgerland Financial and two other financial associations focused on agriculture and rural interests is approved, it would create one of the largest Farm Credit organizations in the country.

Whats more important to Badgerland president and chief executive officer Diane Cole is how the extra service and other opportunities formed by the combined strengths of Badgerland, 1st Farm Credit Services, of Normal, Illinois, and AgStar Financial Services, of Mankato, Minnesota, will benefit all of their members.

Our goal is not to be bigger, it is to be better, she said.

Thats almost guaranteed for a new organization, based in Sun Prairie, that would cover a 144-county area of prime agriculture land and farms in southern and northwestern Wisconsin, southern and eastern Minnesota and northern Illinois, according to UW-Madison agricultural economics professor Bruce Jones.

Now youve got this nice diversified portfolio of ag loans. Youve got grain, youve got dairy, youve got hogs, youve got poultry. If one commodity is having trouble, the others should be doing well, Jones said. From the perspective of the new, merged financial institution, it should be able to have really good performance over time because of their diversification.

Farm Credit was established 100 years ago to help farmers and rural interests. It includes nearly 75 independently owned and operated organizations  all co-ops that are owned by their customers. Last year, Farm Credit organizations provided more than $235 billion in loans, leases and related services, which is more than a third of the credit needed by U.S. agriculture, according to farmcreditnetwork.com.

The combined total assets of the three companies involved in the proposed merger at the end of 2015 was $17.9 billion, which would make it the third largest Farm Credit organization in the country, according to data provided by Badgerland Financial. The only organizations with more year-end total assets were Farm Credit Services of America (Omaha) at $24.8 billion and Farm Credit Services of Mid-America (Louisville) at $22.1 billion, the data showed.

Total assets for Badgerland Financial, which covers 33 southern Wisconsin counties, was $3.9 billion. AgStar, which covers 69 counties in southern and eastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin, was at $8.4 billion and 1st Farm Credit, which covers 42 counties in the northern half of Illinois, was at $5.6 billion, the data showed. AgStar president and CEO Rod Hebrink has been picked to head the new company if the merger is approved.

If theres a merger, I think theyll be very conscious in making sure they dont get so big that they forget about who they are serving, Jones said. They will regionalize and they will take advantage of expertise in dairy coming from Wisconsin, expertise from cash grain coming from Illinois, expertise in dairy and cash grain along with hogs and bio-energy in Minnesota. Theyll be able to understand the loans, theyll be able to go in and put together some very good loan packages and balance that risk across a bigger capital base and it should be good for all the members.

A merger would not decrease competition because, unlike supply co-ops, Farm Credit associations have chartered territories and do not overlap, according to Badgerland Financial spokeswoman Rochelle Ripp Schnadt.

Because we are all part of the Farm Credit system, we naturally collaborate and refer customers to each other based on these defined territories, she said.

For instance, all three organizations share core accounting systems through AgriBank, participate in the same input financing group and partner with Farm Credit Services of America in an equipment financing platform, Schnadt said.

The three organizations also combine to employ about 1,200 people and layoffs are expected to be low if the merger is approved, Cole said. The vast majority of these positions work directly with customers, and the impact on these customer-facing positions is anticipated to be minimal, she said.

Badgerland Financial got its start in the mid-1990s as Badgerland Farm Credit Services after Madison Farm Credit Association merged with Fond du Lac-based East Central Wisconsin Farm Credit. Jones was on the board of directors of the Madison Farm Credit Association and he said he left shortly after the merger.

In 1998, Heartland Farm Credit, based in Baraboo, joined Badgerland Farm Credit Services to create the cooperatives current 33-county territory. In 2008, the company rebranded to Badgerland Financial.

It has always been strong, it has always been well capitalized, Jones said. The membership has been loyal in terms of doing business with them.

The merger will be put to a vote of the stockholders of the three associations, most likely in the first quarter of next year, Schnadt said. The vote will follow a review and approval by AgriBank, and Farm Credit Administration.

Theres no question each of our associations have been successful over the years, and all three bring strengths to the new organization, Cole said. The process of identifying best practices and integrating the organizations will begin after the shareholder vote and will take time to accomplish.

The proposed merger isnt like those among farm credit associations during the farm crisis in the 1980s, Jones said. There was no need to do this, he said. This one is a case where the associations are looking at how (the merger) is going to benefit their membership. They are going to merge their capital, they are going to diversify their loan portfolio and, on the back end, there should be a very strong association.
HORICONThe Rock River Archaeological Society will be presenting a program by Dwight Weiser, Sept. 21, at Horicon Marsh Education Center, N7725 Highway 28. Doors to the lower level will open at 6:30 p.m.

The program is free to the public and refreshments are served after the program. For more information, call Julie Flemming at 928-6094 or email to julieflemming@yahoo.com.

Weiser will share with the public why the Ledge became a destination for the prehistoric Native Americans who followed the melting mile-high glacier and set the stage for successive waves of advanced cultures which were thriving there when the Europeans first arrived.

The artifacts these ancient cultures left behind were undisturbed for thousands years, (and even now, because the landscape was too steep for the farmers plows). The pictorial presentation will show the artifacts which reveals that the Ledge was regarded as a sacred landscape which gathered the clans from distant places. He will show how the people laid out stone (petroform) arrangements with astounding astronomical sophistication that remains accurate to this day  and they did it before Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids were built.

Weiser, a member of RRAS, has published several articles in professional journals and textbooks. His most recent book Secrets of the Ledge: Pictorial Report of Archaeological Findings on the Niagara Escarpment in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, played a major role in raising public awareness and convincing the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to change planned highway corridors which would have destroyed irreplaceable archaeological treasures. He is the founder of the Friends of the Ledge Coalition, and is its Co-Chairman.

Since retiring from his professional life, hes been actively pursuing his long-standing avocation as an archeo-historian and is vice president of Mid-America Geographic Foundation twice garnering that groups prestigious outstanding field work award.
Items are listed under the day of the event only, running as space permits prior to the event. To submit items, call 745-3511, email jcutsforth@capitalnewspapers.com or visit www.portagedailyregister.com. Include name and phone number.

TODAY

Card party: 6:30 p.m. Euchre card party, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, W8267 Highway 33 East, Portage. Public welcome. Contact: Cloe, 429-2363.

Clinic: 8 a.m. to noon, Columbia County Public Health Walk-In Clinic, Columbia County Health Department, 2652 Murphy Road, Portage. Use door 4. Bring childs immunization record. Visit www.co.columbia.wi.us for more information.

Clinic: 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Marquette County Immunization Clinic, Westfield Municipal Building, 129 E. 3rd St., Westfield. Bring childs immunization record.

Biking: 6 p.m. Portage Pedalers Monday night ride, meet at Portage Public Library, 253 W. Edgewater St., Portage. Wear a helmet and bikers under 18 must ride with a parent.

Biking: Register for the Portage Pedalers Sept. 17 Lodi Ride. Call Gordon Dunn at 608-566-5865 by Thursday to register. Meet Sept. 17 at Goeres Park in Lodi. Bring money, helmet and water bottle. Riders younger than 18 must ride with a parent.

Food pantry: 11 a.m. Portage Second Harvest mobile food pantry, Building No. 8, Columbia County Fairgrounds, Portage. Bring boxes, bags, baskets or wagons to carry food.

Library event: 6:30 p.m. Denmark/Norway travel talk, Portage Public Library, 253 W. Edgewater St., Portage. Paul and Judy Huebner will present a slide show and a travel talk from their trip to Denmark and Norway earlier this year.

Portage American Legion Post 47 and the American Legion Auxiliary: Cocktails at 5 p.m., a soup and sandwich meal at 6 p.m. and meetings at 7 p.m. Portage Knights of Columbus Hall, 918 Silver Lake Drive, Portage.

Seniors Bowling Social: 2 p.m. Fireball Lanes, 817 E. Wisconsin St., Portage. Cost is $6 and includes three games of bowling and shoe rental.

TUESDAY, SEPT. 13

Library event: 3:30-4:30 p.m. celebrate Roald Dahls 100 years of storytelling with an after school party for kids in third through fifth grade, Portage Public Library, 253 W. Edgewater St., Portage. Kids will play Mrs. Twits Wormy Spaghetti game, do crafts, make fizzy lifting drinks, and hear the opening chapters from the classic Fantastic Mr. Fox. Registration is not required. For more information, call the Childrens Desk at 742-4959, ext. 211.

Prayer time: 8 to 8:30 a.m. First Presbyterian Church, 105 S. Main St., Pardeeville. The church will be open for quiet, personal time for reflection, thought and prayer. There is no planned service or leader. For more information, call 608-429-2646.

Portage Family Skate Park public meeting: 5 to 6:30 p.m. Gerstenkorn Administration Building, 305 E. Slifer St., Portage. All interested people are welcome to attend. If the Portage Schools are closed or released early the PFSP meeting will be canceled and announced on our Facebook page with a new meeting location as soon as possible.

Writing group: 7:30 p.m. Writers at the Portage open meeting, Barb Jensen residence, 410 Winnebago Ave., Portage. Visitors welcome. Discussion, Brown Bag at Portage Center for the Arts on Sept. 22, Golden Crow contest, summer writing experiences. Dues are due. For more information, call 742-7805.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 14

Bingo: 5:30 p.m. 131 Restaurant, North Main Street, Pardeeville. Bingo will be played every Wednesday, except the first one of the month.

Clinic: 8 a.m. to noon, Columbia County Public Health Walk-In Clinic, Columbia County Health Department, 2652 Murphy Road, Portage. Use door 4. Bring childs immunization record. Visit www.co.columbia.wi.us for more information.

Cooking class: 6 p.m. free healthy cooking class, Seventh-day Adventist Church, 2100 Highway 33 East, Portage. This class features Bountiful Breakfests, with samples and recipes. All welcome.

Free clinic: 9 a.m. to noon, St. Vincent de Paul free medical clinic, Wilz Drugs lower level, 140 E. Cook St., Portage. No appointments needed. Information needed is name, date of birth and a contact number. A chiropractor is available from 10 a.m. to noon Wednesdays. A foot clinic is available every week. The clinic can do exams and prescribe medications. Physical therapist available. Discounted medications are available at Wilz and Wal-Mart. Call Bonny Oestreich, RN, at 608-234-0159 for information.

Biking: 6 p.m. Portage Pedalers Wednesday night ride, meet at Pat and Dougs house, W7956 Douglas Center Road (East of Briggsville on Highway 23 North via 3rd Avenue). Wear a helmet and bikers under 18 must ride with a parent.

Card party: 6:30 p.m. Texas Hold em card tournament, VFW Hall, 215 W. Collins St., Portage. Register at 6 p.m. Entry fee is $20. One hundred percent payout. Open to the public. For information, call the VFW Hall at 742-5350.
Ghanas Chale Wote festival lifts spirits, frees souls

The project invites artists and viewers to reconfigure the coordinates of how we understand our place in our world in ways that are intriguing and liberating.

To understand the potency of the multisensory intoxication that is the Chale Wote Street Art Festival held in Accra, Ghana annually, I begin in the east of the continent and invoke Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina:

I want to live the life of a free imagination. I want to work with people around this continent to make new and exciting things, to make sci-fi things, stories, pictures. I want this generation of young parents to have their kids see Africans writing their own stories, painting their own stories. That simple act, I think, that is the most political act one can have. I want to see a continent where every kind of persons imagination does not have to look for being allowed.

Chale Wote translates in the Ga language spoken in the Ga-Jamestown district of Accra to: Man, lets go! It is a wonderful actualisation of a free imagination in action invoked by Wainaina.

It is an irreverent myriad of cutting edge performance art, film screenings, talks, music events, photography, fashion and installations.

This years instalment of Chale Wote was framed under the idea of the creation of a Spirit Robot. The Spirit Robot offered participants an opportunity for an exorcism of the canonised ways of thinking from elsewhere. It is a thinking which continues to stunt African art practices that still seek permissions from white cubed spaces and the impotent halls of academia.

For a glorious week in Ga-Jamestown, the contours and cadences of every days joys, questions, fantasies, desires and sorrows are dramatised and, dare I say, theorised in ways that are daringly innovative and spectacularly visual.

Meeting the black magician

I encountered the Afro-American artist Autumn Knight at the Untamed Empire, one of the beautiful venues where the Labs @ Chalo Wote programme was held. She describes herself as a black magician. This Afro-tricksters bag of tricks includes an affecting performance video piece called Lagrimas Negras (Black Tears).

The artist Autumn Knight, who participated in Ghanas Chale Wote Street Art Festival Nduka Mntambo

In the video, the artist offers her black tears at the seawall in Galveston, Texas. She wanted to see if an expression of grief by a black woman/body would elicit any form of empathy from the public.

For an hour Autumn wept but not a soul stopped to ask what was wrong, save for some children whose parents swiftly pulled them way. Autumn described it to me as a survivalist strategy from which she conjures up different realities/temporalities and imagines herself outside the world that tells us that we cannot make things.

At the heart of this film performance is the sad question do black tears matter?. Autumn is invested in constructing a narrative about our tears; in a world that is comfortable to hold a binary of black body as simultaneously inhuman and superhuman.

Ritual of creation

Realpen Pencil, who lives and works in Accra, is a young instant live drawing artist with a photographic memory. This description does no justice to the extraordinary ritual of creation I experienced while witnessing him working in the streets of Ga-Jamestown. This was a public act of creation in which, for hours, the artist was surrounded by cheering and at times impatient audiences.

Realpen Pencil in action.

Beyond the kinetic beauty of his performance, Realpen Pencil seemed to remind us the embodied nature of birthing works of the imagination.

In this our Instagram times of instant gratification where the ubiquity of image making structures and mediates our experience of things and times, it is important that makers such as Realpen Pencil exist. His process reminds us that the act of looking and capturing does not always have to be mechanical and veneered through digital filters.

Blurring lines between fashion and art

The Nest Collective from Nairobi in Kenya is a cutting edge multidisciplinary art collective collapsing and blurring the uninteresting lines between fashion, film, music and visual arts. This collective describes itself as an army of thinkers.

To catch a dream - a fashion film by the Nest Collective

Their project of beauty, memory and imagination takes flight in the poignant film To Catch A Dream. It is a visual and sonic thrill that tells the tale of Ajuma, a grieving widow plagued by recurring nightmares. In bold narrative, sartorial and aesthetic moves, the talented director Jim Chuchu creates a modish melancholic world, cadenced by multiple Eastern African languages spoken by the characters.

Very much like the broader concerns of the Nest Collective, this film accomplishes to experiment with ideas about multiple futures/pasts, that are conceived on aesthetic and conceptual daringly original terms. Seconds into the film the label fashion film peels away as you encounter the beautifully rendered interiority of Ajuma. She wrestles with the memory of a beloved, moored by the searing music from the original soundtrack.

Creating new knowledge

In a conversation with the co-director of Accra dot ALT and producer of Chale Wote, Mantse Aryeequaye, Aryeequaye told me about the economic transformative infrastructures that Chale Wote offers the neglected community of Ga-Jamestown.

The Chale Wote street festival has treated local people to cutting edge performance art, film screenings, talks, music events, photography, fashion and installations.

Speaking about the evolution of the Chalo Wote over the past five years Aryeequaye asserts it important for young black people to create new knowledge. Aryeequaye reminded me of the fact that the whole of Ghana was once the Wall Street of the transatlantic slave trade. As such, the culture of exploitation is embedded within the psyche of the people.

Chalo Wote has sparked a lot of economic activities, but is also an important site for experimentation for artist/thinkers: an alternate space for radical imaginations and practice.

Nduka Mntambo, Lecturer of Film and Television, University of the Witwatersrand. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
How ANCs path to corruption was set in South Africas 1994 transition

There are suggestions that the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa lost the plot after the ascension of Jacob Zuma as the partys president in 2007.

There may be important elements of truth in this. However, there are compelling reasons that situate the morality challenges faced by the ANC  and by extension the country  in the 1994 political transition.

Recent developments do indeed place Zuma, who is now also the president of the country, at the centre of the web of corruption at the present time. And it is clear that some within the ANC hold him personally responsible for the drastic decay in the partys morality. For many, the present battle between Zuma and his minister of finance Pravin Gordhan is viewed as the culmination of a battle between those who view the ANC as a machinery for accumulation and those who hold true to its historical mission as a vehicle of liberation fighting for a more socially just society.

The harassment suffered by Gordhan at the hands of the Hawks, an elite police unit, is seen as an extension of the state capture agenda that led to the firing of Nhlanhla Nene in December 2015. This comes after a host of allegations that the countrys key state owned enterprises, like South African Airways and the power utility Eskom, have been captured by the Zuma faction of the ANC elite.

This might look like a factional battle with good guys on one side and bad guys on the other. But I would argue that the challenge of economic transformation within a racially polarised capitalist economy provided opportunities for careerism, personal enrichment and corruption.

At the heart of the morality problems faced by the ANC are fundamental forms of relations it has carved with capital as driven by two principal factors. Firstly, as a political party the ANC has needed funding. Secondly, there is the factor of how the ANC has chosen to promote what it terms the National Democratic Revolution, most notably through Black Economic Empowerment.

Partner with large scale capital

In the mid-1980s, South African capitalism had begun to lose faith in the capacity of the National Party government to stem the rising tide of revolution. Increasingly, therefore, business looked for an accommodation with the ANC. For its part, the ANC leadership recognised the unreality of strategy premised on a revolutionary seizure of power. It presented itself as a partner with which large scale capital could play.

While it was the political negotiation process which grabbed the attention, much was happening behind the scenes. Individuals at the top of the corporate ladder struck up relationships with the incoming ANC leadership. Above all, this was exemplified by a focus on Nelson Mandela, who after his release from jail came to enjoy the company of the very rich. He forged strong relationships with both Harry Oppenheimer, Chairman of Anglo-American, and Clive Menell, vice chairman of the rival Anglo-Vaal mining group.

Just as the ANC was unable to overthrow the political, so it was unable to overturn the economic order. The collapse of the Soviet Union, one of the ANCs principal supporters, fundamentally changed the international landscape. This played to the strengths of those leaders within the ANC who were less than enamoured with state socialism. Such factors, along with pressure from bodies like the International Monetary Fund, underlay the shift away from the left.

State-owned enterprises

At base, the ANC was a nationalist movement whose principal focus was on the capture of the state and the pursuit of democracy. Within this formula was embedded the commitment to the overthrow of internal colonialism (the domination of whites over the majority black population). It followed that capture of the state and internal decolonisation would require the rapid growth of the black middle class and indeed, the expansion of a class of black capitalists. This was true both in terms of social justice and the needs of the economy.

However, the problem facing an emergent black capitalist class was its lack of capital and capitalist expertise. One of the solutions was that, from the moment it moved into office, the ANC viewed its control over the civil service and parastatals as the instrument for extending its control over the commanding heights of the economy. Parastatals accounted for around 15% of GDP.

This included the strategy of transferring state-owned enterprises on discounted terms to blacks via privatisation. In the event, this did not prove to be particularly successful simply because the amounts of capital required for the purchase of all but non-core assets were too large for aspirant black capitalists to raise.

Nonetheless, the national democratic revolution charged the ANC with using state power to deracialise the economy. This predisposed the ANC to regard the parastatals as sites of transformation. The ANCs control of the state machinery became a source of tenders for its cadres. This aspect has lent itself to corruption, patronage and the monetarisation of relationships within the ANC.

The extent of corruption in tendering is difficult to estimate. The ANC is appropriately anti-corruption in its official stance, and indeed has put in place important legislation and mechanisms to control malfeasance. Equally, however, it has proved reluctant to undertake enquiries which could prove embarrassing.

There have also been two other activities at work. First, certain corporations have distributed financial largesse to secure contracts and favour from government. (Their success in so doing is hard to prove given the secrecy of party funding). Second, ANC politicians at all levels of government have sought to influence the tender process in their favour.

Odd combination of power and money

One of the key challenges is that the South African political economy continues to revolve around an odd combination of new (political) power without money and old money without power. Each needs the other to advance its interests. This is structurally disposed to favour corruption, as is indicated by the incestuous relationship which has developed between Chancellor House and parastatals. Chancellor House is listed as a charitable trust designed to facilitate economic transformation. However it has become clear that its intent is to fund the ANC.

And the need for party funding is more likely to increase than diminish. Although the case for public disclosure of private funding of political parties is by no means so strong as its supporters proclaim, it remains difficult to exclude influence peddling from this particular terrain.

As the ANC acknowledges, it is a multi-class movement composed of capitalists, middle class, workers and the poor. As such it is a host to class struggle within a society imbued with capitalist values and consumerist temptations. Despite the early efforts of Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Community Party to shift policy to the left, many within their own ranks have fallen victim to the temptation of following a political path to personal enrichment. In such a situation, it is not surprising that it is the rich and the powerful who have benefited overwhelmingly from our democracy.

This article was adapted from a paper titled The ANC for Sale? Money, Morality & Business in South Africa published in the Review of African Political Economy . Roger Southall, Professor of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand.This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
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I., Johnson & Johnson de Chile Limitada, Johnson & Johnson de Chile S.A., Johnson & Johnson de Colombia S.A., Johnson & Johnson de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Johnson & Johnson de Uruguay S.A., Johnson & Johnson de Venezuela S.A., Johnson & Johnson del Ecuador S.A., Johnson & Johnson del Peru S.A., Johnson & Johnson do Brasil Industria E Comercio de Produtos Para Saude Ltda., Johnson & Johnson for Export and Import LLC, Johnson & Johnson s.r.o., Johnson Y Johnson de Costa Rica S.A., Johnson and Johnson (Proprietary) Limited, Johnson and Johnson Sihhi Malzeme Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, LTL Management LLC, La Concha Land Investment Corporation, Latam International Investment Company Unlimited Company, Legal Entity Name, MDS Co. Ltd., McNEIL MMP LLC, McNeil AB, McNeil Consumer Pharmaceuticals Co., McNeil Denmark ApS, McNeil Healthcare (Ireland) Limited, McNeil Healthcare (UK) Limited, McNeil Healthcare LLC, McNeil Iberica S.L.U., McNeil LA LLC, McNeil Nutritionals LLC, McNeil Panama LLC, McNeil Products Limited, McNeil Sweden AB, Medical Device Business Services Inc., Medical Devices & Diagnostics Global Services LLC, Medical Devices International LLC, Medos International Sarl, Medos International Sarl succursale de Neuchatel (Branch), Medos Sarl, MegaDyne Medical Products Inc., Menlo Care De Mexico S.A. de C.V., Mentor B.V., Mentor Deutschland GmbH, Mentor Medical Systems B.V., Mentor Partnership Holding Company I LLC, Mentor Texas GP LLC, Mentor Texas L.P., Mentor Worldwide LLC, Micrus Endovascular LLC, Middlesex Assurance Company Limited, Momenta Ireland Limited, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc., NeoStrata Company Inc., NeoStrata UG (haftungsbeschrankt), Netherlands Holding Company, NeuWave Medical Inc., Neuravi Limited, Novira Therapeutics, Novira Therapeutics LLC, NuVera Medical Inc., OBTECH Medical Sarl, OGX Beauty Limited, OMJ Holding GmbH, OMJ Ireland Unlimited Company, OMJ Pharmaceuticals Inc., Obtech Medical Mexico S.A. de C.V., Omrix Biopharmaceuticals Inc., Omrix Biopharmaceuticals Ltd., Omrix Biopharmaceuticals NV, Ortho Biologics LLC, Ortho Biotech Holding LLC, Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical LLC, Orthospin Ltd., Orthotaxy, PT Integrated Healthcare Indonesia, PT. Johnson & Johnson Indonesia, Patriot Pharmaceuticals LLC, Peninsula Pharmaceuticals LLC, Pharmadirect Ltd., Pharmedica Laboratories (Proprietary) Limited, Princeton Laboratories Inc., Productos de Cuidado Personal y de La Salud de Bolivia S.R.L., Proleader S.A., Pulsar Vascular Inc., Regency Urban Renewal Associates, RespiVert Ltd., RoC International, Royalty A&M LLC, Rutan Realty LLC, SYNTHES Medical Immobilien GmbH, Scios LLC, Sedona Singapore International Pte. Ltd., Sedona Thai International Co. Ltd., Serhum S.A. de C.V., Shanghai Elsker For Mother & Baby Co. Ltd, Shanghai Elsker Mother & Baby Co. Ltd Minghang Branch, Shanghai Johnson & Johnson Ltd., Shanghai Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Sightbox LLC, Sodiac ESV, Spectrum Vision Limited Liability Company, Spectrum Vision Limited Liability Partnership, SterilMed, SterilMed Inc., Surgical Process Institute Deutschland GmbH, Synthes Costa Rica S.C.R. Limitada, Synthes GmbH, Synthes Holding AG, Synthes Holding Limited, Synthes Inc., Synthes Medical Surgical Equipment & Instruments Trading LLC, Synthes Produktions GmbH, Synthes Proprietary Limited, Synthes S.M.P. S. de R.L. de C.V., Synthes Tuttlingen GmbH, Synthes USA LLC, Synthes USA Products LLC, TARIS Biomedical, TARIS Biomedical LLC, TearScience Inc., The Anspach Effort LLC, The Vision Care Institute LLC, Tibotec LLC, Torax Medical Inc., UAB "Johnson & Johnson", UAB Johnson & Johnson Eesti Filiaal (Estonian Branch), Vania Expansion, Verb Surgical, Verb Surgical Inc., Vision Care Finance Unlimited Company, Vogue International, Vogue International LLC, Vogue International Trading Inc., WH4110 Development Company L.L.C., XO1, XO1 Limited, Xian Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd., Xian-Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd. Beijing Branch Office, Xian-Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd. Shanghai Branch Office, Zarbee's Inc., and Zarbee's Naturals.

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Embraer S.A. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells aircrafts and systems in Brazil, North America, Latin America, the Asia Pacific, Brazil, Europe, and internationally. It operates through Commercial Aviation; Defense and Security; Executive Jets; Service & Support; and Other segments. The Commercial Aviation segment designs, develops, and manufactures a variety of commercial aircrafts. The Defense and Security segment engages in the research, development, production, modification, and support for military defense and security aircraft; and offers a range of products and integrated solutions that include radars and special space systems, as well as information and communications systems comprising command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems. The Executive Jets segment develops, produces, and sells executive jets. It also leases Legacy 600 and Legacy 650 executive jets in the super midsize and large categories; Legacy 450 and Legacy 500 executive jets in the midlight and midsize categories; Phenom family executive jets in the entry jet and light jet categories; Lineage 1000, an ultra-large executive jet; and Praetor 500 and Praetor 600, disruptive executive jets in the midsize and super midsize categories. The Service & Support segment offers after-service solutions, support, and maintenance, repair, and overhaul services for commercial, executive, and defense aircrafts; provides aircraft components and engines; and supplies steel and composite aviation structures to various aircraft manufacturers. The Other segment is involved in the supply of fuel systems, structural parts, and mechanical and hydraulic systems; and production of agricultural crop-spraying aircraft. The company was formerly known as Embraer-Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica S.A. and changed its name to Embraer S.A. in November 2010. Embraer S.A. was incorporated in 1969 and is headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The following companies are subsidiares of WPP: 24/7 Real Media UK Ltd., 41?29! Media Internet, AD Venture Worldwide Inc, AKQA, AKQA Denmark A/S, AKQA GmbH, AKQA Inc., AKQA Limited, AQuest, Acceleration, Acceleration eMarketing Inc, All Global, Always (Shanghai) Marketing Services Co Ltd, Arctouch LLC, BCW LLC, BWR PR, Beijing Benpao Century Technology Development Co. Ltd., Benenson Strategy Group LLC, Black and Deen, Blast Radius, Blast Radius Inc., Bomtempo Anahory e Ralha, Bottle Rocket, Bottle Rocket LLC, Brindfors Design AB, CB Associes S.A., CMI Media, CMI Media LLC, CONEXANCE MD, CT Finances SA, Catalyst Online LLC, Cavendish Square Holding BV, Center Partners, Cerebra, Cockpit Holdings Limited, Cognifide, Commarco, Commarco GmbH 120274, Cordiant Communications Group Limited, Dawson Integrated Marketing Communications, DeepLocal Inc., Design Bridge, Design Bridge Limited, Dewey Square Group, Ecommera, EffectiveUI, Enduring Organisation, Entreprise de Communications Tank Inc., Essence, Essence Global Group Limited, Essence Global LLC, Eurosem Belgium SA/NV, F.biz, FAST - Financial Administration Solutions & Technologies Srl, Finecast Limited, Finsbury LLC, Forward Limited, GREY Dusseldorf GmbH, GTB Agency LLC, GTB Shanghai Advertising Co. Ltd, GTB Stat LLC, GWE LLC, Geometry Global Japan GK, Geometry Global LLC, Geometry Global Limited, Glendinning Management Consultants, Go Direct Marketing Inc., Gorilla LLC, Grey, Grey Advertising Limited, Grey Global Group LLC, Group M France SAS, Group M Worldwide LLC, Group SJR LLC, GroupM (Shanghai) Advertising Co. Ltd, GroupM Argentina Trading S.A., GroupM B.V., GroupM Chile SAC, GroupM Competence Center GmbH, GroupM Denmark A/S, GroupM Japan KK, GroupM Limited, GroupM Market Advertising Co. Ltd., GroupM Media India Pvt Ltd, GroupM Pakistan (Private) Ltd, GroupM Singapore Pte Ltd, GroupM Srl, GroupM UK Digital Limited, Guangzhou Dawson Marketing Communication Co. Ltd, H-ART, HERING SCHUPPENER Consulting Strategieberatung fur Kommunikation GmbH, HeathWallace, Hill & Knowlton Limited, Hill and Knowlton Strategies LLC, Hirschen Group GmbH, Hogarth California LLC, Hogarth Worldwide Inc., Hogarth Worldwide Limited, Icon Brand Navigation Group, IntelliQuest Information Group Inc, International Meetings & Science LLC, J Walter Thompson Middle East and North Africa E.C., J Walter Thompson Publicidade Ltda, J.Walter Thompson Bridge Advertising Co. Ltd., John Street Inc., KBM Group LLC, KR Media UK Limited, KR Wavemaker SAS, Kantar TNS, Kinetic Advertising (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Kinetic Worldwide Limited, LLC GroupM, LLC Wavemaker, Landor LLC, M Media Group Pty Ltd, M2 Digital Inc., Marketeers Vietnam, Marketing Direct LLC, Marketing Perspectives Limited, Mather Direct GmbH, Maxus Communications (UK) Limited, Media Club SpA, Media Insight SNC, MediaCom - Warszawa Sp.z.o.o., MediaCom AS (Norway), MediaCom Agentur fur Media-Beratung GmbH, MediaCom Communications Pvt Ltd, MediaCom Danmark A/S, MediaCom Group Limited, MediaCom Istanbul Medya Hizmetleri A.S., MediaCom TWENTYFIVE GmbH, Mediacom AG, Mediacom Australia Pty Limited, Mediacom Canada, Mediacom Iberia SA, Mediacom Italia Srl, Mediacom LLC, Mediacom Middle East & North Africa Holding W.L.L., Mediacom North Limited, Mediacom Paris SA, Mediacom Worldwide LLC, Mediaedge:CIA Worldwide Limited, Mediaedge:cia India Pvt Ltd, Medialets, Memac Ogilvy & Mather Holding Inc, Mind Share Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., MindShare Canada, MindShare GmbH, MindShare Hong Kong Limited, MindShare Polska Sp. z.o.o., Mindshare Media UK Limited, Mindshare SA, Mindshare South Africa (Gauteng) (Proprietary) Limited, Mindshare SpA, Mindshare Spain SA, Mindshare USA LLC, Mirum LLC, Mirum S.A. de C.V., Motion Content Group Limited, OPR AGENCY PTY LIMITED, Ogilvy & Mather Brasil Comunicacao Ltda, Ogilvy & Mather Group (Holdings) Limited, Ogilvy & Mather Pvt Ltd, Ogilvy & Mather S.A.S, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide LLC, Ogilvy Australia Pty Ltd, Ogilvy Commonhealth Worldwide LLC, Ogilvy Public Relations GmbH, Ogilvy Singapore Pte. Ltd., Ootworld, OpenMindWorld LLC, P Four Consultancy, PTR Comunicacoes Ltda, Penn Schoen & Berland Associates LLC, Penn Schoen Berland, Pep LLC, Plano.Trio Comunicacao, Potato London Ltd, Premiere Group Holdings Limited, Prism Sport + Entertainment, Promotion Execution Partners LLC, Public Strategies Inc., Quasar Media Private, Quinn Gillespie & Associates, Quirk, RLM Finsbury, Rasor Holdings LLC, Ray + Keshavan Design Associates, Real Media, Red Fuse New York LLC, Regional Management Group SAS, Russell Square Holding BV, Salmon Limited, Salmon Ltd, Sandtable, Scangroup, Set Management LLC, Shanghai Easycom Advertising Co. Ltd., Shanghai Linjie Marketing Services Co. Ltd., Shanghai Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Ltd, Shire Hall Group, Spafax Airline Network Limited, Spafax Networks LLC, Stickleback Limited, Sudler & Hennessey LLC, Superunion Limited, Swift + POSSIBLE LLC, Syzygy AG, TMARC, Taxi, Taxi Inc., Team Garage LLC, The Brand Union, The Cocktail Global S.L., The Finsbury Group Limited, The Glover Park Group, The Glover Park Group LLC, The GroupM ESP Clever Company S.R.L. de C.V., The Lacek Group LLC, The Marketing & Communication Agency, The Ogilvy Group LLC, The Performers Group, The Young & Rubicam Group of Companies ULC, Triad Digital Media LLC, Twist Image, Two Circles, VML LLC, VMLY&R, WPP (Thailand) Ltd, WPP 2005 Limited, WPP AMC Holdings, WPP AUNZ, WPP Beans Limited, WPP Brands (UK) Limited, WPP Brands Development Holdings (UK) Limited, WPP Brands Holdings (UK) Limited, WPP Deutschland Holding GmbH & Co. KG, WPP Finance 2013, WPP Finance 2015 Limited, WPP Finance Co. Limited, WPP Finance SA, WPP Group (UK) Ltd, WPP Group Canada Finance Inc., WPP Group U.S. Finance LLC, WPP Group USA Inc., WPP Health Limited, WPP Holdings Spain S.L., WPP Jubilee Limited, WPP Luxembourg Gamma Three Sarl, WPP Luxembourg Sarl, WPP Luxembourg Turris S.a r.l., WPP Marketing Communications (Hong Kong) Limited, WPP Marketing Communications Germany GmbH, WPP Media Ltd, WPP Montagu Square LLC, WPP Mexico S.R.L. de C.V., WPP Ottawa Ltd, WPP Samson Limited, WPP Sigma Limited, WPP Sphinx Limited, WPP Square one B.V, WPP UK Germany Holdings, WPP Unicorn Limited, WPPIH 2001 Inc., Warwicks, Wavemaker A/S, Wavemaker Australia Pty Ltd, Wavemaker BV, Wavemaker Canada ULC, Wavemaker Czech s.r.o., Wavemaker Global LLC, Wavemaker Global Limited, Wavemaker GmbH, Wavemaker Hong Kong Limited, Wavemaker Hungary Kft, Wavemaker Italia S.r.l., Wavemaker Limited, Wavemaker MENA FZ LLC, Wavemaker Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Wavemaker Publicidad Spain S.L., Wavemaker Sp.z.o.o, Wavemaker Taiwan Ltd, Wavemaker  Servicos Publicitarios Ltda, Who Digital, Witgoud Investments B.V., Worldwide Mediacom Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., Wunderman A/S, Wunderman Thompson (UK) Limited, Wunderman Thompson LLC, XMKT Group, Xaxis LLC, Xaxis US LLC, Y&R Propaganda Ltda, Young & Rubicam, Young & Rubicam LLC, clarus digital, dBOD, groupm Germany GmbH & Co. KG, mPlatform LLC, plista GmbH, thjnk, and thjnk AG.

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Derwent London plc owns 83 buildings in a commercial real estate portfolio predominantly in central London valued at 5.4 billion (including joint ventures) as at 30 June 2020, making it the largest London-focused real estate investment trust (REIT). Our experienced team has a long track record of creating value throughout the property cycle by regenerating our buildings via development or refurbishment, effective asset management and capital recycling. We typically acquire central London properties off-market with low capital values and modest rents in improving locations, most of which are either in the West End or the Tech Belt. We capitalise on the unique qualities of each of our properties - taking a fresh approach to the regeneration of every building with a focus on anticipating tenant requirements and an emphasis on design. Reflecting and supporting our long-term success, the business has a strong balance sheet with modest leverage, a robust income stream and flexible financing. As part of our commitment to lead the industry in mitigating climate change, in October 2019, Derwent London became the first UK REIT to sign a Green Revolving Credit Facility. At the same time, we also launched our Green Finance Framework and signed the Better Buildings Partnership's climate change commitment. The Group is a member of the 'RE100' which recognises Derwent London as an influential company, committed to 100% renewable power by purchasing renewable energy, a key step in becoming a net zero carbon business. Derwent London is one of only a few property companies worldwide to have science-based carbon targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Landmark schemes in our 5.6 million sq ft portfolio include 80 Charlotte Street W1, Brunel Building W2, White Collar Factory EC1, Angel Building EC1, 1-2 Stephen Street W1, Horseferry House SW1 and Tea Building E1. In 2019, the Group won several awards including EG Offices Company of the Year, the CoStar West End Deal of the Year for Brunel Building, Westminster Business Council's Best Achievement in Sustainability award and topped the real estate sector and was placed ninth overall in the Management Today 2019 awards for 'Britain's Most Admired Companies'. In 2013 the Company launched a voluntary Community Fund and has to date supported over 100 community projects in the West End and the Tech Belt. The Company is a public limited company, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange and incorporated and domiciled in the UK. The address of its registered office is 25 Savile Row, London,
Motorola Solutions, Inc. provides mission critical communications and analytics in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Products and Systems Integration, and Software and Services. The Products and Systems Integration segment offers a portfolio of infrastructure, devices, accessories, and video security devices and infrastructure, as well as the implementation, and integration of systems, devices, software, and applications for government, public safety, and commercial customers who operate private communications networks and video security solutions, as well as manage a mobile workforce. Its land mobile radio communications and video security and access control devices include two-way portable and vehicle-mounted radios, fixed and mobile video cameras, and accessories; radio network core and central processing software, base stations, consoles, and repeaters; and video analytics, network video management hardware and software, and access control solutions. The Software and Services segment provides repair, technical support, and hardware maintenance services. This segment also offers monitoring, software updates, and cybersecurity services; and public safety and enterprise command center software, unified communications applications, and video software solutions through on-premise and as a service. It serves government, public safety, and commercial customers. The company was formerly known as Motorola, Inc. and changed its name to Motorola Solutions, Inc. in January 2011. Motorola Solutions, Inc. was founded in 1928 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
Bancolombia S.A. provides banking products and services in Colombia, Panama, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. The company operates through nine segments: Banking Colombia, Banking Panama, Banking El Salvador, Banking Guatemala, Trust, Investment Banking, Brokerage, International Banking, and All Other. It offers checking and savings accounts, fixed term deposits, and investment products; trade financing, loans funded by domestic development banks, working capital loans, credit cards, personal and vehicle loans, payroll loans, and overdrafts; financial support to real estate developers and mortgages for individuals and companies; factoring; and financial and operating leasing services. The company also provides hedging instruments, including futures, forwards, options, and swaps; and brokerage, investment advisory, and private banking services, including selling and distributing equities, futures, foreign currencies, fixed income securities, mutual funds, and structured products. In addition, it offers cash management services; foreign currency transaction services; life, auto, commercial, and homeowner's insurance products; and online and computer banking services. Further, the company provides project and acquisition finance, debt and equity capital markets, principal investments, M&A, hedging strategies, restructurings, and structured financing; money market accounts, mutual and pension funds, private equity funds, payment and corporate trust, and custody; internet-based trading platform; inter-bank lending and repurchase agreements; managing escrow accounts, and investment and real estate funds; and transportation, securities brokerage, maintenance and remodeling, and outsourcing services. As of December 31, 2021, it operated 1,015 branches; 28,676 banking correspondents; 529 PAMs; 210 kiosks in El Salvador and 187 in Colombia; and 6,094 ATMs. Bancolombia S.A. was incorporated in 1945 and is headquartered in Medellin, Colombia.
Koninklijke Philips N.V. operates as a health technology company in North America and internationally. It operates through Diagnosis & Treatment Businesses, Connected Care Businesses, and Personal Health Businesses segments. The company provides diagnostic imaging solutions, includes magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography (CT) systems, X-ray systems, and detector-based spectral CT solutions, as well as molecular and hybrid imaging solutions for nuclear medicine; integrated interventional systems; echography solutions focused on diagnosis, treatment planning and guidance for cardiology, general imaging, obstetrics/gynecology, and point-of-care applications; proprietary software to enable diagnostics and intervention; and enterprise diagnostic informatics products and services. It also offers acute patient management solutions; emergency care solutions; sleep and respiratory care solutions; and electronic medical record and care management solutions. In addition, the company provides power toothbrushes, brush heads, and interdental cleaning and teeth whitening products; infant feeding and digital parental solutions; and male grooming and beauty products and solutions. It has a strategic collaboration with Ibex Medical Analytics Ltd. to jointly promote the digital pathology and AI solutions to hospitals, health networks, and pathology laboratories worldwide, as well as a strategic partnership agreement with NICO.LAB. The company was formerly known as Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. and changed its name to Koninklijke Philips N.V. in May 2013. Koninklijke Philips N.V. was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The following companies are subsidiares of PPG Industries: AIPCF V Texstars Blocker Inc., AkzoNobel, Alpha Coating Technologies LLC, Alpha Coatings Inc., Broad Range Development Limited, CG Holdings Manufacturing Co., Centro de Investigacion en Polimeros S.A. de C.V., Chemfil Canada Limited, Chorlton Trade Paints Limited, Comercial Mexicana de Pinturas S.A. de C.V., Comex, Comex Industrial Coatings S.A. de C.V., Consorcio Comex S.A. de C.V., Cristacol S.A., Cuming Microwave Corporation, Deutek SA, Dexmet Corporation, Dexmet Holding Corporation, Distribuidora Kroma S.A. de C.V., EPIC Insurance Co. Ltd., Eberle Design Inc., Empresa Aga S.A. de C.V., Ennis Canadian Holding Company, Ennis Paint Canada ULC, Ennis Paint Netherlands Holdings LLC, Ennis Paint U.K. Holding Company Limited, Ennis Traffic Safety Solutions Pty Ltd, Ennis-Flint, Ennis-Flint Inc., Foshan Bairun Chemicals Co. Ltd., Fpu Industrial S.A. de C.V., Grupo Comex S.A. de C.V., Hemmelrath Automotive Coatings (Jilin) Co. Ltd., Hemmelrath International Trade (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Hodij Coatings B.V., Homax Products, Industria Chimica Reggiana I.C.R. SPA, Johnstones Paints Limited, Kalon Investment Company Limited, Kalon South Africa Proprietary Limited, Karl Woerwag Lack-und Farbenfabrik GmbH & Co. KG, Masterwork Paint, MetoKote Corporation, MetoKote Mexico Holdings Inc., MetoKote UK Limited, MetoKote de Mexico S. de RL de CV, Milamar Coatings LLC, OOO Tikkurila, PPG A P Resinas S.A. de C.V., PPG AC - France SA, PPG ALESCO Automotive Finishes Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., PPG Aerospace Materials (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., PPG Architectural Coatings (Puerto Rico) Inc., PPG Architectural Coatings Canada Inc./PPG Revetements Architecturaux Canada Inc., PPG Architectural Coatings Ireland Limited, PPG Architectural Coatings Italy S.r.l, PPG Architectural Coatings UK Limited, PPG Architectural Finishes Inc., PPG Asian Paints Private Ltd., PPG Business Services S.A. de C.V., PPG COATINGS SINGAPORE PTE. LTD., PPG Canada Inc., PPG Cetelon Lackfabrik GmbH, PPG Cieszyn S.A., PPG Coatings (Hong Kong) Co. Limited, PPG Coatings (Kunshan) Co. Ltd., PPG Coatings (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., PPG Coatings (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., PPG Coatings (Thailand) Co. Ltd., PPG Coatings (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., PPG Coatings (Wuhu) Company Ltd., PPG Coatings (Zhangjiagang) Co. Ltd., PPG Coatings B.V., PPG Coatings Belgium BV, PPG Coatings Danmark A/S, PPG Coatings Deutschland GmbH, PPG Coatings Europe B.V., PPG Coatings Nederland BV, PPG Coatings S.A., PPG Coatings South Africa (Pty) Ltd., PPG DYRUP S.A., PPG Deco Czech a.s., PPG Deco Polska sp. z.o.o., PPG Deco Slovakia s.r.o., PPG Deutschland Business Support GmbH, PPG Deutschland Sales & Services GmbH, PPG Distribution S.A.S., PPG Europe B.V., PPG Finance B.V., PPG Finland Oy, PPG France Business Support S.A.S., PPG France Manufacturing S.A.S., PPG Guadeloupe SAS, PPG Hemmelrath Lackfabrik GmbH, PPG Holdco SAS, PPG Holdings (U.K.) Limited, PPG Holdings Argentina USA LLC, PPG Holdings Latin America USA LLC, PPG Iberica S.A., PPG Iberica Sales & Services S.L., PPG Industrial Coatings B.V., PPG Industrial do Brasil - Tintas E. Vernizes - Ltda., PPG Industries (Korea) Ltd., PPG Industries (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., PPG Industries (UK) Ltd, PPG Industries Argentina S.R.L., PPG Industries Australia PTY Limited A.C.N. 055 500 939, PPG Industries Colombia Ltda., PPG Industries Delfzijl B.V., PPG Industries Europe Sarl, PPG Industries France S.A.S., PPG Industries International Inc., PPG Industries Italia S.r.l., PPG Industries Kimya a Sanayi VE Ticaret AS, PPG Industries LLC, PPG Industries Lackfabrik GmbH, PPG Industries Lipetsk LLC, PPG Industries Middle East FZE, PPG Industries Netherlands B.V., PPG Industries New Zealand Limited, PPG Industries Ohio Inc., PPG Industries Poland Sp. Z.o.o., PPG Industries Securities LLC, PPG Industries de Mexico S.A. de C.V., PPG Investment (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., PPG Italia Business Support S.r.l., PPG Italia Sales & Services S.r.l., PPG Japan Ltd., PPG Kansai Automotive Finishes Canada LP, PPG Kansai Automotive Finishes U.K. LLP, PPG Kansai Automotive Finishes U.S. LLC, PPG Luxembourg Finance S.aR.L., PPG Luxembourg Holdings S.aR.L., PPG Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., PPG Packaging Coatings (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., PPG Paints Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., PPG Performance Coatings (Hong Kong) Limited, PPG Powder Coatings (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., PPG Refinish Distribution Limited, PPG Romania S.A., PPG Reunion SAS, PPG SSC Co. Ltd., PPG Switzerland GmbH, PPG Trilak Korlatolt FelelosseguTarasasag (PPG Trilak Kft.), PPG Vietnam Co. Ltd., PRC-DeSoto Australia Pty Ltd., PRC-DeSoto International Inc., PT. PPG Coatings Indonesia, Painter's Supply, Paintzen, Peintures de Paris SAS, Plasticos Envolventes S.A. de C.V., Polymeric Systems Inc., ProCoatings B.V., ProCoatings BV, Protec Pty Ltd, Reno A&E LLC, Revocoat France SAS, Revocoat Holding SAS, Revocoat Iberica SLU, Revocoat S.A.S, Road Infrastructure Investment Holdings Inc., SEM Products Inc., Sealants Europe SAS, Sierracin Corporation, Sierracin/Sylmar Corporation, Sigma Marine & Protective Coatings Holding B.V., SigmaKalon (BC) UK Limited, SigmaKalon Group, Sikar (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Spraylat International Ltd, Texstars LLC, The Crown Group Co., The Crown Group Inc, The Homax Group, Tikkurila Group, Tikkurila Oyj, Tikkurila Sverige AB, Traffic Safety Intermediate LLC, Traffic Safety Parent LLC, VF Specialty Products LLC, Vanex Inc., Vernisol S.p.A., VersaFlex Acquisition Corp., VersaFlex Inc., VersaFlex Intermediate Holdings LLC, Versaflex, Viasa S.A. de C.V., Whitford, Whitford B.V., Whitford Corporation, Whitford Jiangmen Ltd., Whitford Ltd. (HK), Whitford Ltd. (UK), Whitford Pte. Ltd., Whitford S.r.l., Whitford Worldwide Company LLC, and Worwag Coatings.

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GSK plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the creation, discovery, development, manufacture, and marketing of pharmaceutical products, vaccines, over-the-counter medicines, and health-related consumer products in the United Kingdom, the United States, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Pharmaceuticals, Pharmaceuticals R&D, Vaccines, and Consumer Healthcare. The company offers pharmaceutical products comprising medicines in the therapeutic areas, such as respiratory, HIV, immuno-inflammation, oncology, anti-viral, central nervous system, cardiovascular and urogenital, metabolic, anti-bacterial, and dermatology. It also provides consumer healthcare products in wellness, oral health, nutrition, and skin health categories. The company offers its consumer healthcare products in the form of nasal sprays, tablets, syrups, lozenges, gum and trans-dermal patches, caplets, infant syrup drops, liquid filled suspension, wipes, gels, effervescents, toothpastes, toothbrushes, mouthwashes, denture adhesives and cleansers, topical creams and non-medicated patches, lip balm, gummies, and soft chews. It has collaboration agreements with 23andMe; Lyell Immunopharma, Inc.; Novartis; Sanofi SA; Surface Oncology; Progentec Diagnostics, Inc.; Alector, Inc.; and CureVac AG., as well as strategic partnership with IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc. and Vir Biotechnology, Inc. The company was formerly known as GlaxoSmithKline plc and changed its name to GSK plc in May 2022. GSK plc was founded in 1715 and is headquartered in Brentford, the United Kingdom.
NextEra Energy, Inc. is the largest electric utility holding company in the US. It operates a network of power generation and distribution facilities that include fossil-fuel-generated and green energy. As of mid-2022, the company was capable of generating 58 GW of electricity with nearly 60% of the load produced by green sources including wind and solar. In their view, going green isnt an option, its the solution. NextEra Energy has been recognized multiple times as a leader in clean energy and ESG practices and was ranked the #1 electric and gas utility on the Forbes list of Most Admired Companies.

The company is the result of several mergers that begin with FPL Group. FPL Group is now a subsidiary of NextEra Energy and the third-largest provider of electricity in the US servicing nearly half of Florida. FPL and its affiliates are the single largest provider of renewable energy generated from wind and sun. The group changed its name in 2010 following a decision to shift focus onto renewable energy sources.

Today, NextEra Energy, Inc through its subsidiary FPL serves about 12 million people in eastern and southwestern Florida. The company employs nearly 14,900 people who service 5.8 million accounts. The company is in business to generate, transmit, and distribute electricity to retail and wholesale clients. Electricity is generated through wind, solar, nuclear, natural gas, and coal-fired facilities.

The company is also engaged in the construction and operation of new facilities, specifically renewable power generation, storage, and delivery facilities, and can offer custom solutions tailored to any need. Offerings include tailored services to assist businesses with their transition to clean energy.

NextEra Energy also owns and operates 7 nuclear power stations in Florida, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin generating power for the wholesale market.

Unlike other companies that are targeting net-zero emissions, NextEra Energy has a plan to reach real zero and is investing heavily to reach that goal by 2045. The company had invested nearly $50 billion in green energy infrastructure and initiatives by mid-2022. The plan is to first work on reducing its own emissions and then take its knowledge and expertise to the world.




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Alyssa Fay, Myah Dawson, both seniors, and Elizabeth Strychanz, a junior, from left, perform with the Blackstone-Millville High School Marching Band during Millville Community Day in Millville on Saturday.
Iran and Russia celebrate start of Bushehr II

12 September 2016

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The first foundation stone for units 2 and 3 of the Bushehr nuclear power plant has been laid in a ceremony held at the construction site in southern Iran.

The laying of the foundation stone for Bushehr II (Image: AEOI)

Russian and Iranian delegations attending the event were led, respectively, by Rosatom director general Sergey Kirienko and the first vice president of Iran Ishak Jahangiri. The president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Ali Akbar Salehi, and the director of AtomStroyExport (ASE), Valery Limarenko, also attended.

Rosatom subsidiary ASE, which is the general contractor for the Bushehr project, and Nuclear Power Production and Development Company of Iran signed an EPC turnkey contract for construction of the units at Bushehr in November 2014. The two VVER-1000 units will be built with Generation III+ technology, including the latest safety features, and have a combined capacity of 2100 MWe, ASE has said. Russian-built Bushehr 1 was connected to the national grid on 3 September, 2011 and became the first nuclear power plant in the Middle East.

During the ceremony, held on 10 September, the two sides signed a protocol on the start of work on the project to build units 2 and 3, known as Bushehr II. At a briefing, Kirienko noted that the units will be built according to a design Rosatom is also building at Kudankulam, India.

According to TASS news agency, Limarenko said Rosatom is keen on the "wide use" of Iranian-made materials and would therefore invite Iranian manufacturing companies to compete to work on the project via contract tenders. "We'll also attract construction workers from both Iran and third countries wherever this is economically feasible to do so," he said.

Rosatom has said previously that Bushehr II is expected to cost about $10 billion to build, and that the physical start-ups of unit 2 and unit 3 are planned for October 2024 and April 2026, respectively. Provisional acceptance of unit 2 by the Iranian customer is scheduled for August 2025 and that for unit 3 in February 2027.

According to a statement issued by Rosatom, Kirienko said at the ceremony that Russia's construction of Bushehr 1 demonstrated the country "always meets its obligations to foreign partners, regardless of changes in the global political climate". Bushehr II will "make a practical contribution to the expansion of Rosatom's of Russian-Iranian cooperation and, at the same time, mark a significant step toward strengthening Russia's position in the global market for civil nuclear power technology in a macro-regional context like the Middle East," he added.

According to Press TV, Salehi told attendees of the ceremony: "We are opening a new page in the trend of our peaceful industrial nuclear activities."

Construction of the two new units will help Iran meet its energy needs, economize on its natural energy resources by avoiding the use of "22 million barrels of oil", and prevent the spread of "14 million tons of pollutants" into the air.

Jahangiri said meeting energy needs is vital for economic development, adding that Iran needs to produce 5000 more megawatts of electricity each year in order to do this.

In January, Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - China, France, the UK, Russia and the USA - plus Germany - launched implementation of the nuclear agreement they signed in July last year. According to that accord, Iran agreed to limit its nuclear program in return for the termination of all nuclear-related sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Jahangiri said Iran's right to build nuclear power plants was based upon the peaceful application of nuclear energy, as outlined in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) established last year.

The Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Salehi as telling the ceremony attendees that Bushehr 1 and 2 will be constructed over 108 and 126 months, respectively.

Salehi added: "In 2014, Iran and Russia signed three documents, one contract, one protocol, and one memorandum of understanding, in Moscow to construct the new units, paving the way for peaceful nuclear cooperation between the two countries to enter into a strategic, new phase."

However, no concrete steps had been taken, until the six global powers "thrashed out a deal" on Tehran's nuclear program in July 2015.

In addition to the new nuclear power capacity, desalinations facilities with a daily capacity of 200,000 cubic metres are to be built, lowering the cost of supplying clean water to the southern cities of the semi-arid country, Salehi added.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

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Spotlight on localization as South Africa prepares for RFP

12 September 2016

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The Nuclear Industry Association of South Africa (NIASA) has welcomed the request for proposal (RFP) start date for procurement of new nuclear power plants. It called for localization to be a key factor in the selection of a vendor through a "fair and transparent" procurement process.

South Africa's Integrated Resource Plan for 2010-2030 calls for construction of 9.6 GWe of new nuclear capacity - supplying 23% of the country's electricity - with the first reactor to come online by 2023. Energy minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson told parliament on 7 September the long-awaited RFP for procurement will be issued on 30 September.

"Nuclear is an efficient and environmentally safe way to generate sufficient baseload power for our rapidly growing energy demands and necessary to grow our economy. It is not the only solution, but a critical component of the entire energy mix," NIASA said in response to Joemat-Petterson's announcement.

The South African cabinet gave the Department of Energy permission to issue the RFP in December 2015. Five reactor vendors are expected to be invited to submit proposals: China's SNPTC, France's EDF/Areva, Russia's Rosatom, South Korea's KEPCO, and the USA's Westinghouse. South Africa has signed intergovernmental agreements with all five countries concerned. Proposals are to specify reactor design, the degree of localization, financing and price.

NIASA said it supported calls for transparency in the nuclear new build program "in its entirety", but further called for an emphasis on local content and skills development as "founding principals" for selection of the winning vendor, or vendors, in order to secure "tangible development and meaningful employment" in the communities where the plants will be built and in the country as a whole.

"The nuclear project will not only support industry and create much needed employment, it will also create a platform upon which our economy can grow and develop," Knox Msbenzi, NIASA managing director, said.

The association also called for a "more robust debate" and "meaningful public participation in all key decision making milestones" throughout the procurement and construction process, taking into account lessons learned from previous large-scale South African infrastructure projects. "As a country we have experience of large-scale projects and we have varied experts to advise and guide us towards the successful delivery of the project over the next 20 years. We can draw valuable insights from both our successful projects, and the not so successful ones, and improve on our performance accordingly," Msebenzi said.

A final funding model for the project will be developed after the RFP process has been completed. NIASA said RFP and the responses of vendors would indicate the cost of the project and inform the debate on financing and risk mitigation models. "Whichever model is chosen, it should ideally have sufficient flexibility to allow for adjustments to the timing of construction of the fleet over the planned horizon. Msebenzi said.

Earlier this year South African utility Eskom, operator of the country's existing nuclear capacity at Koeberg, submitted site applications for nuclear installations at Thyspunt, in the Eastern Cape, and Duynefontein, in the Western Cape, to the country's National Nuclear Regulator. The applications are now undergoing public comment as part of the regulator's public participation process.



Researched and written

by World Nuclear News





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As its name implies, the United States of America is composed of different states, 50 to be exact. There are 48 contiguous states in what is known as the Continental United States. Two other states, Alaska and Hawaii, are physically separated from the Continental United States, the former by land belonging to Western Canada, and the latter by the Pacific Ocean. The United States is a federal republic. The US Constitution delegates certain powers to both the federal government and the state governments. The federal government of the United States is based in a federal district known as Washington DC (District of Columbia), but the governments of each state are based in what are known as the state capitals.

List Of State Capitals Of The United States

The Role Of State Capitals

State capitals exist for the same reason that national capitals exist. That is, to be the seat of government. Hence, just as the US federal government keeps the main organs of its executive, legislative, and judicial branches in Washington DC, so too does each state keep its own executive, legislative, and judicial branches in its capital. Whereas the President of the United States resides in the White House, the executives of the state governments, normally called governors, have their own residences in their respective state capitals. These residences are normally called governors mansions.

How Were The State Capitals Chosen?

Map of the capital cities of the United States.

Choosing a state capital has historically been a tricky task. Some state capitals were chosen for strategic reasons. For example, in 1777, the capital of Delaware was moved from New Castle to Dover because the latter was centrally located and provided protection from British raiders on the Delaware River during the American Revolutionary War. Tallahassee, the capital of Florida, was also chosen because of its central location. In 1824, when Florida was still a US territory, its leaders chose Tallahassee to be the capital because it was located midway between St. Augustine and Pensacola, which were the two principle cities in Florida at the time.

In many cases, US states had their capitals based in different cities before their present capitals were established. For instance, Alabama had five different capitals until Montgomery became the capital in 1846. In California, the designation of a capital took five years, beginning in 1849, when the first State Constitutional Convention was held at Colton Hill. Just a month later, legislators moved to Pueblo de San Jose, where they stayed until May 1, 1851. In January 1852, legislators moved again, this time to Vallejo. Just a few days later, they moved to Sacramento. They stayed there for a year, then went back to Vallejo, where they stayed for a month before moving to Benicia in February 1853. Finally, the capital was moved back to Sacramento on February 25, 1854, where it has remained since.

There are also instances in US history where a state had two capitals. Delaware, for example, had two co-capitals, Hartford and New Haven, from 1701 to 1875, after which the former was made the sole capital. When it was under Spanish rule, Florida also had two capitals, one in St. Augustine, and the other in Pensacola, because at the time, the future US state was divided into two separate regions. Even today, Maines government is not entirely based in the state capital, Augusta. The principle office of the state supreme court is still based in Portland, which was Maines capital until 1832.

The task of choosing a state capital has historically belonged to each states government, or the government of what would become a US state in the future, as many of the state capitals were chosen before the states to which they correspond achieved statehood. There were instances, however, where the choice of a capital was put to a popular vote. Pierre was chosen as South Dakotas capital following a referendum in 1890, beating its competitor, Huron. Denver was Colorados temporary capital when the latter achieved statehood in 1876, but a state referendum was held in 1881 to determine whether Denver should be the permanent capital, with five other cities also contesting. Denver ultimately won with two thirds of the vote.

Small State Capitals

New York State Capitol in Albany, the capital city of New York, United States.

More often than not, the state capital is not the states largest city. For example, it would be easy for people to assume that New York City is the capital of the state of New York because it is the states biggest city, not to mention the largest in the United States. But this is not the case. The capital of the state of New York is based in the city of Albany, and has been there since 1797. Yet, Albany is only the sixth largest city in the state. Some state capitals barely qualify as cities. Pierre, South Dakota has a population of just 14,000 (est.), while Augusta, Maine, has just 18,500. The smallest state capital is Montpelier, the capital of Vermont, which has just 7,855 residents. It is also true, however, that most of the small state capitals are located in states that have smaller populations themselves, relative to other US states. The aforementioned state of Vermont, for instance, is the second least populous state in the entire country.

Large State Capitals

Phoenix, the largest capital city in the United States.

Some US state capitals are large, but only in rare cases are they the largest cities in their respective states. The largest state capital in the entire United States is Phoenix, the capital of Arizona. It boasts a population of about 1.7 million, which makes it both the largest city in Arizona and the fifth largest city in the country. Columbus, the capital of Ohio, is also the largest city in its state. The population of Austin, Texas, which is the second largest state capital, is nearly 1 million, though that is significantly less than Texas largest city, Dallas, which has a population of more than 1.4 million. Sacramento, the capital of California, which is the most populous state in the country, has just 525,000 (est.) residents, paling in comparison to Los Angeles, Californias biggest city and the second biggest in the United States, with a population of nearly 4 million.
Girl holding ice cream (illustration)

By: Chan Yuan

A man was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence after being caught driving an ice cream truck while high on drugs, according to police in the United Kingdom.

Now, 52-year-old Gaetano Palminteri of Essex, has been sentenced to serve 16 weeks in prison, which was suspended.

He was also banned from driving for the next three years.

According to the police investigation, Palminteri was seen driving his Guyas Super Soft ice cream truck and serving children while acting erratically.

Responsible adults called the police, and he was found to be 16 times over the legal limit. The court was told that Palminteri was high on marijuana and cocaine when he was stopped by police.

Officers also found drugs inside his ice cream truck.

The judge said that he handed down a harsh sentence as serving kids ice cream while under the influence of drugs was an aggravating factor.

After Palminteri to using cocaine over a period of several months, the judge ordered him to 20 days of drug rehabilitation.
The World Socialist Web Site unequivocally condemns the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Those responsible for the hijacking of four commercial passenger aircraft and their conversion into flying bombs are guilty of mass murder. Nothing of a socially progressive character will be achieved on the basis of such an indiscriminate and callous destruction of human life.

These acts of homicidal terrorism manifest a toxic combination of demoralized pessimism, religious and ultra-nationalist obscurantism, and, it must be added, political opportunism of the vilest character. Terrorist organizationsnotwithstanding their anti-American rhetoricbase their tactics on the illusion that random acts of horrific violence will compel the US ruling class to shift its policies. Thus, in the final analysis, they hope to make a deal with Washington.

However it seeks to justify itself, the terrorist method is fundamentally reactionary. Far from dealing a powerful blow against imperialist militarism, terrorism plays into the hands of those elements within the US establishment who seize on such events to justify and legitimize the resort to war in pursuit of the geopolitical and economic interests of the ruling elite. The murder of innocent civilians enrages, disorients and confuses the public. It undermines the struggle for the international unity of the working class, and counteracts all efforts to educate the American people on the history and politics that form the background to contemporary events in the Middle East.

Nevertheless, our condemnation of Tuesdays terrorist outrages does not in the slightest imply any lessening of our principled and irreconcilable opposition to the policies of the US government. Anyone who wishes to understand the why and wherefore of yesterdays events must study the historical and political record of the US in the Middle East, especially over the last thirty years. The unrelenting efforts of American imperialism to secure its domination over the oil resources of the region, which has entailed, among other things, unstinting support for the Israeli states oppression of the Palestinian people, has placed the United States in violent opposition to the legitimate and irrepressible democratic, national and social aspirations of the Arab masses.

In the immediate aftermath of Tuesdays events, politicians, editorialists and media pundits have declared over and over that Americans must recognize that the destruction of the World Trade Center means the United States is at war and must act accordingly. But the fact of the matter is that the US government has been engaged in direct warfare in the Middle East, in one form or another, for the better part of two decades.

Putting aside the massive material aid that it provides for Israeli military operations, the United States has been bombing one or another Middle Eastern country almost continuously since 1983. US bombers and/or battleships have attacked Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Iran, Sudan and Afghanistan. Without actually declaring war, the United States has conducted military operations against Iraq for nearly eleven years. The ongoing daily bombings of Iraq are barely mentioned in the American media, which has made no attempt to ascertain the total number of Iraqis killed by US bombs since 1991.

Given this bloody record, why should anyone be surprised that those who have been targeted by the United States have sought to strike back?

The same media that is now screaming for blood has routinely applauded the use of violence against whatever country or people are deemed to be obstacles to US interests. Let us recall the words of New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who had this to say to the Serbian people during the US bombing campaign in 1999: It should be lights out in Belgrade: every power grid, water pipe, bridge, road and war-related factory has to be targeted. . . . [W]e will set your country back by pulverizing you. You want 1950? We can do 1950. You want 1389? We can do 1389 too.[1]

The foreign policy of the US is a mixture of cynicism, brutality and irresponsibility. Washington has pursued a course that has inflamed the hatred of large sections of the worlds population, creating an environment in which recruits can be found for bloody terrorist operations. In rare moments of candor, foreign policy specialists have acknowledged that the actions of the United States provoke hatred and the desire for retribution. During the Balkan War, former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger stated: Weve presented to the rest of the world a vision of the bully on the block who pushes a button, people out there die, we dont pay anything except the cost of a missile  thats going to haunt us in terms of trying to deal with the rest of the world in the years ahead.

This insight has not prevented the same Eagleburger from declaring Tuesday night that the United States should respond to the destruction of the World Trade Center by dropping bombs immediately on any country that might have been involved.

George W. Bushs address to the nation Tuesday evening epitomized the arrogance and blindness of the American ruling class. Far from America being the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world, the US is seen by tens of millions as the main enemy of their human and democratic rights, and the main source of their oppression. The American ruling elite, in its insolence and cynicism, acts as if it can carry out its violent enterprises around the world without creating the political conditions for violent acts of retribution.

In the immediate aftermath of Tuesdays attacks, US authorities and the media are once again declaring that Osama bin Laden is responsible. This is possible, although, as always, they present no evidence to back up their claim.

But the charge that bin Laden is the culprit raises a host of troubling questions. Given the fact that the US has declared this individual to be the worlds most deadly terrorist, whose every move is tracked with the aid of the most technologically sophisticated and massive intelligence apparatus, how could bin Laden organize such an elaborate attack without being detected? An attack, moreover, against the same New York skyscraper that was hit in 1993?

The devastating success of his assault would indicate that, from the standpoint of the American government, the crusade against terrorism has been far more a campaign of propaganda to justify US military violence around the world than a conscientious effort to protect the American people.

Moreover, both bin Laden and the Taliban mullahs, whom the US accuses of harboring him, were financed and armed by the Reagan-Bush administration to fight pro-Soviet regimes in Afghanistan in the 1980s. If they are involved in Tuesdays operations, then the American CIA and political establishment are guilty of having nurtured the very forces that carried out the bloodiest attack on American civilians in US history.

The escalation of US militarism abroad will inevitably be accompanied by intensified attacks on democratic rights at home. The first victims of the war fever being whipped up are Arab-Americans, who are already being subjected to death threats and other forms of harassment as a result of the media hysteria.

The calls from both Republican and Democratic politicians for a declaration of war foreshadow a more general crackdown on opponents of American foreign policy. General Norman Schwarzkopf, who commanded American troops in the 1991 invasion of Iraq, spoke for much of the political and military elite when he declared on television that the war on alleged terrorist supporters should be conducted inside as well as outside the borders of the US.

It is the policies pursued by the United States, driven by the strategic and financial interests of the ruling elite, which laid the foundations for the nightmare that unfolded on Tuesday. The actions now being contemplated by the Bush administrationindicated by the presidents threat to make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor themwill only set the stage for further catastrophes.

Notes:

[1] Thomas L. Friedman, Stop the Music, New York Times, April 23, 1999.
Part one | Part two | Part three | Part four

The United States government maintains the worlds largest apparatus for collecting intelligence and monitoring telecommunications, comprised of multiple agenciesCIA, FBI, National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, Defense Signals Intercept Organization, etc.bankrolled by a secret budget estimated at a staggering $30 billion a year.

Yet the Bush administration claims, with no dissent from the tame American media, that this huge national security apparatus had not the slightest inkling that nearly two dozen men were preparing to hijack commercial jetliners and crash them into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Nor has there been any public clamor for the removal of those whose seeming incompetence, if the official story is to be believed, cost the lives of nearly 3,000 American citizens.

What has emerged over the past four months, however, is a much different picture of the events of September 11 and the relation of the US military-intelligence complex to them. Not only were there frequent advance warnings, derived both from foreign intelligence services and US investigations into previous terrorist attacks [Was the US government alerted to September 11 attack? Part 1: Warnings in advance], but the US government was itself in possession of considerable information from contemporaneous electronic and physical surveillance of Osama bin Laden and his associates in the Al Qaeda organization.

Electronic monitoring of bin Laden

It is well known that the National Security Agency at one time had virtually complete access to the electronic communications of bin Laden and his associates. In the period leading up to the bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998, the monitoring was so extensive that NSA officials used to play back telephone conversations between bin Laden and his mother to impress visiting dignitariesand help boost their congressional appropriations.

By one account, the NSA had recorded virtually every minute of conversations on a satellite telephone which bin Laden was using in Afghanistan. The laptop device was purchased in New York City for the Al Qaeda leader, who used all of its more than 2,000 prepaid minutes phoning supporters in dozens of countriesa fact that suggests that he was less than the worlds greatest conspirator. (Source: Los Angeles Times, September 21, 2001, Hate Unites an Enemy Without an Army, by Bob Drogin; Chicago Tribune, September 16, 2001, Bin Laden, associates elude spy agencys eavesdropping, by Scott Shane)

US officials have suggested that this access was abruptly cut off after bin Laden learned that the monitored communications had helped the Pentagon target a training camp in eastern Afghanistan for the cruise missile strike ordered by President Clinton. The Al Qaeda leader stopped using telephones and other electronic devices entirely, they claim, resorting to couriers and other forms of direct communication which cannot be monitored so easily.

Such claims are dismissed as US disinformation by many knowledgeable observers. Longtime Egyptian journalist and former government spokesman Mohammed Heikal, in an interview with a British newspaper, expressed disbelief that bin Laden and his Al Qaeda group could have conducted the September 11 attack without the United States knowing: Bin Laden has been under surveillance for years: every telephone call was monitored and Al-Qaeda has been penetrated by American intelligence, Pakistani intelligence, Saudi intelligence, Egyptian intelligence. They could not have kept secret an operation that required such a degree of organisation and sophistication. (Source: Heikal interview with the Guardian, October 10, 2001)

The more sweeping the US government claims about the global scope and high-level coordination of bin Ladens activities, the less credible is the claim that electronic monitoring has yielded no results. It would be practically impossible to avoid any kind of electronic interchange of information in operating a worldwide network capable of carrying out attacks in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States.

There have been scattered reports in the press suggesting that bin Ladens associates, if not the Islamic fundamentalist leader himself, have used electronic communications devices and these have been monitored by US agencies.

UPI correspondent Richard Sale, covering the trial of bin Laden followers in New York City last year, reported that the National Security Agency had broken bin Ladens encrypted communications. Given that US officials believe the planning for the Sept. 11 attacks probably began two years ago, ( New York Times, October 14, 2001) this suggests that some information on the preparations for September 11 was available to electronic intercept. (Source: United Press International, February 13, 2001)

The clearest suggestion of successful US monitoring of Al Qaeda communicationsand the closest to the September 11 attackswas the statement by Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, a conservative Republican with wide contacts in the national security establishment. He told the Associated Press on September 11 that the US government was monitoring bin Ladens communications electronically and had overheard two bin Laden aides celebrating the successful terrorist attack. They have an intercept of some information that included people associated with bin Laden who acknowledged a couple of targets were hit, he told AP. (Source: Associated Press, September 11, 2001, World Trade Center collapses in terrorist attack, by David Crary and Jerry Schwartz)

Hatch repeated this assertion in an interview with ABC News the same day, saying that both CIA and FBI officials had told him the same story. That his statement was true is demonstrated by the Bush administration reaction. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld publicly denounced the report as an unauthorized release of classified information. The White House later cited this leak as grounds for withholding detailed information on US counterterrorist actions from Congress, although Bush was later compelled to resume the briefings of a handful of congressional leaders.

There were several other media reports of similar successful monitoring of Al Qaeda communications. The German magazine Der Spiegel said that officers from the German intelligence service BND intercepted phone conversations between two bin Laden supporters. NBC News reported October 4 that bin Laden called his mother two days before the World Trade Center attack and told her, In two days youre going to hear big news, and youre not going to hear from me for a while. NBC said that a foreign intelligence service had recorded the call and relayed the information to the US. Such reports must be considered cautiously, especially coming as they did on the eve of the launching of US air strikes on Afghanistan. But it is impossible to avoid the conclusion: if US intelligence agencies could obtain such information after September 11, they were able to do so before that date. (Source: Toronto Globe & Mail, October 5, 2001)

Besides the actual communications among the hijackers and their co-conspirators, there was another electronic tip-off to September 11. It has been widely reported that during the week before the suicide hijackings, there was sudden and unexplained speculation in the stock of American and United airlines. Huge bets were placed that the stock prices of both airlines would plunge, as did happen after two American and two United jets were hijacked and crashed. No other airlines saw such speculation, and the identity of those who placed the thousands of put optionsbets that a stock will go downhas not been revealed.

Less well known is the fact that the CIA operates a sophisticated software system, known as Promis, which monitors such sudden price movements for the specific purpose of providing advance warning that a particular industry or corporation may be targeted for a terrorist attack. This software provides around-the-clock real-time monitoring, so that CIA officials would have been alerted as early as September 7 that American and United were potential targets. According to the right-wing, stridently pro-Bush Fox News network, both the FBI and the Justice Department have confirmed that Promis was in use last summer for US intelligence gathering. There is no indication that the CIA warned either the airlines themselves or the US agencies responsible for domestic security.

How many hijackers were known?

According to the official Bush administration account of the terrorist attacks, only 2 of the 19 alleged suicide hijackers were known to US authorities before September 11. These two, Kahlil Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhamzi, had been placed on an FBI watch list at the request of the CIA, after Almihdhar was linked to a bin Laden operative in Malaysia.

Innumerable accounts in the American media sought to answer the questions that were inevitably raised by this version of events. How was it possible for two men being sought by the FBI and CIA, with alleged ties to the man the US government had branded the most dangerous terrorist in world, to buy expensive first-class one-way tickets for an airline flight, then board and hijack a jetliner on September 11?

Almihdhar and Alhamzi apparently lived in southern California, in the San Diego area for nearly two years, leaving and reentering the United States at least onceonly a few weeks before the watch list alert was issued. According to one press report, Alhamzi was even listed in the San Diego phone booka fact that certainly calls into question the media portrayal of the suicide hijackers as master conspirators who covered their tracks and were essentially undetectable. (Source: Washington Post, December 29, 2001)

Whatever the circumstances in which these two future hijackers escaped detection, however, the basic premise of the official storythat these two were the only hijackers identified as terrorist suspects before September 11is false. Several other hijackers or men now believed to be their accomplices had come to the attention of US police and intelligence agencies before the destruction of the World Trade Center, but they were allowed to go their way.

There is the strange case of Ziad Samir Jarrah, one of the suspected hijackers on board the United Airlines jet that crashed in Pennsylvania. Officials in the United Arab Emirates acknowledge that Jarrah arrived in the UAE on January 30, 2001, after two months in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and was questioned for several hours at Dubai International Airport, at the request of the US government. He was then permitted to leave, traveling on to Hamburg via Amsterdam. Later he flew to the United States.

Despite official US interest sufficient to have him detained in the UAE, he was allowed to enter the country and then enrolled in a flight school. Jarrah was stopped for speeding on Interstate 95 in Maryland on September 9, two days before the hijacking, ticketed and released. The Maryland State Police apparently ran his name through their computers and found nothing. In response to post-September 11 inquiries, FBI and CIA officials claimed that neither agency had been aware of Jarrah or placed him on any watch list, although some US government agency had sought his detention eight months before in Dubai. (Sources: Chicago Tribune, December 14, 2001; Baltimore Sun, December 14, 2001)

Newsweek magazine, in its special edition published immediately after the September 11 attack, made a startling claim about ties between the hijackers and the American national security apparatus. Citing US military sources, Newsweek reported that five of the alleged hijackers of the planes that were used in Tuesdays terror attacks received training at secure U.S. military installations in the 1990s. Three had listed addresses at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida when they applied for drivers licenses or car registrations. Another trained at the Air War College in Montgomery, Alabama, while the fifth took language instruction at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. The three men who trained at Pensacola were named as Saeed Alghamdi and Ahmad Alnami, both aboard United Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania, and Ahmed Alghamdi, aboard United Flight 75, which hit the south tower of the World Trade Center.

FBI officials told the office of Senator Bill Nelson (D-Florida) that the agents assigned to the World Trade Center/Pentagon case were investigating any connection to the military facility, but that no determination had been made, because of uncertainty over whether the hijackers had stolen the IDs of other Middle East visitors to the US, especially from Saudi Arabia. Pensacola has been the site of military training for foreign aviators, including many from Saudi Arabia and other US clients in the Middle East.

Saudi officials also sought to dispute the reports that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens, but these have proven to be true. There has been no further press reporting on the Pensacola story, either in Newsweek itself, which never did a follow-up, or any other major media outlet.

The case of Mohammed Atta

Even more extraordinary is the treatment of Mohammed Atta, the alleged ringleader of the hijackings. Atta was reportedly an object of attention for the Egyptian, German and American police and yet traveled without hindrance between Europe and America throughout 2000 and 2001.

According to a report on the German public television channel ARD, Atta was the subject of telephone monitoring by the Egyptian secret service, which had learned that he had made at least one recent visit to Afghanistan from his home in Hamburg, Germany. The German program, broadcast November 23, said that the American FBI had monitored Attas movements for several months in 2000, when he traveled several times from Hamburg to Frankfurt and bought large quantities of chemicals potentially usable in making explosives. Attas name was also mentioned in a Hamburg phone call between Islamic fundamentalists monitored by the German police in 1999. The BBC, commenting on the German report, said, The evidence ... reinforces concerns that the international intelligence community may have known more about Atta before September 11 than was previously thought, but had failed to act. (Source: British Broadcasting Corporation report, November 26, 2001)

Atta came to the attention of US authorities on several occasions in the course of 2001. In January he was allowed to reenter the United States after a trip to Germany, despite the fact that he was in violation of his visa status. He landed in Miami January 10 on a flight from Madrid, on a tourist visa, although he told immigration inspectors that he was taking flying lessons in the US, for which an M-1 student visa is required. Jeanne Butterfield, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told the Washington Post, Nine times out of 10, they would have told him to go back and file [for that status] overseas. Youre not supposed to come in as a visitor for pleasure and go to work or school. The recipient of this indulgent treatment, it must be emphasized, had previously been under FBI surveillance for stockpiling bomb-making materials! (Source: Washington Post, October 28, 2001)

According to a report on Canadian television, Atta had been implicated in a terrorist bombing in Israel and the information passed on to the United States before he was first issued a tourist visa. (Source: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, September 14, 2001, reported by Diana Swain from Vero Beach, Florida)

Atta made other trips to Europe, returning to Germany in May and visiting Spain in July, each time returning to the United States and being admitted by US customs and immigration. Another British press report notes that Atta was under surveillance between January and May last year after he was reportedly observed buying large quantities of chemicals in Frankfurt, apparently for the production of explosives and for biological warfare. The US agents reported to have trailed Atta are said to have failed to inform the German authorities about their investigation. The disclosure that Atta was being trailed by police long before 11 September raises the question why the attacks could not have been prevented with the mans arrest. (Source: The Observer, September 30, 2001)

During the summer of 2001, Atta received a wire transfer of $100,000 from an account in Pakistan allegedly controlled by a representative of Osama bin Laden. This transfer has been cited repeatedly by US officials as proof that bin Laden inspired the September 11 attacks, but they have not explained how such a large sum of money could be transmitted with impunity to someone under FBI surveillance. Another remarkable fact: according to an Indian newspaper, the man who actually authorized the wire transfer to Atta was General Mahmud Ahmed, head of the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, the principal sponsor of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Ahmed was forced to resign after India made his role public and it was confirmed by the FBI. Coincidentally or not, Ahmed was in Washington, DC on September 11, for consultations with American intelligence officials. (Source: CNN report, October 1, 2001; The Times of India , October 11, 2001).
Part one | Part two | Part three | Part four

An essential aspect of the official version of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagonwhich maintains that these attacks came as a complete surprise to the US government and its intelligence apparatusis the claim that the CIA and other intelligence agencies relied too heavily on electronic surveillance rather than on-the-spot agents infiltrated into the terrorist organizations.

As a result, so the story goes, without agents among the Islamic fundamentalists, the CIA and FBI were unable to discover the plans of Osama bin Laden and forestall them. The absence of American agents is simply asserted, without any examination of the evidence. The argument is largely circular. The very success of the attack on September 11 is taken to prove that the US government had no agents in the milieu which supported the hijackers.

There are two assumptions here: first, that US agents could not penetrate the terrorist circles; and second, that American agents would have intervened to stop an attack had they learned of it in advance. Both these assumptions are questionable.

The official claim of no human intelligence about September 11 is of course difficult to analyze or refute on the basis of empirical or forensic evidence. It is in the nature of such activities that they take place in secret, and remain largely unknown to the public. But the credibility of this claim can be judged in the light of the historical record of the relationship between American imperialism and Islamic fundamentalism.

The United States has been deeply involved in the Middle East for more than half a century, and in Afghanistan for more than two decades. US intelligence agencies have had long and intimate ties with Islamic fundamentalists and encouraged them to engage in terrorist violence. Without this US role there would have been no al Qaeda, bin Laden would have remained a construction magnate in Saudi Arabia, and September 11 would never have taken place.

The origins of the mujahedin

Those who carried out the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were not even born when the US government first began to sponsor violent Islamic fundamentalists and use them against political opponents in the Middle East. As far back as the 1950s, the United States and its main Arab client state, Saudi Arabia, gave financial support to fundamentalist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. US officials backed the fundamentalists against the pan-Arab nationalism of Egypts Gamal Abdel Nasser, as well as against socialist elements in the Arab working class, especially in the Saudi oilfields.

One analyst of this process writes: It was during the 1958-60 period that the US State Department began to exaggerate the communist threat to the Middle East, and the ARAMCO CIA, and indeed the Beirut and Cairo CIAs, began supporting Islamic fundamentalist groups as a counterweight to Nasser. In part, this was an extension of Kim Roosevelts earlier successful use of Muslim elements (Fadayeen Islam) against leftists in Iran. The anti-Nasser Muslim Brotherhood was funded, religious leaders were prodded to attack the USSR for its anti-Muslim ways (Said K. Aburish, The Rise, Corruption and Coming Fall of the House of Saud, St. Martins Press, New York, NY, 1996, p. 161).

This relationship expanded quantitatively and qualitatively with the outbreak of civil war in Afghanistan. Even before the invasion of the country by the Soviet Union in December 1979, the United States had decided to give financial and military backing to the Islamic fundamentalist parties engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Soviet-backed regime in Kabul, which had come to power in an April 1978 military coup.

US national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski hoped that a full-scale war in Afghanistan would prove as debilitating for the USSR as the Vietnam War had been for the United States. The Carter administration began to pour in weapons and money, especially favoring the most right-wing Islamic fundamentalists, those who became the ideological forebears of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden.

Carters successor Ronald Reagan enthusiastically embraced the fundamentalists. He hailed as freedom fighters political organizations that sought to establish a state based on a medieval version of Islamic law: a religious dictatorship which practiced slavery, oppression of women and barbaric mutilations for alleged lawbreakers.

But the man who really deserved the title of founding father of al Qaeda was Reagans CIA director, William Casey. It was Casey who initiated the campaign to recruit Islamic militants from all over the world to come to Afghanistan and fight in the anti-Soviet cause. Islamic fundamentalists from dozens of countriesfrom Morocco to Indonesia, and including even some black Muslims from the United Statestraveled to Afghanistan under CIA auspices, received training in weapons and explosives from CIA trainers and went into combat with US-supplied arms.

Osama bin Laden himself was a product of this process. He first went to Afghanistan in the early 1980s as a sympathizer of the Afghan mujahedin, using his knowledge of construction to help build roads, bases and other facilities, paid for with a combination of his own and US money. It was in Afghanistan that he made the contacts among Islamic fundamentalists worldwide which made possible the organization of later terrorist attacks on US targets. What the Bush administration and the American media today demonize as a global conspiracy of Islamic extremists is thus a Frankenstein monster created by the American government itself.

This history is well understood by the more conscious strategists for American imperialism. Zbigniew Brzezinski suggested cynically a few years ago that the emergence of al Qaeda was an acceptable price to further US interests in the Middle East and internationally. He told a French newspaper: Which was more important in world history? The Taliban or the fall of the Soviet empire? A few over-excited Islamists or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War? (Interview with Vincent Javert in Le Nouvel Observateur, January 15-21, 1998)

Al Qaeda and the CIA

Bin Laden, as is now widely reported, turned against the United States in 1991-92 after the deployment of large numbers of American troops in Saudi Arabia in the course of the Persian Gulf War. The official story is that this marked the end of all contacts between US intelligence agencies and the Islamic fundamentalists who would go on to form al Qaeda.

Here our analysis necessarily moves into an area where established facts are few and far between, and inference and probability must be relied on. Is it credible that the CIA, after a decade of the most intimate ties with the Afghan mujahedin, was suddenly cut off from all information and unable to determine what its erstwhile proteges were doing?

The servile American media has never challenged Bush administration, Pentagon or FBI spokesmen on this subject, and one should not hold ones breath until a highly paid American journalist puts his job on the line by asking such questions. But the long-term, close-knit relationship between the CIA and the Afghan mujahedin makes the sudden drying up of all sources of intelligence unlikely.

The CIA is in the business of knowing its collaborators intimately, and it worked with bin Laden and his supporters and followers for a dozen years. Even today, after a decade of increasing hostilities, those described by US government sources as key bin Laden aides are for the most part drawn from the Egyptian and Saudi Islamic fundamentalists radicalized during the war in Afghanistan. The CIA knew their families, their weaknesses and their vices, and it has never been squeamish about using such information to compromise individuals and secure cooperation with its purposes.

That is not to say that there was not a real conflict between bin Laden and the US government, or that al Qaeda is simply a front organization. It is not necessary to resort to such a conspiracy theory to reject the claim that the US government had no idea of the plans being laid by the terrorist group. It is the official version which is preposterous and far fetched: the claim that the most extensive and well-financed intelligence apparatus in the world could not make a dent in an organization consisting largely of its former employees.

Despite the current official mystification, bin Laden & Co. were a far more accessible target than, say, such Stalinist-ruled regimes as North Vietnam or North Korea. The CIA has cultivated sources among the Islamic fundamentalists since the 1950s. Moreover, friendly intelligence services, including at least those of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistanto say nothing of Israelwould have had their own contacts as well.

The role of agents provocateurs

It is critical to consider September 11 in the context of earlier terrorist attacks on American targets, particularly the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. In both these attacks, it has come to light that American agents provocateurs played a central role. This casts doubt on the claims that US intelligence was unable to penetrate al Qaeda. And it raises the question whether similar agents had some connection to September 11.

Those charged in the 1993 World Trade Center attack and for a subsequent conspiracy to blow up other targets in New York City were mostly former guerrilla fighters in Afghanistan who entered the United States with the covert assistance of US intelligence agencies. Among them was a former Egyptian intelligence agent and US government informer, Emad Salem, who was identified as a principal instigator of plans to bomb targets in the New York City area.

Salem and the FBI claimed that he had functioned as an informer in 1991-92 and then again from April 1993 on, but not during the period of the actual organization of the March 1993 bomb blast which killed six people and destroyed the sub-basement area of the twin towers. This was a transparent effort to avoid questions being raised about why the FBI, tipped off by its informant, did nothing to stop the attack.

In the 1998 events, it was revealed that the US government received advance warning of the Kenya bombing two weeks before it took place. During the trial last year of four men charged in the bombings, defense lawyers were able to demonstrate that US officials did not pass on the warnings to the personnel of the threatened embassies, thus contributing to the high death toll, especially among local civilians who were in or near the facilities at the time of the blasts.

As with at least one of the warnings about September 11, this information came through the Israeli intelligence service Mossad. Moreover, one of those charged in the Kenya and Tanzania bombings was a former Green Beret sergeant and special warfare instructor, Ali A. Mohamed, another former Egyptian security officer who was brought into the United States under a special CIA program to provide citizenship for key informants. Although Mohamed supposedly turned against the US government because of the 1991 Gulf War, he was still serving as a government informant as late as 1995.

No doubt most of those who participated in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and similar outrages, were Islamic fundamentalists who believed that they were somehow striking a blow against the US government. But in the murky world of agents, double agents, and agents provocateurs, they may well have been used to serve the purposes of American imperialism, which has utilized terrorist attacksand above all September 11as the pretext for carrying out military actions overseas and attacks on democratic rights at home.

Terrorist attacks on innocent civilians, whatever the motivation or pretext, are politically reactionary. Moreover, because terrorism substitutes the armed action of a tiny minority for a struggle to develop the political consciousness of the masses, it is much easier for imperialist agents to feign sympathy and penetrate and manipulate the organization involved. From this political standpoint, the claim that US intelligence was unable to infiltrate al Qaeda is not believable.

Some curious connections

Perhaps the murkiest aspect of September 11 is establishing the actual relationship between bin Laden himself and the US government. He was, of course, a CIA asset for more than a decade. He is one of several dozen sons of a Saudi construction billionaire whose family has longstanding ties to the United States and, in particular, to the family of George W. Bush. (The bin Ladens were investors in the Carlyle Group, the multibillion-dollar venture capital firm which employs the presidents father, the former president, as a well-paid rainmaker, drumming up business in the Middle East. They sold their holdings in the firm after September 11.)

As late as 1996, more than four years after Osama bin Laden announced his intention to drive the US out of Saudi Arabia, the US government declined an offer by Sudan to extradite him. US officials suggested there was not enough evidence to convict bin Laden of terrorist actions in a US court. Even after the 1998 embassy bombings made him a household name, the CIA had surprising difficulty in locating him in Afghanistan.

Last October 31, the French daily newspaper Le Figaro one of the countrys more conservative journalspublished a sensational story claiming that bin Laden had met with CIA officials at some point during a nearly two-week stay, July 4-14, 2001, at the American Hospital in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, where he was treated for kidney disease.

The report was roundly denied by US and UAE officials, and there is no way to verify it independently. But the newspaper is certainly well-connected. One of its major investors is the Carlyle Group, the private equity firm which directly links the Bush family and the bin Laden family.

There are other indications that the relations between the US government and Islamic terrorists are not as they appear in the American media.

There is the case of Nabil al-Marabh, who was caught at the Niagara Falls, New York border crossing in June 2001, stowed away inside a tractor-trailer with a forged passport, and was turned back to Canada by US immigration officials. Nine months earlier, he had been identified to American intelligence agents as one of Osama bin Ladens operatives in the United States. American customs agents knew about money he had transferred to an associate of Osama bin Laden in the Middle East. And the Boston police had issued a warrant for his arrest after he violated probation for stabbing a friend with a knife. Al-Marabh was released on bail in Canada, and later arrested near Chicago after the September 11 attacks. While he was jailed in Canada, Marabh boasted to his cellmates that he was special to the F.B.I. (New York Times, October 5, 2001)

Then there is the report which appeared September 24 in Newsweek. The weekly magazine reported that on September 10 a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly canceled travel plans for the next morning, apparently because of security concerns. This suggests that some level of the American state had knowledge, not only of the imminence of the attack, but even of its exact timing. Needless to say, no major American publication has followed up this report.

And what is one to make of an article that appeared in the Washington Post September 23, on the newspapers front page, under a double headline: Investigators Identify 4 to 5 Groups Linked to Bin Laden Operating in US. No Connection Found Between Cell Members and 19 Hijackers, Officials Say?

The article reports that the FBI had identified multiple al Qaeda groups operating for the last several years in the United States, but found no connection between them and the 19 hijackers who carried out the September 11 attack. This is an astonishing admission, given that the entire US military campaign against Afghanistan has been predicated on holding Osama bin Laden responsible for the suicide hijackings. The article continues:

The FBI has not made any arrests because the group members entered the country legally in recent years and have not been involved in illegal activities since they arrived, the officials said.

Government officials say they do not know why the cells are here, what their purpose is or whether their members are planning attacks. One official even described their presence as possibly benign, though others have a more sinister interpretation and give assurances that measures are in place to protect the public.

Here the mind boggles: amid a nationwide dragnet, with hundreds of Arab-Americans and Muslim-Americans rounded up and questioned for no other reason than their national origin and religion, the FBI tells the principal daily newspaper in the nations capital that it has not arrested known collaborators of Osama bin Laden because they have done nothing wrong since they arrived in the US. Their presence may even be benign, an astonishing adjective to use after the murder of nearly 3,000 people.

The Post article was written jointly by Bob Woodward and Walter Pincus, a fact which adds to its significance. Woodward needs no introduction to those familiar with the Watergate scandal. He was the recipient of the most famous leak in US history, obtaining inside information about Nixons actions in Watergate from a source Woodward dubbed Deep Throat, never identified but believed to be a top official in the national security apparatus. Walter Pincus is a national-security reporter for the Post, covering the CIA and Pentagon. He worked as a CIA operative in the 1960s, as a member of the National Student Association, a fact which was only revealed two decades later.

An article by these two individuals, given the prominence of front-page publication in the Washington Post, should be understood as a semiofficial hint by the US intelligence services that their relationship with Osama bin Laden is considerably more complex than that presented in the propaganda which now dominates the media.
Part one | Part two | Part three | Part four

This series has reviewed evidence that US intelligence agencies had ample advance information about the September 11 attacks, from specific details of the methods and the likely targets to the identities of a number of the hijackers, including the alleged principal organizer, Mohammed Atta. There are other troubling and unresolved issues, such as the failure to scramble air defense fighters in time to intercept any of the jetliners.

From a political standpoint, however, there is a piece of evidence which outweighs all others in suggesting that the real story of September 11 has yet to be told: the refusal of the Bush administration and Congress to conduct any investigation into the terrorist attacks and the government response to them.

More than four months after the largest single act of mass murder ever to take place on US soil, there have been no congressional hearings, no investigating commission has been announced, and calls for such a panel have been largely ignored. Even internal FBI investigations have been shelved. This inaction is extraordinary and has no legitimate political explanation. It stinks of political cover-up.

Republicans block bipartisan commission

The initial response in Congress to September 11 was to move toward the formation of an independent commission, with members appointed by the congressional leadership and the White House, to review the events leading up to the attack, including the obvious failure of US intelligence agencies to forestall or prevent the suicide hijackings. The House Intelligence Committee included such a proposal in its draft of the appropriations bill for US intelligence operations. Then the White House stepped in.

On October 6, the House of Representatives voted to approve the intelligence budget, with a huge increase in spending, while backing off from calls for an investigation into the unpreparedness revealed on September 11. The Republican House leadership moved to limit the commissions authority, putting forward an amendment to strip the commission of subpoena powers and the right to grant immunity to witnesses, and shifting its focus to an examination of structural impediments to the collection and analysis of intelligence information. In other words, instead of an investigation into the failure of the CIA and FBI to prevent September 11, the commissions mandate would be to propose broad new powers for the spy agencies.

The congressional Republicans were clearly carrying out the wishes of the Bush administration. Democrats declined to push for a roll-call vote on the issue, allowing the Republican plan to pass on a voice vote. The New York Times wrote: There is little appetite in Washington now for a postmortem on the governments failure to detect and defeat the plot.

Two weeks later, Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman declared in a television appearance on Meet the Press that they supported the establishment of an independent commission to investigate the September 11 attack. Lieberman cited, among other examples, the precedent of the special commission which investigated military preparedness after Pearl Harbor. The Democrat said he expected the Bush administration to support such a proposal.

But on November 21, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and his Republican counterpart, Robert Graham of Florida and Richard Shelby of Alabama, said that they would forego any investigation into the failure to predict or prevent the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks until sometime in 2002. House leaders also agreed to wait until the new year. Graham said it would not be appropriate to conduct such a probe during the war in Afghanistan, and Shelby described an investigation as a diversion. Both senators said they had been in contact with the White House, which agreed with their decision to put off any hearings.

During the same period the FBI moved to put an end to any serious criminal investigation into the suicide hijackings. The New York Times reported October 8: The Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have ordered agents across the country to curtail their investigation of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks so they can pursue leads that might prevent a second, possibly imminent, round of attacks, senior law enforcement officials said.

Shortly thereafter two senior FBI officials decided to retire. Neil J. Gallagher announced he would leave his position as head of the national security division. Thomas J. Pickard, the day-to-day chief of the investigation into the September 11 attacks, told the agency October 31 that he would also quit. Both retirements took effect November 30.

Pickard had handled many previous terrorism investigations for the FBI and was only 50 years old. His abrupt departure under wartime conditions is therefore all the more extraordinary. Under other circumstances the media might have denounced this as tantamount to desertion of duty, or conversely praised his ouster as an example of the FBI cleaning house after a disastrous failure. Instead, the retirement of the man principally responsible for the investigation into September 11 drew almost no media attention.

The Pearl Harbor precedent

The refusal to conduct an investigation into September 11 has been variously justified on the grounds that such a probe would be inappropriate in wartime or that it would become an exercise in partisan finger-pointing.

As the experience of the Clinton administration showed, there is hardly any reluctance in todays Washington to engage in scapegoating and the use of investigations to fight out political differences. One can only imagine what the response of congressional Republicans would have been had September 11 occurred in 2000 instead of 2001. But as New York Times columnist R.W. Apple observed December 14, so far surprisingly few people inside government or out have been willing to accuse the agencies of falling down on the job. And there has been no chorus of voices calling for the head of George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence.

As for the argument that wartime precludes a major investigation, the Pearl Harbor precedent completely refutes it. Within a month of the attack, Roosevelt appointed a commission headed by Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts to investigate the conduct of military officers at Pearl Harbor. The commission took testimony, issued its findings and had the two commanding officers at Pearl Harbor censured, ending their careers, without the slightest detriment to the US war effort.

If it was possible for the US government to conduct an investigation while engaged in an unprecedented military mobilization against two powerful adversaries, imperial Japan and Nazi Germany, why is it impossible today, when the supposed enemy is a small band of terrorists based in the poorest country in the world?

The White House and its apologists made heavy use of the precedent of World War II to justify Bushs issuance of an executive order to try alleged terrorists before secret military tribunals, citing the case in which Roosevelt approved a military tribunal to deal with eight captured German saboteurs. But they ignore the example of World War II when it comes to an investigation into the supposed sneak attack of September 11.

(The example of the Roosevelts tribunals is perhaps inadvertently revealing, however, since he ordered the closed-door trial not because of military necessity in wartime, but because top intelligence and military officials faced political embarrassment. Two of the eight saboteurs turned themselves in to the authorities after they arrived in the US, but the FBI initially refused to believe their account, terming their first telephone contact a crank call. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover wanted to conceal this negligence, while the War Department wanted to keep quiet about the ease with which the eight had been landed in Florida and Long Island by German U-boatsa fact obvious to the Nazi high command, but unknown to the American public.)

A new push for an investigation

On December 20, two months after their initial comments, McCain and Lieberman unveiled legislation to establish a bipartisan 14-member commission of inquiry modeled on the Warren Commission or the Pearl Harbor investigation. Four members would be selected by Bush, and ten more by congressional leaders of both parties. McCain suggested former senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman as possible co-chairmen, since they chaired a previous commission which predicted in 1999 that in a future terrorist attack Americans will likely die on American soil, possibly in large numbers.

McCain said that he and Lieberman had gone public with their plan because there is resistance inside all of these agencies to an independent investigation.

Explaining why a joint investigation involving both the executive and legislative branches was necessary, McCain said, Neither the administration nor Congress is capable of conducting a thorough, nonpartisan, independent inquiry into what happened on September 11.

Anne Womack, a White House spokeswoman, gave a noncommittal response to the proposals, repeating the Bush administrations excuse for inaction. We look forward to reviewing them, she said. Right now, the president is focused on fighting the war on terrorism.

The New York Times, in reporting the new calls for an independent investigation, said that for Democrats, a senior Congressional aide said, the governments confused response to the anthrax sent in letters to Senators Tom Daschle, Democrat of South Dakota, and Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, had hit home in the Senate and prompted more interest in a thorough examination of the government, including its apparent lack of plans to fight bioterrorism.

We are entitled to interpret this Aesopian language in the light of what we know about the anthrax attacks, which involved highly potent spores obtained from a secret US Army germ warfare program. The anthrax attacks were an attempt to destroy the congressional Democratic leadership. This is recognized by some of the Democrats, and likely McCain as well, impelling them to make this very tentative and cautious rejoinder.

It would be foolish to place any confidence in such half-hearted steps. The history of Democratic Party responses to state provocations and attacks on democratic rights shows a steady downward curve over the past quarter century: from the limited exposures of Watergate and the Church commission into CIA and FBI crimes in 1973-1976, to the failure to break through Reagan administration stonewalling over the Iran-Contra affair in 1987, to prostration in the face of the right-wing campaign to destabilize the Clinton administration, which culminated in impeachment.

Provocation and war

The information summarized in this series represents only facts made public in the US and international media. The public does not have access to the far more voluminous data, based on electronic intercepts, secret surveillance and other sources, which was available to the entire American intelligence apparatus during the period leading up to September 11. But even this limited selection demonstrates the falsity of US claims that the World Trade Center was an unforeseeable surprise attack.

In examining any crime, a central question must be who benefits? The principal beneficiaries of the destruction of the World Trade Center are in the United States: the Bush administration, the Pentagon, the CIA and FBI, the weapons industry, the oil industry. It is reasonable to ask whether those who have profited to such an extent from this tragedy contributed to bringing it about.

Those who believe it is inconceivable that the US government could carry out such an action would be well advised to learn from history. In nearly every war since the United States first emerged as a world power a century ago, the ruling class has seized on events or atrocities of a similar kind to overcome the instinctive reluctance of the American people to become involved in overseas conflicts.

In some instances the casus belli was wholly fabricated, as in the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident which led to passage of a congressional resolution authorizing massive US intervention in Vietnam. Or the pretext may have been an accidentthe explosion that destroyed the battleship Maine in Havana harbor in 1898, which set the stage for the Spanish-American War. But in the majority of cases the event chosen to trigger war was subject to a degree of manipulation behind the scenes by the US government.

The sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 was the foreseeable result of the Wilson administrations decision to allow passenger liners to carry arms shipments for the British-French side in World War I. When a German submarine torpedoed the ship, with the loss of 1,200 lives, the resulting public outrage helped fuel US entry into the war. Pearl Harbor likewise was foreseen by the Roosevelt administrationif not the specific date and location, certainly the likelihood of a preemptive Japanese attackonce the US cut off all shipments of oil and scrap metal to Japan in the summer of 1941.

A cruder case of manipulation is the August 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, which became the occasion for the large-scaleand seemingly permanentdeployment of American troops and warplanes in the Persian Gulf and Arabian peninsula.

Throughout the 1980s, Saddam Hussein was a de facto military ally of the United States, receiving US intelligence information and US-approved weapons shipments to aid his war against Iran. After Iran was compelled to accept a cease-fire in 1988 largely favorable to Iraq, the main US (and Saudi) concern was to prevent Baghdad, with its battle-tested million-man army, from dominating the Persian Gulf.

A series of conflicts ensued, largely provoked by Kuwait. The oil-rich emirate demanded immediate repayment of billions in war loans to Iraq, while at the same time draining oil from the Rumaila field, which lies largely on the Iraqi side of the border, thus putting Iraq in a severe financial squeeze. In retaliation, Saddam Hussein engaged in saber-rattling declarations, describing Kuwait as the lost nineteenth province of Iraq, stolen from the country by British imperialism.

The US response to this conflict was notably reserved. In her now-famous meeting with Saddam Hussein the month before the Iraqi invasion, US Ambassador April Glaspie declared that Iraqs dispute with Kuwait was a matter for those two to resolve for themselves, with no role for the United States. Meanwhile, on the orders of Colin Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Norman Schwarzkopf drew up plans for a massive US military intervention in the Persian Gulf aimed against Iraq. War-gaming of this plan was completed in July 1990, within days of the Glaspie-Hussein meeting.

There is ample reason to believe that the US tacitly encouraged an Iraqi attack so as to provide a pretext for smashing the Iraqi military and realizing a long-desired goal of US foreign policy, the establishment of a dominant American military position in the oil-rich Persian Gulf. In the same way, the Bush administration has used the World Trade Center catastrophe as the opportunity for deploying American military forces in Central Asia and the Caspian basin, a region of vast untapped oil reserves which is expected to become the Persian Gulf of the twenty-first century.

US officials were quoted after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait to the effect that they had not thought that Saddam Hussein would seize the whole country. In other words, they encouraged his appetites, expecting only a border conflict which would bring the US in as an arbiter and thus strengthen its role in the Gulf region. A similar miscalculation may have been involved in the September 11 hijackings, whose consequences were far more devastating than might have been expected.

It is not possible to determine, based on the facts currently available, the exact degree of advance knowledge the American government possessed about the World Trade Center catastrophe. But the question deserves the most thorough investigation.

Alternative explanationsthat the FBI and CIA were guilty of ineptitude so spectacular that it amounts to criminal negligencedo not place the US government in a much better light. The American people are being asked to give their blind trust for an unlimited and open-ended campaign of military action by a government which either permitted, or proved incapable of preventing, the slaughter of thousands of its own citizens.
Cynically claiming it was defending jobs, the Stalinist General Confederation of Labor (CGT) union joined far right protests against the Jungle refugee camp last Monday in Calais. The union bureaucracy thus brought its support to neo-fascist anti-immigrant propaganda and to the Socialist Party (PS) government, which aims to dismantle the Jungle to divide the workers with nationalist hatreds and disorient their opposition to PS wars and austerity measures.

After several protests in northern France and in Paris, the Great rally of the Calais region, a self-proclaimed apolitical citizens movement, carried out an action on September 5, cutting off the A16 highway with trucks and tractors.

The protest brought together employers groups, neo-fascist unions and the CGT on an anti- immigrant basis. The Calais Federation of Enterprises and Businesses, far-right police unions, the national trucking association, farmers groups and the CGT came together to demand the dismantling of the Jungle and an end to pressure from migrant flows.

A CGT leaflet circulated on the ports in Calais, calling for a general mobilization, supposedly to save the port, which was in grave danger. The leaflet proposed forming a human chain along the port and joining farmers, businessmen and truckers to block highways with go-slow operation to block the roads. The CGT thus proposed to carry out exactly the actions also being advocated by the Great rally of the Calais region.

Contacted by the news site Mediapart, the CGT secretary for the Calais port and docks, Herve Caux, initially responded that the leaflet was apolitical, not from the CGT. Asked later by journalists from this site about the presence of CGT members at the protest, he suddenly cut off the interview, declaring that he would not reply to Mediapart .

The day after joining this far-right protest, feeling itself exposed, the CGT published a statement in L'Humanite, the French Stalinist daily. The purpose of this statement was to cover its reactionary policy and to defend itself from criticism of its political alignment with the far right. The statement falsely presented the CGT as an anti-imperialist ally of the migrants, while also echoing media denunciations of their struggle to reach Britain.

It declared, For several years, the people of the Middle East and East Africa have suffered from multiple conflicts, often provoked and manipulated in the capitalist interests of great powers like France, England, the United States, which incidentally deprived these peoples and their countries of wealth, leaving them in misery, poverty, and disarray. Today, in the Calais region, 10,000 refugees that have fled these conflicts live in inhuman conditions that are not worthy of the land of the Rights of Man. Each day, they put their life in peril to try to reach England, which is unjustly presented as an El Dorado, but in fact is full of cheap, exploited labor.

The CGTs strategyto posture as an internationalist, anti-imperialist organization while joining far-right demonstrationsis a disgusting political lie.

In fact, the CGT and its political allies defend imperialist wars and the anti-immigrant policies of the PS government, which it helped elect in 2012. The New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) and the Left Front backed the proxy wars waged in Libya and Syria by the NATO powers, allied with Islamist fighters. These wars sowed chaos and destruction across the region, driving tens of millions of people from their homes and claiming hundreds of thousands of lives.

The CGT itself joined the NPA and the Left Front in helping the media promote these wars. On 5 December, 2012, as the Pentagon was preparing to admit that its opposition militias in Syria included terrorist forces tied to Al Qaeda, the CGT signed a statement alongside other French trade union federations to applaud the NATO intervention in Syria.

Focusing its fire only on the bloodthirsty Syrian regime, the CGT called for a stronger NATO intervention, presenting what it now acknowledges are the capitalist geo-strategic interests of the imperialist powers as forces for democracy in Syria. The unions, according to this statement published in L'Humanite, call upon the international community to redouble its efforts and its determination to force human rights to be respected and end this barbarism.

This reactionary class orientation is shared all the way up to the highest governing bodies of the CGT.

Asked about the far-right protest in Calais on September 7, CGT General Secretary Philippe Martinez defended the participation of CGT members in it: Yes, there is a protest that raises some questions in Calais, but the reasons that one or other person has for going are not the same. Now, some people are exploiting it to stir up hatreds. This story has been going on for 14 years. I want to simply criticize the attitude of the employers, who blackmail workers and say that if the Jungle is not dismantled, their businesses will close.

By stating only that diverging views exist inside the protest without criticizing any of them, Martinez effectively hides the political collaboration that exists between the CGT and various neo-fascist groups that carry out aggressive propaganda and violent actions in Calais. He thus covers up the reactionary class role of the CGT.

What the CGTs participation in a neo-fascist protest alongside employers groups demonstrates is its profound hostility to the international working class. Its longstanding nationalist orientation, inherited from the Stalinist French Communist Party (PCF), to a so-called Union of the Left around the PS, has been transformed over the decades since the Stalinist restoration of capitalism in the USSR in 1991. By blocking struggles against various governments, particularly of the PS, it presided over the destruction of its own base in the working class.

Cut off from workers who increasingly refused to join it in the work places, forced to seek financing from the state and employers groups for 95 percent of its budget, the French union bureaucracy has become an empty shellpiloted by the ruling class to control and strangle workers struggles.

The fact that the CGT is now organizing joint actions with the far right and employers groups marks a major step in the reactionary evolution of the affluent social layers from which its bureaucracy is drawn. These social layers are organically incapable of expressing any opposition to the PS government and its police state policies. In fact, they are ready to support its most ruthless policies, as their participation in the neo-fascist protest in Calais makes clear.

The treatment of foreign workers has time and again exposed the nationalist and anti-working class character of the CGTs policies. In 2009, undocumented workers occupied a trade union hall in Paris to demand that the CGT organize a struggle to regularize their status and get them papers. They were violently expelled by riot police units, whom the CGT had called to intervene, based on the close collaboration that now exists between the union bureaucracies and state security forces.
Political prisoner and whistleblower Chelsea Manning began a hunger strike on Friday in military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where she is currently serving a 35-year sentence under deplorable conditions.

Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning, is the former US Army specialist who was the source of major releases by WikiLeaks, including the Collateral Murder video that shows a US Army gunship mowing down civilians in Baghdad, the Iraq War Logs, the Guantanamo Bay files, the Afghan War Diary, and a cache of hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables shedding light on the machinations of American imperialism.

Manning explained in a written statement that she was protesting the discriminatory treatment that she, as a transgendered woman, has received while in prison.

I need help. I am not getting any, Manning wrote. My [requests have] only been ignored, delayed, mocked, given trinkets and lip service by the prison, the military, and this administration.

Despite announcing that she was transgendered in 2013, shortly after her sentencing, Manning has been forced to serve her sentence in an all-male prison and to cut her hair short to meet military standards. She is demanding written assurances that she will receive her prescribed medications for her gender dysphoria.

Prison officials have routinely blocked her access to treatment such as hormone injections, prompting her lawyers to file a lawsuit in 2014. This has contributed to severe and ongoing clinical depression, for which she has not received regular care, and which led Manning to attempt suicide in early July.

I was driven to suicide by the lack of care for my gender dysphoria that I have been desperate for. I didnt get any. I still havent gotten any. I needed help. Yet, instead I am now being punished for surviving my attempt.

The government responded to Mannings attempted suicide by filing additional charges; she now faces the prospect of indefinite solitary confinement, reclassification into maximum security and an additional nine years tacked onto her sentence, with no possibility of parole.

Today, I have decided that I am no longer going to be bullied by this prisonor by anyone within the U.S. government, Manning concluded. Until I am shown dignity and respect as a human again, I shall endure this pain before me. I am prepared for this mentally and emotionally. I expect that this ordeal will last for a long time. Quite possibly until my permanent incapacitation or death. I am ready for this. I need help. Please, give me help.

Manning's increasingly desperate situation in prison is the direct result of malicious persecution by the US government. It is no exaggeration to say that the Obama administration is seeking to hound Manning to her death.

Since her initial arrest and imprisonment in 2010, the military and Obama administration have been determined to make an example of her, through an unending campaign of torture and harassment, as a deterrent against future whistleblowers.

For the first ten months, Manning was placed in solitary confinement for twenty-three and a half hours per day, under the pretext of being placed on suicide watch, and subjected to routine humiliation through daily strip searches.

Last year, Manning was threatened with indefinite solitary confinement for minor violations of prison rules, such as sweeping food onto the floor, possession of unauthorized reading material and possession of a tube of expired toothpaste (officially, medical misuse).

According to ChelseaManning.org, the charges were retaliation against Manning over an incident in which she had asked for a lawyer after being confronted by a prison guard in the mess hall. Manning was later given the lesser punishment of 21 days of restriction from recreational areas or going outdoors, after a public petition in her defense attracted more than 100,000 signatures.

The retaliation against Manning after her suicide attempt in July, which includes, once again, the threat of indefinite solitary confinement, is particularly vindictive. Solitary confinement, which has been deemed a form of torture by the United Nations, has been linked by scientific studies to significantly higher rates of suicide among prison inmates.

A 2014 study in the American Journal of Public Health found that more than 70 percent of all suicides in California prisons occurred among inmates placed in isolation. A lawyer for Manning from the ACLU explained that her big fear is formal isolation. She relies on access to phone and written communication. If that were cut off, Id be even more worried.

Mannings principled and courageous stand in bringing to public attention the crimes of American imperialism has earned her the respect and admiration of millions throughout the world. At the same time, she has earned the hatred of those in the state apparatus who understand that her decision to risk prosecution in order to expose their crimes is only an initial expression of the growth of anti-war sentiment and social opposition more broadly. This sentiment is growing, particularly among those of Mannings generation who have come of age in the last fifteen years under the shadow of the massive expansion of American militarism and assault on democratic rights under the framework of the so-called War on Terror.

Significantly, Mannings hunger strike has elicited a stony silence from the Obama administration and most sections of the American establishment media. Neither the Defense Department nor the Justice Department, which is conducting the retaliatory investigation after Mannings suicide, issued statements on the matter, nor did either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, the two main candidates in the current presidential election. The New York Times and the Washington Post, which traditionally set the agenda for the rest of the American media, ran only brief wire reports.

By contrast, the same day that Manning announced her hunger strike, sections of the media were busy manufacturing a new round of provocations against WikiLeaks, on the basis of an anonymous leak from a criminal investigation launched against the journalistic organization by the federal government, accusing it of censoring financial transactions between Syrian and Russian banks in its release of The Syria Files.

The original report from the Dailydot web site also accused WikiLeaks of issuing veiled threats against them for publishing the story. The slanderous article is in line with attempts to portray WikiLeaks release of internal Democratic National Committee emails as being masterminded by Russian President Vladimir Putin in order to influence the US presidential elections.
On Friday, thousands of federal public sector workers participated in a 24-hour strike called by the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU). The industrial action was part of an ongoing dispute over wages and conditions that has left 100,000 public sector workers without an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement, or wage rise, for almost three years.

Despite calling the strike, the union did everything it could to prevent a broader mobilisation of public sector workers, and any discussion of the political issues they confront. It held a series of small protests outside the offices of Liberal-National MPs, which were limited to grovelling appeals for the government to initiate bargaining negotiations with the union and attempts to present the Labor Party as an alternative.

In New South Wales, the countrys most populous state, the union held a single protest outside Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbulls office in Sydney. The event was attended by as few as 50 people, many of them officials and staff members of the union. There were no speeches. Instead, the union officials posed for media photos, and led chants such as come on Malcolm, come on, and calls for the government to end this bargaining mess.

Protests of a similar size and character were held in capital cities across the country. In Queensland, the union held a forum with prominent Labor MPs, including Wayne Swan, providing them with a platform to posture as opponents of the Coalition governments cuts to the public sector.

As treasurer in the Labor government of Kevin Rudd, Swan oversaw the introduction of an additional 2 percent efficiency dividend in 2008 on top of the 1.25 percent maintained during the previous Liberal-National government. Efficiency dividends are an annual funding reduction to the public sector, that have been the basis for the gutting of jobs and working conditions over the past three decades. That increase, and the ensuing measures by the Rudd and Gillard Labor governments led to the destruction of up to 14,500 federal public sector jobs.

The actions of the Liberal-National government are a continuation of these bipartisan policies. In addition to imposing an annual 2 percent cap on pay rises in enterprise agreements, the government is spearheading the elimination of a host of longstanding working conditions.

The latest agreement presented to workers at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), for instance, reportedly aims to remove protections against outsourcing and casualisation. It also abolishes clauses mandating consultation with staff and the union prior to workplace changes, cuts the rights of workers who are made redundant, limits access to miscellaneous leave and imposes a non-negotiable Annual Performance Increase.

Workers have voted down similar agreements by large majorities in the Australian Communication and Media Authority, the Australian Tax Office, the Department of Immigration, and in other areas of the public sector.

The union, which has repeatedly made clear that it is not opposed to the government demands, is fearful that the overhaul of existing workplace arrangements threatens its own role in bargaining away the jobs and conditions of the workers it falsely claims to represent.

On Friday morning, CPSU national secretary Nadine Flood declared that the government had ridiculously claimed the CPSU is standing in the way of a resolution but history shows the opposite. Flood stated that, This union has successfully finalised deals for more than two decades with prime ministers of all shapes, from Bob Hawke to John Howard.

The references to Hawke and Howard were another signal that the union is prepared to impose deep cuts on public sector workers. It was the Hawke Labor government that first introduced efficiency dividends, which have been one of the central mechanisms for the destruction of 40 percent of public sector jobs since 1983. The Howard Liberal-National government oversaw the destruction of almost 30,000 public sector jobs in its first three years of office from 199699.

Flood went on to call for the government to follow the lead set by successful major employers by treating their workers with respect and offering them a fair and reasonable deal. Her comment was a veiled reference to the close collaboration between unions and the corporate elite in pushing through sweeping attacks on working conditions.

The unions have played the decisive role in assisting in the shutdown of the car industry by the end of 2017, having overseen the decimation of hundreds of thousands of industrial jobs. At BlueScope Steel, the Australian Workers Union pushed through a three-year wage freeze last October, in a move hailed by the Australian Financial Review as groundbreaking. Across the retail, hospitality and cleaning sectors, unions have struck secret deals with major corporations stripping the lowest-paid workers of millions of dollars in wages.

The government responded to the CPSUs 24-hour walkout by indicating that it will press ahead with its assault on public sector workers, with Employment Minister Michaela Cash denouncing the strike as absurd. An article in the Sunday Telegraph yesterday spelled out the agenda of the financial elite, declaring that taxpayers are being forced to shell out for the conditions of workers in the public sector.

Fridays pathetic protests and the unions entreaties to the government underscore the need for workers to strike out on a new path, including through the establishment of independent rank-and-file committees to prosecute an industrial and political counter-offensive against the governments attacks.

The WSWS spoke to several workers who attended Fridays protest in Sydney.

Steve from the Bureau of Meteorology said: Our agreement expired in 2014 and so weve been stuck in a three-year pay freeze. Even if we get a new EBA weve been told there will no back pay. This means a real wage cut. At the same were being told that we have to give back working conditions, lower rates, worse working hours and cuts in redundancy payments.

About 70 percent of the membership at the Bureau of Meteorology have consistently rejected the enterprise agreement [EBA] offers from the department and the government. They wont accept the departments enterprise offer because they know its just not fair.

David from the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (DAWR) said: All were doing is fighting for a reasonable wage and to protect our conditions. The government says it has no money but they magically found $800 million to purchase two US ships for the navy and theyre going to spend even more in the future. Theres no money for education and for health but always plenty for the military.

The purchasing power of our wages diminishes the longer this dispute goes on but Im going to dig in my heels and make sure that everybody I knoweven my non-union friends workto keep rejecting the management offers.

Im a liferIve worked in the public service since I left university in 1998but theres been significant changes to our conditions during this time. Ive seen conditions deteriorate in every sector of the workforceteachers, nurseseveryone is being hit. Labor introduced the annual efficiency dividend and its getting worse every year with more staff cuts. If the current enterprise offer gets through management will demand more and more and well have no say.

Im an imports officer and now have to work in exports. This means my previous area of expertise has to be put aside so I can cover employment shortfalls in exports. Were being spread too thinly and its crazy. Theyre trying to get blood out of stone.

Management cuts jobs and then hires the same people as casuals. Part-timers are being asked to work longer hours instead of employing the right numbers of staff. Its ridiculous and its not about saving money.

Jac, from the Department of Human Services (DHS), told the WSWS: Ive voted against all the previous offers because they attack our conditions and yet the heads of departments refuse to conduct any serious negotiations. Were taken for granted and just not appreciated by the department and the government.

Ive worked at DHS for four years and every year were being asked to work harder and for longer hours. Theres no discussion or negotiations. Six months ago our work target was unilaterally increased. Theres a lot of unhappiness, anger and frustration in the workplace. People keep voting against the offers but I think we need more action because the government is just not listening.
The Socialist Equality Party and the WSWS Teacher Newsletter call on Detroit teachers to reject the contract presented by the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT). The DFT and its parent union, the American Federation of Teachers, are working closely with the Detroit Public Schools and the political establishment to do whatever they can to prevent a struggle by teachers in defense of their conditions and public education as a whole.

The tentative six-month-to-one-year contract, the highlights of which were unveiled last week, is an insult to teachers. Amidst a frontal assault on public education nationally, the unions are demanding that teachers accept low pay, overcrowded classrooms, unsafe/unhealthy buildings and more school closures.

The union executives are determined to prevent the outbreak of a struggle that would draw attention to the anti-education policies of the Obama administration or disrupt their campaign for the election of Hillary Clinton. They are particularly worried about the explosive consequences of a fight by Detroit teachers, who demonstrated their readiness to fight in defiance of the union repeatedly over the course of the last year.

The attempt by the DFT/AFT leaders to package this rotten deal as a no concessions contract is a lie. Teachers will still not receive repayment for their mandatory interest-free Termination Incentive Plan loans of $10,000 to the former Detroit Public Schools district. Their step increases will continue to be frozen, unless Detroit workers can be blackmailed into agreeing to pay higher taxes, along the lines of a similar scheme backed by the Cleveland Teachers Union.

Nor were teachers impressed as interim president Ivy Bailey dangled the prospect of miserly bonuseswhich she claimed was real moneyin front of them. The payouts will be less than $2,000, for those that qualify, and entirely eaten up by the yet-to-be-negotiated giveaways on health care and the cost of union dues. Such calculations do not even include the hundreds of dollars that educators routinely contribute annually out of their own pockets for classroom supplies or to help children in need.

Instead of catching up to pay levels from a decade ago, the contract provides that some teachers can work hardertaking on an additional classfor a productivity bonus, and some will qualify for a federally-funding merit award of $1,000. None of these measures constitute real pay increases.

Even more critically, the tentative contract accepts the dictatorial financial framework which is being used to destroy public education in the city of Detroit. Behind the emergency manager and the Financial Review Commission (FRC) stand the policies of both the state and federal government insisting on charter schools, merit pay and privatization. The FRC, the courts and the attorney general can revoke, renege or renegotiate anything in the contract.

Teachers must mobilize for a fight back, but this immediately raises critical political issues. A strike would bring the full force of the courts and government to bear upon workers. All of these state agencies have made clear their determination to criminalize the struggles of educators and to implement privatization policies in line with those of the Obama administration and both big business parties.

Teachers stand at a crossroads. Detroit and the fate of its public schools are a test case nationally. It is necessary to make a political evaluation of the past years sickouts, the role of the DFT/AFT, the intervention of the state and federal governments, and the policies of the Democrats and Republicans. Only with a new perspective can teachers show a way forward and mobilize the full power of the working class in the defense of public education.

In this struggle, the unions stand on the opposite side of the barricades. The DFT/AFT is a business, run by well-heeled operatives like AFT President Randi Weingarten, who brings home more than a half million dollars a year. In collaboration with emergency managers and local and state governments, the DFT has worked to suppress the struggle of Detroit educators, forcing through unprecedented cuts in pay, gargantuan loans to the District and cuts in health care.

The DFT/AFT actively opposed the courageous campaign of sickouts independently organized by teachers last year. Weingarten, Bailey et al. deliberately sought to cut teachers off from their allies among workers and students, using racial politics and a demagogic appeal to local control to confuse and divide workers.

This was capped off with the DFT/AFTs support to Governor Snyders plan to dissolve the 174-year old public school system and replace it with one more conducive to privatization. The reorganization legislation included provisions to strengthen the anti-strike provisions of Michigan employment law. Far from opposing this legal bludgeon, the DFT welcomed it, anticipating that it could be used to threaten the militant rank-and-file the next time they mounted an independent struggle.

These reactionary policies in turn have emboldened the ruling class. Michigan Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof and Speaker of the House Kevin Cotter are now asserting the states right to close those DPSCD schools on the priority list at the end of this school year. This could mean up the closure of 47 schools, nearly half of the district!

Teachers cannot allow their struggle to be subordinated to either the Democratic Party or the Republicans. There has been no other administration that has done more to promote charter schools, penalize educators and encourage the growth of the privatization than Obamas, and Clinton will only escalate the attack.

The Obama administration directly intervened on behalf of the Snyder legislation to dissolve the Detroit Public Schools, with Education Secretary John B. King demanding quick passage. The response of the AFT? To organize charter schools and keep their dues base up. The AFT/DFT have concluded a dirty deal in Detroit, well aware that their seat at the table depends on devoting their full-time energies to electing Democratic Party functionaries.

Hillary Clintoneven more than Obamais tied to the Wall Street hedge funds seeking to exploit the $1.3 trillion education industry. Her decades-long connections with Bill Gates, for-profit Laureate University, charters and privatizers is an open secret.

As for the Republicans, Donald Trumps $20 billion block grant proposal to defund education will result, according to Weingarten, in the loss of 300,000 jobs. Yet this is virtually the same number of education jobs that have already been eliminated under the Obama administration, with the AFTs collaboration.

In order to mobilize the strength of the working class behind educators and children, teachers must break with the two parties controlled by the financial elite and begin organizing independent rank-and-file committees to defend public education on a socialist program.

Such rank-and-file committees must take the initiative to mobilize the Detroit-area working classincluding autoworkers and city workers victimized in the state-orchestrated Grand Bargainin defense of public education, jobs and social services.

Billions of dollars must be poured into the education system. Instead of overhauling the nations nuclear weapons as war hawk Hillary Clinton is advocating, those funds must be used to begin the construction of new schools, provide good wages and benefits to all school workers, and make all education, from pre-K through advanced degrees, free and available to all.

Public education is not compatible with a society in which all decisions are based on the increasingly rapacious and militaristic interests of a parasitic caste of financiers. It is capitalism that must go, not public education.

Come hear Socialist Equality Party presidential candidate Jerry White speak on the political issues facing teachers and the entire working class at the SEP election meeting on September 22 at 7:00 pm. The meeting will be held at Wayne State University, State Hall Room 234, 5143 Cass Avenue in Detroit. More information at sep2016.com.
Uzbekistan President Islam Abduganiyevich Karimov, one of the longest-standing ex-Soviet heads of state, died on Friday, September 2 at the age of 78. Under the constitution, Nigmatilla Yuldashev, head of the upper house of parliament, was to become the acting president until elections are held. However, on Thursday, Yuldashev declined to assume the office, allowing Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev to take over instead.

According to Russian media outlet IA Regnum, Yuldashev explained his decision to step down by saying that he does not have sufficient experience in managing a state, and it would be better to consider the question of the candidacy of the countrys Prime Minister Mirziyoyev in the interests of the people. A unanimous vote of both houses of parliament approved Mirziyoyevs appointment, and members of all parliamentary political parties spoke out in favor of him.

Elections are to be held within three months. A Facebook page on the election campaign indicates three candidates: Mirziyoyev, Yuldashev, and Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Azimov.

Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic, borders on Afghanistan and is located between China and the Caspian Sea. The Central AsiaChina gas pipeline, which supplies China from Turkmenistan, passes through it. Because of its geostrategic location, the country also has the potential, if the necessary infrastructure is built, to supply gas to Europe and thereby reduce the regions dependence on Russian supplies.

On September 2, both US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued statements on Karimovs death. Obamas remarks conspicuously lack the word condolences or any other vocabulary ordinarily associated with mourning, instead asserting that the United States reaffirms its support for the people of Uzbekistan.

United States Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Central Asia Daniel Rosenblum visited Uzbekistan on September 5, but, according to press reports, met only with his counterparts at the Uzbekistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Komilov.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev attended Karimovs funeral on Saturday. Putin went to Samarkand and laid a bouquet of roses on the dead autocrats grave on September 6. While there, he met with Mirziyoyev, prior to the announcement of Mirziyoyevs appointment as president.

Karimov was an emblematic representative of the corrupt Soviet bureaucracy, which utilized its position during the restoration of capitalism to acquire vast power and privileges in the post-Soviet world. Presiding over an impoverished society in which the World Bank estimated in 2010 that less than half of the working-age population was employed, Karimov maintained his rule with the use of brute force and by maneuvering between the United States and Russia.

Having begun his career as a design engineer, he eventually became an economic policy bureaucrat, serving as the republics finance minister in 1983, chairman of the Uzbek state planning agency in 1986, and First Secretary of the Uzbekistan Communist Party Central Committee in 1989.

In 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Uzbek SSR elected Karimov as its first President. After initially speaking out against the proposed dissolution of the Soviet Union, in August 1991 he declared Uzbek independence. Soon afterwards, the Uzbekistan Communist Party broke away from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and reestablished itself as the Peoples Democratic Party of Uzbekistan, of which Karimov became chairman.

Shortly thereafter he vastly expanded Uzbekistans security services, as part of the consolidation of his political power. Having pardoned a whole number of Uzbek officials convicted of corruption in the 1980s, he was able to solidify his relations with powerful regional clans that function as a sort of unofficial aristocracy in the country.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991 and the holding of national elections three days later, Karimov worked to destroy his political opponents. On January 16, he ordered security forces to fire upon an opposition demonstration called in support of Karimovs rival in the recent elections, the poet Muhammad Salih. Since then, the Uzbekistan government has prevented the emergence of any lawful challenger, although there remain powerful local clans as well as religious organizations in the country that have a long and complicated history of relations with the government. Over the course of his rule, Karimov was reelected on numerous occasions with super-majorities in elections determined to be undemocratic by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

In 2001, Karimov became a key participant in Washingtons War on Terror. His ongoing campaign against Islamic fundamentalism in Uzbekistan was the basis of a budding relationship between his government and the White House. A permanent United States military base, which was used for operations in neighboring Afghanistan, was established in Karshi-Khanabad. It hosted over 1,500 US troops.

In 2005, however, Karimov executed a turn in Uzbekistans foreign policy. In May of that year, a protest erupted in the city of Andijan, located in the countrys east. The government squelched the demonstration with violence, resulting in deaths ranging in estimate from 187 to 1,500. Initially blaming the unrest on Islamic fundamentalists, Tashkent identified a relationship between the Andijan protests and the US-sponsored color revolutions that had recently brought down governments in Georgia, Ukraine, and neighboring Kyrgyzstan.

Shifting its orientation more towards Moscow, Karimovs government demanded that the US close its base in Karshi-Khanabad within 180 days. Uzbekistan expanded its participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), established by Russia, China, and four of the Central Asian states in 2001. The country also expanded its economic ties with Russia, including the signing of deals with Russian energy giants Gazprom and Lukoil for the development of oil and gas reserves located on the Ustyurt Plateau.

In January 2006, Uzbekistan became a member of the Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC), a regional organization of ex-Soviet states aimed at economic integration, in which Russia played the leading role. In June of the same year, the country rejoined the Russia-dominated military alliance of post-Soviet states, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which it had left in 1999.

In response, Western governments and their supporters intensified their hypocritical denunciations of human rights violations in Uzbekistan. The European Union (EU) imposed sanctions on the country.

Despite the Uzbekistan governments efforts to restrict public access to information, reports by Human Rights Watch, the UN Human Rights Council, and other nongovernmental organizations have exposed systematic torture by police and security forces in Uzbekistan, the virtual ban on oppositional political organizations, official and unofficial media censorship, restrictions on religious freedoms, harassment and intimidation of human rights activists, child labor, and compulsory labor. According to the reports, all of this was going on long before 2005that is, when Tashkent was in alliance with Washington.

With the election of US President Obama and the partial lifting of EU sanctions in autumn 2008, Karimov rebalanced his foreign policy orientation back toward the United States. Uzbekistan left the EAEC and once again became a transit point for NATO materiel into Afghanistan. Karimov refused to ratify the treaty establishing the CSTOs Collective Rapid Reaction Forces in June 2009, and the country left the CSTO a second time in 2012.

Still, the United States has yet to reestablish a military base in Uzbekistan. Nor did Karimovs government support the ongoing US-led information and economic war against Russia. As a new leadership takes shape, that governments attitude toward the US-Russia standoff will attract heightened attention.
Striking nurses at Allina Health Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota gave a warm welcome to Socialist Equality Party presidential candidate Jerry White when he visited their picket line on Sunday afternoon. White expressed his solidarity with the striking nurses and explained how the fight to defend the right to health care required a socialist alternative to the for-profit health care system.

Nearly 5,000 nurses have been on strike at five hospitals in the St. Paul-Minneapolis area since Labor Day, September 5. They are opposing the hospital chains demands for sweeping health care concessionswhich will include sharply higher out-of-pocket costsand dangerously high patient-to-nurse ratios.

White spoke with nurses right after arriving in the Twin Cities, where he will be campaigning ahead of a public meeting at the University of Minnesota on Tuesday night.

The Minnesota Nurses Association was forced to call the strike even after it conceded to the companys major demands to replace four traditional union health care plans with a corporate plan. MNA officials, along with a federal mediator, tried to get some type of cosmetic concession from the company in order to sell the deal to the nurses but corporate management refused.

The board of directors of the so-called nonprofit company includes top executives from agribusiness giant General Mills and US Bank, the latter which is extracting millions in debt payments from Allina. Corporate management is looking to squeeze $10 million a year in cost savings from the nurses even as it spares no expense to hire strikebreakers to replace the embattled nurses.

How can they be nonprofit and make all this money? Tina, a striking nurse asked White. All throughout the country they are getting away with this. Its got to stop. She added, Theres not a winner on either side, referring to the Democratic and Republican candidates.

As a half-dozen strikers gathered around White to discuss these issues, he said both Clinton and Trump were committed to shoveling even more money into the hands of the financial aristocracy by accelerating the attack on health and pension benefits. He pointed to Clintons first efforts at health care reform in the 1990s, which were the basis of Obamas misnamed Affordable Care Act.

While Obamacare was presented as a step towards universal health care, he said, in fact it was drafted by the giant insurance, pharmaceutical and hospital monopolies to defend their profits. It has shifted health costs from the employers and the government onto workers and at the same time led to an ever-greater exploitation of health care workers, White said.

A patient who came onto the picket line with his Intravenous Drip said, I support the nurses who have treated me for years. Ive had five operations here. This is the richest country in the world and there should be socialized medicine. But neither candidate is for the people.

Here in the United States people work very hard and were having to work harder because the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. People should be rewarded for their hard work with socialized medicine.

Another striking nurse said, I drive 70 miles to work so I can get the health care plan. My husband is not well and Allina wants to control the health plan so they could review coverage four times a year in order to change and reduce the care.

Referring to the profit-driven character of the health industry, she said, Medical care has always been rationed out because it is a capitalistic system. It has always been a two- or three-tier system depending how much money you have. The hospital chains want to get the patients out of the beds as soon as possible to get more patients in and more money.

The MNA is opposed to any mobilization of health care workers to defeat Allina. It has kept another 7,000 nurses on the job at six other Twin Cities area hospitals even though their employers will impose similar attacks on them if the Allina strike is defeated.

Earlier in the day, a nurse at Hennepin County Hospital told White, I support the Allina nurses and think we should all be together. Allina wants to take away so much from the people who work the hardest for them. Nursing is a physical and emotional job. We provide health care and we should be healthy enough to take care of our patients.

Speaking to a group of Abbott Northwestern nurses, White said, Sometimes it is difficult for nurses or other public sector workers like teachers and firefighters who are so dedicated to the public to fully appreciate that the financial interests that dominate society do not in any shape or form share their compassion for human beings.

On the contrary, they look at patients as units, like school children in public schools that are being privatized. They really believe that people are living too long after retirement and they want to reduce life expectancy in order to grab their pensions and health benefits. And now these same corporate and financial criminalsbacked by Trump and Clintonwant new wars in order to grab more profits.

White explained that the MNAs promotion of the Democrats and their corporate campaign to appeal to the conscience of banking executives was worse than useless. The MNA and its parent union, the National Nurses United, are allied with the Democratic Party and participated in the political fraud of the Bernie Sanders campaign in order to contain opposition within the Democratic Party and smother it.

White urged nurses to take the battle into their own hands and fight to mobilize all hospital workers in the Twin Cities in joint action, referring to the great 1934 general strike in Minneapolis led by the Trotskyist movement. The SEP, he said, was running in the elections to build a mass political and socialist movement to put an end to capitalism, nationalize the banks and health care industry and put an end to war and inequality.

Jen, another nurse at Abbott, said nurses are no different than other people who work for wageswe dont have yachts and all the things executives and bankers have. Expressing her support for the SEPs call for mobilizing the entire working class behind Allina nurses, she said, Absolutely, health care is an issue for the general working class, and were not just fighting for us, we are fighting for everyone.

Referring to the unions promotion of the Democratic Party, Jen said, I saw through [US Congressman] Keith Ellison and the other Democratic party politicians from the beginning. When theres a camera on them, theyll sing about solidarity, but what is it all about for them? Money and self-promotion.
Wickremabahu Karunaratne, leader of the pseudo-left Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP), is shamelessly promoting the Sri Lankan governments attacks on the living conditions and democratic rights of workers and the poor.

Functioning as a propagandist for the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration, Karunaratne regularly holds media conferences and writes columns for the Colombo press critical of workers, students and farmers in struggle against the governments regressive social measures.

Karunaratne has been a close associate of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, leader of the right-wing United National Party for nearly two decades. The NSSP leader campaigned to oust former President Mahinda Rajapakse and install Maithripala Sirisena as president, claiming it to be a democratic revolution.

This was a blatant cover up. The democratic revolution was a US-sponsored regime-change operation to bring Sirisena to office in the January 8, 2015 presidential election. Having previously supported Rajapakses war against separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and his anti-democratic methods, Washington moved against him to end Colombos close relations with Beijing and align it with US war preparations against China.

As soon as he became president, Sirisena established the National Executive Council and appointed Karunaratne to the 13-member unelected body. Karunaratnes function was to provide the government with democratic credentials as it rapidly consolidated its pro-US foreign policy. Other council members included former president Chandrika Kumaratunga, ex-army commander Sarath Fonseka and leaders of the Sinhala chauvinist Jathika Hela Urumaya, the Tamil National Alliance and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).

Though the NEC no longer exists, Karunaratne remains a cheerleader for the government, justifying all its austerity measures and anti-democratic moves.

In a July 10 column for the weekly Sinhala-language Irida Lakbima, Karunaratne declared was no future for Sri Lanka, without freeing ourselves from the debt burden and unless we tighten our belts for a short period.

In order to repay debts borrowed at more than 8 percent interest, he continued, it was necessary to secure low-interest loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other institutions. This meant that Sri Lanka must show savings and an increase in the value added tax (VAT) introduced by Wickremesinghe cannot be altered significantly.

Karunaratne, in fact, simply repeated the phrases uttered by Wickremesinghe and Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake in parliament to justify the governments measures.

Confronted with a balance of payments deficit, falling exports and huge debts, the government obtained a $US1.5 billion stand-by loan from the IMF, pledging to implement its austerity agenda, including a VAT increase, cuts to education and health and the privatisation of state-owned enterprises. Wickremesinghe and his ministers declared that the IMF demands were the key to Sri Lankas future economic development.

Widespread protests erupted among workers, students and farmers against these attacks, as part of an upsurge by the working class internationally. While the Colombo government temporarily withdrew the VAT rise in the face of popular opposition, it is preparing to re-introduce tax increases with some cosmetic changes.

Karunaratnes call for workers and the poor to tighten belts is in line with the efforts of the trade unions and pseudo-lefts to contain and divert workers seeking to fight these measures.

At an August 25 press conference, the NSSP leader attacked students opposing the privatisation of education and, in particular, the establishment of the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine, a private medical college that charges exorbitant fees for its courses. He denounced the protests, declaring that it was a terrible campaign by some people and that some of the arguments are ridiculous.

The private sector had been able to intervene in Sri Lankan education for a long time, he said, and currently had freedom in all the levels. That is the situation today under the capitalist setup. While cynically paying lip service to socialismin the futureKarunaratne justified dismantling public education and opening opportunities to private investors.

We are against capitalism and fight for a socialist setup, he said, but at this moment we have to defend democratic rights within capitalism. In medicine there is also a market for education and therefore investors are interested  Even though this is bourgeois investment we are responsible to defend equal rights and equal opportunities within capitalism.

Although free public education is limited in Sri Lanka, it is an important social gain of the working class and a key target for privatisation by successive governments.

Karunaratne and Citizens Power (Purawesi Balaya), another middle-class group that campaigned to bring Sirisena and Wickremesinghe to power, openly attacked the student protests, claiming they are helping the fascist Rajapakse return to power. The NSSP, Citizens Power and the Trade Union Movement for Social Justice have launched a series of meetings under this banner.

Rajapakse and his chauvinist supporters are attempting to exploit the popular discontent against the government to stir up Sinhala communalism and appeal to Buddhist reaction and the military.

Karunaratne has called for the pseudo-left milieu and the civil society fraternity to re-group, defend democracy and defeat Rajapakses fascist movement.

Writing in the NSSPs Haraya, he declared: The Leftists in Sri Lanka should build a powerful campaign mobilising those who were active in replacing the Mahinda [Rajapakse] regime with the current government. This would be a force that would come into conflict with those who are trying to compromise with the joint opposition [of Rajapakse].

Karunaratne and the pseudo-lefts use fascist as a term of abuse, stripped of any scientific content, in a bid to obscure the anti-democratic character of the current regime. While Rajapakse was certainly an autocrat, Sirisena was a senior minister in his government until just months before the presidential election. Wickremesinghe was a minister in the UNP government in the 1980s that launched the countrys civil war and brutally suppressed any opposition. The Sirisena-Wickremasinghe regime has already mobilised police and soldiers to suppress opposition protests.

The growing struggles of workers, students and the poor sharply pose the necessity for a political fight against the Sirisena-Wickremasinghe administration, which is backed by US imperialism and protected by pseudo-left formations such as the NSSP.

The Socialist Equality Party and its student wing, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality, urges workers, students and the poor to break from every faction of the bourgeoisie and their fake left supporters, and mobilise on the basis of a socialist and internationalist program to fight the governments austerity attacks.
A 20-year-old Muslim Marine recruit, Raheel Siddiqui, jumped three stories to his death on March 18, 2016 after suffering repeated abuse by officers at the Parris Island base in South Carolina.

Siddiquis death is one of dozens of cases of officer abuse that have emerged at Parris Island alone. Across the country, officers of the various branches of the US armed forces systematically abuse young recruits, the overwhelming majority of whom, like Siddiqui, come from working-class families.

An initial investigation revealed that Siddiqui began having mental and physical health problems shortly after arriving at training camp. His requests for help were ignored by officers in his company, known as Killer Kilo Company, who evaluated him and forced him to return to training.

Following a week of grueling physical training that traditionally involves heavy verbal and psychological abuse by drill sergeants and other officers, Siddiqui first complained that he was being abused. These complaints were again ignored. Salon reported that officers called Siddiqui a terrorist because of his Islamic faith.

On March 18, eleven days after he arrived at camp, Siddiqui told his drill instructor that he had a sore throat and requested medical attention. When the drill instructor refused and began yelling at him, Siddiqui remained silent before falling to the floor in pain. The drill sergeant continued to yell at him, and when Siddiqui again failed to respond, the officer hit him on the face as many as three times. Siddiqui then stood up, began sprinting out of the barracks, and leapt over a railing, falling 40 feet to his death.

Though Siddiquis death has been labeled a suicide, it would be more apt to call it a murder. Ultimately the young man and his family are victims of American imperialism.

The young mans family emigrated from Pakistan in 1990 to live in the Detroit-area town of Taylor, Michigan. Like most military recruits, Siddiqui joined the armed forces largely out of a desire to provide a decent life for his family.

Siddiquis sister, Sidra, told the Wall Street Journal: We struggled as a family when we were little, and he wanted to change that. Siddiquis father is an auto-parts worker who was returning from his night shift when he first heard the news that his son was dead. He recalls seeing an ambulance parked in front of his home. Inside, first responders were tending to Siddiquis mother, who had just received the news.

Despite the fact that Siddiqui graduated from Harry S. Truman High School as class valedictorian, the lack of job opportunities for young people forced him to take a minimum-wage job at a nearby Home Depot. He received a scholarship to attend engineering program at the University of Michigan, Dearborn.

Siddiquis family was skeptical of his decision to join the Marines. His mother told the Wall Street Journal that her son told her: Mom, there are possibilities in the Marines. If life gives me a golden chance, why can I not accept? Ill get a good job. Ill give you a good life. Ill give you a home. Ill give you everything.

When he arrived at training camp, he was thrown into the reactionary, jingoistic climate of the armed forces of American imperialism. So vicious and sadistic is this climate that it broke down an innocent, intelligent, and hardworking young man, killing him in a week and a half.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the drill sergeant who beat Siddiqui was already under investigation for placing another Muslim recruit in a clothes-drying machine in 2015. The officer did so after accusing the recruit of being responsible for the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Another recruit overheard the officer yelling at the Muslim soldier: Why are you even here? Youre gonna kill us the first chance you get, arent you, you terrorist? What are your plans, are you a terrorist?

Despite this, the officer was neither demoted nor removed from his position as a drill instructor. In the 3rd Recruit Training Battalion alone, dozens of officers are now under investigation for similar abuse. The battalion proudly refers to itself as the Thumping Third for the brutality that its recruits face.

The US Marines issued a perfunctory statement aimed at covering up the fact that officer abuse is a standard operating procedure of all branches of the US military.

When Americas men and women commit to becoming Marines, we make a promise to them. We pledge to train them with firmness, fairness, dignity and compassion. said Marine Commandant General Robert B. Neller. But top military brass have not brought charges against a single officer responsible for abusing recruits and are protecting the identities of all officers involved. The ongoing investigations purpose is to protect those responsible, present Siddiquis death as an isolated incident and ensure that the culture of abuse continues unhindered.

The US armed forces are not trained with compassion any more than they are sent to war for humanitarian reasons or to protect democracy. The brutal, fascistic climate cultivated by the officer corps is a reflection of the militarys class character. The militarys purpose is to advance the interests of Wall Street and the American financial aristocracy, pillaging the world and securing its natural resources, shipping lanes, and cheap labor sources.

Siddiqis death reveals the dark shadow that fifteen years of permanent war in the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa have cast on American society. The US military has killed over a million people in its ongoing wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan.

This permanent state of war has left no element of life untouched. Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Fallujah, Haditha, extraordinary rendition, disposition matrix, black sites, waterboarding and drone strikes are the places and terms which have come to define the character of the wars. Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both pledge to continue the so-called War on Terror with no end in sight.
Yesterday marked the fifteenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 that killed more than 2,900 people in the United States. Nineteen supporters of Al Qaeda, 15 of them from Saudi Arabia, like the groups founder Osama bin Laden, hijacked four airliners. They crashed two planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, demolishing them; one into the Pentagon building in Washington; and plunged the other into a field in Pennsylvania to prevent passengers retaking control of the aircraft.

The horrific mass murder of thousands of civilians was not only a criminal act. It was, from a political standpoint, reactionary. It served the interests of American and world imperialism. The ruling classes in the United States, Europe and, indeed, throughout the world, exploited the horror and confusion that followed the attack to legitimize perpetual war and ever-expanding attacks on democratic rights.

The war on terror, proclaimed by the Bush administration in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, has been based, from the start, on misinformation and outright lies. The administration declared that the United States was engaged in a life-and-death struggle against Al Qaeda. Fifteen years later, it is a basic and undisputable fact that Al Qaeda is a key ally of the United States in the far-flung military operations being conducted by the CIA, above all in Syria.

The war on terror was invoked to justify attacks on Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and Yemencountries that had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11. The death toll numbers in the millions. The devastation of the region is a principal factor in the greatest refugee crisis since World War II, with over 60 million displaced persons seeking sanctuary.

A decade and a half after September 11, 2001, it is clear that the events of that day were no more the cause of the wars that followed than the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo in June 1914 was the real cause of the outbreak of World War I.

The US government has never attempted to explain how and why the war on terror has morphed into a conflict with the larger geostrategic rivals of the United States, particularly Russia and China, which threatens to unleash World War III.

One of the most remarkable facts of the 9/11 attacks is that, despite their central role in the foreign and domestic policy of the United States for fifteen years, there has never been a serious and credible investigation of what actually took place. The US intelligence agencies had ample warning of the impending attacks, had kept many of the perpetrators under active surveillance, and had longstanding ties to Osama bin Laden and his network, which was formed out of the CIA-orchestrated guerrilla warfare in Afghanistan during the 1980s against the Soviet-backed regime then in power in Kabul.

No government official has ever been held accountable for what is universally described as a catastrophic intelligence failure. After Pearl Harborto which 9/11 is frequently comparedadmirals were fired. But not a single official of the vast US military-intelligence complex lost his job after an attack carried out by well-known terrorists, many of them under state surveillance, and two of them actually living in the home of an FBI informant.

Within weeks of the attacks, US and allied military forces implemented long-held plans and invaded Afghanistan, on the pretext that the Islamist Taliban government was harboring bin Laden. The Afghan war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and driven millions from their homes in Afghanistan and north-west Pakistan. It continues to this day, more than five years after bin Ladens assassination at the safe house where he resided, near a military college in the city of Abbottabad, Pakistan, a key US ally.

Within the United States, the 9/11 attacks became the pretext for intensifying attacks on democratic rights, under conditions of ever-widening social inequality and mounting class antagonisms. The congressional passage of the Authorization for the Use of Military Forcewhich enshrined the illegal doctrine of preventative wargave blanket authority to the White House to attack any state it assessed as a potential threat to the military or economic interests of the American ruling class. This was followed by the passage of the Patriot Act, which created the legal framework for a police state in America.

In 2002, the Bush White House cited the war on terror as justification for CIA rendition and torture and the establishment of an extralegal prison at Guantanamo, Cuba, where prisoners could be held indefinitely, even for life, without any judicial proceeding. This was the corollary to a criminal policy of preventive war all over the world.

The Obama administration, which followed Bush, cited the same rationale for its escalating campaign of drone missile attacks, which targeted thousands for assassination at the orders of the president. Under both administrations, the US intelligence apparatus has been massively built up, systematically spying on the American population, monitoring all telecommunications and the Internet worldwide.

Meanwhile, the pattern of 9/11 has been repeated endlessly, in terrorist attacks from Paris to Brussels to London to Boston. In virtually every case of attacks by Al Qaeda or ISIS operatives or sympathizers, the perpetrators have been known to the security forces. They were free to carry out their bloody work for two reasons: their organizations were doing the bidding of imperialist foreign policy, particularly in Syria; and their atrocities confuse and stampede public opinion behind war, enabling the buildup of the forces of state repression, to be used against the working class.

The real motivation behind the response to 9/11 was not retaliation for the terrorist attacks. It was the establishment of a direct US military footprint in the heart of Central Asia and US dominance over the Middle East, the key oil-producing region of the globe. The result over the past 15 years has been the vast destabilization of international relations and the emergence of open US war preparations against Chinathe state Washington perceives as its greatest rival in Asiaalong with escalating tensions with Russia, which is viewed as a threat to American dominance in both Central Asia and Europe.

As David North wrote in his Preface to the volume, A Quarter Century of War: The US Drive for Global Hegemony 19902016: The last quarter century of US-instigated wars must be studied as a chain of interconnected events. The strategic logic of the US drive for global hegemony extends beyond the neocolonial operations in the Middle East and Africa. The ongoing regional wars are component elements of the rapidly escalating confrontation of the United States with Russia and China.

In Eastern Europe, NATO forces are mobilizing for military confrontation with Russia, whether in the Baltic States, Ukraine, the Black Sea or the Caucasus. The same type of media campaign used to demonize Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi and Assad, in preparation for their US-backed overthrow, is now being directed at Russian President Vladimir Putin. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is leading the charge, accusing Putin of cyber-sabotage of the US elections and attacking Republican Donald Trump as a Putin stooge.

In Asia, the Obama administration launched the US pivot to the region in 2011, redeploying the majority of US naval and air forces to battle stations where they can strike at China. The US Navy is conducting provocative freedom of navigation exercises against Chinese-held islets in the South China Sea, while Washington is encouraging Japanese militarism and threatening North Korea.

Whatever government comes to power in the United States as a result of the November 8 election, whether headed by Clinton or Trump, will continue and escalate the program of militarism, attacks on democratic rights, and economic austerity directed against the working class. The same agenda is being pursued by all the imperialist powers. That is all that the capitalist system, dominated by global economic and political crisis, has to offer.

The only alternative is the international mobilization of the working class, on the basis of a socialist and antiwar program, under the leadership of the International Committee of the Fourth International. This perspective is contained in the ICFI statement published on February 18, 2016, Socialism and the Fight Against War. We urge all WSWS readers who agree with the principles outlined as the foundation for a socialist and internationalist anti-war movement to join our ranks.
We are the party which is placing the danger of war at the centre of our campaign in these elections. The danger of a third world war was never as great as it is today. With these words, Partei fur Soziale Gleichheit (PSG) candidate Christoph Vandreier began his contribution on an election broadcast by public television station RBB last Thursday.

The so-called small parties round is made up of numerous contributions and broadcast to coincide with the election for the Berlin Senate on September 18. A total of 15 parties that do not yet have parliamentary representation were present and were questioned on their programmes by moderators Sabine Dahl and Sascha Hingst.

The broadcast, which was shown in Berlin and Brandenburg and available throughout Germany on cable, was watched by hundreds of thousands of viewers, according to market research firm GFK.

Seventy-five years after the invasion of the Soviet Union, German troops were once again stationed on the Russian border, Vandreier said, and added, We are currently experiencing the systematic encirclement of Russia and China. Syria increasingly resembled a powder keg, where a major conflict between the major powers could break out at any time.

Vandreier made clear that the PSG is the only party in the Berlin election campaign drawing attention to the war danger and mobilising the working class against it. We fight for a unified movement from below, for an international movement against war and capitalism, he stated.

The moderators pushed local issues and asked, So you are standing here in the Senate elections, what do you want to achieve there? Do you think the Berlin Senate is arming for war?

In his answer, Vandreier referred to the election broadcast by the same channel two days earlier, when the leading candidates for the so-called major parties were questioned. He said, Well, when one looks at what the leading candidates were discussing on Tuesday, they called above all for the strengthening of the state domestically.

All of the parties were agreed: we need more police, we need more surveillance, we need a strong state apparatus. This has nothing to do with domestic security or the struggle against terrorism, but it is rather about suppressing social protests, mounting social dissatisfaction and resistance to militarism.

When Vandreier pointed out that this was very clear in France, where the state of emergency did not prevent terrorism, but was instead used to target striking workers and demonstrators, there was audible applause from the audience.

Here in Berlin, we are experiencing very clearly how the return of German militarism and social decline affects daily life, he continued. One sees every day how young people rush from one job to the next just to make ends meet. Berlin was the capital city of poverty. There was more child poverty in Berlin than any other German state.

These are all relations that have been imposed as part of an international offensive aimed at destroying the social conditions of the working population, he said. These relations exist not only in Greece or Spain, but also here in Berlin.

The moderator interrupted him again and asked, When you say that Berlin is particularly poor in terms of the national average, how will the PSG be able to help Berliners pay their rent in the future?

Vandreier answered that the social misery was a direct result of a deliberate policy of redistribution from the bottom to the top that had been taking place for years. Large sections of the state-owned property companies were privatised and much more. The wealthy were awarded billions in payoffs. It was here that the first bank in Germanythe Berlin State Bankwas saved at the expense of the population. This is part of an international process which is closely bound up with the drive to war.

Vandreier explained that underlying the danger of war was the historic crisis of capitalism, which in the 20th century led to two imperialist wars.

After four minutes, the moderator attempted one last counterargument, saying, But you can see yourself, throughout the world communism is on the retreat. Are you not flogging a rather dead horse?

Earlier the moderator had spoken to the Stalinist German Communist Party (DKP), which is also standing in the Senate election. Referring to the DKP, Vandrier noted: The DKP stands for the old Stalinist bureaucrats who governed in the GDR [German Democratic Republic] and financed the DKP. We stand for genuine socialist principles, that is: an economic system that is organised democratically and where the profit drive is not the main concern. And these genuine socialist principles, which have nothing to do with the GDR, are more relevant today than ever.

At the end, Sabine Dahl tried to employ the allegedly socialist Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, as a prime witness against socialist politics. Vandreier countered, From the beginning, we said that Syriza and Tsipras had nothing to do with socialism and would implement these austerity policies. I would urge everyone to examine the World Socialist Web Site, where more can be read on this.

The interview with the PSG representative came towards the end of the broadcast. After a series of discussions with various right-wing, conservative, esoteric and religious parties, the PSG contribution was refreshing and made a serious impact. It demonstrated that there is a party that is opposed to the war conspiracy, will not be intimidated and combines the struggle against war with the fight against capitalism.

In addition, the broadcast illustrated the rightward evolution of the journalists involved. Sascha Hingst in particular, who functioned as moderator alternately with Sabine Dahl, confronted a number of the parties representatives with unconcealed arrogance and cynicism. When the representative of the Healthcare Research Party explained he was campaigning in support of research to improve medical treatment for conditions suffered by the elderly, Hingst asked him whether he had considered what this would cost and if the further ageing of society was actually affordable or desirable.

An excerpt from the program (in German) can be found on the RBB Facebook page. The review of the PSG starts at 14:15.
On Friday, the United States House of Representatives voted in favor of legislation that would permit September 11 victims and their families to sue the government of Saudi Arabia, based on its role in the terrorist attacks that resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. The bill, which the Obama administration has threatened to veto, was passed by the Senate in May.

The bill, together with the Obama administrations opposition to it, marks the continued unraveling of the official narrative of the September 11 attacks.

As confirmed by secret government documents released in May and July of this year, sections of the Saudi state apparatus were likely complicit in the September 11, 2001 attacks. At least two of the hijackers15 out of 19 of whom were Saudi nationalswere directly aided by Omar al-Bayoumi, who was identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a Saudi intelligence agent with ties to terrorist elements. Some hijackers received paychecks for fictitious jobs from a company affiliated with the Saudi Ministry of Defense.

Al-Bayoumi, meanwhile, worked closely with an Emir at the Saudi Defense Ministry. According to phone records obtained through a US government investigation, al-Bayoumi called Saudi government agencies 100 times between January and May of 2000. Meanwhile, three of the hijackers stayed at the same Virginia hotel as Saleh al-Hussayen, a Saudi interior ministry official, the night before the attacks.

Both the Bush and Obama administrations sought to cover up these and other facts pointing to Saudi complicity in the September 11 attacks. The involvement of the government of Saudi Arabia in the attacksone of Americas key allies in the Middle East for more than half a centurywas deemed too embarrassing. It would have raised too many questions about the possible foreknowledge of the attacks within any section of Americas military or intelligence apparatus.

Indeed, the documents released this year confirm that American intelligence agencies had a policy prior to September 11, 2001 of not following the activities of Saudi intelligence agents within the US, on the grounds of Saudi Arabias status as a major US ally. For this reason, US intelligence agencies paid little to no attention to the activities of Saudi agents like al-Bayoumi while they organized and facilitated the attacks. The possibility that this state of affairs was intentional has not been ruled out, and nobody was ever prosecuted for what amountsif the official story is to be believedto systemic incompetence and colossal negligence.

For 13 years, the infamous so-called 28 pages were redacted from the official report known as the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001. Until their release in July, members of Congress were only given access to these pages via a locked basement vault where they were not permitted to take notes.

The bill passed on Fridaysponsored by Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas and Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer of New Yorkis a response to information pointing to Saudi involvement in the September 11 attacks. The bill would permit victims and their families to argue in American courts that the Saudi government should be held liable for its role in the attacks. The bill would allow an exception to a 1976 law that generally provides that foreign nations are immune from lawsuits in US courts.

The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, Senate Bill 2040, would amend the federal judicial code to allow US courts to hear cases involving claims against a foreign state for injuries, death, or damages that occur inside the United States as a result of... an act of terrorism, committed anywhere by a foreign state or official.

The text of the bill makes no direct reference to Saudi Arabia. Instead, it is couched in terms of providing civil litigants with the broadest possible basis... to seek relief against persons, entities, and foreign countries, wherever acting and wherever they may be found, that have provided material support, directly or indirectly, to foreign organizations or persons that engage in terrorist activities against the United States.

The Obama administration has cloaked its opposition to the bill on procedural and diplomatic grounds, citing the necessity of maintaining friendly relations with Saudi Arabia. The White House has also argued that permitting lawsuits against foreign nations in American courts would set a precedent under which the US government could be sued in foreign courts by foreign victims.

There are always diplomatic considerations that get in the way of justice, but if a court proves the Saudis were complicit in 9/11, they should be held accountable, Schumer wrote in a statement issued to the press. If theyve done nothing wrong, they have nothing to worry about.

The Saudi government threatened to retaliate if the bill was passed by selling off up to $750 billion in US assets before they could be seized by legal procedures in American courts.

Sunday marked the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, which have been invoked incessantly over the intervening years by both the Bush and Obama administrations as a justification for war as well as for vast changes to American politics, law and society. The September 11 events changed everything, the population was told, necessitating an indefinite war on terror.

The September 11 attack was a godsend to the Bush administration, which had come to power following a stolen election in the year 2000. Having lost the popular vote, Bush was installed as president only after the Supreme Court ordered a halt to the counting of votes in Florida. Composed of ultra-right neocons who had spent the previous decades on the fringes of the state apparatus, the Bush administration seized on the September 11 attacks to implement a far-reaching transformation of American political life, imposing an agenda of military aggression abroad and constructing the framework of a police state at home.

The phrase 9/11 was used to terrorize and browbeat the population with the prospect of a future attack, trample democratic rights, and bully and intimidate dissent. Pursuant to the new legal and political framework instituted as part of the so-called war on terror, the American government asserted the power to preemptively wage war against any country; depose any government; spy on the entire worlds population; and abduct, torture and assassinate anyone in the world.

The repressive apparatus of the state, from airport security checkpoints to local police forces, was militarized and armed to the teeth. To this day, anyone passing through a Transportation Security Agency checkpoint is confronted with a shrine dedicated to the victims of the September 11 attacks.

The population has been told for 15 years that the September 11 attacks inaugurated an existential conflict between the American government and Islamic extremism. The reality is that the September 11 attacks were sponsored by sections of the government of a US ally, which itself is a bulwark of Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East. Meanwhile, a question mark remains over the unaccountable failure of the American intelligence agencies to prevent the attacks.

The US has been a key supporter of Islamic extremism in the Middle East throughout its 70-year alliance with the Saudi monarchy. During the Cold War, and especially in Afghanistan during the 1980s, the US sought to use right-wing Islamic militants as a counterweight to Soviet influence in the region.

American support for Islamic fundamentalist forces did not end with the liquidation of the Soviet Union. While verbally opposing Islamic extremism abroad, the US has supported Chechen terrorists against Russia as well as Al Qaeda affiliates in Libya and in Syria. It armed and funded the latter forces as part of its regime-change efforts against the governments of Muammar Gaddafi and Bashar al-Assad.

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Fiat Chrysler, with the assistance of the United Auto Workers, is forcing through a reorganization of skilled trades work by assigning so-called minor tasks to production workers.

The program, part of FCAs Global Plant Reorganization, has been met with a firestorm of opposition from production and skilled trades workers alike. It is correctly seen as a means of eliminating skilled trades jobs, which traditionally require more training and are paid at a higher rate.

According to a memo circulating at the Jeep complex in Toledo, FCA is creating a production-based classification called conductors that will take the place of skilled trades workers for fault recovery and minor servicing tasks, such as fault resets, weld cap changes and electrical cable replacement. All this work is now done by skilled tradesmen.

A recent meeting called at the Sterling Stamping plant to explain the changes exploded in angry opposition when workers learned of the plan. Opposition has not been limited to skilled trades workers but has also embraced production workers who will be called on to perform sometimes dangerous tasks for only small amounts of additional pay.

The plan to have production workers carry out skilled trades work is the latest in a series of attacks on skilled trades workers. It follows schemes for the cross training of skilled tradesmen to allow them to work outside their areas of expertise. Such practices put workers in the position of performing work for which they are not adequately prepared, heightening safety risks.

A production worker at the Jeep complex in Toledo told the World Socialist Web Site, It is all part of the World Class Manufacturing project. They want everyone to do preventive maintenance, basically the same work skilled trades does, to save money and time.

The UAW has agreed to it, and they are trying it at Chrysler first. It is crazy. We dont get to vote on anything.

The FCA worker also said that management is ramping up harassment. They took our headphones last week. They took our water coolers away, so now there are only two water coolers for 400-500 people.

A skilled trades worker at Sterling Stamping north of Detroit said, They are going to take tool and die makers off the line and turn their responsibilities over to operators unless there is a catastrophic failure. It is a precursor to their jobs going out the door.

Right now they have 30 tool and die makers on layoff. That is so they can see if they can do without them.

Everything is subject to change. The next contract is two and a half years away. [FCA CEO Sergio] Marchionne wants to get rid of FCA by selling it or merging it. It is a multi-billion dollar company, but we cant even get screws and bolts. Peoples morale is low. [The company] only cares about profits.

Another Sterling Heights skilled trades worker told the WSWS, They are trying it out with tool and die makers, welders and machine repair. They are fighting it at the Jefferson North plant [in Detroit]. Production workers are against it too. They are talking about all production workers withholding their dues payments from the UAW to protest it. They are saying, We dont want to set up tooling for $1 an hour more.

There was an uproar at our plant. Everyone was against it. We are tired of the International [UAW] taking our jobs away. We have a petition out against it.

I voted no on the last contract, but then the UAW came back and tried to scare people. They said, Dont be surprised if there is a strike and people cross the picket line and take your jobs. [Workers] knew the UAW wouldnt support them, might even organize the people that crossed the picket line.

In October of last year, workers overwhelmingly rejected a UAW-FCA concessions contract. The UAW responded by launching a massive campaign of lies and intimidation to push through a substantially similar contract, followed by similar tactics at GM and Ford.

This reminds me of what happened when they implemented the alternative work schedule [10-hour shifts at straight time]. Everyone was against it, but the UAW said it was good for the company, so it went through.

The ability of FCA and the UAW to impose significant changes to the auto contract without a membership vote underscores the fraud of the claims that the 2015 national agreement represented one of the richest ever negotiated. It demonstrates once against the anti-worker gang-up between the UAW and corporate management.

The latest attack on skilled trades workers comes as recent sales figures point to a downturn in the auto industry. Auto sales slumped in August for the second month, with Ford, General Motors, Toyota and Nissan all reporting sales declines. Ford sales fell 8 percent in August, with sales of the best-selling F-150 pickup truck down 6 percent. GMs sales were down 5 percent, with year-to-date retail sales up only 1 percent, still the largest retail share gain of any automaker. Toyota sales were down 4.6 percent, while Nissan sales fell 6.5 percent.

Fiat Chrysler, meanwhile, reported a 3 percent sales gain, entirely due to the Jeep brand. Marchionne recently announced that FCA would end passenger car production in the United States and has outlined a reorganization of production focused on the sale of larger vehicles, putting a question mark over the jobs of thousands of US autoworkers. In July, the company laid off 1,300 workers at its Sterling Heights, Michigan Assembly Plant, which builds the Chrysler 200 passenger car. The company is being investigated based on allegations that it padded sales figures in an apparent bid to inflate stock prices.

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The Great Autoworkers Struggle of 2015: Lessons of the rank-and-file revolt against the UAW [Socialist Equality Party Pamphlet]
US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov announced an agreement early Saturday morning on cooperation between Washington and Moscow in Syrias five-year-old civil war.

The US and Russia have committed to a ceasefire beginning Monday at sunset, which is to last for a week over the Eid holiday. The US-backed rebel groups are supposed to cease attacking government-held areas, although it appears increasingly likely that some rebel groups will refuse to implement the deal. The Assad government has agreed to allow humanitarian supplies into Aleppo.

The deal is being presented as having the potential of bringing peace to the war-torn country. But the very suggestion that a deal crafted by Washington can serve to bring peace to Syria, a country that has seen around half a million deaths and a population decline of some 5 million due to a US-orchestrated war for regime change, is preposterous.

In reality, Washington has acceded to the agreement to give some respite to its proxy forces around Aleppo in particular, where government troops have made substantial gains over recent weeks. In addition, the hypocritical handwringing from the political and media establishment over the terrible conditions faced by the Syrian population caused by the war they played a central role in fomenting and promoting is a transparent attempt to create the conditions for more direct US and Western intervention under the pretext of human rights.

It remains questionable whether the ceasefire will come into force, let alone hold. The ink was barely dry on the agreement when upwards of 100 civilians were reportedly killed Saturday as fighting raged in and around Aleppo and Idlib. The Assad government was accused of conducting airstrikes on civilian areas, while opposition groups shelled residential areas in the government-controlled part of Aleppo, Damascus, Daraa and Hama.

Moreover, it is little more than six months since the previous US and Russian ceasefire was brokered in February, only to unravel weeks later as Washington announced plans to send special forces to Syria as it intensified its five-year war for regime change.

Support for the deal within the US political establishment is by no means unanimous. The Guardian noted that significant forces in the Pentagon are reluctant to sanction any relaxation of the conflict in Syria due to the likelihood of a more aggressive President Clinton coming to office after Novembers election. Clinton has already vowed to intervene more directly in Syria to achieve the overthrow of the Assad regime and the installation of a pro-western puppet governmentthe main concern of Washington from the outset of the conflict in 2011.

The other key provision of the agreement, which will see Russian and US aircraft cooperate in the targeting of Islamic State and other extremist groups like the al-Nusra Front, is no less problematic. Even reports in the bourgeois media acknowledge that Washington still has to convince so-called moderate groups to separate themselves from al-Nusra fighters, who have been systematically built up, financed and armed by the US to wage war on Assad.

US-aligned rebel groups in the Free Syrian Army denounced the deal in a letter to the US for defining the former al-Nusra Front, now known as Jabhat Ahrar al-Sham since it formally broke with al-Qaida, as a terrorist organization but leaving out Hezbollah fighters backed by Iran. The FSA has not formally announced that it will abide by the deal, although spokesmen were cited by Reuters yesterday saying they would. Others suggested intra-rebel clashes could break out, as some groups would remain aligned to the former al-Nusra fighters. This only underscores the fraudulent character of the incessant claims made by the US and the corporate media that Washington has been backing moderate rebels. The backbone of the Syrian opposition is in truth made up of Islamist extremist forces.

The verbal pledge of cooperation between Moscow and Washington has in no way reduced the tensions over Syria. While the US hopes to strengthen its dominance throughout the Middle East by removing Assad and installing a regime more pliant to its interests, the Kremlin intervened in the conflict to defend its main ally in the region and its sole military base outside of the former Soviet Union. The potential for a military conflagration between the nuclear-armed powers, which would quickly spiral out of control and provoke a broader war, remain very high. The increased presence of the European imperialist powers, such as Germany, which expanded its presence at the Incirlik air base in Turkey last week, and Britain, which is reportedly operating covertly within Syria, makes the situation even more explosive.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook gave some indication of this in his terse response to the Kerry-Lavrov deal. Openly questioning the readiness of Assad and Russia to hold up its end of the bargain, Cook stated, Those commitments must be fully met before any potential military cooperation can occur. We will be watching closely the implementation of this understanding in the days ahead.

Cooks remarks are no mere idle threat, but demonstrate that the US military will seize on the slightest incident to renege on the deal and plunge the country into all-out war if it determines that this is the best way to secure Washingtons geostrategic interests against its rivals. They were made just days after Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter provocatively told a British audience that Moscow was trying to reshape the world order and in the context of a US presidential election campaign in which the Democrats are presenting themselves as the party most committed to upholding Washingtons interests around the globe by use of military force.

Critically, the agreement provides for the banning of the Syrian air force from areas in which the US and Russia have agreed to cooperate to target ISIS and other extremist groups. This lays the basis for direct clashes, staged or otherwise, between US and Syrian planes and could mark an important first step in the establishment of a no-fly zone. This could, in turn, rapidly involve the air forces of the other imperialist powers to enforce it.

The British government appeared equally unconvinced by the deal. Foreign secretary Boris Johnson made a barely veiled criticism of Russia in his statement on the agreement, urging all parties to the Syria conflict and all countries with influence upon them to do what is needed to end violence and lift sieges. He added, They will be judged by their actions alone.

The so-called peace deal will see no let-up in the Turkish incursion into the north of Syria, which Ankara sees as essential to dislodge the Kurdish fighters of the Peoples Protection Units (YPG) so as to block the emergence of a Kurdish-controlled zone on its southern border. In fact, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Sunday that the intervention would be expanded. The justification for this was his countrys duty to defeat ISIS, he claimed.

Ankara has made clear its intentions to carve out a substantial area of Syrian territory along its border, where it intends to confine refugees and some of the anti-Assad forces with which it is collaborating. Erdogan even suggested that Turkish troops could be used to supply aid to areas in the north of the country, including Aleppo. Should this take place, the deployment of troops from a NATO member deep into Syria could serve as the prelude to a wider intervention by the US-led military alliance.

Stepped-up efforts to exploit human rights to hasten the downfall of the Assad regime were already on display prior to Saturdays agreement. The New York Times carried a prominent article on the decision of 73 Syrian aid organizations to break ties with the United Nations on the basis of allegations that UN operations in the country were cooperating too closely with Damascus. The groups, including many which openly back opposition forces, said they would no longer participate in the UNs information-sharing system.

Kerry and others wasted no time in pressing for stepped-up efforts to remove Assad. Today the United States and Russia are announcing a plan which we hope will reduce violence, reduce suffering and resume movement toward a negotiated peace and a transition in Syria...that, if followed, has the ability to provide a turning point, a moment of change, he cynically declared after the agreement.

The European Unions foreign policy representative, Federica Mogherini, spoke along similar lines, saying Saturday that the UN should prepare a proposal for political transition, based on relevant UN Security Council Resolutions.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the police and the mass media seized upon a knifing in a Sydney suburb on Saturday by a young man suffering from schizophrenia to declare it was a lone wolf terrorist attack inspired by Islamic State (ISIS).

Before any of the facts were known, police commanders asserted that the stabbing represented a new wave of Islamic terrorism. The media ran screaming headlines, such as Terror on our streets and Global terrorism strikes on suburban streets.

Turnbull went further, equating the incident to the 9/11 mass terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001, which were used to proclaim an endless war on terror, invade Afghanistan and Iraq and impose far-reaching attacks on basic legal and democratic rights.



Ishas Khan, a 22-year-old Australian-born man from a Bangladeshi family, allegedly chased and stabbed Wayne Greenhalgh, 59. The older man was walking his dog on Saturday afternoon in front of Khans house in Minto, a working-class suburb. Greenhalgh, who lives several houses away from Khan, suffered multiple stab wounds before being rescued by local residents.

Anonymous police sources admitted to journalists that Khan had no known links to ISIS and had serious mental health problems, including schizophrenia. Residents told the media that Khan, once a high-performing school student, had acted erratically for weeks, especially since his mother died after a long illness two weeks ago. He had paced up and down the street, shouted at passers-by and pushed a car axle up and down the road.

Despite these signs of severe mental illness, New South Wales Deputy Police Commissioner Catherine Burn yesterday declared that although Khan was not on a terror watch list, we know that this person has strong extremist beliefs inspired by ISIS.

Police sources told the media that a search of Khans home discovered an electronic copy of Islamic States magazine Dabiq and evidence that he had searched for extremist YouTube videos. Apart from these flimsy and unsubstantiated claims being used to vilify Khan, they directly prejudiced any criminal trial. Khan was yesterday charged with committing a terrorist act and attempted murder. He was refused bail.

Media outlets highlighted reports that Khan had shouted Islamic slogans and called out: You killed my brothers and sisters in Iraq. These reports suggest that the unstable young man opposed the escalating US war in Iraq and Syria, in which Australia is closely involved and in which thousands of civilians have been killed.

But the corporate media and the government proclaimed that the entire population was now at war with Islamic extremism. The first seven pages of Murdoch medias Sydney tabloid, the Daily Telegraph, today featured lurid headlines like: White-robed IS radicals mission to kill Aussie, Wolves at the door and Victim of unholy war at home.

Turnbull, whose fragile government is under intense pressure from the corporate elite to demonstrate its capacity to impose deep budget cuts on the population, seized upon the fact that the attack occurred on the eve of the 9/11 anniversary to insist it signalled a new assault on Australias way of life.

The prime minister declared: On one level they seem very different, 15 years apart, very different events. But connecting them both is a violent Islamist ideology which perverts the religion of Islam and seeks to destroy and threaten our way of life.

While the September 11 attacks were elaborate and planned months in advance by Al Qaeda, Saturdays stabbing was emblematic of an evolved terror threat, Turnbull said. What we have seen on Australian soil and elsewhere in the world is increasingly this type of lone actor attacks, he said.

Of course, Turnbull made no mention of the fact that Al Qaeda groups have been fighting for several years on Washingtons side in its drive to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, just as they once did in Afghanistan during the late 1980s and early 1990s, in the US-led operation to oust the Soviet-backed Najibullah regime.

Turnbulls comments reportedly followed high-level discussions within the intelligence and police apparatus. He said he received a briefing from Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) director-general Duncan Lewis, Australian Federal Police commissioner Andrew Colvin, Justice Minister Michael Keenan and Counter-Terrorism Co-ordinator Tony Sheehan.

As well as providing the pretext for frontline Australian involvement in the US-led wars in the Middle East, the 9/11 attacks were utilised to introduce more than 60 pieces of so-called terrorism legislation. These vastly expanded the powers and surveillance activities of the security agencies, defined terrorism in sweeping terms and overturned fundamental rights, such as no detention without trial.

While the initial targets of these measures were vulnerable young Islamic men like Khan, they form part of a developing police-state framework that can and will be used to suppress social unrest and political dissent as the drive to war and austerity intensifies.

Since being narrowly returned to office in the July 2 election, Turnbulls Liberal-National government, with the bipartisan backing of the Labor Party, has brought forward four further measures to bolster the powers of the police, intelligence and military forces.

Attorney-General George Brandis seized on Saturdays stabbing to proclaim the necessity for two new terrorism laws. One bill will permit control ordersa form of house arrestto be imposed on teenagers as young as 14. The other will allow for individuals convicted of terrorism-related and other offences, including treason, to be detained indefinitely, even after they have served their prison terms.

The other two measures will effectively give the military the authority to kill civilians in Iraq and Syria, and speed up the procedures for calling out the troops domestically to suppress opposition and unrest.



Todays editorial in the Daily Telegraph provided a taste of the toxic atmosphere being whipped up by the ruling elite. It declared that the Minto stabbing marked an escalation of the war that commenced on 9/11. Our citizens and suburbs are the frontline of this war, it stated. Their country is at war. It is a war unlike any we have ever fought.

There is a clear connection between this inflammatory rhetoric and the financial elites demand for severe cuts to health, education and other social spending. That was illustrated by twin editorials today in the Australian Financial Review. One insisted that Saturdays Islamic State-inspired terror attack in Sydney had reminded Australians that the threat of global Islamic terrorism still looms large. The other demanded that, with parliament resuming today, Turnbull set a strong economic agenda and begin repairing the budget, starting with the passage of $6.5 billion worth of cuts in an Omnibus Bill.

The ratchetting up of communal and military tensions is both an attempt to derail the widespread public opposition to this austerity offensive, and a means of boosting the repressive powers of the state apparatus to impose the dictates of the corporate establishment.
25 Years Ago | 50 Years Ago | 75 Years Ago | 100 Years Ago

25 years ago: Criminal charge against Oliver North dropped

US District Judge Gerhard Gesell dismissed all criminal charges against US Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, former deputy national security adviser in the Reagan administration, and a key figure in the Iran-contra conspiracy, on September 16, 1991.

Not only North, but a host of top officials of the George H.W. Bush administration, including Bush himself, played key roles in the Iran-contra affair. Acting at the direction of top officials of the CIA, State Department, Pentagon and White House, North organized a secret network of paramilitary operatives, ex-military and CIA officers, gangsters and fascists to supply weapons to the contra terrorists who waged war against the Nicaraguan people from 1982 to 1989. The contra war resulted in the killing of at least 20,000 Nicaraguan men, women and children and the devastation of the tiny country's economy.

This contra support network, directed from the White House basement, was viewed by top officials of the Reagan administration not merely as a means to carry out its preferred policy in Central America, but as a private government within the government that would carry out a series of operations in the interests of US imperialism, free of any legal or constitutional restrictions.

This included preparations for drastic attacks on the democratic rights of the American people. Lt. Col. North, as part of his duties on the National Security Council, drafted the plans for operation Rex 84, which called for the roundup of 300,000 Central American immigrants and political activists in the event of a US invasion of Central America, and the establishment of concentration camps for political prisoners at military bases throughout the United States.

Norths 1984 contingency plan provided for the declaration of martial law, the suspension of the Constitution, the appointment of military officers to take over the running of the states and cities and the arming of paramilitary vigilante groups to assist in the maintenance of law and order.

The final episode of the long-running court proceedings degenerated into farce. Norths former boss and political mentor, former National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane, was called before Judge Gesell to state whether his testimony in Norths criminal trial had been affected in any way by Norths nationally televised appearance before the congressional Iran-contra hearings in 1987. Knowing that an affirmative answer would insure that North went scot free, McFarlane, not surprisingly, answered, Yes. The special prosecutors office issued a perfunctory protest, then announced there would be no attempt to retry the case.

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50 year ago: Segregationists attack black school children in Mississippi

On September 12, 1966, dozens of black children attending school for the first time at the newly-integrated Lizzie Horn Elementary School in Grenada, Mississippi were attacked by racist mobs organized by the Ku Klux Klan, which were aided and abetted by local police. Many children were injured by white patrols as they tried to walk to school. Some 35 who made it to the building were attacked by a mob throwing bricks and bottles, hurting a number of children. One child, 12-year old Richard Sigh, was hospitalized with a broken leg. Another child suffered a fractured skull.

Considerable planning went into the attacks. Police and state troopers stood aside as the children were attacked. Carloads of Klansmen came in to Grenada to disrupt the school integration. This is not a spontaneous mob, this is a military-style action organized and led by the KKK, wrote Southern Christian Leadership Organizer (SCLC) Bruce Hartford in a diary chronicling the events in Grenada. Equipped with two-way radios, they bar all approaches [to the school]. Radio-equipped scouts in pick-up trucks search for Negro students (grades 1-12) coming to school and direct the mob to attack them. There are few police in evidence and they do nothing to halt the violence.

The summer and fall of 1966 saw the emergence of a mass movement among the areas black population, supported by some whites from the county, and others who had traveled longer distances. Over months of struggle the mass movement withstood the racist mobs and successfully completed the integration of the schools

Grenada County illustrated the inequality generated by racial segregation, which had been the law of the land in the South since scores of laws and court rulings in the 1890s, which had as their specific aim the separation of black and white workers. The most important of these was the Plessy vs. Ferguson case of 1896, in which the US Supreme Court ruled that states and municipalities could legally segregate public facilities so long as they were equal. In practice, when it came to the Souths already inferior public school system, this meant the creation of a segregated and substandard education for blacks.

A center of cotton production going back to the days of slavery, Grenada County had a population that was roughly half African-American. But the median black student completed only 5.1 years of schooling as opposed to 12.1 for the median white. The median family income for blacks was $1,401, well below the $3,300 per year the federal government marked as the poverty threshold for a family of four in 1966, and still further below the countys median household income for whites, which stood $4,300. Only 3 percent of eligible blacks were registered to vote, as opposed to 95 percent of whites.

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75 years ago: Nazi forces surround Kiev

On September 16, 1941, German tank units completed the encirclement of three-quarters of a million Red Army soldiers near Kiev and initiated the final siege that resulted in the annihilation of the Soviet forces in Ukraine.

When Hitlers armies launched their attack against the USSR on June 22, Marshall Budenny, Stalins underling and an incompetent in military affairs, was put in charge of a 1.5 million Red Army force in Ukraine. Despite their numerical superiority to the Germans, Stalins failure to foresee the attack, combined with his purges of the experienced officers, immediately precipitated a crisis. Red Army tank units were caught off guard and sent into battle piecemeal under inexperienced officers to be destroyed one after the other against concentrated German land and air power in the first weeks of fighting.

The slow-moving infantry units trapped near Kiev, without sufficient tank support and short on ammunition, were slashed to bits by the highly mobile German tanks, backed by air and artillery assaults. Despite the appearance of a hopeless situation, Red Army soldiers fought to the death against the fascist invasion. German witnesses described how whole battalions would launch mass counterattacks, advancing directly into heavy weapons fire with only a handful of rounds left in their guns and ultimately using their hands and teeth to defend themselves.

After five days of ruthless slaughter, the first surrenders began. Throughout Ukraine, Soviet forces suffered nearly 1 million casualties. Some 527,000 prisoners were taken and shipped to forced labor camps. Less than 3 percent would survive the ordeal. The Battle of Ukraine resulted in the destruction of nearly one-third of the Soviet forces in existence at the very beginning of the war.

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100 years ago: Allied offensive at the Battle of the Somme

On September 15, 1916, Allied forces launched a major offensive against German troops, initiating the third stage of the Battle of the Somme, fought in northern France. The campaign was aimed at securing a decisive victory, and ending the months of trench warfare that had seen neither side able to make substantial advances.

With a heavy bombardment of German lines, Allied forces gained 2 kilometers within the first three days of the battle. But German reinforcements and adverse weather conditions hampered the advance and the offensive was called off September 22. The Allies suffered almost 30,000 casualties, while German forces suffered as many as 130,000 losses in fighting on the Somme in the month of September.

The bloodshed ended in November, with British casualties approaching half a million, French losses at 250,000 and reported German casualties at 236,000.

Artillery exchanges over the strategically critical region had begun in June, with an Allied bombardment of German positions. On July 1, the first day of fighting, Britain suffered over 57,000 casualties. Over the following 10 days, another 25,000 were killed or wounded, while German troops suffered an estimated 40,000 casualties in the first two weeks of the conflict. Over the following months, both sides sustained massive casualties in battles as Pozieres, Fromelles and elsewhere.

British and French authorities had begun planning a new offensive in August. British command planned to commence the attack in mid-September, with the rollout of a new military machine, the tank. Twelve divisions and 49 tanks were allocated to the offensive.

The new weapons, however, were highly unreliable. Just 15 of the tanks made it to the frontlines of the battle. While they initially dented German morale, and were able to withstand small arms fire, they were extremely slow, and were virtually defenseless against shells. Poor visibility also hampered the Allied assault.

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Over the past two months, the appointment of a number of new academics and scientists to the University of California, San Diegos (UCSD) Contextual Robotics Institute has been touted as an initiative that will make the city into a world renowned Robot Valley. Although the institute boasts of possible future achievements in assisted living, disaster response, medicine, transportation and environmental sensing, a closer look reveals that the overriding orientation of the initiative is bound up with the US drive to war.

An examination of the individuals, corporations, and institutions involved makes it clear that the development of this new hamlet of high-tech production is to focus on the research and production of not just any robots, but particularly those that are involved in war abroad and the policing of the population at home. The Institute was created in 2015 under the umbrella of the Jacobs School of Engineering at UCSDa department with longstanding ties to US military and intelligence, as well as to local defense contractors.

That the changes in the Institutes leadership in recent months have been promoted with much fanfare by defense contractor Northrop Grumman sheds light on the orientation of the university department and the orientation of the citys economy towards the US war machine. In addition to Northrop Grumman, the Contextual Robotics Institute is sponsored by General Atomics, General Dynamics, SPAWAR (Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command), Air Force Office of Scientific Research, US Army Research Laboratory, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), US Department of Defense, US Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Office of Naval Research, and Lockheed Martin.

The newly appointed director of the program, Henrik I. Christensen, is currently, or previously was, a consultant for General Electric, Boeing, and DARPA. He assisted the Obama administration in the development of the US Robotics Roadmap, a white paper initially presented to the Congressional Robotics Caucus in 2009 and further developed by institutions, academics, and industries oriented towards organizing an American Robotics Network.

The initial paper from 2009 outlined the importance of developing robotics in the areas of service, manufacturing, and health care as a Key Economic Enabler to make US manufacturing more competitive in the rapidly emerging market of the robotech industry. The paper explains that while the rest of the world has been developing investments in robotics, US research, development, and manufacturing has been almost non-existent outside of investment for defense purposes.

Significantly, an updated version of the report released in 2013 reorients the project back to the military and states, In recognition of the important role that space and defense robotics has both to R&D but also as early adopters, new chapters were added for those areas. In the section on defense, the white paper outlines national security challenges that the US will face in the next 25 years: The rise of new powers, the growing influence of non-state actors, the spread of weapons of mass destruction and other irregular threats, and continuing socioeconomic unrest will continue to pose profound challenges to international order.

As the real economy stagnates and corporations continue to retreat from investing capital in production in favor of financial parasitism, it appears that the defense sector will continue to dominate the robotics field. A report in 2013 by the corporate lobby organization, the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), authored by retired US Army brigadier general John Adams, titled Remaking American Security, points to the ongoing importance of Pentagon money in propping up weak US manufacturing: DoD demand provides an important cushion for industries exposed to global competition and volatile price developments. Defense demand softens the impact of global downturns in sectors like aerospace and shipbuilding.

The centrality of the defense sector in the US manufacturing economy is reflected in the militarization of American science and engineering. At UCSD, the ties between the universitys leadership and the defense and intelligence agencies are remarkable. Pradeep Khosla, the chancellor of the university since 2012, also spent time at DARPA working on the Senior Advisory Group for Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systemsmore commonly known as drones. This past January, he joined the executive board of Avigilona trusted provider of business intelligence and security solutions. Khosla is paid well over $400,000 annually by UCSD for his role as chancellor. It is unclear how much he earns from the many non-profits, government organizations, venture capital firms, and high-tech start-up companies in which he is also involved.

On August 29, Todd Hylton was appointed the executive director of the Contextual Robotics Institute. Hylton too worked as a program manager at DARPA where he assisted in developing a chip inspired by the function of the human biological nervous system, and in the creation of the hummingbird drone for the Nano Air Vehicle program.

The purpose of these appointments is to more firmly harness the university to the needs of US imperialism in terms of both military power overseas and the domestic surveillance and repression that necessarily accompanies it at home. The University of California system as a whole is headed by Janet Napolitano, former chief of the Department of Homeland security. As the WSWS noted earlier this year, she sanctioned a secret spyware system over the entire network of UC campuses in order to monitor and collect all information sent over the university networks.

The Contextual Robotics Institute is part of the Irwin and Joan Jacobs School of Engineering, named after the founder of the telecommunications and semiconductor company, Qualcomm, who is a major donor to the campus. Qualcomm is one of the companies listed as belonging to the Jacobs Schools Corporate Affiliates Program. Among the schools corporate affiliates are numerous military-industrial and intelligence contractors and organizations, including Booz Allen Hamilton, Cubic, General Atomics (manufacturer of the Predator drone), L-3 Communications, Leidos (a spin-out from SAIC, taking over contracts with the National Security Agency [NSA] and O National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency [NGA]), Lockheed Martin, NAVAIR (Naval Air Systems Command), Northrop Grumman (manufacturer of the MQ-5B Hunter drone, used widely by the US Army), Raytheon, Rincon Research Corporation, Scientific Research Corporation (SRC), SPAWAR, UTC Aerospace Systems, and Viasat.

The Jacobs Schools web site touts the fact that these corporations have access to its students as a pool of future employees, and to brainstorming meetings with faculty that will yield results for your company and that encourage engineers to research contracts with defined deliverables (in other words pushing faculty to carry out work of benefit to these companies). A seat on the Corporate Affiliates Program Executive Board provides a unique opportunity to share in leadership of the Jacobs School  Working together, we can work better for you. Areas in which these companies can ensure that the Jacobs School works for them are Curriculum Development, Future Research Focus, Industry-University Initiatives, Networking. In other words, by paying annual dues ranging from $3,000 to $25,000 these companies are able to buy influence over education and research at UCSD and to shape the universitys institutional goals. There could hardly be a clearer statement of the subordination of academia to corporate and military interests.

A striking example of UCSDs position as part of a military-industrial-academic complex was the joint research project carried out in 2006 by the Jacobs Schools Department of Structural Engineering with Northrop Grummans Integrated Systems sector, aimed at increasing the payload of Northrops Hunter MQ-5B drone.

As Northrop Grummans lead engineer on the project put it, The increased takeoff weight gives the U.S. Army the flexibility to add additional communications, intelligence and weapon payloads to the Hunter, expanding the capabilities of the warfighter. This flexibility will expand the aircrafts multi-mission role on the battlefield. This means that the university was directly engaged in weapons development. The US Armys first lethal use of an armed drone was in Iraq in September 2007, when a Hunter MQ-5B dropped a Northrop Grumman laser-guided Viper Strike munition on what, according to the Army, were two men planting a roadside bomb. Since then, drone strikes have claimed the lives of thousands of civilian men, women and children in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere.

The recent developments at UCSD also reflect a coordinated effort between the defense and intelligence agencies, universities and military-industrial manufacturers to reorient defense manufacturing back to US shores. There is growing concern within the establishment that the outsourcing of manufacturing supply chains for the defense industry could be detrimental to national security. The 2013 AAM report implores the nations leaders to make America less dependent on foreign nations for the vital products that enable Americas soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines to be the most powerful and effective fighting force in the world. It further asserts, The health of our manufacturing sector is inextricably intertwined with our national security, and it is vital that we strengthen the sector. This process is rapidly unfolding in San Diegos high-tech research and development and manufacturing sectors.

As of 2015, 22 percent of all jobs in the County of San Diego were related to the military. Defense-related activities generated around $45 billion that year, or around 21.5 percent of the gross regional product. The Navys SPAWAR program employs 4,900 employees directly (out of a national total of around 10,000) and is responsible for another 19,000 contracted jobs throughout the county.

San Diego County has the nations largest concentration of armed forces personnel. The city hosts 60 percent of the US Navys ship fleet. There are 49 Navy ships home-ported in SD as of 2015, a figure that is expected to climb to 84 ships by 2023. Between the Navy and Marine Corps, more than 100,000 active duty military personnel reside in the city.

The San Diego business elite has historically looked to the military to bankroll the regions economy. Today, the service of UCSD to the regions drone manufacturers such as General Atomics, Northrop Grumman and other companies, is central to that strategy. Introducing a conference on Contextual Robotics in 2014, the Jacobs School Dean Alfred Pisano (another former DARPA program manager) gushed, The military and defense presence in San Diego is profound, with particular excellence in unmanned vehicles. The advanced manufacturing sectors in San Diego and Tijuana are growing and diversifying, and the regions robotics entrepreneurs are energized. San Diego is also home to top research and education institutions. Given this broad and deep engagement with robotics technologies, the potential impact of a world-class robotics cluster in San Diego is tremendous.

From the development of poison gas in World War I, to the atomic bomb and hydrogen bomb in World War II and the Cold War, to todays drones and military ground-robots, the channeling of societys scientific expertise and engineering capacities into technologies of destruction is a key feature of the epoch of imperialism. Instead of tackling critical global problems such as climate change and improving the material conditions of the broad mass of humanity, imperialism mobilizes science and technology in the service of mass murder.

This is why taking control of societys productive forces by the working class, and the planned socialist organization of production for the benefit of humankind, is a necessity for the very survival of the human race.
The Zika virus has continued to spread in the United States and its territories throughout the summer months, leading to a health crisis with long-term impacts. Over 18,000 people have tested positive for the disease, including 1,750 pregnant women. Zika can cause a range of neurological problems and particularly targets fetal brain development, leading to birth defects, most notably microcephaly, the small development of the brain.

On Friday, Thomas Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that they are now essentially out of money, and that Americans are about to see a bunch of kids born with microcephaly. The CDC first requested funding in February, but Congress has yet to pass any funding measure.

The epidemic has steadily unfolded in the US despite constant warnings from health officials that preventive measures were necessary. In May 2015 the Zika epidemic in Brazil that has now spread to the US was first identified. In December 2015 the first case of local Zika transmission in the US territory of Puerto Rico was confirmed. In February 2016 the World Health Organization declared the explosive spread of the virus throughout the Americas a public health emergency of international concern.

The similarity of Zika to other mosquito-borne illnesses, like dengue and chikungunya, led a variety of experts from the National Institutes of Health, the National School of Tropical Medicine, the CDC and others to warn of Zikas impending spread throughout Puerto Rico and onto the US mainland. Despite these warnings, the US Congress went into recess in July without approving any funding.

On August 12, the US government declared a public health emergency in Puerto Rico due to the rapid spread of the virus, which would allow the access of emergency funds. Close to 50 pregnant women are testing positive for the disease daily, and the CDC estimates that by the end of this year, 20 to 25 percent, or 875,000 of the Puerto Rican population will have contracted the virus.

There are over a thousand new Zika cases being reported each week, and the total reported in Puerto Rico so far is 15,541, according to the CDC. Because most of those infected experience no symptoms, the number of people infected is likely much larger.

Unwilling and unable to address the poor health care, widespread poverty and antiquated infrastructure that forms the social basis of the Zika outbreak, government officials and agencies have focused on posturing over petty squabbles and half-measures.

The governor of Puerto Rica, Alejandro Padilla, filed a federal lawsuit July 21 against the CDC plan to use aerial spraying of the insecticide Naled across the island in order to slow the spread of Zika. The CDC has since backed down from the proposal, but has responded to the lawsuit, saying that Naled has been used in the United States for years and is currently being sprayed in Florida.

At sufficient concentrations, Naled is known to cause a wide range of issues, from nausea to paralysis, and is potentially deadly. It can also lead to neurological disorders in unborn babies. Although the concentrations used in aerial spraying are below those known to cause health problems, it can seriously impact other useful insects like bees. Due to its potential risks, Naled has been banned by the European Union.

Zika is primarily transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. The Aedes mosquito is the most common type in the US and throughout the world and spreads particularly well in poor urban environments. To breed, it only requires small puddles of water like those readily found anywhere without regular trash collection or piped water. Basic infrastructuresuch as indoor plumbing, air conditioned buildings, window screens and clean streetsgreatly reduces the ability of the mosquito to bite multiple people, spreading the disease.

The Zika virus targets the nervous system and its impact on fetal development can be catastrophic. It is known to cause microcephaly, a rare birth defect that causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads and life-threatening brain damage. If the mother contracts the virus at any point during her pregnancy, it can be carried over to the infant. The estimated cost to care for a baby diagnosed with microcephaly ranges from $1 million to $10 million.

It is unknown at what point in pregnancy and childhood the Zika virus affects brain development. Initial research on the Brazilian epidemic shows that affected infants born with a normal-sized head, generally those infected later in the pregnancy, can suffer from a host of difficulties, including abnormal eye development and hearing loss. The full impact of Congenital Zika Syndrome will only be discovered as doctors study those affected as they grow.

Although most adults who contract Zika show no significant symptoms, it can cause Guillain-Barre syndrome, an uncommon disorder that causes the bodys immune system to attack its own nerve cells. It can cause paralysis and death. There is currently no vaccine or cure for Zika.

Brazil is the epicenter of the current Zika epidemic, with 78,421 confirmed cases, and 196,000 suspected of having the virus. Poor access to health care and the lack of a simple test for Zika make the full extent of the epidemic difficult to know, but the number of infants with congenital defects has doubled since the outbreak. The outbreak began in the poverty stricken northeast region of Brazil. Birth malformations were at about 40 per 100,000 until November 2015. The number then jumped to 170 per 100,000 births, four times higher in the area.

The conditions of poverty that led to Zikas spread through Brazil are increasingly found within the United States. Florida, the only US state with local transmission of the disease, has an official poverty rate of 16.6 percent. Over 10 percent of the states children live in deep poverty, defined as less than half of the official poverty rate. In Puerto Rico, 45 percent of the population live below the poverty line, and the territorys health care system has faced massive cuts due to an ongoing $70 billion debt crisis.
LAKELAND, GA (WTXL) - Police have identified the suspects they believe were involved in two shootings in Lanier County.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has two warrants out for the arrest of Lewis Geddie, who also was shot Friday night, and Fredrick Calhoun. Geddie could be facing felony murder and aggravated assault charges while Calhoun is being charged for shooting Geddie.

At around 11:30 p.m., on Friday, Lakeland Police Department said they were called in reference to a shooting on East Peeler Ave. in Lanier County. When they arrived, they saw Willis Flintroyal, 32, and Schalonda Johnson, 32, had been shot.

While they were still on Peeler Ave., officers said they heard gunshots and went to an area near Martin Luther King Drive and 8th St. They found 20-year-old Lewis Geddie suffering with multiple gunshot wounds.

Officers said that Flintroyal later died after being transported to South Georgia Medical Center Hospital (SGMC) and his body was transported to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Medical Examiner's office for an autopsy. Both Geddie and Johnson were also transported to SGMC.

This investigation is active and ongoing. Anyone with information can contact the GBI Region 4 Douglas office at (912) 389-4103 or the Lakeland Police Department at (229) 482-3300.
MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, GA (WTXL) - An employee at the Moody Air Force Base was found dead while on duty Sunday.

The base said the civilian employee has been identified as Lisa Williams. Williams worked in lodging.

Local authorities have been working to determine the cause of death.

"It is a great loss to us all when we lose a member of our Air Force family. Team Moody and I extend our deepest condolences to family and friends during this difficult time," said Colonel Thomas Kunkel, 23d Wing Commander.

She is survived by her husband Scott Williams and their daughters Sarah and Kimberly Brown.

For any questions, contact the 23d Wing Public Affairs office at (229) 257-4146 during normal duty hours (7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) or the Command Post at (229) 257-3501 outside normal hours.
MOULTRIE GA. (WTXL)-- Police have charged a man in connection with the Moultrie shootings that left 2 injured and 1 dead.

The Moultrie Police Department said that Randall Lyles has been charged in the death of 27-year-old Anthony Lee.

Around 3:30 a.m., Moultrie police received a call for loud music in the area. However, before they found the music, they heard gunshots. Officers said they were then redirected to the 200 Block of 4th Street in Moultrie Georgia.

When they arrived, they found that Lee and brothers Rakeem and Randall Lyles had been shot. They were sent to a Colquitt Regional Medical Center to receive medical treatment where Lee later died as a result of his injuries.

Randall Lyles has been charged with felony murder and other charges related to gun possession. Rakeem Lyles was released from the hospital on Sunday and transferred to the Colquitt County Jail for an outstanding probation warrant.

Agents also learned that the loud music might have been an after party where an altercation had taken place between some attendees after they had left a local club earlier in the evening.

Moultrie Police requested Georgia Bureau of Investigation's assistance in the investigation. They are in the process of conducting interviews and gathering more information.

As more details become available, this story will be updated. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the Moultrie Police Department at (229) 985-3131 or the Thomasville GBI Regional Office at (229) 225-4090.
After the recent Naked Bike Ride, I'm quite confused. I thought exposing one's genitalia was illegal. (Please note I am not advocating public mooning, especially not in Pioneer Courthouse Square during KGW's Live @ 7.)

Scott N.

You're a little slow on the uptake, Scott (the World Naked Bike Ride was two weeks ago, and you're just now noticing that the people were naked?), but I like the cut of your jib. I don't want to see ityour jib should probably stay reefedbut I like the cut of it.

Public nudity is broadly legal in Oregonstate law says you can do as you like, as long as you don't do it with the intent to cause arousal in others.

To put it another way, nudity is legal in Oregon as long as there's no chance that anyone might be enjoying it. It's the same logic that left your middle-school library choked with 80-year-old Papua New Guinea boobies in National Geographic, but utterly devoid of Juggs magazine.

But that's state law. In hippy-dippy, free-love Portland, just like in that town in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," your nards are a crime whether they give anybody a boner or not.

Here, if your junk is out where a person of the opposite sex can see it (obviously, no one could possibly be aroused by a member of the same sex), you're guilty of indecent exposure under city ordinance 14.24.060.

Unless! Under the precedent set in 1985's Portland v. Gatewood (just call me Jack McCoy), wang-dangling can be permissible if it's in the service of a political message. This is the legal gloryhole that the Naked Bike Ride thrusts itself through.

The upshot is that if you're planning to drop trou on Live @ 7, as your attorney, I recommend first writing "Free Edward Snowden" across your butt cheeks.

QUESTIONS? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com

WWeek 2015
To shoot or not? A reporter finds it's not always an easy call
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On Monday, a new initiative popped up: A new organization called Mahlitim BeHamishim ("Decision at 50" in Hebrew) is calling for a referendum among Israelis regarding what is to be done with the Palestinian territories, with the 50th anniversary of the Six -Day War and Israel's control of said territories less than a year away. The organization is lead by former ministers and MKs from center-left parties, as well as public figures, peace activists, and others.

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According to Mahlitim BeHamishim leaders, they will try and make sure that a bill promising a referendum on the topic during 2017 be proposed in the Knesset as soon as it is back in session. In other words: They want to influence the government to strive for a two-state solution instead of treading water.

Estimates in political circles say that center-left parties will support the initiative and right-wing parties will oppose it. If that's the case, the initiative's chances are slim indeed, and it is destined to fall like others before it. The fact that in the days since its publication the main voices if support for the Mahlitim BeHamishim have come from Tzipi Livni, Isaac Herzog, Zehava Galon and others on the left isn't very surprising. What is strange is the silence from right-wing political leaders.

Will Israelis vote on the future of their country's involvement in the Palestinian territories? (Photo: AFP)

There are those in political circles who believe right-wing politicians may see the proposal as a significant opportunity. Parties such as Bayit Yehudi and perhaps Yisrael Beytenu as well could support the initiative in order to once and for all determine the question of the territories' future, believing that the majority of the Israeli public supports Israel's continued control of them and that a decisive victory on this issue could give a huge boost for the settlement movement. There's also the possibility that such an initiative would embarrass the prime minister, who claims publically to be in support of a two-state solution.

The prime minister's need to respond to the initiative may put him in an awkward position indeed. It's another headache for Netanyahu, and there may be quite a few in the right who'll find that quite amusing. Will he be forced to declare, in front of the whole world, that he really didn't mean his statements in support of the two states? Or will he find himself taking the same position as Israel's left-wing leaders?

What's interesting is that the left's position on the issue isn't all that clear either. In a meeting headed by two of the Mahlitim Behamishim leaders, former MK Betzalel Reshef and Peace Now Director Avi Buskila, and attended by MKs from the Joint List party, the Arab MKs expressed their disapproval of the initiative, saying the Israeli public has no right to decide the fate of the territories, since that right is reserved for the Palestinian population that lives there.

Bennet and Netanyahu. The referendum is another headache for the PM, but not necessarily bad for the education minister. (Photo: Emil Salman)

The initiative leaders tried their mightiest to convince the MKs that the referendum would determine Israeli policy and not be binding to the Palestinians, who'll be free to establish their own position in future negotiations. They further claimed that, things being as they are, Israel is already set to force its own will on the Palestinians, and that the referendum may represent hope for change.

The meeting ended in disagreement, and still  the Mahlitim Behamishim's leaders believe that if the bill is presented to the Knesset, the Arab MKs won't be the main obstacle to its passing.

sima-k@yedioth.co.il
The Chinese and Russian navies launched eight days of war games in the South China Sea on Monday, in a sign of growing cooperation between their armed forces against the backdrop of regional territorial disputes.

The "Joint Sea-2016" maneuvers include surface ships, submarines, ship-borne helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, along with marines and amphibious armored vehicles who will conduct live-firing exercises, according to a Defense Ministry statement issued Sunday.

The exercise is part of an annual program, which "aims to consolidate and advance the Sino-Russian comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, and deepen friendly and practical cooperation between the two militaries," Chinese navy spokesman Liang Yang was quoted as saying. "It will also improve coordination between the two navies on joint defense operations at sea," Liang said.
North Korea's foreign minister has arrived in Beijing, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported on Monday.

Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho's visit, if confirmed, comes amid a push by the United States for new sanctions against the secretive North Korea after its fifth nuclear test on Friday. China is considered North Korea's main diplomatic ally.
BIRMINGHAM- Police in Alabama say six people were shot, one fatally, after a peace rally at a public housing community.

Birmingham police spokesman Sgt. Bryan Shelton says that all six victims were innocent bystanders. The condition of the other five victims was not immediately available.

Police say the shootings took place about an hour after the peace rally ended in the community's Lewis Park.
Hillary Clinton won't have time for a sick leave. The Democratic presidential nominee was scheduled to embark Monday on a three-day campaign trip to California, including an election assembly, numerous meetings and a tight and demanding schedule, but was forced to cancel it. On Sunday night it was revealed that Clinton had known she had pneumonia since Friday and hid it from the public. Her doctor's statement after the event is politically too little too late.

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Democratic Party officials have already begun expressing concern and alarm in private telephone conversations and closed forums. The question hanging in the air in those conversations is what would happen if she were unable to keep running. If that happens, the Democratic National Committee will have to convene to decide on the procedure for selecting a replacement.

Like a driven leaf. Clinton enters her car after nearly collapsing at 9/11 memorial

There is no one in the party who can receive the nomination automatically. The committee may decide to reconvene the Convention to make the selection. it could be Bernie Sanders, who lost to Clinton in the primary elections, and it could be Tim Kaine, Clinton's nominee for vice president. It could also be a different candidate, such as Vice President Joe Biden. All options are on the table.

The moment the procedure is decided, the move will begin, but no one is talking about it out loud yet. It all depends on Clinton's decision whether to continue the campaign or drop out of the race.

Clinton stumbles after 9/11 ceremony

X

According to procedure, a presidential candidate presents a report on his or her medical state to the public. Clinton has done that: She presented a letter from her doctor stating that she was fit to serve as president. It was not a detailed letter, but it is known in Democratic circles that since the concussion she sustained several years ago, she has been taking blood-thinning medications, and she hasn't been hiding it either.

Her Republican rival, Donald Trump, presented a letter from his doctor stating that if he won the elections, Trump would be the healthiest individual ever elected president. The doctor later confessed that the letter had been dictated to him by Trump in his bombastic language.

If Clinton does not drop out of the race, her medical situation is expected to become a key issue in the campaign. While Trump did not respond to the event hours after her collapse, he will not keep quiet for long. A significant part of his campaign has been devoted to proving that Clinton is suffering from poor health.

Clinton's public image was built mainly on stamina: She nurtured the image of the "iron lady," a woman who knows how to exercise restraint and composure in the White House Situation Room alongside the president, while watching the Navy SEALs' operation to kill Osama bin Laden or while controlling every muscle in her face and concealing her anger and emotions as her husband, former President Bill Clinton, informs the nation that he did not have sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. That is the exact image that was cracked Sunday at the 9/11 memorial.

It was precisely at the most important moments of her presidential race, as she tries to ward off Trump's comments about her unstable health, that America watched her body betray her: Her knees trembled, she tried to walk and stumbled and she appeared wobbly. The woman who wishes to supervise every single detail, both in her life and in her campaign, was out of control. She looked like a driven leaf.

Even if it was dehydration following a heatstroke, and even if it was the result of effort and exhaustion, Clinton will not be able to shake off the increasingly growing interest in her health  the medications she has been taking and their effect on the person who could become the commander-in-chief of the US Armed Forces and hold the secret codes to the world power's nuclear weapon arsenal.
"We can't read them, they are completely impenetrable," said an Israeli intelligence official attempting to follow North Korea's ties with Iran and Syria. Israel has obtained information about those ties, but the information has always arrived from the Syrian or Iranian side, never from North Korea.

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The man describes a state in which senior officials cannot be convinced to defect while they go abroad ("they hold their families hostage until they return home"), agents cannot be recruited ("they sleep in fortified embassy compounds in Damascus or Tehran, and there is no contact with them") and their codes cannot be cracked ("the codebooks and communication means never leave the embassy compound").

North Korea's latest nuclear test. Continuously mocking the West (Photo: AP)

But Israel is not the only country that has failed to infiltrate North Korea. The entire West is surprised every time by the actions taken by that horrible state. As far as we know, that was also what happened three days ago, during its fifth nuclear test . A complete intelligence surprise, in complete violation of the promises North Korea pledged not so long ago. The Jong-il family, which has been controlling the country with an iron fist and oppression since the end of World War II, makes many promises. It just doesnt promise to keep them.

With all due respect to Iran or Syria, North Korea is the real "evil empire" (the phrase US President Ronald Reagan applied to the Soviet Union in 1983). A state which, according to United Nations assessments, has some three million people in a state of hunger at any given moment, a state whose rulers have mortgaged all its resources in favor of themselves and the cruel army they have created. North Korea is the most sealed state in the world, the least penetrable one from an intelligence and cultural aspect, and is the least susceptible to economic pressure  because its rulers simply dont care about their citizens.

North Korea has been the main supplier of missile, rocket, radar and nuclear component technologies to the State of Israel's worst enemies since the late 1980s. North Korea has nothing against Israel, it is simply looking for friends willing to pay a lot of money for the doomsday toys it markets without any pangs of conscience.

North Korea is continuously mocking the West. As part of a deal it signed with the Clinton Administration in the mid 1990s, it was supposed to receive nuclear knowledge for peaceful purposes in exchange for halting the military route to a bomb. Nonetheless, it secretly continued developing nuclear weapons. In 2002, when a US State Department envoy arrived in North Korea to present evidence to his hosts that they had continued to develop a nuclear weapon despite the agreements, he expected a sweeping denial. Instead, he received confirmation from his hosts, who announced that they had a nuclear weapon. In 2010, they struck another deal to place North Korea under a supervision regime in exchange for humanitarian aid, and violated it again with a series of ballistic missile launches and nuclear tests.

This crisis too will likely end without the flare-up of an all-out war between the two Koreas, but it conceals a grim lesson to the world, which is very relevant to Israel. Iran's leaders are looking at what happened to Muammar Gaddafi, and they certainly see him as a fool if not more. Gaddafi agreed to drop his nuclear weapon project in exchange for Libya's readmission into the family of nations. Had he not signed the deal and had he been in possession of a nuclear weapon when the riots broke out in his country, he could have possibly still been in power. There are strong doubts that NATO would have intervened in the situation in Libya if Gaddafi had nuclear bombs.

The Iranians are also watching North Korea, which developed a nuclear weapon and is using it to blackmail the West and terrify its neighbors. In other words, as far as Iran is concerned, the required conclusion is that there is nothing like a nuclear weapon to secure a regime's survival and that the international community attaches no price tag to a blatant violation of agreements on the matter.
The Jerusalem District Attorney's Office has announced that it is closing the case against suspects who allegedly attacked Tommy Hasson , a 22 year old Druze man, due to lack of evidence.

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The man was suspected of being attacked on nationalistic grounds after the suspects overheard him speaking in Arabic. He is already recognized by the National Insurance Institute as someone who survived ''enemy hostilities."

The Druze sector is very active in Israeli society, with a strong presence in the military and government.

The aforementioned attack occurred in January 2015. Hasson, who grew up in the Druze city of Daliyat al-Karmel, and who served in the IDF Druze Battalion and at the home of the President of Israel in Jerusalem. He was attacked by 10 men wearing kippot outside of the Jerusalem Central Bus Station.

Tommy Hasson who was attacked for speaking Arabic (Photo: Zohar Shachar)

Hasson was hospitalized in Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem, and the police arrested several suspects.

"The victim sustained a lot of injuries," said the judge who ordered the extended remand of the suspects. "This is a very dangerous offense, all the more so as it was done borne out of nationalistic motivations during those troubling days (the height of the recent wave of terror)."

The case continued slowly, and the physical case file itself was lost. However, after an article written by Ynet on the issue was written in March of 2016, the file was re-created, and Hasson was recognized as someone who was injured in enemy hostilities.

The announcement of the closure of the case surprised Hasson. "I'm really disappointed," he said on Sunday. "They know exactly who attacked me. I'm sure that if the incident happened the other way around  that a Jew was attacked by Arabs  everything would have ended differently."

The Jerusalem Prosecutor's Office responded, saying "the evidence recovered was sent to the Jerusalem District Attorney's Office. After consideration, the decision was made to close the case due to lack of evidence and the inability to fully identify the attackers."
Due to a rise in independently executed lone wolf Intifada terrorist attacks over the past few months, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi) and Minister of Information Gilad Erdan (Likud) are due to meet with Facebook Vice President of Public Policy Joel Kaplan, Facebook Head of Global Policy Management Monica Bickert and Facebooks Head of Policy and Communications Jordana Cutler on on Monday.

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They are meeting in an effort to contain and minimize online anti-Semitic incitement. The two ministers were looking to do so by having Facebook remove such terms as Intifada, Nazis, stabbings, and shahids, death to Jews and death to Arabs, which they claim can and do incite terrorism.

Law enforcement bodies in Israel have been working with Facebook representatives over the past few months in an effort to monitor inciting content. So far, Facebooks response has been largely positive and accommodating, removing many posts Israels law enforcement has deemed hateful, though there have also been instances when it did not.

Anti-Jewish incitement

As a result of Facebook adhering to its own regulations surrounding freedom of speech, MKs like Revital Swid (Zionist Union) have begun promoting bills to force Facebook to remove posts the State of Israel found to incite group hate. The bill stipulates the attorney general could issue an order companies like Facebook or Google to remove content that constitutes a criminal offense and a real threat to the safety of an individual, the public or that state.

Information Minister Gilad Erdan (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

Shaked: Israel is engaging in a defensive democracy

Shaked and Erdan also met with several heads of Facebook Six months ago, during which they stressed the link between online incitement and carrying out recent acts of terror. Regarding this claim, it should be noted that while many believe individual attacks are personally motivated, some have begun to view one-time terrorists as part of a larger scheme, lead by terrorist organizations such as Hamas, which have become better at covering their tracks.

We are engaging in defensive democracy, said Shaked. It would have been better if such a law wouldnt have been necessary, and internet services providers would act more responsibly. Terrorist groups are now using the internet in unacceptable ways, and we have to halt them quickly and efficiently by updating our existing legislation. Israel is at the forefront of the fight against terrorism and it cannot fall back on legislation concerning hurtful content.

Erdan added that A large part of the terrorists during the last wave were inspired by acts of incitement on the web. Unfortunately, since Facebook seems to be in no hurry to remove inciting content on its own, and since only some of the polices requests to remove such content are accepted, this law is essential to allow law enforcement the necessary tools to remove content that could lead to terrorism and murder.

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

UN Anti-Semitism conference finds 60% of hate posts from US

Reflecting the large-scale of online hate speech, a recent UN conference dealing with digital anti-Semitism recently found that some 250,000 anti-Semitic posts are made public across social media platforms every year.

The conference was lead by Israels UN Ambassador Danny Danon (Likud) and US ambassador Samantha Power. It included senior academics, international media companies and fellow ambassadors. Participants discussed the influence that online, anti-Semitic incitement has on the public, ways to monitor such actions and using advanced technology to combat it.

Vigo CEO Raviv Tal, whose company monitors and looks into social media phenomena, gave presentation on the subject at the conference. He noted that every hour, an average of two anti-Semitic posts are put up that call for violent action against Jews, which represent 7% of all anti-Semitic posts, and another 18% of anti-Semitic posts depict Jews as devil worshippers. 75% of anti-Semitic posts were found to be written by young, white men, 60% of anti-Semitic content is written in the US, 25% in Europe and the rest in Arab countries.

Anti-Semitism was found to be the third largest form of group anti-black hatred and homophobia. Despite their prevalence, though, social media platforms do not remove hateful posts targeting entire groups unless an official complaint is filed. Tal explained that according to their data, social media networks tend to ignore such complaints, since hate-mongering posts are likely to generate more traffic, which in turn creates more income for the company that supplies them with a public platform.
In a stark message to opponents, Assad made a rare public appearance Monday by attending prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha at a mosque in the Damascus suburb of Daraya. Rebel factions, for their part, have expressed deep reservations about the deal.

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The suburb, previously held by the rebels, surrendered last month and reverted to Damascus' control after four years of government siege.

L to R: John Kerry and Sergey Lavrov (Photo: AP)

The ceasefire deal, hammered out between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Saturday, allows the Syrian government to continue to strike at ISIS and al-Qaida-linked militants with the Jabhat Fatah al-Sham group (formerly the Nusra Front), until the US and Russia take over the task in one week's time.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visiting Syrian Army soldiers in the field

Under the terms of the agreement, the rebels and the Syrian government are expected to stop attacking one another. Along with Assad's government, his key alliesRussia, Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollahhave also endorsed the deal.

But that scenario is complicated by the fact that Jabhat Fatah al-Sham remains intertwined with several other groups fighting on the ground.

One of the more immediate goals of the Kerry-Lavrov agreement is to allow the UN to establish aid corridors into Aleppo, the contested northern Syrian city. Over 2,000 people have been killed in fighting over the past 40 days in the city, including 700 civilians and 160 children, according to a Syrian human rights group.

On Saturday, presumed Russian or government airstrikes on rebel-held Idlib and Aleppo provinces killed over 90 civilians, including 13 children in an attack on a marketplace in Idlib, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In the aftermath, rebels and opposition activists were asking on Sunday whether the government's side could be trusted.

Several previously negotiated ceasefires had all collapsed. A partial "cessation of hostilities" that brought sorely needed relief to civilians in March unraveled as the government continued to strike targets in opposition areas, including near a hospital and school near Damascus and a marketplace in Idlib province, killing dozens of civilians.

Previous ceasefires were also preceded by soaring violence as parties on all sides sought to improve their positions in the build-up.

In Turkey, meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his earlier calls for establishing a no-fly zone in northern Syria, saying it is essential to boosting security in the area.

Erdogan said he told the leaders of Germany, France, Russia and the US that training and equipping troops on the ground to battle back ISIS forces is "not enough" and that a no-fly zone should be the next step.

Speaking after holiday prayers on Monday, Erdogan said Turkey remains resolute in eliminating the threat posed by ISIS at its borders and has made that clear to world leaders.

Turkey launched an incursion into northern Syria in late August, driving ISIS away from the border and also seeking to counter the advance of US-backed Kurdish forces, which Ankara views with suspicion.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent visit to Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda in July 2016 was the highlight of intense diplomatic activity aimed at strengthening relations between the State of Israel and the 40 sub-Saharan countries with which the state has diplomatic ties.

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It was also the first visit by an incumbent prime minister since Yitzhak Shamir's visit to Liberia, Ivory Coast, Togo and Cameroon in 1987.

The State of Israel is also conducting extensive secret diplomatic activity in a bid to resume or establish diplomatic ties with Muslim states in Africa which it has no diplomatic relations with. As part of this activity, on July 20, 2016, the State of Israel signed an agreement to resume diplomatic relations with the Republic of Guinea , the first state in Africa to sever its ties with the State of Israel in 1967 following the Six-Day War.

Prime Minister Netanyahu in a meeting with African leaders in Entebbe, Uganda (Photo: Kobi Gideon, GPO)

After the agreement was signed, Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold visited Guinea on August 21 and met with the country's president, Professor Alpha Conde, and with 10 of his ministers. They discussed cooperation in different fields and agreed to complete the ambassadors' appointment process.

At the end of his visit to Guinea, Gold paid a rare visit on August 22 to a Muslim African state with which Israel has no diplomatic relations and met with senior officials there. Before this, on July 14, he visited Chad and discussed the renewal of diplomatic relations with Israel with its president, Idriss Deby. So far, the relations have not been restored.

Prime Minister Netanyahu in a meeting with African leaders in Entebbe, Uganda (Photo: Kobi Gideon)

The main goals of the extensive Israeli diplomatic activity in Africa are: An attempt to change the African states' voting patterns at the UN, the African Union, and other international forums, as so far most African states continue to vote in favor of pro-Arab resolutions despite the fact that they have good bilateral relations with Israel; an attempt to win observer's status or, at least, the status of an invited guest at the African Union; to expand trade relations between the State of Israel and African states; to aid African states in areas in which Israel has experience, such as agriculture, development, security and counterterrorism; and to curb the Iranian influence in Africa. At the moment, the State of Israel appears to be partially successful in reaching its objectives in Africa.

Are Sudan and Somalia also wooing Israel?

Israel has been successful in expanding its trade relations with African states which are experiencing fast economic growth, and is helping many African states in the aforementioned areas. In addition, the State of Israel has been successful in establishing diplomatic relations with Muslim African states who severed ties or had no ties with Israel in the past. In this regard, the agreement with the Republic of Guinea appears to be just the beginning.

Moreover, against the backdrop of the battle between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which reached its peak when relations between the two states were cut on January 3, 2016, and when relations between Saudi Arabia's allies in Eastern Africa  Somalia, Djibouti. Sudan and the Comoros Islands  and Iran were severed several days later, and with of the improved relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel as a result of the Iranian nuclear threat and the war on terror, Sudan and Somalia have reportedly begun wooing Israel. Israel has thereby practically succeeded in partially curbing the Iranian influence in the continent.

For now, the Iranian influence has been curbed in some states in the Horn of Africa and in Eastern Africa, and the route of Iranian arms shipments to Hamas  which passes through the Red Sea and Sudan to Egypt and from there to the Gaza Strip  has been blocked.

As a result of this activity, it is quite possible that other African states will change their voting patterns at the UN by abstaining in votes on pro-Arab resolutions on Middle Eastern issues, or distance themselves from them  as Nigeria did at the Security Council vote on December 31, 2014, when it moved from supporting a Palestinian proposal to abstaining.

An observer status at the African Union?

Nonetheless, the main challenge facing the State of Israel is its repeated attempts to gain observer status at the African Union. During Netanyahu's visit to Africa, it was reported that Algeria and Sudan had worked to thwart his visit to the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, although he had no plans to visit the place. South African objected to it too.

Netanyahu in Ethiopia (Photo: Reuters)

This is the result of attempts made by the Palestinians and Arab states to curb Israel's activity in Africa, including its attempts to gain observer status at the European Union. The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) received observer status at the African Union in 1974, when African states turned the Palestinian problem into an African problem. So after Israel and the PLO signed the Oslo Agreements in September 1993, African states  including Muslim ones  restored their ties with Israel. But some of those states, such as Niger and Mauritania, cut their ties with Israel again following the deterioration in Israel's relations with the Palestinians.

In the past, Egypt also played an important role in the attempt to limit Israel's steps in Africa, but today, in light of its budding relationship with Israel, which has warmed up in the three years of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's rule, and in light of the many internal challenging faced by Egypt, it seems to prefer to keep a low profile and not disrupt Israel's reentry into the continent.

Due to the centrality of the Palestinian problem in African states, it's very likely that in the event of progress in the Israeli-Palestinian process, Israel would also be able to gain an observer status at the African Union alongside the PLO and almost fully implement the targets of its reentrance into the continent.
US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro said that the US will be signing its largest ever aid package to Israel, and that the aid package will cover all of Israel's security needs until 2029.

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He was speaking at the opening of the 16th World Summit of the International Institute for Counter Terrorism at the Herzeliya Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) on Sunday.

"The next decade of American military support for Israel is spelled out in a Memorandum of Understanding our countries have been discussing in recent months. The new agreement with Israel will guide our military assistance until 2029, National Security Advisor Susan Rice told the American Jewish Committee a few months ago, and will be the single largest military assistance packagewith any countryin American history, the Ambassador said in his speech.

US Ambassador Shapiro speaks at 9/11 memorial ceremony (Photo: Reuters)

He went on to describe that the US will continue to help Israel maintain its qualitative edge in the region by providing the Jewish state with next generation fighter jets, helping to finance anti-missile technology, and investing in tunnel detection technology.

According to the Washington Post, the White House is delaying the signing of the agreement due to a conflict with the US Senate, chief amongst them South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham (R).

Graham is leading the fight in Congress to increase the amount of US aid to Israel to $3.4 billion.

Graham was quoted as saying the Israeli prime minister told me the administration is refusing to sign the (memorandum of understanding) until I agree to change my appropriation markup back to $3.1 billion, Graham said. I said, Tell the administration to go F themselves.

Im offended that the administration would try to take over the appropriations process," Graham said. "If they dont like what Im doing, they can veto the bill. We cant have the executive branch dictating what the legislative branch will do for a decade based on an agreement we are not a party to.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- A grouping of six Gulf Arab countries is expressing "deep concern" over a bill passed by Congress that would allow families of Sept. 11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia.

The head of the Saudi-dominated Gulf Cooperation Council said in a statement on Monday that the legislation runs against the principles of international law. GCC Secretary-General Abdullatif al-Zayani also says the draft law sets a dangerous precedent.

The US House of Representatives passed the legislation last Friday, following earlier passage by the Senate. The White House has signaled President Barack Obama would veto the legislation.
The Military Court in Jaffa handed down a controversial sentence to a soldier who threatened an officer with a knife, ruling that the soldier carry out 25 days worth of maintenance work around the base, in addition to a 700 shekel fine.

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The soldier threatened the officer with a knife after the officer trailed his car upon entering the Tzrifin army base. After passing through the base's gate, the officer had the soldier pull over and asked for his identifying information, stating that the soldier had driven in a reckless manner. The soldier, however, refused to give his information and swore at the officer. He then approached the officer, who was sitting in his own car, opened the door and said, What do you want from me, huh? Ill stab you. After returning to his own vehicle, he drew out a knife and held it 20 cm away from the officer. He also repeated that he would stab the officer and added that he was going to find out where he lives.

Yard work for knife wielding (Photo: Sharon Tzur)

The soldier eventually went back to his own car and continued driving. As he was drove away, the officer filmed his car.

The lenient sentence was reached due to a plea bargain between the military prosecution and the soldiers lawyer. The prosecution explained that the soldier had already served one day in jail on the day of the event, and that the light plea was based on his formerly clean record, his troubled family life, a positive character witness provided by his commander and the soldiers claim that he is dealing with an anxiety disorder.

The judges in the case explained their decision by saying, The soldiers commander has told us that he has a pleasant demeanorThe incident itself is very severe, but its circumstances here allow us to honor the agreement.
There is fury and fear amongst Israeli-Druze as Jabhat Fatah al-Shams (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) continues to capture territory in the Syrian Golan Heights, and approaches the Druze villages there.

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The Druze are considered apostates, or "takfiri" by Jabhat Fatah al-Shams, and will be massacred should the terror group reach their villages.

Druze MK Akram Hasson (Kulanu) called on Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beytenu) to protect the Syrian Druze in the Syrian Golan Heights in a Facebook post on Sunday.

"Jabhat al-Nusra will commit a massacre against our brothers in Syria, and we won't sit by quietly. Lieberman needs to wake up.

Defense Minister Lieberman meets with Druze officials in Daliyat al-Karmel (Photo: Ariel Harmani, Ministry of Defense)

MK Hasson claims that Jabhat Fatah al-Shams never tired to get close to the Druze villages until recently because they were afraid of an Israeli response. The MK's post has garnered thousands of likes and shares.

Hasson said in an interview that "Lieberman changed policy, and the IDF has begun to abandon our brothers in Syria."

Israeli-Druze spiritual leader, Sheikh Moafak Tarif, also expressed his fears over the fate of the Druze in Syria.

"If a massacre occurs, it will be an embarrassment and a disgrace to us all. Israel must warn the terror group against harming Druze. The only request the Druze have is to live in peace and quiet."

"The IDF is able to do what needs to be done to prevent an attack on the Druze  even from afar," he said.

Hundreds of Druze made their way to the Druze village of Majdel Shams in the northern Golan Heights, where they held a solidarity rally with their Druze brothers across the border in Syria.

The Defense Minister's Bureau responded, saying "this is absurd and worthless, and the whole point is for this unknown MK to make headlines. The IDF, at the behest of the Minister of Defense, to work to prevent the spillover of the Syrian civil war into Israeli territory, to keep the quiet on the northern border, and to keep the quiet of the citizens residing there. The Druze in Syria know that Israel is not indifferent to their fate.
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman spoke Monday evening at Ariel University, answering questions from students and local residents. He began his speech by talking about Sgt. Elor Azaria, who is currently on trial for manslaughter after being filmed in March shooting the already-neutralized Palestinian terrorist Abed al Fatah al-Sharif to death in Hebron.

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"We should all  media people, public figures, and politicians as well  remember: Any person who has not been convicted in court is innocent. Especially when we are speaking about soldiers who are under pressure (and experiencing friction with) a hostile population."

Lieberman. First Q&A in office. (Photo: Asaf Magal)

"We must understand that maybe one of them makes a mistake. They're only 18-19 years old, and a year's grind produces results. Convicting before the trial is absurd. Sadly, many  in the political ranks as well  already convicted him before the trial. With us, its all backwards," he continued. "My call to the public at large and the military establishment is this: Do not convict in advance. A military judicial system has to rule without pressures, and I expect the military court to rule in accordance with the facts, regardless of the pressures from left and right and (ignoring) background noises."

Lieberman also said that Azaria deserved support whatever the conclusions of the legal proceeedings "We will stand by the soldier even if he made a mistake. We are committed to giving him all of the help (we can). It cannot be that soldiers in uniform become objects of politicians' attacks. People in uniform are the emissaries of the people of Israel."

The defense minister also called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to adopt the fundamental principle, for any future agreement with the Palestinians, of land swaps. Why does the Triangle (a group of Arab downs adjacent to the Green Line) and Umm al-Fahm need to be part of Israel?, he asked the audience. Why do I need to subsidize Raed Salah and pay the salary of Hanin Zoabi? I do not understand why the prime minister will not adopt the core principle. The time has come for him and Likud to adopt the principle of land exchanges.

This was Lieberman's first such Q&A since becoming defense minister in May.
Two female soldiers who lost their way while using the GPS navigation application Waze were attacked with rocks after the app directed them into a Palestinian village near the Palestinian city of Tulkarm. The two soldiers were lightly injured before being save and removed from the area by the Palestinian security apparatus.

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When the two soldiers approached the Palestinian village, they called the police's emergency response hotline. The responders advised them to continue straight ahead in order to return to Israeli territory. A plain-clothes Palestinian police officer identified them and told them to go in another direction. After ignoring his advice and choosing instead to stick with that of the police, they were eventually identified by locals, who threw stones at their vehicle.

Two female soldiers attacked after driving into an Arab village

A Palestinian police officer called Palestinian police forces, and the two soldiers were evacuated to a nearby Palestinian police station. The Palestinian forces then contacted Israeli Civil Administration officers and transferred the two IDF soldiers over to the Israeli authorities.

According to initial investigations, the soldiers left division headquarters during the evening from their base in the Jordan Valley en route to their paratroopers base near Kfar Yona. They claim that they used Waze and typed in their destination as Givat Alonim near Kfar Yona. The application turned off during the journey however, causing them to accidentally drive in the direction of Tulkarm.

Two female soldiers pelted with rocks enar Tulkarm

According to another version of events, they intended to drive to Beit Lid military facility which Waze apparently confused with the Palestinian village of Beit Lid instead.

Soldiers pelted with stones

IDF soldiers are forbidden from relying solely on the Waze application, particularly when in the West Bank, since an investigation launched last February after two soldiers accidentally entered into the Qalandiya refugee camp in their vehicle and were attacked by Palestinians. They exited their vehicle and separated, only one in possession of a weapon.

One of the soldiers called other soldiers to the scene while, in the meantime, their vehicle was set on fire. The back-up forces located one of the soldiers in the camp while the second soldier, without a weapon, managed to make it on foot to Kohav Yaakov settlement.
The United States and Russia could approve Syrian government airstrikes as part of a new nationwide cease-fire, Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday. It's the closest any American official has come to suggesting indirect US cooperation with President Bashar Assad since the civil war started five years ago.

Kerry said Assad's forces aren't supposed to bomb Syria's opposition any longer because of the truce that began at sundown Monday. But he said the government could continue going after al-Qaida-linked militants in certain, unspecified areas.

If calm holds after seven days, the US and Russia would then cooperate on how to jointly combat the al-Qaida linked group formerly called the Nusra Front and now known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham. But the two powers also could approve Syrian combat missions against the group, he said.
The State Department says the Philippines has not formally requested the removal of US military personnel after its president said he wanted American forces out of his country's south and blamed the US for inflaming Muslim insurgencies in the region.

Department spokesman John Kirby said Monday that the US is aware of President Rodrigo Duterte's comments, but is "not aware of any official communication by the Philippine government to that effect and to seek that result."

He says the US remains committed to its alliance with the Philippines.

Last week, President Barack Obama called off a meeting with Duterte at a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders after the Philippine leader used the phrase "son of a bitch" in warning that he wouldn't accept lectures from Obama on human rights.
Health News

Scottsdale, Arizona - Ovarian cancer is a type of cancer that begins in the ovaries. Women have two ovaries, one on each side of the uterus. The ovaries - each about the size of an almond - produce eggs (ova) as well as the hormones estrogen and progesterone.

Ovarian cancer often goes undetected until it has spread within the pelvis and abdomen. At this late stage, ovarian cancer is more difficult to treat and is frequently fatal. Early-stage ovarian cancer, in which the disease is confined to the ovary, is more likely to be treated successfully.

Surgery and chemotherapy are generally used to treat ovarian cancer.

Early-stage ovarian cancer rarely causes any symptoms. Advanced-stage ovarian cancer may cause few and nonspecific symptoms that are often mistaken for more common benign conditions, such as constipation or irritable bowel.

Signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer may include:

Abdominal bloating or swelling

Quickly feeling full when eating

Weight loss

Discomfort in the pelvis area

Changes in bowel habits, such as constipation

A frequent need to urinate

When to see a doctor

Make an appointment with your doctor if you have any signs or symptoms that worry you.

If you have a family history of ovarian cancer or breast cancer, talk to your doctor about your risk of ovarian cancer. Your doctor may refer you to a genetic counselor to discuss testing for certain gene mutations that increase your risk of breast and ovarian cancers. Only a small number of women are found to have genetic mutations that can lead to ovarian cancer.
Washington: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Monday that health is an issue in the election campaign after his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, revealed she had pneumonia, and he said he would soon release detailed health information.

"I just hope she gets well and gets back on the trail, and we`ll be seeing her at the debate," Trump said in a phone interview with Fox News.

Asked if the health of the candidates was an issue, Trump said: "I think it`s an issue. In fact ... this last week I took a physical and .... when the numbers come in I`ll be releasing very, very specific numbers."

Clinton`s bout of pneumonia, kept secret until she nearly collapsed on Sunday, has raised uncertainty about her health going into the final weeks of presidential campaigning.

The Clinton campaign finally disclosed on Sunday that the 68-year-old Democratic presidential nominee had been diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday after she complained of allergies and was seen coughing repeatedly in recent days.

The disclosure was made public hours after her campaign said she had become "overheated" to explain why, knees buckling and unsteady, she was rushed from a ceremony marking the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York to her daughter Chelsea`s apartment.

Trump, 70, has been suggesting for weeks that Clinton lacks the energy needed to be president.

During the Republican primary campaign, Trump dispatched rival Jeb Bush by deriding him as a "low energy" candidate. His efforts to raise questions about Clinton`s stamina mirror that strategy.

The pneumonia incident brought up some familiar concerns about Clinton`s penchant for secrecy which has fueled a debate about her use of a private email server while she was President Barack Obama`s secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.

"Youve got Donald Trump promoting health conspiracy theories, to begin with, so anytime something even lends an air of credence to that conspiracy, it needs to be debunked right away, Democratic strategist Bud Jackson said.

Clinton`s campaign canceled a two-day trip by the former first lady to California which was scheduled to begin Monday morning.

Democratic donor and fundraiser Bill Bartmann fielded calls from about half a dozen Democrats worried about how Clinton`s health episode would look. The callers, he said, decided to wait and see how everything plays out.

The health problem was the latest blow for Clinton at a time when Trump has erased most of her lead in national opinion polls and is competitive again in many battleground states where the Nov. 8 election is likely to be decided.

Her dismissal of half of Trump`s supporters as a "basket of deplorable" of racist, homophobic people on Friday triggered a firestorm of criticism and prompted her to roll back the comment.

The issue also put pressure on both Clinton and Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, to reassure American voters about their health, given the rigors of the presidential campaign, in which the food is often unhealthy, sleep is elusive and the packed schedule and extensive travel is stressful.

"The short-term turbulence will be more about the handling of this than the substance, though I`m sure both candidates will be pressed for greater disclosure of health records," said David Axelrod, a former adviser to Obama.

Trump told CNBC on Monday he would probably release information about his own health this week.

TRUMP`S HEALTH

Trump is expected to discuss his own health regimen in an interview to air on Thursday with celebrity physician Dr. Mehmet Oz.

Trump, a New York businessman, has made no secret of his affinity for fast food, sometimes sharing photos of himself on his campaign jet or at Trump Tower enjoying fried chicken, hamburgers, and a taco bowl.

But he has made less information available about his health than Clinton has. Last December, he released a statement from his doctor, Harold Bornstein, that described him in excellent health with "extraordinary" strength and stamina.

The statement did not mention what medicine Trump might be taking or other details typically included in such disclosures. It was dramatically different from the hundreds of pages of medical records released by Republican nominee John McCain in 2008 to reassure Americans about his bouts of skin cancer.

If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency, Bornstein wrote. The Manhattan physician said in August he wrote the letter in five minutes as a Trump limo waited to pick it up.

Clinton released a two-page letter outlining her medical condition in July 2015 that sought to reassure Americans about her health after she fell and suffered a concussion at home in 2012 near the end of her tenure at the State Department.

PNEUMONIA RECOVERIES CAN VARY

Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert and senior associate at the UPMC Center for Health Security in Pittsburgh who is not treating Clinton, said recovery from pneumonia can vary from about a week to longer, depending on the severity.

"Some patients have very little difficulties with activities of daily living and are only mildly hampered by it while others may require hospitalization and have to reduce their activities," he said, adding that pneumonia was the 8th leading cause of death in the United States.

Clinton`s campaign is likely to be pressed on why she did not make her pneumonia diagnosis public until late Sunday afternoon despite receiving it two days earlier.

"I think it`s exceedingly important that Hillary Clinton be transparent about whats going on," said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley. "If she gets a report of pneumonia on Friday, they should try to tell the public in real time. The danger for a candidate is if they seem to be hiding their health history."
Birmingham: Police in Alabama say six people were shot, one fatally, after a peace rally at a public housing community.

According to AL.Com, police say the shooting happened at 8:25 p.M. Sunday at Gate City in Birmingham.

Birmingham police spokesman Sgt. Bryan Shelton says that all six victims were innocent bystanders. The condition of the other five victims was not immediately available.

Police say the shootings took place about an after a peace rally ended in the community's Lewis Park.

Police are investigating. Details about suspects and a motive were not immediately available.
New Delhi: Taking their fight for freedom from the oppressive establishment in Islamabad, Balochistan activists have decided to knock on the doors of the United Nations.

Balochistan activist Dilshad Baloch said, We will now protest on September 13 outside the UN General Assembly.

Every Indian around the world supporting us, it's great. We now look to intensify our protests, he added.

Mr Baloch is a prominent freedom movement activists and was recently in New Delhi to seek more support for their cause.

Praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for lending support to the oppressed Balochis, he had requested other world leaders to take notice of the genocide in Balochistan.

Following Prime Minister's speech on Independence Day, the United States had also expressed concern over the human rights situation in Balochistan and said it has been consistently asking all parties in Pakistan to work out their differences peaceably and through a "valid political process".

Union Minister Jitendra Singh had last week asserted that Balochistan is a very important security concern for India and said Pakistan should put an end to "operational atrocities" unleashed by Islamabad in the region.

"Balochistan is a very important security concern for India", Singh said.

Singh was replying to a question about India's reaction to the atrocities and operational terror by Pakistan on the people of Balochistan.

"You cannot allow your neighbourhood to be on fire because sooner or later it is going to impact you, you cannot build a heaven inside and leave a hell outside," the minister said.

Singh said that it is example of a boundary wall with another house and the other house being constantly in trouble and sooner or later you run a risk of being impacted by it.
Islamabad: At least four suspected terrorists were killed in the Sistan-Baluchestan province near the border with Pakistan by Iranian security forces.

According to the official Fars news agency, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) dismantled a group of nine terrorists killing four, including their commander, and injuring two others in the city of Saravan yesterday, reports the Express Tribune.

The terrorists, hailing from the Jeish al-Adl group, intended to carry out "sabotage acts inside Iran" but was disbanded by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the Kouhak border region, the official statement said.

The statement added that weapons, ammunition, wireless equipment, night-vision goggles and three Toyota vehicles were recovered from the terrorists.The Iranian intelligence and security forces last week claimed to have dismantled a group of 12 terrorists in the western city of Sardasht.
New Delhi: Bengaluru is burning over Cauvery water issue.

Several areas of Bengaluru were disrupted due to arson, vandalism and other violent incidents. Security was tightened across Bengaluru on Monday to prevent attacks on people over the Cauvery river water controversy.

Additional police forces were deployed in localities where pre-dominantly Tamils live.

Here is list of areas which should be avoided as violent protests have been reported from there:-

- KNP Bus Depot; several buses have been torched there

- ORR Service Road, opposite Park Plaza, near Kadabesanhalli

Lorry being removed at ORR Service Road, opposite Park Plaza, near Kadabesanhalli. Two people died in this accident pic.twitter.com/0n7vGnl1jF  Abhishek Goyal (@goyal_abhei) September 12, 2016

#CauveryIssue : As A Preventive Measure #Section144 CrPC Is Imposed In Bengaluru City From 1700 Hours Today  BTP (@blrcitytraffic) September 12, 2016

- Chamaraj pet 5th Main

- Kamakshi Palya

- Sunkadakatte Jn

- Gopalan Mall

- Bellanduru Ecospace

Due to #CauveryIssue Protest @ following places,Chamaraj pet 5th Main, Kamakshi Palya, Sunkadakatte Jn, Gopalan Mall, Bellanduru Ecospace.  BTP (@blrcitytraffic) September 12, 2016

- A Lorry accident near E-Zone on outer ring while moving from Marathalli towards Kaadubesanahalli has choked the traffic

A Lorry accident near E-Zone on outer ring while moving from Marathalli towards Kaadubesanahalli has choked the traffic.  BTP (@blrcitytraffic) September 12, 2016

- Traffic on Richmond road, Garudamall towards Hosmat hospital jn, Diary circle towards Dr.Marigowda road, HSR layout from BTM 29th Mn jn.

Traffic on Richmond road, Garudamall towards Hosmat hospital jn, Diary circle towards Dr.Marigowda road, HSR layout from BTM 29th Mn jn.  BTP (@blrcitytraffic) September 12, 2016

- Slow moving traffic Richmond circle from Siddalingaiah Jn towards Shanthi Nagar bus stop.

Slow moving traffic Richmond circle from Siddalingaiah Jn towards Shanthi Nagar bus stop.  BTP (@blrcitytraffic) September 12, 2016

- Nayandanahalli Jn, BHEL 2nd Gate, RR Nagar MYsuru Rd, Hoysala Jn- Kengeri, Suddugunte Palya

Due to #CauveryIssue Protest @ following places,Nayandanahalli Jn, BHEL 2nd Gate, RR Nagar MYsuru Rd, Hoysala Jn- Kengeri, Suddugunte Palya  BTP (@blrcitytraffic) September 12, 2016

- Nayandahalli area

- Mysuru Road, Bengaluru

- Pandavapura area
Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is expected to write a letter to his Tamil Nadu counterpart Jayalalithaa in view of ongoing violent protests and attacks on Kannadigas in the latter's state over Cauvery river water sharing issue.

The Karnataka government has decided to appeal for calm in view of reports that a group of unidentified assailants attacked the New Woodlands Hotel in Mylapore over the ongoing Cauvery water row between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

At least four people have been arrested in connection with the attack on the hotel.

"Around 3.15 am, a group came to the hotel and damaged glass panels. It seems the group attacked the hotel in protest against Karnataka's attitude in release of Cauvery river water," a police official told IANS.

A hotel employee confirmed the incident, adding that no person was injured in the attack.

A written note was also found at the New Woodlands hotel which warned of more attacks if Tamilians are assaulted in Karnataka.

Protests by pro-Tamil groups against the Karnataka government were reported from several parts of Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile, protests against the apex court order over Cauvery river water sharing also continued in Karnataka.

Metro services in Bengaluru were temporarily suspended following incidence of violence in the city

On Friday, there was shut down in Karnataka protesting the release of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu.

The Supreme Court, meanwhile, today modified its September 5 order and asked Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs instead of 15,000 cusecs Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu till September 20.

The apex court also expressed anguish over "tone and tenor" of Karnataka's plea, says law and order problem can't be ground for not complying with its order.

The order came after the Karnataka government on Saturday evening requested for an urgent hearing over the dispute.

The police have made elaborate security arrangements across Cauvery basin districts including Bengaluru.
New Delhi: Countering the Bharatiya Janata Party`s (BJP) claim that `jungle raj` would now return to Bihar following the bail of Mohammad Shahabuddin, the Janata Dal (United) on Monday said the state government was not responsible for the former RJD MP`s release from jail.

"The court had sent him to jail and given him life imprisonment. He was released with the court`s order itself. The Bihar Government is not responsible for this," JD (U) leader K.C. Tyagi told ANI. Resonating similar sentiments, another JD (U) leader Sanjay Singh said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has always been a leader and would remain so "No one can taint his image. Nitish Kumar has become a subject of discussion for his works. He has proved that he is the leader of Bihar by bringing the state back to track," he added.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has continued to maintain that the development is an indication that `Jungle Raj` is back in Bihar and Nitish Kumar can do nothing, but be a mute spectator. Emphasising that Nitish has no control over the current situation with Shahabuddin not even considering him as a Chief Minister, BJP leader Nalin Kohli said that it`s a matter of confirmation that `gunda raj and jungle raj` has returned to Bihar and Nitish Kumar is willing to be a mute spectator to what the people are suffering.

However, Nitish yesterday gave a terse response to Shahabuddin`s comments saying that he came to power only from the mandate of the public of Bihar and that he could not care less about what others said about it. Shortly after getting released, Shahabuddin said "My leader is Lalu Yadav," and dismissed Nitish Kumar as a "Chief Minister of circumstance." He had been sent to jail in November 2005 in connection with the murder of Rajiv Ranjan, a prime witness in the murder of his two brothers Girish Raj and Satish Raj. The brothers had been murdered in Siwan in August 2004.
Patna: The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Monday demanded that the Crime Control Act (CCA) be slapped against former Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Mohammad Shahabuddin who was released from Bhagalpur jail two days ago after spending 11 years in prison.

A delegation of the NDA met Governor Ramnath Kovind and submitted a memorandum demanding slapping of the CCA on Shahabuddin, who has been repeatedly termed as a terror and threat for law and order in the state.

Leader of the Opposition Prem Kumar said, "The NDA has demanded that state government impose the CCA against Shahabuddin to put him behind the bars again as an atmosphere of fear has gripped Bihar, particularly Siwan district. We have sought the Governor`s direction in this regard."

"We will not sit silent over this issue and expose the state government`s double standards," Prem said.

Another senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said it is for the state government to put Shahabuddin behind bars by invoking provisions of the CCA to restore the faith of the people in the government as had been done in the case of expelled Janata Dal (United) MLA Anant Singh.

He said Shahabuddin should be expelled from Bihar and brought back only to stand trial in the cases against him if it is not possible to invoke CCA against him.

Modi reiterated that the Nitish Kumar-led government is responsible for the release of Shahabuddin on bail as the state government deliberately delayed trial in one of the cases against him.

Shahabuddin was granted bail by the Patna High Court on Saturday in connection with the murder of a witness in the killing of two brothers in Siwan.
Patna: Defending Shahabuddin for his swipe at Nitish Kumar, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Monday said the Bihar Chief Minister has no issues with the statement made by the criminal-turned-politician.

Shahabuddin had on Saturday said: "My leader was Lalu Prasad, is Lalu Prasad and will remain Lalu Prasad." He further said "Nitish Kumar changes his stance according to the situation. He is not my leader. Lalu will always be my leader."

Nitish Kumar on Sunday countered the former RJD MP, saying that people of Bihar have given the mandate to him and asked media "not to waste time and space by giving mileage to such people".

Talking to reporters on Monday, the RJD chief said Shahabuddin just said that Lalu is his leader. Nitish Kumar has no issues with it, added Lalu.

Shahabuddin was released from prison after 11 long years on Saturday to a tumultuous welcome by hundreds of cheering supporters.

He claimed that he was framed in criminal cases and that politics had nothing to do with the bail the Patna High Court granted him four days ago in a case related to the killing of a murder witness.

Shahabuddin is facing 35 criminal cases including murder, extortion, and kidnapping. He was convicted in seven cases.

Before his arrest in 2005, he was a Rashtriya Janata Dal MP - and a law unto himself. He was four times RJD MP from Siwan - from 1996 to 2009.

His rise as a muscleman began when he was elected as an independent legislator. His terror in Siwan lasted for over two decades. But many also saw him as a Robin Hood.

He gained popularity after ordering Siwan's doctors and lawyers in the mid-1990s to stop charging exorbitant fees from patients and clients.

He is said to have helped many poor people by providing dowry and cash for their daughters' wedding.
New Delhi: A day after being booked by the Delhi Police for damaging AIIMS property and threatening its security guards, AAP MLA Somnath Bharti on Monday cried foul and alleged that his party members were being targeted by their political rivals.



Through a mail addressed to media houses, Bharti also sought to explain the chain of events leading to the registration of an FIR against him following a complaint from AIIMS Chief Security Officer RS Rawat.

''In the year 2010 during CWG games, Gautam Nagar Nala lying behind AIIMS was decided to be covered to provide a road from General Raj School to Ring Road in parallel to Aurbindo Marg.

Crores of the public money were spent but the work was shoddy and left incomplete, deliberately, so that the built cover of Nalah doesn't get used by the local residents primarily of Gautam Nagar, Masjid Moth, Niti Bagh etc. resulting in illegal misappropriation of the property by AIIMS,'' he said.

Bharti said that AIIMS recently started using the road for illegal parking, making to the tune of 20 lakhs every month.

He further stated that local residents have long demanded access to this partially built road to have a bypass to Ring Road and to AIIMS. In absence of this access, local residents have to take a detour of over 3-kms spending over 40 minutes to reach AIIMS.

Bharti said that he had taken up the issue with Delhi Govt officers and SDMC.

He informed that he got response from the PWD, which convened a meeting of officials from UTTPAC, SDMC, Traffic Police, CPWD and AIIMS. However, there was no response from AIIMS in this regard.

On September 9, he along with some residents reached the disputed site after a letter was sent by chief engineer, PWD to all concerned.

Here is d letter of PWD 2 AIIMS explaining d situation completely. AIIMS is attempting 2 monopolize public property. pic.twitter.com/DpACLeQiKW  Adv. Somnath Bharti (@attorneybharti) September 11, 2016

Around 9.30 am, he claimed, residents gathered and JCB started the demolition of the wall to connect the road built on the Nalah to Sudershan road. Within minutes, the AIIMS officials gathered on their side with JCB.

The demolition was stopped after the intervention of SHO, Hauzkhas and an assurance was given that AIIMS will participate in the discussion on the issue on September 14 at PWD HQ at ITO.

He also informed that everything was recorded, which further proves that there was no scuffle between AIIMS guards and local residents.

The clarification from Bharti came a day after police lodged an FIR against him following a complaint from AIIMS Chief Security Officer RS Rawat.

Rawat, in his written complaint at Hauz Khas police station, alleged that Bharti, around 9.45 am on September 9 "provoked the mob to damage the fence of government property (AIIMS)".

"Bharti gave permission to unauthorised persons with JCB machines to get access inside AIIMS from Gautam Nagar Nallah road side and misbehaved with security personnel," a police officer, citing Rawat's complaint, was quoted as saying by IANS.

It was also alleged that six security personnel were injured while trying to intervene and stop Bharti and his supporters from damaging AIIMS property.

Through a series of tweets, Bharti also spoke about the AIIMS land encroachment issue and the subsequent action against him.
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will leave for Bengaluru on Tuesday to undergo throat surgery for his persistent cough, an official said.

"He (Kejriwal) will leave tomorrow (Tuesday) for Bengaluru for his throat surgery for treatment of his cough problem. He will remain under observation for a few days after the surgery. He will stay there till doctors advise him," the official told IANS.

He is likely to return on September 22.

The official, however, refused to divulge further details like the name of the hospital where Kejriwal will be treated.

Bengaluru is currently witnessing violent protests over the Cauvery water sharing row.

In Kejriwal's absence Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia will look after the chief ministerial works.

Earlier in 2015, Kejriwal had attended a 10-day naturopathy treatment for his cough problem at Jindal Naturecure Institute in Bengaluru.

Sources in the government said that after returning from Bengaluru, Kejriwal is expected to visit Goa from September 26 to 28.

In Goa, Kejriwal will meet the party workers and campaign for the assembly elections due next year.

AAP has decided to fight assembly elections in Goa.


New Delhi: The National Students Union of India (NSUI) on Monday complained of opacity and malfunctioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) during the recently concluded Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections, in which they managed to secure only one seat, that of Joint Secretary, out of four.

A delegation of NSUI comprising Oscar Fernandes, Member of Parliament (MP); K. C. Mittal, Secretary of All India Congress Committee (AICC); Amrita Dhawan, National President, NSUI, along with several lawyers approached the Grievance Redressal Committee and presented their demands which included recounting of votes and video recording of the counting of votes.

"On the day when the election was announced, we met the Election Commission and asked for cameras to be installed during the counting process so that transparency is ensured... The counting was happening on twelve different tables, how is one candidate supposed to see all the tables simultaneously? It took only 45 minutes for the counting of 140 machines. There is something amiss in the entire process," Amrita Dhawan said before the grievance committee.

She also raised the issue of faulty EVMs at several colleges where the ballot '5' (NSUI's ballot) was "unpressable", and in one case votes that were supposed to go to NSUI went to ABVP (Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad), the party which won the other three seats.

"In Lakshmi Bai college, ballot no 5 for President post was not pressable because of glue. In KMC, 5 was not pressable and when students raised it with the teachers, they were asked to press any other button that was pressable. In Aurobindo College, for anyone pressing ballot no 5, the light for ballot 1 was blinking," Dhawan said.

"Several calls were made to 100 regarding these issues. When it was raised with the Chief Election Officer, he messaged saying 'issue resolved'. The very fact that he said the issue has been resolved acknowledges the existence of the problems to begin with," Dhawan added.

The delegation also demanded the number of votes polled per voting machine as secured by each candidate be made available to them and that no office-bearer takes charge of the DUSU office until the issue is resolved.

NSUI has also refused to file the details of the expenses incurred by it during the campaign, which each party is required to file within two days of the announcement of the results.

The results of the yearly DUSU elections were declared on Friday; according to which ABVP bagged three seats, those of President, Vice President and General Secretary. NSUI, after a drought of two years managed to win one seat this year.
Panaji: Newly-appointed Goa RSS chief, Laxman Behre, on Monday criticised Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar for 'mishandling' the Medium of Instruction (MOI) issue, over which regional language crusader and former state head of Sangh Subhash Velingkar broke ranks and floated a parallel outfit recently.

"Parrikar has been successful as a politician. That is why he was inducted as Defence Minister. But he did not handle the MOI issue properly (when he was the chief minister)," Behre told PTI at Ponda town today.

"He should have handled the MOI issue properly, soon after taking over the reins during the first session of Goa Legislative Assembly itself," he said.

Behre, however, was quick to add that Parrikar remains to be a Swayamsevak.

"Once you attend the Shakha and sing prayers, you become a Swayamsevak. He can now come to any Shakha, if he wishes to. We will not force him to come to Shakha," Behre said.

He said the Sangh does not ask its Swayamsevaks to vote for any political party, not even the BJP.

"Let BJP work on its own. Sangh will not ask its workers to vote for any particular party. We have not issued any such instructions even in the past. What we tell the workers is to ensure 100 percent voting, and elect a good person. Sangh treats all political parties at par," Behre stated.

He said the decision of Sangh to "relieve" Velingkar was to allow him to work more vigorously for the Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch.

"Velingkar was relieved from the post because he should be working with more vigourously for BBSM," Behre said.

"After that decision, the post remained vacant. In Sangh, we have a system wherein we will have to listen to what the seniors say. They gave me the responsibility, which I accepted," said

Behre, who has 47 years of association with the outfit and was Secretary for its Keshav Seva Sadhana.

He said the Sangh and "RSS Goa Prant" floated by Velingkar has "no differences of opinion".

"We have no differences of opinion with them. Whatever differences we have are temporary," Behre said recalling Velingkar's statement that they would be merging with RSS after Goa elections and work unitedly.

"Sangh completely supports BBSM and their demand on MOI. But Sangh has a rule that an office bearer should not get into politics or should not play a role clashing with the ruling party," he said, adding that Sangh had no interest in BBSM's decision to float a new political party.
Pratapgarh: At least 158 people have been booked for allegedly misbehaving with BJP MP and Union Minister Anupriya Patel during a road show in Uttar Pradesh's Pratapgarh.

An FIR was lodged against them at Raniganj police station for misbehaving with the Apna Dal leader.

According to a senior police officer, "An FIR was registered against local leader Vinod Dubey and over 157 others last night for allegedly misbehaving with Patel and Apna Dal workers during their party's roadshow."

What happened actually?

The incident had occurred on Sunday afternoon when Apna Dal workers were on a roadshow with Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Anupriya Patel and party MLA RK Verma.

Police said the procession came face to face with the supporters of Dubey, who is planning to contest the state Assembly polls as an Independent candidate, leading to an argument.

Conspiracy by Samajwadi Party?

The Union minister had said the incident was a "conspiracy" to disturb her party's procession.

"I think it was a conspiracy (of ruling SP). I was not provided with security and even after complaining, the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police did not reach the spot immediately," she had said.

She said if such was the response of the law enforcement agencies to a request by the minister, then "one could easily understand the plight of common people regarding law and order matters".

Alleging misbehaviour with their leaders, Apna Dal workers had blocked traffic on Raebareli-Varanasi highway and later, when the Union Minister left, they sat on a dharna.
New Delhi: Undeterred by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's fearsome reputation as a "global terrorist", it has now come to light that one of his several henchmen, Khalique Ahmad, had duped him of Rs 40 crore and eloped.

A ToI report, citing intelligence intercepts, said that Khalique was supposed to have picked up Rs 45 crore from a New Delhi-based person and sent Rs 40 crore abroad through hawala channels, after keeping Rs 5 crore as Dawood's "transfer cost".

However, the amount  Rs 40 crores  supposed to be sent to Dawood apparently disappeared, along with Khalique.

The Indian intelligence sleuths got wind of the "embezzlement" through tapped conversations between Jabir Moti - Dawood's henchman in Pakistan - and Khalique Ahmad.

Importantly, Khalique used to shuttle between India and Sharjah and operated through a cell phone which was tapped by the intelligence agencies here.

The intercepts show Moti telling Khalique that Dawood's man, Razzak bhai, had detected alleged misappropriation in the transaction. According to Razzak, Khalique misused the name of Bade Hazrat (Dawood) to swindle the money, causing a dent in the don's reputation.

The intercepts reveal that D Company had even sent two "detectives" from Delhi to Canada on November 26, 2015 to investigate the "fraud".

Khalique is currently believed to be hiding in Manipur, the ToI report said quoting sources.

Half of the Rs 40 crore was supposed to be sent to a Panama bank and the other half was to meant to be invested in Dawood's businesses abroad.

However, in the conversations, Khalique denies the embezzlement allegations and says there had been some confusion.

The intercepts also confirm that apart from dealing in arms, extortion, conflict diamonds and narco-terrorism, India's most wanted man and global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim had taken to money laundering and controlled a chunk of the black money racket in India.

His men pick up cash from door-steps in Delhi, Mumbai and other areas and wire it to Panama, Canada, Dubai and Pakistan through hawala channels. The money is deposited in anonymous bank accounts or invested in companies.

After a few years, the money is routed back to India and returned to the owners as "white" money.
Delhi: Contrary to reports that Dawood Ibrahim's funds, routed through various countries, was being swindled by someone from their own gang, it has now emerged that Government of India was working behind the curtain to cripple the underworld don.

As per a report in India Today, government has been tracking the business of D-company in several countries.

The media house quoted intelligence agencies as saying that Dawood was not cheated of Rs 40 crore but the government got several of his transactions in UAE, Canada, UK and Australia seized over the past two years.

India has managed to make governments of many countries agree to keep a track on Dawood's business activities and transactions, as per the agencies.

Indian agencies are said to have been successful in getting five to six hawala transactions and one of it was frozen by a bank in UAE.

This was suspected to be hawala money and was said to be routed through India-Dubai-Canada-Dubai-India.

The bank, when asked about the credentials of the end person, did not provide any and thus the transaction money was shifted to some sundry accounts in parts.

Dawood gang thought that someone from within was routing such transactions.

However, as per the report, it later realised that the banks acted in such a manner on pursuance of the Indian agencies.

The D-company has now supposedly narrowed down its hawala business to an exclusive group of confidants and through secure banks availing different routes.

Meanwhile, intelligence agencies are now tracking front-men of Dawood in India and other countries to gather information about new modes of transaction.

Dawood is wanted in India for the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai in which more than 250 people were killed and nearly a thousand injured.
Vadodara: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has said the long pending issue of demand for transfer of defence land here to Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) will be resolved at the earliest.

City Mayor Bharat Dangar, Vadodara BJP MP Ranjanben Bhatt and VMC Commissioner Vinod Rao met Parrikar in this regard during his visit to the city yesterday.

"I have sought details from the Defence office in Pune and after getting it, the bottlenecks in the transfer deal will be cleared," Parrikar told PTI before leaving from here late last evening.

He said they have to look into all aspects related to the transfer of defence land to the institutions who want it.

VMC requires the land for solving the problem of traffic congestion in the city, which has witnessed a considerable increase in vehicular traffic in past 20 years.

The VMC has been seeking since 1996 transfer of 12,438 sq m of defence land for widening of roads. This includes 8,752 sq m land in Tarsali, 1,887 sq m land near EME School in Harni, 289 sq m land near Lalbaug Bungalows in Manjalpur and 1,510 sq m near Kapurai range in Danteshwar.

In this regard, Dangar also handed over a letter to Parrikar, who assured him of looking into the matter to resolve it soon.
Srinagar: Kashmir remained shut for the 66th day with authorities deploying security personnel in Srinagar and other places in the Valley to maintain law and order on Monday.

A senior police official told IANS, "Restrictions have been imposed in Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama districts."

The Valley will remain shut despite Eid celebrations on Tuesday, the official added.

Two of the most sought after food items on Eid, mutton and bakery remained unavailable to the people of the Valley.

Educational institutions, main markets, public transport and other businesses remained suspended.

A total of 80 people have died and around 11,500 others injured in the ongoing unrest that started here on July 9.
Thiruvananthapuram: The Muslim community of Kerala celebrated Eid on Monday and visited specially erected Eid-Gahs, halls and mosques across the state to offer prayers. It was a public holiday for all offices here.

Eid Gahs -- open-air gathering outside the city -- with special enclosures for women witnessed a large footfall, as many attended special prayers and messages given by the clerics.

Kerala has 88.73 lakh Muslims and huge crowds participated in prayer centres in Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasargode ditricts.

As the day coincided with the Haj pilgrimage in Makkah, sacrificial meat was also distributed after the prayers.

The Onam festival would start here on Tuesday.

As this Eid is celebrated with the sacrifice of a sheep, goat, buffalo or camel along with the Eid prayers, the price of mutton touched a record Rs 700 per kg.
Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday said that his government is well prepared for the tripartite meeting to be held on September 17 in Delhi on the Mahanadi river water dispute.

"We are fully prepared for the discussion with the central government on 17th in this month," the Chief Minister, who also heads the Water Resources Department, told reporters here.

He also invited suggestions from different political parties and voluntary organisations on the issue.

"I welcome suggestions from individuals, voluntary organisations and political parties on Mahanadi issue," said the Chief Minister after holding a preparatory meeting at the state secretariat here.

The meeting was attended by four ministers - Debi Prasad Mishra, Bikram Keshari Arukh, Usha Devi and Bijayshree Routray. Besides, the chief secretary, development commissioner and other officials were present.

A tripartite meeting will be attended by the Chief Ministers of Odisha and Chhattisgarh and Union Minister for Water Resources to resolve the water sharing dispute.

The ruling Biju Janata Dal's fact-finding team, which had visited Chhattisgarh last month for an on-the-spot study of the existing and upcoming projects in the upstream of Mahanadi river, submitted its report to party chief and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday.

The report contained information about the construction of projects under PPP mode by the Chhattisgarh government to provide water to industries, construction of existing and ongoing projects without informing the Odisha government, said BJD sources.
New Delhi: Comedian-actor Kapil Sharma last week triggered a political storm by tweeting a complaint to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding a bribe demanded by the Mumbai civic body official.

He said he has been paying Rs 15 crore income tax for the last five years and has been asked for a Rs 500,000 as bribe by Mumbai's Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for getting his office done up.

He tagged Modi's Twitter handle @narendramodi in the post.

A video has gone viral on YouTube showing Modi saying that even for a small incident anywhere, Prime Minister is targeted. Notably, the clip is a part of Modi's Townhall interaction with the nation on August 06.

Watch the video:
New Delhi: The Supreme Court is due to hear on Monday a plea seeking the setting up of a "public body", independent of the executive and judiciary, to ensure fair appointment of judges in High Courts and the apex court and check nepotism.

A bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice DY Chandrachud took up the matter after it was mentioned by advocate Mathews J Nedumpara seeking urgent listing.

The PIL, filed by National Lawyers' Campaign for Judicial Transparency and Reforms and its office bearers, alleged that that the "common deserving lawyers" are usually not considered for appointment of judges in the higher judiciary and that those close to the judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts or politicians or big industrial houses only got chosen.

"In the eyes of the Petitioners, what is paramount is a system of appointment of Judges independent of both the executive and the judiciary," it said.

Alleging nepotism in the selection of judges, the plea said the existing system has appointed the "kith and kin of sitting and former Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, their juniors, celebrated lawyers, Chief Ministers, Governors and a few first generation lawyers who are all politically connected or are close to big industrial houses."

The plea said the mechanism of appointment of judges, independent of the executive and the judiciary, was "killed" even before it was allowed to take birth by the judgment in the NJAC case.

"No mechanism in substitution thereof, which will provide for a just, fair, open and non-discriminatory selection and appointment of Judges from a diverse and wider pool of candidates than the traditional ones, namely, the kith and kin of Judges, their near and dear ones, has been brought into existence...", the PIL claimed.

It alleged the fundamental right of being considered for such appointment of ordinary lawyers has been infringed in the wake of quashing of National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) Act and enabling 99th constitutional amendment by the Supreme Court.

The plea also said that there was no effective mechanism to address complaints of misconduct against judges.

The Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2012 introduced in Parliament, remained in "cold storage" as the judges were not "forthcoming to welcome" it.
New Delhi: In a shocking incident, a Pakistani police officer forcibly sold a Hindu girl whom he had rescued from her abductors. And three days later, she was converted to Islam and married off to a stranger, India Today reported.

The policeman, who is deployed in Sindh province, reportedly sold the girl for Rs 50,000.

The victim has been identified as Anila Bagri who hails from Mirpur Mathelo in Sindh province's Ghotki district. She was forcibly married to Zafar Masoori.

The incident came to light when she narrated her ordeal at a police station.

She alleged that Sajjad Qazi, a cop, held her back and did not allow her to go home.

When her family came to know about her rescue from the abductors, they approached Mirpur police but Qazi refused to let go the girl, the report said.

Qazi handed Anila to one of his friends, Masoori in return for money, it added.

After the local media highlighted her case and the ensuing public pressure, the administration was forced to conduct an inquiry.

The accused police officer has been suspended pending an enquiry.

"Forced conversion of Hindu girls in Pakistan is not new. Such incidents are not about Rinkals, Anjalis, Shobhas or Anilas. It's not about names. The point is how to find a solution to this problem."

"There seems to be a conspiracy behind it. They want to disturb the Hindu community so that they move out from here. But, we will stay here. We appeal to the government to protect our children and our family," India Today quoted activist Ravi Dawani of All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat as saying.
Coimbatore: A petrol bomb was hurled at the house of a Hindu Munnani leader by some miscreants in the wee hours on Monday in neighbouring Tirupur, causing damage to the building, police said.

The attack was carried out on the house of Hindu Munnani's Tirupur treasurer, Shanmugam at around 2 AM. The portico of house suffered some damage in the incident, they said.

Protesting the attack, the outfit has called for a bandh in Tirupur tomorrow.

The Hindu Munnani along with Tirupur Industrial Protection Committee, of which Shanugham is a member, appealed to the traders and establishments to support to shutdown.

The attack comes a day after a similar incident on the house of a Hindu Munnani leader in Vellore district.

Three unexploded crude petrol bombs were reportedly found at a divisional functionary's house in Vellore yesterday.
Srinagar: Militants hurled a grenade at a police post in Ananantnag district tonight, killing a civilian and injuring 10 people including three policemen.

Police said the militants hurled a grenade at the police post in Sherbagh area, nearly 55 km from here, at a time when people were busy doing last-minute shopping for Eid tomorrow.

The grenade exploded on a road injuring 10 people, including Bilal Ahmed, who later succumbed to his injuries in a hospital, police said.

Out of the 10 injured, three policemen were critical and had been rushed to the Army hospital here. Two injured civilians were also moved to a hospital in Srinagar.
Srinagar: For the first time in many years, all 10 districts of the Kashmir Valley will be under curfew on Eid on Thursday to prevent any outbreak of violence.

The Army, which has been asked to be on standby, will step in if there is fresh outbreak of violence in the Valley, which has been witnessing widespread unrest for over two months leading to death of over 75 people so far, official sources said.

Army troops have already been stationed at vantage points in rural areas which have a history of violent protests, they said, adding curfew will be in force from midnight tonight.

The decision to impose restrictions on assembly of large number of people has been taken in view of the call by separatists for a march to the local offices of the United Nations tomorrow, official sources said.

This is probably for the first time that curfew will be in place on the day of Eid festival ever since militancy broke out in the state in 1990.

Helicopters and drones will keep a bird's eye vigil from the skies and give early warning to security forces in case of assembly of people in certain areas, the sources said.

They said security forces will be out on the streets in adequate strength following apprehension of violence by the separatist elements, who often use women and children as "shields" during protest rallies resulting in civilian casualties.

This is for the first time in 26 years since the onset of militancy that no Eid congregations will be held at the Idgah and Hazratbal shrines here.

The sources said that people will, however, be allowed to offer Eid prayers in local mosques.

The government has already ordered shutdown of Internet services of all telecom networks and also mobile telephony except that of the state-run BSNL for the next 72 hours because of the tense law and order situation in the state.

The decision to completely ban Internet services was taken after a review of the prevailing law and order situation in the state on the eve of Eid-ul-Zuha festival tomorrow, the sources said.

They said Airtel, Aircel, Vodafone and Reliance telecom have been ordered to shut down their services with immediate effect for 72 hours. The BSNL too has been asked to stop its broadband services for Internet.

However, post-paid BSNL connections, which are mainly used by police, army and government officials, have been kept out of the purview of the ban, the sources said.

Mobile telephony was banned immediately after the death of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8 which set off the current spiral of violence in the Valley. It was partially restored on July 27 followed by opening of only broadband Internet.

Opposition National Conference slammed the government for its decision to impose curfew, saying it vindicated the party's claim that the Mehbooba Mufti government had no control over the situation.

"The PDP always loves to compare the situation with 2010 agitation but never ever has there been a curfew on auspicious occasion like Eid before," the National Conference spokesman said.
Jammu: His father wanted him to join the armed forces and serve the country. Nabeel Ahmed Wani is now happy that he fulfilled his father's dream.

The topper of the BSF Assistant Commandant's exam feels that unemployment is the biggest problem being faced by the youth which can only be solved by education.

The resident of Jammu and Kashmir said: "We cannot get education by taking to stones but by holding a pen."

Currently a Junior Engineer in Udhampur, Wani said: I had made it my aim to join the defence forces. I had appeared in various exams including the armed forces and BSF. I am happy I topped BSF Assistant Commandant's exams".

Wani had lost his father, who was a teacher by profession, some years ago.

"I belong to a village. We had no sources but my mother and father supported me. I did my engineering from Punjab and obtained the first rank in the exams," he said.

(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi: Kashmir has been on the boil ever since Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani was gunned down by the security forces but there's another side to the story  another Wani.

Meet Nabeel Ahmad Wani, a young man from Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir, who topped the BSF assistant commandant examination recently.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh met 26-year-old Nabeel Wani yesterday and said that his success story will inspire many in the state.

Wani was accompanied by Director General of Border Security Force KK Sharma when he met the Home Minister, who also wished Wani success and bright future in life.

The Home Minister also introduced Wani to top officials, including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and others, who had come for a meeting with Singh during that time.

Wani said that he felt unemployment was the biggest problem being faced by the youth which can only be solved by education.

Wani, who is currently serving as a junior engineer in Udhampur, said it was his dream to join the defence forces and serve the country which has now been fulfilled.

"The more we get education the better and more jobs we will get. We cannot get education by taking to stones but by holding a pen," Wani said.

The TOI quoted Wani's mother Hanifa Begum as saying: "I am very happy. My son's dream has been fulfilled. I know he will work with honesty and dedication and will bring laurels to the country."

"Every boy and girl (in the Valley) should follow their dreams and they will achieve them one day. They should work hard and make India proud," she said.
Jammu: Two security personnel were injured on Monday night as the encounter between terrorists holed up in the under-construction Mini Secretariat in Poonch and security forces entered the second night even after four militants were killed since yesterday.

Police believes that one or two militants were still hiding in the premises and they continued to fire.

There was firing tonight in which one policeman and an army jawan suffered minor injuries, police officials said, adding firing was going on.

Talking to reporters here after visiting Poonch, Director General of Police Rajendra Kumar said, "There might be a group of 4 to 6 involved in this incident. We have recovered two bodies of militants. Two more militants have been killed. We feel one or two militants are still alive".

He said the militants had come with full preparation to disturb peace in the border district as there is calm and communal harmony in the area.

"Militants infiltrating a day before Eid is clearly pointing towards the fact they had come here to disturb peace on Eid," he said.

The encounter started at around 7.30 AM yesterday with militants firing at a police party, killing one policeman. Then they took shelter in a house and another structure in the Mini Secretariat.

Security forces killed three militants yesterday and one today.
Jammu: Another terrorist was killed in the ongoing gunbattle between security forces and militants in the border town of Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, the same place where four persons were killed on Sunday, police said.

The Defence spokesman confirmed the news and said that the operation is still on in the Poonch district.

Firing resumed between security personnel and militants again on early today in the under constructed mini secretariat building in Poonch town, the site of Sunday's firing. Three militants and a policeman were killed on Sunday in the Poonch encounter.

According to TV reports, one terrorist is still believed to be holed up in the area.

"The building and adjacent areas were surrounded and exchange of fire were continuing between the security forces and some surviving militants still holed up in the building," the official said.

The victims comprised three militants and a policeman, while five others - a police official, a civilian and three soldiers - were injured.

Meanwhile, an elderly couple, who were held hostage in their own home by terrorists, was also rescued by the security forces yesterday.

"The couple, who were held hostage, have been safely evacuated. Three terrorists have been killed," Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Rajouri-Poonch range, Johny Willian told news agency PTI.

The terrorists were holding Haji Nazir Mir and his wife Mumtaz Mir hostage.

Haji Nazir Mir is a cousin of the Congress MLC and Deputy chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council Jahangir Hussain Mir.

Earlier in the day, the Director-General of Police (DGP), Jammu and Kashmir, K Rajendra Kumar said, "They (terrorists) are in a house, where there is a civilian couple in a hostage situation. Forces are rescuing them. We have to evacuate the civilians first."

In an another incident, four Pakistani infiltrators were neutralised at the Line of Control (LoC) in Nowgam sector in Kupwara during an alleged infiltration bid on Sunday. Huge cache of arms and ammunition from the four terrorists killed in Nowgam encounter.

Two other infiltration bid in Kashmir Valley were also foiled by the security forces.
Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today held a discussion on finer points to be included in BJP's Garib Kalyan Agenda with his Maharashtra and Jharkhand counterparts.

Besides Chouhan, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Jharkhand Chief Minister Rahuvar Das, BJP vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe was also present at the meeting at the chief minister's residence here.

"Talks of 'garibi hatao aur garib kalyan' (eradicate poverty and welfare of the poor) have been going on in this country for years. Congress had come up with the slogan but it has remained a slogan and nothing has happened," Chouhan told reporters after the meeting.

"Several states are running various schemes for poverty alleviation and we were given the task of studying them and bringing parity among them so that the development of the poor happens in its real sense," he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the chief ministers of BJP-ruled states to work in a "mission mode" to make their respective states models for the execution of the Centre's schemes, following which a committee comprising Chouhan, Fadnavis, Das and Sahasrabuddhe was formed to prepare the agenda.

"We will submit our report to the BJP president and to the Prime Minister on the issue after which the party will finalise the agenda," Chouhan said.

"The country will be celebrating the (birth) centenary of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (founder of Jan Sangh) on September 25 and the report will be submitted before it. The party's national council, scheduled to be held at Calicut in Kerala will then deliberate on it that day," he added.

"The basic aim of the agenda is to ensure that the poor gets food, cloth and house and their earnings increase and they become self-dependent. We have deliberated on all the aspects of these issues and would submit our report soon," Chouhan said.
Ranchi: A top Maoist leader Ashish Yadav was killed in an encounter with Central Paramilitary Forces and police in Gumla district of Jharkhand.

Yadav, an expert in technology and explosives, was gunned down yesterday afternoon inside Palkot jungles in the Gumla district.

Officials said a joint squad of CRPF and state police killed Ashish Yadav, a member of the Bihar-Jharkhand Special Area Committee (BJ-SAC), in the jungles of Boradih forests of the district yesterday after a gunbattle.

An INSAS rifle, an SLR and another high calibre rifle have been seized after the operation.

According to reports, Yadav carried a bounty of Rs 25 lakh on his head and was a member of the ultra groups special area committee (SAC).

Yadav's elimination is being touted as an achievement for the BJP government in its war against left-wing extremism led by director general of police (DGP), DK Pandey.

In an another incident, six Maoist rebels were arrested and arms and ammunition from recovered from their possession in Gumla district.
Bengaluru: The Bengaluru Police on Monday imposed Section 144 CrPC in the city with effect from 5 pm after several pro-Kannada supporters created a law and order situation, protesting against Supreme Court's verdict in which it ordered Karnataka to release at least 12,000 cusecs water to Tamil Nadu.

As a preventive measure, Section 144CrPC is imposed in Bengaluru City from 1700 hours today. @BlrCityPolice @blrcitytraffic  Abhishek Goyal (@goyal_abhei) September 12, 2016

As a preventive measure, Section 144CrPC is imposed in Bengaluru City from 1700 hours today. @BlrCityPolice @blrcitytraffic  Abhishek Goyal (@goyal_abhei) September 12, 2016

A massive violence broke out in parts of Bengaluru today in the wake of Cauvery water dispute that escalated between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu today.

Several trucks, school buses, and bus stands have been set on fire by the pro-Kannada protestors in the west Bengaluru.

#CauveryIssue: Protesters vandalise lorries bearing Tamil Nadu registration numbers near Hubli Bypass, Karnataka. pic.twitter.com/sl9nkp70IP  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

The city police resorted to lathicharge to disperse the agitators at Satellite bus stand on the Mysore road. Several TV reports said schools and colleges shut down voluntarily, sending students back home.

A number of school buses are said to have been stranded in parts of Bengaluru. Massive traffic jams are also being reported from different parts of the city.

WATCH: Pro-Kannada activists set a vehicle on fire in #Bengaluru during protests over #CauveryIssue. pic.twitter.com/hDTuNZULd1  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

The city administration also shut down Bengaluru metro services completely as a precautionary measure.

The pro-Kannada activists today gheraoed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Karnataka and announced to launch 'rail roko agitation' in the state from September 15.

In the meanwhile, the Rapid Action Force (RAF) and at least 15,000 police personnel have been deployed in large number across the city to control the violence as Cauvery water tension escalated between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu after Supreme Court's latest verdict today.

The twitter handle of CM Siddaramaiah said that the Karnataka CM today wrote a letter to Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa and appealed her to ensure the safety of Kannadigas in her state.

Letter written to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu pic.twitter.com/GMSM0A437U  CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) September 12, 2016

The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) today suspended all bus services to Tamil Nadu while police jeeps were positioned along the border to warn vehicles against entering that state.

In Nayandahalli, a few vehicles with Tamil Nadu registration number were reportedly set on fire by protestors who were shouting anti-Tamil Nadu slogans.

In Chamarajanagar, a truck bearing Tamil Nadu registration number was stoned by miscreants. According to another report, Tamil residents of Pandavapura have also been reportedly attacked by a group of attackers.

In afternoon today, four cadres of Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazagam were arrested on charges of vandalizing a Karnataka-based hotel in the city.

A group of pro-Tamil activists attacked the New Woodlands Hotel in Chennai over the ongoing Cauvery water row between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in the wee hours today.

The hotel staff told media that at least six petrol bombs were hurled by the activists at the restaurant, which is owned by Krishna Rao, a Karnataka citizen.

The attack happened when at least 10 men entered the hotel and shouted slogans against Karnataka. They damaged tables and other property of the restaurant, and also damaged window panels.

The security personnel were at the hotel at the time of the attack but no one came forward to stop the attackers.

Before vacating the attack site, the attackers left a one-page note, which said that if Tamils were targeted in Karnataka, petrol bombs would continue to be thrown at Karnataka-based establishments in Tamil Nadu.

There are also reports of several Karnataka vehicles being attacked by pro-Tamil activists in Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu today.

Rameswaram (Tamil Nadu): Bus from Karnataka vandalised by Naam Tamilar Katchi party workers #CauveryIssue pic.twitter.com/UI2UA9jX9z  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Naam Tamilar Katchi party workers today vandalised a bus in Rameswaram. As per the report, the party goons assaulted the bus driver and threatened him for ferrying Kannadigas even when the state is facing protest from Karnataka over the release of Cauvery water.

Rameswaram(TN): Bus from Karnataka vandalised by Naam Tamilar Katchi party workers, driver threatened #CauveryIssue pic.twitter.com/r7uwOddWkv  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Goons in Rameshwaram beat up driver asking for information if he was ferrying Kannadigas. #CauveryIssue pic.twitter.com/nnXce18jn7  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

The developments come a day after a video showing a Tamil Nadu youth being assaulted by a group of boys in Karnataka went viral on social media. A 22-year-old was hauled up in Bengaluru yesterday by a gang for his social media posts that criticised Kannada film stars over ongoing Cauvery water war with Tamil Nadu. No action has so far been taken on the matter.

Meanwhile, a report of counter attacks being taken place in Karnataka has emerged. According to CNN-News18, several Tamil Nadu-run lorries and cabs came under attacks from a group of miscreants in Bapuji Nagar of Bengaluru district of Karnataka.

Six shops run by Tamilians were also ransacked in Mandya district this morning.

On the other hand, in a major development, the Supreme Court today modified its previous ruling on sharing of Cauvery river water and directed the Karnataka government to release 12,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu daily till September 20.



The apex court passed the order in response to an appeal filed by the Karnataka government seeking a direction to reduce the quantum of water to be released from Cauvery river to Tamil Nadu from 15,000 cusecs to 10,000 cusecs.

The apex court, however, expressed its displeasure over non-implementation of its earlier order on Cauvery water sharing by the Karnataka government.
Bengaluru: Security was tightened across Bengaluru on Monday to prevent attacks on people over the Cauvery river water controversy and for the Bakrid festival on Tuesday, said Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwar.

"We have intensified security and stepped up vigil in Bengaluru to ensure peace and maintain law and order. Additional police forces have been deployed in localities where pre-dominantly Tamils live, for their protection," Parameshwar told reporters here.

Platoons of Karnataka State Reserve Police have been rushed to Mandya and Mysuru for deployment on the state highways and protecting reservoirs in the river basin from being attacked by angry protestors over the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.

The additional measures were taken amid reports that miscreants had set afire two trucks with Tamil Nadu registration at Nice road on Bengaluru-Mysuru road and at Attibele near the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border on National Highway 7.

Pro-Kannada activists, led by Karnataka Rakshana Vedike members, protested in the city against attacks on Kannadigas in Chennai and damage to Karnataka registered buses earlier in the day.

"I appeal to the people, especially the protesters, not to attack anyone or damage public property, including buses, cars and transport vehicles," reiterated Parameshwar.

Expressing disappointment over the Supreme Court's Monday order, directing the state to release 12,000 cusecs of water daily to Tamil Nadu till September 20, the minister said though the state had respect for the court, the government would again approach it to modify the latest order due to water shortage in the reservoirs.

"We are not happy with the latest order. But we have to respect the order. We will again ask the court to modify its order, as we not in a position to release any more water due to the distress situation in the state," asserted Parameshwar.

Karnataka filed an interim petition on Saturday seeking modification of the apex court's September 5 order directing the state to release 15,000 cusecs daily from September 7 for 10 days (up to September 16).

"We have petitioned the court to modify its order and accept our offer to release 10,000 cusecs daily for six days instead of 15,000 cusecs for 10 days, as we need water for drinking purpose in the region till June next," Paremeshwar added.
Bengaluru: Sporadic violence broke out in Bengaluru and some other parts of Karnataka on Monday amid the raging Cauvery water sharing row, with the Siddaramaiah government asking Tamil Nadu to protect Kannadigas and assuring to safeguard Tamils in the state.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Director General of Police Om Prakash said the situation was tense, but under control. However, he told News 18 that some WhatsApp messages went viral, aggravating the situation.

On Saturday, a 22-year-old engineering student was allegedly beaten by a group of people in Bengaluru for posting "derogatory" remarks on social media against Kannada film actors.

A purported video of the incident went viral on the Internet showing around half-a-dozen men thrashing the student.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today took to Twitter to say that a probe is on in the matter.

Case is registered against youngsters who attacked a boy for post on social media.Police investigation is on, attackers wil be nabbed soon  CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) September 12, 2016

The Bengaluru Police has imposed Section 144 in the city. Security was tightened across the city to prevent attacks on people over the Cauvery river water controversy.

The additional measures were taken amid reports that miscreants had set afire two trucks with Tamil Nadu registration at Nice road on Bengaluru-Mysuru road and at Attibele near the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border on National Highway 7.

On Friday, there was shut down in Karnataka protesting the release of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu.
New Delhi: The Cauvery Supervisory Committee, headed by Union Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekhar, will meet in New Delhi on Monday to decide on the quantum of Cauvery river water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states.

As per sources, the Committee would strictly adhere to the final order of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal while deciding on the quantum of the water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states as directed by the Supreme Court.

Chief Secretaries of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry besides officials of Central Water Commission will attend the meeting.

In an interim order on September 5, the apex court had asked Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery water daily for next 10 days to Tamil Nadu.

This had led to protests in parts of Karnataka.The apex court will next hear the matter on September 16.
Bengaluru/Chennai: Widespread violence broke out in southern Karnataka on Monday over Supreme Court's order to release Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu with one person being killed in police firing in Bengaluru city.

Police opened fire when a mob tried to attack a patrol vehicle at Hegganahalli in Rajagopal Nagar police limits as violence flared up in Bengaluru city with rampaging mobs setting fire to buses and trucks with Tamil Nadu registration plates.

"Two were brought with bullet injuries. One with bullet injury near the heart has died. The other is being operated for injury on right thigh," Dr. Giridhar, Managing Director of Lakshmi Multi-Speciality Hospital, where they were taken told PTI tonight.

Soon after the apex court gave its amended order, directing Karnataka to release 12000 cusecs of water daily to Tamil Nadu till September 20, violence and arson flared up in Bengaluru, with rampaging mobs setting afire at least 30 vehicles bearing Tamil Nadu number plates.

In its September five order, the apex court had directed release of 15,000 cusecs for 10 days to ameliorate the plight of farmers of neighbouring state.

Trucks with Tamil Nadu registration number plate were either stoned or set on fire also in Mandya, Mysuru, Chitradurga and Dharwad districts.

As violence broke out sending a wave of panic across Bengaluru, the city police clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code as a preventive measure from today evening.

Angry Kannadiga protesters torched over 30 buses of a Tamil-owned bus depot in Bengaluru.

The KPN bus depot at the Kengeri yard glowed orange as flames leapt up and smoke engulfed the sky as the buses were gutted. A few hundred protesters had entered the bus depot and reportedly manhandled the drivers and other employees present there.



Managing Director of the Salem-headquartered KPN Tours and Travels Limited Rajesh Natarajan claimed that 40 of his buses were set on fire, as per IANS.

Vehicular traffic on the busy 150 km Bengaluru-Mysuru state highway came to a standstill as hundreds of protestors staged demonstrations at Ramanagaram, Kengeri, Mandya and Srirangapatna against the apex court's latest order.

We have also taken about 200 protestors into custody on the charges of rioting, arson and resorting to violence to damage public property and causing unrest in the city," State Home Minister G Paramehswar said.

He added that government did not expect the protest to go to this extent. "We expected that if the decision goes against us, there will be some protest, but definitely not to this extent," he said.

Sporadic violence was also witnessed in Tamil Nadu.

In Tamil Nadu, security has been beefed up for business establishments owned by Kannadigas and also outside the homes of noted Kannada personalities, police said on Monday.

In view of the deteriorating situation, the Centre rushed 10 companies (about 1,000 personnel) of the special anti-riot paramilitary force RAF to Karnataka.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh also called up Chief Ministers of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu tonight and assured them all central assistance in handling the law and order situation.

After Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah spoke to Singh, an official statement issued in Bengaluru described the situation as "fully under control".

The Union Home Minister responded "positively" to the request for additional central forces, it said.

Meanwhile, in New Delhi, no agreement could be reached between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on water sharing at a meeting of the Cauvery Supervisory Committee. The next meeting will be held on September 19.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has called an emergency Cabinet meet on Tuesday morning to discuss the Cauvery issue.

On the other hand, describing the violence in Karnataka as alarming, Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa wrote to Siddaramaiah, seeking protection for Tamil speaking people and their property, hours after he had made a similar plea to her.

Jayalalithaa assured Siddaramaiah that safety of people from Karnataka will be ensured in Tamil Nadu.

As per the 2011 census, around 2.5 million of the 10-million people in Bengaluru are Tamils, constituting the second largest community after Kannadigas.

(With Agency inputs)
Thane: A youth from powerloom town of Bhiwandi here was arrested for allegedly attacking a police constable on duty and injuring him during Lord Ganesha idol immersion procession, police said today.

The incident occurred yesterday after two policemen who were controlling the crowd intervened when two groups of revellers came to blows at Kamathghar locality.

About half a dozen of them tried to manhandle the two constables who made an unsuccessful attempt to pacify them.

Constable Dilwar J Wasave (30) was badly injured after revellers beat him up following which he was rushed to a hospital, police said.

Immediately police arrested the accused identified as Avinash Suresh Patil, 23 and search is on for others.

The accused have been booked under section 353 of the IPC and police is carrying out further probe into the case, police added.
Shillong: The combined opposition Meghalaya People's Front (MPF) and Hill State People's Democratic Party (HSPDP) on Monday served a notice for moving a motion of no-confidence against the Mukul Sangma-led Congress government for its failure on all fronts.

The notice to move the no-confidence motion against the Congress-NCP-led government came two days after the assembly on Friday had admitted a resolution moved by opposition chief whip James Sangma seeking the removal of speaker Abu Taher Mondal.

Mondal had set the date for taking up the resolution for his removal as September 16.

The latest notice served by opposition chief whip James Sangma, HSPDP legislator Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit and United Democratic Party legislator Jemino Mawthoh was submitted to the Assembly Secretary before the start of the second day of the autumn session.

However, the speaker said that he will take a decision on the no-confidence motion against the government on Wednesday.

"I will take a decision on the no-confidence motion only after examining the matter whether to admit or not the motion against the government," Mondal told journalists.

Moreover, he said the no-confidence motion can be admitted provided that there are ten members of the House supporting the motion.

"We have decided to move no-confidence motion against the government because the general mood of the people today in the state is that this government has failed its citizens completely," Sangma said.

"As public representatives we feel it is our duty to take this feeling and bring it to the assembly in the most appropriate and strong form of dissatisfaction," he added.

Blaming the government for the prevailing law and order situation in the state, the opposition chief whip said, "Crime against women and children is on the rise which simply means the government is not competent to handle situation of law and order. Therefore, this government has failed in its duty to protect its citizens especially women and children."

Apart from the prevailing law and order situation, the Opposition accused the government of poor fiscal management.

"When the government fails to take responsibility for its failure, the Opposition has to tell them in the strongest possible way -- take the responsibility for it and admit there are a lot of problems," Sangma said.

In the 60-member assembly, the ruling Meghalaya United Alliance comprises 30 Congress members, two of the Nationalist Congress Party and 11 independents.

The opposition MPF comprises eight United Democratic Party legislators and two from Nationalist People's Party.

The opposition Hill State People's Democratic Party, which has four members, and two Independents are not part of the Meghalaya People's Front.


Bhubaneswar: Following the death of 19 persons in a bus accident, the Odisha government on Monday made speed governors mandatory for all passenger buses in the state.

Holding a meeting of the bus owners, Transport Commissioner Chandra Sekhar Kumar asked them to equip their buses with the speed governors by October 31 this year.

He said the initiative will curb rash and reckless driving by the bus drivers.

The enforcement squad will be strengthened to keep a strict check on the drivers for careless and drunk driving.

The transport authority has set up a Toll Free Helpline -- 18003451073 -- for the passengers for lodging complaints against erring drivers and reckless driving, said Kumar.

The drivers would not be allowed to use mobile phones while driving. The phones of the drivers will be in the custody of the bus conductors.

At least 19 persons were killed and over 30 injured when a speeding bus fell 50 feet from a bridge in Angul district on Friday. As per the preliminary report, overloading and reckless driving caused the bus accident.


Chandigarh: In what could incite more worries for Arvind Kejriwal, an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader in Punjab has been accused by a Canada-based woman of stalking her.

According to a report in The Times of India, the woman, who hails from Pakistan, has alleged that Dev Mann made advances towards her because of which she had to get a restraining order issued against him.

Dev Mann, who is in the fray for AAP from Nabha, has rejected the allegations as bogus and said he was being defamed on the directions of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

The woman, in an interview to a news channel, alleged that she met Mann during an event at the Pakistani Association Centre in Canada a few years ago. Later, Mann sought a work-related appointment with her. When they met, Mann made advances towards, she alleged but added that she escaped unharmed.

Mann continued to stalk her by making phone calls, said the lady.

"He kept telling me not to tell anyone about the incident and also that we can make 'it' work. Eventually, I had to get restraining orders against him," the daily quoted the woman as saying.

However, Mann said he has been working in Canada on a permit since 2006, but never faced any such allegation. He said he is on the target of the SAD after being nominated by AAP to contest polls.

"The overwhelming response that AAP is getting in Punjab has forced SAD and Congress to spread rumors about AAP workers and leaders. The Dalit voter has shifted to AAP in Punjab. I am being targetted because I am the head of AAP's SC/ST cell. Allegations like this will be repeated in future as well, but I will not bow down. I will continue my work," said Mann.

A number of AAP leaders are facing a series of allegations in Punjab and Delhi, creating troubles for the party leadership.
Chennai: Even as the Supreme Court is set to hear a plea on the Cauvery water dispute, the protests spilled onto the streets of Chennai early on Monday when a group of unknown men hurled petrol bombs at a Karnataka eatery in Chennai on Monday.

As per reports, a group of men attacked the New Woodlands Hotel in Myalapore and broke furniture. They also left pamphlets warning more retaliatory attacks if Tamilians were harmed in Karnataka.

The Cauvery issue is boiling elsewhere in the state with a group of pro-Tamil activists torched Karnataka registered vehicles in Ramnathpuram district.

Also, a bus from Karnataka was vandalised by Naam Tamilar Katchi party workers in Rameshwaram. Goons in guise of pro-Tamil activists beat up driver and quizzed him if he was ferrying Kannadigas.

Yesterday, a Kannadiga literature meet was also disrupted in Coimbatore.

The Supreme Court is expected to conduct an early hearing today on the application filed by Karnataka seeking a direction to reduce the quantum of water to be released from Cauvery river to Tamil Nadu from 15,000 cusecs to 1,000 cusecs.

The Supreme Court's decision to hear the plea, filed late last evening, came after it was mentioned before the court's registry, which consulted Chief Justice T S Thakur.

In its plea, Karnataka has sought modification of the apex court's September 5 order for release of 15,000 cusecs of water for 10 days as immediate relief to Tamil Nadu farmers.
Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Monday expressed serious concern at the mob violence targeting Tamils in Karnataka and urged the neighbouring state's government to provide them with necessary security.

In a letter to her Karnataka counterpart Siddaramaiah, she said: "As per the reports received, the violence has escalated and a large number of vehicles, including more than 40 buses, 45 lorries and many other vehicles bearing Tamil Nadu number plates have been burnt and damaged."

She said groups of protestors from Karnataka are regularly assembling at borders of two states near Hosur and threaten vehicles and commuters from Tamil Nadu.

Jayalalithaa said there has been several instances of mob violence targeting Tamil speaking persons and their property in Karnataka.

"Hotels and properties belonging to Tamils in Karnataka are being attacked and damaged. This is an alarming situation and is causing considerable anxiety," she said.

Referring to Siddaramaiah's letter to her on Monday Jayaalithaa said immediately after the Supreme Court issued the order to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu instructions to police were given to ensure maintenance of law and order and adequate protection provided to all Kannada-speaking people and their properties in Tamil Nadu.

"We have ensured that no major incidents of any kind targeting Kannada speaking people or their properties have occurred," she said.


Muzaffarnagar: Three members of a family, including two children, were killed and another was injured when the car in which they were travelling fell into Ganga canal near Dahkheri village here, police said today.

The incident occurred last night under Sikhreda police station area when the?victims were on their way to Kaliyar Sharif from Meerut district.

On receiving information, police rushed to the spot and started rescue operations. The three bodies were recovered from the canal.

The deceased were identified as Rizwana (28), her daughter Shahana (7) and son Shahnawaz (2).

Rizwana's husband Javed escaped with injuries.
Lucknow: Months ahead of the crucial Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday sacked state Mining Minister Gayatri Prajapati and Panchayti Raj Minister Rajkishore Singh, over corruption charges.

Prajapati has been facing several graft charges. He got mired in controversy in March this year after reports surfaced that his daughter was one of the alleged beneficiaries of the Kanya Dhan Yojana under the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category.

The UP governments scheme is solely for girls belonging to poor families. However, Prajapati was allegedly taking the benefit of the scheme for his daughter despite being a millionaire.

In the 2012 Assembly election affidavit submitted by him, Prajapati had declared that his property was worth over Rs 1.83 crore.

Prajapati has also come under the scanner of Lokayukta over graft charges against him.

In 2013, he was appointed by CM Akhilesh as Mining Minister. He is now accused of amassing more wealth than his known sources of income, besides several other charges.

The action comes close on the heels of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav sounding a warning to party leaders, saying that action needed to be taken against those involved in land grabbing and other corrupt activities if the party wanted to return to power in the 2017 Assembly elections.

The opposition, however, alleged that the sacking of the ministers was just an eyewash.

"Illegal mining is rampant in the state and it is an open secret that he was promoting it. Now when the HC has taken serious view of the matter and ordered CBI probe, the CM's decision is mere an eyewash. It will not help as people know the reality," Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi said.

BJP state general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak said it was good that CM has taken the decision to sack the minister. "Our party has been raising the matter of illegal mining in the state. The decision should have been taken earlier," Pathak said.

Prajapati began as Minister of State for Irrigation in February 2013 and was moved to the lucrative berth of mining, directly under Yadav who handled that portfolio.

In July 2013, Yadav elevated Prajapati to MoS (Independent Charge) and in January 2014, he was made a Cabinet Minister.

The court had, while ordering a CBI probe, observed that the claim made in affidavits filed by District Magistrates across the state that no illegal mining was taking place in their areas of jurisdiction was 'false' and dismissed as an 'eyewash' the submission of principal secretary (mining) that a committee had been set up to look into allegations of illegal mining.

Last week, the Allahabad High Court rejected an application by the Uttar Pradesh government for withdrawal of a two-month-old order whereby the CBI had been directed to investigate allegations of illegal mining across the state.
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday sacked state Mining Minister Gayatri Prajapati over allegations of corruption, days after the High Court rejected the SP government's plea to withdraw an order for a CBI probe into alleged illegal mining in the state.

"The Chief Minister has sacked Gayatri Prajapati and a letter for the same has been sent to Raj Bhavan," a senior officer told PTI.

Yadav was said to be unhappy with the minister who was mired in controversy over allegations of promoting illegal mining.

The opposition, however, alleged that the sacking of the minister was just an eyewash to hide the corruption in the mining sector.

Taking a grim view of illegal mining in Uttar Pradesh, the Allahabad High Court on July 28 directed the CBI to investigate the matter across the state, including the role of government officials in facilitating the same, and submit a report within six weeks.

The HC on September 9 rejected an application by the state government for withdrawal of its order.

"Illegal mining is rampant in the state and it is an open secret that he was promoting it. Now when the HC has taken a serious view of the matter and ordered CBI probe, the CM's decision is mere an eyewash. It will not help as people know the reality," Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi said.

BJP state general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak said it was good that CM has taken the decision to sack the minister.

"Our party has been raising the matter of illegal mining in the state. The decision should have been taken earlier," Pathak said.

Prajapati began as Minister of State for Irrigation in February 2013 and was moved to the lucrative berth of mining, directly under Yadav who handled that portfolio.

In July 2013, Yadav elevated Prajapati to MoS (Independent Charge) and in January 2014, he was made a Cabinet Minister.
New Delhi: Condemning the incident where three girls were attacked with acid in West Bengal's Bankura district, lawyer Abha Singh on Monday described it as `gross violation of the law` and demanded strong action against the culprit.

"It is a gross violation of law and order where three young girls returning from a college, getting down from a bus in Bankura district in West Bengal, are victims of an acid attack and are injured badly. This is when we have a strong law...Inspite of such a strong law, why are such incidents happening? Primarily, because acid can be brought over the counter, any person can go and buy acid," she said.

Former DCW chairperson Barkha Shukla Singh said, "Law and order has totally vanished in the city. The chief minister (Mamata Banerjee) should pay more attention to women."The three girls were attacked with acid in Bankura district on Sunday evening after attending tuition classes.

"We were returning from our tuition class in the evening when the incident took place. We were about to get down from the bus. I don`t suspect anyone. I want them hanged so that they can`t repeat it with someone else," said a victim.

The case is under investigation.
Kolkata: Nixing the "disclosures" of a Britain-based website that had quoted an "ad interim report" sent by Japan confirming the "death" of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in a 1945 plane crash in Taiwan, a section of the revolutionary leader's family, researchers and admirers on Monday said the report had been placed before the Justice MK Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry probing his disappearance.

The "much hyped discovery" of the website Bosefiles.Info "had found its way into the public domain in 2002. The Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry had numbered it as JMCI exhibit no 227 series in 2004", said Chitra Ghosh, Netaji's nice and deponent in the Commission.

The Mukherjee Commission, contradicting two earlier panels that looked into the leader's disappearance, for the first time debunked the air crash theory affirming the ashes at the Tokyo temple are not his.

"When Justice Mukherjee wrote to Taiwan asking for information about the air crash, the Taiwan authorities wrote back saying there were no reports of any air crash on August 18, 1945, or seven days before or after that date," said Ghosh.

The Netaji family member said it was significant that there were no photos of Netaji's last hours.

"Normally, when a great man passes away, we usually have at least one photo of his death. But that's not the case with Netaji."

Ghosh said with the Narendra Modi government starting the process of declassifying the so-long secret files on Netaji, albeit "very slowly", "we have to wait till all files are classified. Then we will get replies to a lot fo questions".

Netaji researcher Purabi Roy said Netaji had not died in the crash, and it was only stage-managed to enable him to escape to Russia.

Roy said she has spoken to Alexander Kolesnikov, a former major-general of the Warsaw Pact, who had accessed in 1996 the Soviet era files lying in the high-security Paddolsk Military Archive near Moscow.

Kolesnikov, who went through the files as part of the Indo-Russian cultural agreement, said then Soviet leader Josef Stalin and his cabinet were deliberating on options that centred around whether Bose "should be kept in Russia".

Members of the Netaji Bhabna Manch, which ordered the media meet, sought to know the fate of the Indian National Army treasury inclduign the huge amount of gold that Netaji carried with him. Netaji's grand nephew Chandra Bose and some other family members were also present at the media interaction.
Kolkata: In a stern warning to the cow vigilantes, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said law would take its course if anyone was found violating it.

The chief minister said while replying to a question if any action would be taken against cow vigilantes.

"A vegetarian will eat vegetarian food while non-vegetarians will eat non-vegetarian food. Who are these people to ask me what I am eating?" she said.

"I request everyone not to play dirty games. Everyone has the right to practice religion and they are counting cows. People in Europe eat cows. Tribals also eat cows," Banerjee pointed out to reporters at the state secretariat.

Warning that she would not spare if anyone plays with religion, Banerjee said these days, even if there was an accident, people tended to ask what the religion of the driver and the killed was.

She said, in the next Assembly session, the government will bring a bill making it mandatory for the culprits of any riot to give compensation (to the victims).

"We will bring it with retrospective effect from the last five years," the CM said, adding that there were some parties which aim to divide the people and incite violence.

In politics the fight is based on ideology, not on the basis of religion or people, she said.
Dhaka: The death toll in the fire tragedy at a Bangladeshi factory on Monday climbed to 32 after more bodies were retrieved from under the debris and authorities called in a team of Army to join the rescue operation.

Gazipur fire service's Deputy Assistant Director Md Aktaruzzaman said three more bodies have been recovered from the building today.

The flames in the factory were not doused completely. Fire was still being spotted here and there.

The Army also joined the operation.

The father of a victim filed a case against the Tampaco Foils Factory owner and six others with Tongi Police Station last night.

Owner Mokbul Hossain was named as the prime accused, BD News quoted Officer-in-Charge of Tongi Police Station Firoz Talukder as saying.

The fire was initially thought to have triggered by a powerful boiler explosion at the Tempako Packaging Factory in Tongi industrial area near Dhaka, but officials later claimed they have found the factory tank intact fuelling speculation that a gas leak could be the reason behind the blast.

About 100 people were believed to have been inside the food and cigarette packaging unit when the explosion occurred.
Beijing: Chinese bombers, fighters and early warning and aerial refuelling aircraft on Monday flew through the Bashi Channel that separates Taiwan and the Philippines to exercises in the Western Pacific, the Air Force said.

The Air Force described the exercises are part of normal, annual, planned drills, which accord with international law and practice. They come as China has been increasingly asserting itself in territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas.

"This move is to raise the air force`s abilities via training, to meet the needs to maintaining national sovereignty, protecting national security and guaranteeing peaceful development," the air force said in a statement on its official microblog.

"This is common practice for the air forces of littoral states and a normal need for China national defence and military building," it said.

The Air Force will organise regular exercises that fly past the "first island chain", the Air Force said, referring to an area that includes Japan`s Ryukyu Islands and self-ruled Taiwan.

The exercises included early warning and inflight refuelling to help improve the Air Force`s fighting ability far from home, it added.

China has rapidly been ramping up research into advanced new military equipment, including stealth jets, submarines, aircraft carriers and anti-satellite missiles, which has rattled nerves regionally and in the United States.

China`s Air Force, along with its Navy, has been honing its abilities to conduct operations far from its shores, including drills in which aircraft have flown through the Miyako Strait, a body of water between Japan`s islands of Miyako and Okinawa, on their way to the Pacific.
Washington: Donald Trump Monday said that rival Hillary Clinton's comment calling half of his supporters "deplorables" was the "single biggest mistake" of this political season.

Trump, 70, said he was "shocked and alarmed" by the remarks of the former secretary of state who said last week that more than half of Trump's supporters a "basket of deplorable, racists, homophobic and xenophobic".

"I was deeply shocked and alarmed this Friday to hear my opponent attack, slander, smear and demean these wonderful, amazing people who are supporting our campaign," Trump said, reacting to such remarks by Clinton last week.

He demanded that Clinton apologise and retract her comment.

"The disdain that Hillary Clinton expressed towards millions of decent Americans disqualifies her from public service. You cannot run for President if you have such contempt in your heart for the American voter. You can't lead this nation if you have such a low opinion of its citizens," he said at an event in Baltimore.

"I think it's the single biggest mistake of the political season," he said.

Democrat Clinton and Trump face each other in the November 8 general elections that would elect the 45th US president.

According to several polls, Clinton currently leads Trump, but the gap is tightening rapidly.

The 68-year-old Clinton had sparked an uproar at a fundraiser when she described Trump's supporters as "deplorables" who were driven by "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic" sentiments.

Yesterday, she expressed regret.

At an event in Baltimore, Trump said his supporters comes from every part of America, and every walk of life.

"We have the support of cops and soldiers, carpenters and welders, the young and the old, and millions of working class families who just want a better future," he said.

"These were the people Hillary Clinton so viciously demonised. These were among the countless Americans that Hillary Clinton called deplorable, irredeemable and un-American. She called these patriotic men and women every vile name in the book ? she called them racist, sexist, xenophobic, and Islamaphobic," he said.

Claiming that Clinton is an insider, supported by powerful insiders, attacking Americans who have no political power, he said the Democratic presidential nominee spoke with hatred and derision for the people who make this country run.

"She spoke with contempt for the people who thanklessly follow the rules, pay their taxes, and scratch out a living for their families," he said.
London: Britain's former prime minister David Cameron resigned his seat in the House of Commons on Monday, less than three months after losing an EU referendum in which he had campaigned to stay in the bloc.

Cameron stepped down as prime minister in June, hours after Britain`s dramatic vote to leave the European Union (EU), handing power to his successor Theresa May in July.

"The circumstances of my resignation as prime minister and the realities of modern politics make it very difficult to continue (in parliament)... without the risk of becoming a diversion," Cameron said in a statement.

"I fully support Theresa May and have every confidence that Britain will thrive under her strong leadership," the 49-year-old added.

The former premier was pilloried after the shock referendum defeat.

Critics accused him of recklessness in holding the vote in the first place and mismanaging the Remain campaign in the face of anti-EU populism.

His decision to stage the referendum was seen in Westminster as a bid to placate eurosceptic opponents in the centre-right Conservative Party.

His resignation from parliament is unusually quick -- former prime ministers have typically retained their seats for a number of years after leaving office.

Cameron denied it was linked to May`s decision last week to let state-funded schools reintroduce selection by academic ability, a controversial move he opposed during his six years in office.

"This decision has got nothing to do with any one individual issue and that way the timing I promise is coincidental," he told broadcaster ITV in an interview.

"Obviously I have my own views about certain issues. People know that. That`s really the point. As a former PM it`s very difficult to sit as a backbencher and not be an enormous diversion and distraction from what the government is doing," he said.

May wished Cameron well for the future in a brief statement on Facebook.

"I was proud to serve in David Cameron`s government -- and under his leadership we achieved great things," the former interior minister wrote.The suave Eton-educated Cameron has been MP for Witney in the rural county of Oxfordshire, northwest of London, since 2001.

At the time of his resignation as premier, he insisted he was "keen to continue" as a constituency MP and intended to seek re-election at the next general election, due in 2020.

He is not known to have taken on any other roles since stepping down. His media appearances since have been in pictures of him holidaying with his family.

"Obviously I`m going to have to start to build a life outside Westminster," he told ITV.

"I`m only 49 and I hope I can still contribute in terms of public service and contribute to our country," he said.

Cameron`s decision was welcomed by allies.

His former finance minister and right hand man George Osborne, who was excluded from the cabinet by May, called it a "sad day" on Twitter.

"I know how difficult this decision has been for him," Osborne said.

Former foreign secretary William Hague added it was the "right decision", writing: "Former Prime Ministers are either accused of doing too little or being a distraction."

But Angela Eagle, a senior lawmaker in the main opposition Labour party, told the BBC that Cameron had "put his whole country at risk to settle a debate in his own party" through the EU referendum.

"He has now walked away leaving others to clear up the mess," she added.

Cameron`s decision to quit triggers an obscure parliamentary procedure, because lawmakers are technically not able to resign.

He will be named as Crown Steward and Bailiff of either the Chiltern Hundreds or the Manor of Northstead and a by-election to pick his successor will be held.
Paris: French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has warned the country of more terror attacks in the days to come, saying that some 15,000 people are in the process of radicalization in France and on police radar, while 1,400 are under investigation.

In an interview with Europe 1 radio and Itele television, Valls on Sunday said authorities prevent terror attacks on a daily basis but not every terrorist can be apprehended.

Valls said two attacks were foiled last week, and warned: "There will be new attacks, there will be [more] innocent victims."

"It is my job to tell this truth to the French people We are a target - everyone understands this," he said.

He said the threat of attacks is "at its highest...in recent days".

"We have nearly 700 French jihadists and residents, who are currently fighting in Iraq and Syria," he said, noting that this figure included "275 women and dozens of children."

Paris was put on "maximum" alert this week after French officials said they cracked an Islamic State-affiliated "terrorist cell" that was allegedly planning to bomb the populous Paris Gare de Lyon railway station.

Police arrested three radicalised women who reportedly intended to bomb the the railway station to avenge the death of IS leader Abu Muhammed al-Adnani, reported RT news.

Valls slammed French President Nicholas Sarkozy's idea of putting French citizens having militant links in preventative detention for security and said such measures could inspire more attacks.

He also criticised the anti-terrorism measures Sarkozy took while he was in office.

"He is wrong about trying to wring the neck of the rule of law against the threat. His method is wrong...there would be more attacks," Valls said.

The PM also mentioned a suggestion recently made by French Justice Minister of creating "10,000 prison spaces within the next ten years" to incarcerate those accused of plotting or carrying out terror attacks.

On Saturday, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced that the authorities have arrested some 293 people "engaged in terrorist networks" since the beginning of the year.

France has been on high alert since January of 2015, when it was hit by a series of terrorist attacks.

The deadliest attack was in November that claimed the lives of at least 130 persons and left 368 others injured in coordinated terror strikes in Paris and Saint-Denis.

Another attack struck Nice on July 14 this year that killed at least 84 persons when a truck driven by an IS sympathiser plowed through crowds during Bastille Day celebrations. Following this the French Parliament voted to extend the country's state of emergency by six additional months after the Nice attack.
Kabul: Two gunmen entered a hospital in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Monday, setting off a gunbattle with security forces before both were killed, officials said.

Samim Khpalwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor of Kandahar, said the apparent target for the attack was the deputy governor who was intending to visit the hospital, a large regional facility that provides health services to war victims, including members of the army and police.

One member of the security forces was killed along with the two attackers in the exchange of fire.

Afghanistan has seen a string of militant attacks in recent months, denting confidence in the ability of the US-backed government to ensure security 15 years after the hardline Taliban were ousted.
Damascus: Syria's President Bashar al-Assad vowed to retake all of Syria from "terrorists," hours before a truce brokered by Russia and the United States was due to take hold on Monday.

Speaking in Daraya, a former rebel stronghold recently surrendered to the government, Assad said "the Syrian state is determined to recover every area from the terrorists," state media reported.

"The armed forces are continuing their work, relentlessly and without hesitation, regardless of internal or external circumstances," he said.

Assad made a rare public appearance to celebrate the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday in Daraya, where state media showed him attending prayers at the Saad Bin Moaz mosque.

After years of government siege and fighting, its remaining residents and rebel fighters evacuated the town in late August under a deal with the regime, which has since retaken control.

"After five years, some people still haven't woken up from their fantasies," Assad said, referring to the anti-government protests that erupted in Syria in 2011.

"Some were betting on promises from foreign powers, which will result in nothing," he added.

Assad was joined at the prayers by a number of members of his ruling Baath party, as well as several ministers and members of parliament.

The mufti, or Muslim cleric, presiding over the prayers, hailed Daraya as an example for Syria, which has been ravaged by conflict since 2011.

"Daraya is living proof for all Syrians that the only option available to you is reconciliation and abandoning fighting," said Adnan al-Afiyuni, mufti for Damascus province.

Rebel fighters said they had been forced to agree the deal with the government after the siege created a humanitarian crisis for Daraya's remaining residents.

But the government has touted the deal, and other similar agreements, as the best way to achieve local ceasefires and end the violence.

More than 290,000 people have been killed and over half the population displaced since the conflict began.
Beijing: Most Chinese don't regret and back Air China's offensive advice asking travellers to be cautious in areas populated by "Indians, Pakistanis and black people" when visiting London, the state media today said, terming the flag carrier's racially-charged warning a "careless mistake".

"Most Chinese on social media are not expressing much regret over the incident. Many have shown understanding of the Chinese airline, suggesting that it had done something right, but unfortunately not in an appropriate way," an article in the Global Times said.

"The travel alert, however, has unintentionally insulted Londoners and many other people who are inclined to use euphemisms to imply the connections between race and crimes. As wonderfully diverse as London may be, harmonious it is not," it said.

The travel advice in Air China's in-flight magazine 'Wings of China' had warned passengers that London is generally a safe place to travel, but "precautions are needed when entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and Black people."

It triggered a huge controversy after journalists noticed the tip and tweeted the picture to Sadiq Khan, London's mayor, who is of Pakistani origin on September 8.

The magazine's publisher has since apologised and withdrawn the controversial issue, saying it was an editorial mistake. Chinese Foreign Ministry too has asked the airline to investigate the incident.

The article today suggested that the airline "should have just named boroughs and streets that have high crime rates without mentioning who lives there, a lesson for other Chinese companies that must keep in mind the sensitivity of racial issues in many Western societies."

"Air China's careless mistake is not an example of how racism is tolerated in China," it said.

"It is merely a reflection of the Chinese' unawareness of racial issues because of their much less exposure to other groups compared to most Westerners. Though many may seem prejudiced, they are not racist."

Referring to the protest lodged by British MP Virendra Sharma, the article said: "For these British politicians who are making a fuss over the incident, perhaps they should just make their constituencies safer for both local citizens and travellers so that travel alerts are no longer necessary".

"As China's population diversifies, it would benefit greatly to do away with prejudice and nurture trust among different people," it said.
Oslo: Norway hit a hairdresser with a roughly 1,000-euro fine today after she was convicted of discrimination for turning away a Muslim client wearing a headscarf.

Merete Hodne had risked up to six months in prison for religious discrimination for turning Malika Bayan away from her hair salon in Bryne, a small town in southwestern Norway, in October last year.

"The court... Has no doubt that the defendant acted intentionally, that she deliberately discriminated against Bayan by expelling her from the salon because she is Muslim," the court ruled.

It imposed a fine of 10,000 kroner (1,075 euros/USD 1,200) and also ordered her to pay 5,000 kroner in court costs.

Hodne intends to appeal the decision, her lawyer told news agency NTB.

The 47-year-old hairdresser had told the court she saw the headscarf as a political symbol representing an ideology that frightens her, rather than as a religious symbol.

"I see it as a totalitarian symbol. When I see a hijab, I don't think of religion, but of totalitarian ideologies and regimes," she told the judges, cited by daily Verdens Gang.

According to the charge sheet, Hodne told Bayan "she would have to find someplace else because she didn't accept (clients) like her."

The hairdresser initially refused to pay a fine of 8,000 kroner for religious discrimination, and the case therefore went before the Jaeren district court on Thursday.

While Hodne acknowledged that she could have turned Bayan, 24, away more courteously, she denied the charge of religious discrimination.
Canberra: Relatives of some of the 239 passengers and crew on missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 called on Monday for more of its possible debris to be examined to define a new search area.

Malaysia, China, and Australia agreed in July that the search in the southern Indian Ocean would be suspended after the current 120,000-square kilometer expanse has been thoroughly examined with deep sea sonar equipment in the absence of credible new evidence that identified the plane's location.

Eight relatives of lost passengers who met with Australian officials coordinating the search on behalf of Malaysia expressed frustration that they were not given a definition of what constituted credible new evidence that would result in a continuation of the search.

American wreckage hunter Blaine Gibson attended the meeting at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau headquarters with the relatives from Malaysia, China, Australia and Indonesia and handed over to investigators five pieces of potential debris that he found on beaches in Madagascar.

Two of the pieces were burnt, which could indicate a disastrous fire on board, he said.

Gibson previously found a panel from Flight 370 in Mozambique. Malaysia has yet to collect other potential debris that Blaine has found washed up on Madagascar since June and handed to authorities there.

"I hope that the search will go on and in my amateur opinion this constitutes new, credible evidence that justifies continuing the search," Gibson told reporters of his unconfirmed debris find.

Some confirmed pieces of debris have washed ashore in the western Indian Ocean, and the families believe other items yet to be examined may be clues to the plane's location.

Grace Nathan, a Malaysian whose mother was on the Boeing 777 that vanished during a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing on March 8, 2014, said governments should be coordinating a search for debris and using drift modeling to define a new area to search after the current search is to be completed in December.

"We want to call on the three nations - Australia, China, and Malaysia - to make a concerted effort to go out and look for this credible new information," Nathan said.

"It's very impressive that one private individual citizen, Blaine Alan Gibson, has managed to find up to 15 pieces of aircraft debris and we hope that these three nations do more than just hope by fluke people find more debris," she added.
New Delhi: Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the human rights violations in Balochistan in his August 15 Independence Day address, separatist Baloch leader Brahumdagh Bugti will formally approach India to seek asylum, said a report on Monday.

The Times Now report comes days after the Baloch separatist leader told the Navbharat Times in an interview: "We need political asylum in India."

Bugti, an exiled Baloch separatist leader based in Switzerland, had urged the Indian government to open doors for the Baloch community.

Notably, a brutal crackdown seems to have taken place in Pakistan's disturbed border province of Balochistan after PM Modi's speech.

The toll of dead and missing people has witnessed a sharp surge, with at least 67 dead and over 150 reported missing in August alone, local activists and multiple well-informed sources with access to inside information have averred.

Bugti is the grandson of former Balochistan chief minister Nawab Akbar Bugti, who was killed by the Pakistani Army in Kohlu in 2006.

His death had led to widespread unrest and the rise of a pro-independence sentiment in the region.
Damascus: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made a rare public appearance on Monday at prayers for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday in the town of Daraya, recently surrendered by rebels.

State media showed the embattled leader attending the prayers at the Saad Bin Moaz mosque in the town outside Damascus, which was previously a rebel stronghold.

After years of government siege and fighting, its remaining residents and rebel fighters evacuated the town in late August under a deal with the regime, which has since retaken control.

Assad was joined at the prayers by a number of members of his ruling Baath party, as well as several ministers and members of Parliament.

The mufti, or Muslim cleric, presiding over the prayers, hailed Daraya as an example for Syria, which has been ravaged by conflict since 2011.

"Daraya is living proof for all Syrians that the only option available to you is reconciliation and abandoning fighting," said Adnan al-Afiyuni, mufti for Damascus province.

Rebel fighters said they had been forced to agree on the deal with the government after the siege created a humanitarian crisis for Daraya`s remaining residents.

But the government has touted the deal, and other similar agreements, as the best way to achieve local ceasefires and end the violence.

More than 290,000 people have been killed and over half the population displaced since the conflict began.
Beijing: Amid reports that a miffed Chinese President Xi Jinping cancelled his maiden visit to Nepal, Beijing on Monday said both countries are in "close communication" on the issue and China attaches importance to the new Nepalese government.

"You said the visit was cancelled. This not appropriate to say it", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing here responding to reports of cancellation of Xi's visit.

"China and Nepal are in close communication on high-level exchanges. China attaches importance to the new Nepalese government and we would like to promote new development of bilateral relations with Nepal", Hua said.

Pressed further for details she said "I don't think it was an appropriate way to say it is cancelled because two sides have high-level exchanges", she said.

"The two sides are always in communication on high-level exchanges so we cannot say it is cancelled or not as it is not defined yet", she said.

"All we can tell you we are in close communication with Nepal on the relevant issue and we will release information in due course", she added.

Xi was due to visit Nepal next month.

But reports from Kathmandu said the visit has been cancelled as China is unhappy with the new government led Prachanda who is set to visit India this week to mend ties between the two countries after his predecessor, KP Shama Oli followed pro-China policy.

Reports said China was displeased with the lack preparations for Xi's visit as well as commitment to implement China's Silk Road plan (officially called One Belt and One Road) as well as agreements reached by Oli government to step up road and rail links connecting Nepal with Tibet to reduce landlocked Nepal's dependence on India.

The Nepal government had dismissed the reports saying there was no truth report about the cancellation of Xi's visit.

Nepal's Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat had said: "We are expecting the visit of the Chinese President, though the date of the visit has not yet been fixed".

During his visit, Oli had signed the Transit Transport Agreement to improve the connectivity between Nepal and Tibet in a bid to end decades-old dependency on India for daily supplies.

The deal was widely regarded as an attempt by Oli to open trade links with China in a bid to reduce dependence Nepal's imports through Indian ports.

China also agreed to Oli's request to build railway link connecting the two countries through Tibet.
The new company will combine potash, nitrogen and phosphate production with a global distribution network, employing just under 20,000 people

Canadian rivals Agrium Inc and Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan agreed Monday to merge to create a $36 billion global fertilizer giant in the latest large agribusiness merger sparked by low crop prices.

The new company will combine potash, nitrogen and phosphate production with a global distribution network, employing nearly 20,000 people, and will generate $500 million in annual savings from their combined operations, a joint statement said.

The all-stock deal will create the largest crop nutrient company in the world, the companies said.

"The new company will be a low-cost, world-class producer of key crop nutrients including having the lowest cost potash production assets and reserves in North America," Agrium chief executive Charles Magro told analysts in a conference call.

"It will also benefit from a low-cost North American nitrogen platform and a diverse phosphate product portfolio."

The new company, which has not yet been named, will be based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and be 52-percent owned by Potash shareholders, with Agrium owners holding 48 percent. The two companies had combined sales of $20.6 billion in 2015.

The deal was approved by the boards of both companies, but still must win shareholder support.

The merger comes as the global demand for fertilizers is down sharply in emerging countries like Brazil due to the economic downturn. Both companies also cited weak demand in India and other parts of Asia as a reason for a drop in earnings in the second quarter.

Shares of Potash have fallen to about a quarter of their level in 2008 as potash prices have tumbled from $900 a ton to $150 a ton.

In 2010, Potash escaped a hostile $40 billion bid from Anglo-Australian company BHP Billiton when the Canadian government blocked the transaction.

The Potash-Agrium deal comes at a challenging moment for farmers globally due to weak crop prices. The US Department of Agriculture last month projected that net US farm income for 2016 would decline 13.3 percent, marking the third straight year of decline.

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By combining, the companies expect to generate operating savings from integrated production distribution, retail and procurement operations.

Executives also cited other ways they complement each other, with Agrium's nitrogen assets primarily in the western part of North America and Potash in the East.

- Wave of agribusiness mergers -

The fertilizer deal comes on the heels of a wave of consolidation in the agricultural biotechnology and seed industry, with US giants Dow Chemical and DuPont planning to combine and offering $43 billion for Switzerland's Syngenta.

German pharmaceutical giant Bayer has also bid for US company Monsanto in a deal potentially worth $66 billion, although an agreement has not been reached.

US Senator Charles Grassley, who represents farm-rich Iowa and chairs the Judiciary Committee, has scheduled a hearing September 20 on the antitrust implications of the seed deals.

"The seed and chemical industries are critical to agriculture and the nation's economy, and Iowans are concerned that this sudden consolidation in the industry could cause rising input costs in an already declining agriculture economy," Grassley said last month.

Officials from Agrium and Potash said Monday they expect the merger to be approved by regulators without major divestitures.

"It's going to be a benefit for the farming community" by boosting "technology and innovation and providing products and services for farmers that they need to maximize their wallet," said Magro.

"We're very confident this will be looked at in a way that we see it," said PotashCorp chief executive Jochen Tilk. "It is a very competitive environment."

In midday trade, Agrium shares fell 3.1 percent to $92.23, while Potash shares lost 1.8 percent at $16.68.
GM auto sales in China through the first eight months of the year jumped 8.1 percent to 2.38 million, compared with a 4.2 percent drop to 1.96 million in the US

As the US car boom begins to ebb, American auto giant General Motors is eyeing growth in China as an even more crucial component of its business.

GM auto sales in China through the first eight months of the year jumped 8.1 percent to 2.38 million, compared with a 4.2 percent drop to 1.96 million in the US.

That included 293,537 cars sold in August, a monthly record and up 18 percent from the year-ago period.

"It has been a surprisingly strong year," said Matt Tsien, president of GM China. "We were expecting growth in the sort of low-to-middle single digit range compared to last year. So far, this year has been running a little bit stronger than that."

GM employs 58,000 in China, where it sells sport utility vehicles, as well as cars under its Chevrolet and Buick brands. The latter has a particularly storied history in the country, as the vehicle of choice of Sun Yat-Sen, China's first president.

GM has also targeted China as a venue for its luxury Cadillac line.

GM expects industrywide auto sales in China will reach 30 million by 2020, up from 25.1 million in 2015, Tsien said.

Growth is expected due to rising demand in rural parts of China and midsized cities that are poised to take off. GM has targeted middle-income buyers in these regions through joint ventures with SAIC sold under the Baojun and Wuling brands.

GM in 2014 announced plans to invest $12 billion in China over three years. It intends to launch 60 models over the next five years and expects a 65 percent increase in production capacity in the country.

A key challenge for GM is the rising competitiveness of Chinese companies such as Great Wall, Changan Automobile, BAIC Motor and Dongfeng, which are selling better due to greater confidence in the vehicles' reliability. These companies have lower labor and material costs than GM.

GM has been forced to increase spending on promotions in China to compete with these brands, said Rebecca Lindland, an analyst at Kelley Blue Book.

Story continues

The operating margin of GM ventures in China fell to 9.5 percent in the second quarter from 10.2 percent a year earlier. That translated into equity income of $471 million down from $503 million.

"The overall market has been very competitive," Tsien said. "There has been some downward pressure across the entire industry."

GM's efforts to counter this trend include launching ten energy-efficient vehicles in China. GM also is eyeing ride-sharing as a potential growth area.

An overarching goal is to keep the crown of biggest foreign automaker in China, a title GM seized from Volkswagen in 2015.
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Dos Equis' "Most Interesting Man" is one of the longest and most successful advertising campaigns running. It was first launched 10 years ago with Jonathan Goldsmith playing the mysterious yet sophisticated character. Some have called it one of the best ad campaigns of the 21st century.

With news of Goldsmith's lawsuit against the beer company over a contract dispute, Dos Equis has ultimately replaced the original character with a new actor, Augustin Legrand.

Related Link: Macro Brewers Continue To Buy Craft Brands

Legrand, born in France, is a modern Renaissance man, speaking three languages. Dos Equis launched an ad teaser campaign featuring the new most interesting man in the world entirely in Spanish, a good way to shift away from the original actor.

Heineken (HEINEKEN NV SPON ADR EACH REP 1/2 ORD (OTC: HEINY)) bought Dos Equis along with Mexican beer staples Tecate and Sol for $7.6 billion in 2010. Dos Equis XX Lager Especial was the sixth best selling imported beer brand in 2015. Sales of import Mexican beer are up 13.6 percent year-over-year thus far.

"We're trying to reach a new audience," said Andrew Katz, vice president of marketing for Dos Equis. "The reality of the drinker base is, it's much more multicultural than ever. And Spanish-dominant consumers are increasingly important."



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Data

Student Privacy in Higher Ed Focus of Stanford-Hosted Project

A new initiative at Stanford University hopes to lay the groundwork for the responsible use of student data in higher education. Based online, the project addresses both the opportunities and risks inherent in an era of big data in the areas of research, application for educational improvement and representation in formal academic records.

The work kicked off two summers ago and again this summer when researchers from the university and Ithaka S+R held a workshop with 70 representatives from academia, government, non-profits and industry to discuss the "hot button" issues of the use of college and university student data. Ithaka S+R is a non-profit research and consulting firm that works with higher ed leaders and others on matters of strategic change.

The ideas from those meetings resulted in development of the site, "Responsible Use of Student Data in Higher Education," which launched last week. The site offers a home for research, as well as sample policies and papers on topics such as "A Brief History of the Student Record" and "Applications of Student Data in Higher Education: Issues and Ethical Considerations," commissioned by the two founding organizations.

"We're standing under a waterfall, feasting on information that's never existed before," said Mitchell Stevens, a sociologist and associate professor at Stanford's Graduate School of Education, in an article about the project. "All of this data has the power to redefine higher education."

"There's a lot of trepidation at most institutions about potential overreach and that leads to under-reach," added Martin Kurzweil, the director of the educational transformation program at Ithaka S+R. "So a lot of players are moving in to fill those gaps and it's not always clear how they're using student data."

Stevens and Kurzweil are listed as the primary contacts for the site.

The goal of the work is to "start a national conversation," Stevens noted. He and the other participants would like to see a self-imposed set of standards akin to those followed in the doctor-patient relationship. To spark that effort, the group developed a draft version of a general policy for usage of student data, which includes four principles:

Shared understanding, which emphasizes that students, instructors, administrators and third-party vendors are all part of a "joint venture," which requires contractual language laying out the terms of use;

Transparency promotes "clarity of process and evaluation," even in the most complex systems, so that students understand how their information is being accessed and used;

Informed improvement serves as confirmation that student data serves an important role in helping the institution become more effective at its mission and that research with student data adheres to the same protocols used for all research programs; and

Open futures suggests that "instructional, advisement and assessment systems" be used to help students, not to limit their prospects or send them down an education pathway they haven't chosen for themselves.

"Academic self-governance is an important feature of American higher education," Stevens said. "I'd hate to wake up one morning and have these issues solely regulated by the government."
A Navy P-8 Poseidon and an EP-3 Eries, carrying between them roughly 33 crew members, were flying a reconnaissance mission when they were asked by Iran to change course, Fox News reported.

Three US defense officials, interviewed by the channel, said the jets had ignored the warning because they were in the international airspace 13 miles off the Iranian coast. Under UN rules, a state's territorial waters extend up to 12 nautical miles beyond the shore.

"We wanted to test the Iranian reaction," one of the officials in the know about the incident said to Fox News. "It's one thing to tell someone to get off your lawn, but we weren't on their lawn. Anytime you threaten to shoot someone down, it's not considered professional."
The number of teleworkers (who are not self-employed) has grown enormously over the past several years. And its no wonder: Technology has made it even easier to work from just about anywhere, anytime (even in your pajamas if you want to). One added perk? That smug feeling of satisfaction you have when other people complain about traffic in Los Angeles, CA, or their commute times on the beltway into Washington, DC.

But working from home comes with its own set of challenges, and potentially a more formidable experience when selling your home. Working from a for-sale house means constant interruptions from real estate agents, keeping everything clean at all times (yes, even your office), and the need to vacate at a moments notice. Here are some workarounds on how to work from home and sell your home-slash-office.

1. Set up specific open-house hours and showing times

Carve out a little sanity  and time for conference calls  by making sure you set a schedule that works for your work habits and your real estate agent. Place restrictions for showing times, says Michael Kelczewski, a Pennsylvania and Delaware agent. Kelczewski, who frequently works from home and is currently selling his residence, says limiting the times your agent can show your home eases stress.

But be warned: There is a risk that youll miss out on potential buyers by being too regimented. Kelczewski says to consider the scarcity principle, which could work in your favor. If you deny access on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings because those are your busiest times, for example, the scarcity principle says that because potential buyers cant just pop in anytime, they will really make the effort to see your home when it finally becomes accessible. Nice, eh?

2. Keep your office tidy

Albert Einstein famously said: If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign? While a messy desk might work for you, it wont do you any good when trying to sell your home. The solution: Have a clever way to conceal work clutter, says Jamie Novak, professional organizer and author of Keep This Toss That. Novak often works from home and is currently selling her house. I have a decorative basket where I can toss the stacks of paper, she says. If that still looks messy, heres another trick from Novak: Cut the end off a box, wrap it in birthday gift wrap, and drop it over the stack of paperwork.

Story continues

3. Clear out to a coffee shop

There might be times when the best course of action is to show the house when a potential buyer wants to see it, even if its not the best time for you. Sure, you can stay holed up in your office and wave hello when your potential buyer comes through for a look, but thats awkward. Plus, by staying, you might sabotage the showing. Remember the Boy Scout motto in this instance: Be prepared. Keep a briefcase nearby to sweep papers and your laptop into. Have your charging cables ready to go, says Novak. If you need to dash out, you can continue to work from the local coffee shop.

If working at a coffeehouse proves too distracting or noisy for you, or if there are no good local shops to dash to, you can work in your vehicle  if you have it set up right. Set up a mini mobile office in your car, says Novak. Have paper, pens, important phone numbers, a flat surface for writing (like a clipboard), and anything else you commonly reach for while working  including a nonperishable snack.

But before you head out the door, take a few minutes to run through Novaks staging checklist.

Stash personal toiletries out of sight.

Turn on lights.

Open the curtains or blinds to let in natural light.

Empty the trash cans.

Put down toilet seats.

Make the beds.

Make sure the house smells nice.

Take a look outside and put away any trash cans, recycling bins, and newspapers.

Shake off the front-door welcome mat.

And dont forget to hide important papers. Have a way to secure any client files or confidential items, says Kellie Tinnin, a New Mexico agent. Make a closet or storage space available in the home that can be secured.

4. Learn to deal with your agents constant interruptions

Having your real estate agent blow up your phone is usually a welcome experience for home sellers. It means buyers are interested, right? But when youre trying to meet a work deadline, your enthusiastic agent could be an annoyance. Speak with your agent about what you want to be contacted about immediately and what can wait until later. If a potential buyer wants to come over in two hours, your agent needs to let you know, even if it means interrupting your workday. But feedback from the showings can wait until after work.

You can also speak with your agent about prescreening potential buyers, which could cut down unnecessary showings considerably. Request that only prospective buyers who are preapproved for a loan are permitted to view the home, says John Lazenby, president of the Orlando Regional Realtor Association. Then task your [agent] with ensuring that criteria is met.

5. Invest in coworking space

A coworking space, in case you arent familiar, is a sort of commune for freelancers, small-business owners, and telecommuters. They give anyone who doesnt go into a regular office the chance to work alongside other professionals. Theyre typically set up as offices, with private conference rooms and desk space. Most coworking spaces offer low rent, especially if you need only a desk, and most let you rent on a short-term basis  perfect if you need this option only temporarily while selling your house. Bonus: You might meet some new friends to spend happy hour with.

Have you sold your home that you also work from? Tell us about your experience in the comments!
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This is in reference to a chatter who asked if I had ever heard of George Washington's Gettysburg Address. I said I hadn't. The chatter said it is googlable.

It isn't, both because there's no way to search it with enough specificity to separate it from Lincoln and also because, near as I can tell, there is no such thing. Pat The Perfect helped me in this endeavor by pointing out that Washington expired in 1799, and the city of Gettysburg was founded in 1806.

Troll. I call trollism. If the original chatter or anyone else wishes to contest this, please do so.
IS Claims Clashes, 7 Suicide Bombings Involving Iraqi, Tajik, and Turkish Fighters Around Shirqat
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Tests Demonstrate GPS Backup Already Available

In their conference paper, the authors say the fiber network could be a partial backup to GPS, and GPS could be used for calibration to correct timing delays. Or, to provide a more reliable backup, two independent telecom network paths could be used.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, a Commerce Department agency, and the U.S. Naval Observatory operate U.S. civilian and military time standards, respectively. They've been conducting tests with two companiesMonroe, La.-based CenturyLink and Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Microsemito identify a practical backup for GPS systems, which "synchronize phone calls, time-stamp financial transactions, and support safe travel by aircraft, ship, train and car," in NIST's words.

Commercial fiber-optic telecommunications networks could be used, they've found. The agency reported an ongoing experiment is connecting the NIST time scales in Boulder, Colo., with the USNO alternate time scale at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs through CenturyLink's fiber-optic cables. "The two federal time scales, 150 kilometers apart, are ensembles of clocks that generate versions of the international standard for time, Coordinated Universal Time (known as UTC), in real time," according to NIST. "In this experiment, time signals were sent at regular intervals in both directions between the two locations. Researchers measured the differences between the remote (transmitted) and local time. The results, just presented at a conference, showed UTC could be transferred with a stability of under 100 nanoseconds (ns, or billionths of a second)thus meeting the projects original goal for this metricas long as the connection remained unbroken."

"The 100 ns stability level is good enough to meet a new telecommunications standard," said lead author Marc Weiss, a mathematical physicist at NIST. "We'll continue trying to meet the 1 microsecond accuracy level, which is needed by critical infrastructure such as the power industry."

In their conference paper, the authors say the fiber network could be a partial backup to GPS, and GPS could be used for calibration to correct timing delays. Or, to provide a more reliable backup, two independent telecom network paths could be used.

The paper, by M. Weiss, L. Cosart, J. Hanssen and J. Yao. 2016, is "Precision Time Transfer using IEEE 1588 over OTN through a Commercial Optical Telecommunications Network" and was presented Sept. 7, 2016, at the 2016 International IEEE Symposium on Precision Clock Synchronization for Measurement, Control, and Communication in Stockholm, Sweden.
Future POS is an award-winning restaurant point of sale company with over 20 years of experience developing software for the hospitality industry. Decades of industry experience has placed them in the top five hospitality POS companies in two separate surveys.

Their rock-solid software and unrivaled connectivity provide the backbone for numerous high volume independent restaurants and chain restaurants alike.
Alkemics raises 22M from Cathay Innovation, Serena Capital and Existing Investors

PARIS, FRANCE (September 12, 2016). Alkemics, the collaborative platform for retail, announced today that it has closed a Series B financing round of $22 million. This round is led by Cathay Innovation and Serena Capital, with participation from Index Ventures, Partech Ventures, and SEB Alliance, investors who have renewed their confidence in Alkemics after a Series A round of $5.6 million in early 2015. This latest round is one of 10 largest in 2016 for the French technology sector, and will allow Alkemics to accelerate deployment of its platform internationally and strengthen its sales, marketing and technology resources as it continues to support customers in their digital transformation efforts.

Alkemics commitment to customer success through digital collaboration has fueled its growth. Since its last fundraising round, the number of CPG manufacturers connecting to retailers across Alkemics has more than tripled. Today, that community includes over 2,500 brands, including global firms such as Unilever and Mars Incorporated, with leading retailers such as Walmart. Alkemics is also certified on the GDSN 3.1 industry standard from GS1, which allows brands to publish digital product data worldwide, and has been recognized by Gartner as a 2016 Cool Vendor for Information Innovation and Governance.

From the beginning, Alkemics shared a clear understanding of our common goal  leveraging digital technology to deliver a rich, consistent shopping experience for our consumers, commented Romain David, e-Commerce Leader at Unilever France. Their agile approach to innovation and data management has served as a catalyst for stronger collaboration between our own teams and with our retail partners.

Alkemics believes that digital collaboration is at the heart of retail. With more products sold through more channels and more product information required to meet shopper demand, brands and retailers need to work together around data that is accurate, structured, and synchronized so its never obsolete.

Its SaaS platform simplifies how brands and retailers collect, manage, and share product data, streamlining collaboration among internal teams and with trading partners. By working together, our customers increase speed to market for their products and deliver an improved shopper experience through richer, more consistent information, said Antoine Durieux , founder and CEO of Alkemics.

Jacky Abitbol, Partner at Cathay Innovation, and Ming-Po Cai, President of Cathay Capital Private Equity, said, In many industries, digital is a proven catalyst for growth and has become its own commercial channel. Were convinced by the quality of the Alkemics team and its ability to quickly scale a collaborative digital platform between brands and retailers through a network effect that creates new marketing opportunities at local, national and international levels.The Alkemics platform allows brands and retailers to have a single provider for data sharing products locally and globally. Being one of the few players to achieve GS1 global industry certification, Alkemics provides its customers productivity gains and improved operational efficiency, as a valued partner in their continued international growth, said Xavier Lorphelin, Managing Partner of Serena Capital.



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Masterpass QR  Mastercards latest enhancement to its Masterpass digital payment service  supports mobile-driven Person-to-Merchant payments, enabling millions of micro, small and medium enterprises to move from cash to digital payments

Lagos, Nigeria, 08 September 2016: Ecobank Group has partnered with Mastercard to launch Ecobank Masterpass QR, an enhancement to the Masterpass global digital payment service that will enable millions of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria to accept fast and secure digital payments from consumers for the first time.

Ecobank has chosen Nigeria to first launch this mobile-driven, Personto-Merchant (P2M) payment solution with Mastercard, which will address challenges with the acceptance of electronic payments within the MSME segment.

Users of Ecobanks mobile banking platform will be able to safely pay for online and in-store purchases by scanning a Quick Response (QR) code displayed at checkout on their smartphones, or by entering a merchant identifier into their feature phones. Shoppers dont need to carry cash or their physical bank cards  rather they can make fast, safe and simple digital payments using Ecobank Masterpass QR via their mobile banking app on their mobile device anywhere that Masterpass QR is accepted.

Group CEO Ecobank, Ade Ayeyemi says: Ecobank Masterpass QR serves the rapidly expanding needs of individuals and merchants in Nigeria and across Africa who are increasingly turning to mobile for payments. Enabling prosperity in Africa is about bringing many millions quickly into an organised financial system on the continent and globally. MSMEs are Africas future wealth creators and Masterpass QR is designed with these increasingly tech-aware businesses in mind.

MSMEs comprise 96 per cent of Nigerian businesses, making them a hugely important sector of the economy. With almost as many as 98 percent of MSMEs still transacting using cash, Masterpass QR provides acquiring banks with a cost-effective, fast and easy to deploy solution enabling these businesses to accept electronic payments.

Masterpass QR is a game-changer for Nigerias payment industry, as we can now offer affordable acceptance solutions to acquirers that have previously struggled to provide expensive Mobile Point of Sale and Point of Sale devices to MSMEs, says Daniel Monehin, Division President, Sub-Saharan Africa, Mastercard. We are pleased to partner with Ecobank to bring this technology to the country and help consumers leapfrog into the digital age  all using the markets existing mobile banking infrastructure.

Ecobank is relevant in every moment of the consumers life, says Patrick Akinwuntan, Ecobank Group Executive Consumer Banking. Our unrivalled Pan-African digital network makes us the preferred choice for convenient payment, collections and savings offerings to every individual and merchant in Africa.

After launching in Nigeria, Ecobank plans to launch Ecobank Masterpass QR in 34 other markets.

Using Masterpass QR, business owners can increase revenue through the acceptance of mobile and digital payments, while reducing their exposure to the risks and costs of managing cash. Payment is instantaneous and guaranteed, meaning that merchants no longer need to wait days for transactions to reflect in their accounts.

Select merchants across Nigeria in Ikeja, Victoria Island and Lekki already accept Masterpass QR, with additional merchants being signed up across the country.

About Ecobank

Incorporated in Lome, Togo, in 1988 Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) the parent company of Ecobank is the leading independent pan-African banking group.
China and Russia were to start war games in the South China Sea on Monday, Beijing's defence ministry said, in a show of force after an international tribunal invalidated the Asian giant's extensive claims in the area. The eight-day joint drills will include exercises on "seizing and controlling" islands and shoals, Chinese navy spokesman Liang Yang said in a statement. They will involve surface ships, submarines, fixed-wing aircraft, ship-borne helicopters, marine corps and amphibious armoured equipment from both navies, he said. "Compared with previous joint drills, these exercises are deeper and more extensive in terms of organisation, tasks and command" he said in the statement, released Sunday. China claims almost all of the South China Sea and has sought to bolster its case by building a series of artificial islands capable of supporting military facilities. But a UN-backed tribunal ruled in July -- in a case brought by the Philippines -- that any extensive claims to the sea had no legal basis and that China's construction of artificial islands in disputed waters was illegal. Beijing reacted furiously, with foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang threatening a "decisive response" if anyone took "any provocative action against China's security interests based on the award". Beijing's land reclamations have prompted criticism from other claimant countries and the US, and Washington has regularly sent warships into the strategically vital area to assert the right to freedom of navigation. This week's drills will be carried out off the coast of Zhanjiang city in the southern province of Guangdong. Their precise location was not announced, but they do not appear to be taking place in disputed parts of the sea. They were aimed at "strengthening the capabilities of the Chinese and Russian Navies in jointly handling security threats on the sea", navy spokesman Liang said. - 'Ill-informed' - China and Russia have close military and diplomatic ties, often in opposition to the West, particularly the United States, and their leaders Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin enjoy a tight relationship. Last August, the two powers held military exercises in the waters and airspace of the Peter the Great Gulf, south of the Russian Pacific city of Vladivostok, involving 22 vessels, up to 20 aircraft and more than 500 marines. In May last year, they conducted their first joint naval exercises in European waters in the Black Sea and Mediterranean, China's farthest-ever drills from its home waters. Chinese military officials have said this week's exercises were "routine" and the official Xinhua news agency said Monday that Western media reports on them had sought to deliver a "sensational impression". Suggestions that they were meant as a "sabre-rattling" warning to other countries were "ill-informed" and driven by "prejudice about China and Russia", it said. "It may be true that growing military ties between Russia and China have irritated someone's sensitive nerves," Xinhua added. "The defensive nature of these manoeuvres is in line with China's defence policy, which makes it clear that China will not be the first to strike." Apart from the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have partial claims to the sea, through which over $5 trillion in annual trade passes.
AFP News

Russia on Saturday suspended its participation in a landmark agreement that allowed vital grain exports from Ukraine, blaming alleged drone attacks on Russian ships in Crimea. Russia made the announcement after its army accused Kyiv earlier Saturday of a "massive" drone attack on its Black Sea fleet, while Britain bluntly rejected Moscow's claims its specialists were involved. The Turkey and UN-brokered deal to unlock grain exports signed between Russia and Ukraine in July is critical to easing the global food crisis caused by the conflict. The agreement already allowed more than nine million tonnes of Ukrainian grain to be exported and was due to be renewed on November 19. "In light of the terrorist act carried out by the Kyiv regime with the participation of British experts against ships of the Black Sea fleet and civilian vessels involved in the security of grain corridors, Russia suspends its participation in the implementation of the agreement on the export of agricultural products from Ukrainian ports," the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram. Sevastopol in Moscow-annexed Crimea, which has been targeted several times in recent months, serves as the headquarters for the fleet and a logistical hub for operations in Ukraine. The Russian army claimed to have "destroyed" nine aerial drones and seven maritime ones, in an attack in the port early Saturday. Moscow's forces alleged British "specialists", whom they said were based in the southern Ukrainian city of Ochakiv, had helped prepare and train Kyiv to carry out the strike. In a further singling out of the UK -- which Moscow sees as one of the most unfriendly Western countries -- Russia said the same British unit was involved in explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines last month. Britain strongly rebutted both claims, saying "the Russian Ministry of Defence is resorting to peddling false claims of an epic scale." Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Saturday Moscow would raise the blasts and the alleged drone attack at the UN Security Council. The British defence ministry said this "invented story says more about arguments going on inside the Russian Government than it does about the West". Moscow's military said ships targeted at their Crimean base were involved in a UN-brokered deal to allow the export of Ukrainian grain. Russia had recently criticised the deal, saying its own grain exports have suffered due to Western sanctions. - 'Massive' attack - Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol, said Saturday's drone attack was the "most massive" the peninsula had seen. The city's services were on "alert", but he claimed no "civilian infrastructure" had been damaged. City authorities said that the harbour was "temporarily" closed to boats and ferries and urged people "not to panic". Attacks on Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, have increased in recent weeks, as Kyiv presses a counter-offensive in the south to retake territory held by Moscow for months. Moscow-installed authorities in Kherson, just north of Crimea, have vowed to turn the city into a fortress, preparing for an inevitable assault. On Thursday, Razvozhayev said a thermal power station had been attacked in Balaklava, in the Sevastopol area. He claimed there was only minor damage and no casualties. In early October, Moscow's bridge linking Crimea to the Russian mainland -- personally inaugurated by President Vladimir Putin in 2018 -- was damaged by a blast that Putin blamed on Ukraine. The Russian fleet stationed in the port had also been attacked by a drone in August. Russia's allegations Saturday came as the Ukrainian army reported fighting in the Lugansk and Donetsk regions in the east, including near Bakhmut -- the only area where Moscow's forces have advanced in recent weeks. Pro-Russian separatists fighting alongside Moscow also announced a new prisoner exchange with Kyiv, saying 50 will return home from each side. Both sides were gearing up for the battle for the city of Kherson, the regional capital that fell to Moscow's forces in the first days of their offensive. bur/raz/jmm
According to local media in Benin, an explosion that took lives of at least 8 people and injured dozens, occurred at a landfill (or, rather, a giant trash heap) in Tori, a town about 40 km away Cotonou, a capital of this western-african country.

"Our tally is eight dead, six of them in hospital and two at home, and 87 injured," Robert Tolegbon, the mayor of Tori, told state television.

What might sound as a curiosity at first, in fact reveals a much deeper tragedy.
flyktingar i Lahti mottes av starka protester i KKK-skrud. en Roda Korset-arbetare traffades av en sten. http://t.co/iRKoY6hzp4  perlenberg (@cbperlenberg) 25  2015 .

The same case involved a 45-year-old Yle reporter, who was there taking photographs and was suspected of instigating the white-clad Lahti resident to display the national flag seen in photograph that later became infamous. Since no evidence of such instigation or desecration of the flag was found, the charges against the reporter were dropped as well.

The anti-immigration demonstration that took place outside the Hennala reception center in Lahti in September 2015 was hardly a single isolated incident. With the migrant crisis reaching its peak last autumn, numerous anti-migrant demonstrations were held across Finland. The anti-immigrant sentiment was exacerbated by a high number of high-profile gang rape cases involving immigrants. The widely-covered rape cases subsequently became a fertile ground for Finnish nationalists.

The public resentment resulted in the appearance of a vigilante group named the Soldiers of Odin (SOO), who on their Facebook page blame "Islamist intruders" for "uncertainty, lack of safety and the surge of crime in Finland." The nationalist movement, which later spread to Finland's neighboring countries with the exception of Russia, started street patrols in a number of Nordic cities to allegedly protect people, especially women, from criminal immigrants, but also "to help everyone regardless of their ethnic background."

Aftonbladet vet ej vad de pratar. Igar var vi t.ex. pa fotboll och forebyggde en spelare med tveksamt utseende. https://t.co/LeOVcz8teh  Soldiers of Odin Swe (@SoldierOfOdinSE) 28  2016 .

A number of Nordic media later alleged that racism and Nazi sympathizers were rampant among the SOO rank and file, yet no substantial proof has been provided. The group claims to have several hundred members in more than 25 cells across Finland, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Estonia, Hungary  as well as in Britain, Ireland, Canada, and the United States.
As of September, Copenhagen police have already charged 194 people for sleeping illegally and begging, as opposed to 187 people during the whole last year. The Roma make up "a clear preponderance" among those charged, Kenneth Damkjr, a police commissioner from the police immigration department, reported.

"It may be that they are homeless here, but our impression is that many of them have their own homes back in Romania," Kenneth Damkjer told Danish newspaper Berlingske.

Additionally, public complaints against the beggars and squatters have increased as per police records. In Denmark, it is not permitted to stay overnight in open public spaces, such as city parks and squares and neither is it allowed to sleep on privately-owned or municipal properties. Similarly, it is not permitted to stay in private areas, violations of which are fined. According to Damkjr, the current legislation is "somewhat inadequate."
Today, it is estimated that three Swedish policemen quit each day, mostly citing low wages, excessive workload and job-related stress. According to Police Federation chairperson Lena Nitz, decisive action is needed to guarantee people's security, rebuild confidence in the top management and make the police profession attractive again.

"So far this year, almost three police officers per day have left the profession. At this rate, a fifth of the force will be gone by 2020. To stop the serious crisis, there must be a real investment in police and higher wages for the hard-pressed police corps," Nitz told Swedish trade newspaper Proffs.

Last week, Swedish Police chief Dan Eliasson unveiled measures on how he intends to improve the police. Among other things, Eliasson wants to hire 600 more civilian police, extend police training and a thorough shake-up of the whole police force, which came under fire for being unable to stop the crime surge, including gangland violence, sexual assaults and vehicular vandalism. The crisis was acknowledged by numerous officials and politicians, with the exception of Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, who vehemently denied it, triggering further criticism. With a police force of under 20,000 and constantly shrinking, Sweden is estimated to become unable to deal with the issues of terrorism, organized crime and the migrant crisis.
For his turn, Russian sexologist Lev Shcheglov welcomed the conference itself but mentioned that even the most attractive robot is only a machine that is created for human satisfaction.

"Learning everything related to a human being in terms of technology is a direct scientific task. Therefore, from a scientific point of view, the conference is the right move. But the question about true love and marriage with robots is illusory, because it still is a simple mechanism of self-satisfaction. Creating a robot that would have feelings, individual choice and unpredictable reactions, not to mention the complicated psyche of the subconscious, is impossible in principle," the expert stated.

In a world where robot technology is able to achieve the same or even better results than a human can, it could eventually lead to many also deeming amorous encounters with a robot as being better than that with another human being.

In this context, Shcheglov argued that for certain groups of people robots could be really helpful, but to the majority of mankind they pose a serious danger.

"It could be useful when it comes to wheelchair users or people injured in some tragic incidents. For such people, a real romantic encounter and sexual contact is unlikely, that is why sex with a robot could be good for them," Shcheglov said.

"But for the great mass of normal people, it won't be good," the expert continued. "Sex with a robot is just a fake imitation []. And it can lead to psychopathic disorders and isolation. Sex with robots won't bring into a person's life the emotional effect that gives us a true communion. You can eat pseudo-food to still hunger, but over time it will still end badly. After all, the body won't get the substances that are present in the natural products. And in this case  the emotions that shape and bring sense to our life, make it unique, different from others," the expert concluded.

Although the future forecasts about life with robots don't sound positive enough, according to some reports, innovative brothels with sex robots might open in Britain already in the coming years. The authorities believe that it will help to solve a range of social problems, such as illegal prostitution and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, as reported by Mirror.
According to reports, Xi Jinping thanked Putin for his gift saying that during each of his visits to Russia he asks for Russian ice cream to take back home.

The Chinese president said that the cream in Russia is of a very good quality; hence, the ice cream is particularly tasty.

With a recent surge in exports, production volume of ice cream in Primorsky Krai of Russia has doubled since 2015. The current exchange rate also proved advantageous as now the price of Russian ice cream is more affordable than its European competitors.

The popularity of Russian ice cream in China reflects Chinese consumers' trust in its neighbor and interest in Russian food, news website Peoples Daily Online reported.
The news of an imminent test follows in the wake of Pyongyangs massive nuclear test blast on Friday, the most powerful atomic detonation by the regime to date.

The rumors of an upcoming second test blast also follows indications by the North Korean government and independent defense analysts that Kim Jong-uns government has mastered the miniaturization process necessary to mount a nuclear warhead to a ballistic missile raising the stakes.
The construction of the record-breaking structure lasted for three years with the participation of at least 1,000 engineers and technicians. It cost about 1 billion yuan (about US $150 million), according to Xinhua agency.

The 1,341-meter-long bridge is part of a highway linking Hangzhou City in the province of Zhejiang and Ruili City in the province of Yunnan.
According to the expert, decades of the so called "patience policy" and total neglect of the North Korean issue have not brought any positive results and rather led to North Korea becoming a full-fledged nuclear power.

Now President Obama is trying to impose more sanctions on North Korea which clearly doesn't work, the expert argued.

"Since the beginning of the North Korean war, North Korea has been under sanctions, and nothing has changed," Petrov told Sputnik. "The so called policy of patience or neglect just didn't work. I think the alternative is to start talking," the expert added.
New Delhi (Sputnik)  In an unprecedented security move, the Indian government will use drones and helicopters to provide surveillance in all ten districts of the Kashmir valley during the holy festival Eid-al-Adha. Additional troops will be deployed to the valley as well as Government sources told Sputnik army personnel were asked to remain on standby for deployment.

The Indian government decided to take such a strong step after intelligence indicated there could be "large-scale violence across valley on Eid-ul-Adha."

Separatist leaders within the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir have appealed to the people of Kashmir to celebrate Eid-al-Adha respectfully, taking into account the 80 victims of the conflict since July 8, when Indian armed forces killed militant commander Burhan Wani.
New Delhi (Sputnik)  India expedited its probe into the defense deal signed in 2008 with Embraer, the world's third-largest aircraft maker. Government sources told Sputnik that India has once again talked to Embraer officials on Monday following a letter sent to the Brazilian company on Saturday evening. India asked Embraer to reply in next 15 days whether the company employed middleman to secure an Indian government defense contract.

The alleged bribe was paid for securing a contract for supplying three EMB 145 aircraft to the Indian Defense Research and Development Organization in 2008. These planes were to be equipped with indigenously-built Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) radars. Embraer delivered the last plane in 2013.

The issue of bribery appeared when a Brazilian newspaper revealed that the United States justice department had launched probe against Embraer regarding a contract between the Brazilian firm and the Dominican Republic. The investigation was later expanded to business dealings with eight other countries including India. According to the Indian Defence Procurement Policy, employing middlemen for securing any defense contract is illegal.
Madhu, a sixteen year old who came to India with her family two years ago due to religious persecution in Pakistans Punjab province has been struggling from pillar to post to get herself admitted to a school in Delhi. She had been refused admission as she did not have relevant identification papers which are required to secure admission in Delhi Schools.

At last, Madhu tweeted her woes to the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj who obliged and called her for a meeting.

Madhu  I have read this story in the media. Pl see me at my residence tomorrow evening at 7 pm. https://t.co/JfxBCX2Vz8  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) 9  2016 .

With his personal intervention, Madhu's problem of gaining admission to school was taken care of and the Delhi Government relaxed the rules for her.
"The alliance is taking steps each and every day to defend the Republic of Korea and we are always maintaining a high state of readiness."

While the flight was initially scheduled for Monday, weather has forced a delay until Tuesday.

"Due to inclement weather conditions, the engagement at Osan Air Base scheduled for today been postponed," the statement reads.

The Lancer is a nuclear-capable supersonic heavy strategic bomber. A fleet of B-1Bs were deployed to Guam in August to send a message to Pyongyang.
Republican Senator John McCain has been one of the most vocal hawks in Washington. On Friday, he condemned Chinas militarization of the region and called Beijing a "bully." At the same time, he urged President Barack Obama to increase US military efforts in the disputed waterway.

"In the South China Sea, China has shattered the commitments that it made to its neighbors in the 2002 declaration of conduct as well as more recent commitments to the US government by conducting reclamation on disputed features and militarizing the South China Sea at a startling and destabilizing rate," McCain said, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
BUSHEHR (Iran), (Sputnik)  Russian and Iranian nuclear officials signed a construction protocol at a Saturday ground-breaking ceremony marking the start of work on the Bushehr-2 in the southwestern Iranian province.

"This protocol specifies the terms of the start of work, taking into account the advance payments that Iran must make. The advance payment will be made by the end of the year, it will be paid in several tranches," Suren Ambartsumyan, a site leader with Russias Atomstroyexport foreign trade engineering firm, told reporters.

The Bushehr 2 project was rolled out by Russian nuclear experts in Tehran in 2014. Moscow and Tehran signed a deal to build the second and third reactors at the site in November that year, with an option of building six more in the future.
THESSALONIKI (Sputnik)  Noting the 160 billion cubic meters Europe bought from Russia last year, Velanis voiced confidence that Athens would find common ground with the European Commission and other EU bodies, and affirmed that European energy security cannot exist without Russia.

"We will go forward with the implementation of the project, and Europe knows it," Dimitris Velanis told RIA Novosti.

"We support the supply of energy resources from all sources, but sources in Russia cannot be excluded from this process. That is our position," the adviser stressed.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  According to the Russian official, Gazprom's experts together with Indian importers will make feasibility study of the deal.

"We held the first [working] group meeting last November. On September 7, the second meeting took place. On September 13, we will invite [Vitaly] Markelov, the deputy chairman of Gazprom's management committee, to the meeting with the Indian side to continue the talks in New Delhi," Sentyurin told journalists.

"At present, we are making theoretic research of this option. We have not decided on the route so far, engineering analysis of viability is still underway. The project is not a simple matter, because Russia and India do not have common borders," Sentyurin added.
NOVO-OGAREVO (Moscow Region), (Sputnik)  Iran has saved 27 million barrels of oil with the first unit of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, the CEO of Russias Rosatom corporation, Sergei Kirienko, said Monday.

"The Iranians themselves have already announced the first unit of Bushehr has saved them 27 million barrels of oil, and each unit will save 11 million barrels per year. They believe that it has paid off for them and brought them income," Kirienko said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Moodys noted that retail lending in Russia has improved since the second quarter of 2015.

"Asset quality will see improvements next year as Russia pulls out of recession: Moody's forecasts that the 1 percent economic contraction in 2016 will be followed by a modest 1.5 percent real GDP growth in 2017, which should bolster corporate credit profiles," the report stated.

Additionally, Russian Central Bank figures indicate that the formation of new corporate non-performing loans have declined to pre-crisis levels not seen since 2014.
What is more, like some other European countries, Greece was interested to be part of the South Stream project. The pipeline is expected to go via the Black Sea and then to Bulgaria, the Balkans, Italy and Austria.

Despite the fact that European companies were interested in the project, in April 2014 the European Parliament adopted a resolution recommending abandoning the initiative. Russia announced the suspension of South Stream and proposed Turkish Stream as an alternative.

It also was suspended after a Russian Su-24 aircraft was downed by a Turkish F-16 fighter in Syria on November 24, 2015. In June, following Turkey's apology to Russia for the November incident, the sides began a reconciliation process.

While construction a pipeline in Turkey is unlikely to meet obstacles, building a pipeline in Europe (for example, via Greece) is likely to face opposition from the European Commission. For example, the Nord Stream-2 was also opposed by Brussels.

"Turkish Stream is expected to have to two strings, one for Turkey and the other for Southern Europe. For the first pipe, Ankaras permission is enough. However, this is the European Commission that will decide on the second leg running to Greece. Currently, the commission is not very friendly towards Russia so its hard to predict whether a pipeline via Greece will work out," Sergei Pravosudov, director of the National Energy Institute, told Svobodnaya Pressa.
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So he applied again and in November 2014 the case was referred to the High Court.

The judge ordered that his wife could come to the UK. But the Home Office appealed against the judge's decision, and they won.

Bashar has decided to keep applying, so that his wife can join him in the UK. He met with his wife early this year in 2016 in Turkey, which was the first time he had seen her in over two years.

Migration continues to bring out *worst* in Govts & leaders: their attitudes/behaviours set poor example for voters https://t.co/nIY32gDJRX  pat elsmie (@patelsmie) September 7, 2016

Bashar's case is not isolated, according to Migrant Voices, a charity that assists refugees and migrants when they arrive in the EU. There are hundreds of other refugees in similar situations  most of them men, who had fled Syria to build a better life for their family.

"The men come here first as the journey from Syria to the UK is so dangerous. Once they are here they hope their family will be able to join them. But we are finding now, that the Home Office is making this very difficult," Nazek Ramadan, Director of Migrant voices told Sputnik.

"The Home Office is requesting unreasonable information, in Bashar's case they asked for WhatsApp communication between him and his wife. He gave them 1,000 pages worth of information to prove he was married. The Home Office then asked him to translate it from Arabic to English," Ms. Ramadan told Sputnik.

Bashar speaks a little English, but not much. He has no access to legal aid, he has to pay for solicitor fees and court costs out of his own pocket.

Migrant Voices, who have been assisting Bashar and countless others in similar situations, told Sputnik that there are clear problems with the legal process.

"The UK government is refusing applications they think are false, taking months to make decisions, allowing the refugees to make risky journeys just to see their family and lack of legal aid, forcing refugees to fund the entire process themselves," a statement from Migrant Voices said.

Bashar has not given up hope and has applied yet again, but this time he is not alone.

When Sputnik met Bashar, there were two other men  Omar Aloush, 29 years old, and Muhannah Al Quarete, 28 years old, both also from Syria.

"They want you to get tired; tired of applying so you give up and go home. We know of one man who already gave up and returned to the conflict in Syria just to be with his family. He told us, 'I will have to live and die with them,' the UK government is making it impossible for these men to see their family," Ms. Ramadan told Sputnik.

In September last year, then Prime Minister David Cameron said Britain would take 20,000 Syrian refugees over a five year period, from countries neighboring Syria such as Jordan and Lebanon.

However, Home Office figures show that in the first nine months of the scheme  from October 2015  some 2,646 people were resettled across 118 local authorities.

There have also been claims that people are not being processed quickly enough and that the system is too bureaucratic. Councils are ready to take in refugees, however this has not happened.
According to the Nobel laureate, the ongoing major crackdown following the attempted coup is unlawful and deprives the citizens of Turkey of basic human rights and freedoms.

In Turkey, you can be thrown in jail if you disagree with the government even slightly, he wrote in the opinion piece published on Sunday in La Repubblica newspaper.

"Freedom of thought no longer exists." Pamuk wrote, adding that there is no future in the country for those who courageously fight for the freedom of speech.
STOCKHOLM (Sputnik)  On Friday, a source told RIA Novosti that the ruling that was expected to be announced on that day would be delayed for the upcoming week.

"The Court of Appeal will announce its decision on the case on September 16," the spokesperson told RIA Novosti.

Assange has been residing at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012, out of fear of being extradited to Sweden where he has been accused of sexual assault and rape. He denies the allegations, claiming they are a ruse organized by Washington to further extradite him to the United States to try him for leaking thousands of top-secret military documents and embassy cables detailing Washington's war crimes in Iraq.
Poking Fun for Political Ends

Over the summer, the Hungarian government unveiled thousands of billboards linking migration with terrorism and criminality, with one poster claiming "Did you know? The Paris attacks were committed by migrants" and another poster stating that "there has been a sharp increase in the number of harassment against women in Europe since the start of the migration crisis."

The only party that supports the government's anti-migrants drive is the opposition far-right Jobbik, which now polls as the second most popular party in the country. The bulk of other opposition parties urge their voters to boycott the referendum.

The most visible and humorous campaign against the referendum is led by the satirical Two-Tailed Dog Party, which was founded as a street-art spoof in the mid-2000th and now intends to stand in the next general election in 2018.

"We've got some domains which the government should have bought [before], so we'll make some funny websites in the name of the government, we also make apps to help people practice how to invalidate votes, and there are so many government billboards that we also made an app which changes the billboard to ours if you look at them with it," Kovacs said about the party's initiatives ahead of the referendum.

By early September, the party had raised more than $100,000 from citizens in just two weeks to launch a billboard campaign countering that of the prime minister.

"We already have 500 billboards, 500 city-light posters, and we have got lots of activists, more than 1,000, so we have already printed 100,000 A4 [posters] and the same amount of A3, so I hope that we can cover the country with them," he added.

Did you know? There is a war in Syria and Did you know? Corruption offenses are mostly committed by politicians," the party's billboards ask in a clearly satirical reference to the governments' posters.

Next week, three small opposition parties, the Together party along with the Modern Hungary Movement and the Dialogue for Hungary party, which are also urging voters to boycott the referendum, will launch their own more modest campaign with up to 400 billboards. Posters will show a man and a woman sitting on a couch and raising their middle fingers to a government referendum advertisement on their television screen.

Refendum Not About Migrants

"The main issue is not the refugee politics of the government. The main issue is rather the governments way of spending the peoples money on a campaign that shows them who to hate," the Two-Tailed God Party says on its website.

The government does not disclose the information on how much it has spent on the campaign, but according to estimates by the web-site Index.hu, the cost of the campaign over the past three months approaches to some 3.5 billion forints ($12.6 million).

Many other parties share the vision that the October 2 referendum will be anything except a vote on migrants.

When plans to hold a referendum were finally set, the deputy leader of the left-wing opposition Democratic Coalition, Csaba Molnar, suggested that a valid referendum would be a prelude to leaving the European Union. In July, the opposition Hungarian Socialist Party's (MSZP) Vice President Zoltan Gogos also said that the quota referendum was actually a vote on Hungarys EU membership. In late August, MSZP leader Gyula Molnar said that the Socialists were ready to support Fidesz in the EU quota war, but added that the referendum is unnecessary.

The Egyutt (Together) party, in its turn, said in an official statement that the quota referendum went against Hungarys interests and was only meant to increase prime minister's power and wealth, while the Dialogue for Hungary party suggested that the referendum and the aggressive campaign was used by Fidesz to divert attention from real problems such as poverty, low wages, corruption and the ailing healthcare and education sectors.

The opposition parties, supported by Hungarian Helsinki Committee and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, are now urging their voters to boycott the October 2 vote or spoil the ballots by putting an "x'' in both the "yes" and "no" fields, when answering the question Do you want the European Union to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary even without the consent of Parliament?"

According to the migrant redistribution plan, approved last September in Brussels, Budapest must take in some 1,300 refugees in two years.

Official Line

In contrast to some EU countries, such as Austria, that were initially mostly welcoming towards the migrants but later toughened their position, Hungary has from the very beginning been very consistent in its stance that migration should not only be reduced and regulated but completely halted, as the Hungarian government press-office formulated to Sputnik in mid-August.

In addition to already existing fences, Hungary plans to build a second one on its border with Serbia to prevent more migrants from entering the country. This week Budapest also announced plans to beef up its police force with 3,000 new "border hunters" to tighten control at the barriers. The country has also adopted legislation which enabled officials to return migrants to Serbia if they are caught within 8 kilometers of the border.

Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban is admired by leaders of some of Europe's eastern states, and was given a Man of the Year award earlier this week at an economic forum of the Visegard Group, consisting of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. He is similarly disliked by some of Hungary's western neighbors for his tough stance on migrants and his unwillingness to share the common burden.

A striking example of the divisions sparked by the migrant issue within the European Union is the ongoing spat between Vienna and Budapest with Austria's interior minister threatening on Wednesday to sue Hungary if it refused to take back migrants crossing their shared border.
The position will mean that the successful candidate will act as an ambassador for London's night time economy and will work in areas such as venues, with local authorities, as well as the Metropolitan Police and Transport for London.

Im in the process of appointing a Night Czar to ensure London thrives as a 24-hour city, in a way that is safe & enjoyable for all. #fabric  Mayor of London (@MayorofLondon) 7 September 2016

The "Czar" will set out a road map of how these services will be delivered and will also be building on the opportunities that the night tube will bring in order to help grow London's night time economy.

London is not the only city to utilize the services of a Night Czar, a similar role exists in other European cities such as Amsterdam, Paris, Zurich and in each of these areas, the role has been a great success.
However, he is against the UK remaining in the single market for less money that it is paying now with a seven to ten-year emergency break on EU-migration, which UK Prime Minister Theresa May has proposed.

'Europe a la Carte'

"A deal with these conditions would be unthinkable. It would allow the UK to expand its already very favorable position: keeping the best parts and ridding itself of the obligations that come with it. EU Governments would be mad to agree to such a deal and I can tell you: the European Parliament will never agree to a deal that 'de facto' ends the free movement of people for a decade, while giving away an extra rebate in exchange for all the advantages of the internal market," he said.

"What would stop other countries from asking the same exceptional status? Do we really want euroskeptics elsewhere in Europe to invoke the British example of 'having their cake and eating it'? Everyone can see that this position is irresponsible because it's not sustainable in the long run.

"The only new relationship between Britain and the European Union can be one in which the UK has an associated status with [fewer] obligations but equally less rights. And if this is not feasible, the fallback position will be an ordinary trade agreement between Britain and the EU."
No one should fear closer EU military cooperation. But it should not be confused for genuine and badly needed European military investment.  Anthony King (@antbruceking) September 9, 2016

However given the UK is set to leave the bloc, French and German officials have sought to push their own agenda, given the UK is set to lose its say on EU policy

"Taking into account the United Kingdom's decision to leave the EU, we have to henceforth act as 27 [member states]," the French-German plans said.

Finance: A Taxing Issue

Another example of how the EU could radically change in the wake of Brexit is on the issue of tax and financing, with lawmakers from across the bloc discussing the matter of budget reform and the possible introduction of an EU-wide tax system.

Last week members of EU national parliaments, MEPs and other EU officials met to discuss the key issues at the inter-institutional conference on the future financing of the EU  an event at which British representation was absent.

In 2015 the UK paid 13 billion to the EU budget, and EU spending on the UK was 4.5 billion. So UKs net contribution was 8.5 billion.  Sarah Jane (@sarahdukip) September 8, 2016

With concerns over the reasonably small EU budget, which is made up of member state contributions, talks were held about reforming the system, something that was previously vetoed by the UK as a result of London's preference for a minimal EU budget.

Talks were also held over the sensitive topic of reforming the EU tax system and introducing a union-wide tax to help provide funds for Brussels, with many countries rejecting such an approach, arguing that member state should hold their own fiscal sovereignty.

The Irish government doesn't want the #AppleTax and it's also opposed to an EU-wide corporate tax system. More for #Apples $250bn stockpile.  Aidan Regan (@Aidan_Regan) August 30, 2016

However some officials noted that with the UK  often seen as the biggest opponent to greater EU integration  set to leave the bloc, opportunities to reform the EU have become more realistic.

"Ironically, Brexit has forced us to find an answer," veteran French MEP Alain Lamassoure told Euractiv, who noted the Thatcher negotiated British budget rebate "was the reason for the malfunctioning of the current system."

EU's Post-Brexit Future

With the UK government still undecided on what Brexit approach the country will take, discussions on defense, EU budgets and tax systems have demonstrated the bloc's willingness to try and shape the future of the union without London's influence.

The recent developments have echoed the concerns of 'Remain' campaigners in Britain, who argued that leaving the bloc would mean that Britain would still have to abide by EU rules, but would have no seat at the table when discussing and deciding policies.

The UK's fast-declining influence in today's global world couldn't be more clearly demonstrated.#EUnited pic.twitter.com/G9DUyHKTPL  KimInBru.EU (@KimBru49) September 6, 2016

Now there are fears in London that Britain's opposition to greater EU military and financial cooperation could be pushed aside by member states that have called for greater integration.

With UK Prime Minister Theresa May currently facing pressure from some of her own ministers to make a 'hard Brexit' from the bloc, some lawmakers across the continent are strengthening the case for the creation of a radically different EU in the post-Brexit future  free from British objections.
"This is a big credibility test for the ethics committee that President Juncker appointed. In a case that will have a huge impact on the Commission's integrity and reputation, the process needs to be swift and transparent. It's imperative that the committee's minutes, recommendations and the reasoning behind them are published as soon as possible."

Ethical Questions

In its announcement of Barroso's appointment, the US investment banks said: "His perspective, judgement and counsel will add great value to our GSI Board of Directors, Goldman Sachs, our shareholders and our people." However, critics said it would afford Barroso enormous lobbying power and was derided as another example of the "revolving door" of outgoing Euro chiefs.

In a letter to Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly asked the Commission to explain what measures it has taken to check whether the appointment conforms with ethics obligations in the Treaty, whether he has, or will, request an opinion of the Ad hoc Ethical Committee and whether the Commission is considering reforming the Commissioners' Code of Conduct.

Referral of #Barroso scandal to ethics committee welcome. But too late & only 1st step: https://t.co/mZgUNevNVV pic.twitter.com/Gr82bj7jIh  CEO (@corporateeurope) 12 September 2016

European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, wrote to Juncker saying:

"Mr Barroso's move has generated concern at a very challenging time for the EU and particularly in relation to citizen trust in its institutions. This is a significant public interest issue and must be openly and comprehensively addressed by the Commission."

Transparency International EU also commended the decision that Barroso's future dealings with the Commission will be treated according to the same rules that apply to any other lobbyist, urging that Commission officials refrain from meeting with Barroso while the Ad hoc Ethical Committee is deliberating.
Early Baptism of Fire

Despite grassroots Labour party membership numbers soaring and securing the support of the UK's biggest trade unions, Corbyn faced early challenges as Labour leader, with many former shadow cabinet ministers refusing to serve under his leadership.

The Labour leader was also subject to an aggressive media campaign from parts of the UK's right-wing press, which focused everything Corbyn, from his dress sense, to the accusation that he was riding a "Chairman Mao-style bicycle."

For one year, Corbyn has taken an unprecedented battering from the media, the establishment and even his own MPs  for us #ThankYouJeremy  Susan (@marthasydenham) September 12, 2016

The one-sided press coverage has since been analysed by academics, with a London School of Economics study finding that Corbyn had been "thoroughly delegitimized" by large parts of the UK media.

The Labour leader was also accused of unpatriotic behaviour after video footage found that he didn't sing the national anthem during a Second World War remembrance service. However Corbyn hit back, saying he was standing in "respectful silence."

Jeremy Corbyn singing Great Britain's national anthem. pic.twitter.com/CQprKhssuk  HubertusVenator (@HubertusVenator) June 18, 2016

Early Victories

It wasn't all bad news for Corbyn however, with the Labour leader earning praise for his opposition to the then Cameron government's plans to slash US$5.8 billion (4.4 billion) worth of tax credits from low-paid workers.

After longstanding criticism, former Chancellor George Osborne was forced to perform a humiliating U-turn, handing Corbyn an early victory over the Conservatives.

One year on:

1. Corbyn more determined than expected

2. Achieved bigger membership change than expected

3. Policy is thinner than expected  Theo Bertram (@theobertram) September 12, 2016

The Labour leader was also praised for his new approach to Prime Minister's Questions, with Corbyn sourcing questions from constituents and concerned members of the public as part of his plan to introduce a "nicer, kinder" politics.

While critics argued that Corbyn was unelectable with the wider public, the Labour leader took confidence from the December by-election result in Oldham West and Royton, which saw Labour candidate Jim McMahon win the seat with an increased majority, while Sadiq Khan's London mayoral election win was claimed by Corbyn supporters as a sign of the leader's electoral appeal.

#Corbyn's Labour have never been ahead on the average of poils in coming up for one year. #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/hMzCEAATW2  Gerry Hassan (@GerryHassan) September 8, 2016

The Labour leader was also vindicated for his longstanding opposition to the Iraq war following the release of the Chilcot report in July, which was hugely critical of the actions of former Prime Minister Tony Blair in the lead-up to the British invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Internal Dissidence

However, the victories were fraught with international criticism, with Corbyn's left-wing views on key issues at odds with many others in the party.

Corbyn, who himself was a long-time party rebel, faced challenges from within his own cabinet over the issues of Trident renewal and the UK parliament's decision to launch airstrikes in Syria as part of an anti-Daesh coalition.

#PMQs yet again @jeremycorbyn lets May of the hook through failure to use follow up question #useless We need a real opposition! #Notcorbyn  Dave Tantum (@DaveTantum) September 7, 2016

These challenges undermined Corbyn's authority as Labour leader, with numerous MPs criticizing their leader's approach to both issues.

Brexit Bombshell to Leadership Challenge

While anti-Corbyn opposition from within the Labour party had been consistent, it exploded on the morning of June 24, when many shocked Britons woke to the news that the UK had voted to leave the EU.

Corbyn  a long-time euroskeptic himself  was savaged by Labour colleagues, who accused him of running a half-hearted campaign to try and stay in the EU.

Lord Prescott puts #Labour leadership travails down to 'midsummer madness' not, say, #JeremyCorbyn failure to defeat ruinous #Brexit  Alex Connock (@MrAlexConnock) July 1, 2016

After Corbyn sacked former shadow foreign secretary Hillary Benn over an alleged leadership plot, dozens more cabinet ministers resigned from their posts, with Corbyn also emphatically losing a no-confidence vote among Labour MPs 172-40.

With Corbyn refusing to resign, some critics raised concerns that the Labour party may actually split, while the incident triggered a leadership challenge, with the election results between Corbyn and challenger Owen Smith to be announced on September 24.

While polls suggest Corbyn is set for another landslide win, whether he can unite the party to form a credible challenge at the 2020 general election is yet to be seen.
Officers found the victim lying unconscious on the ground with serious injuries to his head and face.

Worrying development on #Armley Town Street. If you have any information about this incident, let the police know. https://t.co/5jINGakNWS  Alice Smart (@Alice_Smart) September 12, 2016

West Yorkshire Police has confirmed that the attack is being treated as a racist incident while they conduct enquiries. Meanwhile, the town's councilor, Alison Lowe said that Armley was devastated.

"Armley is a tolerant and welcoming community where I lived with my own children for 15 years, without incident. News of this terrible incident has left me both devastated and confused. This is not the Armley I know and love and I hope our communities will come together to show others that Armley is a safe place to live and work, despite the despicable actions of an ignorant few," Mrs. Lowe said.
Javaria Saeed's interview really important: not just in the police, but the armed forces, education, government too. https://t.co/UJUlKVRJzd  Piano Cake (@pianocake) 12 September 2016

Ms. Saeed resigned from the Metropolitan Police force in March after she became disillusioned by the amount of political correctness, which she claimed resulted in a culture of "us and them" to emerge among some Muslim officers, who believed themselves to be above the law.

"My experiences were that it was Muslim officers being racist towards my individual views; also in private, holding racist views against white officers, and sexist views against females. If such views were held and expressed by white officers, they would be fired," Ms. Saeed said in a recent interview.

A Metropolitan police spokesperson spoke to Sputnik and said that they were aware of the concerns raised by ex-Sergeant, Javaira Saeed.

"On a number of occasions prior to her leaving to the Met [Metropolitan Police], the full range of options for dealing with her concerns was explained to her, ranging from an internal fairness at work procedure through to a full investigation. Each time she was asked if she wanted to document her complaint, so that it could be investigated, she declined," a Metropolitan Police spokesperson told Sputnik.

The Met spokesperson said that two other officers did formally make an allegation relating to the use of language used by a Police Constable during a presentation on female genital mutilation in August 2013.

"This matter was fully looked into and the officer given management action. The Met is committed to supporting all victims of crime regardless of what community they come from, key to that is encouraging all victims to come forward and speak out so we can and will take action," the spokesperson said.

The Metropolitan police spokesperson said that despite Ms. Saeed declining to formally record her information as a complaint a full review of the Muslim Contact Unit (MCU) was carried out in 2013, which resulted in a number of recommendations being made. Most of these have been implemented. Since 2013, there have been no further issues or complaints made about the conduct of the officers within the MCU.

"As part of the Met's work to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization, the MCU has been absorbed into a wider community engagement team and no longer exists as a separate unit. However, we continue to engage with the Muslim and other communities to prevent radicalization and the threat from international terrorism.

"We are also committed to increasing the diversity of our own workforce, and making sure that all our staff feel valued and able to speak out if they come across wrong doing. Our Directorate of Professional Standards investigates all allegations; examines all intelligence and supports reporters of wrong doing. Where officers fall below the high standards we will take action. This is vital for public confidence and the confidence of all the men and women of the Met who work to keep London safe," a Metropolitan Police spokesperson told Sputnik.

The Metropolitan police were complimentary of the contribution made by Ms. Saeed, during her time in the force.

"During her career with the Met, Ms. Saeed made a valued contribution to policing London and used her skill and innovation to support community engagement. She successfully passed a promotion board to the rank of Sergeant and was placed on the fast track scheme. Her work was formally recognized and celebrated at the Metropolitan Police Service's annual Excellence Awards ceremony," the spokesperson said.
He also won favor for winning a limit on benefit payments for non-UK workers until they had been working for four years  the so-called "emergency brake". These benefits included tax credits, housing support and payment of child benefits to children not living in the UK  all of which have cause anger among many euroskeptics in the UK.

However, his greatest failure was "Project Fear"  the campaigning he led, suggesting there would be economic Armageddon if Britain left the EU. He called in the big guns to back his cause. US President Barack Obama  visiting London at the start of the campaign  said the UK would be at the "back of the queue" if it left the EWU and started negotiations on a new trade deal with the US.

It was widely reported that the phrase "back of the queue" had been written in Downing Street as the US president would normally have said "back of the line."

Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, warned: "We have looked at all the scenarios. We have done our homework and we havent found anything positive to say about a Brexit vote."
Last week, the Conservative Party proposed that all the applicants for Danish citizenship should undergo a thorough "screening" process, enquiring about their opinions, personal beliefs and loyalty to the Danish state.

Danish-Syrian Conservative MP Naser Khader is by his own admission ready to introduce a corresponding bill to oblige the Danish state to present a system for probing potential citizen's personal beliefs. Additionally, the applicants are expected to declare their loyalty to the Danish constitution and society values in written form. According to Khader, this measure would stop people, who "do not care for" Danish values from ultimately becoming Danes. Additionally, this measure is expected to deny citizenship to people who "oppose and undermine democracy."

"I want to be able to sit down and ask some of those who have applied for Danish citizenship: Why do you want it? What is your opinion of our democracy, traditions of freedom, gender equality, homosexuality and so on," Khader told Danish newspaper Politiken.
Alfano's plan provides the distribution only of those refugees who have filed a request for asylum, and in addition, it does not cover the coordination of their arrival with the local authorities.

Giuseppe Addabbo, the mayor of Molinara, a commune in Benevento province, told Sputnik Italy that he learned about the group of migrants sent to his city from newspapers:

"Migrants should be allocated based on the number of urban residents. While there are 1,500 people living in Molinara, 25 women from Nigeria and Somalia were brought to us through a private organization associated with the Red Cross. Nobody  neither the Red Cross, nor this structure itself, nor the prefecture of the province  have coordinated their arrival and accommodation with city authorities. I have learned this news from the morning press!"
VILNIUS (Sputnik)  Allegedly, the aircraft did not have pre-filed flight plan, maintained radio communication with air traffic control centers and had its onboard transponders switched on.

"NATO jets conducting air police mission identified and escorted an IL-76 flying from the mainland of Russia to Kaliningrad District on September 9," Lithuanias National Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Responding to various similar accusations by Lithuania in the past weeks, the Russian Foreign Ministry has reiterated that it did not violate international law and did not cross Baltic States borders.
EDINBURGH (Sputnik)  Earlier on Monday, Former UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced his resignation as a parliament member with immediate effect.

Mr. Cameron will be sadly missed, he should be applauded for getting the UK back on track out of a financial crisis that he inherited. I wish Mr Cameron and his family all the very best for the future, Mone told Sputnik.

On June 23, the United Kingdom held a referendum to determine whether or not the country should leave the European Union. According to the final results, 51.9 percent of voters, or 17.4 million people, decided to support Brexit.
"This petition demands that the government would promise to not allow the deployment of foreign troops and their military equipment on our territory, to not send our soldiers to the border with Russia and give people a chance to decide on if they need to NATO membership through a democratic referendum, the opportunity they have been waiting for 17 years," Skala said.

The Czech Republic, as a NATO member, has to take part in the alliance's military activities, the politician said. According to Skala, such participation is dangerous and harmful for the residents of his country and doesn't correspond to its interests.

"We are drawn into a conflict with the nuclear powers and they use us human shields, who are supposed to be the first to take the blow," Skala stated.

According to him, the petition would give Czech residents an opportunity to decide their own fate and ensure that the government focuses on the country's interests, and not on those of the military alliance.
Moscow-London relations have been overshadowed by the Ukrainian crisis and Crimea's reunification with Russia since 2014. the United Kingdom was among the Western nations that imposed sanctions on for its alleged role in fueling the conflict in southeastern Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly refuted the accusations, and warned that the sanctions are counterproductive and undermine regional and global stability.
LONDON (Sputnik)  According to the press release, the chancellor hosted senior executives from some of UK's major exporters including Honda Motor Europe, GSK, and Airbus Group UK.

"Britain has always been a great trading nation. We must do everything we can to help British businesses stay globally competitive as we prepare to thrive outside the EU. That means reminding the world that Britain is open for business and is committed to building strong trade and investment ties with key partners beyond the EU including China and the US," Hammond said, as quoted by the press service.
President Ilves discharged the incumbent Foreign Minister Marina Kaljurand following her decision to resign and run for presidency. The Board of Estonia's Reform Party earlier on Monday had chosen Ligi as a candidate for the position of a new Foreign Minister.

The swearing-in ceremony in parliament will be held on Tuesday, after which the new minister will officially take up his post.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  According to the BCC, the core reasons for the forecast's re-examination were the decrease in investments and weakening of the consumer expenditure that hit the country after the Brexit referendum.

"In its first economic forecast since the EU referendum, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has today (Monday) downgraded its UK GDP growth forecast, from 2.2% to 1.8% in 2016, from 2.3% to 1.0% in 2017, and from 2.4% to 1.8% in 2018," the report said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The interrogation is scheduled for 10 a.m. local time (9:00GMT). It will be attended by Swedens chief prosecutor Ingrid Isgren and police interrogator Cecilia Redell.

"Further proceedings will depend on what information Assange will provide," the statement on the Ecuadorian prosecutions website read.
TALLINN (Sputnik)  In Estonia, the parliament votes to elect the president but if none of the candidates wins the required number of votes the choice is made by an electoral college made up of lawmakers and local representatives. They failed to elect a head of state in the presidential runoffs on August 29-30.

"Presidential candidates are known in principle. I very much hope that the vote by the Electoral College won't be marred by scheming or attempts to promote someone or boost someone's popularity. I hope we will see responsible decision-making that will help elect the president on September 24," Ilves told the parliament.
"The United States welcomes the peaceful conduct of the September 11 parliamentary elections in Belarus," John Kirby said in a statement. "We recognize some improvements in the electoral processStill, the elections fell short of Belarus international obligations."

The Department of State noted the Belarusian governments willingness to register more opposition candidates, but said it needed to undertake serious reform of the election law to improve transparency, address non-pluralistic composition of election commissions and overhaul the "restrictive" legal framework that governs elections.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On Saturday, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) shelled the positions of Syrian artillery in the Golan Heights in response to a projectile allegedly fired by the Syrian army against the insurgents.

"This new strategy led by Lieberman since he took office has strengthened the Nusra Front and its raising its head to attack our brothers," Hasson said, as quoted by the Haaretz newspaper.

According to Hasson, strikes launched by the IAF against Damascus positions benefited the terror group that advanced near the village of Khadr, inhabited by the Druze ethnic and religious minority.
ANKARA (Sputnik)  On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry announced a new plan on Syria, which stipulates a ceasefire starting from September 12.

"Today after sunset under the auspices of the UN or our Red Crescent Society, trucks with food, toys and clothing will be sent through coordinated corridors mainly to Aleppo," Erdogan told reporters.

He added humanitarian aid was also planned to reach the northern Syrian towns of Jarablus and al-Rai.
The car bombing occurred some 650 feet from the provincial administration, according to the DNA news service. The site is also located near a local ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) office. The blast left 48 people wounded but killed no one, according to local officials.

"At 10:50 [07:50 GMT] as a result of a parked vehicle explosion, 48 people were injured, including 46 civilians and two police officers. Two are in critical condition," the provincial administration said in a statement published on its website.
By PTI: From Aditi Khanna

London, Sep 12 (PTI) British police today said they have "contained" the situation at a Gurdwara in the West Midlands region of England after an eight-hour standoff with a gang of sword-wielding men who opposed a mixed race marriage there and released on bail 54 men who were arrested during the clash.

Warwickshire Police said 54 accused have been given bail until next month while a 30-year-old man remains in police custody as investigations are on the nature of the weapons used during the incident.

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The force had made 55 arrests on charges of "aggravated trespass" after an involving armed officers at Gurdwara Sahib in the town of Leamington Spa.

They were responding to reports of a gang of men carrying "bladed weapons" disrupting a mixed race wedding ceremony.

"Officers responded to an initial report of a group of masked men, initially thought to be around 20 in number, forcing their way into the Gurdwara.

"These were reported to be carrying a range of bladed items some of which were initially described as not being for ceremonial use. Officers assessed the situation and responded accordingly," a Wariwckshire Police statement said today.

"Having contained the situation, it became apparent thatthere were 55 masked men involved, all of whom were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass. Blades seized so far have been ceremonial. Another non-ceremonial weapon was seized. This is an ongoing investigation and we will be investigating the initial report that other weapons were involved," it adds.

Kirpans or short swords, are legally allowed to be worn by Sikhs in the UK as a symbol of their faith.

However, police have seized a blade not believed to be ceremonial.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that protesters from Sikh 2 Inspire and Sikh Youth UK were demonstrating in what they describe as a "peaceful protest" against an inter-faith Anand Karaj or Sikh matrimonial ceremony taking place at the Gurdwara.

The group believes Gurdwara Sahib Leamington Spa on Tachbrook Drive is a "rogue" group, which decided to break an agreement made last year between over 300 Sikh representatives at a meeting led by the Sikh Council UK to not hold an Anand Karaj in inter-faith cases.

Sikh Youth UK said, "Local Sikh youth attended the early morning prayers at the Gurdwara and began a sit-down peaceful protest by reciting prayers."

"There was no violence, so it does not make sense why Kirpans were confiscated and have to remain in police custody. We feel the police should not be holding onto the Kirpans...we are not sure where the media has picked up their distorted narrative which damages the reputation of the Sikhs," added Gurmail Singh of Sikh Council UK.

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"We condemn the over-reaction by police and the disgraceful and inexcusable behaviour by the management committee at Leamington Gurdwara that have unashamedly brought the law-abiding Sikh community into disrepute by fuelling false and sensationalised media reports," added Sikh Federation UK. (MORE) PTI AK NSA PMS AKJ PMS

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MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On September 9, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry announced a new plan on Syria, which stipulates a ceasefire that comes into force Monday. The plan also precludes the Syrian Air Force to fly over territories controlled by the opposition.

"Of course not. There is coordination [in Syria] on who will fly where and the Syrian Air Force will fly, but only in accordance with the schedule," Bogdanov told RIA Novosti.
Hussein Usman and his family were the first to return to their war-scarred house in the citys Bani Zeid neighborhood where eight of them now live without running water and electricity.

When in 2011, at the very start of the war, the militants seized our neighborhood, we ran away for these self-styled revolutionaries. Look what theyve done to my house, my neighborhood, my country. We are safe now because we have the Syrian Army here. These soldiers are our children, thats why we feel safe. As for the militants I advise them to lay down their arms, Hussein Usman told RIA.

Before the war this upscale part of northern Aleppo was home to about 200,000 people. Now Bani Zeidis has been reduced to a pile of rubble with virtually no buildings left untouched by bombs and shells.
The complimentary Maritime Silk Road Initiative expands the project through several contiguous bodies of water, including the South China Sea, South Pacific Ocean, and Indian Ocean as a means to blunt US inroads into Chinese regional economic hegemony.

The $150 billion project is scheduled for completion somewhere between 2020 and 2025 and China has already announced the planned construction of the Urumchi-Tehran leg of the railway which could eventually reach the Turkish border.

The New Silk Road is an entirely pragmatic undertaking aimed at making Asian mineral riches available to Chinese investors and build a shortcut for Chinese exports to Europe. This would also bring China up to par with the United States as a global political player through the creation of a belt of loyalist states in Asia cooperating in logistics, energy, construction and culture.

Iran, with its advanced infrastructure, is a busy land and maritime crossroads connecting North with South and East with West. Thats why it is viewed by China as a country capable of playing a key role in the New Silk Road project, Vladimir Sazhin he said, adding that Iran too was interested and agreed to invest $6 billion by 2022.

When addressing at a meeting of Silk Road Cities mayors in Qazvin earlier this month, Velayati said that Iran would play a key role in the project and that its Bender-Abbas and Chabakhar seaports were major sea and overland transport hubs seen by China as an ideal instrument for achieving its goals.

Iran and China have consistently been building up their economic, industrial and cultural cooperation, bringing their trade turnover to $52 billion in 2014 from just $12 billion in 1997. Tehrans participation in the New Silk Road project will bring the two countries even closer together, Sazhin added.

This doesnt mean, however, that Iran is going to ignore its integration into other regional associations. In an interview with Sputnik, Mohsen Shariati

Niya, a senior university fellow in Tehran, said that Iran considered its participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Eurasian Economic Forum and the revival of the Great Silk Road as equally important.

Iran is trying to take part in multilateral unions and is fully aware of the need to cooperate with all countries, including those in Asia, Dr. Niya said.

He added that Tehrans interest in the New Silk Way project was five-pronged and included cooperation in the field of free trade, coordination of the countries regional policies and consolidation of their infrastructures and industrial potential, as well as financial and cultural integration.

Irans main priority in all these projects is closer cooperation with Russia, China and India, he emphasized.
ANKARA (Sputnik)  According to the Milliyet newspaper, during the meeting with his brother Mehmet in prison, Abdullah Ocalan said:

"We have some projects, we have not abandoned the settlement process [of the Kurdish problem]. We will resolve this issue in six months. The war is meaningless. Let tears and bloodshed stop."
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russia believes there is a real opportunity to work together with Turkey on regional security and Moscow is ready for serious dialogue with Ankara on this issue, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov said Monday.

"The Russian side is open for serious dialogue with Turkish partners on a whole range of security issues in the region," Meshkov told RIA Novosti.

"We believe that in the current situation there is a real chance for us to work together effectively," Meshkov added.
We communicate with our people very rarely. There is no contact. We learn about the situation through our own channels, often through bribery and the use of secret paths, Amir said.

The terrorists stormed the cities of Kafriya and Fuah back in 2012. There were attempts to break the defense line using mines. Following the assault, several thousand militants went in to attack. The assault was repelled with the help of the Syrian Air Force.

The defenders of the city managed to protect their homes and save the lives of their fellow citizens. Since then, they have been living under a blockade.



Death for incorrect Islam

They consider us [Shiite Muslims] traitors of Islam who must die. If they take Fuah and Kafriya, they will execute all of the residents because we are not Sunnis, Amir explained to the RIA correspondent.

The representative of the National Council said that right now the resistance from Shiite militias is almost nonexistent, so the militants can kill the urban population at any time.

But the militants are creating intolerable conditions of existence on purpose in order to use the siege as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the Syrian government.

The terrorists are using the residents in exchange for other terrorists who are surrounded in a number of cities near Damascus.

In 2015, 50 people, mostly children and injured, were released from the besieged cities in exchange for militants in the town of Madai. On September 8 there was another exchange of 11 people on each side.
The freeze should not be long and Iran will support rational measures that would help send the prices up to between $50 and $60. If we want stability on the oil markets, we need non-OPEC members, such as Russia and the US, to join in because when we freeze production the prices will go up and there will be more non-traditional oil appearing on the market, Mohammed Sadegh Djoukar emphasized.

He also said that if oil keeps selling at $40 per barrel many countries will be unable to meet their obligations to cut CO2 emissions.

To solve the problem of global warming we need to keep oil prices up, thats why Iran insists that an international agency be set up to deal with the problem and include non-OPEC countries too because OPECs grip on the oil price formation could lead to an environmental disaster.

The Saudis see their currency reserves being depleted and their economic growth may slow down to just 1.5 percent. At the same time, their expansionist policy demands huge outlays, so to keep prices up they will have to slash their oil output."

Oil accounts for 15 percent of their GDP, while in Iran this figure is only 5 percent. Thats why we are now diversifying our economy to make us less dependent on oil revenues. We are increasing the share of our natural gas sector, streamlining out tax system and building up our private businesses. In all these things we have been more successful than the Saudis, Mohammed Sadegh Djoukar said in conclusion.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry after 14 hours of negotiations announced a new peace plan on Syria, which stipulates a nationwide ceasefire starting on September 12.

"I very much welcome an agreement at long last between Russia and the US. Without real leadership from the two powers I cannot see progress at all in the worst war of our generation. But to go from an agreement on paper to real changes to the better for Syrian civilians we need tremendous and continuous pressure by both Russia and the US on the parties on the ground and on the regional powers that are assisting opposing sides in this war," Egeland, who is also Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said.

UN Ready to 'Go Cross-Border' to Assist Eastern Aleppo in Coming Days
The Russian general emphasized that the fight against terrorist groups, Daesh and Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, "will continue regardless of any changes of names."

Damascus has agreed to abide by the ceasefire deal and halt military operations, he said.

"The Syrian side has been informed of the conditions of the agreement. [Damascus] has agreed to strictly observe it."

Russia will use drones to monitor Syrian ceasefire, Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudkoy said. "We have all means and possibilities to receive objective information on situation on the ground."
Fears of Continuation of Political Crisis

While the seizure of the oil ports raises the prospect of more fighting in Libya, the developments are also set to have serious political impacts, as Libya remains a hugely divided country.

The LNA, under general Hafter, supports Libya's Tobruk-based parliament  the country's internationally-recognized legislature that was forced to flee the capital of Tripoli to the country's east following an uprising in 2014.

#Libya Three months after arriving, UN-backed government remains in Tripoli naval base. Eastern (Tobruk) govt. not accepting its authority.  Chris Stephen (@reportingLibya) June 30, 2016

While the international community has long supported the Tobruk-based parliament, efforts to end Libya's political crisis have led to the creation of a UN-backed unity government, known as the Government of National Accord (GNA).

Despite having international support, the GNA, led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, has struggled to assert its authority of the country, with the Tobruk-based parliament overwhelmingly rejecting the GNA during a no-confidence vote last month.

#Confirmed HoR Rapporteur has just confirmed live that 101 members were present and a majority of 61 voted to reject the GNA. #Libya  Mohamed Eljarh (@Eljarh) August 22, 2016

Further undermining the legitimacy of the unity government was the seizure of the oil ports, which were being defended by GNA-backed forces, the PFG.

While the West views the GNA as the best prospect at uniting Libya after five years of violence and political chaos, members of the Tobruk-based parliament have expressed serious reservations about the make-up of the GNA cabinet and have called for greater representation from eastern-based lawmakers.

#Libya oil crescent situation fluid with Haftar move to control key ports but oil assets a cause of conflict or bargaining chip in past  Patrick Markey (@PatrickMarkey2) September 11, 2016

The seizure of the oil fields, which according to LNA officials can process 700,000 barrels of oil a day, looks likely to give the eastern legislature more bargaining power as negotiations continue in the hope of uniting the severely divided country and putting an end to Libya's political crisis.

Security Concerns
GCC Secretary General Abdullatif al-Zayani said in a statement the law was "contrary to the foundations and principles of relations between states and the principle of sovereign immunity enjoyed by states".

A mourner places a flag in the Empty Sky memorial on the morning of the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New Jersey. Photo: Reuters

By Reuters: The Saudi-dominated Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on Monday condemned a law passed by the United States Congress last week that would allow the families of victims of the September 11 attacks to sue the kingdom's government for damages.

GCC Secretary General Abdullatif al-Zayani said in a statement the law was "contrary to the foundations and principles of relations between states and the principle of sovereign immunity enjoyed by states".

The Tribute in Light shines on the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in Manhattan, New York. Photo: Reuters

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Qatar and the United Arab Emirates also issued condemnations of the bill.

"Such laws will negatively affect the international efforts and international cooperation to combat terrorism," UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said in a statement carried by state news agency WAM.

The US House of Representatives passed the "Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act," known as JASTA, on Friday but the White House has threatened to veto the measure.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers who crashed airliners in New York, outside Washington and in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001 were Saudi nationals, but the Saudi government has strongly denied responsibility and has lobbied against the bill.

Also Read:

On 15th anniversary of 9/11, 'the grief never goes away'



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Statistics show that one Syrian soldier consumes about 250-300 grams of potatoes per day. Their favorite way of eating potatoes, boiled. In the Syrian Army it is not common to eat fried and fatty foods.

A nutritionist at the Al Mouwasat Hospital in Damascus, Akhmed Khamsho, told Sputnik, that potatoes have a unique property of making the person feel full with just a small amount of consumption, however because they contain a lot of carbohydrates it makes them the most suitable staple food during tough times such as war.

Instead of fatty food that hinders digestion, soldiers eat potatoes that are high in carbohydrates. It is quick and easy to cook and can be stored for a long time, unlike other products, Khamsho further added.
Turkey also welcomed the agreement and said it was ready to provide humanitarian aid.

"We welcome with satisfaction the Russia-US deal on Syria. The ceasefire coming into force in the first days of Eid al-Adha holiday will be very important for the flow of humanitarian aid, first of all to Aleppo. Turkey is ready to take part in humanitarian aid deliveries to Syria within the United Nations framework," Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The ceasefire was also supported by the Free Syrian Army (FSA), Hezbollah fighters and Syrian Kurds. At the same time, the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist group (formerly al-Nusra Front) and the Saudi-backed militant organization Ahrar Al-Sham said they would reject the ceasefire.

The Independent reported that according to the Lavrov-Kerry plan, moderate anti-government forces are supposed to separate themselves from al-Nusra Front, and then airstrikes would be planned against the terrorist group.

"Such separation is very important and it can be possible," Gumer Isayev, head of the St. Petersburg Center for Middle Eastern Studies, told RT. "What is more important is Turkeys change of heart towards the Syrian crisis. It paves the way for resolving the crisis," he stressed.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On Friday, Russia and the United States announced a new plan aimed at reducing violence in Syria, which includes a new nationwide ceasefire starting at 16:00 GMT on September 12.

The agreement also includes the creation of a demilitarized zone around Syria's Aleppo to deliver humanitarian aid to the city, as well as close coordination of Russian and US airstrikes against Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, and Daesh terrorist groups operating in Syria.

"A regime of calm will be implemented across all territory of the Syrian Arab Republic for seven days from 19:00 [16:00 GMT] on September 12, 2016 until 23:59 on September 18, 2016," the army said, as quoted by the SANA news agency.




WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Cardin noted that, although he was skeptical that Russia could influence Syrian President Bashar Assads air force to adhere to the ceasefire, he believed the United States should test the commitment.

"I urge the Syrian opposition to commit to the ceasefire and distance itself from Nusra Front," Cardin stated.

Ultimately, Cardin said he supports efforts that would allow the parties to return to political talks to end the civil war in Syria.
ANKARA (Sputnik)  On August 24, Turkish forces, backed by US-led coalition aircraft, began a military operation dubbed Euphrates Shield to clear Jarabulus and the surrounding area of Daesh.

"The total area taken under control by us in the north of Syria, is 845 square kilometers. Today, the Coalition Air Force held wo air operations against Daesh, destroying mortar unit and arms storage," the press release read.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry after 14 hours of negotiations announced a new peace plan on Syria, which stipulates a nationwide ceasefire starting on September 12.

The SANA news agency said citing Syria's General Command of the Army and Armed Forces that Damascus reserved the right to respond to the violations of the ceasefire regime, using all possible kinds of weapons.

Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to President Bashar Assad fighting a number of opposition factions and extremist groups.
According to Hido, the resistance is going to prevent attempts to divide Syria. He said that the actions of the Turkish Armed Forces is the direct occupation of Syrian territories and the Turkish province of Hatay and its Iskenderun region belong to Syria, thus the National Resistance intends to pursue its accession to Syria.

The Syrian National Resistance is a Syrian organization which consists of Arabs, Assyrians, Turkmens, Kurds and representatives of other nations.

Our goal is to fight against terrorist groups, primarily Daesh and al-Nusra Front. They have to stop their activities in the Syrian territory; otherwise Syria will not be able to become a democratic state. We intend to wage resolute struggle against terrorists, Hido said.
On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his American counterpart John Kerry announced an agreement on the Syrian crisis. The agreement includes five documents and their details were not made public.

In particular, the agreement includes a nation-wide ceasefire and demands access for humanitarian aid in besieged areas.

If a ceasefire lasts for seven days a Joint Implementation Center will be established to separate opposition forces from extremists. When this is done Russia and the US plan to launch joint airstrikes against Daesh and al-Nusra Front terrorists.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  US Department of State officials are unaware if any groups have rejected the ceasefire in Syria, department spokesman John Kirby said in a briefing on Monday.

"We [the United States] are not aware of any groups that have outright refused," Kirby told reporters in Washington when asked if any groups refused to abide by the ceasefire.

Kirby said US officials have seen reports that the opposition group Ahrar al-Sham rejected calls to adhere to the cessation of hostilities.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  According to the source, the militia forces provided the people with necessary assistance, in particular, water, food and medicine as there were some down at health among them. He added that the fugitives were likely taken to a camp for displaced persons.

"The Peshmerga forces received at noon today a thousand civilians, who had fled Hawija [southwest of the northern Kirkuk province], which is controlled by Daesh [Arabic acronym for IS]The majority of those fleeing are women, children and the elderly," a security source, who requested anonymity, told Alsumaria broadcaster.
Around 150 migrants were attempting to illegally enter Spain by climbing over the border fences when some got stuck and injured.

By India Today Web Desk: In a desperate attempt to cross borders, dozens of illegal migrants from Africa were lacerated by the razor sharp barbed fence in Morocco.

Around 150 migrants were attempting to enter the Spanish land of Ceuta from the northern Africa border, when they got caught in the barbed mess. Many refused to climb down in fear of being caught by officials who had surrounded the area.

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In the mass attempt to cross the border into Ceuta, the migrants hailing from sub-Saharan Africa scaled the six-metre fence which separates Morocco and the autonomous city in northern Africa. Authorities eventually used a crane to bring them down.

Salto a la valla en estos momentos por la zona del #Tarajal #Ceuta pic.twitter.com/b0cC6OHQKW MOHAMED ALI (@M_ALI_LEMAGUE) September 10, 2016

The United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees monitoring the situation, requested the Spanish authorities on twitter to provide asylum to those in need.



Watch the video below:



Why do African migrants cross borders to get to Spain?

Spain is the only European country to share a border with Africa and only 9 miles of water separates the southern border of the country from Morocco. The two Spanish territories bordering Morocco are Ceuta and Melilla.

In a bid to escape war and poverty, many look towards Europe to start a comfortable life. Some go out of their way to pay smugglers to get them to Europe. Many have successfully climbed the flimsy fencing and hitched a ride on lorries to reach Britain.



The plight of those who successfully cross borders

According to an NPR report, the luck of African immigrants arriving Spain largely depends on their origins. If the authorities identify them as Moroccan they are instantly deported. To avoid getting caught they either get rid of their identity proof while crossing the choppy waters or just remain silent, so that officials don't get to hear their accents. While some get away, others are arrested and deported.

Migrant women who give birth on the Spanish soil are not deported. Thus, many pregnant migrant women hope to give birth in Spain to get residency rights.

The overwhelming influx of migrants over the past few months has forced Spanish authorities to fortify their border security. As a result, they have ended up diverting funds only to tighten borders rather than helping asylum seekers.

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WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Kerry explained that, following seven days of reduced violence and increased humanitarian access, the United States and Russia will establish a Joint Implementation Center (JIC) to coordinate military action against Nusra and the Islamic States positions in Syria.

"I reiterate my call to all parties to observe the cessation of hostilities," Kerry stated. "I want to praise the oppositions courage in embarking on this arrangement, and call on them to separate themselves from al-Nusra in those areas where intermingling has been a problem."
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The new Russia-US brokered nationwide ceasefire regime in Syria came into force on September 12.

"Militants violated the ceasefire. Army positions were shelled with mortar rounds near the Castillo Road [in Aleppo]," the source told RIA Novosti.

According to the source, the Syrian army responded with artillery fire, while the forward-deployed units are ready to repel ground attacks by militants if necessary.
If the new ceasefire in Syria lasts for seven days, the United States and Russia will work together to establish a joint implementation center (JIC), and carry out strikes against the Nusra Front.

During a briefing earlier on Monday, Kirby said that the Assad government would be able to strike the Nusra terrorists.

"They [the Assad government] will be permitted, if there is consensus here inside the JIC, to hit a designated, a known Nusra target," Kirby stated. "There is no prohibition under this arrangement for them to do that."

Kirby also said that "the whole idea" of discussions with Russia was "to provide level of certainty and visibility of where Assad would be able to fly."

Kirby added that there was never a plan to ground Assad forces permanently, but underscored they would not be able to fly over opposition-controlled or mixed areas.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Moreover, mortars and AT grenade launchers have been used against a number of settlements in the provinces of Daraa, Hama and Damacus, according to the ministry.

"Groupings of Jabhat al-Nusra [Jabhat Fatah al Sham] and ISIS [Daesh] international terrorist organizations do not stop making attempts to break the ceasefire regime," the ministry said in a daily bulletin posted on its website.

"Within last 24 hours, in the Aleppo city terrorists have fired MLRS, AT missile complexes and mortars against Ramusi, Khai-al-Ansari 1070 quarters, the military school of armament and the Kastello trade centre."
On Sunday, Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff of Irans armed forces, dismissed the claims, adding that Tehran has acted in accordance with international law.

"Iranian boats continue to act based on defined standards and are well aware of the international laws and regulations, so the claims are not only untrue, but stem from their fear of the power of Irans soldiers," he said, according to Military.com.

"When Iranian boats pass by them at a distance of a few kilometers, Americans claim that Iranian boats have approached them within a range of one kilometer."
Daesh fighters were confronted by members of the Tarabin Bedouin tribe and lost eight men in the fight, while two were captured. There were no reports of casualties among the tribesmen.

Sinai has long been troubled by local insurgency. The spread of Daesh terrorist group to the region in recent years has added to the central governments concerns and prompted a large-scale security operation.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russian inspectors will conduct an aerial surveillance flight over Denmark in a Tu-154M-LK-1 surveillance aircraft within the scope of the Treaty on Open Skies, the head of Russia's Nuclear Risk Reduction Center said Monday.

"The surveillance flight over Denmark will be carried out between September 12-17, 2016, taking off from the open skies Aalborg Airport and using the Sondre Stremfjord airfield in Greenland to refuel. The maximum flight range will be 5,600 kilometers [3,500 miles]," Sergei Ryzhkov said.

Danish experts will be on board the plane to oversee the observance of treaty clauses, he added, noting that route details have been agreed on.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  German and Romanian inspectors will conduct an aerial surveillance flight over Russia and Belarus under the Treaty on Open Skies in September, the head of Russia's Nuclear Risk Reduction Center said Monday.

"In accordance with the international Treaty on Open Skies, between September 12-16, 2016, a joint German-Romanian mission will conduct a surveillance flight over a group of treaty member states, Russia and Belarus, on board a Romanian An-30 cartography aircraft, taking off from the Kubinka airfield," Sergei Ryzhkov said.

Russian and Belarusian experts will be on board the plane to oversee the observance of treaty clauses, he added, noting that the route details have been agreed on.
ZHANJIANG (Sputnik)  Russian-Chinese naval partnership and cooperation is highly effective and pursues maritime security across the world, Russian Navy's Deputy Commander-in-Chief Vice Admiral Alexander Fedotenkov said Monday.

"In highlighting the importance of Russian-Chinese cooperation and naval partnership, it can be called highly effective. This is due to the aim of our partnership, as expressed in the pursuit of ensuring the security of peaceful activities across the world's seas and oceans and in the prevention of dangerous challenges," Fedotenkov said at a welcoming ceremony for Russian military ships arriving for the Russian-Chinese Joint-Sea 2016 naval drills.

China is hosting this year's joint naval exercises with Russia. A total of 18 ships and supply vessels, 21 aircraft and over 250 service personnel from the Russian Navy's Pacific Fleet and the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy are taking part in the Joint-Sea 2016 naval drills on September 12-19 in the South China Sea.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russia's Shvabe optical electronics company, part of the Rostec state corporation, and the Russian Helicopters company have produced the first Mi-17V-5 military transport helicopter fitted with a GOES-321MK optoelectronic imaging system enabling the vehicle to carry out attacks in complete darkness, local media said Monday.

"GOES-321MK is based on a high-resolution Full HD camera and a highly sensitive thermal imaging mid-infrared frequency sensor. The thermal sensor captures heat radiated by objects such as tanks or other equipment and heat produced by the human body. In turn, the highly sensitive low-level camera allows additional surveying capacities in low lighting," Sergey Popov, Shvabes deputy CEO for innovation development told the Izvestia newspaper.

The device is a significant breakthrough in imaging, he added, stressing that such a multifunctional system, which allows helicopter pilots to navigate in the most challenging situations, did not previously exist in the country.
Doctors at AIIMS found significant improvement in 20 patients of muscular dystrophy during a trial, with the help of stem cell therapy.

Ayush (top) and Piyush (left) were admitted to the Holy Angels hospital in Vasant Vihar 12 months ago and there has been no progression of the disease with the stem cell treatment during the trial period.

By Neetu Chandra Sharma: In what could lead to the discovery of a treatment for muscle weakening diseases such as muscular dystrophy, doctors at AIIMS have found a significant improvement in 20 patients during a trial with the use of stem cell therapy.

The trial on patients of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), which is a genetic disorder of muscles, has been found to be successful, doctors said. The report of the trial has also been published in the Journal of Stem Cells in its recent issue. Patients suffering from the disease die between ages of 13 to 21 years.

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NO DEFINITIVE CURE AVAILABLE GLOBALLY

There is no definitive cure available globally and doctors can use only corticosteroids to slow down the muscular damage. But steroids have their own side effects. Dr B S Rajpoot, Stem Cell Transplant Surgeon at Holy Angel Hospital said that in the trial, cord derived stem cells and IGF1 (a protein that in humans is encoded by the IGF1 gene) was used for stabilization as well as reversal of muscle damage.

"We have two cases admitted at Holy Angels hospital in Vasant Vihar in New Delhi also with 12 month follow up and crossing the barrier of 21 years age. Both are stable with 5 to 10 percent on positive side with no progression of disease," he said.

Interestingly, after the stem cell transplants, doctors said, pre-transplantation strength in limb muscles of proximal upper limb and distal upper limb began to improve after three months. The effect lasted for at least one year.

BUT STEM CELL THERAPY SHOWS SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT

"Stability in muscle function was also achieved in hip extensors, hip abductors, and paraspinal muscles as compared to untreated group. One of the DMD patients participated in our study showed significantly less fat degeneration in muscles in thighs after two months of Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from human umbilical cord (UC-MSCs)," said Dr Rajpoot.

"There was a progressive decline in calf size of the DMD patients up to three years after stem cell transplantation, indicative of increased muscle strength. UC-MSCs administration did not show any deleterious effects on the patients and thus may be considered as safe and an effective option for treatment of DMD," he said.

Given the easy accessibility of umbilical cord blood and easy isolation procedure of cord-derived MSCs, large-scale studies on DMD patients are feasible in India. DMD is a musculo-degenerative disease characterized by lack of dystrophin (an important protein) production with no definite cure available currently.

The All India institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has planned to launch a fresh clinical trial to study for identifying the potential of stem cells in the treatment of various medical conditions. However, few years ago, AIIMS stopped trials on Muscular Dystrophy due to lack of positive results.

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Also Read:

Why Placebo is a film every Indian student, parent, and teacher MUST watch

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AAP MLA Somnath Bharti does it again, misbehaves with AIIMS guards, FIR lodged



--- ENDS ---
ZHANJIANG (Sputnik)  China is hosting this year's joint naval exercises with Russia. A total of 18 ships and supply vessels, 21 aircraft and over 250 service personnel from PLAN and the Russian Navy's Pacific Fleet are taking part in the Joint-Sea 2016 naval drills on September 12-19 in the South China Sea. Russian vessels arrived earlier in the day.

"We will thoroughly take part in the exercises and execute the tasks set by our superiors. The conditions of the exercises will be as close to real combat as possible and will aim to increase our common security capabilities," Wang said.

The vice admiral expressed hope that Russian and Chinese crews will learn from each other's experience and improve friendly cooperation.
It is very crucial for India to placate Russia to not to supply combat aircraft or any other military equipment to Pakistan because India holds around 70% Soviet or Russian made military equipment. Pakistan currently is armed with US made aircraft such as the F-16 and other military equipment.

"India's defense cooperation with Russia is much more than any other nation but, of late, India is experiencing flexibility in its relations with Russia. Now, Russia also wants the same flexibility in bilateral relations but this could pose difficulties for India."

Pakistan and Russia are set to hold their first ever joint military exercise later this year which Indian authorities view as steadily growing military cooperation between Russia and Pakistan. This could be also evident from the fact that the chiefs of Pakistan's Army, Navy and Air Force traveled to Russia just last year alone. Last year, Pakistan and Russia signed a deal for the purchase of four Mi-35 attack helicopters. Pakistan is also exploring options to buy world's most advanced Su-35 combat aircraft from Russia.
"Clearly, American, South Korean and Japanese activities close to China, as well as patrol missions that the US Navy has conducted in the South China Sea pose a threat to the geostrategic security of China. One could say that Russian and Chinese joint drills under these conditions are a response to the US with regard to creating a strategic balance in the Asia Pacific," the expert said.

Both Russia and China have highlighted that the drills are not targeted against third parties. They are instead focused on improving teamwork and swift response to emergencies. These activities are solely aimed at upholding territorial security and are not meant to escalate tensions or spark conflicts.

Russian sailors taking photos on Chinese vessel ahead of Joint Sea 2016 navy drills. pic.twitter.com/mwRaHZlV09  Roman Kosarev (@Kosarev_RT) 12  2016 .

"When compared to war-games of the United States and other western countries that are aggressive in their nature, [joint Russian and Chinese] drills are designed to work on defense objectives. The main goal that Russia and China are pursuing is to protect the interests of our people," the analyst said.

Anti submarine vessel Admiral Tributs of Russia's pacific fleet lands in south China. Naval cooperation drills 2016 pic.twitter.com/UCwcv7PDRh  Roman Kosarev (@Kosarev_RT) 12  2016 .

For Ma Yujun, Joint Sea-2016 is testament to "a constructive approach when it comes to containing outside forces and external aggression."

The analyst also mentioned that joint naval exercise is an integral part of bilateral cooperation. Relations between Russia and China are not limited to trade and economic cooperation. They also have a comprehensive defense component.

"These efforts play a major role in fostering bilateral relations," he said. Joint drills "are not only focused on sharing experience on conducting military maneuvers. More importantly, they provide an opportunity to enhance combat coordination within the framework of military cooperation."

The first Joint Sea exercise was held in 2012.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Russia and China began their annual Joint-Sea naval exercises on Monday, taking place in the South China Sea. A total of 18 ships and supply vessels, 21 aircraft and over 250 service personnel from Chinas Peoples Liberation Army Navy and the Russias Pacific Fleet are taking part in the naval drills from September 12-19.

"It is a regional security dynamic and so we will just have to be responsive to what emerges," Richardson said of unfolding trends in the South China Sea.

Richardson noted that some of the developments that emerge out of the security dynamic in the South China Sea "will be more concerning than others," but the US Navy will continue to watch and be prepared for "what may come."
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  In recent months, US and Iranian ships have had a number of close encounters in the Persian Gulf.

"Getting some kind of a ruleset particularly with the Iranians would also be helpful so that we can have these frameworks for behavior that would guide us more towards useful types of encounters at sea, rather than these close aboard types of demonstrations that really dont have any positive benefit," Richardson said at a forum at the Center for American Progress, a think tank.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko instructed Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin late last week to inform Russia about the "impossibility of conducting Russian elections on Ukrainian territory."

"I hope that the Ukrainian authorities will change their position, because this situation could backfire on Ukraine in the most unexpected way," Pamfilova told RIA Novosti in an interview.
Henningsen further said that the "patchwork deal" between Russia and the United States on Syria is "meant to supposedly protect humanitarian aid" coming to different regions of Syria, including rebel-held areas of Aleppo.

"However, this is not going to make a difference on the ground. It might make a difference maybe on the access points. But what we've seen around Syria in many places including Homs is that the rebels will come and commandeer the aid. And then they'll horde it, and then they'll sell it at extortionate prices to residents or they'll share it among terrorist fighters," he warned.

This pattern, according to the journalist, has been visible in different parts of Syria.
The agreement paves the way for a ceasefire that is expected to come into force on September 12.

"Moscow has more opportunities than Washington to ensure compliance with the agreement. If US-backed rebels or other opponents of President Bashar al-Assad do not respect the ceasefire, Russia will be able to launch airstrikes against them or let Assad's forces do that," the newspaper asserted.

For its part, Washington is ostensibly limited in its ability to make sure that so-called moderate armed groups adhere to the agreement. If Damascus violates the ceasefire, the US will refrain from direct military action against the Syrian Arab Army, Handelsblatt added.
MINSK (Sputnik)  The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) declared the parliamentary elections in Belarus free, fair and in accordance with national legislature in a statement released on Monday.

"The elections were held in accordance with national law, all the activities of the electoral process took place openly and widely reported in the media," SCO Secretary-General Rashid Alimov told reporters.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko instructed Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin late last week to inform Russia about the "impossibility of conducting Russian elections on Ukrainian territory" scheduled for Sunday, September 18.

We have received the note, we will now examine it and a issue a corresponding statement, the source said.

Polling stations have been prepared for opening in the Russian Embassy in Kiev, as well as consulates in Odesa, Lviv and Kharkiv. Additionally, the Russian Central Election Commission and the Foreign Ministry jointly called on Kiev to ensure security at Russian diplomatic establishments during the parliamentary vote.
Anushka Sharma, who has joined Shah Rukh Khan in Amsterdam for Imtiaz Ali's next, has confirmed that the working title of the film is The Ring.

By India Today Web Desk: It's been almost three weeks since Shah Rukh Khan has been busy shooting for Imtiaz Ali's next in Europe. The 50-year-old actor has moved from the old town of Prague to the beautiful Amsterdam. And his leading lady Anushka Sharma has also joined the crew in Netherlands.

ALSO READ: Shah Rukh Khan on sets of Imtiaz Ali's The Ring looks uber cool

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ALSO READ: Shah Rukh begins shooting for Imtiaz Ali's next in Prague, sends greetings



In fact, Anushka, who made her Bollywood debut opposite Shah Rukh Khan in the 2008 film Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, has revealed the working title of their upcoming film.

While the makers did not disclose the title of the film, buzz has it that Imtiaz's next is titled The Ring. And the 28-year-old actor, who shared a picture with the crew from Amsterdam, confirmed that the working title of Imtiaz's next is The Ring with this new photo.



With the team ?????? the crew moves to Amsterdam #TheRing #WorkingTitle A photo posted by AnushkaSharma1588 (@anushkasharma) on Sep 9, 2016 at 1:16pm PDT

Buzz has it that Shah Rukh will essay the role of a tourist guide in the film. It is for the first time that Imtiaz and SRK have collaborated for a film. The film is said to be an unusual love story.

SRK was earlier quoted by The Indian Express as saying, "The Ring isn't a young, upbeat love story because I want to play my age. Imtiaz has an interesting take on the love story and hopefully the audience will appreciate it."

The film is set to hit the screens some time next year.

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MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Lavrov and Wang held a phone conversation in which the diplomats exchanged views on the situation in the Korean Peninsula following Friday's nuclear test demonstrating North Korea's capability of mounting nuclear warheads on strategic ballistic rockets.

"Condemning Pyongyangs actions, the ministers of the two countries stressed the importance of ensuring that all parties concerned refrain from steps that could to further escalate tension," the ministry said in a statement.

The September 9 test is believed to be the fifth and largest blast since Pyongyang began pursuing nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The UN Security Council condemned it as a repeated violation of its resolutions.
"Our troops received all the necessary information from the coordination center in Baghdad that comprises experts from Iraq, Russia and Iran to prepare and carry out military operations. This data has helped us to conduct a significantly more efficient anti-Daesh offensive than if our troops acted solely on the basis of their own intelligence," the diplomat said. "I hope that this cooperation will continue during the operation aimed at freeing Mosul."

Like Raqqa in Syria, Mosul has served as Daesh's stronghold in Iraq since early 2014. The brutal group captured the city on July 10, 2014, in a blitz offensive on northern Iraq. Mosul is the last large city under the group's control in the country.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Kiev owes Moscow $3.075 billion in repayment and servicing of external bonds owned by Russia following the expiration of the so-called grace period on December 31, 2015.

"The conclusion circulated by the IMF states that all conditions for obtaining the next tranche were met by Ukraine. This statement, in our view, is unreasonable and creates the conditions for the creation of similar precedent in the future," Siluanov said at a briefing.

Russia has not yet received an official request from Ukraine to launch $3 billion debt restructuring talks, Anton Siluanov added.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  This will be the first meeting between the two countries' top diplomats.

"Lavrov and Johnson agreed to meet on the sidelines of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly in New York," the ministry said in a statement on the diplomats' phone conversation held earlier in the day.

Earlier this month, Russia President Vladimir Putin and current UK Prime Minister Theresa May met for the first time on the sidelines of the G20 forum in China.
CAIRO (Sputnik)  On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry announced a new plan aimed at reducing violence in Syria, which includes a new nationwide ceasefire starting on September 12.

"We, the Syrian Democratic Forces, announce that we are ready to adhere to the agreement reached by the United States and Russia We appreciate any international efforts aimed at search for a political settlement in Syria that could put an end to the sufferings and grief of the Syrian nation," Talal Salou said in a statement obtained by RIA Novosti.

Earlier in the day, media reported that the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) also welcomed the agreement between Moscow and Washington and would suspend their offensive.
Last week, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras held the first Mediterranean EU Countries Summit, including France, Italy, Spain, Cyprus and Malta. In particular, Tsipras said that Southern Europe should contribute to constructive dialogue over the future of the European Union. Thus, he challenged the dominant role of Berlin in the bloc.

He added that Southern European countries have a number of issues that require joint actions, including stimulating economic growth, maintaining peace and stability in the region and dealing with the migrant crisis.

"A meeting of Southern European countries in Greece underscores the deepening divides among the Continent's regions. [] The stances taken by Southern European states have created controversy in the Continental bloc," a report by the American think-tank Stratfor read.

The meeting was assessed by Brussels as a challenge, according to Izvestia. Tsipras insisted that the summit would serve the interests of the entire bloc. However, it seems that Southern Europe wants to challenge the policy dictated by Berlin and Brussels.

Trade is one of the best possibilities to improve growth in Southern European countries. This is why almost all regional players have urged to ease or lift sanctions against Russia. According to them, sanctions have had a negative effect on their economies.
This is something that high-ranking Russian officials have long advocated. Moscow has urged Washington to coordinate their counterterrorism activities in Syria from the moment Russian warplanes landed at the Hmeymim airbase in the province of Latakia in September 2015.

On June 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that "what we want is to work in close cooperation with the United States on international affairs." On September 5, Putin mentioned that he discussed possible cooperation between Russia and the US in Syria during a meeting with US President Barack Obama at the sidelines of the G20 forum in China.

"Both countries have an interest in fighting terrorism and we sense  I do, at any rate  the US President is also completely sincere in wanting to achieve results in fighting terrorism and resolving the Syrian conflict," he said.
BRUSSELS (Sputnik)  On Sunday, Turkeys Interior Ministry announced it had fired 28 provincial administrators and district governors for having links to Kurdish PKK militants and cleric Fethullah Gulen. The ministry added that 12 officials had been arrested. The officials were then replaced by new governors, chosen by Ankara.

I have seen that 28 elected mayors have been suspended and trustees appointed, and I would expect, Im confident, that the population of these municipalities will be in condition to elect new Mayors according to the laws of Turkey itself soon. Obviously, we expect all steps to be taken in accordance to rule of law, as we have discussed with the Turkish authorities, Mogherini told reporters on the sidelines of the EU summit in Bratislava, as broadcast by the EU audiovisual services website.

Most of local authorities under scrutiny are in Turkey's southeast, which is dominated by the Kurdish minority. The removal of the 28 officials was followed by clashes in the region.
YEREVAN (Sputnik)  Georgia's possible membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is unlikely to affect the long-lasting relations between Tbilisi and Yerevan, former Foreign Minister of Georgia Maia Panjikidze said Monday.

"It cannot be an obstacle. Armenia and Georgia have centuries-old ties. I think that the fact that Georgia wants to become a member of NATO and the European Union, and Armenia has other plans and ambitions, cannot be an obstacle for deepening the economic ties between the two states, and as I said, in the political field we have no problems," the diplomat said at the international conference, entitled "Upcoming Challenges: NATO, from Wales to Warsaw and Beyond" in Armenias capital of Yerevan, as quoted by the Armenpress news agency.

She expressed hope that Georgia's becoming a NATO member could be expected in the near future.
WARSAW (Sputnik)  The Venice Commission, which is an advisory body of the Council of Europe authorized to assist countries in constitutional affairs and improve democratic institutions, is visiting Poland on September 12-13. The Commission is set to prepare a report over Polands controversial law concerning the country's Constitutional Tribunal by October 14-15.

According to Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska, a vice speaker of the country's parliament, other political parties' representatives will not have an opportunity to meet with the Venice Commission.

The cancellation of meetings between the Venice Commission and other parties, besides the PiS, is a "disregard for political parties and not only for the opposition, but disregard for the whole idea of parliamentarism," Civic Platform lawmaker Krzysztof Brejza said as quoted by the Gazeta Prawna newspaper on Monday.
By Manjeet Sehgal: Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Captain Amarinder Singh today questioned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's moral authority to speak against corruption after defending his principal secretary Rajinder Kumar who is facing serious corruption charges. Kumar who is facing trial has also gone to jail.



While addressing a press conference after inducting senior Akali leader Jagjivanpal Singh into the party, Amrinder Singh today ridiculed Kejriwal's charges of him having an understanding with the Badals.

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"Kejriwal is now claiming that he will put the Badals behind bars, I have done that already in 2002", he said, while reiterating his opposition to Kejriwal staking his claim for the Punjab chief ministership. He said, "no matter how he interprets it, I will always oppose a non-Punjabi becoming Punjab's Chief Minister."

KEJRIWAL CASHING ON ANTI-BADAL SENTIMENT

The former chief minister maintained that Kejriwal was trying to address the anti-Badal sentiment without spelling out how he will punish the Badals and put them behind bars.

"I know how to do it as I have done and I will do it again", Singh said adding that there is a proper legal system to bring the corrupt people like Badals to the book. "But why is Kejriwal not applying the same yardstick in Delhi also?" he asked, while pointing out how he continues to defend his principal secretary who is facing corruption charges.

Also read: Kejriwal's NGO Parivartan was funded by CIA, the way he functioned as Delhi CM proves it: Amarinder Singh



He added that allegations against Kejriwal, AAP leaders must be probed. Amarinder reiterated his demand that Kejriwal needs to be probed as how could he receive Ford Foundation donations for his NGO Parivartan, while being in service. He also asked as how come Kejriwal managed to spend his entire service tenure of over two decades in Delhi only, when he should have been transferred out after three years.

The PPCC president also said that the allegations of sexual exploitation against the AAP leaders must be probed. He said, in case no inquiry is ordered now, his government will probe these charges since these have been leveled by an AAP MLA, Col (retd) Devinder Sherawat.

DEBT WAIVER FEASIBILITY



On the feasibility of the debt waiver in a state like Punjab with a precarious financial condition, Capt Amarinder said, it is not very difficult for the governments to generate resources if there was a will to do something. Besides, he added, the central government has saved Rs three lakh crore during the past two years on the crude oil imports.

"We will ask the centre government to share some burden as Punjabi farmers have at one stage fed the whole nation and now it is the payback time for the country," he said.

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Asserting that the Congress party, unlike the AAP, was serious about debt waiver, the PCC president said, the Congress party had moved a private member's bill in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha seeking debt waiver for the farmers. The bill, he said, was being moved by senior party leader Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa.

Also read: AAP being run by outsiders in Punjab: Congress

Replying to a question about his having described the AAP manifesto as a carbon copy of the Congress policies, the PCC president remarked, "rather it is case of political plagiarism", since the AAP had copied everything that the Congress has committed and promised long before.

BADAL RESPONSIBLE FOR BREAKING PUNJAB

Replying to a question over the Punjabi language and culture being ignored under the Badals, Capt Amarinder said, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal was responsible for compromising Punjab and Punjabis' interests.

"In fact Mr Badal has always played the Panthic and Punjabi sentiments for his personal benefit", he said, while pointing out, how people like Badal were instrumental in breaking up Punjab into small pieces and fragments.

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Also read: Captain Amarinder Singh questions PM's silence over Dalit attacks, calls for intervention



"At one time after independence Punjab's borders extended from China to Pakistan and thanks to the people like Badal, it has been reduced to a few hundred kilometers in length and breadth", he said, while pointing out, how Punjab lost important hydraulic and tourism resources to Himachal and the all important industrial belt of Gurgaon and Faridabad to Haryana besides the land and rivers. He said, even the SYL problem Punjab is faced with is the byproduct of the narrow and sectarian legacy of people like Badal who went on to sacrifice state's interests.

JAITLEY SHIELDING ACCUSED IN DRUG SCANDAL

Defending his opposition to the CBI probe into the drug scandal, Capt Amarinder said, his only concern was that it would have been delayed as the central agency usually takes about 8 to 10 years to complete the investigations. He said, there were some central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax department, Narcotics Control Bureau and the Revenue Intelligence involved in the investigations.

He added, after the BJP led NDA government took over and Arun Jaitley became the union Finance Minister, the probe has been put into suspended animation. He said, all the central agencies come under Jaitley and he was certainly trying to help someone involved in the scandal.

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However, Capt Amarinder said, it was the matter of five months more when the Congress will form the government it will speed up the probe and ensure that each and every culprit is put behind bars. "I just don't say, I mean it", he asserted.

Also read: Capt Amarinder Singh promises free health insurance, accuses Akali Dal of betraying stressed farmers



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MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On Sunday, Turkeys Interior Ministry announced it had fired 28 provincial administrators and district governors for having links to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen The move was followed by clashes in the region. Later in the day, the US embassy said that Washington was concerned by the reported clashes. The embassy expressed hope that any trustee appointments would be temporary.

"The statement made by an ambassador yesterday saddened us. We see it as an intervention into Turkeys domestic affairs and find such an evaluation unacceptable," Soylu said, as quoted by the Hurriyet Daily news.

He added that the statements similar to the ones of the US embassy "encouraged terror."
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On September 9, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry announced a new plan on Syria, which stipulates a ceasefire that comes into force Monday. If the new ceasefire in Syria lasts for seven days, the United States and Russia will launch the work of a joint implementation center. Under the new plan, the Syrian Air Force will no longer fly over territories controlled by the opposition.

"This new plan, in a way, can be viewed as Russias attempt to establish an indirect communication line between the Americans and the Syrian government. Moscow acts as a mediator between the two sides as it has legal grounds for combat missions in Syria unlike the US-led anti-Daesh [Islamic State] coalition," Tarek Ahmad said.

He added that the most recent US-Russian agreement on Syria deescalates tension in the Middle East and may prevent deterioration of the ongoing war in the Arab republic into direct regional conflict.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  According to Dmitriev, this attitude can be found both in Europe and Asia.

"We see that the Asian countries, European countries do not introduce additional restrictions and we see that the general attitude not only of businesses, but also of politicians is toward the weakening of sanctions, Dmitriev told reporters.

"We believe that not only business, but also politicians understand that it is necessary to have a positive dialogue with Russia and that sanctions should be removed," the RDIF head added.
BEIJING (Sputnik)  Earlier on Friday, US Secretary of Defense Aston Carter said that China shared important responsibility for the situation in North Korea and urged Beijing to compel Pyongyang to put an end to its nuclear tests.

"I think that Mr. Carter was too modest. The US is at the root of the North Korean nuclear problem, but not China. This problem is nothing but a conflict between the United States and DPRK. Probably the US needs to review the approach to the problem and think about the ways of its effective solving. The United States should take on its responsibility, since it is to blame for starting the trouble," Hua Chunying said at a press briefing, commenting on the speech of the Pentagon chief.

North Korea and the United States are in a state of war, since no peace treaty between the sides was signed after the Korean War of 1950-1953. On its part, China used to be North Korea's most important trade and diplomatic partner until Pyongyang conducted nuclear tests in February 2016.
Sergei Luzyanin, director of the Institute for Far Eastern Studies, and Semen Bardasarov, head of the Center for Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, outlined the main reasons why Russia cannot give up to Japan in the Kuril issue.

To begin with, there is no doubt, that the Kuril Islands belong to Russia, Bagdasarov stated.

"There can be many treaties and agreements, and they contradict with each other. There is a fact. Yes, Russia claimed the islands by force after the war. But before, during the Russo-Japanese War, Tokyo claimed them by force too. These islands were part of the Russian Empire. They cannot be given to Japan," he told RIA Novosti.

According to him, Russian cannot give away part of its territory, including the Kuril Islands. If Moscow gives the islands to Tokyo, this will seriously damage Russias global image.

Second, even if one of the islands is given to Japan this would be a precedent to revise the results of World War II, Luzyanin pointed out.

"In particularly, were talking about the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco. According to the document, Tokyos sovereignty is restricted to the Japanese islands only. The document didnt mention the Kuril Islands," the expert said.

He added that such a precedent would have dangerous consequences and will not serve Russias interests.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Late last week, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko instructed Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin to inform Russia about the "impossibility of conducting Russian elections on Ukrainian territory." The Verkhovna Rada called on the international community to refrain from participation in monitoring the Russian elections and not to recognize the results of these elections on the territory of Crimea and Sevastopol.

"The ministers discussed the various aspects of the situation in Ukraine, including the task of strengthening the ceasefire regime in the area of internal Ukrainian conflict. The questions relating to the Ukrainian side's obligations to ensure the safety of Russian diplomatic missions in Ukraine, especially in connection with the September 18 Russian State Duma elections," the ministry said.
On this episode of "By Any Means Necessary" host Eugene Puryear is joined by Reece Chenault, National Coordinator for US Labor Against the War to talk about several unions coming out against the Dakota Access Pipeline protestors and the growing frustration many progressives are feeling towards unions in general.

In the second part of the show Eugene Puryear is joined by Alexis Goldstein, Co-Host of the podcast Humorless Queers, to talk about the closing of ITT Tech, the history of for profit education, and the long relationship former President Bill Clinton has had with several of the businesses.

In a special third part Eugene Puryear is joined by David Swanson, author, activist, journalist, and co-founder and director of World Beyond War to talk about the new 'Snowden' movie and the role of Hollywood to present political stories.
Republicans in Congress are already telegraphing their plans for a Clinton presidency. They will jam up the gears by launching endless investigations into her dealings. We explain why that might, actually, be a good thing.

Then, the Two Sams get caught up on the Iran Deal. Can you blame us for not following it closely, though? Its been non-story after non-story about the agreement, all year! Foreign Policy Journalist Derek Davison breaks down what has been rattling around the Right-Wing Echo Chamber for us.

Finally, the rise of Wells Fargo, in the past few years, has been upheld as an example of Washington regulators winning the fight against reckless Wall Street firms. Unfortunately for that narrative, the bank was just caught fabricating over 2 million false accounts for customers  a fraud encouraged by compensation packages. Sound familiar?
Todays main stories: Thousands took to the streets in support of independence for the autonomous Spanish region, Catalonia, but given Madrid's hostility towards a legally binding referendum, what way forward is there for supporters of an independent Catalonia? We speak to Professor Antonio Cabrales from University College London.



The Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Israel, constituting the biggest ever military aid package to be given to any country by the United States, should be signed in the very near future, despite disputes in the US Senate. We speak to American writer and activist, Alison Weir.



You can find previous editions of World in Focus here.



Tune in to Radio Sputnik five days a week for Sputniks daily current affairs program, broadcasting live from Edinburgh Scotland, with Jack Foster and Carolyn Scott.
The policeman was killed on July 10, 2016 during a militants' attack on local residents resting on a picnic in the forest nearby Sergokala settlement. The gunmen shot to death Magomed and his cousin Abdurashid Nurbagandov having discovered their police identification cards. The militants' actions are perceived to be a deliberate revenge on law enforcement.

The video of murder was uploaded on social media soon afterwards, but the militants had cut the episode showing the officer's courageous behavior from the footage.

  .    . . pic.twitter.com/3fCtPFoyOE    (@strecha75) September 11, 2016

On August 7 the National Antiterrorism Committee (NAC) reported that six militants including the head of a local armed gang had been killed in Dagestan during two separate Special Forces raids. Three militants were neutralized in Izberbash and three more in Makhachkala. According to the NAC, the killed fighters were involved in terrorism-related crimes, including an August attack on road police and the July 10 shooting in which Nurbagandov was killed.
Before you judge her, hear her out. In all likelihood, you might just agree with her.

By India Today Web Desk: Let's just start by something as cliched as 'some things work out, some things don't'. Now, let's reiterate the fact that cliches are cliches for a reason. Like most things in life--be it a job or a friendship or a work relationship--a marriage also falls under the purview of this cliche.

America's rising divorce rates have been part of our drawing-room discussions at some point or the other--when a friend/relative/yourself is getting hitched/divorced, especially.

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While all of us have found ways to berate America for the same, we haven't really paused and considered the flip side, have we?

Now, ask yourself this--why is divorce such a bad word, such a social taboo? If two people are not happy with each other despite trying repeatedly, do they not have the right to live life on their own terms, the advantages and repercussions of which they themselves will bear?

Now, for the hard-hitting question--if Indian women had as much freedom, or were as liberated, or had their rights as tightly secured, would they too not opt out of abusive/unhappy marriages?

Bosniak-Muslim writer Arnesa Buljusmic Kustura--author of Letters from Diaspora: Stories of War and its Aftermath--in a series of tweets, has explained just what we're too caught up in convention to see. She says her favourite thing about America is the divorce rate, and right so. Here's why:

Pictures courtesy: Facebook/Dear Director



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The RPK-16 is equipped with a sniper sight and a barrel silencer and is capable of firing single shots, which is absolutely surprising for the type of a weapon known for strong recoil and meant for firing long bursts. It uses two types of magazines: a 30-round curved magazine and a new 96-round drum.

Gibka-S air defense system

The Gibka-S is a self-propelled anti-aircraft missile system. It consists of launchers based on Tigr wheeled armored vehicle and automated air defense command and control vehicle.

The Gibka-S system uses four Verba infrared-guided man-portable air defense system and ensures simultaneous control of six armored vehicles or four antiaircraft bateries.

Uran-9 combat robot

The latest in a long line of military robots made in Russia, the Uran-9 unmanned ground combat vehicle is loaded with 30mm cannon that fires 350 to 400 rounds per minute, a coaxial 7.62mm machine gun and a battery of Ataka supersonic guided missiles.
Today we will instruct our representative at the International Monetary Fund to vote against a decision to lend more money to Ukraine because we see it as running counter to the Funds standing rules, Siluanov said during a news briefing on Monday.

He also described as unfounded an earlier statement by the IMF that Ukraine had allegedly met all the necessary requirements for obtaining another tranche, adding that the IMF had violated its own regulations.

Siluanov said that, as a full member of the IMF, Russia had the right to vote and would stand by its position.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The sides are expected to discuss the current state of Russia-Luxembourg relations, and potential ways for their development. Bilateral cooperation on urgent global issues, the crises in Ukraine, the Middle East and North Africa, as well as the fight against terrorism will be on the agenda.

Russias relationship with the European Union and the Syrian crisis are also expected to be debated.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Commercialization of the space cargo industry has been on the drawing board for more than 15 years, since NASA realized it was too expensive to use the Space Shuttle to haul cargo to the completed International Space Station (ISS), O'Keefe explained.

"SpaceX is getting a significant marginal improvement out of existing technology capabilities," O'Keefe said. "It is not a new fuel, not a new technology lift capacity, but its using basically the same principles but on a more cost-effective basis employing major technology improvements  basically doing it the way NASA has done it for the last 40-50 years."

"If you think about how long this has been coming  and now we are talking about doing the cargo replenishment to the ISS  we have been working on this for the better part of 15 years and it has been a while in the making," O'Keefe stated.
In an online statement, Steve Hewer, the manager of the center said that Yarl's Wood allows as much freedom of movement as possible and that the center is based on a community model.

"We have positive relationships with colleagues in a broad range of statutory and voluntary organizations both in Bedfordshire and nationally and work with them to deliver services which mirror those in the community in areas such as health and well-being," Mr. Hewer said in his online statement.

However Women for Refugee Women, a charity that works to help refugees and asylum seekers, launched a Set Her Free campaign in 2014, which called for an end to the detention of women who seek asylum in the UK.

They disagree with Hewer's comments, saying that the majority of women are survivors of torture, rape or other forms of sexual or gender-based violence should not be detained.

"Although we have seen some progress, like the introduction of a time limit on detaining pregnant women, there has been a distinct lack of openness from the Home Office  both about numbers of pregnant women being locked up in Yarl's Wood, and about incidences of sexual abuse of inmates by guards," Sarah Graham, communications executive for the charity told Sputnik.

"As a result, we cannot know if conditions have improved since the various critical investigations and reports of the last couple of years. We do know that hundreds of vulnerable women are still being locked up in Yarl's Wood detention center."
Terror itself was the biggest recruitment tool for the terrorists and it was a fundamental mistake to declare war on terrorists akin to declaring war on an enemy akin to the Nazis in WWII, because this elevates terrorists in the eyes of the world and encourages them to recruit people for attacks. This makes the problem even worse, Ian Lustick said.

He added that the Obama Administration had tried, sometimes successfully, to retreat from the idea of fighting a war against terrorists and make them look more like criminals.

Because of the mistakes made by the Bush Administration by launching a war in Iraq, the capacities of these [terrorist] groups expanded and they now acted as if they were major players on the world stage, Professor Lustick added.
Sources in Trump's camp told the CNN broadcaster that the support team was asked to show respect and not to post any negative remarks on social media related to the topic.

Such conduct is uncharacteristic of Trump who maintained in his earlier speeches and remarks that Clinton was struggling a health crisis and accused media of concealing this fact.
Corporate Control

Over time, differentially suppressing negative search suggestions will repeatedly expose millions of people to far more positive search results for one political candidate than for the other. Research I have been conducting since 2013 with Ronald Robertson of Northeastern University has shown that high-ranking search results that favor one candidate can easily shift 20 percent or more of undecided voters toward that candidate  up to 80 percent in some demographic groups, as I noted earlier. This is because of the enormous trust people have in computer-generated search results, which people mistakenly believe are completely impartial and objective  just as they mistakenly believe search suggestions are completely impartial and objective.

The impact of biased search rankings on opinions, which we call the Search Engine Manipulation Effect (SEME), is one of the largest effects ever discovered in the behavioral sciences, and because it is invisible to users, it is especially dangerous as a source of influence. Because Google handles 90 percent of search in most countries and because many elections are very close, we estimate that SEME has been determining the outcomes of upwards of 25 percent of the national elections in the world for several years now, with increasing impact each year. This is occurring, we believe, whether or not Google's executives are taking an active interest in elections; all by itself, Google's search algorithm virtually always ends up favoring one candidate over another simply because of "organic" search patterns by users. When it does, votes shift; in large elections, millions of votes can be shifted. You can think of this as a kind of digital bandwagon effect.

The new effect I have described in this essay  a search suggestion effect  is very different from SEME but almost certainly increases SEME's impact. If you can surreptitiously nudge people into generating search results that are inherently biased, the battle is half won. Simply by including or suppressing negatives in search suggestions, you can direct people's searches one way or another just as surely as if they were dogs on a leash, and you can use this subtle form of influence not just to alter people's views about candidates but about anything.

Google launched autocomplete, its search suggestion tool, in 2004 as an opt-in that helped users find information faster. Perhaps that's all it was in the beginning, but just as Google itself has morphed from being a cool high-tech anomaly into what former Google executive James Whittaker has called a "an advertising company with a single corporate-mandated focus," so has autocomplete morphed from being a cool and helpful search tool into what may be a tool of corporate manipulation. By 2008, not only was autocomplete no longer an opt-in feature, there was no way to opt out of it, and since that time, through strategic censorship, it may have become a tool for directing people's searches and thereby influencing not only the choices they make but even the thoughts they think.

Look back at the searches I have shown you. Why does Google typically show you far fewer search suggestions than other search engines do  4 or fewer, generally speaking, compared with 8 for Bing, 8 for DuckDuckGo and 10 for Yahoo? Even if you knew nothing of phenomena like negativity bias and confirmation bias, you certainly know that shorter lists give people fewer choices. Whatever autocomplete was in the beginning, its main function may now be to manipulate.

Without whistleblowers or warrants, no one can prove Google executives are using digital shenanigans to influence elections, but I don't see how we can rule out that possibility.

Perhaps you are skeptical about my claims. Perhaps you are also not seeing, on balance, a pro-Hillary bias in the search suggestions you receive on your computer. Perhaps you are also not concerned about the possibility that search suggestions can be used systematically to nudge people's searches in one direction or another. If you are skeptical in any or all of these ways, ask yourself this: Why, to begin with, is Google censoring its search suggestions? (And it certainly acknowledges doing so.) Why doesn't it just show us, say, the top ten most popular searches related to whatever we are typing? Why, in particular, is it suppressing negative information? Are Google's leaders afraid we will have panic attacks and sue the company if we are directed to dark and disturbing web pages? Do they not trust us to make up our own minds about things? Do they think we are children?

Without whistleblowers or warrants, no one can prove Google executives are using digital shenanigans to influence elections, but I don't see how we can rule out that possibility. There is nothing illegal about manipulating people using search suggestions and search rankings  quite the contrary, in fact  and it makes good financial sense for a company to use every legal means at its disposal to support its preferred candidates.

Using the mathematical techniques Robertson and I described in our 2015 report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, I recently calculated that SEME alone can shift between 2.6 and 10.4 million votes in the upcoming US presidential race without anyone knowing this has occurred and without leaving a paper trail.

I arrived at those numbers before I knew about the power search suggestions have to alter searches. The new study suggests that autocomplete alone might be able to shift between 800,000 and 3.2 million votes  also without anyone knowing this is occurring.

Perhaps even more troubling, because Google tracks and monitors us so aggressively, Google officials know who among us is planning to vote and whom we are planning to vote for. They also know who among us are still undecided, and that is where the influence of biased search suggestions and biased search rankings could be applied with enormous effect.

[Postscript: Google declined to comment on the record when queried about some of the concerns I have raised in this article. Instead, on August 17th, a company representative sent me to a blog post released by the company on June 16th; you can read Google's official position on autocomplete there. For the record, I am a moderate politically, and I support Hillary Clinton for president. I do not believe, however, that it would be right for her to win the presidency because of the invisible, large-scale manipulations of a private company. That would make democracy meaningless, and that is why I am trying to keep the public informed about my research findings. Also for the record, I have chosen to publish this article through Sputnik News because Sputnik agreed to publish it in unedited form in order to preserve the article's accuracy. R.E.]

___________________

EPSTEIN (@DrREpstein) is Senior Research Psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology in Vista, California. A PhD of Harvard University, Epstein has published fifteen books on artificial intelligence and other topics. He is also the former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today.
The fearful reaction of the American public following the attacks 15 years ago enabled the US government to push through draconian measures that ignore human rights and undermine US moral standing globally, Freeman asserted.

"The panicky belligerence of voters was reflected in the George W. Bush administration's human-rights abuses, and popular bigotry and xenophobia continues to discredit American pretensions to moral leadership in world affairs," he stated.

The Bush administration reacted to the attacks by unleashing invasions and the destabilization of other countries, particularly Afghanistan and Iraq, and US President Barack Obama has followed the same damaging course, creating millions of additional refugees, according to Freeman. He was the US ambassador to Saudi Arabia between 1989 and 1992, under Bushs father, President George H.W. Bush.

"The current refugee crisis in West Asia, North Africa and Europe, and the threat this poses to European unity and stability, are a direct result of the disastrous US interventions and seemingly endless wars that followed 9/11," he said.

Washington's growing use of drone warfare has made matters even worse, in Freemans view. It has "spread anti-Western terrorism with global reach to new corners of the globe," he said.

The American people have also suffered from the era of perpetual war and foreign intervention since 9/11, Freeman maintained.

"The diversion of American resources to foreign adventures rather than to meeting domestic human and infrastructure needs has made America a shabbier, less competitive society," he remarked.

Policies presented as a means of protecting the United States after September 11, 2001 and preventing further attacks have instead made them more likely, Freeman warned.

"There can be no question that the American response to 9/11 has been not just counterproductive but self-destructive," the former diplomat concluded.
The White House confirmed on Monday that it will veto the bill, called the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, or JASTA, after it was passed by the House of Representatives.

GCC Secretary General Abdullatif al-Zayani issued a statement on Monday prior to the White House statement, declaring that the law is contrary to the foundations and principles of relations between states and the principle of sovereign immunity enjoyed by states.

The vote followed the release of 28 declassified pages from a congressional report on 9/11, which reignited speculations over possible links of the plane hijackers to Saudi government officials. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals.
By PTI: From Anisur Rahman

Dhaka, Sep 12 (PTI) The death toll in the fire tragedy at a Bangladeshi factory today climbed to 32 after more bodies were retrieved from under the debris and authorities called in a team of army to join the rescue operation.

Gazipur fire services Deputy Assistant Director Md Aktaruzzaman said three more bodies have been recovered from the building today.

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The flames in the factory were not doused completely. Fire was still being spotted here and there.

The army also joined the operation.

The father of a victim filed a case against the Tampaco Foils Factory owner and six others with Tongi Police Station last night.

Owner Mokbul Hossain was named as the prime accused, BD News quoted Officer-in-Charge of Tongi Police Station Firoz Talukder as saying.

The fire was initially thought to have triggered by a powerful boiler explosion at the Tempako Packaging Factory in Tongi industrial area near Dhaka, but officials later claimed they have found the factory tank intact fuelling speculation that a gas leak could be the reason behind the blast.

About 100 people were believed to have been inside the food and cigarette packaging unit when the explosion occurred. PTI NSA

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WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  JASTA would allow US citizens to bring suits against a foreign nation believed to have provided material support to facilitate a terror attack on US soil or affecting US persons.

"The president feels strongly about this and I do anticipate that the president will veto the legislation when its presented to him," Earnest stated.

The bill would override current Saudi claims to sovereign immunity, allowing families of September 11 terrorist attack victims to bring a long-standing federal court case against the Saudi government for allegedly sponsoring the 2001 attacks.
There are deeper structural changes as well. Initially, the ships were intended to be modular. It was previously supposed that each ship would carry a combat module specifically designed for one of three predetermined ship mission scenarios (anti-surface, anti-submarine or anti-mine), which could be quickly swapped for another.

Each module was intended to have a unique crew that would be added to LCS's general crew. The two crews would operate on a single ship, focusing on their own tasks. This plan has been scrapped, and each ship will now have a single combat module and crew.

"When I took a step back I saw complexity, I saw instability," Vice Admiral Tom Rowden, chief of Naval Surface Forces, who earlier issued the stand-down order for the LCSs, said in interview, adding that he saw commanders "pulled in 15 different directions."
Mateen had attended Friday prayers at the mosque for 13 years, but is not the only terrorist to have worshipped there. The first American suicide bomber in Syria, Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, was also reportedly a regular.

A fire at any place of worship is alarming, regardless of the circumstances, a statement from the St. Lucie County Sheriffs Office said.

A surveillance video from the mosque captured someone approaching the building before a large flash and the fire begins. The Sheriffs Office has stated their intention to release the video to seek the publics help in identifying the perpetrator.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Leandra Bernstein  The Republican senator argued that President Barack Obamas administration has "abandoned all pretense of saying Assad has to go," and he called the results of the ongoing negotiations "humiliation."

"I just read that they were going to, under certain circumstances, let Bashar Assad do airstrikes. This is unbelievable," McCain said Monday when asked to comment on the ceasefire.

On Friday, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hashed out a ceasefire agreement aimed at reducing violence and restarting political talks in war-torn Syria.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Obama made an appeal for progress on a government spending plan, funding to fight the Zika virus and flood relief for the US states of Michigan and Louisiana, the report noted on Monday.

My hope is that we can make some modest progress in areas where we agree and where weve been working together, Obama said, according to the report.

Obama also discussed the importance of bipartisan work on criminal justice reform, the report added.
According to security data site New America, 94 people have been killed by jihadist terrorist attacks in the United States since 9/11. This figure comes from ten separate incidents that have occurred in the last 15 years.

By comparison, domestic right-wing extremists have killed 48 people in the same period. This figure is the result of 18 separate incidents, most of which were mass shootings.

 Revengerist Ergo Sum (@TheRevengerists) September 12, 2016

Still, these numbers pale compared to the next most lethal killer in the United States: armed toddlers.
DUBAI (Sputnik)  On Friday, the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the JASTA. The Senate passed the act in May.

"H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, has expressed the UAE's concern about the US Congress adopting the law referred to as the "Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act". He said that this law is contrary to general liability rules and the principle of sovereignty enjoyed by states," the statement said.

The statement added that the minister warned of the negative effects of the act on a number of countries, including the Unites States itself, as well as on the international relations, as a whole.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Kerry added that although the US-Russia peace plan was flawed, it was better than experiencing sectarian violence on a daily basis, describing the new agreement as the last chance "to save a united Syria."

"This renewed cessation of hostilities went into effect at sundown in Syria a few hours ago," Kerry told reporters. "The earliest reports are that there is some reduction in violence."

US Department of State John Kirby later said he was unaware if any groups in Syria had refused to abide by the deal, although he had seen reports that the opposition faction Ahrar al-Sham rejected calls to adhere to the cessation of hostilities.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The two sides affirmed their support for policy and regulatory conditions that promote innovation, trade, investment and growth in the digital economy, the statement said.

"During the two-day forum, government, industry, and non-governmental organization representatives reached a broad consensus on issues such as promoting US-Republic of Korea ICT policy coordination," it said.

Washington and Seoul reaffirmed their joint support of an inclusive, open, and transparent system of internet governance, according to the State Department.
The summit presents "a historic opportunity to agree a global compact, with a commitment towards collective action and greater shared responsibility for refugees at its core" UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on World Refugee Day in June.

The following day, September 20, on the sidelines of the General Assembly, US President Barack Obama will host the Leaders' Summit on Refugees. His co-hosts will be government representatives from Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, Jordan, Mexico and Sweden.

The Leaders Summit will call on governments worldwide to pledge significant new assistance to refugees. Its sole focus will be refugees, whereas the previous days UN-organized High-Level Summit will address the mass movement of both refugees and migrants.

"The United States is determined to find solutions," US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement. He said Obama, as the Leaders Summit host, would be "asking nations to make concrete commitments toward expanding the humanitarian safety net and creating more long-term, durable opportunities for refugees."

On September 21, heads of state and government are to participate in a high-level General Assembly meeting on antimicrobial resistance. This gathering is intended to underscore the severity and breadth of the problem posed by drug-resistant bacteria and viruses, and to encourage the development of innovative solutions.
By PTI: Jammu, Sep 12 (PTI) Amid the unrest in the Valley, Kashmiri Pandits undertook the annual pilgrimage to the Harmukh Gangbal lake shrine in central Kashmirs Ganderbal district and prayed for peace.

Led by General Secretary of Harmukh Gangbal Trust, Vinod Pandit, a group of Kashmiri Pandits performed religious rituals at the shrine on Ganga Ashtami, Mahashradha for the departed souls of community and the culmination of Vedic Mahayagya.

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"This was the 8th annual Gangbal yatra which we revived in 2009 after almost 100 years," said Pandit, who is also the Chairman of All Parties Migrants Coordination Committee (APMCC).

Security was provided by armed forcesen route the shrine of Lord Shiva.

Sunil Takhroo, who came all the way from Bengaluru to take part in the yatra, said, "We prayed for peace and normalcy in Kashmir by performing a small yagnya."

"For Kashmiri Hindus, this place holds importance equivalent to Haridwar. In the past, ashes of the dead members of the community used to be immersed here," the APMCC chief said.

He said the yatra was affected due to the eruption of militancy in Kashmir.

Pandit, who has been instrumental in the revival of various traditional pilgrimages in the Valley, said in wake of the ongoing unrest that started after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen Commander Burhan Wani in an encounter on July 8, several people were unable to the join the yatra.

"As the pilgrims have to trek for seven to eight hours we make sure that they register a month in advance so their medical checkup and acclimatisation can take place," he said.

The yatra which began on September 9, culminated yesterday after the holy mace reached the shrine.

"The prayers of the holy mace were held at the 1700-year- old Shiv temple at Narayan Nag, before it was taken to the lake shrine where special prayers were held and the annual yatra culminated there," he said.

The trust plans to hold the yatra next year as well. PTI TSS AB DK AAR RT AAR

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WASHINGTON(Sputnik)  US Assistant Secretary for Economic and Business Affairs Charles Rivkin led the opening of the dialogue. Cuban Foreign Trade Vice Minister of Commercial Policy Ileana Nunez Mordoche headed up the delegation from Havana.

"The United States and Cuba held the inaugural Economic Dialogue in Washington, DC, today," the release stated on Monday. "The delegations discussed trade and investment, labor and employment, renewable energy and energy efficiency, small business, intellectual property rights, economic policy, regulatory and banking matters, and telecommunications and internet access."

Both parties, the release added, agreed to convene working groups in the coming months to address technical issues.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The six governments called on all parties in Libya to undertake an immediate ceasefire and to refrain from any further hostilities.

They also called on all forces to avoid any action that could damage Libya's energy infrastructure or further disrupt its exports, the statement noted.

"The Governments of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States condemn this weekend's attacks on Zueitina, Ras Lanuf, Es Sider, and Brega oil terminals in Libya," the statement said on Monday.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The United States will donate up to $4.3 billion to the Global Fund through 2019.

"US Deputy Secretary of State Heather Higginbottom will lead the official US government delegation to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malarias Fifth Replenishment Conference, which will be held September 16-17 in Montreal, Canada," the release stated.
Sept 12 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

- Hillary Clinton's campaign said Sunday she had been diagnosed with pneumonia and would cancel a planned two-day swing through California, hours after the Democratic presidential nominee abruptly left a 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York for what her aides described as her feeling "overheated." http://on.wsj.com/2c2Mu8Z

- China's concerns about Venezuela's debt and the safety of expatriates there have prompted emergency meetings between the Chinese envoy and state companies. http://on.wsj.com/2conexu

- Hundreds gathered in lower Manhattan Sunday morning to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, and to honor the thousands of people who lost their lives. http://on.wsj.com/2chUGEz

- Islamic State terrorists now use a mix of encrypted chat apps, face-to-face meetings, written notes and misdirection, all of which leave few electronic clues for Western intelligence agencies. http://on.wsj.com/2cbMERD

- With less than four weeks until Florida officials start mailing ballots to voters, the race in the nation's biggest swing state is shaping up to be a defining test of political enthusiasm versus traditional organization. http://on.wsj.com/2cPoeJo

- Investors who had bet heavily on calm seas ahead were jolted Friday as prices of stocks, bonds, oil and gold all slid amid mounting concerns over the willingness and ability of central banks to prop up markets. http://on.wsj.com/2chRyqL

- A major financial scandal swirling around the Malaysian prime minister is drawing fresh attention to his glamorous wife, Rosmah Mansor, who newly revealed documents show has racked up at least $6 million in credit card charges in recent years -despite having no known source of income beyond her husband's salary. http://on.wsj.com/2c3rNOW (Compiled by Aurindom Mukherjee in Bengaluru)
By Edward McAllister AGADEZ, Niger (Reuters) - On Mayango Jallahs second attempt to reach Europe, he recalls, the dinghy he was in came within sight of southern Spain. "We saw the light, bright," said the Liberian political science graduate. "It was like we were reaching heaven." But the coastguard caught him and he spent a month in a Moroccan jail. That was in 2006. The experience was no deterrent. European politicians worry about the influx of what they call "economic migrants" from Africa, saying more must be done to improve living standards there to stem the flow. But for all those who reach Europe, many are thwarted along the way. Jallahs story shows why even those with relatively high education and strong prospects at home dont give up. "I am not prepared to go home  I cant go back empty-handed," said the 39-year-old between sips of pineapple juice in an outdoor bar in Agadez, Niger, the major crossroads for thousands of travellers from West Africa each week. "I want to go to school, earn a Masters... If I have a European degree I can work anywhere." In all, Jallah reckons, he has spent about $14,500 (10,925 pounds) on five attempts over a dozen years to reach what he calls "normal society." He made the money teaching, doing odd jobs in construction and bricklaying, and forging refugee documents. War in Syria has driven millions from home and is the short-term focus of Europes migration crisis. Longer term, senior officials in Brussels say, Africa is what really worries them. When the European bloc was founded 60 years ago, they say, Africas population was about half that of the countries now in the EU. Today, Africa has double the population. And by 2050, the United Nations median forecast is that Africas 2.5 billion people will be four times that of the EU. This suggests migratory pressures from Africa will increase. In the near term, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) expects migration through the Agadez region this year to reach 300,000. That's more than double the 120,000 it estimates went through in 2015. History shows it is not the poorest who leave. For example, 19th-century immigrants to the United States came mostly from Britain and other North Sea countries. Eastern Europe was poorer and followed much later. Migration increases as a nation develops, said Giulia Sinatti, a lecturer at the University of Amsterdam who studied migration in West Africa for over a decade. It only starts to wane when the economy reaches a point where people have no economic interest in leaving. In much of West Africa, she said, that point is a long way off. Remittances to Liberia make up $570 million or 28 percent of its GDP, according to an African Development Bank report released in May - a bigger percentage than any other African country. For Africa as a whole the total was $64 billion in 2015, more than 30 percent of all financial flows into the continent, according to the ADB. "The more that a country develops, the more people have the means to leave," said Sinatti. "It is utopian to think we can end this. I think it will not stop." RUN, RUN, RUN Jallah is tall and skinny, his jeans pleated at the waist by a tight belt. Unlike other migrants in Agadez, he wears a suit jacket and shirt. He says he grew up with 10 other children in a bustling household in Liberia's capital Monrovia. They slept in two small bedrooms. There was often not enough food for everyone, but his parents were teachers, so they all attended school. He remembers listening to the BBC World Service on his father's battery-powered radio. "I knew from a young age about Europe and the development and the government," Jallah said. "I thought, when you get into that society you have more opportunity." Like nearly all Liberians, Jallahs family was torn apart by conflict. Liberias devastating civil war, which broke out in 1989, lasted 14 years. He fled Monrovia with his father in 1994 to seek refuge in Ivory Coast - it was a month-long, 400-km (249-mile) slog on foot. They kept off the main roads and slept in forests. When they arrived in Ivory Coast, Jallah's feet were badly swollen and he was sick. "It was always run, run, run, that was how I was brought up," he said. Liberian exiles were classed as refugees by the United Nations until 2012. When Jallah eventually graduated from the University of Monrovia in 2001, he dreamed of studying conflict resolution at the United Nations' Institute for Environment and Security in Bonn. That year he applied for student visas for Germany, Norway and Canada, and was rejected. Meanwhile, he spoke over the phone to friends who had made it to Europe. "They were working or made it to school," he said. "I started to think: where would be the best place to get back the wasted years?" ROBBED AND ROBBED AGAIN Jallah paid for his first trip, in early 2004, with $2,000 that he had managed to save from teaching in Ivory Coast, and small donations from friends. His younger half-brother Mitchel, a 33-year-old mobile-phone salesman in Monrovia and Abidjan, said he had encouraged his brother, believing it was Mayangos role as the eldest to help the family. "I wanted him to go, it will be good for everyone," he said. Jallah packed light: clothes, food, a photo of his parents, and a letter of recommendation from his university that he hoped would help at European customs. The route was already established - by bus through Mali and Burkina Faso to Agadez, where migrants bought passage from people-smugglers towards Algeria or across the Sahara to Libya. From there, they took their chances with smugglers across the Mediterranean. Jallah had almost reached Algeria when the open-backed truck he was sharing was hijacked by bandits in the desert. They beat him and stole most of his money. He found work painting buildings and making bricks and cement in southern Algeria for about $4.50 per day, then moved east to Sabha in Libya, where there was more work. A childhood friend who had made it to Germany sent him hundreds of euros via Western Union. That helped Jallah reach the coastal city of Tripoli, where he paid $1,200 for a boat to Italy. He bought bread and sardines and was shown into a crammed building where hundreds of other migrants were waiting for a boat. "The waiting hall was close to the beach," Jallah said. "There were 200-300 people just waiting and watching the ocean every day." On the sixth day, a band of militia entered the hall, opened fire and demanded cash. "Everyone scattered," he said. Traumatised and with his money near gone, he headed back to Ivory Coast. His second trip, the journey to Spain in 2006, was relatively cheap, he said. But that was the journey that ended in a Moroccan jail. When he got out, he found work in Ivory Coast, teaching English to refugees and aid workers for hundreds of dollars a week. He loved the job. But "even if you love teaching, you know you will not have a good life." By winter 2008, he had saved $6,750, he says. "I thought it would be easier to just to go to Libya." In Tripoli, the price of a boat ride to Italy had risen to $1,500. Again, bandits raided the house where he was waiting. "They took everything," he said. "It was normal - everyone knows it was a setup." This time, none of his friends could send cash. DOCUMENT FORGER By 2012, Liberia and much of West Africa experienced rapid economic growth as commodities boomed. The United Nations stopped considering exiles like Jallah as refugees. He turned, briefly, to crime. "It was becoming an obsession," he said. "You travel once to Libya or Morocco and you see it was just one single mistake that stopped you from getting there. You just want to go and try again." Eight months after the Arab Spring uprisings toppled leaders including Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, Jallah set off again. By now, Libya was in chaos. No-one was willing to take him to Tripoli. Stranded in Algeria, he started forging refugee documents for money. It was a small operation with only three customers, but it attracted official attention. Police arrested him in an Internet cafe and dumped him in a packed cell. He was eventually sentenced to six months. "LACK OF IMAGINATION" In total, Jallah estimates, he has spent nearly $5,000 on boats across the Mediterranean. He has given thousands to police and army checkpoints along migrant routes in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. The smugglers who ferried him across the Sahara took up to $500 a time. "I am the kind of person that doesnt retreat," he said. Today, Libya, still lawless, remains the only viable route to Europe after Algeria, Morocco and the Canary Islands successfully blocked the way. Europe is searching for new ways to close the route. "The European Union does not have a valid set of policies except exclusion," said George Joffe, professorial fellow at the Global Policy Institute in London Metropolitan University. "There is a lack of economic imagination and a lack of understanding about the limitations that exist." Europe needs to try new methods, Joffe said. He advocates a policy of microfinance where the EU could donate small amounts of money to projects with quick returns. Others say short-term, targeted visas for certain workers could reduce the desire to migrate illegally. For now Jallah, who is approaching middle age, says he plans to apply for a Cuban visa, something his friends have done successfully. From there, he will try to get a boat to Florida. His friends have connections in Miami, he said. His eventual goal is Canada. It will cost about $4,000. He still reminisces about what might have been. On that second attempt in 2006, Jallah recalls, he had urged the captain to leave before 7 p.m. so fishing boats on the water would offer camouflage. But they did not get going until 11 p.m. "If our captain had listened," he said, "we would have made it." (Reporting by Edward McAllister; Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald in Brussels; Editing by Sara Ledwith)
The wife of Indian-origin British MP Keith Vaz has said she will forgive him for cheating on her with rent boys.

By Indo-Asian News Service: The wife of Indian-origin British MP Keith Vaz has said she will forgive him for cheating on her with rent boys, and admitted the revelation that her husband of 23 years paid male prostitutes for sex had come "out of the blue" and was a "complete shock".

Maria Fernandes, a successful lawyer and part-time judge, said that she had decided to give the high-profile former minister a second chance, but warned he needs to change or "I'll sling him out".

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Vaz, 59, who has two children with Fernandes, quit as chairman of the influential House of Commons Home Affairs Committee after becoming embroiled in a scandal.

Fernandes told The Mail on Sunday the revelation that her husband of 23 years paid two male prostitutes for sex had come "out of the blue" and was a "complete shock".

She said the Leicester East MP begged for forgiveness, saying he was "very sorry" and promising it would "never happen again" after he broke the news to her before the scandal was reported in the press.

"It was like an out-of-body experience, it was not real. There was a lot of things over the years, but this had not been one", Fernandes was quoted as saying.

'THIS TIME HE'S FALLEN BADLY'

"It was a terrible shock and I am still processing it. Keith is not a bad person, he's just done a terrible thing. It's absolutely terrible because it's affected all of us, because it's affected the kids. But he's a good person, a good father, he's been a good husband and nine-tenths of the time he's got things right. This time he's fallen... badly," she added.

Police have said that they will "assess and identify what criminal offences - if any - may have been committed" in the allegations, first reported in the Sunday Mirror.

Vaz had a conversation regarding cocaine with one of the male escorts in which the MP said he did not want to use the drug but indicated that he would pay for it for the other man at a later date, according to the newspaper.

Fernandes, who was told about the situation before the story broke, said she told the couple's 19-year-old daughter about it but their 21-year-old son was on holiday in Vietnam and did not find out for a further 24 hours.

Fernandes said their daughter was "very angry with her father, and I think she was angry for me" but she was also "worried about him".

She added that over the next few days she experienced a range of emotions following her husband's "betrayal".

"I would have liked to have taken all my crockery and broken it on his head," she said.

"My immediate thought was to tell him to leave then have space to discuss things, But I have decided to forgive him. That's different to forgiving him right now. If I don't forgive him eventually, it is going to tear me up. It's going to destroy me and I don't want that. I don't like that feeling of anger and bitterness," she noted, the The Mail on Sunday reported.

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Fernandes said they would go to marriage guidance sessions and he would need a full health check after having unprotected sex.

She said she also feared for Vaz's mental health: "He wanted to kill himself twice - once as Europe minister (when he was caught up in a scandal over passports) - and again now. He just wanted to die."

She added: "We have been happily married for a long time, we have two beautiful children, and we have a good life together, and he has threatened that by his behaviour. And if he does that again, then I'll sling him out."

London: Indian-origin MP Keith Vaz embroiled in sex scandal, to step down from his post



--- ENDS ---
FUSION is opening its 16th season with an obscenity-spewing hand puppet.

Its Jim Henson on crack.

Hand to God takes the wildly popular Christian puppet ministry and twists it into a mouthpiece for a reign of terror sprouting from a teenagers arm. The puppet takes on an irreverent life of its own, spiraling everyone into its orbit.

His acid commentary soon turns goose bumps into guffaws.

Robert Askins Hand to God opens at the Cell Theatre on Thursday, Sept. 8, and runs through Sept. 24, with a final stint at the KiMo Theatre in a pay-what-you-wish performance. Named The New York Times Critics Pick, the play was nominated for five Tony Awards. This marks its Southwestern regional premiere.

Askins set the play in his hometown of Cypress, Texas, where he grew up in a Lutheran Church puppet ministry.

At first, director Laurie Thomas thought the piece resembled a clever mashup of Avenue Q and Doubt.

But the script soon reveals individual responsibility as the playwrights ultimate target.

Jason is a troubled teenager unable to express an avalanche of grief over his fathers death. His mother isnt handling it well, either. The pain spews from the cotton jaws of Tyrone the hand puppet.

All the stages of grief are being processed by his puppet, Thomas said. The puppet starts to take over his personality and becomes the voice of everything he cant articulate. The puppets rude, offensive, colorful and unbelievably funny.

At first, the people surrounding Jason think hes just a weird kid. But thanks to Tyrones braying red mouth, they eventually ostracize him. An innocuous church basement, where posters trumpet cheery thoughts about Jesus, provides the setting.

Here Jason sits glumly, trying not to look mortified, as his mother, Margery, preps a small group of volunteers for a Christian puppet show. The sullen neighborhood troublemaker Timothy slouches and sneers as he awaits his mother attending her Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Jasons next-door neighbor and secret crush Jessica expresses a mild enthusiasm, although she snobbishly announces a preference for Balinese shadow puppets.

Jason and Jessicas budding friendship buckles when Tyrone begins expressing the teens unmoored id.

In the meantime, the church pastor begins slathering suggestive consolation onto Jasons mother.

Puppet ministries flourish in churches across the country, especially in the South, Thomas said.

It is a huge childrens ministry. Its used to teach basic biblical stories all the way to, unfortunately, some very prejudicial views. A lot of the time, the puppets resemble Muppets.

Askins believed the use of hand puppets to teach religion served as a default to hide behind and stave off self-reflection, Thomas said.

The playwrights mother still works in a puppet ministry near Houston.
On August 31, U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump rolled the dice and traveled to meet Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in Mexico City. Many people would say that it was the Mexican president who rolled the dice by inviting Trump, who has been disparaging of Mexicans and trade with Mexico.

Trumps gamble was that Mexican hospitality would not rebuke or call him out too harshly in public  Mexicans are famous for their diplomatic protocol and hospitality, and this was demonstrated by Pena Nietos reluctance to strongly contradict or humiliate Trump in front of the press corps. Topics of discussion included immigration, building of the border wall that Trump espouses and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

In the ensuing press conference, Trump called out for modernizing NAFTA to stop U.S. job losses, thus providing for fairer trade.

By using the term modernizing NAFTA, what does Trump mean? NAFTA can be viewed as a simple free trade agreement with twists. When implemented in 1994, its primary goal was to lower tariffs and non-tariff barriers between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico to increase trade among the partners, thus creating a North America trade bloc. The twists had to do with the fact that, under NAFTA, Mexico would be opening up its previously closed financial and insurance sectors to U.S. and Canadian companies, and a cooperative environmental element would be established among the three partners to make sure that growth would not exacerbate damage to the environment.

Contrary to widespread belief, NAFTA was not an agreement designed with the focus of allowing American companies to move to Mexico to access more economical labor. Mexicos maquiladora (twin plant) industry, implemented in 1965, freely allowed foreign companies to establish plants in that country in order to manufacture products for export. Trump and many anti-NAFTA, anti-free traders mistakenly (or intentionally) refer to NAFTA as allowing American companies to move to Mexico to access cheaper labor. This is simply not true  they have been allowed to do this for 50 years, almost 30 years before NAFTA was implemented. Indeed, companies such as General Motors, Ford and Delphi Automotive were manufacturing in Mexico years before NAFTA was implemented.

So, when Trump refers to modernizing NAFTA, does he mean the re-imposition of previous tariffs across the board or in specific industries that would restrict trade? Does he refer to removing many of the non-tariff or not-so-obvious barriers to trade that restrict the free flow of commerce between the three nations? Why is he focusing only on Mexico?

Trump often alludes to the trade deficits that the U.S. runs with Mexico as being the cause for job losses to our southern neighbor. In 2015, the U.S. exported $235.7 billion to and imported $296.4 billion from Mexico, resulting in a $60.6 billion trade deficit. That same year, the U.S. exported $280 billion to and imported $296.1 billion (almost the same total imports as from Mexico) from Canada for a $15.5 billion trade deficit. Meanwhile, the U.S. exported a paltry $116 billion to China and imported a whopping $483.2 billion from that country in 2015, resulting in a $367.2 billion trade deficit. Put into black-and-white terms, the trade deficit that the U.S. runs with its two NAFTA partners is only 20.7 percent of the entire trade deficit it runs with China.

When looked at from a cold, hard fact standpoint, why is Trump attacking NAFTA and Mexico for job losses, and not threatening to kick China out of the World Trade Organization (the U.S. supported this countrys entry into the WTO in 2001) if U.S.-China trade is not made fairer and modern? This will probably not happen during the Trump campaign. Mexico is a neighbor and shares many common challenges with the U.S., such as security, immigration, use of common resources and a long, somewhat difficult, history. However, Mexico is a convenient scapegoat for Trump to stir up the uninformed masses as to what trade does and doesnt do, and its overall magnitude.

The International Monetary Fund reported in 2015 that Mexicos GDP was $1.8 trillion, or 9.7 percent of the $18.55 trillion GDP generated by the U.S. So Trump and the anti-free traders are afraid of a nation whose economy is but a fraction that of the U.S.?

Since NAFTAs implementation, North American trade has jumped from $290 billion in 1993 to more than $1.1 trillion in 2016. Cross-border investment in U.S. cities/regions such as McAllen, El Paso, Santa Teresa and Otay Mesa has surged. NAFTA is not without its flaws, and clearly there have been winners and losers in all three countries.

Hidden barriers that hinder or impede trade still exist and are often difficult to eradicate. However, spewing rhetoric for political purposes without considering the facts is divisive and less than helpful to our North American interests.
Chavez-Grieves Consulting Engineers Inc. has provided structural engineering services for some of New Mexicos most prominent structures, including renovations of the Pit and Isotopes Park. But, increasingly, the company is looking outside state lines for work.

Were very committed to our in-state clients, said Chris Youngblood, Chavez-Grieves Albuquerque-based CEO. But I cant imagine where our firm would be right now if we were completely dependent on New Mexicos economy.

Youngblood said that, in his line of business, the states economic climate tends to lag behind the rest of the nations by about 18 months. While New Mexicos slow recovery has dramatically decreased the number of public sector construction projects  traditionally the bread and butter of Chavez-Grieves work  states like California, Washington and Arizona arent having the same problem.

Youngblood said whereas, 10 years ago, out-of-state clients made up 40 percent to 50 percent of the companys business, its now about 60 percent and 65 percent. And much of that is by design.

When things are the worst, a lot of firms go into a bunker mentality, but thats when you need to spend the most on marketing and traveling, he said. We increased our marketing budget during the recession and it really paid off. Now, our group of partners who are team leaders spend quite a bit of time traveling to clients and potential clients.

Chavez-Grieves is far from alone in this regard. New Mexicos lackluster economy is encouraging more and more service providers to identify out-of-state markets for their offerings. Doing so often has significant benefits for the businesses that choose to diversify their clientele. And counterintuitively, it could be exactly what the New Mexico economy needs.

Reviving the economy

In recent years, much of the discussion around economic development in New Mexico has centered around one catch phrase: economic base jobs. These positions are ones in which goods or services are exported out of state, thereby bringing new wealth into New Mexico instead of circulating existing money.

Mark Lautman, lead consultant for the New Mexico Legislative Jobs Council, said economic base jobs are a crucial component to lifting the state out of its economic doldrums.

Theres a multiplier effect, said Lautman. Every 15 economic base jobs we have are estimated to create another 35 service sector jobs.

The council estimates that the state needs to create 140,000 economic base jobs over a decade to close the current unemployment gap and address the needs of population growth over that time period. That formula has to include service providers, said Lautman, particularly those who are working on their own.

One of the biggest changes weve seen recently is in the solo work category, people who are contractors or consultants, said Lautman. People think about manufacturers when they think about exporting, but its these solo workers who are driving an important piece of the economic growth right now.

Craig Anderson, a Santa Fe-based artist and curator, works on his own as an arts consultant in one of the most prominent artistic communities in the country. Yet two of his three major advising clients are from outside the state, which Anderson said is a change from recent years. In one case, he is developing a digital catalogue for a Maryland-based foundation; in the other, he is advising a photographer in California about how to present his work to the marketplace.

Do I think it has something to do with the local economy? Yes I do, said Anderson. Im a business person in addition to being an artist, but Im really concerned about the well-being of the people here.

The benefits of diversification

At the Albuquerque-headquartered REDW LLC, an accounting and business consulting firm, out-of-state work has increasingly become part of the business model as the company has realized the benefits of diversifying its clientele, as well as diversifying the services it offers those clients.

At first, the economy forced us to explore other service lines, because thats what our out-of-state clients wanted: HR consulting, IT, security, that type of thing, said Ron Rivera, a former managing principal at REDW. Those were services we could then offer other clients, out-of-state or otherwise. Tough times are an opportunity for businesses to take a look at themselves and improve themselves.

That diversity across geography and service offerings means a company is less likely to feel an economic downturn, said REDW principal Lisa Wilcox, because the company isnt dependent on one service or local economy to carry the bottom line. And Steve Cogan, REDWs current managing principal, said out-of-state clients are often eager to work with the company, not only because of its reputation and the variety of services the company offers, but also because New Mexicos low cost of living means REDW can offer clients services at a price lower than their competitors based in other states.

Bob Feinberg, an Albuquerque-based commercial real estate broker with Colliers International, who said he is also increasingly pursuing and engaging in out-of-state business, said working outside New Mexico is essential in his industry to finding the best deals. He said he recently conducted an out-of-state transaction without even setting foot outside New Mexico.

I saw an aerial view of a property in Texas, made four phone calls and got three tenants, said Feinberg. If a broker allows state lines to impede their business, its because of a lack of vision.

Going global

For some service providers, the next step after embracing out-of-state clients is often an international one. Youngblood is planning a trip to Norway in the coming weeks to visit a former client and discuss a potential project.

Well go to whatever extreme we need to if it means bringing jobs back to New Mexico, said Youngblood.

Feinberg is exploring a possible venture in Algeria. If a company is open to doing out-of-state work, Feinberg said, they would be foolish not to consider looking outside the country.

What makes Algerian shoppers any different than American shoppers? said Feinberg. They need a place to get their groceries, a place to get their hair cut. Its a great big world out there, and thats a good thing.

When asked what advice he has for New Mexico businesses with only in-state clients, Feinberg relays a family story. According to Feinberg, his father was kicked out of high school three weeks before graduation and came to Feinbergs grandfather asking for guidance. The man handed his son a geography book, pointed to a map and told him to conquer the globe in spite of his recent setback.

Limiting yourself to Albuquerque or New Mexico limits everything else, said Feinberg. Go out and conquer the world.
Perhaps youve seen the Save Historic Route 66 signs in the windows of Central Avenue business or read in the Journal the contention that Albuquerque Rapid Transit will destroy this treasured landscape, a contention central to the legal case against the project.

You cant fault opponents for using every argument they can muster. But their primary goal is stopping the project, not preserving heritage. In fact, there is very little chance that the construction of ART will significantly damage historic Route 66.

The National Register of Historic Places is the governments mechanism for identifying significant historic properties, both individual buildings and districts. Owners of registered properties qualify for federal tax credits covering 20 percent of the costs of the restoration or adaptive reuse of a building. In addition, listed, along with eligible properties must be considered in planning for a federally funded project such as ART.

To be registered, a property must be associated with a major development in our history such as Route 66. But it must also possess Historic Integrity. That is, it must retain enough of its historical appearance to convey an accurate sense of that period.

Merchants regularly remodel their facades to attract customers. For better or worse, most buildings along commercial strips have thereby lost historic integrity in this legal sense.

When David Kammer, the leading historian of Route 66 in New Mexico, evaluated the route for the state in the early 1990s, he found no concentrations of buildings that retained historic integrity in Albuquerque large enough to qualify for designation as a district.

Since then, three groups of preservation students working with me at UNM have conducted field surveys of each building along Central Avenue from Girard to San Mateo. We identified only one small potential National Register district clustered around the Hiland Theater, an area partly associated with Route 66.

Kammer and the UNM groups did identify many individually eligible buildings, some of which have now been registered. The construction of ART will not require the demolition of any of these historic buildings or their signs, nor will it inhibit the registration of eligible buildings.

But what about the more general question of the impact of ART on Route 66? We commonly update historic environments by adding plumbing and electricity to buildings, and modern infrastructure such as transit systems, without feeling that the sense of history has been lost.

Would anyone claim that the cars around the Old Town Plaza have destroyed its Spanish Colonial legacy? Similarly, ART wont destroy historic Route 66.

Indeed, many cities mix built heritage and gleaming new transit systems as a tangible demonstration that they value their past while embracing a dynamic future.

Take Salt Lake City, where five recently built streetcar and two bus-rapid-transit lines weave through historic neighborhoods that buzz with the construction of buildings that mix residential, commercial and employment uses.

I do worry that in the real estate redevelopment that would surely follow the completion of ART, many historic structures would be swept away. And even if ART is not built, our Route 66 legacy is already wasting away through neglect.

Instead of using historic preservation to bash ART, why dont we do more to preserve this legacy?

The city should start by beginning the process of nominating all remaining eligible properties along Central to the National Register. Meanwhile, private property owners retain the right to veto listing.

Alerting owners to the historic value of their properties, making substantial preservation tax credits available to them and offering professional preservation planning assistance really would help preserve this cherished legacy.

We have other conservation tools available such as Urban Enhancement Overlay Zoning, which requires new construction to respect historic spatial patterns of building massing and setback.

Lets not pit Albuquerques past against its future. Whatever debates we may have about the design, planning process and economic impacts of ART, I hope we can come together to take real and effective steps for the preservation of Historic Route 66 in Albuquerque.
SAN DIEGO  Having written about immigration for a quarter-century, Ive heard more than my share of lies, contradictions and inconsistencies from elected officials in both parties.

So its been extremely refreshing these last few weeks to see my colleagues in the media get so worked up over a politician who appears to have reversed course on the immigration issue. Its a familiar story that many of them have missed over the years.

First, as Ive said before, I dont think Donald Trump really did a hard flip-flop on immigration.

Its not like he talked about building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, and then announced that its not going to happen. That would be a flip-flop.

Instead, Trump has been clumsy. Immigration was always going to be a tough issue for him because, while Trump has been a politician for just 15 months, hes been a developer, builder and businessman for nearly 50 years. He must know that the U.S. economy would crumble without undocumented immigrants labor. No matter what the politician says, the businessman wont be eager to rid the country of all undocumented workers.

Even after his fire-breathing speech in Phoenix a couple weeks ago, Trump appears to have once again left the door open to giving at least some of the undocumented a path to legal status. Speaking to reporters aboard his plane, Trump said: Im not ruling out anything. Were going to make that decision into the future.

And just a few days ago, during an NBC News forum, Trump hedged again when responding to a question about whether an undocumented person who wants to serve in the U.S. military deserves to stay in this country legally.

The Republican nominee called that a very special situation and said he could imagine himself working that out.

Still, if flip-flopping on immigration were an Olympic sport, Trumps performance would only be strong enough for a silver medal.

Hillary Clinton is in a different league.

In February 2003, during an appearance on a New York radio show, Clinton tried to come across as a moderate by declaring herself adamantly against illegal immigrants. Yet, during a January 2008 Democratic primary debate, Clinton bragged that, as a senator, she co-sponsored comprehensive immigration reform in 2004.

So Clinton is adamantly against illegal immigrants, and yet she wanted to give them a path to citizenship?

Among those of us who cover the immigration beat, and who follow that debate closely, Clinton is not usually described as an outspoken advocate for comprehensive immigration reform.

That list includes lawmakers such as Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. She may well support a legislative approach that includes legalizing the undocumented but she has never stuck her neck out on the issue.

Also, if Clinton really does support comprehensive immigration reform, then why did she later support a worker protection amendment that was meant to kill the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007?

Proposed by Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, the amendment added a sunset clause to the guest-worker provision in the bill and scared off Republican support.

Then there is Clintons muddled position on whether the undocumented should get drivers licenses. She said no. Then yes. Then no again. And by the end of 2007, she had repeatedly flip-flopped  something that Barack Obama pointed out in that debate in January 2008.

The only point I would make is Sen. Clinton gave a number of different answers over the course of six weeks on this issue, Obama said.

But, for Clinton, the most awkward about-face on immigration had to have been during the Central American refugee crisis in the summer of 2014 when  over the course of 24 hours  she flip-flopped over whether to change a human trafficking law that makes it harder for officials to deport child refugees by ensuring that they get an asylum hearing.

In July 2014, Clinton told National Public Radio that changing the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 was something that should be looked at because Americans need some flexibility within the laws.

The next day, during an interview on Fusion, which is aimed at Hispanic viewers, Clinton declared: I dont agree we should change the law.

What a messy dismount. It is performances like this that show why, in the flip-flop Olympics, Clinton deserves the gold.

Copyright, The Washington Post Writers Group.
Jury selection begins today in one of the highest profile murder cases in Albuquerques history in which two former Albuquerque police officers are charged in the fatal shooting of a homeless man illegally camping in the Sandia foothills in March 2014.

It marks the first time in at least 50 years that an Albuquerque police officer will face murder charges for an on-duty shooting.

Former Albuquerque police SWAT team member Dominique Perez and retired detective Keith Sandy were bound over for trial on second-degree murder charges after a preliminary hearing last year. A judge found there was probable cause for the charges in the shooting of mentally ill camper James Boyd.

A second-degree murder conviction carries a sentence of 15 years in prison. A jury could also acquit the two officers or find them guilty of a lesser charge such as manslaughter.

The shooting garnered national attention because Boyd was seen on police helmet-cam video as officers tried to coax him to leave his makeshift campsite. He brandished two knives at officers, but, after a three-hour standoff, Boyd appeared to agree to leave and to begin walking down the hill when officers shot at him.

Attorneys for the former officers, who have pleaded not guilty, say they fired their rifles to save the life of a fellow police officer who was among those trying to arrest Boyd.

Police say Boyd had earlier threatened two city Open Space officers who approached him after being called to the area by a nearby resident.

An autopsy found Boyd was shot three times, including in the lower-left back, and had no alcohol or illegal drugs in his system.

Boyd suffered from schizophrenia and had been in and out of jail and the states mental hospital in Las Vegas, N.M., numerous times over the years. He also had a criminal history that included instances of violence against law enforcement officers.

In July 2015, the city agreed to pay $5 million to Boyds family to settle a wrongful death lawsuit.
SANTA FE  The state Supreme Court is taking another look at whether constitutional changes that got the OK from a majority of voters in previous years  but failed to reach the required 75 percent threshold  may actually be in effect.

The League of Women Voters first raised the question a year ago, but the court rejected its lawsuit.

Now the justices have decided to rehear the Leagues challenge, which this time around has the backing of counties, disability rights advocates, Common Cause New Mexico and drug reform activists.

Arguments are scheduled before the court on Wednesday.

At issue are identical constitutional amendments from 2008 and 2014 that allowed school elections to be held in conjunction with other nonpartisan elections, and a 2010 amendment that removed the language prohibiting idiots and insane persons from voting.

The changes affect sections of the state Constitution that deal with voting and education and that require the approval of not just a majority, but three-fourths of those voting, to alter them.

The League argues that a separate provision of the Constitution makes it clear that the 75 percent rule was intended to protect rights. Because the constitutional changes not only protect rights, but enlarge them, only a majority vote is needed to change them, the League says.

If were not restricting peoples voting rights, it seems to me a majority of the people ought to be able to expand the rights and modernize the language, said state Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque, a lawyer and former state elections director who is representing the League.

The restriction in the 1910 Constitution that keeps school elections separate from other elections is rooted in the fact that, at the time, women were not allowed to vote except in school elections.

Meredith Machen, president of the League of Women Voters of New Mexico, says allowing school elections at the same time as other nonpartisan elections would save money and bolster turnout.

Right now, the turnout for school board elections is a tiny percentage of the electorate, she said.

The New Mexico Association of Counties said in a brief filed with the court that the current setup  a hodgepodge of local nonpartisan elections that are run or supported by county clerks  is chaotic and costly.

Because consolidating nonpartisan elections as allowed by the amendment will improve efficiency and voter participation, it is strongly supported by the clerks, the association said in its filing.

The 2010 amendment would have gotten rid of residency and age requirements for voting that have already been wiped out by other laws. And it would have removed the prohibition on voting by idiots and insane persons.

The terms idiots and insane persons are offensive, stigmatizing and archaic, the organization Disability Rights New Mexico argues in its brief. Removing that language from the Constitution would be a significant step for New Mexico toward protecting individuals with mental disabilities from societal discrimination, the organization said.

Under the 2010 amendment, the original language would have been replaced by a reference to mental incapacity, defined as being concurrently unable to mark a ballot and communicate a voting preference.

The same amendment also has the support of the Drug Policy Alliance, because it updates the language related to felons and voting, acknowledging that the Legislature  not just the governor  has the discretion to re-enfranchise those convicted of felonies.

The Legislature passed laws in 2001 and 2007 authorizing the restoration of voting rights to felons under certain conditions.

The lawsuit was filed against the Advisory Committee to the New Mexico Compilation Commission. The commission is in charge of compiling the states laws, and the League contends the advisory committee acts as its gatekeeper in that process.

But the Advisory Committee told the court that while the Leagues lawsuit raises important issues for the courts consideration, the League should instead have sued the State Canvassing Board  the governor, the Supreme Court chief justice and the secretary of state  because its job is to declare the results of state elections.
If there were a theme song  other than the national anthem  for the citys 15th anniversary 9/11 memorial ceremony, it would be Alan Jacksons Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning).

Charles Banks  a retired CIA executive, sometime country music performer and the keynote speaker for Sundays ceremony at Civic Plaza  said Jacksons gentle song about an ordinary mans reaction to the 9/11 terrorist attacks is one song he cant sing because he gets choked up when he tries.

The question posed by the songs title was on the minds of most of the several hundred people who attended Sundays late-morning ceremony. For some, it seemed difficult to believe that 15 years had elapsed since that terrifying day. For others, just children in 2001, 9/11 feels like ancient history. But everyone who is old enough to recall the day remembers where they were.

Lynnette Rodriguez-Giannelli, just 17 on 9/11, was with other family members in the kitchen of their Staten Island, N.Y., home, waiting to see if her father, a firefighter with Brooklyn, N.Y., Engine Co. 279, would come home. He didnt that day. Or the next. Or ever.

This is my first time speaking publicly about 9/11 and the events that followed, so please forgive me if I appeared flustered, Rodriguez-Giannelli, one of the speakers at the ceremony, told those in attendance. I remember sitting in my kitchen with my family for days afterward, waiting for the phone call or the knock on the door, always hoping he would be found.

Rodriguez-Giannelli, the oldest of six children, said the youngest, her sister Morgan, was born just three days after 9/11.

Tom Giannelli, Lynnettes husband, is from Albuquerque. The couple and their four sons moved to Albuquerque just last month to operate a screen-printing company. Their four boys range in age from 1 to 11. The oldest is named Anthony after Lynnettes father, who was only 36 when he was killed trying to rescue people from the old World Trade Center towers hit by hijacked airliners.

She said her father served in the Navy and was a police officer in Charleston, S.C., before the family moved to Staten Island and he joined the fire department. He had been a firefighter for only a few months prior to 9/11.

Rodriguez-Giannelli said she wanted the opportunity to speak at Sundays ceremony so she could thank people for paying tribute to her father and others who lost their lives during the terrorist attacks.

Others speaking at the Civic Plaza ceremony included Gov. Susana Martinez, Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry and Col. Eric Froehlich, commander of the 377th Air Base Wing at Kirtland Air Force Base. Froehlich was in the Pentagon on 9/11 when a hijacked airliner slammed into the building about 100 yards from Froehlichs office. He said he will always remember the screaming sound the plane made just before it plowed into the building, then the sight of falling debris.

After 9/11 Froehlich led combat deployments supporting operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

We will continue to take the fight to our enemies to protect our way of life, he said.

Those killed in the 9/11 attacks total 2,977. The attack on the Pentagon took 184 lives; hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in a Pennsylvania field, accounted for 40 lives; and 2,753 died in the World Trade Center attack, including 343 New York firefighters.

Prior to Sundays memorial ceremony, firefighters and members of the public took part in stair climbs at the Bank of Albuquerque building and City Hall, respectively, to commemorate the New York firefighters who died. Members of the public who did the stair climb at City Hall paid registration fees of $40 for individuals and $140 for teams of four. All proceeds will go to the American Red Cross of New Mexico for disaster relief.

Friends Genia Hernandez, 23; Isaiah Medina, 25; and Kevin Vigil, 26; did the City Hall stair climb. All were in grade school when 9/11 happened.

Hernandez and Vigil both have late uncles who served with the Albuquerque Fire Department and were climbing to honor their memories as well as to pay tribute to the victims of 9/11.

Medina, an emergency medical technician with an ambulance company, wants to join the Albuquerque Fire Department.

Ill do anything to show support to firefighters and their families, anything to raise awareness and remembrance, Medina said.

Although they were young, all three friends remember 9/11.

It seems like a long time ago, said Medina, who was 10 and a fourth-grader at Valencia Elementary School in Los Lunas on that tragic day. He said his family saw the planes hit the twin towers on TV as he was getting ready to go to school. He said his family considered keeping him home from school but decided he should go.

We didnt do any school work that day, he said. All we did was watch TV. I was pretty confused. I didnt know anything about terrorists back then.

Hernandez, a UNM student and an employee of a physical therapy company, was 8 and a third-grader at Albuquerques Mark Twain Elementary School. She was already at school when the attacks started, but her father came to get her.

My cousins were in the Army and (my father) told me they might get deployed, she said. I was scared, watching the adults I looked up to trying to scramble around to find out what was happening. Our family came together to make an escape plan in case we got bombed.

Vigil, a civil engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers, was 11 and a sixth-grader at Central Elementary School in Belen.

I had just gotten on the (school) bus, he said. The bus driver had the radio on, and we heard the news about the attacks. I didnt know what the World Trade Center was. I didnt know where the World Trade Center was. I didnt grasp the magnitude of it. It was not until I got home and my parents explained it to me. I remember a lot of kids were freaking out and getting scared.

Keynote speaker Banks was at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., on 9/11. He talked about the CIAs response to the attacks. But he said one of the first things he did on 9/11 was go to the headquarters basement and call his wife, his sons, even his 75-year-old mother.

I think we all wanted to hear the voices of the people we loved and know they were all right, he said. In his song, Alan Jackson, he was quoting St. Paul, sings Faith, hope and love are some good things he gave us and the greatest is love.'
Builder accused of cheating has been remanded to police custody till September 16 by a Magistrate court.

By Mustafa Shaikh: Orbit developers arrest highlights the plight of home buyers in maximum city. Buyers of the Orbit Corporation under different projects are filing complaints with police and consumer forum demanding their homes.

Pujit Aggrawal, who was arrested in connection with the cheating case, has been remanded to police custody till September 16 by Magistrate court on Monday. Aggarwal, 44, the CEO and the managing director of the construction firm Orbit Construction Limited, is accused of selling three apartments in Orbit Residency Park in Saki Naka to Capri Global Capital Limited for Rs 2.53 crore.

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INVESTORS KEPT IN THE DARK

According to the police complaint, Aggarwal had not disclosed the arrangement the firm had with LIC Housing Finance Limited(HFL) to the individuals who invested in homes in the project. LIC HFL subsequently took symbolic possession of the building, while the home buyers are still waiting for their homes.

LIC HFL had put part of Orbit Corporation's several projects including Orbit Residency on block to recover its dues. LIC Housing Finance had taken possession of the property following the developer defaulting on loans worth Rs 96 crore out of total dues of Rs 250 crore.

A compliant was registered at Azad Maidan police station against the Aggarwals, under sections 420 and 34 of the IPC. Subsequently, as investigations proceeded, sections 406, 120 (B) of the IPC and sections 3, 4, 5 of MOFA were added to the case. Capri Global is the complainant in the case.

POLICE TO TRACE DOCUMENTS

During the previous hearing prosecution told the court that Pujit failed to respond despite the police's repeated attempts to reach him, after which they arrested him. Police wants to get the documents and find the money on the matter.

Pujit's lawyer on Monday told court that his client is suffering from slipped disk and needs a pillow under his back and prescribed medicine which the court allowed.

On Monday, investors of Aggarwals Saki Naka project flanked the court and met the investigating officials. They have claimed that around 230 home buyers are in limbo because of Aggarwal's financial mismanagement.

RESIDENTS DEMAND EOW PROBE

"We want the case to be transferred to Economic Offences Wing (EOW) so that proper investigations can take place. We were supposed to get possession by 2009 but that has not happened. We just want to get our homes," said Roni Abraham one of the home buyers.

Until 2008, Orbit Corporation was a leading builder in Mumbai with some prime south Mumbai properties under redevelopment, including a few bungalows. However, post the global financial crisis of 2008, the developer found it difficult to take most of its projects forward and defaulted on loan repayments.

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A mailed query to the spokesperson of Orbit Corporation remained unanswered.

Also read:

Builder arrested for duping investors

Builder arrested for duping over 450 people



--- ENDS ---
TAIPEI, Taiwan  Hundreds of Taiwanese workers in tourism-related businesses rallied in the capital Monday to draw attention to a sharp decline in Chinese visitors that is putting their industry under heavy strain.

Workers marched down a central street in Taipei before gathering outside the Presidential Office Building. They called for the preservation of jobs and assistance to the industry, including allowing the owners of tour buses to delay their loan payments.

We only want the right to work. If (Chinese tourists) do not come, we cannot work. This is just our need, said tour guide Debby Huang, 41.

Workers also urged the government to encourage domestic tourism and allow visa-free entry for travelers from the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations as an inducement to visit.

The number of Chinese visitors has fallen since Beijing began discouraging travel to the island following the May inauguration of independence-leaning President Tsai Ing-wen.

Tsai has refused to endorse Beijings concept that Taiwan is part of a single Chinese nation, and reducing tourism is seen as one of the easiest and least risky ways of pressuring her government.

Accidents and an unwelcoming attitude among some Taiwanese are also blamed for contributing to the decline in Chinese visitors.

Government figures say the number of visitors from China has fallen by 22 percent since Tsais election compared to the same period last year. Chinese made up about 40 percent of tourist arrivals last year.

The government has already offered almost $960 million to bail out the industry.
Pearl Barela, a veteran, gets free dental services from Brian Dennis through the New Mexico Dental Association Foundation's Donated Dental Services for low-income women veterans. (Marla Brose/Albuquerque Journal) From left, New Mexico Dental Association Foundation executive director Linda Paul, left, talks to Pearl Barela, right, a veteran, before she gets free dental services from Dr. Brian Dennis, second from left, through the New Mexico Dental Association Foundation's Donated Dental Services for low-income women veterans. Also listening is Diane Bresson, second from right, a case worker with the foundation. (Marla Brose/Albuquerque Journal) Pearl Barela, a veteran, gets free dental services from Brian Dennis through the New Mexico Dental Association Foundation's Donated Dental Services for low-income women veterans. (Marla Brose/Albuquerque Journal) Pearl Barela, right, a veteran, gets a hug from Dr. Brian Dennis before she get treated by Dennis through the New Mexico Dental Association Foundation's Donated Dental Services for low-income women veterans. Behind them is Diane Bresson, second from right, a case worker with the foundation.(Marla Brose/Albuquerque Journal) Prev 1 of 4 Next

Pearl Barela loved hiking the Sandia Mountain trails, but the nagging pain of arthritis finally forced her to seek a hip replacement.

As an Air Force veteran and retiree on a limited income she was able to go to the Veterans Administration hospital in Albuquerque.

Before the hip surgery could be performed, Barela had to take care of some tooth problems that presented a risk of infection. But the VA only offers dental care to veterans who are 100 percent disabled.

Lacking dental insurance, Barela ended up having several teeth pulled, a painful process that left gaps in her mouth and made it harder to chew.

Dental care is a big need for many women veterans, said retired Lt. Col. Patricia Gaston, president of Women Veterans of New Mexico.

Her organization represents 16,000 women statewide, many of whom are living on limited incomes, have no insurance and need dental care.

That includes Barela, 65, who grew up in a family of 13 children in northern New Mexico where dentist visits were not a high priority.

The only time we went to the dentist was when we had a big ole cavity and the tooth had to be pulled, she said.

This summer she was finally able to get restorative dental care she has needed through a new program called New Mexico Women Veterans Smile. It is offered through the New Mexico Dental Association Foundation.

The Dental Association Foundation runs the Donated Dental Services program and Mission of Mercy events through which dentists statewide donate their services to those who are in need but lack resources to pay for care.

The foundations executive director, Linda Paul, said Donated Dental Services has provided around $4 million in dental services since its inception in 2001. The need is so great that patients normally have to wait up to four years to be seen. The New Mexico Women Vets Smile program will put women veterans who apply for dental care at the top of the waiting list.

We are just waiting for more women to apply, Paul said.

Women veterans can apply for dental services on the foundations website, www.nmdentalfoundation.org. The foundation will assign them a case manager who will assess their needs and match them with one of the 50 dentists participating in the program.

Brian Dennis, who has a private practice in the Northeast Heights, volunteered for the women veterans program this summer. Barela is his first woman veteran patient. He has given her a new crown, replaced several fillings and fitted her for upper and lower partial dentures to replace the missing teeth. She will have several more visits to Dennis before her treatment is complete.

This is like a godsend. I get tearful and I get all emotional when I come here. Everyone is so nice and so helpful and they give you all kinds of good advice on how to work on your teeth, said Barela.

The idea for the program came from Kyla Thompson, a longtime local public relations specialist, who has been active in other veteran causes. Thompson raised funds for the Veterans Heading Home project started in Albuquerque in 2013. The project helps women veterans with housing, mental health services, employment, childcare and transportation.

Her (Thompsons) passion is to help veterans, said Gaston. A lot of people say they want to thank you (veterans) for serving and Im not sure they know what that means. But this is an example of somebody saying I want to thank you and do something for you, for the veterans and shes doing it locally.

Thompson said she and her husband, Roger Thompson, a Vietnam veteran, became concerned with how veterans coming home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were cared for. They gave to national causes like the Wounded Warrior Project but wanted to do something specifically for New Mexico veterans.

When she heard about a woman veteran who was unable to get a job because of dental problems, Kyla Thompson swung into action. She met with Gaston and Paul and they worked out a plan.

The foundation has the dentists who donate their services; Women Veterans of New Mexico is reaching out to its members; and Thompson used her fundraising experience to secure commitment of $18,000 from the New Mexico Beverage Association to cover the cost for the case manager and things like lab fees and prosthetics.

New Mexicos non-alcoholic beverage industry is proud to partner with the New Mexico Dental Association Foundation in supporting the New Mexico Women Veterans Smile Program. As an industry that directly provides over 1,300 jobs in our state, we are committed to helping support healthy communities. Our support of women veterans across New Mexico is just one more way we are working to do so, said David Thorp, director of the NM Beverage Association.

WHAT: New Mexico Women Veterans Smile, free dental care to low-income women veterans in New Mexico, provided through the New Mexico Dental Association Foundation
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.  Three candidates for Colorados U.S. Senate race debated about for the first time Saturday in Grand Junction.

Fast-rising Democratic star Sen. Michael Bennet sparred with conservative Air Force veteran Darryl Glenn over bipartisanship and the federal debt, The Denver Post reported .

Glenn, who surprised establishment Republicans earlier this year by besting several better-known candidates in a crowded primary, accused the incumbent of representing Washingtons interests instead of his constituents.

Im doing his job, because its one of these things that people are feeling extremely frustrated about, because they dont think they have a voice, he said.

Bennet contended he had spent countless hours talking with Colorado residents.

The senator emphasized the need for bipartisanship and brought up statements Glenn has made about refusing to cooperate with Democrats.

Libertarian candidate Lily Tang Williams, who qualified for the debate last week when the party cleared a threshold that required 1 percent of the states registered voters, joined the two on stage.

Williams, a real estate investor from suburban Denver, blamed Democrats and Republicans for the high federal debt, The Daily Sentinel reported.

Do your two parties understand simple math? Williams said.

The debate was sponsored by Club 20, a policy group representing the Western Slope.
LOS FRESNOS, Texas  Stalking the thorn scrub in the night, searching for rats, rabbits and lizards, the ocelot  for all its surreptitious nocturnal ways  has nevertheless become an iconic animal in Texas and the world.

And now, more than 25 years after it was initiated, ocelot subspecies in Texas and Arizona finally have their own official federal recovery plan.

The Valley Morning Star (http://bit.ly/2ctzUnh ) reports the Ocelot Recovery Plan may be the most in depth federal document ever compiled for an animal species, featuring the work of dozens of scientists and eventually spreading to 237 dense-packed pages on habitat, genetics, population numbers and more.

The fate of that wildcat hunting under the moon very well may depend on what is in those pages.

Its incredibly exciting for us, said Hilary Swarts, a federal biologist at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge who studies ocelots.

Not only is it the termination of essentially a 25-year-long process, during which tons of information was learned about Texas ocelots as well as Arizona ocelots, the synthesis is amazing, Swarts added. This is the most comprehensive plan Ive seen.

The plans assessments of the risks ocelots face are no surprise to anyone who has followed developments surrounding the cats over the years.

Encroachment of human development, habitat loss, highway mortality and concerns about genetic viability are all there.

But maybe for the first time, a recovery plan for an American subspecies has managed to cross a number of borders to document what is known about ocelots throughout each of the states of Mexico, and country-by-country all the way to Argentina, where the ocelots range in the Americas terminates.

Initially, when the plan was first being formed, it wasnt even exclusively about ocelots. Instead, it was to look at several wildcat species  ocelot, jaguar, jaguarundi  found in Mexico and the United States. By the time it morphed into something exclusively about the ocelot subspecies in Texas, around 2010, the studys authors then were tasked to include the Arizona ocelot subspecies, too. A map of the ocelots range in Mexico and the United States shows two fingers spreading up the Gulf of Mexico into South Texas in the east, and the coast along the Gulf of California up into Arizona to the west.

Looking smack at the middle of the map, it becomes apparent ocelots have little taste for desert living. The Chihuahuan Desert, which dominates north-central Mexico and also spreads into West Texas and New Mexico, has no resident ocelot population.

Yet it isnt just geographical space with which the recovery plan is concerned.

It is also about time.

The plan covers 100 years, which is a common frame of reference used by biologists, and it includes a mathematical model of risk analysis for different ocelot populations in the United States and Mexico.

So if you see all of the population, the chance of extinction in 100 years is not so bad, right? Swarts said. Tamaulipas? Not so bad. Willacy? Were starting with a pretty low number, not very promising. Laguna? Were starting with a pretty low number, not very promising.

You can see in the best-case scenario, weve got 70 years, Swarts said. And in the worst-case scenario, weve got 15 years.

But not promising does not necessarily translate as inevitable.

The most immediate threat to ocelots in Cameron, Willacy and Kenedy counties is highway mortality.

Four ocelots are known to have died under the wheels of vehicles this year, all of them young males. Since June 2015, seven ocelots  six males and a female  have been killed by cars.

hree of the ocelot deaths during the past year occurred on FM 186 in Willacy County; one occurred on Highway 100 in Cameron County; one occurred on FM 2925 just west of Arroyo City; one on I-69 East just inside Kenedy County; and the other ocelot fatality occurred on Buena Vista Road in Cameron County.

To counter these types of ocelot deaths, the Texas Department of Transportation is building a series of eight wildlife underpasses for FM 106 and Buena Vista Road.

Swarts says highway mortality for ocelots essentially is caused by another threat to the cats, which is lack of suitable habitat. Ocelots, unlike their more numerous bobcat cousins, are much more selective when choosing a place to live.

It would be a boon for creating a safe passageway so theyre not getting creamed every time they cross 186 between ocelot populations in Willacy and Cameron counties, Swarts said.

There have been occasional individual ocelots that have moved back and forth between these two population pockets, but safe transits have been rare.

For me, its really hard to separate these things out, because ultimately the mortality from vehicles and the loss of genetic diversity are really corollaries of habitat loss, Swarts said. If it werent for habitat loss, you wouldnt encounter these problems.

___

Information from: Valley Morning Star, http://www.valleystar.com

This is an AP Member Exchange shared by the Valley Morning Star
BEIRUT  Syrian President Bashar Assad reiterated his determination to reconquer all of Syria, hours before the scheduled start of a U.S.- and Russian-sponsored cease-fire Monday aimed at ending five years of conflict.

Assads comments, made during a visit to the Damascus suburb of Darayya, called into question whether his government will comply with the entirety of the agreement. The pact spells out a process that intends  at least according to the Obama administration  to culminate in Assads departure.

Under the agreement announced in Geneva on Saturday by Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the Syrian government and the rebels are expected to halt all fighting and bombing at 7 p.m. local time on Monday (noon Eastern time). That sets in motion a sequence of events intended to lead to new negotiations for a possible transition away from Assads rule.

Assad, however, made it clear he has no plans to completely stop fighting to crush the five-year-old rebellion against his regime.

We as a nation . . . are delivering a message that the Syrian state is determined to recover all regions from the terrorists and restore security, infrastructure, Assad said in the remarks made after he attended prayers marking the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday in Darayya, which was recently recaptured from the rebels after a four-year siege.

We come today here to replace the fake freedom they tried to market at the beginning of the crisis . . . with real freedom, he added. Not the freedom that begins with them and is sustained by dollars . . . and by some promises of positions.

He seemed to be referring to U.S. backing of the rebels and opposition proposals to replace the Assad regime with a more representative government. Kerry stressed that this should be the ultimate goal of the deal reached with Russia, a key ally of Assad.

Syrias opposition has still not given a formal response to the cease-fire agreement, but rebel representatives say they have told U.S. officials they plan to comply with the cessation of hostilities and expect to make an announcement in the coming hours.

Yasir Ibrahim al-Yusuf, a member of the political office of the rebel Noureddine al-Zinki movement, said the armed opposition has raised many concerns about the details of the deal with the Obama administration, notably the absence of enforcement mechanisms or penalties for noncompliance by the Assad regime or the Russians.

A letter to the opposition delivered over the weekend by the U.S. special envoy for Syria, Michael Ratney, spelled out details similar to those outlined by Kerry and Lavrov in Geneva on Saturday. They include a cessation of hostilities, the delivery of humanitarian aid and the eventual launch of joint military operations by the United States and Russia against terrorist groups.

The letter offered no new enforcement measures other than the reporting mechanism established by cease-fire agreement earlier this year, which collapsed within weeks amid escalating government airstrikes. The armed opposition is nonetheless committed to complying because it is incredibly important that aid reaches people and that there is a decrease in the numbers of people dying, Yusuf said. Also, we are hoping this is the beginning of a political solution to conflict.

The United States has also sought to reassure the rebels that Russia is committed to the deal, he added.

The one assurance we have is that the Russians are very invested because they want to extricate themselves from this conflict as quickly as possible, he said. This is the one reason we are agreeing to the cease-fire. It seems everyone very much wants to make it work.

Syrias government, meanwhile, has already indirectly said that it accepts the deal. Lavrov told reporters in Geneva that Assad has given his assent. The official government news agency SANA added that sources underscored that the Syrian government had been informed of the agreement and agreed to it, which appeared to imply acceptance.

Pro-government news organizations reported, however, that the government would not accept all of the cease-fires terms, including a requirement that pro-Assad forces retreat from a key road into Aleppo that was seized from the rebels nearly two months ago.

According to the timetable laid out by Kerry and Lavrov, if the cease-fire holds for seven consecutive days, and humanitarian aid flows unimpeded to besieged areas, then Moscow and Washington will start working out plans to conduct joint military operations.

One of the groups that could be increasingly targeted is Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, or Front for the Conquest of Syria, the former al-Qaida affiliate previously known as Jabhat al-Nusra. The U.S. letter to the rebels urges them to disengage from the Front, warning of dire consequences if they do not.

A surge of violence over the weekend in which at least 90 people died compounded skepticism that the cease-fire would result in much more than a temporary lull  and underlined why it is so important to stop the fighting.

The vast majority of the victims  at least 85 people  were killed by a wave of suspected government airstrikes on Saturday against the rebel-held cities of Idlib and Aleppo, according to doctors in the two cities. On Sunday, five more people died in another strike in Aleppo, two of them children, and warplanes returned again on Monday, doctors and residents said.

In the deadliest attack, warplanes struck a busy market in the northern city of Idlib Saturday afternoon, killing at least 49 people, according to doctors and activists. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the toll at 62. The market was packed at the time with people shopping for the Eid holiday,

Government planes also carried out strikes over multiple neighborhoods in Aleppo, killing 36 on Saturday and an additional five on Sunday, according to doctors in the city. Warplanes dropped more bombs on Monday morning, residents said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.



Heba Habib in Stockholm contributed to this report.

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When I was 16, I got on a plane departing from Bostons Logan International Airport, bound for England. I was on my way to visit my pen pal, which in retrospect is not the most anachronistic part of this story. That began when a heavy snowstorm diverted the flight from Manchester to Norwich, on the other side of the country. I took the trip at a time when cellphones were not yet universal, much less cellphones with international plans or swappable-SIM cards, and I was traveling abroad alone for the first time. Anxious about how Id let my friend and his family know that I might not arrive for hours, I paged a flight attendant, who went to inquire about our schedule. On her return, she asked me to leave my seat and follow her  to the cockpit, where she buckled me in and left me to chat with the pilot and co-pilot, all the way through our eventual takeoff and landing in Manchester.

Nine months later, the events of Sept. 11, 2001, turned that experience into an immediate relic. Nine days after the attacks, I flew again out of Logan, from which American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, had been hijacked. The troops providing security insisted that my pediatrician fax the prescription for my EpiPens to the airport to prove the injectors werent intended to be used as weapons.

I tell these stories not out of any lingering sense of trauma, but from a place of wistfulness. The 9/11 attacks, which happened 15 years ago, had wide-ranging impacts on American policy and culture, many of which were still entangled in. And while the attacks were unprecedented in their violence and the holes they left in American cities, these four hijackings were the fatal endpoint of a slow-growing decay in the trust and glamour that defined American air travel in an earlier era.

Despite the scale and lethality of the 9/11 attacks, they represented the return of skyjackings in a new, more deadly form, rather than an entirely new form of violent crime.

As Brendan Koerner explained in his wonderful 2013 book, The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking, skyjackings raged like an epidemic during the 1960s and 70s, an era when a more pervasive sense of hopelessness, a feeling that no amount of civic engagement could ever salvage a system that had been rigged to serve a selfish elite, spread among many Americans.

Airlines initially responded by making it policy that pilots and airline crews should cooperate with hijackers in hopes of avoiding violence, even to the extent of training pilots to land in Cuba, a popular destination for skyjackers, or to explain in Spanish that they couldnt make it all the way there. But, as Koerner writes, By the end of 1972, the skyjackers had become so reckless, so dismissive of human life, that the airlines and the federal government had no choice but to turn every airport into a miniature police state.

Congressional legislation and executive action by President Nixon brought metal detectors to U.S. airports. And for a time, deterrence worked  so well, in fact, that skyjackings came to been as a relic of the past. Koerner writes:

After 1991 skyjacking disappeared entirely from Americas aviation landscape: over the next nine years, not a single commercial flight was seized in American airspace. As the skyjacking threat grew more remote with each passing year, airlines came to view security as an expensive nuisance ripe for trimming. They doled out contracts to private firms that submitted absurdly low bids; those firms, in turn, routinely provided less personnel than promised, or hired screeners whose only training consisted of watching twenty-minute instructional videos. By 2000 the average salary of an airport security officer was just $ 12,000.

I recently found myself revisiting The Skies Belong to Us not to blame airlines, airports or even federal regulators for the 9/11 attacks. The hijackers, after all, used knives, box cutters and pepper spray, which werent yet banned on airlines. Koerners book is a powerful testament to the idea that, at least when it comes to air travel, 9/11 exacerbated a decline already in progress in the belief that flying was safe and that our fellow passengers were trustworthy. In retrospect, those nine years free of skyjackings feel like the exception, rather than a permanent rule.

The hassles and suspicions of flying today are a small part of what 9/11 has cost us. But the wonders of a view from the cockpit, or the joy of meeting someone you love right at the gate, are still losses worth mourning.

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LONDON  When Prime Minister Theresa May touched down in China for a summit of major nations last week, Britains Telegraph newspaper zeroed in on her diplomatic ace in the hole. Her formidable policy acumen? Her tough stance on Chinese investment in sensitive British industries?

Nope. It was the vivid, almost-orange hue of Mays jacket and dress.

The story  only days after the same paper ran a piece about shoes being the greatest love of Mays life  illustrated how the halls of power are turning into something of a catwalk for Britains first female prime minister since Margaret Thatcher. Mays embrace of high-end, even edgy clothes in a manner very unlike, for instance, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is transforming her into a relatively rare mix: politician meets fashion icon.

Singapores Straits Times has dubbed her just that, noting before she took office that the woman who is set to fill [former prime minister] David Camerons shoes has quite a collection of footwear herself. Photogenic Magazine  offering Sri Lankas latest in fashion news  tweeted that Prime Minister Theresa May loves her leopard-print shoes. The New York Times ran an entire article on Chinese fashionistas discussing her shoes, her gender and her power, in that order.

And then theres the British media, which like no other has unleashed the dogs to chew on Mays trademark kitten heels. Or, if youre the Times of London, a chest-accentuating scarlet dress of hers it dubbed the boobinator for showing off what it described as power cleavage.

Is Britains new prime minister, Theresa May, the countrys most fashion-savvy politician? the Times asked its readers.

With May constantly living under the threat that the odd reporter might blurt out Who are you wearing? during doorsteps at No. 10 Downing Street, perhaps it is no surprise that the fixation on her wardrobe has also sparked a fierce debate. In short, is coverage of her clothes sexist?

May has made no secret of her penchant for high fashion. She has been photographed in the front row of runway shows and in 2014, she famously told a British radio program that the one luxury shed want on a desert island is a lifetime subscription to Vogue.

But the blanket focus on her style choices is morphing, some say, into an unhealthy obsession that is wholly unlike the medias treatment of her male predecessor.

The sexism, critics argue, particularly shines through when everyone becomes a critic. Like when the Daily Mail told her to trade in her thigh-high patent boots, mini skirts and daring short dresses for the more ladylike attire of Catherine Middleton. Or when the same paper had this to say about that boobinator scarlet dress: Its not just the economy plunging into the red, with a shot of Mays decolletage.

What is telling about Mays penchant for fashion is why we care so much  and more so why we criticize it so readily, columnist Imogen Fox wrote in the Guardian. Would we condemn a similarly frivolous preoccupation in a male leader? It will be interesting to see whether May is allowed to continue to freely enjoy clothes or whether her advisers will judge her fashion to be too loud.

Many others say that May is a trailblazer, a woman successfully walking the tightrope of a world leader with gravitas who also happens to love fashion. If people talk about her shoes during her first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin (and they did), then so be it. In fact, she has defended her right to style  declaring it one of the hurdles women of power must overcome.

Im a woman, I like clothes. I like shoes, I like clothes, she said last year in an interview with writer and journalist Tina Brown. Its one of the challenges I think for women in politics, in business, in all areas of working life, is actually to be ourselves, and to say, you know what, you can be clever and like clothes. You can have a career and like clothes. These are not separate.

Is it newsworthy that she launched her bid for prime minister in a tartan Vivienne Westwood suit? Or that she attends meetings in L.K. Bennett pumps? Some say yes  because its disingenuous to suggest that impressions are not part of a political package.

When Hillary Clinton  who once joked that a show about her fashion sense would be called Project Pantsuit  wears an Armani jacket to a speech, some say that it is indeed notable. Especially if that jacket retails for $12,000 and the theme of the night is inequality.

Every politician, male or female, attracts attention as visible people. Every utterance or haircut will be parsed by journalists, and I think its fair, said Sarah Mower, chief critic for the Vogue Runway website.You can look at other female politicians and see that Hillary hasnt played it safe. Shes played it all over, and she definitely had her moments in the way Theresa May has.

In fact, fashion can be a formidable political accessory, as Thatcher proved with her famous leather handbags. Far from a stereotyping symbol of feminine softness, her stern satchels became metaphors for toughness, a weapon the BBC once wrote, wielded against opponents or unfortunate ministers.

And Mays cutting-edge clothes  say some on the other side of the political aisle  may equally have the ability to intimidate.

Keith Vaz, a senior politician from the opposition Labour Party, was the head of Britains Home Affairs Select Committee until he resigned this week in the wake of a sex scandal.

In an earlier interview, he said he was so in awe of Mays style that he would go out and buy a new tie to prepare for her appearances before the committee.

The result, he said, was 24 appearances and 24 new ties.

I think that may have been the first question I asked her  Do you think there is an unhealthy interest in your clothes?' he said. She is very unflashy, and she doesnt make a fuss, but I think her clothes do show her to be a very classy, intelligent political leader. . . . But clothes are a side issue to the job, and she knows it.

Karla Adam contributed to this report.

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Spring break could be on the chopping block in some Maryland school systems. So might teacher work days or certain holidays.

School officials around the state say they are facing tough choices as they aim to comply with Gov. Larry Hogans recent mandate that classes must begin after Labor Day and end by June 15, a summer-extending measure that he says will be good for the economy, schools and families.

While some have cheered the idea of a longer summer recess, school districts are starting to consider what many say are difficult options. All but one of Marylands 24 school districts opened in August this year, and pushing the start date to September means it could be a tight squeeze to get in the required 180 academic days and still wrap up by mid-June.

I guess we kind of hope it wont snow, said Michael A. Durso, Montgomery Countys school board president. If we have a difficult winter  and we have had two in a row now  theres not much wiggle room.

School systems say there are still many unknowns. Districts can apply for waivers but school officials say the details remain unclear. They also dont know whether there will be a new legislative push to change laws about state-required days off, such as Easter Monday.

While lawmakers have asked for a legal opinion about whether Hogan (R) exceeded his authority in dictating a timeline for the school year, some parents worry about finding child care when camps dwindle in late August. Educators have voiced concern about learning losses that disadvantaged children in particular could face with a longer summer. At least one expert said standardized test scores could dip in third through eighth grades.

Much of the glee that was expressed at the governors announcement may dissipate when parents see the difficult choices we have to make, said Bob Mosier, a spokesman for the Anne Arundel County school district, which is examining whether spring break will need to be cut back to accommodate the change.

Marylands move to a later school year bucks the national trend of starting earlier, as school districts have been working to maximize learning opportunities before students have to take standardized tests in the spring.

Neighboring Virginia stands out as one of the states that requires a post-Labor Day start, but many districts across the commonwealth receive waivers to open earlier. Fairfax County, the states largest district, received a waiver so that in 2017  when Maryland districts start after Labor Day  it is scheduled to start earlier, on Aug. 28.

We feel its better educationally, said Fairfax County School Board Chairman Sandy Evans. As much as we dont like high-stakes testing having such importance, that is our reality these days and we feel that having more instruction time before students are called upon to take these tests is better.

The Hogan mandate arrived just as Montgomery Countys school system was considering an opposite proposal: To start the 2017 academic year earlier, on Aug. 21, as a way to build in more time for instruction ahead of standardized tests, including state exams aligned with the Common Core. Now the school system expects to create a 2017 calendar that starts in September and ends by June 15.

Montgomery school board member Patricia ONeill (3rd District) said it appears the district may have to cut a day from spring break or shorten its 184-day school year by a day for 2017, while also resolving how to handle contingency days for snow.

I think that this post-Labor Day start is out of sync with the realities of the 21st century, said ONeill, who noted that Montgomery has more than 50,000 children at or near the poverty level who are unlikely to use the extra time to go on a final summer vacation, one of the economic selling points of the late start.

The post-Labor Day start has many supporters, including parents such as Caitlin McLaughlin, a mother of two in Silver Spring who recalled school starting after the holiday when she was growing up. She would like her children to enjoy summers last hurrah, too. Her teenagers recently begged off a backpacking trip on Labor Day weekend because they felt the pressure of homework early in the school year.

If were going to have a holiday weekend, we might as well have one last time when they dont have school work on their mind, she said.

But in a state with widely different school systems  rural, urban, near the shore, in the mountains  local needs weigh heavily on how school years are designed.

Snow, for example, is a big factor in the school calendar for Garrett County, home to Deep Creek Lake and Wisp ski resort. The school district has a calendar that is already down to the bone, said Jim Morris, a school system spokesman. A few years ago, 20 days were lost to snow, he said.

Morris said the greatest concern is if the new state mandate means that, when snow days pile up, school years get cut short of their required 180 days. That would give our kids an instructional disadvantage, he said.

Howard County school board Vice Chairman Ellen Giles said the school system had picked a first day of school for 2017: Aug. 28. Now that will be scrapped. But questions remain: Will the district shorten spring break? Reduce teacher work days?

If we have to cut back, then I think all things are on the table, Giles said.

For some parents, losing spring break would be a terrible trade-off.

Its a nice family time and a little break at that time of year, as the weather gets nice, said Kay Helgesen, a mother of two from Derwood, Maryland.

Kathleen Causey, a school board member in Baltimore County, said she thinks the post-Labor Day start will be helpful to families and students in her district, and noted that 37 schools in the county dont have air-conditioning. Causey said she is optimistic school officials will find a creative solution to meeting the state requirements.

But an extra week of summer means more summer learning loss for children from struggling families, said Henoch Hailu, a teacher at White Oak Middle, a high-poverty school in Silver Spring.

It just seems like another setback that makes it harder for us to continue our work of closing the achievement gap, Hailu said. I know an extra week doesnt sound like much, but it is.

Educators already find it challenging to complete the curriculum for Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses in time for annual exams, and a later start could cause a classroom crush, said Leah Wilson, a teacher at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville.

With fewer days, its just crazy, she said. She also said getting back into the swing of school after summer break already is difficult for students: It really does take a longer time for kids to be back on board after a longer break.

Michael Hansen, director of the Brown Center for Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, said he would expect a small to modest decline in Common Core test scores for third through eighth grades in the 2017-2018 school year, but he said he would not expect a dip in true learning if students are in class for the same number of days.

At the high school level, Hansen said he doubted there would be any measurable difference for students taking AP or IB exams, or college admission tests such as the SAT and ACT, because research shows high school grades are harder to affect in general. I would be surprised if there is any measurable difference at all, he said.

Hogan said last week that his staff did not consult school officials before pursuing an executive order because school systems had participated in a year-long study on the issue. The task force doing that study, appointed in 2014, voted 12 to 3 in favor of starting after Labor Day.

Nearly everyone, Hogan said, has been thrilled with the idea, except a few people in the media and a few people who are paid school advocates. But teachers love it. Parents love it and students love it. And its long overdue.

But Eric Fulton, a father of two in Rockville, takes exception. He and his wife struggled to find care for their two children as summer ended this year, he said. Next year, he expects the problem will be worse. By late August, he said, camp options diminish as college students who staff the operations go back to school.

Its very clear this was not made with education or parenting foremost in the governors mind, he said. Its clear to me that Gov. Hogan has never had to plan for day care or camp for his children.



Ovetta Wiggins contributed to this report.

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President Obama is asking Americans to remain tolerant of Muslim refugees and other immigrants, declaring Monday that the United States welcomes them with empathy and an open heart.

Obama marked the Eid al-Adha holiday by offering warmest wishes to Muslims in a statement from him and the first lady released by the White House. Obama said the holiday should remind Americans of the millions of refugees across the globe who are spending this sacred holiday separated from their families, unsure of their future, but still hoping for a brighter tomorrow.

The president has sought to create a contrast with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has proposed banning Muslims from immigrating to the United States over fears of terrorism. Trump also has pledged to build a wall along the southern border of the country to keep out undocumented immigrants from Mexico. Obama has denounced Trump repeatedly over views that the president has called intolerant and against American values, although he did not mention the New York business mogul by name in the statement.

Obama called Eid al-Adha, the Islamic festival of sacrifice, a celebration of the ways faith can transcend any differences or boundaries and unite us under the banners of fellowship and love.

Last month, the Obama administration announced it had reached a goal of accepting 10,000 refugees from Syria, where a fierce civil war has displaced millions of people. Human-rights advocates have called on Obama to increase that number.

The president is scheduled to play host to a special summit on the refugee crisis at the United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York City next week. National security adviser Susan E. Rice said in a statement last month that the administration has committed to work with the international community to significantly increase humanitarian assistance funding, double the global number of refugees afforded opportunities for resettlement or other humanitarian admissions, and help empower refugees in countries of asylum.

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After long and arduous negotiations, Israel and the Obama administration have agreed on a landmark military aid package that would increase U.S. aid to Israel over the next 10 years. But the White House is reluctant to sign the deal because officials are upset one leading lawmaker wont go along: Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, R-S.C.

The new agreement, which officials say would raise Israels annual package of military aid from $3.1 billion to $3.3 billion starting in 2018, is a complicated deal that both the White House and the Israeli government badly want to announce before President Obama leaves office, and preferably much sooner. A senior administration official described the deal as the largest single pledge of military assistance to any country in U.S. history. Its Obamas parting attempt to establish a legacy of strong U.S. support for Israels security. The negotiations on the memorandum of understanding (MOU), as it is known, have been finished for several weeks.

But before announcing it, the White House wants to make sure that Congress wont undermine the deal by going its own way on aid to Israel. Graham, the chairman of the Senate appropriations subcommittee that oversees the foreign affairs budget, has already marked up a bill that would give Israel $3.4 billion next year, more than the number the White House negotiated.

The administration hasnt complained to Graham directly; it told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about its problem, and he talked to Graham about it in a phone call last month. But in Grahams view, Congress has no obligation to agree to the deal, given that it was not included in the negotiations.

The Israeli prime minister told me the administration is refusing to sign the MOU until I agree to change my appropriation markup back to $3.1 billion, Graham said. I said, Tell the administration to go F themselves. 

Whats more, during the negotiations, the administration advocated for a provision that would bar the Israeli government from lobbying Congress for additional money for the life of the MOU, Graham said.

Im offended that the administration would try to take over the appropriations process. If they dont like what Im doing, they can veto the bill, Graham said. We cant have the executive branch dictating what the legislative branch will do for a decade based on an agreement we are not a party to.

The core of the dispute centers on the fact that the Obama administration has included support for Israeli missile-defense funding in the aid package for the first time. Previously, missile-defense money was requested and given on top of the yearly aid commitment. To the White House, this makes that funding more secure and predictable.

The fact that under our offer Israel can count on the administrations commitment to provide a substantial level of missile- defense assistance for a 10-year period is substantively different from the missile- defense support it has received in previous years, the official said.

The deal would set U.S. funding for Israeli missile defense at $500 million per year, just above the $487 million provided in 2016. The Senate appropriations bill would give Israel $600 million for missile defense next year, and the House Armed Services Committee passed a bill authorizing that same amount. The administration asked for only $145.8 million in its 2017 budget request.

Graham said the MOU should be a base, not a ceiling, for how much security aid the United States gives to Israel. Every Democrat on Grahams subcommittee voted for his bill, and in July, 37 senators, including vice-presidential candidate Tim Kaine, D-Va., signed a letter calling on Congress to increase Israeli missile-defense funding above the administrations request.

Amid growing rocket and missile threats in the Middle East, it is prudent for the United States and Israel to advance and accelerate bilateral cooperation on missile defense technologies, the senators wrote.

According to Graham, Netanyahu told him that Israel was ready to sign the deal but didnt ask Graham to succumb to the administrations demand that Congress preapprove it.

I asked the prime minister, If you dont need this money, Ill gladly change it,  Graham said. He said, No, you know I cant say we dont need it, because the threats are real. 

Senators in both parties are still sore over not having had much say before the Obama administration agreed to a nuclear deal with Iran. Graham and other Republicans also object to other provisions of the new agreement, including that it requires Israel to gradually stop using U.S. aid to purchase weapons from Israeli defense contractors.

That congressional Republicans are advocating more aid to Israel than the Israeli government agreed to is certainly odd. But even more odd is the White House pressuring Congress to promise to get out of the Israel aid game for 10 years after Obama leaves office.

The White House will have to decide whether a deal meant to repair Obamas relationship with Israel and stand as part of his legacy is worth more than a fight with Congress over funding power. Congress will still be there after Obamais gone and will demand its say in Israeli security aid going forward either way.



Josh Rogin is a columnist for the Global Opinions section of The Post.

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Karnataka has filed a petition explaining its shortage of drinking water while Tamil Nadu is seeking water for its crops.

People in Karnataka took to the streets to protest against the Supreme Court ruling.

By Rohini Swamy: The Supreme Court will open on a holiday today for a special hearing on the Cauvery issue.

Karnataka has sought a modification of the Supreme Court directive asking the state to release 15 thousand cusecs a of water to Tamil Nadu.

Karnataka has filed a plea seeking a reduction in the water to be released from 15 thousand cusecs to 10 thousand cusecs.

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Late Saturday night, Karnataka rushed to the Supreme Court seeking an urgent hearing on Monday. The apex court fixed the hearing for Monday at 10.30 am.

The petition will come up before the division bench headed by Justice Dipak Mishra and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, the same bench who ordered the state of Karnataka to release water.

In its application, Karnataka has said that the state has already released 66 thousand cusecs of water between September 5th to 10th. In the petition, Karnataka has explained how the state is facing a drinking water problem, while Tamil Nadu is seeking water for their crops and it is drinking water for the people that assumes priority.

ALSO READ: Cauvery water dispute: Timeline of Karnataka bandh



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FORT PIERCE, Fla.  The Latest on the fire at the Florida mosque that was attended by the Orlando nightclub shooting gunman. (All times local):

2:10 p.m.

A leading Jewish group that combats bigotry is condemning a fire set at a Florida mosque that authorities are investigating as a possible hate crime.

Hava L. Holzhauer is Florida regional director of the Anti-Defamation League. Holzhauer released a statement Monday saying the Islamic Center of Fort Pierces congregation should know that it is not alone.

St. Lucie County Sheriffs Maj. David Thompson says given the circumstances  the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and the beginning of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha  officials believe the intentionally-set fire could be a hate crime.

Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen once attended the mosque. He opened fire on the gay nightclub June 12, killing 49 and injuring 53. Mateens father attends the mosque.

___

12:40 p.m.

Authorities say the circumstances surrounding a fire at a Florida mosque suggest it could be a hate crime, but they are still trying to verify that.

St. Lucie County Sheriffs Maj. David Thompson also says the fire early Monday caused extensive damage to the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce.

Thompson says surveillance video shows a white or Hispanic male walking toward the building carrying a bottle containing liquid and some paper. He soon ran from the mosque, just before a big flash came from the building. He left on a motorcycle with a low seat and high handlebars.

Thompson says given the circumstances  the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and the beginning of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha  officials believe the intentionally-set fire could be a hate crime.

Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen once attended the mosque. He opened fire on the gay nightclub June 12, killing 49 and injuring 53.

___

11:55 a.m.

The Florida director of an Islamic advocacy group says its disconcerting that a mosque was set on fire on one of the two biggest holidays on the Muslim calendar, Eid al-Adha.

Wilfredo Amr Ruiz is Floridas director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. He decried what he called escalating violence directed at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, where Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen once attended. Mateen opened fire on the Pulse nightclub June 12 in a rampage that left 49 people dead and 53 wounded. His father attends the mosque.

Ruiz noted that after the shootings the center received threatening voicemails. Then people driving by splashed water on people leaving Friday services. In July, a member was beaten outside the mosque.

He says theyve hired private security, and the St. Lucie County Sheriffs Office has given mosque officials a direct line to contact the agency so they dont have to call 911.

_____________

7:25 a.m.

Authorities in Florida say a fire at the mosque that was attended by the gunman in the Orlando nightclub shooting is being investigated a as a possible arson.

In an update on its official Facebook page, The St. Lucie County Sheriffs Office said surveillance video shows someone approaching the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce moments before a flash was seen and the fire started early Monday.

The mosque was attended by Omar Mateen, who opened fire at the Pulse nightclub on June 12 in a rampage that left 49 victims dead and 53 wounded. It was the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Multiple agencies, including the State Fire Marshals Office, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI, are investigating. Sheriffs officials say theyll be releasing the video and asking for the publics help in identifying the person seen in the video.

___

6:25 a.m.

Authorities in Florida are investigating a fire at a mosque that was attended by the gunman in the deadly Orlando nightclub shooting.

Maj. David Thompson of the St. Lucie County Sheriffs Office told a news conference officials received a report around 12:30 a.m. Monday about a fire at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce. Firefighters extinguished the fire.

The mosque was attended by Omar Mateen, who opened fire at the Pulse nightclub on June 12 in a rampage that left 49 victims dead and 53 wounded. It was the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Thompson says its too early to tell if the fire was an accident or was intentionally set. He also declined to speculate on whether the Sunday anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks played a role in the fire.
The New Shepard rocket that Blue Origin has been launching and landing is a fairly modest thing, 65 feet high, capable of getting just past the edge of space, some 60 miles up. But on Monday, Jeff Bezos space company announced the design of its new, orbital rocket, a towering, more powerful behemoth designed to take people and commercial satellites to orbit.

In a blog post, Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, said the New Glenn rocket would come in two variantsa two stage and a three stagethat would be ready to fly by the end of the decade. Powered by seven BE-4 engines, they would have 3.85 million pounds of thrust at sea level. The rocket would be nearly as tall as the mighty, Apollo-era Saturn V that ferried the Apollo astronauts to the moon.

Our vision is millions of people living and working in space, and New Glenn is a very important step, Bezos wrote.

The announcement comes at a critical time for the commercial space industry, which aims to reduce the cost of spaceflight and open it up to the masses. Last week, Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic, performed the first test flight of its new spacecraft, SpaceShipTwo, as it prepares to take paying customers into space. And Blue Origin, which also promises to move into the space tourism market, plans to fly a critical test flight of New Shepard, its suborbital rocket, next month.

Last week, the industry was jolted when SpaceX, the leader in the so-called New Space movement, suffered a catastrophic failure, when its Falcon 9 rocket ignited while on a Cape Canaveral launch pad and blew up in a spectacular fireball. The company is grounded while investigators try to determine the cause of the explosion, and that could lead to a delay of a launch of its new massive rocket, the Falcon Heavy.

Like the reusable New Shepard, the New Glenns first stage would also be capable of boosting its payload into space, then flying back to the Earth for a soft landing. Bezos has said that being able to reuse rockets, instead of discarding them after each use as has traditionally been the case, is a key step toward lowering the cost of space travel. SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, has already landed several orbital-class first stages on land or on ships at sea.

In the statement, Bezos wrote that the companys mascot is a tortoise, a symbol from the fable the Tortoise and the Hare. Its motto is Gradatim Ferociter  Latin for step by step, ferociously, he wrote. We believe slow is smooth and smooth is fast. In the long run, deliberate and methodical wins the day, and you do things quickest by never skipping steps, he wrote.

Bezos said the company plans to launch the New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaverals Launch Complex 36, which it is refurbishing.

The naming for Blue Origins rockets is a nod for the 60s-era Space Age, a time that Bezos has said has had a profound influence on him. New Shepard was named for Alan Shepard, who became the first American in space in 1961. A year later, NASA astronaut John Glenn pushed the boundary even further when he became the first American in orbit, circling the globe three times.

Then in 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon, which Bezos said would inspire his next venture.

While getting to orbit is a key step, he said it wont be the companys last: Up next on our drawing board: New Armstrong. But thats a story for the future.

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WASHINGTON  President Barack Obama will meet with congressional leaders at the White House on Monday afternoon to try to forge a plan to fund the government past the end of September and resolve a months-long partisan standoff over additional funding to combat the Zika virus.

Obamas first meeting with both House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., since February comes a week after lawmakers returned to Washington from a seven-week summer recess and a few days after Obama returned from a nine-day trip to Asia. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also will attend, according to the White House.

White House officials said the president intends to discuss legislative priorities for the fall session, a time when most in Washington believe there is little chance for major legislation as the nation nears the conclusion of the 2016 presidential campaign.

Foremost on the agenda, officials said, is averting a federal partial government shutdown at the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30. That effort has been complicated by Republican Party infighting over how long to extend funding. McConnell and a majority of House Republicans want to set a new deadline in December to craft a year-long spending bill  a position also supported by the White House and congressional Democratic leaders. But a minority of House conservatives favor a stop-gap measure that would extend current funding levels into next year, giving a new president and Congress the opportunity to craft long-term spending bills.

The budget issue appears on track to get resolved in tandem with a compromise on Zika funding in the coming weeks. The Senate agreed on a $1.1 billion Zika funding package in May, but the House passed an alternate $1.1 billion measure that Democrats oppose because it blocks funding to a Planned Parenthood affiliate in Puerto Rico. That bill has been filibustered by Senate Democrats since June, but negotiators say theres been progress toward a resolution.

Another matter that could come up is the passage by both chambers of a bill that allows families of Americans killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to sue the government of Saudi Arabia. The president has threatened to veto the bill over fears that foreigners could try to exploit it to sue the United States.

Obama also is likely to urge congressional leaders to hold a vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-nation trade accord that the administration completed last year. The pact, which requires congressional ratification, has been stalled on Capitol Hill amid deep skepticism on trade deals among segments of the American electorate. Both major candidates to replace Obama, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump, said they oppose the deal.

Obama touted the TPP during his trip to China and Laos last week, and he has vowed to press lawmakers to vote on the package during an expected lame-duck session of Congress after the Nov. 8 elections.

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LAS CRUCES  A judge has postponed the retrial of ex-Santa Fe deputy Tai Chan for murder, after prosecutors and defense attorneys requested a new trial date.

Chief Judge Fernando Macias in the 3rd Judicial District agreed to delay the trial scheduled for Nov. 28 to Dec. 9 in an order filed with the court last week. He has not set a new date.

The original trial of Chan, 29, on a charge of first-degree murder in the killing of Santa Fe sheriffs deputy Jeremy Martin ran two weeks in May and ended in a mistrial after the jury could not reach a unanimous a verdict. Chan pleaded self-defense.

The state called nearly two dozen witnesses and told Macias that a trial set during the holiday season would make it more costly and more difficult to produce those witnesses again.

In late October 2014, deputies Chan and Martin, 29, had delivered a prisoner to Arizona and were spending the night in Las Cruces on their way back to Santa Fe. Once off duty, they bar-hopped, met friends and drank a significant amount of alcohol, witnesses said.

The trial centered on what happened once they returned to their hotel room at the upscale Hotel Encanto. Witnesses reported hearing a scuffle and multiple shots were fired.

Martin was struck multiple times in the back and died of his injuries at a local hospital.
New Mexico is headed toward another banner year in trade with its southern neighbor.

Exports to Mexico grew 17.4 percent in the first half of 2016, from $758 million from January-June of last year to $890 million this year, according to the latest statistics from the U.S. Commerce Department.

Its a trend thats been holding steady for the last six years, pushing sales to Mexico to an all-time high of $1.68 billion in 2015. Given the continued growth, New Mexico appears headed for a new record this year, said Jerry Pacheco, executive director of the International Business Accelerator at Santa Teresa in southern New Mexico.

Weve been on a nice clip for the last few years, and thats continuing in 2016, Pacheco said. The third quarter is always the strongest quarter for exports, so were expecting even more growth during the second half of this year.

New Mexicos exports to China also grew markedly in the first half of 2016, from $55 million in January-June of last year to $323 million this year. Thats part of an upward trend in trade with Asia, where New Mexico exports overall increased by 173 percent from January-June of this year.

Still, the lions share of sales in China may be shipments from Intel Corp. in Rio Rancho to its sister facilities in that country. Nearly 91 percent of New Mexicos exports to China are computer and electronic products.

Thats the Intel factor, Pacheco said. There isnt another company in New Mexico shipping those products with that kind of volume to China.

The jump in trade with Mexico and Asia helped offset declines in exports to other countries and regions. Shipments to Israel, for example, declined by almost 50 percent in the first half of this year, and sales to European countries declined by nearly 22 percent.

Worldwide, New Mexicos total exports grew by 2.6 percent from January-June, to $1.96 billion this year.

Since the recession, state exports have grown markedly. More companies are seeking to diversify their markets, and the state and local governments are working hard to help New Mexico firms explore foreign trade, said Randy Trask of Encuentro Inc., which manages the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Trade Alliance.

Formed in 2012, the alliance offers education and assistance to companies seeking to either begin exporting, or to fortify existing trade activities. The alliance worked with the state and the University of New Mexico in 2014 to establish a trade office in Mexico City.

Those efforts appear to be paying off. Exports from the Albuquerque metropolitan area grew from $1.56 billion in 2014 to $1.76 billion last year, according to the Commerce Department. Thats up from just $387 million during the heat of the recession in 2009.

Ive never seen so much interest from local companies that want to export, Trask said. Thats especially true among companies that were heavily dependent on government contracts before the recession. Theyre working hard to break away and pursue international markets.

The biggest momentum, however, is coming from the industrial parks in Santa Teresa, which are now booming with companies shipping products to Mexicos maquila, or assembly, factories.

Its in line with whats happening up and down the border from California to Texas, said Robert Queen, director of the Commerce Departments New Mexico Export Assistance Center. Its really a border story.

In fact, the Las Cruces metropolitan statistical area, which includes Santa Teresa, reached a record $1.6 billion in exports last year, making it one of only 63 metro areas nationwide to achieve a new record in 2015, according to the International Trade Administrations 2015 Metropolitan Area Export Overview, released this week.
WASHINGTON  President Barack Obama is expected to veto a bill Congress approved without objection that would allow families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to sue the Saudi Arabian government, a White House spokesman said Monday.

The president has opposed the bill, which would let courts waive claims to foreign sovereign immunity in cases involving terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, over fears that foreign governments might exploit the move to drag American officials into court.

Yet the White Houses effort to stop the widely popular measure from becoming law might be short-lived: congressional leaders have already suggested they would try to override a veto, and likely have sufficient support in both chambers to do so.

Its not hard to imagine other countries using this law as an excuse to haul U.S. diplomats, U.S. service members or even U.S. companies into courts all around the world, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at his daily briefing, just hours before Obama was scheduled to meet with the congressional leaders of both parties at the White House.

The president feels quite strongly about this, Earnest said. I do anticipate the president will veto the legislation when it is presented to him.

The House passed the legislation by voice vote Friday, with members calling it a moral imperative to allow victims families to seek justice for the deaths of loved ones. Obama and other political leaders on Sunday marked the 15th anniversary of the attacks that brought down the World Trade Center towers and damaged the Pentagon.

The Senate had approved the legislation in May.

On Sunday, a group of Sept. 11 attack victims relatives sent an open letter to Obama, imploring him not to slam the door shut and abandon us by vetoing the bill.

But the White House has long argued there are bigger issues at play than the pending victims families lawsuit. Officials have stressed the need to maintain the tradition of extending sovereign immunity to foreign officials, for the sake of ensuring American officials dont become subject to foreign lawsuits, or worse.

There are also concerns about how the measure might complicate relations with Saudi Arabia. Earlier this summer, Congress released a set of previously classified pages from a congressional inquiry into the Sept. 11 attacks, exploring allegations that Saudi officials supported the perpetrators. But the pages shed no significant new light on Saudi Arabias alleged ties to the attack.

Saudi Arabia has been lobbying hard against the legislation, even threatening to sell off U.S. assets if the measure becomes law. Supporters of the bill have repeatedly argued that if Saudi officials did nothing wrong, then the government has no reason to oppose the measure.

Earnest said Obama was likely to explain his objections to congressional leaders Monday. The president has a pretty persuasive case to make, the spokesman said. But he acknowledged that Obamas stance could anger the families of Americans who perished in the terrorist attacks 15 years ago.

I think thats possible, Earnest said. But again I think the presidents words and deeds when it comes to standing up for the interests of 9/11 families speak for themselves. He cited the U.S. military raid, authorized by the president, that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in 2011, among other things.

Obamas first meeting with both House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., since February comes a week after lawmakers returned to Washington from a seven-week summer recess and a few days after Obama returned from a nine-day trip to Asia. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also will attend, according to the White House.

White House officials said the president intends to discuss legislative priorities for the fall session, a time when most in Washington expect there is little chance for major legislation as the nation nears the conclusion of the 2016 presidential campaign.

Foremost on the agenda, officials said, is averting a partial federal government shutdown at the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30. That effort has been complicated by Republican Party infighting over how long to extend funding. McConnell and a majority of House Republicans want to set a new deadline in December to craft a year-long spending bill  a position also supported by the White House and congressional Democratic leaders. But a minority of House conservatives favor a stopgap measure that would extend current funding levels into next year, giving a new president and Congress the opportunity to craft long-term spending bills.

Earnest said the meeting represents a chance to discuss rather long list of priorities Congress needs to address. Its hard to rank them in priority order because so many of them are important and the failure of Congress to act on some of these priority would have a significant negative impact on the American people.

The budget issue appears on track to get resolved in tandem with a compromise on Zika funding in the coming weeks. The Senate agreed on a $1.1 billion Zika funding package in May, but the House passed an alternative $1.1 billion measure that Democrats oppose because it blocks funding to a Planned Parenthood affiliate in Puerto Rico. That bill has been filibustered by Senate Democrats since June, but negotiators say there has been progress toward a resolution.

Obama also is likely to urge congressional leaders to hold a vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the 12-nation trade accord that the administration completed last year. The pact, which requires congressional ratification, has been stalled on Capitol Hill amid deep skepticism about trade deals among segments of the American electorate. Both major candidates to replace Obama, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump, have said they oppose the deal.

Obama touted the TPP during his trip to China and Laos last week, and he has vowed to press lawmakers to vote on the package during an expected lame-duck session of Congress after the Nov. 8 elections.

Earnest said that criminal justice reform and the presidents nomination of Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court-a nomination Congress has not acted on-also could be discussed at the meeting.

Asked if Obama would bring up the $2.8 billion in federal aid requested by Louisiana Gov. Bel Edwards, D, to help with recovery efforts after damaging, widespread flooding, Earnest noted the criticism from some Republicans last month when Obama did not interrupt his vacation to visit the state. The president did visit after returning to Washington.

Theres been a lot of moralizing, Earnest told reporters at the White House daily briefing. The question now is whether Republicans in Congress will do their jobs. They just got back from an uninterrupted seven-week vacation. Are they going to do right by the people of Louisiana?

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Those A-list dance battles at the White House? Not a myth.

Last week, director Ava DuVernay sat down with The Late Show host Stephen Colbert to dish about President Barack Obamas not-so-top-secret 55th birthday party. The two celebs were both there to witness the commander in chief blow out the candles for the last time at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., confirming for the audience that the buzz about partying with the Obamas is all true.

Yes, they confiscate your phone at the gate. Yes, its a very good party. Supposedly its super cas. And nope, it doesnt get better than this, according to a whispered observation from Sir Paul McCartney, another guest.

DuVernay, whose Martin Luther King Jr. biopic Selma was screened at the White House last January, offered up even more details, spilling the beans about those persistent dance battle rumors that float up after every Obama bash. Turns out, they really do exist.

Ive never told this story, and of course Im telling it on national television, said DuVernay, so anyway. According to the director, everybody whos anybody was in the house, and at some point in the night (which did have food this time) White House favorites Usher and Janelle Monae squared off on the dance floor.

And Im like, it cant get better than this, said DuVernay. Of course it can. Next the director observed as the president and Mrs. Obama grooved on the outskirts of said battle. But wait theres more. As the dance-off continued, guess which two-stepping A-lister decided to part the crowd of onlookers and jump into said showdown? None other than Colbert himself.

Everyone fell out, just fell flat out, said DuVernay of Colberts surprise cameo. And then Ellen [Degeneres] jumped in, and then Paul McCartney jumped in. And Chance the rapper. Epic.

It was a peak feeling, I tell you, said Colbert, of his moment in the spotlight. I had a flirtation with cool.

In general, celebrities have been a bit more loose-lipped about partying at the White House of late seeing as how the number of golden tickets to marquee 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue events is steadily dwindling. So expect more first-person humble brags to trickle in. But we still doubt the world will ever get a peek at the alleged video Monae has of the president attempting to keep up with her on the dance floor during the first ladys 50th birthday party in 2014.

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RIO DE JANEIRO  Brazil, the country thats home to the largest tropical rainforest on Earth, ratified the Paris climate agreement Monday  making it the third-largest country for emissions, after the U.S. and China, to have done so.

We are following a path Brazil started on long ago, President Michel Temer said during a ceremony announcing the agreement in the capital Brasilia. The climate issue is for the state. It is an obligation for all governments.

Temer has only just succeeded Dilma Rousseff, who was impeached last month amid a massive corruption scandal in the country.

Brazils ratification is significant because in order for the climate agreement to enter into force, 55 separate countries, accounting for 55 percent of global emissions, must sign and then ratify or otherwise approve it. Currently, according to the World Resources Institute, 27 countries have done so, representing 39.08 percent of those emissions (this total does not include Brazil).

However, the majority of those are small countries that dont contribute much global carbon pollution (though the total also includes a few moderate sized countries like Norway and Peru). And then there are the U.S. and China, which just joined the agreement and account for a whopping 38 percent.

Brazil, however, accounts for a very significant 2.48 percent of global emissions  making it the globes 7th highest emitter, and also a rather unique one in that so many of its emissions are due to deforestation of the Amazon, rather than the burning of fossil fuels.

This should spur other countries to join and help galvanize global action, said David Waskow, who directs the international climate initiative at the World Resources Institute.

The Brazilian governments decision to ratify the agreement shows that on the environment issues, Temer wants continuity with his predecessor, Dilma Rousseff. He was Rousseffs vice-president but the two are now bitter enemies.

Rousseff was removed from office last month after an eight-month impeachment process, ending 13 years of rule by her leftist Workers Party. She and her supporters have attacked the impeachment process as a parliamentary coup and Temer as a traitor who plotted against her.

In a speech in June 2015 during a U.S. visit, Rousseff said Brazil aimed to reach zero illegal deforestation by 2030 and restore 12 million hectares, or 46,332 square miles, of its forests  about the size of England  by 2030. Some environmentalists said then that these promises did not go far enough.

The country has reduced deforestation by 80 percent since 2004  but significant portions of the vast Amazon rain forest are disappearing every year, and after a steady decline in deforestation rates from 2005 onwards, deforestation rose in both 2013 and 2015.

Since taking over as interim president in May, Temer has moved Brazils government to the right with plans for austerity measures and ambitions to get its stumbling economy out of a deep recession and back into growth. A bill that aims to free up rigorous and lengthy environmental licensing procedures had led to fears that Brazil would roll back protection of its vast forests.

The bill is still being discussed in the Brazilian congress. But in ratifying the Paris agreement Brazil has made a step forward and committed to cut greenhouse effect gas emissions in 37 percent by 2025, with a possible 43 percent reduction by 2030, compared to 2005 levels. The country first presented its commitment in September last year. Under the Paris agreement, every country must submit, and regularly update, its plans for reducing its emissions.

Signing the Paris Agreement will help the countrys development by guiding growth without damaging the environment, Brazils Environment Minister, Jose Sarney Filho, said at the ratification ceremony Monday.

Foreign Minister Jose Serra said the Paris climate agreement created a milestone for efforts to reduce climate change.

Few international instruments have had such widespread support, Serra said.

The only remaining countries that emit more than Brazil, but have not yet ratified, are Russia (7.5 percent of emissions), India (4.1 percent), Japan (3.79 percent), and Germany (2.56). If all four of those countries also ratified this year, the agreement would easily enter into force.

But other countries could also contribute to tipping the world into an officially active Paris regime, including Canada (1.95 percent), South Korea (1.85 percent), Mexico (1.7 percent), the U.K. (1.55 percent), Indonesia (1.49 percent), South Africa (1.46 percent) and Australia (1.46 percent).

Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations, has called world leaders to the U.N. headquarters on the 21st of this month for a ratification ceremony for the Paris agreement. Some 175 have already signed, and along with the recent move by the U.S. and China, Brazils move just considerably increased the likelihood that there will be something to celebrate.

Its an important signal, and continues the momentum going into next week in New York, said Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists.



Phillips contributed to this report from Rio de Janeiro; Mooney from Washington.

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A former workers compensation judge and now disbarred attorney convicted of wire fraud was sentenced Monday to 37 months in federal prison.

Before announcing Juanita Roibal-Bradleys sentence, U.S. District Judge James Browning said it was important to ensure that white collar defendants cant pay their way out of problems.

Roibal-Bradley pleaded guilty in February to defrauding the Social Security Administration and 12 counts of wire fraud. She admitted defrauding an estate and its heirs out of nearly $572,000, which she transferred into her personal bank account, according to court documents. She also collected about $40,000 in disability benefits, even though she was working full time.

In addition to her time in custody, Roibal-Bradley was ordered to pay $17,800 in restitution to the Social Security Administration. Her attorney, Jason Bowles, said Roibal-Bradley was already ordered by the state bar to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution to the estate heirs, which she did. The judge will determine after a hearing in November whether Roibal-Bradley will have to pay additional restitution.

Roibal-Bradleys plea agreement capped her possible sentence at 39 months. Bowles argued for probation, noting that prison might not offer his client access to the mental health resources she needs. He explained that his client was suffering anxiety and depression after her husbands death, and turned to gambling as a release.

I probably should have been more aggressive in my mental health treatment at that time, Roibal-Bradley told the judge after apologizing for her conduct.

Bowles said her outing had been very public and that her disbarment was a huge punishment.

While we hoped for a lesser prison sentence, she has accepted responsibility and is making all efforts to get her life back on track, Bowles said after the hearing.

Prosecutor Holland Kastrin argued for a 39-month sentence, and pointed out that many criminal defendants have mental health issues and that they dont mitigate the crime she committed.

U.S. Attorney Damon Martinez said that his office would continue to vigorously prosecute cases like this to protect the public.

When officers of the court  abuse their positions of trust and take advantage of the public, he said, it undermines our entire judicial system.
Four Albuquerque business accelerators each got a $50,000 shot in the arm this month from the U.S. Small Business Administrations annual Growth Accelerator Fund Competition.

The competition, now in its third year, awarded $3.4 million to 68 accelerators nationwide, with a total of $200,000 going to New Mexicos ABQid, Central New Mexico Community Colleges IGNITE Community Accelerator, Creative Startups and New Mexico Community Capitals Native Entrepreneur in Residence program. The four were chosen from 400 applicants across the country, SBA acting district director Kerrie Hurd said.

Im pleased the judges recognized the diversity of our accelerator applicants and the demonstrated success of their programs, Hurd said. These funds will help innovative New Mexico small businesses with strategic direction and mentorship, supporting rapid growth and job creation.

New Mexico accelerators, which provide intensive training and mentoring to help fledgling startups speed their paths to market, have gained a lot of traction since the first ones launched in 2014. Today, more than one-half dozen accelerators operate in Albuquerque and other cities.

The $50,000 grants will generally support accelerator operations, although some will launch new programs. ABQid, for example, will use the money to help technology-based startups access Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer grants.

The SBA runs those programs with other federal agencies to provide aid to startups that commercialize new technologies.

Its in keeping with our plans to incorporate more technology-based businesses into our portfolio, said ABQid executive director Lori Upham. The grant is very synergistic with our plans.

Creative startups will launch a new business camp for potential, pre-revenue companies that have yet to advance beyond the idea stage, said Creative startups co-founder Alice Loy. The program will begin next spring, offering a four-week course to teach up to 18 individuals or groups how they can advance new, innovative business ideas.

Its a pre-accelerator boot camp for creatives who are not yet ready for the advanced accelerator we offer, Loy said. Weve identified a gap at that stage of the ecosystem.

IGNITE and the Native Entrepreneur programs will use funds to shore up their operations. IGNITE generally targets Main Street-type businesses in general rather than focusing particularly on technology or creative startups. The Native program works with Native American entrepreneurs, providing them with long-term assistance and incubator space.
A truck that was moving on the Nice Peripheral Ring Road in Bengaluru was stopped by protesters, who set it on fire around 10 am. The driver was unharmed, as the attack was supposed to be a retaliatory work.

Pro-Kannada activists protest during Karnataka Bandh called against the Supreme Court verdict on Cauvery water in Bengaluru. Photo: PTI

By Mail Today: A group of protesters set fire to a Tamil Nadu-registered truck and targeted another 6 vehicles in Bengaluru today following reports that Karnataka-registered tourist vehicles were damaged in the neigbouring state over Cauvery River dispute.

A truck that was moving on the Nice Peripheral Ring Road in Bengaluru was stopped by protesters, who set it on fire around 10 am. The driver was unharmed, as the attack was supposed to be a retaliatory work.

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Kannada activists targeted another 6 vehicles registered in Tamil Nadu near the Mysuru Road satellite bus station in the morning. All the 6 vehicles were on their way to Tamil Nadu when the miscreants pelted stones at them. The police managed to control the situation by caning the miscreants.

In Mysuru, unidentified people set fire to a police vehicle soon after the Supreme Court directed Karnataka to released 12,000 cusecs of water every day from the Cauvery River to Tamil Nadu till September 20.

Also Read:

Cauvery verdict: Thousands of farmers lay siege to KRS reservoir



Cauvery row: SC orders Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs water to Tamil Nadu

Cauvery dispute: Hotel attacked in Chennai to avenge assault on youth in Karnataka



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DAYTON, Ohio  Tim Kaine, the running mate of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, declined to say Monday when he first learned of Clintons pneumonia diagnosis but said that the pair had not talked about her health for nearly a week prior to Sundays commemoration of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York.

Kaine, who was campaigning in the swing state of Ohio, said at a rally here that he emailed Clinton shortly after learning of her abrupt departure from the ceremony due to what an aide later described as feeling overheated.

I can tell you this, Kaine said. Within a few minutes after I heard the news, I had reached out to communicate to her, and she reached right back out to me and said, Im going to be fine. And then she started making fun of me because I was sitting reading endless debate prep memos.

Kaine, a senator from Virginia, added that he continues to be impressed by Clintons stamina.

Her energy staggers me, he said. I have a hard time keeping up her.

Fielding questions from reporters afterward, Kaine would not say when he first heard Clinton has pneumonia. The diagnosis  which her doctor said was made Friday  was disclosed Sunday, several hours after Clintons stumbling departure from the event in New York.

The first time I talked to Hillary about this was Sunday, so Ill just say it like that, Kaine said. I dont want to get into the character of communications. But I reached out to her as soon as the incident happened on Sunday, and we had a good dialogue there.

Asked if he had learned about the diagnosis prior to Sunday, Kaine said the last time the two discussed Clintons health was at an event they both attended in Cleveland on Labor Day. At that event, Clinton had a prolonged coughing fit at the outset of her remarks.

I obviously knew from Monday, when she was coughing, that she had a cough, and it was likely an allergy, Kaine said. The first time we talked after we were together Monday was  I reached to her after yesterday in New York.

Kaine said that he and Clinton have a very strong working relationship but that they dont speak every day.

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BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.  In a corner of Mark Bermans cosmetic-surgery suite is a box labeled the Time Machine that is the heart of his stem-cell operation.

In mini-liposuction procedures, Berman extracts fat tissue from patients and puts it into the Time Machine box, where a centrifuge separates stem cells from fat. The cells are then injected back into the patients to supposedly treat a variety of health problems, such as arthritic knees, heart disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and even autism.

Berman, 63, is the co-founder of the biggest network of commercial stem-cell clinics in the United States. His therapies dont have the Food and Drug Administrations stamp of approval, but he says he doesnt need it.

If stem cells didnt work, we would go back to our day jobs, Berman said. Its a disruptive technology. We are the black swan.

But the disruptive technology might itself face disruption. The FDA, which has taken a mostly hands-off approach toward the rapidly proliferating stem-cell clinics, is signaling that some of the treatments should be regulated as drugs, which would require advance approval. That would entail a lengthy process, with extensive safety and effectiveness data, at a potential cost of millions of dollars.

The issue has ignited a fierce debate among physicians, patients, scientists and politicians about whether the agency should crack down on therapies that critics deride as snake oil but that some patients swear by. And it is fueling a broader, longer-term debate over how cellular therapies should be regulated.

On Monday the FDA opened two days of hearings on draft guidelines intended to clarify the agencys views on stem-cell treatments. The guidelines, which deal with decade-old regulations, have set off an uproar in parts of the stem-cell world because they could jeopardize many of the clinics operations.

Thats fine with some leading scientists who say the clinics are peddling potentially dangerous procedures that take advantage of desperate patients.

Hucksters are hijacking the publics enthusiasm for stem cells, said Luis Garza, a dermatologist at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine whose lab is investigating how skin stem cells might improve care for amputees. Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the stuff you hear about is bogus.

Paul Knoepfler, a stem-cell researcher at the University of California at Davis, said regulators for too long have remained on the sidelines while patients are charged thousands of dollars for unapproved treatments and exposed to potential risks.Im worried that these are essentially experiments, he said.

But patients who say they have benefited from clinic treatments are urging the government not to clamp down. People have the right to decide what happens in terms of the tissues and cells from their own bodies, said Doug Oliver, 54, a Nashville resident who has a rare form of macular degeneration that left him legally blind. After treatments at a Florida stem-cell clinic, he said, his vision improved significantly and now he can drive.

  

Stem-cell therapies, like other treatments, generally must be tested in clinical trials and approved by the FDA before being marketed to patients. But such clearance is not required if the stem cells are not altered much, are used in a function similar to their original role in the body, arent combined with another article and dont have a systemic effect on the body. But the FDAs attempts to clarify the details has been fraught with disagreement.

Knoepfler notes, for example, that many clinics derive stem cells from fat, which the FDA views essentially as a cushioning material. Using those cells for injured knees or shoulders or diseases like Alzheimers, he said, means they are not being used for their original cushioning function.

Berman says that the versatility of stem cells means one of their basic functions is to repair damage throughout the body. In any case, he and other clinicians say, they arent subject to FDA regulation because they are practicing medicine, which the agency doesnt oversee.

Orthopedic treatments are the most commonly marketed procedures. Mayo Friedlis of the National Spine & Pain Centers, a network of pain clinics, said at the FDA hearing that stem cells derived from bone marrow are as effective as surgery for musculoskeletal disorders. But Knoepfler and other critics said there isnt enough published data to support such claims.

Even as the debate rages about clinics, some Republican senators, led by Mark Kirk of Illinois, want to revamp parts of the FDA approval process to expedite stem-cell therapies. But the outlook is uncertain, given the compressed congressional calendar and opposition from Democrats and some industry and patient groups.

Scientists say that stem cells remarkable ability to develop into many kinds of cells means that someday they might be used to repair diseased or damaged cells or replace entire organs. Promising developments are occurring in several areas. Stanford researchers said this year that they were stunned by the way stem cells injected directly into the brains of a small group of stroke patients had restored mobility in some patients.

Nevertheless, research for most therapies remains at an early stage, and the FDA has approved only a few stem-cell therapies, mostly for blood disorders.

Five years ago, only a few dozen stem-cell clinics existed in the United States and most Americans seeking treatment went abroad. Now, according to a recent study co-written by Knoepfler, there are 570 clinics  many in California, Florida and Texas  marketing directly to consumers. Beverly Hills has 18 clinics, more than any other city. Most of the clinics use adult stem cells, not the embryonic ones that were at the center of controversy years ago because their extraction destroyed the embryos.

Berman, who spent most of his career working as a cosmetic surgeon, started providing treatments in 2010. Two years later, he co-founded Cell Surgical Network, a stem-cell clinic business with about 80 affiliates.

Typically, Berman said, he charges patients $8,900 for a treatment, although he sometimes offers discounts or free care for patients who cannot afford his fee. He said he doesnt make claims to his patients that the treatments will work.

John Putnam, a 52-year-old Santa Monica resident, said he went to Berman four years ago, after his doctor said he needed surgery to repair sports-related injuries in both of his shoulders. At first, the stem-cell treatment didnt seem to make a difference, but after five months, he said, I had zero issues on either shoulder, and to this day my shoulders are in great shape.

Critics said that pain is very responsive to the placebo effect, and that some ailments improve on their own.

Berman said his network has treated about 5,000 patients, including both him and his wife, and that the only side effects have involved occasional soreness at the injection site and bruising around the abdomen because of liposuction. He said that in his experience,85 percent of the orthopedic patients get better, and that he has seen improvement in some patients with Parkinsons disease and autism, but not in the dozen or so patients he has treated for ALS.

Knoepfler brushes off such assertions and focuses on safety. He noted that two patients died after being treated at a Florida clinic. There also have been reports of patients being blinded by treatments for eye problems. And the FDA warns that stem cells can migrate to the wrong site or turn into tumors.

The clinics fate depends partly on whether the FDA sticks to the tough stance outlined in the draft guidelines. But even if it does, it is not clear that the agency will have the resources to enforce the rules, some experts said.

In the absence of strong oversight, scientists and others are worried that patients may be swayed by personal testimonials. I think we have to be careful about anecdotes, said Timothy Caulfield, a University of Alberta law professor who has followed the issue for years. We need good, controlled studies.

stemcells
A Metropolitan Court judge found there was no probable cause to arrest or detain Jeremy Danielson, the Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist accused in a fake bomb scare that shut down the Albuquerque International Sunport on Sunday, the 15th anniversary of 9/11.

Though the charges were not formally dismissed, the criminal case against him is likely finished. The 2nd Judicial District Attorneys Office would have to indict Danielson on the felony charges he was accused of, an action the DAs spokesman said is unlikely.

The guy didnt do anything wrong. Why would we prosecute? DA spokesman Phil Sisneros said.

But he said the office has not yet received the case from law enforcement and will not make a formal decision on the indictment until that happens.

Danielson, 40, is a physicist with no criminal history who was carrying a non-working mock-up device to use in a demonstration at a Department of Energy conference in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, according to his statement to investigators.

His attorney, Dan Cron, said Danielson notified TSA that it would want to look at his carry-on bag as he was putting it on the conveyor belt.

Investigators apparently believed the mock-up could have been an explosive device, and called in the Albuquerque Police Departments bomb squad.

The airport was shut down and some flights grounded for about two hours.

Danielson told investigators he had planned to explain the device was not dangerous.

They decided to charge him with a fourth-degree felony of having a facsimile or hoax bomb or explosive. He was taken to jail and quickly bonded out on a $2,500 cash or surety bail.

He made his first appearance in front of Judge Courtney Weaks on Tuesday afternoon, and Cron argued that there was no probable cause to have arrested Danielson.

The law Danielson was charged under requires that the suspect intend for people to think a device is a bomb, and Cron said Danielson never intended for anyone to think that.

Weaks concurred.

I will go ahead and agree with you at this point and do a finding of no probable cause, she said. She also ordered that he be released without posting bail, even though he had already paid it.

After the hearing, Cron said he was pleased with the judges decision.

The judge did the proper thing, because under the statute, the conduct described does not constitute any kind of a crime, he said. The judge did the right thing, and this was what I had hoped.

Meanwhile, the conference on Capitol Hill continued Tuesday without Danielson.

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told the Journal in Washington on Tuesday that he couldnt comment on Danielsons predicament.

Thats going through the legal processes now, so I cant comment, Moniz said.

Journal Washington Bureau Chief Michael Coleman and Digital Editor Robert Browman contributed to this report.
Ares Management is reportedly seeking to raise more than $45bn for its latest batch of funds.
Hundreds of college students also joined the farmers in the protest near the reservoir from which water is being released to Tamil Nadu.

A supporter of a pro-Kannada organization carries a scale with an effigy of J. Jayalalitha on one side and a map of Karnataka state on another, during a protest march against sharing river water. Photo: AP

By Mail Today: Within minutes of Supreme Court's directive to Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs of water every day to Tamil Nadu till September 20, thousands of farmers laid siege to the KRS reservoir in Mandya district to register their protest.

Hundreds of college students also joined the farmers in the protest near the reservoir from which water is being released to Tamil Nadu. Mandya district once again went up in flames as people came to the streets protesting the verdict. The police have made elaborate security arrangements to prevent the farmers from taking over the reservoir.

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"This is a double blow for the farmers of Mandya and Mysuru districts. This government has been ineffective in defending the interests of farmers of the state. The Congress government should resign and the legislators should join us if they cannot fight our case in the court," said farmers' leader Prakasha.

As soon as the court's verdict was announced, schools and colleges in Mandya district declared a holiday anticipating trouble.

Also Read:

Cauvery dispute: Supreme Court to hear Karnataka's plea

Cauvery dispute: Hotel attacked in Chennai to avenge assault on youth in Karnataka



--- ENDS ---
By Anusha Soni: The Supreme Court today expressed displeasure over the non-implementation of the order by Karnataka Government in the Cauvery row. Modifying its September 5 order, the apex court asked the Karnataka government to release 12,000 cusecs water to Tamil Nadu.

The court on September 7 had ordered Karnataka government to release 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu for 10 days.

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Arguing its side, Karnataka informed the Supreme Court that "agony claimed by Tamil Nadu on water crisis not there" and requested SC to suspend its order.

Justice Dipak Misra while observing said, "Citizens and executive of this country have to accept and obey order of the SC unless it is modified. If the court passes an order, either comply or come for modification. People cannot take law into their hand.

At the same time, the top court did not hold back and slammed the Karnataka Government over the language, tone and tenor of the affidavit filed by the state. The top court further said that the law and order situation cannot be a reason for not executing a Supreme Court order. It further noted that agitation in spontaneity and galvanised manner cannot be grounds for challenging Supreme Court order.



The court made an exception for the Cauvery case hearing even though it is a holiday today.

Karnataka on Saturday filed a special petition in the Supreme Court seeking it modify its order on releasing Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu in view of the distress situation, a state minister said.

Hoping that the apex curt would hear the special petition on Monday and respond favourably, the minister said though the state had been releasing 15,000 cusecs of water daily since September 7, the state would like the top court to reduce the quantum of release to 10,000 cusecs daily for six days as offered by the state earlier.



--- ENDS ---
Even though culture has been a prevalent word in the business world for some time now thanks to Starbucks, Zappos, Southwest Airlines, and other leading companies, many executives still dont see its importance when stacked up against the balance sheet. They see culture as a fuzzy feeling and intangible part of their businesses, meaning it often gets overlooked.

The costs of this oversight is quite scary through member and employee attrition, lack of primary financial institution relationships, and negative growth. On the flip side, if a company invests in its culture and makes it a primary driver of the business, the results outpace competition and uniquely set it up for sustainable success in the future.

Culture has a direct relationship to your bottom line because it is the foundation of your business. As a credit union, your business is not checking accounts and loans  it is who you employ, who you serve, and how you serve both of those groups of people. Your culture is what you believe as an organization and how it is carried out in everything that you do.

Heres how it impacts your bottom line:

Your Employees

I LOVE credit unions! But many take the philosophy of trying to be nice to the extreme, which comes at a huge detriment to member service (and success). We often hire the wrong people, put them into the wrong positions and, the scariest of all, let them continually make costly service mistakes that impact members rather than acknowledging these people are the wrong fit and taking appropriate action.

Your employees should be an asset to your company  not a liability.

If you hire people just because they can do a job, theyll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, theyll work for you with blood and sweat and tears. Simon Sinek

Culture starts with your employees. Hire great people, treat them well, engage them and they will go from clock punchers to cheerleaders and avid supporters of your credit union. From a business perspective, this means more members, more products per member, higher loans-to-shares, and increased profitability.

Your Members

The financial impact of a great culture where your members are involved is invaluable. Just like great press is the best free marketing, a strong culture creates brand ambassadors among your members and makes them so inspired and excited about your credit union that they do the marketing for you.

From another perspective, a great culture also lets members know what you believe, which is much more valuable than telling them about your products and services because it aligns them with your credit union. If your credit union serves members who deeply believe in your organization, it will show in the number of members who use your credit union as their primary financial institution. It will also show up in certain key metrics, like products per member, return on assets, and other drivers of the bottom line.

Your Community

When I worked for a $50 million credit union, we spent several years changing from the inside out by focusing on our culture. The end result of this work was members literally coming in and joining because they had seen our culture in action with everything that we did. From internal efforts to make coming to work a more enjoyable experience to showcasing our culture at community events, it bled through. People want to be a part of something successful.

True believers work hard to help others see what they see and make true believers out of them as well. But it takes consistency. In my case, at our credit union, the greatest benefits were seen three years later! It takes a team focus on this long-time commitment, and on the other side, the value is priceless.

Building a strong culture is a long road requiring deliberate and consistent action, as is anything worth doing. But make a concerted focused effort on developing culture  on creating cheerleaders who create advocates who create true believers  and the result will be a strong, sound, growing organization.
China Puts Quantum Encryption Into Orbit

China has launched the worlds first quantum satellite. So what exactly does this mean?

The satellite is designed to establish ultra-secure quantum communications by transmitting uncrackable keys from space to the ground, Xinhua, Chinas state news agency, wrote after the equipment was launched on a rocket from the Gobi desert. It could also conduct experiments on the bizarre features of quantum theories, such as entanglement.

Uncrackable keys? Bizarre features? Both true. This satellite is designed to literally teleport information, to distances 1,200 kilometers (746 miles) away.

Quantum theory: the basics

Heres a quick refresher in case you havent thought about physics in a few years, because this story is cooler when you understand these basics. Skip ahead if youre already a quantum geek.

Most human technology is built around the classical physics that Isaac Newton and his inheritors came up with (equal and opposite reactions, that sort of thing). When engineers hit on electricity, Michalakis says, they perceived it in aggregate as a kind of a force; its either on, or its off. This understanding led to electric switches, which became transistors, and when you put all those transistors in a box and start turning them off and on with instructions encoded 11010001101 its a computer.

But as scientists were developing electric computers in the 20th century, theorists beginning with Max Planck were ripping up the rule books. Their experiments with light suggested that something about classical physics didnt quite add up. Soon they developed mathematical proofs to explain that the tiny particles that make up matterprotons, neutrons, and electronsdont necessarily behave like you would expect particles to behave. They can act as if they are in two places at once, for instance. (Thats one of those bizarre features the Chinese are talking about.) This is quantum theory. The first and most famous application of these ideas came in nuclear weaponry and energy.

Physicists are still trying to agree on how classical and quantum physics come together coherently. But quantum theory already underlies a lot of modern technology; the transistors on a silicon chip, in fact, wouldnt work without it. Now engineers are trying to apply it to more futuristic things.

Spooky action at a distance

Lets say that you take a very small particle, and set it up so that it could be in either one of two states. Lets call one state up, and the other one down. (Quantum computers do something like this, using single atoms trapped in a magnetic field to represent either a 0 or a 1.)

If you do this, quantum theory says that two things will happen. The first is that, although the particle will always be either up or down if you look at it, when youre not looking, it will be in a kind of combination of the two, called a superposition. In quantum mechanics, the act of measuring something changes it; the superposition collapses, in the parlance, to either up or down.

The second thing is that two or more of these particles can be put in a situation of quantum entanglement, where they form a single superposition together. Then their physical properties are correlated. For instance, you can set them up in advance so that if you look at one particle and find its up, then you know, without looking, that the other must be down, and vice versa.

Heres where it gets really interesting. Lets say you entangle two particles. Then you move one of them far, far away, to the other side of the planet, or to the moon. No matter the distance, quantum mechanics says, they remain entangled. If you look at the first one, and in doing so change it, collapsing the superposition, you will also change the other one. And this will happen instantaneously, however far apart they are.

Let that sink in, because this technique, called quantum teleportation, is crazy to think about. Light has a speed limit, and normally information cannot travel faster than light. Quantum teleportation is, in a sense, information traveling outside of space and time. Einstein called it spooky action at a distance.

Tangled up in space

Scientists have done experiments with quantum teleportation already. They have instantaneously exchanged information about the quantum states of photons, which are particles of light, transmitted 143 km between two of the Canary Islands.

But testing quantum teleportation at extremely long distances requires going to space. Its the easiest way to set up laser communication between two distant points on the earths surface. Thats what the Chinese satellite, developed in cooperation with the Austrian Academy of Science, intends to do.

The satellite contains a machine that generates entangled pairs of photons by shooting a laser beam through a specially designed crystal. Each entangled pair will be split up and beamed down to stations on Earth approximately 1,200 km apart. If all goes as planned, researchers at those stations will share access to an entangled system. Any measurement on one of those photons will be instantaneously reflected in its opposite number at the other station.

A US company had partnered with researchers in Denmark and Singapore to launch a small satellite, or cubesat, with similar goals, but it was destroyed when the rocket taking it to the International Space Station exploded in 2014.

The key is the key

Besides demonstrating a super-long entanglement, the scientists working with the satellite want to test new communications technology. Its important to realize that we cant send information like Hey, how are you? through quantum teleportation, much less teleport actual things. But smart thinkers realized that being able to share basic information about the state of atomic particles across distance could create a powerful encryption tool.

This is where the unbreakable code comes in. Perhaps the most powerful method of encryption is the one-time pad, where messages are encoded using a private key known to both parties; theoretically, if the key is random, is as long as the message, is never reused, and is kept completely secret, it cannot be broken. Which sounds really good, code-wise, but it has long been impractical to ensure that two parties can always access a key that meets those standards.

Quantum entanglement could help. If people on two ground stations share access to a large enough set of entangled photons, beamed to them from a satellite in space, they can generate a sufficiently long, random key by teleporting quantum information between the entangled particles.

Nobody would be able to detect the transmission of the key. Its very secure from the point of view that if your eavesdropper wants to listen in, usually they are within space and time, Michalakis says. The data is not transmitted through space-time, it goes underneath in mathematical subspace.

Once the people in the two stations have created a key, using their entangled particles, they can use it to encrypt a message. This can be sent by whatever method they want. You can use a telephone the moment you are sharing a key that nobody has access to, Michalakis says.

But what if someone managed to intercept the laser beam from the satellite that had originally shared the entangled photons between the two stations? Heres what is truly amazing: Thanks to the laws of quantum mechanics, any attempt by a third party to measure the particles in the entangled system would be immediately detected by the other two, making them aware that their code could be broken.

Quantum supremacy

The field of quantum information is still in its infancy. As we continue to learn the fundamentals of how quantum phenomena work at a large scale, the data collected will help physicists understand the process that takes you from the quantum richness of the universe to the classical world we see around us, Michalakis says.

It may be easy to see in this shades of the Cold War race for technological dominance, but Michalakis is confident that research will be shared within the scientific community. His hope is that this experiment is the first step toward a global network of research facilities sharing access to entangled particles beamed down from space, a kind of global, cloud-based quantum computer.

Michalakis, for obvious reasons, is particularly excited about an announcement last week that the US needs a plan to invest in quantum technologies in a serious way; while US labs have done groundbreaking work in the field, there hasnt been public funding on the scale available in Europe and Asia.

Come on, this is for the US, we have some of the top institutions working on this, we have some of the best people, it makes no sense for us to not take this seriously, he says. There are economic reasons, and a matter of pride.

At the moment, though, its China that looks like the pacesetter.

DefenseOne:
It started with Karnataka's refusal to release this year's share of water from Cauvery river to Tamil Nadu as per the Supreme Court order dated September 5, 2016.

Security forces make their way past burning lorries in Bengaluru, which were set on fire by protesters after Supreme Court ordered Karnataka state to release 12,000 cubic feet of water per second every day from the Cauvery river to neighbouring Tamil Nadu

By India Today Web Desk: Section 144 was imposed in Bengaluru city after violent clashes erupted in Karnataka in protests against the Supreme Court order dated September 5, 2016, directing the Karnataka government to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu. A series of protests have happened since then over the issue and people from both the states are attacking each other.

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It started with Karnataka's refusal to release this year's share of Cauvery's waters to Tamil Nadu as per the agreement. The matter landed on the table of the Supreme Court which in turn ordered Karnataka to release the water.



ALSO READ: 1996 | From the magazine: Cauvery consensus



The row over distribution of Cauvery river waters is not new and dates as far back as the 19th century as it was governed by an agreement between Madras Presidency and the State of Mysore that was signed in 1924. However, the agreement lapsed in 1974 and since then all attempts so far made by the Centre to settle this long pending inter-state water dispute through negotiations have totally failed.

The Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal was constituted in 1990 to look into the matter which delivered its verdict in 2007 but all the parties involved filed for review of the judgement as none of them were satisfied.



ALSO READ: 2013 | From the magazine: Reaching The Danger Mark



Here are the latest developments in the Cauvery Water Dispute:

Bengaluru businesses have faced four days of disruption this month after the water protests and an unrelated strike, hitting operations in a city that accounts for a significant chunk of India's USD 97 billion in information technology exports.



ADVISORY FOR CABLE TV OPERATORS



Hyderabad Police issues advisory to all cable TV channels/cable TV network operators over protests in Bangalore; says no program shall be transmitted in the cable service which is likely to incite violence or contains anything against maintenance of law & order. Managements of all TV Channels are requested/advised to adhere to program code in interest of maintenance of public order/peace in Hyderabad.



SIDDARAMAIAH TWITTER POST

Siddaramaiah has posted a video on his Twitter timeline. He speaks in Kannada and said, "Every kannadiga is wounded by the injustice meted out wrt to the Cauvery issue. Please bring humanity to the forefront. Let's not harbour the attitude of taking revenge. Let's all work towards peace and harmony across both the states. If miscreants indulge in disrupting peace, government will take action." Bangalore Police tweets emergency WhatsApp number 9480801000, asks public to connect with them.



BENGALURU FIRING

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One person was killed, another was critically injured in police firing at Hegganahalli. The firing took place after a mob set afire a vehicle.



SHOOT-AT-SIGHT ORDERS

The Bengaluru Police have imposed curfew in 7 police station limits of the city in the wake of uncontrolled violence and arson following Supreme Court's directive. Shoot-at-sight orders have also been issued in seven police station limits, which are considered hyper-sensitive.



DEPOT ARSON ATTACK: 35 buses burnt at Bengaluru bus depot

Pro-Kannadiga supporters in Bengaluru set fire to 35 buses at KPN bus depot. No casualties have been reported yet.

Prohibitory orders in Bengaluru:

Areas to be avoided are KPN bus depot, ORR Service Road, Chamaraj Pet 5th Main, Gopalan Mall, Kamas, Bellanduru Ecospace, Sunkadakatte Junction, Nayandanahalli Junction, BHEL 2nd gate, Pandavapura and RR Nagar.



Rajnath assures central assistance to Karnataka, Tamil Nadu

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday assured full central assistance to chief ministers of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to deal with the situation arising out of the dispute over Cauvery river water sharing. ALSO READ | Cauvery dispute: Centre monitors situation, deploys 10 companies of Rapid Action Force



Karnataka home minister calls emergency Cabinet meet

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Home Ministry decides to intervene in Cauvery dispute. Emergency Cabinet meeting to be held today.



Maintain peace, law and order: Sadananda Gowda



It is normal for people in this situation to get excited, but I request people of Karnataka that they should maintain peace, law and order: Union minister S Gowda





We thought SC will send a team to see situations of reservoirs, collect data and then come to a conclusion, but nothing as such happened: S Gowda



People of Karnataka never expected such a verdict from SC: S Gowda Bengaluru: Protesters vandalise and set vehicle on fire in Nayandahalli over #CauveryIssue pic.twitter.com/pfDLiSUzSs&; ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

People of Karnataka never expected such a verdict from SC: S Gowda

India Today team attacked by protesters in Bengaluru

India Today reporter Rohini Swamy and cameraman Madhu were targeted by pro-Kannada protesters. Rohini was rushed to hospital after being attacked by goons during angry protests in Bengaluru over the Cauvery water-sharing dispute.

According to India Today cameraperson Madhu, a group of drunk men roughed up the duo of Rohini and Madhu as they covered the acts of arson and vandalism on the streets on Mysore Road.

Section 144 imposed in Bengaluru

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As pro-Kannada protesters are vandalising shops and vehicles, the Bangalore Police have imposed Section 144. The city's metro services have also been suspended since 12.30 PM as a precautionary measure.

WATCH: Pro-Kannada activists set a vehicle on fire in #Bengaluru during protests over #CauveryIssue. pic.twitter.com/hDTuNZULd1&; ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016





Karnataka CM writes to Jayalalithaa, seeks action

Meanwhile Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote a letter to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. Siddaramaiah slammed Tamil media channels for aggravating the situation.

Security deployed near the statue of Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar in Bengaluru.

Stones pelted at lorries bearing Tamil Nadu registration number near Hubli Bypass. No injuries reported.

#CauveryIssue: Protesters vandalise lorries bearing Tamil Nadu registration numbers near Hubli Bypass, Karnataka. pic.twitter.com/sl9nkp70IP ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Tamilaga Valvurimai party workers protest inside Karnataka Bank with broomstick in Puducherry.

Police forces have been deployed in areas populated by Tamil communities like Tanary Road, Hegde Nagar, Sri Rampura, Kalasi Palayam, Indira Nagar, KR Nagar, Prakash Nagar, Frazer town, RT Nagar in the wake of the ongoing protests.

Adding to the troubles of the citizens, bus and metro services too have been temporarily suspended.

THE LETTER:

Home Minister of Karnataka appeals for peace



Home Minister of Karnataka G Parameshwara has appealed to the people of the state to maintain peace and respect the Supreme Court judgement. He said that they will make a fresh appeal after September 20.

Clashes intensify in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu



Fresh protests have erupted in Bengaluru after the Supreme Court refused to suspend its September 5 order to release 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu. The modified order offers little relief to the state, with the quantity being reduced from 15,000 cusecs to 12,000 cusecs. A group of protesters set fire to a Tamil Nadu-registered truck and targeted another 6 vehicles in Bengaluru today following reports that Karnataka-registered tourist vehicles were damaged in the neigbouring state over Cauvery River dispute. A truck that was moving on the Nice Peripheral Ring Road in Bengaluru was stopped by protesters, who set it on fire around 10 am. The driver was unharmed, as the attack was supposed to be a retaliatory work. Kannada activists targeted another 6 vehicles registered in Tamil Nadu near the Mysuru Road satellite bus station in the morning. All the 6 vehicles were on their way to Tamil Nadu when the miscreants pelted stones at them. The police managed to control the situation by caning the miscreants.

Click here to Enlarge Protests have erupted through-out Bengaluru after the SC verdict

More: Clashes in Bengaluru, hotel attacked in Chennai

SC pulls up Karnataka

The Supreme Court expressed displeasure over the non-implementation of the order by Karnataka Government in the Cauvery row. Modifying its September 5 order, the apex court asked the Karnataka government to release 12,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu. More: SC orders Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs water to Tamil Nadu



Karnataka's plea in SC

However, Karnataka had filed a plea seeking a reduction in the water to be released from 15 thousand cusecs to 10 thousand cusecs. Late Saturday night, Karnataka rushed to the Supreme Court seeking an urgent hearing on Monday. More: Cauvery dispute: Supreme Court to hear Karnataka's plea

1996 | From the magazine: Cauvery consensus

Hotel attacked in Chennai

After a video of a Tamil youth being beaten up in Karnataka for supporting Tamil Nadu over the Cauvery dispute went viral, Chennai retaliated by attacking a hotel in the city. More: Hotel attacked in Chennai to avenge assault on youth in Karnataka

Tamil Nadu farmers protest

Although, farmers of Trichy delta region have got a slight relief after the Supreme Court's order to release water from Cauvery but the water amounts to only 13.5 TMC of water whereas Tamil Nadu's minimum need is 50 TMC which the state should have got in August. Disappointed after seeing protests in Karnataka against the Supreme Court order, Trichy farmers have also come out to protest against Karnataka and the Centre for not constituting the Cauvery water management board and Cauvery water regulatory board. More: Farmers bury themselves under Cauvery bank sand to protest against Karnataka, Centre



Karnataka comes to a standstill

Mandya, Mysuru, Bengaluru came to a standstill as the call for Karnataka bandh by pro-Kannada organisations to protest against the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.More: Karnataka comes to a standstill, 53 Tamil channels blocked

2013 | From the magazine: Reaching The Danger Mark



Karnataka releases water

Amid protests by farmers and local groups over the Supreme Court's order, Karnataka released water from Cauvery river to Tamil Nadu. Several activists in Mandya district took to the streets to protest the release of the Cauvery waters. Farmers and local groups also protested to express their outrage over the directive. More: Karnataka releases Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu amid protests



SC directs Karnataka to release water

In a big relief for the Tamil Nadu government, the Supreme Court assured the farmers of the state that they would get more water in the coming days. The court directed the Karnataka government to release 15,000 cusecs of water from Cauvery river to Tamil Nadu for the next ten days. Click here to Enlarge Vehicle with a Tamil Nadu registration being vandalised Supreme Court directs Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs water for Tamil Nadu



Karnataka refuses to share Cauvery water



The Tamil Nadu farmers along with members and representatives of various parties protested near Egmore railway station against the Karnataka government's decision to not provide water from the Cauvery river to Tamil Nadu this year. More: Protests erupt in Tamil Nadu after Karnataka refuses to share Cauvery water







Cauvery water dispute: Timeline of Karnataka bandh

Cauvery verdict: Thousands of farmers lay siege to KRS reservoir



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- EFCC says it has arrested a driver, houseboy and two other domestic staff working with for Mrs Dame Patience Jonathan in connection to $15m traced to Mrs Jonathan

- Mrs Jonathan said she owns the money in the accounts and she gave millions of dollars to the then special adviser to the President on Domestic Affairs, Waripamowei Dudafa, to open accounts for her

- Jonathans wife has, however, sued Skye Bank for freezing her bank accounts and giving the EFCC vital information about her finances

Former first lady of Nigeria, Patience Jonathan, says the money with EFCC belongs to her.

Anti-graft agency, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it has arrested a driver, houseboy and two other domestic staff working with for Mrs Dame Patience Jonathan, the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan in connection to $15m traced to Mrs Jonathan.

The money, which is located in four company accounts in Skye bank have a balance of about $15m while another account, which bears Patience Jonathans name, has $5m.

The former First Lady who said she owns the money in the accounts said she gave millions of dollars to the then Special Adviser to the President on Domestic Affairs, Waripamowei Dudafa, to open accounts for her.

But a detective at the EFCC revealed that Dudafa used his domestic servants names to open the four other accounts and then deposited the money into the accounts.

We were investigating Dudafa when we stumbled on those four companies domiciliary accounts opened at Skye Bank with a balance of about $15m. On further investigation, we were able to identify the directors of the companies.

When we detained the directors, we found out that they were Dudafas domestic servants. One of them was a houseboy while another one was a driver. Their photographs were used in opening the accounts and their signatures were forged.

READ ALSO: Return my $31.4m you seized  Patience Jonathan warns EFCC

We found out that these domestic servants were completely innocent because they had no access to the accounts. We have since released them. The sole signatory to the accounts was Patience Jonathan and she was issued with a special card, which is accepted worldwide. She has a separate account, which was opened in her name and has a balance of $5m, he told Punch newspaper.

EFCC source also said two Skye Bank executives, Demola Bolodeoku and Dipo Oshodi, who helped Dudafa to open the accounts on March 22, 2010, were also being investigated.

This is a clear case of fraud and there is no way the bank officials will say they did not know what was going on. They are under investigation and those found culpable will be arraigned, the detective added.

The EFCC operative said he could not confirm if the transaction was reported to the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit revealing that the commission had discovered a trend which politicians used in laundering and concealing funds.

READ ALSO: Ex petroleum ministers $85m loot: UK begs Nigeria

What we have noticed is that in order to conceal funds, what politicians and top civil servants do is to open bank accounts in the name of family or friends and then make themselves the sole signatory to the account.

Dont forget that we traced about 17 bank accounts to the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (retd.).

Often times, they do this in connivance with bank officials and that is why the EFCC Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, has said henceforth, whenever we are investigating a bank official, we will probe the entire bank as well because these officials usually act under the instruction of their superiors.

Jonathans wife has, however, sued Skye Bank for freezing her bank accounts and giving the EFCC vital information about her finances.

Meanwhile, Professor Itse Sagay has said that Patience Jonathan must explain how she came about to own $5m after the former first lady admitted that the money was hers.

Source: Legit.ng
Despite government orders, no dedicated staff for child drug addicts is available in any of the five designated government hospital in the national capital.

By Sneha Agrawal: Fourteen-year-old Sundar (name changed), took up drugs at a very tender age. To keep up with his ever-growing need, he eventually resorted to snatching and stealing. Today, he suffers from deteriorated digestive system that makes it difficult for him to eat; he has swollen eyes and rashes all over his body.

At present, he is putting up at a rehabilitation centre in Delhi Gate because unavailability of dedicated staff in five government hospitals earmarked by the Juvenile Justice Committee to cure children of drug abuse, have kept him from proper medication.

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The staff has to be deployed by Department of Health of Delhi government.

Also Read: Juvenile crimes directly linked to drug abuse



GOVERNMENT ORDERED DEDICATED STAFF FOR DRUG ADDICTS, BUT IN VAIN

The committee in December 2015, had ordered for a dedicated staff including attendents, counsellor and nurses along with five beds each in the five government hospitals - GB Pant, Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital, Lal bahadur Shastri hospital, Madan Mohan Malviya hospital and Baba Ambedkar hospital.

The last date of complying with the order was May 2016.

In a recent inspection conducted by DLSA's Member Secretary, Dharmesh Sharma and Dr Rajesh Kumar from SPYM, a non-profit organisation working on child drug abuse visited the these hospitals to check the working status of the wards and found that none of the hospitals have their own staff.

While the detoxification ward for children in Pt Madan Mohan Malviya hospital has been functional since February, SPYM had provided it with the support staff. However, due to lack of finances, the other four hospitals could not be provided with round-the-clock support staff rendering them nonfunctional.

SEPARATE STAFF FOR CHILD DRUG ADDICTS NECESSARY

Insisting on the need of a separate staff, Dr Rajesh Kumar told Mail Today, "There is need to have a separate staff for these wards as children during the detoxification process are kept in confinement for seven to eight days. Most of them try to run away during the process. Also, it was found out during withdrawal symptoms, children began showing signs of diseases like HIV or Hepatitis B."

During times like these, the staff need to ensure that the children are kept engaged. Due to unavailability of functioning wards, approximately 3,000 to 4,000 children are waiting for the detoxification process," said Dr Rajesh Kumar. During the power tussle between the Lieutenant Governor and the state government, the recruitment process in every department had slowed down.

While Baba Ambedkar Hospital has a dedicated space, the report saiys that it could not be considered functional. Dr Punita Mahajan, Medical Superintendent, Baba Baba Ambedkar Hospital said, "We have initiated the process.

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However, we are not refusing the patients and are somehow managing with the available staff at hand."

On the other hand, Dr Rajiv Chawla, Medical Superintendent, GB Pant refused to comment on the matter. "As per the order, the detoxification wards cannot be considered functional till the Department of Health deputes necessary staff, including one counseling psychologist and two peer counsellors as attendents apart from the medical staff," said Additional Sessions Judge Dharmesh Sharma, Member Secretary, DLSA.

Also Read:

After 15 yrs, govt to conduct national survey on drug use

Delhi grapples with rise in prescription drug abuse, chemist shops under close watch



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- Ike Ekweremadu has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to to immediately assemble a team of economic experts to come up with workable ideas that will take the country out of recession

- Ekweremadu urged President Buhari to look beyond party affiliation to constitute a Special Economic Squad

Senator Ike Ekweremadu

Deputy senate president, Senator Ike Ekweremadu has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to to immediately assemble a team of economic experts to come up with workable ideas that will take the country out of recession.

Ekweremadu urged President Buhari to look beyond party affiliation to constitute a Special Economic Squad to rescue the nation from present economic meltdown.

He noted that the present economic challenges were not beyond redemption, but could actually become the nations turning point away from an oil-driven economy to real prosperity if the right policies and structures were put in place.

READ ALSO: EXPOSED! How Patience Jonathan used houseboy, driver names to open $15m account

I warned long ago that elections had come and gone and we should move from politics to governance. It is time for governance and we must bring all capable hands on deck, irrespective of political, religious or ethnic backgrounds.

Nigerians are facing hard times; and all they are interested in are positive results and urgent succour. They dont care whether you are All Progressives Congress, APC, or Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and whether you are North or South. The good news is that capable hands abound in the country. We must assemble them and give them both the mandate and liberty to help the presidents team to revamp the nations economy.

The Deputy Senate President also commended the security agencies for the arrangements put in place to ensure a hitch-free Sallah.

Meanwhile, Ekiti state governor, Ayodele Fayose, has expressed hope that the country would be great again as he urge all to adhere to the tenets of peace, perseverance, tolerance, peace and love for one another as preached by Islam.

Fayose in his congratulatory message to Muslims on the celebration of the Eid-el-Kabir urged Nigerians to pray for President Muhammadu Buhari and his administration and ask God to give them the inspiration, wisdom and knowledge to lead the country.

Source: Legit.ng
- The Ijaw National Congress (INC) has rejected the use of force against restive youths in the Niger Delta region

- President of the INC, Boma Obuoforibo, faults calls by those advocating for the Boko Haram approach against the restive youths

- Warns that such approach would aggravate the crisis in the Niger Delta region

The Ijaw National Congress (INC) warns that military approach could escalate the crisis in the Niger Delta region.

The Ijaw National Congress (INC) has warned President Buhari against the deployment of troops in combating restive youths in the Niger Delta region.

READ ALSO: Why FG must punish Edwin Clark, militants

The Nation reports that the INC, a socio-cultural organisation of the Ijaw ethnic nationality in the Niger Delta, advocated that dialogue remains the best option for a peaceful resolution of the Niger Delta crisis.

The INC speaking on the backdrop of the recently launched military campaign, Operation Crocodile Smile, which has seen massive deployment of troops to the Niger Delta region, rejected the use of force against restive youths.

President of the group, Boma Obuoforibo, faulted calls by those advocating for the Boko Haram approach against restive youths.

Obuoforibo, during a press briefing in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital, on Sunday, September 11, said Niger Delta youths demand for equity, fairness and justice, could not be termed terrorism.

He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to disregard the calls for military campaign against the restive youths, warning that such approach would aggravate the crisis in the region.

He said: "The Federal Government cannot use the same Boko Haram approach against our youths; we disagree with that. The use of force is unnecessary because the leadership of INC is engaging the restive youths at various levels to embrace peace.

READ ALSO: Nigeria Army destroys 74 illegal Niger Delta refineries

One major reason the Niger Delta crisis has lingered on without any meaningful solution is insincerity on the part of the successive governments and the operators of the oil sector. We are calling on President Buhari not to listen to the call of adoption of military force in the region.

Meanwhile, six persons have been arrested for oil theft within the Escravos axis of Delta state, the Nigerian Navy made the arrest on Wednesday, September 7.

The Director of Information of the Nigerian Navy, Commodore Christian Ezekobe, said in a statement on Saturday, September 10, that six of the suspects were arrested during a raid by a team from the Operations Base, Escravos at Sara Creek, Delta state.

He said the patrol team destroyed three Cotonou boats laden with stolen crude oil.

Source: Legit.ng
Beijing also rejected reports of an October visit by Xi to Kathmandu being "cancelled" indicating that no dates had been fixed and that talks were still underway.

By Ananth Krishnan: China today said it was "in close communication" with Nepal on a long-discussed visit by President Xi Jinping.

Beijing also rejected reports of an October visit by Xi to Kathmandu being "cancelled" indicating that no dates had been fixed and that talks were still underway.

"The two sides are always in communication on high level exchanges so we cannot say it is cancelled or not, as it is not defined yet," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.

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The Foreign Ministry also said it was keen to promote close ties with the new government in Kathmandu.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, who took over in August from KP Sharma Oli, will visit India starting Thursday in his first overseas visit after coming to power.

Oli had pursued close ties with China, and earlier this year on a landmark visit to Beijing signed a historic agreement to extend the Chinese railway network in Tibet into Nepal.

Reports out of Nepal have said that Beijing has conveyed it wants to postpone a visit by President Xi scheduled for October because it was not pleased with the implementation of earlier agreements. China has sought assurances from the Prachanda government that it will honour the agreements signed by the Oli government.

"China and Nepal have been in close communication on high level exchanges," Hua said. "China attaches importance to developing relations with the new Nepali government and we would like to promote development of bilateral relations with Nepal."

Hua added, "We have close communication with Nepal on the relevant issue and we will release information in due course."



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Prologis has signed a long-term rental agreement with Schnellecke Logistics. Since June 2016, the logistics service provider uses 7,500 square meters of space at the Prologis Park Cologne-Eifeltor. The building comprises approximately 7,260 square meters of high-quality space and some 230 square meters of office space. Realogis acted as a

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August 2016 proved to be a profitable month for two wheeler manufacturers in India. A significant increase in sales was reported by Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India, Hero MotoCorp, India Yamaha Motor and Royal Enfield. The upcoming festive season and a host of new launches also spell promise for the months ahead.

Hero MotoCorp

The past month proved to be good for Hero MotoCorp as the company registered sales growth of 28%. As against 4,80,537 units sold in August 2015, the company sales increased to 6,16,424 units in August 2016. New launches are in the offing with 15 new products set for launch in both domestic and export markets of which Achiever 150cc, Super Splendor and Passion PRO are to launch ahead of the festive season.

Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India

August 2016 was a record-breaking month for Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI). The company reported outstanding domestic sales and exports during the past month. Domestic sales increased 25% from 3,73,136 units sold in August 2015 to 4,66,342 units sold in the past month. Honda Activa was a major driver where sales of the company were concerned and for the second month in a row, sales of Honda Activa have crossed the 3 lakh mark. Exports were noted to the tune of 26,074 units, the highest ever number to date. HMSI has also received 100% production levels at the companys second assembly line at the new Gujarat plant.

TVS Motor

TVS Motors announced a 30% increase in domestic sales. A total of 2,38,984 units were sold in the past month as compared to 1,83,653 units sold in August 2015. Automatic scooter sales increased 5.1% to 76,572 units in August 2016 as compared to 72,865 units sold in August 2015 while motorcycle sales stood at 1,14,195 units, an increase of 31.2% during the past month.

Bajaj Auto

Bajaj Auto Limited has revealed that domestic sales increased 27% in August 2016. 1,74,719 units were sold in the past month as compared to 1,37,948 units sold in August 2015. Exports of the company dipped 31% from 1,52,448 units exported in August 2015 to 1,05,192 units exported in the past month. These diminished exports affected overall sales in August 2016 wherein a 4% reduction in sales was recorded with 2,79,911 units sold as compared to 2,90,436 units sold in August 2015.

Yamaha India

The company saw domestic sales increase by 22% in August 2016 with total sales to the tune of 74,868 units as against 61,440 units sold in August 2015. It was the recently launched Cygnus Alpha scooter and Cygnus Ray ZR that also helped the company to meet these targets

Royal Enfield

Royal Enfield sales grew 32% in August 2016 while the company registered a 30% increase in exports. Domestic sales stood at 54,735 units in the past month as compared to 41,600 units sold in the year ago period. The four month period which ended August 2016 also saw sales up 35% at 2,56,582 units as against 1,89,733 units sold in the corresponding four month period in the past fiscal.

Note  We will update the post once Mahindra and Suzuki reveal their sales figure.
Honda Jazz got updated to new generation a couple of month ago  Will the WRV follow?

The Honda WRV may not be setting the compact SUV segment on fire but the Jazz-based soft crossover has been quietly churning out consistent volumes of the automaker in India. Amiable looks, spacious cabin and proven engine lineup make the WRV a sensible family car for Honda loyalists.

Now that the Honda Jazz hatchback has graduated to new generation, it is only a matter of time bore the company comes up with the crossover version. Brazil-based rendering artist Kleber Silva has envisioned the next generation Honda WRV based on the 2020 Jazz, and we think it is spot on!

For the latest generation, Hondas designers have accentuated the Jazzs original mini MPV-like silhouette. As a result, the new WRV would look nothing like the usual crop of hatchback-based crossovers SUVs. Instead of being outright sporty, as the rendering suggests, it would have a friendly and inviting demeanor.

It is reasonable to expect Honda to replace the mellow front fascia of the hatchback for a bolder chrome embellished design. One can expect new headlamps and bigger bumper with plastic inserts. The profile would be carried forward from the hatchback albeit with lower body cladding, roof rails, jacked up ride height and new alloy wheel pattern. The images show that the design goes well with dual-tone colour theme.

At the rear, revised taillights, additional chrome and a sportier bumper would go a long way in giving the new WRV a compact crossover appeal. If the relationship with existing WRV and its hatchback counterpart is to be taken as reference, we expect the next gen model to carry forward the new Jazzs interior without any change, and that is not a bad thing at all.

The 2020 Honda Jazz benefits from a simple, modern and uncluttered dashboard with two-spoke steering wheel, fully digital instrument cluster and a comprehensive touchscreen infotainment system. The design is intended at freeing up even more space up front. The new Honda WRV for international markets is likely to borrow its petrol and hybrid powertrains from the new Jazz.

As far as India is concerned, Honda is at the verge of introducing the BS6 version of the existing model now. The company has no plans of bringing the next generation Jazz to our shores, let alone the new gen WRV. It seems that the existing version will be soldiering on in our market for at least another year. If Honda does get the 2022 WRV to India, it will be a rival to the likes of Tata Nexon, Maruti Brezza, Hyundai Venue, etc.
By Atir Khan: Several questions have been raised after an incident of embezzlement of Rs 45 crore from the D-company came to light. However, debate is still on if the Dawood Ibrahim's henchman swindled the cash meant for laundering or did the Indian government intervened and blocked the cash from being deposited in a Canadian bank.

Latest intercepts by the central intelligence agencies suggest that the entire D Company is worried after the incident and could possibly target the person who had ditched them.

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Dawood Ibrahim, who is being addressed by his syndicate as 'Bade Hazrat,' these days is annoyed as one of his own henchman Khalique is suspected to have siphoned off Rs 45 crore which was raised under his name.

A RARE OCCURRENCE

Intelligence sources say this is one of the rarest of rare events when somebody within the D-Company is suspected to have dared to have misappropriated money raised in the name of Dawood.

Also read: Dawood Ibrahim's money was not swindled, Indian government had it seized



Intercepts of D-Company's conversation by central intelligence agencies suggests that D-Company had entrusted Khalique and Rais to deposit an amount of Rs 45 crore in Canada and Panama. As per D-Company operative Khalique the black money belonging to unknown white-collared persons in Delhi was deposited in the Canadian bank. However, his associate Rais made some blunder due to which bank had refused to release it.

At times banks deposit money on the insistence of clients but during their due diligence exercise they demand an explanation of source of the money. Until they are convinced the deposited money is not proceeds of crime, they do not release it.

CONVERTED BLACK TO WHITE

Documents accessed by India Today Group show D-Company have been engaged in round-tripping (converting black money into white through tax havens) for some white-collared persons in India.

The intercepts of telephonic conversation between D-Company's Pakistan based operative Jabir Moti and another one called Khalique while he was in Sharjah show a D-Company team had transferred the black money to Panama and Canada as late as 2012.

The operatives had discussed a figure of '45' out of which '20' belonged to a Bollywood superstar and '5' was to be given to D-Company as commission and remaining was to be invested in Panama and Canada.

Also read: Call intercept reveals Dawood Ibrahim laundering money for Bollywood star





UNIDENTIFIED BROKERS DEPLOYED

It is not clear whether they are talking about Rs 45 crore or Rs 45 thousand crore. The money was supposed to be brought back to India as white money. Some unidentified brokers had been activated by D-Company for this purpose.

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Interestingly during the conversation Jabir, one the top Pakistan based operatives informed Sharjah based operative Khalique that Rais, the third person, who had deposited the money in banks informed them that some money had been misappropriated by Khalique in the name of "Bade Hazrat."

Also read: It's official! UN confirms Dawood Ibrahim is in Pakistan



To which Khalique replied he did not misappropriate any money. But Rais, who had deposited the money in Panama and Canada made some mistakes due to which the money was blocked possibly in the banks. And the blocked money could only be retrieved after he receives debit/credit card statements from his banks.

DAWOOD OUTRAGED OVER THE INCIDENT

Khalique (who is of Indian-origin) had sent two of his associates to Canada on November 16, 2015 and they were to reach a place where they were to receive debit/credit card statements. Sources said Khalique and Rais are blaming each other for the goof-up. And that Dawood is not happy with this bickering. He wants to know what went wrong due to which the money had been blocked.

Sources said it is suspected Khalique is in the hiding somewhere in India, quite possibly north-east and D-Company is eyeing him for an explanation on the allegations of misappropriation in the name of Dawood Ibrahim. Meanwhile intelligence agencies are also trying to identify the persons who had provided black money to D-Company for conversion into white money.

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Also read:

Intel agencies make fresh dossier establishing Dawood's presence in Pakistan

Dawood Ibrahim won't skip nephew's Mumbai wedding, he'll Skype it



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Self-drive tractor concept from Case IH was revealed at the annual Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa. Case IH, an agricultural machinery unit of CNH Industrial has showcased this tractor that promises to be totally different from other conventional models.

With no seat / cabin for the driver, this Self-drive tractor concept is fitted with cameras, radar and GPS. It allows the farmer to remotely control farming operations such as sowing and harvesting via an app on the tablet computer as was indicated by company President, Andreas Klauser even as crowds teamed around to view the vehicle.

Klauser stated that such self driving tractors would have to first comply with various legal issues which could take upto 3 years after which they could go into production and on sale.

Self-drive tractor concept on display in Iowa will remain in concept stage while farmer feedback will be assessed. Klauser has not disclosed cost of building such a concept vehicle. Its estimated final pricing is also not revealed even as the sleek red and black tractor has regaled audience at the show due to its high onboard technology which promises to make farming operations simpler and more efficient.

Once put into service, these self-driving tractors will be able to work round the clock offering the farmer real-time data monitoring. The farmers will be able to program these tractors for specific jobs while monitoring the same via a tablet or computer from the luxuries of an office.

These tractors will be equipped with sensing and perception package that includes radar, LiDAR and sensors besides video cameras. Obstructions in its part will be immediately conveyed to the operator while the farmer could command the tractor to ignore the impediment and go ahead.

Watch the video below to understand them better.

News Release
Tata Motors now only has 5 cars on sale, as their remaining 5 cars have been discontinued

In March 2020, Tata Motors commanded the fifth position among automakers in India at a total sales figure of 5,676 units. Tata Motors was no exception to the difficult situation faced by almost every business in the country due to COVID-19 lockdown measures. The Indian automakers March 2020 sales figures dipped by 68% to 5,676 units; down from 17,810 units sold in March 2019.

In terms of overall sales (PV + CV), Tata Motors registered an 84% sales decline in the same month. Automotive plants were shut down and production is at a complete standstill in view of the coronavirus pandemic that has gripped the world. However, certain plants have started functioning with limited resources.

Among Tata Motors lineup, Nexon subcompact SUV commanded the highest sales in March 2020. Tata Nexon competes against the likes of Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, Hyundai Venue, Mahindra XUV300, Honda WR-V and Ford EcoSport. It hit a total sales of 2,646 units in March 2020, which is down by 53% compared to 5,616 units sold in March 2019.

Tata Car Sales March 2020

No Tata Mar-20 Mar-19 Diff % 1 Nexon 2,646 5,616 -2,970 -52.88 2 Altroz 1,147 0 1,147  3 Tiago 1,127 6,884 -5,757 -83.63 4 Harrier 632 2,492 -1,860 -74.64 5 Tigor 124 1,236 -1,112 -89.97 6 Bolt 0 30 -30 -100.00 7 Zest 0 645 -645 -100.00 8 Sumo 0 96 -96 -100.00 9 Safari 0 445 -445 -100.00 10 Hexa 0 366 -366 -100.00  Total 5,676 17,810 -12,134 -68.13

Recently, Tata Nexon XZ+ (S) with sunroof was launched in India at Rs 10.10 lakh ex-showroom for the petrol variant. Prices go up to Rs 11.60 lakh for the highest diesel trim.

Tata Tiago sales dipped by 84% to 1,127 units last month from 6,884 units sold in March 2019. Tiago hatchback has been upgraded to BS6 standards alongside several updates in terms of safety, equipment and features. It is powered by one of the most powerful engines in its segment  1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol engine offering around 84bhp and 113Nm torque. The engine is available mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox or a 5-speed AMT.

In the past month, Tata Motors did not note much response for its Tigor compact sedan. Sales dipped by 90% to 124 units while in March 2019, 1,236 Tata Tigor units were sold. Likewise, Tata Harrier sales also suffered a massive drop, reaching fourth on the company lineup with only 632 units sold in March 2020. This is down by 75% as against 2,492 units sold in March 2019. No sales were noted for Tata Motors Bolt, Zest, Safari Storme and Hexa models. These products may not make a comeback in BS6 format.

Tata Motors is apparently working on a new compact sedan, internally codenamed Goshaq. Set for launch sometime in 2022, the product will be based on the brands ALFA platform and could replace Tata Motors Tigor. Reports state that it will borrow its design from Hornbill, Sierra and Altroz to be a strong rival to Maruti Suzuki Dzire, Hyundai Aura and Honda Amaze.
Anthrax is caused by Bacillus anthracis, a pathogen that causes potentially fatal disease in most mammals, including humans. A study published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases reports that a related bacillus with distinct genetic and biological characteristics causes anthrax-like disease in chimps, gorillas, elephants, and goats from four different African countries. Increased surveillance for this pathogen is needed to evaluate its impact on animal and human health.

Bacillus anthracis and its two close relatives, Bacillus thuringiensis and Bacillus cereus, are spore-forming bacteria naturally found in soil throughout much of the world. Their ability to cause disease depends on so-called virulence factors, some of which are encoded on plasmids (smaller parts of genetic material that can relatively easily be exchanged between bacteria) rather than the single chromosome. B. anthracis contains two such plasmids called pXO1 and pXO2, and both are required for full virulence.

Fabian Leendertz, from the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, Germany, and colleagues, had previously described an unusual B. cereus bacterium isolated from a sick chimpanzee in Ivory Coast. This isolate possessed both the pXO1 and pXO2 'anthrax' plasmids, but its chromosome was closely related to B. cereus and not to B. anthracis. Because the bacterium appeared to have evolved from a B. cereus strain independently from the classic B. anthracis strains and established a B. anthracis lifestyle, the researchers called it 'B. cereus biovar (bv) anthracis'.

In the current study, they describe the origin and detailed molecular analysis of four additional B. cereus bv anthracis isolates. The bacteria were isolated from a goat, gorillas, a chimpanzee, and an elephant in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. All animals were sick or dead. Like the chimpanzee isolate from Ivory Coast, the new isolates shared the two virulence plasmids pXO1 and pXO2 with B. anthracis but chromosomal features with B. cereus.

More detailed analysis of their genomes suggested that the B. cereus bv anthracis isolates form a 'clade', which means they share a common ancestor. B. anthracis isolates, on the other hand, have a different ancestor and belong to a different clade. All B. cereus bv anthracis isolates possessed the same mutation in the regulator gene plcR, different from the one found in B. anthracis, and carry an intact copy of a gene mutated in B. anthracis, which enables them to produce a second outer shell composed of hyaluronic acid.

While closely related, the individual B. cereus bv anthracis isolates also differed amongst each other, for example in their ability to move in liquid medium and their resistance or sensitivity to penicillin, suggesting that this clade has existed and evolved for a while.

Their findings, the researchers say, "show the existence of a discrete clade of the B. cereus group capable of causing anthrax-like disease, found in areas of high biodiversity." They call for systematic surveillance "to establish the impact of these pathogenic bacteria on threatened wildlife species," and warn that "consumption of wildlife found dead by the local population and presence in a domestic animal reveal potential sources of exposure to humans."
Public confidence in vaccines varies widely between countries and regions around the world, and the European region is the most sceptical about vaccine safety, according to the largest ever global survey of confidence in vaccines. With recent disease outbreaks triggered by people refusing vaccination, the authors believe the findings provide valuable insights, which could help policymakers identify and address issues.

The new study, published in EBioMedicine, is led by researchers from the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, together with co-authors at Imperial College London and the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore.

Nearly 66,000 people were surveyed across 67 countries to discover their views on whether vaccines are important, safe, effective, and compatible with their religious beliefs.

Although overall sentiment towards vaccines was positive across the countries surveyed, the researchers found significant variation in attitudes around the world.

The European region had seven of the ten countries in the global sample that were the least confident in vaccine safety (France, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Russia, Ukraine, Greece, Armenia and Slovenia). France was the country least confident in safety, with 41% of those surveyed disagreeing that vaccines are safe, more than three times the global average of 12%. France was followed by Bosnia & Herzegovina (36%), Russia (28%) and Mongolia (27%), with Greece, Japan and Ukraine not far behind (25%).

The Southeast Asian region was most confident in vaccine safety across countries, including Bangladesh (fewer than 1% did not think vaccines are safe), Indonesia (3%) and Thailand (6%).

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The authors say the negative attitudes in France may come as a result of a number of controversies in the country over the past two decades, including controversy over suspected side effects of the Hepatitis B and HPV vaccines, and hesitancy among a significant proportion of GPs as to the usefulness of some vaccines.

Public trust in immunisation is an increasingly important global health issue. Decreases in confidence can lead to people refusing vaccines, which in turn has triggered disease outbreaks such as measles in the US, Europe, Asia, the Pacific and Africa. It has also caused setbacks to the global polio eradication programme. The World Health Organization's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization has called for improved monitoring of vaccine confidence and hesitancy to help prevent these damaging public health consequences.

Study lead author, Dr Heidi Larson from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: "Our findings give an insight into public opinion about vaccines on an unprecedented scale. It is vital to global public health that we regularly monitor attitudes towards vaccines so that we can quickly identify countries or groups with declining confidence. We can then act swiftly to investigate what is driving the shift in attitudes. This gives us the best chance of preventing possible outbreaks of diseases like measles, polio and meningitis which can cause illness, life-long disability and death.

"It's striking that Europe stands out as the region most sceptical about vaccine safety. And, in a world where the internet means beliefs and concerns about vaccines can be shared in an instant, we should not underestimate the influence this can have on other countries around the world."

The findings show that many countries (particularly France, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Japan, Iran, Mongolia and Vietnam), display much greater confidence in the importance of vaccines than in their safety. This suggests that people do not necessarily dismiss the value of vaccination even if they have doubts about how safe vaccines are.

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Dr Larson added: "Our study suggests that the public largely understands the importance of vaccines, but safety is their primary concern. This could reflect a worrying confidence gap and shows that vaccine acceptance is precarious. The findings underline that the scientific and public health community needs to do much better at building public trust in the safety of vaccination."

Bangladesh, Iran and Ecuador had the highest proportion of people who agreed that vaccines are important, while Russia, Italy and Azerbaijan reported most scepticism around their importance.

Although the researchers found that in some countries particular religious groups were more sceptical of vaccines than others were, no single religion was associated with negative attitudes worldwide. They say this indicates that the impact religion has on attitudes towards vaccines is dependent on the local context, rather than being driven by the religious doctrine itself.

Another finding suggested that older people (aged 65 and over) globally had more positive views on vaccines than other age groups.

WIN/Gallup International Association collected the data as part of their annual end-of-year survey. Survey responses were either collected through face-to-face interviews, telephone or online, based on phone and internet availability in each country.

The researchers note that the findings cannot reveal whether attitudes were related to specific vaccines, or give reasons behind the attitudes expressed. They hope future surveys will provide these insights, and that this study can be used as a baseline to monitor change in attitudes towards vaccines over time.
The world's best-selling insecticide may impair the ability of a queen honey bee and her subjects to maintain a healthy colony, says new research led by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln entomologist.

The research examined the effects of imidacloprid, which belongs to a popular class of nicotine-based insecticides known as neonicotinoids. Honey bees often become exposed to neonicotinoids in the process of pollinating crops and ornamental plants while foraging for the nectar and pollen that feed their colonies.

Queen bees in colonies that were fed imidacloprid-laced syrup laid substantially fewer eggs -- between one-third and two-thirds as many, depending on the dose of imidacloprid -- than queens in unexposed colonies, the study reported.

"The queens are of particular importance because they're the only reproductive individual laying eggs in the colony," said lead author Judy Wu-Smart, assistant professor of entomology. "One queen can lay up to 1,000 eggs a day. If her ability to lay eggs is reduced, that is a subtle effect that isn't (immediately) noticeable but translates to really dramatic consequences for the colony."

Wu-Smart and her colleague, the University of Minnesota's Marla Spivak, assessed colonies populated by 1,500, 3,000 and 7,000 honey bees. Some colonies received normal syrup, with others given syrup that contained imidacloprid in doses of 10, 20, 50 and 100 parts per billion, or PPB.

Colonies that consumed the imidacloprid also featured larger proportions of empty cells, the signature hexagonal hollows that serve as cribs for honey bee broods. About 10 percent of cells in the unexposed colonies were vacant, compared with 24, 31, and 48 percent of the 20, 50 and 100 PPB colonies, respectively. The finding suggests poor brood health in the exposed colonies, Wu-Smart said.

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The researchers further found that exposed colonies collected and stored far less pollen, which they convert into a "bee bread" that provides crucial protein for recently hatched larvae. While more than four percent of the cells in unexposed hives contained pollen, less than one percent of cells in even the 10 PPB colonies did.

And the honey bee equivalent of biohazard containment -- the removal of mite-infested or diseased pupae before they can infect the hive -- also suffered. An unexposed colony of 7,000 bees removed more than 95 percent of the ailing brood, but a 100 PPB colony eliminated only 74 percent and a 50 PPB colony just 63 percent. Wu-Smart said this reduction in hygienic behavior indicates that the exposed colonies could be more susceptible to pests and pathogens.

Yet Wu-Smart and Spivak also discovered that some of the insecticide's apparent effects, such as decreasing the amount of time a queen spent moving through the hive or the number of worker bees foraging for food, dissipated as the size of a colony increased.

"What we can say is that smaller colonies tend to be more vulnerable, because the queens are more likely to become exposed," Wu-Smart said. "When we look at our general beekeeping practices, the early spring is when colonies are at their smallest size. They're coming out of winter, and a lot of them are naturally smaller."

Unfortunately, Wu-Smart said, growers typically apply insecticides or sow insecticide-treated seeds at that same time. Even imidacloprid-treated crops that bees typically do not pollinate, such as corn, can contribute to exposure when winds sweep up the dust stirred by planting machines and carry it across miles of landscape. That dust can settle in willow trees, dandelions, clovers and other flowering plants that represent food sources for honey bees.

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Though Wu-Smart said she doesn't consider banning neonicotinoids a practical step in protecting honey bee colonies, she did advocate for regulating insecticide-treated seeds the same way the industry does with sprays and other application techniques.

"When you spray a pesticide, you have to consider things like wind and temperature to reduce drift," she said. "You can't aerial-spray on a windy day. With seed-treated products, there is no label telling (growers) that it's been treated with an insecticide. There is no restriction as to when you can plant.

"When we do a lot of the extension outreach and talking to growers, many of them are unaware that this is even a problem. So just having that label on the bag saying that planting these seed treatments on a windy day could potentially cause some effects on bees could be useful."

The new study represents another step toward understanding the complex, often intertwined ways that neonicotinoids and other insecticides affect honey bee colonies, Wu-Smart said.

"What we're seeing now is that beekeepers will ... check their hives, say that the hives look good, come back a few weeks later, and (see) the colony start to look really weak," she said. "They'll come back (again), and the colony is dead or dying. So it's a slow decline of their colony health.

"In many of these cases, we want to figure out why these colonies are dwindling when they should be at their peak production. This is providing some of that insight. It's not answering all the questions, but it's definitely something to consider."

Wu-Smart and Spivak published their findings in the journal Scientific Reports. The research was supported in part by a fellowship Wu-Smart received from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Certain antibiotic resistance genes are easily transferred from one bacterial species to another, and can move between farm animals and the human gut. A team led by Chinese researchers has characterized this "mobile resistome," which they say is largely to blame for the spread of antibiotic resistance. They found that many antibiotic resistance genes that are shared between the human and animal gut microbiome are also present in multiple human pathogens. These findings are published September 9 in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

"This is an incredibly robust study," said Harold Drake, PhD, editor of the journal. "The so-called "transfer network" of antibiotic resistance genes described in the paper is very forward reaching and will have great impact not only on our understanding of this modern microbial dilemma but also on how human healthcare agencies and research institutes attempt to cope with it."

In China, the human and chicken gut microbiomes share 36 mobile resistance genes, said corresponding author Baoli Zhu, PhD, professor of pathogenomics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Medical School. The human gut microbiomes in China, Europe, and the US share more mobile resistance genes with the chicken gut microbiome than with any other livestock gut microbiomes.

Among 84 mobile antibiotic resistance genes shared between at least two gut databases, 41 had recently moved between human and animal guts, said Zhu. Collectively, genes from among these 41 are capable of disabling all of six major classes of antibiotics, including tetracyclines, aminoglycosides, and beta-lactams.

Transfer of resistance genes between bacterial species occurs chiefly among four of the 11 major bacterial phyla -- Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria, said Zhu. The investigators found a total of 515 mobile resistance genes, which were distributed among 790 individual bacterial species.

The resistance gene sharing can be quite promiscuous. "We found a total of 11 species that each shared at least one mobile [resistance gene] with more than 200 other species," the investigators wrote. The species displaying the most sharing of resistance genes were E. coli, Bacteroides fragilis, and Staphylococcus aureus, all of which can be pathogenic. These species shared resistance genes with 302, 266, and 260 other species, respectively.

The network of horizontal gene transfer is shaped largely by phylogeny and ecological constraints, said Zhu. That is, resistance gene transfers from one species of bacteria to another are more common within the same phylum than between different phyla, and more common within a single microbiome than between microbiomes. On the latter point, the investigators wrote that successful gene transfer requires contact between donor and recipient.

The recent mobile resistance gene transfer that has taken place between livestock and human gut microbiomes is especially important for policy-makers. Much of the resistance in farm animals is generated by feeding them large quantities of antibiotics, which is done because it encourages the animals to grow faster.

"One consideration, from the worldwide ecological view, is that bacteria of animal origin may face more antibiotic selection pressure because more antibiotics (nearly 80 percent in the United states) are consumed by animals as growth-promotors, infection prevention, and clinical treatments," the investigators wrote. "The high exchange frequency of mobile [antibiotic resistance genes] between animals and humans or environmental bacteria is also noteworthy."
A new study indicates that adolescent females with acute leukemia have low rates of pregnancy screening prior to receiving chemotherapy that can cause birth defects. The findings are published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

Although many chemotherapy drugs can cause birth defects, there are no standardized guidelines for pregnancy screening in adolescent female cancer patients and little is known about how often they are screened prior to treatment. To investigate, a team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia examined pregnancy screening patterns among adolescents with acute leukemia compared with adolescents with an emergency room (ER) visit who received computed tomography scans of the abdomen or pelvis. (In emergency medicine, pregnancy screening protocols exist for adolescents prior to receiving radiation due to known teratogenic risks of radiation.)

The analysis included acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and ER admissions in hospitals across the United States affiliated with the Pediatric Health Information System from 1999 to 2011. Among 35,650 patient admissions of females aged 10 to 18 years with newly diagnosed leukemia or ER admissions with scans of the abdomen or pelvis, the proportion of visits with an appropriately timed pregnancy test was 35 percent, 64 percent, and 58 percent in the ALL, AML, and ER groups, respectively. Patients with ALL were 29 percent less likely to have a pregnancy test compared with the ER patients, but there was no significant difference between the AML and ER groups. There was substantial variation in pregnancy screening patterns among different hospitals.

"We found that adolescent girls are not adequately screened for pregnancy prior to receiving chemotherapy or CT scans that could harm a developing fetus. Adolescents with ALL, the most common childhood cancer, had the lowest rates of pregnancy screening of the patients we studied," said lead author Pooja Rao, MD, MSCE, who is currently at Penn State Health's Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. "Since nearly all chemotherapy agents used for childhood/adolescent acute leukemia can cause potential harm to a developing fetus, our findings indicate a need for standardized pregnancy screening practices for adolescent patients being treated for cancer."

Dr. Rao also noted that the low rates of pregnancy screening observed in this study may indicate a reluctance on the part of pediatric oncologists to discuss sexual health practices with adolescent patients. "While sexual health discussions and education may traditionally be thought to be the responsibility of the patient's primary care provider, adolescents with cancer will often see their oncologist frequently over the course of their cancer treatment, and afterwards," she said. "Oncologists therefore are well-positioned to initiate discussions about sexual health with their patients."
Researchers have developed a new laser that makes it possible to measure electron transition energies in small atoms and molecules with unprecedented precision. The instrument will help scientists test one of the bedrock theories of modern physics to new limits, and may help resolve an unexplained discrepancy in measurements of the size of the proton.

The team will present their work during the Frontiers in Optics (FiO) / Laser Science (LS) conference in Rochester, New York, USA on 17-21 October 2016.

"Our target is the best tested theory there is: quantum electrodynamics," said Kjeld Eikema, a physicist at Vrije University, The Netherlands, who led the team that built the laser. Quantum electrodynamics, or QED, was developed in the 1940s to make sense of small unexplained deviations in the measured structure of atomic hydrogen. The theory describes how light and matter interact, including the effect of ghostly 'virtual particles.' Its predictions have been rigorously tested and are remarkably accurate, but like extremely dedicated quality control officers, physicists keep ordering new tests, hoping to find new insights lurking in the experimentally hard-to-reach regions where the theory may yet break down.

A promising tool for the next generation of tests is the new high-intensity laser. It produces pulses of deep ultraviolet light with energies large enough to bump electrons in some of the simplest atoms and molecules into a higher energy level.

"For increased precision, you have to do these QED tests in the most simple atoms and molecules," Eikema explained.

The team has already tested the laser on molecular hydrogen. They measured the frequency of light required to excite a certain electron transition with a preliminary uncertainty of less than one part per 100 billion, more than 100 times better than previous measurements.

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The Challenge of Ultra-Precise Measurements in the UV

The key challenge for the team wasn't really producing the deep UV light -- a feat that has been accomplished before -- but in finding a way to keep the measurements precise.

Short pulses, which are easier to produce for UV light, make inherently uncertain measurements, due to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. One way around this is to use a technique called Ramsey interferometry, which requires two pulses of light separated by an incredibly precise period of time.

What Eikema and his colleagues did that had never been done before was to get the two pulses by extracting them from a device, called a frequency comb laser, uniquely suited to create precisely timed pulses.

"People normally think that if you take just two pulses out of a frequency comb then you destroy the beauty of a frequency comb, but we do it in a special way," Eikema said.

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Extracting and amplifying the pulses introduced uncertainties, but the team found that if they hit an atom or molecule with differently spaced pulse pairs and then analyzed the results simultaneously, the uncertainties in effect canceled out. Even better, it also canceled out an unwanted effect called the AC-Stark effect, which arises when the high-intensity light used for measurement actually changes the structure of an atom or molecule.

"Using this method we actually restore all the properties of the frequency comb, and we also get exciting new properties," Eikema said. "This was our eureka moment."

Finding the Holy Grail of QED Tests

The team's next goal is to use their laser to measure the first electron transition energy of a positively charged helium atom, called He+.

He+ is the one of the "holy grails" for testing QED, Eikema said, because the properties of the nucleus have been extensively studied, it can be trapped with electromagnetic fields and observed for a very long time, and the QED effects are larger in helium than in hydrogen.

"If it's possible to measure this transition in He+, people will immediately do it, because it's a very nice, clean transition," he said.

A test of QED in He+ might also help resolve the proton radius problem, a new puzzle gripping the physics community after complementary tests turned up conflicting measurements of the proton's size. The discrepancy could be due to a problem with QED theory, and so a better test would help scientists see whether or not QED theory still holds at this unprecedented new level of precision.

Going from molecular hydrogen to He+ is still an enormous jump, Eikema said, since the wavelength of light required is almost ten times shorter. If all goes according to plan, he estimates the team may have results to report in about 2 years.

"I went to a conference about the proton size problem and explained how we want to measure this transition of He+. Everyone was asking 'When? When? When?' They really want to know," Eikema said.

Sandrine Galtier, a postdoctoral researcher at Vrije University who will present the team's findings at the FiO meeting, says it's exciting how well their new laser system can test the extreme limits of theoretical physics.

"We don't need huge accelerators. With just a tabletop experiment, we can test the Standard Model of physics," she said.
A new study on euthanasia trends in Belgium, which shows an increase in reported cases since legislation was introduced, provides lessons for countries that have legalized assisted dying. The research is published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

In 2002, Belgium legalized the intentional ending of life by a physician at the patient's explicit request. The government introduced safeguards to protect patients, including a multidisciplinary review panel -- the Belgian Federal Control and Evaluation Committee for Euthanasia -- to ensure that each procedure was performed according to legal guidelines.

The Belgian researchers found that the number of officially reported euthanasia cases in Belgium increased from 235 in 2003 to 1807 in 2013 across all age groups and in all settings (home or care facility). They also noted an increase among people with conditions other than cancer and in people over age 80, a finding that was rare in the first few years after legalization. The highest incidence was consistently found among people dying with cancer, those younger than 80 years of age and those dying at home. There were also increases in euthanasia among people without terminal disease and those with psychiatric disorders, but their numbers remain relatively small.

"These findings might suggest an increase in the number of requests from these groups as they increasingly became aware of the legal possibility to request euthanasia. These findings might also reflect a decrease in reluctance to provide euthanasia within these groups as physicians became more experienced and the wider society became more familiar with these types of cases," writes Prof. Kenneth Chambaere, End-of-Life Care Research Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Ghent University, Brussels, Belgium, with coauthors.

Palliative care specialists were also consulted increasingly in the euthanasia procedure, though this is not a legal requirement.

"The increase in euthanasia among cases with noncancer diagnoses and nonterminal diseases emphasizes the importance of thorough evaluation and monitoring of the practice, since these situations are often more complex and may include psychiatric disorders and 'tiredness of life'."

"Given differences in developments between jurisdictions and even within Belgium, it is clear that societal and cultural contexts play a key role in how euthanasia practice has been adopted after legalization," the authors conclude.
An international study led by The Australian National University (ANU) will help underpin the development of next-generation medical treatments and industrial applications such as removing pesticides from waterways.

Lead researcher Associate Professor Colin Jackson said the study significantly improved scientific understanding of the way that enzymes can change their function.

Enzymes are the molecular machines that speed up chemical reactions in biology and are required for many medical and industrial innovations.

"One of the biggest challenges in using enzymes in medicine, industry and environmental clean-up is engineering them to do what we want them to do, rather than what they've naturally evolved to do," said Dr Jackson, who is an ARC Future Fellow at the ANU Research School of Chemistry.

"The difficulty in engineering enzymes to do these specific tasks is partly related to our poor understanding of how they really work."

To better understand how enzymes work and how their functions can change, Dr Jackson's team sped up the evolution of an enzyme in a test tube -- equal to hundreds of years of evolution in nature -- and captured a molecular fossil record of many different versions of the protein along the evolutionary journey.

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"We observed that the change in the enzyme's function, as it evolved, was partly due to changes in the enzyme's structure, but also involved the enzyme's ability to move or change shape," he said.

"This means to engineer enzymes better we need to not only change their structure, which we understand fairly well, but also find better ways to change the way that they move in three dimensions."

Dr Jackson said previous studies had indicated that an enzyme's movement was potentially significant in terms of function. But this study showed how enzyme movements changed as they evolved and resulted in new functions.

He said the new findings would change the way enzymes were engineered for biotechnology innovations, potentially leading to the development of better enzymes to fight diseases and address industrial challenges.

The study, published in Nature Chemical Biology, involved the Australian Synchrotron and 12 scientists from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and France working together as part of a six-year study.

Co-lead researcher Eleanor Campbell said that enzymes were ideal for use in many industrial applications because they were environmentally friendly.

"Enzymes occur naturally so they degrade very easily in the environment, and they are very powerful catalysts because they don't depend on harsh solvents, heavy metals or things that chemists typically use in a lab to encourage a chemical reaction," said Ms Campbell, a PhD student at the ANU Research School of Chemistry.

"So, for instance, we can add pesticide-degrading enzymes to a polluted waterway and their target pesticide can be degraded naturally. "Essentially, protein engineering will allow us to make tools that can speed up lots of exciting reactions without many detrimental effects."
For months Dawood Ibrahim thought that he was being cheated by his own men, but when he realized that his hawala transactions were being blocked by Indian agencies, he was flabbergasted.

By Shivendra Srivastava: For past few months, underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his core team were flustered about their funds routed through various countries but actually going nowhere. They thought that someone from their own gang went away with the money. They suspected that they were being cheated by their own men, who were going rogue.

READ: Call intercept reveals Dawood Ibrahim laundering money for Bollywood star

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Now, it has emerged that it was the government of India, which was tracking their business in several countries and was working behind the curtain to cripple the Dawood gang. According to intelligence agencies, Dawood was not cheated Rs 40 crore over the past two years by his men, but the government of India got several of his transactions in UAE, Canada, UK and Australia seized.

READ: Centre comes up with new blueprint to nab Dawood Ibrahim, constitutes 50-member special team

The Indian government has managed, the agencies claim, to make governments of many countries agree to keep a track on Dawood's business activities and transactions. These also agreed to share details of bigger transactions of Dawood with the Indian agencies.

In the last two years, the Indian agencies have been successful in getting five to six hawala transactions seized in Dubai, Canada, UK and Australia. One such transaction was frozen by a bank in UAE, suspecting it to be hawala money. This particular transaction was routed through India-Dubai-Canada-Dubai-India.

READ: It's official! UN confirms Dawood Ibrahim is in Pakistan

When agencies got suspicious of this transaction, the bank was asked about the credentials of the end person. It was never provided and under pressure from the Indian agencies, the transaction money was shifted to some sundry accounts in parts.

For months, the Dawood gang thought that such transactions were being routed to some rogue elements from within. Later, when it realized that the banks acted in such a manner on pursuance of the Indian agencies, the D-gang fell silent.

READ: Pakistan must extradite Dawood Ibrahim: Vikas Swarup

Now, the gang is learnt to have narrowed down its hawala business to an exclusive group of confidants and only through secure banks availing different routes. Secondly, they have resorted to making payments in conflict diamonds besides adopting other means.

On the other hand, the intelligence agencies are now tracking these front-men of Dawood in India and other countries to bring them to law and extract information about new means of transaction and new modes of operation.

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--- ENDS ---
Update: The Bureau of Land Management responded to public outcry on Wednesday, saying that the department has no current plans to kill the horses and will continue caring for any horses that are not sold at auction. The department has not yet formally replied to the advisory board's proposal, but will do so at its next meeting, Reuters reported. The Dodo will follow this story as it develops. A government board just recommended that 45,000 wild horses and burros be killed to make room for beef mega farms - and you're about to pay for it. Taxpayers would fund the biggest horse slaughter in history, after the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) voted to euthanize of all wild horses and burros in government-run holding facilities throughout the U.S. Animal advocates are heartbroken by the decision, and are volunteering to help with any alternatives to the killing.

Wild horse nursing her baby. | Shutterstock

"The decision of the BLM advisory board to recommend the destruction of the 45,000 wild horses currently in holding facilities is a complete abdication of responsibility for their care," Holly Hazard, senior vice president of programs & innovations at the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), said in a press release. "The agency would not be in this situation but for their long-term mismanagement." Alternatives to killing the horses, such as humane fertility control, have been ignored for over 20 years, according to Hazard, as the horses and burros have been rounded up by the government and taken away from their wild homes to make room for cattle ranchers. At the government-run facilities, horses have been left out in pens in 100-degree heat with no shelter to protect them.

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And the facilities are becoming overcrowded. Although the BLM says that they do not send horses to slaughter, many of the horses they auction off end up in the slaughter pipeline. A recent investigative report discovered that the BLM sold horses to a Colorado rancher who in turn sent those horses to Mexico for slaughter.

Wild horses roaming free. | Shutterstock

Fewer than 50,000 wild horses now remain in the wild, following the removal of around 270,000 mustangs from private land since 1971, according to In Defense of Animals (IDA). "With wild horse populations critically low, the planned slaughter amounts to a genocide," the group wrote in a press release. "The BLM continues to persecute wild horses through continued roundups to remove horses from the range so that public lands can be used by meat ranchers," IDA wrote, pointing out that the number of cows and sheep on public lands leaves wild horses outnumbered by over 30 to one. The massive ranches that supply factory farms with animals destined for slaughter are also devastating the environment.

The BLM spent millions each year maintaining the holding facilities, but didn't implement a humane plan to sterilize the horses. Rather, BLM experimented with invasive sterilization procedures on the wild horses, causing public outcry. One of the ways was restraining female horses while a veterinarian reaches into her vagina, makes an incision in the vaginal wall and manually twists and severs the ovaries with a tool with a chain on the end of it. The procedure "may be followed by prolonged bleeding or ... infection," according to the National Academy of Sciences, which urged the BLM not to use this technique for its horses. Another way is reaching into the female horse through an incision in her side.

The Bureau of Land Management is removing America's wild horses to make room for beef cattle. | Shutterstock
As rescuers make their way from home to home in the wake of the Louisiana floods, the scenes start to repeat themselves. Lifeless yards. Dark houses. No one home.

Guardians of Rescue

But they keep making house calls during this post-apocalypse - the aftermath of the worst disaster the country's seen since Hurricane Sandy in 2012. When 30,0000 people fled the southern parts of the state two weeks ago, many left their pets behind. And now, rescuers are racing to find them. Like a German shepherd, who, at just 38 pounds, was initially mistaken for dead.

Guardians of Rescue

"She was covered in mud, lying motionless in a ditch when passersby first noticed her," Patricia Blackwood, operations officer for Guardians of Rescue, tells The Dodo. "It was as though she had given up hope and was waiting to die."

Guardians of Rescue

But not that day. Instead, the dog will recover at an emergency shelter.

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Guardians of Rescue

"Now what you have is animals come out of hiding," Robert Misseri, founder of Guardians of Rescue, tells The Dodo. "Animals wandering lost, hurt, starving. This is what you're dealing with on an everyday basis." "You come up to a house, there's no one there. No one around," he says. "You can see dogs haven't eaten. No water, no food, nothing. Just chained up." But alive. Last week, rescuers were tipped off to three dogs trapped in a yard. Their owner had fled, leaving them with empty bowls and no means of escape.

Guardians of Rescue

They had been chained to their posts for good measure.

Guardians of Rescue

But thanks to a neighbor who gave them food and water, they managed to survive until help got there. "After assessing the situation, the owner was located and ownership was signed over and we quickly moved in to remove them from where they had endured rising waters, hunger and thirst," Blackwood says.

Guardians of Rescue

But then rescuers were faced with the same problem that has plagued the animal rescue effort since the torrent began in mid-August. Where do they take these tired, hungry dogs? "It's been really difficult because there's no assistance," Misseri says. "The shelters are full. They can't take in animals."

Guardians of Rescue

Where rescuers once faced a flood, they now find themselves bogged down by a severe shortage of resources. "Until [the animals are] medically cleared, you can't move them out of the state," Misseri notes. "It's really complicated. It's one of those rescues that, if you don't have resources, you're really stuck."

Guardians of Rescue

These three dogs were among the fortunate few to find spots in emergency shelters. They were loaded into crates, then kennels. Then given much-needed baths.

Guardians of Rescue

"They are all happy, friendly dogs who love people," Blackwood says.

Guardians of Rescue

Two are heartworm positive. All now have hope.

Guardians of Rescue

When Misseri explains what rescuers need, you can tell it isn't the first time he's recited this list. "We need rescues to take animals. We need transport. We need vets," he says.

Guardians of Rescue

Even horses were left behind, their owners unable to return to them when the waters rose. Some ended up standing in sewage-filled water for so long, their infected skin had peeled off. "The waters may be receding, but that has brought a flood of animals who are in dire need," Blackwood explains. "Abandoned, starving, injured and ill. The reality is, time is running out and Guardians of Rescue is working to beat that clock." But the flood of four-legged refugees continues to rage, even as more rescue groups pull out of the area. And not every cry for help can be heard. Sometimes, you have to peer over the fences.
Bowie is a horse with dwarfism who was abandoned at only 6 weeks old. He was adopted by a veterinary nurse, who immediately noticed that his legs were growing in a deformed way, and said this might affect his ability to walk and run as he got older.

Bowie's new mom took him to the University of Melbourne Equine Hospital in Australia to seek professional help for Bowie's condition. They met with a specialist, and after weeks of treatment, including tiny shoes made especially for Bowie, his legs corrected themselves and finally began growing the right way.

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Now, Bowie is a happy, healthy little horse who doesn't let anything get in his way. He loves running on the beach with his friends ...

... taking baths ...

... cuddling on the couch ...

... and meeting new friends smaller than him ...

... and much, much bigger than him.
For more than 20 minutes, Norman, a 1,700-pound horse, did not get up from the concrete ground. He was unable to, after collapsing in the middle of New York City traffic at 2 a.m. this past Labor Day weekend. According to a witness at the scene, the 14-year-old draft horse was pushed to the point of exhaustion. The witness, a man named Bogdan Paul Anghelut, told the New York Post that he saw the horse's driver screaming at Norman to make a green light. But due to fatigue, Norman was allegedly unable to follow through with the command. He fell and was seen to be breathing "slow and hard," according to Anghelut. After Norman collapsed, workers from the stables came to assist the horse, bringing him water and putting something in his mouth, Anghelut told the New York Post. After those long 20 minutes, Norman was able to stand up once again, with a police officer at the scene reassuring Anghelut that the horse was fine.

Christina Hansen, a carriage industry spokeswoman, told the New York Post that Norman is a "klutz" and happened to trip himself on his way back to the stables after his shift. Anghelut shared the story and photos he took of the scene with several New York City departments and NYClass, a local animal advocacy group. In a statement addressing the incident, NYClass criticized New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for not speaking up for Norman's case despite aligning himself with animal advocates - de Blasio is the first New York mayor to hire a point person for animal welfare issues in the city in recent history. "It is outrageous that in the year 2016, there are still carriage horses collapsing on Hell's Kitchen streets at 2:00 a.m.," NYClass said in the statement. "Had this witness not come forward to report the incident to animal advocates, the public never would have known it even happened. How many other horse incidents have been hidden from the public?" Unfortunately, many.

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A New York City carriage horse | Facebook/Christina Hansen
Travel nearly anywhere in the world, and youll find cheap airlines offering no-frills service, from European giant Ryanair Holdings to Peach Aviation in Japan, flynas in Saudi Arabia and Spirit Airlines in the U.S.

But head north of the border, and the aviation landscape is untouched by ultra-low-cost airlines.

Canada ranks among the worlds most expensive countries to fly, thanks in part to high airport and security fees and limited competition, and service is meagre in many small and medium-sized cities. More than 60 per cent of Canadas 36 million people live within 160 kilometres of the border, and many head south to fly; about 5 million cross the border each year for cheaper flights.

Some cheaper fares may be en route. Three companies are working to bring the ultra-low-cost model to the country, where air travel is dominated two national airlines, Air Canada and WestJet Airlines Ltd.

But higher operating costs make it hard for new airlines to survive, and the dominant airlines are sure to respond to upstarts offering lower fares. WestJet, for example, has already begun new nonstop service on two routes flown by the first of these newcomers.

Canada is one of just two nations in the Group of 20 largest economies without any ultra-low-cost carriers, or ULCCs. The other, Argentina, may see one next year as Irelandia Aviation  the Dublin-based investment firm that has established ULCCs like Ryanair in Europe and Allegiant Travel Co. in the U.S.  aims to expand its low-cost airline group Grupo Viva Aerobus there.

Canada also charges higher security fees than most other nations  up to $25 per passenger  and its 26 largest airports must make annual payments to their municipalities in lieu of local taxes.

A 2015 report to the Canadian transport minister, reviewing the nations transportation system, found air travel in Canada marked by weak accountability constraints on fees and charges; high costs for users and operators; aggressive capital expenditure programs at airports; modest traffic volumes; and limited competition. It recommended the government reform airport ownership structure and offer the aviation sector more federal financial aid, as the U.S. does. There is no room for complacency, it added.

Canadians are eager for the expanded service and lower fares that ULCCs could provide, said Jim Young, chief executive of NewLeaf Travel Co., a virtual airline in its sixth week of operations, with three Boeing 737s flying to secondary airports in 11 cities nationwide.

NewLeaf, based in Winnipeg, itself has no air certificates or airplanes. It sells tickets on an established carrier, Flair Airlines  a wet lease arrangement that lets NewLeaf escape many of the costly aspects of being an airline. Flair staffs and maintains the fleet and sells capacity to NewLeaf.

Canadians understand the business model  they understand the fees, they understand that you pay for what you consume, Young said in a telephone interview.

Canada is among the most expensive places for air travel  70th out of 75 nations, in terms of the average cost to fly 100 kilometres, at $38.71, according to data released last week by the online travel agency Kiwi.com. (Only Japan, the Netherlands, Qatar, Finland and the United Arab Emirates had more expensive fares, according to Kiwi; the U.S. was 17th, with India the cheapest place to fly.)

The countrys high airport fees limit the traffic-stimulating effect that lower fares can have for low-cost airlines elsewhere, but flying to smaller, cheaper airports increases the odds of success, said NewLeafs chairman Ben Baldanza, calling the company the the only ULCC option that I have seen in Canada that makes sense to me.

Baldanza, who was previously chief executive at Spirit, is also a small investor in the Canadian startup and serves on the board of Iceland-based low-cost carrier WOW Air.

NewLeaf avoids Canadas primary, higher-cost airports like Toronto Pearson and Vancouver International, just as Allegiant Travel Co. does larger U.S. airports. In Canada, secondary airport fees are generally far lower than those at major airports, which is why a low-cost airline such as NewLeaf looks to towns like Hamilton over Toronto, or Abbotsford instead of Vancouver, Baldanza said.

Price is the prime selling point in the ULCC model: Fares begin under $40, and in many cases well under $40. In China, for example, Spring Airlines sells tickets for as little as 99 yuan ($14.82). The U.S. has three such carriers  Spirit, Allegiant, and Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc.  and all have been expanding voraciously.

Because of Canadas higher costs, fares there wont be as low as other nations enjoy. But executives at all three of Canadas fledgling ULCCs say they aim to underprice Air Canada and WestJet by 25 per cent to 35 per cent.

Calgary-based Enerjet is a charter operator that flies oil- and gas-field workers in northern Alberta and does contract work for Air Transat, another Canadian charter carrier. Now, it is transitioning to the ultra-low-cost model.

Enerjet has been hunkered down for more than a year amid the collapse in oil prices and western Canadas depressed economy, said Darcy Morgan, the companys chief commercial officer; his brother Tim, a WestJet co-founder, is its CEO. The company leases three Boeing 737-700s and wants to begin a new ULCC tentatively called Flytoo. (It was first called Jet Naked for its knack for drawing publicity, but that name was abandoned.) Enerjet is working to raise $80 million and hopes to begin Flytoo service by years end.

A third company, Calgary-based Canada Jetlines Ltd., is trying to raise $50 million and begin flying from major Canadian cities to U.S. sun destinations like Las Vegas, Phoenix and Los Angeles this year or next. Jetlines has ordered five new Boeing 737 Max aircraft for its future expansion, with options for 16 more.

Initially, Jetlines plans to expand to a half dozen 737-700s in its first year and to list shares publicly. The airline plans to offer fares 30 percent cheaper than Air Canada and WestJet but also to avoid direct competition with both, said Jim Scott, Jetlines president and chief executive officer.

The passengers that we [will] move are not the passengers that Air Canada and WestJet want, anyway, Scott said. The focus in Canada is on the business traveler or the frequent flier. I always say everyone who gets boarded before I get boarded is the [passenger] theyre interested in.

During the winter, all three low-cost airlines will look south to Mexico, the U.S. and the Caribbean, as Canadians seek warmer-weather respites.

I think theres a chance to make more money in the winter than [NewLeaf does] in the summer, Baldanza said of NewLeaf and its focus on smaller cities. The reality is that people who live in Moncton want to get warm just like people who live in Toronto want to get warm in the winter.

As with nearly any airline startup, financing has been lean for all three companies so far. Scott attributes that to Canadas conservative investment climate-where preventing losses is paramount, dwarfing a focus on the upside potential, and where realism outweighs the dream of a huge payday.

And in a nation with near-duopoly air service, airline upstarts have had a spotty record, as well as some high-profile failures in the last 15 years  including low-cost operator Jetsgo and smaller leisure-oriented carrier Harmony Airways.

To help their funding efforts, both Enerjet and Jetlines have asked to be exempted from Canadas 25 per cent cap on foreign investment in airlines, in the hopes of selling as much as a 49 per cent stake to non-Canadian investors. Those exemption requests are opposed by South Beach Capital Partners, an investment group formed by Manitoba First Nations indigenous peoples that took a financial stake in NewLeaf Travel in June; Canadas transport minister is expected to decide on the requests later this year.

That foreign ownership cap was one of the aspects of Canadian air travel that last years federal transportation report pointed to, advocating for raising it. In contrast to larger markets like the U.S., there may not be enough capital in Canada to finance 75 per cent of a new national carrier, said the report, overseen by David Emerson, a former Cabinet minister, Vancouver airport executive and member of Parliament.

The report also recommended sweeping changes in airport funding, airport capital spending programs, security and visa systems.

Tim Morgan, the Enerjet CEO, thinks the Canadian market, once properly stimulated with low fares, could support more than 50 planes flying in the ultra-low-cost model  and maybe even 100, or more than 100, he said in a telephone interview. And thats without affecting the major carriers.

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CALGARYPotash Corp. of Saskatchewan and Agrium have agreed to merge in a deal that would create a global agricultural giant worth an estimated $36 billion (U.S.).

The deal brings together Saskatoon-based PotashCorps huge fertilizer mining operations  the worlds largest by capacity  with Calgary-based Agriums extensive global direct-to-farmer retail network.

I wouldnt be doing this deal if I didnt think that this was the right time or the right deal, Agrium CEO Chuck Magro told a conference call with financial analysts.

I look at the strategic fit and I look at combining the worlds largest fertilizer with the worlds largest (agricultural) retailer. That makes an awful lot of sense to me.

Under the agreement, PotashCorp shareholders will receive 0.4 of a share of the new company for each common share of PotashCorp they own, while Agrium shareholders will receive 2.23 shares for each Agrium share they own.

PotashCorp shareholders will own roughly 52 per cent of the new company, while Agrium shareholders will own 48 per cent on a fully diluted basis. Shares of Potash rose 3.7 per cent to $17.60 before the stock market opened in Monday. Agrium shares were unchanged at $95.21.

The new company will have 20,000 employees, a market value of $36 billion and annual revenue of $20.6 billion, with operations in 18 countries, the companies said. A name for the new company will be announced before the deal closes in the middle of next year.

The companies said they expected to generate up to $500 million in annual operating synergies with $250 million in the first year and the full amount by the end of the second.

The integrated platform established through our combination will greatly benefit customers and suppliers, and support even greater career development opportunities for employees, PotashCorp chief executive Jochen Tilk said in a statement.

Magro called it a transformational merger that will create benefits and growth opportunities that neither company could achieve alone. Magro will be CEO of the new company and Tilk will be executive chairman.

Combining our complementary assets will enable us to serve our customers more efficiently, deliver significant operating synergies and improve our cash flows to provide capital returns and invest in growth, he said.

Premier Brad Wall says the merger looks good for Saskatchewans interests.

While the deal still has to go through regulatory and Competition Bureau approvals, Wall says a new company would compete well globally.

The premier also likes that head office would remain in Saskatoon.

Wall says the government will be watching carefully when it comes to operations and jobs, but he adds that theres reason to be quite positive about the provinces position in the short and long terms.

Saskatchewans Opposition New Democrats are raising concerns about a potential loss of jobs, a loss of influence over the natural resource and about the impact on farmers.

Even with a registration of the head office in Saskatchewan, theres no ironclad guarantee protecting the jobs, the revenues and the influence of our resource, NDP Leader Trent Wotherspoon said Monday.

Wall said he has had several discussions with the CEOs of PotashCorp and Agrium to talk about jobs, taxes and the economic impact on the province.

Whats good for those companies, by and large, in terms of their workforce and in terms of their investment, can also be good for Saskatchewans economy, the premier said at the legislature.

News of the deal comes as the fertilizer industry struggles with a steep drop in prices in recent years following a ramp-up of production and the breakup of a Russia-Belarus potash trading cartel in 2013.

PotashCorp reported an averaged realized price in the second quarter of $154 per tonne compared with $273 per tonne a year ago, and well off the 2008 peak of around $900 a tonne.

Analysts expect the combined company would be better able to control fertilizer output and may lead to mine closures.

Potash companies have already made moves this year to cut costs and production, with PotashCorp shutting its recently opened Picadilly mine in New Brunswick in January and temporarily closing some Saskatchewan mines. U.S.-based Mosaic Co. has closed its potash mine near Colonsay, Sask., until market conditions improve.

The industry has looked for consolidation in the past, with PotashCorp pushing for an $8.7-billion takeover of K+S Group last year that was rebuffed by the German fertilizer group.

PotashCorp itself was the target of a $38.6-billion takeover bid by BHP Billiton in 2010, but the Canadian government ultimately blocked the offer as not having enough net benefit for Canada.

Analysts expect the deal to face less scrutiny than the BHP proposal because both companies are Canadian, but it will still have to go through regulatory and Competition Bureau approvals.

The Saskatchewan government formed PotashCorp in 1975 as a Crown corporation before it was privatized in 1989. Agrium was founded in 1931 as part of Cominco and became a publicly traded company in 1993.

With files from the Associated Press

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As the Kejriwal government has still not notified its order on setting a price cap on tests for detecting Chukingunya, private hospitals are looting the patients.

There is a cap of Rs 600 only on IgM serology, but there is no cap on PCR test, which can detect Chikungunya at early stage.

By Astha Saxena: With Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government yet to notify its order on setting a price cap of Rs 1,500 on real time PCR laboratory test for chikungunya, private hospitals in the city are making good of the delay by charging as high as Rs 4,000 for each case.

A reality check by Mail Today team also found that confusion prevails among patients over the test price ceiling after a section of the media reported that the city government had fixed a price cap of Rs 1500 for PCR chikungunya test, leading to heated arguments between patients and staff at several hospitals.

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"The capping on real-time PCR chikungunya test has not been approved by the government. We have made a draft of the proposal in which we have suggested to cap the price at Rs 1,500 but nothing has been approved from the government's end," Dr SM Raheja, additional director general of health services, Delhi government told Mail Today.

Also Read: Chikungunya cases in Delhi rise to 560, 12 mobile fever clinics launched

LABS LOOTING THE PATIENTS

There are two tests to detect chikungunya: IgM serology and real-time PCR, (polymerase chain reaction). The Delhi government announced a cap of Rs 600 only on IgM serology while the order on PCR test price cap is yet to come.

The PCR test, which detects chikungunya at an early stage, is not yet available at any government hospital and private laboratories have been charging much in excess of the proposed cap of `1,500, Mail Today team found. Delhi has so far reported 560 cases of the vector-borne disease. The figure was restricted to 64 in the year 2015. This unprecedented outbreak has caused panic and people have crowded private labs for tests.

While a private lab in Green Park was charging Rs 1500 for the test, another in Ansari Nagar demanded Rs 4,000 for the same and SRL diagnostics units were charging Rs 2,500.

Max and Indraprastha Apollo hospital chains did not respond to the queries on test rates. The patients that Mail Today spoke to rued a lack of uniformity in test charges. "There should be some guidelines on the test rates by the government. We have been paying whatever the hospitals are asking," said Sudhakar Jain, a resident of Malviya Nagar. An order on PCR pricing is expected on Monday.

ORDER FOR CAPPING ON PCR TEST TO COME ON Monday

"The order for capping on the PCR test will come on Monday. Till now, we only capped the price of IgM serology test for chikungunya," said Dr Tarun Seem, director general of health services (DGHS), Delhi government.

Health officials requesting anonymity said Delhi government was squarely to be blamed for the confusion that prevailed over the price cap. In an order on August 30, the government announced a cap on the prices of IgM serology at Rs 600.

However, there was no mention about the capping on PCR test which can confirm chikungunya at an early stage. "When reports in the media appeared that there is a price cap of Rs 600 on chikungunya tests, it was received well. These reports also mentioned the capping on PCR test. But the government made no attempts to clarify it since the report presented it in favourable light," said a health official about the confusion over the price cap.

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CHIKUNGUNYA CASES ON THE RISE

Meanwhile, the hospitals are hard put to deal with the growing panic. RML hospital spokesman Dr VK Sinha said the hospital was witnessing more than 300-350 new fever patients in the department on a regular basis.

According to the data provided by the hospital administration, 42 beds are occupied out of the 110 beds. "We allocated separate wards for the fever patients -- one for dengue and chikungunya and another for fever patients. A total of 110 beds have been added to the existing strength," said Dr Sinha.

Chikungunya is a viral illness and its symptoms are similar to those of dengue, which include high-grade fever, severe joint pain, muscle pain and headache and joint swelling. It also causes rashes in patients but is not a threat like dengue in which there is a risk of bleeding due to abrupt fall in platelet count. Dengue is transmitted by several species of mosquito within the genus Aedes.

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Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles. The sudden spike in chikungunya cases in Delhi and several other parts of north India has come nearly 10 years after a big outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease across the country.

Also Read:

Ministers nowhere to be found as Delhi left reeling with chikungunya and dengue

Defective fogging machines add to woes amid rising chikungunya, dengue cases in Delhi



--- ENDS ---
SpaceX has asked witnesses to share video, photos and audio of a launchpad explosion that destroyed a satellite-bearing rocket last week, a mystery that billionaire founder Elon Musk called the most difficult and complex failure in the companys 14 years.

The ignition source for the fireball wasnt readily apparent and the spacecraft was idle at the time of the incident, Musk wrote in a tweet Friday. He also asked for any recordings of the event to be e-mailed to the Hawthorne, Calif.-based rocket maker.

The closely held company wants to quickly find the cause of the blast that engulfed its Falcon 9 rocket minutes before a scheduled pre-launch engine test on Sept. 1. As is typical after a mishap, all rocket flights for Musks Space Exploration Technologies Corp. have been grounded, halting operations just as the company was accelerating to its fastest-ever launch tempo to capitalize on a $10 billion backlog of scheduled missions.

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Turning out to be the most difficult and complex failure we have ever had in 14 years, Musk wrote on his verified Twitter account. Important to note that this happened during a routine filling operation. Engines were not on and there was no apparent heat source.

Theres little precedent for the accident or its aftermath, with Musk turning to crowd-sourcing in an attempt to gather additional clues. The Space Foundation, a nonprofit advocate of space flight, pointed to a handful of potentially similar accidents over a half century, including a launch pad failure that consumed a Titan D rocket in 1960 and an accident 20 years later at Russias Plesetsk Cosmodrome that destroyed an R-7 rocket and killed 48 people.

While no one was injured in the SpaceX blast, the Internet is already buzzing with theories from a failure of the rockets liquid oxygen tank to a drone strike.

The situation opens ones mind up to wild speculation, said Hans Weber, an aerospace consultant. Thats another reason why its so important to find out what happened.

About 20 people from SpaceX, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the U.S. Air Force, as well as other industry experts, are part of a core team thats evaluating data to determine the cause of the anomaly, according to a person familiar with the investigation. Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceXs vice president of flight reliability, is leading the probe on behalf of SpaceX. The FAA has oversight authority.

The group will be conducting a thorough fault tree analysis to try to determine what went wrong. Its unlikely that SpaceX will return to flight until the investigators reach a consensus, said the the person, who asked not to be named due to the continuing investigation. Commercial spacecraft operators need a license from the FAA to fly, plus U.S. Air Force approval.

Investigators will try to determine if the root cause stemmed from design, manufacturing or operational flaws  or subtle errors that rippled across multiple facets of the rocket and launchpad, said Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington Universitys Elliott School of International Affairs. SpaceXs practice of rapid innovation may also be under the microscope given the companys practice of frequently redesigning components on its vehicles, he said.

These things typically do take several months to untangle, Pace said. The most difficult situation is when things remain vague. I hope they find the root cause fairly quickly. Even if its serious, its better to know than not know.

Musks public musings on Twitter about the mysterious blast are a far cry from the secretive commissions that traditionally investigated NASAs rocket failures.

With private industry now in the launch business, its a bit different, its more open, said Weber, who heads Tecop International, a San Diego-based consultant.

SpaceX has won contracts across government and commercial sectors by undercutting rivals with its $60 million U.S. Falcon 9 rides. The company had launched successfully eight times this year and was gearing up to a twice-monthly launch tempo. Its goal was to reach 18 flights this year and at least 24 launches in 2017.

The spacecraft had been filled with a common rocket fuel that explodes when mixed with liquid oxygen. While there are many potential scenarios, a spark, static discharge, or metal on metal collision may have been enough to set off that mixture, said Josh Barker of the National Space Centre in Leicester, England. Explosions on the pad are less common than accidents after launch, because with the engines turned off, staffers have more control over the process, he said.

The request for more footage and assistance that Musk has called for shows that this investigation could still have a long way to go, Barker said. Accidents such as these can put operations on hold for up to 12 months.

The accident occurred eight minutes before a scheduled test firing of the rockets engines. SpaceX said it began searching for the root cause of the accident immediately after the loss, reviewing about 3,000 channels of telemetry and video data covering 35 to 55 milliseconds.

Particularly trying to understand the quieter bang sound a few seconds before the fireball goes off. May come from rocket or something else, Musk tweeted Friday. Asked on Twitter whether it was possible that a foreign object had struck the rocket, Musk replied: We have not ruled that out.

Data showed the anomaly started around the upper stage liquid oxygen tank, the company said. After a Twitter user suggested that a noise sounded like a metal joint popping under stress, perhaps a weld failing on a strut or seam bursting, Musk responded, Most likely true, but we cant yet find it on any vehicle sensors.

Last weeks dramatic blast, photos of which were splashed across world media, was the second major mishap for SpaceX in little more than a year. On June 28, 2015, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon spacecraft with cargo destined for the International Space Station blew apart 2 minutes and 19 seconds after launch. The cause was determined to be a two-foot-long, inch-thick strut in a liquid oxygen tank that snapped.

The company returned to flight less than six months later, when it launched and landed a Falcon 9 rocket for the first time. In April, SpaceX landed its Falcon 9 rocket upright on a drone ship bobbing in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time ever, a key milestone toward the companys goal of reusing rockets and sending humans to Mars. Musk is expected to provide further detail his plans for Mars when he delivers a Sept. 27 speech at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico.

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What Oliver Stone knows about the National Security Agencys top secret surveillance operations is haunting, the director told a Toronto International Film Festival press conference and is evidence the world is really out of control.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays Edward Snowden in a forthcoming biopic about the NSA whistleblower, is no less disturbed by the U.S. governments power to surreptitiously spy on the world, but is a little more optimistic about the future of privacy.

Here are five things that Stone and Gordon-Levitt shared about their interactions with the exiled privacy crusader and the process of making Snowden, which hits theatres Sept. 16:

ON SNOWDENS PATRIOTISM

He really was doing what he did out of a sincere love for his country and the principles the country was founded on, said Gordon-Levitt, who admitted he knew little about Snowden before Stone approached him to take on the role.

I think it shows two different kinds of patriotism. Theres the kind where youre allegiant to your country no matter what and you dont ask any questions. But theres another kind of patriotism  that is what I really wanted to show in this character  which is the kind of patriotism that he grows into over the course of the nine years that you see in this story, where he does ask questions and thats the privilege of being from a free country like the United States of America.

ON STONES INTEREST IN THE STORY

This is really a secret underworld and no one in the NSA has come forward in its 70-year history, Stone said.

We only saw a sliver until Ed Snowden. No one saw into that thing, so its really an undercover detective story. And for me its exciting because its like JFK, it goes into something that we dont know. Americans dont know anything about it and they still dont because its tricky.

The government lies about it all the time and what theyre doing is illegal and they keep doing it. And it gets better and better, what they do, so this a very upsetting story.

ON THE FUTURE OF PRIVACY

Unfortunately, Edward Snowden has warned us, more than once, about privacy and he said very clearly itll creep up and he says in the movie the next generation wont know what privacy is, said Stone.

I grew up in a world that this never couldve happened, I believed. I read George Orwell, never thought it could happen, and from 2001 on its been very clear that something radical has changed. And you know me, I think theres more to it than meets the eye, because whatever they tell you youve got to look beyond the surface of things.

Gordon-Levitt said hes hopeful that the public will demand more of their governments and push back against encroachments on privacy.

I completely think its worth being very critical of some of these particular actions of the U.S. government, but I also choose to remain optimistic that we still do live in a country where we still do have the opportunity to raise our voices and try to take control of this.

WHY PEOPLE WILFULLY GIVE UP THEIR PRIVACY

Some people really like being as public as they can about everything theyre doing and they like sharing what theyre thinking, what theyre eating, what theyre wearing, what theyre doing, where theyre going and I of course think thats everybodys choice, said Gordon-Levitt.

I completely respect anybodys desire to sort of turn their life into a performance that way, if thats their preferred form of expression. I just think its important that we all have the ability to make that choice.

WHAT THEY HOPE HAPPENS TO SNOWDEN

Theres options, said Stone, you know Mr. Obama could pardon him and we hope so. We hope Mr. Obama has a stroke of lightning and he sees the way. (But) hes been one of the most efficient managers of this surveillance world. (This is) the most extensive, invasive surveillance state ever existed. Hes created it, built it up, big money, rockets 200 miles in space, satellites that are peeking in as we speak  Hi Barack! so this is pretty serious.

But hes created this world, so rationally, it doesnt figure. But we hope.

Added Gordon-Levitt: I know he would love to come home, I hope for that.

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Eight years ago they came to Toronto, both entirely unknowns, in a little movie that could. A friendship fostered on set turned into something else, hearts pole-vaulting. The movie, adopted by TIFF big time (it won the Peoples Choice Award), would go on and on, ultimately nabbing the Oscar for Best Picture.

The chords of their own relationship would go on for even longer: Dev Patel and Freida Pinto coupling up and staying together for six years.

This year, the former Slumdog Millionaire sweethearts were in town again; ships literally passing in the festival night.

Saturday: around the time that Patel was getting plaudits for the best performance of his young career in the movie Lion (one of the best received films of the fest thus far), Pinto was flying out of town, back to London. Though Dev was nothing if not in Freidas thoughts.

Im so happy for him, the Indian beauty told me when I happened to be seated beside her at a lunch earlier that day at the Spoke Club (the annual Roger Ebert Tribute, helmed by TIFF honcho Cameron Bailey and Eberts widow, Chaz Ebert).

Pinto  who calls Patel one of her best friends and is, by all accounts, a model ex-girlfriend  went on to say she thinks that Lion has the emotional heft that movie-lovers live for.

The film  the astonishing real-life story of a boy separated from his family in Central India at age 5 and reunited with them a quarter-century later, with a subplot that involves Google Earth  will definitely draw comparison to Slumdog in its somewhat Dickensian-ness. (It also doesnt hurt that its being championed by Harvey Weinstein.)

Pinto, by the way, was in town to speak at a TIFF industry panel and was flying right back to London, where shes currently based. The days of sharing a red carpet with Patel? Definitely over. (The 31-year-old appears to be in a relationship with polo player Ronnie Bacardi these days.)

An occupation hazard, it occurred to me. For movie stars on the film festival circuit, its like running into ones ex at a high school reunion over and over . . . and over again.

Just hours later, I ran into Patel himself at the Windsor Arms Hotel for the fabulous InStyle/Hollywood Foreign Press Association party. It was just hours after Lion had bowed and the buzz was definitely on.

Patel is a man now, is how critic Roger Friedman summed up his performance in the movie. Gone is the chattering boy from Best Exotic Hotel and HBOs The Newsroom with a lot of endearing tics. Patel is the real thing now.

Talking to him about the film (which also stars Rooney Mara and Nicole Kidman) and the positive reception its reaped, he was the picture of humility. These roles are hard to come by for someone like me . . . so it means a lot, Patel said.

As for Pinto, Patel once hilariously laughed off reports that their relationship was only a showmance to promote Slumdog Millionaire. That would be a really long game for a horny 17-year-old to play, he memorably quipped to a reporter.

Around Town

Dakota Fanning, Liev Schreiber, Jennifer Connelly, David Oyelowo, Aaron Taylor Johnson and Joel Edgerton were among the pop-ins at the annual Entertainment Weekly Toronto Must List party at the Thompson Toronto.

Pharrell Williams and Taraji P. Henson doing dinner at Cibo on King St. W., following the special event for their film collaboration Hidden Figures.

Parker Posey, Uzo Aduba, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Guest (and others) passing in the night with the shaved Brussels sprouts salad and crispy rock shrimp with chili at the all new hot, hot STK restaurant in Yorkville for the Creative Coalition gala dinner hosted by Grey Goose. Nick Cannon, who was also there, rocked a turban, as one does.

Felicity Jones, looking like a vision in flowing Gucci, joined the unconquerable Sigourney Weaver at the post-premiere party at The Addisons Residence for their new joint film A Monster Calls.

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Thanks to an Inuk Rangers sharp memory and a little luck, researchers are a major step closer to knowing the fates of two ships that vanished nearly 170 years ago in Canadas wide and savage Arctic.

The second of the two Franklin Expedition shipwrecks was found earlier this month, Arctic Research Foundation expedition lead Adrian Schimnowski confirmed Monday.

We found (HMS) Terror, Schimnowski told the Star via via satellite phone from Gjoa Haven, Nunavut.

We found Terror in Terror Bay.

HMS Terror was one of two Royal Navy ships that set out in 1845 on the ill-fated quest led by Sir John Franklin to find the Northwest Passage to Asia. The ships became trapped in thick Arctic ice and all 129 crew members died. The other ship  HMS Erebus  was located in September 2014 in the Queen Maud Gulf, along the central Arctic coastline.

Schimnowski and a crew of nine on the research vessel Martin Bergmann discovered the wreck of HMS Terror the morning of Sept. 3, about 60 nautical miles (97 kilometres) directly north of Erebus, in the centre of Terror Bay.

It looked like it gently sank to the bottom. Its settled flat, level on the seabed floor; all the decking and everything is in place, Schimnowski told the Star via satellite phone from Gjoa Haven, Nunavut.

The crew was led to the ship after member Sammy Kogvik, an Inuk and a Canadian Ranger from Gjoa Haven, recalled an incident seven years ago when he and a friend, on their way to a local fishing lake, stumbled across a ships mast sticking out of Terror Bay. Kogvik took a photo, but lost the camera on the way home.

He didnt bring it up to anyone again, Schimnowski said, until last month, when the Martin Bergmann was travelling through Simpson Strait.

When he told me this story, it was like an arrow that was directing us to go right to this site, Schimnowski said.

As the research vessel sailed through Terror Bay, bridge watch Daniel McIsaac noticed something big on the sounder; he called Capt. Gerrard Chidley and Schimnowski, who were just finishing breakfast, to come take a look.

Chidley went up first, then Schimnowski; Capt. David McIsaac, who had just come out of the washroom, also went to the bridge.

We made a joke right there that maybe whatever (McIsaac) did on the toilet just jumped up on our screen, Schimnowski said. But what we really knew was that wed found something that looked like a ship.

The crew deployed a smaller boat equipped with a remotely operated underwater vehicle that had a camera. As it descended into the frigid water, it beamed back signs the Terror had been found: images of a bell that looked exactly the same as that of the Erebus; a cannon; a double-wheeled helm on the stern in perfect condition; and captains quarters with four windows, glass still intact in all but one. The hatches on the wreck matched with drawings of the HMS Terror, and the ships steam engine had an exhaust pipe in the right spot.

We were positive that what we did find was HMS Terror.

As the ROV roamed inside an open hatch, more hidden treasures: a mess hall, tables standing; a food locker, wine and spice bottles still in place; china plates with the same patterns as those on Erebus, neatly stowed in wooden racks.

It seems like everything was battened down for the winter, everything was shut down as fast as possible, and everything seems to be in place, Schimnowski said.

We decided to take a detour to see if Sammys story made sense, and it was because we listened to him . . . We had to follow his lead, and we found it.

Kogvik declined to be interviewed by the Star, but his wife, Betty, said her husband called Sunday night with the news.

Im speechless, she said from her home in Gjoa Haven. I only thought they were going out to the site where they found (HMS Erebus) last year.

Im so proud of Sammy. Its hard to describe. Ive got my eyes wide open, Im so surprised, she said.

Contrary to prevailing theory, the vessel wasnt crushed by sea ice in the Victoria Strait, north of King William Island, before sinking. Finding her almost 100 kilometres south and in near-perfect condition  Thats a shocker, said Canadian Ice Service research scientist Tom Zagon, who has worked on the search since 2010.

Terror Bay was not really a super high priority.

Zagon said naturally occurring Ice flow patterns could explain the Erebuss final resting place, at the eastern extreme of the Queen Maud Gulf, but not the Terrors.

It would be so strange for a ship to end up there naturally, he said.

That lends credence to the idea that at least some members of Franklins doomed crew might have returned to the Terror, Zagon said, perhaps in a desperate attempt to find a road back home again, though he cautioned that theory is  in the absence of more evidence  mostly speculative.

The good news is that, with the Terror in such good condition, chances are good she will yield more clues to what happened to Franklin and his men, Zagon said.

Any mystery worth pursuing has to be something that you can solve eventually, he said.

Parks Canadas mission brief for this years search says a small flotilla of ships sailed for the Arctic at the end of August and were to return by mid-September. The search vessels included the Canadian Coast Guards icebreaker Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the Royal Canadian Navys HMCS Shawinigan and the Parks Canadas Investigator.

Ownership of both the Erebus and the Terror has been transferred to the Canadian government, and their resting spots are considered historic sites.

Schimnowski said a celebration and feast for the crew with the Gjoa Haven community is being planned for Wednesday or Thursday. Its important the community is involved, he added. After all, Inuit have been telling stories of the ships final resting place for generations.

This story, the Franklin story, is so closely linked to this community, and also it was Sammy who led us to this discovery . . . We are basically in the backyards of their home and  its respect, Schimnowski said.

We are here to support the community in any way we can, as they would support us if we needed help. Thats the way of the Arctic, thats the way of life in the Arctic, everyone helps each other out.

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On a snowy, slippery day in December 2013, Hamilton resident Jeannie Howe smashed her head and back in a workplace fall.

Eight weeks later, she was back on the job. She was at least happy to get out of the house, but she remained groggy and suffered from constant headaches.

According to Ontarios Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, a swift return to work is the best way for injured workers to recover  and is part of the boards evidence-based approach to helping accident victims.

Experts and injured worker advocates say the boards return-to-work program is not actually evidence-based at all. Instead, they say, in practice the policy cloaks cost-cutting measures in misunderstood and poorly applied research.

The result, critics argue, is that vulnerable workers are often forced back to work too soon, sometimes against their doctors orders, into modified jobs that can be demeaning and potentially harmful.

The way the policies are drawn up, there isnt a lot of nuance between making sure someone doesnt lie down for six months with a bad back, which is good practice, and forcing people to go back to a completely meaningless task, which is bad practice, said University of Ottawa professor Katherine Lippel.

Humiliating and demeaning work is not therapeutic.

According to board statistics, some 92 per cent of claimants now safely and quickly return to meaningful employment after an accident. In a statement to the Star, the board said its early return-to-work program was adopted in 2010 following a decade of poor return-to-work and recovery outcomes for workers.

Our return-to-work program is an evidence-based approach aimed at achieving the best possible outcome for injured workers, it said.

But having conducted several studies of the early return-to-work policy in Ontario over the past decade, University of Waterloo professor Ellen MacEachen says she is skeptical about how that evidence has been implemented.

The best I could come up with is theres a lot of back pain research that talks about rest being bad and activity being important. All of these ideas are broadened to return-to-work (policies). But not everyone has a back injury, she told the Star.

Its all done in the name of preventing chronic disability, and part of that is quite legitimate, said Lippel, who teaches law and is a former adjunct scientist at the Toronto-based Institute for Work and Health. But saying that what works for bad backs works for post-traumatic stress disorder, for instance, is clearly not the case.

Its the unfunded liability that is driving all of this, she added, referring to the boards future debts  currently sitting at about $6 billion.

In its statement to the Star, the board said its early return-to-work policies are not a cost saving measure. In a 2014 speech at the C.D. Howe Institute, former WSIB president David Marshall said new research proved that early return-to-work was in the best interests of workers. It would also, he noted, save money at the board.

We realized with clarity and urgency that if we were going to deliver value for our stakeholders and reduce costs, we would have to help workers recover and get back to work as early and safely as possible, he said.

We have fundamentally cut the length of time that workers are off work and therefore needing benefits.

In an ongoing investigation into WSIB practices, the Star has highlighted criticism that reform at the board, aimed at reducing its significant unfunded liability, has sometimes come at the expense of proper care for injured workers. While the board says its early return-to-work program is about getting accident victims back to health and safe, suitable work, critics say, in practice, that is not always happening.

In 2012, for example, an independent review of WSIB practices conducted by former York University president Harry Arthurs said encouraging workers to return to their jobs was laudable, but warned that the current system created pressure for workers to return to work prematurely or to non-jobs where they perform meaningless functions until it is advantageous for the employer to dismiss them. That is because employers are penalized for every day their workers lose time on the job  starting immediately after their accident.

Workers can be kicked off benefits if they refuse accommodated duties  even if their doctors say they should not be working or that modified work makes their symptoms worse, said Aidan MacDonald, a lawyer for the Toronto-based legal clinic Injured Worker Consultants.

MacDonald says he acted for one client who was forced back to work against her doctors orders; her modified work plan involved stapling documents together all day  even though the office photocopier did the same thing. Another clients accommodated duties consisted of sorting nuts and bolts into buckets. Yet another client was called up by his boss while still in hospital to try to get him back on the job.

There is no strong mechanism to make sure that were not putting both employer and workers in ridiculous situations, said Lippel. And the ridiculous situations are harmful to the workers health, and they are harmful to the relationship between the employer and the worker.

You get mocked and jeered by your co-workers. Youre getting paid and they have to actually work for their pay and youre sitting in the cafeteria. It can be very humiliating for workers, MacEachen added.

That, says 38-year-old Jeannie Howe, was her experience.

After falling in 2013 while working for a car rental company, Howe says, she fractured her rib and was later diagnosed with a concussion and whiplash causing crippling headaches. She went back to work after the eight weeks recovery allowed by the board and was initially reassigned to dust, clean countertops and move cars around the parking lot. But she says her colleagues harassed her and accused her of doing nothing  even filming and taking photos of her on the job.

Going back to work and doing something as opposed to being at home and thinking about the pain is a great idea, she said. But (the board) has no idea what co-workers do (to you).

Her concussion, she says, left her with cognitive difficulties and she says her drivers licence was eventually suspended. At that point, she says, the WSIB said her employer no longer had a duty to accommodate her  and she was cut off benefits.

I pretty much broke down. I went to see a therapist and I broke down. I couldnt handle the amount of stress, she said.

In a statement, the WSIB said employers had a duty to accommodate and reintegrate injured workers, but said the link between Howes experience and the boards return-to-work policies was unclear.

But MacDonald says being forced back to work too early or into meaningless jobs can be counter-productive for workers and their bosses alike.

When people arent able to keep up with their jobs because theyre in pain, their production suffers. They come under increased pressure from employers and co-workers, which can cause significant feelings of depression and anxiety.

The Star asked the board how it monitored the success of its return-to-work policy. In response, the WSIB said it looked at the number of workers in employment with no wage loss one year after their accident. The WSIB said it didnt track what happens to injured workers beyond a year in the job, although it held more than 22,000 worksite visits in 2015 to to assist injured workers and employers facilitate return to work.

The WSIB does not systematically follow up with injured workers following their return to work, the board said in a statement.

A 2015 study conducted by professors at McMaster and Trent Universities looking at injured workers with permanent impairments in Ontario found that 46 per cent were living on the poverty line five years after their accident.

What you have to evaluate and what I havent seen many people evaluate is whether the nature of the alternative work thats being offered is doing more harm than good, said Lippel.

In the meantime, the flaws in the program are just not right, she said.

Its not morally right  and its not good science.

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Whats been pitched as a sanctuary in the clouds is making heads spin at ground level.

An unprecedented development  an 80-storey Toronto condo tower that will be second in height only to the CN Tower  sets a new standard for density at a crucial downtown intersection. Those extremes have created schisms at city hall over more than a year, during a planning process that has left key questions lingering: How much is too much? And who decides?

What occurred with this tower, which Yorkville developer Sam Mizrahi has dubbed The One, does not reflect how all building applications are dealt with in this city. But it is an example of how, some councillors say, the city is being built higher and higher, under duress.

As real estate wars see developers buying smaller and smaller parcels of land at rising prices, they are increasingly building skyward to cover their costs.

Thats been noticed at city hall. City councillors and staff say developers are applying more frequently to build well above the prescribed height and density for a neighbourhood. Councillors say there is little recourse to accommodating exceptions, with a provincially legislated appeals body capable of overturning councils planning choices.

With the province in the midst of a review of that powerful body, the Ontario Municipal Board, city advocates say its finally time to get serious about removing Toronto from its grasp.

In the absence of reform, this is how one very tall, very dense building got the green light at council.

Sitting in her second-floor office in the busy stretch just before summer break, Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam is losing patience.

Its been 15 months since Mizrahi Developments first submitted its application to build on the southwest corner of Yonge and Bloor Sts., in the heart of her development-rich Ward 27 (Toronto Centre-Rosedale).

Were not anywhere closer to finding a resolution that anyone can live with, the second-term councillor says of One Bloor West.

Its June, and just a day earlier Wong-Tam had been pushing back against the application moving forward at committee, as she tried to work out some crucial details  how the community will be compensated for the added height and density.

Wong-Tam knows what shes up against. Shes been here hundreds of times before.

If developers get pushback at city hall, they can appeal to the OMB, where they are often successful in having the proposed height and density approved, leaving local councillors with little room to negotiate for amenities or to make sure the building fits with the existing fabric of a community.

Theres a lot of money at stake, she says. The threat of the OMB means you have planning by OMB.

The One will join a growing club of super-tall, super-dense buildings in the downtown core.

Though the building proposal has been scaled back since it was first submitted in March last year  revised from a height that at one point was as much as 341 metres, to just under 305 metres  it will still out-scrape the citys current tallest skyscraper, First Canadian Place, which stands at 298 metres. It will dwarf all the existing towers in the area, most of which stand at 30 to 50 storeys. A new build across the street, One Bloor East, will measure 254 metres.

There are other comparable towers in the planning pipeline: One of the yet-to-be built Mirvish towers on King St. has an approved maximum height of 305 metres, and a tower thats part of the redevelopment at 1 Yonge St. is proposed at 303 metres.

Of more concern is the buildings density. With 80,457 square metres of gross floor area on a 2,843-square-metre site, the towers proposed density is 28.3 times the sites area. With a site size of 4,690 square metres, One Bloor Easts density is much lower, at 17.3 times the sites size. The tall towers proposed at 1 Yonge and King St. have similar densities to One Bloor East.

The condo tower will be grounded by eight tall storeys of glassed-in retail, at 36 metres, including a large ground-floor space reserved for an anchor tenant. The development community has speculated that this will be an Apple flagship store. (No one who spoke with the Star for this story would confirm or deny Apple is the signed lessee. Mizrahi has promised top international retailers.)

When staff reported to the Toronto and East York Community Council about the building proposal this May, the revised design  and the possible precedent it would set  raised a lot of eyebrows.

I think its too dense. I think its too tall, said Councillor Joe Cressy, of neighbouring Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina. And I think its too much.

Sam Mizrahi speaks in convincing showroom hyperbole.

The luxury suites developer says the goal with The One has been a reverse-engineered design, to create 21st century, uncontaminated space that will allow condo dwellers and retail tenants to use a magic wand to build the custom spaces of their dreams.

His construction budget is $1 billion, and the returns also promise to be huge. Mizrahi, speaking to the Star at length earlier this summer, offers up the comment that more than 2,000 people have already pre-registered for the 416 advertised units.

A slick video on the condo website set to orchestral strings plays like a movie trailer: From the luxury shopping avenue everyone loves, there is everything and there is your home, the breathy narrator says. Custom-designed, up above it all. A sanctuary in the clouds.

The developer says the site is ready for a building this size.

I think its time, he says, referencing Chicago and Paris, New York City and London. I think this is the right intersection and corner to do it.

The controversy started when the historic Stollerys clothing building was demolished over a single weekend last year. The demolition, which was done legally, upset Wong-Tam and local community members who had hoped to secure the building as a heritage site.

Then, last March, Wong-Tam wasnt included in a meeting about the project she says occurred without her knowledge, with staff from Mayor John Torys office and Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong, who has been involved in some public spats with the downtown councillor.

Mizrahi argues he was at risk of losing his high-profile retail tenants if council did not approve the needed zoning amendments by mid-July.

Minnan-Wong says Mizrahi was the one that approached him, saying he was having trouble getting a meeting with Wong-Tam  an assertion she says is baseless. Minnan-Wong says that as deputy mayor, he didnt think it was inappropriate to get involved on the file, even though it was in another councillors ward.

Given that it was an important piece of property that had city-wide implications, that was enough for me to entertain a meeting and understand the problems that they were experiencing and try to find some solutions, he told the Star.

A spokesperson said the mayors office is regularly involved with development discussions and noted the project at Yonge and Bloor was iconic in nature.

As Wong-Tam and the community tried to reach a proposal they could stand behind, in consultation with the developer, Mizrahi filed an appeal to the OMB in May, even though the city had yet to make a decision on the file. Provincial rules allow developers to appeal if a decision is not made within 120 days of the application being submitted.

In June, planning staff returned with a positive report, calling the requested building allowances acceptable and including a long list of conditions for community benefits. At that committee meeting, Wong-Tam criticized staff for moving too quickly.

Weve never seen this kind of density, Wong-Tam said. Why would you write a supportive report subject to so many conditions that are so material to the application? . . . Why not wait until we have all the information we need?

Staff argued the building is generally in keeping with the built form standards of the other towers at and near the intersection.

The citys senior planner on the file, Oren Tamir, told the Star the staff report speaks for itself.

The recommendations in the report secure the positive attributes of the proposal in the publics interest, Tamir wrote in an email, saying staff did a thorough review that recommended several community benefits. Those benefits include paying for new traffic controls and providing yet-to-be-determined land near the development to create a new public park.

Staffs final report on the application found it fit within the citys planning policies and guidelines, which identify Yonge-Bloor as a significant intersection and directs that the tallest buildings should be placed at major intersections.

One of the conditions recommended by staff was that the developer build and maintain a PATH connection that would link the building to the two subway lines below. That was in addition to the cash-in-lieu developers normally pay for social infrastructure such as community centres and park improvements.

In June, despite several working group meetings with the developer, the community remained concerned about traffic congestion, park space and other amenities.

Were not against development; we just want to make sure development works in a way that works for the community  And some projects are better at striking that balance than others, Michael Landry, president of the Greater Yorkville Residents Association, told the Star this week. Livability of the neighbourhood is critical, he said.

The developer was pushing back, Wong-Tam said. One of the arguments was that the developer did not want the pedestrian tunnel to be a condition of approval but rather considered as part of the companys cash contributions.

I had tremendous political pressure on this file from the get-go, Wong-Tam said. She said the involvement of the mayor and deputy mayors office contributed to the pressure on city planning staff to approve the application  which has even put a strain on what she said has been a good working relationship with staff.

The problem, Wong-Tam said, is that with a positive report from staff and appeal already launched at the OMB, the developer had the upper hand in negotiations about those community benefits. City planning staff could be called to testify in support of the acceptable building application, compromising the citys ability to fight at the board and to push for needed benefits for the community.

It doesnt leave a local councillor and a local community a lot to work with, Wong-Tam said.

With the positive staff report on councils agenda in July, Wong-Tam and staff negotiated a settlement with Mizrahi that would still secure some community benefits, though not all the conditions staff originally proposed.

The agreement, which was approved by council, would remove any requirement for Mizrahi to build the PATH connection. The deal included an unprecedented amount of money, $21.9 million in cash-in-lieu of community benefits  what Mizrahis lawyer called a good faith offer  for which a majority is to be used toward the construction of a pedestrian tunnel, estimated by city staff at $11.3 million.

It was really a collaboration with the city, Mizrahi told the Star after council had signed off on his building.

The settlement still has to be approved by the OMB, with a pre-hearing scheduled in November.

Wong-Tam says her experience on this file reflects a new reality at city hall, where overworked planning staff are challenged to keep up with applications and often face defeat at the OMB.

Im being asked to settle all the time, she said. We cant continue to send our forces out there where theyre going to be slaughtered on the battlefield.

The citys chief planner, Jennifer Keesmaat, told the Star decisions to settle are not a workload issue, but acknowledged her team members currently have an unprecedented number of building applications in front of them.

While the review of the OMB was launched this summer, Wong-Tam says shes not holding her breath. The city has repeatedly called for the province to remove Toronto from the OMBs purview, without answer.

In the end, she says, the city reached a settlement on One Bloor West she can live with, but she is left questioning how much new growth the community can bear. Who loses out as the city builds up?

We were grappling with that, she said.

The winners, she said, are easy to identify.

I have no doubts that all the different shareholders in the project are going to walk off with the payday.

-

MAKING SENSE OF THE OMB

What is the OMB?

The OMB is a provincially legislated, quasi-judicial body that has existed since 1906, when it was created as the Ontario Railway and Municipal Board to exercise oversight of streetcar expansion in cities. It became simply the OMB in 1932 and now deals with a broader scope of land planning appeals, including zoning amendments, as well as development charges and issues related to expropriation.

How does it work?

Municipal planning and land use decisions can be appealed to the board, whose members are appointed by the province. The OMB describes its members as having diverse backgrounds such as lawyers, former elected officials, engineers, surveyors, planners and public administrators. Those board members have the power to overturn the planning decisions of all elected municipal councils. As in a court, there are pre-hearings, attempts at a mediated settlement, and hearings, which employ expert witness testimony.

Why is it controversial?

In his book, Planning Politics in Toronto: The Ontario Municipal Board and Urban Development, Aaron Moore, a fellow at the University of Torontos Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance, writes that the unelected OMB is the most powerful board of its kind in North America, noting it has the same power, rights, and privileges as the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

But unlike an appeals court, which decides whether to hear an appeal based on arguments that the previous judgment contained specific errors of law, the OMB hears every appeal as new.

Some at city hall argue that puts too much power in the hands of developers, who, Moores research shows, are more often favoured at the OMB then any other party (the city or community). As Moore notes: A developer can avoid dealing with a municipality altogether and can use the municipalitys own planning experts against it.

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The brick three-storey house on Bertmount Ave. in Leslieville doesn't look that different from its neighbours.

But after a "disastrous" first renovation, the homeowners had to rebuild the 1920s, semi-detached brick house. And this time they went healthy and green, in ways that made it a model home for this weekends Green Energy Doors Open 16, an event organized by the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association that promotes environmentally friendly construction.

A product made of recycled jeans forms a sound barrier in ceilings; outside walls are insulated with recycled newsprint; and much of the lumber used came from sustainable forests.

To make the house toxin-free  one of the owners is sensitive to allergens  renovaters swapped out typical building materials for safer ones, using non-toxic adhesives to glue floorboards to joists and installing radiant-heating in floors in place of forced-air gas, to cut down on airborne pollutants.

The home's environmentally friendly features were on display Saturday, along with a variety of other buildings and organizations that offered free tours and events.

"The cost of (a green) renovation was not much different than a typical renovation," says Bryan Kaplan, project manager for Greening Homes, which was called in after a painter with the first crew told the family that some of the work, including electrical, was not up to code.

Major structural work was also done without a permit, said Christopher Phillips, who founded Greening Homes 10 years ago after he retrained, trading in a career in foreign aid and humanitarian ethics for completing a masters degree in building science.

Of course, two renovations on one house  as was the case with the Bertmount St. house, which had to be gutted again back down to the brick  don't come cheap.

"The owners bought it and found there were mould and asbestos issues and they had to do some expensive abatement," Phillips said. "Their original contractor misled them and did a lot of damage to the home," he claimed.

The contractor also used materials such as spray-foam insulation that were "inappropriate for the homeowner," Phillips said.

"They were really victims here."

The blended family of six, including a toddler, is still waiting to move into the home purchased in 2014.

What was used

The reno includes a number of cost-effective methods to save energy and build a greener home.

Non-toxic adhesives: Used to bond the plywood subfloor to the joists. The heavy-duty adhesives will cost about $400 more.

Insulating foam tape: Spray-foam insulation around windows and doors was replaced with an insulating tape that expands from 3/8 of an inch to 5/8. Spray foam is typically safe, but there have been concerns about the chemicals used to make it. The foam tape is more expensive but faster to install. The tape is about 50 to 60 per cent more expensive than foam.

Concrete: The concrete used was 40 per cent slag, a byproduct of the mining industry. The slag replaced Portland cement as a binder for the sand and aggregate.

Drywall: The type of drywall used is supposed to capture airborne and residual organic chemicals, such as formaldehyde gas, which is used in many building materials.

Windows: The double-glazed windows have insulated fibreglass frames, which means the seals are more durable and the windows last longer. Phillips says his company generally stays clear of vinyl windows due to their extremely toxic manufacturing process.

Heating: The home is warmed by a combination of radiant heat and stainless steel radiators. A number of ductless air conditioning units are used for cooling and can be turned on or off as needed.

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A member of the Durham police board wants answers to why an active officer was allowed to co-own a medical marijuana company that is unlicensed and offers customers drug products that are illegal to sell.

There are questions that I will be asking at the next board meeting, said Bill McLean, a Pickering councillor and retired Toronto police sergeant, responding to findings of a Star investigation into the marijuana company, Living On Inc.

I think its our job as a board to ask those questions and get those answers.

But McLean might be the only one at Mondays meeting of the Durham Regional Police Services Board who wants to discuss the controversy.

The police service has steadfastly refused to answer specific questions about what it calls an employer-employee matter that is not open for public discussion. Roger Anderson, head and spokesman of the board, called it a personnel issue and would not comment further. And the officer himself says it has no place before the civilian body tasked with police oversight.

It's nothing to do with the Police Services Board. They dont oversee anything like this, Const. Phil Edgar said in an interview.

A recent Star investigation found Living On Inc., located on First Nations land in Port Perry, was not licensed by Health Canada.

Its website also advertises various kinds of edible marijuana products  pot peanut brittle, lollypops, a weed-infused chocolate hazelnut spread called Chrontella  that are illegal to sell in Canada because the government says they pose a risk of overdose or unintentional ingestion by children.

After the Star began asking questions, Edgar said he stepped back from the marijuana company and is weighing whether he wants to continue a career of policing or branch into the budding medical weed business.

He said he joined the company in December 2015 and filed a request for secondary employment shortly after. He left Living On in July.

Under Ontario law, officers must receive the police chiefs permission to have a second job or have ownership in a company that may appear to be a conflict of interest or interfere with their duties as a cop.

Police board member McLean first raised concerns about the approval of Const. Edgars request at a June police board meeting. He was told the Durham force received a legal opinion that it would be required to approve Edgars ownership of a marijuana dispensary, police board records show.

Durham police have not made the legal opinion public.

While continuing not to comment on Const. Edgars case, the police force appears to have implied that it did not know about the companys lack of licence or the illicit goods advertised on Living Ons website.

While our decision making is subject to limitations in the legislation, the Service would never knowingly approve a request for secondary employment that is illegal, police spokesman Dave Selby said in a statement.

At any time, should new facts come to the attention of the Service that would change the context of a secondary employment approval, the Service may take any steps deemed necessary, including revocation of the approval.

As of Friday, the police force has not revoked its approval of Const. Edgars marijuana side job, the officer told the Star.

Edgar said he was involved only in promotions with the company but, as far as he understands, the company was and continues to be properly licensed.

From my view, everything Living On was doing was ethical and legal. If were helping people, and its all ethical and legal, then I have no problem with it, Edgar previously told the Star.

While the controversy unfurls within the force, Durham police are quietly cracking down on medical marijuana dispensaries that have popped up in its municipalities.

Storefront medical marijuana dispensaries are illegal in Canada. In late August, officers delivered letters to dispensaries in Oshawa warning if they continued to participate in unlawful activity the force may take action as authorized by the Criminal Code.

One dispensary in Oshawa has already shuttered its doors. Employees at another Oshawa shop, 420 Compassion Club, said their customers are patients who need medication and closing down would be turning them to the streets to score.

They shouldnt be letting an officer own a shop when theyre sending us a letter saying its illegal and making us scared to come to the shop, scared about our freedom, employee Justin Long said.

Durham police would not say whether its officers also sent a notice to Living On. At a recent visit to the companys yet-to-open storefront, a sign on the window said it would be opening soon pending a Health Canada inspection.

The drug regulator said storefront medical marijuana shops are illegal and it does not inspect them.

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A retired Toronto teacher who has severe arthritis in her knees and leans heavily on two canes to get around says she has been given a rough ride by surly Greyhound drivers who embarrassed and humiliated her when she asked for help to board the bus.

Company officials say they dont know why drivers didnt activate a mechanism to lower the bus for Helena Burnstein, but vowed to ensure all drivers receive extra training on the equipment as part of annual refresher classes this fall.

During five of eight round trips Burnstein has taken between Toronto and Guelph since January 2015, she says, drivers have questioned her mobility limitations and refused to lower the bus or offer a stepstool so she could get on and off safely.

Some told her they didnt want to use the bus-lowering equipment because it might get stuck and strand all the passengers, she adds.

As a result, the 70-year-old woman says she was forced to drag herself up the steps or hobble down backwards. An injured wrist was bad enough, but her wounded pride was the biggest blow, she says.

On at least two of these trips, Burnstein says, she alerted Greyhounds accessibility office in advance to say she needed pre-boarding and asking that the driver lower the bus or provide a portable platform so the bottom step wasnt so far from the ground.

Frankly, if a bus has steps that lower, there shouldnt even be a need to deal with the disability office. The driver should lower it upon request, she says.

After making several verbal complaints, Burnstein filed a claim against the company over a particularly upsetting experience last November. A settlement, which she signed last week, is confidential.

It seems to be a culture at Greyhound that its OK not to use accessibility equipment, Burnstein says. Thats got to change.

David Butler, Greyhounds regional vice-president for Eastern Canada, said drivers are supposed to use the bus-lowering mechanism at every stop that doesnt have a curb, whether its requested or not. It makes it easier for everyone.

Drivers are also instructed to use portable platforms if the equipment isnt working, he said, adding the company has just purchased 50 more platforms for stations across the country.

Butler said he would contact Burnstein to ensure that her accessibility concerns are addressed.

I want to reach out to her and make sure she is satisfied and chooses Greyhound the next time she wants to travel between Toronto and Guelph, he told the Star last week.

Although Burnstein has accepted the settlement, her lawyer, Richard Parker, said it was never about the money.

It was about her embarrassment and the inconvenience  and to make sure that it never happens again to her or anyone else, he said.

Burnsteins troubles occurred on the same route where a Wilfrid Laurier University student in a motorized wheelchair was stranded on a lift for three hours in sub-zero temperatures in January 2014 due to faulty equipment and untrained staff.

In the wake of that incident more than two years ago, Greyhound promised to fix equipment and beef up driver accessibility training. But the problems persisted, Burnstein says.

During her most recent trip from Guelph to Toronto in June, she says, the driver didnt lower the bus or offer a platform to help her get down the stairs, despite her repeated requests. A fellow traveller who boarded the bus in Kitchener says she was so appalled by the drivers behaviour toward Burnstein that she also complained to Greyhound.

Not only was (Burnstein) denied a step stool . . . but she was asked questions by the bus driver such as: Why do you take the bus if you cant get on and off?  Claire Theriault said in her complaint, filed June 23.

She was embarrassed and uncomfortable . . . This event was not only an absolutely outrageous example of very poor customer service, but it was also an example of a human rights and dignity violation, wrote Theriault, 23.

People with disabilities, no matter what they are, should feel safe and accommodated in all aspects of their voyage and should most definitely not be subject to public shame and humiliation, she added.

In a June 30 email response to Theriaults complaint, a company official said the behaviour you described will not be tolerated and that appropriate action would be taken to prevent a recurrence.

Possible action could include a reprimand, additional training, suspension or termination, the official wrote.

In the meantime, Burnsteins repeated problems with Greyhound drivers and the Toronto bus terminals lack of benches at the bus bays for people with disabilities  despite room for at least two seats  have made her wary of making any more trips with the company.

Its traumatic, she says. I cant face it any more  not only the drivers, but being embarrassed and humiliated in front of other travellers.

With the large number of seniors taking buses  many with bad hips and knees  buses should be lowered automatically at stops, she says. And they should be equipped with a portable platform that can be used to help all passengers navigate the last step.

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Durham polices civilian oversight board discussed how an active officer was allowed to co-own an unlicensed medical marijuana shop that offers customers drug products that are illegal to sell.

What did the board decide? The public is not allowed to know.

At the end of Mondays Durham Regional Police Board meeting, member Bill McLean said he was going to raise his questions about the controversy in camera  legalese for in private.

McLean, a Pickering councillor and former Toronto police sergeant, had previously said he wanted answers following a Star investigation into the marijuana company, Living On Inc., which was co-owned by veteran Const. Phil Edgar.

I think its our job as a board to ask those questions and get those answers, McLean previously told the Star.

After briefly consulting with Roger Anderson, the head of the police board, McLean opted to ask his questions behind closed doors. In a text after the meeting, McLean said, I asked the questions that I had in camera and I am satisfied with the answers I received.

The board made no statement regarding its private discussions.

Durham police have steadfastly refused to comment on Const. Edgars case, calling it a personnel issue.

I cannot speak about any specific case. That is not appropriate. I cannot speak about that in public because it is an employee-employer matter, Durham police Chief Paul Martin said after Mondays meeting.

The chief emphasized that the force would never approve a side job that it knew was illegal.

A recent Star investigation found Living On Inc., located on First Nations land in Port Perry, was not licensed by Health Canada. Its website also advertises various kinds of edible marijuana products that are illegal to sell in Canada because the government says they pose a risk of overdose or unintentional ingestion by children.

Const. Edgar joined the company in December 2015. He said he received permission from the force to do so around the same time. Police have not revoked that permission, Edgar said, though he has since stepped back from the marijuana company.

The officer, who attended the public portion of Mondays meeting, said he is weighing whether he wants to continue a career in policing or branch into the budding medical weed business.

Kash Heed, a former police chief for West Vancouver who now consults to licensed medical marijuana companies, said this is a matter the police service can and should address publicly.

Here is an example of having a police agency and a board not being as transparent as they ought to be, and not being accountable to the public, Heed said.

The only way police organizations are going to get public support and maintain their integrity with the public is by being transparent and accountable.

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By India Today Web Desk: Jaipur happens to be one of the easiest choices for a Delhiite's weekend getaway. And why not? The Pink City is located at an easy driving distance of 270 km.

But what if the six-hour drive was shortened by four hours? You would get plenty of time to explore the heritage destination. Wondering how that's possible?

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Union Minister for Road Transport, Nitin Gadkari, has revealed that a new access control highway would be constructed between Delhi and Jaipur, which would reduce the travel time between the cities to just two hours.

Also read: Coming soon: Kamascootra, a flight from Jaipur to Singapore!



Gadkari said that the project to build the new Delhi-Jaipur access control highway would cost Rs 16,000 crore and the construction is slated to start in January 2017. The land acquisition process for the new highway would be started soon.

Apart from this, Gadkari, on Sunday, also laid the foundation stone for a Rs 1,005-crore-improvement work on three junction on National Highway 8, which is currently the most preferred route between Delhi and Jaipur via Gurgaon. He said that the work will now be completed 15 months instead of the originally planned 30.

While work on the flyover at IMT Manesar Chowk would be completed soon, four underpasses and as many flyovers would be constructed on NH-8 to make the traffic movement seamless.

Gadkari said the junction near Ambience Mall would also be improved. In addition, he assured to start construction work on the Manesar-Gurgaon bye-pass in near future. The pilot project of Metrino System between Dhaula Kuan in Delhi and Manesar had been cleared and work would be started soon, he said.

Although nothing can make a traveller happier than a two-hour drive to Jaipur from Delhi, it would also mean driving at a speed more than 100 kmph, which is the current legal speed limit in India . Is a speed limit revision on the cards as well? We look forward to an answer.



(With inputs from PTI)



--- ENDS ---
Former Toronto police chief William McCormack was remembered with emotional tributes at a funeral service that filled St. Pauls Basilica cathedral on Monday morning.

McCormack, 83, died last Thursday.

The two most important things in my dads life was family and family, Toronto Police Association president Mike McCormack told those assembled, including Mayor John Tory, former premier Mike Harris and former mayor Mel Lastman.

We love you Papa, and we will miss you forever, said McCormacks eldest granddaughter, Erin, as she fought back tears.

McCormack  a father of five, grandfather of 11, and great-grandfather of three  was remembered as larger than life and a true family man.

Following in their fathers footsteps, four of the five McCormack children became police officers. We should become cops, Mike McCormack said he and his siblings thought after watching their dad in a TV interview. How hard could it be?

Former Metro Toronto police chief Bill McCormack dead at 83

William McCormack Jr. told the service about the last hours of his fathers life. The night before his death, during what the family called pop watch, he said, he had sat beside him, praying for a miracle.

I was born blessed. I won the lottery when I came into this world to have a father like him, McCormacks daughter Lisa said.

We spoke every day, sometimes multiple times a day, she continued. We never parted conversations with Bye, Dad. It was always I love you.

Members of the Toronto police ceremonial division acted as pallbearers, and the procession also included members of the mounted unit and the Toronto Police Service pipe band.

In a statement, Tory said McCormack will be remembered for his dedication to serving and protecting residents of Toronto.

McCormack joined the police force in 1959, and worked as a homicide investigator before serving as chief from 1989 to 1995. Many remember his decades of service with his signature look, a fedora and a trench coat.

He was the first chief that I can remember that actually went out to the communities, current Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders said.

With files from Wendy Gillis

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Declining math scores may be on educators minds right now, but reading is still considered key to student achievement in all subjects.

Now, a cross-Canada coalition is trying to promote a love of books, worried about the growing number of students who say they dont like to read for pleasure.

Theres been a recent trend toward STEM programs (science/technology/engineering/math), and from our perspective  if you cant read well, you are not doing well in math or science, said Mohamed Huque, associate director of the National Reading Campaign, a not-for-profit that is urging governments and school boards to make the issue a priority.

The positive effect of reading transcends marks for English or language arts; it really does translate beyond academic achievement. There are tons of studies showing the positive effects of reading on mental health (and) building empathy, among other benefits, he added.

At a symposium earlier this year, the campaign crafted a statement saying its time for ministries of education, school boards and principals (to)  adopt policies that make reading for pleasure possible, and that they should be accountable for reporting on the provision of such programs.

In Ontario alone, the percentage of Grade 3 students who say they like to read most of the time sat at less than half  47 per cent in 2013-14, down from 49 per cent the year prior.

Among Grade 6 students, that figure dropped to 47 per cent in 2013-14 from 48 per cent in 2012-13, according to the most up-to-date statistics from the provinces Education Quality and Accountability Office, which has also found that kids who read for pleasure perform better on standardized tests over time.

The campaign is also urging faculties of education to equip future teachers with the ability to be effective reading promoters, which includes familiarity with childrens  and especially Canadian childrens  literature, and calls on boards to ensure schools have fully functioning libraries staffed by teachers who have additional training as librarians.

The move in recent years  the Toronto Catholic board in particular, which controversially phased out all of its teacher-librarians  has been to cut library hours, or staff them with lesser-trained, and lower paid, technicians.

Patricia Minnan-Wong, president of the Toronto Elementary Catholic Teachers union, said the advantage of teacher-librarians is they are certified teachers and curriculum experts  theres the ability to team-teach, and they are experts in the area of literature and information literacy and can collaborate with other teachers on the best resources, all of which can help foster a love of reading.

Wayne Parker, a long-time teacher-librarian at Bramptons North Park Secondary School, said circulation is down at the library, and few people would disagree the likely cause for that is they have all these smartphones  they have this thing they are paying all their attention to and spending time with, and when it comes time  they go online to read.

He said he wonders whether this is conditioning kids, from a young age, to read a screen page but not so often two or three hundred pages and said he does his best to bring in materials that will appeal to teens.

My position is that if we dont show them, they wont know, he said. Theres definitely big importance for library advocacy.

Hes discovered students dont like e-readers  They think: My grandma has one of those  and that he must stay on top of the genres students are interested in.

Twilight was huge and now it has passed, he said, referring to the hit series about vampires. There are those who are very keen on their manga (comic books), but thats a select group, as are those interested in teen romance or non-fiction reads.

A lot of people dont read in my generation, said Julienne Ahipatela, a Grade 12 student at North Park who spends a lot of her free time immersed in a book. People are more on their electronics; they just spend time on Twitter and Facebook. Im not really social and only go on Instagram if I have to or if I have nothing to do.

Alexia Brown, who is in Grade 11, thinks some teens may be deterred by the cost  something the campaign has also warned of.

I think sometimes they want to get a book of their own, but cant afford it, said the 16-year-old. There are some books that are really expensive, or their parents cant take them to the public library.

Parker said that when students read novels for English assignments, sometimes that will trigger them to read more novels. But some will just read what they are assigned, and they are done  occasionally Ill have the wonderful experience of a student who has not read much at all, and I introduce him or her to something, and they love it.

It doesnt happen a lot, though.

-

BEST READS

Best books, as recommended by students at Bramptons North Park Secondary School:

Julienne Ahipatela, Grade 12

Along for the Ride, by Sarah Dessen

Poison Princess (The Arcana Chronicles), by Kresley Cole

Endless Knight (The Arcana Chronicles), by Kresley Cole

Alexia Brown, Grade 11

Twilight series, by Stephenie Meyer

Amulet series, by Kazu Kibuishi

Thirst series, by Christopher Pike

Amber Hachey, Grade 12

Ouran High School Host Club series, by Bisco Hatori

Hunger Games series, by Suzanne Collins

Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling

Ace Feng, Grade 11

Fullmetal Alchemist series, by Hiromu Arakawa

One Piece series, by Eiichiro Oda

Hoshin Engi series, by Ryu Fujisaki

Parmvir Brar, Grade 12

Brick Lane, by Monica Ali

Motor City Shakedown, by D. E. Johnson

Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare

Kaylee Brewster, Grade 9

Passenger, by Alexandra Bracken

Eleanor and Park, by Rainbow Rowell

All the Bright Places, by Jennifer Niven

Kawal Dasrat, Grade 11

Misery, by Stephen King

Rot and Ruin, by Jonathan Maberry

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

James Alderton, Grade 11

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton

Rash, by Pete Hautman

Wayne Thomas, Grade 12

Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare, by Darren Shan

Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk

Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson

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Mohamed Ali Nahas lost his first wife and two teenage sons to the Syrian war. Now, hes worried his new wife will suffer the same fate, because of what his lawyer calls Canadas inhuman immigration bureaucracy.

The Hamilton cafe owner was introduced to Zainab Jarboh  now stuck in the besieged city of Aleppo  by mutual friends. He says they married in neighbouring Turkey in December 2014, before he returned to Canada and applied to sponsor her in early 2015.

In January, the Canadian visa post in Jordan rejected the application because Nahas, 44, and Jarboh, 28, were unable to produce their marriage registration and his first wifes death certificate from Aleppo, which has been trapped in a pitched battle between Daesh militants and Syrian and Russian forces.

We just couldnt get the official papers from the government of Syria. Zainab could have gone to Germany with her parents to join her brother there, but she decided to wait for the sponsorship back home, said Nahas.

Zainab is now by herself in Aleppo, moving from shelter to shelter. I dont want to lose her.

Nahas left his first wife and children for Canada in 2001 to open a business here, in an attempt to apply for immigration as a foreign investor. After his business failed, he applied for asylum in 2003, claiming he faced political persecution if returned home. As a claimant, he was not able to bring his family to Canada.

In January 2013, Nahas got a call from relatives in Aleppo with the news that his wife and two sons were killed when their home collapsed after a bombing. Later that year, his asylum was finally granted.

In its decision, immigration officials challenged the validity of Nahass new marriage because the requested documents were not received.

I am not satisfied based on all the available evidence, that you have taken all steps reasonably required to demonstrate your sponsors previous wifes death, wrote an unnamed Canadian visa officer in Amman in its decision to Jarboh.

I am not satisfied that your marriage is valid in Syria because it has not been registered with the Syrian religious Sharia court as is required for legal status in your place of residence. I am not satisfied it is valid in Turkey as you have not provided evidence of it having been registered by the legal authorities there.

Earlier this year, the couples lawyer, Barbara Jackman, asked immigration officials to reconsider the decision and urged Immigration Minister John McCallums office to look into the case. Both requests have been refused.

Jackman said Canadian officials need to take into account, when assessing people in and from Syria, the difficulties of obtaining documentation from Syria or countries to which they travel or take refuge because of the civil war.

The inhumanity of the bureaucracy is appalling, said Jackman, who was left with no other option but to file an appeal with an immigration tribunal, a process that takes on average 18 months.

I cant think of a time when I have been more disgusted with those faceless, inhuman bureaucrats who wont let a woman join her husband to avoid being killed by bombing, as happened already to Mohameds children and first wife.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada would not comment on the case, saying it would be inappropriate when a case is still before the immigration appeal tribunal.

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British writer Michael Booth and his friend Katsotoshi Kondo were lunching at a celebrated restaurant in France when they got into an argument about food. Booth said he thought the French chef used fresh ingredients brilliantly and noted the chef had spent time training in Japan. His friend Toshi took umbrage, saying Michael knew nothing about the subtleties of Japanese food. Michael decided he had to go to Japan for a taste test. Super Sushi Ramen Express follows Michael, his Danish wife, Lissen, and their two children around the Japanese islands learning about Japanese cultural idiosyncrasies and the vagaries of local food. My interview with Booth has been edited for length.

Jennifer: You went to a training camp for sumo wrestlers and learned what they needed to eat to be so big.

Michael: I was very excited because I thought they would eat chocolate and fat and ice cream and cake and sleep in the afternoon. We hung out with some sumo wrestlers and had lunch with them and we saw they eat very healthfully. They eat a big hot pot and throw everything into it  tofu, vegetables, Spam and udon noodles. The difference between you and I and sumos is that they can put away incredible quantities of food.

When sumos retire, they must lose much of their weight or they will die. Sumo wrestlers have a much lower life expectancy than the average Japanese male. They are not out of shape. They are incredibly strong. They arent really fat. But they have diabetes and heart problems because of their weight. They have to be careful.

Jennifer: The Meguro Parasitological Museum, a museum devoted to parasites, is one of the most fascinating places you visited.

Michael: I highly recommend it. The Japanese are not at all squeamish about matters of the toilet. We think of them as reserved but they are not shy about examining matters of the guts. This museum contains a long tapeworm in a frame and all sorts of graphic photos of parasites, like a medical book with things you dont want to see.

Jennifer: Tell me about the eccentricities of Japanese toilets.

Michael: One of the great experiences in Japan is the toilets. Everyone talks about them. You sit down and there is this whole bank of buttons so you can sit down for half an hour and be entranced.

Jennifer: How exactly did you use them, Michael?

Michael: Jennifer, this is not something I usually discuss in interviews. I will plead the Fifth.

Jennifer: Michael, Im not asking you for graphic details about your bodily functions. I just want to know what the toilets do.

Michael: You can direct the nozzle of water several ways, the pressure of the water. Some of the toilets play music or when you sit down on them they will run some water to cover any noise. The Japanese are extremely clean people. They value hygiene. They spend lots of time relaxing in hot water and keeping clean. You try all the functions: the washing, the drying, the music. You can move the water, adjust it. It has bidet functions. Maybe well get them here one day.

Jennifer: Wasabi isnt anything like the little green mound served with Japanese food here in Canada. Tell me about the real stuff.

Michael: I dont know how people can eat that green snot we call wasabi. Real wasabi is a root a little like ginger, a bit bigger. It is difficult to grow; it needs chilly flowing water. The root is ground on a special grate made out of shark skin. Real wasabi has a wonderful, delicate sweet flavour like a friendly horseradish. And when you taste it together with real quality fish, it takes us to another plane of experience. Good sushi restaurants in Japan will include it with sashimi and it is absolutely not done to mix your wasabi in with your soy sauce.

Jennifer: There has been a long environmental push in North America to save the whales and different types of tuna, a concern the Japanese dont seem to share. Do they not have a movement for preservation of wildlife? Doesnt this fly in the beliefs of Buddhism?

Michael: Absolutely. But the kind of Buddhism practised in Japan is not Indian-style Buddhism. It is not vegetarian. In terms of their consumption of tuna and whale, they really dont care. They dont talk about it and if you raise the question of these (animals) in danger, everyone will blame someone else. They shrug and say this is terrible, it is a shame and they carry on. Maguro (tuna) is in every single sushi restaurant. The Japanese defend it as a cultural right and they say, It is part of our traditions, part of our culinary identity.

There is a lot of cultural hypocrisy about animal welfare around the world. Think how chickens suffer. We arent in any position in the West to point fingers at anyone.

Jennifer: I love the notion of the dog/coffee shops. You sit there sipping coffee and the dogs that work there come up for a lick, or doggy treats, provided to each guest with admission.

Michael: There are quite a few of them in Japan, and cat cafes as well. You pay an entrance fee and you get dog treats and you hang out with these lapdogs while you drink your coffee. I thought it was a dreadful place. I only went there because my kids wanted to. Out of all the places we visited in Japan, this was their favourite.

The dogs were constantly pestering you, jumping on your lap. Japanese people live in small apartments. They have no room for a dog or cat so they go to these cafes to visit the animals.

I dont know if you know this, but weve been turned into a Japanese cartoon series, my family. Did you hear about that? This book has been turned into a cartoon series by the main government TV channel in Japan. It is also now on Japanese Netflix. Now they want to make feature films about us. They want to get Martin Freeman to play me in the movie. You know, from The Hobbit.

Jennifer: Dr. Watson on Sherlock. You are now TV stars.

Michael: If I could only go on one holiday, I would go to Japan. It has the food, the mountains and beaches. It has incredible beauty. It has active volcanoes and amazing history. It has fascinating art, amazing galleries and shops. And the people are fascinating.

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Premier Kathleen Wynne hopes to energize her Liberal governments flagging popularity with a throne speech that will tackle pocketbook concerns like soaring electricity bills.

Theres a lot of things that we can do, Finance Minister Charles Sousa said. Stay tuned.

Trailing the Progressive Conservatives in public-opinion polls and stinging from a loss to them in the recent Scarborough-Rouge River byelection, Wynne is hitting the reset button Monday.

The Legislature returns from its summer break at noon with a throne speech  entitled A Balanced Plan to Build Ontario Up for Everyone  read by Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell outlining the Liberals agenda for the next 20 months before the spring 2018 election.

We want to provide greater support in the pocketbook, Sousa told reporters Friday.

What is important here is that we find ways to help everyday Ontarians save a little bit more money. Were taking many steps to do just that.

The finance minister insisted the government can afford new measures because it is on track to eliminate annual deficits and balance the books in next years budget.

Sousa acknowledged hydro bills have risen because of new investments to make the electricity system more reliable after blackouts and brownouts a decade ago, and to make it more environmentally friendly by closing coal-fired power plants that were cheaper to run but heavy polluters.

But Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown blames high electricity prices on government schemes paying too much for green energy generated by wind turbines and solar power.

No amount of window dressing is going to help Ontarians with their skyrocketing energy bills, Brown said in a statement last Thursday.

Every failed policy decision this government has made for the last 13 years has made life more unaffordable for Ontarians, the PC chief said.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said too many residents of the province are suffering, with many hitting the wall, and she called on the Liberals to scrap the 13 per cent harmonized sales tax on hydro bills  as her party has promised to do.

So many hard-working families are struggling just to get by when what they want is to get ahead. Costs are up, wages are flat, and good opportunities are few and far between in this province, Horwath told a Queens Park news conference on Friday.

We have to lower hydro bills. There are seniors and families who couldnt turn on the air conditioner this week when we felt like it was 40C out there  because they cant afford their hydro bill, she said, urging the Grits to stop the privatization of Hydro One.

Echoing comments from Wynne last Wednesday, Sousa said the government is listening to those who are feeling a financial pinch but who also wanted a cleaner environment and improved public transit through projects like the Eglinton Crosstown light rail line and more GO Train service.

We understand that we need to improve and mitigate the costs for everyday Ontarians so that they can have greater affordability, but at the same time we needed to make those investments, the treasurer said, referring to Hydro One proceeds bankrolling transportation infrastructure.

While the next provincial election is almost two years away, Wynne will face earlier tests with voters in two looming byelections that could serve as a barometer on measures in her throne speech.

The Liberals hope to hold Ottawa-Vanier after the June retirement of cabinet minister Madeleine Meilleur, where University of Ottawa dean of common law Nathalie Des Rosiers is vying for the Grit nomination.

Wynne will also call a vote in Niagara West-Glanbrook, held since 1995 by Conservative MPP Tim Hudak, who is resigning his seat Friday. No date has been set for either byelection.

Niagara regional Councillor Tony Quirk, a PC party vice-president, and party president Rick Dykstra, a former St. Catharines MP, are hoping to succeed Hudak.

All government legislation that was on the order paper when the House was prorogued on Thursday will be reintroduced.

The first bill will be the campaign finance reform law that was the result of a Star series last spring.

That legislation will ban union and corporate donations to political parties, forbid MPPs and candidates from attending party fundraisers, and slash contribution limits to $1,200 from the existing $9,975.

It will also usher in public subsidies of the Liberals, Tories, New Democrats and Green Party of Ontario by giving them $2.71 for every vote received in the 2014 election.

Annual payouts starting in January will be $5.06 million for the governing Grits, $4.09 million for the Tories, $3.1 million for the NDP, and $630,000 for the Greens.

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Premier Kathleen Wynnes Liberals will spend $1 billion annually to give electricity ratepayers an 8-per-cent tax cut on their hydro bills starting in January.

In a bid to jolt their flagging popularity with a provincial election less than two years away, Wynnes Liberals delivered a consumer-friendly speech from the throne Monday that also promised 100,000 new child-care spaces over the next five years.

Your government has listened and has heard your concerns, said the speech read in the legislature by Lt.-Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell.

It recognizes that the cost of electricity is now stretching family budgets.

Eliminating the 8-per-cent provincial portion of the 13-per-cent harmonized sales tax on hydro bills for homes, small businesses, and farms should save the average household $130 a year.

Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown said its a bit rich that the Liberals, who ignored opposition calls to exempt hydro from the HST, are now promising a tax break that is too little, too late.

We should be calling it the Raymond Cho hydro benefit, Brown crowed, charging that the Liberals concocted the plan only after losing their stronghold of Scarborough-Rouge River to the Tories Cho in the Sept. 1 byelection.

Finance Minister Charles Sousa, insisting that wasnt the case, maintained the government will still balance the budget next year because of higher tax revenues from growth in the economy.

This is not something that just happened a week ago. Weve been planning this for a number of months and weve been taking the necessary steps to accommodate this, Sousa told reporters.

The driving force behind this is the needs of the people of Ontario, not the needs of any political party.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath urged the government to quickly pass legislation making the rebate available immediately with hefty summer air-conditioning bills rolling in.

People are going to wait for four more months. Just do it.

Even some Liberals are privately expressing doubts. Sources told the Star that Grit MPPs gave the premier an earful behind closed doors earlier Monday in a caucus meeting.

There are concerns for sure that we are not doing enough, one insider confided.

Other critics noted that the average household will be paying an extra $13 a month for gasoline and natural gas next year when the governments new carbon-pricing plan is slated to take effect, offsetting any hydro savings.

With this government, they give you a little bit from one pocket but take it out of your other pocket, said Warren (Smokey) Thomas, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.

Many rural ratepayers, who cannot take advantage of the inexpensive natural gas for heating that urban Ontarians enjoy and pay higher distribution fees, will receive an additional $540 annually off their electricity bills.

About 1,000 factories will be able to take advantage of the governments industrial conservation initiative, which now rewards 300 companies with lower hydro prices if they shift power use away from peak usage times.

Our government understands the challenges people face and shares their concerns, the government said in the 17-page speech, vowing to help more people in their everyday lives.

Building upon the 56,000 new daycare spaces in the past three years, the Liberals will fund an additional 100,000 over the next five, starting in January.

Associate education minister Indira Naidoo-Harris said the additional spots will cost between $600 million and $750 million in operating expenses with a capital investments ranging from $1 billion to $3 billion over five years.

That means as much as $3.75 billion more for child care from 2017 to 2021.

Competition for spaces is tight, particularly in Toronto, where there are spots for just 21 per cent of children under the age of 5. Ontario already spends more than $1 billion a year on 350,000 licensed daycare spaces.

Stinging over the recent Education Quality and Accountability Office tests that found half of Ontarios Grade 6 students failed to meet the provincial mathematics standard this year, the government plans to emphasize math skills.

To help students improve their mathematics skills, your government is implementing a renewed math strategy, including having up to three math lead teachers in all elementary schools.

The falling scores  58 per cent of Grade Six students met the standard in 2012  has been blamed on kids anxiety over math and teachers lack of proficiency in the subject.

Beyond math, the government is also setting a goal for every young person to have at least one opportunity for experiential learning.

Pocketbook issues such as hydro and daycare dominated the speech.

The Liberals remain committed to selling the Hydro One transmission utility to bankroll public transit and roads and bridges.

The governments carbon-pricing scheme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, which will cost the average household $13 extra a month starting in January, is still on track.

All government legislation on the order paper when the House was prorogued Thursday will be reintroduced, starting on Tuesday.

The first bill will be the campaign finance reform law sparked by a Star series last March.

Under the legislation, corporate and union donations to political parties will be banned, MPPs and candidates will be forbidden from attending party fundraisers, and contribution limits will be reduced to $1,200 from $9,975.

The new law will introduce public subsidies of the major political parties by giving them $2.71 for every vote they received in the 2014 election.

Starting in January, annual payments will be $5.06 million for the Liberals, $4.09 million for the Conservatives, $3.1 million for the New Democrats, and $630,000 for the Greens.

MORE ON THESTAR.COM

Five highlights from Kathleen Wynnes throne speech

Ontario Liberals profiting from the politics of hydro tax cuts: Cohn

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Less than an hour into Syrian truce, residents in Aleppo said a helicopter dropped explosives on rebel-held district

BEIRUTA ceasefire came into effect in Syria at sunset Monday in the latest attempt led by the United States and Russia to bring some quiet in the 5 -year civil war.

Residents and observers reported quiet in most of the country hours after the truce came into effect, though activists said airstrikes took place on contested areas around the northern city of Aleppo.

Residents in Aleppo said via text message that a government helicopter had dropped explosive cylinders on a rebel-held district, the New York Times reported. And in the southern province of Daraa, a rebel faction said in a statement that it had killed four government soldiers.

There have been extensive doubts expressed among many entangled in the conflict that the ceasefire, timed to coincide with the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, would be respected.

The most powerful rebel groups have shown deep misgivings over the ceasefire deal, which was crafted without their input last weekend in Geneva between the top U.S. and Russian diplomats. Hours after it came into force, a coalition of rebel factions put out a statement that stopped short of committing to the ceasefire, a reflection of their distrust of the government.

The first week of the truce will be crucial. During that time, all fighting between the military of Syrian President Bashar Assad and rebels is to stop. But, Assads forces can continue airstrikes against Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and Al-Qaida-linked insurgents from the group once known as the Nusra Front.

However, the Al-Qaida-linked insurgents are closely allied to many rebel factions and are a powerful force in the defence of Aleppo in particular. That raises the danger that continued airstrikes will draw rebels into retaliation, eventually leading to the ceasefires collapse, much as previous attempts earlier this year fell apart.

Compounding the situation, a group of 21 rebel factions issued a statement Friday in which they warned against targeting Al-Qaida-linked militants. The statement was noncommittal about whether the groups would abide by the ceasefire.

After a week, however, the conflict would potentially enter a dramatically different stage. A new U.S.-Russia coalition will step in to target former Nusra Front militants, and Assads forces will no longer be permitted to. That will effectively remove Assads pretext for war on opposition areas, which he calls a war on terror. Government forces will be allowed to fight defensively and to target Daesh, only.

The deals architects hope that would pave the way for an extended period of restraint that can serve as the foundation for peace talks between the wars many sides.

As the ceasefire came into effect, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that rebel factions must distance themselves from the Al-Qaida-linked militants, whose group recently changed its name from Nusra to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, or Levant Conquest Front.

He also said the Syrian government must allow deliveries of humanitarian aid into besieged areas, including the rebel-held districts of Aleppo.

Russias Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said peace talks between opposition groups and the government could resume as early as next month.

At the White House Monday, spokesman Josh Earnest said the success of the agreement places a lot of pressure on Russia to deliver.

Based on our collective experience here on observing the situation, Earnest said, I think we have some reasons to be skeptical that the Russians are able or are willing to implement the arrangement consistent with the way its been described.

But, he added, well see.

Multiple rounds earlier this year in Geneva failed to make progress. Ultimately, talks have run into the question that neither side is willing to budge on  the fate of Assad and his government. As a result, the war has continued the grinding violence that has so far killed more than 250,000 people and driven some 11 million people, half of Syrias population, from their homes since 2011.

That same roadblock makes prospects for a peace dim even if the ceasefire does hold, said Syria analyst Aron Lund.

Opposition groups have demanded Assads departure as a condition to lasting peace, which has so far been a non-starter for government negotiations.

Its an existential question for the regime as it currently stands. Its about the regime or not, said Lund.

In a letter to rebels disseminated last weekend, U.S. Special Envoy for Syria Michael Ratney promised them that, our priority remains calming the situation to allow the launch of a credible political operation that leads to a true political transition that Syrians want most determinedly, a new Syria without Bashar Assad. A copy of the letter was given to The Associated Press by an opposition official.

Earlier Monday, a main opposition group linked to several small, moderate rebel factions said they will deal positively with the truce brokered by the U.S. and Russia. The Syrian National Coalition said that any effort that aims to end the suffering of the people is a step in the right direction and we will deal with it positively.

Still, other rebel factions showed deep uncertainty. Some have complained that the ceasefire deal does not mention Assads future and keeps in place the government siege of rebel-held parts of Aleppo.

There is no balance in the agreement, said Col. Ahmad Hamada, an army defector who is now with the rebel group known as the Northern Division.

When the ceasefire went into effect at 7 p.m. local time, the Syrian army issued a statement saying it would abide by a ceasefire until Sunday at midnight, while maintaining its right to defend itself against any violations.

Hours before the ceasefire went into effect, Assad vowed that his government would take back land from terrorists and rebuild the country. Assad spoke during a rare public appearance that included attending prayers for Eid al-Adha in the Damascus suburb of Daraya, where rebels surrendered last month after a four-year siege.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Right, which has a network of activists around Syria to monitor the conflict, said calm is prevailing on most of Syrias territories.

Still, residents in Aleppo reported some airstrikes and shelling, including a barrel bomb attack by government helicopters. It was not immediately known if the targets where Fatah al-Sham or other factions.

One of the more immediate goals of the U.S.-Russian agreement is to allow the UN to establish aid corridors into Aleppo, the contested northern Syrian city. Over 2,000 people have been killed in fighting over the past 40 days in the city, including 700 civilians and 160 children, according to a Syrian human rights group.

With files from The New York Times

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Knowing where you come from is important to British bookstore owner Gordon Draper, who can trace his Viking roots to Normandy in 1068.

So when a photo and letter from a dying mother to her young daughter dropped out of an old novel in his second-hand bookstore in Bishop Auckland in northern England, his first thought was how to return it.

If your dad is reading this to you It is because I have died and gone to heaven to live with the angels, began the letter, neatly penned on lined paper. I will always be in the sky making sure you are alright and watching over you.

The recipient, Bethany Gash came forward last week to reclaim the missive. It had been lost after her mother, Lisa, died of cystic fibrosis in 1999, at age 36.

The 21-year-old reread Lisas loving words in front of television and print media, who covered the ongoing story after a local newspaper wrote about the efforts by Draper and his friend Albert Mark to find her.

Gash told the local paper, the Northern Echo, that the experience was overwhelming to be honest. I knew that the letter had gone missing but I never knew it could be found.

The letter was lost when Gash and her father moved after her mother died. Her father first read it to her when she was 4.

I never ever thought Id see it again, she said. And the lengths that these two gentlemen have gone to actually reunite it is absolutely amazing.

She said a close family friend read the story about the letter online and contacted Gash, who works as a customer service adviser in Ferry Hill, a town nearby.

Gash met up with Draper and Mark  and the press  on Tuesday. When asked by a reporter how she felt about the letters return, she said Her memory is carrying on, not only for our family as well but for everybody else. They can see what sort of a person she was and what family meant to her.

Whether the letter remained hidden in a book in someones home for the past 15 years, or circulated in the town of 26,000, isnt known. Draper didnt see the novels title, only the photo and letter on the floor of his shop in Bishop Auckland, which he describes as a kind of an ancient place once ruled by the powerful bishops of Durham.

After finding the letter, Draper left his shop on Bondgate, a historic street where residents took refuge from invading Scots because of the gates at either end  Theyd shout through the gates to the Scottish raiders, No, you cant have me chickens, he says  and visited a business three doors down.

I went up and asked for some sort of resolve to this, Draper says.

There he met Albert Mark, the husband of shop owner Sandra Mark. The pair decided to make a public entreaty to find the letters owner.

Both men were moved to tears each time they read it, says Mark.

Ive felt a real sort of lump in me throat, says Draper.

Draper, a romantic, says the heartwarming tale reminds him of a novel by Catherine Cookson, the famous romance novelist who was born in the nearby town of Tyne Dock.

When we handed the letter over  (Bethany) had a broad County Durham accent and that even reminded me more of Catherine Cookson, says Draper. I could see a likeness between them two.

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A Mexican senator has plans to fight back against Donald Trumps pledge to make Mexico pay for a 3,000-km wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Although details of Trumps plan for the wall are scarce, the Republican candidates campaign released a memo in March saying he would compel Mexico to pay by cutting off remittances sent over the border by Mexicans living in the United States.

In response, Sen. Armando Rios Piter, of the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution, introduced a law in the Mexican Senate last week that would retaliate with an equivalent tax on American people and companies in Mexico.

More than one million U.S. citizens live in Mexico.

All parties in the Senate are in agreement that Mexico needs to stand up for itself and strengthen its relationship with the United States, Rios told the Telegraph. We want to shut Trumps mouth, which has been spewing this hateful speech.

Moreover, if Trump acts on his threat to unilaterally revoke the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the bill proposes to review all 75 treaties Mexico has with its northern neighbour  a move which would threaten the regions security and prosperity. Those treaties include the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which set the current border with Texas and ceded California and parts of six other U.S. states to the U.S. in 1848.

The likelihood Trump can actually build the wall is slim. But the fact that he has built much of his campaign around anti-immigrant and anti-Mexican rhetoric has caused a tidal wave of anti-Americanism south of the Rio Grande.

When he launched his primary campaign last June, Trump called undocumented Mexicans rapists and criminals; he has run on a platform of deporting millions of illegal immigrants.

Trump is very blatantly the most hated man in Mexico. Ninety-eight per cent of Mexicans despise him, according to a recent poll, said Agustin Barrios Gomez, president of Mexico Image Foundation and a former congressman who helped to draft the bill.

The legislation has support from senators from the governing party, as well as from other opposition parties, and is now being debated in committee. Added Barrios Gomez: We want Trump to know, we will fight back.

The proposed law would also prohibit Mexicos federal government from financing any kind of infrastructure that could be construed as a border wall. Mexico currently receives $24.4 billion a year in remittances from immigrants in the U.S.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nietos decision to invite Trump to the presidential palace Los Pinos for a visit late last month angered many Mexicans.

Though Pena Nieto later tweeted that he made it clear Mexicans would not pay for a border wall, many people felt he missed an opportunity to confront the Republican candidate. After the meeting, Trump claimed he and Pena Nieto didnt discuss who would pay for the proposed wall.

A poll in Reforma, a daily newspaper, found that 85 per cent of Mexicans believed inviting Trump was a mistake. Following the meeting, Finance Minister Luis Videgaray Caso, a close ally of the president, resigned.

Mexicans have had a volatile relationship with the U.S., given their history, but anti-American sentiment has faded since NAFTA was signed in 1994.

The visit may resurrect Mexicos anti-American revolutionary nationalism and hurt the United States for years to come, predicted political analyst Andres Oppenheimer in the Miami Herald last Friday.

Generations of Mexicans have grown up with school textbooks that referred to Texas and California as territories usurped from Mexico by the United States in the 1830s and 1840s.

Mexico and the U.S. are two of the worlds most integrated economies, with 350 million legal border crossings a year, according to the U.S. State Department. Since NAFTA was implemented, trade between the two countries has more than tripled to $700 billion. Six million U.S. jobs depend on Mexico, according to the Wilson Centers Mexico Institute, a think-tank in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. would be shooting itself in the foot if ties between Mexico and the U.S. became strained, said Barrios Gomez. When we say we are fighting back against Trumps ideas, we are actually trying to safeguard the NAFTA relationship.

Felipe Calderon, Pena Nietos predecessor, has called Trump a liar and a hypocrite.

Another past president, Vicente Fox, called Trump a false prophet who threatens to bring back the era of the ugly American in a February interview.

Im not going to pay for that f---ing wall, Fox told Univision anchor Jorge Ramos. He should pay for it. Hes got the money.

Correction - September 13, 2016: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said there are 350 million legal border crossings between Mexico and the U.S. daily.



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INDIANAPOLISCourt documents say a retired Indianapolis fertility doctor used his own sperm to impregnate several women decades ago and admitted to six now-adult children to doing so.

Dr. Donald Cline pleaded not guilty to Monday to two felony obstruction of justice charges for misleading authorities who were investigating two of the childrens complaints against him.

A probable cause affidavit says the 77-year-old suburban Zionsville man told the six adults that he had donated his own sperm about 50 times. His patients were told they were receiving sperm from medical residents or students.

Cline is accused of being the biological father of at least eight people. The youngest would be about 30.

Clines attorney says hes not accused of not co-operating with authorities.

He was released on his own recognizance.

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When they entered the house, Police found one lady lying dead on a sofa with blood oozing out of her right ear and her tongue wagging out of her mouth.

By Tanseem Haider: The Delhi Police have arrested three persons after solving a case involving the cold blooded murder of a woman named Kusum Gupta within 24 hours of its reporting.

Kusum Gupta was murdered at her residence at A-10, New Gupta Colony, Model Town. When they entered the house, Police found one lady lying dead on a sofa with blood oozing out of her right ear and her tongue wagging out of her mouth.

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The crime team was summoned to the spot. On inspection of the house, the almirahs of the house were found to be open with their locks broken. The place was completely vandelised with all items lying scattered. The deceased was identified as Kusum Gupta.

REVELATIONS

During the investigation, it was revealed that the deceased was living with her son Piyush at her address and was running a ration shop at E-11, C.C Colony, Model Town. Piyush works in a private company at Moti Nagar and had gone to Chennai for some official work. The deceased was alone at her house on the fateful day. Piyush said that some jewellery and cash had been stolen from the house.

The statement of one of the staff working at the Ration Shop of the deceased, was found contradictory and led to suspicion of his involvement in the murder. He was subjected to sustained interrogation during which he disclosed that he had come to Delhi just about a month ago to meet his relative Bunty who was already working at the ration shop for 12 years and was well known to the deceased Kusum Gupta.

He further disclosed that on 11th september, Bunty and his associate Sunty , who is living near their house, planned to rob and murder the deceased Kusum Gupta as she was living alone and hence was a easy target for them. She supposedly had a lot of cash and jewellery at her house. The accused Sadik was arrested in the case after getting sufficient evidence was gathered.

ALL THREE INVOLVED

As per their plan, all three of them went to market and purchased a wire to be used for strangulating the deceased Kusum Gupta. After that all of three accused persons went to the house of the deceased. They murdered the lady after strangulating her with the wire. After killing the lady, the accused persons robbed the ear-rings and nose pin, which were on the body of the deceased. After that they ransacked the house for cash and jewellery articles available in the house and ran away from there.

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Other than the Jews, no people have suffered more from Nazi atrocities than the Poles. Not only did half of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust come from Poland, but some three million non-Jewish Poles also died.

Yet the common tragic experience didnt always bring Poles and Jews closer together. Though there were Poles who risked their lives to help Jews to hide or escape, there were others who in the brutal years of German occupation denounced Jews to the authorities or disposed of them in other ways.

Polish anti-Semitism may not be as universal as many make it out to be, but it has a long and ignominious history. It continued, at times brutally, even after the Second World War and, as in virtually all other countries, is there to this very day.

For example, the Polish writer Agata Tuszynska, who discovered as an adult that her mother is Jewish, has written a moving memoir, Family History of Fear, in which she describes her search for her roots in Poland. In the process she encountered vulgar anti-Semitism telling her, among much else of that ilk, that Poles should be grateful to Hitler for having helped them to get rid of the Jews and, of course, however inconsistently, that the Jews continue to run Poland and rule the rest of the world.

Similarly, when serious and reputable historians, among them professor Jan Grabowski of the University of Ottawa, documented that some Poles were murdering Jews in the Nazi period and thereafter, many Poles were outraged. Not having any grounds for challenging the research theyd argue against the integrity of the scholars and the prudence of publishing the results.

As a way of healing, successive Polish governments took serious steps to come to terms with their past and to distance themselves from anti-Semitism. They established cordial relations with the State of Israel and encouraged Jews all over the world to visit the country. Such visits became part of the Israeli high school curriculum and common practice among Jews of all ages.

The Jewish Museum in Warsaw seeks to document the 1,000-year history of Polish Jewry and its invaluable contribution to almost every aspect of Polish life. Its by no means only a history of discrimination and persecution.

Particularly the major urban centres with their rich cultural life and keen sense of Polish history, to which Jews have contributed much, saw a new openness to Jews and Judaism in the post-Communist era. Despite small numbers, Jewish life has had something of a renaissance. Poles of all faiths and none flocked to events that celebrated Judaism in their land. Many individuals whose families had hitherto hidden their Jewish origins had now chosen to identify as Jews and become part of the Jewish community.

Some two years ago I wrote with enthusiasm on this page about the progress the country of my birth had made in the 25 years after the end of Communist rule. But things seem to be deteriorating with the new government. Poland has seen a shift to the political right. With it have come a number of measures that echo the sordid past and, therefore, give cause for deep concern.

Particularly troublesome are current efforts to denounce, perhaps even outlaw, evidence of Polish complicity in Nazi atrocities against the Jews. Prof. Yehuda Bauer, the doyen of Holocaust historians, has suggested the measures are reminiscent of Holocaust denial, which has been the staple mantra of all anti-Semites around the world.

Dare we hope that this is only a passing phase and that Poland wont lose its way again?

Dow Marmur is rabbi emeritus of Torontos Holy Blossom Temple. His column appears every four weeks.

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The great mystery of the U.S. presidential race is not that Donald Trump is doing so well. He isnt.

Rather it is that Hillary Clinton is doing so badly.

In any rational scenario, the Republican nominee should be easy meat.

He is a serial bankrupt who, during his career has left customers and suppliers alike high and dry.

His take-no-prisoners approach to immigration, combined with his remarkable rudeness, has alienated entire voting blocs, including women, Hispanics and Muslims.

Even for a politician, he is singularly untruthful. PolitiFact, a project of the Tampa Bay Times, has rated 35 per cent of his statements as flat-out false and an additional 18 per cent as pants-on-fire whoppers.

His platform contains some content. But much is a hodgepodge of braggadocio and bluster.

He says, for instance, that he has a foolproof plan to defeat the Islamic terror group known as Daesh, or ISIS.

But he wont say what this plan is.

He is an acknowledged lawbreaker. He has broken election financing and lobbying laws in two states and been fined for so doing.

He has mounted a campaign that, for the longest time, was disorganized and incoherent. He has gone through two campaign directors and is now on the third.

He has few workers on the ground to get out the vote and has run few television ads.

According to public opinion surveys, he is the most unpopular presidential candidate since polling began.

Even the leaders of his own party dont much like him.

And yet still Clinton struggles to beat him. The polls, which had been in her favour, are beginning to tighten up  both nationally and in all-important swing states, such as Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Real Clear Politics, which averages recent polls, shows the two in a virtual tie nationally.

How can that be?

Alas for the Democrats, the answer seems to be that Clinton  while perhaps able as an administrator  is a terrible presidential candidate.

Her friends insist she is warm and personable in private. But on television, she comes across as strident and defensive.

She is so wary of the press that it became news around the world last week when she finally allowed reporters onto her campaign plane.

Her platform is more comprehensive and nuanced than Trumps. But I suspect few American voters would be able to tell you whats in it.

And like Trump, she is not entirely truthful. According to PolitiFact, she tells fewer whoppers and flat-out falsehoods than Trump. But she makes many more statements that are rated mostly false.

Indeed, when the three categories of mostly false, false and pants on fire are added up. Trump and Clinton almost tie. Some 71 per cent of his statements are rated untruthful compared to 28 per cent for Clinton.

The main difference is that his lies are more flagrant.

All of this may help explain why her approval ratings are just slightly above Trumps.

And things are not getting better. There is a weird sense of desperation about the Clinton campaign.

Her latest assault on Trump, labelling him unpatriotic for praising Russian President Vladimir Putin, seems contrived even for the U.S.

Its as if her campaign team cant think of anything better.

Trump was not being anti-American last week when he called Putin a better leader than U.S. President Barack Obama. He was being revealing.

The Republican candidate admires Putin because he gets things done  regardless of the diplomatic niceties.

In effect, Trump was signalling what kind of leader he would be if elected.

Its possible that Americans do want a latter-day Mussolini as their president. But I doubt it. Id guess that most would prefer that someone other than Trump move into the White House next January.

So far, Hillary Clinton has given them little reason to make sure that person will be her.

Thomas Walkoms column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Correction - September 14, 2016: This article was edited from a previous version that misstated Hillary Clinton's falsehood score as calculated by PolitiFact as 69 per cent.

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Dealing with reaction from the United States was always going to be one of the trickiest aspects of moving towards legalization of marijuana across Canada.

The case of Matthew Harvey, which came to light this past week, underscores just how tricky it may get. And it shows that the federal government must lose no time in making sure that individual Canadians are not penalized as a result of misunderstandings between the two countries.

Harvey was banned from the U.S. for life in 2014 after he truthfully answered a question from an American border control officer as he tried to cross from Vancouver into Washington State.

The officer spotted a marijuana magazine in his car and asked him about his pot habits. While Harvey was a legal user of medical marijuana in Canada, he admitted that he had smoked before he received his licence to use the drug for medical purposes.

Incredibly, that was enough to earn him an on-the-spot lifetime ban from travelling to the U.S. He now wants to take his young daughter to Disneyland, but must apply for a travel waiver  an expensive, time-consuming and uncertain process.

All this even though Harvey was a legal consumer of marijuana in Canada, and was crossing over into a state that legalized pot for recreational use two years ago. Despite that, marijuana remains a prohibited drug under U.S. federal law, and the federal border agent was rigorously applying those rules.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale calls it a ludicrous situation, which if anything is an understatement. And he promises to be very vociferous in making clear to U.S. authorities that banning Canadians for naively admitting to casual pot use makes no sense.

The American position is all the more absurd since recreational pot use is already legal in four states (including Washington) as well as the District of Columbia. Half a dozen other states, ranging from California to Massachusetts, are moving quickly in that direction. And half of all states allow marijuana use for medical purposes, which is often interpreted very broadly. American practice is badly out of sync with American law.

The Trudeau government promises to introduce legislation next spring to legalize and regulate the use of marijuana for recreational purposes. That will put many thousands of Canadians in a delicate situation when they try to cross the border. If a U.S. border officer asks about pot use, should they lie (a serious offence in itself)? Or should they tell the truth and risk an onerous travel ban?

The government has its work cut out for it in persuading U.S. authorities not to put travelling Canadians in this awkward dilemma. The simplest solution would be for American border officers to exercise their considerable discretion and not ask travelers about their personal pot habits.

If they dont ask, we wont have to tell.

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Last week, the Trudeau government launched its promised public consultation on security issues. The government's embrace of democratic engagement marks a refreshing break from the remote and secretive approach of the previous administration. But this most recent example looks disturbingly like a delay tactic.

The consultations were originally supposed to coincide with proposed revisions to the Tories badly flawed anti-terror law, formerly C-51. Despite supporting the bill while in opposition, the Liberals vowed to amend the legislations most egregiously overreaching (and likely unconstitutional) aspects once in office. But 10 months later, not one word of the law has been changed. And now the government says any revisions will be put off until the consultation is complete.

Thats bizarre. As the Star has argued before, C-51 clearly and in several ways infringes on Canadians civil rights; and there is no evidence it makes us any safer. What relevance could a public consultation possibly have to whether Trudeau ought to follow through on his promise to rewrite the legislation to comply with the Charter?

Thats not to say the consultation on broader issues of security is unwelcome. Surely it is to the good that Canadas security establishment be made less opaque to Canadians and that the will of voters be better reflected in policy. But it should not be used as yet another tactic to delay the morally necessary but politically difficult decisions ahead.

Every day the law remains unchanged holds the potential that the rights of Canadians will be violated. Among the amendments the Liberals promised during the last election campaign were tweaks to three provisions that legal scholars say violate the Constitution.

Specifically, the Liberals vowed that all Canadian Security Intelligence Service warrants would respect the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Under the current legislation, CSIS is permitted to violate rights when disrupting suspected terrorist activities, as long as a judge has provided a warrant to do so.

They also promised to protect free speech and the rights of protesters by amending overly vague language in the law that criminalizes terrorism propaganda and the promoting of terrorism.

And they said they would require CSIS to obtain a warrant before engaging in the surveillance of Canadians. As Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien warned last year, C-51 allows the agency to infringe on Canadians privacy rights in unprecedented ways, including through the warrantless tracking of domestic metadata, which has proved so controversial in the United States. (Notably, no mention of this last campaign promise was made in the governments announcement last week or in the discussion paper released at the launch of the public consultation.)

These provisions seem plainly to breach the Constitution. Experts have said that they do, and the government has implied it understands this. One would think theres no time like the present to scrap such measures. So why the delay? Must the majority really be consulted before individual and minority rights are upheld?

The cynical explanation is that the government has no appetite to amend the legislation, that it is buying time and building its case to do little or nothing. It may be content to leave the matter to the courts. After all, toppling laws born of fear is always politically difficult and it is much easier to provide new powers to police or security agencies than it is to take them away. The fear of political fallout in the case of a tragic event can be paralyzing.

But while the political reasons for procrastinating may be compelling, the moral responsibility to act quickly really ought to prevail. Trudeau demonstrated during the campaign that he understands the profound dangers of at least some aspects of the law. Now is the time to address them. He neednt ask Canadians permission to do what his campaign promised and the constitution demands.

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Halton parents were warned Monday about school bus delays, just as the Toronto boards reported slightly fewer transportation troubles after a chaotic first week.

Karen Lacroix, general manager of Halton Student Transportation Services  which serves both the local public and Catholic boards  said while the region is not in the same situation as Toronto, we do have a driver shortage situation.

Our bus companies are working very diligently, trying to recruit and hire, and they have been throughout the summer.

While in Toronto some kids have waited for buses that never showed up, in Halton buses are running 10 to 20 minutes late  although part of that is due to September start-up, said Lacroix, referring to typical slowdowns that happen every school year as parents and school staff get used to new drivers and routines.

In total, the Halton boards reported roughly 20 of 450 routes running late Monday morning, most of them in Burlington and Oakville.

Last week in Toronto, thousands of school kids were left waiting, and some were even stranded, because of the driver shortage.

Ontarios ombudsman has already said he will look into the issue.

Meanwhile, Pam Gough and Ken Lister  two Toronto public school board trustees  are asking Director of Education John Malloy to report on what happened and how to fix the problem. Their motion comes before a special meeting of the board Wednesday.

This recruitment and keeping bus drivers is an ongoing challenge for every bus company, said Cathy Abraham of the Ontario Public School Boards Association. It doesnt pay well, and shifts are split. Its tough to keep people wanting to work there.

What we do know is that while the situation in Toronto is the one people are paying attention to, it is happening in pockets around the province.

In the Toronto public board alone, some 1,275 students were affected last week. On Monday, that number dropped to 1,066 students.

Between the public and Catholic boards, some 60 routes did not have a driver last week, which on Monday was down to 45.

Education Minister Mitzie Hunter said in a statement to the Star her office is in close contact with Ontario school boards and will continue to monitor this situation very closely  I know this situation is very frustrating for parents and students. I want to see this issue resolved as soon as possible.

The Ministry of Education is also looking at the formula it uses to fund transportation, after a report from the Auditor General earlier this year that said it was not based on boards actual needs.

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NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Perrigo (PRGO) were increasing in pre-market trading on Monday as the activist hedge fund Starboard Value revealed a 4.6% stake in the stock.

Starboard is now urging the Allegan, MI-based drugmaker to hire advisers to explore a sale of its prescription pharmaceuticals business, as well as other alternatives, the hedge fund said Sunday in a letter to Perrigo, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The hedge fund said the company has had several "operational and financial missteps" while fending off a $26 billion takeover bid from Mylan (MYL) last year.

Starboard added that Perrigo has been distracted by the merger and other factors, resulting in lower investor confidence, the Journal notes.

Perrigo shareholders had approved a deal with Mylan in November, but the company's former CEO Joseph Papa argued the offer undervalued Perrigo, and later quashed the deal. Papa is now CEO of Valeant Pharmaceticals (VRX).

In August, Perrigo reported worse-than-expected second quarter results, which the company's new CEO, John Hendrickson, blamed primarily on "competition and price erosion" for its generic drugs, the Journal added.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author. TheStreet Ratings has this to say about the recommendation:

TheStreet Ratings team rates Perrigo as a Hold with a ratings score of C-. The primary factors that have impacted the rating are mixed - some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its robust revenue growth, expanding profit margins and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. However, as a counter to these strengths, it also finds weaknesses including deteriorating net income, disappointing return on equity and weak operating cash flow.

You can view the full analysis from the report here:

PRGO

PRGO data by YCharts
Your Money, Your Retirement, and the 2016 Presidential Election - What changes will you need to make to your portfolio should Hillary Clinton become president? What happens to your investments should Donald Trump become president? Join us on Sept. 12 as our panel of the world's top financial experts provide trusted information on the investment risks and opportunities that arise with the upcoming presidential election in November. [Learn more about the event and RSVP.]

NEW YORK (TheStreet) --Germany-based industrial gas company Linde ceased merger talks with U.S.-based industrial gas supplier Praxair (PX) due to concerns that jobs and operations would be cut at Linde's Munich headquarters, Bloomberg reports.

Broad terms were agreed to by the companies, sources told Bloomberg. The holding company for the combined business was to be headquartered in Europe with an operational center in Praxair's hometown of Danbury, CT.

Bloomberg M&A reporter Aaron Kirchfeld, who broke the story for the online publication, joined BloombergTV's "Bloomberg Markets" on Monday morning to discuss the terminated all stock deal.

"One of [the issues] was what kind of responsibilities will Linde have Munich, because there's always these political back and forths with jobs, with investments, with corporate operations. And it sounds like the guys in Munich, some of the labor reps were pushing back because they wanted to secure more operations in Munich," Kirchfeld said.

The strategic rationale for the deal is solid, it's the governments that are the hindrance, BloombergTV's Mark Barton pointed out. He questioned Kirchfeld on if there were any anti-trust issues with the deal, but it appears to be only the "soft issues" that got in the way.

Shares of Praxair are down slightly on Monday morning, shares of Linde are falling by more than 7% on the ETF and FRA exchanges.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author. TheStreet Ratings has this to say about the recommendation:

We rate PRAXAIR INC as a Buy with a ratings score of B. This is driven by some important positives, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, increase in net income, expanding profit margins, notable return on equity and growth in earnings per share. We feel its strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally high debt management risk by most measures that we evaluated.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: PX
Elon Musk's somewhat distressed residential solar panel installer SolarCity (SCTY) said Monday it has successfully managed to raise $305 million in its second ever cash equity transaction.

The company said that by placing the equity investor and lender group separately, it was able to achieve a pre-tax, weighted average cost of capital for the transaction of 7.4%.

A weighted average cost of capital includes the cost of debt plus equity, according to Axiom Capital analyst James Bardowski.

But debt is always cheaper than equity, he said in an email to TheStreet, meaning it would make sense that the cost of equity on its own is significantly higher than the 7.4% SolarCity reported Monday.

SolarCity boasted that the 7.4% cost of capital for Monday's deal was a "significant improvement" over its first cash equity raise earlier this year.

The company in May managed to secure equity financing through a deal with John Hancock Financial, in which JH would invest $227 million in a diversified portfolio of residential, commercial and industrial solar power projects that collectively represents 201 megawatts of generation capacity.

The deal with John Hancock did not include any debt, however, implying that all of the 8.2% return required by the lender was equity, Bardowski said Monday.

Since the amount of SolarCity's loan and the related borrowing costs are at this point unknown, and "next to no details" were provided regarding the company's 18-year amortizing loan, Bardowski said it appears the $305 million was all in cash equity.

"Thus, we cannot single out how much just the equity part of the deal cost," he wrote. "We are waiting on comments from SCTY, but at first glance, it looks like the 'significant improvement' is a bit misleading."

Meanwhile, Morningstar analyst Andrew Bischof said Monday that the transaction supports his thesis that SolarCity continues to face a troubling rise in cost of capital.

The company's recent high-interest, short-term bond offerings were bought mainly by SolarCity insiders, including Chairman Musk, CEO Lyndon Rive and chief technical officer Peter Rive, Bischof wrote in a Sept. 9 note.

SolarCity announced Aug. 17 the sale of $124 million in 6.5% solar bonds set to mature in February 2018.

The analyst said merger regulatory filings concerning the pending $2.6 billion tie-up with Tesla Motors (TSLA) indicate tax equity financing has all but diminished for the company since previous tax equity partners failed to provide additional funding for the August deal.

Morningstar believes SolarCity has strong long-term growth prospects, Bishof wrote in the recent note, but the firm also feels management will not be able to navigate upcoming headwinds, the most significant of which is maintaining access to cheap capital such as the tax-equity financing that helped fund SolarCity's initial rapid expansion.

"If supportive public policies such as net metering, renewable portfolio standards, and tax credits fall away, SolarCity will have to compete with traditional energy sources, which for now are cheaper," he wrote.

Moreover, if a deal with Tesla somehow falls through, the analysts' opinion of the company would fall with it.

A botched deal with Musk's Tesla would see SolarCity valued at just $10 per share in Bischof's eyes.

That's $8 per share less than the analyst's fair market value estimate with a deal going through and about the same amount below the company's Monday share price, which was up nearly 6% to around $17.75 on the financing news.

In any event, the mix signals the company has been sending haven't helped it with investors thus far, Bishof said, implying Monday's possible sugar-coating could be yet another step in the wrong direction for the struggling solar industry giant.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, accompanied by his wife, Melania, and his children, from left, Donald Jr., Eric, Tiffany and Ivanka, cut a ribbon during the grand opening ceremony for the Trump International Hotel in Washington.

Oct. 26, 2016 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, accompanied by his wife, Melania, and his children, from left, Donald Jr., Eric, Tiffany and Ivanka, cut a ribbon during the grand opening ceremony for the Trump International Hotel in Washington. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post

The first day of business is marked with last-minute preparations-- and demonstrations.

The first day of business is marked with last-minute preparations-- and demonstrations.

The symbolism was obvious: A rich presidential candidate turns a mothballed government relic into a palatial hotel steps away from the White House. But for Donald Trump, not one for subtlety, even that wasnt enough. It had to be one of the great hotels of the world.

When Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C. hosted its soft opening Monday, it capped the transformation of a century-old post office building into one of Washingtons most expensive and ostentatious new hotels  and a monument to Trump.

But its main draw, the gilded name out front, might also be its biggest obstacle. What began as merely a prominent real estate project has morphed into a political landmark, where polarizing ties to the blustery mogul could influence its business through November and beyond.

Trump and his surrogate, former New York City mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, visited the hotel Monday as workers rushed to cut stone and apply mortar in preparation of the afternoons soft opening, tweeting a picture thanking all of the tremendous men & women for their hard work!

At the same time, two dozen protesters amassed outside the hotels soaring arches with signs declaring, Immigrants & Muslims are welcome here  Trump hotel is NOT! Yasmina Mrabet, of the advocacy group Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, said the hotel marked another example of what the billionaire class represents, which is the reaping of profits at the expense of hardworking people.

D.C.-based super-chef Jose Andres says he is backing out of a deal to launch a restaurant in the hotel Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is building in the historic Old Post Office Pavilion. (WUSA9)

Some rough edges were on display when guests were first let in Monday afternoon, including construction crews out back, loose wiring poking through the lobby carpet, and confusion about when certain entrances would open to the public.

Among the first guests allowed in were Blake and Elanie Yturralde, who were in town for business from Boca Raton, Fla., and enjoying complimentary drinks on a lobby couch.

We like to stay at fine hotels around the world. Weve stayed at other Trump properties and they are always really nicely done, Blake Yturralde said. They said they appreciated Trumps attention to detail and planned to vote for him in November. Its that businessmans sensibility, he added.

Trump has pointed to the project as a symbol of his ability to lead a global superpower. And, indeed, the hotel reflects many of the contradictions at the heart of Trumps campaign: a 1 percenter fortress built alongside a populist campaign by a self-described billionaire, whose blue-collar rallygoers couldnt afford a spoon of wine at his newest high-class masterwork.

While Trump was shouting across middle America that Mexicans were drug-smuggling rapists, Hispanic men were building his luxury hotel for him on one of the national capitals ritziest blocks.

Before Mondays opening, Trumps campaign comments about Mexican immigrants drew a rebuke from Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), set off angry sidewalk protests and prompted the exodus of celebrity chefs Jose Andres and Geoffrey Zakarian, whom the Trumps have since sued.

Should that pattern continue, it could be a problem for the ultimate success of the hotel, one analyst said.

A rendering of a bedroom inside the presidential suite of the Trump International Hotel. (Trump International Hotel)

If he remains high-profile and a thorn in the side of the political elite, and on television the way he has been, I think thats a problem, said David Loeb, managing director at the investment giant Robert W. Baird & Co. A lot of this is about the Trump brand and what the Trump brand represents, and when you damage that, its hard to go back.

[How many Trump products were made overseas? Heres the complete list.]

The $212 million ultraluxury hotel boasts many of Trumps signature extravagances: $1,000-a-night rooms, gold-encrusted bathrooms and Washingtons largest suite  called, of course, the Trump Townhouse. A crystal-chandelier bar in the nine-story atrium serves wine by the spoon and offers daily champagne saberings, in which bottles are opened by sword.

The 263-room giants formal grand opening is scheduled for next month, just days before the election. But its most pivotal moment probably wont come until Inauguration Day, when either a newly elected President Trump parades past the gleaming Pennsylvania Avenue icon  or a President Hillary Clinton strides by the newest showpiece of her vanquished foes empire. During inauguration weekend, a night in the Trump Townhouse costs $100,000, with a five-night minimum.

This building is a national treasure, said Ivanka Trump, Trumps daughter and a company executive leading the project. It is a great honor and privilege to begin an exciting new chapter in its storied history after having transformed it into one of the finest hotels in the country.

Rooms start at an average of $895 a night, a company spokesman said, pricier even than the Four Seasons in Georgetown  some of the highest rates in the city, and critics have charged that the rates could hurt the hotels chances to attract enough guests and stay afloat.

Those price tags are far loftier than some of the Trumps early projections. When a Washington Post columnist calculated in 2012 that the hotel would need to charge $750 a night to cover its costs, Ivanka Trump called those numbers pure speculation and, simply put, wrong. Trump representatives now say the prices are more expensive than first estimated because of higher-than-expected demand.

[Be prepared to pay beyond $700 a night at the new Trump Hotel in D.C.]

There are people in the world who are looking for super luxury  the nicest hotel  of a kind D.C. does not presently have, said Loeb, the analyst.

Completed in 1899, the Old Post Office Pavilion is one of the capitals tallest and most historic buildings, a glimpse of vintage Washington tucked within the drab government boxes of the Federal Triangle.

A failed government push to demolish the underused building in the 1970s stirred outrage and sparked the Districts historic preservation movement. But after a series of disastrous redevelopment efforts, fed-up members of Congress pushed authorities to open the site to private developers.

General Services Administration officials awarded Trumps company the 60-year lease in 2012, swayed by his pledge to spend more than $200 million to painstakingly restore the 117-year-old masterpiece  and pay $3 million a year in rent. In doing so, the company beat out Hilton Worldwide and Marriott International, both hospitality giants headquartered in the D.C. suburbs.

The Trumps broke ground in 2014 at a ceremony filled with local Democrats wielding golden shovels, and the project opened two years before the contracts deadline, leading Trump to take a familiar victory lap.

At a March news conference in the hotels lobby, Trump said, Its a great thing for the country, its a great thing for Washington.

Trump has often cited the hotel on the campaign trail as an example of how hell run the country, with accomplishments ahead of schedule and under budget. In recent weeks, hotel laborers have worked nearly around the clock, cutting stone for the ballrooms sweeping entryway.

But the hotels development has routinely presented an awkward counterpoint to Trumps fiery campaign rhetoric. Trumps hired architect, Egypt native Hani Hassan, stuck with the project through the immigration controversy. The hotels general manager, France native Mickael Damelincourt, is shepherding his third Trump property.

Damelincourt said he was confident that all 150 rooms made available in the first week would be booked. He said he already has more total business booked in the District than he had in the first six months of Trumps luxury hotel in Chicago, including a dozen weddings.

The controversies might have even helped business, he said: I dont have to work as hard to let everybody know about the hotel.

[How Donald Trump cashes in even when his name-brand properties fail]

The hotel has kept its Romanesque Revival design, including the iconic clock tower housing the Bells of Congress. But the inside appears dramatically new, with a ritzy bar and lounge, a BLT Prime steakhouse and an Ivanka Trump-brand spa. For shopping, the hotel offers a boutique by Italian mens fashion house Brioni, which sells $395 cotton T-shirts and suits starting at $6,000; Trump is a known customer.

The former postmaster general's office in the building was remodeled into a 4,000-square-foot, $15,000-a-night Presidential Suite, with a fireplace and marble hand-selected from an Italian quarry  a selling point carried over from Trump Tower. The 6,300-square-foot Trump Townhouse offers a private office and exclusive Pennsylvania Avenue entryway for $20,000 a night.

The hotel has also advertised that its 13,200-square-foot Presidential Ballroom is the largest luxury ballroom in D.C.  seven hotels offer larger ballrooms in Washington, though the company argues they dont stand on the same level of luxury.

Former GSA officials said the government did its job in awarding the project to the best proposal. But they worry that Trumps political campaign could turn away the deep-pocketed guests, diners and corporate bookers needed to turn a profit.

As an American I would like to see the building succeed, said Dan Tangherlini, the former GSA administrator who oversaw lease negotiations. It would be a disappointment if this endeavor fails because of one persons views. However, I do think there will be some impact on the project because of this decision to run for political office.

[Ivanka Trump: The Anti-Donald works to protect the billion-dollar brand]

Robert Peck, the former GSA public buildings commissioner who informed the Trumps of their selection, said he believed the hotel would have no trouble drawing high-end customers due to its pretty spectacular location. He will not be among them, though. He said he wouldnt give Trump a penny from his personal account.

To cover the massive remodeling, the Trump Organization invested $42 million and took out a $170 million loan from Deutsche Bank. Trumps company has also applied for a federal historic-preservation tax credit that would cover about 20 percent of the rehabilitation, or roughly $40 million.

To save money, the Trumps have also pushed for lower taxes at a hotel portrayed as the peak of opulence. District officials agreed last year to trim the propertys tax assessment by $7 million, to $91 million. But Trump sued after an appeals board rejected another attempt to lower the bill even further.

In a legal complaint filed in D.C. Superior Court, Trump attorney William Bosch said the Districts tax assessments were unreasonable and discriminatory against Trumps company. Bosch called the lawsuit a routine and customary practice that thousands of property owners . . . have used to ensure that their tax assessments are fairly established.

The opening is bittersweet for the Districts congressional delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat who pushed the government for years to redevelop the property.

The Trump name weve come to grips with, and I think Ivanka Trump recognizes its not in their best interest to have politics and business intersect, Norton said. It doesnt benefit them for this hotel to become a lightning rod.

As for when shell be able to enjoy the hotel? She laughed and said, Ill never be able to afford to stay at the Trump hotel.
Researchers at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, have come up with a way to recycle fish scales into an energy harvester that could fuel self-powered electronics.

By India Today Web Desk: Fish, as it turns out, is not just good for health. It can also be used in harvesting energy that can power electronics.

A team of researchers at Jadavpur University have successfully recycled fish scales to produce "energy harvesters" that can fuel self-powered electronics. This source of energy, they hope, would some day come in handy in powering pacemakers.

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And to carry out this experiment, research scholar Sujoy Ghosh went around the city hitting fish markets to collect remains of Catla fish.





How do fish scales help with generating energy?

A byproduct that is usually trashed, fish scales contain cushioning fibers called collagen, which has the ability to generate energy when mechanical stress is applied; a property known as piezoelectric effect.

The JU research team's work got published in American Institute of Physics' journal, Applied Physics Letters. The report here writes about how the team created a "bio-piezoelectric nanogenerator" from the waste product with electrodes and lamination.

"We were able to make a bio-piezoelectric nanogenerator - aka energy harvester - with electrodes on both sides, and then laminated it," said Dipankar Mandal, Assistant Professor at the Organic Nano-Piezoelectric Device Laboratory in Jadavpur University's Department of Physics.

The process. Source: Sujoy Ghosh and Dipankar Mandal/Jadavpur University



Fishy pacemakers and other goals

Talking about application, Mandal said, "In the future, our goal is to implant a bio-piezoelectric nanogenerator into a heart for pacemaker devices, where it will continuously generate power from heartbeats for the device's operation."

"Then it will degrade when no longer needed," he said. "Since heart tissue is also composed of collagen, our bio-piezoelectric nanogenerator is expected to be very compatible with the heart."

Scientists believe the 'fish scales energy harvesters' could also be used in "targeted drug delivery" and in therapies to stimulate damaged tissues in the body.

Ultimately, the target of the researchers is to "create ingestible electronics made from non-toxic materials" which can be used for therapeutic purposes.

--- ENDS ---
A federal appeals court on Monday revived a former JPMorgan Chase private bankers whistleblower lawsuit accusing the bank of firing her in retaliation for warning that an Israeli client might be committing fraud.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York found enough evidence to suggest that former JPMorgan employee Jennifer Sharkey had a reasonable belief that the client was engaged in fraud and money laundering involving Colombia.

Sharkey said she was fired as a vice president and wealth manager in August 2009, a week after formally urging the bank to heed red flags and sever its ties with the client, who generated about $600,000 in annual billings.

The client was not identified in court papers. Sharkey was fired eight months after the multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme of longtime JPMorgan client Bernard Madoff was exposed.

U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet in Manhattan dismissed Sharkeys lawsuit last October. Sweet said JPMorgan could have fired Sharkey based on her performance, or for having purportedly lied about communications involving another client. Sharkey disputed having lied.

But the appeals court said the close temporal proximity between Sharkeys warning and her firing justified letting the case continue. It also said her qualifications as a whistleblower was an issue of fact to be resolved at trial.

JPMorgan agreed in January 2014 to pay $2.6 billion to settle litigation over Madoff, and in a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. government acknowledged responsibility for failing to stop him.
TECHNOLOGY

Samsung, LG sued over recruitment policies

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have been accused of agreeing to avoid poaching each others U.S. employees, according to a civil lawsuit filed last week.

The proposed class action, filed in a Northern California federal court by an LG sales manager, accuses Samsung and LG of antitrust violations and driving down employee wages.

The plaintiff, A. Frost, says in the suit that a recruiter contacted Frost via LinkedIn in 2013, seeking to fill a position with Samsung.

The recruiter then told Frost the same day: I made a mistake! Im not supposed to poach LG for Samsung!!! Sorry! The two companies have an agreement that they wont steal each others employees, the lawsuit says.

It is implausible that such a deal in the United States could have been reached without the consent of each companys corporate parent in South Korea, says the lawsuit, which does not state a specific damages amount.

 Reuters

SHIPPING

Korean cargo ship unloading in Calif.

A portion of the $14 billion in cargo trapped at sea by the bankruptcy of Hajin Shipping Co. began moving out of a California port Monday as shareholders and executives of the South Korean firm pledged funds to help resolve the turmoil.

The Hanjin Greece docked in Long Beach on Saturday after a U.S. bankruptcy court granted protection and terminal operators agreed to take it.

Workers started unloading the Greece over the weekend, and on Monday trucks began moving the containers for distribution to retailers awaiting goods, a Teamsters spokeswoman said.

The collapse of Hanjin under debts of $5.5 billion has caused havoc in global trade networks and a surge in freight rates.

On Monday, Choi Eun-young, a former chairman of Hanjin, pledged $9 million in private funds to help resolve the issue. Parent company Hanjin Group pledged last week to raise $90 million to rescue stranded cargo.

 Reuters

Also in Business

 From news services

Coming Today
Six area children who were born on September 11, 2001  from left, Aidan Shaw, Marina Pariser, Juliana Bonilla, William Faber, Arkilah Henry and Michael Briscoe  at the Arlington fire station that responded to the Pentagon attack. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

This story was first published on September 11, 2011.

Juliana heard about it from her brother. Marina found out during a class discussion in second grade. Arkilah saw it on TV.

Its hard to forget when you first learned that you were born on the day of the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history  September 11, 2001. On that day, 19 hijackers took control of four planes. Two crashed into skyscrapers in New York City; a third hit the Pentagon in Arlington. The fourth plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field. In all, nearly 3,000 people died.

[What happened on 9/11?]

I felt a little alone, to be honest, the Districts Marina Pariser said about finding out she was born on such a tragic day.

But she is not alone. There were 13,238 babies born in this country on Sept. 11, 2001. Six of those babies  all from the Washington area and turning 10 on the historic date  talked to KidsPost about how being born on such a significant day has affected them. All of them have mixed feelings.

Its, like, sort of hard to feel sad because its the day that I was born, but I still do feel sad, said Juliana Bonilla of Gaithersburg.

A lot of bad things happened on that day, but then, a lot of good things were happening on that day, too, said the Districts Arkilah Henry.

If theres anything these kids know, its that something wonderful can happen at the same time as something terrible. Perhaps no one knows that better than William Faber of South Riding.

Williams grandfather, a former colonel in the Army, was supposed to be at the Pentagon on the morning of the attacks in the part of the building that was hit by a hijacked plane, killing 189 people. But because his grandson was due to be born, he didnt go to work that day. He came to the hospital because of me, William said.

A lot of kids dont know much about the attacks, which are often simply called 9/11. But Aidan Shaw of New Market, Maryland, said that having a September 11 birthday makes him a little more curious than my friends about the subject. In a strange coincidence, Aidans grandfather was born on the day of another terrible attack, on December 7, 1941. Thats when Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, killing 2,403 Americans and bringing the United States into World War II. Back then, people said they would always remember where they were when they heard about Pearl Harbor; its the same way for people who were alive for September 11.

Several kids said they light a candle, hang a flag or say a prayer on their birthday to honor 9/11 victims, but they also focus on whats good about that day. As Marina put it, we celebrate it as a sign of new hope.

And this years birthday is extra special, said Michael Briscoe of the District. Im going to the double digits!
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is assisted as she leaves a memorial service on the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York City. (Zdenek Gazda)

Hillary Clintons campaign left reporters in the dark for a full 90 minutes about her health and whereabouts on Sunday after she unexpectedly left a 9/11 memorial event in New York. It took most of the day to disclose that Clinton was diagnosed with pneumonia nearly three days earlier and wasnt simply overheated, as the campaigns initial statement on Sunday said.

The campaigns limited and confusing disclosures frustrated reporters who cover Clinton and seemed to play into health rumors that have been promoted by her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, and his surrogates and touted in conservative media outlets.

Pool reporters  those who follow the Democratic nominee into restricted spaces and provide reports to other reporters  never saw her leave the commemorative event at the World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan and then apparently collapse into a van. The pool was confined to a media pen out of sight of Clintons location. Footage of her halting departure was captured by a bystander, Zdenek Gazda, who noticed her being helped to the vehicle.

The news appears to have been broken Sunday morning on Twitter by Fox News reporter Rick Leventhal. Citing an unnamed source, Leventhal tweeted at 9:42 a.m. Hillary Clinton clearly having some medical episode & had to be helped into van by her protective detail at WTC.

Shortly thereafter, Leventhal, citing a law enforcement source, tweeted that Clinton appeared to faint on way into van and that she stumbled off curb, knees buckled, lost a shoe as she was helped into vans. He said his source watched it happen.

Video of Clintons departure seemed to show her buckling and stumbling as she got into her van. (Thomas Johnson/The Washington Post)

Leventhals reporting was initially met with skepticism by people who suggested it might be a continuation of inflated claims about Clintons health pushed by Trump and conservative media sources, such as Breitbart News. But Leventhals reporting was accurate.

It wasnt until about 90 minutes later that Clintons spokesman, Nick Merrill, released a statement saying that the candidate felt overheated and went to her daughters apartment in Manhattan. The statement made no mention of pneumonia.

Clinton emerged from Chelsea Clintons apartment around noon, telling reporters she was feeling great and that it was a beautiful day in New York.

She declined to speak further to the media and left for her home in suburban Chappaqua, N.Y. Her campaign offered no updates throughout the afternoon.

Clinton and her supporters have pushed back against opponents suggestions that she is hiding a health problem; Clintons personal doctor said last year that she is in excellent physical condition and fit to serve as president.

But the relative silence from the campaign about her condition Sunday may help propel doubts planted by her rivals, said Jane Hall, a communications professor at American University in Washington.

Im surprised they havent made some further statement about it, said Hall, interviewed in late afternoon Sunday, before the pneumonia statement was released. I can imagine they dont want to play into conspiracy theories about her health, but if you dont say something, if youre not out there, pretty soon the silence begins to be interpreted in a negative way.

Although he hasn't responded to Hillary Clinton's recent poor health at a memorial service and disclosure of a pneumonia diagnosis, Donald Trump and his campaign have repeatedly attacked her "strength" and "stamina" before. (Jenny Starrs,Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

In fact, cable TV figures soon began speculating about what could have caused Clintons difficulties. On CNN, medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta raised a number of possibilities, from dehydration to adverse drug reactions (Clinton takes thyroid medication and blood thinners, and she treats allergies with antihistamines) to the aftereffects of a 2012 concussion. Gupta, a doctor, clearly labeled his observations speculative, and added, At the very least, were owed an explanation.

It wasnt until around 5:20 p.m. that Clintons campaign issued a statement from her doctor, Lisa Bardack, saying that Clinton has been diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday and is recovering nicely.

The statement left a number of questions unaddressed: Why was the diagnosis withheld for nearly three days? Was the pneumonia related to Clintons coughing jag last week during a campaign event in Cleveland? Will her condition affect her campaign schedule, including a scheduled trip Monday to California?

It also seemed to contradict the campaigns statement earlier in the day that Clinton had merely been overheated during the morning ceremony.

The lack of disclosure feeds another criticism about Clinton from Trump, noted Hall: That she is secretive and hides from the media.

If she doesnt want to fuel endless questions, she or her [campaign aides] have to get out there.

Both presidential candidates have been sparing in their release of personal medical records, although Trump has been more withholding.
The American Civil Liberties Union says it has been pressing the Districts attorney general for a month to produce the official admission policy to the citys new all-boys high school as it argues that Ron Brown College Preparatory violates federal and city laws by excluding girls.

Although it has not yet received the policy, ACLU representatives say they emerged from a telephone call with lawyers from the attorney generals office Friday believing that the city had changed its policy and would now admit girls to the school, which was designed around a program that aims to boost minority-male achievement. The advocacy group celebrated and released a statement Monday saying that D.C. Public Schools had reversed course.

But DCPS  which was not involved in the Friday conference call  and the attorney generals office immediately refuted the announcement Monday, saying that the admission policy had not changed and that the school is still only for boys.

[ACLU questions legality of D.C.s minority male school program: What about black girls?]

The application period for school year 2017-2018 will open in a few months, and we look forward to serving another class of outstanding young men at this school designed for the specific needs of young men, said Michelle Lerner, a school system spokeswoman. At the same time, DCPS continues to provide and expand the opportunities to meet the unique needs of our female students.

Monica Hopkins-Maxwell, president of the ACLUs D.C. chapter, said her office specifically asked city attorneys whether girls can apply to Ron Brown through the school lottery system, and whether they can gain acceptance to the new school. She said city officials said that no girls applied to the all-boys school in its inaugural year and that there is no policy in place to exclude girls from the school if they were to apply.

But city officials disputed that interpretation of the conversation.

Our office is disappointed that the ACLU has inaccurately characterized details of that conversation, the attorney generals office said Monday in a news release. As DCPS has made clear, they have not made any policy change with regard to admissions to Ron Brown. Contrary to suggestions by the ACLU, [the attorney generals office] did not say that the admissions policy had changed, nor did our office say that DCPS has any plans to change that policy in the future.

But ACLU officials said the phone conversation was the first time they had heard that girls could apply to Ron Brown.

We had been delighted to learn on Friday that girls would be given the same equal educational opportunities as boys, Hopkins-Maxwell said. The D.C. government should be clear about its admissions policy  to do otherwise erodes the public trust.

Ron Brown opened for its first year this month, part of a $20 million citywide Empowering Males of Color initiative that aims to boost the academic performance of minority males in the school system  a group that is performing well below their peers by many measures.

Since D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson announced the initiative in January 2015, critics have argued that the law does not conform with the D.C. Human Rights Act, or the Equal Protection Clause in the Constitution, because it excludes girls.

D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine has said the program is legal because its rationale  to boost achievement among the citys lowest-performing demographic  is exceedingly persuasive. He has said he would defend the initiative if challenged in court.

Hopkins-Maxwell said if the city does not reverse its policy on the high school or the other initiatives, the advocacy organization would be willing to exhaust all of our options, including taking the issue to court.
Tanya Washington took over as principal at Parkdale High School in 2013. (Prince George's County Public Schools)

Parkdale High School Principal Tanya Washington died over the weekend, according to school officials in Prince Georges County, who recalled her as a dedicated educator with a career of nearly two decades in the Maryland school system.

Prince Georges police found Washington dead at her home in Bowie on Saturday night after a call for a welfare check. An autopsy is pending, but there was no suspicion of foul play, authorities said.

Her high school was in mourning Monday, said Neville Adams, an English teacher. Its a real somber mood, he said. Everyone is shocked. Because she was so active, people remember she was just there on Friday.

Washington was a spirited leader, focused both on academic achievement and student involvement, Adams said. She wanted the kids to have a lot of fun activities that were connected to academics, he said.

She took a parent-like approach to students, he said. She could be nurturing, she could be stern, but kids felt that they could actually talk to her and go to her, he said.

Washington started at Parkdale in 2013 after stints as an assistant principal at Oxon Hill Middle School and Largo High School. She started in the school system in 1997 as a teacher at William Wirt Middle School and later taught at Charles H. Flowers High School.

She gave countless hours and immeasurable energy towards a vision of excellence for all students, said Kevin Maxwell, the districts chief executive, in a statement. Ms. Washington was an outstanding administrator, caring colleague and friend. She will be greatly missed by all who knew her.

Washington had pointed out a number of times that she started at Parkdale when students in the class of 2017 were freshmen. This was the freshman class she came in with and she was preparing to see them off in June, Adams said.

School officials said Monday that a team of counselors and other support staff were providing assistance to students and staff.
John King Jr., the U.S. education secretary, on Monday kicked off his agencys annual bus tour to welcome students back to Americas public schools. But King will be out of office before this school year ends, leaving in January. And he just took the helm at Education six months ago.

Thats not a lot of time to make an enormous impact on Americas sprawling public education system, as King readily admits. Instead, he is trying to continue the work of his predecessor, Arne Duncan, in pushing the presidents objectives for students from preschool through college.

This week, King is touting the administrations achievements and goals with a five-day, six-state bus tour that will take him to schools in Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas before ending in New Orleans on Friday.

Riding down Highway 29 toward the tours first stop in Charlottesville in a tastefully appointed luxury bus  with the words Honk if you love teachers stenciled on the back  King said in an interview that he hopes the tour will highlight improvements that the Obama administration has made to schools across the country, while also acknowledging the many continuing challenges to achieving a world-class education for all children.

When the president came in, we were in the midst of an economic crisis, King said. The president prioritized investments that would get our economy back on track, but would also help build for the long term. Education investments that were made when the president first came into office were about the long-term strength of our economy and our democracy.

Those investments, King said, have paid off in a number of areas: The country has the highest high school graduation rate in its history. More children have access to preschool than ever before. More high school graduates have access to free community college.

But King, 41, acknowledged that many hurdles remain.

Theres definitely a lot of work that needs to be done, he said. We still have too many kids, particularly in high-needs communities, who dont have access to high-quality early learning.

In K-12, yeah we have the highest graduation rate weve ever had and thats great, he said. But there is still 18 percent of kids who arent graduating from high school in four years. And there are still too many kids graduating from high school without the skills they need for success at the next level.

The bus tour will visit schools and states that have progressed as a result of work by the administration, King said.

At Buford Middle School in Charlottesville, where King was given a sparkling musical greeting by the schools band, the focus was on engineering and computer science. In Tennessee, the tour will highlight more rigorous K-12 standards and improved access to community colleges. A visit to a prison in Alabama will look at criminal justice reform and education opportunities for inmates. In Arkansas, administration officials will highlight expanded programs for pre-kindergarten children. And stops in Louisiana will look at teacher leadership, turning around failing schools and college affordability.

Its important to me that this trip not be just about celebrating the progress, but insisting that we have a lot more to do, King said.

Regarding the growing number of public charter schools, King said that some states need to do a better job of ensuring quality.

What I worry most about is that we have some states that have done a really great job with the charter authorizing, and so have generally high quality charters and have been willing to close ones that are underperforming, he said. On the other hand, you have states that have not done as good a job, places like Michigan, where you had a history of a low bar for getting a charter and an unwillingness to hold charters to high standards.

While King is concerned with long-term issues affecting public education, he also addressed the increasing number of high school athletes who have mirrored some professional athletes by kneeling in protest during the national anthem at sporting events.

Its really a conversation that has been a part of American history since the beginning, he said. Are we truly living up to our values as a society? Are we truly providing equal protection under the law for everyone?

I wouldnt choose that way of expressing my concerns, but I would defend the right that folks have to do that, he said. I think its important for schools to create that space for students to have this conversation about the underlying concerns that theyre trying to raise with this demonstration.

A graduate of Harvard and Yale Law School who holds a doctorate in education from Columbia University Teachers College, King says he is not yet thinking about his future after the Obama administration ends.

Im genuinely focused on the stuff weve got to get done between now and January, he said. The presidents message to all of us is were going to run through the tape and keep getting things done all the way through to the end. Whatever comes after will sort itself out.
THE DISTRICT

Fence jumper

pleads guilty

A Connecticut man who jumped the White House fence while draped in an American flag last Thanksgiving pleaded guilty Monday to a federal misdemeanor violation of illegal entry of restricted grounds in a deal with prosecutors, who agreed to seek a sentence of three years probation.

Joseph Anthony Caputo, 23, will continue to live with his mother in Stamford, Conn., under electronic monitoring and a curfew before his sentencing set for Dec. 6. The Secret Service said Caputo wore weightlifting gloves and patriotic sneakers to scale the fences new pencil point spikes and was carrying a pocket guide to the U.S. Constitution.

 Spencer S. Hsu

Teen arrested in

killing in Southeast

A 15-year-old boy has been arrested in the death of a teen in Southeast Washington this month.

At about 2:15 p.m. Sept. 1 at 16th Street SE, near Good Hope Road and Minnesota Avenue, police found two males with gunshot wounds. Kevin Anthony Jackson II, 17, who was previously enrolled at Anacostia High School, died shortly after arriving at a hospital. The other victim, identified by police as a pizza delivery driver who was on the job, remained in critical but stable condition.

 Rachel Weiner

Secret Service officer

injured in crash

A Secret Service officer on a motorcycle was hit by a car at 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW on Monday, authorities said.

At about 1:25 p.m., D.C. police responded to the area east of the White House after a report that a man on a bike was hit by a car, a D.C. police spokesman said.

A U.S. Park Police spokesman said a Secret Service motorcycle officer was flown from the scene.

The officer was being treated at a hospital for injuries that were not life-threatening, according to the Secret Service Twitter account.

Photos appear to show that a black car and the motorcycle collided, with the wreckage from the vehicles strewn on 15th Street. Witnesses said the officer was thrown 10 to 15 feet.

 Justin Wm. Moyer and Clarence Williams

MARYLAND

Police arrest man

in Landover stabbing

Police have arrested a man in connection with a fatal stabbing Sunday in Landover.

Ronald Timothy Roberts, 29, of Riverdale has been charged with first- and second-degree murder in the death of Rashard Hubbard, 36, according to Prince Georges County Police.

Detectives think Roberts and Hubbard argued before the incident, police said. They also said that officers found Hubbard wounded at about 1:15 a.m. in the 6900 block of Hawthorne Street before he was pronounced dead at the scene. Roberts is being held without bond.

 Lynh Bui

Prince Georges police

seek assault suspect

Prince Georges County police detectives planned to return to New Carrollton on Monday night to seek information about an incident involving a report of a woman who was sexually assaulted in her apartment.

A man broke into the home in the 5400 block of 85th Avenue at about 7 a.m. Sunday, police said, then sexually assaulted the woman and stole several items before fleeing.

The man suspected in the assault wore a white-and-orange-striped shirt, black pants and black shoes, police said. The suspect is also described as 5 feet 9 inches to 6 feet tall and 170 to 190 pounds.

A reward of up to $25,000 is available if it leads to an arrest and indictment. Police ask anyone with information to call 301-772-4908.

 Lynh Bui

Thieves yank

electronics off walls

Police are asking for help in identifying thieves who stole more than $18,000 worth of merchandise during thefts at five cellphone stores in Montgomery County in June and July.

Surveillance video of one theft shows people running around a store, yanking electronic devices on security cords from the walls. At one point, a thief stumbles over a chair and briefly loses a shoe as he pulls on a cord.

In each incident, two or three thieves, during normal business hours, yank electronics off security cords and then flee to a waiting vehicle, police said. The robberies last only seconds.

 Justin Wm. Moyer
BLOOD DONATIONS

BLOOD DRIVES Oct. 7, 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m., Loudoun County Fire and Rescue, 801 Sycolin Rd., Leesburg, 800-733-2767; Oct. 15, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Leesburg Public Safety Center, 65 Plaza St., Leesburg, 800-733-2767.

INOVA BLOOD DONOR CENTER Mondays noon-8 p.m., Tuesdays 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Fridays 6 a.m.-4 p.m. and Sundays noon-4 p.m. Dulles Town Center, 45745 Nokes Blvd., Sterling. 866-256-6372 or inova.org/donateblood.

FIRST AID

FIRST AID/ADULT, INFANT AND CHILD CPR/AED Saturday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Medical Office Building, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-3588. $85. Registration required.

HEARING

DISABILITY RESOURCE CENTER Technical assistance through the Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and presentations to businesses, civic groups and schools. Third Tuesdays 2-5 p.m., Workplace, 205 Keith St., Warrenton. Call for an appointment, 800-648-6324; TDD, 540-373-5890. Free.

FREE HEARING TESTS Age 18 and older. Mondays-Thursdays 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Blue Ridge Speech and Hearing Center, 19465 Deerfield Ave., Suite 201, Lansdowne. 703-858-7620. Registration required.

HEARING LOSS, TINNITUS AND MENIERES SYNDROME SUPPORT For all ages, including parents of children with hearing loss. First Fridays at 2 p.m., Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. 703-430-2906.

NORTHERN VIRGINIA RESOURCE CENTER FOR THE DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING Age 18 and older, second Tuesdays 10 a.m., Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. 571-258-3400.

HEARING LOSS OUTREACH Free referrals. Fourth Thursdays 10 a.m.-noon, Loudoun County Workforce Center, 102 Heritage Way, Leesburg; third Thursdays 10 a.m.-noon, Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. Free appointments: 703-430-2906 or nvrcloudoun@aol.com .

MENTAL HEALTH

COUNSELING FOR SEXUAL VIOLENCE SURVIVORS Provided by Loudoun Citizens for Social Justice. 703-771-9020.

CRISISLINK Suicide and crisis intervention. The organization provides community education, has a volunteer crisis response team and offers CareRing, a daily telephone outreach program for the elderly and disabled. 703-527-6016, volunteer@crisislink.org or crisislink.org.

PIEDMONT CHAPTER, NATIONAL ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS Serves Fauquier, Orange, Madison and Rappahannock counties. Support group, education classes and events for people living with mental illness and their family members. First Wednesdays 7-9 p.m. Fauquier Hospital, 500 Hospital Dr., Sycamore Room A, Warrenton. 571-426-8213.

NORTHERN VIRGINIA CHAPTER, NATIONAL ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS A support group, classes and programs for people living with mental illness and their family members. naminorthernvirginia.org.

PREGNANCY, PARENTING

ADOPTIVE FAMILY PRESERVATION Adoptive families discuss common experiences; registration required. Third Tuesdays 12_2 p.m., Ashburn Library, 43316 Hay Rd. Call 703-941-9008, Ext. 23, or email jmellario@umfs.org.

BIRTHRIGHT OF LOUDOUN COUNTY Free pregnancy tests, baby clothing, transportation and support throughout pregnancy, 823 S. King St., Leesburg. 703-777-7272.

BOND BETWEEN US A nonprofit organization that offers support to birth parents when children have been placed for adoption. Fourth Tuesdays 7:30 p.m. Call for location. 703-771-7844.

BREASTFEEDING SUPPORT Mondays 9:30-10:30 a.m., Fauquier Hospital Family Birthing Center, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-3588.

Sept. 6 from 6-8:30 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Family Birthing Center, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-3588. $25. Registration required.

DAD SUPPORT New and expectant fathers share ideas. First Tuesdays at 7 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg.

FOR THE CHILDRENS SAKE A group for separating or divorcing parents to share advice. Four-hour session weekly. Information : 703-391-8599 or fitsfoundation.org.

LA LECHE LEAGUE Mother-to-mother support and breastfeeding information. 10 a.m. second Wednesdays in Warrenton, 540-351-6103. Third Fridays 10:15-11:45 a.m., call for location, 703-444-7386. Second Fridays 10:15 a.m., Ashburn Library, 43316 Hay Rd., 703-829-0349; Thursdays 10 a.m.-noon, Panera Bread, 43670 Greenway Corp. Dr., Ashburn, email lllashburn@gmail.com. Third Fridays 10:15 a.m., Christ the Redeemer Church, 46833 Harry F. Byrd. Hwy., Sterling, 540-338-4637.

LOUDOUN FATHERHOOD PROGRAM Fathers discuss the joys and challenges of being a parent. Meets every other Saturday for two hours for four months; sponsored by Northern Virginia Family Service. 571-748-2796. Free.

LOUDOUN NURTURING PARENTING PROGRAM Positive parenting techniques; children attend with parents. Registration required. Call 703-771-3973, Ext. 27, or email nurturingprogram@lcsj.org . Free.

MOTHERNET/HEALTHY FAMILIES LOUDOUN Program links first-time parents with medical, social and educational resources to give children a socially and physically healthy start in life. Family support workers meet with participants in homes. English-Spanish translation provided. 703-444-4477, Ext. 217 , or inmed.org.

NEW MOTHERS SUPPORT Wednesdays 9:30-11:30 a.m. Inova Loudoun Medical Pavilion, 224 Cornwall St., Leesburg, main entrance. Babies welcome. 703-858-6360.

YOUNG PARENT SERVICES Support for teenage parents. Loudoun County Department of Family Social Services, 52 Sycolin Rd., Leesburg. Call for times. 703-771-5375.

ONLINE CHILDBIRTH EDUCATION PROGRAM Inova Loudoun Hospitals Web-based program uses animation, videos and interactive activities to guide users through the basics of childbirth, breastfeeding and caring for newborns. 703-858-6360. thebirthinginn.org/classes.

PARENTING ALONE GROUP For parents of school-age children who have lost a spouse or partner to cancer. Second Tuesdays 5:30-6:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. 703-698-2536 or email jennifer.eckert@inova.org .

PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH SUPPORT Childbirth Solutions Resource Center, 8393 W. Main St., Marshall. 571-344-0438.

SENIORS

EXERCISE EQUIPMENT: Weights, treadmills, bikes and a cardio-glide. Instruction provided. Age 55 and older. Weekdays 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039. Free.

FITNESS FOR PEOPLE 55 AND OLDER Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 1-1:45 p.m. Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. 571-258-3400. $36, 12-visit card.

EYE CARE LensCrafters staff members will clean glasses and make minor repairs. Second Wednesdays 1-2 p.m. Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. 703-430-2397. Free.

INOVA LOUDOUN MOBILE VAN Blood pressure checks. Second and fourth Tuesdays 9:30 a.m.-noon, Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling, 571-258-3280; first Wednesdays 9:30 a.m.-noon, Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039.

LAUGHING YOGA FOR SENIORS I mprove flexibility and balance. Thursdays 9:30-10 :30 a.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039. Free.

LOUDOUN ADULT DAY CENTERS For seniors with physical limitations or memory loss, a safe and social environment, therapeutic activities, individualized care and respite for caregivers. Limited transportation. Sliding-scale fees. Weekdays in Leesburg, 7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., 703-771-5334; Purcellville, 571-258-3402; and Ashburn-Sterling, 571-258-3232.

SENIOR OUTREACH SERVICES Free and confidential assistance from an Area Agency on Aging case manager. Call for an appointment or sign up at the Senior Center at Cascades. First and third Wednesdays 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. 571-258-3280.

SENIOR OUTREACH SERVICES Free and confidential assistance from an Area Agency on Aging Elder case manager. Sign up in the Leesburg Senior Center lobby. Second and fourth Thursdays 11 a.m.-noon and 12:30-4:30 p.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039. Free.

SENIOR OUTREACH SERVICES Free and confidential assistance from an Area Agency on Aging Elder case manager. Call for an appointment or sign up at the Carver Center. First and third Mondays, 12:30-5 p.m. Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. 703-737-8741. Free.

ZUMBA: For people 55 and older who are learning Zumba for the first time, or those who prefer a lower-impact version. The fitness program combines Latin and international music with dance.Thursdays 11 a.m. Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. 571-258-3280. $12.

TAI CHI Stretching and strengthening movements. Mondays 11 a.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039. Free.

ZUMBA GOLD CLASS Age 55 and older. Wear rubber-soled shoes and comfortable clothing; bring water and a towel. Tuesdays 11 a.m., Tuesdays and Fridays at 1 p.m. Senior Center of Leesburg, 102 North St. NW, Leesburg. 703-737-8039. $24 per month.

SUPPORT GROUPS

AL-ANON SERVICE CENTER OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA A volunteer is available 24 hours with information for spouses, family members and friends of problem drinkers. 703-534-4357 or 877-339-8350. Mondays 8 p.m. Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 125 W. Washington St., Middleburg, 540-554-2747; Tuesdays 7:30 p.m. St. James Episcopal Church, 14 Cornwall St. NW, Leesburg, 877-339-8350; Fridays 8:30 p.m. Grace Episcopal Church, 6507 Main St., The Plains, 800-344-2666; Tuesdays 12:15 p.m. Warrenton Church of Christ, Route 29 N., 540-347-7448; Tuesdays 7 p.m. and Saturdays 8:30 p.m. Warrenton Presbyterian Church, 91 Main St. 800-344-2666.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Various meeting times and locations in Loudoun County. 800-208-8649 or 703-876-6166. nvintergroup.org.

ALZHEIMERS CAREGIVER SUPPORT For those who care for people with Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia. Fourth Wednesdays 4-5:30 p.m. The Villa at Suffield Meadows, 6735 Suffield Lane, Warrenton. 540-316-3800.

ALZHEIMERS CAREGIVERS SUPPORT For those caring for people with Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia. Second Mondays 7-8:30 p.m. Galilee United Methodist Church, 45425 Winding Rd., Sterling. 703-430-9229. galileeumc.org.

ALZHEIMERS CAREGIVER SUPPORT Emotional, educational and social support for family members and friends of people with the disease. Third Saturdays 10 a.m. Loudoun County Area Agency on Aging, 20145 Ashbrook Pl., Ashburn. Call 703-771-5407 or email lesley.katz@loudoun.gov.

ALZHEIMERS CAREGIVER SUPPORT GROUP Fourth Thursdays 3-4 p.m. Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. 540-903-6831 or alz.org.

ALZHEIMERS SUPPORT First Tuesdays 10-11 a.m. Spring Arbor Assisted Living, 237 Fairview St. NW, Leesburg. 540-338-6520.

ALZHEIMERS SUPPORT First Wednesdays 4 p.m. Leesburg Adult Day Center, 16501 Meadowview Ct., Leesburg. 703-771-5334.

ALZHEIMERS SUPPORT Fourth Thursdays 3-4 p.m. Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. 571-258-3400.

TALK ABOUT CURING AUTISM A nonprofit organization educating and supporting families affected by autism. tacanow.org.

AUTOIMMUNE SUPPORT Last Thursdays 6:30-7:30 p.m. Jackson Building, 209 Gibson St., Leesburg. Email autoimmunesupport@hotmail.com .

BEREAVED PARENT SUPPORT One-on-one counseling is available. Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814. scsm.tv.

BEREAVEMENT SUPPORT For those experiencing loss because of the death of a loved one. Age 18 and older. Third Mondays 1 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Chestnut Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. Sponsored by Capital Caring. 703-957-1800.

BREAST CANCER SUPPORT Fourth Tuesdays 7-8 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Tower, Chestnut Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-349-0588.

BREAST CANCER SUPPORT For those with new diagnoses or starting treatment. Register if attending for the first time. Fourth Mondays 5:30-6:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. 703-858-8857.

BREAST CANCER SUPPORT For those who have finished treatment, have had a recurrence or metastatic breast cancer. Register if attending for the first time. Fourth Mondays 6:30-8 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. 703-858-8857. Free.

BREAST CANCER SUPPORT ASSISTANCE FUND Loudoun County residents who have received a diagnosis or have undergone treatment in the past 12 months are eligible to apply for financial assistance. Areas included are wigs, bras, puffs and prostheses, mammograms and medical bills, food and help with utilities, rent or mortgage, and transportation costs. The Pink Assistance Fund has been established by the Loudoun Breast Health Network. lbhn.org.

CANCER SUPPORT Oncology nurses, social workers and spiritual care providers offer education and support to patients, families and caregivers. Second Mondays 5:30-6:30 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Sycamore Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-2273.

CANCER SUPPORT Life with Cancer, for patients, family members and friends. Second Thursdays 7 p.m. Ashburn Presbyterian Church, Room 202, 20962 Ashburn Rd. 703-729-2012. ashburnpresbyterian.org.

CAREGIVER SUPPORT Provides emotional, educational and social support. Encourages caregivers to maintain their personal, physical and emotional health while caring for people with demenita or other chronic illness. Fourth Thursdays 3-4 p.m. Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. 540-903-6831.

CAREGIVER SUPPORT AND RESOURCE GROUP Wednesdays 10:30 a.m.-noon (no meeting first Wednesdays), Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814. scsm.tv.

CARING FOR AGING PARENTS Support group. Confidential. Fourth Wednesdays 7:30 p.m., Family Focus Counseling Service, 20-B John Marshall St., Warrenton. 540-349-4537.

CHADD PARENTS SUPPORT For parents of children with ADD/ADHD. Fourth Sundays 3 p.m. KinderCare, 44051 Ashburn Village Shopping Plaza. chadd.nova loudoun@gmail. com .

CHRONIC ILLNESS SUPPORT Tuesdays 10:30-11:30 a.m. Spiritual Care Support Ministries, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814 or scsm.tv.

COFFEE AND CONVERSATION: Support for those discouraged because of illness, bereavement, caregiving or a loved one in the military. Thursdays 10 a.m.-noon. Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814.

COMPASSIONATE FRIENDS For parents who have experienced the death of a child. First Wednesdays 7:30 p.m. St. James Episcopal Church, 14 Cornwall St. NW, Leesburg. 540-882-9707.

CREATING AND CONNECTING Two-hour art therapy and relaxation workshop for cancer patients. Every other month, 12:30-2:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. Call for dates. 703-858-8850.

DEPRESSION BIPOLAR SUPPORT ALLIANCE OF WESTERN LOUDOUN Saturdays 3 p.m. Purcellville Library, 220 E. Main St., Carruthers Room. Call 703-431-7160 or email kathy@dbsanca.org.

DROP-IN GRIEF SUPPORT For those coping with a death. Second and fourth Wednesdays 1-2 p.m. St. Davids Episcopal Church, 43600 Russell Branch Pkwy., Ashburn. Sponsored by Capital Caring. 703-597-1781.

FAMILIES OVERCOMING DRUG ADDICTION SUPPORT First and third Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Sycamore Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-9221 or email myfodafamily@gmail.com.

GAY, LESBIAN, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER YOUTH AND PARENT SUPPORT A group in partnership with Metro DC PFLAG. Fourth Sundays 4-6 p.m. Unitarian Universalist Church, 22135 Davis Dr., Sterling. 703-328-6518.

GRIEFSHARE Open to anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one. Tuesdays through Dec. 6 from 7-8:30 p.m. Purcellville Baptist Church, 601 Yaxley Dr., Purcellville. Call 540-338-0918 or email caring@purbap.org . Workbook, $15.

GRIEFSHARE Nondenominational seminar and support group. Tuesdays 7:30-9 p.m., and Wednesdays, 1-2:30 p.m. Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814. Free.

GRIEF SUPPORT Sponsored by Hospice Support of Fauquier County. Individual counseling available. First and third Thursdays 3:30-5 p.m. Hospice Support Office, 42 N. Fifth St., Warrenton. Registration required. Call 540-347-5922 or email hospicesupport@verizon.net.

GRIEF SUPPORT Wednesdays, 10:30 a.m.-noon, Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814.

HOSPICE SUPPORT Free medical-equipment loan facility for Fauquier County residents. Especially needed are donations of wheelchairs, bedside commodes, rolling walkers, electric hospital beds, shower benches and chairs, adult diapers, lift chairs, Ensure and hospital bed mattresses. 540-347-5922.

LOOK GOOD, FEEL BETTER For women undergoing or emerging from cancer treatment. Every other month, 6:45 to 9 p.m. ,Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. Call for dates. 703-776-2820. Free.

LOUDOUN CHADD SUPPORT Led by Children and Adults With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Third Thursdays 7 p.m. Leesburg Town Hall, lower-level conference room, 25 W. Market St. 703-669-2445.

LOUDOUN INTERGROUP OF OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS Fellowship and support. For locations and times, call 571-420-2012. oa.org.

LYME DISEASE SUPPORT Fourth Sundays 2-4 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Conference Room A and B, Leesburg. Go to natcaplyme.org or email loudounlymeadvocates@gmail.com.

LYME DISEASE SUPPORT Third Thursdays at 7 p.m. Warrenton Church of Christ, 6398 Lee Hwy. Access Road, Warrenton. 540-347-7265 or email lymeinfauquier@gmail.com.

LYME DISEASE SUPPORT Third Thursdays at 7 p.m. Warrenton Church of Christ, 6398 Lee Hwy. Access Road, Warrenton. 540-347-7265 or email lymeinfauquier@gmail.com.

LYME DISEASE SUPPORT Age 18 and older. First Tuesdays 7-8:30 p.m. Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. Email charphealy@yahoo.com.

MADD LOUDOUN VICTIM SUPPORT For those who have been affected by drunken driving. Third Wednesdays 7:30 p.m. 210 Wirt St., Leesburg. 540-338-6491.

MAN-TO-MAN CANCER SUPPORT Sponsored by Loudoun Cancer Care Center, for prostate cancer patients and their families. Second Tuesdays 6:30-8 p.m. Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. Call 703-858-8857 or email karen.archer@inova.org.

MENDED HEARTS Northern Virginia chapter, for heart surgery patients and families and friends of heart disease patients. Third Saturdays 11 a.m., Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg (Patient Information Lounge) . 703-924-6244 or mendedhearts200.org.

MENOPAUSE SUPPORT Third Thursdays 6:30-9 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg (second floor, Patient Education Room). 703-858-8060.

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS SUPPORT Saturdays 10:30 a.m. Fauquier Hospital Chestnut Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-349-2826.

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS SUPPORT Last Sundays 2-4 p.m. Cascades Library, 21030 Whitfield Pl., Potomac Falls. 703-771-4256.

NAR-ANON FAMILY SUPPORT For those affected by loved ones with addiction. Meaningful Mondays, 7-8 p.m., Galilee United Methodist Church, 45425 Winding Rd., Sterling. 703-203-9792; Wisdom Wednesdays 7-8 p.m., St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, 37730 St. Francis Ct., Purcellville, 703-606-7125; Serenity Thursdays, 7-8 p.m. Leesburg Presbyterian Church, 207 W. Market St., Leesburg, 703-606-7125.

PARKINSON'S SUPPORT Open to those with Parkinson's disease, their family members and caregivers. First Tuesdays 1:30-3 p.m. Call for Ashburn location. 571-442-8851.

POST-PARTUM SUPPORT Second and fourth Wednesdays 1-2:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Cornwall Campus, 224 Cornwall St., Leesburg. 703-909-9877. Email lamckeough@gmail.com. Registration required.

REACH TO RECOVERY Home visit program for mastectomy and lumpectomy patients. Temporary prostheses, exercise instruction and encouragement. 703-938-5550.

SEXUAL ASSAULT AND INCEST SURVIVORS GROUP COUNSELING Services provided by Loudoun Citizens for Social Justice and the Loudoun Abused Womens Shelter are free and confidential. 703-771-9020.

SEXUAL ASSAULT SURVIVORS EMPOWERMENT SUPPORT Sponsored by Sexual Assault Victims Volunteer Initiative. Child care available with 48-hours notice. Mondays; call for times and locations. 540-349-7720.

SPIRITUAL SUPPORT GROUP For cancer patients, family members and friends. Third Tuesdays 6:30-8 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. 703-858-8850.

STROKE SURVIVORS AND CAREGIVERS SUPPORT Second Wednesdays 11 a.m.-noon, Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg, second floor, Patient Education Room. 703-858-6667 or robynthomson@inova.org.

SUICIDE COUNSELING Third Wednesdays 7-8:30 p.m. Leesburg Town Office, Conference Room 2, lower level, 25 W. Market St., Leesburg. 703-587-1618 or survivorsofsuicidelossleesburg@gmail.com.

WOMENS SUPPORT Sponsored by Services to Abused Families. Tuesdays 6:30-8 p.m. Confidential location. 540-825-8876.

WIDOW AND WIDOWER SUPPORT Third Mondays 11 a.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039.

WOMENS CANCER SUPPORT Woman to Woman, first Wednesdays 6:30-8 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. Registration required. 703-858-8850.

MISCELLANEOUS

BRAIN TRAUMA SURVIVORS BROWN BAG LUNCH For survivors and caregivers, first Tuesdays, noon-1:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg, second-floor Patient Education Room. Call 703-737-3150 or email jberg@braininjurysvcs.org. Free.

ASK THE EXPERT LECTURE Hernias: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment Options. Monday at 6 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, Conference Rooms A and B, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg. A presentation by James Lesniewski, general surgeon. 855-694-6682. Free. Registration required.

ASK THE EXPERT LECTURE Robotic Joint Replacement: Whats New in Hip and Knees? Sept. 27 at 6 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, Conference Rooms A and B, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg. A presentation by Nauman Akhtar, orthopedic surgeon and medical director of Inova Loudoun Hospitals joint replacement program. 855-694-6682. Free. Registration required.

CANCER RESOURCES, EDUCATION AND WELLNESS Monday 5:30-6:30 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Chestnut Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-2273.

CHILD DEVELOPMENTAL SCREENINGS For ages 2-5. Children may not be kindergarten-age-eligible. Sponsored by the Loudoun County public schools Child Find Center. 571-252 - 2180.

CHOLESTEROL SCREENINGS Weekdays 6 a.m.-8 p.m. Fauquier Health LIFE Center, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-2640. Registration required. $35.

SKIN CANCER LECTURE Detection and Prevention. Wednesday 7 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Sycamore Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-3588.

EMERGENCY FOOD SUPPLIES Loudoun residents who are in need can receive a free three-day supply of groceries. Supplies are distributed Mondays through Saturdays by Loudoun Interfaith Relief. 703-777-5911 or interfaithrelief.org.

FAUQUIER FREE WALK-IN MEDICAL CLINIC Patients must call Thursdays from 12:30 to 1 p.m. to register for the clinic, which begins at 5:30 p.m. Patients are also seen by appointment Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Fauquier and Rappahannock residents only. Bring proof of address for the first visit. Patients cannot have Medicaid, Medicare or private insurance. Information: 540-347-0394 Tuesdays or Thursdays, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

FAUQUIER HOSPITAL BISTRO SENIOR SUPPER CLUB Nutritious meals and fellowship for people 55 and older. Tuesdays and Thursdays 4:30-6:30 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Bistro on the Hill, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-3588. $5.49.

HEROES (Hometown Enabling Relationships, Opportunities and Empowerment through Support) is a program for military families. A trained volunteer provides support to military members and their families, from pre-deployment up to two years post-deployment. Assistance includes financial help, job placement, family care and mental health services. heroescare.org or email caring@purbap.org .

LOUDOUN CARES INFORMATION AND REFERRAL HELP LINE Call for help in finding resources for county residents who are dealing with rent eviction, utility cut-offs, needed health care, employment and more. 703-669-4636.

MOTOR SKILL SCREENINGS Birth to 21 months. First Thursdays, Blue Ridge Speech and Hearing Center, 19465 Deerfield Ave., Suite 201, Lansdowne. Call for an appointment. 703-858-7620. Free.

INOVA LOUDOUN HOSPITAL MOBILE HEALTH SERVICES BLOOD PRESSURE SCREENINGS Tuesday 9 a.m.-noon, Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling; Thursday 11 a.m.-noon, Lovettsville Community Center, 57 E. Broad Way, Lovettsville. For information, call 703-858-8818 or go to inova.org/mobilehealth . Free. NORTHERN VIRGINIA LONG-TERM CARE OMBUDSMAN Call for help in resolving complaints related to long-term-care facilities. 703-324-5861.

PREVENTING FALLS, WORKSHOP AND SCREENING Balance, Balance and More Balance, Sept. 28 at 10:30 a.m. Loudoun County Area Agency on Aging, 20145 Ashbrook Pl., Suite 170, Ashburn. 703-771-5407. aaasupport@loudoun.gov. Free.

ROAD TO RECOVERY For cancer patients who need rides to appointments. 410-781-6909. Email jen.burdette@cancer.org. Free.

SAFE SITTER CLASSES For girls and boys ages 11-14. First Saturdays except for holiday weekends. 7:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riveerside Pkwy., Leesburg. To receive a Safe Sitter Certificate, students must pass practical and written tests on babysitting concepts and handling an emergency. Take a lunch from home or buy lunch in the cafeteria. $70, includes handbook and snacks during the day. Registration required. Call 703-858-8818 or email charlene.martin@inova.org.

SEVEN LOAVES FOOD PANTRY Individuals and families can receive a three-day supply of food, distributed Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 10 a.m.-noon. 540-687-3489 or sevenloavesmiddleburg.org.

TREE OF LIFE FOOD PANTRY Serving western Loudoun County. Food is delivered Wednesdays and Saturdays. 703-554-3595.

 Compiled by Sandy Mauck

TO SUBMIT AN ITEM

Email: ldliving@washpost.com

Fax: 703-777-8437

Mail: Health Calendar, The Washington Post, 104 Dry Mill Rd. SW, Suite 101, Leesburg, Va. 20175

Loudoun County and Fauquier County health calendar

Loudoun County and Fauquier County health calendar

Loudoun County and Fauquier County health calendar

Loudoun County and Fauquier County health calendar

Loudoun County and Fauquier County health calendar
Panel seeks nominations for Loudoun History Awards

The Thomas Balch Library Advisory Commission is accepting nominations for the annual Loudoun History Awards.

The awards honor individuals who have made significant contributions to preserving Loudoun Countys past, whether through visual arts, writing, involvement in local history organizations, collection of county documents and memorabilia, or preservation of historic landmarks.

The awards will be presented Nov. 13 at 2 p.m. at the Thomas Balch Library, 208 W. Market St., Leesburg.

Letters of nomination will be accepted through Oct. 10 and should include a list of the nominees accomplishments. Newspaper articles, program announcements, publications and other supporting information may be included. Contact information for both the nominee and the nominator must be included.

For information, email Alexandra S. Gressitt at agressitt@leesburgva.gov; write to her at the Thomas Balch Library, 208 W. Market St., Leesburg, Va. 20176; or call 703-737-7195.

Residents are reminded of key dates for Nov. 8 election

The Loudoun County Office of Elections is reminding voters of two important dates related to the Nov. 8 general election.

 Sept. 23: Absentee voting begins.

 Oct. 17: The deadline to register to vote.

Residents who want to check their registration information can go to vote.virginia.gov. Updates must be made before Oct. 17.

Absentee ballot applications can be submitted in person; by mail, email or fax; or by going to vote.virginia.gov. All marked ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day to be counted. For information about absentee voting, go to loudoun.gov/absentee.

Loudoun voters who are planning to cast their ballots in person can see their polling places, listed by election district, at loudoun.gov/PollingPlaces.

For general information, call the Loudoun County Office of Elections at 703-777-0380.

Animal Services offers veterinary forensics training

The Loudoun Department of Animal Services is sponsoring a veterinary forensics training program related to the recognition and prosecution of crimes against animals.

The training, Crime Scene to Courtroom, is open to the public, with preference given to Northern Virginia animal welfare professionals, including veterinarians, law enforcement personnel and lawyers.

The two-day training will be led by forensic veterinarian Melinda Merck and Botetourt County Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Gillian Deegan. Topics include recognizing and reporting animal cruelty; the link between animal abuse and domestic violence; evidence collection and packaging; veterinary forensic science and medicine; and preparing cases for court.

The training is scheduled for Oct. 6 and 7 at 16600 Courage Ct., Leesburg. The cost is $60. Friday is the registration deadline.

For information or to register, go to loudoun.gov/animals or call Deputy Chief Erin Peterson at 703-777-0406, Ext. 1894.

 Compiled by Sandy Mauck
The boy had been under house arrest since France declared a state emergency after November 13 attacks in Paris in which Islamic State militants killed 130 people

By Reuters: A 15-year-old boy has been arrested in Paris suspected of preparing imminent "violent action", two judicial sources said, the second alleged plot with links to Islamic State discovered in France this week.



PLOT UNCOVERED

Last Sunday, a car loaded with gas cylinders was found near Notre Dame cathedral and jerry cans of diesel, leading to the discovery of a plot to attack a Paris railway station under the direction of Islamic State. Seven people, including four women, were arrested.

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The boy had been under house arrest since France declared a state emergency after November 13 attacks in Paris in which Islamic State militants killed 130 people, two sources said on condition of anonymity. They did not say why he was under house arrest.

His arrest on Saturday came as he was planning an attack in a public place in the French capital, one of the sources said.

IN CONTACT WITH ISLAMISTS

The second source said the boy had been in contact with suspected French Islamist militant Rashid Kassim and that Kassim also guided one of the women arrested last week in the plot to attack a train station in Paris.

French newspaper Le Monde reported that Kassim is in Syria. He has used Telegram, the messaging service, to call for more attacks in France.

"Women, sisters, go on, attack. Where are the brothers?...She brandished a knife and she hit a policeman...Where are the men?" Le Monde quoted a message of Kassim on Telegram.

One of the women, arrested on Thursday stabbed a police officer during her arrest on Thursday.

One of the women, who was arrested with her partner on a motorway on Tuesday , Ornella G., was formally placed under investigation on Saturday in connection with the car found last Sunday near Notre Dame cathedral.

The man was freed on Saturday.

One of the sources said Kassim, 29, inspired two men who carried out an attack in July in a French church during which they slit the throat of the elderly priest.

The attack shocked France, coming less than 12 days after another Islamic State militant drove a truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in Nice.



ALSO READ:

Is France the new target of terror? PM warns of attacks, says 15,000 people on radar

ISIS more dangerous than Al-Qaeda: Giuliani



--- ENDS ---
Mary Helen Dellinger, curator of the Manassas Museum, on Thursday prepares Manassas Remembers, an exhibit that commemorates the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. (Jonathan Hunley for The Washington Post)

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Jonathan Way and his wife, Shirley, got to Dulles International Airport early.

The Manassas residents were bound for Santa Fe, N.M., to visit friends, and they were flying on American Airlines. They didnt make it to Santa Fe, though. They got to Dallas, where their connecting flight was canceled.

Passengers on another plane, Flight 77, went through the gate next to the one the Ways entered at Dulles, but they didnt arrive at their destination, either. Their flight to Los Angeles was hijacked by terrorists and crashed into the Pentagon.

Their plane left 3 minutes earlier than ours, Jonathan Way, now Manassass vice mayor, wrote with Shirley in a recollection of the day.

The Ways words are part of Manassas Remembers, an exhibit at the Manassas Museum commemorating the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It aims to tell the story of that day using personal reflections from members of the community.

Displays include historical photographs, and visitors can flip through a notebook that contains written memories. They can leave their own thoughts, too.

The exhibit also features artifacts collected from Ground Zero. A man who was a New York City firefighter at the time of the attacks contributed a sign from the World Trade Center site, as well as the shirt he wore in search efforts. Mary Helen Dellinger, the museums curator, said the donor didnt want to be identified.

In creating Manassas Remembers, Dellinger also incorporated an interview she conducted for a commemoration of 9/11s 10th anniversary. That exhibit took place at the Fredericksburg Area Museum, where she worked at the time.

Dellinger interviewed James Schwartz, who led the response to the Pentagon attack when he worked in Arlington Countys fire department.

When the hijacked Flight 77 struck the U.S. Department of Defense headquarters, it killed 184 people, but Schwartz said last week the death toll in Arlington could have exceeded the 2,753 killed at the World Trade Center had the attack come on a different day  the plane crashed into a part of the Pentagon that wasnt fully occupied at the time because of renovation work.

They were modernizing the building, Schwartz said, repeating comments he made recently at a Kiwanis Club meeting in Arlington.

About 25,000 people work at the Pentagon, he said, which means a plane hitting a section of the structure full of employees could have killed thousands.

Schwartz, now a deputy county manager in Arlington, said one of the main memories he has of 9/11 is how emergency personnel from around the Washington region worked together to respond to the catastrophe.

That kind of collaboration is necessary to maintain homeland security now and in the future, he said; the task is one that cant be tackled by any single agency or jurisdiction.

These are not routine incidents, Schwartz said.

And what Jonathan Way experienced in 2001 was not a routine trip.

Way said last week he and his wife wanted to contribute to the Manassas Museum exhibit because 9/11 was one of lifes defining moments, not unlike the use of the atomic bomb in World War II or the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Each generation has its own phenomenon like that, he said.

When the Ways reached Dallas back in 2001, their plane landed at the far end of the runway and sat for a long time. By then, the passengers had learned about the crashes in New York. But they wouldnt find out until later why they were delayed in leaving their plane.

Authorities held the aircraft away from the terminals because they feared a terrorist might be on board. When they verified that wasnt the case, they cleared the plane to move and the passengers to disembark.

The Ways ended up having to spend three days in the city.

American Airlines allowed us out of Dallas on the first flight back to D.C., they wrote in their museum narrative. We flew with the Red Cross workers who were going to the Pentagon to help with the disaster.

The Manassas Remembers exhibit is on display at the Manassas Museum through Nov. 27. Admission is free. For information, go to manassasmuseum.org.


(Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

The medical-marijuana regulator was worried. None of the 15 companies slated to be approved to grow cannabis were from key swaths of southern and southeastern Maryland even though state law calls for geographic diversity in authorizing growers.

Commissioner Buddy Robshaw, a longtime law enforcement official in Prince Georges County who currently heads the Cheverly police force, persuaded his colleagues on the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission to reconsider.

After a long debate, four of the five members of the commissions grower subcommittee agreed to reverse their unanimous decision on who would get the coveted licenses, Robshaw said a week later at an Aug. 5 commission meeting. They passed over two higher-scoring applicants in favor of teams from underrepresented areas, one of which was Prince Georges.

We wanted everybody who would substantially look at this to come back and say, You know what, the commission did create geographic diversity when we licensed marijuana,  Robshaw, who was appointed to the commission as a representative of the law enforcement community, told prospective marijuana entrepreneurs at the meeting.

A short time later, the full commission approved the shift.

The reshuffling has sparked complaints of unfair treatment and threats of legal action from companies that were denied licenses.It is the latest controversy to hit Marylands slow-to-launch medical-cannabis program, which also has been criticized for failing to award licenses to any cultivation companies owned by African Americans, despite a state mandate to create a racially diverse group of growers.

[Modern-day civil rights fight: Lawmakers push for diversity in medical pot ]

We were dismayed by the outcome, and believe the commissions decision and process were improper and fundamentally flawed, said Pete Kadens, chief executive of Green Thumb Industries-Maryland, which initially was ranked in the top 15 but was denied a license to make room for Prince Georges-based Holistic Industries and Shore Natural Rx, of Worcester County.

GTI had planned to grow in Washington County, west of Frederick, and was the lowest-scoring of three applicants from that county that were originally in the top 15.The other demoted company was Maryland Cultivation and Processing, the lowest-ranked of three top-tier Frederick County applicants.

This isnt a game like Jeopardy,  said Ed Weidenfeld, a partner in Cultivation and Processing. This is a very, very valuable award from the state that was promised to go to the most suitable [applicants].

Both GTI and Maryland Cultivation and Processing have asked the commission to preserve documents related to the licensing decision, a preliminary step for litigation, and have joined a legislative push to expand the cap on growers licenses from 15 to 20.

[The first players in Marylands legal marijuana industry have political ties]

They and other critics are questioning why the commission did not asktop-ranked applicants to relocate to underrepresented areas. Application materials advised companies that they did not need to list a location or demonstrate geographic diversity.

Robshaw said asking businesses to move locations would have violated the double-blind nature of the application review, in which the names of individuals that were part of each team were kept secret to avoid favoritism or the appearance of favoritism.

But commission staff did call and send letters to applicants during the evaluation process to find out where each company planned to locate.

The commissions method for assessing geographic diversity has also come under scrutiny. Commissioners used a 2003 map that split the state into five agricultural regions, and focused on making sure that there were licensed growers in each of those regions, rather than in any specific county.

The initial selection of 15 growers included 10 companies based in the North-Central region, which stretches from Harford County to Washington County and includes Montgomery County (where no growers were approved) and the city of Baltimore (which has one). There was only one grower in the southern region, which includes Anne Arundel, Charles, Calvert, Prince Georges and St. Marys counties, one in the Western region and one on the South Eastern Shore.

In amending its list of growers, the commission passed over 18th-ranked Mazey Farms, which would have been the second licensed grower in the Western region, in order to include 20th-ranked Holistic Industries, located in Prince Georges, which became the second licensed grower in the Southern region.

Were disappointed that we didnt get an award, and we are troubled that someone who received a lower score than us was moved ahead of us, said Brett Scott, Mazey Farms general counsel.

The reshuffling left the majority of licensees located in the North Central region.

Never would I have thought eight would be in just one region, said Tangelina Loftin, a director at 19th-ranked Maryland Natural Treatment Solutions, which applied to grow marijuana in Caroline County, in the North Eastern Shore region. I just thought more geographical diversity would have been achieved.

Robshaw said the decision to elevate the ranks of a grower from Prince Georges came down to southern Maryland was such a big chunk of the state.



Josh Genderson is a licensed grower of medical marijuana in the District. His company, Holistic Industries, recently was awarded a preliminary growing license in Maryland. But the selection process is being challenged. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

Weidenfeld, of Cultivation and Processing, accused the commission of boosting the politically best connected company. The Holistic Industries team includes former state Secretary of Health Nelson Sabatini and Ismael Vince Canales, the leader of the state Fraternal Order of Police union, who like Robshaw spent years working for the Prince Georges police department.

Chief executive Josh Genderson, who already grows medical marijuana in the District and whose uncle Jonathan Genderson won a license to process the drug in Montgomery County, hired top Maryland lobbyist Gerard Evans to help with the application. Through a friend, Josh Genderson met Henry P. Miller, a distant cousin of state Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert). Henry Miller became an investor in Holistic and offered his farm in Prince Georges as the cultivation site.

Evans also helped secure a letter of recommendation for Holistic from the Senate president, whose legislative district includes parts of Prince Georges. The letter wasnt included in application materials seen by commissioners.

Genderson said his company never tried to influence commissioners or lobby for the geographic realignment. He said his commitment to setting up shop in Prince Georges  a decision that ultimately made the difference in his winning a license  began long before the commission started doling out licenses.

We absolutely did not, Genderson said. We put the best possible team together, put together an awesome application and just hoped for the best.

Officials with Shore Natural Rx, the other company that was boosted into the top 15 in the name of geographic diversity, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Robshaw said the reshuffling was meant only to spread out growers in underrepresented parts of the state. He says he didnt know who was behind Holistic and never spoke to its lobbyist or employees.

The only information I ever had about them was a number, and we learned that they were in Prince Georges County, Robshaw said. There wasnt any conspiracy to find out who these people are.
The company wants to expand the Capital Plaza Walmart. Neighbors are divided over whether thats a good idea. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)

Nearly 10 years ago, Walmart representatives stood with Prince Georges County residents to announce an unusual agreement that would create the retail behemoths first inside-the-Beltway store.

The Walmart in Landover Hills would not sell firearms or alcohol or stay open 24 hours. It would hire locally and, among other things, encourage the kind of economic development residents wanted along this stretch of Annapolis Road, such as nice restaurants and higher-end retail.

Now Walmart is seeking county legislative approval for a 35,200-square-foot expansion at what has become one of its most heavily shopped locations. And those same neighbors are standing against it, saying the discount retailer has only lived up to part of the bargain.

The Walmart at Capital Plaza does not sell guns or booze, and it is closed from midnight to 6 a.m. About one-third of its employees are hired from within the county.

But the relationship with residents has broken down, activists say, as conditions inside and outside the store deteriorated. Shopping carts from Walmart have been found strewn across neighborhood streets. Cars have been stolen from the parking lot. And worst of all, residents say, businesses closed instead of opened. The primary grocer, Safeway, shut its doors a few years after Walmart arrived.

[Wonkblog: The Wal-Mart effect  how it squeezes workers]

Walmart has been a huge disappointment to the community, said activist Denise Hamler, who leads the Community Standards Coalition organization that devised the nine-point agreement in 2006 and was among the activists who attended a hearing Monday before the Prince Georges County Council.

We were promised that once built, they could attract other retailers, Hamler said. That failed to happen.

Council member Dannielle Glaros (D-Riverdale Park), whose district includes the Walmart, requested that the full council examine the county planning boards tentative approval of the store expansion, which opponents say is large enough to have warranted a more thorough review process.

The council has scheduled a vote for next Monday on whether to reverse or uphold the expansion plan. Glaros said she will make her position known at or before that meeting; usually in land-use cases, the council supports the recommendation of the lawmaker who represents the area.

Walmart spokesman Phillip Keene said the company has kept its promises to the community and can address the loss of Safeway through the expansion.

For years, our Capital Plaza customers have been asking that we offer them a full assortment of groceries, Keene said in a statement. The proposed expansion of our store is designed to do just that.

[When Walmart moves in, local businesses suffer. Right?]

Randall Levitt, president of the Nellis Corp., which manages the property, said the 2008 recession slowed efforts to fill storefronts in the complex. He said interest from retailers has increased, in part because of Walmarts proposed expansion.

Plans to bring Pollo Campero, a rotisserie chicken fast-food restaurant, and Royal Farms, a gas station and convenience store, are underway.

There have not been any promises broken, Levitt said. But the outcomes have not been as quick as I mightve hoped.

Cheverly Mayor Mike Callahan testified that his residents are not opposed to the expansion because they think it might yield the economic development results they have long desired.

If you want to see development at this site, and every one does, the question then becomes, Does the expansion help accomplish that or does it hurt that development?  Callahan said in an interview. This Walmart exists, its in our community. It is not going away and its important that it be improved.

But other Prince Georges residents said they were so frustrated by conditions inside and outside the store that they no longer could trust the retailer.

I feel like Im being victimized by a slumlord, resident Richard Bailey said. There is absolutely no reason why that site cant look better.

Another resident, Delvin Champagne, said he would support expansion if it was tied to a broader plan for development for that shopping center.

Council members and attorneys on Monday debated whether the project should have gone through a more extensive approval process because of its potential adverse impact on surrounding neighborhoods. Typically, projects of this size would undergo a special exception  a deeper review that invites more community input before approval.
THE DISTRICT

Man fatally shot after hitting police cruiser

A D.C. police officer fatally shot a man who crashed a motorcycle into a police cruiser during a traffic stop Sunday morning, authorities said.

Police identified the motorcyclist as Terrence Sterling, 31, of Fort Washington, Md.

The incident began about 4:20 a.m. in the Adams Morgan area with a report of a motorcycle being driven erratically, Assistant Chief Peter Newsham said in a video statement.

An officer stopped the motorcyclist near Third and M streets in Northwest Washington, Newsham said, but the man tried to flee and ended up hitting the police car.

When the officer was exiting the passenger side of his marked police cruiser to stop the driver, the motorcyclist intentionally drove into the passenger door and the officer fired his service weapon, a police statement said.

Sterling died at a hospital. When reached by phone, family members said they were trying to learn more details about the shooting.

Police said the officer, whom they did not name, is on routine leave while an investigation continues.

 Lynh Bui

Man, 22, dies after crashing into pole

A District man died after his car crashed into a light pole early Sunday, police said.

Marquette Washington, 22, of Southeast, was driving at high speed in the 1300 block of Southern Avenue when the car crossed both lanes of traffic and hit the pole, police said.

 Lynh Bui

Shooting on basketball court in Eckington

A shooting was reported Sunday evening on a basketball court in the Eckington area of Northeast Washington.

Police said the shooting occurred about 7:45 p.m. in the 100 block of T Street NE.

Michael Clark, president of the Edgewood Civic Association, said he was told that the victim was shot during an attempt to rob him as he played basketball.

 Martin Weil

MARYLAND

Police probe apparent homicide in Landover

Prince Georges County police are investigating an apparent homicide in Landover.

Officers making a welfare check Sunday morning found a man with upper-body trauma, police said. He was dead when found. Police discovered the body outside in the 6900 block of Hawthorne Street, just south of Route 202 and 75th Avenue.

The mans injuries were not believed to have resulted from a shooting, police spokesman Cpl. Lamar Robinson said, but the circumstances of his death were otherwise unclear. It was unknown when the man had died.
Marine Maj. Michael Pretus, right, was investigated for having a threesome with a female midshipman and Marine Maj. Mark Thompson, left, who taught at the Naval Academy. Pretus later became an instructor there, too. He has since been removed. (Left: Nikki Kahn/TWP; Right: TWP)

The U.S. Naval Academys superintendent announced Monday that the school will correct a flaw in its vetting process that allowed a Marine Corps officer to teach there after he had been investigated for allegedly having sex with a female midshipman.

In June, The Washington Post revealed that Maj. Michael Pretus became an instructor not only because of a communication failure among military leaders, but also because of a systemic defect in the way the Naval Academy has screened dozens of its staffers.

The military did vet Pretus when he was selected in 2012 to get an advanced degree in history that would prepare him to teach. But the Iraq War veteran faced a crisis during the two years and eight months between when he received the news and when he was scheduled to start working in Annapolis.

A former female midshipman told authorities that while attending the academy in 2011, she had a threesome with him and another Marine, Maj. Mark Thompson, who taught history and was later convicted of sexual misconduct. Her accusation against Pretus triggered a criminal investigation that, according to military records, ended after he refused to cooperate.

Despite the inquiry, he became an instructor at Annapolis in August 2014. It wasnt until The Washington Post wrote about Thompsons case that academy leaders learned about the allegations against Pretus, who was removed from his position in April.

[A Marine fights to prove hes innocent of sexual misconduct. Then a lost cellphone is found]

The school will now re-screen staffers after theyve completed their advanced degrees and before they arrive on campus.

Its a very unique privilege to come teach at the U.S. Naval Academy. . . . We want to make sure were getting whats been advertised, Vice Adm. Walter E. Carter Jr. told The Post after announcing the change in protocol to the schools Board of Visitors, an oversight group that includes nine members of Congress.

I think theyre doing exactly the right thing, said Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), the boards chairman.

He and Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said they had heard both from fellow lawmakers and academy graduates who are concerned about the revelations.

The lawmakers praised Carters decision to act and his transparency with them throughout the process.

As of June, 28 of the academys current faculty members, including 22 Marines, had arrived on campus the same way Pretus and many others have since the advanced-degree program began in 2006, the school said at the time. They were selected to get a masters degree and then given two to three years to attend a university and move to Annapolis to work in the classroom. Although the military rigorously inspects their service records during the initial selection process, the academy acknowledged that they werent formally vetted again before being given positions of authority over midshipmen.

[A sex misconduct cases exposes flaws in how the Naval Academy scrutinizes instructors]

This meant that, as in Pretuss case, the academy may have never learned about serious issues that could arise during the years while officers were earning their degrees.

The re-screening will reduce that risk.

The Air Force Academy does not have an advanced-degree program comparable to the Naval Academys, but West Point does. Thousands of Army officers have joined the schools staff through it, although the Military Academy also doesnt scrutinize service members a second time.

Carter told The Post that he had informed both academies of his decision and said he anticipates that they will make similar changes to their vetting processes.

In the past decade, at least 14 people who worked for or at the service academies were punished for sexual misconduct against students or for engaging in inappropriate relationships with them, according to military records and information provided by the three schools.

Pretus, however, is not counted among them, because his misconduct with a midshipman occurred before he arrived on campus.

What led to his removal from the staff began with an April 2011 trip to Annapolis, where he spoke to students in Thompsons history class about his harrowing combat experience in Iraq.

[Naval Academy teacher is removed amid widening sexual misconduct scandal]

Afterward, according to investigators, the longtime friends went to Thompsons home and both had sex with a midshipman named Sarah Stadler. Back then, she and Thompson were in an illicit relationship prohibited by military law.

Pretus testified on his friends behalf after Stadler accused Thompson of sexual misconduct and a female classmate claimed that he had raped her.

At Thompsons court-martial in 2013, Pretus provided key testimony that rebutted the womens version of events. But during the trial, Stadler spotted Pretus and told military investigators that, although she couldnt recall his name, she knew he was the Marine whod joined in the tryst with her and Thompson.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service interviewed Stadler and inspected Pretuss service record, but the inquiry ended when he invoked his right to remain silent.

[Marine accused of lying in sex case was obsessed with vindication, friend says]

Academy officials probably wouldnt have learned about the accusation had Thompson not fought so hard to clear his name. At trial, he was acquitted of the rape but convicted of five other charges related to sexual misconduct. Thompson later brought his story to The Post, which discovered that he had lied under oath to a Marine administrative board in 2014. In April, the Marines charged him with three additional crimes, and he is scheduled to face a new court-martial in January.

Pretus has agreed to testify against Thompson in the new case and has acknowledged to prosecutors that both men had sex with Stadler.
A 15-year-old boy has been arrested in the death of another teenager in Southeast Washington earlier this month.

At about 2:15 p.m. Sept. 1 at 16th Street SE, near Good Hope Road and Minnesota Avenue, police found two males with gunshot wounds. Seventeen-year-old Kevin Anthony Jackson II died shortly after arriving at a nearby hospital. The other victim, identified by police as a driver for a pizza shop who was making a delivery, remains in critical but stable condition.

Police said the unnamed 15-year-old was arrested by a school security officer. Police provided no other details.

[Vigil held in Anacostia for slain youth]

Jackson previously attended Anacostia High School, but was not enrolled at the time of the shooting, school officials said.

There was promise in him, said Troy Prestwood, an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in the Anacostia area who participated in a vigil for Jackson a few days after the murder. People liked him.
Joseph Caputo scaled the north fence line of the White House Complex Nov. 26 gaining access to the North Grounds. (Photo by Vanessa Pena) (Photo: Vanessa Pena)

A Connecticut man who jumped the White House fence draped in an American flag last Thanksgiving Day pleaded guilty Monday to a federal misdemeanor violation of illegal entry of restricted grounds in a deal with prosecutors, who agreed to seek a sentence of three years probation.

Joseph Anthony Caputo, 23, will continue to live with his mother in Stamford, Conn., under electronic monitoring and a curfew before his sentencing set for Dec. 6 before U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the District.

Caputo is a conscientious young man . . . and for what he believes in he engaged in conduct that exposes him to liability, his lawyer, Stephen E. Seeger, said after the hearing.

Caputo, who spoke only briefly in answer to questions by the judge and whose parents were in court, accepts full responsibility, and wants to move on with his life since graduating from college, Seeger said.

[Man draped in American flag scales White House fence]

The plea came after Cooper denied a defense motion to dismiss the case last month. Cooper rejected as near-frivolous its argument that Caputos escapade was free speech meant to draw attention to domestic issues and to highlight flaws in national security, such as the governments inability to solve the problem of White House fence-jumpers.

There is, after all, no First Amendment right to express ones self in a nonpublic area like the White House, Cooper wrote.

[Commission hears proposal to double size of White House fence]

The U.S. Secret Service said Caputo wore weightlifting gloves and Stars-and Stripes-decorated sneakers to scale the White House fences new pencil-point spikes on Nov. 26, and was found carrying a pocket guide to the U.S. Constitution after his immediate arrest.

Authorities are reviewing plans to begin construction in 2018 of a nearly 12-foot-tall fence around the White House, compared with the existing 7-foot-tall barrier.
Police are asking for the publics help in identifying thieves who stole more than $18,000 worth of merchandise during thefts at five cellphone stores in Montgomery County in June and July.

Surveillance video of one of the thefts shows thieves frantically running around a store, yanking electronic devices on security cords from the walls. At one point, one of the thieves stumbles over a chair and briefly loses a shoe as he pulls on a cord.

In each case, two or three suspects enter a store during normal business hours, yank the electronics off their security cords and then flee the store to a vehicle that is waiting for them, police said. The robberies last a matter of seconds.

The robberies occurred at the following stores:

June 25, 2016  AT&T Store, 11427 Georgia Ave., Wheaton, 2 p.m.

June 27, 2016  T-Mobile Store, 2800 University Blvd. West, Wheaton, 10:51 a.m.

July 19, 2016  AT&T Store, 11427 Georgia Ave., Wheaton, 10:37 a.m. (videos below)

July 21, 2016  AT&T Store, 1600 Rockville Pike, Rockville, 11:17 a.m.  Rockville city police investigation

July 30, 2016  AT&T Store, 1304 E. Gude Dr., Rockville, 12:19 p.m.  Rockville city police investigation

During the July 30 theft, two suspects assaulted employees at the AT&T store. The victims suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.

Anyone with information about the thefts or the suspects involved is asked to call the 4th District Patrol Investigation Unit at 240-773-5476.
A Maryland mother admitted she stabbed and killed her two youngest children during what she said was an exorcism in 2014. A trial is underway to rule if she was criminally insane at the time of the stabbings. (WUSA9)

A Maryland mother admitted she stabbed and killed her two youngest children during what she said was an exorcism in 2014. A trial is underway to rule if she was criminally insane at the time of the stabbings. (WUSA9)

A Maryland woman who called herself a demon assassin admitted in court Monday that she killed her youngest children during what she said was an exorcism. The guilty plea quickly led to a trial  set to continue Tuesday  over whether she was criminally insane at the time of the horrific stabbings.

At stake is whether Zakieya Avery is sent to the state prison system or to a state psychiatric hospital.

The only way to understand her actions in this case is to factor in her mental illness, her delusional belief that her children were being possessed by demons, Neil Blumberg, a psychiatrist retained by an attorney for the mother, Avery, testified.

Blumberg said that in January 2014, when Avery killed her 18-month-old son and 2-year-old daughter, and tried to kill her 5-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son, she was convinced the only way to send them to heaven was to kill their bodies so demons could be released.

She clearly at the time thought that this was the proper and moral thing to do, Blumberg said. She was acting in an altruistic way  as she had done previously when she was less mentally ill.

Zakieya Avery (Family Photo)

The trial over Averys mental status is being held before Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Terrence McGann, not in front of a jury.

McGann indicated that he may take several days to study testimony and read medical reports before ruling on Averys sanity during the crimes.

Staff members of Marylands Clifton T. Perkins psychiatric hospital, where Avery has been confined, concluded that at the time of the killings at her Germantown home she knew she was committing a crime and was not legally insane.

In making her guilty plea, Avery spoke softly in court Monday. She admitted that she and her roommate, armed with a serrated paring knife, stabbed the four children.

Satan will not take my kids, Avery said during the attacks, according to a detailed summary of the crimes presented in court by prosecutors.

Her youngest child, Norell, 18 months, was stabbed more than 20 times, prosecutors said. Zyana, 2, was choked and stabbed through her chest.

On Monday, a defense attorney for Zakieya Avery played this video in a Maryland courtroom, hoping to bolster his argument that in 2014, when Avery killed her two youngest children during a bloody exorcism, she was insane. (Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office)

The older two children  Taniya, 5, and Martello, 8  saw the attacks, and cried out to their mother. But she and her roommate then turned their attacks on them, stabbing each so hard they punctured their lungs. Those two children survived.

Among the new details revealed in court Monday: Police found a notebook in the townhouse kept by both women, containing shopping lists for Demon Assassin gatherings and journal entries.

We live is a society where we have a surface of demonic demons lurking over the world, read an entry less than a month before the January 2014 attacks. Theyre in our clothes, our shoes, computer chips, radio, all of the things we live in.

[Earlier: Averys roommate committed to mental hospital]

Also in court Monday, Brian Shefferman, Averys attorney, played a video recording of the day police arrested Avery and put her in an interrogation room, equipped with a hidden video camera. While Avery was alone, she quietly moved her hands up and down the surface of her body, and at times extended her arms as if she were touching something.

Shefferman asked Blumberg, the psychiatrist, to describe what he was seeing on the video.

She appears to be talking to something that is not there, Blumberg said.

Last year the roommate  Monifa Sanford, now 24  was ruled criminally insane by a Montgomery County judge, an opinion based largely on findings of state psychiatrists. In general terms, according to Sanfords attorney, David Felsen, Sanford couldnt tell the difference between right and wrong during the attacks. The judge sent Sanford to a maximum-security psychiatric hospital.

Avery stood Monday morning for the beginning of the hearing, while answering a standard list of questions from McGann meant to probe her intent to plead guilty.

She then sat as prosecutor Peter Feeney read a long statement of facts in the case. Avery and Shefferman followed along by reading a printout of the statement that Feeney had given Shefferman. She read and followed the words closely, using a tissue to dab her eyes.

As the details were read, several people in the courtroom gallery sighed and wept. One woman  after hearing how Norell tried to defend himself by blocking the knife  loudly said Oh my God! and got up and swiftly walked out.

McGann is known for handing down long sentences for violent crimes  at times having called defendants before him cowardly, pathetic and wretched. But he also has shown sensitivity to the impact of mental illness.

The case of the two women and the children has always carried components of psychiatric issues. Avery had been hospitalized several times for mental illness before being arrested in her current case, according to court records.

A question facing McGann is whether, at the time of the attacks, Avery appreciated that she was breaking the law.

When police came into the townhouse, she ran out the back door  an indication she might have thought she had done something wrong. Yet when police officers searched her yard, they found the knife and a plastic trash bag of bloody clothes, indicating Avery perhaps was not concerned about having to hide evidence.
A woman was sexually assaulted Sunday morning in the New Carrollton area of Prince Georges County, the county police said.

The assailant broke into the victims apartment in the 5400 block of 85th Avenue about 7 a.m., the police said. In addition to sexually assaulting her, he stole items from her home before fleeing, the polixce said.

They said he was about 5 feet 9 inches to 6 feet tall, and weighed from 170 to 190 pounds. He wore a white and orange striped shirt, black pants and black shoes, the police said.
A naked man died on Sunday after a fall from third floor balcony under mysterious circumstances at Dwarka in west Delhi. According to police, the deceased was on a gay date.

By Puneet Kumar Sharma: A man reportedly fell from the third floor of janta flats in west Delhi's Dwarka locality on Sunday night. Later, he succumbed to his injuries at a hospital during treatment.

Police got a call around 8.30 pm about an accident on Sunday night. When they reached the spot, they found a man lying on the ground. Police took him to hospital, where he died.

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It looked a plain case of accident but for the fact that the deceased was completely naked when he was discovered. And, he was not a resident of that area.

Police had no idea about the deceased. Investigation began, which led them to one Amit Puri, who lived in one of the janta flats. As the story unfolded, it left the local residents stunned.

READ: Frustrated with demands, boy murders girlfriend in Delhi

GAY-AFFAIR GONE WRONG

Amit told the police that the deceased was Saurabh Ghai, who lived in Uttam Nagar. He also told the police that they were in gay-relationship for some time. Saurabh had gone to janta flats to meet Amit on the eventful night.

According to police, Amit and Saurabh became friends through a facebook page. Soon, they exchanged their phone numbers after which things moved very fast between them.

READ: Delhi: Three including police constable arrested for murder of Bawana resident



Amit also told the police that it was their first gay-date. On Sunday night, they were in the bedroom of Amit's flat. None of them wore any clothes.

Police said that Amit was drunk. The post-mortem report will reveal whether Saurabh also consumed alcohol. Amit told the police that as Saurabh went to balcony for some fresh air, he lost his balance and fell.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

However, police was not willing to believe Amit's version of story as there were several unanswered questions.

It is not clear as to whether it was actually their first meeting as claimed by Amit. Did they have a fight over something? Did Saurabh fall accidently or did someone push him off balcony? Was there a third person present in the flat at the time of incident? Was there a gay party going on in Amit's flat? Was it a part of conspiracy that Saurabh was present in the flat at that time?

Answers to these questions are crucial for police to unravel the mystery that surrounds the death of Saurabh.



ALSO READ:

Mayur Vihar murder: Woman killed Vijaykumar to avenge sexual exploitation, arrested

Delhi's crime graph shows 50 per cent rise in 2 months





--- ENDS ---

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While a parent sat upstairs, a group of teenagers partying in the basement of a Fairfax County home in February crowded into a bathroom to crush and snort prescription drugs, a prosecutor said Monday.

David Evers, an 18-year-old senior at Centreville High School who was headed to college, traded a morphine pill to his classmate Alexia Springer, 17, a homecoming princess and varsity runner, for an oxycodone, the prosecutor said.

The drugs were two of a handful Springer ingested that night that would ultimately lead to her death.

Evers pleaded guilty in Fairfax County court Monday to supplying the morphine to Springer, a case that cost one student her life and another his future and highlighted the dangers of teenagers abusing prescription medication.

[Teen arrested for supplying drug that killed classmate]

David Evers (Fairfax County Police)

Virginia Assistant Attorney General Marc J. Birnbaum said in court that Evers had become known as the Boof man at Centreville High School because he had begun distributing prescription drugs to fellow students on a handful of occasions  even apparently as he was accepted to more than one college.

This is not an isolated incident, Birnbaum said of the events that led to Springers death. This is not something that just happened on this one day. This is something that happened throughout the school year.

Birnbaum said Springer, a junior, probably had taken a Xanax before the party on Feb. 29. Prosecutors said about 20 to 30 students from Centreville and other schools attended the party at a Clifton home that was not identified.

Birnbaum said Evers and Springer, along with five or so other partygoers, slipped into the basement bathroom for 20 to 30 minutes to trade the pills and snort the drugs. In court, Birnbaum declined to disclose Everss morphine supplier.

Rona Powell, Springers mother, said in a May interview that her daughter also drank at the party. Powell said her daughter went home after the party. She texted and went online, but never woke up after going to sleep that night.

One of Springers friends, who had spent the night, found her unresponsive the next morning and alerted authorities.

The medical examiner ruled that Springers death was accidental and the result of a combination of alcohol, morphine, Xanax and oxycodone. Springers family declined to comment after Mondays hearing.

She was a really good kid, Powell said in May. This is something I would never have thought would happen to her.

Everss family also declined to comment, but his attorney Christie A. Leary said in court that he had been suicidal and depressed since Springers death.

Before this, he had a wonderful future ahead of him, she said of her client. Those plans have been derailed.

During the hearing, Evers spoke only to answer questions from Circuit Judge Randy I. Bellows.

Leary argued that Evers should remain out on bond before his Dec. 2 sentencing, but Bellows disagreed, saying the defendants misdeeds were catastrophic.

A child died, Bellows said before Evers was handcuffed and led to jail.
Living among a tight-knit group of close relatives is best for our health as we age, right? Actually, in many cases, the opposite is true.

Social isolation and loneliness have long been associated with poor health and worse outcomes, on par with smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and inactivity. But being ensconced in too tight a family network may not be optimal, either. For someone experiencing a health crisis, its better to have more weak ties to people who dont know each other, according to a paper published Monday in the journal Nature.

Were finding if youve got a lot of weak ties or lack of connections (between acquaintances), that actually affords you an advantage, said Amar Dhand, the papers lead author and an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University.

People with more extensive, weaker ties tend to arrive at the hospital sooner after a stroke, and to recover faster, the paper found. The key seems to be the diversity that comes with knowing many different kinds of people.

With a greater variety of acquaintances, someone with stroke symptoms would have more of a chance of being in contact with people who can share novel information, including an acquaintance who might urge them to go to the hospital.

The paper urges doctors to consider a patients social network in the same way they would with factors such as blood pressure or weight.

What Id like this paper to do is to have physicians and other health care workers rethink the patient as not a solitary individual sitting in front of you but as a person whos embedded in a social web, and that network can be understood by you if you take the time to ask a few questions, he said.

It matters whether that web is small and tight or large and loose. The researchers found that people who arrived at hospitals within 6 hours of having stroke symptoms had larger networks with more disconnected acquaintances.

The findings belie common wisdom about whats best for a patient, even among medical professionals.

As doctors we think of a strong family unit of support system as really important to patients health, Dhand said. But in the case of a patient experiencing a mild stroke, that model can be less useful because youre not forced to go outside of your safe zone, he said. I call it sort of the helicopter family; people around you are saying, No, grandpa, stay where you are, Ill get it for you.

In fact, the proverbial little old lady who lives alone might actually be in the best position to get prompt treatment, he said.

I just saw a patient yesterday in clinic who is 81 years old, she is a widow, andshe has one of the most extensive social networks that weve seen; she has 26 different people, many of whom are women like her, and she takes care of a lot of them, picking up groceries for one, checking in on one, Dhand said. I dont want to state that the tight family network is harmful, but it may not be the optimal network structure for all illnesses.
A U.S. military honor cordon at the Pentagon on Oct. 23, 2015, in Arlington, Va. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump wants to stop the cuts to military spending caused by sequestration, but Virginia Democrats are cool to the idea, despite seeing their states economy suffer from reduced federal defense spending.

Democrats say they cant support any plan that would eliminate caps on funding for defense agencies but preserve cuts to domestic programs such as Head Start and the National Institutes of Health. Nonmilitary spending is just as vital to a prosperous economy, they argue.

That all-or-nothing position is tricky in Virginia, where the economy has long relied on military installations and the defense industry. Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) has frequently lamented sequestrations effect on the state since taking office almost three years ago.

Although Congress agreed to suspend the sequester for two years, Virginia fiscal managers assume the cuts will return in 2017.

Remember a year from this coming October  think of that  sequestration trigger hits again, McAuliffe said Friday on the Kojo Nnamdi radio show. That is a huge driver in Virginia. We have 27 military instillations. The largest naval base in the world. The Pentagon. CIA, Quantico, Langley, Oceana.

Between 2011 and 2013, Virginia lost $9.8 billion in direct spending because of the sequester, McAuliffe said. Thats like losing more than 100,000 jobs, he said.

The state is currently facing a $1.5 billion shortfall.

In a national security speech Wednesday in Philadelphia, Trump said, if elected, he would ask Congress to end the sequester. That was a reversal from 2013, when Trump said the military cuts didnt go far enough.

As soon as I take office, I will ask Congress to fully eliminate the defense sequester and will submit a new budget to rebuild our military, he said in Philadelphia. It is so depleted. We will rebuild our military.

Trump listed specific goals: an active Army force of 540,000, a Marine Corps with 36 battalions, a Navy with 350 ships and submarines, an Air Force with 1,200 fighter aircraft and a state-of-the-art missile defense system.

He did not elaborate on how he would pay for additional military spending, aside from saying he would ask Congress to fully offset the costs resulting in a government that is leaner and more responsive to the public.

Virginia Democrats balked at what they said was Trumps overly simplistic assessment.

Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) called it laughable that Trump would try to balance the budget, give trillions of dollars in tax breaks to the wealthy and increase military spending.

This guy has no credibility on numbers, Warner said Friday in Alexandria. As a business guy who knows numbers, Ive never seen anybody as sloppy as Trump is. . . . Any [chief financial officer] in any enterprise of any nature would say, Trump, youre fired. 

Warner, a former governor and business executive who made his fortune in cellphone technology, said Congress has to do the hard work of entitlement and tax reform to truly eliminate the need for a sequester.

If you want to protect our country, youve got to protect our country militarily and economically, he said.

Through a spokesman, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), vice-presidential running mate of Hillary Clinton, echoed Clintons statements that a budget deal must end the sequester for both defense and nonmilitary spending.

He believes defense strategy should drive our budget, rather than our budget driving the strategy, spokesman Joe LaPaille said in a statement.

Virginia is more susceptible to spending reductions at the federal level than almost any other state. Only California lost more jobs because of sequestration, according to a March 2013 report from Stephen S. Fuller, director of George Mason Universitys Center of Regional Analysis in Arlington.

The cuts cost all 50 states about 1.58 million jobs, including 154,118 in Virginia, Fullers research shows. While all kinds of federal agencies suffered, the military was hit particularly hard; sequestration was indirectly or directly responsible for 102,525 Defense Department jobs alone, data show.

The decline in employment robbed Virginia of $15.4 billion in economic activity, a hit the state could ill afford as it struggled to recover from the Great Recession. Again, only California felt the losses more acutely, to the tune of $16.7 billion, the report says.

Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) ticked off a list of nondefense areas touched by the federal governments presence in Northern Virginia: cybersecurity, intelligence, airport technology, anti-human-trafficking and anti-drug programs, health initiatives, financial services, and trade patent services.

Its a false choice to say pick one or the other, he said. It really evinces the really very superficial knowledge Donald Trump has about the Northern Virginia economy.

Virginia Republicans applauded Trumps newest stance on military spending, but said he must find a way to pay for it.

Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.), an economics professor who unseated then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R) two years ago, said the global picture is bleak enough to warrant an expanded military.

The Middle East is blowing up. The whole world is blowing up, he said. On the other hand, Im an economist, so weve got to do a better job at balancing the books up here.

Brat said he thinks Trump will find a way to beef up the military without raising taxes or increasing the deficit  both non-starters for Brat, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus.

The one thing you can count on Trump doing is following through once he starts a series of comments, he said.

Rep. H. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), who represents the economically struggling southwest region, also supports an end to the military sequester but wants the Defense Department to be audited.

[Trumps] a reasonable person, he said. He doesnt always say reasonable things, but hes a reasonable person. When given the facts, its inevitable that he could come to the conclusion that the military would need more support.

Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) has tried to distance herself from Trump as she faces a competitive reelection challenge in her moderate Northern Virginia district, but her position echoes his.

We must have a strong military to confront the serious threats against our nation, and sequester cuts cannot stand, she said in a statement.
BANGLADESH

Packaging factory fire kills at least 26

A fire at a food- and cigarette-packaging factory that killed at least 26 people has been extinguished, but heavy smoke and the risk of the building collapsing further were hampering the search of the premises, officials said Sunday.

Saturdays blaze was the countrys worst industrial accident since the Rana Plaza building collapse inthat killed 1,135 garment sector workers, and it renews concerns about Bangladeshs safety record.

The building is hot, and it is not possible to enter, Ajit Kumar Bhoumik, a senior fire department official said Sunday. Also there are huge cracks in the building, so it is very risky to enter without precautionary measures.

The cause of the fire in the Tongi industrial zone, about 12 miles north of the capital, Dhaka, was not known, but officials said a boiler explosion probably triggered it.

The fire is the latest industrial accident in the South Asian country, which is the worlds second-biggest garment exporter after China.

The Rana Plaza disaster sparked demands for greater safety in the country and put the onus on foreign companies sourcing clothing from Bangladesh to act. The disaster led to the creation of two international coalitions designed to help fund improvements to building and fire safety at thousands of garment factories across the country.

 Reuters

FRANCE

15-year-old arrested as Valls warns of terrorism

Police in France arrested a 15-year-old boy at his Paris home to thwart plans for a suspected weekend attack, as the prime minister warned Sunday that about 15,000 people in the country could be in the process of becoming radicalized.

The arrest of the teenager Saturday came two days after police moved in on what the Paris prosecutor said was a group of female commandos planning an attack at Notre Dame Cathedral and another possible assault. Those arrested included a 15-year-old girl.

France is in a state of emergency after recent militant attacks, including the Bastille Day truck rampage in Nice that killed 86 people.

News of the arrest came shortly after Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Sunday that every day attacks are foiled . . . [including] as we speak.

Valls said nearly 15,000 people in France are being tracked because they are suspected of being in the process of radicalization, while 1,350 are under investigation  293 of them for alleged links to a terrorism network.

Despite the tracking, with plots uncovered, there will be new attacks. There will be innocent victims, the prime minister said.

 Associated Press

SPAIN

Catalan separatists rally in Barcelona

Hundreds of thousands of separatist-minded Catalans rallied in Barcelona on Sunday to show support for breaking away from Spain, which would leave the country without its powerful and prosperous northeastern region.

Barcelona law enforcement officials estimated on their Twitter account that about 540,000 people attended the rally in support of a legally binding referendum that would lead to an independent Catalonia.

Spain, which opposes secession, argues that an independent Catalonia would be ejected from the European Union and left out of the euro.

Catalonia held a nonbinding vote in 2014, when about 1.6 million people cast ballots in favor of independence. Most of the regions 5.4 million eligible voters didnt participate after Spains Constitutional Court ordered the suspension of the ballot.

Catalan National Day, which fell Sunday, has long been used to mobilize people in support of secession from Spain.

Polls show that most Catalans support a referendum on independence but are divided over splitting from Spain.

 Associated Press

5.3-magnitude earthquake hits Macedonia: An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.3 struck on the outskirts of Macedonias capital, injuring at least 30 people and causing minor damage, authorities said. Dragana Cernih from the national seismological observatory said she received reports of cracks in the walls of buildings and collapsed chimneys, as well as damage to roofs in villages around Skopje. Cernih said at least four strong aftershocks followed the quake, while a smaller temblor was recorded earlier in the day.

Man charged with terrorism in Sydney stabbing: A suspect who was charged with committing a terrorist act and attempted murder after allegedly stabbing a man in Sydney was inspired by the Islamic State group, police said. Wayne Greenhalgh, 59, was stabbed several times in southwest Sydney on Saturday and is in critical condition, police said. The suspect, Ihsas Khan, 22, also allegedly attempted to stab a police officer before he was arrested.

 From news services
In the middle of New Yorks Times Square a white-clad girl clutches her purse and skirt as an uninhibited sailor plants his lips squarely on hers.

So explained the caption of an electrifying photograph that appeared on page 27 in the Life magazine edition of Aug. 27, 1945. The image, taken two weeks earlier on V-J Day by photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt, captured an unidentified couple in a momentary act of celebration that came to represent an entire nations jubilation. Japan had surrendered, and the end of World War II was at hand.

As a work of art, the photo was exquisite, with the dark hue of the sailors uniform against the womans white dress, her leg bent at the same angle as the arm clutching her waist. In its sheer ubiquity, it became a Klimt Kiss in black and white, a Rodin Baiser in two dimensions.

For years, fascination surrounded the images subjects: the sailor (just back from war, or perhaps preparing to return to it?) and the woman in white (a nurse?) whom he had dipped in an embrace.

As many as 80 men recognized themselves as the sailor, but only a small handful of women emerged to identify themselves as the recipient of the iconic kiss. One of them, whose claim was bolstered by a book-length investigation, was Greta Friedman, an Austrian refugee of the Holocaust who had settled in New York.

Greta Friedman (Family photo)

Mrs. Friedman, who later resided for more than five decades in Frederick, Md., died Sept. 8 at a hospital in Richmond. She was 92 and had pneumonia, said her son, Joshua Friedman.

Neither Eisenstaedt, who died in 1995, nor Life magazine, which ended publication in 2000, positively identified the kissing couple. Edith Shain, who made another widely circulated claim, died in 2010. But Mrs. Friedman, while not seeking to diminish the recollections of others who partook of the festivities in New York on that memorable day, was certain that the woman was she.

I knew it happened to me, she told the Veterans History Project in 2005. Its exactly my figure, and what I wore, and my hairdo, especially.

She managed to persuade Lawrence Verria and George Galdorisi, co-authors of the 2012 book The Kissing Sailor: The Mystery Behind the Photo that Ended World War II. They referred to her height and physique, contemporary photographs of her hairstyle, and her particular manner, captured in the photograph, of clenching her fist with her thumb out.

Everything points to her, Verria said in an interview. You couldnt find anything that would separate Greta Friedman from the nurse.

For Mrs. Friedman, the war had an intensely personal meaning. One of four daughters in a Jewish family, she was born Grete Zimmer in Wiener Neustadt, a city south of Vienna, on June 5, 1924. Her father, Max, was a haberdasher, and her mother, Ida, was a homemaker.

Amid intensifying persecution of Jews in Austria, the Zimmers sent their eldest child to the British mandate of Palestine. The younger three joined relatives in the United States. Greta, as she spelled her name after arriving in New York in 1939, would never see her parents again.

During the war, she trained to be a seamstress while also studying dramatic arts at the New School, hoping to work as a theatrical costume designer. To support herself, she found a position as a dental assistant, a job that required her to wear the white dress, stockings and shoes of a nurse.

On Aug. 14, 1945, she heard the news from several patients that the wars end in the Pacific was imminent. She left the office on Lexington Avenue and walked to Times Square, where she said she saw the reports confirmed.

Suddenly, I was grabbed by a sailor, she told the Veterans History Project. I felt that he was very strong. He was just holding me tight. . . . It was just somebody celebrating. It wasnt a romantic event. It was just an event of Thank god the war is over. 

Eisenstaedt caught the moment on film, as did Victor Jorgensen, a Navy photographer.

Decades later, when it was established than the man and woman were strangers, some viewers saw in the embrace not a moment of joy, but a public act of sexual violence.

Like any good piece of art, Eisenstaedts photo forces you to look twice, Jill Golden, the manager of the Life photo archives, wrote in an email. Its kind of like the Mona Lisa that way; everyone sees something different. It can . . . support a variety of interpretations: as a document of post-war celebration, a commentary on American exuberance, perhaps even as a record of an unwanted advance.

In an interview, Mrs. Friedmans son said that although his mother understood the compunctions elicited by the image, she didnt think that her particular circumstance was negative in any way.

It was also 1945, he said. And it was in the context of The war is over. You cant put the same yardstick to that occasion.

After the war, Mrs. Friedman worked in New York in fashion and designing clothing for dolls. She and her husband, Mischa Mitty Friedman, moved to Frederick, where Mrs. Friedman received a bachelors degree in fine arts from Hood College in 1981, and where she lived until moving to Richmond two years ago.

Her husband died in 1998 after 42 years of marriage. Survivors include two children, Joshua Friedman of Glen Allen, Va., and Mara Friedman of Studio City, Calif.; a sister; and two grandchildren.

Verria and Galdorisi, the authors of the book about Eisenstaedts image, identified George Mendonsa, a Navy quartermaster, as the sailor in the photograph. Reached at his home in Rhode Island, Mendonsa recalled his emotions on V-J Day, when he was in the United States on leave and preparing to return to battle in the Pacific  before the surrender granted him a reprieve.

He was in Times Square with a date, who later became his wife. Amid the excitement, and emboldened by alcohol, he saw the white of Mrs. Friedmans dress and remembered the nurses who had tended to his wounded comrades at sea.

Those nurses, I saw what they did, he said. So now Im in Times Square. . . . Well, the minute I saw the nurse, instinctively I walked over and I grabbed and I kissed her, and I thought nothing of it. And I guess finally she went her way and I went mine.


Assistant Audrey Fianza prepares a stem-cell treatment in Mark Bermans cosmetic-surgery suite in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Patrick T. Fallon/For The Washington Post)

In a corner of Mark Bermans cosmetic-surgery suite is a box labeled the Time Machine that is the heart of his stem-cell operation.

In mini-liposuction procedures, Berman extracts fat tissue from patients and puts it into the Time Machine box, where a centrifuge separates stem cells from fat. The cells are then injected back into the patients to supposedly treat a variety of health problems, such as arthritic knees, heart disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and even autism.

Berman, 63, is the co-founder of the biggest network of commercial stem-cell clinics in the United States. His therapies dont have the Food and Drug Administrations stamp of approval, but he said he doesnt need it.

If stem cells didnt work, we would go back to our day jobs, Berman said. Its a disruptive technology. We are the black swan.

Cosmetic surgeon Mark Berman explains how he started working with other surgeons to use stem cells taken from patients liposuction procedures to treat their other conditions. (Youtube/Cell Surgical Network)

But the disruptive technology might itself face disruption. The FDA, which has taken a mostly hands-off approach toward the rapidly proliferating stem-cell clinics, is signaling that some of the treatments should be regulated as drugs are, which would require advance approval. That would entail a lengthy process, with extensive safety and effectiveness data, at a potential cost of millions of dollars.

The issue has ignited a fierce debate among physicians, patients, scientists and politicians about whether the agency should crack down on therapies that critics deride as snake oil but that some patients swear by. And it is fueling a broader, longer-term debate over how cellular therapies should be regulated.

On Monday, the FDA opened two days of hearings on draft guidelines intended to clarify the agencys views on stem-cell treatments. The guidelines, which deal with decade-old regulations, have set off an uproar in parts of the stem-cell world because they could jeopardize many of the clinics operations.

Thats fine with some leading scientists who say the clinics are peddling potentially dangerous procedures that take advantage of desperate patients.

Hucksters are hijacking the publics enthusiasm for stem cells, said Luis Garza, a dermatologist at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine whose lab is investigating how skin stem cells might improve care for amputees. Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the stuff you hear about is bogus.

Paul Knoepfler, a stem-cell researcher at the University of California at Davis, said regulators for too long have remained on the sidelines while patients are charged thousands of dollars for unapproved treatments and exposed to potential risks. Im worried that these are essentially experiments, he said.

But patients who say they have benefited from clinic treatments are urging the government not to clamp down. People have the right to decide what happens in terms of the tissues and cells from their own bodies, said Doug Oliver, 54, a Nashville resident who has a rare form of macular degeneration that left him legally blind. After treatments at a Florida stem-cell clinic, he said, his vision improved significantly and now he can drive.



Fat tissue is extracted from patients through mini-liposuctions, and then spun in a specially patented Time Machine centrifuge. (Patrick T. Fallon/For The Washington Post)

Fianza places a syringe containing fat tissue from which stem cells are derived into the Time Machine centrifuge in Bermans office. (Patrick T. Fallon/For The Washington Post)

Stem-cell therapies, like other treatments, generally must be tested in clinical trials and approved by the FDA before being marketed to patients. But such clearance is not required if the stem cells are not altered much, are used in a function similar to their original role in the body, arent combined with another article, and dont have a systemic effect on the body. But the FDAs attempts to clarify the details have been fraught with disagreement.

Knoepfler noted, for example, that many clinics derive stem cells from fat, which the FDA views essentially as a cushioning material. Using those cells for injured knees or shoulders or diseases like Alzheimers, he said, means they are not being used for their original cushioning function.

Berman said that the versatility of stem cells means one of their basic functions is to repair damage throughout the body. In any case, he and other clinicians say, they arent subject to FDA regulation because they are practicing medicine, which the agency doesnt oversee.

Orthopedic treatments are the most commonly marketed procedures. Mayo Friedlis of the National Spine and Pain Centers, a network of pain clinics, said at the FDA hearing that stem cells derived from bone marrow are as effective as surgery for some musculoskeletal disorders.* But Knoepfler and other critics said there isnt enough published data to support such claims.

As the debate rages about clinics, some Republican senators, led by Mark Kirk of Illinois, want to revamp parts of the FDA approval process to expedite stem-cell therapies. But the outlook is uncertain, given the compressed congressional calendar and opposition from Democrats and some industry and patient groups.

Scientists say that stem cells remarkable ability to develop into many kinds of cells means that someday they might be used to repair diseased or damaged cells or replace entire organs. Promising developments are occurring in several areas. Stanford researchers said this year that they were stunned by the way stem cells injected directly into the brains of a small group of stroke patients had restored mobility in some patients.

Nevertheless, research for most therapies remains at an early stage, and the FDA has approved only a few stem-cell therapies, mostly for blood disorders.

Five years ago, only a few dozen stem-cell clinics existed in the United States, and most Americans seeking treatment went abroad. Now, according to a recent study co-written by Knoepfler, there are 570 clinics  many in California, Florida and Texas  marketing directly to consumers. Beverly Hills has 18 clinics, more than any other city. Most of the clinics use adult stem cells, not the embryonic ones that were at the center of controversy years ago because their extraction destroyed the embryos.

Berman, who spent most of his career working as a cosmetic surgeon, started providing treatments in 2010. Two years later, he co-founded the Cell Surgical Network, a stem-cell clinic business with about 80 affiliates.



A map shows the network of stem-cell clinics co-founded by Berman. The Cell Surgical Network has about 80 affiliates. (Patrick T. Fallon/For The Washington Post)

Typically, Berman said, he charges patients $8,900 for a treatment, although he sometimes offers discounts or free care for patients who cannot afford his fee. He said he doesnt make claims to his patients that the treatments will work.

John Putnam, a 52-year-old Santa Monica resident, said he went to Berman four years ago, after his doctor said he needed surgery to repair sports-related injuries in both of his shoulders. At first, the stem-cell treatment didnt seem to make a difference, but after five months, he said, I had zero issues on either shoulder, and to this day my shoulders are in great shape.

Critics said that pain is very responsive to the placebo effect and that some ailments improve on their own.

Berman said his network has treated about 5,000 patients, including him and his wife, and that the only side effects have involved occasional soreness at the injection site and bruising around the abdomen because of liposuction. He said that in his experience, 85 percent of the orthopedic patients get better, and that he has seen improvement in some patients with Parkinsons disease and autism, but not in the dozen or so patients he has treated for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).



Berman performs liposuction on a patient to retrieve fat for a stem-cell treatment. (Patrick T. Fallon/For The Washington Post)

Berman injects stem cells into Anthony Lekkoss shoulder. (Patrick T. Fallon/For The Washington Post)

Knoepfler brushes off such assertions and focuses on safety. He noted that two patients died after being treated at a Florida clinic. There also have been reports of patients being blinded by treatments for eye problems. And the FDA warns that stem cells can migrate to the wrong site or turn into tumors.

The clinics fate depends partly on whether the FDA sticks to the tough stance outlined in the draft guidelines. But even if it does, it is not clear that the agency will have the resources to enforce the rules, some experts said.

In the absence of strong oversight, scientists and others are worried that patients may be swayed by personal testimonials. I think we have to be careful about anecdotes, said Timothy Caulfield, a University of Alberta law professor who has followed the issue for years. We need good, controlled studies.

Correction: This article originally stated that Mayo Friedlis said stem cell therapies are as effective as surgery for musculoskeletal disorders. He says they are as effective for only some musculoskeletal disorders.
Hillary Clinton recently explained her plan to deal with the Islamic State. Weve got to do it with air power, she declared at NBCs Commander-in-Chief Forum, adding that they are not going to get ground troops. We are not putting ground troops into Iraq ever again. And were not putting ground troops into Syria. Were going to defeat ISIS without committing American ground troops.

If that sounds familiar, it should. It is a perfect description of the Clinton Doctrine  President Bill Clintons disastrous, failed policy of fighting terrorists from the air.

Why were terrorists emboldened to attack us on 9/11? Because, during Bill Clintons eight years in office, they had waged a virtually unimpeded offensive against the United States. On Clintons watch, terrorists launched a string of escalating attacks, each one bolder than the last: the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993; the attack on Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia three years later; the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania; and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole.

Each of these attacks was carried out with no effective U.S. response. Clinton employed a combination of law enforcement (the arrest of Ramzi Yousef for the World Trade Center bombing) and symbolic, pinprick cruise-missile strikes  firing, in the words of President George W. Bush, a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent [to] hit a camel in the butt. The terrorists were allowed to maintain their haven in Afghanistan, where they planned the 9/11 attacks, which was well underway  including the deployment of some of the hijackers to the United States  before Clinton left office.

When al-Qaeda carried out those attacks 15 years ago, it never expected that the United States would send ground forces into Afghanistan to remove the Taliban regime and drive the terrorists from their sanctuary. As I pointed out in my book Courting Disaster, when 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed was captured and asked about his plans for follow-on attacks, he smirked and said: Ill tell you everything when I get to New York and see my lawyer. He thought he would be treated just like his nephew, Ramzi Yousef. When he finally became cooperative, he told his interrogators that al-Qaeda had expected the United States to continue the law enforcement approach it had taken under Clinton, which would have given him time to carry out his planned second wave of attacks. Those attacks were disrupted, he said, by the unexpected ferocity of the U.S. response.

Today, the terrorists no longer fear the ferocity of the United States response. On taking office, President Obama attempted to revive the Clinton Doctrine  ramping up airstrikes while withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq and drawing them down dramatically in Afghanistan. The Predator became for Obama what the cruise missile was to Bill Clinton  an easy way to appear as though he was taking tough action against terrorists, when he was in fact following a policy of retreat.

The rise of the Islamic State put a halt to Obamas retreat, but not before the Islamic State cancer was allowed to grow and metastasize across the globe. According to a recent CNN analysis, since Obama dismissed it as the JV team in 2014, the Islamic State has carried out or inspired 143 attacks in 29 countries outside of Iraq and Syria that have killed 2,043 people and injured thousands. And, as my American Enterprise Institute colleague Danielle Pletka recently pointed out, the al-Qaeda network that attacked us on 9/11 still poses a mortal threat. Al Qaeda is not gone. It is not down. It is not out. It has not been eclipsed, Pletka writes. It is biding its time, working, waiting. . . . It will come for us again, and we are not paying attention.

Indeed, in many ways, the security situation today is far more dangerous than it was before Sept. 11, 2001. Our defenses are better, but the threat is more complex. Before 9/11, we largely faced the danger from one terrorist network (al-Qaeda) that had established a haven principally in one nation (Afghanistan). Today, we face danger from two major terrorist networks  the Islamic State and al-Qaeda  who have havens in more than a dozen countries and are competing with each other for the hearts and minds of the jihadi faithful. The way to win that competition is to hit the U.S. homeland first.

Today, as in the 1990s, terrorists emboldened by U.S. weakness have launched a series of escalating attacks  in the French cities of Paris and Nice; in Brussels; in San Bernardino, Calif.; in Orlando with virtually no consequence. And Hillary Clintons proposed response? Double down on her husbands failed policies and those of his Democratic successor. No ground troops. Airstrikes. Law enforcement.

Bushs strategy was to fight them over there so that we do not have to face them over here. The Clinton strategy is to fight them from the air so that we do not have to face them on the ground. But as we learned on 9/11, if we fight them from the air alone, we will face them on the ground  American ground.

The Clinton Doctrine failed once. Do we really want to go back?

Read more from Marc Thiessens archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Last year, Saudi Arabia said that nearly 800 pilgrims were killed when two large groups of pilgrims arrived together at a crossroads in Mina, a few kilometres east of Mecca, on their way to performing the symbolic stoning of the devil at Jamarat.

Muslim pilgrims cast stones at pillars symbolizing Satan, during the annual Haj pilgrimage on the first day of Eid al-Adha in Mina. Photo: Reuters

By Reuters: Nearly two million Muslim pilgrims performed a symbolic stoning of the devil on Monday, the riskiest part of the annual haj pilgrimage, a year after the ritual's worst disaster in decades.

Saudi Arabia, which stakes its reputation on organising the world's largest annual Muslim gathering, has deployed thousands of security forces, civil defence staff and volunteers as well as modern technology including drones and electronic bracelets to ensure a safe pilgrimage.

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Last year, Saudi Arabia said that nearly 800 pilgrims were killed when two large groups of pilgrims arrived together at a crossroads in Mina, a few kilometres east of Mecca, on their way to performing the stoning ritual at Jamarat.

Counts by countries of repatriated bodies showed over 2,000 people may have died, more than 400 of them Iranians.

Saudi authorities have said that some 1.86 million Muslims from around the world are performing the pilgrimage at Islam's holiest city, one of the main pillars of Islam which every able-bodied Muslim is required to undertake at least once.

CLOSE SUPERVISION

That is less than previous years, when up to 3 million pilgrims attended. Authorities say disruption caused by expansion work and infrastucture projects in Mecca have combined with conflicts in the region to restrict the numbers.

Under close supervision from Saudi authorities, pilgrims in seamless white clothes, converged on Jamarat carrying the pebbles to perform the ritual from a three-storey bridge erected to ease congestion.

In previous years, jostling to perform the stoning before returning to pray at the Grand Mosque accounted for many of the frequent stampedes and crushes that had afflicted haj.

"This year, they have organised the situation better," said Abdel-Rahman Badr, an Egyptian pilgrim. "I feel happy to be conducting the haj rituals," he added.

But another 60-year-old pilgrim, who identified himself as Mohammed, said "more work was needed, especially to ensure comfort for older pilgrims".

SERMON PREACHER

King Salman was in Mina on Monday, the first day of the Eid al-Adha feast, to oversee implementation of the plan to avoid potentially deadly congestion.

On Sunday, pilgrims prayed on Mount Arafat at the climax of haj. Prior to departing Mount Arafat back to Mina, they joined top Saudi officials in prayer at Namira Mosque, site of the last sermon by Prophet Mohammad 14 centuries ago.

But, for the first time in more than 35 years the Grand Mufti and the country's top religious authority, Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, did not deliver the main sermon.

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Instead, Saudi media said the imam and preacher of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Sheikh Abdul-Rahman al-Sudais, delivered the sermon.

Saudi media have said that Al al-Sheikh had asked to be relieved from delivering the sermon due to poor health.

Last week he joined an escalating war of words with Saudi Arabia's main regional rival Iran over the pilgrimage, when he said Iran's leaders were not Muslims in response to criticism by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over how it runs the haj after last year's crush.

--- ENDS ---
The GOP presidential nominee is out on the trail ahead of the general election in November.

The GOP presidential nominee is out on the trail ahead of the general election in November.

What Donald Trump is doing on the campaign trail

What Donald Trump is doing on the campaign trail

Just because Donald Trump isnt qualified to be president  and just because much of his agenda is hateful and undesirable  doesnt mean that everything he says is automatically wrong. Some of his ideas deserve consideration and enactment. One of these is building a wall across our southern border with Mexico.

It has been ridiculed as a monstrosity and a colossal waste of money. The theory of the wall is that it keeps out low-wage workers and, thereby, raises the wages of U.S. workers, including earlier Hispanic arrivals. They are most vulnerable to additional Hispanic workers, because their skills generally overlap.

Just what a wall would cost is unknown. Guesses vary. Trump has said $8 billion. A detailed report by AllianceBernstein, a research firm, estimated between $15 billion and $25 billion. These sums seem (and are) large, but within a $4 trillion federal budget, theyre modest.

The crucial question is: If we had a wall, what would we get for it? The answer: A wall probably represents our best chance of reaching broad agreement on immigration policy, a subject that has frustrated Congress and the two most recent presidents.

Lets be clear on one issue: Trumps insistence that Mexico pay for the wall is absurd. No self-respecting Mexican president would accept it. If one did, the wall would become a subject of endless bickering between the two countries as to who actually owned and controlled it. The fact that Trump made this so central to his proposal suggests that hes simply grandstanding.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump described his proposed wall along the Southern U.S. border during an immigration policy speech Wednesday. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)

Still, in the hands of someone serious, a wall could be a catalyst for a comprehensive overhaul of U.S. immigration policy. Its hard to understand opposition [to a wall], as my colleague Charles Krauthammer recently noted. Its the most venerable and reliable way to keep people out. He argued correctly that the outlines of a deal have long been apparent. It would:

 Change legal immigration criteria to favor employability (a.k.a. skills) over family connections. The emphasis would be on stimulating the nations economic growth.

 Require most businesses to belong to E-Verify, the government system that allows employers to check on the immigrant status of potential workers.

 Create a path to legality  and ultimately to citizenship  for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country.

 Embrace policies  including a wall  that would credibly and dramatically reduce illegal immigration.

Without a wall, its doubtful that Republicans would enter meaningful negotiations on immigration policy  and without Republican participation, the stalemate would continue. In a recent Pew Research Center poll, 63 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters supported a wall and only 34 percent opposed it. The distrust is deep. Republicans think Democrats dont truly care about stopping illegal immigration; they mainly want amnesty for existing undocumented immigrants. In the same Pew poll, 84 percent of Democrats and those who lean Democrat opposed a wall.

There are two standard objections to a wall  both true but politically irrelevant. The first is that it might have once been justified but isnt now because the inflow of undocumented Mexican immigrants is slowing and maybe reversing. Mexicos birthrate  which affects its labor force  has declined, and its economy has improved. It can more easily absorb new workers. A 2015 Pew study found that the number of undocumented Mexicans in the United States had dropped by 140,000 between 2009 and 2014.

But this is a net figure: people entering minus people leaving. There are still hundreds of thousands of Mexicans and Latinos trying to cross the southern border illegally every year. A wall would make this harder and reinforce the natural trend. Some people wouldnt try to enter; of those who did, fewer would make it. Tragedies  dying in the desert, being exploited by coyotes  would decline.

The second objection is that the southern border isnt the only way people become illegal immigrants. Many arrive legally and overstay their visas. Indeed, according to a study in the Journal on Migration and Human Security, these immigrants now outnumber those breaching the southern border. But if E-Verify were widely adopted, these immigrants would have a harder time getting work.

If we could buy an immigration bargain for $25 billion, or even a bit more, it would be a fabulous deal. Thats the opportunity facing the next president. But we wont make it any easier by stigmatizing the one change  a wall  that could be the foundation for compromise.

Read more from Robert Samuelsons archive.
The Sept. 6 Metro article Most D.C. schools ignore PE standards demonstrated how public officials good intentions are useless without follow-up measures in place. It is amazing that school districts in Maryland and Virginia can offer physical education classes with less funding per student than most D.C. schools. How do D.C. officials expect students to excel if they are physically unfit to focus in the classroom?

This article should serve as notice to leaders  including teachers union and city officials  that if adjustments are not implemented, childhood obesity will continue to rise, putting a greater strain on the Districts health-care system as those children become adults.

Greg Raleigh, Washington
I share the frustration with the Districts criminal-justice system expressed in the Sept. 8 editorial Chief Laniers candid critique. However, the exclusive focus on the most violent offenders overlooks the Districts broader recidivism crisis.

Citizens returning from prison, including a growing number of women, face an overwhelming environment of chaos and stigma. Our justice system provides them with few resources or supports upon reentry. The result is a costly, systemic cycle of poverty, unemployment, housing instability and, ultimately, recidivism.

For years, Thrive DC has worked with local correctional facilities, government agencies and service providers to prepare returning citizens for employment and self-sufficiency. Each day, we witness their desire to embrace a second chance and begin new lives. Their progress is inspiring, but were troubled that so many will slip through the systems cracks.

It is a critical breakdown in our system that allows violent offenders to continuously be released and rearrested. However, a far larger number of returning citizens, many of whom are nonviolent but still struggling to start over, will be reimprisoned this year. Sadly, our justice system will do little to prevent it.

To paraphrase Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier, Where is the outrage?

Alicia Horton, Washington

The writer is executive director of Thrive DC.
DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKERS in Maryland are a frustrated lot. Having run what amounted to a one-party state for all but four of the past 45 years, they are now bewildered by a popular Republican governor. Some of them regard Gov. Larry Hogan as a crafty illusionist whose main asset is good fortune. In fact, Mr. Hogan has been shrewd about one big thing: perfectly reading the states political mood.

Mr. Hogan, who never ran for statewide office before his 2014 gubernatorial campaign, enjoys phenomenal poll numbers. In one recent survey, just over 70 percent of Marylanders approved of his performance, higher than almost any other governor. Even in the city of Baltimore, whose residents are about two-thirds African American and heavily Democratic, his popularity is an astonishing 72 percent.

Mr. Hogans secret sauce is equal parts common sense, humility and cunning. He has had the common sense to oppose his partys presidential nominee, Donald Trump, and avoid no-win social issues such as abortion and gun control in a liberal state; the humility to pursue a limited agenda, focusing on modest trims to taxes and spending; and the cunning to make  or let  the states Democratic grandees look partisan and churlish.

All that sounds simpler than it is. Of 31 sitting Republican governors, Mr. Hogan is one of just two to oppose Mr. Trump. (The other is Charlie Baker of Massachusetts.) That, plus his reluctance to fight over social issues, has prompted muttering among some GOP stalwarts about a primary challenge. And while Mr. Hogan, as a candidate, attacked the serial tax increases enacted by his Democratic predecessor, Martin OMalley, he has been sufficiently realistic to accept tax cuts that are scarcely more than tokens.

The crossfire that Mr. Hogan has exchanged with Democrats who dominate the state legislature has been notable mainly for the small stakes over which the two sides are squabbling. A recent quarrel involves $80 million in projects  including money for school renovations and to help localities fund teacher pensions  bundled together by lawmakers and presented as an all-or-nothing package. Faced with a revenue shortfall, Mr. Hogan thumbed his nose at the package, while at the same time fiddling with the budget to cover about half the spending. That vexed Democrats while underlining the governors pragmatism.

Another tussle is over a $20 million state loan for Northrop Grumman, one of Marylands biggest employers, negotiated by Mr. Hogan. Leading Democrats demand to know why the state can afford corporate welfare for a giant defense contractor but not funding to upgrade dilapidated Baltimore schools.

Fair question, but small potatoes in the context of Marylands $42 billion budget. And many Democrats are loath to attack the Northrop Grumman deal, which provides incentives for the firm to keep hiring and investing in the state for years to come.

It is possible to criticize Mr. Hogan for playing small ball, lacking any grand vision and taking occasionally gratuitous partisan potshots. But his measured, moderate approach is working for most Marylanders.
The Sept. 8 front-page article Tribes sense a reawakening in fight over pipeline dealt with an important issue and focused on arguments presented by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and others opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline.

There is, however, another side: Energy security is increasingly critical to the United States. Without projects such as Dakota Access, we lack the means to safely and efficiently transport oil and petroleum products to energy consumers in the rest of the country. Road and rail transport alternatives lack the efficiency and environmental safety associated with pipelines.

Dakota Access would help ensure affordable access to oil for U.S. industry and private consumers. Underground pipelines are by far the safest way to do so. Finding a solution that addresses legitimate concerns of Native Americans while enhancing U.S. energy security needs to be the focus.

Richard D. Kauzlarich, Falls Church

As an employee of the White House, Office of Management and Budget, Federal Energy Administration and an international oil and gas company (Unocal), I participated on both sides of energy regulatory proceedings. I still closely follow energy industry and policy developments. The front-page article about the disputed Dakota Access Pipeline reminded me of the long, detailed state and federal processes for projects like Dakota Access  and how those processes are being portrayed as a movement by hangers-on and protesters.

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe members and supporters say they are getting a raw deal at the hands of commercial interests and the U.S. government. Thats not the case. I would argue that Dakota Access permits were granted lawfully, after studies, public hearings and detailed examinations of the project. The Army Corps of Engineers met hundreds of times with Native American tribes, archaeologists and historical experts to ensure that no part of the process or any sacred grounds would be harmed by construction or operations.

U.S. regulatory procedures are exceedingly thorough. Dakota Access followed the processes to the nth degree; the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe did not. The tribe and its limousine-activist supporters are seeking to overturn legal regulatory processes with exhibitions and growing violence. Its an old script that must be rejected.

John L. Rafuse, Alexandria
During a speech to to the National Baptist Convention on Sept. 8, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton talked about her "roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty" faith. (Video: The Washington Post / Photo: AP)

During a speech to to the National Baptist Convention on Sept. 8, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton talked about her "roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty" faith. (Video: The Washington Post / Photo: AP)

This is the inversion election, a contest in which so many of our familiar mental categories have been turned upside down.

This year, its the Republican presidential candidate who says the United States isnt great anymore and the Democrat who insists it is. The Republican says that the former KGB agent presiding over Russia is a better leader than the president of the United States. The Democrat condemns him for it.

But last week reminded us that there is another role reversal in this election. There is one candidate who is authentically religious, who has thought seriously about what the Scriptures teach, and whose own view of the world was changed radically by her engagement with faith. Her name is Hillary Clinton.

Yes, I flinched when I typed that word authentically. How can we know whose faith is authentic or truly understand someone elses relationship to God? Its hard enough for most of us to come to terms honestly with our own relationship to the Almighty.

Moreover, I acknowledge that I bring a series of predispositions to my case here, beginning with the most basic: my conviction that Clinton is fit to be president and Donald Trump is not. More importantly in this context, her journey in wrestling with the relationship between religious commitment and political action was remarkably similar to my own.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a key influence on both of us. She reexamined many of her assumptions when she heard him speak. I did the same after I chose a collection of his sermons, Strength to Love, for a book report in a class at my Catholic high school. I grew up in a conservative family, as Clinton did, and King challenged me  as he did her and millions of other Americans  to embrace a Christians obligation to struggle for social and racial justice.

So let me be more specific about my definition of authenticity. It focuses on passages from the letter of James that Clinton cited in her speech last Thursday to the predominantly black National Baptist Convention. James suggests that the best measure of authenticity is whether your faith affects how you think and what you do. Clintons religious views, Id argue, are organically connected to many of the choices she has made in her life.

The Scripture tells us that faith without works is dead, she said. The Epistle of James tells us we cannot just be hearers of the Word, we must be doers. Clinton explained that she embraced an activist social justice faith , a roll-up-your-sleeves and get-your-hands-dirty faith.

This is not the only kind of Christianity, and it would be sinfully arrogant to doubt the authenticity of the beliefs of more conservative Christians whose deepest commitments lead them to conclusions quite different from Clintons on issues such as gay marriage and abortion. In American history, Christians have argued passionately among themselves over what Scripture and tradition teach about a wide range of public questions, including slavery.

What I do doubt is the depth of the conviction of politicians whose religious commitments seem to have little connection to their lives. They paint themselves as religious by either pushing the social conservatives hot buttons or, as Trump did Friday at the Values Voter Summit, appealing to their sense of victimhood. He spoke about religious liberty and criticized a media culture that mocks and demeans people of faith.

Conservative religious people have every right to test liberal believers by their willingness to defend the role of faith in our public square. But liberal believers have a comparable right to test conservatives by whether what the Gospel teaches about love, justice and our obligation to the poor has any relationship to their public actions and the policies they promote.

Another test is humility, a hard virtue to come by in an election campaign. Thus did Clinton tell her Baptist audience that were not asked to love each other, not urged or requested. We are commanded to love. Indeed, Jesus made it his greatest commandment. When I used to teach the occasional Sunday school class, I often taught on that lesson. Thats a hard commandment to obey. Some days its really hard for me.

Clinton also spoke of the awesome responsibilities of power and the frailties of human action. I do prefer politicians who follow Kierkegaards lead in approaching the burdens of governing with a certain amount of fear and trembling. I see at least some of that spirit in Clinton. I wish I could find it in Trump.

Read more from E.J. Dionnes archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
After long and arduous negotiations, Israel and the Obama administration have agreed on a landmark military aid package that would increase U.S. aid to Israel over the next 10 years. But the White House is reluctant to sign the deal because officials are upset one leading lawmaker wont go along: Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.).

The new agreement, which officials say would raise Israels annual package of military aid from $3.1 billion to $3.3 billion starting in 2018, is a complicated deal that both the White House and the Israeli government badly want to announce before President Obama leaves office, and preferably much sooner. A senior administration official described the deal as the largest single pledge of military assistance to any country in U.S. history. Its Obamas parting attempt to establish a legacy of strong U.S. support for Israels security. The negotiations on the memorandum of understanding (MOU), as it is known, have been finished for several weeks.

But before announcing it, the White House wants to make sure that Congress wont undermine the deal by going its own way on aid to Israel. Graham, the chairman of the Senate appropriations subcommittee that oversees the foreign affairs budget, has already marked up a bill that would give Israel $3.4 billion next year, more than the number the White House negotiated.

The administration hasnt complained to Graham directly; it told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about its problem, and he talked to Graham about it in a phone call last month. But in Grahams view, Congress has no obligation to agree to the deal, given that it was not included in the negotiations.

The Israeli prime minister told me the administration is refusing to sign the MOU until I agree to change my appropriation markup back to $3.1 billion, Graham said. I said, Tell the administration to go F themselves. 

Whats more, during the negotiations, the administration advocated for a provision that would bar the Israeli government from lobbying Congress for additional money for the life of the MOU, Graham said.

Im offended that the administration would try to take over the appropriations process. If they dont like what Im doing, they can veto the bill, Graham said. We cant have the executive branch dictating what the legislative branch will do for a decade based on an agreement we are not a party to.

The core of the dispute centers on the fact that the Obama administration has included support for Israeli missile-defense funding in the aid package for the first time. Previously, missile-defense money was requested and given on top of the yearly aid commitment. To the White House, this makes that funding more secure and predictable.

The fact that under our offer Israel can count on the administrations commitment to provide a substantial level of missile-defense assistance for a 10-year period is substantively different from the missile- defense support it has received in previous years, the official said.

The deal would set U.S. funding for Israeli missile defense at $500 million per year, just above the $487 million provided in 2016. The Senate appropriations bill would give Israel $600 million for missile defense next year, and the House Armed Services Committee passed a bill authorizing that same amount. The administration asked for only $145.8 million in its 2017 budget request.

Graham said the MOU should be a base, not a ceiling, for how much security aid the United States gives to Israel. Every Democrat on Grahams subcommittee voted for his bill, and in July, 37 senators, including vice-presidential candidate Tim Kaine (D-Va.), signed a letter calling on Congress to increase Israeli missile-defense funding above the administrations request.

Amid growing rocket and missile threats in the Middle East, it is prudent for the United States and Israel to advance and accelerate bilateral cooperation on missile defense technologies, the senators wrote.

According to Graham, Netanyahu told him that Israel was ready to sign the deal but didnt ask Graham to succumb to the administrations demand that Congress preapprove it.

I asked the prime minister, If you dont need this money, Ill gladly change it,  Graham said. He said, No, you know I cant say we dont need it, because the threats are real. 

Senators in both parties are still sore over not having had much say before the Obama administration agreed to a nuclear deal with Iran. Graham and other Republicans also object to other provisions of the new agreement, including that it requires Israel to gradually stop using U.S. aid to purchase weapons from Israeli defense contractors.

That congressional Republicans are advocating more aid to Israel than the Israeli government agreed to is certainly odd. But even more odd is the White House pressuring Congress to promise to get out of the Israel aid game for 10 years after Obama leaves office.

The White House will have to decide whether a deal meant to repair Obamas relationship with Israel and stand as part of his legacy is worth more than a fight with Congress over funding power. Congress will still be there after Obama is gone and will demand its say in Israeli security aid going forward either way.

Josh Rogin is a columnist for the Global Opinions section of The Post.
The Fix's Aaron Blake explains the incident during which Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton fell ill on Sept. 11, and why her health is likely to remain a subject of discussion. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

The Fix's Aaron Blake explains the incident during which Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton fell ill on Sept. 11, and why her health is likely to remain a subject of discussion. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

When it comes to personal health, Hillary Clinton has long opted for intense privacy, dating back to 1998 when she experienced what she later described as her scariest moment with a blood clot in her right leg.

At the time, President Bill Clintons White House said little about the first ladys medical emergency, discreetly treated as an outpatient at Bethesda National Naval Medical Center. Hillary Clinton, who told the White House physician then that she was too busy campaigning for Democrats to be admitted to the hospital, later described the incident as the most significant health scare Ive ever had.

Doctors found a second clot in her legs in 2009, a fact not widely known until her Mount Kisco, N.Y., internist released a letter in July 2015 attesting to her good health as she launched a campaign for the Democratic nomination for the presidency.

Clintons third blood clot in 2012  this time in her skull  was too serious to keep under wraps, since she was serving at the time in a high-profile role as President Obamas secretary of state. She spent several days in New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University hospital, and her husband later said it took her six months to recover.

Clintons privacy about her health has continued even as she enters the final stretch in a run for the presidency, with her Republican opponent Donald Trump suggesting, without specifics, that her health could pose a problem if she is elected.

Hillary Clinton exits her daughter Chelsea Clinton's apartment at 21 E. 26th St. after attending an anniversary event at the World Trade Center 9/11 Memorial in Manhattan, NY. (Yana Paskova/For The Washington Post)

After nearly collapsing at a 9/11 memorial service in New York on Sunday, Clintons doctor revealed that the candidate has pneumonia, which was diagnosed last week and is being treated with antibiotics. The combination of heat and a powerful antibiotic, the doctor said, could explain the candidates wobbly steps as she was whisked into a black van.

Now, the mysterious episode in New York has sharpened the focus on the health of the two major party presidential nominees and led to a growing clamor for the release of more complete medical histories. Trump has been criticized for releasing even less health information than Clinton.

This is the most important job in the world, and we have two old people [running for it], said David Scheiner, who was Barack Obamas physician for more than two decades until his election in 2008. The plane doesnt work as well at 70 and 68 as when youre 45 or 50. . . . Bad things happen.

At 68, Clintons discretion about her medical history has made it difficult for voters to assess her complete health picture.

She has deep vein thrombosis, which requires her to take a daily dose of a blood thinner that needs frequent testing. Her personal physician, Lisa Bardack, disclosed last year Clintons treatment with the drug Coumadin.

Sundays episode illustrates how those closest to Clinton handle news about her health. At first, a Clinton campaign spokesman said Sunday that Clinton felt overheated at the 9/11 event. Later, Bardack painted a fuller picture, saying in a statement that Clinton had been diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday and became overheated and dehydrated two days later.

Doctors say heat stress illnesses ranging from cramping to fainting are relatively common in older adults and not a concern as long as the symptoms are fleeting. And they can certainly be exacerbated by illnesses such as pneumonia.

Video of Clintons departure seemed to show her buckling and stumbling as she got into her van. (Thomas Johnson/The Washington Post)

Its usually not indicative of broader health issues, said James Goodwin, chairman of geriatric medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

Clintons history with blood thinners does suggest that doctors might want to conduct further testing, doctors told The Washington Post.

You always have to be worried about internal bleeding, said Samuel Durso, director of geriatric medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The 1998 episode came during a fundraiser for Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Clinton recalled in her memoir Living History. Her right foot was swollen. She could barely put on her shoe. At the hospital, tests revealed a big clot behind her knee. Clinton briefly took blood thinners and the condition went away.

Clinton in her memoir attributed the clot to her nonstop flying around the country. Former vice president Dan Quayle also had deep vein thrombosis from flights.

Little is known about the 2009 clot episode.

A risk factor is sitting on plane flights for longer than six hours, which is one reason business travelers walk up and down the aisle during long trips. The condition, while treatable, can be fatal if the clot moves to the lungs or heart.

Clintons 2012 clot turned up during routine testing after a concussion she suffered in a fall after reportedly becoming severely dehydrated with an intestinal infection. Her concussion attracted widespread notice because it caused her to delay her scheduled December 2012 testimony before Congress about the attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, three months earlier.

The clot in Clintons brain  known as a transverse sinus venous thrombosis  did not cause a stroke or neurological damage, according to her doctors. Like the other clots, it also resolved itself.

Information about the concussion and clot emerged in dribbles, leading to questions about Clintons unexplained absence from her job.

Despite the clots disappearance, Clintons doctors put her on Coumadin as a precaution. The drugs generic form, warfarin, was first used as a rat poison before becoming the most widely used blood thinner in the United States.

The drug requires frequent testing to strike the right balance between preventing clots and the risk of excessive bleeding.

Bardacks letter lists the blood clots and details Clintons struggle with concussion syndrome, including double vision.

Bardack writes that the only regular medications Clinton takes are Coumadin and a common thyroid hormone-replacement pill. The letter notes normal blood pressure, respiratory rate and cholesterol levels.

Scheiner, Obamas former physician, has insisted that presidential candidates be compelled to provide a detailed medical picture to voters. In an opinion piece in Sundays Washington Post, he wrote that Trump, at 70, would be the oldest person to enter the Oval Office, while Clinton, at 68, would be a close second behind Ronald Reagan. And yet both have left lingering questions about the state of their health.

Scheiner said Clintons episode in New York is a reminder of how the status quo is lacking when it comes to how the country evaluates the health of potential leaders.

We should have complete health reports on both of them. The whole process has to be changed, Scheiner said. We have to come up with something thats an objective evaluation of their health.

Brady Dennis contributed to this report.
The GOP presidential nominee is out on the trail ahead of the general election in November.

The GOP presidential nominee is out on the trail ahead of the general election in November.

What Donald Trump is doing on the campaign trail

What Donald Trump is doing on the campaign trail

After years of successfully holding off Democratic gains in this rapidly changing state, Republicans are scrambling to pour new resources into North Carolina in the face of unexpectedly close contests in the presidential and Senate races.

Republicans here are increasingly nervous about the prospects in November for both presidential nominee Donald Trump, who held a rally in Asheville on Monday evening, and Sen. Richard Burr, who is in a tight race with a relatively unknown Democratic opponent. The states Republican governor, Pat McCrory, also is in danger of losing his reelection bid.

Its a dramatic change in fortune for a party that had reasserted control of North Carolina after President Obama narrowly won the state in 2008. Republicans enacted a wave of conservative policies, including imposing new voting restrictions and overruling protections for gay and transgender people. The rightward shift was particularly notable in a state that is gaining Hispanics and young white professionals at a rapid pace, following in the wake of its neighbor to the north, Virginia.

But North Carolina Republicans have been badly outgunned this year. Hillary Clinton and her allies have outspent Trump and groups supporting him 7 to 1 on television ads so far, and Chelsea Clinton will be in the state Tuesday to open the Democrats 31st North Carolina campaign office. The coordinated Republican campaign to help Trump, by comparison, has no offices in North Carolina at all; the national party and Trump will open their first three locations later this week.

The Washington Post spoke to veterans in the battleground state of North Carolina about the upcoming election and their choice for the next commander-in-chief. (Dalton Bennett/The Washington Post)

Donald Trump has a different way of approaching the national campaign, said Art Pope, an influential North Carolina Republican donor who backs neither Trump nor Clinton. I think hes mistaken. I do think you need a ground game. You need more than social media and rallies.

Republicans intensifying focus on North Carolina comes as their chances in several other battleground states have improved in recent weeks, particularly at the Senate level. Polls show GOP senators in Florida and Ohio running well ahead of Trump, boosting Republicans hopes of avoiding a scenario in which a Trump loss washes away down-ballot candidates.

More than a quarter of the 392 field staffers the Republican National Committee recently added nationwide have been assigned to North Carolina to help Trump and other Republicans there, according to Kara Carter, the RNCs North Carolina communications director.

Meanwhile, Americans for Prosperity, a conservative nonprofit group backed by the billionaire Koch brothers, recently decided to shift its resources in the state to help Burr and go after his Democratic challenger, Deborah Ross. The group had previously been focused on helping McCrory and on unseating GOP Rep. Renee L. Ellmers, who lost her primary.

Adding to the Republicans challenge: Clinton and her allies have blanketed the airwaves, buying or reserving about $21 million worth of television ads in the state since late July, according to Republicans and Democrats tracking ad spending. Trump and his supporting groups have spent or reserved only about $3 million during the same period.

I havent seen many Trump ads. Ive seen a lot of Hillary ads, Mary Simpson, 53, of Kinston, N.C., said after attending a Trump rally in Greenville last week.

In the Senate race, polls show Burr holding a small lead over Ross. But many Republicans here complain that Burr is not campaigning aggressively enough and should be much more comfortably ahead of Ross, a little-known civil-liberties advocate who emerged only after Democrats were unable to recruit others to run.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, left, and Attorney General Roy Cooper, right, speak to the North Carolina Bar Association during a candidate forum in Charlotte, N.C., June 24, 2016. The two men will face each other in the November election for governor in what could be the most expensive gubernatorial election this year. (Chuck Burton/AP)

In the governors race, surveys show McCrory trailing his Democratic challenger, Attorney General Roy Cooper. Many Democrats believe turnout could be boosted by McCrorys decision to sign a law requiring transgender people to use bathrooms corresponding with the gender on their birth certificate, which has prompted a court challenge and boycotts.

The RNC says it will have 172 staffers on the ground this month in North Carolina to help Trump and fellow Republican candidates  a big uptick from this point in 2012.

Clinton officials declined to say how many staffers the campaign has in North Carolina. They said the coordinated Democratic campaign has 30 North Carolina offices, with another opening Tuesday in Durham with Clintons daughter on hand.

Republican officials sought to play down the disparity in the number of brick-and-mortar offices, maintaining that they are focusing on face-to-face contacts with voters at their homes.

Office numbers are a false metric and completely miss the point that, as we saw in the primary, Mr. Trump is not a typical politician, Jason Simmons, Trumps campaign director in the state, said in a statement. We will have all the offices, staff and resources we need to win.

Democrats see it differently.

The offices arent just about phone banking, said Thomas Mills, a Democratic blogger who is running for Congress in the 8th District. If you watch what happens in there, they are the center point for your whole ground operation. What they are doing right now is registering voters on a massive scale in North Carolina.

There was some turbulence in Trumps North Carolina operation in the months after he clinched the Republican nomination in May. Simmons took over in the summer for Earl Phillip, who was accused in a lawsuit of pointing a gun at a former Trump staffer.

The decision by Americans for Prosperity direct resources to the Senate race reflects the national importance of the contest and nervousness among GOP leaders about Burrs campaign. The Koch-backed group is known for using TV ads, mailers and field staff to attempt to influence the outcome of targeted races.

We do not to take anything for granted, so we are now making sure voters understand the differences between Senator Burr and his opponent, said Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity.

Burr, who is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has taken a different approach than embattled Republican colleagues who have been feverishly campaigning for months. Most of his events in recent weeks have been arranged by his Senate office, and he has said that Senate business is his first priority.

I become a candidate on October 7, when the United States Senate is adjourned, Burr, who is running for a third term, recently told the Associated Press.

Its surprising to me that Burr didnt define Deborah Ross earlier. Theres almost been a failure to engage up until recently, said Marc Rotterman, a veteran of Ronald Reagans 1980 campaign and an experienced North Carolina hand. Having said that, I still think hes the favorite.

Burr spokesman Jesse Hunt said in a statement, North Carolinians want to see him doing the job they elected him to do and his legislative accomplishments have had a positive impact on individuals all across the state.

Ross, a former director of the North Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, has run TV ads accusing Burr of casting votes prioritizing the needs of special interests and himself over average North Carolinians.

Republicans believe that a key to victory will be to define Ross as too extreme for the state because of her work with the ACLU. They have seized on her past concerns that putting a sex-offender registry online might also expose victims who are supposed to be protected, since many such crimes involve family members.

If Trump continues to let Clinton and her allies lap him in ad spending, his best chance for capturing voters attention might be in media coverage of events like his Monday arena speech here in Asheville. The atmosphere was tense, with protesters seeking to disrupt the proceedings at regular intervals. In his remarks, Trump encouraged voters to cast their ballot early, beginning on Oct. 20, or on Election Day.

Its our last chance to take it back, Trump said. In my opinion, its our last chance  I really believe that. Its our last chance to take it back, to fix our rigged system.

Republicans say he must convince voters that he will be a steady, trusted leader to counter the doubts Democrats are trying to sow about his judgment.

He has to demonstrate that and not just say it, said longtime North Carolina Republican strategist Carter Wrenn.
Hillary Clinton, who was thought to have cough related allergies after she had bouts of coughing in recent weeks, was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday.

By Reuters: Hillary Clinton is suffering from pneumonia, the Democratic presidential candidate's personal doctor said on Sunday after she fell ill at a 9/11 memorial, an episode that renewed focus on her health less than two months before the election.

Clinton canceled a trip she was scheduled to take to California on Monday for fundraising and other campaign events, an aide said, declining to provide further details about her schedule for the week.

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PNEUMONIA TAKES TOLL ON HER AT 9/11 MEMORIAL



Clinton, 68, was diagnosed on Friday but her condition only came to light several hours after a video on social media appeared to show her swaying and her knees buckling before being helped into a motorcade as she left the memorial early Sunday.

Clinton had a medical examination when she got back to her home in Chappaqua, New York, according to a campaign aide. Her doctor, Lisa Bardack, said in a statement that she has been experiencing a cough related to allergies and that an examination on Friday showed it was pneumonia.

"She was put on antibiotics and advised to rest and modify her schedule. While at this morning's event, she became overheated and dehydrated. I have just examined her and she is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely," Bardack said.

Clinton's pneumonia diagnosis comes at a crucial time in the White House race against Republican rival Donald Trump, who refrained from commenting on her health on Sunday.

HEALTH CRISIS COMES DURING CAMPAIGNING AND ELECTIONS



The first of three presidential debates is on September 26 and the election is on November 8.

Democratic National Committee head Donna Brazile said she was encouraged that Clinton "already is feeling better" and looked "forward to seeing her back out on the campaign trail and continuing on the path to victory."

Several Clinton allies said the incident underscored the candidate's resilience.

"After being diagnosed with pneumonia, Hillary Clinton ran a two-hour national security meeting, gave a press conference, and spent an hour and a half in the heat at a September 11 event," said Peter Daou, who worked for Clinton in the past and now has a communications firm.

"It was an impressive feat of physical strength that undermined weeks of health conspiracies."

STATEMENT ABOUT PNEUMONIA SHOWS TRANSPARENCY OF HER CAMPAIGN

Clinton abruptly departed the high-profile, televised event at Ground Zero and was taken to her daughter Chelsea's home in Manhattan. She emerged around two hours later on a warm and muggy morning, wearing sunglasses and telling reporters that she was "feeling great."

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The video that showed her swaying and buckling with aides holding her up came from an unverified Twitter account under the name Zdenek Gazda, who did not respond to a request for comment.

The Clinton campaign did not respond to repeated requests for comment about the authenticity of the video.

Political strategists said the campaign should confront the health issue head-on to tamp down any concerns, particularly as Republican rival Donald Trump and some of his high-profile supporters have repeatedly argued that she lacked the "stamina" to battle adversaries abroad.

Bud Jackson, a Virginia-based Democratic strategist, said the statement from the doctor was a good start. He said the incident should encourage more transparency from the campaign about her health. "I think they did the right thing. They had her examined and put out a statement. It means less speculation," he said.

PNEUMONIA DIAGNOSIS PUTS CONSPIRACY THEORIES ABOUT HEALTH TO REST



As the solemn ceremony began at the site of the World Trade Center that was attacked by two hijacked airliners 15 years ago, there was patchy sunlight, with temperatures at about 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26.6 Celsius). But the high humidity early into the ceremony caused it to feel much hotter in the crowd at times.

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Clinton wore a high-collared shirt and a dark pant suit and donned sunglasses for the morning event.

Clinton's pneumonia diagnosis follows a wave of conservative conspiracy theories that circulated in recent weeks suggesting that Clinton's coughing was a sign of deeper problems.

Clinton's speech at a campaign rally earlier this month in Cleveland was interrupted by a coughing spell. During the speech, she quipped, "Every time I think about Trump I get allergic." She then resumed her speech.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert and senior associate at the UPMC Center for Health Security in Pittsburgh who is not treating Clinton, said coughing is a cardinal symptom of pneumonia.

Recovery from pneumonia, the 8th leading cause of death in the United States, can be variable, he said, adding it takes a week for most patients to get better. Adults above the age of 65 are at heightened risk.

PRESIDENTIAL PRECEDENTS

Past presidential candidates have released much more detailed information about their health than either Trump, 70, or Clinton.

For example, John McCain, the failed 2008 Republican presidential nominee, allowed reporters to see 1,173 pages of medical records after concerns were raised about a cancer scare.

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Also read: Watch: Did Hillary Clinton collapse at 9/11 ceremony?



--- ENDS ---
Syrian men carrying babies make their way through the rubble of destroyed buildings following a reported airstrike on the rebel-held Salihin neighborhood of the northern city of Aleppo. (Ameer Alhalbi/AFP/Getty Images)

A U.S.- and Russian-backed cease-fire agreement that went into effect Monday was almost immediately violated, diluting hopes for an imminent halt to the relentless violence that has raged for the past five years and raising new questions about U.S. policies aimed at ending the war.

Residents and activists of the besieged rebel portion of Aleppo said that Syrian government helicopters had dropped barrel bombs on one neighborhood of the city and that loyalist forces were shelling a route intended to be used for the delivery of humanitarian aid. Pro-government media accused the rebels of launching a new attack in the southern province of Quneitra, and there were reports of airstrikes and artillery shelling in other parts of the country.

Secretary of State John F. Kerry hailed the U.S.-Russian accord on Syria that was announced in Geneva on Saturday as a last chance . . . to save a united Syria.

But as the reports of new violence trickled in, the most intractable and bloody of the Middle Easts wars seemed only to have become more complicated.

[Watch: How the cease-fire talks unfolded]

The United States and Russia announced a new multi-step plan to bring Syria closer to a negotiated peace deal. (Jason Aldag,Karen DeYoung/The Washington Post)

The cease-fire follows a previous effort in February that seemed initially to herald a greater level of calm but gradually collapsed. Like that deal, the new agreement contains no penalties for violations, which enhances the advantage of the Syrian government and its Russian allies because they are the only ones on the battlefield capable of carrying out airstrikes against their opponents.

This accord also adds new complications in the form of a provision for the United States to carry out joint airstrikes with Russia against extremists whose positions are known to be entangled with the moderate rebels on some front lines.

That has resulted in confusion even on the part of Kerry as to what the agreement means. In comments widely disparaged by opposition supporters on social media, he seemed to indicate that Russia and the United States would jointly approve future airstrikes carried out by the Syrian government.

The State Department issued a statement retracting the remarks.

To clarify: the arrangement announced last week makes no provision whatsoever for the U.S. and Russia to approve strikes by the Syrian regime, and this is not something we could ever envision doing, the statement said.

In his comments, Kerry said the early violations did not mean the accord had failed. Its far too early to draw any definitive conclusions, he said, adding that it may take a day or two to fully secure a cessation of hostilities.

The rebels did not reject the agreement outright but came out with a searing statement criticizing its lack of enforcement mechanisms, saying it would leave room for the regime to take advantage of the situation to achieve military gains that they would have been incapable of achieving before.





Honestly we do not trust the regime and we do not trust the Russians, said Maj. Jamil al-Saleh, who heads the U.S.-backed Tajamu al-Izza brigade in the Hama province town of Latamneh.

Halting the fighting is intended to be the first step in a series of measures including the rapid delivery of humanitarian aid and culminating in new negotiations for a political solution to the conflict. Whether the process will work depends to a large extent on whether Russia and the United States can bring pressure on their respective allies  the government and the rebels  and also whether Washington and Moscow are committed enough to make the deal stick.

Another glaring omission of the agreement is any mention of what will become of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, indicating that Russia and the United States still do not see eye to eye on this key question.

Hours before the deal went into effect, Assad reiterated his determination to reconquer all of Syria from what he termed terrorists, signaling that he has no plans to stop fighting to crush the five-year-old rebellion against his regime.

We as a nation . . . are delivering a message that the Syrian state is determined to recover all regions from the terrorists and restore security, infrastructure, Assad said in remarks after attending prayers marking the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday in Darayya, a Damascus suburb that was recently recaptured from the rebels after a four-year siege.

We come today here to replace the fake freedom they tried to market at the beginning of the crisis . . . with real freedom, he added, not the freedom that begins with them and is sustained by dollars . . . and by some promises of positions.

Yasir Ibrahim al-Yusuf, a member of the political office of the rebel Noureddine al-Zinki movement, said the armed opposition has raised many concerns about the details of the deal with the Obama administration, notably the absence of enforcement mechanisms or penalties for noncompliance by the Assad regime or the Russians.

A letter to the opposition delivered over the weekend by the U.S. special envoy for Syria, Michael Ratney, spelled out details similar to those outlined by Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva on Saturday. They include a cessation of hostilities, the delivery of humanitarian aid and the eventual launch of joint military operations by the United States and Russia against two agreed-upon terrorist groups  the former Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State.

The letter offered no new enforcement measures other than the reporting mechanism established by the cease-fire agreement earlier this year, which collapsed within weeks amid escalating government airstrikes and eventual resumption of Russian bombing. The armed opposition is nonetheless committed to complying because it is incredibly important that aid reaches people and that there is a decrease in the numbers of people dying, Yusuf said. Also, we are hoping this is the beginning of a political solution to the conflict.

The one assurance we have is that the Russians are very invested because they want to extricate themselves from this conflict as quickly as possible, he added. This is the one reason we are agreeing to the cease-fire. It seems everyone very much wants to make it work.

According to the timetable laid out by Kerry and Lavrov, if the cease-fire holds for seven consecutive days and humanitarian aid flows unimpeded to besieged areas, then Moscow and Washington will start working out plans to conduct joint military operations.

Russia and the United States would then begin sharing intelligence and coordinating their attacks on Jabhat al-Nusra, the former al-Qaeda affiliate now known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, or Front for the Conquest of Syria. A number of opposition groups have been fighting side by side with the terrorist organization  either because it is the most powerful and successful force against Assad or because of some degree of ideological affinity in the case of some groups.

Kerry warned Monday that those who are party to the cease-fire will have to separate themselves. Al-Nusra is al-Qaeda, he said. Al-Nusra is the sworn enemy of the United States . . .the Western world . . . others in the region. They have an external plotting agency plotting as we speak against some of our allies, friends and ourselves.

Warning that opposition groups that stick with al-Nusra could be subject to U.S. or Russian airstrikes, Kerry said, We cannot . . . somehow adopt the moral hazard of just because they fight fiercely, were going to somehow allow al-Qaeda to be the tip of our spear with regard to Assad.

DeYoung reported from Washington. Zakaria Zakaria in Istanbul, Heba Habib in Stockholm and Carol Morello in Washington contributed to this report.

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Britains Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the Hangzhou Exhibition Center to participate in the G-20 Summit on Sept. 4 in China. (Etienne Oliveau/Pool photo via Reuters)

When Prime Minister Theresa May touched down in China for a summit of major nations last week, Britains Telegraph newspaper zeroed in on her diplomatic ace in the hole. Her formidable policy acumen? Her tough stance on Chinese investment in sensitive British industries?

Nope. It was the vivid, almost-orange hue of Mays jacket and dress.

The story  which came only days after the same paper ran a piece about shoes being the greatest love of Mays life  illustrated how the halls of power are turning into something of a catwalk for Britains first female prime minister since Margaret Thatcher. Mays embrace of high-end, even edgy clothes in a manner very unlike, for instance, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is transforming her into a relatively rare mix: politician meets fashion icon.

Singapores Straits Times has dubbed her just that, noting before she took office that the woman who is set to fill [former prime minister] David Camerons shoes has quite a collection of footwear herself. Photogenic Magazine  offering Sri Lankas latest in fashion news  tweeted that Prime Minister Theresa May loves her leopard-print shoes. The New York Times ran an article on Chinese fashionistas discussing her shoes, her gender and her power, in that order.

And then theres the British media, which like no other has unleashed the dogs to chew on Mays trademark kitten heels. The Times of London dubbed a chest-accentuating scarlet dress of hers the boobinator for showing off what it described as power cleavage.

Mays leopard-print shoes seen over the years. (Justin Tallis, Oli Scarff, Christopher Furlong/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

[The fashion of American politics]

Is Britains new prime minister, Theresa May, the countrys most fashion-savvy politician? the Times asked its readers.

With May constantly living under the threat that the odd reporter might blurt out, Who are you wearing? during news conferences at 10 Downing Street, perhaps it is no surprise that the fixation on her wardrobe has also sparked a fierce debate. In short, is coverage of her clothes sexist?

May has made no secret of her penchant for high fashion. She has been photographed in the front row of runway shows, and in 2014, she told a British radio program that the one luxury shed want on a desert island would be a lifetime subscription to Vogue.

But the blanket focus on her style choices is morphing, some say, into an unhealthy obsession that is wholly unlike the medias treatment of her male predecessor.

The sexism, critics argue, particularly shines through when everyone becomes a critic. Like when the Daily Mail told her to trade in her thigh-high patent boots, mini skirts and daring short dresses for the more ladylike attire of Catherine Middleton. Or when the same paper had this to say about that boobinator scarlet dress: Its not just the economy plunging into the red, with a shot of Mays decolletage.

What is telling about Mays penchant for fashion is why we care so much  and more so why we criticize it so readily, columnist Imogen Fox wrote in the Guardian. Would we condemn a similarly frivolous preoccupation in a male leader? It will be interesting to see whether May is allowed to continue to freely enjoy clothes or whether her advisers will judge her fashion to be too loud.

May, then home secretary, attends the Osman 2012 autumn/winter collection during London Fashion Week. ( Olivia Harris/Reuters)

Others say that May is a trailblazer, a woman successfully walking the tightrope of a world leader with gravitas who also happens to love fashion. If people talk about her shoes during her first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin (and they did), then so be it. In fact, she has defended her right to style  declaring it one of the hurdles women of power must overcome.

[In first parliamentary joust, May lets the zingers fly]

Im a woman, I like clothes. I like shoes, I like clothes, she said last year in an interview with writer and journalist Tina Brown. Its one of the challenges, I think, for women in politics, in business, in all areas of working life, is actually to be ourselves, and to say, You know what, you can be clever and like clothes. You can have a career and like clothes. These are not separate. 

Is it newsworthy that she launched her bid for prime minister in a tartan Vivienne Westwood suit? Or that she attends meetings in L.K. Bennett pumps? Some say yes  because its disingenuous to suggest that impressions are not part of a political package.

When Hillary Clinton  who once joked that a show about her fashion sense would be called Project Pantsuit  wears an Armani jacket to a speech, some say that it is indeed notable. Especially if that jacket retails for $12,000 and the theme of the night is inequality.

Every politician, male or female, attracts attention as visible people. Every utterance or haircut will be parsed by journalists, and I think its fair, said Sarah Mower, chief critic for Vogue.com. You can look at other female politicians and see that Hillary hasnt played it safe. Shes played it all over, and she definitely had her moments in the way Theresa May has.

In fact, fashion can be a formidable political accessory, as Thatcher proved with her famous leather handbags. Far from a stereotyping symbol of feminine softness, her stern satchels became metaphors for toughness, a weapon the BBC wrote, wielded against opponents or unfortunate ministers.

And Mays cutting-edge clothes  say some on the other side of the political aisle  may equally have the ability to intimidate.

Keith Vaz, a senior politician from the opposition Labour Party, was the head of Britains Home Affairs Select Committee until he resigned last week in the wake of a sex scandal.

In an earlier interview, he said he was so in awe of Mays style that he would go out and buy a new tie to prepare for her appearances before the committee.

The result, he said, was 24 appearances and 24 new ties.

I think that may have been the first question I asked her  Do you think there is an unhealthy interest in your clothes?  he said. She is very unflashy, and she doesnt make a fuss, but I think her clothes do show her to be a very classy, intelligent political leader . . . But clothes are a side issue to the job, and she knows it.

Karla Adam contributed to this report.

Read more

Merkels refugee policy blamed for loss on her home turf

Pope Francis is unafraid of controversy  or quantity  when minting saints

Merkel defends asylum policies, says Germany is at war with Islamic State

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
By Isla Binnie ROME (Reuters) - An Italian town is pursuing legal action against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for a cartoon showing victims of an earthquake there as types of pasta, and another suggesting the mafia was to blame for the death toll of almost 300. One cartoon, entitled "Earthquake Italian Style", captioned drawings of a bloodied and bandaged man "Penne in tomato sauce", a scratched and swollen woman "Penne au gratin", and a collapsed building with blood and feet emerging from it "Lasagne". After Italians responded angrily, the magazine, famed for its provocative, taboo-busting cartoons, published a second one, showing a person half-buried under rubble saying: "Italians ... it's not Charlie Hebdo who built your homes, it's the mafia!" Amatrice, the home of "amatriciana" pasta sauce, was flattened by the quake on Aug. 24. The local government called the cartoons "a macabre, senseless and absurd insult to the victims," Mario Cicchetti, a lawyer for Amatrice city hall, told Reuters. It has asked a local prosecutor to investigate Charlie Hebdo for "aggravated defamation", a crime for which the town would seek civil damages. Even though the cartoons were published in France, Cicchetti said the legal case could be brought in Italy because they had been widely seen and shared there. Twelve people were shot dead at Charlie Hebdo's offices in Paris in 2015 by Islamist militants who accused the magazine of blasphemy for printing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. The construction sector in Italy has long been plagued by inattention to regulations, and both regular building work and post-disaster reconstruction has at times been infiltrated by organised crime. It is now up to the magistrates in Rieti, near Amatrice, to decide whether to take up the investigation against the cartoonists and the magazine's director, Cicchetti said. Charlie Hebdo declined to comment. (Additional reporting by Richard Lough in Paris; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
By Catherine Bennett MADRID (Reuters) - Six people stand almost shoulder-to-shoulder in a black room - the entire audience for a play unfolding just an arm's length away. With minimal set and a cast of only two, this is theatre stripped to its bare bones. The micro-theatre trend has exploded since a first production in a former Madrid brothel in 2009. "Microteatro" is now an established brand, with theatres in 13 cities in Spain and the Americas. Its success - the venue that originated the format put on its 1,000th show in April - provides a bright spot in Spanish theatre which has suffered from cuts in arts funding and a drop in audience spending since an economic crisis. In the bar at the Madrid venue, 30-year-old theatregoer Maria Renee explained the appeal. "The good thing is you don't have to plan ahead. You can see one play or five," she said, examining the productions on offer that evening. Each short play costs only four euros ($4.50) and is repeated up to seven times a night, so spectators can dip in and out of the evening's programme. The format follows a basic idea of three 15s: plays of 15 minutes for around 15 audience members in a 15 square-metre (160 square-foot) space. In the original production, 13 independent theatre groups put on 13 different shows, themed around prostitution, in the rooms of the former brothel where the sex workers used to receive their clients. That show was so successful, with queues of more than 200 people waiting to get in, that the team bought a space around the corner. Since then theatre companies around Spain and from places as far away as Miami and Mexico have bought licenses to use the Microteatro logo, marketing and house style. Playwright and director Jose Luis Lozano, 34, says the format is a showcase for new work and provides a training ground for writers. "You're obliged to say a lot in a short time. It's a good place to experiment with your style," he said. For the players, the closeness to the audience makes the experience like a constant camera close-up, says Anthony Rotsa, a British actor starring in the theatre's only English-language play. "You see everyone's faces, right there. If they're enjoying it, you can feel that. And if they're not, you can feel that too!" ($1 = 0.8915 euros) (Editing by Sonya Dowsett and Robin Pomeroy)
By PTI: New Delhi, Sep 12 (PTI) Shares of Jaiprakash Associates today plunged 7 per cent after the company reported widening of standalone net loss to Rs 602.95 crore for the quarter ended June 2016. The scrip tanked 6.85 per cent to settle at Rs 11.28 on BSE. During the day, it lost 9.57 per cent to Rs 10.95. At NSE, it dropped 7 per cent to end at Rs 11.25. Led by the decline in the stock, the companys market valuation fell by Rs 201.19 crore to Rs 2,743.81 crore. On the volume front, 73.43 lakh shares of the company were traded on BSE and over 3 crore at NSE during the day. The company had posted a net loss of Rs 482.43 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

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Total income of the company on standalone basis declined 27.11 per cent to Rs 1,734.98 crore in the quarter under review, from Rs 2,380.58 crore a year ago, the infrastructure firm said in a regulatory filing to the BSE on Friday.

Its expenses too declined to Rs 1,744.75 crore during the quarter under review, from Rs 2,299.95 crore earlier. PTI SUM ARD

--- ENDS ---
Bruce Springsteen will make a series of "special appearances" this fall to support the release of his new autobiography, Born to Run. He announced the dates Monday on his website. His book hits shelves on September 27th.

Fittingly, Springsteen will celebrate the arrival of Born to Run in Freehold, New Jersey. After that, he heads to New York City and Philadelphia, before looping down the West Coast. He returns east for the New Yorker Festival and wraps up the nine-date jaunt in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Springsteen discussed his reasons for writing Born to Run in a recent interview with Vanity Fair. "I had to find the roots of my own troubles and issues," he explained, "and the joyful things that have allowed me to put on the kind of shows that we put on."



He also discussed his ongoing battle with depression in the book. "One of the points I'm making in the book is that, whoever you've been and wherever you've been, it never leaves you," Springsteen noted. "I always picture it as a car. All your selves are in it. And a new self can get in, but the old selves can't ever get out. The important thing is, who's got their hands on the wheel at any given moment?"

Born to Run will be accompanied by the compilation album Chapter and Verse, which includes five unreleased tracks.

Born to Run Book Tour Dates

September 27  Freehold, NJ @ Barnes & Noble

September 28  New York, NY @ Barnes & Noble Union Square

September 29  Philadelphia, PA @ Free Library of Philadelphia

October 1  Seattle, WA @ Elliott Bay Book Company

October 3  Los Angeles, CA @ Barnes & Noble at The Grove

October 4  Portland, OR @ Powells City of Books

October 5  San Francisco, CA @ City Arts & Lectures

October 7  New York, NY @ The New Yorker Festival

October 10  Cambridge, MA @ The Harvard Coop

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"More and more, I'm prepared to relinquish sales, as far as records go, by sticking to my guns about the kind of music I really wish to make," David Bowie told Rolling Stone when Scary Monsters was released in 1980. In some ways, it was one of the most avant-garde, convention-defying records of his career: The first voice we hear on it is actress Michi Hirota's, shouting in Japanese; a lot of its lyrics suggest the "cutup" technique that Bowie had learned from William S. Burroughs; and it's shot through with dissonance and bursts of unexpected noise. "There are an awful lot of mistakes on that album that I went with, rather than cut them out," Bowie noted at the time. "One tries as much as possible to put oneself on the line artistically."



Even so, Scary Monsters worked just fine as pop music. It was a substantial hit, reaching Number One in the U.K. Both "Ashes to Ashes" and "Fashion" were staples of MTV's early years. (It probably didn't hurt that MTV VJ Alan Hunter had appeared in the "Fashion" video.) It also featured a murderers' row of phenomenal musicians, including Bowie's late-Seventies rhythm section of drummer Dennis Davis and bassist George Murray, Pete Townshend and E Street Band pianist/Station to Station vet Roy Bittan.

The album's signature sound, though, is Robert Fripp's squalling lead guitar  most impressively, the corrosive blurts that streak through the funky "Fashion." That song, like "Fame" and "The Man Who Sold the World," was one of Bowie's last-minute brainstorms; it had been an abandoned track called "Jamaica" until he turned up with a completed lyric just as Tony Visconti was starting to mix the record. Scary Monsters, Fripp said, represented "Bowie's decision to take his work in rock & roll seriously. Anyone who goes to New York takes his work seriously  the city certainly has that effect. So his return to a degree of involvement with New York, I think, is very healthy."

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David Bowie Scary Monsters Album Cover

In a sense, Scary Monsters opened the Eighties looking back on the Seventies. The album scavenged and recast bits of unreleased Bowie compositions spanning his entire career: "Scream Like a Baby," for instance, was a reworked version of "I Am a Laser," which he'd written in 1973 for the Astronettes (a soul trio featuring then-girlfriend Ava Cherry). The Pierrot outfit and makeup he wore on its cover and in the "Ashes to Ashes" video recalled his early days as a mime. ("The music is the mask the message wears  music is the Pierrot, and I, the performer, am the message," he'd quipped to Rolling Stone back in 1971.) Bowie also took a shot at the generation of artists who'd come up in his shadow  "Same old thing in brand-new drag," he snapped at the "New Wave boys" on "Teenage Wildlife."



Scary Monsters' masterstroke is its most self-referential song: "Ashes to Ashes," which alluded to "Space Oddity" with the line "We know Major Tom's a junkie," and reminded listeners just how much Bowie had grown and changed in the intervening decade. In 1980, there were millions of new fans for him to reach and transform as well.

"My introduction to David Bowie was watching 'Ashes to Ashes' on MTV," Marilyn Manson told Rolling Stone. "I was confused and captivated."

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Sailing

Here is what you need to know.

Hillary Clinton has pneumonia. The Democratic presidential nominee was found to have pneumonia after she felt "overheated" at a memorial marking the 15th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The EU's former chief executive is under an ethics investigation. Jose Manuel Barroso is under an ethics investigation to see whether he broke any laws by taking a job at Goldman Sachs to help the firm deal with the British exit from the European Union, Reuters reports.

Oil is getting smoked. West Texas Intermediate crude oil is lower for a second day, down 2.1% at $44.94 a barrel. The two-day sell-off has wiped away Thursday's gain of more than 4%.

Linde and Praxair are ending merger talks. The Wall Street Journal reports that the deal, which would have created a $60 billion industrial gas giant, is being called off because Linde says "governance aspects did not result in a mutual understanding."

Samsung is selling its printer business to HP. The $1.05 billion deal will help HP expand its footprint in the printer and copier business, and HP expects the deal to be accretive to earnings in the first year, Bloomberg says.

Samsung got destroyed after announcing the Galaxy 7 Note recall. Shares of Samsung tumbled 7% on Monday, and have lost $22 billion in market cap over the past two days after the company told users to return their phones because faulty batteries were catching fire.

Tesla announced big improvements to Autopilot. CEO Elon Musk says the new updates will make vehicles with Autopilot three times as safe as those without the feature.

Stock markets around the world are lower. Hong Kong's Hang Seng (-3.4%) was hit hard in Asia, and Spain's IBEX (-2.5%) leads the losses in Europe. S&P 500 futures are down 14.75 points at 2,101.25.

Earnings reporting is light. Manchester United reports ahead of the opening bell, and United Foods releases its quarterly results after markets close.

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Fed speak is plentiful. Atlanta's Dennis Lockhart, Minneapolis' Neel Kashkari, and Fed Gov. Lael Brainard will speak at 8:05 a.m., 1 p.m., and 1:15 p.m., respectively. The US 10-year yield is up 1 basis point at 1.69%.





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A Glock handgun available in a raffle promotion is shown at Adventures Outdoors in Smyrna, Georgia, October 25, 2012. REUTERS/Tami Chappell

Violent crime is going down in America, but the problem of gun-related murders is still very real.

A study released earlier this year by the American Journal of Medicine found that Americans are 10 times more likely to be killed by guns than people in other developed countries.

And the suicide rate, while equal to many other high-income countries, is still marred by the fact guns are the method of choice eight times more often.

These rates are alarming, and they're hardly helped by a criminal justice system that overwhelmingly seeks to incarcerate prisoners for life instead of investing in solutions that prevent violence over the long term.

But if new legislation in 11 states passes into law, it could help transform how the US prevents one of its deadliest challenges. Instead of addressing violence as it happens, the country could improve its methods for detecting "high-risk" people and take guns out of the equation altogether.

The proposed law permits judges to order police officers to confiscate people's firearms for up to one year if those officers (or in certain cases, family members) report the person is at-risk for suicidal or homicidal behavior. The states considering the law include Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

California and Indiana passed similar versions of the law earlier this year, and Connecticut has had one in place since 1999.

Evidence from around the world suggests that fewer guns in people's hands translates to fewer gun deaths overall.

John Howard

The most telling example comes from Australia, where in 1996 a mass murderer killed 35 people and wounded 23 others. Within two weeks, the federal government had convened to discuss the terms of a nationwide ban on the import of automatic and semiautomatic weapons and pump-action shotguns.

But here's where Australia got creative. Over the next 12 months, the country allowed its gun-toting citizens to sell their weapons back to the government. More than 700,000 firearms were collected and destroyed in that time, making it the single-largest destruction of civilian firearms of any country between 1996 and 2005. An estimated $500 million was paid back to former gun owners.

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According to a 2010 review of the program, rates of gun deaths  both homicide and suicide  plummeted. Similar research in the US has found the same: Places with more guns experience more gun violence, and places with fewer guns experience less gun violence.

chicago gun violence protest

The new legislation proposed in 11 states comes in the wake of equally rock-solid findings from Connecticut's program.

According to a new study that examined the state's reduction in suicides between 1999-2013, those who had their guns seized committed suicide at a rate 40 times the state average  a signal to researchers the program was targeting at-risk people.

What's more, 44% of the time judges issued warrants, people got psychiatric treatment they might not have received otherwise. And out of those who had attempted suicide once, few tried a second time.

"A lot of times the people who have their weapons seized are not having a bad life  they're having a bad moment," explained a former Connecticut prosecutor quoted in the study.

The takeaway is that gun violence may not always be as pre-meditated or deeply rooted as we might think. The majority of gun violence may result simply because people have access to guns.

If the 11 new states ultimately choose to join the three that have already seen the value of creating distance between at-risk gun owners and their firearms, at least temporarily, the nation as a whole might someday be able to find some lasting respite from the devastation of gun violence.

NOW WATCH: This ingenious invention can seal a gunshot wound in under 20 seconds





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A young Pennsylvania girl who vanished several days ago after shopping at a nearby store was found dead Sunday, police said.

Shevy McGiffin, 13, disappeared Friday evening at about 7 p.m. after she went to buy a coloring book from the Comet Food Warehouse in Clarion, her father, Andrew James Schneider, said in a video posted to YouTube by news site Explore Clarion.

Read: Registered Sex Offender Arrested for 1980 Murder of Girl, 16, Found Dead After Going Jogging

Her father also said in the video that a cashier reported Shevy had bought the book and left the store. That was reportedly the last time anyone had seen her alive. He feared she had been "taken."

"I had asked her dad if he'd seen her, and he said no, so we went to look for her, and I haven't seen her since then," Tina Schneider, Shevy's mom, said in a WTAE article.

Tina also posted on her Facebook before Shevy's body was found, saying: It's going on 48 HOURS NOW !!!! I'M BEGGING where ever Shevy McGiffin is please bring her home to her family... Her brothers, I, her father and her whole family and friends miss her more then (sic) anything in this whole world.. My kid's are my world... my world right now is not complete without my babyygirl... I LOVE U SHEVY MCGIFFIN..... GOD PLEASE4 HELP BRING HER BACK TO HER FAMILY.

McGiffins disappearance didnt meet the requirements to issue an Amber Alert because police must confirm that a child has been abducted first, according to Clarion-State Police.

Sadly, Shevys body was found Sunday afternoon in Trout Run near the Clarion River by members of the Clarion Volunteer Fire Department, who were part of the search crew.

She was a sweet girl.  She was a shy child, she kept to herself, Shevys great aunt, Barbara McGiffin, told KDKA. Why this had to happen, I dont know. We dont question the Lord on why things have to happen but  it did.

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Barbara also added that Shevy was not the type of girl to run away.

Read: Man Arrested for Abducting, Murdering Teen Who Went Missing On Her Way to Church

Police have not commented further, citing the active investigation.

The family has started a GoFundMe page to help cover funeral costs. As of Monday morning, the page had already exceeded its $5,000 goal.

An autopsy is scheduled for Monday, police said.

Watch: Teen Sisters Found Alive a Year After Missing, Family Friend Arrested

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In deciding a landmark case on campaign finance six years ago, the Supreme Court drew a bright line between actual corruption and the mere appearance of impropriety.

In its Citizens United decision, the majority of the court argued that the appearance of influence or access to a politician will not cause the electorate to lose faith in this democracy.

Now Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are testing that proposition in very similar ways.

In recent weeks, the two presidential nominees have argued that well-timed donations involving their opponents led to political decisions that amounted to a form of corruption, even though neither has any solid proof. When it comes to each other, Clinton and Trump do not see the Supreme Courts bright line.

At a rally last Tuesday in Durham, North Carolina, Trump argued that Clinton and her aides knowingly destroyed evidence of their shady activity at the Clinton Foundation.

Nobody takes all the risks Hillary Clinton took unless theyre trying to cover up massive, massive crimes, he said, as members of the crowd chanted lock her up.

Clinton, meantime, raised questions about Trumps donation to Florida attorney general Pam Bondi in 2013, when she was considering looking into complaints about Trump University.

The American people deserve to know what was said, because clearly the attorney general did not proceed with the investigation, she told reporters aboard her new campaign plane on Tuesday. Her husband went even further, saying Trump used his charity to pay off Bondi.

The dueling charges come at a time when the definition of political corruption has changed.

For decades, U.S. law viewed corruption as not simply about a suitcase of cash furtively exchanged for a vote. It could also be about politicians getting too cozy with their donors: dinner parties, private meetings and taking advice that led to official actions. Lawmakers and judges targeted the appearance of corruption with laws meant to restrict money in politics. The idea was that the appearance, even without clear quid pro quo, could be corrosive, causing people to lose faith in democracy.

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The public awareness of the opportunities for abuse could be as great a danger as pay-to-play, the Supreme Court stated in Buckley v. Valeo in 1976. Avoiding the appearance of corruption became a legal justification for limits on campaign donations, and the Supreme Court ruled again in 2003 in McConnell v. FEC that it was about the broader threat from politicians too compliant with the wishes of large contributors and donors getting unfair access to high-level government officials.

But the legal standard around appearances has been all but abandoned in recent years, thanks to court rulings. In the Citizens United case in 2010, which led to the creation of super PACs, the Supreme Court accepted in its ruling that favoritism and influence accompany political donations. The court reaffirmed that view four years later in McCutcheon v. FEC, saying that access to elected officials or political parties does not give rise to quid pro quo corruption. The court accepted that politicians rub elbows with their donors and respond to their concerns.

The irony is that what lawmakers long feared would happencorrosion of confidence in the democratic processis now coming to pass. Faith in public institutions has plummeted, and Clinton and Trump are among the least trusted presidential nominees in history. It is the first election in recent memory in which both sides have accused the other of illegal behavior.

The appearance that elected officials are more beholden or give special access to donors is dangerous for democracy, and thats what were seeing now, said Larry Noble, general counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, which studies and litigates campaign finance issues.

To many, the Trump and Clinton affairs both have the appearance of corruption, even if there is no clear evidence of pay-to-play. Trump made a $25,000-donation through his charity to Floridas attorney general, Pam Bondi, in 2013, at the moment she was considering whether to investigate his business for alleged fraud. She then called off the investigation, and a year later, Trump held a fundraiser for her at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Clinton, meanwhile, is accused of giving donors to the Clinton Foundation special access and in some cases appearing to act on their behalf as Secretary of State.

The cases are clearly different: Trump gave directly to an elected official who shortly after ruled out joining potentially damaging lawsuit against him. Clinton did not directly receive most of the donations, which instead went to her familys foundationwhere Clinton was never on the payroll. Theres no evidence that Clintons donors sought access in connection with a specific event, or that Clinton as Secretary of State actually granted an official act benefiting her donors, as Bondi did for Trump.

Trump, who says he gave money to politicians to help his businesses, has reveled in the access that his dollars bring. When I need something from them, two years later, three years later, I call them, and they are there for me, he said at a debate last year, referring to the officials he contributes to. When I call, they kiss my ass, he told an audience in Iowa in January.

But unless more evidence is produced showing a quid pro quo, there was no crime committed under the current standard. Citizens United made it ambiguous whether money for the Lincoln Bedroom or money for an invitation to the governors mansion is OK, said Nancy Gertner, a former federal judge in Massachusetts. The case of, I give you money and in exchange I get an invitation for dinner, that doesnt count as corruption under the recent rulings.

Still, the whiff of money-for-accessreal or imaginedhas surrounded both, and both sides are claiming the other engaged in pay-to-play, appealing to an angry electorate.

A couple of very bad ones came out, and its called pay for play, Trump said last month, referring to Clintons emails. And some of these were really, really bad and illegal. If its true, its illegal. Youre paying and youre getting things.

Clintons campaign has shot back. There is only one candidate in the race whose foundation has been caught in an illegal pay-to-play scheme, Clinton spokesperson Glen Caplin said in a statement to the Washington Post this week.

With money slushing around super PACs and voters reading daily stories of candidates cozying up to their donors, distrust of the candidates has risen to new levels. Its led to the rise of candidates like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who preached power-to-the-people politics, and Trump, whose supporters loathing for Clinton has become legendary.

She is a criminal. Criminal, and thats all there is to it, said Gary Wilson, a cook sitting a bar this week in Wilmington, North Carolina. She should be put in prison.

With reporting by Charlotte Alter in Wilmington, N.C.
Oregon conjures up images of hipsters, lush forests, and episodes of Portlandia. But its also home to a number of high-priced homes. This summer, weve seen three different listings wrestle for the title of most expensive home in the state.

The Pacific Northwest has become a luxury shoppers paradiseOregons highest-priced listing has been changing faster than a hipsters hairstyle. In June, it belonged to a 13,462-square-foot home on Lake Oswego, but in July this $18 million property in West Linn grabbed the title.

The latest titleholder is a 507-acre working cattle and horse ranch near Sisters. Known as the R&B Ranch, it features eight bedrooms and 8.5 bathrooms. Its on the market for a whopping $24 million.

The R&B Ranch covers more than 507 acres. realtor.com

With 14,666 square feet of living space, the main home on the ranch may appear overwhelming. However, co-listing agent Brook Havens (along with Pam Mayo Phillips) says that a recent brokers open house drew comments that the property was very high-quality, well-done, and did not feel ostentatious. It doesnt feel overbuilt when you get there.

Built by the homeowners over several years and completed in 2012, the property offers breathtaking views of the Cascade Range. The spread includes a barn with saloon, an indoor horse arena, a nine-bay shop for horses, an outdoor horse track, a livestock barn, a 6,263-square-foot guesthouse, and a 3,727-square-foot managers home. Horsing around isnt the only sporting activitythe pond outside is stocked with trout.

Large windows and spectacular views Realtor.com

Upscale finishes and locally sourced materials are evident throughout the main house, which includes a theater, a wine room, and a den that can be used as an office.

For a family retreat, everything is right there, Havens says. And while the ranch offers plenty of privacy, its just a five-minute drive to Sisters and a 15-minute drive to Bend, central Oregons largest city. Owners Richard and Barbara Morrow developed the property to entertain family and friends as well as train Spectacular horses, according to their website.

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Home theater Realtor.com

Marketing for the property is being done in the Seattle area, internationally, and in Texas to attract buyers interested in horse breeding. Equestrian adventures aside, itll be interesting to see if another property can gallop off with the title of the states most expensive listing.

The post $24M Ranch Lassos the Title of Oregons Most Expensive Home appeared first on Real Estate News and Advice - realtor.com.
Many investors like to look for momentum in stocks, but this can be very tough to define. There is great debate regarding which metrics are the best to focus on in this regard, and which are not really quality indicators of future performance. Fortunately, with our new style score systemwe have identified the key statistics to pay close attention to and thus which stocks might be the best for momentum investors in the near term.

This method discovered several great candidates for momentum-oriented investors, but today lets focus in on LeMaitre Vascular, Inc. LMAT as this stock is looking especially impressive right now. And while there are numerous ways in which this company could be a great choice, we have highlighted three of the most vital reasons for LMATs status as a solid momentum stock below:

Short Term Price Change for LeMaitre Vascular

A great place to look for finding momentum stocks is by inspecting short term price activity. This can help to reflect the current interest in a stock and if buyers or sellers have the upper hand right now. It is especially useful to compare it to the industry as this can help investors pinpoint the top companies in a particular area.

With a one week price change of 11.47% compared to an industry average of -1.49%, LMAT is certainly well-positioned in this regard. The stock is also looking quite well from a longer time frame too, as the four week price change compares favorably with the industry at large as well.

Quarter EPS Estimate Change for LeMaitre Vascular

While looking at price performance or full year earnings can be essential to understanding a momentum stock, you shouldnt forget about the current quarter EPS and the trend in estimates there. This change can signal how a stock might perform in the next earnings season which is obviously vital for momentum investors.

Right now, LMAT is seeing a nice trend over the past month when it comes to this quarters earnings estimate projections. In the time frame, EPS estimates for LeMaitre Vascularhave gone up by 43.64% compared to an industry average move of 3.15%, suggesting that not only is LMAT heading in the right direction, but it is seeing an increase relative to the industry too.

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LMAT Earnings Estimate Revisions Moving in the Right Direction

While the great momentum factors outlined in the preceding paragraphs might be enough for some investors, we should also take into account broad earnings estimate revision trends. A nice path here can really help to show us a promising stock, and we have actually been seeing that with LMAT as of late too.

Over the past two months, 4 earnings estimate have gone higher compared to none lower for the full year, while we are also seeing that 4 estimates have moved upwards with no downward revisions for the next year time frame too. These revisions have helped to boost the consensus estimate as two months ago LMAT was expected to post earnings of 48 cents/share for the full year, though today it looks to have EPS of 55 cents for the full year now, representing a solid increase which is something that should definitely be welcomed news to would-be investors.

LEMAITRE VASCLR Price and Consensus

LEMAITRE VASCLR Price and Consensus | LEMAITRE VASCLR Quote

Bottom Line

Given these factors, investors shouldnt be surprised to note that we have LMAT as a security with a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and a Momentum Score of B.You can seethe complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

So if you are looking for a fresh pick that has potential to move in the right direction, definitely keep LMAT on your short list as this looks be a stock that is very well-positioned to soar in the near term.

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Hands up if you miss Tommy Shelby? Me too. But until we get season 4 and 5 of Peaky Blinders, well just have to make do with seeing what else angel-faced Cillian Murphy has been up to when not filming the Brummie gangster epic. And it turns out hes keeping himself rather busy with 5 films on the way starring the ice cold blue-eyed Irish bad boy.

Murphy continues to make excellent, interesting choices in his movie career continuing his run of movies with director Christopher Nolan and collaborating with exciting upcoming directors like Ben Wheatley in a film that got the crowds in awe at the Toronto Film Festival. But first to a film you can catch right now in cinemas:



3. Anthropoid

Starring Murphy and Mr Christian Grey himself Jamie Dornan, this one certainly has sex appeal written all over it. Turns out Anthropoid is a little more serious than that though with Murphy and Dornan teaming up as Czech resistance fighters out to assassinate an SS general in World War 2. Yes that means there will be dodgy accents aplenty but reviews suggest that this is a based on a true story account that keeps the tension mounting throughout. It will be nice to see Murphy play the good guy for a change too. Watch the trailer:

2. Free Fire

This is the one that has got the lucky crowds at the Toronto International Film Festival buzzing. Director Ben Wheatley has made a series of wonderfully odd little films to date, but Free Fire is the one that is likely to see his career explode (in a good way). Murphy is a part of a smashing ensemble cast including Brie Larson, Sharlto Copley and Armie Hammer and the 70s set film has been excitingly labelled a feature-length shootout. It doesnt sound much like there are going to be any good guys in this movie so expect maybe a little peek at Murphy in Tommy Shelby dead-eyed mode here and also a Peaky Blinders reunion of Murphy and Noah Taylor who played the ruthless Darby Sabini. Red band trailer alert!



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1. Dunkirk

Im afraid theres a little bit more of a wait for this one, but when it lands in 2017, Dunkirk is going to be huge. Its got Christopher Nolan on directing duties, one of the most famous stories of WW2 to deliver and One Direction star Harry Styles making his feature film acting debut. Murphy and Styles are also joined in the cast by Tom Hardy (another Peaky Blinders reunion), Oscar winner Mark Rylance and Kenneth Branagh. If all goes to plan and Nolan delivers another masterpiece, Im calling it now; Dunkirk could be as huge as Titanic. If not, and its a disaster, well at least well always have a couple more seasons of Peaky Blinders. Bombs away:

Which one are you most looking forward to? Or do you just wish Murphy would get back to chain-smoking in Tommy Shelbys dapper outfits?


NBC Sports Philadelphia

The big hit eluded the Phillies in Game 2 of the World Series against Astros lefty Framber Valdez, who was filthy. Was he, perhaps, too filthy? Here's what the Phils had to say about Valdez' curious mannerisms on the mound. By Corey Seidman
By PTI: New Delhi, Sep 12 (PTI) Shares of construction firm Jaypee Infratech today declined by nearly 8 per cent after the company reported a loss of Rs 35.6 crore for the first quarter ended June 30.

The scrip settled the day with a loss of 7.20 per cent at Rs 9.15 on BSE. During the day, it fell by 8.72 per cent to Rs 9.

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At NSE, shares of the company tanked 7.57 per cent to end at Rs 9.15.

In terms of volume, 6.89 lakh shares of the company were traded on BSE and over 11 lakh shares changed hands at NSE during the day.

The company had a net profit of Rs 20.8 crore in the April-June period of 2015.

However, total income rose to Rs 1,099.3 crore in the first quarter of current fiscal from Rs 514.5 crore in the year-ago period, Jaypee Infratech said in a regulatory filing on Saturday. PTI SUM ABI

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When choosing an online program, Krishna Jackson of La Mesa, California, wanted flexibility, access to a campus and a bachelor's degree in communications. Her education through the University of Phoenix, which combined online and on-site coursework, gave her all of that, she says.

While online, for-profit programs face criticism for low graduation rates and questionable recruitment practices, the recent alumna says she was satisfied with her education.

"I had to consider a program where I could work and go to school, and I could jump right in," she says.

She also considered San Diego State University but says the application required more preparation. She was able to apply and start at the University of Phoenix almost instantly.

Even as enrollment in online, for-profit programs falls, some students like Jackson still find value in pursuing these degrees. Experts say quality varies in the sector, just as it does among online programs at public and nonprofit private universities.



[Explore ways to vet a for-profit online program.]

"I don't know if the corporate designation alone really tells you much" about overall quality of an education, says David Deming, a professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education who researches for-profits. "I'd look more at the substance of the school and what it's offering."

Though prospective online learners should evaluate programs individually, they should know these four facts about online, for-profit education to determine if it's right for them.

1. The application process is often less competitive than at public and private universities. As Jackson experienced, admission to an online, for-profit program was easier and quicker than it is at a traditional university, either on-ground or online.

In many cases, online programs are less competitive than on ground because physical space constraints typically don't limit enrollment, says Kevin Kinser, professor and head of the education policy studies department at Pennsylvania State University, who studies for-profit schools. But this is even more so the case among for-profits, he says.

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At public and private nonprofit universities, "There's more of a tradition of selectivity in admissions, in making sure students have the ability to succeed in the online environment, that may result in there being a more restrictive admission policy compared with the for-profits," Kinser says.

Many online, for-profit undergrad and some graduate programs have open admission, meaning those who meet specific requirements are generally admitted, experts say. That's the case for programs at all levels at the for-profit Kaplan University, which offers online and on-campus programs, says Sara Sander, dean and vice president of the school's College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

This approach makes sense for for-profits because they make more money by enrolling more students, Kinser says.

Deming, from Harvard, says for-profits might also attract those who find the application process more complex, like first-generation college students.

2. Some have close connections to employers. Though employers overall hold mixed opinions about online, for-profit programs, many for-profits foster relationships with companies to make jobs more accessible to alumni and help shape their curriculum.



[Learn how employers view online, for-profit bachelor's degrees.]

Kaplan, for example, partners with companies that provide externships for students, Sander says. These companies then might send their employees to Kaplan to advance their careers.

The University of Phoenix also collaborates with employers to determine what industry-specific skills to teach students, says Ruth Veloria, executive dean of the business school.

"We are very focused on that career relevance in the content," she says.

These employer relationships used to be very common among for-profits, and then for a while "sort of faded away," Kinser says. Now they are becoming popular again.

"Institutions are being held accountable for the employment of their students after they graduate in ways they weren't previously," Kinser says.

3. Online, for-profit programs are more likely to be nationally than regionally accredited. Many experts say employers prefer degrees from regionally-accredited schools, as do reputable public and private universities -- which are usually regionally accredited -- when it comes to course credits, if a student transfers.

Some major for-profits do have regional accreditation, however, Kinser says.

Applicants should determine which organization accredits an online program -- information that usually can be found online -- and see what other schools they accredit before enrolling, Deming says.

"I think it's fair to say, if schools are not regionally accredited, it's because they couldn't get regionally accredited, and so they're only nationally accredited," he says.

[Discover what to ask before enrolling in a for-profit online program.]

4. Students may be less likely to develop a regional job network. While career support varies among online, for-profit programs, these institutions may be less likely to provide students with the local job connections they might get through public or private universities, whether on campus or online.

"Public and private nonprofits tend to be very focused in a particular community and have long histories in that community," which might benefit students looking for a job where they're living, Kinser says. Many of today's online students, he says, pick programs based near their home for access to on-campus resources.

Trying to fund your online education? Get tips and more in the U.S. News Paying for Online Education center.

Jordan Friedman is an online education editor at U.S. News. You can follow him on Twitter or email him at jfriedman@usnews.com.


Seoul (AFP) - A powerful 5.4-magnitude earthquake hit the southern region of South Korea Monday evening, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, following an earlier quake of 4.9-magnitude.

The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) put the second tremor higher than USGS, at 5.8-magnitude, describing it as the "biggest ever".

"It was the biggest quake ever to hit the country," Yoo Yong-Gyu, a KMA official, told reporters, adding the tremor was "felt all across the country".

Two people have been reported injured, he said, citing data from emergency rescue authorities.

The previous record in the South was a 5.2-magnitude quake that hit the sea off the southeastern port of Uljin in 2004 and a quake of equal magnitude in the eastern mountainous region of Sokri in 1978.

Monday's second quake hit at around 8:30 pm (1130 GMT), with the epicentre near the southeastern city of Gyeongju, the KMA said.

On Friday USGS reported a 5.3-magnitude "artificial earthquake" in North Korea, that was in fact a nuclear test.

Emergency centres across the South were flooded by tens of thousands of calls seeking information, Yonhap news agency said, adding train services in some regions were temporarily delayed.

Local nuclear reactors were operating without disruption, it said, citing officials at Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power.

The country's largest mobile app used by 40 million -- KakaoTalk -- partially went down with many unable to access the service, the company said, apparently due to heavy traffic.

The country's social media was also flooded with images of shattered storefront windows and people rushing out of buildings and apartments in panic, some with children in arms.

TV stations showed video footage of computers violently shaking at a local Internet cafe, students rushing out of schools, and products falling off shelves at a store.
With more than a third of the global sovereign bonds market offering negative yields, it's no surprise that investors have flocked to any source for cash yield.

The global hunt for yield has pushed prices up and rates down for everything from bonds to dividend stocks. You see it in the yield on the 10-year Treasury, which has fallen 1.26% over the last three years despite the fact that the Fed is aggressively trying to prepare investors for an increase in the Fed Funds Rate. You also see it in valuations for traditional dividend-paying sectors.

Traditional dividend picks in consumer staples and utilities are trading well above historic valuation multiples, creating a bubble that is destroying conventional views on safety sectors. The consumer staples sector is trading for almost 21-times expected earnings over the next year, a premium of 25% over its 10-year average, while utilities are trading 22% over their average at 17.8-times forward earnings.

Those safety sectors offered no shelter in Friday's 2.45% selloff in the S&P 500. Utilities fell more than any other sector with a 3.75% plunge on rate fears, and consumer staples underperformed the market with a 2.71% loss on the day.

In fact, the loss on the Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSE: XLU) more than wiped out the annual 3.3% yield on the fund. The fund is still up 12% this year, but might have a tough time posting further gains against the potential for higher rates.

This investor herding into traditional yield plays is even more surprising when you consider the value available in other sectors.

Looking Outside Traditional Dividend Sectors For Cheaper Yield

Investors can still find value and yield by looking outside some of the traditional dividend sectors. The benefit to looking off the beaten path for yields is more than just cheaper valuations. Looking across multiple sectors and industries carries the added bonus of diversification in returns.

I found five names that are best-of-breed companies within their industries, and have the fundamentals to protect high dividend yields. Each company has a competitive advantage that will protect cash flow even if the rest of the market stumbles.

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[More from StreetAuthority.com: The Hottest Trend In Electronics Isn't Wearables]

Dividends at the five companies below are covered by an average of 187% by free cash flow and all five have aggressively repurchased shares. In the event of further market weakness or an economic recession, these five will be able to reduce repurchases to protect cash flow and even grow their dividend.

HollyFrontier (NYSE: HFC) is the largest independent refiner in the mid-continent region, with some facilities in the Rockies and Southwest as well. The company benefits from discount crude prices in its regions, relative to Gulf Coast prices, especially due to its proximity to Canadian oil sands producers. The improving Brent-WTI spread since July should lead to better profitability and cash flow.

Free cash flow covered the dividend by 123% last year, even as other oil companies watched cash flow evaporate due to lower crude prices. The company also owns a 39% stake in Holly Energy Partners, a pipeline and terminals MLP, which provides cash flow on volume deliveries rather than on strength in oil prices. While earnings have come down recently, the company is still generating over $700 million in operational cash flow. Combined with the dividend, the company returned $990 million to shareholders last year, over 22% of its market cap.

Earnings are expected to bottom 29% lower to $1.63 per share over the next year, which still puts the shares relatively cheap at 15-times expected earnings. The continued advantage on the Brent-WTI spread will drive earnings and stabilization in the industry could improve sentiment for a target of $28.85 per share over the next year.

Invesco (NYSE: IVZ) is a mid-market asset manager with $780 billion in assets under management. Despite the sale of its Atlantic Trust business, the company's assets under management (AUM) have grown 2.3% annually over the last five years. AUM growth is important for asset managers because it's their main source of fee-related revenue.

Shares took a hit on the Brexit vote, with 23% of managed assets tied to the European market, but are rebounding as the shock of the vote lifts. Free cash flow covered the dividend by 204% last year and nearly $550 million was returned through the buyback, boosting the total yield by 4.3% on top of the 3.5% dividend.

Earnings are expected almost 10% higher to $2.46 per share over the next year. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of the firm's actively managed AUM has outperformed peers on a five-year basis and should keep inflows growing. Continued AUM growth could push earnings above expectations and the shares should reach $35 each over the next year on a consistent 14-times multiple.

[More from StreetAuthority.com: This Well-Known Toymaker Is Poised For A Big Rebound]

Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) is one the world's largest pharmaceutical firms, with nearly $50 billion in annual sales and the economies of scale to support a huge salesforce. The company has worked through the bulk of its near-term patent expirations, with only Viagra coming off protection in 2017.

Pfizer is a cash machine, generating $13 billion in free cash and covering the dividend by 188% last year. The company has scaled back its R&D spending which could drive cash flow even higher over the next couple of years. Pfizer returned another $6.2 billion through its share buyback program in 2015, for a 2.9% yield beyond the 3.5% dividend yield.

Earnings are expected 2.5% higher to $2.50 per share over the next year, but the company has a strong history for beating expectations, missing only once in the last 16 quarters. Shares fell from the 52-week high in August, representing a buying opportunity on the $38.25 per share target at 15-times forward earnings of $2.55 per share.

Emerson Electric (NYSE: EMR) could almost double its market share to 13% in the final control segment of the industrial automation market with its acquisition of Pentair's valves and control business. The $3.15 billion acquisition is expected to be paid for completely through estimated after-tax proceeds of $4.3 billion in divestitures of non-core products.

Free cash flow covered the dividend by 145% last year even as energy-related business stumbled. The company returned $2.5 billion to shareholders through the buyback last year for a 7.4% yield on top of the 3.6% dividend yield.

Shares trade for 18-times trailing earnings with profits expected 1.5% higher to $2.95 per share over the next year. Shares could climb 7.7% higher to my target of $57 on a slight earnings beat and the five-year average multiple of 19-times earnings for a total return of 11% over the next year.

[More from StreetAuthority.com: My Absolute Favorite Pharma Stock Right Now]

Carnival Corp (NYSE: CCL) is the largest company in the cruise industry and enjoys strong demographic tailwinds. Only half of the industry's addressable market has ever taken a cruise, and the retiring baby boomers represent a huge opportunity. Free cash flow covered the dividend by 276% last year and operational cash flow has surged 60% over the last two years.

The company has boosted its buyback program, returning $1.9 billion to investors over the last year for a 7.2% yield on top of the 2.9% dividend yield. Earnings are expected to jump 10% to $3.45 per share over the next year and the shares could regain this year's high around $52.75 on stronger sentiment and earnings.

Risks To Consider: While fundamentals are strong at all five companies, high dividend payouts may limit share price appreciation in a low economic growth environment.

Action To Take: Find value and yield outside the traditional dividend-paying sectors in these five names for potential upside appreciation and market-beating payouts.

Editor's Note: Most people think you have to sacrifice growth for income. But we're holding 23 monthly dividend payers... and have seen our portfolio grow 50%. Get all the details here, including names and ticker symbols.

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Six years ago, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest for opposing one of the worlds most brutal military regimes. Today, at 71, she is the de-facto leader of a newly-democratic Burma.

Suu Kyi will arrive in Washington D.C. on Sept. 14 to meet with President Barack Obama, Vice-President Joe Biden, members of Congress and business leaders. Much has changed since her last visit in 2012, shortly after her release from detention.

Hundreds of political prisoners have been freed, a peace process is underway to resolve one of the worlds longest civil wars, and a historic election last November peacefully unseated a military-backed government. Suu Kyis final U.S. visit before Obama leaves office will close one more chapter in Burmas dramatic narrative of democratic awakening. Heres what you need to know:

Shes in charge now. Sort of

Suu Kyi and her party the National League for Democracy (NLD) took power in April after a landslide win in November elections last year  the countrys first freely contested vote in 25 years. Despite her popularity, the countrys military-drafted constitution bars her from becoming President. So, she invented a new role for herself  that of state counselor  with powers beyond the presidency.

Read More: 5 Challenges Facing Burmas New Civilian Government

Suu Kyi installed her close friend and ally, Htin Kyaw, as head of state, and appointed herself as both minister of the presidents office and foreign affairs. Her role as state counselor is similar to a prime minister; it gives her broad access to all branches of the government. President Htin Kyaw and the majority of the new parliament are viewed as loyal party members that dutifully execute her policies.

Her chief limitation is that her powers dont extend to the armed forces, which still has control of three key ministries: home affairs, border affairs and defense. Burmas army, known locally as the Tatmadaw, also enjoys a guaranteed quarter of parliamentary seats and thus the generals have veto power over any proposed changes to the countrys constitution.

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She holds the keys to U.S. sanctions relief

Burma, officially known as Myanmar, has been subject to crushing economic sanctions since the mid-1990s, which were put in place to punish the regime for human rights abuses. An arms embargo, a ban on jade and ruby imports and a targeted blacklist of individuals and entities are still in effect.

Suu Kyi is the single biggest influence on American sanctions policy towards Burma. In 2012, Obama announced that sanctions would be eased as a reward for democratic reforms. In May, the U.S. tweaked certain sanctions to encourage foreign investment and financial reform in the frontier market of 51 million people.

Read More: Burmas Democratic Transition Isnt Enough to Get Most U.S. Sanctions Lifted

The steps were designed overall to help remove some of the obstacles to economic growth and maintain the overall authority for the sanctions, U.S. Ambassador to Burma Scot Marciel told TIME in May, because, obviously the democratic transition is still incomplete.

Some local and foreign businesspeople have recommended lifting all remaining sanctions. Opposition lawmakers even tabled a request in parliament last month to petition the U.S. for a blanket removal of all sanctions on the grounds that they were crippling development. Rights groups advocate for keeping most remaining sanctions in place to maintain leverage over the military.

Burmas democratic opening is viewed as Hillary Clintons big foreign policy win

While reopening diplomatic and economic ties to Burma in 2012 initially caused controversy  it meant dealing with a military that has been accused of war crimes and ongoing human rights violations  most experts now agree that it was the right thing to do.

Americas re-engagement policy began during Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clintons tenure as Secretary of State. An entire chapter of her memoir, Hard Choices, is devoted to Burmas democratic transition. She has referred to Suu Kyi as a friend, and even made a reference to her role in Burma during her 11-hour Benghazi hearing.

I worked with Republican leader, Senator Mitch McConnell, to open up Burma, now Myanmar, to find democratic change, she said in her opening remarks.

The pair have met at least three times since 2011, when Clinton became the first U.S. Secretary of State to visit Burma since 1955. A Clinton presidency would be viewed favorably by many people in Burma, as she is expected to maintain Obamas Asia rebalance policy. A spokesperson for Burmas ministry of foreign affairs, Aye Aye Soe, told TIME that she was unaware of any plans for Suu Kyi to meet with Clinton while in the U.S.

But it is viewed as a loss for China

Over the course of 60 years of military rule, in which the Southeast Asian nation isolated itself from the West, Burmas military government forged close ties with neighboring Beijing. China is Burmas biggest trading partner; the two share a long and porous land border. But opening up to the rest of the world has challenged Chinas dominance in resource-rich Burma.

Shortly before handing over power to a quasi-civilian government, the Burmese regime signed deals with Beijing for major energy projects, including gas and oil pipelines and a number of mega-dams meant to power parts of Chinas southern Yunnan province. Frustratingly for Beijing, some of those agreements may be reconsidered as Burma diversifies its allies and streamlines investment policy.

Read More: Aung San Suu Kyi Seeks Elusive Peace in Burma With Panglong Summit

The most high-profile example is the Myitsone hydropower project in northern Burmas Kachin State, where ethnic rebels are still at war with the central government. The project was put on hold by former President Thein Sein, and now Suu Kyi is left with the awkward task of either allowing China to proceed with the highly unpopular development or reneging on the deal.

Richard Horsey, an independent political analyst based in Rangoon, told TIME via email that Burmas improved relations with the U.S. are cause for concern in some policy circles in Beijing, but that ultimately Suu Kyi has been able to convince Chinas leaders that there is no contradiction between being sensitive to Chinas interests and closer U.S. relations.

A litany of challenges await back at home



Suu Kyi will return to Burma with stronger ties to both the U.S. and the U.K.  where she is reportedly meeting Prime Minister Theresa May before arriving in the U.S. And she will need them.

Decades of corrupt, authoritarian rule destroyed the economy, health and education systems, and the population faces a drug crisis as the worlds second-largest source of opiates.

While rich in resources such as gems, timber, coal and natural gas, Burma is one of Asias poorest and least developed countries. Most of the nations resources are located in areas populated by ethnic minorities, where more than 20 armed resistance groups have been vying for autonomy for decades. A peace process that was started under Thein Sein culminated in a partial ceasefire agreement in October last year, but the pact was mostly symbolic. Suu Kyi has recently resumed the talks, but fighting still flares in the east and northern reaches of the country.

Read More: Burmas Transition to Civilian Rule Hasnt Stopped the Abuses of Its Ethnic Wars

On Burmas western shore, almost a million Rohingya Muslims remain stateless. Communal violence that flared up in 2012 has left more than 100,000 Rohingya in squalid displacement camps, where conditions are so dire that many have chosen to flee on dangerous boat journeys.

The human rights challenges facing Burma will be the same when Suu Kyi returns from her U.S. trip as when she left, David Scott Mathieson, a senior Burma researcher for Human Rights Watch, told TIME, but she will return to them most likely buoyed by increased international support for what she has achieved so far.
NEW YORK, Sept 12 (Reuters) - A team of seven financial advisers that managed $2.2 billion at Morgan Stanley left the Wall Street brokerage to launch their own wealth management group, one of the largest number of people to break away from a big firm in recent months.

The Wichita, Kansas-based group, which was known as the Kirk Bahm Group at Morgan Stanley, decamped to open 6 Meridian on Friday. The move was led by Margaret Dechant, now 6 Meridian's chief executive officer. She is joined by her former Morgan colleagues Tom Kirk, Andrew Mies, Bryan Green, Steve Bahm, Pam Smith, Sarah Hampton and six support staff.

Morgan Stanley spokeswoman Christine Jockle confirmed the group left the firm but declined to comment further.

At Morgan, the seven-broker group was one of the firm's largest discretionary portfolio management teams. They handled investments for high net worth corporate executives and entrepreneurs, clients they will likely try to persuade to follow them to their new business.

The group went independent in part to create and launch their own investment vehicles, in addition to working with third-party investment managers, according to the firm's statement.

(Reporting By Elizabeth Dilts; Editing by Bernard Orr)
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When you think of people recording a podcast, two white dudes with thick-rimmed glasses and button down shirts huddling over a microphone probably come to mind.

But it's 2016, and one of the best parts of the internet is that it's a vessel for celebrating diversity, and there are numerous podcasts that celebrate intersectional feminism.

If you want to get hype about intersectional feminism or are looking for a way to learn more about it, these awesome women-hosted podcasts are exactly what you need.

SEE ALSO: 9 true-crime podcasts you should download immediately

Hosted by Jessica Williams (formerly of The Daily Show) and comedian Phoebe Robinson, 2 Dope Queens features interviews with comedians, "about sex, romance, race, hair journeys, living in New York and Billy Joel," according to WNYC's website.

2 Dope Queens has a few live shows coming up at The Bell House in Brooklyn, New York, through out the fall. The podcast is available on WYNC's website and iTunes.

The Soul Glo Project is a variety show and podcast hosted by comedians Keisha Zollar, Anna Suzuki and Emily Schorr Lesnick. The women work to change the culture of comedy as they interview a variety of guests, and many episodes are delightfully 50 percent talking and 50 percent laughing. "Soul Glo is important right now because we are pushing the conversation from numerical diversity to celebration and inclusion," Zollar wrote in an email to Mashable. "We provide space to talented, interesting, complex humans who should be seen, heard, and supported."

The Soul Glo Project is available on SoundCloud and iTunes.

Comedian Phoebe Robinson of 2 Dope Queens recently launched a new podcast titled Sooo Many White Guys, executive produced by Ilana Glazer. According to WNYC Studios' press release, the podcast highlights, "trailblazing women, people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community." You'll want to make it to the final episode of the series when Robinson will turn the tables and interview one "token white guy."

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Sooo Many White Guys ended its initial run on August 30, 2016. It is still available on WNYC's website and iTunes.

According to their website, .femm is a "feminist cyberqueer nerd palooza." It's hosted by self-identified trans geeks Hannah Patellis and Dany Gonzalez, who share personal stories about being transgender and discuss topics including art, technology and intersectional feminism.

Get your .femm on via Stitcher and iTunes.

Jamie Broadnax started the podcast Black Girl Nerds after she Googled the phrase in 2012 and nothing came up. According to their website, Black Girl Nerds is, "a place for women of color with various eccentricities to express themselves freely and embrace who they are." In regards to the title, Broadnax says, "It is a term of endearment to all women like me who have been attached to a stigma that is not an accurate representation of my personality or my idiosyncratic behaviors."

Black Girl Nerds is available for streaming on SoundCloud and on iTunes.

NPR's Code Switch is hosted by a team of seven journalists covering race, ethnicity and culture. According to their website, "Over the next few decades, people of color will come to compose a majority of the country's population, a transition that's already happened among the nation's youngest residents."

Code Switch covers that transition and other topics with the, "depth, nuance, intelligence and comprehensiveness they deserve."

Code Switch can be streamed on NPR's website and iTunes.

How to Be a Girl is hosted by single mom Marlo Mack (a pseudonym). She shares stories about her 8-year-old trans daughter, who sometimes speaks on the show as well. Mack also analyzes political issues such as bathroom bills on the podcast as well as her blog, gendermom.

How to Be a Girl is available on their website and iTunes.

Black Girls Talking is a podcast and blog, "wherein black women discuss the intersections of life, pop culture and body oils," according to their website. They do this by interviewing guests and analyzing the ways people of color are represented in various media.

Black Girls Talking is available on SoundCloud and iTunes.

Long-distance best friends Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow catch up on the phone every week to discuss pop culture and politics through a feminist lens. Then, they release each call as a podcast episode. Sometimes they "phone-a-friend" and interview another fabulous woman. The podcast celebrates the power of female friendship, and the best part is that their monthly newsletter is called "The Bleed."

Call Your Girlfriend can be enjoyed via Stitcher and iTunes.
For the last nine years, a little girl in suburban Long Island born with a cleft lip has been raising thousands of dollars for babies born just like her.

Ella Pastorellis lemonade stand has taken in more than $120,000, her mother estimates.

Read: Family Who Took In Friend's 6 Kids After Her Death Is Surprised With $90,000 College Fund

Its crazy, the New York mom told InsideEdition.com Monday.

The annual event is held on Ellas birthday. On Sunday, Ellas lemonade stand raised $19,000.

The gathering is more community picnic than lone lemonade table, with folks "hanging out, bouncing on the bouncy house, having something to eat" Pastorelli said. Some 200 people dropped by.

Ella was out there all day, her mom said, playing with friends and helping gather donations. The money doesnt just come from lemonade purchases.

Someone just dropped off $100 and said, I like what youre doing, Pastorelli said. She has no idea who he was. Thats a lot of money for someone to give.

Giving is also what the Pastorellis do.

Every cent of the money they raise goes to Smile Train, an international charity that provides free surgeries to children with cleft lips and cleft palates. The procedures can cost as little as $250.

When Pastorelli was pregnant with Ella, she learned her daughter had a cleft lip. It was repaired in surgery that Ella had as a baby, but she remains dedicated to the cause.

Read: After Grandma Said She Wished Life Was a Musical, Family Surprises Her With Birthday Flash Mob

We learned about it, she said of the condition, in which the lip is separated, or in the case of a cleft palate, where the roof of the mouth is affected. They also learned about the Smile Train organization.

We couldnt imagine not having the means to fix something for your child, Pastorelli said. Weve been involved ever since.

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Ella and her parents have been hawking lemonade since her first birthday, when they raised $500.

This year, Pastorelli said she asked her daughter if she really wanted to have the event on her ninth birthday.

I dont want to make her do it on her birthday if she doesnt want to. But she wants to. She loves it, her mom said.

Watch: Teachers Welcome Students by Dancing and Singing Outside School

Related Articles:
The trial for Hubert Zafke, a 95-year-old former Nazi medic at the Auschwitz concentration camp, opened on Monday after multiple delays this year over his health.

Zafke was scheduled to go on trial in February at the Neubrandenberg state court, but the proceeding was postponed three times after a presiding judge said Zafke was not well enough to participate, based on a doctors finding. Among other health issues, Zafke suffers from stress and high blood pressure and had suicidal thoughts, according to the Associated Press. A judge ruled that the trial could proceed following a medical exam Zafke received on Monday morning.

Zafke was charged with 3,681 counts of accessory to murder, on the grounds that he witnessed prisoners being sent to their deaths at Auschwitz. The charges center on a monthlong period in 1944, involving the deaths of Jewish people who arrived in 14 train transports, including Anne Frank and her family. Zafke is not charged in Franks death because she died later after being moved to another concentration camp.

Zafkes trial is the latest in a string of trials for the worlds last living Nazis who carried out crimes during the Holocaust.
Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing," days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a similar allegation.

The remarks follow Netanyahu's claim during an address rejecting criticism of Israeli settlement building that the Palestinians were seeking a state with "no Jews".

Netanyahu called that "ethnic cleansing," drawing a strong rebuke from the United States.

Speaking on Sunday night before the Eid al-Adha Muslim festival, Abbas said the Israelis "don't want to progress one iota towards peace, in spite of their deceptive allegations."

"On the contrary, they go deeper with their settlements, infringement of holy places, ethnic cleansing and deliberate killing," he said, according to official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

In a video address on Friday, Netanyahu said that the Palestinian leadership wanted a state on the basis of "no Jews."

"There's a phrase for that, it is called ethnic cleansing," he said.

The US State Department called the video "unhelpful" and "inappropriate".

"We obviously strongly disagree with the characterisation that those who oppose settlement activity or view it as an obstacle to peace are somehow calling for ethnic cleansing of Jews from the West Bank," spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said.

The Palestinian leader has made the allegation against Israel before.

Palestinians accuse Israel of ethnic cleansing during the war surrounding the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, a claim Israel denies.

In his Eid address, Abbas also reiterated he was in favour of meeting Netanyahu in Russia, with President Vladimir Putin looking to mediate between the two sides.

Netanyahu has said he is ready to meet Abbas anywhere and at any time, but without preconditions.

Abbas did not say whether he had preconditions, but in the past the Palestinians have demanded a freeze in Israeli settlement building, a deadline for the end of the occupation of the West Bank and the release of prisoners.

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"In recent days, we have agreed to a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the kind invitation of the Russian president," Abbas said.

Netanyahu again spoke of such a meeting as he met Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel in Jerusalem on Monday.

"Prime Minister Bettel invited me to Luxembourg but he also said maybe the Palestinians will come there," Netanyahu said.

"Well, it's either Moscow or Luxembourg. We'll see, one of them or anywhere else. We're always prepared to have direct negotiations without preconditions."

The last substantial public meeting between Abbas and Netanyahu is thought to have been in 2010, though there have been unconfirmed reports of secret meetings since then.

Peace efforts have been at a standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014.
While Supporting Stand up Comedian Kapil Sharma on one hand , Congress is using this opportunity to corner the BJP-led government in Maharashtra.

By Kamlesh Damodar Sutar: While Supporting Stand up Comedian Kapil Sharma on one hand , Congress is using this opportunity to corner the BJP led government in Maharashtra.

Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam today wrote to Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao and demanded a high-level probe into allegations of corruption against BMC officials made by comedian Kapil Sharma last week.

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BURDEN OF PROOF ON KAPIL SHARMA

In a letter written to the Governor, Nirupam said, "The Chief Minister, instead of setting up an inquiry by the Anti-Corruption Bureau, has conveniently put the onus of providing proof on Kapil Sharma who is the whistle blower in this case".

Nirupam added that Kapil is targeted by parties like Shiv Sena, BJP and MNS only because he is a soft target as an artist. The sole intention of these elements is to suppress an all important issue of corruption.

Nirupam has also urged the governor to direct Fadnavis to institute either an inquiry by the Anti Corruption Bureau or set up a judicial inquiry into Kapil's allegations and cleanse the BMC of corrupt practices.

SACHIN SAWANT'S CHALLENGE

Meanwhile Congress Spokesperson Sachin Sawant has challenged BJP MLA Ram Kadam to hold protests outside State Irrigation Minister Girish Mahajans house. "Mahajan in 2014 had revealed that he was offered a bribe of 100 crore rupees by an Irrigation contractor, which he declined.

But Mahajan till date has not revealed the names of the contractors. We had approached the ACB to file a complaint in this regard. The CM should also order a probe into this and ask Mahajan to reveal the names", said Sawant.

Sawant challenged Ram Kadam to hold similar demonstrations outside Girish Mahajans house.



ALSO READ:

With tweet backfiring, Kapil Sharma now seeks meeting with CM Fadnavis

Comedian Kapil Sharma booked for destroying mangroves





--- ENDS ---
gabrielle union

Gabrielle Union has a small but powerful part in the upcoming film "The Birth of a Nation," and she's become a key player in the media storm swirling around it, too.

Following the surfacing of a rape accusation against director Nate Parker, dating back to his time in college, as well as news that the woman who accused him had killed herself, many have become easy with the rollout of the movie, which won the top prize at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and is expected to be an awards contender.

Union recently wrote an op-ed about the issue, saying, "I cannot take these allegations lightly." She also revealed that she herself is a rape survivor. In "Birth of a Nation," she plays a slave who is raped.

At the Toronto International Film Festival, where "Birth of a Nation" is currently playing, she articulately defended the film in a press conference, as Vulture reports, and attempted to persuade those protesting the film because of the rape charges to see it for themselves.

Were not creating a movie, were creating a movement, Union said. If you were confused why Ryan Lochte was called a child, was referred to as a kid, and was celebrated and rewarded with a 'Dancing with the Stars' appearance, but youre wondering why Tamir Rice was never referred to as a child but murdered within seconds for acting like a child, and you have a problem with that, this movie is for you as well. If youre a decent human being who wants to take part in a conversation at the very least about things that bug the crap out of you, this movie is for you as well, and I hope you dont sit it out.

When asked about the reaction to her op-ed, Union said, five percent feels I threw Nate under the bus, and five percent feels Im a rape apologist.

She explained why the negativity on both sides doesn't deter her from speaking her mind:

Every time I talk about sexual violence I want to puke, she said. Theres never been a time in the last 23 years where I did not want to vomit, but my personal discomfort is nothing compared to being a voice for people who feel absolutely voiceless and powerless... So if theres any message I can give anyone whos ever sat in my seat, its You are not broken, you are not alone, you have a tremendous amount of support. Whether you speak out or you opt to keep your pain personal, you are real, you are valid, you are loved, and you are worthwhile.

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NOW WATCH: An aspiring cop went undercover in a jail and says inmates have more power than guards





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The true story of a young boy separated from his family and his 25-year journey to find them in Garth Davis's first film "Lion" roared at the Toronto film festival Sunday.

Adapted from Saroo Brierley's autobiography "A Long Way Home," the film stars Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara, who is also appearing at the festival in "Una" and "The Secret Scripture."

It sees Saroo, a precocious five-year-old who follows his older brother around everywhere, become separated from him one night on a train platform in their native Madhya Pradesh.

Soon, Saroo finds himself nearly a thousand miles away in Calcutta, where he does not speak the language.

There, he is picked up off the streets and placed in a government orphanage before being sent to Australia for adoption.

In his twenties, living in Tasmania, Saroo starts to wonder what happened to his brother and birth mother, and so begins an obsessive search.

He scours satellite imagery and online maps to try to locate his hometown, matching landmarks to childhood memories.

But delving into the past threatens the present, and he becomes adrift.

"He had his past family and his present family and when Saroo starts to search and becomes obsessed, you start to see a tug-o-war between his choices: choosing the past you sacrifice the present," Davis said.

The film marks Patel's return to the Canadian city that launched his film career.

Director Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire," which starred Patel as a teenager from the slums of Mumbai accused of cheating on a television game show, won the Toronto film festival audience prize for best picture in 2008 before going on to win an Oscar.

"I rocked up here with 'Slumdog' in my school shoes and a borrowed suit and it's good to be back here with a bit of facial hair with this (film)," Patel told a press conference.

The Briton said in the years since "Slumdog," he has made four more movies in "beautifully chaotic" India that gave him an appreciation of his ethnic roots.

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"It's weird, because I spent most of my existence in school (in Britain) trying to shun my heritage to avoid getting beaten up or bullied and just to fit in," he said.

"And then I discovered India with Danny Boyle and I was completely struck by lightning. It's just so enthralling to me," Patel added.

"It sounds so cliche but I understand myself and where I come from more and more, and that's something I could feel in Saroo's character too: we're products of two different worlds."

In "Lion," Patel plays an adult Saroo who is more Australian than Indian.

For Kidman, who is herself an adoptive mother, the story evoked a "visceral reaction," she said. "It was very, very emotional for me."

"For me, this is a film about the power of mothers, whether they're biological or adoptive," she explained. "I said to the real Saroo (when they met): 'You have two mothers, lucky boy.'

"For a child to be loved and to grow up in a family with love is the most important thing, however that family comes together," she said.

Patel agreed: "I think adoption is a beautiful thing, to be able to give someone a second chance at life."

The film takes audiences through gritty Indian neighborhoods, showing the difficult living conditions in the poorest parts of India, but also finds beauty in the landscape and the relationships Saroo develops.

Davis said aerial shots in particular were inspired by Saroo's "psychic connection to his mother" and Google Earth, which Saroo used to track down his hometown.

"Saroo told me that every night he imagined himself going to India, walking those streets, going into that little house and whispering into his mother's ear 'I'm here.' For me, it was like an astral projection, or out of body experience," Davis said.

The making of the film, he said, also opened his eyes to the plight of millions of lost children around the globe and his producers are now in talks with a childrens' charity to try to help.

"I became much more aware of the plight of these children. Right now, there are so many children in need," Davis said.

"I hope this (film) is one step toward some sort of dialogue."
Kabul (AFP) - Afghanistan is close to signing a peace agreement with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, President Ashraf Ghani said Monday, in a landmark accord that could pave the way for the notorious warlord's political return after years in hiding.

Hekmatyar, who heads the now largely dormant Hezb-i-Islami militant group, is the latest among a series of warlords whom Kabul has sought to reintegrate into Afghan politics in the post-Taliban era.

If inked, the deal with Afghanistan's second-biggest militant group would mark a symbolic victory for Ghani, who has struggled to revive peace talks with the much more powerful Taliban.

"The peace agreement will be finalised very soon," Ghani said in his address on the occasion of the Islamic festival of Eid-ul-Adha.

"We hope for peace in Afghanistan and to end the war in the country."

Ghani's statement comes after months of negotiations with Hizb-i-Islami, which has progressed in fits and starts over differences within the government over the final draft agreement.

On Sunday, Hekmatyar's son said on Facebook the agreement had been reached but the High Peace Council, the government body responsible for negotiations, said talks were still underway.

Hekmatyar was a prominent anti-Soviet commander in the 1980s and stands accused of killing thousands of people in Kabul during the 1992-1996 civil war.

He is widely believed to be living in hiding in Pakistan, but his group claims he is inside Afghanistan.

The potential deal, which is unlikely to have an immediate impact on the security situation in Afghanistan, has sparked revulsion from human rights groups.

According to a draft agreement seen by AFP, the government will offer Hekmatyar legal immunity in "all past political and military proceedings" as well as release Hezb-i-Islami prisoners.

Hekmatyar is designated a "global terrorist" by the US and is blacklisted by the UN. The Afghan government would work towards lifting those restrictions, according to the draft agreement.
Kabul (AFP) - Millions of war-weary Afghans on Monday marked the Islamic festival of Eid-ul-Adha with prayers and feasting, hopeful of a brief respite from fighting that has seen record-breaking losses this year.

Fellow Muslims across Asia spent the day slaughtering livestock, giving charity to the poor and visiting relatives on Islam's second-holiest holiday.

Afghanistan has seen fighting between government forces and Islamist militants -- mainly Taliban insurgents but also Islamic State fighters -- reach record levels this year following the 2014 withdrawal of US-led foreign combat troops.

"Our country has been at war for nearly four decades, but the three days of Eid are the happiest days of our life because this an occasion where families come together and enjoy and celebrate this festival," Kabul resident Nasratullah Wafa told AFP:

The roads of the capital were mostly empty and many were blocked by military to safeguard against possible attacks, while police stood guard over mosques during the morning Eid prayers.

US Brigadier General Charles Cleveland in August said Afghan security forces were on track for their bloodiest year to date, surpassing the roughly 5,000 deaths of local police and troops and around 15,000 wounded in 2015.

He did not offer figures but said there was an increase of about 20 percent over the corresponding period last year.

Afghan forces backed by US air strikes have mounted a new offensive to flush out Taliban insurgents encircling the capital of southern Uruzgan province, officials said Sunday, days after militants stormed into the city.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani meanwhile offered Eid greetings to the nation and said that a peace deal with Hezb-e-Islami, the country's second-biggest Islamist group that has been dormant for a number of years, was imminent.

"Peace is the desire of Afghan nation, and the Afghan nation has consensus for peace. The peace agreement will be finalised very soon," he said.

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In Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country, citizens gathered at mosques across the nation to witness the traditional sacrifice of animals, that honours the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son for God.

At a large mosque in central Jakarta dozens of goats, sheep and cows were tethered in makeshift pens in the parking lot before being led to a tiled clearing for slaughter.

Farra, an Indonesian woman in her 40s, said she would take the cuts home where her mother would prepare "sate", a dish of spiced meat grilled over hot coals, for her extended family.

"We do it every year, and the great thing is we can see our lamb when it's cut, and can remember it's our gift to Allah," she told AFP, as a butcher handed her a freshly carved leg of lamb in a plastic bag.

Pakistan, the world's second most populous Muslim nation, will celebrate Eid on Tuesday because of differences in interpretation of the lunar date.
Johannesburg (AFP) - South Africa's mines minister said Monday a search for illegal miners trapped in the country's oldest gold mine would be suspended until conditions underground improved.

A fire broke out on Sunday inside a shaft at the disused Langlaagte mine in Johannesburg, where a group of unauthorised diggers have been stuck for five days.

"The fire has to be stopped, and after that we will get a briefing whether it is safe to commence," said Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane.

It was unclear how many diggers were trapped underground. Survivors who have come out have told rescuers there were about 16 still there. Others are believed to have died.

"We are assessing the conditions, and should they get better, we would resume and bring those bodies up to the surface," Zwane told journalists.

The Langlaagte mine is where gold was first discovered in Johannesburg in 1886.

Mining operation at the site ceased many years ago, and the pit was declared a national monument in 1989.

Like many old mines around the Johannesburg gold reef, the pit has been a target for illegal mining, where impoverished men dig for nuggets which they sell on the black market.

Zwane said his department had sealed off 200 holes in disused mines around Johannesburg in a bid to curb illegal mining.

"One of our biggest tasks is to get to the syndicates behind these operations, as well as the markets they're supplying," Zwane said.

Police said seven miners have surfaced from the Langlaagte pit since Sunday.

"Those who come up get arrested. This is an illegal activity," said police spokesman Kay Makhubela.

Gold mining was for many decades the backbone of South Africa's economy, but production has over the last few years declined due to depletion of reserves.
Johannesburg (AFP) - South African President Jacob Zuma has paid back $542,000 of public money spent refurbishing his private home, his office said Monday, in a controversy that has dominated his second term in office.

The country's highest court found earlier this year that Zuma had violated the constitution by defying an order to repay some of the funds used to renovate Nkandla, his traditional homestead.

It ordered him to pay back funds spent on non-security upgrades -- including a chicken coop, swimming pool and amphitheatre -- valued by the treasury at 7,814,155 million rand ($542,000).

"President Zuma has paid over the amount... to the South African Reserve Bank as ordered by the Constitutional Court of South Africa," the presidency said in a statement.

It added that the president raised the money through a home loan.

The treasury confirmed separately that the payment had been received.

The Nkandla scandal has dogged Zuma's presidency, becoming a symbol of alleged corruption and greed within the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party and triggering several unsuccessful impeachment bids by the opposition.

A 2014 report by the public ombudswoman, Thuli Madonsela, found that Zuma and his family had "unduly benefited" from the upgrade work -- valued in 2014 at 216 million rand (then $24 million) -- and ordered him to pay back some of the money.

The president reacted by ordering two government investigations that cleared his name, including a report by the police minister which concluded that the swimming pool was a fire-fighting precaution.

In March, the Constitutional Court ruled Zuma had "failed to uphold, defend and respect the constitution as the supreme law of the land".

The ANC suffered historic losses in South Africa's local elections last month, garnering less than 54 percent of ballots cast -- an eight-point drop from the last local poll in 2011 and its worst showing since the fall of white-minority rule in 1994.
(BEIRUT)  Syrian President Bashar Assad vowed on Monday that his government would take back land from terrorists and rebuild the country in remarks made just hours before the start of a cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia.

Assad spoke during a rare public appearance that included attending prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha in the Damascus suburb of Daraya, which had surrendered last month and reverted to government control after a four-year siege.

But in the build-up to the start of the truce at sunset, government forces and their allies bombed opposition areas in the countrys north, while al-Qaida-linked militants pushed on with an offensive in southern Syria.

In Geneva, the U.N. envoy for Syria said his office would monitor the start of the cease-fire carefully, before making any hurried comments. Staffan de Mistura said in a text message to The Associated Press on Monday that no statement from his office about the truce was expected before the following afternoon.

The cease-fire deal, hammered out between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Saturday, was backed by Assads government. But it has received mixed messages of commitment from various rebel factions.

It allows the Syrian government to continue to strike at the Islamic State group and al-Qaida-linked militants with the Jabhat Fatah al-Sham group, earlier known as the Nusra Front, until the U.S. and Russia take over the task in one weeks time.

Under the terms of the agreement, the rebels and the Syrian government are expected to stop attacking one another. Assads key allies  Russia, Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah  have also endorsed the deal.

But that scenario is complicated by the fact that Jabhat Fatah al-Sham remains intertwined with several other groups fighting on the ground.

One of the more immediate goals of the Kerry-Lavrov agreement is to allow the U.N. to establish aid corridors into Aleppo, the contested northern Syrian city. Over 2,000 people have been killed in fighting over the past 40 days in the city, including 700 civilians and 160 children, according to a Syrian human rights group.

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On Saturday, presumed Russian or government airstrikes on rebel-held Idlib and Aleppo provinces killed over 90 civilians, including 13 children in an attack on a marketplace in Idlib, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In the aftermath, rebels and opposition activists were asking on Sunday whether the government side could be trusted.

Several previous negotiated cease-fires have all eventually collapsed. A partial cessation of hostilities that brought sorely needed relief to civilians in March unraveled as the government continued to strike targets in opposition areas, including near a hospital and school near Damascus and a marketplace in Idlib province, killing dozens of civilians.

Previous cease-fires were also preceded by soaring violence as parties on all sides sought to improve their positions in the build-up to the start of the truce. Over a quarter-million people have been killed and around half the population of 11 million has been displaced in Syria civil war, now in its sixth year.

In Turkey, meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his earlier calls for establishing a no-fly zone in northern Syria, saying it is essential to boosting security in the area.

Erdogan said he told the leaders of Germany, France, Russia and the U.S. that training and equipping troops on the ground to battle back Islamic State group forces is not enough and that a no-fly zone should be the next step.

Speaking after holiday prayers on Monday, Erdogan said Turkey remains resolute in eliminating the threat posed by the Islamic State group at its borders and has made that clear to world leaders.

Turkey launched an incursion into northern Syria in late August, driving IS away from the border and also seeking to counter the advance of U.S.-backed Kurdish forces, which Ankara views with suspicion.

Associated Press writer Menelaos Hadjicostis contributed to this report from Istanbul.
There are many rumors about careers in sales: sales professionals make millions, it is a "dog-eat-dog" environment where only the strong survive, you are only measured by your most recent sales results, etc. Whether you believe (or have personally experienced) any of those statements, there are some indisputable facts about working in sales. Here are some things you should know if you would like to excel in a sales career.

First, knowing how to sell is one of the greatest skills to possess professionally (and personally). It will be used throughout your whole career. The key here is learning how to do it correctly. Selling is not the act of listing a bunch of features and benefits in the direction of a potential buyer. That is more likely to be called harassment. The art of selling is actually a well-balanced exchange that involves asking questions, listening patiently, following up appropriately and presenting solutions to genuine problems. When done correctly, the seller will learn about the customer, build rapport and trust, and ideally establish a connection. There are some sales nuances by industry, but in general, the act of selling well is universally valued.

[See: 8 Ways Millennials Can Build Leadership Skills.]

Second, you don't need to like rejection to succeed in sales. I have hired, trained and managed thousands of salespeople over my career and I cannot name one who liked rejection. Most successful salespeople stay in sales careers because they thrive on creating (opportunities, solutions, revenue) and they are comfortable with (and often motivated by) pressure. Oh yeah, usually they are results- and money-motivated, too.

This journey is very similar to that of a musician or an athlete. Musicians and athletes do not pursue these paths because they love practice, exerting endless effort or being told often about their mistakes. Usually they are driven through the trenches for the thrill of the few moments when they are at peak performance -- be it at a game or a concert. The tedium is necessary to equip them with the skills, stamina, confidence and composure to thrive under pressure. For successful sales professionals, it is the same. All of the research, call planning, leaving messages and sending emails are necessary parts to get the moments when you connect with a prospect and convert them into a client. Often, the more effort you put in, the greater the compensation.

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Third, not every sales role will make you rich. As a matter of fact, most roles won't. Why? If what you sell doesn't make the company rich after all of the expenses necessary to provide the products or services that are offered, smart employers keep the costs of generating sales in line with an overall profitability model for the whole company. Factors that affect sales compensation are how profitable the product or service is, the length of the sales cycle, riskiness of securing deals, competition, difficulty of training and retaining sales staff and the relative scarcity of the workforce interested and capable of selling it. In other words, if it is not that difficult to get customers or if there is a strong supply of potential employees for the sales positions in a desirable industry, the role does not need to pay as much (and probably won't).

[See: 10 Things They Don't Tell You About Your First Job.]

It is also important to note that high payouts for sales when a product or service is new will almost always go down as the company, business or industry matures. When a business needs to create a new market, they must pay more to attract sales professionals willing to take a chance with something unknown. Once the market is more established and the company has built out the infrastructure to support the business (like accounting, administration, customer service, IT, management, etc.), companies typically adjust sales payout to keep in line with the increased expenses. Salespeople often flee during these transitions because they feel something is being taken away from them. The exodus can make sense for those who love to pioneer into undiscovered territory. However, there are often great benefits for those who stick around.

Fourth, as long as you are not on a sinking ship, riding it out in a transition or high turnover can be a great way to get ahead -- both now and later. Often, in the wake of turnover, existing employees are assigned premium accounts that need ongoing tender, loving care. Companies want to get their arms around their best clients so that they don't follow a former salesperson. Managers are swift in assigning an established (and trusted) team member to maintain the relationship. Prospects that are in final stages of the sales process require attention, too. Furthermore, premium territories are often redistributed to ensure coverage. Finally, transitions are ideal times to show that you can rise to the challenge to take on more responsibility. So not only might you be on the winning end of reallocation of customers, prospects and territories, but you may get a promotion out of it, as well. For your whole career, you will be able to use your stability during transitions as a selling point to future employers of your ability to prosper during adversity and your dedication to your employer during a trying time.

[See: 25 Awesome Business Jobs for 2016.]

Whether you view a sales career as a rite of passage or a long-term career path, no one can deny the need for outstanding sales professionals in every revenue-generating business. If you really want to get the long-term benefit from selling, select a team and an industry that will interest you long enough to really master the full sales process. When you can dedicate a minimum of three to five years with one company or at least in one industry, you are likely to receive a first-class education in how to generate revenue through your own actions. If you can confidently sell, you bring a much more sophisticated perspective to any career path. Selling may not be the long-term career path for everyone -- but every professional has much to benefit from mastering (or at least really understanding) the art of bringing in business.

Robin Reshwan is the founder of Collegial Services, a consulting and staffing firm that connects college students and business professionals with the organizations that hire them. She has interviewed, placed and hired thousands of people across a broad spectrum of companies and industries. She is a Careers contributor for USNews.com and her career tips and advice are used by universities, national clubs, associations and businesses. A Certified Professional Resume Writer, Robin has been honored as a Professional Business Woman of the Year by the American Business Women's Association.





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Air Products and Chemicals Inc.s APD board of directors has approved the separation of the companys Electronic Materials Division business to form Versum Materials Inc.

Air Products shareholders will receive one common share of Versum for every two common shares of Air Products held by them as of Sep 21. However, the company will not issue fractional shares of Versums stock. These shares will instead be sold in the open market. The net proceeds from the sale will be distributed to the shareholders of Air Products on a pro rata basis who would otherwise have received the fractional shares.

Air Products board also declared a dividend on all outstanding shares of Versum, to be paid on a pro rata basis. The dividend is payable on Oct 1, to shareholders on record as of the close of business on Sep 21. However, the board may cancel the dividend any time prior to payout if it believes the dividend payment to be inadvisable.

The shareholders of Air Products do not have to take any steps to receive the common shares of Versum or the cash in lieu of the fractional shares. The registered shareholders as on the record date will be provided a book-entry account statement by mail, a few days after the distribution, reflecting ownership of Versum. Those holding shares of Air Products via brokers will receive the shares of Versum via the Depository Trust Corporation (DTC) post the settlement of "when issued" trading on Oct 6. The separation is expected to be tax-free for the shareholders of Air Products, except for the cash received for the fractional shares.

Earlier this month, the proposed members of the board of directors for Versum were also announced. The board will comprise a number of highly qualified professionals from other companies in the industry, with the Chairman of Air Products, Seifi Ghasemi, acting as the non-executive Chairman of Versum. The name of Guillermo Novo, who has worked for over 30 years within the specialty chemicals and materials industry with Rohm & Haas Company and The Dow Chemical Company, has been proposed for the role of Chairman and President of Versum.

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AIR PRODS & CHE Price

AIR PRODS & CHE Price | AIR PRODS & CHE Quote

Shares of Air Products fell roughly 2.8% to close at $151.53 on Sep 9.

Air Products saw higher profits in the third quarter of fiscal 2016 (ended Jun 30, 2016), backed by restructuring and operational improvements. Adjusted earnings of $1.92 per share for the quarter beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate, while revenues of $2,434.4 million missed the same. The company reported double-digit EPS growth for the eighth consecutive quarter.

Revenues from the Materials Technologies business fell 4% year over year to $520 million, hurt by 2% lower pricing, 1% lower volumes and currency headwinds. Sales of Electronics Materials declined 8% due to lower volumes and unfavorable currency movement. Performance Materials sales were relatively flat year over year as higher volumes were offset by lower pricing resulting from lower raw material costs.

Air Products currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the chemical space include Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation MTLHY, Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. SHECY and Innospec Inc. IOSP, all sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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AIR PRODS & CHE (APD): Free Stock Analysis Report



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Galaxy Note 7

Last week, Samsung was forced to halt sales of its new Galaxy Note 7 smartphone after dozens of the Korean electronics giant's new flagship handset exploded.

As a result, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a note late last week strongly advising "passengers not to turn on or charge these devices on board aircraft and not to stow them in any checked baggage."

The European Air Safety Agency issued a similar advisory which also warned "of the need to inform the cabin crew when a device is damaged, hot, produces smoke, is lost, or falls into the seat structure."

Now, airlines around the world have followed suite in imposing restrictions on the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. In a statement to Business Insider, Virgin Atlantic wrote:

"Samsung has identified some safety issues with its Galaxy Note 7 mobile phone. As a result and in line with regulatory advice, Virgin Atlantic advises all customers who intend to travel with this phone that the phone should be carried only in cabin baggage. The phone should not be charged in flight and should remain switched off for the duration. Customers who own the Galaxy Note 7 model should refer to the manufactures website for further advice."

American, Delta, United, Southwest, Air France, Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic, and Emirates have all issued similar advisories placing restrictions on the device. However, thus far, none of the major airlines contacted by Business Insider have outright banned the device.

"The company is not banning the phones," An Air France spokesperson told Business Insider. "It is asking customers to follow the recommendations of the FAA for this type of cell phone."

In addition, an American Airlines spokesperson told Business Insider via email that its gate agents will be making verbal announcements on the matter before passengers board while its cabin crew will make similar announcements on board flights.

And the passengers have noticed.

Flight attendant issues stern instructions not to use or charge Samsung Galaxy Notes. Oof. pic.twitter.com/FOISqC9EiE  Henry Blodget (@hblodget) September 12, 2016

.@Samsung shares are sinking by 6% due to #GalaxyNote7 recall and airline bans (eg. this notice from my flight yest) pic.twitter.com/pj1HSFozjE  Leisha Chi (@BBCLeishaChi) September 12, 2016

.@united issues warning to passengers about Samsung Galaxy Note 7 devices in the gate area. pic.twitter.com/az3u76aJnj  AirlineGeeks.com (@AirlineGeeks) September 10, 2016

NOW WATCH: Samsung now says it's too dangerous to even turn on your Galaxy Note 7





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Fadnavis had responded to a tweet by the comedian tagging the Prime Minister where he complained of bribe demands from the BMC. He promised Sharma that quick action will be taken against the offender.

By India Today Web Desk: In the latest development in the Kapil Sharma bribery controversy, the comedian has sought time from Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for a meeting.

CM FADNAVIS PROMISES STRICT ACTION AGAINST CULPRIT



Fadnavis had promised quick action after Sharma tweeted to Prime Minster Narendra Modi about a bribe being demanded by BMC oficials in Mumbai for construction of his new office. Fadnavis ordered an inquiry into the matter and the case even went to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).

Kapilbhai pls provide all info.

Have directed MC,BMC to take strictest action.

We will not spare the culprit.@KapilSharmaK9 @narendramodi Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) September 9, 2016

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However, the case took another turn with BMC officials coming out with papers showing that several illegal constructions were made by Sharma at his bungalow in Four Bungalows area in Andheri. It was alleged that Sharma destroyed mangroves abutting the bungalow and constructed an extra room on its backside. The state mangrove cell is probing these allegations and will take legal action against him if he is found guilty.

BMC TO SEEK DEMOLITION COST FROM KAPIL SHARMA



The BMC, which had razed the illegal construction behind the bungalow, will now seek the demolition cost from the stand-up comedian. The Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act has a provision for the recovery of such costs from the offender.

Sharma has been slammed by members of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), Shiv Sena and BJP. The MNS threatened to stop him from shooting if he does not furnish the allegations of bribery with proof. However, he has found support in the Congress, which has lauded him for "exposing BMC's institutionalised extortion racket."

Kudos @KapilSharmaK9 for exposing BMC's institutionalised extortion racket & thx for lending millions of Mumbaikars your voice#KapilSharma Milind Deora (@milinddeora) September 9, 2016

Sharma has maintained that he was merely voicing his anger against corruption and that his move was not politically motivated.



Also read: Arrest Kapil Sharma for illegal constructions, says Mumbai advocate



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Sept 11 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc and Pandora Media Inc are planning to launch new versions of their streaming music services in coming weeks, the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing several anonymous people with knowledge of the matter.

Pandora could announce its plans this to expand its $5-per-month platform this week, with possible features including skipping more songs or storing several hours of playlists, the newspaper said. The company plans to launch a full-fledged on-demand platform by Christmas. Such a platform, priced at $10 a month, would compete with Spotify and Apple Inc's Apple Music.

Amazon, meanwhile, is expected to reveal a platform with a large catalog of music for $10 per month or about half that amount for customers using its Echo voice-activated speakers, according to the Times. (http://nyti.ms/2cOZ9hF)

Both companies are close to completing months of negotiations for deals with record companies and music publishers that will allow them to offer the new services, the Times reported.

Amazon was preparing to launch a standalone music streaming subscription service at $9.99 per month, in line with major rivals, Reuters reported in June, citing sources.

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment. Pandora declined to comment.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt)
Miami (AFP) - Amazon founder Jeff Bezos unveiled plans Monday for a massive rocket called New Glenn designed to launch people to space and propel satellites into orbit, raising the ante in the US commercial space industry.

Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post, said the rocket has been in the works for the past four years, and will be launched by decade's end.

At 270 feet (82 meters) high for the two-stage New Glenn and 313 feet tall for the three-stage version, the rocket will be taller than any on the market today, including SpaceX's Falcon 9 (224 feet).

The New Glenn is dwarfed only by the Saturn V rocket (363 feet tall) that propelled Apollo era astronauts to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s.

NASA is currently at work on a rocket called the Space Launch System (SLS) that will be the tallest ever (384 feet) and aims to ferry people to an asteroid and perhaps one day, even to Mars.

Bezos said his company, Blue Origin, has learned a lot from flying its New Shepard rocket, a 65-foot-tall suborbital vehicle designed to eventually carry space tourists to the edge of space and back.

"Building, flying, landing, and re-flying New Shepard has taught us so much about how to design for practical, operable reusability. And New Glenn incorporates all of those learnings," Bezos said in an emailed statement.

The rocket is "named in honor of John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth," he added.

It lifts off with 3.85 million pounds of thrust from seven BE-4 engines -- the same engines that are being developed by Blue Origin to power United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan rocket.

The booster portion is re-usable, and could be returned to Earth after launching its payload to space and separating from the rocket's other components.

Both SpaceX and Blue Origin have successfully launched and returned the first stages of their rockets to upright landings on Earth, a key capability in the effort to make rockets as reusable as airplanes.

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"We plan to fly New Glenn for the first time before the end of this decade from historic Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral, Florida," said Bezos.

Blue Origin's entry into the commercial spaceflight and satellite launch market brings it more squarely in competition with SpaceX, headed by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Musk surged ahead of Bezos with his Falcon 9 rocket and $1.6 billion contract with NASA to ferry supplies to the International Space Station and back using SpaceX's Dragon cargoship.

But SpaceX has suffered two rocket explosions since June 2015. Musk admitted Friday that the latest blast, just two weeks ago during a launch pad test in Florida, has stumped investigators and appealed for help from the public and government agencies.

While Bezos did not comment directly on SpaceX's woes, he touted Blue Origin's company mascot, the tortoise, and said "we paint one on our vehicles after each successful flight."

"In the long run, deliberate and methodical wins the day, and you do things quickest by never skipping steps," Bezos wrote.
I was on a hiking and biking vacation in Ketchum, Idaho, and decided to try paragliding (much to my wifes chagrin) after watching several gliders launch from the summit of Mt. Baldy, the major ski mountain in the valley. I contacted Fly Sun Valley, the only licensed paragliding outfit in the area, and made arrangements for a tandem flight the next evening before sunset.

The flight was incredible. We sailed for 25 minutes, launching from Baldys summit and heading west while we gained another 1,000 feet of altitude, and then turned and came back across the mountain at 10,000 feet and slowly began descending into Sun Valley, making a series of lazy circles before landing in a large field just outside of Ketchum. I was able to take many pictures on my iPhone (permissible, but I was warned that several phones had been dropped, never to be seen again) and even shoot a video. The experience was wonderfula great perspective to see a beautiful part of America.
Dov Charney, the founder of American Apparel who was forced out of the company in a 2014 boardroom coup, has a new gig: He has started a T-shirt company with some of his old colleagues from American Apparel and is already shipping merchandise. Charney believes he can hit revenue of $30 million with a year, he told Business Insider.

Charney declined to say the name of his new brand, though he has begun publishing photos on a website titled Thats Los Angeles. His brand will be inspired by the small, independent, immigrant, and working-class retail shops of the less glamorous side of Los Angeles typified by these photos:

Photo: Dov Charney

I have a secret factory, I dont subcontract, he says. I have about 40 workers.

Photo: Dov Charney

Right now there is no internet site and no consumer retail side of the business. He is only shipping wholesale orders to customers who know him personally.

Photo: Dov Charney

Initially, Charney is focusing on T-shirts  the product he launched American Apparel with in the 1980s. Weve developed some new shapes and new bodies, he said. T-shirts are very specific. Two T-shirts look the same from afar, but up close its two different movies. There is something different about them even when they are the same brand, same size, same color.

Photo: Dov Charney

American Apparel T-shirts became popular because Charney pioneered a tight, fitted shirt in an era (the 1990s and early 2000s) when most T-shirts were baggy. He also gave mens versions longer torsos for a more flattering look. Now, Charney told us, he is trying to find a new T-shirt fit for the next decade.



Photo: Dov Charney

Charney is keeping the made in Los Angeles ethos that he championed with American Apparel by refusing to employ overseas garment workers even though doing so would cost less. He believes owning a factory in the US with properly paid employees lets him turn around orders faster, and in smaller custom batches, than if he had to order them from Vietnam.

Photo: Dov Charney

The business will be built around rapid reaction and dynamic supply  a market in which a vertical garment manufacturer in Los Angeles can still beat a cheaper, larger one in China.



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Photo: Dov Charney

He has a small amount of investor financing. Some of his financing has come from his own workers, who have made a loan to the company. Charney says he intends to eventually offer those workers equity in the company. He declined to reveal specific numbers.



Photo: Dov Charney

Charney will also be seeking investors from Main Street, possibly via crowdsourcing, because institutional investors are too scared to be involved with him anymore. (Charneys marketing at American Apparel was hypersexual, and he was sued several times by employees who alleged harassment, though all of those suits were settled or thrown out.)



Photo: Dov Charney

Certain institutional investors are scared based on  Im not the most institutional option, you know what I mean? he said. The unpredictable nature of my business and the manner in which I carry out my affairs and my whole contrarian vision its not conducive to the institutional model  Theyre looking for predictability, and my whole business thrives on unpredictability.



Photo: Dov Charney

We asked Charney whether he had also changed his personal behavior. At American Apparel he often dated the models who appeared in his campaigns, a habit that attracted negative publicity. Charney felt that his personal life was nobody elses business.



Im sticking to my first principles, he said. I dont believe my behavior was bad. I dont think I was a bad person. Im passionate. Ill tell you how I roll  its a lot of work. Theres not a lot of time for play. Its a seven-day, 365 effort. Theres a myth and theres a reality. Theres also the reality of a mans age, you know? Im 47. I dont think I could keep up with the myth even if wanted to.

Photo: Dov Charney

NOW WATCH: Starbucks is hoping this new fall drink will be their next Pumpkin Spice Latte



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Police in Nepal said Monday they have arrested a US national on suspicion of sexually abusing young boys.

Police acting on a tip-off from an alleged victim arrested the 48-year-old man on Sunday in a hotel room in Kathmandu, where he was holed up with three boys.

"We arrested him red-handed from a room following complaints from some of his victims. Most are aged between 12 to 14," the head of Nepal's central investigation bureau Nawa Raj Silwal told AFP.

Police have also arrested a Nepali national who allegedly supplied the suspect with young boys from poor families, luring them with money and the promise of education and jobs.

"They have both been remanded in police custody for six days as we investigate further on child molestation and human trafficking charges," he said, adding that the suspect had visited Nepal several times previously.

Weak law enforcement has made Nepal a destination for child sex tourism in the past.

In March 2015, a Canadian orphanage volunteer was convicted of sexually abusing a 15-year-old disabled boy and sentenced to seven years in prison.

In August 2012, Briton Simon Jasper McCarty pleaded guilty to sexually abusing three boys whom he met in Nepal. In December 2010, French charity worker Jean-Jacques Haye was convicted of raping 10 children in a Kathmandu orphanage.

Sexual abuse of minors carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison in Nepal.

The US embassy in Kathmandu could not immediately be reached for comment.
Train your sights on this  the first photo of The Maze Runner star Dylan OBrien in character for American Assassin, which is based on the 15-book series about counterterrorism operative Mitch Rapp.

OBrien stars as Rapp, a CIA black ops recruit under the instruction of Cold War veteran Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton). The pair then is enlisted by CIA Deputy Director Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan) to investigate a wave of apparently random attacks on military and civilian targets. Together they discover a pattern in the violence that leads them to a joint mission with a lethal Turkish agent (Shiva Negar) to stop a mysterious operative (Taylor Kitsch) intent on starting a world war in the Middle East.

Michael Cuesta is directing American Assassin from a script by Stephen Schiff. Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Nick Wechsler are producing the latest title in the partnership between CBS Films and Lionsgate. No release date has been set for the film, which is shooting in Europe.

RelatedShiva Negar Lands Key Role In American Assassin

Here is the full photo of OBrien channeling the ruthless Rapp. Were not sure who hes looming over or why or where, but we wouldnt want to be on the business end of that hand cannon hes pointing.

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By Kamaljit Kaur Sandhu: Even as security was tightened across Bengaluru on Monday following violence by pro-Kannada activists over the Cauvery water controversy, the activists set ablaze many vehicles and attacked govt offices protesting the recent Supreme Court order directing Karnataka government to release 15000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the nodal ministry looking into internal security aspect is closely monitoring the situation in the state. The home minister has been apprised of the situation.

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Union Home Minister spoke to the chief ministers of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and inquired about the situation. Rajnath Singh assured full assistance to the CMs.



The union home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi told India Today "I have spoken to the chief secretary of Karnataka, I have assured him that we will give all possible assistance to the state."



10 COMPANIES OF RAF RUSHED

Meanwhile Centre rushed 10 companies of rapid action force ( RAF) to Bangalore. The force is expected to reach late tonight. Three RAF and one mahlia company was already deployed in Bangalore. BSF and ITBP companies have also been asked to keep five companies on standby.

Sources in MHA said that, since law and order is a state subject, they are letting the state handle the current crisis. There is a Congress government in the state headed by CM Siddaramiah, while there is BJP led NDA government in Centre. A source said that Centre though concerned regarding the situation, does not want to overstep its powers.

Also read:

Cauvery water dispute live coverage: 1 dead in police firing in Bengaluru

Cauvery dispute: India Today journalist rushed to hospital after goons attack her in Bengaluru











--- ENDS ---
Angelina Jolie made her fourth visit to the refugee camps in Jordan since the conflict in Syria began, and as she spoke about the displaced young people, she couldn't help but think of her own children.

"There are children here who remember no life other than this harsh desert environment and these barbed wire fences," said Jolie, who talked to reporters as a special envoy for the UNHCR on Friday. "Over half of all refugees in Jordan are under 18. My own children are of that age."

WATCH: Angelina Jolie Says Her Six Kids Are All Learning Different Languages, Reveals Their Nicknames

The 41-year-old actress added, "Like any other parent, it is impossible for me not to imagine what it would be like for my own children in this situation."

Jolie and husband Brad Pitt have six children together, Maddox, 15, Pax, 12, Zahara, 11, Shiloh, 10, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 8.

MORE: Jennifer Aniston, Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Lawrence -- 7 of the Most Empowering Op-Eds From Female Stars

The Oscar winner is seeking to build awareness about the refugee camps ahead of world leaders gathering at the UN General Assembly in a few days. Her hope is that they address "the fundamental root causes of the Syria conflict, and what it will take to end it, are put at the center of the discussion."

Syria has been in a civil war for nearly five years, and has displaced roughly five million refugees, with Jordan hosting more than 600,000 refugees. "After five years, refugees do not want to know by what percentage their lives might be made fractionally more bearable, but when they will be able to go home," Jolie explained. "They do not want to be the passive recipients of aid, they want a political solution."

PHOTOS: Angelina Jolie Stuns in Chic Black Dress at UN Peacekeeping Summit in London

"I wish families in Jordan, and across this region, Eid Mubarak," she continued. "And to those for whom it is not a time of joy and celebration, but of exile, grief and hardship - my thoughts are with you."

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Jolie's heroic feats don't stop in Jordan. In March, the Tomb Raider star used her body to shield children from getting crushed by a mob of people that gathered to get a glimpse of her in Greece. Check it out:

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Anne Hathaway cant wait to hang out with *this* Oceans 8 co-star

Anne Hathaway cant wait to hang out with *this* Oceans 8 co-star

We were all so excited when more news regarding Oceans 8 was announced last month  not only is it a spinoff of the very popular Oceans Eleven trilogy, but the impressive all-female cast is just excellent news. The original film definitely helped the already-glowing careers of George Clooney, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt, so itll be exciting to see how actresses Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter, Mindy Kaling, and Awkwafina do.

Of course, we imagine the set to be an epic hangout. Anne Hathaway, whos also signed on to star in the film, is already talking about who she hopes to spend a lot of time with among the group.

Its a great opportunity to spend more time with [Rihanna], she said to MTV Newss Josh Horowitz. We got along really well when I hosted SNL and she was the musical guest. Im looking forward to seeing her again.

It turns out, she had similar enthusiasm with E! News when discussing Rihanna. (To be fair  who wouldnt?)

She was gorgeous in every way you can be gorgeous, she said.

hathaway

Oceans 8, also referred to as Oceans Ocho, is set to start filming in New York this October, and Deadline reports that Gary Ross is set to direct. The only thing they need to do between now and then is cast a few more parts. And perhaps, secure a few key cameos. Since, hey  wed never be willing to kick George Clooney off of a set.

The post Anne Hathaway cant wait to hang out with *this* Oceans 8 co-star appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Buenos Aires (AFP) - Argentine anti-corruption authorities recommended Monday that Energy Minister Juan Jose Aranguren divest himself of Shell oil company shares to avoid conflicts of interests.

The Anti-Corruption Office cited Aranguren's previous role as chief executive of Shell Argentina and his holdings in Royal Dutch Shell Ltd in making the recommendation.

It also advised that Aranguren recuse himself in dealing with matters involving the Shell Group.

The minister's 16 million shares in Shell have been the target of lawsuits alleging that the holding is incompatible with Aranguren's duties as energy minister.

Aranguren also has been at the center of a political storm over hikes in gas and electric prices that ranged from 200 to 2,000 percent.

The rate hikes sparked street protests and litigation, confronting President Mauricio Macri with the biggest challenge since he took office in December 2015.

The Supreme Court ordered that the gas price hikes be suspended but left in place the higher electric power rates with the condition that they be sent back to a lower court for review.
Fresh clashes were reported in the Valley on Sunday resulting in injuries to around 150 people after forces fired pellets, bullets and tear gas shells. In another incident, a youth succumbed to his injuries taking the death toll to 80.

By Naseer Ganai: Nearly 150 people were injured on Sunday after security forces fired tear gas shells, pellets and bullets on protesters during clashes at Kareemabad in Pulwama, around 40 km south of Srinagar.

A senior police official said that the Army, special operation group of Jammu and Kashmir and CRPF personnel rushed to the area after receiving inputs about the presence of militants. He said that the Army cordoned the area while police and paramilitary forces carried out raids.

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However, a large number of people blocked the road and threw stones at the policemen leading to clashes. Clashes also broke out in Budgam and Kulgam, following which Army vehicles were deployed to maintain calm.

Also Read: Kashmir unrest: Rajnath Singh chairs high-level meet, reviews India's internal security situation

According to police sources, the government has given discretion to deputy commissioners and district police chiefs to seek assistance from the Army in case they apprehend large gatherings on Eid.

A senior police official said that the government had inputs that Eid marches on Tuesday could pose serious security challenges.

YOUTH SUCCUMBS TO INJURY, DEATH TOLL 80

In a separate incident, one more youth succumbed to injury at Sheri Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Srinagar on Sunday morning.

The youth, identified as 16-year-old Javid Ahmad Dar, had sustained injuries on August 5 during clashes.

Dr. Farooq Jan, medical superintendent of SKIMS, said, "A bullet had torn apart his popliteal artery, which runs in close proximity to the joint capsule of the knee. We tried to repair it, but he landed into acute renal failure."

With this, the death toll in the Valley since July 8 has touched 80.

Expressing grief over the deaths, the National Conference said on Sunday that 'brutality' has become the official policy of the government. "It is evident that brutality has become the official policy to deal with a political sentiment that finds its roots in a history of broken promises," NC MLA Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi said.

Also Read:

Kashmir remains shut for 64th consecutive day

Kashmir unrest: 2 more protesters killed, 120 wounded in fresh clashes in Shopian and Anantnag



--- ENDS ---
The Florida mosque attended by Pulse Nightclub shooter Omar Mateen burned on Monday and police are calling it an act of arson.

Video captured at the Fort Pierce Islamic Center shows an individual approached the east side of the building just moments before a flash is seen and the fire starts, the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

"Evidence has revealed that this fire was set intentionally," Maj. David Thompson said in an early morning press conference held steps away from the smoldering place of worship.

In surveillance footage released by the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office, a white or Hispanic male rides up to the mosque on a "Harley-style" motorcycle before approaching the building out of camera view just prior to when a flash of light can be seen from around the building.

Read: Ohio Woman Protests Outside Mosque, Gets Welcomed with Smiles and Hugs

The suspect is then seen running from the building.

"[We] ask that members of the public assist us in identifying the individual who started this fire," Thomson said.

New footage taken from the scene later on Monday showed substantial fire damage to the facility.

Thompson also addressed the conspicuous time of year for such an act. It came exactly three months to the day after the massacre at the club.

In addition, Sunday marked the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks as well as the start of Eid al-Adha, which is among the holiest of Muslim holidays.

"We all know the implications of the date and the time of year this is, the 9/11 anniversary. Is that related? Certainly that is in the back of our minds," he said.

Thompson went on to call the fire a horrible tragedy for the Islamic Center and said his office intends to release footage of the suspected arsonist as soon as it becomes available.

Watch: Orlando Gunman Omar Mateen Was Caught On Hidden Camera in 2012 Documentary

Mateen killed 49 people when he opened fire inside an Orlando gay nightclub in June. He was shot and killed following an hours-long standoff with police.

Story continues

Mateen was among the members of the Fort Pierce Islamic Center. The mosque also once counted among its members Moner Mohammad Abu Salha, an American who killed several Syrian government soldiers in a 2014 suicide bombing in Jabal al-Arbaeen after joining the Taliban.

In June, Fort Pierce Islamic Center officials told WPEC that threats of violence against the mosque had escalated.

On Monday, the St. Lucie Sheriff's Office said it was actively investigating this as an arson with the assistance of the St. Lucie County Fire District, the Florida State Fire Marshall's Office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI.

Watch: Orlando Gunman Omar Mateen's Father Seen Smiling Behind Hillary Clinton at Rally

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On Sep 12, 2016, we issued an updated research report on Arthur J Gallagher & Co. AJG.



Arthur J Gallagher remains focused on tapping opportunities in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the U.S. Also, we expect contribution from international operations to increase going forward.



The insurance brokers inorganic growth profile continues to flourish with strategic acquisitions, mainly within the brokerage segment. In addition, Arthur J Gallagher has stepped up its acquisition activity in the retail employee benefits brokerage and wholesale brokerage areas. The company intends to undertake even more acquisitions in the second half of the year.



Further, a strong operational performance has contributed in the generation of solid cash flows, thereby enabling Arthur J Gallagher to pursue the necessary strategic initiatives.



Notably, riding on its operational strength, the company is anticipated to witness 15% earnings growth in 2016.



Moreover, a strong capital and liquidity position enables the insurance broker to enhance its shareholder value.



However, the insurance broker has been witnessing escalating expenses, owing to higher compensation and operating expenses. This, in turn, has adversely affected operating margin.



Also, the company has been experiencing increasing debt level resulting in rise in interest expenses. This in turn weighed heavily on margin expansion.



Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider



Currently, Arthur J Gallagher carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks from the insurance industry include Erie Indemnity Company ERIE, National Interstate Corporation NATL and NMI Holdings, Inc. NMIH. While Erie Indemnity holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), both National Interstate and NMI Holdings sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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VIENNA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Austria's Supreme Court on Monday referred to the European Court of Justice a class action case brought against Facebook by an Austrian law student over privacy issues.

Max Schrems is claiming 500 euros ($562) in damages for each of more than 25,000 signatories to his lawsuit, the latest in a series of European challenges to U.S. technology firms and their handling of personal data.

Schrems has already successfully challenged Europe's so-called Safe Harbour data exchange system with the United States on privacy grounds, resulting in a new commercial data pact between the EU and the United States taking effect in July.

But Schrems' other case has so far been fended off by Facebook in Austrian courts due to procedural concerns, questioning Schrems' status as a private Facebook consumer and whether the 25,000 plaintiffs were legally allowed to confer their rights on him.

"The Court of Justice (has been) rather consumer friendly when it decided over jurisdictions. I hope that we will see a similar decision in this case. Filing thousands of individual lawsuits before thousands of courts would be an absurd exercise," Schrems said in an emailed statement.

Facebook officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ($1 = 0.8901 euros) (Reporting By Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
Rescued from her abductors, a Hindu girl was sold for Rs 50,000 by a police official in Sindh province of Pakistan. Three days later, she was forcibly converted to Islam and married to another man.

By Anil Kumar: In another case of human rights abuse of religious minority in Pakistan, a Hindu girl was allegedly sold for Rs 50,000 by a police official in Sindh province. Three days after being sold, the girl was forcibly converted to Islam and married to one, Zafar Masoori.

The victim identified as Anila Bagri had been abducted some time ago in her hometown, Mirpur Mathelo of Ghotki district. She was later rescued by police but her ordeal just began here. One of the police officials, Sajjad Qazi held her back and did not allow her to go home.

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READ: Two Hindu boys shot in Pakistan's Sindh province over blasphemy allegations



GIRL SOLD FOR Rs 50,000

When Anila's family came to know about her rescue from the abductors, they approached Mirpur Mathelo police. But, Sajjad Qazi refused to let go the girl. He demanded Rs 50,000 from the parents of Anila. This led to a protest by the locals.

But, soon Qazi handed Anila to one of his friends, Masoori in return for money. Local media reported the matter and built up pressure on the administration forcing an inquiry. Ghotki SSP Masood Bangesh was tasked to conduct the probe. Pending investigation, SSP suspended the accused police official.

Accused policeman Sajjad Qazi. Accused policeman Sajjad Qazi.



ANGRY REACTIONS

Meanwhile, amidst recent reports of atrocities on minorities in Sindh, Hindus of the area have staged protests at several places.

"It's a matter of routine in Pakistan to abduct a Hindu girl, rape her or force her to convert for Niqah. This has been the norm in the country since 1947. They think that Hindus should be driven out of Pakistan to make it a total Islamic nation and Anila Bagri was nothing but a part of the plot," said Rajkumar, a local.

Mirpur Mathelo was in news a few years ago but for the same reason. A Hindu girl, Rinkal Kumari was allegedly forcefully converted and forced to marry a local guy. Even in recent months, the town was in news for targeted killing of a Hindu boy, Satish Kumar.

Angry locals stage protest in Sindh, Pakistan.

Activist Ravi Dawani of All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat said, "Forced conversion of Hindu girls in Pakistan is not new. Such incidents are not about Rinkals, Anjalis, Shobhas or Anilas. It's not about names. The point is how to find a solution to this problem."

"There seems to be a conspiracy behind it. They want to disturb the Hindu community so that they move out from here. But, we will stay here. We appeal to the government to protect our children and our family," Dawani said.

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READ: Hindu trader shot in Pakistan's Sindh province for demanding payment of Rs 500

RESPONSE FROM RULING PARTY

Responding to the angry protests over frequent abduction of Hindu girls in Sindh, ruling PML Nawaz MP, Dr Ramesh Vankwani said, "Such forced conversion of girls is against humanity. This must stop."

"I am tired of raising voice; nothing happens here. Everyone knows what happens in Mirpur Mathelo. Girls are forced to convert and sold for Rs 50,000 to Rs one lakh. Only today, I got a High Court order for the release of one such girl," Vankwani said.

READ: Pakistani girl to study in Delhi school; government responds on humanitarian grounds

MIA MITHU FACTOR

In almost all the cases of abduction and forceful conversion of Hindu girls in Sindh, former PPP MP Pir Abdul Haq, better known as Mia Mithu has been the prime suspect in public opinion.

Even in the case of Anila Bagri, locals point finger at Mia Mithu, who is facing 117 cases of abduction and forced conversion of Hindu girls. Many call this former Pakistan parliamentarian a ''symbol of terror'.

Former PPP MP Pir Abdul Haq, better known as Mia Mithu has been at the centre of conversion controversy in Sindh, Pakistan.

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MINORITY HINDU AS TARGET

"If mullah had their say, they would force even animals to accept Islam. Their bigotry is giving a bad name for Pakistan in the world," noted Pakistani journalist Najam Sethi was quoted as saying.

Deputy editor of Awami Awaz, Asad Chandiyo said, "Forced conversion of Hindu girls is very common in Sindh. Earlier, only people like Mia Mithu did such things, now even police are doing it. Chances of getting justice for such victims are very bleak."

ALSO READ:

Pakistan is notorious for widespread enforced disappearances: Asian Human Rights Commission

Sindh becomes first Pakistan province to adopt Hindu Marriage Bill

Hindu girl weds childhood Muslim friend in Pak





--- ENDS ---
Prague (AFP) - Austria's far-right presidential candidate Norbert Hofer said Monday he wants a broader Visegrad group of central European countries that would have a stronger voice within the EU.

After meeting Czech President Milos Zeman, Hofer said he would like the group -- currently comprising the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia -- to also include Austria.

"Norbert Hofer presented his project of 'a Union within the Union'," said Zeman's spokesman Jiri Ovcacek.

Hofer and veteran leftwinger Zeman focussed their discussion on migration into Europe, which they both condemn.

The Visegrad countries have all taken a hard line on the huge influx of refugees and migrants to Europe since last year.

Ovcacek said the pair did not talk about the post-war Benes decrees expropriating and expulsing so-called Sudeten Germans from the borderland regions of the former Czechoslovakia, which split into two countries in 1993.

Austria and Germany have called the decrees discriminatory, while the Czech Republic and Slovakia say they were justified retaliation against Germany after World War II.

In a newspaper interview before his visit to Prague, Hofer said the decrees were an "injustice".

Hofer came in a narrow second in Austria's May presidential election. He challenged the result in court and the vote was annulled.

On Monday, the Austrian government announced the new vote would be postponed from October 2 to late November or early December because of glue failing to stick on postal votes.
More than a half century after the first NASA astronauts launched into space, one might think that there are no sweeping narratives left untold about the early years of the U.S. space program.

But there was at least one history remaining to be written: that of the women, and in particular the African-American women, who worked as the "human computers" at NASA's original research laboratory and provided the calculations necessary for sending American spacecraft and astronauts into space and to the moon.

It is not that the women of West Computing at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, were more crucial than their white woman counterparts in East Computing, or even the largely white and almost entirely male engineers who both divisions of women mathematicians supported at Langley. Nor were they more important to the program's early success than the teams who staffed Mission Control or, for that matter, the astronauts rode their work into orbit. The women, themselves, would be the first to ensure that was clear. [On 'Hidden Figures' Movie Set, NASA's Early Years Take Center Stage]

Rather it's their story, now documented within the pages of journalist and researcher Margot Lee Shetterly's "Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race" (William Morrow), that helps re-integrate the history of the women's rights and civil rights movements within the history of the space program.

These women, including Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson and Katherine Johnson, were hidden from that history until recently. Or, as Shetterly writes in the book, not hidden but waiting to be found.

"The title of this book is something of a misnomer. The history that has come together in these pages wasn't so much hidden as unseen  fragments patiently biding their time in footnotes and family anecdotes and musty folders before returning to view," she explains.

Story continues

And now that history is not just being revealed in the book. Adapted for film even before Shetterly finished her writing, 20th Century Fox is set to release "Hidden Figures" as a movie in January, starring actors Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kevin Costner and Kirsten Dunst. ['Hidden Figures' Tells Story Of 3 African-American Women At NASA During Space Race (Video)]

collectSPACE.com recently spoke with Shetterly about how she came to author "Hidden Figures" and why it was an untold history until now.

collectSPACE: Though there have been books before that have discussed the space race within the larger context of the years when it occurred, few have focused in any detail how the civil rights and women's rights movements were as much of a factor at NASA as they were for the nation as a whole. What led you to recognizing this story and why do you think it has gone largely untold until now?

Margot Lee Shetterly: I think it was because those things connect, but not in obvious ways  it just so happens they connect to my life.

All of those stories directly pertain to my background and history and so in a way, writing about those was a way of me exploring how I came about. I grew up in Hampton, my dad worked at NASA, there were tons of people around who worked at NASA and there was the African-American history.

And I think another part of it was that we tend to put these histories in silos. Sometimes you will read a story about women and it's "women's history." You'll read a story about African Americans and it's "African-American history." You will read a story about space and it is "space history." And all of those things are American history. There is no reason for us to isolate them and see them as separate when they are all part of the same thing.

The way I see it, and the way I hope people will see this book and the movie, is that this is "capital 'H'" history that happens to be told through the eyes of these protagonists who are African American women. Or you could say this is "capital H" history that happens to be told through the eyes of a bunch of mathematicians. This is History that happens to be told from the point of view of people who became a space program. But it is all capital 'H' American History.

collectSPACE: There are people who worked at NASA at the time who today say they were unaware of the women, or at least were unaware of how many of them there were. Did you run into this during your research? Were there any communities who knew of the women already?

Shetterly: In Hampton, where I grew up, so many people knew about this story, knew about these women  black women, white women, women. They knew because it was like, "Oh! My grandma used to work at NASA" or "My mom worked at NASA" or "The lady at church worked at NASA."

So they knew about the story but most of them were like me, it was just normal. As a kid I'd think, "My dad works at NASA, he's a research scientist. Great, everybody's got a job, and that's what they do." Normal!

There were people in the area, and particularly now since the women have passed away, who were either unfamiliar with the story or were like, "Wow, we didn't think it was that important."

But strangely, outside of Hampton Roads, the public is like, "I just can't believe this story I had no idea!" Or, even at NASA, "Well, I didn't really know." Even some of the NASA historians I spoke with were like, "I kind of thought there were a couple of women who were doing this," but they did not know the scope or the extent of it. This was something that started in 1935 when the five computers were hired at Langley.

I think there were just so many little bits and pieces to this story hidden in different places, and the people who were doing it, these women, and engineers even, who were just doing their jobs. It was totally normal, like, "Yeah, I was called up by my country to be a mathematician and that is what I did and that's it."

So I think for any number of reasons, people either knew about it and did not think it was a big deal or they had not found it. But there were so many women doing this work. There were women computers at NASA Glenn [Research Center in Cleveland], obviously in Houston and there were women at Ames [Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.]. They were the computers. There were just a ton of women and it was no big deal kind of.

collectSPACE: In addition to being about these women, it is also a story about their being the computers, first for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and then for NASA. How did you decide how much to devote to the technical details of their work, and in a greater sense, the work being done at Langley?

Shetterly: Part of the thing about writing it was figuring out how much technical information to include. I had a lot of learning to do, but I thought the science was interesting. It is obviously critical to a key part of the story, but I had to figure out how interesting it would be to the general reader.

I started working on it in 2010. I would say it probably took three years of just research for me to just figure out how to tell the story. Really digging into these different strands of Virginia history, the history of these women.

When it started out, the obvious person to tell the story, to be the protagonist, was Katherine Johnson. I had known her growing up and within the Virginia and NASA Langely communities people knew her name. She was the obvious place to start.

But this is a huge story. There were so many women.

I think a lot of people, even now, kind of think [Johnson] was the only woman, or the only black computer, and there are so many women, black, white and other, who did this job.

It took a really long time of unearthing the details of all of these women, learning enough about the actual work that was going on at the time that Langley was doing. Going into these research reports and kind of connecting the dots with these women.

And reading up on my Virginia history. There is so much about Hampton that I didn't really know about Virginia and about World War II. That for me, was the most fascinating part of it.

So it took a really long time to get all this information and then it took a long time to figure out how to carve it back.

I think the first iteration of the book was a little more geeky. It was more about NASA and a technical history. It took time to figure out how to tell all the stories, to weave them together as one narrative and to tell it as much as I could through the eyes of the women as the protagonists of the story. It took a long time to unearth this narrative from what was an overwhelming amount of historical and technical information.

Continue reading this "Hidden Figures" Q&A with Margot Lee Shetterly at collectSPACE.

"Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly was released by William Morrow, a division of HarperCollins, on Sept. 6.

Follow collectSPACE.com and Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2016 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.

Editor's Recommendations

Copyright 2016 SPACE.com, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
(Adds interview with Barrick executives, context)

By Nicole Mordant

VANCOUVER, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Barrick Gold Corp, the world's biggest gold producer, said on Monday it would partner with Cisco Systems to incorporate digital technology in all aspects of its mining business, aiming to improve productivity and reduce costs.

Toronto-based Barrick said it planned to spend around $100 million between now and the end of 2017 working with Cisco to embed technology in various parts of its operations to deliver better, faster and safer mining.

Mining sector players have long lamented the lack of technological innovation in the industry although some miners such as Dundee Precious Metals have started using wireless technology and software platforms to track underground operations in real time.

"Barrick of three years ago is going to be very, very different indeed going forward," Barrick Chief Operating Officer Richard Williams said in an interview.

"We think actually that all mining companies will have to do the same if they are going to remain in existence," he said.

The technology project is the latest move by Barrick Chairman John Thornton to transform the miner into a profitable, low-cost producer after cost-blow outs, overpriced acquisitions and a weak gold price knocked 80 percent off its share price between 2010 and late-2015.

Williams said the technology initiative will help Barrick meet its target of reducing its all-in sustaining costs to below $700 per ounce of gold by 2019.

Barrick's Cortez gold mine in Nevada will be the first operation where it will roll out new technology. Early projects there include using technology to predict maintenance in its fleet of haul trucks to reduce down time, said Michelle Ash, Barrick's senior vice president of transformation and innovation.

The company also plans to set up a central data repository where any Barrick employee can access any piece of data across any site.

"At the moment it sometimes takes us weeks to compile as all our data is in silos and you have to access to that particular silo, and we have hundreds of them," Ash said in an interview.

Story continues

Barrick said the technological shift will help it reduce its environmental impact and allow it to be more transparent with indigenous communities, local governments and non-governmental organizations.

Barrick's shares were up 2.2 percent at C$23.39 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, in line with other gold stocks.

(Reporting by Nicole Mordant in Vancouver; Editing by Will Dunham, Bernard Orr)
Its impossible to find anything less than glowing reviews of Barry Jenkins Moonlight, since it first premiered at Telluride earlier in the month ahead of a berth at TIFF this week. Jenkins second film  after Medicine for Melancholy in 2008  started life as a play; In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, by Tarell McCraney. A melancholic portrait of life in the unromantic suburbs of Miami, Moonlight follows a black boy named Chiron from childhood to adulthood, as he navigates the crack-riddled streets of his neighborhood and struggles with a complex love for his best friend.

Jenkins told me he was attracted to the narrative because it was one that doesnt often get explored in cinema. Tarell and I are both from this very rough, poor place, he said. Weve both come to be these people who create things in arts and letters. But usually, these voices dont have access to tools like fancy cameras. Its not that the narrative isnt out there, but the means to get it out to people is hard to come by.

The film stars Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Trevante Rhodes, Andre Holland and Janelle Monae. When I read the script it broke my heart, noted Harris. It spoke to me, and it has incredible, universal themes about love and identity. It just speaks to everybodys search for belonging, and thats why its managing to break through peoples sense of identity about race or what have you, and just touch peoples hearts.

For more from Jenkins and his cast, on the A24 film that has earned a rock-solid place in this years awards conversation, check out the video above.

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By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway Inc has been sued by a New York bicycle courier company over an alleged illegal scheme to cheat employers buying workers' compensation policies. The complaint, filed late Friday by Breakaway Courier Systems, came as Berkshire's Applied Underwriters unit faces scrutiny over its workers' compensation policies, including some that have been banned by California, Vermont and Wisconsin. Breakaway, with about 300 employees, accused Berkshire and Applied of "siphoning" premiums through a web of illegal shell companies, with diverted premiums going to unlicensed out-of-state insurers. The plan amounted to a "reverse Ponzi scheme" where unsuspecting employers expecting to buy affordable policies instead bought costly "reinsurance" requiring them to cover each other's losses, leaving taxpayers on the hook for shortfalls when too many workers are injured on the job, Breakaway said. "Breakaway thought it was purchasing a workers' comp policy with a profit-sharing component if its losses were low," Raymond Dowd, its lawyer, said in an interview. "Instead it purchased a complex derivative swap labeled misleadingly as a 'reinsurance participation agreement' that put all the risk on Breakaway. "Berkshire's schemes break multiple laws, including that you cannot collect insurance premiums if you are not licensed," Dowd added. Neither Berkshire nor Applied immediately responded to requests for comment. The lawsuit, filed in the state supreme court in Manhattan, seeks at least $18 million of damages, plus a declaration that the reinsurance participation agreements (RPAs) are void and against public policy. It shines a spotlight on a lesser-known part of Berkshire's insurance operations, which also include Geico car insurance and General Re reinsurance. Berkshire, run by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, has some 90 operating units including the BNSF railroad, Dairy Queen ice cream, and various apparel, energy and industrial companies. Breakaway sued three days after Applied and its California Insurance Co affiliate agreed to stop selling disputed workers' compensation policies in California. Both insurers denied wrongdoing. California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said their sale of a policy to Shasta Linen Supply Inc of Sacramento subjected the employer of 63 to hundreds of thousands of dollars of extra costs. Similarly, Breakaway's RPA put that company at "imminent financial risk," and was "not understandable" by ordinary purchasers, Martin Schwartzman, former first deputy superintendent of New York's insurance department, said in a filing accompanying the complaint. The case is Breakaway Courier Corp d/b/a Breakaway Courier Systems v. Berkshire Hathaway Inc et al, New York State Supreme Court, New York County, No. 654806/2016.
The new Mahindra Bolero Power+ comes with the same interior space to seat 7 people as in the existing Bolero.

Pravin Shah, President & Chief Executive (Automotive) at the launch of the New Bolero Power+ at Mumbai.

By India Today Web Desk: Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., today unveiled, the New Bolero with the mHawkD70 engine. This has been christened - The New Bolero Power+.

ALSO READ: Mahindra to bring back XUV500, Scorpio in Delhi-NCR

Its reliable mHAWKD70 engine delivers 13 per cent more power and 5 per cent more mileage over the existing Bolero. The New Bolero Power+ also offers a peppier drive and better manoeuvrability. At the same time, it comes with the same interior space to seat 7 people as in the existing Bolero.

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Pravin Shah, President & Chief Executive (Automotive), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. said, "The Bolero has been India's No.1 SUV for 10 years in a row from 2005-06 to 2015-16 and the all New Bolero Power+ is an evolution of this powerful brand. In our endeavour to enhance the product value proposition, we have introduced the New Bolero Power+ with the mhawkD70 engine delivering more power, more mileage & a peppier drive."

ALSO READ: Mahindra to develop full-range commercial vehicles by 2019

The New Bolero Power+ with the mHawkD70 engine will be available in 3 variants - SLE, SLX & ZLX across Mahindra dealerships pan India, at an aggressive price of Rs 6.59 lakh (ex-showroom, Navi Mumbai for SLE BS4 variant).



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Like other cultural industries, publishing is founded on hits. Yet the business of predicting best sellers remains an enigmatic artthe province chiefly of gut instinct and educated guess. Sometimes these faculties serve the industry well; other times not so much, especially when it comes to first-time authors. J. K. Rowling and John Grisham endured serial rejection before landing the deals that brought their work to the masses. E. L. James Fifty Shades of Grey found a traditional publisher only after it had been self-published.

A computer algorithm able to identify bestselling texts with at least 80 percent success sounds like science fiction. But the bestseller-ometerthe subject of an upcoming tome The Bestseller Code: Anatomy of the Blockbuster Novel, by Jodie Archer, ex-research lead on literature at Apple, and Matthew L. Jockers, an associate professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincolnis emphatically non-fictional. The algorithms claimed efficacy is based on a track record predicting New York Times best sellers when applied retrospectively to novels from the past 30 years.

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Several years in the offing and the product of the processing power of thousands of computers, the bestseller-ometer represents an attempt to identify the characteristics of bestselling fiction at scale by interrogating a massive body of literature (20,000-plus novels). By seeking to put the traits that set it apart from lesser-selling work on something approaching a scientific footing, the project provides a data-driven check to received wisdom about the secrets behind top-selling fiction. It also presages a possible future where publishers turn to technology to help cut through the vagaries of picking prospective best sellers.

But how could an algorithm capture the richness and complexity of literature? What could such disparate best sellers as the pulpy beach reads of James Patterson and critically acclaimed literary fiction of Jonathan Franzen have in common? And how can a computer account for the zeitgeist that forms an essential backdrop to a books appeal?

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* * *

The enterprise was conceived at Stanford University around 2008. Jockers, then a lecturer at the Palo Alto campus, was a leading light in the emerging field of digital humanitiesthe application of computer-enabled quantitative analysis to text (he later co-founded the Stanford Literary Lab). Archer, a graduate student, was skeptical computers could say anything substantive about literature. A demonstration of a computer models prowess in picking the genre of Shakespeares plays based on textual markers did little to allay her doubtsshe was impressed by the spectacle as a computational feat but otherwise underwhelmed.

Running their model, Archer and Jockers found the books number-one subject was human closeness.

So what; I already knew Macbeth was a tragedy. She urged Jockers: We have to [pose] a question we cant answer, that moves the field forward,

That question: Why do we all read the same book?

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Archers interest in this was piqued a few years earlier, as an editor at Penguin in London amid the hoopla surrounding Dan Browns The Da Vinci Code. That book had been widely panned by critics, yet found a mass audience (80 million copies sold to date). Was there was a textual charisma, as The Bestseller Code puts it, to which readers were, perhaps unwittingly, responding?

The algorithm Archer and Jockers subsequently built isnt the first attempt to apply the clarifying power of Big Data to books. Inkitt, the Berlin startup behind whats been billed as the first novel selected by an algorithm, intensively tracks reader responses to stories posted to its web platform to identify potential best sellers. Londons Jellybooks, founded in 2011, measures reader engagement later in the literary production cycle, immediately before books are published, using software downloaded by readers onto their devices in exchange for advance access to a title. But the bestseller-ometer stands apart in joining old-school literary scholarship to computational horsepower. The Bestseller Code, an amplification of Archers 2014 dissertation, documents the intricate considerations that went into training the machine to read and unpack the micro-decisions at the level of diction and syntax involved in crafting bestselling fiction.

These algorithms arent magic, says University of Notre Dame assistant professor of English Matthew Wilkens, himself a digital humanist. They reflect [the same] interpretative and analytical choices [involved in] reading one book closely; youre looking for certain repetitions, word usage patterns, thematic emphases and allusions. Its not work that can be done by someone not familiar with literature.

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* * *

So what does a suitably trained algorithm have to say about storytelling that hooks readers en masse?

No surprise about some of the elements: authoritative voice; spare, plainspoken, often colloquial, prose; declarative verbs that connote action-oriented take-charge characters.

Others are less obvious. By cataloging words associated with certain subjects, Archer and Jockers identified narrative cohesion as a habit of top-selling authors. Danielle Steel and John Grisham typically devote one-third of their novels to a signature topicdomestic life in Steels case, lawyers and the law for Grishamand these form part of an overall mix that lends itself to conflict; topics between which they can toggle to generate dramatic friction. Outside the home, Steel often thrusts her characters into life-and-death medical situations, for example. Conversely, lesser-selling novels tend to be cacophonous and diffuse, biting off more than they can chew, populated by unrelated topics.

Then there are findings that confound expectations. Sex doesnt sell. In fact, its a distinctly minority taste, confined to a vanishingly small proportion of bestselling material, according to the bestseller-ometer. This discovery occurred early in the research, so the 2011 emergence of Fifty Shades, heaving with hot and heavy erotic scenes, came as a plot twist. But running their model, Archer and Jockers found the books number-one subject was human closeness (the most prevalent topic across all the bestsellers they looked at, in fact). Fifty Shades was chiefly about the emotional intimacy between its characters.

The bestseller-ometer may find its most noble application  as a democratizing force.

The model yielded further clues to the appeal of the much-mocked book. Mapping its emotional trajectory, as suggested by emotionally charged words, Archer and Jockers uncovered a rhythmic tempo to its cycles of unrest and closure. Plotted on a graph, this describes a near-perfect undulating waveform. James writes emotional turns with such a regularity of beat that the reader feels the thrum of her words in their bodies like the effect of club music, Archer and Jockers report.

* * *

The authors reject any suggestion their algorithm has hit upon a formula for would-be bestselling novelistsmore like some instructive data-points. Indeed, much of what they found reveals the diverse directions in which popular fiction may be taken based on common foundationsthe possibilities inherent in the form. The algorithm located bestsellers across seven plot types, for example. And a book was no less likely to best-sell if it ended on a downer (all the better for a sequel, The Bestseller Code notes).

Archer and Jockers also eschew any notion theyre out to disrupt publishing. They have no immediate plans to commercialize their creation; Jockers characterizes it as a proof of concept, a prototype for the approachs potential in tackling literary questions. But, in an algorithm that could sharpen publishers ability to identify prospective bestsellers at the manuscript stage, theyve developed a potentially valuable piece of intellectual property.

Johnny Geller, co-CEO of the London-based literary agency Curtis Brown, was interested enough to secure an advance copy of The Bestseller Code that he was halfway through when we spoke in late August. He sees a potential application for such a tool at publishings discovery stage, when agents are screening submissions. Still, he thinks it would be an adjunct to human acumen, rather than anything that might one day supplant it. I use human algorithms all the time, but they only take you [so far], he says. You need a human with feeling, the ability to be surprised.

Knopf editor Carole Baron, whos edited Danielle Steel, Elmore Leonard, Judy Blume, and other big-name authors, says shes skeptical of the forecasting power of an algorithm based on already-published works. Can you predict the future in literature and art when you cant factor in the zeitgeist? Were always surprised.

Zeitgeist might explain the fate of Dave Eggers The Circle. The bestseller-ometer anointed the 2013 novel as the exemplary bestselling text from the past 30 years. It ticked all the boxes for popular page-turning fiction and was accorded a 100 percent chance of bestselling. The algorithm was correct; The Circle sold 220,000 copies as of June, based on Nielsen BookScan figures cited in Publishers Weekly. But these are respectable rather than meteoric numbers.

Baron says its a supreme attunement to zeitgeist that, in part, explains the success of Danielle Steel, the most popular author currently writing (going by sales: 650 million and counting). I used to tell her, youre a channeler, recounts Baron. I  believe these words and ideas are in the world and grab hold of some people. Danielle would  say, I have this idea, and the whole thing would [come out] practically whole-cloth. Shed work and work on it, but the initial idea [would] hit her in the middle of the night.

Of course, inertia around Steel, Patterson and other so-called franchise authors who now perennially sit atop the best seller lists means publishers are less inclined than ever to divert funds to unknown writers. And this is where the bestseller-ometer may find its most noble application, says Archer: as a democratizing force, a tool to ease publishers concerns about taking a flier on a rookie authorlike J. K. Rowling or John Grisham back in the daylanguishing in the slush pile with no literary pedigree but a manuscript that aces the algorithm, suggesting theyre worth a second look.

[Its] Mrs. Smith from Iowa whos just written a lovely book [that this] could massively help, she says.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
A subsidiary of Oklahoma-based BOK Financial Corporation BOKF has agreed to settle charges of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by paying more than $1.6 million.



Per the regulator, BOK Financials unit failed in its gatekeeping role as indenture trustee, having concealed material problems and red flags from investors in municipal bond offerings related to purchase and renovation of senior living facilities.



The regulator also filed a complaint in a federal court in Newark, NJ against Marrien Neilson, the companys former senior vice-president. Neilson was charged with failure to properly oversee the municipal bond scheme by an Atlanta-based businessman, Christopher F. Brogdon.



Brogdon has been charged separately for misusing investor funds raised to purchase and renovate senior living facilities.



Why the Charges?



According to the SEC, BOK Financial and Neilson were aware of Brogdons fraudulent acts of withdrawing money from reserve funds for the bond offerings and not replenishing the reserve account, along with failure to file annual financial statements for the offerings.



They also knew that the nursing home facilities put up as collateral for one of the bond offerings had been closed for years.



Instead of standing up for the bondholders and notifying them, as required of their gatekeeping role as indenture trustee and dissemination agent for Brogdons bond offerings, they chose to remain silent. Neilson had apparently warned others that disclosure of such acts and other problems could materially impact the companys future business and fees from Brogdon, and result in regulatory issues for bond underwriters.



According to the SEC, Brogdon amassed nearly $190 million from several municipal bond and private placement offerings for nursing homes, assisted-living facilities and other retirement community projects. Further, he secretly commingled investor funds and diverted their money to other business ventures and personal expenses.



The Consequences



BOK Financial has agreed to pay disgorgement of $984,200.73 in fees it collected from its work with Brogdon, along with $83,500 in interest and a $600,000 in penalty. The company did not admit nor denied the charges.



Neilson has been allegedly held responsible for the failure of the companys corporate trust department. She has been terminated from her role following an internal investigation.



Brogdon has been ordered to repay $85 million to investors by the court. Further, he has been prohibited from serving as an officer or director to any public company in the future.

BOK Financials stock declined about 0.3% to close at $69.11 on Sep 9, after the SEC announced the charges against the company.



Currently, BOK Financial Corporation carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the same space include Republic Bancorp, Inc RBCAA sporting a Zacks Rank #1(Strong Buy) and BancFirst Corporation BANF, Southwest Bancorp OKSB, both carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.



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This koala once mesmerized audiences at the Australia Zoo with her different colored eyes, but after a three-month period of resting and recovering from recent injuries, she's being released back to her home.

Read: Woman Discovers Abandoned Puppy Inside Plastic Bag on Side of Road

Bowie, the koala with one blue eye and one brown eye, was rescued by the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital after they suspected she was hit by a car in June, a press statement reported.

"It only took one look at Bowie to realize how special she is," said the Australia Zoo's Richard Jackson, who was involved in the koala's rescue.

Initial examinations showed she only suffered minor injuries, but veterinarians also discovered she had heterochromia, a rare genetic condition more commonly found in domestic animals that caused her mismatched eyes.

"Bowie's heterochromia doesn't affect how she sees the world around her," the koala's veterinarian Dr. Sharon Griffiths said in a press statement. "In fact her eyesight is great."

The zoo was then inspired to name the koala after late rock star David Bowie, whose eyes were also different colors.

For the following months, Bowie swung from trees and explored her surroundings as veterinarians treated her minor injuries and nursed her back to health.

Jackson said in a press statement that her case is even more unique because she was able to be rehabilitated and rereleased back in the wild.

"She gets to go back out into the wild a healthy koala who can contribute to the declining south east Queensland koala population" said Richard.

Read: 'Kent the Koala' Recovers From Dog Attack and Climbs Back Into the Wild

Officials said this time of year is extremely risky for koalas since they are moving around more to find a mate.

The increased activity makes the more vulnerable to conflicts with humans, cars and other animals, the press release stated.

Story continues

Watch: Giant Panda Cub Poses for a Selfie With Caretaker

Related Articles:
By Sue-Lin Wong DANDONG, China (Reuters) - China's main border post with reclusive North Korea was packed with trucks carrying everything from bricks to exhaust pipes on Monday, as it re-opened for business for the first time since Pyongyang angered the world with its fifth nuclear test. China, North Korea's most important diplomatic ally, condemned the test - the North's largest nuclear explosion to date - but has been ambivalent about whether it will support further sanctions against its impoverished neighbor. In Dandong, though which about three-quarters of the country's trade with North Korea flows, some truck drivers said routine checks had been stepped up since Friday's test, although others said it was pretty much business as usual. "I bring across all kinds of things, products for ordinary people," said a truck driver who gave his family name as Wang, hauling a cargo of vehicle exhaust pipes. "Business hasn't been bad, we're pretty busy." Wang was among the Chinese drivers waiting to cross the narrow "Friendship Bridge" across the Yalu River into North Korea as it re-opened to traffic following the weekend and the North's National Day holiday on Friday. Trucks loaded with wooden frames, construction materials, steel, aluminum, rubber, machinery, bricks and even small bulldozers queued in line at the single-lane border checkpoint. China has signed up to tough UN sanctions on North Korea designed to stymie its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, but has long been wary of cutting off trade completely lest it harm ordinary North Koreans and precipitate a collapse of its neighbor. Driver Ying Ren, 54, said everything taken across the Dandong border would be inspected. "They check us for everything, they can even tell if we have two bottles of beer. They don't care if we have beer, but they can tell that we have it," he said. "After they imposed sanctions goods like chemicals were banned from being taken across because they might be used for the nuclear bomb." BANNED GOODS Current U.N. sanctions target luxury goods and materials that could be used for North Korea's banned nuclear and ballistic missile programs. They also aim to restrict the North's access to hard currency to fund those programs. Another driver, also surnamed Wang, said border checks appeared slower after the latest nuclear test. "The checks really stepped up after the sanctions were introduced earlier this year," he said, referring to a further round of sanctions approved after North Korea's fourth nuclear test in January. "Now they check when we load the trucks and they check again when we go through customs. They give me a list so I can see that they know everything I have on board. But trade in goods for ordinary people will continue indefinitely. How can it not? We don't want North Korean refugees flooding into China." While South Korea and the United States are pushing for further sanctions after Friday's latest test, backed by Britain and France, the remaining veto powers on the U.N. Security Council, China and Russia, have been less clear. Much of the economic development that has raised living standards for ordinary North Koreans in recent years is derived from cheap, Chinese imports sold in semi-legal private markets that have sprung up around the country. Even Western nations are reluctant to impose sanctions that interfere with this day-to-day trade, say analysts, because they hope the emergence of a growing consumer class in North Korea will ultimately undermine leader Kim Jong-un's government. Driver Liang Hengshun said he preferred not to linger in North Korea. "They're a very closed society, we aren't allowed to use our phones, we can't listen to the radio, they'll take away anything that isn't written in Korean script like Chinese newspapers in our trucks," he said. Smuggling was still quite common, he added, although much of it had more to do with turning a profit than beating sanctions. "The tour buses smuggle in wigs, eyelash extensions, small things like that won't be caught," Liang said. "If you want to buy a wig through formal channels it costs 1,000 yuan ($150) or so, but if you get one of these black market ones it'll only be 2-300 yuan and the driver is happy because he can make some money too," he said. "We don't usually smuggle those kinds of things on our big trucks, we leave that for the tour buses." ($1 = 6.6789 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Sue-Lin Wong in Dandong, China; Additional reporting by James Pearson in Seoul; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Strasbourg (France) (AFP) - The man likely to be Britain's last European Commissioner on Monday urged member states to forge closer cooperation against terrorism even as Brexit deprives the EU of a major security player.

Julian King, currently British ambassador to France, told a European Parliament hearing on his appointment as Security Commissioner, that he had been in Nice in July when more than 80 people were mowed down by a lorry in an attack claimed by Islamic State.

"I saw for myself the devastating aftermath of the attack ... which killed so many people, injured many more and traumatised Europe," King told MEPs.

"It brought home to me again the true human cost of terrorism," he told Parliament's Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs committee meeting in the French city of Strasbourg.

European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker last month named King to the new post of Security Commissioner tasked with fighting terrorism, and organised and cyber crime.

King is meant to lead implementation of what is known as the European Agenda on Security that the Commission, the European Union's executive arm, adopted in April last year.

Several MEPs questioned however how he could really carry out that mission when his country has voted to quit the 28-nation bloc but King said the two issues were completely separate.

"I am not here as a representative of the British government and if others want to ask about issues to do with Brexit and the British government's position, I'm afraid they will get the same reply."

King's predecessor Jonathan Hill, who held the key financial affairs portfolio, stepped down after the June Brexit vote left London and Brussels needing to find a replacement and a new role for Britain on the Commission.

- Member states must cooperate -

King said he believed he could "make a real contribution in an area which is top of citizens' concerns" and promised that he would faithfully serve European citizens.

Story continues

He recalled a series of terrorist atrocities over the 15 years since the 9/11 attacks on the United States which had exacted a deadly toll and required joint action to counter.

"In todayas world, security of one member state is the security of all," he said in prepared remarks.

"National security remains the sole responsibility of member states. But they cannot address alone threats which are transnational," he said.

Saying he would work closely with his peers on the Commission and in Parliament, King said all now needed "redouble our efforts to deliver the security that our citizens expect."

Brexit will deprive the EU of a major, nuclear-armed NATO military power with vast counter-terror experience at home and abroad but officials on both sides have stressed that cooperation in security will remain a key priority.

The European Commission led by Juncker comprises 28 portfolios -- one for each member state -- and crucially draws up the legislation to give effect to the political direction agreed by the European Council, which groups the member state governments.

The full European Parliament is expected to vote on King's appointment later this week.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has said she will not begin formal negotiations on leaving the EU until early next year, setting the clock ticking on a two-year deadline.
Montreal (AFP) - Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate will be accompanied by their two children, George and Charlotte, during their visit to western Canada later this month, Ottawa said Monday.

The trip marks their second visit to Canada, following their first tour in 2011 just two months after their marriage.

The family arrives in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, on September 24, for an eight-day visit that will take them all the way to the city of Whitehorse in the Yukon, according to an itinerary released by the Canadian government.

Governor General David Johnston, the representative of Queen Elizabeth II in Canada, will welcome the couple, who plan to address environmental issues and the mental health of native peoples and children.

The family will leave Victoria by seaplane on October 1, before returning to Britain on their official plane.

The trip marks the first royal tour for Princess Charlotte, whose is 16 months old, and the second for three-year-old Prince George, who has already been to Australia and New Zealand in 2014, according to the BBC.

During their 2011 trip to Canada, William and Kate toured several eastern provinces before heading west to Alberta and the Northwest Territories.
While shooting Mr. Church, Britt Robertson admits she often got sentimental. "You can't help but let it affect you because the words are so empowering and alive," she explains in the behind-the-scenes featurette, debuted exclusively by The Hollywood Reporter.

Bruce Beresford's indie title, out Sept. 16, sees Eddie Murphy playing a man hired to cook for a dying woman and her teenage daughter named Charlie, played by Robertson. "They become this unconventional family unit at a time in the '70s when that wasn't exactly smiled upon," she says.

Read more: 'Mr. Church': Tribeca Review

The drama - which is based on the real-life experiences of screenwriter Susan McMartin and is Murphy's first film in four years - charts their unique relationship as Charlie leaves for college and later enters motherhood.

"Charlie is always really respectful of Mr. Church, knowing that he has given up his whole life for her. There's so much of her that wants him to be that father that she never had," Robertson explains of her onscreen relationship with Murphy's titular character. "But that's not the kind of guy he is. As they get to know each other, he lets Charlie into his life a little bit more."
"We have taken the Supreme Court verdict sportingly and waited for 11 days for others to pull down their structure. I hope the others too will accept the order and take it sportingly," she said at a press conference today.

By Romita Datta: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee is hoping Tata Motors will cooperate and shift all their items before the factory shed gets bulldozed.

11-DAY WAIT

"We have taken the Supreme Court verdict sportingly and waited for 11 days for others to pull down their structure. I hope the others too will accept the order and take it sportingly," she said at a press conference today.

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Tata Motors is yet to react to the verdict. Banerjee felt that there was no scope for overlooking the verdict since it has hit national headlines. The Chief Minister however was quick to add that she hoped the Tata Group had taken it sportingly since the company was part of the entourage of industrialists on her Germany tour.

RETURNING LAND TO OWNERS

"So many places are available. They are also working in our state," she added, requesting not to create confusion. Banerjee is going to address a victory rally on September 14 and return land to 800 land owners, who took part in the land agitation movement and refused compensation in 2007-2008.

The number of land owners, who were with her in the save farmland movement, however, came to around 2,500. About one-third of them have staked their claim for the return of their land. Thus, a section of those who lost their land are not happy with the compensation being given to them at par with those who accepted compensation cheques, way back in 2006 and 2008.

The land losers, who waited for 10 years and supported Mamata's movement, want an interest on the compensated amount to make up for the financial loss they suffered over the years. About 620 acres will be vacant and ready for distribution, but the application for the claim might not add up to that quantum of land.

ALSO READ:

Mamata Banerjee on Singur verdict against Tatas: Can die in peace now

Politics over pizza: Mamata, Kejriwal dine in Rome, discuss impending elections

--- ENDS ---
Vienna (AFP) - Austrians love their sausages and are fiercely proud of their homegrown "wurst". But this hasn't daunted Englishman Richard Holmes in his quest to get locals to love his bangers too.

"I started doing it because I really missed British sausages from home," the 31-year-old told AFP as he demonstrated his sausage-making technique. "That and fish, a nice bit of cod."

Based in Vienna, he sells his handmade "Britwurst" creations to a growing number of restaurants and shops and at markets -- although not yet to Austria's ubiquitous "wuerstelstand" sausage stands.

But looking the archetypal British butcher with his blue-and-white apron, chunky forearms and sausage-sized fingers, he says it has been a struggle to get established.

The worst thing, he says as he minces great pale chunks of pork -- "shoulder for the taste, 'cos it's got the good fat" -- was the "absolute nightmare" of Austrian bureaucracy.

"Rules are rules at the end of the day but I really struggled with them a lot. At one point I thought, this is too much, I'm going to give up on this," the Essex native said.

- Sausage suitcase -

You can't just turn up in Austria and start making and selling sausages. The authorities needed documented proof that Holmes knows what he is doing.

So he went back to England for a weekend sausage-making course and returned armed with 50 kilos (110 pounds) of sausages in his suitcase -- and the vital piece of paper.

Acquiring also a business licence, he then went to see the "Master Butcher of Vienna", who didn't know one end of a British sausage from another but who allowed Holmes to operate.

The proviso though from this wurst overlord was that he wouldn't "tread on the toes" of local producers by selling Austria-type sausages like the kaesekrainer (with melted cheese inside) or bratwurst.

Not that this restriction has cramped his style.

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Alongside the standard British favourites, Holmes has innovated, using anything from pistachios to jalapeno peppers to add a twist to his creations.

- Quality -

But Holmes says his main selling point is not that his sausages are British but they are a quality, all-natural product -- unlike the cheaper end of the local market.

"If you visit a wuerstelstand you've got no idea where they come from," he says. "Your typical frankfurter from the supermarket has all sorts of stuff in it."

His meat comes from local, free-range pigs that are slaughtered at Hoedl Fleischerei, Vienna's last butcher that kills on site, and which then makes the sausages to Holmes's recipes.

Down at Vienna's Karmeliter market where Holmes is every Saturday, he is doing brisk business.

Only around 10,000 Brits live in Austria, plus roughly 1,000 Irish, a third of them in Vienna, so Holmes can't rely just on expats. And in fact, a majority of his customers are locals.

"He doesn't use any additives, it's not industrially manufactured and it's handmade. And he does these interesting combinations. It's absolutely fantastic," said local Nilufar, a regular customer.

"British sausages have a totally different taste and structure to German and Austrian ones. And, of course, the English breakfast is famous. He's got a nice little niche here," agreed Markus.

Not everyone is impressed, though.

"British cooking? No thanks!" says a passing pensioner, disgusted.
Bruce Springsteen will hit the road this fall for a book tour promoting his forthcoming biography, Born to Run. Springsteen's nine-date tour kicks off in his hometown of Freehold Township, NJ, at Barnes and Noble on Sept. 27 and is slated to wind down on Oct. 10 at the Harvard Coop in Boston; Born to Run is due out on Sept. 27 and available for preorder at Brucespringsteenbook.com.

Bruce Springsteen Shares the Hardest Part of Writing His Autobiography 'Born to Run'

All books will be pre-signed. A companion album, Born to Run: Chapter and Verse, is due out on Sept. 23. The tour includes New York City, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

In a new Vanity Fair interview, Springsteen, 66, discussed some of the impetus for writing the book. "I had to find the roots of my own troubles and issues," he said, "and the joyful things that have allowed me to put on the kind of shows that we put on."

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The list of dates includes:

Sept. 27 -- Freehold, NJ @ Barnes & Noble

Sept. 28 -- New York, NY @ Barnes & Noble Union Square

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Sept. 29 -- Philadelphia, PA @ Philadelphia Free Library

Oct. 1 -- Seattle, WA @ Elliot Bay Book Company

Oct. 3 -- Los Angeles, CA @ Barnes & Noble at the Grove

Oct. 4 -- Portland, OR @ Powell's City of Books

Oct. 5 -- San Francisco, CA @ City Arts & Lectures

Oct. 7 -- New York, NY @ The New Yorker Festival

Oct. 10 -- Boston, MA @ The Harvard Coop
Bruce Springsteen read a fan's request during his Sunday night concert in Pitttsburgh that hurled an insult at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Stepping up to the microphone at Consol Energy Center, Springsteen said: "Someone gave me a copy of the Constitution of the United States. It does say 'F--- Trump' on the front of it. And this was his request," he said.

Springsteen proceeded to play an acoustic version of "Long Walk Home," a track from his 2007 album, Magic.

This wasn't the first time Springsteen was handed a copy of the Constitution. A similar thing happed at the United Center in Chicago after The Boss went crowd-surfing, and a fan slipped one in his pocket.

Springsteen and the E Street Band began the evening honoring the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks with a quartet of songs from his 2002 album, The Rising.

Backed by a string section, Springsteen paid tribute to New York with "New York City Serenade" before segueing into "Into the Fire," a song about first responders running into the Twin Towers before they fell. He then performed the somber "You're Missing" for the first time since 2003.

He lightened the mood with the more upbeat "Lonesome Day" and "Mary's Place" before working in "Darkness on the Edge of Town" to complete the theme. He followed with two more NYC centric songs, "Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street" and "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City."

Springsteen later returned to The Rising album with "My City of Ruins" and the title track, but opted to let the songs do the talking, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Additionally, Springsteen united "Kitty's Back," "Incident on 57th Street" and "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" from The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, which was released 43 years ago, on Sept. 11, 1973.

Story continues

Springsteen was joined by Pittsburgh musician Joe Grushecky for the song "Light of Day."

Watch video of the Trump dis, shot by Marianne Sughrue, below:

Acoustic Long walk home https://t.co/mzr3nrvj4W

- Mitch Slater (@mpslater) September 12, 2016
buffalo wild wings chicken

A month after an investor ripped apart Buffalo Wild Wings' business, the sport-bar offered up some solutions of its own to Morgan Stanley.

Buffalo Wild Wings is going back to the basics, with two short-term fixes to boost sales, according to a research note released by Morgan Stanley on Monday.

The first: half-priced wings on Tuesdays. The weekly discount launched nationally last week, and, according to Morgan Stanley, proved in tests to have a quick impact on sales.

The second solution is a weekday 15-minute lunch guarantee, which the chain introduced in early July. Executives said that the new guarantee is a way to draw customers who may not be Buffalo Wild Wings loyalists, but instead are seeking an inexpensive and convenient deal from any restaurant.

"The two combined are enough in the eyes of management to revitalize sales, getting them back to flat by the 4Q and presumably better thereafter," reads Morgan Stanley's note.

buffalo wild wings

In the future, Buffalo Wild Wings is planning on launching other, fairly standard programs to boost sales, including happy hour and late-night deals, as well as growing its to-go, digital, and (currently nonexistent) delivery business.

However, an activist investor has much bigger changes in mind.

In August, Mick McGuire, the founder and CEO of Marcato Capital Management who has been called a Bill Ackman "protege," released a letter to James Damian, the chairman of Buffalo Wild Wing's board of directors. The letter trashed management and called for the chain to adopt a 90% franchised model by 2020.

Buffalo Wild Wings told Morgan Stanley that refranchising so quickly would not be feasible, and could lead to problems for the chain.

"Refranchising, especially on a deadline, also brings with it operational and franchisee selection risks," writes Morgan Stanley. "A B-Dub is more complex than the typical [quick-service restaurant.]"

Ultimately, both Buffalo Wild Wings management and investors agree that a change is necessary, as sales have slipped in recent quarters. In July, the company reported in the second quarter, sales at company-owned stores open for at least one year fell 2.1% during the quarter, and fell 2.6% at franchised restaurants.

Story continues

NOW WATCH: We did a blind taste test of wings from Pizza Hut, Domino's, Papa John's, and Buffalo Wild Wings  the winner was clear





More From Business Insider


Target pharmacy

It's easy to see why EpiPen has become the focus of America's fury over drug prices. It treats potentially deadly allergic reactions  for example, in a child who is stung by a bee  and its price has spiked by over 500% in a few years.

While it's easy to jump all over drugmakers, like EpiPen's maker, Mylan, other actors in the healthcare system ought to draw as much scrutiny.

One group of companies, called pharmaceutical-benefit managers, or PBMs, serve as middlemen, and they touch every part of the purchase of a prescription drug.

And now there's a growing realization, from Washington to Wall Street, that PBMs have been a big beneficiary of soaring drug prices burdening Americans  profits of the largest companies have doubled in recent years  even as they pitch their services as critical to controlling costs.

It's what one Wall Street analyst described as a "perverse incentive" in the business. A recent Morgan Stanley analysis showed that PBMs' earnings would take a direct hit if drug companies began to slow down on price hikes.

The biggest of these companies is Express Scripts, but PBM services are also provided by CVS Health, UnitedHealth Group, and several smaller companies. Because of their complexity and opacity, they've managed to dodge the kind of intense scrutiny that drugmakers are facing.

But that's changing, and it's bad news for the industry. PBMs are being sued by some customers for double-dealing, and they're now also starting to draw the attention of Congress. Perhaps the biggest threat of all: They're facing a backlash from America's largest employers, some of which are working on a way to rewire the system.

Below, we're going to try to explain how PBMs work for the more than 260 million Americans they serve, and because, unlike the other big companies, it is mostly a PBM, we're going to use Express Scripts to do this.

Story continues

The ultimate middleman

Pharmaceutical-benefit managers started simply enough. In the 1960s, they served a need. As more Americans started taking prescription drugs, insurance companies were overwhelmed processing claims. PBMs offered to do it for them. PBMs pioneered plastic prescription cards and mail-order drug delivery.

They promised Americans they'd negotiate to keep drug prices down. They promised insurers they'd make processing prescriptions a lot cheaper and easier. And they promised drug companies they would favor certain drugs in exchange for rebates and price breaks.

They're paid fees by the insurers and employers who use their services. But they're also taking a cut of every sale. That alone isn't a problem. American business is full of middlemen, and nothing the PBMs do is illegal.

But where the PBMs are starting to get into trouble is that they're making bundles by keeping each player they deal with  pharmacies, insurers, drugmakers  partly in the dark. And those bundles, you could argue, are coming at the expense of the people who pay for healthcare.

Obama doctors Obamacare

Here's how a PBM like Express Scripts controls information and pricing.

Let's say a doctor prescribes you a heartburn drug. Its list price is $300, but the only people who pay that are those without insurance. Because you have insurance, you go to your local pharmacy and pay a $20 co-pay. For you, that's it. Your insurer might be paying $180 for the drug as part of a large-scale agreement it came to years ago via the PBM. The pharmacy that dispenses it may get only $160 for it. That $20 difference is a spread, and that goes to your PBM as profit. That's on top of fees your insurer is paying the PBM to administer its prescription-drug program.

That's the simplest way this goes down.

All the while, the pharmacy has no idea how much your insurer is paying for the drug, and your insurer isn't exactly sure how much the pharmacy is getting for dispensing the medicine. The drug company, meanwhile, isn't even getting close to the $300 list price that makes everyone so angry.

Then things get really murky.

If the price of the drug has increased, the PBM can be paid a rebate for the excess, which it pockets. The insurer, which is paying for the drug, won't know.

"These rebate amounts are less likely to be explicitly shared with a client," analysts at AllianceBernstein, an investment firm, wrote in a recent note on Express Scripts.

The note was written to answer the question of whether PBMs are "containing pharmacy costs or driving them." AllianceBernstein's answer was to put an "underperform" rating on Express Scripts' stock, warning of the risk to investors as people start to figure all this out.

Express Scripts Chief Medical Officer Steve Miller

'What we don't want is transparency'

In the middle of the EpiPen news cycle, CNBC interviewed Steve Miller, the chief medical officer of Express Scripts.

"If she wanted to lower the price tomorrow she could," Miller said of Mylan's CEO, Heather Bresch.

He continued (emphasis added):

"We love transparency for our patients. Our patients should know exactly what they're going to pay when they go to the pharmacy counter. We love transparency for our clients  they can come in. They can audit their contracts. They know exactly what they're going to be required to pay ... What we don't want is transparency for our competitors."

Did you catch that?

Express Scripts will tell clients how much they should pay, but it is trying hard not to tell anyone how much things cost. The problem is that when people find out, they seem to get very angry.

'Don't you find it odd?'

In February, at a congressional hearing about drug prices, Mark Merritt, the PBMs' lobbyist in Washington, was grilled by Republican Rep. Earl "Buddy" Carter of Georgia.

Carter owns a few small pharmacies, and he was getting very angry about the lists, called formularies, that PBMs develop for their clients. A formulary is a list of drugs that patients will be reimbursed for on a given plan.

PBMs also create maximum allowable cost (MAC) lists, which tell the drug companies and pharmacies how much they'll pay for a medication. The prices on each list can be different, but only the PBM knows the difference.

"They have one list here that they're going to reimburse the dispenser at. They have another list that they're going to charge the insurance company that they're representing," Carter said at the hearing. "Don't you find that somewhat awkward? Don't you find that to be a situation where the PBM could distort the market greatly?"

Merritt said he did not.

Carter also said that PBMs have caught the ire of states because they were not updating their MAC lists frequently enough. That means that even if a drug's cost increases for a pharmacy, the PBM still won't pay more to buy the drug for its clients.

Merritt insisted that it was not accurate.

Carter countered:

"If that's the case, don't you find it somewhat odd that [the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] found it necessary to mandate ... that these MAC lists be updated every seven days, and that 26 states have passed laws requiring PBMs to update their MAC lists? ... I notice that the profits of the PBMs have increased enormously over the past few years  in fact, almost doubled. I find that very disturbing, particularly when you're talking about spread pricing."

In a statement to Business Insider, Express Scripts said, "We update [MAC lists] on a regular basis ... as need be." It would not elaborate further.

Earl

Side hustles

Further complicating the issue with drug companies, PBMs have entered into businesses beyond just managing lists and buying drugs. Many have their own specialty pharmacies, which are mail-order pharmacies that manage drugs that are hard to distribute. Express Scripts, for example, has a specialty pharmacy called Accredo Health.

Carter says he has adjudicated claims for customers in his pharmacy, had them rejected, and then seen the PBM call the customer right away to tell them to use its specialty pharmacy.

"A mail-order pharmacy that is owned by the PBM  now don't you find that conflict of interest? Don't you find it a conflict of interest when a PBM not only owns the pharmacy but they're reimbursing here?" he asked.

What he means is that the PBM helps to manage the drugs on the formulary and negotiates the price of the drug that it could be buying from itself.

Express Scripts also has a business that manages patient-assistance programs called United BioSource. Drug companies use these assistance programs to help patients get around co-pays and often point to them when drug costs go up really fast. Express Scripts picks up a management fee for doling out this cash.

While all this complex stuff is going on in the background, the patient's price is being held steady. In his CNBC interview, Miller bragged that patients saw their EpiPen co-pay increase from $73.03 to just $73.50.

"We're really trying to protect our plans," he said.

What it really does, though, is protect all the players from patient outrage, because rising drug prices mean rising rebates and increasing profits for the PBM.

In a research note, Morgan Stanley analysts walked through what would happen with a single product: Allergan's chronic dry-eye treatment, Restasis.

The price of Restasis has increased by double digits annually in recent years, and so has the income generated from rebates related to it. If Allergan were to cut back on price hikes, like it just pledged to, those earnings would drop by 15%.

Of course, clients such as insurers don't know exactly how much drugs cost the PBM once it has negotiated its own rebate with a drug company; clients just know how much they're paying a PBM.

Are you seeing a trend here? Whether it's from drug companies like Mylan or PBMs, real prices are just hard to come by. And because their hands are in all corners of the business  the lists that get you to customers, the assistance programs that get customers to pay, the pharmacies that can sell you the drugs  that suits PBMs just fine.

A pharmacy employee looks for medication as she works to fill a prescription while working at a pharmacy in New York December 23, 2009. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

This is your brain  this is your brain on a PBM

With a market cap of $45.7 billion, Express Scripts is the largest of the PBMs and was created as a PBM, not an insurer or a pharmacy like its two primary competitors, UnitedHealth and CVS Health. The three control most of the PBM industry.

Based in St. Louis, Express Scripts exploded in 2011 when it announced it would purchase Medco Health Solutions for $29.1 billion. In 2010, before that deal, the company's revenue was $44.97 billion. In 2015, it was $101.75 billion.

We asked Express Scripts if it thought there were any conflicts of interest in the way its business is structured, conflicts that may prompt the company to add a drug to a formulary or stock it in its pharmacy (Accredo Health), for example.

Time and time again, the company said that clients make choices and Express Scripts just gives advice.

Here are a few of the answers we got:

Linette Lopez: If the price of a drug increases, doesn't payment to your company increase as well?

Express Scripts: All individual client contracts are geared toward driving down the cost of healthcare while creating the best possible outcomes for patients. Express Scripts' performance is contingent on our ability save our clients money while ensuring that patients have access to the right medications at the best possible price with the greatest level of care.

Lopez: Does Accredo sell drugs that it also provides patient-assistance programs for?

Express Scripts: Pharmaceutical manufacturers choose their PAP providers as well as their distribution channels. There are drugs dispensed by Accredo that have PAPs operated by [United BioSource]. For some products, we determine eligibility and dispense the product, and for others the manufacturer contracts with Accredo to handle only dispensing.

Lopez: For what drug companies does United BioSource administer patient-assistance programs?

Express Scripts: [United BioSource] works with a number of manufacturers to implement PAPs to ensure that uninsured and underinsured patients who meet the qualifications of the program get access to the drugs they need. The number of companies is proprietary.

express scripts revenue

Dealing in the dark

What these answers reveal is that yes, sometimes Express Scripts gets paid for managing patient-assistance programs for drugs it also sells through its own pharmacy. So not only is the situation Carter described possible, patients won't even know what's going on because the patient-assistance program will mask all the cost for them.

And no, you cannot find out whom Express Scripts managing patient-assistance programs for.

And, by the way, no, Express Scripts does not "find it odd" (as Carter said) that it manages those two lists  one for what drug companies can charge and one for what clients have to pay.

"The client chooses how they would prefer to contract with us or any PBM for its service," the company told Business Insider. "Spread pricing is aligned with the payer's desire to control costs and our ability to do so. Through spread pricing, we offer lower rates and leverage our ability to secure better discounts from retail pharmacies over the life of the contract."

Many clients do not agree with this.

Earlier this year, some of America's biggest employers  including American Express, Macy's, Coca-Cola  created an organization called the Health Transformation Alliance with the aim of breaking with "existing marketplace practices that are costly, wasteful, and inefficient, all of which have resulted in employees paying higher premiums, copayments, and deductibles every year." And they have PBMs in their sights.

Here's Barron's magazine on one way they'll do this:

"They'd do this by rewriting their pharmacy-benefit contracts to eliminate the undisclosed drug-price markups that supply much of the PBM industry's profits. Instead, the PBMs would mainly receive administrative fees, which would be significantly lower."

There's more. Express Scripts gets a significant chunk of its revenue from two clients: the Department of Defense and Anthem Insurance.

But Anthem is suing Express Scripts for breaching its 10-year contract with the company, alleging that it "failed to negotiate new pricing concessions in good faith." It's seeking $15 billion in legal damages.

A number of Anthem clients are also suing both Express Scripts and Anthem for the money they spent on overpriced healthcare.

In California, clients are suing Express Scripts for failing "to comply with statutory obligations to provide the state's clients with the results of a biannual survey of retail drug prices."

Express Scripts sent us its response to the Anthem case. Basically, it argues that it had a deal, and it accuses Anthem of being the one to violate the agreement.

The response is replete with redactions meant to protect the terms of its contract with the insurer. It's these redactions, these facts concealed by omissions, that AllianceBernstein believes puts the PBM industry in peril.

"We believe retail spread benefits from a lack of transparency and press/political investigation has the potential to reduce spread. We believe greater awareness of rebate levels or price protection rebates would increase necessary sharing with clients," the analysts wrote.

In other words, once America finds out how this business works, it's not going to like how this business works.

NOW WATCH: KRUGMAN: Free markets won't solve the problem driving EpiPen prices higher





More From Business Insider


By Martinne Geller

LONDON (Reuters) - Once Anheuser-Busch InBev seals its 79 billion pound ($104.8 billion) takeover of rival brewer SABMiller, it could find itself party to other smaller deals, involving Castel Group, Coca-Cola and Anadolu Efes.

AB InBev, maker of Budweiser and Corona, already forged agreements to sell SAB's brands in Western Europe and its joint venture stakes in the United States and China to speed approval for one of the biggest deals in history. It also plans to offload SAB's assets in Eastern Europe, worth up to 7 billion euros (5.95 billion pounds), but has not agreed a buyer.

Besides those, SAB has a cross-shareholding with France's Castel Group that, three sources say, includes the first right to buy out the wine, beer and soft drink maker should it ever seek new owners outside the billionaire Castel family, helmed by Pierre Castel, who is nearly 90.

That right would transfer to AB InBev, they say, giving it a path toward potential full ownership of Castel, which some analysts estimate is worth more than $30 billion due partly to it being the second-largest beer and soft drink maker in Africa.

The continent, with its increasingly thirsty middle class, is one of the main drivers of ABI's takeover - expected to close in October following a shareholder vote on 28 September.

Castel, which also boasts wine estates in Morocco, Tunisia and Ethiopia, is "such a jewel in the crown," according to Liberum analyst Alicia Forry, that AB InBev would likely jump at the chance to own it.

"It's a very important relationship that we intend to continue to develop and evolve," AB InBev Chief Executive Carlos Brito told analysts last month when asked about Castel.

It is unclear whether Castel, whose business has been hurt by the recent economic crisis in Angola, will ever sell out. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

BEER AND SOFT DRINKS

Aside from beer, which SABMiller has sold in South Africa since 1895, the brewer now owns 57 percent of soft drinks seller Coca-Cola Bottling Africa. Under an existing change-of-control clause, Coke will have the right to buy SAB's stake -- estimated to be worth as much as $4 billion -- once the takeover closes.

Story continues

Coke declined to comment on its intentions but several analysts, including Bernstein's Trevor Stirling, believe it will buy the stake, in part to keep ABI away from its door.

With no more room to grow in beer, chatter among bankers has turned to whether the mega brewer will eventually move into soft drinks, a step that could put Coke at the top of its list.

"They know they're potentially next on the menu and the idea of them having a potential hostile acquirer as your key partner in Africa is not something I think will sit well with Coca-Cola," Stirling said, noting also that AB InBev is a large PepsiCo bottler in Latin America.

"So even if they weren't a potential acquirer ... that in itself would sit uneasily," he added.

A takeover of Coke - which has a market value of $188 billion - would be of unprecedented scale, even for the renowned dealmakers at AB InBev. Yet a growing relationship between AB InBev backers 3G Capital and major Coke shareholder Warren Buffett have led some fee-hungry bankers to imagine the legendary investor lending a hand, as he did when 3G Capital bought Heinz in 2013.

One other remaining asset is SABMiller's 24-percent stake in Turkish brewer Anadolu Efes, which is worth about $930 million, based on its current share price.

According to the companies' arrangement, Efes is the only possible buyer for the stake, sources say, if AB InBev decides to sell it. Analysts say Turkey is not a top priority for AB InBev, but note that it could be interested in Efes's 50.3 percent ownership of Coca-Cola Icecek, which sells Coke drinks in 10 countries around the Middle East and Central Asia. AB InBev declined to comment on its future plans and Efes was not immediately available.

(Additional reporting by Sophie Sassard in London; Editing by Stephen Powell)
By Martinne Geller

LONDON (Reuters) - Once Anheuser-Busch InBev <ABI.BR> seals its 79 billion pound ($104.8 billion) takeover of rival brewer SABMiller <SAB.L>, it could find itself party to other smaller deals, involving Castel Group, Coca-Cola <KO.N> and Anadolu Efes <AEFES.IS>.

AB InBev, maker of Budweiser and Corona, already forged agreements to sell SAB's brands in Western Europe and its joint venture stakes in the United States and China to speed approval for one of the biggest deals in history. It also plans to offload SAB's assets in Eastern Europe, worth up to 7 billion euros ($7.9 billion), but has not agreed a buyer.

Besides those, SAB has a cross-shareholding with France's Castel Group that, three sources say, includes the first right to buy out the wine, beer and soft drink maker should it ever seek new owners outside the billionaire Castel family, helmed by Pierre Castel, who is nearly 90.

That right would transfer to AB InBev, they say, giving it a path toward potential full ownership of Castel, which some analysts estimate is worth more than $30 billion due partly to it being the second-largest beer and soft drink maker in Africa.

The continent, with its increasingly thirsty middle class, is one of the main drivers of ABI's takeover - expected to close in October following a shareholder vote on 28 September.

Castel, which also boasts wine estates in Morocco, Tunisia and Ethiopia, is "such a jewel in the crown," according to Liberum analyst Alicia Forry, that AB InBev would likely jump at the chance to own it.

"It's a very important relationship that we intend to continue to develop and evolve," AB InBev Chief Executive Carlos Brito told analysts last month when asked about Castel.

It is unclear whether Castel, whose business has been hurt by the recent economic crisis in Angola, will ever sell out. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Story continues

BEER AND SOFT DRINKS

Aside from beer, which SABMiller has sold in South Africa since 1895, the brewer now owns 57 percent of soft drinks seller Coca-Cola Bottling Africa. Under an existing change-of-control clause, Coke will have the right to buy SAB's stake -- estimated to be worth as much as $4 billion -- once the takeover closes.

Coke declined to comment on its intentions but several analysts, including Bernstein's Trevor Stirling, believe it will buy the stake, in part to keep ABI away from its door.

With no more room to grow in beer, chatter among bankers has turned to whether the mega brewer will eventually move into soft drinks, a step that could put Coke at the top of its list.

"They know they're potentially next on the menu and the idea of them having a potential hostile acquirer as your key partner in Africa is not something I think will sit well with Coca-Cola," Stirling said, noting also that AB InBev is a large PepsiCo <PEP.N> bottler in Latin America.

"So even if they weren't a potential acquirer ... that in itself would sit uneasily," he added.

A takeover of Coke - which has a market value of $188 billion - would be of unprecedented scale, even for the renowned dealmakers at AB InBev. Yet a growing relationship between AB InBev backers 3G Capital and major Coke shareholder Warren Buffett have led some fee-hungry bankers to imagine the legendary investor lending a hand, as he did when 3G Capital bought Heinz in 2013.

One other remaining asset is SABMiller's 24-percent stake in Turkish brewer Anadolu Efes <AEFES.IS>, which is worth about $930 million, based on its current share price.

According to the companies' arrangement, Efes is the only possible buyer for the stake, sources say, if AB InBev decides to sell it. Analysts say Turkey is not a top priority for AB InBev, but note that it could be interested in Efes's 50.3 percent ownership of Coca-Cola Icecek <CCOLA.IS>, which sells Coke drinks in 10 countries around the Middle East and Central Asia. AB InBev declined to comment on its future plans and Efes was not immediately available.

($1 = 0.8915 euros)

($1 = 0.7541 pounds)

(Additional reporting by Sophie Sassard in London; Editing by Stephen Powell)
CAA is doing its part to help ameliorate Hollywoods diversity problem by hosting a comedy writers boot camp at its Century City offices on Saturday.

The day-long event hosted 60 aspiring comedy writers and featured several panels with some of the industrys top TV execs, agents, and showrunners discussing how to break into the TV comedy world.

America Ferrera, who gave the keynote speech, Liz Feldman, Mike OMalley, and Bob Kushell were among the talent who attended the event, along with CAA TV agents Olivia Blaustein, Jonas Brooks, Tony Etz, Ashley Holland, Jacquie Katz, and Brandon Lawrence.

The boot camp is designed to help young writers (not just women and people of color) move more quickly through the writers room and rise through the ranks, where they can eventually have more creative control of a show. The goal for the day was not to discuss diversity and inclusion, but rather to do something about it by giving female and/or ethnically diverse comedy writers the access, information, insights, and relationships they need to be successful in television.

Christy Haubegger, who organized and produced the event with Talitha Watkins and Ruben Garcia, said the diverse writers at the event will soon reflect Hollywood at large.

I hate going to panels that just talk about diversity, Haubegger said. I actually want to do something about it.

Related stories

CAA's Micah Green, Roeg Sutherland on the State of the Indie Film Business

Ron Meyer-Michael Ovitz's 'Powerhouse' Showdown Postponed (EXCLUSIVE)

Korea's LINE Webtoon Digital-Comics Publisher Signs With CAA for TV and Film Projects
By Sharon Bernstein

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - California will become the first U.S. state to require farmers to pay overtime to field workers and fruit pickers under a bill signed on Monday by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown.

The bill would phase in overtime pay for farmworkers from 2019 to 2022. In an industry where a work week during the harvest season can be as long as 60 hours, the measure requires farmers to pay overtime after eight hours per day or 40 hours per week.

"We're shedding tears of joy right now," said Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers Union, which lobbied for years for an eight-hour day for agricultural employees.

The new law, part of a sweeping liberal agenda that passed in the last months of the 2015-2016 legislative session, ends an exemption meant to benefit farmers during the Depression-era implementation of the nation's first wage and hour laws.

It will make California the first state to require overtime for farmworkers who work more than eight hours per day. Under a 1970s executive action, farmworkers in the state get overtime after a 60 hour week or a 10-hour day, leading to long, backbreaking shifts and six-day work weeks, Rodriguez said.

California employs an estimated 800,000 seasonal farmworkers, about a third of the agricultural industry's nationwide workforce, according to the University of California report. Its agricultural economy is the largest in the United States, with $47 billion in revenue last year, according to state data.

Other states and the federal government continue to exempt farmworkers from overtime and other protections. Supporters, including Latino lawmakers whose parents and grandparents worked in the fields as migrant laborers from Mexico, say the change rectifies years of unfair practices.

But opponents, including many farmers and most Republican lawmakers, said that agricultural work is seasonal, with 60-hour weeks during the harvest and planting seasons, and no work at all during other parts of the year.

Story continues

Requiring overtime, these opponents say, would be prohibitively expensive, leading farmers to cut back hours for pickers during a time when the workers need to earn more to make up for months of unemployment during other parts of the year.

"Farmers, ranchers and growers cannot afford this mandate," said state Senator Jim Nielsen, who represents agricultural and suburban areas north of Sacramento.

Farms employing fewer than 25 people would have three additional years to comply with the new law.

(Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Man pulled the know-it-all-card and mansplained thermodynamics to Jessica Meir, a top NASA astronaut, and got roasted by Twitterati.

By India Today Web Desk: 'Mansplaining' or man-explaining refers to situations where a person (a man) explains something to someone else (a woman) often in a condescending way and this twitter user took it to the next level by explaining physics to a top woman NASA astronaut.

On Sept. 8, Jessica Meir, NASA astronaut with a Ph.D. in marine biology and a comparative physiologist, tweeted a video of herself in a space stimulator, which is equal to being 63,000 feet above the Earth's surface.



My first venture >63,000', the space equivalent zone, where water spontaneously boils! Luckily I'm suited! pic.twitter.com/0zB5Ku5Tdy Jessica Meir (@Astro_Jessica) September 9, 2016

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At this altitude the pressure is so low that water begins to boil. In the tweet she wrote, 'water spontaneously boils! Luckily I'm suited!'

In response to her a tweet, one smarty-pants Twitter user decided to explain the science behind what he called 'simple thermo'. The man named Casey O'Quin wrote, "Wouldn't say it's spontaneous. The pressure in the room got below the vapor pressure of the water at room temp. Simple thermo."

Following the nit-picky mansplaining, Twitter had a field day, roasting the man to glory.

"You might be a working astronaut, BUT I AM A MAN" pic.twitter.com/cHutFjExmB Dawn Foster (@DawnHFoster) September 9, 2016

@Astro_Jessica did you forget yourself for a minute and think you were a legit astronaut? Lucky @CaseyOQuin is there to mansplain for you! Jade (@spunkyfuzzguts) September 9, 2016

@CaseyOQuin @Astro_Jessica This lesson went well I think. But you should have told her to smile more. Women love that Padraig O Mearan (@omearan) September 9, 2016

Meir, on the other hand, chose to gracefully ignore the ridiculous response. After facing scathing criticism for his comment, Casey O'Quin was forced to delete his account.







--- ENDS ---
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 12, 2016 / Canarc Resource Corp. (TSX: CCM, OTC-BB: CRCUF, Frankfurt: CAN) (the "Company") announces that after having received regulatory approvals, it has closed the definitive agreement with Eureka Resources Inc. (TSX-V:EUK), pursuant to which Canarc has an exclusive option to acquire up to a 75% interest in the FG Gold Property (the "Property") located approximately 100 kilometres east of Williams Lake in central British Columbia.

The Agreement:

Canarc can earn an initial 51% interest in the Property from Eureka over a three year period by:

1) Investing $105,000 into a private placement of 750,000 units of Eureka at a price of $0.14 per Unit (now closed), each Unit comprised of one common share of Eureka and one-half of one common share purchase warrant, each Warrant exercisable to acquire one additional common share of Eureka at an exercise price of $0.20 for a period of two years after issuance

2) Spending $1.5 million on exploration, minimum $500,000 per year

3) Issuing 750,000 common shares of Canarc, in three tranches of 250,000 shares

4) Paying half the METC BC exploration tax credit annual cash rebate to Eureka

Upon earning its initial 51% interest, Canarc can earn an additional 24% interest for a total 75% interest in the Property over an additional two year period by:

1) Spending another $1.5 million on exploration, $750,000 per year

2) Issuing another 750,000 common shares of Canarc in three tranches of 250,000 shares

3) Paying the greater of $150,000 or half the METC annual cash rebate in two tranches of $75,000

Upon exercise of the Option by Canarc, Canarc and Eureka will form a joint venture with respect to the further development of the Property.

The Property:

The FG Gold Project is located in the historic Cariboo Gold Camp within the Quesnel Trough area of central British Columbia. Mineralization occurs as quartz veins and stringer zones containing coarse free gold and finer grained iron sulphides bearing gold in a broad shear zone conformable to bedding within deformed and metamorphosed Paleozoic sedimentary rocks. The Property consists of 33 contiguous mineral claims totalling 10,400 hectares. Eureka has spent over $15.0 million on exploration since 1982.

Story continues

Eureka reports an NI 43-101 total measured and Indicated resource of 376,000 ounces gold ("Au"), at an average grade of 0.776 g/t Au, comprised of measured resource of 5,600,000 tonnes at 0.812 Au g/t containing 145,000 oz Au and indicated resource of 9,570,000 tonnes at 0.755 Au g/t containing 231,000 oz Au and an Inferred resource of 634,900 ounces Au at an average grade of 0.718 g/t Au comprised of 27,493,000 tonnes at 0.718 Au g/t . Canarc has not yet verified the resource so is treating it as an historic resource estimate and is not relying on it.

Through geological mapping, soil sampling, induced polarization ("IP") geophysical surveys and surface drilling, gold mineralization has been defined over a strike length of 3 kilometres, with excellent potential for additional mineralization along an interpreted strike length of over 10 kilometers.

Canarc plans to complete a more detailed review of the historic exploration information and results in order to refine the priority targets for the next exploration program. One priority will be follow-up work to test the recently delineated targets in the northwest extension "offset" area. This would require a minimum of five diamond drill holes, each 200 - 300 meters in length, and totaling 1,250 meters.

The Strategy:

This agreement to acquire up to a 75% interest in the FG Gold Property represents a diversification of Canarc's growth strategy to create value for shareholders. Firstly, Canarc can earn an interest in the existing gold resources for less than CDN$5 per oz. Secondly, Canarc views the property as having excellent exploration potential to significantly expand the gold resources. Thirdly, in a rising gold price environment, the FG Gold Property has the potential to become an attractive development project for future gold production.

Canarc management plans to continue pursuing new gold acquisitions that have potential to add immediate gold oz to our gold inventory, as well as potential for either near term production or expanding resources and new discoveries.

Qualified Person:

Garry Biles, P. Eng, President & COO of Canarc, is the Qualified Person who reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.

Catalin Chiloflischi

____________________

Catalin Chiloflischi, CEO

CANARC RESOURCE CORP.

About Canarc Resource Corp.

Canarc is a growth-oriented, gold exploration and mining Company listed on the TSX (CCM) and the OTC-BB (CRCUF). The Company is currently focused on acquiring operating, development stage and advanced exploration gold mines or properties in the Americas and further advancing its gold properties in north and central BC.

For More Information - Please contact:

Catalin Chiloflischi, CEO

Toll Free: 1-877-684-9700

Tel: (604) 685-9700

Fax: (604) 685-9744

Email: catalin@canarc.net

Website: www.canarc.net

Details of the gold resource can be found in "NI 43-101 Technical Report, Frasergold Exploration Project, Cariboo Mining Division, dated July 27, 2015" available on SEDAR or at Eureka's website. The resource is calculated using a cut-off grade of 0.5 g/t. This resource is an historical estimate and a qualified Canarc person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. A more detailed review of the data used in the resource estimate is needed to verify the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. As a result the historical estimate is not being treated as a current mineral resource.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States private securities litigation reform act of 1995 and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Statements contained in this news release that are not historical facts are forward-looking information that involves known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the potential future exercise of the Option, and the Company's plans and exploration programs for the Property and its other mineral properties, including the timing of such plans and programs. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "has proven", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "potential", "appears", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "at least", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "should", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved".

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and other factors include, among others, risks related to the results of future exploration on the Property, the uncertainties inherent in the estimation of mineral resources; commodity prices; changes in general economic conditions; market sentiment; currency exchange rates; the Company's ability to continue as a going concern; the Company's ability to raise funds through equity financings; risks inherent in mineral exploration; risks related to operations in foreign countries; future prices of metals; failure of equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labor disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals; government regulation of mining operations; environmental risks; title disputes or claims; limitations on insurance coverage and the timing and possible outcome of litigation. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could affect the Company and may cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, do not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. All statements are made as of the date of this news release and the Company is under no obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable securities laws.

SOURCE: Canarc Resource Corp.
On Sep 12, 2016, we issued an updated research report on Cardiovascular Systems Inc. CSII. This Minnesota-based medical device manufacturer develops and commercializes innovative solutions to treat patients suffering from peripheral and coronary arterial diseases, including those with arterial calcium.

Post the companys promising second-quarter 2016 results, we are optimistic about several favorable trends in the peripheral artery diseases as well coronary artery disease markets which should drive further growth, going forward. According to estimates delivered by the American Heart Association (AHA), as many as 812 million Americans suffer from PAD. Moreover, an aging population, coupled with increasing incidence of diabetes and obesity, is likely to propel the prevalence of PAD further. This offers huge scope for the unique PAD OAS system of Cardiovascular Systems.

We believe that the company stands to benefit from its ongoing multiple clinical trials to study the most challenging patient populations with an aim to illustrate the versatility and efficacy of its technology. The companys clinical trial LIBERTY 360 has advanced well and a 30-day data from this study will be soon presented in a late-breaking presentation at the Amputation Prevention Symposium. The study includes all commercially available technologies, including the companys Diamondback 360 Peripheral Orbital Atherectomy System.

Cardiovascular Systems large and expanding portfolio is another upside. In Jun 2016, the company submitted the Shonin application in Japan for approval of its second-generation coronary device, the Diamondback Coronary OAS Micro Crown (to treat calcified coronary arteries). The commercialization is expected in 2018.

On the flip side, Cardiovascular Systems bears a long history of net losses incurred since its inception in 1989. There seems to be no respite, at least in the near term, which makes it worse. In recent times, the company incurred net losses of $35.3 million and $32.8 million in fiscal 2014 and fiscal 2015, respectively.

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Although Cardiovascular Systems plans to launch its products in the international markets in the future, uncertainty with regard to regulatory approvals and sales potential persists. Moreover, the company expects to incur substantial expenses relating to its international expansion, which will weigh on its operations. Further, it faces tough competitive headwinds across the medical device industry.

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Key Picks in the Sector

Some better-ranked stocks in the medical sector are GW Pharmaceuticals plc GWPH, NuVasive, Inc. NUVA and Quidel Corp. QDEL. All the three stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis on Monday announced plans for a worldwide day of prayer for the victims of sexual abuse, in line with a proposal from his child protection panel.

The panel, a commission of experts which advises Francis on efforts to combat clerical child sexual abuse, said the initiative had been made by an abuse survivor.

"The commission believes that prayer is one part of the healing process for survivors and the community of believers," a statement said.

"Public prayer is also an important way of consciousness raising in the Church."

The move was announced after the latest week-long meeting of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in Rome.

Established in 2014, the panel suffered a setback earlier this year when one of its members, British abuse survivor Peter Saunders was sidelined after complaining that it was doing nothing to break down a culture of complacency and cover-ups within the Church.

And its emphasis on prayer and education is unlikely to appease critics who say the Church remains reluctant to hand paedophile priests over to the judicial authorities.

The day of prayer will complement similar initiatives already announced in various Church regions.

The panel said it was pushing ahead with educational initiatives -- including setting up its own website -- designed to raise awareness about the issue of paedophilia in church communities across the globe and to train Church leaders how to handle the issue effectively.

And it welcomed Francis's announcement in June that members of the Church hierarchy can now be dismissed from office if they fail to display the diligence required of them in ensuring the protection of children.

Francis has also put in place a legal framework for paedophile clerics to be tried in the Vatican and he has been praised for holding meetings with victims of abuse in Rome and in the United States.

But some critics say his overall record on the issue is patchy and he has come under fire for standing by his finance chief George Pell.

The Australian cardinal has been accused of groping boys during his time as a priest and of failing to deal with paedophile priests under his charge when he was a senior figure in the Australian church.

Francis said last month there were "doubts" about the claims made against Pell and warned of the dangers of condemning him to a "media verdict."
(BEIRUT)  A cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia is set to begin at sunset on Monday in Syria amid mixed messages of commitment from various rebel factions but with verbal backing by President Bashar Assads government.

In a stark message to opponents, Assad made a rare public appearance Monday by attending prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha at a mosque in the Damascus suburb of Daraya.

The suburb, previously held by the rebels, surrendered last month and reverted to Damascus control after four years of government siege.

The cease-fire deal, hammered out between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Saturday, allows the Syrian government to continue to strike at the Islamic State group (ISIS) and al-Qaida-linked militants with the Jabhat Fatah al-Sham group, earlier known as the Nusra Front, until the U.S. and Russia take over the task in one weeks time.

Rebel factions have expressed deep reservations about the deal.

Under the terms of the agreement, the rebels and the Syrian government are expected to stop attacking one another. Along with Assads government, his key allies  Russia, Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah  have also endorsed the deal.

But that scenario is complicated by the fact that Jabhat Fatah al-Sham remains intertwined with several other groups fighting on the ground.

One of the more immediate goals of the Kerry-Lavrov agreement is to allow the U.N. to establish aid corridors into Aleppo, the contested northern Syrian city. Over 2,000 people have been killed in fighting over the past 40 days in the city, including 700 civilians and 160 children, according to a Syrian human rights group.

On Saturday, presumed Russian or government airstrikes on rebel-held Idlib and Aleppo provinces killed over 90 civilians, including 13 children in an attack on a marketplace in Idlib, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

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In the aftermath, rebels and opposition activists were asking on Sunday whether the governments side could be trusted.

Several previous negotiated cease-fires have all eventually collapsed. A partial cessation of hostilities that brought sorely needed relief to civilians in March unraveled as the government continued to strike targets in opposition areas, including near a hospital and school near Damascus and a marketplace in Idlib province, killing dozens of civilians.

Previous cease-fires were also preceded by soaring violence as parties on all sides sought to improve their positions in the build-up.

In Turkey, meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his earlier calls for establishing a no-fly zone in northern Syria, saying it is essential to boosting security in the area.

Erdogan said he told the leaders of Germany, France, Russia and the U.S. that training and equipping troops on the ground to battle back Islamic State group forces is not enough and that a no-fly zone should be the next step.

Speaking after holiday prayers on Monday, Erdogan said Turkey remains resolute in eliminating the threat posed by ISIS at its borders and has made that clear to world leaders.

Turkey launched an incursion into northern Syria in late August, driving ISIS away from the border and also seeking to counter the advance of U.S.-backed Kurdish forces, which Ankara views with suspicion.

___

Associated Press writer Menelaos Hadjicostis contributed to this report from Istanbul.
After doling out its largest penalty ever last week to Wells Fargo, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau turned its lens to the for-profit college industry, forcing Bridgepoint Education, Inc. to discharge all outstanding student loans and refund payments to the borrowers.

The company also must pay an $8 million civil penalty to the bureau for illegal student lending practices.

The CFPB said the for-profit education company began offering private student loans in 2009, but misled students about the total cost of the debt. The CFPB maintains that Bridgepoint told students the wrong monthly repayment amountsas little as $25 per monthso they would take out loans that ended up having higher monthly payments than promised.

Bridgepoint deceived its students into taking out loans that cost more than advertised, and so we are ordering full relief of all loans made by the school, said CFPB Director Richard Cordray in a statement.

Related: The Court Ruling That Could End the Student Loan Crisis

Bridgepoint maintains that its schools acted in good faith when it came to the student loan program. This agreement simply allows us to return our full and undivided focus to our students and their success, said Andrew Clark, president and chief executive officer of Bridgepoint Education, in a statement.

The school must refund all payments made by students toward their private student loans provided by the school, totaling $5 million. It also must discharge all outstanding debt for its student loans, worth about $18.5 million. The actions affect 1,277 current and former students who borrowed between 2009 and 2015, according to Bridgepoint.

The San Diego-based education company that does business as Ashford University and the University of the Rockies also will remove any negative information from student borrowers credit reports related to their school loans. It is also required to provide a new financial tool to help students taking out college loans.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Chance the Rapper promised fans he would help them get into his upcoming sold-out festival in Chicago -- and he didn't let his hometown down.

Chance took matters into his own hands, buying almost 2,000 Magnificent Coloring Day floor seats from scalpers -- who were asking $200 or more for the coveted tickets -- and selling them for $45 and $75.

The 23-year-old MC announced the buy-back on Twitter, posting a photo of stacks of tickets. On Saturday, he invited fans to swing by the site of the event for their chance to snag a pass. The reclaimed tickets quickly sold out.

I took back almost 2k #MCD tix from fuckboy scalpers and made them into physicals. And these are just floor seats pic.twitter.com/EaFfoFeuIA

- Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) September 9, 2016

The Sept. 24 festival, being billed as the "first-ever music festival at U.S. Cellular Field on Chicago's Southside," boasts an impressive lineup: Alicia Keys, John Legend, Skrillex, Lil Wayne, Tyler, the Creator, Young Thug, 2 Chainz, Lil Uzi Vert and Chance himself.

Magnificent Coloring Day is part of Chance's current tour in support of his latest mixtape, Coloring Book, the first release to chart on the Billboard 200 through streaming numbers alone.
Twenty two-year-old Bangalore girl Roshmitha Harimurthy was declared the winner at the Yamaha Fascino Miss Diva 2016 held in Mumbai.

Harimurthy defeated contestants from across the country. Photo: Yogen Shah

By India Today Web Desk: Defeating contestants from across the country, Roshmitha Harimurthy emerged victorious at the Yamaha Fascino Miss Diva 2016.

Harimurthy will go on to represent India at this year's coveted Miss Universe pageant. The three winners for the Miss Diva pageant were announced at an event held at the Dome, NSCI SVP Stadium in Mumbai.

Also Read: Also Read: Rohit Khandelwal becomes first Indian, Asian to clinch Mr World title

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Aside from Harimurthy who was crowned the Yamaha Fascino Miss Diva 2016, Srinidhi Shetty became the Yamaha Fascino Miss Diva Supranational 2016 and Aradhana Buragohain was declared the Yamaha Fascino Miss Diva second runner up 2016.





The winners for the night. Photo: Yogen Shah

The judges for the panel included former beauty queen and actress Lara Dutta, model turned actor Arjun Rampal, actor Abhay Deol, actress Aditi Rao Hydari and designer Gaurav Gupta.





The judges for the night. Photo: Yogen Shah

In Pictures: Abhay Deol, Aditi Rao Hydari, Arjun Rampal were all kinds of adorable at this beauty pageant finale



With comedian Vir Das as the host for the evening, performances by stars Parineeti Chopra and Lauren Gottlieb made the event even more entertaining. The evening also played host to a string of renowned names like Dino Morea, Neha Dhupia, Shantanu and Nikhil, Sophie Choudry and Shibani Dandekar.





Vir Das was the host for the evening. Photo: Yogen Shah Vir Das was the host for the evening. Photo: Yogen Shah

The evening also played host to a string of renowned names like Dino Morea, Neha Dhupia, Shantanu and Nikhil, Sophie Choudry and Shibani Dandekar.



The Miss Diva contestants underwent strenuous training sessions and workshops mentored by former Miss Universe Lara Dutta.



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A small outbreak of chicken pox was traced back to a single school bus in Michigan, and highlights the importance giving kids the chicken pox vaccine, according to a new report.

Health officials in rural Muskegon County, Michigan, were alerted to a suspected case of the chicken pox in an 8-year-old last December after the child was sent home from school, according to the report of the outbreak from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), published today (Sept. 8).

Shortly afterward, three more kids came down with the illness, the researchers wrote. The link among the cases appeared to be the school bus that all four children rode to and from school each day, according to the report. The kids didn't interact socially in school or have classes or lunch together, the researchers noted.

Chicken pox outbreaks are rare, because most children are now vaccinated against the virus. At the school in the report, 95 percent of the students were fully vaccinated, meaning they had received both doses of the vaccine, as recommended, the researchers said. Another 3 percent of students at the school had received one shot, the researchers noted.

No other cases of chicken pox were diagnosed in the school for the rest of the year, according to the report. [5 Dangerous Vaccination Myths]

The health officials investigating the outbreak revealed that the first child to get sick had not been vaccinated, and that the child's four siblings (also unvaccinated) had all also recently been kept home from school because of a rash that looked like chicken pox.

Among the three children who likely caught the virus on the school bus, one had been fully vaccinated, according to the report. Full vaccination is between 88 and 98 percent effective at preventing chicken pox, according to the CDC.

The other two children, who were siblings, had not been vaccinated, the investigators wrote. Those children later spread chicken pox to their 17-month-old sibling, according to the report.

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Chicken pox is caused by the varicella zoster virus. The same virus also causes shingles in adults. In this case, a shingles infection turned out to be the source of the chicken pox infection: The first child's parent had a shingles infection several weeks before the children developed chicken pox, according to the report.

Before the chicken pox vaccine was developed, the virus spread easily from kid to kid, especially in schools. However, now that most kids are vaccinated against the virus, it may be increasingly likely that kids, particularly those who are unvaccinated, will get the virus from adults who have shingles, rather than from other kids, the researchers wrote.

The researchers mentioned only one previous report, which occurred in China, of chicken pox spreading on a school bus. Because school buses put kids in close proximity to each other, however, doctors and public health officials investigating similar outbreaks might want to consider these vehicles as a possible risk factor, the report said.

Originally published on Live Science.

Editor's Recommendations

Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
By Kathryn Doyle (Reuters Health) - Childrens hospitals lose more money than other facilities treating children covered by Medicaid and may be under pressure in 2018 when federal payments compensating for this loss are reduced, according to a new study. Medicaid typically pays less than what it costs a hospital to provide service, the authors write, and U.S. hospitals lost $14.1 billion in 2014 from Medicaid underpayment. Federal Disproportionate Share Hospital payments (DSH) are designed to compensate hospitals that cover uninsured or Medicaid insured patients, but as the Affordable Care Act reduces the number of uninsured people in the U.S., DSH payments are scheduled to be reduced annually by $2 billion in 2018. More than a third of U.S. children are insured by Medicaid, according to the authors of the study. Its a bit surprising how much money childrens hospitals lose from caring for children with Medicaid, said lead author Dr. Jeffrey D. Colvin of Childrens Mercy Hospitals and Clinics at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. Financial records from childrens hospitals from around the country showed that half the institutions were losing more $40 million dollars a year, he said. The researchers used hospital discharges of Medicaid-insured patients age 20 and younger from 23 states in 2009 from teaching hospitals, nonteaching hospitals, childrens hospitals within larger hospitals, and freestanding childrens hospitals. Freestanding childrens hospitals had a higher median number of Medicaid insured discharges than teaching hospitals and nonteaching hospitals: more than 4,000 compared to less than 1,000 for non-childrens hospitals. Freestanding childrens hospitals also took the biggest financial loss, more than $9 million per hospital from March to September of 2015. Teaching hospitals and non-teaching hospitals lost $200,000 and $28,000 over the same period. DSH payments made up for about half of Medicaid losses for freestanding childrens hospitals, the research team reported in JAMA Pediatrics. The overall financial position of any hospital will depend on their percentage of patients with Medicaid insurance, their commercial reimbursement rates, and other ways in which they recover uncompensated costs, such as philanthropic donations or federal safety-net hospital subsidies, Colvin told Reuters Health by email. For any hospital that operates very close to the margin - whether its a childrens hospital or a non-childrens hospital - the scope of under-compensated or uncompensated care is extremely important and may determine whether the hospital is financially viable or not. Most childrens hospitals try to serve children in need of medical care regardless of insurance coverage, he said. But hospitals ability to continue to absorb these losses in any kind of sustainable way really does then rely on things that are somewhat outside of their control (such as) their commercial contracts, philanthropy, and state and federal subsidies, he said. Americans should be aware that Medicaid - one of the most critical and effective lifelines for children that exists in this country - is drastically underfunded, Colvin said. What parents and families can do is use the Medicaid coverage they have to make the most of primary care their children have access to, as a way to prevent serious illness and injury that would require hospitalization, said Dr. Matthew M. Davis of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago who coauthored an editorial alongside the new findings. The priority for an ill or injured child in a parents mind is to find the best care they can at that moment, Davis told Reuters Health by phone. The last thing parents want to worry about is who is going to pay for that healthcare when theyre very worried about their child. The ACA has increased insurance coverage in the U.S., but largely for adults rather than children, he said. The proposed reduction in DSH payments has already been delayed once to 2018, and could feasibly be delayed again or changed in future, he said. One option would be to prioritize DSH payments in particular for hospitals that care for the most children. National Medicaid serves as a major source of healthcare and hospital coverage for children, with children making up 50 percent or more of all the enrollees in Medicaid programs, Davis said. Just as Medicare is central to supporting healthcare of seniors, Medicaid is central to supporting the healthcare of children. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2czJG8L and http://bit.ly/2cEaPo4 JAMA Pediatrics, online September 12, 2016.
China and Russia were to start war games in the South China Sea on Monday, Beijing's defence ministry said, in a show of force after an international tribunal invalidated the Asian giant's extensive claims in the area.

The eight-day joint drills will include exercises on "seizing and controlling" islands and shoals, Chinese navy spokesman Liang Yang said in a statement.

They will involve surface ships, submarines, fixed-wing aircraft, ship-borne helicopters, marine corps and amphibious armoured equipment from both navies, he said.

"Compared with previous joint drills, these exercises are deeper and more extensive in terms of organisation, tasks and command" he said in the statement, released Sunday.

China claims almost all of the South China Sea and has sought to bolster its case by building a series of artificial islands capable of supporting military facilities.

But a UN-backed tribunal ruled in July -- in a case brought by the Philippines -- that any extensive claims to the sea had no legal basis and that China's construction of artificial islands in disputed waters was illegal.

Beijing reacted furiously, with foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang threatening a "decisive response" if anyone took "any provocative action against China's security interests based on the award".

Beijing's land reclamations have prompted criticism from other claimant countries and the US, and Washington has regularly sent warships into the strategically vital area to assert the right to freedom of navigation.

This week's drills will be carried out off the coast of Zhanjiang city in the southern province of Guangdong.

Their precise location was not announced, but they do not appear to be taking place in disputed parts of the sea.

They were aimed at "strengthening the capabilities of the Chinese and Russian Navies in jointly handling security threats on the sea", navy spokesman Liang said.

Story continues

- 'Ill-informed' -

China and Russia have close military and diplomatic ties, often in opposition to the West, particularly the United States, and their leaders Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin enjoy a tight relationship.

Last August, the two powers held military exercises in the waters and airspace of the Peter the Great Gulf, south of the Russian Pacific city of Vladivostok, involving 22 vessels, up to 20 aircraft and more than 500 marines.

In May last year, they conducted their first joint naval exercises in European waters in the Black Sea and Mediterranean, China's farthest-ever drills from its home waters.

Chinese military officials have said this week's exercises were "routine" and the official Xinhua news agency said Monday that Western media reports on them had sought to deliver a "sensational impression".

Suggestions that they were meant as a "sabre-rattling" warning to other countries were "ill-informed" and driven by "prejudice about China and Russia", it said.

"It may be true that growing military ties between Russia and China have irritated someone's sensitive nerves," Xinhua added. "The defensive nature of these manoeuvres is in line with China's defence policy, which makes it clear that China will not be the first to strike."

Apart from the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have partial claims to the sea, through which over $5 trillion in annual trade passes.
Older adults with chronic sinus problems may have a slightly higher risk of developing certain head and neck cancers, a new study suggests.

The researchers found a link between people in the United States ages 65 and older who had chronic sinusitis and an increased risk of being diagnosed with one of three different types of head and neck cancer, compared with older adults without chronic sinus problems.

Sinusitis is a common condition in which the sinuses become inflamed, causing symptoms such as nasal congestion, facial pressure and thick nasal discharge. The condition is considered chronic if it lasts 12 weeks or longer.

All three of the cancers linked with chronic sinusitis are rare, and they include nasopharyngeal cancer (cancer of an area in the upper part of the throat behind the nose), human papillomavirus-related oropharyngeal cancer (which occurs in an area in the middle of the throat, behind the mouth), and nasal cavity and paranasal sinus cavity cancers (the nasal cavity is the space behind the nose where air passes on its way to the throat, and paranasal refers to the spaces in the bones around the nose).

"It's important for people to recognize that these cancers are rare, so this added risk is very small in absolute terms," said study author Dr. Eric Engels, a senior investigator of cancer epidemiology and genetics at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. The risk of head and neck cancer was 37 percent higher in older adults with chronic sinusitis, compared with people without the condition. In their paper, the researchers called the risk of head and neck cancer "modestly elevated" among individuals with prior chronic sinusitis, compared with people without the condition.

The findings also suggested that an older person's increased risk of head and neck cancers was mainly seen within the first year of being diagnosed with chronic sinusitis. Beyond this one-year period, the link between chronic sinusitis and these cancers weakened, according to the findings, published today (Sept. 8) in the journal JAMA Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery. [Infographic: Colds, Allergies or Sinusitis? Here's How You Can Tell]

Story continues

The findings may shed light on the role that chronic inflammation may play in the development of cancer, the researchers said. Chronic inflammation is the body's way of responding to certain infections or reacting to chronic irritants, such as tobacco smoke, Engels said. Over time, this inflammation can also damage healthy cells, which could promote the development of cancer, he added.

But some people with chronic sinusitis may have a mild underlying immune deficiency, which could predispose them to some cancers, Engels said.

Sinusitis-related inflammation and/or a weakened immune response may play, at most, a minor role in the development of certain head and neck cancers, the researchers said. It's not exactly clear how inflammation or weakened immunity may contribute to these cancers.

And there are also several other reasons why the increased risk of head and neck cancer appears to be elevated in the first year following a diagnosis of chronic sinusitis, the researchers said. In the people in the study who developed these cancers, the cancers had probably been present for a long time, Engels said. It might be that the cancer triggered the development of sinusitis, or it's possible that doctors may have misdiagnosed these patients with sinusitis when the symptoms were actually caused by a head and neck cancer, he said.

In addition, people with chronic sinusitis may be more likely than people without the condition to get a detailed medical evaluation of their head and neck, which might uncover a cancer that was already present, Engels told Live Science. [Top 10 Cancer-Fighting Foods]

Sinusitis-cancer connection

In the study, the researchers looked at about 484,000 Medicare beneficiaries in the U.S. who received medical care between 2004 and 2011. They analyzed information from a database that links claims from this government health insurance program for older Americans to 18 cancer registries throughout the country.

The study found that about 19,000 older adults were diagnosed with chronic sinusitis, and among these individuals, 783 were found to also have a head and neck cancer.

The most important risk factors for head and neck cancers are smoking and chewing-tobacco use, heavy alcohol use and prior infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV), according to the American Cancer Society.

The findings suggest that the vast majority of older people affected by chronic sinusitis will not develop a head or neck cancer, Engels said.

One of the limitations of the study is that the researchers looked only at people ages 65 and over. They did not look at cancers in younger people, which may be more directly linked with sinus inflammation or immunodeficiency, according to an editorial about the new findings published in the same journal.

In the editorial, Dr. Elisabeth Ference and Dr. Jeffrey Suh, both from the Department of Head and Neck Surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles, said future studies are needed to evaluate whether inflammation in people with sinusitis contributes to cancer development over time, especially in middle-age adults.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Here's all you need to know about Mohammad Shahabuddin, the former Bihar MP who was in jail for 11 years.

By India Today Web Desk: Mafia don and four-term former MP of Lalu Prasad's RJD Md Shahabuddin was released from Bhagalpur jail on September 10. Shahabuddin has been in news for the grave crimes, including several murders and attempts to murder, he has committed. While his supporters are rejoicing over his release from jail after 11 years, several others are struck with terror.

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Who is Shahabuddin?

Shahabuddin was born in Pratappur village of Siwan on May 10, 1967. He was educated in Bihar, having passed MA in political science and acquiring a PhD. Married to Hina Shahab, he has three children - one son and two daughters. He had stepped into politics and crime during his college days.

First step in criminal history

The first case against Shahabuddin was registered in 1986 at the age of 19. Thereafter, several criminal cases against him got added to the list. A history sheet was opened in his name in Hussainganj police station and he was declared an 'A' category criminal.

Entry into politics

Shahabuddin entered into politics under Lalu's shadow as a member of Janata Dal's youth wing. He got advantage of his influence through muscle power. He contested on Janata Dal ticket in the 1990 Bihar Assembly elections and won. He also won in 1995. His political stature grew further when he won the 1996 Lok Sabha elections for the first time. He acquired more power with the RJD coming to power in the State in 1997.

Shahabuddin's name synonymous with terror

A report prepared by NGO People's Union for Civil Liberties in 2001 disclosed that the RJD government was shielding Shahbuddin in legal cases. He had become a law unto himself. The police turned a blind eye to his criminal activities. His terror can be gauged from the fact that no one mustered courage to stand in witness against him. The Siwan district became his fiefdom and he was its unchallenged 'ruler'.

Police and administration on target

The mafia don gave two hoots to the police and administrative officials. He thrashed them on a regular basis. He would even shoot at the policemen. He had slapped police officer Sanjiv Kumar who had come with a force to comply a warrant against local RJD chief Manoj Kumar Pappu. Shahabuddin's goons attacked the policemen.

Firing between police and Shahabuddin's supporters

The Manoj Kumar Pappu episode shocked the police. They raided Shahabuddin's place to arrest him and Manoj. Besides the Bihar Police, teams of Uttar Pradesh police were also deployed for the purpose. The police suffered major losses and two of its men were killed in the shootout with the supporters of the don. Ten others were also killed while several police vehicles were burnt down. The police recovered three AK-47s from the spot. But they could not catch hold of Shahabuddin. He had fled. The police filed several cases against him.

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Parallel government in Siwan

By the year 2000, Shahabuddin had established himself as the undisputed don of Siwan and he ran a parallel government. He also ran a personal court where the people would come with their grievances and the don would redress them. He solved even the land disputes and personal problems of the people. He also fixed the fees of the doctors.

Contested from jail, held 'darbar' in hospital

Shahabuddin was arrested eight months before the 2004 Lok Sabha elections for the kidnapping and murder of CPI(ML) leader Chandrashekhar Prasad in 1999. However, he shifted to a hospital on medical grounds. One of the floors of the hospital was reserved for him. He would meet people there and get their works done by calling the officials and politicians.

But on the directions of the Patna High Court, he was again shifted to jail. He contested the Lok Sabha elections from inside the jail. Over 500 booths were looted on the polling day allegedly on his directions. Despite the re-election, he won the seat. However, Om Prakash Yadav of the JD(U) gave him a tough fight. But after the elections, several JD(U) workers were killed.

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Dark days

Bad days fell upon Shahabuddin soon after the 2004 elections. A special team of the Bihar Police arrested him from Delhi in November 2005 when he had come to attend Parliament session. Just before his arrest, the police had seized several illegal weapons, Army's night vision devices and modern arms and ammunition made in Pakistan's ordinance factories. The court sentenced for life in dozens of cases relating to murder, kidnappings, bombing, possession of illegal weapons and extortion.

Ban on contesting elections

In 2009, the court banned the mafia don from contesting elections. As a result, his wife Hina Shahab contested the Lok Sabha election. But she lost the election. Since then, he was lodged in the Siwan jail. Despite that, his writ runs large in Siwan. In the 2015 Assembly elections, he issued diktats on who to vote from inside the jail. He was transferred to Bhagalpur jail after the murder of local journalist Rajdeo Ranjan who had exposed how ministers and MLAs of the Nishit Kumat government met him inside the jail.

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But now, terror will reign supreme after securing bail.





ALSO READ:

Lalu Prasad washes hands off Shahabuddin's bail, praises Akhilesh Yadav's governance in UP

JDU warns Lalu Prasad: Stop RJD leaders from attacking Nitish Kumar







--- ENDS ---
Cisco Systems, Inc.CSCO recently announced that the U.S. regulatory authorities have decided not to carry out any enforcement actions against the company with regard to alleged violation of anti-bribery law in Russia and its neighboring countries.

Internal Investigation Leads to Clean Chit

As per a media report published in The Wall Street Journal, following the allegations, Cisco had investigated the matter internally by examining the practices and operations of certain resellers located in Russia and the neighboring nations.

The objective of the internal investigation was to determine if the company had violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits bribing foreign officials to keep or gain new business assignments.

Roxane Marenberg, Ciscos Vice President of the Compliance Systems Division threw some light on the investigation through a blog post on the companys website by the end of 2013. In that blog post, she wrote about business ethics and revealed that Cisco in no way violated the anti-bribery law.

In 2014, Cisco disclosed all its findings from the internal investigation to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice.

On Thursday, the company announced that both the regulatory authorities have declined to probe the matter further.

Technically Speaking

As we can see in the daily chart of Cisco, price is making higher highs but the 14-period Money Flow Index is unable to follow the price trend and is making lower highs instead. This is known as negative divergence. This indicates that though price is trending higher, volume doesnt support the uptrend. This indicates a probable reversal in the short term

On Sep 8, i.e., the day of the annual report announcement, Cisco opened the day at $31.72, reached an intraday high of $31.75 and fell to an intraday low of $31.42 before closing the session at $31.47. Volume also increased from the previous days session. This indicates that there is good supply at higher levels.

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On Sep 9, the stock fell further to close the day at $30.85 again on higher volume.

Going forward, the stock may fall further to take support at the $30.00 level. If that level breaks, the next support zone is at $29.40 to $28.70.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

CISCO SYSTEMS Price

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At present, Cisco carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader technology space are Lantronix, Inc. LTRX, Netgear Inc. NTGR and Radcom Ltd. RDCM, each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Interested in IPOs? Check out the special edition of Zacks Friday Finish Line below, where Editor Maddy Johnson and Content Writer Ryan McQueeney interview Kathleen Smith of Renaissance Capital about the IPO market in 2016 (see part two here).

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Hillary Clinton climbs into her van outside the home of her daughter, Chelsea, in New York on Sunday. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

After fielding harsh criticism from President Obamas former chief adviser, a top aide for Hillary Clintons campaign admitted that the Democratic nominees team could have done a better job communicating that the candidate had been diagnosed with pneumonia.

We could have done better yesterday, Jennifer Palmieri, communications director for Clintons campaign, tweeted on Monday morning. But it is a fact that [the] public knows more about HRC than any nominee in history.

We could have done better yesterday, but it is a fact that public knows more about HRC than any nominee in history. https://t.co/Q50oHK85wQ  Jennifer Palmieri (@jmpalmieri) September 12, 2016

Palmieri was responding to David Axelrod, chief strategist for both of Obamas presidential campaigns, who blasted the Clinton camp for its lack of transparency.

Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia, Axelrod wrote on Twitter. Whats the cure for an unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?

Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia. What's the cure for an unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?  David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) September 12, 2016

Clinton abruptly left a 9/11 memorial service in Lower Manhattan on Sunday morning. Campaign spokesman Nick Merrill told reporters she felt overheated and had recovered at her daughter Chelseas nearby apartment.

But a bystanders video showing Clinton wobbling as she was helped into her van prompted the campaign to release a statement from her personal physician, who said the 68-year-old was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday.

She was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule, Dr. Lisa Bardack said in the statement issued later Sunday. While at this mornings event, she became overheated and dehydrated. I have just examined her and she is now rehydrated and recovering nicely.

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Donald Trump, who has repeatedly raised questions about Clintons health on the campaign trail, declined to attack her when given the chance in two interviews on Monday morning.

I hope she gets well soon, the Republican nominee said on Fox & Friends. I just hope she gets well and gets back on the trail and well be seeing her at the debate.

And Trump told CNBC he takes no satisfaction in his opponents illness.

It was quite sad, to be honest with you, he said. I hope she gets well soon. No satisfaction, believe me, whatsoever.

Trumps campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, seemed to take a little satisfaction in Axelrods takedown of the Clinton campaign.

Lack of transparency is an overarching theme. https://t.co/8nzkWd7l7T  Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) September 12, 2016

Axelrod, though, wasnt having it.
Hillary Clinton will release additional information about her health in the coming days, her campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said in a Monday interview on MSNBC.

We have been in touch with her physician this morning to get the material together, Fallon said in the interview. Were going to be releasing that to further put to rest any lingering concerns about what we saw yesterday. Fallon added that Clinton is not suffering from any undisclosed medical condition.

Clinton abruptly departed a 9/11 memorial service Sunday morning, and video showed her appearing to stumble as she was helped into her van by three people. Ninety minutes later, her campaign explained that she was overheated and that she left to recover at her daughter Chelseas apartment.

Several hours after that, the campaign released a note from her physician disclosing that she was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday. Clinton then canceled her planned trip to California Monday and Tuesday to rest at home under doctors orders.

Fallon told NBCs Andrea Mitchell that Clinton did not lose consciousness, but felt dizzy after she became overheated. He said she was making calls from within the van and was chasing around her granddaughter once she arrived at Chelseas apartment. Clinton has been told by her doctor that shes not contagious, Fallon said in a later interview with CNN.

If it was up to her, shed be traveling to California today, but it was her doctors advice to change her schedule, he said. Fallon said Clinton had decided to press on after her diagnosis Friday, and then made the decision to disclose her condition and change her schedule after the 9/11 ceremony incident.

Fallon and another top Clinton aide, Jennifer Palmieri, have said the campaign could have handled Sundays events better. Reporters complained that they had been left in the dark for an hour and a half about why Clinton left, and the flap was the latest in a larger dispute between the media and the two leading presidential campaigns over transparency and the formation of a protective pool that would allow the media to follow the candidates more closely.

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We could have gotten more information out more quickly, and thats on the staff, thats on us, Fallon said. We regret that.

Hillary Clinton leaves her daughters apartment building after resting on September 11, 2016, in New York. (Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

Earlier Monday Palmieri tweeted, We could have done better yesterday, but added that the public knows more about HRC than any nominee in history.

Trump, 70, and Clinton, 68, have both released doctors notes saying they are in good health. Trumps is only four paragraphs long, while Clintons physicians letter is two pages long. Fallon pointed out that Trumps letter did not disclose his blood pressure, arguing Clinton has met a higher standard than he has on health disclosure.

Meanwhile, Trump said Monday that he recently had a physical and would be releasing the results soon.

Ill be releasing  when the numbers come, hopefully they are going to be good, I think they are going to be good, I feel great  but when the numbers come in, Ill be releasing very, very specific numbers, he said on Fox News.
Washington (AFP) - Ronald Reagan endured questions about his age and mental state and John McCain was pressured into releasing 1,000 pages of medical records. Hillary Clinton, diagnosed with pneumonia, is hardly the first White House candidate whose health is under the spotlight.

The announcement that Clinton scrapped a fundraising trip to California Monday and Tuesday in the heat of a tightening presidential race dealt the Democrat a blow as she seeks to fend off the Republican Donald Trump -- and douse swirling conspiracy theories that insist she is suffering from something far worse than treatable pneumonia.

In an election season that has often strayed from the facts, critics have used Clinton's illness to propel theories that she may be suffering from something far worse, such as a brain tumor, Parkinson's or dementia.

Some on Monday began fuelling suggestions the former secretary of state, who turns 69 next month, has even used a "body double."

Two US presidents have died in office shortly after coming down with pneumonia -- both before the advent of reliable antibiotics: William Henry Harrison, in April 1841, and Warren Harding, who died in August 1923 of a cerebral hemorrhage.

But while the severity of Clinton's pneumonia is not yet clear, the vast majority of Americans who develop the respiratory infection enjoy a full recovery.

Over the past century numerous candidates have battled far worse as they ran for the world's most powerful office.

John F. Kennedy campaigned in 1960 while suffering from Addison's disease, in which the adrenal glands do not produce enough steroid hormones.

His campaign scrambled to keep that, and other Kennedy medical afflictions, secret from the public.

Franklin Roosevelt was diagnosed with polio in 1921, 12 years before he won the White House. While his illness was public knowledge, his team took great pains to prevent the press from photographing Roosevelt in a wheelchair.

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Roosevelt was gravely ill during his campaign for a fourth term. The popular president won reelection, only to collapse and die five months into his new term.

Later it was revealed that surgeon Frank Lahey wrote a secret memorandum before the election stating Roosevelt was likely not healthy enough to survive through a fourth term.

- Presidential ailments -

More recently, during his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination in 1992, Paul Tsongas assured the American people that he was cancer-free after undergoing a bone marrow transplant in 1986 for lymphoma.

That turned out to be incorrect, and Tsongas conceded he did not provide full disclosure about his cancer.

He died from pneumonia and liver problems related to treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma on January 18, 1997, just two days shy of what would have been a full presidential term if he had been elected.

Operatives for George W. Bush reportedly disseminated the theory during the 2000 Republican primaries that John McCain's time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam had left him mentally unbalanced.

Eight years later during his second presidential bid, and amid concern over his battle with skin cancer, McCain released more than 1,000 pages of medical records, raising the bar for candidates revealing health details.

Health scares have afflicted several presidents in office, as well.

In January 1992 George H.W. Bush vomited on Japan's prime minister and then fainted during a banquet, but the incident was treated more as a source of comedic material than as a broader health worry.

His son, President George W. Bush, choked on a pretzel and briefly fainted in 2002 as he watched television.

President Reagan had polyps removed from his colon in 1985, than underwent surgery for prostate cancer in 1987.

Amid mounting concern about his health and age, Reagan, then 73, turned the issue to his advantage during his 1984 reelection campaign when asked about it during his debate with 56-year-old Democrat Walter Mondale.

"I will not make age an issue of this campaign," a steely Reagan vowed. "I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience."

Reagan won reelection in a landslide.
By Angela Moon NEW YORK (Reuters) - Online betting markets cut back Hillary Clinton's prospects of winning the Nov. 8 election after a video showed the Democratic presidential candidate stumbling and having difficulty walking as she was helped into a van at a Sept. 11 memorial, raising concerns about her health. Her probability of victory fell 7 percentage points to 64 percent on Sunday, the biggest one-day drop since she accepted her party's nomination in late July, according to online predictions market PredictIt. Sunday's trading volume on PredictIt was also the largest in at least three months. The sharpest plunge occurred immediately after the video, taken by a bystander, showed up on social media. In a modest rebound on Monday, her prospects rose 1 percentage point on PredictIt, but trading volume was low as she canceled a planned trip to California for fundraising and other campaign events. Her campaign disclosed that Clinton, 68, had been diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday after she complained of allergies and was seen coughing repeatedly in recent days. The health problem was the latest blow to Clinton's White House bid at a time when Republican rival Donald Trump has erased most of her lead in national opinion polls and is competitive again in many battleground states where the election is likely to be decided. Trump's prospects on PredictIt rose following news about Clinton's health incident, up 3 percentage points to 34 percent on Sunday, the highest end-of-the-day level since July 30. On Monday, his probability remained unchanged despite his pledge to soon release detailed information about his health. Paddy Power, one of Europe's biggest gambling companies, also showed Clinton's chances of winning falling to 65 percent from 73 percent in the past 24 hours. Trump's probability of winning rose to about 40 percent from 33 percent overnight, Paddy Power said. According to the latest polls by Reuters/Ipsos released on Saturday, Clinton had an 83 percent chance of winning the election by an average of 47 votes in the Electoral College, the body that ultimately selects the president. Late last month, Reuters/Ipsos's States of the Nation poll estimated Clinton had a 95 percent chance of winning by an average of 108 electoral votes. The Electoral College consists of 538 electors, apportioned by states' populations; a candidate must pick up a majority of at least 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. (Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
An awkward moment transpired Monday during a live broadcast of CBS This Morning, as former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell got heckled by a protestor while sitting outside the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.

"You know better, Colin Powell! You know better, as a black man in America!" the heckler can be heard shouting. "You dropped bombs on Iraq!"

Powell played the moment off with a smirk, saying to CBS anchors Charlie Rose, Norah O'Donnell and Gayle King, "Is he one of yours?"

Displaying a martial degree of concentration, Powell was able to give a 30-second sound bite about President Harry Truman's executive order to desegregate the armed forces as the protestor hollered unintelligibly as he spoke (around 7:30 in below video).

Powell's appearance on the show was in honor of the new African-American history and culture museum as part of the Smithsonian Institution, which officially opens its doors on Sept. 24.

Founding donors of the museum include the Oprah Winfrey Charitable Foundation, which ponied up at least $20 million, Michael Jordan, as well as Colin and wife Alma Powell themselves. They gave between $1 million and $2 million to the cause.

"This means a lot to America," Powell stressed, "because this isn't just African-American history. This is American history. It's filling a gap that has existed in American history for so many years."

Powell was asked if "accusations of racism" in the current presidential campaign had led him to endorse the candidacy of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Powell sidestepped the question, saying that he wants to see a formal debate between the candidates before making up his mind.

Notably, the retired four-star general was not asked about the recently released exchange he had with Clinton about maintaining a private email server while holding the office of secretary of state. Critics have wagged fingers at Powell as the inspiration for Clinton's use of the private server, which she has admitted was a "mistake."

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Powell advised Clinton to "be very careful" and that there is "a real danger" involved in using a personal email device that wasn't subject to government oversight.

"What I did do was have a personal computer that was hooked up to a private phone line (sounds ancient.)," Powell wrote. "So I could communicate with a wide range of friends directly without it going through the State Department servers. I even used it to do business with some foreign leaders and some of the senior folks in the Department on their personal email accounts."
The San Luis Obispo County Sheriffs Department and the FBI have renewed a search for the remains of Kristin Smart at sites on the Cal Poly campus. (Image via Joe Johnston/The Tribune of San Luis Obispo via AP)



Police in San Luis Obispo, Calif., are following the most promising lead weve had in years in the hopes of finding some trace of a California Polytechnic State University freshman who vanished 20 years ago. Human decomposition dogs and other information led police and the FBI to three sites on the campusincluding one spot marked by the P in a giant hillside sign for Cal Polywhich will now be excavated over four days, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Related: Drugs Were Found in Her Car. I Have an Enemy, She Said

Without elaborating, police say evidence strongly suggests Kristin Smart may be buried at one of the sites, per the San Luis Obispo Tribune. The 19-year-old student disappeared after leaving an off-campus party in the early hours of May 25, 1996.

Related: Search Underway for Woman Who Leapt From Cruise Ship

A witness told police that Paul Flores, 19, offered to walk Smart home after shed apparently passed out. Floreswhos considered a person of interest but has never been charged due to a lack of evidence, police sayclaims he dropped Smart off near her dorm, though the Tribune notes four cadaver dogs reacted separately to Flores dorm room, focusing on a mattress and wastebasket, after he moved out in June 1996.

Related: Man Recounts Abducting, Killing Boy 27 Years Ago

The Smart family has sued Flores in civil court, though searches at properties linked to the Flores family have turned up no sign of Smart.

Were not sure where this is going to take us, a sheriff tells CBS News of the new dig. Obviously, we want to be optimistic as possible. (The FBI is hunting a dormant serial killer.)

Story continues

By Arden Dier

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This article originally appeared on Newser: Vanished Cal Poly Student May Be Buried on Campus
Bogota (AFP) - Colombia is on alert after the killing of five human rights activists in recent days, the government said Monday, warning of potential attempts to destabilize a delicate peace process with the FARC rebels.

Land-rights activist Nestor Ivan Martinez was shot dead Sunday in the northern department of Cesar, the fifth rural community leader killed as the government seeks to end a 52-year-old conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

"We are on alert because in this home stretch of the peace process, there are always groups that want to create instability, create chaos with these kinds of threats and murders," Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo said.

Martinez was shot twice in the head while visiting his brother's farm, said an umbrella group of local community organizations in which he was involved.

"They're calling it a robbery, but all his belongings were still there," spokesman Gabriel Henao said.

Pamphlets had circulated in recent days threatening activists who work to help poor Colombians reclaim their land, he added. They were signed by supposedly disbanded right-wing paramilitary groups, he said.

Conflicts over land and class in the countryside have helped stoke the war between the government and the Marxist guerrillas of the FARC.

Their half-century conflict has drawn in various left- and right-wing armed groups as well as criminal gangs over the years, leaving 260,000 people dead and 45,000 missing.

The government and the FARC, the largest rebel group, announced a historic deal to end their conflict last month after nearly four years of talks. It will be put to a referendum on October 2.

But the national rights ombudsman's office has warned of a spate of "targeted killings" of peasants and rural activists ahead of the vote.

Four local community leaders and rights activists have been killed in recent weeks in the western department of Cauca.

They included leftist peasant leader Cecilia Coicue. She was found stabbed to death on her farm Wednesday in one of 28 areas where FARC fighters are due to hand over weapons under a UN-monitored disarmament process.
By PTI: Karachi, Sep 12 (PTI) Senior Mutthaida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Farooq Sattar and three others were injured when their speeding vehicle met a road accident on Karachi- Hyderabad highway in Pakistans southern Sindh province.

Sattar was returning from Hyderabad to Karachi with his two police guards when his driver lost control and went off the road near Nooriabad area on the highway on Saturday night.

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Motorway SSP Karamullah Soomro said the two guards were badly injured and admitted to the A.O Clinic for treatment.

A spokesman for the Liaquat National Hospital said that Sattars vital organs were functioning normally and he was in stable condition.

He is under observation as he has complained off some pain and will be released after three to four days, a party leader said.

Sattar, 57, has assumed the charge of the MQM ever since the party members in Pakistan broke ties with founder and supremo Altaf Hussain after his anti-Pakistan speech on August 22 at a hunger strike camp in Karachi.

Hussain, who is in exile in London since 1993, tweeted wished Sattar a speedy recovery.

Sattar had recently said that for the first time in over 30 years, MQM will not collect hides of sacrificial animals on Eidul Azha for its welfare projects, citing "unfavourable conditions" and "targeted" by state institutions.

He said the party reached the decision after consultation with the coordination committee and all office-bearers of the Khidmat-i-Khalq Foundation (KKF). PTI corr ZH

--- ENDS ---
BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's Marxist FARC rebels apologized for the "great pain" they caused by kidnapping thousands of people to fund half a century of conflict as the insurgent group prepared to sign a peace accord with the government. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) said in a video recording late on Sunday that it had taken captives over the years but would not do so again. The rebels and government are gearing up to sign the accord after reaching agreement on Aug. 24 to end a war that has killed more than 220,000 people and displaced millions. Some 7,000 FARC fighters will be incorporated into society and permitted to form a political party. "We want to acknowledge, with the sentiment of humanity and reconciliation, that during the conflict the FARC also caused great pain with the retention of people for ransom," FARC's commander and lead negotiator, Ivan Marquez, said in the recording. "That conduct, while always used to sustain the needs of the rebellion, resulted in harming entire families," he said from Havana, Cuba, where negotiations took place. Some 27,000 people were kidnapped between 1970 and 2010, according official figures. As many as 90 percent of those were seized by the FARC. The rebel group amassed a fortune from kidnappings, extortion and the drug trade. The two sides are scheduled to sign the peace agreement on Sept. 26. The deal will then be put to a vote in a plebiscite on Oct. 2, allowing Colombians to decide whether to accept the accord. (Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Helen Murphy)
By Simon Jessop

LONDON (Reuters) - Fund manager Columbia Threadneedle said on Monday it plans to lift the suspension in trading of its UK retail property fund as investor sentiment in the sector had steadied in the weeks following Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

The Threadneedle UK Property Authorised Investment Fund, which includes the Threadneedle UK Property Authorised Trust, was one of several UK funds to be suspended after the June 23 vote amid concerns that prices for commercial property would fall.

Since the July 6 suspension, however, the market had settled, said Don Jordison, Managing Director of Property, Columbia Threadneedle Investments, and the suspension would be lifted on Sept. 26.

"Much of the earlier commentary now appears slightly irrational and more informed reflection has settled the market," he said.

"Any effects of the Brexit vote on the overall UK economy --negative or otherwise -- would take many months, if not years to transpire and some time after that for the property market," he added.

Since July, Threadneedle had sold 25 properties for a combined value of 167 million pounds, it said, and had achieved prices that were, in aggregate, less than 1 percent below the last independent valuation prior to the referendum, it said.

Threadneedle said the fund would open without any redemption penalties and would return to a standard monthly valuation of the fund's assets, after moving to weekly pricing during the suspension period.

The fund invests in warehouses, shopping centres and offices around the UK and has little exposure to large buildings in central London, including offices, where much international demand is focused, it said.

(Reporting by Simon Jessop, editing by Louise Heavens)
By Andray Abrahamian What made North Korea decide to conduct its fifth nuclear test last Friday? No doubt because Pyongyang believed that China would allow Kim Jong Un to get away with it. Again. After Pyongyangs fourth nuclear test in January, the UN Security Council signed off on the UN's toughest sanctions against North Korea to date. Beijing, a permanent council member long frustrated by its neighbor, seemed to have signed off on a package of tough measures indeed. Those sanctions included bans on key North Korean exports, though with a vaguely worded exception for livelihood purposes. The measures specifically targeted extractives like coal and iron ore, which North Korea leans on heavily for revenues. They also greatly restricted options for international banking by North Korean institutions. However, Chinas fundamental position regarding the Korean peninsula remained the same: no war, no instability, no nukes. The sequence of that oft-repeated maxim is no accident. Those are the conditions Beijing seeks to avoid, in that order. Nuclear weapons are a distant third place in that range of apprehensions. Following the Koreas, of course, China would bear the brunt of war or instability on the peninsula, in the form of refugees and severe economic pain. As much as it frustrates Beijing, Chinese leaders continue to believe that nuclear North Korea is a problem that can and should be managed through diplomacy. Since its third nuclear test in 2013, China has been more comfortable with economic pressure as part of the policy mix regarding North Korea (officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK), but it is still unwilling to push Pyongyang to the point of destabilization. As such, Beijingvirtually Pyongyang's only trading partnerhas implemented some of the measures specified, but seems to be frequently exercising that significant loophole regarding coal. Chinese imports of North Korean coal fell sharply in April and May after sanctions were announced, but rebounded strongly by June. In Pyongyang, policymakers will have been paying keen attention to Beijings public statements, information gleaned from backchannel communications with Chinese officials and facts on the ground for its businesspeople in China since March. They have sensed that they can cope with the new normal imposed on North Korea by the updated sanctions environment. They have judged that Chinas fundamental position has not changed, providing leeway to conduct another test. Indeed, Beijing immediately called for a return to talks in the wake of the nuclear test, but Washington and Pyongyang arent even close to finding a mutually acceptable starting position. The Obama administration has lowered the bar to its minimally acceptable height. Secretary of State John Kerry said it most simply last week in Geneva: All Kim Jong-un needs to do is say, Im prepared to talk about denuclearization. Expert opinion is somewhat divided as to whether or not the DPRK does someday want to discuss some sort of denuclearization in the near future. Its likely that someday it will, but for now sees the possession of a credible threat against the U.S. mainland as irreplaceably advantageous. From Kim Jong Uns perspective, why not bargain from a position of strength? Pyongyang chose to conduct the test on its national independence day, but that doesnt truly answer the question: Why now? Why, for example, didnt Pyongyang wait to conduct a test closer to the U.S. election? An information-saturated electorate will have largely forgotten this test by the time they head to the polls in November, but exploding a device in late October would have provided Donald Trump with fresh ammunition to attack the Obama/Hillary Clinton foreign policy strategy of strategic patience. Trump is Pyongyangs preferred candidate as he introduces a degree of unpredictability, given his disregard for diplomatic convention and apparent lack of knowledge about the Far East. Or why not let the sharp deterioration in China-South Korea relations play out a little longer? Seoul responded to North Koreas January nuclear test by allowing the United States to deploy its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in South Korea. THAAD essentially detects and shoots down ballistic missiles. It has been controversial in South Korea in large part because China has been so vociferously against it: Beijing views it as targeting the Peoples Liberation Army as part of a U.S. strategy to contain China. Due to THAAD, China-South Korea relations have gone from stellar to strained in a few short months. Last year, President Park Geun-hye was the only U.S. ally to attend Beijings celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. This year, South Koreans are concerned about some form of economic retaliation over THAAD by Beijing. Events between China and South Korea have been canceled, there are rumors of visa-issuance problems, and Beijing has already been looking to reduce the influence of South Korean pop culture. It may be that Pyongyang saw the acrimony between Seoul and Beijing and judged that these divisions would hamper cooperation against it if it conducted its fifth test now. But why not wait a little longer and see if Beijings rhetoric on THAAD turned to stronger reprisals? This could in turn provoke an anti-China backlash in South Korea and help create a powerful negative cycle between two famously nationalistic citizenries. By testing now, Pyongyang runs the risk of muting what could become serious discord between it two neighbours. That said, an editorial in the Chinese state-run Global Times on the day of the fifth test seemed very much to equate the sins of nuclear development and THAAD, putting them at the same level. If that really reflects the Chinese governments position, then perhaps Pyongyang has judged correctly and now is as good a time as any. The fact is, due to the DPRK's opacity, we struggle to know exactly why they conducted their 5th nuclear test at this moment. We do, however, have a clearer idea of their long-term strategy under Kim Jong Un: to have (or come close to) a miniaturized nuclear weapon and a missile that it can deliver to the U.S. mainland. (Andray Abrahamian is an Honorary Fellow at Macquarie University, Sydney and a contributor at 38north.org. @Draylien)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Connecticut man pleaded guilty on Monday to climbing over the White House fence on Thanksgiving Day last year draped in a U.S. flag, federal prosecutors said.

Joseph Caputo, 23, of Stamford, pleaded guilty to entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.

Caputo scaled the White House fence on Nov. 26 while wearing a U.S. flag like a cape. He was apprehended by Secret Service officers and told them, "I knew I would be locked up," the statement said.

President Barack Obama was in the White House at the time. The incident triggered a lockdown of the presidential mansion.

Sentencing is set for Dec. 6. Caputo faces up to a year in prison, a possible fine and a year of supervised release.

Prosecutors have recommended that he be put on probation, be ordered to stay away from the U.S. capital and any place or person under Secret Service protection and undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Zagreb (AFP) - Croatia's conservatives were poised to remain in power after winning a snap election, nearly complete results showed Monday, but will have to begin coalition talks to form a government after falling short of a majority.

The close result does little to dispel political uncertainty in the EU's newest member but the new conservative leader -- now likely to be prime minister -- has signalled a shift towards the centre after a lurch to the right.

The conservative HDZ won 61 seats while their centre-left opposition rivals, the Social Democrats (SDP), had 54, according to results from nearly all polling stations.

"I'm certain that we are the party that will have the privilege of forming the next stable Croatian government," HDZ's new moderate leader Andrej Plenkovic told supporters early Monday.

The election was the second in less than a year after the previous barely functioning coalition government led by the HDZ collapsed in June over a conflict of interest scandal after just five months in power.

However, the HDZ did not secure an absolute majority in the 151-seat parliament, and its former junior government partner, the Most Party ("Bridge" in Croatian), is likely to play kingmaker once again.

The Most Party came third with 13 seats.

Some 3.8 million Croatians were eligible to vote in the election, which came at a time of economic gloom and strained ties between neighbours in the volatile Balkans.

The previous HDZ-led coalition's five-month rule was marked by a shift to the right amid a growing climate of intolerance, including attacks on independent media and minorities, notably ethnic Serbs.

Authorities appeared to have turned a blind eye to a far-right surge that sparked global concern and brought already frosty ties with former enemy Serbia to their lowest level since Croatia's 1990s independence war.

But the HDZ was aspiring to stay in power with the moderate Plenkovic who has pledged an "Europe-oriented" government.

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The 46-year-old former member of the European Parliament has repeatedly vowed to move the party away from populism and extremism to position it in the centre-right.

His SDP rival, former prime minister Zoran Milanovic, 49, told supporters in Zagreb early Monday that Croatia needed a "stable government."

"For the past months we had an unstable and destructive (one)," he stressed.

- Economic struggles -

Croatians may have lost enthusiasm for voting a second time in less than a year: by mid-afternoon turnout was some nine points down on November polls.

And the results suggest difficult talks loom on forming a government.

With Plenkovic's moderate agenda, HDZ will likely win the backing of minorities, notably Serbs.

Despite pledging a "government of progress and tolerance", Milanovic sharpened his populist rhetoric during the campaign after disappointing voters with scant reforms when in power before the ill-fated HDZ coalition took control.

He repeatedly slammed Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic over his ultranationalist wartime stance.

The almost year of political deadlock has blocked reforms the former Yugoslav republic badly needs as it emerges from a six-year recession.

The economy, relying heavily on tourism along the country's Adriatic coast, remains one of the EU's weakest despite some recent positive indicators attributed to membership of the bloc.

The central bank has forecast growth of 2.3 percent this year.

Unemployment stands at more than 13 percent, public debt has reached 85 percent of GDP, while the investment climate remains poor.
Zagreb (AFP) - Croatia's conservatives won a snap election, complete results showed Monday, but they face challenging talks to form a government after falling short of a majority.

The vote came as the EU's newest member has seen a lurch to the right and a surge of social intolerance over the past five months under a fragile coalition government led by conservative HDZ party.

HDZ won 61 seats in Sunday's ballot while their centre-left opposition rivals, the Social Democrats (SDP), took 54, according to complete results.

"I'm certain that we are the party that will have the privilege of forming the next stable government in Croatia," HDZ's new moderate leader Andrej Plenkovic -- now likely to be prime minister -- told supporters early Monday.

However, analysts warn that tough talks to form a government could be ahead because the HDZ has not secured an absolute majority in the 151-seat parliament.

HDZ's former junior government partner, the Most Party ("Bridge" in Croatian), took third place with 13 seats making it likely to play kingmaker -- as it did in November polls.

But the party, which presents itself as reformist, has said it will only join a coalition on the condition of reforms to local administration and cuts to both lawmakers' benefits and financing for political parties.

"HDZ has a good chance of forming a government if Most behaves rationally," political analyst Zarko Puhovski told AFP.

The concern is that Most could set tough conditions that are difficult for the other coalition partners to accept.

Meanwhile, average Croatians are worried a new government will not end the political deadlock that has plagued the country for nearly a year.

"Most will seek impossible things and they (coalition partners) won't be able to agree," said Josip Bergovec, a man in his 60s from Zagreb.

- More moderate rhetoric -

The election was the second in less than a year after the previous barely functioning coalition government collapsed in June over a conflict of interest scandal after just five months in power.

Story continues

Some 3.8 million Croatians were eligible to cast a ballot in Sunday's vote, which came at a time of economic gloom and strained ties between neighbours in the volatile Balkans.

The previous HDZ-led coalition's rule was marked by a growing climate of intolerance, including attacks on independent media and minorities, notably ethnic Serbs.

Authorities appeared to have turned a blind eye to a far-right surge that sparked global concern and brought already frosty ties with former enemy Serbia to their lowest level since Croatia's 1990s independence war.

Plenkovic, the 46-year-old former member of the European Parliament, has repeatedly vowed to move the party away from populism and extremism to position it in the centre-right.

Meanwhile, his SDP rival, former prime minister Zoran Milanovic, 49, said Monday he would not run as a candidate for the party's leader in elections due in the coming months.

- Voter apathy -

Croatians may have lost enthusiasm for voting a second time in less than a year -- turnout was 52 percent, nearly 10 points down from the November polls.

"Croatia is tired," commented the Vecernji list, daily warning that debates over the past "left a deep scar on the nation additionally hurt by the economic crisis."

The populist party Zivi Zid ("Human Shield" in Croatian), which has pledged to fight political corruption and banks, won eight seats on Sunday compared with one in November's vote.

The political deadlock in Croatia has prevented reforms that the former Yugoslav republic badly needs as it emerges from a six-year recession.

Its economy, relying heavily on tourism along Croatia's Adriatic coast, remains one of the EU's weakest despite some recent positive indicators attributed to membership of the bloc.

The central bank has forecast growth of 2.3 percent this year.

Unemployment stands at more than 13 percent, public debt has reached 85 percent of GDP, while the investment climate remains poor.
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A new resolution to ban all domestic ivory sales has been passed by a global group of conservationists and governments.

The measure, adopted Saturday at a major summit in Hawaii, aims to curb the illegal killing of elephants, whose numbers are rapidly dwindling as poachers slaughter them for their tusks and humans encroach on elephants' natural habitats.

"Elephants have had enough of the ivory trade, and so has the world," Cristian Samper, president and CEO of Wildlife Conservation Society, said in a statement after the vote at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress.

SEE ALSO: Marine conservation efforts just took a major step forward

A coalition of nations  including the United States and African countries Gabon, Kenya and Malawi  had urged the IUCN last week to adopt the motion to stop internal ivory trading.

A stack of burning elephant tusks, ivory figurines and rhinoceros horns at Nairobi National Park, Kenya, April 30, 2016.

Image: FREDRIK LERNERYD/AFP/Getty Images

Most of Africa sees banning Ivory as the only way to protect elephants https://t.co/wuUgKUNY02@IUCN #IUCNCongress pic.twitter.com/nggdF9veo1  Alice C Hughes (@AliceCHughes) September 10, 2016

Samper said the resolution to close the world's domestic ivory markets is "vital" given that "the news about Africa's elephants is as bad as bad news gets."

A new aerial survey found that African savanna elephants have declined at a rate of 27,000 elephants per year  about 8 percent of the population  with a total of 144,000 savanna elephants lost in less than a decade, according to the Great Elephant Census.

The research, led by the Wildlife Conservation Society and funded by Microsoft founder Paul Allen, also found that several elephant populations, particularly in West and Central Africa, have declined to dangerously low levels and risk local extinction.

Story continues

African elephant bulls playing in the water of the Shire River in Liwonde National Park, Malawi.

Image: Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images

The IUCN does not regulate the ivory trade, domestically or globally. Saturday's resolution instead is designed to encourage nations to adopt domestic bans at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Johannesburg later this month.

Governments already banned the international ivory trade in a 1989 treaty.

Yet poachers have only ramped up their attacks on elephants in recent decades.

The United Nations Environment Program estimated that around 100,000 elephants were killed between 2010 and 2012, out of a total population of less than 500,000 elephants.

Illegal trade in wildlife and natural resources  including ivory, rhino horns, fish, apes and pangolins  is valued at up to $213 billion annually, according to the U.N.

Pangolins=most trafficked mammal in the world as they're poached for their meat & scales: https://t.co/Mn4tDXLRX9 pic.twitter.com/Ro41GqVHxd  Leonardo DiCaprio (@LeoDiCaprio) May 20, 2016

Still, efforts to ban domestic ivory sales have garnered support from the world's two biggest economies: the United States and China.

In June, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a near-total ban on domestic commercial trade of African elephant ivory. In September of 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to shut down its domestic ivory market and enact "nearly complete bans" on ivory imports and exports.

According to Samper, "The shutting down of domestic ivory markets will send a clear signal to traffickers and organized criminal syndicates that ivory is worthless and will no longer support their criminal activities causing security problems in local communities and wiping out wildlife," he said in the statement.
A Muslim activist in Kerala held a 'Payasam' fest to celebrate Onam after a Salafi preacher described the harvest festival as "haram" for Muslims.

By India Today Web Desk: A Kozhikode-based Salafi preacher named Shamsudheen Fareed recently described non-Islamic festivities like Onam and Christman as "haram", asking Muslims to refrain from participating in these celebrations.

In response, a young Muslim activist in Kerala held his very own 'Payasam' fest to celebrate the harvest festival of Onam. Not only that, some 200 people came forward to attend his fest and enjoy the sweetened rice dessert.

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"My smiling Onam wishes. I declare openly that if my religion would vanish by celebrating festivals, let it go," read writer-cum-activist Fayiz Umer's banner inviting people.



The News Minute reports the event was held in Kozhikode's Kuttiyadi town.

Turns out, Umer is not the only one with such enlightening thoughts. Some 150 Muslim institutions under Muslim Educational Society (MES) also plan to celebrate Onam in the state.

--- ENDS ---
UPDATED with all winners, 7:12 PM: Netflixs docuseries Making a Murderer and Foxs live musical event Grease Live each scored four trophies to lead the second of two Creative Arts Emmy Award ceremonies. A&Es Cartel Land scooped three statuettes and HBOs Last Week Tonight and Adult Swims wrapped series Childrens Hospital at downtowns Microsoft Theatre at LA Live. Check our live blog below for the full list of winners.

EXCLUSIVE - RuPaul Charles attends night two of the Television Academy's 2016 Creative Arts Emmy Awards at the Microsoft Theater on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Dan Steinberg/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images)

Shark Tank and Born This Way won the Emmys for Structured and Unstructured Reality Program, respectively, and RuPaul Charles won his first Emmy for reality host for RuPauls Drag Race on Logo. FXs Archer won its first Emmy for Outstanding Animation Series.

Making a Murderer rolled through the nonfiction categories, winning Emmys for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series along with directing, writing and editing. Grease Live won the Outstanding Special Class Program award and directing, production design and lighting design for a variety special.

HBO leads the network field, as always, with a total of 16 Creative Arts Emmys over the two nights. FX was the only other net in double figures with 12, doubling the tally for the No. 3 nets Netflix and PBS. Here is a rundown of wins by network:

The new two-night format was introduced this year because last years 82 categories proved too unwieldy for one evening. Still, producers last night asked winners to keep acceptance speeches to 30 seconds as had been the practice the past couple of years.

Here is the list of winners:

Outstanding Informational Series Or Special

Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown  CNN  Zero Point Zero Productions

Anthony Bourdain, Executive Producer/Host

Christopher Collins, Executive Producer

Lydia Tenaglia, Executive Producer

Sandra Zweig, Executive Producer

Toby Oppenheimer, Producer

Mike Steed, Producer

Tom Vitale, Producer Outstanding Special Class Program

Grease: Live  FOX  Paramount Television Outstanding Choreography

(two winners)

Americas Best Dance Crew  Routines: Runaway Baby/Take U There/Summer Thing  MTV 

Warner Horizon Television

Quest Crew, Choreographers Crazy Ex-Girlfriend  Routines: Im So Good at Yoga/A Boy Band Made Up of Four Joshes/Settle Outstanding Structured Reality Program

Shark Tank  ABC  MGM Television in association with Sony Pictures Television

Mark Burnett, Executive Producer

Clay Newbill, Executive Producer

Yun Lingner, Executive Producer

Phil Gurin, Executive Producer

Max Swedlow, Co-Executive Producer

Brandon Wallace, Co-Executive Producer

Becky Blitz, Supervising Producer

Story continues

This is the third consecutive Emmy for Shark Tank, the only winner since the Structured Reality Program category was established.

Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program

Born This Way  A&E  Bunim/Murray Productions

Outstanding Cinematography For A Reality Program

Life Below Zero  Breaking Through  National Geographic Channel  Adjacent Productions

Cinematography Team

7 PM: We finally dethroned Deadliest Catch! an excited member of the Life Below Zero said from the stage. Deadliest Catch had won the Cinematography award for the past five years and the Unstructured Reality Program trophy the last two times.

Outstanding Host For A Reality Or Reality-Competition Program

RuPauls Drag Race  Logo  World of Wonder Productions

RuPaul Charles, Host Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control For A Series

Dancing With The Stars  The Finals (Part 2)  ABC  BBC Worldwide Productions

Charles Ciup, Technical Director

Brian Reason, Camera

Hector Ramirez, Camera

Nat Havholm, Camera

Jeff Wheat, Camera

Bert Atkinson, Camera

Bettina Levesque, Camera

Adam Margolis, Camera

Damien Tuffereau, Camera

Easter Xua, Camera

Mike Malone, Camera

Rob Palmer, Camera

Ron Lehman, Camera

Keith Dicker, Camera

Mike Carr, Camera

Ed Horton, Camera

Dyan Sanford, Camera

Freddy Frederick, Camera

Chris Hill, Video Control

Ed Moore, Video Control Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special

Grease: Live  FOX  Paramount Television

Thomas Kail, Directed by

Alex Rudzinski, Live Television Direction by Outstanding Actress In A Short Form Comedy Or Drama Series

Acting Dead  ActingDead.com  Leonian Pictures

Patrika Darbo as Margot Mullen Outstanding Makeup For A Multi-Camera Series Or Special (Non-Prosthetic)

Key & Peele  Yall Ready For This?  Comedy Central  Cindylou, Monkeypaw Productions, Martel

& Roberts Productions, Principato-Young Entertainment, Central Productions

Scott Wheeler, Department Head Makeup Artist

Suzy Diaz, Key Makeup Artist

Jason Hamer, Key Makeup Artist

Natalie Thimm, Key Makeup Artist

Michael Blake, Key Makeup Artist Outstanding Hairstyling For A Multi-Camera Series Or Special

Saturday Night Live  Host: Fred Armisen  NBC  SNL Studios in association with Universal

Television and Broadway Video

Bettie O. Rogers, Department Head Hairstylist

Jodi Mancuso, Key Hairstylist

Inga Thrasher, Hairstylist

Jennifer Serio, Hairstylist

Cara Hannah Sullivan, Hairstylist

Joe Whitmeyer, Hairstylist Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Nonfiction Program (Single or Multi-Camera)

Vice  Fighting Isis  HBO  HBO Entertainment in association with Vice and Bill Maher Productions

Erik Schuiten, Re-Recording Mixer Outstanding Sound Editing For A Nonfiction Program (Single Or Multi-Camera)

Cartel Land  A&E  Our Time Projects and Documentary Group in association with Whitewater

Films for A&E IndieFilms

Ryan Collison, Sound Editor

Jonathan Fang, Sound Editor

Leslie Bloome, Sound Editor

Mark Filip, Sound FX Editor

Billy Orrico, Dialogue Editor

Sean Garnhart, Sound Designer Outstanding Cinematography For A Nonfiction Program

Cartel Land  A&E  Our Time Projects and Documentary Group in association with Whitewater

Films for A&E IndieFilms

Matthew Heineman, Cinematography by

Matt Porwoll, Cinematography by Outstanding Production Design For A Variety, Nonfiction, Reality Or Reality-Competition Series

Portlandia  Family Emergency  Pickathon  Weirdo Beach  IFC  Broadway Video for IFC

Schuyler Telleen, Production Designer

Katherine Isom, Set Decorator Outstanding Production Design For A Variety, Nonfiction, Event Or Award Special

Grease: Live  FOX  Paramount Television

David Korins, Production Designer

Joe Celli, Art Director

Jason Howard, Set Decorator Outstanding Actor In A Short Form Comedy Or Drama Series

Childrens Hospital  Adult Swim  Abominable Pictures, The Corddry Company and Studio 2.0

Rob Corddry as Dr. Blake Downs

6:20 PM: This is such a great way to go out, said Rob Corddry, who won for Actor in a Short Form Comedy or Drama for Childrens Hospital.

Outstanding Costumes For A Variety, Nonfiction Or Reality Program

The Wiz Live!  Costumes: all  NBC  Universal Television, Sony Pictures Television, Storyline

Entertainment

Paul Tazewell, Costume Designer

Rachel Attridge, Assistant Costume Designer

Rory Powers, Costume Supervisor Outstanding Picture Editing For A Structured Or Competition Reality Program

Who Do You Think You Are?  Bryan Cranston  TLC  Shed Media US

Mark Cegielski, Editor

James Horak, Editor

Julie Janata, Editor

Elise Ludwig, Editor

Justin Robertson, Editor

Conrad Stanley, Editor

Shelly Stocking, Editor Outstanding Picture Editing For An Unstructured Reality Program

Project Greenlight  Accident Waiting To Happen  HBO  HBO Entertainment in association with

Pearl Street Films, Adaptive Studios, Magical Elves, Miramax

Steve Lichtenstein, Lead Editor

Craig A. Colton, Editor

Nina Erb, Editor

Dan Golding, Editor

6:02 PM: American Idol is receiving the Governor Award for its successful dominance in the pop culture. The singing competition changed reality television in a profound way, said Bruce Rosenblum, CEO and Chair of the Television Academy.

6:07 PM: Idols Simon Fuller said, Its been 15 years and this is the first Emmy weve actually won. Can you believe that?

Outstanding Short Form Nonfiction Or Reality Series

Inside Look: The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story  FX Networks  FX Networks, More

Media

Ryan Murphy, Producer

Ned Martel, Producer

Stephanie Gibbons, Producer

Sally Daws, Producer

Sue Keeton, Producer

Kenna McCabe, Producer Outstanding Short Form Variety Series:

Park Bench With Steve Buscemi

AOL

Steve Buscemi, Executive Producer

Stanley Tucci, Executive Producer

Wren Arthur, Executive Producer

Justin Wilkes, Executive Producer

Joe Killian, Executive Producer

Jon Doran, Executive Producer Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama Series

Childrens Hospital

Adult Swim

Rob Corddry, Executive Producer

Jonathan Stern, Executive Producer

David Wain, Executive Producer

Keith Crofford, Executive Producer

Mike Lazzo, Executive Producer

Krister Johnson, Co-Executive Producer Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Variety Series Or Special

Danny Elfmans Music From The Films Of Tim Burton (Live From Lincoln Center)  PBS  A Lincoln

Center Media Production

Ken Hahn, Re-Recording Mixer

Paul Bevan, Production Mixer Outstanding Picture Editing For Variety Programming

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver  Public Defenders (segment)  HBO  HBO Entertainment in

association with Sixteen String Jack Productions and Avalon Television

Anthony Miale, Editor Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction For A Variety Special

Grease: Live  FOX  Paramount Television

Al Gurdon, Lighting Designer

Travis Hagenbuch, Lighting Director

Madigan Stehly, Lighting Director

Will Gossett, Lighting Director

Ryan Tanker, Moving Light Programmer Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction For A Variety Series

The Voice  Episode 917A  NBC  MGM Television, Talpa Media USA, Inc. and Warner Horizon

Television

Oscar Dominguez, Lighting Designer

Samuel Barker, Lighting Director

Daniel K. Boland, Lighting Director

Craig Housenick, Lighting Director

Johnny Bradley, Media Server Operator Outstanding Animated Program

Archer  The Figgis Agency  FX Networks  FX Studios Outstanding Short Form Animated Program

Robot Chicken  Robot Chicken Christmas Special: The X-Mas United  Adult Swim  Stoopid Buddy

Stoodios Outstanding Character Voiceover in an Animated Series:

Family Guy, Seth MacFarlance Outstanding Picture Editing For A Nonfiction Program

Making A Murderer  Indefensible  Netflix  A Synthesis Films Production for Netflix

Moira Demos, Editor

Outstanding Directing For A Nonfiction Program

Making A Murderer  Fighting For Their Lives  Netflix  A Synthesis Films Production for Netflix

Laura Ricciardi, Directed by

Moira Demos, Directed by

5:30 PM: It was such a wake up call to us to document this story, said Laura Ricciardi, who won for directing Netflixs Making a Murderer. One thing is clear: We need to have empathy  and respect human dignity and human rights.

Outstanding Writing For A Nonfiction Program

Making A Murderer  Eighteen Years Lost  Netflix  A Synthesis Films Production for Netflix

Laura Ricciardi, Written by

Moira Demos, Written by Outstanding Variety Special

The Late Late Show Carpool Karaoke Prime Time Special  CBS  A Fulwell 73 production in

association with CBS Broadcasting, Inc.

Outstanding Writing For A Variety Series

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver  HBO  HBO Entertainment in association with Sixteen String

Jack Productions and Avalon Television

Kevin Avery, Writer

Tim Carvell, Writer

Josh Gondelman, Writer

Dan Gurewitch, Writer

Geoff Haggerty, Writer

Jeff Maurer, Writer

John Oliver, Writer

Scott Sherman, Writer

Will Tracy, Writer

Jill Twiss, Writer

Juli Weiner, Writer

5:21 PM: John Oliver on winning outstanding writing for Last Week Tonight: We wrote a speech, but were Last Week Tonight so its 20 minutes long and has the f-word in it 52 times.

Outstanding Directing For A Variety Series

Inside Amy Schumer  Madonna/Whore  Comedy Central  JAX Media

Ryan McFaul, Directed by Exceptional Merit In Documentary Filmmaking (two winners)

Cartel Land  A&E  Our Time Projects and Documentary Group in association with Whitewater

Films for A&E IndieFilms

Kathryn Bigelow, Executive Producer

Molly Thompson, Executive Producer

Robert DeBitetto, Executive Producer

Tom Yellin, Producer

Matthew Heineman, Producer Jim: The James Foley Story  HBO  HBO Documentary Films in association with Kunhardt Films

and Marigold Pictures

Eva Lipman, Produced by

George Kunhardt, Produced by

Teddy Kunhardt, Produced by

Peter Kunhardt, Executive Producer

Sheila Nevins, Executive Producer

Jacqueline Glover, Executive Producer Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Special

What Happened, Miss Simone?  Netflix  A RadicalMedia Production in association with Moxie

Firecracker for Netflix

Sidney Beaumont, Executive Producer

Amy Hobby, Producer

Liz Garbus, Producer

Justin Wilkes, Producer

Jayson Jackson, Producer Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Series

Making A Murderer  Netflix  A Synthesis Films Production for Netflix

Laura Ricciardi, Executive Producer

Moira Demos, Executive Producer

The Seventies  CNN  Herzog / Playtone

Tom Hanks, Executive Producer

Gary Goetzman, Executive Producer

Mark Herzog, Executive Producer

Christopher G. Cowan, Co-Executive Producer

Kirk Saduski, Co-Executive Producer

David Rivera, Series Producer

Stephen J. Morrison, Producer

5:08 PM: Jane Lynch says, Welcome to the 68th annual Creative Emmys  also known as the junior prom.

5:04: And were under way.

https://twitter.com/search?q=creative%20arts%20emmys&src=typd

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The first part of the Emmys is over: The Creative Arts Emmys doled out their awards over the weekend, and there were but a few surprises. HBO and FX, fueled by Game of Thrones and The People v O.J. Simpson, respectively, rocketed to 16 and 12 wins, far ahead of anyone else in the pack.

But Netflix, thanks to Making a Murderer and What Happened, Miss Simone? made its presence felt in the nonfiction categories, bringing home six statues, and there was the unexpected sight of RuPaul Charles, host of Logos RuPauls Drag Race, winning best reality host.

And though the digital players are still far behind traditional shows, total-wise, Amazon, AOL and even virtual reality platform Oculus won themselves a new kind of hardware.

Also Read: Creative Arts Emmys 2016: The Complete Winners List for Night 1

The Primetime Emmy Awards main event is next Sunday at the Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles. The two nights of Creative Arts Emmys will be cut into one telecast that will air Saturday on FXX.

Heres the full list of the winners from both nights:

Casting  Limited Series: The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (FX)

Casting  Comedy: Veep (HBO)

Casting  Drama: Game of Thrones (HBO)

Hairstyling  Limited Series: The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (FX)

Hairstyling  Single-Camera: Downton Abbey (PBS)

Juried  Interactive Media

Non-Prosthetic Makeup  Limited Series: American Horror Story: Hotel (FX)

Non-Prosthetic Makeup  Single-Camera: Game of Thrones (HBO)

Prosthetic Makeup: Game of Thrones (HBO)

Comedy Guest Actress: Amy Poehler & Tina Fey, Saturday Night Live (NBC)

Costumes  Contemporary: American Horror Story: Hotel (FX)

Costumes  Period/Fantasy: Game of Thrones (HBO)

Production Design  Half-Hour: Transparent (Amazon)

Production Design  Hour-Long: Game of Thrones (HBO)

Production Design  Period: Downton Abbey (PBS)

Production Design  Contemporary/Fantasy: Game of Thrones (HBO)

Main Title Theme Music: Marvels Jessica Jones (Netflix)

Main Title Design: Man in the High Castle (Amazon)

Cinematography  Multi-Camera: Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn (Nickelodeon)

Cinematography  Limited Series: Fargo (FX)

Cinematography  Single Camera: Man in the High Castle (Amazon)

Music Direction: Danny Elfmans Music From The Films Of Tim Burton (Live From Lincoln Center) (PBS)

Music Composition  Limited Series: The Night Manager (AMC)

Music Composition  Series: Mr. Robot (USA)

Music and Lyrics: Til it Happens to You, (The Hunting Ground) (CNN)

Stunt Coordination  Comedy/Variety: Shameless (Showtime)

Stunt Coordination  Drama/Limited: Game of Thrones (HBO)

Special Visual Effects: Game of Thrones (HBO)

Special Visual Effects, Supporting: Sherlock: The Abominable Bride (PBS)

Comedy Guest Actor: Peter Scolari, Girls (HBO)

Picture Editing  Comedy (Single-Camera): Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW)

Picture Editing  Drama: Game of Thrones (HBO)

Picture Editing  Limited Series: The People v OJ Simpson: American Horror Story (FX)

Picture Editing  Comedy (Multi-Camera): The Big Bang Theory (CBS)

Sound Editing  Series: Black Sails (Starz)

Sound Editing  Limited Series: Fargo (FX)

Drama Guest Actor: Hank Azaria, Ray Donovan (Showtime)

Sound Mixing  One-Hour: Game of Thrones (HBO)

Sound Mixing  Half-Hour: Mozart in the Jungle (Amazon)

Sound Mixing  Limited Series: The People v OJ Simpson: American Horror Story (FX)

Best Commercial: Love Has No Labels

Interactive Program: The Late Late Show with James Corden (CBS)

Narrator: Keith David, Jackie Robinson (PBS)

Childrens Program: Its Your 50th Christmas, Charlie Brown! (ABC)

Drama Guest Actress: Margo Martindale, The Americans (FX)



Host  Reality or Reality Competition Program: RuPaul Charles, RuPauls Drag Race (Logo)

Documentary Series: Making a Murderer (Netflix)

Documentary or Nonfiction Special: What Happened, Miss Simone? (Netflix)

Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking: Cartel Land (A&E), Jim: The James Foley Story (HBO) (tie)

Writing  Variety Series: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (HBO)

Directing  Variety Series: Ryan McFaul, Inside Amy Schumer (Comedy Central)

Variety Special: The Late Late Show Carpool Karaoke Prime Time Special (CBS)

Writing  Nonfiction Program: Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi, Making a Murderer (Netflix)

Directing  Nonfiction Program: Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi, Making a Murderer (Netflix)

Editing  Nonfiction Program: Moira Demos, Making a Murderer (Netflix)

Character Voice-Over Performance: Seth MacFarlane, Family Guy (Fox)

Short Form Animated Program: Robot Chicken (Adult Swim)

Animated Program: Archer (FX)

Lighting Design/Lighting Direction  Variety Special: Grease: Live (Fox)

Lighting Design/Lighting Direction  Variety Series: The Voice (NBC)

Picture Editing  Variety Programming: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (HBO)

Sound Mixing  Variety Series or Special: Danny Elfmans Music from the Films of Tim Burton (Live From Lincoln Center) (PBS)

Short Form Comedy or Drama Series: Childrens Hospital (Adult Swim)

Short Form Variety Series: Park Bench With Steve Buscemi (AOL)

Short Form Nonfiction or Reality Series: Inside Look: The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (FX)

Governors Award: American Idol (Fox)

Picture Editing  Unstructured Reality Program: Project Greenlight (HBO)

Picture Editing for a Structured or Competition Reality Program: Who Do You Think You Are? (TLC)

Costumes  Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Programming: The Wiz Live! (NBC)

Actor  Short Form Comedy or Drama: Rob Corddry, Childrens Hospital (Adult Swim)

Production Design  Variety, Nonfiction, Event or Award Special: Grease: Live (Fox)

Production Design  Variety, Nonfiction, Reality or Reality-Competition Series: Portlandia (IFC)

Cinematography  Nonfiction Program: Cartel Land (A&E)

Sound Editing  Nonfiction Program (Single or Multi-Camera): Cartel Land (A&E)

Sound Mixing  Nonfiction Program (Single or Multi-Camera): Vice (HBO)

Hairstyling  Multi-Camera Series or Special: Saturday Night Live (NBC)

Makeup  Multi-Camera Series or Special: Key & Peele (Comedy Central)

Actress  Short Form Comedy or Drama Series: Patrika Darbo, Acting Dead (ActingDead.com)

Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control  Limited Series, Movie or Special: Grease: Live (Fox)

Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control  Series: Dancing With the Stars (ABC)

Unstructured Reality Program: Born This Way (A&E)

Cinematography for a Reality Program: Life Below Zero (National Geographic Channel)

Structured Reality Program: Shark Tank (ABC)

Choreography: Quest Crew, Americas Best Dance Crew (MTV), Kathryn Burns, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW) (tie)

Special Class Program: Grease: Live (Fox)

Information Series or Special: Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (CNN)

Story continues

Related stories from TheWrap:

Kit Harington, Laverne Cox, Chris Rock Topline Second Wave of Emmys Presenters

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'Adventure Time,' Malala Doc Nab Early Emmys for Animation
Celebrating the men and women behind the scenes - as well as guest actors, animated programs and shortform programming, among others - the 2016 Creative Arts Emmys honored a retinue of winners at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles over the course of two evenings on Saturday and Sunday.

This year marks the first time the show was split over two nights, and though it was not broadcast live, it will air Sept. 17, the night before the Primetime Emmys, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on FXX.

The show featured marquee names of the small screen who offered their insights on what it meant to win an award, the state of their shows and how they felt about the new two-night format.

Here are a few of the most memorable quotes from this year's Creative Arts Emmy Awards:

"It's looking real good. I don't know the dates but I know everyone is looking good and on board." - Jessica Walter, on another season of Arrested Development on Netflix.

"I love it. Are you kidding me? It's so great, the show's almost over. There were people in my cast and crew that brought a book one year. It was 6 hours long. It's fun, but nothing is fun for that long, so it's really smart to split them up into two because now it's just fun." - Rob Corddry, best actor in shortform comedy or drama series winner (Childrens Hospital), on splitting Creative Arts Emmys into two nights.

Read more: Creative Arts Emmys 2016: Winners List

"I really didn't expect this. I came here thinking I got invited to the prom and I'm going to dance my ass off tonight, but i didn't expect that I would have this in my hand while I was dancing. It's a very special night not just for me but for all the young people around the world who dance to the beat of a different drummer." - RuPaul Charles, best host of a reality or reality competition series winner (RuPaul's Drag Race), on his first Emmy win.

"I've had to be OK with not being nominated. I've been blessed with nominations in the past, so when the nomination did come through the way it did I was quite taken aback and flushed with gratitude and really humbled by it. In the episode for which I've been honored in tonight, its not going well for my character I thought that had more than a than a germ of truth to it connected to the real world" on the episode he was nominated. - Peter Scolari, best guest actor in a comedy series winner (Girls).

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"The inspiration was these girls' stories and it compelled me to write the song. I wanted the song to be not only the voice for these girls and this movement but also for any hard times." - Diane Warren, best original music and lyrics winner for "'Til It Happens To You" (The Hunting Ground).

Read more: Emmys: RuPaul Charles Named Best Reality Host, Marks First-Ever Win

"Honestly, had I had this kind of success when I was younger I don't think it would have been good for me. I think that I have put in all of the steps and my appreciation is just that much deeper. I appreciate every moment and I try to be in the moment because I'm old so I might as well be in it. There's always a chance for anyone. It should have been, could have been anyone else in that category. You never know what's going to happen. You put in the work, show up, learn your lines, find a character, and hope for the very, very best. I have so many things to be grateful for." - Margo Martindale, best guest actress in a drama series (The Americans).

"I think the Rolling Stones would be my ultimate. I love them. I think there's nothing better than seeing Mick Jagger in the front seat." - Executive producer Ben Winston, best interactive program winner (The Late Late Show With James Corden), on who he'd want for "Carpool Karaoke."

"The executive producers of Karaoke Showdown say it's nothing like Carpool Karaoke at all and that we shouldn't be worried. And I have no reason to doubt them. I'm sure they're telling the truth. I've got no doubt that it's going to be a great show. Hopefully people watch our version though, the official, original, great version by the Emmy winners." - Winston, who also executive produced the Carpool Karaoke Primetime Special, which won for variety special, speaking about the copycat shows that have popped up.
Westeros may be a dangerous place, but it certainly seems to have made Emmy voters feel right at home.

HBO's epic fantasy series Game of Thrones earned a total of 23 Emmy nominations this year, more than any other show, including 15 at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards over the weekend.

On Saturday night, Thrones took home nine awards, one more than it did at last year's Creative Arts Emmys, with wins for casting in a drama series; production design for a narrative contemporary or fantasy program; costumes for a period/fantasy series; single-camera picture editing for a drama series; makeup for a single-camera series (non-prosthetic); prosthetic makeup for a series, limited series, movie or special; sound mixing for a comedy or drama series; special visual effects (its fifth consecutive win in the category); and stunt coordination for a drama series, limited series or movie.

Read more: Creative Arts Emmys 2016: Winners List

For the first time, the Creative Arts Emmys were handed out over two nights in ceremonies held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles (the show will air Sept. 17, the night before the Primetime Emmys, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on FXX).

Next Sunday, Thrones will aim to continue its Emmy domination at the Primetime Emmy Awards, where it will once again be the most nominated program and look to retain its best drama series crown. The preshow for that ceremony kicks off live at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on ABC.
Athens (AFP) - Greece's creditors on Monday resumed an audit of the stricken country's finances, a day after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said an EU-IMF rift was delaying progress.

Greece's finance ministry said the meetings, interrupted by the summer break, would begin with talks on a revamped privatisation fund which will be outside Greek state control.

Leftist-led Greece must deliver fresh reforms to unlock 2.8 billion euros ($3 billion) in pending bailout loans and, more crucially, launch negotiations on debt relief later in the year.

Tsipras has made debt solution a top priority, and on Sunday he complained that European Union-International Monetary Fund disagreement over Greek fiscal targets was holding up the talks.

"We are closer than ever before to a solution to this crisis. What is delaying the effort of regaining the trust of the markets is the constant disagreement between the European institutions and the IMF," Tsipras told a news conference at the Thessaloniki international fair.

The Washington-based IMF, a key player in Greece's three bailouts, has said it won't give a penny to the latest one until it sees a concrete plan from the Europeans to substantially cut Greece's massive debt burden.

The IMF and EU creditors disagree on how much Athens can improve its finances through ongoing reforms.

"The IMF has set a deadline for the end of this year... A country that has gone through such a harsh adjustment can't wait any longer. Its people are entitled to a fair solution of the debt issue," Tsipras said.

The Greek premier added that Greece should have already been included in the European Central Bank's quantitative easing programme -- a monetary policy used by central banks to stimulate the economy when standard monetary policy has become ineffective.

Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem warned Athens on Friday to swiftly deliver as its programme shows signs of lagging behind again.

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"The pressure is back on. We really need some progress. The summer is over, pack up the camping gear, get back to work," Dijsselbloem told reporters.

Athens has committed to deliver on the reforms by the end of the month. They include the long delayed launch of the new privatisation fund and reforms in the highly sensitive energy sector.

The EU's Economic Affairs commissioner Pierre Moscovici said Greece must deliver on 15 reforms, with only two of those achieved so far.
By Igor Ilic ZAGREB (Reuters) - Croatia was preparing for tense coalition talks on Monday after weekend elections put the conservatives unexpectedly ahead, but short of the seats needed to form a government. A surge in support for leftist populists saw the Social Democrats, who were widely expected to come out with the largest number of seats, lose ground in a poll where the turnout was a fifth lower than in the last one just 10 months ago. This reflected popular anger at politicians who are seen to have exploited nationalist rhetoric rather than tackle the country's economic woes, with the populist left Zivi Zid (Human Shield) alliance rising from one to eight seats on promises to be tough on banks and corrupt politicians. Most opinion polls had suggested the Social Democrats would win around 60 seats, and the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) would be behind. This was actually the reverse in the election. Led by former diplomat Andrej Plenkovic, the HDZ won 61 seats in Zagreb's 151-seat parliament and will now need to move quickly to avoid further anger from a disillusioned public. Unemployment is at 13 percent and European Union authorities are urging Croatia to address public debts that eat up 3.5 percent of economic output in interest payments alone. Plenkovic helped the HDZ win back ground it lost to rivals after its previous government collapsed in June after only five months in power amid rows over political appointments with its coalition partner. The HDZ beat the Social Democrat-led alliance, which won 54 seats. "We are the party that will have the privilege of forming a stable government," Plenkovic said as he claimed victory early on Monday. SDP leader Zoran Milanovic, a former Prime Minister, said he would not stand as leader in the next party election which will take place in the coming months, but did not resign with immediate effect as some had expected after the result. Plenkovic's more moderate tone might make for a more stable coalition, although the Most ("Bridge") party, the likely kingmaker with 13 seats, showed little sign of compromising. Among Most's initial demands were changes to the financing of political parties, lower taxes for businesses and an Adriatic economic zone - a bold proposal that would likely require extensive consultation with Croatia's European Union partners. "The SDP is realistically too far behind to be in the race to form a future cabinet and if Plenkovic manages to establish a reasonably good cooperation with Most, the government could be stable," said political analyst Ivan Rimac. But any government will struggle to deliver reforms being urged by the EU, which is monitoring Croatia's debt-burdened economy and an investment environment it sees as business-unfriendly. "(HDZ) would need to strike an agreement with a diminished Most and at least one more small party," said Otilia Dhand, an analyst at risk consultancy Teneo, highlighting the risk that the new cabinet could be as fractious as the old one. (Editing by Thomas Escritt and Alexander Smith)
London (AFP) - Crystal Palace's Senegalese defender Pape Souare was taken to hospital on Sunday following a car accident, the Premier League club announced Monday.

The 26-year-old sustained thigh and jaw injuries during the crash and will remain in hospital to receive treatment, the south London side said.

"The club are liaising closely with the hospital on his progress and we obviously wish him a speedy recovery," said a Palace statement.

"Our thoughts are with Pape and his family at this time."

Souare was airlifted in a helicopter from the crash site, on the M4 motorway west of London, to hospital.

A Metropolitan Police statement read: "Officers were called shortly before 12:10hrs (1110 GMT) on Sunday, 11 September to reports of two cars in collision between junctions four and three.

"London Ambulance Service attended and the driver of one of the cars -- a man aged in his 20s -- was taken to an east London hospital for treatment. His injuries are not life threatening.

"The driver of the other car involved did not require hospital treatment. There have been no arrests."

Souare, who joined Palace from French club Lille in 2015, did not play in the Eagles' 2-1 league win away to Middlesbrough on Saturday but he has featured in three league games so far this season.
Daniel Radcliffe talked about playing Harry Potter again and its messing with our emotions

Daniel Radcliffe talked about playing Harry Potter again and its messing with our emotions

Letting go of the past can be a struggle, especially when youre a die-hard Harry Potter fan who still binge watches the old films and re-reads the books as if they were only released yesterday. *sobs longingly for the good old days*

As if our separation anxiety couldnt get any worse, Daniel Radcliffe talked about playing Harry Potter again. What the actor told The Hollywood Reporter about reprising his role as our beloved bespectacled hero is messing with our emotions and were on the verge of having a Hagrid-sized emotional meltdown.

hagrid

Im never going to close the door; that would be a stupid thing to do, Radcliffe said at the Deauville Film Festival, where he was on hand to accept the Rising Star award. But I think Ill be happy enough and secure enough to let someone else play it.

Um, who else is totally confused?!

hermione

Does that mean Radcliffes up for another round of wizardry or not?

At the moment its not even a concern because Im too young to play the character, but even in 10 years time I would still feel strange about going back to it, he added.

Again with the confusion, Har- er, Daniel! We dont know whether to hang onto hope or let our dreams of a possible reprisal wither away and die.

Theres a part of me thats like, some things are better left untouched. If we went back to Potter, theres a chance wed make what Star Wars: The Force Awakens was to the original Star Wars, but theres also the chance that wed make Phantom Menace, Radcliffe said jokingly. So I dont want to go back to anything like that and maybe sour what people have already loved.

dumbledore shrug

Basically, Radcliffe seems to be playing a game of of Maybe I will, maybe I wont, with our tender hearts which frankly has us more exhausted and frazzled than ever.

The only reasonable response to this emotional roller coaster is to do what any Potterhead would do: sulk (because obviously), save our coins for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and prepare to play an ungodly amount of Harry Potter Go.

The post Daniel Radcliffe talked about playing Harry Potter again and its messing with our emotions appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Don Lincoln is a senior scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermilab, America's largest Large Hadron Collider research institution. He also writes about science for the public, including his recent "The Large Hadron Collider: The Extraordinary Story of the Higgs Boson and Other Things That Will Blow Your Mind" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014). You can follow him onFacebook. Lincoln contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

They say that love makes the world go around and that may well be true. But when you look at things on a much larger scale  say the size of galaxies  love just isn't enough. And, for that matter, neither are the stars of the galaxies themselves. In fact, what makes galaxies go around is a kind of matter that has never been directly observed. That undiscovered "stuff" is called dark matter, and an amazing new measurement was recently announced that is causing the scientific world to rethink long-held thoughts.

The most recent contribution to our knowledge of dark matter was made by the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) collaboration. LUX is a vessel consisting of a third of a ton of liquid xenon and it is the most powerful dark-matter detector ever constructed. Located at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), this dark-matter laboratory sits nearly a mile under the Black Hills, near Lead, South Dakota. It is designed to occasionally detect the vaporous wind of dark matter that is thought to waft through the solar system. [6 Cool Underground Science Labs]

And the thing is, it didn't detect anything. That non-discovery is what's causing physicists to rethink how they think about dark matter.

Holding up galaxies

Dark matter is an answer to a nearly century-old problem. In the early 1930s, shortly after astronomers realized that the universe consisted of countless galaxies, scientists turned their attention to understanding the dynamics of how stars orbited within the galaxies  essentially, how galaxies rotate. Dutch astronomer Jan Oort applied Newton's laws of motion and gravity to the observed matter in our own Milky Way and found that our galaxy rotated faster than he had calculated. It appeared that the Milky Way had twice the mass that astronomers had estimated. Of course, this was in an era in which precise galactic astronomy was coming into existence and a disagreement between calculation and measurement of only a factor of two was considered excellent agreement.

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However, shortly after Oort's measurement, Bulgarian-Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky was studying the Coma Cluster, a large group of more than a thousand galaxies that were bound together by their mutual gravity in an enormous structure. When he measured the velocity of the galaxies, he found that they, too, were moving far too fast for gravity's gentle tug to hold them together. By all rights, the cluster should have torn itself apart. But it didn't. He calculated that the cluster held 400 times more matter than could be seen by ordinary telescopes. Modern measurements have reduced that number, but the discrepancy still is thought to be a factor of 100. Zwicky proposed that there was a type of unseen matter holding together the cluster that he called "dunkle Materie," or dark matter. [TED-Ex Talk: How Does Dark Matter Explain a Star's Speed?]

In the 1970s, astronomer Vera Rubin was trying to find a noncontroversial topic to study when she turned her attention to the rotation curves of galaxies. This is a measure of the orbital speed of stars in galaxies as a function of their distance from the center. She found that the measurements agreed with predictions very well at the center of the galaxy and even approaching the periphery. But, in the very outskirts of the galaxy, stars were orbiting far faster than could be accommodated by the known laws of physics and the observed matter. It looked like Zwicky's dark matter might be showing up in the interiors of galaxies as well. (Clearly, Rubin failed epically in her attempt to find a noncontroversial topic.)

Over the decades, several ideas have been proposed to explain an extensive array of astronomical mysteries, from the possibility that Newton's laws of motion might not apply when accelerations become small, to the idea that both Newton and Einstein were wrong about gravity. These hypotheses have not survived rigorous testing. Another idea was that perhaps there exist types of matter in the universe that do not emit electromagnetic energy  this was Zwicky's dark matter.

But, even here, there were many possibilities. The most plausible option was that the universe was home to a menagerie of black holes, brown dwarfs, rogue planets and other dark objects that consisted of the same kind of ordinary matter that makes up the visible component of the universe. These objects are massive and compact and cold enough that they dont emit light like stars. Some objects like these were found, but not enough to solve the mystery. And so, astronomical surveys in the 1990s completely ruled out this idea, too. Taking a page from Sherlock Holmes in The Sign of Four, in which he said, When you have ruled out the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth, scientists have been forced to conclude that a new form of invisible dark matter permeates the universe. Perhaps even more surprising, there appear to be five times more dark matter than ordinary matter.

The properties of dark matter

We have never directly observed dark matter, but we know a great deal about what it must be: It must be massive (because it affects the rotation of galaxies); it must be electrically neutral (because we can't see it); it must be different from ordinary matter (because we see no evidence for it interacting with matter in the usual ways); and it must be stable (because it has existed since the dawn of the universe). These properties are unequivocal.

However, we don't know exactly what it is. In the most popular generic theory, the dark-matter particle is called a WIMP, for weakly interacting massive particle. WIMPs are kind of like heavy neutrons (but definitely not neutrons), with a mass of 10 to 100 times heavier than a proton. They were created in great quantities during the Big Bang and a small relic remainder persists to this day.

When cosmologists add the WIMP idea to their ideas of the Big Bang, they can calculate how it would interact. They find that in the earliest stages of the universe, WIMPs were a dominant form of matter, but, as the universe expands and cools and the interaction rate drops to zero, the relic amount of WIMPs is about five times as massive as ordinary matter. Combined with the fact that the WIMP idea can also explain a pressing theoretical mystery of why the Higgs boson particle has such a small mass, scientists call this the "WIMP miracle," in view of the fact that the WIMP idea seems to answer so many questions.

A dark non-discovery

So this brings us back to the LUX experiment. It is simply the latest and most powerful experiment designed to detect WIMPs. The idea is that the detector will sit underground for a long time, say a year or more, and a rare WIMP will bump into a xenon atom and be detected. (The detector is buried underground to protect it from cosmic rays, which would bump into xenon atoms and fake a dark matter detection. Being half a mile or a mile underground stops nearly all cosmic rays.)

On Aug. 27, the LUX researchers announced their results. They saw no evidence for dark-matter WIMPs.

So that's not actually that surprising. There have been dozens of experiments that have looked for dark matter and found nothing. In this sense, LUX has joined a venerable group. But LUX is also far more capable. It was expected to have a better shot at finding WIMPs than any other apparatus.

But it didn't.

So does that mean that the WIMP idea is dead? No, not really. Dark matter detectors are optimized to be most sensitive to certain masses, kind of like how a particular microphone might pick up tenor voices better than they hear soprano or bass ones. LUX was optimized to find a WIMP with a mass of a few tens of times heavier than a proton. In fact, it ruled out a WIMP having a mass 50 times of a proton with impressive rejection. However, LUX doesn't do so well at detecting WIMPs with a mass below 10 times that of a proton. And, if WIMPs exist and have a mass of 1,000 times heavier than a proton, this is also not LUX's optimum range for investigation. So there remains a range of masses where a WIMP might exist.

Axions, dark life and dark charge

Even so, WIMPs were simply the most popular idea for dark matter. There are other hypotheses. One hypothesis points to a particle called a sterile neutrino, which is a cousin of the more familiar neutrino generated in nuclear reactions. In fact, neutrinos from the biggest nearby nuclear reactor (the sun) are constantly barraging the Earth. Unlike regular neutrinos, which are ultralight and interact via the weak nuclear force, sterile neutrinos are heavy and don't experience the weak force. It is the heavy mass and non-interacting qualities that make the sterile neutrino an ideal dark-matter candidate.

Another possible dark-matter particle, the axion, was proposed in 1977 as a way to ensure that the strong nuclear force treated matter and antimatter on equal footing (so as agree with observations). The axion is a very light, but still massive, hypothetical particle. The LUX detector is not designed to study axions.

Then, of course, there is the even more creative hypothesis, which suggests that dark matter isn't a single, neutral, non-interacting particle. After all, ordinary matter is pretty complicated. At the quantum scale, we have quarks and leptons and four forces. At the macro scale, we have you and me and sugar and stars and volcanoes and all the various ways they interact. Ordinary matter has all sorts of interactions and constituents. Why not dark matter? [7 Strange Facts About Quarks]

Under this hypothesis, dark matter might have a "dark charge," or dark matter's form of electrical charge. In the same way that dark matter doesn't experience dark charge, maybe ordinary matter doesn't experience dark charge. This dark charge would interact with dark photons, or the dark twins of ordinary light particles.

And, even more daring, perhaps dark matter experiences many forces and there is an entire complex dark sector, with dark atoms and dark molecules and perhaps even dark life. We are able to set constraints on these possible dark interactions; for instance, we know enough to rule out dark stars and planets, but dark asteroids are possible. Again, LUX is silent on these new ideas.

It's not fair to say that the LUX measurement leads to a crisis in particle physics and cosmology. But it certainly gives scientists pause and suggests that maybe we should take another look at this WIMP thing. Maybe other ideas need to be revisited. On the other hand, scientists who want to continue to pursue the WIMP idea still have something to look forward to as technology advances. LUX uses a third of a ton of liquid xenon. In 10 or 15 years, scientists are planning to build detectors that might contain 100 tons, providing even more chances of capturing that rare WIMP interaction. These are heady times to be a dark-matter scientist.

But, in the end, we still don't know. We just know that the capabilities of LUX are good enough that maybe it's time to broaden our thinking. In the words of the rock band Buffalo Springfield, "There's something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear..."

Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates  and become part of the discussion  on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.

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David and Brooklyn Beckham supported Victoria in the sweetest way during her NYFW show

David and Brooklyn Beckham supported Victoria in the sweetest way during her NYFW show

Not only have we been low-key in love with Victoria Beckham since she was Posh Spice and was telling us what she wants  what she really really wants  but were now high-key in love with her family. (Okay, thats not EXACTLY a new development) Because when Victoria Beckham debuted her Summer 2017 line at NYFW, her family was (of course) all about supporting her.

She shared an Instagram of the card and bouquet her family sent along to wish her well. Awwww!

Feeling loved this morning I love you @davidbeckham @brooklynbeckham X Kisses from NY VB #VBSS17 #NYFW A photo posted by Victoria Beckham (@victoriabeckham) on Sep 11, 2016 at 2:45am PDT

Not only that, but David Beckham and son Brooklyn Beckham attended the show, sitting front and center and looking like they were seriously contemplating Victorias new line.

David Beckham definitely likes whatever hes seeing, looking adorably supportive as he watches the show. And, yknow, adorably adorable. Because Beckham.

Victoria Beckham - Front Row - September 2016 - New York Fashion Week

Its so nice to see the men in Victorias life being supportive of her work and passions!

Victoria Beckham - Front Row - September 2016 - New York Fashion Week

Accompanied by Anna Wintour, the Beckhams looked suitably fashionable for the event, too.

Ultimately, theres nothing better than seeing families that truly love and support each other. And we especially love seeing a family thriving in what can often be a difficult industry to stay down-to-earth in. Kudos to the Beckhams, and congrats to Victoria Beckham!

The post David and Brooklyn Beckham supported Victoria in the sweetest way during her NYFW show appeared first on HelloGiggles.
By PTI: Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 12 (PTI) Muslims in Kerala today celebrated Eid-ul-Azha or Bakrid, the festival of sacrifice, with hundreds of faithful thronging mosques and specially arranged Idgahs for the morning prayers in towns and villages across the state.

Giving out the Eid message, religious scholars exhorted the faithful to uphold the Islamic ideals of love, compassion and unflinching faith in the will of Almighty.

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The Governor Justice (retd) P Sathasivam, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala and other political parties greeted people on the occasion. PTI JRK ROH CHT NTR

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Former British Prime Minister David Cameron is to give up his seat in the countrys House of Commons, leaving behind parliamentary politics for the foreseeable future.

Cameron, currently Conservative member of parliament for the seat of Witney in Oxfordshire, announced he would stand down on Monday. He has held the seat since 2001.

Cameron announced his resignation as Prime Minister on the morning of June 24, having failed to convince the country to vote to remain in the European Union. He was succeeded by Theresa May in July.

The former Prime Minister reportedly said in June that he would remain on the back benches of the House of Commons  i.e. stay an MP but not seek to join Mays cabinet  saying that he would be an obedient backbencher.

His departure will trigger a by-election for the vacant seat, an off-year contest which is often seen as a test of the strength of the government and its opposition.

However, the constituency is considered a safe Conservative seat. It has only been held by the Labour Party once, in 1999, when Shaun Woodward MP switched parties from the Tories to the Labour Party, which was then in power.

[BBC]
The BFI London Film Festival is turning the spotlight on diversity for its 60th edition next month and has tapped British actor and producer David Oyelowo to lead the fests headline industry event, the Black Star Symposium.

The event, which will take place on October 6 (the day after Amma Asantes A United Kingdom opens the festival), will examine why opportunities for black actors are limited in the U.S. and UK and debate what can be done to improve the situation.

Oyelowo, who stars in A United Kingdom and Mira Nairs Queen of Katwe (also screening at the festival), will be joined by London-born writer and director Asante; actor-director Noel Clarke (Kidulthood); and filmmaker and author Julie Dash, whose film Daughters of the Dust was the first full-length film by an African-American woman to be released theatrically in the U.S. and UK.

Writer-director Barry Jenkins, whose critically-acclaimed film Moonlight, about a young African-American man discovering his sexuality whilst growing up in a poor part of Miami, will also participate in the discussions. Film screens in competition at the festival.

Additional speakers include MediaCom chairwoman Karen Blackett; Channel 4 on-screen diversity exec Ramy El-Bergamy; BFI Film Fund director Ben Roberts and BFI creative director Heather Stewart.

Im really hopeful were about to segue from talking about diversity to actually doing it, said Oyelowo in a statement.

This years Black Star Symposium follows the success of 2015s Global Symposium on Gender in Media, in partnership with The Geena Davis Institute and Women in Film and TV, with Geena Davis delivering a keynote speech raising the agenda internationally on gender disparity in front of and behind the camera.

The London Film Fest runs from October 5-16 and closes with Ben Wheatleys Free Fire.

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Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f207630%2fcatfishpark

The day that "fish will fly" has finally arrived.

Over Labor Day weekend, Lisa Lobree was walking through Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when a rotting mysterious object fell from the sky and smacked her in the face. While most park injuries involve twigs or branches, this object was, in fact, an enormous dead catfish.

SEE ALSO: Big dog takes his smaller dog friends for a wagon ride

"I think it might have been head, face and neck because I smelled so bad afterwards," she told CBS News 13. "I smelled disgusting."

She was the victim of Catfishing  and not even the fun type that happens on Tinder.

Thankfully, Lobree wasn't alone at the time of the incident. A friend was nearby and able to witness the terrible tragedy.

"Annie sees me go down, turns around, looks and goes Oh my God! It was a fish," Lobree told CBS News 13.

Lobree suffered minor injuries as a result of the incident, including a small cut to the face as well as swelling.

The catfish involved was over a foot long and dead. At the time, Lobree was more concerned with peeling the rotting fish corpse from her face than finding the joke in the matter.

Now, she's hopeful that her terrible tragedy can bring joy to others.

"Think its just nice its giving people a good story to laugh at," Lobree told CBS News 13.

It's unclear how, exactly, the fish got to a tree, though some of Lobree's friends witnessed a bird flying away shortly after the fish fell.

Remember: Catfishing (literal or metaphorical) is a serious crime.

BONUS: Find the hot dog amongst the Instagram knees!




Just as life is split between the plant kingdom and animal kingdom, the mutual fund world is divided between load and no-load products, depending on whether you pay a sales commission or not. No-load advocates say loads are money down the drain, a drip, drip, drip that undermines returns over time. Those who believe in loads say you get what you pay for -- that loads support the professional guidance many investors need.

It's an eternal conflict that may never have a clear winner, an issue to be decided by each investor. So what are the various fees investors pay?

Loads are sales commissions, often 1 percent to 5 percent, charged at the front end when the fund shares are purchased, or at the back end when they are sold. The fee goes to the broker or advisor as payment for effort and expertise in picking a fund.

[See: 10 Great Ways to Buy Emerging Markets.]

Many brokers and financial advisors are paid in other ways, of course. "Asset-based" arrangements charge a percentage of the assets in the customer's account, such as 1 percent per year. "Fee-only" advisors charge an asset-based fee or a flat rate for setting up a master plan, which many customers then implement by themselves by dealing directly with fund companies.

If you do choose a load fund be sure you're getting the service you're paying for, says Chris Kim, chief investment officer at Tompkins Financial Advisors in Ithaca, New York.

"Investors should expect transparency with respect to holdings, strategy consistency, market commentary, adherence to an established process, portfolio commentary, professional active management and a track record of (beating) the strategy's benchmark," Kim says.

Obviously, if you're paying for advice in some other way, it doesn't make sense pay a load as well.

Whether paying a load makes sense also boils down to math and the investor's expectations. A 5 percent front-end load means the fund must gain 5.26 percent for the investor to break even. If you think the fund can do that, and that no comparable no-load fund will do as well, then paying the load may make sense. The longer you'll hold the fund, the better the chance gains will offset the load. It's the same with a back-end load, where 5 percent can cost more if the fund has had healthy gains.

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But many experts argue that almost every load fund has a good no-load alternative

"These days, at least 98 percent of mutual funds that carry an upfront load have a reasonably similar no-load counterpart among the 3,700-plus funds in the no-load universe," says Timothy G. Weidman, business professor at Doane University in Crete, Nebraska.

"So regardless of the investment objectives and/or sectors of the economy that one has in mind when looking for a particular type of fund, it is a very good bet that there are one or more no-load mutual funds that should be among the alternatives under consideration," Weidman says.

[See: 7 Pharma Stocks and the Prognosis for Profits.]

Ryan McGuinness, president of CTR Financial in Lincolnshire, Illinois, says there's no reason to pay a load given the wealth of funds that do not charge them.

"Unfortunately, there are still many brokers out there who sell funds on a commission basis, so these fees are how they get paid." McGuinness says. "This means there is a huge conflict of interest when it comes to accepting their investing advice."

In fact, many no-load advocates like McGuinness say index-style funds are the way to go. Not only are they free of loads, they have extremely low annual fees, or expense ratios, which pay for the fund managers, paperwork and employees who take investors' calls. Instead of seeking hot stocks and bonds, index fund managers simply buy and hold the securities in an underlying index like the Standard & Poor's 500 index.

Avoiding the cost of stock pickers and analysts keeps the fees very low, and lots of research shows that this helps index funds beat managed funds over time, since few fund managers can out-perform the market year after year, and those annual fees add up.

"Don't buy into that bunk about active management being worth it," says Scott Tucker, president of Scott Tucker Solutions in Chicago. "All the research shows that active management can't outperform the market."

But Daniel L. Grote, a planner with Latitude Financial Group in Denver, says, "We believe there is a time and a place for active management in portfolios," especially when investing in emerging market, small company growth stocks. "In the case of the latter, I'd feel a lot more comfortable knowing someone has boots on the ground overseas and has met with management, surveyed the local market and understands the hurdles these companies face."

To make the fee issue more complex, many funds come in various flavors, or "share classes." In some cases, a fund company charges a lower annual expense ratio for investors with large accounts -- a kind of volume discount. In others, the investor can avoid an upfront load by selecting a class with a larger expense ratio. Again, the choice boils down to math, expectations for the fund, and the investor's time horizon. If you expect to hold the shares for decades, a one-time load might be cheaper in the long run than a larger expense ratio that will continue every year.

Generally, Class A shares require a front-end load, though it may be reduced for subsequent purchases after the account reaches a given size.

Class B shares have a back-end load. These can suit investors who want all of their money put to work rather than using some to pay a load. Often, the load shrinks if the shares are held long enough. Class B shares often have higher expense ratios than Class A or C.

Class C shares usually have a level load that stays the same over time, though it may be discounted if the shares are held long enough. Expense ratios are usually between those of the other classes, and there may be a small back-end load that is waived for shares held longer than a year. Class C can be the best choice for investors expecting to sell quickly.

[See: 7 of the Best Socially Responsible Funds.]

Many funds have variations on these themes, so it pays to study the fund documents. An online calculator can help figure which class will work best.





More From US News & World Report


Just as life is split between the plant kingdom and animal kingdom, the mutual fund world is divided between load and no-load products, depending on whether you pay a sales commission or not. No-load advocates say loads are money down the drain, a drip, drip, drip that undermines returns over time. Those who believe in loads say you get what you pay for -- that loads support the professional guidance many investors need.

It's an eternal conflict that may never have a clear winner, an issue to be decided by each investor. So what are the various fees investors pay?

Loads are sales commissions, often 1 percent to 5 percent, charged at the front end when the fund shares are purchased, or at the back end when they are sold. The fee goes to the broker or advisor as payment for effort and expertise in picking a fund.

[See: 10 Great Ways to Buy Emerging Markets.]

Many brokers and financial advisors are paid in other ways, of course. "Asset-based" arrangements charge a percentage of the assets in the customer's account, such as 1 percent per year. "Fee-only" advisors charge an asset-based fee or a flat rate for setting up a master plan, which many customers then implement by themselves by dealing directly with fund companies.

If you do choose a load fund be sure you're getting the service you're paying for, says Chris Kim, chief investment officer at Tompkins Financial Advisors in Ithaca, New York.

"Investors should expect transparency with respect to holdings, strategy consistency, market commentary, adherence to an established process, portfolio commentary, professional active management and a track record of (beating) the strategy's benchmark," Kim says.

Obviously, if you're paying for advice in some other way, it doesn't make sense pay a load as well.

Whether paying a load makes sense also boils down to math and the investor's expectations. A 5 percent front-end load means the fund must gain 5.26 percent for the investor to break even. If you think the fund can do that, and that no comparable no-load fund will do as well, then paying the load may make sense. The longer you'll hold the fund, the better the chance gains will offset the load. It's the same with a back-end load, where 5 percent can cost more if the fund has had healthy gains.

Story continues

But many experts argue that almost every load fund has a good no-load alternative

"These days, at least 98 percent of mutual funds that carry an upfront load have a reasonably similar no-load counterpart among the 3,700-plus funds in the no-load universe," says Timothy G. Weidman, business professor at Doane University in Crete, Nebraska.

"So regardless of the investment objectives and/or sectors of the economy that one has in mind when looking for a particular type of fund, it is a very good bet that there are one or more no-load mutual funds that should be among the alternatives under consideration," Weidman says.

[See: 7 Pharma Stocks and the Prognosis for Profits.]

Ryan McGuinness, president of CTR Financial in Lincolnshire, Illinois, says there's no reason to pay a load given the wealth of funds that do not charge them.

"Unfortunately, there are still many brokers out there who sell funds on a commission basis, so these fees are how they get paid." McGuinness says. "This means there is a huge conflict of interest when it comes to accepting their investing advice."

In fact, many no-load advocates like McGuinness say index-style funds are the way to go. Not only are they free of loads, they have extremely low annual fees, or expense ratios, which pay for the fund managers, paperwork and employees who take investors' calls. Instead of seeking hot stocks and bonds, index fund managers simply buy and hold the securities in an underlying index like the Standard & Poor's 500 index.

Avoiding the cost of stock pickers and analysts keeps the fees very low, and lots of research shows that this helps index funds beat managed funds over time, since few fund managers can out-perform the market year after year, and those annual fees add up.

"Don't buy into that bunk about active management being worth it," says Scott Tucker, president of Scott Tucker Solutions in Chicago. "All the research shows that active management can't outperform the market."

But Daniel L. Grote, a planner with Latitude Financial Group in Denver, says, "We believe there is a time and a place for active management in portfolios," especially when investing in emerging market, small company growth stocks. "In the case of the latter, I'd feel a lot more comfortable knowing someone has boots on the ground overseas and has met with management, surveyed the local market and understands the hurdles these companies face."

To make the fee issue more complex, many funds come in various flavors, or "share classes." In some cases, a fund company charges a lower annual expense ratio for investors with large accounts -- a kind of volume discount. In others, the investor can avoid an upfront load by selecting a class with a larger expense ratio. Again, the choice boils down to math, expectations for the fund, and the investor's time horizon. If you expect to hold the shares for decades, a one-time load might be cheaper in the long run than a larger expense ratio that will continue every year.

Generally, Class A shares require a front-end load, though it may be reduced for subsequent purchases after the account reaches a given size.

Class B shares have a back-end load. These can suit investors who want all of their money put to work rather than using some to pay a load. Often, the load shrinks if the shares are held long enough. Class B shares often have higher expense ratios than Class A or C.

Class C shares usually have a level load that stays the same over time, though it may be discounted if the shares are held long enough. Expense ratios are usually between those of the other classes, and there may be a small back-end load that is waived for shares held longer than a year. Class C can be the best choice for investors expecting to sell quickly.

[See: 7 of the Best Socially Responsible Funds.]

Many funds have variations on these themes, so it pays to study the fund documents. An online calculator can help figure which class will work best.

Jeff Brown spent nearly 40 years as a newspaper reporter, columnist and editor, including 20 years writing about investing, personal finance, the economy and financial markets. He spent 20 years at The Philadelphia Inquirer and has been freelancing since 2007.
North Korea has reportedly geared up for another nuclear test, remaining defiant in the face of global censure after conducting its fifth and largest-yet test.



South Korea 's Defense Ministry spokesman said on Monday that the rogue nation was ready to undertake a sixth test at any time, after claiming to have successfully tested a miniaturized nuclear warhead on Friday.

"Assessment by South Korean and U.S. intelligence is that the North is always ready for an additional nuclear test in thePunggye-ri area," South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun told a press conference. Punggye-ri, near the northeastern coast, is the site of the North's five nuclear explosions.

"North Korea has a tunnel where it can conduct an additional nuclear test," Moon said.

Meanwhile, a U.S. Forces official in South Korea told Reuters that the flight of a B-1B bomber to the Korean Peninsula, postponed on Monday due to bad weather, would go ahead on Tuesday.

Friday's test sparked criticism from the U.S. as well as neighbors China , South Korea and Japan and other countries. The U.N. Security Council said it would begin work immediately on a resolution, as the U.S., Britain and France pushed for the 15-member body to impose new sanctions, while a U.S. special envoy said the country may launch unilateral sanctions against North Korea.



Separately, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Monday that 35,500 homes had been damaged by massive flooding in North Korea, with 133 dead in the North East of the country, according to Reuters. The U.N. agency said that 107,000 people had been displaced by the floods and 395 people were missing, according to Reuters.

On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that the country's nuclear tests were "absolutely unacceptable." while Japan's Defense Minister called North Korea a serious threat to international security.

But Pyongyang has so far shrugged off the fury caused by its nuclear test, which was conducted in violation of existing U.N. sanctions, as it has previous attempts to contain its nuclear weapons program.

Story continues

North Korea said on Sunday that it was pushing ahead with a program to increase the quality and quantity of its "nuclear force," despite the threat of increased sanctions, describing how it was improving its nuclear-attack capabilities "moment by moment."

Any attempt by U.S. President Barack Obama to prevent North Korea from becoming a nuclear power was "as foolish an act as trying to eclipse the sun with a palm," according to a statement by the North Korea's foreign ministry on the state-run KCNA news site.

A former U.S. ambassador to South Korea told CNBC's " Squawk Box " on Monday that the U.S., China and South Korea needed to step up discussions on how to handle the rogue state.



"Their military testing program seems to be going faster than our policy adjustment to try to deal with them," said Christopher Hill, who is now the dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.

A senior geopolitical analyst agreed.



The increased pace of testing was worrying because it suggested North Korea was pre-empting a move to prevent it progressing to the nuclear program's final development stages, Rodger Baker, Stratfor's vice president of strategic analysis, told CNBC's " The Rundown ."

Pyongyang was also taking advantage of a window of opportunity in international relations while key players were distracted by their own politics, such as the U.S. presidential election in November and the South Korean presidential election in December 2017, he added.

The international community now faced the challenge of formulating a preventative strategy, Baker said, but warned that tougher sanctions would not work.

"North Korea sees sanctions really as a justification for further development of the nuclear weapons," said Baker. "[The nuclear program] no longer is bargaining tool, it's not something they are going to trade away, they do want to fully develop the program."

But former ambassador Hill cautioned that military solutions were "not very desirable" either.

"If you look at the map of the Korean Peninsula, you see so many urban areas of South Korea right up there on the border," he said. "I think there needs to be some effort, some imagination devoted to figuring out how to slow down this nuclear program."

China quickly expressed its "firm opposition" to North Korea's tests on Friday.



"We have seen twists and turns in the situation of the Korean Peninsula since the beginning of this year, which put peace and stability of the region in jeopardy and run counter to the shared aspiration of the international community," the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry's spokesperson Hua Chunying told agency's regular press conference on Friday.

"It has been proved time and again that security concerns of parties on the Korean Peninsula must and can only be resolved in a way that serves all parties interests. Any unilateral action based on one's self-interest will lead to a dead end."

But there are criticisms that China has so far failed to move beyond rhetoric in tempering North Korea's aggression.

"In some way, China could exert a lot more on North Korea either through either enforcing extreme sanctions or potentially through interventional politics," Stratfor's Baker said. "But from the Chinese perspective, they are not willing to do the latter  that doesn't match their international position  and on the former, they are very concerned about destabilizing North Korea socially and having a crisis right on their border."

Other than not being ready for a regime change in their impoverished neighbor , the East Asian giant also faced domestic differences on how to deal with its traditional ally, with some fearing a new and bigger U.S.-backed Korean state.

"Many Chinese are embarrassed about this legacy of the past but there are other Chinese, notably in the security services, who regard pressure on North Korea as offering the possibility that North Korea would collapse and that a collapse of North Korea would mean Republic of Korea is the successor state and for them they see this as a victory for the U.S. and a defeat for China," Hill explained.

Japanese news agency Kyodo reported on Monday that North Korea's foreign minister had arrived in Beijing. Kyodo said that Ri Yong Ho was seen entering the North Korean embassy in the capital.

Chinese Communist Party-run newspaper The Global Times said in an editorial, meanwhile, that Beijing could not be blamed for North Korea's actions and instead blamed the U.S.

"China is not capable of persuading North Korea to give up nuclear development, because China's efforts are not supported bythe others," the newspaper said on Monday. "Washington has been refusing to sign a peace treaty with Pyongyang."

CNBC's Katy Barnato and Reuters contributed to this report.

Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.
Fashion-designer-turned-director Tom Ford said he thinks a lot about death. "Death is all I think about. There is not a day or really an hour that goes by that I don't think about death," he recently told Hollywood Reporter.

Many people probably share Ford's morbid tendencies, at least to some extent, Pelin Kesebir, an assistant scientist and psychologist at the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Live Science.

"To be preoccupied with death is very common and very natural," Kesebir said. This preoccupation can cause psychological problems, but it doesn't always do so, she said.

It's rare that people have a pathological fear of death, she said. Further, although "thoughts of death can be a source of anxiety and dread for someone," they can instead be "a source of immense clarity and wisdom for others," she said. [10 Things That Make Humans Special]

However, psychologists in one school of thought  those who are "existentially oriented," or who study the way that concerns about the meaning and value of existence affect human behavior say that the roots of many common psychological problems can be traced back to people's anxiety about death, Kesebir said. More specifically, these problems relate to anxiety about failing to live a good life, Kesebir said.

"People are usually not afraid of death per se, but of not having lived a worthwhile life," she said.

People may have frequent thoughts about death because of humans' sophisticated mental abilities, she said. Our minds "make us painfully aware of inevitable mortality, and this awareness clashes with our biologically wired desire for life," she said.

The result of this clash is a very understandable and normal anxiety, Kesebir said.

What to do about thoughts of death?

If people are bothered by thoughts of death, Kesebir suggested engaging in thought experiments about what it would be like to live forever and the problems immortality could bring. She noted that although such thought experiments can leave people intellectually convinced that death is actually a good and necessary thing, it may be difficult to feel that way, emotionally.

Story continues

The best way "to accept death gracefully is living a good life  a life that is true to your values," she said. People who do this may stave off a fear of not having lived well.

It's also possible that a preoccupation with death can actually lead to a relief from anxiety about that final event, she said. Some people who have had near-death experiences "report an increased appreciation and zest for life, closer, more meaningful interpersonal relationships, an increased belief in themselves, changed priorities," and other positive changes in their lives and outlooks, she said. [After Death: 8 Burial Alternatives That Are Going Mainstream]

In other words, after brushes with death, some people tend to live better approximations of what they consider to be good lives, which can in turn can relieve anxiety about death.

So according to Kesebir, thoughts of death, like Tom Ford's, are normal and might even help people to live better.

Original article on Live Science.

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Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A woman from Howrah threatened to blow up Bengal secretariat Nabanna because Mamata Banerjee had not responded to the 25 poems she sent her.

By India Today Web Desk: Mamata Banerjee broke 50-year-old Baby Ghosh's heart...or at least that's what the Howrah-based homemaker chooses to believe. And so mad she was at the West Bengal CM, she lashed out by threatening to blow up the state secretariat, Nabanna.

A furious Ghosh told ABP Ananda that she had made several requests to meet Mamata Banerjee in person, sent several letters and 25 poems written by her, but never received any response from the CM's end.

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Angry at the lack of appreciation, the poet decided to vent by dialing 100 and threatening the cops that Nabanna "should not be there" and must be "blown up immediately".





Also read: Bomb scare at West Bengal Secretariat, police suspect hoax call



After Howrah Police alerted the security officials at Nabanna, the bomb threat turned out to be a hoax.

Ghosh's call was soon traced to her residence in Howrah's Unsani area, from where she was arrested.

"I sent Didi 25 poems, but she did not accept them," Ghosh told ABP Ananda, not shying away from expressing her anger or admitting to have made the threat call.

During police interrogation, Ghosh is said to have admitted that she had visited Nabanna many times to meet the chief minister, but was stopped by the security.

Howrah District Court has sentenced Ghosh to 14-day imprisonment.





--- ENDS ---
Kelly Hammer Lankford's heart sank as soon as the caller said he was with the United States Embassy in Peru, where her parents were vacationing on an Amazon River cruise.



She knew that the news couldn't be good. But nothing prepared her to hear that her mom and dad, Larry and Christy Hammer of Gretna, Nebraska, had died in their beds on April 10 after a fire broke out in their cabin aboard the luxury La Estrella Amazonica on the first night of a 10-day, 600-mile dream cruise.



Even more shocking was what she and her sister, Jill Hammer Malott, learned after hiring an attorney and private investigators in Peru to look into their parents' deaths, when they felt that they hadn't received enough answers from Peruvian authorities and the cruise operators, International Expeditions, based in Helena, Alabama.



Kelly and Jill's investigators concluded that the fire was caused by a faulty electrical power strip in their parents' cabin and that fire and smoke alarms weren't working. And video footage showed that it took crew members 22 minutes to pull their father from the second-story cabin, and another six minutes to rescue their mother, after somebody noticed smoke coming from a light fixture.



"In between, they opened the door to my parents' room and slammed it shut several times instead of rushing inside to get them out," Jill tells PEOPLE. "Our mom still had a heartbeat and could have been saved if they hadn't waited. There was failure aboard the boat on multiple levels."



Four months after the tragedy, she and Kelly are still trying to get conclusive answers from the cruise company and Peruvian authorities about everything that went wrong aboard the boat that night. They had Nebraska's congressional delegation write a letter to the Peruvian ambassador to the U.S., Luis Miguel Castilla, imploring him to make sure the investigation was timely and thorough.





Story continues

Determined Nebraska Sisters Seek Answers in the Mysterious Deaths of Their Parents Aboard Luxury Amazon Cruise| Real People Stories



The sisters are speaking out, they tell PEOPLE, to warn others about cruise ship safety at a time when interest in ecotourism trips is at an all-time high.



"It's horrifying to me that they had this boat back on the water less than 48 hours after the fire that killed our parents," Jill, 46, of San Francisco, tells PEOPLE. "We don't have all of the answers and yet they continue to load every week and put unsuspecting Americans back on the boat. We'd like to see documents showing that the boat is safe. We don't want anybody else to go through what we've been through."



Van Perry, president of International Expeditions, insists that the La Estrella Amazonica is safe and says the boat now has enhanced fire-fighting equipment and that the crew has been provided with refresher fire training.





Determined Nebraska Sisters Seek Answers in the Mysterious Deaths of Their Parents Aboard Luxury Amazon Cruise| Real People Stories



"We'll continue to give this incident high priority," he tells PEOPLE in a statement. "We extend our sympathy to the family. We cannot attempt to understand the depth of their loss, but continue to provide our offers of support to them."



A 31-passenger boat, the La Estrella Amazonica was marketed to Americans as the largest, most modern vessel on the Amazon, says Kelly, which is one reason why her parents, who were avid world travelers, spent $10,000 to take the luxury cruise.





Determined Nebraska Sisters Seek Answers in the Mysterious Deaths of Their Parents Aboard Luxury Amazon Cruise| Real People Stories



Larry, 74, a retired University of Nebraska-Lincoln administrator, and Christy, 72, a former schoolteacher and analyst for Gallup, had visited every continent except Antarctica, which they hoped to cross off their bucket list after their cruise on the Amazon.



"They were adventurous and generous people who had figured out what they truly loved in life  family and travel," says Jill. "They were great role models to Kelly and I when we were growing up, and to their four grandkids. 'Be thankful for what you have and live for what you love.' That was their philosophy."





Determined Nebraska Sisters Seek Answers in the Mysterious Deaths of Their Parents Aboard Luxury Amazon Cruise| Real People Stories



The Hammers were initially scheduled to go on the maiden voyage of International Expeditions' "star of the Amazon" in 2013, but when the trip was delayed, they rebooked for this past spring, Kelly tells PEOPLE, departing on April 10 with 19 other passengers and 15 crew members.



Only eight hours into the cruise, at about 2:30 a.m., a fire broke out in their cabin, with no alarms sounding, while they slept. Larry was dead when he was removed from the cabin, while Christy died on the way to a hospital. Smoke inhalation killed them both, says Kelly, and her dad also suffered burns on his body since the surge protector that caught fire was located beneath his bed.





Determined Nebraska Sisters Seek Answers in the Mysterious Deaths of Their Parents Aboard Luxury Amazon Cruise| Real People Stories



To make the sad outcome even worse, says Jill, her parents wedding rings have gone missing "and were likely stolen off their dead bodies," she tells PEOPLE.



Although Peruvian officials are still investigating, she and her sister say their attempts to talk to other passengers about the fire and any recollections of their parents' last moments at dinner that night have been rebuffed by the cruise company.



"The last time I talked to my parents was the day before they left when we called to say 'Bon voyage,' " Jill tells PEOPLE. "They were excited for the trip and promised my kids they'd take plenty of pictures of the animals they saw in the Amazon. Of course, they didn't get to take any pictures. We don't know about their last hours, but we're going to keep digging until we find some answers. No matter how small those moments may seem, they're huge to us."
Paris (AFP) - France's former budget minister Jerome Cahuzac told his tax evasion trial Monday that he had stashed millions abroad because he wanted to maintain his family's standard of living.

Cahuzac, 64, who served in President Francois Hollande's government between 2012 and 2013, is on trial for dodging taxes and laundering money abroad while leading a crackdown on tax dodgers at home.

His ex-wife Patricia, who faces the same charges, told the court Monday the couple had been "aware of the illegality" of using an account in the Isle of Man to dodge tax.

Cahuzac, a trained plastic surgeon who also ran a lucrative hair transplant business that treated members of Paris' high society, said: "I did not accept that my political responsibilities should lead to a fall in my family's standard of living.

"My wife did not accept, or had a lot of difficulty accepting, that I could not cover half of the family's expenditure," he said.

Cahuzac's former wife said she used a Royal Bank of Scotland account in the Isle of Man, an offshore financial centre in the Irish Sea, to deposit cheques from English hair transplant clients through a company that the couple set up in 1997.

She said she would visit London two or three times a year to withdraw up to 9,000 euros ($10,100) each time.

"My husband was aware of this because he had to look after the children when I went on these trips," she said.

Later, with her marriage in difficulty, she also opened an account in Switzerland.

If found guilty, Cahuzac, his ex-wife and his former advisors face up to seven years in prison and fines of up to one million euros.

The former minister initially denied the allegations and sued the Mediapart news website that broke the story in 2012.

Footage of the minister lying to parliament was repeated in an endless loop on French media after he finally confessed in April 2013 to holding a Swiss bank account.

The scandal was the first of a series that have tarnished Hollande's presidency and prompted the president to order his ministers to disclose their personal wealth, a first in France, where the wealth of public officials had long been considered a private matter.
When we think of Dil Toh Pagal Hai, the first thoughts that come to our minds are the fabulous songs from the films. The leading ladies Madhuri Dixit and Karisma Kapoor entertained the audience with their amazing dancing skills along with the lead actor Shah Rukh Khan.

Recommended: From Kabhi Kabhie to Befikre: Heres how Yash Chopras brand-of-romance has evolved with time!

Today, after almost 19 years, we got to see Lolo and Madhuri in the same frame. Karisma posted a beautiful picture on her Instagram posing with Madhuri. She captioned the picture, Lovely to meet @madhuridixitnene in srilanka today #blastfromthepast#diltopagalhai#fondmemories#srilanka2016

Both the beauties met in Sri Lanka for an event and the picture is a sight to behold. The Zubeidaa actor is seen wearing a heavily embroidered black and white maxi dress and the Devdas actor sported a white Anarkali with embellished border and gold necklace.

Karisma and Madhuri were all smiles for the shutterbugs. Doesnt it give you a Dance Of Envy Deja vu?
From Road & Track

Although we've known that its days were numbered for a while, FCA officials confirmed to C/D today that production of the Dodge Dart will come to a halt "sometime in September 2016" and there will be no 2017 models. As had been reported in Automotive News, the announcement comes as part of an evolving product strategy at the carmaker. A replacement model has not been named.

The demise of the Dart, assembled at the maker's Belvidere, Illinois, facility, clears the way for Dodge to play to its strengths in the North American market, primarily by building more expensive and thus profitable Jeep and Ram models. Only 34,500 Darts were sold through the first eight months of 2016, a little less than half the number sold over the same period in the previous year.

The Illinois plant will build the Jeep Cherokee, instead. Similarly, production of the Chrysler 200, assembled at FCA's factory in Sterling Heights, Michigan, will come to an end in December 2016. That suburban Detroit facility (hence the "Imported from Detroit" marketing push) will be retooled to produce the updated 2018 Ram 1500.

FCA has not ruled out the possibility of having the Dart and 200 assembled by a partner or under contract by another manufacturer. Currently, Mazda assembles the Fiat 124 Spider, and the ProMaster City is a joint-venture vehicle that is also sold as an Opel in Europe and as a Vauxhall in the U.K.

Chrysler had high aspirations for the Dart when it made its debut at the 2012 Detroit auto show as a 2013 model, hoping it would strike a chord in the densely populated and and highly competitive compact segment. We just hoped it wouldn't tarnish the Dart's nerd-chic legacy. Ultimately, it failed to do either.

This article originally appeared on Car and Driver.

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Lyle Denniston, the National Constitution Centers Supreme Court correspondent, looks at a potentially significant federal court decision about gun ownership that could be heading to the Supreme Court.

For the first time, a federal appeals court has ruled that it is unconstitutional, at least in non-violent cases, to automatically take away an individuals Second Amendment right to have a gun after being convicted of a crime that the law treats as serious.

If an individuals actual crime did not involve violence, a federal law that ends gun rights is unconstitutional in that specific case, even if the crime qualifies as a felony, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled last week in a widely splintered 8-to-7 decision.

Although some other federal appeals courts have said they might take that approach, none has done so to actually restore an individuals Second Amendment right to possess a gun for personal use. There is a deep split among courts at that level, so the issue may well be on its way to the Supreme Court, perhaps in the Third Circuit case, named Binderup v. U.S. Attorney General.

In the new ruling, a 174-page decision issued last Wednesday, the majority of eight judges blocked the enforcement of one of the most significant federal gun control laws in cases involving two Pennsylvania men who have stayed out of trouble for years after being convicted of crimes that normally would mean they had to forfeit their Second Amendment right.

A combination of two blocs of judges, one of three and the other of five, applied different constitutional tests as they agreed that the federal felon-in-possession law cannot be applied to the two Pennsylvanians, even though their crimes did fall directly under that law.

The federal government had argued unsuccessfully that the law is clear in its scope, and courts cannot exempt individuals from it based on the facts and circumstances of a given case. The Justice Department had appealed the case to the Third Circuit Court after a federal trial judge ruled in favor of the two mens challenge.

Story continues

The law at issue provides that gun rights are to be forfeited when an individual is convicted of a crime that can lead to a prison sentence of more than a year in prison  the usual definition for a felony, or serious crime. There are some exceptions: gun rights are not lost if the conviction was of a state misdemeanor and the potential sentence was up to two years, and it allows for restoration of gun rights if a persons conviction has been nullified or that individual has been pardoned.

In the Third Circuit case, the 15-judge court ruled unanimously that the two mens situations were covered by the law, because each was convicted of crimes that could have led to five years in prison for Daniel Binderup and to three years in prison for Julio Suarez. Binderups conviction came in 1996 for corrupting a minor girl, and Suarezs came in 1990 for having a handgun without a license. Neither actually got prison time when sentenced, but their crimes  because of the potential prison term  meant they would lose their gun rights.

Both sued, claiming their situations were not covered by the law and, if they were, the automatic loss of their gun rights violated the Second Amendment.

The Third Circuit Courts ruling dealt with the case not as a direct constitutional challenge to the felon-in-possession law in all circumstances (that is, it was not what lawyers call a facial challenge), but only as it was applied to their specific circumstances. (The Supreme Court, in the eight years since first recognizing a personal right under the Second Amendment to have a gun, has never ruled on such an as-applied challenge, so lower courts so far have no binding guidance on it.)

The bloc of three judges in the majority declared the law unconstitutional when used against Binderup and Suarez even though they were in the class of those who would ordinarily lose their gun rights, because their crimes did not involve violence, the facts did not show the crimes were actually serious in a conventional legal sense, and the two men had lived for years as virtuous citizens.

A separate bloc of five judges in the majority argued that the virtuous citizen approach was too imprecise, so these judges went further. They declared the federal law unconstitutional when used against anyone who could come to court with a convincing argument that their crime did not involve violence or any other signs that it was a serious offense. The Second Amendment right is too valuable to take it away in such a case, those judges wrote.

Seven judges dissented, arguing that they would never allow an as-applied challenge to the law that forfeits gun rights for those crimes that are covered by its provisions. The two men in this case, the dissenters said, ask us to do something that no federal appellate court has done before: to hold that, even though they were both convicted of crimes punishable by multiple years in prison, Congress may not constitutionally prevent them from owning firearms.

The dissent noted that there has been a long tradition in this country of preventing criminals from owning guns, and the law taking away Second Amendment rights from such criminals has been in force for over half a century.

The ruling was issued by the Third Circuit Court sitting en banc, so any government appeal of the decision would go next to the Supreme Court.

Legendary journalist Lyle Denniston is Constitution Dailys Supreme Court correspondent. Denniston has written for us as a contributor since June 2011. Denniston has covered the Supreme Court since 1958. His work also appears on lyldenlawnews.com.

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Dominic Cooper, having a stellar year thanks to major roles in Warcraft and Preacher, is set to join fellow Brit Gemma Arterton in The Escape.

The film, to be directed by Dominic Savage (Love+Hate) and produced by Guy Heeley (Locke, London Spy) for Shoebox Films, will highlight the largely undiscussed phenomenon of women forced to leave their children and families. Independent is introducing the project to buyers at the ongoing Toronto International Film Festival, while British upstart Lorton, which recently boarded Asif Kapadia's upcoming Oasis and Diego Maradona documentaries, is financing and taking U.K. rights.

"I am so excited to be collaborating with Gemma Arterton and Dominic Cooper on this film which is deeply personal to us," Savage said Friday in a statement. "I look forward to embarking on a journey of truth and revelation that will tell this important story of motherhood, marriage, responsibility and freedom."

Arterton, whose latest film Their Finest is bowing in Toronto, described The Escape as "extremely personal," saying that it will be "frank, honest and unapologetically from the woman's point of view."

She added: "I look forward to embarking on it, surrounded by people I trust and who understand the intention, and to digging deep and finding truth."

Read more: Toronto: Producer Stephen Woolley Talks Dedicating 'Limehouse Golem' to Alan Rickman
Hillary Clinton

Donald Trump's campaign on Monday released an ad centered on Hillary Clinton's recent "basket of deplorables" comment, which caused controversy over the weekend.

The ad showed Clinton saying "half" of Trump's supporters fell into a "basket of deplorables," remarks that came Friday at an LGBT for Hillary gala in New York City.

"The racists, sexists, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it," she said.

The sound bite was cut over video of Trump supporters at the Republican National Convention in July and at Trump rallies. The images highlighted women in particular.

The ad also showed Trump and his running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, handing out supplies in Louisiana following catastrophic flooding in August.

"You know what's deplorable?" the female narrator asked. "Hillary Clinton viciously demonizing hardworking people like you."

Watch the ad below:

During her Friday remarks, Clinton said the tone of Trump's campaign had emboldened some of the most extreme groups in America.

"And he has lifted them up," Clinton said. "He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people  now have 11 million."

"He tweets and retweets their offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric," she added, referring to the multiple times the real-estate mogul had engaged with the alt-right.

The Democratic presidential nominee dedicated an entire speech last month to calling out alt-right groups  a portion of Trump's support that believes the Republican nominee will implement its heavily racialized agenda.

But after facing swift backlash to the remarks, Clinton said in a statement that she regretted claiming that "half" of Trump's support fell into that group, calling her comments "grossly generalistic."

She stood by her comments that Trump's message was still catering to such groups, however, saying his platform was built "largely on prejudice and paranoia" and had "given a national platform to hateful views and voices."

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"As I said, many of Trump's supporters are hardworking Americans who just don't feel like the economy or our political system are working for them," she added.

Trump fired back at Clinton for the comments in his own statement, calling them a "grotesque attack on American voters."

"For the first time in a long while, her true feelings came out, showing bigotry and hatred for millions of Americans," Trump said in his statement. "How can she be president of our country when she has such contempt and disdain for so many great Americans?"

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To most Americans, the U.S. military may as well be a foreign country. Only 1% of the nations citizens have served in uniform since the 9/11 terror attacks 15 years ago Sunday, where many of them waged two wars. Those who did serve internalized a set of customs, rituals and traditions distinct from the rest of the country.

It is Donald Trumps obliviousness to that distinction that upsets many who wear a uniform. Trump polls well among veterans as a whole, since they are more likely than the rest of the electorate to be older, white and male. But his support seems to wane among those who have made the military a career, especially officers who have commanded at the highest levels. They are the ones who serve as that delicate synapse between young Americans willing to die for their country, and the elected leaders who order them to be ready to do so.

Some of Trumps first shots heard around the Pentagons E-ring were more tone-deaf than anything else. He called the Navy pilot-turned-Arizona-GOP-senator John McCain not a war hero for being captured in Vietnam. He disparaged the sacrifice of a Gold Star family who lost their son in Iraq. At one point in the campaign, he suggested committing war crimes, like targeting the families of Islamic State terrorists. Others were falsehoods. I know more about ISIS than the generals do, he declared last November. Believe me.

More recently, he has betrayed an ignorance of the checks and balances that guide, and limit, an American presidents control of the U.S. military. Mr. Trump does not seem to realize that active-duty generals are long-serving, apolitical professionals who do not belong to any one Administration or President, says David Barno, a retired Army lieutenant general who commanded all U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005. On January 20th, there wont be any Trump generals or Clinton generals. There will only be Americas generals, no different than today.

If he had been serving in the military, Trumps comment last week comparing President Obama unfavorably to Russian President Vladimir Putin could have landed him in trouble under Article 88 of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, which bars contemptuous words against the President. And he has run afoul of several other UCMJ articles. But the code applies only to those in uniform. His time at the New York Military Academy, like the Purple Heart he recently accepted as a gift, dont count.

But its what Trump said about the nations generalsofficers he would inherit were he to be elected, and who have sworn to obey his ordersthat was more shocking. I think under the leadership of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the generals have been reduced to rubble, he said. They have been reduced to a point where its embarrassing for our country. Typically, Trump tried to soften his attack on the nations generals by blaming their civilian overseers.

Yet theres a second way of hearing that comment, and that is how it was heard by many in uniform: that the nations top military leaders, sworn to uphold the Constitution and obey their civilian bosses, lacked the backbone to stand up to that very same civilian leadership. You dont have much choice in the military: you give your best advice, you hear what the President decides, and you carry out that order to the best of your ability or resign your commission. Trump suggested a general house-cleaning if hes the next commander-in-chief. Theyd probably be different generals, to be honest with you, he said last Wednesday, when pressed where hed seek guidance about defeating ISIS.

That could lead for an uncomfortable first meeting between Trump and Marine General Joseph Dunford, whose first two-year term as chairman of the Joint Chiefsthe Presidents key military adviserruns until September 2017. In fact, Trump will inherit a relatively new slate of Joint Chiefs members. A President Trump would have to get along with them, ignore them or fire them.

Legally, a President Trump would have the power to fire as many generals as he wanted. A President is the commander-in-chief and can dismiss any commissioned officer, says Eugene Fidell, a military-law expert and co-founder of the National Institute of Military Justice. Otherwise you wouldnt have civilian control of the military. The UCMJ details what an officer can do if dismissed by the President, making clear the commander in chief has that power.

Beyond such drastic actions, there are checks and balances built into the nations military-command structure to keep it from swaying too much amid civilian political winds. Officers nominated for senior positions are scrubbed by the Senate Armed Services Committee, which holds public hearings on the nominations. The full Senate must approve such appointments. Top officers usually hold their positions for two to four year. (A chairman of the Joint Chiefs generally serves two two-year terms, requiring a pair of politically-charged confirmation hearings. Service chiefs usually get a single term.) Most of the nations 38 four-star officers serve a two-year term, with a customary one-year extension.

These terms dont mesh with the political calendar, which is why military officers from one Administration dont change when a new President takes over. But senior officers do take on the leanings of their political masters. While publicly apolitical, every day senior officers make decisions that cast them, to over-simplify, as either liberal or conservative. After eight years in office, an Administration, by tapping officers in sync with its policies for promotion, ends up with a high command that sees the world pretty much the same way as the White House that has given it command.

But the military is structured to make it difficult for Trump to carry out a quick backwards coup. There are two key sets of generals (and admirals) in charge of the U.S. military. The seven-member Joint Chiefs of Staff are largely responsible for recruiting, training and outfitting the nations soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, and advising the President on military matters. But they dont actually run the wars. In fact, none of the members of the Joint Chiefs is in the chain of command that runs from the Oval Office to the grunt in the foxhole. The officers running the warsso-called combatant commandersare responsible for their slices of the world.

Anthony Zinni, a retired Marine general who ran Central Command from 1997 to 2000, doesnt fault Trump for wanting his kind of officers. I think a President should have the generals he feels most comfortable with, he says. Besides, there has long been a turnstile style to U.S. military leadership. In Afghanistan, we relieved and assigned generals on a rate of one a year, Zinni says. When I did an assessment there in 2010, I counted 10 commanders in 10 years, seven Centcom commanders, five chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and eight lords a-dancing.

The nation has always wanted its military leaders detached from the messy business of partisan politics. General and flag officers generally have been removed from their billets only for misconduct, a failure on the battlefield, or screw-ups inside the bureaucracy. Any removal for political reasons, real or imagined, runs the risk of turning the U.S. military into a costly version of the Iraqi military, where troops have failed to follow the orders of their politically-pliable leaders.

For his part, Dunford has made it clear that he and his troops must stay above the political fray. The U.S. military must conduct itself in such a way that the new Administration has confidence that it will be served by a professional, competent, and apolitical military, Dunford recently told the nations 1.4 million troops. This is especially important in the context of delivering the best military advice.

Even if a President Trump doesnt want to hear it? Well, the Senate has already made clear to whom Dunfordand all senior officersowe their allegiance. Do you agree, when asked, to give your personal views, even if these views differ from the Administration in power? McCain. the head of the armed services committee, asked Dunford at his confirmation hearing 14 months ago.

I do, chairman, Dunford replied, without hesitation.
By PTI: From Yoshita Singh

New York, Sep 11 (PTI) Hundreds of family members and friends read out the names of the nearly 3,000 people, including Indians, who died in the 9/11 attacks 15 years ago in a solemn ceremony at a memorial built here on Ground Zero as the US commemorated the anniversary of the biggest terror attack on its soil.

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Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton momentarily paused their bitter rivalry and separately joined the people at the 9/11 memorial in downtown Manhattan to honour the 2,977 people killed and the thousands left injured when al-Qaeda terrorists crashed hijacked planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre.

Moments of silence were observed at precisely the time the planes struck the twin towers, the Pentagon and the one that crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after its passengers overpowered the hijackers.

People carried pictures of their loved ones who died in the attacks and placed flowers and American flags in the names inscribed into bronze panels edging the twin reflecting pools at the memorial site.

The pools sit within the footprints where the Twin Towers once stood and the names of every person who died in the 2001 attacks as well as in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing are inscribed into the Memorial pools.

Every year at the solemn and emotional ceremony, those who were killed in the attacks are remembered by not just their families but by hundreds of visitors and tourists who attend the commemoration.

The memorial is visited by thousands of city residents and tourists daily to offer homage to those killed in the attacks.

A new freedom tower, One World Trade Centre, now stands next to the memorial and a museum has also been erected that houses relics, including flags and equipment from the time the towers fell.

It tells the stories of the thousands of firefighters, ordinary citizens and law-enforcement authorities who helped save countless lives and toiled day and night to find the survivors in the wreckage.

The New York Police Department also held a memorial to remember those officers killed that day, reading out names of each of them.

"September 11, 2001 touched every single NYer, but the terrorists did not prevail, because 15 years later we are strong, and we are unified," New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said. (MORE) PTI YAS ABH AKJ ABH

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Donald Trump said Monday that he doesnt want anybody moderating a debate with Hillary Clinton.

I think we should have a debate with no moderator, just Hillary and I sitting there talking, the GOP presidential candidate said while calling into CNBCs Squawk Box.

Last week, NBCs Matt Lauer was panned for his performance while moderating a town hall discussion, as many critics believed was throwing soft questions at Hillary Clinton and did not fact check her opponents answer about being opposed to the Iraq War, but Trump thinks the backlash is an attempt to control the upcoming presidential debates.

The fact is they are gaming the system, Trump said. I think maybe we should have no moderator. Let Hillary and I sit there and just debate. I think the system is being rigged so its going to be a very unfair debate.

Also Read: Donald Trump Asks What Half of His Military Supporters 'Does Hillary Clinton Deem Deplorable?'

He continued: I can see it happening right now because everybody was saying [Lauer] was soft on Trump and now the new person is going to try and be really hard on Trump just to show the establishment what he can do. I think its very unfair what they are doing.

Earlier this month, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced Lester Holt, Martha Raddatz, Anderson Cooper and Chris Wallace as the moderators for the Trump vs. Clinton debates.

NBCs Holt will kick things off on Sept. 26 at Hofstra University. CNNs Cooper and ABCs Raddatz will share the stage on Oct. 9 at Washington University in St. Louis, and Fox News Chris Wallace gets the final duties on Oct. 19 at University of Nevada.

These journalists bring extensive experience to the job of moderating, and understand the importance of using expanded time periods effectively, co-chairs of the Commission on Presidential Debates Frank Fahrenkopf Jr. and Michael McCurry said in a statement when the moderators were announced.

The co-chairs continued: The formats chosen for this years debates are designed to build on the formats introduced in 2012, which focused big blocks of time on major domestic and foreign topics. We are grateful for their willingness to moderate, and confident that the public will learn more about the candidates and the issues as a result.

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Also Read: Donald Trump Hopes Hillary Clinton 'Gets Well Soon' After Pneumonia Diagnosis

David Brock, founder of progressive media watchdog group Media Matters for America, recently said that Wallace should not be allowed to moderate a debate because he used to work for former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, who is thought to be helping Trump with debate prep.

I am disappointed that an organization that prides itself on being non-partisan would make such a selection, Brock said in a letter. It is a glaring conflict of interest.

Brock is a founder of two pro-Clinton Super PACs.

Related stories from TheWrap:

Donald Trump Asks What Half of His Military Supporters 'Does Hillary Clinton Deem Deplorable?'

Donald Trump Hopes Hillary Clinton 'Gets Well Soon' After Pneumonia Diagnosis

Hillary Clinton Regrets Saying 'Half' of Trump's Supporters Are 'Deplorables'
donald trump

Donald Trump said on Monday that the health of the two presidential candidates is an issue in the campaign after Hillary Clinton was given a pneumonia diagnosis over the weekend.

The Republican presidential candidate wished his Democratic rival a speedy recovery, but asserted on "Fox and Friends" that "we have to figure out what's going on."

"I don't know what's going on. Like you, I see what I see," Trump told the Fox News panel. "The coughing fit was a week ago, so I assume that was pneumonia also. I would think it would've been. So, something's going on, but I hope she gets well and gets back on the trail. And we'll be seeing her at the debate."

The real-estate magnate also announced during Monday's interview that he would release "very, very specific" results later this week from a recent physical examination.

Though unscientific speculation about Clinton's health has been a fixation of fringe right-wing media outlets for months, some political experts believe it is in the former secretary of state's best interest to release a more detailed medical history after her unexpected exit from a 9/11 memorial service due to her pneumonia.

"Her current level of health transparency is not sustainable. She will need to release medical records before the first debate," Matt Mackowiak, a top Republican strategist and president of Potomac Strategy Group, told Business Insider in an email.

In August 2015, Clinton became the first major 2016 presidential candidate to disclose some of her health records. She released a note from her doctor detailing her recent medical history, including her hypothyroidism and recovery from a 2012 concussion.

Trump has largely ignored calls for greater medical transparency, only publicly releasing a brief note from his gastroenterologist proclaiming he "will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency."

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Kinshasa (AFP) - An opposition delegation walked out of key talks Monday aimed at averting a political crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, calling them a "dead end."

"We have understood that we are being led down a dead end street and so we have decided to suspend our participation" in the national dialogue, Vital Kamerhe, who represents those elements of the opposition that had decided to take part in the talks, told journalists.

The African Union-facilitated national dialogue began on September 1 to try to prevent a crisis when President Joseph Kabila's term expires later this year, as fears grow that he will seek to stay in power for a third term despite a consitutional limit of two mandates.

"The crisis today is the non-holding of the presidential election," said Kamerhe.

While the election process is meant to be set in motion three months before Kabila's term expires on December 20 -- that is by September 19 -- there is little sign of this happening and the electoral commission has said registering voters across the vast central African country cannot be completed until next year.

The country's highest court earlier this year ruled that Kabila could stay in office beyond December if no election were held.

"This situation was knowingly created by the government," added Kamerhe, who heads the Union for the Congolese Nation, the third largest opposition party in parliament.

But "we have our red lines: hold the presidential election as a priority."

"Our friends in the majority have just suggested we start with local elections," but our position on the presidential vote is "non-negotiable," he said.

The bulk of the opposition has boycotted the talks from the get-go, calling them a "trap aimed at allowing Kabila to stay in power for as long as possible."
Nathanson Dental is Now Offering Invisalign  and Six Month Smiles  to their Valued Patients

HUNT VALLEY, MD / ACCESSWIRE / September 12, 2016 / Dr. Joel Nathanson, one of the founders of Nathanson Dental in Hunt Valley, Maryland, is pleased to announce that he is expanding the dental services that he offers his patients. He will now offer orthodontics in Hunt Valley, including Invisalign  and Six Month Smiles .

To learn more about Invisalign and how the innovative orthodontic procedure works, please visit https://www.nathansondental.com/services/cosmetic-dentistry/invisalign/.

As a spokesperson for Nathanson Dental noted, Sabrina Stottlemyer, Dr. Nathanson's dental assistant, recently took and passed the Expanded Functions Orthodontics Test. Both she and Dr. Nathanson will be offering Invisalign in Hunt Valley, as well as the surrounding areas.

For people who wish to have a straight and beautiful smile but are concerned about the metal brackets, the spokesperson said Invisalign is an ideal option.

"Invisalign is a great choice for our patients who are searching for a more discreet orthodontic treatment option," the spokesperson noted, adding that instead of using metal brackets and wires like traditional braces, the Invisalign system uses a series of custom-made, computer-generated plastic aligners to straighten a smile.

"Each set of aligners is designed to make small changes to the alignment of the teeth."

Dr. Nathanson is also pleased to be bringing Six Month Smiles to Hunt Valley. The short-term orthodontic treatment is a modern twist on traditional orthodontics, the spokesperson said.

"While traditional braces generally have an average treatment time of 18 to 30 months, the average treatment time with Six Month Smiles is really only six months," the spokesperson said, adding that the clear brackets and tooth-colored wires also ensure that orthodontic treatment will be discreet, so most people will not even notice that a person is wearing braces.

Story continues

No matter what type of orthodontic treatment people are interested in, Dr. Nathanson encourages them to call the office and schedule a consultation with him or Dr. Matthew Farzin.

About Nathanson Dental:

Nathanson Dental is now expanding the services offered at the practice to Orthodontics, featuring popular cosmetic procedures Invisalign and Six Month Smiles. Dr. Nathanson and Dr. Stottlemyer will be offering these services to patients living in and around Hunt Valley, Cockeysville, Lutherville-Timonium areas. For more information, please visit https://www.nathansondental.com/.

Nathanson Dental

5 Shawan Rd., Second Floor

Hunt Valley, MD 21030

Contact:

Karrie

marketing.nathanson@gmail.com

443 275 9641

SOURCE: Nathanson Dental
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday that he would not interfere if Indonesia decided to execute a Filipina inmate convicted of drug smuggling, whose case drew international attention last year.

Earlier on Monday, Indonesian President Joko Widodo told reporters after Eid al-Adha prayers, that his counterpart had given the green light if Indonesia were to push ahead with the execution.

I told him about Mary Jane and  that Mary Jane brought 2.6 kg of heroin, said Jokowi, as the Indonesian President is widely known, according to the Indonesian Cabinet Secretarys website. President Duterte at that time conveyed: Please go ahead if she will be executed, he was quoted as saying.

Mary Jane Veloso, a former migrant worker, was sentenced to death for drug trafficking in 2010 by an Indonesian court. But her execution was suspended at the eleventh hour following a huge social-media campaign launched by womens-rights activists and migrant workers in both countries, as well as pleas by the Philippine government. Dutertes predecessor, President Benigno Aquino III, said Veloso was a victim of human trafficking and her testimony would be invaluable in prosecuting her alleged recruiters. Jokowi said last year that Velosos execution is only delayed, not canceled.

However a statement from the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs said Duterte didnt exactly give the green light for Velosos execution, saying instead that he respects [Indonesias] judicial processes and will accept whatever the final decision [is].

According to Rappler, Philippine presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said Duterte had told Jokowi that he wold not interfere with Indonesias decision. Follow your own laws, I will not interfere, Duterte reportedly said.

Duterte visited the Indonesian capital Jakarta last week, and he and Jokowi discussed a range of issues from maritime security to the war on drugs.

The Philippine President had previously hinted that we would appeal for Velosos life. Before leaving for a regional summit in Laos on Sept. 5, Duterte said he might just accept the system and plead for mercy.

According to CNN Philippines, Veloso is due to give testimony in the trial against her alleged recruiters very soon, her lawyer said. The Philippine state department said her execution had been indefinitely deferred.
Dwight Howard was taken to a hospital late Sunday night after feeling ill on a plane flight to Atlanta, according to several people familiar with the situation. It is believed that the Hawks center suffered from dehydration. He is being treated and is expected to be released from the hospital early Monday morning.

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Howard, 30, has recently been in China on a 10-day promotional tour with shoe manufacturer Peak. Last week, the Chinese company and Howard unveiled his DH2 shoe which features the colors of the Hawks.
By Ayman al-Warfalli BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Forces loyal to east Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar on Sunday seized at least two key oil ports from a rival force loyal to the U.N.-backed government, risking a new conflict over the OPEC nation's resources. Ahmed al-Mismari, a spokesman for Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), said its fighters had full control of Es Sider, Ras Lanuf, Brega and Zueitina after launching an early morning military operation on the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid. The attacks on Libya's major oil ports by Haftar, who opposes the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), could derail efforts to restart production. Those efforts are seen as critical to saving Libya's economy and helping the GNA survive. The National Oil Corporation in Tripoli confirmed LNA control of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, while the situation in Brega and Zueitina could not be independently verified. Armed conflict, political disputes and militant attacks have reduced Libya's oil production to about 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the 1.6 million bpd it was producing before an uprising toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Western states have backed the GNA to stabilize a country where chaos allowed Islamist militants and migrant smugglers to operate across swathes of territory. But Haftar, a former army general who has been a divisive figure in post-Gaddafi Libya, has resisted attempts to integrate him into unified armed forces and overcome divisions between factions in the east and west. Many in western Libya and Tripoli criticize Haftar as a former Gaddafi ally bent on establishing a military dictatorship, but he has become a political figurehead for many in the east who feel abandoned by the capital. A government and parliament based in the east still resist the GNA's authority in Tripoli and they have in the past tried to sell crude themselves. In a statement released late on Sunday, the GNA's leadership, or Presidential Council, called the attacks an "unjustified escalation" that would "prolong the period of conflict" in Libya. EXPORT QUESTIONS The ports targeted by the LNA were previously under the control of the Petrol Facilities Guard (PFG), whose leader, Ibrahim Jathran, struck a deal with the GNA in July to end its blockade of Ras Lanuf, Es Sider and Zueitina. But although the National Oil Corporation (NOC) recently offered two cargos for export from Ras Lanuf, there had been little sign of any rapid resumption of production in recent weeks, and control by Haftar's brigades could make the deal irrelevant. Mismari said the LNA had been able to seize Ras Lanuf and Es Sider quickly because it had won over local tribes before staging a rapid advance. "This force was being prepared for a long time, and it entered without any resistance from Jathran's forces," he told Reuters. One witness said there had been a heavy deployment of LNA armored vehicles around Ras Lanuf and Es Sider. Akram Buhaliqa, a second LNA spokesman, said there had been no casualties among LNA forces, although the NOC said a small fuel tank for power generation had been set ablaze in Es Sider. On Sunday afternoon, residents said LNA forces had taken control of a large house belonging to Jathran's family in a residential district of Ajdabiya following clashes. Jathran's exact whereabouts were not clear but in an appeal broadcast on a pro-Haftar TV station, the leader of the eastern Magharba tribe, Saleh al-Ateiwish, called on Jathran to return to the tribe and "to ask his people to surrender and let them go to their families without any losses". Ras Lanuf and Es Sider were badly damaged earlier this year in attacks by Islamic State militants based in Sirte, where they are on the verge of defeat by forces aligned with the GNA backed by U.S. air strikes. (Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar in London and Ahmed Elumami in Benghazi; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Stephen Powell and Peter Cooney)
The UN Office for the Coordinate of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report more than 35,500 homes were damaged, two-thirds of them completely destroyed, and 107,000 people had been displaced by the floods.

By Reuters: Flooding from heavy rain in North Korea has killed 133 people in its northeast while 395 are missing, with many homes and critical infrastructure destroyed, a UN agency said on Monday.

News of the natural disaster came as North Korea looked even more isolated from its neighbors and the wider world after its fifth nuclear test last Friday.



DAMAGE



The UN Office for the Coordinate of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report more than 35,500 homes were damaged, two-thirds of them completely destroyed, and 107,000 people had been displaced by the floods.

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The agency said the death toll and the number of missing people were based on North Korean government data.

North Korea's state media reported heavy rain in late August and early September caused extensive damage near the Tumen river. It did not give a death toll from the flooding in its latest report.

The UN office said damage assessment was based on a visit to the region last week by representatives of UN agencies, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the North's Red Cross chapter and non-governmental groups.

WORST DISASTER IN 70 YEARS

The North's KCNA news agency said on Sunday the worst "climatic phenomenon" in more than 70 years hit the northern part of the country causing "huge losses," and recovery work was under way.

Widespread deforestation for fuel and farming makes the impoverished state prone to natural disasters, especially floods.

ALSO READ:

North Korea prepares for next nuclear test as US weighs sanction: South Korea

Death toll touches 205 in Bihar floods, 78 lakh people affected





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If these little hedgehogs know one thing, it's that sharing is caring.

The eight baby animals were rescued by Jakub Sokalski, in Poland, after their mother had been run over by a car. Solaski nursed the animals back to health, which included some tasty meals that they all ate together.

Sokalski told Buzzfeed that the hedgehogs were recently released back into the wild, where they will, no doubt, have plenty more family feasts.

Spice Girl Mel B joins James Corden for a gloriously awkward game of live Tinder

Soccer-loving koala runs onto field during a match

Atlas robot adds high-wire balancing to its list of human tricks

Baby snake holding tiny toy donut is unexpectedly cute
Moscow (AFP) - Ilya Gushchin says the two and a half years he spent in prison for standing up to the Kremlin were a warning from the authorities for ordinary Russians.

"It was a threat to the population to quieten down," Gushchin, 28, told AFP.

"For society it showed that the authorities were willing to do whatever was needed to stay in power."

Russia is currently gearing up for parliamentary elections on September 18 that pro-Kremlin parties look set to dominate, and that message seems to have registered.

The last time the country voted in legislative polls five years ago, tens of thousands of ordinary citizens took to the streets for mass protests that became the biggest challenge to President Vladimir Putin's domination of the country since he took charge in 2000.

This time around there appears to be little chance of a repeat.

- 'They just showed up' -

In late 2011 and early 2012 Gushchin -- then a recent graduate who had just started dabbling in political activism -- was part of the crowds in Moscow demanding change after evidence of flagrant vote-rigging emerged.

The protests petered out after riot police violently cleared a demonstration on the eve of Putin's inauguration for a third term as president in May 2012. Gushchin was detained briefly after trying to pull an officer off a protester, but he thought little of it and carried on with life.

Then, out of the blue nine months later, police arrived at his door and arrested him.

"I had forgotten about it," he said. "Then they just showed up."

Gushchin was one of over 30 demonstrators -- prominent activists, students, pensioners -- who would be swept up seemingly at random by the authorities and charged with attacking the police.

Their cases -- which came to be known as the Bolotnaya affair after the square the demonstration took place on -- reverberated around the country, and rights groups denounced them as show trials.

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Eventually Gushchin, who now works for prisoner rights group Rus Sidyashchaya, was found guilty. In the summer of 2015, after more than 900 days behind bars, he was released.

- Rights 'curtailed' -

The legal onslaught against the demonstrators was not the only weapon the authorities used.

They simultaneously set about curbing the very right to protest.

"When Vladimir Putin returned to the Kremlin in May 2012, the authorities immediately rammed through a set of restrictive amendments to the law on demonstrations," said Tanya Lokshina from Human Rights Watch.

"The amendments significantly curtailed the right to free assembly and hugely increased fines for breaching assembly-related regulations."

Since then the laws have been tightened up still further as the Kremlin watched with horror the dramatic events that unfolded in neighbouring ex-Soviet Ukraine.

In 2014 huge protests deposed Russian-backed leader Viktor Yanukovych. For Putin, critics said, it was a nightmarish vision of what could happen to him at home.

"It certainly made Russian authorities even more resolved to crack down on protest activists," Lokshina said.

- Kremlin adapts -

In theory, with Russia mired in economic recession and living standards slipping, there appear many ingredients for demonstrations this time.

But beyond the clampdown, there are key reasons why the protest movement looks unlikely to fire up.

Putin is still enjoying high approval ratings after the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and some of that rubs off on the parties that support him.

Learning its lesson from last time, the Kremlin, while not relinquishing its tight grip on the controls, appears desperate to give the polls a sheen of legitimacy.

A new elections chief has been appointed to stamp out the most blatant corruption and more parties have been allowed to compete.

Meanwhile, Alexei Navalny -- who spearheaded the protests five years ago -- has been targeted by criminal cases and excluded from politics.

That leaves the remainder of the factious opposition rudderless and unable to counter the attacks from slavishly pro-Kremlin state-controlled media.

They are also struggling to shake off the chilling effects of the shooting of charismatic Putin critic Boris Nemtsov just yards from the Kremlin in February 2015.

Despite the years of his life he lost in jail, Gushchin insists that he would still be ready to go on to the streets if needed.

For now, however, there seems little chance of that.

"I am willing to take part in something that is worth it," he said.

"But these days... I don't see anything out there that is interesting in terms of politics."
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Eleven of India's banks will likely be in danger of breaching capital triggers with the coming increases in minimum requirements under new global banking norms, Fitch Ratings said on Monday.

The rating agency previously estimated that India's banks will need $90 billion in new capital to comply with the Basel III banking rules, which are due to fully kick in by March 2019. State-run lenders accounted for 80 percent of that amount.

The Indian government owns majority stakes in nearly two dozen lenders who account for close to 70 percent of the sector's assets. A surge in their bad loans and falling profits have discouraged many from investing in their shares or debt.

Over a four-year period ending March 2019, the government has pledged to inject 700 billion rupees ($10.5 billion) into the state banks. It put in 250 billion rupees in the fiscal year that ended in March 2016, and has announced injections of 229 billion rupees for the current fiscal year.

"We believe that more capital will be needed from the government to restore market confidence," Fitch wrote in its Monday note.

The rating agency said that the end of June, the total capital adequacy ratio for 11 banks was at or less than the minimum 11.5 percent required by end-March 2019.

Of the 11, six did not have enough capital to meet the minimum required by March 2017, Fitch said.

"State banks are the most at risk, given their poor existing capital buffers and weak prospects for raising capital through market channels," it said.

($1 = 66.8700 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Richard Borsuk)
By James Mackenzie KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban advances and a shootout between gunmen from rival ethnic groups in Kabul that carried echoes of Afghanistan's 1990s civil war have underlined the threats facing President Ashraf Ghani two years after he came to power. The skirmish earlier this month in the capital, sparked by a row over plans to re-bury a former Tajik king, was relatively minor by Afghan standards, but also a rare open display of hostility between ethnic groups that often simmers under the surface yet defines decades of conflict. At the same time, the Taliban have stepped up operations only weeks before a major conference of international donors to Afghanistan in Brussels. Last Thursday, the militant movement's fighters appeared to walk right into the center of Tarin Kot, capital of the central province of Uruzgan, and though the insurgents were pushed back, residents say it is now a ghost town of empty roads and shuttered shops. The fighting in Uruzgan and other provinces including Helmand in the south and Kunduz in the north, plus a string of attacks in Kabul in the last few months, provide stark evidence of the Western-backed government's inability to guarantee security, 15 years after the fall of the Taliban. NATO and Afghan security officials are on alert for more attacks after the Eid holiday this week. So far, opposition groups have avoided calling openly for Ghani to go, wary of creating a power vacuum at a time when the Taliban insurgency is gaining in intensity. But this month is the deadline by which the government was to have introduced a new structure following the disputed election of 2014, which forced Ghani to divide power with his rival, Abdullah Abdullah, in an awkward "unity" administration. The deadline is set to expire with none of those changes in place, which experts say undermines Ghani's legitimacy at a time when the Afghan public is far from happy with his performance. "It's a manageable situation, but the risk of it getting out of hand becomes acute around September," said Scott Worden, director of Afghanistan and Central Asia Programs at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington. Ghani has the support of the United States, Afghanistan's key ally; Secretary of State John Kerry said in April that Washington does not consider the deadline binding and expects the government to serve a full five-year term. Whether it lasts that long may depend on how Ghani gets on with his chief executive Abdullah, who recently accused the president of being unwilling to listen to his ministers and unfit to hold office. Senior aides say they have ironed out their differences after a series of meetings, and government unity is undamaged. "There's an environment of better understanding and agreement," said government spokesman Shahhussain Murtazawi. "What you see in the media doesn't reflect reality." BEWARE "ACCIDENTS" While security and a lack of jobs remain top priorities, the two must also keep a lid on ethnic tensions that flared up during the dispute over the reburial of Habibullah Kalakani, a Tajik bandit who briefly reigned as king in 1929. Although eventually resolved, the dispute saw Tajik supporters exchanging fire with those backing Vice President Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek with his own large militia, who objected that the proposed burial site had connections with their own history. With the opposition unwilling to be seen destabilizing the government, the threat of an immediate political crisis appears to have waned, though risks remain. "Barring accidents, I don't think anything decisive will happen by the end of September," said Umer Daudzai, former interior minister and leader of the opposition Afghanistan Protection and Stability Council. But he added: "Accidents have always influenced things in Afghanistan a lot." The Kabul attack in July on a demonstration by members of the mainly Shia Hazara community, which killed more than 80 people, had already raised fears of ethnic bloodshed, beyond the militant violence that Ghani and the Americans hope to contain. And the latest dispute has fueled bitter exchanges not only between Tajiks and Uzbeks, but also Tajiks and Pashtuns, the country's largest ethnic group, as well as Hazaras, who have faced a long history of discrimination. Shrill rhetoric from different ethnic groups in the wake of the clash has fed into social media and local television stations, which have been awash with angry comment. How this will be judged by foreign donors who meet in Brussels in October to approve support for Afghanistan remains unclear, although they have said they would continue to provide the billions of dollars needed over the coming years. "We have achieved most of the goals set for us and we have time to reach the remaining goals," Murtazawi said. Seen by critics and some ministers as a remote technocrat given to micromanaging, Ghani lacks a clear power base. While he may be able to count on U.S. and international backing, his own people doubt his ability to provide adequate security and enough jobs. Renewal of ethnic rivalries risks boosting the power of regional and ethnic strongmen like Dostum, who scorn efforts to impose central control on their local power bases and regularly complain of being shut out by Ghani. "The problem is that Ghani's government is restricted to Kabul; he has little control and support outside Kabul," said one foreign diplomat. "But it is the regional leaders who will have a big say in the upcoming political challenge." (Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi, Mirwais Harooni, Abdul Saboor and Rupam Nair; Editing by Mike Collett-White)
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union antitrust regulators do not expect Chinese household appliances company Midea Group's bid for German industrial robot maker Kuka (KU2G.DE) to pose any competition issues and will do a routine check before approving the deal.

The European Commission will examine the deal under its simplified procedure, according to a filing on its website on Monday. Such reviews mean the EU enforcer do not see the deals creating significant competition problems.

The Commission will announce its decision by Oct. 14. Midea sought EU approval last Friday for the deal, which initially raised concerns in Berlin about losing control of important technology. The German economy ministry gave the green light on Aug. 17.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, editing by Louise Heavens)
By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Online and electronics retailers will find out on Thursday whether European Union antitrust regulators plan to take any action after a year-long investigation into restrictions on cross-border online sales within the bloc.

The so-called e-commerce sector inquiry is part of the European Commission's campaign to overhaul the 28-country bloc's digital market in a bid to boost growth and catch up with the United States and Asia.

Initial findings released in March showed that geoblocking, where retailers prevent online shoppers in some countries buying cheaper products or services abroad, is widespread, due in part to agreements between retailers and content providers.

European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager is expected to hold a news conference on the topic at about 1300 GMT in Paris, spokesman Ricardo Cardoso said in an email.

Building on the March findings, the EU antitrust enforcer will provide details of possible anti-competitive agreements, which could lay the groundwork for cases against some retailers. A final report is due in the first quarter of 2017.

EU antitrust scrutiny of the pharmaceutical, energy and financial services industries over the past decade prompted investigations into companies in all three sectors.

While about half of EU consumers shopped online in 2014, only 15 percent of them bought a product from another EU country because of language barriers, different laws as well as anti-competitive behavior, according to Commission data.

(Editing by David Clarke)
Brussels (AFP) - EU leaders will hold a summit without Britain in Malta in early 2017 as part of efforts to map out a future for the bloc following the Brexit vote, Malta's prime minister said Monday.

The meeting of 27 leaders will follow a similar gathering in the Slovakian capital Bratislava this Friday, and comes ahead of a meeting in Rome in March that ties in with the 60th anniversary of the EU's foundation.

Maltese premier Joseph Muscat tweeted that he had agreed with EU President Donald Tusk that "EU leaders will meet in Malta beginning 2017 to increase momentum for new idea of Europe".

An EU official told AFP the Malta meeting would be "like Bratislava" and "part of the reflection process".

The Bratislava summit is the first in a series aimed at relaunching the European Union after Britain's dramatic June 23 decision to leave, even as the bloc faces a number of other crises.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is also set to lay out new priorities in his annual State of the European Union speech at the EU parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

Tusk has said he wants to use the summit in Bratislava to plot a new roadmap for Europe with security concerns, borders and defence at the top of the agenda.

Tusk said earlier this month that he wants the 27 EU leaders to "rebuild a sense of political unity in the months to come, also ahead of our meeting in Rome in March 2017, 60 years after the founding of our community."
North Korea on Friday conducted its fifth and biggest nuclear test and said it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile, ratcheting up a threat that rivals and the United Nations have been powerless to contain.

By Reuters: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told senior military officials on Monday that he absolutely cannot tolerate North Korea having conducted two nuclear tests since the start of the year.

North Korea on Friday conducted its fifth and biggest nuclear test and said it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile, ratcheting up a threat that rivals and the United Nations have been powerless to contain.

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"North Korea went ahead with two nuclear tests in just nine months. This is absolutely unacceptable," Abe said.

--- ENDS ---
Stocks (^DJI, ^GSPC, ^IXIC) are trying to rebound pare Fridays losses after opening down earlier, with energy (XLE) leading the way down on the back of a crude oil plunge. Tech (XLK) is leading, while financials (XLF) are lagging but still in the green. Peter P Costa, president of Empire Executions Inc., joins us live from the New York Stock Exchange.

To discuss the other big stories of the day, Alexis Christoforous is joined by Yahoo Finances Justine Underhill and Julia La Roche.

New rules for chat apps would be victory for telecom industry

It looks like big telecommunications companies are about to score a victory in their battle with messaging apps. The Wall Street Journal reports that the European Union will propose new rules for apps like Skype and WhatsAppthe same ones that are already imposed on AT&T, Vodafone and other telecom firms. The telecos have long complained that so-called chat apps have an unfair advantage in their competition with traditional voice and text services.

Digital natives to transform demographics, policy

Digital natives are on the rise. Those are the generations that grew up in the digital world with the internet, smartphones, and all the modern gadget accoutrements. And, theyre set to cause demographic changes the likes of which have never been seen, as their numbers swell from 9% of the worlds population to over 50% by 2050, according to an HSBC study.

Starbucks tries to boost brand, avoid the basic label

Finally, a theres a debate brewing over whether Starbucks still has the right stuff or has become too basic. Speaking last week in New York, CEO Howard Schultz acknowledged that the brands ubiquity has some customers questioning the quality of its coffee. In response, Starbucks is reportedly spending millions of dollars to build special roasteries and adding new menu items. And its all in an effort to avoid be labeled basic.
Washington (AFP) - Europe's order for Apple to pay 13 billion euros ($14.6 billion) in back taxes could provoke US tax reforms and a significant break for firms repatriating offshore earnings, US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Monday.

Lew said high US corporate tax rates drive companies to seek tax havens like Ireland, which offered Apple what the European Commission ruled was an illegally low rate to encourage it to invest there.

While he said that the EC move essentially raided potential US government tax receipts, Lew said the episode should give a boost to efforts to reform the US system.

"I would hope that the idea that a European Commission action will reach into our tax base and take US tax revenues and make them European tax revenues will help trigger this debate about tax reform," Lew said in a talk at the Council on Foreign Relations.

"If losing billions of dollars of our tax base to another authority isn't going to get people's attention, I don't know what will."

Lew has strongly criticized the European action as applying retroactive taxes on a company that had abided by the rules of Ireland, where the US tech giant enjoyed a special effective rate of just 0.005 percent, the European Commission said.

But he has also repeatedly insisted that the Apple profits retained in Ireland are subject to US taxation.

"Retroactively reaching into our tax base is something we find deeply troubling," he said.

"Which doesn't justify the behavior of seeking to avoid taxation," he added.

"I am not going to defend companies that seek either a zero or very low tax rate by taking advantage of tax havens and tax loopholes."

US companies have stockpiled some $2.4 trillion in untaxed foreign-earned profits offshore, arguing that Washington needs to lower the statutory 35 percent tax rate for them to repatriate the funds to the Untied States.

Lew said he expects Washington to craft a one-off discount for the repatriation of offshore profits in the next year in order to bolster government revenues. The same was done in 2004.

"That will be a windfall," he said.
Berlin (AFP) - A 95-year-old former medical orderly at the Auschwitz death camp went on trial in Germany on Monday, accused of more than 3,600 counts of accessory to murder.

Hubert Zafke was rolled into the courtroom in a wheelchair, holding a wooden cane, by one of his sons for the trial, which had been postponed three times because of health concerns.

The charges focus on a one-month period in 1944 when 14 trains carrying prisoners -- including the teenage diarist Anne Frank -- arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Frank, who arrived in Auschwitz with her parents and sister, was later transferred to another camp, Bergen-Belsen, where she died in March 1945.

Prosecutors have charged Zafke was aware that the camp in Nazi-occupied Poland was an extermination camp, and have accused him of at least 3,681 counts of accessory to murder.

About 1.1 million people, most of them European Jews, perished between 1940 and 1945 in Auschwitz before it was liberated by Soviet forces.

After prosecutors read their charges against Zafke on Monday, the trial in the northeastern city of Neubrandenburg was postponed again until next Monday.

Prosecutors had asked the chief judge to recuse himself because he had been unwilling to start the trial in the first case, citing Zafke's poor health, before being overruled by a higher court.

The question of whether Zafke is fit to stand trial was also due to be addressed again by the court next week.

More than 70 years after the trials of top Nazis began in Nuremberg, Germany is racing against time to prosecute the last Third Reich criminals.

Last year Oskar Groening, dubbed the "Bookkeeper of Auschwitz", was sentenced to four years in jail as an accessory to murder in 300,000 cases in 1944.
BERLIN (Reuters) - A 95-year-old former paramedic at the Nazi death camp Auschwitz was charged in a German court on Monday with being an accessory to the murder of at least 3,681 people in a trial that is likely to be one of Germany's last linked to the Holocaust. Hubert Zafke worked as a paramedic in Auschwitz from Aug. 15 to Sept. 14 in 1944. During this month, at least 14 deportation trains arrived at the extermination camp from places as far away as Lyon, Vienna and Westerbork in the Netherlands. Although the former paramedic is not accused of having been directly involved in any killings, the prosecution's office says that he was aware of the camp's function as a facility for mass murder. By joining its organizational structure, he consciously participated and even accelerated the deaths of thousands of people, the prosecutors say. The trial, at a regional court in the northeastern town of Neubrandenburg, was adjourned until next Monday after the state prosecutor and joint plaintiffs, including Auschwitz survivors, challenged the impartiality of the presiding judge. Germany has been holding trials of suspects of Nazi crimes, using accessory to murder charges to convict Sobibor death camp guard John Demjanjuk in 2011 and 94-year-old former Auschwitz guard Reinhold Hanning earlier this year. A German court in June branded Hanning a "willing and efficient henchman" in the Holocaust, convicting him of being an accessory to the murder of at least 170,000 people and sentencing him to five years in prison. Last year, 94-year-old Oskar Groening, known as the "bookkeeper of Auschwitz", was sentenced to four years in prison after he was convicted of being an accessory to the murder of 300,000 people in Auschwitz. The trials are likely to be Germany's last linked to the Holocaust, when the Nazis killed more than 6 million people, mostly Jews, in a deliberate plan of extermination. Last week, a 92-year-old woman who worked as a radio operator at Auschwitz was ruled as unfit to stand trial on charges that she was an accessory to the murder of 260,000 at the Nazi death camp. The court in Kiel said the woman identified only as Helma M. was almost blind and deaf, and that a serious illness she suffered this year had left her physically, mentally and emotionally unfit to be put on trial. (Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Alison Williams)
Another familiar face is coming back for the next season of Dancing With the Stars!

Julianne Hough confirmed to ET that she'll be returning to the ballroom in the upcoming season at the Creative Arts Emmys in Los Angeles on Sunday.

"I'm not going to be dancing, but I can finally announce that I am coming back on to judge," the 28-year-old actress told ET's Denny Directo. "I'm excited."

WATCH: See the 'Dancing With the Stars' Pros' Audition Tapes

The Grease: Live star took off season 22 to work on the hit Fox musical event, and it paid off. The production netted 10 Emmy nominations and brought Julianne some meaningful friendships.

"Not only was it such a monumental thing for us to accomplish, but I mean the friendships are lifelong," she explained "It's incredible."

However, it seems she couldn't stay away from the DWTS studio forever. Julianne joins her brother Derek, who is also returning to the show as a pro dancer after a season-long hiatus.

WATCH: 'Dancing With the Stars' Partners Derek Hough and Marilu Henner Look Like Early Favorites

Like his sister, Derek will soon be taking part in a live TV musical. The 31-year-old performer is set to star in NBC's Hairspray Live!, but he plans on sticking with DWTS while rehearsing.

"I'll be doing Dancing With the Stars and Hairspray at the same time and going back and forth, so it should be fun," Derek told ET at the Creative Arts Emmys.

While it will be difficult, Derek said his sister's experience with acting in a live TV musical is what convinced him to take on the challenge.

"She loved the experience so much and so, for me, seeing that really encouraged me to take that role," Derek explained.

WATCH: Derek Hough Says Julianne's 'Grease' Performance 'Raised the Bar' for TV Musicals

Another role Derek recently took on was the lead in Singin' in the Rain on Broadway. However, it appears that he'll have to wait a while before that kicks off, as the production is currently on hold.

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"I'm not sure what exactly is going to be happening, but it's definitely in my future," Derek said.

While Derek might be waiting a while to hit the Broadway stage, fellow DWTS pro Mark Ballas is headed to New York City soon to star in the final months of Jersey Boys.

The dancer, who is skipping Season 23 of DWTS, recently spoke with ET about getting the chance to play the final Frankie Valli in the celebrated production. Check out Ballas' exclusive interview below.

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Tracy Morgan has still got it!

The Saturday Night Live alum made a surprise return to stand-up at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles on Sunday, where he joked about his scary 2014 car accident, in which a Wal-Mart truck struck the limo bus Morgan was riding in on the New Jersey Turnpike. The comedian was seriously injured in the crash, and his friend, comedy writer James McNair, was killed.

EXCLUSIVE: Tracy Morgan on Being Nominated for an Emmy After Horrific Accident: 'It Means Everything'

A source tells ET that the set was unplanned, but that Morgan was in very high spirits while talking and taking pictures with fans at the comedy venue.

The crowd erupted when the 30 Rock star took the stage at around 9 p.m., after a fellow comedian offered him a shout out.

WATCH: Tracy Morgan Opens Up About Returning to Work After His Car Crash: 'I See Life Differently'

Morgan's set was mostly off-the-cuff, and he did mention that he still shops at Wal-Mart, joking that they've had to "roll their prices up" to cover his settlement.

Theo Von, host of the podcast Allegedly with Theo Von & Matthew Cole Weiss, snapped a pic of the 47-year-old actor's set, captioned, "The angel returns!!@realtracymorgan @thecomedystore #WelcomeBack."

RELATED: Tracy Morgan Reveals He Contemplated Suicide After Near Fatal Car Accident

The angel returns!! @realtracymorgan @thecomedystore #WelcomeBack A photo posted by Theo Von (@theovon) on Sep 11, 2016 at 9:13pm PDT

Von gushed to ET about the surprise set, saying, "It was like seeing an Angel. When he smiled that Tracy smile, the whole room felt graced. God is good for giving us back Tracy Morgan."

Meanwhile, Morgan talked to ET's Leanne Aguilera at Saturday's Creative Arts Emmy Awards -- Morgan is nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his SNL hosting appearance -- where he opened up about his survival and recovery from the tragic accident.

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"It means everything," Morgan said of his nomination. "I came back from a place that nobody probably thought I was going to come back from."

RELATED: Tina Fey 'Honestly Can't Believe' Tracy Morgan Survived His Horrific Car Accident

"This is for all the survivors and my boy Jimmy Mac, and it means a lot to me," he added. "It really means a lot to me just to be alive."

As for what's next, Morgan said that he's taking things one day at a time, explaining, "What's next at this point?... Tomorrow!"

EXCLUSIVE: Tracy Morgan's Recovery Timeline and How His Toddler Helped Him Walk Again

That's a great outlook to have!

Watch the video below to see Morgan recall how his wife and daughter were almost with him in the accident.

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Victoria Beckham is feeling the love from her handsome husband and adoring kids.

During her show at New York Fashion Week on Sunday, David Beckham and the couple's 17-year-old son, Brooklyn, came out looking very dapper for Victoria's spring/summer 2017 showing, and the fashion mogul told ET how much she appreciates their support.

"I couldn't do what I do if it wasn't for David," Victoria, 42, shared with ET's Carly Steel on Sunday. "He really is an incredible husband, wonderful father. I feel very lucky and incredibly blessed."

Getty Images

WATCH: Victoria Beckham Opens Up About the Moment She Fell for David Beckham

The former Spice Girls star explained how her husband spent the week at home with the kids, "making sure they do their homework, eat their dinner, and get to bed at the right time," so she could finish up what she needed to for NYFW. Then, next week, they'll switch when he needs to leave for his work.

"We're a really, really great team," Victoria said. "I absolutely couldn't do anything that I do creatively without having that support at home. He's wonderful!"

WATCH: Victoria and David Beckham Celebrate 17 Years of Marriage with Flashback Wedding Photos

Before her show, Victoria and David's four kids -- Brooklyn, 14-year-old Romeo, 11-year-old Cruz and 5-year-old Harper -- wrote an adorable note to their "mummy" wishing her good luck.

Victoria shared a sweet snapshot of the missive to Instagram, writing in the caption, "Feeling loved this morning."

Feeling loved this morning  I love you @davidbeckham @brooklynbeckham X Kisses from NY  VB #VBSS17 #NYFW A photo posted by Victoria Beckham (@victoriabeckham) on Sep 11, 2016 at 2:45am PDT

WATCH: Victoria and David Beckham Wish Son Romeo a Happy Birthday With Sweet Pics

According to Victoria, Brooklyn's appearance at NYFW with his father "came as a surprise," because her other kids were unable to come due to their school schedules. Speaking about her teenage son, she couldn't keep from gushing about his skills as a burgeoning photographer.

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"He's great! He's got a really good eye, he's very, very passionate about what he does," Victoria explained, adding that Brooklyn is so at ease in the world of celebrity photography because he's "grown up with being photographed."

"He's a wonderful, wonderful boy," she added. "He works very hard, [he's] super polite and he's proud of his mom."

WATCH: Victoria Beckham Poses Next to Son Brooklyn: 'I Didn't Know I Was So Short'

Last week, Victoria penned a letter to her teenage self for the October issue of British Vogue, in which she sweetly wrote that "love at first sight does exist."

"It will happen to you in the Manchester United players' lounge," she wrote to her younger self, adding, "Although you will get a little drunk, so exact details are hazy." Check out the video below to hear more about the designer's adorable editorial.

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Theres a moment in the pilot for The Exorcist that is so spine-tingling and cool that it actually gave me goosebumps. Unfortunately, the reason the moment is so creeptastically effective has nothing to do with this show  its at the end of the hour when Tubular Bells from the 1973 movie gets cued up.

RELATEDFall TV 2016: Your Handy Calendar of 120+ Season and Series Premiere Dates

I dont mean that as a dis, either  not exactly. Foxs take on the horror classic (premiering Friday, Sept. 23, at 9/8c) is a quality production from top to bottom. The cast, led by Sense8s Alfonso Herrera (as the sexiest priest since Father Dowling) and Geena Davis (in, basically, the Ellen Burstyn role) is top-notch; the directing, sharp; and the effects, far more realistic than when Linda Blair famously projectile-vomited pea soup.

However, its inevitable that the series will be compared to William Friedkins film  especially when Mike Oldfield is playing, for Gods sake  and the fact is, it pales by comparison. The feature already shocked us. It did its job. And theres simply nothing new here. So its kind of like watching understudies  really good understudies, mind you  put on a show youve already seen.

PHOTOS2016 Fall TV Scoop: Babies, Deaths and More

In Episode 1, Herreras likable Father Tomas is asked by parishioner Angela (Davis) to speak with Katherine (Scream Queens Brianne Howey), the daughter shes convinced isnt just a teenager acting out in the wake of a friends death but possessed by a demon. No sooner does he agree to do so than  boom, right on cue  a crow flies not in but into the window.

Along the way, we also meet Angelas husband Henry (Alan Ruck), whos suffering from a condition that has turned him into, as Kat unkindly puts it, basically a potato, and younger daughter Casey (Hannah Kasulka, a dead ringer for an adolescent Lindsay Lohan).

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RELATEDFall TV Schedule 2016: Whats on When? And Versus What?

the-exorcist-season-1-episode-1-gabriel

Thanks to a series of convenient dreams about renegade exorcist Father Marcus (intense Ben Daniels from House of Cards) and his attempts to save a possessed boy in Mexico City, Tomas becomes convinced that he should help Angela and her family  just in time for him to have his first demonic run-in. And, admittedly, theres a cool surprise to it.

The thing is, it isnt enough. This is all perfectly interesting. It just isnt compelling. So, as competently crafted as the drama is, the best I can do is damn it with what sounds like faint praise.

THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: If you tune in and get all the way to Tubular Bells, trust me  youre going to want to Netflix the movie. But save yourself an hour and, instead, just do that now.

Launch Gallery: TV Stars Back at Work: Fall 2016 Photos

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By Andrei Makhovsky MINSK (Reuters) - Lawmakers loyal to hardline Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko retained power in an election on Sunday, but the opposition's win of a seat for the first time in 20 years could help the ex-Soviet nation further improve ties with the West. The opposition, which has not been represented in the 110-seat parliament since 1996, had not been expected to gain any seats, but in a concession to Western calls for greater transparency its candidates were able to register more easily. External monitors were also given access to the vote count. Lukashenko, in power since 1994, has kept Belarus in a close strategic alliance with Moscow. However, some cracks appeared in the relationship following Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and since then Minsk has made overtures to the West. Anna Konopatskaya, a member of opposition party United Civil Party, won a place in parliament, election results showed. Independent candidate Elena Anisim, who has links to the opposition, was also elected. The presence of the opposition in parliament will not change the political landscape, but it shows the authorities are willing to make some adjustments in the interests of boosting Western ties. "We've done everything so that there aren't complaints from the Western side. We accommodated their requests," Lukashenko told journalists after casting his vote in Minsk. A buffet that included a stuffed suckling pig and a cake in the shape of Belarus had been laid out at the president's polling station. Providing buffets is a Belarussian tradition to encourage citizens to vote and many were seen across the country. Relations between Minsk and the West have warmed since recession-hit Belarus held a peaceful presidential election last October. The release of political prisoners and Lukashenko's role in hosting Ukraine-Russia peace talks also eased international criticism of the veteran leader, who the United States once said ran Europe's last dictatorship. The European Union ended five years of sanctions against Belarus in February. The United States has also relaxed some of its restrictions on Minsk and said the authorities' handling of Sunday's vote would be a factor in an upcoming review of sanctions. "For the Belarussian authorities, this election is more an issue of foreign than domestic policy," said Denis Melyantsov, senior analyst at the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies. DEMOCRATIC CHANGE Opposition groups did not stage a mass boycott or protests like those held over previous elections. Instead they decided to take part in the hope of boosting their support. The West has pushed for democratic change in Belarus but has been shifting its approach to engagement rather than isolation, also with a view to countering what it sees as a more aggressive Russia. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which monitored Sunday's vote and has criticized previous elections for being undemocratic, said on Monday it had had better access to the vote counting this time. "There has been some improvement," observer mission chief Kent Harstedt told a briefing in Minsk, but cautioned that the OSCE had hoped for "faster progress" on electoral reforms. The easing of Western sanctions is necessary for Belarus's plans to improve commercial ties with the EU and to lessen its dependence on the crisis-hit Russian market, which currently accounts for 40 percent of Belarussian exports. Seeking loans from international lenders, including $3 billion from the International Monetary Fund, Belarus has implemented cautious economic reforms such as raising the retirement age and relaxing foreign currency rules. Russia's economic crisis, which is linked to weak global oil prices and Western sanctions imposed over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis, has hit other former Soviet republics including Belarus, where the economy shrank by 3.9 percent in 2015. (Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Peter Cooney and Alan Crosby)
"Assessment by South Korean and US intelligence is that the North is always ready for an additional nuclear test in the Punggye-ri area," South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun said.

By Reuters: North Korea is ready to conduct an additional nuclear test at any time, South Korea's Defence Ministry said on Monday, three days after the reclusive North's fifth test drew widespread condemnation.

Pyongyang set off its most powerful nuclear blast to date on Friday, saying it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile and ratcheting up a threat that its rivals and the United Nations have been powerless to contain.



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ALSO READ: North Korea confirms it conducted fifth nuclear test



ALWAYS READY FOR A NUCLEAR TEST

"Assessment by South Korean and US intelligence is that the North is always ready for an additional nuclear test in the Punggye-ri area," South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun told a news briefing.

Punggye-ri, near the northeastern coast, is the site of the North's five nuclear explosions.

"North Korea has a tunnel where it can conduct an additional nuclear test," Moon said.

IS NORTH KOREA ALL SET?

South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported earlier that North Korea had completed preparations for another nuclear test, citing South Korean government sources who said the North may use a previously unused tunnel at its mountainous test site.

It did not elaborate on what activities had been detected at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, formerly the country's chief nuclear negotiator, arrived in Beijing on Monday and was seen entering the country's embassy, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.

Ri left Pyongyang to attend a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement countries in Venezuela and later the U.N. General Assembly, the Associated Press reported from Pyongyang without citing a source.



US PUSHES FOR MORE SANCTIONS

His trip comes amid a fresh push by the United States and South Korea for more sanctions following the nuclear test.

A US special envoy for the isolated state, Sung Kim, will travel to Seoul on Monday. Kim met with Japanese officials on Sunday and said the United States may launch unilateral sanctions against North Korea, echoing comments by U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday in the wake of the test.

A push for further sanctions was "laughable", North Korea said on Sunday, vowing to continue to strengthen its nuclear power.

Yonhap reported that bad weather had delayed the flight of an advanced U.S. B-1B bomber to the Korean peninsula, a show of strength and solidarity with ally Seoul, scheduled for Monday. The flight from the U.S. base in Guam would now take place on Tuesday, a U.S. Forces in Korea official told Reuters, declining to identify the type of aircraft involved.

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South Korea's military put the force of Friday's blast at 10 kilotonnes, but a U.S. expert said the highest estimates of seismic magnitude suggested a yield of 20 to 30 kilotonnes. The test showed North Korea's nuclear capability was expanding fast and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was unwilling to alter course, South Korea said on Saturday.

The UN Security Council denounced the test and said it would begin work immediately on a resolution. The United States, Britain and France pushed for the 15-member body to impose new sanctions.

Both China and Russia backed sanctions imposed in March following the North's January nuclear test, but their apparent ambivalence about fresh sanctions cast doubt on the Security Council's ability to quickly form a consensus.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday a "creative" response was needed.

The Global Times, run by the Chinese Communist Party, rejected the suggestion by the United States that Beijing was responsible for the North's pursuit of nuclear arms. It said the United States was "the root cause" of the issue.

"China is not capable of persuading North Korea to give up nuclear development, because China's efforts are not supported by the others," it said in an editorial on Monday. "Washington has been refusing to sign a peace treaty with Pyongyang."

--- ENDS ---

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By Joachim Dagenborg OSLO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc will learn from a mistake it made by deleting a historic Vietnam War photo of a naked girl fleeing a napalm attack, the company's chief operating officer said. The photograph was removed from several accounts on Friday, including that of Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, on the grounds it violated Facebook's restrictions on nudity. It was reinstated after Solberg accused Facebook of censorship and of editing history. "These are difficult decisions and we don't always get it right," Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg wrote in a letter to the prime minister, obtained by Reuters on Monday under Norway's freedom of information rules. "Even with clear standards, screening millions of posts on a case-by-case basis every week is challenging," Sandberg wrote. "Nonetheless, we intend to do better. We are committed to listening to our community and evolving. Thank you for helping us get this right," she wrote. She said the letter was a sign of "how seriously we take this matter and how we are handling it". The 1972 photograph, by Pulitzer Prize-winner Nick Ut of the Associated Press, shows screaming children running from a napalm attack. A naked nine-year-old girl, Phan Thi Kim Phuc, is at its center. Sandberg wrote that "sometimes ... the global and historical importance of a photo like 'Terror of War' outweighs the importance of keeping nudity off Facebook." Facebook bars nudity with some exemptions, such as photographs of nudes in art. It is unclear exactly how disputes over its "Community Standards" reach top management. Solberg posted the photograph on her Facebook page after the company had deleted it from the sites of Norwegian authors and the newspaper Aftenposten, which mounted a front-page campaign on Friday urging Facebook to permit publication. Solberg welcomed Facebook's about-turn. "It shows that it helps to use your voice to say 'we want a change'. I'm very pleased with that," she told NRK public broadcasting on Friday. Sandberg suggested that Solberg's staff could meet two Facebook officials visiting Norway on Friday. "I hope to see you soon - and am always available if you have further concerns," she wrote. Norway is a big investor in Facebook. Its $891 billion sovereign wealth fund, the world's biggest, had a stake of 0.52 percent in Facebook, worth $1.54 billion at the start of 2016. ($1 = 8.2667 Norwegian crowns) (Writing by Alister Doyle, editing by Larry King)
The discovery of fairy circles in Australia earlier this year has hardly put to rest the controversy over how these mysterious structures form.

"Fairy circles " are regular, repeating patches of dirt in remote grasslands that, when viewed from above, look like whimsical rings that were scattered across a landscape. Despite their fanciful appearance, the patterns have been a source of serious scientific debate for the last four decades. While some have argued that the geometric patterns are the work of termites, others have postulated that the circles form naturally as vegetation self-organizes in competition for scarce water and other nutrients.

Previously, these patches had been observed only in southeastern Africa, mostly Namibia, but in March, a group of researchers announced that they had identified fairy circles in satellite images and during fieldwork in Western Australia. [See Stunning Photos of Fairy Circles in Australia]

Led by ecological modeler Stephan Getzin of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, Germany, this research team claimed that their discovery supported the theory that fairy circles were a pattern caused by the competition for water. According to this theory, which was detailed in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) earlier this year, the biggest and most competitive grass plants take up the most water, leaving their weaker neighbors to die out. Over time, barren patches pop up where the weaklings once grew, with a hard, sunbaked crust of soil that doubles as a rainwater collection pool. Thirsty plants then form a circle around this crust, maximizing their access to this water, and thus, fairy circles are born.

But now, a separate group of researchers in Australia disputes those claims. In a rebuttal published in PNAS this month, ecologist Fiona Walsh of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and her colleagues point to termites as the culprits behind these fairy circles.

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Walsh's team says that these barren patches are quite common across the dry grasslands from Western Australia to the Northern Territory. Using crowbars, they dug into the centers of circles at four different locations and found that all had concreted soil and chambers made by termites of the genus Drepanotermes. Not all of these termite nests, or termitaria, were active, however. The scientists said that the soil in these circles can become so hardened by termites that the patterns may last for decades after the termite colonies are abandoned, leaving behind the "ghosts of termitaria past."

"These new Australian data suggest that a termite hypothesis for African circles should be revisited, despite being rejected by the Getzin team," Walsh said in a statement. She also argued that local knowledge could contribute to the understanding of the circles, as the indigenous people of Australia have long attributed those barren desert patches to termites.

Because these spots lack prickly grass called spinifex, the people who live in the region have incorporated these flat circular areas into their walking paths and have used them as comfortable sitting areas to do things like grind seeds, the researchers of the rebuttal said.

"Older desert people also sweep the circular hard spots as a place to prepare foods and artifacts," Walsh said in the statement. Walsh said that her colleague Gladys Bidu, a Karimarra woman and ranger, "recognizes these spots as an unquestionably 'normal' feature made by termites  as ubiquitous to her as footpaths are to any city-dweller who also knows wiring and plumbing is under the pavement."

In a response to the rebuttal, Getzin and his colleagues stood by their original findings. Though termites can cause bare patches in grasslands, the researchers still don't see any correlation with these circles and termite activity.

As Walsh told Alice Springs News: "A healthy scientific process is underway, reply and counter-reply, but we do not yet have reason to waver from our conclusion."

Original article on Live Science.

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Relatives of workers killed in a fire at a packaging factory in Bangladesh have filed a murder case against the owner, police said Monday, as the death toll from the disaster rose to 31.

Another 12 people are missing after the disaster on Saturday, the worst since the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment complex in 2013 that killed more than 1,100 people.

The government has launched an investigation into what caused the fire, but police in the industrial town of Tongi, where the Tampaco Foils Limited factory was located, said bereaved relatives had already filed a private lawsuit.

"A murder case was filed by relatives of a dead worker against eight people, including the owner and his wife," Tongi police chief Firoz Talukdar told AFP.

Police said they would launch a separate investigation into the murder allegation made by the family. Any decision on whether to bring charges would have to be taken by a court.

Talukdar said firefighters and soldiers engaged in search and rescue efforts had dug out two more bodies, but there was little hope of finding any survivors.

Around 70 people were also injured, some critically, in the fire at the factory, which packages food and cigarette products for local and foreign brands.

The blaze is the latest in a series of deadly accidents to hit impoverished Bangladesh, whose $27-billion garment industry is the world's second largest behind China's.

The Rana Plaza tragedy triggered international outrage and successfully put pressure on US and European clothing brands to improve deplorable safety conditions at the factories which supply them.

The Tampaco factory supplies multinational and domestic brands including British-American Tobacco Bangladesh Limited and Nestle Bangladesh Limited, according to a company website.
On Monday morning, The Birth Of A Nation is gone from the Toronto Film Festival (at least until a last screening on Saturday), and theres finally time for somebody elses problems. Todays Globe And Mail said the film is leaving as it arrived: with a question mark. A side-stepping press conference with star-director Nate Parker and his cast Sunday did nothing to settle whether the movie has been hopelessly damaged by past rape charges. Parker was acquitted, but in the eyes of some, a taint remains.

A small problem among Canadians would be celebrity-watcher complaints, described in the morning subway paper, about being herded into fan pens as they waited to see stars on and around the King Street West venues. A TIFF spokeswoman, with polite Canadian intransigence, said it was all for the good of the festival-going public.

Over at the Glenn Gould studio, an ongoing film industry conference turned from race  a central concern of Birth, Hidden Figures and Loving, all screening here  to gender inequity. The first presentation of the day was a film titled The 4%: Films Gender Problem, to be followed by a conversation with industry leaders. (Last nights trouble was a dead jazz trumpeter, Lee Morgan, shot by his common-law wife Helen Morgan, as described in Kasper Collins documentary I Called Him Morgan.)

RelatedNate Parkers Birth Of A Nation Gets A Warm Reception, And Soft Landing, At Its Toronto Debut

But we had to miss, in order to confront the mornings big on-screen problem, Armenian genocide, as portrayed in Terry Georges historical epic The Promise. It counts both the deceased Kirk Kerkorian and his longtime lawyer Patricia Glaser among its executive producers and is on the hunt for distribution  the sort of problem regarding which I mostly defer to my colleague Mike Fleming Jr, who has an eye on the market.

At a press conference Monday, Christian Bale, the films big draw, did not appear  yet another problem. But Oscar Isaac, who played the central character of an Armenian medical student caught in the sweep of bloody history, was on hand. I was really shamefully ignorant of this story, Isaac said of the underlying events, which involved the mass extermination of Armenians by Turks during World War I. Angela Serafyan, another of the films stars, was better acquainted with that history. Im a result of survivors from the Armenian genocide, she said. My great-great-grandmother committed suicide in front of her children; they were 7 and 5.

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RelatedHotel Rwandas Terry George Looks At Armenian Genocide With The Promise: Toronto Q&A

In the largest sense, George said his aim is to get to the why of the genocide, in hope of diminishing such onslaughts, against Armenians or anyone else, in the future. In organizing the Holocaust, he noted, Hitler once admonished his advisers: Who now speaks of the Armenians?

In cinematic terms, George voiced his chagrin that the genre of grand historical romance  which takes viewers, through deeply human characters, into events most could not remotely experience  are being pushed aside by the film business. Its produced the greatest films in cinematic history, he said, reeling off a list of example that included Reds, Missing, Schindlers List and The Deer Hunter.

It is hard to disagree. But on to the next problem, which is that long line expected at an afternoon press and industry screening of Pablo Larrains Jackie, starring Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy.

RelatedThe Promise Trailer: Terry George Confronts Armenian Genocide By Turks  Toronto

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Tom Ford On Winning Awards, Movie Inspirations, And The Jinxed Venice And Toronto Premieres Of 'Nocturnal Animals'
TORONTO (Reuters) - A teenage boy's struggle with his mother's terminal illness takes a surreal turn when he finds comfort in a giant talking tree monster, in the emotional fantasy drama "A Monster Calls." The film, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, follows the story of Connor, a quiet, artistic teenage boy who becomes a target for the school bully. As his mother, played by Felicity Jones, gets sicker from cancer, Conner goes to live with his cold, reserved grandmother, played by Sigourney Weaver. In the midst of his life crumbling around him, Connor is visited at night by a giant talking yew tree monster. The film is adapted from the children's book of the same name, and Bayona incorporated watercolor animations to illustrate the stories of good and evil that the tree monster, voiced by Liam Neeson, tells Connor. "I had never read anything quite like it," said Jones, who plays Connor's ailing mother. "The elements of fantasy, animation, and a giant, talking tree, and dealing with something that everyone goes through, dealing with loss, I thought was very special." Newcomer British actor Lewis MacDougall, who plays Connor, said the best part about working on the film was being among the all-star cast and shooting the film in Barcelona. The film will be rolling out across Europe in October and in limited U.S. theaters in December. Weaver said she was touched by the story and "delighted" to play an English woman. "I thought it was an amazing, ambitious story," she said. (Reporting by Reuters TV; Writing by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bernard Orr)
Fidelity National Information Services, Inc.FIS announced its partnership with CO-OP Financial Services last Friday. The latter will be adding Fidelitys Cardless Cash to its ATM services.

Fidelitys FIS Cardless Cash is a unique mobile solution that bypasses the use of plastic cards in order to make withdrawals from ATM. For this, users can authorize a withdrawal from an ATM through the FIS Mobile Banking app using TouchID. As it completely avoids the use of plastic cards, it is deemed to be more secure and private for consumers.

Fidelitys offerings will be incorporated in the CO-OP ATM Terminal Driving services, a pilot program scheduled to begin in first-quarter 2017. As the CEO of CO-OP stated CO-OP focuses on providing credit unions the latest technology that strengthens member connections. He added "This partnership will provide credit union members additional convenience, combined with the latest in transaction security.

Fidelity continues to bolster its position in the financial and payments solutions business by enhancing product portfolio. It has placed itself well to benefit from increasing investment in mobile banking, which has now developed into an essential extension of online banking as smartphone and tablet usage continues to accelerate globally.

The company had launched FIS Cardless Cash last year and is now striving to expand its consumer base. The service has been deployed by nearly 35 financial institutions while the company is already working to make it available at over 100K ATMs in the U.S. The aforementioned collaboration is a positive as it brings under its coverage a vast number of CO-OP ATMs (nearly 30K surcharge-free ATMs as of Jul 2016).

FIDELITY NAT IN Price and Consensus

FIDELITY NAT IN Price and Consensus | FIDELITY NAT IN Quote

Zacks Rank

Fidelity currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the broader space include JetPay Corporation JTPY, Banco Bradesco S.A. BBD and Euronet Worldwide, Inc. EEFT. All three carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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Interested in IPOs? Check out the special edition of Zacks Friday Finish Line below, where Editor Maddy Johnson and Content Writer Ryan McQueeney interview Kathleen Smith of Renaissance Capital about the IPO market in 2016 (see part two here).

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Money may not buy you love, but talking about it may lead to a happier relationship.

Thats the finding of a new study from TD Bank, which finds that couples who chat about their finances regularly are happier than those who discuss it less frequently. About 78 percent of those who discuss finances weekly say they are happy, compared to 50 percent of those who talk about money just a few times per year.

Of course, its possible that unhappy couples just arent talking at all, but experts say that regularly discussing money is an important part of a healthy relationship. Regular talks may also make it less likely that partners will keep financial secrets from each other; 10 percent of couples surveyed admitted to having a money-related secret.

Related: What Your Finances Say About Your Relationship

Nearly half of those who had a financial secret said that they had a bank account their partner didnt know about, 37 percent had significant undisclosed debt, and about a third hadnt shared their poor credit score with their partner. Millennials are the most likely to keep financial secrets, with 22 percent saying theyre keeping something from their partner, compared to 11 percent of Gen Xers and just 4 percent of Boomers.





Happiness & Communication

Source: TD Bank Love and Money Survey 2016

Most secret-keepers (85 percent) plan to come clean at some point, with 48 percent vowing to share their full financial picture with their partner in the next year, and nearly 30 percent planning to do so in the next five years.

They might want to start sooner. One in 10 of those surveyed said that they would end a relationship if they discovered that their partner had a financial secret.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Nine people, including five children, died early Monday after a fire broke out inside a Memphis home in the deadliest blaze the Tennessee city has seen in almost a century, officials said.

Firefighters wept as they carried out the bodies of four adults and three children who died inside the house about 1:20 a.m., neighbors told USA Today. Two other children died after being taken to the hospital, and another child is fighting for his life, Memphis Fire Services Director Gina Sweat said at a news conference.

Ive never seen firemen cry, but they were bawling like babies when they brought the children out, the familys neighbor, Firid Shoundra Hampton, told USA Today. Weve all lived over here for 40 years and we are just devastated.

Sweat said firefighters and paramedics were visibly shaken after responding to the most tragic loss of life in a single fire incident since the 1920s.

Nothing in our training could truly prepare us for this heartbreaking event, Sweat said. As I walked among the firefighters and the paramedics on the scene this morning, I could see the pain in their eyes, and I could feel the heavy emotions in their hearts. They were emotionally drained.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The Commercial Appeal said family members identified three of the deceased adults as Carol Collier, 56; LaKisha Ward, 27; and Eloise Futrell, 61. The children ranged in ages between 3 and 16, according to the newspaper.

They are all gone, Futrells niece, Elisa Weathersby, told USA Today. Our hearts are ripped in two.
By PTI: yatra

From M Zulqernain

Lahore, Sep 12 (PTI) Pakistan will print Guru Granth Sahib to prevent any desecration of the holy book during Sikh pilgrimage in the country, the top body which looks after minorities holy places in the Islamic nation said today.

"In order to save Guru Garanth Sahib from any desecration as Sikh pilgrims carry the holy scripture during yatras and had to undergo different checks at the borders, we have decided to print the religious scripture in Pakistan as a service to the Sikh community," Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) Chairman Siddiqul Farooq told reporters.

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Indias Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and the Delhi Gurdwara Management Committee will be engaged in the printing process, he said.

Farooq said the Pakistan government is also taking steps to export Amrat Jal, holy water from a sacred well in Nankana Sahib (the birth place of Baba Guru Nanak) in Nankana Sahib, some 80km from Lahore.

"We have made preparations to export Amrat Jal to India and other countries," he added.

He said the Be Be Nanki well in Nankana Sahib which had been out of order for 70 years, has been restored.

"Ownership has been given to yatrees in all matters. I am personally overseeing the arrangements for visiting Hindu and Sikh pilgrims. The number of Hindu and Sikh yatrees is increasing every year and the ETPB has decided to register travel promoters in order to facilitate them and attract more tourism," he said

Renovation work has been started in all Gurdwaras and temples in the country besides a turbine has been installed at Gurdwara Punjah Sahib to generate electricity from water, he said. PTI MZ PMS AKJ PMS

--- ENDS ---
By Laila Kearney

(Reuters) - Five children and four adults were killed early on Monday in a Memphis, Tennessee house fire that was the city's deadliest in nearly a century, officials said.

All of the adults and three of the children were pronounced dead at the single-story wooden house in South Memphis, while two more children died after being transported to local hospitals, city officials said. Another child is in critical condition.

Most of those killed, who were believed to have been related, appear to have died from smoke inhalation, Memphis Fire Department Chief Gina Sweat said at a news conference. The others likely died of burn injures, Sweat said.

The cause of the fire was under investigation, Sweat added.

"Our whole city is in mourning for the loss," Mayor Jim Strickland told reporters. "It's a very sad day."

"This is the most tragic loss of life in a single fire incident since the 1920s," Sweat added.

Firefighters responded to the fire after an emergency call was placed from inside the home at about 1:30 a.m., Sweat said.

Fire crews broke through "security doors" to gain entry to the home, which was filled with thick smoke, Sweat said. It was not immediately clear if those inside attempted to escape the blaze and smoke but were impeded by metal bars on the home's windows and security doors, Sweat said.

The fire itself was small, and likely originated in the living room, she said.

(Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Will Dunham)
A Florida mosque where Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen prayed was intentionally set ablaze in an early morning fire, authorities say.

According to the St. Lucie County Sheriffs Department, a surveillance video captured a person approaching the Fort Pierce Islamic Center shortly before a fire broke out. Officials are investigating the incident as an act of arson.

According to the Sheriff Departments Facebook page, the St. Lucie County Fire District, the Florida State Fire Marshalls Office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Federal Bureau of Investigations are also assisting in the investigation.

Mateen, the ISIS-inspired guman who shot and killed 49 people during his June rampage, had attended the mosque regularly since 2003, CNN reports. The mosque was also attended by Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, an American suicide bomber in Syria.

The Sheriffs Department expects to release video from the fire soon with hopes that someone will be able to identify the individual who is believed to have started the fire.
US automotive giant Ford is pledging to help ease congestion in the world's global cities and to work co-operatively to develop and support new mobility solutions, starting with San Francisco.

"We're expanding our business to be both an auto and a mobility company, and partnering with cities on current and future transportation needs is the next major step," said Mark Fields, Ford president and CEO.

In San Francisco that will mean acquiring crowd-sourced shuttle service, Chariot, and partnering with bike-sharing service, Motivate.

"Cities globally are dealing with increased congestion, a growing middle class and environmental issues -- all of which can be alleviated by developing mobility solutions fine-tuned to the unique challenges of each location," said Jim Hackett, chairman of company subsidiary Ford Smart Mobility LLC.

Chariot has been going since 2014. Its 100 shuttle bus fleet transports riders around the Bay area filling in gaps that exist in current public transport services. Routes are decided based on user demand. Ford wants to expand the business beyond the 28 current routes within the city and to take the model to other cities, too. To do this will require developing an algorithm that can predict demand, so that vehicles are used more efficiently.

Car companies have been quick to spot the need to address the last mile issue -- that part of a journey that, without personal mobility is usually on foot -- when moving into mobility solutions. By eliminating the last mile, commuters that would usually grab their car keys might be more willing to leave the car at home, or at least in a train station car park.

Around the world, bike sharing is having a huge impact on getting people to use public transport. By partnering with Motivate, Ford will accelerate the opening of more collection and return stations and to take the number of bikes up to 7000. The company also plans to re-brand the service GoBike and integrate it into its existing FordPass mobility app.

"This unique partnership with Ford shows that bike share is no longer alternative transportation; it is central to creating smart, on-demand mobility," said Motivate CEO, Jay Walder.

Alongside acquisitions and partnerships, Ford is also setting up a City Solutions team that will take lessons learned and apply them globally to deliver mobility solutions that fit the exact needs of individual cities.
London (AFP) - Britain's former prime minister David Cameron resigned his seat in the House of Commons on Monday, less than three months after losing an EU referendum in which he had campaigned to stay in the bloc.

Cameron stepped down as prime minister in June, hours after Britain's dramatic vote to leave the European Union (EU), handing power to his successor Theresa May in July.

"The circumstances of my resignation as prime minister and the realities of modern politics make it very difficult to continue (in parliament)... without the risk of becoming a diversion," Cameron said in a statement.

"I fully support Theresa May and have every confidence that Britain will thrive under her strong leadership," the 49-year-old added.

The former premier was pilloried after the shock referendum defeat.

Critics accused him of recklessness in holding the vote in the first place and mismanaging the Remain campaign in the face of anti-EU populism.

His decision to stage the referendum was seen in Westminster as a bid to placate eurosceptic opponents in the centre-right Conservative Party.

His resignation from parliament is unusually quick -- former prime ministers have typically retained their seats for a number of years after leaving office.

Cameron denied it was linked to May's decision last week to let state-funded schools reintroduce selection by academic ability, a controversial move he opposed during his six years in office.

"This decision has got nothing to do with any one individual issue and that way the timing I promise is coincidental," he told broadcaster ITV in an interview.

"Obviously I have my own views about certain issues. People know that. That's really the point. As a former PM it's very difficult to sit as a backbencher and not be an enormous diversion and distraction from what the government is doing," he said.

May wished Cameron well for the future in a brief statement on Facebook.

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"I was proud to serve in David Cameron's government -- and under his leadership we achieved great things," the former interior minister wrote.

- 'A life outside Westminster' -

The suave Eton-educated Cameron has been MP for Witney in the rural county of Oxfordshire, northwest of London, since 2001.

At the time of his resignation as premier, he insisted he was "keen to continue" as a constituency MP and intended to seek re-election at the next general election, due in 2020.

He is not known to have taken on any other roles since stepping down. His media appearances since have been in pictures of him holidaying with his family.

"Obviously Iam going to have to start to build a life outside Westminster," he told ITV.

"I'm only 49 and I hope I can still contribute in terms of public service and contribute to our country," he said.

Cameron's decision was welcomed by allies.

His former finance minister and right hand man George Osborne, who was excluded from the cabinet by May, called it a "sad day" on Twitter.

"I know how difficult this decision has been for him," Osborne said.

Former foreign secretary William Hague added it was the "right decision", writing: "Former Prime Ministers are either accused of doing too little or being a distraction."

Boris Johnson -- the current foreign secretary who played an instrumental role in the Leave campaign -- praised Cameron on Twitter: "Sad to see @David_Cameron standing down:modernising Tory party - delivered sustained economic recovery - incredible record of public service."

Angela Eagle, a senior lawmaker in the main opposition Labour party, told the BBC that Cameron had "put his whole country at risk to settle a debate in his own party" through the EU referendum.

"He has now walked away leaving others to clear up the mess," she added.

The pro-Brexit Daily Mail newspaper reported the resignation as "The Crushing of David Cameron" on its front page, saying his legacy was in ruins.

Despite Cameron's denial he quit in response to May's school reform, The Times said the former prime minister wants the freedom to speak out on the matter.

The Daily Telegraph, popular among Conservative voters, said Cameron quit "to avoid split with May".

Cameron's decision to resign triggers an obscure parliamentary procedure, because lawmakers are technically not able to resign.

He was named as Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead and a by-election to pick his successor will be held.
By Jonathan Landay WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former CIA Director James Woolsey, a vocal advocate of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq who promoted allegations that Saddam Hussein harbored illegal weapons, will serve as a senior national security adviser to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, the campaign announced on Monday. Woolseys hiring contrasted with Trumps repeated assertions that he was a stalwart opponent of the invasion, although he initially supported it. In the announcement, Woolsey said he supports Trumps plan to expand the U.S. military, which calls for ending Pentagon budget caps and spending billions of dollars for additional troops, ships and aircraft. "Mr. Trumps commitment to reversing the harmful defense budget cuts signed into law by the current administration, while acknowledging the need for debt reduction, is an essential step toward reinstating the United States primacy in the conventional and digital battlespace," Woolsey said. Woolsey, who served for two years as CIA chief under then-President Bill Clinton, also criticized the presence of classified information in emails stored on Democratic candidate Hillary Clintons private server. In an appearance on CNN, however, he called Trumps plan to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States a bad decision. He also has warned about the threats posed by climate change, something Trump has called a hoax that benefits China. Woolsey was an outspoken proponent of the Iraq invasion, suggesting that Saddam was hiding nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs from U.N. inspectors. He also promoted the erroneous allegation that the Iraqi dictator backed al Qaida's Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Shortly after former President George W. Bush took office in 2001, Woolsey visited Britain on a Defense Department trip in a fruitless hunt for evidence that Saddam masterminded the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center in New York. He made a second visit to Britain for the same purpose shortly after Sept. 11, and again came up empty. At the time of his second trip, Woolsey was a member of the Defense Policy Board, a panel of outside advisers to the Defense Department that advocated Saddam's overthrow even in the absence of any evidence of his complicity in 9/11. The following year, he arranged for the Defense Intelligence Agency to debrief an Iraqi defector who claimed that Iraq had mobile biological-warfare laboratories disguised as yogurt and milk trucks. The man was later determined to be a fabricator. In 2000, Woolsey briefly served as a corporate officer of a foundation that managed U.S. funding for the Iraqi National Congress, the exile group that produced a series of defectors who peddled false information to bolster the allegations that Saddam was hiding illicit weapons programs. No such weapons or facilities have ever been found. (Reporting by Jonathan Landay; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
By Andrew Callus

PARIS (Reuters) - President Francois Hollande weighed in to a row over trainmaking jobs in eastern France on Monday, bringing the business affairs of engineering firm Alstom lurching back into the political arena just months before presidential elections.

Alstom, maker of France's TGV high speed trains and 20 percent controlled by the state, said last week it would stop making rolling stock at Belfort, where its first steam locomotive was built in 1880.

It cited a lack of orders and a need to streamline production. Four hundred Belfort workers are to be offered jobs at other sites and the plant reduced to doing maintenance by 2018.

Politicians from all sides are crying foul, with some calling for a rethink of a contract French state-owned railways operator SNCF and its partners recently awarded to German competitor Vossloh.

Ministers said they were not told in advance about Alstom's plan, and Alstom Chief Executive Henri Poupart-Lafarge was summoned last Thursday to a meeting with Hollande.

With French unemployment sitting at around 10 percent since Hollande was elected in 2012 and a wide-open presidential election looming in April, no politician can afford to ignore such a highprofile case, despite its relatively small scale.

"The president of the republic has given us a target: to make sure Alstom's railway activities are maintained," Finance Minister Michel Sapin said on Monday after a meeting with ministers.

"Hollande fears a new Florange" read the front page headline of Le Monde newspaper, a reference to the Florange steel furnaces which closed soon after he took office.

THE ALSTOM TOUCH

For decades, governments of both right and left in France have intervened to protect their industrial champions from the pressures of globalisation.

This is not the first time Alstom has been front and centre, having touched the careers of a number of next year's potential presidential candidates.

More than 12 years ago Alstom was struggling, and the German company Siemens wanted to buy its power turbines division.

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Nicolas Sarkozy, then the finance and economy minister and later president of France, balked at the idea. After fierce lobbying at the European Commission, he won permission for a state bailout in 2004.

Sarkozy hopes to represent the centre-right Les Republicains and its allies again in next year's presidential poll.

A decade later, in 2014, Alstom was back in trouble as orders dropped. This time the buyer of the power business was U.S.-based General Electric.

GE's bid was deeply controversial in France for the loss of industrial power it appeared to imply, and amid worries about French jobs.

This time, under Socialist Hollande's presidency and with no credible alternative, the deal went through.

It sliced off about 70 percent of Alstom's revenue base but the economy minister of the time, Arnaud Montebourg, arranged for the state to take control of a 20 percent voting stake in the slimmed-down Alstom in a bid to protect what was left.

The borrowing arrangement under which the government holds its stake expires in February, soon before the election.

Montebourg later resigned in protest over pro-business labour reforms, and is now running for president himself.

His successor, Emmanuel Macron, is also touched by the Alstom factor. Last year Macron promised to protect jobs at Belfort. He resigned last month to prepare a possible presidential bid of his own.

Alstom has 12 sites in France and employs about 9,000 people. A spokeswoman would not comment on the political aspects.

"We have presented a project in a context (loss of orders) which everyone knows about," she said. "We are talking about the transfer of 400 jobs within France."

Alstom expects the workload at its French sites to fall by 30 percent by 2018.

In the year to March 2016 and shorn of its power division, Alstom made a net loss from continuing operations of about 1 billion euros (0.82 billion pounds).

Nevertheless, Alstom says urbanisation and environmental concerns make its outlook bright, and it has been winning contracts abroad, including a $2 billion U.S. order signed in August.

But analysts note that some of these deals have involved agreements to build the trains in the countries where the orders have been made.

(Additional reporting by Jean-Baptise Vey, Cyril Altmeyer and Geert De Clercq; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
Paris (AFP) - Three French female radicals arrested on suspicion of planning further attacks after a failed bid to blow up a car in Paris were taken to court to be charged on Monday, prosecutors said.

The women, who are believed to have been spurred by repeated calls by the Islamic State group for attacks in France, are suspected of having planned to strike a train station in the Paris area or to target police.

The three were brought before anti-terrorism judges. They face charges of involvement in a terrorist conspiracy and attempted murder.

Sources close to the investigation said they had discussed obtaining suicide belts or ramming cars filled with explosives into buildings.

One of the women was found in possession of a letter professing her allegiance to IS, which ordered or claimed several attacks in France over the past year, including the carnage in Paris in November that left 130 people dead.

A 15-year-old boy arrested in eastern Paris at the weekend was also brought before investigating magistrates Monday to be charged with conspiring to commit attacks.

The youth had written to contacts on Telegram -- the encrypted messaging app widely used by jihadists in France -- of his plans to carry out a knife attack, sources said.

- Foiling attacks 'every day' -

France is on heightened alert after two grisly attacks in July -- one in the Riviera resort of Nice, where a truck driver crushed 86 people to death and another in Normandy, where two men slit the throat of an elderly priest.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Sunday said the terror threat was at a "maximum" and that the authorities were foiling attacks and smashing jihadist networks "every day".

The three women in court Monday were arrested last week as part of an investigation into an alleged plot to blow up a car found abandoned near Notre Dame cathedral on September 4.

They have been named as Ines Madani, 19, Sarah H., 23 and Amel S., 39. The two younger women were known to police for their links to Islamist radicals.

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Sarah H.'s current boyfriend, 22-year-old Mohamed Lamine A., was also arrested and brought before judges to be charged on Monday.

Police alerted last week to the Peugeot 607 found in the middle of one of Paris's busiest tourist spots found five gas cylinders, three bottles of diesel and a half-smoked cigarette inside.

A fourth woman, Ornella G., who has been charged with terrorism over the find, told police she and Madani had tried to set the vehicle alight but fled when they saw a man they believed to be a police officer approach.

Investigators moved quickly to arrest her suspected accomplices, believing them to be on the cusp of staging an attack.

During their arrest in the southern Paris suburb of Essonne, Sarah H. stabbed a policeman, injuring him in the shoulder.

Madani was shot in the leg after she also charged at an officer armed with a knife.

A police search of one of the women's homes found seven empty glass bottles and pieces of paper that "could look like paper fuses" but no explosives.

- Encrypted messages -

Investigators have been trawling through the contacts of Rachid Kassim, a 29-year-old French IS member suspected of directing people over Telegram to carry out attacks.

Kassim has regularly appeared in IS propaganda videos shot in Syria or Iraq. He is said to have been in contact with Madani and the 15-year-old arrested in eastern Paris.

He also exchanged messages with the murderers of priest Jacques Hamel.

Sarah H. had been in a relationship with Adel Kermiche, one of Hamel's killers.

Before that she had been seeing Larossi Abballa who stabbed a police couple to death at their home near Paris in June.

Both men were shot dead by police.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Delhi government walk an extra mile to bring happiness on the face of a Pakistani girl living in Delhi for past two years.

By Anil Kumar: Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Monday issued an order for admission of Madhu in a government school. Madhu is a Pakistani girl living in Delhi for past two years. She can now continue her study that was interrupted as she was forced to leave her country of birth due to prevailing circumstances.

Aaj Tak and India Today highlighted her case over past few days, which yielded positive results for the Pakistani girl. She can now fulfill her dreams of completing her education.

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GOVERNMENT WALKS EXTRA MILE

Madhu is not in possession of any school leaving certificate or date of birth certificate. But, Sisodia said that on humanitarian ground rules might be relaxed.

"She wants to study and on humanitarian grounds, it is my considered opinion that we need to walk extra mile to accommodate her desire to pursue study in our school," Sisodia said giving instruction to the Director, Education.

Madhu would be granted admission in a government school located at Sanjay Colony in New Delhi district. She will also be given necessary books and uniform.

Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia issued order for admission of Madhu in a government school. Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia issued order for admission of Madhu in a government school.

SUSHMA SWARAJ STEPPED IN

Earlier, when Madhu's case was highlighted by Aaj Tak on Friday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj promised to help her get admission in one of the schools. Madhu met Swaraj on Saturday when the minister told her that "your admission is now our responsibility".

Madhu had written to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal expressing her wish to continue her study. She also explained the circumstances, which forced her to migrate from Pakistan. Aaj Tak had telecast her story prominently.

'TO EDUCATE IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY'

As Swaraj took Madhu's case, she spoke to Delhi CM Kejriwal and requested him to arrange for her education. The Delhi government responded positively calling Madhu to meet Sisodia on Monday.

"I came to know about Madhu's case when I got call from Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. Madhu's admission in school is our responsibility. After some documentation and paper work, she will soon get admission."

Happy with the outcome, Madhu said, "I thank Sushma Swaraj as she called the Delhi Chief Minister in my presence and assured me that I would get admission in Delhi."



ALSO READ:

Delhi: School denies admission to refugee from Pakistan, she writes to CM for help

Sushma Swaraj helps Pakistani girl to get admission in Delhi school





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By Alex Bregman

Garry Kasparov, chairman of the Human Rights Foundation, author of Winter Is Coming and Russian pro-democracy leader, spoke to Yahoo News and Finance Anchor Bianna Golodryga about Donald Trumps praise of Vladimir Putin, Russia potentially hacking U.S. election systems and what Putin might think of Hillary Clintons health episode.

Kasparov thinks Putin is happy about the focus on Clintons health and her pneumonia diagnosis. He told Golodryga, Im sure Putin was thrilled to see this health crisis and I have no doubt that Russian press both inside and outside of the Russian control press will try to capitalize on it, because it enhances Trumps chances to win the elections, and I believe thats Vladimir Putins utmost goal for the next few months.

On Trumps praise of Putin, Kasparov said, In Russia, Putins political opponents, they are either in exile, in jail or even worse. Dictator by definition is a strong man, a strong leader. So if you praise, especially if you keep praising strong leadership of a dictator, one can suspect if you are supporting the methods a dictator uses and keeps using to stay in power.

Kasparov thinks Trumps tax returns might reveal why hes praising Putin. He said, I think, you know, if we before the election, if we have a chance to look at Donald Trumps taxes, maybe well find some answers, because obviously, you know, he has some reasons to praise Putin. I think it goes beyond, you know, the political necessity.

Kasparov also suspects Trump might be jealous of the Russian president. I think theres some kind of, you know, psychological connection, affinity, he said, because Trump might be jealous of Putins ability to control the country the way Putin has been doing for years.

Kasparov considers Trump a dream candidate for Putin and sees Hillary Clinton as someone Putin fears in the White House. He told Golodryga, Putin believes that if Trump wins, he is the biggest geopolitical winner, Vladimir Putin. He continued, I think he believes that if Hillary Clinton gets to the White House, despite all the deficiencies of her policy when she was secretary of state and the fact that shes from the same party as Barack Obama and shes criticizing him openly, Putin knows that Hillary Clinton will not continue the same defeatist policies and she learned a lot  and I think theres enough bad blood. So he has reasons to be afraid of Hillary being there because she could perform, in my view, way above the expectations, her foreign policy will be quite hawkish because, I mean, shes pragmatic.

Finally, Kasparov believes Putin has every reason to want to hack into the American state election systems. He told Golodryga, Putin has a unique opportunity that was never thought of by any KGB or Politburo boss before to influence the results of this elections. And I think that [he] will use every opportunity that is given to him from hacking, and we already saw the effect of this hacking, and Im afraid its just the beginning.
Frankfurt (AFP) - German industrial gas supplier Linde and US competitor Praxair said Monday they had abandoned plans for a merger that would have created the world's biggest firm in the sector.

"Shareholder representatives in the supervisory board of Linde AG recommend... to terminate the preliminary talks with Praxair, Inc. about a potential merger," the company said in a statement.

Chief executive Wolfgang Buechele and the rest of the supervisory board agreed with the decision, the statement said.

"While the strategic rationale of a merger has been principally confirmed, discussions about details, specifically about governance aspects, did not result in a mutual understanding," it added.

Praxair confirmed the halt to the talks in a one-line statement of its own.

Shares in Linde took a tumble as the Frankfurt stock market opened on Monday, losing 7.8 percent, while the DAX index of 30 leading companies fell 2.0 percent by just after 1000 GMT.

The statements by the two companies came just one month after they were forced to confirm they were in merger talks following leaks in the press.

Major stumbling blocks in the talks included the questions of where the merged group should be based and how management should be structured, a person familiar with the discussions told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Where Linde hoped to maintain its decentralised structure and for the merged group to have dual headquarters -- including its traditional home in Munich -- Praxair insisted on central management and a US base, the person said.

The end to the talks is likely final for the foreseeable future, they added.

- Market in consolidation -

A merger between Linde and Praxair could have allowed the German firm to overtake historic French rival Air Liquide as the world's biggest industrial gas supplier, with estimated annual revenues of more than $30 billion.

Air Liquide inked a deal to take over US-based Airgas in May, boosting its revenues to more than 20 billion euros ($22.4 billion) a year and overtaking Linde's 18 billion turnover.

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But a Linde-Praxair tie-up would also have been subject to close regulatory scrutiny, as the number of large players in the market would have shrunk to three.

"There is no need for a merger at this scale in our view," analyst Peter Spengler of DZ bank said.

"We were not convinced that the merger would be beneficial for Linde shareholders."

At the time the merger talks were announced in August, analysts and markets welcomed the move, with both Linde and Praxair shares soaring.

A series of mergers has left only a handful of major players in the global industrial gases market, supplying products for use in medicine and in industrial processes in the chemical, electronic, agri-food, and energy industries.

Linde has suffered from weak orders for its turnkey industrial facilities, mostly sold to oil and natural gas companies, as oil prices have weathered punishing lows in recent years.

Gas sales, Linde's largest source of revenue, have remained more stable.

Praxair is around half the size of Linde, with revenues of around 10 billion euros a year.

Linde employs 64,000 people worldwide, while Connecticut-based Praxair has 26,000 staff.
German discount clothes retailer KiK has agreed to pay another $5.15 million in compensation to victims of one of Pakistan's worst-ever industrial accidents, the company said in a statement.

The sum will come on top of the $1 million (890,000 euros) KiK paid out in late 2012 in the wake of the devastating fire at the Ali Enterprises factory in Karachi that killed at least 255 people, the company said.

"KiK has voluntarily taken on responsibility for those affected, because this aid was a real concern for us," chief executive Patrick Zahn said in a statement published on the firm's website on Friday.

KiK said the final compensation figure was agreed after months of talks with victims' representatives, the International Labour Organization, the German development ministry and the Clean Clothes Campaign -- which fights for improved working conditions in the garment industry.

In its own statement, the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) labelled the agreement a "landmark compensation arrangement".

"It is a day of respite for the victims' families as their cries have been heard," said Saeeda Khatoon, vice president of the Ali Enterprise Factory Fire Affectees Association, in the CCC statement.

"We know that our nearest and dearest will never come back, but we hope that this kind of tragedy will never ever happen again".

The Ali Enterprises fire was one of a series of industrial accidents in recent years that have prompted Pakistan to review its industrial safety arrangements.

After the Karachi fire, the European Parliament told big brands to re-examine their supply chains in Pakistan and demanded the creation of a new effective and independent system to monitor factories.

A judicial review into the blaze found that a lack of emergency exits, poor safety training, closely-packed machinery and the failure of government inspectors to spot the faults all contributed to the heavy death toll.

In January, the government in Islamabad acknowledged that the country lacked specific legislation to protect workers.
By Gabriela Baczynska and Robin Emmott BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Germany and France have outlined plans to deepen European military cooperation, a document showed on Monday, as Britain's exit from the European Union removes one of the biggest obstacles to stronger EU defence in tandem with NATO. In potentially the biggest leap in European defence since the 1990s, Berlin and Paris are laying out ways for the bloc to rapidly deploy forces, with security cooperation emerging as a unifying force for Europe after Britain's shock vote to leave. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is set to add to the momentum in his annual State of the Union address on Wednesday by calling for an end to the isolated way in which EU militaries work. EU leaders will discuss defence cooperation at a summit without Britain on Friday in the Slovak capital Bratislava and could take decisions at the end of this year. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier will discuss closer military ties with his counterparts from the Baltic states in Riga on Tuesday, while German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen will raise the issue during a meeting with her Norwegian counterpart in Bodoe, Norway, on Wednesday. In a policy document seen by Reuters, Germany and France, the EU's two remaining military powers, have made a detailed list of proposals, including a joint and permanent EU command headquarters for its civilian and military missions. Such a move falls well short of a European army, but would mark a step in the EU's ambitions in areas from disaster relief to peacekeeping. It could help revive the EU battle groups that have been operational since 2007 but have never been used. Berlin and Paris said they also sought a strengthening of the Eurocorps, a joint military group of some EU and NATO states, allowing it to play a bigger role in EU operations. The decision to relaunch closer military cooperation, which was first tried by Britain and France in 1998, goes beyond Britain's decision to leave the EU, diplomats say. No European nation has the resources alone to confront failing states on Europe's borders, Islamist militants or a resurgent Russia. The joint paper floats the idea of setting up the EU's own medical resources, joint land, air and sea transport capabilities to complement the bloc's missions and enhancing common training among officers across the 27 states. France and Germany, as well as senior EU defence officials, are also keen to work with the U.S-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), which counts 22 of the EU's 28 members. "We ... recognise that a stronger and more capable European defence will also lead to a stronger NATO," the document read. "STRATEGIC AUTONOMY" The paper appears timed to complement efforts in Brussels led by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to show that the bloc is reacting to citizens' concerns about security in the wake of attacks in European cities this year and to show that the EU remains relevant despite Brexit. Britain and France are Europe's leading military powers. Britain is also one of only a small handful of NATO allies to meet the NATO objective of spending more than 2 percent of its national output on defence. Britain had long been sceptical of expanding EU military missions, wanting to avoid duplication with NATO. In a separate EU document seen by Reuters, Mogherini calls on European governments to build "strategic autonomy", suggesting independence from the United States. She urges "permanent structured cooperation" allowing some EU armies to work together when some countries do not wish to. "This is about coalitions of the willing," said a senior EU defence official. "There is no better time to try this." Mogherini, Berlin and Paris want EU governments to consider better financing for the bloc's missions and operations. They would like to see a defence research programme in the EU budget for the first time, starting with the next common budget for 2021-27. France and Germany proposed starting with setting aside 90 million euros to that end already in 2017-2019. While that is dwarfed by the United States' multi-billion-dollar military research budget, it could help prevent the EU from falling behind in the military arena or having to rely on countries such as South Korea and Israel for hardware. One idea under discussion is a European investment fund for defence, which would allow EU governments who pay into it to also borrow so as to ensure that funds are available for joint defence programmes. These range from new helicopters to drones. The fund, which could start on a small scale in 2017, could be backed by the European Investment Bank to finance projects. (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Gareth Jones and Alison Williams)
Berlin (AFP) - Berlin accused Moscow on Monday of falsely claiming Chancellor Angela Merkel had tried to pressure Bulgaria to select a new candidate to succeed UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

German foreign ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said a Russian official representative had "spread things that are objectively false", branding the move as "unfriendly".

On Sunday, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova asserted that at this month's G20 summit, Moscow had indicated to Merkel in a "clear way" that "any direct or indirect attempt to influence (Bulgaria) was unacceptable".

The skirmish comes as Bulgaria has worked, according to some media, to change its candidate for the post of UN secretary general, which becomes vacant next year.

Bulgaria would replace UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova as its candidate with European Commission Vice President Kristalina Georgieva, according to these reports.

A spokesman for the EU executive declined to comment Monday on "speculation in the press".

Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Rumiana Bachvarova said Monday that Bokova's candidacy was "not sufficiently convincing" and that there would be "news in coming days" on the subject.

Ten candidates are running to succeed Ban, and the name of the next secretary-general could be announced in October at the earliest.

After four preliminary votes as an indication to the UN Security Council, the former Portuguese prime minister Antonio Guterres, who also served as UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is leading the race, with Bokova in fifth position.

At the next round of voting on October 4, the five permanent and veto-wielding members of the Security Council -- the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China -- could potentially block any of the candidates, changing the dynamics of the race.
FRANKFURT, Sept 12 (Reuters) - German drugs packaging firm Gerresheimer has agreed to sell its laboratory glass joint venture Kimble Chase to a unit of One Equity Partners to concentrate on its pharmaceutical customers, it said on Monday.

The deal to sell the business to Duran Group gives the Rockwood, Tennessee-based firm, a joint venture with Chase Scientific Inc., an enterprise value of $131 million, it said.

Gerresheimer last year sold its glass tubing business to Corning.

It said on Monday its expectations for the current financial year to end-November remained unchanged, provided that the deal does not close before then.

(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Maria Sheahan)
Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f206773%2fscreen_shot_2016-09-12_at_12.20.53_pm

If you find yourself in Melbourne, Australia you may want to check out the 36-foot inflatable baby hanging from the roof of the city's Atrium building at Federation Square.

SEE ALSO: Artist and mom of twins harmoniously pairs working and breastfeeding

Called "HUMAN MOBILE" the 50 kilogram (110 pound) installation is the work of artist Felipe Reynolds and aims to capture modern society's "constant need for engagement, affirmation, play and novelty," according to a statement.

Affectionately dubbed Ping Pong by the Reynolds (a nickname he shares with the sculpture), the baby is both gender neutral and culturally ambiguous, making it the worlds most potentially relatable blow-up baby, as well as the biggest.

I wanted it to not be white, not be black, not be female, not be male  just be as inclusive as possible, so everybody can relate to it, he told SBS.

The artist created the work by transferring a digital rendering onto polyester. But its the bystanders whore actually upside down, the artist said, adding that he wanted to turn the world on its head, saying the baby is actually on the ground, and people just become active players for the baby's amusement.

Reports in: A GIGANTIC baby is hanging from the ceiling of Federation Square (VIC) #capitalidea #melbourne #art pic.twitter.com/tTX7mVYq19  Owners Capital (@Owners_Capital) September 9, 2016

With the baby installed, the Atrium resembles a giant play pen, lit up at night by the baby-cum-lantern itself.

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Interacting with the artwork isnt just a cool Instagram opportunity or an excuse to do the baby dance either. It could also be a somewhat religious experience.

I drew from Michelangelo's 'Creation of Adam', so the part of the mural from the Sistine Chapel, where God creates Adam, said Reynolds adding I've used the same pose as Adam, in the sculpture. So when you come up to it, you play the part of God.

It also doubles as a great antidote to any unwanted maternal or paternal sentiments, because creepy giant baby.
Parched, directed by Leena Yadav, starring Radhika Apte, Surveen Chawla and Tannishtha Chatterjee, is the first non-mainstream film produced by Ajay Devgn.

By India Today Web Desk: The trailer for Ajay Devgn's home production Parched is finally here. The film which had been touring international film festivals since last year finally has a release date. Parched, directed by Teen Patti director Leena Yadav, stars Radhika Apte, Surveen Chawla and Tannishtha Chatterjee in lead roles.

ALSO READ: Radhika Apte's leaked sex scene with Adil Hussain from Parched goes viral



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The film is set in Ujhaas, a village in north-west India and revolves around the trials and tribulations that rural women from such places have to face on a day-to-day basis.

Parched had its international premiere exactly a year ago from this date (September 12) at the Toronto International Film Festival. It has, reportedly, been screened at 24 international film festivals from where it has won 18 awards.

The film happens to be the first non-mainstream film produced by Ajay Devgn's company Ajay Devgn FFilms. His company has previously backed films like Raju Chacha, U Me Aur Hum, Bol Bachchan, Son of Sardar and Singham Returns.

Meanwhile, Ajay Devgn gears up for the release of his directorial venture Shivaay which is slated to release on October 28 this year. The action-adventure epic stars Devgn in the lead role. However, it is clashing with Karan Johar's romantic drama Ae Dil Hai Mushkil which stars Ranbir Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Anushka Sharma.

Watch the trailer of Parched here:





Parched releases in theatres on September 23.



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donald trump

Donald Trump said Monday he would prefer to take on Hillary Clinton without a moderator at a coming presidential debate.

"Let Hillary and I sit there and just debate, because I think that the system is being rigged, so I think it's going to be a very unfair debate," Trump said on CNBC.

The Republican presidential nominee suggested that the negative reception NBC's Matt Lauer received from observers accusing him of being tougher on Clinton than he was on Trump at a recent televised town-hall event would encourage debate moderators to be overly harsh toward him.

"I can see it happening right now because everyone was saying he was soft on Trump," Trump said Monday. "Now the new person is going to try to be really hard on Trump just to show the establishment what he can do."

Trump added: "So I think it's very unfair what they're doing. I think we should have a debate with no moderators. Just Hillary and I sitting there talking."

The idea of debating without moderators has been floated by some of Trump's allies. Conservative columnist Ann Coulter told Business Insider last month that she was perplexed "how the media managed to inject" itself into the process. Coulter called for events similar to the Lincoln-Douglas debates, which took place without moderators.

Some of the presidential debate commission chairs have suggested they don't want moderators to perform live fact-checking during the debates, but it is up to the moderators to make that call. One of the moderators, Fox News' Chris Wallace, said it was not his job to be a "truth squad" on the debate stage.

The debate moderators are Wallace, Anderson Cooper of CNN, Martha Raddatz of ABC, and Lester Holt of NBC.

NOW WATCH: Watch Donald Trump attempt to explain why he thinks Hillary Clinton is a bigot





More From Business Insider


By Timothy Mclaughlin

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A grand jury will hear evidence of whether Chicago police officers lied to justify the 2014 shooting death of a black teenager by a white officer, local media reported on Monday.

Patricia Brown Holmes, a special prosecutor appointed by Cook County Judge LeRoy Martin Jr. in July, motioned for a grand jury on Monday after looking at preliminary information. She did this so that "people would know there was fairness" in the process, she told Reuters.

Martin accepted the motion and said he would convene a special grand jury to hear evidence, according to the Chicago Tribune. Martin could not be reached for comment.

The October 2014 killing of Laquan McDonald, 17, who was shot 16 times by officer Jason Van Dyke, brought intense national scrutiny of Chicago's police force.

A police video of the shooting released more than a year later made headlines across the country and prompted calls for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign. The video footage shows Van Dyke continued to fire after McDonald had fallen to the ground.

Van Dyke is facing charges of first-degree murder and is on unpaid leave. He has pleaded not guilty.

The police reports on the shooting conflicted with the video footage, sparking accusations that Van Dyke's fellow officers were trying to cover up an unjustified shooting.

Holmes is probing whether officers who witnessed the shooting described it in a way that would cover up misconduct, when they were interviewed after the incident.

Police officers are justified in using lethal force if they were in reasonable fear that someone was threatening grievous bodily harm to themselves or another person.

Last month the chief of Chicago's police department recommended that five officers, including Van Dyke, be fired over their role in the shooting.

According to charges released last month, all are accused of making false or inaccurate statements about the circumstances surrounding McDonald's death.

(Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Athens (AFP) - Greece must find shelter for 1,500 unaccompanied migrant children, many of whom are held in squalid conditions according to rights groups, a top EU official said Monday.

"We still need to create 1,500 places for unaccompanied minors, this is a matter of urgency," European justice commissioner Vera Jourova told reporters after a visit to Athens.

Human Rights Watch last week said migrant children were being held in "deplorable" conditions for over a month on average, with some locked up in police cells alongside adults for lack of space.

"This increases the risk of abuse and sexual violence and violates international and national laws requiring the separation of adults from children in detention," the organisation said.

According to Greek government figures, there are some 3,500 unaccompanied minors in Greece, including over 300 in closed reception centres and another 18 in police custody, Jourova said.

The EU over the weekend said it would give Greece an additional 115 million euros ($129 million) to improve conditions in its migrant camps.

Nearly 60,000 people are currently stuck in the country after several European states further north shut their borders earlier this year.

The Greek government says it will enrol some 18,000 migrant children in schools from the end of September.
Riyadh (AFP) - Gulf Arab states expressed concern on Monday over a bill passed by the US Congress that would allow relatives of victims of the 9/11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia for compensation.

The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, of which Saudi Arabia is the most powerful member, expressed "profound worry," the bloc's secretary general, Abdullatif al-Zayani, said in a statement.

He said the law "contravenes the foundations and principles of relations between states, notably sovereign immunity."

The US House of Representatives passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act by a unanimous voice vote on Friday.

The Senate already approved the bill four months ago and it now goes before President Barack Obama.

The White House has signalled that he is likely to veto the bill but his veto can be overridden by a two-thirds majority of both houses.

Zayani expressed hope that the US administration "will not endorse this law... which will create a grave precedent".

Saudi Arabia is a longstanding US ally but it was also home to 15 of the 19 Al-Qaeda hijackers who carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States which killed nearly 3,000 people.

The draft law would allow attack survivors and relatives of terrorism victims to pursue cases in US federal court against foreign governments and demand compensation if such governments are proven to bear some responsibility for attacks on US soil.

Two GCC members -- Qatar and the United Arab Emirates -- also issued their own separate statements on Monday criticising the bill.
Gwyneth Paltrow has unveiled the first looks from her debut fashion collection, which goes on sale Monday.

The award-winning actress-turned-entrepreneur has teamed up with "a small team of designers" on her first clothing line, launched under the umbrella of her Goop lifestyle business under the sub-brand 'Goop Label'. She is focused on providing luxurious pieces at an accessible price point, inspired by some of her own favorite wardrobe pieces.

"I wanted to create product that is incredibly high quality and delivered at a great value -- I think there's a huge white space in the market for luxurious ready-to-wear at a direct-to-consumer price," explains Paltrow in a statement. To this end, her pieces will be fabricated in Italy, in the same factories as luxury brands such as Azzedine Alaia, Proenza Schouler, Vetements and Dries Van Noten

The brand will release a limited edition of up to five "elevated basics" on a monthly basis, with pieces timed to that season. According to Goop Label, we can expect elegant, tailored designs and cozy, approachable pieces for every day, covering everything "from "the perfect blazer to a wonderfully louche sweater."

The September Edit, which launches Monday on Goop.com, features a tweed Pattner Peak Lapel Blazer with epaulet shoulders for $695, inspired by one of the star's old jackets. "I had a jacket years ago that I loved, that had a tie around the waist," she says. "I'd wear it tied when I wanted a more feminine silhouette, or without when I needed something straight and kind of boxy." It comes with a matching Eliza Wide Leg Culotte for $325, chosen for the 'back-to-school' vibe of September." For this particular version, I was very inspired by English schoolboy grey flannel suits -- but with a feminine spin," Paltrow explains.

An Elise Chambray Button Down shirt ($195) offers a relaxed alternative to the white blouse Paltrow could have offered with the suit, with a vintage wash and cropped sleeves keeping the look quirky. The final piece in the edit is the Classic G. Tote ($285), a simple white cotton tote with leather detailing. Paltrow's inspiration for this one was born out of personal experience perhaps more than any of the other pieces: "As a busy working mom, tote bags are my life."
Oscar-winning actress and entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow is the newest celebrity to join the clothing designer ranks, with the launch of goop Label, her inaugural clothing line and the latest notch in her growing Goop empire belt.

Making its debut on the brand's e-commerce site on Monday, the buy-now, wear-now collection features a limited selection of everyday basics that will be released online every month. The "September Edition" offerings include a blazer, button down, culotte, and tote bag, ranging from $195 to $695. Once pieces sell out, they're gone for good.

Pattner Peak Lapel Blazer, $695

"I wanted to create product that is incredibly high quality and delivered at a great value - I think there's a huge white space in the market for luxurious ready-to-wear at a direct-to-consumer price," said Paltrow in a statement.

Together with a small team of designers, the goop founder was involved in all aspects of the design process for the collection, which was manufactured in the same Italian factories that turn out the likes of Dries Van Noten and Proenza Schouler. The pieces are all inspired by timeless pieces from Paltrow's own covetable closet.

Elise chambray button down, $195

"It was very important to me to make the clothes in the same way that all of my favorite designer clothing is made, which is in Italy, with beautifully loomed fabrics, incredible tailoring and incredible attention to detail, but to be able to deliver those pieces at a third of the price," she added

The Goop brand is no stranger to the fashion world; since its launch in 2008 as a curated newsletter, the platform has evolved to include an e-commerce shop with exclusive collaborations with the likes of Valentino and Stella McCartney. In 2015, the company ventured into its own product lines, starting with the Paltrow-driven skincare brand, goop by Juice Beauty.

The goop Label debut comes on the heels of last month's announcement that Goop will be moving its headquarters from New York to Los Angeles.
Tripoli (AFP) - General Khalifa Haftar, whose forces have seized three vital Libyan oil terminals, is a controversial military strongman who has refused to bow to a UN-backed unity government.

Haftar, 73, presents himself as Libya's saviour in the face of a growing jihadist threat, but is himself a hugely divisive figure.

He enjoys the support of lawmakers in the internationally recognised parliament in the country's far east, but is opposed by the UN-backed and Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) and has refused to recognise its legitimacy.

Haftar's relations with the authorities in Libya have always been complex.

In 1969, he took part in a coup that overthrew the monarchy and brought dictator Moamer Kadhafi to power.

Haftar served under Kadhafi but later fell from grace when he was captured by Chadian troops during Libya's fruitless 1978-1987 conflict with its neighbour.

Tripoli denied Haftar was part of the Libyan army, and he languished in jail until the United States managed to secure his release and offer him political asylum.

In 2011, he returned home after more than two decades living in the United States where it was rumoured that he worked for the CIA, to take part in the NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed Kadhafi.

Three years after the revolution, Haftar declared war on jihadists in second city Benghazi, prompting Libya's then-government to accuse him of trying to stage a coup.

But after Islamists seized Tripoli soon afterwards, forcing parliament to flee to the country's far east, the recognised authorities gradually allied themselves with a figure previously seen as a power-hungry renegade.

In March 2015, Haftar was named head of the Libyan army loyal to the internationally recognised parliament which has steadfastly refused to recognise the GNA's legitimacy.

- Self-styled commander -

The appointment aimed to "legitimise" Haftar, a year after the general and self-styled commander of the Libyan National Army waged "Operation Dignity" against Islamists in Benghazi.

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Since the campaign was launched in May 2014, forces of the white-haired general with contrasting black moustache have pushed most of the jihadists from the city.

They also announced plans to fight the Islamic State group in Sirte, but kept aside as forces loyal to the GNA in May this year began an offensive against the Muslim extremists in Kadhafi's home town.

With the loyalists weakened by a more than three-month offensive against IS, Haftar's forces at the weekend fought pro-GNA oil guards for control of oil terminals west of Benghazi.

By Monday they were in control of Al-Sidra, Ras Lanuf and Zuwaytina terminals.

The unity government called on all forces loyal to it to "protect and defend" the ports against what it called "flagrant aggression" against Libyan sovereignty.

Oil is Libya's main natural resource with reserves estimated at 48 billion barrels, the largest in Africa.

The GNA was hoping to use revenues from oil exports to rebuild the country's economy which has been devastated by five years of conflict.

It was the first time that Haftar's forces and fighters loyal to the GNA have clashed directly since the unity government started working in the capital in March.

Analysts warned that it may not be the last and the two could clash again.

In a 2015 interview with AFP, Haftar insisted the military had no interest in meddling in politics, describing it as the "protector against anyone trying to disrupt the democratic process by force".
By Dahlia Nehme JAMARAT, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Nearly two million Muslim pilgrims performed a symbolic stoning of the devil on Monday, the riskiest part of the annual haj pilgrimage, a year after the ritual's worst disaster in decades. Saudi Arabia, which stakes its reputation on organizing the world's largest annual Muslim gathering, has deployed thousands of security forces, civil defense staff and volunteers as well as modern technology including drones and electronic bracelets to ensure a safe pilgrimage. Last year, Saudi Arabia said that nearly 800 pilgrims were killed when two large groups of pilgrims arrived together at a crossroads in Mina, a few kilometers east of Mecca, on their way to performing the stoning ritual at Jamarat. Counts by countries of repatriated bodies showed over 2,000 people may have died, more than 400 of them Iranians. Saudi authorities have said that some 1.86 million Muslims from around the world are performing the pilgrimage at Islam's holiest city, one of the main pillars of Islam which every able-bodied Muslim is required to undertake at least once. That is less than previous years, when up to 3 million pilgrims have attended. Authorities say disruption caused by expansion work and infrastucture projects in Mecca have combined with conflicts in the region to restrict the numbers. Under close supervision from Saudi authorities, pilgrims in seamless white clothes, converged on Jamarat carrying the pebbles to perform the ritual from a three-storey bridge erected to ease congestion. In previous years, jostling to perform the stoning before returning to pray at the Grand Mosque accounted for many of the frequent stampedes and crushes that had afflicted haj. "This year, they have organized the situation better," said Abdel-Rahman Badr, an Egyptian pilgrim. "I feel happy to be conducting the haj rituals," he added. But another 60-year-old pilgrim, who identified himself as Mohammed, said "more work was needed, especially to ensure comfort for older pilgrims". SERMON PREACHER King Salman was in Mina on Monday, the first day of the Eid al-Adha feast, to oversee implementation of the plan to avoid potentially deadly congestion. On Sunday, pilgrims prayed on Mount Arafat at the climax of haj. Prior to departing Mount Arafat back to Mina, they joined top Saudi officials in prayer at Namira Mosque, site of the last sermon by Prophet Mohammad 14 centuries ago. But, for the first time in more than 35 years the Grand Mufti and the country's top religious authority, Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, did not deliver the main sermon. Instead, Saudi media said the imam and preacher of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Sheikh Abdul-Rahman al-Sudais, delivered the sermon. Saudi media have said that Al al-Sheikh had asked to be relieved from delivering the sermon due to poor health. Last week he joined an escalating war of words with Saudi Arabia's main regional rival Iran over the pilgrimage, when he said Iran's leaders were not Muslims in response to criticism by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over how it runs the haj after last year's crush. (Writing by Sami Aboudi and Katie Paul; Editing by Dominic Evans)
"The building and adjacent areas were surrounded and exchange of fire were continuing between the security forces and some surviving militants still holed up in the building," an official said.

By India Today Web Desk: Gunfight erupted again on Monday morning in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, the same place where four persons were killed on Sunday, police said.

According to latest update, body of another terrorist was recovered today morning. Police suspect that at least two more terrorists are still holed up.



A senior police official told that the gunfight started again from the under construction mini secretariat building in Poonch town, the site of Sunday's firing.

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"The building and adjacent areas were surrounded and exchange of fire were continuing between the security forces and some surviving militants still holed up in the building," the official said.

The victims comprised three militants and a policeman, while five others -- a police official, a civilian and three soldiers -- were injured.

Sunday's gunfight ended with the killing of the militants.



Also read

Constable killed, SI injured in ongoing encounter with Lashkar terrorists in Poonch



--- ENDS ---
By Jim Christie and Joyce Lee SAN FRANCISCO/SEOUL (Reuters) - A portion of the $14 billion in cargo trapped at sea by the bankruptcy of Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd <117930.KS> began moving out of one California port on Monday, and a second ship received orders to head to dock, after the turmoil created by the South Korean company's collapse. Truckers began moving freight from the Hanjin Greece, one of roughly a dozen of the company's ships destined for the U.S. West Coast, out of the port of Long Beach on Monday, following a U.S. bankruptcy court's grant of protection. A second ship, the Hanjin Boston, received orders to unload at the Port of Los Angeles on Tuesday morning, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California, a group that tracks cargo ship traffic. The collapse of Hanjin under debts of $5.5 billion has caused havoc in global trade networks and a surge in freight rates. Some vessels have also been seized. The movement of products marked a step forward in clearing the bottleneck of clothing, furniture and other cargo meant for store shelves ahead of the busy holiday shopping season. But the two Hanjin ships allowed to unload carry only a fraction of the billions in goods on dozens of ships owned or leased by the world's seventh-largest container carrier. Companies with goods still sitting on Hanjin's ships were waiting to see if the shipper could raise enough money to rescue the rest of the stranded cargo. Two California companies represented by lawyer Bill Taylor are waiting to see if Hanjin can raise money so they can avoid having to pay terminal operators and other companies with control of their freight to release the cargo. "Both have significant product in limbo," said Taylor, a partner and transportation lawyer in Sacramento. "My clients right now are taking a wait and see attitude until there is a better understanding about interim financing to see if they'll have to write a check." Taylor declined to name the two companies, a producer of specialty foods and a clothing retailer. On Monday, Choi Eun-young, a former chairwoman of Hanjin Shipping, pledged to provide $9 million in private funds to help resolve the situation. Choi, who controlled Hanjin Shipping between 2007 and 2014, will provide the funds "within days". Parent company Hanjin Group pledged last week to raise 100 billion won ($90 million) in funds to help release cargo. Korean Air Lines <003490.KS>, the biggest shareholder of Hanjin Shipping, on Saturday approved a conditional plan to provide a loan of 60 billion won. Hanjin Group chairman Cho Yang-ho will raise the remaining 40 billion won and the goal is to raise it by Tuesday as the funds are needed as soon as possible to unload cargo, a Korean Air spokesman said on Monday. MORE SHIPS COMING Charter owner Seaspan Corp has three ships under charter with Hanjin, which are all due to hit the U.S. West Coast within the next few days. Chief Executive Gerry Wang said he was confident the South Korean government would provide sufficient funds to pay port operators and Seaspan by the time those ships arrived. "Were keeping our fingers crossed, but South Korea is an export economy and the government needs to ensure the flow of goods to consumers," Wang said. "I dont think they want that supply chain to be interrupted on a permanent basis." Creditors have sought an arrest warrant against the Seaspan Efficiency, a ship hauling cargo for Hanjin that was due to arrive in Savannah. Wang said the cargo concerned amounted to just around $800,000 and that he was confident the parties involved could come to an agreement. A U.S. court on Friday gave three other Hanjin ships protection from seizure. In Hong Kong, the Hanjin Belawan arrived from Shanghai on Monday loaded with containers and was anchored a short distance from the city's Kwai Chung Container Terminal. Terminal operator Hongkong International Terminals, a unit of Hutchison Port Holdings Trust controlled by tycoon Li Ka-shing, has outraged local cargo owners by charging fees of between HK$10,000HK$15,000 ($1,285-$1,928) per Hanjin container to release them at the port. The delays have concerned importers like Alex Rasheed, president of Pacific Textile and Sourcing Inc in Los Angeles, which has a shipment of clothing in 16 containers on Hanjin ships off Long Beach. "We're already starting to run out of some colors and some sizes," Rasheed said, noting Hanjin's collapse comes as U.S. retailers prepare for the all-important holiday shopping season. (Additional reporting by Nick Carey, Lisa Richwine and Keith Wallis; Editing by Peter Henderson, Lincoln Feast and Bernard Orr)
By Nick Carey

CHICAGO, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Following the collapse of Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd, container shipping rates from Asia to the United States spiked 50 percent as the carrier's customers scrambled for ships. Few shipping industry experts expect those price increases to fix what is wrong with the industry.

Hanjin's collapse and the resulting chaos in the global shipping sector are symptoms of deeper ills caused by a capacity glut that will remain even after the resolution of Hanjin's crisis, industry officials and experts told Reuters.

"All of Hanjin's ships aren't just going to sink overnight," said Clint Eisenhauer, vice president for external affairs at the South Carolina Port Authority. "We are going to see the same imbalance between supply and demand, and beyond a short-term spike the impact on rates shouldn't be dramatic."

In recent years container ship companies have gone on a spending spree, ordering ever larger vessels based on the assumption of rising trade in consumer goods from China and Asia.

Shipping industry data provider Alphaliner estimates fleet owners will increase container shipping capacity by 3.9 percent in 2016, even as estimates for global demand range from growth of just 1 percent to 3 percent.

According to order book figures from British shipping services firm Clarkson, the global container ship fleet should grow by 16.9 percent between now and 2019.

"These are significant investments that were based on what seemed reasonable forecasts at the time," said Dean Tracy, principal of consultancy Global Integrated Services and former import transportation director at Lowe's.

However, exports of goods and services as a percentage of global gross domestic product have slipped in recent years to 29.3 percent in 2015 from 30.7 percent in 2012, according to data compiled by the World Bank.

The mismatch between supply and demand has left 7.4 percent of container ships worldwide sitting idle as of this spring, according to Alphaliner. Consulting firm Drewry said in July it expects a record 150 container vessels would be scrapped this year, but that would "only make a dent" in the excess capacity built between 2010 and 2015.

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The capacity overhang has battered container shipping rates and shipping company profits. In mid-February 2015, it cost $2,265 to haul a container from Shanghai to the U.S. West Coast. By late August, the price for shipping a container across the Pacific had fallen by nearly half to $1,153. Rates rose to $1,746 in early September, according to the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index, but remain well short of the earlier peak.

All the major companies have struggled amid a low rate environment. Maersk, the world's largest container ship company, has warned investors its 2016 profit will be significantly lower than last year, fired its chief executive and announced plans to restructure its business. Germany's Hapag-Lloyd also warned profits would fall this year.

South Korea's Hyundai Merchant Marine Co Ltd, the world's fourteenth largest carrier, avoided collapse earlier this year when it managed to cut a deal with creditors.

"I think the container sector has more serious long term structural problems," said Ralph Leszczynski, head of research at shipbroker Banchero Costa in Singapore.

"A POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT FOR THE INDUSTRY"

The bankruptcy of Hanjin is the largest ever collapse of a container ship company. The world's seventh biggest carrier has a fleet of 88 ships or around 3 percent of global capacity. Hanjin only owns around 30 of those vessels and runs the rest on charters.

Two questions now are how much of Hanjin's capacity will be scrapped, which could help firm up shipping rates, and how much will be replaced by rivals seeking to grab market share?

Seaspan Corp Chief Executive Gerry Wang says he has already been approached by a number of other operators who want to lease three ships his company, the largest global lessor of container ships, had placed with Hanjin under long-term contracts.

Wang said Hanjin's woes could boost container shipping rates as some of the carrier's older ships should be idled.

"It has been a fiasco, but this could be a positive development for the industry," he said. "I think we are going to see a shift to stronger, more stable carriers," he added.

"FLIGHT TO QUALITY"

Rival shippers are moving to fill the breach created by Hanjin. Within days of Hanjin's bankruptcy filing, Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Company SA, the world's two largest carriers who have a vessel sharing agreement, announced they would both launch new trans-Pacific services on Sept. 15. Both companies committed six ships each to the new services.

The moves are "symptomatic of the industry's oversupply problems," said Chaim Shacham, a consultant and former maritime shipping executive based in New Jersey.

In an email, Soren Egholm, vice president of trade and marketing at Maersk Line North America, said that as a "financially strong company we are currently being approached by many customers on the Transpacific who ask if we can provide alternative transport solutions for their cargo."

Lawrence Gross, a partner at FTR Transportation Intelligence, said that Hanjin's collapse could push producers and retailers to more closely scrutinize the shipping companies they choose.

"Customers have treated container shipping as a pure commodity play, but now they realize not all carriers are built the same," Gross said. "I think we may see a bit of a flight to quality as customers seek more stable partners."

(Additional reporting by Keith Wallis in Singapore. Editing by Joseph White and Bernard Orr)
The author is a student in the Gabelli Presidential Scholars Program at Boston College. Hes reported from Iraq, Myanmar, South Sudan and Thailand, and his writing has appeared in The Daily Beast and USA Today.

Iraq has all the trappings  from fancy hotels and restaurants to luxury resorts  of a wannabe capitalist state. But it also has well-armed militias gaining a media and political voice that may pose an even bigger threat than ISIS to regional stability.

Earlier this year, I traveled to the 37 millionstrong republic to learn more about the Shia fighters defending Baghdad and taking on the extremists. Owing to a shortage of army recruits, Iraqs government has turned increasingly to irregular militias  managed by autonomous businessmen, politicians and warlords  to bolster the Iraqi Security Forces. Many analysts have focused on the obvious dangers of a so-called failed state relying on paramilitaries for security  namely foreign interference and war crimes. The largest Shia militias have been accused of taking orders from Iran and participating in ethnic cleansing.

They and the international community shouldnt worry about Shia fighters disobeying the Iraqi government; they should be scared stiff that the militias could become alternatives to the government.

But its not their foreign connections or sectarian tendencies that worry me most. The Shia fighters, in fact, have all pledged nominal allegiance to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, and some have even tried reaching out to ethnic and religious minorities, offering humanitarian aid to those displaced by the Third Battle of Fallujah. Instead, its the Shia militias actions off the battlefield  in Iraqi civil society, media and politics  that scare me most. Theyre portraying themselves as part of the establishment, and everyone seems to be buying it.

The Badr Organization, the largest and oldest of the Shia militias, for example, has a political party and its own television channel. Its politicians run Iraqs interior ministry, while its reporters film scenes from the battlefield alongside foreign correspondents from Western TV channels. Just as you might watch CNN or CBS for updates about the U.S. election, many Iraqis look to Badrs channel, Pond TV, for the latest on the fight against ISIS. The theory? If folks like what they hear, theyll increasingly vote for Badr politicians, thereby enhancing the militias legitimacy.

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The Peace Companies, loyal to Iraqi and anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, take a different approach. They support anti-corruption activists and demand reform; they even stormed the Iraqi parliament this May. Badr, tied to the spoils system of the Iraqi government, and al-Sadr, responding to popular anti-government voices, even came close to clashing when the clerics followers overran a building where Badrs parliamentarians were staying.

Gettyimages 513199826

Source Ahmad Al-Rubaye/Getty

The ongoing violence has many Iraqis wondering why they should support a government that has failed to provide security when they can find support from militias loyal to their neighborhood or party. After ISIS conducted the deadliest suicide attack in Iraqs history last month in Karradah, a commercial Baghdad district, killing nearly 300 people, residents asked Shia militias to step in.

Policymakers often express concern that militias act outside their control, but thats missing the point. They and the international community shouldnt worry about Shia fighters disobeying the Iraqi government; they should be scared stiff that the militias could become alternatives to the government. Even American officials have had to work with al-Sadr and a warlord  considered a terrorist by the U.S.  to resolve disputes with Shia militias because the Iraqi government lacked the ability to do so.

Abadi recently boosted the militias street cred by labeling them a permanent military formation, as opposed to militias. Young Shia fighters on the front lines told me: We report directly to the prime minister, and we only follow his orders, which is true. In theory. But in practice, the militias have shown they have no problem disobeying the government. And unlike the government, Shia militias work to present a positive image of themselves  a contrast I experienced firsthand. When I toured Fallujah with the military TV channel of Kataib Hezbollah, its militiamen protected me. But when I toured the front lines with the federal police, the governments convoy forgot me altogether, leaving me in the middle of the desert.

If Shia militias can cater to a foreign journalist better than Iraq can, no wonder so many Iraqis are protesting on al-Sadrs behalf and voting for Badrs politicians. The militias soft power is undermining what little authority Baghdad has left.

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I am doing Ph. D in Australia. He said, or should I say, boasted. He tried, but failed to impress me, mainly because he emphasized on Australia, not on his own merit, his degree. As the conversation picked intensity, mostly from his end, (because I was just killing time waiting for the attendant at the check-in desk) I learned he was doing some kind of extensive research on the richest gold mines in the world. So I figure, he must have majored in geography.

I am not a big fan of small talk with random strangers at the airport, but some people are irritably beyond the limits of comprehension that you cannot overlook the dying need to indulge into some deep conversations with them, even if that hurts like banging your head on the wall  the one built of granite - to talk some sense into their empty heads. Such conversations equal social work, charity, moral obligation toward fellow countrymen.

So Mr. Ph.D (in some branch of Geography) shoots a question at my direction, I am traveling to Bangalore, to meet my aunt. Where are you going?

I replied artlessly, Sikkim.

Mr. Ph.D - Oh, they dont have direct flights to Sikkim from here?

Me -They do. In fact, I am taking a direct flight.

Mr. Ph.D - Oh, I guess you missed it then. This is the domestic terminal.

Me - Uh..So?

Mr Ph.D - So I guess you need to be at the international terminal to get on the flight to Sikkim, dont you?

Whatwhatwhat.. and most importantly whyyyy? Apparently Mr. Ph.D is confident that one needs to get onto an international flight to go to Sikkim, perhaps one needs a valid passport too, and dont forget to get some of those foreign currencies  wait! What currency do they use in Sikkim? Apparently they use Rupeeeessssssss, with Gandhi jis face shining all bright all over it! Why, you ask? Because, genius, Sikkim is, indeed, an Indian state  as much a part of this vast nation as West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka - the state you are flying to, or the 25 other states and 7 Union Territories (dont hold me for this calculation if by the time it comes out, the country has another baby state formed).

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Now can we all have a moment of truth here? How many of us are unaware of Sikkim as a part of India? How many of us thought Gangtok was some Southeast Asian city positioned somewhere closer to Bangkok? I mean the name rhymes, shouldnt that be enough? I can name at least 20 people I know on a personal level and interact on a daily basis, who were totally oblivious to Manipur or Nagaland till Mary Kom brought home a bunch of prestigious medals, shining a torchlight on the Northeastern part of the Indian map.

Its really disturbing how we all complain about our stinging summers and crawl up in Shimla and overcrowd Ooty, staying completely ignorant of the heavenly mountains and picturesque landscapes our Northeastern states offer. Cherrapunji, a city in Meghalaya, receives both southwest and northeast monsoonal winds making it the wettest place on the planet  and I am not even talking of the natural beauty it begets, I leave it on you to travel and explore it for yourself.

Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh can effortlessly replace any other over-hyped hill station in India  sadly, they dont get the same press and so people like Mr Ph.D , doing a heavy weight research on treasures around the world stay unmindful of the richness in their own land. The people in these parts of our country, far from the corruption of metro cities, retain innocence one can only imagine; the leaves are greener than envy and the sky is bluer than the heart of the oceans. The water streaming down the rivulets here sparkle, reflecting the sun like crystals. You cant afford to miss them in favor of any holiday in Dubai or shopping in Thailand. Next time you upload pics of a foreign holiday, just remember, you seriously need to explore India more to know how diverse and beautiful this country is.

What are you thinking sitting here? The international terminal is that way. Mr Ph.D in Geography hurried me up. You know what I said?

Do you even geography, bro????
By exploring the limits of life deep beneath the seafloor, an upcoming international research mission will seek to discover what scorching levels of heat may be too extreme for life on Earth  and maybe alien life on distant worlds.

The public can also take part in an online contest to guess the hottest temperature at which life can exist.

On Sept. 12, scientists are heading out for a 60-day quest aboard the state-of-the-art Japanese drilling vessel Chikyu to the Nankai Trough, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) off the coast of Japan. The ocean is about 2.9 miles (4.7 km) deep there, and the expedition will drill down 0.75 miles (1.2 km) beneath the seafloor to collect samples. All in all, the distance from the ocean's surface to the sample depth is equivalent to the height of about 20 Eiffel Towers. [Infographic: Explore Earth from the Tallest Mountain to the Deepest Ocean Trench]

New life-forms?

The Nankai Trough is located near the superhot border of two clashing tectonic plates, where underwater volcanoes bubble like cauldrons. The samples that researchers will collect may reach temperatures of 266 degrees Fahrenheit (130 degrees Celsius). Gathering such hot samples in other areas would require drilling to about 2.5 miles (4 km) below the seafloor, rather than the 0.75 miles currently planned, the researchers said.

"We may discover some unknown life-forms that can survive or adapt to the extremely challenging deep and hot sedimentary environment," Fumio Inagaki, the expedition's co-chief scientist and a researcher at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, told Live Science. "The nature and extent of the deep sub-seafloor biosphere is still largely unknown."

Analyzing such deep-sea microbes could help scientists inthe search for alien life. "We have already known, based on previous DNA-based studies, that most microbes living in marine subsurface sediments are evolutionarily distinct from known life in the Earth's surface biosphere," Inagaki said. "In this sense, we may have already seen alien life in the different world on our planet," since they are distinct from life on the surface, he noted.

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"Our study will provide some clues to understand habitability of deep life not only below the ocean floor of our planet, but also inside of other celestial bodies," Inagaki added. A deeper understanding of how life might live in extreme places on Earth could shed light on whether or not it could exist in similarly extreme places elsewhere.

A globular, single-celled organism called Geogemma barossii tolerates the highest temperatures of any catalogued life-form on Earth. The microbe was discovered in 2003, in deep-sea hydrothermal vents at the Juan de Fuca Ridge off the northwest U.S. coast, where it withstands temperatures of about 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). The new samples that scientists hope to collect as part of the International Ocean Discovery Program's (IODP) Expedition 370 may yield microbes that break the current record for the hottest temperature at which life on Earth can exist. [Axial Seamount: Images of an Erupting Undersea Volcano]

Like a trip to outer space

Chikyu is the world's largest scientific research ship, measuring 689 feet long, 125 feet wide and 393 feet high (210 by 38 by 120 m), Inagaki said. A system of thrusters and GPS sensors also makes the ship quite stable, "enabling the vessel to keep at the same position for deep drilling under strong currents," he added.

Indeed, an ordinary research vessel wouldn't suffice for such an extreme mission.

"This expedition is as complex as a mission to outer space might be," Kai-Uwe Hinrichs, a researcher at the University of Bremen in Germany and lead author of the scientific proposal behind the expedition, said in a statement.

"It requires the technology to 'land' the coring bit on the right spot in over 4-kilometer-deep water, drill through ancient ocean sediments to collect samples far below the ocean floor, bring them back onboard intact, then transport them by helicopter to the super-clean geomicrobiology laboratory to ensure no contamination," Hinrichs added. "Like a space mission, this expedition is fraught with complexity, danger and vast opportunity for discovery."

After the samples are collected, they will be sent on a 1-hour helicopter ride to a superclean lab onshore (to prevent contamination), where scientists will investigate them further. The researchers will analyze the qualities of the sediments and count minuscule and sparse cells, looking for as few as 100 cells per 0.06 cubic inches (1 cubic centimeter), or about the equivalent of 100 sand grains floating in an Olympic-size swimming pool.

"Looking for life in core samples is like looking for a needle in a haystack," Yuki Morono, the expedition's co-chief scientist and a researcher at the Kochi Institute for Core Sample Research in Japan, said in the statement. "At the surface, the sediments are teeming with microbial cells, but in samples from deeper in the core, the cells become far more sparse."

The aim of the expedition is to define the limits to deep-dwelling life by exploring the so-called biotic fringe, the boundary where current knowledge predicts that no living cells persist. The mission will examine whether this boundary is sharp, diffuse or exists at all.

"We have the extraordinary opportunity to explore the depth at which sediments and rocks become too hot for life, even for microbes that can live at temperatures greater than 85 degrees C [185 degrees F]," Verena Heuer, the expedition's co-chief scientist and a researcher at the University of Bremen in Germany, said in the statement.

"The gradual increase in temperature from approximately 30 degrees C to 130 degrees C [86 to 266 degrees F] in the sampled sediments will give us the opportunity to explore how microbial life changes with increasing temperatures and ultimately ceases to exist," Heuer added. "Is this lower boundary of the sub-seafloor's habitable zone like a rigid brick wall, or is it like a leaky fence?"

The researchers will also use DNA-sequencing technology to determine the ancestry of deep-sea microbes and how they adapt to such extreme environments. During the cruise, they will share their experiences via blogs and the Expedition 370 website.

The public is also invited to guess the heat limit of deep life via an online contest.

Original article on Live Science.

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Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
On Monday, Jeff Bezos revealed an ambitious plan to launch some of the largest rockets ever designed "before the end of this decade."

Blue Origin  Bezos' privatel aerospace company  will design and build two types of "New Glenn" rockets, which are named after John Glenn (the first American to orbit Earth) and will tower over the rocket systems planned by SpaceX, an aerospace company founded by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Here's just how big New Glenn rockets will be compared to SpaceX's Falcon 9 and upcoming Falcon Heavy rockets, plus NASA's Apollo-era Saturn V rocket:

blue origin spacex nasa rockets compared

The smaller New Glenn launcher will be 270 feet tall and have two rocket stages; the larger version will be 313 feet tall and have three rocket stages. Both are designed to launch satellites or humans into space, though the latter might be powerful enough to launch payloads (and people) beyond Earth's grasp.

Each rocket will share the same 23-foot-wide booster, which can be reused again and again in hopes of lowering the cost of access to space.

"Building, flying, landing, and re-flying New Shepard has taught us so much about how to design for practical, operable reusability. And New Glenn incorporates all of those learnings," Bezos wrote in an emailed statement sent to Business Insider.

NASA's Apollo-era Saturn V rockets, which weren't reusable, were 363 feet tall, and NASA's upcoming Space Launch System (also not reusable) will be about 321 feet tall.

New Glenn rockets, if Bezos' plan succeeds, will tower over SpaceX's reusable 229-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket and upcoming Falcon Heavy launchers (which may not launch this year as planned, given the recent launchpad rocket explosion).

However, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy will have about 30% more thrust than Blue Origin's largest New Glenn rocket. Falcon Heavy's nine engines will "together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft," according to SpaceX's website. Meanwhile, the 3-stage New Glenn will have a lower capability of 3.85 million pounds of thrust.

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The New Glenn rockets aren't all Bezos has planned, though.

"Our vision is millions of people living and working in space, and New Glenn is a very important step. It won't be the last of course," he wrote. "Up next on our drawing board: New Armstrong. But that's a story for the future."

Blue Origin declined to provide additional information about its new rockets. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

NOW WATCH: Watch the dramatic moment SpaceX rocket explodes





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Its difficult to ever really know how the New England rushing attack will work on a given week. It is known that Bill Belichick doesnt care about your fantasy team, nor does he care about his players feelings when it comes to touches. Weve seen many rushers fall out of favor with the Hoodied One by a simple, single fumble. But for now, LeGarrette Blount is making Belichick proud with this beastly run*.

Blounts who we expect to run the ball in the red zone. Hes a physical rusher who can not only make people miss, but bowl a defender over if need be. This rush, however, is special. When Blount hits the hole, he gets hit almost immediately at the line, then hit again a yard later. When watching live, it looks like hell maybe fall forward for a decent gain, but instead, he keeps his legs moving, churning and inching towards the end zone.

Even as the red jerseys pile up on Blount, he continues to push forward until hes moved over half of the Arizona defense backwards 6 yards and into the promised land. How wonderfully monstrous.

*Blount fumbled a series later. This would be a death knell for some, but Blount is back in, grinding away.
oil worker

India has been described as the "bright spot" in the global economy, given its booming services sector.

And compared to the rest of the world, its demand for crude oil also stands out.

In the first quarter, India's demand grew at the fastest pace since 2007.

But a slowdown in India's oil demand could foretell a bigger trend, and more pain for the industry, according to Aidan Garrib, global market strategist at Pavilion Financial Corp.

"India has really been the bright spot among EMs, but also generally in terms of just global economic growth," Garrib said.

"If you start seeing a slowdown in Indian demand  although it's only 4.5% of global oil demand  it still just doesn't bode well for overall demand, given the negative outlooks and the negative pictures that we're seeing everywhere else," he told Business Insider.

While India's oil demand is not contracting right now, small cracks are starting to emerge in its economy, according to Garrib.

For example, its economy grew at a 7.9% pace in the first quarter and slowed to a 7.1% pace in the second, which was lower than expected. Also, industrial production shrank by 2.4% in July, with manufacturing leading the declines.

"Because oil is a global macro asset class, it will trade depending on the outlook for global growth," Garrib said.

And with no shortage of global economic worries, a slowdown in Indian demand could unnerve the market.

"We do not think the recent pick-up in oil prices will persist over the near term, and expect oil prices to be range-bound at between $40 to $50/bbl," Garrib said in a client note on Thursday. "High inventories, lower refining margins, and signs of stabilizing  if not increasing  US oil production will weigh on prices in the short term."

NOW WATCH: There's now a $75 million private jet for your inner Texas oil tycoon





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This Immigrant Doctor Is Reimagining Health in the American City

When Justinian Jackson started working as a midwife in a clinic in Buzilasoga, Tanzania, pregnant women who came from different parts of the rural region to have their babies were told to bring their own candles or lamp oil to avoid being in the dark after the delivery. To bring the baby into the world, Jackson relied on ambient light from the window, kerosene lamps, or the glow of his cell phone to light the exam room.

It was so difficult to work, he told TakePart. Even though there is not good infrastructure [in the town] and no proper transport, pregnant women were traveling 25 miles, often on motorcycles, to go to the big hospital to have their babies.

The clinic in Buzilasoga is not an anomaly.

In developing countries, hospitals and health clinics are often off the grid or experience frequent power outages or rolling blackouts, forcing health care workers to treat patients in the dark or operate without power to run essential equipment.

Reliable light has to be a first-line intervention, says Amy Livingston, executive director of Global Health Foundation, a Denver-based nonprofit working to fund international health systems. We cant make any other investments in health care infrastructure unless clinics have light.

In 2015, Global Health Foundation provided funding to install 58 Solar Suitcases, solar electric units packed into compact cases, to clinics in Tanzania, and it is on track to install 91 more in the African country by the end of the year. The Suitcases, made by California nonprofit We Care Solar, are one of the tools Tanzanians have to reduce maternal mortality. Worldwide, 830 women die every day because of preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth; 99 percent of those deaths are of women in developing countries like Tanzania, according to the World Health Organization. Although rates of maternal mortality dropped 44 percent between 1990 and 2015, womenespecially those in poor, rural areasare still at risk. As part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda, the goal is to reduce maternal deaths to 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030; Solar Suitcases are part of the solution.

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With each installation, Livingston hears more stories about the effect of the innovation: One doctor missed a postpartum hemorrhage because he couldnt see it. The patient survived. Another doctor told her, Before, we were scared to work in the dark. Now we will be fearless.

The things we take for granted here make such a big difference there, she says.

Accidental Innovation

As cofounder and executive director of We Care Solar, Dr. Laura Stachel is not surprised that Solar Suitcases are having a powerful impact.

The California obstetrician and gynecologist witnessed the challenges facing rural health clinics while she was studying maternal mortality in Nigeria in 2008. When Stachel returned to the United States, she told her husband, Hal Aronson, a solar educator, about doctors doing procedures with cell phones in their mouths or waiting until morning to suture vaginal tears in women who delivered their babies at night.

A lack of electricity was affecting their ability to provide care, she recalls.

Stachel and Aronson designed a solar electric system that fit into a suitcase, which she took to Nigeria on a return trip several months later. The clinic staff were so enamored with the idea, they begged her to leave the unit behind.

They were saying to me, This can help us save lives right now,  Stachel says.

That single unit led to the creation of We Care Solar, a nonprofit organization that manufactures and distributes Solar Suitcases to developing countries that lack access to a conventional power grid. Since 2010, We Care Solar has placed 1,800 Solar Suitcases in 27 countries.

Although Solar Suitcases could be used to power lifesaving equipment and improve care in all areas of hospitals and clinics, We Care Solar focuses on providing the portable devices, which now include a cell phone charger and a fetal Doppler, to maternity wards.

There are a lot of potential applications for [Solar Suitcases], but in an effort to be very focused and effect change in a very specific way, we decided to put all of our attention on maternal outcomes, says Kristi Raube, executive director of the Institute for Business and Social Impact at the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley, and a member of the We Care Solar board of directors.

In Buzilasoga, Solar Suitcases have improved hygiene, safety, and maternal outcomes. Before the solar units were installed, Jackson delivered up to five babies per month in the clinic, and the experiences were less than ideal. If a mother had a tear during the birth, a relative had to come into the room to hold a cell phone or kerosene lantern so Jackson had both hands free for stitches.

Even with someone holding the torch, there was still not enough light to see all of the tissues, he says. No one wanted to come here for deliveries. Now, with the light, we deliver 15 to 20 babies per month, and mothers know they can come here and deliver safely.

Navigating the Need

Solar Suitcases have succeeded because the products make sense for the environment: Its not hand-me-down equipment that was purchasedand discardedby clinics in the developing world. The units are small, easy to install, inexpensive to maintain, and rugged enough to stand up to the challenges of the hardscrabble landscape.

Some of these clinics are literally littered with equipment that well-meaning people send from overseas that isnt built for those environments, and there are no strategies to keep it running, so its a good thing for a week or a month but not an effective long-term solution, Raube says.

We Care Solar provides infrastructure to the clinicsit trains local technicians to install, maintain, and fix the units. To increase the odds that the equipment will be maintained, the nonprofit ensured that parts like lithium batteries and phone chargers could be sourced in the countries where the units are installed.

Just because the solution is simple doesnt mean deploying it has been easy.

Cost is a significant barrier. Because clinics in developing countries lack the funds to cover the $3,000 price tag for each Solar Suitcase, the units are paid for through grants, individual donations, and funding through organizations like Global Health Foundation and the World Health Organization. One significant grant came from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which gave We Care Solar $1 million in 2015.

Once funding is confirmed, the Solar Suitcases, which are manufactured in the U.S., need to be delivered and installed. Stachel used to pack up each unit, taking them with her on the airplane and delivering them to clinics around the world. As demand grew, personal deliveries became impractical, and the nonprofit needed to start shipping Solar Suitcases. That meant figuring out customs requirements for dozens of countries.



We had Suitcases stuck in ports around the world, Raube recalls.

With the shipping problem conquered, We Care Solar faces new challenges.

Solar Suitcases are in high demand outside under-resourced hospitals and clinics. The units were requested in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and in 2014 following Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines; even outdoor companies want to sell Solar Suitcases for camping.

A lot of nonprofits are donor dependent, but we have a product, and that creates some interesting opportunities, Raube says. One of the conversations weve had is whether it would make sense to sell a bunch of Solar Suitcases commercially to make money to fund our operations or whether to start lending libraries to deploy [Suitcases] for medical lighting after natural disasters.

While the organization grapples with these decisions, it maintains an ironclad commitment to installing Suitcases in off-the-grid clinics to improve maternal outcomes and ensure that women dont have to deliver their babies in the dark.

The innovation appears to be working: Health care workers like Jackson tell stories of women eager to deliver at local clinics equipped with Suitcases instead of traveling many miles to access lighted clinics, and more women are choosing to deliver their babies at hospitals instead of at home.

Once you turn on the lights, women know there is someone there to help them, Livingston says.

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"They saw the BJP as a lesser enemy than the NCP. Their focus was only to put us down. They themselves sank and they took us down as well," said NCP leader Praful Patel

By Kamlesh Damodar Sutar: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Praful Patel launched a scathing attack on the Congress alleging the ally for being responsible for the debacle of the NCP in the state. Patel made these controversial remarks in Maharashtra's Akola where he was addressing a gathering of party workers.

CONSPIRED AGAINST NCP

Patel alleged that the Congress conspired to defame the NCP throughout the entire time when they were together in an alliance and in power in both the state as well as the centre. Calling the alleged scams during the previous government as a conspiracy, Patel blamed former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan for defaming the NCP.

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"They saw the BJP as a lesser enemy than the NCP. Their focus was only to put us down. They themselves sank and they took us down as well," he said. "We are not going to be bogged down. We know how to fight back. We will bounce back with the same force", added Patel.

CONGRESS HITS BACK

Patel's comments have angered the Congress. The Congress has hit back at Patel alleging that the comments are made only to please the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. " A section of the leaders from the NCP always want to please Narendra Modi so as to avoid his wrath. I wonder whether they are making such statements out of the fear that that the BJP government will take action on their earlier misdeeds or is there any other reason?" said Sachin Sawant, Congress'' State Spokesperson.

The fresh war of words between the former allies is likely to further strain the relations between the Congress and NCP. Post 2014 polls; this is not the first time where the two parties have attacked each other.

Political observers feel that the recent spat is just a political statement ahead of the local body elections where the Congress and NCP have always fought separately, so nothing more should be read from the statements beyond this.



ALSO READ:

Caught on camera: NCP MLA orders girl to beat up her harasser

Congress-NCP alliance misleading Dalits, alleges Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis





--- ENDS ---
What does Hillary Clintons pneumonia mean for her health? (Photo: Getty)

Tributes to the victims of the 9/11 tragedy were almost upstaged Sunday by reports that Hillary Clinton had nearly fainted at the National September 11 Memorial in New York City. Speculation about the Democratic presidential candidates health lit up the Internet, and soon after, the campaign released a statement from her doctor: Clinton had been diagnosed with pneumonia.

Secretary Clinton has been experiencing a cough related to allergies, Lisa R. Bardack, MD, said in the statement. On Friday, during follow-up evaluation of her prolonged cough, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. She was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule. While at the event, she became overheated and dehydrated.

Though Clintons doctor did not specify what kind of pneumonia the candidate is stricken with, there are two different types of pneumonia. The sickness can be caused by either bacteria or viruses, confirms Darria Long Gillespi, MD, ER doctor and Sharecares SVP of clinical strategy. Gillespi has not treated Clinton, but she tells Yahoo Beauty what a pneumonia diagnosis could mean for the 68-year-old candidates health and whether it can be contagious.

Often, a person will first have a viral infection, which will cause inflammation and a fluid buildup in the lungs. In most, those infections will get better on their own, but in some people those infections can make their lungs more susceptible to more serious infection, such as secondary bacterial infection, leading to pneumonia, says Gillespi in regard to the contagion factor of bacterial infections. In the same way, if someone were to have allergies severe enough to cause inflammation in their lungs, that could make them more susceptible to catching a bacterial pneumonia on top of the allergies.

As Clintons doctor suggested, the politicians case of pneumonia seems to have stemmed from her allergies, indicating that her illness might be bacterial. Earlier today, it came to light that several other members of Clintons campaign team in Brooklyn have come down with cases of pneumonia as well, pointing to a strong likelihood that her particular case is contagious. Everyones been sick, a campaign source said.

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At least half a dozen senior staff were felled, including campaign manager Robby Mook, according to the source. Two top advisers even needed emergency medical treatment, the source explained. One top adviser diagnosed at a Brooklyn urgent-care center with a respiratory infection was being treated with antibiotics in the days before Clintons diagnosis. Another top adviser was taken by ambulance to the ER after collapsing from what turned out to be severe dehydration.

The American Lung Association states that there are 30 different causes of pneumonia and confirms that if you have viral pneumonia, you also are at risk of getting bacterial pneumonia. The website elaborates on the differences between the two kinds of pneumonia, stating that many different germs can cause pneumonia, saying that in addition to bacteria and viruses, pneumonia can be brought on by mycoplasma as well as other infectious agents, such as fungi  including pneumocystis  and various chemicals.

Dozens of different types of bacteria can cause pneumonia, the site states, adding that people at greatest risk for bacterial pneumonia include people recovering from surgery, people with respiratory diseases or viral infections and people who have weakened immune systems.

Bacterial pneumonia is treated with antibiotics, Gillespi tells Yahoo Style. If someone is very ill, theyll typically require IV antibiotics, but otherwise people with less severe cases  such as whats often called walking pneumonia  can be treated with oral antibiotics. Typically, the duration of antibiotics ranges from five to 14 days, depending on the severity of the illness.

Viral pneumonia, on the other hand, includes initial symptoms that are similar to that of influenza (the flu): fever, a dry cough, headache, muscle pain, and weakness. Most respiratory viruses attack the upper respiratory tract, but some cause pneumonia, especially in children, the website states. Most of these pneumonias are not serious and last a short time, but others can be severe. Viral pneumonia caused by the influenza virus may be severe and sometimes fatal.

Typical symptoms of pneumonia (PNA) include cough, fever, shortness of breath, and chills, says Gillespi. If someone gets sicker, they can develop a more rapid heartbeat or even low oxygen levels, she tells us, adding that fainting spells, like the one Clinton almost had at the 9/11 memorial event, are not typical of pneumonia cases.

Fainting  or syncope, as is the medical term  isnt really a cardinal symptom of pneumonia, but it can be a reflection of anything that causes you to be ill or dehydrated, says Gillespi. Syncope can happen when theres a problem with your heart, a blockage in your blood vessels, or just because youre not getting enough blood flow to your brain due to dehydration or overheating.

She adds, Its impossible to say what was the cause of Secretary Clintons syncope exactly without being her treating doctor, but excessive dehydration due to being ill, coupled with overheating, could lead someone to fainting for a very short period.

Clintons doctor has stated that the candidate is recovering nicely, but the latest word from her campaign is that she has canceled plans to visit California on Monday and Tuesday so that she can rest and recover at her home in Chappaqua, N.Y.

Lets keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Beauty on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
History and Peter Berg are teaming once again to shine a light on those who serve.

The A+E-owned cable network has greenlighted an unscripted series from the director that centers on Special Operations training tactics, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The Selection: Special Operations Experiment will see 30 men and women between the ages of 21 to 45 years old with no military background go through intense physical and mental challenges to see if they have what it takes to be the best of the best. The six instructors, who are veterans of the Navy SEALs, Green Berets and Army Rangers, will challenge participants with tear gas, interrogation simulation and psychological warfare, among other tests, to examine each challenge and their bigger purpose.

The civilians are able to remove themselves from the program at any stage - 80 percent of those who attempt these extreme training and assessment exercises quit. There also is no cash prize for making it all the way through - the series is simply a test against oneself to see if the mind has the will and strength to push the body to complete the challenges.

The series is based on a format from Minnow Films' SAS: Who Dares Wins, which aired on Channel 4 in the U.K. last year.

The instructors include veteran Navy SEALs Marcus Capone, Ray Care and Sean Haggerty; veteran Special Forces Green Berets Donnie Bowen and Bert Kuntz, and veteran Army Ranger Tyler Grey. The eight-episode first season will premiere Thursday, Dec. 15, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on History.

Berg's unscripted banner Film 45 will produce with Bunim/Murray Productions (Keeping Up With the Kardashians, The Real World). Berg, Matt Goldberg, Brandon Carroll and Grant Kahler will executive produce with Film 45, along with Gil Goldschein for Bunim/Murray; and Cem Yeter and Joel Karsberg as well as Tim Healy, Stephen Mintz and Russ McCarroll for History.

"Throughout the history of our nation, Special Operations training tactics has played an integral part in our military endeavors and this series gives viewers a rare glimpse into what it takes to be selected among the elite," History's head of programming Paul Cabana said Monday in a statement. "The Selection will offer civilians the unique opportunity to take part in an immersive, authentic course instructed by different branches leading together, while giving viewers insight into the origins of these challenges."

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The Selection is the latest military-centered endeavor for Berg. In addition to directing the 2015 Mark Wahlberg film Lone Survivor, based on the true story of a U.S. Navy SEALs unit during the war in Afghanistan, he also exec produced History's military docuseries Live to Tell, which gave first-person accounts of recent U.S. Special Operations Forces missions.

Berg, whose film Deepwater Horizon will hit theaters on Sept. 30, also is an exec producer on the HBO comedy Ballers and Amazon's forthcoming Novak Djokovic docuseries.

The Selection is just the latest military-inspired reality series, joining Fox's American Grit, which will return for a second season.

Watch a first look video for The Selection below.
The international debate over creators' rights will soon have a new player, run by songwriters who understand it from the inside.

Swedish hitmaker Max Martin, ABBA member Bjorn Ulvaeus and pop songwriter Niclas Molinder are forming Music Rights Awareness, an organization that will work to educate musicians about their rights. Each will serve on the board of directors. Music Rights Awareness will work internationally, and its first project, Music Rights In Africa, will aim to educate songwriters in Rwanda, Malawi and Tanzania.

"It's so important to spread this knowledge about what rights creators have," Ulvaeus tells Billboard. Although many organizations advocate for songwriters and publishers, Music Rights Awareness will focus more on education, with a grassroots approach. "It's so important that this is creator to creator," adds Molinder.

Also important: The imprimatur of Max Martin, easily the most successful songwriter of the past 20 years. "I believe in the cause and I believe in the people," Martin says via email, "and by supporting Music Rights Awareness I very much hope, and believe, we can make a difference."

Music Industry A-Listers Call on Congress to Reform Copyright Act

The three Swedish songwriters already work together as investors in Auddly, a Stockholm start-up also run by Molinder that makes software to track song authorship and publishing rights. That company came out of Molinder's experience running a music-publishing company with his songwriting partner, Joacim Persson, with whom he writes and produces songs for pop acts like Ashley Tisdale, The Cheetah Girls, and Willow Smith under the name TWIN.

Music Rights Awareness decided to start off with a project in Africa after Molinder met with Sonia Mutesi-Hakuziyaremye, a coordinator at The Pan-African Composers' and Songwriters' Alliance (PACSA). "There are problems in Europe and America but in Africa songwriters see companies stealing their music," Molinder says. "Phone companies use music for ring-back tones and they only pay to use recordings -- which means the writers get nothing."

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Adds Ulvaeus: "Which makes it so important to spread this knowledge that these are the rights people have! A lot of people don't even know about them."

Music Rights Awareness chose Rwanda, Malawi and Tanzania for the Music Rights In Africa project since all three countries have public performance collection societies, local equivalents of ASCAP and BMI. In June, Molinder and Mutesi-Hakuziyaremye visited all three countries and met about 80 songwriters as well as some politicians, including officials from the culture ministries in Malawi and Rwanda. Music Rights In Africa will present other events in those countries later this year, and it's talking to the Swedish government about expanding the program.

Hitmaker Hold-Out Revealed: The Female Artist Who Tops Max Martin's Wish List

"African writers should be on par with Americans in terms of having the same knowledge," Ulvaeus says. "In many areas of the world, the concept of copyright is relatively new and MRA can do something really important."

Music Rights Awareness isn't focused on Africa, though. The organization's next project, which will be undertaken in partnership with a Swedish organization, will try to encourage more women to become producers. Molinder is also considering creating a "Music Industry Map" for smartphones that would explain how label and publishing deals work. "When I was starting out, I would hear all of these terms in meetings with labels and publishers and I didn't know what they meant -- all the abbreviations!" Molinder says. "So we want to create an app so creators can easily access that information."

Music Rights Awareness defines itself as an educational organization, not an advocacy group. But its focus on making creators aware of their rights implies that those rights are important.

"I know from personal experience what copyright means," Ulvaeus says. "It wasn't until Benny [Andersson, Ulvaeus' writing partner in ABBA] and I started making money that we had the time to get good at what we were doing. I can guarantee that a lot of the talent out there will get wasted because there was never the possibility to make something out of it."
Bernie Marcus

Home Depot cofounder Bernie Marcus says "America will go down the drain" if Hillary Clinton is elected president.

"Every indication is that America will go down the drain if in fact she is elected," he told FOX Business Network's Neil Cavuto in a recent interview.

"When I listen to Hillary Clinton and I listen to the [economists] who never in their life ever hired a human being or trained a human being, I say, I don't know the world that they belong in. I know that when you have high taxes that you kill off jobs. Killing off jobs means hurting America. It means hurting the economic wealth of America  and that's not good for anybody."

He accused the Clintons of being a "corrupt family" and urged Republicans to vote for Donald Trump even if they don't like him.

"All of the Republicans out there, I say the same thing ... [If you're] going to stay neutral, you might as well vote for [Hillary Clinton] because your lack of vote for Donald means she's going to get elected anyway," he said. "You may not like him, but you [have to] vote for him because he's going to save this country."

Marcus founded Home Depot in 1978 and he was the company's first CEO. He served as chairman of Home Depot's board until retiring in 2002.

Marcus made the remarks after another prominent businessman, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, last week endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.

"Hopefully Hillary Clinton will be elected president," Schultz told CNN's Poppy Harlow in a Facebook Live interview.

Schultz has long been outspoken about his political and social views, but last week was the first time he weighed in on the 2016 presidential race.

NOW WATCH: We did a blind taste test of KFC and Popeyes fried chicken  here's the verdict





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LONDON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Britain's Jockey Club has announced the return of a 1 million pounds ($1.33 million) Triple Crown bonus for the 2016-17 season. The Jockey Club is offering the cash bonanza for any horse that can win the Betfair Chase at Haydock Park in November, the 32Red King George VI Chase at Kempton Park a month later and the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March, the racing body said. "We'd love a special horse to capture the public's imagination and take their place in racing folklore by winning The Jockey Club Chase Triple Crown," Paul Fisher, Group Managing Director, said. The last horse to complete the hat-trick was Kauto Star a decade ago. Cue Card won two legs of the feat - the Betfair Chase and the King George - last season, before falling three fences from home at Cheltenham. The Jockey Club, which has been at the heart of British racing for more than 260 years, earlier this year announced an annual turnover of 183.3 million pounds. ($1 = 0.7529 pounds) (Reporting by Ian Rodricks in Bengaluru)
Bring on the pretty drinks, were ready to party! (Photo: Stocksy)

Its no secret: When some of your friends and family are sitting through your tasteful, romantic wedding ceremony, theyre really just hoping to be rewarded with a party. While you dont necessarily want them getting falling-down drunk, its a good idea to give your guests the option of a little social lubrication to celebrate your big day. But is there a way to do that without blowing your whole budget on top-shelf liquor? If your immediate answer was cash bar, we have a few other options.



You wouldnt think of asking someone to pay for a cocktail in your home, so dont have a cash bar at your reception, write Anna and Lizzie Post in Emily Posts Wedding Etiquette, and most wedding vendors agree. That said, there are quite a few Post-approved options for keeping costs down.

Of course, you can save so much money by limiting it to beer and wine and soft beverages, Amanda Braddock, event director of Purslane Catering in New York, told Yahoo Style. But people have come to connect weddings to open bars, so I find guests tend to be disappointed if they dont have them, and I am honest with couples about that. Of course, its up to you; you know your friends.

What Braddock and other vendors offer as a middle ground is a limited bar, and the trend of making specialty cocktails with a displayed, Pinterest-worthy drinks menu (complete with hashtag) comes in handy for this. It also plays into that whole personalized trend with weddings: The groom suggests this cocktail, and, 'The bride suggests this cocktail, she said.

Photo courtesy Drink Slingers

If you have specialty cocktails, you can name them after the bride and groom, or you can design them specifically to go with the meal or certain colors, said Nannette Taft, co-owner of Drink Slingers in Austin, Texas. They can also be a big hit with locavores who want to offer something from local distilleries.



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Taft said specialty cocktails can be almost as inexpensive as just offering beer and wine, because they can be mixed into a batch ahead of time, using large 59.2-ounce handles of liquor, which costs less than bottles. This also means the whole serving process is streamlined for guests.

If were there with all these different alcohols and mixers [at a full open bar], service is slower, and people dont know what to choose, Taft said, adding that she also prefers to keep her specialty cocktails on the simple but fresh side (see her recipe for strawberry margaritas below). You cant choose a cocktail that has six ingredients that you need somebody to sit there and craft, because that would be way to slow a service. The key is a cocktail with three or four ingredients at the most. Fresh ingredients that are seasonal are ideal.

Another personalized touch Braddock recommends is a satellite bar, where guests can order the specialty cocktails or martinis or do a whiskey tasting.

Its also considerate to take into account that not all your guests are craft beer or whiskey connoisseurs. Taft likes to include mocktails alongside her specialty cocktails  sometimes theyre the same recipe minus the liquor; sometimes theyre tasty offerings featuring fresh juices and the popular Mexican sparkling water Topo Chico. You might also want to offer a light or mainstream beer brand alongside that super-hoppy local brew.

For those stocking their own wedding bar, heres Tafts basic calculation for how much to order: A moderate to heavy drinking crowd is going to drink two drinks the first hour and one drink for every hour thereafter. An ounce and a half of liquor is considered one drink, and Taft estimates that typically 40 percent of guests will choose a specialty cocktail if theyre offered one.

Even the pros know that those calculations can fail, however, so follow their lead in this too: Always make sure someone knows where the nearest liquor store is, what their hours are, and whether they deliver.

In the end, you can also get by on a tight budget by fully embracing that college party vibe. If you need to get really cheep, do a keg, Taft said. Ive seen people do boxed wine, and it worked out just fine. Go for it. Why not? If you dont care, the guests arent going to care.

Strawberry Margaritas

(makes 100-125)

Ingredients:

5 cups honey syrup (2.5 cups honey and 2.5 cups of water)

7 lbs. fresh or frozen strawberries (blended and strained for seeds and large pulp), plus fresh for garnish (sliced)

10 fresh jalapenos (sliced), plus garnish (sliced)

75 oz. (2.25 liters or 2.3 qt.) fresh-squeezed lime juice

4.5 liters tequila (three handles reposado, or 3.5 liters blanco and 1 liter mescal)

1.5 liters triple sec (two 750 ml bottles)

Instructions:

1. Into a 2 qt. saucepan add 2.5 cups of honey and 2.5 cups of water. Set over a low flame and heat to a low boil. Remove immediately from heat, stirring to incorporate honey. Transfer into a heat safe container and reserve in refrigerator.

2. Blend strawberries (fresh or thawed frozen), pressing juice through a colander to collect seeds. Discard seeds.

3. Pour juice into larger serving carafe.

4. Remove caps of jalapenos and slice into rounds. Add to strawberry juice.

5. Add lime juice (local fresh-pressed preferred)

6. Add tequila and triple sec to juice mixture. (This should rest together for about an hour; if time is not available, all ingredients may be combined and orders may be shaken vigorously, strained over ice, and garnished).

7. When honey mixture has cooled, incorporate into mixture.

8. Taste, add sweetener, lime, or tequila as desired.

9. Strain and serve over ice, with fresh strawberry, jalapeno, and lime garnish.

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Pranati Rai Prakash who has won the second season of India's Next Top Model wants to do more of modelling before venturing into Bollywood.

By India Today Web Desk: Pranati Rai Prakash from Patna won the reality show India's Next Top Model Season 2.

The modelling reality show, an adaptation of America's Next Top Model, was judged by model-actress Lisa Haydon and celebrity photographer Dabboo Ratnani.

The contestants at the show were mentored by VJ and actress Anusha Dandekar and image consultant and grooming expert Neeraj Gaba.

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The show commenced with 13 new faces vying for the title and was down to three of them emerging as frontrunners.

Also read: India's Next Top Model Season 2: Jantee, Subhamita, and Pranati contest for the final win

Along with the title, Pranati will also get to model for certain brands with a modelling contract for a year and an opportunity to feature in a reputed lifestyle magazine.

Really wanted you to win this show and you won... India's next top model winner #pranatiraiprakash#pranatirai#mumbai #intm2 #model#modelhunt#modeling#passion #nift#winner #mtv #realityshow .congratulations... ?????? A photo posted by Krishna Nand Singh (@krishnad2d) on Sep 11, 2016 at 1:20pm PDT

"Life is a fantasy that I've been creating constantly. I am overwhelmed by the support and love that I've received from all over and I am extremely thankful to India's Next Top Model Season 2 for being such a wonderful platform that helped me explore my talents every minute," Pranati said.

"The show has helped me not only to represent myself but also got my state, Bihar, noticed in the modelling arena and I hope to carry the title of India's Next Top Model to the best of my potential," she added.

Pranati has Bollywood aspirations, but will focus on modelling for a while. Pranati, who had a tough fight in the finale of the show from fellow contestants Subhamita Banerjee and Jantee Hazarika says: "I still want to explore more of modelling. Now that I have won the show, I definitely have an edge to work harder. I have done a few TV commercials before but now I want to do lots of fashion shows," said Pranati.

"Because once I go in the acting side, I think I won't be able to get back to modelling. I always want to take it hand in hand, both of them together. I am just 21, I have time to get into full-fledged acting. For now I will stick to modelling," she added.

"Five years down the line I see myself as a Bollywood actress... When I am on stage, I get a high. Five years down the line, I would love to see myself perform on the big screen and at award shows.

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Pranati was one of the contenders for Miss India 2015 where she won in Miss Beautiful Legs, Miss Fashion Icon and Miss Talented categories.

(With inputs from IANS and PTI)



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Hundreds of thousands of people rallied across Catalonia on Sunday declaring their support for the autonomous regions full independence from Madrid, just as Spain faces the possibility of going to the polls yet again.

Flags used by the pro-independence movement were seen flying at events attended by thousands in five Catalan cities, including the capital Barcelona, reports Reuters. The rallies took place on Catalonias National Day, or La Diada, which marks the defeat of the Catalan army by Spanish forces in Barcelona during the War of the Spanish Succession.

Turnout was estimated by local police at around 800,000, but the central government insisted that only about 370,000 people attended these demonstrations.

Just how should Madrid respond to the increasing sentiments for secession is, in part, causing the continuing paralysis of the Spanish government, according to Reuters. Despite two successive general elections, politics is still in deadlock, with the possibility of a third election looming large.

The regions premier said at a press conference on Sunday that early elections next year could be used to gauge the appetite for separation from Spain, unless Madrid would allow a direct referendum on the issue.

In 2014, over 80% of voters in Catalonia said they wanted to break away from Spain in a referendum that was not recognized by Madrid.

[Reuters]
LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / September 12, 2016 / Lundin Law PC (the "Firm") announces a class action lawsuit has been filed against Embraer S.A. ("Embraer" or the "Company") (ERJ) concerning possible violations of federal securities laws between April 16, 2012 and July 28, 2016 (the "Class Period"). Investors who purchased or otherwise acquired shares during the Class Period should contact the Firm in advance of the October 7, 2016 lead plaintiff motion deadline.

To participate in this class action lawsuit, click here. You can also call Brian Lundin, Esquire, of Lundin Law PC, at 888-713-1033, or e-mail him at brian@lundinlawpc.com.

No class has been certified in the above action. Until a class is certified, you are not considered represented by an attorney. You may also choose to do nothing and be an absent class member.

The complaint alleges that during the Class Period, Embraer made false and misleading statements and/or failed to disclose material facts, specifically: that it paid bribes to Dominican Republic officials to secure contracts for aircraft sales; that Embraer's President and CEO Frederico Curado was aware of the bribe; that the fallout from this misconduct would cost Embraer hundreds of millions of dollars; and as a result of the above, the Company's statements about its business, operations, and prospects were false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times. In June 2016, the Company stated that its CEO Frederico Curado would be stepping down. On July 29, 2016, Embraer announced a loss of $99.4 million for the quarter after setting aside $200 million in connection with a U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act probe that it was negotiating with the U.S. Department of Justice since May 2015. The Company also reduced 2016 guidance for its executive jet business. When this information was released to the public, shares of Embraer decreased in value, which caused investors harm.

Lundin Law PC was founded by Brian Lundin, a securities litigator based in Los Angeles dedicated to upholding shareholders' rights.

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This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.

Contact:

Lundin Law PC

Brian Lundin, Esq.

Telephone: 888-713-1033

Facsimile: 888-713-1125

brian@lundinlawpc.com

http://lundinlawpc.com/

SOURCE: Lundin Law PC
SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - Indian-controlled Kashmir will impose a curfew during the Eid festival starting from Tuesday and will use drones and choppers for air surveillance to limit any violence in the strife-torn state. Seventy-six protesters have been killed and more than 7,000 wounded in clashes since July in the worst violence in six years in the disputed territory. Two police officers and more than 5,000 security personnel have been wounded. Authorities decided to impose a curfew and keep an aerial watch after reviewing the situation ahead of the festival, a police spokesman said on Monday. On Tuesday, Kashmiri separatists are scheduled to march to the United Nations Military Observers Group India Pakistan (UNMOGIP) Office in Srinagar, the state capital. "It has become imperative to impose a strict curfew . . . in view of the separatist march," the spokesman said. Mobile internet and cell phone services have been partially blocked ahead of the festival, the second such disruption since July 9, the day after security services shot dead Burhan Wani, a 22-year-old militant known for his calls to arms on social media. Wani led Hizb-ul Mujahideen, prominent among the groups fighting Indian control of the majority Muslim region. His death came amid a rise in violence and separatist sentiment across the state, which has been at the center of a decades-long tussle between India and Pakistan. (Reporting by Fayaz Bukhari; Editing by Mayank Bhardwaj and Hugh Lawson)
London (AFP) - Ireland's veteran Olympics chief insisted Monday he was "completely innocent" of all charges related to an alleged ticket scam at the Rio Olympics.

Pat Hickey, the president of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI), was arrested in his hotel room on August 17 and is the highest-profile suspect in an alleged attempt to illegally sell tickets to last month's Rio Games for thousands of dollars.

Prosecutors have estimated the profits from the black market sales at $3 million.

Hickey, 71, spent time in Rio's Bangu maximum security prison before being released on health grounds.

However, his passport has been retained and he remains in Brazil.

In a statement issued via a Dublin-based PR firm, Hickey proclaimed his innocence by saying: "I have just received formal notification from the Brazilian authorities of the charges laid against me.

"For clarity, I am not under house arrest as, like with so many things with this case, has been misreported by the media.

"I intend to face all the charges and to fight each and every one of them.

"I am completely innocent of all such charges and I will also vigorously defend my good name and character that I have spent my lifetime building through voluntary service for numerous sporting bodies."

Hickey added: "I believe in the Brazilian judicial system and I am confident that I will be discharged of all accusations.

"This has been a life-changing experience for me, my wife, my four children and my five grandchildren and my priority is to recover my health and see my family as soon as possible.

"I have been very heartened and humbled by the outpouring of support, letters, texts and emails from the thousands of people in Ireland and from the international sporting world.

"I will be making no further comment until the case has been concluded."

Hickey's lawyer Anne Marie James said last month that he has a "serious heart condition".

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Meanwhile a separate government inquiry in Ireland is probing how Hickey and the OCI handled tickets allocated by the International Olympic Committee for the Rio Games, the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and the 2012 London Games.

Hickey has stepped aside temporarily as president of both the OCI and the European Olympic Committees, as well as the decision-making executive board of the IOC.

Questions over the OCI's ticket allocation came to light with the arrest on August 5 of Kevin Mallon, an Irish director of British hospitality firm THG.

Police said they seized hundreds of tickets from Mallon, some of which had the OCI name on them.

Mallon and Hickey are among 10 defendants facing charges from Brazilian authorities regarding the alleged ticket scam.
By Nate Raymond

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An Israeli citizen who serves as a divorce mediator within an Orthodox Jewish community in New York has been arrested and charged with conspiring to kidnap a man who had refused to grant his wife a religious divorce.

Binyamin Gottlieb, 33, was arrested by the FBI at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Sunday as he prepared to board a Ukraine-bound flight, four days after charges were announced against an Israeli rabbi and another man over the same alleged scheme.

Those men, Aharon Goldberg, an Israel-based rabbi, and Shimen Liebowitz, a member of Satmar Hasidic community in Kiryas Joel, New York, were accused of conspiring to kidnap and murder the intended victim.

Prosecutors said a source, an Orthodox Jew who provided investigative services, contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation in July after being recruited by Goldberg and Liebowitz to kidnap a Brooklyn man.

The kidnapping was intended to have the man issue a "get," a document that would grant his wife a religious divorce, prosecutors said.

A criminal complaint said that at a July meeting, they discussed options including a suggestion by Gottlieb to kidnap the man in Ukraine, where he planned to go for the Jewish New Year in late September, and then flying him to Israel.

Authorities said that after that meeting, Gottlieb, an Israeli citizen who lives in Monsey, New York, gave $25,000 in cash to the source as payment.

In later meetings, Goldberg and Liebowitz discussed their desire to kidnap and kill the Brooklyn man, the complaint said.

Jacob Laufer, Gottlieb's lawyer, argued in court on Monday that his client, a self-employed divorce mediator, was at the "periphery" of the case, and should be released on a $2.5 million bond.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Hartman said Gottlieb was "intimately involved," and that evidence suggested he may have engaged in similar plots involving forced divorces.

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"This wasn't Mr. Gottlieb's first rodeo," he said.

At a hearing on Monday, U.S. Magistrate James Cott denied Gottlieb bail, calling him a flight risk and saying he was "very concerned" by the kidnapping allegations.

Laufer declined to comment after the hearing. Susan Necheles, a lawyer for Liebowitz, said the informant "is a person who is totally incredible." A lawyer for Goldberg did not respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Peter Cooney)
The local council of the quake-devastated town of Amatrice in Italy has filed a lawsuit against Charlie Hebdo for defamation over the French satirical magazines cartoon of the tragedy.

This is a macabre, senseless and inconceivable insult to victims of a natural event, lawyer Mario Cicchetti told local Italian agency ANSA after he filed the complaint on behalf of Amatrices local council in Rieti.

The cartoon titled Earthquake Italian style was criticized by Italians for its depictions of victims of the town, famous for having given its name to the tomato-based amatriciana pasta dishes. In the cartoon, a scratched woman is labelled Penne au gratin next to lasagne, which showed legs sticking out of a collapsed building.

The fact that #CharlieHebdo thinks it's "humorous" to make fun of the death of 300 people is inhumane & disgusting. pic.twitter.com/QdFGuvCItm   (@Zoookk_) September 2, 2016

Charlie Hebdo responded to the controversy by publishing on their Facebook page: Italians, its not Charlie Hebdo who has built your homes, its the mafia!

Nearly 300 people died Augusts earthquake in the central Apennines Mountain region of Italy. It has left thousands homeless and injured hundreds in several towns. Amatrice, which was near the quakes epicenter, was one of the hardest hit.
The Italian Coast Guard said it had rescued around 350 people in three separate operations in the Mediterranean Sea on Monday, September 12. The coast guard said its vessel Nave Diciotti was assisted by a foreign merchant vessel. The video here shows coast guard patrol boats closing in on overloaded rubber boats and taking people, among them a baby, aboard Nave Diciotti. Credit: YouTube/Guardia Costiera
By Vinayak Chakravorty: Patna girl Pranati wanted to be a supermodel since she was nine. On Sunday night she moved a step closer to her dream, winning the second season of India's Next Top Model.

Pranati Rai Prakash--although the surname is only for social media introduction - looks at her victory as more than just about hard work. "Weeks of toiling has borne fruit, but beyond that I realised being here helped me reach a different level mentally. One emerges stronger amid such competition," she says, adding that being a smalltowner has its advantages. "One is not so familiar with fashion growing up in a small town, so naturally it makes you curious. Perhaps modelling would not become my life's love if I grew up with easy access to the job while growing up in a big city. Life in the metro gives you exposure, but smalltowners learn not to take things for granted."

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Also read: Pranati Rai Prakash wins India's Next Top Model Season 2; aspires to be a Bollywood actress

Although Pranati originally hails from Patna, she grew up all over India since her father was an Armyman. "Wherever we went, there was FTV. Many people shudder at the idea of fashion television. They talk of the kind of clothes girls are shown wearing on the shows. For me, I love all kinds of clothes, which is a reason I chose to become a model," she says.

While parental support was never lacking, Pranati had no one to guide her. "I never knew how to reach here. Neither did my parents, despite being wholly supportive of my dream. Of course, dad would always joke I look average!" she recalls with a grin.

Bollywood plans? "I would like to continue modelling for a couple of years first. I find a similarity between Bollywood and modelling beyond the glamour. Both are about hitting the right expressions. Only, in films you have to do it at a higher level."

Also read: These north-eastern girls are vying to be India's Next Top Model

A Miss India finalist in 2015, Pranati was one of the pageant's more popular contestants, having won Miss Fashion Icon, Miss Talented and Miss Beautiful Legs. "Miss India is very different in format. It is more about how you represent your state, how you talk, walk and conduct yourself. India's Next Top Model is about tackling challenges in each round," says Pranati.

She looks up to Priyanka Chopra as a role model in showbiz. "I love her communication skills. She is doing so much work in Bollywood as well as abroad," says Pranati, adding that right now she is in no rush and will "wait for good assignments to come" her way.

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By Isla Binnie

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian town is pursuing legal action against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for a cartoon showing victims of an earthquake there as types of pasta, and another suggesting the mafia was to blame for the death toll of almost 300.

One cartoon, entitled Earthquake Italian Style, captioned drawings of a bloodied and bandaged man Penne in tomato sauce, a scratched and swollen woman Penne au gratin, and a collapsed building with blood and feet emerging from it Lasagne.

After Italians responded angrily, the magazine, famed for its provocative, taboo-busting cartoons, published a second one, showing a person half-buried under rubble saying: Italians  its not Charlie Hebdo who built your homes, its the mafia!

Amatrice, the home of amatriciana pasta sauce, was flattened by the quake on Aug. 24.

The local government called the cartoons a macabre, senseless and absurd insult to the victims, Mario Cicchetti, a lawyer for Amatrice city hall, told Reuters.

Slideshow: Powerful earthquake hits central Italy >>>

A general view after earthquake that levelled the town in Amatrice, central Italy. (REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini)

It has asked a local prosecutor to investigate Charlie Hebdo for aggravated defamation, a crime for which the town would seek civil damages.

Even though the cartoons were published in France, Cicchetti said the legal case could be brought in Italy because they had been widely seen and shared there.

Twelve people were shot dead at Charlie Hebdos offices in Paris in 2015 by Islamist militants who accused the magazine of blasphemy for printing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

The construction sector in Italy has long been plagued by inattention to regulations, and both regular building work and post-disaster reconstruction has at times been infiltrated by organized crime.

It is now up to the magistrates in Rieti, near Amatrice, to decide whether to take up the investigation against the cartoonists and the magazines director, Cicchetti said.

Charlie Hebdo declined to comment.

(Additional reporting by Richard Lough in Paris; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
ROME (Reuters) - Italy will set up a military hospital and deploy 300 doctors, nurses and soldiers in Libya at the request of the United Nations-recognized government in Tripoli, a government source said on Monday. The hospital near the Misrata airport will be staffed by about 100 doctors and nurses and guarded by some 200 soldiers. It "should be a safe location, but not too far from the battle zone," the source said. Libyan forces aligned with the U.N.-backed government have been fighting to drive Islamic State militants out of their former stronghold of Sirte for months, but they have faced stiff resistance and suffered numerous casualties. Italy has already flown dozens of Libyan fighters to Rome for medical treatment, but the hospital will be a faster and more efficient channel for assistance, the source said. No further details were provided, including the exact timing of the deployment. While France, Britain, the United States and Italy have acknowledged having special military units in Libya, this will be the first overt troop deployment by a Western nation, albeit for a humanitarian mission. Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti and Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni may provide further details when they address parliament on Tuesday about "the situation in Libya". Italy has historic ties to Libya, which it colonized during the first half of the 20th century. Libya lies directly south of Italy, less than 500 km (310 miles) from the Sicilian coast. Today, amid the chaos of civil war, people-smugglers operate in Libya with relative impunity. They have sent more than 400,000 migrants in rickety and overcrowded boats to Italy since the beginning of 2014. (Reporting by Steve Scherer, editing by Crispian Balmer and Mark Trevelyan)
Rome (AFP) - Amatrice, the Italian town devastated by last month's deadly earthquake, is suing French weekly Charlie Hebdo for defamation over a series of cartoons about the disaster.

The satirical magazine caused an outcry in Italy by publishing three pasta-themed cartoons on the subject of the quake, including one portraying victims crushed under layers of lasagna.

"It amounts to a macabre, tactless and inconceivable insult to the victims of a natural catastrophe," the town council's lawyer, Mario Cicchetti, told reporters after the largely symbolic legal move was announced.

Published only days after the quake struck on August 24, killing nearly 300 people, the cartoons struck a raw nerve, notably prompting Interior Minister Angelino Alfano to say he knew where the authors "could stick their pencils".

The French publication responded with a follow-up cartoon showing a woman crushed under ruins and the caption: "It is not Charlie Hebdo who builds your houses, it is the mafia."

There was no immediate response from the French publication to the suit.
(Adds source and company comments, background)

By Francesca Piscioneri and Elisa Anzolin

ROME/MILAN, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The 90-year old founder of Italian supermarket chain Esselunga is considering a sale of the group and has picked Citigroup as adviser to assess expressions of interest from private equity funds, two sources close to the matter said on Monday.

One of the sources said that CVC Capital Partners and Blackstone had expressed interest in Italy's third-largest supermarket chain, which had revenue of 7.3 billion euros ($8.2 billion) last year.

The second source said the board of the family holding that owns Esselunga had been convened on Monday to give an advisory mandate to Citi but gave no further details.

Citi and Esselunga declined to comment.

Esselunga, founded in 1957 by Bernardo Caprotti and his brothers, together with Nelson Rockefeller, operates mainly in the wealthy north of Italy and focuses on medium and large supermarkets as well as its online business.

The unlisted chain is worth between 4 billion euros and 6 billion euros, depending on the real estate that could be sold with the stores, La Repubblica newspaper reported at the weekend.

Italy's retail market is highly fragmented and supermarket chains are smaller than in other large European economies, prompting calls for consolidation.

Caprotti, a secretive yet outspoken figure from a long line of Italian businessmen, has previously been reported to have rejected overtures from Britain's Tesco and U.S. giant Wal-Mart, which he once described as the "antithesis of Esselunga".

Caprotti has in the past aired his views in letters to newspapers and in 2007 wrote a book taking aim at Italy's cooperative supermarkets, but did not hold a press conference until he was into his eighties.

The billionaire businessman, who has been in a long-running legal dispute with the two children of his first marriage over ownership of the chain, stepped down as Esselunga chairman in 2011 and resigned from all executive functions at the company in 2013.

($1 = 0.8903 euros)

(Writing by Stephen Jewkes and Silvia Aloisi; Editing by David Goodman)
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will head to Canada in a couple of weeks with their children in tow [Photo: PA Images]

After months of speculation, Kensington Palace has confirmed that Prince George and Princess Charlotte will join their parents on their royal tour of Canada later this month.

I am very pleased to confirm that they will bring their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, with them to Canada, a spokesperson from the palace said.

They have received so many wonderful messages from Canadians since the birth of their children and look forward to having the chance to introduce their young family to the country.

Prince George visited Australia and New Zealand when he was just nine months [Photo: PA Images]



The tour, announced earlier this year, will last eight days and will begin with the foursome heading to Victoria, British Columbia on September 24 before heading on to Vancouver the following day. Next up, on September 26, is a stop-off in Bella Bella and a visit to the Great Bear Rainforest.

On September 27, the couple will arrive in Kelowna where theyll spend the day before heading on to Whitehorse and Carcross, Yukon.

Charlotte will be joining her brother for the trip overseas [Photo: PA Images]



Then on September 29, theyll head back to Victoria before spending the day in Haida Gwaii and returning to Victoria once again.

While George, three, has been on a royal tour before (he travelled around Australia and New Zealand when he was nine months old), this will be sixteen month old Charlottes first engagement of this type.

While in Australia and New Zealand, George stole the limelight during a playdate with other young children, visited a zoo and was gifted with numerous presents from his adventures down under.

With the addition of Charlotte on this trip, we hazard a guess well be treated to numerous adorable snapshots of the young family.

You Can Now Buy The Duchess Of Cambridges Wedding Dress For 130

Kate And Wills Jet Off On Holiday With George And Charlotte
Diyarbakir (Turkey) (AFP) - The leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, is "in good health" and has called for an end to the Kurdish conflict, his brother said Monday after visiting him in jail.

"He is in good health," Mehmet Ocalan told supporters in the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey, a day after meeting his brother on the Imrali prison island near Istanbul.

The visit came amid concerns over the health of the leader of the PKK, which has waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state and is considered a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies.

Turkish media reported that the meeting was the first family visit Ocalan has been allowed since October 6, 2014. He last met with a political delegation from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in April 2015.

"He has no problems but projects," Ocalan's brother said.

"He said if the state is ready for the projects, we can implement them in six months."

Mehmet Ocalan did not give any details of what these projects might be.

But he quoted his brother as saying in a message to supporters: "If the state gives a signal, this problem will not continue but will be resolved."

The Turkish government granted permission for the family visit before the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha, countering alarm over Ocalan's welfare.

A group of 50 Kurdish activists including MPs, who started a hunger strike to protest lack of news on Ocalan's health, announced on Monday they were ending their action on the eighth day.

"We had only one request: to receive news from Ocalan," the group's spokeswoman Leyla Guven said.

"We have received the news. Therefore, we've ended the hunger strike."

Ocalan was sentenced to death after being captured in Kenya in 1999 and his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2002 when Turkey abolished the death penalty.

More than 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK first took up arms in 1984.

The group called for a ceasefire in 2013 after clandestine talks between Ocalan and the Turkish spy agency, but the conflict has resumed since the collapse of the truce last year, leaving hundreds more people dead.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told senior military officials on Monday that he absolutely cannot tolerate North Korea having conducted two nuclear tests since the start of the year. North Korea on Friday conducted its fifth and biggest nuclear test and said it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile, ratcheting up a threat that rivals and the United Nations have been powerless to contain. "North Korea went ahead with two nuclear tests in just nine months. This is absolutely unacceptable," Abe said. (Reporting by Nobuhiro Kubo, Writing by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Michael Perry)
Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f207330%2fjeff_bezos_pad

Say hello to Jeff Bezos' newest addition to Blue Origin's family of rockets: the New Glenn.

Named for John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, the two-stage New Glenn rocket is designed to be Blue Origin's first orbital-class launcher, expected to bring heavy payloads, such as satellites, and eventually people to orbit from a launch site in Florida.

"We plan to fly New Glenn for the first time before the end of this decade from historic Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral, Florida," Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin, wrote in a newsletter sent Monday.

SEE ALSO: Jeff Bezos-backed rocket landed safely back on Earth after flying to space

"New Glenn is designed to launch commercial satellites and to fly humans into space," Bezos wrote.

Blue Origin is also planning to manufacture a three-stage version of the rocket that should be able to fly payloads beyond Earth's orbit, according to the billionaire founder of Amazon, the online retail giant.

The Monday morning email marks the first big release of new details about the rocket, but it isn't the first time Bezos has teased the company's lofty plans.

During a 2015 event in Florida, Bezos mentioned that Blue Origin was working on a "very big brother" rocket that would fly orbital missions while its New Shepard spacecraft  which has flown multiple successful uncrewed test flights  flies paying customers to about 60 miles above Earth and back home again.

That big brother seems to be the New Glenn.

Once the rocket starts flying, it will be one of the most powerful rockets on Earth, according to Blue Origin, with 3.85 million pounds of thrust produced.

A comparison of Blue Origin's rockets to other rockets.

Image: Blue origin

For reference, the most powerful rocket flying today, United Launch Alliance's Delta IV Heavy, produces about 2 million pounds of thrust at launch, while SpaceX's future Falcon Heavy rocket should produce about 5 million pounds of thrust when it begins test flights.

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Like Blue Origin's New Shepard  which is named for Alan Shepard, the first American to fly to space  the New Glenn will also have a reusable first stage. That reusability would allow the company to launch multiple missions with the same hardware, dramatically reducing the cost of flying to space.

And also like the New Shepard, test flights of the New Glenn will likely be slow and methodical.

"Our motto is 'Gradatim Ferociter'  step by step, ferociously," Bezos said.

"In the long run, deliberate and methodical wins the day, and you do things quickest by never skipping steps. This step-by-step approach is a powerful enabler of boldness and a critical ingredient in achieving the audacious."

But of course, Bezos couldn't help but hint at the company's next big step forward.

"Our vision is millions of people living and working in space, and New Glenn is a very important step," Bezos said.

"It wont be the last of course. Up next on our drawing board: New Armstrong. But thats a story for the future."
New Glenn in rocket lineup

Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos is providing a sneak preview of the New Glenn rocket for orbital launches, which his Blue Origin space venture has been working on for four years already.

Bezos shared the design and basic specifications in an update sent to thousands of email subscribers.

Named in honor of John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, New Glenn is 23 feet in diameter and lifts off with 3.85 million pounds of thrust from seven BE-4 engines, Bezos wrote. Burning liquefied natural gas and liquid oxygen, these are the same BE-4 engines that will power United Launch Alliances new Vulcan rocket.

The two-stage version of New Glenn would be capable of flying commercial satellites and astronauts into low Earth orbit. Bezos said a three-stage New Glenn could send payloads on demanding beyond-LEO missions.

Blue Origin has been designing, developing and testing its first launch system, the suborbital New Shepard, for more than a decade. That rocket ship was named after the first American in space, Alan Shepard, who took a history-making suborbital trip in 1961. Glenn followed up a year later with NASAs first orbital mission.

Over the past year, Blue Origin has flown the same New Shepard booster and crew capsule to outer space and back four times. The fifth flight, scheduled for October, is expected to test the craft under conditions so harsh that the booster is not expected to survive intact.

If all goes according to plan, the company will start launching test astronauts next year, and take on paying passengers in 2018.

Blue Origin builds its suborbital spaceships at a plant south of Seattle, and launches them from a West Texas proving ground. But the orbital rockets are due to be manufactured at and launched from a rocket facility thats currently under construction in Florida.

We plan to fly New Glenn for the first time before the end of this decade from historic Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, Bezos wrote.

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The two-stage New Glenn will be 270 feet tall. The BE-4 engines to power the first stage are still under development and should go into full-scale testing around the end of the year. The second stage will be powered by a single, vacuum-optimized variant of the BE-4, Bezos said.

The three-stage New Glenn will be 313 feet tall. The extra stage will have a single BE-3 rocket engine  the same hydrogen-fueled engine used on New Shepard, but optimized for use in the vacuum of outer space.

New Glenns liftoff thrust would be twice that of SpaceXs Falcon 9, which is currently being used to send cargo to the International Space Station and put satellites in geosynchronous transfer orbit.

But it wouldnt be as powerful as the Falcon Heavy, which is rated at 5.5 million pounds of thrust. SpaceX hopes to start flying the Falcon Heavy within the next few months, depending on the results of the investigation into this months Falcon 9 launch-pad explosion.

Like the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy, New Glenn will be designed so that its first stage can be landed intact, refueled and reflown. Thats a key part of the strategy being followed by Bezos as well as SpaceXs billionaire founder, Elon Musk, to lower the cost of access to space.

Neither the Falcon Heavy nor New Glenn would match the Apollo-era Saturn 5 moon rocket, which produced 7.6 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. Nor would they match NASAs Space Launch System, which is expected to pack upwards of 8 million pounds of thrust when it makes its debut in 2018.

But just give Bezos (and Musk) a little more time.

Our vision is millions of people living and working in space, and New Glenn is a very important step. It wont be the last, of course, Bezos wrote. Up next on our drawing board: New Armstrong. But thats a story for the future.

Blue Origin hasnt yet established a ticket price or a reservation system for its New Shepard suborbital space trips, let alone trips to the moon on New Armstrong. But you can sign up for email updates from Blue Origin via the companys website.

More from GeekWire:
Hollywood's female director gap sparked calls for change on Monday at the Toronto Film Festival.

"We're looking at it as a human rights issue ... This is a civil liberties problem. This isn't just a problem for Hollywood. This is a real issue that we need to dig in on," Stacey Offman, senior vp of development and production at Alex Gibney's Jigsaw Productions and Morgan Spurlock's former producing partner, told a panel about the film industry's gender gap.

"It's controversial, but whatever it takes, there needs to be programs and quotas, because it's a crisis," she added. Offman's comments followed a screening of the docuseries 4%: Film's Gender Problem, from Jigsaw Productions, with director Caroline Suh and fellow executive producer Laura Michalchyshyn also on the TIFF panel.

The film series, which explores the issues around the current gender gap in Hollywood through contributions from industry players like Judd Apatow, Jill Soloway and Kristen Wiig, is based on research by USC Annenberg's Dr. Stacy L. Smith. Her findings concluded that, among around 1300 top-grossing Hollywood movies from 2002 to 2014, only 4.1 percent of all directors were female.

Smith, also in Toronto for the industry panel, urged the major studios to overhaul how they greenlight and finance movies to close the industry's gender gap. "It's top to bottom. There has been no change in the top-100 blockbusters, at least since 2007, on screen dating back half a century," she said.

As an example, Smith recommended producers add five speaking parts for female characters per-movie over three years, and then repeat, to get to gender parity. "It would cost around $5,000 per film, according to SAG/AFTRA numbers. And it wouldn't take jobs from men," she added.

The Toronto Film Festival runs to Sept. 18.

Read more: Epix to Air Docuseries About Film's Gender Bias From Alex Gibney's Jigsaw Productions
By Manjeet Sehgal: In a rarest of rare protests inside an assembly, 32 Punjab Congress MLAs, including four female members, staged a protest inside Punjab assembly from last three hours. The protest was held inside the assembly complex in the dark as the power supply was cut off by the authorities.

There was high drama in the assembly before the Congress members staged a protest. They were adamant over continuing debate on their no confidence motion but the speaker abruptly ended the house proceedings by seeking a voice vote on the motion.

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While the Akali Dal BJP MLAs left the house, the congress MLAs continued with the debate in the house even as the assembly staff switched off the power of the house.

Later Congress members sat on a dharna inside Punjab Vidhan Sabha to protest against Speaker's decision not to allow discussion on 'No Confidence Motion'.

"This is first time in the history of Punjab Vidhan Sabha that the Congress MLAs were compelled to protest in the dark. Badal government in order to crush the voice of the people rejected the motion. We are protesting from 5 PM onwards. We are sitting in the dark, there is no power, no water nor anything to eat. Only one door is open. It seems we are protesting in Afghanistan and have been captured," MLA Dera Baba Nanak, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said.



CAPTAIN EXTENDS SUPPORT TO CONGRESS MLAS



Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday extended his support to the party MLAs who are holding a protest inside the Punjab Vidhan Sabha against the Speaker's decision not to allow discussion on 'No Confidence Motion' on the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.

The PCC president said that it was totally undemocratic on part of the Speaker not to allow the discussion on such a serious and sensitive issue facing the state. He said, the state was faced with anarchy and lawlessness and the government had absolutely lost the control over things. Under these circumstances, he added, the Vidhan Sabha was the only right forum to discuss the matter.

He also condemned the arm twisting tactics of the authorities to force the Congress legislators to lift the dharna by switching off the lights and the air-conditioners. He said, the government should not have run away from the debate and should have faced the opposition particularly when common man was feeling unsafe and insecure.

SLAMS LAW AND ORDER ISSUES

Capt Amarinder pointed out, a series of serious incidents relating to law and order have taken place in Punjab during last some time. He said the Namdhari sect Mata was gunned down and the police were clueless. A senior RSS leader was attacked and he is fighting for his life and again the police have no clues, he added. Besides, the attackers of Sant Ranjit Singh Dhadarianwale are still roaming around free.

The former Chief Minister also referred to the Behbal Kalan sacrilege and subsequent firing in Bargadi saying, government had not been able to locate the culprits. He said, under such circumstances the Speaker should have allowed the motion and discussion by the Congress party and not acted in a partisan manner.

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Also read:

Captain Amarinder Singh questions Kejriwal's moral authority to speak on corruption



--- ENDS ---
Jonah Hill, along with his War Dogs co-star Miles Teller, was a guest on the French television show Le Grand Journal, and lets just say that it didnt go too well. Things went off the rails because of a joke comedian Ornella Fleury made. Its when I saw you get sodomized by a three-meter-tall demon in This Is the End that I told myself, now thats the man of my dreams! Fleury began. Anyway, thats why I have a sexual fantasy with you, Jonah. It would be that Fleury trailed off as the audience laughed. All I said is sexual fantasy and you guys laugh. Guess I dont need to finish the joke.

It would have been way less awkward for everyone if Fleury had just left it there, but she didnt. My sexual fantasy would be that wed meet up in a hotel room at night, she continued. We would chat, youd make me laugh. Youd make me laugh a lot. And then all of a sudden, youd bring your friends [Leonardo] DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, and then youd go away!

Clearly, Jonah Hill wasnt aware that he was going to be attending the Le Grand Journal roast of Jonah Hill. Im glad I came to this show to get ridiculed by a local presenter, Hill retorted. Its nice.

According to BFMTV, a French news organization, Hill was in France to promote War Dogs, but following that interview, he canceled all his scheduled interviews at the Deauville Festival, something the festival confirmed itself.

Tom Hanks tells Ellen about dyeing his Hair white for Sully:



Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram  or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Khail Anonymous, on Twitter.
By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK, Sept 12 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Monday revived a former JPMorgan Chase & Co private banker's whistleblower lawsuit accusing the bank of firing her in retaliation for warning that an Israeli client might be committing fraud.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York found enough evidence to suggest that former JPMorgan employee Jennifer Sharkey had a "reasonable belief" that the client was engaged in fraud and money laundering involving Colombia.

Sharkey said she was fired as a vice president and wealth manager in August 2009, just a week after formally urging the bank to heed "red flags" and sever its ties with the client, who generated about $600,000 of annual billings.

The client was not identified in court papers. Sharkey was terminated eight months after the multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme of longtime JPMorgan client Bernard Madoff was exposed.

U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet in Manhattan dismissed Sharkey's lawsuit last October.

Sweet said JPMorgan could have fired Sharkey based on her performance, or for having purportedly lied about communications involving another client. Sharkey disputed having lied.

But the appeals court said the "close temporal proximity" between Sharkey's warning and her firing justified letting the case continue. It also said her qualifications as a whistleblower was an issue of fact to be resolved at trial.

The court returned the case to Sweet's courtroom.

JPMorgan spokesman Darin Oduyoye said the bank believes the lawsuit is without merit, and looks forward to presenting its case in court.

Lawrence Pearson, a partner at Wigdor LLP representing Sharkey, said he was pleased with the decision and looks forward to a trial.

Sharkey had sued under the whistleblower provisions of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance law.

Sweet had dismissed Sharkey's case in December 2013. Last October's dismissal came after the appeals court in the interim imposed a more lenient standard for whistleblower protection.

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JPMorgan agreed in January 2014 to pay $2.6 billion to settle litigation over Madoff, and in a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. government acknowledged responsibility for failing to stop him.

The case is Sharkey v. JPMorgan Chase & Co et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 15-3400.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Grant McCool)
Screenwriter Mark Boal and the U.S. government could be headed to what is effectively a settlement conference after a federal judge on Monday urged the parties to resolve their dispute over interview tapes of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl informally.

Boal asked the court to enjoin military prosecutors from issuing a subpoena for 25 hours of interviews of Bergdahl, who is facing trial for desertion.

U.S. District Court Judge George H. King says he doesn't want his ruling on the matter to "short-circuit" any progress the parties have made toward resolving the matter outside of court.

Last week, King asked attorneys to come to court prepared to discuss if a recent DC Circuit decision involving the appropriateness of the civilian court interfering in military proceedings affects this case. However, much of the Monday hearing was spent discussing the various reasons Boal's case is uncharted territory.

"This is an unusual case," said Boal's attorney Jean-Paul Jassy. "Never before in American history has an Army prosecutor subpoenaed an individual reporter." Jassy says he can't point to case law to show whether the court-martial acknowledges the reporter's privilege because it hasn't ever been considered - which he says puts his client at a disadvantage in an "alien" court.

Meanwhile, the government's attorney Julia Berman argues the novelty of the issue shouldn't be held against the military courts. Further, she reminded the court that Boal chose to approach and interview a service member while he was under investigation.

Jassy also argues that the government has not articulated why it even needs the interview tapes, when it already has full access to Bergdahl himself and millions of pages of files from various government agencies.

King told Jassy he's putting the cart before the horse, and the heart of the dispute is not whether Boal can argue that the reporter's privilege shields him from turning over confidential recordings but where and when it is most appropriate for him to do so.

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"The reporter's privilege is not absolute," King says. "The reporter's privilege is not an immunity to subpoena. It would be absurd to think that."

King says the biggest challenge in relying on case law is that none of the cases cited by attorneys "contemplate a return to the court that is abstaining" - which seems to be what King has in mind.

While King told attorneys during the hearing that he hasn't yet decided if he'll punt the decision to the court-martial, his in-court comments suggest otherwise.

During his questioning of Berman, King posed a hypothetical. If Boal fought the subpoena before the court-martial and was denied, he could then take his case to the Army Courts of Criminal Appeals for intermediate review. If still denied, he could try again before the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. Then, after exhausting the military court, he could request an injunction in federal court before the date he's due to turn over the files under the subpoena.

In order for federal prosecutors to indict Boal, they'd have to prove he "willfully" broke the law - which theoretically wouldn't be possible until after the military courts denied his efforts to quash the subpoena, according to King.

That process, King says, seems to be the best shot at "minimizing the friction" between the military and civilian courts. So unless King dramatically deviates in his ruling - or the parties reach an agreement - it appears Boal is headed to military court to fight the subpoena.
Judy Reyes has found her next small-screen role.

Fresh off Lifetime's Devious Maids, the actress has booked a series-regular role in TNT's nail salon hourlong dramedy pilot Claws, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Set at a South Florida nail salon, Claws is described as a midnight-dark, wickedly funny meditation on female badness that follows the rise of five diverse and treacherous Floridian manicurists. The potential series will reveal there's more going on at the Nail Artisan of Manatee County salon than silk wraps and pedicures.

Reyes will play Quiet Ann, Desna's (Niecy Nash) driver, who also provides security at the nail salon when necessary. In addition to Nash, Reyes joins a cast that includes Carrie Preston and Karrueche Tran.

Read more: Rashida Jones' Nail Salon Dramedy 'Claws' Moves to TNT With Pilot Pickup (Exclusive)

The pilot hails from executive producers Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, whose banner Le Train Train will produce the project with Warner Horizon and Turner's Studio T. Janine Sherman Barrois (ER, Criminal Minds) is on board as executive producer and showrunner should the pilot be picked up to series. Co-executive producer Eliot Laurence (Welcome to Me) wrote the pilot, which will be directed by Nicole Kassell (The Americans).

Reyes comes to Claws after Lifetime recently canceled Devious Maids following a four-season run. She also has recently recurred on Jane the Virgin, and will next appear in Netflix's One Day at a Time remake. Reyes, whose other credits include Scrubs, is repped by TalentWorks, ATA Management and Franklin, Weinrib.
Brussels (AFP) - European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has opened a probe into whether his predecessor Jose Manuel Barroso breached EU ethics guidelines by joining US investment bank Goldman Sachs.

In a letter to the European Union's official watchdog, Juncker also said Barroso will now be received at the Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation bloc, as a lobbyist rather than as a former president.

Juncker said his team would send Barroso "a letter asking him to provide clarification on his new responsibilities and the terms of reference of his contract, on which I will seek the advice of the (Commission's) Ad Hoc Ethical Committee."

The committee's findings are non-binding.

His letter was released late Sunday by European Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly who had written to Juncker last week asking him to check whether Barroso's appointment "conforms with ethics obligations" in the EU treaties.

Barroso's appointment to the role as non-executive chairman and advisor at the US investment bank has caused a furore in the EU, with French President Francois Hollande deeming it "morally unacceptable".

Goldman Sachs was heavily involved in selling complex financial products, including subprime mortgages that contributed to the world financial crisis in 2008.

The European Ombudsman investigates complaints about maladministration in the institutions and bodies of the EU.

- 'Interests of transparency' -

Barroso headed the Commission from 2004 to 2014, overseeing membership for several former communist states in Eastern Europe, the response to the global financial crash and the ensuing eurozone debt crisis.

The former Portuguese prime minister has been criticised for comments he made to the Financial Times suggesting that he would be well-suited to helping Goldman Sachs following Britain's shock June 23 vote to leave the EU.

Goldman Sachs said in a statement in July that the hiring of Barroso had "nothing to do with the outcome of the Brexit vote."

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At the time, the Commission said Barroso did not have to inform Juncker about the job because he had been through an 18-month "cooling off" period since leaving and it was safe to assume he no longer had access to privileged information or influence.

But it added he would still be bound by EU rules of professional secrecy.

Asked why Juncker took so long to request the information from Barroso, Commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein told a press conference that the president needed "some time to think" before asking for more information.

"What counts is that opinion is based upon facts," Winterstein said.

Barroso's meetings will be "reported and listed in the interests of transparency" and he will not be given VIP treatment when he visits the commission as a lobbyist, the spokesman said.
Justin Ross Harris, the man accused of murdering his 22-month-old son by allegedly intentionally leaving him in a hot car while he went to his job at Home Depot, is finally facing trial  five months after a judge abruptly halted jury selection to move the trial out of the Atlanta area.



Jury selection is set to begin on Monday morning in Brunswick, Georgia, more than 275 miles away from where the toddler died. About 200 potential jurors have been summoned to the Glynn County Courthouse.



It will be the second time that the lawyers have gone through this process. In April, attorneys began questioning potential jurors. Three weeks into the process, Harris' attorneys filed a motion arguing that "an impartial jury cannot be obtained in the county where the crime is alleged to have been committed." The judge agreed to move the trial.





The Alleged Crime

On June 14, 2014, Harris allegedly left his son, Cooper, in the family's SUV on a day when the outside temperatures were nearly 90 degrees. An autopsy found that Cooper died of hyperthermia.







Harris's attorney, Maddox Kilgore, contends Harris merely forgot about Cooper because he was distracted and that Harris never intended to harm his son.



Prosecutors charged Harris with eight felony counts, including malice murder, cruelty to children and criminal attempt to commit a felony.





Alleged Sexting and Strange Behavior

Prosecutors contend that Harris was not the loving father he has claimed to be.



In a pretrial hearing, a detective told the court that Harris had exchanged sexual text messages with six different females while his son was dying in the car. One of the females he allegedly sexted was just 16 years old. (Harris tried to have the alleged racy text messages declared inadmissible at trial.)



In a 2014 probable cause hearing, detective Phil Stoddard outlined Harris's alleged strange behavior, both before and after Cooper's death.



According to Stoddard, Harris had researched hot car deaths online. He also searched "how to survive in prison."



Surveillance video has shown Harris returning to the car during lunchtime and placing two boxes of light bulbs inside. He appears not to look at Cooper's car seat.



Stoddard also testified that Harris grew belligerent with responding officers after discovering Cooper's lifeless body. When he was arrested, Harris allegedly said, "But there was no malicious intent."





Will His Wife Testify?

For nearly two years, Harris's wife, Leanna, stood by him, calling him a good father.



Earlier this year, however, she quietly filed for divorce. "She had had enough," a source close to Leanna tells PEOPLE. "She is 100% done with him."



She is on the trial's witness list, but it's unclear whether she will be called to testify against or for him.



The trial is expected to last several weeks. Harris faces life in prison if found guilty.
By Rich McKay

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Jury selection began on Monday for the second time this year in the murder trial of a Georgia man who prosecutors say intentionally left his toddler son to die in a hot car in June 2014 while the father exchanged nude photos with women online.

The first attempt to seat a jury to hear the case against Justin Ross Harris failed after three weeks last spring, with some potential jurors calling him a pervert and one saying he should "rot in hell."

Judge Mary Staley Clark agreed that Harris, 35, could not get a fair trial in the same suburban Atlanta community where his 22-month-old son Cooper died after being left for seven hours in a locked SUV outside the father's workplace.

The judge moved the proceedings 300 miles away to the coastal city of Brunswick, Georgia, in an effort to find impartial jurors to hear the case.

She spent much of Monday interviewing more than two dozen people who asked to be excused from serving as a juror, mostly due to personal or professional reasons.

Harris, dressed in a dark suit, showed no emotion as he watched the proceedings.

Jury selection is expected to take up to two weeks, and the trial is expected to last a month.

Harris faces myriad charges, including the murder of his son and sexual exploitation of minors for text messages he sent to underage women. He could go to prison for life if convicted.

Prosecutors say the then-married man deliberately left his son in the car because he wanted a child-free life. Phone and internet records show Harris was sending explicit messages for much of the day when his son was dying inside the sweltering car.

Harris' lawyers say he left the toddler strapped in his car seat after forgetting to drop Cooper off at daycare. Harris has pleaded not guilty and claimed that, while not being a perfect husband, he loved his son and the death was a terrible accident.

Leanna Taylor, Cooper's mother, divorced Harris after the child's death but told several media outlets she believed her former husband was innocent.

(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and James Dalgleish)
Since he left ESPN last year, Keith Olbermann has for the most part used his Twitter feed to air his views about a certain Republican presidential candidate. Beginning Tuesday morning, Sept. 13, Olbermann will be delivering that commentary for GQ.

The Closer With Keith Olbermann will bow at 8 a.m. on GQ.com.

"The first piece should be about 16 minutes long," Olbermann tells The Hollywood Reporter. "It's a comment. It's special. It's a kind of special comment."

Of course, special comment was a signature of Olbermann's MSNBC show Countdown, which grew out of the host's opposition to George W. Bush's War in Iraq. During the current presidential campaign - and since he left ESPN last year - he also has aired his frustrations with Donald Trump and the way his candidacy is being covered via several guest columns. He asked in Vanity Fair if Trump could pass a sanity test. And he penned a column for THR, in which he accused the mainstream media of being soft of Trump.

"If he is scheduled to do 20 Trump town halls for you between now and the election, thus saving you about a month's worth of production costs for your average cable news show (a million or two, depending on how much you pay your meat puppet), you don't examine what's going on inside of a man who could first pretend to be his own media spokesman, then boast about his own sexual conquests in the third person, then admit the deception to a reporter, then again admit it on the legal record, then deny it on national television, then when pressed about it by the Washington Post simply hang up the phone," Olbermann wrote.

Read more: Keith Olbermann Sells Trump Condo, Says He Recuperated His Soul

The media's approach to Trump has received additional scrutiny since NBC's Matt Lauer was strenuously criticized for what was perceived as less-than-thorough questioning of Trump during NBC News' Commander-in-Chief Forum on Sept. 7.

Story continues

Additionally, Olbermann will also serve as a special correspondent for GQ. He continues to lend his voice to the Netflix animated show BoJack Horseman, having just wrapped production on season four. And he tells THR he also has some one-off sports projects in the pipeline.

Olbermann is repped by Todd Christopher at Gersh.

Read more: Keith Olbermann Calls Donald Trump "Most Dangerous Presidential Candidate" in Over a Century
john kerry

Secretary of State John Kerry warned that the cease-fire deal brokered by the US and Russia "may be the last chance we have to save a united Syria," CNN reported on Monday, hours after the truce started.

The Obama administration believes a truce leading to negotiations "is the only realistic possible solution," Kerry told reporters at the State Department.

Kerry acknowledged the temporary peace deal is "less than perfect" but said the situation in Syria before the deal was "worse than flawed," according to CNN.

Kerry said it was too early to evaluate the effectiveness of the cease-fire, and cast no doubt that some violence would be reported "here and there," according to Reuters.

As part of the ceasefire, the Syrian army has announced a halt to military operations for seven days. The ceasefire, if it manages to remain in effect, will allow the delivery of aid and humanitarian assistance to besieged areas of the nation.

Early reports demonstrate some reduction of violence in Syria but there's also mounting evidence showing how hard it will be to ensure that the ceasefire remains intact.

The Free Syrian Army, according to the BBC, has said that it will "co-operate positively" with the ceasefire. However, the group also voiced concerns that the deal will ultimately benefit the Syrian government at the expense of rebel held areas.

And Ahrar al-Sham, a major Islamist group operating in the country, initially announced via an online statement that it would not respect the ceasefire as the group is not bound by the truce and wont abide by it."

Like the Free Syrian Army, the group also doubted the ceasefire and said a truce would only benefit Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces, making it difficult for a "genuine reduction in violence" to occur, according to Daily Caller.

Ahrar al-Sham

Story continues

Ahrar al-Sham also called out the ceasefire for the provision that, should the deal hold for seven days and humanitarian aid flows unimpeded, Russia and the US would begin joint strikes against the al Qaeda Jabhat Fatah al-Sham affiliate and would share intelligence through a Joint Implementation Center (JIC).

"We're going to measure [the situation in Syria] every single day, and we'll see where we are," Kerry said about the possible implementation of the JIC.

A later statement from State Department Spokesperson John Kirby stated that the purpose of the (JIC) was to coordinate with Russia, and that Syria would have no role in the effort.

"A primary purpose of this agreement, from our perspective, is to prevent the Syrian regime air force from flying or striking in any areas in which the opposition or Nusra are present. The purpose of the JIC, if and when it is established, would be to coordinate military action between the US and Russia, not for any other party," said Kirby.

SYRIA CONTROL map

Ahrar al-Sham said that ultimately, the ceasefire was an "unjust agreement" that signaled the lack of seriousness on the international community's part to end the multi-year Syrian conflict.

Another major sticking point that the opposition has with the ceasefire is the lack of an enforcement mechanism to ensure that all parties abide by the truce. However, The Washington Post reports that Kerry said the situation will be constantly closely monitored and that if the peace process is not met then the US will refuse to participate in the JIC with Russia.

The ceasefire is also on rocky ground due to luke warm support from the Syrian government. Hours before the start of the cease-fire, President Assad vowed to "retake every inch of Syria," adding that the army would continue its work "without hesitation, regardless of any internal or external circumstances" without mentioning the truce agreement explicitly, Reuters reported.

Additionally, neither Assad nor the rebel groups have officially accepted the ceasefire. However, both sides have said signaled that they will comply with the agreement, The Washington post reports.

NOW WATCH: EX-PENTAGON CHIEF: These are the 2 main reasons ISIS was born





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A dentist was thrashed with iron rod in a case of road rage in Delhi as his car touched the backside of a car that came to an abrupt halt. The doctor is in hospital with severe head injuries.

By Chirag Gothi: In a case of road rage, a doctor was thrashed with iron rod on Sunday night in Vasant Kunj area of Delhi. The victim was identified as Pradeep Chauhan, a dentist with Fortis Hospital, Gurgaon. He received severe head injuries and was admitted at Fortis Hospital, Vasant Kunj.

The incident took place around when Chauhan was returning home in his car from Janakpuri in west Delhi after paying a visit to his in-laws. He was heading towards Sangam Vihar in south Delhi with his wife, Anjana and two kids, 12-year-old Daksh and 10-year-old Ansh, when his Ritz car hit a WagonR, which came to an abrupt halt.

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Watch: Road rage: Female journalist thrashed in Mayur Vihar



HEAVY TRAFFIC AND COLLISION

The traffic was heavy on the route at that time. Suddenly, driver of the car moving ahead of Chauhan applied emergency brake and came to a halt. By the time he put the brakes on, his car touched that car. This was enough for the occupant, who was traveling with his wife, to go belligerent. He came out of his car shouting at Chauhans.

The wife and kids of the dentist came out of their car and apologized to the man heading towards them. But, he did not relent. He, now, headed towards Doctor Chauhan, who also got out of the car and apologized for the incident.

Manoj Chauhan is undergoing treatment at Fortis Hospital, Vasant Kunj. Manoj Chauhan is undergoing treatment at Fortis Hospital, Vasant Kunj.



THE INSANE RAGE

It seemed for a moment that the matter was resolved as the aggressor walked towards his car, but he came back with an iron rod, kept in his car and hit the dentist on his head several times. Anjana and the two kids kept pleading, but the assaulter didn't pay any heed. The wife of the accused also intervened but to no avail. He would leave Chauhan almost half dead, flattened on road.

A crowd gathered at the site and the accused was overpowered by people. Police was informed about the incident. A lawyer friend of Pradeep Chauhan, Rahisuddin was also informed. Rahisuddin took Chauhan, who was bleeding profusely from head, to hospital. Anjana also received injuries in the scuffle and was also admitted in the hospital.

Police arrested the accused, who was identified as Vineet Kumar, a resident of Khidki Extension near Malviya Nagar. A case under relevant sections of IPC has been registered against the accused.



ALSO READ:

Man takes road rage to a new level, uses car to attack, kill men

Delhi's crime graph shows 50 per cent rise in 2 months







--- ENDS ---
By Geert De Clercq and Karolin Schaps

PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) - South Korean power utility KEPCO is in talks with Japan's Toshiba and France's Engie about buying a stake in the Toshiba-Engie British nuclear joint venture NuGen, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Monday.

The source did not specify whether Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) would buy a part or all of the stakes of Toshiba or Engie (ENGIE.PA). Both firms are looking for partners to reduce their share in the capital-intensive project.

The source said it is not certain that KEPCO would buy into NuGen and that it was one of several options under review.

The Financial Times on Monday reported KEPCO had resumed talks about joining the 10 billion-pound NuGen project after negotiations stalled three years ago and is mulling taking an equity stake and a role in constructing the nuclear plant near Sellafield, northwest England.

"We are looking for investors and are talking to a wide range of people," said a spokesman for NuGen when contacted by Reuters, declining to comment on whether talks were taking place with KEPCO.

Engie declined to comment.

NuGen, a joint venture between Toshiba's U.S.-based nuclear power arm Westinghouse and French utility company Engie, plans to build three Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at the Moorside site on the coast of Cumbria and expects electricity generation to start in 2025.

NuGen is expected to have a generating capacity of up to 3.8 gigawatts when all three reactors are completed, accounting for around 7 percent of Britain's total electricity demand.

The NuGen consortium is competing to build Britain's first new nuclear plant in a generation with French power utility EDF (EDF.PA).

The French utility is planning the 18 billion pound Hinkley Point C project in Somerset, southwest England, which is no longer certain to go ahead since the government of new British prime minister Theresa May has raised security issues over China's involvement in the project.

Story continues

Hitachi's Horizon is another consortium which has proposed two new nuclear projects. Its Wylfa plant in Wales is expected to start up in the first half of the next decade.

Westinghouse is a nuclear reactor manufacturer which does not usually act as a contractor or operator.

Engie operates several nuclear plants in Belgium and is part of a consortium to build a nuclear plant in Turkey, but new Engie chief executive, Isabelle Kocher, wants to focus on renewable energy, energy efficiency and power networks.

Sources say both companies have been looking to reduce their stake in NuGen for several months, but low wholesale power prices and tough competition for ever-cheaper renewable energy have darkened the investment outlook for nuclear energy.

(Reporting by Geert De Clercq in Paris, Karolin Schaps and Tina Bellon in London; Editing by Lina Saigol and Louise Heavens)
Harmless fashion statement or cultural appropriation? The Twitterverse has spoken. (Photo: Getty)

Cultural appropriation is always a terrible idea  but when youre one of the most followed human beings on basically every social media platform, it can also be a recipe for public disaster. Case in point: Kylie Jenner attended Spring 2017 show in New York City on Saturday wearing a do-rag (also spelled du rag, durag, and doo rag), a head wrap worn traditionally in the black community.

Not only did Jenner Snapchat her ill-advised look, but photos of the teen sitting front row spread like wildfire on the Internet. It came as no surprise that social media users reacted with outrage, snark, and condescension.

If Kyle Jenner does not take off that damn du rag pic.twitter.com/W2gpJaSoLL  Mother Slurper (@biggiantloser) September 11, 2016

Just saw @KylieJenner wear a do rag in one of her snaps. If white ppl start wearing do rags Im going to be hella pissed ????????  Rehema (@theblogrehema) September 11, 2016

Almost lost it when I seen Kylie Jenner in a du-rag. Sis pls have several seats. ????????  Kemi (@KimboSlycee_) September 10, 2016

It seems she learned nothing from the criticism she received when she wore a Louis Vuitton scarf as a do-rag back in March.

Kylie Jenner wearing a Louis Vuitton do-rag is officially my new spirit animal. #KylieLipKit pic.twitter.com/yjjcxblc8B  Gibson Johns (@gibsonoma) March 31, 2016

Vann Newkirk, writer and founder of #DuragHistoryWeek  a Twitter movement to celebrate the roots of the functional accessory  told BBC.com, The durag has a special place in African-American and global black history as a head wrap.  Lots of folks use durags, while other folks may not quite know what they are. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, what they are is a piece of cloth that is worn on the head to cover the hair. They were most commonly worn by black men between trips to the barber, either to preserve a style or cover up hair too kinky to comb, says the Wall Street Journal.

This isnt the first time Jenner has courted controversy by borrowing from a culture thats not her own. In February, at the last New York Fashion Week, she sat front row at Alexander Wangs runway show sporting a Yaki ponytail, made from hair used primarily by women of color to add extensions to their braids, according to Refinery29. Once again, Twitter users were not having any of it.

So. This is Kylie Jenner.

It must be so cool to be a Black woman for the aesthetics and face none of the issues. pic.twitter.com/BeITuj3MuR  A Jade Fox (@FireinFreetown) February 14, 2016

Kylie Jenner literally wears blackface. She performs blackness. She over with braiding hair for a ponytail. Ha! https://t.co/iKb0SmThiz  Yasmin Yonis (@YasminYonis) February 14, 2016

I know she dont got a yaki ponytail. Youre not black @KylieJenner https://t.co/zxE6HQmZ1h  narcissist (@fashionxaliyah) February 14, 2016

And thats not the last of Jenners cultural transgressions. By now, cornrows, another hairstyle intrinsic to the black community, have been something of a trademark look for her. Last year, Hunger Games actress Amandla Stenberg claimed that Jenner was appropriating black culture with her hairdo, which sparked a social media debate that Jenner herself chimed in on, saying that disrespect for the black community was not her intention.

I woke up like disss A photo posted by Kylie (@kyliejenner) on Jul 11, 2015 at 11:12am PDT

When Jenner posted a selfie to Instagram in which she sported the cornrows, some accused her of cultural appropriation, but others were completely ignorant of the implications. I dont understand. Its a hairstyle, wrote one commenter.

Jenner recently addressed the heat she was getting over another race-related issue: the exclusion of Kylie Lip Kit colors to complement darker skin tones. In response to the criticism, just a few weeks ago she updated her makeup line with three new shades developed for women of color.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.
By Alastair Macdonald STRASBOURG (Reuters) - The diplomat nominated to take Britain's vacant seat on the EU executive pledged on Monday to serve "only the European general interest" if EU lawmakers accept him as, probably, the last ever British commissioner. Julian King conceded he was in a "particular situation" that he "would probably not have believed" before the June 23 Brexit referendum when Britons voted to quit the European Union. However, nominated by London after predecessor Jonathan Hill resigned from the Commission following the vote, King told a confirmation hearing in the European Parliament for the new post of EU security commissioner that he would respect the Brexit verdict but also be loyal to the EU if he takes up the post. "I strongly advocated the position of the British government during the UK referendum campaign," he said, noting he was the ambassador to France at the time, when then prime minister David Cameron was campaigning to keep Britain in the EU. "I have always been proud to be British and proud to be European and see no contradiction between the two. But on 23 June a majority of my compatriots decided they wanted to leave the EU. We must respect that decision." Speaking in French, King added: "For the avoidance of doubt ... I will fulfill my tasks to the best of my ability serving the European general interest, and only the European general interest" Britain is expected to leave the Union in the next few years when King, 52, would then have to leave the Commission. He was nominated by Cameron before he resigned as premier and lawmakers said he was likely to be approved by parliament later this week. Pressed by Gerard Batten of the UK Independence Party on how long he expected to have the job, King declined to speculate on how long Brexit negotiations would last and insisted he would be entirely independent of the British government if confirmed. In an intimation of independence from a nominee who unlike most commissioners has not been an elected politician, he said Prime Minister Theresa May faces a "problem" if she opts out of new EU legislation next year on its Europol police agency. Pro-Brexit figures argue it is illogical to sign Britain up to closer police cooperation while it is already negotiating to leave the bloc. But King, who described Europol as a "fantastic organization", said failure to opt in would create a possible "gap" in Britain's security arrangements until it is able to strike a new agreement with the EU once it has left the Union. SECURITY ROLE Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has offered King, who has also been a senior official at the Commission in the past, the post of security commissioner, responsible for promoting closer coordination against militant violence. As he noted in remarks to lawmakers on the civil liberties committee, he has considerable personal experience, including as a civil servant responsible for Northern Ireland and as ambassador to Dublin. The choice of portfolio is also one that Juncker sees as an area in which London will continue to work closely with Brussels even after Britain has left the EU. King said that while security remains primarily a responsibility of member states, the EU had a clear role in promoting coordination as threats from groups such as Islamic State were ranging across borders and posing common risks. "Neither terrorism nor organized crime respects national borders," he said. "Indeed their business models thrive on the lack of coordination between states." Even after Brexit, he noted, London would still be two hours by train from Paris or Brussels, both struck by Islamic State in the past year. "We would still have a shared interest in trying to tackle these threats," King said. King is widely expected to be accepted by lawmakers and would then take up his post in Brussels in the coming weeks. (Editing by Ralph Boulton)
By Alastair Macdonald STRASBOURG (Reuters) - The diplomat nominated to take Britain's vacant seat on the EU executive pledged on Monday to serve "only the European general interest" if EU lawmakers accept him as, probably, the last ever British commissioner. Julian King conceded he was in a "particular situation" that he "would probably not have believed" before the June 23 Brexit referendum when Britons voted to quit the European Union. However, nominated by London after predecessor Jonathan Hill resigned from the Commission following the vote, King told a confirmation hearing in the European Parliament for the new post of EU security commissioner that he would respect the Brexit verdict but also be loyal to the EU if he takes up the post. "I strongly advocated the position of the British government during the UK referendum campaign," he said, noting he was the ambassador to France at the time, when then prime minister David Cameron was campaigning to keep Britain in the EU. "I have always been proud to be British and proud to be European and see no contradiction between the two. But on 23 June a majority of my compatriots decided they wanted to leave the EU. We must respect that decision." Speaking in French, King added: "For the avoidance of doubt ... I will fulfil my tasks to the best of my ability serving the European general interest, and only the European general interest" Britain is expected to leave the Union in the next few years when King, 52, would then have to leave the Commission. He was nominated by Cameron before he resigned as premier and lawmakers said he was likely to be approved by parliament later this week. Pressed by Gerard Batten of the UK Independence Party on how long he expected to have the job, King declined to speculate on how long Brexit negotiations would last and insisted he would be entirely independent of the British government if confirmed. In an intimation of independence from a nominee who unlike most commissioners has not been an elected politician, he said Prime Minister Theresa May faces a "problem" if she opts out of new EU legislation next year on its Europol police agency. Pro-Brexit figures argue it is illogical to sign Britain up to closer police cooperation while it is already negotiating to leave the bloc. But King, who described Europol as a "fantastic organisation", said failure to opt in would create a possible "gap" in Britain's security arrangements until it is able to strike a new agreement with the EU once it has left the Union. SECURITY ROLE Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has offered King, who has also been a senior official at the Commission in the past, the post of security commissioner, responsible for promoting closer coordination against militant violence. As he noted in remarks to lawmakers on the civil liberties committee, he has considerable personal experience, including as a civil servant responsible for Northern Ireland and as ambassador to Dublin. The choice of portfolio is also one that Juncker sees as an area in which London will continue to work closely with Brussels even after Britain has left the EU. King said that while security remains primarily a responsibility of member states, the EU had a clear role in promoting coordination as threats from groups such as Islamic State were ranging across borders and posing common risks. "Neither terrorism nor organised crime respects national borders," he said. "Indeed their business models thrive on the lack of coordination between states." Even after Brexit, he noted, London would still be two hours by train from Paris or Brussels, both struck by Islamic State in the past year. "We would still have a shared interest in trying to tackle these threats," King said. King is widely expected to be accepted by lawmakers and would then take up his post in Brussels in the coming weeks. (Editing by Ralph Boulton)
Duterte said special forces now training Filipino troops were high-value targets for the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf as counter-insurgency operations intensify.

By Reuters: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday called for the withdrawal of US military from a restive southern island, fearing an American troop presence could complicate offensives against Islamist militants notorious for beheading Westerners.

Duterte, who was in the spotlight last week over his televised tirade against the United States and President Barack Obama, said special forces now training Filipino troops were high-value targets for the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf as counter-insurgency operations intensify.

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"These special forces, they have to go," Duterte said in a speech during an oath-taking ceremony for new officials. "I do not want a rift with America. But they have to go."

He added: "Americans, they will really kill them, they will try to kidnap them to get ransom."

ALLIES

The comment by Duterte, a former southern mayor known for his terse words and volatile temperament, adds to uncertainty about what impact his rise to the presidency will have on one of Washington's best alliances in Asia.

Duterte wants an independent foreign policy and says close ties with the United States are crucial, but he has frequently accused the former colonial power of hypocrisy when criticised for his deadly drugs war. He denied on Friday calling Obama a "son of a bitch".

Some US special forces have been killed in the southern Philippines since 2002, when Washington deployed soldiers to train and advise local units fighting Abu Sayyaf in Operation Enduring Freedom, part of its global anti-terror strategy.

ABU SAYYAF

At the height of that, some 1,200 Americans were in Zamboanga City and on Jolo and Basilan islands, both strongholds of Abu Sayyaf, which is known for its brutality and for earning huge sums of money from hostage-taking.

The US programme was discontinued in the Philippines in 2015 but a small troop presence has remained for logistics and technical support. Washington has shifted much of its security focus in the Philippines towards the South China Sea.

In his speech to officials on Monday, Duterte repeated comments from last week when he accused the United States of committing atrocities against Muslims over a century ago on Jolo island.

--- ENDS ---
According to Bloomberg, the Chinese consortium led by Apex Technology Co., Ltd. (Apex) and PAG Asia Capital (PAG) that entered into a deal to acquire Lexmark International Inc. LXK is considering the sale of the companys software unit to an undisclosed buyer.



The source also revealed that the sale of the software unit could raise around $1 billion. Interestingly, no official announcement has been made yet and chances of one happening in the near term are minimal. Apex and PAG Asia too refused to reveal further details.



In April this year, Lexmark agreed to be acquired by the Chinese consortium. Legend Capital Management Co., Ltd. (Legend Capital) was also one of the buyers. Per the agreement, the consortium will acquire Lexmark for $3.6 billion or $40.50 per share in cash.



The agreement, unanimously approved by the board of the company and subject to regulatory and customary closing conditions, is expected to close in the second half of 2016.



The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. GS served as the exclusive financial advisor to Lexmark, while Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz constituted its legal counsel.



According to Lexmark, the integration is fully aligned with the companys mission of restoring growth and opportunity, and addressing customers needs while also providing new prospects for employees. The transaction is expected to accelerate growth strategies for Lexmarks hardware, software and managed print services solution by expanding the business in the Asia Pacific region.



LEXMARK INTL Price

LEXMARK INTL Price | LEXMARK INTL Quote

Bottom Line



Lexmarks second-quarter results were not very encouraging given the earnings miss. Also, both earnings and revenues decreased on a year-over-year basis primarily due to a strong U.S. dollar, a decline in non-MPS revenues, and the ongoing exit of the company from the Inkjet business.



In our opinion, the deal will be beneficial for Lexmark as it has been struggling amid changing industry dynamics.



Competition from players like Canon Inc. CAJ, Xerox Corp. and HP Inc. HPQ are additional concerns.



Currently, Lexmark has a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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By Aidan Lewis and Ayman al-Warfalli TUNIS/BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan forces loyal to eastern commander Khalifa Haftar said on Monday they had tightened their control over four major oil ports, casting a Western-backed project to unite Libya and revive oil exports into deep uncertainty. Haftar's forces met little resistance as they seized the terminals at Ras Lanuf, Es Sider, Zueitina and Brega in an operation launched on Sunday, displacing a rival armed faction aligned with the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli. The advance is the latest power struggle over the OPEC nation's energy assets, after the 2011 fall of Muammar Gaddafi and the chaos that followed left the North African country splintered into competing rival armed factions. Haftar opposes the Tripoli government and has resisted its attempts to integrate his self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) into unified armed forces. His seizure of the ports risks a response from powerful western brigades allied with the government and a deepening of regional divisions. But Tripoli may seek a deal with Haftar - similar to the agreement it struck with the armed faction he has displaced - to restart the oil exports it needs to stave off a financial crisis that could paralyze government operations. Conflict and political disputes have reduced Libya's oil output and exports to a fraction of the level seen before an uprising toppled late dictator Gaddafi five years ago. In a statement signaling a willingness to get oil flowing, Haftar's LNA said late on Sunday it would secure the ports to "return operational responsibility to the National Oil Corporation with a guarantee of non-interference by armed forces in operational activities and exports". Just a year ago, Libya had two rival governments, one in Tripoli and one in the east, each backed by competing factions of armed brigades and laying claims to the country's oil resources. A unity deal brokered by the United Nations, signed by rival factions in December despite opposition from hardliners, was meant to end the divide. As a result of the agreement, the GNA arrived in Tripoli in March, backed by Western powers to stabilize a country where lawlessness allowed Islamist militants and migrant smugglers to operate across swathes of territory. Since then, however, some political and tribal leaders in the east have withheld their support, worried that the new government is a vehicle for opponents in the west. The LNA has strengthened its position, making military gains in and around Benghazi against Islamist-led opponents before taking control of the ports. 'SWIFT LIGHTNING' Many people in Tripoli and western Libya criticize Haftar as a new dictator in the making, but he has become a political figurehead for many in the east who feel abandoned by the capital. In seizing the ports, the LNA displaced units of Libya's Petrol Facilities Guard (PFG) led by Ibrahim Jathran, which struck a deal with the GNA in July to end its three-year blockade of the Ras Lanuf, Es Sider and Zueitina terminals. The LNA took Ras Lanuf and Es Sider, Libya's biggest export terminals, in a dawn operation on Sunday it dubbed "Swift Lightning". Clashes broke out in Zueitina, but the LNA said overnight that it had secured that port as well as confirming its control of a fourth port, Brega. Residents in Zueitina and Brega told Reuters that LNA forces were in control on Monday. A commander allied to the LNA said an attempted counter-attack at Ras Lanuf by Jathran loyalists had been blocked on Monday. Jathran had lost much local support after switching allegiances to the GNA; there were few casualties during the port seizures as many of his men appeared to have responded to a call from eastern tribal leaders to hand over control peacefully. Haftar's forces could face a renewed backlash from Islamist-leaning groups in the east as result of the raids, but they have suffered heavy losses in previous battles with the LNA. His opponents in the western city of Misrata could prove the bigger threat. Misratan forces are close to finishing a four-month campaign to oust Islamic State from its former North African stronghold of Sirte. But the campaign has been costly, and Misrata also has to sustain a military presence in several other parts of the west, including Tripoli, where it has provided support for the GNA. EASTERN FACTIONS If the LNA retains military control over the terminals, eastern factions it is allied with could make a fresh attempt to export oil independently from the National Oil Company (NOC) in Tripoli. But previous efforts to do this through the NOC office in Benghazi and funnel money to an eastern branch of Libya's central bank have been blocked by international opposition. Claudia Gazzini, a Libya expert at International Crisis Group, said it was in Haftar's interests to have a working relationship with the NOC. "I think this is what he's aiming for  to be the one who reopens the terminals," Gazzini said. "The unexpected outcome is that the terminals could open earlier than expected if there's no military counter attack." Still, a deal between the LNA and the state oil body could face stiff political opposition from Haftar's opponents in the GNA's leadership, or Presidential Council, which late on Sunday called the attacks an "unjustified escalation" that would prolong conflict in Libya. The Council consists of nine members who were selected on the basis of Libya's political and geographical divisions and are often divided among themselves. The return to the Council of Ali Gatrani, a member representing the east who had suspended his membership for months, opens a potential channel to Haftar and his allies in the east as the government seeks to win their backing. In the past, however, eastern factions have said they will not join the GNA without greater representation, guarantees over the leadership of the military, and the relocation of the NOC to Benghazi - demands they are likely to press with more confidence now. "The view of the LNA is that, now they are taking control and making advances, they will want to see an improvement in their funding, they will want to see this reflected economically and politically in their benefit," said Mohamed Eljarh, an analyst with the Atlantic Council. In such a scenario, he said, Misrata leaders could refuse to deal with Haftar, adding: "There we could really see the faultlines for the division of the country." (Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar in London; Editing by Pravin Char)
By Jens Hack and Sophie Sassard

MUNICH/LONDON (Reuters) - German industrial gases group Linde (LING.DE) and U.S. rival Praxair (PX.N) have ended talks to create a $60-billion-plus market leader, they said on Monday, after failing to agree where to locate key activities and who would run the business.

Although the logic of the deal was clear, the talks foundered on where the combined firm would have its headquarters and research and development, and who would occupy the main management roles, three sources familiar with the matter said.

One of the sources said the two chief executives had on Sunday "agreed to disagree" and dropped the plan to create a rare merger of equals.

Linde shares dropped 7 percent to 138 euros, below the price at which they were trading just before news of the talks emerged last month.

"While the strategic rationale of a merger has been principally confirmed, discussions about details, specifically about governance aspects, did not result in a mutual understanding," Linde said in a statement.

A top 10 shareholder who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media said it was disappointing that the deal had fallen through but he could understand the reasons and Linde was a strong company that could stand alone.

"It's not a situation where the company is in danger," he said, adding that Linde could offer other measures such as share buybacks to support the stock price. His firm had not been consulted about the mooted merger, he added.

Asked about other possible combinations of Linde with a competitor, he mentioned U.S.-based Air Products (APD.N) or China's Yingde Gases Group as possible partners, but added: "There aren't many options any more."

France's Air Liquide (AIRP.PA) is still digesting its $13 billion acquisition of U.S. rival Airgas, which it completed in May. Any quick move by Air Products would be seen by Linde as too opportunistic, one banker said.

The industrial gases sector is already strongly consolidated, as slower economic growth has weakened demand in the manufacturing, metals and energy sectors, putting pressure on smaller players.

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A Linde-Praxair deal would have had a good chance of passing anti-trust regulation in the United States, analysts believed, with Linde's strong position in healthcare complemented by Praxair's focus on industry.

Munich-based Linde supplies gases to hospitals and patients with respiratory disorders in North America, as well as industrial gases worldwide, while Danbury, Connecticut-based Praxair focuses on industrial on-site production.

(Additional reporting by Arno Schuetze and Andreas Kroener in Frankfurt; Writing by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Mark Potter and Louise Heavens)
Washington (AFP) - The co-founder of LinkedIn pledged Monday to donate up to $5 million to a crowdfunded charitable campaign for veterans if Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump releases his tax returns.

Reid Hoffman, a founder of the professional social network and Silicon Valley entrepreneur, made the offer to draw attention to a campaign to raise funds for organizations that assist veterans.

Hoffman's effort comes following a similar pledge made by Trump in 2012 -- when the New York billionaire pledged $5 million to charity if President Barack Obama would release "his college records and applications" and his "passport applications and records."

The Silicon Valley executive said in a blog post he is supporting the effort of Marine Corps veteran Pete Kiernan, who has launched a drive to raise at least $25,000 and pledged that to non-profit groups aiding veterans if Trump releases his tax returns by October 19.

"Given Trump's vocal support of veterans, I imagine he will recognize the great good that can come from Kiernan's proposal," Hoffman wrote on Medium.

"But taking Trumps own 2012 offer to President Obama into account, I'd like to assist Kiernan in his campaign. If Kiernan's campaign hits or exceeds its target, I will match the total amount he reaches with a 5x contribution, up to $5 million."

Trump, unlike most presidential candidates, has declined to release his tax returns, saying he would do so only after the Internal Revenue Service completes its audit.

Democratic White House hopeful Hillary Clinton has said Trump has something to hide in the tax documents, and should "come clean" about his finances.

Hoffman said that Trump's business interests are "more complex and far-reaching than any other presidential nominee in history."

He added that "because of how often Donald Trump's decisions as president could potentially impact his business interests, it has in fact never been more necessary for a candidate to release tax returns than it is for him."
Donald Trump

LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman is now throwing his weight behind the mounting pressure on Republican candidate Donald Trump to release his tax returns.

In a Medium post on Monday, Hoffman said he would give up to $5 million of his money to veterans if Trump releases his returns before the last presidential debate, slated for October.

Specifically, Hoffman is backing a campaign led by Marine Corps veteran Peter Kiernan on Crowdpac to incentivize Trump to release his returns.

Hoffman is pledging to match $5 to every $1 donated to the campaign, up to a $5 million maximum. In other words, if the campaign raises $200,000, Hoffman will donate $1 million, and so on, up to the campaign's $1 million goal. The money raised between Hoffman and the campaign will be distributed to different veterans charities.

Trump's taxes have been an ongoing topic for much of the year. It is customary for US presidential candidates to show the public their personal tax returns, but Trump has refused to do so, citing an ongoing IRS audit. His refusal has prompted all kinds of speculation about his personal finances.

The way Hoffman sees it, Trump has no reason to keep delaying releasing the returns except for seeing them "as a bargaining chip to utilize" when his campaign needs it, Hoffman writes.

As a result, Hoffman is backing a campaign that gives Trump incentives to release his returns, but doesn't reward him for the act.

"Instead, men and women to whom all Americans owe a great debt of gratitude will benefit from any positive action he takes," Hoffman said.

NOW WATCH: Donald Trump is under fire for his comments about the Iraq War





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PHOENIX, AZ / ACCESSWIRE / September 12, 2016 / Lithium Exploration Group Inc. (LEXG) finalized an agreement on Friday to fund the drilling of an oil well in McKean County, Pennsylvania. The agreement provides for 100% of the net revenue to come back to the company until 100% of its investment is recouped. After the company has been paid back, the operator will participate in 50% of the distribution. The initial payment was made on Friday, September 9, with the balance of the funding to be made on or before September 16.

"We have been talking about this for months and finally were able to pull the trigger. Our first focus is recouping our capital investment with a secondary focus on building long term cash flow," commented CEO Alex Walsh. "Our goal is to be able to drill at least ten of these types of wells over the next six months. We would never have had the opportunity to invest in these types of wells two years ago, so we want to take advantage while we can. I will expand on this in my letter to shareholders later this week, with an update on our testing in Houston."

About Lithium Exploration Group

Lithium Exploration Group is a US-based exploration and development company focused on the acquisition and development potential of lithium brines and other precious metals that demonstrate high probability for near-term production. Currently the company is focused on testing its Ultrasonic Generator Technology and the acquisition of oil and gas related assets. Lithium Exploration Group is a fully reporting company traded on the OTC Markets under the symbol LEXG. Website: www.lithiumexplorationgroup.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This news release contains "forward-looking statements". Statements in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future testing of the ultrasonic technology.

Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with mineral exploration and difficulties associated with obtaining financing on acceptable terms. We are not in control of lithium prices and these could vary to make development uneconomic. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements.

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Although we believe that the beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. Investors should consult all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factors disclosure outlined in our most recent annual report for our last fiscal year, our quarterly reports, and other periodic reports filed from time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contact Info

Shanon Chilson

480-641-4790

info@lithiumexplorationgroup.com

SOURCE: Lithium Exploration Group Inc.
In recent years, hotels have upped the creative ante with artists-in-residence, on-site curators, and lobby exhibits to rival galleriesall in the name of guest experience.

The purpose of Green Rooms hotel, however, is to cater to the artist by providing an affordablebut supremely stylishplace to stay. The project is the brainchild of entrepreneur Nick Hartwright and Hoxton hotels founder Kurt Bredenbeck. With financing from the Mayor of Londons High Street Fund, Haringey Council, angel investors, and their personal funds, the two restored a 1935 building in the emerging Wood Green area. Green Rooms now offers 24 elegantly spare guest rooms (some with shared baths) and two hostel-style bunk rooms; rates range from $24 for a bunk to $127 for a studio apartment.

Travelers of any profession are welcome, but artists get preference on bookings and $13-per-night discounts, secured with documentation of their work. Partner organizations like Somerset House and the Royal Court Theatre house their performers there, and also use it for rehearsals.

The lobby is meant to be a gathering place for Wood Greens arts communityand a talent launchpad, too: every six months, a new chef runs the kitchen, rent-free. Bredenbeck hopes that Green Rooms will be a new model, not a fad, and to bring the concept to other cities. And while the hotel is legally a for-profit venture, all earnings will be reinvested in the hotel, which the creators want to be self-sustaining.

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LONDON (Reuters) - London's Heathrow Airport, which is battling Gatwick for government approval for an extra runway, said it handled a record 7.34 million passengers in August, with more flying to the Middle East and Latin America. Heathrow operates at about 98 percent capacity and struggles to add new flights. The British government is expected to rule in the coming weeks on whether to build a third runway at Heathrow or its rival Gatwick after a drawn-out process. Europe's busiest airport said numbers grew by 0.1 percent on the previous year, showing there was no dip in traffic following Britain's June vote to leave the European Union. Heathrow has argued that Britain's vote to leave the EU makes it more important that it secures approval to expand, enabling it to build more routes with trading nations. Gatwick says it can build a new runway at a lower cost and with less environmental impact. Heathrow said passenger traffic rose by 9.1 percent to the Middle East, by 5.8 percent to Latin America and 5.1 percent to East Asia year-on-year in August, helped by increased use of larger aircraft. Passenger growth to these countries outweighed falls on internal flights in Britain and to North America and Africa. The airport, whose biggest shareholder is Spanish infrastructure firm Ferrovial , said passenger volumes were up 0.7 percent in the first eight months of 2016, compared to the same period in the previous year. It said cargo traffic to emerging markets also rose, by 5.7 percent to the Middle East, 12 percent to Latin America and 3.7 percent to East Asia, supporting its case for a new runway. "We can get exporters, large and small, from all across Britain connected to the growing markets of the world, and it is urgent that we get on with it," Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said in a statement. The decision has repeatedly been delayed over pollution concerns and local opposition. Heathrow's figures come after Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel, said last week that passenger traffic jumped 14 percent from a year earlier to a monthly record of 7.62 million people in July. Growing tourism and trade ties with the rest of the Middle East, Asia and other regions of the world are fuelling traffic growth at Dubai's airport. (Reporting by Peter Hobson; Editing by Alexander Smith)
Sakshi Malik, who was unranked previously, has entered the top five due to her performance at the recently concluded Rio Olympics where she became the first Indian female wrestler to bag an Olympic medal.

By Indo-Asian News Service: Olympic Bronze medallist wrestler Sakshi Malik has entered the top five in the latest world rankings, rising to a career best fourth spot in the women's 58 kilogram category.

Sakshi, who was unranked previously, has entered the top five due to her performance at the recently concluded Rio Olympics where she became the first Indian female wrestler to bag an Olympic medal.

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Vinesh Phogat, who crashed out in the quarter-finals of the women's 48kg category at the Rio Olympics after sustaining a knee injury, climbed up a couple of rungs to the 11th position. (Also read: PM asked me 'Maarogi to nahi': Sakshi Malik on her meeting with Narendra Modi)



Among the men, Sandeep Tomar is currently at the 15th spot in the men's 57kg freestyle category. 1. Vladimir Khinchegashvili of Georgia retained his top spot in the category while Japan's Rei Higuchi rose to the second spot from his previous 10th position. Haji Aliev of Azerbaijan was ranked third.

Bajrang Punia was the only other Indian male freestyle wrestler in the top 20 as he was ranked 18th in the 61kg freestyle division. (Also read: Wedding bells for Sakshi after Olympic high, to tie the knot with wrestler Satyawart)



Daulet Niyazbekov of Kazakhstan was at the top spot in the category, while the Russian duo of Aleksander Bogomoev and Imam Adzhiev were second and third respectively.

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Helping your child get a good start at college involves more than finding the right-sized sheets or cheapest textbooks. College students must take full charge of their physical and mental health, often far away from you. Parents can do a lot to make that transition a healthy and happy one, from explaining and organizing medical needs to engaging in honest conversations.

Often, parents and even doctors don't talk to high school seniors about how to prepare to care for themselves, and there's a lot of information students need to know, says Dr. Karen Soren, director of adolescent health care at the NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital. They should be told, "These are your medical issues, these are your prescriptions, these are your allergies ... this is your insurance card, it will cover this or not this," she says.

[See: 10 Concerns Parents Have About Their Kids' Health.]

Pre-College Checklist

An app called THRIVE (which stands for Teen Health Resources, Information and Vaccine Education) helps parents manage their teen's health. The app, developed by Soren and colleagues affiliated with the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, features authoritative information on many topics, tips on starting conversations and a means to track a child's health -- you can even check the weather in a distant college town. It offers a pre-college checklist in these categories:

Pre-college health exam: Soren sometimes gets frantic calls in August from parents of incoming college freshmen who misplaced mandatory health paperwork. "It's really important for parents to be aware that different colleges require different kinds of physicals, histories and vaccinations," she says. So make sure your child schedules that doctor's appointment. The resulting paperwork helps university health services know if kids have medical or mental health problems.

Health insurance: Most adults find it hard to fathom their health insurance plan, so the idea of explaining it to a child is a challenge. Soren advises you to go online with your child to see what his or her school requires. Thanks to Obamacare, many will find their children can use family policies until age 26. Make sure you have coverage out of state. If your child is covered by your plan, help him or her check to see if a waiver needs to be filed to forgo the college's supplemental health plan (which costs extra money). And get your child an ID card. If he or she doesn't carry a wallet, use your child's smartphone to take a photo of the front and back of the insurance card.

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[See: 13 Tips for Getting Kids Health-Ready for Back to School.]

Immunizations: Check to see if your child is up to date on his or her vaccines. A schedule of vaccines is available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention here.

The CDC recommends these vaccines for young adults ages 19 to 24:

-- Meningococcal conjugate: protects against bacterial meningitis, an uncommon but serious disease for which freshmen living in dorms are at increased risk. Note: Some colleges also require or recommend the meningitis b vaccine, Soren says.

-- Tdap: protects against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, and those who didn't get the shot as a preteen or teen should be vaccinated.

-- HPV: protects against human papillomavirus and related cancers; its three-dose series should be completed by women under age 27 and men under 22.

-- Seasonal flu: offers protection in dorm living.

TB skin test: Your child will probably have to fill out a questionnaire that identifies possible exposure to tuberculosis and may need a skin test.

Medical records and prescriptions: Parents should ask their college students to take a smartphone picture of their prescription medications, Soren says. Students should also know what the prescriptions are for and how to get refills. If someone is on birth control, for example, how's that refill going to happen? Find the phone number of the pharmacy in the college town in case a physician needs to call in, Soren suggests.

Student health center: Help your child be ready for an emergency by knowing what services are available and where they are on campus. Different schools offer different assistance. And make sure health planning also includes mental health, says Nicholas J. Westers, a clinical psychologist at Children's Medical Center in Dallas and assistant professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center. It's important to understand what mental health resources are available before your child needs them. "The energy required to do this now will save what little energy your child might have later," he says.

Outside health-care resources: Locate the nearest emergency room and urgent care facilities. Parents whose children have chronic illnesses need to identify local resources and specialists.

First-aid supplies: The THRIVE app recommends filling a container with "bandages, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, cold medications, a digital thermometer and a chemical cold pack." If your family swears by ginger ale and chicken soup, pack those as well.

An additional issue for college students' parents is the question of who will be contacted in an emergency. Once a child reaches 18, his or her privacy regarding physical and mental health is protected by law, just like any other adult. Ask your child to sign a health care proxy, a document that identifies you as an individual who could speak for him or her in an emergency if they cannot speak for themselves.

[See: 10 of the Biggest Health Threats Facing Your Kids This School Year.]

"A Safe Harbor"

Besides organizing, parents need to talk to their child. You have more influence than you know on the student who stands a head taller than you. "Generally at this age I find that kids sort of look at you and say, 'I know more than you,'" Soren says. "But in reality, kids are still very, very receptive to what their parents think. And they want to please their parents. They don't want to hurt their parents."

Now is the time to have adult conversations on tough subjects they'll encounter at college, like sex, drugs, alcohol, peer pressure and the meaning of "no means no." "It's really important," Soren says, "for a parent to make clear to their young adults what their expectations are. My expectation is you do not get crazy drunk. You don't do anything stupid. My expectation is that you do well in school. And if you have a problem, I want you to call me. I'll be there for you."

Westers says these talks need not be heavy sit-downs -- they could be started packing dishes or walking the dog. The most important thing a parent can communicate to their kids is that you're there to help them, that their safety is your number one priority and that you're always available to talk, Westers says. As children grow older, they travel uncharted waters, but they can always come back. "If the storm gets rough," he says, "it's nice to know they still have a safe harbor they can go to."

Suzanne Allard Levingston is a freelance health reporter at U.S News. You can connect with her on LinkedIn, follow her on Twitter or reach her at suzannelevingston@gmail.com.
We love the fact that Lily-Rose Depps dress is basically covered in gothic streamers

We love the fact that Lily-Rose Depps dress is basically covered in gothic streamers

Lily-Rose Depp just gets lovelier and lovelier as the days go by. Case in point: The actress recently walked the red carpet at the Toronto International Film Festival premiere of her new film, Planetarium, wearing a Chanel dress and looking like a true style goddess.

Well have whatever shes having:

Take a closer look at that fabulously iridescent, goth-inspired fringe!

Were officially obsessed.

The feathery, flapper-esque dress perfectly suited the event: In Planetarium, Depp and Natalie Portman play psychic sisters living in 1930s Paris. (Um Natalie Portman and Lily-Rose Depp together on-screen? Well take it!)

Despite being paired up to play family, the two had never actually met before being cast in the film. So to get them acquainted, director Rebecca Zlotowski sent them to get a massage together. We just got along really well just as soon as we met, Depp told TheWrap. Portman added, It was great. We became very comfortable, very quickly.

Planetarium, which debuted at the Venice Film Festival last week, has received mixed reviews, but Indiewire reports that Depps performance is far more interesting than it has any right to be.

Are you intrigued? Watch the films trailer below then let us know what you think!

The post We love the fact that Lily-Rose Depps dress is basically covered in gothic streamers appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar is upset with RJD supremo Lalu Yadav's silence over Shahabuddin attacking him repeatedly for last couple of days.

By Rohit Kumar Singh: The Nitish Kumar government in Bihar may put "bahubali" from Siwan back in jail by exercising Crime Control Act (CCA). The chief minister is learnt to be extremely upset with RJD supremo Lalu Yadav's silence over Shahabuddin attacking him repeatedly for last couple of days. A delegation of the opposition BJP met the Bihar Governor today over grant of bail to the don-turned-politician.

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MEETING AT NITISH'S RESIDENCE

Sources said Nitish held a meeting at his residence over the embarrassment being faced by the government over bail to Shahabuddin. The chief minister is also highly disappointed over the manner in which the murder convict and other senior RJD leaders have launched a frontal attack on him while their leader Lalu was maintaining silence.

ALSO READ | Shahabuddin and Sushasan cannot go hand-in-hand: Sushil Modi to Nitish Kumar



Senior Bihar ministers Lallan Singh and Bijendra Yadav -- both of the JD(U) -- and party's state president Bashishth Narayan Singh were present in the meeting where the option to invoke CCA against Shahabuddin was discussed. The four-time former MP from Siwan will have to return to jail if CCA is imposed on him, the sources said.

For reasons known best to Nitish and Lalu, the police did not invoke CCA, which was a valid and powerful option available to the police to keep Shahabuddin behind the bars. The police had successfully exercised CCA in 2010 to obtain an order to hold him back in jail.

CCA is invoked on the ground that an accused could influence trial.

The government still has this option to impose CCA even though Shahabuddin is out on bail. But it all depends on the willingness of the Nitish government. While Lalu may not want the provision to be exercised, Nitish may have little option but to invoke it in the face of massive outrage and the embarrassment to his government.

NITISH 'UPSET' OVER ATTACK ON HIM

The chief minister is also upset over Shahabuddin and senior RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh lashing out at him. Soon after being released from jail on September 10 after 11 years, the controversial RJD leader had described Nitish as the "chief minister of circumstances" and that Lalu was his only leader.

Not stopping at questioning Nitish's credentials for the chief minister's post, Shahabuddin had reportedly said that the chief minister was not a mass leader.

The outbursts by Shahabuddin and Raghuvansh, who claimed that he was opposed to the chief minister's mantle being given to Nitish, has caused a rift within the ruling Grand Secular Alliance.

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JD(U) HITS BACK SHAHABUDDIN AND RAGHUVANSH

Coming out of the meeting from his residence, state Energy Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav, said, "RJD's Raghuvansh Prasad Singh always uses unparliamentary language which is unacceptable in a coalition government. Singh uses cheap language to attack the government. Even BJP does not criticise Bihar government in the manner in which Raghuvansh does," he said, and appealed to Lalu to stop his party leader from making such statements in the interest of the coalition.

Bijendra said the JD(U) was upset with Raghuvansh more than Shahabuddin.

Another minister Lallan Singh also objected to the diatribe against Nitish. He said, "Every party should follow the terms on which coalition government has been formed."

Lalu has not spoken a single word on Shahabuddin who, soon after coming out of the Bhagalpur jail, had said Nitish was not his leader and that he became chief minister due to circumstances.

NDA DELEGATION MEETS GOVERNOR

In another development, an NDA delegation led by BJP leader Sushil Modi, Nand Kishore Yadav and Prem Kumar met Governor Ram Nath Kovind over granting of bail to Shahabuddin. After the meeting, Sushil Modi said: "If need be, Nitish should sacrifice his government for sending back Shahabuddin to jail. It's a stage managed release. Possibly, Lalu pressured Nitish get get Shahabuddin released."

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Sushil Modi asked why the state government did not impose CCA on Shahabuddin to keep him inside the jail. He also said whether Nitish had won mandate to get abused by a criminal. "Shahabuddin and rule of law cannot go hand in hand," he added.

JD(U) MULLS ACTION AGAINST PARTY MLA FOR HOBNOBBING WITH SHAHABUDDIN

Meanwhile, ruling JD(U) is mulling action against its party MLA Giridhari Yadav for mingling with strongman Shahabuddin, who made caustic remarks against Nitish soon after his release from jail.

"The JD(U) leadership has taken note of our own MLA Girdhari Yadav being seen in the company of Shahabuddin at the time of the latter's release from jail," party spokesman Sanjay Kumar Singh told reporters.

"We cannot accept Yadav's conduct in being seen with the RJD strongman when he spewed venom on our Chief Minister Nitish Kumar...JDU is mulling action against him," he said.

Yadav represents Belhar Assembly seat in Banka district.

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(With inputs from agencies)



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If you depend on trendy coconut water to stave off your morning hangovers, coconut oil to condition your hair, or coconut milk to flavor your lattes, youll want to start stocking up now on your elixir of choice, because the Caribbean is facing a serious shortage of the popular tropical fruit.

An unfortunate trifecta of bad storms, problematic droughts, and an insect-borne fruit disease called Lethal Yellowing have all converged on the tropics to severely impact coconut farms production capacity, as locally, prices are up and supply is limited Bloomberg reports. Caribbean plantations have already shrunk up to 17% since 1994, the UNs Food and Agriculture Organization shared.

Its fair to say that at this pace, the Caribbean is running out of coconuts, a coordinator of a Trinidadian coconut research program told Bloomberg.

This comes on the heels of a major boom in coconut consumption around the world. Celebrities like Jennifer Aniston, Rihanna, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Matthew McConaughey have endorsed the benefits of coconut-based products, and brands like Starbucks, Vita Coco, and Trader Joes are avidly catering to the growing demand for the It fruit. Coconut water alone is a nearly $4 billion industry, and the price of coconut oil has gone up about 50% since 2013, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Outside of the Caribbean, coconut-producing regions like the Philippines and Indonesia are also struggling as they deal with the longterm consequences of natural disasters and demand that is outstripping the pace of coconut trees growth.
Making A Murderer won a whopping four awards Sunday night at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, but when the creators of the Netflix documentary came backstage to speak to the press, they werent celebrating with their golden statues  they were still fighting for justice.

As many of you know, Brendan Dasseys conviction was overturned, and just last Friday, Wisconsin filed notice of appeal, said Moira Demos, who spoke to press members alongside Making A Murderer co-creator Laura Ricciardi.

This is just part of the process, Demos said. This is justice at work and we will continue to document that. Its a very trying time for all the families involved on both sides to continue to have this unresolved and ongoing, but thats sort of how justice works, so well continue to follow it.

In mid-August, Dasseys conviction in Teresa Halbachs murder case was overturned by a federal judge. He previously had been sentenced to 41 years in prison on charges of first-degree intentional homicide, second-degree sexual assault and mutilation of a corpse in the case in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. Two days ago, an appeal was filed.

Earlier this summer, Netflix ordered more episodes of Making A Murderer, which the streaming giant says will explore the story of convicted murderer Steven Avery, and his co-defendant, Dassey, as both of their investigative and legal teams challenge their convictions and the State fights to have the convictions and life sentences upheld.

Speaking more about the upcoming episodes, Ricciardi teased, Our plans for additional episodes, the story is clearly not over. Things are happening and were following those events as they unfold. As you follow things as theyre unfolding, you cant predict the future but thats part of the process.

The duo was also asked about their scripted show in development, Americas Most Admired Lawbreaker, which is currently in the works with George Clooneys production company, Smokehouse Pictures. The pair confirmed no network is attached at this point, clarifying the potential series is in the development stage of the project.

Story continues

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Creative Arts Emmy Awards Complete Winners List
making murderer netflix

There were a few big wins and surprises during the weekend's Creative Emmy Awards, including those for Netflix's "Making a Murderer," and famous drag queen RuPaul.

For the most part, the Creative Emmys celebrate the people who make the magic happen behind the scenes. But they also comprise on-screen awards that can't be awarded during the primetime show, which is happening on Sunday.

The Emmys clearly rewarded Netflix's "Making a Murderer" for its ability to captivate audiences with the story of a man and his teen nephew who may be serving time for a murder they didn't commit. "Making a Murderer" won for best docuseries and earned its creators, Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi, Emmys for writing and directing, as well.

That lands in the expected column, though. What wasn't expected by many was RuPaul's win foroutstanding host for a reality program. Not only was it RuPaul's first nomination after eight seasons of drag competition "RuPaul's Drag Race," but the first win for the actor/host and cable network Logo.



AP rupaul emmy win

"Earlier this year I was quoted saying Id rather have an enema than an Emmy," RuPaul said during his acceptance speech. "But thanks to the Television Academy, I can have both!"

RuPaul had to beat some major players for the award, including previous winners Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn for "Project Runway," "Dancing With the Stars" host Tom Bergeron, and "Hollywood Game Night" host Jane Lynch. Additionally, RuPaul beat longtime "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest. That means Seacrest won't have an Emmy for the long-running singing competition.

And as long as we're celebrating firsts, Amy Poehler nabbed her first Emmy after 17 nominations when she and Tina Fey won for best comedy series guest actress for hosting the Christmas episode of Saturday Night Live. The win also marked the first time two actresses were awarded for an acting trophy by the Emmys.

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"Game of Thrones" upped the ante with nine Emmys on Sunday, one more than last year. That's good news for HBO's count this year, currently 11, as the fantasy drama's late-summer debut for the upcoming seventh season will make it ineligible for the 2017 awards.

Another great story from HBO and the Emmys arrives with Peter Scholari's win for guest actor in a comedy for "Girls." Initially, he wasn't even nominated. He replaced Peter MacNicol of "Veep," who was disqualified due to appearing on too many episodes for the guest actor category.

Visit E! Online for the full list of Creative Arts Emmy winners.

NOW WATCH: The defense attorneys from 'Making a Murderer' respond to criticism from Steven Averys new lawyer





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Speaking to India Today after the meeting, BJP leader Sushil Modi alleged that Shahabuddin's release from jail was stage managed.

By Rohit Kumar Singh: Two days after dreaded criminal and RJD leader Mohammad Shahabuddin was released from Bhagalpur jail on being granted bail from Patna High Court last Wednesday, NDA delegation on Monday met Governor Ram Nath Kovind and submitted a memorandum.

The delegation led by senior BJP leader Sushil Modi along with BJP Leader of Opposition Prem Kumar, BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav and State President of HAM Brishan Patel requested the Governor through the memorandum to look into the issue of granting of bail to the criminal turned politician.

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Also read:

Shahabuddin and Sushasan cannot go hand-in-hand: Sushil Modi to Nitish Kumar

Lalu Prasad washed hands of Mohammad Shahabuddin's bail, praises Akhilesh Yadav's governance in UP



"SHAHABUDDIN'S RELEASE STAGED"

Speaking to India Today after meeting the Governor, BJP leader Sushil Modi alleged that Shahabuddin's release from jail was stage managed. He said the Bihar government deliberately did not let the trial begin in Rajiv Roshan murder case which facilitated Shahabuddin's release from jail.

" It's a stage managed release by the Bihar government", said Modi.

Modi alleged that RJD President Lalu Prasad was instrumental in getting Shahabuddin relesed from jail and his pressure worked on Nitish Kumar. Modi questioned as to why the state government did not impose Crime Control Act on Shahabuddin to keep him in jail after he was granted bail.

"SHAHABUDDIN CAN INFLUENCE PROBE"

"Lalu has got Shahabuddin released. It is surprising that the state government did not impose CCA on Shahabuddin to ensure that he does not come out of jail. He can now influence probe in Rajiv Roshan and journalist Rajdev Ranjan case", said the BJP leader.

Modi said Nitish Kumar shouldn't let criminals like Shahabuddin remain outside for long and must take steps to send him back to jail even if he has to sacrifice his government.

"Nitish should sacrifice his government if need be to send Shahabuddin back in jail" said Modi.

Modi said that Shahabuddin and rule of law cannot go together in Bihar and CCA must be imposed on him. He added that till the time CCA was not imposed, he should be directed to remain outside Bihar.

Modi demanded that the Bihar government should also immediately take steps to move Supreme Court against bail granted to Shahabuddin.

Watch video





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Miami (AFP) - Nearly two thirds of the world's languages often use similar sounds for common objects, such as the "n" sound for nose, international researchers said Monday.

The study challenges a long-standing principle of linguistics, which holds that the relationship between sound and meaning is completely arbitrary, said the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"These sound symbolic patterns show up again and again across the world, independent of the geographical dispersal of humans and independent of language lineage," said Morten Christiansen, professor of psychology at Cornell University.

"There does seem to be something about the human condition that leads to these patterns. We don't know what it is, but we know it's there," added Christiansen, director of Cornell's Cognitive Neuroscience Lab.

For the study, scientists analyzed dozens of basic vocabulary words in 62 percent of the world's more than 6,000 current languages.

Pronouns, body parts, animals, adjectives and verbs to describe motion were all included.

Not all, but "a considerable proportion of the 100 basic vocabulary words have a strong association with specific kinds of human speech sounds," said the study.

For instance, in most languages, the word for "nose" was likely to include the sounds "neh" or the "oo" sound, as in "ooze," it said.

The word for tongue was "likely to have 'l' -- as in 'langue' in French.

The word for "sand" was likely to include the "s" sound.

"R" sounds were likely to included in the words for "red" and "round."

"It doesn't mean all words have these sounds, but the relationship is much stronger than we'd expect by chance," Christiansen said.

Some of the strongest associations were among words for body parts.

More research is needed to understand why certain sounds are linked to certain words.

Co-authors on the study came from the University of Zurich, University of Leiden, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, and University of Leipzig.
NASAs Curiosity Rover recently returned some striking color images from Mars of the Murray Buttes, one of the lower regions of Mount Sharp.

The buttes and mesas are the eroded remains of ancient sandstone that have risen above the sandy, Martian surface. Studying the rock formations up close is giving scientists a better understanding of how Mars landscape was formed, says Curiosity Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada, of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The images may look uncannily familiar to desert dwellers and visitors here on Earth. Curiositys science team has been just thrilled to go on this road trip through a bit of the American desert Southwest on Mars, Vasavada says. NASA compared the images to those taken in U.S. National Parks.

The rover has been exploring the Murray Buttes area for a little over a month and is now on its way south and further up Mount Sharp, where it will investigate how the landscape and atmosphere of ancient Mars, thought to be more favorable to life, has evolved into its current condition.
Charles County Sheriffs Office has released video showing two officers help save two adults and two infants from a burning car on September 3. The dramatic video, published on September 10, shows Officer Lamar Hamilton and Corporal Brad Saunders battling to put out the fire and pull the victims from the crash on St. Charles Parkway, near Waldorf, Maryland.

Officer Justin Bottorf rescued the driver from the vehicle, Officer Lamar Hamilton pulled the two infants to safety, and firefighters saved a second adult trapped in the car, according to a statement on the incident from Charles County Sheriffs Office. A third adult victim was thrown from the car in the crash. Sheriff Troy Berry also paid tribute to local resident who ran forward to hand the first responders a fire extinguisher.

The five passengers were airlifted to hospital where two remained in a critical condition.

These are the horrific scenes officers and firefighters encounter frequently. They didnt have time to think, they just reacted. We thank God for their bravery and for the help of the citizen, said Sheriff Berry in a statement posted to the Facebook page of the Charles County Sheriffs Office. They certainly helped save the lives of those in the car. Credit: YouTube/CCSOMD
Donald Trump

A Bernie Sanders supporter who called Tim Kaine "one of the finest people in politics that I've ever known" is heading up a political action committee for Democrats backing Donald Trump.

That man, Christian Rickers, has a well-established career in Virginia Democratic politics.

In 2002, he was appointed as a special assistant for policy in the state's Department of Housing and Community Development by then Gov. Mark Warner  currently a senator from the state and a Hillary Clinton backer.

He was reappointed to the post in 2005 by Kaine, the governor who followed Warner and is also Hillary Clinton's running mate.

But despite his lengthy history with some of the most prominent Democrats in Clinton's realm, Rickers said he had "no interest" in supporting the Democratic nominee.

"I'm a lifelong Democrat," he told Business Insider. "Donald Trump's message about rebuilding the infrastructure and economy and the country was my number one concern, and it certainly isn't [Clinton's]."

Rickers' PAC, American Uprising, lists $20,000 in donations from its first month, according to an August filing with the Federal Elections Commission, though an American Uprising source said September figures would show at least $100,000 raised for the month.

The Virginia Democrat brands the group "the Trumpocrats."

"I figure I was going to try to do something to help out," he said, adding that he wanted to give the pro-Trump Democrats "a place to organize."

On the group's website, "Trumpocrats" are described as working-class "teachers, technicians, cops, and coal miners," who are "disillusioned with the rigged political and economic system."

Rickers, a Sanders supporter during the primary season, said many of the group's backers were in the Sanders camp, while others had decided during the primary season that they'd support Trump. Many are from the Rust Belt, which includes the pivotal swing states of Ohio and Pennsylvania.

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Christian Rickers

Trump's championing of a fierce anti-trade message along the campaign trail is what appeals most to the Trumpocrats, Rickers said, adding that his inspiration for backing Trump is that his hometown in Virginia once had more than 15 manufacturing facilities. Now, he said, it has just one.

"That is the laser focus of this group is to try and bring jobs back to this country," he said. "No one more responsible than Bill and Hillary Clinton."

"We don't make anything here anymore, and there are people who are on disability, underemployed, unemployed, don't have the benefits they used to," he said. "When are people going to stand up in this country to all of this madness that keeps going on and on and on?"

He blamed the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was enacted under President Bill Clinton and has been routinely ripped by Trump along the campaign trail, as the reason he thinks the former secretary of state is "not going to do anything to bring jobs back."

"And the Clintons, they're slick," he said. "They say they're going to do something about it, but who believes that? ... I mean, they're corporatists."

Although the PAC was only recently founded and has raised modest funds, Trump has taken notice. He gave the organization a glowing shout-out late last month.

"I heard about the Trumpocrats," Trump said. "I love that. I love those people.  It's a big deal."

Polls have shown that only a marginal number of self-identified Democrats are backing the Republican nominee.

In late August, a poll from the left-leaning Public Policy Polling showed that 10% of Democrats were leaning toward Trump while another 6% were undecided. On the flip side, 10% of Republicans were backing Clinton, while 7% were undecided. Trump edged Clinton out among independent voters by a 45% to 41% margin.

Last week, a CNN/ORC poll showed an even more dramatic split, with just 2% of Democrats polled favoring Trump. However, Trump was leading with independents by a 48% to 28% margin.

Among ex-Sanders supporters, a late July Pew poll found that just 8% of consistent Sanders backers and 9% of those who waffled between Clinton and Sanders during the primary season were supporting Trump.

In hopes of growing that percentage, Rickers said Trump has to "win the trust" of "the middle" and stick to his economic message while laying off his more "inflammatory" remarks.

"People are highly pissed off," he said. "And if he can keep talking about that economic message and giving people hope that are upset, then he will win. Stop saying things that are inflammatory and pound away on the message of bringing jobs back to this country, and I think that does the trick."

Of the big-name Democrats he's worked for, Rickers lavished praise on both Warner and Kaine, calling the former "still a friend of mine" and the latter "one of the finest people in politics that I've ever known."

Asked why Kaine's presence on the Democratic ticket didn't make a difference in his decision, Rickers' answer was brief.

"He's not running for president," he said. "She is."

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"Velingkar has done great work in Goa's cultural and social sphere. He has laid the foundation of BJP in Goa," said Sanjay Raut.

By Kamlesh Damodar Sutar: This could be yet another flashpoint in the already troubled BJP Shiv-Sena alliance. As if the war of words between the leaders of allies wasn't enough, now Shiv Sena has rubbed it in by supporting expelled RSS leader from Goa Subhash Velingkar. While Velingkar is holding meetings in Goa with his supporters against the BJP, an unexpected support for the rebel leader has come out from none other than the BJP's ally the Shiv Sena.

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Speaking to India Today, Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut showered rich praises on Velingkar.

Also read:

Mass resignations from RSS in Goa over Subhash Velingkar's sacking



"VELINGKAR HAS DONE GREAT WORK IN GOA"

"Velingkar has done great work in Goa's cultural and social sphere. He has laid the foundation of BJP in Goa. He has done a great amount of work for the local languages - Konkani and Marathi. Leaders like Manohar Parrikar or the present CM, when they were in opposition, spoke about local languages, but when they came to power they did not keep their promises," Raut said.

Raut who is in-charge of Shiv Sena in the coastal state also added that his party will be joining Velingkar's cause for the pride of regional languages. "Shiv Sena has always supported fight for the cause of local language. Velingkar too is fighting for the cause of language and we are proud of him and we will support him in that. Why just Shiv Sena, even people from the RSS are supporting his fight," Raut said.

SHIV SENA IN TALKS WITH MAHARASHTRAWADI GOMANTAK PARTY

The Shiv Sena has also gone a step ahead by announcing to join a grand alliance if Velingkar plans it. Shiv Sena has already started initial talks with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and the proposed outfit led by Velingkar. "We have an alliance with the BJP only in Maharashtra. Outside the state, we are free to decide what to do, that is our prerogative. In electoral politics, we have to think about our party and its workers," Raut added.

Shiv Sena has already decided to fight on 20 assembly seats in the upcoming state elections. The proposed grand alliance may severely dent into the BJP's core vote base.

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The Center for Public Integrity has determined that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump accepted an illegal contribution from a Canadian Muslim with a soft spot for Syrian refugees earlier this year.

Foreigners are generally prohibited from making political contributions, and in response to questions from the Center for Public Integrity, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said the campaign is now refunding $225 to Shahriyar Nasir of Toronto, who may be among Trumps least likely contributors.

Nasir is a millennial who works as a software engineer. On Twitter, he describes himself as a proud Muslim, and hes been involved with an interfaith group that helps refugees from war-ravaged Syria settle in Canada.

Did Nasir have a conversion experience this year that led him to support Trump?

Far from it.

Heres how his ill-fated Trump donation came to be: One of Nasirs friends wanted to exercise more, so they made a bet. For each day the friend skipped a workout, hed be required to donate to an anti-charity, which, in this case, was Trump.

When the moment of truth came in April, Nasirs friend had missed enough days to owe 300 Canadian dollars. At the time, the friends calculated that amount equaled $225.

A few keystrokes later, though, Nasir was the one joining the ranks of thousands of Americans who have donated to Trumps campaign. Thats because his friend used Nasirs credit card to make the online donationwith the intent of paying Nasir back.

I wanted him to feel the pain of having lost his bet, Nasir told the Center for Public Integrity. The donation that you discovered was made with the intent of helping my friend learn a powerful life lesson. Not with the intent of any kind of publicity or actually supporting Trump.

The friends documented the learning experience in a video that was, until recently, posted publicly on YouTube. (Its now private.)

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During one moment of levity in the video, Nasirs friend points to his right bicep and says: The lack of guns here is a testament to how great your wall is going to be.

Notably, Nasir and his friend may have never intended to financially support Trumps presidential campaign.

Throughout the video, the young men repeatedly refer to donating to Trumps foundation.

Trump does operate a charitable foundation, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which is a separate legal entity from his campaign.

But they didnt send the money to Trumps foundation, which itself has been embroiled in controversy surrounding an illegal gift it made three years ago to a political group supporting Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Nasirs money instead went to Trumps campaign, which, unlike the foundation, is prohibited from accepting money from foreign nationals unless they hold a green card, which Nasir does not.

We didnt pay close attention to the details of the transaction, Nasir acknowledged to the Center for Public Integrity. We inadvertently made the contribution to the political campaign and not the charitable foundation.

Only U.S. citizens and immigrants with permanent resident status may lawfully contribute to federal political candidates.

To be safe, political campaigns should pay extra attention to contributions received from people living outside the United States, said Ken Gross, who heads the political law practice at the firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in Washington, D.C.

Typically, a campaign or PAC will take steps to affirm that the donor is a U.S. citizen or green card holder, Gross said.

Neither Hicks, Trumps spokeswoman, nor Don McGahn, Trumps campaign lawyer and a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, responded to questions about how the campaign vets contributions from foreign addresses.

Paul S. Ryan, deputy executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit campaign finance reform advocacy group, said that while this light-hearted fun between buddies was not particularly troubling, it was still a violation of the law prohibiting contributions from foreign nationals.

You cannot undo a violation of federal law by getting a refund or seeking a refund of your contribution once youre caught, Ryan continued. The question is whether its a significant enough violation that the FEC would care.

FEC spokeswoman Judy Ingram declined to comment on the specifics of this case.

The agency typically sends letters to campaigns asking for additional information when it notices contributions that appear to be impermissible.

The FEC did just that in August, flagging Trump campaign contributions from three individuals with foreign addresses. But Nasir was not among them.

This story is from the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative media organization in Washington, D.C. Read more of its investigations on the influence of money in politics or follow it on Twitter.
By Michael O'Boyle and Alexandra Alper

MEXICO CITY, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Weak growth, low oil prices and difficulties in making promised spending cuts all threaten Mexico's push for a budget surplus next year as credit rating agencies consider downgrading its debt.

After running primary budget deficits since 2009, Mexico last Thursday pledged to turn a projected primary deficit of 0.4 percent of gross domestic product into a surplus of 0.4 percent of GDP next year.

Standard & Poor's and Moody's put Mexico's credit outlook on negative this year, flagging concerns that weak growth could keep pushing up debt after a collapse in oil prices hit Mexico's income from crude sales.

Jaime Reusche, Moody's senior analyst on Mexico, said higher-than-expected income from tax reform passed in 2013 had helped offset the decline in oil income. But if tax revenue doesn't hold up, the government may not meet its targets.

"The budget continues to signal consolidation and that may indeed be favorable for maintaining the rating where it is, but the proof is in the pudding," he said on Friday.

Mexico's austere 2017 budget lays out deep cuts that fall heaviest on the education, communications and transportation and agriculture ministries. The government proposed cuts worth nearly 240 billion pesos, or about 1.2 percent of GDP, compared to the 2016 budget.

Moody's and S&P are concerned that debt as a proportion of GDP could keep rising in the coming years.

But Luis Madrazo, the finance ministry's chief economist, said the government has already made deep budget cuts in 2016 to stabilize the trajectory of debt to GDP. "We need to make sure the cuts are permanent," he said on Sunday.

Meeting the goal may be tough. Last year, when sinking oil prices sent the peso into free fall, Mexico announced spending cuts of 124.3 billion pesos, nearly 3 percent of the budget.

While the government made some cuts, total spending still overshot its original budget by more than 4 percent, or 197 billion pesos last year.

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The finance ministry said in a statement to Reuters that discretionary spending without financial investments, such as absorbing part of state oil company's Pemex's pension liabilities, was only 1.5 percent above budget.

Reaching a surplus "is not going to be easy, the pressure is enormous," said Ernesto Cordero, a senator in the opposition center-right National Action Party (PAN) and a former finance minister.

Mexico's central bank last month warned that the country faced a "unpostponable" deadline to cut back its debt in order to maintain the confidence of foreign investors.

Spending last year rose nearly 5.9 percent in real terms, the biggest increase since 2008, according to a Reuters analysis of finance ministry reports to Congress.

The finance ministry said the increase was only 2.6 percent, when excluding financial investments and pension costs.

Mexico was still able to cut its total public sector borrowing requirements last year with the help of a one-off boost to its balance sheet from a surplus transfer from the central bank.

"Even if Mexico does hit the target, the quality of the adjustment is always important, not to have too many one-off items in there," said Pramol Dhawan, an emerging markets fund manager at Pimco.

Helped by better-than-expected tax revenue, Mexico was able to map out big spending cuts at Pemex this year, easing concerns the state oil company could require a major bailout.

But spending by the federal government has been harder to rein in. One measure of discretionary spending, known as current structural outlays, rose 3.7 percent last year in real terms, shooting past the 2 percent ceiling set by the Finance Ministry in its own austerity rule approved in late 2013.

The law allows the government to exceed the limit since its recent tax reform lifted government income, according to the finance ministry.

Analysts said it would also be hard for the government to contain expenditures ahead of state elections next year after President Enrique Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) lost seven gubernatorial races in 2016.

(Additional reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Simon Gardner and Jeffrey Benkoe)
(Adds details, context surrounding offering)

By Christine Murray and Alexandra Alper

MEXICO CITY, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Mexico's Infraestructura Energetica Nova (IEnova) aims to raise more than $1 billion in a secondary share offering in October, three people with knowledge of the matter said, in what would be one of the biggest Mexican equity placements in recent years.

A unit of U.S. firm Sempra Energy, IEnova has hired Credit Suisse and JP Morgan to underwrite the offer that will help it fund major investments, according to two of the people, who declined to be named as the offering is not yet public.

A spokeswoman for IEnova declined to comment. Credit Suisse and JP Morgan also declined to comment.

IEnova is in the vanguard of Mexican companies that have pushed into the oil and gas industry since state oil firm Pemex lost its monopoly under a 2013 energy reform.

Since then, falling crude prices and budgetary constraints have forced Pemex to sell off assets. Last year, IEnova agreed to buy out the 50 percent stake owned by Pemex in pipeline company Gasoductos de Chihuahua for more than $1 billion.

That deal has now been restructured to satisfy regulators and should be completed in the third quarter, IEnova, which went public in 2013, said in a recent filing.

The company has won other big contracts such as a joint effort with TransCanada Corp to build and operate a natural gas pipeline from South Texas to Tuxpan in Mexico.

Chief Executive Carlos Ruiz said in July that IEnova planned to fund expansion through a mix of equity and long-term debt, but he gave no timing for the placement.

IEnova got shareholder approval in September last year to issue equity of up to 330 million additional shares. At the current share price of around 73 pesos, that would generate as much as 24.1 billion pesos ($1.27 billion).

However, secondary offerings are typically priced at a discount to the current trading price.

The planned offering would be the largest in Mexico since 2014, when real estate investment trust Fibra Uno issued 32.82 billion pesos ($1.74 billion) worth of investor certificates, according to data from the Mexican stock exchange.

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Mexico's energy sector, particularly in infrastructure, has drawn some of the world's biggest investors, such as U.S. asset manager BlackRock, Canada's Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec and Goldman Sachs' private equity arm.

IEnova stock is one of the few ways investors can bet directly on the industry via Mexico's bourse.

IEnova has also been active in renewable energy, which the United States, Canada and Mexico in June agreed should account for 50 percent of power in the region by 2025.

This month it agreed to buy 100 percent of the Ventika wind farm in northeastern Mexico from investors led by private equity firm Blackstone for $852 million. ($1 = 18.9050 Mexican pesos) (Additional reporting by Roberto Aguilar; Editing by Dave Graham and Grant McCool)
Satya Nadella

Microsoft has signed a six-year agreement with HP for its Salesforce-killer cloud software, Microsoft Dynamics.

Dynamics is Microsoft's "customer relationship management" tool, which helps salespeople track interactions with customers and prospects.

It's not surprising that HP would cozy up to Microsoft in this way. HP, the PC/printer company that was created after HP split itself into two companies, is very dependent on Microsoft and on Windows for its PC business. The two have always been close partners in all sorts of ways.

But there's a catch. Before the split, HP was a prominent customer of Salesforce. In 2012, HP not only signed on to use Salesforce's CRM tool, Sales Cloud, but also a bunch of other related stuff from Salesforce. HP was one of Salesforce's largest deals that year.

HP was such a huge customer at the time that it was using Salesforce software on its own computer servers and hardware in Salesforce's data center  a partnership named "the Superpod." The two also turned the Superpod into a product available for sale for other enterprises.

The Superpod should have become the domain of the other company created in the split, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, leaving HP Inc. free to hire its own CRM from somewhere else.

And Microsoft won. Ever since Microsoft failed to buy Salesforce, Microsoft has doubled down on competing with Salesforce.

Microsoft bought LinkedIn for $26 billion, famously snatching it out of Salesforce's hands, to help beef up its Dynamics software and challenge Salesforce even more. Meanwhile, Salesforce bought a Microsoft Office competitor, Quip, and indicated that it's game on with Microsoft.

Salesforce could not be immediately reached for comment.

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In this Aug. 8, 2016, photo, Republican vice presidential candidate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence speaks during a campaign stop in Council Bluffs, Iowa. It's been one potentially disastrous misstep after another for Donald Trump this week but you wouldn't know it watching Pence. Trump's running mate is the campaign's happy warrior, avoiding addressing each new eyebrow raising comment the businessman makes while delighting in telling cheering audiences that Trump won't

In a letter to US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Robert McDonald, Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence urged the federal government to repay veterans who used military benefits to attend ITT Tech, the for-profit college that abruptly closed in early September, Politico reported.

Pence called for a full refund of all GI Bill money used at the institution.

"On behalf of all Hoosier veterans, Lieutenant Governor Eric Holcomb, Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs Director Jim Brown, and I are calling on the VA to fully reimburse student veterans who used the GI Bill to enroll at ITT Technical Institute during 2016 so they may have the opportunity to pursue their education at another institution," Pence wrote.

The GI Bill provides educational benefits for US servicemembers to pay for tuition and fees, as well as a monthly stipend for housing and other educational resources like books and classroom supplies. The post-9/11 GI Bill went into effect in 2009 and provided up to $21,084.89 in educational benefits to veterans for private or foreign school.

While current students and those actively enrolled in past 120 days who made the decision to leave are eligible to have 100% of their federal loans discharged, students who spend their GI Bill benefits on attending a school that closes receive no such reimbursement. By forgoing their dischargements, both veterans and regular students can transfer to a participating school, but finding a quality institution that will accept the credits is quite the task.

Additionally, veterans who are dependent on GI Bill money to pay for basic monthly fees, like rent, are left in precarious situations. They must find a way to pay these bills or quickly enroll in other programs to continue receiving GI Bill benefits.

In his letter, Pence stressed that the "brave men and women" who served the country deserve the opportunity to pursue their education wherever they want despite recent closures, which are no fault of the students. "We cannot allow this to stand," he wrote.

Story continues

About 7,000 veterans had been using GI Bill money to attend ITT, according to Politico. Using that figure, Pence's call for repayment of GI Bill money roughly equates to $148 million in reimbursement from the VA to veteran ITT Tech students. Neither ITT Tech nor the VA immediately responded to Business Insider's request for comment.

In recent years, it's become clear that ITT Tech, along with other for-profit colleges, derives much of its funding from GI Bill benefits.

In 2014, the US Senate, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee issued a report disparaging the for-profit college sector and outlining just how much GI Bill money it receives.

The report showed that of the top 10 institutions receiving GI Bill dollars, eight were for-profit schools. ITT Tech ranked third on the list. The institutions marked in bold are for-profit colleges.

Apollo Group  $272 million EDMC  $163 million ITT  $161 million DeVry  $132 million Career Education  $79 million Corinthian Colleges  $63 million Strayer University  $56 million University of Maryland System (public university)  $50 million UTI  $50 million Embry-Riddle Aeronautical (private nonprofit school)  $48 million

ITT's closure, affecting about 40,000 students and 8,000 employees, is one of the largest in US history.

Pence's push to protect veterans who attended ITT Tech is another signal that the Trump campaign is committed to working for US servicemen and women.

In July, Donald Trump pledged to fix the VA and said that "fixing this corruption will be one of my many and highest priorities, and believe me, it will happen. I'm very good at things like that."

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Miss Michigan, Arianna Quan, looking stunning onstage during the second night of preliminary competition for Miss America 2017. (Photo: Getty Images)

The Miss America pageant, which announced its top 15 contestants this weekend, has folks on the Internet buzzing more than usual, thanks to this years Miss Michigan, Arianna Quan. She happens to be the first naturalized Asian-American citizen to get the state title, and during the second night of the preliminary competition last week, she also made headlines for wearing a white lace jumpsuit onstage.

The jumpsuit, which included a fluffy tulle train that revealed a peek of the pants, was a conscious choice from the 23-year-old, who took to Instagram to explain why she went with the piece. It is symbolic of my role as a woman in the automotive industry; it is symbolic of the courage needed to champion my platform regarding immigration and diversity; it is symbolic of overcoming hardship throughout life and to stare into the face of judgement to say that you were still brave enough to be yourself, she wrote. Although polarizing, I want my style to be brave, not only regarding the clothes on my body but my entire soul and being. I am truly humbled to have the opportunity to share my genuine self with everyone on the Miss America stage.

In spite of her edgy sartorial choice, Quan didnt make it to the top 15 contestants last night (21-year-old Miss Arkansas, Savvy Shields ultimately won the big title), but she already took home a $2,000 scholarship after nabbing the preliminary talent award. Still, Quan will be remembered as a standout this year  thanks in part to her look and the gracious way she pressed on, in spite of her many haters. Quan faced criticism going into the competition, especially from some Chinese people on social media. All this negativity came out, especially about my appearance and how Im apparently unfit to represent the Chinese population because Im ugly,  she told People.

Though she didnt win, we think Quan pretty much showed the haters just how gorgeous she is  inside and out.

Yahoo Style is live from #NYFW! Keep it here for your front-row view of the best looks and buzziest moments of New York Fashion Week.
SELLER: Molly Ringwald

LOCATION: New York City, NY

PRICE: $1,700,000

SIZE: 2 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: After just two months on the open market actress and chanteuse Molly Ringwald sold her fourth-floor walk-up apartment in a plummy pocket of New York Citys East Village for $1.7 million. Property records are vague as to when Miz Ringwald acquired the two-bedroom and 1.5 bathroom duplex apartment  it was sometime before 2004  but they do reveal the new owner as Alexi Lubomirski, an accomplished and himself very photogenic fashion and celebrity photographer who also happens to be a Polish prince.

Listing details show the boho-chic apartment, on the top two floors of a fetching 1861 Anglo-Italianate row house on a pretty, tree-lined block in the Renwick Triangle section of the St. Marks Historic District, features 10-foot ceilings with exposed wood beams and a carved marble fireplace in the living room and marble mosaic floor tiles, utilitarian stainless steel counter tops, and a vintage range in the south-facing eat-in kitchen. The half bathroom on the lower floor, just of a short corridor that links the living room to the kitchen, could be converted to a full bathroom according to listing details and the two bedrooms upstairs  the larger with another carved marble fireplace and exposed brick wall  share a small hall bathroom lined floor to ceiling with brick-shaped beige stone tiles. The apartment also has a private roof terrace with glittery city views that encompass the Chrysler Building, One World Trade Center, and the slender steeple of the French Gothic Revival-style Grace Church on lower Broadway.

Miz Ringwald and her writer/editor husband Panio Gianopoulos have in years past rented houses in Los Angeles but at least as far as this property gossips knows neither hasnt owned a home on the West Coast since 1996 when Miz Ringwald sold a 3,412-square-foot Mediterranean along a notably celeb-lined road in the Hollywood Hills for an unrecorded amount to Wheel of Fortune Host Drew Carey.

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Miz Ringwald, a founding member of the 1980s Brat Pack with seminal roles in the iconic teen-angst films Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink, appeared earlier this year in James Francos gay porn bio-pic King Cobra, recently popped up on the Bravo series Odd Mom Out as an hypocritical self-help guru, and currently co-stars with Jason Priestley as a perfectionist parent in the Canadian sitcom Raising Expectations.

Listing photos and floor plan: Weichert Properties

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MILAN (Reuters) - The board of ailing Italian lender Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena will meet on Wednesday to appoint a new CEO, Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said on Monday.

The Italian Treasury is the largest shareholder of the Tuscan bank.

Speaking at the pre-recording of a TV programme, the minister said the European Central Bank would discuss Monte dei Paschi at a meeting on Tuesday.

On Sunday a source close to the matter said the ECB had given a preliminary nod to the possible appointment of Marco Morelli, head of Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Italy, as CEO.

The bank needs to move quickly to implement an emergency rescue plan which includes a capital increase of up to 5 billion euros (4.2 billion pounds) , and avert the risk of being wound down.

Asked if the cash call would take place before the end of this year, Padoan said it would happen "when the markets are ready to absorb it".

Uncertainty over the outcome of a referendum on constitutional reform to be held in November or December complicates the timing of the capital increase, he added.

(Reporting by Alberto Sisto, writing by Stephen Jewkes)
By Laila Kearney

(Reuters) - The Florida mosque where Omar Mateen, who committed the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, prayed was badly damaged on Monday in an arson attack, investigators said.

Mateen was killed by law enforcement officials after killing 49 people and wounding 53 others in a gay nightclub in Orlando in June.

Law enforcement officers received reports of flames rising from the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, located about 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Orlando, at about 12:30 a.m. EDT, St. Lucie County Sheriffs Major David Thompson told reporters at a news conference. No one was hurt.

The attack occurred on one of the holiest Muslim holidays.

Surveillance video showed a white or Hispanic man riding up on a Harley Davidson-style motorcycle, Thompson said. The suspect got off the bike and approached the mosque carrying a bottle of liquid and papers, moments before the blaze erupted, he said.

Immediately after the individual approached, a flash occurred and the individual fled the area, Thompson said.

Investigators have not identified the man, who shook his hand while leaving the area of the flames, indicating that he might have burned himself, Thompson said.

Investigators speak outside the Fort Pierce Islamic Center after a fire burned the center earlier that morning. (Adam Sacasa/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

At a news conference, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Florida said the blaze was an act of hate. Ahmed Bedier, president of the civic group United Voices for America, also called for authorities to investigate it as a hate crime.

Thompson said deputies will explore whether the arson was a hate crime.

Investigators, still seeking a motive, were considering a connection with the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on Sunday, Thompson said.

Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim holiday, was being celebrated on Monday and also could have prompted the attack, Thompson said.

For this to happen to us, on the morning of our biggest celebration of the year, was something horrific, Hamaad Rahman, associate imam at the mosque, said at a news conference.

Story continues

Our community is bigger than a building, we are stronger than that, he added. Hopefully as time goes by, we will be able to rebuild.

The mosque temporarily relocated its morning prayers for Eid al-Adha, also known as the Feast of Sacrifice.

The mosque in Fort Pierce, identified as Mateens place of worship, has reported threats of violence and intimidation. In June a motorcycle gang circled the center and shouted at its members, and in July a Muslim man was beaten outside the mosque.

A Law enforcement official walks near the scene of a fire at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce which is the mosque that was attended by the Pulse nightclub gunman, who killed 49 people in Orlando, in Fort Pierce, Fla. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Mateen told police in a 911 call that he had pledged allegiance to the head of the Islamic State militant group, though investigators do not believe he had help from outside organizations.

(Reporting by Laila Kearney in New York and Letitia Stein in Tampa, Florida; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis)
Sept 12 (Reuters) - The following financial services industry appointments were announced on Monday. To inform us of other job changes, email moves@thomsonreuters.com.

INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL BANK OF CHINA

The country's biggest bank by assets plans to promote its vice-president Gu Shu to president, the latest step in the lender's leadership reshuffle.

HSBC INVESTMENT BANK

Spencer Lake, the vice-chairman of global banking and markets at HSBC, is leaving the bank, according to an internal memo seen by IFR News.

ICBC STANDARD BANK

The bank has hired former Bank of America Merrill Lynch banker Mon Ullah as head of equity financing as part of its plans to beef up its investment banking capabilities in Europe, according to a source familiar with the matter.

DUFF & PHELPS

Rory O'Sullivan has been appointed head of European technology banking at Pagemill Partners, a division of Duff & Phelps that specialises in advising technology and media companies.

EVERCORE

Dimitrios Georgiou has joined Evercore as a senior managing director in the advisory specialist's London office to advise on M&A and fund raising in the industrials and services sectors.

BANK OF ENGLAND

Minouche Shafik, deputy governor of the Bank of England, is to leave the central bank to become director of the London School of Economics, according to IFR News.

AXA INVESTMENT MANAGERS

The company appointed Jennifer Millar as retail sales manager to its UK wholesale sales team, effective Aug. 31.

Northern Trust Corp

The wealth management company appointed James Wright the head of its Institutional Investor Group for the UK, Ireland and Guernsey.

UNICREDIT

The company has promoted Alfredo Maria De Falco to head of corporate and investment banking Americas in a reshuffle at Italy's largest bank.

GUNVOR GROUP LTD

Commodities trading house Gunvor Group Ltd has hired Rick Sawyer, a former gasoline and naphtha trader for Koch Supply and Trading, in its latest move to expand its presence in the United States, two sources familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Story continues

RISKMATCH

The risk analytics firm that delivers web-based solutions for insurance brokers, said it appointed Michael Golden as chief market engagement officer.

ARTEMIS INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LLP

UK-based fund manager Artemis Investment Management LLP appointed Stephanie Sutton investment director.

(Compiled by Gayathree Ganesan and Aishwarya Venugopal)
By PTI: Bengaluru, Sep 12 (PTI) Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today assured Tamil Sangam of protection for Tamils in the state in the wake of violence in the city following a Supreme Court direction to release 12000 cusecs of Cauvery water everyday for next ten days to Tamil Nadu.

Siddaramaiah also informed the Sangam leaders, who met him at his residence, that a suo motu case has been filed against culprits who had assaulted a youth Santosh Deena for posting comments on Cauvery issue on Facebook on September 10.

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A suo motu case has been filed against the persons who had assaulted Santosh, Sangam President George Damodaran told reporters here.

The youth was allegedly beaten up by culprits as he had questioned Kannada film stars for protesting over Cauvery issue.

Siddaramaiah also asked the Sangam leaders to petition Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to give protection to Kannadigas living in Tamil Nadu, Damodaran said.

"We are petitioning the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister via email," he said.

The Chief Minister has directed the police to maintain law and order and provide security to Tamils living in the state, the Sangam President said.

Damodaran said he also brought to the notice of the chief minister the "provocative" statement of Narayana Gowda who is heading Karnataka Rakshana Vedike.

Gowda had reportedly said the situation that prevailed in 1991 should prevail and all Tamil films should be stopped from screening to teach them lesson.

In 1991, during Bangarappas tenure as chief minister, anti-Tamil violence had taken place in Bengaluru in which 18 people had died and hundreds fled. PTI BDN RA BN DIP MVV

--- ENDS ---
Latin indie guru Tomas Cookman will head Industria Works, a new international "alternative platform for artist development" launching today (Sept. 12), Billboard has learned exclusively.

Based in Los Angeles, where Cookman runs the storied Latin alternative label Nacional Records and his Cookman management company, Industria Works will also have offices in Madrid and Mexico City. The new company encompasses recording, publishing, artist management, marketing, live events and data analytics, with a suite of services designed "to expand the reach of its artists and clients on a local and global level."

Cookman says that Industria Works will "help define what today's music market is and be part of it.

"I have long felt that there was a need for a company like Industria Works," adds Cookman, whose Latin Alternative Music Conference (LAMC) has done much to expand the definition of Latin music in the United States in both the Latino and Anglo markets over the last 16 years. "One that can be independent but have the infrastructure and vision to go that much further than has been the norm."

Nacional Records Leader Tomas Cookman on the Label's 10th Anniversary, a Booming Synch Business and Thoughts on Poaching Promo

Rob Filomena, co-founder of MuuseMe, a music licensing service that focuses on connecting independent Latin artists with multinational brands, has joined Industria Works as CFO.

Investment banker and frequent music start-up advisor Frank Gelardin will act as Chairman of the Board of Industria Works. The new company is backed by a group of international investors led by Gelardin's New York-based Gelardin Capital together with Madrid-based Springwater Capital.

"Our team was particularly impressed by the network and recognition this management team enjoys across a wide number of regions and target markets" Springwater Managing Partner Martin Gruschka said in a statement.

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The Industria Works platform launches initially with Nacional Records, Avenir Music Publishing, MuuseMe, Industria Management, LAMC, Los Angeles festival Supersonico, and Trenderscope, which tracks Spanish and Portuguese-speaking artists' digital and social media impact. Those entities will continue to operate independently under the Industria Works umbrella.

According to Cookman, Industria Works "will continue growing, incorporating additional companies and catalogues that fit within the company's strategy and objectives.

"Nacional Records will very much exist -- and will grow by leaps and bounds" Cookman says, adding that "expanding the management division is very much a part of the plan."
New York (AFP) - Novak Djokovic admitted that his nerves failed him as he slipped to a 6-7 (1/7), 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 defeat to Stan Wawrinka in the US Open final.

The 29-year-old world number one, who was chasing a third New York title and 13th career major, on Sunday suffered his ninth loss in 21 Grand Slam finals.

In a final which lasted almost four hours, Djokovic converted just three of 17 break points.

"I lost my nerve in the important moments. He kept his cool," said the 2011 and 2015 champion.

"I think that's what decided the match. I guess sometimes it happens, even though you have the experience and know what to do.

"Just the heat of the moment and importance of the match, I guess, you know, was too strong for me at certain periods of the match. Just if you lose your cool, the match can go away."

The Serb star also admitted that he came close to skipping the tournament as a serious wrist injury threatened to compromise his assault on a third major title of the year.

Physical problems plagued the world number one throughout the two weeks, a right shoulder injury giving way to problems with his toes as his hopes of a third US Open slipped away.

"Some other injury was very serious at the time. I really didn't know whether or not I'm going to come, to be honest," said the 29-year-old Djokovic who ended the Grand Slam season with a sixth Australian Open and a maiden Roland Garros.

Djokovic caused controversy at 1-3 and 2-5 down in the fourth set when he was allowed a medical timeout for treatment on his feet.

Wawrinka was angry that Djokovic had been granted permission to call the trainer and doctor while he was about to serve.

- Serve not there -

Djokovic apologised to his opponent as he sat courtside, claiming he couldn't stand as a consequence.

"It was just the toenails were off and bleeding. Yeah, it was quite painful to move around," he said later.

But he insisted that he was not trying to gain an advantage by forcing Wawrinka to wait to serve at a crucial part of the final.

Story continues

"Why would I be surprised if I was allowed?," he snapped at a reporter, adding that it was medical necessity.

Djokovic refused to pin the reason for his loss on the toe injury but he did admit that regular difficulties with his right arm did little to help his cause.

"I made a lot of double faults throughout this tournament. I was struggling with the motion, with the movement and on the serve, with the technique.

"I was working a lot on it and trying to find that rhythm, but my body has kind of compensated and made some different things to protect the problem I had with the arm.

"Unfortunately the serve wasn't there when it was needed."

Djokovic refused to get too downcast with his season despite a shock third round loss at Wimbledon.

His French Open victory allowed him to complete a career Grand Slam while victory in Paris also meant he held all four Slams at the same time.

"Winning four Grand Slams in a row for me was an incredible achievement. I'm very proud of it, so this loss today cannot overshadow the great moments I have had in Australia and especially in Paris," he said.

The world number one hailed Wawrinka who also beat him in the French Open final last year, also having lost the first set.

"He loves to play in the big matches. He comes up with his best game. He's a very complete player. Sometimes if he feels right he doesn't miss much and makes a lot of winners and it's hard to play him. That's what happened today."
Narcos

Netflix hates data caps, which make it harder for people to watch Netflix.

Last week, Netflix submitted a filing to the Federal Communications Commission urging it to say data caps are unreasonable, according to Ars Technica.

In Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act, Congress instructs the FCC to decide whether "advanced telecommunications ability" is being extended to all Americans in a "reasonable" and "timely" manner. As Ars Technica points out, historically this has meant a focus on the availability and speed of internet.

But Netflix wants the FCC to take aim at data caps, too.

"Data caps (especially low data caps) and usage-based pricing ('UBP') discourage a consumer's consumption of broadband, and may impede the ability of some households to watch Internet television in a manner and amount that they would like," Netflix wrote. "For this reason, the Commission should hold that data caps on fixed-line networks and low data caps on mobile networks may unreasonably limit Internet television viewing and are inconsistent with Section 706."

Basically, Netflix thinks data caps are getting in the way of your watching Netflix as much as you want to. If the FCC agrees with Netflix, it could put pressure on internet service providers to get rid of data caps, or raise them, though it wouldn't strictly require them to kill them, according to Ars Technica.

Zero Rating

A big aspect of data caps that seems to irk Netflix is their "pay for play" nature, by which some video services can pay to have their traffic not count against data caps.

"Because of a low data cap, an online service may need to pay an ISP to zero-rate its traffic to enable that ISP's customers to access the online service," Netflix wrote. "Such arrangements create an incentive for ISPs to maintain artificially low caps."

And exactly how much internet does the average household need each month?

Netflix said the average American needed 300 GB a month of just internet TV (like Netflix)  not to mention everything else you want to do on the internet.

Story continues

NOW WATCH: Jeff Bezos space company is about to blow the top off of its rocket on purpose  heres why





More From Business Insider


patton journal

In honor of the upcoming centennial of the USs entry into the first World War, the Library of Congress has made available online several personal notes of two of Americas greatest generals.

The diaries belonging to John J. Pershing, the commander-in-chief of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, and George S. Patton, a WWI tank commander and famous World War II general.

The now digitized journals offer a public view into the inner thoughts of the two men.

Pershings diaries describes his command of the American Expeditionary Forces in France during World War I and onwards, while Pattons diaries ranges from the Mexican Punitive Expedition all the way to WWII.

Also contained within their notes  which span the late-1800s to the late-1900s  are speeches, maps, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, photos, and other noteworthy memorabilia.

Their respective entries also yield humorous insight into the men's natures, as in the case of Pattons entry on September 7, 1918:

Went to 42 Maj Murphy G3. Found that they had adopted my plan in total. Thought Col Hughes less of an ass.

Pershing was instrumental in leading the fight towards the eventual armistice with Germany during WWI, after having drilled the USs nascent military into a capable fighting force.

Patton, who was one of Pershings aide-de-camps, is probably best known for his relentless and strict military bearing that made him the WWII legend he is today.

Check out Pershing's and Patton's collection from the Library of Congress.

NOW WATCH: The US military uses this tactic to get hundreds of troops onto the ground in a matter of minutes





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TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese stocks posted their biggest decline in more than a month on Monday after comments by U.S. Federal Reserve officials sparked fears of a rate hike as soon as next week, weighing on shares and other risk assets globally.

The Nikkei share average fell 1.7 percent to 16,672.92 points, its lowest closing level since Aug. 26. It was the largest daily percentage drop since early August.

Anxiety is also growing ahead of next week's Bank of Japan policy review, which coincides with the Fed's.

Sources familiar with BOJ thinking told Reuters last week that the central bank is studying several options to steepen the bond yield curve as authorities desperately seek tools to revive an economy that has failed to emerge from stagnation despite years of massive stimulus.

The broader Topix dropped 1.5 percent to 1,323.10 and the JPX-Nikkei Index 400 declined 1.5 percent to 11,870.36.

(Reporting by Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Richard Borsuk)
Military might. What plight?

Since 2006, every three years or so, North Korea blows up a nuclear bomb. But on Sept. 9, it tested a nuclear bomb in fewer than nine months since its last such test.

One would expect this nuclear bomb to be a bigger one. But, to confuse matters further, it wasnt. Based on the magnitude of the earthquake the nuclear test caused experts believe the bombs yield was a little more than 10 kTabout the size of the bomb the US dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

What was North Korea trying to do? One possible answer is that the nuclear bomb was detonated as part of the 68th-anniversary celebrations of North Koreas founding day. Or that, on an opportune day, it was an attempt to get the attention of world leaders who had attended the recent G20 and ASEAN meetings in the nearby countries of China and Laos.

The test did get attention, but it was not much different from that given to the previous nuclear tests. The US warned of serious consequences. South Korea called it fanatic recklessness. China urged North Korea to not worsen the situation.

But experts warn that its time we stop taking North Korea lightly and that we act before its too late. The latest test, they say, is part of a much bigger plan. The rogue state is creating a nuclear program that could make it impossible for the US and allies to defend against. Worse still, North Korea is advancing its technology in such a way that could soon produce nuclear bombs and sell them to other rogue states, such as Syria, Iran, and Pakistan.

Surviving as a nuclear state

The US and its allies have tried for many decades to bring North Korea to the negotiating table. Out of fear that the rogue regime would develop nuclear weapons, the US even got the country to the sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1985. When the terms of the NPT were no longer acceptable to North Korea, in 1994, the US gave it aid in return for agreeing to freeze its plutonium program.

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Finally, when the aid stopped coming in and no more was coming, North Korea broke all NPT rules and began its nuclear program in earnest in 2003. In less than three years, North Korea had developed and tested its first nuclear bomb. In response, the United Nations levied sanctions on North Korea to try to stop the country from developing its arsenal even further. None of those sanctions has really worked.

None of those sanctions has really worked. If anything, there has been a step change in North Koreas plan to become a nuclear-weapons state. Between 1994 and 2008, the country conducted 16 missile tests and one nuclear test, according to the data collated by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Then, between 2009 and now, it conducted 58 missile tests and four nuclear tests.

The purpose is to communicate to the US and the world that they dont just have nuclear capability, but they have a survivable nuclear capability, says Victor Cha, the lead Korea expert at the CSIS.

A country can develop nuclear weapons against, say, the US. But if it can only launch those weapons from fixed sites and it needs liquid fuel to power the rockets, the US can see from space when it is erecting the missile and when it is being fueled. The US can then take the weapon out with a long-range precision missile.

So the next stage in the evolution of a nuclear weapons state is to develop missiles that can be launched from submarines or mobile launchpads. Better still, if the country can use solid-fuel, the rockets wont need fueling in advance and thus there will be no lead time to launch the missile. This makes it very hard for the US or its allies to carry out a pre-emptive strike. Thus, the country will have developed a survivable nuclear capability. You could try to pre-empt, but theres always a danger that you would miss one or two nuclear missiles.

Once North Korea reaches that capability, they will feel like they dont have to answer to anybody. You could try to pre-empt, but theres always a danger that you would miss one or two nuclear missiles, says Cha.

If we take North Koreas official statement on the fifth nuclear test at face value, the country is giving hints about acquiring such capability or getting close. It reads, The nuclear test finally examined  nuclear warhead that has been standardized to be mounted on strategic ballistic rockets.

Its Chinas game

The sanctions against North Korea havent worked, and we know why. North Korea lives in the space created by geostrategic distrust between China and the United States, writes Scott Snyder, senior fellow for Korea studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

China provides up to 90% of North Koreas trade. Trade is booming and is now back to pre-sanction levels, according to a recent investigation by the ABC. It is easy to see how that is possible. Security along the 1400-km border is minimal.

The US policy on the Korean peninsula is clear. It supports the reunification of the peninsula, led by South Korea. But, as North Koreas military power grows, the chances of a peaceful reunification, which would involve the dismantling of Kim Jong-uns regime and denuclearization, become slimmer. Trade is booming and is now back to pre-sanction levels.

This is not a scenario China would like to support. In the short term, it wouldnt want to share a border with a country that will face a humanitarian crisis following the fall of the regime. In the long term, China wouldnt want to see a strong US military presence on its border.

The UN may call for new sanctions, but unless the Chinese cut off airspace and ports, close the border, stop the North Koreans from using the Chinese financial system the sanctions arent going to work says Cha.

Show me the money

Even if China were convinced to levy stricter sanctions against North Korea, its hard to see how thats going to crush the rogue regimes ambitions. The pace of progress suggests that North Korea will soon reach a point where its able to sell nuclear weapons to the highest bidder.

As theyve done with past missiles, theres a very good chance theyll start selling, says Cha. Hes referring to Pakistans Ghauri missiles and Irans Shahbad missiles, which are both based on North Koreas missiles.

The powers that keep North Korea in check arent working. Kim Jong-un sees two lame-duck presidents: one in the US and one in South Korea, both of whom will be replaced next year.

Snyder thinks weve reached the point where the US and its allies have only two options: either support regime change in North Korea, or, if regime change is not possible, accept that North Korea is a nuclear weapons state. The first option, he says, will need military action and the second will need arming South Korea with nuclear weapons to keep North Korea in check.

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By Ju-min Park and Jack Kim SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea is ready to conduct an additional nuclear test at any time, South Korea's Defence Ministry said on Monday, three days after Pyongyang's fifth test drew widespread condemnation. North Korea set off its most powerful nuclear blast to date on Friday, saying it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile and ratcheting up a threat that its rivals and the United Nations have been powerless to contain. "Assessment by South Korean and U.S. intelligence is that the North is always ready for an additional nuclear test in the Punggye-ri area," the site of all five nuclear explosions, South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun told a news briefing. "North Korea has a tunnel where it can conduct an additional nuclear test," Moon said. On Monday, Siegfried Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States and a leading expert on North Korea's nuclear program, said Pyongyang's claims that it had standardized a nuclear warhead for mounting on ballistic missiles and could produce as many bombs as it wanted had to be taken seriously. Writing on the 38 North website which monitors North Korea, Hecker estimated the country had stockpiled sufficient plutonium and highly enriched uranium for approximately 20 bombs by the end of the year and had the capacity to add about seven more a year. "Its ability to field an ICBM fitted with a nuclear warhead capable of reaching the United States is still a long way off - perhaps 5 to 10 years - but likely doable if the program is unconstrained," Hecker added. The United States and South Korea are pushing for more sanctions against Pyongyang to close loopholes left in a United Nations Security Council resolution adopted in March. U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Monday the United States would do all it could to oppose North Korea's nuclear weapons policy with financial tools as coordinated economic sanctions had been shown to work. "North Korea is an enormous challenge and we will do everything we can to keep the pressure on them. We will continue to sharpen financial tools as we can," he said, while adding that China's participation was very important. Both China and Russia backed sanctions imposed in March following North Korea's January nuclear test, but their apparent ambivalence about fresh sanctions has cast doubt on the Security Council's ability to quickly form a consensus. "We expect that China, as one of the Security Council member states, should take this issue seriously and play a very constructive role to come up with a very effective and strong sanctions resolution," a South Korean foreign ministry official said. NEW SANCTIONS? The Security Council has denounced the latest test and said it would begin work immediately on a resolution. The United States, Britain and France - three of the five veto-wielding permanent members - have pushed for the 15-member body to impose new sanctions. However, China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said sanctions alone could not solve the North Korean nuclear issue. The crux of the issue lay with the United States, not China, she added, in an apparent reference to Washington's refusal to resume negotiations with North Korea until it commits to de-nuclearization. On Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said a "creative" response was needed. Speaking to Lavrov on Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China "strongly urged North Korea and other relevant parties to remain calm and exercise restraint, and not take any new steps to intensify tensions", China's Foreign Ministry said. Russia said Lavrov and Wang condemned North Korea's latest nuclear test in a phone conversation on Monday. Russia and China are the other veto powers on the Security Council. South Korea's President Park Geun-hye said North Korea's nuclear weapons and missiles posed an "imminent threat." "As North Korea has publicly said nuclear warheads have been standardized and customized to mount on ballistic missiles, we should keep in mind that North Korea's nuclear missiles are a realistic, imminent threat targeting us, not a simple threat for negotiations," Park told a meeting with major political party leaders. Pyongyang's assertions that it is able to miniaturize a nuclear warhead have never been independently verified. BOMBER FLIGHT DELAYED North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, formerly the country's chief nuclear negotiator, arrived in Beijing on Monday and was seen entering the country's embassy, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported. Ri left Pyongyang on Monday to attend a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement countries in Venezuela and later the U.N. General Assembly, North Korea's official KCNA news agency said. A U.S. special envoy for North Korea, Sung Kim, met Japanese officials on Sunday and said the United States may launch unilateral sanctions against North Korea, echoing comments by U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday in the wake of the test. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that bad weather had delayed the flight of a U.S. B-1B bomber to the Korean peninsula, a show of strength and solidarity with ally Seoul, scheduled for Monday. The flight from the U.S. base in Guam would now take place on Tuesday, a U.S. Forces in Korea official told Reuters, declining to identify the type of aircraft involved. A group of 31 conservative lawmakers in South Korea said the country should have nuclear weapons, either by acquiring its own arms, or asking the United States to redeploy tactical nuclear weapons withdrawn under a 1991 pact for denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. "We should discuss every plan including an independent nuclear armament program at the level of self-defense to safeguard peace," Won Yoo-chul, a senior lawmaker for the ruling Saenuri Party, said in a statement. South Korea's Defence Ministry said there was no change in its policy barring nuclear weapons. (Additional reporting by John Ruwitch in Shanghai, Michael Martina in Beijing, David Brunnstrom in Washington and Jonathan Spicer in New York; Editing by Alex Richardson and James Dalgleish)
Kim Jong Uns government is ready to launch his sixth nuclear test, and this one is set to be even more powerful  just three days after North Korea set off its most powerful nuclear test to date, according to a Reuters report citing South Koreas Yonhap News Agency.

Yonhap said that South Korean officials believed that an unused tunnel at the North Korean test site could be the location of the next test.

The North has completed preparations to conduct a nuclear test at any time in the third tunnel that has not been used previously, an unnamed official told Yonhap.



In a separate report, also from Yonhap, C.I.A. director John Brennan said that the countrys increasing nuclear capabilities, particularly those of marrying up those nuclear devices or warheads with ballistic missiles that can reach great distances, were a cause of concern not just for the East Asia region but also for the United States.

According to the Associated Press, U.S., South Korean and Japanese leaders have agreed to work with the U.N. Security Council and the international community to implement existing punitive measures imposed on North Korea for prior instances of unlawful nuclear activity.

U.S. President Barack Obama says additional significant steps, including new sanctions, are being considered.
Fifty-five Sikh men were arrested in UK's Warwickshire after a gang of 20-30 sword-wielding men stormed a gurudwara to protest against an inter-faith marriage.

By India Today Web Desk: Fifty-five Sikh men were arrested in UK's Warwickshire after a gang of 20-30 sword-wielding men stormed a gurudwara in the Leamington Spa area on Sunday and blocked its entrance for eight hours.

Police say the situation has now been "contained" after an operation involving 'specially trained' armed officers at Gurudwara Sahib in the West Midlands region. They were responding to reports of a gang of men carrying "bladed weapons" disrupting a mixed-race wedding ceremony.



Our Sacred Gurdwara Sikh Temple Leamington Spa stormed by protesters against marriage ceremony armed Police stand by pic.twitter.com/gHZRc0G5pU Perry Phillips (@gmbperry) September 11, 2016

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"Officers responded to an initial report of a group of masked men, initially thought to be around 20 in number, forcing their way into the gurudwara. These were reported to be carrying a range of bladed items some of which were initially described as not being for ceremonial use. Officers assessed the situation and responded accordingly," a Wariwckshire Police statement said on Monday.

"Having contained the situation, it became apparent that there were 55 masked men involved, all of whom were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass. Blades seized so far have been ceremonial. Another non-ceremonial weapon was seized. This is an ongoing investigation and we will be investigating the initial report that other weapons were involved," it adds.

Kirpans, or short swords, are legally allowed to be worn by Sikhs in the UK as a symbol of their faith, however, police have seized a blade they say was not ceremonial.

WHAT THE PROTESTERS ARE CLAIMING

Protesters from 'Sikh 2 Inspire' and 'Sikh Youth UK' claim that it was a "peaceful protest" against an inter-faith Anand Karaj, or Sikh matrimonial ceremony.

Sikh Youth UK said: "Local Sikh youth attended the early morning prayers at the Gurudwara and began a peaceful sit-down protest by reciting prayers. There was no violence, so it doesn't make sense why kirpans were confiscated and have to remain in police custody. We feel the police should not be holding onto the kirpans... we are not sure where the media has picked up their distorted narrative which damages the reputation of the Sikhs," said Gurmail Singh of Sikh Council UK.

Jatinder Singh Birdi, a former treasurer at the temple, confirmed a marriage between a Sikh and non-Sikh couple was due to take place. "There have been tensions that have been going on for a couple of years with some people objecting to mixed marriages in taking place in the Gurdwara," he told the British Broadcasting Company.

"The general consensus is people are respectful of mixed marriages if the traditions are respected. Nothing has happened on this level before. This is meant to be one of the happiest moments of somebodys life - it shows a lack of respect," he said.

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(With inputs from PTI)

--- ENDS ---
By Catherine Bennett MADRID (Reuters) - Six people stand almost shoulder-to-shoulder in a black room - the entire audience for a play unfolding just an arm's length away. With minimal set and a cast of only two, this is theater stripped to its bare bones. The micro-theater trend has exploded since a first production in a former Madrid brothel in 2009. "Microteatro" is now an established brand, with theaters in 13 cities in Spain and the Americas. Its success - the venue that originated the format put on its 1,000th show in April - provides a bright spot in Spanish theater which has suffered from cuts in arts funding and a drop in audience spending since an economic crisis. In the bar at the Madrid venue, 30-year-old theater-goer Maria Renee explained the appeal. "The good thing is you don't have to plan ahead. You can see one play or five," she said, examining the productions on offer that evening. Each short play costs only four euros ($4.50) and is repeated up to seven times a night, so spectators can dip in and out of the evening's program. The format follows a basic idea of three 15s: plays of 15 minutes for around 15 audience members in a 15 square-meter (160 square-foot) space. In the original production, 13 independent theater groups put on 13 different shows, themed around prostitution, in the rooms of the former brothel where the sex workers used to receive their clients. That show was so successful, with queues of more than 200 people waiting to get in, that the team bought a space around the corner. Since then theater companies around Spain and from places as far away as Miami and Mexico have bought licenses to use the Microteatro logo, marketing and house style. Playwright and director Jose Luis Lozano, 34, says the format is a showcase for new work and provides a training ground for writers. "You're obliged to say a lot in a short time. It's a good place to experiment with your style," he said. For the players, the closeness to the audience makes the experience like a constant camera close-up, says Anthony Rotsa, a British actor starring in the theater's only English-language play. "You see everyone's faces, right there. If they're enjoying it, you can feel that. And if they're not, you can feel that too!" (Editing by Sonya Dowsett and Robin Pomeroy)
WASHINGTON, DC  North Korea's fifth and largest nuclear test last Friday was a wake-up call to us all.

"The tone among Korea watchers has changed. It's not funny anymore, and it's not really possible to dismiss them as a second-class missile power to be safely ignored," Thomas Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Business Insider.

Here's a comparison of the range and capabilities of North Korea's ballistic missiles:

nk missiles edited

"The North's missile capabilities are advancing on several fronts, and both the United States and our allies in the region will have to do something about it," Karako said.

So far this year, North Korea has conducted a little more than 15 rounds of ballistic-missile tests and has fired 30 various rockets.

"The accelerated pace of missile testing represents not only a further demonstration of the North's preexisting short and medium range capabilities, but also the ambition to develop longer range and more mobile systems," Karako said.

Earlier this year, the US and South Korea agreed to deploy a THAAD  Terminal High Altitude Area Defense  battery to further defend South Korea. In conjunction with the US, Seoul plans to have the unique air-defense system operational by the end of 2017.

Meanwhile, South Korea's Defense Ministry said the rogue regime is ready to conduct an additional nuclear test at any time.

"Assessment by South Korean and US intelligence is that the North is always ready for an additional nuclear test in the Punggye-ri area," the site of the North's five nuclear explosions, Moon Sang-gyun, a Defense Ministry spokesperson, said at a news briefing.

Following the North's latest nuclear weapons test, the United Nations Security Council met to begin work on a resolution.

Read more about THAAD 

NOW WATCH: Meet THAAD: Americas answer to North Korean threats





More From Business Insider


Washington (AFP) - US President Barack Obama will receive Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on October 18 at the White House for talks focusing on the future of Europe, press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday.

The official visit "will be an opportunity to recognize the depth and breadth of our relationship with Italy and exchange views on the future of Europe," Earnest said.

Describing Italy as "one of our closest and strongest allies," Earnest said the two leaders will also discuss climate change and the refugee crisis affecting southern Europe.

At the end of the day, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will host Renzi and his wife, Agnese Landini, at a state dinner at the White House.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will host Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi for an official visit on Oct. 18, the White House said on Monday. Obama and Renzi, whose countries are NATO allies, have discussed security and economic issues in the past including the fight against Islamic State in Libya, the conflict in Ukraine, and the European economy. "Italy is one of our closest and strongest allies and we cooperate across a range of shared interests from addressing climate change and the global refugee crisis, to promoting global security and inclusive economic growth," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters during a daily briefing. Renzi and his wife, Agnese Landini, will be guests at a state dinner on the evening of the visit, Earnest said. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Peter Cooney)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama would veto a bill passed by both houses of Congress that would allow survivors and families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to sue the government of Saudi Arabia for damages, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Monday. "It's not hard to imagine other countries using this law as an excuse to haul U.S. diplomats or U.S. service members or even U.S. companies into courts all around the world," Earnest told reporters in a daily briefing. "I do anticipate the president would veto this legislation when it is presented to him," he said. The House of Representatives passed the bill by voice vote, without objections, on Friday, after the Senate passed it unanimously in May, clearing the way for it to go to the White House for Obama to sign into law or veto. Congressional aides said the measure appeared to have enough support, two-thirds majorities in both the Senate and House, for lawmakers to override an Obama veto for the first time since he took office in January 2009. However, such a vote is unlikely to take place soon. Obama is not expected to get the bill until after Congress leaves Washington. The Senate could leave as soon as this week, and the House next, and lawmakers would not be in Washington again until after the Nov. 8 elections. Under the Constitution, Obama has 10 days to veto the bill before it automatically becomes law. The Constitution also allows a "pocket veto," in which the president can defeat a bill just by holding onto it until Congress is out of session. (Reporting by Ayesha Rascoe and Timothy Gardner, additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Grant McCool)
Washington (AFP) - The White House confirmed Monday that President Barack Obama will veto a bill that would allow relatives of victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia for compensation.

"That's not an effective, forceful way for us to respond to terrorism," spokesman Josh Earnest said, adding that the text, which has raised major concerns among Washington's Gulf allies, has yet to reach the president's desk.

The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act was approved in the House by unanimous voice vote on Friday, some four months after its Senate passage -- and only two days before the 15th anniversary of 9/11.

The government of Saudi Arabia, a US ally but also home nation to 15 of the 19 hijackers, has worked hard to see the bill defeated.

Obama's concerns with the law include that it essentially waives the doctrine of sovereign immunity that protects nation states from civil suits or criminal prosecution -- and could thus expose the United States to lawsuits in various countries around the world.

"There's no denying the political potency of this issue. But the president believes that it's important to look out for our country, to look out for our service members and look out for our diplomats," Earnest said.

"And allowing this bill to come into law would increase the risk that they face."

However, the legislation's easy passage raises the prospect of a veto override, which requires a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate. It would be the first time Obama would be dealt such a blow during his presidency.

Earlier Monday, the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, of which Saudi Arabia is the most powerful member, expressed "profound worry" over the bill, saying it would "create a grave precedent."
Were obsessed with this $30 tee Ariana Grande just rocked on Instagram

Were obsessed with this $30 tee Ariana Grande just rocked on Instagram

Three of our favorite things  t-shirts, Ariana Grande, and feminism  recently came together on Instagram. This magic moment occurred in all its glory when Ariana Grande shared a pic of herself wearing a The Future is Female t-shirt from Otherwild, and were in looooove.

 A photo posted by Ariana Grande (@arianagrande) on Sep 11, 2016 at 2:10pm PDT

Otherwild describes itself as a studio, a store, a community center, a workshop and an event space. Otherwild was founded within, and inspired by a vast, multi-disciplinary community of talented artists and designers.

This is us right now:

Otherwild sells a variety of cute, catchy, and social-justice oriented clothing, but were definitely obsessed with The Future is Female. Because, duh, it is.

You can get it on a sweatshirt ($50):

You can get it on a t-shirt ($30):

You can get it on a tank top ($30):

You can even get it in kids sizes ($25), which is TOO CUTE FOR WORDS. Start the empowerment young, ladies!

Were all about wearing feminism loud and proud, and are super grateful to Ariana Grande for bringing this amazing shop to our attention.

2377ac2599125355948febef938e28cdc3f75f9a397f383f63924fcb450c1adb

One of everything, please?

The post Were obsessed with this $30 tee Ariana Grande just rocked on Instagram appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Sirhaan Seth's startup, SMS Contraceptive, is a 24x7 service that delivers sexual-wellness products to your doorstep by taking orders via WhatsApp and Snapchat.

By Mini Dixit: For those who've been seeking respite from the awkwardness that comes with buying sexual-wellness products at a medical store, here's a piece of good news for you.

Brain wired by 18-year-old Sirhaan Seth, SMS Contraceptive seeks to deliver condoms, lubricants, pregnancy tests and contraceptive pills at your doorstep within 30 minutes of the order being placed.

In a recent conversation with India Today Online, Seth shed light upon the what and how of his innovative venture.





The brain behind SMS Contraceptive, Sirhaan Seth.

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"Most of us have a particular chemist whom we go to for every medical need, but when suddenly--after years of going to the same chemist--one day you ask for a condom, things get really weird. This is where SMS Contraceptive comes to your rescue," Seth said, when asked about the relevance of his startup.

Seth also mentioned how a close friend's awkward condom-buying experience made him realise the immediate need for a service that is discreet-yet-resourceful.



Also Read: 7 of the weirdest condom flavours that actually do exist



Here are six things you should know about SMS Contraceptive.

1. While SMS Contraceptive is limited to Gurgaon for now, its South Delhi chapter will go live within the next two weeks.

2. Currently a team of four people, Seth's venture not just delivers single products but also lets you purchase combo packs that come with apt titles like Safe Bet, Cruise Control and SOS and combine condoms, morning-after pills, lubricants and pregnancy tests. With the lowest priced product (a pack of three condoms) available at Rs 150, SMS Contraceptive is quite feasible an option.





SMS Contraceptive also has certain special packages for you. Picture courtesy: SMScontraceptive.com

3. The orders can be placed via a phone call, a text message, WhatsApp or Snapchat. The details for which are as follows; Phone number: 91-8376060577; Snapchat ID: capinasnap





Here's how you can make full use of SMS Contraceptive. Picture courtesy: SMScontraceptive.com

4. The service seeks to cater to everyone and isn't limited to a specific age bracket or gender.

5. SMS Contraceptive is functional 24?7 and will deliver the ordered products to the given address which includes malls, hotel rooms or even cars.

6. The products will be delivered within 30 minutes.

Speaking on whether he plans to take his venture across cities, Seth said inquiries about his venture have not just been flowing in from cities like Mumbai and Bangalore but also from South Africa.

Also Read: Watch: Finally, Indian truckers get their own condom brand

"The idea is to take the service to places where things like these are a taboo. So, yes, we will eventually transcend borders," Seth said.

Signing off, Seth--son of author and adman Swapan Seth--also mentions how he wants to get the finer details right before being hailed as a game-changer.

--- ENDS ---
By Edward McAllister AGADEZ, Niger (Reuters) - On Mayango Jallahs second attempt to reach Europe, he recalls, the dinghy he was in came within sight of southern Spain. "We saw the light, bright," said the Liberian political science graduate. "It was like we were reaching heaven." But the coastguard caught him and he spent a month in a Moroccan jail. That was in 2006. The experience was no deterrent. European politicians worry about the influx of what they call "economic migrants" from Africa, saying more must be done to improve living standards there to stem the flow. But for all those who reach Europe, many are thwarted along the way. Jallahs story shows why even those with relatively high education and strong prospects at home dont give up. "I am not prepared to go home  I cant go back empty-handed," said the 39-year-old between sips of pineapple juice in an outdoor bar in Agadez, Niger, the major crossroads for thousands of travellers from West Africa each week. "I want to go to school, earn a Masters... If I have a European degree I can work anywhere." In all, Jallah reckons, he has spent about $14,500 on five attempts over a dozen years to reach what he calls "normal society." He made the money teaching, doing odd jobs in construction and bricklaying, and forging refugee documents. War in Syria has driven millions from home and is the short-term focus of Europes migration crisis. Longer term, senior officials in Brussels say, Africa is what really worries them. When the European bloc was founded 60 years ago, they say, Africas population was about half that of the countries now in the EU. Today, Africa has double the population. And by 2050, the United Nations median forecast is that Africas 2.5 billion people will be four times that of the EU. This suggests migratory pressures from Africa will increase. In the near term, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) expects migration through the Agadez region this year to reach 300,000. That's more than double the 120,000 it estimates went through in 2015. History shows it is not the poorest who leave. For example, 19th-century immigrants to the United States came mostly from Britain and other North Sea countries. Eastern Europe was poorer and followed much later. Migration increases as a nation develops, said Giulia Sinatti, a lecturer at the University of Amsterdam who studied migration in West Africa for over a decade. It only starts to wane when the economy reaches a point where people have no economic interest in leaving. In much of West Africa, she said, that point is a long way off. Remittances to Liberia make up $570 million or 28 percent of its GDP, according to an African Development Bank report released in May - a bigger percentage than any other African country. For Africa as a whole the total was $64 billion in 2015, more than 30 percent of all financial flows into the continent, according to the ADB. "The more that a country develops, the more people have the means to leave," said Sinatti. "It is utopian to think we can end this. I think it will not stop." RUN, RUN, RUN Jallah is tall and skinny, his jeans pleated at the waist by a tight belt. Unlike other migrants in Agadez, he wears a suit jacket and shirt. He says he grew up with 10 other children in a bustling household in Liberia's capital Monrovia. They slept in two small bedrooms. There was often not enough food for everyone, but his parents were teachers, so they all attended school. He remembers listening to the BBC World Service on his father's battery-powered radio. "I knew from a young age about Europe and the development and the government," Jallah said. "I thought, when you get into that society you have more opportunity." Like nearly all Liberians, Jallahs family was torn apart by conflict. Liberias devastating civil war, which broke out in 1989, lasted 14 years. He fled Monrovia with his father in 1994 to seek refuge in Ivory Coast - it was a month-long, 400-km (249-mile) slog on foot. They kept off the main roads and slept in forests. When they arrived in Ivory Coast, Jallah's feet were badly swollen and he was sick. "It was always run, run, run, that was how I was brought up," he said. Liberian exiles were classed as refugees by the United Nations until 2012. When Jallah eventually graduated from the University of Monrovia in 2001, he dreamed of studying conflict resolution at the United Nations' Institute for Environment and Security in Bonn. That year he applied for student visas for Germany, Norway and Canada, and was rejected. Meanwhile, he spoke over the phone to friends who had made it to Europe. "They were working or made it to school," he said. "I started to think: where would be the best place to get back the wasted years?" ROBBED AND ROBBED AGAIN Jallah paid for his first trip, in early 2004, with $2,000 that he had managed to save from teaching in Ivory Coast, and small donations from friends. His younger half-brother Mitchel, a 33-year-old mobile-phone salesman in Monrovia and Abidjan, said he had encouraged his brother, believing it was Mayangos role as the eldest to help the family. "I wanted him to go, it will be good for everyone," he said. Jallah packed light: clothes, food, a photo of his parents, and a letter of recommendation from his university that he hoped would help at European customs. The route was already established - by bus through Mali and Burkina Faso to Agadez, where migrants bought passage from people-smugglers towards Algeria or across the Sahara to Libya. From there, they took their chances with smugglers across the Mediterranean. Jallah had almost reached Algeria when the open-backed truck he was sharing was hijacked by bandits in the desert. They beat him and stole most of his money. He found work painting buildings and making bricks and cement in southern Algeria for about $4.50 per day, then moved east to Sabha in Libya, where there was more work. A childhood friend who had made it to Germany sent him hundreds of euros via Western Union. That helped Jallah reach the coastal city of Tripoli, where he paid $1,200 for a boat to Italy. He bought bread and sardines and was shown into a crammed building where hundreds of other migrants were waiting for a boat. "The waiting hall was close to the beach," Jallah said. "There were 200-300 people just waiting and watching the ocean every day." On the sixth day, a band of militia entered the hall, opened fire and demanded cash. "Everyone scattered," he said. Traumatised and with his money near gone, he headed back to Ivory Coast. His second trip, the journey to Spain in 2006, was relatively cheap, he said. But that was the journey that ended in a Moroccan jail. When he got out, he found work in Ivory Coast, teaching English to refugees and aid workers for hundreds of dollars a week. He loved the job. But "even if you love teaching, you know you will not have a good life." By winter 2008, he had saved $6,750, he says. "I thought it would be easier to just to go to Libya." In Tripoli, the price of a boat ride to Italy had risen to $1,500. Again, bandits raided the house where he was waiting. "They took everything," he said. "It was normal - everyone knows it was a setup." This time, none of his friends could send cash. DOCUMENT FORGER By 2012, Liberia and much of West Africa experienced rapid economic growth as commodities boomed. The United Nations stopped considering exiles like Jallah as refugees. He turned, briefly, to crime. "It was becoming an obsession," he said. "You travel once to Libya or Morocco and you see it was just one single mistake that stopped you from getting there. You just want to go and try again." Eight months after the Arab Spring uprisings toppled leaders including Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, Jallah set off again. By now, Libya was in chaos. No-one was willing to take him to Tripoli. Stranded in Algeria, he started forging refugee documents for money. It was a small operation with only three customers, but it attracted official attention. Police arrested him in an Internet cafe and dumped him in a packed cell. He was eventually sentenced to six months. "LACK OF IMAGINATION" In total, Jallah estimates, he has spent nearly $5,000 on boats across the Mediterranean. He has given thousands to police and army checkpoints along migrant routes in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. The smugglers who ferried him across the Sahara took up to $500 a time. "I am the kind of person that doesnt retreat," he said. Today, Libya, still lawless, remains the only viable route to Europe after Algeria, Morocco and the Canary Islands successfully blocked the way. Europe is searching for new ways to close the route. "The European Union does not have a valid set of policies except exclusion," said George Joffe, professorial fellow at the Global Policy Institute in London Metropolitan University. "There is a lack of economic imagination and a lack of understanding about the limitations that exist." Europe needs to try new methods, Joffe said. He advocates a policy of microfinance where the EU could donate small amounts of money to projects with quick returns. Others say short-term, targeted visas for certain workers could reduce the desire to migrate illegally. For now Jallah, who is approaching middle age, says he plans to apply for a Cuban visa, something his friends have done successfully. From there, he will try to get a boat to Florida. His friends have connections in Miami, he said. His eventual goal is Canada. It will cost about $4,000. He still reminisces about what might have been. On that second attempt in 2006, Jallah recalls, he had urged the captain to leave before 7 p.m. so fishing boats on the water would offer camouflage. But they did not get going until 11 p.m. "If our captain had listened," he said, "we would have made it." (Reporting by Edward McAllister; Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald in Brussels; Editing by Sara Ledwith)
TOKYO (Reuters) - Oil prices extended declines on Monday amid projections that U.S. data is set to show a big rebound in crude inventories to offset an unexpected slump due to the impact of a tropical storm. London Brent crude for November delivery was down 49 cents, or 1.0 percent, at $47.52 a barrel by 2246 GMT (6.46 p.m. ET) on Sunday after settling down 4 percent on Friday. NYMEX crude for October delivery was down 60 cents, or 1.3 percent, at $45.28 a barrel, after closing down 3.7 percent on Friday. Oil's decline over the past two days erased gains of more than 4 percent on Thursday, which were triggered after U.S. government data showed the biggest weekly drop in stockpiles since January 1999. However, traders said imports fell as ships delayed offloading cargoes due to Tropical Storm Hermine. [EIA/S] Algeria's energy minister said there is a consensus among OPEC and non-OPEC members about the need to stabilize the oil market to support prices, state news agency APS reported on Saturday. OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo told APS that OPEC was not seeking a definite price range for oil but rather "sustainable stability" for the market. Moves towards clinching a global deal on stabilizing crude output come five months after talks for such a deal failed when Saudi Arabia insisted Iran join the pact. Tehran says it supports any measures to stabilize the market, but has stopped short of indicating whether it would join a global deal before its production reaches 4 million barrels per day, the level at which it says it was pumping before the imposition of Western sanctions in 2012. Forces loyal to eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar took control of key oil ports in Ras Lanuf, Es Sider and Brega on Sunday, a spokesman for the forces said. But an official from the force that previously controlled the ports, the Petrol Facilities Guard, said there was still fighting at Ras Lanuf. U.S. drillers added oil rigs for a 10th week in the past 11, according to the closely followed Baker Hughes rig count report on Friday. It was the longest streak without rig cuts since 2011. Money managers cut their net long U.S. crude futures and options positions in the week to Sept. 6 for the second consecutive week, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday. (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Richard Pullin)
By Barani Krishnan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices ended nearly 1 percent higher on Monday as a softer dollar and stronger U.S. equity markets helped crude futures rebound from an early drop pressured by worries about increased drilling activity for oil in the United States.

Forecasts that U.S. shale oil production could fall for an 11th straight month in October also supported oil prices, although gains were capped by expectations that U.S. stockpiles may have built again last week after a sharp drawdown the previous week.

Brent crude <LCOc1> settled up 31 cents, or 0.7 percent, at $48.32 per barrel.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude <CLc1> rose 41 cents, or nearly 1 percent, to settle at $46.29.

While some oil traders bet on more near-term gains, others were positioning to sell ahead of bearish U.S. government oil inventory data on Wednesday.

Analyst polled by Reuters forecast a 4.5 million-barrel build in U.S. crude stockpiles for the last week, after an unexpected 14.5 million-barrel slump the previous week, the biggest drop since 1999.

"If we get to $47.50 on WTI, I'm shorting it as it seems to be a channel top," said Phil Davis, a trader at PSW Investments in Woodland Park, New Jersey. "Fundamentally, there's little support for crude despite its attempts to hold to a bottom channel of $45 on empty OPEC talk of production cuts."

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is meet non-OPEC members at an industry event in Algeria on Sept. 26-28 to discuss a production freeze that few analysts expect will materialize.

Oil prices were down earlier on Monday, extending Friday's drop, on data from last week showing U.S. drillers having added oil rigs for a tenth week in 11 that showed the longest stretch of builds in the oil rig count since 2011.

The market rebounded after uncertainty over a potential U.S. Federal Reserve rate hike in September weighed on the dollar <.DXY>, making greenback-denominated commodities, including crude, more affordable to holders of the euro and other currencies. Equity and other risk markets soared. [FRX/] [.N]

Story continues

Notwithstanding Monday's rebound, oil prices are still down about 5 percent from Sept. 8, partly reversing a 10 percent rally early this month that took to prices to around $50.

Much of that decline was pressured by the dollar's rally on speculation that the Fed may resort to a rate hike in September.

"We have shifted to a trading theme in which correlation between oil and the equities will be tightening appreciably going forward as U.S. Fed intentions develop closer scrutiny across a range of asset classes," said Jim Ritterbusch of Chicago-based oil markets consultancy Ritterbusch & Associates.

(Addtional reporting by Amanda Cooper in LONDON, Henning Gloystein in SINGAPORE and Osamu Tsukimori in TOKYO; Editing by Marguerita Choy and David Goodman)
London (AFP) - Britain's Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn may be crashing in opinion polls one year after taking charge Monday -- but still looks set to sweep to victory in a leadership contest.

Corbyn, a 67-year-old socialist known for his anti-war, anti-austerity campaigning and opposition to the party's former centrist leader Tony Blair, won a crushing leadership victory exactly 12 months ago.

While his left-wing policies are popular with many grassroots supporters, they do not impress most of the party's more moderate lawmakers, who say such views cannot win general elections.

The rebel lawmakers are supporting a leadership challenge by MP Owen Smith and the result will be announced at the party's annual conference on September 24.

Corbyn is tipped to win big again due to support from activists and trade unions.

But critics fear that this could extend Labour's period in the electoral wilderness as new Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May consolidates her grip on power.

"Mr Corbyn has tapped a huge well of political energy and dissatisfaction," the Guardian, a broadsheet popular with Labour voters, said in an editorial last month.

"But he also has some of the most dismal ratings among Labour voters and the general public of any Labour leader ever, and these ratings are in decline."

- 'Cannot go on like this' -

The party of Blair and Gordon Brown, which lost power in 2010, is trailing May's ruling Conservatives by an average of 11 points, according to the Nuffield series of British General Election studies.

No Labour party has faced such a deficit 12 months after electing a new leader since modern polling began in the 1950s, according to a Press Association analysis.

A poll at the end of August found only 19 percent of Britons thought Corbyn was the right person to lead the government, compared to 51 percent for May.

Over a summer of strife, around 20 members of his shadow cabinet resigned and 172 out of the party's 230 MPs voted that they had no confidence in his leadership.

Story continues

Many were disillusioned with what they considered a lacklustre performance by Corbyn in trying to persuade voters to stay in the European Union in June's referendum.

A wave of Labour-dominated areas were among those to back Brexit.

He has also faced claims of anti-Semitism in the party. An internal inquiry in June found Labour was not overrun by anti-Semitism but reported an "occasionally toxic atmosphere".

Labour's most senior elected figure, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, is among those opposed to Corbyn's leadership.

"Jeremy's personal ratings are the worst of any opposition leader on record and the Labour party is suffering badly as a result," Khan wrote in The Observer newspaper last month.

"He has lost the confidence of more than 80 percent of Labour's MPs in parliament -- and I am afraid we simply cannot afford to go on like this," he added.

However, Corbyn's position remains solid thanks to the backing of powerful trade unions and his vociferous grassroots supporters. Labour's membership has topped a record 500,000 under him.

According to a YouGov poll, he is expected to win a crushing victory against Smith of 62 percent to 38 percent.

This would put mean Corbyn would win by an even bigger margin than in last year's vote, which he took with 59.5 percent support.
Elections in Belarus on Sunday landed an opposition party member a seat in the countrys parliament for the first time in two decades, in a closely monitored poll that could signal better relations with the West.

Anna Konopatskaya, a member of the opposition United Civil Party, and Elena Anisim  an independent candidate who reportedly has ties to the opposition  were both elected, Reuters reports.

The opposition was not expected to gain any seats, as it had not been represented in the 110-seat legislature since 1996.

Western calls for transparent elections resulted in a freer candidate registration process, according to Reuters, and opposition parties that had boycotted previous polls decided to participate.

Read More: Belarus Held a Protest at the Paralympics Opening Ceremony Against the Ban on Russian Athletes

President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the country since 1994, has maintained close ties between the former Soviet state and Moscow, but disagreement over Russias annexation of Crimea caused a thaw in Belarus relations with the West.

Lukashenko loyalists still hold almost all parliamentary seats, so the opposition win will not have much of an impact on the countrys politics.

Weve done everything so that there arent complaints from the Western side, Reuters quoted Lukashenko as saying after he cast his ballot. We accommodated their requests.

Read More: Belarus Dictatorial President Has Won a Fifth Term After Controversial Election

The international community has softened its stance toward Belarus in light of the release of political prisoners and the countrys role in hosting peace talks between Ukraine and Russia.

U.S. and European sanctions have been eased over the past year, and Sundays election is expected to figure positively in future sanctions reviews.

[Reuters]
Zrinko Ogresta's On the Other Side, a drama of the long shadow cast by civil war, is the Croatian Filmmakers' Association submission in the best foreign-language category of the Academy Awards.

The film, which won seven top awards, including the grand prix and best director honors, at Croatia's Pula Film Festival in July, depicts the destructive consequences for one family long after the end of the Balkans civil war.

The simple life of a middle-aged nurse, Vesna (played by Ksenija Marinkovic, who won the best actress award at Pula), is disrupted when her long-estranged husband Zarko (Lazar Ristovski, who won best actor at Pula), just released from a 20-year sentence for war crimes, calls her from Serbia.

Zarko's dark deeds in the war, when he fought for Serbia, come back to haunt Vesna and her two grownup children, wreaking havoc on their lives and careers.

In its review, The Hollywood Reporter noted that the film "puts an intriguing new slant on the conventions of postwar Balkan cinema," ending on a "poetic visual flourish, leaving unresolved the possibly insoluble questions hanging in the air like a perfume."

The film is produced by Ivan Maloca of Zagreb's Interfilm with the support of the Croatian Audiovisual Center. Belgrade's Zillion Film Ristovski and Croatian Radio and Televiosn (HRT) co-produced. World sales are being handled by Cercamon, Dubai.

Croatia has been submitting films for the Academy Awards since gaining independence in 1992 following the breakup of Yugoslavia, but has never been nominated.

Read more: 'On the Other Side' ('S one strane'): Film Review
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump responded Monday to the long march of GOP national security officials who have rejected him to endorse Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by touting a new turncoat of his own: James Woolsey, President Bill Clintons former CIA director.

But in announcing Woolseys support, the Trump campaign omitted mention that the former top U.S. spy resigned in 1994 following widespread criticism hed mishandled the CIAs discovery of double agent Aldrich H. Ames, who was convicted of spying for Moscow for nearly nine years.

President Clinton reportedly did not protest when Woolsey, the CIAs first post-Cold War director stepped down after two years in charge. CIA officials had not only failed to discover Ames, but also promoted him as the agent gave secrets to Soviet officials from April 1985 to his arrest in February of 1994. After Ames was exposed, Woolsey himself called the scandal that rocked the CIA a systemic failure.

But on Monday, Woolsey rapped Hillary Clintons use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state, saying she lacks the ability to lead her senior managers while complying with, and maintaining, the basic protocols designed to protect our governments sensitive and classified information.

Mr. Trump understands the magnitude of the threats we face and is holding his cards close to the vest, he continued, finishing with military jargon: Bravo Zulu, Mr. Trump.

In 12 years of working for Republican and Democratic administrations alike, Woolsey also served as ambassador to the Negotiation on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe for two years before the collapse of the Soviet Union and as an at-large delegate to the U.S.-Soviet Strategic Arms Reductions Talks. That context provides some irony for his choice to back Trump in the 2016 election.

Though the New York real estate magnates campaign has been beset by reports of business ties to Kremlin cronies, it has continued to push a more friendly foreign policy toward Moscow.

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Trump has said he may not defend NATO allies against a Russian invasion and that the U.S. should work with Russia as an ally, including in Syria. He also consistently expresses personal admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent whose control has been marked by crackdowns on political opposition and evidence of corruption.

If we had a relationship with Russia, wouldnt it be wonderful if we could work on it together and knock the hell out of ISIS? Trump said last Wednesday at the Commander-in-Chief Forum hosted by NBC and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

Asked then about his expressed admiration for Putin, he added, Hes been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader.

Woolsey, who also served as undersecretary of the Navy, noted Trumps pledges to rebuild the U.S. military, including convincing Congress to lift budget caps on military spending and adding some 60,000 troops, 100 aircraft and 75 surface ships and submarines in a plan outlined last Wednesday.

Mr. Trumps commitment to reversing the harmful defense budget cuts signed into law by the current administration, while acknowledging the need for debt reduction, is an essential step, Woolsey said Monday.

Criticism that the Obama administration has made harmful cuts to the military is a popular Republican line, though defense spending is at historic highs and the caps were first put into place by Congress before President Barack Obama signed them into law.

In a speech on Monday to the National Guard Association, Trumps vows to get rid of the limited spending, known as sequestration, got loud applause. The Obama administration, and its top military officials, have also pleaded with Congress to find a fix.

But lifting those caps and bulking up the military, as Trump has promised, would be unlikely to help reduce the national debt. Trump has said he would offset the cost by cutting federal waste, fraud, and abuse, but gave little detail. Experts estimate his spending plan it could add up up to $100 billion to the Pentagons budget.

Photo credit: David Hume Kennerly / Contributor
According to experts from the travel industry, Indian women are travelling solo more than ever. Here's why.

By India Today Web Desk: Travelling is one of the best forms of education. After all, there can't be a greater than learning about new places, cultures, people and more just by travelling to new destinations and exploring them. This can be done best when you are travelling solo--you have the freedom to travel and discover as per your free will. And Indian women are doing this increasingly.

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Experts from the travel industry suggest that Indian women are travelling solo in increasing numbers.

"Solo travel has emerged as one of the most favourable options for Indian women travellers over the last two years with more than 35 per cent of Indian women opting to travel alone," HolidayIQ CEO and founder Hari Nair said.

Nair says that most Indian women are more keen on travelling solo rather than travelling with a partner or a group. He also added that the maximum number of women travelling solo are from the northern part of the country, followed by those from the south.

"Solo travellers from east are yet to gear up, compared to fellow travellers from the rest of India," he added.

According to Amit Agarwal, Senior Marketing Manager - India and SEA, Hotels.com, solo travel as a trend has caught on in a big way among the young independent Indian women.

Also read: 44 countries, 6 continents, and a month-long vacation in India; meet this solo traveller!

"Flexibility and access to information has contributed to the growth of solo women travel. Usually, the only concern is added security challenge. However, most destinations over the world have stressed on safety factors like introducing women-only buses and trains, women taxi drivers," he said.

"Many hotels have also introduced facilities for solo women travellers which have further accelerated the growth," Agrawal said.

In fact, the search data at Hotels.com from January-August this year has revealed that searches for hotels by overall solo travellers for the top 10 destinations grew by over 90 per cent as a compared to last year. This is a clear indication of the fact that solo travelling is a rising trend in Indian in any case.

There has been a rise in the number of Indian women exploring both domestic and overseas destinations in the past few years, mainly due to change in safety measures, better and safer accommodation options, improved transport and accessibility to off-beat destinations among others, he added.

"Usually, first time women prefer travelling with groups keeping the safety aspect in mind. However, this mindset is undergoing a drastic shift," he said.

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(With inputs from PTI)



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TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / September 12, 2016 / Pancontinental Gold Corporation (PUC-H.V) ("Pancon Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it intends to complete a non-brokered private placement financing of up to 12,500,000 units (each, a "Unit") at a price of $0.08 per Unit for gross proceeds of up to $1,000,000 (the "Offering").

Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company (a "Common Share"), and one Common Share purchase warrant (a "Warrant") entitling the holder thereof to purchase one Common Share at an exercise price of $0.12 for eighteen (18) months from the date of issuance, provided that the expiry date can be accelerated in the event the Common Shares trade at $0.20 or more for at least twenty (20) consecutive trading days following the expiry of the statutory four month and one day resale restriction. The Company may pay certain finder's fees with respect to gross proceeds raised.

The Common Shares and Warrants comprising the Units will be subject to a resale restriction for four months and a day from the date of issuance.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the Offering to explore and advance its recently acquired Jefferson Gold Project, located in South Carolina, and for working capital purposes.

About Pancontinental Gold Corporation

Pancontinental Gold Corporation is a Canadian-based mining company focused on the exploration and development of the Jefferson Gold Project and on acquiring additional, prospective gold properties. The Company's shares are listed on the NEX Board of the TSX Venture Exchange, trading under the symbol PUC.H. In 2015, Pancon sold its interest in its Australian rare earth element (REE) and uranium properties, formerly held through a joint venture, and retains a 1% gross overriding royalty on 100% of future production.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Rick Mark

President and Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact Mr. Mark at:

Email: info@panconu.com

Tel: (416) 293-8437

Fax: (416) 293-3957

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Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Language and Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking information which is not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information is characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, changes in the state of equity and debt markets, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in obtaining required regulatory or governmental approvals, and other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, including those risks set out in the Company's management's discussion and analysis as filed under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking information in this news release is based on the opinions and assumptions of management considered reasonable as of the date hereof, including that all necessary governmental and regulatory approvals will be received as and when expected. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable securities laws.

NOT FOR DISSEMINATION INTO THE UNITED STATES

SOURCE: Pancontinental Gold Corporation
Leading integrated oil corporation PetroChina Company Limiteds PTR parent company, China National Petroleum Corp., recently announced the sale of engineering-related assets worth $3.8 billion to a listed unit. The divestment is aimed to generate proceeds in order to restructure its non-core business.

China National Petroleum plans to sell seven of its engineering construction businesses to Xinjiang Dushanzi Tianli High & NewTech Co. Ltd.  a unit listed on the Shanghai exchange. Xinjiang Dushanzi aims to fund the acquisition using 6.0 billion yuan ($898.10 million) generated from a private placement of shares.

China National Petroleum, the country's largest state energy group, has been focusing on restructuring its non-core departments like oilfield services, engineering and financial operations. The company intends to make these units more efficient and competitive going forward.

Under the aforementioned plans that were announced last week, the company expects to sell $11.3 billion worth of financial assets to another listed affiliate  Jinan Diesel Engine. This unit is expected to buy these assets using cash, asset swaps and a share issue.

PETROCHINA ADR Price

PETROCHINA ADR Price | PETROCHINA ADR Quote

China National Petroleumcurrently holds a stake of 86.35% in PetroChina.The latter operates through four segments  Exploration & Production, Natural Gas & Pipelines, Refining & Chemicals, and Marketing. Crude downturn and cuts in domestic natural gas supply prices to industrial customers have almost wiped out earnings and hit PetroChina hard.

Hence, PetroChina currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), which implies that the stock will underperform the broader U.S. equity market over the next one to three months.

Some better-ranked players from the broader energy sector include NGL Energy Partners LP NGL, Matador Resources Company MTDR and Enviva Partners, LP EVA. All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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The Philippines assured the United States Tuesday it will honour its obligations as a military ally following volleys of profane tirades by unpredictable President Rodrigo Duterte.

After calling US leader Barack Obama a "son of a whore" last week, Duterte said he was "not a fan" of Washington and on Monday called for the small number of US military advisers to leave the southern Philippines.

On Tuesday Duterte also said Filipino forces would not participate in future joint patrols with the US in the South China Sea, where Manila claims waters that China insists are part of its territory.

But top officials moved to stem the damage, saying that it was business as usual between the Philippines and its powerful ally, whose backing is essential as it jousts with China over the maritime dispute.

"There is no shift in so far as our policy is concerned with respect to our close friendship with the Americans," Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said Tuesday.

The president's spokesman also insisted that Duterte's comments were providing context to the conflict in the south, not a reversal of policy.

"These were not directives to leave, OK? But this was a context on why we have a conflict (in Mindanao). In other words, he's giving a broad historical, cultural landscape," Duterte's spokesman Ernesto Abella said.

Yasay, who was flying to Washington later in the day for talks, added the Duterte administration would honour existing defence agreements including a 2014 accord giving the US military access to at least five Philippine bases.

One of the bases is located in the southern region of Mindanao, where the government is battling Islamic militants who have offered allegiance to Islamic State gunmen in the Middle East.

The Pentagon in June also deployed warplanes and about 120 personnel in the northern Philippines for short-term training missions aimed at ensuring the allies' access to the South China Sea.

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Duterte's predecessor Benigno Aquino had pursued closer military ties with the United States as part of plans to improve the deterrence capability of his militarily weak nation.

In April, the Philippine Navy began joint South China Sea naval patrols with the US as the Pentagon responded to muscular Chinese actions in the sea, including building artificial islands over disputed reefs.

- Umbilical cord -

On Tuesday Duterte said the country would refrain from joining similar excerises to avoid ramping up tensions.

"We will not join any expedition of patrolling the seas. I will not allow it because I do not want my country to be involved in a hostile act," said the president.

Washington said on Monday that Manila had not officially communicated Duterte's demand to pull US military advisers, deployed in Mindanao for short periods to train troops battling Muslim extremists.

Yasay attempted to downplay Duterte's comments, saying Tuesday they were "in the context of wanting to save the lives of these Americans who might be exposing themselves to unnecessary risk" from militant attacks.

Duterte, 71, has said the row was triggered by State Department criticism of his controversial war on drug crime, which has left about 3,000 people dead since he began his six-year term on June 30.

Obama has said Duterte must conduct his crime war "the right way", protecting human rights.

Zachary Abuza, a Southeast Asian security expert at the National War College in the United States, said Duterte's actions towards the US were worrying in light of militant activity in Mindanao.

"It is going to take a lot of work to get this relationship back on track," Abuza told AFP.
DENVER, CO / ACCESSWIRE / September 12, 2016 / ClubsCorp has invited Phoenix Life Sciences, Inc. ("Phoenix Life Sciences") to be the exclusive presenter at their Investor Conference in New York City on September 15, 2016. ClubsCorp is a national network built on connecting entrepreneurs and investors.

Phoenix Life Sciences is in the final stages of completing its merger with MediJane Holdings, Inc. (OTC: MJMD) as part of creating a platform for global expansion. Ben Doherty, ClubCorp Chairman and Founder stated, "ClubsCorp sees this as the perfect time to focus its resources on positioning Phoenix Life Sciences so that it can achieve its goal for US and global expansion. We are proud to have a company of the caliber of Phoenix Life Sciences as our exclusive presenter for the New York Conference as part of their national road show. In fact, this is the first time we have a company that is strong enough to be given exclusivity in presenting to our network of investors."

Phoenix Life Sciences is preparing for a series of presentations over the coming months to profile the company, its advancements in the field of healthcare and investment opportunities.

For investor information, please contact:

Stone Tadlock,

Vice President

stone.tadlock@phoenix.life

720.575.6255

About Phoenix Life Sciences, Inc.

Phoenix Life Sciences is a healthcare solutions company. Its business is to produce and distribute products around the globe that target and treat the following seven major categories of medical conditions: pain, cancer, psychological, gastrointestinal, autoimmune, neurological, and sleep disorders. These categories include conditions that effect hundreds of millions of patients worldwide. Phoenix Life Sciences intends to build an integrated healthcare organization by creating products and programs using emerging biological products such as cannabinoid and other plant extracts. Delivering these programs through research, managed agriculture, pharmaceutical production and physician education and distribution networks.

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Contact:

Phoenix Life Sciences, Inc.

Investor Relations

Phone: 720-575-6066

E-mail: info@phoenix.life

For more information, visit www.phoenix.life

About MediJane Holdings Inc. (MJMD)

MediJane Holdings, Inc. recently announced that a Letter of Intent for a reorganization and merger between MediJane and Phoenix Life Sciences has been executed. The vision of the merger is to develop an international network of production, research, testing facilities for distribution of disruptive medical solutions. Following the merger, the company will be known as Phoenix Life Sciences.

Contact

MediJane Holdings, Inc.

Investor Relations

Phone: 720-442-7242

E-mail: investor.relations@mjmd.net

About ClubsCorp Business Link

CLUBSCORP Business Link is a national membership business network and organizer of investment events focusing on the development of exclusive membership chapters within the national network. These chapters are comprised of qualified investors who are all CLUBSCORP Business Link Members such as individual accredited investors, executives of private and publicly traded companies, and other business professionals who have made their money the old-fashioned way: hard work and playing by the rules.

CLUBSCORP Business Link is an interactive platform allowing its members to connect both online through their online social business connections as well as in person at membership-chapter luncheons, all-day conferences, and international conferences & educational events.

Information contained in this press release regarding MediJane Holdings, Inc. and Phoenix Life Sciences, Inc. (the "Companies") may constitute forward-looking statements or statements which may be deemed or construed to be forward-looking statements. The words "plan", "forecast", "anticipates", "estimate", "project", "intend", "expect", "should", "believe," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve, and are subject to, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the Companies actual results, performance (financial or operating) or achievements to differ from the future results, performance (financial or operating) or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The risks, uncertainties and other factors are more fully discussed in the Companies filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Companies herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by the above-mentioned cautionary statement. The companies disclaim any obligation to update forward-looking statements contained in this press release, except as may be required by law.

SOURCE: Phoenix Life Sciences, Inc.
Power to the People: The Black Panthers in Photographs Panthers March at Defermery PathOaklandRally to Free Huey, 1969. (Photograph by Stephen Shames/Polaris)

As the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party approaches on Oct. 15, the Steven Kasher Gallery has announced its upcoming exhibit, Power to the People: The Black Panthers in Photographs, by Stephen Shames, with graphics by Emory Douglas. From the gallerys website:

It is an in-depth chronicle of the controversial and revolutionary organization  presented at a time when the nation is once again engaged in struggles against racial injustice. The exhibition features over 50 black and white photographs of the Panthers by Stephen Shames, more than half of which are previously unseen. Also on view in the exhibition are 60 vintage copies of The Black Panther, the official Party newspaper with front and back cover graphics by Emory Douglas. Captions to the photographs are provided by Panther founder Bobby Seale and other Panther leaders including Kathleen Cleaver, Ericka Huggins, Emory Douglas, and Jamal Joseph, culled from interviews conducted by Shames and Seale. The exhibition launches the publication of Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers by Stephen Shames and Bobby Seale, published by Abrams, 256 pages, with over 200 photographs by Stephen Shames. A testament to the enduring legacy of the Black Panther Party, this exhibition offers a window into the radical political party that stood above others in the struggle for civil rights.

Stephen Shames (b. 1947) was a student at the University of California, Berkeley when he first photographed Panther Chairman and co-founder Bobby Seale, at an anti-Vietnam War rally in April 1967. Seale became a mentor to Shames, and Shames became the most trusted photographer to the Party. As the unofficial "official" photographer for the Panthers, Shames documented this dynamic organization from 1967 to 1973. He photographed the Party's major activities: protests, community survival programs, the Panther's free school and Bobby Seale's mayoral campaign in Oakland in 1973. His close friendship with Bobby Seale gave Shames unprecedented access to the unscripted behind-the-scenes moments that provide a unique view of the Panthers. Shames has authored seven monographs including Outside the Dream, Pursuing the Dream (Aperture), The Black Panthers (Aperture) and Bronx Boys (U. of Texas Press.) Shames' work is in the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery; International Center of Photography; the Corcoran Gallery of Art; Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; San Jose Art Museum; Philadelphia Museum of Art; The Ford Foundation; Smithsonian National Museum of American History; Oakland Museum; University Art Museum, Berkeley and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

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Emory Douglas (b. 1943) was the Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party from 1967 until the Party disbanded in the 1980s. Douglas was the art director, designer, and main illustrator for The Black Panther newspaper, which had a peak circulation of 139,000 per week in 1970. Douglas created images that became icons representing the Black Power struggles of the 1960s and 1970s. He is widely recognized as one of the great graphic innovators of the 1960s. (StevenKasher.com)

The exhibit will run Sept. 16-Oct. 29 at the Steven Kasher Gallery in New York City.

Here's a sneak peek of a few of Shames' photographs from the exhibit.

_____

See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Tumblr
Netizens have taken to social media to ask the Railway minister Suresh Prabhu for special trains to Kerala from Bengaluru.

By Rohini Swamy: Netizens have taken to social media to ask the Railway minister Suresh Prabhu for special trains to Kerala from Bengaluru. With no special trains to Kerala this Onam season, many homeward-bound passengers are ending up coughing close to Rs 3000 a ticket to travel by buses.

The new online petition called #NoTrainsBloreKerala has become quite popular with many tagging the railway minister seeking a special train. Even the social media website Change.org has a number of petitions seeking new trains to Kerala and also a curb on the exploration by bus operators during the festive season.

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Bus operators are making a killing but those who want to visit their homes for the festival of Onam are the sufferers.

All major cities have special trains during Onam, but many passengers claim that their request is falling on deaf ears.

#NoTrainsBloreKerala @sureshpprabhu sir, instead of surge price, tap such opportunities.please ply more trains to Kerala from BangaloreMuraleedharan C (@muraleedharanc) September 11, 2016

At least a lakh want to travel from Blr 2 Kerala for Onam. But gues how many trains available? Jst 3 on Sat, 4 on Sun!#NoTrainsBloreKerala Kiran Tom Sajan (@kirantom) September 11, 2016

The south west railway had been given a suggestion by the Thiruvananthapuram division to operate extra trains, but lack of rakes and platforms has hampered this move. However, passengers have pointed that these special trains ply from other stations such as Cantonment or KR Puram, but the ministry has not responded to it.



KNOW MORE Kochuveli Express and Kanyakumari express are the only two trains after 5 pm from Bengaluru to Kerala. Yeshwanthpur-Kochuveli Garib Rath plies during the weekdays, but the maximum rush is during weekends and the train is not available then. Online petitions demand for a train on Friday nights to Kerala and return on Sunday.

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(Reuters) - In the first decade of his life, jazz pianist Joey Alexander released his first album and became the youngest person ever to be nominated for a Grammy at age 11. Now, at 13, Alexander has a second album, "Countdown," which he said shows more exploration. But the Bali native, who at the age of eight had impressed Herbie Hancock during the U.S. jazz legend's visit to Indonesia, remains modest. "I don't think I'm a genius," said Alexander, who moved with his family to New York in 2014 to further his musical development. "I'm thankful for the gift that God has given me to play this music that I love." Alexander started playing the piano at age six when his parents gave him a mini electronic keyboard. He began teaching himself Thelonious Monk's 1944 jazz standard "Well, You Needn't." Alexander's new nine-track album features covers from jazz greats such as Billy Strayhorn and John Coltrane. "I've been hearing them since I was little," he said. "Me and my dad would listen these tunes, especially 'Countdown' - it's really hard to play." Alexander recorded the Coltrane hit song for the album, which will be released on Sept. 16, in just one take. "I always try to practice my feelings because in this music it's not just technique, it's just the feeling of how you play and the freedom that you can give," said Alexander, who sits at the piano keyboard two to three hours every day. "I do a lot of listening actually ... and then I would just practice it, try new stuff I haven't tried before." (Reporting by Reuters TV; Writing by Melissa Fares; Editing by Richard Chang)
No one deserves a day of pampering more than the utility worker who dove head-first into muddy water to fix a busted water pipe.

Read: The Hardest Worker Ever? Image of Plumber Who Dove Into Sewer to Fix Broken Pipe Goes Viral

Jimmie Cox, 23, became a symbol of the American working spirit thanks to his can-do spirit.

Inside Edition flew him  along with his girlfriend and daughter  from Fort Worth, Texas, to New York City, where a stylist helped him pick out new clothes at the popular Century 21 department store.

After he got some new threads, Cox received a well-deserved massage at Caudalie Vinotherapie Spa, located at the famed Plaza hotel.

I don't get pampered often, so this is a completely new experience and it's pretty awesome, he said.

He then got his beard trimmed and hair styled, as Cox proclaimed: "I never used product before in my life."

The family then took a trip to Times Square  "the crossroads of the world"  where he met some actual fans.

One man, incredibly direct, told Cox: You know what? You have a very nice butt. It went viral."

Read: Cops Replace 10-Year-Old Girl's Backpack After Hers Was Stolen From Her Mother's Car

The family then ended their day by devouring a chocolate pizza at Max Brenner.

"This might be the best pizza Ive ever seen or eaten," Cox said. "Oh my God!"

His hard work has paid off, and Cox headed back to Texas with a new look, relaxation and most importantly a full stomach.

Watch: Donkey Gets Rescued After Being Found Trapped in 2 Feet of Sewage

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pokemon go

A large update to Pokemon Go is currently rolling out across the world. The biggest change? The buddy system!

Once you download the newest version of the app, you'll be able to select one of your Pokemon to be your Buddy. As you walk around town, you'll earn candy for that type of Pokemon based on the distance you cover.

Don't get too excited, though. The rate at which candy drops is pretty low. The community over at The Silph Road, which crowdsources all sorts of data related to the often-obtuse Pokemon Go, found that there are different tiers of Pokemon: Some require you to walk one kilometer to earn a single candy, but others require you to walk five kilometers per candy.

It's nice that Pokemon Go is providing another incentive for all the walking around you have to do, but the amount of candy you'll get relative to the walking distances probably won't be a major game changer.

If you are having a hard time catching enough Magikarp to get the 400 candy needed to evolve it into a Gyarados, for example, you'll have to walk nearly 400 km to earn enough candy  that's roughly 50 km more than the distance between New York and Boston, MA.

Some people are reporting on Reddit that you can sometimes earn two candies instead of just one, but it's not clear how often this happens. The extra candy is a welcome bonus for anyone who's trying to evolve a rare Pokemon, but it will still be a bit of a grind.

NOW WATCH: A restaurant's serving Pokemon burgers  but there's a twist when you buy one





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Warsaw (AFP) - Legal experts from a European rights watchdog on Monday arrived in Poland to check up on a longstanding feud between the constitutional court and the governing conservatives, who have downplayed the two-day visit.

The delegation from the Venice Commission, a body within the Council of Europe, has been monitoring the high-pitched constitutional crisis which t has also drawn concern from Washington and the European Commission.

Poland's top court has been in crisis since late last year, when the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party swept to power and immediately pushed through legislation that critics say paralysed the constitutional court.

"It's more of a sightseeing tour," front-bench PiS lawmaker Ryszard Terlecki told reporters Monday, dismissing the visit.

PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski -- who holds no government post but is widely thought to pull the strings in his party -- on Sunday called the visit of "no importance".

He accused the rights watchdog of "lacking objectivity and completely ignoring Polish law".

In late July, Brussels handed Poland's government a three-month deadline to reverse changes to the top court or face sanctions for breaching EU norms on the rule of law and democracy.

Without a satisfactory response in three months, the Commission, the European Parliament or a group of 10 member states can propose Poland be stripped of its voting rights in EU institutions if it is guilty of serious and persistent breaches of the rule of law.

Kaczynski responded by saying the European Commission was acting illegally: "This process is totally outside the EU's treaties."

The European Parliament will on Tuesday hold a debate about the situation in Poland.
By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Newly appointed Catholic bishops will get training on how to deal with child abuse from a panel of experts, including victims, which Pope Francis set up to root out sexual molestation by clerics. The move, announced on Monday, is a big step for the panel - made up of clerics and lay people, including women, mostly with little previous Vatican experience - that has struggled to be fully accepted within the Church's power structure. The decision to draw on the expertise of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors comes after a French monsignor who taught so-called "baby bishops" courses for new Church leaders, caused an uproar by telling them they did not necessarily have to report abuse to civil authorities. Monsignor Tony Anatrella was later rebuked by the president of the commission, Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston, who said bishops had "a moral and ethical responsibility" to do so. The worldwide sex abuse scandal first came to light in Boston in 2001 when it was revealed that predatory priests were shunted from parish to parish instead of being defrocked and handed over to the police. Francis has compared the abuse of children by priests to devil worship and vowed a "zero tolerance" approach, setting up the commission in 2014, a year after taking office, to advise him on how to root out sexual abuse within the Church. But some commission members have complained about the slow pace of change in the Vatican and a British member who went public with his criticisms was put on leave of absence after the panel passed a no-confidence motion in him. Peter Saunders, head of Britain's National Association for People Abused in Childhood, who was abused by two priests as a child, called for the commission to go beyond its advisory mandate and speak out on specific cases. After the commission met over the weekend, it was decided it would participate in two courses in the Vatican for new bishops, including the one that the French monsignor Anatrella spoke to last year. (Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Sept 12 - The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

The Times

Simon Kirby, the boss of HS2, the high-speed railway, is leaving to join Rolls-Royce Holdings plc as chief operating officer. http://bit.ly/2cPGEh2

A nuclear power station being built in France using the same design earmarked for Hinkley Point in Somerset may have to restrict its output or could be abandoned because of the costs of correcting safety flaws, experts have warned. http://bit.ly/2cPHWsC

The Guardian

Britain's economy will grind to a near standstill over the coming months as post-referendum uncertainty triggers a slump in business investment, a leading business group has warned as it slashed its growth forecasts. http://bit.ly/2chqDv6

Royal Dutch Shell Plc has started production at the world's deepest underwater oil and gas field, 1.8 miles beneath the sea surface in the Gulf of Mexico. http://bit.ly/2chptzN

The Telegraph

The chairman of Tesco Plc, John Allan, has blamed the supermarket industry's near obsession with opening more shops for its past errors. http://bit.ly/2chq9Fs

Sky News

The motor insurance group esure Group Plc is this week set to unveil plans for a 500 million pound demerger of its price comparison unit, Go Compare. http://bit.ly/2chpGTI

North Korea has dismissed as "laughable" moves by the United States to impose fresh sanctions following its fifth nuclear test. http://bit.ly/2chpAM5

The Independent

Theresa May should begin the formal process of Brexit within a matter of weeks rather than waiting until next year to trigger Article 50, according to former minister John Whittingdale. http://ind.pn/2chpiVm

French police have arrested a 15-year-old boy suspected of planning an "imminent terror" attack. http://ind.pn/2chpF25

(Compiled by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Cooney)
By PTI: Colombo, Sept 12 (PTI) Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena today appointed Air Marshal Kapila Jayampathi as the new Air Force Commander and has promoted him to the rank of Air Marshal, Defence Ministry said.

Jayampathi will replace the former Commander Gagana Bulathsinhala who retired at the age of 55.

Jayampathy joined Sri Lanka Air Force on March 5, 1982 as an officer cadet and was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in General Duties branch of No 4 Squadron Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF).

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In December 2009, he took over duties as the Base Commander Sri Lanka Air Force Base China Bay.

Later, when SLAF Base China Bay was upgraded and renamed as the Air Force Academy, he was re-designated as the Commandant of the Air Force Academy.

During Bulathsinhalas tenure, the cabinet decided to buy new fighter jets for the Airforce although the sale is yet to take place. PTI CORR AJR AKJ AJR

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Sept 12 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

** Several critics are joining the B.C. government in urging Ottawa to crack down on tax cheaters and toughen existing rules, after a Globe and Mail investigation uncovered possible tax evasion and fraud by real estate speculators in Vancouver's overpriced market. (http://bit.ly/2cQzyJi)

** Hillary Clinton suffered a medical episode Sunday that her doctor now says was pneumonia while attending a ceremony in New York marking the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. (http://bit.ly/2cQAqgW)

** Ontario's ruling Liberals are expected to unveil promised cuts to electricity bills in Monday's Throne Speech, tackling the province's most intractable pocketbook irritant. (http://bit.ly/2cQAIVk)

NATIONAL POST

** Toronto police recovered three loaded handguns and drugs from an east-end home early Sunday morning after a report of gunfire at a house party. (http://bit.ly/2cQzw44) (Compiled by Vishal Sridhar)
Sept 12 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

- Tesla Motors is readying improvements to its Autopilot technology that might have prevented an accident in May that took the life of an Ohio man, Tesla's chief executive said on Sunday. http://nyti.ms/2ckLJeu

- More than 11 years after civil charges were filed, New York's case against Maurice R. Greenberg, the former chief executive of insurance giant American International Group, goes to trial this week. http://nyti.ms/2ckMpAg

- Amazon and Pandora Media are set to introduce new versions of their streaming services in coming weeks, charging as little as $5 a month, according to multiple people with direct knowledge of the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because the process was ongoing. http://nyti.ms/2ckMd43

- Rob Pardo, who was the lead designer on Blizzard's World of Warcraft, plans to announce the formation of a new company, Bonfire Studios, with a handful of game veterans. http://nyti.ms/2ckMMem

(Compiled by Parikshit Mishra in Bengaluru)
Violent protests have broken out in the southern technology hub of Bangalore over a Supreme Court order to divert water from reservoirs to a neighbouring state.

The protests have forced shops, businesses and schools to close in Bangalore, capital of Karnataka state, which has been ordered to release water into a river to ease a shortage in neighbouring Tamil Nadu.

Vehicles with Tamil Nadu registration plates have been attacked and protesters have blocked roads by burning tyres and effigies of politicians.

Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwar said police reinforcements had been deployed, particularly in areas inhabited by ethnic Tamils who could be a target.

"We have intensified security and stepped up vigil in Bangalore to ensure peace and maintain law and order," Parameshwar told reporters.

"I appeal to the people, especially the protesters, not to attack anyone or damage public property, including buses, cars and transport vehicles."

The move followed a state-wide strike on Friday that forced hundreds of offices to close in Bangalore, home to many of India's top technology companies.

India suffers severe water shortages that cause frequent tensions between states.

Earlier this year the government was forced to deploy troops to secure a canal supplying water to New Delhi after it was sabotaged by protesters in neighbouring Haryana state, causing days of shortages in the capital.
The U.S. Navy has rebuked him and effectively ended his once-promising career in the military. But Lt. David Nartker makes no apologies for his actions when two boats under his command strayed into Iranian waters and ended up captured by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

In an exclusive interview with Foreign Policy, Nartker defended his role in the Jan. 12 incident in the Persian Gulf, arguing that he safeguarded the lives of his crew and averted a potential war with Iran over a navigational error.

Speaking publicly for the first time about the case, Nartker last week offered an alternative narrative to the one painted by the U.S. Navy, which has reprimanded him for dereliction of duty. He described a harrowing confrontation near Farsi Island as two Iranian vessels equipped with machine guns encircled his riverine boats. He said he had only seconds to decide whether to order his crew to open fire or to look for a way out of the showdown.

After his boats tried and failed to evade the two Iranian vessels closing in around them, Nartker considered the possibility of aiming his M4 assault rifle at a Iranian gunner only about 10 feet away.

I know I could have hit that guy and killed him. There was eye contact, Nartker said.

If he had taken the shot, his boats could have tried to make a run for it, he said. The Americans would have had to race about eight to ten nautical miles to make it to international waters  but within the potential range of two machine guns on the Iranian boats.

Nartker ruled it out. I was thinking, I am not going to kill this guy right now over a bullshit navigation mistake, he said.

There would be a dead Iranian in Iranian waters. And there was no way to claim it was international waters.

There also was the threat of more Iranian boats coming after them, and the possibility of an extended firefight with unforeseen consequences, according to Nartker.

I was not going to ignite a conflict over this, he said, adding, And I dont have the authority to start a war.

Story continues

The standoff at sea coincided with a pivotal moment in U.S.-Iran relations, just as major powers were on the verge of lifting economic sanctions against Tehran in return for limits on the countrys nuclear program. The historic nuclear deal has since become a signature legacy issue for U.S. President Barack Obama.

Nartker is one of six service members, including four officers, who have been punished over the episode, which dismayed the Navy and proved a public relations headache for the White House. Although Nartker and nine other members of his crew were released 16 hours after the Iranians detained them, Tehran released a propaganda video that showed the American sailors on the riverine boat deck kneeling with their hands on their heads. There was also footage of Nartker apologizing for sailing into Irans territorial waters.

Republicans in Congress pounced on the incident as evidence of Tehran exploiting what they consider the Obama administrations conciliatory stance toward Iran and slammed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for expressing gratitude to the Iranians after the sailors were released unharmed.

This administrations groveling to Iran has placed all American service members at greater risk, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in a June statement.

Nartker said he believed the fallout from the video turned him into a scapegoat. I embarrassed the Navy, and therefore they punished me, he said.

His defense lawyer, Phillip Lowry, argued in an appeal to naval authorities that his client should be commended instead of penalized for his actions, as an armed clash at Farsi Island could have led to casualties among the boat crews and wider and far more volatile international crisis.

The young officer, who turns 28 this week, displayed calm and made level-headed decisions, Lowry wrote in an Aug. 10 appeal. He said naval commanders should overlook any minor errors because Nartker made the right decision on the high-stakes choice before him, recognizing that there was no strategic or tactical advantage to be won by entering into a battle.

But the U.S. Pacific Fleet rejected Nartkers appeal for a lesser penalty that would have allowed him to advance up the ranks. He has received a letter of reprimand that finds him at fault for failing to conduct a patrol briefing before the mission, for failing to chart a navigation course on paper and for failing to ensure ammunition was loaded onto feed trays for the machine guns aboard the boats.

The Navy declined to respond directly to Nartkers comments. But U.S. Pacific Fleet spokesman Lt. Clint Ramsden said: The appeal was denied based on a finding that the punishment was just and proportionate.

Nartker and his attorney reject the how the Navy has portrayed his role, citing failures among his superiors, and insist that his response was in keeping with his training since he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy five years ago. They argue that the mistakes cited in the letter of reprimand did not affect the outcome of the mission.

Nartker said his approach reflected how fellow officers have operated in the region for years, exercising restraint in the face of often provocative moves by Iranian speed boats in the Persian Gulfs crowded sea lanes.

Sailors deploying to the region are ordered to memorize vaguely worded rules of engagement that refer to every service members inherent right to self-defense. But there is also a common understanding that tense encounters with Iranian boats are to be tolerated without resorting to firing weapons, Nartker said.

You know more or less you cant shoot at Iranians. Only if they shoot at us, we can shoot back, Nartker said.

A Navy officer who has deployed on ships in the Gulf agreed.

Decisions to withhold the use of force are a common occurrence in the area, said the officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to jeopardize his standing in the service. There is no appetite for creating an international incident, let alone getting people killed because reckless Iranian commanders want to play chicken with the U.S. Navy.

The officer said Nartkers response made sense given the circumstances. Our vessels were not where they should have been; we would not have had much standing in the court of public opinion in trying to justify why we engaged in combat with a nations navy in its own territorial waters, he said.

In recent weeks, there has been a spike in tense encounters between Iranian and U.S. vessels in the same waterway. In one incident last month, a U.S. naval ship fired three warning shots after an Iranian fast-attack boat swerved within 200 yards of the vessel, according to the U.S. Defense Department. During years of cat-and-mouse maneuvers in the Gulf, American ships have rarely fired warning shots, several active-duty officers said.

The incident at Farsi Island has evoked mixed reactions inside the Navy, with some officers saying privately the lack of logistical back-up and training reflected a low-priority attached to the services riverine boat squadrons.

A senior U.S. military official familiar with the investigation into the Farsi Island encounter said Nartker was judged for his performance over the entire mission, not merely for his behavior when the Iranian forces showed up.

There were a litany of mistakes, starting with the lack of a proper navigation and safety briefing at the outset.

That was a Three Stooges movie from beginning to end, said the official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity.

As the senior officer leading the boats, the Navy had to hold Nartker accountable, he said.

The five-month Navy investigation into the incident found a series of mistakes across the chain of command that helped lead to the debacle. The inquiry also leveled criticism at more senior officers for failing to adequately train and equip the riverine boat crews and for failing to guide the boats as they headed toward Iranian waters.

One boat had to be cannibalized to make another riverine boat sea-worthy in time for the trip to Bahrain, which was ordered on short-notice. One of the two riverine boats on the mission had no satellite communications link with naval command posts. An operations center never warned Nartker that his boats were sailing in the wrong direction. The tiny island under Iranian control did not show up on the vessels COGENT electronic navigating device  as it was configured for the longer-distance Kuwait-to-Bahrain journey. The crew had asked for in-depth training on the navigating device but were given only a short, one-hour session, according to Nartker.

The young officer ordered his boats to take a short-cut from a previously arranged course to ensure his crews could reach a refueling rendezvous point, which had been changed after the boats departed Kuwait. The new refueling location meant the boats would have to travel to the limit of their fuel range, and the refueling with a U.S. Coast Guard ship had to take place before nightfall, as the crews lacked training for refueling in the dark on the open sea. As it turned out, as the Americans neared the rendezvous, one of the boats suffered a dramatic drop in oil pressure and the sailors had to stop to repair it, without realizing they were in Iranian territorial waters.

Retired Navy Adm. William Fallon, the former head of Central Command, said the incident at Farsi Island underscored the importance of rigorous supervision when U.S. forces are sent on difficult and risky missions.

Oversight is really important. When youre in places where you have people doing dangerous things, you need to have someone paying attention, he told FP. The lower the rank, the less experience, the more oversight you need to exercise.

And he added: It appears that there wasnt enough in this case.

The Navy investigation found that one of the crew failed to follow an order to evade the Iranian boats. However, Nartker told FP that was not the case, and that a coxswain obeyed his order and tried to steer the boat past the Iranian vessels. But the attempt failed.

In the wake of the incident, the Navy has launched an overhaul of its training for sailors in the region and issued a specific message highlighting regulations that commanding officers should treat their vessels as sovereign territory at all times.

The investigation also revealed a commanding officer had expressed reservations about undertaking the mission on Jan. 12. The riverine boat crews are trained for short-distance missions along coastal waters or rivers, but commanders at the 5th Fleet demanded that they sail from Kuwait to Bahrain  a 250-nautical mile journey in unfamiliar waters. Before the Jan. 12 transit, Nartker was told the trip to Bahrain was of critical importance. But his crew learned afterward that the boats were ordered to Bahrain for a military exercise, not to ferry commandos on a vital operation.

Nartker, who is now in San Diego with his unit, had a spotless record before the incident and had been praised by his commanding officers as a stand-out among his peers. As a result of the punishment handed down, including an administrative move to revoke his surface warfare officer certification, he will not be able to earn another promotion or even carry out his customary duties on the riverine boats  and that means his career in uniform will soon come to an end.

Nartker faced a situation that every naval officer is trained for but few actually experience  a life-and-death decision with potentially far-reaching geopolitical fallout.

He said his only regret is not pushing harder against the mission in the first place and against his teams deployment to Kuwait, where he said the sailors were expected to sail long-distances without proper backup and resources.

But he does not regret choosing to talk, instead of shoot, his way out of the showdown with the Iranians. And he said he probably would have faced a possible court martial if he had ordered a deadly attack on the Iranian boats.

I 110 percent believe I would be in Fort Leavenworth right now if I had ordered to fire on the Iranians, he said.

Photo credit: MARWAN NAAMANI/AFP/Getty Images
Frank Castle, meet thy enemy?

Netflixs latest Marvel spinoff, The Punisher, has cast English actor Ben Barnes (The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian) in a series-regular role opposite Jon Bernthals titular vigilante, TVLine has learned exclusively. Character info is sketchy, but one rumor making the rounds has Barnes  who will next be seen in HBOs big-budget Westworld  portraying antagonist Bobby Saint, the corrupt crime prodigy played in the 2004 film by James Carpinello.

RELATEDSquirrel Girl on TV? Marvel Developing New Warriors Comedy Series

A Netflix rep declined to comment.

Barnes stateside TV credits also include playing Sam Adams in the 2015 History miniseries Sons of Liberty.

Viewers got their first look at Bernthals gun-toting antihero in Season 2 of Daredevil, which dropped last March. Netflix formally pulled the trigger on a Punisher-centric series one month later (although the project was unofficially greenlit back in January). Hannibal scribe Steve Lightfoot will serve as showrunner.

RELATEDMarvels Runaways Gets Hulu Pilot Order, From Gossip Girl Creators

For those keeping track at home, The Punisher marks Netflixs sixth Marvel series, following Daredevil, Jessica Jones, the upcoming Luke Cage, and the in-the-works Iron Fist and The Defenders.

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Marvel's The Punisher Gets Series Order

Punisher Spinoff Starring Jon Bernthal in Development at Netflix

TVLine Items: Narnia Vet in Westworld, Carol Burnett's SAG Award and More
By Ron Bousso and Tom Finn

LONDON/DOHA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Qatar Petroleum is interested in the Mozambique gas business of Italian energy group Eni and could opt to join Exxon Mobil in buying a multibillion-dollar stake, sources familiar with the matter said.

State-controlled Eni is looking to reduce a 50 percent stake in its giant Mozambique gas acreage as part of plans to sell 5 billion euros of assets over the next two years.

Last month sources told Reuters Exxon had reached a deal that could give it an operating stake in the onshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant, while leaving Eni in control of the Area 4 gas fields feeding it.

Qatar Petroleum is in talks with Exxon and Eni on some kind of involvement in Mozambique which could involve a joint investment with the U.S. major, one senior QP source said, adding the deal was not a classic joint venture structure.

A second Doha-based source, who declined to be named as not authorized to speak publicly, said Qatar Petroleum had been looking at Eni's Area 4 field as well as adjoining acreage of Anadarko Petroleum Corp but added the focus was on Eni.

"The expectation is that Qatar Petroleum and Exxon will go in on this together," the source said, adding a Qatar Petroleum delegation planned to visit Mozambique before the year end.

The sources cautioned no decision had as yet been taken by the Qatari company.

Qatar Petroleum did not respond to requests for comment and Exxon and Eni declined to comment.

Saad al-Kaabi, Qatar Petroleum CEO, recently confirmed the group was looking at assets in Africa.

Located in Mozambique's Rovuma Basin, Eni's Area 4 is one of the biggest discoveries of recent times, holding about 85 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi, who has spoken of selling a stake of up to 25 percent, said earlier this month a detailed agreement had been reached with a partner.

In 2013 Eni sold 20 percent of Area 4 to China's CNPC for $4.2 billion but since then oil and gas prices have dropped by more than half.

Story continues

A banker with knowledge of the matter said a 25 percent stake in the field could be worth in the region of 2 billion euros.

Exxon and QP are already close business partners in Qatar, where Exxon's technical know-how helped the tiny Gulf state to develop its gas resources and become the world's biggest as well as lowest-cost LNG producer.

Since then, both companies have jointly moved to exploit international LNG growth opportunities, including plans to build the Golden Pass liquefaction plant in the United States and bidding for exploration acreage in Cyprus.

A moratorium on new Qatari gas production since 2005 has hobbled domestic expansion opportunities at a time of intense competition for global LNG market share as new producers such as Australia challenge Qatar's dominance.

"The (Mozambique) gas will go east and so having Qatar on board with all its experience makes a lot of sense," a banker with knowledge of the matter said.

(Writing by Stephen Jewkes, additional reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic in Milan, editing by William Hardy)
By Ron Bousso and Tom Finn LONDON/DOHA (Reuters) - Qatar Petroleum is interested in the Mozambique gas business of Italian energy group Eni and could opt to join Exxon Mobil in buying a multibillion-dollar stake, sources familiar with the matter said. State-controlled Eni is looking to reduce a 50 percent stake in its giant Mozambique gas acreage as part of plans to sell 5 billion euros of assets over the next two years. Last month sources told Reuters Exxon had reached a deal that could give it an operating stake in the onshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant, while leaving Eni in control of the Area 4 gas fields feeding it. Qatar Petroleum is in talks with Exxon and Eni on some kind of involvement in Mozambique which could involve a joint investment with the U.S. major, one senior QP source said, adding the deal was not a classic joint venture structure. A second Doha-based source, who declined to be named as not authorized to speak publicly, said Qatar Petroleum had been looking at Eni's Area 4 field as well as adjoining acreage of Anadarko Petroleum Corp but added the focus was on Eni. "The expectation is that Qatar Petroleum and Exxon will go in on this together," the source said, adding a Qatar Petroleum delegation planned to visit Mozambique before the year end. The sources cautioned no decision had as yet been taken by the Qatari company. Qatar Petroleum did not respond to requests for comment and Exxon and Eni declined to comment. Saad al-Kaabi, Qatar Petroleum CEO, recently confirmed the group was looking at assets in Africa. Located in Mozambique's Rovuma Basin, Eni's Area 4 is one of the biggest discoveries of recent times, holding about 85 trillion cubic feet of gas. Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi, who has spoken of selling a stake of up to 25 percent, said earlier this month a detailed agreement had been reached with a partner. In 2013 Eni sold 20 percent of Area 4 to China's CNPC for $4.2 billion but since then oil and gas prices have dropped by more than half. A banker with knowledge of the matter said a 25 percent stake in the field could be worth in the region of 2 billion euros. Exxon and QP are already close business partners in Qatar, where Exxon's technical know-how helped the tiny Gulf state to develop its gas resources and become the world's biggest as well as lowest-cost LNG producer. Since then, both companies have jointly moved to exploit international LNG growth opportunities, including plans to build the Golden Pass liquefaction plant in the United States and bidding for exploration acreage in Cyprus. A moratorium on new Qatari gas production since 2005 has hobbled domestic expansion opportunities at a time of intense competition for global LNG market share as new producers such as Australia challenge Qatar's dominance. "The (Mozambique) gas will go east and so having Qatar on board with all its experience makes a lot of sense," a banker with knowledge of the matter said. (Writing by Stephen Jewkes, additional reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic in Milan, editing by William Hardy)
HOUSTON -- After losing two of three to the Chicago Cubs over the weekend, the Houston Astros will enter a three-game series against the Rangers facing the grim reality that another series loss to Texas would snuff out their slim hopes of winning the American League West.

With their 9-5 defeat Sunday night, the Astros (75-68) remained 9 1/2 games behind Texas, which lowered its magic number to win the AL West to 10 games despite losing in Anaheim to the Los Angeles Angels earlier Sunday.

The Astros are 3-13 against the Rangers this season, and even if they match their season series win total, it appears that Houston would only be delaying the inevitable with just 16 games left on the schedule at the conclusion of the Texas series.

The Astros are 3 1/2 games behind AL wild-card co-leaders, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Baltimore Orioles. However, a total of seven teams are within four games of those wild-card spots.

Astros right-hander Mike Fiers, who took the loss Sunday night, was asked if the club was looking at the standings.

"I don't think so," he said. "I think we're pretty focused on what we need to do here, and that's why we're in the spot we're at. So we still have a great chance at getting the wild card. So just have to figure out what we need to do and do that out in the field. At the end of the day, we'll see where we're at."

The Astros will give the ball to right-hander Doug Fister (12-11, 4.14 ERA) for the series opener. Given his recent struggles, and his career-long woes against the Rangers, Fister might be a dubious choice.

Fister is 1-2 with a 4.57 ERA in four starts against the Rangers this season and 5-6 with a 5.18 ERA over 14 career starts against them. After tossing seven shutout innings at the Pirates in Pittsburgh on Aug. 22, Fister has absorbed three consecutive losses, posting a 10.95 ERA while allowing 26 hits and five walks over 12 1/3 innings.

Left-hander Martin Perez (10-10, 4.25 ERA) will start Monday for the Rangers (85-59). Perez is 5-3 with a 2.45 ERA over eight career starts against the Astros, including 1-1 with a 4.85 ERA in two starts against Houston this season.

Story continues

The Rangers have lost five of eight games following a seven-game winning streak that was snapped in the series finale against the Astros on Sept. 4 in Arlington. Texas did get a measure of good news on Sunday when right-hander Colby Lewis returned from the disabled list and made his first start since late June.

Lewis, who had been sidelined due to a Grade 2 lat strain, gave up three runs -- on three solo homers -- in 5 1/3 innings.

"It was kind of vintage Colby," Texas manager Jeff Banister said. "He was able to move the fastball around and use the curveball and the slider to get the outs. Other than the three pitches that went for home runs, he felt like he was in control of what he needed to do. It was nice to see. We're going to need him down the stretch."

Lewis wasn't as enthusiastic about his performance.

"I didn't make the pitches I needed to make," he said. "That's all there is to it."

Reinstating Lewis only deepens the Rangers' veteran-laden rotation, which includes left-handers Cole Hamels and Derek Holland and righties Yu Darvish and A.J. Griffin.
Since the start of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) in 2014, Odisha has been making quite some progress. Since 2015, 325 villages and 12 gram panchayats in the state have been declared open defecation free.

Harkirat Singh, MD of Woodland, which is partnering UNICEF, with students at Bipulingi Higher Secondary School in Chattrapur block lined up at newly-constructed taps to wash their hands after mid-day meals.

By Baishali Adak: Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi picked up a shovel to clean the Assi Ghat at Varanasi to usher in his flagship 'Swachh Bharat Mission', the programme has been a topic of much debate.

It has been criticised on counts of lack of education and orientation of villagers who still prefer to relieve under the open sky, 'one-size-fits-all' kind of toilets and much more.

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Also Read: Swachh Bharat gets comic relief: Amar Chitra Katha joins hands with govt to create comics on campaign

SILENT REVOLUTION IN ODISHA

However, away from the media glare, a silent revolution brews in Odisha. The coastal state, which along with Jharkhand, once had the highest number of households with no toilets, is now pioneering the movement.

As per the 2012 'Baseline Data' issued by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS), only 22 per cent households had access to sanitation (14 per cent in rural and 65 per cent in urban areas), leaving out a staggering 79.8 lakh households.

But since the start of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) in 2014, the Odisha government has been making steady strides. Of the 80 lakh households that it targeted, almost nine per cent has been achieved between January and December 2015. As many as 13.29 lakh toilets have been constructed and 20 districts including Angul, Balasore, Bargarh and Bhadrak, have attained 100 per cent target.

325 VILLAGES, 12 GRAM PANCHAYATS DECLARED OPEN DEFECATION FREE

Also, since 2015, 325 villages and 12 Gram Panchayats have been declared ODF (Open Defecation-Free).

Incidentally, in most villages, the movement was driven by villagers themselves. Manmath Pal, a 25-year-old from Khandigaon village in Ganjam District, told Mail Today, "I was working as a waiter in Mumbai when I first heard Modi make a nationwide call for Swachh Bharat on television. Inspired, I spoke to some fellow Odias and my relatives in Mumbai and decided to return home."

Along with Pal, at least five more youths from Khandigaon pledged to rid their village of open defecation. Rabindra Naik, president of the village, said, "The main approach road to our village, on one end of which was the High School as well, was lined with faeces every morning. It was very embarrassing. First, we spoke at gram sabhas on the importance of constructing toilets at homes.

After three months, we began penalising people." Mittu Swain, another member of the Khandigaon watchand-ward committee, held up a register to inform that Rs. 9,060 have been collected in fines so far.

He said, "We are now spreading the movement to nine other villages in Ganjam district. After all, fishes from their ponds also make it to our village."

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The UNICEF has been instrumental in bringing about this change in collaboration with state and local authorities. It identifies houses with no toilets and facilitates a subsidy of Rs. 10,000 from the Gram Panchayat for the purpose.

Also Read:

'I cannot have Swachh Bharat without Saakshar Bharat': President calls for 100 per cent literacy

Uma Bharti launches new scheme to make cities and towns along Ganga smart



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Canada, get ready to meet Prince George and Princess Charlotte!



Prince William and Princess Kate are "looking forward to introducing their young family" to Canada when they embark on their eight-day tour on September 24, a spokesman said at a Buckingham Palace briefing Monday.



"This is a great opportunity for them to introduce their children to a major realm before things like school start to make these things difficult later on," the spokesman continued. "They really enjoyed taking Prince George to New Zealand and Australia and are delighted to have this opportunity to introduce them to Canada."



The royal family's visit will be largely based in Victoria, British Columbia, where they will stay at the Government House. They will also take in the wonders of the city of Vancouver, visit Bella Bella and the Great Bear Rainforest and remote Yukon as well during their stay.







It is the first time that 16-month-old Charlotte has been on an official tour with her parents. George accompanied his parents on a memorable tour to New Zealand and Australia in 2014.



The visit will likely be similar in structure to George's trip Down Under. It is "highly likely" the children will be seen when they arrive in Victoria on September 24, a royal source says, and again during departure. There's also the possibility of a couple kid-friendly events  similar to George's fun play date in New Zealand.



"The proviso is that they very small children, but the plan is for the family to get a chance to say 'hello,' " a place source adds.



 Want to keep up with the latest royals coverage? Click here to subscribe to the Royals Newsletter.



One possible occasion to see the royal kids in action will be at a children's party with military families on the grounds of Government House on September 29.



"A group of military families have been invited to share what should be a really lovely morning with plenty of surprises for the children," the couple's spokesman said Monday.



The sports-loving couple will have a few outdoor events as well, including fishing in Haida Gwaii. And while there will be formal occasions and meetings, Kate is expected to leave her tiaras at home.



"They are spending a considerable amount of time in one or two places rather than having to dart across the country, so they really hope to get a real sense of British Columbia in particular. It is a largely casual, highly outdoors tour," the spokesman said at the briefing. "There will be the usual government formal moments, but they'll getting out there and getting to meet Canadians face-to-face in all sorts of different settings."



In a statement the spokesman added, "The Duke and Duchess are delighted with the program. They cannot wait to get to Canada and start learning about new parts of the country that will play such an important part of their lives for many years to come."



The couple will take an entourage of 12 people. There are three private secretaries, four communications staff, a tour secretary, an operations manager and a personal assistant. Kate's hairdresser Amanda Tucker and nanny Maria Turrion Borrallo are also going and being paid for privately.



Their longtime foreign affairs adviser Sir David Manning will not be on the tour. The third private secretary is Laura Baker, William's assistant private secretary.



The royals are currently wrapping up summer at Queen Elizabeth's Balmoral estate before they pack up for their big family trip across the pond!




An Iraqi soldier stands on a military vehicle near the town of Qayyarah, which was recently taken from ISIS in the Iraqi armys push to Mosul. In the background, smoke billows from oil wells set ablaze by the fleeing militants. (Photo: Safin Hamad/AFP/Getty Images)

ERBIL, Iraq  The Iraqi Army is preparing to close in on the northern city of Mosul, which has been under the fierce occupation of the Islamic State since July 2014.

With a population once thought to reach nearly 2 million people, Mosul is the largest city ISIS holds, and the battle for it will be one of the largest ever against the armed group. Here are some facts to keep in mind as the battle approaches.

Why is Mosul important?

Mosul is rich with oil and famous for its marble. When ISIS captured the city, it took control of its oil refineries.

There have been reports of torture, including burning women from the Yazidi minority, and sexual slavery during the occupation.

The city has also been known for a large population of Assyrian Christians. It occupies a central position in Nineveh province, with great biblical and historical significance.

It is said to be the burial place of the biblical figure Jonah.

Recapturing the city would be a major blow for ISIS prestige and influence in Iraq, and it would be a major financial setback.

A fighter holds an ISIS flag in the city of Mosul in 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

How does the Iraqi army plan to take the stronghold from ISIS?

The Iraqi army hopes to take back Mosul before the end of the year. Operations could start as soon as October.

Yahoo News spoke with commanding Gen. Najim al-Jubouri, who is overseeing Mosul operations. He said, Our battle in Mosul will be different [from other battles], we have a very high level of cooperation and coordination with coalition forces. Well begin with the coalition forces, theyll strike [by air], the enemy, ISIS, and after that, we will move.

The Iraqi army plans to surround the city from the north and south, leading the charge into Mosul, while being supported by Kurdish fighters, known as the peshmerga, and popular mobilization forces or allied militias.

Slideshow: The battle for Mosul, Iraq >>>

Jubouri said, We put in good plans, with the coalition forces, and we will cut all roads they [ISIS] will [try to] escape.

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The general is also encouraging residents to stay in their homes during the fight, in hopes to avoid a mass civilian evacuation. The United Nations is anticipating as many as a million and a half residents could be affected by the battle and will likely attempt to flee.

We will deal with the battle like good surgery, pull out the cancer, in the villages, Jubouri said, In the east side of the [Tigris] river of Makhmur, we had good experience. The people stayed in their homes.

The Iraqi Army recaptured Makhmur in May. Jubouri said some of people actually rose up and helped the army push ISIS out, in Makhmur and in Qayyara, which was recaptured in recent weeks. He hopes for the same in Mosul.

Iraqis stand near oil wells set ablaze by fleeing ISIS militants. (Photo: Safin Hamad/AFP/Getty Images)

How will the U.S. be involved?

The United States will continue to conduct air strikes against ISIS and will be coordinating with the Iraqi military on logistical operations.

Yahoo News requested a visit to the Qayyara Air Base, where U.S. troops have set up a logistics hub, but the request was denied and logistics officers were not able to respond.

However, the U.S. Army Coalition press office director in Kuwait, Col. Joe Scrocca, told Yahoo News in an email, the ISF [Iraqi security forces] have grown considerably in experience, capacity and confidence. Our primary role has been to enable our partnered forces through our [air] strike capabilities and training the Iraqi forces.

The U.S. has insisted it will not participate directly in Mosul ground operations.

But as the battle draws near, the American military presence in the region has increased to some 5,000 troops, and special forces are conducting covert operations behind enemy lines.

The military fight against [ISIS] is an essential component of the larger strategy to defeat the terrorist group, Scrocca explained, and the aim of the airstrikes is to apply a disciplined, systematic targeting method to avoid and minimize civilian casualties.

What are the humanitarian concerns?

Besides the concern to minimize civilian casualties, commanders worry about ISIS using residents as human shields.

Its what we expect, they did that before, Jubouri said. But when we are involved with them in the battle, we take care of the people. The general believes that the army will be able to minimize casualties even if ISIS attempts to use civilians as human shields and that the forces under his command will do what is necessary to save lives. My troops, under my authority, we always put the human rights in our minds, he said.

In addition, many camps for Iraqs internally displaced people are preparing for a large influx from Mosul.

The International Organization of Migration has already recorded over 90,000 displaced people since June.

One of the largest encampments, in Dibaga, just southeast of Mosul, houses more than 36,000 people in a space that has tents for only around 10,000.

Burning oil wells near the Dibaga camp can cause respiratory problems for residents. (Photo: Ash Gallagher for Yahoo News)

Yahoo News visited the camp. Smoke from nearby oil refineries fills the air, and people often cover their mouths to keep from breathing it. The camps children roam in big groups, and candy and snack stations are on the outer edges. Doctors outside the camps hospital have a small tent set up to give measles and polio vaccines to children.

A few air-conditioned rooms make up the camps offices, next to the hospital. The camp manager, Rzqar Abed, spoke with Yahoo News. He said that not having enough space for everyone is a real dilemma. He said many people were crowding together in their tents: These people are tribal, theyre used to living with each other, and there are families right now who do not have a [tent] who are living with their relatives.

For the remaining people on the streets, organizations are struggling to get more tents up with basic supplies like blankets, mattresses, fans and food.

Security within the camp is also a concern. At the entrance to Dibaga, there is a screening section in which new arrivals, particularly men and boys, are questioned about possible links to ISIS before being allowed in. But human rights groups accused community and religious leaders of attempting to recruit teenagers to fight with the militias.

Abed said they are trying to discourage the behavior, but it is often difficult to control.

Dibaga camp does expect new internally displaced persons as the battle for Mosul approaches. Abed said, If the people feel safer and they are sure the mortars from ISIS will not get to them, they will stay [in their homes], but he is still preparing for at least 800,000 to flee. Many of those are likely to end up in Dibaga.

A displaced Iraqi family gathers in their tent after cooking doulma on a hot summer day in Dibaga camp, where they have been for several months. (Photo: Ash Gallagher for Yahoo News)

What will happen once ISIS is defeated in Mosul?

The coalition of nations working in Iraq has committed $2 billion to humanitarian groups for rebuilding Mosul, including physical infrastructure and public services.

Scrocca said the reconstruction efforts [will] follow closely on the heels of progress in the military campaign. Long-term success is tied to the Iraqi governments ability to make strides toward reform and more inclusiveness.

Since ISIS has ruled Mosul for so long, the question of who will govern afterward remains unanswered. The Kurdish government and peshmerga forces hope to negotiate with the Iraqi government to gain a primary role. But minorities in the city have called for an independent province and governing administration.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi Parliament is scrambling to approve a candidate to replace the countrys recently dismissed defense minister, but in order to meet its year-end goal, the Iraqi army is expected to move toward the center of Mosul in the coming weeks. If the Iraqi army can sack ISIS successfully, it could help restore its reputation as a fighting force against terrorism in the region.
Tripoli (AFP) - Libya's UN-backed unity government lost control on Monday of a third oil port seized by rival forces, raising fears of a major outbreak of fresh violence in the chaos-ridden country.

The loss comes after fighters backing a rival administration in east Libya seized two other terminals from guards loyal to the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) on Sunday.

All three Mediterranean ports are in Libya's "oil crescent", an area seen as a vital source of income for the GNA which has struggled to assert its authority across the country.

"Our armed forces were able to take control of Zuwaytina port and secure it completely," a spokesman for the fighters who took the terminals said.

The LANA news agency loyal to the eastern administration reported a military source as saying: "The armed forces are now concentrated at the port and have secured it after expelling outlaw militia from it."

The forces are commanded by controversial General Khalifa Haftar, who has refused to back the GNA and supports the parallel authority based in eastern Libya near the border with Egypt.

On Sunday, they took the Al-Sidra and Ras Lanuf ports before attacking Zuwaytina to the east.

It is the first time that Haftar's forces and fighters loyal to the GNA have clashed directly since the unity government started working in the capital in March.

The UN special representative to Libya, Martin Kobler, urged Haftar's forces "to immediately stop fighting and refrain from further military escalation".

"I call for the respect of UN Security Council Resolution 2259 which recognises the Government of National Accord... as the sole executive authority in Libya," he said in a statement.

Kobler said oil installations must remain under the authority of the presidential council and stressed that Resolution 2259 "contains a clear prohibition on illicit oil exports".

Meanwhile the United States and its major European allies condemned the offensives.

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"The governments of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States condemn this weekend's attacks on Zuwaytina, Ras Lanuf, Es Sider and Brega oil terminals in Libya," they said, in a statement.

- 'Critical juncture' -

The unity government, for its part, called on all forces loyal to it to "protect and defend" the ports, while the head of the rival government in the eastern city of Bayda said it would work on reopening the ports as soon as possible.

"We will work on the oil ports resuming work as soon as possible so as to guarantee all Libyans a decent life," Abdullah al-Thani said.

Haftar's forces said they would hand over management of the ports to the National Oil Corporation (NOC) to resume oil exports.

The NOC is split into two rival branches, however, one allied to the GNA and the other to the administration that Haftar supports.

Oil is Libya's main natural resource with reserves estimated at 48 billion barrels, the largest in Africa. But since 2010 the country's production has plummeted.

The seizure of the ports deals a heavy blow to the unity government, depriving it of a key source of income.

In late July, the GNA agreed to resume oil exports out of Ras Lanuf and Al-Sidra -- which together have a capacity of 700,000 bpd -- after a months-long closure following jihadist attacks.

They shut after attacks in January by the Islamic State (IS) group, which has gained a foothold in the country.

- Rival authorities, militia -

Libya has been in chaos since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, with rival authorities and militia vying for control.

The port of Brega -- between Ras Lanuf and Zuwaytina -- remains in the hands of the oil installation guards.

Haftar's assault on the ports came as pro-GNA forces, including oil installation guards, have been battling for months to oust IS from the coastal city of Sirte.

The US Africa Command, meanwhile, said American warplanes carried out four air strikes in Sirte on Sunday in support of GNA forces, targeting IS "fighting positions".

The latest raids brought to 143 the total number of air strikes in support of the loyalist fighters since they began on August 1, said a statement issued Monday.

Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Monday his country would establish a military field hospital in the Libyan city of Misrata, to where GNA casualties from Sirte are evacuated, and deploy troops to ensure security.

Italy's La Repubblica newspaper said the operation would involve 100 medical staff and 200 paratroopers.
For more Entertainment Tonight videos visit Yahoo View.

Looks like theres going to be another girl joining the female-heavy Kardashian crew!

Rob Kardashian and his fiancee, Blac Chyna, are expecting a baby girl. The pair announced the happy news on their reality show, Rob & Chyna, on Sunday, and Robs famous family was quick to chime in with their thrilled reactions.



ITS A GIRL! Kris Jenner tweeted. So happy for Rob and Chyna! Cant wait to welcome this new little love bug to the world. #RobandChyna.

ITS A GIRL! So happy for Rob and Chyna! Cant wait to welcome this new little love bug to the world. #RobandChyna pic.twitter.com/awSeqZnouh  Kris Jenner (@KrisJenner) September 12, 2016



WATCH: Pregnant Blac Chyna Poses Nude on the Cover of Paper Magazine

Rob and Chyna are having a baby girl, a Kardashian source confirmed to ET last week. Theyre very excited!



While Rob had been vocal in the past about his desire for a baby boy, he told the Rob & Chyna cameras hes going to be super happy with a girl.



Its an emotional moment. Me wanting to have a boy, it definitely stems from my dad but Im sure Ill have the same relationship that I had with my father with my daughter, Rob said. Im just happy that the babys healthy.

So excited to welcome another little princess to our family. Congrats Rob & Chyna! I love you both! #RobandChyna pic.twitter.com/1XMmUWtWFn  Khloe (@khloekardashian) September 12, 2016

The two have yet to publicly reveal whether or not theyve come up with a moniker for their first child together, but Rob and Chyna confessed the newest Kardashian kid wont be getting a K name during a sit-down Facebook live interview last month.

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You already have King, thats a funny coincidence, Rob, 29, stated, noting that Chynas 3-year-old son, King Cairo (who she shares with rapper Tyga), already bares the K initial. But probably not.

NEWS: Rob Kardashian Praises Blac Chynas Maternity Photo Shoots, Mocks Her Haters

You guys have to stay tuned for that too, Chyna added. Im not trying to give up no more details about the baby!

The 28-year-old model confirmed that decision a few weeks later, telling Papermagazine, The baby wont have a K name. We both agreed.

Baby news aside, the duo  who got engaged in April  is also set to say I do, but are in no rush to walk down the aisle.

Chyna and Rob are in a really great place, the Kardashian source told ET. They will get married, but they dont have any plans set yet.

If it were up to Rob, however, we would [get married] tomorrow, Chyna also explained in the Facebook live interview. We would have been at the courthouse, downtown, a long, long time ago.

WATCH: Blac Chyna and Rob Kardashian Talk Wedding, Pregnancy and Potential Babysitters

He wants to go there, but Im like, We need to do it the traditional way, she continued. 'Cause I wanna turn up after! I wanna turn up on my honeymoon.

For more Kardashians videos visit Yahoo View.
By Joseph Akwiri MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Three robed women tricked their way into a Mombasa police station where they stabbed one officer and set fire to the building with a petrol bomb before being shot dead, an officer and a witness said on Sunday. Police also recovered an unexploded suicide vest from one of the attackers, spokesman George Kinoti said in a statement. The city of Mombasa, with a large Muslim population on the coast of Kenya, has been targeted by Islamist militants in recent years although the frequency of attacks has subsided. Under the pretext of reporting a stolen phone, the women walked into the police station on Saturday morning, a knife and petrol bomb concealed in their traditional Buibui robes. "While being questioned by officers, one drew a knife and the other threw a petrol bomb at the police officers," Patterson Maelo, Mombasa County Police Commander, told reporters. "The station caught fire. Police shot the three and killed them. Two officers are in hospital with wounds. Presumably it is a terror attack." Two bullet-proof jackets and an unused petrol bomb were recovered from the dead suspects, Coast regional commander Nelson Marwa told reporters. Two separate police sources who asked not to be named said a woman who had housed the suspects the night before the attack had been arrested. Kinoti said police arrested three other people at the house of one of the attackers, saying they were her accomplices. Salma Mohamed, a witness who was at the station to see a relative in custody, said one attacker had jumped onto a counter and stabbed an officer in the thigh before being shot. Police did not say which group the suspects were linked to but Mohamed said the women pledged allegiance to al Shabaab. "They shouted saying they were al Shabaab and recited the Arabic slogan 'Allahu Akbar' even as police fired bullets at them. They did not run. They shouted until bullets felled them down," she told reporters. Somalia's al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab has claimed responsibility for attacks in Mombasa and other parts of Kenya, saying this was retaliation for Kenya sending troops to Somalia. Al Shabaab was behind an attack on Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall that killed 67 people and a raid on Garissa university in the northeast that killed 148. The militants also launched attacks in 2014 that killed more than 100 in Lamu County region. (Reporting by Joseph Akwiri; Additional reporting by Humphrey Malalo in Nairobi; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
French designer Roland Mouret has moved his flagship New York store into a townhouse on Madison Avenue that will house a mix of retail along with his personal art collection and porcelain sculptures.

Mouret has relocated his store just a block down the road into a larger space that that will use the first floor as a retail area, while the upper floors of the house will be reserved for appointments, fittings and the designer's personal use, reports WWD.

To mark the opening, Mouret has created a special-edition jumpsuit that will be sold exclusively at the flagship New York store.

The store will contrast concrete floors against white carpets and mid-century modern European furniture.

A franchise store in Dubai is also in the works.
Hitting stores near you, will be Patanjali's new product - the 'Swadeshi' jeans.

By Ilma Hasan: If you thought 500 different product lines and over 5000 crore in sales revenue was enough for yoga guru Baba Ramdev to call it a day, you were mistaken, because it appears like he has again thought of a new venture.

Hitting stores near you, will be Patanjali's new product - the 'Swadeshi' jeans.

SWADESHI JEANS

On Sunday, Baba Ramdev announced that he will be launching his own line of western clothing for both men and women to counter the success of MNCs in the Indian market.

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Ramdev said, "Patanjali's plans involve getting into the garment sector through Swadeshi jeans that the youth of the country are now demanding"

While Ramdev is confident that his new clothing line will be a success, Twitterati trolled the yoga guru. Even people in local markets seemed bemused.

ALL ABOUT MONEY?

"I think he should stick to making Ayurveda products", said Prachi a student in Delhi.

Anjali, another student said, "He has always promoted indianised things, why is he trying to make denims now? It's all about making money for him"

With his own apparel brand, Paridhan, Ramdev plans to launch factories in Bangladesh and Africa. He also has plans to market it in Nepal before taking on multinationals in Europe and US.



ALSO READ:

Patanjali is a holy threat to India's FMCG giants: ValueNotes

Govt should deal strictly with separatists in Kashmir: Ramdev



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No chauffeur needed.



Prince William, 34, took the driver's seat as Princess Kate, also 34, and other members of the royal family headed to church near Balmoral, the Scottish summer home of Queen Elizabeth II.



While the Queen and Prince Philip rode in the back of their own chauffeured car, William drove Kate as they headed to Sunday services. Like his son, Prince Charles also took over the wheel when he drove Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, to church.





Royal Racers! Prince William Takes the Wheel with Princess Kate as the Royal Family Heads to Church| The British Royals, The Royals, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Kate Middleton, Prince Charles, Prince Philip, Prince William, Queen Elizabeth II

The Cambridges arrived in Scotland earlier this week with 3-year-old Prince George and 16-month-old Princess Charlotte in tow.









Royal Racers! Prince William Takes the Wheel with Princess Kate as the Royal Family Heads to Church| The British Royals, The Royals, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Kate Middleton, Prince Charles, Prince Philip, Prince William, Queen Elizabeth II

Royals Fashion Flashback: 15 Times Princess Kate Channeled Princess Diana





On Saturday, the Queen took the wheel with Kate in the passenger's seat for a ride in the country.



 Want to keep up with the latest royals coverage? Click here to subscribe to the Royals Newsletter.



"They looked really happy," a local tells PEOPLE. "They were coming up to see the others for a picnic when the shoot had its break."



The royal party was photographed about five miles from Balmoral Castle, but still on the estate. The Queen drove Kate to a remote part of the estate to meet with William for a picnic while he was grouse hunting.



The extended royal family often makes the trip to Balmoral at least once during the Queen's month-long vacation. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expected back in England later this week.
LOS ANGELES, CA  SEPTEMBER 11: TV personality RuPaul Charles, winner of Outstanding Host For A Reality Or Reality-Competition Program, poses in the press room during the 2016 Creative Arts Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater on September 11, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

In an interview with Yahoo last month, dance music and pop culture icon RuPaul Charles expressed mixed feelings about his Emmy nomination for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program, saying, Ive always lived my life outside of the status quo, and Ive been able to become a name outside of the system. I really dont expect to win I feel like its almost like a gesture by the Academy to say, Hey, we are a part of this forward movement. But they are still the establishment.

Truth be told, the first-time nominee had reason to feel like an Emmy underdog, since he was representing RuPauls Drag Race, a fringe show about drag queens on Logo, a niche LGBT cable network. But Sunday, on night two of the Creative Arts Emmys held at Los Angeless Microsoft Theater, RuPaul surprised everyone  including himself  by winning the Emmy, beating out decidedly mainstream reality hosts Tom Bergeron (Dancing With the Stars), Steve Harvey (Little Big Shots), Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn (Project Runway), Jane Lynch (Hollywood Game Night), and even American Idols Ryan Seacrest.

I havent landed yet, RuPaul gasped backstage. I cant believe it. This is really so crazy. I really did not expect this Im still not sure if I won! I dont know if Im dreaming or not, because Ive never felt like this before  maybe in a drug flashback or something.

On a more serious note, RuPaul recognized that a win for Drag Race is significant in a year filled with social and political turmoil, from debates over bathroom bills to the tragic June 12 shooting at Orlandos gay nightclub Pulse.

Related: RuPaul Talks Punk, Politics, and Pulse: Most People Are Still Living in the Dark Ages

Its really about the girls [contestants], all the 100 girls who have come through on this show who are so brilliant. I accept this for them, he declared. The significance [of this award] is we hear the stories of 100 queens  actually now 112 queens [counting the 12 contestants who will appear on the shows upcoming ninth season]  who get to tell their unique stories of survival. Its so important for all the young people around the world who get to see this show to hear that there is a way for you to navigate this life. This show is like a map  its like an emotional map to navigate the life of people who dance to the beat of a different drummer.

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On another heavy note, RuPaul addressed the Sunday death of transgender entertainer and occasional drag performer Alexis Arquette, saying, I knew Alexis, and Alexis lived her life from her heart, through her own authenticity. That is the best way to live this life, and Im sure that when she looks back at this whole experience, shell say, You know what? I did it right.

Obviously Ru is doing something right, to be recognized by the Emmys  but dont assume his victory means his worst fear of going mainstream has come true, judging by some of his zingy Sunday night one-liners. In his two-part backstage interview at the Emmys, he attributed RuPauls Drag Races success to the fact that all of the producers are gay! and also joked, I was quoted earlier, a few months ago, as saying that Id rather have an enema than an Emmy thanks to the Television Academy, now I can have both!

Click here for a full list of all the Creative Arts Emmy winners, handed out over two ceremonies Saturday and Sunday in Los Angeles. The Primetime Emmy Awards will air next weekend, Sunday, Sept. 18, on ABC.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday it was concerned that some armed opposition groups in Syria including the powerful insurgent group Ahrar al-Sham have refused to abide by a ceasefire agreement that took effect at sunset. The ministry also said in a statement that it was counting on the United States to influence Syria's "moderate opposition" to ensure full compliance with the cessation of hostilities that began at 1600 GMT on Monday. "We count on the US to deliver its part and use the necessary influence on those it considers 'moderate opposition'," the ministry said. It also said humanitarian aid to Syria's Aleppo would begin immediately through the northern road of Castello. A southern road through the region of Ramusa will open "over time." (Reporting by Lidia Kelly)
Moscow (AFP) - Russian metals giant Norilsk Nickel on Monday admitted a spillage at one of its plants was responsible for turning a local river blood-red.

Russia's environment ministry last week launched a probe into the incident after images showed the Daldykan river near Norilsk in the far north of Russia flowing bright red, with local activists blaming the nearby Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant.

After initially refusing to confirm a leak, Norilsk Nickel -- the world's biggest producer of nickel and palladium -- on Monday said heavy rains on September 5 had resulted in water flooding over a "filtration dam" at the plant and into the river.

"Despite the short-term discolouration of the water...this incident does not present a danger for people or fauna in the river," the company said in a statement.

Environmental activists, however, insisted that it was too early to judge the environmental impact as the official investigation was still ongoing.

"You can't just say that it's no big deal. Right now there is a ministry of environment commission there," Russian Greenpeace official Alexei Kiselyov told AFP.

Kiselyov said that investigating pollution from Norilsk Nickel plants was extremely difficult as its infrastructure was located in remote areas and the firm controlled access to the entire Taymyr peninsula, which lies between the Kara and Laptev seas in the Russian Arctic.

Groups representing indigenous populations in the area say that local media went out of their way to whitewash the company and did not inform the public after the accident.

"We had a report after it happened that claimed the river colour came (naturally) from clay. That is just laughable to local people," said Sidor Chuprin, an indigenous activist.

He accused Norilsk Nickel workers of poor safety standards and said locals are concerned about the Daldykan river because they fish in another river further downstream.

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"They don't care about polluting because they all have homes on the mainland," he told AFP, referring to central Russia.

Chuprin said that there was no environmental officials based on the remote Taymyr peninsula and locals struggled to hold the metals giant to account.

"Of course this is in their interest," he said of Norilsk Nickel. "We are not experts, all we can do is take a picture."
By Christoph Steitz and Matthias Inverardi

FRANKFURT/DUESSELDORF (Reuters) - German utility RWE plans to list more of its renewables, network and retail business Innogy than originally planned in an initial public offering next month after strong investor interest, its chief executive said on Monday.

"There is considerable interest among investors," Peter Terium, who is CEO of both RWE AG and Innogy, told Reuters after RWE published the "intention to float" for Innogy, a step during an IPO which usually happens about four weeks before a listing.

Germany's second-largest utility said in December it planned to pool its renewables, network and retail assets and list 10 percent of the business through a capital increase expected to fetch about 2 billion euros (1.7 billion pounds).

However, the size of the IPO will now be larger as RWE will also sell existing shares alongside the capital increase, Terium said, adding that no decision had been reached over how large the secondary offering would be.

Innogy's high share of regulated business is expected to attract infrastructure investors and pension funds, eager to buy stable assets with guaranteed returns.

In another German power spin-off, investors put a price tag of 3.9 billion euros ($4.4 billion) on power plant and energy trading firm Uniper when it began trading on Monday.

This gives shareholders in former parent E.ON an insight into the potential writedowns it faces.

Terium said RWE was seeking investors who would be buying Innogy shares for the long-haul.

"We want both: a broad distribution of shares but also long-term investors that can become anchor shareholders," he said.

Following the IPO, RWE will be Innogy's main shareholder with a stake of 90 percent or less, depending on how many shares it sells in addition to the capital increase.

RWE wants to remain a majority shareholder in the long-term.

(Editing by Harro ten Wolde and Alexander Smith)
By Se Young Lee

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's shares fell to their lowest level in nearly two months on Monday after the tech giant told customers to switch off and return their new Galaxy Note 7 smartphones due to fire-prone batteries.

Investors had wiped 15.9 trillion won (14.3 billion) off the South Korean firm's market capitalization as of 0303 GMT, as a series of warnings from regulators and airlines around the world raised fears for the future of the flagship device.

"Some said initially the Galaxy Note 7 could be the best smartphone ever, but now it's possible the phone will go down as the worst ever," IBK Securities analyst Lee Seung-woo said, predicting weak sales in the fourth quarter.

Samsung Electronics' common shares were down 6.3 percent to 1,476,000 won each after touching their lowest level since July 12, and were on track for their biggest daily percentage drop in more than four years.

Analysts said the recall could torpedo Galaxy Note 7 sales and have a lasting impact on the $211 billion company's brand image, which could derail a recovery in its smartphone market share against rivals like Apple Inc (AAPL.O).

The global smartphone leader on Saturday urged all customers to turn off their Note 7s and return them as soon as possible as part of the recall which it voluntarily initiated on Sept. 2.

UNPRECEDENTED

The recall is unprecedented for Samsung, which prides itself on its manufacturing prowess. Some analysts estimate the firm might lose $5 billion won worth of revenue after accounting for recall costs. The company had said it had sold 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7s that need to be replaced.

Nomura said it had cut its forecast for Samsung's third-quarter mobile operating profit by 900 billion won to 3.1 trillion won in the wake of the Note 7 recall.

"Even if Samsung puts Note 7s with new batteries in the market it won't sell as well as it had initially," HMC Investment analyst Greg Roh said.

"Long-term, it will cost Samsung significant marketing spending to ensure the next products can overcome this issue."

Story continues

The Note 7 problems are a major blow to Samsung's efforts to build on the strong sales of its Galaxy S7 smartphones launched in March.

The firm was beginning to claw back smartphone market share and had tried to pre-empt Apple by launching the almost $900 Note 7 on Aug. 19, about a month ahead of the latest iPhone release.

The recall forced Samsung to halt sales indefinitely in markets such as the United States and push back launches in other regions such as Europe.

($1 = 1,110.0000 won)

(Reporting by Se Young Lee and Nataly Pak; Editing by Stephen Coates)
Tata Motors launched mini-truck SuperAce in the Vietnam market, a year after foraying into the South East Asian country along with its local partner TMT Motors.

By India Today Web Desk: Tata Motors has launched its first product, a versatile mini-truck SuperAce, in Vietnam.

ALSO READ: Tata Motors unveils petrol version of Tiago in Nepal

The company has launched the vehicle in the Vietnam market, a year after foraying into the South East Asian country along with its local partner TMT Motors.

"Having officially announced our entry into Vietnam last year, we at Tata Motors are happy to announce the launch of our very first product, the Tata SuperAce mini-truck in the country today," Tata Motors Executive Director (Commercial Vehicles) Ravindra Pisharody said in a statement.

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Having sold over 1.5 million mini-trucks on the Ace platform globally so far, SuperAce has been developed based on Tata Motors deep understanding of the CV customer, for a wide range of applications, he added.

ALSO READ: Tata Motors launches Ultra 1012 light truck, Xenon XT D-Cab 4x4 pick-up

"Through our partnership with TMT Motors, we are committed to shaping the commercial vehicles industry here and are determined to build a long lasting relationships with the customers, with competitive business advantages and the trusted credentials of the Tata Motors brand," Pisharody said.

Rudrarup Maitra, Tata Motors Head, Commercial Vehicles, International Business said, "As one of the fastest growing economies in South East Asia, this presented us with a huge opportunity, to not only serve the future of this market, but to partner the country on that journey."

With the SuperAce, the company is perfectly positioned to fuel the potential growth, encouraging first time commercial vehicles customers to enter and successfully compete in the transportation space, he added.

ALSO READ: Tata Motors ups campaign against fake spare parts, raids 19 counterfeiters

Engineered to perform all the tasks of a small pick-up truck, the SuperAce has a rated payload of 1 tonne, meeting requirements of both inter and intra-city transportation, for market loads like cement, construction items, food grains, vegetables and fruits.

SuperAce comes with both diesel and petrol powered engines and can achieve a top speed of up to 130 kmph. It is available at seven sales points in Northern Vietnam and will soon be available across the country.

Tata Motors sells the model in Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Ghana, India.

ALSO READ: JLR will manage long-term impact of Brexit vote, says Tata Motors

--- ENDS ---
By Dan Levine

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and LG Electronics were accused of agreeing to avoid poaching each other's U.S. employees, according to a U.S. civil lawsuit filed last week, in what has become a familiar allegation in Silicon Valley.

The proposed class action, filed in a Northern California federal court by an LG sales manager, accuses Samsung and LG of antitrust violations and driving down employee wages. The case is similar to one against Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Google (GOOGL.O) and other tech companies which settled last year for $415 million.

Representatives for Samsung and LG could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday.

The plaintiff, A. Frost, says in the lawsuit that a recruiter contacted Frost via LinkedIn in 2013, seeking to fill a position with Samsung.

According to the lawsuit, the recruiter then informed Frost the same day: "I made a mistake! I'm not supposed to poach LG for Samsung!!! Sorry! The two companies have an agreement that they won't steal each other's employees."

It is "implausible" that such a deal in the United States could have been reached without the consent of each company's corporate parent in South Korea, says the lawsuit, which does not state a specific damages amount.

The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is A. Frost vs. LG Corporation, LG Electronics Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al., 16-5206.
PARIS (Reuters) - French drugmaker Sanofi (SASY.PA) and Verily, the life sciences unit of Google parent Alphabet Inc(GOOGL.O), on Monday said they would invest about $500 million in a joint venture combining devices with services to improve diabetes care, an example of growing ties between the pharma and tech sectors.

Sanofi said last year it was working on a partnership with Google in diabetes.

"The company will leverage Verily's experience in miniaturised electronics, analytics, and consumer software development, with Sanofi's clinical expertise and experience in bringing innovative treatments to people living with diabetes," the two companies said in a statement.

The Sanofi deal comes after British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) and Verily - formerly Google Life Sciences (GOOGL.O) - created a new company focussed on fighting diseases by targeting electrical signals in the body, a novel field of medicine called bioelectronics.

Verily is also working on development of a smart contact lens in partnership with Swiss drugmaker Novartis (NOVN.S) that has an embedded glucose sensor to help monitor diabetes.

Diabetes is an illness that involves keeping track of blood sugar levels, diet, multiple medications and other health issues, noted Verily Chief Medical Officer Jessica Mega.

"It's an area where we think new tools and sensors will be incredibly helpful," Mega said in a telephone interview.

"The idea is creating best-in-class biocompatible small sensors" that could, for example, monitor blood glucose, she said.

"We want to ... figure out the right mechanisms to get information to patients. Over time we hope to get information to people that is actionable," Mega said.

Nearly 400 million people worldwide have diabetes, with type 2 accounting for more than 90 percent of cases. Without proper treatment, it can lead to a wide variety of serious health complications.

The JV, called Onduo, "will initially focus on the type 2 diabetes community, specifically on developing solutions that could help people make better decisions about their day-to-day health, ranging from improved medication management to improved habits and goals," the companies said.

Story continues

A spokeswoman for Sanofi said products on sale would include connected objects such as insulin pens and online services.

She said Sanofi had invested $248 million in the joint venture, in which the French group controls a 50 percent stake.

Sanofi is working hard to revive declining sales in its diabetes division, hurt by sustained pricing pressure in the United States, the world's largest health market.

(Reporting by Matthias Blamont and Andrew Callus in Paris and Bill Berkrot in New York; Editing by Geert De Clercq and Andrew Hay)
(Adds Verily CMO interview, background)

PARIS, Sept 12 (Reuters) - French drugmaker Sanofi and Verily, the life sciences unit of Google parent Alphabet Inc, on Monday said they would invest about $500 million in a joint venture combining devices with services to improve diabetes care, an example of growing ties between the pharma and tech sectors.

Sanofi said last year it was working on a partnership with Google in diabetes.

"The company will leverage Verily's experience in miniaturised electronics, analytics, and consumer software development, with Sanofi's clinical expertise and experience in bringing innovative treatments to people living with diabetes," the two companies said in a statement.

The Sanofi deal comes after British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline and Verily - formerly Google Life Sciences - created a new company focused on fighting diseases by targeting electrical signals in the body, a novel field of medicine called bioelectronics.

Verily is also working on development of a smart contact lens in partnership with Swiss drugmaker Novartis that has an embedded glucose sensor to help monitor diabetes.

Diabetes is an illness that involves keeping track of blood sugar levels, diet, multiple medications and other health issues, noted Verily Chief Medical Officer Jessica Mega.

"It's an area where we think new tools and sensors will be incredibly helpful," Mega said in a telephone interview.

"The idea is creating best-in-class biocompatible small sensors" that could, for example, monitor blood glucose, she said.

"We want to ... figure out the right mechanisms to get information to patients. Over time we hope to get information to people that is actionable," Mega said.

Nearly 400 million people worldwide have diabetes, with type 2 accounting for more than 90 percent of cases. Without proper treatment, it can lead to a wide variety of serious health complications.

The JV, called Onduo, "will initially focus on the type 2 diabetes community, specifically on developing solutions that could help people make better decisions about their day-to-day health, ranging from improved medication management to improved habits and goals," the companies said.

Story continues

A spokeswoman for Sanofi said products on sale would include connected objects such as insulin pens and online services.

She said Sanofi had invested $248 million in the joint venture, in which the French group controls a 50 percent stake.

Sanofi is working hard to revive declining sales in its diabetes division, hurt by sustained pricing pressure in the United States, the world's largest health market.

(Reporting by Matthias Blamont and Andrew Callus in Paris and Bill Berkrot in New York; Editing by Geert De Clercq and Andrew Hay)
In December 2012, a Senate subcommittee was convened to examine the school-to-prison pipeline, a national trend in which overly punitive school discipline policies push students out of school and into the criminal-justice system. Among the witnesses at the first-ever congressional hearing on this issue was Edward Ward, at the time an honor-roll student in his sophomore year at DePaul University and a recent graduate of Orr Academy on the West Side of Chicago. He offered an eye-opening first-hand account of his high-school experience. From the moment we stepped through the doors in the morning, we were faced with metal detectors, X-ray machines, and uniformed security, said Ward, describing a high-poverty, majority-black campus where many young people  feel unwelcome and under siege.



Far from an aberration, what Ward depictspublic schools serving primarily black and other nonwhite students that rely on more restrictive securityis quite common, according to a new research paper from Jason P. Nance, an associate professor of law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. Nance set out to find if there was a proliferation of school security following highly publicized school shootings like the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. He discovered that many schools had intensified their security and surveillance of students, but the practice was not equally applied. Rather, schools with a preponderance of students of color within the school building were more inclined to adopt strict surveillance practicesmetal detectors, locked gates, security cameras, random sweeps, and school police.



In the first empirical analysis of its kind, Nance gained authorization to access a restricted database from the U.S. Department of Educationthe School Survey on Crime and Safety conducted in 2009-10 and 2013-14to examine school security methods pre- and post- the Newtown school massacre. He found a clear and consistent pattern, even after controlling for a host of variables that might explain the presence of stricter student surveillance, such as school crime, neighborhood crime, school disorder (disciplinary or behavioral problems on campus), and other student demographics and school characteristics.



After controlling for all those things, I still found that the concentration of students of color was a predictor of whether or not schools decided to rely on more intense [security] measures, said Nance, referring to black, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American children. I questioned why that was [and] it seemed like race was playing a factor in these decisions.



His research carefully documents the degree to which race influenced surveillance decisions. Nance used logistic regression modelsa statistical method for analyzing a datasetto predict the odds of a school using a particular combination of security options. The study suggests that as the portion of students of color in the school increased, so did the odds that the school would rely on more intense surveillance methods. In schools where students of color accounted for more than half of the student body, the probability of the school using a mix of metal detectors, school police and security guards, locked gates, and random sweeps was two to 18 times greater than at schools where the nonwhite population was less than 20 percent. Schools with higher concentrations of [students of color], he concluded, are more inclined to rely on heavy-handed measures to maintain order than other schools facing similar crime and discipline issues.

Story continues

African Americans tend to experience [educational inequalities] to the highest degree.

But not all school districts see stricter security policies as a downsideeven in districts serving an overwhelmingly nonwhite student body. In Boston, the chief of police for the citys schools told MassLive.com last year that metal detectors are a deterrent to thwart weapons in schools, and he considers the addition of the security method a success story. In Bostons three largest high schools, every student is required to walk through a metal detector every school day. The idea now is that schools are more of a safe zone and that helps parents, said Eric Weston, a 30-year veteran of school policing, who believes it makes students feel safer. They know they can't bring in a weapon, but they also know the kid behind them can't either.



The extent to which the increased security was related to race and ethnicity, rather than grounded in legitimate safety concerns, is further proven in a companion analysis in which Nance investigated the major, student-caused instances of school violence for the last 25 years using information culled from a CNN archive of U.S. school violence incidents and federal data on demographics of the relevant schools. The overwhelming majoritysome 62 percentof the occurrences of major school violence happened in schools that serve primarily white students. These findings are illustrative of a much greater problem that we have of racial inequalities within our [public] school system, Nance said, noting research on racial disparities in special-education placements, gifted-and-talented programs, and teacher expectations of academic success. He also acknowledged that African Americans tend to experience [educational inequalities] to the highest degree.



Additionally, the report emphasizes the educational and sociological harms of constant student surveillance, linking the over-reliance on strict security with students diminished feelings of trust and safety. One of the scholars who has studied and written extensively on this aspect is Pedro Noguera, a distinguished professor at UCLAs graduate school of education. When we think about what leads to safety in schools, we have to focus on how safety relates to the quality of relationships, relates to kids receiving the education they need, and not rely on excessive security, Noguera said. Because when we do, the impact on learning, the impact on the way kids feel about being there, and the likelihood [students] will be subject to very punitive forms of discipline goes way up.



In New York City, Noguera cites public schools with metal detectors where they literally cant get the kids into the building on time because [the screening] takes so long, and cautioned that the long-term impact can be seen in student motivation and engagement. You want schools to be safe, but at the same time you want them to be places where kids feel as though they can learn and be supported, Noguera said, adding that bringing police onto campus and placing youth under continuous surveillance begins to turn schools into institutions that are more like prisons.



The increasing reliance on strict security practices has led activists and students in some large city school districtswhere these methods are most commonly foundto push back against school environments where, as Noguera writes, the fixation on control tends to override all other educational objectives and concerns. A districtwide policy in Los Angeles to conduct random screenings with metal detector wands in all secondary schools (grades 6-12) has been in place for over two decades, yet concerns about the rule resurfaced in June, with local groups calling for the district to change its security procedures. Similarly in New York, the nations largest school district faces growing calls to remove metal detectors from schools.



Kesi Foster, the New York City coordinator for Urban Youth Collaborative, a student-led educational-justice coalition, is part of the movement to reform these practices. We have yet to see any evidence that this kind of [intensive surveillance and] policing  creates an academic environment where [students] are more likely to thrive, improves school culture and climate, or creates a safer learning environment. Yet cities, states, and the federal government continue to invest in these kind of strategies and the only results we see is the criminalization of black youth in their schools.

The message that we are giving to our students now is that white children have greater privacy rights than [nonwhite] children.

Curbing the involvement of school-resource officers in minor student misbehavior recently resulted in federal guidance from the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice emphasizing the importance of well-designed SRO programs. However, some advocates say the issue is broader than just preparation and training.



Foster works with black and Latino youth who go to school in the Bronx and Brooklyn and says strict surveillance creates an environment where young people understand the school system sees them always as a potential problem or threat. He describes schools practically across the street from each otherone a selective high school with no metal detectors and few school-safety agents, the other a majority-black neighborhood high school with metal detectors and police greeting students at the front door. The students with the metal detector understand in many ways the city sees them as less than or as criminal out the gate, said Foster.



Echoing UCLAs Noguera, Foster said studies show schools are safe when young people build strong, open, and positive relationships with adults in their building. School districts should divest the money they are spending on [surveillance and policing] and reinvest that money to hire more guidance counselors and restorative justice coordinators, and train community members to  support the social and emotional growth of children.



The research papers author endorses this idea. Nance says there are concrete ways for schools to create and maintain safe environments without depending on rigid security measuresincluding confronting subconscious attitudes and stereotypes that lead school staff to treat students of color differently. If [these disparities] are not existing because of safety concerns, then  my research tends to suggest that implicit racial bias seems to be explaining  why we see them.



He speaks from a theoretical and a practical perspective: Nance taught in Houston from 1996 to 1999 and observed drug-sniffing dogs, metal detectors, and police officers within a school serving mainly students of color. Conceding that most educators are acting in good faith andcare about kids, he still worries about the lingering effects.



The message that we are giving to our students now is that white children have greater privacy rights than [nonwhite] children. That, to me, is fundamentally unfair. That, to me, exacerbates the racial tensions that our nation is already confronting. Why are we feeding that?

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
hillary clinton

Members of the US Secret Service followed "atypical protocol" during Hillary Clinton's abrupt departure from a Sunday memorial service for the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to The Washington Post.

Video captured at the New York City event showed the Democratic presidential nominee struggling to keep her balance as she was helped into a black van. Aides said Clinton felt "overheated," and her personal doctor later revealed Clinton had been found to have pneumonia on Friday.

According to The Post, it is unusual for Secret Service agents to allow a subject to wait for a car to arrive, as Clinton did while standing on a curb on Sunday.

It's also unusual for the leader of the detail to leave the subject's side. In the video, detail leader Todd Madison was seen leaving Clinton's side to open the doors of the van.

The atypical behavior was most likely a result of the unexpectedly rushed exit, a former agent told The Post.

"Every once in a while, you have to call an audible," he said. "We follow a methodology, not a script."

The Post originally reported that the agents may have broken Secret Service protocol. An agency spokesman, however, said in a statement that "at no time did any Secret Service personnel violate security protocols."

FACT CHECK: At no time did @SecretService personnel violate security protocols during the early departure of one of our protectees.  U.S. Secret Service (@SecretService) September 11, 2016

The @SecretService is confident in the actions taken by its Protective Detail earlier today.  U.S. Secret Service (@SecretService) September 11, 2016

NOW WATCH: Naked Donald Trump statues are popping up across America





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According to new Aon data, one of the big consequences of self-driving cars' life-saving capabilities, could be big money savings in the form of lower insurance premiums. The Global Insurance Market Opportunities Report, published Monday, suggests that even if uptake is slow, by 2035, there could be enough autonomous cars on US roads to cut insurance premiums by 20% compared with current levels.

And, if autonomous cars become the norm by 2050 (that's the model that Aon is working with) premiums will be 40% lower.

"Adoption of autonomous vehicles will of course be affected by many variables," said Paul Mang, CEO of Aon Analytics. "However, we as an industry need to act quickly to ensure that we have the products available to align to the new paradigm."

Aon's research predicts that there could be an 81% drop in insurance claims frequency once self-driving really hit the road. However, that could be offset by an increase in repair costs -- radar and laser sensors are very expensive to replace.

Consumers may be warming to the idea of self-driving cars, but even recent studies on the subject show that people still aren't completely convinced by the benefits of autonomous vehicles.

A March study from JD Power of 7,900 US adults found that only young drivers (56%) are ready to actively embrace and put their trust in the concept. Just 23% of Baby Boomers (the biggest car buyers) have faith in the technologies.

Aon's data could change this as it appeals to the public's purse strings, rather than their heart strings, particularly those of older drivers. However there are still ethical issues to overcome.

A research paper published in the journal Science in June, found that consumers believe a self-driving car should sacrifice its driver in order to save 10 pedestrians, unless it's their car, of course. Then it should protect their life at all costs.

Therefore, clarity is key according to Thatcham, the UK insurance industry-funded automotive research center. It is calling for a simplification of the language around self-driving car systems.

"Keeping things simple and clear is paramount," said Peter Shaw, Chief Executive of Thatcham Research. "There is still much work to be done by legislators and the automotive industry to give drivers absolute clarity and confidence around what automated driving systems are capable of doing and under what circumstances they can be used."

Yet it also says that drivers will have to take responsibility for actions, and a list of strict rules relating to what they will and won't be allowed to do when behind the wheel of an autonomous car should be created.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A new round of talks between the Syrian government and opposition may be held in early October, the RIA news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov as saying on Monday. "I think that probably at the very beginning of October (U.N. Syria envoy Staffan) de Mistura should invite all the parties," Bogdanov, who is a special presidential representative for the Middle East and Africa, was quoted as saying. The United States and Russia hailed a breakthrough deal on Saturday to put Syria's peace process back on track, including a nationwide truce effective from sundown on Monday, improved humanitarian aid access and joint military targeting of banned Islamist groups. (Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Maria Kiselyova)
Sixteen-year-old Beau Jessop has earned 50,000 pounds giving Chinese babies English names and has helped over 200,000 Chinese parents in the past six months.

By India Today Web Desk: While on a family trip to China, a couple casually asked 16-year-old Beau Jessup to name their baby. That's when she came up with the idea make a living out of a baby-naming website.

The website named specialname .cn makes a whopping 16,000 pounds sales in just a month. Apart from the traditional Chinese names, parents in China give their children an English name for future study or business in Britain.

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One of the main reasons she started this service was when she heard a few 'embarrassing' names. Speaking to the BBC she said, 'I once heard of someone called Gandalf and another called Cinderella.'

Photo:Instgram/beaujessup

Since the website launched six months ago, Beau has given names to over 200,000 Chinese babies.

The SpecialName website started by Beau, asks users to choose the child's gender and 12 personality traits that they wish babies will grow to. The site then analyses the choices and the best names suited for their child. The message is then shred on We-Chat, the Chinese equivalent of WhatsApp.

Each naming process which takes not more than 3 minutes, costs close to 60p.

--- ENDS ---
Santiago (AFP) - Seven officers were injured and 49 people arrested as protesters erected barricades and clashed with police on the 43rd anniversary of the military coup that brought Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to power, the government said Monday.

The violence, which also included power outages, began Sunday on the periphery of Santiago but spread to the metropolitan area overnight, where demonstrators remained in the streets until the early hours.

One initially peaceful march ended with clashes between hooded people and police who fired tear gas into the crowd.

The government reported 140 violent episodes during Sunday's anniversary events marking the military toppling of the elected socialist government of president Salvador Allende in 1973.

"The situation this (September) 11th has been less intense than the last," said Deputy Interior Minister Mahmud Aleuy, noting that the number of violent incidents had decreased by more than half.

He said that those responsible for the violence were criminals who used the day's commemorations to take advantage of the situation.

"Those who are firing guns at night are not people who are commemorating an event, they are people carrying out criminal acts," he said.

One of the injured officers was shot in the leg, but is not in critical condition.

President Michelle Bachelet paid tribute to Allende Sunday, stating that as long as "memory lives, no one has been defeated, no one has been forgotten."

The Pinochet regime killed an estimated 3,200 people and tortured 38,000 from the time the army commander seized power in 1973 to the return to democracy in 1990.
18 companies pulled out from the securities market.

The local bourse lost $6.1 billion YTD in total market capitalisation as delistings rise to 18 from January to August 2016.

Data from Singapore Exchange revealed that the month of June had the highest number of delistings so far with five companies exiting the market and contributing $845 million in market cap loss. The largest loss recorded was in August at $2.4 billion or about 40% of total YTD losses. This involved three companies namely China Merchants Holdings-Pacific ($1.5 billion), Osim International ($912 million) and Pacific Healthcare Holdings ($4 million).

The losses due to delistings, however, was offset by 17 new listings this year as at August 31 amounting to $6.4 billion in market cap at IPO and generating $2.3 billion in funds. REITs were the top fundraisers with Frasers Logistics and Industrial Trust as the largest deal with $928 million of funds raised, followed by Manulife US Reit ($648 million), and EC World Reit ($346 million).





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NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / September 12, 2016 / The following statement is being issued by Levi & Korsinsky, LLP:

To: All Persons or Entities who purchased Raptor Pharmaceutical Corp. ("Raptor") (RPTP) stock prior to September 12, 2016 .

You are hereby notified that Levi & Korsinsky, LLP has commenced an investigation into the fairness of the sale of Raptor to Horizon Pharma Plc (HZNP) for $9.00 per share. To learn more about the action and your rights, go to:

http://zlk.9nl.com/raptor-pharmaceutical-rptp

or contact Joseph E. Levi, Esq. either via email at jlevi@zlk.com or by telephone at (212) 363-7500, toll-free: (877) 363-5972. There is no cost or obligation to you.

Levi & Korsinsky is a national firm with offices in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, California, and Washington D.C. The firm's attorneys have extensive expertise in prosecuting securities litigation involving financial fraud, representing investors throughout the nation in securities lawsuits and have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for aggrieved shareholders. For more information, please feel free to contact any of the attorneys listed below. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

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SOURCE: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP
American Idol was honored with the Governors Award Sunday night at the Creative Arts Emmys. While accepting the award, creator Simon Fuller said that the show will be returning to Fox in 2018.

Turns out, Fuller was just kidding.

Thank you for bringing the show back in 2018, Fuller said to Fox Television Group chairman and CEO Dana Walden, who stood on stage next to him as he accepted the award, along with FremantleMedia Groups CEO Cecile Frot-Coutaz. He added, We cant wait to make it.

Also during his acceptance speech, Fuller thanked executive producer Trish Kinane, saying that shes in charge of the future of American Idol. As Fuller exited the stage, he teased to the audience, See you in 2018!

The award, which the Television Academy awards annually to honor exceptional achievement in the television arts and sciences, marks the second Governors Award to be received by American Idol. In 2007, the Fox singing competition won for its philanthropic episode Idol Gives Back.

In presenting the award to Idol, the Television Academys Bruce Rosenblum said, Its enormous audience may be the last of its kind, noting that the show has earned 67 Emmy nominations.

Fuller quipped: Its been 15 years and this is the first Emmy weve actually won for the show  can you believe that?

The shows host, Ryan Seacrest, was nominated for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program, and many predicted he would win for the shows final season, but the award went to RuPaul Charles for RuPauls Drag Race, marking his first-ever Emmy.

(Variety reached out to Fox, and a spokesperson for the network confirmed that there are no plans to bring back American Idol in 2018.)

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Some thirty-something hipster agents keep stopping me to say it is the best thing they have ever seen, Illumination chief Chris Meledandri told me moments after the World Premiere of the new animated feature Sing had wrapped and he arrived at the after-party at Montecito Restaurant. The film, which depicts an American Idol-style audition for a group of singing animals, was an instant hit at a packed screening at the Princess Of Wales Theatre Sunday afternoon.

The move, an unusual one for a big holiday major studio toon, made a statement here at the Toronto International Film Festival that this film would not only be a major hit and priority for Universal and Illumination, but that it would also be an awards player in the unusually heavy Animated Feature competition this year. Showing up with a splashy event at TIFF is one way to do it, and with voiceover stars Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon and Scarlett Johansson on hand, along with a post mini-concert of a few of the films 65 songs by co-stars Jennifer Hudson and Tori Kelly, the fans went wild, both outside where the biggest crowd I have seen here in a long time strained to get photos, and inside where the crowd with tickets was equally enthusiastic.

When I asked Meledandri if he was surprised by the reception he definitely answered in the affirmative. I was surprised because in the 30 years I have been in the business I have never seen anything like it, not with Ice Age, not with Despicable Me, not with Minions, he said. It is rare that every song gets applause from the audience, but this film did that. Universals Ron Meyer was among those showing support at the after-party and he told me he was certainly thrilled with the reaction as well. And why not? Illumination has become Universals most reliable cash cow, with one hit after another, most recently this summers smash The Secret Life Of Pets. And I think Sing could equal it and put the studio in the Oscar race in the ani feature category.

In a show of synergy, the party at Montecito for Sing later was turned over to Us specialty label Focus for their North American premiere of Cannes success Loving. I caught up with stars Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga at that one where they were pleased with the standing ovation the film received for its first appearance outside of Cannes for an English-speaking audience. Although this was in Canada, not the states where the moving and quietly dignified story of the inter-racial marriage takes place, the stars noticed a marked difference in how the audience reacted in particular to the lighter moments. Director Jeff Nichols for his part told me he was pleased the audience got very silent for some key scenes. That means it played just like he wanted. Focus Features releases Loving on November 4. Busy Focus also was bringing their Tom Ford Venice Film Festival Silver Bear winner, Nocturnal Animals in for its North American premiere Sunday night in the 10 PM late slot, and just yesterday rolled out A Monster Calls here as well.

Another Sunday World Premiere here at TIFF, also at the busy Princess Of Wales Theatre, was Bleecker Streets smart and powerful holocaust drama, Denial which stars Rachel Weisz as academic Deborah Lipstadt who along with her publisher was sued in 2000 by Holocaust denier David Irving (an excellent Timothy Spall). Although this case happened 16 years ago, more than one moviegoer Sunday night noticed the current relevance of the film, particularly during the presidential campaign season. One key scene shows the role the powerful media can play in establishing what is true and what isnt, even if at odds with the facts. Weisz is splendid here and when Lipstadt spoke during the brief Q&A after credits rolled, the sound and cadence of her voice sounded exactly like Weisz who is just excellent here. Rolling it out slowly starting September 30 is a strategy endorsed by Bleecker Streets Andrew Karpen who believes he will have much of October to himself for this adult-skewing drama, plus it is just weeks before the election and Denial gives food for thought that could play into that. No coincidence there.

After its screening the movie received a standing ovation. At the Q&A, Lipstadt explained how she bonded with Weisz before the film started shooting, with Weisz asking all sorts of personal questions to get to her essence, even calling her several times before key scenes in order to get it exactly right. The courtroom dialogue is taken directly from the actual transcripts to ensure authenticity so there was no improvising. Rachel would call me at night before she was about to film a scene and say tell me what you were thinking, tell me how this was for you. She wanted as much information as possible, not to mimic me but to take all that in but to create her own Deborah Lipstadt. I think she did a damn good job, she said.

Weisz is currently doing rehearsals for David Hares play Plenty, so only made a brief appearance to intro the film before heading back to that. Hare certainly understood, as he wrote the screenplay as well for Denial, which is directed by Mick Jackson and produced by Gary Foster and Russ Krasnoff for Participant Media and Bleecker Street. Co-star Tom Wilkinson, refusing to use the mikes, spoke movingly about their shoot at Auschwitz.

Lipstadt explained there were limitations for the actors and that the actual gas chamber set was re-created elsewhere due to the restrictions of the real thing. However they did those scenes, they were powerful. Lipstadt summed up the themes of the film. I think it sends a message to stand up to hatred, to stand up to prejudice, to stand up to lies. If this film sends a message about the difference between truth and lies I will be very satisfied. I dont think it will solve the problem of the rise in demogoguery. I dont think it will solve the assault on facts, of people making up their own facts. If it helps a little bit though I will be satisfied, she said. Bleecker Street plans to launch an Oscar campaign on its behalf , and judging by the first-nighters reactions it could gain some traction in key categories.

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The agreement aims to create more opportunities for FinTech companies.

At an annual financial dialogue, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) entered into an agreement to expand cooperation on FinTech.

According to MAS, the deal will help spur opportunities for FinTech businesses from Singapore and Switzerland to grow into each others markets.

The deal provides a framework for innovative FinTech companies in Singapore and Switzerland to speed up discussions on introducing new FinTech solutions in each others market and understand regulatory requirements, thus helping to reduce regulatory uncertainty and the time-to-market for these new FinTech solutions, MAS explained.

On top of this, the two economies also committed to exchange information on emerging FinTech trends and regulatory issues pertaining to innovation.





More From Singapore Business Review


Tough choices: When his small riverine craft was surrounded by armed Iranian boats in the Persian Gulf earlier this year, the U.S. Navys Lt. David Nartker faced a stark choice: shoot his way out, potentially igniting a war with Tehran, or trust that the Iranians wouldnt kill his crew. He chose to stand down.

In an exclusive interview with Foreign Policys Dan De Luce, Nartker strongly defended his role in the Jan. 12 incident, arguing that he safeguarded the lives of his crew, adding, I 110 percent believe I would be in Fort Leavenworth right now if I had ordered to fire on the Iranians.

De Luce writes, speaking publicly for the first time about the case, Nartker offered an alternative narrative to the one painted by the U.S. Navy, which has reprimanded him for dereliction of duty. He described a harrowing confrontation near Farsi Island as two Iranian vessels equipped with machine guns encircled his riverine boats. He said he had only seconds to decide whether to order his crew to open fire or to look for a way out of the showdown.

Early on, Nartker thought about aiming his M4 assault rifle at a Iranian gunner only about 10 feet away. I know I could have hit that guy and killed him, he said. But he ruled it out. I was thinking, I am not going to kill this guy right now over a bullshit navigation mistake, he said. There would be a dead Iranian in Iranian waters. And there was no way to claim it was international waters.

Syrian ceasefire. At least 90 people were killed in airstrikes that rained down on rebel-held areas of northwestern Syria on Saturday and Sunday in a bombing campaign carried about by Syrian and Russian jets hours before a new ceasefire takes effect at sundown Monday.

That marker kicks of a critical seven-day window where rebel groups need to start separating themselves from the Syria Conquest Front (formerly Nusra Front), or risk being targeted by American and Russian planes. The deal is part of the ceasefire hammered out by Washington and Moscow that would ground the Syrian air force for a week to allow humanitarian supplies to finally begin to flow into besieged cities like Aleppo. If the ceasefire holds by next weekend, the U.S. and Russia will begin coordinating strikes on Syria Conquest fighters. Few in Washington think the deal will hold, however.

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Scores of rebel groups are intertwined with Nusra across Syrias north in a complex series of local alliances that will make it difficult to pull them apart cleanly. Mostafa Mahamed, the director of foreign media relations for Syria Conquest Front, told the Wall Street Journal in a statement that that his group had the support of numerous groups on the ground, and we expect a united stance of all major players in Syria against this dealmake no mistake about it. The U.S. and Russia have agreed to end this revolution.

More nukes tests? Assessment by South Korean and U.S. intelligence is that the North is always ready for an additional nuclear test, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun said on Monday. Fridays nuclear test  the Norths largest ever  reinforced fears in Washington and across Asia that Pyongyangs military advances could soon outpace the missile defense systems the United States and its regional allies have built up over the last decade, FPs Paul McLeary and Dan De Luce write.

Experts and former officials told FP that Washington and its Asian allies could be in danger of falling behind as North Korea builds longer-range and increasingly reliable missiles that expand its potential reach, and threaten to overwhelm expensive, and untested missile-defense systems.

More sanctions, more frustrations. Following Fridays tests, President Barack Obama pledged to unleash a new round of sanctions on Pyongyang, but as FPs John Hudson and David Francis point out, decades of economic punishments have done nothing to stop the North so far, and experts they spoke to said they dont see more sanctions making much of a difference. No amount of sanctions will stop North Korea, Jae Ku, the director of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, told Foreign Policy. Nuclear weapons are their sole survival strategy.

Good morning and as always, if you have any thoughts, announcements, tips, or national security-related events to share, please pass them along to SitRep HQ. Best way is to send them to: paul.mcleary@foreignpolicy.com or on Twitter: @paulmcleary or @arawnsley

South Korea

South Korea is now announcing its plans to strike at North Koreas leadership in the event of a nuclear crisis, following last weeks North Korean nuclear test. A South Korean military source tells Yonhap News Agency that Pyongyang would be reduced to ashes by the Souths ballistic missiles and artillery fire if Seoul suspected the North was about to use its nuclear weapons. The Korea Massive Punishment & Retaliation plan, as its called, would pay particular attention to sections of Pyongyang likely to house North Korean military leaders, such as Kim Jong Un.

Russia

Russia held war games on Ukraines Crimean peninsula over the weekend, the first since Russia invaded and annexed the territory in 2014, according to the New York Times. The exercises simulated the repelling of an amphibious assault on Crimea and joined a series of other drills carried out in southern Russia. Moscow has been fortifying its positions on the peninsula, including the deployment of Russias most advanced air defense system, the S-400 Triumf.

Paris

French officials say theyve broken up a cell of Islamic State-linked female commandos over the past week. The AP reports that the discovery of the cell was prompted by an apparently failed bomb plot after authorities discovered a car packed with gas canisters in Paris. Officers quickly arrested Ornella G., a woman allegedly linked to the gas canister car, whom intelligence officials say had intended to travel to Syria. Ornellas car led police to the home of three women, where two women attacked police with a knife and one was shot in the leg by police. One of the attackers, Sarah H, had intended to marry Mohamed Lamine A, the brother of a man who stabbed a police officer and his wife to death in front of their three year old son on behalf of the Islamic State.

The Islamic State

Foreign fighter traffic to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is drying up as the U.S.-backed coalition shrinks the size of the caliphates territory, the Washington Post reports. American intelligence now estimates that the number of monthly arrivals has fallen to about 50, down from a peak of roughly 2,000. That jives with estimates from Frances Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who recently announced that the country is seeing four times fewer foreign fighters traveling to the caliphate in the first half of 2016 compared to 2015. Experts now worry that would be foreign fighters and veterans of the caliphate are turning their attention to attacks at home instead.

Israel

Israel once again struck targets in Syria following another incident in which Syrian artillery hit Israeli territory in the Golan Heights. The Times of Israel reports that the Syrian military fired a rocket characterized as spillover from fighting within Syria by an Israeli military spokesperson. Syrian artillery has frequently fired across the border and the most recent firing marked the third such incident in a single week. Israeli Air Force planes responded by striking Syrian army positions.

Arsenals

The Pentagons Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) still hasnt decided on the platform it will use for its arsenal plane concept, FlightGlobal reports. The arsenal plane would be a large, long-range aircraft that could loiter at large distances from its targets to fire long range standoff weapons targeted by other aircraft. Early concept sketches had the plane using a B-52 wings and engines attached to a C-130 fuselage but SCO director William Roper says the office hasnt gotten that far yet.

Army

The U.S. Army is threatening a Green Beret with an other-than-honorable discharge for breaking his neck while trying to save a girl he thought was dying. The Daily Beast reports that the Army wants to kick out SFC Tim Brumit because his toxicology report showed trace amounts of cocaine and amphetamines in his system while diving into too-shallow water in an attempt to save a girl he believed to be drowning. Brumit admits to having a coping problem due to post traumatic stress. The Armys ruling threatens to strip the now-paralyzed soldier and his family of his benefits.

Making Moves

Sarah Arkin, foreign policy adviser for Florida congresswoman and former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, is switching chambers and joining the office of Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey who shell advise on foreign policy

Photo Credit: MARWAN NAAMANI/AFP/Getty Images
By PTI: India, Pledge to Contribute to Indias Energy Targets With (Attn.editors: The following press release comes to you under an arrangement with PRNewswire. PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same). Top French Technology Companies in Renewable Sector Visit India, Pledge to Contribute to Indias Energy Targets With Cutting-edge Technologies

NEW DELHI, September 12, 2016/PRNewswire/ -- A French delegation specialising in the renewable energy sector with prime focus on innovation, energy production and control visited India from 5th-9th September, 2016. The delegation comprised leading French technology companies, and representatives of associations and federations of the French renewable energy sector.

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These companies are actively looking for partnerships to contribute to the renewable energy targets in India through innovative solutions and technology cooperation. They presented their expertise and cutting-edge technologies ranging from solar trackers, water turbines to software for energy information systems, and more. They also took part in the Renewable Energy India Expo held in Noida (7th-8th September) during which they presented their innovative solutions.

The French delegation, which travelled to Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Roorkee, met key R&D players in the renewable energy sector in India, including NISE, IISc Bangalore; IIT Bombay, WISE, L&T, Tata Power, IL&FS, etc. They also met officials at the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in New Delhi. Their week-long programme in India concluded with a seminar, jointly organised by the Embassy of France in India and The Energy and Resources Institute, on Implementing the Paris Agreement: partnerships for innovation and technology.

List of Participating French Companies

HeliosLite: A technology provider of disruptive photovoltaic tracking solutions for on and off grid applications. http://www.helioslite.com

Optimum Tracker: An innovation-driven company specializing in design, manufacturing, installation and maintenance of patented Solar Trackers and Fixed-Tilt structures for large PV Power Plant. http://www.optimum-tracker.com

QOS Energy: A software provider specialising in energy information systems, such as Qantum(R), a solar monitoring software and O&M management platform that helps maximise the performance and availability of more than 3500 renewable plants worldwide. http://www.qosenergy.com

Trace Software: Through its archelios suite(TM), Trace Software provides a unique solution that enables to work on all the aspects of a photovoltaic project - from the feasibility study to the complete generation of the calculation notes and documentation needed for its implementation. http://www.cythelia.fr/en

Verteole: This company has gained a worldwide reputation in the self-consumption field and the development of autonomous systems (lightning, Wi-Fi, radio network, camera, and so on. http://www.verteole.com

FINERGREEN: A financial advisor dedicated to renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. (MORE) PRNewswire JSR

--- ENDS ---
Sept 12 (Reuters) - Solar panel installer SolarCity Corp , which is being bought by Tesla Motors Inc for $2.6 billion, said on Monday it had raised $305 million to fund its projects.

A private investment fund affiliated with Quantum Strategic Partners Ltd provided the equity investment, the company said.

The fund was advised by Soros Fund Management LLC.

The deal included an 18-year-loan syndicated to five institutional investors, SolarCity said.

The solar company said last month it faced greater-than-usual delays in closing new project financing commitments due to its takeover talks with Tesla.

(Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru:; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
Montpellier (France) (AFP) - Montpellier's South African hooker Bismarck Du Plessis has been ruled out for up to three months after tearing a muscle in his chest, sources in the club confirmed on Monday.

Du Plessis, 32, will have to undergo surgery a scan on Monday revealed, and will be out for between two to three months.

Capped 79 times for the Springboks, Du Plessis picked up the injury in Saturday's 41-13 home win against Pau.

He will miss several big games for the club including their European Cup opener on October 15 at Northampton.

Montpellier are fifth in the Top 14 after four games.
The two men whose power struggle sparked South Sudans brutal civil war in late 2013 have reaped millions of dollars over the course of the conflict, according to a two-year investigation into profiteering carried out by an NGO watchdog.

A new report released by the Sentry, an initiative cofounded by actor George Clooney and the Enough Projects John Prendergast, outlines how President Salva Kiir, former Vice President Riek Machar, and a variety of top military officials amassed personal wealth while civilians suffered under their watch.

The leaders of South Sudans warring parties manipulate and exploit ethnic divisions in order to drum up support for a conflict that serves the interestsof the top leaders of these two kleptocratic networks, the report said.

More than 50,000 people have been killed and more than a million displaced during the conflict, which has continued despite a peace deal that Kiir and Machar both signed in August 2015. Machar returned to the capital of Juba in April in a bid to form the shaky transitional government agreed upon in the earlier peace deal, but left in July after renewed fighting broke out between his forces and those loyal to Kiir. Last week, the U.S. State Department  which backed the peace process and facilitated Machars return to Juba earlier this year  said he should give up the idea of again becoming first vice president, a job he was promised in the August 2015 deal.

Over the course of the conflict, Machar has repeatedly claimed  both in conversations with Foreign Policy and in other public forums  that he lacked the funds to call his troops home from the bush and thus end the conflict, demanding again and again that the United States fund his purchases of tents and food to urge men back from the battlefields. Provide us tents, food, medicines, water so that they are assembled and they wait, he told FP in October. A tent is a dividend for peace.

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But according to the Sentrys findings, Machars financial network is expansive, and while civilians hid in swamps and United Nations camps, his family (and at times Machar himself) resided in luxurious villas in Ethiopia and Kenya, thus avoiding the consequences of the civil war. Ironically, his newest home in Nairobi is in the upscale Lavington neighborhood, not far from one that belong to Kiirs family. The report says Machars family home there has a large backyard with a large stone patio and a teardrop-shaped, in-ground swimming pool. Kiir and other officials from both sides have managed to invest millions of dollars in properties outside of South Sudan, despite their meager government salaries. (Kiirs amounted to roughly $60,000 per year and Machars to around $54,000.)

Meanwhile, Kiirs 12-year-old son appears on documents as holding 25 percent of interest in a company where his job title is listed simply as son of president. That son is one of at least seven of Kiirs children who hold stakes in various businesses.

Both men have also used their fortunes to directly fund the brutal conflict. The report says Kiir spent tens of millions of state dollars to purchase attack helicopters, which his troops then used against civilians, as well as to recruit, train, and unleash a private militia on civilians and rival factions within the military. Machar, on the other hand, reportedly used an intermediary to negotiate weapons purchases from a Ukrainian company. His nephew is also accused of unlawfully taking over an east African security companys office in Juba and seizing its property.

Photo credit: ALBERT GONZALEZ FARRAN/AFP/Getty Images
Juba (AFP) - A report commissioned by actor-activist George Clooney alleging massive corruption and war profiteering by leaders of South Sudan, the world's newest nation, is "completely rubbish", the government said Tuesday.

A spokesman for President Salva Kiir said the report released in Washington at a high-profile press conference headed by Clooney was "misleading" and ill-intentioned.

The result of a two-year inquiry, the report details how Kiir and his former deputy turned rebel leader Riek Machar -- who is currently in Khartoum receiving medical treatment -- profited largely from a three-year conflict that has driven 2.5 million people from their homes and left half the population dependent on food aid to survive.

The "key catalyst" of the war was "competition for the grand prize -- control over state assets and the country's abundant natural resources," notably its oil, it said.

The report itself is completely rubbish," said Wek. "Yes, there is corruption in South Sudan but this report has fallen short of detailing the corruption."

- 'Politically motivated' -

He said its real aim was to undermine the regime. "The report is misleading, it is politically motivated to tarnish the personality of President Kiir."

The government may decide to make a legal challenge, hiring a legal firm in the US, he added.

Clooney charged that South Sudan's warring leaders and their cronies have amassed fortunes, including foreign properties and stakes in international firms, while prosecuting a murderous conflict.

Top officials' families "often live in multi-million-dollar mansions outside the country, stay in five-star hotels, reap the benefits of what appears to be a system of nepotism and shady corporate deals, and drive around in luxury cars," the report said.

A spokesman for Machar denied the allegations, saying "the house he's staying in is being paid using the money contributed by the members of the movement."

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The report "is a baseless lie," said Dickson Gatluak.

The inquiry was carried out by The Sentry, a watchdog group founded by Clooney and rights activist John Prendergast.

After presenting its results, Clooney and actor Don Cheadle stopped by at the White House to discuss South Sudan with President Barack Obama.

The United Nations is currently seeking to beef up its peace-keeping effort to protect civilians and aid workers due to a new flare-up in fighting.

After decades of fighting, South Sudan became independent in 2011. The latest bout of bloodshed erupted in December 2013 when Kiir accused former deputy Machar of plotting a coup. UN experts have blamed both camps for reigniting the fighting.
Southwest Airlines Co. LUV recently announced that it has reached a tentative agreement with Transport Workers Union Local 556, which represents its Flight Attendants.

The agreement is yet to be ratified by the Flight Attendants and the company has not disclosed dates or other details associated with the ratification vote. The deal, if ratified, will benefit the company and its operations.

Southwest has been focused on making consistent efforts to reach employee agreements for quite some time. Recently, the company reached an agreement in principle with Facilities Maintenance Technician, which is subject to review by Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Associations (AMFA) National Executive Committee before being voted upon. The company also announced a tentative agreement with its Pilots, whose current contract became amenable in Sep 2012. Furthermore, the company inked a deal with its ground staff earlier in 2016.

Last month, the company announced the retirement of its Senior Vice President of Labor Relations, Randy Babbitt, who joined the company in 2012. Notably, Babbit spent more than fifty years in the commercial aviation industry. The company had reached six contracts during his tenure.

August Traffic Results

Southwest Airlines recently posted an increase in traffic and capacity by 3.6% and 4.6%, respectively, for the month of August. However, the companys load factor deteriorated by 80 basis points to 84.6% as capacity expansion outpaced traffic growth.

Due to a technology outage issue in July this year, Southwest Airlines continues to expect a decline of 3.5% to 4.5% in operating revenue per Available Seat Mile (RASM) from the third quarter of 2015. Earlier, the company was anticipating a decline in RASM in the range of 3% to 4%.

Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider

Southwest Airlines currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell). A better-ranked stock in this industry with Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) is Copa Holdings SA CPA. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Other well-ranked stocks in the airline space include ANA Holdings Inc. ALNPY and SkyWest Inc. SKYW. Both these stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

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By Suzanne DiMaggio

Best Defense guest columnist

As North Korea carried out its fifth nuclear test last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency released its third report assessing the status of the nuclear deal that the United States and five other world powers reached with Iran over a year ago. Although it received scant attention, the report confirmed that the landmark deal is working  Iran continues to be in full compliance with the agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

It is tempting to want to think that the Iran nuclear agreement could offer a similar path forward with North Korea. But the two cases are so different that its difficult to compare them. The most obvious and important difference is that North Korea has crossed the nuclear weapons threshold, while Iran has never possessed a nuclear weapon. Beyond this, differences abound in the two countries systems of government, economies, demographics, and so forth. As an American who has had the rare opportunity to travel to both countries over the years, I have experienced these differences firsthand.

It is clear the applicability of the JCPOA as a model is limited at best. Nonetheless, the process of diplomacy that the U.S. pursued with Iran could offer some insights on how to begin engagement with a long-standing adversary with leadership that is extremely distrustful of the United States, and vice versa.

Following several years spent on the build-up of an international sanctions coalition against Irans nuclear program, in 2012 President Barack Obama authorized U.S. officials to participate in discreet diplomatic exchanges with their Iranian counterparts. Through these discussions, the Americans conveyed a turn away from regime change in Iran as a strategic objective. While making clear that the U.S. government was not prepared to accept a nuclear weapons capable Iran under any circumstances, the U.S. communicated that it was prepared to accept Iran having a peaceful, heavily monitored nuclear capability, signaling that some enrichment activities could continue. The United States also dropped the precondition of requiring Iran to suspend enrichment in order to begin direct talks on the nuclear issue. These clarifications made it possible for the Iranians to move forward. As a result of the dialogue and an exchange of letters between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Obama, U.S. officials came away with the belief that Iran was ready to begin negotiations that would ensure their nuclear activities were strictly limited to peaceful purposes.

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There were reportedly a total of 12 such meetings convened in Muscat, Geneva, and New York over a period of about 16 months. This under-the-radar dialogue paved the way to formal negotiations within the context of the P5+1 group that included the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council  China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, plus Germany.

The Iranian leadership took the outreach seriously because it knew the decision to engage was made at the highest level in Washington. The Iranian negotiators, in turn, were authorized to take part in the discussions by Irans Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The direct channel made it possible to conduct the sensitive talks away from the limelight and allowed the negotiators to have substantive, detailed discussions over a solid period of time. (The breakthrough in U.S.-Cuban relations began in a similar way when Obama authorized secret talks in the spring of 2013.) The dialogue provided opportunities for American and Iranian officials to convey authoritative messages and reassurances, opening the way for an interim deal.

While keeping in mind the many failed attempts at engagement since U.S.-Iran relations were severed in 1980  along with the considerable domestic political constraints they were sure to face  American and Iranian officials concluded they would have a greater chance of success by limiting the focus of their discussions to Irans nuclear program and sanctions relief. They adopted a win-win narrative early on, acknowledging that each side would have to make concessions in order to get to a successful outcome.

The many profound differences that exist between the two governments were not part of the dialogue  nor were the objectives of a broader rapprochement and diplomatic normalization. They set an initial goal of hammering out an interim agreement, which froze key elements of Irans nuclear program in exchange for limited sanctions relief and provided the time and political space for the P5+1 to pursue a comprehensive accord. As part of this incremental and painstaking process, a framework agreement was reached in April 2015, setting a path to a final agreement in July 2015.

The interim agreement was already in place for two years by the time implementation of the JCPOA began in January 2016. Irans full compliance with this interim deal  which was consistently verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency during this period  offered a way to test Iran and served as a much-needed trust-building function for both sides. This was important because Iran, like North Korea, had violated international nonproliferation norms in the past.

The discussions were limited to what both sides deemed to be a very specific set of agenda items in the nuclear field (this focus enabled the U.S. to maintain its full set of sanctions related to terrorism and human rights against Iran). Unlike the 1994 Agreed Framework that sought to end North Koreas nuclear weapons program and ultimately failed, the negotiations and the resulting agreement with Iran did not call for a normalization of relations. In the end, both sides commitment to a win-win outcome allowed them each to say they succeeded in fulfilling their objectives. The multilateral context of the P5+1 provided the framework that made a final agreement achievable.

In addition to this breakthrough with Iran on its nuclear program, Obamas policy of engaging so-called rogue and pariah governments brought about historic openings with Myanmar and Cuba, resulting in the restoration of diplomatic relations with both countries after decades of estrangement and hostility.

The administrations limited outreach to North Korea  arguably the toughest of these cases  stands in sharp contrast. In fact, there has been no meaningful official dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un assumed power following the death of his father Kim Jong Il in 2011.

As the Obama presidency draws to a close, the intensifying stalemate over Pyongyangs advancing nuclear weapons program will be passed along to the next president. Whether a new U.S. administration would be willing to expend the political capital needed to begin diplomatic engagement with North Korea early on is a big question. But it likely will not have a choice given North Koreas steadily expanding nuclear ambitions  both in terms of intentions and actual progress  along with its growing ability to work around sanctions.

When a new administration takes office in January 2017, a review of U.S. policy toward North Korea should place high on its to-do list. A review should yield a definitive conclusion that the policy of strategic patience  continuing to apply pressure through sanctions and waiting to see if North Korea will change its current course and denuclearize or collapse  is not working. The right next step would be to take a page from Obamas Iran playbook and, while ramping up the pressure track, pursue aggressive diplomacy with Pyongyang as a priority with the aim of bringing North Korea back to the negotiating table and reviving the six-party talks. Key elements of this approach must include pressing Beijing to play a more constructive role while strengthening policy coordination with Seoul, Tokyo, and other partners.

Perhaps the most obvious and biggest lesson to be gleaned from the Iran nuclear deal for North Korea is that principled and pragmatic diplomacy in the absence of trust is hard, but its not impossible. The four-year plus period that began with the secret negotiations in July 2012 to the present is the most intensive run of continuous, direct dialogue between Tehran and Washington in nearly four decades. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is on track to end his tenure as having had more face-to-face meetings with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif than with any other foreign minister. Such interactions, which were once unthinkable, have now become normal.

Of course, the case of North Korea presents a unique set of circumstances and challenges. But, as outlined above, there are some guiding principles that could be taken from the experience with Iran. Without buy-in at the highest level of leadership, any effort to engage is likely to lead to a dead end. Given the outsize sensitivities and deep mistrust in these cases, a low-key and steady direct channel for dialogue would provide the best way forward. Sticking to a specific set of mutually agreed upon agenda items and manageable win-win objectives and working within a broader multilateral framework would increase the chance of reaching acceptable and sustainable outcomes.

Pyongyangs track record of deception, provocation, and violation of past agreements and United Nations resolutions is not reassuring. But the absence of dialogue puts us at a real disadvantage as we have very little direct knowledge about North Korea. Even if dialogue doesnt lead to a breakthrough as it did with Tehran, engagement could provide opportunities to assess the North Korean leaderships strategic priorities, capabilities, intentions, and threat perceptions  and lead to more informed judgments and better options for U.S. policy beyond waiting and seeing.

Suzanne DiMaggio is a senior fellow at New America, where she directs a long-running U.S.-Iran policy dialogue and a recently launched U.S.-North Korea Track 2 Dialogue.

Image credit: Voice of America/Wikimedia Commons
The Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Culture will now have their offices in the same building for better cohesion and smooth functioning.

Minister of State for Tourism and Culture Mahesh Sharma (in pic) said both the ministries are very close to each other in areas of operation and an integrated office would streamline their functioning.

By Soudhriti Bhabani: As the Narendra Modi-led government is planning big with a focus on the country's vast tourism potential and its rich cultural inheritance, both the ministries now need to have a composite building for better cohesion and smooth functioning.

For faster response, the Centre has decided to construct a single building housing both the Ministry of Tourism (MoT) and Ministry of Culture (MoC) in New Delhi. Earlier, a land was identified at Mandir Marg (opposite Birla Mandir) in the heart of New Delhi for the proposed construction of Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhayay Paryatan Bhawan.

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BOTH MINISTRIES LOCATED IN SAME COMPLEX FOR BETTER TIME MANAGEMENT

Recently, the government has taken an in-principal decision to house the office of MoC in the same building too. According to sources, Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State for tourism and culture, himself wanted both the ministry headquarters to be located at the same complex for better time management and smooth operation.

"The MoT and MoC are very close to each other and their areas of operation are also quite common in many respects.

Eventually the minister for both is also the same now. We have proposed to house both the ministries in the same address to streamline the vast area of operation and enhance their performance," Mahesh Sharma told Mail Today on Sunday.

The minister said that now, the work is in an advanced stage and the construction would start in 2-3 months. "Senior officials of both the ministries had several rounds of meetings discussing the modalities of the project. The internal process is now on. The purpose of the integration is to make both the ministries perform better and fast," Sharma added.

The National Building Construction Company (NBCC), formerly known as National Buildings Construction Corporation Ltd, has been entrusted with the job to develop the joint office. The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) is looking into the project and is expected to give the action plan shortly, sources said.

ARUN JAITLEY HAD LAID THE FOUNDATION STONE OF NEW OFFICE LAST YEAR

On the occasion of World Tourism Day last year, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had laid the foundation stone of the new office complex of the ministry of tourism at Mandir Marg.

It was learnt that the architecture of the building would be done keeping in mind the importance of tourism and cultural aspects in India. The decision was taken to incorporate the office of MoC in Paryatan Bhawan primarily due to space crunch.

At present, both the ministries are scattered around various buildings all over the city such as Transport Bhawan, Dalhousie Road, INA Colony, Tilak Marg, Shastri Bhawan and Central Secretariat library.

Also Read:

Modi government to take steps to make India a tourist hotspot

Kerala Tourism is going to be the next big thing in Incredible India; this is why

India's cultural map gets massive response from artists



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The Hague (AFP) - Five stolen 17th and 18th-century masterpieces will soon be returned from the Ukraine to the Dutch museum where they disappeared from more than a decade ago, officials announced on Monday.

"The Ukranian authorities will soon hand over five retrieved artworks to the Dutch embassy in Kiev," said Marloes Hoorn, spokeswoman of the northwest town of Hoorn where the Westfries Museum is based.

A Dutch expert will travel to Kiev this week to authenticate the paintings and determine their condition, she said.

Although an exact date has not been set, "the paintings are then expected to be back in Hoorn three weeks after the handover in Kiev," Hoorn said in a statement.

Twenty-four Dutch Golden Age masterpieces and 70 pieces of silverware were stolen from the Westfries Museum on the night of January 9, 2005.

At the time of their disappearance, the paintings were valued at a total of 10 million euros ($11 million).

Ukraine in April announced it had recovered four of the paintings, but it did not give details of how the works were retrieved, saying only they were "in the possession of criminal groups".

The four paintings are: "A Peasant Wedding" by Hendrick Boogaert; "Kitchen Scene" by Floris van Schooten; "Return of Jephta" and "Lady World" by Jacob Waben.

A fifth painting, Isaak Ouwater's 1784 piece entitled "Nieuwstraat in Hoorn", valued at around 30,000 euros ($33,400), was handed back by an unsuspecting Ukranian art buyer in May, but details over how he came into possession of the artwork remains vague.

The Westfries Museum said in December the 24 missing paintings were thought to be in the hands of an ultranationalist militia fighting the pro-Russian insurgency in east Ukraine.

Museum staff this week said they were anxious about the condition of the artworks, with popular daily tabloid De Telegraaf reporting that "enormous damage has been done."

It said restorer Ronald de Jager will travel to Kiev on Wednesday to do an assessment. He told the paper that "the canvasses have been removed from their frames and rolled or even folded up."

"I dare not say anything yet about restoration costs," De Jager said.
SunTrusts (NYSE:STI) new onUp campaign is promoting a five-point plan to help Americans get financially fit. SunTrust CEO Bill Rogers weighed in on some of the key elements to improving Americans personal financial health.

Well, we have a number of things, weve got some tips that we think people ought to follow. We did a survey, which showed that 75% of Americans are under some kind of financial stress, 40% of Americans dont have $2,000 saved for an emergency, when you switch to Millennials thats 60%. One-third of Americans dont have anything saved for retirement, so our recovery is a bit fragile from that standpoint, Rogers told the FOX Business Networks Maria Bartiromo.

According to Rogers the first key step to financial health is tracking your spending habits.

It starts with tracking spending. You know, making sure that you know what youre spending your money on, there are lots of apps and budget tools and certainly on our onUp.com conversation there are lots of tools and resources to use.

Rogers says that tracking spending habits usually reveals opportunities to cut costs and save money.

When people start down the process of figuring out where they spend money, they always find opportunities to save, whether it may be Im eating out too much, or Im spending too much money on clothes or transportation.

Another key tip according to Rogers is to establish what your financial goals are for you and your family.

Establishing values. You know, whats important to you, is it saving for a deposit on your home, is it starting a college fund, whatever it may be that are your particular values.

Rogers explained the importance of households setting aside an emergency fund.

And then back to the other earlier statistic is start an emergency savings fund. We think thats just critical and of at least $2,000 for the unforeseen emergency that comes up, Rogers continued, and the curveballs are usually health-care related, that something happens to you, your partner, your spouse, your children, your parents and it may be as simple as something happens to your car and you cant get to work.

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Rogers then weighed in on why participating in a companys 401(k) plan is so beneficial to an employees retirement goals.

Just simple things like participating in your companys 401(k) plan if they have one, you know, a companys match is 100% interest, I mean, where can anyone get 100% interest?

Rogers sees Millennials as beginning to get more involved in planning their financial future.

So, its important to start early and create that dialogue and we think Millennials are starting but we want to really encourage them to start with a little more vigor.

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After Hillary Clinton's pneumonia diagnosis was belatedly disclosed on Sunday, supporters are rallying around the Democratic nominee and saying her commitment to campaigning through the illness proves she's "tough as hell." Clinton's critics, on the other hand, remain skeptical as ever, with GOP nominee Donald Trump seemingly suggesting his opponent's health issues go beyond pneumonia.



Peter Daou, who worked for Clinton, 68, in the past, told the Associated Press that her jam-packed weekend after being diagnosed with pneumonia was "an impressive feat of physical strength that undermined weeks of health conspiracies."



"After being diagnosed with pneumonia, Hillary Clinton ran a two-hour national security meeting, gave a press conference, and spent an hour and a half in the heat at a September 11 event," he said.



The Huffington Post also praised Clinton for powering through, while criticizing the media for making too much of her medical episode. "A 68-year-old woman with pneumonia still kept a schedule that most of us wouldn't make it through," writes The Huffington Post's Eric Schmeltzer. "That's not weak. That's actually strong and tough as hell."









Supporters Rally to Clinton with Stories of Faring Worse During Their Own Health BattlesA A But Skeptics Are Skeptical| 2016 Presidential Elections, Health, politics, Donald Trump, Hillary Rodham Clinton



Others defended Clinton on social media. Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm tweeted:





To press lamenting @HillaryClinton's health/transparency: "powering through" illness is what women do: Stoically, every. single. day. a Jennifer Granholm (@JenGranholm) September 12, 2016





Mo Elleithee, the executive director of the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service, wrote on Facebook:









Comedian Patton Oswalt tweeted:





Wait, so Hillary has PNEUMONIA and she's still campaigning as hard as she is? You realize how badass that is, right? a Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) September 11, 2016





In a follow-up tweet, he appeared to suggest that Trump's mental health was more troubling than Clinton's physical health:





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Psychotic, dissociative narcissism with lack of empathy > pneumonia. #ImWithHer a Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) September 11, 2016





Meanwhile, Trump himself had an unusually understated response to Clinton's pneumonia, after weeks of alleging that she doesn't have the "stamina" to serve as commander in chief.



In an appearance on Fox News Monday Trump wished for Clinton's speedy recovery ahead of the first presidential debate on Sept. 26. "I just hope she gets well and gets back on the trail and we'll be seeing her at the debate," he said.



Trump did, however, raise questions about Clinton's overall health and her campaign's transparency about her medical issues. He added: "They say pneumonia  on Friday but she was coughing very, very badly, a week ago and even before that if you remember. It's very interesting to see what's going on."



Trump, 70, also called Clinton's health "an issue" in the campaign and told Fox & Friends on Monday that he had a physical last week, and is planning to release the results soon.A



Trump isn't the only one who sees Clinton's health as a political problem.



Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post declared in response to Clinton falling ill at a 9/11 memorial service on Sunday: "Hillary Clinton's health just became a real issue in the presidential campaign."



Veteran NBC news correspondent Tom Brokaw said Clinton "should go to a hospital, see a neurologist and get a clean report if it is available."



Clinton's physician, Dr. Lisa R. Bardack, M.D., released a statement on Sunday revealing that Clinton had been diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday. "She was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule," the statement said. "While at this morning's event, she became overheated and dehydrated. I have just examined her and she is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely."



But many felt the statement was too little, too late and argued that the whole incident highlights the Clinton campaign's "transparency problems."



After the statement was released, Adam Nagourney of The New York Times tweeted:





If this hadn't happened, would Clinton campaign have announced pneumonia? One reason why Clinton/Trump should release medical records. a adam nagourney (@adamnagourney) September 11, 2016





In an article titled "Hillary Clinton's stumble highlights campaign transparency problems," CNNMoney's's Dylan Byers criticized Clinton (and Trump) for not allowing for a "protective pool," which he described as "a rotating group of reporters that travel with a candidate in order to provide a minute-to-minute account of their activities."



"Sunday's events at the Sept. 11 memorial show the importance of having a group of reporters on standby, and close at hand, to cover the potential next president of the United States," Anne Gearan, the Washington Post political reporter and current chair of the Clinton press pool, told CNNMoney.



"It also shows what happens when the Clinton campaign fails to treat those reporters as a true protective pool, which would travel in the same Secret Service protected-motorcade to every place the candidate goes," Gearan said. "The pool was left behind when she abruptly left the memorial, and was not kept apprised of what was happening in real time."



And The Independent wrote that Clinton "must reassure an uncertain nation that she is in good medical shape after 9/11 memorial scare."



Comedian Andy Borowitz, a columnist for The New Yorker, spoofed the much-ado, writing: "A new poll released on Sunday reveals that likely voters find an unconscious Hillary Clinton 'substantially more fit' to be President than a conscious Donald Trump."



Borowitz even helpfully concocted some spin for the Clinton campaign, quoting a made-up spokesperson as saying, "We have every reason to believe that Hillary Clinton will be a fully conscious President. But even if she is not, she is still the far better choice."
(BEIRUT)  A cease-fire came into effect in Syria at sunset Monday in the latest attempt led by the United States and Russia to bring some quiet in the 5 1/2-year civil war.

Residents and observers reported quiet in most of the country hours after the truce came into effect, though activists said airstrikes took place on contested areas around the northern city of Aleppo.

But the most powerful rebel groups have shown deep misgivings over the cease-fire deal, which was crafted without their input last weekend in Geneva between the top U.S. and Russian diplomats. Hours after it came into force, a coalition of rebel factions put out a statement that stopped short of committing to the cease-fire, a reflection of their distrust of the government.

The first week of the truce will be crucial. During that time, all fighting between the military of President Bashar Assad and rebels is to stop. But, Assads forces can continue air strikes against the Islamic State group and al-Qaida-linked insurgents from the group once known as the Nusra Front.

However, the al-Qaida linked insurgents are closely allied to many rebel factions and are a powerful force in the defense of Aleppo in particular. That raises the danger that continued airstrikes will draw rebels into retaliation, eventually leading to the cease-fires collapse, much as previous attempts earlier this year fell apart.

Compounding the situation, a group of 21 rebel factions issued a statement Friday in which they warned against targeting al-Qaida-linked militants. The statement was non-committal about whether the groups would abide by the cease-fire.

After a week, however, the conflict would potentially enter a dramatically different stage. A new U.S.-Russia coalition will step in to target former Nusra Front militants, and Assads forces will no longer be permitted to. That will effectively remove Assads pretext for war on opposition areas, which he calls a war on terror. Government forces will be allowed to fight defensively and to target the Islamic State group, only.

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The deals architects hope that would pave the way for an extended period of restraint that can serve as the foundation for peace talks between the wars many sides.

As the cease-fire came into effect, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that rebel factions must distance themselves from the al-Qaida-linked militants, whose group recently changed its name from Nusra to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, or Levant Conquest Front.

He also said the Syrian government must allow deliveries of humanitarian aid into besieged areas, including the rebel-held districts of Aleppo.

Russias Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said peace talks between opposition groups and the government could resume as early as next month.

Multiple rounds earlier this year in Geneva failed to make progress. Ultimately, talks have run into the question that neither side is willing to budge on  the fate of Assad and his government. As a result, the war has continued the grinding violence that has so far killed more than 250,000 people and driven some 11 million people, half of Syrias population, from their homes since 2011.

That same roadblock makes prospects for a peace dim even if the cease-fire does hold, said Syria analyst Aron Lund.

Opposition groups have demanded Assads departure as a condition to lasting peace, which has so far been a non-starter for government negotiations.

Its an existential question for the regime as it currently stands. Its about the regime or not, said Lund.

In a letter to rebels disseminated last weekend, U.S. Special Envoy for Syria Michael Ratney promised them that, our priority remains calming the situation to allow the launch of a credible political operation that leads to a true political transition that Syrians want most determinedly, a new Syria without Bashar Assad. A copy of the letter was given to The Associated Press by an opposition official.

Earlier Monday, a main opposition group linked to several small, moderate rebel factions said they will deal positively with the truce brokered by the U.S. and Russia. The Syrian National Coalition said that any effort that aims to end the suffering of the people is a step in the right direction and we will deal with it positively.

Still, other rebel factions showed deep uncertainty. Some have complained that the cease-fire deal does not mention Assads future and keeps in place the government siege of rebel-held parts of Aleppo.

There is no balance in the agreement, said Col. Ahmad Hamada, an army defector who is now with the rebel group known as the Northern Division.

When the cease-fire went into effect at 7 p.m. (1600 GMT), the Syrian army issued a statement saying it would abide by a cease-fire until Sunday at midnight, while maintaining its right to defend itself against any violations.

Hours before the cease-fire went into effect, Assad vowed that his government would take back land from terrorists and rebuild the country. Assad spoke during a rare public appearance that included attending prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha in the Damascus suburb of Daraya, where rebels surrendered last month after a four-year siege.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Right, which has a network of activists around Syria to monitor the conflict, said calm is prevailing on most of Syrias territories.

Still, residents in Aleppo reported some airstrikes and shelling, including a barrel bomb attack by government helicopters. It was not immediately known if the targets where Fatah al-Sham or other factions.

One of the more immediate goals of the U.S.-Russian agreement is to allow the U.N. to establish aid corridors into Aleppo, the contested northern Syrian city. Over 2,000 people have been killed in fighting over the past 40 days in the city, including 700 civilians and 160 children, according to a Syrian human rights group.

___

Associated Press writer Bradley Klapper in Washington and Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this report.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia welcomed a U.S.-Russian agreement to bring about a ceasefire on Monday, saying it hoped the deal would allow efforts to focus on the fight against Islamic State and to prepare conditions for a political transition. The YPG, which controls swathes of northern Syria, also said in a statement the political transition needed to include all parties, including a Kurdish-led autonomous administration in northern Syria. The main Syrian Kurdish party, the PYD, was left out of the last peace talks in Geneva in line with the wishes of Turkey, which views it as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party(PKK) - a group that has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in southeastern Turkey. The Syrian Democratic Forces alliance, which includes the YPG, also announced it would abide by the agreement. The SDF and YPG have played a leading role in a U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State in Syria. The YPG statement also reaffirmed the group's commitment to "stand against offensive actions", correcting an earlier version of the statement which said the YPG had reaffirmed its commitment to "halt offensive actions". (Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Toby Chopra)
Thousands of tourism industry workers took to the streets in Taiwan Monday, demanding the government address a slump in visitors from China as cross-strait ties deteriorate.

Operators who had previously benefited from a boom in mainland tourists under former President Ma Ying-jeou's Beijing-friendly government are now only getting a fraction of the business as relations with China grow increasingly frosty under new president Tsai Ing-wen.

The number of visitors from China has dropped almost 24 percent in the months since Beijing-sceptic Tsai took office in May, compared with the same period last year, according to Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council.

While Beijing has not publicly said it is seeking to limit tourists to the island, observers say it is a stealth pressure tactic on Tsai.

Those working in the tourism sector say anti-China rhetoric from the Taiwanese public is also turning away visitors who feel they are not welcome.

"In the beginning it may have been Beijing interfering," said Ma Ching-chung, who heads an association of tour bus operators in New Taipei City.

"But later on it became the mainland tourists themselves who didn't want to come," he told AFP at Monday's protest in the capital Taipei.

As many as 10,000 people, from tour guides to bus drivers and restaurant workers, gathered in front of the Presidential Office demanding Tsai take action.

They waved placards with slogans such as "No job, no life" and "Cross-strait is one family" while chanting "We need to survive."

"Tsai Ing-wen should proactively reach out to China to negotiate," said 43-year-old tour guide Carol Ku, who says she has not worked for a month.

"Going forward, tourism won't be the only sector to be affected," she said.

Chinese visitors accounted for about 40 percent of the total 10 million tourists to Taiwan last year, according to government figures.

The biggest slump in visitors from mainland China is those arriving with tour groups -- a plunge of 40.6 percent.

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That has hit the tea shop where Maggie Huang works in Alishan in central Taiwan, well known for its mountainous views and tea farms.

Huang, who is in her forties, says her shop used to be visited by as many as 30 mainland tour groups a day. Yesterday, they had none.

"We don't care about politics. We are just normal citizens trying to make a living," she said.

Tsai's government has said it is seeking to attract more tourists from Southeast Asia to make up the shortfall, but Huang is not optimistic.

"To have to learn totally new languages, it's very difficult," she said.

The cabinet last week approved a Tw$30 billion ($948 million) bailout for the tourism sector that includes loan extensions and assistance for the unemployed.

Taiwan is self-ruling but China still sees it as part of its territory to be reunited.

Beijing is highly sceptical of Tsai's traditionally pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party and has cut all official communications with Taiwan in recent months.
TAIPEI (Reuters) - About 10,000 Taiwan tourism operators and workers marched to a square in front of the presidential hall on Monday to demand that the government take steps to help their businesses, hard hit by worsening ties with mainland China. Relations between the self-ruled island and the mainland, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, have become strained since President Tsai Ing-wen took office in May. The mainland does not trust Tsai and is fearful her Democratic Progressive Party will push for independence for the island, an idea that is anathema to Beijing. Government figures show arrivals from China fell 15 percent year on year in July and fell again in August. The sector was also hit by a fire on a bus in July that killed 24 mainland tourists on their way to the island's main airport to fly home. Investigators released a report on the cause of the disaster on the weekend that will only compound the damage the deaths have caused. The inferno was not sparked by a crash but by the driver, who poured petrol inside the bus and locked its emergency exits before setting it alight in what prosecutors said was an act of suicide. Representatives of hotels, travel agents and tour bus companies joined the rally to urge government action to reverse the fall in arrivals. "We want to survive", "we ask for jobs", "we need food and shelter," and "no jobs, no life" read some of the signs protesters held up as they marched through rain to the square in the island's capital of Taipei. "God is weeping for us," protest organizer Ringo Lee called out to the crowd, referring to the downpour. "He is weeping for hundreds of thousands of our families being affected." China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists fled to the island. Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. Beijing cut a communication mechanism with Taiwan in June as Tsai declined to accept a so-called 1992 Consensus, which holds there is only "one China", with each side having its own interpretation of what that means. (Reporting by Faith Hung; Editing by Robert Birsel)
MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's Tata Steel Ltd (TISC.NS) reported on Monday a $477 million consolidated first-quarter net loss as it sold a business in Europe, and said talks continued for a proposed partnership to run its European plants.

Consolidated net loss widened to 31.83 billion rupees ($477 million) for the three months to June 30, from 3.17 billion rupees loss a year earlier, Tata Steel, Britain's largest and Europe's second-biggest steel producer, said in a statement.

The company, which has been hit hard in Europe due to a fall in steel demand, excess capacity and rising imports from China, recorded a loss of 32.96 billion rupees from discontinued operations related to the sale of its long products business in the United Kingdom to Greybull Capital LLP in May.

In July, Tata Steel halted a planned sale of its British Port Talbot plant which has been hit by huge losses and massive pension liabilities. The company said it would instead look for an alliance, and named biggest German steelmaker Thyssenkrupp AG (TKAG.DE) among potential partners.

"We continue to progress the conversations," Tata Steel's Group Executive Director Koushik Chatterjee told a news conference on Monday. He said the company was also consulting all stakeholders on the pension liability issue.

Tata Steel's business in Europe, which accounts for nearly 60 percent of the company's 24 million-tonnes-a-year steelmaking capacity, reported an operating profit of 8.56 billion rupees, Chatterjee said, citing benefits from a weaker pound and an ongoing restructuring exercise that included job cuts.

Net profit for Tata Steel's Indian operations rose 35 percent from a year earlier to 5.75 billion rupees, the company said. India has set a floor price to prevent cheap imports from China, Japan, South Korea and Russia, helping local steelmakers.

Ahead of the results, Tata Steel shares closed 5.4 percent lower in a Mumbai market (.NSEI) that fell 1.7 percent.

($1 = 66.7839 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee, editing by William Hardy)
The new Toyota Etios Platinum will come with minor cosmetic changes and no mechanical changes.

The upcoming Toyota Etios Platinum will come with ABS and EBD as standard feature. (Picture for representational purpose only)

By India Today Web Desk: Toyota India is looking to alter their line-up in the Indian market with the launch of the facelift version of the Toyota Etios. Moreover, the facelift Toyota Etios will be called Etios Platinum, inspired by the recently launched in Brazil with the same name.

The images of the upcoming facelift of Toyota Etios Platinum were doing the rounds on the internet for some time now, but with the images shared by AutomotiveIndia, the news is confirmed that the Japanese car-makers have started bringing the facelift sedan to dealerships across the country.

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ALSO READ: Toyota not to launch new vehicles till 2020 in India

According to reports, the new Toyota Etios Platinum will come with minor cosmetic changes and no mechanical changes.

Engine:

According to reports, the new Toyota Etios Platinum will come with the same 1.5L petrol engine and 1.4L D-4D diesel engine. However, the only changes made to the mill is that the clutch system and shock absorbers of the Etios Platinum diesel variant is tweaked for better performance. Apart from this, there is no other change to the powertrain of the upcoming Toyota Etios Platinum.

Design:

Exterior:

ALSO READ: Toyota launches petrol variant of Innova Crysta for Rs 13.72 lakh in India

From the images leaked online, it looks like the front side of the upcoming Toyota Etios Platinum will feature a new chrome plated V-shaped grille, redesigned bumper with larger intakes and boomerang shaped round fog lamps in the front.

However, the rear side of the Toyota Etios Platinum gets refreshed bumpers, among other changes.

Interior:

On the inside, the new Toyota Etios Platinum gets a redesigned instrument cluster with refreshed speedometer and a digital tachometer along with new wrapping for the steering wheel. Moreover, it also comes with dual-tone dashboard and power-operated ORVMs.

ALSO READ: Toyota Prius global launch delayed till winter

Features:

If reports are true, then the upcoming Toyota Etios Platinum will come with ABS and EBD as standard feature.



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WESTMINSTER, MA / ACCESSWIRE / September 12, 2016 / TechPrecision Corporation (TPCS) ("TechPrecision" or "the Company"), an industry leading manufacturer of precision, large-scale fabricated and machined metal components and tested systems with customers in the defense, energy and precision industrial sectors, today announced it plans to hold the Annual Meeting of Stockholders of TechPrecision Corporation on December 8, 2016.

In order to be considered at the annual meeting, any and all stockholder proposals must be received at the principal executive offices of the Company, 1 Bella Drive, Westminster, MA 01473, c/o the Corporate Secretary, on or before the close of business on Thursday, September 29, 2016, and must be in compliance with the procedures regarding stockholder proposals set forth in the Company's bylaws.



The Notice of Annual Meeting and Proxy Statement describing the business to be conducted at the annual meeting will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission after our Board of Directors has had the opportunity to review any stockholder proposals it may receive.

About TechPrecision Corporation

TechPrecision Corporation, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, Ranor, Inc., and Wuxi Critical Mechanical Components Co., Ltd., manufactures large-scale, metal fabricated and machined precision components and equipment. These products are used in a variety of markets including: defense, aerospace, nuclear, industrial, and medical. TechPrecision's goal is to be an end-to-end service provider to its customers by furnishing customized and integrated "turn-key" solutions for completed products requiring custom fabrication and machining, assembly, inspection and testing. To learn more about the Company, please visit the corporate website at http://www.techprecision.com. Information on the Company's website or any other website does not constitute a part of this press release.

Company Contact:

Mr. Thomas Sammons

Chief Financial Officer

TechPrecision Corporation

Tel: 978-883-5109

Email: sammonst@ranor.com

www.techprecision.com

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Investor Relations Contact:

Hayden IR

Brett Maas

Phone:646-536-7331

Email: brett@haydenir.com

SOURCE: TechPrecision Corporation
Teresa Giudice has spent much of this season of The Real Housewives of New Jersey focused on redemption after her 11-month stay in prison  even repairing strained relationships with former best friend Jacqueline Laurita and sister-in-law Melissa Gorga.



But the 44-year-old Turning Tables author isnt ready to forgive and forget with just anyone.



On Sundays all-new episode, Giudice was at her book-singing at a local Barnes & Noble when she was confronted by her estranged cousins Kathy Wakile and Rosie Pierri. And she didnt exactly greet them with open arms.



The New Jersey sisters were looking to mend previously broken fences, hoping they could be a part of Giudices life again. They also both felt frustrated after being cut out of family gatherings since Giudices return from prison and having text messages they sent to Giudice go ignored.







The silence appeared to hit Wakile especially hard, as her 21-year-old daughter Victoria was experiencing health complications after a previously treated brain tumor resurfaced.





Every day is a gift, Wakile told Housewife Dolores Catania when discussing her relationship with Giudice before the party. Today Victoria fainted. Twice. This is not fair. And all this other b- means nothing.



She continued: These are things that can be fixed. And when  you make peace with all the people youve had a problem with? Thats what true redemption is all about.



We are not here forever, Pierri added. She said things, we said things  who cares? Lets move forward.



Pierri was especially looking for closure  one way or the other.



I would like my family to be mended. If we are going to have a family again, I would love it, she said. If you dont want it, just say You know what  you hurt me too much  I have no use for you  get the f out of my life. 





A photo posted by Kathy Wakile (@kathywakile) on Apr 26, 2016 at 7:32pm PDT



But even Catania thought it would be hard to end their longstanding feud. When Italian people fight, its like a war thats going on 100 years, she said. You dont even remember why the war started, but youre still not talking. Its not getting fixed, its done.



Jacqueline Laurita agreed. I guess Teresa feels like she didnt do anything wrong, she said. Maybe theres more than Im aware of, but I dont think Teresa wants to talk about it.



When the family members finally came face-to-face, each tried to play nice at first. Giudice greeted them with a smile, while Wakile and Pierri both congratulated the mother-of-four on her book and asked for her to sign their copies.



But while Giudice was willing to do that, she wasnt so quick to meet them for lunch.



My time is very precious now with Joe leaving soon, Giudice said back. For me, Im putting my husband and my kids as priority.





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She was more frank with viewers, confessing to them, My cousins never reached out to me while I was away. They said nasty things about me. Sorry if Im not dying to go out to family members that stab me in the back.



When the question of whether Giudice had received Wakiles text messages surfaced, Giudice couldnt say for sure.



You know what, I got a new phone and then I ended up returning it. So I dont know a  she said. I always like to answer my texes (sic). I dont like to leave anybody hanging. 'Cause then nobody has anything to say, you know?



Pierri didnt necessarily believe it, but she also didnt care much. I think she got the text. The excuse is b-, she told viewers. But whatever  Im there because Im trying to show her that we do care for her and we want her to succeed.



She was equally sincere with Joe Giudice, telling him how much she missed him and apologizing for harsh words she said about him on New Years Eve when she realized she wasnt invited to his house.



Joe appeared open to forgiveness, telling her Its alright  sometimes you say stupid things and embracing her as she told him she loved him and cared about him.





RELATED VIDEO: Real Housewives of New Jersey Newbies Siggy Flicker and Dolores Catania Open Up About Jacqueline Laurita and Teresa Giudice Feud

Real Housewives of New Jersey Newbies Siggy Flicker and Dolores Catania Open Up About Jacqueline Laurita and Teresa Giudice Feud" >



But the 44-year-old quickly ran off to his wife and told her a different story, saying Your cousin just came up and said something stupid and I said, 'You know what  I could care less about this and I just left.



People got to get a life, Teresa said, before rushing out without appearing to say goodbye to them.



The night didnt seem to make Pierri feel any better. I f admit Im wrong and said Im sorry and thats all I can do, she declared. If you want to leave on a f***ed up note, its b-.



You guys are my cousins, she told Teresas brother Joe Gorga. Why are we distance apart? It breaks my heart. I cried four times this week.



But it appeared, by episodes end, she had come to some conclusion on how to move forward. Im not going to talk anymore, she said. Im not going to cause any problems. I want all good things for my cousin Teresa.



The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.
proterra bus

Chances are, you haven't heard of Proterra.

The Silicon Valley-based start-up has one focus: to eliminate the need for a diesel bus, forever. It's something the company has been working quietly on since 2004, and has made moderate progress since. It sold its first three, all-electric buses in 2009, ramping up sales marginally throughout the years since.

Proterra started hitting its stride a bit in 2015 when it sold 62 buses across 12 different transit agencies. But with a nominal range of 146 miles, a mark below many electric cars, widespread adoption hasn't been feasible.

"The first generation of the long-range vehicles we brought out wasnt good enough for the market," Matt Horton, Proterra's vice president of sales, told Business Insider. "It just couldnt do all of the routes out there, and frankly, there arent any electric buses out there that can today."

But Proterra unveiled a new version of its bus Monday it says is finally good enough for the market: a newly designed all-electric bus that can operate a route for an entire 18 hours  the same as a diesel bus.

Challenging Tesla's range

Proterra bus

Proterra's Catalyst E2 is 40-foot long bus with a range of 350 miles under typical test track conditions. That's a big deal, considering Tesla only recently announced a battery upgrade for its Model S and Model X Ludicrous options that can achieve 315 miles of range  making it the first electric car on the market to exceed 300 miles of range.

To get that kind of range, Proterra worked on improving its battery tech and designing a bus that can accommodate the extra weight put on batteries for two-and-a-half years.

"If you take a traditional steel bus and just start dumping batteries on it, that bus is going to get really heavy really quick," Horton said of the decision to design a new bus entirely from scratch.

The new bus body is made of a carbon fiber composite, allowing it to remain lightweight, but durable. Proterra, which makes its own batteries in its Silicon Valley office, improved energy storage and put most of the batteries "underneath the body of the bus so it helps us keep it very, very low center of gravity," Horton explained.

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That innovation has resulted in a bus that fits 77 passengers and can pack 660 kWh of energy to drive 350 miles on a single charge. On a closed track, which doesn't mimick the difficulty of urban driving, a Proterra bus with just a 440 kWh battery achieved 600 miles on a single charge.

But ranges are tricky to talk about, especially when it comes to buses, because range is affected by a variety of factors like constant braking, temperature, and the twists and turns of city streets. That's why Horton is sure to note that a 600-mile range isn't achievable in a route setting. However, the battery tech is good enough for the bus to run the full 18 hours transit operators need, the compamny said.

At night, the bus can get topped up using a typical charging station.

Replacing all diesel buses

proterra bus

The Proterra bus will be fully functional soon, with the first deliveries arriving in Foothill Transit in California in early 2017.

Horton said the start-up has customers in 15 states across the country and that it's pre-sold over 300 buses to-date. By the end of 2017, all of the buses will be fully operational.

"This is the first time that an electric vehicle has been brought to market that, on a truly no compromise basis, is going to replace all the fossil fuel vehicles in its category," Horton said.

NOW WATCH: Tesla cars just got a whole lot better  heres whats changing





More From Business Insider


Bangkok (AFP) - Civilians accused of royal defamation and other security offences will no longer be tried in military courts, the junta said Monday, rolling back a heavily-criticised practice introduced after their 2014 coup.

Since the coup, breaches of a tough royal defamation law and other national security crimes have been punishable in military courts, presided over by a bench of officers.

Those courts have imposed severe sentences including record jail terms for civilians of up to 30 years for alleged lese majeste.

But on Monday the junta said an August referendum vote endorsing their new constitution has allowed them to ease their grip on the legal system -- in a sign of the junta's increasing confidence that it has its political opponents under control.

"For the past two years, the country has been in peace. People have co-operated in ... the steps to reform which saw the peaceful referendum," according to the order signed by junta leader Prayut Chan-O-Cha and published in the Royal Gazette.

With the new charter to soon come into effect, the junta is repealing three orders allowing for the trial of civilians in military court, the statement added.

Among other crimes, those orders covered allegations of lese majeste, sedition and possession of war weapons.

The changes come into effect immediately, but do not apply to civilians currently being processed by martial courts or offences committed before Monday's edict.

That means dozens of people still face military justice.

For two years the junta had parried all calls by rights groups to end the trial of civilians in military courts, using them as a tool to control a restive country.

But Thailand's junta has been pepped up by the referendum vote in favour of a charter they say will curb corruption and limit the power of greedy politicians.

Critics of the constitution say it hands the military long-term powers and will lead to greater division.

Thailand has been roiled by decades of political instability.

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The latest chapter has unfolded since another coup in 2006 brought down billionaire ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

His family and their parties have won all Thai general elections since 2001, angering the royalist military and their establishment allies who refuse to accept defeat at the polls.

The kingdom is beset by fears for the health of the ailing 88-year-old king Bhumibol Adulyadej, who is seen by many Thais as the only binding figure across a deeply divided country.

Experts believe the latest chapter of political upheaval is fired by competing elites desperate to secure their positions before the royal succession.
Thai Health officials have expressed fears that the Zika virus will have a negative impact on the countrys booming tourism industry.

If we say which province has infections [of Zika] then attention will turn on that province, and if that province is popular with tourists it will have an impact on tourism, Anuttarasakdi Ratchatatat, an epidemiologist at the health ministrys Bureau of Vector Borne Disease, told Reuters,

There have been 100 confirmed cases in Thailand since January. Twenty-two new cases of Zika were confirmed in Bangkok alone last Sunday.

Thai authorities also reported monitoring 30 pregnant women infected by the mosquito-borne virus. The health ministry told Reuters six women have given birth without complications so far.

Samlee Pliangbangchang, former regional director of WHOs Southeast Asia office told Reuters, We dont know the extent of the Zika spread in Thailand.

However, recent maps by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDPC) suggests increasing or widespread transmission of the virus in the country, which, with its tropical climate and rainfall, provides ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

Thailand welcomed nearly 30 million visitors in 2015, making it one of the worlds top destinations.

[Reuters]
[Photo Credit: Getty]

Its that time of year again - fashion month. London Fashion Week 2016 is taking place from 16th to 20th September, and if you cant be there yourself, the next best thing is to follow the action via YouTubes top fashion vloggers. If you want to be at the heart of the action whilst sitting at home, these are the YouTubers to follow

[Photo Credit: Instagram/@tanyaburr]



Tanya Burr - 3.5 Million Subscribers

Aside from her bestselling lifestyle books and cosmetics line, Tanyas also got a keen eye for fashion. A LFW veteran (her first show was SS12), Tanya can often be found sitting front row at Mulberry, Burberry and Topshop Unique. She was one of the first vloggers to go backstage at LFW and give her fans and followers behind the scenes access that possible before. Her LFW style is classic, girly and focuses on current trends. Shes set to bring her 3.5 million YouTube subscribers fashion content thats hot off the catwalk.



[Photo Credit: Instagram/@jimchapman]



Jim Chapman - 2.6 Million Subscribers

Married to Tanya Burr, Jim typically attends the mens version of London Fashion Week - London Collections Men - at at different time of the year. However, if you want insider access to London Fashion Weeks hottest parties and after-show events, hes the guy to follow. With various best dressed awards under his belt and being a style columnist for GQ, Jim is one of the best dressed men in the fashion pack. Vlogging since 2010 and attending LFW since AW14, he has classic English vibes and dons tailored cuts and simple block colours.

[Photo Credit: Instagram/@samanthamariaofficial]



Samantha Maria - 1.8 Million Subscribers

Whether shes snapping the best street style or having a behind the scenes look at the make-up being used for the shows, Samantha gives her audience an all access look at the biggest fashion show in the country  LFW. Her first LFW show was FELDER + FELDER and her YouTube channel is a mix of look books, styling tips and shopping haul videos. She even has her own fashion label - as one half of Novem & Knight.

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[Photo Credit: Instagram/@fleurdeforce]



Fleur de Force - 1.4 Million Subscribers

Fleurs YouTube channel is a mixture of beauty, fashion and lifestyle and she has posted videos with some of the biggest stars in the business, including supermodel Kendall Jenner. Aside from giving her fans the latest fashion news from LFW, shes also done a stint at New York Fashion Week where she shot a series of videos for Teen Vogue, including an interview with Victorias Secret and model extraordinaire Lily Aldridge.



[Photo Credit: Instagram/inthefrow]



In the FROW - 510,742 Subscribers



In the FROW was started in 2012 by fashion lover Victoria Magrath, and Victoria knows her stuff when it comes to style. When shes not uploading beauty and fashion videos, shes writing about her favourite outfits and cosmetics on her blog. A regular at LFW, her first season was SS14 and shes set to be posting all the latest fashion from SS17 next week all over her social channels.



[Photo Credit: Instagram/@zoelondondj]



Zoe London - 51,950 Subscribers

Zoe Louise Hellewell, otherwise known as Zoe London, is a fashion vlogger and DJ with a quirky, gothic and festival-chic style. Vlogging for over six years and attending LFW since AW13, Zoe will be at LFW this September for five days of jam-packed fashion news. Two of her favourite shows to attend are Ashish and Shrimps and shell be keeping her fans well-informed of all the hot trends on her YouTube, Twitter and Instagram accounts.



[MY FIRST PAIR OF GLASSES]

[AW16 DESIGNER HANDBAG EDIT]



Interested in blogging for us? Join our Yahoo Blogger Network!
By PTI: From Shirish B Pradhan

Kathmandu, Sep 12 (PTI) A 48-year-old American citizen has been arrested from the Nepalese capitals tourist district on charges of sexually abusing children and five minors have been rescued from his hotel room, police said today.

Kenneth Joseph Coombs, of Illinois, frequently visited Nepal and was a serial paedophile, said Superintendent of Police Dibesh Lohani of the Central Intelligence Bureau.

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Coombs introduced himself as a mobile phone app developer. He was popular in Kathmandus tourist areas as a professional tarot card reader and has claimed to have written two books on the art and two on mobile apps.

His Facebook profile says he studied Chemistry at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, police said.

Coombs arrived in Nepal on August 23 and was staying at Hotel Yambu in Thamel - the tourist hub of Kathmandu.

He allegedly took help ofa 21-year-old local youth to lure children to his hotel room, where he allegedly sexually abused them.

The youth has also been arrested on Friday.

They rescued five children, aged between 6 and 12, from the room.

The police haveseized Coombs laptop, camera and mobile phone, suspecting he might have filmed his sexual acts. Both the suspects have been found to have posted their photographs with several young boys on their Facebook accounts.

The CIB swung into action after receiving complaints from some of the victims family members.

Preliminary investigation revealed that Coombs had preyed on dozens of Nepali children, Lohani said.

All the victims are said to be boys in their teens.

The American national and his Nepalese accomplice were presented before the Kathmandu District Court and remanded into custody for further investigation, police said. PTI SBP ABH AKJ ABH

--- ENDS ---
As per Section 62 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, Indian States can send a list of wild animals to the Centre with a request to declare them vermin and enable their killing. The Central Government has the power to, by notification, declare any wild animal vermin, other than those specified in Schedule I and part 11 of Schedule H of the law, for any area for a given period of time. Till the notification is in force, these animals will be deprived of any kind of protection whatsoever under that law. Vermin are wild animals which are harmful to crops or people.



A notification was issued on March 14, 2016 by the Central government, declaring monkeys vermin in Shimla for a period of six months and vide another notification in May this year, to treat monkeys as vermin for a period of one year in 38 tehsils of the State.The Himachal Pradesh government has sterilised one lakh monkeys till date out of the two lakhs plus reported monkeys in the State. The government has stated that these monkeys have lead to an economic loss which runs in hundreds of crores. The Himachal government has the power to cull monkeys after they were declared vermin.The H.P government announced an amount of Rs.300 per monkey to anybody who kills them outside the forest area.

Dhyan Foundation (DF), an NGO which actively works in the areas of animal welfare, has announced a reward of Rs.300 for every monkey saved in Himachal Pradesh. The announcement comes in the wake of recent decision of the government to reward those who kill monkeys in the state of Himachal Pradesh. To claim the reward, just show us a video of saving the animal, that is enough. We will award a cheque if the local journalist community approves it explains Ruchi Kale, a volunteer at DF.

DF has been feeding monkeys daily at the Jhaku Temple, Shimla and urging the authorities to revoke the vermin status of monkeys, and instead work towards their rehabilitation for which the Foundation is willing to extend all possible help. Yogi Ashwini, the Guiding Light of Dhyan Foundation says We are breaking no law; we are implementing the law of humanity and will continue to do so. We are feeding them at government designated points. There are funds which are given to agencies for feeding monkeys but these are siphoned off and the land mafia is usurping the forests.



It is strange that we have laws like these which arbitrarily give the right to the Government to declare any animal vermin and allow its culling. First, we take away their homes and remove forests all in the name of development and then claim their place as ours. We have uprooted them from their natural habitat and now want them not to be in places which we now call ours but which originally belonged to them. Animals depend on nature for their survival and if we make their food sources disappear, they are surely going to invade fields in search of food. Humans interfere in the natural food chain of animals and alter the balance they create in nature. The state of Telengana has made a great move in proposing to plant trees across the state and increasing the forest cover from around the current 25% to 33% in an effort to provide habitation to monkeys and restrict them to the forests. A monkey rescue and rehabilitation centre will also be set up in Adilabad district.

We need to understand the reasons behind the monkey menace which have been largely created by us humans. Nature has its own ways of creating ecological balance. It sure does not need us to monkey around with it.



Image Source.
[Photo: Instagram/Melissa Jean]

This mum may have given birth just an hour ago in this photo, but this is exactly whats made it spread across the internet like wildfire.

Melissa Jean, a photographer based in Australia, took this post-birth photo of Alyce in just a bra and nappy - with her robe proudly open - capturing the beauty of new motherhood in the process.

Jean posted the image on her Instagram along with the words: One hour after giving birth looks stunning in a nappy #womenareamazing #thatisall.

Alyce looks amazing indeed, totally rocking it in the image - nappy and all.

For Jean, the photo was particularly special as Alyce is a friend of hers:

I met Alyce when she employed me to capture her journey into motherhood - and weve been friends ever since, Jean told Yahoo Style UK.

A photo posted by Melissa Jean (@melissajeanbabies) on Aug 2, 2016 at 4:01pm PDT

She says what makes the photo so special is how raw and real it is, and that she found taking it natural:

I was a wedding photographer for a decade, so its natural for me to simply capture what I see, she explains.

And mums who spotted it on Instagram also expressed a similar love for the image.

One said: Haha [sic] this is the best. What a beautiful Queen, while another said it was a truly stunning picture.

One commenter was seriously impressed with Alyces energy in the image: Beautiful, powerful, amazing momma! How are you smiling and posing like that an hour after giving birth? I was waddling and weepy after haha!

Check out Melissa Jeans Instagram here.

What do you think of Jeans photo? Tweet us at @YahooStyleUK.

Why Two Bloggers Are Taking A Stand Against Clean Eating



Does Your Baby Name Make The Most Fashionable List?


This Monday, nearly 1.6 billion Muslims across the world celebrate Eid al-Adha or the festival of sacrifice.

Considered the holier of the two Eids, the festival earns its name from the annual sacrifice of cows and other livestock, which in turn commemorates the story of Abrahams willingness to sacrifice his son to God.

Here are three things to know about this years Eid al-Adha:

1. The run-up has been accompanied by a war of words between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Harsh exchanges of rhetoric between the religious leaders of Iran and Saudi Arabia took place during hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca, which falls just before Eid al-Adha.

Referring to a stampede last year that killed at least 750 people near Mecca, Irans Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, last Monday criticized Saudi Arabias management of the Islamic worlds holiest site, which lies within Saudi borders.

Khamenei said the Saudi ruling family does not deserve to be in charge and manage the holy sites, Agence France-Presse reports.

Saudi Arabias Grand Mufti Sheik Abdulaziz al-Sheik in turn told reporters that Irans leaders are not Muslims, according to a local report cited by al-Jazeera. They are children of the Magi and their hostility towards Muslims is ancient, he reportedly said, referring to the pre-Islamic Persian Zoroastrian religion.

2. The volume of trade in livestock at this time of year is enormous.

As many as a million goats were sent from Berbera port in Somaliland to Saudi Arabia this year, contributing to one of the largest trade movements of livestock in the world, al-Jazeera reports.

The trade is absolutely vital to Somaliland  a breakaway territory from Somalia that declared independence in 1991 but has since gone unrecognized. Today, almost all of the territorys export income is derived from livestock, providing vital earnings for one of the worlds poorest places, with a youth unemployment level of around 70%.

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3. This years Eid will be more frugal for many Muslims.

Although the Eid holidays are traditionally known for lavish spending, many Muslims around the world will celebrate more frugally this year. According to Reuters, low oil prices have caused consumers in Saudi Arabia to spend less during this years holiday season.

In Indonesia, the worlds most populous Muslim nation, people have reportedly been buying communal cows to sacrifice with their neighbors, owing to the countrys economy shrinking to its slowest growth in six years.

In Pakistan, where the annual per capita income is just $1,500, many families will also be pooling resources to jointly buy a sacrificial animal, the Washington Post reports.

Those who are able to spend, however, can drop by Indian e-commerce site OLX, says the Times of India, and buy goats named after Bollywood stars for up to $1,650.
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Three workers were killed in an explosion at an ethanol plant in Thailand's northeastern province of Khon Kaen, police said on Monday. The three workers were repairing the lid of a wastewater tank at an ethanol plant which belongs to Thai Ethanol Power Plc in the province of Khon Kaen, 390 km (240 miles) from the capital Bangkok, said Police Lieutenant Colonel Sarawut Dansuk. "It could be that there was some kind of gas that leaked out and caused sparks when they were welding the tank lid and that set off an explosion," he said. "An autopsy showed they were killed by the impact from the explosion." The three killed were Thai nationals, he added. Police are investigating whether the ethanol company was responsible for the accident. (Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat; Writing by Patpicha Tanakasempipat; Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Christian Schmollinger)
Toby Willis, the father formerly featured on TLC reality series The Willis Family, has been arrested and charged with child rape.

During the course of the investigation, Agents developed information Willis had a sexual encounter approximately 12 years ago with an underage female, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) said in a statement. The investigation into Willis remains active and ongoing.

The TBI also said that Willis has been under investigation since Aug. 29. He was arrested in Greenville, Kentucky, where he travelled in an effort to avoid law enforcement, the bureau said. He is currently being held in a Kentucky jail, but will face extradition back to Tennessee.

Also Read: Josh Duggar Sued Over His Ashley Madison Profile Photo

The Willis Family, which aired for two seasons on TLC, followed parents Brenda and Toby as they shared the challenge of maintaining their large family while keeping up with the workload required to manage their touring family band, The Willis Clan.

The 14-member band, comprised mostly of the Willis children  whose names all start with J  previously made it to the quarterfinals of Americas Got Talent.

Following Willis arrest, TLC announced they had cancelled the show. TLC did not renew The Willis Family and new episodes have not aired since April 2016, the network told TheWrap in a statement. We are shocked to hear this news. In addition, the shows official page no longer appears on the TLC website.

Also Read: Josh Duggar Leaves Rehab, Will Continue 'Professional Counseling'

This is not the first time a TLC reality star has been accused of sexual contact with an underage girl. Most famously, Josh Duggar of 19 Kids and Counting fame was revealed to have inappropriately touched his younger sisters as well as a family friend when he was a teenager. Following the revelation, TLC cancelled the show.

Related stories from TheWrap:

TLC's Second 'Baby Story' Live Birth Delivers 280,000 Facebook Views (Exclusive)

'My Giant Life' Gets Season 2 at TLC (Exclusive Video)

TLC Spins Off '90 Day Fiance,' Pushes Property Programming With Playhouse Series
Toby Nathaniel Willis appeared in court in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, on Monday after being charged with child rape this past weekend.



Willis did not have an attorney in Muhlenberg County district court today, Circuit Court Clerk Camron Laycock tells PEOPLE.



During the hearing, Laycock confirmed that 46-year-old Willis did not oppose extradition, meaning that the state of Tennessee has up to 60 days to retrieve him from across state lines. (Will was not given the opportunity to enter a plea on Monday and isn't expected to do so until he is formally charged in Tennessee.)



The father of The Willis Clan, a country music group that once had show on TLC, was arrested Friday after being investigated for allegedly having a sexual encounter with an underage girl in Nashville about 12 years ago, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations said in a statement.







TBI agents said that they arrested Willis in Greenville, Kentucky, where he reportedly fled from his home in Ashland City, Tennessee, to avoid police. He was charged with one count of rape of a child.



Willis continues to be held in the Muhlenberg County Jail in Kentucky without bond as a fugitive from justice. He will be moved to Cheatham County Jail in his hometown, where he will also be held without bond, according to the TBI statement.



Willis and his family starred on TLC's The Willis Family, which followed their life as a musical family of 14. Toby, his wife Brenda, and their 12 children first rose to fame when they reached the quarterfinals of season nine of America's Got Talent.



The show has aired two seasons on TLC, the last of which ended this past April 19.



 Reporting by JEFF TRUESDELL
When last we saw Japans most famous radioactive monster, he was stomping through San Francisco  much to the chagrin of Aaron Taylor-Johnsons bland military hero  in Gareth Edwards 2014 Warner Bros. effort Godzilla. This fall, the anything-but-jolly green giant returns to his home city in an all-new reboot from Japans Toho, the studio that created him. And as its first stateside trailer indicates, his re-emergence has sent the residents of Tokyo into a panicked frenzy.

Related: Godzilla Resurgence Review: Toho Brings Its Monster Back In Japan

Dubbed Shin Godzilla for its American premiere (it was known as Godzilla Resurgence overseas), the latest outing for the nuclear-energized beast will be his 31st overall, and 29th from Toho. Given that its intended to restart the series from scratch, the film  co-directed by Hideaki Anno, who created the popular Evangelion franchise  will boast a familiar premise, with government and military officials struggling to cope with the arrival of Godzilla, whos stomping his way to the heart of Tokyo. Given that basic set-up, as well as the fact that its dialogue will be dubbed for American audiences, its no surprise that the films excellent domestic promo is driven by music and emphasizes close-ups of anxious men and womens faces  some in offices, others in crowds in underground subways  reacting to the Godzilla crisis, until it finally delivers its tail-wagging money shot.

Related: Godzilla Resurgence Japanese Trailer: Guess Whos Back in Tokyo

Aiming to deliver roaring throwback thrills to legions of Godzilla fans worldwide, all while putting a particular emphasis on the logistical response to the monsters existence (and rampage), Shin Godzilla will receive a limited U.S. theatrical release from Oct. 11-18.

Godzillas Greatest Hits: Watch a clip of battle vs Mechagodzilla II:
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Wallet, phone, high school diploma and a one-way ticket - just a few of the things refugees may grab as they cast one last look around their home before fleeing. "What they took with them" is a new video featuring Oscar-winning actor and U.N. ambassador Cate Blanchett and a cast of celebrities urging governments to ensure schooling, health and shelter for refugees ahead of a major U.N. summit on the crisis. Launched by the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) on Monday, the film shows Hollywood actors - including Keira Knightley, Jesse Eisenberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor - performing a poem listing items refugees took with them as they fled into exile. "I think it captures the sense of 'what would I take?', 'what would I do?'" Blanchett said to fellow Australian actor Chris Hemsworth in an interview live-streamed on Facebook. "For me, one of the powerful things in the poem was the word 'housekeys' - that people take their housekeys, when they're fleeing, because they want to return home." Blanchett, a UNHCR goodwill ambassador, said she hoped to draw attention to the 65 million people displaced worldwide, including the 4.8 million Syrian refugees. The video urges viewers to sign the #WithRefugees petition which asks governments to ensure every refugee has an education, a safe home, and the right to work. The petition, with nearly a million signatures, will be delivered to the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday ahead of an historic refugee summit on Sept. 19 at U.N. headquarters in New York. The gathering will be the first top-level summit called by the United Nations to seek an international response to the global refugee crisis. On Tuesday, British actresses Juliet Stevenson and Anne-Marie Duff will read the testimonies of women refugees who fled violence in Iraq and Afghanistan at an event in London to highlight their plight. "The situation for all refugees forced to flee their homes is appalling, but there are particular hardships for the women among them. Yet they are often silent," Stevenson said ahead of the event hosted by CARE International and Women for Refugee Women. (Reporting by Matthew Ponsford, Editing by Ros Russell.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, traficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
By Manogya Loiwal : The 10-kg landmine recovery from Kushbani Forest in Jhargram district of Bengla has not only fuelled renewed fear of Maoist insurgency at Jangalmahal and its adjoining areas but has also given rise to a battle between the state police and the Central forces.

The Jhargram District Superintendent of Police Bharati Ghosh has gone a step ahead by labelling it as a 'fabricated incident' by the Central Paramilitary Forces who are trying to disrupt the peace of the region and earn brownie points by making such seizures.

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Central forces and the state police are now at loggerheads over the issue of extremist scare after the recovery of a landmine in the maoist infested area in West Midnapore.

The landmine was found at the Kushbani forest of Binpur late on Thursday night. The adjoining roads were cordoned off and the CRPF personnel in a joint operation with the CoBRA force combed the entire area before defusing the bomb timely and successfully.

"It was very dangerous to diffuse the mine at night due to vehicular movement in the adjoining road, we waited the night out and cordoned off the place and in the morning after the CoBRA forces arrived, we diffused the landmine." said CRPF Deputy Commandant Bijay Kumar Mullick of 165 Battalion , adding that the mine was new and must have been planted a few days ago.

The CRPF suspected it to be the handiwork of the Maoist in the region as such discoveries of landmines have been common in the region.

The heavy explosives could have caused a blast leading to severe casualties.

However, the claims of the paramilitary forces have been brushed aside by the state police officials specially SP Bharati Ghosh who has gone to the extent of calling it a concocted incident.

Ghosh has often courted controversy due to her unabashed proximity to Trinamool Party Chief Mamata Banerjee.

During this year's state assembly elections she was restrained from visiting the poll booths by the Election Commission after charges of bias were filed against her.

Thus at a state government organized event in the district it didn't really came as a surprise when Ghosh heaped praises on the Chief minister, even in her absence.

But what one did not see coming was the fact that the police chief quite scathingly called the landmine discovery as false and fabricated set up to disrupt the peace of the district.

"Please do not believe everything that you hear or see, not all of them are true. As the SP of the district, I can assure you that there is no unrest in the area and whatever that you have been seeing for the past 2 days is an entirely fabricated incident. Jangalmahal is happy, at peace. "said Ghosh, while addressing the audience at the event in Midnapore town.

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Quick to train guns at the Centre, albeit indirectly, she further added, "This entire phase of development, the fact that there's so much of good happening under Mamata Banerjee has not gone down well with some people. They are just trying to think of ways through which they can disrupt the peace here."

Even though the state police might just try and sweep it under the rug for now, surveillance in the region has been tightened with forces combing the area on a regular basis.

The political differences between Trinamool Congress ruling in Bengal and BJP led government in the Centre are not a secret.

However, it is shocking to believe that a police official raises finger at the Central Paramilitary Forces who have been instrumental in maintaining peace in the region and are looked upto when it come to area domination and combing operations against the Maoists.

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Havana (AFP) - Leading Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas ended a 54-day hunger strike Monday, citing a European Parliament plan to press Havana's communist leaders to ease up on dissidents.

Award-winning human rights activist Farinas said the body could seek an amendment over political repression, to an EU-Cuban cooperation deal. Cuba and the EU reached an agreement on political dialogue and cooperation in March.

Farinas, awarded the European Parliament's Sakharov human rights prize in 2010, stopped consuming food and liquids on July 20 at his home in Santa Clara, central Cuba.

He said at the time he would continue his fast until President Raul Castro pledged that his opponents would no longer be "tortured, beaten, threatened with death." He vowed to continue his fast "until death" if needed.

Now, "the European Parliament has indicated it will consider introducing an amendment to the agreement with the Cuban government regarding the cessation of government repression of the opposition on the island," Farinas spokesman Jorge Luis Artiles told AFP.

"We consider this to be the outcome of a successful hunger strike."

The European delegation in Havana would not immediately confirm the agreement to draft the amendment.

"We have no information that allows us to confirm any of this at the moment," said Alain Bothorel, head of the political section of the EU mission in Havana.

Over the years, Farinas has gone on several hunger strikes to draw attention to what he says are oppressive policies carried out by the Havana regime, including a 2010 fast that left him near death.

Farinas, a psychologist by training, is 54.

Artiles said the latest strike was Farinas's 25th since 1995, and that the dissident is still suffering from the side effects, including dizziness, weakness, joint pain and drowsiness.

The Cuban government, which denies it has political prisoners, did not comment on Farinas's latest demands.
In Arrival, Amy Adams plays a genius linguist recruited by the U.S. military to understand the language of alien visitors who mysteriously land all over the globe.

Critics are lauding her performance in the Denis Villeneuve-helmed sci-fi drama - as well as in Tom Ford's Nocturnal Animals, which also is playing at the Toronto International Film Festival. When asked about promoting two strong titles throughout the awards season, she laughed, "I don't worry about campaigning. The only campaign I'm worried about right now is the presidency."

After playing a linguist - and watching her own young child learn how to speak - she has admittedly reflected on the topic of communication. "Intent is just as important as content, and sometimes, in today's media, intent gets lost inside the content," she told reporters on Monday. "That's why I think it's so important to have face-to-face communication, and that's what this film reminds me [of.] You do have to look at someone to communicate with them. I hope we don't lose that."

Read more: 'Arrival': Venice Review

"We all feel that we're living in a moment where communication is unbelievably important, and terrible things happen when people don't honestly communicate with each other and bring perspective to each other's lives," added producer David Linde. "To make a movie that is so entertaining and emotional, but also has the underpinning of something that's relevant to people's lives right now, is quite rewarding."

Villeneuve, who was absent from the press conference due to his Blade Runner sequel's shoot, often reminded Adams that the film is "a woman's story" - a rarity in the sci-fi genre. "Anytime you get a character that is as well-developed and emotionally vulnerable and yet intellectual with a strength of character, that's a real gift," she explained. "It's a reflection of what women are to me. They're not one thing; they're not purely intellectual, they're not purely vulnerable. They're fully fleshed-out human beings, and to see that reflected so beautifully was a pleasure."

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Of the story's sci-fi elements, Adams joked, "When I started really thinking about it, my brain just went straight into musical theater, to be quite honest.  There's a reason I'm an actress, because my brain just doesn't accept it. But I really loved getting to explore those themes, and we did all that work [before] we got to set."

Jeremy Renner, who also worked with Adams on American Hustle - which had "very different hair," he joked - said they reunited onscreen upon learning "what [effect] a friendship has in a working environment, and trust and love and respect.  It allows us to be free, and the freedom in artistry is not only important but essential."

Adams echoed of their characters' onscreen bond: "Very often, friendship between a man and a woman isn't brought to screen without a heavy sexual energy. ... I love the friendship these two characters developed because I think any great relationship is based on respect and friendship, and I'm always happen when that gets to be developed onscreen."
Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary, John Scheinfelds new feature about the American saxophonist, composer, thinker, and creative innovator, lands in Toronto with what feels like perfect timing.

The recent so-called jazz renaissance, fuelled in part by an array of high-profile cross-genre collaborations on record and on stage, has seen the revolutionary artistry of Coltrane  who died of liver cancer at age 40 in 1967  re-enter popular music discourse, priming young audiences for discovery.

So far this decade, half of the best feature documentary Oscars have gone to films about musicians. Not surprising, then, that numerous buyers  who got a first look at the pic in Telluride, with conversations now accelerating in Toronto  have been tracking Trane for almost a year. The project, which was initiated by producer Spencer Proffer, secured not only the full participation of Coltranes family, who control his publishing rights, but also unprecedented access to the lions share of his recordings by the record labels that own them. Almost 50 Coltrane recordings, spanning his full career, are heard in the film, and used in various ways.

WME Global is representing Chasing Trane in Toronto.

I wanted to feel as if Coltrane scored this film, because in his extraordinary catalog is every mood and emotion and texture, Scheinfeld said, whose previous films include The U.S. vs. John Lennon.

But just as Coltranes music transcends genre, the film  visually rich with hundreds of never-before-seen photos, home movies, animated paintings by artist Rudy Gutierrez, and other treasures  goes beyond familiar chronological music-doc patterns.

Because no TV or usable radio interviews exist of Coltrane, Denzel Washington was approached to perform the voice of the musician.

One of Coltranes quotes, I dont play jazz, I play John Coltrane became a guiding principal, said Scheinfeld. I started in scripted TV work, and that three-act structure was important to engage the audience in a way that is not the equivalent of a jazz-history class.

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Coltranes musician friends, children, and biographers tell his story, while eloquent commentary from former U.S. President Bill Clinton and academic and philosopher Dr. Cornel West communicate a deep understanding of his cultural and historical significance. Coltrane, who grew up in the segregated South, rarely talked politics, but the stories behind his most notable compositions (Alabama) and albums (A Love Supreme) resonate in the here and now.

Coltranes emotional and spiritual journey, as expressed in his music, is what Telluride and Toronto audiences are responding to strongly. There are films about artists who allowed themselves to be dragged down by their demons, but Coltrane conquered his challenges, said Scheinfeld, referring to the musicians difficult withdrawal from heroin. He ascended from that to accomplish amazing things.

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Canadian actress Emily VanCamp is known for action-oriented characters like Emily Thorne (ABC drama Revenge) and Sharon Carter / Agent 13 (Marvels Captain America films). But to play an American mediator in Quebec filmmaker-to-watch Chloe Robichauds second feature Boundaries (eONe, in Canada), which premiered in Toronto Sept. 10, VanCamp had to aim for neutral ground. Before heading north to visit her family in Port Perry, Ontario, VanCamp talked to Variety about her first French-speaking role, the art of listening, and life outside the Marvel Universe.

You were fluent in French as a teenager studying ballet in Montreal, but was it tough returning to the language?

I have occasions to speak French. But my first reaction when this role came up was  this is crazy! But when I read the script, and saw Chloes first film (Sarah Prefers to Run), which I loved, I knew I had to do it. Fear is often what ultimately inspires me to say yes to a role [laughing]. I spent loads of hours with the script, making sure I understood everything and that it came out naturally  because a mediator must be extremely confident in the language, extremely confident in front of all these people.

Your characterEmily . . .

I know! I have weirdly played so many Emilys. All very different Emilys.

Emily handles negotiations about natural resources between the Canadian government and small (fictional) island nation off the Atlantic coast. What did you learn about mediation?

Mediators are really interesting people, their work fascinates me. My own challenge is remaining neutral. Im not neutral with my opinions. Im expressive. So the first thing the mediator I spoke with told me about was about body language  it has to be very welcoming and neutral, and quiet and still. All things that Im not.

How was it returning to an indie-film environment, and shooting in Newfoundland  far from the showbiz central?

Newfoundland is one of the most beautiful places Ive ever been. Its also very cold! We were shooting a few days on a smaller island during the tail end of a hurricane. I wasnt sure if I would wake up one morning on the other side of the island.

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I have been playing pretty heightened characters for a while, in very heightened realities. I needed to get back to my roots. So coming home was amazing, being with my people. And also, it was primarily women on the set, which was something I didnt even realize I needed but, you know, after the superhero world . . . it felt great.

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Israeli writer-director Avi Neshers profoundly moving Past Life is set in 1977 Jerusalem, where two sisters, the daughters of Holocaust survivors, investigate a taboo topic: the mystery of their difficult fathers experiences in Poland during World War II. In his best film yet, Nesher (Turn Left at the End of the World, The Matchmaker) confronts a trauma  the burden of history  that is still very much part of the Israeli present and deeply rooted in the collective subconscious. As the sisters lead them to desperately seek a path to forgiveness and peace for all concerned, Nesher expertly builds suspense while echoing and reinforcing their quest with the films hauntingly beautiful musical choices. Offshore theatrical exposure for this vital, accessible, character-driven drama may be limited to arthouses and Jewish-interest events, but festival play should be robust.

Despite growing up in what their gynecologist father, Dr. Baruch Milch (Doron Tavory, moving), terms a normal world, neither Nana (Nelly Tagar), a combative liberal journalist and all-around prickly personality, nor younger sister Sephi (Joy Rieger), an aspiring classical composer with an angelic singing voice, feel that they had an easy or happy home life. Their father was a stern disciplinarian who butted heads with Nana in particular. So when Sephi is accosted by a Polish woman (Katarzyna Gniewkowska) after a concert in West Berlin, who claims that her father is a murderer, she is disturbed and reluctantly tells Nana about it, but not her parents.

Nana, who bears a grudge for the beatings her father dealt out during her youth, rises to the challenge of this provocation like a true private investigator. But as the siblings uncover surprising facts about their fathers past, these lead the way to further questions and additional turmoil within the family. Meanwhile, Nesher adds further resonance to the action by layering in some significant subplots that come together with the main story in moving ways and by deepening the characterization and relationship of the two sisters, both of whom are struggling to liberate their own unique artistic voices in a patriarchal world.

The film begins and ends with a concert of poignant choral music. The German composer and conductor Thomas Zielinski (Rafael Stachowiak) attends the first and conducts the second. As the son of the distraught Polish woman who knew Sephis father, he, too, comes from a family whose many unrevealed secrets have clouded his present life. When he visits the Jerusalem Music Academy as a guest lecturer, his path once again intersects with that of Sephi. His mentorship not only helps solve her family mystery, but also enables her to rise above the disdainful Academy professor (Muli Shulman), who dismisses her talent and ambition with, After all, has there even been a truly significant or well-known female classical composer?

Nesher, himself the son of Holocaust survivors, based his gripping screenplay on the heart-rending wartime diaries of Dr. Baruch Milch, which were eventually edited into the book Can Heaven Be Void? by his elder daughter, Dr. Shosh Avigal, who inspired the Nana character. Meanwhile, Ella Milch-Sherrif, the inspiration for the Sephi character, composed several pieces for the film. Neshers decision to set the film in 1977 is also significant: It is the same year that the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat decided to part ways with past history and bravely embark on a peace process with Israel. This courageous breaking free from the shackles of the past is also what the sisters seek to do, and like Sadat they discover that their quest exacts a tremendous price.

Neshers films are always well cast, and Past Life is no exception. Particularly outstanding are the women playing the siblings. Tagar (Zero Motivation) perfectly channels Nanas intellect, spikiness, lack of boundaries. and longtime jealousy over the younger sister whose annoying concerts she was always forced to attend. Rieger, a stage and television actress with a beautiful, open face and stunning figure, represents a real find. As their mother, the invaluable Evgenia Dodina (One Week and a Day) flits from room to room like a distracted ghost, unable to witness the pain her husband feels as he recreates his wartime diary for the girls, and ultimately summoning all her resources to beg forgiveness from the elderly Mrs. Zielinski.

Frenchman Michel Abramowicz, Neshers longtime cinematographer, favors intimate, almost claustrophobic interiors that mirror the trapped feeling of the characters. The rest of the tech package is polished, with the period costumes by Inbal Shuki worthy of note. Also critical to the films affect and deserving kudos are the orignal score by Cyrille Aufort, soundtrack production by Yishai Steckler and sound design by Gil Toren.

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With trans issues recently having entered mainstream discourse, certainly not every fictive treatment need be as nuanced as Oscar-nominated Transamerica or Emmy-winning Transparent. Still, nobody  not even viewers willing to settle for good, unclean B-movie fun  is done any favors by something as crude as (re)Assignment, which gracelessly mashes together hardboiled crime-melodrama cliches and an unintentionally funny Oh no! Im a chick now!! gender-change narrative hook.

Not a return to peak form for veteran Hollywood helmer Walter Hill, this cheesy Canadian indie contraption was picked up at the Cannes market for a TBA U.S. theatrical release. But it will be pressing its luck in formats beyond streaming and cable, despite the marquee names of Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver, neither of whom are well-served here.

Framing device is Weavers disgraced plastic surgeon Dr. Rachel Jane being interviewed over several days course by psychiatrist Dr. Galen (Tony Shalhoub) at a Northern California mental institution. Shes in lockdown there after having been found the bullet-wounded sole apparent survivor of an otherwise fatal melee at a clandestine operating theater in San Francisco. She vehemently denies having killed four men there, pinning blame instead on a figure whose existence authorities can find no evidence of.

That person would be Frank Kitchen (Rodriguez), a scruffy ponytailed hitman who once pulled a job on Dr. Janes neer-do-well brother (Adrian Hough) when he failed to pay some serious debts. Hence the de-licensed (for deviant medical experiments) docs urge for revenge, which took the form of having crime boss Honest John (Anthony LaPaglia) abduct Frank, who woke up some time later in a seedy hotel room with his dude parts gone and lady parts in their place.

He was not pleased. Getting some help from an erstwhile one-night-stand (Caitlin Gerard as Johnnie) whos surprisingly blase about taking the he-turned-she in, our protagonist then sets about finding how and why this happened  by aiming his gun at the bottom of Honest Tonys thug ladder, and climbing the corpse trail upward.

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Called Tomboy (a much better title) over the decades that Hill toyed with filming a script idea co-scenarist Dennis Hamill first pitched in the 70s, (re)Assignment recalls the directors classic The Warriors in its rather superfluous affectation of segueing between some scenes via comic-book graphics. (The story actually has been recently published as a graphic novel in France.) Hes responded to anger over the somewhat trashy conceit in the trans community by calling the film strictly a pulp fantasy, one unintended to reflect modern transgender (or any other) reality.

But the larger-than-life stylization that made it possible to swallow, even luxuriate in the cartoonish excesses of such vintage Hill joints as Warriors, Streets of Fire and The Driver is absent here. Even allowing for its evident budget limitations, (re)Assignment is drab-looking (despite random brief moments of B&W), with rotely handled violent sequences, and British Columbia too obviously standing in for the Bay Area. The synth washes of 70s disco king Giorgio Moroders themes only underline a sense that this is a trunk project whose expiration date passed some time ago  if it was ever fresh to begin with.

That flat air allows no sense of ironic distance to leaven some laughably clunky dialogue, which defies two lead thesps who might have made something even of this preposterous concept if theyd been given a more deft, layered script. Instead, Rodriguez just has to faux-tough it out through a one-dimensional macho avenger role that cant help but come across rather silly, while Weaver attempts to cocoon herself in an archness sufficient to protect even from such dismal lines as Youre becoming a tiresome bore!

The movies treatment of Dr. Galen as an overeducated snob is so basic (she quotes Shakespeare! wow!) you half expect the Three Stooges to throw pies at her while shes singing Puccini at a charity luncheon. And unfortunately, thats the level of sophistication operating at all levels here. As a result, a premise that theoretically just might have passed as amusingly outre (a gender-forward spin on Hills own 1989 Johnny Handsome, perhaps) never graduates past just-plain-dumb.

Oddly, while the general feel is retro in a not-good way, several glimpses of full frontal nudity may cause enough ratings trouble for (re)Assignment to look more daring than it actually plays.

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If you go down to the woods today, well, youre not in for the biggest of surprises. An effectively jumpy, artfully artless follow-up to 1999s landmark exercise in no-budget horror The Blair Witch Project, Adam Wingards Blair Witch plays enjoyably on viewers familiarity with the franchise as a new generation of enterprising young filmmakers is sent hiking in the Black Hills  before the considerably more gifted young filmmakers behind the camera fall prey to the plainly familiar. Setting up a number of promising kinks in the now-standard found-footage formula, as the seemingly spooked forest begins to close in its hapless victims, Blair Witch disappointingly casts most of them aside for a finale that does little to advance the series existing mythos. And advance it must, since audience turnout should be healthy enough to ensure another camping trip in the near feature.

A significantly more accomplished and entertaining sequel than 2000s woeful cash-in Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, Blair Witch nonetheless reps something of a missed opportunity from Wingard and writer Simon Barrett, who so deftly and wittily updated 1980s horror form in their terrific, thumbscrew-tight features Youre Next and The Guest. The very title of the new film augurs a back-to-basics approach, significantly inflated budget notwithstanding, and it delivers basics in spades: a clammy-handed fear of the dark, ambiguously sinister pagan-style iconography, and so many thumpingly executed jump scares that even the characters call for a respite. A whole lot more than $60,000, the famously minuscule cost of the 1999 sleeper, has been spent on making Blair Witch look and feel as scrappily homemade as possible  faking it so real, so to speak  albeit with a little 21st-century help from drones, personal camera technology and a cracking, crunching studio sound mix that may just be the true star of the film.

Any viewers waiting for an ironic subversion of those basics, however, may be frustrated. Even as the tropes and techniques of The Blair Witch Project (whose creators, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, have executive-producer credit here) have become routine fodder for parody, Wingard and Barrett largely eschew any Scream 2-style bracketing of the original films lore in a more ironically knowing universe. The opening scene, in which grainy, grisly visions of terror from the original films climactic cabin in the woods are revealed merely as YouTube footage of questionable provenance, wrongfoots the audience in more ways than one: It hints at a deeper probe into the colliding realities, fantasies and fabrications that seemingly keep the eponymous legend alive, but Wingard has no interest in exposing, a la Joss Whedon, the rules of the enigma.

The setup, then, is simple enough, turning the events of the first film into something of a tortured family legacy for its principal new adventurer. Seventeen years after Heather Donahue went missing in the Maryland wilderness while searching for the Blair Witch, her kid brother James (James Allen McCune) is still desperate to find out what happened to her  and instinctively convinced that shes still alive. His quest interests college pal and tentative girlfriend Lisa (Callie Hernandez) enough for her to make it the subject of her graduate documentary project, so off to the Black Hills they go, with coupled-up friends Ashley (Corbin Reid) and Peter (Brandon Scott), not to mention an impressive array of camera equipment, in tow.

Before they can forge ahead, however, they reluctantly agree to collaborate with local guides and Blair Witch geeks Lane (Wes Robinson) and Talia (ensemble standout Valorie Curry, channeling a gothed-out Jennifer Lawrence), a spacy, sun-starved pair who believe in the Blair legend to an unsettling degree. Its not long before the tension between Lane and Talias hushed reverence for all things witchy and the college kids more circumspect approach sours the expedition, though when darkness falls, human animosity becomes hard to separate from more uncannily threatening omens.

Thats about as much as can be given away without spoiling the enjoyment for eager franchise followers  those seeking a pure-as-the-driven-snow first viewing should probably sign off here. Wingard plays his cards in commendably deliberate fashion, steeping his audience for a good half-hour in the generally morbid atmospherics of the setting and situation  tossing in disconcerting incidental details, like the unexplained Confederate flag in Lane and Talias living room, for bonus anxiety  before things start to go bump, and snap, and crackle, and aaaaaargh in the night. When the pandemonium sets in, Wingard and his crew conduct it with aggressive aplomb, shooting, cutting and scoring proceedings in quick, blunt strokes to work up a full horror-movie sweat while preserving just enough raw, haphazard found-footage flavor to honor the original conceit.

But once the films blood is up, its brain freezes, bypassing a lot of its own best ideas in the panicked chase. A potentially elegant time-warp device that removes the guarantee of reassuring guaranteed daylight from the equation  a potential flourish of genius for any dead-of-night chiller  is raised, before going summarily unexplored. Meanwhile, a dip into Cronenbergian body horror, as the Blair terror (or perhaps just a delusion thereof) gets more literally under one characters skin, is likewise shrugged off before it achieves full formation. Blair Witch hurtles toward a claustrophobic climax that carefully parallels aspects of the original, with an ambiguous stylistic suggestion of virtual reality. Its a clever enough reconfiguration, but the film sheds a number of its own innovations to get there.

Ultimately, for all its superior technical brio and moment-to-moment scaring, Blair Witch is a bit hamstrung from the start: How do you faithfully retain the spirit of a cultural phenomenon that was expressly built on its unexpectedness? The term game-changer has become a hackneyed one in the the industry, but The Blair Witch Project merits it to this day, from its trailblazing online marketing strategy to the establishing gimmick that has since become a standard horror subgenre  making even the most elaborately conceived found-footage works, Wingards film included, look a tad old hat. Blair Witchs most ingenious and unrepeatable surprise was pulled off outside the frame of the film itself, with a Comicon stunt that revealed it as the true identity of Wingards hitherto secrecy-shrouded, supposedly original horror project The Woods. Crisp and canny as this retread may be, its finally hard not to wish wed got that film instead.

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The best courtroom dramas are riveting intellectual thrillers. Theyre about legal and moral puzzles heroically assembled, piece by piece, in a flow of interlocking information. Thats true of such classic films as 12 Angry Men, Anatomy of a Murder, or The Verdict, and it was true of last years superb Woman in Gold, in which Helen Mirren played a Jewish refugee who fought, in the courts of Austria and the U.S., to reclaim a legendary Klimt painting stolen from her family 60 years before by the Nazis.

Considering that legacy, Denial, a drama based on recent Holocaust history  or, in fact, on the denial of it  would seem to have the makings of a terrific movie. Its about the British libel suit that was brought, in 1996, against Deborah Lipstadt and her publisher, Penguin Books, by David Irving, the British historian who Lipstadt accused of being a Holocaust denier. Outside of the context of a London courtroom, there was little ambiguity about Irvings writings and speeches: He was  and remains  a Holocaust denier. One whos proudly invested in his beliefs and makes no attempt to hide them. He claims that there were never gas chambers at Auschwitz. He claims (for a while, he soft-pedaled this) that Hitler had no plans to decimate European Jewry. He claims that photographs of Holocaust victims taken by Allied soldiers in 1945 only prove that those soldiers, and not the Germans, were responsible for the killings.

If you look up almost any video on YouTube of David Irving spouting his poison (there are lots of them), you can feel like youre watching the hate version of a man claiming that the Earth is flat. Essentially, Irving is a conspiracy theorist. (If you deny the Holocaust, youre saying that a lot of people have banded together to tell a very big lie.) In Denial, when Lipstadt (Rachel Weisz), a 49-year-old history professor at Emory University in Atlanta, first hears that shes being sued, shes upset, but also incredulous. In America, the ultimate defense against libel is the truth, and the truth she most definitely has on her side. Irving, who drives a Rolls and has gotten wealthy off his books (no one ever said that Holocaust denial is unprofitable), is played by Timothy Spall with the grin of a mad duke and a demagogic bluster that makes him at once friendly and impervious.

As it turns out, the rules of legal engagement are a lot different in England. In a British libel suit, the burden of proof is on the defendant. Lipstadt must demonstrate that what she wrote about Irving in her 1993 book, Denying the Holocaust, is valid. In an age where facts have been reduced to data, and where what was once called reality now competes with different versions of reality (i.e., in the age of Donald Trump), this would seem to set the stage for an invigorating drama about truth, the Holocaust, and the solemn potency of the law. But for all the powerful relevance of its subject, Denial, directed by Mick Jackson from a script by David Hare, never finds its grip. Its a curiously awkward and slipshod movie that winds up being about nothing so much as the perverse, confounding eccentricities of the British legal system.

Rachel Weisz, who can be a great actress, plays Lipstadt in reddish-orange curls that hang down on either side of her face like a tent, and she speaks in a flat blaring Queens accent that, when you first hear it, sounds authentic enough, but her tone of voice never varies. Her performance rarely shakes off the quality of being an acting exercise. Early on, Lipstadt stands in front of a class and asks her students how, exactly, they can be so sure that the Holocaust happened. A young woman replies Photographic evidence, and drifting back to the horrifying footage of the death camps, you think, Yes, good answer. But then Lipstadt makes a fascinating point. She says that there exists not one photograph of a Holocaust victim inside a gas chamber  and thats because the Nazis didnt allow any such images to be taken. That chilling fact, planted early in the movie, sets up a suspenseful question, one that will theoretically rule the courtroom drama to come: How do you prove that the Holocaust happened?

The obvious answer should be: You do it by presenting the inexorably vast historical record  the Nazi orders and concentration-camp files and train schedules and testimony of witnesses, from the German guards to the Sonderkommandos to the survivors. Lipstadt arrives in London, where she meets Anthony Julius (Andrew Scott), the British solicitor she has hired to run her legal defense. Hes a defamation expert who also happened to win Princess Diana her divorce, and he insists on some peculiar parameters.

He refuses to put any Holocaust survivors on the stand, because he says that theyll be humiliated  and the first sign that the movie is heading off the tracks is that Hares script barely clarifies what that means. Is Julius worried about the well-being of the witnesses? (He neednt be.) Or is he worried that their testimony wont play? (Why wouldnt it?) He then tells Lipstadt that she cant testify either. This seems bizarre, and not just because shes under attack. The full title of her book is Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, and she could testify  precisely, definitively  about all the things that David Irving has falsified. The bare bones of this situation are accurate (in the trial, neither Lipstadt nor any survivors testified). But the way that its explained  badly  almost makes it seem as if Lipstadts lawyer, too, wants to engage in a genteel form of Holocaust denial.

The teams key courtroom player is Richard Rampton (Tom Wilkinson), a dour Scottish libel lawyer, and the second sign that the film is going off the tracks is the scene in which he and Lipstadt visit Auschwitz, scouting it for evidence. The camp itself, with its barb wire and chimney and iconic train tracks, is a looming monument of horror, but even as theyre standing on the collapsed roof of the former gas chamber, it should be clear to anyone that nothing in the 50-year-old remains of Auschwitz can prove that the Holocaust happened. How could it? Its a bunch of old buildings, and the Nazis detonated the crematorium before the end of the war. Yet the way Denial treats the physical fact of Auschwitz as if it could prove something  the way it merges the evidentiary and the mythic  indicates that the films basic dramatic sense isnt all there.

The crucial thing missing is what should be the essence of a courtroom drama: our immersion in how Lipstadts lawyers stake out their strategy. We keep hearing, rather tediously, about what theyre not going to do, but we hear next to nothing about what they are going to do. Andrew Scotts performance as Julius is woefully unconvincing  he doesnt seem like a devoted lawyer, he seems like a myopic corporate putz. In court, Irving insists on representing himself, which results in a lot of hollow fire. He wheels out one of his favorite tropes: that there were no holes in the ceilings of the alleged gas chambers, so theres no way that Zyklon B cyanide pellets could have been dropped into them. (Actually, the holes were there, recorded in blueprints and photographs.)

Finally, out of nowhere, Rampton stands up before the judge and begins to present bits and pieces of meticulously researched evidence that the Holocaust actually happened, and that David Irving faked his research in order to deny it. The wording of a letter, written by Heinrich Himmler, about train transports was changed by Irving to make it sound as if the trains werent delivering death cargos  and that Hitler never knew about them. Protecting Hitler, it turns out, is Irvings driving obsession. Hes a cultist who fixated on the Fuhrer when he was eight years old, and he never let go. When the evidence starts to come out in court, the trial swings Lipstadts way.

The strange thing is, she has nothing to do with presenting, or even preparing, any of it. Hares script gets tripped up on the basic rules of screenwriting, and Jackson pastes scenes together with Scotch Tape, yet theres a moment when the movie announces its big theme: Lipstadt gets told that sitting tight, saying nothing, keeping herself out of the trial will win the case. What she must practice, in a word, is denial. Get it? Its one of those tidy/clever David Hare literary puns. Yet to live up to that pun, the movie reduces Lipstadt to a passive agent in her own story, a mere bystander. By the end of Denial, its gratifying to see a historical snake-oil salesman like David Irving get taken down. (Hes now hawking holiday tours of concentration camps  thats not a joke.) But the larger issue, of how a historical lie tries to become truth, barely gets brushed.

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Their Finest is set in London in 1940, during the height of the Blitz, and takes its title from a speech by Winston Churchill. It is a film about filmmaking, in particular the making of a film that needs to serve as a salve for the besieged British populace, boosting morale and helping, in its own way, to win the War. It features a plucky, proto-feminist heroine, a jaded love interest, a raft of distinguished English character actors, and an adorable dog. When boiled down to elevator pitches, Their Finest sounds less like a film than a winning round of Oscar-bait bingo.

Happily, it is nothing of the sort. It is, rather, a relentlessly charming romantic comedy that sees director Lone Scherfig steer a sharp course correction from 2011s misbegotten One Day, and finally expand the sensibilities she displayed with Italian for Beginners and An Education into a more commercial direction. Aiming for a target somewhere between Howard Hawks and Richard Curtis, Their Finest is the sort of crowd-pleaser that knows the difference between satisfying its viewers and flattering them, all the while showcasing surprising performances from Gemma Arterton and Sam Claflin, and an entirely unsurprising one from Bill Nighy  a master scene-stealer pulling off yet another brazen heist.

As a capable but self-doubting Welsh girl living hand-to-mouth in London, Catrin (Arterton) thinks shes applying for a secretarial position when she walks into the British Ministry of Informations film division. But when her supervisor (Richard E. Grant) learns that she has experience as a newspaper copywriter, he hires her for what he surely considers a much worse position: as a writer of slop  an old screenwriters code for dialogue between women  for the propaganda shorts that run between features at cinemas.

Though the work is deadening, Catrin needs the money, with her painter husband (Jack Huston) failing to bring in much income from his dour grey canvasses. One day, shes dispatched to the coast to interview twin sisters who helped ferry soldiers home during the evacuation of Dunkirk, to see if their story might be fodder for a film. Once there, she finds a dead end  the twins heroic tale was profoundly exaggerated, and the two women are black holes of anti-charisma  but decides to pitch an idealized version of their ordeal anyway.

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On a directive to make movies that contain authenticity informed by optimism, the Ministry greenlights the Dunkirk film, and assigns Catrin to help write it. To do so, shes paired with Buckley (Claflin), a sour young screenwriter described as having been spawned in a pub out of sawdust, and who considers their mission of authenticity informed by optimism inherently self-contradictory.

Initially spurned by her male co-writers, Catrin gradually learns how to get along in the smoke-and-booze-filled writers room; begins asserting herself against Buckleys condescension; and even stops objecting when the script starts to drift further and further from her already-fictionalized take on the Dunkirk rescue.

Once the film gets ready for casting, were introduced to Ambrose Hilliard (Nighy), a deluded, narcissistic actor gone to seed, for whom the Wars greatest injustice is the lack of proper service at his favorite Italian restaurant. In need of work, he begrudgingly agrees to take an embarrassing role in Catrins film  as a disheveled drunk uncle who dies halfway through  while pestering her for rewrites all the while. This is a role Nighy has played many times before, but like a veteran rock star still skillfully belting out the greatest hits, he never fails to sell his punchlines.

When they travel with the film crew to shoot on location, Catrin and Buckleys bickering relationship starts to deepen, their flirtations all the more interesting for being grounded entirely around work. Arterton tackles her role as Rosalind Russell-turned-Rosie the Riveter, coming alive as she gradually forces Buckley to regard her as an intellectual equal, while Claflin reveals an entirely different side of his performing talents. His youthful good looks obscured by thick Joycean glasses, a slightly receded hairline, and that particular type of poor posture that cant help but scream writer, the actor translates the insinuating arrogance of his Hunger Games role into tetchy, neurotic sarcasm with admirable success.

Adapting Lissa Evans novel, screenwriter Gaby Chiappe does deft work to balance the farcical film biz misadventures with the simmering unease of the rationing and air-raids occurring just outside. But at times, the film offers too much of a good thing. With so many fun supporting parts throughout  Helen McCrory as Ambroses ball-busting new agent, Jake Lacys talentless American actor shoehorned into the cast for diplomatic reasons, or Jeremy Irons government minister, who delivers the funniest recitation of Henry Vs St. Crispins Day speech yet committed to film  some significant plot threads risk getting lost. Huston is particularly ill-served: his husband role has no real function other than to be an obstacle to the leads romance, and its not even a particularly daunting one.

Nonetheless, Scherfigs tonal instincts are spot-on, and her depiction of wartime London (achieved with the help of a mostly-female below-the-line crew) strikes a believable balance between grit and rose-tinted nostalgia. The film is broad and rib-nudging when it wants, understated and dignified when it needs to be. Even when it takes a turn for the tragic, Their Finest never loses its buttoned-down good humor.

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Paul Dugdales Rolling Stones tour documentary, The Rolling Stones Ole Ole Ole!: A Trip Across Latin America, arrives just a few short years after Martin Scorseses concert doc Shine a Light, Brett Morgans Crossfire Hurricane, and Morgan Nevilles Keith Richards: Under the Influence, among others. It also arrives alongside yet another Rolling Stones concert documentary also directed by Dugdale, Havana Moon, which will get a one-night-only theatrical release later this month. Given such a glut of recent documentary material on the 54-year-old band, the question has to be asked: Does this particular Rolling Stones film really have any pressing need to exist? In the case of Ole, the answer is: maybe not, but so what?

Partially a concert film, partially a meandering travelogue, and partially the record of a genuinely historic moment in the bands later career, Ole follows the Stones on their 2016 jaunt through Latin America, culminating with a free open-air concert in Havana that marked the first time a foreign rock band had ever played Cuba. The saga of making that concert happen  despite intense bureaucratic struggles, a last-minute Obama-related rescheduling, and an admonishment from the Pope  provides the film with its natural throughline, though one wonders what sort of footage Dugdale might have saved for his other Stones film this year.

Nonetheless, the March 25 concert (of which two songs are shown in their entirety) is an awesome spectacle. The crowd  some of them clearly familiar with the bands music, others probably not  seems determined to use the event as a sort of joyous exhalation after the opening of diplomatic relations with the U.S., and the energy is infectious. For Americans and Brits, after so many years of seeing the once-revolutionary music of the 1960s endlessly lionized and turned into commercial jingles, its hugely refreshing to see the effect these songs have on a less jaded audience for whom rock and roll still has a whiff of danger, and Cuba is hardly alone in eliciting such unbridled enthusiasm.

In Argentina, for example, Stones fans comprise a recognizable sort of Deadhead-esque urban tribe of hardcore devotees and Stones-inspired bands called rolingas. The subculture is an intriguing one, born out of the military dictatorships ban on English music, and the filmmakers span out to interview plenty of lips-and-tongue-clad rockers partying and busking in the streets of Buenos Aires. As the band travels via motorcade to the concert venue, we even get to see an endearingly strange recreation of the groups early days being pursued by screaming fans, though the hysterical teen girls of yore have largely been replaced by older men. (After the bands limo passes, a cameraman captures a fortysomething Argentinian weeping by the side of the road. He just saw Mick, his wife explains sweetly, as the man attempts to hide his face.)

Other stops on the tour arent nearly so interesting. Shows in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, and Peru appear to be largely business as usual, so the filmmakers rely on band member interviews and quasi-staged outings to fill in the gaps between performances. (Ronnie Woods Sao Paulo sojourn to meet with a Brazilian street artist feels like the result of a long brainstorming session beginning with what can we give Ronnie to do?) Most of these segments tread familiar ground, though the bands biographers will surely be interested in psychoanalyzing a joint interview/jam session between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. As forthrightly described by Richards in his riotous memoir, My Life, the two longtime collaborators have not been on the friendliest terms for decades, and whether theyve since made up or are simply putting on a show for the cameras, its fascinating to watch them reminisce about writing Honky Tonk Women during a 1968 Brazilian vacation, followed by an acoustic duet performance of the song in the dressing room thats worth the price of admission alone.

Of course, the band still sounds phenomenal onstage, and the concert scenes are expertly shot, with plenty of roaming on-the-ground footage to take in the audience ambiance. The filmmakers clearly had no shortage of resources, and sometimes they seem intent on flexing them for no obvious reason. At one point, we get a long, unbroken drone shot that begins on the ocean off the coast of Lima, pans up to reveal a panoramic view of the citys skyline, then slowly zooms in on Richards strumming his guitar next to a rooftop pool. Its a stunning shot, but why is it here? Who knows. Who cares. Its only rock and roll.

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By PTI: From K J M Varma

Beijing, Sep 12 (PTI) A woman in northwest China allegedly killed four of her children and later committed suicide after her family was reportedly denied government poverty allowance because they were not poor enough, highlighting the wealth gap in the Communist nation.

The tragedy in Kangle county in Chinas Gansu province was compounded when the husband was found dead eight days later in another apparent suicide, China Youth Daily reported yesterday.

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Villagers found 28-year-old Yang Gailan near her house on August 26, together with her four children aged three to six.

All five were either already dead or died in hospital soon after, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported today.

Apparently the four children had been hacked with an axe before being fed pesticide, and the mother, who was accused of the murders, had poisoned herself, the local government said in a statement.

Eight days later, the husband, Li Keying, was found dead in the woods after taking poison, police said.

Yang and her four children lived together with her father and grandmother in a mountainous village while her husband worked in the city for extra money.

They barely survived on the crops - mainly peas and wheat from a small farm as well as three cows and three sheep, the Youth Daily said.

The family was included in their villages allowance programme for poor families in 2013, but was removed from the list in 2014 "because Yangs family was not mentioned during a consultation meeting for low-income family qualification", the newspaper cited the village director as saying.

Chinas poverty relief grading scheme will rate top officials based on how much they improve life for the poor The Yang family was also barred from another government programme for low-income families because they earned too much.

The Yangs average income from the husbands work and the family crops was 5,226 yuan (over USD 870), much higher than the maximum allowed income of 2,300 yuan (USD 385), according to the local government.

Inequality in China, the worlds second largest economy has long been a concern.

Local authorities in 22 provinces and autonomous regions have spent 58 billion yuan (USD 8.8 billion) on relocation projects, with construction started on over 10,000 of them, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said last month.

China plans to relocate 2.49 million poor people in 2016. So far, 718 projects have been completed and 226,000 people have moved, the NDRC said. PTI KJV AJR AKJ AJR

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BH Tilt and Orion have purchased The Belko Experiment after the horror film enjoyed a spirited debut at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, Variety has confirmed.

The film is directed by Greg McLean (Wolf Creek) from a script by Guardians of the Galaxys James Gunn.

It centers on a perverse social engineering experiment where co-workers are trapped in a corporate office and guided through a lethal game by a mysterious voiceover from an intercom. The Newsrooms John Gallagher, Jr. and Scandals Tony Goldwyn star in the exercise in savage office politics.

BH Tilt is an attempt by Blumhouse Productions, the maker of Paranormal Activity and Sinister, to streamline the distribution process and make it more economical. Films released by the label debut in fewer theaters and tend to rely more heavily on digital promotions instead of leaning on more costly television ads. Past releases include Green Inferno and The Darkness.

Orion Pictures, the name of the bankrupt producer behind Dances With Wolves and The Terminator, was relaunched in 2014 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Since that time, it has released the likes of The Town That Dreaded Sundown and Balls Out.

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One of a small handful of prominent Japanese female directors, Miwa Nishikawa broke into the film world as an assistant director to Hirokazu Kore'eda (Like Father, Like Son, After the Storm). Nishikawa caught the eye of audiences at home and abroad with films full of humanity and based on original screenplays, including Sway (2006) and Dear Doctor (2009).

Nishikawa's The Long Excuse (Nagai Iiwake), only her fourth feature since her debut in 2003, is premiering at Toronto. It is the story of an uptight novelist, Masahiro Motoki - star of 2009 Oscar-winner Departures, whose wife and her friend are killed in a bus accident, his difficulty in grieving and the transformation he undergoes helping to take care of the children of his wife's friend.

Ahead of the Toronto Film Festival, Huppert spoke with The Hollywood Reporter's Japan correspondent Gavin J. Blair in Tokyo about original filmmaking, the scarcity of Japanese female directors and why it's easier to write male leading characters.

The Long Excuse

You've adapted one of your scripts into a novel this time you wrote a novel and then turned into a film, what are some of the differences between the process of writing a novel and a screenplay?

The biggest difference is when you write a screenplay, there's a limit on the length of the film, so you have put the main premise across in around two hours, as well as the budget of the project. And of course, you can only express everything visually or aurally in a film, so you have to limit what can be expressed that way in terms of character development.

When you wrote the novel The Long Excuse, did you intend to turn it into a film?

Yes, I'd already planned to do it the other way around this time, as a challenge to myself. It's the story of the main character's journey of the heart, so I wanted to develop his personality fully in a novel first.

Did you make changes from the story of the novel to the script, and why?

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Yes, particularly in the second half, where a lot of complicated incidents occur and other significant characters appear in the book. As I was writing the screenplay I thought that introducing new characters and relationships after an hour and a half into the film wouldn't give audiences the chance to digest them properly. There were also scenes that weren't in the novel, like the trip to the beach, which was very visual and worked better on film.

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I understand in the book there was an incident where the children's father, the truck driver, is arrested for assaulting a prostitute. The character is a kind of lovable dad; wouldn't that have really changed the image of the character in the film?

Yes, there is an incident like that. He actually visits the prostitute to get her help in committing suicide by strangling him, but then throws her off him in the end and injures her. It's not clear in the novel if he regularly used prostitutes or whether it was a one-off. In a book, you can take your time and depict that properly, but in a film, it's very difficult.

The theme of the difference between public and private faces feels central to this film, and has appeared in your other films. While those differences exist in every society, I think it's particularly strong in Japan, do you feel that has been a big influence on you?

I guess that's true, but when I watch U.S. films I do think American people have elements of themselves they keep hidden, it's not just in Japan. It happens everywhere once you become an adult.

All your films so far have been based on original scripts, have you thought about a production from someone else's work?

I've been thinking it might be time to give it a try. While I look at writing a screenplay as something you can only do yourself, if everything is based on your own ideas, they will inevitably have similar qualities. So while I'd like to still write the screenplay, it might be good to work on someone else's ideas.

You've worked closely with director Hirokazu Kore'eda, how much of an influence has he been on your filmmaking?

He is the kind of filmmaker that starts with an original idea, does a lot of research into it, reads a lot of books, rewriting and rewriting the screenplay, and works on editing and even sales himself. That has been an influence, particularly in terms of working on projects I've written myself. He's very calm on the set. Rather than taking everyone into his world, he creates an atmosphere and environment which allows the cast to demonstrate their best attributes. He also has a second assistant director, I worked with him as an assistant director, who he takes advice on takes and other matters. I tried this with this film for the first time, using one of the young female assistant directors who had worked with Kore'eda. It was quite confusing at first. On a Japanese set, whatever the director says goes, so I was worried about the crew thinking I couldn't decide things myself. But it worked really well, I spent a lot of time editing and we ended up using a lot of footage from takes we hadn't been happy with at the time.

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You've formed a production company together with Kore'eda-san, can you explain how that came about, what your hopes and plans for its future are?

We wanted to create an environment where the director is not just a part of the filmmaking process, but can take an idea all the way through to the end. The number of films in Japan based on original works has really declined, and we want to be able to support that kind of filmmaking. We'd like to have all kinds of directors, making comedies or anime or whatever, not just filmmakers with similar tastes.

Most of your leading characters have been men, is there a reason for that, is it a conscious decision?

As a woman, if I write a female lead character, then I feel like there's always going to be elements of yourself in there, a kind of confessional. That's kind of embarrassing, so when I write a male character, I can express the parts of me that are weak or immoral: it's easier to be bold with them.

You're one of the few prominent female directors in Japan, are you conscious of that fact?

The number of female directors has increased a lot in the last 10 years, the environment. But it's still a tough industry for women. The working conditions are tough. There are virtually no women directors who are married and brought up children while having a successful career. I've stayed single and given up certain things for my careers. But I'd like to be someone who women can look at and think it's possible to be a female director.

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Nigerian newcomer Abba Makama makes a bold and brash debut with Green White Green, which will have its world premiere Wednesday in Torontos City to City program.

Drawing comparisons from festival artistic director Cameron Bailey to early Spike Lee, pic is a kinetic and colorful coming-of-age story about three young Nigerians from different backgrounds who band together to make a movie.

Makama describes the film as a beautiful mosaic of madness  a label that he says also fits his country.

I consider it a painting, he said. Its colorful. You have this collage of eccentric characters. The film is a reflection of Nigeria itself.

Green White Green, which takes its name from the colors of the nations flag, examines what it means to be Nigerian by putting some of the countrys most persistent stereotypes through the ringer. Drawing its main characters from each of the countrys three principal ethnic groups, it finds fodder in the very divisions that have at times pushed the nation to the brink of disaster.

Im trying to put a mirror in front of us, to show that we are all the same, despite our differences, Makama said.

An accomplished painter, the 33-year-old pursued his cinematic dreams after studying in the U.S., where he received an undergraduate degree at SUNY Fredonia, before studying film at NYU.

It was in New York that Makama said he found his voice as a director, while developing a strong conviction about his role as a Nigerian artist.

They have this notion that all African people  live in huts, he said of many of his peers in the U.S. As an artist, I knew that I had to do something to destroy this perception of who we are as a people.

When he returned to Nigeria, Makama found he could accomplish that through the lens of comedy, directing a string of satirical short films and a sitcom, City Bishop. He also helmed a 2014 Al Jazeera doc about the Nigerian film industry.

His experiences on two continents have no doubt helped to shape his distinct cinematic voice, which blends the energy and verve of Nigerian popular movies with the indie instincts of arthouse cinema.

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You begin to respect yourself more, he said of his time abroad. You respect your individuality. You respect the idiosyncrasies of your culture.

In the process, he added, hes been able to discover, This is who I am. This is where Im from.

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Distributor Under the Milky Way has picked up Uchenik (The Student) by Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov for North America.

The deal for one of Russia's main contributions to the festival circuit this year includes digital and theatrical distribution rights. A theatrical release date wasn't immediately announced.

Internationally represented by Wide, the movie also has been sold to the U.K. (where it will be distributed by Matchbox), Germany, Italy, South Korea, France and several other markets.

After its Cannes premiere in the Un Certain Regard section, The Student went on to take part in several other festivals, including the Munich Film Festival. The pic also earned Serebrennikov the best director award at Russia's biggest national film festival, Kinotavr.

Adapted from the play Martyr by German playwright Marius von Mayenburg, The Student combines a study of religious zealotry with a satirical portrait of contemporary Russia with its major institutions dominated by ultraconservative and reactionary people.

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From Esquire

The patches representing fire departments from across the globe blanket nearly every inch of the walls of O'Hara's Pub in Manhattan's financial district-San Diego, Halifax, Coral Gables, El Paso, Melbourne-a tapestry of first responders and brave souls.

The legend of O'Hara's, an Irish pub once in the shadow of the World Trade Center, then Ground Zero, and now One World Trade-transcends its roots as a local watering hole. Walk into the nearest firehouse-Ten House, home to Engine Co. 10 and Ladder Co. 10-and ask for the best place to grab a cold one: Fingers unanimously point you one block around the corner. But what was once known as a no-frills bar for cops, firefighters and Wall Street bankers has become something of an international landmark in the wake of the deadliest terrorist attack in United States history.

Like many businesses in its vicinity, O'Hara's bears the literal and figurative scars of the Twin Towers' collapse. A heavily damaged roof put the pub out of commission for months. Once they reopened, business suffered because pedestrians stayed away from the area.

But much like New York City itself, O'Hara's has become a symbol of resilience. With the completion of the Freedom Tower and the opening of the 9/11 Museum and memorial park came an influx of tourists and regulars, many of whom were first responders eager to see their shield stapled to the pub's walls, drink a pint, and flip through The Book-dozens of pages of photos, newspaper clips, and written memories from the attack and its aftermath.

Photo credit: Tyler Joe

Fifteen years after 9/11, O'Hara's stands as an enduring tribute to heroism and sacrifice. This is their story.

Mike Keane, O'Hara's co-owner: Two guys opened this place in '83. They were open about seven or eight months when they asked me to come work here. I was twenty. A few years after, I bought into the business. After 9/11, I took over. And I've been here ever since.

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Sal Argano, firefighter, Engine 10, Ladder 10: I'm not a nightclub guy; I'm not a dance-club guy. O'Hara's is a nice, low-key local bar. It's not jam packed with college kids-it's a regular, adult bar.

Gary Kolsch, firefighter, Engine 10, Ladder 10: The bar is right out back from our station, so it's a great place to go after work. We had a lot of functions there throughout the years.

Keane: We had the firehouse next door -Ten House- and this was always their place. Before 9/11 you didn't have tourists, so it was basically the Wall Street crowd. There was no one down here on weekends. Some construction guys and firemen, but mostly Wall Street guys. After 9/11, everything changed.

James DeLorenzo, former commodities trader: We moved to the Trade Center in '77. So I was going to that bar even before it was O'Hara's. That's where we hung out.

9/11/01

Keane: When the second plane hit, we knew something was going on. The bar was packed at that point. We had gone up to the roof-there was a bunch of papers up there that were burning, smoldering. You could see the south tower had a hole in it. We came down; we got everybody out of here. I said, "Let's go check the roof one more time, make sure nothing's burning." We were up there and the first tower started coming down. We took off down the stairwell, just covered in dust and debris. We went down to the basement, washed ourselves off. The fire escape had all these papers on it that were burning, so we put that out. We left and I got to the corner and a cop says to me, "Oh good, help me look for survivors." I was like, "huh?" I was kind of tripping out.

Argano: I'm from Ten House, but I was on rotation that year at a firehouse in Brooklyn. All the companies in Brooklyn, they got three city buses and they started taking us to Manhattan. I was with a lieutenant with my company. I explained that I was heading to Ten House when we got there. That's where I had to be, that was my house. Those were my guys missing. [Ten House lost five men that day: Lt. Gregg Atlas, Capt. (Ret.) James Corrigan, and firefighters Paul Pansini, Sean Tallon, and Jeffrey Olsen.]

Kolsch: There was a lot of confusion-Who was working? Who was over there? I was still here at midnight and they put out an actual list and the numbers grew every couple of minutes. That's when I realized we lost a lot of guys. When I finally did finish up some time around 12:30 or 1 a.m., I passed O'Hara's. It was covered with a lot of debris. I was with another guy. We were like, 'Let's take a look inside.' We saw a light and we got past this door and there was a gentleman behind the bar with a candle, and he was just standing there like, 'Come on in, guys, have a beer!'

Photo credit: Tyler Joe

The aftermath

Keane: We were able to re-open on April 1, 2002. The street in the front was still fenced off.

Paul Mackin, O'Hara's co-owner: I started here as a bartender working for Mike in '83, but I left to work at my dad's restaurant soon after. So I wasn't here during 9/11. After the attack, I came up to see Mike a couple of times. He was struggling. I sat with him, we had a meeting I said, "Look, if you want me to come back and be a bartender. I'm interested."

DeLorenzo: They really struggled with their business for a very long time. Thank god that the construction workers down there kept them going through those times.

Keane: We were getting some of the Ground Zero clean-up guys here and there. A lot of the crew, they were working 12-hour shifts, these guys were exhausted. It wasn't like they wanted to go out and party. They would come in, have a beer and go home.

Argano: The bar lost all of their corporate regulars. They used to have a decent following of all the people that worked in the Trade Center and it all ended. A lot of them moved away or had other shit on their minds.

Mackin: I stood at the bar for months at a time. People would walk by the window just to see if somebody was in there.

Photo credit: Tyler Joe

9/11/02

Keane: For how sad the first anniversary of the attacks was, the place was packed. It was all cops, firemen, military guys, some families who lost their loved ones. Every couple of minutes, one of the guys would get everyone quiet, somebody would give a thirty-second toast, and then someone else would have something to say.

Mackin: This guy Big John-a volunteer down here, a union guy-walked up to a guy who had a patch from his fire department, tore the patch off the uniform, asked for the stapler, stapled the patch up above the bar and started banging on the ceiling chanting, "USA! USA!" Everybody started chanting "USA!" And then we started cutting the patches off of all the uniforms.

Photo credit: Tyler Joe

Keane: From then on, any firefighter, police officer, or EMS person who's been in here put their patch up.

Mackin: I never thought when these people hung these patches that it would personalize 9/11 for them, and it does. When people come back, no matter where they're from, they walk up to their patch with three or four people who have never been here before and say, "That belongs to me."

Photo credit: Tyler Joe

The Book

Mackin: We're on the fourth edition of The Book. It started with a bunch of pictures we took of the damage. Then it kind of blossomed into this process. The binder would fall apart; we'd make another one. People would drop pictures off.

Keane: There's a woman that comes in, Baynon, and she puts The Book together. She's always fixing the cover, getting new sheets to redo everything. She's The Book's keeper. Like how they have the guy who takes care of the Stanley Cup? She takes care of The Book.

Baynon McDowell, medical journal editor: I got involved in 2010. When I met Mike, I told him who I was and I said, "I'd like to back up this book for you, pro bono. I know how to do this." And he said "Okay." I said, "When can I take it?" And he picked up The Book and he handed it to me. It was one of those moments of trust. He made the right call, I think.

Tim Duffy, retired New York City firefighter: Paul was looking for a guy to fill in and do work once in a while here and there and I said, "Sure." They had this album down there. When I started working there I would meet all these people from all over the world that didn't take for granted what had happened. So it became kind of a special thing for me, meeting all these people that really were taken aback by that album.

Kolsch: Some of those pictures are pretty graphic, so I think it brings everybody back. I've given that book to people to look at and they start tearing up at the bar. It's almost like pinching somebody to say, "Hey, wake up."

McDowell: The Book evolved and grew like a rivulet out of O'Hara's heart. They don't keep this on the bar; you have to ask about The Book.

Photo credit: Tyler Joe

Duffy: A few months after 9/11, a buddy called me up and said, "Hey Duff, did you respond to 9/11 on your bike?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "I knew that was your bike, there's a picture of you hanging up in an art gallery on the Lower East Side." It turns out this guy, Allan Tannenbaum, he lives right across the street from my old firehouse. I saw [Tannenbaum] standing on the right hand corner right behind the Century 21. I turned my head because I was pissed he was taking pictures when people were dying. I was like, "Fuck you, you're not getting my picture." But we later became friends.

Keane: Tourists that come in, The Book really smacks them in the face. Some will say, "I just want to give you a hug."

McDowell: To be able to be part of The Book has meant a great deal to me. I love being a part of it. I really love being here. Keeping an eye on The Book is a good thing to do.

Mackin: People think we're a cop and fireman bar. We're not. We're a place of peace and respect for all kinds. We don't judge anybody, we're just here doing what we're doing trying to go about our business, trying to comfort a lot of people, and that's pretty much what we've become.

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Donald Trump hasnt been shy about voicing hostility toward foreigners.

The Republican presidential nominee has proposed banning Muslim immigrants to the United States. Hes asserted that a lot of refugees fleeing Middle Eastern violence are members of the terrorist organization ISIS. And in a bid to curb illegal immigration and keep out drug dealers and rapists, he's called for a big, beautiful wall to be built on the U.S.-Mexico border.

And yet the Center for Public Integrity has determined that Trumps presidential campaign, earlier this year, accepted an illegal contribution from a Canadian Muslim with a soft spot for Syrian refugees.

Foreigners are generally prohibited from making political contributions, and in response to questions from the Center for Public Integrity, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said the campaign is now refunding $225 to Shahriyar Nasir of Toronto, who may be among Trumps least likely contributors.

This story is part of Buying of the President 2016. Tracking the candidates, political committees and nonprofits that are making this presidential election the most expensive in history. Click here to read more stories in this investigation.

Don't miss another Politics investigation: Sign up for the Center for Public Integrity's Watchdog email.

Nasir is a millennial who works as a software engineer. On Twitter, he describes himself as a proud Muslim, and hes been involved with an interfaith group that helps refugees from war-ravaged Syria settle in Canada.

Did Nasir have a conversion experience this year that led him to support Trump?

Far from it.

Heres how his ill-fated Trump donation came to be: One of Nasirs friends wanted to exercise more, so they made a bet. For each day the friend skipped a workout, hed be required to donate to an anti-charity, which, in this case, was Trump.

When the moment of truth came in April, Nasirs friend had missed enough days to owe 300 Canadian dollars. At the time, the friends calculated that amount equaled $225.

Story continues

A few keystrokes later, though, Nasir was the one joining the ranks of thousands of Americans who have donated to Trumps campaign. Thats because his friend used Nasirs credit card to make the online donation  with the intent of paying Nasir back.

I wanted him to feel the pain of having lost his bet, Nasir told the Center for Public Integrity. The donation that you discovered was made with the intent of helping my friend learn a powerful life lesson. Not with the intent of any kind of publicity or actually supporting Trump.

The friends documented the learning experience in a video that was, until recently, posted publicly on YouTube. (Its now private.)

During one moment of levity in the video, Nasirs friend points to his right bicep and says: The lack of guns here is a testament to how great your wall is going to be.

Notably, Nasir and his friend may have never intended to financially support Trumps presidential campaign.

Throughout the video, the young men repeatedly refer to donating to Trumps foundation.

Trump does operate a charitable foundation, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which is a separate legal entity from his campaign.

But they didnt send the money to Trumps foundation, which itself has been embroiled in controversy surrounding an illegal gift it made three years ago to a political group supporting Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Nasirs money instead went to Trumps campaign, which, unlike the foundation, is prohibited from accepting money from foreign nationals unless they hold a green card, which Nasir does not.

We didnt pay close attention to the details of the transaction, Nasir acknowledged to the Center for Public Integrity. We inadvertently made the contribution to the political campaign and not the charitable foundation.

Only U.S. citizens and immigrants with permanent resident status may lawfully contribute to federal political candidates.

Related: Nasir pull quote

Don't miss another Politics investigation: Sign up for the Center for Public Integrity's Watchdog email.

To be safe, political campaigns should pay extra attention to contributions received from people living outside the United States, said Ken Gross, who heads the political law practice at the firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in Washington, D.C.

Typically, a campaign or PAC will take steps to affirm that the donor is a U.S. citizen or green card holder, Gross said.

Neither Hicks, Trumps spokeswoman, nor Don McGahn, Trumps campaign lawyer and a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, responded to questions about how the campaign vets contributions from foreign addresses.

(Update, Sept. 13, 2016, 9:58 a.m.: In a letter to the FEC filed Monday night, Trump campaign treasurer Timothy Jost stressed that the campaign has "safeguards in place to ensure that all contributions are made by permissible individuals only." Among the measures reportedly being taken: requesting copies of valid U.S. passports for donors giving foreign addresses. The Trump campaign, Jost continued, "rejects contributions from contributors whose status cannot be confirmed with a passport.")

Paul S. Ryan, deputy executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit campaign finance reform advocacy group, said that while this light-hearted fun between buddies was not particularly troubling, it was still a violation of the law prohibiting contributions from foreign nationals.

You cannot undo a violation of federal law by getting a refund or seeking a refund of your contribution once youre caught, Ryan continued. The question is whether its a significant enough violation that the FEC would care.

FEC spokeswoman Judy Ingram declined to comment on the specifics of this case.

The agency typically sends letters to campaigns asking for additional information when it notices contributions that appear to be impermissible.

The FEC did just that in August, flagging Trump campaign contributions from three individuals with foreign addresses. But Nasir was not among them.

This story was co-published with Philly.com. A version of this story also appeared in TIME.

This story is part of Buying of the President 2016. Tracking the candidates, political committees and nonprofits that are making this presidential election the most expensive in history. Click here to read more stories in this investigation.

Related stories

Copyright 2016 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
Donald Trump declined to attack Hillary Clintons health, a day after the Democratic nominees campaign revealed that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia.

I hope she gets well soon, the Republican nominee said on Fox & Friends Monday. I dont know whats going on.

Clinton abruptly left a 9/11 memorial service in Lower Manhattan on Sunday, and a video taken by an onlooker appeared to show Clinton wobbling as she was helped into her van. The incident prompted the Clinton campaign to release a statement from her personal physician, who said the 68-year-old former secretary of state was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday and became overheated and dehydrated at the ceremony.

Trump has repeatedly raised questions about Clintons health on the campaign trail, arguing that she does not have the stamina to be president. But Trump told CNBC he takes no satisfaction in his opponents illness.

It was quite sad, to be honest with you, Trump said. I hope she gets well soon. No satisfaction, believe me, whatsoever.

Trumps decision to not go after Clinton was striking. He has often embraced conspiracy theories while on the campaign trail, and speculation in the right-wing media has circulated for years about the state of Clintons health.

But Bloomberg Politics reported Sunday night that Trump was planning to take a pass in order to focus on other topics, such as Clintons assertion that his supporters are a basket of deplorables. On Monday, Trumps campaign released a new television ad that attacked Clinton for the comment.

But in his appearance on Fox, the real estate mogul pointed to a coughing fit she had last week at a rally in Ohio.

I see what I see. The coughing fit was a week ago, so I assume that was pneumonia also, Trump said Monday on Fox & Friends. I mean, I would think it would have been. So somethings going on, but I just hope she gets well and gets back on the trail and well be seeing her at the debate.

Story continues

Trump also rejected the suggestion that the Democratic National Committee would replace Clinton on the ticket, due to her current illness.

I dont think theyll replace her, he said. We have to see whats wrong. I mean, we have to see whats wrong. But whatever it is, it is, Im ready. Whatever it is.

In December, the Trump campaign released a letter from his longtime doctor, who declared Trump would be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.

Trump, 70, said he had recently had a physical and would be releasing those results soon.

Ill be releasing  when the numbers come, hopefully they are going to be good, I think they are going to be good, I feel great  but when the numbers come in, Ill be releasing very, very specific numbers, he said.

On Thursday, Trump is scheduled to appear on The Dr. Oz Show. According to the shows press release, the GOP nominee addresses why the health of the candidates has become such a serious issue in this campaign and reveals his own personal health regimen.

Late Sunday night, the Clinton campaign canceled a scheduled trip to California for Monday and Tuesday, on her doctors recommendation.

On CNBC Monday, Trump bragged that his schedule has been far more grueling.

If you look at my scheduling compared with anyone elses scheduling, theres not a contest, Trump said.
Washington (AFP) - Donald Trump said Monday he hopes his Democratic White House rival Hillary Clinton recovers from pneumonia and announced he would be releasing details of his own health soon.

The Republican presidential nominee was unusually subdued in his first public comments on the news that Clinton has pneumonia, a diagnosis revealed by her campaign after she fell sick at a 9/11 memorial ceremony Sunday and had to leave abruptly.

"Something is going on but I just hope she gets well and gets back on the trail, and we'll be seeing her at the debate," he said in a phone interview with Fox News.

The 70-year-old real estate magnate said he had a physical last week and will release the details once test results are back.

"I think they are going to be good. I feel great but when the numbers come in, I'll be releasing very, very specific numbers," he said.

So far, Trump has only released a brief letter from his physician that was light on details but said if elected, he would be "the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency."

Two US media outlets reported early Monday that Trump's campaign staffers had been ordered to be respectful about Clinton's illness and not post anything on the topic on social media.

Any violation of the order could result in termination, CNN said, citing unnamed Trump campaign sources.

Bloomberg reported a similar story, quoting "people familiar with the planning."

Trump, known for his relentless and personal attacks, had promoted the idea in recent weeks that his 68-year-old Democratic opponent has serious health problems affecting her fitness to lead.

The internet is awash with unsubstantiated claims that Clinton may have a brain tumor, Parkinson's or dementia.

Clinton was forced to cancel a California fundraising trip on Monday and Tuesday, barely eight weeks from Election Day.

The first presidential debate is scheduled for September 26.
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkey appointed new administrators in two dozen Kurdish-run municipalities on Sunday after removing their elected mayors over suspected links to militants, triggering pockets of protest in its volatile southeastern region bordering Syria and Iraq. Police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse demonstrators outside local government buildings in Suruc on the Syrian border as new administrators took over, security sources said. There were smaller protests elsewhere in the town. There were also disturbances in the main regional city of Diyarbarkir and in Hakkari province near the Iraqi border, where police entered the municipality building and unfurled a large red Turkish flag, taking down the white local government flags that had previously flown. President Tayyip Erdogan said this week the campaign against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, who have waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy, was now Turkey's largest ever. The removal of civil servants linked to them was a key part of the fight. The 24 municipalities had been run by the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), the third largest in parliament, which denies direct links to the militants. It decried the move as an "administrative coup". "No democratic state can or will allow mayors and MPs to use municipality resources to finance terrorist organisations," Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Twitter. "Being an elected official isnt a licence to commit crimes." Turkey's battle against the PKK resumed with a new intensity after a ceasefire collapsed last year and with attempts by Kurdish groups in Syria's war to carve out an autonomous Kurdish enclave on Turkey's border. In a message to mark the Muslim Eid al Adha holiday, Erdogan said the PKK had been trying to step up attacks since a failed military coup in July and that they aimed to disrupt Turkish military operations in Syria. The U.S. embassy said it was concerned by reports of clashes in the southeast and that while it supported Turkey's right to combat terrorism, it was important to respect the right to peaceful protest. "We hope that any appointment of trustees will be temporary and that local citizens will soon be permitted to choose new local officials in accordance with Turkish law," it said. WESTERN CONCERN The crackdown comes as Ankara also pushes ahead with a purge of tens of thousands of supporters of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Turkey of orchestrating the attempted coup in July. Gulen denies any involvement. The mayors of four other municipalities, three from the ruling AK Party and one from the nationalist MHP opposition, were also replaced over alleged links to what the authorities call the "Gulen Terror Organisation", or FETO. The interior ministry said the 28 mayors, 12 of whom are formally under arrest, were under investigation for providing "assistance and support" to the PKK and to Gulen's organization. Turkey has sacked or suspended more than 100,000 people since the failed coup. At least 40,000 people have been detained on suspicion of links to Gulen's network. The crackdown has raised concern from rights groups and Western allies who fear Erdogan is using the failed coup as pretext to curtail all dissent, and intensify his actions against suspected Kurdish militant sympathizers. Turkish officials say the moves are justified by the extent of the threat to the state. The HDP, which says it promotes a negotiated end to the PKK insurgency, said it did not recognize the legitimacy of the mayors' removal. "This illegal and arbitrary stance will result in the deepening of current problems in Kurdish cities, and the Kurdish issue becoming unresolvable," it said in a statement. Tensions in the southeast had already been heightened since Turkey launched a military incursion into Syria two and half weeks ago dubbed "Operation Euphrates Shield". The operation aims to push Islamic State fighters back from the border and prevent Kurdish militia fighters seizing ground in their wake. Turkey views the Kurdish militia as an extension of the PKK and fears that Kurdish gains there will fuel separatist sentiment on its own soil. (Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Daren Butler in Istanbul, Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara; Writing by Nick Tattersall)
This woman wanted to treat her driver to a good dinner at Mocambo, but the restaurant did not exactly like the idea.

By India Today Web Desk: A woman who recently travelled to Kolkata received a different type of hospitality than most do in the City of Joy.

At the end of her week-long trip, Dilashi Hemnani wanted to give a little dinner treat to her helpful driver, Manish. So last Saturday, she decided to take him to Mocambo, one of the most popular restaurants in the city, famous for its Continental cuisine, to make good for the previous day when he'd missed lunch because she'd forgotten to tell him to go and eat while she was at a meeting.

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However, her kind and philanthropic gesture wasn't received too well by the restaurant staff. Hemnani described her experience through a Facebook post that has shocked many across the nation.

She explains in the post how they were first told to wait for 15 minutes for a table. It was only after she enquired again after 20 minutes had passed, that the staff related to her that she won't be given a table because she was accompanied by Manish, her driver.

Also read: Battle of the Bongs: What's the deal with Bengalis and their precious Ilish?

According to the post, the staff then came up with excuses like he was "not properly dressed", and "because he is drunk". Hemnani contested both allegations, but finally gave up. Read the full post here.

She ended her post with a dejected sign-off message: "To Mocambo staff and restraunt at Park Street Kolkata Which doesn't consider human as human and differentiates, discriminates and stratifies them into classes just because he doesn't fit into your description of a perfect customer . ( doesn't own a iPhone maybe doesn't talk in English ) I m sorry you don't deserve a fine human like Manish bhaiya sitting and eating in your racist restraunt." (sic)

The public immediately responded to the post, and vented its shock in the comments section. One Siddharth Verma suggested that the restaurant be given "

With 26k reactions, and 6.4k comments till now, this post is really eliciting a lot of responses. Natives of Kolkata and regulars at Mocambo seem to be as shocked as people from other parts of the country. Some have also taken to marking or rating the place down on different restaurant apps. Take a look:

Picture courtesy: Zomato

Picture courtesy: Zomato

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According to Vagabomb, this is what Mocambo's management has to say about the whole incident: "The driver was very indecently dressed... Just wearing one pant and shirt, but he was not in proper state. He was having roadside food and just standing, not in proper state of mind. He was not acceptable in our fine dining restaurant. We told her (Dilashi Hemnani) we cannot give her driver a table, but we can give her one. We've such high standard guests coming here, it's a fine dining restaurant, we cannot have such a roadsider coming and sitting here.

"We do not have a dress code. But at least a person should be neat and clean. He was having roadside jhalmuri, walking around and grazing people. That is not acceptable. How could you have a roadsider coming in to your restaurant? This is not a dhaba."

Picture courtesy: Zomato

Picture courtesy: Zomato

--- ENDS ---
By Tom Polansek CHICAGO (Reuters) - A U.S. congresswoman urged the Labor Department on Monday to investigate Chipotle Mexican Grill for possible wage theft, another potential hurdle for the burrito chain as it seeks to rebound from food-safety problems last year. U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat from Connecticut, said the department should probe allegations from about 10,000 current and former Chipotle employees who have joined a federal lawsuit that alleges the company did not properly pay them for hours worked. Such actions, if true, would contradict federal law, DeLauro said in a letter to the department, "depriving workers of the wages and earnings to which they are legally entitled." Chipotle said her call for an investigation was "misdirected." "We have maintained from the outset that this case is without merit and will vigorously defend our employment practices," company spokesman Chris Arnold said. The Labor Department had no immediate comment. Chipotle has been working to revive sales growth after outbreaks of E. coli, norovirus and salmonella linked to its restaurants sickened more than 500 people last year and drove away customers. Last week, activist investor William Ackman disclosed that his hedge fund had purchased a 9.9 percent stake in the company, saying it was undervalued. The case over unpaid wages began two years ago when Leah Turner, who worked as a manager at a Chipotle restaurant in Colorado, alleged in a lawsuit that the company routinely required hourly paid employees to work "off the clock," according to court records. The company used timekeeping devices that automatically punched employees off the clock, even if they were still working, the lawsuit said. Since then, about 10,000 others from across the country have joined the lawsuit seeking to recover unpaid wages, said Andrew Quisenberry, an attorney representing the workers for law firm Bachus & Schanker. The large number of plaintiffs is "significant to us, showing that it's widespread across Chipotle," Quisenberry said. The case is Tuner et al vs Chipotle Mexican Grill, U.S. District Court, District of Colorado, No. 14-cv-02612. (Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Peter Cooney)
SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States will conduct a bomber flight over South Korea on Tuesday, an official at U.S. Forces in Korea said, a show of force against North Korea after the reclusive state recently carried out its fifth nuclear test. The official however declined to name the bomber's type or the fleet's size would be. South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported that bad weather had delayed a planned U.S. military B-1B bomber flight to the Korean peninsula that had been scheduled for Monday. (Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
NEW YORK, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The United States will do all it can to oppose North Korea's nuclear weapons policy by using financial tools since coordinated economic sactions have shown to work, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Monday.

"I think sanctions have effectively cut North Korea off from the global economy," Lew said three days after Pyongyang set off its most powerful nuclear blast to date and said it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile.

"North Korea is an enormous challenge and we will do everything we can to keep the pressure on them. We will continue to sharpen financial tools as we can. The goal is to change the (North Korean nuclear weapons) policy," he said, adding China's participation is very important.

"We've seen no sign of a change in policy," he said, adding the United States is not about to relax sanctions.

(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. State Department spokesman, commenting on remarks by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday calling for the withdrawal of U.S. special forces from a southern island, said Washington had not officially received such a demand. State Department spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing that he had seen reports about Duterte's comments, but "we are not aware of any official communication by the Philippine government ... to seek that result." The United States is committed to its alliance with the Philippines, he added. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Writing by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Eric Beech)
(Adds details on duties for selected countries and producers)

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. International Trade Commission handed another victory to American steelmakers on Monday, affirming most of the recent anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on hot-rolled flat steel imports from Australia, Brazil, Britain, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea and Turkey.

The commission rejected anti-subsidy duties of about 6 percent against hot-rolled steel from Turkey, but affirmed anti-dumping duties of about 6 to 7 percent against Turkish-made hot-rolled steel.

The vote locks in import taxes on the affected products for five years. The duties are among a series of U.S. actions aimed at fighting a glut of steel imports as China's economy slows and demand remains weak elsewhere.

Earlier on Monday, the U.S. Commerce Department levied anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties of about 64 percent to nearly 77 percent on certain Chinese-made stainless steel sheet and strip products

The ITC vote affirmed final anti-subsidy duties of 3.9 to 11.3 percent against most steelmakers in Brazil and South Korea, but top Korean steelmaker POSCO and Daewoo International Corp face anti-subsidy duties of about 57 percent.

The highest anti-dumping taxes of 34.3 percent were imposed against Brazil's Usiminas, with all other Brazilian producers facing 33.1 percent margins and just over 11 percent anti-subsidy duties.

The Brazilian government has threatened to challenge U.S. duties before the World Trade Organization in a separate case involving cold-rolled steel imports.

Britain's Tata Steel UK will pay U.S. anti-dumping duties to of about 33 percent, while Tata Steel's Netherlands operations faces final dumping duties of 3.73 percent.

Used in automotive applications, construction, tubing and heavy machinery, hot-rolled steel imports from the seven countries more than doubled to nearly $2 billion last year, with the largest share, about $650 million, coming from South Korea.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Richard Chang and Peter Cooney)
Uber will soon launch a fleet of self-driving cars, because the future is NOW

Uber will soon launch a fleet of self-driving cars, because the future is NOW

Self-driving cars might just be the future of transportation, and Uber is on the forefront of this incredible innovation. While other companies are working on similar technology, Uber has plans to launch a fleet of autonomous cars in Pittsburgh and make the Pennsylvania city the first place on earth where the public can ride in cars driven by no one.

As you can imagine, there are a lot of mixed feelings about the impending fleet of self-driving Ubers. On one hand, many are excited for the prospect of this groundbreaking technology debuting in the former steel industry hub. Pittsburgh mayor Bill Peduto, who has helped Uber foster this development in the city, has said, You can either put up red tape or roll out the red carpet. If you want to be a 21st-century laboratory for technology, you put out the carpet.

However, many citizens of Pittsburgh worry about the cars; after all, living in the testing ground for potentially dangerous technology might make anyone a little concerned. Additionally, there havent been any official announcements or public demonstrations of the self-driving vehicles, and emergency services dont currently know where the cars will travel.

Those are certainly legitimate concerns, luckily, all of Ubers test vehicles will have a human monitor in them who can take over if, for some reason, anything goes wrong. Also, even with a human in the car  self-driving car or not  always a chance for an accident; Thats simply a fact of life.

Says Peduto: There is no technology that is fail-proof, and there is no tech that can guarantee there wont be accidents, but right now there are 3,287 people who die in automobile-related accidents around the world each day, and there has to be a better way.

Pennsylvania is also a great place to try out self-driving cars, because they dont have any particular laws against them: As long as someone is sitting behind the wheel to take over in case of an emergency, driverless vehicles arent banned.

Uber officially announced last month that Pittsburgh will be the launch site of the companys first ever self-driving fleet and while the debate going on about the safety of driverless cars is totally healthy, we cant help but feel pretty excited that something so seemingly futuristic is about to be in the here and now.

The post Uber will soon launch a fleet of self-driving cars, because the future is NOW appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Britain's success as one of the biggest exporters of music must be protected in the post-Brexit world, warns a new report from umbrella trade organization UK Music.

In 2015, music exports totaled 2.2 billion ($2.9 billion) -- up slightly on the previous year's figure and over half of the 4.1 billion ($5.4 billion) that the music business contributed to Britain's economy, according to UK Music's annual "Measuring Music" study.

By far the biggest contributor to the industry's strong performance was domestic and international revenues generated by British musicians, composers, lyricists and songwriters, which alone added up to 2 billion ($2.7 billion).

Fueled by the international success of acts like Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and Adele, whose third album 25 has sold over 20 million copies worldwide since its release last fall, exports of recorded music were up 8.9 percent with one out of every six artist albums sold across the globe in 2015 by British artists. Additionally, five of the top ten selling albums worldwide were by U.K. acts, according to previously released IFPI figures. That was not enough, however, to prevent a slight dip in overall recorded music sales, which fell to 610 million ($810 million) from 614 million ($815 million) the previous year.

Concerns Loom Over U.K. Music Business' Future in Wake of Brexit Vote

The live sector also played a crucial role in supporting a thriving industry, with over 27 million people attending live music events in the United Kingdom last year, generating 904 million ($1.2 billion) -- a 20 million fall on the previous year's total, which UK Music attributed to a decline in grassroots music venues throughout London and the wider country. Of those 27 million people who attended concerts and festivals, over 750,000 were overseas music tourists.

Other significant revenue streams included music publishing, which totaled 412 million ($547 million) and the 119 million ($158 million) generated by music producers, recording studios and staff. Music representatives, defined as collecting societies, managers and trade bodies, contributed an additional 92 million ($122 million). All sectors were broadly flat with the previous year's figures. Their combined revenues helped support almost 120,000 full time jobs in the British music industry, around 70,000 of which are employed as musicians, composers, lyricists and songwriters.

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"To say that the U.K. punches above its weight is a massive understatement," said culture secretary Karen Bradley in the report's foreword. "Extraordinary talent is not enough, however. Magic may be a part of the creative process but careers in music don't happen by magic. This government will do all it can to help -- through investment; ongoing consideration of tax laws; and working closely with UK Music, schools, orchestras, conservatoires, Lottery distribution bodies, and everyone else who wants to see British music flourish," she went on to say.

"The U.K. needs to solidify its new post-Brexit place in the world and music will undoubtedly be part of the glue that does this," argued UK Music chief executive Jo Dipple.

"Our export profile is astounding which is partly why music, like sport, gives the world an understanding of our small country. UK Music's goal is to work with government to convince them to give us policies as good as the music we produce," she went on say, echoing industry-wide calls to address the 'value gap' between growing music consumption and declining revenues generated for artists and rights holders.

"Copyright law, within and outside the EU, must allow U.K.-made IP content to flourish in global markets," said Dipple. Those sentiments were reinforced in the "Measuring Music" report, which conceded that while "YouTube and other similar ad-funded services remain a vital way for the music industry to reach music fans, the value gap between creators, rights owners and parts of the tech industry that rely on ad-revenues over subscription and licensed income is too wide and needs to be addressed immediately."
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's government needs to speed up its decision-making on big infrastructure projects to help the country's economy withstand a slowdown caused by the Brexit vote, a leading employers group said on Monday. The British Chamber of Commerce cut its forecasts for economic growth in 2016 to 1.8 percent from a previous estimate of 2.2 percent and it also downgraded its 2017 and 2018 growth forecasts to 1.0 percent 1.8 percent respectively. "They (the government) should start with the long list of business-boosting infrastructure projects that have been put on hold for far too long - including a firm decision on a new airport runway, new nuclear investment, and road and rail schemes," BCC acting director general Adam Marshall said. Finance minister Philip Hammond said last week that big infrastructure projects would take too long to deliver an economic impact to feature in budget plans he will announce in November but he said he could fund more modest projects if needed. The prospect of a recession caused by Britain's decision to leave the European Union has receded after a rebound in economic data for August, including a pickup in consumer confidence. But there are signs from companies of longer-term drags on the economy. The BCC said it expected business investment to fall by 2.2 percent in 2016 and by 3.4 percent in 2017, a sharp turnaround from its previous forecasts for rises of 4.5 percent and 7.4 percent respectively. A separate analysis by accountancy firm BDO also called for more infrastructure investment, and said businesses were starting to regain their confidence after a dip following the EU referendum. The BDO Optimism Index rebounded to 98.7 in August from a three-year low of 97.9 in July. The index, calculated using business and central bank survey data, indicates recessionary conditions at 95 and 2 percent long-term growth at 100. Separately on Monday, credit card firm Visa said its UK Consumer Spending Index suggested overall consumer spending growth rose by just 0.1 percent in August compared with July, its slowest increase in almost three years. The index jumped by 1.6 percent in July when official data also showed consumers spent heavily despite the Brexit vote. Official data for retail sales in August are due on Thursday. (Writing by Laura Gardner Cuesta and William James; editing by William Schomberg)
(Recasts, adds quotes, context)

By William James

LONDON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Britain will make public its guidelines for talks on leaving the European Union by the time it triggers the exit process, Brexit minister David Davis said on Monday, in the first indication of when Britons will find out what the government hopes to achieve in the talks.

Prime Minister Theresa May's government has warned it will reveal little about its strategy on key issues like immigration and trade as it prepares to negotiate Britain's exit from the EU following the shock June 23 referendum vote to leave.

But Davis, head of the newly created Department for Exiting the European Union, said the negotiating process itself would not be a "black box" and that details would begin to emerge once the legal exit procedure, known as 'Article 50' began.

"It will start, I guess, at the point of triggering Article 50. We will at that point have a some clear public negotiating guidelines," David told a committee of lawmakers investigating the role of parliament in the Brexit process.

The government has been pressed for detailed answers on how it intends to enact the decision to quit the bloc by everyone from business leaders to foreign allies.

So far, it has revealed little.

"Before Article 50 is triggered there will be a rather frustrating time, because we won't be saying an awful lot," Davis said. He said giving a running commentary on the talks would undermine Britain's negotiating stance.

Separately, finance minister Philip Hammond sought to address the concerns of businesses about Brexit, meeting with large exporters like Honda, Airbus and GlaxoSmithKline to tell them that trade with EU member states would be a priority in the exit talks.

FAST AND RESPONSIVE

Once the exit process has been started, Britain has an initial two-year period to negotiate its departure. Davis said this time frame was possible, but would require the government to be "nimble, fast and responsive." The talks can be extended if both parties agree.

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Davis said parliament would be called upon to pass new laws to enact the exit from the bloc. The government has previously stated parliament did not need to approve the decision to trigger an exit.

He said the negotiating strategy would be drawn up by assessing feedback from other government departments which have been asked to consult with relevant parties on the opportunities brought about by leaving, the risks of leaving, and best policies to mitigate those risks.

"At that point, which is not yet, we will be doing some quite quantitative assessment of what we think the advantages and disadvantages are," he said. "We need to take an empirical approach. The purpose of this is not to damage the national interest or damage economic interest, it's just the reverse." (Additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon and Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
By PTI: Pune, Sep 12 (PTI) Womens rights activist Trupti Desai today claimed she has been offered popular reality show "Bigg Boss", but said she would participate on the condition that a female voiceover will be roped in for the series.

Desai claimed she received the offer from the concerned television channel (Colors), and she is thinking of participating in the forthcoming season of the show.

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"I am ready to enter into the (Bigg Boss) house. During my meeting with the TV channel and its producers, I conveyed them that if they rope in a female as the voice of Bigg Boss, I will accept the offer," Desai told PTI.

Since its inception, a male voiceover has been used for the "Bigg Boss".

"I have not given them any confirmation and had told them during the meeting to give a thought over the condition and get back to me," she said.

"I know, for them it is difficult to replace the male voice with female for this season, but if they assure me that they would rope in a female as voice of Bigg Boss in the next year season, I would accept the offer."

Desai said it wont be easy for her to stay in the house for a long time as she has campaigns lined up for coming months, but believes "Bigg Boss" is a good platform to promote male-female equality.

"Since there are several campaigns on various issues lined up in next few months, it would be very difficult to stay in the house for a long time. However, the platform of Bigg Boss will be a good medium to spread our message about equality."

Colors is, however, yet to make an official announcement on the contestants in the upcoming season, which will be hosted by superstar Salman Khan.

The activist, who belongs to the Bhumata Brigade, had successfully campaigned for womens entry into the inner sanctum of Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra and fuelled a national debate on gender bias in various other temples of the country. PTI SPK GK PSH PSH RYS

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KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine said on Monday it was ready to hold talks in good faith with Russia regarding a dispute over a $3 billion bond that has become yet another sore point between the former allies since Ukraine sought closer ties with the European Union. Russia, which filed a lawsuit against Ukraine at London's High Court in February demanding repayment of the Eurobond, said earlier on Monday it was ready for an out of court settlement. "In accordance with Ukraine's obligations under the current IMF program - particularly regarding 'good faith' talks with the Russian Federation on the claimed debt, Ukraine is prepared to enter into further talks for the possible resolution of the dispute," Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk was quoted as saying by his press service in emailed comments. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov earlier said there were preliminary plans to meet with Danylyuk on the sidelines of the meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington next month. (Reporting by Natalia Zinets; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Alison Williams)
Tom Sibley/Getty Images

One of the most enjoyable and satisfying parts of owning a home is filling it with furniture you adore. No argument there. But its easy to get overwhelmed by the virtually endless number of choices. With so many sofas and tables to pick from, which style strikes your fancy? Well, first you need to understand the definitions and the terminology.

Look no further than this installment of our Learning the Lingo series. From Chippendale to Mid-Century Modern, heres a crash course on the past four centuries worth of furnishing trends so you know the back story on every stool and nightstand you might encounter at any furniture boutique or flea market.

Louis XIV (1600s)

A copy of the famous commode created for Louis XIV at Versailles De Agostini Picture Library/Getty Images

Pronounced LOO-ee Ka-TORZ, this ornate style of furniture is named for the French king who built Versailles. So, as only fitting for a palace, these furnishings feature lavishly carved wood thats gilded, lacquered, or embellished up the wazoo. If youre on the prowl for sleek modernism, this aint it. Even if you havent visited France, you can see later incarnations of the style on-screen in films like Dangerous Liaisons and Marie Antoinette.

Chippendale (late 1700s)

Chippendale side chair Peter Harholdt/Getty Images

No, not those Chippendales. These furnishings are named after the British designer Thomas Chippendale, who made a name for himself for polished wood furniture with brass fixtures that is graceful and decoratively carvedbut significantly less ornate than French furniture of the same period. Two features associated with Chippendale are cabriole legs (which are curved, and somewhat resemble animal legs) and ball and claw feet ending in a claw grasping a glass ball.

Fun fact for design nerds (you know who you are): When this style was christened Chippendale, it marked the first time that an English furniture style was named after somebody other than a king or queen. Do with this information what you will.

Colonial (1700s)

Colonial style dresser KatarzynaBialasiewicz/iStock

Early Americans had plenty of wood, so they made plenty of furniturerough-hewn though it may have been due to lack of sophisticated tools, as well as to our Puritan influence, which valued simplicity. At most, shallow carvings of rosettes and leaves may decorate flat areas, such decorated elements are called Kerbschnitt. Gesundheit!

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Shaker (1800s)

Typical Shaker bedroom Hanan Isachar/Getty Images

If you thought Colonial furniture was rough around the edges, meet the Shakersmembers of a religious sect dedicated to simple and humble living who also believed that their furniture should aesthetically reflect their values. Since they even considered metal hardware too much ornamentation, Shaker bureaus and desks feature wooden mushroom-shaped drawer pulls. Probably the most recognizable Shaker style is a tall ladder-back chair with rungs and a woven seat.

Mission (1900s)

By the early 20th century, mass production of furniture had begun. But many homeowners gravitated instead to the hand-made designs of the Mission movement (which has nothing to do with Spanish missions, by the way).

Its also known as the Craftsman or Arts and Crafts movement, and styles were bigger and heavier than Shaker, typically with metal fittings and leather or simple cloth, as the upholstery of choice, along with lamps or windows of stained glass. The pre-eminent designer of this furniture, Gustav Stickley, was the artisanal hipster of his era, and the Stickley Company still creates furniture today.

Art Nouveau (1900s)

Art Nouveau style Francesco Scatena/iStock

Art Nouveau design used beauty as an antidote to the incipient machine age and embraced embellishments without apology. Using curving lines and intricate patterns, Art Nouveau furniture often evokes nature, with flower and plant motifs, and is likely to have a polished or varnished finish. The most famous example of this European-based aesthetic isnt furniture, but rather the lavish Paris Metro entrances that feature sinuously curving plant and flower designs.

Art Deco (1920s1930s)

If youre knocked out by great design, take a seat on this Art Deco fainting couch. Poike/iStock

Still the most glamorous interior style, Art Deco design captured the optimism and elegance of the roaring 20s. Characterized by clean lines, often with a geometric feel, it typically used luxurious materials like exotic wood (sometimes inlaid with ivory or ebony), marble, metal and lacquer. The quickest way to school yourself in Art Deco style: Binge-watch Hollywood drawing room classics from the 1930s, when Deco was at the peak of its influence.

Bauhaus (1920s1940s)

Barcelona chair from the Bauhaus school of design Sjoerd van der Wal/iStock

This game-changing school of design (literally a school) sprung up in Germany between the World Wars with the philosophy that architecture and furniture should be treated as art, but should also be optimally functional. Bauhaus is probably best known now for its still-fashionable chairs, like Mies van der Rohes tufted leather Barcelona chair and Marcel Breuers leather-and-steel Wassily armchair.

Danish Modern (19301950s)

Arne Jacobsens egg chair design Tom Sibley/Getty Images

Modernist Danes (along with some Swedes and Finns) created most of the 20th centurys most iconic furniture styles, many of which are still in production todayboth in officially licensed versions and in cheaper knock-offs. Some of the better-known examples are Arne Jacobsens Egg chair, Hans Wegners Wishbone chair and Poul Henningsen artichoke lamp. Danish Modern design is known for clean, curving lines with a minimalist aesthetic and a futuristic spirit.

Mid-Century Modern (1940s1960s)

Mid-Century Modern living room Scott Van Dyke/Getty Images

An American outgrowth of Bauhaus and Scandinavian modern design, Mid-Century Modern furniture was designed to decorate the new style of architecture of the same namethose low-slung, glass-walled houses that dot the Hollywood Hills and the Palm Springs desert, and their Midwestern counterparts. American Mid-Century Modern pieces tend to be a bit bigger and more relaxed than European designs of the same era, due to the more spacious dimensions of homes in Americans West. Two iconic and defining designs of this era are Charles and Ray Eamess leather lounge chair and ottoman and Henry Bertoias Diamond Chair.



More from realtor.com: How to Stage Your Home Like a Pro

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Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc's new chief executive Joseph Papa speaks to the press following their annual general meeting in Laval, Quebec June 14, 2016. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi

At a Wells Fargo healthcare conference, analysts asked Valeant CEO Joe Papa about Direct Success Pharmacy.

It's a specialty pharmacy that the company had a special arrangement with to distribute the antidepressant Wellbutrin XL.

You may recall that it was the discovery of one of these special arrangements, with a now defunct secret specialty pharmacy called Philidor, that contributed to Valeant's near demise last October. Valeant and Philidor are both under investigation for potentially defrauding health insurers.

So naturally Wells Fargo was curious about Direct Success.

"We have not heard anything from Valeant about Direct Success Pharmacy since. As we are interested in Valeant's current use of Direct Success Pharmacy and other service providers, we asked CEO Joe Papa about Direct Success Pharmacy during our conversation. Papa explained that in the time he has worked at Valeant so far, he was not aware of Direct Success Pharmacy," analyst David Maris wrote in a note to clients (emphasis added).

That's got to be comforting.

'I don't know her'

This wasn't the only troubling thing to come out of the conference.

In April, Valeant executives sat in the hot seat in Congress, and they promised to make some changes at the company.

For one thing, they promised drug price reductions across the board  especially for two heart drugs, Nitropress and Isuprel. The company had raised the prices of the drugs 525% and 212%, respectively, and that caught the ire of Congress.

That anger is also part of what dragged Valeant's stock price down over 90% from this time last year.

The company did make somewhat good on its promise to lower the prices of Nitropress and Isuprel. But that's really it, according to Papa.

That's what he told analysts at Wells Fargo's healthcare conference in Boston last week.

"Papa explained that since becoming Valeant's CEO, the company has taken price cuts on only two drugs: Isuprel and Nitropress; and that Valeant has provided an average discount in the mid-teens to customers of these two products," Maris wrote in a note to clients.

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This is not exactly the spirit of what Valeant executives discussed before Congress.

At the hearing, Bill Ackman, a major Valeant shareholder, said that he would "recommend" a 30% price reduction for Isuprel and Nitropress.

And former Valeant CEO Michael Pearson also offered a 10% reduction for many drugs while denying a report that the company had raised the prices of 16 drugs over the previous 12 months.

So it looks as though Congress may have reason to continue breathing down Valeant's neck  that is, of course, if it wants the company to stick to its promises.

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It's no secret women-led companies have a significantly harder time securing venture-capital funding than their male counterparts. Katherine Hays, cofounder and CEO of ad-tech startup Vivoom, said it perfectly: Sometimes I believe if I were a 21-year-old male in a hoodie, Vivoom would have been even more appealing to VCs.

Numerous recent studies confirm these difficulties:

About 38 percent of new businesses in this country are started by women but only between 2 percent and 6 percent of those founders receive VC funding, says Wharton Business School professor Ethan Mollick.

Companies with all-male management teams are over four times more likely to receive VC funding than businesses with even one woman on the team, according to a 2014 study by Babson College.

While the gender disparity in venture capital is indisputable, the contributing factors and proposed solutions remain up for debate.

The VC decision-makers.

There is a demonstrated lack of diversity among venture capitalists. Early-stage investing long has been dominated by men, with very few women involved in the traditional model of networking, evaluating prospective investments and guiding portfolio companies.

Men constitute the vast majority of today's VCs. That's especially true for funds valued upward of $250 million: Only about 6 percent of those VC decision-makers are women. While these reports fail to reflect the presence of women in smaller VC firms, they still are indicative of the overall diversity problem within early-stage investing.

Whartons Ethan Mollick spells out why a predominantly male funding landscape can be (and has been) self-perpetuating: "If you share a gender, ethnicity or social background with someone else, youre part of the same personal and professional network and are therefore more likely to [be inclined to want to work together]."

The VC capital process is highly dependent on networking, and there's little objective data to guide early-stage investment. This means decisions easily are swayed by personal preference, implicit bias and status quo.

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Still, the number of female funders is on the rise, and the trend should bode well for female entrepreneurs. The Kauffman Foundation has found that venture funds with women on their teams invest in women founders 70 percent of the time.

Related: What if the Most Powerful People in Business Were Women?

The burden of proof.

Perceptions of a companys founder and management team are crucial in evaluating a startup. In a fiercely competitive, high-risk landscape, anything short of uncompromising commitment leaves room for doubt. Female-led startups face an uphill battle to inspire confidence and win investors.

Successful startups demand entrepreneurs who are all in, and women are subject to second-guessing. More often than not, they're assumed to be less willing to sacrifice family and home life for their work. They're also assumed to be less inclined toward the hyperconfidence and self-promotion often associated with success.

Faced with these presumptive attitudes, women do well to know their strengths. Female entrepreneurs have proved themselves exceptionally effective at noticing market opportunities, adapting to changes, innovating solutions, creating value and keeping costs low. Reports such as the 2015 Kauffman Index: Startup Activity suggest female entrepreneurs are the most adept at perceiving and capitalizing on market opportunities.

Follow Us: Women Entrepreneur on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Following the money.

It's widely recognized that if female entrepreneurs could leverage the same opportunities as their male counterparts, the job market and economy as a whole would see enormous benefits. Many efforts are underway to close the gender gap.

Related: A Female Founder's Tips for Fundraising

These new platforms and organizations -- accelerators, networking groups and VC firms alike -- all are crucial to help female entrepreneurs access the human and financial resources they need to launch and grow their businesses. And as early-stage funding evolves to include a greater variety of decision-makers, it should become easier for women-led businesses to connect with investors.
U.S. telecom behemoth, Verizon Communications Inc. VZ is forging ahead with its new growth and innovation plans in the Internet of Things (IoT) space. The company recently entered into a partnership with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Inc. QCOM, the largest manufacturer of wireless chipsets. This partnership will see Verizon's IoT platform, ThingSpace, being integrated into Qualcomm Technologies' MDM9206 Category M LTE modem.

The IoT collaboration news was released at CTIA Super Mobility 2016 in Las Vegas. Reports state that the ThingSpace IoT platform will be available for original equipment manufacturer (OEM) integration on MDM9206-based solutions around the beginning of 2017.

Verizon ThingSpace and Qualcomm CAT M

Internet of Things (IoT) is basically the networking of physical devices, vehicles, buildings and other items that are embedded with electronics, software, sensors and network connectivity, which enables these objects to collect and exchange data. ThingSpace is Verizons global IoT platform which enables developers to build and manage applications throughout the globe.

Qualcomms Category M1 or CAT M is a network generated by the companies to allow devices stay connected with each other. It also offers long battery life and better coverage for long communication range.

Objective of the Deal

The joint initiative intends to deploy Qualcomms CAT M on Verizon's 4G LTE network for serving various IoT services including asset tracking, security and industrial control. The main purpose behind the merger is to simplify IoT applications, to deliver next-generation IoT products and services along with less power and lower bandwidth, reduce IoT cost of connecting devices to the LTE wide-area network and to help developers and businesses operate easily with their connected devices on 4G LTE network. Earlier, connecting IoT devices to the LTE network was much more expensive than connection to other technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zwave or ZigBee. The tie-up is also expected to help companies deal with the two major issues of IoT  firmware management and diagnostics handling. Verizon also claims that it will soon launch more IoT solutions for electric, water and gas companies and cooperatives using Qualcomm chips. Additionally, other applications such as device security and sensor data visualization are expected to emerge as a result of this merger.

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Bottom Line

This partnership is expected to benefit both the companies. On one hand, Verizon will provide tough competition to other major U.S. wireless carriers such as AT&T Inc. T and startups such as SigFox that deliver wireless connections for smart devices at subsidized prices in the IoT space. On the other hand, signing a deal with one of the leading telecom players in the U.S. is a prudent move for Qualcomm.

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Qualcomm has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), while Verizon has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked telecommunication stocks include NTT DOCOMO, Inc. DCM which carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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A Vietnamese court on Monday agreed to hand over to Malaysia eight Indonesians who were arrested last year on suspicion of hijacking a Malaysian-flagged oil tanker, according to reports.

The men washed up on Vietnam's southwestern Tho Chu island on a lifeboat claiming to have encountered an accident at sea in June 2015.

They were taken into custody after officials discovered they were carrying large sums of cash, and were accused of hijacking the MT Orkim Harmony oil tanker.

The group spoke Indonesian, officials said, and both Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur requested to have the men extradited.

"The Hanoi people's court has ruled out a request by the Indonesian embassy to bring back the suspects to its country for a trial," state-run VNExpress news site said.

"The court accepted Malaysia's proposal to extradite the men to Malaysia" based on Vietnam's mutual legal support laws with Malaysia, the report added.

Court officials did not respond for a request to comment Monday, though the report said the suspects have 15 days to appeal the ruling.

MT Orkim Harmony was carrying around 6,000 tonnes of petrol worth an estimated $5.6 million when it was commandeered on June 11 last year en route from Malaysia's western coast to the port of Kuantan on the east coast.

The eight suspected pirates eluded search crews by escaping in a lifeboat under cover of darkness, Malaysian authorities said at that time.

The tanker's 22 crew members were mostly unscathed except for a slightly injured Indonesian sailor who was treated for a gunshot wound to the thigh.

The vessel was the latest ship targeted by increasingly bold pirates behind an upsurge of sea hijackings in Southeast Asia in recent years that have typically aimed at smaller tankers carrying valuable petrol, diesel or gas oil.
Women's right activist Trupti Desai has confirmed being approached for Bigg Boss 10. And her unique condition to participate in the show will make you say WOW!

By India Today Web Desk: If Bigg Boss makers want women's right acitivist Trupti Desai (who ran campaign to gain entry into the Shani Shingnapur temple) to be part of its current installment--wherein the commoners and celebs will come together--they will have to rope in a female as the voice of Bigg Boss. Because that's the only condition Trupti has put to come on board.

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Also read: Eagerly awaiting Bigg Boss 10? This might be the show's premiere date



Trupti has confirmed to India Today Television that she has indeed got an offer to participate in the controversial reality show and will even consider joining it, but on one condition. She will only participate if the voice of Bigg Boss--that interacts with the participants--is a female one instead of male.

While, that's something Bigg Boss fans would not have thought of, it's indeed an interesting idea to incorporate a female voice on the show.

Also read: Bigg Boss 10: 8 celebs who might feature in the reality show



Bigg Boss 10 which is rumoured to be premiering on October 16 has been generating a lot of buzz thanks to its all-new format (commoners to join celebs on the show this time) and Salman's promos as astronaut and Sultan.

Watch video: Trupti Desai to be part of Bigg Boss 10?

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Back in June, WWE made a landmark deal with Chinese streaming conglomerate PPTV as part of their big new initiative to break into the Chinese market in a major way. WWE has been doing the full court press in China ever since announcing that deal, beginning with a press conference where John Cena spoke perfect Mandarin and announced the signing of the first Chinese national athlete to compete in WWE, Bin Wang.

Over the weekend, WWE held a live event in Shanghai, China, where Bin Wang (now competing under the name Tian Bin) had his debut WWE match, which you can watch in the video above.

Tian Bin competed against Bo Dallas, which is about as wonderful a first opponent as you can get in WWE. In the video, he is clearly supremely over and beloved by the Chinese crowd and everything he did awed and impressed the fans in attendance. In fine debut international Superstar tradition, Tian Bin got the victory, gaining the pinfall after a running powerslam.

You can gauge for yourself how WWE-ready Bin looks based on these clips, but he certainly has a great look and a huge, built-in audience in his home country. Perhaps well see him pop up in NXT sooner rather than later, or maybe even make a jump to the main roster in short order. Only time will tell.

You can see a lot of other highlights of the show in Shanghai, perhaps my favorite of which is the crowd enthusiastically singing along to The Big Shows theme song. Lets just be glad that Shows match in Shanghai went better than his match in Manila.
This Immigrant Doctor Is Reimagining Health in the American City

KAMPONG CHAM, CambodiaIn a backyard lush with mango and papaya trees, an addition to Touch Sopheas family was stirring excitement: Several tadpole-size guppies were doing laps in a large barrel of water.

Theyre pretty to look at, with so many colors, said the farmer. The 33-year-old gathered around the container with her three children, her husband, and her niece at their home in Kampong Cham province, about 80 miles from Cambodias capital, Phnom Penh.

Fish often have a spiritual significance in Asian cultures, and in Cambodia, they are seen as lucky. But these little swimmers, which at about half an inch long would be tough to spot if they werent so active, are not just pets, as Sopheas children think of them.

They are part of a promising one-year trial testing a low-tech innovation against dengue and other diseases spread by mosquitoes. The nonprofit Malaria Consortium is nearing the end of an experiment in Cambodia that pits a low-tech innovation against a modern problem: As climate change has worsened, new regions are seeing more cases of dangerous illnesses spread by mosquitoes, such as dengue, which is responsible for an estimated 400 million infections annually, according to the World Health Organization. Though deaths from dengue are on the decline, the illness racks the body with symptoms including a mild fever, headaches, rashes, and sore muscles and jointsdevastating livelihoods. In deadly cases, dengue causes severe bleeding and organ impairment. Infection numbers have risen, and in 2015 there were more than 3.2 million known dengue cases across the Americas, Southeast Asia, and Western Pacific, according to the World Health Organization. About 70 percent of infections occur in Asia, according to the journal Nature.

That high percentage is why scientists here are exploring simple solutions to some of medicines toughest problemseven as the search continues for cures to dengue and other mosquito-borne illnesses, such as Zika, malaria, and West Nile.

Story continues

There is an urgent need to find an effective low-cost and home-grown solution, Jeffrey Hii, a senior vector-control specialist for Malaria Consortium, told TakePart.

RELATED: Disease-Carrying Mosquitoes Will Thrive as the Climate Warms

What can a guppy do? The aim of the pilot, which is funded by the U.K. and German governments, is for the fish to eat the mosquito larvae that are typically laid in natural water sourceswhich are abundant in the tropicsbefore the insects grow into adults and spread the disease. The guppies, which are indigenous to rice paddies and other of the regions natural water sources, are kept in rain barrels that Cambodians have long relied on to hold water for cooking and cleaning. The barrels are situated near homes and attract the majority of mosquitoes that carry dengue nearer to humans.

In Kampong Cham, which has one of the highest dengue incidence rates in Cambodia, thousands of guppies have been given to about 3,000 households by Malaria Consortium Cambodia, the organization's local branch, which began its pilot last October. Each villager is given two guppies, doled out from a school kept at the local health center, to breed at home. If these swimmers die, villagers can get more, though guppies typically reproduce within a month.

Scores of community health volunteers, trained by Malaria Consortium Cambodia, are responsible for distributing the guppies and informing residents about prevention, including mosquito nets. Traditionally, the best ways to reduce dengue have included properly throwing out trash, using insecticide sprays, coils, vaporizers, window screens, and bed nets, and wearing long-sleeved clothes. But chemical insecticides are costly and require funding, and there is resistance to them, among other concerns. Recently, pesticide sprays targeting Zika mosquitos in South Carolina were blamed for a massive bee die-off. While Malaria Consortium supports some use of pesticides in times of outbreak, finding natural alternatives is a priority.

Sophea learned about the trial when a volunteer visited her province, which is home to nearly 1 million people. The trials social mobilization and communication strategy involved a tuk-tuk, a motorized rickshaw, driving through villages handing out fliers and informing residents through songs with informative lyrics.

This was an effective and culturally appropriate method to reinforce message using songs. The songs were liked the most, Hii said.

For Sophea, adopting a couple of fish didnt take much convincing.

One of my neighbors had dengue, said Sophea. Im very concerned about my children contracting it. If they get it, my baby can die in one week.

With about three-quarters of those infected with dengue not showing signs, some health experts have labeled it a silent disease. In July, Cambodias government warned of a rise in dengueit typically occurs in outbreaks every three to five yearswith more than 1,000 additional cases in the country in about a year. Officially there were more than 15,000 cases and 38 deaths in 2015 across the country of about 15 million people, but Malaria Consortium Cambodia says the real figures are much higher.

As she watched the barrels waters on an August day, peeping at the guppies darting back and forth, Sophea said she couldnt wait to see them hatch even more hungry fish.

Before there were many mosquitoes, during the day and night, but now theres less, and the kids can play around the house, she said. Sophea also knows to watch for early symptoms of dengue, because she was told by health volunteers to be alert to a high fever, headaches, vomiting, and rashes.

The pilot ends in November, after which the government could include it in its health policy. In November the consortium plans to prepare policy recommendations, which could include expansion to more provinces. With government approval, the nonprofit would continue the work.

One local government official is impressed with one facet. Dr. Hay Ra, Kampong Cham dengue supervisor, praised the guppy program for being inexpensive.

But, Ra said, we dont know yet if the community will accept the guppy fish forever, if they will keep them for a long time. If its successful, the program can be applied in the whole country.

He said weather patterns had affected the spread of dengue in Cambodia.

Climate change is a big problem, said Ra. The number of larvae can increase, and the mosquitoes can increase. If we dont prevent dengue, many people will die. Prevention is very important.

While the guppies are being used in the first-of-its-kind trial in Asia, scientists thousands of miles away on another continent have come up with a surprising possible protection against malaria.

Sleeping with a chicken next to ones bed, or suspending a live chicken in a cage, could guard against the disease, researchers at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia have discovered, according to a trial published in Malaria Journal in July.

The study was conducted in Ethiopian villages and found that Anopheles arabiensis, one of the main mosquito species spreading malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World Health Organization, was repelled by chicken odor. The mosquito accounts for nearly 90 percent of malaria cases. Although its early days, the research could pave the way for a chicken-scent repellent being introduced on the market.

In terms of really low-tech innovations, keeping a chicken indoors shouldnt be very expensive, lead researcher Rickard Ignell, from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, told TakePart. Its a matter of persuading people to do it.

Ignell said in several villages across Africa that his team worked in and visited, many households kept their livestock inside but usually in a separate room next door.

He stressed it was still important that households use bed nets and sprays to decrease the presence of mosquitoes indoors.

This could potentially be used all around the world where theres malaria. Now weve only done it for one species of malaria mosquitoes. We still need to check if other mosquitoes will behave the same, Ignell said.

Beyond using animals to police mosquito populations, the plant world may offer another solution to decreasing malaria transmission, researchers in West Africa have found.

The Anopheles mosquitos fondness for natural sources of plant sugar, such as nectar, fruits, and tree sap, can be used to reduce its ability to transmit malaria via certain plants, researchers in Burkina Faso found.

Their study, published in the PLOS Pathogens medical journal in August, showed that a mosquitos ability to transmit malaria decreased if it fed from the plant Thevetia neriifolia, known as yellow oleander. Other plants increased the insects ability to transmit illness.

What we are really aiming for now is testing a wider range of plant species, trying to find one or two that are attractive to mosquito vectors, that completely stop transmission, researcher Thierry Lefevre told TakePart. Then what we imagine is to foster the planting of such species.

Some existing malaria control methods, such as bed nets and indoor spraying, have faced resistance, so both low- and high-cost solutions were needed, said Ignell.

To introduce new control methods, especially low-tech technologies, it is important that researchers working with mosquitoes work closely with social scientists, who have better tools and are more skilled to interact with villagers in the affected communities, he said.

In Asia, Malaria Consortium hopes the current focus on Zika can be used to improve dengue control.

We hope that the global attention can draw more attention to the urgent need to control one of the fastest-growing infectious diseases in the world that has been largely overlooked by the international community, a potentially fatal disease infecting millions per year, Lefevre said.

Send a Letter: Protect Runaway and Homeless Youths

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Original article from TakePart
LONDON (Reuters) - New recruit Lucas Perez needs time to find his scoring touch at Arsenal, said manager Arsene Wenger as the striker adjusts to life in the Premier League. Perez, who left Deportivo La Coruna last month, netted 17 La Liga goals as his side finished sixth from bottom last season. The 28-year-old Spaniard was handed his English top-flight debut in the 2-1 win over Southampton on Saturday. Defender Shkodran Mustafi also made his first appearance for the London club in the same game. "It is not easy to start at home, the pressure is there and everybody has their eyes on them," Wenger told the club's website (www.arsenal.com). "You could see that especially with Mustafi because in the second half he was much more comfortable than in the first. Let's give (Lucas) time. "We bought one more striker because we thought we needed one more. Let's ... not judge him too quickly." Arsenal begin their Champions League Group A campaign at Paris St Germain on Tuesday. (Reporting by Ian Rodricks in Bengaluru; Editing by Tony Jimenez)
Its losses in US segment widened 46% to $12.6m.

If it was not for its robust Asian market, Food and Beverage (F&B) company Del Monte Pacific might have incurred much more losses.

According to DBS analyst Alfie Yeo, strong sales growth and margins from its Asia Pacific market offset the group's underwhelming performance in the United States market, where the group was hit with a 46% loss YoY to $12.6 million.

"Headline revenue was dragged by the Americas which recorded -6.3% y-o-y decline in sales. The decline was largely attributed to reduced sales in non-branded products in private labels, food service and volume sales reduction in loss of US Department of Agriculture business," Yeo said.

With this, the analyst said the company should better position its US segment for the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"Gross margins were lower at 16.1% vs 19.2% last year due to higher trade

promotional spend ahead of Thanksgiving and Christmas. As a result, market share for packaged fruit and vegetables has increased," he stated.

Meanwhile, all these were offset by its strong sales in the Asian market, with revenue rising 11% to $150 million.

For the quarter ending in July, the group reported a narrowed net loss $11.8m, a 18.3% improvement from its net loss last year.







More From Singapore Business Review


By PTI: From K J M Varma

Beijing, Sep 12 (PTI) Amid reports that a miffed Chinese President Xi Jinping cancelled his maiden visit to Nepal, Beijing today said both countries are in "close communication" on the issue and China attaches importance to the new Nepalese government.

"You said the visit was cancelled. This not appropriate to say it", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing here responding to reports of cancellation of Xis visit.

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"China and Nepal are in close communication on high-level exchanges. China attaches importance to the new Nepalese government and we would like to promote new development of bilateral relations with Nepal", Hua said.

Pressed further for details she said "I dont think it was appropriate way to say it is cancelled because two sides have high-level exchanges", she said.

"The two sides are always in communication on high-level exchanges so we cannot say it is cancelled or not as it is not defined yet", she said.

"All we can tell you we are in close communication with Nepal on the relevant issue and we will release information in due course", she added.

Xi was due to visit Nepal next month.

But reports from Kathmandu said the visit has been cancelled as China is unhappy with the new government led Prachanda who is set to visit India this week to mend ties between the two countries after his predecessor, K P Shama Oli followed pro-China policy.

Reports said China was displeased with the lack preparations for Xis visit as well as commitment to implement Chinas Silk Road plan (officially called One Belt and One Road) as well as agreements reached by Oli government to step up road and rail links connecting Nepal with Tibet to reduce landlocked Nepals dependence on India.

Nepal government had dismissed the reports saying there was no truth report about the cancellation of Xis visit.

Nepals Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat had said "We are expecting the visit of the Chinese President, though the date of the visit has not yet been fixed".

During his visit, Oli had signed the Transit Transport Agreement to improve the connectivity between Nepal and Tibet in a bid to end decades-old dependency on India for daily supplies.

The deal was widely regarded as an attempt by Oli to open trade links with China in a bid to reduce dependence Nepals imports through Indian ports.

China also agreed to Olis request to build railway link connecting the two countries through Tibet. PTI KJV AJR AKJ AJR

--- ENDS ---
Beirut (AFP) - A new ceasefire brokered by Russia and the United States is due to begin at sundown on Monday in Syria.

It aims to halt fighting between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and the opposition, but does not apply to jihadists like the Islamic State group.

The regime and its allies have backed the truce but with only a few hours to go on Monday the opposition had not yet signed on.

Here is a breakdown of the forces involved:

- Regime and allies -

The Syrian army's 300,000-strong pre-war force has been halved by deaths, defections and draft-dodging but is continuing to battle myriad rebel groups and jihadists.

The army is bolstered by 200,000 irregular fighters, notably from the National Defence Forces. It also battles alongside 5,000-8,000 men from Lebanon's powerful Shiite militia Hezbollah, as well as Iranian, Iraqi and Afghan fighters.

Russia, a key regime backer, began an aerial campaign in support of Assad's government in September last year and has helped Damascus recapture areas in several provinces.

Iran is another key ally, providing financial and military support.

- Rebels and backers -

The truce is to apply to a wide range of opposition forces, including moderate rebel fighters and Islamist factions.

The total number of rebel fighters is unclear, though in 2013 US Secretary of State John Kerry said there were 70,000 to 100,000 "oppositionists" fighting in Syria.

The Free Syrian Army (FSA) was a key opposition faction in the early days of the conflict but has since splintered into a range of groups, though the term is still often used to describe moderate rebels.

Ahrar al-Sham is Syria's most powerful non-jihadist rebel group, with a commanding presence in Idlib and Aleppo provinces.

It espouses a hardline Islamist ideology, and is a key partner of the jihadist Fateh al-Sham Front, participating in the Army of Conquest alliance with the group in ruling Idlib province.

Opposition factions deemed "moderate" are backed by the West, particularly the United States, France and Britain. Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar also back the opposition, and have lent support to Islamist factions.

Story continues

Another key opposition group is the Saudi-backed Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) linked to Mohammed Alloush, a leading rebel figure who briefly acted as the chief negotiator for the main opposition umbrella group, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC).

- Jihadists -

The Islamic State group and the Fateh al-Sham Front are excluded from the ceasefire agreement.

IS emerged from the chaos of the civil war to seize control of large parts of Syria and Iraq in mid-2014, declaring an Islamic "caliphate", committing widespread atrocities and carrying out or inspiring deadly attacks abroad.

Under pressure from a US-led air war launched two years ago and fighting on multiple fronts, IS has since suffered major losses but remains in control of significant territory in northern Syria, including its de facto capital Raqa.

The Fateh al-Sham Front is the former Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria and was previously known as Al-Nusra Front. It split in July from the global jihadist network founded by Osama bin Laden, in a move analysts said was aimed at easing pressure from both Moscow and Washington.

Questions remain about how the ceasefire will apply in several parts of the country where the Fateh al-Sham Front cooperates closely with rebel forces, including moderates and Ahrar al-Sham.

If the ceasefire holds for a week, Moscow and Washington are to begin unprecedented joint targeting of jihadist forces including IS and the Fateh al-Sham Front.

- The Kurds -

Syria's Kurds have largely stayed out of the conflict between the government and armed opposition, carving out a semi-autonomous region in north and northeastern Syria.

Their People's Protection Units (YPG) have become a key partner of the US-led coalition fighting IS as part of the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces.

Both the YPG and the SDF said on Monday that they would respect the ceasefire.

Turkey launched an offensive into Syria last month against IS and the YPG, which Ankara regards as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that has waged a 32-year insurrection inside Turkey.

Ankara welcomed the ceasefire agreement but has said it will press on with its operations inside Syria.
Contradicting the town's reputation for going further than anywhere else in its blind pursuit of a youthful appearance, Los Angeles is experiencing a decrease in under-the-knife procedures like never before. And anecdotal evidence indicates that L.A., usually on the cutting edge of cosmetic trends, might even lag behind the 31 percent drop in face-lift procedures in the western U.S., according to a study by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons published in 2015. Beverly Hills dermatologist Harold Lancer says that his surgical "colleagues have shared that traditional face-lifts are down 10 to 15 percent." Explains anti-aging researcher and physician Barbara Sturm, whose clients include A-list actors and producers: "Nobody wants a face-lift anymore; all of my patients are scared." To pointedly avoid stretched or frozen faces, says Glynis Ablon, UCLA associate clinical professor and owner of Ablon Skin Institute on the Manhattan Beach Studios lot (where the Avatar sequels are to be filmed): "Most of our patients don't come in here asking to look 25 years younger. They're more realistic. They want to look like themselves, not pulled and weird."

With new technologies - from three-pronged procedural "cocktails" and thread-lifts that melt away to modalities that work well with a diverse array of skin tones - many people are choosing to avoid general anesthesia, discomfort and the two- to three-week recovery time that comes with surgery. Confirms New York plastic surgeon Z. Paul Lorenc: "Whether we like it or not, we're moving away from traditional face-lifts because of new technology."

MULTIPROCEDURAL "COCKTAILS"

Plastic surgeons who used to spend entire days in the operating room now are using non- and/or less-invasive combo, or "cocktail," treatments during 30- to 45-minute office visits. "Twenty years ago I was doing face-lifts; now it's only noses, injectables and lasers," says Beverly Hills surgeon Raj Kanodia. "I'm vain, but I personally don't ever want a face-lift. I'd rather have wrinkles than look pulled and artificial." Kanodia is known for his artistic, three-pronged approach that positions Botox and fillers to lift tissue (not just still and fill), followed by lasers to tighten muscles (about $6,000 to $8,000 per treatment, up to four times a year). He conducts live demos of his techniques for hundreds of doctors all over the world. "I'm very aggressive with restoring volume, lost fat and augmenting tissue to take skin to the contours of someone in their 30s," he says.

Read more: $500M Beverly Center Face-Lift Drafts A-List Artists

Lancer also has developed his own cocktail: two to three sessions of ultrasound treatment Ultherapy to lift and tighten, alternating with EndyMed, a radio-frequency procedure, over three months. Following that, he administers low volumes of Botox and fillers, then injects NovaThreads - new, absorbable microthreads made from sugar. "They support the tissue and help make the fillers and Botox more effective," he explains ($12,000 to $15,000 per treatment, twice for the first year).

Dermatologist Tess Mauricio, who has offices in Beverly Hills, Glendale and San Diego, says that since many of her patients "don't want surgery at all," she combines a radio frequency device to resurface the skin and microneedling with platelet-rich plasma to build collagen (the 45- to 60-minute Time Machine Procedure, or TMP, is $4,000 for the full face). "One of the amazing things about TMP is how little downtime there was for the amazing results I see," says Marla Maples. "Just a few days after the treatment, I was ready for an appearance on The Wendy Williams Show."

ANTI-AGING WITH DIVERSITY

A Stanford Medical School graduate who is multiracial, Mauricio has a client base of 50 percent "non-Caucasian skin," she says, adding: "I've educated physicians worldwide and pioneered radio-frequency technologies that are now safe for all skin types." Older lasers are not as controlled as newer lasers, such as PicoWay, used to reverse sun damage and remove spots, says Lancer. Less-advanced lasers "fire at too high of an energy but at too slow of a rate, so there is risk for burning, especially in darker skin," he says, "whereas the PicoWay fires in a trillionth of a second and the energy quickly dissipates" ($250 to $550 per treatment depending on area for four to six visits).

Read more: Emmys Red-Carpet Prep for the Rest of Us

With her patient Angela Bassett, Sturm developed a series of luxury products for skin of color, the Dr. Barbara Sturm for Darker Skin Tones range, available on Shen-Beauty.com. (Her main line with customers that include Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Jada Pinkett Smith, launched in August on Violet Grey, a beauty website founded by Cassandra Huysentruyt Grey, wife of Paramount chief Brad Grey.) Says Sturm: "I tailored this high-performance range to address specific needs that darker skin is more prone to: inflammation, hyperpigmentation, acne and scarring."

IF THE ABOVE FAILS, A NEW FACE-LIFT

Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon Ben Talei asserts there are only three or four doctors who can perform his AuraLyft, "the Ferrari of face-lifts" ($25,000). During the three-hour surgery using local anesthesia, Talei goes deep under the muscles to pull up the face, neck and upper chest. "Some people even go back to work a week later wearing glasses," says Talei, adding that full healing takes place over three to four months. Talei affirms his technique is completely "reproducible," meaning he can achieve the same result 10 out of 10 times. "This cannot be said about traditional face-lifts," he notes, "hence the number of strange-looking, altered faces you see" - which may number fewer every day in L.A. as technologies continue to advance.

This story first appeared in the Sept. 16 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
If you only read one thing: It was a rough weekend for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who on Friday cast half of Donald Trumps supporters as belonging to a basket of deplorables of -ists and -phobes. After 12 hours she was forced to apologize, saying she didnt mean half, but standing by her comments that many of his supporters are irredeemable. On Sunday, after a week of aggressive coughing, Clinton was forced to leave the New York 9/11 memorial service in a health scare and needed assistance entering her van. Leaving the press wondering about her whereabouts for more than an hour, Clinton traveled first to her daughters home and then to her own, where she was seen by her doctor who revealed she was dehydrated and has been diagnosed with pneumoniaproviding more fodder to conservative conspiracy theorists. The weekend highlighted some of Clintons core faults as a candidate: reflexive secrecy and disdain for those voters who dont support her. While there is little doubt that Trump has benefited from the support from the support of extremists, casting such a wide net will linger longer over her campaign, as she divided Trumps supporters into the deplorables and the loserswho have been left behind the economyseemingly failing to see any redeeming quality in either. At the end of the day she hopes to be their president too, and in criticizing them, gave Trump a potent talking point. Trump released a new ad attacking Clintons comments and is set to criticize them in his first campaign event today.

As Clinton recovers, Trump, who has questioned her health and stamina repeatedly this year, is holding his fire. The GOP nominee believes he has already won by raising doubts about Clintons health and that he doesnt have to pile on. Meanwhile Trump is set to discuss his health with Dr. Oz and promised to release the results of a physical last week. No word on whether it will be more informative (and less boastful) than his last doctors note. His campaign is also taking a subtle dig at Clinton highlighting Trumps upcoming six-day swing through swing stateswhich isnt exactly much of a feat.

Story continues

Clinton steps up her outreach to GOP voters. Florida tests the strategies of Trump and Clinton. And Michelle Obama is the best surrogate.

Here are your must reads:

Must Reads

Hillary Clintons Bad Weekend Highlights Elections Unpredictability

TIMEs Philip Elliott on 36 hours of Clinton pain

Donald Trumps Coming Clash With the Military Generals

TIMEs Mark Thompson on why some of the candidates words jar those in uniform

Hillary Clinton Says Half of Donald Trumps Supporters Are in Basket of Deplorables

She later said she regrets saying half [TIME]

Donors in Most Industries Back Hillary Clinton

In 2012, Republican Mitt Romney drew 62% of donations from employees of the sectors studied [Wall Street Journal]

Sound Off

You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trumps supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic  you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people  now how 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive hateful mean-spirited rhetoric. Now, some of those folks  they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America.  Hillary Clinton at a fundraiser Friday night.

I think this is the biggest mistake of the political season. Donald Trump to Fox and Friends on the above comment.

Bits and Bites

Donald Trump Wishes Hillary Clinton a Speedy Recovery [TIME]

Trump to release very, very specific health information this week [Washington Post]

Hillary Clinton Steps Up Outreach to Republican Voters in New Ad [TIME]

Donald Trump to Discuss Personal Health Regimen on Dr. Oz Show [TIME]

Michelle Obama Brings Voters Trust to Hillary Clintons Campaign [New York Times]

Real-Time Election Day Projections May Upend News Tradition [New York Times]

Florida Tests Divergent Strategies of Clinton, Trump [Wall Street Journal]
After a long walk on a stony path in the wee hours of Saturday in Geneva, Secretary of State John Kerry and Sergei Lavrov, his Russian counterpart, finally reached a Syrian ceasefire agreement  again.

A week-long cessation of hostilities is to begin Monday, during which aid and relief agencies will have unrestricted access to distressed areas. If that holds, the US and Russia will establish a command and control center where they will share data and coordinate air attacks on the Islamic State and other extremist militias.

Related: US-Russia Agree to a Cease-Fire in Syria

This is the ninth attempt to structure a peace process since the Arab League had a try at one five years ago. Should hope triumph over experience this time?

Kerrys agreement with Lavrov, which has taken months to get airborne, is as laden with a heavy cargo of pitfalls as their previous deal, signed in Munich last February. Plenty of people already predict another crash landing.

But you dont need hope to support this achievement. You need a dose of reality. Cooperation between Washington and Moscow offers not merely the best path to ending Syrias multi-sided war: Its the only path left if the country is and its people are to survive. Thats Kerrys implicit position and why he has been a lonely diplomat lately. Heres a snapshot of the horror and devastation from the Syria Policy Center.

470,000 have been killed, directly or indirectly by the conflict.

1 in 10 Syrians has been wounded.

Life expectancy dropped from 70.5 years in 2010 to 55.4 years in 2015.

95% of doctors have either fled or been killed.

85% are living in poverty.

From 2011-2015, joblessness rose from 14.9% to 52.9%.

Related: Syria Rivals Fight For Position on Eve of Agreed Truce

It had to hurt when President Obama voiced a vote of little confidence at the G20 meeting in Hangzhou last week. Also, Defense Secretary Carter and most top brass at the Pentagon, preferring confrontation with Moscow, have been actively sabotaging Kerrys dogged diplomatic demarche for months.

Story continues

Viewed in this light, Kerry just won a battle in Washingtons foreign policy war. And while his pact with Lavrov looks weak in some respects, it has one strength long missing from previous efforts to forge a peace plan.

The Arab League tried twice to broker talks, in 2011. Then Russia tried on its own. Then the U.N. and the Arab League took a joint run at it. Then Russia tried again. Two years ago the U.N. sponsored a Geneva conference.

Nothing times six.

Only a year ago did things get serious. Talks in Vienna last October brought the US, Russia, the EU, China, and several Middle East nationsincluding Iranto the same mahogany table. That was a prelude to Kerrys bilateral deal with Moscow last Februaryand the February deal was the precursor to last Saturdays agreement.

Related: US-Russian Syria Peace Deal Raises Rebel Doubts as Fighting Rages

The strength in Kerrys strategy lies in his (belated) recognition of what time it is: Its time to stop assuming that whatever Russia wants the US must reject. When he talks to Lavrov hes telling Americans something we ought not to miss: We can no longer treat Syria as a Cold War-ish theater of great-power rivalrya whole country and its inhabitants marked down as collateral damage.

In this aspect, Kerrys new deal turns the Syria conflict into a lab experiment: Can the US advance beyond old habits to work toward shared goals with a nation it doesnt trust?

The New York Times report of the KerryLavrov agreement had a long list of the accords many risks of failure. Russia is implicitly charged with restricting the Assad governments air campaign to ISIS and alNusra, alQaedas Syrian affiliate. Will it? Can it?

There is the problem of marbling, as it is called in Moscow: USbacked opposition groups have long been interwoven with alNusra and Washington is now responsible for getting them to separate. Will it? Can it?

Related: Syria Ready to Cooperate with U.N. Watchdog on Gas Attack Accusations

What about civilian casualties as bombing campaigns resume under joint direction? What measures can be taken (and by whom) against those who may violate the agreement? What about the Hezbollah militias fighting ISIS on behalf of the Assad government?

These are unknowns for the moment. And there is one other that is larger than any of these.

Washington has long cultivated strategic ambiguity in the Syrian war. For years it has been impossible to tell whether the US priority is fighting ISIS or ousting the Assad regimewhich, for all its faults, is committed to defeating the Islamic State and has a sovereign states rights under international law.

The blur has to go now. The bitter truth is that Assad has to be left in power until ISIS is decisively defeated and a transition government can be negotiated. Libyan-style chaos is the only alternative.

Related: Living Like Ghosts in the Ruins of Syria's Besieged Aleppo

Kerry doesnt have to persuade the Russians of this: Theyve signaled 100 times that its their guiding principle in Syria. The secretarys adversaries on this point are the Pentagon and the C.I.A., which has been arming antiAssad militantssometimes very carelesslyfor years.

Some rebel groups think the US has now given up on them, the Financial Times reported over the weekend. Neither Washington nor Moscow appear willing to give the opposition any more time, the paper noted. Could be. But heres our new reality. As of Saturday, peace or war in Syrian hangs in the balance of such questions.

Either way, Kerry is right to try, and this works two ways. One, the search for peace in Syria cant be forsaken by any humane standard.

Two, its time for the State Department to claw back control over foreign policy after letting it slip to the Pentagon all through the Cold War decades. The Cold War is over this way, too.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
For more news videos visit Yahoo View.

The city of East Liverpool, Ohio, stunned many last week when it released two photos showing two adult unconscious from a suspected heroin overdose with a 4-year-old boy sitting behind them.



We feel it necessary to show the other side of this horrible drug, the city wrote in a post Thursday accompanying the photos. We feel we need to be a voice for the children caught up in this horrible mess.



The decision to publicize those images was difficult, local authorities tell PEOPLE. But we feel fully justified and vindicated in what we did, says Brian Allen, the citys director of public service and safety.



He says that for every negative reaction to the post  which has been shared more than 28,000 times on Facebook  there are four positive ones.







On Friday, for example, Allen says a man approached him at lunch, shook his hand and said that hed lost his own son to heroin earlier this year  and that if those photos were available then, the man said, he would have been more involved with his son and prevented his death.



Shed the light of day on this, one user wrote about the post, in a comment typical of a frequent reaction. The disease thrives in darkness and dies in the light.



Allen says the city has posted on Facebook about drug raids and suspected dealers, but not drug overdoses. This time was different: We felt that image was so powerful that it had to be told the way it was, he says.



He says hes seen many overdose scenes, and none of them carried the message that this one did.



Allen says the hope was that such a post would kick-start a community discussion about drugs, which might spread to the rest of the state and even the country.



Whats more, he says, East Liverpool would like more financial support from the governor to put more police officers on the ground and build an in-patient treatment center for addicts.



Allen says theyve yet to hear from the governor since the post went up, but he has a feeling they will soon.



 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.





Story continues





Photographing an Alleged Crime Scene

Allen says the suspected overdose took place Wednesday, when an East Liverpool officer witnessed the couples car allegedly driving erratically behind a school bus carrying children.



The officer pulled the car over and had to turn it off himself, Allen says, to prevent it from rolling forward. There were still schoolchildren gathered around, he says.



Officers tended to the suspects and the boy while another officer photographed the car, per protocol, as a potential crime scene, Allen says. At no point did responding officers think the images might later be widely distributed, he adds.



Then on Thursday, the driver, James Acord, pleaded guilty to his charges and was sentenced to the maximum jail time, Allen says. Local media had been requesting records from the incident and the city learned it would have to release them all following the guilty plea, Allen says  including the crime scene images.



(Allen says the woman beside Acord in the car, Rhonda Pasek, the boys grandmother, pleaded not guilty to her charges and will next appear in court Wednesday. The boy was placed in the custody of county children services, and PEOPLE has not been able to reach Acord or Pasek for comment.)



The city soon decided to post about the incident on its Facebook page, Allen says. He wrote the post.



We take a very direct approach to dealing with our drug problem, he says, adding, When you look at the expression on [the boys] face, someone needs to step in and help. And we felt thats what we were doing.





Why Didnt They Blur the Childs Face?

Allen says that one of the biggest criticisms of the citys post  why they chose not to blur the child or crop him out of the images  stems from a misunderstanding of the law. He says that, legally, the city could not alter the photos as public records.



I cant pick and choose what I want the public to see, he says.



The states attorney general, Mike DeWine, affirmed his support for East Liverpools post in a statement to PEOPLE. Tragically, these scenes are not that unusual, he said. The face of substance abuse, particularly heroin, is as familiar as the faces of our families, our neighbors, our co-workers, and our friends.



"Families are being torn apart in Ohio by heroin, and, as shown in these images, innocent children are the victims.



And while Allen says the city extensively considered the possible after-effects of the child being in those photos and identified via his relationship with Pasek, he notes that the boys name has not been released and that he is not from East Liverpool, which minimizes the chance hell face a stigma in daily life.



Allen says much less consideration was given to the reaction from Acord and Pasek, but that I never wanted to shame anybody. None of us did.



He says the photos release may help accomplish a big picture goal of building a county treatment center  so when Acord is released from jail, hell have somewhere he might go.



I completely agree you cant shame an addict into getting help, Allen says. But I can shame the government into providing help.
One stock that might be an intriguing choice for investors right now is Bank of Montreal BMO. This is because this security in the Banks-Foreign space is seeing solid earnings estimate revision activity, and is in great company from a Zacks Industry Rank perspective.

This is important because, often times, a rising tide will lift all boats in an industry, as there can be broad trends taking place in a segment that are boosting securities across the board. This is arguably taking place in the Banks-Foreign space as it currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 58 out of more than 250 industries, suggesting it is well-positioned from this perspective, especially when compared to other segments out there.

Meanwhile, Bank of Montreal is actually looking pretty good on its own too. The firm has seen solid earnings estimate revision activity over the past month, suggesting analysts are becoming a bit more bullish on the firms prospects in both the short and long term.

BANK MONTREAL Price and Consensus

BANK MONTREAL Price and Consensus | BANK MONTREAL Quote

In fact, over the past month, current quarter estimates have risen from $1.38 per share to $1.42 per share, while current year estimates have risen from $5.37 per share to $5.61 per share. This has helped BMO to earn a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), further underscoring the companys solid position. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

So, if you are looking for a decent pick in a strong industry, consider Bank of Montreal. Not only is its industry currently in the top third, but it is seeing solid estimate revisions as of late, suggesting it could be a very interesting choice for investors seeking a name in this great industry segment.

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Bland productivity growth clobbered the sector.

The Singapore government is backing up disruptive models in the food services industry as it sees continuous and cutting-edge innovation as key in spicing up the crumbling business sector.

According to Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic and Social Policies Tharman Shanmugaratnam, F&B businesses have no choice but to change and make progress in productivity industry-wide and individually in each enterprise. The industry sees a high churn of enterprises. On average, 28% of food establishments are replaced every year.

Some players move faster than others, and the less efficient and innovative players lose market share and drop out along the journey. There is no avoiding this restructuring of the market. As the labour market tightens, we can expect this restructuring to accelerate, Tharman said.

The F&B industry is part of Singapore economys domestically-oriented sector that has seen little productivity growth in five years. The government is giving the sector a shot in the arm through a major makeover. Last week, the city-state launched the Food Services Industry Transformation Map (ITM) to make its initiatives in the sector possible. The roadmap is one of 23 ITMs being developed under Singapores $4.5 billion Industry Transformation Programme that will be rolled out over the next five years.

It will involve intensive collaboration. SPRING Singapore will take the lead within government. We will partner our TACs including the Restaurant Association of Singapore in particular, enterprises themselves and our unions such as the Food, Drinks & Allied Workers Union, Tharman revealed.

The Food Services ITM aims to push ahead with more manpower-lean formats in the industry and upgrade jobs and job satisfaction, while maintaining the quality and range of dining options. Its main thrusts include developing innovative formats like ready-to-eat meals, promoting mass adoption of technologies, raising employees skills and versatility, and expanding Singapore F&Bs footprint in overseas markets.





More From Singapore Business Review


Wells Fargo

Wells Fargos customer account scandal is shaping up to be a blemish on the reputation of the nations largest bank that doesnt appear to be clearing up anytime soon.

The San Francisco-based bank agreed to pay $185 million Thursday to settle a federal complaint that accused the nation's largest bank of creating 2 million fraudulent customer accounts.

More than 5,000 Wells Fargo employees were fired over the scheme in the last few years. The bank said it would implement new policies to prevent a similar incidents in the future.

Much has been said about the incentives-driven culture in the banking industry, which is believed to have motivated the customer-account scheme. Business Insider's senior editor, Josh Barro noted this week that plots to open and close unauthorized accounts generally do not do anything to boost the bank's profits.

In an interview with Business Insider, crisis management expert, Eric Schiffer with Reputation Management Consultants said,"[Wells Fargo] created an an environment where the profit machine overcame any type of questionable activity. When you turn a blind eye then you are endorsing the behavior."

This latest settlement follows a years-long string of legal battles the bank has faced. Some of those cases involved claims of discrimination, illegal fees imposed on customers, and predatory lending practices.

Heres a brief history of Wells Fargos legal headaches:

Illegal fees charged to student loan borrowers

In August of this year, the bank agreed to pay $4 million in fines amid allegations that it illegally charged fees to student loan borrowers between 2010 and 2013, the Los Angeles Times reported. Wells Fargo did not admit to any wrongdoing.

The crux of the case, according to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, involved the manner in which the bank applied loan payments. The bank's methods allegedly caused some customers to be hit with multiple late fees.

Wells Fargo spokesman, Jason Vasquez, told the LA Times that the allegations were related to practices that were modified "several years ago."

Story continues

foreclosure las vegas

Bad mortgage loans and the FHA

In a US Department of Justice lawsuit, Wells Fargo agreed to a $1.2 billion settlement and admitted responsibility for false claims that its home loans qualified to be insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The penalty was the biggest in FHA history as it relates to loan origination.

The lawsuit also showed the bank did not take steps to fix thousands of loans that were improperly underwritten. When the loans went into default, the FHA  and, by extension, taxpayers  were left to foot the bill.

Other US banks like Citigroup, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase faced similar lawsuits.

Accusations of predatory lending

In another federal lawsuit, the City of Baltimore claimed Wells Fargo targeted African-Americans with high-interest predatory loans.

The products  referred to as "ghetto loans" by some Wells Fargo employees  subsequently drove hundreds of borrowers into foreclosure and cost the city millions, the lawsuit said. The sales process in question was known as reverse redlining and involved selling defective and costly loans to African-American customers.

Wells Fargo mortgage had an emerging-markets unit that specifically targeted black churches, because it figured church leaders had a lot of influence and could convince congregants to take out subprime loans, Beth Jacobson, a Wells Fargo loan officer told The New York Times.

Wells Fargo was among the banks named in a class-action lawsuit filed by the NAACP that accused more than a dozen financial institutions of discriminatory practices.

A similar lawsuit was filed in Chicago and Los Angeles, but was dismissed by a judge last summer.

wells fargo

The fallout

Since news of the the most recent case against Wells Fargo came out this week, the bank has publicly acknowledged the mistakes and announced it would provide training to employees in order to prevent fraud.

"Wells Fargo is committed to putting our customers interest first 100 percent of the time, and we regret and take responsibility for any instance where customers may have received a product they did not request, the bank said in an emailed statement on Thursday.

Despite the fallout, some expect Wells Fargo will bounce back and repair its reputation.

By no means am I trying to understate how significant this [crisis] is for Wells Fargo," Matt Rizzetta, CEO of public relations firm, North 6 Agency said in an interview with Business Insider, "but other brands have overcome much more adversity and much more severe crisis situations.

NOW WATCH: Kobe Bryant is starting a $100-million venture capital fund





More From Business Insider


Although the amount has now been returned, political opponents of the Congress will not let the matter die down anytime soon.

Zakir Naik's donation to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation has turned up the heat on the Congress. (Photo: PTI)

By Anindya Banerjee: Zakir Naik's Islamic Research Foundation's donation of 50 lakh to the Rajiv Gandhi charitable trust has heated up the political scene in Delhi, with the BJP youth wing taking to the streets to protest.

Marching towards the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, they chanted slogans against the Congress and demanded action against all post holders of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation in 2011 when the whopping sum was donated by IRF. They even breached the barricade that was put by Delhi Police, leaving the police with no option but to detain them.

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This protest takes place just a few days after senior BJP leader and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad levelled serious allegations against the Congress and Sonia Gandhi.

Though the amount has now been returned after an emergency meeting of the trust this July, the Congress is facing a huge backlash politically.

Particularly with the NIA, Home Ministry and Intelligence Bureau keeping a hawk's eye on Zakir Naik and the government seriously considering slapping terror charges on him, this revelation has given ammunition in the hands of BJP.

Also read: Ravi Shankar Prasad calls Zakir Naik's donation to Sonia-led Rajiv Gandhi Foundation a bribe



--- ENDS ---
* Top reinsurers say premium falls may steady in 2017

* To stay low as competition remains tough

* Fitch sees fresh wave of industry consolidation

By Carolyn Cohn

MONACO, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Global reinsurance firms gathered in Monaco are hopeful premiums will stabilise in the coming year, although they expect competition to remain tough and returns low.

The $600 billion reinsurance industry, which backstops insurers to help them pay for damage claims from hurricanes or earthquakes, faces its fifth year of falling premiums.

New investors are looking to compete for reinsurance business, including through so-called catastrophe bonds, amid low returns in more traditional investment markets.

That has put pressure on profits and prompted insurance companies - many of which are also in Monte Carlo this week to fix deals - to keep more risk, and profit, on their own books.

But Europe's top reinsurers said at their annual gathering on Monday that the worst was over.

Swiss Re and Hannover Re said they saw stabilisation in reinsurance prices, adding to Munich Re's view on Sunday that the pace of declines has been falling.

"The rate decreases have slowed down and we actually have seen a more flattish market," Ulrich Wallin, chief executive of Hannover Re, told a media briefing.

"Things look a little more optimistic than a year ago...(but) we are not expecting a broad-based hardening of the market as yet," he added.

Ratings agencies, speaking ahead of the industry conference last week, said premiums could fall by up to 5 percent next year, following similar price falls this year, which had hit returns.

Reinsurers' return on equity averaged 8.6 percent at the end of June, down from 10.3 percent at the end of 2015, ratings agency Moody's said in a report.

Given that pressure, ratings agency Fitch said on Monday that weak profitability would lead to a fresh wave of mergers and acquisitions globally in 2017, after high valuations had stalled deal-making in 2016.

"The worst-hit reinsurers are likely to be smaller, less diversified, and operating in markets where premiums have fallen to the point where they are barely covering the cost of capital," Fitch said.

"These firms may become acquisition targets as stresses leave them more likely to accept lower valuations." (Editing by Simon Jessop and Alexander Smith)
By Carolyn Cohn

MONACO (Reuters) - Global reinsurance firms gathered in Monaco are hopeful premiums will stabilise in the coming year, although they expect competition to remain tough and returns low.

The $600 billion reinsurance industry, which backstops insurers to help them pay for damage claims from hurricanes or earthquakes, faces its fifth year of falling premiums.

New investors are looking to compete for reinsurance business, including through so-called catastrophe bonds, amid low returns in more traditional investment markets.

That has put pressure on profits and prompted insurance companies - many of which are also in Monte Carlo this week to fix deals - to keep more risk, and profit, on their own books.

But Europe's top reinsurers said at their annual gathering on Monday that the worst was over.

Swiss Re and Hannover Re said they saw stabilisation in reinsurance prices, adding to Munich Re's view on Sunday that the pace of declines has been falling.

"The rate decreases have slowed down and we actually have seen a more flattish market," Ulrich Wallin, chief executive of Hannover Re, told a media briefing.

"Things look a little more optimistic than a year ago...(but) we are not expecting a broad-based hardening of the market as yet," he added.

Ratings agencies, speaking ahead of the industry conference last week, said premiums could fall by up to 5 percent next year, following similar price falls this year, which had hit returns.

Reinsurers' return on equity averaged 8.6 percent at the end of June, down from 10.3 percent at the end of 2015, ratings agency Moody's said in a report.

Given that pressure, ratings agency Fitch said on Monday that weak profitability would lead to a fresh wave of mergers and acquisitions globally in 2017, after high valuations had stalled deal-making in 2016.

"The worst-hit reinsurers are likely to be smaller, less diversified, and operating in markets where premiums have fallen to the point where they are barely covering the cost of capital," Fitch said.

"These firms may become acquisition targets as stresses leave them more likely to accept lower valuations."

(Editing by Simon Jessop and Alexander Smith)
[Photo: Pexels]

Most of us defrost things on autopilot - we take it out of the freezer and stick it in the fridge overnight, or put it in the microwave.

But, according to Norwegian food scientists, this is not the way to defrost our dinner and the best way is to use water instead.

Susanne Ekstedt, a researcher at the SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden in Gothenburg, says its best to thaw food in water if youre planning to use it straight away.



The correct method is to seal your food in plastic and warm it up using cold water straight from the tap (this is because water is pretty conductive).

As a result itll taste better too.

[Photo: Pexels]



Ekstedt told the Metro: This is something food scientists have known to be true for a long time now. But this knowledge is mostly confined to the food industry. Most people dont seem to be aware of this.



Bjrg Egelandsdal, a professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in As also said: There has never been any good scientific evidence behind the advice that food should be thawed in the refrigerator.

Maybe the idea behind this advice is that refrigerator thawing is most hygienic. It is true that meat and other foodstuffs should be stored in the refrigerator if they are thawed, but it is definitely better to thaw food quickly in water if you are going to use it right away.

Defrosting food: Dos and donts

- Always thoroughly defrost food before cooking it



- Clean and disinfect your sink after defrosting food in it

- Only use cold water to defrost food

- Even if food looks defrosted on the outside, check it is all the way through

- Defrost smaller amounts of food at once for safer results

- Freeze meat and fish before its use-by date

- Eat meat and fish within 24 hours of defrosting

- Never re-freeze meat or fish.

How do you defrost and store your frozen food? Tweet us at @YahooStyleUK.

This Pastry Chefs Cakes Are Out Of This World



No Context #GBBO Is Our New Favourite Twitter Account


Chris Stone, a founding partner in the legendary Record Plant recording studios and leading figure in the music recording industry for nearly 50 years, suffered a heart attack and massive stroke and died on Sept. 10 at the age of 81.

Stone was born in 1935 in San Francisco, the son of a fourth generation Gold Rush entrepreneur. After earning his MBA at UCLA, he worked his way up to a top-marketing position with Revlon in New York City where he and top recording engineer Gary Kellgren met by chance. With a $100,000 investment, in 1968 they built the first Record Plant Recording Studio on West 44th St. in NYC. Record Plant LA followed in 1969 and Record Plant Sausalito in 1971. Stone was an innovative music industry executive with a list of credits that included hit records, films and leading music service businesses and professional associations.

Kellgren and Stone transformed the music recording studio into a comfortable, creative and collaborative environment and, at the same time, introduced the newest multitrack, acoustical and mixing technologies. Kellgren was the visionary designer and engineering force behind the partnership; Stone was the MBA business-brains of the operation. It all started with Jimi Hendrix, Traffic and the Woodstock live album, then went on to include such legendary remotes as "The Concert for Bangladesh" and the "Rumble in the Jungle" -- hitting historic heights in the mid-70s with Stevie Wonder: "Songs in the Key of Life," "Fleetwood Mac: "Rumours," and the Eagles: "Hotel California."

The shining jewel of his accomplishments, the Record Plant provided audio recording services for the Rolling Stones, the Eagles, Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, the individual Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac, Heart, Guns 'N Roses, Whitney Houston, Billy Idol, Motley Crue, Prince, Chicago, and Barbra Streisand, among many others. Stone sold the facility in 1989 to Beatles producer George Martin/Chrysalis Records and today under new management the Record Plant still remains one of the leading facilities in the world.

Hundreds of hit records, producers, engineers, musicians, studio designers, and record industry executives can trace their roots to the real "Hotel California," as many now call it. The history of the Record Plant that Kellgren and Stone "invented" is the subject of an oral history, a book, a documentary and feature film initiative now being conducted by the Record Plant Diaries Project, a project which Stone helped launch.

With Grammy-winning recording engineer/producer Ed Cherney, Stone was Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Music Producers Guild of the Americas 1997-1999, a non-profit guild for leading audio engineers and music producers that was merged into The Recording Academy as the present day Producers & Engineers Wing. Stone was also a co-founder and former president and chairman of the Society of Professional Audio Recording Services (SPARS) 1979-1989.

In 1992, Stone was founder and CEO of the World Studio Group, which serviced the elite of the recording industry, facilitating projects for his clients in 30 premier recording studios around the world. Stone was also the founder of Filmsonix Inc. (1987), a recording industry consulting firm, which globally serviced record labels, pro audio manufacturers and recording studios of the industry.

After the sale of Record Plant, Mr. Stone served as a reorganization consultant for Motown Records, L.P. After the conclusion of the Motown assignment, he was retained extensively as a marketing and financial consultant to provide new diversification and marketing plans for both international and domestic audio recording facilities and professional equipment manufacturers. As an example, he served as operations consultant for "Jazz at Lincoln Center," providing guidance and services for the integration of recording studios into their facilities at Columbus Circle in New York City.

Mr. Stone was also involved in many films and live events, including Flashdance, Star Trek, the Oscars, the Grammys, and the original Woodstock festival. He was the Associate Producer for audio productions of Woodstock '94 for A&M Records. As Record Plant Scoring, Inc. he operated the film scoring stage and the ADR stage at Paramount Pictures (Stage M) from 1983 to 1989, at which time it was returned to Paramount Pictures corporate operation.

Mr. Stone was a frequent recording industry journalist, providing his "Sound Business" monthly columns on the business aspects of audio recording for Pro Sound News and Mix magazine in the U.S., and Sound On Sound Magazine in Europe. He lectured and appeared onstage extensively, including the keynote address for the European conference of the Association of Professional Recording Services (APRS) in London, and the keynote address for the Audio Engineering Society convention in 2008, during which he presented "The Artist Owns the Industry," with his projections for the future of professional audio recording.

Mr. Stone published the book "The Sound of Money -- Audio Recording for Profit," with his editor David Goggin (Mr. Bonzai), who also acted as his press agent and collaborator for the past three decades. The book explained the marketing, promotion, management and financial requirements of global music and audio visual recording facilities today with projections for the future.

Stone served as a member of the faculty at USC, where he taught "The Business and Economics of the Audio Recording Industry." Mr. Stone also taught "Music Industry Entrepreneurship" at the online school of the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

In January 2016, Record Plant Recording Studios co-founders Gary Kellgren and Chris Stone were inducted into the NAMM TEC Awards Hall of Fame, honoring pioneers of the music industry for Technical Excellence and Creativity. He is survived by his wife Gloria, son Matt, daughter Samantha, and grandchildren Jessica, Zachary and Zoe.

David Goggin, also known as Mr. Bonzai, is an author and photographer. He worked with Stone on the book, The Sound of Money -- Audio Recording for Profit.
Nearly all the high-end smartphones we're expecting this year are already here, but theres one more family of devices that were anxious to see in stores. The Galaxy Note 7 and iPhone 7 are already official, with the former dealing with a massive recall and the latter nearing its in-store launch. But Googles 2016 Nexus devices that will not have Nexus branding are still in the works and should launch next month. New reports indicate the Pixel and Pixel XL may be the fastest Android phones in town, but there's also some bad news in store.

DONT MISS: iPhone 7 preorders: We have entered a parallel universe

The Pixel (Sailfish) and Pixel XL (Marlin) might be the only Android handsets to ship with the updated Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor on board in the US. The news comes from Android Polices David Ruddock, who took to Twitter to explain Googles thinking behind the Pixel line.

https://twitter.com/RDR0b11/status/775004127717765121

By the way, as far as I can tell, the Pixels will by the first US devices with Snapdragon 821 by a long shot. No one else is using it, he said.

"Pixel phones will have exclusive Google support, exclusive software features, and exclusive financing options," he also noted. "Google is going for it."

"So, if you're the person who wanted Google to 'really get out there and market their phones,' you may finally see your wish granted," Ruddock added.

As for prices, Google is getting out of the cheap phone business at this point, he said. This one is more hearsay: price point being thrown around for Pixel XL is $649. Not clear if that's 32GB or 128GB.

https://twitter.com/RDR0b11/status/774999884915060737

But these arent the only Pixel leaks we have for you today. AndroidPure has a Google Pixel XL leak as well. The phone, complete with its ugly rear design, was shown in what appears to be a case leak. The images were posted on Weibo initially, showing a phone thats similar to what weve seen in other leaks. And yes, theres Google branding on the back, rather than Nexus.

Story continues

google-pixel-nexus-2016-case-leak-1

Finally, Android Authority has a video that supposedly shows the HTC-made Google Pixel in a 360-degree video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIQZ1K0G8uM

Trending right now:

See the original version of this article on BGR.com
Apple's new iPhone 7 will not have a headphone jack, and so people who want to avoid holding their phones up to their ears must now rely on Bluetooth ear buds.

That has raised a question for those who are wary of radiation: Is Bluetooth safe?

It turns out that there is no evidence that Bluetooth does any harm. In addition, there are no plausible physics mechanisms by which Bluetooth could cause damage to a person's cells, said John Moulder, a professor emeritus and radiation biologist at Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

"The power is just too low to damage anything biological by any mechanism we know of," Moulder told Live Science. "If it's going to damage you, it has to be via a mechanism that no one has ever conceived of. [What Is Electromagnetic Radiation?]

What is Bluetooth?

Bluetooth, named after Danish King Harald Bluetooth, who united all of Scandinavia in the 900s, is a protocol that uses electromagnetic waves for short-range communication between devices. Though it was developed in the 1990s, it has recently become ubiquitous in many of the "smart devices" used in the Internet of Things.

However, from a physics perspective, Bluetooth is basically Wi-Fi light, Moulder said. Bluetooth waves have frequencies that are roughly similar to those of Wi-Fi (close to the range of frequencies of microwaves) but Bluetooth is far less powerful, Moulder said. In general, the ranges of wireless communication protocols such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi predicts how much power they emit, Moulder said. [Best Wireless (Bluetooth) Headphones and Earbuds]

"It's sort of like Wi-Fi, except a tenth to a hundredth of the power," Moulder said.

Radiation fears

Worries about whether the electromagnetic radiation associated with modern gadgets may cause illness are not new. The internet is rife with concerns about the effects of cellphone radiation and Wi-Fi, and even the World Health Organization acknowledges that some people may have a condition called EMF hypersensitivity. Those with this condition experience physical symptoms such as headaches and nausea that they believe are caused by electromagnetic fields. Some have even gone so far as to move to remote areas of West Virginia that are free from radio waves.

Story continues

But no evidence suggests this hypersensitivity is actually caused by EMF, Moulder said. Although these Wi-Fi refugees do have symptoms, the people who have claimed to have the condition cannot distinguish between real and sham electromagnetic fields, for instance.

As for cellphone radiation, in a recent U.S. National Toxicology Report study in rats and mice, high levels of exposure to cellphone radiation were linked to an increased risk of a few types of tumors, such as a benign nervous system tumor known as a schwannoma, as well as malignant brain tumors known as gliomas. However, the number of cancers found in rats exposed to cellphone radiation may have been within the range expected to occur by chance, rather than a statistically significant difference, Moulder previously told Live Science.

And large epidemiological studies, which have cumulatively asked millions of people about their health and mobile phone use, have found no clear association between cancer and cellphone use.

Bluetooth safety concerns

The safety concerns are even lower for Bluetooth than for Wi-FI, Moulder said. In traditional Bluetooth devices pairings  for instance, a smartwatch worn on the wrist that is occasionally communicating with a computer  the power of the electromagnetic radiation is so low and the communication so sporadic that it's extremely unlikely that it could cause any harm, Moulder said.

But the iPhone unveiled at Apple's event on Wednesday (Sept. 7) takes Bluetooth use into another realm. Ear buds, like those that will be used with the new iPhone, are worn close to the head and send out signals more frequently than traditional Bluetooth devices do, so they will likely expose people to more radiation than, say, a smart thermometer or a Fitbit fitness tracker, Moulder said. However, there's still no plausible biological mechanism by which it could cause harm, he added. [Creative Genius: The World's Greatest Minds]

Few studies have looked specifically at Bluetooth safety, because the physical mechanisms behind Bluetooth are essentially the same as those behind Wi-Fi, and because, until recently, people were not widely exposed to this type of radiation, Moulder said. However, the few studies looking at the technology have found that it is safe. For instance, a 2014 study in The Laryngoscope journal found that, unlike cellphone radiation, Bluetooth radiation was not associated with any reduction in auditory nerve function in humans.

There are dangers, of course, associated with cellphones that don't involve any radiation at all. For instance, studies have shown that talking on hands-free Bluetooth earphones is less safe for drivers than not talking on a phone at all, likely because the driver gets distracted by conversation with a distant partner, Moulder said. Also, people who wear headphones and blast their music  whether those headphones use Bluetooth or not  can damage their hearing, Moulder said. And frequent texting can lead to thumb problems and carpal tunnel syndrome, he said.

Original article on Live Science.

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Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Samsung flags are set up at the main entrance to the Berlin fair ground before the IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin, August 28, 2012. REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz/File Photo (Reuters)

By Dan Levine

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd <005930.KS> and LG Electronics <066570.KS> were accused of agreeing to avoid poaching each other's U.S. employees, according to a U.S. civil lawsuit filed last week, in what has become a familiar allegation in Silicon Valley.

The proposed class action, filed in a Northern California federal court by an LG sales manager, accuses Samsung and LG of antitrust violations and driving down employee wages. The case is similar to one against Apple Inc <AAPL.O>, Google <GOOGL.O> and other tech companies which settled last year for $415 million.

Representatives for Samsung and LG could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday.

The plaintiff, A. Frost, says in the lawsuit that a recruiter contacted Frost via LinkedIn in 2013, seeking to fill a position with Samsung.

According to the lawsuit, the recruiter then informed Frost the same day: "I made a mistake! I'm not supposed to poach LG for Samsung!!! Sorry! The two companies have an agreement that they won't steal each other's employees."

It is "implausible" that such a deal in the United States could have been reached without the consent of each company's corporate parent in South Korea, says the lawsuit, which does not state a specific damages amount.

The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is A. Frost vs. LG Corporation, LG Electronics Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al., 16-5206.
By Kamaljit Kaur Sandhu: Almost 10 days after MHA suspended four officers including the joint Secretary (IAS) officer for granting clearance to Zakir Naik's NGO, the government today took corrective measures by issuing a gazette notification putting the controversial Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) under prior permission list for receiving funds from abroad, after it found "multiple violations" on its part.

UNPRECEDENTED MOVE

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What is being seen as an unprecedented move, Government sources say that it is for the first time that a gazette notification of this kind has been issued for formally putting an NGO under section 12 (4) of FCRA act, which governs the acceptance of foreign donations to a non-profit organisation.

Usually, any NGO flouting FCRA violations is put under prior permission list by a joint secretary rank officer in the ministry. This means it has to take approval from the MHA before receiving any foreign contributions.

However, in IRF's case, issuance of a gazette notification means that the incharge of the ministry - in this case Home Minister Rajnath Singh, has approved the decision and it has been further vetted and approved by the law ministry before taking an assent from the President for putting it under the "watchlist". Officials say that IRF cannot challenge a gazette notification, which is issued under section 11 (3) (I) of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) 2010.

VIOLATED PROVISIONS OF THE FCRA

The notification said, "Whereas, IRF, registered as Trust with Charity Commission, Mumbai, vide its Registration number - B1409/Mumbai, is also a registered organisation u/s 11 (1) of FCRA, holding registration number - 083780696R." It adds, "Whereas, IRF was authorized to accept foreign contributions for undertaking educational and social programmes in India, which are not detrimental to the national interest", and "whereas, on the basis of records available and reports received from agencies, central government is satisfied that IRF has violated certain provisions of FCRA 2010.

Now, therefore, central government, in exercise of powers conferred u/s 11 (3) (I) of said act, hereby directs that IRF shall hereinafter obtain prior permission of central government before accepting any foreign contribution, until further orders".

ADVERSE FINDINGS

Officials said that foreign funding to IRF is being looked into and there are preliminary adverse findings of an inspection of its accounts by MHA officers in 2014, as well as misrepresentation of facts in its reply to the standard questionnaire sent by the ministry recently.

The Attorney General had recently told MHA that agencies Ib, NIA and MHA will have to produce more evidence against Naik before booking a case against him. The controversial televangelist has been in trouble since being named as a preacher who influenced one of the terror accused killed in Dhaka cafe seige. Since then, a number of terror recruits in the Kerela ISIS case have also mentioned Naik as a mentor of theirs. Though no direct link has been established, Naik's NGO has been under MHA scanner since the terror attack in Dhaka.

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ALSO READ:

BJP conducts protest march against Zakir Naik's Rs 50 lakh donation to Rajiv Gandhi Foundation

MHA renewed our foreign fund license last week, says Zakir Naik's IRF



--- ENDS ---
Samsungs Galaxy Note 7 recall is a massive headache for the company. Even though Samsung is replacing some 2.5 million units that might house faulty batteries, reports of exploding Galaxy Note 7 units continue to pop up on an almost daily basis. And the incidents arent pretty.

Samsung has even somewhat acknowledged that it went about the recall the wrong way, at least in the US, but thats changing. The US government is urging all owners to stop using the phone and take it back. Samsung, meanwhile, released a new announcement telling buyers to ditch their Galaxy Note 7 immediately. But Samsung wont remotely disable your Galaxy Note 7 if you dont bring it in, as had been rumored.

DONT MISS: iPhone 7 preorders: We have entered a parallel universe

Our number one priority is the safety of our customers. We are asking users to power down their Galaxy Note7s and exchange them as soon as possible, Samsung President of Mobile Communications Business DJ Koh said. We are expediting replacement devices so that they can be provided through the exchange program as conveniently as possible and in compliance with related regulations. We sincerely thank our customers for their understanding and patience.

The company also stresses the fact that there have been only a small number of reported incidents, without updating the number it released more than a week ago. Samsung initially said it recalled the Galaxy Note 7 after 35 reported incidents. Since then, many more Galaxy Note 7 units have exploded.

What Samsung did not say in its press release is that it could remotely deactivate existing Galaxy Note 7 units that arent brought in. That would be one way to handle the mess, although consumers would have to suffer even more.

A French Galaxy Note 7 owner took to Reddit to say that the recalled Galaxy Note 7 units will be deactivated by Samsung after September 30th, so that no potentially harmful devices would be used after that date. Samsung, meanwhile, told Android Central that a remote deactivation isnt something thats happening or something that the company has stated.

Story continues

Samsungs latest official announcement on the matter follows:

Samsung Urges Galaxy Note7 Users to Immediately Participate in The Replacement Program Just over a week ago, Samsung Electronics announced a global replacement program for the Galaxy Note7 as a precautionary measure due to a battery cell issue. Since then, we have been working hard to expedite product shipments in order to fulfill that exchange program and reduce any inconvenience for our customers. During the past week, we understand that there are concerns from our customers and we wish to emphasize the importance of exchanging the product. Our number one priority is the safety of our customers. We are asking users to power down their Galaxy Note7s and exchange them as soon as possible, says DJ Koh, President of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics. We are expediting replacement devices so that they can be provided through the exchange program as conveniently as possible and in compliance with related regulations. We sincerely thank our customers for their understanding and patience. Although there have been only a small number of reported incidents, Samsung is taking great care to provide customers with necessary support. Samsung has identified the affected inventory and stopped sales and shipments of those devices. We are also collaborating with national regulatory bodies. Customers who have Galaxy Note7 devices can replace their current device with a new device based on local availability. We encourage Galaxy Note7 customers to contact their place of purchase or call the designated call center locally as soon as possible.

Trending right now:

See the original version of this article on BGR.com
There are at least 35 documented cases of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 bursting into flames. (Samuel Rutherford | Purch)

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is suffering the same fate as countless hoverboards  there are reports that some phones have been bursting into flames, prompting Samsung is issue a recall and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to strongly discourage passengers from carrying the device on planes, news sources report.

Why is this smartphone such a fire hazard? The answer has to do with its lithium-ion battery, a common power source that isn't just used in cellphones but also in computers, power tools and toys. [9 Odd Ways Your Tech Device May Injure You]

Lithium, the third element on the period table, is a silver-white metal that can catch fire when exposed to oxygen or water, Lloyd Gordon, the chief electrical safety officer at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, told Live Science last year.

But in 1991, Sony Corp. commercialized a way to safely use the ions, mainly by keeping the lithium ions in a suspension or chemical so that it isn't pure lithium, Gordon said.

Well-made electronics have safety measures built into their lithium-ion batteries, but faulty ones with poorly made electric circuitry can meet with fiery ends, he said.

For instance, faulty batteries can be overcharged. Well-made batteries will stop charging automatically once they're full, but that's not always the case for faulty batteries, Gordon told Live Science. If left plugged in for too long, the lithium ions can collect in one spot and be deposited as metallic lithium within the battery, he said. Also, heat from the overcharging can cause oxygen bubbles within the gel, which are highly reactive with metallic lithium.

Likewise, defective lithium-ion batteries can also be over-discharged, meaning they don't shut off when the power is too low, which can also lead to fires, Gordon said.

It's unclear exactly what's causing the problem in some Galaxy Note 7 devices, but one user showcased the result on YouTube after he removed the phone from its official Samsung charger.

Story continues

As of Sept. 1, Samsung is aware of 35 cases globally of lithium-ion battery malfunction, the company said in a statement.

"In response to recently reported cases of the new Galaxy Note7, we conducted a thorough investigation and found a battery cell issue," the company said in the statement. The company said it would temporarily halt sales of the device, and that it would replace current Galaxy Note7 smartphones with newer, safer models in the coming weeks, Samsung added.

In the meantime, the FAA took action, saying that it "strongly advises passengers not to turn on or charge these devices on board aircraft and not to stow them in any checked baggage," according to a statement.

In response to the FAA advisory, Samsung is expediting new shipments of the smartphone this week, Reuters reported today (Sept. 9).

Original article on Live Science.

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For months, Ghanaian actress Vicky Zugah denied rumours that she was with child and asked all her fans to disregard the medias suspicion.

Now the actress has finally confirmed that the rumours were indeed true and has even released pictures to prove she is hugely pregnant.

In the new photos of the pregnant actress, Vicky is spotted wearing an engagement ring but the identity of the unborn babys father still remains a mystery.

According to previous reports by zionfelix.net, Vicky was speculated to have been dating Sierra Leonean representative at Big Brother The Chase, Bolt whose real name is Adrian Bolt Lewis.

But the actress neither confirmed nor denied when she was asked if indeed Bolt was the father, brushing it off by saying: Zionfelix, gossip will kill you.

The actress also seems to know the sex of the baby she is carrying already. One of the pictures she released showed her holding a placard that indicated she was expecting a prince.

Source: YEN.com.gh
In a piece published on Sunday, September 11, Booker remarks that Britain celebrated new diplomatic relations with a moderate Iran on Monday, September 5.

This celebration came just days before Iran announced that it had finally sentenced a British-Iranian charity worker to five years in Evin prison for espionage and attempting to overthrow the regime.

Nazanin ZaghariRatcliffe, who worked with the Thompson Reuters Foundation, was on a family holiday with her daughter Gabriella, now aged two.

Shed taken Gabriella to visit her parents but when they arrived at the airport to return to the UK she was arrested by the Revolutionary Guards who separated her from Gabriella and locked her up without charge.

Nazanins visits by her parents, who are looking after Gabriella, and calls to her husband, Richard, who is in the UK, have been controlled and restricted by the Iranian authorities.

Moderate governments tend not to hold people for five months without charge, separate babies from their parents or hold other countries to ransom over the release of its citizens.

However, this is only one piece of evidence that the regime is not moderate. Another example comes from leaked audio footage regarding the 1988 massacre which killed 30,000 political prisoners in Iran, over just a few weeks.

The tape revealed the extensive planning behind the massacre and those who were involved. Those Regime members who were responsible for the mass murder of 30,000 political opponents, mainly members of the Peoples Mujahidden of Iran (PMOI), did not face any kind of punishment, instead, they received promotions like the former deputy head of defense who is now President Rouhani.

Indeed, Ayatollah Montazeri, the heir to thenSupreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, was featured on the tape calling the murders horrendous and warning that history [would] condemn [them] for the massacre.

He was sacked and placed under house arrest for the rest of his life.

His son, Ahmad, released the tapes last month and could now face the death penalty for revealing the regimes involvement in the slaughter. Much like Nazanins family holiday, the tape was deemed a threat to national security, Irans go to response to actions which embarrass the regime.
He highlighted that Britain has resumed commercial flights to Iran and appointed an ambassador while the President of the French National Assembly visited Tehran last week and Germany announced plans to open two Iranian banks in Munich, to ease financial transactions.

This is in spite of mounting evidence that the Iranian Regime is not the moderate regime that was promised during the Iran nuclear deal of 2015.

Members of the Iranian Resistance stranded in Iraq for 13 years have finally been relocated to safety in Albania, having suffered constant attacks by the Regime and its Iraqi proxies. Deliveries of food and medical supplies have been disrupted, bombs have been dropped in their camps and for the most part, the West turned a blind eye to the sufferings of the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK).

Terzi said: Those who have close contact with the PMOI naturally oppose the predominant push toward closer relations with Tehran, while those who champion that push close their eyes to the Iranian regimes nefarious conduct at home and abroad and are notoriously ignorant about the MEK, its principles, its durability, and its relevance.

He gives credit to the PMOIs European members, various individual politicians, and Albania for ensuring that the opposition members are safe.

He asserts that Europeans pushing for expanded relations have not forgotten the sins of the Regime but are unable to foresee an alternative to the Regime.

The Iranian Resistance is that alternative, the Regime tried to destroy them during the 1988 massacre, tried to discredit them internationally and tried to downplay support for the Resistance within Iran.

He said: It is clear that the Iranian resistance can survive and grow even when it is neglected by the world community. It is clear that it can score significant victories over the Iranian regime when given a modicum of international support, as is the case with Camp Liberty. Just imagine what it could do if the European establishment ceased their pursuit of trade with the current regime and instead put their full-throated support behind the democratic opposition.
Thursday, the rabbi tries to defend himself (and fails miserably)

In our tradition, we have intractable enemies. While we blot out Haman's name on Purim, we do so as we articulate it. We must find allies and must not retreat into absolute positions. To be present somewhere is not to pay homage -- rather it is to say we are still here, reclaiming the memories of those who Arafat and his followers murdered, and educating others about the continuing dangers of his legacy. This tomb is a propaganda tool that is used to shore up mindless support for our dehumanization. In turn, not to discuss this stymies dialogue, which leads to our peril. Let us not fall into this trap. To think otherwise empowers our real enemies and continues to drive us apart, intensifying our systemic, historical traumas.

Day after day, I speak to people who are concerned about the slackening of support, and the growing difficulty of advocacy for Israel in our charged, polarized political climate. We see the dangerous way that the repugnant BDS movement (Boycott, Divest, and Sanction) movement has made incursions on our college campuses and I applaud and support those on these front lines, directly beating back these efforts that seek to delegitimize Israel and dehumanize our Israeli brothers and sisters.

I believe that we must do something too. We must learn the language of those with whom we disagree -- especially those with whom we most profoundly disagree. We must see the narratives, symbols, and myths -- and question them. We must develop a more sophisticated, critical understanding of the world around us, as opposed to reducing our justified fears to an "us versus them" mentality. We must learn to think for ourselves and not accept whatever we may read that encourages embitterment and distance. We must learn to have more informed, examined opinions and hear competing voices so we may be more fully confident and present in our own story.

I am sorry that a proposed stop in an internal draft document has caused such furor. While it was a point of conversation within a larger itinerary, I certainly do not seek public controversy and upon reflection, I see it as a misstep in what I was seeking to accomplish.

Greetings from Paris Charles De Gaulle where once again it is a travel day.It was a crazy weekend, so I didn't get to post this, but on Thursday someone shared with me a long email received from Rabbi Neil Blumofe of Austin, Texas, trying to defend the itinerary for his 'even-handed' Israel trip that included a visit to the tomb of the father of terrorism.The email is way too long to post in its entirety, but I want to post part of it and comment. The full email is embedded below.Yes, the tomb is a propaganda tool, so why would you visit it? If you want to visit a place to prove the point that 'we are still here,' visit Auschwitz. Remind your congregants what happened when Jews had no place to flee, when there was no State of Israel, and when the British - in competition with France for the second biggest anti-Semites in Europe after the Germans - barred the doors to keep Arafat's uncle (the Mufti al-Husseini) happy. That's saying 'we're still here' - not visiting the tomb of a terrorist that you admit is a propaganda tool.What dialogue is the rabbi afraid of 'stymieing' if he does not go to Arafat's tomb? Dialogue with the 'Palestinians'? Has the rabbi elected himself Prime Minister of Israel? Why is it that no Israeli government minister and no non-Arab Knesset member would dream of visiting Arafat's tomb except in an IDF tank? Maybe it's because nearly all Israelis - even the Left - understand that paying homage to Arafat, even if it would be 'identifying with the other,' would do precisely nothing to advance the 'peace process'?I'm glad to hear that. But if that's the case, why do you feel the need to cooperate with many of the groups that fund the BDS movement?The problem is that the average Jew in America - and even many in Israel - have no idea what 'our own story' is. The very suggestion that the 'Palestinians' have an ancient connection to the land of Israel, or that their connection is anywhere near as longstanding as ours, is simply farcical. You've read Tanach. Do you believe it? Where were the 'Palestinians' during the time of the Tanach? Do you think it's acceptable for them to pretend that the Temples just didn't exist? You know they did. Are we obligated to listen to every narrative regardless of how ridiculous it is? Are we required to accord credibility to every narrative?By the way, have you ever read Joan Peters'What I think the rabbi might have missed is that the stop was just one point - the most outrageous one and the easiest one around which to rally opposition - in a very problematic itinerary . Here's the full email:

Labels: anti-Israel Jews, Austin Texas, Breaking the Silence, European anti-Semitism, Hillel, liberalism, NGO's, self-hating Jews, Truah, Yasser Arafat
[September 12, 2016] ViewSonic's 165Hz Gaming Monitor with NVIDIA G-SYNC Technology Now Shipping

ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of visual solution products, announces it has started shipping the highly-anticipated XG2703-GS Gaming Monitor. The XG2703-GS features NVIDIA's (News - Alert) G-SYNC* and Ultra-Low Motion Blur technologies with a 165Hz** refresh rate, along with SuperClear IPS-type panel and WQHD resolution. This 27-inch monitor is the perfect display for hardcore gamers looking for enhanced color accuracy, high-graphic details, and unbelievably fluid gameplay. As part of the award-winning XG Series of gaming monitors, ViewSonic's XG2703-GS is the first in the series to include NVIDIA's G-SYNC technology. G-SYNC technology seamlessly synchronizes the frame rate output between the graphics card and monitor. This eliminates screen tearing, and minimizes stutter and input lag. The XG2703-GS also features NVIDIA's Ultra-Low Motion Blur (ULMB) technology that smooths movement and sharp edges, decreasing motion blur and minimizing ghosting. With G-SYNC and ULMB, game play can be as fluid and intense as the images on the screen without distractions. The 165Hz refresh rate and 4ms response time ensures that the XG2703-GS display delivers superior visual fluidity and graphics that burst off the screen. The monitor's variable refresh rate capabilities virtually eliminate screen tearing and stuttering for effortless gameplay during fast-paced action sequences. The quick response time and low input lag provides a smooth screen performance throughout graphic-intense sequences. "By combining NVIDIA's G-SYNC and 165Hz refresh rate into this new XG monitor, we're providing gamers a visual experience like none they have seen before," said Victor Lam, product marketing manager of monitors for ViewSonic Americas. "From ULMB and Dark Boost to 6 axis color settings and various modes that optimize visuals for all types of games, including FPS, RTS and MOBA - the XG2703-GS is the ultimate gaming monitor." With WQHD (2560x1440) resolution, the XG2703-GS delivers sharp image quality with no distortion or stretching, and almost double the output of 1080p displays while maintaining a 16:9 aspect ratio, and providing up to 77 percent more screen space for a completely immersive gaming experience. The SuperClear IPS-type panel ensures color precision and greater viewing angles. The display comes with dual integrated speakers to combine incredible screen performance with stereo soundfor an all-around immersive experience. A convenient OSD design allows users to easily change settings through an intuitive horizontal slide-out display, making it easier to navigate between options and settings.



ViewSonic's XG2703-GS has a number of features for gamers to go the next level, including adaptive contrast control, dark boost and customizable "game mode" settings. Adaptive contrast control allows the XG2703-GS to dynamically adjust the contrast for an optimal contrast level in any gaming situation. Dark Boost adjusts the monitor's gamma curve to enrich the dark tones in a scene, revealing enemies lurking in the dark. ViewSonic's Game Mode hotkey provides pre-calibrated settings that deliver an amazing blend of colors and technology for specific gaming scenarios. The XG2703-GS monitor also comes with versatile connectivity options including DisplayPort and HDMI inputs. The display has a 6-Axis (News - Alert) color enhancement feature that lets the user individually adjust six primary colors: red, yellow, green, cyan blue and magenta. And, with enhanced viewing comfort, ViewSonic's propriety Flicker-Free technology and a Blue Light Filter, the XG2703-GS helps to eliminate eye strain that comes with extended viewing. The display also features fully adjustable ergonomic stand capabilities with swivel, pivot, tilt and height adjustment, as well as an integrated headphone hook and cable management ring to help reduce clutter and keep gaming space free from extraneous cords.

The XG2703-GS is now available exclusively at Newegg. Beginning October, major etailers will carry the XG2703-GS for an MSRP of $913.00 (USD). ViewSonic.com will also start to carry the XG2703-GS this month. For more information about ViewSonic's XG Series of gaming monitors, go to Gaming.ViewSonic.com and follow @ViewSonicGaming on Twitter (News - Alert). For further news and information about ViewSonic, visit ViewSonic.com and follow on Facebook, YouTube (News - Alert) and Twitter. About ViewSonic Founded in California in 1987, ViewSonic is a leading global provider of visual solution products. As an innovator and visionary, ViewSonic keeps the world connected with a portfolio of professional level visual solutions that enhance the way we compute, collaborate, communicate and connect. Our products include LED monitors, interactive commercial displays, touch displays, projectors, thin client, zero client and smart displays. To find out more about ViewSonic, visit viewsonic.com. *NVIDIA G-Sync Technology with DisplayPort 1.2a Connection Port

**165Hz with DisplayPort 1.2a connection port Product images: http://bit.ly/2cfuXLS This news release contains forward-looking statements that reflect the Company's expectations with regard to future events. Actual events could differ significantly from those anticipated in this document. Trademark footnote: ViewSonic and the ViewSonic trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of ViewSonic Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other corporate names and trademarks stated herein are the property of their respective companies. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912005012/en/

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[September 12, 2016] Cyber Attacks Inflict Unprecedented Damage; Enterprises Still Lack Intelligence

Cyber attacks aren't slowing down - in fact, 76 percent of organizations have experienced a breach within the last two years. Enterprises of all sizes, across every industry, are challenged to respond to increasingly complex and severe attacks - often only learning about the size, severity, and type of incident they're dealing with as their security teams work to stop them. However, many organizations continue to maintain a reactive approach - implementing stand-alone point solutions that only fragment and silo security efforts. NSFOCUS, a global network and application security provider, recommends an intelligent hybrid security approach based on harnessing true global threat intelligence across an organization's cyber defenses (hybrid cloud and on-premises), and turning that insight into action - to proactively and holistically protect assets across the organization. "Cybercriminals have been trying to gain access to protected networks since the dawn of the Internet," said Stephen Gates, Chief Research Intelligence Analyst at NSFOCUS. "In response, security teams implement counter-measures to try and keep them at bay - like anti-virus, DDoS defenses, intrusion preventions systems, web application firewalls, and a host of other security technologies. This segmented approach has led to visibility tools like log aggregators, SIEMs, and traffic analyzers - but has proven to be a poor attempt to get a holistic look at the threat landscape. In reality, these solutions have created security silos that require specialized teams, and result in a limited, expensive and ineffective approach to security." NSFOCUS advises enterprises to move toward an intelligent hybrid security model by taking the following steps: 1. Automate Threat Intelligence: Consume real-time global threat intelligence and put it into action across all of the security technologies deployed within the enterprise, in an automated fashion that requires no human interaction. 2. Eliminate Silos with Integrated Defenses: Deploy defenses that interoperate with and are fully aware of the other defenses in place, communicating vertically with the cloud and laterally across the entire enterprise, elping eliminate security silos and fragmented approaches.



3. Identify Security Blind Spots: Implement closed-loop threat intelligence feedback for both cloud and on-premises defenses that removes blind spots and significantly reduce the time from measure to counter-measure, infection to detection. 4. Take an Intelligent Look Across the Network: Execute on a vision of an intelligent ecosystem of threat-aware solutions combined into a single entity that dramatically increases the visibility of the entire network and application landscape in the enterprise.

5. Implement NSFOCUS' Intelligence-Enabled Enterprise Security Platform: Available in early 2017, this platform allows organizations to upload all of their proprietary and additional 3rd party threat feeds into a comprehensive solution, becoming the single pane of glass management, reporting and analysis for NSFOCUS' Intelligent Hybrid Security platform. "Security departments have spent countless amounts of money trying to undo the damage caused by hackers, while simultaneously bleeding their budget in a futile effort to proactively protect themselves from increasingly malicious campaigns," said Allan Thompson, Chief Operating Officer, NSFOCUS. "It is no longer enough to implement disparate security solutions and hope that they will work together. If organizations aren't looking at security holistically, taking an intelligent hybrid approach, and working to get ahead of attacks using real, actionable threat intelligence, they will continue to remain vulnerable and at great risk. NSFOCUS is committed to developing solutions and services that empower intelligence-in-action to proactively protect global businesses from threats across their entire network." To learn more about NSFOCUS' approach to intelligent hybrid security, visit www.nsfocusglobal.com About NSFOCUS IB NSFOCUS IB is a wholly owned subsidiary of NSFOCUS, an enterprise network security provider, with operations in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Japan. NSFOCUS IB has a proven track record of combatting the increasingly complex cyber threat landscape through the construction and implementation of multi-layered defense systems. The company's Intelligent Hybrid Security strategy utilizes both cloud and on-premises security platforms, built on a foundation of real-time global threat intelligence, to provide unified, multi-layer protection from advanced cyber threats. NSFOCUS has fifteen years of success and experience working with Fortune 500 companies, including four of the world's five largest financial institutions, as well as organizations in insurance, retail, healthcare, critical infrastructure industries as well as government agencies. NSFOCUS IB has technology and channel partners in more than 60 countries, and is a winner of the Microsoft (News - Alert) Bug Bounty Program for 3 consecutive years, a member of the Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP), StopBadware.org, and the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA). Enterprise- and carrier-grade products undergo rigorous evaluation and testing to Veracode VL4 certification, delivering powerful and effective threat management combined with advanced data analytics and intrusion prevention and detection capabilities. A research arm, the NSFOCUS Security Labs, is a renowned technical research center that tracks and analyzes global intelligence while identifying new network vulnerabilities and security trends. Visit NSFOCUS: www.nsfocus.com

Read the blog: http://nsfocusglobal.com/category/blog/

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[September 12, 2016] Panasonic Introduces i-PRO Extreme Surveillance Technology Platform at ASIS 2016

Panasonic (News - Alert), a leading provider of integrated security and video surveillance solutions, today introduced its next generation i-PRO Extreme technology platform at ASIS International 2016. The i-PRO Extreme platform is available on Panasonic's new line-up of cameras, recorders and video management software (VMS) -providing a native end-to-end H.265 system while also delivering demonstrable enhancements in image quality, system reliability, IP security and embedded intelligence. "Panasonic continues to raise the bar on image quality while simultaneously lowering bandwidth requirements in order to exceed customer expectations. Providing these solutions with robust IP security and an improved ease of use helps users capture, record and manage their video surveillance in even the most demanding surveillance scenarios," said Charlie Hare, National Category Manager, Security Evidence Management Solutions. "The introduction of the new i-PRO Extreme based cameras, recorder and software solutions underscores our commitment to maximizing the effectiveness and efficiency of our customers' video surveillance investments." Key technology enhancements delivered by i-PRO Extreme include: EXTREME VISIBILITY: Captures the highest quality images automatically even in very dynamic and challenging lighting environments and includes: Intelligent Auto Mode : Continuously monitors scene dynamics and motion to automatically adjust key camera settings in real-time, optimizing captured images and reducing distortion such as motion blur on moving objects.

: Continuously monitors scene dynamics and motion to automatically adjust key camera settings in real-time, optimizing captured images and reducing distortion such as motion blur on moving objects. 144dB Enhanced Super Dynamic Range: New industry-leading 144dB dynamic range performance delivers balanced scene exposure in highly dynamic and extreme-backlit lighting environments.

New industry-leading 144dB dynamic range performance delivers balanced scene exposure in highly dynamic and extreme-backlit lighting environments. Color Night Vision: Delivers outstanding low-light performance (0.0008 to 0.015 lux) with accurate color rendition and saturation from i-PRO's 1/3" sensor, rivaling the performance of costlier 1/2" sensor cameras. EXTREME COMPRESSION: Industry standard H.265 coupled with Panasonic's Smart Coding technology delivers the highest quality images at the lowest bitrates. H.265 Compression: Industry standard H.265 compression delivers high quality images while reducing streaming and storage requirements by approximately 50 percent over H.264.

Industry standard H.265 compression delivers high quality images while reducing streaming and storage requirements by approximately 50 percent over H.264. Smart Coding: Working on top of H.265, Smart Coding with GOP Control reduces bandwidth even further on relatively still scenes while Auto-VIQs (Variable Image Quality on Specified Area) analyzes scenes automatically for motion and intelligently reduces bandwidth requirements even further for a combined efficiency of up to an 80 percent over H.264.

Working on top of H.265, Smart Coding with GOP Control reduces bandwidth even further on relatively still scenes while Auto-VIQs (Variable Image Quality on Specified Area) analyzes scenes automatically for motion and intelligently reduces bandwidth requirements even further for a combined efficiency of up to an 80 percent over H.264. Smart Facial Coding: High performance face detection technology in the camera automatically detects faces in a scene and encodes those regions at the highest quality, ensuring clear identification. EXTREME RELIABILITY: Delivers low failure rates and redundancy along with Panasonic's i-PRO Preferred warranty program for unmatched service enhancements and support. HDD Dynamic Power Control: HDD power control technology built into new WJ-NX400 recorders intelligently and dynamically powers down HDD's without risking recording loss, while extending HDD life up to seven years (depending on environment and usage).

HDD power control technology built into new WJ-NX400 recorders intelligently and dynamically powers down HDD's without risking recording loss, while extending HDD life up to seven years (depending on environment and usage). Auto-Failover: New WJ-NX400 recorders can be connected in tandem to enable seamless recording redundancy for mission critical applications.

New WJ-NX400 recorders can be connected in tandem to enable seamless recording redundancy for mission critical applications. 5 Year Warranty: Panasonic's i-PRO Preferred program adds an additional two years to the factory 3-year warranty on i-PRO cameras for a total of five years and includes Priority Advanced Exchange*.

Panasonic's i-PRO Preferred program adds an additional two years to the factory 3-year warranty on i-PRO cameras for a total of five years and includes Priority Advanced Exchange*. H.264 Backward Compatibility: New H.265 enabled cameras include H.264 compatibility modes enabling customers to migrate portions of their system to the new standard at their own pace. This allows users to maximize existing investments in H.264 products while reducing overall TCO and helping to future proof their networks. EXTREME DATA SECURITY: i-PRO's Secure Communication Suite ensures robust end-to-end IP security of the i-PRO Extreme based surveillance network. Secure Communication: Because every device with an IP address is potentially vulnerable, i-PRO Extreme with Secure Communication now offers an additional layer of network based protection including a PC-level security suite, embedded in all new i-PRO Extreme Cameras, Recorders and Management Software for robust data and communications encryption.

Because every device with an IP address is potentially vulnerable, i-PRO Extreme with Secure Communication now offers an additional layer of network based protection including a PC-level security suite, embedded in all new i-PRO Extreme Cameras, Recorders and Management Software for robust data and communications encryption. FIPS Certified: i-PRO Extreme products meet the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 Level 1, as required for FBI and Public Safety use. New i-PRO Extreme Camera Line-Up Panasonic's booth #3530 will showcase some of the new H.265 cameras in the i-PRO Extreme line. For a full list of all new i-PRO Extreme cameras, please see the chart on the next page. Key enhancements in all new iPRO Extreme camera models include: H.265 Smart Coding (Long GOP, Auto-VIQS, Smart Face Coding)

H.264 Compatibility and mixed mode streaming, recording and viewing

Auto Image Stabilization (on PTZ models)

Secure Communication

Up to 4-channel simultaneous H.265 encoding

Enhanced Super Dynamic 144dB at 30/60 fps (depending on model)

Ultra-high sensitivity from 0.0008 lux to 0.015 in color mode (depending on model)

Touchable Rain Wash Coating (outdoor models only)

Built in IR LED (up to 100 feet) New i-PRO Extreme Recorder WJ-NX400 Panasonic will also be previewing the new WJ-NX400 i-PRO Extreme H.265 Secure System Recorder (available in December 2016), the much anticipated successor of the long standing WJ-ND400 i-PRO recorder. The new WJ-NX400 recorder features H.265/H.264 recording, increased throughput and recording channel capacity as well as an integrated GUI for PC-Less applications enabling a complete Camera/Recorder/Viewing solution without the need for a separate PC client. Key features include: HIGH-BANDWIDTH SECURE RECORDING 64 Channels Base - expandable to 128 (H.265/264)

384Mbps recording bandwidth

recording bandwidth Secure Communication PC-LESS SURVEILLANCE SOLUTION Built-in video viewing and Management GUI with Dual HDMI Outputs

Automatic camera configuration wizard for easy-set-up

2nd Stream Recording automatically records a companion stream for mobile playback SCALABLE STORAGE (9) Integrated Drive-bays support RAID/5/6

External storage expansion up to 270TB HIGH RELIABILTY AND REDUNDANCY Dynamic HDD Power Management increases HDD life up to seven years

Redundant fail-over uses 2nd Recorder to enable seamless mission-critical recording

No camera license fees New i-PRO Extreme Video Management Application WV-ASM300 Also on preview will be the new WV-ASM300 i-PRO Extreme H.265 Secure Video Management Software application (available in December 2016), a major new update of Panasonic's popular WV-ASM200 software. The ASM300 is a powerful Windows application that enables a secure, scalable H.265 ready, multi-camera, multi-recorder surveillance management environment and is compatible with Panasonic's legacy i-PRO line of H.264 cameras, recorders and encoders. Key features include: FULLY INTEGRATED & SECURE Integrated camera control, viewing and recorder management

Integrates i-PRO Extreme H.265 & i-PRO H.264 equipment

Secure Communication POWERFUL USER INTERFACE NEW user-interface design & 4K native GUI enhances usability

user-interface design & 4K native GUI enhances usability Automatic camera configuration wizard speeds system set-up

ASM300 now includes multi-monitor and WJ-CU950 support as standard SCALABLE AND EXTENDABLE Base: 100 recorders, 64 encoders and 256 cameras

Expandable to thousands of cameras, recorders and encoders

Full array of software extension modules available EASY TRIAL OPTIONS NEW FREE limited version supports 16 Cameras/1 Recorder

FREE limited version supports 16 Cameras/1 Recorder No annual license fees required for i-PRO or Advidia Cameras







Camera Type Model Number Estimated Availability Date Indoor Box (News - Alert) Full HD WV-S1131 Oct-16 HD WV-S1111 Oct-16 Outdoor Box Full HD WV-S1531LTN Mar-17 WV-S1531LN Nov-16 HD WV-S1511LN Nov-16 Outdoor Dome Full HD WV-S2531LTN Mar-17 WV-S2531LN Nov-16 HD WV-S2511LN Nov-16 Indoor Vandal Dome Full HD WV-S2231L Nov-16 HD WV-S2211L Nov-16 Indoor Dome Full HD WV-S2131L Nov-16 HD WV-S2111L Nov-16 WV-S2110 Nov-16

*For more information or to register for the i-PRO Preferred Program, visit www.us.panasonic.com/ipropreferred For more information about Panasonic's full line of surveillance solutions please visit www.us.panasonic.com/security and follow us on Twitter. About Panasonic System Communications Company of North America Panasonic System Communications Company of North America (PSCNA), Division of Panasonic Corporation of North America, delivers reliable technology solutions for government and commercial enterprises. Technologies include mobile computing devices and support services, point-of-sale solutions, video surveillance systems, video evidence capture and management solutions, professional displays, projectors, digital signage, video production equipment, and office communications and productivity solutions. To learn more call 877-803-8492 or visit us.panasonic.com/business-solutions/. About Panasonic Corporation of North America Panasonic Corporation of North America provides a broad line of digital and other electronics products and solutions for consumer, business and industrial use. The company is the principal North American subsidiary of Osaka, Japan-based Panasonic Corporation and the hub of Panasonic's U.S. branding, marketing, sales, service and R&D operations. In Interbrand's 2014 annual "Best Global Green Brands" report, Panasonic ranked number five overall and the top electronics brand in the report. As part of continuing sustainability efforts, Panasonic Corporation of North America relocated its headquarters to a new facility, adjacent to Newark Penn Station in Newark, NJ. It is the first newly constructed office tower in Newark to earn both LEED Platinum and Gold certifications from the U.S. Green Building Council. Learn more about Panasonic at us.panasonic.com/news. Connect with Panasonic: Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, Facebook, YouTube View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912005424/en/

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[September 12, 2016] Panasonic Unveils Expanded Portfolio of Video Surveillance Technology and Products at ASIS 2016

Panasonic (News - Alert) System Communications Company of North America (PSCNA) is bringing its extensive array of leading integrated security and video surveillance capture and recording solutions to ASIS International 2016, September 12-15 at the Orange (News - Alert) County Convention Center in Orlando. Panasonic solutions to be showcased in Booth 3530 include: The New i-PRO Extreme Platform: Available on Panasonic's new lineup of cameras, recorders and video management software (VMS) - providing a native end-to-end H.265 system while also delivering demonstrable enhancements in image quality, system reliability, IP security and embedded intelligence. Key technology enhancements delivered by i-PRO Extreme include: Extreme Visibility - Intelligent Auto Mode, 144dB Enhanced Super Dynamic Range, Color Night Vision

Extreme Compression - Industry-standard H.265 compression, Smart Coding, Smart Face Coding

Extreme Reliability - HD Dynamic Power Control, Auto-Failover, H.264 Backward Compatibility, 5 Year Warranty

Extreme Data Security - Secure Communication, FIPS Certified Panasonic will also showcase some of the new H.265 cameras in the i-PRO Extreme line. Key enhancements include: H.265 Smart Coding (Long GOP, Auto-VIQS, Smart Face Coding)

H.264 Compatibility and mixed mode streaming, recording and viewing

Auto Image Stabilization (on PTZ models)

Secure Communication

Up to 4-channel simultaneous H.265 encoding

Enhanced Super Dynamic 144dB at 30/60fps (depending on model)

Ultra-high sensitivity from 0.0008 lux to 0.015 in color mode (depending on model)

Touchable Rain Wash Coating (outdoor models only)

Built in IR LED (up to 100 feet) Panasonic will also be previewing the new WJ-NX400 i-PRO Extreme H.265 Secure System Recorder (available in December 2016), the much anticipated successor of the long standing WJ-ND400 i-PRO recorder. The new WJ-NX400 recorder features H.265/H.264 recording, increased throughput and recording channel capacity as well as an integrated GUI for PC-Less applications enabling a complete Camera/Recorder/Viewing solution without the need for a separate PC client. Also on preview will be the new WV-ASM300 i-PRO Extreme H.265 Secure Video Management Software application (available in December 2016), a major new update of Panasonic's popular WV-ASM200 software. The ASM300 is a powerful Windows application that enables a secure, scalable H.265 ready, multi-camera, multi-recorder surveillance management environment and is compatible with Panasonic's legacy i-PRO line of H.264 cameras, recorders and encoders. Aero PTZ (WV-SUD638): On exhibit and now available for delivery is Panasonic newest and most durable PTZ camera, the Aero PTZ. Designed for a wide range of extreme environments, the Aero PTZ provides Full HD surveillance images at 60fps and includes a 30x optical zoom lens. The Aero PTZ is ideal for a variety of applications including ports, transit yards, airports, city surveillance, highways or any area or location prone to severe natural weather conditions or other factors that might wreak havoc on the operation and reliabilityof a typical video surveillance camera. First unveiled at ISC West 2016 earlier this year, the Panasonic Aero PTZ network camera provides reliable and sustainable operation for mission-critical and other applications under severe weather conditions, from rain and snow to extreme temperatures and hurricane force winds. Its highly rugged, 360-degree aerodynamic spherical surface design minimizes drag for heightened mechanical stability in high winds and the camera features built-in image-stabilization capability to maintain crisp images in the presence of mechanical vibration. Aero PTZ incorporates a strong but lightweight fiberglass body enabling the camera to be resistant to salt-air corrosion conforming to ISO14993. Further, the camera's wide operating temperature and rugged construction means it is resilient in arctic-to-desert climate ranges.



Enhancements to Video Insight VMS: The latest version of VI's open-platform video management software VI Monitor version 6 (v6) offers increased functionality and now supports H.265/HEEVC Streaming for Panasonic and other H.265 cameras. Video Insight v6 is now bundled with VI's powerful access control solution MonitorCast v3.5, which will also be on exhibit. Additional new VI Monitor features include:

Failover Edge Recording - Automatically upload and manage recorded video from camera via IP Server

Support for Intelligent Joystick

Panasonic Aero PTZ Integration Panasonic continues to distribute the Video Insight VMS solution to the systems integrator channel with a bundled camera license for virtually all recent model i-PRO and all Advidia cameras providing wide camera compatibility and an excellent value proposition. Panasonic will showcase these and many other security solutions, analytics and software at this year's ASIS International. To schedule an on-site demo, please contact [email protected]. For more information about Panasonic's full line of surveillance solutions please visit www.us.panasonic.com/security and follow us on Twitter. About Panasonic System Communications Company of North America Panasonic System Communications Company of North America (PSCNA), Division of Panasonic Corporation of North America, delivers reliable technology solutions for government and commercial enterprises. Technologies include mobile computing devices and support services, point-of-sale solutions, video surveillance systems, video evidence capture and management solutions, professional displays, projectors, digital signage, video production equipment, and office communications and productivity solutions. To learn more call 877-803-8492 or visit us.panasonic.com/business-solutions/. About Panasonic Corporation of North America Panasonic Corporation of North America provides a broad line of digital and other electronics products and solutions for consumer, business and industrial use. The company is the principal North American subsidiary of Osaka, Japan-based Panasonic Corporation and the hub of Panasonic's U.S. branding, marketing, sales, service and R&D operations. In Interbrand's 2014 annual "Best Global Green Brands" report, Panasonic ranked number five overall and the top electronics brand in the report. As part of continuing sustainability efforts, Panasonic Corporation of North America relocated its headquarters to a new facility, built to meet LEED certification standards, adjacent to Newark Penn Station in Newark, NJ. Learn more about Panasonic at www.panasonic.com. Connect with Panasonic: Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, Facebook, YouTube View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912005436/en/

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[September 12, 2016] HID Global and Datawatch Systems Provide a Convenient On-the-Go Experience for Property Managers and Tenants at Commercial Buildings

HID Global, a worldwide leader in secure identity solutions, today announced that Datawatch Systems, a long time HID Advantage Gold Partner, is transforming the tenant experience across numerous high-rise buildings since their early pilot of HID Mobile Access. Datawatch has deployed 3,000 Mobile IDs to date at major commercial properties across the United States. The solution is addressing the increasing demand for property management companies and tenants seeking better ways to interact with buildings where people live and work. "We are seeing a steadily growing number of building managers and occupants who are seeking to use their phones for access control instead of the traditional cards or keyfobs," said Kenny Reed, Director of Business Development for Datawatch. "HID Mobile Access has not only facilitated retention of our existing clients; it has also helped expand our market share with a forward-looking offering that easily integrates with smart building technology to create a more connected environment for our clients." Datawatch has deployed HID Mobile Access for building entry and access to internal doors, including common building areas, elevators, individual suites and apartments at nearly 30 commercial properties in New York City, Washington DC, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Raleigh, NC and other major cities. Datawatch customers using HID Mobile Access in their buildings under management include CIM Group, Jones Lang LaSalle, Fruition Partners and many more. In addition, the company has installed over 1,200 mobile-ready iCLASS SE readers in new buildings under their management, making it possible for property management companies and tenants to add mobile access at any time. The company manages the HID Mobile Access solution with the Datawatch DirectAccess system, which can also analyze HVAC load requirements based on when someone enters or exits a suite or common area and adjust temperature settings accordingly -- as well as turn off lights when the last person leaves an area.



In the future, Datawatch is exploring further mobile access control integration with air conditioning and heating systems, boilers, video surveillance and other building utility systems. "The numerous Datawatch deployments of HID Mobile Access illustrate how the solution is a win-win offering for partners and end customers at a time when the freedom to choose credential types, based on a user's particular habits, is of utmost importance," said Harm Radstaak, Vice President and Managing Director of Physical Access Control with HID Global. "Interest in mobile access adoption from building managers and tenants reflects what we are seeing across several other major industries, where the incorporation of mobile access in the near future is a given."

Datawatch is also piloting the new HID Mobile Access Managed Service Edition that expands their credential management capabilities. The latest addition to HID Global's mobile access solution, which was developed specifically to address the use cases and business model of managed services providers such as Datawatch, enables remote distribution of Mobile IDs to employees and authorized visitors for many disparate organizations, such as commercial real-estate tenants spread across buildings worldwide. This new level of centralization decreases maintenance costs and enhances remote assistance capabilities for users. See Live Demonstrations at ASIS 2016 Visit HID Global in booth #3901 for live demos of HID Mobile Access and the new HID Mobile Access Managed Service Edition at this year's ASIS International held from September 12-15 at the Orange (News - Alert) County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. Stay Connected with HID Global Visit our Media Center, read our Industry Blog, subscribe to our RSS Feed and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. About HID Global HID Global is the trusted source for innovative products, services, solutions, and know-how related to the creation, management, and use of secure identities for millions of customers around the world. The company's served markets include physical and logical access control, including strong authentication and credential management; card printing and personalization; visitor management systems; highly secure government and citizen ID; and identification RFID technologies used in animal ID and industry and logistics applications. The company's primary brands include ActivID, EasyLobby, FARGO, IdenTrust, LaserCard, Lumidigm, Quantum (News - Alert) Secure, and HID. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, HID Global has over 2,700 employees worldwide and operates international offices that support more than 100 countries. HID Global is an ASSA ABLOY Group brand. For more information, visit http://www.hidglobal.com. About Datawatch Systems Founded in 1981, Datawatch Systems is a full-service commercial office building access control systems provider serving a roster of more than 2,500 buildings domestically and globally. The heart of the company's service operation is its 24-hour monitoring center that enables multi-level access control security customized to the needs of individual clients. A complete managed security solutions provider, the company employs a staff of 200 and in addition to its headquarters in Bethesda, MD, operates regional offices in Orlando, FL; Raleigh, NC; Houston, TX; New York, NY; Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; Baltimore, MD; Philadelphia, PA; and Richmond, VA. For more information, visit: www.datawatchsystems.com.  HID, the HID logo, HID Mobile Access, and Seos are trademarks or registered trademarks of HID Global in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks, service marks, and product or service names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912005515/en/

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[September 12, 2016] Logicalis US to CIOs: Don't be Held Hostage by Ransomware

NEW YORK, Sept.12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ransomware, which holds business data hostage until a fee is paid, has taken a sharp upturn this year. In fact, a recent industry study found that nearly half of all U.S. businesses have experienced at least one ransomware attack in the past year alone. While organizations wrestle with the ever-pressing issue of whether to pay or not to pay if they're victimized, Logicalis US, an international IT solutions and managed services provider (www.us.logicalis.com), suggests CXOs focus first on how to protect, thwart and recover from a potential attack before developing a pay or don't-pay policy. To learn more, register to attend tomorrow's Logicalis US anti-ransomware webinar: http://ow.ly/BMka303kh7z. "Ransomware has become one of the most sophisticated criminal enterprises the world has ever seen," says Ron Temske, Vice President, Security Solutions, Logicalis US. "As anyone in the business of cybersecurity knows, we've long battled those who simply wanted to create chaos and disruption. We've seen nation states attack both military and civilian targets and 'hacktivists' who act for various social causes. But ransomware is different in one key way: It's all about the money. Ransomware is a business, complete with sophisticated cybercrime-as-a-service offerings and world-class customer support to ensure its victims' files are returned expeditiously once the ransom is paid. It's a service business approaching $1 billion in annual revenue, something that would be heralded as an accomplishment if it weren't based on such nefarious principles. The business of ransomware has even spawned a network of affiliates that provide redirection of an exploit kit for a cut of the profits." Five Ways to Respond to the Threat from Ransomware To be ready for an attack before it happens, to detect and stop it while it's happening, or to recover from it after it happens takes planning. To help, Logicalis' security experts have compiled a list of the top five ways to respond to the threat ransomware poses today. Create a Modern Defense: Traditional signature-based anti-virus solutions are good to have, but they aren't up to the job of thwarting a sophisticated ransomware attack. Neither is your traditional stateful firewall. As a result, it is critically important to plan for the possibility of an attack by developing comprehensive visibility and access to extensive details on how the malware entered the organization's environment in the first place. IT pros who are serious about heading ransomware off at the pass should focus intently on modern next-generation anti-malware and firewall solutionsthat can stop an attack before it starts. Take an Architectural Approach: In some limited situations, point solutions can be effective, but not with ransomware. The most effective way to address the threat posed by ransomware and other pervasive cyberattacks is to take a holistic architectural approach to security that encompasses the entire network including its systems and endpoints as well as the organization's cloud and mobile strategies. Because so many of today's threats are automated, solutions that rely on human intervention to detect and respond are neither affordable nor effective, making automation and orchestration key principals in a solid security architecture design. Prevent the Spread of Malware: If an attacker's malware does enter the network, it has the ability to spread like a fast-moving cold among passengers on an airplane. The key at this stage is to compartmentalize data using network micro-segmentation strategies that make it more difficult for malware to spread laterally within the environment. Plan Your Recovery: The unfortunate truth is, despite the security industry's best efforts, no organization is entirely immune to attack. Therefore, it's critical to examine how the organization will recover if it is breached. First, be sure you're backing up. Second, test, test and re-test the backup and restore process; a backup is only valuable if the data can actually be restored when it's needed. It's also important to ensure that the restore can be done at the system level since file-based recovery may not be enough. Consider, too, how much redundancy is required; if the organization is hit, do you have an uncorrupted source from which you can immediately recover? And be sure to weigh the costs of various solutions against the cost of potential loss or downtime  not all data is equally valuable, which means not all data needs the same level of protection. Create a Pay or No-Pay Policy: Finally, the big question: To pay or not to pay? No vertical market is having a tougher time facing this question than healthcare is today; whether it's critical patient-care data that hackers hold hostage or the threat of hefty regulatory fines imposed when protected patient health information (PHI) is breached, healthcare organizations have become prime targets for ransomware attacks. Before any organization  healthcare or otherwise  pays a ransom, however, Temske suggests examining how much damage will be done if you don't pay. Do you have an uncompromised data backup from which you can restore? What is the cost to restore vs. pay  both monetarily and in terms of the business' ability to function in the meantime? Ultimately, the decision comes down to how business-critical the compromised data is to the organization. If you do decide to pay, Temske has one word of advice: "Negotiate. In most cases, you can talk the price down, so it may make sense to consider not paying the first amount offered."



Want to Learn More? Is your company's data at risk from ransomware, and what can you do to protect it? Find out in a Logicalis US anti-ransomware webinar: http://ow.ly/BMka303kh7z.

Learn why your company is not safe from hackers, then explore 10 tough security questions every CIO must be able to answer: http://ow.ly/qFC3303Hjtt.

Your organization may not have been breached yet, but it will be; find out what you can do about it here: http://ow.ly/RAtV303HjAm. About Logicalis

Logicalis is an international multi-skilled solution provider providing digital enablement services to help customers harness digital technology and innovative services to deliver powerful business outcomes.

Our customers cross industries and geographical regions; our focus is to engage in the dynamics of our customers' vertical markets including financial services, TMT (telecommunications, media and technology), education, healthcare, retail, government, manufacturing and professional services, and to apply the skills of our 4,000 employees in modernizing key digital pillars, data center and cloud services, security and network infrastructure, workspace communications and collaboration, data and information strategies, and IT operation modernization. We are the advocates for our customers for some of the world's leading technology companies including Cisco, HPE, IBM, NetApp, Microsoft, VMware and ServiceNow. The Logicalis Group has annualized revenues of over $1.5 billion from operations in Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific. It is a division of Datatec Limited, listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the AIM market of the LSE, with revenues of over $6.5 billion. For more information, visit www.us.logicalis.com. Business and technology working as one To learn more about Logicalis activities through a variety of social media outlets, click here. Media contacts:

Nickie Peters, Director of Marketing,

Logicalis US

[email protected]

920-338-7622

www.us.logicalis.com Karen Franse, Communication Strategy Group for Logicalis US

[email protected]

866-997-2424

www.gocsg.com Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160909/406098LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/logicalis-us-to-cios-dont-be-held-hostage-by-ransomware-300325725.html SOURCE Logicalis US

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[September 12, 2016] Untangle Announces Acquisition by Providence Equity

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Untangle Inc., a leader in comprehensive network security for small-to-medium business, today announced that it has been acquired by Providence Strategic Growth (PSG), the growth equity affiliate of Providence Equity Partners, a global private equity firm with $47 billion in assets under management. PSG is also contributing growth capital to further Untangle's ability to win market share and continue to unseat incumbents in the unified threat management (UTM) market. Untangle's flagship product, NG Firewall, delivers a comprehensive solution for small-to-medium businesses and home offices that require enterprise-grade information security with the ease of use of a consumer product. Untangle's industry-leading approach to network traffic visibility and policy management gives its customers deep insight into what's happening on their network through its database-driven reporting engine and 360 Dashboard. Untangle was recently named to the 2016 Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing privately held companies in America for the third year in a row and has earned its first appearance in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for unified threat management . In connection with the acquisition, Untangle has named Scott Devens to the role of chief executive officer. Mr. Devens brings nearly thirty years of success in executive leadership roles covering sales, services, marketing, engineering and finance at both early stage and enterprise technology companies including Core Security, Talend and EMC. "I'm thrilld to be joining Untangle at a stage where it is well-positioned to capitalize on the opportunities before it," said Devens. "NG Firewall's ease of adoption continues to win over customers who demand a network security solution specifically engineered for smaller organizations with limited IT resources. Our partnership with PSG will accelerate our investment in new product enhancements, channel, and go-to-market initiatives to address the evolving cybersecurity needs of the mid-market."



"Untangle's innovative, intuitive platform for network security applications is setting the bar for the UTM space," said Gopi Vaddi, Director at PSG who will join the Untangle Board of Directors. Vaddi continues, "NG Firewall provides significant value for small-to-medium businesses who have otherwise been told by enterprise players to make do with solutions designed for branch offices. The rapid expansion of the UTM market is a testament to the need for a simple, powerful, all-in-one solution, and we believe Untangle is uniquely positioned to fill that need." Chuck Young, Director of Information Technology at Flow Companies, commented, "With Untangle's NG Firewall solution, I am able to leverage my existing hardware investments, thereby reducing my total cost of ownership, while providing an extensible security platform across my 17 automotive retail locations. At each location, we average 50 to 1000 devices on our guest network and have been very pleased with the performance and scalability of the Untangle solution."

Information Technology Director Richard Zamoida at the Boys and Girls Club of Manchester, New Hampshire, stated, "With Untangle, I was able to create separate policiesone for staff and one for childrenthat provided the appropriate internet access controls for each area of the operation. Migration to Untangle has been simple and has provided enterprise-level access control across my entire network. I can ensure the children are protected, and the network performance is meeting the demands of the Club." "Untangle is trusted by thousands of organizations worldwide to safeguard the networks and devices that their employees rely on," said Mark Hatton, senior advisor at Providence Equity Partners and former president and chief executive officer at Core Security. Mr. Hatton, who will be joining the Untangle Board of Directors as Executive Chairman, continued, "Untangle's unwavering dedication to exceeding the expectations of its customers has made it the clear choice of IT professionals." About Untangle

Untangle is an innovator in cybersecurity designed specifically for the below-enterprise market, safeguarding businesses, home offices, nonprofits, schools and governmental organizations. Untangle's integrated suite of software and appliances provides enterprise-grade capabilities and consumer-oriented simplicity to organizations with limited IT resources. Untangle's award-winning network security solutions are trusted by over 40,000 customers around the world. Untangle is headquartered in San Jose, California. For more information, visit www.untangle.com. About Providence Equity

Providence is a premier, global asset management firm with $47 billion in assets under management across complementary private equity and credit businesses. Providence pioneered a sector focused approach to private equity investing with the vision that a dedicated team of industry experts could build exceptional companies of enduring value. Since the firm's inception in 1989, Providence has invested in more than 150 companies and is the leading equity investment firm focused on the media, communications, education and information industries. Providence is headquartered in Providence, RI and also has offices in New York, London, Hong Kong, Singapore and New Delhi. For more information on Providence Equity, please visit www.provequity.com. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/untangle-announces-acquisition-by-providence-equity-300325799.html SOURCE Untangle, Inc.

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Thomas Hart Benton

Many individuals have made great contributions to America with a few of the politicians, explorers, inventors, and entrepreneurs dominating our history books. However, this article will tell the greatness of an American painter and muralist.

Thomas Hart Benton was born on April 15, 1889, and along with such notable artists as Grant Wood and John Stuart Curry these artists were at the forefront of the Regionalist art movement.

Benton's fluid, sculpted figures in his paintings showed everyday people in scenes of life in the United States. Although the dominance of his work is strongly associated with the Midwest, he also studied in Paris, lived in New York City for more than 20 years and painted scores of works in the East.

Spending his summers in Martha's Vineyard off the New England coast for 50 summers, he also painted scenes of the American South and the American West.

Benton received his initial education at the Art Institute of Chicago. Two years later, he moved to Paris in 1909 to continue his art education at the Academia Julian.

After studying in Europe, Benton moved back to New York City in 1913 and resumed painting. During World War I, he served in the U.S. Navy. His war-related work had an enduring effect on his style. The time in the U.S. Navy would find Benton making drawings and illustrations of shipyard work and life, and this requirement for realistic documentation strongly influenced his later style.

Benton found recognition in 1932 when he won a commission to paint murals of Indiana life. The Indiana Murals stirred controversy as he painted everyday people, including some of the state's history that some people did not want publicized such as work showing the Ku Klux Klan members in full regalia.

On December 24, 1934, Benton was featured on one of the earliest color covers of Time magazine. Benton's work was featured along with Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry in an article entitled "The U.S. Scene."

In his later life, Benton accepted a teaching job at the Kansas City Art Institute. Living in the Midwest gave Benton greater access to rural America.

In 1937, Benton published his autobiography, An Artist in America, which was critically acclaimed. The writer Sinclair Lewis said, "Here's a rare thing, a painter who can write."

During World War II, Benton created a series titled The Year of Peril, which portrayed the threat of American ideals by Fascism and Nazism. Following the war, Benton stayed active for another 30 years, but his work included less contemporary social commentary and portrayed pre-industrial farmlands.

Benton received additional honors for his paintings, including being elected into the National Academy of Design in 1954.

Having lived a full and rewarding life, he succumbed to illness at the age of 85 and died on January 19, 1975.
MATTOON -- Consolidated Communications is looking for volunteers to help make the 33rd Annual Special Olympics Family Festival (SOFF) a day to remember for approximately 700 Special Olympics Athletes on Saturday.

The greatest need remains Friend-For-A-Day volunteers to be paired with athletes for the festival.

You dont need to be an expert to be a Friend-For-A-Day, you just need to be a friend, said Vanessa Duncan, Area 9 director of Special Olympics Illinois. Have fun with your athlete companion and youll be doing a wonderful job. Just listen to the athlete and help them do what they enjoy at the festival, whether it be taking a picture together in the photo tent, enjoying a tractor ride, singing in the Karaoke tent or listening to Elvis Himselvis perform.

Unlike traditional Special Olympic events, SOFF is a non-competitive day centered on games and activities in a carnival-type atmosphere for pre-registered Special Olympic Athletes from Illinois Regions 8, 9, 10 and 17. At the beginning of the day, all athletes are paired with a volunteer Friend-For-A-Day who escorts them around the grounds as they participate in the various games and activities at the festival.

This years festival theme is The Greatest SOFF on Earth, featuring circus performers from Gamma Phi Circus, who will entertain the crowds.

The day begins around 8 a.m. with registration and concludes with a closing ceremony at 2 p.m. T-shirts and lunch will be provided to all volunteers.

SOFF is always an unforgettable day for the athletes and the volunteers, Duncan added. I encourage anyone who is considering signing up as a volunteer to just give it a try.

SOFF is a non-smoking event and is not open to the public. All SOFF volunteers must be 16 years of age or older and must sign up as a volunteer prior to the event. Volunteer registration is available online at www.consolidated.com/SOFFVolunteer, where you can sign up as a Friend-For-A-Day or general event volunteer.

Learn more about the event on the Special Olympics Family Festival Facebook page or watch their video. Call 800-434-SOFF if you have questions.

SOFF was founded by Consolidated Communications in 1984, and is organized by its employees along with partners from Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center and First Mid-Illinois Bank & Trust.
Daytime astronomy scheduled at Charleston Library

CHARLESTON -- Charleston Carnegie Public Librarys Daytime Astronomy will meet at 5 p.m. Tuesday in the library parking lot to discuss lunar craters and sun spots using filtered telescopes and projection scopes.

Telescopes will be set up for participants' use and guided viewing in an informal question-and-answer format. This drop-in program is free and open to the public, but children under 13 need to bring an adult. A library card is not needed to attend.

For further information, call 217-345-1514 or visit www.charlestonlibrary.org.

Historical and genealogical society to hold meeting

SULLIVAN -- The Moultrie County Historical and Genealogical Society will hold its monthly general meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Heritage Center in Sullivan.

The topic of the evening will be Camp Butler and Camp Douglas of Illinois during the Civil War. Joe Pound will discuss the history of both camps and how Camp Butler is well known in Illinois but Camp Douglas is not.

The public is always invited to the general meetings and refreshments will be served during the social hour following the program.

American Legion Auxiliary Quarter Auction set

MATTOON -- The American Legion Auxiliary Quarter Auction is scheduled to be held at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, with bidding starting at 6:30 p.m. Food and drink will be available.

The auction will feature more than 20 vendors of crafts, books, toys, purses, wallets, yard decor, makeup, gift certificates, kitchenware, and other items.

The auction is a monthly event, held the third Thursday of each month, with profits going to American Legion Auxiliary projects. This month's pay-it-forward organization is Mattoon JROTC. Last month's benefactor was CASA, netting $375 for their projects.

The American Legion is located at 1903 Maple Ave. in Mattoon.

Acclaimed photographer to hold book signing

CHAMPAIGN -- Acclaimed Central Illinois photographer Larry Kanfer will sign copies of his new book "A Prairie State of Mind" from 5-7 p.m. Thursday at the Larry Kanfer gallery, 2503 South Neil St. Refreshments will be served.

For more information, contact Steve Fast at sfast@illinois.edu or 217-244-4689.
NEOGA (JG-TC) -- A lightning strike is the suspected cause of a fire that destroyed a waterfront house at Lake Mattoon early Saturday morning.

Assistant Chief Alan Baker of the Neoga Fire Protection District said firefighters were dispatched at 5:40 a.m. Saturday to a house fire just west of the Lake Mattoon beach, a house that the occupants had evacuated.

Baker said firefighters arrived at the scene and found that more than half of the 3,000-square-foot house was already engulfed in flames. He said Neoga called for assistance from the Lincoln, Sigel, Toledo and Wabash fire protection districts for the growing blaze, which swept through the other half of the house when the wind changed direction.

Firefighters poured more than 40,000 gallons of water onto the fire while they were on scene until after 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Baker said. They had to return three times afterward to douse hot spots in the remains of a structure that was a total loss, he said.

Baker said an Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office investigator was called to examine the fire scene because it was a high dollar loss estimated at more than $500,000. He said the investigator has not made a final determination on the cause of the fire, but a neighbor reported hearing a possible lighting strike at approximately 5 a.m. in the vicinity of the house.

Firefighters were able to recover a wooden box of photographs from the fire scene that had little smoke and water damage, Baker said. One of the occupant's of the home said these photos included "irreplaceable" old black and white photos of her parents and grandparents in Greece, Baker said.
Bryan Physician Network welcomes neurologist Noah Beadell, MD, to Bryan Neurology. "We are extremely pleased to have Dr. Beadell join our neurohospitalist team, which includes Sunil Nair, MD and Kathryn Nelson, NP-C," said Eric Mooss, Bryan Physician Network president. "This highly skilled team provides specialized care to patients hospitalized at Bryan Medical Center with neurological conditions."

A Tecumseh, Neb., native, Dr. Beadell attended medical school at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and completed his residency in neurology and fellowship in cerebrovascular (stroke) at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland. He is board certified in neurology.

Bryan Neurology works with the entire health care team to evaluate and treat neurological conditions to promote the best possible outcomes. As neurohospitalists, this team is available to provide expert neurological care to hospitalized patients, provide care updates to family members, and provide a summary of care to each patient's primary care doctor for ongoing care after hospitalization.

Bryan Physician Network offers primary care, specialty care and urgent care services throughout the Lincoln area.
Rudd is a recent graduate of the University of Chicago Law School. While in law school, Rudd was a business editor on The University of Chicago Legal Forum. He also served as a legal intern to the Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic Housing Initiative, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing legal assistance and educational programs to individuals and organizations seeking to improve local low-income housing options.

At Hilgers Graben, Rudd will work as part of the litigation group, assisting in intellectual property and complex commercial cases around the country. "We are thrilled to add Jackson to our growing firm," firm founder Mike Hilgers said. "Our growing docket of complex commercial and patent litigation cases demands talented attorneys, and Jackson will help deepen our bench." About Hilgers Graben Hilgers Graben is an intellectual property and complex commercial litigation boutique. Based in Nebraska, Hilgers Graben has over 10 attorneys as part of its multi-state team.
A Lancaster County judge ruled that a 29-year-old man's four felony drug cases should be dismissed because the state ran out of time to bring him to trial.

Jason P. Copeland had faced six felonies, including two that accused him of possession with intent to deliver 3.9 grams of methamphetamine and 20 Hydrocodone pills at the apartment where he was living on South 19th Street, within 1,000 feet of Lincoln High School.

County Attorney Joe Kelly said it was an unusual case in that Copeland was out of jail on the Nebraska charges after posting bond and voluntarily waiving extradition to Missouri.

On Jan. 14, 2015, his office charged Copeland with two counts of delivery of a controlled substance in a school zone. He posted bond and was released.

But in March of last year, Missouri issued a warrant for his arrest and Copeland was taken into custody in April 2015 for being a fugitive from justice, and on May 7, 2015, waived extradition and was taken to Missouri.

On Dec. 4, he was sentenced to prison in the Missouri case.

In the meantime, Copeland had failed to appear on the Nebraska case and ended up with a warrant for his arrest after the judge denied a motion to continue. On Feb. 1, he filed a request for a final disposition of the charges, and by March 1 he was back in jail in Lincoln.

The judge set trial for April 4, but three days earlier a motion was filed to discharge the case on speedy-trial grounds.

The state argued its only obligation was to bring Copeland to trial within six months of his request for final disposition. But District Judge Jodi Nelson said that would have been the case if he had been incarcerated in Missouri before the Nebraska case was filed.

Once the charge has been filed, the speedy-trial clock starts. In Copeland's case, she found that the last day the state could have brought him to trial was Oct. 10, 2015.

Nelson's order Thursday cited a similar case in Lancaster County in 1999, State v. Steele.

The state argued that case was wrongly decided and that the time Copeland spent in Missouri should be excluded because he failed to appear on May 20, 2015.

Nelson said the state was not required to surrender Copeland to Missouri. "Therefore, defendant's unavailability for trial is attributable to the state," she wrote.

And she dismissed the four cases.
A Lancaster County jury Monday found a 49-year-old Lincoln man walking at midnight one May night at 27th and O with a loaded AR-15 guilty of carrying a concealed weapon.

Not for the rifle, which led to a 911 call. Michael Jahn hadn't hidden it, so it was perfectly legal.

But the jury found Jahn had concealed two knives he carried in sheaths attached to his belt that police discovered when they approached him to talk to him about the rifle.

Deputy Lancaster County Public Defender George Dungan argued they weren't concealed either.

He said an officer 15 feet from Jahn saw one of them inside the opened trench coat he was wearing that chilly night. If the other witnesses hadn't seen them, it was only because it was dark and they were focused on the rifle, Dungan argued.

"That doesn't mean they were concealed," he said in closing arguments Monday.

The coat wasn't shut or tied, and the knives weren't hidden in his pockets or under an untucked shirt, Dungan argued. He said Jahn did everything a person could to display the weapons, just as a hunter would, then threw a coat on because it was cold.

Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Sam Cooper countered that Jahn did everything he could to display them openly, "except display them openly."

"Police officers shouldn't have to wait until they're inside a jacket to know this is what's there," he said, holding the two sheathed knives.

He said this was a simple, straightforward case about carrying concealed weapons.

Cooper said Jahn was arrested May 18, "armed to the teeth." Some of the weapons he was carrying legally, some he wasn't.

"When you're carrying weapons, we get to know what you're carrying," he said.

On Friday, 22-year-old Cameron Tweedie testified that he and several friends were outside the Village Inn near 27th Street when they watched Jahn walk down the street, cross over to the south side of the road and stop in front of a gas station while holding the rifle that he thought looked like an AK-47.

"We weren't sure what he was up to," Tweedie said, so he called police.

Officer Mark Moore arrived first, left his car and immediately drew his gun. Jahn dropped the rifle when he was commanded, the officer said.

"He said 'I wanted to prove a point, I'm an American citizen. I can walk around with a gun,'" Moore testified Friday about the reason Jahn gave him for what he was doing.

The problem came when officers searched Jahn's trench coat and found two concealed knives with eight-inch blades.

Both witnesses said Jahn never pointed the gun at anyone and never acted in a threatening manner.

The jury had the case for about two hours before returning a guilty verdict. Jahn could get up to a year of imprisonment when he's sentenced in November.

Prosecutors originally cited him with a city ordinance violation for being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm because it happened within 10 years of a 2007 conviction for possession of drug paraphernalia, an infraction. But prosecutors never charged Jahn with that.
A team from the Higher Learning Commission will visit the University of Nebraska-Lincoln next month to wrap up a three-year reaffirmation process of the university's accreditation.

From UNL's perspective, the accreditation process is a time to compile an argument for its effectiveness in several areas considered by the Higher Learning Commission, said Laurie Bellows, associate dean of graduate studies.

Before the nine-member external team visits UNL Oct. 24-25, the Office of Academic Affairs will submit a 100-page report detailing the university's progress in five criteria areas, Bellows said.

"We've tried to document the strengths of our programs, demonstrate that we have continued commitment to educational improvement and to enhance our understanding of our effectiveness as an institution," Bellows told a forum of faculty, staff and students Monday afternoon.

The criteria the Higher Learning Commission will consider includes:

* How well UNL communicates its mission as a university to the public.

* How well UNL acts with integrity and conducts its operations in an ethical and responsible manner.

* The quality of instruction provided to students.

* How UNL assesses student learning and uses that information to improve its teaching.

* How UNL manages its resources, infrastructure and policies to fulfill its mission.

Bellows told the forum on Monday UNL expects to highlight its enrollment growth with the commission, as well as plans to close student achievement and graduation gaps, and its commitment to fostering diversity on campus through initiatives like the Jackie Gaughan Multicultural Center, which opened in 2010.

UNL also will point to its record-breaking research funding from last year -- it received $146.9 million in sponsored research funding last year -- its jump to the Big Ten Conference in 2011 and the improvement it has made to technology infrastructure on campus.

At its last accreditation renewal in 2006, Bellows said the external review team "dinged" UNL for its lack of support for technology on campus.

But since that time, UNL has poured $32 million into renovating classrooms and research labs, including bolstering its technology infrastructure.

"We have come so far since 2006 with our technology, so that's something to celebrate," Bellows said.

Bellows said UNL is also aware of the challenges it faces when it comes to the reaffirmation of its accreditation, saying it also present opportunities.

UNL is still a predominantly white campus, although it has committed to increasing diversity of its faculty, staff and students.

The university is also focusing on improving its four-year graduation rates and reducing the time it takes for students to get their degree, while also working on a realignment of its resources and communicating institutional support for students.

"We haven't been real successful in communicating with faculty and students about the availability and value of services for student success," Bellows said.

UNL will continue collecting evidence to support the "assurance argument" it will submit to the Higher Learning Commission. With that evidence, UNL is also seeking written feedback from the public to include with its packet of information, Bellows said.

Anyone interested in submitting comments to the commission can do so at go.unl.edu/reaffirm by Sept. 24.

The peer-review team that will visit UNL includes three representatives of Big Ten universities, three from Big 12 Conference schools, and three from other academic institutions around the country, Bellows said.

UNL has maintained accreditation through the Higher Learning Commission since 1913.
The number of homeless veterans in the United States is shameful in a country that asks so much of its military service members and their families.

So its welcome news that after more than four years of negotiations the development of an apartment building in Lincoln for homeless and near-homeless veterans is another step closer to reality.

The Department of Veteran Affairs and local developers last week reached a long-term lease agreement for the VA campus at 70th and O streets. America First Real Estate Group, Sampson Construction and the Seniors Foundation of Lincoln and Lancaster County hope to begin construction on the 70-unit apartment building this fall.

The apartments could become the first phase of Victory Park, a broader redevelopment of the campus, including a remodeled VA hospital, new VA clinic, private medical office building and rental town homes for veterans and seniors.

Negotiations over the lease stalled in late 2015 over two key issues: the location of the new VA clinic and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards. The impasse led Sen. Deb Fischer to reach out directly to VA Secretary Robert McDonald. This issue has reached a stage of crisis and it requires your immediate attention, she wrote in the letter.

Developers felt that without a guarantee that the new clinic would be built on the VA campus, the project wouldnt be viable and couldnt move forward. While the lease doesnt provide that guarantee, it does allow some flexibility for the developers. George Achola of America First Real Estate Group said the final location of the clinic will likely determine "how quickly and if we build out."

The finalized agreement also does not include the strict LEED standards, which would have raised the cost of construction.

Fischer called the lease agreement a victory for Nebraskas veterans and our community in Lincoln, who have waited patiently for this project to proceed.

But federal approval isnt the final step. Before construction can begin, the group must amend the redevelopment agreement it reached with the city, which included the use of tax-increment financing up to $1.4 million for the first phase of the project. Because remodeling the VA hospital and other projects are no longer part of phase one, that agreement will have to be changed.

Lets hope city officials and developers can work together in a timely manner to cross those final steps. Our veterans deserve it.
In the past few months, federal courts around the country have invalidated voter identification laws that require a photo ID, based on evidence that these laws make it harder for poor and minority citizens to vote. Cal Thomas breezily describes other things that require a photo ID and asserts that voting should require the same ("To ID or not to ID?," Aug. 23). He ignores two vital points.

First, the basis of the court decisions was that it isnt as simple for some people to get a photo ID as it is for folks like you, Cal Thomas. Poverty throws up barriers to doing so  getting 60 miles to the county courthouse without a car, for one example. The fact that there are many things that require a photo ID besides voting doesnt prove that its easy to get a photo ID for people of limited means.

Far more importantly, voting is a fundamental right. Thomas has it backward  the more basic and fundamental the act of citizenship, the easier it should be to do. If I am eligible and I want to vote, I should be able to do so, and it doesnt matter what other, more mundane things I cannot do without a photo ID. Americans did not die in combat, nor were any murdered with impunity trying to enjoy their basic rights as citizens and human beings so that I could adopt a pet. To equate the right to vote with such trivial privileges is disgusting.

Doug Dexter, Davey
A patient walked away from the Lincoln Regional Center Saturday afternoon and was gone for about five hours, a Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman confirmed Monday.

The man left the grounds about 4:05 p.m. by jumping a security fence during afternoon outdoor time, said spokeswoman Kathie Osterman. He was located and returned to the regional center by 9 p.m.

State employee union director Mike Marvin said Monday he was concerned other workers at the Regional Center and the public had not been notified of the escape.

People should have been aware, he said, especially if the patient had a history of violence. It is unknown if the man lived in a locked unit in Building 5, where patients are ordered by courts when they have been found not responsible by reason of insanity or incompetent to stand trial.

The Lincoln Regional Center, 801 W. Prospector Place, is a state-operated psychiatric hospital. Osterman said patient-specific information is not released because of federal patient privacy requirements. Those requirements and state laws allow limited information to be disclosed to law enforcement for identification and location purposes.

Osterman said the Nebraska State Patrol, Lancaster County Sheriffs Office and Lincoln Police Department were notified immediately after the man left the grounds.

Police officers immediately searched the area near the Regional Center but did not locate him.

At 8 p.m., Lincoln Police Officer Katie Flood said, police got a call from a family member after the man arrived at their home near 84th and O streets. He was contacted without incident and returned to the Regional Center.

The contact with officers, however, did not require a report, she said.

Regional Center guidelines do not allow Flood to provide the man's name if he is not arrested or if an incident report is not created for other offenses.
Lancaster Rehabilitation Center, a community leader in support of research to find a cure for Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia, is stepping up its game in preparation for Sundays annual fund-raising walk.

LRC will be represented by 30 walkers at the 2016 Lincoln Walk to End Alzheimers. By the time the walk begins at 1 p.m. at Holmes Lake, the LRC walkers will have raised nearly $4,000. The total is a record high for the community-minded skilled nursing facility at 1001 South St.

LRC has created additional fund-raising incentives for the walk by selling root-beer floats and promoting designated Casual for a Cause days that offer relaxed dress codes.

Leadership cited

LRC Administrator Amy Fish attributes part of the fund-raising success to the enthusiastic leadership of Kristin Crouch, nurse manager for the Alzheimers neighborhood, which comprises 42 residents at Lancaster Rehab. Lancaster Rehab has always supported the Alzheimers walk, but Kristins enthusiasm contributed to the record-setting totals were seeing this year, said Fish.

Crouch enlisted the support of other departments at LRC and solicited employees participation following the unexpected death of inspirational staff member and caregiver Yolanda Wright, who died Aug. 5. LRC participants in Sundays event will walk in Wrights memory.

Her role here was much more than just an employee  she responded with unbridled compassion for the residents she served, said Fish.

Champion of Care

Crouch recently received the prestigious Champion of Care Award from the Nebraska Healthcare Association. She was selected from a field that included nominees from each of Nebraskas 203 skilled-care facilities.

Kristin leads a department that has a very person-centered philosophy and recognizes that each person in our Alzheimers neighborhood has different needs and interests, said Fish. Individuals who reside in the Alzheimers neighborhood at LRC enjoy a safe, secure environment that exudes a calming effect and places a priority on quiet time, she added.

Thirty staff members work in the Alzheimers neighborhood at LRC.

To schedule a tour of Lancaster Rehab, call (402) 441-7101.
Dear Amy: I turned 16 this summer, but have gotten into a state of disagreement with my mother on a single issue.

Like with many other guys my age, a great deal of strife tends to surface over relationships. That's my problem, too.

For nearly two years I've kept in touch with a girl from Georgia. I live in New England. For the past few months I've been fostering a long-distance relationship via Skype with her, and it has become a personal goal for both of us to someday meet in person.

We talk daily and get along tremendously well. I've mentioned the idea of traveling to Atlanta to my mother.

Rather than this being an issue of time or expense, my mother has developed a tendency to make ludicrous accusations about this girl and refuses to consider traveling.

I've answered my mother's questions calmly and politely, and even offered to have her in a Skype call to communicate with this girl in order to ease her suspicions.

Despite this, she dismisses anything I say with something along the lines of a "Mother Knows Best" philosophy. This predicament has been frustrating and disheartening for both myself and my partner. How can I convince my mother to allow me to travel to Atlanta?

-- Morose

Dear Morose: My first suggestion is that you should not refer to your long-distance girlfriend as your "partner." This choice underscores your immaturity.

You haven't mentioned if you've discussed the idea of having your girlfriend visit you -- instead of you visiting her. This would involve you and your girlfriend figuring out how to raise the money and working with both sets of parents to get permission. Your mother might be more open to this idea.

You need to do well in school, make sure that this relationship does not interfere with your other friendships and family relationships and try your hardest to demonstrate that you are both capable, respectful and mature.

I agree with you that your mother should not be disrespectful toward you or your girlfriend regarding this important relationship. Your mother would be wise to get to know her, since she is so important to you.

Dear Amy: I really enjoy your column.

You often get letters from women who are frustrated because their boyfriends won't propose.

Maybe it's the fact that I was not raised in North America, but I find this a bit infuriating.

In this day and age when we are constantly asking for equal opportunities for men and women and trying so hard to earn their respect, why would women just sit and whine about a boyfriend who won't propose?

Back home (in my home country), there are usually no proposals -- two adults who have a serious relationship just discuss their future plans together and decide if they want to marry each other.

We also don't give or get engagement rings, so we don't have this ridiculous competition over whose ring is bigger.

Your thoughts?

-- Anti-proposal

Dear Anti-proposal: My thoughts are completely in line with yours. I am mystified that, given our society's drive toward gender equality, we seem to be headed full-speed backward regarding relationship proposals.

Not only have marriage proposals become competitive, public and ridiculous, but I find the whole phenomenon of "promposals" (where young people make a production out of asking one another to a high school dance) less charming than alarming.

Furthermore, I think that if couples treated the prospect of marriage more as equals and bravely discussed it openly with one another (instead of one waiting for a proposal and a ring), there might be more balanced, long-term marriages as a result.

I'm sure readers will want to weigh in.

Dear Amy: Your reply to "Worried" regarding her negative feelings toward her stepdaughter was so compassionate and beautifully put.

You could not have explained the dynamic between them any better. I especially like the part about how "negative" aspects of the girl's personality (according to the stepmom) will serve her well in life. On behalf of that girl, thank you.

-- Grateful

Dear Grateful: Thank you for your comments.

I am a stepmother who frequently sees the world through the eyes of stepchildren. They have no power over the choices made by the adults in their lives. It's no wonder that they sometimes fiercely defend themselves against the emotional (and actual) encroachment of stepparents.

The stepfamily relationship is extremely challenging. But when it works well, this relationship is a powerful force for good.
RACINE COUNTY  An Illinois woman who said she was an Uber driver was arrested Friday night after she was pulled over on Interstate 94 and reportedly found to be in possession of marijuana.

Latresa S. Smith, 31, of Oak Forest, Ill., was driving with a passenger in the back seat when she was pulled over, according to the criminal complaint.

The deputy who made the stop reportedly pulled over Smith for speeding. When the deputy approached the car, he smelled an odor of marijuana come from the vehicle, the complaint said.

The deputy searched the vehicle and discovered an approximately 6-inch cigar containing marijuana and a metal Altoids mint tin with marijuana as well. The marijuana in the cigar and the marijuana in the tin weighed 1 gram each, according to the complaint.

The woman has three convictions in Cook County, Ill., according to court records. She was convicted of manufacturing and delivering controlled substances in 2006 and 2008 and of convicted of possession of controlled substances in 2007.

The Journal Times was unable to determine if the woman was in fact an Uber driver. Uber could not be reached for comment Monday.

Uber is a taxi-like company that allows customers to book rides through smartphone applications. The company has been in operation in the Racine area since May 2015.

Wisconsin has regulations monitoring ridesharing companies like Uber. The companies have to conduct background checks on drivers and carry at least $1 million in liability insurance, and vehicles have to meet basic safety and emission standards.

Smith faces one felony charge for possession of marijuana. She is scheduled for a preliminary hearing at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 29 at the Racine County Law Enforcement Center, 717 Wisconsin Ave.

She remained in custody as of Monday night at the Racine County Jail, online records showed.
Those looking for certain decorations from Wind Point resident Nick Comandes now-retired Halloween display, Hollows Way, will need to head over to Mount Pleasant instead. Comande passed down the torch  and some of his decor  to his first cousin twice removed, Brayden LoPiccolo, after last years holiday was Hollows Ways 50th and final year.
TOWN OF NORWAY  A motorcyclist was flown to Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa on Sunday night after a one-vehicle crash, according to a Racine County Sheriffs Office release.

The crash took place at about 6 p.m. Sunday in the 8400 block of East Wind Lake Road. The caller said the motorcyclist was unconscious but breathing and lying on the ground, according to the release.

The Sheriffs Office believes alcohol to have been a factor in the crash. According to the release the driver, who was not wearing a helmet, was thrown from his bike and landed on a nearby driveway.

Wind Lake Fire and Rescue also responded to the crash.
RACINE  A Racine couple is facing 26 counts of mistreating animals after police on Friday reportedly found more than 20 dogs in their home in cramped, dirty conditions.

The charges were filed against Heather D. Jensen, 33, and Terry S. Bogard, 64, both of 1437 Harmony Drive, on Monday. Both were given $5,000 signature bonds and have been ordered not to have contact with each other or possess domestic animals.

According to the criminal complaints, Racine Police were called to the couples home at 2:40 p.m. Friday after City of Racine Health Department and Wisconsin Humane Society staff said they were going to remove about two dozen dogs from the home.

An officer who entered the home reportedly saw 12 small-dog cages containing large dogs.

Many of the cages appeared to be too small to allow the dogs to move freely within them, the complaint states. The cages were all stacked on top of each other, two cages high.

The officer saw large amounts of dog food on the floor near the cages and several bowls that were flipped over, according to the complaint. He also did not seeing any bowls containing water.

The floors were covered in a thick coat of dog fur, the complaint states, and the walls were streaked with what the officer believed was mud or feces.

(Due) to the strong urine smell inside of the residence, I estimate that I was able to stay inside of the home approximately 30 seconds, the officer reported.

Twenty-six dogs in total were removed from the home, with 24 dogs taken by WHS. Two of Jensens personal dogs were turned over to family members down the street, according to the complaint.

Jensen and Bogard reportedly were extremely cooperative on Friday, bringing out the dogs one at a time, and providing names of each of the animals to police.

Jensen was reportedly utilizing the home as a shelter of sorts, apparently as part of her organization Lucky Mutts Rescue, Inc.

On Monday, a city Health Department notice was posted on the home, stating This unit cannot be used for human habitation occupancy or use.

Items were scattered in the driveway, including a white surgical-type mask hanging from a railing, while several flies buzzed around.

In court Monday

At an initial appearance on Monday Bogards attorney, Sheila Smith, who also represented Jensen, argued the charges should be dismissed because the state had failed to meet its burden of proof.

There is nothing, based upon what I see here in the criminal complaint  that would indicate that the animals were being negligently treated or treated in a cruel manner, Smith stated. In addition, there is no information indicating that the animals were suffering from any health issues.

Assistant Racine County District Attorney Dirk C. Jensen disagreed with that characterization. So did Racine County Court Commissioner Alice Rudebusch, who ultimately found there was probable cause for the case to proceed.

Nothing says these dogs have to be in pain or severely injured. There just has to be a showing of neglect, Dirk C. Jensen said. And I think based on the environment and condition of the home it shows neglect of each of the 26 dogs.

About Lucky Mutts Rescue

Wisconsin Humane Society spokeswoman Angela Speed confirmed Monday that WHS staff were called to assist police with an animal seizure in Racine on Friday.

Speed said the animals were being well-cared for at the three WHS campuses, but could not provide any further details.

State records list Jensen as the registered agent of Lucy Mutts, which incorporated in April 2015 with an address at 1437 Harmony Drive.

The operations website, luckymuttsrescue.org, describes the outfit as a non-profit, no-kill, all volunteer dog rescue organization serving the Wisconsin and Illinois areas  (and) primarily focusing on dogs in high kill public shelters.

Calls made to the phone numbers listed on the website were not answered Monday.
Wisconsin Democrats want the U.S. Senate Ethics committee to investigate if Sen. Ron Johnson broke Senate rules and federal law by taking a $10 million payout from his business after he was elected to the Senate in 2010.

A complaint filed Monday by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin alleges a possible violation because, it says, Johnson did not properly disclose an agreement he said he had with the plastics fabrication company he co-founded, PACUR, for what he described as a deferred compensation package.

On his 2010 Senate financial disclosure report, Johnson reported $10.02 million in income and described it as compensation. The payout was given to Johnson, R-Oshkosh, shortly after he was elected to the Senate in 2010.

It since has become a pet issue for Democrats seeking to paint Johnson as an out-of-touch corporate executive. Critics also have noted the payout is close to the amount that Johnson provided his own campaign in 2010.

He loaned his campaign nearly $9 million en route to an upset election win over then-Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Middleton. The two are in a rematch for the Senate seat this year.

Johnson has said the payout was linked to a deferred compensation agreement that he authorized as the companys former CEO.

Wisconsin Democrats say Johnson failed to disclose the specific terms of that agreement on the financial disclosure reports that he and other members of Congress must annually file. The complaint also questions whether Johnson actually had such an agreement and says if he did not, the $10 million payout would have been an illegal contribution to his campaign.

Johnsons campaign said he properly disclosed the payout on his 2010 financial disclosure report and called the complaint an attempt to distract from Republican allegations against Feingold.

The campaign said the payout came after Johnson took no salary as PACUR CEO for 13 years to make sure PACUR had the resources to grow.

Ron Johnson followed the law and disclosed his back pay five years ago, Johnson spokesman William Allison told the Wisconsin State Journal.

Critics have dogged Johnson about the $10 million payment since it became public in 2011. The Democratic complaint filing is the latest in a recent tit-for-tat of allegations between allies of Johnson and Feingold  not an uncommon series of developments in the late stages of a campaign.

Republicans recently filed a complaint against Feingold with the federal Office of Special Counsel, alleging he broke the law by starting to plan his current Senate campaign while still working for the U.S. State Department as a special envoy.

The Senate Ethics committee is made up of three Republican senators and three Democrats. Its nonpartisan staffers are tasked with investigating complaints alleging violations of law or rules by senators. Based on their findings, committee members may dismiss a complaint, issue a letter of admonition to a senator or recommend the full Senate take disciplinary action.
Written submissions to TODAY are welcome. Submissions should be at The Journal Times by 9 a.m. two full business days before the desired publication date. Please send your events to TODAY, The Journal Times, 212 Fourth St., Racine, WI 53403; fax to 262-631-1780 or email sknox@journaltimes.com. For more information, call 262-631-1767.
3 girls raped in a week

Three girls, aged between 13 and 15, were raped in Banke district in the last one week, police said.
Paedophilia case: American man arrested, five children rescued

Police have arrested an American paedophile and rescued five Nepali children from Thamel area in Kathmandu.
Bitter pills

If politicians had to use public hospitals, they would make efforts to improve them
Dahal to address rally in Siraha today

To give the Madhesi people a message before his India visit, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is addressing a mass meeting in Mirchaiya of Siraha on Monday afternoon.
Deliberation on Labour Bill starts

The meeting of the Legislature-Parliament on Monday unanimously approved the proposal tabled, seeking deliberation on the 'Labour Bill-2072 BS'.
Dragonair advises passengers not to carry Samsung Galaxy Note 7 on planes

Dragonair has urged passengers to and from Nepal to not to use Samsung Galaxy Note 7 on planes in the wake of the fresh issues detected in the smartphone battery.
Epidemiologists study mice for scrub typhus vectors

A team from Epidemiology and Infectious Disease Control Division has started a study of mice in Chitwan to see if they have been carrying the type of mites that are associated with disease.
FinMin to be guarantor on loan for fleet expansion

The Finance Ministry has agreed to act as a guarantor on a loan Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) plans to take to procure two widebody jets.
France foiling terror plots 'daily' - Prime Minister Manuel Valls

The French prime minister has said the country's security services are foiling terror plots and dismantling militant networks "every day".
Government to resume operation of defunct PEs

The Ministry of Industry (MoI) is considering finalising a modality to resume operation of defunct public enterprises (PEs).
Govt fails to stem cholera spread

A lack of coordination among the government agencies remains a major problem in controlling cholera in Kathmandu Valley despite recurrence of the disease every year affecting hundreds of people.
Govt to strictly monitor CoO issuance process

The misuse of certificates that grant preferential treatment to Nepali agriculture products in India has prompted the government to rethink the scheme.
Modest proposal

What does Nepal expect from New Delhi during the prime ministers upcoming visit?
N Korea ready for another nuclear test, says South

South Korean officials have said North Korea could be ready to conduct another nuclear test at any time.
New labelling requirement for packaged food coming

Manufacturers of packaged food items will have to label their products properly so that consumers can read the text without difficulty, the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC) said.
No amnesty for crime considered serious by international law

Last week, a British court dropped a second charge of torture against Nepal Army Colonel Kumar Lama, who was arrested in London three years ago.
COLLECTIVE MADNESS



Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
Om Gas found cheating consumers

Nepal Bureau of Standard and Metrology and its Regional Office, Balaju, have found Dhading-based Om Gas Factory being involved in cheating its costumers.
Pancheshwor Project on PMs agenda: Mahat

Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat, who left for New Delhi on Sunday to lay the groundwork for Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahals upcoming state visit to the India, has said that an agreement to expedite the Pancheshwor Project will be one of the main agenda that the prime minister will take up with the Indian side.
Planned amendment denies amnesty for grave crimes

A proposed amendment to the Transitional Justice Act prohibits amnesty for perpetrators of grave rights violations, as defined by the international laws.
Planning body gets full shape

The government on Sunday completed the expansion of the National Planning Commission (NPC), the apex body that frames the countrys development plans and policies, by appointing three members.
Alisha Sijapati is an arts and culture reporter at The Kathmandu Post, primarily covering human interest stories. She is intrigued by history, culture and films. Before joining the Post in 2015, she worked as a journalist for The Himalayan Times and ECS Media.
Trio held with pistol, bullets

Three young men were caught with a pistol and 85 rounds of bullet in Nawalparasi when police searched a motorcycle that was in their possession on Saturday.
Two rhino calves rescued

The Chitwan National Park (CNP) has rescued two rhino calves that were found injured in the jungle due to an attack of other wild animals.
UML hands memo to Dahal

Ahead of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahals four-day state visit to India that begins on Thursday, a delegation led by former PM and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli met Dahal in Singha Durbar on Sunday.
Women Association's general convention from Wednesday

The third national general convention of Nepal Women Association, a sister wing of the Nepali Congress, is taking place from Wednesday or September 14.
What It Is

KauaiEclectic is a collection of observations, images and writings about Kauai  Kamawaelualanimoku  and the world as seen, felt, experienced and interpreted by me.
Yes, its hard to to tell when one enters the city limits

Yes, they will make the city more inviting

Maybe ... does it really matter?

No, the signs in place are fine

No, it would be a waste of taxpayer dollars

Vote

View Results
$122million of potentially dirty money is quite a hair-raising amount of money to be seized from any suspect  not least when hes your countrys head of anti-corruption.

Russian police raided the house of Dmitry Zakharchenko, the deputy head of the Energy Industry Department of the General Administration of Economic Security and Combating the Corruption.

After coming away with the huge sum, $2.2million of which was in Euros, he was arrested on suspicion of abuse of power, obstruction of justice, and accepting bribes.

There was reportedly so much cash that investigators had to actually stop and find boxes big enough to but it all in.
South Sudans political and military elite have made themselves rich while the country has struggled under a civil war of their making, a report says.

Commissioned by actor George Clooney, the document accuses President Salva Kiir, opposition leader Riek Machar, and top generals of profiteering.

It follows the trail of money with links to the families of both Mr Kiir and Mr Machar.

Those named have not yet responded to the allegations.
No

Yes, a light case

Yes, two or more light cases

One serious case

Two or more serious bouts

Vote

View Results
The first official Fall Color Report for Wisconsin seems to defy logic, with observers in Trempealeau County estimating that 15 percent of the trees are changing color and those in Vernon County guessing that 10 percent are donning their fall apparel.

Meanwhile, the map tallies just a 5 percent color change so far in La Crosse County, which is sandwiched between Trempealeau and Vernon, and where the map was updated on Monday. Mineral Point, nearly 110 miles southeast of La Crosse, is registered at 10 percent, while nearby Dodgeville is at 5 percent.

Regardless of the head-scratching map, Were off to a great start because of so much rain, said Dorothy Lenard, who has a forestry background and is a natural sciences administrator at Viterbo University in La Crosse.

Were not going into it with a drought, when everything just turns brown, she said.

Weve got the perfect recipe in the wake of the wet summer, Lenard said in an interview Monday. Cool nights and sunny days, like today.

A huge trigger is the sun, she said, adding, I think it (leaf change) will be a little behind.

The days shortening serves as the tripwire for leaves to surrender their chlorophyll and allow the colors that always exist in leaves to work their way to the surface.

About the only thing that could interrupt a vibrant fall would be frost, she said.

The National Weather Service, which doesnt predict that happening anytime soon, says the first frost in the Coulee Region typically occurs during the first week of October.

The statewide map suggests that leaves in and around Apostle Island National Park  the northernmost tip of the Badger State and roughly 275 miles north of La Crosse  are in the zero to 5 percent range.

Maybe the more than 100 observers scattered throughout the states 72 counties had off days when calculating the colors.

Either way, the official first day of astronomical fall, Sept. 22, is a tad more than a week away, and the leaves will heed the biblical admonition that there is a time to turn. The peak color seasons are sure to appear toward the end of September and through October.

Justin Wershofen, a ranger at Trempealeaus Perrot State Park  widely regarded as one of the best spots in the state to eyeball the bright reds, yellows and oranges of fall foliage  doubted the 15 percent estimate during a phone interview Monday.

At least in the parks, Wershofen said.

A lot of our early season leaf losers, such as black walnuts, are beginning to drop, but they dont have much color, he said.

Sumacs are changing slowly, maples are morphing on the parks prairie, and a little bit of red is appearing on a few leaves on the Virginia creeper vine outside the 1,270-acre parks headquarters, regarded as the canary in the color coal mine, Wershofen said.

The color season seems to be about average, neither ahead nor behind, he said, so it should be on track for the peak peek week toward the end of October.

Its a similar story way up north on the Apostle Islands, where interpretive ranger Patty Carpenter said she saw some yellows and reds appearing on Michigan Island and some changing on Outer Island during a boat outing Sunday.

Carpenter predicted a good color show in coming weeks, although the leaves are clinging for dear life lately amid blustery conditions.

Trees benefited in large part from a wet year, because precipitation is one leg of the tripod of conditions that help propel palette changes, along with sunlight and temperature, Carpenter said.

Also at the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, administrative and human resources staffer Denise McCutcheon-Cloud said the weather has been ideal for growing and harvesting apples and pears.

I just picked pears Sunday, said McCutcheon-Cloud, who said she manages to can about 20 quarts of pears a year from two small trees.

The fall foliage map, available at TravelWisconsin.com, divides the state into thirds and shows the historic march of color from north to south throughout the state.

The Minnesota color map at the states Department of Natural Resources site, also updated Monday, shows that most of the states trees are clinging to their green lifestyle, although a four-county area on the midwest side of the Gopher State is chronicled as 25 per cent to 50 percent changed. A few other patches are reported 10 percent to 25 percent changed.
A judge Monday sentenced a Holmen man tied to a massive methamphetamine trafficking enterprise to five years in prison.

Timothy Loftus, 34, also will serve three years on extended supervision for his role in the drug distribution ring that operated between the Twin Cities and the La Crosse region for a decade before authorities interrupted it in October.

Authorities estimate those involved moved hundreds of pounds of meth manufactured by Mexican drug cartels throughout the area.

While his attorney argued that Loftus operated on the periphery, La Crosse County Circuit Judge Scott Horne called him a significant drug trafficker who minimized his involvement in the case.

You preyed on peoples addictions, Horne said.

While en route to search Loftus house Oct. 1 as part of the investigation, authorities stopped his vehicle in the town of Holland. Co-defendant Melissa Ozleplebici was in the passenger seat and Loftus young daughter was in the back.

Authorities found 25 grams of meth in the childs diaper bag, 90 grams of meth in a bag behind Loftus seat and two loaded guns in the car, according to the complaint. They also located an ounce of meth at his house.

Although Loftus pleaded guilty to conspiracy to delivering meth, he is unwilling to take responsibility for his conduct and tries to play the role of a victim, said assistant district attorney John Kellis, who argued for a prison sentence.

He claimed the drugs found in the car belonged to a co-defendant and the meth found at his house belonged to an ex-girlfriend  excuses that are difficult to accept, the judge said.

Loftus supporters described him as a hard worker and loving father who should be spared prison for an opportunity on community supervision. His attorney Shirlene Perrin argued for a period of probation that would allow him access to drug treatment.

This isnt who I am, Loftus told the judge. It was a mistake that I made.

Loftus, who took responsibility for being a burden on this community, said he wants to share his struggle with addiction to keep others off the same path.

My goal is to be that person who helps other people, he said.

Loftus receives credit for 283 days and is eligible for early release programs.
Wet weather and heavy rains this summer did little to hamper this years big slate of construction projects in and around La Crosse. But those hoping for an end to detours and closed traffic lanes still have a while to wait.

Seven highway construction projects this summer have been the bane of commuters trying to get to and from La Crosse, Holmen, Onalaska and the surrounding communities. Some will be wrapping up by the end of this month, with others finishing in October or early November, giving drivers a respite from slower speed limits, lane changes and crossovers.

The completion of the Hwy. 35 project will be welcome news for businesses along the highway between Onalaska and Holmen. Some, like the Shadow Run Motel, have seen business decline this summer as customers have avoided the congestion.

This was the slowest summer in his three years at the motel, manager John Davis said. Anglers and business travelers are Shadow Runs regular customers, and some avoided the motel during the worst of the construction or were leery of trying to haul their boats through the congestion.

At the Blue Moon, managing partner Dustin Nimtz said there was some slowdown during the worst of the construction, but for the most part, regular customers were able to get through by taking alternate routes. Loyal customers are a big part of the business, he said, and the community support during the construction process has been stellar.

Both said the final product will be worth the inconvenience. With the new roundabouts on the highway and the addition of extra lanes for turning, both managers predicted businesses along Hwy. 35 will see uptick as drivers have an easier time of navigating the roadway.

We are definitely looking forward to it being done, Davis said. When it is done, it will bring in a lot more business.

It was the seventh-wettest summer on record for La Crosse, with the region receiving half a foot more rain than normal. Inclement weather days are built into construction timetables and budgets, and nearly all the projects were able to weather the storms, except the construction on Hwy. 33, which is about two weeks behind schedule, project manager Brian Meyer said.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is working with the contractors to get caught up, Meyer said, modifying the contract to allow construction crews to start some portions of the project a little earlier in order to offset the delays. The project also dealt with soil complications that required extra digging and fill.

Even with the struggles, Meyer said the DOT aims to meet the Nov. 15 target.

Here is a look at each of the seven construction projects and where they sit:

Hwy. 33

The $12 million project will reconstruct seven miles of the highway in La Crosse County between Kirschner Road and the Monroe County line, as well as portions of Hwy. 162. During the entirety of the project, which is slated for a Nov. 15 completion, the road is closed to non-local traffic, and vehicles are detoured onto Hwy. 14.

Some bridge work is being done, Meyer said and the hope is to have the roadway graded and covered in gravel by the end of the week. The rest of the project involves paving the road and putting on the finishing touches.

Interstate 90 reconstruction

Things are wrapping up on this years $26 million stage of the 2.2-mile I-90 reconstruction project from Round Lake Bridge in the town of Campbell to Theater Road in Onalaska. Project Manager Rob Winterhorn said crews are close to finishing the paving of the eastbound lanes, and the Rose Street bridge is scheduled for completion in October.

Traffic might switch to the new lanes in early November he said, and the closed ramps will open after this stage of the project finishes later that month at the latest. The final stage of the project will begin next year as crews reconstruct Rose Street.

Hwy 14/61

The $2.2 million project to repair and pave a stretch of the highway from the Pammel Creek Bridge to the La Crosse county line is mostly done, project manager Todd Waldo said. Some minor detail work is going on while crews wait to finish some items like the pedestrian fence on the bridge.

All of the work should be done by the end of September, he said, which is a little behind schedule. Otherwise, the road is open with no restrictions, except for some occasions at night when work crews are operating.

Highway 35

The Hwy. 35 project is on schedule, Waldo said, for an end-of-October completion date. The $10 million project will improve 3.5 miles of the highway by reconstructing the highway and adding left turn lanes, raised medians, roundabouts at Riders Club Road and Mason Street, a multi-use path, and both left and right turn lanes.

Traffic is reduced to one lane, Waldo said, and will switch to the outer lanes in the next week or so. Riders Club Road should also open within the next two weeks.

Theres still a lot of work going on, Waldo said. People should slow down and pay attention during construction.

Lang Drive in La Crosse

Work on Lang Drive should be finished in time for Oktoberfest, Waldo said. Construction crews are patching concrete on the inside lanes before another layer of asphalt is applied to the roadway.

Traffic will be down to one lane during the day, with the road closed at night after 6 p.m. The project has gone over budget on some material costs, exceeding the $1.4 million estimate.

Hwy. 16

Despite all the rain, the Hwy. 16 project remains ahead of schedule, project leader Dale Merten said. The nearly $13 million project is reconstructing three miles of the highway between Onalaska and West Salem and required a detour earlier this summer as road crews dug and graded.

Traffic reopened to one lane in each direction in July, with a crossover. The location of the crossover may change as the project progresses, with the last pieces of pavement being put in over the next few days.

Paving for a multi-use path on the south side of the roadway will begin in the next few weeks, Merten said, and crews will work on finishing touches such as turn lanes, curb and gutters. The original timeline had the project ending around Thanksgiving. It could be finished earlier in the month.

I-90 bridge near Dresbach

Both bridge spans have been finished in the $190 million Interstate 90 bridge project, Minnesota Department of Transportation project manager Mark Anderson said. Construction work continues on the medians, ramps and other elements of the bridge, such as barriers, shoulders and landscaping.

Were kind of doing the cleanup work on the project, he said.

Both bridges are open to traffic but reduced to one lane. Once the median work is done, both lanes will open up. The project is on schedule, Anderson said, and should be finished by mid-November. But traffic could be diverted as construction crews work on specific elements.
Polls consistently show that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are two of the most unpopular candidates ever to run for president. But it could be worse: They could be members of the media.

It seems everybodys unhappy with journalism these days. Trump, before reversing course last week, had banned some publications, like The Washington Post, from his rallies, while Clinton supporters say reporters have unfairly blown stories about the Clinton Foundation and the former secretary of states health out of proportion.

Is the media doing anything right this cycle? Joel Mathis and Ben Boychuk debate the issue.

Joel Mathis

For once, weve hit on a bipartisan topic. Republicans hate the media. Democrats hate the media. Whats left to say?

How about this: The media is doing fine.

No, really. Are you mad because the media hasnt done enough to report on Trumps unprecedented refusal to release his tax returns? Well, uh, how do you know about that in the first place?

Are you mad because you think journalists havent done enough to educate the public about Benghazi or emails or the Clinton Foundation or whatever scandal du jour is plaguing Clinton lately? Where do you think you learned the news?

The honest truth is this: A lot of people are mad at the media these days for not reporting stuff they know about because  somebody in the media reported it.

In fact, this election has seen reporters evolve their craft in smart ways. Previously, objective journalists took great pains to present both sides of a story, even when there werent always two sides to the truth. In the age of Trump, though, the media is more reluctant to give equal weight to cockamamie half-truths: More often than ever, you see stories that flat-out tell you when a candidate  usually Trump  is telling untruths.

Some Clinton fans are mad because the media continues to scrutinize their candidate when Trumps sins are clearly worse than hers. And its true: Trump is the worst presidential nominee in living memory. But its also true that Clinton stands a better-than-even chance of becoming president and should be scrutinized closely. Dont like that? Tough. Thats the price of the office.

Truth is, any discussion of the media is a hopeless generalization. There are good parts  legacy newspapers like The Washington Post and smart online outlets like BuzzFeed  and bad parts, like pretty much anything that calls itself cable news.

But there are a lot of hard-working journalists doing an excellent job of bringing you the truth of this ugly, confounding presidential campaign season. The media is doing fine.

Ben Boychuk

No, the media isnt doing fine. To understand why, lets talk about Clintons health.

You may have heard Clinton had a four-minute coughing fit on the stump the other day, which she tried to laugh off as a result of being allergic to Trump. Look, people have coughing fits all the time. Its just that not everyone is a 68-year-old woman running for the most important office in the country.

The Clinton campaign would prefer to consign any questions about the former secretary of states physical and mental fitness to the realm of vast right-wing conspiracy theorists.

On cue, The Atlantic Monthly declared questions about Clintons health to be The Birtherism of 2016. David Weigel of The Washington Post pushed a story dismissing Clinton health stories as the work of critics armed with junk science and old photos. The Hill newspaper, meantime, published a story this week headlined Clinton campaign warns media to tread carefully. No worries there!

Hillary Clintons campaign is working the refs hard when it comes to reports about her health, the Hill reported.

The real trouble is Trump recently gave a speech in which he declared flatly that Clinton isnt healthy enough to be president. And if Trump says it, the Clinton campaign wants you to know that it cannot possibly be true.

Clinton aides and supporters see the healthcare stories as a bunch of baloney, and they want the media to cover it as such, the Hill story noted.

The fact of the matter is there is no truth or factual evidence to debunk, a former Clinton aide told the paper. She is perfectly healthy. The unnamed aide is peddling a line  a line that some press people who ought to know better are all too willing to accept.

Chris Cilizza, who writes a daily political blog for The Washington Post, this week called the health issue totally ridiculous  for lots of reasons. Three years ago, Cilizza wrote Clinton will have to answer lots  and lots  of questions about her health if she decides to get into the next race for president. Why are those questions ridiculous now all of a sudden?

Thats easy. Just look at the polls.
A creative provision in the Assembly Republican Forward agenda released in early September is the pledge to provide every high-school freshman with a computer or tablet to connect them with the internet.

We understand technology is changing the way our schools operate, the Assembly GOP plan reads. Students use fewer textbooks and have more online assignments and readings.

Its an ambitious idea, especially given the cost of equipping about 65,000 high-school freshmen per year with a laptop or tablet.

The harder trick is reliably connecting those students and their freshly minted computers with the internet. Thats especially true in much of rural Wisconsin, where broadband access can range from average to nonexistent.

The Assembly GOP agenda calls for boosting internet connections through greater use of mobile hot spots and providing Wi-Fi access on school buses, the latter of which makes sense if you believe high-school students do a lot of homework while riding a bus with their friends.

Fortunately for Wisconsin and well-intentioned state lawmakers, a plan is in place to help ensure those new computers and thousands more in rural Wisconsin will be put to effective use. Its the Connect America Fund, a federal program in which Wisconsin emerges a big winner.

Only California among the 50 states will receive more federal dollars than Wisconsin between now and 2020 to enhance broadband downloads and uploads in places that are isolated and otherwise underserved. About $570 million will be allotted over six years to three providers  CenturyLink, Frontier and AT&T, in order of competitive grant size  to augment private investments in broadband by those same companies.

About 40 percent of the money must be spent by the end of 2017 and 20 percent per year must be put to work in 2018, 2019 and 2020. The goal is to efficiently bring broadband at a market price to about 230,000 Wisconsin homes that dont have solid access today.

The federal rules lay down minimum download and upload speeds  essentially, how fast a computer receives and sends data  as well as price points for service that must include reasonable data caps, or limits on monthly use that can force people to ration how much they use the internet.

A likely result of the second Connect America Fund (known as CAF2) buildout in Wisconsin will be more fixed wireless broadband, an alternative to much more expensive optical fiber systems.

The costs of installing optical fiber over large geographic areas has given pause even to companies such as Google, which is rethinking several of its U.S. broadband initiatives or trials. Those costs are more daunting in rural communities, where fixed wireless systems offer tower-to-building connections that meet standards set by the Federal Communications Commission as a part of the Connect America Fund 2. For the most part, fixed wireless can use existing towers.

Whatever the delivery mode, broadband is essential to the economic and cultural health of rural Wisconsin.

Adequate broadband connections can help stem the loss of rural population and jobs. It can enhance eCommerce for businesses large and small; bolster public safety; improve health through telemedicine; boost tourism by encouraging visitors to stay longer; entice millennials to stay put and connected; and improve education for kids who otherwise lose their internet connections once they leave the school grounds.

The demographic hollowing out of Wisconsins North Woods and parts of rural Wisconsin will continue unless broadband coverage is improved.

The Assembly Republican plan, which proposes other ideas in transportation, health, public safety and economic development, correctly captures how technology is transforming education. Whats needed now is a commitment to rural broadband, which is the 21st century equivalent of rural electrification in the 1930s and 40s and rural telephone service in the 1950s.

Equipping high-school students with laptops and tablets is a bold step. Even bolder would be embracing a plan to make sure those devices connect to the outside world.
Wisconsin lawmakers from both parties are calling for an audit of the states largest veterans home and raising questions about millions of dollars transferred from it for use in other veterans programs.

Democratic legislators have demanded answers about reports of inadequate care at the 721-bed state Veterans Home at King in rural Waupaca County, charging that Republican Gov. Scott Walkers administration raided the homes surplus to fill a budget deficit.

Last year, Walkers Department of Veterans Affairs transferred $12 million from the King home to the perennially underfunded Veterans Trust Fund, which covers nearly $14 million in expenditures annually for loan and grant programs.

Meanwhile, the King home had built a budget surplus of $39 million by the end of the 2015 fiscal year, thanks in part to Congressional action about 10 years ago that changed the rules for federal per diem payments made for each veteran in a nursing home.

Under the rule change, those payments no longer trigger reductions in the Medicaid assistance that covers nursing home costs, said Jon Dyck, a Legislative Fiscal Bureau analyst who specializes in the veterans department.

The King home receives about $20 million to $25 million annually in per-diem payments, Dyck estimated.

So its a matter of how you view that per diem payment, Dyck said. Should it be used for enhancements to care or to shore up the Veterans Trust Fund?

Other factors contributing to the surplus are the higher rate that Medicaid pays veterans homes compared to private nursing homes, and the King homes recent success in keeping its beds occupied, Dyck said.

The Veterans Trust Fund is likely to have a $12 million annual revenue shortfall that will need to be filled each year at least through 2020, Dyck said.

Walker spokesman Tom Evenson said keeping the fund healthy was important because it pays for a variety of programs from job training to help for homeless and incarcerated veterans.

Evenson pointed out that Democrats voted for transfers from the veterans homes to the trust fund under Walkers predecessor, Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle.

Under Doyle, a total of about $8.1 million was transferred in two installments, one in 2007 and the other in 2009, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

On nearly two dozen other occasions since 1943, the Veterans Trust Fund received loans or transfers from other funds or it received general fund appropriations. In most of those cases, millions of dollars were needed to keep the fund solvent. In all, the fund has received $159.3 million in one-time revenue infusions, the fiscal bureau has reported.

The fund cant legally run a deficit, so the alternative to the transfers would be reduced benefits and services to veterans, said veterans affairs department spokesman Bill Clausius.

For example, grant payments for veteran transportation services and the departments claims assistance center could be impacted, Clausius said.

The claims service helped disabled veterans obtain $33 million in federal aid in fiscal 2015, Clausius said.

Complaints of

deficient care

The issue has received renewed attention in recent weeks after The Capital Times reported on the transfers and complaints of poor treatment of King residents.

In Februrary 2013, a Wisconsin State Journal investigation in the wake of a residents death at King uncovered a rise in the number of federal regulation violations there, including two that posed immediate jeopardy to residents. The State Journal also reported that lawmakers had authorized an increase in staffing there after officials first boosted the number of residents in an effort to bring in more revenue.

Since peaking at 31 in 2012, there has been a decrease in state health department citations for deficient care in the last three years. Only 10 were recorded in 2015.

King has recently received more five-star ratings from the federal government indicating it is much above average. But advocates of better nursing home care say federal ratings mean little because they are drawn from comparisons to other facilities in a struggling industry that has long been underfunded.

Audit may settle questions

Key Republicans have joined Democrats in calling for an audit. On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, added his support, saying through a spokeswoman he was open to additional funding or any other option that will ensure that these individuals receive the highest quality of care that the state can provide.

The Legislatures Joint Committee on Audit is set to meet Sept. 21 on a proposal directing the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau to examine King.

Sen. Luther Olsen, whose district includes the King home, said he has heard from constituents who defend the quality of care given there, and also from several who said they had direct knowledge of serious deficiencies. Their complaints have been given to the state Department of Health Services for investigation, Olsen said.

An audit should help settle questions about whether the King home is staffed properly or if it is filling beds by accepting residents with medical problems more serious than it is able to handle, Olsen said.

I cant tell the people There are five stars, your complaint is baloney, said Olsen, R-Ripon. Theyd tell me where to put the five stars.

The rate of vacant beds at King dropped below 2 percent for months at a time in 2014 and 2015, according to data provided by WDVA. For most of this year, the vacancy rate was between 3 percent and 5 percent, the department said.

The King home has made efforts to improve wages, benefits and scheduling practices, and staff turnover rates for full-time nurses are lower than statewide rates, said Clausius, the veterans affairs department spokesman.

A pilot program began Aug. 7 to provide supplemental add-on pay to address issues with retention and recruitment of nursing assistants by reducing forced overtime, Clausius said.

Walker and the Legislature added about 111 full-time equivalent positions to King in the 2013-15 biennial budget. Like other agencies across the country, King has been challenged by a shortage of certified nursing assistants, Clausius said.

Clausius said employee turnover numbers werent immediately available Friday. However, in the 2014 fiscal year the department overall had between 6 and 9 percent of positions vacant in two major appropriation categories, far above the normal 3 percent, according to a Legislative Fiscal Bureau memorandum.
Retired educators to meet Oct. 3

The La Crosse Area Retired Educators will meet for lunch at Black River Bar and Grill at 11:30 a.m. Monday, Oct. 3. Everyone who has retired from Wisconsin public schools is invited.

The program for this meeting will be beekeeper Ken Balts, speaking on The Wonder of Bees.

The cost of the meal is $10. Reservations can be made through Karen Broadhead, 608-788-2485 or Marlene McCabe, 608-781-1039. The next meeting will be Nov. 7.
If Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton wins the U.S. presidency, her husband Bill Clinton would fill the role traditionally held by women first ladies.

How would this role be different for Bill Clinton, especially since he served as the 42nd president of the United States?

First gentleman would be a first in American politics

There are no precedents, said Allan Litchman, professor of history at American University in Washington, D.C. But certainly he should not be called the first lady. He should be called the first gentleman, of course.

Bill Clinton has not publicly discussed his possible role as first gentleman. He has said that if Hillary Clinton is elected, he will resign from the board of the not-for-profit Clinton Foundation. Hillary Clinton has repeatedly said that as president, she would surely include him in her administration.

Hillary Clinton was clear about this question during a campaign stop earlier this year in the southern state of Kentucky. My husband, who Im going to put in charge of revitalizing the economy, because you know he knows how to do it.

More recently, she was asked about her husbands possible role during an interview on the CBS News show 60 Minutes. I will be the president. But it does happen to be a historical fact that my husband served as president for eight years, she said. And theres a lot that happened which helped the American people during those eight years. I want an economy that creates more jobs.

Dr. Anthony J. Eksterowicz is an honorary professor of political science at James Madison University. He says the first ladys office has become much more professional over the years and is now also closely linked to the office of the president. He would expect this to continue if Bill Clinton took over as first gentleman.

I look for even greater professionalization of staff under his management. Probably more staff, more hierarchical organization and much, much higher integration with the White House office and his office.

Eksterowicz said he has no doubt that Hillary Clinton would use Bill in a much greater political role than most first ladies.

Shed be crazy not to, given his experience. He knows all the global leaders, he is conversant in domestic policy, and hes conversant in all policy issues. So hes an enormous resource and she has to use him and she will use him.

In the United States, a first lady traditionally does not draw a lot of attention, while supporting her husband. Most take up non-political causes to publicize across America.

One example is Michelle Obama, wife of President Barack Obama. She has led a campaign to reduce child obesity and promote healthy eating. Most Americans can support such a non-political policy.

Role of first lady has changed over time

Hillary Clinton was one of the most politically active first ladies in history. She pushed for one of her husbands main political goals  to bring health insurance to all Americans. But she faced strong opposition and the administrations health reform effort failed in the end.

Another first lady who had political influence was Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the 32nd U.S. president, Franklin D. Roosevelt. She told the nation in 1933 that Americans should not expect their new first lady to be a symbol of elegance. Instead, she said they would be getting a "plain, ordinary Mrs. Roosevelt.

During her service, Eleanor Roosevelt became the first first lady to hold her own press conferences. She also traveled the country visiting relief projects and examining work and living conditions. She campaigned for the rights of the poor and minorities. But she also found time for her official White House entertaining duties.

Eksterowicz said he thinks the next most influential first lady in terms of policy was Rosalynn Carter, wife of the 39th U.S. president, Jimmy Carter.

This is a woman who sat in on cabinet meetings, Camp David negotiations, served as a presidential ambassador during a Latin American trip, lobbied and testified before Congress.

He noted that Carter expanded her role by creating a new position of chief of staff and integrating her office with the White House office.

Some first ladies have also had influence in a less public way. One was Nancy Reagan, wife of the 40th U.S. president, Ronald Reagan. Nancy had a powerful impact from behind the scenes, according to Eksterowicz.

I would say a very, very strong, influential behind-the-scenes partner, particularly with respect to foreign affairs and establishing relationships with the Russians.

Nancy Reagan was also known to give her husband advice on his public image and which people to choose for top staff positions.

Bill Clintons role could also raise the issue of whether presidential spouses should be paid. Currently they receive no salary. Eksterowicz said the case in favor of pay would be stronger if Bill Clinton was given specific tasks from the president.

He also noted that Hillary and Bill Clinton both have strong, activist personalities. He said there is a very real possibility that Bill Clinton could overshadow his wife in certain actions.

Professor Litchman agrees. Whether he (Clinton) can keep himself under control is the bigger and much more interesting question.

If Trump is elected, wife Melania would not be first foreign-born first lady

If Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump wins, he has said he thinks his wife Melania would be an unbelievable first lady.

"Melania is a very beautiful woman both inside and out. She has got a tremendous heart. She feels so strongly about the women's health issues. In fact, she knows how strongly I feel about that, and she's always pushing me on women's health issues.

Melania Trump is a former model who was born in the east European republic of Slovenia. She would not be the only first lady born outside of the United States. It happened once before in 1825. That was the year the sixth U.S. president, John Quincy Adams, took office.

A U.S. diplomat, John Quincy Adams met his future wife Louisa in London when she was 19 years old, according to the White House website. The two married three years later, but she did not arrive in the United States until 1801.

Melania Trump has not specifically talked about her possible role as first lady. But she said in an interview with CNNs Anderson Cooper that she often gives her husband her opinions on issues.

I give him my opinions, many, many times. Im my own person, I tell him what I think. Im standing very strong on the ground on my two feet and Im my own person. And I think thats very important in the relationship.

Eksterowicz said it is hard to say how involved Melania would be in a Trump administration because the pair has no history as a political couple.

When I look at Melania Trump, I see a very, very steep learning curve. Theres virtually no experience in terms of Washington, politics, policy, its just not there. So shes going to have to learn virtually everything.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn reported this story for VOA Learning English with additional reporting from VOA correspondent Catherine Maddux. Mario Ritter was the editor.

We want to hear from you. What duties do you think the U.S. first lady or first gentleman should have? Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

role  n. the part someone has in a job, activity or performance

revitalize  v. make something more active or exciting

obesity  n. a condition of having by too much fat in the body

hierarchical  adj. system of organizing people or things based on importance

integration  n. the combination of two or more things

conversant  adj. being familiar with or having knowledge or

elegance  n. being graceful and stylish

ordinary  adj. common, not special or unusual

tremendous adj. very good, excellent

overshadow  v. make someone or something less important or successful

learning curve  n. how fast or slowly someone can learn a new skill or activity
The Democratic Party presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, has cancelled a campaign trip to California because of sickness.

A spokesman made the announcement Sunday. Earlier that day, Clinton left early from a ceremony in New York marking the 15th anniversary of the September 11 terror attack.

A video shows her stumble before guards help her into her vehicle.

Clintons doctor said she had become overheated and dehydrated at the event. He said she is recovering well.

Her campaign said the doctor had examined her on Friday and reported she had pneumonia. The diagnosis was not made public until Sunday.

She was treated with antibiotics, advised to cut back on her appearances and to get rest.

Clintons now-canceled trip to California was to include money-raising events and a speech about the economy.

Trump reacts

The Republican Party candidate Donald Trump told Fox News he hopes Clinton gets well soon.

"I hope she gets well and gets back on the trail and we'll be seeing her in the debate," Trump said. The two candidates are to hold their first direct debate on September 26.

Trump also said he plans to release the results of a physical examination he had last week. He said it would include, in his words, very, very specific numbers.

Neither candidate has released extensive health records, although Clinton has provided more information than Trump.

Trump has suggested that Clinton lacks the energy to serve as president. Some Trump supporters have suggested Clinton is in poor health as a result of a concussion she suffered in a fall in 2012. However, they have not provided any evidence to support the claim.

Trump released a letter from a doctor last year. It stated that Trump would be "the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency."

But that doctor later said he wrote the letter in five minutes while a Trump campaign vehicle waited nearby.

Hillary Clinton is 68 years old. Donald Trump is 70.

Im Caty Weaver.

The staff at VOA News wrote this story. Jim Dresbach adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

Do you think the health of presidential candidates should be a major issue in campaigning? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or visit our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

stumble  v. to hit your foot on something when you are walking or running so that you fall or almost fall

diagnosis  n. the act of identifying a disease, illness or medical problem

dehydrated  adj. lacking enough water

specific  adj. clear and exact

concussion  n. a brain injury resulting from a hard hit to the head
From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

The latest generation of Americans to enter the labor force may be reshaping the way the United States goes to work.

Millennials are the generation who reached adulthood around the year 2000. And many of them do not have the usual 9-to-5 work mentality.

The Millennial workforce wants to work a more flexible schedule. This could mean the end of the inflexible 40-hour work week.

A professor at Florida International College of Law in Miami, Florida explains that Millennials value their free time. They value their personal lives  their friends, hobbies and interests -- as much as they value work. That attitude may sound like a benefit to only the workers. But perhaps not.

Professor Kerri Stone says studies show that reducing working hours can actually result in better workplace productivity. Stone says that after working so many hours per week you reach the point of what she calls, diminishing returns.

Diminishing returns is an economic term. It refers to a point at which the level of profits or benefits gained is less than the amount of money or energy invested.

She adds that people need breaks during the day and during the work week. During a work day, they need face time to talk to a friend or colleague. Without planning it, they build this time into their work day.

During the week, people need time to relax, or down time. As a group, Stone says Millennials strongly believe that "people need a certain amount of down time and a certain amount of vacation" in order to be happy at home and at work.



Cost of imbalance

Employers are not often worried about work-life balance. They are concerned with the bottom line, the profits and results of the company. However, new studies show that a happy employee is good for the companys bottom line.

An organization based in Seattle, Washington seeks to challenge what it calls the epidemic of overworking in the United States and Canada.

Take Back Your Time states that its goals are to change the work culture by:

reducing work hours,

guaranteeing paid vacation and

guaranteeing at least one week of sick leave.

The organization says that giving employees at least one week of sick leave will help to reduce damage to a person's health and relationships caused by working too much.



Ted Bililies is a psychologist and managing director of a company that advises other companies on how to work smarter. He agrees that in the U.S., there is a work epidemic or as he calls it, workaholism."

He warns that stress is not uncommon in the workplace, along with physical and mental health issues. Bililies adds that stress often leads to heart disease and other sicknesses.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agree. The CDCs National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) states this on its website: Stress is a prevalent and costly problem in todays workplace. Additionally, periods of disability due to job stress tend to be much longer than disability periods for other occupational injuries and illnesses.

Bililies says that to fix the problem of an over-stressed employee, companies can give employees greater choice regarding how they work.

Many companies have already started doing just that.



Alternative answer

For the past year, a small company in San Diego, California, called Tower Paddleboards, has started a revolutionary substitute to the 40-hour-plus work week. They have started a five-hour workday for their 11 employees.

Stephan Aarstol is the founder and CEO, chief executive officer. He challenged the 8-hour workday, calling it "something that was invented for factory workers 100 years ago."



Aarstol defends his employee program, saying that it helps to keep his employees healthy. He says that these days, people are not active enough. He adds that disease is on the rise. Prescription drug abuse and alcoholism are also on the rise.

He says he believes that making a little more money for many more hours does not make people happy. The five-hour work day, he suggests, gives people time to do other things in life, such as spending more time with family and friends.



So how has this affected his companys bottom line? Aarstols company reports that it is more profitable than ever.



What will people do less of?

But does a reduced work day result in more productivity? Dan Ariely is professor at Duke University in the southern state of North Carolina. Ariely says there are basically three things people do at work. They:

do productive, thoughtful, deep useful work,

do mindless work that has to be done, and

waste time.

If you decrease the work day from 8 hours to 5 hours, he says, what will be lost is the meaningful work.



Trend in America

There is a push by some workers to reduce their hours at the office. However, some of American's best-known companies are known for their highly-driven, "workaholic" culture.



Aarstol says that companies are trying many different things to see what works. He adds that Tesla, Apple and Amazon have teams of workers that are super-high performers. These people are working around-the-clock, 24/7 with smartphones and computers, and they are accomplishing some amazing things."



This was his own firsthand experience. He warns that a person can easily work themselves into this unhealthy lifestyle of over-working. For Aarstol and some other corporate executives, the balance is to have happy, productive employees and a profitable bottom line.

Im Anna Matteo.

What do you think? Is a 5-hour work day enough time to get your work done? If you worked less, what would you do with your time?

Bernard Shusman reported this story for VOANews.com. Anna Matteo adapted his report for Learning English. Kelly Jean Kelly edited the story.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

work-life balance  n. a concept including proper prioritizing between "work" (career and ambition) and "lifestyle" (health, pleasure, leisure, family and spiritual development/meditation)

flexible  adj. easily changed : able to change or to do different things

inflexible  adj. not easily changed

(law of) diminishing results  n. economics : used to refer to a point at which the level of profits or benefits gained is less than the amount of money or energy invested.

face time  n. time spent at the place where you work especially before or after normal working hours

downtime  n. time when you are not working or busy

bottom line  n. a company's profits or losses

epidemic  n. a sudden quickly spreading occurrence of something harmful or unwanted

workaholic  n. a person who chooses to work a lot : a person who is always working, thinking about work, etc.

prevalent  adj. accepted, done, or happening often or over a large area at a particular time : common or widespread

firsthand  adj. coming directly from actually experiencing or seeing something
Nigeria is home to a growing number of technology companies and young business leaders.

Some business leaders have been seeking government help for their startup companies. Recently, several young entrepreneurs competed for a chance to tell President Muhammadu Buhari about their companies.

Nigerias technology sector is growing, in part, because of ambitious entrepreneurs like Angel Adelaja, a Nigerian American. She is chief executive officer of a company called Fresh Direct Nigeria. It seeks to reduce the countrys dependence on food imports by growing cabbage and other vegetables in containers.

We take a 20-foot container that you would put a car in to ship and we kit it with hydroponic farming technology and we farm vertically. And we're growing premium produce -- vegetables, cabbage, lettuce -- so many different things inside the containers.

First Direct Nigeria is designed for the expanding class of health conscious people who live in the city.

A business called Grit Systems Engineering manufactures a device for measuring energy use. The company is the idea of Ifedayo Oludapo.

I am the founder of Grit Systems and what we make is a web-enabled multisource energy monitoring device -- kind of like a utility meter, but it measures power consumption from all the different power sources you have, which is a big deal in an under-electrified environment like Nigeria.

Emma Okene leads Tracology, another Nigerian company. He and his team created a bar code that is placed on the front gate of a persons home. By using a device that reads bar code information, waste collection crews will be able to know if the home owner has paid for their services.

Once the utility provider comes to the house all he has to do is just scan this bar code and he knows in real time whether you've paid for that waste or whatever service he wants to offer you and he renders it.

A total of 30 tech entrepreneurs competed for the chance to meet with the Nigerian president and vice president. Three were chosen, including Emma Okene of Tracology. He won a prize of more than $8,000.

Last week, the Nigerian economy entered into a recession for the first time in more than 20 years. Government revenue is sharply reduced because of the drop in oil prices worldwide. So the government is interested in supporting technology companies, hoping they may be able to fuel the economy.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was at the competition last week. He spoke at the end of his first visit to Nigeria.

You know, this trip has really blown me away by the, the talent of the entrepreneurs and developers in this country and by the focus on building something that's gonna make a difference and gonna make a change. I think that if you keep on doing this you're not only gonna shape Nigeria and all of Africa, but the whole world.

Nigerian government officials hope one of the startup companies can be as successful as Facebook.

Im Christopher Jones-Cruise.

Chika Oduah reported this story from Abuja, Nigeria for VOANews.com Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted the report for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

entrepreneur  n. a person who starts a business and is willing to risk loss in order to make money

sector  n. an area of an economy; a part of an economy that includes certain kinds of jobs

ambitious  adj. having a desire to be successful, powerful or famous

kit  v. British to give (someone or something) the clothing or equipment needed for a particular activity

hydroponic  adj. a method of growing plants in water rather than in soil

premium  adj. of high or higher than normal quality

consumption  n. the use of something (such as fuel)

bar code  n. a group of thick and thin lines that is placed on a product so that a computer can get the price of the product and other information about it

scan  v. to use a special machine to read something on a computer or other electronic device

render  v. to give (something) to someone; to perform a service

revenue  n. money that is collected for public use by a government through taxes

focus  n. a subject that is being discussed or studied; the subject on which peoples attention is focused
The United States and its allies are reacting to North Koreas latest nuclear test.

The test, carried out on September 9th, was the countrys second nuclear test this year.

Some reports say the North Korean government may already be planning more testing.

Last Friday, North Korea said it exploded a nuclear device underground. It was the countrys fifth nuclear test since 2006. Measurements showed the explosion was stronger than North Koreas four earlier nuclear tests.

A South Korean Defense Ministry official said, With regards to (the) possibility of North Koreas additional nuclear test, South Korea and U.S. intelligence assess that it is always ready to conduct an additional nuclear test.

South Korean leader seeks unity

South Korea's president, Park Geun-hye, held an emergency meeting with political leaders on Monday. She met with representatives of her Saenuri Party and the two main opposition parties, the Minjoo Party and the Peoples Party.

Park urged unity in reaction to North Koreas actions.

South Korea is working with the U.S., Japan and other countries to press for increased sanctions on North Korea in the United Nations Security Council. The council has already approved a number of measures aimed at punishing the North for its nuclear activities.

New proposals could expand the list of products barred for export to the country. They could also expand restrictions on North Korean individuals and organizations tied to the Norths military or weapons programs.

Sung Kim is the U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy. He said the U.S. government is working with Americas allies to form a response. He said they are considering unilateral, bilateral and trilateral measures against North Korea. Kim met with Japanese officials on Sunday.

The U.S. government also has called on China to do more to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear and its missile programs.

Chinas support considered very important

Existing sanctions by the U.N. Security Council, the U.S. and South Korea have hurt North Korea economically. Those measures target trade, shipping and finance.

Chinas cooperation on sanctions is considered important because most North Korean trade flows to or through China.

Chinese officials have called on North Korea not to take steps they consider provocative. However, Chinas reaction has been limited.

Daniel Pinkston is a Northeast Asia expert with Troy University in Seoul. He says China is unwilling to impose measures that could cause the collapse of the North Korean government.

Pinkston said, I think they will keep the lifeline in place for North Korea.

On Monday, Chinas foreign ministry said sanctions alone cannot solve the nuclear issue. It also said unilateral action will not be productive.

North Korea has intensified its nuclear and missile testing. In addition to its nuclear tests, the country has launched more than 20 medium- or long-range missiles.

Yet, North Korea faces problems feeding its population. And the U.N. agency for humanitarian affairs reported Monday that flooding in the northern part of the country has killed more than 130 people. More than 100,000 have fled their homes, the agency said.

Late last week, President Barack Obama condemned the latest North Korean nuclear test. He called it a grave threat to regional security and to international peace and stability.

Im Mario Ritter.

VOAs Brian Padden reported this story from Seoul. Mario Ritter adapted his report for Learning English. Additional material came from VOAs Chris Hannas and Victor Beattie. George Grow was the editor.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

conduct  v. to lead, to carry out, to do

sanctions  n. measures meant to cause a country to obey international law usually through restrictions on trade or financial dealings

bilateral  adj. between two parties

trilateral  adj. between three parties

provocative  adj. meant to cause a reaction

assess  v. to study or examine; to measure

response  n. a step taken in reaction to another action
Scientists say they discovered an Earth-like planet orbiting the star closest to our planet other than the Sun.

It is the closest planet ever found outside our solar system that could support life as we know it.

This exoplanet is just 4.2 light years away from us. It is so close that space scientists have likened it to a next door neighbor. They say it could be reached by an unmanned spacecraft before the end of the century  in time for people alive today to see it.

An international team of astronomers found the planet orbiting the star Proxima Centauri. The scientific publication Nature published their findings last month.

Not-too-hot, not-too-cold

Scientists have long thought that a planet with water and a not-too-hot, but not-too-cold climate are important for life. That is, if the planet has an atmosphere. Because the exoplanet exists, scientists say, other Earth-like planets may be everywhere in our galaxy.

The newly-discovered planet is a little larger than Earth. Scientists have named it Proxima b. It orbits its sun -- Proxima Centauri  once every 11 days.

The American space agency NASA has been using the Kepler telescope and other instruments for years to look for earth-like planets. In 2013, scientists best guess was that there are about a billion Earths in the universe.

Alan Boss is the Chair of NASAs advisory group for Exoplanet exploration. He told VOA that Proxima b not only confirms the discovery of a planet, but also increases the number of other possible Earths by a huge amount.

Boss said it is possible, even likely, that most stars have at least one earth-like planet orbiting them, which he considers astounding.

So from the early estimates of a billion, this new research suggests there may be as many possible Earth-like planets as there are stars in our galaxy. That is, anywhere from 250 billion to 500 billion Earths.

This makes the possibility of living organisms increasingly likely. Boss said he believes human beings will prove that there is life in places other than Earth in his lifetime. I am 65, he told VOA, but I expect to still be alive when it happens.

Paul Butler works at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. He told VOA that finding Proxima b makes the case concrete that there are other planets where life could exist.

The confirmation of this planet came from a team of astronomers that call themselves The Pale Red Dot Campaign.

The name comes from the star Proxima Centauri, which is classified as a Red Dwarf star. Astronomers say it is seen as a pale red dot in the sky.

The Pale Red Dot Campaign looks for planets near Proxima Centauri. The scientists studied a very small back-and-forth wobble in the star. They believe that movement could result from the pull of an orbiting planet.

Paul Butler said the researchers used two telescopes in different countries to look for possible planets like Earth. Discovering Proxima b, he believes, changes the world.

This work has resulted in the discovery of hundreds of planets around the nearest stars, and now a potentially habitable planet around the nearest star in the sky, Butler said.

He added, This work confirms, that potentially habitable planets are common, and points the way to the future when such planets will be directly observed with giant ground- and space-based telescopes.

What would it take to get there?

Proxima b is 45 trillion kilometers away from Earth.

Alan Boss said that humans might be able to get a robot spacecraft there, in about 50 years or so, if we leave tomorrow. The spacecraft would have to move really fast, about 10 percent the speed of light. Once it got there, a camera could take pictures and send them back at the speed of light.

Some people alive today might get to see the first real pictures of a planet beyond our solar system. And that, is something to think about.

Im Anne Ball.

Kevin Enochs reported on this story for VOANews.com. Anne Ball wrote this story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section and find us on our Facebook page.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

exoplanet  n. a planet that orbits a star other than our sun

galaxy  n. any one of a very large group of stars that make up our universe

guess  n. an opinion or answer on something you do not know much about

astounding  adj. causing a feeling of great surprise or wonder

concrete  adj. solid, like the hard strong material of concrete

wobble  n. a very small movement

habitable  adj. something than can support life
LEXINGTON, Neb. - Krystal Saunders was sentenced Monday to two years probation for motor vehicle homicide in the Aug. 31, 2015 death of Alejandra Zamora. Zamoras niece, Ailyn Arredondo, was also critically injured in the vehicle/pedestrian collision and is still suffering the effects of brain damage.

Saunders pleaded no contest to motor vehicle homicide on July 11.

Judge Kent Turnbull also handed down other provisions of Saunders sentence, including the requirement that she report to jail on certain dates throughout her two-year probation term.

You will report to jail at 8 a.m. on Aug. 31, to remind you that a life has been lost; on July 2 (Ailyn Arredondos birthday) to remind you that a life has been changed forever; on Feb. 14 (Saunders birthday), to remind you that you still have a life; and on Dec. 24 and 25. Christmas was taken away from the victims family, and for the next two years, it will be taken away from you, Turnbull said, addressing Saunders.

Prosecutors did not request restitution, but Turnbull also ordered restitution in the amount of $9,340 be paid, to cover Zamoras funeral expenses. Prosecutors did request that Saunders drivers license be revoked, but Turnbull declined. Though a conviction for motor vehicle homicide takes 12 points off a drivers license, the judge wanted the option for Saunders to obtain a work permit so she could pay restitution.

Turnbull also ordered Saunders to serve 200 hours of community service at local non-profits that "serve the needs of the Hispanic community," and to participate in victim mediation, if the Zamora and Arredondo families want it.

Prior to sentencing, three victim impact statements were read into the court record.

Zamoras mother, Leticia Hernandez, said, The wound has not healed for me. There is no comfort for my daughters, who are without their sister.

Hernandez described a close relationship with her deceased daughter, saying, She was always with me, my right hand. When she left, my hand was cut off. Thats how I feel.

She also spoke of how difficult it was to see her young granddaughter suffering from epileptic attacks as a result of the collision.

I dont wish anything bad for her, Hernandez said of Saunders. I believe in God, and I know she cant bring my daughter back. I just ask the judge to do what you think is just and fair. There are three children left without their mother.

Cindy Arredondo, who is Zamoras sister and Ailyn Arredondos mother, was a witness to the fatal collision. When she addressed the court, she had her daughter with her.

Cindy said in the past year, shes struggled to sleep, both because of Zamoras death and the care that must be provided to her daughter.

Ailyn turned one in July but is unable to hold her head up on her own or meet other developmental benchmarks, and has vision problems. She requires trips to Omaha for medical treatment, Cindy said.

Her normal life was taken away, she said. It could have been prevented.

Zamoras husband, Mario, spoke last.

My life was a normal life, Ive never had any trouble. My wife was taken away from us in the blink of an eye, he said. My little boy asks, Wheres my mom? When is she coming back? I cant answer him when he asks why the person who did this to his mom is not in jail.

Prosecutor Jason Bergevin with the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office asked that Turnbull revoke Saunderss drivers license. Its to protect the public. She (Saunders) has four speeding violations in three counties, and a stop sign violation, he said. In this case, her carelessness led to the death of Alejandra Zamora.

The loss of her license would make Saunders more mindful, and make her realize driving is a privilege, Bergevin said.

Saunderss attorney Derek Mitchell argued that the pre-sentence investigation concluded that his client is low-risk in all categories.

Shes taken this seriously since the beginning, he said. She wanted to write a letter to the family, but I advised her not to because at that point things were so unsettled.

Saunders herself then rose and delivered an emotionally-charged statement.

She said she wanted the family to know how sorry she is, but that it wont make the situation any better.

I pray for them every day. I want them to know if I could do anything else for them, I would, she said. My life will never be the same, but there is no comparison to what happened to their family. I want to apologize.

Saunders said shed been prescribed five different medications over the past year, to help her deal with depression, anxiety, and stress as a result of the collision.

Im not a bad person. Im not careless. I have feelings. I do care, she said.

Bergevin spoke again after Saunders. He noted that in the defendants statement included in the pre-sentence investigation, she said the collision was not her fault. Bergevin objected to that on the record.

In this case, she was careless, and in Nebraska, that is a crime, he said.

When it came time for sentencing, Turnbull said he also disagreed with the use of the word accident.

Accident means you werent prosecuted, he said, but added he believes the collision was unintentional.

Turnbull said this case, as well as a case against Saunderss mother, Cheri, brought to the surface a rift in the community in regard to how some people view law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Cheri Saunders was a long-time investigator with the Dawson County Sheriffs Office who was accused of official misconduct for her actions on the night of the fatal collision, which included removing items from Krystals vehicle before investigators concluded their work at the scene.

Turnbull also presided over that case, and found Cheri Saunders not guilty. (Dawson County Sheriff Gary Reiber said Monday Cheri Saunders is no longer employed by his department.)

I am not unaware that, were I Hispanic in this community, the outcome of this case as well as the other one might make me jaded, Turnbull said. Nothing I am going to say here today will make that better.

Turnbull said he believes it is his job to treat everybody fairly.

After handing down his sentence, Turnbull concluded, This hasnt been easy for anyone in this room. It was all I could do to hold it together, seeing the child. Im very sorry for the family.
The Courtney-Campbell Causeway was down to one lane Sunday night following a multi-vehicle crash that put several in the hospital.

Chain-reaction crash

Westbound Courtney-Campbell Causeway still closed

LIVE Real-Time Traffic Map

The city of Clearwater says as many as four vehicles were involved in the crash in the westbound lanes at Damascus Road.

One driver said she took her eyes off the road in front of her and didn't see cars stopped ahead of her for a red light. Officials say she started the chain-reaction crash.

That driver slammed into the rear of a Honda Odyssey, which then pushed into the rear of a Nissan Altima. The Nissan then struck a Buick.



Three female patients were sent to Tampa General Hospital, including a critically injured 2-year-old and a 3-year-old.

Two women and a man were sent to Bayfront Health St. Petersburg.

Two more patients, including the driver accused of starting the crash, were sent to Mease Countryside Hospital.

Only one eastbound lane on Courtney-Campbell Causeway remains open.


A story that began last July has finally reached its conclusion.

It was at the start of July 2015 that Coldplay frontman Chris Martin quietly came down to India along with Slumdog Millionaire actress Freida Pinto on behalf of the NGO Global Citizen and the Global Poverty Project. Not only did Martin and Pinto visit slums in Kalyanpuri and meet with people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, they also met up with government officials (including Prime Minister Narendra Modi), NGO workers and the Oxfam Indian team, among others.

What happened next was well-documented  Martin hung out with musician Vishal Dadlani and comedians from the All India Bakchod team, rocked an impromptu gig at a Delhi, Hauz Khas cafe, had a jam session with Raghu Dixit and a few other musicians in Mumbai and then flew home.

Another equally low key visit yielded Coldplay's music video Hymn for the Weekend, in which actress Sonam Kapoor was featured.

But soon enough, there was confirmation on what Martin was here in India for: To set up an India chapter for the Global Citizen Festival (of which the Coldplay frontman is curator).

Moreover, the festival would be headlined by performers like Coldplay and Jay Z, including support from Indian artistes like Aamir Khan, Ranveer Singh, Katrina Kaif, AR Rahman, Farhan Akhtar, Shraddha Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor, Arijit Singh, Dia Mirza, Shankar Ehsaan Loy and Monali Thakur. Several major artists and international guests will be announced at different stages of the campaign.

Rumours at first spread that tickets for the concert would be priced at Rs 25,000.

However, it was later clarified that tickets would in fact, have to be earned by doing acts of charity.

Coldplay's India concert: How to 'earn' tickets, explained by Global Citizen charity

On Monday, 12 September, a press conference was held at which details of the concert  which will be held on 19 November 2016, World Toilet Day  were announced.

A little before the press conference however, Firstpost had a chance to meet with those who helped bring Global Citizen to India, including its founder/CEO Hugh Evans.

Evans told Firstpost: "When I was young and running a charity in Australia, we raised a lot of funds to build schools in Africa, Philippines, South Africa... but it was never enough. One thing I did understand was that no matter how much money you raise, you need to get to the heart of the issue. That's what Gandhiji, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King did. So 'Global Citizens'  instead of just raising funds  we want to end the problem systematically. That's why we are urging people to sign petitions to make global leaders aware of these problems. Raising funds might help but I want to see poverty ended in my lifetime. In India, if you visit the website, you will see the causes we are petitioning for. And it works. Last week in America, for our September concert we managed to petition (President Barack) Obama to sign the global food security bill."

Evans added that around 80 percent of the audience at the concert would be people who had earned their tickets in this manner.

"People do come to see Coldplay perform. But the reason they stay on with this initiative is, because they want to make a difference and they realise how their time and effort made a difference. We are trying to make it more equitable," Evans added.

Among the ambassadors for Global Citizen in India is Kweku Mandela (he is Nelson Mandela's grandson).

Mandela told Firstpost that Global Citizen's approach of reaching out to people via social media was well thought out.

"We have kept a relatively simple model of making the campaign and website accessible through Facebook because more than 80 million access it everyday and they can engage in this reward campaign (to earn the tickets). Using social media has its own benefits because it can engage young people in a faster way; it's free and thus better to spread information. (This is something) I've seen through the African Dream Project, that young people all have a common vision for change and bringing them together through these initiatives helps them realise this. This is what I hope will happen through this initiative (in India as well)," he said.

The press conference to announce the Global Citizen India Festival, held in the evening, was attended by Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan and hosted by Tisca Chopra.

Highlights from the announcements made at the press conference included:

That the concert was scheduled on 19 November, World Toilet Day, to highlight the fact that one in thre people the world over do not have access to proper sanitation facilities.

Chris Martin, although absent from the event, recorded a video to say that Coldplay was excited to perform in India and that, Over the next three weeks, there will be many action journeys that will be taken towards a poverty-free India.

Aamir Khan has shot an ad film Shuruaat Hoon Main for Global Citizens  the brainchild of Prasoon Joshi.

Amitabh Bachchan was among the 40,000 people who registered on the site; he joked that he also wanted to 'earn tickets' to the concert.

Only 10-15 percent of the total tickets for the event will go on sale, on 15 September, noon onward on the website Book My Show. Prices will begin at Rs 5,000.
The international social action platform Global Citizen has been in the news a lot recently, one of the reasons being Chris Martin, the brand ambassador of the charity, had sparked rumors that his band Coldplay would perform in India.

Global Citizen confirmed the rumour on 10 September 2016 that Coldplay will surely be headlining a charity on concert in India, with Aamir Khan, AR Rahman, Farhan Akhtar in attendance  and that Jay-Z might make an appearance.

The tickets, initially thought to be priced at Rs 25,000 to 1 lakh can be earned for free according to the Global Citizen website and Vijay Nair, who heads the event company Only Much Louder (OML).

Nair explained in detail how the system would work via a series of tweets:

Tickets for GC are earned through actions. So majority will have to earn your tickets and not pay for it. That is the real story here.  Vijay Nair (@vijay_nair) September 10, 2016

So how do you earn your Coldplay concert ticket?

Global Citizen's New York line-up, which includes a segment hosted by our very own Priyanka Chopra, and artists like Rihanna, Metallica and Usher, is all set to take place on 24 September 2016. The general admissions for these tickets too, were 'earned' through actions.

First, you need to sign up on the website and download the Global Citizen application. Once, you sign up, you have to earn 'rewards' with various actions.

For the New York festival on 24 September, news website Fox 5 had Madge Thomas from Global Citizens explain the procedure. You need 26 "actions" to get in."It's through doing something that you can capture and share on social media. For example, one of the actions this year is: take a photo of a book that has changed your life and tell world leaders why kids everywhere should read it," said Thomas. That action will get you five points. These actions directed towards people in power do have powerful effects. According to the same news report, these tweets made the Prime Minister of Norway come to the 2015 festival.

Then according to the FAQ section of the website, here's how people in New York went about earning their tickets:

How do users win tickets through their participation?

Users win tickets to the festival through taking action to end extreme poverty. You can choose from a range of actions that earn you points. Once you earn 25 points from festival actions, you can enter the draw for festival tickets. Every two weeks we will announce ticket winners and launch a new campaign with a different challenge for global citizens to solve.

Do I have to register on global citizen in order to start earning points?

Yes, you have to register on globalcitizen.org in order to start earning points?

How does a user enter the lottery and when will they find out if theyve won?

To enter the lottery for Festival tickets, users must take enough actions to earn 28 points, and then redeem them on the festival page for an entry into the draw. Winners will be informed via email when the draw is made.

Can I use my existing points to enter into the festival draw?

No. Only points earned through festival actions will be eligible for tickets. If you use existing points earned from previous action taking your entry will not be eligible. Make sure you complete festival actions and earn the necessary festival points to enter the draw.

What if I do not have a Twitter account? How do I take the tweet actions?

You will have to set up a twitter account in order to take the tweet actions.

How do I take the call action?

You will have to take the call action from your cell phone. To do this, youll need to login to globalcitizen.org on your phone and take the action from there.

What if the voice mailbox is full? Do I have to take the action again?

Yes! You will not get points for the action until it is complete.

How do you track the actions people take, especially actions such as calling a representative? How do you know someone has actually placed a call?

The actions are tracked through the Global Citizen online platform and mobile app. Once a participant takes an action, for example signing a petition, the points are registered to their Global Citizen profile. Through the mobile app, we are able to track, with the same technology, when a participant makes a call to their representatives office.
The Cabinet's approval on Monday to set up the GST (Goods and Services Tax) Council, after the President's approval for the constitutional amendment last week, marks the beginning of the toughest phase in the road to final implementation. The government has set a deadline of 1 April 2017 for the rollout of the indirect tax reform.

This is the council which will have to do the complex job of arriving at a consensus GST standard rate, for which there is no real consensus between states, central government and Congress-led opposition parties till this point.

States, fearing revenue loss, want to set the rate as high as possible, above 20 percent, while main opposition party, Congress, is adamant on 18 percent GST rate. This would mean a difficult exercise for the council since majority states, including the Congress ruled ones, need to agree on the rate part for smooth implementation. How will the Narendra Modi government manage this tug of war is something one needs to wait and watch.

To meet the April deadline, the GST rate needs to be agreed upon and supporting legislations -- central, integrated and state GSTs -- have to be passed in the coming winter session of Parliament. Also crucial is laying out the technology infrastructure to migrate to the new regime. The GST is designed to subsume several state levies into one and bring in clarity to the investor community with respect to country's tax regime.

As Firstpost noted in an earlier article, the GST standard rate is crucial since it will broadly be effective for around 70 percent of goods and services and there is no way all can agree on one GST standard rate. But, the ideal rate, as the government's chief economic advisor (CEA) Arvind Subramanian pointed out time and again is fixing the standard rate closer to 20 percent.

This is because, currently, the weighted average of the central and state level taxes, in many cases comes to 28-30 percent. About 80 percent of goods attract 12.5 percent of central excise duty while at the state level 55 percent of items are charged with 14.5 percent VAT or sales tax.

Thus, the weighted average of the two in 65 percent of the items comes to 27 percent. Now, add state cess, Octroi and entry tax takes, the final figure goes to 30 percent. One needn't be surprised why states are fighting tooth and nail to set te rates higher.

The Congress party's demand to cap the rate at 18 percent in the law is aimed at ensuring the aam aadmi doesn't get overly burdened with a too high GST rate. Besides, the Congress camp realises that it will continue to have a say in the GST affair if the government is pushed again to reach out to the opposition parties again on the rate issue.

Remember, the Congress party decided to support the GST constitutional amendment in Rajya Sabha, where it has clear domination, after running out of all options to delay the process politically. Even at this stage, it wouldn't want to give the Narendra Modi-government an easy win on the landmark tax reform.

Once the issue of GST standard rate is resolved before the Winter Session and broader contours of the central GST law is agreed, the rest is technicality. An April roll out is a possibility then. Else, the process can get delayed in a crucial election year. Fixing the standard rate is a fire test for the GST Council in every sense.
New Delhi: Gearing up to provide confirmed seat on demand, railways is expanding its network to cater to the growing demand of passengers.

"We want to make network in such a way that people should get reservation on demand by 2020. It is not possible in a day," Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha said here today.

Currently, the waitlisted passengers' list is long as there is a wide gap between the availability of berths and number of passengers. Besides railways is facing heavy congestion in main trunk routes as 12,000 trains are run on 66,000 km route daily across the country.

Speaking on the sidelines of a function, Sinha said there is a huge gap between passenger requirement and the existing infrastructure.

"Railway traffic has increased 20 times since Independence and infrastructure has increased by 2.25 times. There is a big gap between passengers and infrastructure," he said.

"Allahabd-Mughal Sarai sector is where there was maximum congestion. There are 67 sectors in the country which face congestion and work has started to decongest them," Sinha said.

Highlighting the NDA government's focus on infrastructure development, the MoS Railways said, "Average investment in Indian Railways was Rs 48,000 crore before May 2014, which has been increased last year to Rs 1 lakh crore. An investment plan worth Rs 8.5 lakh crore has been made (for the next five years)."

Defending the flexi-fare system in Premier service, he said, "Flexi plan has been implemented in 77 trains. Those who are effected from this scheme are less than 0.2 per cent. Railways expense per kilometer is around 70 paise and it is recovering 40 paise only."

He further said, "This is required for working of railways and I feel who are availing better facilities and who can afford to pay should pay for services. We have made no changes in general (jan sadharan) and Garib Rath trains."

On freight sector, he said, "Continuous rise in freight fares has reached to a level where share of Indian Railways started reducing -- which is 67-68 per cent income source for railways. Cross subsidisation has been in practice since a long time."

Railways is losing about Rs 33,000 crore in passenger business in a year.

Sinha said there is a need for rationalisation of freight rates.

"We will rationalise this and we have reduced in many segments. We have removed various charges like congestion charge."

Railways aim to earn Rs 51,000 crore from passengers and Rs 1.10 lakh crore from freight service in the current fiscal. Referring to the slump in the market, Sinha said,

"Railway's revenue is directly linked to economy. If economy slows down, the business of railways also slows down." He said power plants do not require coal these days and coal comprises major freight share in Railways which is about 64 per cent of total loadings.

On foodgrains, he said, "Earlier policy of FCI was to procure from every state, bring it to Delhi and then distribute to states. Northern Railway was dependent on this. Government has decentralised it so that the procurement should take place at state headquarters for further distribution within state. Northern Railway is suffering due to this change of policy."

On the proposed Humsafar service, Sinha said, "Humsafar train is almost ready. I think from next month Humsafar will start on Delhi-Gorakhpur section."
New Delhi: Dismissing criticism over the Reliance Jio ads featuring an image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha has said there is nothing wrong in someone fulfilling the PM's dream to provide digital connectivity.

He also said the tariff war unleashed by Reliance Jio by offering free voice calls and data at low price is "healthy competition" that will ultimately benefit users.

Sinha, who replaced Ravi Shankar Prasad at the high-profile ministry in the last Cabinet reshuffle three months ago, also countered charges by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), an association of incumbent telecom operators, that sectoral regulator TRAI is biased, saying "show me a decision taken by TRAI favouring anyone".

In an interview, he said the intention of Prime Minister's Digital India campaign is to bridge the digital divide and use the internet as a growth enabler.

"I think when the Prime Minister launched Digital India campaign, the intention was to end the digital divide in the country. If anyone is giving digital connectivity to people on a large scale, then in a way, he is fulfilling the dream of the Prime Minister... then I do not see any objection," he said.

He was responding to the criticism by political parties, particularly the Congress and the AAP, over the Prime Minister featuring in a full-page newspaper advertisement issued by Reliance Jio immediately after billionaire Mukesh Ambani announced the launch plan at Reliance Industries' annual general meeting.

He hit out at the Congress for "doublespeak", saying, "I have received letters from 10-20 senior Congress leaders complaining that Reliance Jio is not getting points of interconnect (from other operators) and that immediate action should be taken... It is doublespeak."

Refusing to be drawn into the debate on whether or not requisite permission was taken from the PMO for use of the photograph to promote a commercial service, Sinha said, "It will be better if you ask this question to the Prime Minister... whether there was permission or not. I cannot give my opinion on this."

On the price war unleashed by Jio, he said: "Healthy competition in the sector is good for consumers and as a minister, I feel consumer is God."

Asked whether this fierce competition triggered by Reliance Jio's entry was healthy or disruptive, the telecom minister recounted the journey the sector had made from a point when call charges were as high as Rs 15-17.

"There was a time when call rates were Rs 15-17... The journey began from there and then moved to Rs 1, and now to a point where it seems it does not require any money (free calls)," he said.

On September 1, Reliance Industries announced that customers of Reliance Jio - its telecom venture - will get free voice calling and roaming services, bundled with data access for Rs 19 onwards, making the offering one of the "lowest" globally.

These tariff plans come into effect from January 1. Till then, all customers will get free access to unlimited voice calls (local and STD), SMSes and data.

On the ongoing tussle between incumbent operators and the new entrant over the points of inter-connect, he said, "Be it tariffs or points of inter-connect, it comes under the domain of TRAI (and not the telecom ministry)."

"It is alright when someone is testing network whether you should give inter-connect points or not... but once the commercial service is launched, then everyone shares network with each other. I think there are enough rules in place and TRAI will look into it," the minister said.

Asked about allegations of bias against TRAI, he said, "Show me any decision that TRAI has taken (with bias). Without any conclusion in place, it is not appropriate to form an opinion about someone."

The Minister also spoke of trust being restored among investors with the Modi government coming to power.

"Before the Modi government, there was a trust deficit among investors, be it domestic or foreign investors. Now, that trust has resumed. Now, people know there will be a level-playing field. There will be no injustice and bias against anyone," he said.

He listed completion of the Bharat Net project and bridging the digital divide as the government's top priority.

"It (Bharat Net) reaches in rural areas as soon as possible as per government's top priority," Sinha said.

Bharat Net, formerly known as the National Optical Fibre Network, has missed several deadlines in the past. The government now expects to complete the laying of optical fibre across all 2.5 lakh panchayats by 2018.

"I don't know what happened earlier, but now the target of the government to complete phase one of laying optical fibre network in village panchayats will be completed by March 2017 and I am saying this with rigidity and on my responsibility," Sinha said.
Hong Kong - Shilpa Panjabi, an upcoming fashion designer, launched her brand just a month ago in India. But instead of showcasing her wares at Indias fashion mecca, the Lakme Fashion Week, she chose to come to Hong Kong for participating in Asiaa newest fashion event called Centrestage.

Why would upcoming Indian designers eschew homegrown fashion events and choose Hong Kong instead to show their talent to the world? Panjabi says participation in Hong Kong is a stepping stone towards international exposure of her fledgling brand. She says Indian designer wear market is already crowded, people have multiple options and it was best to showcase her stuff at Centrestage for a quick appreciation of global audience.

Shilpas is among an increasing number of Indian businesses which have found Hong Kongs exhibition industry of some use. Here, international exposure comes with other features such as affordable stalls, enough international visitors and a good enough order book by the end of it all. Not just fashion, Hong Kong seems to have become the de facto destination for exhibitors of many other industries as well.

Move over Basel, Hong Kong is now also the epicentre for watch and clock affiocianados to converge too. Last week, Hong Kong hosted the 35th edition of the worlds largest such exhibition, the Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair, with over 800 exhibitors and becoming the largest marketplace for watches and clocks. The city is also the largest marketplace for gifts and premium, with over 4,000 exhibitors coming to show their wares besides jewellery and lighting.

Becoming the largest marketplace in five categories of exhibitions generates tangible benefits for Hong Kong as the exihibition industry is slowly becoming an important tool in its economic advancement. Findings from the latest Economic Impact Study on the contribution of Hong Kongs exhibition industry to the economy in 2014 show that the exhibition industry contributed HK$52.9 billion (US$6.8 billion) directly and indirectly in terms of expenditure.

This was equivalent to 2.3% of the citys total GDP for the calendar year 2014and marks a 29% from 2012, at a CAGR of 13.9%. A significant part of this was contributed by the direct spending of international exhibitors and exhibition visitors.

Sophia Chong, Assistant Executive Director at HKTDC, says between 2-3% of the citys GDP comes from exhibitions and fairs. To make these fairs more competitive and able to generate incremental business, HKTDC has now also launched a unique concept called the small order zone in almost every exhibition. This, Chong says, helps buyers place small orders of anywhere between five to 1,000 pieces and helps both, buyers as well as sellers.

Indians are also increasingly grasping the importance of being seen in the Hong Kong exhibitions related to their businesses. In FY16, 800 Indian exhibitors and 15000 Indian buyers were in Hong Kong for HKTDC organised fairs. Indias e-commerce big daddies Myntra and Jabong were here for participating in the watch and clock fair. Of the 190 fashion brands which participated in Centrestage, seven were from India in areas such as denims and accessories. E-commerce firms Limeroad and Shoppers Stop were among the buyers at the Centrestage show this year.

Jatinder Nagpal of Designer Watches Pvt Ltd, an assembler and distributor of premium watches in India, says showcasing his brands in the Watch and Clock fair here makes far more business sense than going to Basel.

The kind of watches that are produced in India find customers in Africa, Middle East, Russia..Basels taste, market size and pricing (for shwocasing wares) is different and not really suited to our requirements. The Hong Kong show is very strong, almost 30% of enquiries translated into orders for us last year at the same show, Nagpal said.

Not just showcasing existing wares, Indians also find it lucrative to establish startups in Hong Kong. India born Chandan Sethi, Founder & CEO of innowear, started the business of wearable activity monitors/IOT products first as an OEM and then registered his company along with three more friends in the city. Hong Kongs an easy place to do business. The entire process of registering our company took just one day. We had the choice of setting up this venture in India or Hong Kong, we chose Hong Kong. India doesnt have the ecosystem of supporting wearable/IOT manufacturing. We have already begun selling the products here and are also distributing these in India.

Apart from direct economic benefits in terms of expenditure, the exhibition industry also provided equivalent of around 83,500 full-time jobs in the exhibition industry and other service and supporting sectors. In 2014, the fiscal benefits contributed by the exhibition industry amounted to HK$2.1 billion (US$269.9 million). Chong says in FY16, the city saw over 37,000 exhibitors and more than 7.64 lakh trade buyers from 200 countries converge to Hong Kong, thanks to the over 30 trade exhibitions it hosts all year round.

Disclosure: The author was in Hong Kong between September 7 and 10 at the invitation of HKTDC (Hong Kong Trade Development Council).
What started as a sporadic and an isolated incident, became a raging and a fiery protest by the end of Monday in Bengaluru. The IT-capital witnessed frenzied mobs vandalising public property and business establishment after the Supreme Court on Monday modified its earlier order of releasing 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu.

In its latest directive, the apex court asked the Karnataka government to release 12,000 cusecs on a daily basis till 20 September, which technically means that Tamil Nadu will receive more water.

Govt imposes Section 144

There was confusion over the imposition of Section 144 in the state since Monday morning. While news channels quoted the state DCP as saying that the section has been imposed, the Bengaluru police kept reiterating that it has not been imposed on its twitter account while asking people to stop spreading rumours.

Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code is a law against joining unlawful assembly of people armed with deadly weapons.

However, around 5.30 pm on Monday, the Bengaluru Police said that Section 144 has been clamped in Bengaluru as a preventive measure. It will remain in force till 14 September.

As a preventive measure, Section 144CrPC is imposed in Bengaluru City from 1700 hours today. @BlrCityPolice @blrcitytraffic  Abhishek Goyal (@goyal_abhei) September 12, 2016

There is no Sec 144 imposed in #Bengaluru. No need to be panic ! any untoward incidents please report it to DIAL100 immediately ! @CPBlr  BengaluruCityPolice (@BlrCityPolice) September 12, 2016

Protests continue

Protests have been erupting in Karnataka ever since the Supreme Court gave its first directive. On Monday, the protests exacerbated and protesters set vehicles on fire and vandalised public property paralysing normal life in Bengaluru.

New Woodlands Hotel in Chennai, which is regarded as one of the iconic landmarks of the city, was attacked by protesters on Monday morning. The Supreme Court had not issued a directive till then.

On Monday, most schools in Bengaluru were shut earlier than usual. Parents were called and told to take their children home.

Metro services were shut down completely following the protest, Vasant Rao, BMRCL told mediapersons.



Karnataka bank branch in Chennais Anna Nagar was also attacked by protesters. Karnataka also temporarily suspended bus services to Tamil Nadu after pro-Kannada activists set a vehicle on fire in Bengaluru.

Stones were pelted at lorries bearing Tamil Nadu registration number near Hubli Bypass, Karnataka. More than 40 buses were set on fire at KPN bus depot in Bengaluru.

Mob ransacked and created havoc on Bengaluru-Mysuru highway and as many as 200 protesters, who were involved in such dastardly acts, were detained.

A fleet of over 30 buses belonging to a private operator was reportedly set on fire by a mob in a depot today in Bengaluru amid the Cauvery water sharing row.

However, the managing director of Salem headquartered KPN Tours and Travels Limited Rajesh Natarajan claimed that 40 of his buses were set on fire.

"Around 40 of our buses were set on fire," Natarajan told PTI. He said many of his buses were insured.

ANI also reported that one civilian died in firing by police in Bengaluru. Protesters also reportedly pelted stones at Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's residence.

1 civilian dead, 1 injured in firing by police near Hegganahalli area in #Bengaluru #CauveryProtests  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Farmers and pro-Kannada outfit activists have been protesting in various parts of Karnataka since 6 September against the SCs direction. The Cauvery protection committee even called for a bandh in Mandya.

A dawn-to-dusk Karnataka bandh was also called by pro-Kannada outfits. Some political parties also supported the day long shutdown.

The farmers' leader warned the government that it would face a strong agitation if water was released to Tamil Nadu. Unfortunately, the farmers warning materialised as Bengaluru burned over the release of water to Tamil Nadu on Monday.

Journalists attacked

Meanwhile, PTI reported that a woman television journalist and her cameraman were assaulted and punched when violence broke out in Bengaluru. "My colleague, Rohini Swamy, and myself - we both were roughed up and beaten by those protesting against Supreme Court direction to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu," India Today Cameraman Y Madhu told PTI here.

Rohini and Madhu, who were covering the violence, were attacked by protesters after they objected to the media coverage given to violence and protests staged by pro-Kannada outfits, Madhu said.

"I was punched and later, Rohini also was punched in her stomach, and it was painful - that prompted us to rush her to a nearby hospital," Madhu said.

"As we were shooting the violent incidents near Gopalan Mall at Nagarbhavi, some protesters came up to us and threatened us to stop shooting the violence, and join them in their protests if they were Kannadigas," Madhu said.

"As we shut our camera, a separate group of people came to us and started to rough us up and in the melee they snatched and smashed our camera and mike," Madhu said.

Areas to avoid

As violence raged in the IT Capital, Google put out this map called 'Bangalore Help' to assist commuters. The map clearly marks out areas in Bengaluru which should be avoided and which are high-risk.

Prohibitory orders have also been imposed in Tamil Nady till 14 september.

Paramilitary forces deployed

The Centre rushed ten companies comprising 1,000 personnel of the special anti-riot paramilitary force RAF to Karnataka to tackle the violent situation arising out of the raging Cauvery water sharing dispute.

Officials said the personnel have been sent to the violence-prone areas of Karnataka and if need arises, some of the contingents will also be deployed in Tamil Nadu.

These additional contingents will assist the state police even as three such RAF units and an all-women CRPF company have already been deployed in Karnataka in view of the violent protests.

They said 5-10 more companies of BSF and Indo-Tibetan Border Police are also on standby and can be sent in if the any of the two state governments require. One company comprises 100 personnel.

How did both the governments react

Siddaramaiah wrote a letter to his Tamil Nadu counterpart J Jayalalithaa, asking her to cooperate in maintaining peace and calm in both the states in the wake of the recent attacks on state vehicles and a hotel, which is run by a native of Karnataka, in Tamil Nadu.

Letter written to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu pic.twitter.com/GMSM0A437U  CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) September 12, 2016

He earlier also asked Jayalalithaa to provide protection to Kannadigas in her state. Jayalalithaa responded by requesting safety and security of Tamilians in Karnataka. expressing her concern, she said "hotels and properties belonging to Tamils in Karnataka are being attacked and damaged. She also wrote that despite very provocative incidents that are taking place in Karnataka, absolute restraint was observed in Tamil Nadu.

TN CM Jayalalithaa writes to K'taka CM Siddaramaiah,requesting to ensure safety&security of Tamilians residing in Karnataka #CauveryProtests  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Meanwhile, Times Now reported that Siddaramaiah has already spoken to Jayalalithaa. However, no details are available on that as of yet.

Siddaramaiah also appealed to the Centre and PM Modi to intervene. There were reports that Centre is likely to mediate between the states to help resolve the matter. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Siddaramaiah and was apprised of the situation. He has assured Centre's full assistance to both the states.

HM Rajnath Singh assured of full Centre's assistance to K'taka CM Siddaramaiah & TN CM Jayalalithaa to deal with situation #CauveryProtests  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

While speaking to Times Now, Siddaramaiah said that he has also requested for additional forces.

CR Saraswathi of AIADMK, however, said that All Kannada people in Tamil Nadu are living safely and there's no issue at all.

All Kannada people in Tamil Nadu are living safely; there's no issue at all: CR Saraswathi, AIADMK #CauveryIssue pic.twitter.com/CejM3ltKIa  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara said police forces had been deployed in areas where Tamils live in large numbers in Bengaluru and elsewhere in Karnataka. "We have taken precautions." He appealed to people of both states not to resort to violence.

He also appealed to the protesters to protest peacefully. We know that injustice has been done to Karnataka, he said.

The Karnataka CM has also convened an emergency cabinet meet to discuss the Cauvery issue and the violent protests because of the same 11.30 am on Tuesday. Supervisory Committee, headed by Union Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekhar decided that the Central Water Commission will draw up a new protocol of online collection of data. However, IANS reported that no agreement was reached between the two st

The meeting on Cauvery specifically has, however been postponed for 19 September.

Protests in Tamil Nadu

Protests by fringe Tamil outfits erupted in parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on Monday with some commercial and government establishments of Karnataka coming under attack.

Outfits such as Naam Tamizhar Katchi and Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi hit the streets protesting the ongoing agitations in Karnataka opposing release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, police said. A popular restaurant in Chennai and tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration in Rameswaram were vandalised while protesters created a ruckus at a Karnataka Bank branch in neighbouring Union Territory of Puducherry.

At Vellore in Tamil Nadu, students of Government Law College boycotted classes over the issue. For the eight consecutive day, buses to Mysuru, Chamrajnagar and other places in Karnataka from Erode, Tirupur and Coimbatore in western Tamil Nadu were not operated.

Reactions poured in

The violence in Bengaluru took everyone by shock. Managing director of Biocon and a resident of Bengaluru Kiran Mazumdar Shaw dubbed the violence as rabidly parochial.

Rather than sharing unverified facts or sensationalising the issue, people on social media offered support in helping out fellow residents.

Don't be Kannadiga Don't be Tamizhan Be an Indian and help others Spread Love#CauveryIssue  Bobgally (@Krishnan_Masi) September 12, 2016

The natural resources of the nation belong to every citizen irrespective of any boundary.Please maintain peace and respect law #CauveryIssue  Madhur Bhandarkar (@imbhandarkar) September 12, 2016

Many people even shared their personal accounts of cooperation among citizens amid the protests.

A Kannadian safely dropped a Tamilian(me) in his home at Bangalore during the tense situation. Hope this kind of #love spreads #CauveryIssue  Ramanathan (@smile_rams) September 12, 2016

With inputs from agencies.
Bengaluru: Tension gripped the city on Monday as rumours spread that curfew was clamped in some areas and protesters were forcing closure of shops and hotels over the Supreme Court order to release more Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu. Denying any such situation, police asked the people to maintain peace.

"The situation is under control. There is no curfew in the city or any ban order issued. Rumour-mongers are causing panic by spreading wrong news about a shutdown being imposed," Police Commissioner N S Megharik told reporters.

Even as some miscreants torched at least six trucks with Tamil Nadu registration numbers on the city's outskirts and blocked roads by burning tyres and effigies, Megharik appealed to the city's 10 million denizens to maintain peace and remain calm.

Hundreds of pro-Kannada activists staged demonstrations in many areas of the city protesting attacks on Kannadigas and Karnataka registered buses in Chennai and some parts of Tamil Nadu earlier in the day.

In view of the brewing tension, inter-state buses with Tamil Nadu registration suspended services to the neighbouring state. Trucks and other vehicles also withdrew operating in the city.

Tension was brewing in the city and across the Mysuru region, including Mandya since afternoon after the apex court directed Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs daily from Tuesday up to September 20 in response to the state's interim petition to allow it only 10,000 cusecs daily for six days - from September 7 to September 12.

The top court had on September 5 directed the state to release 15,000 cusecs daily for 10 days from September 7 to September 16 in response to Tamil Nadu's plea for 50 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) of the river water.

Meanwhile security had been tightened across the city to prevent attacks over the Cauvery issue and in view of Eid on Tuesday, said Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwar.

"We have intensified security and stepped up vigil in Bengaluru to ensure peace and maintain law and order. Additional police forces have been deployed in localities where Tamils live for their protection," Parameshwar told reporters here.

"I appeal to the people, especially the protesters not to attack anyone or damage public property, including buses, cars and transport vehicles," he reiterated.

Expressing disappointment over the apex court's latest order, the minister said though the state had respect for the court, the government would again approach it to modify the latest order due to water shortage in the reservoirs.

Meanwhile, contingents of the Karnataka State Reserve Police have been rushed to Mandya and Mysuru for deployment on the state highways and protecting reservoirs in the river basin from being attacked by angry protestors.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has written a letter to his Tamil Nadu counterpart J Jayalalithaa, asking her to cooperate in maintaining cordiality between the states in the wake of the recent attacks on state vehicles and a hotel run by a native of Karnataka in Tamil Nadu amid the ongoing Cauvery row while assuring her that interests of Tamils in the state would be safeguarded.

Siddaramaiah tweeted a copy of the letter, in which he has urged Jayalalithaa to direct authorities in Tamil Nadu to ensure that perpetrators of violence are immediately brought to book.

Letter written to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu pic.twitter.com/GMSM0A437U  CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) September 12, 2016

He further said that the Karnataka government is "committed to maintaining law and order in the state."

He expressed his concern about the incidents of violence that have come to his notice against Kannada speaking people in Tamil Nadu. He told Jayalalithaa that the Karnataka government has ensured safety of all citizens, particularly the Tamil-speaking people.

He also cited the incident of assault on a youth named Santosh and said it was being blown out of proportion. The student allegedly posted a derogatory status against some Kannada actors and against the Cauvery agitation. Siddaramaiah said that the police have already registered a case against the youngsters who attacked the boy for post on social media.

Case is registered against youngsters who attacked a boy for post on social media.Police investigation is on, attackers wil be nabbed soon  CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) September 12, 2016

The missive came following reports that suspected pro-Tamil protesters attacked and damaged a hotel run by a native of Karnataka in Chennai, using iron rods and wooden logs. Seven tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration parked at a temple in Rameswaram were damaged allegedly by activists of various outfits including Naam Tamizhar Iyakkam.

On the incident wherein a 22-year-old Tamil engineering student was allegedly beaten by a group of people in Bengaluru for posting "derogatory" remarks on social media against Kannada film actors, he said the case is under investigation. He said "It has also come to my notice that an incident involving a youth by name Santosh in Bengaluru, has been blown out of proportion by media channels in Tamil Nadu and this is likely inciting passions and violence against Kannada speaking people."

The Bengaluru City Police has already filed a case in the Santosh incident and investigation is under progress, he added.

He had earlier also asked Jayalalithaa to provide protection to Kannadigas.

Siddaramaiah also advised the media "not to glorify" certain incidents relating to "sensitive" issues and be restrained in reporting them. The Karnataka chief minister also assured his Tamil nadu counterpart that his government is "firmly" committed to maintaining law and order in the State.

"We have taken utmost precaution to ensure the safety and security of all citizens, particularly Tamil speaking people, in the State," he said. "You would agree that the incidents of violence against

Kannada speaking people that are being reported from Tamil Nadu would incite passions threatening peace in our State, which all of us should prevent," he added.

Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara appealed to people of both states not to resort to violence.

With inputs from PTI
New Delhi: Asking both the states to ensure that "law and order" prevails, the Supreme Court on Monday modified its earlier order on sharing of Cauvery water, directing Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs instead of 15,000 cusecs per day till 20 September to Tamil Nadu.

Rejecting Karnataka's plea seeking placing in abeyance for a week its earlier order, the court asked the executives to ensure compliance.

The apex court bench, which sat on a holiday, was critical of the language used in the fresh plea of Karnataka seeking to keep in abeyance the 5 September order asking it to release 15,000 cusecs water per day to Tamil Nadu.

"In the affidavit of urgency in support of taking up of the application for hearing, if we allow ourselves to say so, is absolutely disturbing and to say the least, totally deprecable...That apart, the application for modification contains certain averments which follow the tenor of similar language which cannot be conceived of to be filed in a court of law, seeking modification of an order.

"Agitation in spontaneity or propelled by some motivation or galvanized by any kind of catalystic component, can never form the foundation for seeking modification of an order," a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and U U Lalit said, adding the Executive cannot take the plea of "law and order" for not obeying the judicial order unless it is modified.

The citizens cannot become "law unto themselves", it said.

"We are inclined to modify the order dated 5 September, 2016, to the extent that the State of Karnataka shall release 12000 cusecs of water per day and the said direction, shall remain in force till 20 September, 2016.

"We expect the inhabitants of states, namely, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, shall behave regard being had to the respect for law and order and the Executive of both the states are under constitutional obligation to see that the law and order prevails," it said and fixed the plea for hearing on September 20 after the supervisory committee adjudicates it.

It said there was no room for non-compliance unless the order is modified.

"Concept of deviancy has no room; and disobedience has no space. The citizens cannot become law unto themselves. When a court of law passes an order, it is the sacred duty of the citizens to obey the same. If there is any grievance, they are obligated under the law to take recourse to permissible legal remedies. The tenor of application filed by Karnataka does not reflect so, but, on the contrary, demonstrates otherwise. We decry it," it said.

Referring to the September 5 order, the apex court said, "It is clear as noon day that Karnataka, as a good gesture, had offered 0.86 TMC, that is, 10000 cusecs of water per day and out of the said water, Tamil Nadu was required to release water proportionally to the Union Territory of Puducherry.

"Today, the prayer is to keep the entire order in abeyance. The prayer for abeyance does not commend us. Wereject the same," it said.

The bench rejected the plea for keeping the order in abeyance on the ground of prevailing law and order situation in Karnataka and considered the submission of senior advocate F S Nariman, appearing for the state, that the fresh plea was not "happily worded".

Karnataka, in its plea, had referred to "spontaneous agitations in the various parts" of the state and had sought an order from the apex court saying that normal life has been paralysed due to protests that have also led to large-scale destruction of public and private properties.

"We must again, despite the repetition, note the acceptance with anguish and regret by Nariman that pleading in the application and also in the affidavit filed for urgency, are not appropriate.

"However, as Nariman has expressed regret and we have blamed the state authorities and stated that it is the duty of the Executive to maintain law and order and see that the order of the court is complied with, we do not intend to say anything further on that score," it said.

Karnataka vociferously highlighted that it also facing drinking water crisis, besides the fact that "sufferings of the farmers are immense".

Nariman also accused Tamil Nadu of unnecessarily raising the issue of agony of farmers and said that moreover, the total water in the reservoir in Karnataka is less than that of the total water in the reservoir in Tamil Nadu.

He said that Karnataka has released approximately 84,168 cusecs of water at Biligundulu from 5 September to 12 September and by the end of today it may exceed one lakh cusecs.

Rebutting the submission, senior advocates Shekhar Naphade and Rakseh Dwivedi, appearing for Tamil Nadu, said that it was evident that Karnataka has released "only the inflows received by it and the depletion in storage (of Karnataka) is due to its own drawal and not on account of release to Tamil Nadu as alleged by Karnataka".

Fifty TMCs of water are required to be stored by Tamil Nadu for the purpose of sustained relief for the relevant period, they said, adding that it has made an "internal arrangement for its own protection" and Karnataka can neither question it nor flout the final order on release of water.

The court said that it would hear the matter on 20 September again after the supervisory committee decides it.

The supervisory committee is an expert body and it was constituted on 22 May, 2013 and is required to take a decision in conformity with the final order of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal, it said.
Violent protests erupted across Karnataka after the Supreme Court modified its earlier order asking for the release of 15,000 cusecs Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu and directed the Karnataka government to release 12,000 cusecs on a daily basis till 20 September.

While the media ran clip of burning buses and angry protesters, the social media narrative was contrary to this portrayal of the protests. Rather than pandering to propaganda and sharing unverified facts, the social media took to dismissing the violence and offered support in helping out fellow residents.

#CauveryIssue Stay Calm and Spread Love Not Hate. pic.twitter.com/WneBUdGMZ9  Vivek kodira (@Vivekkodira) September 12, 2016

Don't be Kannadiga Don't be Tamizhan Be an Indian and help others Spread Love#CauveryIssue  Bobgally (@Krishnan_Masi) September 12, 2016

Now that's a responsible citizen of INDIA Kn and TN protesters should learn from him. #Cauveryissue https://t.co/SuafPGrtz9  Dhiraj Mahindra (@Mahindraah) September 12, 2016

Anger is out in Bengaluru. People in K'taka, dont listen to rumors & dont spread rumors. Be safe & stay calm #CauveryIssue  Girish Alva (@girishalva) September 12, 2016

#CauveryIssue Appealing to people KAR & TN maintain peace.Some fringe groups want create chaos. Media should play active role to ensure it  Suraj Hegde (@SurajMNHegde) September 12, 2016

Request to everyone, stop spreading hate, live and let live. We are humans before kannadiga or tamilian. Spread harmony!! #CauveryIssue  bannerjivaishnavi (@vbannerji) September 12, 2016

The natural resources of the nation belong to every citizen irrespective of any boundary.Please maintain peace and respect law #CauveryIssue  Madhur Bhandarkar (@imbhandarkar) September 12, 2016

Many even shared positive accounts of cooperation in the face of the protests.

A Kannadian safely dropped a Tamilian(me) in his home at Bangalore during the tense situation. Hope this kind of #love spreads #CauveryIssue  Ramanathan (@smile_rams) September 12, 2016

Twitterati also questioned the motivate behind these protests.

Indulging in violence is very easy, wonder what did these Pro-Tamil & Pro-Kannada groups did for the farmers who are suffering #CauveryIssue  Shabbir Ahmed (@Ahmedshabbir20) September 12, 2016

Disgusting to see fringe pro-tamil & Pro-Kannada groups attacking innocent people over #CauveryIssue #StopViolence  Shabbir Ahmed (@Ahmedshabbir20) September 12, 2016

Why can't Kaveri issue be resolved in a way which doesn't cause normal people to suffer like this? Plain vandalism.#CauveryIssue  Teens (@TeenuVijayan) September 12, 2016

I guess once you beat all people up and burn a few hundred vehicles, the water level will automatically increase #CauveryIssue  Amarnath Pai (@AmarnathPai) September 12, 2016

The whole issue is about shortage of water, so, people should really avoid protesting by setting things on fire.  Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) September 12, 2016

Considering the nature of social media, mockery and jokes were a given.

I will burn my house because I want to fight with my neighbour ! #CauveryIssue  Abhay Bhat (@abhayvbhat) September 12, 2016

Why are people setting things on fire in Bangalore? Silly way to protest about limited supply of water #CauveryIssue pic.twitter.com/ajnRAmXx92  Papa CJ (@PapaCJ) September 12, 2016

almost 3 years in bangalore and so far all i ever really worried about was the traffic..guess that changed today #CauveryIssue  Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75) September 12, 2016

What do you mean #CauveryIssue isn't about Mohan Bhargav leaving NASA for Cauvery amma?  Anurag Verma (@kitAnurag) September 12, 2016

Meanwhile half of North India is wondering why is Madras fighting Madras. #CauveryIssue  Gabbbar (@GabbbarSingh) September 12, 2016

Dear kannadigas in TN and tamils in KA, if any goons ask you anything, just reply "ariyilla chetta". Thank malayalam later. #CauveryIssue  kiduva (@kiduva) September 12, 2016

Telugu Actor Silambarasan also urged the two states to coexist.

The Bengaluru Police took to social media to make sure that rumours were nipped in the bud.

Please do not pay heed to rumours floating on WhatsApp reg #CauveryProtests. Rely on @BlrCityPolice & @blrcitytraffic for authentic updates  BengaluruCityPolice (@BlrCityPolice) September 12, 2016

Please do not pay heed to rumours floating on WhatsApp reg #CauveryProtests. Rely on @BlrCityPolice & @blrcitytraffic for authentic updates  Abhishek Goyal (@goyal_abhei) September 12, 2016

The politics around the issue also became a point for contention.

Where is Puratchi Thalaivi Jayalalitha? Is this okay by her? https://t.co/Cz2VYUTrnu  Smita Prakash (@smitaprakash) September 12, 2016

Jayalaithaa and Sidhharamiah need to sit down and sort this out. Put India above politics! #CauveryIssue  Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) September 12, 2016

Dear @mkstalin @kalaignar89 sir, Will DMK break its alliance with #Congress who have betrayed & keep betraying TN in #CauveryIssue ? Pls Ans  Kamaljii (@kamaljii) September 12, 2016

Things I learnt from intellectuals:

For Patidar related damage, government was responsible

For Cauvery related damage, public is responsible  Rahul Raj (@bhak_sala) September 12, 2016

The imposition Section 144 of CrPC in Bengaluru may quell the protests, to follow more updates about the Cauvery issue, follow our live updates.
Normal life remained affected for the 66th consecutive day on Monday in violence-hit Kashmir, where authorities imposed restrictions on the movement and assembly of people in some areas on the eve of Eid al-Adha.

A senior police official told IANS, "Restrictions have been imposed in Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama districts."

The Valley will remain shut despite Eid celebrations on Tuesday, the official added. Two of the most sought after food items on Eid, mutton and bakery remained unavailable to the people of the Valley.

Educational institutions, main markets, public transport and other businesses remained suspended. A total of 80 people have died and around 11,500 others injured in the ongoing unrest that started in Srinagar on 9 July.

Restrictions have been imposed in some of the towns in Kashmir as well as in three police station areas of Srinagar, a police official said.

He said restrictions have been imposed in the towns of Ganderbal, Kupwara, Baramulla, Budgam, Shopian, Kulgam, Pulwama and Anantnag. The curbs have also been imposed in Khanyar, Nowhatta and M R Gunj police station areas of Srinagar city, the official said, adding the step has been taken to maintain law and order. The separatists have extended the shutdown programme till September 16.

They have called for a march towards the local office of United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) on Eid al-adha on Tuesday.

Schools, colleges and other educational institutions in the Valley continued to remain closed. Some of the areas in the outskirts and civil lines of Srinagar witnessed increased movement of private vehicles and auto-rickshaws this morning, while some shops selling essentials were also open in view of the festival.

Few bakery and mutton shops were open at some places in the Valley where people were seen shopping for the items, the official said.

The CRPF said five of its personnel were injured in stone pelting incidents since Sunday.

"5 CRPF personnel injured and 2 CRPF vehicle damaged in 18 incidents of stone pelting involving the Force in the Kashmir valley in past 24 hrs," the force tweeted.

Poonch encounter still on

Gunfight erupted again on Monday morning in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, the same place where four persons were killed on Sunday, police said. A senior police official told IANS that the gunfight started again from the under construction mini secretariat building in Poonch town, the site of Sunday's firing.

"The building and adjacent areas were surrounded and exchange of fire were continuing between the security forces and some surviving militants still holed up in the building," the official said.

The victims comprised three militants and a policeman, while five others  a police official, a civilian and three soldiers  were injured.

The encounters between security forces and the militants, who were holed up in a house and another structure near the under-construction Mini Secretariat, erupted at around 7.30 on Sunday morning and continued through the day.

"Three militants have been knocked down. The civilians, who were held hostage, have been safely evacuated. Operation is still on," Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Rajouri-Poonch range Johny Willian had told PTI on Sunday.

A policeman Rajinder Kumar was killed in the incident. Two Army jawans, two police jawans and a civilian were also injured. One of the injured is sub inspector of Special Operation Group (SoG) Manzoor Hussain and another a civilian Tariq, police said, adding the injured have been hospitalised.

The authorities used drones to track down the militants who had taken shelter inside a house where an elderly couple lived and another structure. The couple was safely evacuated. Inspector General of Police (IGP) Jammu Zone Danish Rana said body of one of the militants was recovered and others are being recovered.

"The cordon in the area will remain intact till Monday as operation is on," Rana added. Earlier, state police chief Rajendera Kumar said, "Four militants are involved in the two encounters at two different locations."

"They (militants) are in a house, where there is a civilian couple. Forces are retrieving them. we have to evacuate the civilians first," he said. The encounters started when the militants started firing from near the Mini Secretariat building, which is under construction, close to Army's 93 Brigade headquarters, police said.

The attackers then barged into a house in Allah Pir locality and another structure near the mini secretariat. Defence spokesman said a firefight between security forces and terrorists erupted this early morning when a JKP patrol encountered terrorists on the fringes of border town of Poonch.

Army units deployed in the area immediately reacted with quick reaction teams, on receiving the information, the spokesman said, adding that after initial brief exchange of fire, the terrorists took shelter in an isolated house and under construction mini secretariat building.

"In initial exchange of fire, one police jawan was martyred and one received injuries. One civilian also got injured and has been evacuated to District Hospital, Poonch. The encounter is continuing and the area has been cordoned. "Efforts are on to neutralize holed up terrorists with minimum collateral damage," the spokesman said.

'Go after those instigating the youths'

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday had directed the security forces to go after those instigating youths to indulge in violence in Kashmir and try to bring back normalcy in the state within a week.

The directive was given during an hour-long meeting the Home Minister had with top security officials, including National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval, besides others.

Sources said the home minister conveyed that the security forces must go after the instigators of the violence in Kashmir Valley and book them as they continue to disrupt normal life. Meanwhile, four terrorists who were trying to sneak into India via the Line of Control (LoC) were killed on Sunday as the army foiled three infiltration attempts in Kashmir.

One infiltration bid was foiled in Naugam sector, another in Tangdhar sector and the third one in Gurez sector.

Pakistan special envoy briefs leadership over Kashmir issue

Pakistan, meanwhile, said that its special envoy on Kashmir met UN high commissioner for human rights in Geneva and briefed him over the alleged human rights violations on the Indian side of the restive state. Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari, special envoy of the Prime Minister on Jammu and Kashmir and Chairman Standing Committee of National Assembly on Foreign Affairs met Prince Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein as part of Pakistan's efforts to highlight the issue of Kashmir.

Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement that Leghari briefed UN High Commissioner "about the ongoing critical human rights situation in Kashmir, underscoring that the matter was of great concern to all Pakistanis." It said that High Commissioner Zeid thanked the Special Envoy for his visit to Geneva and for briefing him on "the human rights situation."

"He assured the special envoy that his office was carefully observing the situation in the area and was in contact with both India and Pakistan in this regard," the Foreign Office said. The envoy asked the high commissioner to take concrete measures to immediately end violence in Kashmir.

The envoy said that India should fulfil its human rights commitments under the UNSC resolutions and international human rights obligations.

Leghari is one of 22 envoys appointed by Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif to brief the international community about the situation in Kashmir.

With inputs from agencies
On the eve of Eid-ul Azha festival, Jammu and Kashmir government on Monday declared that curfew will be imposed in all 10 districts of the Valley on 13 September. Helicopters, drones will be deployed for surveillance on Tuesday, PTI reported.

Just ahead of one of the biggest festivals, the usual festivities that mark the Eid were missing in the Valley where markets wore a deserted look as normal life remain paralysed.

Though the separatists have been relaxing the strike in the evening hours of most of the days, groups of youth have been fanning out in different markets and forcing shutdown during the relaxation period in the past.

These activities of the youth prompted even hardline Hurriyat Conference to issue a statement, asking people to follow the protest programme in letter and spirit.

"Hurriyat has taken a strong note of some youth compelling the shopkeepers for shutdown during the relaxation time. Hurriyat has clarified once again that this period is part of the programme and is meant to get the essential commodities ... whosoever violates the joint programme is not a well wisher," Hurriyat said.

The separatist groups, which have extended the strike call till 16 September, have urged people to observe Eid with austerity.

Shops and business establishments remained closed during day time due to the strike called by separatists even though a fair number of private vehicles were plying on some roads, especially the city centre Lal Chowk and adjoining areas.

The massive footfall of customers at bakeries, sweets shops and garment stores, a usual sight on the festival eve, was missing with all these outlets closed.

#FLASH: Curfew will be imposed in all 10 districts of Kashmir, tomorrow.  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

#FLASH In the wake of #BakraEid, Helicopters, drones to be used for security and surveillance purposes in the Kashmir Valley tomorrow.  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Security forces including Army have been asked to be vigilant so that timely action can be taken agnst elements inciting violence in Kashmir  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

One of the famous confectionery-cum-bakery on the upmarket Residency Road -- Modern Sweets -- stuck a poster outside its store reading: 'No bakery available on Eid'.

Shakti Sweets, which is right next to Modern Sweets, also had its shutters down.

Sale of sacrificial animals is going on at many places in the city but very less than normal.

"Our sale is around 10 per cent of what it used to be on the eve of Eid-ul Azha. I do not think there is any chance of it picking up with less than 24 hours left for the festivities," said Altaf Ahmad, a livestock dealer.

Separatists have given a call for a march to the local office of the United Nations Military Observers Group on Tuesday to seek implementation of the UN resolutions on Kashmir, which is likely to be scuttled by the government by putting in place strict security measures.

Normal life in Kashmir Valley has been badly affected since 9 July, a day after Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter with security forces in south Kashmir.

As many as 76 persons, including two cops, have been killed and thousands others injured in clashes with security forces over the past 65 days.

With inputs from PTI
Jammu: Gunfight erupted again on Monday morning in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, the same place where four persons were killed on Sunday, police said.

According to the latest reports, one terrorist has been killed in Poonch district and an operation is underway.

FLASH: One terrorist has been killed in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir. Operation underway.  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Cops get ready to launch assault against possible militants in Poonch. Police recover two bodies do far. pic.twitter.com/9M9USCC7Vy  Mufti Islah (@islahmufti) September 12, 2016

A senior police official told IANS that the gunfight started again from the under construction mini secretariat building in Poonch town, the site of Sunday's firing.

"The building and adjacent areas were surrounded and exchange of fire were continuing between the security forces and some surviving militants still holed up in the building," the official said.

The victims comprised three militants and a policeman, while five others  a police official, a civilian and three soldiers  were injured.

Sunday's gunfight ended with the killing of the militants.

With inputs from IANS
Editor's note: This article was originally published on 10 September. It is being republished in light of the Supreme Court's orders to Karnataka on Monday, about the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.

Most, if not all, of the journalists in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka writing about the Cauvery dispute remind me of an 1869 short story by Mark Twain.

In this story, a journalist pens down a sentence this way:

John W. Blossom Esq., the able editor of the Higginsville Thunderbolt and Battle Cry of Freedom, arrived in the city yesterday. He is stopping at the Van Buren House.

The editor changes it into:

That ass, Blossom, of the Higginsville Thunderbolt and Battle Cry of Freedom, is down here again sponging at the Van Buren.

An adjective here or a metaphor there or a clever turn of phrase can turn fact into a half-truth or a lie or even slander.

Forget actors. Even journalists of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka join in the Cauvery battle, supporting the causes of their respective states. In both the states, they add to the cacophony of politicians, and bureaucrats who pander to them. So there, we have the awesome troika in both the states: Lying politicians, kowtowing officials and jingoistic journalists.

For all of them, statistics come in handy. As American humorist Evan Esar once famously said, statistics can help you produce

"unreliable facts from reliable figures".

So the awesome troikas keep the Cauvery dispute alive and kicking.

Thats why, when the rains dont come, madness does. You hear, both in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, war cries like those of the prehistoric Huaorani tribesmen in the Amazonian jungles.

Tamil movies are stopped in Bengaluru, and Tamils run for cover.

And thats enough for social medias verbal terrorists to depict the wonderful city of Bengaluru  as if it was the first one to invent a bandh in India  as a monster with ugly horns and protruding teeth, out to wipe out Tamils and Tamil Nadu from the face of earth. They forget that Kannadigas are more tolerant to outsiders than any in India, and that Bengaluru is the most cosmopolitan of the countrys cities. Do they remember what was done to Biharis in Mumbai once? They dont. And they forget that Karnataka has gifted India with an IT capital. It has a pretty face, and a few blemishes like Vatal Nagaraj cant turn it into an ugly beast. Nagaraj doesnt represent Kannadigas, even if he thinks he does.

The whole issue should have been considered resolved on 5 February, 2007, when the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal delivered its award.

The dispute lasted a century. And then for a decade, there was debate over setting up a tribunal to resolve it once for all. Then the tribunal deliberated on it for 17 years and gave its award. It apportioned the water among the states, and it even said what should be done when the monsoon failed and who should ensure the allocation of shares between states.

As I reported on that day, Karnatakas counsel before the tribunal, FS Nariman even said: "The (tribunals) decision is satisfactory for all parties concerned."

But along with rains, truth becomes scarce when the monsoon fails. And the farmer suffers nightmares, when he's told he wouldnt get enough water his crop. Human misery in both states, not politics, starts the fire. The awesome troika fans the flames in each state.

Farmers in Karnataka are not ignoramuses. They know "some" of the water, whatever there is of it, must flow down the river to Tamil Nadu. Farmers in Tamil Nadu are not dumb idiots either. They know Karnataka would release "some" water. But you cant blame them for not being able to quantify this "some".

Farmers in both states have no way of knowing how much water there really is in the river or reservoirs and whats the right share of each state when the monsoon fails, and how much water they can expect for their crops. They must only rely on the awesome troikas: Lying politicians, kowtowing officials and jingoistic journalists. Thats when the trouble begins.

By Karnatakas own admission, its reservoirs have some 50 tmcft of water. But, however much water there is, shouldn't Karnataka ensure that Tamil Nadu gets 56 percent of it in a water year beginning June? The tribunals formula, gazetted by the central government, is the law of the land. And shouldnt facts be told to Karnataka farmers?

And Tamil Nadu says its short of more than 80 tmcft of water. Where does Jayalalithaa think Siddaramaiah can produce it from? Is he a rain god? Or does she expect him to lug it from the Krishna or the Godavari and pour into the Cauvery so that her farmers can get it? Shouldnt facts be told to Tamil Nadu farmers?

When truth becomes a casualty, you end up with only babble and bedlam.

Adding to the information terror is the constant whining from people, who are not sure what they are whining about. So we have a tweet showing random photographs of lush green fields in Karnataka. Then comes a wild taunt by an actor, who wont know the difference between a cusec and a tmcft, who cant tell the difference between a canal and a field channel and who has never probably stepped into a paddy field except for a sexy hip-hop scene with a heroine after rubbing lotion on his flawless skin.

Its only truthful information that can keep tempers of the farmers under control. The state governments have machineries to do that job. They are called agriculture departments. Its their job to keep farmers informed about the possibility of a monsoon failure and about possible changes in crops and harvesting patterns they could make.



By Karnatakas own admission, its reservoirs have some 50 tmcft of water. But, however much water there is, shouldn't Karnataka ensure that Tamil Nadu gets 56 percent of it in a water year beginning June?

But forget it. Indias agriculture departments dont even effectively advise tomato farmers how they should avoid a market glut. This year once again, Telangana, Karnataka and Maharashtra saw a huge tomato glut, leading to a price crash.

Did anyone say Karnataka and Tamil Nadu cant work together to find a solution?

In Chennai, in 2000, I was happy to watch SM Krishna and M Karunanidhi, when they were the chief ministers of the states, sit around a table in one room under one roof, along with their ministers and officers, and work together wonderfully and discuss plans to catch forest thug Veerappan.

But back then, the states had a common enemy to fight. And now too the states have a common problem. If they have turned into enemies of each other, I blame again the troikas.

Let the farmer cry. Why must the lying politicians, kowtowing officials and jingoistic journalists care?
New Delhi: "Citizens cannot become law unto themselves," the Supreme Court said on Monday while asking the Executives to comply its orders in "letter and spirit" as concept of "deviancy" and "disobedience" has no room.

The apex court was irked over the contention of Karnataka that the "law and order" situation and state-wide protests led it to file the fresh plea seeking to keep in abeyance the 5 September order that had asked it to release 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu till 16 September.

"An order of this court has to be complied with by all concerned and it is the obligation of the Executive to see that the order is complied with in letter and spirit. Concept of deviancy has no room; and disobedience has no space," a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and U U Lalit said.

The court modified its order asking Karnataka to release 12000 cusecs of water per day to Tamil Nadi till September 20, 2016.

It said when a court of law passes an order, it is the "sacred" duty of citizens to obey it and if there is any grievance, they are obliged to take permissible legal recourse.

Terming the "law and order" ground taken by Karnataka as "absolutely disturbing" and "totally deprecable", it said that the averments in the application "cannot be conceived of to be filed in a court of law".

"Agitation in spontaneity or propelled by some motivation or galvanized by any kind of catalystic component, can never form the foundation for seeking modification of an order," the bench said. The Karnataka government, in its plea, said the application for modification of the September 5 order is "necessitated due to the spontaneous agitations" in the various parts of Karnataka including Bangalore, Mandya, Mysore and Hassan in the Cauvery basin and these have paralysed normal life, besides causing destruction of public and private properties.

"We expect the inhabitants of both the states, namely, the state of Karnataka and state of Tamil Nadu, shall behave regard being had to the respect for law and order and the executive of both the states are under the constitutional obligation to see that the law and order prevails," it said.
Heavy rains lashed Bihar's capital city, paralysing normal life with several localities remaining submerged in knee-deep water on Monday. "We have received more than 100 mm rainfall in Patna since Sunday night. As a result several localities remain waterlogged much to the inconvenience of the people," Patna Municipal Commissioner Abhishek Singh told PTI.

The areas like Gardanibagh, Patel Nagar, Rajvanshi Nagar, Adalatganj, Kankerbagh and Rajendra Nagar were worst-affected with waterlogging, he said.

Singh said that 37 pumps with the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) had been pressed to service to drain out the rain water. It would take three-four hours to drain out rain water, he said, adding that if needed addition pumps would be pressed into service for the purpose.

Meanwhile, the Patna Municipal Corporation released landline and mobile numbers of its control room to enable the people to register complaint against waterlogging in their respective areas, the Patna Municipal Commissioner said.

The PMC Control Room landline and mobile phone numbers are -0612-2200634, 09798261371/09798261372, Singh added.

With six more deaths, the toll in Bihar floods increased to 228 even as the flood situation eased with all major rivers except Punpun, Kosi and Kamlabalan, flowing below danger mark. Three persons each died in districts of Saran and Begusarai, a Disaster Management Department statement said.

At least, 31.30 lakh people have been affected in 1,725 villages of 12 districts in Bihar, the release said.

As per the department's release, a total of 3.94 lakh people have been evacuated from the 12 flood-affected districts of Buxar, Bhojpur, Patna, Vaishali, Saran, Begusarai, Samastipur, Lakhisarai, Khagaria, Munger, Bhagalpur and Katihar.

The government has deployed 2,537 boats for evacuation, while national and state disaster response forces were already working in the affected districts, it said.

1.98 lakh people have taken shelter in 271 relief camps. The number of camps has gone down from yesterday's 318. A total of 220 camps are being operated for cattle affected by flooding.

According to the Bihar water resources department, Punpun river at Sripalpur in Patna, Kosi river at Baltara in Khagaria district and Kamlabalan in Jhanjharpur district were flowing above danger level.

The Ganga continued to recede at Digha ghat, Gandhi ghat and Hathidah in Patna district and Buxar, Munger, Kahalgaon and Bhagalpur in Bhagalpur district, the release added.

With inputs from PTI
Trupti Desai, social activist and founder of Bhumata Brigade (Mumbai-based organisation) who led the fierce campaign for women's rights to enter temples is now going to participate in Bigg Boss' season 10.

The activist most popular for her campaign to gain entry into the Shani Shingnapur temple, has been long-time champion of woman's rights and hopes to raise some awareness regarding woman's rights through the issue.

Desai also campaigned for women to gain entry in Sabarimala temple, Mahalakshmi temple and the Trimbakeshwar Shiva temple.

Confirming her entry in the show and speaking about her demands for her participation, Desai told Firstpost, "I had a meeting with the producers of the show on 19 August and I have requested them that there be a female as the next voice of Bigg Boss as opposed to a male. I will participate in the show if my demand is met, in this season or the next."

She added that she does not approve of some of the obscene activities that occur in the house. She said, "I hope that with my participation I can raise some more awareness regarding woman's rights considering the popularity of the show. Also there are a lot of obscene activities that happen in the show, which I hope I can bring to an end. I want to see whether the show is scripted or not."

Talking about bringing in a positive change she says, "I will also request other members of the house to send out positive message to the public."

The show is rumoured to premiere on 16 October and it has been gaining a lot of attention for its new format (commoners to join celebrities as participants on the show). Bollywood actor Salman Khan will host the show.
Mumbai: In a scathing attack on controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, the Shiv Sena on Monday alleged that his objective was to "spread hatred" among the people and "destabilise" the country by following a "policy of terrorism and conversion to make India an Islamic state".

The Sena said Naik's contention that if he and his NGO Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) were banned, it would be an injustice to 20 crore Muslims of the country, is a ploy to "intimidate" the police against taking any action against him to avoid public backlash.

"If Zakir Naik had not been exposed after the Dhaka carnage, he would have continued with his 'peace' work uninterrupted. The chief objective of people like him is to spread hatred in the minds of people and make the country instable," an editorial in Sena mouthpiece Saamana claimed.

"Their policy is to defeat Hindutva and establish an Islamic rule in India. They use all tactics ranging from terrorism to caste conversions to achieve their goals," it added. "Naik's statement that action against him would amount to injustice against all Muslims is to threaten the authorities against doing anything against him," it said.

Taking a dig at Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, the ally of the ruling party in the state said going by the way he (Fadnavis) promptly responded to comedian Kapil Sharma over his bribe allegation against BMC officials, tomorrow he may even respond to Naik as well, considering that several Islamic states across the world are caretakers of people like him (Naik).

Naik, in an an open letter recently, had stated that if he and IRF were banned, it would "set a precedence of unspeakable injustices against the 20 crore Muslims of India. This action will embolden and encourage every fringe element in the country to do as they please".

"The Muslim population is already feeling threatened and insecure and I can't even imagine how they will feel after this action. Muslims are bound to think that today it is Zakir Naik, tomorrow it could be anyone of them," he had written. The 51-year-old medical practitioner-turned-Salafist preacher had also claimed that it was not an attack on him but against Indian Muslims as well as against peace, democracy and justice.
The Open Letter of Zakir Naik to the Indian Muslims as well as the government has reopened opinions on the controversial Salafi Islamist preacher. A Firstpost article explored how this open letter as an attempt to communalise Muslims and a veiled threat to the country and the government.

According to the latest media reports, Zakir Naik's Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) has been banned from directly receiving foreign funds in India. The Home Ministry has asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to seek prior permission from it before releasing any money to the IRF.

More interestingly, a confession has been published in The Times of India in which it is clearly stated that there had been Rs 50 lakh donation from the IRF to the to Rajiv Gandhi Foundation in 2011. The Congress party that owns the foundation admitted to accepting the donation. However, it claims that it was returned to IRF some months ago. The newspaper claims to have checked with the foundation on the Rs 50 lakh contribution from IRF on Tuesday. It further says that, but on Thursday, it denied having received the donation. Furthermore, the Party spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi tried to emphasise that the donation was made at a time when neither Naik, nor his foundation were under scrutiny.

In the backdrop of the violation of the FCRA, financial irregularities and other ongoing issues that the IRF has met, Zakir Naik has written an open letter to the Indian Muslims appealing to them to stand by his peace activism in the country. In the two initial paragraphs of his letter, Naik writes:

For someone who has spent 25 years in promoting peace, spreading greater awareness of Islam and talking about similarities between religions and condemning injustices, the last two months have been a rude shock to me.. Im alarmed at the murder of democracy and strangulation of fundamental rights and the precedence it is setting for times to come.. Lets not be gullible enough to assume that there isnt a deeper agenda behind this vicious campaign..This is not just an attack on me, its an attack against Indian Muslims. And its an attack against peace, democracy and justice.

But much against this tall claim, when the Indian government launched a probe into the activities of the IRF and hate speeches of Zakir Naik, it took the matter into consideration as a serious threat to the national integration, communal harmony and internal security of the country. The chief minister of Maharashtra who confirmed the submission of a report by Mumbai Police Commissioner, himself had pointed out that there were several unlawful activities perpetrated by the Mumbai-based Islamist televangelist and his organization, the IRF.

In fact, the Indian government booked Zakir Naik and his IRF as an organization under the purview of UAPA (the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967). Inevitably, the Ministry of Home Affairs also issued an inspection notice to Islamic Research Foundation for alleged FCRA violations. This legal inspection was the first step towards suspending or revoking registration of Naiks organisation under UAPA and FCRA.

But in his open letter, Zakir Naik sees to all this legal procedure with an ill-designed conspiracy theory. He calls the imminent ban on him and his IRF as the killing of peace and harmony and the biggest jolt to the countrys democracy of recent times. The biggest Salafist televangelist of India writes:

The message is clear: its not a question of whether Ive committed is a crime or not. Its a question of using desperate measures to kill peace and harmony. And a ban is now imminent. It may happen in days or weeks but the writing is clear on the wall. IRF and I have been set up for a ban. Unless of course, better sense prevails and the ban machinery set in motion is stopped.And if IRF and I are banned, it will be the biggest jolt to the countrys democracy of recent times.

But it is a common knowledge now that Zakir Naik and his IRF have been under the government's scanner, only after Bangladesh raised the grave charges against him for inspiring the terrorists behind the Dhaka restaurant attack. If India plans to ban the radical televangelism of Zakir Naik, it would not be the first country doing so. Naik is already banned in several pluralistic and democratic nations including the UK, Canada for his venomous speeches deriding other religions. The democratic ethos of the Muslim countries like Bangladesh and Malaysia also could not reconcile with pseudo peace activism. Therefore, Zakir Naik is officially banned in Malaysia along with other 16 Salafist Islamist preachers. In Bangladesh, through his Peace TV is still popular because of being aired in the local languages, but the mainstream Muslim thinkers and even the clergy of all Muslim sects call for the blackout ban on his Saudi-sponsored ideological mission which misleads the common Muslims, as also reported by News 18.

An earlier article on Firstpost candidly exposed how Zakir Naik misled the Indian Muslims misinterpreting Islam based on his intolerant, xenophobic, extremist and misogynist views. The article produces glaring examples of how brazenly Zakir Naik misinterprets various rulings and injunctions of Islam, out of context, and preaches the suicide bombing as war tactic, female sex slavery, death penalty of apostasy, child marriage and other pre-Islamic nefarious chauvinistic practices. He openly extolled Osama-bin-Laden, exhorting Muslims for terrorism, reviled the propagation of other religions and justified the destruction of cultural and religious structures such as the holy Islamic tombs in Makkan and Madina (the two holiest cities of Islam in Saudi Arabia) and Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan.

The Islamic Research Foundation (the IRF), conceived and founded by Zakir Naik, extensively featured on the website of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the chief religious and political organisation of the notorious Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). A link to Zakir Naik's IRF website can be clearly seen in this screenshot of Hafeez Saeed's Jamat-ud-Dawa website (dated 24 December, 2008).

Naiks sympathy for the terrorist outfits such as Al Qaeda and Taliban has gone public, after he repeatedly questioned the validity of branding Osama Bin Laden, the founder-ideologue of Al Qaeda, as terrorist. Al Qaeda is a globally known terrorist network under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967. But, going copletly against this law, Zakir Naik is on record saying that he is not sure if Osama Bin Laden and Talibani fighters are terrorists, as reported in the NDTV.

Despite the plethora of evidences that are more than sufficient to question and ban the unlawful and anti-pluralism activities of Zakir Naik, he avers in his latest open letter:

From what I understand, IRF and I have been set up for a ban. Never mind the fact that the legal agencies have found no wrongdoing  financial or otherwise. Never mind the lack of evidence (although I am not guilty of any wrong-doing, much less any offence whatsoever).

This letter is completely misleading and untenable. But Naik, as usual, misuses the Quranic verses in his letter in his crazy bid to convince the Indian Muslims calling this legal action an attack against the whole religion. In the conclusion of his letter, he has quoted a Quranic verse: For Allah says, 'They plot and plan, and Allah too plans. And the best of planners is Allah. (Al Quran 3:54)

Nevertheless, the mainstream Indian Muslims are not so naive and gullible to let this clear misuse of the religious texts and brazen violation of democratic rights go unchallenged. They are imbued with the Indian values of pluralism, democracy, secularism and justice in full conformity with the core teachings of Islam.

The author is a scholar of Comparative Religion, Classical Arabic and Islamic sciences, cultural analyst and researcher in Media and Communication Studies. Views are personal. He tweets at @GRDehlvi. Email: grdehlavi@gmail.com
I have 22 dogs in my house, all of whom have been rescued. But deep down inside, I am really a cat person. I would be happy if I could keep 22 or more cats as well. This reminds me of the movie Pretty Woman where Richard Gere asks Julia Roberts, "What happens after the knight rescues the lady?" and she answers "She rescues him right back. Cats are like that. They refuse to be passively thankful, are independent and have an attitude that will make you think who actually "owns" whom!

I just finished reading Richard Webster's collection of anecdotes  Is your Pet Psychic?. A particular chapter on cats describes their senses and agility. Did you know that the field of vision of each eye slightly overlaps the other, like binoculars, allowing them to hone in with incredible accuracy on their prey? That their hair also acts as a sensory organ? That their ears can move 180 degrees to focus on the direction of the sound without turning their heads and they contain semi-circular canals that provide them with an unerring sense of balance?

However, the book is not about physical attributes but about the sixth sense of animals. The Egyptians, who revered the cat, called it Mau. This name is not based on Meow but means "seer"- one with the ability to see what we cannot, including the future. There are hundreds of recorded instances where cats have raced out of houses frantically, hours, even days, before an earthquake.

One Second World War incident, related by the Vicar of St Augustine's Church in London, is about his cat called Faith and her kitten. They disappeared and were found in a small niche, three floors below the ground level and the Vicar carried them back to his room. This happened four times. The cats went back. Three days later, the place was bombed and burned to the ground. The cat and her kitten kept meowing till they were found safely tucked into the niche.

Every family from that time has a story about cats who ran to bomb shelters long before the planes arrived. Hundreds of people who simply followed them were saved

The author Richard Webster has his own story: every year their parents rented a vacation home from a woman who would leave her cat with them for three weeks. Every year the cat disappeared as soon as the owner left and did not reappear till one hour before the woman was to return! In another instance, their cat Ting, who had never been interested in the phone until the author's sister, her caretaker, went to the hospital. Whenever she would call from the hospital, the family knew it was her because even before the phone rang Ting had already reached the instrument.

One special power of the cats is their ability to know when their owner will call before anyone picks up the call. Scientist Rupert Sheldrake, one of the experts in the research into the unexplained powers of animals, including cats says,"We found several times where cats anticipate telephone calls from their owners. They get excited if the phone rings and their owner is on the phone, but they ignore phone calls from anyone else, and this happens when their owners call from a great distance or at unpredictable times." Also, like dogs, cats miraculously appear at the gate or doorstep the moment you arrive home from work, no matter what time it is and which car you arrive in.

Repeated experiments were tried with a cat whose favourite food was cheese and who knew if cheese was in the fridge, even if many other strong smelling food were put there. The owner only had to think about cheese and the cat would jump up onto her lap. Instead of calling him, she just thought about a great big piece of cheese and the cat would arrive.

Sheldrake's theory, on how animals have these powers, is called Morphic Fields. "Morphic fields are involved in self-organising systems which include cells, animals, and groups of organisms. When the owner and the pet form a bond there is a field that connects them," said Sheldrake. He says, the fact that we see schools of fish or flocks of birds turning in the same direction simultaneously is evidence that these morphic fields exist. Sheldrake believes these fields connect living things, whether of the same species or different species, which have close connections to one another across distances, whether large or small.

Jim Berkland, a geologist working for the last 30 years in California, observes the behaviour of cats and dogs as a method to predict earthquakes. His work is chronicled in the book, The Man Who Predicts Earthquakes, by Cal Orey. For thousands of years, people in China had been successfully predicting earthquakes based on the behaviour of animals before quakes. Jim's first prediction involving cats occurred in 1980 where he observed the number of lost cats advertisements listed in local newspapers.

"On 7 November in 1980, there were 14 missing cat ads, the most of the whole year. There are usually 3 or 4 missing cat ads," Jim said. Based on that and other factors, Jim predicted a 7.4 earthquake in the next few days. Within days there was a 7.4 earthquake in Eureka, California. Since then, Berkland has successfully predicted over 25 earthquakes based on missing cat and dog ads. Jim's most famous prediction came in 1989 when he predicted the famous "World Series" earthquake in San Francisco. Missing cat ads were at a record 27. On 17 October, four days after he called the papers with his prediction, the most deadly earthquake since 1906 hit the San Francisco area.

How are cats able to detect these earthquakes?

Animals can detect the change in the earth's magnetic field. When they sense something is about to happen, many cats and dogs flee

In 1998, Jeane Dixon  America's most famous astrologer  wrote a book called Do Cats have ESP. She described the findings of scientists at the parapsychology laboratory of Duke University, which have repeatedly confirmed that cats have psychic abilities.

In the Middle Ages, the prescience of the cat was so widely recognised that people began to believe that they were witches. In 1484, Pope Innocent VII ordered millions of cats to be tortured and killed. On the other side of the world, Chinese Emperor Khai-Hwang ordered anyone involved with cats to be banished to the ends of his empire. We are all aware of the superstition of black cats crossing your path  we still believe that the black cat knows what is going to befall you that day and is warning you.

What has saved cats has been their mortal enemies, rats. As the rats spread, cats and their practical witchcraft were needed again and they were brought back into society as working animals and from there they magicked their way back into people's hearts and laps!

To join the animal welfare movement contact gandhim@nic.in, www.peopleforanimalsindia.org
Panaji: Backing rebel RSS leader Subhash Velingkar for leading a black-flag protest during BJP national president Amit Shah's visit to Goa in August, newly appointed state RSS chief Lakshman Behare said that Shah should have met the protesters and tried to understood the issue first hand.

Behare also gave a clean chit to Velingkar, who has started a rebel RSS state unit, saying the now former Goa sangha chalak had given "100 per cent" to the Sangh's cause in Goa and that his agitation against the BJP-led coalition government in Goa, in partnership with a regional languages forum, was justified.

"They were showing black flags only to highlight the problems in Goa. Amit Shah should have met them and tried to understand their issues. But instead he chose not to meet them. That was not right," Behare told IANS on Sunday in a telephonic interview.

He also said that Shah's inability to meet protesters, including Velingkar, could have deepened the rift in the Goa RSS and BJP ranks.

Behare has been associated with the RSS in Goa for over 47 years and has been in-charge of several responsibilities allotted to him by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

He was appointed as the Goa region's sangh chalak on Saturday, after the unceremonious sacking of Subhash Velingkar, days after he showed black flags to Amit Shah during his visit to Goa in August.

Velingkar has over the last few months, accused the Goa BJP and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, accusing both of allegedly cheating voters over the issue of medium of instruction in Goa's primary schools, also blaming the latter for his sacking.

After his removal, Velingkar has formed a rebel unit of the RSS in Goa.

Behare said that the Velingkar-led agitation against the Goa BJP government was valid and said that the ex-sangha chalak had been asked to step aside as Goa chief, only to ensure that he could focus better on the medium of instruction agitation.

The newly appointed RSS Goa chief also said that another reason why Velingkar was asked to relinquish the charge, was a possibility that his movement could go political in nature.

"According to Sangh system, office bearers cannot work in the political sphere. Subhash Velingkar cannot accept both responsibilities, that of being a sangha chalak and participate in politics. Therefore, he has been relieved of responsibilities in order to allow him to dedicate himself for BBSM (Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch) work," Behare said, adding that while the agitation for education in the mother tongue in primary schools was justified, his original RSS faction would not participate in it.

"BBSM's work has support of the Sangh, but the issue cannot be resolved by agitations and joining politics. We can find a solution at our daily shakhas and by training of our cadre, this is what we think. He (Velingkar) is also our swayamsevak. Only difference is, he wants to be part of the agitation. We cannot stop him," he said.

"But we believe that all sangh swayamsevaks are one. We also share the BBSM's belief that education should happen with mother tongue. We support it. Do away with of English medium. In the world over, it is accepted that primary education should be in mother tongue, for better future education. Goa government's grants to primary school is not right. Government spends money from people's taxes. People want education in mother tongue,a he also said.

Behare also said, that he would reach out to Velingkar's rebel faction and added that his predecessor had made big sacrifices for building the RSS in Goa.

"He has made great sacrifices and his contribution is 100 per cent as far as RSS work in Goa goes. He thinks about the Sangh 24x7,a he said, adding that he did feel saddened by his removal as sangh chalak.

"I felt hurt, but the (RSS) structure has to be put in place. He is not against us, he cannot be. I have spoken to Velingkar sir," he said.
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) workers on Monday staged a protest against the Congress party for allegedly accepting a donation from Zakir Naik's NGO through the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.

It also sought clarification from the party on its relation with Naik's NGO  Islamic Research Foundation (IRF).

Hundreds of supporters of BJYM, the youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) protested outside the office of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) for it allegedly receiving Rs 50 lakh donation from IRF in 2011.

The supporters were detained by the Delhi Police and taken to the Parliament Street Police Station.

BJYM Delhi unit's Vice President Impreet Singh Bakshi told IANS: "The Congress leaders must clear their stand why the party received money from Naik's NGO."

"Congress President (Sonia Gandhi), Vice President (Rahul Gandhi) and Priyanka Gandhi must explain what they did with the money from 2011 till July 2016," he added.

The BJYM protesters asked Sonia to clarify her "party's relation with Naik".

On Saturday, Union Minister of Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad had alleged that RGF, chaired by Sonia, had taken the donation and termed it a "bribe".

Meanwhile, Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala had countered the allegations saying that the money was not given to the RGF but to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT).
In an era when the underworld gets intricately linked to politics, criminals easily acquire the language of profound political analysts. Hence, there couldn't be a more apt description of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar than former RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddins brief comment, defining him as a chief minister of circumstances.

After walking out from Bhagalpur jail on Saturday, with a swagger that cocks a snook at the rule of law, Shahabuddins contempt for the chief minister was unambiguous. He insisted that he would not make any attempt to change himself as people had accepted him for what he is.

He very rightly described Lalu Prasad Yadav as his leader, who heads the biggest party in Bihar  the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). The implicit message being that Nitish Kumars survival as chief minister was hugely dependent on RJD and Lalu Prasad.

Contrast this with the situation in Bihar after the 2005 Assembly elections, when Shahabuddin  nicknamed Shahabu-AK 47 (as the gangster was known to introduce assault rifles in the underworld for the first time in the region)  was brought to book by a group of police officers in the reign of Nitish Kumar.

Shahabuddin was one of the many politicians with criminal antecedents to have found themselves behind bars during the first stint of Nitishs rule (2005-10), which was exclusively devoted to the resurrection of the state and the restoration of majesty of law.

But in peoples perception, Nitish Kumars first mandate was clearly larger than the mere resurrection of the state. Bihar was clearly more of a moral than a political project. Nitish Kumar derived his strength more from his moral positioning than his political coalition of upper caste Hindus and non-Yadav OBCs in Bihar.

He was perceived to be a man of impeccable credentials with a progressive and secular outlook. That was the precise reason why a significant section of Muslims drifted towards and even voted for the BJP in the following Assembly elections in 2010.

In his second stint, Nitish Kumar clearly fell victim to his own hubris. His domineering conduct queered the pitch for his BJP colleagues within the government. The relationship got strained further as he made his intentions clear of breaking the alliance following the projection of the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as BJPs prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 General elections.

Still, Nitish Kumars brand of politics was not seen inconsistent with his moral positioning. He was seen as a leader weaving an effective counter to Modis narrative out of conviction not convenience.

Of course, much of this came from his desire to put himself up as an effective counter to Modis emergence on the national level. But nobody can hold a grudge against Nitish Kumar for nursing a larger than life political ambition.

His parting of ways with the BJP and drubbing in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls apparently disoriented his politics. He started losing his moral position when he chose Jitan Ram Manjhi as his successor after losing the 2014 polls. Manjhi was considered to be a lightweight and pliant enough to pose any real threat.

But the script went haywire as Manjhi proved to be too ambitious to let Nitish Kumar take over before the 2015 Bihar Assembly polls. Though Nitish Kumar quelled Manjhis revolt, he came across as an usual shrewd politician ready to acquire power by hook or by crook  to quote from Sankarshan Thakurs book Single Man: The Life and Times of Nitish Kumar of Bihar.

In what appeared to be the most pragmatic approach that bordered on sheer opportunism, Nitish Kumar buried the hatchet with Lalu Prasad Yadav and forged a grand coalition along with the Congress to defeat BJP in 2015. And he proved to be more than a match for BJP in every respect as he used all the tricks of the trade to outfox Modi.

In his political journey since the 2010 Assembly elections, Nitish Kumar has lost substantial moral ground. Although, he still retains a pale shadow of his former self  the image of a sober, matured and trustworthy politician from Bihar.

The recent spectacle of Shahabuddins cavalcade breezing past highways of the state after his release from Bhagalpur jail, however, has robbed Nitish Kumar of even the fig leaf of morality that he had tried to retain.

His meekness in surrendering to Shahabuddin is more eloquent than his fierce resistance to stop Modi from campaigning in Bihar in the 2005 and 2010 Assembly elections. As of now, his lack of moral authority gets accentuated in his failure to implement prohibition of liquor in the state.

But it would be wrong to find fault only with Nitish Kumar for pursuing a brand of politics devoid of ethics and morality. The list is long. The BJP and the Congress are pioneers, followed by regional satraps all over the country. In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has for long been roping in underworld dons to wean away caste groups. Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati are never hesitant in using politics as means to pursue their personal and selfish interests.

Perhaps the cloud of despair has engulfed the silver lining that Bihar had once generated. In Nitish Kumar's 2015 victory lies buried the moral project of Bihar. In such a context, those with criminal antecedents would come out with more accurate political prognoses than the analysts.
Senior NCP leader Praful Patel reportedly criticised the Congress and blamed it for the downfall of the two parties while addressing a public rally at Akola on Sunday.

In the last 5 years, it is because of the Congress party that its workers, supporters and NCP have suffered, Times Now quoted him as saying.

He added that the scams involving NCP leaders were not really scams but controversies created by the Congress to defame the NCP.

They didn't see as many enemies in BJP as they saw in the NCP. Their focus was to put us down. They sank and they took us down, he said.

This is not the first time when the two parties have washed their dirty linen in public. Both the parties have played a blame game and back stabbed each other since time immemorial.

Their alliance was fraught with accusations, disloyal members and tensions.

During his address to party workers on the partys 17th foundation day, NCP leader Sharad Pawar too held the Congress responsible for breaking up the pre-poll alliance in 2014 Assembly elections in Maharashtra, The Indian Express reported.

However, in May 2016, Pawar had expressed confidence of Congress bouncing back to power like in the past.

NCP had also lauded the Arunachal Pradesh Congress move to replace Nabam Tuki with Pema Khandu for the face of chief minister. The party seems to be confusing itself and others of its loyalty to other parties.

It had even responded to Congress call for forming a grand alliance of like-minded parties for Goa Assembly elections. NCP had extended its support to the idea, saying such front will prevent division of votes in the BJP's favour, PTI had reported.

NCPs loyalty to Congress has always seemed questionable with reports of Pawar holding a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi before the elections and NCP extending unsought outside support to the Devendra Fadnavis government.

Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan believes that NCP wants to keep its options of an alliance with BJP open. The Indian Express had qouted him as saying, The minute Shiv Sena and BJP broke their alliance, NCP signalled end of the alliance with Congress, ahead of polls.

Even in the 2007 elections for the post of mayor and deputy mayor for the Mira-Bhayander municipal corporation, NCP joined hands with Sena, BJP, Janata Dal (Secular), other smaller outfits and independents to support an independent for the post of mayor, according to a report in The Financial Express.

The relations between Congress and NCP, who were ruling Maharashtra as an alliance till 2014, have always remained strained. Reports of clashes within the alliance were ubiquitous.

Livemint had reported that the war between NCP and the Congress had delayed Mumbai infrastructure projects. For instance, NCP was pushing for a sealink between the western suburbs of Bandra and Versova while Congress wanted a coastal road along the western seafront of Mumbai as a cheaper option.

Another example is the transfer of Pune Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh in 2010. While Congress had announced that Singh would soon be transferred from his post, NCP had denied any such proposal, according to IANS.

However, after he quit as Mumbai Police Commissioner in 2014 and joined the BJP, the differences between the Congress and NCP delayed the process of finding his replacement, NDTV had reported.

Before the Maharashtra elections in 2014 in which Congress fell from 17 MPs to just 2, both the parties had heated discussions on the seat sharing.

NCP had repotedly raised the demand for rotational chief minister at the last minute and the alliance broke off.

In a series of tweets, Pawar had declared that, "I would like to say that there were significant differences between our party & Congress on various critical issues. Due to time constraint & other issues, we were compelled to take bold step to end 15 years of alliance with Congress in Maharashtra.

Congress and NCP even set up a ten-member committee to resolve differences as and when they crop up.

The committee has been tasked with the job of resolving difficulties and differences between the two allies in each of the 48 constituencies. A helpline number with office-bearers will be set up soon and if anyone wishes to speak to the Chief Minister or me, they will be connected, Ajit Pawar had told PTI.

Chavan had said that Congress workers considered NCPs body language to be anti-Congress. NCP leader Ajit Pawar had demanded 144 of the states 288 Assembly seats.

NCP had also criticised the Chavan for high cost of Mhada flats and slow pace of MMRDA projects.

Pawar broke away from the Congress in 1999, protesting Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin, and launched the NCP.

With inputs from agencies.
Contrary to popular wisdom, inner-party dissidence, even when expressed in public, has the potential to strengthen democratic practices within political parties. It may be argued that such public defiance, in fact, needs to be viewed as an essential tool to democratise organisational practices.

In the contemporary context, political parties are handicapped by a singular lack of organisational democracy. The tendency of the rank and file to question party leadership outside formal structures is usually considered sacrilegious. Given this, it may be hasty on our part to dismiss the recent public displays of dissidence involving the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

It is significant is that groups of assertive dissidents today are not confining themselves to voicing their critique of the party leadership or its functioning at designated inner-party fora alone. They are going public with disagreements and criticisms even while staying on in the party. This is a relatively recent phenomenon in Indian political culture, one which seems to gain more currency in new parties like the AAP, which do not have rigid organisational structures.

To many, such public criticism may seem blasphemous and tantamount to anti-party activity. But this public perception has been shaped by a political culture where party organisations are seen and accepted as deeply hierarchical bodies, and party leaders and members are expected to obey the party-line without asking any questions  least of all in public.

For a long time this strategy has proven its efficacy in controlling and managing dissidence, rendering rendering the faces of critics invisible and silencing their voices. What happens within party fora remains opaque, becoming fodder for media speculation. Essentially, such functional rigidity has left political parties bereft of inner-party democracy, and the culture of confining dissent within party structures has strengthened dominant factions and dictators within parties.

For instance, inflexible organisational practices within Communist parties of all hues has repeatedly manifested in a culture of control. Party decisions are always projected as unanimous even after they are heavily contested within the party fora. There is virtually a gag order on party leaders, barring them from publicly explaining the different positions taken by the different factions within the party. As a result, every contentious decision ends up as a matter of speculation.

Its not the case that Communist parties lack a history of battling inner-party differences - whether these pertain to ideological or tactical and strategic issues. Yet, such tussles within the party, kept under wraps, have tended to strengthen a handful of Politburo members while stifling dissident opinions. Any attempt to take the differences outside the party forum has been severely punished by expulsion or marginalisation of dissidents.

Recently there has been much talk  almost all of it negative  around the spate of public rebellions by AAP leaders and sections of the partys rank and file. In that long list of renegades, Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, undoubtedly, are the two most well known faces. But since the duos exit last year, there have been many more incidents of dissidence  which today seem to be spiralling out of control. Some among the dissidents have raised serious questions about the organisation while others appear to have been driven by the desire to settle personal scores. If some dissidents have questioned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals dictatorial style of functioning and the partys masculine culture, others have rebelled after being denied poll tickets or posts in government.

Of late, such voices of disaffection have grown louder in Punjab, where the AAP is making a serious bid to come to power in the forthcoming assembly elections. In a classic case of rebellion spurred by ticket denial, a report in The Tribune on 1 September said: Hundreds of AAP youth circle leaders belonging to Bassi Pathana have decided to resign en masse to protest the allotment of party ticket to an outsider. There is no doubt that the AAP unit in Punjab is now embroiled in a serious factional feud which is being played out in the public domain through leaks, meetings and press conferences.

Some among the renegades have drawn the partys attention to the alleged sexual exploitation of women by leaders. According to a report in The Indian Express on 8 September, Punjabs AAP legislator Devinder Sehrawat has alleged that several complaints are coming from Punjab pertaining to sexual exploitation of women seeking party tickets. The MLA, in his letter to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, has even mentioned names of some senior AAP leaders for allegedly indulging in such practices.

Clearly, there is a no-holds-barred war within the party. But lets not beat about the bush: the AAP is not the only party to be caught in such wrangles. The difference lies in the manner in which such disaffection is being aired by party leaders and legislators. Given their public manifestation, the leadership is constantly under a glare of media scrutiny.

In a different genre of serious issue-based dissidence, we have lately heard the senior PDP leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig, also the partys Lok Sabha MP from Baramulla, publicly urging that the Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP government to resign if it is not able to deliver on its agenda of governance.

We have not been able to deliver at the ground level according to the agenda of governance, which makes the cadre of the party disgruntled. But I have every hope that it (the alliance) will deliver in the coming years, Baig told The Indian Express. If it fails to deliver, both parties, BJP and PDP, I mean the government, should resign. Whats the point of the chief minister resigning and a new chief minister coming in?

Some may argue that such open rebellions weaken the party. But the flip side to that point of view is that factionalism and dissidence are to a political party what elections are to parliamentary democracy. And by allowing some of this chronic dissidence to play out in the public domain, a political party acquires greater transparency. Insistence on keeping such rebellions within the four walls of the headquarters does not bode well for inner-party democracy. In fact, it only leads to crushing of dissent by the powerful and the dominant within the party hierarchy.
On Tuesday, hundreds of Dalits threatened to gather in Ahmedabad to write postcards to actor Amitabh Bachchan. Their message: 'Kuch din to guzaariya Gujarat mein' to experience 'badboo Gujarat ki.'

Prima facie, the twin taglines of the ongoing Dalit movement appear clever plays on Bachchan's campaign for Gujarat tourism and its tagline 'khushbu Gujarat ki.' But press your ears and nose to the ground and it becomes clear that Gujarat is indeed stinking, both literally and figuratively.

Since the Dalits stopped lifting carcasses to protest violent attacks by gau sevaks in Una almost two months ago, several areas of Gujarat are stinking with rotting remains of animals. That's the literal badboo of Gujarat, Bachchan may now get to experience instead of the advertised khushbu.

Adding to the rot, is the political turmoil in the BJP, creating a milieu that stinks of intrigues, conspiracies and bad blood between former friends who are now bitter rivals.

On Saturday night, a private plane was hurriedly arranged to transport former Chief Minister Anandiben Patel to Delhi, where she was summoned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reported The Indian Express.

Patel was put on the Delhi flight after the BJP witnessed unprecedented scenes at a rally in Surat. The rally organised on Thursday to showcase its grip on the state's Patidars, ironically, ended up exposing the BJP's political decline.

Till a few months ago, it would have been unimaginable that Amit Shah would not be allowed to speak in Gujarat. But, at the rally, Patidar youth booed him with calls of "General Dyer go back" and created so much ruckus that Shah and Chief Minister Vijay Rupani had to cut short their speeches and hurriedly wind up the meeting.

According to DNA, while Shah concluded his speech in four minutes, Rupani could only speak for three minutes. The organisers abruptly declared the programme closed and the leaders were whisked away. Patel, who was also on the dais during the bedlam, was summoned to Delhi amid rumours that she may have encouraged the Patidars to disrupt the meeting.

The former CM is reportedly upset with Shah and Rupani for plotting her exit and may have her own reasons to seek vengeance. But her metamorphosis from the CM who took harsh decisions against fellow Patels to someone who might now be encouraging them is indeed ironical.

It is obvious from the unfolding battle that the BJP is being punched from three directions. While Dalits have kept up the attack since the Una incident, Patidars have not relented even a year after their leader Hardik Patel was incarcerated and other activists booked by police under various charges. To add to the double trouble, infighting within the various satraps is threatening to pull the BJP apart.

In August, when Patel quit, surprisingly by putting out her resignation on Facebook, Shah reportedly sought a free hand in the affairs of the state. "Saheb, jeetvani guarantee hu apu chu. Badhu ekvaar mara per chodi do. (Just leave it to me, I guarantee a win), he reportedly told Modi.

But, the drama is not unfolding to Shah's script. The unresolved issues that have put Dalits (around 7 percent) and Patidars (15-18 percent) are threatening to end the BJP's rule in its pocketborough in the next election. Instead of abating, the Dalit and Patidar anger appears to be building up, making the BJP nervous in Gujarat.

Gujarat is important for the BJP because it is the only poll-bound state where the party is the traditional frontrunner. Among the other states where elections are scheduled over the next few months, Punjab is almost a lost cause for the BJP and its ally, the Akali Dal; and in Uttar Pradesh it is facing a resurgent Mayawati and the prospect of a SP-Congress alliance.

Past month when Modi addressed his first public meeting in his home state after the 2014 elections, it prompted DNA to comment the PM could find just "180 minutes in 27 months" for Gujarat. But, now Modi will frequently visit Gujarat over the next three months, ostensibly to reconnect with voters.

In the meantime, the party is bending over backwards to humour the Patidars. On Thursday, after the bedlam in Surat, police arrested more than 130 Patidar youth for disrupting the meeting. But, all of them were released in no time, to be back on the streets of Gujarat the next morning, a striking contrast to the cases that were slapped against Patidars after the reservation stir in 2015.

Obviously, the BJP wants to avoid the stink of another bloody battle with Patidars.
"It cost the nation a fortune to keep Mahatma Gandhi in poverty." One was reminded of this old but oft-cited Sarojini Naidu wisecrack looking at a picture of Rahul Gandhi partaking of samosa and jalebi at a roadside shanty in Mohammadabad Gohana, a village panchayat in Mau district of Uttar Pradesh.

The picture accompanying a report in The Times of India shows the Gandhi scion seated on a plastic chair inside a ramshackle eatery along with a rather dejected-looking Ghulam Nabi Azad, the party's UP minder. As the Congress vice-president tucked into the humble snacks off sheets of newspapers, behind him rapt in full attention stood the SPG commandoes  part of Gandhi's security detail.

"Rahulji ate a samosa and a jalebi. He appreciated the food," Gopal, the shopkeeper, told the newspaper. "It was a great surprise for me," he added.

Before the evening snacks, however, Rahul Gandhi had stopped by for lunch at a Dalit hutment on Sunday. Rukmini Devi and her husband Swaminath Ram served him roti-chokha (bread and potato mash). As another Times of India report states, the local Congress committee had two days ago asked Ram, a member of the Dalit community at Baragaon village in Mau, to get ready to "host" Rahul Gandhi.

The Gandhi scion is leaving no 'cots' unturned in his 'kisan yatra', the farmer outreach programme-cum-UP elections campaign designed by hired poll strategist Prashant Kishor. Rahul's 2500-km long door-to-door promotion features 'khat-sabha' rallies and strategic stopovers for meals at different locations to show solidarity with the minorities, the socially marginalized and the oppressed.

The Congress vice-president met Muslim leaders, for instance, at Arabia Riyazul Uloom Guraini Madarsa in Jaunpur on Saturday. As Hindustan Times points out, the closed-door 50-minute meeting with "prominent" Muslim leaders was followed by a hearty lunch of paneer subzi, roomali roti and non-vegetarian dishes cooked up by chefs "imported" from Delhi and Lucknow. SPG, had, of course checked the menu in the morning.

While the 'cot' concept is certainly new, the Congress sadly has shown a remarkable lack of imagination while engaging with the poor. In fact, Rahul Gandhi's UP campaign has a sense of deja vu written all over it.

This isn't the first time the Gandhi scion has embarked on a 'poverty tour' while paying "impromptu" visits at their huts and shanties, sharing their food and sorrows. While that makes for a handy if vacuous PR exercise, it does little to uplift the poor or tell them how Rahul proposes to do it if voted to power.

The simple logic that eludes Rahul Gandhi is that the poor aren't proud of their poverty. They do not want to wear it as a badge of honour on their chests while dying of hunger and diseases. They want poverty to be eradicated. They want a better life, better price for their crops and a better future for their children many of whom do not want to continue tilling the lands.

A recent study on the State of Indian Farmers finds that an overwhelming majority of farmers do not want their offspring to continue farming. The report was based on the primary survey across 18 Indian states by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi, conducted between December 2013 and January 2014 across 274 villages spread over 137 districts.

Section 4 of the lokniti.org survey, under the subhead Indian Farmers: Their Economic Outlook, reports "poor pay" and "interested in other job or work" as main reasons behind the aversion. It further states: "When asked whether they (farmers) would like to see their children engaging in farming, only 18 per cent responded positively. 36 per cent said they do not want their children to continue farming as their occupation and 37 percent said they will prefer their childrens choice and go with their decision while choosing their profession."

What message does Rahul Gandhi have for this deeply aspirational section of the society who want to get over their poverty and become a part of India's growth story? As the Congress vice-president continues to run a century-old party to the ground, the paucity of his ideas and the bankruptcy of his message reveal his shortcomings as a leader.

The Congress has kick-started the UP Assembly polls campaign quite early and with a lot of intensity but it amounts to little if all that its star campaigner is able to do is patronize the poor through a manicured road show, focus on poverty as a political slogan instead of laying out a roadmap for alleviation or limit himself to taking vitriolic potshots at the Prime Minister.

Rahul Gandhi could have taken a lesson from Narendra Modi's prime ministerial campaign in 2014 when his message of development and growth resulted in unprecedented success for the BJP in UP, in areas where it had tasted no success before. But the Gandhi scion's campaign remains stuck on Modi-bashing like a wound-up cassette player.

There is always a possibility that the excessive focus on Modi and overwhelmingly PM-centric negative campaign may put off the electorate and backfire on the Congress. Voters would like to know what Congress can do for them. Very little, it would seem from Rahul Gandhi's rallies except promise of a 'farm loan waiver' and cliched punches that have lost their edge.

The centerpiece of Rahul's rallies was Modi's three-piece suit.

"Modi ji promised that Rs 15 lakh would be deposited in every account. Instead of keeping his words, he put on a suit worth Rs 15 lakh. He ignored the farmers," Rahul said. In Azamgarh on Sunday, he said the PM must be put on a leash.

"Modi selfie leta hai, masti karta hai, iski masti kam karna hai (Modi takes selfie, make merry; we have to put a leash on this)," he said at another 'khaat' sabha in Ghazipur, according to The Times of India.

In Mau, he brought in Modi's relationship with Barack Obama. "Modi ji hugs Obama, clicks selfie with him. He goes to China and again takes selfies. Have you ever seen him visiting a farmers house, hugging him or taking a selfie with him. No because he fears that his Rs 15 lakh suit would become dirty".

There is no vision, roadmap or agenda of change in the speeches of the Gandhi dynast. Perhaps he thinks the poor will remain satisfied as long as they can carry home the cots from his sabha.
Speculations around Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's health are not new, however, concerns about her medical condition got real after she abruptly left a 11 September attacks anniversary ceremony on Sunday. She was seen stumbling off a curb and had to be helped to get into a van.

In a statement, Clinton's doctor said the former secretary of state had become overheated and dehydrated. According to AP, her physician Lisa R Bardack said that she is recovering and has been advised to rest and modify her schedule after she was diagnosed of pneumonia. Following her health scare, Clinton cancelled her trip to California. She was scheduled to attend fundraising, campaign events and an appearance on Ellen DeGeneres' talk show.

In July 2015, Clinton's physician had released a two-page letter stating that she was in "excellent physical condition and fit to serve as president of the United States." During one of her campaign events this year, Clinton had a coughing fit, however, she quickly warded off the concerns and joked that this is an "allergic reaction to Donald Trump," according to ABC News.

In the past, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has repeatedly questioned Clinton's health and had said that she "lacks the mental and physical stamina" to serve as president. Clinton, however, had dismissed these speculations as conspiracy theories and during her appearance on Jimmy Kimmel's show, she even jokingly tried opening a pickle jar as proof of her good health. However, after Sunday's medical episode, Clinton's health will most likely snowball into an election issue.

Emmy award-winning broadcast journalist David Shuster, in a series of tweets, said that there could be an emergency meeting of the Democratic National Committee to consider Clinton's replacement. He further tweeted that according a DNC operative, the status of her nomination depends only on Clinton.

Clarification from dem operatives @HillaryClinton pneumonia: Expect emergency DNC meeting to CONSIDER replacement. #HillarysHealth  David Shuster (@DavidShuster) September 11, 2016

Top dem: "we can make contingencies, argue, plead with @HillaryClinton, but DNC bylaws are clear her nominee status now totally up to her."  David Shuster (@DavidShuster) September 12, 2016

A video of Clinton appearing to stumble as three staff members hold her up and help her into a van have fueled speculations on her health once again with rumours of her suffering from Parkinsons disease resurfacing.

Although the DNC played down her health scare, according to Telegraph UK, if Clinton were to drop out of the presidential race, Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders would mostly likely be nominated. The report added that in such a scenario, DNC officials would have to cast their voters and the winner with the maximum number of votes will be nominated. The report further added that Clinton's running mate Tim Kaine will not get any special consideration. If he is unable to secure majority votes, he will remain the vice-presidential candidate.

According to Law Newz, if Clinton withdraws after the election is held and but before the electoral college meets, "federal law says that electors can vote for whomever they want, although states can pass their own laws on the matter." The report further explains that if a candidate wins an election, but "become incapacitated prior to the inauguration", then as per the provisions of the 20th Amendment, the vice-president becomes the president.

In 2008, Republican presidential nominee John McCain's health and age had come a campaign issue. In fact, he had made public more than a thousand pages of his medical history to show he was cancer-free and fit to serve as president at age 71. On the other hand, both Trump and Clinton have not yet released any details on their medical history.

McCain's age and health was a big topic in 2008 https://t.co/zVEMTsCBFN  H. A. Goodman (@HAGOODMANAUTHOR) September 12, 2016

In a report published in 2008, the US News had reported that there has always been speculations and rumours around a presidential candidate's health. Right from Andrew Jackson to John Kennedy, many of the US Presidents had serious health concerns. "Dwight Eisenhower suffered a heart attack and stroke while in office," said the report.

So far Clinton's campaign has been able to dismiss questions on her health, however, following her stumble her team will have to tackle questions head-on. CNN's Stephen Collinson writes: "But there will still be questions asked why Clinton, after days of speculation about her health, was not more forthcoming with her diagnosis."

According to a new poll, Clinton is leading Trump by five points, reported PTI. Clinton's campaign have often been accused of not maintaining transparency and this criticism got louder after Sunday's incident. To maintain the momentum, team Clinton should be prepared to answer all questions pertaining to her health.

With inputs from agencies
Islamabad: Pakistan and Russia are set to hold their first-ever joint military exercises later this year, media reported on Monday, reflecting increased military cooperation between the two former Cold War rivals.

Around 200 military personnel from the two sides would take part in the joint military exercises, The Express Tribune quoted a senior Pakistani official as saying.

The move comes amidst increasing defence ties between Moscow and Islamabad as the latter was also thinking to buy advanced Russian warplanes.

Pakistan's Ambassador to Moscow Qazi Khalilullah told the newspaper that this is the first time that military personnel from the two countries would be taking part in joint military drills called 'Friendship-2016'.

He, however, did not divulge further details about the nature of the exercises or dates.

The development, Khalilullah said, reflected increased cooperation between the two countries.

"This obviously indicates a desire on both sides to broaden defence and military-technical cooperation," he told a Russian news agency last week.

The joint military drill is seen as another step in growing military-to-military cooperation, indicating a steady growth in the bilateral relationship between the two countries, whose ties had been marred by Cold War rivalry for decades, the paper said.

Islamabad decided to broaden its foreign policy options after its relations with the US deteriorated after secret CIA raid in Abbottabad killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in

May 2011.

Pakistan's relations with the US were soured recently when US lawmakers blocked funds for the sale of eight Lockheed Martin Corporations F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan.

Pakistan decided to look at alternative sources to purchase the aircraft including from Jordan.

Over the last 15 months, the chiefs of Pakistans Army, Navy and Air Force travelled to Russia.

The flurry of high-level exchanges between the two nations resulted in the signing of a deal for the sale of four MI-35 attack helicopters to Islamabad.

The formal agreement, which was signed in Moscow in August 2015, was considered a major policy shift on part of Russia in the wake of growing strategic partnership between the US and

India.

Islamabad is eager to improve its ties with Moscow to diversify its options in the event of any stalemate in ties with Washington, The Express Tribune said.

After securing a deal of MI-35 helicopters, Pakistan is also exploring options to buy Su-35 fighter jets from Russia, it said.

For this purpose, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman visited Moscow in July.

The Pakistani ambassador said the PAF chief held 'fruitful' discussions with Russian authorities but would not provide further details of new military purchases, including the multirole, air superiority fighter Sukhoi Su-35.
Seoul: North Korea is ready to conduct another nuclear test at any time, South Korea's defence ministry said on Monday, just days after Pyongyang sparked worldwide condemnation with its fifth and most powerful test.

"An additional test could be conducted in a tunnel that branches off from the second tunnel or in the third tunnel, where preparations have been completed," ministry spokesman Moon Sang-Gyun told reporters.

The spokesman declined to elaborate, citing intelligence matters, but said the South's military is on full combat-readiness to respond to "further nuclear tests, ballistic missile launches or land provocation" by the North.

Citing an unidentified government official, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported earlier on Monday that Pyongyang had completed preparations for another nuclear test in its previously unused third tunnel at the Punggye-ri site in the northeast.

The North conducted its first nuclear test in October 2006 in the first tunnel and the last four tests in the second tunnel, according to Seoul's defence ministry.

In a statement hailing the "success" of its test on Friday, the North vowed to take "further measures" to increase its nuclear strike force "in quality and in quantity".

The yield from Friday's test was estimated at 10 kilotons, almost twice as much as the one Pyongyang conducted only eight months earlier.

The North also boasted that the test was of a nuclear warhead that could be mounted on a missile.

The UN Security Council agreed Friday to start work on new punitive measures  even though five sets of UN sanctions since the first nuclear test have failed to halt the North's nuclear drive.

Sung Kim, the US State Department's special representative for North Korea policy, said on Sunday during a visit to Japan that Washington and Tokyo would work closely "to come up with the strongest possible measure against North Korea's latest action".

He also suggested that the US may launch its own sanctions.

The envoy will arrive in Seoul later on Monday and hold talks with his South Korean counterpart Kim Hong-Kyun on Tuesday morning.
In a bold and unambiguous move, the international community sans China, is turning its heat on Pakistan to shun its state-sponsored cross-border terrorism. Such warnings were also articulated in the recent G20 and Asean summits that called upon Pakistan to stop abetting terror-related activities.

Simultaneously, the diplomatic offensive launched by India to isolate Pakistan subtly labelling it as the only country in South Asia causing terror found its resonance in US rhetoric as well as in other countries. Coincidentally, against this backdrop, there are numerous cases of human rights violations and oppression of religious minorities that are surfacing time and again, indicating that all is not well with Pakistan.

In a recent case of a blatant move to stifle the voice of human rights' groups, on 2 September, the home of noted human rights activist Dr Rubina Feroze Bhatti was raided by the police. Earlier, on 1 September, her NGO Taang Wassaib Organisation (TWO) was shut down by the authorities. It may be recalled that Rubina is the founder, and currently the general secretary of TWO, which proactively addresses issues of violence against women and religious intolerance against the minorities.

Later, on 5 September, the interior ministry in Lahore alleged that Rubina and her NGO were preaching Christianity and defaming Pakistan. Such accusations were preposterous and are reflective of the fact that minorities continue to be targeted in Pakistan and that too at the behest of the government. Religious intolerance in Pakistan is not something new. The minorities in Pakistan observed 7 September  albeit silently  as a dark day for the oppressed . On this day 42 years ago (1974), religion was formally inducted to be the basis of the state affairs. More specifically, the Second Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan was passed where the Ahmediyas were declared non-Muslims.

By virtue of this amendment, the State was given arbitrary powers to determine who is a Muslim and who is not. Instead of providing the right of freedom of religion and faith to its nationals, this was a well-planned design to curb human rights and religious beliefs. Consequently, the influence of the fundamentalists on the running of the country reached unprecedented levels. The zeal and fervour with which Youm-e-Khatam-e-Nabuwat (The Day of Finality of Prophethood) was observed on 7 September, is a manifestation of the fundamentalist mindset so actively prevalent in the country.

Persecution of Ahmediyas, Shias, Hindus and Christians continues unabated. The Jinnah Institute of Pakistan in its report stated that for the period ending 2015, stated that at least 543 incidents of violence occurred against minorities in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), reported that between July 2013 and June 2014, 122 incidents of sectarian violence in Pakistan injured 1,200, of whom 430 died. The report further mentioned that "Pakistan represents one of the worst situations in the world for religious freedom..."

In the meantime, crucially, Balochistan continues to suffer the wrath of the authorities amid reports of unearthing of thousands of dead bodies in recent years. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), however, claims rather assertively that these numbers could be much higher. The official figures of arrested of Balochis has been a whopping 9,000. Evidently, Balochistan continues to reel under political uncertainty, threatened with a possible dismemberment.

The recent Quetta blasts were an attack on the intellectuals. These are reminiscent of the extermination of intellectuals in Bangladesh in its run up to the liberation from Pakistan. It may be slightly premature to say the same thing for Balochistan, but the writing on the wall has begun appearing and the message seems to be loud and clear.

Pakistan's policy of "kill and dump" has caused a deep mistrust between the Balochis and the federal government, prolonging the insurgency.

The State's strategy of creating and supporting Islamic extremist groups to manipulate internal political challenges has predictably aggravated the situation in Balochistan. As the AHRC has estimated in its recent report, the limited gain  in terms of a marginal reduction in incidents of violence  offers faint hope of a sustainable improvement in the province. Pakistan, therefore, is expected to see itself in isolation in the not-so-distant future with fierce criticism in international fora as noed in the G20 and Asean meets .

The author writer is a retired IPS officer, a commentator on security analyses and political matters. Views are personal
Beirut: A cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia is set to begin at sunset on Monday in Syria amid mixed messages of commitment from various rebel factions but with verbal backing by President Bashar Assad's government.

In a stark message to opponents, Assad made a rare public appearance Monday by attending prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha at a mosque in the Damascus suburb of Daraya.

The suburb, previously held by the rebels, surrendered last month and reverted to Damascus' control after four years of government siege.

The cease-fire deal, hammered out between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Saturday, allows the Syrian government to continue to strike at the Islamic State group and al-Qaida-linked militants with the Jabhat Fatah al-Sham group, earlier known as the Nusra Front, until the US and Russia take over the task in one week's time.

Rebel factions have expressed deep reservations about the deal.

Under the terms of the agreement, the rebels and the Syrian government are expected to stop attacking one another. Along with Assad's government, his key allies  Russia, Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah  have also endorsed the deal.

But that scenario is complicated by the fact that Jabhat Fatah al-Sham remains intertwined with several other groups fighting on the ground.

One of the more immediate goals of the Kerry-Lavrov agreement is to allow the UN to establish aid corridors into Aleppo, the contested northern Syrian city. Over 2,000 people have been killed in fighting over the past 40 days in the city, including 700 civilians and 160 children, according to a Syrian human rights group.

On Saturday, presumed Russian or government airstrikes on rebel-held Idlib and Aleppo provinces killed over 90 civilians, including 13 children in an attack on a marketplace in Idlib, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In the aftermath, rebels and opposition activists were asking on Sunday whether the government's side could be trusted.

Several previous negotiated cease-fires have all eventually collapsed. A partial "cessation of hostilities" that brought sorely needed relief to civilians in March unraveled as the government continued to strike targets in opposition areas, including near a hospital and school near Damascus and a marketplace in Idlib province, killing dozens of civilians.

Previous cease-fires were also preceded by soaring violence as parties on all sides sought to improve their positions in the build-up.

In Turkey, meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his earlier calls for establishing a no-fly zone in northern Syria, saying it is essential to boosting security in the area.

Erdogan said he told the leaders of Germany, France, Russia and the US that training and equipping troops on the ground to battle back Islamic State group forces is "not enough" and that a no-fly zone should be the next step.

Speaking after holiday prayers on Monday, Erdogan said Turkey remains resolute in eliminating the threat posed by the Islamic State group at its borders and has made that clear to world leaders.

Turkey launched an incursion into northern Syria in late August, driving IS away from the border and also seeking to counter the advance of US-backed Kurdish forces, which Ankara views with suspicion.
New Delhi: Seeking to mend their frail ties, India and Nepal on Monday held wide-ranging talks and decided to step up cooperation in key areas of security, energy and water resources ahead of Nepal Prime Minister Prachanda's visit, which is being seen as an opportunity by Indian side to discuss issues of mutual interest and concern.

During the talks between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Nepalese counterpart Prakash Sharan Mahat, the two sides also discussed the upcoming visit of Prachanda from 15 September. This will be his first foreign trip after assuming office last month.

"Both the Ministers held wide ranging talks on issues of mutual interest, and covering the entire gamut of bilateral relations, including the upcoming high-level exchanges between the two countries."

"Both sides reiterated their commitment to further strengthen and deepen age-old, close and friendly ties in diverse sectors such as trade and mutual investments, defence and security, economic and development partnership, infrastructure development, energy and water resources, and forging connectivities to facilitate movement of goods and services, people and ideas," External Affairs Ministry said after the meeting.

The Ministry also said that the "visit of the Prime Minister of Nepal will provide an opportunity for both sides to discuss issues of mutual interest and concern, as well as seek ways to strengthen the age old, close and friendly ties between the two countries in diverse sectors."

During his four-day visit, Prachanda will hold talks with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on important bilateral and regional issues.

Nepal-India ties had soured after months-long border blockade last year by ethnic minority protesters over the new Constitution which they claimed marginalised them.

Kathmandu had then accused India of imposing an "unofficial blockade" on the landlocked nation in support of the Madhesis, who share close cultural, linguistic and family links with Indians across the border.

Even after the normalisation of supply of goods from India, the bilateral ties continued to reel under strain after former Nepal Prime Minister K P Oli accused India of toppling his government and creating political instability in his country, a charge that was categorically denied by India.
Washington: The US will not allow North Korea to have deliverable nuclear weapons, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said on Sunday.

"I absolutely believe that it has to be made very clear we will not allow North Korea to have a deliverable nuclear

weapon, and we will approach this from a number of perspectives," Clinton said.

President Barack Obama had earlier said that the US will never accept Pyongyang as a "nuclear state".

Responding to a question, Clinton said she has had conversations in the past with the Chinese about North Korea.

"Up until relatively recently, I think they were under the impression that they could control their neighbour, and they didn't want to crack down because they saw it as a useful card to play. He gets a little crazy, maybe the South Koreans will, you know, move toward them a little bit. He gets a little crazier, maybe they can make some deals with the Japanese about some things they want," she said.

"It was a strategic calculation. It's not that way anymore. The current leader is unpredictable for both the Chinese and the rest of us. The current leader is clearly intent upon ignoring pressure, advice of any sort coming from anywhere else. And so we have got to make it clear missile defense is going in as quickly and broadly as possible," Clinton said.

"Our message to the North Koreans and everyone else listening, they will not be permitted to acquire a nuclear weapon that has a deliverable capacity on a ballistic missile. And we have got to start intensifying our discussions with the Chinese, because they can't possibly want this big problem on their doorstep," she said.

The Chinese, she said, have been "awfully leaky".

"The regime lives off of luxury goods and the kind of benefits that they then can use to, you know, reward their loyal followers. We have never been able to fully cut that off. So we will do more on sanctions, because that's part of an overall strategy, but that's not enough," she said.

North Korea fired three ballistic missiles off its east coast on 5 September. North Korea has conducted a series of missile tests this year. This is the fourth nuclear test since January.
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Libyan forces loyal to a powerful general yesterday recaptured two key oil terminals from militias in a surprise attack, according to officials familiar with the operation, a move that adds a new layer to the turmoil gripping the North African nation since 2011.

They said forces led by Gen. Khalifa Hifter, who heads the Libyan National Army, took over the Ras Lanuf and al-Sidra terminals on Libyas Mediterranean coast and were battling militias at a third terminal, al-Zueitina.

The majority of Libyas oil exports went through the three terminals before a militia known as the Petroleum Facilities Guards seized them more than two years ago.

Zero hour has arrived, so march forward like wolves and charge like lions, Hifter told his forces as they prepared for yesterdays dawn attack. In a radio message, he urged the troops not to harm civilians or damage the facilities.

The militia driven out of the facilities is allied with the recently-formed, U.N.-backed government headquartered in the capital, Tripoli. That government does not recognize Hifter as commander of the national army.

The Petroleum Facilities Guards leader, Ibrahim Jedran, struck a deal in July with the U.N. envoy to Libya, Martin Kobler. The details of that pact were never disclosed, but critics have speculated that it involved billions of dollars, sparking charges that Kobler and the United Nations were empowering the warlord viewed by many as having held Libyas oil hostage.

The officials said there were no casualties among the attacking forces and that the militiamen at the three facilities did not offer much resistance.

The attack took place on the eve of a major Muslim holiday, Eid al-Adha, which begins today.

Many of them [militiamen] abandoned their weapons to escape or turned themselves in, said Brig. Gen. Ahmed al-Mosmary, a spokesman for Hifters forces. We will continue to move till we secure the whole area.

Hifters forces also moved against two areas in the eastern city of Benghazi that remain under militia control. Al-Mosmary said there was also little confrontation from the militiamen there, but that land mines were slowing down the advancing troops. Rami Musa, Benghazi, AP
They have been praised by the leader of al-Qaida and wooed by the head of the Islamic State group. They have distinguished themselves on battlefields in Syria and are accused of carrying out a devastating bombing in Thailand.

In the past two years, militants belonging to the Uighur ethnic group native to the vast Xinjiang region in western China have shown signs of becoming a force in Islamic extremism globally, a development that is reshaping both the ground war in Syria and Chinese foreign policy.

The predominantly Muslim, Turkic-speaking people  ethnically distinct from Chinas Han majority  have chafed for decades under Beijings heavy-handed rule. Uighur separatists belonging to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a militant group based in the rugged tribal areas of nearby Afghanistan and Pakistan and allied with al-Qaeda, have been blamed for attacks in Chinese cities, often using crude but effective weapons such as knives, Molotov cocktails and speeding vehicles.

Their activities have taken on a transnational dimension in recent years as hundreds of Uighur fighters have flowed into Syria to participate in jihad. And instead of targeting Chinas cities, militants have struck less guarded overseas targets.

The reach of ETIM, which seeks to establish an independent Islamic state called East Turkestan, was highlighted most recently when a man crashed a van packed with 100 kilograms of TNT into the Chinese diplomatic compound in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, killing himself and wounding five people. Kyrgyz officials on Tuesday identified the bomber as Zoir Khalimov, an ethnic Uighur member of ETIM who carried out the attack with support from the Nusra Front, the al-Qaida affiliate in Syria.

In Thailand, a trial began last month for two Uighur men charged with an August 2015 bombing that killed 20 people at a busy Bangkok shrine. The attack came weeks after Thailand forcibly repatriated scores of Uighurs to China, where they faced persecution. Chinese officials said the Uighurs were on their way to fight in Syria when they were arrested.

Analysts see the broad outlines of metastasizing Uighur militancy that has prompted a response from China, which has traditionally abided by a foreign policy of non-interference.

Chinas calculus is shifting because the threat picture is shifting from one in which only the Americans and Europeans were targets, said Raffaello Pantucci, director of international security studies at the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank. Thats why youre seeing Beijing push out. Its a combination of the new Chinese foreign policy assertiveness but also a real concern about whats happening on the ground.

In mid-August, China dispatched a senior Peoples Liberation Army admiral, Guan Youfei, to meet with Syrian Defense Minister Fahad Jassim al-Freij and a senior Russian military official in Damascus to discuss expanding Chinese support for their war effort.

China has made similar moves closer to home. This year, it pledged equipment and counterterrorism training for Afghan police with the aim of containing ETIM. It has also expanded its role as a mediator, welcoming both President Ashraf Ghani and Taliban representatives to China on visits and brokering low-level talks between the sides.

In 2015, Uighur fighters from ETIM, also referred to as the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), began flowing from Central Asia into Syria, according to propaganda videos from the groups Islam Awazi media arm. They have won battles against loyalist forces in Idlib and Aleppo provinces, at times deploying suicide attackers to decisive effect. Although exact numbers are impossible to confirm, analysts believe there are hundreds, possibly more than a thousand, Uighurs fighting alongside the Nusra Front, said Beirut-based analyst Haytham Mouzahem.

Separately, the Islamic State group, which competes with the Nusra Front for recruits, has at least a hundred Uighur fighters, most of whom came directly from Xinjiang to escape religious persecution in China, according to leaked IS documents analyzed by the New America Foundation think tank.

Uighur groups in exile and international human rights monitors say China plays up the threat of Uighur militancy to justify abusive law-enforcement policies and religious restrictions in Xinjiang, which have fueled resentment among ordinary citizens. ETIMs organization may also be overestimated, experts warn, because it is unclear to what extent they offered training or support to perpetrators of attacks.

China should evaluate its own policies to find the source of Uighur discontent, overseas Uighur spokesman Dilxat Raxit said in a statement this week following the Kyrgyzstan investigation. The Kyrgyzstan incident could supply China with more excuses to oppress and expand its influence in Central Asia for its political purposes.

China has been sensitive to international criticism of its policies in Xinjiang while casting itself as a target of terrorism similar to Western countries. It has successfully lobbied the United States, the European Union, Russia, Britain and other governments to recognize the Turkistan Islamic Party as a terrorist organization.

I would to stress that East Turkestan terrorist forces headed by the ETIM have plotted and undertaken terrorist attacks many times inside and outside China, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said last week, while vowing to strike back at the group.

Chinese anti-terrorism expert Li Wei said the extremist threats that China faces domestically and from abroad are now inextricably linked, just like with other countries, leading China to expand its dealings in Syria and Afghanistan.

I think the international community would agree that Syria is a nexus of global jihad that does threaten the entire world, said Li, director of the anti-terrorism research center at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, a think tank under the Ministry of State Security, Chinas main intelligence agency.

Despite its shifting posture, Chinese observers say the likelihood of the Peoples Liberation Army fighting directly in Syria and Afghanistan remains extremely low. Over the last decade, China has leaned on Pakistan to carry out drone strikes against TIP commanders in tribal Waziristan, pressured Central Asian allies for intelligence-gathering and sought help from Thailand  but never deployed troops.

China can participate in Syria in direct or indirect ways, said Yue Gang, a retired PLA colonel and commentator on military affairs in Beijing. Currently, the indirect path is better. In the future it can provide a variety of equipment or arms support for Russia and Syria but dressed up as something more pleasant-sounding, like humanitarian aid.

Chinas increasing willingness to confront Uighur militants abroad mirrors global jihadi networks growing interest in their cause.

In the 1990s, the Taliban  no strangers to fighting communists  sheltered Uighur separatists but forbade them from launching attacks on China from Afghanistan and Pakistan, fearing that would anger Beijing, according to writings by the jihadi Abu Musab al-Suri.

And in the years before the Sept. 11 attacks, published interview transcripts show Osama bin Laden downplaying the Uighurs plight or claiming ignorance of them altogether. Instead, he argued that Chinese leaders and Muslims should unite against what he considered to be common enemies like the United States and Israel.

His successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, takes a starkly different approach, decrying Chinaas an enemy. He opened a recorded message to his followers in July by praising Uighurs dedication to global jihad and lambasting Chinese invaders as atheist occupiers of Xinjiang.

Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has also prominently decried Chinese oppression of Muslims while laying out a vision of an Islamic caliphate stretching from Morocco to Xinjiang.

Michael Clarke, a researcher at Australian National University, said competition for Uighur recruits between al-Qaida and Islamic State explained the heightened rhetoric, but also underscored the more complicated landscape facing China.

Since the 1990s the discourse has changed, Clarke said. The long-established conflict between China and Uighur opposition is getting more and more connected to regional and global currents of radical Islamism. By Gerry Shih, Beijing , AP
BAKER CITY, Ore.  Nearly 400 acres of privately owned forest with Douglas and white fir, larch and ponderosa pine forest along Main and East Eagle creeks in northern Baker County is up for sale.

The U.S. Forest Service is interested in buying the land from the Collins Pine Company, a move that some county commissioners and other residents oppose.

Paul Harlan, chief forester and vice president of resources for Collins Pine Company, calls the sale a redeployment of the family-owned companys assets.

The 388 acres are part of three connected parcels along Main Eagle Creek and another close by near East Eagle Creek.

Although the market value is $228,060, according to the county assessor, Harlan says you cant put a price on the intrinsic value of the property, which has two rustic cabins. From an economic standpoint, he said, there is not enough timber on the property to pay for its purchase price. Harlan said potential buyers need to keep that in mind.

Its a financial asset and not giving any financial value, Harlan said. But the intrinsic values of having over a mile of (Eagle Creek frontage) up there is incredible.

Harlan said the company rarely sells land. The Eagle Creek sale would help the company rehabilitate 24,300 acres it owns near Lakeview that was burned in a wildfire in 2012.

If the Forest Service buys the Collins property, the agency intends to manage the land, which is surrounded by national forest, for recreational use as part of the Eagle Creek Wild and Scenic River Corridor, said Tom Montoya, supervisor of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.

Harlan said Collins Pine has been exploring the possibility of selling or trading the land to the Forest Service since the mid-1990s. In 2010 the company made the decision to sell.

We would prefer the property stay in private hands and be managed sustainably, Harlan said.

Collins Pine, which owns forests and mills in Oregon, California and Pennsylvania, bought the Eagle Creek acreage about 75 years ago when the company operated a sawmill in Pondosa, near Medical Springs.

Most of the Eagle Creek property was logged in 1991 with the goal of improving the forests health, Harlan said. This July about 150 acres was logged to salvage trees burned in the 12,763-acre Eagle Fire last summer.

The salvage operation yielded about 800,000 board feet of logs.

One goal of the 1991 harvest was to get rid of unhealthy trees and spur the growth of higher-quality trees.

During a tour of a portion of the Collins property and adjacent Forest Service land, both of which were spared from last years fire, the differences between the sites was evident.

On the Collins property there were fewer trees per acre, and less white fir, a tree susceptible to Indian paint fungus. The fungus attacks white fir and results in sections of the tree becoming unusable for lumber due to rot caused by the fungal infection.

Harlan pointed out several white firs on the Forest Service land that had one or more conks  the fruiting body of the fungus. In several minutes of searching only one white fir on the Collins property could be found with evidence of the infection.

We took all that out 25 years ago, Harlan said. We wanted to keep the property healthy for future logging potential. You really cant tell we were here.

That is the eventual goal with the areas that were salvage logged in July.

Harlan pointed out several small white stumps located next to each other that showed the trees were afflicted by another fungus that causes root rot. Cutting those trees reduces the chance that the fungus will spread to nearby trees.

Getting rid of the white fir also has other purposes.

It allows Douglas-fir, (ponderosa) pine and larch to come in, he said.

Those species provide a more marketable lumber with the latter two also being more resistant to fire compared to white fir.

Harlan pointed out various mature larch trees that could have been harvested but were left to seed the area.

In the areas that had been recently logged, Harlan used several stumps and slabs of wood to show how the forests health had improved since the 1991 harvest.

The proof was in a picture painted by growth rings exposed to the surface of the stumps.

Each ring indicates a year of growth. Those larger in width indicate a year of better growth. Counting back 25 rings (years) on most of the examples he pointed out, it was apparent that thinning the forest and opening it up resulted in up to a four- or five-fold increase in yearly growth.

When you open up the forest, the trees left really take off, Harlan said.

Harlan pointed out a larch estimated at about 200 years old. He had made sure it did not get harvested 25 years ago or in July when the area was salvage logged.

The 200-year-old larch was in the path of a backfire lit during the 2015 Eagle fire. Firefighters had cleared the area around the old tree to keep it from catching on fire, but it still did. Fortunately they extinguished the flames, leaving the tree with a small burn scar at its base.

If that (tree) could talk it could tell some stories, Harlan said.
BOISE  State tax revenues are coming in ahead of forecasts, and if current trends hold, Idaho could have a substantial budget surplus by the end of the current fiscal year.

In August, state general fund tax revenues were 2.2 percent ahead of forecasts and 6 percent higher than last August, according to Gov. Butch Otters Division of Financial Management. Coming on top of Julys strong revenues, that puts fiscal year-to-date general fund revenues at $530.3 million, 3.3 percent ahead of forecast and 7.8 percent ahead of the same period a year earlier.

All three of the main categories of state tax revenues exceeded forecasts in August: Individual income taxes, corporate income taxes and sales taxes.

But the states general fund is actually even more flush at this point, the Legislative Budget Office reports. Thats because on top of the higher-than-expected revenues, the state Department of Health and Welfare reverted $19.1 million back to the General Fund in August, $16.1 million of that from Medicaid, due to unspent funds from the past year. Plus, the states revenue forecast has been revised by state economists, as it is each August to reflect economic conditions and results of enacted legislation, and is now $28.3 million higher than it was when lawmakers set the state budget in the spring.

Put all those factors together, and the projected year-end balance for the fiscal year that started July 1 comes out a whopping $64.5 million higher than lawmakers anticipated when they adjourned on March 25.

That could change as the year goes on, but if it doesnt, Idaho would have a $64.5 million surplus on its hands on July 1, 2017.

For the past two years, Idahos had a two-year surplus eliminator law that directed surplus funds to state savings and road projects. But that will expire before the end of the current fiscal year. So its up to lawmakers when they convene in January to decide what to do next.
What brought her to Twin Falls: Schiller and her husband, Jeff, were in town for five days to visit her mother, who lives at Bridgeview Estates. Their visit came on the tail end of a three-month trip to Alaska.

Where she stayed: The Schillers set up their fifth-wheel at Rock Creek RV Park, the second time theyve chosen to stay there during a visit. This is a nice, quiet park, Linda Schiller said Aug. 29.

What else she did: Besides spending some time with her mom, Schiller walked the trails at Rock Creek Park and Shoshone Falls.

We always go to the Harley shop when were here, Jeff Schiller added. He also planned to swing by D & B Supply to get a fuel additive for his truck.

In the past, theyve visited local wineries.

Heather Kennison
Gooding County

Felony Sentencings

Adrian Rodriguez , 21, Idaho Falls; possession of a controlled substance charge dismissed. Fail to Provide Proof of Vehicle Insurance charge second or subs

Adrian Rodriguez, 21, Idaho Falls; possession of a controlled substance charge dismissed. Fail to provide proof of vehicle insurance charge second or subsequent offense dismissed. Driving without privileges charge dismissed. Drug paraphernalia-use or possess with intent to use drug paraphernalia, $277.50 costs, 365 days jail, 363 days suspended jail, two days credited, 12 months supervised probation.
KIMBERLY  A Hollister woman pleaded not-guilty Monday to killing a Twin Falls firefighter in a hit-and-run crash earlier this year.

Hollie Marie Winnett, 33, will go on trial Jan. 24 if a plea agreement is not reached before then. Winnett is charged with felony counts of vehicular manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in injury or death.

Winnetts attorney, Brad Calbo, said he and prosecutors are continuing to work towards a negotiated agreement.

But were not there quite yet, Calbo told District Judge Richard Bevan.

During a hearing Aug. 26, Calbo said the two sides had reached a worst-case scenario agreement, which he expounded upon in an interview after the hearing.

Negotiations are ongoing, and I think both parties are acting in good faith, Calbo told the Times-News. I think weve reached an agreement that would be a worse-case scenario for Mrs. Winnett  if the bottom fell out, if talks stalled.

But Calbo doesnt expect that to happen and instead believes talks will be fruitful for his client and satisfactory to both Winnett and prosecutors.

Winnetts charges stem from the May 18 crash south of Kimberly that killed 34-year-old Ryan Franklin, an avid cyclist and father of four who was riding his bicycle while off duty when he was struck from behind on 2900 North. He died at the scene.

Winnett told investigators she fell asleep after dropping her children off at school and woke up when she hit something, but left the scene after checking around her Jeep Liberty and not seeing anything.

But police say Winnett panicked after the crash and fled the scene in the badly damaged Liberty, driving at least eight miles on just a rim after losing a tire. She eventually returned to the crash scene with her husband.

Winnett faces a maximum of 15 years in prison if convicted on both charges, a fine of up to $15,000 and a year-long license suspension.

And as Bevan explained in court Monday, she also faces the possibility of having to pay child support for the victims children until they turn 18. Franklins oldest child is 6 and his youngest 1.
TWIN FALLS  Within the next five years, children from low-income families will spend more time in Head Start preschool classes.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced new performance standards designed to improve Head Start. Its the first time standards have been revamped since 1975.

Data shows the more hours a child is in class, the better off theyll be.

Its based on outcome, said Mancole Fedder, director of the College of Southern Idahos Head Start/Early Head Start program.

With the new standards, the biggest challenge for CSIs Head Start program will be finding facility space to accommodate children for an entire day, Fedder said.

A lot of programs are going to face that challenge, he said. We definitely dont want to cut the available slots.

But there may not be any other realistic options, he added.

Other nationwide Head Start changes include raising educational standards, providing more opportunities for parents to get involved with the program and cutting regulatory standards by 30 percent.

There are more than 1,500 standards Head Start programs have to follow, Fedder said. He said he needs to go through them to see exactly whats changing.

The new standards strengthen educational practices and are based on the best research about how children learn and develop, HHS secretary Sylvia Burwell said in a statement last week.

Here in south-central Idaho, theres 484 Head Start slots and 92 Early Head Start slots at a total of 11 centers.

Head Start offers preschool classes, while Early Head Start is for pregnant women, infants and toddlers up to age 3.

Idaho is among eight U.S. states without a state-funded preschool program. And Idaho doesnt require students to attend preschool or kindergarten.

In the past, Head Start programs could provide preschool classes two days a week, in addition to home visits.

Now, programs will have to provide center-based services four days a week.

CSIs program is already ahead of the curve. It switched over to offering classes four days a week when the college was going through a re-competition process for its grant.

It found out in late spring it would continue to receive grant funding to offer Head Start and Early Head Start services.

Under the new standards, changes to Head Start preschool classes wont happen immediately.

Programs dont have to come into compliance with the new performance standards all at once, Fedder said.

By Aug. 1, 2019, half the students enrolled must receive 1,020 hours of class time per year. And by August 2021, 100 percent of students must receive that amount of instruction.

Its quite a jump, Fedder said.

To get there, it will mean six-hour school days and a much longer school year.

The vast majority of CSI Head Start classrooms have three-and-a-half hour classes. The exception: one classroom in Twin Falls and one classroom in Burley offer six-hour classes.

Eventually, the school year will also be significantly longer  about 170 days instead of 128.

Our calendar will have to mirror local school districts, Fedder said.

CSIs Head Start program wrote a grant application a few months ago seeking more federal funding to extend the number of hours students are in class.
TWIN FALLS  Workers are putting final touches on a newly-renovated and expanded robotics classroom at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Magic Valley.

The project is made possible by a $24,392 grant from the Dart Foundation, the clubs announced Friday.

Improvements allow double the number of children participating in the clubs program for robotics and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Enrollment was previous limited to 12 children.

We are grateful for Dart Foundations investment in our Club, our STEM programs, and the youth that will be impacted by their generosity, Boys & Girls Club executive director Lindsey Westburg said in a statement.

The building has been under construction for nearly a year to completely renovate and add on a new lobby and extra classroom space.

Westburg encourages the public to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday.

The Dart Foundation is a private family foundation established by the late Dart Container Corp. founder William A. Dart and his wife, Claire T. Dart.

The foundation supports projects that enhance education, especially in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math, and those that improve the quality of life in specific communities, including Twin Falls and the surrounding area.
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Fitness

Over 60 and Getting Fit classes will begin at 9 a.m. Monday at the Jerome Recreation District, 2032 S. Lincoln. Classes will be held Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Free to anyone over age 60. Information: 208-324-3389.

Seniors wellness

The Twin Falls Senior Center will hold a hearing event for senior citizens at 530 Shoshone St. W.

Representatives from Miracle Ear will be available from 10:30 a.m. to noon Monday to provide free hearing screenings.

Information: 208-734-5084.

Weight loss support

TOPS Club (Take Off Pounds Sensibly), a nonprofit weight-loss support group, will meet weekly at several locations.

Local chapters will meet at 4:30 p.m. Monday at the Twin Falls Senior Center, 530 Shoshone St. W., 208-734-2641 or 208-734-5300; and at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday at 2025 S. Highway 81 in Malta, 208-645-2438;

Also at 9:15 a.m. Thursday at the Jerome Public Library, 100 First Ave. E., 208-324-6693; 9:30 a.m. Thursday at 410 E. Third St. in Rupert, 208-436-6037 or 208-679-3518; and at 5:30 p.m. Friday at 1800 J St. in Heyburn, 208-678-8706 or 208-678-2622.

Breastfeeding

Free Breastfeeding 101 class, 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Pine Room at St. Lukes Magic Valley Medical Center, 801 Pole Line Road W., Twin Falls.

Topic: Breastfeeding basics for new and expectant mothers. Babies are welcome.

Free; pre-registration is required, 208-814-0402.

Recovery for Life

Recovery For Life groups will meet at 7 p.m. Mondays, beginning this week through Dec. 12, at Twin Falls Reformed Church, 1631 Grandview Drive N., in the white building.

Groups and classes will include GriefShare, Parenting Skills, Hope 12-step, Divorce Care, Special Parents Special Kids, Cooking Matters, Codependency, and Recovery Womens Bible Study. A free meal begins at 6 p.m.

Free child care and transportation for those attending. Information: 208-733-6128.

Alzheimers support

Magic Valley Caregiver Support Group, presented by Alzheimers Association, Greater Idaho Chapter, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Bridgeview Estates, 1828 Bridgeview Blvd., Twin Falls.

The group meets on the second Tuesday every month.

Information: facilitator Yolanda Martinez, 208-404-6720.

Happy babies

Happiest Baby on the Block class, 6:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday in Oak Room 2 on the lower level of St. Lukes, 801 Pole Line Road W., Twin Falls.

Learn a step-by-step approach to soothing your baby, and receive a parenting kit to use at home. The class can be taken before or after delivery.

Cost is $15; pre-registration is required: 208-814-0402.

Ostomy support

Ostomy Support Group, 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday in the cafeteria at St. Lukes, 801 Pole Line Road W., Twin Falls.

The meeting is for ostomy patients and their families.

Free; 208-308-6153.

Parkinsons support

The Magic Valley Parkinsons Support Group will meet at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Jerome Public Library, 100 First Ave. E. Those with Parkinsons and their spouses and caregivers are invited to attend the free meeting.

Parkinsons patients make up a community of people who can feel the power of that community when they meet with others who understand and experience the same symptoms. The support, compassion and education received and given in a support group is a powerful motivator to live the best life possible with Parkinsons.

The group meets monthly on the second Wednesday. Information: nfturley@att.net or 208-358-5807.

Alzheimers support

Alzheimers Association, Greater Idaho Chapters Caregiver Support Group meeting, 6:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at DeSano Place Suites, 545 Nevada St., Gooding.

The group meets on the second and fourth Wednesdays every month.

Information: 208-934-4623.

Asthma education

Free asthma education class for patients and caregivers to assess and manage asthma will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday. The class is presented by St. Lukes Magic Valley and meets on the third Thursday of each month.

Pre-registration is required. To register and for location of the class: 208-814-8765.

Grief support

Griefshare meetings, 6:30 p.m. Thursdays, through Sept. 29, at Lighthouse Church, 960 Eastland Drive, Twin Falls.

Anyone who has lost a loved one and/or friend is welcome to attend. A separate class for teens will be possible if there is interest. Participants can begin at any session. Enter through the east doors at the rear of the building.

Information: 208-737-4667.

Parenting

Minidoka County School District will offer Parenting the Love and Logic Way with facilitator Cindy Shipp. The six-week classes will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursdays, beginning this week, at the District Service Center, 310 10th St., Rupert.

Topics: two rules of love and logic, delayed or anticipatory consequences, using empathy and love and logic one-liners to neutralize arguing, and how to get more information about love and logic. Cost is $15 per person or $20 for a couple. Child care will be available.

Register: Laura Koyle, 208-436-4727 or lkoyle@minidokaschools.com.

Blood drives

The American Red Cross will hold blood drives in Gooding and Twin Falls.

Blood donation opportunities will be available from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday at the War Memorial Building, 203 Third Ave. W., Gooding; and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Sept. 19, at La Quinta Inn, 539 Pole Line Road, Twin Falls. A diverse blood supply is important to ensure the needs of all patients are met. Donors of all blood types are needed.

To schedule an appointment to donate, use the blood donor app, visit redcrossblood.org or call 800-733-2767.

Childrens screenings

El Korah is offering a free screening clinic from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the College of Southern Idahos Health Sciences and Human Services building on North College Road in Twin Falls.

The screening is to identify children, from birth to age 18, who can benefit from orthopedic and burn/scar care. The Shriners Hospitals for Children treat problems with bones, joints or muscles; cerebral palsy, hip disorder, hand or foot disorder spina bifida, scoliosis, club foot, skeletal growth abnormalities, and cleft lip/palate. Expert care is provided regardless of the patients ability to pay.

Information: 208-733-2721.

To do for you is a listing of health-related activities, events and education. Submit information by noon Thursday for publication in the following Mondays edition to ramona@magicvalley.com.
As someone who has taught in Blaine County schools for years, I couldnt agree more with your June 29 editorial calling for Legislative action on early education funding. As you cite, investment in early education saves money in the long run and the scientifically proven benefits has convinced lawmakers in 42 states to fund pre-school programs.

Many Idaho legislators haven't addressed preschool funding nor have they fully resolved the issue of appropriate funding for our students. We are back to 2009 funding levels, but this is 2016 and we have 18,000 more students in the system.

People across Idaho care about the education their kids are receiving and the state must meet its responsibilities. Our cries for pre-school and adequate funding for education continue to fall upon deaf ears. That is why we need to elect new lawmakers, like Kathleen Eder, running in District 26.

Kathleen Eder will vote for pre-school education and make education funding a priority. And as you stated, Its time to stop leaving Idaho children behind.

Char Roth

Hailey
There is talk among Republicans, and some trepidation among Democrats, that Donald Trump could benefit from a silent vote. Although these voters arent captured by polls, the privacy of a voting booth or a mail-in ballot will allow them to vent their anger and resentments.

The theory holds that in some circles its not respectable to publicly support the inflammatory New York billionaire, but its easier in private.

This is a variation of the so-called Bradley effect: In several instances over recent decades, white candidates have outperformed polls when running against a black opponent. Something similar was at work in the U.K. referendum on exiting the European Union. To the surprise of financial markets and bettors, the leave camp won the June vote, which was interpreted as an expression of discontent with the elites.

Similarly, in the U.S. presidential election, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump supporter, claimed that the average citizen will not tell pollsters the truth.

A silent or secret Trump vote would be a big deal: Hillary Clinton is up by several points in the latest surveys, not a comfortable margin.

There are, however, reasons to question whether Trump will outperform the polls.

This wasnt the case in the primaries. The Republican nominee underperformed the final polls in about as many states as those where he outperformed.

In Iowa, Ann Selzer, the pollster for the Des Moines Register and Bloomberg Politics, lost her unblemished record when she showed Trump with a small lead. He narrowly lost to Ted Cruz. Sure, that all was within a margin of error and Iowas contest is a caucus, where turnout is low. And a week later, in New Hampshire, the final polls suggested Trump would win by about 15 points; he won by 20.

That trend was erratic. In one of his most important closing victories in Indiana, he finished well ahead of the final surveys. But in South Carolina and Michigan, though he won, he underperformed the last polls. In Wisconsin, the closing polls suggested Cruz would beat Trump by about seven points; the Texan won by 13.

The Bradley effect gets its name from the 1982 California governors race, when the Democratic nominee, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, who was black, was running ahead of his white Republican opponent. When Bradley ended up losing, there was speculation that some voters didnt want to admit to polltakers that they wouldnt support a black candidate.

Trump has aroused racial feelings more than any national candidate since George Wallace 40 years ago, but a lot has changed. In 1982, there had not been a black governor anywhere since Reconstruction, and of course a black man has won the last two presidential elections, carrying California twice by landslides.

The Brexit vote did shock the establishment because the final polls pointed to a victory for the remain camp. Yet only a few weeks earlier, most of the surveys showed a win for leave. In the interim, a pro-EU member of Parliament, Jo Cox, was assassinated. Some analysts speculate that the tragedy created a short-term backlash against the exit movement that dissipated by Election Day.

The U.S. presidential contest should be a change election, which ordinarily would work to the advantage of the Republican candidate in the last eight weeks. In 1980, Ronald Reagan surged at the end, demonstrating that he was up to the job. Its doubtful Trump has that capacity, so he needs a silent vote to offset his high negatives.
Mauritanian education minister, who was visiting neighboring Morocco, last week, called for enhancing cooperation between the two countries in all realms, and more importantly in matters of education and vocational training.

Education Minister Sidi Ould Salem conferred with Moroccan Minister of Higher Education Lahcen Daoudi on means to boost the exchange of expertise between the two countries.

Away from diplomat tension, Morocco remains a role-model for Mauritania in terms of the education and training.

Ould Salem expressed the Mauritanian governments desire to benefit from the Moroccan know-how in professional training and higher education, as well as of Moroccos expertise and experience in the areas of architecture and urbanization. Mauritania leads the list of countries receiving Moroccos government education scholarships. Around 350 Mauritanian students are currently studying in Morocco under Rabats education scholarship program.

Mauritania has signed several accords with a number of well renowned Moroccan schools among which the Hassania School of civil engineering and the Mohammadia Engineering School.
Credit: University of Dundee

The University of Dundee and the Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines (GALVmed) have partnered to develop a simple and effective device that tests for a cattle disease that is endemic in 40 African countries and accounts for up to a 50 percent loss in milk and meat production in the continent.

The device, less than 3 inches long and similar in format to a pregnancy test, can identify within 30 minutes whether or not an animal is infected with the parasite Trypanosoma vivax from a single drop of blood. The simple device does not require electricity or any additional equipment, factors that are essential for deployment in resource-limited settings.

The cattle disease nagana, also called African animal trypanosomosis, is caused mainly by two parasite species, Trypanosoma vivax and Trypanosoma congolense, and affects huge swathes of sub-Saharan Africa. The T. vivax form of nagana has also spread to South America. With around 60 million cattle at risk from the disease, which causes muscle wasting and death, the socio-economic impacts of nagana are profound. It has an impact on the lives of millions of smallholder farmers and the economy.

"Nagana is difficult to diagnose because early symptoms can be easily confused with a myriad of other endemic diseases," said Professor Mike Ferguson, Regius Professor of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee, who led the research team.

"There is an urgent need for new, inexpensive and simple, diagnostics that can be used by vets and farmers to test animals prior to deploying expensive medicines."

With this in mind GALVmed asked the University of Dundee to help develop a new diagnostic for nagana.

GALVmed is an NGO which makes livestock vaccines, medicines and diagnostics accessible and affordable to the millions of smallholder farmers in developing world, headquartered in Edinburgh.

Taking a hi-tech approach, the research team identified the components of Trypanosoma vivax that cattle make antibodies to.

One of these components was developed into a prototype diagnostic device in collaboration with Dr Steven Wall (Product Support Manager) at BBI Solutions OEM Limited, who specialise in the development and manufacturing of lateral flow assays in the Dundee MediPark.

The prototype diagnostic device was evaluated with over a hundred serum samples from uninfected and T. vivax-infected cattle. The promising results, just published in the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, have inspired GALVmed to further investigate this innovative diagnostic test for use in Africa.

Dr Jeremy Salt, Senior Director of Research and Development at GALVmed, said, "We are delighted with the progress on an effective and simple diagnostic test for T. vivax infection through our partnership with The University of Dundee and BBI Solutions OEM Limited.

"Such a test could allow millions of smallholder farmers an efficient way to test their cattle for this debilitating disease and give peace of mind that any subsequent treatment for T. vivax infection will be done with the certainty that the patient is infected, which saves the farmer money. This will give more control to the smallholder farmers whose quality of life has been affected by this disease that covers over 10 million square kilometres of Africa.

"To ensure that the final test is widely used throughout the regions where it's endemic, GALVmed will be working with scientists, manufacturers and distributors in the 40 countries where AAT is rife to create a sustainable supply chain for the final product."

Professor Ferguson added, "I am very proud of the talented scientists, Jennifer Fleming, Lalitha Sastry, Lauren Sullivan and Steven Wall, who did this work, and of the synergistic relationship between the University of Dundee and BBI Solutions OEM Limited. Hopefully, with further development by GALVmed, the device will prove sufficiently useful to be adopted for the detection of nagana caused by T. vivax in the developing world."

Explore further How to still kill a resistant parasite

More information: Jennifer R. Fleming et al. Proteomic Identification of Immunodiagnostic Antigens for Trypanosoma vivax Infections in Cattle and Generation of a Proof-of-Concept Lateral Flow Test Diagnostic Device, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases (2016). Journal information: PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases Jennifer R. Fleming et al. Proteomic Identification of Immunodiagnostic Antigens for Trypanosoma vivax Infections in Cattle and Generation of a Proof-of-Concept Lateral Flow Test Diagnostic Device,(2016). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0004977
Removal of parasitic cyst from boy's brain

A previously healthy 12-year-old boy was admitted to hospital with a 6-month history of headaches, projectile vomiting and occasional blurry visionand was later diagnosed with a cyst containing tapeworm larva in his brain, explain doctors writing in the online journal BMJ Case Reports.

The most common cause is Echinococcus granulosus, also called hydatid worm, hyper tape-worm or dog tapeworm. This type of infection is called a hydatid cyst and usually involves the liver, lungs and, but rarely the brain.

It is endemic in many parts of the world, particularly in the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, South America and central and south Europe.

Hydatid disease is considered a rare disease and may be sometimes very difficult to diagnose based on the clinical and laboratory findings. The doctors explain the importance of MRI scans to identify and precisely locate the cyst.

Surgery was performed to remove the cyst from the right side of the boy's brain, and there were no postoperative complications. Scans three months later confirmed no further cysts and the boy made a good recovery.

Hobbyist bird-keeper develops pneumonia

A 61-year-old man developed psittacosisalso known as parrot feveran uncommon cause of pneumonia in humans exposed to infected birds.

The patient, based in the UK, was admitted to hospital with influenza-like symptoms, including fever, cough, malaise and breathlessness. He developed type 2 respiratory failure, became increasingly drowsy, and suffered a convulsive episode in the intensive care unit.

Initial clinical findings suggested community-acquired pneumonia and meningoencephalitis. However, during his stay in intensive care, it emerged that he was a hobbyist bird-keeper. He kept several species of birds, including cockatiel, parrolet, kakareki, turquisine, budgie, canary, bengalese finch, diamond doves, lovebirds, chickens and red rump parrots.

Two of these birds had unexpectedly died recently since the patient's admission. This raised a suspicion of an infection with Chlamydia psittaci, which was confirmed by tests. He was treated with antibiotics and made a full recovery.

Writing in BMJ Case Reports, doctors explain that the infectious disease is caused by a bacterium called Chlamydophila psittaci. It is contracted from infected parrots, pigeons, sparrows, ducks, hens, and other species of bird.

It's a known risk for pet bird owners, zoo and pet shop workers, poultry farmers as well as veterinarians. Around 50 cases occur in England and Wales every year, but it is believed to be underdiagnosed.

Schistosoma (parasitic flatworm) infection remained undiscovered for years

A team of doctors, writing in BMJ Case Reports, describe the case of a 42-year-old man with Schistosoma mansoni (parasitic flatworm) infection acquired possibly during a previous trip to Sierra Leone many years ago

The patient arrived at emergency department with a 1-week history of pain on the left side of his abdomen, fever and diarrhoea. He reported no recent travel or unwell contacts such as family or friends. Originally from Sierra Leone, he had lived in the UK for 15 years.

When the left side of his abdomen was examined, it was tender and a mass was suspected. Chest and abdominal X-rays were normal.

When examining the inner lining of the patient's large intestine, doctors found a mild and patchy inflammation. Biopsy samples revealed a viable schistosome ovum (egg). The patient was given antiparasitic treatment.

"Schistosomiasis affects over 200 million people worldwide. It can lay dormant for many years and should be considered in patients from endemic areas, presenting with suggestive features," write the doctors.

This case demonstrates the importance of taking "a detailed travel history from any patient with diarrhoeal symptoms. This should include relevant travel and residence abroad, which may extend back to childhood," they say.

Hookworm develops in woman's skin after trip to Gabon

A 31-year-old French woman developed a hookworm infection following a trip to Gabon, describe doctors in the online journal BMJ Case Reports.

Five days after returning home, the woman noticed a skin rash on her inner left thigh, which grew for one week before she was admitted to hospital.

The infection was described as 'itchy', but no other symptoms were reported and clinical examination did not show other abnormalities.

Human infection, also known as cutaneous larva migrans, occurs when the skin comes into contact with hookworms, which is common when lying or walking on contaminated beaches. The parasites then enter through the first two layers of the skin, and move 2 to 3 centimetres a day.

Dog or cat hookworm is the most common cause of cutaneous larva migrans in people, and it is endemic in tropical and subtropical countries.

The parasites (Ancylostoma caninum, Ancylostoma braziliense or Uncinaria stenocephala) use cats and dogs as natural hosts, and grow in the animal's intestine before being excreted.

No treatment is required as the infection clears up within a few weeks, but the patient was given antiparasite therapy.

More information: Intracranial hydatid cyst: imaging findings of a rare disease, BMJ Case Reports, casereports.bmj.com/content/2016/bcr-2016-216570 Intracranial hydatid cyst: imaging findings of a rare disease, Birds of a feather: an uncommon cause of pneumonia and meningoencephalitis, BMJ Case Reports, casereports.bmj.com/content/2016/bcr-2016-216879 A fluke diagnosis, BMJ Case Reports, casereports.bmj.com/content/2016/bcr-2016-216169 Imported cutaneous larva migrans by a 31-year-old French woman after a travel in Gabon, BMJ Case Reports, casereports.bmj.com/content/2016/bcr-2016-216578 Journal information: BMJ Case Reports
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

In papers receiving advance online publication in Nature Genetics, two international multi-institutional research teams describe identifying a total of 44 novel gene sites associated with hypertension or high blood pressure. The studies, co-led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), point towards potential new treatment strategies for the condition affecting around one-third of U.S. adults.

"High blood pressure or hypertension is a major cause of heart disease and stroke worldwide, but its underlying causes are poorly understood," says Christopher Newton-Cheh, MD, MPH, of the MGH Center for Human Genetic Research and Cardiovascular Research Center, senior author of both papers. "Existing therapies target only a small subset of the pathways that contribute to hypertension, so identifying additional genes that influence blood pressure can point us in new directions, giving us exciting new leads for drug development."

It is well known that hypertension tends to run in families, but while around half the risk of the condition can be attributed to inheritance, the approximately 60 hypertension genes identified in previous studies explain only about 2 percent of that risk. To identify additional risk variants, the two current investigations conducted meta-analyses using novel, custom genotyping arrays, each of which test for more than 200,000 variants, combined with data from the group's previously published studies.

In one study the researchers analyzed data from more than 327,000 individuals genotyped with an array called the Exome Chip, which is designed to identify rare gene variants that change protein structure. That analysis identified 31 novel gene sites associated with hypertension risk, as well as rare gene variants in natriuretic peptide receptor 1, which is the receptor for two proteins called natriuretic peptides that are known to relax blood vessels and control sodium excretion and were shown in previous work led by Newton-Cheh to be associated with hypertension risk.

For the second study, the investigators used the Cardio-Metabochip array, which focuses on variants associated with cardiovascular and metabolic traits, to analyze data from more than 345,000 individuals participating in 73 studies. That analysis revealed associations with 66 gene sites, 17 of which were new. While that analysis was conducted on studies enrolling individuals of European ancestry, analyzing data from more than 64,000 non-European individuals with a risk score based on those 66 variants showed a similar association with both hypertension and with damage to tissues in the heart and key vascular structures but not to the kidney which has long been considered a major regulator of blood pressure.

Four risk-associated sites were identified by both studies, leaving a total of 44 novel risk-associated genes. Overall these two studies, the largest reported meta-analyses of investigations into the genetics of hypertension, point towards pathways other than that involved with salt excretion by the kidneysthe system previous genetic studies have focused onas potential treatment targets. Findings of the Cardio-Metabochip study particularly highlighted the role of the endothelial cells that line blood vessels and control how strongly they constrict. Other potential targets, other than the previously identified natriuretic peptides, include an enzyme involved in the synthesis of the hormone noradrenaline, which is well known to influence heart rate and blood pressure.

An assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Newton-Cheh explains, "Even with hundreds of thousands of people studied and over 100 blood pressure genes identified to date, we estimate that there are still hundreds more to find. Only when we can study millions of peopleparticularly people of non-European ancestry who have been underrepresented in past studieswill we have a chance at finding them all."

Explore further International study identifies new gene targets for hypertension treatment

More information: Meta-analysis identifies common and rare variants influencing blood pressure and overlapping with metabolic trait loci, Nature Genetics, DOI: 10.1038/ng.3660 Journal information: Nature Genetics Meta-analysis identifies common and rare variants influencing blood pressure and overlapping with metabolic trait loci,
(HealthDay)Magnifying endoscopy with image-enhanced endoscopy (ME-IEE) may provide better diagnostic performance than conventional white light imaging (C-WLI) for early gastric cancer, according to an article published online Aug. 31 in the Journal of Digestive Diseases.

Nei Soma, from Tsinghua University in Beijing, addresses the evaluation of high-risk patients for gastric cancer by endoscopy, focusing on the signs of suspicious lesions by C-WLI or chromoendoscopy (CE). In addition, the author presents endoscopic markers visualized by ME-IEE.

Soma notes that surface and color changes are distinct markers for detecting superficial mucosal neoplasia by C-WLI or CE; other markers include changes in light reflection and spontaneous bleeding. C-WLI endoscopy is the standard imaging modality for diagnosis of gastric mucosal cancers, but diagnosis of minute or superficial flat gastric cancers is difficult using C-WLI or CE; in these cases, advanced imaging is recommended. ME-IEE with narrow-band imaging with a classification system known as the vessel plus surface classification system (VSCS) was effective for identifying early gastric cancer, and may be able to differentiate between low-grade adenoma and early gastric cancer.

"Diagnosis using ME-IEE with VSCS may provide excellent diagnostic performance with high confidence and good reproducibility to the endoscopist if it is performed under consistent conditions, including observation under maximal magnification," Soma writes.

Explore further Study reveals optimal interval for stomach cancer screening

Copyright  2016 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
(HealthDay)Postconditioning with rosuvastatin prevents myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury in a rat model, according to a study published online Aug. 31 in Cardiovascular Therapeutics.

Chun-Wei Liu, from Tianjin Medical University in China, and colleagues examined whether postconditioning with rosuvastatin could reduce myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury. In the presence and absence of rosuvastatin, isolated rat hearts underwent 30 minutes of ischemia and 60 minutes of reperfusion.

The researchers found that myocardial infarct size was reduced significantly and cardiac function improved with rosuvastatin at 5 and 10 nM. At higher concentrations, protection disappeared; increased damage was seen at 50 nM. Rosuvastatin increased the phosphorylation of protein kinase B (Akt) and glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) at 5 nM, in parallel with an increased Ca2+ load required to open the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP). Superoxide dismutase activity was increased significantly and malondialdehyde and radical oxygen species levels were decreased with rosuvastatin postconditioning. These protective effects were abolished with LY294002 phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitors.

"Rosuvastatin prevents myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury by inducing phosphorylation of PI3K-Akt and GSK-3, preventing oxidative stress and subsequent inhibition of mPTP opening," the authors write.

Explore further LDL reduction in hypertriglyceridemia varies per statin

Copyright  2016 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Magnetic resonance image (MRI) of the fetal brain in a Zika virus infected primate. The large white region is abnormal and indicates an accumulation of fluid in the brain. Credit: University of Washington

For the first time, abnormal brain development following a Zika infection during pregnancy has been documented experimentally in the offspring of a non-human primate.

The researchers' observations of how Zika virus arrested fetal brain formation in a pigtail macaque could provide a model for testing therapeutic interventions.

The findings are reported Sept. 12 in the advanced online publication of Nature Medicine.

"Our results remove any lingering doubt that the Zika virus is incredibly dangerous to the developing fetus and provides details as to how the brain injury develops," noted Dr. Kristina Adams Waldorf, the lead author of the study. She is a UW Medicine physician and researcher, and a University of Washington professor of obstetrics and gynecology who specializes in maternal and fetal infections.

"This study brings us closer to determining if a Zika vaccine or therapy will prevent fetal brain injury, but also be safe to take in pregnancy," she added.

"This is the only direct evidence that shows that the Zika virus can cross the placenta late in pregnancy and affect the fetal brain by shutting down certain aspects of brain development," said one of the study's senior authors, Dr. Michael Gale, Jr., UW professor of immunology. An expert on how the body responds to viruses, he directs the UW Medicine Center for Innate Immunity and Immune Disease.

Gale explained that the study results met Koch's Postulate, which establishes the criteria for determining if a microorganism is a causative agent for a disease or disorder.

Adams Waldorf, Gale and Dr. Lakshmi Rajagopal, UW associate professor of pediatrics, led the project. Rajagopal studies pregnancy and newborn infectious diseases at Seattle Children's Research Institute and UW Medicine.

"We were shocked when we saw the first MRI [magnetic resonance image] of the fetal brain 10 days after viral inoculation. We had not predicted that such a large area of the fetal brain would be damaged so quickly," Rajagopal noted. "Our results suggest that a therapy to prevent fetal brain injury must either be a vaccine or a prophylactic medicine taken at the time of the mosquito bite to neutralize the virus."

She added, "By the time a pregnant woman develops symptoms, the fetal brain may already be affected and damaged."

"Our entire team is deeply committed to developing an animal model in which we can rapidly test a vaccine or therapy to determine if we can prevent fetal brain injury caused by the Zika virus," said Adams Waldorf.

Primates, including people, are an order of mammals that share many features of brain development. Non-human and human primates' gestations also have key similarities. These include the structure of the placenta, the timing of nerve and brain development, and the resulting proportions of gray and white matter in the brain.

Previously, no experimental animal model closely emulated the effects of Zika virus infection during human pregnancy. While the virus can cause fetal demise in mice, mouse models have not enabled medical researchers to delve into the causal relationships between Zika virus infection and fetal brain injury.

The Zika virus is transmitted by certain types of mosquitoes, including the Aedes egypti mosquito.

It is a flavivirus, part of a group of insect-carried viruses that cause illness throughout the world. Other mosquito-borne flaviviruses are West Nile virus, Dengue virus, Yellow Fever virus, and the Japanese encephalitis virus. In some cases, those infections can become complicated by severe nervous system inflammation.

In contrast, the symptoms of a Zika virus infection are often milder. Some people have no symptoms and others develop fever, muscle aches, rash, and sore, swollen eyes. However, contracting the Zika virus during pregnancy is a serious concern, because the fetal brain may be destroyed or quit developing.

The Zika prenatal study took place during the equivalent of the third trimester of a human gestation. The amount of virus inoculated in this study approximated what a person might contract from the probing and biting of an infected, feeding mosquito. The pregnant animal did not show any significant symptoms of infection, such as fever or rash.

The white matter of the fetal brain, which is important for coordinating communication between different parts of the brain, stopped growing about three weeks after viral inoculation. If the study continued one additional month with the same trajectory of brain growth, microcephaly, a condition where the brain is abnormally small, would have occurred.

The study brought together scientists and physicians from the fields of obstetrics, virology, molecular microbiology, immunology, pediatrics, pathology, radiology, neurology, medicine, bioengineering bioinformatics, neurological surgery, primatology and other fields.

The researchers on the Nature Medicine study listed some brain development problems that could affect some infants whose mothers had a Zika virus infection during pregnancy.

These might include a loss of brain cells and brain cell connections, enlargement of the fluid-containing brain cavities, a smaller-than-normal hindbrain (a part of the brain that controls movement and other functions), and vision problems from disruptions in the optic nerve. In addition, they found that the Zika viral genome was also present in other fetal tissues including, eye, liver, and kidney.

This research revealed conclusively that the Zika virus had crossed from the mother through the placenta and into the fetal brain. In fact, Gale pointed out, the virus level in the fetus's brain was higher than that in the mother.

A big question, Gale said, was how long the virus stays in the system during pregnancy and fetal development. He explained that the presence of the Zika virus in some way perturbs the normal balance of brain development by pushing the brain to build up too much supportive structure and not enough nerve cell structure. This alters the brain shape, size and function. The Zika virus used in the study was a 2010 Cambodian strain that is nearly genetically identical to the strain now found in Brazil.

UW Medicine was ready and able to launch the study about six months ago because of the resources and expertise it had in place: a well-established team to study infections and fetal injury in pregnancy, the Center for Innate Immunity and Immune Diseases, the Washington National Primate Research Center, the Seattle Children's Research Institute Center for Integrative Brain Research and the Center for Global Infectious Disease Research, and other units.

Gale also credited the assistance of the Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Programs at Washington University in St. Louis.

Explore further Study identifies how Zika virus infects the placenta

More information: Fetal brain lesions after sub- cutaneous inoculation of Zika virus in a pregnant nonhuman primate, Nature Medicine, DOI: 10.1038/nm.4193 Journal information: Nature Medicine Fetal brain lesions after sub- cutaneous inoculation of Zika virus in a pregnant nonhuman primate,
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For picture posts from 2010 and earlier, see the Earlier Picture Posts Page
Mary Hanson was going through an odd time in her life, as she describes it.

The Milwaukee resident, now in her sixties, said she'd been losing some friends and relatives.

The news, meanwhile, was filled with election controversies and the racial tumult in her home city.

At the end of a week of 90-degree weather, she went to check her mail.

Among the junk mail and the bills, she found "this little bright pineapple" painted in watercolor and acrylic on a postcard. It's a simple thing, she said, but it touched her.

"It just was very compelling to have that physical thing," she said in a phone interview. Not an ad, a tweet or a Facebook post, but a small painted card from a complete stranger.

It was mailed to her on Aug. 30 by Linds Sanders, a Missoula artist, as part of her Art by Post project, in which she creates one card a day and mails it to someone, either by request through a website or other means. She might even meet a stranger in the airport and ask for their address.

She modeled her yearlong endeavor after a haiku project by Andrew O. Dugas, a writer and poet who lives in San Francisco. Dugas wrote 1,001 haikus, one per day, and mailed them to strangers.

Sanders received one in January 2014, in the midst of a stressful day.

Its message was simple, but more poignant for a Montana resident that Dugas may have realized:

***

"official winter!

at long last we can begin

the countdown to spring"

***

"It hit me at a time when I really, really needed it," Sanders said, so much so that she contacted him and said she wanted to create her own version.

"He was amazed and flattered and helped be a mentor through the project," she said.

***

A community-minded art project seems a natural fit for Sanders, who has a full-time job as the manager of the Zootown Arts Community Center, the bustling Northside arts center that encourages creativity for students of all ages.

If you walk into the ZACC, she's probably the first person you'll see at the front desk, ready to help you find the class you're looking for or the activity that suites your needs.

ZACC Executive Director Kia Liszak called her "the warm greeter who takes care of everyone" when they first arrive.

"My favorite people are the people who feel like they don't belong," Sanders said. "The biggest step they made was walking through the door. By walking through the door, they're admitting they have a creative bone in their body."

Adults in particular can feel more self-conscious about trying out art, but she believes everyone brings talent  some might just need to be patient because it takes time to develop a new skill.

Liszak, who hired Sanders, said she was impressed with everything Sanders had accomplished at such a young age.

Sanders' signature is simply asking everyone who walks in a question: "What has been the highlight of your day?"

It sounds so simple, Liszak said, but it always makes them stop and think.

***

Sanders, a Billings native, came to Missoula to study journalism at the University of Montana. For an unofficial minor, she took every art class she could.

"All the art professors kept asking me when I was going to apply for the BFA, because they thought I was an art student," she said.

She grew up around art: her mother, Connie Dillon, is a photographer and painter who owns a gallery in Billings called Gallery Nine.

After graduating in 2012, Sanders sold feather jewelry at the Saturday markets until her mother passed along a job posting for the ZACC, where Sanders had a solo exhibition as an undergrad.

She applied for a fill-in post, and after someone else left, she became the manager.

"Like all of our jobs here, it just grew and grew and grew," she said.

She's also the volunteer coordinator, teaches the once-monthly glass fusing class, loads and looks after the kilns, and comes up with all the graphic design for the ZACC's myriad brochures, fliers, stickers, etc.

***

And she's overflowing with community activities. Outside of the ZACC, she has a part-time job as the owner/designer of Ramble Journals  handmade journals from recycled materials that are sold in stores in Missoula, Billings, Bozeman, Helena and Big Timber. Twenty percent of the proceeds go to the Rina B. Moog Scholarship Fund, created in memory of a close friend.

She also is co-facilitator of a Monday meditation group at Open Way Mindfulness Center in Missoula.

"It feels like they're suddenly very present and grateful for everything they're experiencing in that little moment," she said.

By the time Sanders was 15 years old, she'd seen people around her fall into the trap of substance abuse. She decided she's better off to her community if she abstains from drugs and alcohol, and has been straight-edge ever since.

"I'm really grateful that I found a good community here that knows the role that alcohol and substances play in their lives and it's a healthy role," she said.

Sanders is also a member of a women's mahjong group that meets every Monday. The mid-20-something is the second-youngest member  the next in age is in her 60s.

She came across the group at the library over three years ago, and sat down because she wanted to know more.

"Within an hour, they had me playing and I just kept coming back every single week," she said.

"They're awesome," she said. The group even traveled to Las Vegas in February to compete in a tournament.

Beyond hiking, inner-tube water polo and more, she says she likes to try a little bit of everything  even taking dance classes, which she says she's not good at to the point of discomfort, which is part of the point.

"I guess I seek out things that make me uncomfortable and try to stick with them long enough to wonder why I'm uncomfortable," she said.
The Eastern Orthodox believers who want to build a monastery near Harrison may belong to the oldest strand of the faith in Christianity, but they are a tiny portion of the faithful in Montana.

Data from the Association of Religion Data Archives, or ARDA, show that in 2010, there were a mere 565 believers in Orthodox churches in Montana. In comparison, there were 127,612 Catholics in Montana, forming the states largest single religious group, and 121,064 evangelical Protestants, the next largest group. There were 76,869 mainline Protestants and 331 black Protestants. There were also 50,535 people in a broad category called Other that includes such groups as Jehovahs Witnesses, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Church of Christ, Scientist and the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Sikhism, the BahaI faith and the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations are also in the Other category.

By far the largest category in the 2010 ARDA tally is the Unclaimed category, accounting for 612,439 Montanans.

The ARDA data track congregational adherents, meaning all full members, their children and others who regularly attend services. The population of Montana was 989,415 in 2010, meaning the ARDA tally of religious adherents added up to 38.1 percent of the population. That is down from 44.7 percent of the population who tracked as religious adherents in 2000.

In 2010, Montanas 38.1 percent of religious adherents puts the state in the company of other Rocky Mountain states. Wyomings percentage of religious adherents was very similar, at 39.6 percent of the general population, while Colorado showed 37.8 percent.

Montana was far less religious in the 2010 data than the Dakotas, to the east. Some 67.1 percent of North Dakotans were religious adherents, while 58.6 percent of South Dakotans were. Idaho, where 51.1 percent of the general population were religious adherents, was also considerably more religious than Montana.

For more information, visit thearda.com.
One of the first articles I wrote for this series was about the Golden E. Bibee familys danger-filled arrival in Polson during the 1910 historic Northwest wildfires. Their Great Northern train managed to get through burning forests east of Kalispell, and then survive a smoky city of Polson steamboat trip from Somers to Polson, with brief hurricane force winds and rain that ended abruptly with blinding smoke that obscured Polson. Then the ship crept slowly through the dark, guided by an electric plant whistle from the shore. Goldens mother died a few days later and became the second person to be buried in the Polson cemetery.

One might expect the 26-year-old Golden Bibee to have been completely unnerved and to consider moving farther west. Not so. When the fires burned out, the smoke cleared, the weather returned to normal, Golden and his young wife, Hattie, liked what they saw and settled down.

He worked for the Cline Flour Mill in Polson for six years and then worked for a harness shop, and homesteaded in the Big Arm area. He had developed a liking for the land and its possibilities, appreciated the beauty of the lake and mountains, enjoyed working with the people, admired the culture of the Indian people, discovered his ability with words and music, and simply enjoyed observing folks, giving them a helping hand when and where needed.

Golden Harvest, A Gathering of Rhymes was the first poetry book Golden published. It was printed by The ONeil Printers of Kalispell.

Treasure State Publishing Co. (The Flathead Courier) worked with Golden to print the next four books  "In the Realm of Flathead Lake," "Golden Treasures," "A Peep at People" and "Ranch Ramblins."

In "About the Author," I wrote, Golden E. Bibee of Big Arm is one of the Flathead Valleys most prolific poets  Bibee is fast gaining a large following of readers who enjoy his widely varied poetic offerings. He tells a tall western tale in verse in the cowpokes colloquial tongue; then pauses to muse whimsically over antics of animals; then, in a philosophical tone, delivers and lectures on life, only to return with some random reflection on a Montana scene or on the quaint side of human nature.

His work reflects a keen, sensitive, feeling and seeing mind, capable of presenting an infinite variety of messages.

Golden called his books the Pony Express series"  Pony in size and they do express.

Bibee also wrote words and music to Montana Means Home to Me, Say a Good Word" and Ridin Alone.

As the popular caretaker of Flathead Lake State Park at Big Arm from 1955-1968, Goldens office was his home," a former school bus with a paint job that closely matched the color of his park uniform. In 1964, he had a thrice-weekly radio program on KOFI Kalispell.

He was seriously injured in a 1966 car accident, but recovered to continue to generate immense quantities of good will for the Montana park system. At age 84, Goldens application for renewal of the caretaker job was turned down.

He commented in a letter to the editor in the Flathead Courier, I was born on a farm in Missouri at a time when wood was our only fuel for our stove and fireplace. We children had the job of picking up chips for chips were fuel. As soon as I was able to talk, I, too, picked chips. I dont remember, but I feel sure that I enjoyed the labor, and I almost got my name from it for the first three-word sentence I spoke was, Pick up chips. Thus began my life as a laborer and the habit has stayed with me through life.

 To my friends who expect to see me next season, I am sorry to miss seeing you. But do go on, get together, shake hands, go fishing, sleep in the cool shade, gather around the campfire, tell some good yarns, enjoy your stay. Welcome the stranger, be happy and plan to return.

After retirement Golden lived in LaGrande, Oregon, and then Olympia, Washington. In Olympia he frequently appeared with the Apple Jam Young Peoples Group where he told stories, recited poetry and danced the jig.

He died May 6, 1976, in Olympia Hospital, two days after undergoing surgery. Graveside rites were held in the old Missoula cemetery with Livingston & Malletta Funeral Home in charge of arrangements.

One of my favorite Golden Bibee poems is Love Can Do.

"Love can disappoint or satisfy.

Love can wing your spirits to the sky.

Love can break you down and make you cry,

Then come again and bless you, by and by."

***

Paul Fugleberg is a former editor and co-publisher of the Flathead Courier of Polson and the Ronan Pioneer, his freelance articles and photos have appeared in numerous national and regional magazines and newspapers, and he has written several books. He may be reached at pfugleberg@bresnan.net.
Eastern Orthodox believers are patiently moving forward with plans to build a monastery in Montana.

Though the timetable will depend on issues such as funding, members of St. Anthony the Great Orthodox Church in Bozeman already have donated land near the base of Montanas Tobacco Root Mountains especially for the monastery. The property is near Harrison on Harrison Lake, also known as Willow Creek Reservoir.

Its already in a conservation easement which stipulates that nothing can be built on the land other than an Eastern Orthodox monastery, said David Hicks, a member of St. Anthony the Great Orthodox Church in Bozeman. The property is a 1,000-acre tract on the north shore of the lake.

West of the Moon

David Hicks and his wife, Betsy, gave the parcel from what they called their West of the Moon ranch for the purpose of building St. Peters Monastery, as it is called. The West of the Moon name of the ranch comes from an old jazz standard East of the Sun (and West of the Moon), written by Princeton undergraduate Brooks Bowman and published in 1934, Hicks explained.

The monastery was formally established in 2014 and the St. Peters Monastery Foundation, which is guiding the effort to build it, is recognized by the state of Montana as a tax-exempt 501(c)3 foundation.

We have been so blessed to live at West of the Moon and in our beautiful state, Hicks told the Missoulian in an email. No one owns anything anyway. That's just a fiction to appease the ego. It's all on temporary loan. We are just the stewards in the parables told by Jesus, someday to give an account to the owner.

Hicks, who is secretary of the foundation, noted that in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the new monastery may start out as a skete  essentially a little monastery associated with a larger one.

A website at stpetersmonastery.com discusses details.

Alone with God in the wilderness

Father Hieromonk Innocent, the superior of St. John Monastery in Manton, California, has led three delegations of monks to Harrison in recent years to get work started on the actual building of the monastery. Innocent said Montana is in line with what monasteries have traditionally been in Orthodox tradition.

In the history of monasteries, the monks were actually trying to flee from the cities in order to be alone with God in the wilderness, he said.

The monks will be praying for the good of America, for Montana and for people everywhere, Innocent said.

And he added that as of now, the Orthodox Church has not yet formally released any monks to come to Montana to live permanently.

I would venture to estimate that within four or five years, we may be able to do that, but its in Gods hands, he said.

He added that the plan is for the monks to support themselves by making fine furniture, since there is a master craftsman in the Bozeman congregation who can teach them.

Architects view

Also in the Bozeman congregation of St. Anthony the Great Orthodox Church is an architect, Mark Headley. Hes the architect for the new library in Bozeman and his latest project is the new Missoula College building in Missoula. He also designed the Don Anderson Hall on the University of Montana campus, as well as UMs Interdisciplinary Science Building.

Headley converted to Eastern Orthodoxy in 2008 and has done the design work for St. Peters Monastery after visiting the famous Mount Athos Monastery in Greece.

There are five or six or seven distinct architectural Orthodox styles around the world, Russian, Georgian, Serbian, etcetera, but this one will be particularly Greek, Headley said. We will use a lot of rock at the base that is collected at the site. It is kind of classical in its organization. The building creates a square, enclosed courtyard. So it will be protected from the winter winds which are very, very strong out there.

It is on a sloped part of the site so the architectural design makes use of that site in placing the church sanctuary itself at the top of the site.

The symbolism there is that the Orthodox believe that the faith is not a one-time thing. They dont believe in an instantaneous salvation and youre saved forever, they believe its a lifelong struggle and lasts until your last breath. Its truly an ascent to God, and thats the very obvious reason that temples are placed like that, Headley said.

Life of prayer

Father David Morrison of St. Anthony the Great Orthodox Church in Bozeman noted that its only about a 45-minute drive from Bozeman to the site of the monastery. That means it will be close enough for Orthodox believers from the Bozeman congregation or from elsewhere to visit for spiritual encouragement, as many do.

It also will be open for people of other faiths to visit, if they choose. Such visitors will be welcome, he said.

Its my experience that there are plenty of people who are Protestants who are trying to find that sacred space and are willing to cross those lines, Morrison said. Our understanding of monasticism and monasteries is that its an essential aspect of Christianity. People in those monasteries have given themselves to pray for the life of the world. In setting apart land, there is space on the planet that is dedicated to prayer.
A mother of two teenage girls is trying to get back on her feet after escaping a severely abusive relationship. She is currently employed, but will not be able to maintain employment if she does not have a vehicle to use for her job. She is desperately in need of a donated vehicle, or any donations of money to purchase a used vehicle. Any checks can be made out to Winds of Change and will go toward the purchase of a used vehicle. Please contact Heather at Winds of Change, 721-2038, ext. 250.

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A homeless man who is disabled and unable to work at this time needs a winter coat, warm clothing and a sleeping bag. He is trying to get back on his feet after losing his job, home and vehicle after suffering from a physically disabling illness. Any checks made out to Walmart to purchase these items would be greatly appreciated. Please contact Heather at Winds of Change, 721-2038, ext. 250.

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A disabled woman suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder is trying to secure housing after leaving an abusive relationship and becoming homeless. She needs $16 to replace her lost Montana state ID and $8 to replace her lost birth certificate. She needs these forms of identification to apply for emergency housing programs through the Missoula Housing Authority and the YWCA. Checks could be made out to Winds of Change for these items. Any donations to cover the cost of gas to search for housing and a job would also be appreciated. Please contact Heather at Winds of Change, 721-2038, ext. 250.

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A homeless mother and her son who are currently staying in a shelter need to apply for emergency shelter through the YWCA. She needs to replace her stolen IDs in order to complete her applications for housing. Any donations to cover the $40 cost to replace her Washington birth certificate and $16 to replace her Montana state ID would be very helpful, and any checks could be made out to Winds of Change. She is also in need of warm clothing, and would greatly appreciate any donations in the form of checks made out to Walmart. Please contact Heather at Winds of Change, 721-2038, ext. 250.

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A homeless man who suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was hit as a pedestrian by a moving vehicle as he crossed Broadway is in need of warm clothing and a pair of winter boots. He has been unable to work since the accident and could use some help while he tries to get his life back together. Any checks could be made out to Walmart and would be appreciated. Please contact Heather at Winds of Change, 721-2038, ext. 250.

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A temporarily disabled, single mother and her 5-year-old daughter just moved into safe and affordable housing after being homeless for most of the summer. They could use some help supplying their new home with furniture and household goods. They also lost most of their clothing when they had to abruptly leave their home to escape an abusive relationship. They could use donations of checks made out to Donation Warehouse for furniture and Target or Walmart for household goods and clothing. Please contact Heather at Winds of Change, 721-2038, ext. 250.

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A disabled, elderly woman needs a double size mattress and box springs. She is moving into a new place and no longer has a bed available to her, and would appreciate any assistance. Any information on a donation of this item can be given to Hannah at 721-2038.

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A young, pregnant mother is in need of some maternity clothes/stretchy clothes she can wear during pregnancy. Size small or medium. Please contact Becky at WORD, 544-5617.

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A low-income, disabled individual is in need of a new electric stove, but cannot afford one at this time. To help, call Sarah at 532-9741.

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A single mother of three children is in need of winter clothing for her oldest boy; he especially needs a warm coat, pants and long-sleeve shirts, sizes 3T or 4T boys clothing and shoe size 10. To help, contact Jen at 406-541-4663 or drop off donations at Mountain Home Montana, 2606 South Ave. W. and refer to this We Care column.

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A young disabled woman needs assistance purchasing a Straight Talk phone card so she can stay in contact with her family and mental health case manager to ensure she makes it to her appointments. Any help is greatly appreciated. To donate, contact Becca with Winds of Change Mental Health Center, 926-9927 or rkwon@windsofchangemontana.com.

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A young mother needs a high chair for her baby. Contact Becky at WORD, 544-5617.

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A student at Sentinel needs a bunk bed, as he shares a room with his little brother and they have a small room. If you can help, call Michelle Manning, FIT coordinator, Sentinel High School, 728-2400, ext. 7507.

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Missoula Early Head Start staff often assists parents with home safety needs and supplies. Any donation of cabinet locks, outlet covers or door handle locks would be appreciated. Gently used clothes or items below (except car seats) would be greatly appreciated:

A family is in need of a double stroller.

A family is in need of a refrigerator.

Any assistance for the families would be greatly appreciated. If you can help, please contact Betsy Robel at Missoula Early Head Start, 251-9410, ext. 302.

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The Full Circle Developmental Disabilities Program is seeking donations in the form of gift cards to purchase clothes and supplies for a family in need; also, a backpack for their child for school. Gift cards may include Target, Walmart, Shopko, Kohls or similar stores where these items could be purchased. Donations can be dropped off or mailed to Full Circle Counseling Solutions at 2291 W. Broadway, Missoula MT 59808. For additional information, call Sydney at 396-6597.
Montanas prisons and jails are over capacity. What changes in statute and/or funding at the state level  if any  do you think are necessary? If no changes, why not?

Before any legislative fix is considered, we must understand the root cause of the problem. Fortunately, a comprehensive look at our criminal justice system is underway. The findings should promote solutions that keep violent criminals in jail while finding other options for lesser offenders. How can the state support county jail diversion programs and enhanced mental health care services to help people before they become offenders? Are sentencing guidelines realistic? Does the Board of Pardons and Parole need reforming? Answers to questions such as these, should identify solutions that avoid adding costly jail capacity.

Has the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission adequately guided the states hunting and fishing concerns, or does the Legislature need to give the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks more specific direction regarding topics such as land acquisition, wildlife management, predator control, and bison?

The Legislature, the Wildlife Commission, and Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) share responsibility for managing wildlife as a public trust for all Montanans. Through an effective system of checks and balances the Legislature makes laws and policy, the commission provides for public and political input and FWP provides scientific management expertise. Legislators should resist micromanaging and let the commission and FWP do their jobs. We need to work together to resolve contentious issues like land acquisition, predators and bison if we want to continue to provide the quality hunting, fishing and recreation that make Montana the envy of others.

Many Montanans depend on the extraction of fossil fuels for jobs, yet there is a strong demand for clean and renewable energy in the region, especially since prices for the latter are falling. How do you propose to help workers in the coal, oil and natural gas industries find jobs in this new economic landscape?

I think the Legislature should support some type of self-help programs for workers in the coal, oil and gas industries to help them transition to this new economic reality. The renewable energy industry, with incentives and help from the state, could provide training and possibly relocation assistance. That would not only help individual workers, but would have spin-off benefits to the greater state economy by growing the skill base needed for this new industry. It could be a model for developing other mid-life training opportunities that would help all Montanans be more flexible in a rapidly changing world and economy.

According to Montana University System records, as recently as 1992, the stated funded 76 percent of the university system. Now, though, state support has fallen to 40 percent, which means tuition funds 60 percent of the system  putting higher education out of reach for some Montana families. Do you as a legislator have a responsibility to help and if so, how? If not, why not?

Funding diverse educational opportunities for all Montana residents should be one of the Legislatures highest priorities. Education is vital for a healthy economy. It helps workers adjust to the changing job market and helps diversify our economy by providing the skilled workforce to attract prospective employers to Montana. No motivated citizen should be denied the education or training they need because its too expensive. Together we can afford to offer higher education; its simply a matter of priorities. We can either work together to lift everyones boat or suffer the proven consequences of a declining standard of living for all.

What do you regard as the most urgent problem facing Montana, and how do you propose dealing with it?

Montana is in the crosshairs of climate change. It is an economic, environmental and social problem of monumental consequence. Farming, ranching, the energy industry, tourism, water availability, fire risk, recreation, fish, wildlife and peoples health are affected. The longer we wait the fewer options we have. It will require leadership, foresight, and guts to create realistic and practical solutions. Simply relying on smaller government and lower taxes is not the answer. It will take adaptation and significant funding coupled with innovation from educators, businesses and government working together to identify and carry out actions to deal with a changing Montana.
More than 11 million out-of-state travelers come to Montana every year, yet it is only one of five states in the country with no statewide sales tax.

Proponents of a sales tax say its a giant missed opportunity to generate revenue from those tourists. Detractors say it would disproportionately hurt lower-income residents.

A sales tax was one of the many issues brought up by officials with the Montana Chamber of Commerce during a roundtable discussion with business leaders at the Missoula Area Chamber of Commerce last week.

A sales tax would generate revenue that would be new to Montana because its being paid by people from out of state, explained Montana Chamber President Webb Brown. And thats the best tax of all  when somebody else is paying it. We have a little bit of a gas tax and a little bed tax and (tourists) are happy to pay it because its so cheap here. We could get some help" from a sales tax.

Brown said that while other industries such as forest products and oil production are declining, tourism in Montana is increasing every year.

Foreign tourists would gladly pay (a sales tax) because its still so cheap here for tourists, Brown said. The biggest chunk of visitor spending is on gasoline, so a gas tax would tap more into them. And yet you have truckers and folks who have higher gasoline uses, and that would hurt them. Im not saying theres an easy answer but something should be done.

The problem, Brown said, is that Montanans are damn proud about not having a sales tax. There are places like Red Lodge and Whitefish that have a resort tax because so many tourists visit them, but his organization believes a statewide tax is the best option because it would eliminate disparity and confusion.

Bridger Mahlum, the government relations director for the Montana Chamber, said surveys have shown that people are slowly coming around to supporting a statewide sales tax here.

Because we are having more tourists, people are a little bit more open to it now, he said. But that pride is embedded. But a sales tax could provide some property tax relief in some cases.

***

Representatives from the Montana Chamber were here to discuss their top priorities for the 2017 legislative session and to hear concerns from business owners.

"Gauging statewide perspectives assists us in setting priorities, Brown said. We've learned the best way to do that is not through phone calls or tracking the news, but to travel the state and hear directly from those invested in the business climate of Montana.

Brown said the most pressing issues for the chamber in the next legislative session are reducing costs for businesses such as workers' compensation insurance and the business equipment tax, getting an infrastructure upgrade bill passed and increasing entrepreneurship.

Montana businesses have some of the highest workers' compensation premiums in the country, Brown said. He also said that the American Society of Civil Engineers gave Montana a C-minus for the quality of dams, schools, transportation and waste treatment infrastructure in 2014.

***

The sales tax discussion took up a good chunk of time at the meeting, as business leaders talked about ways Montana could generate revenue to pay for things that the state needs.

Its going to be a tough session to talk about additional spending, Brown said.

Dick Barrett, a Democrat from Missoula running for re-election in Montanas Senate District 45, has spent eight years in the Legislature and was a member of the taxation committee in both the House and the Senate. He said in all his time, there has never been a bill to establish a statewide sales tax introduced. He also said that he is opposed to it, as are many Democrats and labor unions.

I think traditionally, the opposition from Democrats and labor is because a (sales tax) is quite regressive, he said. That is to say, the lower your income, the larger the share of your income you pay in taxes if its a sales tax. You can make a sales tax less regressive by making it selective, meaning it only applies to items that are relatively unimportant in the budgets of lower-income households. But as you narrow your tax base you have to raise the tax rate to make the same amount of money.

A sales tax could become something of a luxury tax if it only applied to things tourists primarily buy, Barrett said.

We know how those folks spend their money, he said. You could specifically tax items on which they spend money like restaurants, bars, hotels, gasoline, ski passes and things like that. You could easily tap into that particular revenue source without having a statewide sales tax.

However, Barrett said that he feels that is only a good idea in places like Whitefish where resort taxes are already in place. He said any time the idea of a sales tax is raised at the state level, its associated with offsetting income or property taxes.

Occasionally people have favored a sales tax but only if its to replace part of those other taxes, he said. In other words, it would be used not to raise taxes but to diversify the sources from which tax is collected. There are a variety of arguments made on behalf of that notion but again, resistance to that would be strong, particularly if you used a sales tax to replace income tax. You are replacing a progressive tax with a regressive tax and thats the basis for a lot of opposition.

Mary Windecker, past president of the Missoula Area Chamber of Commerce, said that Missoulians have a tax fatigue on property taxes because of the $158 million worth of schools bonds that past last year and the $42 million parks and trails bond that voters approved in 2014.

Its tough, especially on small businesses, she said. Windecker added that it might be a good idea to diversify the tax revenue sources.

***

The discussion then turned to other topics.

Kelly Rosenleaf, the executive director of Childcare Resources in Missoula and a former city council member, said childcare providers across the state are struggling.

There are 1,100 small child care providers, and theres probably a lot more than that illegally operating, but we have seen a precipitous drop in them because of the low unemployment rate and the inability of child care businesses to attract and retain employees, she said. Right now, its an employees' marketplace.

Rosenleaf said that a lack of options for child care disproportionately negatively affects working mothers.

Thats who is going to have to stay home, most likely, she said.

Brown said he was glad to listen to the concerns of business owners during the chamber's current statewide tour. He said the organization puts out a pamphlet recording the voting record of all legislators and they also have picked endorsements for statewide office. The main goal, he said, is to ensure Montana has an attractive business climate.

We have to have people afford to live here and make a decent living, he said. Because, as we say, you cant eat the snow drifts.
"This isn't the Junior Chamber of Commerce, Brad!"

Janet Weiss would have had quite the same reaction if she'd happened upon the MASC studio on the North side of Missoula Sunday evening.

More than 50 people showed up in fishnet stockings, Gothic makeup and lingerie, on all genders, to an open audition for The Rocky Horror Picture Show Live, an annual stage event held at the Wilma Theatre around Halloween.

Today we are looking for your success, not your failure, third-year choreographer Heather Adams told the group, seated on the floor of MASCs warehouse. Make big, bold choices.

Those 50 hopefuls sang and learned choreography for The Time Warp, a centerpiece song in the stage production and film. The raunchy lyrics and dancing, as well as the colorful costumes and wild hair of the performers, prompted Janets exclamation in the 1975 film.

Adams, who sneaked out of her Phoenix home in junior high and high school to see Rocky Horror, had done some level of planning for the shows choreography, but said a lot will come together in the few weeks between auditions and rehearsal.

A high level of dance training isnt necessary to be in the show, Adams said. She looks for style, energy and enthusiasm over pure technical knowledge, but admitted things go a lot smoother in the short rehearsal time if the performer isnt totally green.

Ultimately, if someones got the right energy and attitude, I love em, Adams said.

Jeff Medley has had the right energy and attitude every time Rocky Horror has been put on at the Wilma, playing Riff Raff, an assistant of Dr. Frank N. Furter, the mad scientist who stars the show.

Medley first saw Rocky Horror in the 80s, when a friend put it on at a sleepover.

Ive never really thought of myself as human, he said, identifying with the freaky characters. My mind was blown.

Admitting hes terrible at remembering the choreography, Medley said hes auditioned each time and won the part. Although he loves the show, he knows whomever's best for the role should play it.

If someone comes out of the crowd whos a better Riff Raff, theyre welcome to it, he said.

This years production will focus more on the campy horror and circus freak-show themes of Rocky Horror, director Rosie Ayers said.

The choreography for Time Warp played up those themes, with a couple of Charleston-inspired steps and macabre moves, from walking fingers across an arm like a spider, to grabbing the mouth and baring teeth.

We want to see gross, we want to see scary, Sarah Pace, who stepped in to teach choreography for Adams, told the performers. If youre like, This is weird! then youre nailing it.

About an hour into the audition, the garage door was thrown open, the huge ceiling fan started to spin and the dancers started to tire a bit, taking water breaks when they could and heaving sighs of relief when they completed a full run-through of the moves.

To see a little of their imagination, as well as how they worked with others, Adams had the dancers split up into pairs to come up with their own moves for a section of the song.

One pair ended up with one on the others shoulders, another pair worked out a back-to-back routine, and one woman tried to fit her partners leg over his head, to no avail.

As Brad Majors replied to Janet: "They're probably foreigners with ways different from our own. They may do some more  folk dancing.

Ayers said theyd like to have a full cast of 20 to 25 performers within a week, before rehearsals start for four shows scheduled Oct. 28 and 29.
It starts with a plan.

That wisdom guides success for all great efforts, including the design of midtowns future, and how the Brooks Street corridor may evolve in the next few years.

One early step in such planning is happening now, and the Missoula MidTown Association encourages everyone who engages midtown  in any way  to help envision the areas future advances.

There are mixed emotions about the Brooks corridor and areas around it. In the mid-20th century it was a lonely highway through mostly empty fields and venues for large land uses like an outdoor theater, airport and fairgrounds. Now, its literally the center of Missoulas urban core, and serious interest in long-range planning only recently has begun. Now, in 2016, the demands of population growth and denser traffic face unique design and planning challenges that must unfold within midtowns awkward heritage of post-war urban sprawl. Space in midtown is underutilized and poorly arranged for the needs of today.

But what to do?

Some things have begun to change the algorithm of midtowns growth, including significant retail development, extending the life of Urban Renewal District III, and the Missoula Urban Transportation Districts 2018 plan to move Route 7 onto Brooks Street with high-frequency transit service between Lower Miller Creek and downtown.

This week, theres an important land-use study underway that will begin to create a vision of how Brooks Street and Midtown grow and develop in the immediate future. Conveniently, there are several ways for the community and stakeholders to participate:

Quickest and easiest: answer a short online questionnaire at http:// conta.cc/2bANgex. The questionnaire is active through September.

Additionally, consultants will guide two community meetings this week explaining land-use planning for midtown and Brooks Street, while showing what concepts might shape their future. Both meetings will gather opinions and feedback.

Community meetings about midtown and Brooks corridor land use will take place this Tuesday and Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Western Montana Fairgrounds Home Arts Building, next to the South Avenue entrance. Tuesdays community meeting kicks off the midtown study, while sketching challenges facing Brooks Street. Wednesdays community meeting summarizes and reviews all information gathered by the consultants while on-site, and in their review of several assessments made in various midtown and Brooks Street projects.

Additionally, for folks who enjoy a more hands-on approach, an exciting design workshop on Wednesday will allow direct participation by all Missoulians. This mini-charrette takes place through the afternoon at the fairgrounds Home Arts Building, and visitors may join for any period of time between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Plans are only as useful as the data that guides them. Thats why the Missoula MidTown Association encourages participation from everyone who shares a stake in midtown  even if that means simply traveling Brooks Street.

Strong attendance ensures that study data accurately represents the desires of those who live, work and play in the fastest growing, most dynamic  and occasionally frustrating  section of our fair city.

The Missoula MidTown Association is proud to join organizing efforts for this land-use study, generously supported by the Missoula Redevelopment Agency, Missoula Development Services, Mountain Line, members of the city council and board of county commissioners, among others. The MidTown Association welcomes professional guidance from the PUMA and New Mobility West consultants. That team has been working on this study for months, and will present its full report in November.
The centuries-long history of how European settlers have treated indigenous people is a horrific tale of degradation, deceit and extirpation. But despite having their lands stolen, their treaties routinely broken, and suffering endless efforts to plow their culture and religion into the ground, the Indian people have not given up, gone away or been assimilated. Now, in the greatest showing of Indian unity in over a century, members of over 100 tribes are banding together to fight a black snake oil pipeline in North Dakota in a truly inspirational display  and the whole worlds watching.

The dramatic standoff that has captured global attention is centered on the construction of the 1,170 mile-long Dakota Access Pipeline that would bring 470,000 barrels of Bakken crude oil a day through a 30-inch pipe south from North Dakota. At $3.8 billion and funded by the very largest of Wall Street speculators, its safe to say the Standing Rock Sioux and their growing number of both Indian and non-Indian allies are truly fighting the ugliest Goliath America has to offer.

The seminal reason for the opposition to the pipeline is simple  it crosses the Missouri River both upstream and downstream of the Standing Rock Reservation. As Montanans know only too well from recent pipeline disasters on the Yellowstone River, pipelines under rivers break, and when they do, the damage is almost impossible to mitigate or clean.

That core concern is evident in the three simple words water is life on the banners and signs carried by the members of more than 100 tribes now involved in the action to stop the pipeline. Given that the Missouri River also provides drinking water for an estimated 10 million people downstream from Standing Rock, the efforts to protect the river have implications far beyond the reservations boundaries.

So far the efforts by the Standing Rock tribal chairman, David Archambault, to maintain peaceful demonstrations have been exemplary. Even in his choice of words, Archambault is selective in calling the action protection, not protest. And indeed, despite having the boundaries of the reservation arbitrarily redrawn by the federal government a century ago, the reality is that theres much more to be protected than just the water.

Virtually all indigenous people cherish their ancestral burial grounds. The ugliest and most violent event so far took place over the Labor Day holiday, when the pipeline company unleashed attack dogs on the tribal protectors in a scene all-too-reminiscent of the battles for civil rights waged in the South in the '60s.

Only days earlier tribal attorneys had filed an attempt to halt construction of the pipeline in an area known to contain ancestral burial grounds. The area was specifically identified in the court filing and, much to their consternation, the pipeline company sent bulldozers to that area to begin excavating the pipeline route  and the ancestral burial grounds.

When tribal protectors stormed the fences to stop the desecration, private security guards hired by the pipeline company unleashed their attack dogs on men, women, children and horses. In a video that has gone viral, it is clear that the attacks were brutal and a far more violent response than any threat posed by the tribal protectors.

But if the pipelines owners believed they could get away with such atrocities, they were wrong. As long-time Indian activist Winona LaDuke told reporters about North Dakotas Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple: You are not George Wallace, and this is not Alabama. This is 2016, and you dont get to treat Indians like you have for the last hundred years. Were done. Governor Dalrymple then escalated the tension by calling out the National Guard and posting armed roadblocks.

Whether or not the Standing Rock Sioux win this battle, they have already sparked the greatest Indian uprising in more than a century. The Lakota have an ancient prophesy that a black snake will cross their lands to either end the world or unite it. Right now, the black snake pipeline is uniting indigenous tribal people and their non-Indian allies like nothing else has managed to do in hundreds of years.

As Lakota writer Iyuskin American Horse told the Guardian: We are not protesters. We are protectors. We are peacefully defending our land and our ways of life. We are standing together in prayer, and fighting for what is right. We are making history here. We invite you to stand with us in defiance of the black snake.
As a Montana landowner I am deeply distressed by the activities of the Department of the Interior, state of Montana and Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Following the unconstitutional passing of the CSKT Water Compact (Senate Bill 262) into Montana state law (currently being litigated in Montana courts), U.S. Sen. Jon Tester has proposed federal legislation to ratify the CSKT Water Compact. Tester's S.3013 is to achieve a fair and equitable water rights settlement for the tribes and allotees, without any regard for non-tribal irrigators, business owners or landowners.

This political document replaces the Montana Water Court with a new, politically unaccountable bureaucratic Flathead Reservation Water Management Board to be composed of tribal and state appointed representatives who do not represent the interests of reservation-based irrigators, business owners and landowners, denying Montanans our federal and state constitutional due process right to a day in court.

S.3013 does not treat non-tribal Montana citizens fairly and equitably. Tribal population comprises approximately 4.9 percent of the statewide population, and only about 3 percent of the Flathead Reservation population! Every page is unconstitutional in accordance with both state and federal constitutions. Tribal off-reservation in-stream flow rights would effectively eliminate most, if not all state water rights. Moreover, S.3013 would authorize the expenditure of approximately $2.328 billion dollars of U.S. taxpayer funds to implement the CSKT Water Compact and Settlement.

Three other bills proceeding through Congress, U.S. Sen. Steve Daines S.3014, U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinkes H.R.2647 and Sen. Pat Roberts S.3085, would provide authority and control to the CSKT and other of the 567 federally recognized tribes to manage in-stream flow rights in waters flowing through our national forests.

The federal government, through our Montana elected officials, is taking down state authority using tribal governments as conduits to assume jurisdiction over all water, land and natural resources.

Lauralee ONeil,

Kalispell
Many people around the world watched as Pope Francis canonized and honored Mother Teresa. Her lifetime of work and kindness to the people in the slums of Calcutta was remarkable.

Here in America, we watched Donald Trump dispense his own brand of "kindness" to his supporters. He promised that there would be no amnesty, or a pathway to citizenship for the the over 11 million people his "Deportation Force" will round up if he is elected.

He hasn't revealed how this special force will be recognized when they come knocking at the door in the middle of the night. He could equip them with special armbands the way Nazi Germany did. No one missed the horrible intentions of those men when they showed up.

The difference would be, of course, that Trump would have a big "T" on his armbands.

According to the conservative-leaning American Action Forum, it will take 20 years, and cost $400 million-$600 million to complete the deportation process.

Trump says he is going to make Mexico pay for his "great" wall. Maybe if we are lucky, he will make them pay for this genius idea too.

Kathy Belke,

Stevensville
There are a lot of Democrats claiming to be Democrats when in reality they are socialists, and socialists are my enemy.

The Clintons have gotten away with numerous dirty deeds during their political careers. Here are only 10:

1. Cattlegate: Insider trading, involvement with high-place connections for profit.

2. FBI filegate: Used FBI research to spy on political critics.

3. Chinagate: Sold our guidance missile technology and received $5 million in contributions.

4. Whitewater: The land deal known as the Whitewater scam sent everyone involved to prison, but not the Clintons.

5. White House travel: Fired seven employees to rehire friends to receive payback.

6. U.S. State Department under Hillary Clinton sold uranium to Russia and received $135 million in donations to the Clinton Foundation; Russia now has 20 percent of U.S. uranium.

7. Clinton Foundation is supported, in part, by Saudi Arabia, a Muslim country that suppresses women.

8. Email scandal: Used a private email account for official State Department communications.

9. Benghazi: Four Americans died and Hillary Clinton lied.

10. When her husband left office, the Clintons looted the White House of furniture and priceless historic artifacts.

Aside from the fact she should be in prison, what in the name of sanity makes Hillary Clinton think she is qualified for president of the United States of America?

Thomas W. Root,

Shelby
If it aint broke, then dont fix it. Those are words to live by, and yet U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke seems hell bent on trying to fix what aint broke.

Take the Land and Water Conservation Fund. There are many reasons why outdoor recreation is a $6 billion industry in Montana, but one of the most important reasons is fishing. Tourists come to Montana from all over the world to cast a fly in our blue-ribbon trout steams, and they can do so with ease across the state because Montana has hundreds of fishing access sites, most of which have been created through the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

So, why in the world does Rep. Ryan Zinke want to reform this program, which happens to be working just fine without his help?

Only Zinke knows the answer to that question. Zinke purports to value Montanas public lands and wildlife, but his true colors come out when addressing this issue. While his position on LWCF becomes increasingly cloudy, Montanans actually have a clear choice to make in this election. Do we want someone who will defend our outdoor heritage every time and conserve our last best places, or do we want someone whose positions on public lands change with the wind?

What Montanans need in Congress is a true conservationist, not a reformer on a mission to fix what isnt broken.

Lou Bruno,

East Glacier
WEST FORK  The first time Ted Billings ever came west, he climbed Trapper Peak.

The boy from back East was 12 that summer when he walked in the footsteps of his great-uncle Sam Billings.

He couldnt have known it then, but that trip would change his life forever.

Sam Billings was something of legend by that time to the family he had left behind in New Jersey.

Billings served as the district ranger at the Bitterroot National Forests West Fork Station. His life in the wilds of Montana had been the talk at the Billings family table for decades.

It was 1962 when Ted Billings finally had the opportunity to meet his great-uncle in person. He remembers learning how to play cribbage that summer.

He taught the whole family how to play that game, Billings said. We still play it. I just remember that he was this humble man who seemed bigger than life to me.  He basically was the reason that I eventually moved west.

Billings not only moved west, but he also embraced the outdoors-driven lifestyle of his great uncle. He became a mountaineer who guided trips to the top of Denali in Alaska. For years, he and his wife, Carol, have served as caretakers to the backcountry hut system in Colorado operated by the 10th Mountain Division Hut Association.

Throughout all those years filled with adventure, Billings remembered his roots and that humble forest ranger who had blazed the trail for him.

I had this plaque that Sam had made apparently while he stayed at the Bear Cone Lookout in 1940, Billings said. My dad had it for years and had given it to me."

The plaque was hand-burned with a hot nail on the back of wood used to ship pumpkins. It was simple enough. It noted the location and date set off by black marks burned carefully along its edge.

I had it in my woodworking shop for years and then moved it to my bedroom, Billings said. I had this thing that Sam had made. I knew it was important to him.

And so last year, Billings stopped by the West Fork Ranger Station to see if they would be interested in displaying it there. Along the way, he came up with this idea that he would like to serve as the host at the campground named after his relative.

When Sam Billings died in 1986, there were people who still remembered what he had done to save Boulder Creek from the sawyers saw.

The site had been slated for a timber sale in the 1940s, but Sam Billings had said it was too beautiful to be logged. From his point of view, the site had everything a good campground needed, including rocks and boulders for rock hounds, fish for fishermen and flowers for all.

Sam Billings was instrumental in establishing the Boulder Creek Campground and took special pride in administering the site.

Rev. Wayne Wardwell of Hamilton spearheaded a drive to rename the site the Samuel T. Billings Campground after Billings death. In 1987, the U.S. Forest Service did just that.

This summer, Ted Billings and his wife volunteered to become the first-ever campground hosts at the site.

It was something that I wanted to do, Billings said.

Carol Billings said she wasnt sure how this all was going to work out financially, but she knew how important it was to her husband. Our life together has kind of been a long story, she said. One thing has always led to another.

In this case, all it took was a visit with Bitterroot National Forest natural resource specialist Joe Butsick.

We like to have campground hosts, Butsick said. Their main role is public relations. When people see theres a host at the campground, they feel safer too.

The Sam Billings Campground is free to the public. Theres no water or electricity.

But that didnt dissuade Billings.

I was camping here in May, he said. I thought to myself that I wouldnt mind being a volunteer. I met with Joe and told him he wouldnt have to pay me.

The next thing I knew he was bringing by a rake, a broom and some papers to sign, Billings said. And then I was here.

He called his father, Bob, to give him the news.

He couldnt believe it, Billings said. It meant something for all of us.

Billingss father and sister spent this last week with him at the campground. They shared stories about Sam Billings that have been told in the family for generations.

This place is a hidden gem, Billings said. I think the dirt road keeps the riff-raff out. Weve met the nicest people this summer who seem to really enjoy being here.

Billings stops himself for a second to look around at this place that was so special to his great-uncle.

I think Sam Billings is smiling now, he said. I think he would be pleased to know that were here.
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STEVENSVILLE  In 1941, the Historic St. Marys Mission celebrated the 100th anniversary of the day the missionaries arrived in the Bitterroot Valley in response to repeated requests by Salish tribal leaders.

Close to 8,000 people came to experience the Founders Day celebration back then.

On Sept. 24, the mission will host the 175th anniversary commemoration of that event.

While Historic St. Marys Mission Director Colleen Meyer isnt expecting quite that large of a crowd, shes certain that those who do come will enjoy the expanded program and the varied demonstrations that volunteers will offer that day.

We do encourage families to come, Meyer said. There will be a lot of fun and interactive things for people to do. All of our staff will be in heritage dress, which will be very colorful. We invite anyone to dress in period costumes. It will add to the festivities.

The years Founders Day celebration is themed Friendships and Relationships.

Its fitting considering the history thats observed that day.

Through my research I find it very rare that an American Indian tribe invited white men onto their lands, Meyer said. Yet four arduous trips were made to St. Louis by the Salish Indians seeking the Black Robe missionaries to bring the Christian teachings to their people. This powerful story will be told in a re-enactment at St. Mary's Mission on Sept. 24 during our 175th Founders Day Commemoration.

The Founders Day celebration will also mark a first for the Bitterroot Valley.

The Montana Historical Society is holding its annual convention in Hamilton that same week. Its the first time the convention has been held in Ravalli County.

When we realized that the dates coincided, we traveled to Helena to meet with their directors, Meyer said. Were proud that our valley is hosting this annual history conference and that its closing event is our Founders Day anniversary.

The Founders Day Commemoration will get underway at 9 a.m. with the opening of exhibits and the soothing sounds of the Bitterroot Community Band.

At 10 a.m., Bishop George Leo Thomas will open the ceremony with an invocation that will be followed with a Salish smudge ceremony by Steve Lozar.

Last year was the first time that weve done this, Meyer said. It was very moving. Its very much an honor to have Steve Lozar agree to do this. Its considered a cleansing ceremony and way to honor all the people who have gathered together.

The annual re-enactment of the Salish Indians welcoming the Black Robe missionaries will be followed a dedication of the Salish encampment.

The Salish encampment represents the homeland of the Bitterroot Salish, Meyer said. It will be dedicated by Lucy Vandeburg representing the tribe.

Local historian Chris Weatherlys sign that features Louise Vandeburgs quote touching on the emotion the Salish experienced when they returned to their homeland will be unveiled at that time.

Following that, two descendants of women who found a way to bridge the gap between Indian and white people will offer their thoughts during a Friendships and Relationship Ladies Tea.

Salish tribal member Mary Ann Combs was 9 when the tribe was moved out of the Bitterroot Valley in 1891. Her memories of that forced move were captured in later writings.

Years later, Combs made trips back to the valley, where she met Margaret Sullivan. They became lifelong friends who often talked over tea.

Rachel Bawers of Arlee is the great-granddaughter of Combs. Francie Sullivan is Sullivans daughter.

The two women have never met before, but on Founders Day theyll share a cup of tea on stage and recall their memories of these two significant women.

They are both very excited about this, Meyer said. Rachel taught her great-grandmother to speak English. Francie thought of Mary Ann as a grandmother. Francie plans to bring some of her mothers teacups with her.

Other guest speakers include Joe McDonald, the past president of the Salish-Kootenai College; Bruce Whittenberg, Montana Historical Society director; and Brian Matz of Fonbonne University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Brian Matz has researched and studied the archives and Jesuit records stored in St. Louis, Meyer said. It will be interesting and fun to hear him relate some of the stories that hes found from those writings.

After the formal ceremony, people will be able to enjoy a wide variety of exhibits, childrens games, and Salish dancing and drumming.

Well also have a mountain man encampment where people can take a step back in time, she said. Well also have a time capsule that includes items donated by the Salish Tribe, as well as schoolchildren at St. Ignatius and Stevensville, and the St. Marys Mission. It will be recovered in 25 years on the 200th anniversary.

At 5 p.m., Mass will be celebrated at the mission in honor of the invitation made by the Bitterroot Salish Indians to the Black Robe missionaries, Meyer said. Everyone is welcome to attend.

The event is free.
On Tuesday, approximately 30 community agencies will gather at the University of Montana to inform students and community members about the volunteer opportunities that are available in the Missoula area.

The Fall Volunteer Fair, which is hosted by UMs Academic Enrichment Civic Engagement office and the Associated Students of UM student group Volunteers in Action, is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the University Center Atrium.

During the fair, attendees can learn about meaningful service opportunities, while agencies will raise awareness and recruit new student volunteers.

Every year, at the beginning of the fall and spring semesters, Academic Enrichment Civic Engagement coordinates a volunteer fair to connect interested students, UM faculty and staff, and other members of the community with volunteer opportunities in the Missoula area. The fair helps nonprofit agencies promote their activities and recruit new members to meet community needs.

For more information visit umt.edu/civic-engagement.

***

UM sets record for research funding

Research is rocking at the University of Montana, where for the second year in a row the university set a new record for external funding.

UM brought in $87 million in funding during the past fiscal year to support homegrown Montana research, entrepreneurship and statewide outreach, exceeding the last years record total of $83 million.

With these funds, UM researchers and scholars are designing new molecules with applications for drug development and environmental remediation. They are creating professional trainings to improve mental health among children living in rural communities. Among many other activities, they also are tracking elk to better understand their migratory patterns and pursuing an array of other newly funded research efforts that promise to create local economic opportunity while addressing questions and challenges of global significance.

Scott Whittenburg, UM vice president of research and creative scholarship, said university faculty members and staff reached the new record through 684 submitted proposals, which was almost 10 percent more than the previous year.

Whittenburg said UM faculty members are the foundation for UMs growing research efforts. He noted that the university has added a number of new outstanding faculty researchers, including Josh Millspaugh, the Boone and Crockett Professor of Wildlife Conservation; Jedediah Brodie, the John Craighead Endowed Chair; L. Scott Mills, who is internationally recognized in wildlife biology; and Matt Church, an oceanographer at the Flathead Lake Biological Station who also has an international reputation.

The economic impacts are on an upshot as well. Traditionally, the universitys research enterprise primarily engaged with the business community through technology transfer, otherwise known as the commercialization of research derived inventions. Although those efforts are still strong at UM, in recent years a vision was cast to add additional programs to build out the universitys suite of services available to entrepreneurs and business owners both on and off campus.

Today those services include the Small Business Development Center, the Procurement and Technical Assistance Program, the Montana World Trade Center, the Montana Code School, Blackstone LaunchPad and the UM business incubator MonTEC.

***

Dance project to perform climate science piece for middle schoolers

Area sixth-graders will experience a special treat on Thursday, Sept. 15, when the University of Montanas CoMotion Dance Project performs two interactive dance performances, which will take place in the Montana Theatre in UMs Performing Arts and Radio/Television Center.

The first show is from 9:45 to 10:45 a.m., and the second is from 1 to 2 p.m. The public is invited, and organizers say there are more seats available at the later show.

The CoMotion Dance Project was commissioned by the Glacier National Park Conservancy to create Changing Balance/Balancing Change, a new, interactive performance that examines climate science and current and predicted changes impacting our planet. Using visible changes in Glacier as a fulcrum, the piece communicates basic understandings about climate change in the Northern Rockies and provides a framework for dialogue. It premiered in Glacier in July.

Thursdays show is the first Missoula performance and is geared toward middle-school students. Sponsored by SPARK! Arts Ignites Learning and Missoula County Public Schools, the hourlong performance integrates arts and science with live interactions with the audience.

Changing Balance/Balancing Change weaves artistic dance, original music, choreographed narration, video projection and audience interaction into an immersive arts experience designed to engage audiences with the ideas and emotions at the heart of climate change. Developed for audiences of all ages, the piece includes content such as rate of temperature change, greenhouse gases and positive action humans can take in response to the realities facing our planet.

The active-audience approach provides innovative methods of engaging audiences and emphasizes the value and role of attention, patience and creativity as we, and our world, move into the shifting balance of our dynamic climate.

Performed by professional dancers Jordan Dehline, Ashley Griffith and Kaitlin Kinsley, and UM dance students Logan Prichard and Charlie Wiseman, Changing Balance/Balancing Change was written and produced by UM dance professor Karen Kaufmann and Steve Kalling, with guest choreographers Nicole Bradley Browning, Heidi Eggert and Joy French. Western Montana musicians composed and recorded the soundtrack, which is narrated by Jack Gladstone, Jeff Medley, Teresa Waldorf, Rosie Ayers and Lily Gladstone.

Changing Balance/Balancing Change is made possible by the following sponsors: SPARK! Arts Ignites Learning, Missoula County Public Schools, Glacier National Park Conservancy, Glacier National Park, the Montana Cultural Trust, UM, the Cadeau Foundation, U.S. Forest Service-Rocky Mountain Research Station and the CoMotion Dance Project.
The Mount News Center

Featuring the extraordinary people, stories and news of Mount St. Mary's University, America's oldest independent Catholic university. Members of the media looking for information about setting up interviews, finding faculty experts or gaining access to campus for stories should contact Executive Director of Communications Donna Klinger at 301-447-5657 or d.j.klinger@msmary.edu.

Have a question, comment to share or want to find a photo from this week's big event? Check out the Mount on our social media channels!
Huie Pock is certainly the best-known Chinese physician to work in Butte, but a close second goes to Dr. Wah Jean Lamb, who worked here from 1902 until he retired to California in 1929.

In 1896, Lamb was the first Chinese person to graduate from the University of Southern California medical school, along with the first woman grad from that program. He had been selected by missionaries in China to come to the U.S. for his education, beginning a five-generation connection to USC, as several of Dr. Lambs children, including Paul, Faith, and John, attended the school as pre-med students, as did later generations.

Wah Jean Lamb was born about 1870 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1885. After his graduation from USC, he came to Butte about 1902. He retired after 27 years here and lived in San Diego at the time of the 1930 census; in 1940 he was living in Los Angeles, where he died in 1942.

Dr. Lambs first office was at 9 W. Galena St. beginning in 1902-03, and he also lived there. By the late 1910s, around 1917, much of that part of Chinatown had been demolished, and he moved his office for a few years (1917-18 and perhaps later) to 116 E. Mercury, near the corner with Arizona Street. Also beginning in 1917, he and his family lived in a nice home outside of Chinatown at 1107 S. Wyoming, which still stands.

By 1923, Dr. Lambs office was located at 46 E. Galena St., where he continued until he left Butte. This location was probably within the Copper Block (also known as the Empire Hotel), west of the intersection of Galena and Wyoming. The Copper Block hotel was known as a brothel and residence for ladies of the evening, but the ground floor held a restaurant, saloon, and at least seven storefronts, one of which was Dr. Lambs office in the 1920s. The Copper Block was demolished in 1990-91.

In April 1901, Dr. Lamb married Ah Oie (Alice), an Asian woman who was about 15 years his junior. With their Christian marriage, she embraced the faith and was involved for many years with the Chinese Baptist Mission in Butte at 24 W. Mercury. Her children attended classes there.

Descendants of Dr. Lamb from California, Alberta, and Kentucky have all connected with the Mai Wah Museum in Butte, contributing to our understanding of the Chinese community here.
A helicopter rescued a hiker  dressed in only shorts and a T-shirt  from the Chilled Lakes area in the Madison Range, about 22 miles southwest of Bozeman, early Sunday.

Two helicopters, an ambulance, and numerous rescuers responded  but in the end, the hiker was found to be OK and was assisted home by a deputy.

Had he brought warm clothing, the whole incident could possibly have been avoided, authorities said.

The incident started when the Gallatin County sheriff's office received a call at about 2:20 a.m. Sunday from a man who was up high on a ridge near the Chilled Lakes, an area at 9,560 feet elevation which is accessed by the Spanish Creek Trailhead, according to a news release from the Sheriff Brian Gootkin.

The man complained of being cold and possibly suffering from hypothermia and dehydration. He wore shorts and a T-shirt but had no other clothing with him. Temperatures dropped to the low 40s Sunday morning in Bozeman.

Madison County Sheriff Roger Thompson said the hiker was in Madison County, but since he was more easily accessed from Gallatin County, the Gallatin County Search and Rescue team, Valley branch, was requested. With a Gallatin County deputy acting as incident coordinator, rescuers started up the trail while the possibility of helicopter assistance was explored.

Once a plan was established, a REACH Air Medical Services helicopter located the man but was unable to land nearby. While REACH stayed nearby in case a medical flight was needed, Carisch Helicopters landed near the hiker. The hiker was initially evaluated and found not to have any emergent needs. He was then flown by Carisch Helicopters to the Indian Ridge Trailhead where an American Medical Response ambulance, standing by, evaluated the hiker's condition. The hiker was released with a signed refusal and assisted home by a deputy.

"Fortunately, all turned out well in this event, but as seen in many events recently, outdoorsmen are not doing the simple things," Gootkin said in the news release.

He reminded people to be as prepared as possible when making a trip into the backcountry  even as little as having warmer clothing in case of that unplanned overnight outing.

"Having something warm in this event would have allowed the hiker to hike out that night or the next morning without the assistance of search and rescue," the release said.
Butte-Silver Bow County Attorney Eileen Joyce told jurors Monday a Texas man on trial killed a Whitehall man, injured two other men and abandoned them in the mountains southeast of Butte.

In her 10-minute opening statement in Butte district court, Joyce said Tony Dwade Sawyer, 48, made a conscious choice to shoot and kill 37-year-old Joe Powers in the back and wound Steve Drury and Hunter Smith, also of Whitehall, on Fish Creek Road on a snowy night in early November 2015.

Sawyer faces one count of deliberate homicide and two counts of attempted deliberate homicide in connection with the shooting spree.

Public Defender Ed Sheehy told the jury of six women and six men, who were selected from a pool of 85, that his client was in fear of his life and justified in his split-second choice to shoot the three men after they dug out Drurys Chevy Equinox from a snow-filled ditch.

Sheehy said Drury and Sawyer met in Texas in 2014 and had kept in touch. Sawyer accepted Drurys invitation to visit Montana, arriving Nov. 2. The public defender painted Drury as a gun-toting, somewhat unreliable man whose behavior unnerved Sawyer.

Sawyer was a little bit uncomfortable about all these guns  and drugs, Sheehy told jurors.

Both Joyce and Sheehy said the four men drove to the remote area with the intention of using glow sticks to light up skeets in the pitch dark. Drury brought a 9mm handgun, which police believe is the weapon.

The shootings occurred after the men shoveled out the Chevy, Joyce said, adding that the evidence  photographs, video, interviews and state crime lab analysis  would support Drury and Smiths testimony.

Joyce stood before jurors, saying the defendant made a conscious choice to shoot and kill Powers, and made choices that night that will forever impact the lives of Steve and Hunter.

Jefferson County Dispatcher Rebecca Warner, a witness for the state, testified that Smith made a 911 call from the alleged crime scene at 11:28 p.m. on Nov. 3. In the audio recording, Smith was breathing hard and his speech was garbled.

Toward the end of the call Warner asks Smith if he was shot in the face.

Yes, he whispers.

The trial before Judge Brad Newman resumes Tuesday with prosecutors hearing testimony from Jefferson and Butte-Silver Bow County law enforcement officers.
Recent articles in The Montana Standard by Dr. Paul Siddoway, Tom Bugni, and Mike Mosolf raise valid concerns about dwindling stream flows, early spring runoff, degraded fisheries and lost recreational opportunities in our local rivers. These are complex issues involving different watersheds, different rivers and varying irrigation practices.

Both the Big Hole Watershed Committee and Jefferson River Watershed Committee have done an outstanding job in trying to balance irrigation use and recreational uses. Many irrigators have made huge sacrifices to maintain enough river flows to support fish and aquatic life. The public should be made aware that some irrigators have water rights dating back to the late 1800s and span three generations. These water right holders could basically dry the rivers up if they utilized all their water rights. The two watershed committees have stopped this from happening, but in drought conditions like this past summer, it has been very difficult to maintain minimum stream flows. This scenario seems to be worsening each year.

All this cooperative effort could greatly benefit if plans and funding for off-stream storage sites could begin as soon as possible. We have recent legislation stating that recreation is a beneficial use of water as well as purchasing of water by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks for in-stream flows.

Study for off-stream storage sites was initiated by the Big Hole Watershed Committee, the Big Hole River Foundation and Butte Trout Unlimited back in 2004. All interested groups supported this study but no funding was available. Since the Big Hole River is a nationally renowned Blue Ribbon trout stream, our elected officials and public users should make every effort possible to coordinate the appropriate agencies and demand funding and building of off-stream sites. Montana derives a great deal of funding from the fishing industry and agriculture industry. It only makes sense that everyone should work together to maintain our rivers and streams.

Well over 100 years ago, the lowly beaver did all of our damming in headwater streams and drainages. They worked for nothing and were excellent engineers. They slowed early spring run offs and maintained regular flows.

It is up to us to try to duplicate their efforts and ingenuity. All of us will be the big losers if this cannot be accomplished.

-- Tony Schoonen, Butte, director, Public Lands and Water Access Association
On Sept. 1, The Rev. Dr. Karen Oliveto began her tenure as bishop of the Mountain Sky Area of the United Methodist Church, which includes Montana.

Oliveto, 58, is the first openly gay pastor in the denomination to hold the leadership post in the second largest mainline denomination in the United States.

She will take part in an installation service Saturday at the Bozeman United Methodist Church. Then, based in Denver, she will begin her first four-year term working with churches in Montana, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and a sliver of Idaho.

Those in the Western Jurisdictional Conference who elected her in July simply say she was the best person for the job. But they also realize her election is a watershed moment for the UMC.

The liberal side of the denomination calls her election the culmination of a hard-fought battle to fully include LGBTQ people in the life of the denomination. Conservatives are disappointed in both the action and its timing, saying it violates the UMCs governing policies.

One thing most agree on is that her election could be one more step toward schism in a denomination that finds it increasingly difficult to call itself the United Methodist Church.

I think its going to be very difficult for the church to stay together because the theological divide is so deep and so wide, said the Rev. Tom Lambrecht, vice president and general manager of Texas-based Good News. The unofficial evangelical United Methodist organization strives to keep the UMC faithful to the traditional understanding of Scripture.

Although the Book of Discipline, the UMCs law book, considers all people of sacred worth, it calls the practice of homosexuality incompatible with Christian teaching. It also says that self-avowed homosexuals are not to be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers or appointed to serve in the United Methodist Church.

The logical conclusion, opponents to Olivetos election say, is if gay people in committed relationships cant be ordained as clergy, they cant be elected as bishops. Those in favor say its time for that to change.

Previously Oliveto served as senior pastor of the progressive 11,000-member Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco. She is the first woman to serve as senior pastor of one of the 100 largest UMC churches.

It was tough breaking that stained-glass ceiling," Oliveto said in a recent interview in Billings.

Oliveto is no stranger to standing up for the rights of others. As pastor of Bethany United Methodist Church in San Francisco, she learned that the Gospel demands us to take risks on behalf of Gods beloved community.

At Bethany, she began to advocate on behalf of the homeless population. She was willing to do whatever it took to help the most vulnerable people, including getting arrested if that was required.

If you want street credibility, you better be willing to show you stand up for something, Oliveto said. If were not willing to risk, are we being faithful?

Oliveto stood up in other ways. In 1996, during the height of the AIDS epidemic, she and her congregation agreed to be a distribution site for medical marijuana, even though it was illegal. They also committed to being a place of compassion for those who came to buy the drug.

What would Jesus ask of us? Oliveto said. Jesus always sought to relieve suffering.

The decision radically changed the congregation, she said, and caused them to think more boldly about who God was calling them to be.

In 2004, when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom declared marriages of gay and lesbian couples legal, Oliveto presided over nine marriage ceremonies for couples she pastored.

A complaint was filed with the denominations Judicial Council over her actions from someone outside the church. It was eventually resolved.

Oliveto left the church and was recruited to teach at her alma mater, the Pacific School of Religion. She spent four years there.

Then she was hired as pastor of Glide Memorial Church, where she continued her advocacy work, partnering with the congregation to help people living in the margins. It was, at times, chaotic, crazy-making, she said, but she also saw the Holy Spirit work in the lives of people.

A candidate

When people started to approach her about the possibility of putting her name in as a candidate for bishop, Oliveto initially resisted, saying she didnt want to harm the church, herself or her relationship with Robin Ridenour, her wife since 2014. She also said fear was a factor.

Then at the 2016 General Conference in Portland in May, the legislative body of the denomination that meets every four years, Olivetos thinking began to shift. Maybe instead of causing harm, shed be bringing a gift to the conversation.

She woke up one morning at the conference and learned of the mass shooting at Pulse, the gay nightclub in Orlando. That moved her to act.

"It confirmed that this was the right thing at the right time," she said.

At the same time, she didn't want that to be the only reason for her candidacy.

"I'm not there as a single issue," Oliveto said. "I'm there to bring all of who I am, my passion for the Gospel, love of God, and my faithfulness of following Christ to this work."

At the general conference, where more than 800 delegates from the U.S. and around the world gathered, tensions were high as committees discussed the fraught issue of homosexuality.

Delegates eventually took the unusual step of asking the Council of Bishops to give guidance when it looked like any kind of agreement was impossible. A decision was made to put all debate on homosexuality on hold.

Instead, the delegates voted to allow the Council of Bishops to create the Commission on a Way Forward, representing all sides of the denomination, to scrutinize and possibly recommend revisions to the Book of Discipline related to human sexuality.

It was a way of trying to find a solution to the deep divisions within the church, Lambrecht said.

The commission was presented as an opportunity for the church to pause and allow us to pray together and try to discern the way forward, he said.

Fast action

But that pause didnt last long. Within a week, some jurisdictions in the denomination approved resolutions saying they would not comply with provisions of the Book of Discipline that discriminate against LBGTQ persons.

One conference ordained four openly gay clergy, and the California-Nevada and California-Pacific conferences endorsed two openly gay clergy as bishop candidates, including Oliveto.

Were disappointed and angry that the progressives did not give a chance for this commission to work out a way forward before taking precipitous action on their part, Lambrecht said.

Matt Berryman, executive director of the Reconciling Ministries Network, an organization that works to bring full inclusion to LGBTQ people in the denomination, saw things differently. He compared the struggle of the people he represents to the one that blacks confronted in the United States.

It depends on what side of the struggle you find yourself on, he said. For people living under oppression, the answer to that is fairly obvious: Youre stepping on my toe and it hurts.

For the past three years, Berryman said, the Chicago-based organization has led the charge for faithful rule breaking. If the churchs policies are intransigent and anti-gay, he said, there is no option than to take action to change them.

Weve been encouraging pastors and others toward biblical obedience, Berryman said. Do the right thing, no matter what the church is saying, and that has had a huge impact.

It has created a growing pressure, he said, for change in the Book of Discipline whose rules on homosexuality have been in place since 1972. He sees Oliveto's election as a culmination of their efforts.

"In some ways, we're moving to a climax in the story," Berryman said.

For the Rev. Jeremy Scott, Mountain Sky Area vital congregations developer, electing Oliveto at the Western Jurisdictional Conference in Scottsdale, Ariz., in July was the right thing to do, but for a different reason.

I was looking for somebody with deep relevant and recent experience in the local church, and we need to have somebody who has a passion for making disciples, said Scott, who lives in Billings. And it was clear in our initial conversation that Bishop Karen checks both of those boxes."

Scott said the 100 delegates at the meeting approached the selection of a bishop with a high level of intentionality, taking a lot of time to get to know the nine candidates before making a decision.

Oliveto was elected on the 17th ballot, with 88 delegates voting for her and 12 abstaining. Scott believes if the delegates had used the excuse she was gay not to elect her, we would have been denying ourselves the best person for the job.

Split opinions

The delegates were fully cognizant that choosing Oliveto was groundbreaking. But Scott maintains that was never the priority.

The characterization that we got together and conspired to elect a token bishop is really disheartening, he said. No one who was actually there can claim that thats what we were actually doing.

Even if thats the case, Lambrecht said, Olivetos election still flies in the face of the denominations rules.

We have nothing personal against Karen Oliveto, shes evidently done good works of ministry over the years, he said. But we feel like she does not meet the qualifications necessary to serve our church.

Soon after Olivetos election, complaints were filed with the Judicial Council, the denominations highest judicial body, for a declaratory decision concerning same-sex church leaders. A decision isnt expected to be rendered until spring.

The tension over her election can be felt throughout the denomination, including in Billings, the Rev. Tim Hathaway said. The UMC prides itself in being a pluralistic church, with great diversity within the denomination, said Hathaway, pastor of First United Methodist Church in Billings.

So it is not surprising that some people are exceedingly thrilled about this, while others are grieving and find it very challenging, he said.

Lambrecht said his organization has heard from a number of churches in the Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone conferences who are at odds with Oliveto's election.

"I think that her election puts orthodox evangelicals in those areas in a real quandary," he said. "And I'm afraid that the actions that have been taken over the last several months are accelerating the membership decline."

A small movement within the denomination is also urging members to divert their tithe money from the Episcopal Fund, which supports the UMC's administration, and toward other areas of ministry.

Scott, who expects the Judicial Council to uphold Olivetos election, believes there is room in the denomination for disagreement.

We are the church of Hillary Clinton and George W. Bush, so the opportunity present in this election is to really remind ourselves of that and to embrace it and be OK with disagreeing about homosexuality, he said.

Beginning her service

Oliveto is focused on beginning her tenure as resident bishop in the Mountain Sky Area. Her first priority is to meet the people in the congregations she will serve.

She is keenly aware of the tension that exists in the denomination, and she welcomes the continuing discussion and debate.

We might not agree, but we dont have to agree, we just have to love, she said. And the measure of our faithfulness will be tested by our ability to love each other. And Im committed to being in love with the people Im serving.

Beyond the Judicial Councils decision, the selection is underway for members of the Commission on a Way Forward. An unprecedented special session of the General Conference will be called, possibly in 2018, once the commissions work is done.

Berryman is hopeful that the commission will start taking at least small steps toward more inclusiveness. Anything else, he said, would be a colossal failure.

Lambrecht thinks its more likely the body will come up with some kind of structural realignment to allow the more progressive and evangelical parts of the UMC to go their separate ways.

There might be some things we can continue to cooperate on, he said. But I think were going to need to create separate groups for the people who have heartfelt and sincere differences on theology.
MISSOULA  At the top of Elk Mountain, Kristin Barker hopped into the bed of the Ford pickup sometimes called "The Green Monster," raised the radio telemetry antenna high above her head and put the receiver to her ear.

From her vantage point, she could see far and wide, the tops of other mountains draped in forest green, the tamaracks that hadn't started turning golden yet, the sky in striations of gray and silver.

As the master's candidate in the wildlife biology program at the University of Montana listened for a single bull elk, she turned the device one way, then another.

The receiver crackled, but it didn't beep.

"Honestly, I don't have high hopes, but we have to do our due diligence," Barker said.

The researcher with an undergraduate degree in English was in the field far up Miller Creek at the tail end of a study examining how elk migration patterns affect their nutrition.

Barker said she was attracted to the project because it's collaborative and also meaningful outside the classroom. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and a private conservation company called MPG Ranch also are working on the study.

"I would like to do something that is important and applicable in the real world," Barker said.

Truth be told, she'd rather be out in the great outdoors any day of the week, although at this point in the research, she's spending more time at the computer screen looking for stories in the heaps of data the team gathered rather than trekking through the woods.

"I actually would have preferred to do 100 percent in the field, but my adviser (Mike Mitchell) told me I already know how to do field work, and I'm here to learn science," Barker said, who estimated overall field work at some 50 percent. "That's fair."

And in Montana, the connection between research in the lab and work in the field is close, sometimes just a short truck ride away.

Before heading out, Barker tossed a couple of backpacks into the backseat of "The Green Monster," also called "The Hulk," and stuck her coffee thermos in the console.

On any given trip, she and any of the researchers heading into the field might carry a topographical map, a GPS unit, radio telemetry equipment, PVC pipe squares for vegetation work, high-tech scissors, calipers to measure shrubs, iPads, and brown paper bags for samples.

"And latex gloves for handling fecal samples. Very important," Barker said.

The project started in 2014, she said, and as is typical with this type of work, the team brought on the master's student in 2015, after its inception, to carry out the data analysis portion toward the end.

To collect information, the scientists had collared 65 elk in the Sapphire Mountains. Most of the collars had dropped off and been retrieved, but Barker was looking for data from one that remained.

"Two bulls still have collars on 'em. One of them hasn't transmitted in a while," Barker said.

It sounded like a lovely problem for Barker; even though her main job at this point was looking at data at a computer in the Natural Sciences building on campus, she had to chase one last elk.

The trip to the top of the mountain took Barker through meadows, past a small vegetable farm, and under a deep green canopy of pine, maybe spruce  "I'd have to touch the needles to be sure."

Once, a tiny rabbit hopped along on the side of the road, one of the many critters Barker has encountered on her excursions. She'd seen a black bear, whitetail deer, mule deer, and lots of birds.

"Once, I found a little caterpillar cocoon," Barker said.

The mountain lions were there, too, but they observe the people; rarely is it the other way around.

Last week, the researcher had to tread with special care because it was hunting season, and she didn't want to upset the balance in the field. Barker didn't want to get in the way of the hunters, nor did she want to force elk from any hiding spots.

"During hunting season, you want to be real cautious to be fair to both parties," said Barker, a hunter herself.

On the drive, Barker spoke about the project in a way that made it clear science is a creative pursuit. The researchers have many different hypotheses, not just one, and they were testing different answers, which weren't mutually exclusive.

For instance, one idea is that the more an elk migrates, the better access it has to more nutritious food.

"You have to be creative to even come up with a good question," Barker said.

To find answers, the team collected data about the elk, and nutritional information about plants, such as balsamroot and spotted knapweed, at various stages of life.

At least last week, Barker only had preliminary conclusions to the question about nutrition posed by the agency. She's scheduled to graduate in December 2017, and before she does, she plans to use the data to answer one of her own questions about elk in the Sapphires, too.

"I'm trying to understand why the full continuum of migration behavior is represented in this population," Barker said.

Some elk migrate, but some start to migrate and then return, and their range of behaviors is wide. Some people believe they see patterns in elk movement, but so far the stories are only anecdotal and not backed by data, Barker said.

Some species, such as the wildebeest, have stopped migrating altogether, she said.

"Migratory behavior seems to be changing in a lot of species," Barker said.

The state agency will keep the data from the study, she said, and they'll continue to seek answers in it to questions about life and wild places even after this particular project ends.

Before coming to Montana, Barker worked in the software industry in Colorado.

Eventually, she found her volunteer work monitoring bats more interesting, and she decided to seek an advanced degree in wildlife biology. She headed to Missoula because she liked the town itself  which she had visited earlier while doing wolf research  as well as the campus lab, called the Montana Cooperative Research Unit, and the strength of the program, recognized nationally.

"It's one of the better wildlife bio programs in the country," Barker said.

After a few fruitless minutes with the antenna on the top of the mountain, the researcher revved up the truck again and rolled to a different vantage site. She didn't have luck there and she figured the batteries had died in the collar.

Typically, the collars upload data to a satellite every two hours, but it hadn't been sending information and she couldn't pick it up manually.

"He could be anywhere," she said.

With most of the collars already secure, though, Barker hopped back in the truck and headed back to campus, where she traded her socks and boots for a pair of sandals and settled in for computer analysis.

"This is where the magic happens," she said, joking.

Really, the magic seemed to be the way the campus and the field were bound together. Barker had landed on the top of Elk Mountain in the morning to listen for the signal of one bull elk, and she was back in her office the same afternoon, looking at the results of a couple of seasons of elk on the move in Montana.
TRUMP: The academic standards adopted in more than 40 states are a frequent target of Trump's ire. "We spend more by far, and we're doing very poorly. So, obviously, Common Core does not work," he said this past week. Trump has pledged to do away with the standards if elected, which could prove a challenge: they were created and adopted by states, not the federal government. Trump has also pledged that ripping up the state-developed standards and bringing education "to the local level" would immediately boost student performance.

CLINTON: The standards are not mentioned in Clinton's education plans, although her campaign does note that as the first lady of Arkansas, she chaired the state's education standards commission. Speaking in Iowa during the primary season, Clinton lamented what she called the "really unfortunate argument" about the standards. "It wasn't politicized," she said. "It was to try to come up with a core of learning that we might expect students to achieve across our country, no matter what kind of school district they were in, no matter how poor their family was, that there wouldn't be two tiers of education."
FRUITLAND, Iowa  From inflatable slides to a car show, Fruitland Fun Days drew many area residents to enjoy the fun.

The two-day event had their biggest day Saturday which included a morning parade, followed by a carnival in Drake Park, a car show, and food and other vendors. With children giggling and chasing each other, parents and other visitors wandered the park, enjoying the cool, if windy, day.

The Fruitland Community Lions Club worked taking tickets for the inflatable rides, and held a 50/50 raffle, with 50 percent of the ticket prices going to the winner, and the other 50 percent to the Lions Club.

"Which goes right back to the community," said Wayne Shoultz, the president of the Fruitland Lions club.

Shoultz said the event was a great benefit for Fruitland and the surrounding area.

"It is about the community, and it's an opportunity to meet your neighbors, meet your community, and to give back to your community. The money raised does lots of good for the park, and lots of items within the community of Fruitland," Shoultz said.

The Fruitland Lions Club also worked with the Island United Methodist Church to bring free books for children to the event. Scottie and Amber Baker brought their two children, Alexis, 1, and Scottie Jr., 2, to look at the free books.

Scottie Jr. clutched one in his hand as his parents continued to look. His parents said they appreciated the opportunity to get free books for their children.

"It helps encourage kids to read," Scottie Baker said.

Morgan Hodge, 12, had a small table near the vendors filled with Christmas cards. Her fourth year at the festival, Hodge asked passers by to sign the cards that would be sent to U.S. military members during the holiday season.

"There are a lot of troops and people in the military who don't get a lot of Christmas cards when they are away over Christmas so we like to give them a little message from home," she said.

At the car show, in another area of the park, people walked among old and new cars, peered under the hoods, and talked about their favorites.

Steve Tegeler, of Clinton, brought his Mystery Machine, inspired by Scooby-Doo films. Several children stopped to see the Chevy van, and Tegeler said his second year at Fruitland Fun Days was as fun as the first, and said he enjoys the car show in combination with the other events.

"It's really nice," he said.

Ramona Hainey watched as her granddaughters played on the "Space Walk," one of the inflatable games available for children at the event.

She said she was glad she could bring Lillian Holmes, 11, and Emma Holmes, 8, of Wapello, to their first Fruitland Fun Days.

"I like having the small communities be able to come together and have fun, and I think everybody looks forward to it," Hainey said.
Les emplois a Rennes sont abondants et varies. Il y a quelque chose pour tout le monde. Que vous soyez a la recherche dun emploi []
Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes []
A video from One America News Networks Liz Wheeler about protesting students is being shared in South Africa.

Wheeler lambastes participants of the Million Student March  an American movement which demands tuition-free public college, cancellation of all student debt, and a $15 minimum wage for all campus workers.

The video was posted in November 2015, but is being shared as local university student protests flare up again.

The Fees Must Fall movement started in October 2015, and protested an increase in student fees.

The movement evolved to include free education, the scrapping of student debt, stopping outsourcing of university workers, and higher minimum salaries for these workers.

The movement continued in 2016, involving widespread destruction of property on university campuses.

Last week, six vehicles were burnt at UKZNs Westville campus. The law library at Howard College was also burnt down.

Many people have voiced their frustration and anger about the continued destruction during protest action, sharing Wheelers video and her views.

More on Fees Must Fall

#FeesMustFall the beginning of the end for South African universities

University protests have begun  photos show massive destruction at UKZN
Uber has assured South African customers that its drivers undergo a screening process before their profile is activated on the service.

This includes a criminal background check, said Uber.

The companys statement follows an attack on a couple in August, after they allegedly got into an Uber taxi after leaving the Movida nightclub in Sunninghill.

Shortly after departing, two men hiding in the boot pushed the back seats forward and got into the front of the car  attacking the couple and forcing them to draw money from an ATM.

The SAPS stated that the attack involved an Uber vehicle with two suspects, one of which was a former Uber employee.

Prior to this individuals deactivation and arrest, he held a valid Professional Drivers Permit and he cleared all background checks  there was no evidence of a prior criminal record, said Uber.

Uber said it is working with the police on an investigation into the attack.

Uber background checks

Uber states on its website that drivers who wish to join the service must meet a set of requirements  which includes background checks and a driving evaluation.

Drivers wanting to join Uber must:

Produce a valid South African PrDP (professional driving permit).

Complete a background check with an approved agency, which includes checking for a criminal record.

Complete a driving evaluation with an approved agency to ensure the driver can safely and professionally transport passengers.

Complete an Uber certification session, which includes a test administered by Uber.

A vehicle insurance policy, vehicle operating card and registration certificate, and a vehicle inspection report must also be submitted.

Uber said individuals with a criminal record older than 10 years may apply to the Department of Justice to have their record expunged.

If the criminal record is expunged, Uber will partner with the driver.

Vehicle requirements

Ubers website states that the following vehicles may be used by drivers:

Uber X (2013 onward): Toyota Corolla, VW Jetta, Honda Ballade, Hyundai Elantra, Chevrolet Cruze, Kia Cerato/Rio, Hyundai Accent, Nissan Sentra/Almera, Renault Fluence, Mazda 3/6.

(2013 onward): Toyota Corolla, VW Jetta, Honda Ballade, Hyundai Elantra, Chevrolet Cruze, Kia Cerato/Rio, Hyundai Accent, Nissan Sentra/Almera, Renault Fluence, Mazda 3/6. UberVan (2012 onward): Hyundai H1, Mercedes Benz Vito, VW Transporter.

(2012 onward): Hyundai H1, Mercedes Benz Vito, VW Transporter. UberBlack (2013 onward): Audi A4, BMW 3 Series, Mercedes C-Class and above, Lexus sedan.

More on Uber

Uber to deliver food in Johannesburg

Over 600 cars leased through Uber-WesBank deal
From school penny jars to large donations like the initial grant provided by the Napa Valley Vintners, the UpValley Family Centers received a total of $357,628 in donations from individuals, businesses, community groups, schools and foundations to aid Valley Fire victims.

Its hard to believe a year has passed since the Valley Fire ravaged nearby communities  and that nearly a year later the Clayton Fire hit, bringing a new wave of grief, said Jenny Ocon, executive director of the UpValley Family Centers (UVFC). Over this time, my appreciation has grown for the importance of close-knit community ties, and the value that family resource centers play in caring for our most vulnerable neighbors in times of need. Thanks to hundreds of donors and volunteers from near and far, we were able to help over 1,500 Valley Fire victims begin a process of recovery. Each donation of time and treasure made a difference.

From September 2015 through June 2016, UVFC provided assistance in a variety of ways including financial help for housing-related expenses like security deposits and rental assistance and with essential basic support including food, gas, transportation, medical bills and utility bills.

This is one familys story of hundreds: Rosa and Ociel are long-time residents of Middletown, living there more than 45 years. Rosa is employed at a Napa County resort. They raised three children in the house that they owned for many years. Their two oldest children are married and have careers. Their youngest child was away at college when the disaster struck.

Rosa and Ociel were forced to evacuate along with thousands of people, and came to the Napa County Fairgrounds on Sept. 12 where an emergency shelter was established. They received assistance from UVFC, including food and gas cards at the beginning of their stay at the shelter.

About four days later, they learned that their house was completely burned down and heard about the opportunity to receive financial assistance and case management through UVFC. They applied, requesting funds for a down payment for a trailer that could serve them as a residence while rebuilding their home.

They obtained a loan from their bank, and along with the financial assistance they received through UVFCs program, they purchased a trailer. They initially parked the trailer in the backyard of a kind local Calistoga business womans residence, where they stayed until their property was cleaned of debris and cleared for return. They are now living on their property in the trailer, and in the process of rebuilding their home.
The tons of warped and gnarled steel that once formed the World Trade Center are nearly gone now, donated far and wide to form sculptures marking the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But one of those fragments, one of those relics of Americas darkest day, has found its way into the newest 9/11 memorial -- in American Canyon.

A mix of memories, silent moments and patriotic tunes from an Air Force brass quintet, the dedication in American Canyon was one of three observances Sunday on the 15th anniversary of 9/11, following a morning event outside the Yountville Community Center and preceding another at the downtown Napa memorial.

A rust-stained half-ton collar of metal, the fragment ties together twin columns of glass representing the collapsed Twin Towers. For some, the installation symbolizes far more -- most of all the ultimate sacrifice made by New York City firefighters who rushed into the burning Twin Towers to rescue as many people as possible.

As I look at this monument, I cant help but think that you nailed the location, Air Force Lt. Col. Andrew J. Frankel told more than 100 spectators sitting outside the fire stations. Almost directly beneath the audience, an enormous U.S. flag, its stars and stripes tied to a ladder truck was starched by the stiff afternoon winds.

It will serve as a reminder as they set out, potentially in harms way, in service and sacrifice, said Frankel, a veteran of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and a Berkeley police officer, about the 343 firefighters killed when the Twin Towers collapsed.

Gordon Huether, the Napa artist who designed the new monument, recalled his tour of Hangar 17 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, where the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for years stored the debris of 9/11 -- from crushed subway cars to flattened fire wagons down to the shoes of passengers on the jet planes hijacked by al-Qaeda agents and turned into missiles against the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

I was so struck by the enormity of the destruction, and the enormity of the hatred that caused that destruction, he said. And then I was struck by the enormity of love that the (reaction to the) event brought out in all of us.

The collar was part of a 30-ton load of metal remnants the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey gave the city of Napa for its own memorial project, then donated in turn to American Canyon. After nearly a decade of fundraising to garner $40,000, the memorial was installed Aug. 23 outside the American Canyon police and fire station at 911 Donaldson Way East.

Its been a long time coming, American Canyon firefighter Josh Cordeiro, a main driver of the fundraising effort, told audience members. But its done. Thank you very much, he said before embracing Fire Chief Glen Weeks.

Later Sunday, a crowd of about 140 people gathered around the Napa 9/11 Memorial, where passers-by laid flowers beside its glass panels -- each framed by vertical steel beams from the Twin Towers -- bearing the names of nearly 3,000 people who died in New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Airlines Flight 93 went down in 2001.

The example of Flight 93 passengers who fought their hijackers to seize the cockpit -- and avert a probable second attack on Washington -- should stand as an example for those devoting their lives to service and good works even in a world of terrorism and massacres, said county Supervisor Brad Wagenknecht, who in 2001 broke the news to Redwood Middle School students in his seventh-grade social studies class.

Flight 93 knew their lives were going to hell; they knew their lives were about to come to an end, he said. They stood for us all, and for the 2,977 who lost their lives that day. Action in the face of frustration -- today, we stand for them.

Two of the Napa spectators had been almost as distant from New York, Washington and Pennsylvania as Napans were on 9/11, only in the opposite direction. Fourteen months after moving into town from Northern Ireland, Lisa and Andrew Gillen remembered how the news had come to them == she after teaching school in County Tyrone, he at a construction site where an excavator driver heard the news flash on the radio.

The shock and disbelief of that day still lingered with Lisa Gillen -- as did the knowledge that many of the New York victims had been Irish-Americans, some of them firefighters caught in the Twin Towers fall.

That was one of the reasons I wanted to visit today: not only for the firefighters or the Irish, but for everyone, she said after the ceremony. Its the stuff of nightmares, really.

Earlier Sunday, about 100 spectators gathered for a morning memorial in Yountville at the town's 9/11 monument outside the community center, according to Mayor John Dunbar. A moment of silence was declared at 7:28 a.m. -- the time (10:28 a.m. EDT) when the World Trade Center's north tower collapsed, 29 minutes after the fall of the south tower.

As of late August, the Port Authority, the World Trade Centers owner, had donated 2,629 artifacts from its ruins to 1,585 fire and police departments, schools and museums, and other nonprofit organizations in all 50 states and at least eight other nations.

Tons of wreckage were salvaged from the Twin Towers site for preservation after the terrorist attacks. Fifteen years on, a crushed van from a government agency motor pool -- likely sheltered in a garage beneath the Trade Center -- is the last artifact without a resting place. The white Dodge Caravan also is likely to go soon, to a group Port Authority officials will not identify until its application has been approved.

They are the relics of the destruction and they have the same power in the same way as medieval relics that have the power of the saints, said Harriet Senie, author of Memorials to Shattered Myths: Vietnam to 9/11.

With reports from American Canyon Eagle editor Noel Brinkerhoff and The Associated Press.
Twenty years after graduating from Vintage High School, Kate Rubins will pay a visit to her alma mater.

A virtual visit, that is  from the International Space Station, 250 miles above the Earth.

At 10 a.m. Wednesday, the Napa-raised Rubins will lead a 20-minute, space-to-school question-and-answer chat with Vintage students from the space station, where she began a four-month mission July 6. The downlink arranged by NASA will connect the astronaut with about 200 science students watching Rubins on a video screen inside a campus theater, with the program to be carried live online at NASA TV and on Comcast cable channel 27 in Napa.

The space agency will use a combination of Skype, NASA TV facilities, ground-based antennas and communications satellites to link Rubins with her student audience on a two-second delay, according to NASA spokeswoman Hayley Fick at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Vintage students will receive audio and video of Rubins and her crewmates Anatoly Ivanishin of Russia and Takuya Onishi of Japan, but the astronauts will hear only audio from Napa.

Teachers asked students to submit possible questions for Rubins on a variety of topics, then passed the list to NASA for winnowing to 25 questions for the space station call, according to Elizabeth Emmett, spokeswoman for the Napa Valley Unified School District.

Ahead of the space-to-earth chat, Vintage students have been studying topics related to Rubins research aboard the orbiting space platform, including DNA sequencing. In late August, Rubins, a biologist who studied the Ebola virus, smallpox and other pathogens before her 2009 selection as a NASA astronaut, used a new pocket-size device and samples from mice, bacteria and viruses to perform the first successful decoding of genetic material in zero gravity  a step the space agency says can help future explorers diagnose illnesses or check the safety of microbes on a Mars mission, or even identify extraterrestrial life forms.

Napa Valley Unified proposed the space-to-earth call in April, while Rubins and her two crewmates were preparing for the July 6 launch, and gained NASAs approval just before the school year began in August, according to Vintages assistant principal Peter Abboud.
BALI, IndonesiaIm here in the home of Eat Pray Love,but theres just no escape from the Bay Area.

Chatting with an owner of Bisma Eight, a boutique hotel in Ubud where my 550-square-foot guest room (with jungle-view terrace to boot) is bigger than many San Francisco and New York City apartments, I was hearing about Silicon Bali.

Its a phenomenon where young digital nomads from all over the world work in tech, often in co-working spaces, with cheap living costs and lush scenery.

Staring at rice paddies in Ubud or its surroundings while coding seems novel. But, if Ubud could transform Elizabeth Gilbert from a depressed divorcee to a happily married best-selling author, perhaps its life-changing magic will also work on techies.

A mocktail class at my hotel concocts alcohol-free libations from fresh fruit juices and herbs. My favorite, Lost in Monkey Forest, consists of passion fruit puree, pineapple, mango and lemon juices, and sweet and spicy syrup flavored with clove, cardamom, star anise and cumin. Its named for the nature reserve a 15-minute walk from my hotel where unusually mischievous and larcenous monkeys like to steal things from visitors.

In the midst of making a Bisma Berry Sling, with a puree of three berries and hibiscus syrup, I start talking to a Dutch man who turned out to be CEO Europe of Silicon Valley-based Jaunt, a virtual reality firm.

I was about to ask why hes based in Amsterdam and not Silicon Bali, when I noticed he was transfixed by his smartphone. What are you watching, I asked?

The Golden State Warriors, he replies. Love Stephen Curry.

In my Balinese cooking class on Bisma Eights rooftop terrace  fish curry steamed in banana leaf and banana fritters made from rice flour batter  the chef greeted me with a hands-clasped-in-prayer gesture, the traditional Hindu greeting on this Hindu-majority island in Muslim-majority Indonesia.

As Ive never met a spicy food I didnt like, I went to in search of more Indonesian food nearby and delightedly find Murnis Warung, a well-recommended restaurant with a shop packed with Asian crafts and textiles in front.

While savoring my beef rending  so coated with Indonesian spices, I thought the cubed beef was ground meat  I learned that its owner, who sources from Southeast Asia, China and Afghanistan, had given a talk on Balinese textiles at San Franciscos de Young Museum, and exhibited at the citys Tribal Arts and Textiles Show.

My cooking class was just one of many classes at my hotel, from Balinese dance to kite-making. In fact, art beats inside the heart of Ubud, Balis cultural center, a city of 50,000 that seems bent on making visitors learn an art form while here. Classes abound in puppet-making, silver jewelry-making, mask-carving, batik, fruit-carving (how dull to just eat a fruit; carve it into an artwork instead) and bamboo weaving. You can even learn to make small hand-woven offering to the gods out of flower-topped coconut leaves; these can be seen adorning sidewalks in front of businesses and homes all over Bali.

Entire villages here make a single craft, like carving wood or stone. I even spotted a village whose niche was wood carvings of Garuda, the eagle-shaped god. The businessperson in me wondered how they could possibly survive, with everyone making the same thing.

Finding things to do as a solo traveler is so easy. From Ubud tourism, I picked up a leaflet of the music, dance and puppet plays to be found at Ubud temples or palaces any given night. Choosing Legong dance, I was mesmerized by beautiful young Balinese women in ornately brocaded costumes and headdresses in stylized dance movements.

Picking Kecak dance another night, I watched shirtless men chant repetitively and hypnotically as if in a trance, then dance around fire. At the end, flaming embers are kicked toward the audience, alarming indeed to front-row spectators like me.

This would never happen in Australia! a man exclaimed behind me. Safety laws!

Another time, I visited a coffee and spice plantation, Oka Agriculture, to sip a special coffee Id long heard about: Lewak coffee, made from fruit excreted by a civet-like creature, whose digestive juices apparently do wonders to create a tasty treat. The verdict? Not bad. Yummy, in fact.

Having heard about a wonderful book festival, the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, where Bay Area novelist Michael Chabon has appeared, and the Ubud Food Festival, I was thrilled to meet the founder of both, Janet de Neefe, who has lived in Bali for over 30 years.

Bali gets under your skin. Its so picturesque, it has a charming culture and the people are extremely sweet, said the Australian, who, with her Balinese husband, also owns both Casa Luna restaurant and Honeymoon Guesthouse in Ubud. Its an easy part of Asia, with so much beauty.

I recalled the rice paddy terraces in Tegallalang, outside Ubud, so startingly emerald-green that Ireland should sit up and take note. The jungle view behind the Starbucks on Ubuds main street, Jalan Raya. The many-pavilion-like structures behind gates I assumed were temples, which turned out to be family compounds, where several generations live together.

The elaborately-ornamented everything, from gates, masks, temples, carvings to the fascinating array of Balinese paintings from different eras in the Museum Puri Lukisan.

Beauty and ease indeed.
Uh oh. Looks like someones been giving it her all in concert a little too much lately.

According to reports, Miranda Lambert has been forced to cancel several upcoming shows on doctors orders.

Live Nation announced today that Miranda Lamberts shows in Corpus Christi at AmericanBank Center on Sept. 15, Austin at the Frank Erwin Center on Sept. 16 and San Antonio at the AT&T Center on Sept. 17 have been cancelled due to mandated vocal rest. For all ticket refunds, fans should return to their original point of purchase. Purchases made by phone or internet will be refunded automatically.

Definitely a bummer for fans who planned on attending. Lucky for Miranda, though, these were the last three stops on her Keeper of the Flame Tour so shell have lots of time to rest her golden voice.

Get well soon, Miranda.

(Via)
Sibling country music group The Willis Clan is best known for its reality show, The Willis Family, on TLC. Now the family, which consists of twelve children and their parents, Toby and Brenda, is making headlines for a shocking reason.

Toby Willis, the head of the family, was arrested on Friday and charged with one count of child rape. The arrest comes on the heels of an investigation that began on August 29 when the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations (TBI) discovered Willis had sexual relations with an underage girl about twelve years ago. Upon learning of his inevitable fate, Willis fled Tennessee and was ultimately detained by police in Greenville, Kentucky.

PEOPLE reached out to TLC to determine whether The Willis Family would return to TLC and received word that the series has been canceled. We are shocked to hear the news, the network told the reporter.

When PEOPLE inquired further into TLCs due diligence to ensure that the family members checked out and had no issues in their pasts, a source supplied:

The family was alerted of the cancellation back in [M]ay 2016. The network performed extensive background checks on all the family members and found no issues. Obviously this is something they were never aware of.

Willis is being held without bond as a fugitive from justice in the Muhlenberg County Jail in Kentucky and will be moved to Cheatham County Jail in his hometown where he will also be held without bond, according to a TBI statement.
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The settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict supposes the return of some territories to Azerbaijani control, in exchange for the status of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Ambassador James Warlick, US Co-Chair of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group, told the aforesaid to Interfax news agency. He noted this when asked what would be the perfect scenario for the Karabakh conflict settlement, for the US.

Warlick added that this scenario is the same also for Russia and France, the other co-chairing countries in the OSCE Minsk Group.

He noted that although this conflict still continues for a long time and numerous people have died within these 20 years, this conflict can be resolved; but there are respective conditions.

The Minsk Group US co-chair stressed that a perfect resolution supposes the absence of winners and losers, and that it shall be beneficial for the parties to the conflict. As per Warlick, negotiations are successful when both sidesi.e. the Armenian and the Azerbaijaniwin.

The American diplomat noted that a new generation of Armenians and Azerbaijanis has grown up without knowing each other, and therefore they would like to see contacts between these people. And as a pacific resolution to the Karabakh conflict, they would like for Armenians and Azerbaijanis to coexist together.

Ambassador Warlick stated that the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict supposes the return of some territories to Azerbaijani control, in exchange for the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. As per the Minsk Group US co-chair, however, this is a condition for conflict settlement, but it is not the only one; the other conditions include the return of refugees to their homes, and the deployment of international peacekeeping forces at the conflict zone.

James Warlick also said they need to work with the conflicting parties to find a way to unite all of these conditions and achieve a peaceful settlement, and all the inhabitants of the region will benefit from this.
We would like for the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijani to hold another meeting.

Ambassador James Warlick, US Co-Chair of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group, told the aforementioned to Interfax news agency. He stated this with respect to finding avenues for resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

As per Warlick, even though there are separate conditions for conflict settlement, the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan lack a political will to move forward.

He noted that the US, Russia, and France share the same outlookas the co-chairing countries of the OSCE Minsk Groupon achieving a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

The US diplomat stated that they would like to see the implementation of the arrangements that were made in the relevant summits in the Austrian capital city of Vienna, and in Saint Petersburg, Russia. As per Warlick, numerous settlement terms were put forward thanks to these summits.

The Minsk Group US co-chair added that they would like for the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijani to hold another meeting. He added that, as Minsk Group co-chairs, they will meet with the foreign ministers of both countries, to lay the foundation for the next summit.

The US diplomat stated that they hope to see the two FMs in two weeks, at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York, to discuss the next respective steps. James Warlick also said he would like to hope that the presidents of the two countries will meet within the framework of this event.
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Armenia PM: All countries consider Karabakh to be part of Azerbaijan

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On September 14 at the meeting of the Board of Directors of the International Monetary Fund ( IMF) Russia will vote against providing Ukraine a new tranche of the economic aid. Russia havent received its debt in the amount of $3 billion and is ready for pre-trial agreement, if Kiev changes its position. This was announced by the Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov , reports the Reuters .

For the IMF board to adopt a decision, it is necessary to have a simple majority of votes: Russia has 2.6 percent of the votes compared to 16.54 percent of the US vote. According to Siluanov, Russia has not coordinated its position with the representative of other countries included in the Board of Directors. In February Russia applied to London's Supreme Court, requiring the Ukrainian government to repay the Eurobonds, the terms of which expired on December 20 of 2015 and pay the interest, on which the Ukrainian government imposed a moratorium.

"All the attempts to come to an agreement with Russia are in fact false . They have no real basis . Today we 'll submit all our considerations in the form of a letter to the IMF Managing Director , Ms. Lagarde . The Foundation probably does not have complete information about the volume of the negotiations , although it would have been strange , " Siluanov said .

The head of the Russian Finance Ministry has approved the meeting with the Minister of Finance of Ukraine Alexander Danilyuk that will take place during the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group in Washington in October . " We are ready for pre-trial agreements in regard to the Ukrainian debt. In fact, there are plans to meet with the Ukraine Minister of Finance in Washington D.C. through the mediation of Germany But we will be ready to discuss issues regarding pre-trial agreements , provided that the proposals of the Ukrainian side differ significantly from the ones , the commercial lenders agree upon. We can not agree, if the Ukrainian side will adopt the same position . If it continues in the same spirit, these talks will not be constructive. " he added.
Editor's note: Karen Bell is a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Berry Brosi, an evolutionary biologist in Emory's Department of Environmental Sciences, focused on the study of bees. Kevin Burgess is a biologist at Columbia State University. This article originally ran in The Conversation.

Imagine you're a detective working on a murder case. You have a body, but you believe it was moved from another location. Now what? There's one unexpected tool you might use to follow up on this suspicion: forensic palynology. That's the application of palynology  the study of pollen  to crime investigation.



But how does pollen have any bearing on forensics? While usually unseen, pollen is essentially ubiquitous in terrestrial habitats, and it is extremely tough. In fact, pollen is so durable that paleontologists can examine fossilized pollen grains in ancient sediments to see what plants grew during prehistoric times. And the signature of which pollen grains are present is specific to a particular place (because different plant species occur in different areas) and time (because different plant species flower at different times).



All of that makes pollen an ideal biomarker for linking people and objects to particular places and times, a central need in forensic investigations. Despite this potential utility, forensic palynology has been underutilized, because of its reliance on specialized experts to meticulously identify pollen visually under the microscope.



But recently researchers developed a new technique for identifying pollen, using genetics. By making identification much easier and faster for large numbers of pollen samples, this development has the potential to transform forensic palynology, allowing us to harness the power of pollen to solve crimes.

View Full Story in eScienceCommons 
15:36

Ruling Janata Dal-United has issued a show cause notice to party member of legislative assembly Giridhari Yadav for mingling with Rashtriya Janata Dal strongman Mohammed Shahabuddin, who made caustic remarks against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar soon after his release from jail.



Earlier, the party said it is mulling action against Yadav.



"The JD-U leadership has taken note of our own MLA Girdhari Yadav being seen in the company of Shahabuddin at the time of the latter's release from jail," party spokesman Sanjay Kumar Singh told reporters.



"We cannot accept Yadav's conduct in being seen with the RJD strongman when he spewed venom on our Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ... the JD-U is mulling against him," he said.



Yadav represents Belhar assembly seat in Banka district.



Soon after being released from jail on September 10 after 11 years, the controversial RJD leader had described Nitish Kumar as 'chief minister of circumstances' and that RJD supremo Lalu Prasad was his only leader.



Not stopping at questioning Kumar's credentials for the chief minister's post, Shahabuddin had reportedly said on Sunday that he was not a mass leader.



Defending his meeting with the RJD strongman, Giridhari Yadav said he met Shahabuddin because of his personal relations with him.



"I have a friendship and personal relation with Shahabuddin and that's why I had gone to meet him (Shahabuddin) after his release from jail (in Bhagalpur)," Yadav said.



"Nitish Kumar is my leader and he has not spoken anything against him," he said.


23:46

US-led coalition warplanes destroyed a factory in Iraq used by the Islamic State group to make chemical weapons, the Pentagon said today.

The production center, a converted pharmaceutical plant complex, likely made chlorine or mustard gas, said Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigian, who heads US Air Forces Central Command.

"This represents just another example of Daesh's blatant disregard for international law and norms," he told Pentagon reporters in a video call, using an Arabic acronym for IS.





The strike occurred yesterday near Mosul and was conducted by fighter jets, ground-attack aircraft and even a B-52 heavy bomber, the Pentagon said.





The Pentagon provided video of the strike, showing a series of large, flat-roofed buildings disintegrating under multiple explosions.
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WASHINGTON: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has termed last week's launch pad accident that destroyed a rocket and a communications satellite as the "the most difficult and complex failure" in the company's 14-year history and sought help from the public in its ongoing investigation.

"Still working on the Falcon fireball investigation. Turning out to be the most difficult and complex failure we have ever had in 14 years," Musk tweeted on Friday after a week of public silence.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket exploded on September 1 at Cape Canaveral, Florida during a pre-launch test, destroying the rocket itself and a $200-million communications satellite that was set to play a key role in Facebook's plans to provide internet access to remote villages in Africa. No one was injured in the explosion.

In a note, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed his disappointment but also promised to come back stronger to fulfill his mission to "connect everyone".

"If you have audio, photos or videos of our anomaly last week, please send to report@spacex.com. Material may be useful for investigation," Musk appealed.

Sharing some details on the ongoing investigation, Musk said that the accident happened during a routine filling operation.

"Engines were not on and there was no apparent heat source," he said.

"Particularly trying to understand the quieter bang sound a few seconds before the fireball goes off. May come from rocket or something else," the SpaceX Chief Executive said.

SpaceX, founded in 2002 by Musk, has been the face of American commercial space industry. It has been hired by the US space agency NASA to send cargoes and, ultimately, American astronauts, to the International Space Station.

The mishap was also a setback for NASA, which has been counting on the private company to keep the International Space Station stocked with supplies and, ultimately, astronauts.

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MELBOURNE: A team of Australian researchers has partnered with an Indian research foundation in an effort to develop a variety of salt-tolerant rice, as part of a broader project to address the issue of food security.

An agreement was signed between the University of Tasmania (UTAS) and M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai last week for a $2 mllion project supported by the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund.

They will conduct research on salt-tolerant rice varieties identified from wild species using biotechnology approaches in India and in Australia.

Rice was one of the most important staple foods in the world, with 92 per cent of all rice produced in Asia, said Holger Meinke, head of the university's School of Land and Food head.

Production in this region was increasingly impaired by seawater intrusion or saline water tables rendering vast areas of land unproductive and threatening the livelihood of many rice farmers.

"Researchers from UTAS, supported by Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, will be using a variety of wild rice that is capable of growing in highly saline coastal areas to identify and transfer traits that confer its remarkable salinity-stress tolerance," Meinke said.

"These traits will be transferred to traditional rice cultivars using a range of modern plant breeding techniques to create a salt-tolerant rice variety which will be suitable for growing conditions in India and other saline environments around the world," Meinke added.

"The project will include exchange visits between India and Australia and is a great example of Tasmanian researchers forming international partnerships and sharing expertise to address issues of global significance," he said.

The three-year project is being led by Sergey Shabala from UTAS who said the project is an important effort to improve global food security as well as production efficiencies for Australian farmers.

"Rice is Australia's third largest cereal grain export, and the ninth largest agricultural export. The industry generates around $800 million revenue per annum, with around $500 million of this coming from value-added exports," Shabala said.

"The development of a salinity-tolerant rice variety will help improve outcomes for Australian farmers who are affected by transient salinity. This is the first step towards developing agricultural systems that are highly salt-tolerant. The capabilities and technologies developed through this project have the potential to ultimately enhance the agricultural productivity for other major crops such as barley and wheat," Shabala said.

The UTAS will also work closely with Zhonghua Chen from the University of Western Sydney.

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Family Dynamics in Caregiving set for Sept. 22

by Christi Mathis

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- As the population ages, more people are becoming caregivers for family members who have various forms of dementia and other chronic diseases such as cancer. Southern Illinois University Carbondales Department of Kinesiology is hosting a presentation offering helpful family caregiving information.

Tag Youre It: Family Dynamics in Caregiving is set for 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 22 in Wham Building, Room 219, on the SIU campus. The session is free and open to the public. No pre-registration is necessary.

Those attending will learn to minimize stress caused by family conflict, organize and strengthen the existing caregiving team, and identify and change behavior patterns that often occur in family caregiving situations that prevent people from adjusting well to situations. The guest presenter is Elaine M. Eshbaugh, associate professor of gerontology and family studies and coordinator for the gerontology program at the University of Northern Iowa.

Eshbaugh chairs the Division of Family Services and Gerontology. She earned her doctorate and masters degrees in Human Development and Family Studies at Iowa State University along with a bachelors degree in psychology from the University of Northern Iowa. She is on the executive board of the Northeast Iowa Agency on Aging and coordinates her universitys Memory Trunk program, which advocates a special approach to interacting with people suffering from Alzheimers disease and related dementias.

She has extensive experience collaborating with agencies, organizations and services that provide care to the aging population and those with dementia and her research work in those areas is widely published. The author of the blog Welcome to Dementialand, Eshbaugh is an active public speaker and community educator.
Students can enter Saluki Elevator Pitch Competition

by Christi Mathis

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Student entrepreneurs at Southern Illinois University Carbondale will make short, dynamic presentations to sell their business ideas during the fourth annual Saluki Elevator Pitch Competition as they compete for a trip to Florida.

The competition will take place at 5 p.m. on Oct. 5 at the Dunn-Richmond Economic Development Center, located at 1740 Innovation Drive in Carbondale. The premise is simple: Students have 90 seconds, about the time required for an average elevator ride, to explain their business concepts to a panel of judges and convince them how great the ideas are. Thats about how long they would likely have in the real business world to persuade someone to invest in their ideas.

The winner receives paid travel expenses to Tampa, Fla., to participate in the national elevator pitch contest during the CEO Conference Oct. 27-29. There, the top three prize winners will earn shares of $7,000 in cash prizes to help them launch their business ventures. Salukis have placed as high as fourth and won monetary awards at the national event.

The Saluki Elevator Pitch Competition is open to students of all majors. Two elevator pitch workshops are planned to help students develop their presentations and prepare for the local contest. The workshops will take place at noon on Sept. 26 at the Innovation and Sustainability HUB in the Student Center and at 5 p.m. on Sept. 28 at the Dunn-Richmond Economic Development Center in the SIU Research Park.

Students should RSVP to innovation@siu.edu to reserve a spot in the contest. Meals will be provided to those participating in the workshops. Students are not required to attend a workshop in order to compete but must pre-register for the workshops and the competition.

The Saluki Entrepreneur Corps, an SIU College of Business registered student organization, is sponsoring the Saluki Elevator Pitch Competition. For more information, visit www.salukiceo.com or call 618/453-2083 to speak with Mara Decker, president of the RSO. The Center for Innovation and the SIU Research Park provide support for the competition.
Presentation focuses on campaign finance reform

by Pete Rosenbery

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- A presentation next week at Southern Illinois University Carbondale will help shed light on campaign finance reform in the state.

Sarah Brune, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, will be one of the speakers at an event at 5 p.m., Monday, Sept. 19, in Student Center Ballroom B. She will discuss Following Campaign Cash: Looking Online at Illinois Campaign for Political Reforms Sunshine Database.

The event is free and the public is welcome, although an RSVP to rsvp@paulsimoninstitute.org is encouraged. The Paul Simon Public Policy Institute is sponsoring the event.

The non-partisan, non-profit Illinois Campaign for Political Reform was founded in 1997 by former U.S. Sen. and institute founder Paul Simon and then-Lt. Gov. Robert Kustra. The organization focuses on reform of Illinois campaign finance laws, government ethics, judicial selection and voter education. The ICPR was first in the nation to put state-level campaign finance reports into a searchable online database, according to the organization.

ICPR has developed good online tools for tracking political campaign spending in Illinois and will demonstrate how the system works and how people can utilize it, David Yepsen, institute director, said.

It will be a good session for students, faculty and people in the community who are looking at ways to track money in politics for themselves. People should bring their laptops, he said.

American politics is awash in campaign money today, Yepsen said.

Recent court rulings have held that campaign donations are a form of free speech. In the past, its been constitutional for governments to regulate some of this campaign contributing and spending but thats becoming more difficult, he said.

One thing to do is use the tools that are there -- like disclosure reports -- to better understand where the money is coming from in politics, how the campaign finance system works, and where the money goes, Yepsen said.

For more information on the program, contact the institute at 618/453-4009 or visit paulsimoninstitute.siu.edu/.
SIU selects inaugural group of Energy Scholars

by Tim Crosby

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois University Carbondale has selected the inaugural group of students who will benefit from a grant aimed at helping transfer students prepare for careers in the energy sector.

The National Science Foundation awarded the $1 million grant from its Division of Undergraduate Education to SIU earlier this year. The Southern Illinois Energy Scholarship is on average worth about $7,000 a year for two years and is designed to recruit, retain and graduate primarily community college transfer students interested in an energy-related career.

To learn more, go here.

The grant, which also serves as a research project in the area of STEM education, is a collaborative, cross-disciplinary effort that involves several academic departments on campus. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, which is receiving a major push by education leaders throughout the country.

The students receiving the first round of scholarships, their areas of study, hometown and college they are transferring from where applicable and available are:

Joshua Friedrich, mechanical engineering and energy processes, Southeast Missouri State University

Tanna Gillespie, architectural studies, Lawrenceville, Vincennes University

M. Sophie Hall, mechanical engineering and energy processes

Kyle Kieffer, electrical and computer engineering, Mount Carmel, Wabash Community College

Aviance Mckinzie, mechanical engineering and energy processes, Naperville, Howard University

Emily Peterson, civil and environmental engineering, The Woodlands, Texas

Courtney Rudloff, architectural studies, Benton, Rend Lake College

Malika Asford-Smith, electrical and computer engineering

Michelle Smithenry, mechanical engineering and energy processes, Newton, Lake Land College

Joseph Stark, civil and environmental engineering, Anna, Shawnee Community College

Fran Harackiewicz, professor of electrical and computer engineering, is the primary investigator on the project. Karen Renzaglia, professor of plant biology and distinguished scholar, and Lizette Chevalier, associate dean of the College of Engineering, are co-primary investigators, and will help manage the project.

This program is so important to SIU Carbondale and to these students in particular, Harackiewicz said. Energy jobs are expected to increase in the state, and many people on campus and locally are leading energy research and projects.

Harackiewicz said the program leaders identified the students as having both the passion and background to engage professionally within their major, with a focus on energy issues.

SIU is gaining the concentration of these scholars on important issues of energy sustainability, Harackiewicz said. These scholars are learning to contribute, now and in their future careers or studies, to the energy workforce.

Renzaglia said the prestigious scholarships will enhance the students competitiveness for high-skilled, high-paying technical positions in the energy sector.

Energy is big business in Illinois and across the country, Renzaglia said. Our Energy Scholars will contribute new approaches to developing efficient and sustainable energy sources and technology, areas that are critical in maintaining the U.S. as a leader in the global economy.

SIU has a long history of educating tomorrows energy sector leaders. In addition to this latest scholarship opportunity, the university also is home to the Advanced Coal and Energy Research Center, which awards scholarships and provides a regional resource to help meet the challenges the energy industry will face in the future.

The majority of the grant will be available as scholarship money to qualified students, with transfer students from community colleges as the programs main target. Officials will base the amount of each scholarship on financial need.

Programs eligible for the scholarship include: electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, mining engineering, electrical engineering technology, physics, chemistry, plant biology, geology, geography and architectural studies, among others. Eligibility requirements include U.S. citizenship and financial need, and have a minimum 3.0 grade point average at the time of application.
University of Montana College of Forestry and Conservation
The 31-year-old fashionista took to Instagram to share her smashing look in a behind the scene video.

"Behind the scenes of@elleindiaofficial for more go to my app!#Repost @elleindiaofficial," she captioned it.

In the one and a half minute short clip, the 'Khoobsurat' star is sporting her 'favourite labels' and having fun moments while getting clicked.

Pulling off vibrant color outfits with her chic style, the actress is seen giving some intense expressions while posing differently each time.

The magazine too shared a snap of Sonam from the shoot and wrote alongside, "#SonamKapoor wearing her favourite labels (and being a total goof!) at our September cover shoot."

On the work front, the actress will next be seen in sister Rhea Kapoor's 'Veera Di Shaadi,' along with Kareena Kapoor Khan and Swara Bhaskar.

The movie revolves around four girls, who embark on a journey from Delhi to Europe and then ends into a big fat Punjabi wedding. (ANI)
Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt sought blessings from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during a visit to the state secretariat Nabanna in neighbouring Howrah district on Monday. He also lauded the development initiatives taken by Banerjee in the state. "After what happened to me in the 1993 incident, Didi (elder sister - as Banerjee is affectionately called) was the only one who supported me. After that I always wanted to come to Kolkata and thank Didi. Because no one had supported me back then. Only Shatrughan Sinha and Didi were by my side," Sanjay told reporters here. Sanjay was handed a five-year sentence by the Supreme Court for illegal weapons possession in a case linked to the 1993 serial blasts that killed 257 people in Mumbai. "I came to thank her. I said thank you, took her blessings. I told whenever she needs me I will be around. She has invited me for the (Kolkata International) Film Festival on November 11 and I will definitely come," added the actor. "I heard she is working on reformation of jails. This is good." Sanjay lavished praised on the chief minister for what she has done to transform the city since his last visit. "Last time I visited was during (the filming of) 'Parineeta'. This time, while coming from the airport, I was pleasantly surprised by what Didi has done in such a little time." Banerjee exchanged pleasantries and introduced the "Munna Bhai M.B.B.S" actor to her cabinet ministers. The Trinamool Congress supremo had good relations with Sanjay's star father, the late Sunil Dutt and had rallied behind Sanjay who was sentenced to five years in jail in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case. --IANS dm/ssp/nn/bg ( 291 Words) 2016-09-12-19:39:58 (IANS)
Coming down heavily on Pakistan for the four encounters which took place in Jammu and Kashmir yesterday where seven terrorists were killed and one policeman lost his life, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday warned Islamabad, saying it will have to pay heavily in the coming days for spreading terror and violence in India, especially the Kashmir Valley. "Pakistan has been constantly trying to deteriorate the condition and create an atmosphere of violence in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan will have to pay for spreading terror in Jammu and Kashmir as well as the entire nation. You can see that now people in Balochistan are raising their voice against the atrocities conducted by Pakistan," BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha told ANI. The BJP leader further said that Pakistan should introspect and see what is happening there within the country. "But the way it is trying to interfere in the internal matters of India, the BJP Government will not tolerate it. That is why we all are raising our voice," he added. A policeman died and another was injured while seven terrorists died in four separate encounters in Jammu and Kashmir yesterday. Three of the encounters were with terrorists who were trying to infiltrate in Tangdhar, Gurez and Nowgam Sectors. The other was between the police and a group of terrorists who had held up in a building in Poonch Sector. Dozens of people, meanwhile, were injured after a joint team of security forces carried out raids at Pulwama's Karimabaf village. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh chaired a high-level meeting on Kashmir later in the day, attended by the National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, IB Chief Dineshwar Sharma, BSF DG KK Sharma and Home Secretary Anil Goswami. (ANI)
Countering the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) claim that 'jungle raj' would now return to Bihar following the bail of Mohammad Shahabuddin, the Janata Dal (United) on Monday said the state government was not responsible for the former RJD MP's release from jail. "The court had sent him to jail and given him life imprisonment. He was released with the court's order itself. The Bihar Government is not responsible for this," JD (U) leader K.C. Tyagi told ANI. Resonating similar sentiments, another JD (U) leader Sanjay Singh said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has always been a leader and would remain so. "No one can taint his image. Nitish Kumar has become a subject of discussion for his works. He has proved that he is the leader of Bihar by bringing the state back to track," he added. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has continued to maintain that the development is an indication that 'Jungle Raj' is back in Bihar and Nitish Kumar can do nothing, but be a mute spectator. Emphasising that Nitish has no control over the current situation with Shahabuddin not even considering him as a Chief Minister, BJP leader Nalin Kohli said that it's a matter of confirmation that 'gunda raj and jungle raj' has returned to Bihar and Nitish Kumar is willing to be a mute spectator to what the people are suffering. However, Nitish yesterday gave a terse response to Shahabuddin's comments saying that he came to power only from the mandate of the public of Bihar and that he could not care less about what others said about it. Shortly after getting released, Shahabuddin said "My leader is Lalu Yadav," and dismissed Nitish Kumar as a "Chief Minister of circumstance." He had been sent to jail in November 2005 in connection with the murder of Rajiv Ranjan, a prime witness in the murder of his two brothers Girish Raj and Satish Raj. The brothers had been murdered in Siwan in August 2004. (ANI)
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has sacked his most trusted mining minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati after the Allahabad High court refused to withdraw its order for a CBI probe into the illegal mining in the state. Official sources here today said that the CM has sacked the minister and the governor has been informed about it. The decision to sack the minister comes after Allahabad High Court on Friday last refused to stay the CBI probe as urged by the UP government over illegal mining.MORE UNI MB CJ ADG PM1215 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0196-929852.Xml
Farmers protest over the release of water from River Cauvery to Tamil Nadu by the Siddaramaiah Government, following Supreme Court direction, extended into the second weektoday with vehicular traffic between Bengaluru and Mysuru blocked in this sugar town. The protest which had been limited to only Dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office by the members of the Cauvery Hitha Rakshana Samithi over the last two days, today saw students gathering in large number and blocking the vehicular traffic between Bengaluru and Mysuru. The agitators were also protesting against attacks on Kannadigas in Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile the modification petition of the State before the Apex court is likely to come up tomorrow and so also is the meeting of the Cauvery waters Advisory Committee that would take stock of the current situation in the Cauvery basin in the state. Mandya Zilla Raitha Hitarakshana Samiti President and former MP G Made Gowda, and others continued their dharna and asked the protestors not to take law into their hands and the agitation should be peaceful. Schools and colleges opened today after six days break. But the students joined members of other oganisations in the protest and started attacking vehicles plying with Tamil Nadu registration numbers in Chamarajanagara. KSRTC authorities have stopped all buses going to destinations in Tamil Nadu.UNI BSP CNR CS 1215 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0284-929885.Xml
The third edition of the Madhya Pradesh Travel Mart will be held from the 14th to 16th of October, 2016 at the Hotel Lake View Ashok in Bhopal. Over 70 international buyers from 25 Countries, 175 national and about 80 representatives of distinct Indian markets are expected to participate in the travel mart. The year 2015 saw around 7.8 crore tourist in Madhya Pradesh out of which 4.5 lakh were foreigners. This year the number is expected to cross well over 8 crore. Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chauhan will inaugurate the event. It will also bring tourism stakeholders on a platform where they would get to explore opportunities of mutual trade. "The travel mart aims to create a platform for like-minded people to interact and do business together. The current years have seen tourism in MP emerging as one of the major sectors for growth of the economy. International Tourist Arrivals and the foreign exchange earnings through tourism in terms of rupees registered an impressive growth. MP was declared amongst top tourism destinations among other states by the leading tourism personalities and we hope that this mart takes this growth to even greater heights," said Managing Director of MPSTDC, Hariranjan Rao. The primary objective of this mart is to market and promote Madhya Pradesh as a destination throughout the year. There will be post event FAM Tours for the buyers and media to places of interest such as Mandu, Sanchi, Kanha and Pench. "Madhya Pradesh is the heart of India and an all season destination. Our tourism figures continue to show growth over the past couple of years and this year we encourage the entire tourism community to explore us in a new avatar. This travel mart is our attempt to build a bridge towards this effort and we hope this all our guest see this as a worthwhile investment of their time and money," said Additional Managing Director of MPSTDC, Tanvi Sundriyal. "We wanted to showcase MPTM in a new avtar to the audience, hence we offered some new ideas such as a Webinar room for sellers to make presentation to those who could not attend the mart, a special training session for the products to understand presentation skills as per international standards and a whole lot of new brand building efforts to ensure all roads lead to the event," said CMD- CS Direkt Exhibitions and Events Pvt. Ltd, Sanjeev Pasricha. "The screening process this year for international buyers was tough. We went through each buyer's profile by visiting their websites, Facebook pages, twitter handles etc. before approving them. As for domestic buyers and trade visitors, we have received more than 500 applications. Hence it was a difficult decision to select 175 domestic buyers," added Founder CEO- Candid India, Deepika Chowdhry. The event is being held in collaboration with Adventure Tour Operators Association of India, Indian Association of Tour Operators, Travel Agent Association of India and Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India. Representatives from America, Britain, Germany, France, Canada and other countries are also expected to take part in the event. (ANI)
Modifying its September 5 order, the Supreme Court on Monday asked the Government of Karnataka to release to release 12000 cusecs of Cauvery River water every day to Tamil Nadu till September 20. It had earlier directed the Government of Karnataka to release of 15,000 cusecs of water for 10 days as immediate relief to farmers in Tamil Nadu. The apex court also rejected Karnataka's demand to keep its September 5 order for releasing water to Tamil Nadu in abeyance. The Karnataka Government again approached the apex court for modification of today's order. However, the top court refused to change it. The "agony claimed by Tamil Nadu on the water crisis" doesn't exist, the Karnataka government maintained before the apex court. Supreme Court judge Justice Dipak Mishra, however, expressed his displeasure over the Karnataka Government's failure to implement its order of September 5 and observed that "Citizens and executive of this country have to accept and obey orders of the Supreme Court unless it is modified. If the court passes an order, either comply or come for modification. People cannot take law into their hands." Justice Mishra also took objection to the language and tone of the Karnataka affidavit, saying that the court was unhappy with the drafting of the affidavit, adding that this was not the way to file it. An immediate fallout of the Cauvery water dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu was visible on the streets of Mylapore in Tamil Nadu, when petrol bombs were hurled at an Udupi restaurant - New Woodlands hotel on Monday. A written note was also found which said that more attacks will follow if Tamilians are assaulted in Karnataka. Police said that the incident occurred around 3.15 a m, and confirmed that the attack was carried out by a group of people protesting against Karnataka's obstructionist attitude in releasing Cauvery river waters. No person was injured in the attack, the police and the hotel management added. The sharing of waters of the Cauvery river has been a source of serious conflict between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The genesis of this conflict rests in two agreements one in 1892 and the other in 1924 between the erstwhile Madras Presidency and Princely State of Mysore. The 802-kilometre-long Cauvery river has a 44,000 square kilometre basin area in Tamil Nadu and 32,000 square kilometre basin area in Karnataka. Karnataka contends that it does not receive its due share of water from the river. It claims that the agreements were skewed heavily in favour of the Madras Presidency, and has demanded a renegotiated settlement based on "equitable sharing of the waters". Tamil Nadu, on the other hand, pleads that it has already developed almost 3,000,000 acres of land and as a result has come to depend very heavily on the existing pattern of usage. Any change in this pattern, it says, will adversely affect the livelihood of millions of farmers in the state. Decades of negotiations between the parties has borne no fruit. The Government of India constituted a tribunal in 1990 to look into the matter. After hearing arguments of all the parties involved for the next 16 years, the tribunal delivered its final verdict on February 5, 2007. In its verdict, the tribunal allocated 419 billion cubic feet of water annually to Tamil Nadu and 270 billion cubic feet to Karnataka; 30 billion cubic feet to Kerala and 7 billion cubic feet to Puducherry. The dispute however, appears not to have concluded, as all four states have filed review petitions seeking clarifications and possible renegotiation of the order. (ANI)
The apex court bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Jutice Uday Umesh Lalit gave the direction while modifying its September 5 order by which it had asked Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of water for the next ten days.

The court rejected Karnataka's plea to keep the September 5 order in abeyance.

Taking exception to Karnataka, citing law and order situation as a ground for keeping suspension of the September 5 order, the court said it was the obligation of Karnataka government and people to ensure compliance of the top court's order.

The court also asked the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu governments to ensure that observance of law and order situation by people in both states.

--IANS pk-ss/rn/in

( 165 Words)

2016-09-12-12:45:56 (IANS)
As many as 40 volunteers of the "Gramappura Makkal Padukappu Iyyakkam" were today arrested when they attempted to picket the branch of a Karnataka Bank on the Mission street to condemn the stand of Karnataka government on the Cauvery water issue. The volunteers took out a procession through the main thoroughfares of the town and joined by activists of the Tamizhar Kalam,Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam,Ambedkar Thondar Padai,Tamizhar Desiya Iyyakkam,Lok Jan Sakthi. When they reached near the bank, police stopped them and ordered for their arrest.However, in the meantime,a group ran towards the bank and picketed the bank and also burnt the photograph of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Police later arrested them.UNI PAB CS 1312 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-929981.Xml
The landmark pact for sharing military logistics inked between India and the US will be implemented for the first time when their armies carry out a joint combat training exercise YUDH ABHYAS. The fortnight-long military drill is going to commence at Chaubattia in Uttarakhand from September 14. Both sides had signed the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement last month. The joint exercises have been kept under the preview of the agreement for logistics sharing. 'YUDH ABHYAS' is a series of one of the longest running joint military training exercises and a major ongoing bilateral defence cooperation endeavor between India and US. This will be the twelfth edition of the joint military exercise hosted alternately by both countries. "The combined exercise Yudh Abhyas 2016 will simulate a scenario where both nations are working together in a Counter Insurgency and Counter Terrorism environment in mountainous terrain under a UN charter," an official statement said here. The two-week exercise will witness participation of about 225 personnel of the US army and similar strength of the Indian army. The exercise curriculum is progressively planned where the participants are initially made to get familiar with each other's organisational structure, weapons, equipment and tactical drills. Subsequently, the training advances to joint tactical exercises wherein the battle drills of both the armies are coherently unleashed. The training will culminate with a final validation exercise in which troops of both countries will jointly carry out an operation against terrorists in a fictitious but realistic setting.UNI MK SHS ADG 1235 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0329-929892.Xml
Police said outlaws shot the jeweller Shivsesh Kumar (31), a native of Yashod Math, when he was returning to his home after closing his shop at Kanti Bazar last evening.

Local people rushed the jeweller to Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital where he died during the treatment.

The motive behind the murder could not be ascertained immediately. Body has been sent for autopsy, police added. UNI XC DH BM SHS ADG NS1321

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Speaking to reporters at his official residence 'Kaveri', here,he came down heavily against the hooligans who attacked theproperties of Karnataka based businessmen and said Tamil Nadugovernment should take serious action against those who attacked thepeople of the state.

He said he would write a letter immediately to Tamil Nadu ChiefMinister J Jayalalithaa to safeguard and protect kannadigans in theneighbouring State, while Karnataka Chief Secretary andDirector General of Police had already spoken to their counterpartsin Tamil Nadu on the issue.

''It is important to maintain cordial atmosphere between thepeople of the two states. We will safeguard the interests of Tamilspeaking people in Karnataka and it should be reciprocated by thegovernment of the neighbouring state. Those guilty of attackingKannada speaking people should be punished,'' he said.

He appealed to the electronic media not to glorify such sensitiveincidents and asked the people to remain calm.UNI RS CNR CS 1325

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Life remained crippled for the 66th consecutive day today in Kashmir valley, where 78 people, mostly youths, were killed and about 8,000 others injured in security force action since July 9, a day after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) commander Burhan Wani and two other militants in an encounter in Anantnag. Police said restrictions will continue in the areas under the jurisdiction of police station Nowhatta, M R Gunj and Khanyar. However, security forces would remain deployed elsewhere in the summer capital, Srinagar to prevent any law and order problem. Meanwhile, barring Awantipora, Baramulla and Sopore, restrictions will also continue on assembly of people elsewhere in Kashmir valley. Both the factions of the Hurriyat Conference (HC) and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), spearheading the present agitation since July 9, have not given any call for procession or rallies today. However, besides strike, the separatists had asked people to organise a one-day convention from 1100 hrs to 1500 hrs in their respective areas and deliberate and discuss ways and means to strengthen the ongoing movement for right to self determination. There was also no change in the situation in and around the Jamia Masjid, stronghold of moderate Hurriyat Conference (HC) chairman Mirwaiz Moulvi Omar Farooq, presently lodged in sub jail Cheshmashahi. For the past nine weeks, no Friday prayer could be offered in the historic Masjid, where the Mirwaiz was addressing congregations every week. The main gate of the historic Masjid from Nowhatta remained locked and security forces, wearing bullet proof jackets and holding automatic weapons, could be seen deployed in the Jamia market and outside. Several other roads leading to the Masjid also remained closed. However, some private vehicles, particularly two- wheelers were seen plying on main road leading to S K Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS). A UNI correspondent, who visited a number of areas in the downtown and SeK, saw one side of the Nallahmar road closed with barbed wire. Several roads also remained blocked with barbed wire, including at Nawa Kadal, Kawdara, Malaratta, Bulbul Lankar and Ali kadal. However, pedestrians were being allowed to move from small gaps while those riding two-wheelers were turned back.MORE UNI ABS ASM CJ SB 1404 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0433-929937.Xml
The Union Cabinet today approved the signing and ratification of the Extradition Treaty between India and Afghanistan, an official statement said. The treaty would provide a legal framework for seeking extradition of terrorists, economic offenders and other criminals from and to Afghanistan. The decision was taken during the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.UNI AR SW 1430 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0092-930135.Xml
Carrying banners, the protestors shouted slogans against the government asserting that the authorities have failed in providing them security, they rallied from Transport Nagar to Bikram Chowk.

The protestors have refused and suspended to carry goods to the Valley in view of the unrest.

They asked the government either to provide security cover to them otherwise they will not go to the Valley.

The agitators also demanded compensation for the injured drivers and damaged vehicles.

Meanwhile, tankers body have also stopped supplying petrol products to the Kashnir Valley after fresh attacks.

Nearly 60 tankers were damaged and five drivers allegedly beaten by the miscreants in the Valley.UNI VBH DS SW 1449

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Police Superintendent of Bagaha Anand Kumar Singh said here that police intercepted a boat ferrying across Gandak river and seized bottles of foreign liquor concealed in 30 cartons and two jute bags under Bagha town police station area.

Mr Singh said three women peddlers were arrested while their male counterparts managed to escape by jumping into the swollen river. The nabbed women smugglers are natives of Kailashnagar village in West Champaran district, he added.

Women smugglers disclosed during interrogation that they used to smuggle liquor from Uttar Pradesh and sell it at high prices in East Champaran and West Champaran districts of the state.

Bootleggers facing the heat of the continuing police raids against them on rail and road,are apparently trying to exploit the river route before water lever goes down, said a police officer associated with the recovery of foreign liquor from the boat.UNI XC DH IS BM CJ ADG 1418

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A function was held here at the BJP office to welcome the veteran Congress MLA.

Mr Erabot said he was asked by his supporters to join the BJP. After a prolonged discussion with his workers he decided to leave the Congress and join the BJP.

The former minister alleged that he was sidelined by Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh and favoured a close relative of the CM who contested in the same Assembly constituency.

O Henry, nephew of the Chief Minister had contested against Mr Erabot and was also preparing the contest the next elections.

Manipur BJP president Ksh Bhabananda welcomed Mr Erabot into the party. Former BJP chief Th Chaoba, Kh Joykishan, MLA and others attended the function.

Since 1980, Mr Erabot has been elected from Wangkhei constituency except on one occasion when he was defeated by former Speaker Borbabu who is also now in the BJP.

Borbabu, however, said he will contest from Wangkhei Assembly constituency as a BJP candidate.UNI NS BM SW NS1443

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Retaliating to damage on properties andvehicles of Kannadigas in Tamil Nadu, miscreants went on a rampage inthe city and some other parts of Karnataka torching Tamil Naduregistered trucks and attacking a hotel. Security was beefed up in the city where large number of Tamilspeaking people lived even as Rapid Action Force (RPF) Personnel chasedaway a rampaging mob which attacked a Tamil Nadu-based hotel in thecity and torched a few trucks bearing TN state registration. Police resorted to lathicharge and lobbed teargas shells todisburse a violent mob that was on a stone pelting spree nearSatellite Bus Station on Mysuru road in the city. Police Commissioner N S Megharik said prohibitory orders underSection 144 of CrPC had been promulgated in the entire city.Additional police force had been requisitioned and security steppedin sensitive areas like Srirampura, Okalipuram, Kalasipalya andPrakashnagar areas where large number of Tamil speaking people reside. Meanwhile, pro-Kannada activist Vatal Nagaraj and a few otherswere arrested by the police when they tried to lay seize on VidhanaSoudha to protest against today's Supreme Court order following amodification application filed by Karnataka. The division bench had ordered the state to release 12,000 cusecsof Cauvery waters to Tamil Nadu for the next 10 days against itsearlier order of releasing 15,000 cusecs. However, it was no relieffor the state as the order meant that the state had to release 1.80lakh cusecs of water after the latest order compared to 1.5 lakhcusecs of water according to earlier order. In some areas, shop keepers down the shutters voluntarily asdisturbance was reported. Schools and colleges were shut in manyareas in the afternoon and students were asked to go home. A Mandya report said miscreants attacked six shops in Pandavapuratown, while a truck and a car was set alight in Mysuru. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah condemned attack on Kannada speakingpeople in Tamil Nadu and damage of the properties belonging topeople of Karnataka in Tamil Nadu and urged Chief MinisterJayalalithaa to initiate strict action against the miscreants. He appealed to people to remain calm as government had beefed upsecurity in the city and elsewhere to maintain law and order. UNI RS CNR CS 1446 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0284-930173.Xml
Name it China India Pakistan Economic Corridor (CIPEC) and India should not have much of a problem with that acronym, I presume. Afterall, the USD 46 billion project, currently called CPEC or China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, does pass through Indian territory which is under the illegal occupation of Pakistan. As 'CPEC' the project faces many challenges? Even before we go into the problems that India has with it, and steps that it might be taking in the near future against the project, lets look at the problems in Pakistan. The Vice Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China, Zheng Xiaosong, last week told a visiting delegation of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) in Beijing, "Political consensus coupled with unanimity in approach is essential to draw the maximum benefits from this mega project which is a game-changer for the region." The provinces of Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the region of Gilgit-Baltistan (part of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir) have not been consulted in decision making in this project. Even after three years of inking the deal, the federal government in Pakistan has not made public the agreements with China. The situation has come to such a head that the chief secretaries of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan did not attend the CPEC coordination meeting of the parliamentary panel which met under the chair of Senate member Daud Khan Achakzai. Important matters in connection the western route were part of the agenda. The Chinese management of the project seems to have conveyed its displeasure over the delay in several works due to a lack of political consensus. Such is the objection to the corridor in Pakistan, that the army has had to create a separate security division comprising of 9000 soldiers and 6000 paramilitary personnel. And this, when the bulk of the corridor is not going to be operational till 2025, if it ever is built on schedule. Five energy projects under the project umbrella, worth around USD 7 billion, are at risk of being axed owing to the slow pace of their development. If the Sharif government decides to drop these schemes, Sindh's share in the mega project will fall from USD 11.3 billion to USD 6.7 billion and Balochistan's share in CPEC projects will fall to around USD 7 billion. As per Pakistani media reports, China is annoyed with the slow progress of the Gwadar project where it has invested in the building of a deep-water port and an arterial link road from Gwadar to Kashgar in China. Analyst Shahzada Zulfiqar says, "According to government sources, three to four million people would migrate to Gwadar from other parts of the country. That would be tantamount to converting the local population into a minority in their own land." As it is, Balochis have been dealing with the 'kill and dump' policy of the Pakistani Army. They fear that this could increase in the months to come. Sardar Akhtar Mengal, a former Chief Minister of Balochistan, says that if the federal government did not accept the rights of the Baloch related to the CPEC, then its outcome would be the same as the Kalabagh Dam, which since 2004 is mired in issues and has been virtually abandoned. And now, there is India's open objection to the CPEC project which was even hinted at by Prime Minister Modi during the recently concluded G-20 summit in Hangzhou, China. While India has long maintained that it does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, there is a subtle shift over the past few months with greater articulation on the CPEC. Since the project involves PoK, it is not really a mere bilateral issue between Pakistan and China. India, too, is a player, of sorts. Somewhat in the same manner as India got involved in 1971 when the East Pakistan crisis became an Indian crisis too. All eyes are now on the Modi government to see how quickly and to what extent it wishes to escalate the Indian involvement in the CPEC project. (ANI)
Several people, including policemen were injured in the incidentin which footwear and stones were thrown at police personnel whotried to control the processionists. In the melee, the ganesha idol processionwas abandoned and policemen later completed the immersion process.

According to the District Superintendent of Police S NSidaramappa, the situation was peaceful now and no untoward incidentwas reported in the area so far with security beefed up.

Police said violence broke out when police requested to YuvakMandal members to low the volume of music system, but some of themiscreants hurled colour powder on Police. When the police sensedthat the situation was getting out of control, they resorted to alathicharge. The protesters threw stones at people, shops andhouses. Public property was damagedin the incidentUNI SD CNR CS 1551

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The Chief Minister sought the public opinion in view of a tripartite meeting to be held at New Delhi on September 17 between Mr Patnaik and Chhattigarh Chief Minister Raman Singh in presence of Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharati on the issue.

Mr Patnaik, who presided over a meeting held at the state secretariat here to discuss Odisha stand at the Delhi meeting, later told reporters that the state government is fully prepared for the September 17 meeting and welcomed the suggestions, views from common people, NGOs and political parties.

State Forest and Environment Minister Bikram Arukh, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Bijayshree Routray, Industry Minister Debi Prasad Mishra, Women and Child Development Minister Usha Devi, Chief Secretary A P Padhi, Development Commissioner R Balkrishnan and Water Resource Secretary Pradip Jena attended the meeting.

Ms Bharati had called a meeting of Chief Ministers of two states and asked Odisha to suggest a date for the meeting as per his convenience to discuss and resolve the dispute after the discussion at the secretary level failed to yield any result.

Recently, Mr Patnaik had suggested the union government to hold the meeting on September 17.

The dispute between the two states over the utilisation of Mahanadi river water has snowballed into a major political battle with the Odisha government and other political parties taking serious objection to the unilateral decision of the Chhattisgarh government on construction of a number of dams and reservoirs on the upper end of river Mahanadi without consulting it.

Odisha alleged that the unilateral construction by the Chhattisgarh would check the flow of water during non-monsoon period and adversely affect the Hirakud dam, irrigation, drinking water supply, power generation and livelihood in 15 districts of the state.

The state has been demanding immediate halt to the construction activities till the matter is dissolved amicably.UNI BD-DP AKM SW AN1651

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Both the Ministers held wide ranging talks on issues of mutual interest and covering the entire gamut of bilateral relations, including the upcoming high-level exchanges between the two countries.

This is the first visit of Dr Mahat after assuming the office last month. His three-day visit from September 11-13 is a part of regular high-level bilateral exchanges between the two countries and also to set ground preparation for the forthcoming four-day visit of Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' which is scheduled from September 15.

Both the sides reiterated their commitment to further strengthen and deepen age-old, close and friendly ties in diverse sectors such as trade and mutual investments, defence and security, economic and development partnership, infrastructure development, energy and water resources, and forging connectivity to facilitate movement of goods and services, people and ideas.

It would be his (Prachanda's) first bilateral visit abroad after assuming office last month. Mr Prachanda, accompanied by a high-level delegation, would hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 16 and would also call on President Pranab Mukherjee, besides meeting with other ministers.

The visit of Mr Prachanda would provide an opportunity for both sides to discuss issues of mutual interest and concern, as well as seek ways to strengthen the age old, close and friendly ties between the two countries in diverse sectors. UNI XC DS SW 1748

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Jharkhand Governor Draupadi Murmu today said that the state has been blessed in every aspect by 'Mother Nature' which provides an opportunity for the state to emerge as a premier tourist destination. Addressing the people while participating in the Karma festival organised at the Ranchi university by the department of tribal and regional studies, she said with joint efforts Jharkhand can be developed as a tourism hub. "A growth in the tourism sector will also push up developmental activities in other sectors," she said. The Governor also lauded the state government for its efforts in the direction of protecting the green cover in the state. She said that across the state a month long plantation drive was held. "Even in the Raj Bhawan plantation drive as been carried out on a large scale," she said and urged the people to play an active role in saving the environment. She also asked them to plant trees in their surrounding areas. The Governor said, Karma festival showcased the bond which the human beings have with the nature. She said the festival also gives a message to the people to do good work in their lives. Ms Murmu said the tribals are nature lovers and this festival provides them an opportunity to show their respect towards the 'Mother Nature'. The Governor said that entire world is facing problems rising due to global warming and at various international forums deliberations are being held as to how to maintain the ecological balance. She said Karma festival was a fine example before everyone as how human beings balance themselves with the nature. UNI AK AKM AKC SW BD1742 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0213-930461.Xml
Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh today questioned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's moral authority to speak against corruption after himself having protected, patronised, shielded and defended his own Principal Secretary Rajinder Kumar, facing serious corruption charges for which he is facing trial and also went to jail. Addressing a press conference after inducting senior Akali leader Jagjivanpal Singh into the party here, the PCC chief ridiculed Mr Kejriwal's charges of his having an understanding with the Badals. "Kejriwal is now claiming that he will put the Badals behind bars, I have done it already in 2002", he said, while reiterating his opposition to Kejriwal staking his claim for the Punjab Chief Ministership. He said, "no matter how he interprets it, I will always oppose a non-Punjabi becoming Punjab's Chief Minister". The former Chief Minister maintained that Mr Kejriwal was trying to address the anti-Badal sentiment without spelling out how he will punish the Badals and put them behind bars. "I know how to do it as I have done and I will do it again," he said, while adding, there is a proper legal system to bring the corrupt like Badals to the book. "But why is Kejriwal not applying the same yardstick in Delhi also?" he asked, while pointing out how he continues to defending his Principal Secretary facing corruption charges. On the feasibility of the debt waiver in a state like Punjab with a precarious financial condition, Capt Singh said it is not very difficult for the governments to generate resources if there was a will to do something. Besides, he added, the central government has saved Rs 3 lakh crores during the past two years on the crude oil imports. "We will ask the centre government to share some burden as Punjabi farmers have at one stage fed the whole nation and now it is the payback time for the country," he said. Asserting that the Congress, unlike the AAP, was serious about debt waiver, the PCC president said the Congress party had moved a private member's bill in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha seeking debt waiver for the farmers. The bill, he said, was being moved by senior party leader Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa. Replying to a question about his having described the AAP manifesto as a carbon copy of the Congress policies, he remarked "rather it is case of political plagiarism", since the AAP had copied everything that the Congress has committed and promised long before. MORE UNI DB SW NS1730 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-930489.Xml
With the aim to improve academic research and policy work on India in Australia, a day long summit is being organised at the University of Sydney, aiming to bring together distinguished academic and policy makers to discuss India's foreign policy and domestic strengths. The summit to be held on October 7 is being organised by Indian students at the University of Sydney under the aegis of the South Asia Study Group. "The size of Indian diaspora in Australia is growing and we hope that this event will bring the community together. Hopefully, the summit will encourage Indian students to organise themselves better and pursue their interests in a proactive manner," said Madhvi Mishra, member of the organising committee, in a statement on Monday. According to the statement, the objective of the South Asia Study Group is to create an indepth understanding of South Asia in Australia through encouraging discussion, research, events and publications. "Aligning with the objective of the South Asia Study Group, the goal of the India Summit is to unpack the potential that India and Indians possess to become world leaders in the 21st century," Mishra said in a statement. The organising committee has also invited General Secretary of CPI(M) Sitaram Yechury as the keynote speaker. --IANS rup/ask/bg ( 222 Words) 2016-09-12-18:25:57 (IANS)
Odisha government is planning to export live and chilled fish to South East Asian countries from the Biju Patnaik International Airport, in a bid to earn foreign exchange. Odisha fisheries secretary Bishnupada Sethi said the Airport Authority of India has written to the Chairman of agricultural and processing food products export development authority to create necessary infrastructure at the Bhubaneswar International Airport to facilitate export of chilled and live fish. He said the export of chilled and live fish would start from the airport as soon as the international flights starts operating. The export of chilled and fresh fish and crab in the state could reach Rs 500 crore in five years if more and more flights operate from Bhubaneswar. Mr Sethi said, almost the entire export production of Odisha is shipped out from ports located in other states. Paradeep port reported export of 141.56 MT of sea food worth Rs 515.76 lakh during last year. ''The export of live, chilled fish, dry fish and ornamental aquarium fishes are almost negligible, as no facilities exist in the state for export of such items overseas. Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) at Bhubaneswar which is the only designated international airport in the state does not have any international connectivity and also lacks air cargo facilities for airlifting seafood items,'' he said. Some of the exporters of Odisha are exporting fresh fish items from Hyderabad airport due to lack of air cargo facilities at Biju Patnaik international airport. If facilities are developed, they will be carrying out such business from Odisha itself. Airlift facility will not only help in augmenting state exports but also help the exporters to rotate the money in less possible time. Mr Sethi hoped that many entrepreneurs would come forward to invest in projects for live fish export as the investment is low and and returns are high.He said, currently the demand for live, fresh and chilled fish products is growing worldwide. Odisha, a major producer and exporter has the opportunity to enter and expand into global fresh and live fish and seafood markets in a big way. MORE UNI BD-DP PY SW 1853 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0213-930748.Xml
The Supreme Court on Monday told the Karnataka government to release 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu every day till September 20, modifying its earlier order of 15,000 cusecs for 10 days. A bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit also rejected Karnataka's plea to keep the September 5 order in abeyance as the state argued while 15,000 cusecs of water was released every day to Tamil Nadu, it was utilising just 1,250 cusecs. The court also asked the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu governments to ensure observance of law and order in both states. "Executive of both the States are under the constitutional obligation to see that the law and order prevails," the bench said. Noting that the meeting of the Cauvery supervisory committee that would examine Tamil Nadu's plea for the release of 35 TMC of Cauvery water, as directed by the court, is commencing on Monday and would take time to complete its job, the court directed the next hearing on September 20. At the outset of the hearing, Justice Misra told senior counsel Fali Nariman, appearing for Karnataka, that the ground of law and order raised by Karnataka could not call for an urgent hearing or for seeking modification of order. Karnataka had cited the widespread agitation in Bengaluru, Mandya, Mysore and Hasan after September 5 order as grounds for its modification. Pointing out that the way the application seeking the modification of September 5 order and the affidavit for urgent hearing has been drafted was not a "happy one", Justice Misra took exception to its "tenor, language and assertion". "Do they really call for a modification of an order. To put it in a constitutional frame, the executive has to implement the orders of this court, they can't put the blame on X,Y,Z, .." he observed. Both the affidavit and application "if we allow ourselves to say so, is absolutely disturbing and to say the least, totally deprecable", said the bench, adding that such an application "cannot be conceived of to be filed in a court of law, seeking modification of an order". Terming it the "obligation of the executive that the (top court's) order is complied with in letter and spirit", the bench said: "Concept of deviancy has no room; and disobedience has no space. "The citizens cannot become law unto themselves. When a court of law passes an order, it is the sacred duty of the citizens to obey the same. If there is any grievance, they are obligated under the law to take recourse to permissible legal remedies." Accepting the disapproval of Karnataka's application by the bench, Nariman said he would withdraw it and file a fresh one but urged the court to consider the plea for putting September 5 order in abeyance. He said that while seeking the release of Cauvery water during the September 5 hearing, Tamil Nadu had said that if Karnataka doesn't release water then it would "absolutely damage" the "summer crop" leading to an "unacceptable plight" of the farmers. Noting the court had directed Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs every day for next ten days while recording "the plight (of the farmer) that has been projected with agony" by Tamil Nadu, Nariman said that in last seven days from September 6, Tamil Nadu has utilised only 1,250 cusecs per day from Mettur Dam, and the plight of the farmer that was projected in the last hearing "is not there, was not there at all". Nariman said that total water released So far is more than 10 TMC, but utilisation by Tamil Nadu was less than one TMC. However, senior counsel Shekhar Naphade appearing for Tamil Nadu told the bench that they needed 50 TMC of water in Mettur Dam to meet the water requirement throughout September and claimed that reservoirs in Karnataka were depleting because they had utilised excess water in June, July and August. "They (Karnataka) suddenly jacked up their needs (of water) disproportionately" and now "they want premium on that", he said. He said that even if Tamil Nadu were to accept that there were deficit rains, then the withdrawal of water has to be scaled down proportionately and same could not be citied as a ground to deny Tamil Nadu its share of water under Cauvery river water award. --IANS pk/vd ( 739 Words) 2016-09-12-20:21:56 (IANS)
The decision in this regard has been taken by Delhi State Disciplinary Committee.

Meanwhile, Sehrawat has dared the party leaders to expel him, saying, "If you have the courage, severe the ties and expel. With 67 MLAs you could not perform. You don't have it in you- So Get out of the Way."

Sehrawat had recently levelled allegations against senior party leaders and two top leaders had also filed defamation against him.

AAP's Punjab affairs in-charge Sanjay Singh and National Organisation Building Secretary Durgesh Pathak filed defamation cases against Sehrawat and two other leaders HS Kingra and Paviter Singh, in a court in Chandigarh on Friday.

Sehrawat had written to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, allegedly saying that the senior party leaders were indulging in sexual exploitation of women aspirants for tickets from various constituencies in Punjab.

As per reports, Sehrawat had also shot off another letter to Kejriwal, saying he will be held "responsible" if 21 party MLAs appointed as Parliamentary Secretaries lose their Assembly membership in the wake of a Delhi High Court order. (ANI)
Prohibitory orders under Section 144 imposed in Bengaluru today after protestors set on fire 40 buses in the IT city as Supreme Court modified its earlier order on Cauvery water issue and asked Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu per day till 20th September. Around 200 people were detained after vehicles belonging to Tamil Nadu were targeted in the city, police said adding that Rapid Action Force has been deployed in the worst affected Kengeri area. Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwar said, 27 Tamil Nadu registered vehicles were torched by miscreants in Bengaluru. State government has deployed 10 companies of Central Reserve Police Force and 182 companies of Karnataka State Reserve police apart from Rapid Action Force personnel to ensure law and order. The Centre has rushed ten companies comprising one thousand personnel of the special anti-riot paramilitary force to the state to tackle the violent situation. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has appealed for peace. Mr Parameshwar also informed that the Chief Minister has written a letter to his Tamil Nadu counterpart J Jayalalithaa to ensure safety of Kannadigas in Tamil Nadu. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Chief Ministers of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and took stock of the situation in the two states arising out following the protest over Cauvery water sharing issue. Police lathicharged and lobbed teargas shells to quell rampaging mobs as the week-long peaceful agitation on Cauvery water sharing took a violent turn in Karnataka resulting in large-scale arson and vandalism in different parts of Karnataka. Reports said at least 40 luxury buses parked after suspension of inter-state services, were reduced to ashes after the miscreants set them on fire in the state capital. Police ordered repeated lathi charge to disperse the violent crowd and lobbed several rounds of teargas shells. Shops and business establishments remained closed in the state capital. Only medical stores and hospitals were open. Prohibitory orders were also imposed in parts of Mysuru even as angry mob were seen attacking hotels and other businessestablishments. Supreme Court today rejected Karnataka's plea that the earlier order be kept in abeyance and expressed anguish over what it called the tone and tenor of the plea. The apex court said, the law and order problem cannot be a ground for not complying with the court's order. Earlier, Karnataka had told the court that the agony claimed by Tamil Nadu on the crisis is not there.Even as violent protest continued in Karnataka, Cauvery Supervisory Committee met in New Delhi today to take stock of the situation. Officials from riparian states presented their submissions before the committee. The meeting chaired by Union Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekhar took a detailed presentation from the Chief Secretaries of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Puducherry and the representative from Kerala. The committee tried to reach to a conclusion but Tamil Nadu and Karnataka did not agree to a particular figure of release of water which was based on scientific facts. The next meeting of the supervisory committee will be held on September 19. All three states and union territory of Puducherry have been requested to submit the relevant information and data by September 15. The meeting was attended by Chief Secretaries of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Puducherry and senior officials from Kerala, Central Water Commission and Union Water Resources Ministry.(EDS: Pick up suitably from earlier series)UNI TEAM SHK 2200 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0430-931147.Xml
The 15th anniversary of the horrific 9/11 attacks saw President Obama's call for unity against terrorism, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's fainting and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's only statement on social media. US President Barack Obama on Sunday led millions of Americans in paying moving tribute to the victims of the 9/11 attacks urging Americans to stand united against terrorism. During a ceremony at 15th anniversary 9/11 attcks at the Pentagon he said, "together, there is nothing we Americans cannot overcome." At the Pentagon, a trumpet played as the President took part in a wreath-laying ceremony. "We remember, and we will never forget, the nearly 3,000 beautiful lives taken from us so cruelly -- including 184 men, women and children here, the youngest just three years old. We honour the courage of those who put themselves in harm's way to save people they never knew," Obama said in a statement. "We come together in prayer and in gratitude for the strength that has fortified us across these 15 years. And we renew the love and the faith that binds us together as one American family," he added. "It is so important today that we reaffirm our character as a nation, of people drawn from every corner of the world, every colour, every religion, every background," he said. "Bound by a creed as old as our founder ... Out of many, we are one. For we know that our diversity, our patchwork heritage, is not a weakness, it is still and always will be one of our greatest strengths," Obama said. Obama also vowed that the US will never bow to the wishes of terrorists who, through their attacks, hope to change the way Americans live. "We have delivered justice to Osama bin Laden. We have strengthened our homeland security. We have prevented attacks. We have saved lives. We resolve to continue doing everything in our power to protect this country that we love," he noted. "...And today, we once again pay tribute to these patriots, both military and civilian, who serve in our name, including those far away from home in Afghanistan and Iraq," Obama said. Meanwhile, Donald Trump released a statement on Facebook page and offered his condolences to the victims. "Fifteen years ago, America suffered the worst terrorist attack in its history. Today, we mourn for all the lives lost. We mourn for all the children who had to grow up without a mom or dad, and for all the parents who have had to struggle on without their children," he wrote. He praised the firefighters, police officers and port authority workers who rushed into danger, into smoke, into fire to save the lives of people they had never met -- performing their sacred duties until their last moments on Earth. "Today is a day of sadness and remembrance. It is also a day of resolve. Our solemn duty on behalf of all those who perished that September day 15 years ago, is to work together as one nation to keep all of our people safe from an enemy that seeks nothing less than to destroy our way of life," Trump noted. Hillary Clinton, who had fainted at a public event due to "overheating" and was later diagnosed with pneumonia, said the attack was the closest thing to "hell" she had ever seen. She visited the Ground Zero memorial to pay her respects and observe the annual moment of silence but soon fell ill. According to the reports, Clinton took rest in her daughter's Manhattan apartment. "She was put on antibiotics and advised to rest and modify her schedule. She is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely," her physician Lisa Bardack said. --IANS sku/ ( 627 Words) 2016-09-12-08:09:56 (IANS)
At least 21 civilians were killed in two separate air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition in northern Yemen, residents said today, as fighting intensified in the country before the Muslim Eid al-Adha feast.At least 15 civilians were killed when war planes struck workers drilling for water in the Beit Saadan area of the Arhab district north of Sanaa, and 20 people were wounded, residents in the area, controlled by Iran-allied Houthi forces, said.They said Saudi-led coalition warplanes bombed the site and killed four workers, and then conducted a second bomb run when residents of the village rushed to the scene, killing at least 11 more and wounding 20."We heard three explosions, and people rushed out to help the people working on the drills. Then the planes came back and launched five strikes causing this number of dead and wounded," Saif Saleh, a witness, told Reuters by telephone.A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, General Ahmed al-Asseri, said "all operations in the area were targeting Houthi positions and members."The coalition, which has been fighting to roll back gains made by the Houthi group since 2014 and restore ousted President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power, says it does not target civilians.UN-sponsored talks to try to end the fighting collapsed in failure last month and the Houthi movement and allied forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh resumed shelling into neighbouring Saudi Arabia.Yesterday's attacks were the latest in a series of strikes that have hit schools, hospitals, markets and private homes.Local media put the number of dead and wounded at the water-drilling site at around 100 and published pictures of burned bodies and mangled equipment. Videos showed workers collecting mutilated bodies and carrying them away in blankets.In a second attack, residents reported an air strike hit the home of Sheikh Maqbool al-Harmali, a local tribal chief in Hairan district of Hajjah province, killing six civilians.The United Nations says more than 10,000 people have been killed in the fighting, many of them civilians.In an Eid message, Hadi said: "We will not allow Iran to turn Yemen into an arena for the blackmail of neighbours."Iran denies any interference in Arab states.In south-eastern Abyan province, a suicide bomber killed seven police conscripts and wounded 15 on Sunday when he drove a vehicle laden with explosives into a police compound in Hadi's hometown, a local official said. No one claimed responsibility for the attack in al-Wadea district.REUTERS VS 0038 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0440-929663.Xml
North Korea's foreign minister has arrived in Beijing, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported today.Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho's visit, if confirmed, comes amid a push by the United States for new sanctions against the secretive North after its fifth nuclear test on Friday. China is North Korea's main diplomatic ally. REUTERS SZ PM1005 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0441-929755.Xml
North Korea is ready to conduct an additional nuclear test at any time, South Korea's Defence Ministry said today, three days after the reclusive North's fifth test drew widespread condemnation.Pyongyang set off its most powerful nuclear blast to date on Friday, saying it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile and ratcheting up a threat that its rivals and the United Nations have been powerless to contain."Assessment by South Korean and US intelligence is that the North is always ready for an additional nuclear test in the Punggye-ri area," South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun told a news briefing.Punggye-ri, near the northeastern coast, is the site of the North's five nuclear explosions."North Korea has a tunnel where it can conduct an additional nuclear test," Moon said.South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported earlier that North Korea had completed preparations for another nuclear test, citing South Korean government sources who said the North may use a previously unused tunnel at its mountainous test site.It did not elaborate on what activities had been detected at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site.North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, formerly the country's chief nuclear negotiator, arrived in Beijing today and was seen entering the country's embassy, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.Ri left Pyongyang to attend a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement countries in Venezuela and later the UN General Assembly, the Associated Press reported from Pyongyang without citing a source.His trip comes amid a fresh push by the United States and South Korea for more sanctions following the nuclear test.A US special envoy for the isolated state, Sung Kim, will travel to Seoul today. Kim met with Japanese officials on Sunday and said the United States may launch unilateral sanctions against North Korea, echoing comments by US President Barack Obama on Friday in the wake of the test.A push for further sanctions was "laughable", North Korea said yesterday, vowing to continue to strengthen its nuclear power.Yonhap reported that bad weather had delayed the flight of an advanced US B-1B bomber to the Korean peninsula, a show of strength and solidarity with ally Seoul, scheduled for today. The flight from the US base in Guam would now take place on Tuesday, a US Forces in Korea official told Reuters, declining to identify the type of aircraft involved.South Korea's military put the force of Friday's blast at 10 kilotonnes, but a US expert said the highest estimates of seismic magnitude suggested a yield of 20 to 30 kilotonnes. The test showed North Korea's nuclear capability was expanding fast and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was unwilling to alter course, South Korea said on Saturday.The UN Security Council denounced the test and said it would begin work immediately on a resolution. The United States, Britain and France pushed for the 15-member body to impose new sanctions.Both China and Russia backed sanctions imposed in March following the North's January nuclear test, but their apparent ambivalence about fresh sanctions cast doubt on the Security Council's ability to quickly form a consensus.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday a "creative" response was needed.The Global Times, run by the Chinese Communist Party, rejected the suggestion by the United States that Beijing was responsible for the North's pursuit of nuclear arms. It said the United States was "the root cause" of the issue."China is not capable of persuading North Korea to give up nuclear development, because China's efforts are not supported by the others," it said in an editorial today. "Washington has been refusing to sign a peace treaty with Pyongyang."REUTERS SZ PM1100 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0441-929780.Xml
Dilshad Baloch, an activist, has warned of more protests against the concerned authorities in Pakistan for the human rights violations taking place in Balochistan. He also confirmed that Baloch activists will now protest outside the United Nations General Assembly on September 13. "We are going to hopefully see more of these protests in the future and there are going to be bigger and more frequent protests. We will now protest on September 13 outside the UN General Assembly," he told ANI. Talking about the Melbourne protest where the protestors raised slogans and banners of 'stop genocide of Baloch people', 'we want peace' and 'Balochistan zindabad' slogans during their protest, Dilshad said that the Baloch National Movement (BNM) has also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for highlighting the atrocities of Pakistan in Balochistan. "They have also thanked Prime Minister Modi, especially Mir Baloch did. Mir Baloch is the President of Baloch National Movement in Australia," he said. He added that there has been a protest in Melbourne to save Baloch women and atrocities going on in Balochistan, especially to highlight that the house of Peer Jan Baloch in Turbat is under siege by the Pakistan Army for the past six days. Peer Jan Baloch is the nephew of Rauf Baloch While both are reported to be staying together, Rauf Baloch has been alleged by the forces of hosting the family members of a senior Baloch political leader. The Baloch Human Rights Organization (BHRO) yesterday also staged a protest in front of Karachi Press Club. Baloch Republican Party (BRP) activists also staged a protest in Busan, South Korea yesterday, to highlight the atrocities and human rights violations in Balochistan. Talking about the South Korea protest, Dilshad said, " There has been protest in South Korea and long march in the past. These protests are against the Baloch genocide and what Pakistan is doing in Balochistan." He said that this move is to show to the world on what is going on in Balochistan. "There is a media blackout . No human rights organisations are allowed inside and everything is happening behind the curtain," he added. Earlier, welcoming Prime Minister Modi's statement on Balochistan in his Independence Day address, several Baloch activists claimed that the people of the region support him and he should take up the Baloch issue with the international community at the United Nations. Last month, in a bid to highlight the ongoing Baloch genocide and human rights violations and the disappearance of Baloch people through the hands of Pakistani military and intelligence agencies in Balochistan, the Baloch National Movement (BNM) Germany chapter held demonstrations in different cities. Many activists are asserting that since 2003, more than 23,000 activists, students, lawyers, women, journalists, writers and human rights defenders have been enforced disappeared by the Pakistani army and its death squads. (ANI)
Turkey aims to send more than 30 trucks of food, children's clothes and toys to the Syrian city of Aleppo today, with a truce negotiated between the United States and Russia due to come into effect at sundown, officials said.Speaking after attending Eid al-Adha prayers, President Tayyip Erdogan said the initial 48-hour ceasefire could be extended by a week and then again for a further period if it held, and the aim was to establish "first class peace"."Today after sunset, whether it is the UN or our Red Crescent, they will send food, toys and clothing to the people, mainly in Aleppo, through the predetermined corridors," Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul."Our Red Crescent is working to reach al-Rai and Jarablus as well, in co-ordination with (the Turkish disaster management agency) AFAD," he said, referring to two Syrian border towns.Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak said about 33 Turkish aid trucks, under UN supervision, would be carrying 20,000 children's shoes and items of clothing, food and toys to Aleppo.The truce agreed between Russia, which backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and the United States, which backs some rebel factions, excludes some jihadist groups. Erdogan said Turkey's military operations against Islamic State in northern Syria, launched almost three weeks ago, would continue.Previous efforts to forge agreements to stop the fighting and deliver humanitarian aid to besieged communities in Syria have crumbled within weeks, with the United States accusing Assad's forces of attacking opposition groups and civilians.The United Nations said on Friday the Syrian government had effectively stopped aid convoys this month and the besieged city of Aleppo was close to running out of fuel, making a successful truce even more urgent.REUTERS SZ PM1205 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0441-929844.Xml
Amid growing demand for clamping sanctions against Pakistan, a US senate panel has held that sanctioning the country in question or declaring it a state sponsor of terrorism could backfire. Expressing frustration over Pakistan's alleged lack of cooperation in defeating militant groups still activein neighbouring Afghanistan, Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Senator Bob Corkern during a Congresstyional hearing on US-Pak relations, also asked witnesses to explain measures US policymakers could take to make Pakistan cooperate. A lively debate on the issue at the Committee, was released in a transcript yesterday, daily Dawn reported. Prof Daniel Markey of the Johns Hopkins University, one of the witnesses said, "In order to justify major policy shifts like eliminating aid, labelling Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism, or enacting sanctions, US policymakers should be able to explain how such actions would make America's strategic predicament better." They would need to consider the possibility that coercion could backfire, raising tensions and making Islamabad less willing or able to advance any constructive agenda, he added. Mr Markey said that the next US President could take "a far more coercive approach" with Pakistan thanthe outgoing president, Barack Obama. "But I think given the likely cost and benefits I expect we are more likely to reduce and restructure assistance to Pakistan than to end it all together," he added. And in the process, the US should find ways to more clearly "link our ends with our means" and also to impose appropriate conditions in ways that more Pakistanis and Americans will actually understand. Toby Dalton, a co-director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, explained that there wasa vast difference between what the US should and could do. "Ideally, the United States and others should seek ways to convince Pakistan to flatten the growth curveof its nuclear programme. The honest assessment is, however, that since Pakistan embarked on a nuclearweapons programme, very little the US has tried, whether sanctions or inducements, has had an appreciable impact," he said. Robert L Grenier, a former station manager in Islamabad of the US Central Intelligence Agency, told the committee that in 1993 and 1994 Pakistan "came within a hairsbreadth of ending up as a formal member of the list of state sponsors of terrorism" but US national interests prevented Washington fromdoing so. Senator Corker recalled that in May this year, the Senate put a hold on allowing Pakistan to use US funds for buying F-16 aircraft, "which I think is appropriate". The senator said the US government and lawmakers were all "becoming more and more frustrated" with their relationship with Pakistan. He claimed that the Afghan militant Haqqani network's leaders had been living in Pakistan and the Pakistani government knew where they lived but would not cooperate with US efforts to eliminatethem. "What in essence has happened is, where we used to be able to take them out (using drones) inthe Fata areas, now that they're living in the suburban areas, we cannot do that."MORE UNI XC SB SS -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0094-929833.Xml
External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj will lead the Indian side at the meeting which is held every year alternately in Moscow and New Delhi.

The IRIGC-TEC session is expected to boost much needed trade and economic ties to raise to a new level the India-Russia "special, privileged strategic partnership" by finalising a number of agreement especially in defence, civil nuclear energy and hydrocarbons.

Sources here expressed hope that these agreements in the pipeline have been discussed during the meetings of various joint working groups and will be ready for signing during the bilateral summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 15 in Goa.

The session will make a full review of the progress of joint projects being implemented in different fields of bilateral cooperation, on the basis of reports submitted to it by various joint working groups (JWG), which have constantly met since the previous IRIGC-TEC meeting in October 2015, in Moscow.

This year, India-Russia annual summit, the 17th since it started in 2000, will be held in October, earlier than December, because Putin will be in Goa for the 8th BRICS summit.MORE UNI XC DS SW 1511

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi condemned North Korea's latest nuclear test in a telephone conversation today, Russia's Foreign Ministry said.REUTERS SDR NS1516 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-930256.Xml
Suspected Kurdish militants detonated a car bomb near local government offices in Turkey's southeastern city of Van today, wounding scores of people, a day after two dozen mayors from Kurdish-run municipalities were stripped of office.The blast hit some 200 metres from the Van provincial governor's office, security sources said, ripping through the city's central district and setting buildings and cars aflame. Officials said 48 people were wounded but no one died.Iranian nationals may have been among the wounded, CNN Turk said. Van sits about 100 km east of the border with Iran.Southeastern Turkey has suffered repeated bombings and other attacks since the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in the region, abandoned a ceasefire in 2015.Security sources said they suspected the PKK was behind the bombing in Van and that an operation had been launched to pursue the suspected militants. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.The blast tore the front off a four-storey building. Footage from the Dogan news agency showed water cannon trying to douse flames on the street opposite. The district, normally busy, was more empty of traffic today, the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.Burhan Kayaturk, a local member of parliament from the AKP, said the blast had targeted the ruling AK Party's offices, but that they were well-secured and had not been badly damaged."ADMINISTRATIVE COUP"Turkey appointed new administrators in 24 Kurdish-run municipalities mostly in the southeast yesterday after removing their mayors over suspected PKK links, triggering protests. Four towns in Van province were affected by the removals.President Tayyip Erdogan said today that Turkey had evidence that the mayors had sent support to Kurdish militants, and that they should have been stripped of their roles sooner."It is a step taken too late in my opinion," Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul after attending Eid prayers."They sent the support they received to the mountains, but this has all been discovered," Erdogan said, referring to Kurdish militant bases in the mountains of southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. "Our government took this decision based on all of this evidence."The municipalities were run by local associates of the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), the third-largest party in parliament. The HDP decried what it said was an "administrative coup" and said the move was illegal.Erdogan said last week that the campaign against the PKK - considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and European Union - was now Turkey's largest ever and the removal of civil servants linked to them was a key part of the fight.The US embassy said yesterday that while it supported Turkey's right to combat terrorism, it hoped the appointment of government administrators would be temporary and that local citizens could soon choose new representatives. REUTERS SDR NS1601 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-930347.Xml
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte today called for the withdrawal of US military from a restive southern island, fearing an American troop presence could complicate offensives against Islamist militants notorious for beheading Westerners.Duterte, who was in the spotlight last week over his televised tirade against the United States and President Barack Obama, said special forces now training Filipino troops were high-value targets for the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf as counter-insurgency operations intensify."These special forces, they have to go," Duterte said in a speech during an oath-taking ceremony for new officials."I do not want a rift with America. But they have to go."He added: "Americans, they will really kill them, they will try to kidnap them to get ransom."The comment by Duterte, a former southern mayor known for his terse words and volatile temperament, adds to uncertainty about what impact his rise to the presidency will have on one of Washington's best alliances in Asia.Duterte wants an independent foreign policy and says close ties with the United States are crucial, but he has frequently accused the former colonial power of hypocrisy when criticised for his deadly drugs war. He denied on Friday calling Obama a "son of a bitch".Some US special forces have been killed in the southern Philippines since 2002, when Washington deployed soldiers to train and advise local units fighting Abu Sayyaf in Operation Enduring Freedom, part of its global anti-terror strategy.At the height of that, some 1,200 Americans were in Zamboanga City and on Jolo and Basilan islands, both strongholds of Abu Sayyaf, which is known for its brutality and for earning huge sums of money from hostage-taking.The US programme was discontinued in the Philippines in 2015 but a small troop presence has remained for logistics and technical support. Washington has shifted much of its security focus in the Philippines towards the South China Sea.In his speech to officials today, Duterte repeated comments from last week when he accused the United States of committing atrocities against Muslims over a century ago on Jolo island. REUTERS SDR ns1620 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-930387.Xml
The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said it would halt offensive operations in line with a US-Russian agreement aimed at bringing about a ceasefire at sundown today.The YPG, which controls swathes of northern Syria, said in a statement it hoped the agreement would allow efforts to focus on the fight against Islamic State and to prepare the necessary conditions for a political transition.The Syrian Democratic Forces alliance, which includes the YPG, also announced it would abide by the agreement. The SDF and YPG have played a leading role in a US-led campaign against Islamic State in Syria. REUTERS SDR VP1647 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-930444.Xml
The Russian Defence Ministry called on the Free Syrian Army to stop fighting Kurdish units to help support an impending cessation of hostilities today and said it would continue air strikes against Islamic State and the former Nusra Front.The ministry, speaking hours before the cessation of hostilities was due to take effect in Syria, also said a joint US-Russian coordination centre was being set up to determine Russian and US-led coalition targets.REUTERS PY BD2047 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0298-931085.Xml
The Russian Foreign Ministry said today it was concerned that some armed opposition groups in Syria including the powerful insurgent group Ahrar al-Sham have refused to abide by a ceasefire agreement that took effect at sunset.The ministry also said in a statement that it was counting on the United States to influence Syria's "moderate opposition" to ensure full compliance with the cessation of hostilities that began at 1600 GMT today."We count on the US to deliver its part and use the necessary influence on those it considers 'moderate opposition'," the ministry said.It also said humanitarian aid to Syria's Aleppo would begin immediately through the northern road of Castello. A southern road through the region of Ramusa will open "over time." REUTERS PY VN2259 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0298-931174.Xml
An Indian-origin engineer arrived in Britain with his solar-powered tuk-tuk on Monday after making a seven-month, 6,200-mile overland adventure. Naveen Rabelli, 35, who set off from India in February, reached Dover town in England five days later than expected because his passport and wallet were stolen in France. After obtaining an emergency passport and crossing the Channel from Calais, Rabelli said of his epic journey was fantastic until he got to Paris where his some of his belongings were stolen and two battery packs died. "The highlights have been the way people have helped me out along the way and supported me. People love the tuk-tuk, particularly in Iran and many other countries. They come forward and take selfies. And the moment I tell them it doesn't require petrol, their minds are blown," The Guardian quoted Rabelli as saying. Rabelli, who was born in India and became an Australian citizen while working as an automotive engineer there, hopes to end his journey at Buckingham Palace. While posing for pictures beside his tuk-tuk, he said he had his vehicle properly checked by British border officials "because he had been travelling for seven months and had an emergency passport". His self-modified tuk-tuk is fitted with a bed, a seat for a co-passenger, a cupboard with food donated by people and a solar-powered cooker. Rabelli embarked on the adventure to raise awareness of electric and solar-powered vehicles as a sustainable low-cost alternative mode of transport. He said the idea of converting a fuel-based tuk-tuk to renewable energy came about when he and a friend were stuck in traffic in India surrounded by noisy, polluting tuk-tuks. He started his trip in India before his tuk-tuk was shipped to Bandar Abbas in Iran. His overland mission then began in earnest, he drove through Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Austria, Switzerland, Germany and France. --IANS sku/ ( 322 Words) 2016-09-13-02:29:56 (IANS)
by Maria Spiliopoulou

ATHENS, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Greece is closer than ever to a solution for the sustainability of the Greek debt load, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Sunday, assuring that some positive developments should be expected soon.

The Greek leader made the remarks during a televised customary press briefing given by Greek Premiers during the Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF).

"For our part, we are honoring the agreement and we expect the same from our partners," he said, stressing that Greece has made progress since the signing of the third bailout program in the summer of 2015.

Therefore, Greeks expect in return concrete measures from lenders to ease the pressure on recession-hit people, he added.

"Growth will return. Economy will make a great rebound in 2017. The question is whether this will last and this will depend on the negotiations between the EU and the International Monetary Fund on debt relief," the Greek leader stressed.

In order to ensure the sustainable growth the Greek government will also strive for and achieve in the next round of negotiations with creditors the lowering of primary surplus targets after 2018, Tsipras said.

As bailout inspectors are expected to Athens this week to discuss with Greek officials the pending prior actions for the release of the next rescue loans to the debt-ridden economy, the Greek premier underlined that only technical issues remain to be resolved.

The Greek government's will is to "pick up pace and conclude all actions according to the agreement quickly," he said responding to recent comments by European officials that Athens is again lagging on the implementation of the needed reforms.

Related:

Greece urges creditors to back its economic recovery

ATHENS, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras urged Greece's international creditors to honor pledges and implement specific measures by the end of 2016 to make the Greek debt load sustainable and support Greece's economic recovery.
U.S. Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton (L) watches balloons drop at the end of the 2016 U.S. Democratic National Convention at Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the United States on July 28, 2016. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

NEW YORK, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was diagnosed with pneumonia at home after she fell sick during a memorial service marking the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks here on Sunday.

Local media quoted physician Lisa Bardack as saying "She was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule. While at this morning's event, she became overheated and dehydrated. I have just examined her and she is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely."

A video posted on Twitter shows the 68-year-old Clinton stumbled and she was being helped by her staff into a waiting van and left the memorial service early.

According to her campaign, Clinton had a rest in her daughter's apartment in Manhattan. As she went out the apartment shortly before noon, Clinton said, "I'm feeling great."

Clinton's rival, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his supporters have questioned Clinton's health, saying Clinton is physically unfit for the White House, accusing her of being "exhausted" and sleeping too much.

Last July, Clinton released a letter from her doctor saying she was a healthy female whose health issues were only as bad as hypothyroidism and seasonal allergies.

Doctors also found a blood clot at the time, but the letter says those issues were mostly cleared up after two months of various treatments.
BUENOS AIRES, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- The first ever Chinese singing talent competition held in Argentina had not one, but two winners over the weekend.

Winners Victoria Landeira and Cecilia Catacata beat out 12 other contestants for an opportunity to travel to China to learn more about its culture.

A total of 14 contestants competed on Saturday in the final round of the contest, organized by the Chinese embassy and language-teaching centers at the Esquina Carlos Gardel cultural center in the capital Buenos Aires.

"Several years ago I studied the language (Chinese) for two years," Landeira, 22, told Xinhua.

"Then I had to stop, because I had to dedicate myself to (university), but this year I am graduating," the native of Quilmes, a town in Greater Buenos Aires, added, suggesting she might pick up her Chinese studies where she left off.

China has long fascinated Landeira, who said that as part of her graphic design studies this year "had to work on (designing) some bills and I made some Chinese yuan."

The trip to China won't be Landeira's first.

"I was in China in 2011 -- I liked it a lot -- so I will be getting to know it better next year. I really like Chinese food," she said, smiling. "I'm really eager to go to China ... I'm very excited."

Catacata, who hails from Chacabuco, a city in Buenos Aires province, studied Chinese at the Confucius Institute in La Plata, the provincial capital.

"I have been studying for four years ... but I never imagined I could be a finalist (in the contest), I'm very surprised," said Catacata.

"I was not expecting this at all (but) my main objective, since I first began studying Chinese, has been to reach China," she said.

Catacata said she was looking forward to the trip, especially the chance to perfect her Chinese.

"I want to meet people, I want to bring friends with me, improve my language and make the most of this opportunity. I'm so happy," she said. "Studying Chinese is not easy, but being there for a good long while is going to help me better my pronunciation, vocabulary, everything."

Friends, family and other spectators filled the ground floor of the cultural center, while the upper floor hosted the judges and special guests, such as embassy personnel, representatives from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, which sponsored the prizes.

The singing semifinals took place in June at the Chinese embassy in Buenos Aires, with 33 contestants selected out of an initial 80 who took part in local talent shows held at Confucius Institutes and classrooms around the country.

The contests aim to promote an appreciation for Chinese culture and the arts, especially among young students, and are supported by China's Ministry of Education and its department for teaching Chinese as a foreign language.
A national flag of the United Staes is displayed at a ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of September 11 attacks at the National 9/11 Memorial, in New York, the United States, on Sept. 11, 2016. The United States on Sunday commemorated the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

by Xinhua writer Zhu Junqing

BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Though 15 years have elapsed since the 9/11 terrorist attack on the United States in 2001, which has been the deadliest in the history of the United States, sadness and harm brought by terrorism to the superpower have never faded away.

With new alarm sounding rampancy of the common enemy of the mankind, more people of insight have begun to reflect on why counter-terrorism leads to more terrors and pointed out it is the United States that needs to rectify its anti-terror policy, or even its diplomatic policies.

First of all, war has never been a way out to root out terrorism. On the contrary, it may lead to the creation of breeding grounds for terrorism.

After the 9/11 terrorist attack, the U.S. administration, holding high the banner of counter-terrorism and under the pretext of putting an end to the capacity of countries it thought to be sponsors of terrorism to produce weapons of mass destructions, invaded Iraq in 2003 and overthrew the Saddam Hussein regime, leaving behind violence, insurgency and sectarian strife, which fomented terrorist groups such as the Islamic State (IS).

Similarly, the same scenario has took place in Libya, Syria and other regions, where U.S.-led military actions intervened in domestic affairs under the cover of democracy, which is virtually intended to realize its selfish interests.

Secondly, the U.S.-led "war on terror" actually led to more terrorism, and its European allies had to bear the brunt of its missteps.

The stalemate in the Middle East and North Africa has not only resulted in the worst refugee and humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War II, but has also brought frequent and deadly terrorist attacks to the once peaceful European soil.

From Germany to France, and from Belgium to Britain, all have suffered terrorist nightmare with France becoming a major target, and with hundreds of deaths in terrorist attacks in the past two years.

Thirdly, the international community needs to jointly address the symptoms and root causes of terrorism.

With the emergence of a new trend of terrorism featuring globalization, localization, fragmentation and Internet use, countries around the world need to update and deepen their anti-terror cooperation, while the United States needs to abandon its Cold War mentality and the double-standard anti-terror policy, and pursue multilateral cooperation.

A comprehensive strategy that can be adopted is to fight terrorism at the source by eliminating its roots in conflict or poverty, enhancing social integration and promoting inter-civilization dialogue.

And fourthly, counter-terrorism meets the interests of all countries including China and the U.S. So far, China-U.S. anti-terror cooperation has yielded positive results with the establishment of high-level dialogue and cooperation mechanisms. It is expected that the bilateral anti-terror cooperation will be enhanced after the United States once again designated the East Turkistan Islamic Movement a terrorist group as a result of the recent meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the G20 summit in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.
The students placed aound 3,000 flags in the ground in tribute to the nearly 3,000 victims lost in the attacks almost 15 years ago. (AFP PHOTO)

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Fifteen years into its "war on terror" launched after the deadly 9/11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. government on Sunday touted its progress on securing the U.S. homeland against terrorist-directed attacks while acknowledging that the threat posed by violent extremists was far from receding.

"We've dealt devastating blows to al-Qaeda. We've delivered justice to Osama bin Laden. We've strengthened our homeland security. We've prevented attacks. We've saved lives," said U.S. President Barack Obama at a ceremony here honoring those who died in the 2001 attacks.

However, Obama noted that the threat the international community was facing today "has evolved."

"(Now) terrorists often attempt attacks on a smaller, but still deadly, scale. Hateful ideologies urge people in their own country to commit unspeakable violence," said Obama.

During his interview with CNN, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson echoed Obama's warning and said that terrorist-inspired attacks, or lone-wolf attacks, was posing an increasingly serious threat to U.S. homeland security.

"We're safer when it comes to the 9/11-style attack," said Johnson. "But we've got this new environment and new threat which makes it harder."

In an intelligence brief released on Friday, The Soufan Group, a New York-based security consultancy pointed out that "only one of the goals stated in the aftermath of the (9/11) attacks has been realized: the U.S. has prevented another 9/11 scale attack."

"The other goals- denying terrorists sanctuaries, destroying al-Qaeda, countering violent extremism- have not been reached; all are worse now than before 9/11," said The Soufan Group.

There was indeed progress during the 15-year U.S. military campaign, climaxing with the death of bin Laden before the tenth anniversary of 9/11. At that time, Americans were thrilled with a feeling that the terrorists were finally on the run.

The hope for now has been dashed.

From West and North Africa to South Asia, extremist groups have been lining up to declare allegiance to either al-Qaeda or the Islamic State (IS), once an al-Qaeda franchised group founded after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Moreover, hailing from at least 86 countries as of December, 2015, between 27,000 and 31,000 people had travelled to Syria and Iraq to join the IS and other violent extremist groups, according to data provided by The Soufan Group.

In its initial report entitled Foreign Fighter in Syria, which was released in June 2014, The Soufan Group identified about 12,000 foreign fighters from 81 countries.

Meanwhile, according to Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, over the last decade, there have been on average more than 10,000 terrorist attacks per year, causing an average of over 15,000 deaths per year.

The resurgence of terrorism should by no means puzzling to any. While the goal of the war launched by the United States was supposedly to eliminate terrorism, the fear and hatred those foreign "meddlers" had stirred up in the Middle East has created a breeding ground for extremist ideology.

As the latest villain on its black list, the IS originated not in Iran or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the so-called "axis of evil" branded by Washington, but in Iraq, a state "freed" and "democratized" by the United States itself.

It is also thought-provoking that the IS militants drew much of their fighting experience from the West-involved war in Syria, where the Western bloc supported rebels in their efforts to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Despite the far-reaching and devastating fallout of the Iraqi War, the U.S. authority did not necessarily learn from the lesson that military intervention could worsen the security situation.

Nothing could serve as a better example than the free fall of Libya into chaos after the multinational military intervention under the auspices of then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, now the Democratic presidential nominee.

Calling Clinton the "chief architect" of the botched U.S. Libya policy, Republican lawmaker Peter Roskam revealed last October at a high-profile hearing on the 2012 Benghazi attack that Clinton insisted on the U.S. involvement in Libya despite grim warning and opposition from senior U.S. diplomats.

"(Stephen Mull, then executive secretary of the State Department) said this, 'In the case of our diplomatic history, when we've provided material or tactical military support to people seeking to drive their leaders from power, no matter how just their cause, it's tended to produce net negatives for our interests over the long term in those countries,'" quoted Roskam from communications from Clinton's private server.

"They (U.S. senior diplomats) were pushing back, but you overcame those objections," said Roskam, adding that Vice President Joe Biden, then Defense chief Robert Gates as well as the National Security Council also opposed military actions in Libya.

Unfortunately, Washington paid little attention to exploring the root causes of terrorism, and it would be a never ending war on terror if Washington fails to eliminate the root causes of its headache.
BUENOS AIRES, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra sees China as a "strategic partner" with a "long-term vision."

She made the remark in an interview published Sunday with Argentina's prestigious daily Clarin.

"China is a new strategic partner. When you establish a connection with new strategic partners, you have to understand them and know how they function," she said, referring to the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries since 2014.

Malcorra spoke highly of China's capacity to make plans and set goals in the long term.

"China has a very long-term vision. They see their partnerships not for what is going to happen in the next five to 10 years, but in 50 years," she said.

She thinks that as a leading agricultural exporter, Argentina can serve as a key partner of China.

"It is clear that food security is central to them, which underlines the importance of Latin America in general, and of Argentina in particular," she noted.

Malcorra acknowledged Argentina has a natural tendency to pursue ties with Europe due to historical reasons, but China's overtures have facilitated bilateral relationship in a way that European countries have not.

"China is much more open, more flexible and more willing," she said, and that its "attitude makes it easier for us to make progress before we make progress with Europe" in developing ties, said Malcorra.

Argentina is expected to host the Group of 20 (G20) major economies summit in 2018, coming after Germany in 2017 and China in 2016.

"Forming part of a troika with Germany and China is very meaningful for us. It allows us to work on global policies," said Malcorra, who expects close consultations with both China and Germany.

"We are beginning to outline the topics for 2018 ... and the fact that China is part of the troika provides us with another channel for communication," she said.

Education may be on top of the agenda Argentina will set for the 2018 G20 summit, she said, due to its absence in the past.

The 2016 G20 summit held on Sept. 4-5 in Hangzhou, east China, concluded with the adoption of a statement outlining the group's direction and development goals, and with the Hangzhou Consensus on facilitating global economic growth by taking comprehensive, open, innovative and inclusive long-term steps.

Argentine President Mauricio Macri has commented the G20 summit in Hangzhou as "impressive and huge."

Argentine experts regard the Argentine hosting of G20 summit as a challenge, citing coordinations at the international and national levels, or seeking to contribute in a substantive and original way to the G20 summit agenda.

In addition, they think that it will serve as an opportunity to build a foreign policy which reflects Argentina's potential.

"It is a fantastic opportunity to continue recovering prestige and strengthen the impact of Argentina's foreign policy," Patricio Carmody, an Argentine international relations expert, has told Argentina's La Nacion daily.
BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese judicial authorities have reformed many areas in order to further improve the legal guarantee procedure of human rights, according to a white paper issued on Monday.

The white paper, titled "New Progress in the Judicial Protection of Human Rights in China" issued by the State Council Information Office, said China has reformed the case admitting system by converting the case-filing review system into a case-filing register system.

China has revised the Criminal Procedure Law, and implemented principles of legality, in dubio pro reo, exclusion of unlawful evidence, said the white paper.

The country also revises the Civil Procedure Law to effectively settle disputes, revised the Administrative Procedure Law to strengthen the protection of legitimate rights and interests of private parties in administrative lawsuits, it said, adding it enacted the first Anti-Domestic Violence Law to strengthen legal protection of the personal rights of victims of domestic violence.

Judicial authorities have "put in place a system to exclude unlawful evidence and protect the legitimate rights and interests of criminal suspects," the paper said.

In 2014, the Ministry of Public Security issued more explicit regulations concerning the scope of and interrogation recording requirements for cases subject to audio and video recording.

The interrogation rooms of public security organs and detention houses are all equipped with audio and video recording facilities to prevent misconduct in law enforcement such as extorting confessions by torture and obtaining evidence through illegal means.

In 2015, the procuratorial organs at all levels demanded the withdrawal of 10,384 cases wrongly filed by investigation organs, and regulated 31,874 cases of illegal conduct involving abuse of compulsory measures and unlawfully obtaining evidence.

China has also improved procedures for juvenile criminal cases to help underage offenders better reintegrate into the society, said the white paper.
CANBERRA, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government has appealed to the public to combat the threat of terrorism, while it will also seek to fast-track new legislation to give counter-terror organizations more powers, the nation's Justice Minister said on Monday.

Following a terror-related knife attack in Sydney on Sunday, Justice Minister Michael Keenan said the "lone wolf" face of terror in Australia was an emerging threat which not only requires legislation change, but also support from the general public.

Sunday's attack came less than a week after an online article published by Islamic State (IS) called for followers to "kill (Australians) in their backyards."

Keenan said the government has committed to introducing new legislation in the wake of the attack, but admitted more needed to be done to ensure the safety of all Australians.

"We'll be introducing legislation into the Parliament which is the latest iteration to update the legislation under which (counter-terror groups) operate," Keenan told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Monday.

Keenan said while authorities have disrupted more than 10 terror attacks over the past two years, the government is calling on members of the community to play a part in preventing further lone wolf attacks.

"These are enormous challenges and of course one of the things we do need to rely on is intelligence. That is very important that we continue to get intelligence from the community in particular," Keenan said.

Keenan said security and counter-terror bodies would also be given more resources to deal with terror threats on domestic soil.
LIMA, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Technological innovations have sparked a new industrial revolution, and people need to keep up with these developments to understand both opportunities and challenges they pose, according to a leading Spanish academic and advisor.

Alberto Andreu, an associate professor with University of Navarra School of Economics and Business Administration based in Pamplona, Spain, shared his opinions with Xinhua on Saturday about the fast pace of technological transformations.

"The digital revolution is already disrupting all industries and all sectors, starting with the sector of media and the sector of culture, and it will finally take us to the sector of employment," said Andreu.

The Spanish expert was in the Peruvian capital over the weekend to attend a United Nations Global Compact business forum on promoting sustainability and corporate responsibility.

Changes are happening so steadily and fast all over the world, and at the same time it is impossible to measure its impact on human activities, he said.

Yet, "innovation is the lever for the future," he said. "The digital and industrial revolution we are in is going to transform the world much more rapidly than we are capable of grasping."

One clear example, he said, is the prevalence of smart phones, used by people around the globe, regardless of their social or economic backgrounds.

With a smartphone, "a citizen in some way has power in his hands," as it makes it easier to get work done, to communicate and to connect with people across the world, in a way that was never available.

"He has the power to make a purchase, to denounce someone, to connect socially, to post content, to share content and, as a result, innovation is becoming the motor of future development," said Andreu.

In this sense, technology has empowered users, but the rise of automation, especially the growing use of robots in different areas of production, could present the society with one of its biggest challenges, said Andreu.

"Innovation and artificial intelligence are going to generate enormous opportunities, but we have to be aware of the scope and limits of the technological revolution to be able to make rational use of these new resources," he noted.
SEOUL, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's military said on Monday that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is ready to conduct another nuclear test following its fifth nuclear detonation.

Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-kyun told a press briefing that intelligence authorities of South Korea and the United States are assessing the DPRK is "always ready" to carry out additional nuclear test in its main Punggye-ri nuclear test site.

His comments followed the DPRK's announcement on Friday that it successfully staged an explosion test of a nuclear warhead that can be mounted on ballistic missiles "at will."

The warning of additional test is based on three tunnels excavated at Punggye-ri in northeastern DPRK, near which all of its underground nuclear tests were conducted.

"If the DPRK conducts additional nuclear test, it would be possible to happen both from a branch of the second tunnel or the third tunnel where all preparations are already done," said Moon.

All of Pyongyang's nuclear device tests happened in Punggye-ri. The first test was conducted in the first tunnel, while the second, the third and the fourth detonations came from the second tunnel.

The site of the fifth nuclear test is some 500 meters away from where the fourth test was conducted, according to Yonhap news agency report citing unnamed government sources.

Pyongyang reportedly completed all preparations for a nuclear test at the third tunnel, where any atomic device test hasn't occurred yet.
MELBOURNE, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Russia's growing wheat production poses a threat to the future of Australia's 9 billion-U.S. dollar grain industry, a report has said.

The report, released by the Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre (AEGIC) from its Perth headquarters on Monday, said grain exports from Russia would grow a further 60 percent by 2030.

Ross Kingwell, the lead author of the report, said that the low costs of the supply chain in the Black Sea region would increase low-cost competition in Australia's key Asian markets.

"There is no single silver bullet of response to the competitive challenges Australia's wheat industry faces," Kingwell, an agriculture professor at the University of Western Australia, said in a release on Monday.

"A series of actions is required. To remain competitive, it is crucial to keep innovating to ensure higher productivity and efficiencies occur on-farm and throughout the Australian supply chain."

A bumper harvest for wheat producers in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and North America has flooded the global market with wheat, causing prices to collapse to a new low of 180 U.S. dollars per ton.

The AEGIC report said that because wheat would not be worth selling for Australian farmers at that price, large exporters are expected to store their grain for years.

CBH Group, one of Australia's largest wheat exporters, has already started constructing an extra 4 million tons of bunker storage to cope with the big crop, low prices and low market appetite.

Kingwell said that well-considered, coordinated and strategic future actions should guarantee the security of Australia's grain industry.

"Although the situation, with Black Sea wheat flooding traditional Australian markets, is of mounting concern Australian wheat remains well-placed to retain its market share, particularly in southeast Asia, where the demand for wheat is growing," he said.

Russia produces 107 million tons of grain annually, more than triple Australia's annual production of 30 million tons, at a lower cost than Australia.
BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- A white paper published Monday by the State Council Information Office hailed the new progress made in human rights protection in the field of justice as China enhances the rule of law in all respects.

The white paper, titled "New Progress in the Judicial Protection of Human Rights in China," said the judiciary is the last line of defense to safeguard social fairness and justice, and judicial protection of human rights is an important part of human rights progress in a country.

It said that in recent years, especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), progress has been made in modernizing the system and capacity of state governance. The country has effectively protected the people's rights and freedoms in an extensive array of fields in accordance with the law, while its people duly fulfill their obligations.

In particular, the white paper noted that since the CPC's 18th National Congress, the allocation of judicial powers and responsibilities have been further improved, and the independent and impartial exercise of the judicial and procuratorial power ensured.

Since 2014, pilot programs have been promoted nationwide to improve performance in the following areas: judicial accountability, category-based management of judicial personnel, job security for the judicial profession, and unified management of the personnel, finance and property of people's courts and procuratorates below the provincial level.

Meanwhile, the judicial accountability system has been improved, while judicial transparency promoted to ensure the right to know and the right to supervise for concerned parties and the public.

Progress was also made to ensure lawyers' right of practice, so that lawyers are playing a bigger role in safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of parties concerned.

The Regulations on Protecting Lawyers' Right of Practice in Accordance with the Law, issued in 2015, made clear various measures to protect lawyers' right of practice, made it more convenient for lawyers to participate in litigation, and improved the remedy and accountability mechanisms for ensuring lawyers' right to practice.

The white paper also highlighted pilot programs to reform the system of people's assessors and supervisors, the establishment of a national judicial assistance system, and the abolishment of the system of reeducation through labor.

It nonetheless said there is still much room for improvement for the rule of law in China.

Strengthening judicial protection of human rights will continue to be a major task in implementing the rule of law, it said, adding that the country will proceed from its prevailing reality, learn from the achievements of other countries regarding the rule of law, enhance judicial protection of human rights, safeguard social fairness and justice, and implement the rule of law in all respects.

LAWFUL CRACKDOWN ON CRIMES

To enhance judicial protection of human rights, China has punished crimes by law, tried civil and administrative cases fairly, and strengthened the execution of effective judgments, the white paper said.

In particular, it noted that a total of 54,249 people in 40,834 cases were investigated for work-related crimes in 2015.

From 2012 to 2015, courts at all levels concluded 94,900 cases of corruption and bribery and sentenced 100,200 criminals. A total of 10,300 cases of offering bribes were concluded and 9,219 criminals were sentenced, said the white paper, adding that courts at all levels concluded 21,300 cases of dereliction of duty, and sentenced 23,500 criminals.

Among the defendants, 381 were formerly at or above the department or bureau level, and 2,269 were at or above the county or division level, the white paper said.

It went on to say that the state focused on punishing violent terrorist crimes, serious crimes of violence, gangland crimes, crimes involving guns and explosives, crimes endangering food and medicine safety, and crimes related to drug production and trafficking, among others.

Criminals who infringe the rights of minors were brought to justice, and the protection of minors' rights was strengthened.

Death penalty is under strict control and is employed with prudence, the while paper said.

It said China's attitude toward the death penalty is to ensure that it applies only to a very small number of extremely serious criminal offenders.

China in 2011 adopted the Amendment (VIII) to the Criminal Law which abolishes the death penalty for 13 economy-related, non-violent offenses.

The Amendment (IX) to the Criminal Law, adopted in 2015, also reduced the number of crimes for capital punishment, abolishing the death penalty for nine areas of crime. It also extended the possibility of reprieve in cases of capital sentence.

In death penalty cases, the defendant's right to defense and other legitimate rights and interests are fully protected, as hearings are held for all death penalty cases of second instance, the white paper said.

When the Supreme People's Court reviews a death penalty case, it focuses on interrogating the defendant in accordance with the law, and listening to opinions of the defense counsel, according to the white paper.

PREVENTING & CORRECTING MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE

Meanwhile, the white paper said China has revised the Criminal Procedure Law, and implemented principles of legality, in dubio pro reo, exclusion of unlawful evidence.

The country revised the Civil Procedure Law to effectively settle disputes, revised the Administrative Procedure Law to strengthen the protection of legitimate rights and interests of private parties in administrative lawsuits, it said, adding it enacted the first Anti-Domestic Violence Law to strengthen legal protection of the personal rights of victims of domestic violence.

Judicial authorities have "put in place a system to exclude unlawful evidence and protect the legitimate rights and interests of criminal suspects," the paper said.

In 2014, the Ministry of Public Security issued more explicit regulations concerning the scope of and interrogation recording requirements for cases subject to audio and video recording.

The interrogation rooms of public security organs and detention houses are all equipped with audio and video recording facilities to prevent misconduct in law enforcement such as extorting confessions by torture and obtaining evidence through illegal means.

In 2015, the procuratorial organs at all levels demanded the withdrawal of 10,384 cases wrongly filed by investigation organs, and regulated 31,874 cases of illegal conduct involving abuse of compulsory measures and unlawfully obtaining evidence.

China has also improved procedures for juvenile criminal cases to help underage offenders better reintegrate into the society, said the white paper.
WELLINGTON, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The New Zealand government is promoting its leadership in ocean conservation at a global summit in the United States this week, just days after wildlife campaigners condemned its failure to support marine protection moves at another international forum.

Conservation Minister Maggie Barry said Monday she would lead New Zealand's delegation to the 2016 Our Ocean conference in Washington from Sept. 14 to 16.

The summit would address major issues in marine protection such as climate change, ocean acidification and sustainable fishing.

New Zealand was "a world leader in ocean conservation," Barry said in a statement, citing the announcement last year of the creation of the Kermadec/Rangitahua Ocean Sanctuary, which at 620,000 square kilometers would become one of the largest fully protected marine areas on Earth.

The 2014 and 2015 Our Ocean conferences produced nearly 3 billion U.S. dollars in new global conservation partnerships and initiatives, she said.

In 2015, New Zealand committed to 1.8 million NZ dollars (1.32 million U.S. dollars) of work on ocean acidification, 50 million NZ dollars (36.69 million U.S. dollars) to support sustainable fishing in the Pacific and joined the Safe Ocean Network to crack down on illegal fishing.

However, the government came under fire last week for abstaining on a motion urging governments to aim to set aside 30 percent of the marine environment in protected areas by 2030.

The motion was passed by a majority of members at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress in Hawaii.

Environmental group WWF said the New Zealand government's refusal to support the motion was "hugely disappointing."

"It looks like the government chose to listen to the irrational arguments of a few fishing industry lobbyists rather than to the science and the 96 percent of New Zealanders who want more marine protection," WWF-New Zealand executive director Chris Howe said in a statement.

New Zealand's Forest & Bird conservation group said just 0.48 percent of New Zealand's oceans in its vast exclusive economic zone were fully protected, and the figure would rise to 15 percent with the establishment of the proposed Kermadec Sanctuary.

"Protecting a further 15 percent of our oceans by 2030 is a realistic target," Forest & Bird marine advocate Karen Baird said in a statement.
SEOUL, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's exports in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector declined for 11 straight months due to soft demand for handsets, the country's main export item, a government report showed on Monday.

ICT exports fell 2.1 percent from a year earlier to 14.13 billion U.S. dollars in August, posting the 11 consecutive month of decline, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Imports in the ICT industry was 7.53 billion dollars, sending the August trade surplus in the sector to 6.59 billion dollars. The ICT surplus exceeded a surplus of 5.3 billion dollars recorded in overall industries.

Shipments of handsets and their accessories tumbled 18.1 percent in August compared with a year earlier, speeding up its decline from falls of 7.9 percent in April to 10.1 percent in July.

Outlook for mobile phone exports got dimmer as Samsung Electronics decided on Sept. 2 to recall all of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones sold worldwide after dozens of complaints were reported against faulty batteries catching fire while charging.

Local handset makers increased production in overseas factories, contributing to falling exports of the country's main export item.

Display panel exports reduced 6.8 percent last month, but semiconductor shipments increased 2.5 percent on robust demand for memory chips and stable chip prices.

By country, exports to Vietnam jumped 31.1 percent, but those to China and the United States, South Korea's top two export destinations, declined 3.7 percent and 5.2 percent respectively.
Bring to justice criminals who infringe the rights of minors, and strengthen the protection of minors' rights. In 2013, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Justice jointly issued the Opinions on Legally Punishing the Crime of Sexual Assault Against Minors, highlighting protection of minor victims' rights and severe punishment of criminals engaging in sexual assault against minors. In October 2014, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued the Opinions on Several Issues Concerning Law-based Handling of the Infringement of the Rights and Interests of Minors by Their Guardians, deciding that guardianship of parents or other guardians who sexually assault, treat with violence, abuse and abandon minors will be revoked according to law. Amendment (IX) to the Criminal Law abolishes the crime of sex with a girl under the age of 14, and stipulates that whoever has sexual relations with a girl under the age of 14, as applicable to the Criminal Law, shall be deemed to have committed rape and shall be given a heavier punishment. It also stipulates that anyone who maltreats a minor or an elderly person whom they are responsible for guarding and nursing, if the case is serious, shall be sentenced to imprisonment or criminal detention of not more than three years. From 2013 to 2015, people's courts at all levels concluded 7,610 cases involving child molestation, and sentenced 6,620 criminals; and concluded 224 criminal cases of maltreatment. In 2015, the People's Court of Tongshan District, Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province concluded the first case of revoking the guardianship of a minor's parents. Public security organs have strengthened police on campus and in surrounding areas, and effectively maintained campus safety. Around the country, 170,000 police offices and security sentry boxes have been set up in surrounding areas of schools, and 260,000 posts for protecting students have been set up, representing a daily patrol force of 300,000. Schools have employed 700,000 security guards and provided them with 1.2 million items of protective equipment, and installed 680,000 sets of equipment for technical defense.

Strictly control the death penalty and employ it with prudence to ensure that it applies only to a very small number of extremely serious criminal offenders. Following the Amendment (VIII) to the Criminal Law in 2011 which abolishes the death penalty for 13 economy-related, non-violent offenses, Amendment (IX) to the Criminal Law, adopted in 2015, again reduces the number of crimes for capital punishment, abolishing the death penalty for nine areas of crime: smuggling arms and ammunitions, smuggling nuclear materials, smuggling counterfeit currency notes, counterfeiting currency, illegally raising funds, organizing others for prostitution, forcing others into prostitution, obstructing commanders or personnel in the performance of their military duties, and creating rumors and misleading the people during time of war. Amendment (IX) to the Criminal Law also extends the possibility of reprieve in cases of capital sentence. In death penalty cases, the defendant's right to defense and other legitimate rights and interests are fully protected, as hearings are held for all death penalty cases of second instance. When the Supreme People's Court reviews a death penalty case, it focuses on interrogating the defendant in accordance with the law, and listening to opinions of the defense counsel.

Try civil and commercial cases by law to effectively protect people's right of livelihood. From 2012 to 2015, courts at all levels concluded 32,302,400 civil and commercial cases. Among these, 90,100 involved rural contract disputes, 10,000 involved homestead disputes, and 6,611,600 cases involved marriage and family, upbringing and inheritance. The courts properly handled cases relating to personal injury, employment, education, health care, housing, and other areas closely related to people's daily and working life, protecting people's livelihood according to the law. From 2012 to 2015, people's courts at all levels concluded a total of 2,334,300 such cases.

Hear cases involving the environment or resource use to protect citizens' environmental rights. In June 2014, the Supreme People's Court established a tribunal for lawsuits involving the environment and resource use. As of 2015, courts of 24 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) had established 456 tribunals, collegial benches and circuit courts for environment cases. From 2012 to 2015, courts at all levels concluded a total of 495,500 such cases. From 2013 to 2015, the Supreme People's Court notified the public of 33 typical environment cases on four occasions, trying to ensure environment and resource laws are properly applied in a comprehensive, correct, and consistent way, and to promote environmental protection on the basis of the law. (more)
III. Enhance Judicial Protection of Human Rights

China punishes crimes by law, tries civil and administrative cases fairly, and strengthens the execution of effective judgments. It endeavors to improve institutions of community correction, state compensation and legal aid, and diligently safeguard citizens' right of life, property right, right of livelihood and other legitimate rights and interests.

Handle all kinds of criminal cases by law to protect people's right of life and property right. The state focuses on punishing violent terrorist crimes, serious crimes of violence, gangland crimes, crimes involving guns and explosives, crimes endangering food and medicine safety, crimes related to drug production and trafficking, and some other crimes. Public security organs have launched a series of special actions to fight against violent terrorist activities, combat organized criminal gangs, crack down on illegal gathering and trading of citizens' information, and combat telecommunication fraud and the use of pseudo base stations.

Together with the Ministry of Public Security and the China Food and Drug Administration, the Supreme People's Procuratorate has formulated working methods connecting administrative law enforcement on food and medicine crimes with criminal justice. In 2015, procuratorial organs at all levels recommended to food and drug regulatory authorities to bring 1,646 suspected criminal cases to lawsuit, and supervised and urged public security organs to file 877 cases. The mechanism enabling procuratorial organs to synchronously engage in investigating and handling industrial accidents has been improved. In 2015 procuratorial organs prosecuted 2,199 people for being liable for serious accidents, and investigated and dealt with 823 involved in these accidents for work-related crimes. After the Tianjin Port fire and explosion incident on August 12, 2015, procuratorial organs quickly launched an investigation, and then placed on file 25 cases of criminals suspected of dereliction of duty, abuse of power, and bribery. From 2012 to 2015, courts at all levels concluded 4,062,600 criminal cases of first instance. Related courts tried, according to the law, the case of the Kunming terrorist attack on March 1, 2014, that of Beijing terrorist attack on October 28, 2013, and other cases of violent terrorist crimes. Courts concluded 2,070 cases of gangland crimes, 1,050,500 cases of murder, robbery, kidnapping, rape and other crimes, and 417,300 cases of drug-related crimes.

Punish by law crimes of corruption and work-related crimes to create a favorable political and legal environment for the protection of human rights. In 2015, procuratorial organs at all levels placed on file and investigated 40,834 cases of work-related crimes involving 54,249 people. Specifically, they investigated and dealt with 4,490 cases of embezzlement, bribery, and defalcation of more than one million yuan each, a year-on-year increase of 22.5 percent; 13,210 people for taking bribes and 8,217 for offering bribes; 13,040 civil servants for dereliction and malfeasance; and 20,538 people for work related crimes in land requisition and demolition, social security, education, health care, the Three Rural (agriculture, rural areas and farmers) issues and other livelihood fields concerning immediate interests of the people. From 2012 to 2015, courts at all levels concluded 94,900 cases of corruption and bribery and sentenced 100,200 criminals; concluded 10,300 cases of offering bribes and sentenced 9,219 criminals; and concluded 21,300 cases of dereliction of duty, and sentenced 23,500 criminals. Among the defendants, 381 were formerly at/above the department or bureau level, and 2,269 were at/above the county or division level. Zhou Yongkang was sentenced to life imprisonment and deprived of political rights for life, and his personal assets were confiscated. Bo Xilai was sentenced to life imprisonment and deprived of political rights for life, and his personal assets were confiscated.

Advance special actions against human trafficking, and make important progress in combating trafficking in women and children. China has made unremitting efforts to prevent and crack down on the abduction and trafficking of women and children. It has worked to implement China's National Plan of Action on Combating Trafficking in Women and Children (2013-2020) and to rescue abducted victims. Amendment (IX) to the Criminal Law increases penalties for whoever buys an abducted woman or child. Public security organs have launched special actions against human trafficking, and improved their working mechanisms. The principal leader or a leader in direct charge of a public security organ at the county (city or district) level should take charge of a special group for the examination of child trafficking cases, and take responsibility throughout the whole process. A mechanism for quickly searching for missing children has been put in place around the country, under which police resources are fully mobilized to quickly find missing children. A uniform operation of thorough search and investigation for children of unknown origin has been carried out nationwide, in which DNA information of children suspected of being the victims of abduction is collected and recorded into a national DNA database for comparison. As of 2015, the national DNA database against trafficking had helped more than 4,100 abducted children find their birth parents. The Anti-Trafficking Office of the Ministry of Public Security opened a Weibo to popularize information on anti-trafficking, promote public awareness in preventing and combating trafficking, and encourage people to support and participate in anti-trafficking work. Through these efforts, crimes of trafficking in women and children have been effectively curbed, and the number of such cases has decreased year by year since 2013. The number of cases of trafficking in women and children that courts at all levels concluded in 2015 fell by 55.55 percent compared to 2010. (more)
Hear administrative cases to safeguard legitimate rights and interests of private parties. From 2012 to 2015, courts at all levels concluded 579,000 administrative cases of various types. The courts properly heard administrative proceedings involving house demolitions of high social concern, protecting the legitimate rights and interests of displaced people in accordance with the law. They concluded 32,800 administrative cases involving house demolitions. The system whereby the individual in charge of an administrative agency appears and defends the organ in court in accordance with the law has been improved. In 2014 and 2015, among Jiangsu administrative agencies involved in administrative proceedings, more than 90 percent of those in charge appeared in court. Three consecutive magistrates of Hai'an County People's Government personally appeared in court. For six years, all heads of various administrative organs of this county, when involved in administrative proceedings, appeared in court. Coordination of administrative cases and enforcement of non-litigation administrative cases have been strengthened, helping resolve administrative disputes. Timely feedback on prominent law enforcement problems found in court trials has been provided to administrative agencies to promote law-based administration. From 2014 to 2015, the Supreme People's Court made known to the public ten cases concerning land acquisition, house demolition and relocation, ten information disclosure cases, ten cases concerning environmental protection, ten cases concerning administrative nonfeasance, and ten administrative cases concerning commercial interests. In so doing, it has regulated administrative law enforcement, and provided uniform criteria for judgment.

Safeguard legitimate rights and interests of applicants in state compensation cases. In 2015, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate jointly issued the Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Handling of Criminal Cases Regarding Compensation, elaborating on the circumstances under which investigation of criminal liabilities is terminated. The document has helped solve problems for citizens who cannot apply for state compensation due to protracted criminal cases, and played an important role in urging case handling organs to exercise functions according to the law and in protecting the right to state compensation. From 2012 to 2015, courts at all levels concluded a total of 12,300 cases on state compensation. On January 7, 2016, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate brought the public's attention to eight typical criminal cases on state compensation.

Reinforce enforcement of effective judgment to protect legitimate rights and interests of relevant parties. The Supreme People's Court revised Several Provisions on Restricting Extravagant Spending of the Persons Subject to Enforcement, restricting expenditure not necessary for life or business operation by the persons who are included in the list of dishonest persons subject to enforcement. This effort helped set up a public mechanism for penalizing dishonest people. As of 2015, 3.08 million people subject to enforcement had been included in the list of dishonest persons, 3,577,000 attempts by these people to buy airline tickets had been intercepted, as well as 598,800 attempts to buy soft sleeper tickets and first-class tickets on high-speed trains. From 2012 to 2015, courts at all levels received 12,591,400 new cases of application for enforcement, of which 11,906,000 were enforced and concluded. Enforcement of cases relating to essential requirements of daily life has been reinforced. From December 1, 2015 to February 15, 2016, the Supreme People's Court enforced such cases in a centralized way, with focus on nine categories, including recovering payment for labor, migrant workers' wages, alimony, and payment for children's upbringing. As of January 15, 2016, about 60,000 cases had been enforced and concluded, involving sums of about two billion yuan.

Improve community correction work to effectively protect correction subjects' legitimate rights and interests. Administrative organs of justice at all levels have implemented the Opinions on Organizing Social Forces to Participate in Community Correction. They have covered community correction funds in financial budgets at all levels; encouraged and guided social forces to participate in community correction; tried to solve employment, schooling, social assistance, social security and other issues for correction subjects; strengthened education for and assistance to them through various channels; and directed attention to their psychological treatment. In so doing they have helped them better reintegrate into society. As of 2015, administrative organs of justice around the country had received a total of 2,702,000 offenders for community correction, among whom 2,004,000 were discharged from correction and 698,000 remained for correction. Only 0.2 percent of offenders committed crimes during the correction period. Altogether 1,339 community correction centers have been established nationwide in counties or districts. There are 24,787 bases for community service, 9,218 bases for education, 8,165 bases for employment, and 672,000 community correction groups. Around the country, 83,000 social workers and 690,000 volunteers are engaged in community correction. Haidian District Community Correction Center of Beijing founded the Zhongtu (Midway) College with five universities. In the college, university teachers provide targeted, classified education for correction subjects. Chaohu Community Correction Center, Anhui Province, has established mental health records for correction subjects, and provides consulting services. (more)
The Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Justice and the National Health and Family Planning Commission jointly formulated the Regulations on Execution of Sentence Outside Prison, which came into effect on December 1, 2014. If persons serving sentences are injured or maimed while working during imprisonment, and are allowed to enjoy execution of sentence outside prison, the fees including their medical subsidies and living allowances outside the prison will be reimbursed in accordance with the relevant regulations of the state. Pregnant or lactating women, those who suffer severe illnesses and need to be released on bail for medical treatment, and those who cannot take care of themselves are also allowed to enjoy execution of sentence outside prison.

Enhance supervision over prisons and detention houses to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of detainees. To increase the transparency of their law enforcement, detention houses should open to the public on a regular basis. By 2015, a complaint handling mechanism for detainees had been installed in 2,610 detention houses, and 2,558 had employed special supervisors. Procuratorial organs supervise activities in detention houses such as health examinations upon entrance and temporary removal of detainees, with a view to preventing and rectifying illegal interrogation and forced confessions outside detention houses. We should strengthen supervision over the term of criminal detention and urge relevant departments to settle outstanding cases. In 2013, 4,459 detainees involved in outstanding cases had been in detention for more than three years, but the figure fell to six in 2015.

Standardize commutation, parole and execution of sentence outside prison and safeguard detainees' rights to implementation of penalty change. We must open prison affairs wider to the public, including the legal conditions, procedures and results of commutation, parole and execution of sentence outside prison. People's courts should improve online public notification and hearings, and open a national information network on commutation, parole and execution of sentence outside prison. From 2012 to 2015 people's courts adjudicated 2,406,100 commutation cases and 160,100 parole cases. Prisons and detention houses should carry out relevant procedures in a timely manner for those who are qualified to enjoy commutation, parole or execution of sentence outside prison in accordance with the law. People's procuratorates should strictly perform their supervisory duties so as to ensure the justice and fairness of penalty changes.

Implement national amnesty to highlight humanitarianism. On August 29, 2015, the 16th session of the 12th Standing Committee of the NPC approved the decision on amnesty for prisoners, and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed an amnesty decree, granting amnesty for four types of criminals who had been serving sentences according to effective judgments made by people's courts before January 1, 2015 and were no longer considered to be a danger to society on release. This was the eighth national amnesty since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and the first time since the adoption of reform and opening-up in 1978. It was a new approach to implementing the amnesty system stipulated in the Constitution, to implementing rule of law and highlighting humanitarianism, so it was of great political and legal significance. According to judgments made by people's courts, 31,527 prisoners were granted amnesty across the country. Those who were incapable of work, or had no job, no source of income, and no legal supporters were granted subsistence allowances so that they could better reintegrate into society. Enditem
SYDNEY, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- A West Australian man fell into Perth's Swan River on Monday morning while playing the Pokemon Go mobile game, local media reported.

WA police in a three-paragraph statement posted on Facebook said it had rushed to the Barrack Street Jetty at around 12:45 local time on Monday upon receiving a report from a security officer who witness the man falling from the jetty into the water.

"Police attended with emergency lights and sirens and on arrival (but) the security officer had pulled the male person from the water onto the jetty," WA police said.

"Police spoke to the male person being concerned for his welfare only to be told he was leaning over the jetty attempting to get a Pokemon. True story."

Fortunately, the unnamed man was not injured.

The incident comes after the WA police had posted a community safety announcement about the popular mobile game Pokemon Go to social media in July.

In the post that went viral and shared over 1200 times, police had urged West Australians in particular to stay safe and legal while playing Pokemon Go game in the state.
SUVA, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand Trade Minister Todd McClay has postponed his visit to Fiji, the government-owned Fiji Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday.

McClay has reportedly said that he wanted more discussions between officials on the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER) Plus, negotiations on which Fiji has withdrawn, claiming that Australia and New Zealand have been backtracking on the initial agreement that was made.

McClay said Fiji's statement is not a fair reflection of the agreement and having considered the latest development, he will not be coming to Fiji for bilateral trade discussions this week.

Fiji pursues legally binding provisions for labor mobility and development cooperation in the PACER Plus, saying non-legally binding one "means Australia and New Zealand can withdraw these arrangements at any time."
MINSK, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Belarusian elections for parliamentarians in the lower house concluded Sunday in the country's all 110 electoral districts with a turnout of nearly 75 percent, the Central Election Commission announced.

After midnight Sunday, initial results from the polls showed that candidates instead of those nominated by the government won in some districts.

The outcome of the current elections is expected to lead to the representation of opposition for the first time in 12 years in the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus.

Before Sunday, about one third of the Belarusian voters cast ballots during the early voting on Sept. 6-10, it is reported.
SEOUL, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's exports, which account for about half of the export-driven economy, turned downward in early September after rebounding in the previous month, customs data showed on Monday.

For the first 10 days of this month, exports reached 13.53 billion U.S. dollars, down 3.6 percent from the same period of last year, according to Korea Customs Service (KCS).

The overseas shipments grew 2.6 percent in August, rebounding in 20 months after keeping a downward trend from January 2015 through July this year.

The export slowdown in early September indicated a downturn this month again on worries that the court receivership filed by Hanjin Shipping, the country's largest container shipping line, may disrupt the transport of export items.

During the Sept. 1-10 period, shipments of auto parts and ships increased 8 percent and 19 percent each, but those for semiconductors, oil products and cars declined 5.2 percent, 5.7 percent and 30.8 percent respectively.

Exports of telecommunication devices, such as smartphones, tumbled 21.3 percent as Samsung Electronics decided on Sept. 2 to recall all of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones sold worldwide after reports that some of its batteries caught on fire while charging.

By country, exports to China's Hong Kong and Japan expanded 12.7 percent and 7.4 percent each, but those to China's mainland and the United States, South Korea's top two trading partners, slumped 9 percent and 13.4 percent respectively.
Children wearing traditional Kente Cloth attend the Kente Festival, a day dedicated for women and children in a village near Ho, capital of Volta Region in Ghana, on Sept. 7, 2016. (Xinhua/Shi Song)

HO, Ghana, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Ghana's rich and diverse culture was on display as thousands converged in the small southeastern town of Agotime Kpetoe over the weekend for the annual celebration of the rich hand-woven African Kente fabric.

The durbar of the chiefs and people of Agotime started with majority of the over 5,000 people present clothed in rich and expensive Kente clothes sewn in different styles.

There was traditional prayer through libation to invoke the presence of the spirits of the ancestors of the land. The traditional rulers wore expensive beads and gold necklaces and wrist bands.

Weavers demonstrated the act of weaving to show the care and pain it takes to make one complete kente fabric on parade. Besides, numerous of dancers performed with various forms of traditional African drumming and music.

Children wearing traditional Kente Cloth dance during the Kente Festival on Sept. 7, 2016. (Xinhua/Zhao Shuting)

Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare, who was the Special Guest of Honor, reiterated the fact that Ghana's tourism sector is a potential gold mine for the country.

"Ghana's tourism, culture and creative arts have the potential to become the number one foreign exchange earner. This requires an injection of investment to develop our products and sites," she said.

The minister appealed to strategic partners and collaborators in the private sector to take advantage of the investment opportunities that exist in the tourism industry to help it grow.

She also observed that Kente weaving is the major source of livelihood amongst the people of Agotime which therefore behoves all to preserve the uniqueness of the Kente cloth to ensure the sustainability of the Kente weaving industry in Agotime and surrounding areas.

"There is no better way to project the cultural values of Kente than by instituting this festival which brings all Agotime citizens from far and near to Kpetoe, clad in their resplendent Kente cloths to discuss the development of the traditional area," the minister noted.

She took the time to appeal to the youth of Agotime not to leave their ancestral community in droves to the urban areas for jobs, stressing, "The youth can make a living here by engaging in agriculture and Kente weaving, both of which are lucrative ventures to be engaged in."

The theme for this year's celebration, the 21st since its inception, is "Projecting the Cultural Values of Kente for Unity and Development."

Nene Nuer Keteku II, Konor (Traditional Ruler) of Agortime Traditional Area, noted that the Kente fabric is the true cultural identity of his people.

"Without our cultural identity we are like the leopard without spot. The Kente cloth as the melting pot of our identity is not just a body attire. The designs encapsulate important aspects of our philosophy in the same way they invoke pride and strong feelings," he stressed.
KABUL, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The ongoing peace efforts to reach agreement with the Hekmatyar-led Islamic Party the Hizb-e-Islami would soon be finalized to bolster the national reconciliation in the militancy-plagued Afghanistan, Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani said in his message to congratulate Eidul Adha, the Muslims largest annual festival celebrated on Monday.

"The much-awaited peace deal with Hizb-e-Islami would soon be finalized and we are hopeful to be the witness of ending the war, returning lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan," president Ghani said after offering Eidul Adha prayer here in Presidential Palace.

Peace talks between Hizb-e-Islami and the delegation of the government-backed peace body the High Peace Council (HPC) have been continuing over the past more than a year.

The radical Islamic party Hizb-e-Islami led by Gulbudin Hekmatyar is the third strongest insurgent groups in terms of fighting power after Taliban and Islamic State groups, has been fighting the Afghan government and the U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.

However, key leaders of the Hekmatyar-led Islamic party have already deserted the party rank and joined the government.

Afghan political observers believe that Hekmatyar-led group joining the peace process even though can't end the war in the war-riddled country can encourage other militants to follow the step and help reduce militancy in the country.

Afghan president in his speech also congratulated all Afghans and Muslims across the globe over Eidul Adha and wished to celebrate the day in peaceful environment.

Afghans have celebrated the Eidul Adha, the largest annual religious festival amid tight security and no untoward incident has been reported.
WELLINGTON, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- New Zealanders were urged to learn Mandarin or Cantonese on the opening of Chinese Language Week on Monday.

"China is one of New Zealand's largest trading partners. Our trade relationship with China has nearly tripled over the past decade to 23 billion NZ dollars (16.87 billion U.S. dollars) in June 2016," Ethnic Communities Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga said in a statement.

"In order to build relationships with trading partners, it is important that we better understand the culture and language. It is also important when you are trying to build social and political ties," he said.

"More New Zealanders should learn Mandarin or Cantonese so they can be part of the increasingly important Asian markets we trade with."

More than 172,000 ethnic Chinese now lived in New Zealand, and it was crucial to celebrate their successes and achievements, said Lotu-Iiga.

"When you learn the basics of another language you start to build a relationship with that culture. Chinese Language Week is held to encourage more New Zealanders to have a go at speaking Mandarin or Cantonese."

Co-chair of the New Zealand Chinese Language Trust Jo Coughlan said many New Zealanders would have never considered trying to speak Mandarin.

"It could be that it's perceived as being too difficult or it may be they don't know where to begin," Coughlan said.

"This week is about encouraging people to widen their horizons and showing them where they might find information to take the first step in learning Chinese."

Prime Minister John Key, Chinese Ambassador to New Zealand Wang Lutong, and New Zealand Ambassador to China John McKinnon have voiced support for the week.

Events during the week include calligraphy workshops, Peking Opera performances and a Chinese Short Film Contest for schools in the largest city of Auckland.

New Zealand's Chinese Language Week runs until Sept. 18. Enditem
SARIPUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Security forces have gunned down a would-be suicide bomber in Saripul city, 350 km north of Kabul, capital of Afghanistan on Monday, provincial governor Mohammad Zahir Wahdat said.

"A terrorist who tied explosive device in his body and was attempting to target the governor was shot dead by security forces and his vicious design has been foiled," governor Wahdat told reporters here.

According to the official, the terrorist wanted to blow himself up on the way where the governor along with his team was going to a mosque to offer Eidul Adha prayer.

Afghans offered prayers for Eidul Adha, the largest annual religious festival amid tight security across the country on Monday.
Zimbabwe's Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko (R) meets with visiting Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi in Harare, capital of Zimbabwe, Feb. 9, 2015. (Xinhua/Xu Lingui)

HARARE, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe has called on Chinese and international investors to invest in the country as it is undertaking ease-of-doing-business reforms to make the country attractive to foreign investment, a senior official has said.

Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko made the remarks at the 19th China International Fair for Investment and Trade, which concluded on Sunday in Xiamen City, southeast China's Fujian Province.

Mphoko led a high-level delegation comprising senior officials and small to medium-scale enterprise representatives there.

"My country Zimbabwe has opportunities in agriculture, mining, tourism, and infrastructure development that we are ready to discuss with interested investors," the vice president was quoted as saying by the state-run Herald newspaper.

While China is one of the few countries bankrolling infrastructure development projects running into billions of dollars after the West imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe, foreign investment into the southern African country has been significantly lower in recent years, averaging around 400 million U.S. dollars per year.

Zimbabwe is currently ranked 155 out of 189 countries in the World Bank ease-of-doing-business index for 2015 and has, with technical support from the World Bank, stepped up reform efforts in the last months to improve the investment climate and boost foreign investment.

The VP said Zimbabwe was ready to engage Chinese companies on a win-win basis in value addition projects.

He also thanked China's National Development and Reform Commission for its support towards the revitalization of Zimbabwe's production capacity under a framework signed last year.

Zimbabwe, he said, stood ready to work with Chinese firms in production sectors including special economic zones and industrial parks that Zimbabwe intends to set up in order to boost industrialization in the country.

Trade Minister Mike Bimha said Zimbabwe was keen to attract more foreign direct investment and technology transfer from China.

"As the second largest economy in the world, China is well placed to contribute to the industrialization and development of Zimbabwe," he said.

Chinese companies could partner Zimbabwe in implementing its five-year economic blueprint ending in 2018 through investment in various projects, the minister added.
By Muhammad Tahir

ISLAMABAD, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan has introduced a draft of proposed reforms to be discussed in parliament to bring the insurgency-hit tribal regions into the national mainstream.

The seven Federally Administered Tribal Areas or FATA, inhabited by nearly 5 million people, are currently governed directly by the federal government through a governor and the reforms, in part, propose integrating the FATA into the adjacent northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.

Such reforms, observers have said, are long overdue as the tribal regions have been plagued by insurgency for years with the state having little control over large swathes of its territory. Dozens of Pakistani international militant groups have hideouts in the lawless areas and have been challenging the law of the state and endangering national and international security.

People in the tribal areas, who have been upset at the region's reputation as being synonymous with terrorism, backed the government's plan to introduce the reforms when the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had formed a high level committee in November last year to suggest reforms.

Insurgent groups in the tribal regions began to mushroom after militants in Afghanistan started crossing the border into Pakistani tribal regions in the wake of the U.S. military action against the Afghan Taliban in late 2001. The fleeing militants took advantage of the loose border control and the absence of the Pakistani forces along the border with Afghanistan at that time.

As there had been no significant troops deployment in the tribal areas, the militants strengthened their strongholds and essentially took control of the regions, with the local administrations powerless to exert any authority.

The Pakistani military launched a limited operation in parts of the South Waziristan tribal region, the birthplace of the Pakistani Taliban group, in 2003, however, it could not achieve its objectives and the government had to sign a peace deal with the top Taliban commander Nek Muhammad in 2004.

The tribal lawmakers, who had also tabled their own legislation in parliament for reforms, threw their weight behind the government's move.

"We will fully support the reforms when the parliament opens debate," Ghazi Gulab Jamal, a member of the National Assembly, in the lower house of the parliament, told Xinhua in an interview.

Jamal, a former minister and member of parliament from the Orakzai tribal area, said that the government has included recommendations from the tribal lawmakers in the report.

Senator Hidayatullah Khan from the Bajaur tribal area, for his part, said that the reforms will bring an end to the sense of deprivation among the people in the tribal areas.

"The reforms will bring the tribal areas on a par with the rest of the country and the people will no longer feel alienated," Khan told Xinhua.

Political parties also hailed the reforms. Chairman of the FATA Political Alliance, Nisar Mohmand, has welcomed the merger of the tribal areas in KP, demanding the immediate implementation of the reforms. He said more than 70 percent of the people in tribal areas support the integration into KP.

Youths living in the tribal regions are also positive about the reforms as they are confident the move could help create more opportunities for them.

"As terrorism and violent extremism have badly affected the youth and their education, the reforms would pave the way for development, education and job opportunities," said Ibrahim Khan, a youngster from South Waziristan, who now studies at the International Islamic University Islamabad.

The reforms would be introduced in line with the anti-terrorism "National Action Plan" that was launched with the consensus of all political parties following the 2014 terrorist attack by the Taliban on an army-run school.

The most important aspect of the reforms is that the local "Rewaj" or traditions and "Jirgas" (council of elders) would remain prevalent in criminal and civil disputes.

The people, for the first time, would be allowed the right of appeal in the higher judiciary.

They were previously not allowed to appeal the decision of the local administrator, known as a political agent. The reforms being discussed would now see the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and High Court extended to the FATA.
BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- As China and Russia started on Monday an eight-day joint naval drill off the coast of south China's Guangdong Province, speculations are going rife that the military exercises are meant as a "sabre-rattling" event in the South China Sea."

Those susceptible to such speculations are either ill-informed about the fact that the joint naval drill has been an annual event since 2012 and that the ongoing drill takes place just off China's southern coast, or misled by their prejudice about China and Russia.

The drill, code-named "Joint Sea - 2016," comprises defense, rescue and anti-submarine operations, as well as island seizing activities, according to the Chinese Defense Ministry, which also said most of the Chinese soldiers participating in the event are from the South Sea Fleet.

A logical guess is that, for those who have bought the sensational claim regarding the drill, they probably only see words like "island seizing" and "South Sea Fleet" and start to imagine a war in the South China Sea.

They have fallen prey to the idea partly because earlier reports by Western news media almost unanimously wove some carefully chosen components into the background of the news of the China-Russia joint drill so as to deliver home a sensational impression.

By elaborating on a recent illegal South China Sea arbitration case pitting China against the Philippines, and perceived closer ties between Beijing and Moscow, such reports are intended to convince readers that China and Russia have enough motive to make the drill an occasion to flex military muscles against potential enemies.

However, the truth is that China and Russia have never wanted the routine drill to be a saber-rattling event but one that promotes maritime security and regional stability.

Unlike many other war games staged in the Asia-Pacific region, the joint drills focus on emergency response under multiple circumstances, instead of simulating an offensive against a third party.

The defensive nature of these maneuvers is in line with China's defence policy, which makes it clear that China will not be the first to strike. ' It may be true that growing military ties between Russia and China have irritated someone's sensitive nerves, but it is worth noting that excessive geo-political interpretation of a specific military drill is neither necessary nor justified.

China and Russia, both key players in global affairs, have a common interest in upholding peace in Asia and beyond, and they certainly welcome a constructive role by other stakeholders.
Officers and soldiers of Chinese Navy hold a welcome ceremony as a Russia n fleet arrive at a port in Zhanjiang, south China's Guangdong Province, Sept. 12, 2016. A Russian fleet arrived in Zhanjiang on Monday, with Chinese naval forces gathering for a joint drill. The "Joint Sea 2016" drill will go ahead between September 12 and 19 in the South China Sea , off Guangdong. (Xinhua/Zha Chunming)

BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- A Russian fleet arrived at a port in Zhanjiang in south China's Guangdong Province on Monday, with Chinese naval forces gathering for a joint drill.

The "Joint Sea 2016" drill will go ahead between September 12 and 19 in the South China Sea, off Guangdong.

Wang Hai, Chinese chief director of the exercise and deputy commander of the Chinese Navy, said that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the two sides establishing strategic cooperation.

The two sides have conducted six joint navy drills in five years, and the drill will enhance the abilities of both sides to counter common security threats, said Wang at the welcoming ceremony,

Chinese Navy spokesperson Liang Yang said the drill will feature the highest ever level of standardization, combat and digitalization in recent China-Russia drills.

Participants will undertake joint air defense, anti-submarine operations, landing, island-seizing, search and rescue, and weapon use.

The Russian Navy will bring three surface ships, two supply ships, two helicopters, 96 marines, as well as amphibious armored equipment.

Most of the Chinese forces will come from the Nanhai Fleet under the People's Liberation Army Navy, with some from the Beihai Fleet and Donghai Fleet.

A total of 10 ships from the Chinese Navy, including destroyers, frigates, landing ships, supply ships and submarines, will take part in the drill, as well as 11 fixed-wing aircraft, eight helicopters and 160 marines, as well as amphibious armored equipment.

According to a Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson in July, the drill will not target a third party.
RIYADH, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia said on Monday that the number of Muslims observing the hajj pilgrimage has exceeded 1.8 million, of which 1.3 million are foreigners, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

The SPA quoted the General Statistics Authority as saying that the number of domestic pilgrims has reached 537,537, most of whom are non-Saudis living in the country.

Saudi Arabia has taken strict security measures to protect the holy sites.
DUBAI, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Monday expressed concern over a bill adopted by the U.S. Congress that would allow 9/11 victims' families to sue the government of Saudi Arabia.

The legislation "represents a clear violation given its negative repercussions and dangerous precedents," state news agency WAM quoted UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan as saying in Abu Dhabi.

The minister said that the bill, adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives last Friday, months after the Senate approved the measure in May, was "not equal" with the foundations and principles of relations among states.

The bill, which would allow families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks to take legal actions against Saudi Arabia, a UAE neighbor and close political ally, is contrary to general liability rules and the principle of sovereignty enjoyed by states, the minister said.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers involved in the terror attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, outside Washington and in Pennsylvania, were Saudi nationals.

The government of Saudi Arabia, a major U.S. ally, has denied responsibility and expressed strong objections to the legislation.

Al-Nahyan, the top UAE diplomat, expressed the hope that the U.S. law would not be implemented, taking into consideration its "serious consequences."

The White House has said that President Barak Obama would veto the bill, arguing that the legislation could harm Washington's relationship with Saudi Arabia and put U.S. officials stationed overseas in jeopardy.
LAGOS, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed optimism that ongoing initiatives and strategies would help his administration get the nation's economy right as soon as possible.

In his Eid-el-Kabir message to citizens of the West African country on Monday, the Nigerian leader saluted the people for their steadfastness in spite of the difficult economic times confronting the country.

He said the government is working round the clock to address the current hardship the country is going through.

He attributed the economic recession to cumulative effects of worldwide economic downturn and failure in the past to plan and save for difficult times.

Buhari said development programs had been designed to reinvigorate the economy and enhance living standards of ordinary people.

These, according to the President, include rail and road constructions, housing sector projects, support for farmers in small and medium scale industries, youth and women empowerment programs and support for revival of industries.

"We are getting security right. We are stopping corruption in its tracks and we will get the economy right," he added.
MANILA, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Monday that U.S. special forces in southern Philippines should leave.

"The (United States) special forces, they have to go," said Duterte in a speech at the oath taking ceremony of newly appointed officials in the presidential palace.

The president said that during his attendance at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and Related Summits in Laos last week he wanted to mention the plan, but he did not raise this "out of respect."

"I do not want rift with America, but they have to go," he said.

Duterte said he wanted the U.S. forces to leave Mindanao because they might be targeted by the kidnap-for-ransom groups.

Earlier, the president has said the Philippines under his administration would pursue an independent foreign policy "without any interference" from any country.

In Vientiane, controversy hounded Duterte for making "strong remarks" against U.S. President Barack Obama in connection with comments made by U.S. officials on drug-related extrajudicial killings in the country.

Duterte's remarks prompted Obama to cancel a scheduled meeting with Duterte on the sidelines of the ASEAN meetings.
BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- China has urged all related parties in Syria to implement the ceasefire agreement and improve the situation in the country, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Monday.

Hua Chunying said that China welcomes the fact that Russia and the United States have reached a ceasefire agreement on Syria, saying that it is an important precondition for a political settlement.

Hua said that China calls on the international community to support the ceasefire agreement and create favorable conditions for resuming peace talks.
YINCHUAN, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- At around 9 a.m., Zhou Shengqi, 80, left the mosque in his village after prayers and returned to the house he has called home for more than 40 years. It is an important day for him, as 33 of his relatives have returned home for an annual family celebration.

On Monday, Muslims in China welcomed Corban Festival, also known as Eid al-Adha or the feast of the sacrifice, a three-day event centering around a large feast where a meal of lamb takes center stage.

Zhou lives in Mumin New Village in Wuzhong City, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The region is home to China's biggest concentration of Hui people, who are Muslims.

By the end of 2015, there were more than 2.4 million Hui people in Ningxia, about 36 percent of the region's population.

Zhou's house has a big courtyard, with an old, gnarled jujube tree in the middle. His grandchildren and great-grandchildren use a bamboo stick to try and knock the sweet fruit from its branches.

"Corban is one of the most important festivals for Muslims. I am so happy that most of my family have returned from the cities to break bread with me," said Zhou.

For this year's feast, Zhou has bought a cow and six lambs, which cost around 20,000 yuan (3,000 U.S. dollars). He wanted to make this day one to remember.

Zhou has the biggest family in the village. He has five daughters, a son, 13 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren, and three more on the way.

"It is very rare to have such a big gathering like ours in my village," according to Zhou's wife Ma Kaihua, 74.

"Each year everything about our Corban celebration gets bigger, the food, the celebrations, but most importantly, the family."

Mumin New Village is a typical Hui settlement, and 68 Hui families live there. It was enlisted as a national-level intangible cultural heritage site in 2007. The local government in 2011, selected some of the families as homestay hosts, who offer tourists bed and board in this unique village.

Zhou's family was one of those picked. His daughter-in-law and his granddaughter-in-law mainly take care of the family business throughout the year. They welcome around 400 visitors annually, guaranteeing a handsome income.

The once poverty-stricken family have seen their lives improve. Besides the homestay, Zhou's son and grandson also manage an auto repair center in the city. All of the family have good jobs in the city.

"My wife and I collect a pension worth about 3,000 yuan a month, so we are comfortable," Zhou said.

In 2004, Zhou went to Mecca for Haj. Three years later, his wife also went on the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, followed by their daughter and son-in-law.

"Such journeys would be impossible in the past because we just didn't have the money," Zhou said. "The government have made our dreams come true."

As he spoke, Zhou's daughters brought in cold cucumbers, rice, pancakes and beef with pickled vegetables, and the family gathered around the table for breakfast. The men of the family came in from preparing the cow and lambs and the women began to pass the dishes around the table, and the children giggled between mouthfuls of fruit.

"Breakfast is usually simple," said Zhou's other daughter Zhou Yuping, 45. "Our main meal will be ready at around 3 p.m."

"In my eyes, the meal is not the most important activity," Zhou Yuping said.

"What matters is that all of our family are here at our home, and that's what makes this day so meaningful for us."
BEIJING, Sep. 12 (Xinhua) -- China and Japan will hold the fifth round of high-level talks on maritime affairs Wednesday through Thursday, a foreign ministry spokesperson said Monday.

The talks, to be held in Hiroshima, Japan, will see officials from both countries in foreign affairs, defense, maritime law and marine management.

"The Chinese side hopes to exchange views on sea-related issues of common concern and enhance mutual trust with the Japanese side," spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a press briefing.




Photo taken on Aug. 31, 2016 shows a LED light show along the Qiantang River in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province. The 11th G20 summit was held in Hangzhou from Sept. 4 to 5. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Innovation and structural reform are key to recovery of the global economy, which is a prescription given by China at the 2016 Group of 20 (G20) summit for the world economy that has yet to recover from the global financial crisis in 2008.

INNOVATION

World leaders have agreed to raise mid-to-long term growth potential through innovative growth in the two-day G20 Summit concluded in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou on Sept. 5.

Consensus has been reached to encourage the creation of innovation ecosystems that catalyze creativity and support the combination of creative ideas with entrepreneurship, science and technology for innovative growth and job creation, according to the G20 Blueprint on Innovative Growth.

"The G20 Blueprint on Innovative Growth represents an ambitious agenda toward a new paradigm for growth based on knowledge and on new and cleaner technologies," Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer told Xinhua in an interview, "Many countries have, since the global financial crisis of 2008, relied too heavily on monetary and fiscal easing."

World leaders, international institutions, and company representatives have echoed the emphasis when attending the second "Investing in Africa Forum" held on Wedneasday in Guangdong which called for innovative ways to rejuvenate economic growth.

"I think innovation and making better use of technology is going to be very helpful. I've seen it in Africa," said Haleh Bridi, director of external communications and partnerships at the World Bank Africa region, while attending the forum.

Bridi said because of innovation, Africa has moved from being a continent where nobody has a phone to one where almost everybody uses a cell phone.

"This telephone revolution has really changed the face of Africa, and this can happen in so many other sectors, including in education, as you can get the top notch education online today," Bridi said.

STRUCTURAL REFORM

Since the global financial crisis broke out in 2008, there has been broad consensus that structural reforms are required to get the world economy back on track.

"There is widespread recognition that structural reforms are required," said BCG Chairman Hans-Paul Burkner in an interview with Xinhua.

Structural reform is key to higher productivity and potential output plays an essential role in achieving strong, sustainable and balanced growth, as well as promoting innovative growth, according to the G20 Blueprint on Innovative Growth.

The Group of 20 should use multiple policy tools including fiscal, monetary and structural reform to ward off short term risk and explore medium- and long-term growth potential, Chinese President Xi Jinping said at a press conference on Sept. 5.

The Business 20 Summit (B20) which concluded on Sept. 4 in Hangzhou also worked to discuss structural reforms to improve labor and capital deployment, as well as to create conducive environment to spur efficiency and innovation.
SEOUL, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Monday denounced the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s nuclear ambitions, describing it as "reckless and fanatic" adherence.

Park made the remarks when she held talks with the leaders of three major political parties to discuss how to address the DPRK's Sept. 9 nuclear test, according to Park's office. The meeting was held in the presidential office for about two hours.

The South Korean leader said the DPRK's fifth nuclear test was conducted during her series of trips to China, Russia and Laos where Park said she confirmed the international community's unified determination not to accept the DPRK as a nuclear state.

Pyongyang said on Friday that it successfully carried out an explosion test of nuclear warhead that can be mounted on ballistic missiles.

Park cut short her visit to Laos following the DPRK's fifth nuclear device test that happened just eight months after the fourth test in January.

"It clearly shows once again how reckless the North Korean (DPRK) regime is and how fanatically it adheres to a nuclear program," Park said, referring to the fifth test as a totally different pattern from previous tests that had been carried out every three years or so.

Pyongyang's first nuclear test was conducted in October 2006, followed by the second in May 2009 and the third in February 2013. The explosive yield has risen from 0.4 kiloton in the first test to 6 kilotons in the fourth and 10 kilotons in the fifth.

Park said South Korea is seeking to adopt stronger sanctions against the DPRK rapidly in cooperation with the international community.

In March, the UN Security Council introduced tougher-than-ever sanctions on Pyongyang over its fourth nuclear detonation in January and the launch in February of a long-range rocket. The DPRK is banned from any test of nuclear and ballistic missile technologies under UN Security Council resolutions.

Citing Pyongyang's claim that it successfully miniaturized nuclear warheads small enough to fit on ballistic missiles, Park said the DPRK's nuclear and missile programs are not a simple blackmail but an urgent, realistic threat targeting South Korea.

The DPRK has said it will continue to develop its nuclear capability despite increasing condemnation by the international community.
YANGON, Sept.12 (Xinhua) -- The recent 21st Century Panglong Peace Conference was a historical one, said the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) on Monday, one of Myanmar's non-signatories to the Nationwide Ceasefire Accord (NCA).

The UNFC hailed in its announcement the efforts of the president and the state counselor for successfully holding the event.

However, the UNFC pointed out that the peace process should continue further, pledging to work for the nationwide ceasefire and domestic peace for the emergence of genuine democratic federal union.

The UNFC also urged the military to find solutions through political dialogues and suspend the military actions in conflict areas.

The UNFC's central executive committee held a two-day emergence meeting in the weekend to review the current development of the peace process and political situation.

After the peace conference which ended on Sept. 3 , some minor clashes between the military and some ethnic armed groups still took place in Kachin state and Kayin state as locally reported.
BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- China and the Netherlands signed a social insurance agreement on Monday that will exempt company personnel sent to work in each other's countries from mandatory social insurance contributions.

The deal was signed in The Hague after three rounds of negotiations since November 2014, China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security announced.

The agreement will take effect following legal procedures in the two countries, the ministry said.

Without the agreement, Dutch citizens working in China have to participate in five insurance programs -- pension, medical, work-related injury, unemployment and maternity insurance -- in accordance with the law, and both employee and employer must contribute to the social insurance premiums.

According to Chinese rules, if a foreigner leaves China prior to reaching the statutory age for pension withdrawal, his or her social insurance personal account will be retained, and the contribution years will be calculated on a cumulative basis if he or she comes back to China to work again in the future.

The insurance premiums account for nearly 40 percent of a foreign employee's wage, but employees cannot receive pensions until they have paid premiums for a total of 15 years.

China has signed similar bilateral social insurance agreements with Germany, the Republic of Korea, Denmark, Finland, Canada and Switzerland, in addition to the Netherlands.
MANILA, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines said on Monday that it will accept the decision of the Indonesian government on the fate of a Filipino woman jailed in Indonesia on drug charges.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said in a statement that President Rodrigo Duterte has told Indonesian President Jokowi Widodo during their bilateral meeting in Jakarta last Friday "that he respects their judicial processes and will accept whatever the final decision they will arrive at regarding her case."

Yasay was referring to the case of Mary Jane Veloso who is on death row in Indonesian jail for allegedly smuggling heroin into Indonesia. She has maintained her innocence, saying she was an unknowing drug mule.

Indonesia gave her a last-minute reprieve in April last year.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella told a news conference that Duterte's "actual statement and conversation" with Widodo regarding Veloso went like this, "Follow your own law, I will not interfere."

He stressed that Duterte did not make any endorsement. "There was none, no categorical statement. There was no endorsement. He simply said, follow your own laws."

Duterte has refused to give details on his discussion with Widodo on Veloso's case.

Manila was forced to clarify its position on the case when news came out in the Jakarta Post that Duterte has given the "go ahead" if Veloso "were to be executed."

The reports quoted Widodo as saying, "I have already spoken to (Duterte) about Mary Jane's case. I said that Mary Jane brought 2.6 kilograms of heroin. And I also told him about the postponement of the execution. At the time, President Duterte said 'go ahead' if (Mary Jane) were to be executed."

But Yasay clarified that Duterte "has not given the so-called 'green light' to the execution of Veloso." He insisted that Veloso's execution "has been indefinitely deferred."
MOSCOW, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida discussed Monday in a telephone conversation the recent nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Russia stressed the need for faithful implementation of the U.N. Security Council resolutions, and the importance of "political and diplomatic settlement of the situation within the context of the overall military and political detente in Northeast Asia," the ministry said in a statement.

The DPRK's state-run television reported early Friday that the country had conducted a nuclear warhead explosion test. It was Pyongyang's fifth nuclear test, which followed the previous one by eight months.

The Russian Foreign Ministry reacted on Friday with a statement strongly condemning the test and confirming Moscow's readiness for a "very tight coordination of steps aiming to elaborate an international response to Pyongyang's provocative actions."
by Fatima AbdulKarim

RAMALLAH, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- After more than 66 years on the job, 91-year-old Fuad Shehadeh, the world's longest tenured lawyer, is still practicing his trade in one of the oldest buildings in downtown Ramallah in the firm established by his elder brother in 1935.

On May 31, the Guinness World Records recognized Shehadeh as the man with the longest career as a lawyer, serving till then 66 years and 187 days continuously, since Nov. 27, 1949.

Shehadeh, born on July 13, 1925, in Jerusalem, said his career actually started still earlier, in July or August of 1948, almost two months after the end of Britain's mandate over Palestine.

Due to the complications caused by the Nakba, or Catastrophe, in 1948, when Israel was established, the Guinness World Records was unable to confirm that as the starting point, Shehadeh told Xinhua in a recent interview.

In the library of the A. F. & R. Shehadeh Law Firm, where volumes of his publications were stored, Shedadeh recalled the early days of his career as an attorney.

"The courts were upside down and I had no files and no office," he said. "Therefore I did not have proof to Guinness that I started my practice in July or August in 1948."

Shehadeh said his parents were politically active during the British mandate of Palestine and that the years and long experience have humbled him, and thatt his youthful sense of humor brought him closer to the people.

"I consider it a good recognition, not an achievement because people expect achievement when they are at the beginning of their business life, but now I'm towards the end, not the beginning," Shehadeh said of the Guinness record. "I have enough achievements during my lifetime."

Over the years, Shehadeh said, he has worked on thousands of cases, representing many people and institutions, both local and international.

His law firm helped draft laws of the Palestinian National Authority, which was established following the 1993 Oslo Accords between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel, and by-laws and regulations of many government institutions and civil organizations.

Despite the achievements, Shehadeh said, his life was not free of personal tragedies, like the 1978 car accident that cost the sight of one of his eyes right away and the vision in both eyes several years later.

The impairment did not deter Shehadeh from working in the law firm, which was founded by his brother, Aziz, in the coastal city of Jaffa and moved to the family's hometown of Ramallah in 1950.

The firm is specialized in civil and commercial areas, but Shehadeh's commitment to his hometown's public issues remained one of his main priorities, especially at a time of political instability.

One of his assistants, Yazan Al-Masri, joined A. F. & R. Shehadeh five years ago, after he earned his bachelor's degree in law from the local Birzeit University.

Al-Masri said his pride in working with Shehadeh inspires him to dedicate to the legacy of his mentor.

"We usually start our day drinking coffee with Fuad Shehadeh, reviewing our work for the past period, discussing some issues," Al-Masri said. "I think he is really an icon... but he is also a good friend."

Shehadeh, who has turned down many offers to join the judiciary or the academia, said he would continue to come to his office for as long as he lives.

It is hope that has kept him going for these years, Shehadeh said.

"Every day we have hope that there will be a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli problem," he said. "Every day we have hopes that made our career as attorneys going on."

"I had terrible accidents," Shehadeh said. "I always recovered with the hope that I will start my life again for a long time."
SEOUL, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's opposition party chiefs on Monday expressed objections to the deployment of a U.S. missile shield in their homeland, calling for dialogue with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in their rare meeting with President Park Geun-hye.

Park met with the leaders of three major political parties for about two hours in the presidential office to discuss how to address the DPRK's fifth nuclear test, according to Park's office.

The meeting was attended by ruling Saenuri Party chairman Lee Jung-hyun, main opposition Minjoo Party chairwoman Choo Mi-ae and interim head of the minor opposition People's Party Park Jie-won as well as top presidential security advisor Kim Kwan-jin and ministers of foreign affairs and unification.

Asked directly by Park about whether to favor the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in South Korea, the People's Party chief expressed his clear objection to the THAAD deployment on the South Korean soil, he told reporters after the meeting with the president.

The Minjoo party chairwoman said the THAAD issue is not of military nature but of diplomatic one, telling the president that the U.S. missile defense system cannot protect South Korea from the DPRK's nuclear threats from a military perspective.

The chairwoman said close relations with China, South Korea's largest trading partner, can help save people's livelihood economically, according to local media reports.

Seoul and Washington agreed in July to install one THAAD battery in southeastern South Korea by the end of next year despite strong oppositions from China and Russia.

China and Russia have opposed the U.S. missile shield, of which X-band radar can peer deep into their territories, breaking strategic balance in the region and damage security interests of the two countries.

President Park and the three party leaders denounced the DPRK's fifth nuclear test with one voice, but they were divided over how to deal with the DPRK's nuclear and missile program.

Pyongyang said Friday that it successfully conducted an explosion test of nuclear warhead that can be mounted on ballistic missiles. Seoul's military estimated it is the "most powerful" nuclear detonation so far with a yeild of 10 kilotons, stronger than 6 kilotons recorded in the previous test in January.

The two opposition party chiefs called on President Park to resume talks with the DPRK, though they acknowledged the need for sanctions against Pyongyang.

The main opposition party chairwoman asked Park to send a special envoy to Pyongyang as part of dialogue efforts, but the president flatly rejected the proposal, saying it will allow the DPRK, which focuses only on advancing a nuclear capability, to buy time.

In her introductory remarks, President Park denounced the DPRK's nuclear ambitions as "reckless and fanatic" adherence. "It clearly shows once again how reckless the North Korean (DPRK) regime is and how fanatically it adheres to a nuclear (program)," Park said.

She said Pyongyang's fifth nuclear test showed a totally different pattern from previous tests that had been carried out every three years or so.

The DPRK's first atomic device test was conducted in October 2006, followed by the second in May 2009 and the third in February 2013. The explosive yield has risen from 0.4 kilotons in the first test to 6 kilotons in the fourth and 10 kilotons in the fifth.

Park said South Korea is seeking to adopt stronger sanctions toward the DPRK rapidly in cooperation with the international community.

In March, UN Security Council introduced tougher-than-ever sanctions on Pyongyang over its fourth nuclear detonation in January and the launch in February of a long-range rocket. The DPRK is banned from any test of nuclear and ballistic missile technologies under UN Security Council resolutions.

Citing Pyongyang's claim that it successfully miniaturized nuclear warheads small enough to fit on ballistic missiles, Park said the DPRK's nuclear and missile programs are not a simple blackmail but an urgent, realistic threat targeting South Korea.

The DPRK has said it will continue to develop its nuclear capability despite increasing condemnation by the international community.
VIENNA, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Austria's political parties have agreed that the re-run of the 2016 Austrian presidential election will be held on Dec. 4, a spokesperson of Austrian People's Party (OVP) told Xinhua on Monday.

The spokesperson said all parties in the Austrian parliament agreed on the date of the presidential vote.

The country's interior minister earlier the day said the president election is likely to be held on Nov. 27 or Dec. 4, as the faulty seals on ballot papers are not resolved yet.

Although the minister said himself would prefer Nov. 27, as there will be fewer festivals at the time, parties in the parliament agreed on Dec. 4, probably buying time for the legislation concerning the amendment of the electoral law.

The decision has not been officially announced by the government, with the interior ministry saying time is still needed.

The parliament would soon convene to work on the electoral law this week.

Austria's Constitutional Court overturned the results of the country presidential election earlier this year, citing irregularities of the postal ballots. The postal cards played an important role in the vote, helping the independent candidate Alexander Van Der Bellen beat the right-wing Freedom Party (FPO) candidate Norbert Hofer.

Hofer lost the vote to Van Der Bellen by less than one percentage point, and the FPO challenged the result of the vote.
BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- A national inspection has found that schools in rural areas still face food safety risks, the Ministry of Education said Monday.

The inspection, conducted by the office of national education inspection for the State Council, targeted 143 primary and secondary schools in rural areas in 18 provinces, including Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Jilin.

Some school canteens have problems with disinfection or washing dishes, while others fail to meet food storage and safety requirements, said the ministry, adding that staff in some schools lacked awareness of food safety.

The ministry urged local authorities to strengthen the monitoring of food safety to spot potential safety risks in rural schools.
NAIROBI, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- At least two people were injured after aircraft crashed within Ngong in the outskirts of Nairobi on Monday.

Ngong Criminal Investigation Department Commander Richard Bittok said a trainer and his instructor were injured in the 10:00 am incident involving Cessna 152 aircraft registration 5Y-NNC belonging to Ninety-Nines Flying School.

"Both have been collected by flying doctors to the hospital but they are in good condition," said Bittock.

The two had taken off from Wilson Airport for training sessions when the plane went down few minutes later. Police said the two were later picked up to hospital after the plane overturned at a maize field.

The latest incident comes days after four officers were injured after a brand-new Agusta Westland 139 police helicopter crashed in Nairobi's Mathare slums.

The chopper, which was unveiled in April at the National Police Service Airwing, was badly damaged. Police said the four officers on board were on routine patrols in the city when the incident happened.

On Sept. 8, a woman was killed and five others injured when a light aircraft burst into flames after taking off at the Naivasha airstrip.
BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The profit decline posted by China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) narrowed during the first seven months of the year, official data showed Monday.

Profits fell 6.5 percent year on year to 1.31 trillion yuan (around 195.8 billion U.S. dollars) during the January to July period, according to a statement by the Ministry of Finance.

The pace of decline was slower than the 8.5-percent drop registered in the first half.

SOEs fared better and their profits showed signs of stabilizing, the statement said.

Profits of SOEs under central government control dropped 9 percent while those of locally-administered SOEs edged down 0.3 percent compared with one year earlier.

SOE revenues edged up 0.2 percent to 24.88 trillion yuan, compared with a 0.1-percent drop in the first half.

SOEs in the coal, transportation, property development and pharmaceutical industries posted substantial profit growth, while the oil, petrochemical and tobacco sectors reported a plunge in profits. Steel and non-ferrous metal companies suffered losses.

An economic downturn, which trimmed China's economic growth to 6.7 percent in the first half, has put pressure on SOEs, which are at the forefront of an official drive to reform the country's growth model and cut overcapacity.
SHANGHAI, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- A man who was allegedly behind a Shanghai airport explosion three months ago has been arrested, local procurators said on Monday.

The warrant of the arrest of Zhou Xingbai was issued by the people's procuratorate of Shanghai's Pudong District.

Zhou, 29, allegedly threw a homemade explosive device in a beer bottle at a check-in counter in Terminal 2 at Shanghai Pudong International Airport at around 2 p.m. on June 12, injuring three passengers.

Zhou cut his own throat with a knife at the airport, but was taken to the hospital for medical treatment, according to police.

Hailing from Tongren City in southwest China's Guizhou Province, he became a migrant worker in 2006 after finishing middle school.

According to police, he has been addicted to online gambling since 2014, leading him to squander his savings and take on heavy debt.

Zhou wrote on his WeChat account that he owed many people money, and was going to do something "very crazy" that would cost his life.

Police said they found explosives used to make firecrackers in Zhou's house.
BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- State Councilor Yang Jing said on Monday that the current State Council nationwide inspection should focus on maintaining steady economic development and advancing supply-side structural reform.

Priorities of the nationwide inspection should also include the implementation of innovation-driven development and polices to improve people's well-being, said Yang, who chaired a meeting on the inspection.

The nationwide inspection should be in-depth, efficient and effective to ensure completion of major economic and social development tasks this year, he said.

Yang said that the inspection will target 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps and 30 departments under the State Council.

The State Council recently began an inspection, the third of its kind since 2014, of prominent problems in government performance and economic development.
RIYADH, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on Monday expressed concern about a bill adopted by the U.S. Congress that would allow 9/11 victims' families to sue the government of Saudi Arabia, Saudi Press Agency reported.

The bill, which would allow families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks to take legal actions against Saudi Arabia, flagrantly contradicts the firm principles of international law, particularly the principle of equality of sovereignty among countries of the world as stated in the United Nations Charter, the GCC said in a statement.

Abdullatif bin Rashed Al-Zayani, secretary general of the GCC, said undermining such principles would inflict negative repercussion on relations between countries, including the U.S., in addition to the international economic harms that would arise from enacting such a bill.

He said that the GCC countries are gearing forward to see the U.S. not adopting this legislation which would otherwise establish a flagrant precedent in international relations as it embodies instigation of chaos, instability in world relations and dragging the world order backwards.

The bill was adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives last Friday, months after the Senate approved the measure in May.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers involved in the terror attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, outside Washington and in Pennsylvania, were Saudi nationals.

The government of Saudi Arabia has denied responsibility and expressed strong objections to the U.S. legislation.

The White House has said that President Barak Obama would veto the bill, arguing that the legislation could harm Washington's relationship with Saudi Arabia and put U.S. officials stationed overseas in jeopardy.
NANNING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Jin Ningyun, chairman of Guangxi Construction Engineering Group, hopes to, literally, achieve sweet results at the ongoing China-ASEAN Expo: deals to build three sugar refineries in Thailand.

The agreements will be signed after a previous sugar factory funded by his company proved a success in Uthai Thani, Thailand.

"The factory now produces about 12,000 tonnes of sugar every day. We provide all the technology and Thailand provides sugarcanes," said Jin.

Its products not only target Thai consumers but also hit the market for the whole of ASEAN, said Qin Yang, an expert with the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

In addition to Thailand, Guangxi Construction Engineering Group is considering investment in Indonesia, Laos and Cambodia, said Jin.

Industrial capacity cooperation is one of the most discussed issues at the 13th China-ASEAN Expo, which has attracted more than 2,500 companies from 29 countries to the border region of Guangxi.

"China is ready to actively push industrial capacity cooperation with ASEAN on a voluntary, equal and mutually beneficial basis," said Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli at the event running from Sunday to Wednesday.

The cooperation can be carried out by means of direct investment, project outsourcing, technological cooperation and trade of equipment,Zhang said.

China encourages the export of advanced, affordable and eco-friendly industrial capacities to countries that need them, said Ning Jizhe, vice director of the National Development and Reform Commission.

"China prioritizes ASEAN in industrial capacity cooperation," said Ning.

China is ASEAN's largest trading partner and the bloc is China's third largest trading partner.

So far, more than 300 China-funded enterprises have been set up in 26 economic cooperation zones in eight ASEAN countries, investing a total of 1.77 billion U.S. dollars.

Last week, China and ASEAN issued a joint declaration in Vientiane, Laos, agreeing to support industrial capacity cooperation to boost economic ties and create a positive environment for foreign investors.

Such cooperation can help match supply and demand for countries at different development stages and with different advantages, said Gao Yan, Vice Minister of Commerce, at the expo.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen believes there is much potential for China-ASEAN cooperation and has encouraged Chinese investment in ASEAN countries.

Malaysia is willing to conduct research and development with China and share their results and experiences of "Made in China 2025," a drive to upgrade manufacturing, said Malaysian Second Minister of International Trade and Industry, Ong Ka Chuan.

Despite bright prospects, there remain many challenges, said Yang Xiuping, secretary-general of the ASEAN-China Center, an intergovernmental organization.P "Chinese enterprises need to adapt themselves to overseas markets and some ASEAN countries need to adjust their laws and regulations," said Yang.

ASEAN and China should do more things concretely not just conceptually, said Datuk Supperamaniam, former Ambassador of Malaysia to the World Trade Organization.

In his view, a sailing ship must have a destination, and now that destination is industrial capacity cooperation.




Zhang Dejiang (R), chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC), meets with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 12, 2016. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Top Chinese legislator Zhang Dejiang met with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Monday, vowing to promote the healthy and stable development of bilateral ties.

Zhang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), said the exchange of visits between General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Xi Jinping and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong last year has offered a sound fresh start for bilateral relations.

The two sides have reached important consensus on deepening bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperation, he said, saying China is willing to work with Vietnam to push forward the long-term and healthy development of bilateral ties.

The NPC is ready to strengthen cooperation with the National Assembly (NA) of Vietnam, he said, calling on the two sides to share experience on state governance and legislative supervision.

Phuc said Vietnam attaches great importance to the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership with China as well as exchanges and cooperation between the legislative bodies of the two countries.

Vietnam is ready to work with China to cement friendship and deepen pragmatic cooperation to achieve mutual benefits, he said.

Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, also met with the Vietnamese prime minister on Monday.

Yu said the CPPCC attaches great importance to the friendly and cooperative relations with the Fatherland Front of Vietnam and is willing to maintain close exchanges with Vietnam to promote bilateral friendship.

Enhancing its friendship and developing strategic cooperation with China have always been priorities for Vietnam's foreign policy, said Phuc.

He spoke highly of the cooperation between the Fatherland Front of Vietnam and the CPPCC and said he hopes the two sides will deepen their cooperation.

Phuc is on an official visit to China from Sept. 10 to 15 at the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.
Officers and soldiers of Chinese Navy hold a welcome ceremony as a Russia n fleet arrive at a port in Zhanjiang, south China's Guangdong Province, Sept. 12, 2016. A Russian fleet arrived in Zhanjiang on Monday, with Chinese naval forces gathering for a joint drill. The "Joint Sea 2016" drill will go ahead between September 12 and 19 in the South China Sea , off Guangdong. (Xinhua/Zha Chunming)

ZHANJIANG, Guangdong, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- A Russian fleet arrived at a port in Zhanjiang in south China's Guangdong Province on Monday, with Chinese naval forces gathering for a joint drill.

The "Joint Sea 2016" drill will go ahead between Sept. 12 and 19 in the South China Sea, off Guangdong.

Wang Hai, Chinese chief director of the exercise and deputy commander of the Chinese Navy, said that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the two sides establishing strategic cooperation.

The two sides have conducted six joint navy drills in five years, and the drill will enhance the abilities of both sides to counter common security threats, said Wang at the welcoming ceremony.

Chinese Navy spokesperson Liang Yang said the drill will feature the highest level of standardization, combat and digitalization in recent China-Russia drills.

Participants will undertake joint air defense, anti-submarine operations, landing, island-seizing, search and rescue, and weapon use.

The Russian Navy will bring three surface ships, two supply ships, two helicopters, 96 marines, as well as amphibious armored equipment.

Most of the Chinese forces come from the Nanhai Fleet under the People's Liberation Army Navy, with some from the Beihai Fleet and Donghai Fleet.

A total of 10 ships from the Chinese Navy, including destroyers, frigates, landing ships, supply ships and submarines, will take part in the drill, as well as 11 fixed-wing aircraft, eight helicopters and 160 marines, and amphibious armored equipment.

According to a Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson in July, the drill will not target a third party.

Liang said the joint navy drill will feature in-depth coordination between the navies of the two countries.

The drill will make use of a China-Russia joint command information system for the first time, Liang said, adding that the system is capable of sending, receiving and sharing information among all command posts and combat units at all levels.p The paperwork and command processes during the drill will be standardized and optimized to make organizational work more effective, the spokesperson said.

Liang said the "deep coordination at a high level" between the two countries' navies will further deepen practical cooperation, promote friendship and enhance mutual trust between the two navies.

Related:

Chinese military aircraft in West Pacific for combat simulation drill

BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Air Force on Monday sent multiple aircraft models to the West Pacific, via the Bashi Strait, for a routine combat simulation drill at sea, a spokesperson said.
BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Air Force on Monday sent multiple aircraft models to the West Pacific, via the Bashi Strait, for a routine combat simulation drill at sea, a spokesperson said.

Shen Jinke, spokesperson of the People's Liberation Army Air Force, said the fleet included H-6K bombers, Su-30 fighters, and air tankers.

The fleet conducted reconnaissance and early warning, sea surface cruising, inflight refueling, and achieved all the drill's targets.

The drill was a routine arrangement as part of the Air Force's annual training plan, and conformed to international law and practice, said Shen.

Drills at sea are common practices of coastal countries and a requirement of Chinese defense. The Chinese Air Force will organize drills at sea, off island chains at regular basis, Shen said.

The Air Force will focus on improving the quality of combat simulation drills, flying over island chains, controlling the East China Sea and cruising the South China Sea. It will also improve capability in plateau areas.

The Air Force will also speed up its advanced new military equipment system in a bid to promote strategic transformation, Shen said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomes Argentine President Mauricio Macri before the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, Sept. 4, 2016. (Xinhua/Ma Zhancheng)

BUENOS AIRES, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra sees China as a "strategic partner" with a "long-term vision."

She made the remark in an interview published Sunday with Argentina's prestigious daily Clarin.

"China is a new strategic partner. When you establish a connection with new strategic partners, you have to understand them and know how they function," she said, referring to the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries since 2014.

Malcorra spoke highly of China's capacity to make plans and set goals in the long term.

"China has a very long-term vision. They see their partnerships not for what is going to happen in the next five to 10 years, but in 50 years," she said.

She thinks that as a leading agricultural exporter, Argentina can serve as a key partner of China.

"It is clear that food security is central to them, which underlines the importance of Latin America in general, and of Argentina in particular," she noted.

Malcorra acknowledged Argentina has a natural tendency to pursue ties with Europe due to historical reasons, but China's overtures have facilitated bilateral relationship in a way that European countries have not.

"China is much more open, more flexible and more willing," she said, and that its "attitude makes it easier for us to make progress before we make progress with Europe" in developing ties, said Malcorra.

Argentina is expected to host the Group of 20 (G20) major economies summit in 2018, coming after Germany in 2017 and China in 2016.

"Forming part of a troika with Germany and China is very meaningful for us. It allows us to work on global policies," said Malcorra, who expects close consultations with both China and Germany.

"We are beginning to outline the topics for 2018 ... and the fact that China is part of the troika provides us with another channel for communication," she said.

Education may be on top of the agenda Argentina will set for the 2018 G20 summit, she said, due to its absence in the past.

The 2016 G20 summit held on Sept. 4-5 in Hangzhou, east China, concluded with the adoption of a statement outlining the group's direction and development goals, and with the Hangzhou Consensus on facilitating global economic growth by taking comprehensive, open, innovative and inclusive long-term steps.

Argentine President Mauricio Macri has commented the G20 summit in Hangzhou as "impressive and huge."

Argentine experts regard the Argentine hosting of G20 summit as a challenge, citing coordinations at the international and national levels, or seeking to contribute in a substantive and original way to the G20 summit agenda.

In addition, they think that it will serve as an opportunity to build a foreign policy which reflects Argentina's potential.

"It is a fantastic opportunity to continue recovering prestige and strengthen the impact of Argentina's foreign policy," Patricio Carmody, an Argentine international relations expert, has told Argentina's La Nacion daily.
Zhi Shuping, director of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) of China, reads a congratulatory letter by Chinese President Xi Jinping to the 39th General Assembly of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 12, 2016. The opening ceremony of the meeting was held in Beijing on Monday. (Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei)

BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping said the country is willing to cooperate with other countries on improving international standards.

China will proactively implement a strategy on standardization to make standards drive innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development, Xi said in a congratulatory letter to the 39th General Assembly of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

The opening ceremony of the meeting was held in Beijing on Monday.

International standards provide specifications for products, services and systems to ensure quality, safety and efficiency.

Xi said that amid deepening globalization, standardization plays an increasingly important role in facilitating trade, boosting industrial development and technological innovation, and improving social governance.

China is willing to deepen cooperation with other countries and enhance exchanges to improve the international standards system, he noted.

Founded in 1947, ISO is the world's largest developer and publisher of international standards. It has published over 21,000 international standards covering almost every aspect of technology and manufacturing.

Xi said international standards form the technological basis of the global governance system and international economic and trade cooperation. As the world's most authoritative organization for publishing international standards, ISO's publications have global recognition.

He called on the meeting participants to consider how standardization should play a positive role in improving global governance and promoting sustainable development.

The 39th General Assembly of the ISO is being held in Beijing from Sept. 9 to 14. Nearly 700 delegates from 163 ISO members and more than 20 regional and international organizations are attending the meeting.
Children interact with a robot during an innovation, entrepreneurship and makers' achievement exhibition in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, July 31, 2016. Robots, VR techniques, 3D printing and some other innovation products were displayed at the two-day exhibition with the participation of more than 300 enterprises. (Xinhua/Liang Xiaopeng)

LIMA, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Technological innovations have sparked a new industrial revolution, and people need to keep up with these developments to understand both opportunities and challenges they pose, according to a leading Spanish academic and advisor.

Alberto Andreu, an associate professor with University of Navarra School of Economics and Business Administration based in Pamplona, Spain, shared his opinions with Xinhua on Saturday about the fast pace of technological transformations.

"The digital revolution is already disrupting all industries and all sectors, starting with the sector of media and the sector of culture, and it will finally take us to the sector of employment," said Andreu.

The Spanish expert was in the Peruvian capital over the weekend to attend a United Nations Global Compact business forum on promoting sustainability and corporate responsibility.

Changes are happening so steadily and fast all over the world, and at the same time it is impossible to measure its impact on human activities, he said.

Yet, "innovation is the lever for the future," he said. "The digital and industrial revolution we are in is going to transform the world much more rapidly than we are capable of grasping."

Robots take part in a skill contest during an innovation event in Qinhuangdao, north China's Hebei Province, Aug. 23, 2016. A 2-day innovation event for college students in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei was held here on Tuesday, in which more than 20 colleges took part. (Xinhua/Yang Shiyao)

One clear example, he said, is the prevalence of smart phones, used by people around the globe, regardless of their social or economic backgrounds.

With a smartphone, "a citizen in some way has power in his hands," as it makes it easier to get work done, to communicate and to connect with people across the world, in a way that was never available.

"He has the power to make a purchase, to denounce someone, to connect socially, to post content, to share content and, as a result, innovation is becoming the motor of future development," said Andreu.

In this sense, technology has empowered users, but the rise of automation, especially the growing use of robots in different areas of production, could present the society with one of its biggest challenges, said Andreu.

"Innovation and artificial intelligence are going to generate enormous opportunities, but we have to be aware of the scope and limits of the technological revolution to be able to make rational use of these new resources," he noted.
Meng Jianzhu, head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, meets with Daniel Jean, national security advisor to the Canadian Prime Minister, who is here for the first China-Canada High-Level National Security and Rule of Law Dialogue, in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 12, 2016. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao)

BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- China and Canada on Monday pledged to strengthen security cooperation at a high-level dialogue held in Beijing.

It was the first China-Canada High-Level National Security and Rule of Law Dialogue, a mechanism established during Canadian Prime minister Justin Trudeau's visit to China from late August to early September.

According to a joint statement released after the meeting, the two sides exchanged views on fighting terrorism, cyber crime, organized crime, consular affairs and other issues.

The two sides have confirmed their future cooperation framework. Some common goals are expected to be reached under the framework, such as initiating a discussion on an extradition treaty and finalizing an agreement on sharing and returning recovered assets.

The dialogue was co-chaired by Wang Yongqing, secretary-general of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and Daniel Jean, National Security Advisor to the Canadian Prime Minister.

After the dialogue, Meng Jianzhu, head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee, met with Jean. Meng said he hopes cooperation in security and legal affairs, which has become an integral part of the China-Canada relationship, will become a new bright spot in the development of bilateral ties.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta speaks during the official launching of the Jubilee Party ahead of the 2017 general elections in Nairobi, Sept. 10, 2016. (Xinhua/Nyalwash)

By Bedah Mengo

NAIROBI, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's political landscape is set to change radically following the merger of several parties to form one homogenous outfit known as Jubilee, on which President Uhuru Kenyatta will seek re-election in next year's polls.

About 12 small parties agreed to dissolve this week to form Jubilee Party, which the President launched Saturday.

President Kenyatta, while speaking at the event to formalize the new party in Nairobi, said Kenya has no choice but to unite to avoid tragic consequences.

"We have in the past fallen prey to divisions based on ethnicity and religion to serve the interest of a few. Ethnic differences in Africa become political differences, with poverty and hatred being the consequences," he said, adding Kenya nearly disintegrated in 2008 due to ethnicity.

He said the Jubilee Party has one sole purpose in the East African country, which is to bring people together for development of the nation.

"We will grow as a party to embrace all and bring the nation together. We will promote internal democracy; every shed of opinion will have space in the party and everyone despite their ethnicity, colour and shape will call it home," he said, noting Kenyans are tired of tribal political enclaves.

Following the launch of President Kenyatta's Jubilee Party, the East African nation would now have two major outfits namely Jubilee and Cord, an alliance of small parties that form the Opposition under leader Raila Odinga.

"Politics is no longer going to be the same in Kenya, it is either one is in the ruling Jubilee Party or Opposition Cord. This would be clear as the country heads towards the elections. There would be little or no small parties," said Henry Wandera, an economics lecturer and political analyst in Nairobi.

According to him, only candidates that would be nominated under Cord and Jubilee in regions that they command support would stand a chance to be elected governor, MPs, senators and woman representatives.

"Once elected, there would be little chance for leaders to differ with their parties and associate with others and still remain in Parliament under the same ticket as it has been the case. That means Kenyans will see some discipline in parties as it were years ago. The recent passage of law to bar party hopping would help entrench this," he said.

While this may be good for the bigger parties, Wandera believes in the long-run it may stifle democracy and kill smaller outfits.

"Smaller parties have in the past been the biggest beneficiaries of fallout in bigger parties by some candidates defecting once they lose nominations. But this would no longer be the case as candidates are barred from decamping last-minute to other parties. With their resources, the bigger parties, therefore, would dominate politics killing smaller parties and even independent candidacy."

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta (R) and Deputy President William Ruto shake hands during the official launching of the Jubilee Party. (Xinhua/John Okoyo)

Jubilee Party leaders, however, insist that their outfit is going to unite the country, which is currently deeply divided.

"We have started the journey to unite the country. We have brought together different political parties and Kenyans from all across the country to unite. This event is a culmination of many years of nationalist and social transformative agenda for our country," said Deputy President William Ruto.

Some critics, however, have dismissed the political developments in the country, particularly the formation of Jubilee Party, noting a similar thing happened in 2008, where former President Mwai Kibaki formed the Party of National Unity, which collapsed soon as he ascended to power.

"To me nothing has changed. This is akin to wildebeests temporary migration stampede to eat fresh grass across the river before return with many casualties. The bedrock of Kenya politics should be inclusive economy and strengthening of devolution," said Ndung'u Wainaina, a human rights activist.
BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Monday exchanged views over phone on the recent nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and a new U.S.-Russia deal on cease-fire in Syria.

In the phone conversation, Wang said that China strongly urges the DPRK and the related parties to keep calm and exercise restraint and refrain from taking any new action again that would escalate the tension.

China strongly urges the DPRK and the related parties to earnestly abide by and implement the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions, make efforts to resume and restart the dialogue process, and effectively control the current situation on the peninsula.

The DPRK's state-run television reported early Friday that the country had conducted a nuclear warhead explosion test. It was Pyongyang's fifth nuclear test.

On the Syria issue, Wang said that China welcomes the fresh U.S.-Russian agreement on a nationwide cease-fire in Syria, and hopes the agreement will be implemented and pave the way for a political solution to the Syria issue.

The Chinese foreign minister said that China is willing to strengthen cooperation with Russia over major international and regional issues.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Lavrov announced in Geneva on Saturday a landmark agreement on a nationwide cease-fire in Syria, which they hope would lead to their countries' military cooperation to end more than five years of bloodshed there.

In the phone conversation, Lavrov said that Russia agrees with China's stance on the Korean peninsula and Russia is willing to keep close contact and coordination with China to jointly cope with any new situation change and maintain peace and stability on the peninsula.
ULAN BATOR, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Mongolian police said on Monday they have detained two men as suspects in the murder of a British paraglider pilot in Arkhangai Province in central Mongolia.

Baatarkhuu Buyant, Chief of the Media Office of the General Police Authority of Mongolia, said that the body of the British paraglider pilot Steve Nash was found in Arkhangai Province on Sept. 1 and that police have detained two men in relation to the murder.

Currently, investigators from the Serious Crimes Department of Mongolian Criminal Investigation Authority have been despatched to Arkhangai Province to conduct joint investigation with local police.

Baatarkhuu refused to disclose further information about the case.

Local media Eagle TV reported on its website that Steve Nash was stabbed in the chest by sharp objects and died due to blood loss, citing the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia.

The ministry and British Embassy in Mongolia have contacted the family of the deceased and provided timely information. The body of Nash is to arrive in Britain this week.

International paragliding magazine "Cross Country" reported last week that Steve Nash, a 53-year-old British paraglider, was robbed and killed during a flying expedition in Mongolia. His passport and money were missing while everything else was still there, including his paraglider in his backpack.
WINDHOEK, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF)'s country representative to Namibia Micaela Marques de Sousa will brief some members of National Assembly on a proposed education bill in Windhoek Tuesday.

In a statement Monday, UNICEF said the proposed bill is expected to better reflect Namibia's National Development Plans (NDPs), Vision 2030, as well as Namibia's global, continental and regional commitments such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA16-25).

In addition, the statement said, the proposed bill will place the child and the learners at the centre of education and promote an education which is free from any type of discrimination.

According to the statement, the bill will further promote an education that prepares the Namibian child for lifelong learning and sustainable development.

"While the Government of the Republic of Namibia has achieved a lot in terms of providing education to its citizens, a need was felt to review Education Act of 2001, in order to ensure that the new Act reflects all national and international policies and legislations in education, with particular emphasis on ensuring the right to inclusive quality education for all children," the statement said.

Some of the clauses that are expected to be incorporated in the new bill were collected during meetings held by the education ministry in 28 towns across Namibia's 14 regions in 2915.

The review was made possible with funding and technical support from UNICEF and the European Union (EU).
MOSCOW, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Russia is ready to consider an out of court settlement of the issue of Ukraine's 3-billion-U.S. dollar debt owed to Russia, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Monday.

"The condition is that Ukraine makes proposals, which will substantially differ from the ones to which commercial creditors have agreed," Siluanov was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying.

Russia lent Ukraine the money in the form of Eurobonds in December 2013 to shore up its economy under former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich.

Moscow filed a lawsuit against Kiev at London's High Court of Justice in February, after bilateral negotiations failed to make a deal before the debt repayment matured in December 2015.

The hearings are scheduled to take place on Jan. 17-20, 2017.

Russia has refuted the conditions agreed by Ukraine and its other international creditors on a significant write-off of the country's debts and an extension of the repayment period.

Siluanov said Moscow had not yet received any official request from Kiev on the restructuring of the debt.

Russia will also vote in the International Monetary Fund against granting a new loan to Kiev unless it agrees to settle the debt issue with Moscow, he added.
WINDHOEK, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- More than 120 technical experts from 11 different African countries are expected to convene in Windhoek, Wednesday, for a four-day HIV Viral Load Testing workshop.

Running under the theme: Scaling up HIV Viral Load Testing and Uptake of the Results through Improving Efficiencies of Systems, the workshop is being funded by the United States, through the President's Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

The World Health Organization recommends viral load testing for monitoring treatment in patients who are on antiretroviral therapy (ART).

The workshop is the first of its kind to be held in Namibia.

Clinical and laboratory experts in the HIV field will discuss and share strategies and country experiences in improving efficiencies for increased HIV viral load testing and uptake of results for patient management.

Namibia is one of the top three African countries that provides viral load testing to people living with HIV who need the test.

Monitoring HIV treatment through viral load testing is important to detect treatment failure which can cause HIV patients to get sicker or even die from HIV.
The photo taken on Sept. 12, 2016 shows smoke rising from eastern Aleppo. (Xinhua Photo)

ALEPPO, Syria, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Shelling could still be heard on Monday afternoon in the eastern rebel-held areas of the city of Aleppo in northern Syria, just hours ahead of a planned ceasefire mediated by the United States and Russia.

The sound of gunfire seemed to mean the clash was continuing even as the brokered ceasefire deal would enter into force at sundown Monday.

But the life in the government-controlled areas seemed normal, as people were anticipating the truce.

On early Saturday, the United States and Russia announced a landmark agreement on a nationwide ceasefire in Syria, which would start on the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.

The week-long truce also includes improving humanitarian aid access and a joint military operation against banned terrorist groups.

All ground attacks and airstrikes will be stopped, with free access allowed to besieged areas, including the northern city of Aleppo, according to the truce.

The Syrian government said it welcomes the deal brokered by the two countries.

Still, it wasn't clear if the ceasefire will give Aleppo a respite from shelling.
JAKARTA, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia on Monday deployed two helicopters, one plane and 3,500 soldiers, police and firefighters to combat forest fires as the number of hotspots rose to 351, spokesman of the disaster agency said here on Monday evening.

Some 140 out of the total 351 hotspots were located in West Kalimantan province and the rest was across the nation, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of the national disaster agency told Xinhua by phone.

The focus of the battle against the agriculture and forest fires was in West Kalimantan province as it was hit hardest, the spokesman added.

Sutopo noted that land clearing for plantation and farming was blamed for the ongoing fires.

The efforts to fight the fires had been hampered by lacking water supply for water bombing and the long distances from water sources, he said.

Besides, the community burned the land again after firefighters put out the fires, Sutopo said.

Last month, thick haze from forest and agriculture fires in Sumatra Island of western Indonesia enveloped neighboring Singapore.
ISLAMABAD, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- At least 12 people were killed and 17 others injured in two separate road accidents in Pakistan's east Punjab and south Sindh provinces on Monday, local Urdu media reported.

Samaa News said that five people were killed and 10 others injured when a passenger van crashed into a truck in Hassan Abdal city of Punjab.

Police said that the accident happened due to over speeding of the bus driver who also got killed in the crash.

The bus was carrying passengers from Haripur to Rawalpindi city of the province when it met the accident.

In a separate accident in Tando Allah Yar district of Sindh province, seven people were killed and seven others injured when a passenger van hit into a pick-up carrying fishermen to work.

The passenger vans in both accidents were taking people home for celebrating the Muslim festival of Eid to be held in the country on Tuesday.

All the injured were shifted to nearby hospitals for medical treatment.

Road accidents frequently happen in Pakistan due to poorly maintained roads, violation of road safety rules and reckless driving.

According to data compiled by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, over 9,000 road accidents are reported to police every year, killing on average around 5,000 people annually in the country. Traffic police officials say that 90 percent of the accidents in Pakistan are caused merely by human errors.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong (2nd L) speaks at a symposium to mark the 15th anniversary of the Law on Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 12, 2016. (Xinhua/Zhang Duo)

BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong on Monday called for more efforts to popularize the standard Chinese language.

Addressing a symposium to mark the 15th anniversary of the Law on Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language, Liu said popularizing the standard Chinese language could help boost social and economic development and safeguard national unification and unity among ethnic groups.

The language law, which took effect in 2001, sets Putonghua, or Mandarin, and standardized Chinese characters as the standard spoken and written forms of Chinese and China's official language.

Standard Chinese language should be basically popularized nationwide during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) period, Liu said, adding that efforts should be improved in ethnic and rural areas.

Liu, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, called on the authorities to accelerate the standardization process and help improve the general public's ability to use standard Chinese.

Stronger efforts should be made to boost international communication and showcase the Chinese culture, she added.
XINING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Millions of Muslims around China celebrated Eid al-Adha on Monday, one of Islam's most important festivals.

Ma Fuxiang, a Hui Muslim in Xining, capital of northwest China's Qinghai Province, took his two sons to attend prayers at a Dongguan mosque early in the morning.

"Today is Eid al-Adha, an important festival, so we had to get out early," Ma said.

"Every Eid al-Adha, at least 200,000 Muslims gather around the mosque," said Wang Shaofeng, an imam at the mosque.

After prayers, many people visited markets around the mosque, buying beef, mutton, desserts and fruit.

Eid al-Adha, or feast of the sacrifice, centers around a large feast, where Muslims slaughter lambs to share with the family. They also attend prayers and visit relatives and friends, sending best wishes.

At around 9 a.m., Zhou Shengqi, 80, in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, left the mosque in his village after prayers to return home to join the annual family celebration with 33 of his relatives.

"Eid al-Adha is one of the most important festivals for Muslims. I am so happy that most of my family have returned from the cities to break bread with me," said Zhou.

In Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Amangul feasted on delicious food with her relatives and friends in her courtyard on Monday.

"We celebrate Eid al-Adha with pilaf and milk tea today, and in three days we will celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with mooncakes," Amangul said.

Muslims enjoy a week-long holiday for the two festivals.

China has more than 20 million Muslims, mainly Uygurs, Hui, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Tajiks and Kirgiz, living in various regions.
KATHMANDU, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Nepali Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal will be on a state visit to India from Sept. 15 to 18, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced here on Monday.

This will be the first overseas visit of the prime minister since he took office on Aug. 4.

Dahal will be visiting the southern neighbor at the invitation of his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.

According to an itinerary released by the foreign ministry, Prime Minister Dahal will meet Indian President Pranab Mukherjee on Sept. 16.

Dahal will hold a bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart Modi on the same day.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) shakes hands with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 12, 2016. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)

BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- China and Vietnam pledged on Monday to properly manage maritime differences and further enhance bilateral substantial cooperation.

The pledge came as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang held talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc, who is paying an official visit to China starting Saturday.

During the talks held at the Great Hall of the People, Li told Phuc the South China Sea issue is related to territorial sovereignty, maritime interests as well as national sentiment.

"China and Vietnam need to work together to abide by agreements reached by the leaders of the two countries, safeguard stability in the South China Sea, and build consensus to advance bilateral ties and safeguard maritime and regional peace," Li said.

Phuc said Vietnam would like to properly resolve maritime issues with China in the spirit of equality and mutual respect and in a peaceful way.

He suggested the two sides manage their differences, conduct maritime cooperation in areas of low sensitivity and maintain a stable situation in the South China Sea to prevent the maritime issue from casting a shadow over bilateral ties.

This was Phuc's first visit to China since he was elected prime minister in July during the first session of the 14th National Assembly of Vietnam.

It is also the first high-level visit to Beijing by Vietnamese leaders since the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) held in January.

Li said China is willing to continue the policy of promoting friendship and partnership with its neighbors on the principles of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness, adding that China is willing to enhance strategic communication and high-level exchanges with Vietnam.

Stressing that both China and Vietnam are in a critical period of reform and development, Li said the two countries need to continue maritime, land and financial cooperation, synergize bilateral and sub-regional development strategies and strengthen cooperation on infrastructure construction, production capacity, trade and investment.

He also suggested both countries carry out cultural and people-to-people exchanges and enhance cooperation in areas including political parties, defense and law enforcement.

Phuc said friendly cooperation has always been the main trend in bilateral ties over the past 66 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties.

Vietnam will always remember China's huge support to the cause of its national liberation and construction, said Phuc.

He said it is the consistent stance of the CPV and the Vietnamese government as well as his country's foreign policy priority to maintain its traditional friendship with China and consolidate the steady and healthy development of bilateral ties.

Hailing the positive momentum of the relationship, Phuc said Vietnam is willing to enhance cooperation with China on political, economic and cultural fronts and further coordination in international affairs.

Prior the talks, Li held a welcoming ceremony for Phuc.

After the talks, Li and Phuc witnessed the signing of documents on the economy and trade, production capacity, infrastructure, education and other areas.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin told reporters after the talks that the two leaders had a "good" conversation and the new government of Vietnam shows "positive willingness" to further develop relations with China.

According to Liu, the delegation led by Phuc, consisting of 32 ministerial officials and other delegates, is the largest Vietnamese government delegation to visit China in recent years.

Phuc arrived in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on Saturday to attend the 13th China-ASEAN Expo and the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit, where he met with Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli on the sidelines of the meetings.

He also met with Chinese top legislator Zhang Dejiang and top political advisor Yu Zhengsheng in Beijing on Monday and is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday, said Liu.

Phuc will leave Beijing for Hong Kong on Wednesday.
MOGADISHU, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Monday launched a national strategy to counter violent extremism in the Horn of Africa nation which has been grappling with frequent terror attacks.

Mohamud said the Comprehensive National Strategy on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) for Somalia is in line with the United Nations' call to the member states to develop national strategy for CVE.

"I am very pleased that Somalia now has a comprehensive national strategy on P/CVE, which will greatly help us to reduce violent extremism and at the same time to better coordinate all programs and activities relating to Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism," he said during the launch in Mogadishu.

Mohamud said majority of Somalis have denounced violent extremism, and the strategy has been developed in consultation with government officials with the active involvement of regional administrations as well as civil society.

The Somali leader said his government also carried out an online public consultation in order to reach out to all citizens including Somalis in the diaspora.

"This will be based on a better understanding of the process of recruitment and the drivers of violent extremism as well as the development of sufficient capacity to support resilience within communities so they can live and prosper in a more peaceful Somalia," said Mohamud.

He said the national strategy will be regularly updated based on assessments that evaluate government's implementation efforts, measure the impact of those efforts, account for new findings and data from research and take into consideration any significant changes that have occurred in the threat or information landscape.

The president added that this strategy will serve as an integral part of national security.

"Violent extremists are also actively recruiting children, some of whom are barely teenagers; therefore, it is our own national interest. Furthermore, military alone cannot bring peace and stability and that is why we needed prevention and countering of violent extremism in our country."
United Nations special envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, Kuwait's Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Khaled al-Sabah, Qatar's Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, Oman's Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi, US Secretary of State John Kerry, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubair, Britain's Foreign Office junior minister Tobias Ellwood, Emirati Foreign Minister Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan , Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretary General Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, and Bahraini Undersecretary of Regional and GCC Affairs Waheed Sayyar pose for a family picture following a meeting in the Saudi capital Jeddah on AUgust 25, 2016.(AFP Photo)

RIYADH, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on Monday expressed concern about a bill adopted by the U.S. Congress that would allow 9/11 victims' families to sue the government of Saudi Arabia, Saudi Press Agency reported.

The bill, which would allow families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks to take legal actions against Saudi Arabia, flagrantly contradicts the firm principles of international law, particularly the principle of equality of sovereignty among countries of the world as stated in the United Nations Charter, the GCC said in a statement.

Abdullatif bin Rashed Al-Zayani, secretary general of the GCC, said undermining such principles would inflict negative repercussion on relations between countries, including the U.S., in addition to the international economic harms that would arise from enacting such a bill.

He said that the GCC countries are gearing forward to see the U.S. not adopting this legislation which would otherwise establish a flagrant precedent in international relations as it embodies instigation of chaos, instability in world relations and dragging the world order backwards.

The bill was adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives last Friday, months after the Senate approved the measure in May.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers involved in the terror attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, outside Washington and in Pennsylvania, were Saudi nationals.

The government of Saudi Arabia has denied responsibility and expressed strong objections to the U.S. legislation.

The White House has said that President Barak Obama would veto the bill, arguing that the legislation could harm Washington's relationship with Saudi Arabia and put U.S. officials stationed overseas in jeopardy.
PARIS, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Three women appeared on Monday before French magistrates after investigation showed that they were involved in the foiled attack near Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, according to local report.

Anti-terrorist judges could charge the three suspects with links with terrorist cells, the news channel Itele said.

The three women, aged 19, 23 and 39 years old, planned an attack in the French capital using a car loaded with gas cylinders and cans of diesel fuel.

They were arrested last Thursday in Boussy Saint Antoine, southeast of Paris.

"They were guided by individuals in Syria in the ranks of Islamic State ... that intends to use women as combatants ... This commando's objective was clearly to carry out an attack," Francosi Molins, the Paris prosecutor said.

Molins said the youngest of the three women, and also the daughter of the car owner, had written a letter pledging allegiance to the IS group and saying she had rallied to the call to punish France for its attacks on Muslim.

She was shot and wounded during the raid as she stabbed a police officer.

Another female suspect, arrested in southern France on Saturday, was charged with association with a terrorist group and attempted murder by an organised group.

On Sept. 4, a Peugeot 607 containing seven gas cylinders, including an empty one on the front passenger seat, and three cans of diesel fuel was found near the famous tourist place Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Anti-terrorism units did not discover detonators in the car.

In a recent interview, Molins warned that retreat of the IS in Iraq and Syria would increase risks of terrorist attacks.

Speaking to the local broadcaster Europe 1 on Sunday, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls also rang the alarm of high terror alert, saying there were 15,000 people on the radar of intelligent services who were in the process of being radicalized.

"There will be new attacks, there will be innocent victims ... this is also my role to tell this truth to the French people," Valls said.
MOGADISHU, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Military engineers from the United Nations and African Union (AU) kicked off a two-day conference in Mogadishu on Monday to seek ways of enhancing their capabilities in the fight against Al-Shabaab.

The engineers from the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), Britain and the United Nations Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS) are also seeking ways of effectively delivering engineering support to the pan African body in Somalia.

In his opening remarks, Special Representative of the African Union Commission Chairperson for Somalia, Ambassador Francisco Caetano Madeira, urged proper alignment of engineering projects that would ensure effective support to the mission in the war against Al-Shabaab.

"I am sure you all know the very important role engineering plays in any military operation," said Madeira in a statement released in Mogadishu.

"This role, including combat and civil engineering, involves planning, construction, installation, movement, safety and security among other important roles. That is why it is important that you come up with a good plan to support this Mission in the next year," he said.

The military engineers will also be brainstorming on ways to enhance their operations, in line with the new Concept of Operations for AMISOM as well as review current operations and develop a comprehensive plan for 2017.

"This workshop will give us a forum to share experiences and summarize them into action. We promise to come up with a comprehensive plan to enable AMISOM function as required," AMISOM Force Engineer Col. Kazela Kazela said.

He said the engineering capabilities will play an important supportive role in the upcoming electoral process.

"As you are all aware, Somalia will very soon go to elections and AMISOM together with the federal government of Somalia will play an important role in this process. Our role is to secure the country, to ensure that this election takes place in a secure environment. Engineering has been called to play a very important role, and this is already happening," Madeira said.
Syrian men carrying babies make their way through the rubble of destroyed buildings following a reported air strike on the rebel-held Salihin neighbourhood of the northern city of Aleppo, on September 11, 2016. (AFP/Xinhua)

DAMASCUS, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Syrian army announced a seven-day nationwide ceasefire as of Monday, state news agency SANA reported.

The regime of silence started as of 7:00 pm local time Monday and will last till Sept. 19, the army said in a statement.

Still, the army said it reserves the right to respond to any breach by the rebels.

The military ceasefire declaration comes as part of the recent deal between superpowers.

The United States and Russia early Saturday announced a landmark agreement on a nationwide ceasefire in Syria, which would commence with the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

The week-long truce also includes improving humanitarian aid access and a joint military operation against banned terrorist groups.

All attacks and airstrikes will be stopped and unobstructed access will be allowed to besieged areas, including the northern city of Aleppo, according to the truce.

The Syrian government said it welcomes the deal.

Related:

New cessation of hostilities in Syria to take effect next week

GENEVA, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reached on Saturday a landmark agreement which would see both countries greatly enhance cooperation in a bid to end the five-year-old Syrian conflict.
DHAKA, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Death toll has risen to 33 in a devastating fire that occurred at a packaging factory in Tongi on the outskirts of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka on Saturday morning, said a local official on Monday.

The local administration official, who did not like to be named, said four more bodies were pulled out of the rubble of Tampaco Foils Ltd factory Monday.

Officials on Sunday night said the death toll from the fire rose to 29 with recovery of five more bodies.

A boiler explosion reportedly resulted in the devastating fire in the factory on Saturday at about 6:00 a.m. ( local time).

Firefighting units have been continuing search operation through the rubble for missing persons.

Hundreds of relatives and friends of the ill-fated factory workers and officials on Monday also gathered at the site to identify the dead or in the quest for missing ones.

Authorities Monday put the number of missing persons at 12.

Also on Monday, Bangladesh Army personnel joined the search operation at the factory which collapsed like a sandwich.

At least 24 workers were killed on Saturday in the explosion- triggered fire, the biggest industrial disaster since 2013 when the Rana Plaza building collapsed leaving over 1,130 workers dead.

Brigadier General ASM Mahmud Hasan, commander of the army team conducting the rescue operation, told journalists that it would take about two months to remove the debris of the collapsed factory.

"So far we understand debris is more than that of the Rana Plaza building which also collapsed like a sandwich."
JOHANNESBURG, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- President Jacob Zuma has paid 7.8 million rand (about 530,000 US dollars) to the State for non-security upgrades at his private home, as ordered by the Constitutional Court, the Presidency announced on Monday.

The president raised the amount through a home loan obtained from VBS Mutual Bank on its standard terms, one of the few financial institutions which offer home loans in respect of land owned by traditional authorities, presidential spokesperson Bongani Ngqulunga said.

Zuma was ordered by the Constitutional Court in March 2016 to pay for the non-security upgrades to be determined by the National Treasury.

"President Zuma has paid over the amount of R7,814,155.00 to the South African Reserve Bank as ordered by the Constitutional Court of South Africa in respect of his private homestead at Nkandla,"Ngqulunga said.

Over 246 million rand (about 17 million dollars) was allegedly used for the upgrades at Zuma's private home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal Province.

After an investigation into the project, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela determined last year that the president had unduly benefited on the non-security upgrade of his private home.

Zuma refused to pay, prompting opposition Economic Freedom Fighters and the Democratic Alliance (DA) to launch a court application. In March, the Constitutional Court ruled that Zuma should pay part of the money spent on non-security upgrades, which include a swimming pool, a visitor centre, an amphitheatre and a chicken run.

In the same judgment, the court also ruled that Zuma failed to respect, uphold and defend the Constitution.

DA leader Mmusi Maimane welcomed the payment, but said the DA is not yet done with the president.

The DA maintains that this is only the tip of the iceberg in this corruption-plagued saga, said Maimane.

He stressed the importance that the president provide proof to the National Assembly, which he is accountable to, that he personally paid the money and the VBS Mutual Bank is not a front.

The court states in its ruling that "the President must personally pay the amount determined by the National Treasury".

Maimane said the president must release his tax records, claiming that Zuma is liable for 63.9 million rand (about 4.3 million dollars) in fringe benefits tax. The Public Protector also recommended that those who inflated prices and those that did not do their job properly must be reprimanded.

"We are also awaiting an update on the disciplinary hearing of at least twelve officials from the Department of Public Works, who were implicated in the Nkandla upgrades." Maimane said.
BUDAPEST, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday urged voters to support his anti-migrant policy and to vote in a referendum rejecting the European Union's settlement quota.

Speaking ahead of a government-mandated referendum scheduled for Oct. 2, Orban called turnout a national and not a right wing/left wing issue.

Addressing the first autumn session of parliament on Monday, he warned that if Brussels found itself unable to set national settlement quotas it would try to convince cities and towns with left-wing administrations to accept asylum seekers.

Orban also warned against what he saw as increased terrorism with the influx of people from the war-torn Middle East while painting a picture of Europe losing its identity and being swallowed up by immigrants.

Brussels, he said, believed that with a population of 440 million, Europe could easily absorb a few million migrants.

"They're wrong," Orban said.

"That's an illusion and naive self-deceit -- things are going to get worse, not better," he added.

Most opposition parties voiced opposition to the referendum.

Bertalan Toth, who heads the Hungarian Socialist Party parliamentary group, called on potential voters to stay home. The European Union holds the only potential solution to the migration question and contrary to what Orban has said, it is not to blame for the crisis.

He charged that four million Hungarians were living below the poverty line, while education and employment policy had failed, leading to mass emigration, which the government was ignoring.

Speaking for the green LMP party, parliamentary group chief Erzsebet Schmuck charged the government with underestimating the intelligence of the public with its hate campaign, in which the government had spent months posting billboards and airing television ads that charge the migrants with violence and disrespect for local values among other vices.

All European countries need to participate in supporting people fleeing war, she added.

Schmuck said the referendum had much more to do with sidestepping real problems such as poverty and inequality than exerting Hungary's right to reject migrants.

Timea Szabo, co-chair of the left-wing PM party said she would have preferred the prime minister to speak of the hundreds of thousands of hungry children, the exodus of doctors and nurses from Hungary, alleged corruption at the National Bank of Hungary, and the failings of the education system.

She too called on voters not to participate in the referendum.

Only Gabor Vona, chair of the far right Jobbik party agreed with the referendum and called on voters to reject the migrant influx. Unless enough people get out and vote "no" to the migrants the referendum will not get the 50 percent participation needed to be valid and that will hand Brussels a powerful argument since it would mean that Hungary did not reject the quotas.

At the same time, Vona said that Western Europe was already beyond rescue, for multiculturalism there was a reality, giving the people no choice about the kind of society they wished to live in. Central and Eastern Europe can still do something about it, he said.
An Iranian woman takes part a protest against women who violate the strict Islamic dress code in Tehran, Iran, on July 12, 2014. Hijab, a coverage of hair and body for women, has been obligated in public after the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979. (Xinhua/Ahmad Halabisaz)

OSLO, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- A hairdresser in Norway was ordered by a court to pay a fine of 10,000 kroner (1,212 U.S. dollars) and other costs of 5,000 kroner because she did not allow a Muslim lady wearing hijab to enter her salon, local media reported on Monday.

The Jaeren district court made the decision Monday in the case of almost one year ago when Merete Hodne refused the access to Malika Bayan because she, according to the indictment, "did not want to touch those like her."

The hairdresser got a penalty of 8,000 kroner at that time but she refused to pay. The case ended up in court, where the 47-year-old Hodne denied culpability.

"My client is not surprised by the court's decision. We will have a closer look at the decision these days. Hodne expresses however that she will not accept the result and she will submit an appeal against it," public defender Linda Ellefsen told news agency NTB.

Bayan was happy about the court ruling and said she was not surprised by hearing that Hodne would appeal the decision of the court and she was expecting the court case to last long.

Ingrid Havarstein Eldoy, a judge of the district court, wrote that the court concluded that Hodne had willingly discriminated Bayan by sending her away because she is Muslim.

Hodne expressed in the court that she experienced anxiety when Bayan came to her salon together with a friend, both wearing hijabs. She justified her action by calling it fear of extremism.

Hodne admitted that she could have tried to behave differently, keeping calm and being polite, if she could.
by Maria Spiliopoulou, Anthi Pazianou

ATHENS, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Greece needs further support from Europe to assist refugees stranded in the country, visiting European Commissioner for Justice Vera Jourova said Monday, as protests were reported in overcrowded hot spots in the Aegean Sea islands.

Following talks with Greek Justice Minister Nikos Paraskevopoulos, representatives of NGOs, and a visit to a refugee accommodation center in the Greek capital, the European official called for more immediate actions to be taken to aid, in particular, minors, Greek news agency AMNA reported.

"Greece should be supported in its efforts to create 1,500 positions for unaccompanied minor refugees and receive European assistance so they can live in safety," Jourova told media.

According to UNICEF there are about 28,000 minors trapped in Greece today, including about 2,500 unaccompanied children, of whom only one third are living in formal housing.

Due to shortage of suitable accommodation, several of these minors are held in protective custody at police stations, or closed detention centers.

In order to help them, Athens will receive funding, human resources and expertise, Jourova said, acknowledging that so far EU decisions on support to Greece to handle the refugee resettlement are not being implemented.

Greek officials have repeatedly complained that only some 3,000 refugees have reached other European countries so far under the EU relocation program launched last autumn, out of the 33,000 people that should be transferred across the EU by 2017.

Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos is taking the necessary steps to tackle the issue, which include the opening of infringement proceedings against member states and, as a last resort, going to the European Court of Justice, Jourova underlined.

Meanwhile, tension rises at refugee camps with almost 60,000 refugees and migrants trapped in Greece today after the closure of the Balkan route to central Europe last February, according to the latest data released by Greek authorities on Monday.

Early Monday, a group of underage refugees held at Pili reception center on Kos Island, set fire to beds and mattresses, protesting the living conditions and delays in processing their requests for asylum, AMNA reported. The incident ended with police intervention.

Similar unrest was reported at the Moria hotspot of Lesvos island where refugees have, of late, held demonstrations every other day, also in protest of living conditions and delays in the assessment of their asylum claims.

Unconfirmed rumors that eight refugees died while travelling by tanker two days ago have increased anxiety.

"My friends and I are stuck here on the island for six months," said 25-year-old Ali Gohman from Pakistan, told Xinhua.

"There is no food for a lot of people and not enough water at the camp. We cannot even take a shower," added Mombar Inno, a 31-year-old from Afghanistan.

After the implementation of the EU-Turkey deal struck in March to stem the mass influx of refugees to the Greek islands, more than 5,150 refugees and immigrants are trapped on Lesvos and have requested asylum, while the capacity of the accommodation centers reaches 3,500 people, according to data provided by the Greek Refugee Crisis Management Coordination Body.

About 13,000 refugees and migrants have been stranded on the Aegean Sea islands in recent months, with capacity in hot spots standing at 7,500, according to the official figures.

Dozens keep landing on Greek shores every day, dreaming of following in the footsteps of the more than one million people who have reached other European countries via Greece since early 2015 until the closure of borders and the implementation of the EU-Turkey agreement.

Under the terms of the March deal, so far, only 502 immigrants and refugees whose asylum applications have been examined and rejected by the relevant authorities - or they decided to voluntarily return - have been sent back to Turkey from the Greek islands, according to Greek police.

At least 269 migrants and refugees arrived on the Aegean islands only on Sunday and Monday, according to the Coast Guard, with 84 on Lesvos, 103 on Chios and 82 on Samos.

In a letter to the Deputy Minister of Migration Yiannis Mouzalas last week, the Mayor of Lesvos, Spyros Galinos, asked for the transfer of a large number of refugees and immigrants from the island to the mainland, warning about a "particularly worrying and dangerous situation."

Volunteers from the NGO "Movement Coexistence and Communication at the Aegean Sea" also expressed their anxiety specifically about the 140 minors that are "locked up" at the Moria camp.
Refugees land at Lesbos island, close to Eftalou, Greece, after crossing the Aegean Sea, Nov. 8, 2015. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)

BRUSSELS, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The number of suspects who are smuggling migrants to Europe has continued to increase, with more than 12,000 new suspects reported in the first eight months of this year alone, said a report on Monday.

Turkish nationals are the top suspects in smuggling migrants to Europe, according to the report by Europol, the EU police agency.

Europol cited a 295.3 percent increase in the first eight months of this year when compared to 2015. Some 423 Turkish nationals were suspected of the crime compared to 107 last year.

Syrians, Bulgarians and Romanians followed as other top smuggler nationalities.

"The nationalities of these suspects reflect the evolution of the migratory routes as smuggling networks tend to use local nationals to facilitate the transport and accommodation of irregular migrants," Europol's report said.

According to the International Organization for Migration, 272,070 migrants have arrived in Europe by sea between Jan.1 and Aug. 28, 2016, compared with 353,628 in the same period of last year.

Along with the decline in number, the picture of migrant smuggling to and within the EU has undergone significant changes, according to the report.

One key development is the shift in migrant smuggling routes used to enter the EU and reach preferred destination countries.

In the past weeks, crossings along the Eastern Mediterranean route have increased, whereas the Central Mediterranean route continues to be the primary entry route for migrant smuggling into the EU in 2016.

Meanwhile, Europol found that smugglers have demonstrated a constant ability to adapt to stricter border controls and use new routes and modi operandi to evade law enforcement attention and maintain their highly profitable business.

As stricter controls have been implemented between the European countries, bottlenecks and informal camps have emerged at intra-Schengen border areas.

"As a result, these have become a preferred place for smugglers to advertise their services to stranded migrants, increasingly offering fraudulent documents to allow them to move forward into the EU," the report said.

Facing such a challenging backdrop, Europol and its European Migrant Smuggling Centre (EMSC) currently has deployed 42 experts and analysts to help the EU member states fighting migrant smuggling.
Yemeni children inspect a charred vehicle on September 9, 2016 after two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) went off inside a car in the capital Sanaa. (AFP/Xinhua)

SANAA, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the Saudi-led coalition airstrikes against a village in Yemen's capital Sanaa rose to 30, including two children, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator (UNHC) in Yemen said in a statement on Monday.

Furthermore, 17 others were injured, according to Jamie McGoldrick's statement.

On Saturday, the Saudi-led coalition warplanes bombed a water-drilling well site in the village of Bait Sa'dan in the district of Arhab, 50 km north of Sanaa, killing at least 10 civilians and wounding many others.

The fighter jets then continued its aerial assault as village residents rushed to the scene, killing and wounding many more.

Several mudbrick-constructed high-rise buildings beside the targeted water well site were also damaged, according to witnesses.

This is the latest in a series of airstrikes against civilians in Yemen, triggering widespread criticism against the Saudi-led military coalition.

On Thursday, the coalition warplanes killed nine civilians from three families, including four children, in Yemen's northern province of Amran, 60 km north of Sanaa.

"I remain deeply disturbed by the unrelenting attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure throughout Yemen by all parties, which are further destroying Yemen's social fabric and increasing humanitarian needs, particularly for medical attention at a time when the health sector is collapsing," McGoldrick said.

McGoldrick called on all parties involved to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law, to recommit to the April 10 Cessation of Hostilities and to "support the initiatives of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen."

The military Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia has been targeting Shiite Houthi armed groups and allied troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh since 2015, after they exiled the Saudi-backed internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The coalition intervened with air military campaigns aiming to prevent rebels from controlling the country and to restore the government.

The UN-sponsored peace talks between Yemeni rival factions collapsed last month.

However, UN Envoy Ismail Ould Chiekh Ahmed said this week that Yemeni parties agreed to resume negotiations to end the war.

The United Nations said at least 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in airstrikes and battles since 2015, and about three million civilians have been displaced.
Syrian men carrying babies make their way through the rubble of destroyed buildings following a reported air strike on the rebel-held Salihin neighbourhood of the northern city of Aleppo, on September 11, 2016. (AFP/Xinhua)

DAMASCUS, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Syrian army announced a seven-day nationwide ceasefire as of Monday, state news agency SANA reported.

The regime of silence started as of 7:00 pm local time Monday and will last till Sept. 19, the army said in a statement.

Still, the army said it reserves the right to respond to any breach by the rebels.

The military ceasefire declaration comes as part of the recent deal between superpowers.

The United States and Russia early Saturday announced a landmark agreement on a nationwide ceasefire in Syria, which would commence with the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

The week-long truce also includes improving humanitarian aid access and a joint military operation against banned terrorist groups.

All attacks and airstrikes will be stopped and unobstructed access will be allowed to besieged areas, including the northern city of Aleppo, according to the truce.

The Syrian government said it welcomes the deal.
HAVANA, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Cuba and the United States have held their first talk on the issue of intellectual property, the island's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday.

A statement revealed that Daniel Marti, Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator at the White House visited Havana on Sept. 8-9 and met with representatives of the Cuban Office of Industrial Property, the National Center of Copyright, the Faculty of Law of the University of Havana, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment.

Marti was accompanied by officials from the State Department, the Copyright Office and the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

"In this first official meeting between Cuba and the U.S. on intellectual property, the parties exchanged views on current regulations in the respective countries ... and the legal framework of the two states for the protection of trademarks, patents and legal copyright," read the statement.

The Cuban officials explained to their U.S. counterparts the guarantees offered for the protection of industrial property, including the registration of over 6,000 American brands.

They also expressed concern about the ongoing U.S. embargo, which affects the recognition of the rights of Cuban trademarks and companies, especially in the case of the well-known Havana Club and Cohiba brands.

Havana and Washington reestablished diplomatic relations on July 20, 2015 after 54 years of political enmity.
This file photo taken on January 8, 2016 shows smoke billowing from a petroleum storage tank after a fire was extinguished following fighting at Al-Sidra oil terminal, near Ras Lanuf in the so-called "oil crescent" along Libya's northern coast. (AFP/Xinhua)

TRIPOLI, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Libya's eastern government forces said Monday that they have taken over Zueitina, a major port in the oil crescent region.

"Our armed forces managed to take control over the port of Zueitina and fully secure it," said Mohamed Al-Azumi, spokesman of the forces led by Maj. Gen. Khalifa Haftar.

Haftar's forces on Sunday launched a sneak attack on the oil crescent, a region containing Libya's largest oil ports, and announced taking over the ports of Ras Lanuf and Sidra.

The Tripoli-based, United Nations-backed government of national accord denounced the attack.

"The Presidential Council of the Government of National Accord believes that this unjustified escalation will only prolong the conflict and will cause losses of Libyan lives and livelihood," it said in a statement.

"The Presidential Council of the Government of National Accord is following up the news about the possibility of some foreign troops exploiting the current situation and entering some vital and strategic areas," the statement said. "It this regard, the Council will spare no effort to eliminate those forces, should such information be correct."

The oil sector, Libya's main source of income, has been suffering drastically since the upheavals that toppled Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011, due to armed attacks and political division.

The north African country remains divided politically between two governments and parliaments, despite a UN-brokered peace agreement signed by the country's political rivals in December 2015.

Meanwhile, in Sirte, a city not far from the oil ports, unity government forces fighting Islamic State (IS) affiliates said they have taken control of most of the city, trapping the remaining IS fighters in a small area in Sirte.

The recent spate of attacks on oil ports is believed to have further complicated the situation in Libya.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Hillary Clinton's campaign acknowledged on Monday it mishandled public concerns about Clinton's medical condition and said additional medical details of Clinton would soon be released.

The offer to release more Clinton's medical details came after weeks of blunt refusal to do so and was the latest step for the campaign to quell long-time speculation about Clinton's health that climaxed on Sunday after Clinton was videotaped being helped into a van while her feet appeared to be dragging on the ground.

"I think that in retrospect, we could have handled it better in terms of providing more information more quickly," said Clinton's spokesman Brian Fallon in an interview with MSNBC.

Clinton on Sunday morning abruptly left a 9/11 memorial in New York and her campaign initially told reporters that Clinton had been "overheated".

Soon a video shot by a witness surfaced online, in which an apparently ailing Clinton struggled to steady herself and had to be helped by two Secret Service agents into her van.

About 90 minutes after the episode, Clinton emerged and waved to onlookers.

Almost five hours after the release of the video, the Clinton campaign released a statement from Clinton's physician which read that Clinton had been diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday and left the memorial after becoming dehydrated and overheated.

The Clinton campaign did not disclose the diagnosis until the episode on Sunday.

"There's no other undisclosed condition. The pneumonia is the extent of it," Clinton's spokesman Fallon told MSNBC.

While Republicans seized on the secrecy surrounding Clinton's medical record to attack Clinton, even Clinton's allies criticized the Clinton campaign on Monday for lack of transparency.

"Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia," wrote David Axelrod, U.S. President Barack Obama's senior adviser on Twitter. "What's the cure for an unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?"

Meanwhile, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who shared even less information about his own medical details than Clinton did, was also bogged down in controversy surrounding his brief medical report that stated that Trump would be the "healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency."

It was later disclosed that the doctor who wrote the only public documentation about Trump's health spent five minutes writing the report.

In his interview with Fox News on Monday, Trump said he would release "very, very specific numbers" from a medical exam he took last week.
Syrian pro-regime fighters walk in a bombed-out steet in Ramussa on September 9, 2016, after they took control of the strategically important district on the outskirts of the Syrian city of Aleppo yesterday. (AFP/Xinhua)

ALEPPO, Syria, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- People in government-controlled areas in the northern city of Aleppo have different opinions about the ceasefire that went into force Monday evening, as those who have suffered by the rebels highly doubt the prospects of the truce, while the better-offs wish the truce could succeed.

Those living in areas that are frequently targeted by the rebels' mortar shelling and rocket fire say they don't trust the rebels, as previous attempts to establish a pacification in Aleppo have largely failed.

They say each time a truce is declared, the rebels take advantage of the situation to regroup and bring in more weapons.

On Monday, several mortars slammed into residential areas in government-controlled districts in western Aleppo, leaving at least two people killed and over 29 others wounded.

In the Jamilliyeh district, in a street called Azbakiyeh, several mortars landed on Monday, just hours ahead of the implementation of the U.S.-Russian backed truce.

Glass was scattered everywhere, with blood spots seen everywhere.

Cries of little children, and the frantic voices of their parents could be heard in the street, which became deserted of passersby following the mortar attacks, which also coincided with the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, or the Feast of Sacrifice.

Ibrahim Khalil went out trying to cross the street to his neighbors to check on them, just minutes after a mortar hit at 6:30 p.m., half an hour ahead of the ceasefire implementation.

Kahil, a 43-year-old father of two, told Xinhua he doesn't believe in the truce.

"A couple of hours ago, a mortar hit the building and half an hour later another mortar shell hit the same area, leaving injuries, and we are still hearing the mortars slamming nearby."

Regarding the truce, he said "so far there is no such a thing as a truce in Aleppo, because mortar shells are still falling. When they say truce, it means a relief for the people, but if the mortar shells continued to land here, I am against it. We need a curb to the bloodshed."

"We are against the truce, because whenever there is a truce, the rebels start recollecting themselves and amassing weapons and manpower again and they shell Aleppo again. Every time there is a truce, the people are the ones who pay the price," he said, trying to end the conversation as he was fearing another mortar would hit soon.

He said the view of blood has become normal in Aleppo, as "every family in Aleppo has an injured one or a martyr."

Another man, on a wheel chair, from Azbakiyeh told Xinhua the rebels have no mercy for the civilians they are shelling.

"The rebels don't have mercy on us, why should we be merciful with them? I was injured during the war in Aleppo. Today just an hour ahead of the ceasefire, a mortar shell landed on an area where children were playing," he said.

"We don't want a truce, the army has a big arsenal, they should eliminate them and rid us of those terrorists," he demanded.

His wife, a 31-year-old woman, who has six children, said her kids don't know the spirit of the holiday, which used to be full of joy and peace.

"We have been suffering so hard since yesterday. They kept shelling this area. I don't think they will abide by the truce. I think that the truce won't work because every time there is a truce, they (rebels) become more violent. I don't trust the rebels, and I won't let my children out even after the ceasefire," she told Xinhua.

"My children have been traumatized by the attacks. My children were deprived from the joy of Eid, this is not a life," she said.

Those were people who have suffered until half an hour ahead of the truce.

In the fortunate district of Furkan, where coffee shops are scattered everywhere, with young men and women strolling down the streets there, university students and some higher class people were feverishly hoping for a successful truce.

Muhammad Burri, a Syrian merchant, said he believes in the truce, and has a firm belief it will work.

"I say I hope the truce could be implemented and I believe it will be successful because the truce is the only way out of this violence. I believe the truce will hold and will curb the bloodletting," he told Xinhua.

For his part, Maher, a university student from Aleppo, also shared the same optimism, saying "we have hope that this truce will be successful, despite the fact that previous efforts to establish a ceasefire have failed. We really wish to see a halt of violence and battles to our countries."

Bashar, a 20-year-old Syrian student, hoped for a true truce, saying he has not enjoyed his youth as others in his age do in other countries.

"As a young man living in Syria, it's extremely hard for me to find a chance or opportunity to build a future amid this war. As a young man, I have been displaced from my home, I was parted from dear ones as a result of this war. I really wish this truce could work out well, so that people like me can think only of building a bright future in a healthy environment," he said.

Another student, Khalil, expressed both conflicting feelings, about his wish of a successful truce, and his firm belief that only the military solution would settle the situation in Syria.

"I really wish the truce would be successful, but in my opinion nothing will resolve this crisis but the military solution. Aleppo was known as being the mother of the world, we miss the old Aleppo. I really think that even though the truce is welcomed, but the military solution, in my opinion, is the ultimate solution," he added.

As the truce went into effect at 7:00 p.m., following a military statement stating the beginning of a seven-day regime of silence, the streets of Aleppo was quiet, in terms of the frequent sound of shelling from both parties.

This truce is not the first, as a previous one was also concluded last February, as a result of a joint U.S. and Russian support. That truce held well near Damascus, but was quick to fall apart in Aleppo.

Aleppo, Syria's largest city and once an economic hub, is so important due to its strategic location near Turkey, in addition of being an industrial city.

The city has become carved out between the rebels in the eastern parts and the government in the western ones.

Over the past few months, the rebels unleashed wide-scale offensives to strip the government of key areas in Aleppo and its countryside, managing to control a series of military bases in the southern countryside of Aleppo, and succeeding in breaking the government siege on rebel-held areas in eastern Aleppo.

The government mounted a counter-offensive last month, succeeding recently to recapture all fallen military bases in southern Aleppo, in addition to re-placing the siege on rebel-held areas in the eastern part of that war-torn city.
BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- "I think every writer draws on the history of their own culture. And Chinese writers have an advantage of having a very rich culture to draw upon with lots of history," said Cat Rambo, president of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, during an exclusive interview with Xinhuanet on Saturday in Beijing.

"The American science fiction associations welcome Chinese writers to join and are wiling to offer more resources for them," added Rambo, who is in Beijing for the 7th Xingyun Award for Global Chinese Science Fictions.

The Three-Body Problem by Chinese writer Liu Cixin pocketed the Hugo Award in 2015, which acknowledges the best works of science fiction or fantasy and is seen as the highest honor bestowed in science fiction and fantasy writing.

Expressing her fondness and admiration of the work, Rambo said, "The idea of The Three-Body Problem is very intriguing and not like the ones that I have seen before. The book is so fascinating that I think It's difficult for people to make it into a movie."

With the success of The Three-Body Problem, Rambo believes that the Chinese sci-fictions writing has entered the booming period. And with more Chinese works being translated into other languages, it will be drawing more attention from the world.

Rambo stressed that the Chinese sci-fictionists should stick to their own culture and value. Instead of trying so hard to catch up with the foreign trend, it would be much better for the Chinese writers to use their own way of thinking and show their uniqueness to the world, Rambo said.

Rambo encouraged amateur writers to keep reading and enhancing themselves."You can only write things that are as good as the best stuff that you are reading. So they should keep reading the well-written sci-fictions," added Rambo.

At the end of interview, Rambo recommended her favorite "The Fall of the Towers" by Samuel R. Delany for the Chinese readers."The Fall of the Towers is literature and sci-fiction at the same time and is so beautifully written that I said this is what I want to do," concluded Rambo.
Residents worried after robbery/murder in Maturita

According to reports at about 8.15 pm, two masked men burst into the Cantonese Superstore on Eastern Main Road, Maturita, and announced a hold-up. During the robbery, security guard Vijay Maharaj attempted to stop the men, but was instead shot multiple times. Newsday understands that three other persons, who are yet to be identified, were also injured by stray bullets. Maharaj died on the scene as the gunmen escaped.

The gunshot victims were transported to hospital, where they are said to be still undergoing treatment.

One resident who frequents the grocery told Newsday the robbery came as a total shock to him.

When I heard about the robbery, my pores began to raise, said the resident, who wished not to be named. I was just about to go to the restaurant across the street when something told me to go Curepe instead. I would normally buy phone cards and small groceries there. This has me worried now, because I could go there, minding my own business, and bandits could run in the store just like that, he said.

No arrests have been made in connection to the robbery. Maharajs murder raises the toll to 318 for the year.
Why did my child die?

The teenager was killed while studying at her Carapichaima home on Saturday at about 1.30 pm. Sumiyya, a Form Three student of the Asja Girls College, Charlieville, was found in her bedroom at her Mandela Drive, Orange Field Road home, bleeding from a gunshot wound to her hip. Her notebooks, text books and study material were found around her on the bed. I just need to know how it happened and who shot her. This is what I need to know exactly. I keep hearing all kind of stories, Davis said.

One of Sumiyyas childhood friends said the two of them were studying Spanish at the time of the incident. I am better at Spanish so I was there helping her out when out of nowhere I heard this loud noise and then I saw Summiyah on the bed bleeding, the 16 year-old friend recalled.

She said she saw no one but only her friend bleeding over their schoolbooks. Why this have to happen to Sumiyya? She was one of the kindest person you would ever meet, the girl wept.

Yesterday police officers returned to the crime scene, but this time were seen searching through a mattress where Summiyyas body was found for any evidence to assist with their investigations
Love and privilege unravel in quiet Anguilla

VENEZUELAN writer Montague Kobbe delivers a chequered narrative with enough highs and lows to warrant a dose of Dramamine.

Banality follows intrigue like a pestering ghost, and poignancy abruptly surrenders to pools of literary dribble.

Kobbe is a brilliant writer, no doubt, but here, he seems out of sorts as he endeavours mightily to spruce up a bland plot that is predictable as snow in winter.

On the Way Back unfolds in Anguilla, an island that is more than comfortable in its skin. Tranquil and possibly moribund to a fault, it has long survived white privilege and political excess. History, though, repeats itself, like old wine in a new bottle. This time around Anguilla is the playground for Nathaniel Jones and his son Dragon, a British family of means. But selfworth is never for sale as they later discover.

To temper the restless his wife, native Sheila Rawlingson, the much older Nathaniel embarks on an ambitious undertaking  the establishing of a commercial airline linking routes to Antigua, St Kitts, Nevis, Barbuda and St Martin. The plan demands all hands on deck.

Nathaniel solicits the help of his son who immediately consents. On arrival he is stirred by the sensuality of Sheila. His mind and libido rage.

He must focus, though, on the work at hand.

Drama unfolds as Dragon, uprooted from his stable British life must reinvent himself as his poise shakes and buckles under naivety, lust, and a strained father-son relationship.

Drinking, womanising and basking in the Caribbean sun become almost therapeutic. The burden of business is lifted if only for moments in time.

The Herculean business venture challenges the wiles of the entrepreneurial Jones clan.

On the other hand, Sheila who is charged with raising capital from local banks, private investors and well-connected relatives grasps at a dream that seems more and more elusive.

Other players emerge along the jagged way. Arturo Sarmiento is the likely candidate to pilot Dragon Wings first aircraft (named after the younger Jones). We are drawn to the quixotic appeal and intensity of this colourful Venezuelan.

And it is here that we treated with the most riveting prose about his birthplace.

And Kobe is at his literary best. The darkness of Caracas disables the most valiant among us. Yet, the citys macabre spirit is alluring.

Our senses are scrabbled, searching for meaning in a place that Sarmiento calls a hellhole. His words are edgy, literal, and figurative.

At four thirty in the morning, he recalls, Caracas is dead.

No, not dead. At four thirty in the morning Caracas lies still, pretending to be dead, for fear of getting killed if caught moving. Life is always on knifes edge here: the wrong move, and zap, you are toasted. Sometimes the wrong move isnt even necessary. Sometimes, its the knife that moves, and you are still dead. Sarmiento trades this deathly pulsating bile for the quietude of Anguilla life where the only chaos is internal.

There is a brief chronicle of Anguillas uneventful history and a psychoanalytic overview of black Americans and their Caribbean counterparts through the lens of Sheila who is grounded in both cultures.

But there is nothing of veritable interest to convey.

We learn that Nathaniels proposal to Sheila has lead to thorny relations between her family and the foreign suitor. He is the object of scorn as Sheilas family puts up a torrid resistance. Conjugal bonds are discreetly sealed amid spitting tirades, hysterical fits and threats.

Meanwhile, Dragon Wings is weighed down by ineptitude, rash decisions and financial turbulence.

The fledging company just cannot be salvaged by a board of directors swimming in unchartered waters.

And lurking is the shadowy threat of key players on the island who relish the collapse of this foreign-led venture.

The writing is on the wall long before Sheila writes to a trusted family member: All along, the only thing I have ever wanted has been a life of my own. I wont get that in Anguilla. I wont get that in the company of Nathaniel Jones. By the time you read this I will be somewhere else with someone else. Her old, white husband becomes the source of her headache. She slithers into another romance assured that her brash suitor will temper her urges. From afar we accurately guess the identity of this Don Juan.

On the Way Back, like Sheila and the handful of characters, loses its way.

As a calamitous end draws nigh the pain of betrayal is all too palpable. But you only root for sympathetic figures. Nathaniel Jones must drink the bitter brew of his own making.

With lines and paragraph that surge with vivid originality Kobbes authenticity as a writer is without question. However, in his drive to be all things to all readers he gets mired in his own genius. The result is a laboured tale that gasps for relevance .

Feedback: glenvilleashby@ gmail.com or follow him on Twitter@glenvilleashby Publisher: Akashic Books Available at Amazon Ratings: Fair
Cancer survivor wins Ms La Reine Rive

The grand finals of the Prime Ministers Best Village Trophy Competition was held at Queens Park Savannah in Port-of- Spain.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley was there to crown the top three winners in this competition.

Jaleeca Phillip from North West Laventille was named first runners up with Katisha Williams St Georges Community Council is the second runners of Miss La Reine Rive.

These three who beat twenty-two other delegates to capture the top three positions.

Magan, who represented the Swastika Dancers, was diagnosed with cancer when she was five years old and she spend most of her childhood days fighting this dreaded decease.

She was just ten years old when she joined the Shiv Shakti Dance Company, Rio Claro class. She spend the next thirteen years learning the art of Indian dance and also performing in many stages in TT.

Magan portrayed a gown entitled Hair I Am which carried rows of plaited hair designed by queen-maker Michael Salikram.

She also took the titles of Best Gown, Best Make-Up, Best Hairstyle, and Best Designers, Best Wearer of Best Gown to top this contest.

I feel I have lived my entire life waiting for this moment when I could actually win Best Hairstyle, Magan said, adding that most of her childhood days she had no hair on her head due to chemotherepy.

Magan is a member of the Cancer Society in TT and an advocate for victims of cancer. Given the opportunity to enter this competition by Salikram, she chose to use the forum to highlight the plights of many under the theme Beauty With A Purpose.

Her gown was made from nine yards of embellished poly-taffeta, intricately decorated with braided human and synthetic hair.

Her friends and fellow members of the Swastika Dance Group have donated their own hair to be a part of the braids which adorn the gown.

My gown represented the strength and courage of a woman. It also represent hope and the power of Gods many miracles, she said adding that cancer is a disease, not a death sentence. Malik Folk Performing Company was the overall winner of Best Village this year.
Fired by polygraph

On September 1, all staff members were handed unsigned resignation letters and informed that it was mandatory that they sign those letters as part of the restructuring of the SSA.

Newsday understands that bewildered staff sought advice and were told that they had to sign the letters even if they were in receipt of contracts.

On August 10, staff received an internal memo indicating that as part of the restructuring process several changes were coming. Due to the amendment of the SSA Act, the SSA will now be merged with the National Operation Centre (NOC), National Training Academy (NTA) and the Security Intelligence Agency (SIA). Staff from those other three units are also expected to undergo a review.

Newsday understands that by the end of this month, hundreds of employees from those four units will be axed.

Sources told Newsday yesterday that persons who were given contracts under the Peoples Partnership administration are the ones being targetted to be phased out at the end of this month.

Sources at the SSA, speaking with Newsday, said that a senior officer of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force has been hired along with others from the Army to assist in the restructuring. One source said, The only person missing here is Colonel Sanders.

We know for certain that persons earmarked to replace existing staff will consist of retired army men and women. According to well placed sources, persons within the SSA began carrying out polygraph tests, and 14 staff members, who subjected themselves to the test, were fired after being told they had failed.

When they asked to see the results of the test, they were denied and told that their termination was final.

Other sources said yesterday that staff believed to be aligned to the former administration will be the first to go.

We came in here qualified and it is rather peculiar that we are now being targetted because of our ethnicity and perceived loyalty to the previous administration. We are calling on attorneys who have knowledge of the countrys labour laws country to come forward and assist us. Because if we need them, we need them now, a representative of SSA staff said.

Another said, In these times of recession, it will be difficult to secure employment.
Muslims want national holiday for Eid-Ul-Adha

The appeal has come as millions of Muslims all over the world and here in Trinidad and Tobago observe the occasion, revered in Islam, Christianity and Judaism, when the Prophet Ibrahim was told by God Almighty to sacrifice his son Ishmael to demonstrate his obedience and love for his creator.

Chairman of Ummah T&T, Imam Rasheed Karim said yesterday that Muslims observe two Eids: Eid ul-Fitr marking the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting; and Eid ul-Adha, commemorating the sacrifice asked of the father of Islam. Imam Karim, head of the Masjid Al-Furqaan of Felicity, Chaguanas said that Eid ul-Adha is the greater Eid for Muslims and should be accorded greater prominence in the list of national holidays.

Even Guyana which has a smaller Muslim population than Trinidad and Tobago has accorded the status of a public holiday for Eid ul-Adha because they realise its importance to the Islamic community, and its role in the Muslim way of life, said Imam Karim.

He called on his fellow brothers and sisters in Islam to follow the example of the prophet Ibrahim, to symbolically make personal sacrifices for the betterment of their personal lives and the national community at large.

We must all strive to cleanse ourselves of all negative traits that do not conform to what God Almighty ordains, and to keep away from what he has prohibited for us, if we are to achieve success in this life and the next, said Imam Karim. We must strive daily to make the sacrifices necessary to secure our livelihood, take care of our families and contribute to the safety and security of our fellow citizens, and build our nation one day at a time, said Imam Karim.

He said that Muslims especially, must recognise their role as exemplars who must uphold what is right in the eyes of Allah Most Gracious, and forbid what is wrong, by hand, word, or belief in our hearts, whichever is possible
BPM comes alive for youths

The conference, which was held at Normandie Hotels Conference Room, was attended by more young people this year in comparison to last; one definition of success that the committees public relations officer, Kyle Cox, is appreciative of, the real success is them committing to work in the future. Khafra Kambon, a former leader of the BPM in Trinidad and Tobago and the ESCTTs chairman, reminded the intimate audience of the impact that the BPM had on various parts of the world, by shifting the consciousness of blacks.

The question of hair, which became a big question in the 1960s, not because of hair itself but what symbolically, psychologically and emotionally hair represented.

African people are made to feel inferior to others from our colour, our facial features and our hair. Continuing to reinforce the fact that racism from the past still exists in the present, unless people create necessary change, Kambon educated the audience about the unfair treatment and deportation of Haitians from the Dominican Republic due to the racial hostility between the two nations.

Feature speaker, Taharqa Obika, an economist and storyteller who used both his expertise within economics and his entertaining skills to awaken the audience and educate them on the financial possibilities awaiting in Ghana, Nigeria and other countries within the African continent.

Obika broke down many of the misconceptions that the West has created of Africa and its economic power When the story is told from our perspective it empowers us and that is the importance of getting the facts from Africa. 2016 marks only the second year of this decade of IDPAD and throughout the conference the feeling that there is much work to be done for the empowerment of people of African descent and the continent as whole was clear. It may be nearing the end of 2016, but its only the beginning of return.
Sissons redefines colour

As such, the new Sissons Tropical Moderne Colour collection from ANSA Coatings Limited (ACL), with its 81 hues divided into three categories - Youthful Vibes, Retro Mix and Refined Elegance - is expected to attract a lot of interest from consumers.

This was the response of Roger Roach, Managing Director of ACL, when asked by Newsday why the company chose to launch a new collection of top coat paint last Thursday evening (September 8).

Tropical Moderne is ahead of the class; no one has launched a new colour collection in the last five years...We expect this Christmas to be better than last year (when) in December 2015, the then Central Bank Governor (Jwala Rambarran) announced the country was in recession. People became more conscious of the money they had and cut back on Christmas spending.

Now that things have settled down, I think that this year, persons will paint as they normally do.

2015 sales were flat when compared to 2014 but were expecting a bump in sales during the last quarter of 2016...ten percent to 15 percent increase for the year compared to 2015, Roach told Newsday.

Sissons Paint was acquired by the ANSA McAL Group in 2008 and integrated with Penta Paints in June 2012 to form ACL.

The Tropical Moderne Colour collection has 81 hues of pain, divided into three categories: 1) Retro Mix - for the traditionalist looking for a twist to a classic colour palette; 2) Refined Elegance - for the sophisticated looking for a sense of luxury and classic refinement; and 3) Youthful Vibes - for the young and young at heart looking for that cutting edge, energetic and stimulating colour pallet.

The role of colour in creative works such as art, fashion, photography and movies cannot be understated, Roach stated. In our homes, colour can create warmth, fond memories, and inspire conversation. In your organisations colour can stimulate productivity, increase concentration or create a calming effect. Cleanliness, purity, rest, relaxation and rejuvenation are all derived from our association with colour. Speaking at the launch at Siam Cocktail Lounge, Queens Park West, Port-of-Spain, Roach explained that ACL chose to hold a fashion show to bring to life the many shades of the collection.

As we look to the future and aim to broaden our appeal, our creative marketing and advertising team reached out to some amazingly talented local fashion and jewellery designers to showcase and highlight our new contemporary colours. By uniting music, illustrations, design and, of course, colour, we are here to present something unique as the nations premium paint brand with colours so true you can feel it, Roach declared.

The fashion show featured clothing by local designers Heather Jones, Charu Lochan- Dass, Rhian Ramkissoon and Afiya Bishop.
Tobago youths urged to be trailblazers

Representat ives from different sectors were on hand to provide information on career options to the young people.

These included health, business, the environment, institutions, agro-processing, tourism and hospitality, arts and craft and skills training.

Some enterprising persons even walked with copies of their resumes and filled out application forms.

The YES programme operates within the Division of Finance and Enterprise Development (DFED) of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA). The Career Fair served as a platform for offering a unique hands-on experience for youths to gain relevant information from various departments within the THA and private entities on the skills and requirements needed for employment. The initiative was also aimed at supporting persons who are entrepreneurial- minded, thereby encouraging self-employment and small-business development.

Secretary of Finance and Enterprise Development, Assemblyman Joel Jack, who formally opened the Career Fair, pointed out that the initiative seeks to create a nurturing environment and harness the untapped potential of our young people as we create and support enriching community- based activities for youth development and employment. Jack announced that the John Dial career would be the first in a series targeting young persons from different communities which would challenge them to capitalise on opportunities to them to shape a bright and successful future.

The Division is committed to empowering and assisting communities and stimulating community- based entrepreneurship.

Community wealth-creation and generation are important elements of the Tobago business model and we will continue to enable the transfer of wealth locally, and within families, Jack told his audience.

He exhorted the young people: As the islands future leaders, I challenge you to create your own success.

Use the tools you have and fearlessly pursue even that which is unfamiliar.

Be a leader, an innovator, a trailblazer.

You have all the capabilities necessary to contribute meaningfully to Tobagos development and I expect that you all will. For Nkocy Fletcher, 19, student of Mt St George, the career fair was very interesting and eye-opening.

I loved the variety of stakeholders who were at the fair because it didnt only focus on those who are academically-inclined.

I was particularly interested in the NESC booth and I actually applied to do a course in facilities maintenance. I do not want to limit myself to the academic sphere but to equip myself with trade skills. It was amazing to see the wide range of career options available right here in Tobago.

It is up to us, the young people, to maximise the opportunities that are presented to us, said a confident Fletcher.

The other Career Fairs will be held at Louis DOr/Betsys Hope, Lowlands, Mason Hall and Parlatuvier.
Petrotrin intervention coming

Addressing the nation last evening on the occasion of the first anniversary of his Peoples National Movement Government in office, Rowley said that Government intends to sit down with the Oilfield Workers Trade Union to discuss the way forward for Petrotrin and Trinmar.

Oil production which has been sliding steadily over the last few years, he noted, was now down to below 70,000 barrels a day, the lowest in 65 years, and well below where it should be if we are to rely on it as heavily as we are do now. Spurred on by gas supply concerns, Rowley noted that TT has been engaged in discussions and negotiations with the Venezuelan Government with a view to partner with them and the international private sector to monetise, through Pt Lisas, Venezuleas gas rich Dragon fields.

Under the guidance of the Energy Sub Committee, he said, Government has successfully re-negotiated the terms of the Massy/Mitsubishi, Caribbean Gas Chemical Limited Natural Gas to Petrochemical project with Massy/Mitsubishi and the Government of Japan. This would allow the billion dollar investment project, he said, to proceed without exposing TT in the manner that the original documentation had.

On TTs relations with Ghana in the hydrocarbon industry, he said, the memorandum of understanding signed earlier in the year, in Accra, between the two countries has initiated serious negotiations and calculations with National Gas Company professionals for TT to invest and supply technical expertise.

We have been and continue to be in a very precarious position with respect to the natural gas supply which has seen persistent shortages at Point Lisas, he said, resulting in sustained losses to some of the businesses there and significant curtailment in revenues to the Government. Meanwhile, TT has to find new ways, he said, to diversify its industrial efforts and find alternative options to expand its earning potential if the people are to sustain the standard of living going forward. On the general state of affairs, he said, thanks to fiscal prudence by Government, we are steadfastly and meticulously positioning our economy to confront our own revenue shocks and the worsening international economic forecasts. The Treasury, he said, has roughly 11 months foreign exchange cover. Notwithstanding the issues surrounding the availability and consumption of foreign exchange we have managed to maintain our reserves at US$10.0 billion; the same as it was in September 2015. When his government took office, he said, it was against the noticeable backdrop of energy revenues collapsing precipitously by as much as 70 percent or more.

He reiterated that the IMF is not an option his Government proposes to exercise.

The task was now to make the necessary, sometimes painful adjustments, he said, to find ways to stimulate growth in the process and at the same time protect the weak and vulnerable. It is not an entirely pleasant task, nor is it a hopeless one. Step by step, Government has been putting the modalities in place, he said, to steer the nations ship of state towards recovery and restoration following that traumatic and painful period of five years of reckless, irresponsible and woefully corrupt governance. It is testimony to responsible, sane and sober approach to governance, he said, there has been no widespread mass layoffs nor economic and social instability in these trying times.
Imbert slams Opposition on Tax Bill

There is nothing new about any of this,, Imbert said in a release yesterday, noting that it was the same agreement the current administration signed with the US Government on August 19. In addition, the Kamla Persad-Bissessar led-government, Imbert said, had also agreed in May 2013 that the competent authority under the legislation necessary to bring FATCA into force under Trinidad and Tobago law, would be the Ministry of Finance and the Board of Inland Revenue.

This is exactly the same as is being proposed now, he said in response to Persad-Bissessars claim that the opposition United National Congress will not support the Tax Information Exchange Bill in its present form because the Finance Minister will have access to private financial information. There is no difference in the legislation currently before the Parliament and it is not correct to say that the Minister of Finance will have access to private information under the Bill, he said.

According to Imbert, Only the Board of Inland Revenue, as obtains now, will have access to private information for tax reporting purposes. On Persad-Bissessars claim that Government rejected her call to meet with the Opposition to work every day and night for a week in a joint select committee (JSC) to complete a review of the bill, Imbert said, Government would have had no difficulty with this proposal if time had permitted. However, the procedural requirements for the establishment of a JSC, involving the naming of members by the Senate and the House of Representatives before the JSC could meet.

That process would take at least one week, he said, and the first time a Joint Select Committee could meet to do its work, therefore, would be Saturday September 17, 2016. Further, after it completed its work, the JSC would have to report back to the Parliament before the debate on the Bill could resume.
Kamla: God is testing us

In a statement issued yesterday, Persad-Bissessar said, God often tests and tries those whom he loves.

He called upon Prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice the object he loved most. Ibrahim answered the call and offered to sacrifice his son. Today God is testing and trying the people of Trinidad and Tobago. She said God has demanded great sacrifices from citizens.

Our country is bleeding from wounds inflicted by crime and greed. The poor are being victimised and oppressed.

The cries for help and sympathy are being loudly sounded. Dark clouds surround us on all sides for the moment but we should not be daunted, for I am sure, if we show the same spirit of sacrifice as was shown by Ibrahim, God would rend the clouds and shower on us His blessing as He did on Ibrahim, she noted.

She asked that the on occasion of Eid-ul-Adha, which symbolises the spirit of sacrifice enjoined by Islam, citizens resolve not to be deterred from the objective of creating a peaceful and loving twin island Republic.

We must not let the trials and tribulations before us weaken the framework of our society.

I am confident that in spite of its magnitude, we shall sacrifice and overcome these grave challenges as we have done in the past, she noted.

Let us be thankful, rejoice, and remember, the greater the sacrifices made, the purer and more chastened shall we emerge like gold from fire. My message to you is one of hope, courage and confidence. Let us mobilise all our resources in a systematic and organised way and tackle the grave issues that confront us with grim determination and discipline worthy of a great people, she said.
Senate sits tomorrow

According to the Senate Order Paper for the sitting, the main item for debate was supposed to be the Tax Information Exchange Agreement Bill 2016 which was debated in the House of Representatives yesterday. However the House was adjourned after Government and the Opposition agreed to have further dialogue on the bill on Monday. The House next sets on Wednesday at 1.30 pm.

A total of 23 papers will be laid in the Senate at next weeks sitting.

Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate, Wade Mark, has four questions for the Government.

Mark will ask Energy Minister Nicole Olivierre, National Security Minister Edmund Dillon, Housing and Urban Development Minister Randall Mitchell and Rural Development and Local Government Minister Franklin Khan about matters pertaining to effors by to recover $60 million fraudulently transferred from the National Energy Corporations First Citizens Bank account in September 2011; severe overcrowding in the countrys jails; the recent termination of senior management personnel at the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) and the reported dismissal of casual workers at the San Fernando City Corporation.

Khan, is also Leader of Government Business in the Senate.
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Baby Christian. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

The relationship between the Republican Party and its most important constituency group, the Christian Right, has often been compared to a marriage of convenience that does not involve a lot of mutual respect or trust.

As a couple of thousand Christian Right activists gathered in Washington for the Family Research Councils Values Voter Summit this weekend, it was more obvious than ever that the GOP is straining the loyalties of the faithful. The star attraction, Donald Trump, was, after all, the fifth-place finisher in the presidential straw poll at last Septembers VVS.

But like a long-suffering spouse, the Christian Right is sticking with Donald Trump as we head toward Election Day because he is convincingly the enemy of its enemies and is willing to make a few key gestures in the direction of the righteous, albeit in a clumsy and offhand way.

None of the Christian conservative leaders who have made opposition to Trump (e.g., Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention) a matter of conscience were allowed near the podium of the VVS. Still, much anxious rhetoric was aimed at those who are thinking about voting third or fifth party or staying home. Former representative Michele Bachmann characteristically used the most extreme words possible to condemn that temptation, comparing the election to the choice God gave the Hebrews in presenting his covenant with them: I have set before you life and death. Which will you choose?

But while there may be some questions about turnout rates on the margins, you did not get the sense listening to Trump address the gathering that he is especially worried about this particular slice of the electorate. He did not bother to mention abortion or same-sex marriage (though his promises to appoint Federalist Society Supreme Court justices in the mode of Antonin Scalia was a well-understood dog whistle on those subjects), which may be a first for a Republican nominee talking to this kind of gathering.

As has been his habit when in Christian Right company of late, Trump placed greatest emphasis on promising something of interest almost exclusively to evangelical clergy: repealing the Johnson Amendment that prevents candidate endorsements and other electioneering from the pulpit for tax-exempt religious (and for that matter nonreligious) organizations.

As Amy Sullivan has pointed out, the evangelical rank and file dont appear to support this idea  yet it always gets big applause from the leadership, and also illustrates the purely transactional nature of Trumps appeal to politically active Christian Right elites. They really have nowhere else to go now that Trump has conquered the GOP, yet hes willing to promise them a tasty policy snack that makes it easier for them to swallow their misgivings about supporting this crude philistine.

For the benefit of the more credulous, Trumps running-mate Mike Pence, the designated conservative whisperer of the ticket, came along and told the VVS attendees on Saturday that at the very core, the very heart, of this good man is  a faith in God and a faith in the American people. This is about as convincing as James Dobsons unsupported claim that Trump is a baby Christian, like one of those ancient barbarians who converted to Christianity but needed a while to figure out the new faith was incompatible with slaughtering prisoners or keeping concubines.

Trump mostly has faith in himself and in the golden calf of worldly success. But hes the presidential nominee of the Republican Party, and thus leader of that mess of pottage for which Christian Right leaders have exchanged their birthright. So what are they to do?

They cheer.
Photo: St. Lucie County Sheriffs Office

The Florida mosque occasionally attended by Omar Mateen, the man who killed 49 people at Orlandos Pulse nightclub in June, was set on fire late Sunday night. No injuries were reported. Local authorities say theyre treating the incident as a case of arson.

The blaze at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce broke out at 12:30 a.m. on Monday, burning at least a quarter of the building before firefighters arrived. No injuries were reported. Evidence has revealed that this fire was set intentionally, Major David Thompson of the St. Lucie Sheriffs Department told the Sun-Sentinel. According to the police, surveillance video shows a person approaching the mosque just before a flash occurred and the individual fled the area. A department spokesperson said that while [i]t has been widely publicized that [Mateen] did attend here at one time  [w]e do not want to speculate as to attackers motive. The fire coincided with the three-month anniversary of the Pulse shooting, the 15th anniversary of September 11, and the beginning of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, giving the perpetrator plenty of terrible, bigoted reasons from which to choose.
Trump at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum on Sunday. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

To mark the 15th anniversary of 9/11, Donald Trump attended an event at the National September 11 Memorial, posted a long tribute on Facebook, and managed to refrain from tweeting anything offensive. On the day of the tragedy, Trump was less restrained, as revealed in a video clip unearthed this weekend. In a phone interview with WWOR on September 11, 2001, which Politico requested from the station, Trump notes that when the towers came down, he became the owner of the tallest building in lower Manhattan.

Forty Wall Street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan, and it was, actually, before the World Trade Center, was the tallest, Trump said. And then when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second-tallest, and now its the tallest.

Trump interview on 9/11: "[My building] was the 2nd-tallest in Manhattan... And now its the tallest." #NeverForget pic.twitter.com/47WUsSKLRu  Ess (@ScottyLiterati) September 11, 2016

Later in the ten-minute interview, Trump speculated that the planes were loaded with bombs.



Trumps claim that he saw thousands and thousands of Muslims celebrating in New Jersey after the attack was famously debunked during the primary, but a less widely known dubious 9/11 claim got some new attention on Sunday. The Daily News reported that while Trump has claimed he received a $150,000 federal grant as a thank you for his charitable efforts after the attacks, documents show that is untrue. The program was created to help local businesses affected by the attack, and records show Trumps company requested the money for rent loss, cleanup, and repair.

Thats not what Trump told Time about the money. It was probably a reimbursement for the fact that I allowed people, for many months, to stay in the building (40 Wall St.), use the building and store things in the building, he said in April. I was happy to do it, and to this day I am still being thanked for the many people I helped. The value of what I did was far greater than the money talked about, much of which was sent automatically to building owners in the area.

As recounted in the Politico piece, Hillary Clinton was at her home in Washington, D.C., when the plane hit the towers. The junior senator from New York headed toward the Capitol and picked up staff members who had been evacuated. That night she sang God Bless America with other lawmakers on the Capitol steps, then appeared on CNN. We cant let these evil acts in any way deter us from making it clear that the United States is resolute, she said in the interview, and we are going to support the president.
Richard Spencer, speaking at the alt-right press conference in Washington, D.C. Photo: Rosie Gray/Twitter

On Friday afternoon, Richard Spencer, president of the innocuously named National Policy Institute, a white nationalist think tank, took the podium at a tiny conference room at the Willard Hotel in downtown Washington. Earlier this week, Spencer and his guests, Jared Taylor, editor of the white supremacist site American Renaissance, and Peter Brimelow, of the anti-immigration site VDARE, announced they would hold a discussion called What is the alt-right? ahead of Trumps speech at the Values Voter Summit across town at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.

The alt-right, as you may have heard, is having a bit of a moment. In earlier years, the movement  which combines elements of racism, anti-Semitism, and a general preference for nationalist strongmen over the candidates of either party  was mostly confined to the realm of dark web message boards, 4chan, and obscure blogs. About a year ago, they burst onto the scene and established a new home for themselves in Donald Trumps campaign. In Trump, they found a candidate uniquely suited to the movements interests: funny, eminently meme-able, and promising to fix Americas worst problems through the sheer force of his will. Perhaps most important, they found a man willing to say the racist things no other mainstream politician would. As Trump steamrolled his way through the primaries, the newly emboldened alt-righters emerged as a force on social media. Among their targets were liberals (otherwise known as libtards), Jews, feminists, the media, and insufficiently reactionary conservatives, whom they called cucks  an insult that reveals more about the person delivering it than it does the target of the insult.

Still, the alt-right mostly avoided mainstream recognition until last month, when Hillary Clinton took to the national stage to verbally bludgeon Trump for enabling the alt-rights emergence into mainstream American politics.

Theyve got a logo. Photo: alternativeright.com

Up until now, the public face of the movement, if you can call it that, has largely been Pepe the frog. Spencer and his fellow alt-righters wanted to seize the moment to explain their beliefs to journalists, but even the logistics were controversial: A few days before the event was to happen, Spencer sent out a press release  complete with a logo spelling AR in triangles, set on a celestial backdrop  advertising the talk as taking place at the National Press Club. The day before the event, though, the press contact announced the alt-right had been dropped from the venue. Spencer, decrying the press clubs censorship, moved it to an undisclosed location owing to unspecified security concerns. When I emailed the press contact asking how to attend, I was directed to go to Old Ebbitt Grill, a lunch spot popular among tourists and downtown D.C. office dwellers, to await instruction. When I arrived, a man wearing a gray suit and brown tie pointed me down the street to the Willard Hotel, where the press conference was being held at the end of an ornately tapestried hall, in the appropriately named Peacock Room.

Excellent Turnout at Alt Right press conference pic.twitter.com/b5epQLuBTb  Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) September 9, 2016

So, who are we? Spencer said. I think if I were to describe what a lot of people know about the alt-right, its probably some things theyve seen online  its Pepe memes, its the parenthesis, he said, referring to the practice, first used by anti-Semites but later reclaimed by Jews, of putting parentheses around the names of Jewish writers to signify their ethnicity. Its the take-no-prisoners attitude on places like Twitter and things like that. I think people have a superficial understanding about who we are by looking at those things.

Spencer tried to elaborate: I dont think the best way of understanding the alt-right is strictly in terms of policy. I think metapolitics is more important than politics. I think big ideas are more important than policies, he said. If the alt-right were in power, he argued, the world would be a happier place, and we all would have arrived here via magnetic levitation trains. A good mantra that encapsulates the beliefs of the alt-right, he said, is that race is real, race matters, and race is the foundation of identity. You cant understand who you are without race. The refugee crisis in Europe, he said, by way of illustration, is something like a world war, something like a race war.

I would say another aspect of the alt-right is dont be a cuck. Cuckservative is probably a term that all of you know, he continued. This is a term that was organically invented, it came into being on Twitter and other places a year ago  its obviously a reference to being a cuckold  raising other peoples children, knowingly or unknowingly. Its also a reference of the cuckoo bird. The cuckoo bird will fly into another birds nest and lay eggs with the other eggs.

This is, to put it mildly, a very polite gloss on the much more graphic popular conception of what a cuckold is, especially on the internet. And if Spencer, Taylor, and Brimelow were attempting to put a more human face on a social-media movement that has made a name for itself by publishing the most vile shit imaginable, it was going to take a little more work. While Spencer spoke, someone with an alt-right hashtag in their Twitter bio and a background image of a swastika rising like a golden sun over the countryside was adding me to a Twitter list called cattle cars  as in, the vehicles used to send Jews to death camps during the Holocaust. Another was inviting his internet friends to rate this yiddesss aesthetic. The frog is an expression of  its a smug frog thats an expression of someone whos willing to speak the truth, he said, as young men in the audience snickered.

Donald Trump Jr & Roger Stone both put out this pic, w/the winking symbol of white nationalism right at Trump's side pic.twitter.com/9kinDUoFZo  Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) September 11, 2016

But in some ways, Spencer was just the warmup act. After a brief talk from Brimelow, a silver-mop-haired man in a three-piece suit warning of Americas inevitable crackup, Spencer introduced Jared Taylor as the man who red-pilled me with his writings about race.

A key thing to know about Taylor  other than that he is a virulent racist  is that he pronounces whites wuh-hites, with extra emphasis on the h. We have very good data on this subject, going back 100 years now, said Taylor. Its very, very clear that Asians have the highest IQ, then wuh-hites, then Hispanics, then blacks. Taylor went on like this, noting that the kinds of bacteria that make up a persons mouth could be used to determine their race, that there was a reason that Haiti and Africa were both poor. The idea that race is a social construct, he said, is so wrong and so stupid that only very intelligent people could convince themselves of it. It was the most apt  and ironic  thing that any of them, including Taylor, a Yale graduate, said all afternoon.

If there were ever any real security concerns, they never materialized. In all, the event lasted over two hours, and most of the question-and-answer segment was taken up by alt-right supporters and members of the media asking about Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Spencer was happy to oblige. I dont think our support of Trump is really about policy at the end of the day. Its about style over substance. Because, you know, policy, what does that really matter? I think its really about Trumps style, the fact that he doesnt back down, the fact that hes willing to confront his enemies, especially on the left  you look at that and think, this is what a leader looks like, this is what we want, he said. He seems to be willing to go there. He seems to be willing to confront people. Thats very different than a cuckold.
The youngest cohort of voters was famously on fire for the Bern. They are not warming to Hillary Clinton as much as she might hope. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

One of the important aspects of this presidential election has been the enormous assistance Donald Trump has provided to Hillary Clinton in nailing down the support of minority voters. It had been assumed going into the cycle that a white Democratic nominee would not be able to match Barack Obamas historic performance among African-Americans, and that Republicans would almost certainly be able to improve on Mitt Romneys terrible numbers among Latinos. Wrong and wrong, with Trump on the ballot.

But theres another element of the Obama coalition that has not warmed up to Hillary Clinton as much as she might hope, mostly to the benefit of third- and fourth-party candidates: young millennial voters. A new analysis of under-25 voters by FiveThirtyEights Harry Enten using a very large sample provided by SurveyMonkey shows them offering strong approval of Barack Obamas job performance (a net-positive 32 percent) but at the same time giving Clinton much less than half of their votes (41 percent for Clinton, 27 percent for Trump, 17 percent for Johnson, 10 percent for Stein).

The same source shows Clinton benefiting greatly in this demographic from a shift to a two-way race, so if Johnson and Stein could be relied upon to fade in the stretch as minor candidates usually do, it could represent a critical reservoir of hidden support for the Democrat. But so far the minor candidates show no sign of losing support.

Is this all a hangover from the Democratic primaries, in which younger millennials were the red-hot core of the Bern? Perhaps to some extent. A new ABC/Washington Post survey shows 18 percent of former Sanders voters now supporting either Johnson or Stein. But this may be confusing cause and effect: Clintons very limited appeal to young voters that manifested itself in a poor performance among millennials in the primaries may just be carrying over to the general election. Its also interesting that shes doing better among older millennials  more likely to be literal members of the Obama coalition  than the younger cohort. The older they are, the more likely they are to vote, at least based on prior experience.

Enten calculates that if under-25 voters support Clinton as much as they approve of Obama, it would add two points to her overall vote. Thats a lot in a close election. Perhaps the Clinton campaign has in mind some targeted appeal to these voters going down the stretch. It might want to start by getting some pointers from Bernie Sanders on how to avoid letting age and perceived health risks become a problem with voters too young to know what its like to become overheated.
Photo: Andre Wagner

At the end of last nights funny, political Opening Ceremony show, hosts Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen asked all of the celebrities onstage why it was important to vote. When they came to Rowan Blanchard, star of Girl Meets World, she said simply Vote for my future  a reminder that the eloquent actress who had just schooled the audience on intersectional feminism is still years away from being legally able to cast a ballot.

Spending time with Blanchard, its hard to wrap your mind around the fact that shes only 14 years old. Shes knowledgeable and mature, with a firm grasp of how shed eventually like to change the world. And her starring role as Riley Matthews on Girl Meets World has given her a platform for fighting for the rights of others.

Blanchard is well aware of the influence she wields on the show, which picks up where the underrated 90s teen sitcom Boy Meets World left off. When we started filming the pilot, I went back and watched episodes [of Boy Meets World] and I realized this was special because it was television that was aimed toward children but was talking to them  rather than talking down to them  and making these lessons inclusive. There are some things on that show that you just dont see anymore.

Photo: Andre Wagner

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For example: Topanga, the love interest on Boy Meets World, was one of the eras few non-sample-size actresses on a mainstream show  meaning that a generation of kids got to identify with an average-size girl as she grew up on-camera. Rowan says, I noticed that too! A lot of shows today just teach children not to eat, so that they can be skinnier to be on television. Topanga still is this strong character thats so independent and drives her own stories. Actually, Danielle Fishel [who plays Topanga on both Boy and Girl Meets World] directed and produced a new episode, and it was amazing to see her now directing, producing, and writing her own stuff. As someone who wants to do that in the future, it was inspiring to watch.

Rowan is passionate about directing, but for now, working with a female director as an actress is just as much of a priority for her. Theres something different about when a female directs versus a male. The level of maturity, mutual respect, and energy that you get from a female director is so different. Ive worked with male directors who arent good, and no one says anything about it, but then we had one female director who was kind of all over the place and everyone complained. Its so gendered. I feel safer when working with a female director because I know its from a female gaze.

Photo: Andre Wagner

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Terms like the female gaze appear frequently in conversation with Rowan. Her nuanced understanding of gender discrimination is part of whats driven her rise to fame  what other 14-year-old is making headlines talking about intersectional feminism? She says she started her deep dive into feminism by watching the news and realizing that over and over, certain things only seemed to happen to certain types of people.

I started to have conversations with women around me and I had always heard the word feminism with a negative connotation. I remember I saw something about equal pay in Hollywood and the writer used the word feminism in the article. And at first I was scared, and thought it was a horrible word. Around the same time Emma Watson had her speech at the United Nations, and that gave me some clarity, she explains.

My first definition of feminism was so small: Men and women should be equal. And maybe thats how you have to learn it, so that it can be more accessible. But then I started discovering Audre Lorde and Angela Davis and all of these intricacies of feminism that were not being presented to me by these white feminist icons. It was only then that I realized how deep it is and how its more about undoing these walls that we have built around marginalized people  its not just about women and men. Its the fact that the walls for me are different than the walls for Amandla [Stenberg].

Now, she says, shed define feminism like this: Undoing patriarchal structures against marginalized people  structures that fight against people of color, that fight against women, that fight against disabled people, that fight against LGBTQ.

Even realizing those structures exist is a first step: Its understanding, when people make signs that say Girl power! You can do anything you want! Believe in yourself! that, while I sincerely hope you do believe in yourself, here are a bunch of reasons why the world has made it hard for some people to do what they want to do.

As if this werent self-aware enough for someone born in the year 2001, she goes on to explain that shes not an expert: Im still realizing so much of it. To say that I know everything about feminism would be the biggest lie! Its such a learning process and so much of it is listening.

Photo: Andre Wagner

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As a young woman in Hollywood, Rowan says her experience has been full of support from other women in the industry. Theres an invisible sisterhood, she says, because of all the horror stories that have now been publicized. Reading scripts that have a really good cast and theres a rape joke in it, its really upsetting. That and having the Woody Allens of the world, and people continue to work with them and nobody cares. Its not a secret  everybody knows what happened but it doesnt matter.

Its such a hunting ground for women because in the movies we watch, women are just there to be around the men and fill a spot, she says. Look at the Bechdel test  which asks whether a film features at least two women talking to each other about something other than a man. According to a study by Fusion, almost half of 2015s top movies failed the test. If you add the requirement that the two female characters must have names, the results are even worse.

While she could talk about womens rights all day long, Rowan admits shes tired of media baiting her against other women for the sake of headlines. My least favorite question is being asked about Meryl Streep saying shes not a feminist. We cant expect every celebrity to be 100 percent aware of whats going on socially, and when they give answers that arent educated or well-thought-out, it doesnt further feminism or equality, so theres no point in asking. Im not thinking about who doesnt consider themselves a feminist; Im thinking about who does and whos talking about it, and how awesome that is, and how theyre using their space to make more.

Photo: Andre Wagner

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Luckily, journalists have stopped asking about her weight  a question she used to get at the age of 12, when she first started on Girl Meets World. But they havent stopped asking about her sexual orientation, her private life, or what her advocacy really means. I feel like my generation in particular isnt interested in labels because its just prescribing to something that is false, and that is not organic. I just dont feel like subscribing to heteronormative standards that I have no interest in. And I talk to a lot of people who are in the business, and feel the way I feel, but dont want to talk about it publicly.

To keep sane regardless of the circus around her, she says she likes listening to Beyonce, singing show tunes, and playing with fashion. I was always into fashion. How awesome is it that the way you dress can almost make you a different person? There was a phase when I literally tried to dress like a flower, she goes on, suddenly sounding very young. I wore green leggings and brown shoes to be the dirt. I fully committed and had someone take a picture above me.

But the next minute, shes back to being wise beyond her years: Right now, Im really inspired by the Rodarte girls, Aurora James, and Miuccia Prada because I like when people are obsessed with making women feel good and not cater to anyone else.

Photo: Andre Wagner

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Photos by Andre Wagner, Makeup by Samantha Lau, Hair by Jerome Cultrera.
Hillary Clinton just loves Americans ages 18 to 34. Photo: Courtesy of Comedy Central

We know Hillary Clinton did Benghazi, emailed state secrets, silenced victims of sexual assault, had someone murdered, has at least one debilitating disease, and is probably hacking up a lung this very minute. But we at the Cut have uncovered yet another shocking secret the Democratic presidential nominee is hiding from the American public: She is, in fact, a millennial.

We know what youre thinking: How can Hillary Clinton be a millennial? She was wearing a pantsuit when millennials were in diapers. But this is a woman who uses a body double when shes felled with pneumonia (Zika)  when it comes to her, logic just doesnt apply. Therefore, it is indeed possible that Clintons Pokemon Go jokes and Twitter burns arent examples of painfully obvious pandering, but are instead slipups that reveal her true form.

Surely these things cant be engineered, because Clintons camp knows pandering would be just as off-putting to millennials as ignoring them completely. But dont just take our word for it  examine the evidence yourself.

1. She knows how to unleash a good Twitter burn. Delete your account was fun, but she knows the phrase is getting old, so shes moved on to Actually -based clapbacks.

2. She reads Medium.

3. She appeared on an episode of Broad City. Afterward Abbi and Ilana said they loved her, and she had to remind herself to play it cool.

4. She posed for Humans of New York. You know, to get her message out to all the Bernie supporters whose votes she hasnt quite nabbed yet.

5. She has an app. Shes been addicted to the Kim Kardashian app since it launched, so she decided to build her own version.

6. She speaks emoji. And some developer also made her a Hillarymoji keyboard, but its kind of lame, so she doesnt really use it.

How does your student loan debt make you feel?

Tell us in 3 emojis or less.  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 12, 2015

7. Her online store carries Hillary Clintonthemed bandannas and T-shirts that say Yaaas.

8. She wrote an editorial for the Toast. Shed been a dedicated reader since it launched in 2013, and she was devastated to see it fold. Where will she read liberal dude erotica now?

9. She also wrote one for PopSugar. I dont even read PopSugar.

10. And she wrote one for Mic. At this point, why not?

11. She has her own podcast. Its just like Serial, except not.

12. She loves Elena Ferrante. A lot.

13. She made a Pokemon Go joke. Tugged by the irresistible pull of nostalgia, Hillary Clinton downloaded Pokemon Go the minute it came out in the U.S., but she ended up deleting it because it took up too much storage.

14. The CEO of Starbucks endorsed her. Which is a move as sweet as a Pumpkin Spice Latte, but shes been more into kombucha lately.

15. Shes BFFs with Lena Dunham. Who, as we know, is the voice of a generation.

16. She knows her best camera angles. And shes an old pro at photo booths.

17. Shes a Kanye stan. She wanted to line up for Yeezy merch, but her campaign schedule was packed.

18. She watched Lemonade. She just thinks Beyonce is so inspiring.

19. She effectively mediated the Twitter feud between Chloe Grace Moretz and Kim Kardashian. Which made international politics look like cake.

20. She chose Fight Song as the official song of her campaign. Spotify included it in her Discover Weekly playlist last summer, and she thought it was catchy.

21. Shes a budding Vine star. She got bored in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, so she shot what might be the chillest Vine of all time  it was an instant hit.

21. She feeds her campaign workers Trader Joes. Because she knows Roasted Seaweed Snacks and Cookie Butter are the best fuel.

22. Seriously, just look at her campaign headquarters. Her Brooklyn campaign headquarters.

Taken together, the actions detailed above could only feasibly be carried out by someone between the ages of 18 and 34. And if any shred of uncertainty remains, its bound to be cleared up by her campaigns inevitable Harambe meme.
Photo: Neil Rasmus/BFA.com

Only the Kardashians could turn a black-tie gala at the Plaza Hotel into a family reunion. This years Harpers Bazaar Icons issue features both Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, and at the party in its honor on Friday night, Kims relatives were everywhere.

It started with a very blonde Kylie Jenner walking the red carpet hand-in-hand with boyfriend Tyga. An eclectic parade of non-Kardashians followed: Christina Hendricks, Rosie Perez, Will.I.Am, Adriana Lima, Emily Ratajkowski, Jeremy Scott, Alessandra Ambrosio, Stacey Bendet, and Bazaars editor-in-chief, Glenda Bailey. Bailey hailed the talents of Carine Roitfeld and Stephen Gan, who co-create the annual Icons issue. (Roitfeld and Gan did not walk the red carpet together  so is that reported feud between the one-time besties real?)

Around 10:30pm, Kim walked the red carpet, solo. Where was Kanye? He was due to perform at the event. Nobody knew. Kim was about to step onto the elevator when a woman wearing a green Pablo jacket came over and embraced her. It was her mom, Kris Jenner. The two decided to take the stairs up to the Plaza Hotels ballroom, causing a major traffic jam as photographers swarmed.

Photo: Madison Mcgaw/BFA.com

It was packed in the reception area outside the ballroom. I spotted Kate Upton, Linda Fargo, Nick Cannon, Anna Cleveland, and Pamela Anderson in the first 30 seconds. Guests who asked for water were offered beer instead  Stella Artois was a sponsor, it turns out, with Infor and Laura Mercier. (There were fully stocked bars inside the ballroom, though.)

Inside the darkened ballroom, a TV crew walked by, toting cameras and sound equipment and parting the crowd like it was the Red Sea. It was Kendall Jenner, filming her show. The Kardashian-Jenner clan really might be modern-day deities.

The KUWTK crew stopped by a bar, and Jasmine Sanders came over to chat with Kendall. A photographer started snapping, and suddenly, Kaia Gerber jumped in to photobomb. That was the best photo Ive gotten all night, the Getty photographer said.

After the celebs drifted away, a young woman in a chic headscarf hijab scooted over, spoke to Kendall, and they took a selfie together. A few other people also approached her for pics, and Kendall was game. The woman wearing the hijab later said that Kendall was really nice and friendly.

David Carey, Joanna Coles, Kris Jenner, Kourtney Kardashian, Kim Kardashian, Michael Clinton. Photo: Madison Mcgaw/BFA.com

After the delayed hellscape that was Yeezy Season 4, we all wondered: When would Kanye begin his show? Hell definitely be late, predicted Ann Dexter-Jones. But then at precisely 11 p.m., the lights went down, a Hearst exec said a few words, and Kanye took the stage amid orange lights and a foggy mist.

His half-hour concert was electrifying. He did hits from throughout his career, starting off with Father Stretch My Hands from The Life of Pablo. The crowd ate it up: Literally everyone was singing along to each song. During All of the Lights, Kanye came down off the stage and walked through the audience, singing all the while. He extended a middle finger all through To the World. When Black Skinhead began, he tore off his jacket and danced up a storm.

At the end, Kanye seemed to allude to the bad press hes gotten this week over his Yeezy fashion show, which began two hours late, forcing fashion editors to wait in the hot sun and models to faint.

You know, at the beginning of this performance, I tried my best not to try, he told the crowd. No, I tried to listen to all the reports, and I tried my best to stop trying. But I just couldnt do it! I couldnt stop! No matter what they write, I just couldnt stop! He went on:

I do thank you all for going on this journey for me. I appreciate all the years yall put up with me learning in front of you and listening to the music at the same time. I appreciate the moment when Carine put her friend on the cover. No, not this woman  Im talking about when she put Tom Ford on the cover. And all of you motherfuckers were, like, Ah, Carine, I dont know about that!

But she a motherfuckin icon now, he concluded and just walked off the stage. The lights came back on, and there was stunned silence for a moment. The concert was over.

With Carine Roitfeld. Photo: Neil Rasmus/BFA.com

Everybody lingered, nibbling on chocolates that had been laid out on tables and sipping Champagne. Alexandra Richards said she had never seen Kanye perform live before, and it was an experience: Like I saw Madonna perform, it was an experience.

Linda Fargo shrugged off the late start of his fashion show, saying, Its Kanye. Joe Zee was ecstatic. I love his music, Zee said. I love, love, love this album so much, and the music is amazing. Hes an incredible performer; hes very magnetic, in a way, when he performs his music, because its so personal to him. Whatever people want to say about him, hes a really, really good musical artist.

Does Zee think this excellent performance redeemed him from the debacle of the other day? I dont know. Fashion people love to complain. I mean, yes, I got a sunburn from it, but will this redeem him? I think this sort of already redeemed him. Its a really good album.
Last night at the atypical fashion venue that is the Javits Center  the closest its come to New York Fashion Week before is playing host to a cat fashion show I regrettably attended in 2009  Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen hosted a combination talent pageant, Olympics Opening Ceremonies, and runway show for Opening Ceremony.

Backstage after the show, co-designer Humberto Leon told the Cut that Carrie and Freds comments as the models walked the runway were almost entirely improvised, which explains some of the models genuine laughter at their quips. We gave them free rein to make fun of the clothes, he said. Were never going to take ourselves super seriously, and were also in on our own jokes. Were not ashamed to make fun of ourselves. (See also: spring 2015s silly, self-referential play.)



The show addressed the looming election and the issues surrounding it, but with a light, not-too-preachy touch. There were a couple of messages we wanted to get across, and then also, at the end of the day, we wanted it to be fun, said Leon. Added his partner in crime, Carol Lim, The individual speakers had specific things they wanted to talk about  like Natasha Lyonnes focus on prison reform, or Diane Guerreros on immigration rights. We wanted people who had a point of view on certain things.

They also went to great lengths to find flag bearers from each of the countries represented. Said Leon, they were scouring through the entire city for weeks. Each wore a customized varsity jacket for his nation, and Leon noted that the O.C. team was beading them right up until the last minute.



After the Javits Center, the O.C. crew headed to the equally chic Penn Plaza, located in the jewel of Manhattan, Herald Square. The party was meant to mark the brands collaboration with Esprit, the latest in their ever-churning nostalgia machine. Ads featuring cool kids with brightly colored sweatshirts played on big screens, and the crowd alternated between grazing at the venues fancy new food court and taking an escalator upstairs to dance in a smoke-filled, deafening loft.



Aziz Ansari, who sat front row and contributed an essay to the shows program, deadpanned, Fashion Week is known as some of the best comedy audiences you can ask for  At first I was like, oh, God, these poor guys, why are they making them do comedy there? he said. And then they were so funny and everyone laughed and had a good time.

Ansari, already a fashion aficionado, has been really immersing himself in the scene this week, having also attended Saturday nights #Wangfest, which he told me was his first-ever Alexander Wang party. I was always like, theres probably too many people, and Im not that crazy into crowds. I just stopped in for a second and left. He didnt even get a chance to join the hordes eating McDonalds. They had McGriddles, right? he said wistfully. (They did.)



Tinashe, who was wearing thigh-high crushed velvet boots as casually as though they were bedroom slippers, was tucked into a corner. The show wasnt her first fashion show, not even her first O.C. show, but she said she thought the comedy angle was a welcome innovation. I thought it was a fresh vibe. It kept the pace of the show really interesting, she said. I thought it was great that they were using their platform to express something they were passionate about.

She had no recollection of Esprit (shes 23) and Id imagine most of the crowd didnt either, but the 90s nostalgia vibes were still strong. As I was leaving, a young guy strode by holding a landline phone with a cord that didnt attach to anything. His friends were clutching onto its plastic spiral, letting him pull them along. If there were a more on-the-nose metaphor for the pasts extreme pull, I couldnt conceive of it.


Photo: Courtesy of E! Entertainment

Their joint nickname sounds like a drug in clinical trials, so probably its no surprise that ChyRos Rob & Chyna season premiere saw many ups and downs  ups and downs that had me yearning for its precursor, Keeping Up With the Kardashians. The new show, led by none other than Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna, is executive-produced by Kris Jenner and Kim Kardashian West. So, yes, it has the gorgeous look of Keeping Up, but the content leans more toward WAGS or Hollywood Divas. If Keeping Up is Khloe Kardashian, Rob & Chyna is Malika Haqq. Its pretty, its a member of the exclusive Kardashian club, and it has drama of its own, but it also seems like it sends its emails in Comic Sans. Basically, its a knockoff that gets a little too real.

In confessionals intercut with the two hiking and trying to sprint up hills, Rob and Chyna attempt to provide some background for their relationship. They try to make it seem as though their union was organic and predictable. Allegedly, they met at Kendalls sweet 16 in 2011, when Chyna was still with Tyga, and when a 14-year-old Kylie was hitting on Tyga. Even after Chynas relationship with Tyga and the Kardashians disappeared, she and Rob kept in touch. Robs always appreciated how Chyna grew up with less than he had, and he likes her fat ass. Meanwhile, Chyna likes the fact that Robs home a lot. We can only pray that their love is solid enough to withstand the knowledge that Rob and Kylie are both having sex with people who share a child.

Sadly, Chyna has larger issues to worry about, like Rob being too much of a mamas boy. While driving with her friends, Chyna laughs with the group about how much Rob depends on Kris. They think he loves her food too much and consults her for advice more than he should. Its peculiar rhetoric coming from a car full of unknowns who wouldnt have cameras in their faces if it werent for this particular mama and her boy.

Early on in the episode, Scott Disick arrives. Hes eager to bring the lighthearted humor, if only to assure himself that each episode he appears in is one fewer tooth-whitening device or weight-loss tea to promote on Instagram. Scott takes Rob to a Beverly Hills barbershop to get a shave. Kourtney Kardashians ex-boyfriend, father of her three children, asks Rob about the sex of his baby and jokes that he neednt worry about producing a male heir to carry on the Kardashian name, because thats already been done. Scott also jokes that Rob should name his child Kim if shes a girl, which would be the perfect finishing touch on this childs already-mangled origin story.

Sometime after Rob and Scotts trip to the barber, Rob and Chyna visit her ob-gyn, Dr. Kathleen Bradley, to find out the sex of their child. More exciting than finding out the sex of the baby is finding out that Chyna and Kim share an ob-gyn! Kims visited Dr. Kathleen multiple times on KUWTK, because she specializes in high-risk pregnancies. I can only confirm that Kim and Chyna shared Dr. Kathleen for this production day, however, since Dr. Kathleen introduced herself to both Rob and Chyna at the beginning of the session. Dr. Kathleen also confirmed Chynas due date, which is sometime around November 16. This is great news, because it allows me to better plan for the traditional ceremonial rites that must be performed at the birth of any new female Kardashian. Weve not seen a moment like this in history since 1984, Khloe Alexandra Kardashians birth year.

Chyna, before learning the sex of her baby, asks Rob to keep the news a secret so that they can plan a gender reveal. Robs down, because hes also interested in turning the babys gender reveal into a big moment for the two of them. Rob even has an idea that involves revving up a motorcycle and having the exhaust smoke turn either blue or pink.

As delicate as his suggestion is, Rob and Chyna wont get to try it out, since Rob tells Kris that theyre having a girl almost immediately after their doctors appointment. Kris then shows up at Chynas house with massive amounts of baby gifts wrapped in pink. She also shows up with her steadfast commitment to calling Chyna by her government name, Angela. Chynas upset and cant quite understand why Rob couldnt keep just one thing from his mother for a short period of time. Chynas ignorance regarding Kriss complete control over her narrative is super-cute.

That night, Rob and Chyna joke around on their his-and-hers bathroom scales. Rob weighs himself and is confused as the numbers rapidly increase, unaware that his pregnant fiancee is standing on the back of the scale adding weight. This bit goes on for far too long and takes a devastating turn when the inflated numbers werent too different from Robs actual weight: 263 pounds. This includes the 20 pounds hes gained since he started dating Chyna. After their scale shenanigans, Rob also gains an enemy, when he insinuates that Chyna has been texting other guys since changing the pass-code on her phone. Rob explains that her pass-code change made him feel insecure. Chyna remains oblivious to a key symptom of his depression and anxiety, and quips that she doesnt like insecurity in men.

The next day, Chyna picks up her friend Paige, and tells her that the only reason Rob would think Chyna is texting other guys is if he were texting other women. The logic doesnt quite add up, even after Chyna says Rob confessed to texting other females. In Robs defense, he may have meant females as in people who identify as female, such as his mom, sisters, or other humans. Chyna clearly meant females like side-chicks. Rob FaceTimes Chyna while shes in the car, and their communication is terrible at best. However, their pain does give us the spectacle of Chyna screaming at Rob to ask if hes STILL TEXTING BITCHES  YES OR NO. Rob says no multiple times, but not quickly or loudly enough.

After their blowup, Rob brings Chyna flowers. She doesnt appreciate them at all. In fact, she glares at him and immediately takes the flowers out of their vase, walks outside to her backyard, gears up as though shes readying herself to throw a discus and hurls the flowers into her pool. She then kicks him out. Absolutely nothing about this fight makes sense.

Robs gone from Chynas life for a few days, and she cant even reach him. Somehow, though, this is the fight referenced on the mid-season finale of KUWTK. On June 17, 2016, Chyna filmed a scene at a trampoline park explaining that she hadnt talked to Rob for days after kicking him out. Chyna kicked Rob out before June 13, the day Scott had Khloe call Rob to ask about the fight he had with Chyna. This call was featured on KUWTK. On June 17, at the trampoline park on Rob & Chyna, Chyna tells her friends that she misses and is worried about Rob, because she hasnt heard from him in days. Hes not responding to any of her calls or texts, and thats not like him. At this point, Rob was most likely out of Chynas house for about eight days, because this Snapchat was filmed on June 9, the same day she tossed his flowers in the pool.

Since Chyna hasnt heard from Rob, she heads to his house. In a very unexpected twist, Rob isnt home. Chynas lucky, though, because her friend Paige helps find Robs spare key hidden under a plant in his backyard. With the key they break into Robs house, confirming that hes not home, and also confirming that hes not had any lady visitors. The only other place Chyna can possibly imagine Rob is at Kris Jenners, so she tries her home next.

When Chyna gets to Kriss, Kris is ready. She has a full spread of fruit, cheese, and meat. Shes also wearing one of her two summer lemonade inspired dresses. Chynas ready, too. She calls Kris Miss Kris, which is more respectful than 75 percent of the names Kriss biological kids call her. Despite their preparedness, Rob isnt at Kriss, but Kris promises to help Chyna with her Rob issues. Kris does remind Chyna that some of Robs actions could stem from a little bit of depression, which the entire family had preferred to think he simply shut off. Plus, Kris wonders if Rob is just learning how to be in a long-term relationship. Chyna is empowered by her talk with Kris and seems slightly hopeful.

Later, though, Chynas hope fades when she breaks down in tears over both the absence of jelly in her fridge and her strained relationship with Rob. She tells Paige that shes worried shes going to have a baby with a man who doesnt get her. Scary, but as long as he gets the child-support orders, youll be alright, Chyna.

Over at Kris Jenners home, Rob finally shows himself. Kris cooks him breakfast, and then heaves and gags on the turkey bacon she cooked him because it tastes like rubber. After Rob eats and Kris spits out the food she cooked, she asks about Chyna, specifically their bump in the road, and tells Rob that he should think about working on some compromises. Rob says he understands, but hes not yet ready to work on things with Chyna, so nothing is resolved.

In a word, this show is odd. Chyna and Rob have no idea how to censor their emotions, which makes them the perfect victims for this televised event. Rob is learning to assimilate into the world and public life, Chyna is just being Chyna, and Im completely invested. Keep it locked here, Dolls, not just for the latest on ChyRo but also the latest on my medical status should Kris Jenner and Chynas mom, Tokyo Toni, share a moment together onscreen. See you next week.
good for them,



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God, I just can't understand how people ship real people together, especially when they aren't attracted to each other in the least. Characters? Sure. But otherwise, that's just creepy. :/

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And I think it's even worse when they ship heterosexual people together and spread these fake rumors about them being closeted or stuff like that.

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Seriously, that's not okay. :( Fans are so creepy days, they seem to forget that celebrities are actually /people/.

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The WORST is when people ship the actors from a fictional couple to the point they harass their real life partners.

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I can understand shipping real people on an aesthetic level, as in, gosh wouldn't these two attractive celebrities make a handsome couple? It's when people take it too seriously that it gets disturbing and sucks all the fun out of it.



Edited because it and is are not the same thing.



Edited at 2016-09-12 03:53 pm (UTC)

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ikr i hate shippers. especially when they ship two hetero men and insist that they're just closeted and harass anyone they interact with on social media. so delusional.

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Luke is like the actor version of Zayn.



ETA: I'm getting my first tattoo in two weeks and I'm super nervous about it.



Edited at 2016-09-12 03:47 pm (UTC)

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What are you getting??

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A celtic triquetra on my arm. I've been thinking about it for more than a decade and I've never wavered in the design, but it's permanent so I'm nervous.

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The actor version with better body and better booty tbh

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Wow the guy Perry is dating is hot but looks like a dick, she seems to have a type. And to answer the OP, I don't trust myself enough to choose a tattoo I won't regret later in life. And the last place I went on vacation was Provincetown 

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At least this dick is 1.87 m.. not 1.72ish like Zayn



edit: I should have worded that differently... it's not the size of their actual dicks... but since you called them dicks it seemed fair to reference it



Edited at 2016-09-12 04:14 pm (UTC)

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I was like wait..... How u know this sis,spill that tea but then i figured u meant height.

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did Gigi make him do it?



the fact that people are so invested in a couple that may or may not even be a couple blows my mind. I just hope Perrie's happy after all the shit she had to deal with.



I regret one of my tattoos. the artist didn't colour it properly and the lines are wonky, plus the person who has the matching one and I aren't friends anymore.

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I for sure cannot see that Zayn has changed that tattoo other than it looking darker but I must admit I need to get my eyes examined again lol



I feel like it's soon for Perrie and Luke to be going on holiday together but hopefully they're happy!



I don't have any tattoos of/for/with exes other than an ex friend and I still love the actual tattoos...just maybe not so much what they stand for 'cause I'm bitter sometimes. And my last vacation was to visit family in Colorado. :)

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It's the space and there's a spaceship there.

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Thank you, bb! Maybe I'll come across a better picture of it so I can tell ha ha :)

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The video mentions Zayn supporting Gigi this weekend and his posts about her.

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Luke is so fucking beautiful, so congrats Perrie!

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I have a tattoo in French and I really love the saying and the meaning. However, I just broke up with a cheating French bastard so right now I kind of regret my French tattoo.

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Oh no, sacre bleu! I thought you two were having fun

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I thought we were doing great too. Stealing any little moments of free time so we could see each other, A+ sex, doing mundane couple things together, talking about the future... However, all the that did't stop him from doing whatever. I saw Friday night for a little bit and when I saw him Saturday he magically got hickeys all over him and they weren't from me. He wouldn't even own up to it.

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I don't see why he has to cover up that tattoo, all the women he seems to be into are replicas of her anyway.

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gigi and perrie look nothing alike

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lol, ia...plus the tattoo didn't even look like perrie in the first place.

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Also somewhat unrelated but Perrie and Leigh's snapchat updates were annoying me the other night. Them screaming that they were gonna die as their driver was going super fast and they were flying around unbuckled.

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The only time I get annoyed by any of their snaps is when Leigh snaps her friend Gracie. Like, I'm sure she's a great person, but her voice is so damn annoying and she's ALWAYS screaming, not matter if she's sober or drunk.

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Is she the brunette that's been in SO MANY of Leigh's snaps lately?

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Perrie and Leigh are so annoying together lol

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isn't there an app to stop you from texting when you're drunk.. i think one for snapchat is needed lol

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need a bigger picture of the coverup for my blind eyes.



jealous of perrie, luke is swoon. upgrade for her

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That's gonna end up looking really cool when it's done

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ty, before it just looked like a dark blob! it isn't a tattoo i'd want but it's not bad

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i had no idea that Luke Pasqualino was that guy from Skins! i had such a crush on him back then... they make a cute couple :)



I will never get a tattoo because ill regret it after two weeks and my last vacation was to Seoul!



Edited at 2016-09-12 04:00 pm (UTC)

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That's Perries new guy?



Definite upgrade...

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I have "Be what tomorrow needs" and "See what tomorrow brings" (from MCR's SING) on my arms in a shitty fucking awful font and I kind of hate them. I've gotten one side covered with a Ghostbusters tattoo and will hopefully get the other one covered next year with a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea tattoo. I'm super excited for that.

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Buster's Mal Heart review excerpts:



"Despite being both a captivating screen presence and a tremendous actor, Malek isnt a conventional leading man  but as his work on the critically acclaimed cult favorite TV series Mr. Robot has already demonstrated, conventional isnt always the best way to go. "

"

"As in Midnight Swim, Smith leaves many key points open to interpretation, but between the two films its clear that exploring mental illness on screen is an area of keen interest to the young filmmaker , who also serves as her own editor."

, who also serves as her own editor."

"Malek is thoroughly convincing as a man at odds with himself. Whether hes playfully interacting with his wife and daughter, or delivering a madmans rant to thin air, Malek has the range to be utterly charming, utterly creepy, or both at once ."

."

"this is clearly Maleks vehicle start-to-finish."



star

hints at what he'll wear to the

: "It's coming down to the bowtie"

 Hollywood Reporter (@THR) September 12, 2016

mods, I switched the pictures for tweets/twitter sources, the pictures are available elsewhere online as free use/domain but I can't find embedabble content so I'll just stick to tweets.

Rami is also part of W Magazine multiple covers alongside Kanye West, Kit Harigton, Chris Evans, etc. Rest of the covers @ W source.source: pictures Variety , Twitter: 1
Oh Haruka. <3

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I love Haruka, but lbr, Michiru is the sassy one.

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Yesss

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hbic

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she's so dreamy...

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LOVELY

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dokidoki

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gimme dat reboot NOW

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flawless sailor soldier, flawless gif

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Far superior feminist icon.

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how do they know? i thought that was private

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Its public information (so is what your registered political party affiliation is), from what I understand.

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I know your registration can easily be found, but not if you voted or not.



I wonder if I can find out about myself. Like I send mine in absentee but I am always skeptical about whether it gets there

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We know if you voted, just not who you voted for. Any advocacy group that has polling information could immediately pull you up. I work at Planned Parenthood and it takes like five seconds to look through VoteBuilder for that information.

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Even if she didn't, she probably made an impression that may have gotten a few people to get out and vote for Obama. No hate here.



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this idiot bitch

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so cute

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I want this cat NOW

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cuuuuute kitty

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i believe it. she seems the type to keep sneezing for someone to say it to her.

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random but once at disney land i said bless you after someone sneezed and they looked at me in amazement and was like "She blessed you" and the daughter looked at me like i gave her jesus or something....

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lol

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lol. reminds me of dogma when matt damon's character wants to kill the woman for not saying god bless you. i legit say it all the time just so some nutjob won't kill me one day.

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Doesn't this always happen?

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I was thinking of that! And Diddy too iirc

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yes

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As much as I hate this groundhog I am pretty sure a huge portion of celebrities don't vote :/

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ITA. A lot of them do those ads to make people think they care, but they probably don't bother.

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LOL groundhog

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celebs probably wish they could get their assistants to do it for them

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This makes me so ridiculously angry.

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i didnt either and i lied 2 my parents and said i couldnt file the papers or sth lol



pls dnt mistake the lol for mirth before all of u ppl start yelling at me abt it 4 laughing ik it's not a laughing matter



Edited at 2013-02-07 05:06 am (UTC)

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My friend didn't vote either, she said that she wasn't in the mood for lining up LOL







who's that in your icon?



Edited at 2013-02-07 05:20 am (UTC)

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i put it off 4ever bc i didn't want to be called to jury duty

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i didn't cuz im an idiot and took my absentee ballot to the post office 15 minutes too late

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ugh bennett is so cute

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lol i'm always like whaaaaat when people turn down the sticker. it's the best part, duh!

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I'm so pissed now that my state is all vote-by-mail that we don't get stickers anymore.



I went to the polls all my life with my parents and was so excited to turn 18 and be able to go to the polls and GET THE STICKER.



And what happens as soon as I turn 18? No more polls! No more stickers!



I mean they could at least mail us a sticker with our ballots, shit

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my place ran out of stickers! I got one of the last ones.

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I got a bracelet from starbucks lol

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ikr

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:( I didn't get one either & I had to wait until I was 21 to vote in a presidential election </3

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SAME! But I work at the Dem Headquarters on Election night for a local news station and the anchor heard me complaining so he got me a button! <3

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I DIDNT GET ONE EITHER!!!!

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I voted by mail. They should've included the sticker in the envelope they sent me. If they couldn't honestly put "I voted" then it could've been "I received an absentee ballot with the intention of voting"



forget the right to vote; the sign of a true American is the fervor of receiving a free sticker

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there was a really large/obvious conservative bias at my polling place and i still maintain i didn't get a sticker because they could tell i was a liberal heathen



the woman with the sticker roll hurried past me and everything

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i've never gotten a goddamn 'i voted' sticker after voting.

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I didn't get one either, because I voted too late in the day :(

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Our polling place never had stickers. Forever bitter, tbh.

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where i love you vote by mail imo they should send stickers with them that say 'i might have voted!'

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LOL when I worked at the last Aus election I got told to hand out stickers. Which is dumb because voting is compulsory here. And no one wanted them so I took them all.

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I feel like a kid again when I go vote. Yeah hell, I voted, now I get my sticker reward. And I always want it too.

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I had to ask for a sticker. I was not leaving without one tbh

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that's so sad! ohio's stickers were so qt this year, i stuck it on the mirror in my room instead of throwing it away because it was adorable.

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Well, there's no way New York was gonna go for Romney, but what about all the local/state stuff, tho? I don't remember if there was anything important because I'm not from there.

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She actually admitted to supporting Romney?

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i think they just mean it wouldn't matter if she voted or not since romney wasn't gonne be taking ny

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lol can you read

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Brooklyn is pretty much blue up and down the ticket. If I were her I would have supported a third party, probably the Green Party, since I had that privilege, but I'm not her.



Hipsters never vote anyway, so I'm not surprised.

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fuck a lena dunham, but people get so riled up when other people don't vote and it's hilarious to me.

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ikr it's weird like relax

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lol seriously. and also omg flumes! i've missed your presence on my tumblr dash

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My only issue is when people who don't bother to vote start rambling about how things are not right in the country



They are usually the first ones to talk shit

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it's only annoying to me when they harass other people about voting. so i love it when celebrities who participate in voting campaigns are called out for not voting themselves lol.

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If someone makes a video urging people to vote, and then they personally don't... Then yeah, I can understand why someone would be annoyed with them. If it was some non-celeb, whatever. Unless they're the kind of person who nags everyone else to vote. That's just hypocritical.

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mostly because people who don't vote bitch a shitload. One chick near me on election night was talking about how she was so worried about the deficit and I asked her who she voted for and she said it "didn't matter" so she didn't vote.



SMH. If you don't make an effort to get involved and vote, and there's nothing stopping you from doing so like income issues or your job, I don't wanna hear your fucking opinion on anything.

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I think other people get riled up over far stupider things. Unlike voting, especially in a year where one party's strategy to stay in power was to actively rely on suppressed voter turnout.



But that's just me, guess I'm hilarious

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its not like our vote really counts

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I hate people who complain about politics but then don't even bother to vote. Hate.

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MTE

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ikr

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lmfao ikr

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Totally agree with you there.

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Same omg. Just stfu.

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The Obama administration shocked the oil industry last week, pulling the plug on a major oil pipeline from the Bakken that had become a flashpoint between a pipeline company on the one hand, and a growing coalition of Native American tribes and environmentalists on the other.

Everyone was anxiously waiting a Friday ruling from a U.S. federal judge, who was weighing a request from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to stop construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline, a $3.8 billion 1,168-mile oil pipeline that would run from North Dakota to Iowa and Illinois. The pipeline would threaten sacred lands and drinking water resources for the tribe.

Dakota Access exploded into a national controversy in recent weeks, as protests against the project swelled and violence broke out after protesters were attacked by dogs. Environmentalists have been keen on turning the Dakota Access Pipeline into a rerun of the Keystone XL saga, elevating the project to a national symbol around which protestors could be rallied.

But unlike Keystone XL, it did not take eight years to grab the White Houses attention. On Friday, September 9, a federal judge ruled against the Standing Rock Siouxs request to block construction, handing Dakota Access a victory by allowing construction to proceed. However, an hour later, something really unusual occurred. A joint letter was issued from the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of Interior. The letter asked the pipeline company to voluntarily pause construction anyway, even though the court had ruled in the companys favor.

Energy Transfer Partners, the lead company on the Dakota Access Pipeline, saw its share price sink more than 3 percent on Friday and it was down another 2 percent during early trading on Monday.

We appreciate the District Courts opinion on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act, the three agencies wrote. However, important issues raised by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other tribal nations and their members regarding the Dakota Access pipeline specifically, and pipeline-related decision-making generally, remain. The agencies wrote that they will need time to determine whether or not they have to review the permitting decisions again, due to the issues raised by Standing Rock Sioux. Therefore, construction of the pipeline on Army Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe will not go forward at this time.

This may seem like a bit of arcane procedural mumbo jumbo, but the effects could be far-reaching. The Obama administration said that not only would it not allow the pipeline to move forward, at least temporarily, but it also said that the conflict highlighted the potential need for nationwide reform on how infrastructure is sited on Native lands. Related: Will Norways Oil Fund Pull Out Of Company Running Controversial Refugee Camps?

Troy Eid, a former U.S. attorney in Colorado and expert in Indian law, told the Associated Press that the Dakota Access Pipeline is a textbook example of how not to do a project. The lack of consultation with the tribe blew up in the pipeline companys face.

Now, the policy landscape could shift against the industry. Up until now, Native Americans have only been consulted on infrastructure projects, Eid said, not making actual decisions on whether or not projects move forward. Ultimately the U.S. federal government made all of the decisions. But with its Sept. 9 letter, the Obama administration could upend that arrangement, perhaps forever. "This could bog down or delay every single infrastructure project moving forward," Brigham McCown, former acting administrator for the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, told the AP. "I don't think they even realize the can of worms they've opened."

"There is no question it will be much more difficult and costly for these projects to move forward in the future," Brian Jorde, a Nebraska lawyer who worked with Keystone XL opponents, told the AP.

The pipeline companies did not expect such a great deal of political risk to Dakota Access ahead of time. Since the pipeline does not cross an international boundary, many industry analysts thought the pipeline would not receive the level of attention  from either activists or the White House  that the Keystone XL project attracted. Related: SpaceX Explosion Reveals Hidden Opportunities In Space Investment

Opponents of the pipeline see this as a huge victory. Our voices have been heard, said Dave Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The Obama administration has asked tribes to the table to make sure that we have meaningful consultation on infrastructure projects. Native peoples have suffered generations of broken promises and today the federal government said that national reform is needed to better ensure that tribes have a voice on infrastructure projects like this pipeline.

Major pipeline projects be forced to clear a much higher bar in the future, but there are near-term effects on the industry as well. Dakota Access was supposed to be completed by the end of the year, with construction already 45 percent completed. It would carry 470,000 to 570,000 barrels of Bakken oil per day when operational, connecting North Dakota oil fields to refineries in the Midwest. From there, the oil would be much better connected to the rest of the country.

Blocking construction of Dakota Access will leave Bakken drillers without a major conduit to get their oil out. That would leave them competing for scarce pipeline space, raising costs and forcing them to discount their crude, or shipping crude by rail, a costlier alternative. "In the absence of a new alternative, (Bakken) crude will have to use the existing infrastructure to move," said Sandy Fielden, the director of research for commodities and energy at Morningstar, according to Reuters. "Producers will have to take lower prices to compete with imports.

In short, the Bakken is already seeing oil production decline, and the disruption of Dakota Access will inflict further pain on operators in the region.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

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Norway has pushed the oil and gas boundaries further north in recent years, opening up the Arctic for drilling. But low oil prices and environmental opposition are forcing a rethink in the Arctic nation.

Norways government retreated on a plan to open up new parts of the Arctic for exploration. Environmentalists and local fisherman beat back a proposal to allow drilling near the Lofoten Islands, a picturesque area that is crucial to fish spawning and has the largest cold-water coral reef in the world. The government had previously left out the Lofoten Islands from any exploration plans, so the decision to push forward sparked outrage. Norways oil minister, in the face of opposition, recently scrapped those plans in order to create calm, as the FT reports.

Johnny Berfjord, chairman of the Norwegian Fishing Vessel Owners Association, in an interview with the FT, described his anger about the move to open up new areas for drilling: Of course, its an act of war. Its a stupid act. This kind of politics belongs to 20 years ago. They are missing what is happening in the world.

The pressure to open up more of the Arctic for drilling is coming from Statoil, the state-owned Norwegian oil company, which faces long-term decline in oil production unless it can find new reserves. Statoil has been struggling with low oil prices and mature oil fields in the North Sea. It plans on slashing another 1,500 positions this year and has even offered all of its 22,000 employees the option to apply for a severance package. Statoil does have the Johan Sverdrup field under development, which could eventually reach peak production at 550,000 to 650,000 barrels per day. The field is expected to come online in 2019. Related: Gartman: Crude Not Going Above $55 For Years

But Statoil  and the Norwegian government  are concerned that they will need more to replace aging North Sea oil fields. The governments revenue for the first six months of 2016 was down roughly 29 percent from the same period a year earlier. In January, Norway was forced to dip into its massive $819 billion sovereign wealth fund for the first time in the funds history in order to plug budget holes. Statoil, unsurprisingly, is feeling the pain of low oil prices as well. In the second quarter, Statoil swung to a $28 million after tax loss, compared to a $929 million profit a year earlier.

As such, Statoil feels a sense of urgency to expand production. On September 6, the Norwegian company told The Wall Street Journal that it was planning to push deeper into the Arctic, pursuing licenses in the Barents Sea. Statoil bought stakes in four Arctic licenses from Tullow Oil, which comes after it acquired or expanded its stakes in five separate licenses in the Arctic in recent months. Were doing this in a very countercyclical manner, meaning that we were able to pick up these licenses at what we consider to be very attractive terms, Jez Averty, Statoils head of exploration in Norway and the UK, told the WSJ. Related: An OPEC Production Freeze Could See Oil Prices Rise To $60

Still, there are a few reasons to question the wisdom of such a move. First, the environmental risks are real and serious. Drilling in the Arctic is technically complex and expensive, and if something goes wrong, the mess is harder to clean up than in warmer waters closer to infrastructure. For evidence, Statoil needs not look far. Eni operates the worlds northernmost oil field in the Arctic  the Goliat project  and has struggled terribly since it came online in March, a startup date that was already well behind schedule. The Goliat shutdown again in August for the second time in three months. That comes after several mishaps along the way, including a gas leak and a worker injury. The WSJ reports that the Norwegian government is pressing Eni for more detailed plans on resolving its long list of problems. Enis struggles have not exactly endeared the Norwegian public to further Arctic drilling.

Second, it is not at all clear that the world will be in great need of Statoils Arctic oil when it comes onlinein 2030. Falling costs for electric vehicles could cut substantially into global oil demand. Bloomberg New Energy Finance sees EVs possibly killing off 13 million barrels per day of oil demand by 2040. Under that scenario, Arctic oil may not be needed. Royal Dutch Shell scrapped its Arctic ambitions off the coast of Alaska last year, as the long-term financial risks are just too great. Im not really sure that these areas will be profitable. The more expensive producers such as Norway will have a lot of challenges going forward, Thina Saltvedt, analyst at Nordea, told the FT.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

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Creating a self-driving car seems to be the top priority of tech and car companies around the world. Everyone from Toyota to Uber to Apple has been testing the capabilities of a car that does not need a driver to operate it. A new industry has been created that investors are watching as it will likely take off in the next few years.

More and more companies are in the race to have the first completely self-driven vehicle. Tesla has created an auto-pilot feature, and Uber has also gained momentum in the self-driving car space by purchasing Otto, and testing actual self-driving cars in Pittsburgh. Google is also in the mix of course, pouring millions of dollars into their testing projects. The biggest question mark in the nascent industry thus far though has been Apple.

Apple is facing declining iPhone sales and therefore has reportedly decided to try and create a car themselves. However, there have been setbacks with this initiative. Apple just laid off dozens of workers involved with the car project, and progress in their mission is looking slow and bleak. In a recent reboot of the project, it seems Apple is reportedly shifting away from designing the actual automobile, and focusing more attention to the base technology of the vehicle.

This shift could bring about an industry change where tech companies focus less on the car itself and more on the internal platform of the car and its operations system. With more emphasis being placed on batteries, and underlying technology, the future of transportation could eventually bring major changes for consumers. For the moment, all electric cars are a priority for auto-makers, so Apples move may take some pressure off the old-school Detroit trio. Ultimately it remains unclear if the self-driving car industry will have more in common with the technology industry, rather than the automobile space. Related: Norway Forced To Cancel Arctic Drilling Plans

Traditional auto companies have responded to the threat from ride-sharing services by creating additional business lines and pushing for global operations. Ford Motor Company just purchased Chariot, a shuttle service, in the hopes of keeping their efforts in expanding to different transportation services. Ford has also announced it is creating Ford GoBike, a bike-sharing service for metro areas. At the Citi 2016 Global Technology Conference, General Motors Company released progress on their new product: the Chrevolet Bolt EV. The vehicle is an all-electric long-range car (200 miles on a single charge), priced below $30,000, and contains enhanced features like pedestrian alert notification, and Wi-Fi. Additionally, there is a small fleet of the electric cars in San Francisco testing self-driving capabilities. For any major motor company, actions like these are key. Otherwise, survival in producing traditional cars will prove difficult due to the competition from high-tech firms. Automakers now need to shift their view of themselves to more of a technology company, and not just a car manufacturer.

While there is no clear winner of the self-driving car race at this stage, investors definitely need to keep an eye on the space. Its unclear at this stage if the future in autonomous vehicles will belong to tech companies or traditional automakers. Both groups are investing heavily to create an autonomous vehicle, and they are getting closer. Apples reboot shows that there may be more ways to make money in the space than investors have considered thus far.

By Michael McDonald of Oilprice.com

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China, the worlds largest oil consumer, has been increasing oil imports and feasting on the low crude oil prices. Could Russia and Saudi Arabias plan to stabilize crude oil prices cut into Chinas oil hoarding plans?

Chinese oil imports have increased to 32.85 million tons in August, the second highest figure after the record 33.19 million tons import figures of December 2015. Its a 7 percent increase over the same period last year, and a 6 percent increase over July. Currently, the Asian giant imports 66 percent of its crude oil requirements.

Chinese oil majors are no longer under orders to increase domestic production, as they were doing so at a loss, said Adam Ritchie, executive general manager for supply at Caltex Australia Ltd. Chinas change to let economics decide between imports and domestic production is a big change, reports Bloomberg.

Russia and Saudi Arabia, the two largest suppliers, have been battling it out to increase their market share in China. While Russia has increased its market share in China from 12.6 percent last year to 13.6 percent this year, Saudis have seen their share dip from 15.1 percent to 14 percent during the same period.

Theres a market-share battle going on mainly among the Middle East producers and Russia, Olivier Jakob, managing director of Petromatrix, said by phone from Zug, Switzerland. Rivals are making a big push into China, reports Bloomberg.

An agreement between both the competing producer nations reduces the bargaining power of the Chinese refiners, who had started to choose the spot sales offered by Russia against the long-term contracts policy of Saudi Arabia.

Nevertheless, the Chinese can breathe easy, because like many other experts globally, even the Chinese analysts are not confident that the deal between Saudi Arabia and Russia will result in any substantive action.

"It will be very difficult to implement this agreement, as the volume for each exporter country is different. Many countries - producers of oil and gas rely on exports, so they are unlikely to agree to the terms of the agreement," a senior consultant for Sinopec Yang Qixi said. Related: Whats Behind The Epic Draw In U.S. Crude Stocks?

However, Saudi Arabias Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources Khalid Al-Falih is optimistic that other large oil producers will join forces with Russia and Saudi Arabia to take appropriate steps to stabilize the markets.

"We are optimistic that Algiers meeting will provide a forum, and pre-Algiers that consultations which will take place bilaterally and in groups will bring us to Algiers with some sort of coordinated decisions. But the two countries agree that even if there is no consensus, we will be willing to take joint action when necessary," said Al-Falih.

Along with this, China and the U.S. announced their formal joining of the Paris agreement. China has to wean the economy away from the use of fossil fuels if it expects to achieve its target of carbon emissions by 2030. In order to realize this shift, China will have to make an initial investment of $5.2 trillion in lean energy technologies, which will lead to $8.3 trillion in savings by 2050, according to a study Reinventing fire: China.

Hence, as a major importer of oil, China will want the recently announced cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Russia to fail so prices will remain low. If that happens, China can postpone investments into fossil fuels and divert that money towards clean technology, which will help it to reduce its carbon footprint.

By Rakesh Upadhyay for Oilprice.com

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In the 18th century, a British navigator sailing past Nauru - a tiny island some 1,800 miles northeast of Australia  named it Pleasant Island. Now, in the 21st century, Australia is transferring asylum seekers to a detention camp on what was formerly known as Pleasant Island  now an independent nation with a population of 10,000 people drawing harsh criticism over alleged abuse of the refugees human rights.

Earlier this year, Spanish conglomerate Ferrovial acquired a majority stake in Broadspectrum, the Australian company that runs offshore detention camps at Nauru and on Manus Island in northern Papua New Guinea. Although Ferrovial has said that this activity will not form part of its services offering in the future, the Spanish group, which has an indirect stake in Londons Heathrow Airport, has come under severe criticism by human rights activists after recent reports of assaults, sexual assaults and abuse of asylum seekers held at detention centers. Broadspectrum itself has said that it is aware of the documents chronicled by The Guardian and has recorded, investigated and reported all alleged incidents to all relevant stakeholders, including the Government of Nauru.

In this highly controversial human-rights tragedy, theres a tiny role for Norways giant oil fund, the worlds largest sovereign wealth fund, which held 1.71 percent of Ferrovial - worth US$283.3 million as of the end of 2015. Norges Bank Investment Management, which runs the Government Pension Fund Global, has a lengthy list of companies excluded from its investment universe because they either produce environmental and health-damaging goods, cause environment risks or violate human rights or ethical norms. Just last week, the oil fund dumped Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) from its investments over environmental concerns.

Australias human rights groups GetUp and The Human Rights Law Centre published a report in July slamming Ferrovials business in abuse and called upon the Spanish group and its shareholders to take immediate action to end the business relationships that associate them with the gross human rights abuses being perpetrated at the ODCs. But Norways oil fund is still hanging onto its stake.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also condemned the appalling abuses and neglect of refugees, while the Australian people have rallied for a closing of the detention camps.

Based on our examination of the facts, it is possible that individual officers at Ferrovial might be exposed to criminal liability for crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute, Diala Shamas, a clinical supervising attorney at the International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic at Stanford Law School, has told The Guardian.

This may put further pressure on the Norwegian oil fund, which has not yet officially published updates regarding its Ferrovial investment on its website, or on its Council on Ethics website, in what seems like a contradiction to its principles of dropping morally or environmentally undesirable investments. Related: Is China Deliberately Trying To De-Rail The Russia/Saudi Oil Deal?

But Norwegian newspaper VG says that the funds head of communication and external relations, Thomas Sevang, wrote in an e-mail to the paper that the oil fund had informed the Council on Ethics about its stake in Ferrovial. The fund expects the companies to respect human rights in their business, Sevang wrote to VG, which is precisely why the oil fund sold off its stake in Broadspectrum in November 2015.

Unfortunately, the fund also held a 2.17 percent stake in Ferrovial as of the end of 2014, so when Ferrovial bought Broadspectrum in the spring of this year, the oil fund ended up once again being a shareholder of a company that runs the controversial camps.

Meanwhile, the Australian government and Amnesty International are exchanging retorts over the controversy, with Australias Department of Immigration and Border Protection saying that many of the incident reports reflect unconfirmed allegations or uncorroborated statements and claims - they are not statements of proven fact.

While Amnesty is calling upon Australia not to smear the vulnerable refugees and says that Australia is going to have to end this shameful chapter of its history and resettle these refugees.

While criticism, controversies and campaigns are raging, the Norwegian oil fund now has the chance to decide to pull out of its investment in Ferrovial and show the world it is sticking to its self-imposed ethics guidelines.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Fifty-five oil tankers perished in recent raids in Syria, as part of the U.S. and allies international coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS), according to a recent announcement by the Combined Joint Task Force for Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR).

In a statement on 11 September, the CJTF-OIR said 24 airstrikes had been carried out in Iraq and Syria over the course of Saturday.

In Syria, coalition military forces conducted 14 strikes using attack, bomber, fighter

and remotely piloted aircraft against ISIL targets, the statement read. Near Dayr Az Zawr, eight strikes destroyed 55 ISIL oil tanker trucks and 13 supply routes.

With the support of the government of Iraq, coalition warplanes struck 10 sites near seven Iraqi cities, including Mosul, Tel Affar, Beiji, Ramadi and Samarra, inflicting heavy losses on ISIS hideouts and headquarters.

On Monday, the task force released another statement outlining its war activities on 11 September.

The Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State, saw considerable damage to its captured oil infrastructure during Sundays attacks. Six of sixteen strikes in the country on Sunday occurred in Raqqa, resulting in the destruction of 10 ISIS supply routes, three oil pump jacks and other drilling-related equipment.



Related: SpaceX Explosion Reveals Hidden Opportunities In Space Investment

Roughly 140 kilometers away, another strike demolished two of the terrorist organizations captured oil tractor-trailers in Dayr Az Zawr.

The CJTF-OIRs official Twitter account says affiliated countries had conducted 104 strikes during the week of September 3  September 9.

So far, 13 countries have contributed to the task forces operations, including Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, The Netherlands, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Turkish President Recep Erdogan indicated last week that his country was prepared to join coalition forces in a campaign to recapture Raqqa from ISIS.

Iraqi forces will soon begin an offensive to liberate Mosul  the nations second largest city and the most populous city still under ISIS control.

By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com

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Lithuania is planning to sue Russias Gazprom for overinflated gas prices at a second court in Sweden, after losing an arbitration court case there. This will be the next episode in a long drama series involving the Russian state giant and the Lithuanian Ministry of Energy that has been going on for several years.

Earlier in 2016, Lithuania effectively lost the first case it had brought against Gazprom at the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce arbitration court in 2012. In its claim, Vilnius asked for 1.4 billion euro (US$1.57 bln) in rebates for excessive payments for gas supplied in the period between 2004 and 2012. The arbitration court ruled that since none of the parties involved could provide sufficient evidence in their favor, no payments were due.

Now, the Baltic nation is seeking an annulment of this courts decision and a fresh case to be heard at another Swedish court, but according to legal professionals polled by Russias Kommersant daily, the chances of this actually happening are quite small. In fact, just about 5 percent of the SCC courts rulings get annulled. An annulment can only be granted if the arbitration court is found to have breached regular procedure and this is not something that happens often.

Other options, such as an appeal, are not on the table: the ruling by the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce is final and not subject to any appeals. If Vilnius fails in its attempts to annul it, it will be saddled with millions in court fees. If by some stroke of luck it gets what it wants, Lithuania will be free to sue Gazprom at another, higher court.

The reason it brought its initial claim in front of the SCCs Arbitration Institute was that this was the court stipulated in its contract with Gazprom should any legal issues between the parties arise. However, if Lithuania wins now and gets its annulment, it will be free to sue Gazprom in any country where Gazprom has assets, according to Russian lawyers.

The case between Gazprom and Vilnius is being watched closely as it might set a precedent to be used in another legal battle involving the gas giant with Ukrainian Naftogaz, which is disputing gas payments of tens of billions of dollars. That case will be heard by the very same Institute of Arbitration later this year.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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Creditors who funded the United States shale boom are not in good shape to recover their invested funds, according to Moodys Investors Service.

Banks and private lenders have only gotten back $1 of every $5 they invested in companies that declared bankrupt in 2015, the credit rating agency reports, which analyzed 15 bankrupted energy companies with at least $100 million of debt, said. Creditors usually recover three times as much from defaulting debtors.

Senior unsecured bondholders recovered just 6 cents for every dollar invested, according to World Oil.

The one-fifth figure stands slightly lower than the recovery rate reported by creditors who supported the telecom boom in the early 2000s. The number of oil companies that failed during the 2015 crisis exceeded the number of dotcom firms that busted in 2002 as well.

The crashs effect on investors pockets can only be described as catastrophic, Moodys said, noting that the historical average for capital recovery after default was 59 percent.

Smaller companies made up a large portion of companies that went under last year, largely due to their reduced financial flexibility related to their newcomer status. Bigger companies delayed failure by conducting debt exchanges and new second-lien issuances, the report said, noting that more than half of the oil majors who employed advanced financial maneuvers to keep themselves afloat eventually declared bankruptcy.

I dont expect the recoveries for the companies that went bankrupt in the first half of 2016 to be any better, analyst Amol Joshi said in an interview with World Oil. The worst may be behind them, but the sector still remains quite stressed.

The total number of oil and gas bankruptcies so far in 2016 stand at twice the 2015 total, according to the report. Moodys will continuously monitor 25 energy companies that sought court protection this year, the agencys Senior Vice President David Keisman said.

Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com

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What's in a restaurant? In this series, we ask chefs around the city to describe their restaurants in their own words and recommend three dishes that embody the best of what they offer. In this edition, we talk with Tyler Mason of Wayward Kitchen and Bar.

Wayward Kitchen and Bar

1407 S. 1st St.

(414) 763-1191

waywardkitchenco.com

"The goal for Wayward has really always been to be a neighborhood bar and restaurant," notes Chef Tylor Mason, who owns Wayward Kitchen with his wife Megan. "The vibe was never meant to be stuffy, but when it comes to food, were shooting for upscale comfort food  things that are delicious but still very much things people recognize."

"I really take pride in the food I make. I love food, and that really comes out in the dishes that I make. Everything is made from scratch, and were really focused on providing really great upscale-style food in an environment thats more relaxed. Were constantly bringing in fresh items that we work into the menu, like hatch chiles or things we find at the market."

"Wayward is a lot of things. You might stop by during brunch on the weekend, and well have a DJ. And you might drop by for a beer dinner, and well make things that are a bit more over the top. But the goal is always to create things that are accessible, that people will enjoy."

"Things have definitely evolved since we opened. As the neighborhood has developed, weve really been able to develop along with it. All the bars and restaurants here really work together, and we all support one another. Its exciting to see more and more foot traffic in the area, and its great to see so many regulars coming back in time and time again. Were really looking forward to more of that."

1. Green eggs and ham

House-made creamed spinach, pulled ham, and two eggs (prepared your way). Served crushed potatoes and baguette. $13

"Its totally a play on Dr. Seuss, and in that way, its something that everyone recognizes. But theres no green coloring. Instead were using fresh spinach. This dish is really the best of brunch. Its yolky and creamy and perfect soaked up in a crisp baguette. And its even better with a Bloody Mary."

2. Southern style mussels

Andouille sausage, fresh corn, bourbon cream sauce. Served with grilled bread. $8 (all you can eat on Thursdays from 4 to 9 p.m.)

"All of our mussels dishes tend to be really spontaneous, and they vary from week to week. In this case, were using corn because thats fresh and delicious. And I grew up all over the place, but I spent quite a bit of time in the South. Alabama, Texas, Florida ... and this preparation really captures some of that influence."

3. Meatloaf

Bacon-wrapped meatloaf with cheese curd mashed potatoes, house-made gravy and a side of seasonal vegetables. $18

"The only reason why you dont like meatloaf is if your mom didnt make a good one. If thats who you are, this is everything that you dont remember from your childhood. Its tender. There are fresh herbs and sauteed vegetables and lots of flavor. And you get the smokiness from the bacon to boot."

Wayward Kitchen & Co. is open Monday 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (brunch menu); Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 3 to 10 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Royal Enfield Motors is the worlds oldest motorcycle company in continuous production, and yet most Milwaukeeans have never  or only recently  heard of it. The India-based company opened in a temporary space on Pittsburgh Avenue in Walkers Point, painted a large mural of the company logo on the side of the building, and started strategizing and recruiting employees.

This weekend, Royal Enfield finally moved its North American Headquarters into a permanent home in the Third Ward at 226 N. Water St. According to Royal Enfield's North American President Rod Copes, the build-out took about four times longer than they were hoping, but hes extremely pleased with the outcome.

"Its been fast and furious and a lot of fun," says Copes.

The new space, which celebrated a grand opening this weekend, serves as both the world headquarters and a dealership that sells motorcycles and merchandise. Within a few weeks, there will be on-site service for bikes, as well.

So why is Royal Enfield headquartered in Milwaukee, and why have so few people heard of it?

The company, which started in the late 1800s as a gun and ammunition business, started manufacturing motorcycles in England in 1901. In 1955, Royal Enfield started assembling motorcycles in India, and in 1970, Royal Enfield in England went out of business like many of the British bike companies due to the introduction of low cost, high quality Japanese bikes.

"Royal Enfield survived since then because of its involvement in India," says Copes. "Thats also why the name is not familiar here. But it will be."

Copes, who worked 20 years for Harley-Davidson, left four years ago to pursue other opportunities. Two years ago, he was offered the position with Royal Enfield, and he accepted the job under one condition: He could stay living in Milwaukee.

"I have three kids in high school; I wasnt going to leave anytime soon," he says.

Because of Milwaukees rich motorcycle history, Royal Enfield agreed to setting up its first North American outpost here.

"We are really excited to be in Milwaukee," says Copes. "Milwaukee is the North American hub of motorcade culture. And were excited to be in the backyard of Harley."

Copes says he does not see Royal Enfield in competition with Harley-Davidson because the products are very different. Royal Enfield bikes are less expensive, ranging in price from about $5,000 to $6,000, and are smaller than most Harleys.

"We think we can help complement their business to bring more new motorcyclists into riding," says Copes.

The goal is to grow the brand in the United States and Canada and establish 100 dealers. Currently, there are 30. In the past five years, the brand has grown exponentially. In 2010, 50,000 bikes were manufactured and last year the number increased to 500,000. This year, Royal Enfield plans to make more than 675,000 motorcycles.

"This acceleration in growth in the market has allowed the company to invest in other markets and grow globally," says Copes. "Its why were able to be here."

Here are nine more photos of Royal Enfield Motors:

1. Hey, it's a bike

2. And another bike

3. And more bikes

4. And a jacket

5. And Makoto Endo painting a bike with chopsticks

6. Need for speed

7. Tanked

8. Timeline

9. Hooray!
See original here

One hundred and fifty Iowans converged on an active construction site in Boone County, Iowa. Nineteen activists were arrested while peacefully blocking an access road to the construction site. The action came one day after President Obama halted construction in North Dakota at the Missouri River crossing. Obama's ruling did not halt construction in Iowa, where the governor has supported the project from the beginning.

I spoke with two landowners with land adjacent to the protest. Both opposed the use of eminent domain to force landowners to allow the pipeline to cross through their lands. The owner of the land across the road from the protest pointed to his well, which is only 100 yards from the pipeline. He called the process that got the project approved in Iowa corrupt.

Carolyn Raffensperger, the executive director of the Science and Environmental Health Network, said that Obama's decision to delay the pipeline's crossing of the Missouri River offers hope that on other stretches of land where the Army Corp of Engineers has to issue permits, there might be similar action.

This was the second protest that ended in arrests in the last two weeks in Iowa, where a coalition of groups has vowed to continue to risk arrest to stop construction of the pipeline.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
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Clinton diagnosed with pneumonia

NEW YORK: Hillary Clinton cancelled a California fundraising trip after being diagnosed with pneumonia and falling ill Sunday at a 9/11 ceremony, renewing speculation about the Democratic presidential candidate's health barely eight weeks from Election Day.



Secretary Clinton will not be traveling to California tomorrow or Tuesday, spokesman Nick Merrill said, hours after the 68-year-old candidate abruptly left the Ground Zero memorial in New York suffering from dehydration.



The incident, in which a wobbly Clinton appeared to lose her footing as she was helped into her vehicle, offered Republican Donald Trump a new opening to attack his White House rival with just 15 days before their first high-pressure presidential debate.



Clinton had been seeking to bounce back from a blunder Friday, when she told donors that half of Trump's supporters belonged in a basket of deplorables so Sunday's episode was certainly ill-timed.



The former secretary of state spent 90 minutes at the ceremony in lower Manhattan, greeting some relatives of those killed in the terror strikes 15 years ago, her campaign said in a statement. Clinton was a US senator for New York at the time of the attacks.



During the ceremony, she felt overheated so departed to go to her daughter's apartment, and is feeling much better, the statement said.



Later, the campaign released a statement from her personal doctor, Lisa Bardack, who revealed that Clinton had been diagnosed with pneumonia Friday and was suffering from dehydration.



She was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule. While at this morning's event, she became overheated and dehydrated, according to Bardack.



I have just examined her and she is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely.



A video posted on Twitter showed Clinton appearing unsteady as she waited to get into a black van to leave the 9/11 service.



She appeared to stumble as she was helped into the vehicle, and had to be held up on either side by members of her entourage.



It was a humid day in New York, with temperatures around 82 degrees Fahrenheit (28 Celsius).



Many of us (had) a sigh of relief when a gust of wind would come by because it was incredibly stifling, Democratic congressman Joe Crowley, who stood near Clinton for about an hour at the ceremony, told MSNBC.



Clinton walked out of her daughter Chelsea's home a few hours later, smiling and posing for pictures with a young girl before departing for her home in Chappaqua, just northeast of Manhattan.



I'm feeling great, it's a beautiful day in New York, Clinton said.



Her schedule modification comes in the heat of a tightening race in the home stretch.



There was no word from the campaign on whether Clinton would go ahead with plans to campaign in the Las Vegas area Wednesday, or whether she might campaign closer to home Monday and Tuesday. But any loss of valuable days on the campaign trail could juxtapose poorly against an aggressively campaigning Trump.



Democratic National Committee interim chair Donna Brazile wished Clinton a speedy recovery, adding that I look forward to seeing her back out on the campaign trail and continuing on the path to victory.



Trump -- who also attended the 9/11 ceremony -- was uncharacteristically silent on Twitter about Clinton's illness, as both took a break from formal campaigning to mark the somber day. But the businessman, his spokespeople and surrogates have promoted the idea in recent weeks that Clinton has serious health problems.



The internet is awash with claims that she may have a brain tumor, Parkinson's or dementia.



Trump, 70, has said Clinton is not strong enough to be president and that she lacks the mental and physical stamina for the job.



The root of the claims lies in 2012, when Clinton was nearing the end of her State Department tenure. A stomach virus and dehydration prompted her to faint, causing what her doctor said was a concussion. They said they found a blood clot on the brain and Clinton temporarily suffered from double vision. She later received the all-clear.



The former first lady has dismissed conspiracy theories about her health and pointed to a letter from her doctor declaring her fit to serve as president.



A Monday coughing spell by Clinton prompted renewed questions about whether she is physically fit for the job.



Jennifer Lawless, a professor of government at American University in Washington, said Clinton will be under pressure to show she is not laid low by illness.



What the Clinton campaign needs to do over the course of the next several days is demonstrate her vitality and viability. She has to be at tons of events and seem very energetic, Lawless told AFP.



Larry Sabato, a veteran political scientist at the University of Virginia, said Clinton's team should release a full health record.



We really haven't gotten very much, essentially a letter from her doctor, he told CNN, but added that Trump should be held to the same requirement.



Despite Clinton's pneumonia diagnosis, she had a whirlwind schedule Friday that included a two-hour working meeting on national security, and a sit-down interview.



'Powering through' illness is what women do, tweeted former Michigan governor and Clinton surrogate Jennifer Granholm.
Pak,Russia to hold first-ever joint military exercises

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Russia are set to hold their first-ever joint military exercises later this year, officials and diplomatic sources said on Sunday. Not only that, Islamabad is also considering purchase of advanced Russian warplanes.



The joint military drill is seen as another step in growing military-to-military cooperation, indicating a steady growth in bilateral relationship between the two countries, whose ties had been marred by Cold War rivalry for decades.



A senior Pakistani official said that around 200 military personnel from the two sides would take part in the joint military exercises scheduled for later this year.



Pakistans Ambassador to Moscow Qazi Khalilullah told media men that this is the first time that military personnel from the two countries would be taking part in joint military drills, otherwise called Friendship-2016. He, however, did not divulge further details about the nature of the exercises or dates.



The development, Khalilullah said, reflected increased cooperation between the two countries. This obviously indicates a desire on both sides to broaden defence and military-technical cooperation, he separately told a Russian news agency last week.



Islamabad decided to broaden its foreign policy options after its relations with the United States deteriorated first due to a secret raid at Abbottabad to kill al Qaeda kingpin Osama bin Laden in May 2011 and then killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in Nato airstrikes at Salala check post along the Afghan border.



The joint session of parliament after debating the negative fallout of the US and Nato actions approved the new foreign policy guidelines that envisaged reaching out to Russia.



Based on the recommendations of the recent envoys conference, Pakistans foreign ministry also called for increased engagements with Russia.



Those recommendations also stemmed from recent developments where US lawmakers blocked funds for eight Lockheed Martin Corporations F-16 fighter jets. The US was supposed to partly fund the deal, paying $430 million, but US lawmakers blocked it for Pakistans apparent lack of action against militants.



Pakistan decided to look at alternative sources to purchase the aircraft including from Jordan, with Turkey offering to modernise Pakistans existing fleet of fighters.



Over the last 15 months, the chiefs of Pakistans Army, Navy and Air Force travelled to Russia in a development signalling the growing defence ties between the two countries. The flurry of high-level exchanges resulted in the signing of a deal between Pakistan and Russia for the purchase of four MI-35 attack helicopters.



The formal agreement, which was signed in Moscow in August 2015, was considered a major policy shift on part of Russia in the wake of growing strategic partnership between the US and India.



Moscow for long ignored Islamabad in a bid to please its long-term ally New Delhi. But as a result of Indias growing tilt towards the US, Russia has now begun to expand its cooperation with Pakistan.



For its part, Islamabad is eager to improve its ties with Moscow to diversify its options in the event of any stalemate in ties with Washington. After securing a deal of MI-35 helicopters, Pakistan is also exploring options to buy Su-35 fighter jets from Russia. For this purpose, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman visited Moscow in July.



The Pakistani ambassador said the PAF chief held fruitful discussions with Russian authorities but would not provide further details of new military purchases, including the multirole, air superiority fighter Sukhoi Su-35.
Sanctioning Pakistan,declaring it a state sponsor of terrorism could backfire: US Law makers

WASHINGTON: United States lawmakers were warned at a congressional hearing that sanctioning Pakistan or declaring it a state sponsor of terrorism could backfire.



A transcript released on Sunday shows a lively debate on the issue at the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which held a hearing on US-Pakistan relations. In his opening statement, the committees chairman Senator Bob Corker expressed frustration with Pakistans alleged lack of cooperation in defeating militant groups still active in neighbouring Afghanistan.



Senator Corker, a Republican, and Senator Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the committee, also asked the witnesses to explain what measures US policymakers could take to make Pakistan cooperate. In order to justify major policy shifts like eliminating aid, labelling Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism, or enacting sanctions, US policymakers should be able to explain how such actions would make Americas strategic predicament better, said one of the witnesses, Prof Daniel Markey of the Johns Hopkins University.



They would need to consider the possibility that coercion could backfire, raising tensions and making Islamabad less willing or able to advance any constructive agenda.



Markey said that the next US president could take a far more coercive approach with Pakistan than the outgoing president, Barack Obama. But I think given the likely cost and benefits I expect we are more likely to reduce and restructure assistance to Pakistan than to end it all together, he added. And in the process, the US should find ways to more clearly link our ends with our means and also to impose appropriate conditions in ways that more Pakistanis and Americans will actually understand.



Toby Dalton, a co-director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, explained that there was a vast difference between what the US should and could do.



Ideally, the United States and others should seek ways to convince Pakistan to flatten the growth curve of its nuclear programme. The honest assessment is, however, that since Pakistan embarked on a nuclear weapons programme, very little the US has tried, whether sanctions or inducements, has had an appreciable impact, he said.



Robert L. Grenier, a former station manager in Islamabad of the US Central Intelligence Agency, told the committee that in 1993 and 1994 Pakistan came within a hairsbreadth of ending up as a formal member of the list of state sponsors of terrorism but US national interests prevented Washington from doing so.



Senator Corker recalled that in May this year, the Senate put a hold on allowing Pakistan to use US funds for buying F-16 aircraft, which I think is appropriate.



The senator said the US government and lawmakers were all becoming more and more frustrated with their relationship with Pakistan. He claimed that the Afghan militant Haqqani networks leaders had been living in Pakistan and the Pakistani government knew where they lived but would not cooperate with US efforts to eliminate them.



What in essence has happened is, where we used to be able to take them out (using drones) in the Fata areas, now that theyre living in the suburban areas, we cannot do that. Senator Cardin noted that banning Pakistan from using US funds to buy F-16s was very complicated. There were many factors engaged in our discussions. And quite frankly, we didnt think we had all the information we needed, he said.



He noted that Pakistan was a strategic partner in the war against terrorism but the US still had major concerns about that relationship, as they seem to be very selective in fighting terrorism.



He noted that the US had used conditionality of aid in the past as well but it was not very effective. So the question is how can we use our tools more effectively to change the behaviour in Pakistan? Is there a better way of doing this? Senator Cardin asked.



If money is not the answer (then what is)? asked Senator David Perdue, a Republican from Georgia, noting that all three witnesses agreed that engagement with Pakistan was still purposeful.



Senator Perdue noted that out of $19 billion provided to Pakistan since Sept 11, 2001, only $8bn were actually for security efforts, while $11bn were for humanitarian purposes.



So, lets put in perspective. Its not like this is a major battleground for us in terms of money. But on the other hand, I dont know what theyre going to do given that were cutting off $300 million or half of the money that we would normally be sending them this year, the senator said. Prof Markey said that US assistance to Pakistan should be divided into three categories:



Category one, things where they want and we want. Category two, we and they want similar things but they want to do it differently than we think is right. Category three, areas where we want to tell them what we think they should do and we believe they are not doing.



We hold out resources as inducements with limited expectations that those things will change but demonstrating that we are willing and eager to be partners with them, thereby not closing doors over the long run but not delivering assistance for things that they dont do, said Mr Markey while explaining how the US should use its assistance to get the required results.
From Greg Swank, 12-4-2 You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As...
The mathematical (and other) thoughts of a (now retired) math teacher,
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said the New Glenn rocket has been in the works for the past four years, and will be launched by decade's end

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos unveiled plans Monday for a massive rocket called New Glenn designed to launch people to space and propel satellites into orbit, raising the ante in the US commercial space industry.

Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post, said the rocket has been in the works for the past four years, and will be launched by decade's end.

At 270 feet (82 meters) high for the two-stage New Glenn and 313 feet tall for the three-stage version, the rocket will be taller than any on the market today, including SpaceX's Falcon 9 (224 feet).

The New Glenn is dwarfed only by the Saturn V rocket (363 feet tall) that propelled Apollo era astronauts to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s.

NASA is currently at work on a rocket called the Space Launch System (SLS) that will be the tallest ever (384 feet) and aims to ferry people to an asteroid and perhaps one day, even to Mars.

Bezos said his company, Blue Origin, has learned a lot from flying its New Shepard rocket, a 65-foot-tall suborbital vehicle designed to eventually carry space tourists to the edge of space and back.

"Building, flying, landing, and re-flying New Shepard has taught us so much about how to design for practical, operable reusability. And New Glenn incorporates all of those learnings," Bezos said in an emailed statement.

The rocket is "named in honor of John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth," he added.

It lifts off with 3.85 million pounds of thrust from seven BE-4 enginesthe same engines that are being developed by Blue Origin to power United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan rocket.

The booster portion is re-usable, and could be returned to Earth after launching its payload to space and separating from the rocket's other components.

Both SpaceX and Blue Origin have successfully launched and returned the first stages of their rockets to upright landings on Earth, a key capability in the effort to make rockets as reusable as airplanes.

"We plan to fly New Glenn for the first time before the end of this decade from historic Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral, Florida," said Bezos.

Blue Origin's entry into the commercial spaceflight and satellite launch market brings it more squarely in competition with SpaceX, headed by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Musk surged ahead of Bezos with his Falcon 9 rocket and $1.6 billion contract with NASA to ferry supplies to the International Space Station and back using SpaceX's Dragon cargoship.

But SpaceX has suffered two rocket explosions since June 2015. Musk admitted Friday that the latest blast, just two weeks ago during a launch pad test in Florida, has stumped investigators and appealed for help from the public and government agencies.

While Bezos did not comment directly on SpaceX's woes, he touted Blue Origin's company mascot, the tortoise, and said "we paint one on our vehicles after each successful flight."

"In the long run, deliberate and methodical wins the day, and you do things quickest by never skipping steps," Bezos wrote.

Explore further Blue Origin rocket makes third successful vertical landing

 2016 AFP
Anthropogenic, trans-border lead pollution is discovered in Japanese lake sediment cores and tracked to its source in research from Professor Takahiro Hosono of Kumamoto University, Japan. Credit: Professor Takahiro Hosono

Research from Kumamoto University in Japan has shown that trans-boundary lead (Pb) pollution has occurred at multiple areas across Japan. The research team, led by Professor Takahiro Hosono, has demonstrated that the lead accumulation rate in Japanese lakes had increased between the years of 1900 to 2009 by using a constant rate of supply (CRS) model.

The research team began examining lake sediment core samples from the deepest areas of six lakes from around Japan between July of 2009 and September of 2010. The selected lakes were on the western side of Japan, away from human activities, and not in active volcanic areas. Core sections were cut on site and stored in plastic bags inside cold storage until Pb analysis could be performed.

"Much of the world stopped using leaded gasoline in the 1970s and tightened industrial emission regulations in the 1980s. Since then, lead contamination in western countries has been on a constant decline." said Professor Hosono. "However, our recent research and research from other institutions shows that lead concentrations in Japan are not decreasing and, in some areas, are actually still increasing."

Even though Japan has strict lead emissions controls, the country is East of continental East Asia, much of which is experiencing heavy industrialization, meaning that prevailing winds can blow pollution from the Asian mainland to the Japanese archipelago. To determine if the contaminants were coming from across the Sea of Japan, Professor Hosono's team plotted the Pb isotope ratios (lead-206/lead-207 and lead-208/lead-207) from the lake sediment cores against samples taken from various areas in Japan, China, Russia, South Korea, and Taiwan. They found that the majority of Pb isotope data from the lake cores matched the samples taken from Russia and China. The two countries continued to be sources for trans-border pollution at least through the time the lake samples were taken. Furthermore, it was found that pollutants from Russia began around 1900 but has since been overtaken by pollution from China in the past couple of decades.

Explore further The environmental legacy of acid rain

More information: Takahiro Hosono et al, Lead isotope ratios in six lake sediment cores from Japan Archipelago: Historical record of trans-boundary pollution sources, Science of The Total Environment (2016). Journal information: Science of the Total Environment Takahiro Hosono et al, Lead isotope ratios in six lake sediment cores from Japan Archipelago: Historical record of trans-boundary pollution sources,(2016). DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.03.138
A version of the on-a-chip obstacle course for lung spheroids showing chambers and connecting corridor highlighted with blue dye. Credit: Paul Burston, University of Melbourne

The spheroid is the width of a few human hairs and made up of 25,000 human lung cells clustered together with iron particle, suspended in a fluid that runs though a microscopic obstacle course of channels sealed between glass.

It is a science fiction-like biological machine and testing ground housed "on-a-chip" that is being developed by University of Melbourne scientists in a bid to monitor human tissue in an environment that mimics the mechanics inside our bodies, including the mechanics of breathing.

The project could help radically improve how we test whether a new drug will work and in the process save the medical industry hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Using magnets the scientists plan to manipulate the iron particles and stretch the lung tissue by dragging the spheroid around corners and squeezing it down corridors. And by using quantum physics the scientists will be able to watch how drugs interact with healthy and diseased cells. Underneath the glass they plan to place a thin sheet of diamond, the structure of which has been modified with atomic defects that can be used to image the magnetic fields cast by the embedded iron particles, effectively imaging the cells themselves.

"What we are trying to do is add another level of reality to drug testing," says the University's Professor Alastair Stewart, a pharmacologist at the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Science and co-director of the Lung Health Research Centre.

Credit: University of Melbourne

A more realistic environment

"This three-dimensional chip environment is a softer environment than the two dimensional plastic environment we currently use to test human tissue cultures, and in mechanical terms is more similar to a human body. So we are aiming to replicate the environment of the cells in the disease as it occurs in our bodies."

Pharmaceutical development depends on mouse models or on two-dimensional cultures for testing the potential effectiveness of a drug before progressing to expensive human trials. But these tests are failing to identify the many drugs that go on to fail when finally tested in humans. A review of pharmaceutical giant Astra-Zeneca's portfolio performance between 2005 and 2010 suggests that failure rates when testing for effectiveness in humans can be as high as 85 per cent. The wasted money can range from $10 million to $100 million per failed drug.

But by introducing drugs to human tissue inside the three-dimensional obstacle course and monitoring what happens, researchers aim to be able to better determine whether a drug can work or not before ever having to undertake expensive human trials.

In this case the researchers are working on pulmonary fibrosis, a disease in which lung tissue is scarred and stiffens making it difficult to breathe. It is a progressive and fatal disease for which we don't know the cause, but is linked to smoking. "There is significant unmet need for new drugs to be developed that can combat this fatal lung condition," Associate Professor Glen Westall, a leading lung fibrosis expert at Alfred Health and a partner investigator on the research.

Fernando Rafael Jativa Guzman, PhD candidate within the University of Melbournes School of Engineering, holds a version of the on-a-chip obstacle course for lung spheroids showing chambers and connecting corridor highlighted with blue dye. Credit: Paul Burston, University of Melbourne

Through the University's cross-disciplinary Hallmark research initiatives, Professor Stewart has teamed with bioengineers and quantum physicists to work with Australian-based global biopharmaceutical company CSL Limited in developing the "micro-tissue on a chip" model.

They plan to use it to test a series of different anti-fibrotics in what would be the first systematic benchmarking of whether such models can accurately fail ineffective drugs.

The research team is focusing on fibroblast cells that form the connective tissue in our bodies and which, when fibrosis occurs, produce too much of the connective "glue" that binds tissue and therefore causes it to stiffen. By being able to move a spheroid of diseased fibroblasts through the corridors on the chip and use the magnets to replicate breathing, the researchers will be able to monitor what is going on at a cellular level when the tissue stiffens.

The lung cells are made available through collaboration with Alfred Health and Donate Life. Diseased lung cells are harvested from patients with lung fibrosis who have undergone a lung transplant, and healthy cells come from donor lungs that for various reasons haven't been suitable for a transplant.

Technology to create tissue and organs "on-a-chip" is at the forefront of medical research aimed at replicating what is going on in our bodies. But so far, while researchers around the world have been working to perfect the action of whole organs in a micro-fluidic chip environment, Professor Stewart says the accuracy of such models in being able to "fail" potential drugs is yet to be proven. "There are many aspects of organ-on-a-chip technology that remain a matter of belief rather than of evidence," he says.

A spheroid of human smooth lung tissue made up of thousands of cells. Picture: Fernando Rafael Jativa Guzman, University of Melbourne

Rather than trying to replicate a whole organ-on-a-chip, such as a lung, bioengineer Professor Peter Lee says the project is focused on creating a testing system specifically adapted to the area they want to test, in this case lung fibroblasts.

"It is like creating an obstacle course that has some specific meaning to it," says Professor Lee from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Melbourne. "We are developing it in conjunction with what we want to test, rather than trying to develop the most ideal whole organ we can and then working out what we can do with it."

Imaging with quantum physics

Critical to the project will be the ability of the researchers to "see" at high magnification what is going on in the spheroid as it is put through the obstacle course and interacts with drugs. That is where the quantum physics comes in. In 2013 University of Melbourne physicist Professor Lloyd Hollenberg won the Victoria Prize for his work in using quantum physics to create nano-scale sensors.

These sensors are the size of a single atom embedded in diamond crystal, and when engineered as a two dimensional grid just below a diamond surface they can image magnetic fields at resolutions a million times better than traditional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Crucially, the imaging can be done without exposing the tissue to direct light that would be toxic for the cells.

Simplified representation of the quantum magnetic microscope arrangement that can be used to image cells. Credit: Dr David Simpson, University of Melbourne

"Alastair needed a non-invasive way of measuring the magnetic fields within the spheroid," says Professor Hollenberg, the Thomas Baker Chair at the School of Physics. "By bringing the light in at an angle onto the diamond, the light only goes into the sensors and reflects back. It doesn't enter the tissue."

The imaging technique uses a thin sheet of synthetic diamond crystal about four millimetres square. To create the sensors the researchers remove two carbon atoms from the usual diamond structure, replacing them with one nitrogen atom and leaving an atomic space, or vacancy, where the other carbon atom should be. The combination of the nitrogen atom, the vacancy and an additional electron creates the so-called Nitrogen Vacancy (NV) defect, which acts as the sensor. When green light is shone onto the diamond surface the NV defects reflect back red light, the strength of which is dependent on the local magnetic field.

In addition the NV defects can be put into a quantum state, i.e. it can exist in two energy states at once  grounded and excited. Once in this state of "superposition" the NV is highly sensitive to picking up any magnetic fields around it. When the tissue chip is placed on the diamond-imaging chip, the NVs will pick up the magnetic fields of iron particles embedded on the cells. Using the variation in the power of the red light reflected back, the scientists will pinpoint the source of the magnetic field and therefore image the cells.

"By imaging the position of the beads using their magnetic fields, and then moving the beads to mimic actions like breathing, we can watch what is happening and how stiff or soft the cells and tissue may become in response to drugs," says Dr David Simpson, research fellow in quantum physics at the School of Physics who has built the quantum sensor microscope system.

Ultimately Professor Hollenberg wants to take the imaging technique further down in scale to be able to image the single proteins in cells that regulate our tissues and organs. That could allow us to accurately understand and predict how a drug or a potential drug will work in the body.

"What we want to do is position a protein or other bio-molecule on our sensor surface and use the quantum imaging system like a nano-MRI machine and find out exactly what the shape is, because that shape tells you a lot about how a drug will interact with it."

Explore further Improved nuclear magnetic resonance technique allows researchers to measure signals from a single molecule
A young eagle attempts to catch a drone during a demonstration organized by Dutch police to combat drones flying over sensitive or restricted areas, at the Dutch Police Academy in Ossendrecht, Netherlands on September 12, 2016

After months of tests, Dutch police will become the world's first force to train and employ an army of eagles, using the centuries-old skill of falconry against the modern-day scourge of unauthorised drones.

In their first public demonstration of their unorthodox new weapon, Dutch police on Monday sent out two-year-old Hunter, a female American bald eagle and her trainer Ben.

And what better scenario to show off the bird's prowess then a mock-up of a state visit?

As the "visiting" head of state, played by a woman police officer, emerged from her car at a police academy in the southern Netherlands to shake hands, a drone suddenly appeared.

"Attack, attack," came the cry, while sirens began wailing.

Hunter flew into action, heading for the drone and gripping it in her powerful talons before landing safely again a few metres away, still clutching her mechanical prey.

"It's a low-tech solution to a high-tech problem," police spokesman Dennis Janus told AFP.

As in other countries, increasing numbers of drones are invading Dutch skies raising concerns in places like airports and restricted, sensitive areas.

Dutch police launched tests in early 2015 to see how the battle between eagles and drones would shape up, and are now confidently preparing to recruit the majestic birds into their ranks.

"We found out that it is probably one of the most effective counter-measures against hostile drones," police head of operations Michel Baeten told AFP.

Pieces of chicken or turkey attached to some of the test drones have been used to reward the birds for their "kill", attuning the birds to idea that the drones are in fact prey.

During the long tests, "none of the eagles were hurt, but as for the drones, none of them survived," said Janus with a smile, brushing aside concerns from animal rights groups.

Dutch police have now purchased their own birds, which have reached five months old, and will be deployed as needed alongside dogs and horses

The plan is now to launch the eagles whenever drones are believed to be posing a danger to the public, such as during sensitive state visits or if the remote-controlled tiny craft are flying too close to airports.

Eagles are 'not robots '

But the scheme is not infallible. During Monday's demo, Hunter missed the drone several times.

"It is a bird, it is a animal, it is not a robot. It is not a flawless solution," Baeten insisted.

"It's very hot today and I have been told that weather conditions can affect the bird." But he stressed that during training, the birds had brought down the drones 80 percent of the time.

Dutch police have purchased their own birdsalthough they refused to say how manywhich are now reached five months old, and will be deployed as needed alongside more traditional four-footed recruits, dogs and horses.

About 100 police officers will be trained in working with the eagles, and the Dutch "flying squad" with its own birds of prey could go into action from next summer.

In the meantime, the police will be using birds supplied by a specialist company, Guard From Above.

And further developments will be needed. While Hunter and her feathered friends can bring down the most common drones, other larger machines could risk cutting the birds' feet.

So the Dutch police are working on developing a protective glove to cover the birds' talons.

They are also continuing to explore other methods to combat drones such as using nets carried by another drone, or deploying electronic counter-measures against the hostile craft.

Amid the publicity, police forces from other countries like Germany and France have also been in contact to find out more about the eagle force.

"A lot of law enforcement agencies are really interested in our programme. I think other countries will follow," said Baeten.

Explore further Dutch police use real eagles to counter drones

 2016 AFP
Public figures such as United States presidential candidates Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump may have to do a lot more than just say sorry to win back public trust after a misdeed, said a York University researcher whose study on trust was published today.

"Whether it's a boss, co-worker or the public, saying sorry is not always enough to win back broken trust, especially when gender stereotypes are also broken. Both have happened with Clinton and Trump in the last few months," said Shayna Frawley, PhD candidate in human resource management at York U who led the study with York U alumna Jennifer Harrison, now at NEOMA Business School in France.

Gender stereotypes continue to be an issue in the workplace and on the campaign trail. Women are still expected to be benevolent and concerned about others, while men are perceived to be confident, competitive and independent. When either gender goes against those preconceived notions and also lose the trust of their colleagues or bosses, they'll experience a double backlash.

"With the Hilary Clinton email scandal, her critics were claiming she put national security at risk for her own convenience, putting her own needs ahead of her responsibility as a public official. This is a clear example of breaking trust and gender expectations," said Frawley.

The research, "A social role perspective on trust repair", published today in the Journal of Management Development, looks at how gender expectations can affect trust and its reparation.

In the workplace, if a woman violates trust while putting her own interests ahead of others, for example by being dishonest or not helping a co-worker, she will find regaining that lost trust much more challenging because she went against gender stereotypes. "Had she not broken gender stereotypes and instead just broke the trust by underperforming, she would have fared better," said Harrison.

A man who fails to put others ahead of himself, however, will only face consequences for a breach of trust. That's because men are not expected to help others. Lying or refusing to help a co-worker doesn't affect those expectations. A man will also face the same double backlash if he performs poorly though. In this case, he will have violated the trust placed in him, but also will have gone against gender expectations that men are good performers.

Trump faced this double backlash when his critics pointed to a string of failed business ventures and his inability to raise campaign funds. "What these claims are trying to get at is that despite Trump's reputation and his connections, he's not performing so well at things that men traditionally are viewed at being good at," said Frawley. "They were saying he can't be trusted to perform well and has in fact misrepresented himself which plays into gender stereotypes."

So how do people go about repairing trust?

The research seems to show that if a man is trying to repair trust he should do it in a way that is consistent with expectations of what men should be. "One way is to apologize and take personal responsibility for what happened and not blame it on external factors," said Harrison.

However, if a woman violates trust in a way that breaks gender stereotypes, she is better not to apologize, but deny responsibility or blame external factors.

Take Melania Trump's speech at the Republican Convention which plagiarized portions of a 2008 Michelle Obama speech. Trump claimed to have written it with "as little helps as possible", but then a speechwriter took responsibility for accidentally using portion of Obama's speech. "This is a clear case of Trump blaming external factors," said Frawley.

If trust is broken without the breach of gender expectations, both men and women will have an easier time of regaining that trust, said Harrison.

The researchers say gender is something organizations should pay more attention to in their diversity management and conflict training, especially how gender and trust interact because it's an unconscious process. In other words, a women's lack of helping others or a man's low performance shouldn't be treated any more severely than if a woman shows low ability or a man puts his needs ahead of others.

Explore further New survey finds 75 percent of Americans think discrimination still an issue for women

More information: Shayna Frawley et al. A social role perspective on trust repair, Journal of Management Development (2016). Shayna Frawley et al. A social role perspective on trust repair,(2016). DOI: 10.1108/JMD-10-2015-0149
Credit: Youris.com

Retrofitting public buildings is crucial to meeting Europe's energy efficiency goals. But can new knowledge in retrofitting be replicated across the EU?

The move to energy efficient buildings is on. Two European directives are gently nudging things along by requiring that 3 percent of public buildings be renovated every year and that public buildings be almost energy zero by 2018.

A consortium of European researchers called BRICKER is trying to nail down the challenging combination of retrofitted technologies to suit different public buildings in different climates.

Their approach consists of bringing together existing and innovative technologies, both active and passive, in a modular retrofitting system. The aim? To halve annual energy consumption, with the initial investment paid back within seven years.

We talked to consortium member Pablo de Agustin from the company Tecnalia, in Spain, to find out more about retrofitting buildings on a pan-European scale.

Can any building be retrofitted, even old buildings?

We have the flexibility to consider the building we're going to retrofit and which technologies can be applied. Passive technologies that reduce heating and cooling demands can be easily integrated into any type of building because they are mounted on the facade or on the roof.

Older public buildings represent our cultural heritage, so implementing any kind of energy retrofitting in these buildings is more delicate. In Bricker, the ventilation parts of the windows are integrated into the frames, so they are not visible from outside. We also have phase change materials integrated into foams that go in the ceiling.

The active technologies such as the biomass boilers and solar collectorscan be more intrusive and require larger spaces. For example if a building doesn't have a special room in the basement, you might require a small building nearby to host the active technologies.

Or maybe you don't have enough space to deploy solar collectors on the roof or on land nearby. Or maybe you're in a Northern European country in a high density urban area, so solar collector isn't a good option, but you have enough space in the basement for a sizable biomass boiler. So in each case we can adapt the system to the needs and characteristics of the buildings but also to the local climate.

How can retrofitting buildings go mainstream?

We're developing a replication plan. This will include classifying the different building types and assessing the potential value and impact of the BRICKER retrofitting package. Once we're clear about how much energy will be saved using renewable sources, and about the expected cuts in CO 2 emissions, we can draw up a roadmap for replication.

We're now working on three demonstration sites involving three public building owners. These partners have hundreds of buildings. If the demos are successful, they will be interested in having a replication plan for the rest of their buildings. We're talking about 1,400 buildings!

Our aim is to come up with some guidelines on how to implement BRICKER in different types of buildings and climates across Europe. But first we need to ensure that we have a good system with attractive economic and social benefits.

Is it hard to get everyone on board?

The difference between public and private building owners is that time scales are longer when working with public authorities. That's one of the obstacles that we are finding. It can be slow getting the authorizations and starting the works.

On the other hand, public authorities are usually more willing to take the risk of innovating. It helps them align with the public directives that the politicians are promoting. Public buildings are expected to set an example for society and the construction sector. So if retrofitting is a success in public buildings it could attract the private sector.

What does all this mean for the wider society?

Although the big goal of the project is to reduce annual energy consumption by 50%, the benefits of this go beyond saving money. We're not just consuming less energy; we're moving from conventional electricity and fossil fuels to much greener sources.

We can generate heating, electricity and cooling from renewable sources like biomass and solar, and reduce CO 2 emissions dramatically. Turning buildings into green buildings adds value in social and economic terms.

Green buildings not only fulfil the ever stricter directives but also provide added value to the building developer or owner, if compared with the rest of the market. This is something that we will see more in the future in the European market in the private sector.

Explore further Revamping existing buildings to make them energy efficient
LONG LAKE  A Long Lake man faces multiple felony charges following a domestic incident early Sunday morning.

William J. Blumhagen, 56, allegedly smashed the cellphone of the 47-year-old female victim during an incident at a residence on Deerland Road, according to a news release.

During the investigation, troopers said they found Blumhagen was in possession of three handguns that were not registered in New York.

Blumhagen was arrested and charged with three counts of criminal possession of a firearm and one count of third-degree criminal mischief.

He was arraigned in Long Lake Town Court and released after posting $500 cash bail.
Holy Cross Catholic Church of Salem and St. Patricks of Cambridge are offering a "Faith Formation" program for all ages, beginning Sunday.

The program, "From Mass to Mission: Understanding the Mass and its Significance for Our Christian Life," is designed for three age groups, adults, teens, and children (grades 3-6). Participants will learn how to prepare themselves for Mass, how to participate in the liturgy, and how to reflect on the meaning of the Mass in an age-appropriate way.

There are several different levels of involvement, which include reading the booklet, joining in a discussion group, participating in person or on line, or attending the movies series.

There is no commitment to attend, and individuals can participate in as few or many classes as they desire. The first of five discussion groups will begin Sunday, after Mass, at Holy Cross Chapel. St. Patricks offers three different sessions  Sundays at 9:30 a.m. to noon or 7 p.m. Tuesday.

The film series will begin at 3 p.m. Sept. 25 at Holy Cross and at 7 p.m. at St. Patricks. Those who think they would like to attend one or more of the discussion groups are encouraged to sign up for the purpose of ordering materials.

Further information can be obtained at battenkillcatholic.org or by contacting Mary Rosmus at 677-2757 or maryrosmus@battenkillcatholic.org or calling Jeff Peck at 692-9771.
QUEENSBURY  The first of the Queensbury school districts Parent University programs will be held on Tuesday and feature a talk about how parents can end the fighting with their children over homework and daily routines.

Guest speaker Dr. Randy Cale, a licensed psychologist, will give a talk titled Back to School, Back on Track: Keys to Easy Daily Routines without Drama at 7 p.m. in the Queensbury High School large group instruction room.

Cale has written and spoken extensively on effective parenting strategies.

Queensbury High School Key Club members will provide Parent University participants with free babysitting for children ages 4 and up during the event. Parents are asked to sign up their children by emailing kbergin@queensburyschool.org by noon on the day of the event.

Local restaurant Fit Food Fast (FX3) has also donated five Fit Meals to be distributed as door prizes to participants.

Visit www.queensburyschool.org/parentu to find a calendar of Parent University events in 2016-17, presentations from last year and additional resources for parents.
It is the stories  of loss, tragedy, heroism and recovery  that keep the memories alive at ceremonies commemorating 9/11.

Those stories recall the events of Sept. 11, 2001  where people were when they heard, how people on the scene responded, what we have done since the morning on which 2,977 people were killed at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Those stories were told over and over at services held across the country Sunday, including at a fire station in Glens Falls and an American Legion hall in Hudson Falls.

We were in shock and disbelief that our American shore could be under attack, Glens Falls Fire Department chaplain Rev. Patty Girard told a crowd of more than 100 people lined up on May Street in front of Glens Falls Fire Departments 9/11 memorial. We need to show more love in the world.

At the Glens Falls event, and at a similar ceremony at Hudson Falls American Legion Post No. 574, the themes were remembering what happened and how emergency workers had responded, and moving forward with those memories in mind.

Jim Clark Jr., a member of Glens Falls Common Council, remembered being in the mayors office, working on the budget.

Someone came in and said planes had hit a building, he said. Then someone got a television and we saw everything that had happened.

Peter Casertino, the detective lieutenant for Glens Falls Police Department, said those events have changed our everyday actions.

Whether its your job or my job, the things we do daily are different because of that tragedy, Casertino said at the Glens Falls event.

Ken Fuller, a musician who played at the Glens Falls ceremony, echoed a common thought that the events of 9/11 made people think differently about first responders.

We remember the selfless acts that they do on a daily basis that are the same things they did then, he said.

At a ceremony in Hudson Falls, Sons of the American Legion Commander Dan Lancette shared his thoughts on the main reasons for such events.

We do this for the first responders, he said to a room filled with more than 100 residents and first responders, who had already taken part in the groups monthly breakfast. We rebuilt. Thats what Americans do.

Washington County Sheriff Jeff Murphy alluded to the fact that 9/11 is quickly receding into the past, and added we cannot allow it to do that.

As time goes on, there will be fewer and fewer of us who witnessed it in person, he said. We need to remember it and pass it on.

Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, D-Round Lake, was the keynote speaker at the Hudson Falls event.

She spoke of the importance of actively remembering and spoke passionately, telling the stories of a firefighter and a police officer who died, going into buildings that others were streaming out of.

We have wept countless tears for those we lost, she said, and we stand in awe of those who rushed in to save others.

Woerner, who also talked about the importance of preserving memory, ended with a critical point.

We must actively remember, because this is the first year freshmen in high school will learn about 9/11 as history, not because it happened when they were alive, she said.

There was also a morning ceremony in Saratoga Springs at the Tempered by Memory sculpture in High Rock Park.

The days events ended with a large gathering in Warrensburg, organized by Warrensburg Fire Department.
The two candidates for Warren County Family Court judge have been putting in a lot of work in recent weeks for two minor party lines.

Robert A. Smith and Ted M. Wilson will face off Tuesday in primaries for the Independence and Reform parties lines, which have 2,486 voters between them. Both men will be on the ballot in November no matter how Tuesdays primaries go, Smith on the Democratic, Working Families, Womens Equality and Green parties lines, and Wilson on the Republican and Conservative lines.

The longtime friends, triathletes and former neighbors have been working since the winter to shore up their support in the contest to replace the late Judge J. Timothy Breen, who died in January. They have made the rounds at dozens of events throughout the county all spring and summer.

For Smith, 47, the effort is his second judge campaign in as many years. He ran last year against Paulette Kershko for a newly created Family Court judgeship, which Kershko won running on the Republican and Conservative lines.

There have been some similarities between the campaigns as well as the candidates resumes.

Smith ran a primary for the Independence Party line last year as well, despite the fact that party leaders endorsed Kershko, and he won the primary before falling in the general election.

Wilson, 51, was endorsed by both the Independence and Reform parties earlier this year.

The two Queensbury residents have followed similar career paths, both currently working as court attorneys for local judges. Smith works for Warren County Judge John Hall while Wilson serves as court attorney for state Supreme Court Justice Stan Pritzker.

Wilson also experienced an unsuccessful judge contest, losing to Hall in 2013.

Both have emphasized their experience in court, researching decisions and writing opinions for judges, as well as the important role that Family Court judges play in trying to help troubled or split families in a court whose work has a great impact on society as a whole.

They also sought the review of the state Independent Judicial Elections Qualifications Commission, which deemed Wilson highly qualified and Smith qualified.

Wilson served as court attorney for Pritzker for 10 years when he was Family Court judge in Washington County, and has pointed out that he handled a full-time Family Court caseload that included thousands of cases.

I am the only candidate who has served in Family Court as an official court attorney, Wilson said. In my 10 years serving in Family Court, decisions were only reversed twice.

Smiths boss, Judge Hall, handles mainly felony criminal matters, but also presides in Family and Surrogate courts when needed. But Smith pointed out that he has done Family Court work for more than 15 years, and also represented parties on all sides in the court while in private practice.

Smith also emphasized his lifelong ties to Warren County and the fact he has worked in the county for the past decade and a half.

I am the only candidate who was born and raised in Warren County, graduated from our local school and college, with 18 years of legal experience representing families and children, he said.

Both said they also believe they would be able to settle more cases to avoid trials that bring not only stress but also legal bills for families.

They emphasized that drug court programs can be used more often in Family Court to deal with family substance abuse issues.

Smith has made it clear that Family Court is where he believes he can best serve the community, and he believes he can make the court run more efficiently.

Unlike my opponent, I have not sought any other judicial position, and have no intention to do so in the future. Family Court is where I want to be, Smith said.

Wilson was endorsed last week by the union that represents current and former state troopers, which cited his experience as a prosecutor  he was a Warren County assistant district attorney before becoming a court attorney  as well as his work in Family Court.

Both candidates have websites set up for their campaigns. Wilsons can be found at www.TedWilsonforJudge.com, while Smiths page is www.robsmithforjudge.com.
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On Thursday, September 8, the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana painted a gloomy picture of the economy under president John Mahama, describing his administration as the worse the country has witnessed.

He said the Mahama-led administration has run down the economy in a bizarre manner, leading it to seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

I heard that somebody has been making a lot of noise about the progress of this country and how the economy is not going well. John Mahama has worked hard and has developed this country to an extent that we havent seen in many years.

"At the appropriate time, we shall respond in full measure to all the lies that have been told; at the appropriate time, we shall correct him and teach him the things that he doesnt know but thinks he knows, he said.

But I heard one thing, which I have to correct. On TV3 four days ago, I heard our opponent saying something that was very wrong so let me correct the first one because we will continue to correct him when he goes wrong.

He said that interest payment had exceeded capital expenditure, ah! even anybody knows that if I borrow money to pay for a road and it is going to take me 10 years to pay for that road. Every year I take one-tenth of the money and use it to pay back from the person I borrowed the money from, he explained.

Following Dr Bawumia's lecture, the vice president has come under pressure to respond since he is head of the economic management team.

Nonetheless, the Finance Minister has refuted portions of Dr Bawumia's lecture. Mr Seth Terkper is challenging Dr Bawumia's computation of the country's debt stock.
The project, the first of its kind, is part of the VRA's Renewable Development Programme and will be completed in two phases.

The first phase, which would generate 75 MW would be located in Anloga, Anyanui and Srogbe communities in the Keta Municipality in the Volta Region, while the remaining 75 MW would be located at Wokumaglje and Goi communities in the Ada West District in the Greater Accra Region.

In its July scoping report, the VRA said that the project was to help Ghana use more renewable energy sources. Currently, all grid-supplied electricity is generated using a mix of hydro and imported fossil fuel.

Only 0.1% of energy is generated from renewable sources, specifically solar power, the VRA noted in the report.

The wind project is a reflection of the RE law passed in November 2011 (Act 832) to provide the necessary legal and regulatory framework to promote the provision of energy, including electricity from renewable sources.

Ghana Youth Environmental Movement (GYEM) founder Gideon Commey said he and other campaigners and supporters of renewable energy took to social media minutes after the media announcement to celebrate the impending and inevitable victory of clean energy over dirty energy.

Commey and other environmental activists have been vocally opposed to VRA plans to build a coal power plant in the Central Region which will be run off coal imports from South Africa.

The VRA and the Shenzhen Energy Group (SEG) of China plan to build 2 x 350 MW Coal-fired power plant in Ghana The project is to be built at Aboano in the Ekumfi District of the Central Region. It is expected to be completed and operational by 2020.

Commey told Pulse Ghana that while the group would still campaign against coal, it was great to see the VRA emphasize renewable energy.

The activist said it was clear the cost of renewable energy is tumbling at an unprecedented pace globally, so that makes the mantra that fossil fuels are cheaper pretty under-whelming and factually fraudulent.

A 2016 report by Bloomberg found that while two years of crashing prices for oil, natural gas, and coal triggered dramatic downsizing in those industries, renewables have been thriving.

Clean energy investment broke new records in 2015 and is now seeing twice as much global funding as fossil fuels, Bloomberg reports.

It states one reason for this is renewable energy is becoming ever cheaper to produce.

Referring to this report, Commey said this is a fact not open for argument and one will wonder why it took the Government of Ghana that long to notice it.
The performance on the shores of Jamestown, a fishing community in Accra, talked about the negative effects of open defecation and about the need for landlords to build toilets.

Open defecation is the practice of attending nature's call in bushes, at the beach, in drains, in plastic bags and dump sites.

Kaawa y bi, which translates as  tells the story of a confrontation between Agwao and Kpani as he (Agwao) was defecating at the beach and an intense compound house quarrel about the best place to attend natures call.

According to the director of Act for Change, Collins Seymah Smith, the project is about educating people on open defecation and in Jamestown, we see it on a daily basis.

We want to add our voice and our creative efforts to drive home our message on open defecation and encourage community members to desist from it and encourage the households to build their own latrines.

According to Smith, about 85 percent of households in Jamestown do not have toilets inside their homes. The problem is not limited to Jamestown as the United Nations childrens fund, UNICEF who co-sponsored the performance with Alliance Francaise, estimates that it would take Ghana 500 years to eradicate the menace if the country continues at its current pace.

Three out of five Ghanaians engage open defecation and the country was ranked second in Africa for the practice. The country has plans to eradicate open defecation by 2025 and the Goal 6 of the SDGs enjoins countries to ensure availability of clean water and sanitation for all by 2030.
During a one-on-one interview on Pulse TV, the 33-year-old award-winning musician said fans were pushing him into the Azoto box and he wasnt pleased with it.

B.A.R series started because people were pushing me into the Azonto box and I didnt like it, he said.

He continued I, being one of the original or early members of the Skillions  one of the early Hip-hop groups to represent Ghana; I felt I have to do something about it. So decided to put my friends and all the people who I thought were excellent rappers and Hip-hop heads onto one project and named it B.A.R [acronym for Best African Rapper].

Speaking about B.A.R III album, E.L divulged that it took him about 9 months to complete the project.

He said B.A.R III is not just about Hip-hop and also hinted that he may release a Dancehall mixtape in the future.
NDC COMMENDS MUSLIMS FOR SACRIFICESThe National Democratic Congress (NDC) extends its warmest felicitation to Muslims on the occasion of Eid ul-Adha.Eid ul-Adha is a feast of sacrifice recognised as one of the major events on the Muslim religious calendar.The NDC will always associate with this special occasion as it provides the opportunity for Muslims throughout the world to pray for peace, tolerance and Allahs blessings, irrespective of colour, religion, creed and tribe for the development of the nation. While congratulating Muslims on this occasion, the NDC wishes to commend them for their selflessness and commitment towards unity and peaceful co-existence among all faith in the country.The NDC reiterates its call on this occasion to all Ghanaians to unite in the countrys quest to pool resources towards the transformation of the country. Also, we urge Ghanaians not to entertain any act that has the tendency to disturb the peace currently prevailing in the country especially as the country goes to the polls at the end of the year.The NDC is convinced that Allah, in His merciful nature, would accept the prayers and sacrifices of our brothers and sisters and also bring our pilgrims back home safely.We wish Muslims and all Ghanaians both home and the Diaspora a happy and fruitful Eid ul-Adha.SignedHon. Johnson Asiedu NketiahGeneral Secretary, NDC.
Anyone who commits any act of violence in the name of any political party or under any cover is a common criminal and we will deal with such individuals as common criminals and not as political vigilantes, he told the GNA on the sidelines of a graduation service of trained personnel in the Upper East Region where officers had engaged residents of Paga on counter terrorism advocacy.

The Ghana Police Service has trained 365 police personnel drawn from the 10 regions to form an anti-violence advocacy group to combat violence and other crimes ahead of the December polls.

The training was aimed at preparing and toughening up the personnel to be able to deal with hardened criminals across the country.

Thirty personnel were drawn from each of the 11 Police Regions, including the Tema Region, and they were equipped with the requisite skills to make them more disciplined, firm, tough and fearless.

The training, also aimed at developing an attitude in the men to be anti-violence advocates, Superintendent of Police, Adofiem Raymond Wejong, said.
I wish to express my regret to all who due to certain reasons were unable to embark on the Hajj this year, he said.

The president was addressing Muslims as part of the Eid ul-Adha celebrations at the Black Star Square in Accra on Monday.

READ ALSO:

The stranded prospective pilgrims have since demanded answers from the Hajj Board for their inability to board the last flight.

But in his address, President Mahama said that he had asked the Hajj Committee to speak to the Saudi authorities to increase the number of Ghanaian pilgrims for next years hajj.

To all who due to certain reasons were unable to embark on the hajj this year, this was due to two main factors: first, it was the airlifting of 2000 persons in the Tamale international airport, which was very well patronised to reduce the quota of those who took off in Accra. Second is the dramatic growth of pilgrim numbers beyond the quota that has been assigned to Ghana by the Saudi authorities. I have asked our hajj committee to request an increase in our quota of pilgrims from the current 5424 to 7000 pilgrims next year, the President said.
The Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Gas, George Sipa Yankey disclosed this to the press after an interaction with engineers and staff of the company after completion of maintenance works on the plant.

Per current arrangement, Ghana Gas would have to shutdown its gas processing plants after every 4000 hours of operation for maintainance.

The gas processing plant at Atuabo was shutdown in September for its third maintenance schedule after 4000 hours of operations.

The new overhead compressor will ensure that the plant continuous to pump gas even during routine maintenance.

The compressor, Dr Yankey said, will be installed in the coming months.

"This mandatory shutdown of every 4000 hours is going to be the last one... as you see shortly we have in place the equipment, the components for a second overhead compressor. When that is installed, anytime that one [compressor] does 4000 hours then other will be brought into service while maintenance goes on," he said of the new compressor.
Many of the residents argue that they are yet to experience an improvement in their living conditions in spite of earlier promises made by presidential candidates to do so.

Thousands of residents, mainly traders and artisans made this known during the Institute of Economic Affairs #IWantToKnow Campaign.

The campaign was rolled out live in the Ashanti regional capital, Kumasi on Friday, September 9, 2016, where the team was at the main Kumasi market to solicit from the people what they would want to ask their various presidential candidates.

Several of them who interacted with the team said they were unsure of promises being made by the flag bearers ahead of the elections.

Madam Akos, a trader at the Kumasi market said: My business is collapsing, people cannot buy. We are in a serious situation.

A driver at the Bantama market who appeared to have lost all hope wondered if the various flagbearers were truly concerned about the welfare of Ghanaians, or is only interested in making vague promises ahead of the elections.

A nursing graduate also demanded to know what plans and policies the presidential candidates have for nurses who are yet to be posted after graduating several years from training institutions.

The campaign team made stop overs at strategic trading centres at Kumasi, where T-shirts and other paraphernalia were distributed to the teeming crowd who were excited to receive the team.

Ahead of the December polls, several of the presidential candidates have already begun making campaign promises, with many becoming the subject of controversy.

The New Patriotic Party flagbearer had recently promised a 1-village-1-dam policy to boost agriculture, but opposition groups have argued that it is not feasible.

The governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) has also promised to implement what it calls a progressive free tertiary education policy, with many arguing that it is a replica of the NPPs much hyped free SHS policy in the 2012 elections.

With the access to education, healthcare, and employment being major challenges in Ghana, politicians have managed to couch the best campaign promise regarding those issues.

But residents in Kumasi believe such promises will mean nothing if they do not reflect meaningfully in their living conditions.

Meanwhile, the #IWantToKnow Campaign will also be live in Accra and Ho, Karen Hendrickson, Director of Advocacy and Programmes at the IEA has said.

She added that the IEA is hoping to reach and interact with a wider audience as the campaign will be using the various social media platforms to propagate its message.

Pulse Ghana will be bringing you a live Facebook broadcast of the subsequent events in the various regional capitals.
Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected!
Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected!
The father of five identified as Victor Okon, was caught and handed over to the police in Afaha Atai, Akwa Ibom state.

Mr Okon was pictured handcuffed and being carted away in a police van as well as the stolen plantain which was tied to what seems to be his motorcycle.

Unfortunately, the state of the Nigerian economy has not made survival easy for the common man who has been reduced to stealing food supplies.
According to The Nations News, his wife, Rose and the deceased had been involved in a romantic relationship long before her marriage to him.

Upon the discovery of the extra marital affair between the pair, the aggrieved husband reportedly beat her up and insisted that she takes him to the man's house.

After getting to the residence of the deceased, Ochuko removed a knife which he had hidden in his under wear and stabbed the lover on his chest.

He soon fled the scene of the incident after the consequence of his actions had dawned on him.

In a statement released by the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer , Celestina Kalu, the body of the deceased has been deposited at the Warri Central Hospital.

She said, one Clement Ituke of No.8 Udoko Street, Ugborikoko, Effurun, reported that at about 1600hrs of the day, one Ochuko Ajekpemevor and his wife, Rose Ajekpemevor, came into his house and the wife pointed hand on his son and her said her husband, Ochuko Ajekpemevor, brought out knife and stabbed his son on his chest and ran away."

The victim was rushed to lnland Hospital Ugborikoko immediately where he gave up the ghost."
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the two children also lost their lives after the bid to save them by their courageous mother failed.

While the two children were recovered dead from the incident which happened at the early hours of Saturday at their house along Trade Fair, Old Airport area of Sokoto, their mother later died on Sunday.

The fire was said to have been caused by an electrical fault that emanated within the apartment while powering their generating set.

According to an anonymous source, the deceased mother, alongside her husband and two older children, had initially escaped from the fire unhurt.

She was, however, said to have later made a brave and desperate attempt to save the younger children who were still trapped inside the burning house.

The two children were identified as her nine years old son and nephew.

According to eyewitnesses, the burning roof suddenly collapsed on the deceased woman as she attempted taking the children to a safer place.

The remains of the three deceased persons had since been deposited at the morgue of the Usman Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto, while the two other children were receiving treatment

When contacted, the Director-General of the State Fire Service, Alhaji Ibrahim Dingyadi, told NAN that the incident was not reported to the department.

Our personnel only attended to a fire incident along Offa road, Sokoto on Friday and there was no casualty, he said.

Similarly, Mr El-mustapha Sani, the police spokesman in the state, told NAN that the incident was not reported to the police.

However, the spokesman of the Teaching Hospital, Mr Tijjani Saddique, confirmed the story.

He said, the two children were brought into the Trauma Centre of the hospital on Saturday dead.
The suspect identified as Chinedu Strongson was paraded along with other members of the child trafficking syndicate on Saturday, September 10, at the police headquarters in Asaba, Delta state.

The state police commissioner, Zana Ibrahim, revealed that 12 children were recovered from the 48-year-old cleric, adding that he is alleged to have paid the sum of N400,000 for each child sold to him.

Despite the accusations levelled against him, Strongson has denied any involvement in child trafficking, saying that he helped humanity by assisting with the payment of the school fees for the children, the Nigerian Tribune reports.

One Aisha Yahaya based in Asaba revealed how two ladies had come under the guise of being police officers sent by her husband serving time at Ogwashi Uku prisons.

Aisha reportedly followed them to a junction where the trio met with one Abigail Nwakama, aka Madam Cash, who gave her N3,500 towards the care of her 0ne-month-old daughter.

The child was reportedly stolen by the syndicate in the process after which she raised an alarm, leading to the arrest of the two women.

The commissioner reveals that police officers had immediately swung into action following the reports and arrested one Onyinye Nwakama, daughter of Madam Cash, at a drinking bar in Asaba as well as Madam Cash (32) and Ifeoma Anyadike, (32) at Okpanam after which they led the officers to Ogidi where the pastor was arrested.

Other suspects arrested from other parts of the state include David Ikesinachi; Ebere Edwin, Adaeze Enyi and Chike Agwunenu.
ALSO READ: Dismissed police officers arrested for impersonation

The Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Mr Fatai Owoseni revealed that the arrests were carried out in compliance with a directive issued by the Inspector-General of Police on zero tolerance to corruption and unprofessional conduct within the force.

Owoseni added that the squad had arrested 33 officers as of August 8, 12 others as of August 24 and another 20 by September 8.

Some of them have been recommended for dismissal; some to be demoted in ranks. Those involved in unlawful killing have been charged to court for murder.

Some others are undergoing departmental orderly room trials. There is no place for corrupt and unprofessional police in Lagos command, he said.

Owoseni disclosed that he has embarked on re-orientation and retraining as part of their efforts to keep to the ethics of the force in the state.

According to the CP, 75 constables have gone through training in handling of arms at the Ikeja Police College, in a bid to check accidental discharge.
The natural phenomenon is coming close to four months since a similar event occurred in the area.

The people of the community are reportedly at the edge of their seats, wondering what will happen next.

Suleiman Yakubu, a Kaduna based international radio reporter disclosed that the people living in the community have considered abandoning their homes in a bid to get safety.

Though people have not started fleeing the community, but as I talk to you, there is tension. Everyone is standing outside as the earth is vibrating under their feet."

"It started since morning and if it continues like this till evening, people will have no choice than to leave the town to safer places."

Honorable Badugu Nehemiah, who is a leader in the community said, since morning, many people in our villages have been running up and down, because both buildings and the ground have been shaking."

"Many churches had to cut short their Sunday service programmes because of the earthquake threat. As I am speaking with you, the ground is still shaking.
The suspect and others are said to have turned the residents of the community against their monarch who they have accused of being insensitive to their plight.

ALSO READ: Another notorious serial rapist arrested in Lagos

Child and adult victims have opened up on the stigmatisation, shame, and medical implications of their ordeal at the hands of Badoo.

Five-year-old Adeshewa Adegbite, residing with her parents in Ibeshe Titun, is still facing health challenges after being defiled by the suspect.

According to a medical report, Adeshewa is reportedly suffering from multiple lacerations in her private part which consequently led to Vesicovaginal fistula (VVF), a serious medical condition that destroys the use of the private part, The Nation reports.

The father of the young victim, Olugbenga, lamented over the alleged inaction of Ipakodo Divisional Police Station in the matter, appealing to the state government to assist him with the required medical bills,

Another victim, Mabel, aged 7, and her grandmother also fell victims of the serial rapist. They were both raped on the same night in their apartment.

Mabel reportedly fell victim while trying to raise the alarm to help her 86-year-old grandmother who was being raped.

According to the Nation, Mabel is not only physically injured with fractures but is been mentally deranged since the incident.

Another 14-year-old girl is reported to have fallen victim to the serial rapist.

A resident of the area identified as Elizabeth, said:

The aftermath of any rape case, especially in this community is stigmatisation. The victims and their families are no longer free to act as normal as they used to because of stigmatisation.

The Ibeshe Joint Community Development Association (CDA) chairman, Fred Olaonipekun, has revealed that the little media publicity carried out on the issues has done little to deter the perpetrators.

We believe that a personal intervention by the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode is the only solution to this case, Olaonipekun said.

The monarch, Oba Abayomi disclosed to The Nation that his alleged inaction over the cases of rape in the community was in fact defamation of his character.

Oba Abayomi went on to say that he has ordered further investigations to be carried out while traditional atonement which cost N700,000 was done in respect of these cases. These efforts on his part reportedly led to the arrest of the first suspect.

Their anger was born out of my refusal to allow them take laws into their hands and lynch the suspect after they brought him to the palace. Eventually, the palace was vandalised by the aggrieved protesters, he said.

ALSO READ: Serial rapists arrested in Akwa Ibom
This is contained issued by Mr Semiu Okanlawon, Special Adviser on Media to the governor and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Osogbo on Sunday.

Aregbesola said the country would make progress towards the fulfilment of its great potentials, if Nigerians could promote peace, security and stability.

He said this could be achieved by showing greater respect for national safety and public order laws.

The governor also enjoined Nigerians to be selfless in the discharge of their duties.

Aregbesola said commitment, perseverance and prayer were the key ingredients needed as the country passes through its worst trial moments.

He urged Muslims to imbibe the lessons of commitment, dedication and obedience to higher authorities as inherently demonstrated by Prophet Ibrahim.

The governor said the willingness of the prophet to sacrifice his son in obedience to the will of God which the Eid El-Kabir commemorates, should be emulated.

I wish our fellow Muslim brothers and sisters in Osun, Nigeria and beyond, a most blessed Eid.
This is contained in a Sallah message issued on Sunday and signed by Dogaras Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Mr Turaki Hassan.

According to the statement, Dogara lamented the pains experience by Nigerians due to the economic challenges.

He said that the peaceful co-existence, understanding and sustained prayers among citizens were essential in the face of the current economic and security challenges in the country which are not insurmountable.

Dogara, however, expressed confidence that the diversification drive of the present administration, fiscal discipline and transparency would return the country to the path of true development and prosperity.

He called on Nigerians to use the period for sober reflection and imbibe the spirit of sacrifice for peace, unity and progress of the country.

As we celebrate Eid-el-Kabir with our friends and families, we must never forget our country and its leadership in our prayers.

Eid-el-Kabir celebration is a period of sacrifice and reflection.

I urge us all to emulate this virtues of total obedience, sacrifice in faith and selfless service as demonstrated and exemplified by Prophet lbrahim, the speaker admonished.

Dogara assured Nigerians of the House of Representatives determination to continue to work selflessly and tirelessly for the common good and interest of the country.

Similarly, the Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Rep. Yussuf Lasun appealed to Nigerians to pray for the improvement of the countrys economy.

The deputy speaker made the appeal in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Wole Oladimeji.

The statement quoted Lasun as canvassing for patience and perseverance as the country was faced with economic recession.

While calling on Nigerians to support the current administration in the fight against corruption, Lasun said that there would not be any meaningful development without peace.

I therefore enjoined all Nigerians irrespective of tribes, religion or party affiliation to pray for peace and unity as there can never be development without peace, he said.
Ezekwesili subsequently made the denial via her official Twitter handle. She wrote:

Amazing how LACKEYS of the previous FG are OBSESSED with attacking Oby Ezekwesili & yet SHAMELESSLY STEAL same name to author their trash.

People Deceiving People folks LIE AS USUAL| "Buhari, not Jonathan, caused recession - BBOG founder, Oby Ezekwesili"

How an unscrupulous mind wrote that trash and attributed it to me tells a lot about the health of this society. God's Judgement awaits you.
Speaking to members of the Christian Information Network Forum in Jos, Plateau State, Fani- Kayode said he feels for the victims of the terrorist attacks and Fulani herdsmen saying the people of the region have suffered too much.

He said: I appreciate the barbarity and injustice of the ruthless persecution that they have been subjected to from those that have kept them in bondage and subjugation for over 200 years.

As a matter of fact, I regard myself as being as much of a northern Christian as anyone else in this forum and when one of our own is killed by the Islamists and terrorists in our country, it hurts and pains me to the very marrow.

These are my people that are being slaughtered as much as they are yours. If Nigeria were ever to break up we will ensure that the northern minorities and the Middle Belt come with the south.

We will never leave you in the hands of our collective enemies and we will never abandon you. When Nigeria is either redefined or restructured: that is when your true liberation begins," he said.

Speaking further, Fani Kayode said: When it comes to suffering injustice, marginalisation, mass murder, ethnic cleansing and genocide you have suffered more than any other.

It is only the Igbo people of the south-east that have been subjected to the kind of wickedness that your people have been subjected to by the Nigerian state and those that have controlled it since independence.

The only difference is that they literally took your identities away from you whilst they couldnt do that to the Igbo who, till today, are still fighting hard for self-determination.

It is our intention to right the wrongs of the past and to help to liberate you. It is our intention to encourage and support you in your quest for emancipation and freedom in this historic fight.

The outspoken politician further urged Christians and other peace loving Nigerians affected by violence in the North to remain steadfast.

No matter how bad things get, always hold your heads up high, never bow before them, never show them fear, never let them break you and always remember that our God is mighty and that it shall be well.

No matter what violence they inflict upon you, no matter what indignities they subject you and yours to and no matter who or what they take away from you never forget that on Christ the solid rock we stand, all other ground is sinking sand: all other ground is sinking, he added.
The Sultan also said they are foreigners who have come into Nigeria to cause trouble and create instability.

Adding that They are therefore terrorists and should be treated as such by the Nigerian security agencies.

The Nigerian herdsmen are very peace-loving and law abiding.

The revered monarch made the revelation while delivering his Eid el-Kabir message to Muslims across Nigeria.

The Sultan also called on security agencies to be proactive, adding that Nigerians are peace loving people.

He said though the Fulani herdsmen and farmers still have some mis-understanding, the issue will soon be resolved.

Some of the dignitaries present at the event were ex-President Shehu Shagari, Gov. Aminu Tambuwal, his deputy, Ahmed Aliyu, and Aliko Dangote.
The Accountant-General of the state, Alhaji Yusuf Okala, confirmed the development to the News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) in Lokoja on Sunday.

Okala, who is also the Chairman of the Staff Screening and Verification Committee, said the alleged fraud was discovered in the course of the committees work.

 Yes, it is true. We have been able to recover N20 million from them through the efforts of the police command in the state, Okala said.

Also, the state Auditor-General, Alhaji Ahmed Ododo, said that the money would be recovered in full from the suspects.

NAN learnt that the money was part of funds released by the administration of Capt. Idris Wada for the payment of pensioners.

Over 9,000 retirees in the state are owed between four and five months pension arrears as a result of the alleged diversion and the lack of funds by the government.

Ododo explained that the suspects would be made to face the law.

He commended the state government for setting up the committee for conducting the verification in the interest of the state.

He said that apart from identifying ghost workers and pensioners, the committee was working to plug loopholes through which public funds were being stolen.

Ododo promised that all genuine workers and pensioners would soon be cleared for the payment of salaries and pensions.

 The screening of workers and pensioners is going to be a continuous exercise.

No authentic staff or pensioner will have any cause to fear. Gov. Yahaya Bello-led administration in the state has high regard for both workers and pensioners.
The town was held by Boko Haram since 2014, until sometime in 2016 when troops liberated it from the terrorists.

According to Daily Post, indigenes of the area have been returning following the Borno state governments effort towards reconstructing the town.

Governor Shettima said Konduga is not more important to us than Askira Uba where two Emirs have returned, it is not more important to us than Gwoza which is bigger and more populated, Konduga is also not more important to us than Monguno, Kukawa, Damboa, Ngala, Dikwa or any other part of the State where our citizens have returned, we chose Konduga because of proximity to Maiduguri given the fact that some of those working with me need to go back and slaughter their rams which are mostly in Maiduguri and they also need time with their families while we have other activities scheduled at the Government House in Maiduguri.

 So, Konduga is a mere symbol in this instance which represents all the communities where our people have returned. We are here in solidarity with them, to celebrate the Sallah with them, to strengthen the fact that they are no less important than those who were not affected by the insurgency, to reaffirm our commitment to resettlement of IDPS. We came to share this moment with them and to also reassure them that we wouldnt have allowed them to return to Konduga if it was classified unsafe, this is why we are here with them. We are determined to restore the dignity of our people, to reinstall civil authority, to rebuild their schools, hospitals, markets and homes so they can return to safe homes and I want to reiterate that we will not allow our citizens to return to unsafe communities.

 The good thing about peace is that peace doesnt require stating or propaganda, peace manifests, it shows itself where it evolves and people respond to it by going to peaceful places. There are some of our IDPS that we didnt even know when they started returning to their communities months ago. Through their local information gathering mechanism they got to know that peace had returned to their communities and they responded by going back in groups.

No matter how you try to make someone return to any community, they will naturally not respond without independently confirming whether there is peace or not. We will continue to dedicate ourselves to supporting our security establishments, the civilian JTF and hunters to sustain the peace we have but while we do that, we will insha Allah pick up the pieces of our lives. We will not wait till eternity before picking up the pieces of our lives. I want to use this opportunity to wish the people of Borno State and all Nigerians Barka da Sallah and urge all of us to rededicate ourselves to good deeds, increased faith and selfless sacrifice which are the three key messages of the Eid Adha.

I urge the people of Borno State to reach out to poor neighbours. Part of the essence of slaughtering rams is to share the meat with the needy, with those who couldnt afford to make the sacrifice and not for us to slaughter rams and share with rich neighbors or to share rams and store in refrigerators to take care of our menus for months to come, the meat is meant to be shared with the needy. We should always remember the downtrodden at every step of the way. Borno is known for hospitality and that hospitality should be demonstrated through good neighborliness and peaceful coexistence. Those embarking on celebrations should not contemplate breaking our laws, they should be orderly and peaceful. Once again, I wish all of us Barka da Sallah.
I want to say without any fear of contradiction that government has no plan to force any persons back home to his or her community.

We will not compel individuals to go back to their place, Shettima, who was accompanied by the Director-General, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Dr Garba Abari and other top government officials said.

He said that rather than compel the IDPs to return home, government would give them the freedom to either choose to return home or stay where they are.

We have not compelled anyone to go back to Konduga, Mafa or Dikwa because peace does not require propaganda; peace manifests, it shows itself where it evolves and people respond to it by going to peaceful places.

Some IDPs have even started returning to their communities months ago without our knowledge.

Through local information gathering mechanism, they got to know that peace had returned to their communities and they responded by going back in groups, Shettima said.

The governor said that he decided to observe the Eld prayer in Konduga to showcase the gradual return of peace in the state.

Our performing Eid prayer in Konduga is significant as we want to show the world that as painful as it is, the process of enthronement of peace has begun in the state.

We came to share this moment with the people and to also reassure them that we would not have allowed them to return to Konduga if it was classified unsafe; this is why we are here with them, he said.

Shettima expressed optimism that in the nearest future, the state would overcome its current security challenges.
The government said in a statement signed by Samuel Aruwan, Special Assistant to the Governor on Media and Publicity, that it has made a formal report to the appropriate authorities to investigate the development.

The statement noted that Gov. Nasir El-Rufai, has notified the geological and emergency agencies of the incident.

The governor sympathises with the people in the Kwoi area over the reported earth tremor.

He has directed the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) to mobilise to the area and comfort the citizens.

The National Geological Agency has also been notified, and has been invited to investigate the tremor in the Kwoi area and provide appropriate guidance.

The Kaduna State Government is receiving updates from the area and relevant government agencies have been directed to take steps to comfort the residents and to assuage their unease as they come to terms with an unusual event.

The Kaduna State Government wishes to appeal for calm, and urges everyone not to spread unverified information, or create panic, the statement said.
Boroh, also the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Monday in Abuja.

He said the region was now stabilised and had witnessed development by Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Ministries of Niger Delta Affairs, Environment, Health, Works and Housing and Oil/Gas companies.

The Presidential aide acknowledged that the amnesty programme has a time limit.

Amnesty programme worldwide has a limit because it is a master piece of strategy to resolving militancy.

So, that of Nigeria was established in 2009, and it was supposed to have ended.

But when I took over in July 2015 I had an over view of the programme and felt if it were to be stopped it will cause more problems.

Because the programme in Nigeria had helped greatly to stabilise the region, he said.

He, however, added that the 30,000 ex-agitators, who gave up their arms to benefit from the programme, were in three phases.

When I came into office, I still met the load of 30,000 ex-agitators, who were supposed to have exited the programme, but were still in the programme.

I came out with an exit strategy whereby every quarter about 5,000 will be exiting the programme.

As well as those graduating from the school both within and outside the Nigeria, with 4,000 students graduating this year, he said

He added that its office has keyed into the Green Alternative initiative of Federal Government through strategic partnership with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Anchor Borrowers programme.

According to him, its office has also collaborated with the nine oil producing States Government, Ministry of Agriculture and National Biotechnology Resource Centre.
He made the plea in his goodwill message to Muslim faithful during the Eid-el-Kabir prayer held on Monday in Ijebu-Ode.

According to the monarch, political office holders should endeavour to redeem their electoral promises to the electorate to build trust and foster unity.

He advised leaders to remain accountable, especially in the use of public funds, and to also create solutions to youth unemployment.

Education, employment and infrastructural development remain key toward enabling the rapid development of our economy.

Politicians, who serve uprightly and diligently, should expect that their services would bring them rewards both on earth and afterlife.

I pray God to continue to be with our leaders and guide them in making the right decisions while discharging their duties, Adetona said.

The monarch further appealed to the Ogun government to speed up completion of road projects in Ijebu-Ode and promptly pick-up of refuse to minimise the risks of health hazards.

Similarly, the Chief Imam of Ijebu-Ode, Alhaji Abdulrasak Salaudeen, in his message, urged Nigerian leaders to serve with the fear of God and be sensitive to the plight of the people.
Obiano made the call in a statement signed by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr James Eze in Awka on Sunday.

He said that the celebration of this years Eid el-Kabir offered Nigerians a chance to show love to one another and strengthen the bonds of nationhood.

Obiano said that the teachings of the Holy prophet should serve as a guide to steps out of the current economic recession.

Nigerians should love one another, show more tolerance for one another and work more closely together to pull the country out of the recession, Obiano said.
Answering questions from journalists in Abeokuta on Sunday, September 11, 2016, Osinbajo said almost 60 per cent revenue has been lost due to the activities of pipelines vandals in the Niger-Delta.

Osinbajo also disclosed that the nation has lost almost 40 per cent of the gas but expressed optimism that the country would soon overcome its challenges.

He said: One of the key reasons why we are in recession is the fact that we lost about 60% of our revenue due to the vandalization of the pipelines on the Niger/Delta and we lost almost 40% of the gas.

I have a strong belief that by the grace of God, we will be able to resolve that. Once we are able to resolve that, we would at least be able to earn more revenue. If revenue grows up, it is an added advantage, he said.
Ugwuanyi made this call in an Eid el-Kabir message made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu on Sunday.

Our Muslim brothers and sisters should offer prayers for the peace and unity as well as economic progress of the nation, he said.

Ugwuanyi noted that it was only through prayers and absolute faith in God that Nigeria can overcome her current socio-cultural and economic challenges.

The governor harped on the need for peaceful co-existence among Nigerians irrespective of their religious and ethnic differences.

The God, who brought us together as one entity, will certainly take the nation to the dreams of our founding fathers, he said.

Ugwuanyi also urged Nigerians to love and appreciate one another and avoid any ungodly act that could lead to disunity.
In episode two, Chika Ike goes to Togo, Benini Republic, Ivory Coast and Ghana in search of the next African Diva.

Just like its first season, the second season features 22 ladies between the ages of 18 and 35 in a house for weeks.

The winner will get $10,000, a brand new car, an acting contract, a cover feature on an international magazine and one year supply of Fancy Nancy accessories.

The first season ended after 12 weeks, with

Egbules won a cash prize of four million Naira and has shot her winning movie "All of Me," which stars her alongside Ike, Deyemi Okanlawon, Kenneth Okolie and more.
The actor and entrepreneur has released a short film to introduce his son to the world.

Shot in Dallas, Texas USA, Deyemi teamed up with filmmaker-photographerBiola Metesun of MalekFoto Films to co-produce a well-shot movie with some extremely impressive camera work where he shares words of wisdom with his newborn.

ALSO READ: undefined

On Saturday, September 10, the filmmaker teased the short film, describing it his most important production till date.

"As Many of you dont know this but Ive low-key done almost as much work behind the camera as I have in front of it. On Monday the 12th of September Ill be premiering my most important production till date," Okanlawon wrote on his Instagram page.
Buhari told newsmen that Nigerians who are patriotic have nothing to fear, with respect to his anti-corruption war.

According to a statement released by the Presidents Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu, Buhari said Before the elections, we identified three major problems confronting our country. The first is security; we need to sufficiently secure our country to manage it well.

The second is economy, especially job for the youths and fighting corruption which is continuous.

For the youths, graduates and non-graduates who are interested in agriculture, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the CBN are doing something to provide employment for them.
Ize-Iyamu further said that party agents should not be allowed to see how voters vote; there should be safe distance. Illiterate voters should be assisted only by relatives, not by party agents.

The PDP candidate also urged all eligible voters across the state to be calm and law-abiding assuring them that their votes would count and be protected.

The Edo governorship elections were scheduled to hold on Saturday, September 10, 2016, but were postponed to September 28 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for security reasons.
Okebukola shared his thoughts while giving a keynote speech at an education summit organized by the Education Writers Association of Nigeria (EWAN) in Lagos.

ALSO READ: JAMB Registrar says there will be no written test for 2016 admission

He said, It is a mistake in the long-term interest of quality of the Nigerian university system to abrogate Post-utme.

To shoot for five-star quality from the present one-star, the admission process through the UTME and Post-UTME should move a notch or two higher in stringency."

"Reintroduction of the HSC could pull the magic. On the quality front, enrolling beyond programme carrying capacity is recipe for poor quality products. NUC should continue to apply sanctions to breaches of carrying capacity.
Assad visited the city of Daraya, southwest of Damascus, on the occasion of Eid al-Adha. Daraya had been a major symbol of the uprising against Assad, and its surrender to government forces after years of siege marked a big blow to the rebellion.

Many of the fighters left with their families to the rebel-controlled province of Idlib in northwestern Syria under a locally brokered agreement between the warring sides. Civilians were also evacuated to another government-held area near Damascus.

Assad was pictured kneeling at prayer in a bare hall alongside other worshippers, including the state's grand mufti, in a photo published by state news agency SANA.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) said in a video recording late on Sunday that it had taken captives over the years but would not do so again.

The rebels and government are gearing up to sign the accord after reaching agreement on Aug. 24 to end a war that has killed more than 220,000 people and displaced millions. Some 7,000 FARC fighters will be incorporated into society and permitted to form a political party.

"We want to acknowledge, with the sentiment of humanity and reconciliation, that during the conflict the FARC also caused great pain with the retention of people for ransom," FARC's commander and lead negotiator, Ivan Marquez, said in the recording.

"That conduct, while always used to sustain the needs of the rebellion, resulted in harming entire families," he said from Havana, Cuba, where negotiations took place.

Some 27,000 people were kidnapped between 1970 and 2010, according official figures. As many as 90 percent of those were seized by the FARC.
Police on Saturday and Sunday detained leaders of three opposition parties and three other organisers and participants involved in a forum on constitutional reform in the Pacific island's capital of Suva last week.

All have since been freed without charge, but the case has been referred to the public prosecutor, police said in a statement issued on Sunday evening.

Police said the detentions were carried out in response to "issues that could affect the safety and security of all Fijians".

There is widespread concern among Fiji's opposition parties that the constitution gives too much power to a government originally installed in 2006 through a bloodless military coup.

"I think it's politically motivated," Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry told Reuters by phone shortly after he was released on Monday.

"The regime here is very sensitive to criticism. They have seen all three political parties in opposition coming together in one forum and I think they feel a bit jittery about it."

Opposition MPs wore black ribbons at Monday's opening of parliament and some boycotted the ceremonial session in protest over the detentions.

A spokeswoman for Fiji's Director of Public Prosecutions declined to comment. A spokesman for Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

After seizing power in 2006, Bainimarama stood down from the military to run as a civilian in the country's 2014 elections, winning by a landslide.

Jone Dakuvulua, who organised the reform forum and chairs non-government organisation Pacific Dialogue, said his arrest highlighted some of these problems.

"It's an indication that even though we have a so-called parliament, we do not have democracy," Dakuvulua told Reuters by phone.
A statement from regional mediators seeking to end a year-long political crisis in the West African country said.

President Jose Mario Vaz dismissed Prime Minister Domingo Simoes Pereira in August 2015 and the countrys political institutions have been paralyzed by infighting since then.

Observers hoped the appointment of Baciro Dja as prime minister in May would ease the deadlock but he has failed to win the support of a key faction within the ruling PAIGC party.

The United Nations has warned that the crisis might benefit drug traffickers and attract extremist terrorist groups seeking to gain a foothold in the region.

The former Portuguese colony is notoriously unstable and had seen nine coups or attempted coups since 1980.

The turbulence had helped it become a major transit point for cocaine trafficked from South America to Europe.

A team of mediators from regional bloc ECOWAS, led by neighboring Guineas President Alpha Conde and Sierra Leones Ernest Bai Koroma, spent Saturday in talks with stakeholders in the capital Bissau.

The parties consulted have all shown their support for the plan proposed by mediators, said Guineas government late on Saturday, after meetings with the president, prime minister, PAIGC as well as the main opposition party PRS.

The signals being sent are reassuring that the crisis in Guinea Bissau is beginning to ease, the statement said.

The six-point plan includes a preliminary agreement to form a consensus government, an agreement to reform the constitution and the defense sector, it said.

It gave no timeframe for the new government.

Previous internal and external efforts to resolve the political deadlock have failed.

The crisis has prevented parliament from agreeing to budgets and has blocked international aid on which the poor, cashew-exporting country of 1.7 million depends.
Bassema Darwish, a 34-year-old mother, has been held without trial since October 2014 on charges of cooperating with Islamic State in the killing of three Kurdish Peshmerga fighters who stormed a house in northern Iraq where she was being held captive, Amnesty said in a report.

Kurdish forces backed by U.S. air strikes seized the nearby town of Sinjar, home to the Yazidi minority, from Islamic State about a year later. They have rolled back the ultra-hardline insurgents across the north, effectively annexing territory claimed by Baghdad to their autonomous region.

The Kurds have advocated on behalf of Yazidis, a religious sect that has faced killings, sexual slavery and other crimes at the hands of the jihadist group since 2014.

U.N. investigators said in June those actions amounted to acts of genocide against the Kurdish-speaking Yazidis, whose beliefs combine elements of several ancient Middle Eastern religions. The Sunni Arab militants of Islamic State view them as infidels.

"It is shocking that the Kurdistan Regional Government, which has consistently condemned IS atrocities against the Yazidi community, is holding a survivor of these abuses on terrorism charges and denying her basic legal rights," said Philip Luther, Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa director.
Pyongyang set off its most powerful nuclear blast to date on Friday, saying it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile and ratcheting up a threat that its rivals and the United Nations have been powerless to contain.

"Assessment by South Korean and U.S. intelligence is that the North is always ready for an additional nuclear test in the Punggye-ri area," South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun told a news briefing.

Punggye-ri, near the northeastern coast, is the site of the North's five nuclear explosions.

"North Korea has a tunnel where it can conduct an additional nuclear test," Moon said.

South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported earlier that North Korea had completed preparations for another nuclear test, citing South Korean government sources who said the North may use a previously unused tunnel at its mountainous test site.

It did not elaborate on what activities had been detected at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site.

A U.S. special envoy for the isolated state, Sung Kim, will travel to Seoul on Monday after discussing cooperation among neighbouring countries in Tokyo in the wake of the North's latest nuclear test.

Kim met with Japanese officials on Sunday and said the United States may launch unilateral sanctions against North Korea, echoing comments by U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday in the wake of the test.

A push for further sanctions was "laughable", North Korea said on Sunday, vowing to continue to strengthen its nuclear power.

The U.S. military delayed a planned B-1B bomber flight to the Korean peninsula, a show of strength and solidarity with ally Seoul, scheduled for Monday, Yonhap reported. The delay of at least 24 hours was due to bad weather conditions in Guam, Yonhap said, citing an unidentified U.S. Forces Korea official.

South Korea's military put the force of Friday's blast at 10 kilotonnes, but a U.S. expert said the highest estimates of seismic magnitude suggested a yield of 20 to 30 kilotonnes. The test showed North Korea's nuclear capability was expanding fast and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was unwilling to alter course, South Korea said on Saturday.

The U.N. Security Council denounced the test and said it would begin work immediately on a resolution. The United States, Britain and France pushed for the 15-member body to impose new sanctions.

It was not clear if the Security Council can quickly come to a consensus on fresh sanctions, given the ambivalence by China and Russia on adopting another resolution. Both countries did join sanctions in March following the North's January nuclear test.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday a "creative" response was needed.

The Global Times, run by the Chinese Communist Party, rejected the suggestion by the United States that Beijing was responsible for the North's pursuit of nuclear arms. It said the United States was "the root cause" of the issue.
A District Court judge sentenced a man to prison for a maximum term of 25 years last week for driving while under the influence of alcohol, his fifth felony conviction, after she determined him to be a habitual criminal.

A District Court judge sentenced a man to prison for a maximum term of 25 years last week for driving while under the influence of alcohol, his fifth felony conviction, after she determined him to be a habitual criminal.

Chance Ryan Carden, 48, appeared in District Court Friday morning to be sentenced on a felony charge of DUI, his third DUI conviction since 2003, after he was found guilty of the offense following a trial in February.

Carden, who was already serving a sentence of four to 10 years for battery with use of a deadly weapon following a 2011 case, has reportedly been committing serious crimes in Nevada and California since the early 1990s.

Deputy District Attorney Michael Vieta-Kabell, the prosecutor in this case, asked Judge Kimberly Wanker to sentence Carden at the hearing as a habitual re-offender for the number of felony crimes he has been convicted of over the years and to enhance his sentence with additional prison time.

According to information submitted by the state, Carden was convicted of possessing stolen property in California in 1991, possessing a controlled substance in Clark County in 1996, attempting to possess a firearm as an ex-felon in Esmeralda County in 2003 and battery with use of a deadly weapon in Nye County in 2011.

The DUI charge was just the latest. Wanker said she believed Carden was becoming more and more violent each time he was let out of jail or prison.

She told the court that although having prior felony convictions doesnt necessarily mean someone will automatically be sentenced as a habitual criminal offender, it seemed to her there werent many other options for Carden.

If you look at his pre-sentence investigation report, whats really telling about this man is he is 48 years old, and since he was 18 he has had four felony convictions, one gross misdemeanor conviction, 20 misdemeanor convictions, hes been in prison three times and jail 14 times, Wanker said.

Mr. Carden seems to have a problem with recidivism. And frankly Mr. Carden, if your prior convictions were only for possession of a controlled substance, I dont think I would be inclined to impose the habitual enhancement. But heres the thing, you havent learned. In fact, you just keep becoming more and more violent in these cases  So, I do think at this point imposing the habitual criminal enhancement is appropriate, she said.

After Carder was determined to be a habitual offender, Wanker said she had three options for sentencing. One would be to sentence him to 25 years in prison with the possibility of parole after 10 years. The second was to sentence him to life in prison with the possibility of parole and the third was to sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Ultimately, Wanker decided on a sentence of 25 years with the possibly of parole after 10 of those years had been served.

Mr. Carden, I want you to know Im not sentencing you with the habitual criminal status, you are, youve done this to yourself. You simply will not stop your behavior and the purpose behind the statute is to stop recidivism and you simply dont seem to understand that, the judge said.
The Mississippi River was not high enough Monday for the U.S. Coast Guard to attempt to free a barge carrying anhydrous ammonia stuck near East Moline, so the operation has been postponed a day, an official on scene said.

Rain last week and recent flooding along the Wapsipinicon River near DeWitt has pushed more water into Pool 15 of the Mississippi River. Dams seen as far upriver as Bellevue, Iowa, were open Monday morning as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working with the Coast Guard to raise the level in Pool 15.

The river level at Lock & Dam 15, Rock Island, jumped about a foot in a day from 10 feet Sunday morning to 11.1 feet Monday morning. The Coast Guard would like to see the river rise even more in order to attempt its salvage operation, Ensign Dana Schmitt said Monday.

The river is expected to climb to 11.5 feet Tuesday morning, when the operation is expected to occur, and crest around 12 feet by Thursday. That's still well below flood stage of 15 feet at Rock Island.

Two barges carrying 4,800 tons of ammonia ran aground Sept. 3 at Mile Marker 491, about 1,000 yards off Campbell's Island, East Moline. One barge was freed while the other, which has 2,400 tons of ammonia, remains stuck. The Coast Guard is constantly monitoring the barge, which officials say is not leaking.

Kirby Inland Marine will transfer the ammonia from Barge 20851, if necessary, to ensure the vessel can safely be refloated. Locks & Dams 14 and 15 will be closed to traffic during operations.

The Coast Guard encourages the public to stay away from the area. Anyone in the area who smells ammonia should go inside immediately, turn off air conditioning and call 911.

The barge is outside the Mississippi's navigable channel and not impeding river traffic.

Barge owner Kirby Corp., based in Houston, could not be reached for comment.
The U.S. Coast Guard is overseeing salvage operations of 4,800 tons of anhydrous ammonia from a barge on the Mississippi River that ran aground Sept. 3 near Campbells Island, East Moline.

Kirby Inland Marine will transfer the ammonia from Barge 20851, if necessary, to ensure the vessel can safely be refloated. Locks and Dam 14 and 15 will be closed to traffic during operations, according to a media release from the U.S. Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard encourages the public to stay away from the area. Anyone in the area who smells ammonia should go inside immediately, turn off air conditioning and call 911.

A towing vessel named Zeus heading south was pushing two barges when the incident occurred. The Coast Guard freed one of the barges, but the others remained grounded at Mile Marker 491, about 1,000 yards off Campbell's Island.

The barge, which was not leaking, is outside the Mississippi's navigable channel and not impeding river traffic, a Coast Guard spokesperson said.

Barge owner Kirby Corp., based in Houston, could not be reached for comment.
A Milan man will spend a year in prison for the theft of veteran's benefits over a period of 13 years.

U.S. District Judge Sara Darrow on Thursday ordered Peter W. Cooper, 59, of Milan, to serve the time in prison and to pay $178,789 in restitution to the Veterans Administration. He will report to a designated federal prison on Oct. 17 to begin his sentence.

On May 5, Cooper pled guilty to information that charged him with one count of theft of veterans benefits. He admitted that he continued to receive benefit payments that were paid to his adoptive mother, after her death in 2003.

At the time, Cooper's mother had been receiving payments from the VA under the Dependency and Indemnity Compensation program, based on the previous active duty on the part of her late husband. Those benefits are paid to a surviving spouse until the spouse dies or remarries.

In 2014, the Office of the Inspector General at the Va matched its records with Social Security death records, and noticed that while Cooper's mother had died in 2003, the payments had continued. These payments were being deposited monthly in a bank account, in the name of Cooper and his late mother.

Cooper, an employee of the Army Corps of Engineers at the Rock Island Arsenal, had been withdrawing the payment monthly and spending it, or transferring it to other accounts.

 Deirdre Cox Baker
Music, food and historical demonstrations such as oat threshing will be among the attractions during the sixth annual "A Day on the Prairie" event to be held Saturday, Sept. 17, at the Prairie Village outside Tipton, Iowa.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and admission is free.

The event is sponsored by the Cedar County Historical Society in collaboration with the Old Capitol Museum, Iowa City, and Ushers Ferry, Cedar Rapids.

A special activity this year is A Pioneer Wedding that will be presented at 1 p.m. by the Cedar County Stop Light Players. The ceremony will be followed by the serving of wedding cake, dancing, and shenanigans. Handouts will describe wedding traditions of the time. You can watch as the groom takes his new bride to the wedding party in a wheel barrow, and you can participate in a shivaree (noise-making) after the couple retires.

Ann Cejka, a historical interpreter from Ushers Ferry, and Ciuin Ferrin, from the Old Capitol Museum, will set up a camp site where they will cook a variety of foods over an open fire.

Visitors will be invited to try their hand at early games, taste period foods and view demonstrations of long-lost arts such as oat threshing, butter- and paper bead-making and candle-dipping.

Bill Muhs, of Lowden, will discuss prairie plants and their importance to the pioneer, while Dale Hughes, of Marion, will show how rope was made in the mid-1800s. Pat Barglof will provide music with her Village Band.

Also new this year is the addition to the village of the Sunbury Block. This is a series of three storefronts that will include, when finished, the Sunbury Bank replica, H.D. Kemmann Garage and Implements, Lowden/Clarence, and the Tipton Conservative and Advertiser newspaper office.

The garage will house the recent donation of a 1906 Orient Buckboard automobile that H.D. Kemmann drove from Lowden to Clarence to check on his businesses.

Food will be available for purchase from the Cedar County Beef Producers.

The village and Cedar County Historical Society Museum are located at 1094 Iowa 38.

For more information, call the museum at 563-886-2899.
MASON CITY, Iowa  Actress Dana Delany stopped by the Mason City Democratic headquarters Monday morning in support of Hillary Clinton.

Delany, best known for her roles in "China Beach" and "Desperate Housewives," told a group of about 12 supporters, "She's ready and, more important, the country's ready" for Clinton to be president.

"This is an election where you can't afford not to vote," she said.

After giving a brief pitch for Clinton, she sat at a table and chatted with local Democrats.

Delany praised Iowans for the commitment to politics.

"Nobody starts earlier than Iowans," she said. "I'm really impressed with the caucus thing."

She was introduced by former state Democratic Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky who is traveling with her for several appearances across the state, including Waterloo and Cedar Rapids.
DES MOINES  More agricultural and business organizations are joining the call for a state sales tax increase to fund water-quality, conservation and outdoor recreation programs.

Iowas Water and Land Legacy, a group that advocates for financing the states empty Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund, held a news conference Monday near the Raccoon River in Des Moines to say support for the groups cause is growing.

Were adding a lot more businesses to the coalition, said Jan Glendening, a coalition co-chair and state director of The Nature Conservancy. This has been broadening year after year after year, and we intend to keep broadening it.

The coalition includes organizations representing conservation, hunting, agriculture and recreation, among others.

In 2010, Iowa voters approved the creation of the outdoor trust fund. But state lawmakers and the governor have not enacted a sales tax increase of three-eighths of 1 cent in order to deliver money to the trust fund, so it has remained empty since its creation.

The movement to increase the sales tax and finance the trust fund has grown in recent years as Iowa has encountered water-quality issues.

The federal government has ordered the state to remove from its waterways harmful pollutants that are flowing into the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico, where marine life in large areas in the gulf is dying because of a lack of oxygen in the water. The state developed a strategy to clean its waters, but the report calls for $4 billion in funding.

Also, a Des Moines water utility has filed a lawsuit against several northwest Iowa counties over agricultural runoff that it says is contributing to pollution in the Raccoon River.

A three-eighths of 1 cent sales tax increase would produce $188 million in fiscal year 2018 and surpass $200 million in fiscal 2020, according to an analysis by the states nonpartisan fiscal estimating agency.

If financed, the trust fund would devote roughly 60 percent of its resources to water-quality programs, coalition members said.

Coalition member said Monday they are more optimistic than ever that they can convince the governor and state lawmakers to finance the trust fund, despite previous opposition to a sales tax increase.

Kirk Leeds, CEO of the Iowa Soybean Association, pointed to the 2015 state gas tax increase that was enacted in order to fill a gap in road and bridge construction funding.

I think its also clear that within the current resources of the Iowa Legislature, we do not have a way to dedicate long-term funding to water-quality efforts, Leeds said. We need to make those investments, so we will engage in that political conversation with the governor and with legislative leaders.
Sirens wailed Sunday afternoon as a crowd gathered to see emergency responders and vehicles travel from Rock Island to Davenport.

But no accident was involved. This time, a crowd waiving U.S. flags cheered as the vehicles and responders paraded during the Modern Woodmen of Americas Be an Everyday Hero tribute to first responders, military members and others who serve the Quad-City community every day.

In observance of the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Modern Woodmen of America, which is a member-owned fraternal financial services organization with more than 750,000 members, presented the event that culminated with the free tribute in Modern Woodmen Park.

Among the responders on hand was Davenport Fire Department District Chief Neil Gainey. He in particular remembers the great loss of emergency services personnel that day.

"I was work the day that it happened, he said. It was quite a shock to run to the TV and watch it unfold.

Thom Scheetz, director of operations for MedForce, was working in the Bettendorf Fire Department that morning. It was disheartening, but there also was a sense of pride in seeing your brethren doing what they were doing, he said. He thinks local responders would have reacted the same way.

The march began at Modern Woodmens PMD Center, 2015 2nd Ave., Rock Island, and crossed the Centennial Bridge. In the park, numerous activities included safety-awareness demonstrations, emergency-vehicle tours and other family-friendly activities.

Hundreds lined the streets and the bridge, with many supporters waving miniature U.S. flags that local Modern Woodmen youth service club members distributed along the route.

What a tremendous show of support for our first responders, Davenport Mayor Frank Klipsch said. The event was dedicated not only to those in various department but also to the citizens they represent.

Its quite an honor to be here and to see all these people supporting us, said Rock Island Police Chief Jeff Venhuizen, who walked the parade route. Im impressed at how big this event was.

A hero recognition included the unfurling of a giant U.S. flag, carried by Modern Woodmen representatives and family members, on the field during the national anthem.

Sharon Snawerdt of Blue Grass, manager of corporate communications for Modern Woodmen, watched proudly. Modern Woodmen wanted to honor those who serve and have served, especially responders who are here every day to protect us, she said.

Bill Churchill, of Davenport, a Vietnam veteran who served in the U.S. Army and a retired teacher, came to the event to support for police and firefighters who go out and put their lives on the line every day.

When you serve in the military, that American flag takes on a special meaning, he said.

A Hometown Hero award ceremony recognized Dawn, Davenports newest K-9 officer (purchased with funds raised from Modern Woodmen employees and a contribution from Lujacks NorthPark Auto Plaza), along with Davenport police Chief Paul Sikorski.
The grandmother of a Muscatine woman who was fatally shot will remember her granddaughter as always smiling and busy making other people smile.

Crystle Mychelle Hunter, 19, of Muscatine, was shot Aug. 17 in a drive-by shooting while she was visiting family and friends in Calumet City, Illinois, just south of Chicago. She died early the next morning.

Sandra Summer Curtis, of Oklahoma City, said her granddaughter was sitting in a car with a friend in front of her fathers house when the drive-by shooting occurred. The friend, who was driving, drove to a nearby gas station to get help, but it was too late for (Hunter), Curtis said.

It didnt matter what kind of a day she was having," Curtis said of her granddaughter. "She was always smiling and busy making other people smile. She would go out of her way to help others.

She also loved children, Curtis said.

Hunter graduated from Muscatine High School in 2014. A plaque and tree will be dedicated in her honor at Discovery Park.

Hunter had attended Muscatine Community College and wanted to be a social worker, Curtis said. She had played softball and volleyball when she was younger, Curtis said.

Curtis added that her granddaughters friend is recovering at home, and that the shooting remains under investigation. A media release from Calumet City police will be available Monday, according to a police officer there.

Hunter's funeral and burial were Sept. 2 in Chicago.
Good afternoon, Quad-Cities. Here is your National Weather Service forecast.

This afternoon will be sunny with a high near 82 degrees. South winds will be around 15 mph with gusts as high as 20 mph.

Tonight there is a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 4 a.m. Skies will be partly cloudy with a low around 62 degrees.

Tuesday there is a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms mainly after 1 p.m. Skies will be mostly cloudy with a high near 80 degrees.

Tuesday night there is a 40 percent chance of showers with thunderstorms also possible after 1 a.m. Skies will be cloudy with a low around 59 degrees.

Worker allegedly steals from boss  one penny at a time

Talk about penny pinching: A Pennsylvania man is accused of stealing about 300,000 pennies from his employer.

Police in Taylor, just outside Scranton, have charged 34-year-old Robert Napolitan with burglary and related offenses. He's accused of taking a steel drum filled with $3,000 worth of pennies from Pyne Freight Lines, where he worked as a mechanic.

A criminal complaint says he loaded the 1,600-pound drum onto a hand truck at the company building Monday and rolled it to his Jeep. Police say the company owner used the drum like an enormous spare change jar for his pennies.

Tracks through the dust and a trail of pennies marked his path. Police searched his Jeep and found pennies underneath the seats and floor mats.

Police say he admitted to taking the drum. Napolitan was jailed in Lackawanna County in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Trump leads Clinton by 1 percentage point in new Iowa poll

Donald Trump is leading Hillary Clinton by the slimmest of margins in Iowa, according to the inaugural poll from a partnership between an Iowa college and a research firm.

The GOP nominee has a 43 percent to 42 percent lead over his Democratic rival in the first Simpson College/RABA poll. Read more.

Alan Jackson returns to the Quad-Cities Nov. 18

Country superstar Alan Jackson brings his Keepin' It Country Tour to the iWireless Center in Moline on Nov. 18. Rising star Lauren Alaina will be the special guest. Tickets go on sale at 11 a.m., Friday.

Tickets and information are available at the iWireless Center ticket office, all Ticketmaster locations, Ticketmaster.com, charge by phone at 800-745-3000, and by visiting www.alanjackson.com, where you can find information about Alan, his tour schedule, music and more. VIP tickets and packages are also available.

Jackson's 2016 tour is a continuation of his recent 25th anniversary celebration which found the superstar playing to sold-out crowds throughout 2015.

Special guest Lauren Alaina captured America's hearts when she appeared on Season 10 of American Idol. Recently Lauren released a self-titled five-song EP, the highly-anticipated follow-up to her No. 1 debuting first album Wildflower.

Check out this video of a woman who was hit by a catfish that fell from the sky.
Wasn't it just a few weeks ago that we were told that the presidential election was over?

It was so over that Hillary Clinton's staff eagerly anticipated measuring the White House drapes in anticipation of the Clinton Restoration.

And Donald Trump kept shooting his feet off with that stupid and vulgar mouth of his, until only the stumps remained.

Reduced in stature, bitter, he wiggled those stumps in anger, shrieking at the unfairness of American journalism, a billionaire Trumplestiltskin going down.

His political carcass was to be hauled off to some rendering plant, his bones to be boiled down for cosmetics for suburban independent women and for hair care products for those establishment Republican suits and the war party neo-cons who now back Clinton.

All Hillary had to do to win was protect her double-digit polling lead, and play prevent defense and avoid a formal news conference where she'd be asked tough questions.

You can see it, can't you, like a summer dream.

After her election, she's sitting on a big comfy pillow on her royal barge "The Wall Street" as it floats down the Potomac, while a great orchestra plays Handel's "Water Music" and she and Bill smile and wave, Queen Georgiana and the First Laddie with the federal hammer in their hands.

And Hillary's jesters in the Department of Justice, resplendent in harlequin costumes and curly toed boots, perform intricate medieval egg dances for the wonderment of the crowds, spilling not one single golden summer yolk.

But then summer did what summers do, and Labor Day passed, and reality entered into things doing what reality does, with teeth.

It bites.

And now a new CNN poll shows the race tightening, at least nationally, with Trump holding a thin two-point lead.

So it's not over? This race has tightened?

Are the Democrats looking for a parking spot in Panic City? Not necessarily. But Democrats and establishment Republicans who loathe Trump might be chewing off a few fingernails.

Clinton's campaign is doing a remarkably fine job taking Trump's worst quotes and using them against him in devastating campaign spots in the battleground states. And she's doing well in those states where the Electoral College counts most in presidential elections. If the election were held today, Mrs. Clinton would most probably win.

But elections are about momentum, and that momentum could be turning Trump's way, and that's her problem, as these two disliked, flawed candidates wage a battle to define the future of America.

Perhaps that's truly why this race is so brutal, so angry, and why the worried American corporatist establishment cleaves to Hillary as Donald plays the insurgent in this insurgent year.

Borders and culture have been in play, and we limp on with a ridiculously low 1 percent economic growth rate, a number better suited for some Third World banana republic than the United States of America.

We have an election with the establishment and Hillary on one side and Donald on the other, backed by the unemployed working class that once formed the backbone of the Democratic Party, before they were kicked to the margins in the new globalism and mocked as unlettered racists by the pundits.

Is it possible not to like Trump, yet also to loathe Clinton and the history of the Clintons and their lies and their parsing language and their contempt for the law, and worry what they'll do to the country? I think so.

But the way this plays out in the media, any slight nod toward Trump sets you up to be branded, angrily and publicly, as a bigot. It is a formulation that drives clicks for the legion of pro-Hillary writers, and it serves the Democrats well, but it also smacks of something else:

Of being herded by cowboys with cattle prods at the stockyards. And pushed too far, there could be a backlash in the chutes.

Clinton has many advantages. She's got Wall Street, not only its millions but its leverage. She has the Republican establishment that fears a Trump election will push it away from the great federal table (or trough).

A great advantage is that American media has openly waged war on her behalf. She has Hollywood magicians and the hedge fund boys, and Black Lives Matter and suburban moderate moms.

How can they all live happily together under the Hillary umbrella? They can't, not for long. It's an impossible coalition for Clinton to hold. But it won't break until after the elections in November.

So what happened to Hillary? How could it be so close?

Here's what happened. Hillary happened to Hillary.

Her problem is that she has always been Hillary Clinton, understood to be a liar, the Democratic Nixon in pantsuits.

And Americans were reminded again of what the Clintons are really about, with the release before the Labor Day weekend of the FBI report about her emails when she was secretary of state:

Americans were reminded of her wheedling, the lies, her inability to recall when asked by the FBI. The lost phones and iPads -- some smashed by a hammer. And those hundreds of State Department workers who kept their mouths shut about what she did, like patronage hacks at some machine-run City Hall, and her staff's deletion of thousands of emails under subpoena.

That's why the race has tightened. Americans were reminded about the true Hillary, and she can't have that.

And if you thought it was ugly before, just wait.
The Republicans have spent close to $8 million dollars of taxpayer money on a witch hunt against Hillary Clinton. They claim to be so indignant over her having a private email server and the death of four people in Benghazi.

In 2007, according to the Washington Week website, Congress asked the George W. Bush administration for all of their emails regarding the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. The attorney general informed Congress he could not produce them because they were sent on a private, illegal, non-governmental server, run by none other than the Republican National Committee, and many had been deleted.

Two years later, it was revealed that as many as 22 million emails had been erased from that private, illegal server. Apparently, Republicans consider themselves above the law, and its not a crime for them, but it is for Hillary Clinton and she is labeled a criminal.

The Republicans have shown no indignation whatsoever over the report in 2007 about the war they started by lying to the whole world about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Their war cost the lives of over 6,800 servicemen and women, over 32,000 wounded. Twenty veterans a day commit suicide. In 2014, over 7,400 veterans took their own lives.

A report in 2011 says the war in Iraq and Afghanistan will cost the American taxpayers as much as $6 trillion dollars. All the lives lost and ruined, and all the money spent over nothing more than lies by a power-hungry Republican administration.

Merle Wilson

Jesup, Iowa
SPRINGFIELD  Independent congressional candidate David Gill is asking a federal appeals court to reconsider its decision to halt temporarily a lower courts order that his name should appear on the Nov. 8 ballot in the 13th Congressional District.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order Friday blocking the earlier decision from U.S. District Judge Sue Myerscough until the appeal is settled. She ruled last month that the Illinois State Board of Elections should allow Gill to appear on the ballot even though he didnt gather the required number of signatures on his nominating petitions. The Illinois Attorney Generals Office, which is representing the elections board, appealed Myerscoughs decision.

After Gill, a Bloomington physician who previously ran for Congress four times as a Democrat, collected 8,593 of the 10,754 valid signatures he needed to earn a ballot spot, he challenged the requirement in federal court. He argues that its unconstitutional because its out of line with the requirements for major party candidates. Gills would-be opponents, U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, and Democratic challenger Mark Wicklund of Decatur each had to collect fewer than 740 signatures.

While Myerscough didnt rule on the merits of Gills argument, she issued her Aug. 25 ruling because she said the candidate showed that he and his supporters would be irreparably harmed if he was left off the ballot. The elections board certified the ballot the next day with Gills name on it.

In its appeal, the Attorney Generals Office argued that the signature requirement is valid because the state has an interest in preventing ballot overcrowding and potential voter confusion. Allowing judges to override signature requirements would sow uncertainty over the whole process, the state argues.

The Attorney Generals Office declined to comment on the appellate courts order.

Gills attorneys are asking the full 7th Circuit to vacate Fridays order and hear the case quickly because the temporary decision could effectively settle the matter before all the facts are heard. Local election authorities are required to have absentee ballots ready to be mailed to military and overseas voters by Sept. 23.

Gill said he was disappointed, but not surprised, by the appellate courts order.

I was very disappointed, particularly for the voters in the district, Gill said. I think that they deserve to have as many options as possible, and weve worked very hard to provide them with an option other than the two major party candidates. I think that most voters have come to recognize that neither of the major parties is looking out for their benefit.

The appellate courts order is further evidence of how the system is rigged against independent candidates, he said.

Meanwhile, the elections board is scheduled to hold a hearing Monday on objections to Gills nominating petitions.

Some of the objections former Macon County Republican Party Chairman Jerry Stocks filed against Gills petitions were put on hold after it was determined that he had failed to collect enough signatures. After Myerscoughs ruling, however, the board decided to allow those matters to proceed.
As Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Superfund, Waste Management and Regulatory Oversight, my job is to oversee federal agencies that promulgate some of the most egregious and harmful regulations. With more than 1 million regulations on the books today and a president who has issued more regulations than any previous administration, our subcommittee has highlighted the impact these regulations are having on everyday Americans.

Recently, I chaired a field hearing in Rapid City which focused on how regulations coming from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) are affecting private citizens ability to utilize and develop their land. During the hearing, we found that these agencies are not necessarily communicating with the public when they decide to issue new regulations, nor are they taking public comments into account when drafting new rules.

At our field hearing, we heard from several witnesses about the difficulty and confusion landowners may face in complying with the Waters of the U.S. rule (WOTUS). In 2015, the EPA moved forward with finalizing WOTUS, which would greatly expand the definition of a navigable waterway under the Clean Water Act, giving the EPA unprecedented authority over significant inland water bodies not currently subject to EPA jurisdiction. This rule creates significant hurdles to normal agricultural operations, yet the EPA appears to have ignored concerns of farmers, ranchers, agriculture groups, the Small Business Administration and numerous state governors and attorneys general who oppose it.

Although the Sixth Circuit Court issued a nationwide stay on the rule, we have heard evidence that the U.S. Army Corps may be moving forward with implementing WOTUS. However, the U.S. court system should not be the primary backstop against overly-burdensome rules. If the EPA works more closely with landowners, states and agriculture groups throughout the rulemaking process, the end result would be better regulations that minimize the impact and costs on private landowners and American businesses.

We also heard from FWS on the Endangered Species Act during our field hearing. There are currently 1,226 species listed as endangered and 367 listed as threatened in the United States under the Endangered Species Act, and approximately half of the listed species have 80 percent of their habitat on private land. While the FWS attempts to work with landowners to encourage voluntary species management and conservation, the Endangered Species Act continues to impede landowners abilities to utilize and develop their land by imposing significant restrictions on what landowners can do on their own property.

Make no mistake, I understand that rules and regulations have a place in society. My concern lies with overbearing, burdensome rules and regulations that are promulgated by unelected bureaucrats who fail to fully consider local impacts before enacting rules. Each year, Americans pay nearly $1.9 trillion to comply with regulations, far more than the $1.4 trillion we pay in individual income taxes on April 15. As we heard during the field hearing in Rapid City, the high cost of complying with these regulations is hurting our economy and limiting the productivity of our farmers, ranchers and landowners who make a living on the land. I will continue working in my oversight capacity to identify and mitigate the negative effects of overly-burdensome regulations on our ag community.
The annual Sturgis Ag Appreciation Banquet will be Saturday, Sept. 17 at the Sturgis Community Center, 1401 Lazelle St. The event begins with a 5 p.m. social. Dinner begins at 6:30 p.m.

As the name implies, the Ag Appreciation Banquet is a chance for Sturgis area businesses to thank ranchers for their business and for role they play in feeding the world. South Dakota has just over 850,000 residents and four times as many cattle as people, according to recent statistics.

Meade County is tops in production of beef cattle in South Dakota. So it's no surprise that the festivities include a meal featuring  of course, beef  (and pork), fellowship and a number of giveaways from local businesses.

Tickets are available from the Sturgis Area Chamber of Commerce, 2040 Junction Ave. in Sturgis. Tickets are free and courtesy of local businesses. For more information, call the chamber at 605-347-2556.
Russian Supreme Court upholds cancellation of businessman Ismailovs bankruptcy

MOSCOW, September 12 (RAPSI)  Russias Supreme Court has upheld rulings of lower courts cancelling bankruptcy of prominent Russian businessman Ismailov, according to court records.

The court has dismissed an appeal filed by Ismailov who asked to transfer the case to the courts economy board for further review.

In December 2015 the Moscow Region Commercial Court declared Ismailov bankrupt, according to the claim of a Russian citizen Boris Zubkov. The court ruled to begin restructuration of Ismailovs property but the Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals cancelled this ruling based on lack of evidence for transfer of money from Zubkov to Ismailov. The Moscow District Commercial Court has upheld the courts decision cancelling bankruptcy procedure.

Telman Ismailov, who controls AST Group and is one of Russias richest men, clashed with law enforcement authorities in 2009 over the Cherkizovsky outdoor market, which evolved from a mere flea market into an industrial-scale distribution hub for Chinese imports during the oil boom. The market was closed after sanitary authorities found major violations.

Ismailovs overall debt to all creditors is estimated to be 20 billion rubles ($266 million).
Russian regional ex-minister gets 7.5 years in prison for corruption

MOSCOW, September 12 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko)  A court in Stavropol, a city in southwestern Russia, has found former Education Minister of the region, Vasily Lyamin, guilty of taking a bribe and sentenced him to 7.5 years in prison, the local Investigative Committees investigations directorate announced on its website on Monday.

Additionally, Lyamin has been fined 10 million rubles ($156,000), the statement reads.

According to investigation, Lyamin demanded 1 million rubles ($15,600) from a head of the Kislovodsk State Polytechnic for security of tenure. Moreover, investigators claim that he promised the college head for illegal monetary reward not to hold him accountable if violations are found.

He was arrested by the Federal Security Services (FSB) officers immediately after receiving the bribe.
BILLINGS  On Sept. 1, The Rev. Dr. Karen Oliveto began her tenure as bishop of the Mountain Sky Area of the United Methodist Church, which includes Montana.

Oliveto, 58, is the first openly gay pastor in the denomination to hold the leadership post in the second-largest mainline denomination in the United States.

She will take part in an installation service Saturday at the Bozeman United Methodist Church. Then, based in Denver, she will begin her first four-year term working with churches in Montana, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and a sliver of Idaho.

Those in the Western Jurisdictional Conference who elected her in July simply say she was the best person for the job. But they also realize her election is a watershed moment for the UMC.

The liberal side of the denomination calls her election the culmination of a hard-fought battle to fully include LGBTQ people in the life of the denomination. Conservatives are disappointed in both the action and its timing, saying it violates the UMCs governing policies.

One thing most agree on is that her election could be one more step toward schism in a denomination that finds it increasingly difficult to call itself the United Methodist Church.

I think its going to be very difficult for the church to stay together because the theological divide is so deep and so wide, said the Rev. Tom Lambrecht, vice president and general manager of Texas-based Good News. The unofficial evangelical United Methodist organization strives to keep the UMC faithful to the traditional understanding of Scripture.

***

Although the Book of Discipline, the UMCs law book, considers all people of sacred worth, it calls the practice of homosexuality incompatible with Christian teaching. It also says that self-avowed homosexuals are not to be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers or appointed to serve in the United Methodist Church.

The logical conclusion, opponents to Olivetos election say, is if gay people in committed relationships cant be ordained as clergy, they cant be elected as bishops. Those in favor say its time for that to change.

Previously Oliveto served as senior pastor of the progressive 11,000-member Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco. She is the first woman to serve as senior pastor of one of the 100 largest UMC churches.

It was tough breaking that stained-glass ceiling," Oliveto said in a recent interview in Billings.

Oliveto is no stranger to standing up for the rights of others. As pastor of Bethany United Methodist Church in San Francisco, she learned that the Gospel demands us to take risks on behalf of Gods beloved community.

At Bethany, she began to advocate on behalf of the homeless population. She was willing to do whatever it took to help the most vulnerable people, including getting arrested if that was required.

If you want street credibility, you better be willing to show you stand up for something, Oliveto said. If were not willing to risk, are we being faithful?

Oliveto stood up in other ways. In 1996, during the height of the AIDS epidemic, she and her congregation agreed to be a distribution site for medical marijuana, even though it was illegal. They also committed to being a place of compassion for those who came to buy the drug.

What would Jesus ask of us? Oliveto said. Jesus always sought to relieve suffering.

The decision radically changed the congregation, she said, and caused them to think more boldly about who God was calling them to be.

In 2004, when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom declared marriages of gay and lesbian couples legal, Oliveto presided over nine marriage ceremonies for couples she pastored.

A complaint was filed with the denominations Judicial Council over her actions from someone outside the church. It was eventually resolved.

Oliveto left the church and was recruited to teach at her alma mater, the Pacific School of Religion. She spent four years there.

Then she was hired as pastor of Glide Memorial Church, where she continued her advocacy work, partnering with the congregation to help people living in the margins. It was, at times, chaotic, crazy-making, she said, but she also saw the Holy Spirit work in the lives of people.

A candidate

When people started to approach her about the possibility of putting her name in as a candidate for bishop, Oliveto initially resisted, saying she didnt want to harm the church, herself or her relationship with Robin Ridenour, her wife since 2014. She also said fear was a factor.

Then at the 2016 General Conference in Portland in May, the legislative body of the denomination that meets every four years, Olivetos thinking began to shift. Maybe instead of causing harm, shed be bringing a gift to the conversation.

She woke up one morning at the conference and learned of the mass shooting at Pulse, the gay nightclub in Orlando. That moved her to act.

"It confirmed that this was the right thing at the right time," she said.

At the same time, she didn't want that to be the only reason for her candidacy.

"I'm not there as a single issue," Oliveto said. "I'm there to bring all of who I am, my passion for the Gospel, love of God, and my faithfulness of following Christ to this work."

At the general conference, where more than 800 delegates from the U.S. and around the world gathered, tensions were high as committees discussed the fraught issue of homosexuality.

Delegates eventually took the unusual step of asking the Council of Bishops to give guidance when it looked like any kind of agreement was impossible. A decision was made to put all debate on homosexuality on hold.

Instead, the delegates voted to allow the Council of Bishops to create the Commission on a Way Forward, representing all sides of the denomination, to scrutinize and possibly recommend revisions to the Book of Discipline related to human sexuality.

It was a way of trying to find a solution to the deep divisions within the church, Lambrecht said.

The commission was presented as an opportunity for the church to pause and allow us to pray together and try to discern the way forward, he said.

Fast action

But that pause didnt last long. Within a week, some jurisdictions in the denomination approved resolutions saying they would not comply with provisions of the Book of Discipline that discriminate against LBGTQ persons.

One conference ordained four openly gay clergy, and the California-Nevada and California-Pacific conferences endorsed two openly gay clergy as bishop candidates, including Oliveto.

Were disappointed and angry that the progressives did not give a chance for this commission to work out a way forward before taking precipitous action on their part, Lambrecht said.

Matt Berryman, executive director of the Reconciling Ministries Network, an organization that works to bring full inclusion to LGBTQ people in the denomination, saw things differently. He compared the struggle of the people he represents to the one that blacks confronted in the United States.

It depends on what side of the struggle you find yourself on, he said. For people living under oppression, the answer to that is fairly obvious: Youre stepping on my toe and it hurts.

For the past three years, Berryman said, the Chicago-based organization has led the charge for faithful rule breaking. If the churchs policies are intransigent and anti-gay, he said, there is no option than to take action to change them.

Weve been encouraging pastors and others toward biblical obedience, Berryman said. Do the right thing, no matter what the church is saying, and that has had a huge impact.

It has created a growing pressure, he said, for change in the Book of Discipline whose rules on homosexuality have been in place since 1972. He sees Oliveto's election as a culmination of their efforts.

"In some ways, we're moving to a climax in the story," Berryman said.

For the Rev. Jeremy Scott, Mountain Sky Area vital congregations developer, electing Oliveto at the Western Jurisdictional Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, in July was the right thing to do, but for a different reason.

I was looking for somebody with deep relevant and recent experience in the local church, and we need to have somebody who has a passion for making disciples, said Scott, who lives in Billings. And it was clear in our initial conversation that Bishop Karen checks both of those boxes."

Scott said the 100 delegates at the meeting approached the selection of a bishop with a high level of intentionality, taking a lot of time to get to know the nine candidates before making a decision.

Oliveto was elected on the 17th ballot, with 88 delegates voting for her and 12 abstaining. Scott believes if the delegates had used the excuse she was gay not to elect her, we would have been denying ourselves the best person for the job.

Split opinions

The delegates were fully cognizant that choosing Oliveto was groundbreaking. But Scott maintains that was never the priority.

The characterization that we got together and conspired to elect a token bishop is really disheartening, he said. No one who was actually there can claim that thats what we were actually doing.

Even if thats the case, Lambrecht said, Olivetos election still flies in the face of the denominations rules.

We have nothing personal against Karen Oliveto, shes evidently done good works of ministry over the years, he said. But we feel like she does not meet the qualifications necessary to serve our church.

Soon after Olivetos election, complaints were filed with the Judicial Council, the denominations highest judicial body, for a declaratory decision concerning same-sex church leaders. A decision isnt expected to be rendered until spring.

The tension over her election can be felt throughout the denomination, including in Billings, the Rev. Tim Hathaway said. The UMC prides itself in being a pluralistic church, with great diversity within the denomination, said Hathaway, pastor of First United Methodist Church in Billings.

So it is not surprising that some people are exceedingly thrilled about this, while others are grieving and find it very challenging, he said.

Lambrecht said his organization has heard from a number of churches in the Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone conferences who are at odds with Oliveto's election.

"I think that her election puts orthodox evangelicals in those areas in a real quandary," he said. "And I'm afraid that the actions that have been taken over the last several months are accelerating the membership decline."

A small movement within the denomination is also urging members to divert their tithe money from the Episcopal Fund, which supports the UMC's administration, and toward other areas of ministry.

Scott, who expects the Judicial Council to uphold Olivetos election, believes there is room in the denomination for disagreement.

We are the church of Hillary Clinton and George W. Bush, so the opportunity present in this election is to really remind ourselves of that and to embrace it and be OK with disagreeing about homosexuality, he said.

Beginning her service

Oliveto is focused on beginning her tenure as resident bishop in the Mountain Sky Area. Her first priority is to meet the people in the congregations she will serve.

She is keenly aware of the tension that exists in the denomination, and she welcomes the continuing discussion and debate.

We might not agree, but we dont have to agree, we just have to love, she said. And the measure of our faithfulness will be tested by our ability to love each other. And Im committed to being in love with the people Im serving.

Beyond the Judicial Councils decision, the selection is underway for members of the Commission on a Way Forward. An unprecedented special session of the General Conference will be called, possibly in 2018, once the commissions work is done.

Berryman is hopeful that the commission will start taking at least small steps toward more inclusiveness. Anything else, he said, would be a colossal failure.

Lambrecht thinks its more likely the body will come up with some kind of structural realignment to allow the more progressive and evangelical parts of the UMC to go their separate ways.

There might be some things we can continue to cooperate on, he said. But I think were going to need to create separate groups for the people who have heartfelt and sincere differences on theology.
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How Socialist State Power Would Handle the Louisiana Flood:

Confronting Disaster in the Struggle for a Communist World

September 12, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

A few questions to think about ...



People being rescued from flooded homes along the Tangipahoa River near Amite, Louisiana, August 13. (Photo: Ted Jackson/NOLA.com The Times-Picayune via AP) Volunteers pull a boat with a woman and young child as people evacuate their homes, Baton Rouge, August 13. (Photo: John Oubre/The Advocate via AP)

An urban area endures massive flooding that destroys over 100,000 homes. Legions of youth are unemployed, many of them eager for work. Yet those youths arent mobilized to put their energy and creativity into rebuilding the city. Why?

A month later, debris and stinking, rotting garbage remain in piles six feet high on countless streets in 100-degree heat. White property owners arm themselves against and threaten to shoot on sight (largely non-existent) looters supposedly bent on stealing their destroyed property, because the loss of this garbage will impact their claims on insurance companies. And everyone knows that when they say looters they mean Black youths who dont fit in.

Why should anyone accept this?

Waters engulf a region routinely soaked with heavy rains; urban and agricultural areas prone to flooding; a region filled with bayous, swamps, and rivers, bordered by one of the worlds largest rivers that has repeatedly flooded. In response, a patchwork, haphazard series of dams, levees, retention ponds, canals, and other measures provide an (often false) sense of security in some locales, but worsen the overall disaster by diverting it to other, nearby sites.

Why isnt there a systematic, centralized plan to deal with this situation in a way that preserves and protects human life and the delicate ecosystems in the region?

An area that has been the scene of centuries of brutal oppression of Black peopleenslavement and harsh labor on cotton plantations; 100 years of viciously enforced degradation and brutality called Jim Crow; decades of mass incarceration and police brutality, is devastated by a natural disaster. Once again, Black people, and areas where Black people live, are the most severely impacted. The response of the systems political leadership? "Thats just the way it goes."

But why is that the way it goes? What can be done to change that?

The Rain and the Flood

In mid July floodwaters engulfed Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana, and large rural and semi-rural areas around the city. At least 13 people were killed. Over 110,000 people have had to apply for housing assistance. As of September 1, the Baton Rouge Advocate reported that exactly one Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) trailer was in place to provide temporary housing.

Revolution recently wrote about some of the stories behind this floodthe heroism of many oppressed people, the crimes of this system and its police, the big questions of climate change, capitalism, and the future that this flood put before societyand the revolution that can solve this. (See The Louisiana Flood: A Natural Disaster, a Disastrous System).

God brought the rain, man made the flood. Numerous people in Baton Rouge have told us this or something similar. People are saying the rain was a natural phenomenon; the flood was caused by conscious decisions and actions taken by authorities. Its true that heavy summertime rain in southern Louisiana is not exactly news. Its also true that conscious decisions taken by political leaders worsened the catastrophe faced by many people.

But we need to dig deeper to get at the real causes of the massive flooding. Must severe natural events always have such devastating impact? How has the social order and structure imposed by capitalism-imperialism shaped the ways in which floods and other contingencies are prepared for (or not prepared for) and confronted? How are people mobilized to deal with such a large scale, life threatening event when it occurs; what is considered important to protect, what values and goals drive and organize how people move through such a situation?

A System that Blocks Human Potential



Authored by Bob Avakian, and adopted by the Central Committee of the RCP Do you know anyone elseany person or organizationthat has managed to bring forth an actual PLAN for a radically different society, in all its dimensions, and a CONSTITUTION to codify all this?  A different world IS possible  Check out and order online the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal). As described in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, production in this society would have three foundational guidelines: 1. Advancing the world revolution to uproot all exploitation and oppression and to emancipate all of humanity; 2. Meeting social need, creating a common material wealth that contributes to the all-around development of society and the individuals who make it up, and overcoming oppressive divisions between mental and manual labor, town and country, different regions and nationalities, and men and women; 3. Protecting, preserving, and enhancing the ecosystems and biodiversity of the planet for current and future generations.

All societies are organized in certain ways. As Bob Avakian wrote in Making Revolution and Emancipating Humanity, the most basic and essential of all human activity is the production and reproduction of the material requirements of life. BA continues that people dont do this any old way, but by becoming part of a definite set of relations of production. This means how individual people fit into the division of labor that exists in all of societywhether they work with their hands and backs or in mental work; picking tomatoes or stocking shelves at Walmart; even whether they can find work at all. It means how much of the products they receive in return for their work. And most of all it means whether or not they own the factories, mines, farmland, ships, etc.the means of production. And on this foundation a network of legal and political institutions, and ideas that correspond to those institutions, arises, and reinforces the existing relations of production.

In the system of capitalism-imperialism, millions of people in this country and literally billions worldwide engage in production that is tightly bound together, whether any of those particular individuals know it or not. This is socialized productionproduction that takes place most fundamentally not on the basis of individuals working alone (to make cars, grow foods, sew clothes, or produce anything else), but of countless particular people engaged in the worldwide processes of producing, mining, harvesting, packaging, shipping, and distributing the material goods of life.

But ownership of that production is not in the hands of those who labor to produce it. It is appropriated by a relative handful of peoplethe capitalistswho use it to amass their own obscene amounts of wealth, but even more to keep the entire process of exploitation going. This bedrock relation of capitalism runs through, influences, and shapes all the relations of capitalist society. It sets the limits and forms for how people think and view the world, and their own place in it. This process, or contradiction, of socialized production and private appropriation (ownership) results in the bitter impoverishment of billions of people worldwide, and the enrichment of a few.

Indications of what this means down on the ground are everywhere in Baton Rouge. The Mississippi river is filled 24-7-365 with tankers, cargo ships and barges carrying industrial and agricultural products to and from all parts of the world. ExxonMobils oil refinery is one of the worlds largest, and sprawls over an enormous area along the river in North Baton Rouge, sending toxins into the air, land, and water. Baton Rouge and the surrounding area is one of the poorest places in the U.S., and Louisiana has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, overwhelmingly because young Black men are incarcerated at a staggering pace.

One key expression of socialized production and private appropriation is that in capitalist societies, there is no conscious social planning to meet human need, to prepare and mobilize for emergencies, or to protect vital and diverse ecosystems. This is not an oversight. It is not mainly because of capitalist heartlessnessthough there is plenty of that to go around.

Many people are eager and willing to join together and act to help as many people as possible in a crisis like the Louisiana flooding. But the potential for that is held in check, channeled, and ultimately squashed by this system. As one man in Baton Rouge said to us, when the floods hit it was everyone for himself, and God for us all. It is still everyone for him (and her) self in the aftermath of the deluge.

While there is no godwhether for us all or notthere IS the system of capitalism running things, which is not for anyone besides its own continued functioning and expansion. At times of crisis (and in general) the big focus of the systems rulers is to maintain control, to keep people in place, to keep them passive, relying on the authorities and perhaps charity. They do NOT want people acting together with others independent of the authorities, raising their heads, asking questions, and forging unity. So in North Baton Rouge and other largely Black areas, no official rescue teams were seen for several crucial days when flood waters surged up to six feet deep. When they did appear it was to impose a curfew and prowl the streets of the oppressed.

A New State, Setting New Terms for Society

Things would be radically, completely different in the state made possible by revolution and envisioned in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America.(CNSRNA).This new state would have come into existence after the victory of an actual revolution: after the complete defeat and dismantling of the currently existing capitalist-imperialist state, in particular its armed forces of repression and the institutions that back them up: the military, the police, the national guard, the courts, the prisons and the penal system. An entirely new power would be in place, setting new terms for all of society and all the individuals in it.

Find out more about the revolution

Find out about BA, the leader of the revolution

This is possible because this state would be built on a foundation of public-state, not private ownership. Socialized production would be, increasingly, socially owned until, through continued revolutionization of society worldwide, communism is attained and the whole concept of ownership will become obsolete. That process of revolutionary transformation would open up entirely new vistas of possibilities for humanity.

A crisis such as the Louisiana flooding would be a big jolt in the new socialist society. Would the new society confront this crisis in a way that meets its urgency and doesnt take days to take shape, but also serves the advancement of the world revolution and the overall revolutionary transformation of society?

Meeting peoples needs in the new society means not only doing things differently but challenging, and transforming, how people think. As Bob Avakian wrote in his essay Three Alternative Worlds, How can the masses of people really take up the task of consciously changing the world if their outlook and their approach to the world remains what it is under this system? Its impossible, and this situation will simply reproduce the great inequalities in every sphere of society ...

Raising the Bottom Up

A basic principle of the CNSRNA and its approach to the economy is to take special measures to raise the bottom up. The CNSRNA states that This principle serves the crucial task of overcoming historic inequalities affecting the formerly oppressed nationalities, and other profound disparities in society. The whole of society will be mobilized to overcome these inequalities. Priorities in distribution of needed social goods and services (like health and housing) will be guided by this principle.

If anyone thinks this process will be smooth sailing in the aftermath of something like the flood in Baton Rouge, they are in for a rude awakening. There is a whole history and reality to the oppression of Black people in this country. As BAsics 1:1 states, There would be no United States as we now know it today without slavery. That is a simple and basic truth.

This oppressive legacy has left material and ideological scars, and they are as deep in Louisiana as anywhere in the country. Years of whiplashed enslavement along the river of dark dreams; a century of viciously enforced second class citizenship and no rights that a white man is bound to respect Jim Crow, with all the lynching and brutality that enforced it; institutional segregation and discrimination down to today that is barely distinguishable from the era of the 1950s. And an odious, hateful outlookvirulent racismthat has reinforced, justified, and perpetuated all this.

Raising the bottom up and working to overcome the historic inequalities left over from centuries of oppression of Black people will be official policy and not be up for grabs. But this will be sharply contested and contended.

Pre-publication PDF of this major work available here. Available Now



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The stakes will be very high. Struggles over questions like how to confront the sudden trauma of major flooding can lead to great leaps and advances in further overcoming the old, bourgeois economic and political relations and ways of thinking, and advancing on the revolutionary road. They can also lead to stagnation, even setbacks in the fight to revolutionize society and advance the world revolution, and strengthen the basis for capitalism to re-emerge.

There will be differing assessments of the situation, differing solutions offereda diversity of political outlooks, programs and tendencies which reflect and express economic and social relations of the old society. One very sharp question would likely bewhy should the policy of bottom up be applied when other areas also suffered extreme damage? What would it mean to apply that policy in the first place? Does this mean simply giving Black people preferential treatment like so-called affirmative action claims to do in capitalist society, or is it aimed at actually uprooting the legacy of oppression?

All this would be in the context of a revolutionary society and a socialist state that, while giving due emphasis to meeting the needs of the people and continuing to uproot remaining inequalities, gives fundamental priority to advancing the revolutionary struggle, and the final goal of communism, throughout the world. In that light, how would the goal of advancing the world revolution be met concretely in circumstances like a major flood? Wouldnt many people argue along lines similar to an argument often heard today: How can we help people around the world if we cant get our own situation straightened out?

Optimizing Resources

Another big question would center around how to optimize societys resources. There are never unlimited resources. There is never an ability to do whatever you want. Everything couldnt be rebuilt at once. The question of whether some places and things should be rebuilt or restored would almost certainly be sharply contended. Understanding all this is part of understanding the terms that objective conditions will set on socialist society, even as the conscious forces continually struggle to lead in transforming those conditions.

In a socialist society, preparations would be made in advance to minimize, in a planned and societal way, the potential impact of flooding and other foreseeable natural crises in different areas of the country. Steps would be taken that prepared for emergency responses to mobilize masses of people to ensure that the most basic needs of life were metfood, shelter, water, medical supplies and support. More than that, overall efforts would be made to minimize the long term possibility of potential flooding in southern Louisiana and the entire area up and down the Mississippi river.

This effort would consciously aim at implementing and concretely developing all three of the criteria cited above in the CNSRNA (see sidebar). It would draw on the knowledge, insight, and experiences of scientists and engineers, along with people from the affected areas. Housing that could withstand foreseeable potential crises would be systematically constructed. All this would be thrashed out through struggle, based on the overall guidelines of the three criteria. None of this is possible under capitalism. But it could, and would, be underway in a planned way, very quickly in the new society.

This intersects with the problem of the enormous destruction of the environment capitalism-imperialism has caused. Already, sections of the earth have been made uninhabitable. The likelihood of extreme weather conditions is intensifying. Hard decisions will have to be made about whether some areas can be saved for human habitation. Often these are areaslike South Louisianathat are home to large numbers of oppressed people. This will be debated out very broadly, on the basis of the broad principles and guidelines weve already talked about.

A Moving Target

The orientation of solid core with a lot of elasticity will be at the heart of how communists approach all challenges in the new socialist society. It will also be part of the cohering political glue of society.

Concerning the orientation and objectives of the new society, the CNSRNA states that the principle of solid core, with a lot of elasticity must be applied. This means that, on the one hand, there must be a continually expanding force in society, with the revolutionary communist party as its leading element, which is firmly convinced of the need to advance to communism and deeply committed to carrying forward this struggle, through all the difficulties and obstacles; and, on the basis of and at the same time as continually strengthening this solid core, there must be provision and scope for a wide diversity of thinking and activity, among people throughout society, going off in many directions, grappling and experimenting with many diverse ideas and programs and fields of endeavorand once again all this must be embraced by the vanguard party and the solid core in an overall sense and enabled to contribute, through many divergent paths to the advance toward the goal of communism.

BAs breakthrough understanding of solid core with a lot of elasticity is a central part of the advance in epistemology that runs through all dimensions of his New Synthesis. It is not just a theoretical abstraction, a good idea. It is in fact a very good ideaand more to the point it is profoundly, scientifically moored in material reality in all its wild conflict and turbulence. It scientifically reflects and concentrates the actual material relations of all of society, a reality communists are seeking to transform.

Advancing through any natural disaster or social crisis would not be simple or easy in a socialist society. But without a scientific understanding grounded in Bob Avakians new synthesis of communism and leadership firmly proceeding from that, there is no way anything positive for humanitys emancipation can come out of it.

So, think again about those questions at the beginning of this article. Things dont have to be that way. Another world is not only necessaryanother world is possible. We need revolution as soon as possible to get to that world.

For full coverage and the current issue of REVOLUTION click here
Minister for Foreign Affairs Prakash Sharan Mahat with Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj, in New Delhi, India, on Monday, September 12, 2016. Photo Courtesy: MEA India

Kathmandu, Nepal: Minister for Foreign Affairs Prakash Sharan Mahat met his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj in Delhi of India on Monday and discussed on ranges of issues related to the bilateral relations including the upcoming visit of the Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

During the meeting the duo discussed on ranges of issues including the agendas of the Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahals upcoming India visit.

As Prime Minister Dahal is going to leave for India on Thursday for three day official visit, Minister Dr. Mahat had left for Delhi on Sunday with the aim to make necessary grounds for the high-level visit.

Likewise, the foreign ministers duo of India and Nepal have also fixed tentative schedule of the meeting between Prime Minister Dahal and Indian leaders including his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.

It is said that Prime Minister Dahal would hold talks with Indian PM Modi on September 16. Likewise, he would also call on Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and other Indian ministers following the meeting with Prime Minister Modi.

Following the meeting between the foreign ministers of both the country, Indian Ministry of External Affairs issued a press release on Monday stating that the visit of the Prime Minister of Nepal will provide an opportunity for both sides to discuss issues of mutual interest and concern, as well as seek ways to strengthen the age old, close and friendly ties between the two countries in diverse sectors.

Both the Ministers held wide ranging of talks on 12 September 2016 on issues of mutual interest, and covering the entire gamut of bilateral relations, including the upcoming high-level exchanges between the two countries, reads the statement.

Both sides reiterated their commitment to further strengthen and deepen age-old, close and friendly ties in diverse sectors such as trade and mutual investments, defense and security, economic and development partnership, infrastructure development, energy and water resources, and forging connectivity to facilitate movement of goods and services, people and ideas, the press release states further.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Hua Chunying, speaks with journalists at a regular press briefing in Beijing, on Monday, September 12, 2016. Photo: FMPRC

Kathmandu, Nepal: Neighboring China has made clear that President Xi Jinpings purported Nepal visit has not been cancelled. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has on Monday made clear to this effect.

During a regular press conference in Beijing on Monday, the Chinese Foreign Ministrys spokesperson, Hua Chunying, told the reporters that China and Nepal were communicating through diplomatic channels for the high-level visit. However, she did not mention even the tentative timeframe of the high-level visit.

There was a speculation that Chinese President Xi Jinpings purported Nepal visit has been canceled due to the lack of preparedness on the Nepali side. Some media had made headlines referring to the diplomatic sources.

Following the speculations, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Krishna Bahadur Mahara was sent to Tibet of China on Saturday with the aim to convince the Chinese officials to guarantee the Chinese Presidents Nepal visit.

With the assurance from the Chinese side, it is expected that Chinese president Xi would visit Nepal in October, just before or after the BRICS Summit that is going to be held in India.
Young roster has high hopes for future. Only four seniors suited up.
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I know I may have said this before but I used to think that a school was only as good as the three-legged stool that it is - parents, teachers/staff and principal. I soon learned that without a good principal, you might not ever want to sit on that stool. I have also often wondered if Seattle Schools had just bad luck/poor judgment about principals or if other districts have the same kind of churn. And principals aren't the same category as teachers. They don't have a union per se but in SPS, they have their own org, PASS (Principals Association of Seattle Schools). They oversee hundreds of students, not a single class. They have to juggle multiple balls of budget, discipline, curriculum and governance of a staff. That plus make parents and students feel good about the school. It was also an interesting fact for Seattle Schools that only until recently, they had three principals who had all graduated from the school that they now oversaw. That was Martin Floe at Ingraham High
Polish archaeologists will look Slavic fortress in Morocco

Archaeologists from Szczecin and Poznan are preparing for the October expedition in search of a Slavic fortress in Morocco. Scientists want to find Qarjat as-Saqaliba, the fortified settlement founded by the rebel Slavic slaves at the turn of IX and X centuries.

The search will cover the area of the Rif mountains, where at the turn of the IX and X centuries was the kingdom of Nekor - said in an interview with PAP chief scientist of the expedition, Dr. Wojciech Filipowiak.

"The dynasty Banu Salih used a guard made of Slavic slaves. The journey of prisoners often started in the Baltic trade centres such as Wolin and Szczecin. When the guards revolted, they were driven from the capital and built the mountain fortress Qarjat as-Saqaliba, which translate as the village of Slavs" - he told PAP.

He added that "Al-Bakri, Arab historian of the eleventh century, in the +Book of roads and kingdoms+ was the only to describe the Slavic fortified settlement in the north of Morocco. The book also contains first mention of the country of Mieszko".

"In Morocco, we plan to visit museums in Tetouan, Fez and Rabat, to see the original archaeological material from before a thousand years. Then we will go to the Rif Mountains. Based on maps, place names, topography, we will look for suitable places where the fortress could be located. We also count on contacts with locals" - explained Filipowiak.

"If we combine linguistic, archaeological and ethnographic methods, we have a shot at finding traces of the Slavic fortress. Do not look for an analogy with the discovery of Troy by Heinrich Schliemann, but if we join forces of these disciplines, the odds get better" - he said.

In his opinion, "this story is a big clamp fastening the Slavic world of the early Middle Ages". "On the one hand, Wolin and an important trading post on the map of the then Europe, on the other, a Slavic fortress, founded by slaves in the Moroccan mountains" - emphasised Filipowiak.

"So far, in the Rif mountains Moroccan scientists conducted only surface research" - said in an interview with PAP the expedition scientific supervisor, Africanist Prof. Ryszard Vorbrich.

"During our trip in October this year we plan to select locations, in which in the future we will begin detailed archaeological search. According to the chronicle, the Slavs built a village not far from the capital of the Sultanate. Today it is a small village Mnoud Nekkour on the river Oued Nekor . We wonder how far could the Slavic settlement be built. I believe that this should be less than half a day\'s journey, but it could be a little farther" - he added.

The search in Morocco will be preceded by visits of scientists in archives and libraries in Aix-en-Provence, France. In Seville, Spain, historians and archaeologists will consult with Prof. Ahmed Tahiri, one of the greatest authorities on the Emirate of Nekor.

Vorbrich added that Polish researchers were counting on the help of specialists from the Moroccan research centres, particularly linguists interested in archaic Arabic language, as well as the Berber language.

"If our search project contributes even a little to supplementing the knowledge of the history of Morocco and the past of Slavs, it will be a big success" - noted Vorbrich.

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland

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The early '90s were a magical time for independent cinema.

There has always been a lot of talk about how American independent cinema became a major cultural force during those years. Books like Spike, Mike, Slackers, & Dykes focused on the renaissance that brought filmmakers like Jim Jarmusch, Kevin Smith, and Spike Lee down from the film festival stratosphere and into the popular consciousness. However, similar breakouts were happening all around the world, and one of the most potent films of the decade was Lee Tamahori's story of a dysfunctional modern Maori family, Once Were Warriors.

In discussing this film with friends and colleagues over the last few weeks, the general consensus was that it was a powerful film for its time, but it seems to have spoken more to angry youth than resigned adulthood, and I can see why. This was a film that I often saw in the previews before tapes that I rented in high school, but for some reason never checked out on my own. I'm not sure why it never went beyond peripheral awareness for me, but I can imagine that my 15-year-old self would've eaten it up.

This is the story of Beth Heke (Rena Owen) and her family. She is a mother of three, a wife, and one tough broad to boot. Her husband, Jake (Temuera Morrison), is a brawny, small-minded savage who doesn't like to think things through, and resorts to violence before reason to solve his problems. Beth struggles to keep her family together as one by one they fall apart: one son in jail, another in a gang, and a daughter who becomes the victim of sexual violence that no one can stop all threaten - and occasionally succeed - to tear them to shreds.

Before this film there hadn't been any major movie projects that focused on the indigenous people of New Zealand in any kind of dramatic fashion. Once Were Warriors addresses the isolation that plagues many indigenous populations around the world when their colonizers leave them behind in the name of progress. Tribal cultures and customs are forgotten or misidentified as archaic reminders of a savage past. New economies build infrastructure without an interest in maintaining a working population that doesn't fit the new demographic. But worst of all, these pressures all mount in public only to be unleashed in private, creating a resentful community that doesn't know how to express itself.

Obviously, not all tribal indigenous communities are havens for violence, but we in the USA have been no better at acknowledging and respecting our indigenous peoples than anyone else. In fact, in many cases, we are worse. Constant disrespect for land promised to tribal communities lead to protests like the one going on right this minute regarding the building of an oil pipeline through Sioux land. That's just one instance of the disrespect that marginalizes a community. Once Were Warriors puts a face on the struggle that happens behind closed doors, and the revolution that must take place, one family at a time.

Lee Tamahori's film may strike viewers today as heavy-handed, and that's certainly a fair criticism. It's still a powerful experience, however, and a look into a world that not many get to see.

The Disc

Once Were Warriors is my first opportunity to check out Film Movement's new line of Blu-ray releases, and if this is what we can expect from the Film Movement Classics collection, I'm a happy camper. This is undoubtedly the best Once Were Warriors has ever looked on home video. The film has been cleaned up and looks like it could've been shot yesterday. This new transfer has a few specks, but nothing that takes you out of the experience. The opening credits are oddly windowboxed (black borders on all four sides), but that goes away after the credits are over. It's a wonderful presentation that allows the film to speak for itself.

There are two extras included with this set, one on the disc and another in printed form. First there is a 12-minute vintage featurette that talks to the pincipal cast and crew about the production and how amazing it is that a film is taking on this material. On the printed side there is a six-page essay documenting the film's history and cultural impact by New Zealand journalist Peter Calder that mankes for very enlightening reading.

This is a great disc. Buy it.
Curated by Peter Kuplowsky, a festival programmer who has contributed to this site in the past, the 41 short films that will screen during the upcoming Fantastic Fest sound ... fantastic.

It feels like cheating to use that word, but it's an accurate way to describe what's been programmed. Although I am by no means an expert on short films, it's impossible not to be impressed by what's been assembled from around the world. It's not just the expected bloody horror items, either, but a wild melange of influences and inspirations that should play out in very unexpected -- and short! -- bursts of madness.

Here's the official statement provided by the festival:

Fantastic Fest is excited to announce the short film line up for the 12th edition of Fantastic Fest, which runs September 22 - September 29, 2016 at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, TX.



Once more, North America's largest genre festival has gathered together a diverse range of the best and brightest, as well as the scariest and strangest, short-subject genre films across three distinct programming sidebars and a dozen pre-feature presentations.



Curated by veteran festival programmer Peter Kuplowsky, the 41 film lineup includes the US Premiere of a new Cartoon Network series (SUMMER CAMP ISLAND), an innovative take on the zombie sub-genre featuring a deaf cast (DAWN OF THE DEAF) and the return of the SHORTS WITH LEGS sidebar, which hosts and champions the unconventional and the eccentric, including the North American premiere of a new work from cult animator Sawako Kabuki (NOU NEN FEAT.UTAE). "Not only am I thrilled with the quality of this year's lineup, but I am also really happy with how diverse the roster is as well - there's a plethora of voices, both emerging and established, from all over the world." said Kuplowsky.



The complete lineup, divided by program, is as follows:



FANTASTIC SHORTS



This year's potpourri of short subjects once more run the gamut of fantastic cinema, from the funny to the freaky, from the emotionally affective to the poetic and introspective. Starting with a diverse assembly of animation that ranges from creepy to adorable, the parade of comic and dramatic live-action productions that follow include webslinger-inspired wrestlers, unusual vitamins, the benefits of a golden shower and the dangers of post-plastic surgery karaoke. You know, something for everyone.



THE ABSENCE OF EDDIE TABLE (pictured at top)

Norway, 2016

US Premiere, 12 min

Director: Rune Spaans

Love and leeches are the results of a wrong turn in a creepy forest in this immaculate animated misadventure penned by famed cartoonist David Cooper, creator of the titular cult character.



CLARA'S RAGE

Mexico, 2016

North American Premiere, 21 min

Director: Michelle Garza Cervera

A bite from a rabid dog condemns a woman to a claustrophobic cabin in this deftly directed dark drama that begins with beautiful charcoal animation before slipping into eerie live action. As her husband hunts the animal and its savage brethren, the woman grows to resent her imposed seclusion and becomes desperate to escape.



IMITATIONS

Canada, 2016

Texas Premiere, 10 min

Directors: Milos Mitrovic & Fabian Velasco

Introverted superfan Arnold undergoes plastic surgery to look like his pop idol Austin Kelsey (Astron-6`s Conor Sweeney). It does not go well, but it does go hilariously, and with an infectious earworm of a soundtrack to boot... or since it's Canadian should I say "aboot" (*programmer pelted with tomatoes*).



IRON SPYDER

Australia, 2016

World Premiere, 10 min

Directors: Chris Mitchell & Yoav Lester

A transfixing character portrait that compellingly blurs documentary and drama with a shade of comic book mythos as it poetically captures the mix of emotions a young wrestler experiences on fight night.

THE ITCHING

United States, 2016

Texas Premiere, 15 min

Director: Dianne Bellino

An extraordinarily visceral claymation drama depicting the touching connection that grows between a friendly rabbit and a sheepish wolf whose anxieties manifest as an obsessive and violent itch.



JUDY

United States, 2016

Texas Premiere, 8 min

Directors: Alex Kavutskiy & Ariel Gardner

A man opens a door to a robot that boasts exceptional ability and intelligence, but the man has only one thing on his mind. Practiced vulgarity that escalates to a darkly hysterical extreme.



SALESMANSHIP

United States, 2016

Texas Premiere, 11 min

Directors: Bruce Bundy & Helen Rogers

Two BFF stoners engage in an unusual routine to accrue the capital needed to sustain their lifestyle. An endearing slice of slackerdom, dripping with charisma and various hallucinogenic properties.



SOLID SILVER ANUS

United States, 2016

World Premiere, 2 min

Director: Dave Newberg

An animated adaptation of a voicemail received from EatableAnus.com that contextualizes the recording's ambiguous pregnant pauses to great comic effect.



SUMMER CAMP ISLAND

United States, 2016

US Premiere, 9 min

Director: Julia Pott

Talking pajamas are just one of the many anthropomorphic wonders that await you in the first episode of Julia Pott's forthcoming Cartoon Network series about the strangest (and most adorable) summer camp your eyeballs have ever had the pleasure to witness.



VITAMINS FOR LIFE

United States, 2016

World Premiere, 2 min

Director: Grier Dill

Adapted from a series of micro-fiction tweets by @quietpinetrees, this amusing pastiche of educational shorts illuminates the benefits and dangers of lesser known vitamins.





SHORT FUSE



Fantastic Fest delivers another sampling of the year's standout short-form horror in a program that promises to unnerve and disturb, when it is not serving up a healthy and hysterical splatter of crimson Karo syrup. Steel yourself for sinister stylists, scary slopes and spooky spaceships, but be warned you may develop a fear of pedestrian crossings. At least German ones.



90 DEGREES NORTH

Germany, 2015

Texas Premiere, 21 min

Director: Detsky Graffam

A man finds himself stranded on a malevolent traffic island in this clever Kafkaesque nightmare that collides compelling satire with creative splatter.



CURVE

Australia, 2016

Texas Premiere, 10 min

Director: Tim Egan

Precariously perched on the slope of a smooth monolithic structure that recedes into a horrifying abyss, a woman strives to escape sliding to her doom; a nightmare expertly sustained and expressed through visceral visuals and a haptic soundscape.

DAWN OF THE DEAF

United Kingdom, 2016

US Premiere, 12 min

Director: Rob Savage

Sporting a novel conceit that breathes new life into an oversaturated sub-genre, this network narrative of hearing-impaired protagonists unravels moments before the world gets a bad case of the undead.



DEATH METAL

United States, 2016

Texas Premiere, 5 min

Director: Chris McInroy

A heavy metal guitarist shreds sick licks on an axe spawned from Satan with gleefully silly splatstick results.



I WANT YOU INSIDE ME

United States, 2016

Regional Premiere, 13 min

Director: Alice Shindelar

An introverted teenager loses her virginity and her boyfriend in one fell orgasm; a sensitive portrait of adolescence that builds to one helluva FX gag that's both funny and frightening.



OVERTIME

Australia, 2016

Austin Premiere, 8 min

Director: Craig D. Foster

Ralph's long day at the office just got longer, but he really needs to get home before dark. A stylishly funny send-up of horror's most pressed-for-time monster.



THE STYLIST

United States, 2016

Texas Premiere, 15 min

Director: Jill Gevargizian

A gory story about a lonely hairstylist with a compulsion to take her work home with her. Literally.

THEY WILL ALL DIE IN SPACE

Spain, 2015

Austin Premiere, 14 min

Director: Javier Chillon

Fantastic Fest alumni Javier Chillon (DECAPODA SHOCK) returns with a gorgeous retro-tinged sci-fi chiller about the existential perils and ethical compromises that occur when space travel goes awry.



WHEN SUSSURUS STIRS

United States, 2016

Texas Premiere, 10 min

Director: Anthony Cousins

A terrifically gross-out body horror bonanza that recalls THE TINGLER by way of Frank Henenlotter as it unspools a tale of disgusting parasites and the hosts that love them.





SHORTS WITH LEGS



There are short films and then there are those unconventional collisions of sight and sound that defy definition. These are the SHORTS WITH LEGS: cinematic excursions into the experimental and eccentric. Born from the minds of both skillful provocateurs and outsider art savants, these unpredictable productions are guaranteed to endure in your mind as either awe-inspiring exemplars of absurdism or brain-breaking traumas of WTF-ery.



APE SODOM

Canada, 2016

US Premiere, 14 min

Director: Maxwell McCabe-Lokos

A startling and sardonic satire of post-consumerist enlightenment that at one point features the voice of David Cronenberg narrating the life cycle of Jellyfish. The less you know, the better.

BARK

United States, 2016

World Premiere, 11 min

Director: Amanda Kramer

Impressively dilated performances and a keen command of tone ground an increasingly absurdist argument between two young women, which eventually curdles into an unsettling psychological breakdown.



I AM COMING TO PARIS TO KILL YOU

Canada, 2015

Texas Premiere, 9 min

Director: Seth Smith

Deliciously stylized neo-noir tropes get steeped in ethereal surrealist flourishes as a woman desperately vies to rescue a loved one. Bookended with an unreleased murder ballad from Timber Timbre and featuring some truly inspired experimental visual effects.



LEMONADE BY SOPHIE (Unofficial Music Video)

Canada, 2015

Austin Premiere, 2 min

Director: Kate Taeuschel

Anarchic video artifacting and savvy punnery collide throughout this decidedly lo-fi tribute to the electronic dance single by a Canadian teen filmmaker. Infectiously joyous stuff!



NOU NEN FEAT.UTAE

Japan, 2015

North American Premiere, 3 min

Director: Sawako Kabuki

A kaleidoscopic reverie of sexual encounters fluidly morphing to the jubilant beats of Japanese pop music. Delightfully animated by the cult animator behind such boundary-pushing works as ANAL JUICE and SUMMER'S PUKE IS WINTER'S DELIGHT.



PACO

United States, 2016

Texas Premiere, 12 min

Director: Catalina Jordan Alvarez

Paco wants you to bounce on his lap. A brilliant comic portrait of a catcaller choreographed with a non-professional cast and captured with disarmingly intimate 16mm photography.



THE PAST INSIDE THE PRESENT

United States, 2016

Austin Premiere, 12 min

Director: James Siewert

Ruminating on sexual anxiety and alienation, this experimental monochrome mixed-media allegory depicts a couple's attempt to renew a dying relationship via a decidedly analog means of recording and re-living better times.

THE PROCEDURE

United States, 2016

Special Screening, 2 min

Director: Calvin Reeder

A man is kidnapped and forced to undergo a cheeky but disturbing procedure. Cheeky as in butt cheeks. Among the finest permutations of this particular stratum of jokes.



SISTER'S FIRE

United States, 2015

Texas Premiere, 25 min

Director: Vincent De Ghoulie

An unhinged elderly woman moves in with her significantly younger drug-addled brother in this abrasive psycho-comedy from the filmmaker that brought last year's mind-melting MY JOHNNY. Exceptionally outrageous performances abound and escalate in eccentricity with each passing hilarious minute, and though De Ghoulie's aggressive experimental style has grown more refined, his aesthetics are still as provocative and anarchic as ever.



WORM

United States, 2015

Regional Premiere, 3 min

Director: Becky James

An imprisoned worm is eventually granted a bittersweet release in this understated but amusing bit of pencil-drawn absurdism.

PAIRED WITH FEATURES

ANTIDEPRESSANT

United States, Canada, 2016

World Premiere, 9 min

Director: Devon Bostick

Dean Norris portrays a sitcom showrunner whose incessant and indulgent laughter on set masks his darker disposition in this slick satirical slow-burn that builds to a devastating punchline.

CLUB POLICY

United States, 2016

World Premiere, 10 min

Directors: Ryan Dickie & Abby Horton

Fantastic prosthetics and hilarious performances complement this improbable parable about the choice a preppy young man makes after his girlfriend is struck with a debilitating condition as a result of not adhering to his country club's guidelines.

THE DOG

Norway, 2016

World Premiere, 10 min

Directors: Aleksander Nordaas & Hallvard Holmen

After a prepubescent cyclist informs a man that his neighbor has killed his dog, he impulsively resolves to get all John Wick on him in this amusingly austere pitch-black satire.

DON'T ACT DUMB

United States, 2016

World Premiere, 11 min

Director: Mark Sean Haynes

This finely tuned cringe-comedy effectively modulates bursts of genuine suspense as it plays out an adolescent nightmare, wherein an intimidating police officer interrupts the backseat hanky-panky between two inexperienced teenagers.

THE ETERNAL

United States, 2016

World Premiere, 15 min

Director: Daniel Stuyck

A ghostly transmission implores the help of an occult-savvy pizza delivery girl in this krautrock ghost story that packs its chilling trajectory with charming character beats and compelling supernatural mythology.



GIVERTAKER

United States, 2016

World Premiere, 11 min

Director: Paul Gandersman

A petulant teen conducts an ancient ritual to enact petty revenge on those who she believes have wronged her in this slick Austin-shot spook'em-up.



HELP ME FIRST!

United States, 2016

World Premiere, 9 min

Director: Mike Gasaway

Three pursuers of the paranormal make the bold choice to go with a blue night vision filter over a green one, and the terrible decision to investigate an abandoned asylum with a notoriously spooky history.

LIMBO

United States, 2016

Regional Premiere, 8 min

Director: Will Blank

An act of kindness to a supernatural creature affords a man of many regrets with a single wish. A stark but moving adaptation of a graphic novella by Marian Churchland.



THE MAN FROM DEATH

United States, 2016

US Premiere, 13 min

Director: Stephen Reedy

A silly, splatterific symphony of ludicrously action-packed mayhem pivoting around a magically prophetic to-do list and set in an anachronistic old west populated by gunslingers, martial artists and sentient bullets. Bound to confound, astound and cure any frown!

MEMORY BOX

United States, 2016

World Premiere, 11 min

Directors: Audrey Ewell & Aaron Aites

Mackenzie Davis and Shane Carruth star in this understated slice of speculative fiction concerning an actress working at a memory recreation facility whose client pushes her to go further with every session.

SAVASANA

United States, 2016

Austin Premiere, 10 min

Director: Brandon Daley

One man's particularly eventful yoga pose incites a midlife crisis that unravels and resolves over a sublimely deadpan series of deeply hilarious incidents and episodes.



TWISTED

Canada, 2016

US Premiere, 14 min

Director: Jay Cheel

Documentarian Jay Cheel (BEAUTY DAY) parses fact from fiction in this entertaining rumination on a memorable drive-in screening of the 1996 bad-weather blockbuster TWISTER that was interrupted by its namesake.

For the latest developments and ticketing information, visit the Fantastic Fest official site www.fantasticfest.com and follow us on Facebook & Twitter.
When Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark was released in 1981, it was unlike anything American theaters had seen for at least a generation.

Set in 1936, the homage to the adventure serials of the '30s and '40s proved to be - by far - the year's biggest blockbuster. This succes was built largely on Spielberg's commitment to the spirit of the material and Harrison Ford's uncannily charismatic - and ultimately iconic - portrayal of Indiana Jones, an archaeologist with a flair for the dramatic. It's little wonder that the film captured the imaginations of filmgoers of all ages around the world, but none quite so much as a trio of 11-year-old boys in MIssissippi.

Chris Strompolos, Eric Zala, and Jayson Lamb weren't special in any particular way back in the summer of 1981. However, when Strompolos convinced them that they could make a shot for shot remake of this big budget action film in their own backyards, they became dynamos. Over the course of the next seven years, right on through their college years, the three shot an adaptation of Raiders of the Lost Ark over weekends, holiday vacations, and any other time they could string together on a shoestring budget that would make Robert Rodriguez faint.

Raiders!, the documentary, is a look back at this sisyphean task, both in loving tribute to the dedication of the boys, as well as an exploration of the toll it took on their childhoods. Co-directors Tim Skousen and Jeremy Coon take the time to explore not only their stories, but the stories of those around them, turning Raiders! into a film more about the men they became than the thing they did.

That's no slight to the film, or their achievement, and Skousen and Coon do definitely give their project plenty of attention. Celebrity interviews from the likes of Jonathon Rhys Davies, Eli Roth and many more pay tribute to the boys' determination and the magic they captured in VHS through this all-consuming task. The film is appreciated in a way that only true cinema lovers can relate to, and a way that most ofthers outside of that small circle might find stupid.

It is, however, the story of the boys. Not only of what they'd done, but also what they'd left undone. A crucial sequence from the original film was always missing from the adaptation -- the fist fight under the airplane -- because the young children had no idea how they could pull it off. Raiders! charts their effort to close the circle by raising money to shoot the missing sequence and the troubles they face in pulling it off as one obstacle after another jumps in front of them, from cash flow to real world intrusions to explosives mishaps. The story is gripping.

I really enjoyed Raiders!, and I think it will speak a lot to any of the kids who grew up with a Super 8 camera, or in this case, a VHS home video camera, and made movies of their own. Perhaps the only thing that separates these kids from others is the fact that they never gave up, even when it was perfectly clear that they should. They got their shot, finished their movie, and can be proud of what they accomplished.

The Disc

Drafthouse Films' Blu-ray of Raiders! is as good as you're going to find. Cobbled together from contemporary interviews, archival interview footage, TV news programs, and the boys' own VHS shots, the A/V quality is obviously all over the place. But the modern footage looks good, and none of that is really why you're watching the film, so who really cares?

This Blu-ray has a number of compelling extras, but perhaps the most compelling is what is conspicuously absent. The actual film that the boys made is featured within the doc in tiny pieces, but it would've been fantastic if Drafthouse had been able to include the full film on the disc. It is my understanding that a number of copyright issues prevented this - duh - but mostly it was the unwieldy cost of licensing John Williams' iconic score as used by the boys to complete their version.

What we do get is solid. A pair of documentaries, one from the directors and another from the boys, now in their 40s, are both well worth a listen. We also get a 16 page booklet full of the boys' original storyboard art, footage of the incomplete film's premiere at the Alamo Drafthouse in 2003, deleted scenes from the doc, outtakes from the adaptation, and a Q & A following that 2003 premiere. It's a super solid disc that film lovers will eat right up.

Definitely worth checking out.
To the best of my ability, here is the list, after the jump. Complete Listing of Italian DOCG Wines (as of May 2008): 41 Abruzzo (1) M...
Sadhuram 2 is "India's First Philanthropical Thriller." So says the tagline on the first look poster for Sumanth Radhakrishnan's upcoming thriller. This Tamil language film has been in the works for over two years now, with its first teaser having appeared online back in 2014, but it is finally making its debut on Indian cinema screens this week on September 16.

There are obvious creative debts owed to the Saw franchise, and in particular the first film, in this trailer for Sadhuram 2. However, unlike Indian films of the past where foreign films were ripped off wholesale, these days remakes are typically licensed and this appears to be the case for Sadhuram 2.

According to an interview given to The Indian Express, the film was authorized by the Saw team and the director had this to say about the connection:

Weve given credit to Saw. My music director Girish met someone from the team of Saw long back and authorization was given to make the film. We havent made anything as gory as Saw, because frankly you cant, given our censorship rules."

Curiously, the film is not a sequel, but the first film of a potential franchise. The director stated that he wanted to title it as Sadhuram 2 because the film has an ambiguous beginning and end. Kind of an outre touch, if you ask me.

Now as far as the tagline, I'm not entirely sure what a "philanthropical thriller" is, but the director's concept seems to be that the film has socially conscious thematic elements and that qualifies as philanthropic. Not sure I buy that, but at least the tagline caught my eye, so job done.

Sadhuram 2 is scheduled to release in Tamil Nadu theaters on Friday, September 16.


The slow-moving, seven-week-old Soberanes Fire in and around Big Sur continues to burn through Los Padres National Forest to the south, and remains 60 percent contained. As of 6 p.m. Saturday, federal fire authorities issued an expanded evacuation order for the first time in a couple of weeks, indicating that several inhabited areas may be under threat as the fire continues to move under unstable weather conditions. The fire has now scorched over 105,000 acres.

The Tassajara Zen Center and Tassajara Road are now under a mandatory evactuation, and the Tassajara team announced yesterday on Facebook that they would begin evacuating non-essential personnel, leaving behind their team of trained fire-fighting personnel. Following the 2008 Basin Complex Fire which threatened to destroy the Zen Center, the secluded retreat now has a sophisticated system of rooftop sprinklers to protect itself from fire.

Per the latest incident report:

The fire is active on the ridge above the North Fork of the Big Sur River two air miles west of the Tassajara Zen Center and is active above Lost Valley Creek three air miles southwest of Arroyo Seco. An Evacuation Warning has also been issued along the east side of the Soberanes Fire for residents southwest of East Carmel Valley Road from the intersection of East Carmel Valley Road and Piney Creek Road extending to Arroyo Seco Road. An evacuation warning is a precautionary notice that an Evacuation Order may become necessary.

Below, the latest incident map, showing the southernmost portion that has grown over the last couple of weeks. Fire authorities have said they expect the fire to be near full containment by September 30.

Click to enlarge.





Previously: Feds Taking Command Of Soberanes Fire, Containment Now Not Expected Until September 30
At the end of August, animals rights group Direct Action Everywhere took up their cause at Eat Drink SF, a San Francisco food festival organized by the Golden Gate Restaurant Association. While animal products including foie gras were being served inside the Fort Mason festival pavilion, protestors outside shouted "Its not food, its violence" as one activist covered his naked body in fake blood, wrapped it in cellophane, and lay on top of a piece of styrofoam intended to resemble a meat tray (it didn't, really).

In what is starting to feel like a pattern, Direct Action Everywhere struck again on Friday night, this time at the venerable Berkeley dining institution Chez Panisse. Berkelyside reports that 10 to 15 people entered the downstairs dining room of the craftsman home on Shattuck Avenue where Alice Waters' restaurant has operated since opening in 1971.

The group arrived at around 10 p.m. and police were called around 11 p.m., Berkeleyside writes. Activists were "screaming and yelling" according to one Chez Panisse employee, and eventually police officers escorted them out. Five were detained and no arrests were made. For their part, activists claim they were hit, shoved and shouted at and even assaulted in the restaurant, as they detail in a press release.

I come to you today with a message of compassion, one activist reportedly announced to the dining room. A message on behalf of the billions of animals exploited, who are tortured and killed by humans every year. We are told a lie that animals exist as commodities for human use Animals are living feeling individuals. They value their lives and their freedom the same as you and I do. They experience the same pain, the same joy, the same love of life and they have it have it ripped away from them and are brutally killed for the mere crime of being different than ourselves.

The protest appears to be part of a concerted movement from Direct Action Everywhere called #FlowersForAnimals. As a Facebook page explains the tactic, activists are encouraged to "go into a restaurant and honor a victim by placing a flower on a patrons plate. Speak about the violence inflicted on an individual animal in the agriculture industry. Film the interaction and upload to social media using the hashtag #FlowersForAnimals and challenge three of your friends to do the same." As of Monday morning, Direct Action Everywhere had not uploaded a video of the encounter to Youtube. (Honest question/quick aside: Is this protest based on Daniel Keyes' Nebula award-winning science fiction novel Flowers For Algernon about a lab mouse and ethics and stuff?!?)

Waters, an early champion of seasonal and local eating, has long emphasized serving meat that is local, sustainable, humanely raised and yada yada. In an interview with First We Feast looking back on the ten dishes that "made her career," Ms. Waters lists spring lamb from Dal Porto Ranch, a supplier she has used since the early '70s. "Their spring lambs have the most tender, succulent meat," says Waters, "and when theyre cooked in the wood oven, its one of the most delicious things you can imagine. Ive been to the Dal Portos ranch many times through the years."

Chez Panisse was recently included in a new book from Yale history professor Paul Freedman called Ten Restaurants That Changed America.

Berkelyside reports that Direct Action Everywhere is part of a group that opened recently in the Berkeley Animal Rights Center (with the clever acronym ARC). ARC identifies itself as the "first community center for animal rights."

Previously: Vegan Protest Group Attempts To Disrupt SF Food Fest Where Foie Gras Was Being Served
Note: This is the second part of the story of Milwaukee s famous Hoan Bridge . Read the first part here.

With the push for a harbor bridge now in its third decade, bridge backers were not going to let a triviality like 90-plus extra miles of highway stand in their way. In fact, much less roadway would be needed thanks to some clever maneuvering by the state. Officials managed to talk the feds into greatly reducing their demands on the south branch of the project, with all sides coming to an agreement that the lakefront interstate would instead end at West Layton Avenue and link General Mitchell Airport into the system. With the plans all set, work began on the tied-arch style bridge which had been selected for the project.

The addition of the airport spur had already delayed the project, and as work began at the harbor, the feds began to make more demands on road improvements around Layton and the other areas in which exit ramps were to be located. The targeted end date for the project, once set at 1969, was pushed back to 1972, then to 1973. The bridge was also still without a name. After the Red Arrow proposal was dropped, it was suggested that the bridge be named for James Lovell, who grew up in Milwaukee and had just commanded the infamous Apollo 13 mission safely back to earth after an aborted trip to the moon.

An alternate design for the would-be Hoan Bridge, proposed in 1965.

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In October, 1971, with work on the bridge ahead of schedule and plans quickly progressing for its north and south connections, the County Board of Supervisors voted to name the span for the late Mayor Daniel W. Hoan, who was regarded as one of the citys most able and honest leaders. Incidentally, Hoan himself probably would have hated the idea of the bridge, let alone attaching his name to the structure. Hoan had even opposed the placement of the War Memorial on the lakefront, calling it a crime against Milwaukee , because of its obstruction of the lake from the shoreline parkland. Now, he was being honored with an even greater obstruction  one that would end up cutting right through the lakefront parkland.

Fittingly, it was this parkland that caused the next major disruption to the bridge plan. A clause in the 1936 transfer of Juneau Park from the city to the county held that if the land ever ceased to be used as a park, its deed would transfer back to the city. At the onset of the project, this was not much of an issue for bridge-backers. Six years into the project, however, more and more city officials had taken an anti-interstate stance. Should the land go back to the city, it would almost certainly sink the project and might make the partially-completed bridge itself ineligible for federal funding. To avoid having to foot the bill on a very expensive and potentially unusable bridge, county officials proposed that a 1,000 foot long tunnel be dug through Juneau Park , preserving the land above as a public space and keeping control of the land in the hands of the pro-interstate county government.

The push-back against the interstate was in large part due to the wishes of city residents, many of whom did not want to see more of Milwaukees landscape torn up to make way for the hulking structures. By the early 1970s, Bay View residents had even turned Mayor Maier  who still backed the bridge and the tunnel underneath Juneau Park  against the southern spur to Layton Avenue . This was the same part of the project that the locals had promised the feds in order to beg out of extending it down to Chicago .

In 1972, with the future of the bridge still uncertain, three sections of the Hoans huge arches were floated to Milwaukee from Pittsburgh . That November, the arches were connected and the bridge assumed its now-familiar shape. But in February, 1973, bridge backers were dealt a huge blow when a federal judge ordered all work on the downtown loop system to be stopped while an environmental impact study was performed  the proposed tunnel being the main cause of the ruling. It was reported that the study could take up to four years to complete. The total cost estimate on the bridge had now run to $67 million. As the roadbeds were laid in the summer of 1973, it was not yet clear at all who would pay for it or if it would ever be used.

And still, public opinion of the bridge and the project had not yet bottomed out. On June 29, 1973, a set of scaffolding on the side of the structure collapsed. Three men fell to their deaths and a subsequent investigation revealed that the setup was not in compliance with state safety guidelines and that the cables supporting the scaffolds had been badly frayed from rubbing against the side of the bridge. A few weeks later, with water levels on the lake three to four feet higher than usual, the freighter Ruthie Michaels was forced to spend several hours in the harbor, taking 2,500 gallons of water into her ballast tanks just so she could fit under the bridge.

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The span had been designed with a 120-foot clearance over the average water level on the lake  which matched the Seaway Bridge on the St. Lawrence Seaway . But the Seaway was a controlled channel with a fixed water level. Lake Michigan , of course, was not. Milwaukee s port director also expressed fears that the bridge could be struck by long-bowed freighters docked at the Jones Island cargo terminals. Some of the largest vessels that docked there were only about 20 feet away from the structure. Through the summer of 1974, with work on the bridge completed, at least five freighters had difficulty in passing beneath the bridge, with one actually sustaining damage from scraping against the span. Meanwhile, there was no clear plan on how to connect the interstate system to the bridge and the federal government was threatening to recall the tens of millions of dollars they had invested into the project.

The Hoan in its unfinished state, about 1975.

Then, the bridge won an award. It was honored by the American Institute of Steel Construction as one of the 17 most beautiful bridges to open to traffic in 1974. There was, of course, the minor detail of the bridge not actually being open to traffic. The award committee, however, decided that work being completed on the span was good enough. They also might have feared that if they waited until traffic actually passed over the Hoan, they might never get a chance to hand over the trophy.

Finally, in 1975, President Gerald Ford released $2 billion in addition federal funds for interstate projects that included $22 million for Wisconsin to finally open the bridge to traffic. The north end would now be connected to the unfinished I-794 southbound ramps and the south end would connect to Carferry Drive  the same spot which had been considered insufficient by the feds nearly a decade prior.

People walk across the Hoan on the day it opened to the public. ( Milwaukee Public Library)

After two more years of work, and still more attempts to create an airport spur in the system (it would never happen, although the Lake Parkway would finally connect the bridge to the airport in 1998), the Daniel W. Hoan Memorial Bridge was finally opened to traffic on November 5, 1977.

POSTSCRIPT: A long-persisting myth has it that there is a scene in The Blues Brothers that was filmed on the bridge in its unfinished state. There is indeed a scene in the film, when the Blues Brothers are being chased by Pinto-driving Illinois Nazis, that was filmed in Milwaukee. The US Bank Building (then the First Wisconsin Center) and other city landmarks can be seen very briefly during the chase, which culminates in the Nazis soaring off the end of an unfinished freeway ramp and landing in downtown Chicago. It was not, however, filmed on the bridge or on anything that would have led to the bridge. Indeed, it was filmed in the summer of 1979, almost two years after the bridge was opened to traffic. The scene was actually filmed on the section of I-794 that would have led northbound on the never-built lakefront part of the downtown loop.
DES MOINES -- Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein told about 150 supporters in Iowa Sunday they can help transform their futures for the better by voting their convictions in November rather the settling for someone who represents the lesser evil in the politics of fear.

Stein said Americans who are the underdogs in society and the economy can become "the top dogs" by flexing their strength in numbers at the polls in support of her "New Green Deal" that would slash military spending, transform health care, transition to 100 percent renewable energy by 2030, and erase student debt for millions of forward-thinking young people who would be free to pursue their dreams rather than work multiple jobs to pay off college obligations.

"Forget this lesser to two evils propaganda," she said of a 2016 presidential race that mostly has focused on two major-party candidates - Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump - who are viewed unfavorably by large blocs of prospective voters. "It's politics of fear that tells us to vote our fears rather than our vision and our values.

"What did we get from the politics of fear? We got everything we were afraid of," Stein told supporters who gathered on the Iowa Capitol grounds. "The lesser evil and the greater evil are in a race to the bottom."

A number of people are the rally were former Bernie Sanders supporters who said they felt betrayed when he endorsed Clinton and now viewed Stein as the best hope to carry on the hope for a political revolution in America.

"I just felt disillusioned," said Jason Carsello, a Drake University student who supported Sanders in the 2016 Iowa Democratic caucuses but now backs Stein.

Daniel Clark, 25, of Mount Pleasant, who was a Sanders delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, said the experience was "eye opening" for him in regards to the corruption of the two-party system and noted Dr. Stein "has always been my plan B."

Stein said the 2016 election should not be about "want we don't want" but rather about what the American people do want and the only way to give them the opportunity to choose among the current field of candidates is to open up the televised debates that start later this month to more participants.

"This is no ordinary moment. This is an absolutely transformational moment," she told rally attendees.

Stein -- who was arrested when she showed up for a presidential debate in 2012 and this year faces misdemeanor criminal charges in North Dakota stemming from a recent protest against the Dakota Access pipeline -- said she is willing to risk arrest again with a "direct action" at the first scheduled presidential debate in New York on Sept. 26 and she urged supporters Sunday to rent buses and join her.

"If we can't have an open discussion now, when can we actually have it?" asked Stein, a 66-year-old Harvard-educated retired medical doctor who described herself as a "mother of fire" because of the limitations she believes are being placed on young people who offer the best hope for dealing with immigration, gay rights and racial injustice issues facing the nation.

Stein said there are 43 million young people who are "locked into debt' who could prove to be the winning plurality in a three-way presidential vote if they shook off the apathy and hopelessness they are being served by the major political parties she says have "sort of thrown them under the bus."

"We want to put you in the driver's seat. We want you to come out and vote so that we can cancel this debt, so we can make higher education free and we can insure there are jobs through a green new deal and we can end these wars for oil -- which are also a cross for you to bear -- and fix the climate crisis," she told young voters.
TVA to sell nuclear plant

HOLLYWOOD, Ala.  After spending more than 40 years and $5 billion on an unfinished nuclear power plant in northeastern Alabama, the nation's largest federal utility is preparing to sell the property at a fraction of its cost.

The Tennessee Valley Authority has set a minimum bid of $36.4 million for its Bellefonte Nuclear Plant and the 1,600 surrounding acres of waterfront property on the Tennessee River. The buyer gets two unfinished nuclear reactors, transmission lines, office and warehouse buildings, eight miles of roads, a 1,000-space parking lot and more.

Fort Sumter park proposed

CHARLESTON, S.C.  U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, the first black U.S. senator from the deep South since Reconstruction, is proposing that the site where the Civil War began be raised in status to that of a national park.

The Republican lawmaker has introduced a bill creating the Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Park as the nation's 60th national park and second in South Carolina.

Fort Sumter, on Charleston Harbor, was bombarded by Confederate guns on April 12, 1861, in a fight that started four years of civil war.

'Sully' has big $35.5M landing

LOS ANGELES  Adult audiences turned out in droves to take the plunge with "Sully," director Clint Eastwood's dramatization of the Miracle on the Hudson. The film took flight with $35.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday, surpassing expectations by around $10 million.

Tom Hanks stars as Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, who made an emergency landing of US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River in 2009, minutes after taking off. In addition to showing Sully's feat, the film explores the little-known National Transportation Safety Board investigation of the landing.

-- Associated Press
SIOUX CITY | A Dakota Dunes woman accused of writing faulty checks and using her grandmother's name to receive a loan has pleaded not guilty.

Jennifer Mozak-Wubbena, 47, entered her written plea Friday in Woodbury County District Court to first-degree theft, identity theft, forgery and fourth-degree theft.

According to court documents, Mozak-Wubbena wrote a check in her husband's name for $6,260 in April, altered the date and signature on the back, then cashed it and received the full amount.

In May, Mozak-Wubbena wrote two checks totaling $470.99 on a closed account, court documents said.

In June, court documents said, Mozak-Wubbena received a $12,300 loan by using her grandmother's name and altering her grandmother's Social Security paperwork and bank account information to make it appear her grandmother had more money that she actually had. She also pretended to be her grandmother during phone and email contacts with the online loan company, court documents said.
SIOUX CITY | Sunday marked 15 years since terrorists crashed four hijacked planes into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a western Pennsylvania field, killing nearly 3,000 people in an event now known as 9/11.

To remember those who lost their lives in those attacks, Siouxland community members gathered in the sanctuary of Morningside Lutheran Church Sunday afternoon for a time of song, Scripture reading, reflection and prayer.

Entitled "Remembering 9/11: A Siouxland Tribute of Commemoration and Hope," the ceremony honored those who died in the attacks and looked with hope toward the future of America.

During the program, the Rev. Paul Andell, an associate pastor at Morningside Lutheran, recounted his experience visiting Ground Zero in New York City just days after the Twin Towers were struck.

"I haven't been the same since," Andell said. "Who has?"

Just a few months ago, he returned to visit the now-completed National September 11 Memorial & Museum with four of his grandchildren. That return sparked the idea for the ceremony, he said.

"You and I need to remember," he said. "And that's why we're here."

Sunday's ceremony featured music from several Siouxland musicians, including the Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church Choir, a rendition of "God Bless America" by local entertainer Gene Magden, and the song "Go Light Your World" by Sioux City student musician Kari Swanson.

Community leaders, including South Sioux City Mayor Rod Koch and Sioux City Mayor Bob Scott, shared thoughts and Scriptures during the ceremony.

Others, including Chaplain Kathy Yoder and the Rev. Sheryl Ashley, shared pieces of writing inspired by the events of 9/11.

Prior to reading from Psalm 121, Scott said 9/11 is a day to remember, but also a day for hope. He credited the Siouxland communities for being able to come together, despite state and city boundaries, in their own times of tragedy.

"This area has shown time and time again in tragedy that we'll come together like the people of New York did, and we'll solve the problems that need to be solved and that we'll hope together," Scott said. "We're gathered with that hope today."

The event also honored local veterans, police officers, firefighters and first responders for their service to the nation.

Approximately 400 Siouxlanders attended Sunday's ceremony. Andell said he was encouraged by the community's interest.

"I am very pleased with the response from community leaders, from residents, and just the fact that we could do this together," he said.
DAKOTA CITY | A longtime member of the Dakota City Fire Department died early Sunday morning after suffering a heart attack in the line of duty.

Lowell Satterwhite, 67, sustained a heart attack around 12:30 a.m. Sunday, approximately 12 hours after responding to a medical call the previous day.

Dakota City Fire Chief Clint Rasmussen said Satterwhite, who also worked for the city of Dakota City as a maintenance worker, had been a member of the department for 41 years. At the time of his death, Satterwhite was the longest-serving active member of the department.

"The community is a better place now for Lowell being a volunteer for so many years," Rasmussen said. "He was always there when we needed him, any time of day."

Deaths resulting from heart attacks and strokes are classified as line of duty deaths if they occur within 24 hours after a call.

"The last two were very hard, losing Andy and Eric," Rasmussen said. "Now losing Lowell is another shock to the fire department and this community. But well come together and will be stronger together for it."

The Nebraska Serious Injury & Line of Duty Death Response Team is currently in Dakota City assisting the fire department and family with funeral arrangements.
Below are the most recent persons reported missing by the Iowa Department of Public Safety. Find more information at http://www.iowaonline.state.ia.us/mpic/

Brian S Nissen

Age At Report: 14

Age Now: 14

Weight: 135 lbs.

Height: 5'10"

Race: White

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Brown

Sex: Male

Incident Type: Juvenile

Brian Nissen was reported missing to the Clinton Police Department 563/243-1455, in Clinton on Jul 26, 2016.

Steven R Leasure

Age At Report: 52

Age Now: 54

Weight: 200 lbs.

Height: 5'10"

Race: White

Hair: unknown or Completely Bald

Eyes: Blue

Sex: Male

Incident Type: Endangered / physical

Steve Leasure was reported missing to the Burlington Police Department 319/753-8366, in Burlington on May 01, 2015.

Rita J Papakee

Age At Report: 41

Age Now: 43

Weight: 170 lbs.

Height: 5'03"

Race: American Indian or Alaskan Native

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Brown

Sex: Female

Incident Type: Other adult missing

Rita Papakee was reported missing to the Meskwaki Nation Police 641/484-3760, in Tama on Jan 16, 2015.

___________________________________________________________

If you have information regarding the disappearance of this individual, please contact the Missing Person Information Clearinghouse, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation at 1-800-346-5507. If you recognize this missing person, DO NOT TAKE ANY ACTION YOURSELF. Get as much information as you can (e.g. license number of a vehicle, exact location of sighting, activities the individual was involved in) and then call the number listed above or the ----reporting agency.

Missing Person Information Clearinghouse

The Missing Person Information Clearinghouse was established July 1, 1985 within the Department of Public Safety providing a program for compiling, coordinating and disseminating information in relation to missing persons and unidentified body/persons. Housed within the Division of Criminal Investigation, the clearinghouse assists in helping to locate missing persons through public awareness and cooperation, and in educating law enforcement officers and the general public about missing person issues.

The Iowa Department of Public Safety releases the names of missing persons on a weekly basis. Click HERE for current statistics.

Data on http://www.iowaonline.state.ia.us/mpic/ is updated daily at 9:30 AM Central Time.
Citizens Financial Group, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Citizens Bank, National Association that provides retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, corporations, and institutions in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Consumer Banking and Commercial Banking. The Consumer Banking segment offers deposit products, mortgage and home equity lending products, credit cards, business loans, wealth management, and investment services; and auto, education, and point-of-sale finance loans, as well as digital deposit products. This segment serves its customers through telephone service centers, as well as through its online and mobile platforms. The Commercial Banking segment provides various financial products and solutions, including lending and leasing, deposit and treasury management services, foreign exchange, and interest rate and commodity risk management solutions, as well as syndicated loans, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, and debt and equity capital markets services. This segment serves government banking, not-for-profit, healthcare, technology, professionals, oil and gas, asset finance, franchise finance, asset-based lending, commercial real estate, private equity, and sponsor finance industries. It operates approximately 1,200 branches in 14 states and the District of Columbia; 114 retail and commercial non-branch offices in national markets; and approximately 3,300 automated teller machines. The company was formerly known as RBS Citizens Financial Group, Inc. and changed its name to Citizens Financial Group, Inc. in April 2014. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. was founded in 1828 and is headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island.
Delek US Holdings, Inc. engages in the integrated downstream energy business in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Refining, Logistics, and Retail. The Refining segment processes crude oil and other feedstock for the manufacture of various grades of gasoline, diesel fuel, aviation fuel, asphalt, and other petroleum-based products that are distributed through owned and third-party product terminal. It owns and operates four independent refineries located in Tyler, Texas; El Dorado, Arkansas; Big Spring, Texas; and Krotz Springs, Louisiana, as well as three biodiesel facilities in Crossett, Arkansas, Cleburne, Texas, and New Albany. The Logistics segment gathers, transports, and stores crude oil, intermediate, and refined products; and markets, distributes, transports, and stores refined products for third parties. It owns or leases capacity on approximately 400 miles of crude oil transportation pipelines, approximately 450 miles of refined product pipelines, an approximately 900-mile crude oil gathering system, and associated crude oil storage tanks with an aggregate of approximately 10.2 million barrels of active shell capacity; and owns and operates ten light product distribution terminals, as well as markets light products using third-party terminals. The Retail segment owns and leases 248 convenience store sites located primarily in West Texas and New Mexico. Its convenience stores offer various grades of gasoline and diesel under the DK or Alon brand; and food products and service, tobacco products, non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages, and general merchandise, as well as money orders to the public primarily under the 7-Eleven and DK or Alon brand names. It serves oil companies, independent refiners and marketers, jobbers, distributors, utility and transportation companies, the U.S. government, and independent retail fuel operators. Delek US Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee.
The Toronto-Dominion Bank, together with its subsidiaries, provides various financial products and services in Canada, the United States, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Canadian Retail, U.S. Retail, and Wholesale Banking. The company offers personal deposits, such as chequing, savings, and investment products; financing, investment, cash management, international trade, and day-to-day banking services to businesses; and financing options to customers at point of sale for automotive and recreational vehicle purchases. It also provides credit cards and payments; real estate secured lending, auto finance, and consumer lending services; point-of-sale payment solutions for large and small businesses; wealth and asset management products, and advice to retail and institutional clients through direct investing, advice-based, and asset management businesses; and property and casualty insurance, as well as life and health insurance products. The company also provides capital markets, and corporate and investment banking products and services, including underwriting and distribution of new debt and equity issues; advice on strategic acquisitions and divestitures; and trading, funding, and investment services to corporations, governments, and institutions. It offers its products and services under the TD Bank and America's Most Convenient Bank brand names. The company operates through a network of 1,061 branches and 3,381 automated teller machines (ATMs) in Canada, and 1,148 stores and 2,701 ATMs in the United States, as well as offers telephone, digital, and mobile banking services. It has a strategic alliance with Canada Post Corporation. The Toronto-Dominion Bank was founded in 1855 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.
Unlike some smartphone manufacturers that limit themselves to a couple of segments, Huawei has taken a very different approach, making a phone for everyone. The latest case in point is the Huawei Nova and Nova Plus, two phones with premium features, but without the premium price.

For small business owners looking to give their employees full featured, yet affordable smartphones, Huaweis new phones could be worth exploring. The processor, camera, software and connectivity all have the same capability as a flagship phone. This means users can video conference, chat, capture HD still and moving images, and access hosted applications from the cloud.

Huawei makes smartphones, tablets, PCs, wearables and more, not only through its own brand, but also through sister companies such as Honor. This allows it to carry out its dont leave anyone behind approach by offering products at many different price points. However, the company is not sacrificing quality, and it is making a name for itself for delivering flagship components at affordable price points.

The Nova and Nova Plus were just unveiled at the recent IFA show in Berlin to become part of the Huawei family of smartphones, and just like its flagship Mate and P series, they appear well designed and are nice to look at.

The bodies of the phones have a multi-curve design with a rear shell that is made from aviation-strength magnesium and aluminum alloy, which has then been sand blasted with ceramics to create a textured back. The front is a curved section of 2.5D glass, and the whole thing comes at an impressive 7.1mm thick.

The Key Features for the Huawei Nova

Key features for the Nova include:

5-inch FHD 19201080 display with 443pixels per inch (PPI)

12-megapixel main camera, 8-megapixel front camera

Octa-core Snapdragon 625 2GHz processor

3GB RAM and 32GB storage, expandable to 128GB with microSD card

3,020 mAh battery

Dual SIM version in some regions

Fingerprint scanner USB Type-C

Android Marshmallow

The Nova Plus is practically the same in every way, except for a 5.5-inch display, a 3,340 mAh battery and a 16 MP, autofocus, OIS rear camera. It also weighs slightly more compared to the regular Nova, coming in at 160g (5.64 ounces) as opposed to the Novas 146g (5.15 ounces).

Both models will be available in gold, rose gold, silver and grey sometime in October of 2016 in 50 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. However, Huawei didnt confirm availability in the US. The pricing was released in Euros and British Sterling Pound, so if you decide to get one, you will have to dish out 399 or 335, which comes out to about U.S. $445 for the Nova. The Nova Plus will run you 429 or 360, that would be about U.S. $480.

The good thing about all of the mid-range priced phones currently being released with premium features is, it gives business and power users affordable options. Granted they are not the same as the Samsung or iPhone 7, but you will be able to do virtually everything they do without your wallet taking a big dent.
Businesses all over America are undergoing a sea change. The oldest members of Generation Z (the generation defined in a recent study as born between 1994 and 2010) are starting to enter the workforce. Meanwhile, Millennials are taking on management positions, and will play increasingly important managerial roles as some 3.6 million Baby Boomers retire this year.

Randstad and Future Workplace conducted a survey of Millennial and Generation Z employees and found that, while the majority of both generations believe their educations prepared them well for their current jobs, there are some important gaps. If you want to get the most from your younger employees, how can you help them improve? Here are seven steps to take.

Tips for Managing Young Employees

1. Set Expectations

Both during the interview stage and when bringing employees on board, make sure you set clear expectations and are honest about the culture at your business. One-third of Generation Z employees and 29 percent of Millennials say their education did not prepare them to work long hours, and one-fourth of Generation Z workers say it did not prepare them to manage their time effectively.

2. Provide Opportunities for Collaboration

Both generations of employees feel their educations prepared them well to work in teams. However, 29 percent of Generation Z employees say it didnt prepare them to work with older people  a pretty important skill if youre fresh out of college. Since project-based work is the number-one way Gen Z likes to learn new skills, try putting younger employees in teams with older workers so they gain experience in getting along with different generations. (Make sure the older workers are prepared and willing to provide some guidance to the younger ones.)

3. Educate Millennial Employees in Management and Conflict Resolution Skills

More than one-fourth of Millennials say their educations did not prepare them to manage others or resolve conflicts. These interpersonal skills are critical as Millennials move into managerial positions. Pair new Millennial managers with more experienced managers who can mentor them. (Both generations say mentoring and learning from peers are among their preferred ways to learn new skills.) You can also have new managers take courses in management skills, either online or off.

4. Communicate Often and Honestly

Both generations of employees say being a good communicator is the single most important quality a leader can have; honesty is the second. In addition, 39 percent of both Millennial and Gen Z workers say the most effective way to communicate is in person. In other words, you dont have to text, IM or Snapchat to reach young workers  simply walk around and talk to them.

5. Provide Ongoing Feedback

Forty-six percent of both Millennials and Generation Z say providing quality feedback regularly is the best way to help them excel. Among the highest-performing companies in the survey, nearly one-third provide feedback to young workers on a regular basis (that is, after every project, assignment or task), and 22 percent provide daily feedback.

6. Design a Workspace that Enables Both Collaboration and Focus

Younger employees grew up collaborating on projects in school, and like working this way. In fact, they also prefer working in an office with others to working at home. However, an open, collaborative workspace isnt always the most conducive to focus. Help younger employees focus better by setting up an office space that includes quiet areas for focused work.

7. Help Them Lessen Stress

Asked what factor most keeps them from performing their best, both generations cited stress as the number-one hurdle. Of course, you cant eliminate stress at work, but you can help your young employees handle it better. Regularly review workloads so employees arent burdened with more than they can realistically handle. Suggest or teach time management strategies that can help with stress. Create a culture that encourages breaks and downtime in addition to hard work.

Taking the steps to help your young employees improve can pay off big. More than 80 percent of both Generation Z and Millennial employees want to take leadership roles at work. Start now, and you can shape the next generation of leaders to fit your businesss needs.
With relative frequency, our recruiters come across organizations that believe it to be an advantageous strategy to recruit from their competition. This is understandable. On the surface, the strategy appears to carry merit. Employers assume that those who have experience in a field will need less ramp-up time, less handholding from management and will have a greater likelihood of staying with the organization.

Unfortunately, closer analysis of the seemingly advantageous recruiting approach will prove it all but illogical. Via using our common sense, we can illuminate the risks and disadvantages involved for organizations seeking to hire sales professionals directly from their competitors.

Recruiting From Your Competition?

Analyzing a Sales Representatives Reason for Leaving

When we analyze the reason for a competing business development representative wanting to leave their current organization, we run into several red lights that beg further analysis and questioning. Eventually, they will all but disprove the theory that recruiting sales reps from direct competitors has advantages.

If a sales representative is doing well at a competitor, in the overwhelming majority of cases, there is no advantage for that individual to leave for a parallel position. Conversely, for those who are struggling, there are a multitude of advantages to consider direct competitors.

Many sales representatives know that competitors are an easy way to get a bump in salary (whether it be from their new employer or via using a competing offer as leverage against their current hiring manager).

Until a hiring manager can really dig at these issues during an interview process, there is little reason to believe that the new employee will prove to be an all-star. Experience has shown our executive recruiting team the direct opposite. Over the past 10 years, weve seen little correlation between a sales employees ability to succeed and direct pertinent experience in a field. There are poor vendors in every industry just as there are a multitude of subpar sales representatives.

If a sales representative provides significant reasoning for their departure, there are more variables that need to be addressed. The next logical question is regarding whether the new prospective employee has a non-compete clause. Often, sales representatives who are effective are required to agree to a legal formality that prevents them from operating against their employer in the near future.

Employers who understand HR law know that they are able to circumvent the non-competes because they are rarely enforceable against employees. While there may not be an ability for a past employer to take action, there still are ethical questions that need to be raised.

Common sense will tell an employer that if a sales representative is willing to break an agreement with a past employer and attempt to convert clients, it is more than likely that the employee will repeat their actions. This behavior does not exist in a vacuum.

If the employee does not plan on approaching old clients, this:

1. Immediately limits the amount of prospects they can approach.

2. Begs the question as to whether the individual has the resiliency and energy to start their book of business from scratch.

Clients Rarely Follow Sales Representatives

Unfortunately, the defiance of logic in this recruiting approach goes even further. Lets say that a sales representative claims they have a large following of clients that they can bring over to their new company. That would, again beg the question as to why are they leaving?

Regardless, an overwhelming majority of companies are hesitant to switch solutions based upon a sales representative moving companies. Even though the sales representative may claim that there are a multitude of unhappy clients at their current company (and their claims may be true) chances are those clients would have gone somewhere else if they werent locked into some form of contract.

Moreover, people try to avoid making the same mistake twice. That means that unsatisfied clients are much less likely to consider or trust the sales representative a second time assuming things didnt go as planned during the initial run of doing business.

If these clients were unhappy and were not locked into a contract, there are 15 other firms vying for their business. They would be long gone or in the process of moving on (again, with a negative viewpoint of the company and, more likely than not, the sales rep).

Assuming they do still trust the sales rep., time is another factor working against that new business development employee. Odds are high that the former clients have already actively approached alternative solutions (most of the time, they are well into the sales process with other firms providing another significant hurdle). While there are exceptions to the rule, there are not enough to warrant substantial revenue generation via a new sales employees old book of business.

Republished by permission. Original here.
DISCLAIMER

All the advises,calls,tips and predictions are neither an offer nor a solicitation to purchase or sell securities.The information and views given by writer is believed to be reliable but no responsibility (liability) is accepted for error of facts and opinion.Writer may be trading in or having positions in stock markets.
The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless.



The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well.







By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism.
LEONARDTOWN, Md. (Sept. 11, 2016)A 12-year-old female was arrested this afternoon for filing a false police report, claiming she was abducted. She hung up on 911 before providing her name or location. Police say they expended considerable resources to locate her, having no reason to disbelieve her claim of abduction at the time.



The St. Mary's County Emergency Communications Center received the 9-1-1 call from the girl at 4:43 p.m. Although she provided specific details on her abductor, she was unable to provide dispatchers with her location and disconnected the call.



Deputies were able to identify a possible location of the caller, which was in the area of Poplar Ridge Road in Lexington Park. Deputies responded to the area in search of the victim or any indication of a crime.



In an attempt to gain potential leads, a reverse 911 call was used for the surrounding area and additional neighborhood searches, interviews and attempts to locate witnesses were completed. Although there was very limited information, deputies developed a suspect, later identified as a 12-year-old female.



The investigation revealed the juvenile suspect made the call because she was upset with a guardian. The 12-year-old was located and placed under arrest for a false police report.



Police credit the cooperation of the community, especially the residents of the Lexington Manor neighborhood, with helping them solve the mystery.
BALTIMORE

(Sept. 12, 2016)Maryland Legal Aid has developed a new app for expunging criminal records. ExpungeItMD.org is a free, user-friendly app that enables legal professionals to easily search Maryland criminal records and generate documents to file expungement petitions with the Maryland Courts on behalf of low-income citizens.Changes in Maryland law in October 2015 resulted in a dramatic increase in the types of criminal cases that could be expunged. Consequently, the demand for assistance in expunging criminal records has soared. To address this need, Maryland Legal Aid joined with other legal services organizations to develop legal clinics with community partners throughout the state. As part of its Lawyer in the Library program, Maryland Legal Aid hosts monthly expungement clinics at the Enoch Pratt Free Library Pennsylvania Avenue branch. At a recent Maryland Legal Aid expungement clinic, more than 600 people came for record expungement help. "Because having a criminal record can present significant barriers to obtaining housing, employment, and even custody of children, the need for record expungements is enormous," said Amy Petkovsek, Director of Advocacy for Training and Pro Bono at Maryland Legal Aid.To meet the increasing demand for help with expungements, Maryland Legal Aid leveraged internal resources and talents to design, develop, and test the app. "We are fortunate to have professionals with diverse experience and knowledge who were able to make this new app possible," said Gustava Taler, Maryland Legal Aid's Chief Operating Officer. "Central to the app's development is Program Manager & Senior Full Stack Developer, Russ Bloomquist, who created ExpungeItMD.org in just five weeks."ExpungeItMD.org includes: Editable fields to update client information (e.g., current phone number and address); Easy PDF generation of all documents needed to file expungements; and An expert system that "learns" what cases are expungable based on previous cases filed for expungement.As part of the final stage of development for ExpungeItMD.org , Maryland Legal Aid will host an open house on September 15, from 10:00 AM2:00 PM at its Baltimore City office (500 E. Lexington Street, Baltimore, MD, 21202) for legal services partners and organizations as well as the media to give demonstrations and answer questions about the app. "A critical part of the creative process involves getting feedback from legal professionals from outside of our organization, such as pro bono attorneys who volunteer at expungement clinics, as many of them will be using the app to search and file expungement petitions," said Amy Petkovsek.Maryland Legal Aid will also showcase the new app and discuss the expansion of the Lawyer in the Library program during a presentation called, "Leveraging Talents and Technology to Further your Mission," on September 29 as part of Baltimore Innovation Week.Maryland Legal Aid is a private, non-profit law firm that provides free, civil legal services to low-income people in Baltimore City and Maryland's 23 counties from 12 offices and four District Court Self-Help Resource Centers. The firm handles cases involving a wide range of issues, including family, housing, government benefits, healthcare, education, employment, and consumer law. Maryland Legal Aid also represents children in CINA (Child in Need of Assistance) proceedings in 12 Maryland jurisdictions. Other vulnerable populations, such as homeowners facing foreclosure, migrant and seasonal farm workers, nursing home and assisted living residents, and veterans seeking benefits and assistance with related legal issues also receive representation through special projects. In addition, Maryland Legal Aid assists with expunging criminal records to remove barriers to obtaining housing, employment, and child custody.For more information, visit www.mdlab.org
HOLLYWOOD, Md.

(Sept. 12, 2016)When the county approved the architecture and engineering proposal for the new library and senior center project in Leonardtown, it agreed to pay an extra $300,000 over the low bid when it gave the contract to the design firm Grimm and Parker.The County Times found, after requesting information from the county on other bidders for the project, that the local government chose the high bid for the project.Grimm and Parker, with offices in Baltimore and Calverton, bid $1.67 million to come up with an architectural and engineering plan, while the low bidder, Manns Woodward Studios, Inc., based in White Marsh, came in at a bid of $1.39 million.Lukemire Partnership, based in Arlington, Va. and Rockville, offered a lower bid as well at $1.62 million.The process by which the county selected the vendor for this project was a scorecard method on each of the proposals provided by the bidders, said Brandon Hayden, procurement manager for county government.Three department heads; public works, aging and the library system, looked at several different aspects of the proposals for design of the joint building, which is to be located on the Hayden Property on Hollywood Road, including the technical proficiency and experience of the bidders to fulfill the county's desire for a modern, state-of-the-art design.Michael Blackwell, the current director of the county library system, said the choice to take the high bidder in this project was the logical choice."Grimm and Parker had more experience on dual projects like this," Blackwell said, adding that they also had more experience with "cutting edge, interesting designs."The county's request for qualifications (RFQ), issued last year, states that the county wants the dual facility to be 48,000 square feet in size, with 30,000 square feet set aside for the library and the remainder for the senior center.Both facilities would have the capacity to expand to 45,000 and 25,000 square feet, respectively under the county's proposal.The county's proposal shows that it expects the new library to be filled with modern features to include public internet use in areas for children, teens and adults, meeting rooms, technology and maker projects and an area that houses computer space to be used as a classroom area.The senior center is similarly planned, according to the proposal, and should include space for programs and activities as well as an internet cafe and computer lab, dining space and commercial kitchen.The total cost budget for the construction of the joint building is about $14 million.The bid tally sheet for the proposal had Grimm and Parker scored at an average of 89.67 on a 100 point scale, with Manns Woodward Studios, Inc. earning 77 points.Lukemire Partnership earned just 70 points.Public works chief George Erichsen, Department of Aging and Human Services Director Lori Jennings-Harris and then the acting library system head Mary Anne Brown made the selections."Our policies were followed 100 percent," Hayden said.Hayden was not in the position he currently holds when the Grimm and Parker bid was approved, he said.
(EDGE) In early 2017, the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Ali Forney Center's Bea Arthur Residence in New York City's East Village will ensure that the beloved actress' legacy will live on long after re-runs of "The Golden Girls" vanish from the airwaves.

As reported last month, shortly after her death in 2009, the Ali Forney Center for at-risk LGBT youth learned that it was willed $300,000 from Arthur's estate. Long a friend to the charity, the beloved "Golden Girls" star had lent her talents in 2005 to perform for the then fledgling organization. According toUpworthy, that evening, Arthur helped raise over $40,000 for the charity.

"These kids at the Ali Forney Center are literally dumped by their families because of the fact that they are lesbian, gay or transgender -- this organization really is saving lives," Arthur said in an article published prior to her passing.



According to NBC News, the gift from Arthur initially helped the Ali Forney Center make it through the tail-end of the recession, but the group's executive director Carl Siciliano had his eyes on ownership of the organization's first residential building. Fortunately, Steve Herrick, executive director of Cooper Square Committee shared Siciliano's vision, and knew of an East Village townhouse that would be perfect of the Ali Forney Center.

"[It] was a city-owned building that had been vacant for about two decades," Herrick told NBCOUT. "Given that it is a modest-size, four-story townhouse, I thought it would lend itself to a congregate living situation similar to what Ali Forney has done at other sites."

The building, located at 222 East 13th Street, was turned over to the Ali Forney Center by the New York City Department of Housing and Preservation Development.



"The funds for the gut renovation were provided by the New York City Council and the Manhattan Borough President," Siciliano said.



In February 2017, the Bea Arthur Residence will join 12 other residential sites operated by the Ali Forney Center that house a total of over 100 at-risk LGBT youth per night. In addition to providing beds, Ali Forney Center facilities offer a 24/7 drop-in center that offers a variety of vital services including medical and mental healthcare and educational and job training and placement.



According to Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Fund, of the close to 1.6 million youth who experience homelessness in the United States each year, approximately 40 percent are LGBT.
(AP) Hundreds of gay and lesbian rights supporters marched to Mexico City's Metropolitan Cathedral to support same-sex marriage Sunday, one day after thousands marched against it.

Sunday's demonstrators carried a banner reading "We are families too" and placards reading "I respect your family, respect mine."

A day earlier, marches were held in several Mexican cities opposing same-sex marriage. White-clad demonstrators Saturday chanted "Children need a father and a mother!" and "Wake up and defend the family."



In May, President Enrique Pena Nieto proposed legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. It is currently legal only in some places such as Mexico City, the northern state of Coahuila and Quintana Roo state on the Caribbean coast.



Pena Nieto's party suffered losses in midterm elections in June and has largely sat on the initiative since then.
Thu, 27.10.22 - 11:04

The temperatures will fall in the Murcia Region but the weekend still promises to be warm and sunny Autumn has ye...
Ill Stay Here and Akoya captured Sunday evenings co-featured events at Rideau Carleton Raceway, and they did so as mild upsetters.

A two-hole trip was all the edge needed by Ill Stay Here to post a 1:58 win in the $6,950 Not Listed Preferred Trot. The four-year-old daughter of Pilgrims Taj-Short Vacation battled with Raising Richard to the quarter pole in :28.2 before releasing that foe to the front. Raising Richard went on to whack out middle panels of :58.3 and 1:28 before coming under pressure once again from Ill Stay Here. The pocket sitters :29.4 closing speed was enough to prevail by a neck over Raising Richard, with Caroluzzo taking home the show dough in the nine-horse affair.

Trainer/driver Stephane Lareau manufactured the winning trip for the mare, who is owned by Jacques Rousson of Kemptville, Ont. It was the sixth win of the year and the 16th to date for the career winner of $107,032.

Akoya turned in a powerful performance to win the $6,800 Not Listed Preferred for pacers in an eye-catching clocking of 1:52.3 for driver Louis Philippe Roy. The gelding marched to the lead from Post 4, and after parking past the quarter pole in :26.4 he stepped through middle panels of :55 and 1:23.3. A :29-second final frame earned him the win by 4-1/2 lengths over The Love Bug, with race favourite Meersburg settling for third prize.

Trained and owned by Elisabeth Pothier of Beloeil, QC, the six-year-old son of Electric Stena-Pearl Sweet Noc racked up his fourth trip to victory lane this season while pushing his lifetime win total to 17. Hes banked in excess of $70,000 along the way.

Roy, 26, won half the card with six wins in 12 races (10 races to be accurate as he sat out the first and the fifth). He started his tear in Race 4 with Big Ricky ($3.10) before reeling off four straight in Races 6-9 and concluding his night on a high note with a score in the nightcap aboard Makes Me Stupid ($6.10).

After a 58-win season in 2015, Louis Philippe Roy has exploded for 155 tallies thus far in 2016.

To view results for Sunday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Sunday Results  Rideau Carleton Raceway.
Inverness Raceway rolled out the red carpet for some flashy rookies Sunday afternoon, as the freshman pacers battled in a lone division of the Nova Scotia Stake and a trio of Atlantic Sires Stakes affairs.

Elektra Express was a dominant winner against her two-year-old pacing filly foes in the $9,868 Nova Scotia Stake. Trainer/driver Marc Campbell had her on top through panels of :32.1, 1:01.2 and 1:32.1 before kicking home in :29.4 to win by 6-1/4 lengths over Glenview Paisley. Putnams Fire was third.

Danica Ellis of Brookfield, NS bred and owns the daughter of Western Paradise-Expressly Hanover. Shes a perfect 5-for-5 to kick off her career, and along the way shes managed to bank $18,723.

Earlier on the card, The Hawk captured the first of three $7,640 divisions of the Atlantic Sires Stakes for two-year-old pacing colts and geldings. The son of Ameripan Gigolo-Gordyism was second-placed-first after coming up a nose short before the Judges passed on their ruling.

Woodmere Soul and Carters Caper took turns on the lead through fractions of :30.1, 1:00.3 and 1:31.2, with Carters Caper then using a :29.1 closing quarter to prevail by a nose of the hard-driving The Hawk. The Judges ruled, however, that Carters Caper caused interference to Cowboys Dont Cry going to the quarter pole, and as a result the infraction he was placed back to fifth. The Hawk was declared the winner in 2:00.3, with Woodmere Soul and Southsidelightning also working their way into the top three.

Trainer/driver Danny Romo mapped out the winning trip for the gelding who is owned by Thomas Hawco, Jr. of Sydney, NS. The homebred is 3-for-6 to date with earnings of $8,898.

Jigtime Jones survived a first-over trip to win the second division of the ATSS for driver Neldie MacDonald and trainer Clare MacDonald, who celebrated a three-win performance on the matinee program.

Jigtime Jones commenced his first-over charge on the way to the half, and after Tobinator put up the first quarter in :29.2 those two battled through middle splits of :59.2 and 1:29.3. Jigtime Jones edged past the pacesetter in the closing strides to win by a neck in 2:00.4. Tobinator was second, with J J Cassius taking home third prize.

Neldie MacDonald of Antigonish shares ownership on the gelded son of Western Paradise-Gold Luck with Ian Tate of St. Andrews, NS. The win improved the youngsters record to 2-1-1 from seven starts and the lions share of the loot bumped his bankroll to $10,333.

Nameisonthehalter went to the front and didnt look back in the final contest en route to a 2:00.1 decision for driver Gilles Barrieau. The son of Brandons Cowboy-Keltic Sarah led through intervals of :30.4, 1:01.3 and 1:31.1 before sealing the deal with a :29-second closing quarter. The margin of victory was a length over Complete Player, with Mighty Cowboy another four lengths back in third.

Lawrence Snow of Glace Bay, NS owns and trains the gelding who won for the fifth time in nine tries. His productive campaign includes earnings of $15,476.

To view results for Sunday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Sunday Results  Inverness Raceway.
Fabrice Souloy, trainer of 2014 Breeders Crown Open Trot winner Commander Crowe and several other international stars, has had four horses confirmed with extremely high tests for cobalt.

Souloy's horse Your Highness had a cobalt level of 395 when she competed in this year's Oslo Grand Prix and defeated Nuncio, whose level was just 1.22.

According to a report late last week by harnessracing.com, a Norwegian trotting website had broken the news of the cobalt positives on Thursday night. Then, on Friday morning, the Swedish Trotting Association confirmed the positive tests for Souloy's horses  Un Mec d'Heripre, Your Highness and Lionel. Un Mec d'Heripre won an elimination for the Elitlopp over Nuncio and then finished third in the final, which was won by Nuncio. Your Highness, a daughter of Chocolatier, won the Oslo Grand Prix over Nuncio.

In addition, Timone EK, who won a feature race at Bjerjke the same day as the Oslo Grand Prix, had a cobalt level of 271. He too was trained by Souloy.

Swedish trotting official Johan Lindberg told the media the first positive test for cobalt came from Lionel in the sample taken from the horse when he competed in the Oslo Grand Prix. Lindberg said Lionel's positive was the "reason we went back and checked the other horses during the day, too."

Lindberg said cobalt is not a part of the normal testing conducted by the National Veterinary Institute in Sweden.

Stefan Melander, the trainer and owner of Nuncio, has now picked up an additional two wins  and approximately $90,000 in purses  due to the situation.

Swedish trotting officials said that Souloy has been suspended indefinitely in Sweden and other European trotting authorities will be notified. Purse money must also be returned. Further penalties will be reviewed.

The limits for cobalt are the same for all of the major European trotting countries: 100 nanograms per milliliter in urine and 25 nanograms per milliliter in plasma/blood. In the US, the limit established by the Racing Medication & Testing Consortium (RMTC) is 25 in plasma/blood.

"Importantly, the 25 ppb (parts per billion) total cobalt threshold in blood is comparable to the 100-200 ppb thresholds in urine being administered internationally," noted RMTC chairman Dr. Rick Arthur in making the announcement last March.

Dr. George Maylin at New York's Morrisville lab, has conducted testing on cobalt and suggested the level for calling a positive be 75 ppb, but his work, sponsored by the U.S. Trotting Association, has not yet been made public.

The positive European tests, which were reportedly confirmed by a French laboratory, are as follows:

Un Mec d'Heripre  prior to Elitlopp elimination400; prior to Elitlopp final371; prior to Oslo Grand Prix521

Your Highness  prior to Oslo Grand Prix395

Lionel  prior to Oslo Grand Prix-468

(With files from harnessracing.com)
Rosecroft, which has hosted the biggest stars in harness racing during its 67-year history, begins a new era Tuesday evening (September 13) when it opens its fall meet under the new ownership of The Stronach Group, parent company of the Maryland Jockey Club.

The track that has hosted champions such as Forrest Skipper, Mack Lobell, Camtastic and Cams Card Shark, along with the sports most accomplished horsemen, opens with a 12-race program beginning at 6:40 p.m.

The sixth-race feature, a $12,000 pace featuring a field of seven, includes millionaire Feel Like A Fool, Diamondkeeper, Rock On Precious and Rock N Roll Jet.

While Sal Sinatra, the president and general manager of the Maryland Jockey Club, said he hopes to learn and observe during the fall meet, the Maryland Jockey Club is already investing money in the facility and moving ahead with some changes.

A high-definition, 21-by-30 television is being installed in the infield to replace the old tote board. A new starting gate will be unveiled opening night, and a new Pick-5 wager with a low 12 per cent takeout will also make its debut Tuesday evening. Superfectas, trifectas and exactas will be offered on every race. Two daily doubles will also be offered.

Were going to observe and learn this fall at Rosecroft, much like we did when we first arrived at Laurel, said Sinatra, who arrived in Maryland in December of 2014. We want to learn the habits of our customers, what they like and dont like, and what needs to be improved.

We think the new infield television, along with a high-definition broadcast, will provide our fans a much crisper broadcast. The horsemen have reacted well to the newly-paved paddock. Well have a new tote system, and well also have a new starting gate. We think the Pick-5 with a low 12 per cent takeout will also be welcomed by our fans. We think this will be popular since most races will have nine starters.

The Maryland Jockey Club will also try to grow Rosecrofts presence by featuring its simulcasts at its Thoroughbred and off-track facilities in-state, as well as outside the state. For instance, for the first time since 2008 Rosecrofts races will be shown in Florida, home of The Stronach Groups Gulfstream Park.

Were really excited about the fall meet at Rosecroft, Sinatra said. We want to increase export sites, introduce more fans and bettors to the great sport of harness racing, and we look forward to working closely with the horsemen.

(Rosecroft Raceway)
Hunterton Farm's consignments for the Oct. 4 - 8 Lexington Selected Yearling Sale and Sept. 16 Ohio Selected Jug Sale are now online.

The consignment can be viewed at huntertonfarm.com.

Videos and pedigrees for over 80 yearlings by the industrys top sires can be viewed on the website for the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale and 18 yearlings for the Ohio Selected Jug Sale.

The Lexington consignment includes these featured yearlings:

Hip 70 TACTICAL LANDING, a full brother to Mission Brief T, 3, 1:50.2F $1,599,587

Hip 15 QUANTUM KEMP a full brother to Trixton T, 3, 1:50.3M $947,057

Hip 68 REDEEMING GRACE a Cantab Hall sister to Hambletonian champion Muscle Massive T, 3, 1:51.0M $1,239,138

Hip 4 CIAO DOLCE Credit Winner filly out of prolific Pizza Dolce T, 3, 1:52.4M $668,824

Please contact the farm at 859-987-3983 or email [email protected] to inspect the yearlings at the Paris, Kentucky farm.

(Hunterton Farm and Sales Agency)
Over One Thousand Leaders Gather to Make Martin Luther King a Saint

Contact: Archbishop David J. Billings, III, Holy Christian Orthodox Church, 800-459-0991 ext. 1010

SPRINGFIELD, Mass., Sept. 12, 2016 /Standard Newswire/ -- Christian leaders from around the world gathered in The Christian Cathedral on Friday September 9th to participate in the glorification of Saint Martin Luther King of Georgia.

Archbishop Timothy Paul of The Holy Christian Orthodox Church proclaimed the sainthood after years of preparation. The Holy Christian Orthodox has 4.4 million members around the world.

The Eastern Orthodox Church tradition is canonization to glorification. There are over 600 million orthodox Christians around the world. The glorification by the Holy Christian Orthodox Church will encourage acceptance by Christians around the world.

Archbishop Timothy Stated "If people remember Martin with devotion, it is clearly a different kind of devotion than traditional saints have so often received. People do not honor him because he was perfect. They remember him with love, in spite of his messy life. They do not expect him to intervene in their lives to relieve their suffering. Rather, they look to his example for inspiration. Aware of his failings, they also recognize that his dedication to Christ's gospel motivated all the major decisions in his life. That dedication led him ultimately to his death, a death he might have avoided if he had been willing to turn his back on the gospel of Jesus and its demands."

Saint Martin Luther king was not a great ascetic. His enemies relentlessly probed his affairs while he was alive and found that he had a weakness for the affection of women other than his wife. His life was as messy as most of ours. He was hardly an exemplar of the kind of virtue that endorses our religious institutions. Instead, he challenged attitudes bishops and laity had held for centuries. He didn't perform miracles while he was alive and hasn't performed any since his death. Yet millions of people remember and honor him as a holy man.

The glorification ceremony on Friday, included the unveiling of the Saint Martin Luther King, Jr. icon and the inclusion of the sainted martyr in the All Saints Day observance and the date of his repose April 4th, in Christian calendars around the world.
Er is iets heel griezeligs aan de gang in Nederland. Dat wij geleidelijk aan in een totalitaire 'democratie' wegzinken wordt steeds ...
It's Election season and our editor's mailbox is overflowing. Who do your neighbors support? Read about it here.
By Daisy Handfield

CHRISTOPHER Forbes, a 33-year-old Bahamian, has been charged with two counts of murder, which tied him to the horrific death of two Dominican women.





Yuneiry Veras and Sonrineida Moreno Arias were found dead in Providenciales, within three months of each other in a secluded area in the western district of Providenciales.





The accused murderer appeared in Magistrates Court #1, in Providenciales on Monday, before Chief Magistrate Tanya Lobban- Jackson.





The arraignment, in keeping with the magistrates orders, was read in closed court.





All in the courtroom were ordered to leave, including family members and journalists.





Forbes, who is being represented by attorney Arthur Hamilton, has been remanded and is scheduled to appear in the Supreme Court in Grand Turk on November 4, for a sufficiency hearing.





Forbes was arrested by detectives from the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force (RTCIPF) at his home in Millennium Heights, on August 31.





Sonrineida Moreno Arias, a 26-year-old Dominican woman, was found naked in the bushes on July 13. The last time she was seen was around 4 am that morning, after leaving her residence on Robinson Street, Five Cays.





According to reports, around or before 4am she was picked up by an unknown driver.





She reportedly left work at the Shadow Bar around 3 am Sunday morning and was dropped off at her home by a co-worker.





The body of Yuneiry Veras was also discovered in the bushes in a remote area of Providenciales at about 1.04pm on Saturday, April 23.





Veras was last seen on April 18, at about 2.15am, at her residence in Blue Hills. She was wearing a black top and blue short skirt.





Assistant Consul for the Dominican Republic, Edwin Hernandez issued a press statement last Friday, the day that Forbes was charged.





He said: "The Dominican community is very happy about the news of the arrest by the police, because it shows their commitment in dealing equally and fairly with the issues of every community.





Hernandez said that the Dominican community hopes that justice will be served swiftly, and that there is enough evidence to secure a conviction.












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After faulty batteries led to a global recall of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones, Samsung Electronics will only use batteries made by China's ATL for its replacement devices, Yonhap news agency reported. After the recall announcement earlier this month, the South Korean company is said to have contacted ATL to order an additional four million batteries as replacements in the Galaxy Note 7 devices. It had procured most of the batteries from its subsidiary.

Notedly, ATL also supplies batteries for Apple's iPhone series, which means Samsung could face supply restraint if demand soars for the latest iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. The Chinese company is set to become the sole battery supplier for Samsung by shipments for the time being since the company stopped receiving batteries from its main provider and has not found a third supplier.

Reportedly, Samsung used to get 70 percent of its batteries from its subsidiary while 30 percent was from ATL for Galaxy Note 7 devices. Samsung had earlier urged its consumers to stop using its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones and get a replacement soon.

"There have been a small number of cases reported globally and we are currently conducting a thorough inspection with our suppliers to identify possible affected batteries in the market. However, because our customers' safety is an absolute priority at Samsung, we have stopped sales of the Galaxy Note7," the world's largest smartphone maker said in a statement on Saturday.

"For customers who already have Galaxy Note7 devices, we now ask that you power down your device and return to using your previous phone," the statement added. "We will voluntarily replace your Galaxy Note7 device with a new one," the statement noted. Samsung plans to provide the replacement device beginning September 19 in South Korea, but schedules for other countries vary.

"Samsung continues to ensure that consumer safety remains our top priority. We are asking users to power down their Galaxy Note7s and exchange them now," said Tim Baxter, President of Samsung Electronics America, in an official statement. "New Note7 replacement devices will be issued to exchange program participants upon completion of the CPSC (US Consumer Product Safety Commission) process. In the interim, consumers can return their Note7 for another device," Baxter said.

IANS
tech2 News Staff

Google is yet to launch its new devices for 2016 and if rumours are true, the Nexus lineup will be replaced with the Pixel branding. Weve seen numerous leaks pointing to two similar-looking smartphones from HTC. These could be launched as the Pixel (Sailfish) and Pixel XL (Marlin). A third device was also said to be in the works, a tablet that will be made by Chinese manufacturer, Huawei.

Huawei made the Nexus 6P smartphone last year which went on to become one of the most premium Nexus devices till date. A recent tweet from infamous leaker Evan Blass had pointed out that Huawei has been once again chosen by Google this year, but to make a new tablet. He said that it is due later this year and will feature 4GB of RAM.

https://twitter.com/evleaks/status/772894822193623040?lang=en

A bunch of specs of the rumoured tablet have emerged which say that it will carry a 7-inch display with a resolution of 25601440. It will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor with 4GB of RAM and 64GB internal memory. It will also come with a 13 MP camera.

The specs sounds pretty good, but considering the tablet market is slowing down, it will be difficult for Google to sell its new tablet. Google has not launched a third-party tablet since 2014 which was the Nexus 7 made by Asus. Last year it went on to make its own 2-in-1 tablet, the Pixel-C, which sounded like an interesting product, however it didnt do all that well.

Expect new Pixel devices and the Nexus 7P to launch on 4 October as Google is hosting a special event. All will be revealed soon so stay tuned.
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Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer stands to collect a $44 million severance package if she leaves after Verizon completes its purchase of the once-mighty internet company. Mayer hasn't announced plans to leave, but industry observers say she's unlikely to stay after the $4.8 billion sale closes early next year.

The 41-year-old executive stands to collect $3 million in cash and almost $41 million worth of stock options and awards under a "golden parachute" agreement described in a regulatory filing Friday. In a filing last spring, Yahoo said Mayer could walk away with $55 million in compensation, but the estimates can vary with the value of Yahoo's stock and the date she leaves.

Mayer has been CEO for four years but failed to reverse a long-standing slide in Yahoo's advertising business. After an unsuccessful effort to spin off its investment in the Chinese internet giant Alibaba, Yahoo Inc. began entertaining offers for its core business earlier this year.

Yahoo weighed a variety of offers, according to the proxy statement filed Friday. One was a merger proposal from Yahoo Japan, a separate company that Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo co-owns with Japanese tech giant SoftBank. Another bid came from an unnamed group that asked Yahoo co-founder David Filo to consider financing its bid.

Filo, who sits on Yahoo's board of directors, agreed to talk with the group and recused himself from participating in further board discussions about a possible sale, according to the statement. The filing doesn't say if Filo ultimately decided to join the group. But in the end, the unnamed group submitted a $4.35 billion bid that was lower than Verizon's.

Verizon hasn't spelled out its plans but it's expected to continue operating at least some of Yahoo's popular internet sites under the familiar brand, while combining some of its ad business with the AOL operation it acquired earlier. A separate holding company, under a new name, will keep Yahoo's stake in Alibaba and some other investments.

Associated Press
Anirudh Regidi

Microsofts Surface devices first raised their head in 2012. These hybrid, 2-in-1 devices were expected to usher in a new era for Microsoft; an era where Microsoft would transform from a software and services company to a hardware one.

Four years later, Im not sure if that plan has actually worked out for them.

On the Surface

The Surface devices are easily the most compelling Windows devices in the market today. In my opinion, only the Dell XPS 13 line and Lenovos Thinkpad line offer something as compelling to the end user.

The Surface devices did get off to a rather rocky start. The first devices came out around the same time as the terribly conceived Windows 8 and to make matters worse, the first Surface device used Windows RT, which was an ARM fork of Windows 8.

A lack of apps and long-term strategy for an ARM-powered Windows-based device killed that off pretty quickly. By the time the Surface Pro and Surface 2 came and went, Microsoft had already written off about $1 billion of Surface stock.

It was only after the launch of the Surface Pro 3 and Pro 4 that things actually started looking up for the Surface series. The Surface Book, while let down by a steep price, was a showcase of the true power of Windows 10.

Sadly, these devices didnt really catch on the way they were expected to. Sure, the Surface lineup was something to lust after, if youre into such things, but the good Surface devices were a bit late in coming and the price set up a steep barrier that only the well-heeled could pass.

Dont get me wrong, the Surface devices are gorgeous and, if nothing else, marvels of engineering. They are, however, very niche.

Unlike Apple, Microsoft has always been a software and services company, much like Google, and their strength lay in the licensing of their software.

The vendors are important for Microsoft, be it HP, Lenovo, Sony or anyone else. With the Surface line, Microsoft effectively eliminated their vendors from the running. Why would you buy, say, an Asus or Acer 2-in-1 when a Surface device is also available?

The same thing happened with Microsofts Lumia phones as well. Microsoft bought Nokia, built some gorgeous phones and tacked on Windows Phone 7 to said phones. While there was quite a bit of initial interest in Windows Phone 7 devices, the moment Microsoft started pushing Lumia, third-party vendors started backing off.

One can understand Microsofts point of view. The PC market was dying after all and few manufacturers actually offered a compelling Windows experience. Bloated laptops and insufficient hardware were only two of the myriad issues faced by Microsoft.

Nexus vs Surface and Lumia

Googles Nexus program on the other hand, followed a very different approach; one that Microsoft would have done well to ape. Google has much of the same problems that Microsoft does, but they choose to tackle it differently.

Google knew from the start that they werent a hardware company per se and they wanted to get Android on as many devices as possible.

Googles approach with the Nexus program was simple, put a great manufacturer in the spotlight and show the world how good a truly Google-curated Android experience could be.

Google bought Motorola, yes, and under their guidance, Motorola built some of the best smartphones theyve ever made (the Moto G and Moto X), which, again, showed the world how easy it was to make and use a good Android device.

However, Google soon caught on to the fact that they were alienating other manufacturers and eventually sold off their stake in Motorola to Lenovo. Manufacturers are left to their own devices (pun intended) and Google would step in once a year with a new Nexus device that attempted to redirect energies in the right path. And you know what? It worked.

Nexus devices are considered to be among the best Android smartphones out there and while companies like LG, Huawei and Samsung were already on the map, the Nexus program extended their reach.

Microsofts strategy is understandable, they saw an opportunity (a bankrupt Nokia, for a start) and took it, but in the long term it didnt work out. I cant help but feel that a Nexus-esque strategy for Microsoft would go a long way towards their cause.

Microsoft knows how to make great devices, but they need to show others how to do that as well.
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Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has stopped passengers from carrying the recently-launched Samsung Galaxy Note 7, following reports of the smartphone's batteries exploding, officials said on Sunday. "In view of recent reports about Samsung Galaxy Note 7 devices and the international warnings to airline passengers not to carry this smartphone during flights, PIA passengers are also strongly advised not to carry it, not even in their check-in luggage, as it may compromise aircraft and passenger safety," said a statement issued by the airlines spokesperson.

The flag carrier's move came following some foreign airlines stopped their customers from taking the phone online. Samsung recalled 2.5 million phones last week after a US family's jeep caught fire due to the explosion of the phone. After the incident, several other customers also complained that their phone exploded during charging or answering calls.

The smartphone company said battery problems led to the phones catching fire, adding that it was difficult to sort out the affected phones among the already sold ones. The phone company announced to replace all devices that were handed in from September 19. Launched last month, the seventh version of the Galaxy Note series was otherwise well-received by consumers and critics.

IANS
Sheldon Pinto

While some have banned this as a threat, others have laid down the rules stating that it should be powered down and definitely not stored in check-in luggage during a flight. No, I am not talking about a portable power bank, I am talking about the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, which is probably Samsung's best phablet offering yet. And it is pretty much that, provided Samsung had tested the Galaxy Note 7 for a wee bit longer.

With the LG V20 to be launched soon, it was evident Samsung had to rush its product to market before Apple and LG introduced their flagship devices. Apple recently launched its "best iPhone 7" and LG just last week announced its V20 flagship for video and audio buffs. Samsung announced its Galaxy Note 7 on 2 August so that it could get a head start but somehow seems to have skipped on extended testing that has resulted in the massacre of the Note 7 we see in multiple news publications today.

https://twitter.com/MKBHD/status/771720311477796864

After about 24 cases of the Note 7 catching fire, Samsung finally released a statement stating that it has halted sales and that it was going in for a rather expensive worldwide recall of all of its handsets. A report from Bloomberg stated that Samsung would be spending around $1 billion to complete the recall of about 2.5 million smartphones that have either been shipped to users (and are using them already) or those that were on the way to customers who pre-ordered the device. And I am pretty sure this number does not even come close to how much the brand's reputation has taken a hit after this.

https://twitter.com/FT/status/775197585871081472

One tiny mistake, a quality check, has now branded a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 as a threat on flights, burned down a man's SUV and even someone's room, indeed there's plenty more to come.

A replaceable battery could have the day

So as I sat down to analyse the whole situation, it struck me as to how a simple replaceable battery on the Galaxy Note 7 could have helped Samsung spend less on a recall. My cousin uses the Galaxy Note 3 and he skipped on the Note 5 simply because it did not come with a user replaceable battery. With his Note 3 now ageing, it was time to move on and our first impressions with the Note 7 certainly turned out to be a positive one. So he finally gave in and decided to pre-book a Note 7 despite the fact that it had a non removable battery (times are changing and I suggested that he should move on). And then news about Samsung Note 7 devices exploding surfaces online. Totally disappointing!

If Samsung had to stick to removable batteries on the Galaxy Note 7, it would not have to worry so much about the scenario it faces today. Samsung could have simply shipped the new battery cells to its customers and the Note 7 would not be branded as "threat" as it is right now.

More importantly, with such a polished smartphone, Samsung would not have customers losing faith in its brand. Customers who had placed a pre-order back in August will have a long wait as Samsung has not given a date as to when it will start shipping those Note 7 devices with replaced batteries!

Why not a replaceable battery?

In the quest to make smartphones waterproof and dust resistant, smartphone manufacturers are indeed reducing the number of cavities and gaps on a smartphone (Apple even went with a static home button and killed the 3.5mm headphone jack). One of the more obvious solutions is to replace the large removable back cover (that lets you access the SIM card, microSD slot and the battery cell) with a sealed solution and tiny SIM trays.

But that is not the reason why manufacturers went in for a removable battery. As CNET's Jessica Dolcourt pointed out in an article dated February 2012, the objective was a slimmer design that was seamless and delivered a better, more rigid body. The same was revealed in an interview with Jerry Hart, Nokia's senior product manager of Windows Phone with the Lumia 800's polycarbonate body in focus.

Things get better (for LG and Apple that is)

All of that hard work and effort put in by Samsung to get a head start are now in vain. And things only get worse since Samsung's flagship Note 7 smartphones are headed back to service centers and manufacturing plants, while Apple iPhone 7 and 7 Plus and the LG V20 are on their way to their customers. Samsung's Note fans will indeed wait (as it is still a beautiful Android smartphone) but what about those new buyers who were looking up to switch from a iPhone 6s Plus or an LG V10 this year?

Well, Apple has a slick Jet Black monster that comes with up to 256GB of storage, dual 12MP cameras on the back and a IP 67 water and dust resistance rating in the form of the iPhone 7 Plus.

LG has the V20 with B&O audio chops, dual cameras and a removable battery. LG India, there could not be a better time than now to launch your smartphone in India! What makes things better (worse for Samsung) is the cherry on the cake, Android 7.0 Nougat. The V20 is also the world's first smartphone to feature the updated version of Android out of the box!

A lasting impression

Even once the new devices with fresh new (non-exploding) batteries start shipping, the Note 7 users will almost seem like terrorists on flights and public places with a phone that was once termed "capable of exploding".

https://twitter.com/RubyCanine/status/774791465365016576

https://twitter.com/Nick_Craver/status/774796826776104960

It almost seems like a stigma that Samsung will never be able to get rid off during the life time of the device, even though we think (with our initial impressions) that this could be the best Android smartphone till date. There are thousands of memes out there that mock the Note 7, something that is well beyond than what Samsung can handle as damage control.

So the next time your on a dinner date, just don't pull out your Note 7!
Naina Khedekar

Amid reports about slowdown in funding and other helter skelter in the startup space, a refreshing and encouraging news comes in the form of the recent $50 million funding for Byju's (Android, iOS), an edu-tech startup in India. It is being co-funded by Chan Zuckerberg initiative, Sequoia Capital, Sofina, Lightspeed Ventures, and TIL. While Byju's Classes are quite popular, there is a little we've known about the man himself, who started his entrepreneurship journey way before the whole startup scene went mainstream. Byju Raveendran squeezed in some time for a quick chat with us, and here's the humbling story.

Entrepreneur by chance and a teacher by choice

In 2003, during his two months break from an overseas job as a service engineer, Byju decided to help some of his friends appearing for CAT in Bangalore. It was an informal way of helping, and he also took the exam, and scored 100 percentile. He started teaching some of his friends, and took up the test yet again in 2005 without any preparation, and scored a perfect 100 percentile yet again. This time he also appeared for IIM-A, B, C interviews and cleared all of them. However, decided against pursuing MBA and instead saw potential in teaching students how to crack CAT. So, all in all, it was just by chance, that he took the entrepreneurial path, but teaching was a choice he made. Slowly and steadily, it was through word of mouth that the number of students grew. It can be called a slightly different kind of offline teaching as he would teach over 1000 students in an auditorium back in 2007.

"Our core differentiator has always been how we teach. We were forced to innovative to teach in a non-interactive way and predict what kind of doubts the student can have. Back then, even in the offline format with classrooms with a large capacity no interaction was possible. So, to visualise and conceptualise became our strengths. The growth came via word of mouth. We grew from Bangalore to 9 cities. I would travel to 9 cities in a week to teach and this continued till 2009," Byju tells us.

Going offline to online

Hopping between 9 cities, Byju soon started using video format for CAT and similar entrance exams. But, it was in 2011 that he formed the company, dubbed Byjus, with the help of some of his students who had graduated from IIMs. It was in 2011 that they started creating core learning products, which are today a part of the app-based format. Byju tells us that it took 4 years to create these products. In fact, while creating products for students from standard 4 to standard 12, he tried to make it effective as well as interesting.

We made sure that the learning experience was created in a format that students liked. It was always effective, but we tried making it interesting with interactive videos. To build a learning app for school students to get their fundamentals clear in those early crucial years when they start learning as it will have long term impact. We are teaching students how they should learn rather than what they should learn, he added.

So, all the work on products began way back in 2011, but was out just last year. Meanwhile, Byjus was running test prep videos online, which ensured that the company is funded.

Even with his unique offline way of teaching in auditoriums, the online space always existed in the form of online videos. It was soon a transition from online to core-learning. The aim was to help school students learn better. It was more about hows and whys, rather than whats, Byju tells us.

Keeping pace with technology

Byju's dive into the online teaching world was well-timed, or rather a step ahead. And, he has been keeping pace with technology with the timing of the app launch being more or less perfect. The quick smartphone penetration has enabled easy access for a mobile-first country like ours. "We have been changing how we distribute our content. Technology has been an enabler. Our app-based product has a reach of over 1400+, and not just metros but also students from smaller towns. The app-based model has several advantages, students understand it easily after some usage, and the app also begins to understand the student learning behaviour. Data plays a huge role to personalise learning," he explains.

In fact, he says personalising has been a pain point in offline or conventional method, because it's usually one to many way of teaching. Visual and concept play a huge role in personalising, and a personal device also ensures higher engagement time.

Kerala's Azhikode and extra-curricular activities

Byjus online and mobile products have reached out students across India, not just limited to metros, but also small towns, wherein accessibility remains struggle. In fact, Byju himself comes from a small village in Kerala, Azhikode. While you may think, Byju is all about books and technology, but its the extra-curricular activities that he believes has had a huge impact on him. There was a lot of importance given to extracurricular activity, at least from where I come from and that has helped me. I was interested in, and played multiple games at university level and some at state junior level. There was a good amount of focus on what happens outside the class, and not just inside, he explains.

The balanced focus has helped me in-class and out of class helped him a great deal. Thats how you develop your skills on how to work in a team, lead a team, how to inspire, the killer instinct and controlled aggression, its all from what you learn in class and a great deal from outside, he adds.

Byju ensured that he put a great deal of time in learning every subject that he liked. And, today, Byjus products are built around those ideologies wherein students can learn on their own. His products are about breaking the vicious cycle of memorising, replicating and forgetting soon after the exam. Byju wants students to compete with them selves to do better.

As an entrepreneur, he did face a fair share of challenges. One of the biggest challenges in those early days was getting parents to believe in the online teaching methods. "Our biggest competition has been the perception among parents wherein they think students need to follow a certain way of exam-based learning and need to be spoon-fed. We are continuously overcoming that challenge by offering a freemium model," he said. He claims when students start using the app, they like it, and when parents begin to notice that the app is being used for learning then it becomes a big advantage. They have just seen children using phone for watching movies and playing games, and that's how the challenge becomes an advantage. They like the explanation of concepts with interactive videos and reports, and then they soon become continuous learners and opt for annual subscription. Byju says, with this, every student is competing with himself.

$50 million funding and going international

Byjus recently raised $50 million co-funded by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chans investment arm The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), Sequoia Capital, Sofina, Lightspeed Ventures and Times Internet Ltd.

While Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Ventures are popular investors, its Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's first investment in an Indian startup. When asked, Byju tells us that CZI liked how they are making an impact across India, in metros and just small towns, and how technology is being used for personalised learning.

"So far, BYJU's has 250,000 subscribers who use the app for an average of 40 minutes a day -- and it's working. A survey found that almost 80 percent of parents said it improved their children's learning dramatically," Zuckerberg writes in a Facebook post.

Talking about the funding, international expansion is on the cards, he adds. Byju's plans to focus on creating similar compelling products to help students learn on their own, specifically for international markets. However, he quickly adds that they wont customise the existing products that were created for India. They aim for a personalised experience for those students, starting with English speaking nations. The products will take about 18-24 months to be launched. He adds that the model will be similar as these countries are a lot more advanced on how they access tech.

Byju is looking to create a strong product that can help students and make learning more effective and believes that it can come from India. He currently has the expertise with a 500+ high-quality product development team split across three cores  media, content and tech.
Wipro has announced a partnership with Israel-based IntSights Cyber Intelligence Ltd to bolster and expand its Threat Intelligence as- a- Service offering. Intsights has developed a sophisticated cyber threat intelligence platform which provides advance warning and customized insights about potential cyberattacks and recommends remedial action. The company monitors the open, deep and dark web, including cyber-crime forums and social media platforms for signs of targeted threats against enterprises and provides alerts in near real-time to enable timely response and mitigation.

Wipros Threat Intelligence as a Service offering delivers in-depth analysis of cyber threats originating from in-house sources and third-party sources or threat actors and provides enterprises with accurate cyber intelligence and incident mitigation strategies.

Sheetal Mehta, Vice President & Global Head, Cybersecurity & Risk Services, Wipro Limited said, Wipros Threat Intelligence as a Service, aims to provide enterprises with targeted information centered around analytics, categorization and prioritization of cyber threats in real-time using proprietary data mining algorithms and unique machine learning techniques, apart from incident response and remediation capabilities. Our partnership with IntSights provides a solid foundation for an end-to-end solution spanning intelligence gathering to threat mitigation and remediation.

Guy Nizan, IntSights CEO and Co-Founder, said, IntSights threat intelligence platform provides MSSPs (Managed Security Service Providers) with a powerful automated solution that collects, analyzes and remediates cyber threats for our customers. Our partnership with Wipro will allow their analysts to focus their efforts toward investigating and researching threats, instead of deflecting time and resources to monitor a huge amount of sources and analyze irrelevant data.

@Technuter.com News Service
The Undead Archives

I have finally salvaged my pre-Blogger TDR archives and added them into Blogger. They are almost totally in the form of one giant post for each month. And the formatting strayed from the originals. Sorry. But historians everywhere can rejoice that this treasure trove of my thoughts is restored to the world.
by The Associated Press

Louisiana's state economic development agency says August's devastating flooding caused more than $2 billion in damage to businesses.

The office, known as LED, commissioned a damage assessment and released the findings of Friday, saying more than 6,000 businesses in 22 parishes took in floodwaters.

LED estimates nearly 20,000 businesses' operations were interrupted. The agency says at the peak of the flooding, about 278,000 Louisiana residents couldn't work because of office closures, business operation suspensions, transportation problems or other disruptions.

Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration says the flooding caused at least $8.7 billion in damage to residential and commercial property, an estimate expected to grow larger when public property damages are tallied.

Edwards is asking Congress for $2 billion in additional disaster aid, on top of other ongoing federal assistance programs.
Pre-purchase property inspection is a relatively new thing in the United Kingdom. Its not something that most people have heard about, but it has become increasingly popular over the last few years with the rise in property prices and increased demand for high quality homes.

What are the benefits of pre-purchase building inspection? What can you expect to find out when you pay someone else to inspect your home before you buy it? And what should you look for during an inspection?

Many people want to know if theyre buying a house thats been well maintained or if its had any serious problems. If youve found a place on the market that seems attractive, but then discover some issues after moving in, you may not be as excited about buying it as you thought you were.

Its important to do your due diligence when looking at properties. A lot goes into making a property appealing to potential buyers, from the landscaping to the flooring to the kitchen appliances. The same applies when inspecting a property  there are many things that need checking over to make sure everything is running smoothly.

Here are some of the benefits of performing a pre-purchase inspection:

You get to see exactly what will happen to your money

When you go shopping for a new car, youll probably be shown several different models. You might even be shown one that looks like a great value, but doesnt fit around all of the extra features that you want. When it comes time to actually buy the vehicle, however, you wont have seen how your money will be spent on it once you drive it off the showroom floor.

Likewise, when you shop for a new home, you dont really know what youre getting yourself into until you move in. In order to get a feel for whether the home youre considering is what you want, you normally have to spend quite a bit of time inside it. This allows you to learn more about everything that youre going to be spending your hard-earned cash on.

A pre-purchase building inspection gives you much the same kind of experience without having to spend thousands of dollars. Since youre paying for the service, you can expect to see exactly what youre paying for, instead of just seeing a vague idea of what you might end up with.

You find out about potential major repairs

Some buildings are very expensive to maintain, which means that owners often neglect them for the sake of saving money. While youre paying for a building inspection, youre also paying for a professional who knows how to spot signs of trouble and repair work that needs doing.

If you notice that a particular area of your new home needs fixing right away, you can call in an expert to take care of it quickly. If you find that theres something wrong with your boiler, you wont have to wait weeks for a plumber to come over and fix it. Instead, youll have access to a solution immediately.

You can save hundreds of pounds by finding out about potential problems early on

One of the biggest expenses when you first buy a home is the cost of moving in. Many people dont realize this until its too late. Buying a home involves not only paying for the actual house, but also for moving costs, furniture, and other items that have to be moved along with the home.

Having a good idea ahead of time of what youre likely to encounter can help you avoid these kinds of costs. If you know youll need to replace the plumbing system, for example, youll be able to put together a budget for the expense and plan accordingly.

You can protect your investment by finding out if the homes been well cared for

While there are plenty of people who think that houses always look better when theyre newly built, youd be surprised at how well maintained older residences can still look nice. Sometimes, though, those homes need some additional maintenance to keep them looking their best.

This could involve repairs that arent so noticeable or small improvements that you wouldnt consider otherwise. Even worse, some houses have fallen into disrepair without anyone noticing. This is why having a professional perform a building inspection prior to purchasing a home is such a big benefit.

Not only will it give you insight into the state of the property, but it will also give you peace of mind knowing youre not getting taken advantage of. As long as youre aware of the potential pitfalls, youll have less reason to worry about the state of your new home.

You can use information gathered during a building inspection to negotiate a lower price

If youre worried about buying a home because you suspect that it may need extensive renovation work, you may already have a rough idea of how much work youll need to do to bring it up to scratch. That knowledge can come in handy if you decide to buy the home.

You can use all of the details that you gather during a building inspection to present a realistic picture of what the home is worth to prospective buyers. If a potential buyer thinks that the home is worth more than what you paid for it, you can try negotiating a lower price.

You can sell your home faster and for more money

If you decide to list your home on the market soon after buying it, youll need to price it accurately in order to attract buyers. But if youve already done a thorough building inspection, youll know exactly what work is needed and what the current market conditions are.

In other words, youll be able to make a more accurate estimate of the amount of money youve invested in the home and how much its worth. If you find that youre selling your house for close to its full market value, you can use this information to convince the potential buyer that your home is worth the asking price.

Even if youre planning to stay in the home for a while before you decide to sell, the fact that you did a thorough building inspection will give you more confidence when listing it. Prospective buyers will know exactly what theyre paying for.

Your home will hold its value longer

As mentioned earlier, the value of a home depends heavily upon the condition of the building itself. If your home is in bad shape, potential buyers wont be interested in buying it. On the other hand, if youve performed a thorough building inspection and know what sort of repairs are necessary, you can offer your prospective buyer a compelling reason to invest in your property.

When you buy a home, youre essentially agreeing to have it inspected periodically to ensure that it stays in top shape. Not only does this allow you to avoid expensive repairs down the road, but it can also increase the value of your home.

You can make smart decisions about property investments

Buying real estate isnt as simple as just driving a couple of minutes to pick up a house. There are lots of considerations involved, ranging from location to cost. The same is true when youre investing in property.

If you find a house that meets all of your requirements, youll want to make sure that you have a solid understanding of where it stands with regards to the rest of the market. If you havent spent enough time researching the area, you could inadvertently end up with a bad deal.

There are lots of resources available online that can help you determine the overall level of competition in your area. They can also help you figure out if there are any properties that meet your requirements that you didnt know about.

If you own rental property, you can use the information to identify tenants who might cause damage

If you own rental property and youve noticed that certain tenants consistently cause damage, you can use the results of a building inspection to identify them. You can then contact them directly to let them know that youre watching them closely and that you dont appreciate the problem theyre causing.

They might start taking better care of their homes, which would be good news for everyone. It could also be the case that youll find out that theyre responsible for previous damages that werent caught during a previous visit.

You can make smarter decisions about hiring contractors

If youve hired contractors to build or repair your home, you might want to ask them for references. However, unless you perform a thorough building inspection, you might not know exactly what to look for.

For instance, maybe you only checked the roof for leaks or the walls for cracks. You might not have looked underneath the foundation for anything that could cause a future issue. By performing a building inspection, you can ensure that you hire reputable contractors who will be trustworthy with your money.

You can avoid purchasing a home thats in poor condition

Of course, the main benefit of structural inspections perth is that it helps you avoid purchasing a home thats in poor condition. Before you make the decision to buy a home, you should do whatever you can to find out about the state of the building.

You can also ask your realtor about what sorts of inspections are typically recommended. Some agents say that its standard practice to check the heating system, the roof, the electrical wiring, and the floors. Others will tell you that they recommend that you check the entire structure.

Either way, if you choose to hire an inspector, youll find out exactly what needs to be fixed and how much it will cost to do so.

As a result, it can be concluded that a pre-purchase building inspection is highly important for the buyers because it provides transparency regarding the current conditions of the structure. Additionally, the building owner is made aware of any upgrades or repairs that are required, which could lead to a fair deal throughout the purchasing and selling process.
When we knew we would be going to Bulgaria on our travels through Europe we werent really sure what or where we would be heading. Sometimes it is nice to turn up in a country and it be a total surprise. But one thing we did know about was Rila Monastery (and Buzludzha but thats another story!!), if truth be told we had no idea where it was in the country or how to get there. But things often just fall into place and what resulted was a full day of exploring some of the most stunning and historic areas of this country we fell in love with!

Our journey

When we arrived in Sofia we began to wonder how to get to this impressive and what appeared to be illusive place. There were buses but all felt a little over priced and restrictive, but we just figured we would have to suck it up if we wanted to experiences such a place. But upon arrival at our second place of accommodation in the city, the amazing Moreto and Cafetto, we were greeted with what they described as a tour of the monastery.

If truth be told this wasnt a tour and boy are we grateful! We hate tours but you know, we like seeing awesome things, and sometimes you cant avoid something pre-organised. But where things differed here was that this was a tour in name only, in reality what is was was a group of freinds on a road trip! The time we set off was flexible, we stopped here and there to have a break and take in the view, we added on extra places on the way back spontaneously and did the whole thing in the owner of the hostels car with people who became good friends by the end of the day!

Exploring this historic and beautiful place

In what felt like no time at all we arrived at the UNESCO world heritage site Monastery. Early in the day the crowds that we imagined would swamp this place. Established in 927 by St. Ivan of Rila this iconic and eye catching striped church is set in the stunning Rila mountains at over 1,147 m (3,763 ft) above sea level. To this day the monastery here is not just a magnet for visitors seeking out authentic culture, jaw dropping beauty and stunning surrounding, but it is also still home to 60 monks to this day and is a functioning monastery.

Whilst wandering around the impressive grounds we came across many monks ourselves, it really adds to the authentic and calming atmosphere within these historic walls. From inside the complex you can see the jagged peaks of the Rila mountains peering over the domed roof of the main church of the monastery, the birds sing in the trees and the fresh mountain air blows through here to create a unique site.

The monastery is one of the most important cultural, historical and architectural monuments in the whole of Bulgaria, even appearing on the 1 Lev banknote. The complex itself is made up of many buildings, churches, towers, a museum, private residential dwellings and of course the main church.

The main church is of course the most well known of the buildings of the Rila Monastery, the iconic striping on the outside makes it one of the most recognisable buildings in the Balkans. But that is just the start of the stunning decoration that adorns this wonderful church. Even the external domes and archways are painted in a level of detail so impeccable it is hard to take in. Impressive frescos in shimmering gold, deep red and bright yellows pop out from every corner. Stories are told of heaven, hell, heroes and demons that capture your imagination in an enthralling and colourful way.

As you step inside the cold and lowly lit church the atmosphere changes, from the bright sunshine and colour of the outside the interior is deadly silent and has a quiet intensity. Monks shuffle around and the devoted faithful kneel before the sheer beauty that befalls them.

The sweet smell of incense drifts through the air and shards of light pierce the wispy smoke in a rather biblical way. Despite being atheists exploring such a jaw dropping piece of cultural and artistic beauty was quite the spiritual experience.

Heading out into the mountains

After exploring the grounds of the monastery itself we decided to head into the forest for more adventure. Firstly we followed the ebbing river along its path towards an abandoned cemetery for monks. Here the tourists of the main monastery grounds disappear and nature has taken hold of this historic place. Graves stand silent and still in this spooky and forgotten corner of the grounds. Branches twist around the centuries old gravestones and every crunching step makes the hair on the back of your neck stand on end!

But there was more to explore in the area surrounding the monastery. We took the car a few miles onwards and hiked through the thick forest to an unassuming little church perched on the side of some rocks. Below the surface here stands the Cave of St.Ivan Rilski, the hermit saint who lived here for a time before going on to found the monastery. Here he slept on the bare stone and foraged for food in the woods all whilst performing many alleged miracles. It is said that those who squeeze and climb their way through the damp cave and out into the light above will be forever blessed!

If that wasnt enough we continued on and through into the mountain pass, from here we were really able to see the sheer natural beauty of this region.

We has no idea of the mountains here in Bulgaria but they really did remind me of the jagged peaks of the Dolomites and yet they seemed so much more accessible and less pretentious. Sitting and relaxing in the shadow of such giants as we unpacked our lunch with the sun shining down was paradise!

Taking a detour to hike the Stob pyramids

In the car on the way back from what had already been an unforgettable day we spotted a sign in the distance, Stob pyramids. Non of us has ever heard of these but with plenty of light still left in the day we decided to have a closer look. It turns out these natural phenomenons, similar to those we saw in Bolzano, were a half an hour hike away on the side of a mountain!

After a long day we plodded on in the dry heat and desert like dry conditions not really sure of what we might find at the end.

In the foot hills of Bulgarias highest mountains we found these tall and strange almost alien like formations. Local legend has it that they are in fact petrified wedding guests, cast in stone because the best man attempted to kiss the beautiful bride!

How to get to Rila Monastery from Sofia

There are several buses running from Sofia to Rila Monastery for around 25 Euro each. These leave early in the morning and set off back around 3pm and can be booked online.

However you can get there on local transport but it is quite a journey. From tram 5 from behind the Court of Justice to Ovcha Kupel bus station. At 1020hrs a bus leaves for Rila village, it arrives at approximately 1215hrs, then catch a minibus from the same bus stop at 1240hrs to Rila Monastery by about 1300hrs. The trip should cost around 10 lev and the ticket from Sofia is valid for the whole journey. For a return trip catch the same mini bus at 1500hrs from the monastery to return to Sofia by 1730hrs.

Have you ever visited this iconic Bulgarian monastery in the mountains

See more from this country

See more from our travels
The sextoy market is growing quite rapidly in India right now.

Although it is not a big trend, it is a hot topic on the internet as it is secretly expanding its market.

In this article, we will focus on sextoy and introduce recommended sextoy for Indian beginners of sextoy by gender.

India, the birthplace of the Kama Sutra, is very strict about sex.

Also, premarital sex is basically not allowed. Therefore, there are many people who are sexually restricted.

But what happens when you continue to be sexually restricted?

Frustration may build up and you may end up taking your sexual stress out on your partner.

If you are able to adopt sextoy in a timely manner, you can get rid of those problems.

I want to have more exciting sex than Im having now.

I want more variation in masturbation

I want to get even stronger pleasure than I do on my own.

If you have any of these problems, please stay with me until the end.

What is sex toys for Indian?

Sextoy, as the name implies, is a toy used during sex and masturbation.

It is a generic term for vibrators, Egg-vibrators, Electric massagers, dildo, handcuffs and condoms.

They are used to make regular sex more exciting or to make masturbation more pleasurable.

Because sextoy is very stimulating, it can help you to get rid of the problems and frustrations of being in a rut of sex with your partner for a long time, or if you are unhappy with the lack of pleasure in sex with your partner.

The ability to satisfy your desires with movement, texture, and size, which cannot be done by a normal human being, can help you to be satisfied with sex and, as a result, improve your relationship with your partner.

It is also said to help improve sexual dysfunction (inability to get an erection or ejaculate) and difficulty in feeling during sex (insensitivity), which is attracting more attention than in the past.

In recent years, the demand for sextoy has increased due to the spread of smartphones and the Internet and the increasing number of people using online shopping.

Even those who are concerned about the appearance of sextoy (and find it difficult to purchase) can now easily obtain it by using mail order.

In the case of online shopping, most of the stores have taken steps to ensure that the contents of the products delivered to you are not revealed, so you can purchase them without your family members knowing.

Until a while ago, you had to go to the store where the adult goods were sold to buy them, so it was quite a hurdle to overcome.

Also, many people may have an image that sextoy is somehow embarrassing to own.

But nowadays, some of them are so stylish and cute that you cant believe they are sextoy at a glance.

More and more people are using them for travel and outdoor use because they are not too bulky and are suitable for carrying around.

Sextoy situation in India

Before introducing the recommended sextoy for Indians, lets talk about one of the sextoy situations in India in recent years.

In India, due to the high concentration of population, the following six cities have particularly high sales of sextoy in India.

Mumbai

Kolkata

Bangalore

Delhi

Chennai

Hyderabad

These cities account for roughly 70 percent of sextoy sales in India.

In the future, the percentage of sextoy use will gradually increase in other cities in India as well.

If you never talk about sextoy publicly, that girl in your neighborhood might be a sextoy user too.

If you are interested in sextoy, you dont have to suppress your desire for it.

What are Sextoys for beginner?

Among all sextoys, sextoy for beginners are vibrators, dildo, masturbators, Sex Lubricants, and condoms.

Sex Lubricants and condoms, which are familiar to people who have had sex, are also a great beginners sextoy.

I will explain the details of each toy later, but there are many sextoy products that are painful to use and can only be used after some anal expansion.

I assume that the Indian readers of this article are people who have not had much experience with sextoy.

If such people use professional sextoy suddenly, they are at risk of injury or trauma.

Therefore, to introduce sextoy, you need to start with a beginners version and gradually become familiar with it.

Advantages of using sextoy for Indians

There are three advantages of using sextoy for Indians

You can masturbate in a wide variety of ways.

Can have stimulating sex

Can develop new sexual zones

If you try to masturbate with your own fingers or hands, it tends to be a pattern.

However, with sextoy, you can easily masturbate in a variety of ways.

You will definitely be fascinated by the attraction of new stimulation.

Also, your daily sex life will be more exciting than ever.

There are many things in sextoy that are visually stimulating and give you a strong and intense feeling of pleasure.

This allows you to see your partners promiscuity in a way that you wouldnt normally see it.

When you are in a relationship, sex with your partner may become a pattern, but it can also eliminate these problems.

It can also lead to the development of new sexual zones (which is the training of sexual stimulation to allow you to feel orgasms).

For more information on the development of new sexual zones, see the following articles

[Women's Erogenous Zone]How to find and develop, 7 hidden sexual zones !![In India] In this issue, we will dissect the female erogenous zone! ..." Many of you may be like that. Men, in particular, shou...

Thus, the use of sextoy can only be a good thing for the men and women of India.

Sextoy for beginner men in India

So, lets continue with the recommended goods for Indian sextoy beginners.

For ease of understanding, we will introduce them by gender. Lets start with the men!

The following five goods are recommended for novice Indian sextoy men

Masturbator

Cock rings

Love Doll

Sex Lubricants

Toys for the prostate

Lets check each one in detail.

Masturbator

The masturbator is a sextoy for men that elaborately reproduces a womans vagina, mouth, and anus, and is one of the most popular sextoy products.

It is used by men to masturbate, and it is popular because it provides stronger stimulation and pleasure more easily than using hands.

Most are made of good quality silicone, and their softness is something that cannot be achieved with ones own hands.

They can provide stronger pleasure than a real womans vagina, so be careful not to overuse them. (You wont be able to have an orgasm in a womans vagina anymore.)

Again Male masturbators are a wonderful toy. I do not need any favourite timing, bothersome bargaining. You do not have to worry too much.

Revolutionize your masturbation time! ! !

Made in Japan is a wonderful kinky toy.#sextoysindia #SexToyIndia #Japanhttps://t.co/4k70QGzoTP pic.twitter.com/tRVdxTKPpa   SEXToys India PR  (@SextoysIndia) November 12, 2018

Some of them are disposable, while others can be washed and used over and over again, so its fun to buy a few to use depending on your mood.

If you want to know more about masturbator, please click here

Really pleasant male masturbation and how to do it Are you in a rut with your daily masturbation routine? I'm going to show you five ways men masturbate that you might ...

[For Beginners] How to choose and use a male masturbator without fail Gentlemen.Have you ever used a masturbator? The person who sees this article is probably the one who has not experien...

Cock Ring

A cock ring is literally a ring-shaped sextoy that is worn on a mans penis.

It maintains an erection by binding the penis with a ring of rubber and blocking blood flow.

It is sometimes used as an accessory to be worn on the penis, and may be made of metal or plastic as well as rubber.

In some cases, cock rings have parts or vibrators attached to them that stimulate the vagina, so they kill two birds with one stone, giving a woman pleasure while maintaining an erection.

Cock rings are also sometimes used to treat erectile dysfunction.

It can help with erectile dysfunction, where the penis doesnt get hard when you get an erection or doesnt last long when you try to insert it.

Men who are prone to breakage or who are unsure of the hardness and size of their erections can use a cock ring to increase the size of their penis and maintain an erection for a longer period of time.

Cock rings vary in price from around RS700 to over RS2000 with a vibrator function.

Some of them do not fit your penis, so you should check the size of the cock ring before you buy.

You should know the size of your partners or your own penis when it is erect.

[Penis enlargement] What is a cock ring? Types and usage Cock rings can make your penis bigger and harder. It also makes sex with women more fulfilling and increases your sat...

Love Doll

Love dolls, also known as Dutchwives, are dolls with the appearance of a woman who can experience simulated sex.

There are dolls that look like a woman, but they have no face and only have their breasts and lower torso cut off, and some dolls are so realistic that they can actually be mistaken for real women.

Some expensive dolls can cost more than 1 million yen, and the quality of the doll is easily influenced by the price.

The higher the price, the higher the quality of the doll will be, the closer it will be to the real woman, and the cheaper the doll will be, the less elaborate it will be, making it look like a real doll! Something is wrong! That is also true.

You cant go wrong if you choose a balance between price and taste.

There are stores that allow you to make custom-made love dolls, so you can create a girl of your choice.

You can make a girl of your choice. You can start with inexpensive love dolls at first, and once you get used to it, you can try custom-made love dolls.

If you want to know more about Love doll, please click here

Thorough explanation of the charm of sex dolls! Have you ever heard of sex dolls that are used primarily for pseudo-sex purposes? It is a doll that is quite close to...

Sex lubricants

Sex lubricants are used as a substitute for lubricating fluid during sex or as a lubricant for men to use masturbator rules.

It is not uncommon for women to have difficulty getting wet, depending on their physical condition, or to have difficulty getting wet due to their constitution.

Forcing the penis into the vagina at such times can cause painful intercourse.

There are various types of Sex Lubricants, some with a warming effect, some with a cooling effect, and some with a scent.

Changing the Sex Lubricant used during play is recommended as a good sex accent.

If you want to learn more about Sex Lubricants, click here.

What is sex lubricant?Explain the difference and usage of each ingredient The word "sex toy" may seem like a hurdle to overcome, but lotion is actually one of the most familiar sex toys. Many...

Toys for the Prostate

Another sextoy for men is prostate toys.

The most famous prostate toys include Enemagra, which was originally a prostate massager developed by an American urologist to treat an enlarged prostate line.

Modern prostate toys are imitations of Enemagra that have spread as sextoy for men.

Many people think of prostate toys as being used by gay men, but in fact they are often used by straight men.

What is the prostate?

The prostate is an organ found only in men. It is a walnut-sized organ located deep in the pelvis, just below the bladder, and its primary role is to protect and nourish sperm.

You cannot touch the prostate gland from outside the body, but you can touch it by inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus.

By inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus and touching the prostate and developing it, you can feel intense orgasms.

Orgasms felt in the prostate are mainly dry orgasms, which are orgasms that do not involve ejaculation. (You can also feel orgasms with ejaculation through prostate stimulation.)

The prostate is called the male G-spot, and dry orgasms can be much more intense than ejaculation.

Therefore, men who are able to develop a prostate can become addicted to the pleasure.

sextoy for beinner women in India

The following are the recommended goods for Indian women who are new to sextoy.

The following three are recommended for use by women who are new to sextoy.

Vibrator.

Dildo

Electric Masserger

Lets check out what each one is in detail.

If you want to check out womens toys, click here.

[BEST25]Sex Toys for Women in IndiaThat Can Help You Have an Orgasm There are many women who pretend to feel orgasm during sex. But don't worry, you don't have to pretend to feel orgasm...

Vibrators

A vibrator is a sextoy that vibrates with an Egg-Vibrator to provide stimulation and is often referred to simply as a vibrator.

Some vibrate as well as rotate, and there are many variations of sextoy.

It is quite a popular sextoy, and is well recognized by people who do not know much about sextoy.

Its usage is similar to that of a massager, but it is more compact and easier to carry than a massager, and many of them look as cute as a lipstick or a macaroon, so they are popular among women.

For a while, a famous influencer on twitter said, This is good! You may have heard of the topic of this article by introducing the recommended vibrators.

Vibrators are great for women to use on their own, but they are also recommended for men who have difficulty satisfying women with sex.

Since it is powered by electricity, it is far less tiring than moving your hands by yourself.

This makes it easier to satisfy a woman with sex because you can caress her for longer than usual.

Vibrators are mainly used on the female side, but they can also be used on men.

When used on men, they are used to attack the nipples and glans, and in both cases it is recommended to wear a condom for hygiene reasons.

Introducing how to use the vibrator, its purpose, and how to choose it! Vibrator uses the vibrations caused by the rotation of the motor to provide stimulation. It is one or two of the most...

Dildo

A dildo is a model sextoy made to mimic a male penis.

It can be made of silicone, elastomer (think of it as a material similar to PVC), metal or glass.

A dildo can be used by a man for his female partner during sex, or by a woman for masturbation to get pleasure from it.

They are mainly inserted into women, but some can be used in the male anus as well.

It is sometimes used synonymously with vibrators, but the vibrator is not the same thing as a vibrating device.

A model of a penis that does not vibrate is a dildo.

Some of them have suction cups that can be attached to the floor or wall so that you can enjoy realistic masturbation without using your hands.

For fun, there is a dildo made in the shape of your partners penis.

This one is also popular as a gift, and if youve been together for a long time and are having trouble finding a gift for your partner, you might want to pick one.

To learn more about dildo, please click here.

What is Dildo: Orgasms with Dildos for Men and Women A dildo is a model of a male organ that is used by women for masturbation and by men to stimulate the prostate gland. Th...

Electric Masserger

A Electric Masserger is a hand-held electric massager, also known as a handheld massager, and can usually be purchased at electronics stores.

It was originally designed to relieve stiff shoulders and back pain, so the hurdle of buying one in a physical store is quite low.

Many people may have seen or used it in some form or another, as it is often installed in leisure hotels.

Such a massager is highly recommended for beginners because it is easy for women to get pleasure from it when they use it during masturbation.

It is larger than Egg-Vibrator and vibrations are stronger than those of Egg-Vibrators and vibrators, so even just hitting the clitoris can give you a great deal of pleasure.

For those women who have never had an orgasm during sex with their man, the massager may be a good way to get a feel for what it feels like to have an orgasm.

It looks and feels like an electric massager, so you wont have to feel awkward if your roommate finds out.

If you are in a rut of having sex with your partner, if you want to feel an orgasm through masturbation, or if you are thinking of using a sextoy, why dont you try it from a simple massager?

To learn more about Electric Masserger, click here.

What is a massager? Introducing types, selection methods, and usage Originally, the Magic-wand vibrator and the massage machine were sold as a home massage machine used for the back and th...

How to choose a sextoy for Indian

Now that weve covered the different types of sextoy, heres how to choose one.

Especially if you are trying sextoy for the first time, pay attention to the following three points:  Does the size fit you (the partner)?

Does the size fit you (your partner)?

Is the environment able to produce sound without problems?

Price range

First of all, the choice of size is quite important.

Most sextoy are used against or inserted into the genitals, but the genitals are very delicate organs for both men and women.

For this reason, using an inappropriate size may cause damage.

Secondly, the environment should be able to produce sound without problems.

Some sextoys not only wear, but also rotate and vibrate. Its easier to get pleasure from something that moves than something that doesnt, but the fact that it moves means that the internal rotors make some noise.

If you live in a house with thin walls or if you have roommates, you may not be able to concentrate because of the noise, so it is best to choose one that is silent or has a low noise level.

Especially in India, where many people live with their families, it is very important that you dont have to worry about sound when you use it.

Finally, there is the price range.

The price range of sextoy ranges widely, from around RS500 at the cheapest to RS10,000 or more at the highest.

Its good to consider how much money you can afford and how much you want to buy.

Do you want your family to not find out about sextoy?

I live with my family and want to use sextoy without them finding out! If you are a man, you should buy a camouflage sextoy that does not look like a sextoy at first glance.

For men, there are many masturbators that do not look like a sextoy, and for women, there are vibrators that only look like cosmetics.

If you choose such a type, youll be safe in case your family members find out.

How to buy sextoys in India

The best way to purchase sextoy is through online shopping.

For more information on how to purchase sextoy, please see the article below.

Sextoy is one of them.

Therefore, you can easily get sextoy in India by using online shopping.

SexToysINDIA is a long established and stable sextoy store and you can have sextoy delivered to any place in India.

They also offer cash on delivery, so those who are worried about shopping with a credit card do not have to worry.

Of course, the latest security is in place, so your information will not be taken out when you use your credit card.

To begin with, many people may be concerned about whether they are legally allowed to purchase sextoy.

ikmAs it turns out, its not illegal.

Right now, it is not open to the public because the Indian adult market is still in the development stage, but it will gradually spread from now on.

Take advantage of sextoy and open the door to new pleasures and culture.

Cautions for Indians using sextoy

When using sextoy, keep the following three things in mind

Keep sex toys clean

Watch out for electrical leakage

Beware of the heat generated by the body while using a sex toy

As I mentioned earlier, many sextoy products are used for the delicate zone.

Therefore, it is most important to keep the sextoy itself clean. It is very important to keep the sextoy itself clean, because if a slight scratch is created by friction, bacteria can enter and breed there.

It is safe to wear a condom when using the masturbator, just in case.

In addition, many sextoy devices are powered by a power source, so if they are not waterproof, there is a possibility of electric shock or malfunction due to wetness.

Some may even develop heat during continuous use. If the fever becomes too much, you may get burned, so be careful.

If you get a fever during use, stop driving the sextoy immediately and refrain from using it.

You will enjoy sex more if you keep it safe and use it correctly.

Summary

What did you think?

In this article, we have introduced the recommended sextoy for the beginners of sextoy in India.

The sextoy market is growing rapidly in India and it will continue to grow steadily in the future.

As India is a rather closed-minded country, it can be difficult to be open about ones sexual habits and values.

However, being faithful to ones desires by properly dissolving ones sexual desire is very effective for ones physical and mental health.

If this is your first time to learn about sextoy, or if you are interested in using sextoy, why not give it a try?

Indian Sextoys for ur best! will introduce you to sextoy and other trivia about sextoy, sexuality, and sexuality for men and women.

I want to read more! If you think its a great idea, please bookmark it.
SPRINGFIELD  Independent congressional candidate David Gill is asking a federal appeals court to reconsider its decision to temporarily halt a lower courts order that his name should appear on the Nov. 8 ballot in the 13th Congressional District.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order Friday blocking the earlier decision from U.S. District Judge Sue Myerscough until the appeal is settled. She ruled last month that the Illinois State Board of Elections should allow Gill to appear on the ballot even though he didnt gather the required number of signatures on his nominating petitions. The Illinois attorney generals office, which is representing the elections board, appealed Myerscoughs decision.

After Gill, a Bloomington physician whos previously run for Congress four times as a Democrat, collected only 8,593 of the 10,754 valid signatures he needed to earn a ballot spot, he challenged the requirement in federal court. He argues that its unconstitutional because its out of line with the requirements for major party candidates. Gills would-be opponents, U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, and Democratic challenger Mark Wicklund of Decatur, each had to collect fewer than 740 signatures.

While Myerscough didnt rule on the merits of Gills argument, she issued her Aug. 25 ruling because she said the candidate showed that he and his supporters would be irreparably harmed if he was left off the ballot. The elections board certified the ballot the next day with Gills name on it.

In its appeal, the attorney generals office argued that the signature requirement is valid because the state has an interest in preventing ballot overcrowding and potential voter confusion. Allowing judges to override signature requirements would sow uncertainty over the whole process, the state argues.

The attorney generals office declined to comment on the appellate courts order.

Gills attorneys are asking the full 7th Circuit to vacate Fridays order and hear the case quickly because the temporary decision could effectively settle the matter before all the facts are heard. Local election authorities are required to have absentee ballots ready to be mailed to military and overseas voters by Sept. 23.

Gill said he was disappointed, but not surprised, by the appellate courts order.

I was very disappointed, particularly for the voters in the district, Gill said. I think that they deserve to have as many options as possible, and weve worked very hard to provide them with an option other than the two major party candidates. I think that most voters have come to recognize that neither of the major parties is looking out for their benefit.

The appellate courts order is further evidence of how the system is rigged against independent candidates, he said.

Meanwhile, the elections board is scheduled to hold a hearing Monday on objections to Gills nominating petitions.

Some of the objections former Macon County Republican Party Chairman Jerry Stocks filed against Gills petitions were put on hold after it was determined that hed failed to collect enough signatures. After Myerscoughs ruling, however, the board decided to allow those matters to proceed.
U.S. Rep. Mike Bost announced on Monday that rural development funds will be used to build a new wastewater treatment plant in Mound City and demolish the existing plant, according to a news release from Bost's office.

A rural development grant of $969,000 and a water and waste disposal loan of $1,770,000 have been approved for the more than $3.2 million project.

Upgrading and maintaining critical infrastructure in communities all across Southern Illinois is paramount for providing the quality of life our residents expect and deserve, Bost said in the release. With this funding, a new wastewater treatment plant will not only provide improved drinking water but also alleviate potential health hazards.

 The Southern
CLEMSON  Agriculture has always been an important part of Clemson University. In fact, the university began as Clemson Agricultural College when it opened its doors in 1893.

To help keep the agricultural tradition strong, Clemson Public Service and Agriculture is hosting a PSA Riding Tour to show off its research and education centers, as well as the Clemson University Restoration Institute and other agricultural operations throughout South Carolina. The tour highlights agricultural research being conducted by Clemson researchers and staff.

Participants will learn about technologies used for agriculture, such as flying drones, tractors guided by Global Positioning System technology and irrigation systems that apply pesticides and fertilizers as well as supply water for crops. They also will learn about a high-tech sensor lab where sensor technologies are being developed to monitor the health of South Carolina farms.

The public is invited to follow along through the PSAs social network sites Sept. 26-29. Images, videos and text will be posted on Facebook @ClemsonExt, Twitter @PSAMarketing and @CUESNews, and on Instagram @clemson_extension. To follow the tour, use #ClemsonAgTour. Information also will be available at www.clemson.edu/public/tour.

Stops for the Riding Tour include Sandhill REC in Columbia, Pee Dee REC in Florence and Darlington, Belle W. Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science in Georgetown, as well as the Coastal REC in Charleston and the Edisto REC in Blackville. The other RECs, not on the tour, are the Simspon REC, which consists of research farms located on and around the Clemson University main campus, and the Archbold Tropical REC located in the Commonwealth of Dominica in the West Indies.

In addition to the RECs, the group also will tour the Clemson University Restoration Institute in North Charleston.

Agricultural operations on the tour include McCall Farms Cannery in Effingham, Cypress Bay Plantation in Varnville, Birdsong Peanuts in Fairfax and Titan Farms in Ridge Spring.

The PSA State Tour began about 15 years ago as an annual event. It was discontinued because of a lack of funding. The last tour was held in May 2012. The tour was scheduled to make a comeback in 2015 but was canceled after flooding occurred in the lower part of the state.
STATESBORO, Ga.  If youre the owner of a small farm or are interested in agricultural processing but unsure of what steps you need to take to start or grow your business, you may want to register for AgSouth Farm Credits AGAware Deep Dive program.

AgSouth has added an in-depth look at marketing to its national award-winning program and is offering a free session this summer in cooperation with the South Carolina Department of Agriculture.

The Deep Dive session will focus on marketing agricultural products for small and/or beginning farmers. The class will cover what to consider when creating a business plan and how to sell ag-related products at local markets. Attendees will also receive valuable insight into marketing agricultural products from a chef and a retail buyers point of view.

AgSouths Marketing Director Christy Smith says, AGAware was created specifically to help young, beginning, and small farmers. We have had more than 600 farmers attend the classes since we began the program in 2012.

In response to feedback from them, we have added a session that focuses intently on how to market their products. AgSouth is here to serve todays farmers and the generations who will follow.

Our ability to offer these classes to those just getting started in farming and to those who want to expand their business is a valuable part of the service we provide to ensure the continued success of the family farm.

The Deep Dive Session will be held on Monday, Sept. 19, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the South Carolina State Farmers Market, Phillips Market Center (117 Ballard Court Hwy, West Columbia). The class is free, and lunch will be provided. Seating is limited, so contact Rhonda Jernigan to register today: RJernigan@AgSouthFC.com or 912-764-9091 x 2644.

For those interested in a more comprehensive program focusing on the basics of creating a successful small business, including how to create a financial statement and business plan, budgeting, risk management, and more, AgSouth is offering its AGAware Workshop in Spartanburg on September 16. For more information or to register for this class, visit AgSouthFC.com.

AgSouth Farm Credit provides loans for land, equipment and production agriculture; crop insurance; leasing; and home mortgages. The association serves 93 South Carolina and Georgia counties and is headquartered in Statesboro, Ga.
BLACKVILLE -- It has been a full year since Dan Anco, Clemson Extension Service peanut specialist, has been conducting research and making himself available to growers.

Housed at the Edisto Research and Education Center in Blackville, Anco put together this years Peanut Field Day on Sept. 1, with the goal of bringing the latest and most practical information to peanut farmers across the state.

Every year growers face many of the same decisions but are also come up against different weather conditions and disease pressures.

This year we have seen some diplodia collar rot due to the hot dry weather, Anco said. When that is followed by rain, it brings it out.

The two-spotted spider mite has also been seen in fields this season, Anco said, but is not widespread. Anco handed out copies of the Peanut Money-Maker 2016 Production Guide, which covered all of the latest recommended pest control and management methods.

The 175 attending the field day consisted of growers, industry representatives, extension personnel and Clemson University students. Each of them went away with a better understanding of how to improve peanut production through timely management practices, choosing suitable varieties and crop rotation.

Dr. Jose O. Payero, agronomic crops and irrigation specialist, focused on how to improve irrigation management of peanuts. He displayed various pieces of equipment that could aid growers in making their land more productive. He emphasized the need to use resources, such as water, more wisely.

By using soil sensors, Payero said, farmers can know just how much water they are applying along with where and when to apply it. Keeping a handle on these three things  how, where and when  will hopefully lead to higher yields and higher profits, Payero said.

James Thomas, core technician, covered results of some of the 40-plus peanut tests on station. He explained the various different things pertinent to peanut production that the test covered, including soil moisture, insect and disease control, herbicide application and management practices.

This has been one of the worst years for tomato spotted wilt virus, Thomas said.

One way to fight TSWV is through variety choice, but planting date, seeding rate and your choice of insecticide are major factors as well, Thomas said.

Dr. Nathan Smith gave a market update on the peanut situation. According to the USDA, projected yields are around 3,990 pounds/acre for 2016, which would mean a drop of 3 million to 3.1 million tons. Use of peanuts is estimated to be up 19 percent and record high exports, as seen in 2015, are expected to continue.

Monty Rast encouraged the young people in the audience to get involved if they wanted to still be farming when they got out of college. Having a voice in Washington that comes from the growers is a necessary part of the politics of peanuts, Rast said.

For further information on peanut production or to reach program presenters, contact Anco at 64 Research Rd, Blackville, SC 29817. The phone numbers are 803-284-3343 x261 office or 630-207-4926 cell. Email is danco@clemson.edu
The annual Orangeburg County Farm Bureau's business meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 13.

The event will held at the Liberty Room, 1855 Joe S. Jeffords Highway, at 7 p.m. It will include a talent show, dinner and door prizes.

The guest speaker will be Scana Corp. Director of Government and Regulatory Relations Jonathan Yarborough.

Yarborough previously served as South Carolina Department of Commerce Director of External Affairs and South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control legislative affairs director.

Yarborough earned a law degree at the University of South Carolina School of Law. He has an undergraduate degree from Clemson University.

Other meeting agenda items include:

* Election of 2016-2017 officers and directors.

* Report of the resolutions committee.

Resolutions to be considered included: recommending counties with multiple voting delegates to select at least one young farmer as a voting delegate for the S.C. Farm Bureau annual meeting and to have that young farmer sit in the voting delegate session.

Other resolutions include the recommendation that advisory committees of various commodities review crop insurance as it pertains to covered crops and its impact on farmers and continuing efforts to encourage equipment farmers to share proprietary maintenance information such as diagnostic codes, data and solutions.

* Report of nomination committee.

* An appearance by 9-year old Orangeburg resident McKenzie Johnson, talent winner (Junior Division) in clogging to the song "Think" by Aretha Franklin. Johnson is the daughter of Tesha Johnson and Chris Williamson.

* An appearance by 16-year old Orangeburg resident Savannah Collins, talent winner (Senior Division) in clogging to the song "Circus." Collins is the daughter of Kevin and Jennifer Collins.

The ladies will present their talent at the state Farm Bureau meeting in Myrtle Beach at the Kingston Plantation in Myrtle Beach on Dec. 1-3.

A guest keynote speaker for the meeting has yet to be determined.

Tickets may be purchased at the door or at the OCFB office on Broughton Street.

Two tickets are available per membership. Tickets must be purchased in order to attend.

Individuals are asked to RSVP no later than Sept. 9.

For more information, call 803-536-1530.
Using the ACT exam as an all or nothing assessment of college or career readiness is unfair to students, Orangeburg Consolidated School District 4 Superintendent Dr. Tim Newman says.

All our students dont fit into the same peg as each other or their peers, Newman said.

Its not a cookie cutter. We need to be careful not to treat them all the same, he said.

Newman discussed the scores with OCSD4 trustees last week following the states release of school and district ACT scores.

For the first time this year, all juniors were required to take the test. In most T&D Region districts, including OCSD4, scores declined as more students took it.

Were not giving our students a fair shot, and were doing it to hit a check box at the federal level. Our state is trying to match up federal and state accountability requirements, Newman said.

But superintendents and other educators across the state are looking at better ways to assess students, Newman said.

Superintendents discussed the issue at a recent meeting and a committee of superintendents is working with the S.C. Department of Education to find better ways to evaluate students.

Different people want the ACT as the one authority while others suggest using WorkKeys or Advanced Placement scores, Newman said.

The ACT is a college entrance exam. Prior to two years ago, the reason for taking the test was if a student was trying to get into college.

Now every junior is required to take the test, including special needs students, students in self-contained classrooms and those who want to go to work or into the military after high school.

When the scores of all these students are figured into the average, it drags down South Carolinas score significantly, he said. It means South Carolina students are competing with those who come from states that allow only college track students or the top 5 percent or so of students to take the exam.

Currently, 20 states require all juniors to take the ACT, according to the DOE.

South Carolina needs assessments that are fair to all its students, including those not following a college track, Newman said.

College and career-ready are two different things and so those students coursework is going to be two different things, he said. Students not on a college track cannot be expected to make the same score on the ACT as a student whos preparing for college and expecting them to do so is not realistic.

I want to see realistic assessments that will help us help our students obtain the goals they want to after school, Newman said following the meeting.

And while he agrees that the ACT is a good assessment of college readiness, Newman said hes opposed to giving it to students in the eleventh grade.

Students dont even take the courses covered on the test until theyre in the twelfth grade, he said.

Im not comfortable with it being given in the junior year, Newman said. Not all students are prepared to take it at that time. It needs to be taken after students have taken all the courses they need to be successful on it.

Newman also told trustees that ACT scores released by the DOE caused confusion across the state because they differed from those compiled by the public school districts.

Districts were grappling with what students were included (in the states figures) and which ones werent, he said.

In other business, Newman announced that the district will use one of the inclement weather days written into the 2016-17 school calendar to make up for missing Sept. 2 due to rains and wind from Hurricane Hermine.

Students will return to class on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017, instead of Wednesday, Jan. 4. Professional development/in service for teachers will move from Jan. 3 to Jan. 2, 2017.
Northwood Estates residents say they need relief from their high sewer bills, which include charges from a private company and Orangeburgs Department of Utilities.

Cecil and Barbara Williams went before Orangeburg county and city councils on Tuesday, seeking answers and relief.

The high cost that we are paying for sewer is not comparable to what others here are paying and elsewhere as well, Barbara Williams said. She is president of the Northwood Estates Neighborhood Association.

Weve been talking about this matter for 10, 15 or more years and seemingly only get a promise and no relief, she said.

The septic system in Northwood Estates is handled by a private entity, Midlands Utility, as well as DPU. DPU is owned by the City of Orangeburg.

Residents say they get three separate charges on their bill. There is a sewer service charge, a sublet treatment charge and another service fee.

Theres nobody here that has a sewage rate that high, Cecil Williams said.

We are at the highest sewer rate in the southeastern United States of America, Williams said. I found that we have about the 27th highest sewer rate in the entire United States of America.

During the County Council meeting, Councilman Harry Wimberly asked Why are you paying Midlands and DPU? Midlands collects and DPU treats?

County Administrator Harold Young explained that the subdivision was built with a private sewer system to allow the builders to get the permits needed to construct the homes.

When the service started to malfunction, DHEC stepped in and said Midlands had to do something, Young said.

They subcontracted DPU to treat the sewer out there, so you have the Midlands bill for collection of the sewer and you have the DPU bill for the treatment of the sewer as well as their bill for administering the costs for billing the residents for that, so thats why theyve come up with such a huge bill, he said.

Williams said residents can face a bill of $70 to $80 even if theyre gone for the month and dont use the service.

It seems to be a flaw in that, when youre charging someone for something they dont get, Councilman Clyde Livingston said.

Councilman Johnny Ravenell, who has been active in speaking with the neighborhood association, said council is doing everything it can to help.

Weve been constantly in touch with DPU, with all of the parties who we feel that can do something to help, he said. We are having a study done as we speak.

The county is conducting an evaluation of the septic system to find leaks and infiltrations.

Its a smoke test and a camera test to be able to determine where those leaks are, Young said.

County Engineer John McLauchlin said the study will take three months to complete.

Its going to be a very extensive evaluation of that entire system, both the collect system, the taps, the pump stations and the main line that DPU owns, he said.

McLauchlin said once the problems are found, the county will have to look into how to correct them. Once that is determined, it will look at an entity to take over the system.

Midlands Utility is willing to give up the system for zero dollars. Actually, they dont want it themselves, Ravenell said.

DHEC says that they cant give it away without having an owner to go to, he said. DPU, they dont want it because its a dilapidated system.

Young said anyone who takes over the system will need to bring it up to DHEC standards.

They can take 50 more years to fix it if they want to, but why charge us? Cecil Williams asked. Cant there be a cessation to the fees in the meanwhile while were looking for a solution?

County Attorney DAnne Haydel said the situation has been complicated by having a private party involved.

We dont actually have any legal standing, she said. Even if the county were willing to take, somehow, an active part in this, we have no idea how big the problem is.

Until the three-month study is over, it is unknown if the problem is a $100,000 animal, or a $100 million animal, or somewhere in between, Haydel said.

Ravenell said, Its not that we are not doing what were supposed to do, were doing everything that we can to try to give you some assistance out there within our legal bounds.

Young said, I agree with them even the highest rates we have in the county are dwarfed by what they are paying and thats just for their sewer alone.

His research is spot on, but at the end of the day, as a public unit, we can only do so much with public funds to be able to help remedy their problem.

At the City Council meeting, DPU Wastewater Division Director Richard Labrador said the city-owned utility charges Midlands Utilities a standard rate based on the wastewater it receives. He said hes unaware of how Midlands Utilities charges its individual customers.

Williams asked if the city can stop the DPU share of the charges until the issue is resolved.

Orangeburg City Councilwoman L. Zimmerman Keitt said council is concerned about the issue and will get back to the Williams with more information. She also said shes hopeful city, county and Midlands Utilities officials can get together to discuss the issue.

Bernie Wright, a resident in the subdivision, says residents should not have to pay for extra water that seeps into the system.

Extra water is getting into the system and were having to pay, Wright said. When it leaves my house  I dont have control of what seeps through the ground.

Wright said until the situation is fixed, Midlands should be responsible for paying for the treatment of excess water that flows into the system.

Its very unfair for us, the residents of Northwood estates, to be saddled with a bill and we have no control over the bill, he said. We cant even fix it if we want.

Brenda Williams, a resident of the community for 40 years, says its not fair.

Its a service that we cant do without but were just paying above market price, she said. The residents of the area are really suffering and being taken advantage of.

After being involved with the issue for 25 years, Williams said there is no more need for talking and its time to do something about it.

Cecil Williams ended saying historically, the community has been neglected.

If its a dog problem, an animal problem  if its fallen limbs or trees, anything that might be connected with the county or the city  streetlights, whatever, he said. Weve had to really just, over and over, year after year, ask for some assistance and get very little.
A blog for students in my introductory classes in government, and any interested passersby. You'll find news items and random stories that illustrate any of the topics we cover in class. Special attention will be paid to the constitutional issues associated with contemporary issues and disputes. Feel free to send me stories you find important. Please note that due to spam, I'm limiting the ability of people to comment on these pages. My apologies.
We're thrilled to be hosting Robert J. Dornan during his 23 Minutes Past 1 A.M. virtual book tour! Please leave a question or comment below to let him know you stopped by!

Title: 23 Minutes Past 1 A.M. Author: Robert J. Dornan Publisher: Independent Pages: 550 Genre: Historical Fiction



In the early morning of her sister's wedding day, Mila Kharmalov stared in stunned silence at the coloured sparks streaming from Reactor Four of the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant. At that very moment, her life and the lives of everyone she knew changed forever.





Years later and on another continent, Adam Byrd was writing biographies for everyday people looking to leave their legacy in book form. When the woman he loved phoned from Kiev offering him the chance to write the story of a lifetime, he jumped at the opportunity not realizing that his voyage would be a bumpy ride through a nations dark underbelly. With the help of his friend's quirky cousin, Adam is nudged into a fascinating adventure of love, greed, power and psychotic revenge, culminating with a shocking finale.





23 Minutes Past 1 A.M. is a work of fiction based on factual events from Chernobyl and villages throughout Ukraine.

For More Information

23 Minutes Past 1 A.M. is available at Amazon ..

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Book Excerpt:

The nurses at the reception desk were told not to stare at the late night visitor. He was a Ukrainian hero and deserved the highest level of respect. He arrived at midnight wearing sunglasses and a hoodie that covered most of his face. He said his name and the three nurses stood to welcome him as if honored by his presence. He was then led to Tanias room. A wall light was lit above the bed. He didnt recognize her.

Twenty-seven years had passed since the last time they spoke. Tania was worried that Yuri would miss their wedding. He told her not to worry. She could have had a huge ceremony if he had not been so naive with Asimov. If he had said no to the Colonels request, Yuri would still be alive. Tania didnt know this part of the story. She didnt know the love of her life agreed to dive into the radiated water to protect his best friend.

It was his fault .

Samizdat adored the sisters but the government-owned newspapers wrote horrible articles about them. He plowed their path and never admitted so. Tania disappeared into obscurity, visited only by curious weekend thrill seekers. She has no hair and her skin is yellow.

It was his fault .

Alex pulled a chair next to the bed and touched her hand. She groaned but her eyes remained closed.

I dont know where to begin. Im hoping you dont open your eyes to see me speak. To watch the hurt in your eyes would be more painful than the burns on my face. I abandoned you Tania. I abandoned you to hide from lifeand to hide from you. My memories of the days before the explosion are what allow me to wake each morning. They are my life force and I owe this to you and Yuri. Without the two of you, I would have been a lonely man with few true friends.

And I still abandoned you. 

I thought you were dead, Tania whispered.

A startled Alex let go of her hand and almost tumbled off his chair. Ive awoken you, he said between excited breaths.

If I remember correctly, its not the first time. Am I dreaming Alex?

No my friend, he replied. Its me next to you.

Tania rubbed her eyes attempting to see her friend better. Why are you covering your face?

Alex tugged on the top of his hoodie and lowered his head. He dared not remove his sunglasses fearing he would startle Tania. A patient on the other side of the room exhaled a long painful groan. This was followed by a seemingly chorused shuffling by the other patients. He closed his eyes. Everywhere he visited, there was suffering. It followed him like a shadow. Tania repeated her question.

The left side of my face including my eye is scarred from radiation. In situations such as this, I am more comfortable not revealing my deformity. Please dont ask me to do so.

And I look better? Tania replied with a short snort. I wont ask you to do what you dont want Alex. You were always a stubborn man anyway. She paused. I wish you had come see me many years ago but Im thrilled to have you here.

Ive wanted to sit with you for a long time, Alex responded.

Then why didnt you? Tania asked between short breaths. Why do you choose now when my last breath is so near? Alex, we mourned your death. Your mother was heartbroken. I visited her little hut in the Exclusion Zone and it was a memoriam. Photos of you adorned every inch on every wall. Asimov gave her a medal from the Kremlin in your memory that was front and centre above the main room couch. She picked flowers and left them on your gravesite every day. She cried for years and died alone. Tania inhaled a long breath. I always wondered why your body was not entombed at Mitino.

A full cup of water lay on the bed table and Alex handed it to his friend. She raised herself and sat upright. The sole light in the room warmed her bumpy, hairless scalp.

They told me I saved the Soviet Union , Alex whispered. They told me I saved Europe . I was a hero in so many eyes His voice trailed for a few seconds and he continued. I didnt feel like a hero. The guilt was too heavy to endure. I ruined your life.

My life was not yours to ruin. Youre obviously here to say your peace so take a deep breath and tell me what has encumbered you all these years. Tania stroked his hand with her fingertips. Dont fear judgment my old friend, it is not mine to deliver.

Alex contemplated removing his sunglasses but did not. He had thought of this moment for more than two decades. The conversation took place hundreds of times while he lay in bed struggling to find sleep. He must stay strong.

Asimov summoned us when someone from Pripyat mentioned Yuri and I were champion swimmers. I didnt fully understand what the Commander was asking us to do but Yuri did. He didnt chastise me when I eagerly volunteered. He was more concerned about you.

The suits they gave us were flimsy at best. After opening the sluice gates we tried to swim back as fast as we could but our legs were numb. My face stung like I had fallen on a bee hive. Smiles greeted us at the pond edge and pulled us out of the water. Within seconds I vomited, as did Yuri and Breshevski. I lay on my side and Breshevski was staring wide-eyed at me. I smiled, but he did not acknowledge me. His eyes were shining. I couldnt understand how he could stare at me and not blink. Two men lifted him and as he was transported outside he yelled that Yuri and I were still in the water and someone had to save us. He was looking right at us. I learned later that his goggles were defective. By the time he reached the hospital his corneas had melted.

Yuri vomited for a second time in less than three minutes. His arms could not hold him and he slumped into his own regurgitation. I was about to stand when two comrades wrapped my arms around their shoulders and dragged me outside. Yuri was not far behind and was eased onto a stretcher while we waited for another ambulance. I wasnt suffering like Yuri and was strong enough to kneel next to him. I was overcome with emotion when I looked at his bright red face. The skin on his forehead was cracked like a car window. I cried openly, and a photographer snapped a picture. Yuri mumbled that if I continued to cry he would start calling me Alexandra. These were the last words he would ever say to me. I couldnt stop bawling. Asimov was nearby and put his hand on my shoulder. Paramedics lifted Yuri and placed him in the ambulance that had mercifully arrived. I yelled out his name. I told him I was sorry. I was trembling and frozen in place. I didnt hear the cheers from the workers in the background. I didnt hear Asimov whispering in my ear. I could barely move so I sat with my head on bent knees. My best friend may die and it was my fault. Flashing lights blurred my vision. More photographers had gathered to take more photos.

Asimov, with the help of a few men, got me into a jeep and we drove back to the same hotel that Kremlin dignitaries were staying. They gave me a room with a shower that I used until no hot water remained. Aside from the tingling in my face, I was fine. They brought me new clothes. I had dinner with the Colonel and some other man I have long forgotten. They praised my efforts. I asked for updates on Yuri but none were available except that he was being flown to Moscow . I told Asimov that Yuris fiancee had to be called. The other man made a note and mentioned that Yuris condition and whereabouts would be posted in every newspaper across the Soviet Union . Asimov found his assistants comment inappropriate and said he would fly to Moscow himself and I was not to worry.

I did worry. It was all I did for years to come.

I had the strangest dream. It was an evening of sleep I never forgot. I excused myself from dinner early and returned to my room. Within minutes I was sleeping. I remember four white walls, a white floor and a white door. I was yelling for someone to save me but no one came. Every time I reached to open the door it would disappear and reappear on a different wall. A bright light blinded me temporarily, and I realized the door had opened. The same light shone whenever the door opened except once. Yuri walked in through the lights and stood in front of me. He said nothing and shook his head with disapproval before leaving through the wall behind me. You were next Tania, and you did the same as Yuri. Mila followed, as did my mother, Yulia, David and many others. Each paraded by me with contempt in their eyes. The last person to visit was Valeri Markov, a man I knew from the academy. When he entered the room there was no bright light. The door opened and shut. He smiled, tapped me on the shoulder and sat in the far corner. I asked what he was doing and where he thought he was. He said he was sharing a room with me in hell. I woke up. Firecrackers from May Day celebrations burst in succession. Drunken soldiers and liquidators were singing. My face hurt.

The next morning I told Asimov I would return to my duties. He replied that I was to rest and not to worry about work for the next few days. He handed me two bottles of vodka and a radio. I wanted a newspaper and one was delivered to me along with breakfast and a prostitute. She drank my vodka and ate my breakfast. I read a small blurb about Reactor Four and that all was safe. There was no mention of Yuri or Breshevski. Maybe tomorrow, I thought. The prostitute danced around the room with a bottle of vodka in her hand. She had undressed and wore only her panties. She spent most of the previous evening celebrating May Day with married politburo officials and smelled like liquor and old men. She passed out but not before puking on the curtains.





About the Author

Robert J Dornan is someone who wishes to leave a better world to his children. He realizes that the odds are slim but he will do whatever he can to increase the probability of success. He is always open to discuss new and innovative ideas and hopes someday to see the building of a functional solar city as well as a fair and community-driven compensation system.





23 Minutes Past 1 A.M. Roberts latest book is the historical fiction,

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By Trend

Organizers of the rally in Baku receive financial resources from the foreign organizations, Siyavush Novruzov, deputy executive secretary of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party, told Trend.

He said the National Council's rally gathered relatives of party leaders, members of the National Council.

Novruzov noted the rally organizers are trying to demonstrate to foreign organizations that there is a protest in Azerbaijan. "And for it, they receive funding", he added.

National Council has today held the rally at the stadium "Mahsul" in the Yasamal district of Baku. The rally was agreed with the executive power of the city.

The rally, which was held from 17:00 till 19:00, was attended by 2 500 representatives of various parties in the National Council, the opposition and non-governmental organizations.

No serious violations have been registered at the National Council's rally in Baku.
By Trend





Armenian armed forces have 14 times violated the ceasefire on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops over the past 24 hours, said Azerbaijans Defense Ministry on September 12.

The Armenian armed forces stationed in Berkaber village of Armenias Ijevan district opened fire at the Azerbaijani positions located in Gizilhajili village of Gazakh district.

Positions of the Azerbaijani army also underwent fire from the Armenian positions located near the occupied Chilaburt village of Terter district, Horadiz, Garakhanbayli villages of Fuzuli district, as well as on nameless heights in Goranboy and Fuzuli districts.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
By Trend

The first meeting of the contact group created within the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be held during the upcoming session of the UN General Assembly.

The announcement was made during the meeting of Azerbaijans Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov with OIC Secretary General Iyad bin Amin Madani who is on a working visit to the country, Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry told Trend on September 12.

During the meeting, the parties exchanged views on cooperation between Azerbaijan and OIC, the priority areas of this cooperation, bilateral relations with the organizations member states and other issues of mutual interest.

OIC secretary general congratulated the Azerbaijani state and people with Eid al-Adha. He praised Azerbaijans active role and contribution to OICs work as the organizations member.

Iyad bin Amin Madani emphasized that Azerbaijan preserves the multicultural traditions and religious values at a high level. He expressed confidence that the cooperation with Azerbaijan will continue further at a high level.

Mammadyarov, for his part, said that Azerbaijan attaches special importance to the development of relations with OIC. He pointed out that there is a favorable platform for further developing the bilateral and multilateral relations with OIC member states.

The foreign minister provided detailed information about the status of the talks on resolving the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, expressed gratitude to the OIC secretary general and member states for supporting Azerbaijans fair position in this conflict. He expressed confidence that the creation and activities of the contact group will contribute to the conflicts settlement.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

Further, Iyad bin Amin Madani expressed gratitude to Azerbaijan for its initiative to hold Islamic Solidarity Games in 2017.

Mammadyarov noted that as an active member of OIC, Azerbaijan will continue to make contribution to the fulfillment of the tasks on the organizations agenda.

During the meeting, the parties also emphasized the necessity of strengthening the Islamic solidarity within the organization.
By Trend





President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to defeat terrorism in his Eid al-Adha message on Sunday, Anadolu reported.

In a televised message, Erdogan said Turkey had a duty to defeat the Daesh terror group in Syria and render it unable to carry out activities in Turkey. Last month, Ankara launched an operation to remove Daesh from Syrias northern border region.

He added that the country was determined to end the PKK plague in southeast Turkey and said the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) behind the July 15 attempted coup and the PKK/PYD in Syria would face the same fate as the PKK in Turkey.

Turkey was stronger, more resolute and more dynamic than before coup attempt, Erdogan said.

Those with malicious intentions must know that they will find a Turkey with an army of 570,000 and police forces of 260,000 and a nation of 79 million, he said.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim also gave an Eid message in which he pledged that traitors would not be able to damage Turkeys unity.

All dirty plots against Turkish unity are in vain, he said. No terror groups will be able to bring Turkey to its knees.
By Trend

Conservatives in Iran have already started voicing grave suspicion of UK Ambassador to Tehran Nicholas Hopton just a few days since his appointment.

Iran and the UK restored diplomatic relations to the highest level by exchanging ambassadors on September 5 after a near five-year moratorium.

But on September 11, the state-run Mehr news agency published an article in whose headline it called Hopton a fake diplomat.

The article calls the newly appointed envoy an intelligence force who has previously worked for a foreign security organization in the UK before he started work as a diplomat in the Foreign Office, where his work also included the area of security.

The article goes on to note Hoptons presence in Yemen during the Arab Spring and his role in conveying secret messages between London and Doha in relation to support for terrorist groups during the rise of the Syrian crisis.

The article underlines Hoptons specialties in soft war and campaign, raising the point that the envoy has come with a special mission months before presidential elections in Iran.

This much for conservative media, but the Chairman of the Iranian Parliaments National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi said on September 10, No matter Tehran and London have upgraded their relations to the ambassadors level, Tehran should keep a vigilant eye on Britains newly appointed envoy, given the perception here in Iran that the UK cannot be trusted anyway.

We should be very careful England doesnt exceed its limits through its ambassador and acts only within the political framework outlined by the Vienna Convention and other international regulations, said

The UK closed its diplomatic compounds in Tehran in November 2011 after being stormed by a crowd of protesters, itself a consequence of London imposing new sanctions on Iran at that time.

While the government (of Iran) has decided to upgrade relations, the British diplomat must always be watched as the country has had a negative record both before and after the Revolution, the senior parliamentarian underscored.

The English should avoid repeating their past mischiefs, and their performance needs to be watched continuously, said Boroujerdi.

While there is compelling evidence that the conservative remarks serve genuine worries, as right-wing politicians in Iran have always dismissed the UK as an enemy with soft ways and intricacies, there can be another concern for those who have started the campaign against the new UK envoy.

The UK has left a record of supporting change in Iran, not the least obvious being what it did during the 2009 presidential disputes.

By acting quickly to portray a negative image of Hopton, the right-wing party may be planning to undo whatever efforts their rivals may be intending to make to raise in Iranian voters the hope of some change during their presidential campaigns, thereby channeling the votes to their own side.

The presidential elections in Iran will be held in the first half of 2017. President Hassan Rouhani may like then to run for a second term. But he will face the numerous instants of criticism that the more conservative rivals have directed at him. They have nearly refused to accept as helpful all of his efforts so far, the biggest of which being the nuclear deal.

Another newly-sprung issue for which conservatives are lashing out at Rouhani is his cooperation with the Financial Action Task Force which is required to boost Irans financial transparency and chances of international business. But the right-wing side has accused Rouhani of paving the way for enemies to infiltrate the country. There is enough sense in believing that the same logic is going on in the case of Hopton.
14:37 (UTC+04:00) Forty-eight people were injured in the car bomb explosion in the Turkish province of Van, the Dogan news agency reported citing a source in police on September 12.

Reportedly, two of the injured are police officers.

The injured have been taken to the hospital. The police have launched an operation to catch the terrorists.

The prosecutors office of Van has initiated a criminal case over the terrorist attack.

---

14:03 (UTC+04:00) Nineteen people were injured in the car bomb explosion in the Turkish province of Van, TRT Haber quoted the province governor Ibrahim Tasyapan as saying on September 12.

He noted that the terrorists were targeting the policemen guarding the nearby buildings.

---

13:01 (UTC +04:00) Turkish A Haber TV channel reports that the explosion occurred as a result of a car bomb attack.

The report said the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) terrorist group stands behind the blast.

There are so far no exact numbers on casualties.

---

12:53 (UTC +04:00) The explosion occurred in the center of Turkish city of Van between the buildings of the governorship and office of the Justice and Development Party, the Anadolu Agency reports.

Several people were injured in the explosion.

---

12:23 (UTC+04:00) A large explosion has occurred in Turkish province of Van, the Haber 7 newspaper reports.

Rescuers and ambulances have been sent to the scene.
By Trend





Kazakhstans President Nursultan Nazarbayev has arrived in Samarkand province to pay tribute to Uzbekistans first President Islam Karimov, read a message posted on the website of Akorda (presidential palace of Kazakh president).

During the visit, Kazakh president will lay flowers at Karimovs grave and meet with his family members.

Nazarbayev will also meet with Uzbekistans acting president Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
This post is prompted by a number of things that have left me pondering how as Christians we are to bring about change in our churches. When we strongly b...

7 years ago
North Korea has completed preparations for another nuclear test, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported on Monday, citing South Korean government sources who said the North may use a previously unused tunnel at its mountainous test site.



Pyongyang on Friday set off its most powerful nuclear blast to date, saying it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile and ratcheting up a threat that its rivals and the United Nations have been powerless to contain.



"Indications have been gathered that the North has completed preparations to conduct a nuclear test at any time in the third tunnel that has not been used previously," Yonhap quoted one of the government sources as saying.



It did not elaborate on what activities had been detected at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site near the North's northeastern shore, the location of its five nuclear explosions.



North Korea said on Sunday a push for further sanctions following its latest nuclear test was "laughable", and vowed to continue to strengthen its nuclear power.



A U.S. special envoy for the isolated state, Sung Kim, will travel to Seoul on Monday after discussing with Japanese officials in Tokyo cooperation among neighboring countries in the wake of the North's nuclear test.



Kim met with Japanese officials on Sunday and said the United States may launch unilateral sanctions against North Korea, echoing comments by US President Barack Obama on Friday in the wake of the test.



South Korea said on Saturday that the latest test showed North Korea's nuclear capability was expanding fast and that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was unwilling to alter course.



South Korea's military put the force of Friday's blast at 10 kilotonnes, which would be the North's most powerful blast to date, but a U.S. expert said the highest estimates of seismic magnitude suggested a yield of 20 to 30 kilotonnes.



The U.N. Security Council denounced North Korea's decision to carry out the test and said it would begin work immediately on a resolution. The United States, Britain and France pushed for the 15-member body to impose new sanctions.  Reuters
Suspected Kurdish militants detonated a car bomb near local government offices in Turkey's southeastern city of Van on Monday, wounding scores of people, a day after two dozen mayors from Kurdish-run municipalities were stripped of office.



The blast hit some 200 meters from the Van provincial governor's office, security sources said, ripping through the city's central district and setting buildings and cars aflame. Officials said 48 people were wounded but no one died.



Iranian nationals may have been among the wounded, CNN Turk said. Van sits about 100 km east of the border with Iran.



Southeastern Turkey has suffered repeated bombings and other attacks since the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in the region, abandoned a ceasefire in 2015.



Security sources said they suspected the PKK was behind the bombing in Van and that an operation had been launched to pursue the suspected militants. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.



The blast tore the front off a four-storey building. Footage from the Dogan news agency showed water cannon trying to douse flames on the street opposite. The district, normally busy, was more empty of traffic on Monday, the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.



Burhan Kayaturk, a local member of parliament from the AKP, said the blast had targeted the ruling AK Party's offices, but that they were well-secured and had not been badly damaged.



"ADMINISTRATIVE COUP"



Turkey appointed new administrators in 24 Kurdish-run municipalities mostly in the southeast on Sunday after removing their mayors over suspected PKK links, triggering protests. Four towns in Van province were affected by the removals.



President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Turkey had evidence that the mayors had sent support to Kurdish militants, and that they should have been stripped of their roles sooner.



"It is a step taken too late in my opinion," Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul after attending Eid prayers.



"They sent the support they received to the mountains, but this has all been discovered," Erdogan said, referring to Kurdish militant bases in the mountains of southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. "Our government took this decision based on all of this evidence."



The municipalities were run by local associates of the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), the third-largest party in parliament. The HDP decried what it said was an "administrative coup" and said the move was illegal.



Erdogan said last week that the campaign against the PKK - considered a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union - was now Turkey's largest ever and the removal of civil servants linked to them was a key part of the fight.



The US embassy said on Sunday that while it supported Turkey's right to combat terrorism, it hoped the appointment of government administrators would be temporary and that local citizens could soon choose new representatives. - Reuters
After seeing 11 bullet holes in a sign on the Yellowstone Wildlife Management Area last week, Tony Brilz was prepared to make a stand.

Right over the hill is Annies house, he said. Thats the one that hurt my heart.

I was ready to go up there, put a chain across the road and get arrested.

Brilz, 70, and his 79-year-old neighbor, Annie Rowe, have lost their patience with members of the public who visit the neighboring wildlife management area and shoot signs, litter and build fires  all of which are illegal activities.

They shoot up everything, Rowe said. After my husband died about five years ago I started sleeping on the couch and got a dog for protection. Im scared at night, and people are coming and going all day and night.

Public land

The Yellowstone Wildlife Management area is about 30 miles east of Billings, Montana, on the north side of its namesake river. Access to the area is via Bundy Road, which passes just west of Pompeys Pillar.

Purchased in 2008 by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks for $5.3 million, the former Circle R River Ranch is almost 4,000 acres and adjoins state and Bureau of Land Management property to provide access to another 5,400 acres of once-isolated public lands.

Pheasants Forever grows crops along the irrigated river bottom to provide habitat and food for wildlife. Although a campground was once considered for the river bottom, the idea was shelved.

According to FWPs Teri Walters, traffic counters at the WMA average about 200 vehicles a month, which she termed pretty low.

Enforcement issues

FWPs warden captain, supervisor and parks staff are familiar with Brilz and Rowes complaints. The two have protested the WMA since before it was created.

Weve met them. Actually, Annie and Bill (Rowes deceased husband) have been heavily involved since before the department first started to look at buying the land, said Harold Guse, FWPs Region 5 warden captain.

Guse acknowledged there has been vandalism at the WMA, but thats the case at many rural public sites  everything from destroyed outhouses to picnic tables chopped up for firewood. In one case, the Fish and Wildlife Commission took the extreme measure of shutting down a fishing access site along the Missouri River near Great Falls over the summer after continued reports of vandalism, underage drinking and violence.

Vandalism is pretty widespread, Guse said, usually perpetrated by locals. People dont drive miles and miles to vandalize stuff.

Guse called it a crime of opportunity  one committed when no one else is around to report the criminal act.

More patrols

A larger enforcement presence would seem to be the easy answer. Yet there are only 14 wardens to cover FWPs entire Region 5, an area that stretches from the Sweet Grass County line in the west to the Treasure County line to the east and from the Wyoming border north to Petroleum County. So wardens are spread thin. Since the site is open 24 hours a day, disturbances can occur at any time.

Brilz said closing the WMA at night would help ease his concerns  hed even offer to man the gate. But Guse said such a closure is difficult on a WMA where hunters may arrive before first light and leave after dark.

FWP wildlife technician Jay Watson said he spends more time than most FWP employees at the WMA and said use is fairly low  four to five people a day  except for the opening of deer and pheasant seasons when traffic swells.

Watson also said that most of the signs that have been shot up at the Yellowstone WMA havent been replaced, so damage that is visible has occurred over 8 years and not just recently.

Its not cost effective to replace them after they get bullet holes in them, he said. Its not a huge problem in my book.

Changed neighborhood

Rowe grew up on her familys ranch that was first settled by her Czechoslovakian grandfather in 1906. The ranch borders the WMA. The road to the site passes close to her home. Since the property has opened to the public she said gas has been siphoned from her trucks, cattle have been hit by vehicles and shots have whizzed overhead while she was outside.

Its like Wal-Mart  open 24 hours  but without the checkers, Brilz said. People come and go as they want.

But neighbors also reported having their mailboxes shot up before the WMA was formed, according to comments submitted to FWP in 2008 when the wildlife management area was first proposed. Anyone who has driven down a county road in Montana has seen signs riddled with bullet holes and shotgun pellets, as if it were a common state pastime.

Thats why Guse said its up to the public to denounce such activity and come forward when they witness others performing such illegal acts.

People know whats going on, he said. They need to speak up to law enforcement or speak out against the activity.

Rowe, for one, is afraid to turn in troublemakers for fear of retaliation. She said a friend who reported a poacher had his garage shot up.

Public land

On Friday Billings bird hunters Chaz Tafolla and his friend Ryan Benton drove to the WMA. Tafolla said hes been visiting the area for about a year to hunt birds and prairie dogs. He usually only sees one or two other people, although that increases in the fall, and hes never seen anyone shooting up signs or vandalizing the site.

We continue to try and work with the situation, said Barb Beck, Region 5 supervisor. Weve told them well be patrolling to the best of our ability and if they feel threatened to call 911 so someone responds.

But she added that the wildlife management area is a public resource.

And along with that comes people who may not act responsibly, Beck said.

Such comments do little to salve Brilz and Rowes concerns.

This is getting too close and too much, Brilz said. There are too many people living out here now.

This is one of the reasons ranchers have closed off their land to public hunters, said Brilz, a hunter, angler and trapper himself. In fact, thats how he first met the Rowes, while looking for a place to hunt 35 years ago.

Now that he has a little piece of paradise overlooking the Yellowstone River and the wildlife management area, he cant rest as easy as he once hoped. Neither can Rowe.

My husband and I came out here for a peaceful retirement, Rowe said.

Brilz said he doesnt want the WMA closed. But our lives matter too, he said.
BOISE, Idaho  Two Idaho firefighters have received the state's highest honor for their exceptional bravery and courage.

Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, chairman of Idaho's Medal of Honor Commission, announced the award recipients Friday.

Idaho Falls firefighter Sean Allen was honored for entering a submerged vehicle in an irrigation canal, cutting a victim free and pulling him to safety last year.

Meanwhile, Kootenai County Fire and Rescue Lt. John Ward was honored for entering a burning home while off-duty in April, 2015 and rescuing a disabled woman without protective gear.

Idaho lawmakers created the state's Medal of Honor in 2004. The award is given to law enforcement officers, firefighters and EMTs who have shown distinguished conduct. Earlier this year, three Bonneville County Sheriff's deputies also received the medal.
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FORT COLLINS, Colo.  A South Carolina man has admitted to using fake Facebook profiles to entice six Colorado teens into sending him sexually explicit photos.

37-year-old Christopher White on Friday pleaded guilty to six counts of coercion and enticement of a minor. White was charged after a joint investigation by the Larimer County Sheriff's Office and Homeland Security Investigations.

Officials say White would befriend children between 13 and 14 years old while claiming to be a teenage boy.

He faces 10 years in prison and is set to be sentenced on Dec. 14.

Anyone who thinks they might know of other victims in the case is asked to call federal investigator
RIVERTON  A settlement has ended a lawsuit filed by several Fremont County ranchers against a conservation group suspected of trespassing to collect water data.

Fremont County District Court Judge Norman Young approved a settlement that prevents the Western Watersheds Projects regional director, Jonathon Ratner, from traveling on some private roads, but doesnt impose any monetary damages.

Ratner has collected water samples in Wyoming that he contends show that streams with grazing in their wetland areas have five to 20 times the allowable amount of E. coli.

The ranchers filed the lawsuit after realizing Ratner wouldnt have been able to get to some of the public lands in question in Fremont County without driving through privately owned property.

However, because the plaintiffs couldnt show any physical destruction by Ratner to their properties, Young ruled out any award of damages.

Since the ranchers failed to ask for any compensatory damages, Young also nixed the request for punitive damages, those aimed at discouraging Ratner and his peers from further violations.

He then ordered both parties to mediation in the spring.

Karen Budd-Falen, who represented the ranchers in the case, said she was happy with the settlement because of the restrictions placed on Ratners travel.

The settlement stipulates that if any ranchers have evidence of trespass by Ratner, he will be required to pay $2,500 for each first offense and $5,000 for all subsequent offenses.

Ratner said the limitations on his travel in the area might limit some ability to collect data in the future, but in many cases, there are still options for public access.

Ratner has argued the case against him is a blatant attempt to pile legal fees onto Western Watersheds that discourage activism.

Budd-Falen denies that argument.

It wasnt about data collection. It was about trespassing on private property, Budd-Falen said.

Ratner said the case highlights the need for the Bureau of Land Management to make sure it gets easements for roads the public commonly uses.

The federal land management agencies have been very lax in doing their due diligence, he said.
LIMA, Peru  Four centuries ago the Count of San Isidro planted nearly 2,000 olive trees from his native Spain in a sprawling grove on the edges of Lima, the capital of colonial Peru.

Perfectly suited to the arid climate, the olive trees thrived as the city grew around them. Their twisting, knobby trunks and shady leaves became the centerpiece of a park named for them  El Olivar  that's a magnet for lovers, exercise enthusiasts and children on school field trips.

However, in a feat of poor planning, officials surrounded the trees with a 25-acre carpet of crabgrass that every week receives more than 2 million gallons of water, practically drowning the 1,700 trees.

After nearly a century of overwatering, many of the slow-growing trees are at risk of dying. Eleven have exposed roots and are in danger of falling, as one did in 2014. The problem is drawing attention to how residents and city planners waste scarce water resources ornamenting Lima with lush parks unsuited to the capital's dry environment.

"Lima was built atop a desert," Maureen Vilca, a teacher at a private Catholic school, reminded her students as they sat under the trees on a recent school day.

The district of San Isidro, Lima's wealthiest and best-organized, is looking for ways to urgently fix a problem created by previous administrations. Under consideration are plans to substitute the current grass for a less thirsty species, or using targeted irrigation techniques to prevent overwatering. Under normal conditions the trees could live more than 1,000 years, said Fernando de la Vega, who oversees San Isidro's parks.

Salustio Pomacondor, a forestry expert, said the lack of water planning is endemic to Lima. He cited as an example a 6-mile stretch of parks along El Malecon, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean and which the city spent years improving without much consideration for the constant watering that such immaculate landscaping requires. Another example of the focus on aesthetics over utility is the preference on downtown sidewalks for willows, a tree usually found next to rivers and which requires 40 gallons of water each week.

Pomacondor said the majority of Lima's 9 million residents have little notion of how scarce a resource water is in the capital despite the fact that annual rainfall rarely exceeds a third of an inch. While an estimated 700,000 residents have no access to running water, the rest consume an average of 66 gallons a day, more than their counterparts in other Andean capitals such as Bogota, Quito or La Paz.

"Everyone plants whatever they feel like," he said.
There was silence at the end of The Rogue Theatres production of Angels in America: Millennium Approaches.

It was Saturdays opening night. The audience had just sat through a 3-hour play about life, death, the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, greed, insanity, great abandonment, deep love, angels and devils.

But the silence wasnt because the audience was exhausted. Or displeased.

It is the only possible reaction to a production that makes vivid the horror, heartbreak and hope of Tony Kushners epic masterpiece. That silence gave way to grateful applause.

This play is perhaps one of the most difficult the 11-year-old Rogue has ever taken on. It sprawls, it wails, it attacks the audience with its stories and its intensity.

Director Matt Bowdren infuses the production with the tenderness and anger the play requires. He makes the sprawling intimate. He reminds us that we must not be complacent.

What Bowdren has done is no small feat: Eight actors portray about 20 characters. Theres an angel with beating wings. Ghosts wander in and out. Scenes jump from a hospital to a bar to an upscale apartment to a back alley where men meet for sex. Bowdren, who uses a simple set and quick scene changes, finds the humor and the grace in this dark, often disturbing play.

The piece is also a challenge for actors. Doubling and tripling up on characters mean they must portray different sexes, different ages, different eras, different accents. This ensemble served the play exceedingly well.

At the center of this story about life in mid-1980s America, when greed was good, political corruption was understood, and thousands died because the Reagan administration refused to pay attention to AIDS, are two couples: Prior and his lover, Louis, and Harper and her husband, Joe.

Prior, from an old Mayflower family, has AIDS; Louis, a clerk in a law firm, is healthy and scared. Within weeks of learning of Priors illness, he abandons him.

Harper and Joe are Mormons trying to make sense of their lives. She pops lots of valium and escapes into hallucinations; he struggles to come to terms with a wife who is slipping away, and his attraction to men.

Kushner parallels the couples lives and shows us how, ultimately, it all converges into a world that is dark and heartless, as well as one that is pure and hopeful.

Christopher Johnson is spellbinding in the role of Prior, who rages against Louis and his abandonment, the ghosts who visit him, the angel who crashes through his ceiling and the disease that is killing him.

But Johnsons Prior does not live on rage alone. He is deeply nuanced as he struggles to understand what is happening to him and the world around him. He gives him a profound tenderness to match the rage.

It would be easy to dismiss Louis  abandoning his lover of nearly five years because he cant handle the ugliness of dying is not an admirable trait. But Brian Hendricks wont let us do that: he helps us understand the fear that governs Louis actions and the guilt that wont let go of him. Hendricks, a University of Arizona graduate now living in New York, is so organic as Louis that we never doubt him and often ache for him.

Holly Griffith weaves in and out of insanity in her role as Harper. We get her desperation, and understand her need to let her mind drift in order to escape. Ryan Parker Knoxs conflicted Joe has the potential to make us hate him  hes a button-down lawyer who loves Roy Cohn and abandons his mentally ill wife to meet men on the streets. But, he, too, is terribly confused. Knox made that confusion, and his humanity, clear.

Roy Cohn, a lawyer who worked with Joseph McCarthy in the early 50s, hated Communists, loved money, was gay but in the closet, and had no use for ethics, is the devil in this play. We see his manipulation and desperation as he tries to convince young Joe to take a job in the Justice Department so he can get ethic charges against Cohn dismissed. Joseph McGrath shines as the seething, cajoling, creepy Cohn, a symbol for all that was wrong about the 80s.

A Roy Cohn type needs an antidote, and the gay nurse Belize, open and gentle and fearless, provides it. Sterling Boyns embraces this character and makes clear why this one-time queen is the moral center of the play.

It might be easy to see Angels as past its time  the Reagan era, Roy Cohn and other accoutrements of the 80s dont necessarily speak to anyone born after 1985.

But that would be a mistake. The play has a universal sweep and a timelessness. It reminds us of the costs of greed, ignorance and living an inauthentic life, and underscores the necessity for love and generosity and acceptance.

This Rogue production drives that home with a terrible beauty.
PHOENIX  Prosecutors are asking the Arizona Supreme Court to reinstate a law that allows some people accused of the sexual abuse of minors to be held without bail.

Deputy Maricopa County Attorney David Cole said the constitutional provision limiting access to bail was adopted by voters in 2002. He said the state Court of Appeals, in overturning the law enacted by lawmakers to implement that amendment, failed to give due consideration to the overwhelming will of the people.

It has long been the law in Arizona that legislative enactments enjoy a strong presumption of constitutionality, and that the burden to overcome the presumption rests squarely on the shoulders of the challenger, Cole said in legal papers filed with the states high court. And he said the attorneys for the two men at issue have failed to meet that burden.

The people of Arizona determined that sexual conduct with a minor is an acute problem and that pretrial detention for those accused of that crime was in the best interest of the community, Cole wrote.

State Solicitor General John Lopez IV, interceding in the legal dispute on behalf of Attorney General Mark Brnovich, Senate President Andy Tobin and House Speaker David Gowan, went even further.

He said Arizona has a transcendent interest in protecting children from sexual exploitation. And Lopez said that outweighs the liberty interest of someone who has only been charged with a crime.

The case involves two men charged in separate, unrelated incidents of various charges, including sexual conduct with minors younger than 15.

Both were initially held without bail based on the 2002 measure that says people charged with those crimes are not entitled to pretrial release if the proof is evidence or the presumption great that the person is guilty of the offense charged.

But in June, the state Court of Appeals said even those protections are legally insufficient. Appellate Judge Peter Swann said bail can be denied only if prosecutors can also show that no bail conditions or restrictions would ensure the protection of others.

He cited a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court decision that said the categorical denial of bail is unconstitutional. Swann said that means trial judges must make case-by-case determinations of whether a person can be released  and under what conditions  while awaiting trial.

Cole does not dispute that ruling. But he said the facts in that case are different than here. He said the Arizona law does not parallel the federal law at issue in that case.

Anyway, he argued, the Arizona law is very specific, applying to those who have sexual conduct of a minor younger than 15. And Cole said the measure is not an absolute bar to bail but has conditions.

That includes a hearing where a prosecutor must present evidence sufficient to show it is likely the defendant committed the crime. Cole said that provides sufficient safeguards for individual liberty while ensuring the community is protected.

Lopez, for his part, said there is overwhelming evidence that denial of bail for those who prey on minors is appropriate, calling it a crime that devastates victims, future generations and communities.

He said lawmakers recognize how serious a crime this is, with offenders facing a presumptive prison term of 20 years, and lifetime imprisonment if the victim is 12 or younger. And Arizona law allows potential indefinite commitment in the Arizona State Hospital as a sexually violent person after a prison term is served.

Lopez said there is other evidence to show pretrial detention benefits the community.

Studies show a high rate of recidivism among pedophilic sex offenders generally, ranging from 10 to 50 percent, he wrote.

Swann, in writing the appellate decision saying defendants could not be categorically denied bail, was careful to say he was not excusing the offenses charged here.

Sexual conduct with a young minor is unquestionably a serious offense that involves a vulnerable class of victims and severe penalties, he wrote. But it cannot serve in every case, as a reliable proxy for unmanageable flight risk, witness intimidation, unmanageable risk to victims or any other plausible bail consideration.

That appellate court ruling was not unanimous.

In a dissent, Judge Andrew Gould rejected the contention that denial of bail in certain circumstances is unconstitutional.

He said the express purpose of the statute and its companion state constitutional provision is to protect victims and the community. That, he said, makes its purpose regulatory, not punitive.

The high court has not said when it will rule on the matter.

This isnt the first time an appellate court has voided a provision of Arizona laws on bail.

In 2014, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals tossed out a 2006 voter-approved change to the Arizona Constitution that made bail unavailable to those charged with serious felony offenses if they are in this country illegally and there is evident proof the person is guilty of the offense charged.

In their ruling, the federal appellate judges said the measure violates the U.S. Constitution. The majority in that case said the right against being deprived of liberty without due process extends to even one whose presence in this country is unlawful.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to disturb that ruling.
The Michigan left at North Oracle and West Grant roads generated a fair amount of controversy after it was finished in the fall of 2013.

Roughly 80 percent of respondents to an online poll told the Road Runner back then that the novel intersections, which research shows are generally safer and more efficient, were a bad idea, though those opinions have since softened.

What wasnt as clear at the time was that the actual construction of the intersection was also not without controversy.

The local Falcone Brothers & Associates firm won the roughly $7.5 million contract in the summer of 2012 and, as company President Gaetano Falcone tells it, the work did not go as they had anticipated.

Pretty much the whole job needed to be edited, he said.

During the course of construction, (the company) encountered and was forced to contend with plan errors, utility conflicts, discovered subterranean structures, and other design changes in the project, issues that had an adverse impact on the length of time and amount of resources (the company) had to use, a complaint filed by the company in Pima County Superior Court in May 2015 reads.

Among the unexpected items found underground were a septic tank and a staircase, Falcone told the Road Runner.

To make up for what the company felt were extra costs and delays, the Falcone Brothers filed a notice of claim with the city in early 2014 seeking $2.2 million. As per the terms of the city of Tucson Department of Procurements dispute resolution process at the time, that claim was evaluated by a city contract officer, who denied it, then a hearing officer hired by the office, who also denied it. That decision was reviewed by Procurement Director Marcheta Gillespie, who issued a final decision denying the claim in April 2015, according to a recent ruling from the Arizona Court of Appeals.

In the hearing officers decision, Harold Merkow wrote that the Falcone Brothers inadequately documented their claim, among other shortcomings.

(The companys) lamentations about delay, inefficiency, working out of sequence, and loss of productivity can be directly attributed to its lack of an orderly, clear, rational, and logical schedule from which it could perform its work, he wrote.

But whether the city or the contractor is correct in this case is not the meat of the matter. Rather, the dispute process itself is a large part of what is being contested, and that appeals court ruling came down forcefully in favor of the Falcone Brothers claim that it is unfair  at least as it existed when the claim was first filed. Because every step took place under the auspices of the procurement office, Falcone criticized it for making that office the judge, jury and executioner in his case.

Gillespie disputed that criticism, and said some changes to the process that address the concerns raised by the appeals court have already been implemented.

In its motion to dismiss in June 2015, the city claimed the companys case should not proceed because the Falcone Brothers had not exhausted all administrative remedies available to it.

Additionally, because the procurement office had issued a ruling on the case and the company was presenting the same case again in superior court, the suit violated several legal principles.

The Arizona Court of Appeals begged to differ, overturned the Pima County Superior Court dismissal and sent the case back for further proceedings.

In its Aug. 25 ruling, written by Chief Judge Peter Eckerstrom, the court points to the fact that the office appoints the hearing officer without any apparent constraints on this appointment power and its director ultimately OKs or modifies the decision.

Such a one-sided scheme is invalid because it denies the other party a neutral, unbiased decision maker, the ruling reads. That flaw is part of why the court felt the city had no right to try and stop the Falcone Brothers from seeking recourse in superior court.

Gillespie took issue with that characterization, saying she doesnt appoint anyone, is not personally involved in the selection of hearing officers, and those officers are hired using the same process the city uses for purchasing any service.

Furthermore, in 2015 the procurement code was updated to take away the directors ability to review or modify the hearing officers decision, which is now considered final. That change was not prompted by the Falcone case, and the rest of the dispute process remains the same, Gillespie said.

But that isnt good enough, at least in the eyes of the Falcone Brothers.

In the companys July 2015 response to the citys motion to dismiss, David Sandoval, their attorney, wrote that hearing officers hired have a pecuniary interest in continuing that business relationship, implying that there could be a bias to frequently rule in the favor of their periodic employer, the city.

Gillespie said that hearing officers recommendations have not always been in the favor of the city, and she could not recall an instance during her roughly 25 years with the city of a procurement director going against those recommendations.

Nevertheless, Gillespie said her office is going to look into the possibility of finding other ways to select hearing officers.

This office is here to ensure the integrity of the procurement process, she said. We always want to ensure that we have a code and a process that is best for all parties.
The impetus for the Magma Arizona Railroad originated from the necessity in providing ore transport for the mines around Superior beginning in 1875 with the discovery of a rich silver lode by Charles G. Mason, Isaac Copeland, Benjamin W. Reagan and W. H. Long.

Further discoveries resulted in the formation of the Pioneer Mining District, including the Silver King Mine and later the Silver Queen Mine, which came to be known as the Magma Mine after the incorporation of the Magma Copper Co. by William Boyce Thompson and George Gunn on May 20, 1910.

Financial support then arrived to build the needed railroad that would supplant the costly ore teams.

On Oct. 13, 1914, the Magma Arizona Railroad Co. was incorporated as a subsidiary of the Magma Copper Co. The MacArthur Brothers were awarded the contract to build a 30.36-mile, 36-inch narrow-gauge rail line from Magma Station, formerly known as Webster, to Superior at a cost of $160,000.

Extensive building operations commenced at the end of 1914. More than 250 men and 125 mules were involved in grading, bridge excavations and track surfacing, with the last spike driven on April 29, 1915.

Cuts requiring extensive excavation and fills proved challenging during construction, causing the contractor to go over budget.

The railroad began transporting the rich copper ore, some exceeding 40 percent copper, with four steam locomotives acquired from the American Locomotive Co. during World War I.

Although the war contributed to the rise in copper prices, it also was responsible for a shortage of labor, which delayed repairs to the railroad of damage from fires and flooding.

A new standard-gauge railroad was built by the Twohy Brothers in 1923 alongside the existing narrow gauge. The salvaged narrow-gauge rail was later sold to the Old Dominion Mine for use as underground tracks for the electric mine tramway.

The engines were serviced by water stops at Desert Wells and Queen.

Prior to the completion of the Magma Copper Co.s smelter at Superior in 1924, concentrates were shipped to the Hayden smelter using the Arizona Eastern Railroad junction at Magma.

Business for the railroad declined during the Great Depression with the closure of many local mines.

By 1940, passenger and mail service was discontinued due to declining profits and alternative methods of transportation such as automobiles and trucks.

However, World War II and the ensuing decades saw the re-emergence of the Magma Mine as a producer, contributing to the resurgence of the railroad.

The area around Picketpost Mountain west of Superior contained substantial deposits of perlite worked at four mines after World War II. Several spurs along the Magma Arizona Railroad were established near Superior to accommodate the perlite industry with direct shipments of the volcanic material.

Perlite is a glassy volcanic rock of rhyolitic composition named after its pearl-like structure. It has the ability to expand like popcorn when heated and is used in commercial applications such as plasters, insulation and fire-resistant materials.

The 1960s saw the Magma Arizona Railroad used in movies, as it was one of the last steam operations in the country. Several prominent movies were shot on-site, including How the West Was Won and Cheyenne Autumn.

The Magma Arizona Railroad faced challenges as the building of steam locomotives declined, and there also was dearth of spare parts needed to maintain the fleet of engines.

It ultimately succumbed to the diesel revolution. The final weeks of steam operation occurred in August 1968, a decade after steam engines were replaced with diesels among the major railroads. That same year, the railroad set a record of outbound tonnage: 81,177 tons.

The closure of the smelter at Superior by the Newmont Mining Corp. on July 11, 1971, due to a labor dispute and mounting environmental regulations, increased the workload of the railroad, which included daily, heavy loads of bulky concentrates instead of the previous transport of copper anodes several times a week.

The line continued to operate until shortly after the merger of the Magma Copper Co. and the Broken Hill Proprietary Co. Ltd. (BHP) and subsequent closure of mining operations around Superior in 1996.

The development of the Resolution Copper Mine near Superior, currently the largest discovered copper deposit in the United States, may revive the Magma Arizona Railroad, which is currently owned and being refurbished by the Resolution Copper Co.
New US drama Quarry will premiere on Showcase next month.

The series stars Logan Marshall-Green as a Marine who returns home from Vietnam but is ostracized in his hometown, who is lured into becoming a hitman.

The series, which also features Aussie Damon Herriman, was produced by HBO for Cinemax in the US, where it premiered last week.

Set in and around Memphis during the early 1970s, Quarry is a thrilling action drama that centres on the character of Mac Conway, a Marine who returns home from a second tour of duty in Vietnam, only to find himself stigmatized by his involvement in a highly publicized massacre while fighting abroad. Though he and his fellow Marine Arthur Solomon have been exonerated of wrongdoing, they are greeted with hostility and rejection in Memphis, with neither able to land a decent job.

With Macs relationship with his wife Joni growing tenuous, he and Arthur are tempted by a lucrative offer from The Broker, a shady criminal involved in a network of killing and corruption that spans the length of the Mississippi River. At first, Mac refuses to offer up his services to The Broker, but after Arthur opts to trade his principles for quick cash, Mac  whom The Broker codenames Quarry  finds himself conscripted against his better judgement into The Brokers crew, a turn of events that has dire consequences for both himself and Joni.

Monday, October 3 at 9.30pm on Showcase.
Help India!

By Mohammad Allam,

The purpose of any educational institution is to develop all-round personality of the student through keeping education in the centre. If education is not in the centre, no model of students union will work to improve the educational culture of the institution and all-round personality of the students. To achieve the aims and objectives, the function of the concerned educational authority is to construct such a model which inspires the students to perform better at all levels by placing education in the centre.

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In present scenario of development of political philosophy of students in an educational institution is not intentional motive to serve the alma-mater and the nation but to glorify the personal achievements and open the path for rise in political career. This sort of philosophy can be tolerated in a Machiavellian democratic political set-up of nation but not in politics of the students Union of an educational institution.

The case of AMU Students Union in present time reveals a unique pattern of dominance by the various forces operated in the Campus. Every vested interest visualizes the Students Union from own perspective without considering the interest of the alma-mater and educational culture of the university. The nexus among the different sections of the university power brokers present the dangerous trend in the history of Students Union for the last few years. From students, teachers and administration want a peaceful and constructive Union for the university by neutralizing it from vested interest. What should be done to achieve this goal?

In my opinion the solution lies in the changing in the structure, mode of election, composition and functions of the Students Union. The structure of the Students Union should be based on 1) General Body and 2) Elected Council. The Elected Council should be considered the ultimate authority of the students of the university. The General Body can comprise all students of the university. The Elected Council could call General Body meeting to consult on any important matter like Strike, Dharna etc. Without consent of General Body, such acts of the union would be considered illegal.

As for election, the demand of the time is to change the election process. Till now the election used to be held for the post of President, Vice-President, Secretary and Cabinet. These office bearers used to be elected by the university students (No right to vote or any thing to 10+2 and schools students. While in practical the students from these two sections make tempo high during the election campaign.

In changing scenario the students union should have two stages of election.







Primary stage:

At this stage there is no need to have any election. All the toppers of all the Departments should be accepted as elected members of the Elected Council of Students Union. While one member should be elected from each faculty like Social Science, Commerce etc. by a system of vote by the students

Secondary stage:

At this stage, members the Elected Council comprising toppers and elected ones would elect President, Vice-President, Secretary and Cabinet and other office bearers for the students union.

This sort of students union would bring a well balanced Students Union. Such union would have both the value of merit and leadership quality. This would bring the reach of the student leader to minimum and would not allow him/her to have nexus with the vested interests. The various vested interests would not be in position to use such union for their own sake.

In terms of functions of the students union, there should be a clear demarcation line. They should be given more saying in matter related to the problems of the students. There should be regular time bound meeting with the office bearers of the Students Union. By this way, one can hope that AMU can put education in the centre of all activities of the students and the doors can be opened for both meritorious and political oriented brain.

(The author is a teacher, S.T.S. High School ( Minto Circle), AMU, Aligarh. E-mail:[email protected])
Help India!

By Dr M. Mohibul Haque for TwoCircles.net

It would not be wrong to say that Aligarh Muslim University is one of the greatest achievements of Muslims of India. It is amongst the top universities of India according to Times Higher Education Survey and also the the first modernist Islamic institution in the world according to H.A.R Gibb. Established in 1875 as Madarsatul Uloom by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan with generous help from the Muslim community, it became the Muhammadan Anglo Oriental College in 1877, and subsequently was upgraded into a University in 1920. The University has been the epitome of the hopes and aspirations of Muslims of the subcontinent for almost a century.

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It is regarded as the nerve center of Muslim intelligentsia in India and is also credited or blamed (depending on how you choose to look at it) for creating Pakistan. In this sense, the Aligarh Muslim University is perhaps the only educational institution in the world which is discussed not only in the context of changing the course of history but also the geography of a region.

It is believed that the Aligarh Muslim University Students Union (AMUSU) is the first students Union of the Indian subcontinent. It has also been the nursery of the Muslim leadership for decades. Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, Maulana Shaukat Ali, Hasrat Mohani, Liaquat Ali Khan, General Muhammad Ayub Khan, Sheikh Abdullah, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Azam Khan, Arif Muhammad Khan, Salim Peerzada, and many others are the proud products of this great body. The AMUSU has articulated the grievances of Muslims from all over the world and has been enjoying the faith of the community at large. One of the greatest achievements of the AMUSU in the post-partition India is its organized and successful democratic struggle for the restoration of the minority character of the University from 1965 to 1981. However, in the recent past, the AMUSU seems to have lost its past glory.

Unscrupulous leaders managing to win by exploiting regional sentiments have destroyed the image of this great body. It has stopped playing its traditional role of providing leadership to the Muslims of India. Its frequent and unwarranted interference in the smooth functioning of the University has led to dissolution of the body after every brief interval. The suspension of elections to the body denies students the opportunity to articulate their grievances through their elected representatives. Moreover, the vacuum created by the absence of the Union is filled by the more aggressive and violent elements claiming regional backing, or by the so-called informers, sycophants, or the good boys. These good boys within no time become the bad boys deserving all punishments.

The decision of the University administration to hold elections to the coveted AMUSU is indeed worth appreciating. It is important that the present administration declared elections of the Union without there being any kind of pressure on them which imposes additional responsibility on the students and their leaders to maintain calm and peace on the campus. It is always said that the voters get the representatives they deserve. The voters to the AMUSU have to understand the importance of their body and the incumbents they are going to send to it. After the student leader Kanhaiya Kumars issue on JNU campus and his amazing leadership skill exhibited during the last few months, the focus of the media and policymakers has shifted to the politics of the campuses of the universities and colleges. Due to this, the AMUSU elections become important. The students all over the country have got a role model in the form of Kanhaiya Kumar who is amazingly articulate and politically mature with impeccable personal integrity. The students of AMU should also elect leaders from amongst them who are articulate, honest, sincere and devoted to the cause of the University and the community. For this, they have to rise above regionalism, sectarianism, communalism and casteism. The voters have to engage the contestants in rational debate on vital issues relating to the community and the country.

The future leaders of the AMUSU will be expected to resist the attempts of the ruling dispensation at the saffronisation of education and abolition of the minority character of the University. They will definitely be consulted by the media to sit in the newsrooms of the TV channels to discuss the issues pertaining to Muslims of India. They shall be expected to give interviews to national and international media on disturbing issues like the radicalisation of Muslim youths, their grievances, and predicaments. The battle for the restoration of the minority character of the University is to be led mainly by the leaders of the AMUSU; therefore, an articulate and mature leadership is the need of the hour.

It should be also kept in mind that the victims of communal riots living in the makeshift tents in Muzaffarnagar, innocent youths languishing behind the bars with serious charges, the victims of natural calamities, the sufferers of violence in Kashmir, and even the people living in Gaza and other parts of Palestine have every right to expect something from the AMUSU keeping in view its role in the past. The secular political parties wait for emergence of political leadership from the vibrant campus of this great seat of learning, so that these leaders can be recruited to play a greater role on a bigger canvas. The emerging Dalit-Muslim unity against the rightist forces awaits a sincere and talented leadership to strengthen and consolidate it and to translate it into a formidable political and social force. A community without a leader is like a ship without radar that drifts aimlessly in the sea.

The author is assistant professor at the Department of Political Science, Aligarh Muslim University
Help India!

By Raqib Hameed Naik, Twocircles.net

Bihar: As relief work of Indian Muslim Relief & Charities (IMRC) enters its fifth day in flood-ravaged Bihar, 3,030 families have been provided with ration by its team of volunteers working in Bhagalpur and Kathiar districts.

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On September 10 and 11, US-based IMRC established distribution centres at Naugachia Rajpora and Bagarpur , where thousands of families were provided with food packets which included 5 kg rice, 3 kg rice flakes, 1 kg jaggery, 1 kg pulses, biscuits and 500 ml mustard oil.

On Wednesday September 7, IMRC volunteers distributed food packets among 520 families at two centers in Amdaar and Agarpurtola village in Bhagalpur district whereas on September 8, 1,080 families were provided with food packets in Manihari, Azampur Gola villages of Katihar district taking the number of beneficiary families to 1,600.

Jamun Thakur, 71, from Naugachia, in Bhagalpur district is physically handicapped. He has no children lives alone as his wife died few years ago.

During normal days, my neighbours bring food for me but now they are also struggling for the same. This ration given by these good people have eased my hardships. This will prove to be sufficient till everything comes back to normal in my village, Thakur said.

Syed Abdul Najeeb, project manager of Hyderabad based Sahayata Trust, the implementation partner of IMRC, said, The distribution of ration went smooth due to help from our local volunteers, who worked day and night to ensure that help reaches the deserving families.

Importantly, IMRC is responding to one of the worst floods in over a decade in Bihar and initiated an immediate relief work, providing ration like and ready to eat meals to the poor and needy flood affected families.

IMRC have sanctioned an amount of Rs 33.3 lakh ($50,000) for relief work.
Help India!

By Shafeeq Hudawi, TwoCircles.net

Kozhikode: Kerala CPI (M) leadership was left red faced after Jignesh Mevani, Una agitation leader, rejected the partys invitation to attend the Swabhiman Congregation by Pattika Kshema Samithi (PKS), the SC and ST outfit of the party.

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On Sunday, Mewani, who had initially agreed to meet the protest gathering against atrocities on Dalits across the country, took a U turn when he found that PKS was affiliated with CPI (M).

I was invited to this program a few days back and I agreed to attend the program after I was told that it is not affiliated with any political party. But it was brought to my notice by my friends in Kerala that PKS is a frontal organisation of CPI (M). As an Ambedkarite, I have serious reservations and problems with the work and ideology of CPI (M) in Kerala and elsewhere. Not only is their work problematic, I also seriously condemn the treatment meted out to Chitralekha by CPI (M) and I am with her in her struggle, reads a Facebook post by Mevani.

Chitralekha, a dalit lady autorickshaw driver, was continuously attacked by the party workers as she dared to work among the male drivers at one of the CPM strongholds at Payyannur in Kannur. Party leadership stayed mum over the attacks even after the Dalit lady chose to take her protests to the state secretariat few months back. The party leadership had drawn heavy criticism over its inaction in addressing the woes faced by Chitralekha.

Mevani, through his Facebook post, apologised to PKS and clarified that he was open to all invitations, extended by any Ambedkarite group.

I withdraw my participation from this programme and I apologise for any inconvenience caused. I apologise to PKS for agreeing to attend their program without first verifying who they are affiliated to. I would rather prefer to be invited by any Ambedkarite group or other progressive groups in Kerala for whom fighting Caste has been their topmost priority and have worked over a period of time on the path set by Babasaheb, his Facebook post added.

However, PKS has decided to go ahead with the programme. The Swabhiman Congregation, which is to be held on September 21 in Kannur, will be attended by Ashok Mochi, the former face of Gujarat riots, Somaprasad MP and CPI (M) leader P Jayarajan.
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By Masood Peshinam for Twocircles.net

A politician knows the value of speaking the truth: at least when it gives immense political benefits. Political narratives are fashioned depending on the exigencies of the situation.

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The virtue of necessity does not turn it into a vice, as demonstrated by NCP Supremo Sharad Pawar.

Pawars delayed response to the alleged illegal detention of Muslim youths in the name of combating terror must be read in terms of political opportunism to harvest the Muslim vote bank in 2017 Mumbai Municipal Corporation election and the other local body elections. He tried to assuage the bruised sensitivities of Muslims over the alleged targeting of its youths in the name of alleged linkage with the Islamic state. Taking note of the alleged injustice done to Muslim youths Pawar accused the ATS of illegally detaining Muslim youth for probing their alleged links with the banned Islamic state. In a move thats likely to strike a chord with his secular constituents, Pawar said this having visited Marthwada region recently where leaders of 29 Muslim organisations sought his help to stop the ATS highhandedness. He added that some Muslim youths from Parbhani and neighbouring areas were kept in the illegal detention on the premises of the agriculture department for four to five days and then proceeded in Court as he was informed.

He said that he would discuss the issue with the leaders of the like-minded parties in New Delhi. He equally made it clear that if members of minority community are involved in illegal activities, they should be taken to task, but it should be ensured that innocents are not harassed.

NCP Supremos plain-speaking has been welcomed by the Muslims and those concerned with the human right violations despite some quarters investing it with playing the Muslim card on the eve of BMC and other local body elections.

Earlier BSP Supremo Mayawati had also touched upon the persecution of Muslims and Dalits which is also seen as an attempt to revive her political fortunes on the eve of U.P. elections.

Notwithstanding Mayawatis raising the issue of Muslim-Dalit being subjected to untold sufferings due to the myopic and prejudiced approach of the government there is a difference between Mayawatis and Pawars assertion on the vexed issues. Unlike Mayawati, Pawar is an old-timer and a political heavyweight who was in the Congress Party and held important portfolios like Defense and agriculture.

Pawar would do well to look in the past

The fact remains that Muslims of Marathwada are so much rooted in the native culture that sometimes with their Marathi in local accent and appearance its difficult to recognize them as Muslims. In such scenarios, where is the question of their alleged linkage with IS?

The Indian Muslims time and against have expressed their strongest resentment and dislike of the Islamic State. The fierce opposition of Indian Muslims is too well known to need any recounting.

Reacting to the false arrest of Muslims, Dalit leader of Parbhani Vijay Kawade termed it as the conspiracy hatched by the Sangh Parivar. Vijay Kawade even blamed the ATS for the unhappy incidents against the Dalits and Muslims.

Advocate Mujahid Qadar Aligue also questioned the credentials of ATS in targeting Muslims. He asked as to how the seizure panchnama is not made at the house of the accused persons.

Aligue believed that the arrest of Muslim youths forms part of RSS script to gain in Mumbai Corporation and U.P. Elections. The veterans of Parbhani would like the Muslims and Hindus to be united against the onslaught of communal forces.

All these issues concerning the allegedly false arrest of Muslim youths were brought before the NCP Supremo who, comprehending the gravity of the situation, spoke against such arrests.

However, these observations made by Pawar on this count does not tally with earlier stances concerning Muslims.

At the time of protest against Salman Rushdies novel Satanic Verses where around 14 Muslims had to pay with their lives, Pawar did not oppose the firing.

His role in the disgraceful demolition of Babri Masjid was questionable and as well he failed to inspire the confidence of Muslims in the worst ever communal violence in Mumbai in the wake of the Babri Masjid demolition.

The track record of his own party which was part of the government earlier with Congress concerning Muslim arrest in the name of terror is equally not comfortable.

In the tenure of Congress-NCP government many a time Muslim delegations met the then Home Ministers Chagan Bhujbal and late R.R. Patil on the question of wrong arrest of Muslims in terror cases but in vain.

It is not known whether Sharad Pawar has spoken against the wrong arrest of educated Muslim youth for any political gain or to refurbish NCPs secular credentials. However political culture in our country is rooted in political opportunism. The politicians wearing humility and smile in public life are fairly arrogant and quite non cooperative the private life. The sympathy card is only for the media and public. The dichotomy in public and private domain, bane of our system is percolated down the line.

No less significant it is to note that Congress-NCP had come to power on the plank of implementing the Sri Krishna Commission which was allowed to lie in the cold storage. The situation got further stressed with the grant of promotion to the police personnel indicted by Sri Krishna Commission. The Congress-NCP combine forgot to implement the recommendations of Sri Krishna Commission which were passionately talked about during the election.

As far as Congress is concerned, it presents a confused picture, confounded with its dubious role vis-a-vis Muslim educated youths arrest. Its role can be summed up in one Urdu verse quoted by the distinguished MP Tarakeshwari Sinha

The Urdu verse is:

Khub Parda hai chilman se lage baithe hain, saf chupte bhi nai samne aate bhi nai

(What a veil! You are seated at the window in a way that you are neither coming front nor properly hidden)

The parallel of forgetfulness can be drawn with the dramatic scene in the legendary film Mogle Azam. In Mughal-e-Azam, the magnum opus of K Asif, the mother of Anarkali (Durga Khote) came screaming to the emperor Akbar [Prithviraj Kapoor] showing the ring presented by emperor Akbar to seek his help and prevent Anarkali [Madhubala] from being buried in the four walls. Akbar initially failed to remember his promise, but after much persistent insistence, he relented and Anarkali was saved.

The politicians in the country are to take cue from the scene from the movie and remain faithful to the promises and expected to see the larger interest of the Nation than the petty political gains. The primacy of national interest carries more credibility than the opportunistic politics.

It is also important for Muslims to focus on developing essence of character. Only good character can ensure their dignified survival and make people like Pawar to speak against the victimization of the community in the name of terror. In the circumstance Hindu-Muslim unity is also need of the hour.

The author is a lawyer based out of Kalyan, Maharashtra
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ArrayBengaluru : Tension gripped the city on Monday as rumours spread that curfew was clamped in some areas and protesters were forcing closure of shops and hotels over the Supreme Court order to release more Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu. Denying any such situation, police asked the people to maintain peace.

The situation is under control. There is no curfew in the city or any ban order issued. Rumour-mongers are causing panic by spreading wrong news about a shutdown being imposed, Police Commissioner N.S. Megharik told reporters here.

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Even as some miscreants torched at least six trucks with Tamil Nadu registration numbers on the citys outskirts and blocked roads by burning tyres and effigies, Megharik appealed to the citys 10 million denizens to maintain peace and remain calm.

Hundreds of pro-Kannada activists staged demonstrations in many areas of the city protesting attacks on Kannadigas and Karnataka registered buses in Chennai and some parts of Tamil Nadu earlier in the day.

In view of the brewing tension, inter-state buses with Tamil Nadu registration suspended services to the neighbouring state. Trucks and other vehicles also withdrew operating in the city.

Tension was brewing in the city and across the Mysuru region, including Mandya since afternoon after the apex court directed Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs daily from Tuesday up to September 20 in response to the states interim petition to allow it only 10,000 cusecs daily for six days  from September 7 to September 12.

The top court had on September 5 directed the state to release 15,000 cusecs daily for 10 days from September 7 to September 16 in response to Tamil Nadus plea for 50 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) of the river water.

Meanwhile security had been tightened across the city to prevent attacks over the Cauvery issue and in view of Eid on Tuesday, said Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwar.

We have intensified security and stepped up vigil in Bengaluru to ensure peace and maintain law and order. Additional police forces have been deployed in localities where Tamils live for their protection, Parameshwar told reporters here.

I appeal to the people, especially the protesters not to attack anyone or damage public property, including buses, cars and transport vehicles, he reiterated.

Expressing disappointment over the apex courts latest order, the minister said though the state had respect for the court, the government would again approach it to modify the latest order due to water shortage in the reservoirs.

Meanwhile, contingents of the Karnataka State Reserve Police have been rushed to Mandya and Mysuru for deployment on the state highways and protecting reservoirs in the river basin from being attacked by angry protestors.
The Alaskan Bush People appear to be a very loving clan, but it looks as though there is one family member not feeling that love from her wilderness brood today. Last season fans got to meet Billy's daughter from a previous marriage when she flew into Browntown to meet her half-siblings, step-mother Ami and reconnect with Billy.

Warm welcoming on-air

From what was seen on that Alaskan Bush People episode, she was welcomed with open arms. Her half-brothers even built a wilderness bull-riding machine, rigged out of a barrel and some ropes. When she arrived they took turns riding the bull-barrel in a caveman-like attempt to impress the fair maiden from the lower 48!

Preparations before her arrival included a conversation between Billy and Ami on how welcome they wanted to make Twila, when she arrived. Ami even said something about her being "our daughter" and skipped the step-daughter tag completely. Apparently, something must have happened off camera because Twila had some sad sounding news recently posted on herpage regarding her visit to see her dad and appearing on the Alaskan Bush People show.

Cupcake, the cats and then Twila?

Twila Byars wrote on her Facebook page that while at Browntown with her dad and extended family, she felt that she ranked lower than the family dog, whose name is Cupcake. She also went on to say she probably also ranked lower than the Brown's cats.

Below is her Facebook post, which may seem rather sad.

Was Twila really feeling that the Brown family's animals were of more importance to the family than she was? Looking back a bit on Twila's page she has a tribute posted in pictures of her beautiful daughter who passed away. The photo tribute was posted in the middle of July for her daughter's birthday.

The post is seen below.

While filming the Alaskan Bush People Twila did mention that she had a daughter who had died a few years back. You could tell she was carrying that pain with her as she revealed this on camera. For her to now feel like she came after the family pets as far as Billy, Ami, her half-brothers and half'-sisters were concerned...this must feel horrific for Twlia.

Billy's eldest daughter feeling left out?

The Inquisitr suggests that Twila might have some "genuine sadness" about her time with the Alaskan Bush People, or she could just be taking her connection to the Brown family in her "stride." One thing is for sure, this is a mom who misses her daughter very much.

She posted a tribute to her daughter three years ago on YouTube. It was July 17, 2013, and at that time her daughter would have been 21.

The YouTube video is embedded below.
China to assist in SE Asian upgrade Updated: 2016-09-12 07:35 By LYU CHANG, YANG ZIMAN and ZHANG LI in Nanning(China Daily)

Vice-premier says China has key role to play in investment and trade ties

China is willing to help drive industrial upgrading in Southeast Asian nations in the form of direct investment, projects, technological cooperation, and imports and exports of equipment, Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli said on Sunday.

"China, with its advantages in capital, technology, engineering and management for infrastructure construction, will help ASEAN countries to elevate their industrialization based on demand in different countries," Zhang said at the opening ceremony of the 13th China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) in Nanning, capital of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

He said China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should establish closer ties with an e-commerce trade platform being built in Nanning.

Jack Ma, chairman of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, said during the four-day event that the company will expand its investment in the Southeast Asian countries, using Guangxi as a springboard for regional development.

Alibaba, the world's largest online retailer, has taken a controlling stake in Southeast Asian online retailer Lazada to tap into the lucrative consumer market in countries such as Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.

"The development of online business not only promotes more consumption, but has helped to create nearly 30 million jobs in China" said Ma.

"I believe that Southeast Asian countries will gain great development opportunities from e-commerce," he said.

At the same time, the Belt and Road Initiative under the framework of the China-proposed Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, also provides opportunities for energy cooperation.

China General Nuclear Power Group, the country's largest nuclear operator in terms of capacity, said it would follow the Belt and Road Initiative to seek further business development in Southeast Asia.

Chen Jian, general manager of Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Co Ltd, CGN's subsidiary, said the establishment of its regional headquarters in Malaysia shows its determination to push forward cooperation in Southeast Asian countries.

"Currently we have many projects in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and other countries in the field of clean energy," he said.

"It's of mutual benefit, as it not only helps meet the energy demand but it drives up the whole value chain for ASEAN countries in terms of technology and equipment manufacturing through our cooperation."

China is ASEAN's largest trading partner, while ASEAN is China's third largest. Bilateral trade between China and ASEAN has increased considerably over the past 25 years since the two sides established dialogue relations in 1991, growing 18.5 percent year-on-year from $7.96 billion to $472.16 billion last year.

China and ASEAN have pledged to further expand bilateral trade to $1 trillion by 2020. To achieve the goal, China and ASEAN signed an agreement late last year to upgrade the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area to further liberalize and facilitate bilateral trade and investment. The agreement officially came into force in July.

Zhou Mo contributed to the story.
Hotel rooms, problems increase in Singapore Updated: 2016-09-12 07:32 By Bloomberg(China Daily USA)

An influx of tourists to Singapore this year has brought little joy to the city's hoteliers, as a glut of rooms sends a key revenue measure to a six-year low.

Revenue per available room, a metric used by the hotel industry, slumped 7.4 percent in June to S$179.40 ($132) a night, the lowest since 2010, according to data from the Singapore Tourism Board. Even as tourist arrivals have risen each month this year, room rates have fallen because of shorter trips by visitors and a 5 percent increase in the number of hotel rooms.

There's no relief in sight. Of the 2,866 hotel rooms slated for addition this year, about two-thirds were expected to open in the second half, according to UOB Kay Hian. Marriott International Inc and the owner of the Holiday Inn Express chain are among operators that have planned new hotels in Singapore this year or already opened them.

"The high supply of new hotel rooms will be a headwind for room rates," Macquarie Group analysts Ken Ang and Tuck Yin Soong said in a note to clients. "While visitor arrivals have increased, average length of stay is falling, including from a higher proportion of day visitors," said the analysts, who have a negative rating on hotel stocks.

Chinese visitors, the largest group of tourists to Singapore, posted a 53 percent increase in June from a year earlier, the tourism board data showed. However, many price-conscious tourists are stopping over before crossing into Johor Bahru in Malaysia, which is about a 30-minute drive from the city center, according to Derek Chang, an analyst at UOB Kay Hian in Singapore.

"Chinese tourists are coming in from secondary cities in China and they are more budget-conscious," Chang said.

A pullback by Chinese visitors has also hurt hotels in Hong Kong. Average room rates in Hong Kong were down 9.2 percent to HK$1,337 ($172) last year, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board. In Tokyo, a popular destination for Chinese tourists but which has a shortage of hotels, average daily room rates last year rose 9.4 percent to 18,225 yen ($176), data from Savills showed.

The glut of rooms is hurting Singapore hotel operators. Shares of Hotel Properties Ltd, which owns the Four Seasons, Hilton and Concorde hotels in Singapore, have fallen 10 percent this year, compared to a 1.1-percent drop in the benchmark Straits Times Index. Global Premium Hotels Ltd, which runs a chain of budget hotels, has dropped 12 percent.

An outbreak of the Zika virus may further dissuade tourists. More than 240 cases of the mosquito-borne virus have been detected since the city's first case was identified last month.

When Singapore was hit by SARS in 2003, visitor arrivals plunged 70 percent in the first three months of the pandemic, sending hotel occupancy plunging more than 40 percent, UOB Kay Hian said.

(China Daily USA 09/12/2016 page13)
G20 consensus will boost world economy Updated: 2016-09-12 07:56 By Wang Peng(China Daily)

President Xi Jinping addresses the media on Sept 5 after the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. Feng Yongbin / China Daily

In response to global economic growth that had been "too low for too long for too few", as International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde described, the G20 wrapped up the Hangzhou Summit on Sept 5 with a resounding call to revitalize globalization.

In a way, the "Hangzhou Consensus", which is aimed at facilitating global economic growth in a more comprehensive, innovative and inclusive manner, can serve as a "new starting point" for both China and global governance. To make that possible, global leaders should bear those principles in mind while addressing problems at home, and heed lessons from the previous attempts to fix the international economic order.

The Washington Consensus, coined by US economist John Williamson in 1989, proclaims the solution to the problems faced by the less-developed economies in Latin America and post-Cold War Eastern Europe is "neo-liberalism" which stresses the primacy of markets and limits the role of the state.

Featuring fiscal discipline, cuts in public subsidies, trade liberalization, and "shock therapy", the consensus, instead of solving problems, led to severer polarization of the rich and poor in the countries that adopted its prescriptions. Its failure prompted Goldman Sachs' Joshua Cooper Ramo to consider a "Beijing Consensus" as an alternative path to development in 2004. His proposal was based on China's unprecedented economic success after it launched reform and opening-up in the late 1970s.

The Beijing Consensus, as Ramo argued, consisted of a commitment to innovation and constant experimentation, focus on sustainability and equality, and resolute defense of national sovereignty and interests. Seen by many as a challenge to the Washington Consensus, the Beijing Consensus, to some extent, outlined what the Hangzhou Consensus has offered.

In Hangzhou, leaders from the world's 20 largest economies agreed to enhance policy coordination and innovation-led growth, and improve global economic governance to reinvigorate cross-border trade and investment. The focus on "innovation", a term cited in the G20 communique repeatedly, is solid proof that Chinese leaders have been consistent in pursuing innovation-driven growth.

Besides, internet-based innovations are expected to play a major role in future economic recovery, especially when the last round of industrial and technological revolution is losing momentum and new alternatives are still in the making. This is exactly what the Hangzhou Consensus has underlined.

Inclusiveness and openness, too, are needed to help innovation live up to its potential and use the international order to the optimum extent. China's rise to be the world's second-largest economy is an apt example of how much difference the reform and opening-up policy has made. So China will keep providing quality public goods to the international community, rather than building trade barriers like some Western politicians have proposed to do in recent days.

On the other hand, the fact that 57 countries have joined the Beijing-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and that many of them may be interested in the Belt and Road Initiative, is further evidence of China's fruitful endorsement of inclusive global governance. And the implementation of the Hangzhou Consensus will surely add new impetus to the world economy.

The author is an associate researcher at the China Institute, Fudan University.
Paper firm to start work on Va. mill Updated: 2016-09-12 11:10 By Paul Welitzkin in New York(China Daily USA)

A Chinese paper company plans to hire an engineering company to begin work on its planned $2 billion paper mill in Chesterfield County, Virginia.

"In the next week or two we plan on awarding a contract for the engineering work and also getting started on the environmental permitting," John Stacey, senior vice-president of marketing and product development at Tranlin Inc told China Daily. "We have hired a project manager for construction."

In 2014, China's Shandong Tranlin Paper Co Ltd said it would invest $2 billion over five years to build its first US manufacturing operation in Chesterfield County, which is about 20 miles from Richmond, the state capital. The plant is expected to generate 2,000 new jobs by 2020. It is the largest Chinese investment and job-creation project in Virginia.

The company broke ground on the plant's 850-acre site along the James River in 2015. Jerry Peng, the chairman and CEO of Shandong Tranlin, is a 2003 graduate of the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

"We are (still) looking at 2020 to be fully operational," said Stacey. "Since the late '80s, this will be the first project that there has been a full pulping and milling (converting pulp into paper products) operation built in the US. This adds to the complexity of the project."

Tranlin is scheduled to receive state aid for the project, including a $20 million grant from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP). The newspaper Progress-Index of Petersburg, Virginia, reported earlier this month that the grant requires Tranlin to have invested at least $20 million and create 25 jobs by the end of 2015. The paper said Tranlin has deferred the withdrawal of $2 million available by July 1 until at least 2018.

"The Tranlin project is well within its performance period and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership is in regular dialogue with the company and continuing to monitor the project. We fully expect the company to meet its performance measures within the required timeline," Sandi McNinch, the VEDP's general counsel, said.

"We are waiting to complete certain milestones. At that point we will be able to have whatever grants we have earned at that time," said Stacy. "We are hiring people now and we have an office on our Chesterfield site that has our civil engineering staff and the group that's in charge of the project from a construction standpoint."

paulwelitzkin@chinadailyusa.com
Japanese invasion of China is remembered Updated: 2016-09-12 11:10 By Lia Zhu in San Francisco(China Daily USA)

Florence Fang (center), curator of the WWII Pacific War Memorial Hall in San Francisco, and museum volunteers gather at a press conference in San Mateo, California to commemorate the "September 18 Incident" involving the Japanese Army. Lia Zhu / China Daily

Chinese community members in the San Francisco Bay Area on Sunday commemorated the 85th anniversary of the "September 18 Incident" in 1931, which marked Japan's large-scale armed invasion of Northeast China.

The incident, also known as the Mukden Incident, took place in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province, where the Japanese Army blew up a section of the railway under its control and accused Chinese troops of sabotage as a pretext for attack.

"The Mukden Incident marked the Japanese real invasion into China, triggering the nationwide fight against Japanese aggression," said Florence Fang, curator of the WWII Pacific War Memorial Hall in San Francisco, at a press conference in San Mateo, California.

Six years after the Mukden Incident, the Japanese Army provoked another incident on July 7, 1937, near Beijing, known as the "Marco Polo Bridge Incident", which marked the start of China's eight-year resistance against Japanese aggression. More than 35 million Chinese were killed and wounded by the Japanese Army from 1937 to 1945.

"It means the Chinese fought against the Japanese Army much longer than eight years, and the museum will cover more historic periods," said Fong, also a philanthropist in the Bay Area.

In honor of the 85th anniversary of the incident, the museum will install a 120-inch touch screen on Sept 18, which will display an interactive map of battles in China. By touching the names of the battles, visitors can see a detailed description of the battles.

"The theme of the museum, which opened last August, is to respect history and cherish peace. We aim to tell the world of China's contribution and sacrifice during the war," said Fong. "We expect the museum to serve as a bridge to connect the memories of the Chinese with those of the world."

Over the last year, international visitors from more than 30 countries have visited the museum, mostly from China, Japan and South Korea.

She also received support and encouragement from other museums, including the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, the Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in Beijing and the Holocaust Center in San Francisco.

Fong said she is inspired to form an association of World War II museums next year to promote world peace.

liazhu@chinadailyusa.com
ADB sees AIIB competition as good thing Updated: 2016-09-12 11:10 By China Daily in Washington(China Daily USA)

Senior officials from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said they welcome the competition from the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

The AIIB, with 57 founding members, was set up under an initiative by the Chinese government to finance infrastructure construction in the Asia-Pacific region. The Beijing-headquartered bank started operations in December 2015.

Canada was the latest major economy to apply to join the AIIB during Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's recent visit to China, leaving the United States and Japan as the only two G7 countries that have not applied.

"The competition is good for the region because it's going to give more options and create more finance to the region. It also forces our institution to be better at what we do," said ADB Vice-President Stephen Groff at a talk in Washington on Sept 8 that marked the 50th anniversary of ADB.

"We can learn from China by looking at what it did in terms of creating access to so many different communities that were shut off from opportunities - education, health or economic opportunity," Groff said at the talk themed The ADB at 50: Adapting for a New Era in Development Finance.

The staff of the AIIB can come from any of the member governments, the World Bank or the ADB, which is good, said Cinnamon Dornsife, senior adviser with the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

Groff said although AIIB may eventually build up relationships and trust among countries as ADB did, at this moment, ADB could still take advantage of its established relationships and long-standing procedures, expertise and influence.

"With respect to the AIIB, the US is not at this point considering joining the AIIB," said Marisa Lago, assistant secretary for international markets and development of the US Treasury Department.

The US government drew sharp criticism at home for its initial opposition to AIIB but has since softened its tone after many key allies joined the multilateral bank.

"Canada is always looking for ways to create hope and opportunity for our middle class as well as for people around the world, and membership in the AIIB is an opportunity to do just that," Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau said in Beijing on Aug 31.

Yuan Yuan in Washington contributed to the story.
DPRK's nuclear test condemned for cranking up tensions Updated: 2016-09-12 03:45 By Mo Jingxi(China Daily)

China has expressed strong opposition to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's latest nuclear test, saying the event has increased tensions and is not conducive to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

"China urges the DPRK not to take any more action that could exacerbate tensions, and to return to the correct path of denuclearization as soon as possible," Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Zhang Yesui told Ji Jae-ryong, the DPRK's ambassador to China Saturday.

In the meeting, Zhang reaffirmed China's position on the peninsula, which is to realize denuclearization, maintain regional peace and stability, and resolve problems through dialogue and consultation.

Pyongyang's development and testing of nuclear weapons goes against the expectations of the international community, intensifies tensions and is not conducive to peace and stability, Zhang said.

The DPRK conducted its fifth and biggest nuclear test on Friday to measure the power of its nuclear warhead, the explosive yield of which was estimated at about 10 kilotons.

The Republic of Korea and Japan condemned the test, as did United States President Barack Obama, who said it posed a grave threat to regional security and international peace.

According to a statement on the White House website on Friday, Obama said the US does not, and never will, accept the DPRK as a nuclear state.

The United Nations Security Council also strongly condemned the test, saying on Saturday that it was a clear violation of repeated calls for the DPRK to halt such activity. The UN approved a series of sanctions against Pyongyang after its fourth nuclear test in January.

Su Xiaohui, a researcher of international strategy at the China Institute of International Studies, said, "China has sent a clear message that it will never accept the DPRK as a nuclear state, and it will continue to firmly push forward denuclearization of the peninsula."

Wang Junsheng, a researcher of Asia-Pacific studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the latest test will bring fresh tension to the region, but added that any decision should be made in the common interest.

"It requires concerted efforts from all parties to maintain peace and stability on the peninsula," he said.
Woman in iconic V-J Day kiss photo dies at 92 Updated: 2016-09-12 06:41 (China Daily/Agencies)

Sailor George Mendonsa kisses Greta Zimmer Friedman to celebrate victory over Japan. ALFRED EISENSTAEDT

The woman in an iconic photograph that shows her kissing an ecstatic sailor in New York's Times Square to celebrate the end of World War II has died.

Greta Zimmer Friedman, who was 92, fled Austria during the war as a 15-year-old. She died on Thursday at a hospital in Richmond, Virginia, from complications from old age, her son, Joshua, said.

Friedman was a 21-year-old dental assistant in a nurse's uniform when she became part of one of the most famous photos of the 20th century.

On Aug 14, 1945, the day Japan surrendered to the United States, people spilled into the New York City streets from restaurants, bars and movie theaters to celebrate the news.

That's when George Mendonsa spotted Friedman, spun her around and planted a kiss. The two had never met. In fact, Mendonsa was on a date with a nurse, Rita Petry, who would later become his wife.

The photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt is called V-J Day in Times Square, but is more commonly known as The Kiss. Mendonsa said that in some photos of the scene, Petry can be seen smiling in the background.

The photo was first published in Life magazine, buried deep within its pages. Over the years, it gained recognition, and several people claimed to be the kissing couple. In an August 1980 issue of Life, 11 men and three women said they were the subjects. It was years before Mendonsa and Friedman were confirmed to be the couple.

Joshua Friedman said his mother recalled the events happening in an instant.

"It wasn't that much of a kiss," Greta Friedman said in an interview with the Veterans History Project in 2005. "It was just somebody celebrating. It wasn't a romantic event."

Both of her parents died in the Holocaust, according to Lawrence Verria, who co-authored a book about the picture called The Kissing Sailor: The Mystery Behind the Photo that Ended World War II.

Friedman will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, next to her husband.


Data platform to help China, ASEAN control diseases across their borders Updated: 2016-09-12 07:29 By Wang Xiaodong(China Daily)

China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations launched a data platform for the control and prevention of plant and animal diseases, during a meeting in Nanning, capital of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, on Saturday.

Through the platform, China and ASEAN members can follow unified regulations in the monitoring, prevention and control of animal and plant diseases across their borders, and will have more intensified and effective cooperation in this field, Li Jianwei, chief of animal and plant quarantine supervision at the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, said during the launch ceremony for the platform at the Fifth China-ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

The meeting was attended by 95 delegates from China and the 10 ASEAN members.

In addition, the platform will facilitate trade between China and ASEAN, resulting in a swifter flow of agricultural products, he said.

"With accelerated economic globalization, animal and plant diseases have been transmitted more rapidly and extensively across borders," Li said. "This poses a serious threat to the global economy and the public health and ecological systems. China and ASEAN also face the same problem."

The platform will integrate related systems used by China and ASEAN members, such as animal and plant disease collection, monitoring, information management and warning systems, and evaluate risks of diseases spreading in order to offer rational and economical solutions for prevention and control, Li said.

More than 1 million metric tons of fruit from ASEAN members was exported to China last year through Guangxi, which borders Vietnam, up 45 percent year-on-year, according to the regional government.

Last year, entry-exit authorities across China intercepted 1.04 million batches of harmful species and prevented them from entering China, an increase of about 30 percent compared with the previous year, according to General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

To facilitate trade, the first pilot zone for facilitating border inspection and quarantine in China began operations in Pingxiang, Guangxi, in August.

"The speed of customs clearance of goods has increased by more than 60 percent since the pilot zone began operation in August," said Wang Jiwei, deputy chief of the Guangxi Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau.

Similar pilot zones will be promoted in other border areas in China by 2018 to facilitate trade, according to the Guangxi bureau.
Chinese, French foreign ministers hold phone talks over ties, Korean Peninsula Updated: 2016-09-12 08:52 (Xinhua)

BEIJING - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday held a telephone conversation with his French counterpart, Jean-Marc Ayrault, to discuss bilateral relations and the issue of the Korean Peninsula.

During the talks, Wang said China is willing to make concerted efforts with France to promote the two countries' comprehensive strategic partnership toward the achievement of new development and add new connotations to this relationship.

He also expounded China's stance on the nuclear tests conducted by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

For his part, Ayrault congratulated China on its successful hosting of the recent summit of leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, saying the meeting between the two countries' heads of state is also a success.

Ayrault voiced appreciation for China's firm stance on and responsible role in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

France stands ready to strengthen communication and coordination with China on the issue, he noted.
Artist salutes FDNY 9/11 heroes Updated: 2016-09-12 11:10 By Hong Xiao in New York(China Daily USA)

Chinese-American immigrant artist Yang Yi stands in front of one of the canvasses of his five-panel work First Responders, his personal homage to the heroes of the FDNY who sacrificed their lives on 9/11, depicting all 343 individuals. Hong Xiao / China Daily

It took Chinese-American artist Yang Yi five years to complete a mission he set for himself.

On the eve of the 15th anniversary of 9/11, he unveiled it in a solo exhibition at the Chinatown Soup Gallery in New York.

On display are five colossal paintings featuring portraits of all 343 firefighters and paramedics of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) who lost their lives at Ground Zero after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Images of debris, survivors, the American flag flying above the wreckage, and rescuers in various stages of response, create a collage of the events of the city's most difficult day.

Each of the five paintings has its own theme: The dark moment - buildings collapsing; Racing against the clock-rescuing; United we stand-rising from ashes; Sorrow in hearts-salute to the heroes; and Healing and stride forward-God bless America. Together they comprise the work titled First Responders.

"This body of work is both a commemoration and celebration of the American spirit embodied by all New Yorkers whose response to the events of that day will forever mark our national memory," the exhibit's brochure reads.

Artist Yang Yi, 59, came to the US from China in 1995 after winning numerous national awards in China.

Yang, who knew little English, at first made a living by drawing caricatures and portraits for tourists in New York City.

At the time of the terrorist attacks, Yang was drawing portraits at a shopping mall in upstate New York.

He said he will never forget how many people came to him with photos of loved ones who had lost their lives, asking him to create portraits.

In 2010, Yang was driving past a fire station near his house in Flushing when he noticed a mural with pictures of New York and names of victims.

"I had been wondering, as an immigrant artist, what could I do for the US, what could I do to benefit the world rather than my art itself," Yang said.

He decided to paint a tribute of his own - portraits of all the FDNY heroes who sacrificed their lives on 9/11.

He soon learned that it wasn't going to be as easy as he thought. There were so many names and faces, the composition was hard to think through; and as an immigrant knowing very little English, research was difficult.

"Collecting materials was such a painful process for me. The 9/11 National Museum wasn't open yet, so I could only collect material from archives and the internet bit by bit," Yang said.

He took three months to sketch the work before putting brush to canvas.

With no studio, Yang worked in his small apartment. Since each of the five canvasses was 2 meters tall and 1.5 meters wide, he had to keep them stacked on top of each other while working on one at a time.
15 years after 9/11, standing up to the scourge of terrorism Updated: 2016-09-12 11:10 (China Daily USA)

McKenna Thomas of Philadelphia pauses to read memorial ribbons tied to the exterior wall of St Paul's Chapel on the morning of the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in Lower Manhattan. Reuters

As Americans and much of the world paused on Sunday to remember the day 15 years ago when New York's giant twin towers were felled by terrorists, I recalled the tiny church that stood nearby unscathed, though fire and brimstone rained down around it.

I first learned of St. Paul's Chapel at a holiday party several years ago hosted by author Robert Lawrence Holt, my neighbor in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California.

His fellow author Arline Curtiss introduced us to a children's book she had just published, an illustrated work meant to help kids cope with the horrors of 9/11. The book tells the story of St. Paul's Chapel, the tiny Episcopal Church that was built in 1766, less than 100 yards from where the towers would later rise.

She proceehhded to read The Little Chapel That Stood, aloud to the gathering, and most of us were left misty-eyed. The book describes how firefighters arriving at the scene, before rushing into doom, put on their fire boots just outside the chapel and hung their shoes on the iron fence.

Those shoes remained unclaimed after the towers collapsed. They hung still as surviving firefighters sought solace inside the chapel, and they stayed on the fence long afterward, a haunting reminder of the brave lives lost.

The chapel, which also survived the Great Fire of New York in 1776, proved to be an impenetrable sanctuary again on 9/11. When brick and mortar collapsed that fateful day, the little church suffered no damage - not even when part of a steel girder from the falling towers hurtled toward it.

When I visited New York City again for the first time in decades, I went to St. Paul's. Just inside the doorway is a shrine to firefighters that has grown over the years, and you can see the old wooden pew where George Washington, the first US president, once sat during services. The calm in the heart of the chapel belies the fury that once raged outside.

In the corner is a small gift shop, and there, on the counter, was a tidy stack of The Little Chapel That Stood.

As I told the shop attendant how the author read the book aloud that night, and my eyes teared up at the memory of the powerfully uplifting tale, she offered a box of tissues, saying they were kept on hand because visitors often wept.

Curtiss' story of selfless bravery reminded me that wanton destruction and the taking of lives - specialties of the terrorist - require no special qualities.

But it takes character, and even courage, to build something that will last, like the chapel that stood or the spirit of a people. Those, it seems, cannot be destroyed.

Contact the writer at jimhealy888@chinadaily.com.cn
More than a million Muslims have embarked on the yearly Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, after last year's holy event was marred by a deadly stampede that killed hundreds and stoked tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran.





The sacred Muslim pilgrimage takes place over five days  and on Sunday, it reached its climax, as NPR's Alice Fordham tells our Newscast unit. "Beginning at dawn, the masses congregated to pray on the mountain where they believe the Prophet Muhammad gave his last sermon," Alice reports.





Prayer on this mountain, called Mount Arafat and located 12 miles east of Mecca, "is believed to offer the best chance of erasing past sins and starting anew," as The Associated Press explains. This day "is the one time during the hajj when roughly all pilgrims are in the same place at the same time," the wire service adds, and the pilgrims hail from more than 160 countries.





The pilgrimage to Mecca, the Prophet Muhammad's birthplace, is a religious obligation in Islam. Able-bodied Muslims must do it at least once in their lives, and it's one of five central pillars of the religion. The spiritual experience is also intensely physical. - NPR




This post is part of the Verastic In Nigeria series

Its been almost five years since my mommy and I lived together, so before I even came to Nigeria, I knew that my mommy and I would probably be arguing over something every day. Well 

On the first night I slept in Nigeria (the day I landed in Abuja), I was shocked when I woke up the next morning to blaring gospel music. I was shocked and irritated and confused. Apparently, mom likes to listen to gospel music early in the morning. But I should have known this. How could I forget? Even while we lived in Jos, she used to wake up early in the morning to listen to gospel music.

When I complained about the music, mom inquired why I was quarreling with God. All attempts to explain to mom that it was not the genre of the music that bothered me, but the loudness of it were null and void. I just did not want to listen to any kind of music at 6:00 AM. I wanted to sleep. And my sleep was especially essential because (1) I had just come off of an 18-hour journey and (2) I was not a morning person. At all.

So mom obliged me and turned off the music  only to turn on Africa Magic. And since we were sharing a room in a hotel, I had nowhere to run to. I have now been here for three weeks, and mom continues to play music early in the morning  sometimes all day now. The crazy thing is that I have gone from being irritated about the sound of the music to loving the sound and looking forward to it. I am even thinking of asking her to send me some of it  once I figure out how to ask without being made fun of.

And because the gospel music and African Magic channel are not disturbing enough, her patients also call her at six in the morning. And they call over and over and over. Do the patients not know that its six in the morning  and shes on leave?!?! So by seven in the morning, the sleep has left my eyes.

When shes not busy playing her gospel music  and singing along loudly  she is busy anointing my head with oil. I told her to stop doing that  not because I am averse to anointing oil, but because I dont know who did the anointing and my spirit has not had a chance to know this person. Once again, I was accused of quarreling with God.

On the more exciting side, I have been on vacation since I got here. My mom has been treating me like a baby. She cooks for me, gives Ada Verastic baths, washes her clothes, washes my clothes (all in the washer oh, not with her hands), and buys me whatever I want. I can count how many times I have given Ada Verastic baths since I came to Nigeria  twice!  because mommy is on duty.

Yesterday, Sunday, I did not go to church with my mommy because Im still pissed from when I went two weeks ago. Its a Catholic church that starts its mass at 8:00 AM (have I mentioned how Im not a morning person?). And even before I got to church, I was already pissed because (1) I couldnt wear pants; only skirts and gowns allowed (2) I had to cover my hair, and (3) I could not wear red lipstick unless I was not going to receive holy communion. So I wore red lipstick. And to top it all off, it took over three hours for the service to be over. What arrant nonsense!

Oh. And in the middle of the mass, one lady  who I dont know and have never met as far as I know  was sitting on the aisle across from us when she noticed that my scarf had fallen off my head and was now sitting on my neck. Her life was so bothered and her feelings were so hurt by my scarf (or lack of it) that instead of paying attention to her priest, she did everything to get my attention, and when she finally did, she signaled for me to cover my head. I gave her three seconds of intense eye-rolling, and then, I proceeded to remove the scarf completely. In my head, I dared her to approach me. She did not. I would have unleashed my frustration with the entire service and the heat that was doing me on her. I was so hot and restless that I started taking my jewelry off in church. And to piss me off even further, the guy who was sitting on my right had no knowledge of personal space.

So yeah, thats what my mommy has been up to  and thats why I did not go to church yesterday. I did, however, have a moment with God at home.

P.S. Im sorry for the sporadic posts, but my internet here is two degrees below nothing. Only God knows how long itll take to upload this post (I now have to type on Microsoft Word and then paste it onto WordPress because I cannot come and die while waiting for a page to open. I have so many stories to tell (and videos too!), but we gorra wait till we return to the Abroad.

P.P.S. Just as I was rounding up this post, I was mindlessly singing one of the songs from moms early morning gospel collection, and she heard me and immediately asked, Why are you singing my song? When I play it, you complain and call it noise, and now youre singing it.

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French software company Linagora and Hanel DTTs joint venture will support the northern province of Quang Ninh in developing an e-government (Egov) and training human resources. Photo plo.vn

HA NOI  French software company Linagora and Hanel DTTs joint venture will support the northern province of Quang Ninh in developing an e-government (Egov) and training human resources.

The provincial Department of Information and Communications and the two companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the partnership in Ha Noi on September 5 on the occasion of French President Francois Hollandes visit to Viet Nam.

Under the MoU, Linagora and Hanel DTT will consider supporting Quang Ninh in building a civil service mailbox system with 20,000 users and an information portal on tourism and external services.

Quang Ninh will also work with the two firms to train IT staff and students in Ha Long University to use open source software. VNS
HA NOI  Poor management of risks and weak supervision of banks were the roots of the largest problems that Viet Nams banking system is facing, experts said during a workshop.

The conference was held late last week, and sponsored by the National Economics Universitys School of Banking and Finance.

Speaking at the workshop, entitled "Improving institutions for the sustainable development of Viet Nams banking system in the period 2016-2020", o Thi Kim Hao, deputy director of the Banking Academy, said that recent incidents related to banks were mostly due to poorly-performing supervisory and auditing systems.

This reality indicated that bank restructuring in the 2011-2015 period did not achieve the expected results, she said.

Banking activities were potentially risky because of the lack of reliable information between banks and customers or between bankers and other shareholders, Hao said.

Hao noted the shortcomings of the existing three banking supervisory layers.

The first layer is the internal surveillance within banks.

Currently, banks set high targets of growth, therefore employees are forced to find ways to meet these goals.

The second layer of monitoring is the management and supervision of State agencies. However, the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) has not put in place a risk management framework sufficient to quantify all risks.

"Therefore, the SBV should instruct banks to not conduct business beyond their capabilities," she said

The third layer is surveillance from customers. Currently, customers can only oversee banks profits and operations through information being made public from banks.

However, most banks risk reports are incomplete. In principle, this report will be some 100-pages in length, clearly indicating what the risks are, why a solution is chosen to reduce risks, and how to deal with the consequences if problems arise.

Through her analysis, Hao found that the supervisory system of Viet Nams banks had failed to properly monitor banks.

"This is also the reason leading to disclosing information unprofessionally, incompletely, and with a lack of compliance monitoring," she added.

Agreeing with Hao, Dr Luong Thai Bao from the School of Banking and Finance said the Vietnamese banking system was currently displaying many weaknesses and causing significant concerns.

According to Bao, weaknesses in banks include governance and bank information.

"Actually, in the banking market, investors are missing information. There is incomplete information that exists in the bank. So we need a monitoring mechanism specific to this industry," Bao said.

However, watchdog agencies were described as less effective and lack the resources to monitor the activities of the nations banks, he said.

Based upon the fierce competition, banks pay more attention to growth and expansion, rather than governance, so in a short time bad debt has become one of the largest problems for Vietnamese banks.

Therefore, the banking system must be restructured in a healthy manner to provide greater transparency of information and improve the capacity of governance and risk management, Bao said.

Bao added, Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) of banks is a correct step to reduce the number of ailing banks, as well as promote order and discipline within the system.  VNS
HA NOI  Several provisions of a new draft circular on imported autos impose unfair restrictions on small and medium-scale firms, according to the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI).

Responding to a draft circular released by the Transport Ministry (MoT) to collect feedback from relevant ministries and other agencies, the VCCI said some of the new rules would hurt those importing vehicles through distributors.

The circular deals with technological inspections, safety, quality and environmental protection with respect to imported road vehicles.

The latest circulars regulations would have impacts similar to the one issued by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) (No. 20/2011/TT-BCT) on procedures for importing passenger cars with nine seats or less, the VCCI said.

Almost five years after it was issued, the circular was abrogated last month after it was found to have negatively impacted small and medium sized car importers.

The VCCI also said it was very concerned about a provision in the circular that requires car importers to have the original certificate of quality or a roll-out quality certification.

The chamber said the regulation would cause difficulties, especially for those who import cars through distributors, because they would be unable to get the original certificates.

The regulation creates (favourable) conditions for businesses who directly import cars from automakers, but will hurt those who import cars through distributors. This regulation is not different from the MoITs Circular 20 that required import procedures designated or authorised by official carmakers, the VCCI statement said.

Both Circular 20 and the MoTs draft circular heavily favour foreign automakers and ignore the rights and interests of Vietnamese consumers, according to the VCCI.

The VCCI said that if a vehicle did not have the original certificate of quality or the roll-out quality certification, it could be examined by the Vietnam Register (VR) to see if it meets the technological, safety and environmental standards required under Vietnamese laws.

Any requirement that imported autos would have to have original certificate of quality or roll-out quality certification and undergo a VR examination would mean a vehicle would have to be examined twice, making it more expensive for customers who would have to bear the costs, the VCCI said.

SME importers agree

The Small and Medium Automobile Importers Association has also written to the Transport Ministry, sharing VCCIs opinion.

The association pointed out that the Government Resolutions 19 and 35 aimed to improve the investment environment for small and medium enterprises to develop.

Towards this, several administrative procedures were obstacles that need to be removed. However, the MoTs draft circular required even more procedures to be completed for importing a vehicle, it said.

The association requested the ministry to seriously and thoroughly consider their proposals before officially issuing the circular. The circular should not only ensure the quality of imported vehicles, but also create favourable conditions for small and medium enterprises to compete with bigger businesses, it said.

Ministerial support

Meanwhile, the draft circular has received support from the MoIT, which said it was necessary and in accordance with provisions of the 2014 Law on Environmental Protection.

The MoIT said the circular should have a supplemental provision requiring importers to produce certification covering safety, quality as well as environmental protection.

In the absence of such certification, the procedures to certify the quality of imported cars would be the same as locally-assembled cars. Otherwise, it would be unfair on local automakers and assemblers because they have already invested in workshops and other facilities, it said.

Tran Ky Hinh, director of the Viet Nam Register, affirmed that regulations in the draft circular were only technical barriers and would not restrict business rights and number of import vehicles of import firms.

Used cars costlier

The prices of imported used cars could be higher than new ones under a new decree on import taxes issued by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

Decree 122/2016 N-CP, which took effect on September 1, fixes a US$5,000 tax on cars with engine displacement of below 1,000cc, and a $10,000 tax on used cars with engines between 1,000cc and 1,500cc.

For car models with nine seats and lower and engine displacements between 1,500cc and 2,500cc, the import tax will be calculated as follows: import price multiplied by the tax rate for new similar models plus $5,000. For used cars with 2,500cc engines and above, the import tax will be the import price multiplied with the tax rate for new models plus $15,000.

This will significantly increase the prices of used cars. For example, for a used 2000cc Toyota Camry with an import price of $15,000, the import tax will total $15,500, and the cars final price at customs will be $30,500. This price does not include other taxes like the special consumption tax, value-added tax and corporate fees.

The decree effectively shuts the door on the import of used cars.

The decree also fixes import duties on used vehicles with 10-15 seats, depending on their engine displacement. Vehicles with engine displacement of 2,000cc and below, over 2,000cc until 3,000cc, and more than 3,000cc will attract taxes of $9,500, $13,000 and $17,000, respectively.  VNS
Remittances to HCM City in the first eight months of this year reached US$2.9 billion.  Photo tuoitre.vn

HCM CITY  Remittances to HCM City in the first eight months of this year rose nearly 6 per cent year-on-year to reach US$2.9 billion.

State Bank of Viet Nams HCM City branch Deputy Director Nguyen Hoang Minh said remittances rose 14 per cent compared with last month, adding that the money was mainly received from the United States and the European Union.

Minh said the remittances were mainly used for production and businesses.

With the rising rate, Minh expected the city would receive $5.7 billion-$5.8 billion in remittances this year, up 5.6 per cent against last year.

Remittances to HCM City, among the localities receiving the largest volume of remittances nationwide, have increased some 10 to 12 per cent on average in the past five years.

Remittances to the city last year reached $5.5 billion, exceeding the $5.2 billion received in 2014. More than 70.8 per cent of the remittance value flowed into production and businesses, while some 21.6 per cent went into real estate and seven per cent went to relatives.  VNS
HA NOI  Ousmane Dione became the country director for the World Bank (WB) in Viet Nam on September 12.

The WB said, in a press release late last week, that Ousmane was a Senegalese national who joined the bank as a water resources management specialist in 2000.

He has since held a number of leadership and operational positions in Africa, South Asia, Latin America, East Asia and the Pacific Regions.

His most recent post was as practice manager for East Asia and the Pacific Region in water global practices, where he was based in Manila, the Philippines.

In his new position, Ousmane will prioritise managing Viet Nams smooth graduation from the International Development Association (IDA), a financial institution under the WB Group that offers concession loans to the worlds poorest developing countries.

He will also prioritise strengthening the partnership and close co-operation with the Vietnamese Government, and deepening the WBs subnational engagements.

His other top priority will be to work closely with Viet Nam and development partners to carry forward the vision and recommendations of the Viet Nam 2035 report.

Ousmanes predecessor, Vitoria Kwakwa, worked as the WB country director in Viet Nam for seven years. She was appointed the banks regional vice president for East Asia and Pacific Region on April 15.  VNS
THUA THIEN-HUE  Hue is proposing to set up a street of museums and exhibition centres to serve the cultural needs of locals and visitors to the former imperial capital city.

Phan Tien Dung, director of the localdepartment of culture, told a recent meeting of the province Peoples Council that the department had a plan to turn Le Loi Street into a museum road.

With the plan, the existing Museum of Culture will be rearranged and will get more Champa antiques, which were collected from around the province, to make the Hue Museum of Fine Arts.

The museum, which is sheltered within two unique French colonial buildings that are next to each other, would be one of the key museums of the proposed street, together with the Le Ba ang Art Museum and the Lieu Quan Buddhist Centre.

Le Ba ang Art Museum gathers prominent works of the late artist Le Ba ang, who lived and worked in France most of his life. The museum resides in another beautiful French colonial building on the street.

In the recent years, Lieu Quan has been a busy place for Buddhist-related activities in the city. Almost all key Buddhist exhibitions take place at the centre.

The street was once full of French colonial buildings lying beside the poetic section of the local Huong (Perfume) River. Many of the original villas were replaced by new buildings, resulting in deep regrets among the locals and those people who love Hue around the country.

With the new plan, locals expect the remaining French colonial villas to be protected.

According to the department, the old colonial building that currently serves as the working place of the Hue Festival Centre, who organise the biennial cultural event and festivals at craft villages, will become a new museum for the sculptural works of late artist iem Phung Thi.

Siting next to the centre is a great sculptural work depicting patriotic Phan Boi Chau, who pioneered a movement against French colonialism. Tens of newly-made sculptural works by international artists given to Hue will be displayed in a park nearby as part of the plan.

The department also wants to build a new museum for the history of local embroidery.

Running parallel to Nguyen inh Chieu walking street, the proposed museum street has given hope for making Hue into an even more culturally profound destination to visit. However, locals expects the time between the plan on paper and practice on the ground to be very short.  VNS
HCM CITY As the traditional theatre has attracted fewer audiences in recent years, costume designers in HCM City are facing challenges to keep their art alive.

Nguyen Thi Tam Anh, a theatre researcher at the citys Theatre Association, said the city now has only 30 professional costume designers who work for art troupes, compared to triple that number in the 1990s.

Speaking at a forum on preserving cai luong (reformed opera) at the HCM City Open University on September6, 2016, Anh said: Costume design developed in the 1930s when cai luong became the most popular genre of traditional theatre in the Cuu Long (Mekong) River Delta region.

Costume designers have played a very important in the history and development of cai luong in different periods. Their work should be preserved and developed by younger generations, she added.

Only skilled designers are hired by art troupes, while others work for small factories in districts 1,2, 4, 5 and Binh Thanh. Their work is used by art troupes in the city and other provinces.

Artisan Kim Phuong, who has more than 40 years in cai luong, said costume designers were considered an important part of the stage production team as they work closely with the director and lighting, scenery and sound specialists as well as actors.

I have been involved in several hundred performances praising the art in different styles, said Phuong, who began her career at Huynh Long Troupe in 1980.

She now owns her business at home. Phuong is one of the industrys very few artisans who in sometime takes care of hair, wigs and makeup.

Thanks to her qualifications and skills, cai luong performers can look beautiful on stage. An improper or wrong costume may lead to uncertainty in the show, said Phuong.

Everyone sees how stars perform think there are riches in theatre. But the reality is different: long hours, hard work and very low pay. Its the truth of backstage life, she said.

Phuongs collection of traditional costumes includes more than 150 designs made from different materials.

According to theatre critic Nguyen Ngoc Sang, a cai luong play is mostly created in two styles: ancient and contemporary. Each style requires specific costumes in an historical period.

"Costume designers create an evolving plot of social status and periods in history through the visual design of dressing and accessories, within the framework of the directors vision.

Through plays, with their talent confirmed, costume designers have proved once again their work contributes to the art, he said.

One of the regions biggest theatre schools, the HCM City Theatre and Cinematography University, has not offered training for years in make-up, wardrobe and stage design.

We need to invest in producing talented backstage crews if the theatre is to truly develop, Huynh Anh Tuan, owner of the private IDECAF Drama Stage, said.

He said backstage was a "hidden art. Tuan, who is also a theatre director, said he hoped young people would choose costume design as a viable career option.VNS
Nguyen Khac Kinh, Dr and Chairman of the Viet Nam Association of Environmental Impact Assessment

Dr Nguyen Khac Kinh, Chairman of the Viet Nam Association of Environmental Impact Assessments, spoke to the newspaper Nhan Dan (People) about some of the constraints in Vietnamese law relating to environmental assessments.

What is the biggest challenge in carrying out an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for a project in Viet Nam?

As we all know, an EIA is a scientific process that comes up with some projection of the environmental impacts that a project may cause to its surroundings. But currently, an EIA is expected to come up with assessments on areas that do not belong to its original task like social impact assessments (SIA), health impact assessments (HIA) and risk assessments (RA).

Though the work demanded for a good EIA report is large, the capital resources allocated for EIAs in Viet Nam is very limited  between just 1-10 per cent of the average resources it receives in other countries. Thats the key reason why an EIA report in Viet Nam is not as comprehensive and independent as it should be.

Can you please elaborate further on required procedures for an EIA report in Viet Nam?

At present, an EIA in Viet Nam only has to go through one step or stage. Objectively speaking, an EIA should go through a process, ranging from a preliminary report to a detailed report. Of course, how complicated the process should be depends on each phase of the project.

The reality in Viet Nam is that an EIA for a project is only a preliminary environmental report. It cannot provide the necessary inputs to help a project owner make the right decisions on their investment. This has made many people consider the preliminary environmental report as only a formality.

Another paradox I have to mention is that though the EIA document is only a preliminary report, in most cases it is considered as the only legal document to be used in environmental management and control throughout the process of implementing the project, and even its whole life cycle ranging through production, business and services.

Under our current laws, all investors have to conduct their own EIA reports for their projects while the law doesnt say which government agencies are responsible for providing environmental information or future projections to investors. This is a big challenge to investors in a short period of time, even if they have a lot of money.

As a consequence, investors or hired consultants can only do a few activities like taking spontaneous samples over a few days and then try to write up a report on the current environmental status of the project sites and their surroundings, and then come up with their projection reports. With such EIA reports, how can the evaluators do their job in an appropriate way when the reports themselves are so poorly prepared?

At present, Viet Nam has two sets of environmental technical standards, but our environmental management activities are still weak. Why is this?

Yes! At present we have only two sets of environmental technical standards. One standard is on the quality of the surrounding environment, mainly focused on the physical environment. The other standard is on the quality of the water discharges, air emissions, noise levels, solid waste and hazardous waste.

In reality we need more environmental technical standards, including the biological environment, ecosystem, biodiversity, soil erosion and more. This is something we have to think about seriously if we want to improve our environmental management capacity and make Viet Nam a reliable investment destination for both Vietnamese and foreign investors. Not to mention a good place for people to live in.

How should we improve our environmental legal documents?

It is high time for concerned government agencies to sit together and review the existing legal documents relating to the environment. I totally support the Prime Ministers statement that Viet Nam doesnt want to exchange the environment for immediate economic benefits.

In addition, we need an effective mechanism to mobilise concerned agencies, including research institutes, universities, non-governmental organisations, scientists and communities to join hands and contribute their comments and suggestions to improve our environmental legal documents. - VNS
GUANGXI  Viet Nam supports ASEAN-China co-operation and is ready to act as a bridge between the ASEAN Economic Community and China, said Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

He made the remark while opening the 13th China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) and the 13th China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit (CABIS) in Nanning, Guangxi, yesterday.

"Viet Nam is also willing to boost partnerships with ASEAN countries in all fields, maintaining stability and settling differences peacefully, thus ensuring smooth economic activities and contributing to peace, co-operation and development in the region," he said.

The Vietnamese Government leader said that Viet Nam had great interest in CAEXPOs, shown by the countrys active participation in the events.

As the Country of Honour for the first time, Viet Nam has organised more than 250 booths for this years event, a 35 per cent rise from 2015, and is still the ASEAN country with the largest number of booths at the exhibition.

The PM highlighted Viet Nams socio-economic targets in line with the sustainable development goals for 2016-2020, as well as the countrys determination to integrate with the world.

So far, Viet Nam has joined 12 free trade agreements and was negotiating four other deals, including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in which ASEAN countries and China are involved.

Viet Nam also enjoyed economic and trade partnerships with 224 countries and territories, he said, saying that soon, Vietnam would trade freely with 55 more partners including 15 G20 members. Partners of Vietnamese businesses would also have opportunities to access a market with two-thirds of the world population and three-fourths of global GDP, he noted.

Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli reviewed co-operation between China and ASEAN, stressing that China attached much importance to links with the ASEAN.

He also made a number of proposals on policies for bilateral co-operation, underlining strengthening of political trust to lay a firm foundation for partnership in economics, trade, production capacity, resource connection, and people-to-people contacts.

The Vietnamese exhibition space is expected to welcome 800,000-100,000 visitors during the four-day event, where Vietnamese firms will seek partners and introduce their products to China and ASEAN countries.

First held in Nanning in 2004, the annual exhibition has become important for trade and investment co-operation between China and ASEAN.

Meeting Chinese Vice Premier

Earlier on Saturday, PM Phuc received Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli during his stay in Nanning, as part of his official visit to China at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang from September 10-15.

Phuc told the Chinese Vice Premier that this was the first time Viet Nam had attended the CAEXPO as the Honorary Country, which was a good opportunity for Viet Nam to enhance economic, trade and investment co-operation with China and other ASEAN countries.

The PM thanked the Chinese Government for providing support to Vietnamese firms and localities in participating in the expo, adding that he believes the event will be successful thanks to thorough preparations from the host country and the participation of ASEAN countries.

He lauded the progress in Viet Nam-China co-operation in several fields, and informed his guest that during the visit, he intended to discuss with Chinese Party and Government leaders measures to promote the stable and healthy development of bilateral ties, including maintaining meetings between senior officials.

The two sides should also encourage exchanges and win-win cooperation, as well as closer co-ordination to solve outstanding issues, PM Phuc said.

He said that the two sides should work together to effectively control disputes at sea and deal with disputes by peaceful measures in line with international law, particularly the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, thus maintaining peace and stability in the East Sea.

Phuc affirmed that Viet Nam pursues an external policy of peace, independence, multilateralisation and diversification, with strengthening friendship with China being a leading priority.

Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli expressed his belief that the visit of Prime Minister Phuc would be a success, bolstering relations between the two Parties and countries.

He noted that the presence of the PM and many Vietnamese firms at the 13th CAEXPO demonstrated the importance the Vietnamese Government attaches to China-Viet Nam and ASEAN-China ties.

The Vice Premier affirmed that the Chinese Party and Government attach importance to relations with Viet Nam, and hope the two sides would maintain high-level contact, enhance political trust, promote co-operation, expand people-to-people exchanges while handling disputes to maintain stable development of the comprehensive strategic co-operative partnership between the two countries.

Also on Saturday, PM Phuc had a meeting with Secretary of the Party Committee of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Peng Qinghua, during which he highlighted the role played by Chinas Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which borders Viet Nam, in developing the partnership between the two countries.

Guangxi actively co-operated with Vietnamese ministries, agencies and localities over past years, the PM said yesterday.

Phuc highlighted exchanges and co-operation between Guangxi and Vietnamese localities, saying that Peng Qinghua visited Viet Nam several times, and that trade between Viet Nam and Guangxi reached nearly US$25 billion in 2015.

4,000 of the roughly 10,000 Vietnamese students in China study in Guangxi, he added.

Affirming the importance Viet Nam attaches to friendship with China, the PM suggested the two sides carry forward existing co-operative mechanisms and work out solutions to facilitate economic, trade, investment and tourism ties, especially the circulation of the two countries imports and exports.

He called on the Chinese side to import more Vietnamese products to balance bilateral trade.

The two countries should accelerate the upgrade and building of border gates and enhance co-ordination in fighting crimes, ensuring security and addressing labour-related issues near the border.

Viet Nam would take note of Guangxis proposals of increasing transport connectivity and building border economic co-operation areas, the Vietnamese leader said, hailing Guangxis efforts to expand win-win co-operation with Vietnamese localities.

Peng Qinghua affirmed that the Party, authorities and people of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region place importance on consolidating the time-honoured friendship with Vietnamese ministries, agencies and localities.

He briefed PM Phuc on Guangxis measures to expand exchanges and step up collaboration with Vietnamese localities in economy, trade, culture, education and tourism, as well as its efforts to boost cross-border goods exchanges and to resolve labour-related disputes in the border area.

The official noted his wish to work with Viet Nam in the transport sector, especially the construction of the Lang Son-Ha Noi-Hai Phong-Ha Long-Van on-Mong Cai expressway, the ong ang-Ha Noi express railway and border economic zones.  VNS
Hanoi  Vietnam is deeply concerned over the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK)s nuclear test on September 9, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Le Hai Binh said on September 10 in reply to reporters questions.

The spokesperson added the test seriously violated relevant resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, increased tensions and threatened peace and stability in the region.

Vietnams consistent stance is to support denuclearisation on the Korean Peninsula and advocate the comprehensive ban of nuclear tests, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons towards full nuclear disarmament, Binh said.

"Vietnam calls on relevant sides to abide to the UNSCs resolutions and take practical actions to promote peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," he added. VNS
HA NOI  Regulations on investment, management and exploitation of irrigation works are high on the agenda of the 14th National Assembly (NA) Standing Committees third session on Monday.

A discussion on draft amendments to the Law on Irrigation will take place on the first working day of the session.

Several deputies agreed that irrigation works played a very important role in agricultural production, providing water for the daily activities of the locals and to other economic sectors, along with being a key measure for disaster prevention and control work and contributing to sustainable socio-economic development. They, therefore, called for better management and exploitation of irrigation works.

NA Vice Chairman o Ba Ty said one key new point of the draft law was to socialise investment and management of irrigation works, aimed at mobilising the whole society for investment and management of irrigation works, contributing to improving the quality of irrigation works, particularly small ones.

However, it was essential to make clear policies encouraging investment in irrigation works and responsibilities of relevant ministries and agencies in managing, exploiting and operating these irrigation works, he said.

Chairman of the NA Committee for Finance and Budget Nguyen uc Hai said priority should be giving to ensuring the safety of irrigation works and the law should have specific regulations on this issue.

He also pointed to the need to draft regulations on using water economically in the context of climate change, sea water levels rising and the shortage of water.

Some deputies proposed that the law should clarify the relation between irrigation works and hydropower projects, following the discharge of water in large quantities by some hydropower projects, which had resulted in loss of property and lives in downstream areas.

The discussion also focused on the laws new regulation on the price of irrigation services, which will replace the existing irrigation fees to make it fall in line with the current Law on Price.

Concluding the discussion, NA Vice Chairman Phung Quoc Hien said the NA Standing Committee agreed with the draft law on irrigation and proposed that the government and the compiling board continue reviewing policies and guidelines of the Party and State and evaluating related laws to ensure the unity of the law system.

The committee asked the compiling board to supplement, amend and clarify management, investment and planning of irrigation works to ensure safety and efficiency, he said.

With regard to the irrigation service price, instead of the current irrigation fee, he asked the compiling board to clearly assess all sides and carefully review the regulation on setting prices for irrigation services because the prices would affect 80 per cent of farming households using irrigation works for agricultural production. Hien also pointed to the need to prepare a roadmap to apply irrigation services price.

The compiling board also needed to clarify issues concerning the relations between irrigation works and hydropower plants and the states management responsibilities related to the relevant ministries, agencies, localities, organisations and individuals, along with the safety of reservoirs and international cooperation on this issue, he said.

Later the same day, the committee members discussed amendments to the Law on Railway.  VNS
HCM CITY  Four provinces in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta sub-region, located between the Tien and Hau rivers, plan to establish linkages to increase production of green-peel and pink-flesh grapefruit as well as coconuts, key fruits grown in the area.

The four provinces, Ben Tre, Tien Giang, Vinh Long and Tra Vinh, have about 110,000 ha of coconut trees with annual output of more than 1 million coconuts. They produce 15,000ha of green-peel and pink-flesh grapefruit with annual output of 156,000 tonnes a year.

The cultivation areas of coconuts and grapefruit in the delta are scattered and on a small scale, which has caused problems in producing a large quantity of high-quality fruits for export.

Speaking at a seminar held in Ben Tre on August 31, Cao Van Trong, chairman of Ben Tre Province Peoples Committee, said the committee would work with authorities of the other three provinces to set up a linkage plan from now to the end of next year.

Ben Tre would also improve connections between farmers and processors to establish specialised cultivation areas and brand names for the two fruits.

Connections would also be established in trade and investment promotion, research, market development and consumption.

Phan Hoai Phong, a representative of the Ben Tre-based Huong Mien Tay Private Enterprise, which specialises in trading green-peel and pink-flesh grapefruit, said that grapefruit had been exported to many markets, including the EU, China and Canada.

Potential markets exist in the Middle East, Russia and France, but Huong Mien Tay has decided not to sign export contracts because of a supply shortage.

Huong Mien Tay has signed contracts with 27 co-operative teams in Ben Tre that cultivate a total of 110,000 ha of green-peel and pink-flesh grapefruit, with an annual output of 200 tonnes a year.

The quantity of green-peel and pink-flesh grapefruit that meet criteria for export accounts for only 13-15 per cent of total output, according to Phong.

The enterprise does not have enough standard grapefruit for export orders, so most green-peel and pink-flesh grapefruits purchased by Huong Mien Tay are sold in the domestic market.

Phong said the connections among farmers, companies, scientists and local governments, especially linkages among grapefruit-cultivating provinces, were needed for better grapefruit cultivation.

Le Van Nghi, deputy chairman of the Viet Nam Co-operatives Alliance, said that provinces should set up co-operatives to establish linkages in the sub-region.

Co-operatives in each province which operate effectively can set up a co-operative alliance, which would then be part of the sub-regions co-operative alliance for production linkages.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam said the sub-region provinces should draft regulations on linkages soon.

He said the sub-region should re-organise production of fruit under a co-operation model composed of companies, co-operatives and farmers. It should also undertake research to establish wholesale markets for the fruits. VNS
Viet Nams vocational education system must undergo reform to produce workers who can compete with their counterparts in other countries.  Photo baohaiquan.vn

HCM CITY  Viet Nams vocational education system must undergo reform to produce workers who can compete with their counterparts in other countries, the head of Institute of Vocational Education Studies has said.

Speaking at a conference held in HCM City yesterday, Dr Vu Xuan Hung said that only 38.5 per cent of labourers had been trained at vocational schools.

Viet Nams labourers are not ready for the ASEAN Economic Community, Hung said.

The number of unemployed students has increased quarter by quarter, he said, adding that workers English skills were lower than those in Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia.

He said that vocational training would be necessary to close the gap with workers in other countries.

Dr Huynh Thanh ien, who is working on a support industry project, said many workers were not qualified to work in standard manufacturing.

This was partly due to lack of co-operation in training between enterprises and schools. The city, for instance, had not created models for co-operation and vocational school training had not been based on enterprises need, he said.

Associations that represent businesses should establish links between schools and companies, he said.

HCM City labour needs

The city will need 270,000 employees each year from now to 2025, and of that amount, 85 per cent should be trained labour, according to the Centre for Human Resource Forecast and Labour Information.

Since 2011, the southeastern region has lacked sufficient human resources for the construction and industrial sector, while there are more than enough workers for the service sector.

Each year, the number of working-age people from 15 years old and above in the city increases by 100,000.

Of this number, 70 per cent continue to study at high school or university and the remaining seek jobs or attend vocational training schools.  VNS
President of the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) Shinichi Kitaoka attends a press conference in Ha Noi on Saturday as part of his official visit to Viet Nam.  Photo vnexpress.net

HA NOI  Japans Official Development Assistance (ODA) co-operation in Viet Nam had been successful, said President of the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) Shinichi Kitaoka in a press conference in Ha Noi on Saturday as part of his official visit to Viet Nam.

Japans ODA co-operation in Viet Nam was one of the most successful co-operations of Japan, thanks to the two countries efforts, he said.

The two countries often worked to find the best form and sector in which to work together.

President Kitaoka said that Japan spent a large amount on Southeast Asia including Viet Nam, Myanmar, Indonesia and Philippines. Of all those countries, Viet Nam received the greatest amount of aid.

At present, Japan supported 60 per cent of bilateral ODA to Viet Nam.

Japan had supported Indonesia for 50 years, whereas it had supported Viet Nam for only 20 years, but the quantity and quality of the support was in no way inferior, he said.

The quality of Japans ODA support to Viet Nam is very good, said Presient Kitaoka.

To uphold ODA co-operation effectively in the future, President Kitaoka said that the two countries should define which projects need priority, and discuss the search for suitable methods.

Viet Nam would use ODA successfully when the country balanced infrastructure and other sectors including education, health and insurance, he said.

Developed countries such as the US and UK supported African countries since the 1950s, but Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in different countries in the Sahara Desert is only about US$1,000 per year.

Whereas in Southeast Asia, the figure in Viet Nam is more than $2,000, and the figure in some other countries in the area is nearly $10,000.

Fairly, countries receiving support from Japan have more developed economies, he said.

Via the visit, Kitaoka found out that Japan should continue to support Viet Nam in developing infrastructure.

Transport in Viet Nam develops quickly compared with four or five years ago when I first came to the country, and most of the residents can use automobiles in the next 10 years, he said.

Thus the country could develop the system of metro.

President Kitaoka expressed his hope that the two countries would promote their co-operation, limit harms caused by climate change, reduce the rich-and-poor gap and join hands in training work forces.

JICA would work with the Vietnamese Government to discuss the priority order for different projects, he said.  VNS
The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has instructed airlines to warn passengers against putting Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones in their luggage due to the risk of battery fires.  Photo zing.vn

HA NOI  The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has instructed airlines to warn passengers against putting Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones in their luggage due to the risk of battery fires.

The instruction also requires airlines to stop providing charging service for those phones during flights, citing the recommendation of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) last Thursday. Airline carriers are to report on relevant issues to the CAAV before September 23, 2016.

Previously on September 9, Singapore Airlines also banned the use of the Galaxy Note 7 on all of its flights. The same day, China Airlines and EVA Airways of Taiwan said they would not allow those phones in checked luggage. China Airlines also advised passengers not to turn on or charge the phones during flights.

Korean smart phone maker Samsung announced a recall of 2.5 million phones on September 2 following reports of 35 explosions due to faulty batteries.
Deputy Prime Minister Vu uc am presents the Tran ai Nghia Award to scientists yesterday in Ha Noi. The award, named after late major-general and academician Tran ai Nghia, was presented for the first time this year to honour scientists for contributions of great significance towards applied scientific circles. The two most outstanding scientific works, selected from 15 entries, were given to scientists from the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology and Institute of Chemistry under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology.  VNA/VNS Photo Anh Tuan
The UN Women Viet Nam, in co-ordination with the Viet Nam Womens Union, has provided 3,000 packages of hygiene products for disadvantaged women and girls in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum.  Photo suckhoedoisong.vn

HA NOI  The UN Women Viet Nam, in co-ordination with the Viet Nam Womens Union, has provided 3,000 packages of hygiene products for disadvantaged women and girls in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum.

UN Women Vietnam said on Saturday that the goods, including soap and hygiene products for women, were funded by aid worth US$300,000 from the Government of the Republic of Korea.

The packages are hoped to help prevent the spread of diarrhoea, hand-foot-mouth disease and dengue fever.

The aid delivery in Kon Tum is part of the plan to provide 20,500 such packages for disadvantaged women in the five provinces of Ca Mau, Kien Giang, Binh Thuan, Kon Tum, and Gia Lai.  VNS


HA NOI Strides have been made in Viet Nam to eradicate illiteracy over the last seventy years, and efforts to promote literacy continue today.

Viet Nam met the national standard for literacy in 2000, with 94 per cent of the population aged between 15 and 35 literate, compared to more than 95 per cent of the population being unable to read or write in 1945.

The literacy rate reached 98.1 percent in the 15-35 age group and 96.83 per cent in the 15-60 age group, according to a report on the 2015-2016 academic year by the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET).

Cities directly subordinate to the central government and the provinces in the Red River Delta and the northern central region performed best in tackling illiteracy.

Most of the illiterate are ethnic minority people, who account for 44.8 percent of total illiterate people nationwide, MoET data show.

Widespread domestic efforts

Viet Nam had made strides to boost illiteracy eradication, said Nguyen Cong Hinh  Director of the MoETs Department of Continuing Education.

About 11,060 community-based learning centres across the country had tackled illiteracy, he said, explaining that they had opened classes and launched learning activities to help learners develop their reading and writing skills.

In 2013, a scheme on stamping out illiteracy in the country by 2020 was approved by the then Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. It aims to raise the literacy rate among the 15-60 year-olds to 98 percent by 2020.

Per the scheme, specific illiteracy elimination plans had been devised for each province, Hinh said.

The MoET stepped up reforming teaching methods, especially by using the Regenerated Freirean Literacy through Empowering Community Techniques (REFLECT) for areas with high illiteracy rates, including the northern mountainous, Central Highlands and Mekong Delta areas.

It partnered with the education promotion association, the farmers union, the womens union, and the youth union to engage every resource in illiteracy eradication.

While intensive training in knowledge and teaching methods has been given to both full-time and part-time teachers, more classes have been opened for disadvantaged people like ethnics, the disabled and prisoners, to enable their access to knowledge, Hinh noted.

Cooperation with foreign partners

Viet Nams accomplishments in the domain were partly attributed to the assistance of international organisations, Hinh said, highlighting the Strategic Development of Literacy Initiative for Empowerment Resource Support System project.

With UNESCO support, the project was carried out across all 63 provinces and cities from November 2006 to December 2008, aiding the MoET and localities in developing community-based learning and continuing education, providing training for counter-illiteracy workers, and compiling textbooks to help learners increase their skills.

The REFLECT programme has also been implemented in Viet Nam by ActionAid and the MoET since 2000. It combines teaching literacy skills with what learners are interested in and what applies to their lives, making lessons more attractive and effective.

This programme has been piloted in provinces with high illiteracy rates such as ien Bien, Son La, Ha Giang, Ha Tinh, Ninh Thuan, Tra Vinh, and Soc Trang.

Hinh also underlined the partnership with the Japan International Cooperation Agency, which, through the National Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan, supported an illiteracy reduction project targeting adults in northern mountainous areas.

International recognition

Viet Nams efforts in illiteracy elimination have been lauded by the international community, as seen through the UNESCO literacy prizes presented in 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1985, 1988 and 1997.

This year, UNESCO awarded a programme on bringing books to rural areas in the country with the King Sejong International Literacy Prize.

The award presentation was held at the same time as the global celebration of the 50th International Literacy Day at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on Thursday. VNS
QUANG BINH - Three people have been arrested in connection with an alleged plot to smuggle drugs into the central coastal province of Quang Binh.

Local police also seized some 6,000 tablets of synthetic drugs, which were hidden on a subjects body.

inh ai Thang, 35, from Minh Hoa Districts Hoa Hop Commune was arrested on Saturday at Ho Chi Minh Trail.

A short time later police moved in to arrest two more subjects, aged 37 and 41, in Bo Trach District, who were waiting to receive the goods.

The two were recently released from prison and have criminal records for drug smuggling, the police said.

According to the police, Thang has successfully shipped some 16,000 tablets from Laos to Viet Nam for consumption in the central provinces.

All three men were being questioned by investigators.

It is the largest drug trafficking case, so far, in Quang Binh Province.  VNS
QUANG NGAI  Quang Ngai Provinces Peoples Committee has decided to revoke 337ha of land, part of a project to build the Guang Lian Dung Quat Steel Factory, located in Binh Thuan Commune.

The land was being withdrawn because the project was behind schedule by several years, the Tuoi tre (Youth) newspaper reported.

Le Van Dung, the deputy director of the Dung Quat Economic Zone Management Board, said the revoked land would be handed over to the board to manage in accordance with the current regulations.

The committee assigned the provincial Natural Resources and Environment Department to directly withdraw the land and amend the certificate of land-use rights, Dung said.

The project to build the Guang Lian Dung Quat Steel Factory was given the green light in 2006, with an initial investment of over US$1 billion by the Tycoons Group (Taiwan). At the time, E-United Group (Taiwan) collaborated with Tycoons and raised the capital to $3 billion. The groundbreaking ceremony took place in October 2007, however, till today, construction has still not begun.

Early in 2012, JFE -- the second-largest steel producer in Japan - partnered with E-United Group and contributed capital to the now $4.5 billion project in the Dung Quat Economic Zone. In 2014, however, JFE decided to withdraw from the project.

In March, 2016, following the committees inspection of the project, the projects investor again submitted a proposal with an investment of $2.2 billion. However, the committee decided to withdraw the land since the investor had violated Land Law 2013.  VNS
HA NOI  The 14th National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee convened its third session this morning, discussing draft amendments to the laws on irrigation and railways.

During the ten-day event, the committee will also offer opinions on the construction of draft laws on foreign trade management, the law on planning, the law on management and use of weapons, explosives and supporting tools, the law on asset auctions, the law on religion and beliefs, and the association law, said NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

The agenda also includes preparations for the second session of the 14th National Assembly, which is slated for next month, and offers opinions on the issuance of the committees resolution on regulations on making, verifying and submitting to the National Assembly for decisions of State budget estimates, central budget allocation plans and for approval of the State budget balance, which replaces Resolution No. 387/2003/NQ-UBTVQH11, she said.

The committee will further discuss a draft resolution on principles, criteria and norms for allocation of the State budget for frequent expenditures and a draft resolution on the amendments and supplements of some articles to Resolution No. 55/2010/QH12 on agricultural land use tax exemptions and reductions.

Additionally, they will provide opinions on reports delivered by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Peoples Court of Viet Nam, the Prosecutor General of the Supreme Peoples Procuracy and the Governments reports on fighting crime and violations of laws, law enforcement and corruption prevention and control.

The top legislator asked participants to actively contribute opinions to draft laws discussed at the session to help improve the effectiveness of building the nations laws.-VNS
ZAGREB  Croatias main conservative party looked set for victory in the snap election, according to preliminary results, but will likely be forced into another coalition furthering political uncertainty in the EUs newest member.

The ballot was the second in less than a year after the previous barely-functioning coalition government led by the conservative HDZ collapsed in June over a conflict of interest scandal after just five months in power.

The HDZ were leading against their centre-left opposition rivals, the Social Democrats (SDP), with 61 seats to 54, according to results released early Monday from more than 80 per cent of polling stations.

The results suggest the HDZ advantage will not be enough to secure an absolute majority in the 151-seat parliament, and HDZs former junior government partner, the Most Party ("Bridge" in Croatian), is likely to play kingmaker once again.

The Most Party is set to come third with 12 seats.

Some 3.8 million Croatians were eligible to cast ballots in the election, which comes at a time of economic gloom and strained ties between neighbours in the volatile Balkans.

The previous HDZ-led coalitions five-month rule was marked by a shift to the right amid a growing climate of intolerance, including attacks on independent media and minorities, notably ethnic Serbs.

Authorities have appeared to turn a blind eye to a far-right surge that has sparked global concern and brought already frosty ties with former enemy Serbia to their lowest level since Croatias 1990s independence war.

But the HDZ was aspiring to stay in power with a new and more moderate leader, Andrej Plenkovic.

The 46-year-old former member of the European Parliament has repeatedly pledged to move the party away from populism and extremism to position it in the centre-right.

"Im certain that we are the party that will have a privilege to form the next stable Croatian government," Plenkovic told supporters early on Monday, as he pledged a "Europe-oriented" government.

But his SDP rival, former prime minister Zoran Milanovic, warned it was too early to call the result.

"We should wait until all votes are counted," he told supporters in Zagreb early on Monday morning.

"Croatia needs a stable government, for the past months we had an unstable and destructive (one)," he added.

Prolonged deadlock

Croatians may have lost enthusiasm for voting a second time in less than a year: by mid-afternoon turnout was some nine points down on November polls.

And the preliminary results suggest they could be facing a similar scenario that which followed the previous vote - prolonged talks on forming a government and potentially another election.

With Plenkovics moderate agenda, HDZ could also count on the backing of minorities, notably Serbs.

While Milanovic, 49, pledged a "government of progress and tolerance".

But during campaigning Milanovic sharpened his populist rhetoric after disappointing voters with scant reforms when in power before the ill-fated HDZ coalition took control last November.

He has repeatedly slammed Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic over his ultranationalist wartime stance.

The almost year of political deadlock has blocked reforms the former Yugoslav republic badly needs as it emerges from a six-year recession.

The economy, relying heavily on tourism along the countrys Adriatic coast, remains one of the EUs weakest despite some recent positive indicators attributed to membership of the bloc.

The central bank has forecast growth of 2.3 per cent this year.

Unemployment stands at more than 13 per cent, public debt has reached 85 per cent of GDP, while the investment climate remains poor.  AFP
TRIPOLI  Libyas internationally backed government has urged its forces to act after two oil terminals fell to rival troops, raising fears of further violence in a country already gripped by turmoil.

The call came on Sunday after forces loyal to the unrecognised eastern authority seized two key export facilities.

The Tripoli-based Government of National Accord called on all forces loyal to it to "protect and defend" the ports against what it called "flagrant aggression" of Libyan sovereignty.

The two Mediterranean ports are in Libyas "oil crescent", and seen as a vital source of income for the GNA which is struggling to assert its authority.

Previously controlled by guards allied to the GNA, the ports of Al-Sidra and Ras Lanuf were seized by forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar.

One of the most powerful military figures in Libya, Haftar is allied with a rival authority to the GNA based in the east.

Ahmad Mesmari, a spokesman for Haftars forces, told a press conference that another oil terminal at Zuwaytina was not yet under their control.

A colonel with pro-GNA forces, allied to guards defending the facilities, confirmed that Haftars fighters were in control of Al-Sidra and Ras Lanuf.

Hatem El-Ouraybi, a spokesman for the eastern authority, told AFP the attack was aimed at "regaining full control of the oil crescent".

"The government calls on all the people of the oil crescent area -- including those who were in the oil installations guards -- to join the army or return to their homes," he said.

But the GNA on Facebook urged all "military forces" loyal to the unity government "to protect and defend the oil installations and terminals and to carry out their military and national duties bravely and without hesitation".

The GNA also called on Haftars forces to "immediately withdraw from all the sites they have attacked".

Ras Lanuf and Al-Sidra are together capable of handling 700,000 barrels of oil per day but had been closed for months after jihadist attacks.

Blow to oil industry

In late July, the oil installation guards announced the reopening of the two ports after an agreement with the unity government to resume oil exports.

They had been closed following attacks in January by the Islamic State group, who took advantage of turmoil after the 2011 uprising to gain a foothold in the country.

In recent weeks, pro-GNA forces backed by US air strikes have been pressing a months-long campaign to expel the last IS jihadists from what was their North African stronghold.

IS took the city of Sirte in June last year, sparking fears they would use the city west of the oil crescent as a launchpad for attacks in Europe.

Haftars forces have since 2014 been fighting jihadists in the second city of Benghazi northeast of the oil-rich crescent.

UN Libya envoy Martin Kobler said on Twitter he was worried about the fighting.

"Oil belongs to ALL Libyans," he tweeted. "Conflicts can only be solved through dialogue, not violence. Urge all parties to sit 2gether."

Mattia Toaldo, a Libya expert with the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the seizure of the terminals could deal a fatal blow to Libyas oil sector.

"Unless there is a very quick mediation, this could lead to conflict and a final blow to Libyas oil industry," Toaldo said.

Oil is Libyas main natural resource with reserves estimated at 48 billion barrels, the largest in Africa.

But since 2010 the countrys production has plummeted from 1.5 million bpd to just 200,000 bpd.

Undermining GNA

Libyas oil sector is managed by the National Oil Company which is split into two rival branches, one allied to the GNA and the other to the authority in the east.

Once pro-GNA forces expel IS from Sirte and there is no buffer between them and Haftars army, either side "could easily clash again", Toaldo said.

The pro-GNA military command is based in the city of Misrata.

The attack on the ports aimed to "take advantage of Misratas exhaustion after Sirte" and "undermine any negotiation on the future of the GNA", Toaldo said.

Libya has been in chaos since the 2011 revolt that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, with rival authorities and militias vying to control the country.

A UN-brokered deal in December led to the unity government starting to work in Tripoli, but it has struggled to assert its authority.

The parliament in the east last month voted no confidence in the GNA in a setback to efforts to end the political chaos.  AFP
Virginia Tech students and employees will have the opportunity to learn more about the various commuting options available at the Active Commute Celebration on Sept. 21.

The Active Commute Celebration, which is held annually during Virginia Tech's Sustainability Week, recognizes those who choose to bike, bus, walk, carpool, or vanpool to campus, and also serves to educate the community about transportation options.

In support of the Heads Up Hokies Campaign, this years event will emphasize safety.

The celebration will be held on the main Squires Plaza from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will include free breakfast from Panera Bread. Individuals will be able to participate in a helmet decorating contest and a free bike helmet giveaway courtesy of The Gregory Weiner Foundation.

Several campus organizations will participate in the event, including Hokie Wellness, the Virginia Tech Police Department, the Office of Emergency Management, Dining Services, the Office of Energy and Sustainability, and Parking Services. A gallery of photos from last years event is available online.

A number of community groups will participate as well. They include Blacksburg Transit, RIDE Solutions, Sustainable Blacksburg, and Zimride.

At Virginia Tech, 88 percent of resident students, 67 percent of off-campus students, and 42 percent of employees rely on alternative modes of transportation, such as biking, walking, transit, and carpool.

In 2013, Virginia Tech was designated a Bronze Bicycle Friendly University by the League of American Bicyclists. Each year since 2010, the university has been awarded gold in Best Workplaces for Commuters Race to Excellence. In 2014, the university was also recognized in the "Best of" categories for universities in the Best Workplaces for Commuters Race to Excellence.

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Written by Abbey O'Farrell.
Unequal Budget funding for the Yes vote wont give Australians equal say If you seek to ensure not all Australians get an equal say in the debate about an enshrined voice, then dont be surprised when millions of them cry foul about the integrity of the result.

Regional university students and apprentices will be able to access $250 travel voucher 00:52 Regional university students and apprentices across New South Wales will be able to access a new $250 travel voucher which can be used for fuel,...

Our gas: Andrews makes national energy demand Victorias Premier has proposed solving the east coast's gas problems by creating a nationwide scheme similar to one already successful in the country's West.

One man dead, two in critical condition after Melbourne CBD stabbings Victorian Police are investigating if two violent brawls in Melbourne's CBD overnight which left one man dead and two others in a critical condition in hospital are linked.
WATERLOO - Financial Decision Group of Waterloo is joining with nine other firms to create a regional financial services organization. FDG owner Pete Meehan was named as one of three principals of the new entity, call Collective Financial Group.

The 10 independent firms, all part of Signator Investors Inc., John Hancocks dual registered broker dealer/investment adviser, are located in Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska.

The firms will centralize new business processing, training and compliance supervision and provide advisers more opportunity to collaborate. Each firm will continue to operate under its own name.

Other members include: Strellner Agency Group of Cedar Rapids; Advanced Financial Consultants of Rochester, Minn.; Carlson Financial Group of North Platte, Neb.; Larry Dawson & Associates of Webster City; Financial Decisions Group of Des Moines; Mark Thompson & Associates of Davenport; Core Financial of Fort Collins, Colo.; Horizon Financial Resources of Guthrie Center; and Indy Performance Group of Pendleton, Ind.
WATERLOO -- The 9/11 play The Guys, about the lost first responders, helped raise funds for the Waterloo Fire Department in three performances this weekend.

A gift to the community from the Waterloo Community Playhouse, all proceeds went to the citys Fire Department for current needs, which include new ice rescue suits.

This 70-minute play opened off Broadway in 2001 and has a storied history. Playwright Anne Nelson, a noted human rights journalist, drew the play from her own life. Soon after the Twin Towers destruction she was approached by a New York City fire captain who had lost almost every man in his brigade. How could he pay proper tribute to them in their memorial services?

In The Guys, he recalls his lost men and he and she try to find words and ways to grieve constructively.

Local actors Norman Ferguson Jr. and Patricia Ferguson follow in huge footsteps as the Captain and his scribe. Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver starred in the first production of this two-character play. In 2002, Anthony LaPaglia took Murrays place in the film version of The Guys. Later Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandan presented the play at the Edinburgh Film Festival.

It first should be said that The Guys is a difficult play for any company to attempt. The subject is delicate, and the play itself offers next to no physical dramatic action. The plays action is remembrance: the Captain and journalist at a table. Its all memory and heart.

Norman Ferguson makes a promising WCP debut as the Captain with his expressive body language. At one moment at the end, he simply stands remembering Barney, whom he loved. As he recalls Barney, the inventive welder who wasnt even supposed to work that day, Fergusons face and eyes telegraph without words the hurt in his soul.

Opening night Friday was a bit quiet for me. I could hear most of the Captains words, but Patricia Fergusons voice was so gentle that I was leaning forward from the second row all through the show and still missed a good deal of what she said. This was important, because the journalist serves as our narrator for the evening as well as the Captains aide, and she is suffering her own grief.

The blocking didnt help her, for at times she paces around the intimate three-sided McElroy Theatre with her back to us. How to give movement to this play-of-talk is a huge challenge for Director Anita Ross.

The Guys works best when it is most specific about the lost men. We can then picture Patrick, with his giant strides, who always said Follow me. We can see Barney, who invented a trailer to carry the jaws of life, and who said If I could only find a girl who can weld.

The Guys tells us truths we may not have known: that 350 fire fighters were missing; that families had to decide whether to hold funeral services; and, when they did, had no bodies, but only photographs there.

The Guys helps us remember, and have new appreciation of, the ordinary people who are competent in an extraordinary situation.
CRESCO  A former Decorah man has pleaded to allegations he used a false Social Security number when he applied for a job in Howard County.

Jose Guadelupe Machorro-Xochicale, 24, a native of Vera Cruz, Mexico, entered a guilty plea to one count of misuse of a Social Security number in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids on Aug. 11. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and sentencing will be at a later date.

According to court records, Jose Guadelupe Machorro entered the United States in 2008 when he was 18 years old, and he lived in Alabama for about two years before moving to Decorah. He worked as a Decorah restaurant for about a year and 2014, he used a bogus Social Security card and permanent resident card to obtain a job at Mehmert Tiling, according to court records.

In March 2015, deputies with the Howard County Sheriffs Office interviewed Jose Guadelupe Machorro while investigating an unrelated complaint. Agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement also became involved in the investigation, and while Jose Guadelupe Machorro wasnt charged in connection with the initial complaint, authorities determined the documents he used to obtain his job were fraudulent, court records state.

A federal grand jury issued an indictment in May 2015, but Jose Guadelupe Machorro remained at large until June 2016 officers with a U.S. Marshals Service Task Force arrested him.

His brother, Jose Miguel Machorro-Xochicale, 29, was prosecuted on similar charges in 2015. During the Howard County investigation, authorities learned at the brother was also working for the tiling company.

He told investigators he bought his employment documents in Chicago for $200. The Social Security number was invalid, and the number of the permanent resident card had been assigned to a woman from Iran, court records state.

He went to trial in August 2015 and was found guilty of unlawful use of identification documents and misuse of a Social Security number. He was sentenced to 126 days in jail with one year of supervised release.
WATERLOO -- Authorities have arrested a Coralville man in connection with a weekend chase through three counties that reached speeds beyond 100 mph.

A trooper with the Iowa State Patrol was checking for speeders on Interstate 380 south of the U.S. Highway 20 interchange Saturday night when he spotted a vehicle traveling north at 80 mph in a 70 mph zone shortly before 11 p.m.

The vehicle refused to pull over, and a chase ensued heading east on Highway 20 toward Jesup in Buchanan County and then turning around, reentering Black Hawk County and then heading south into Benton County on Interstate 380. At times, speeds reached 123 mph, according to court records.

Authorities used Stop Sticks at mile marker 43 north, and the vehicle pulled over at mile marker 41 at the Urbana exit.

The driver, Jahmai John Henry Jones, 22, was arrested for misdemeanor eluding, driving while revoked, speeding in a work zone and reckless driving. His bond was set at $10,000.
WATERLOO  The state capitals newspaper is calling for a federal review of the Waterloo Police Department.

The citys police chief said the department is already working with officials from the U.S. Department of Justices Community Relations Service to smooth over connections with the community it covers.

In recent months, the citys police force has faced complaints of racial bias  an officers recorded comments disparaging a homicide victim were disclosed during a murder trial that ended in an acquittal, video was released of another officer pulling the dreadlocks of suspect following car chase and crash  and the city settled lawsuits from residents  one as young as 13  who complained of excessive force.

On Sunday, the Des Moines Register issued an editorial citing a lack of professionalism and sound judgment on the part of the police department that has led to mistrust between authorities and the black community and seeking federal intervention.

Police Chief Daniel Trelka admits his officers have made mistakes, but he hopes new training for police and an educational effort geared toward the residents will help build bridges.

There is a dialog between myself and the DOJ, and some citizens and the DOJ, and we are collectively we are working on solutions together, Trelka said.

He said the field of law enforcement is evolving.

We realize we need to adjust, and we will. We are developing a comprehensive plan to do just that. We recently provided two training sessions offered by the DOJ, Trelka said.

He said the department needs to educate the public on the reasoning behind certain police practices.

Also, earlier this month, the department hired consultant Troy Cicero of Chicago to provide diversity training to its officers.

Trelka said the police department has had diversity training in the past, but the sessions were in your face and officers felt like they were being scolded, he said.

In this day and age, there needs to be a dialogue between the participants and the person who is presenting it, and thats what were getting with Troy Cicero, he said.

The department also brought in another consultant, Garry McFadden, a retired North Carolina officer who met with city and police leaders, NAACP representatives and the community last week.

Trelka said one of the things working against the police department is the confidentiality that surrounds discipline that is handed out in instances of officer misconduct.

When I discipline an employee, I cant reveal what the discipline is, by Iowa Code, Trelka said.

For instance, when an officer was caught on camera pulling a suspects hair following a pursuit, the officer was significantly disciplined, Trelka said. The nature of the discipline hasnt been disclosed, but he said the officer wasnt terminated because he was salvageable.

He said he has transitioned out  fired or given the option of resigning  officers over the years, but those cases havent involved use of force issues.
CEDAR FALLS  The Board of Education Monday is expected to approve a $406,500 bid to grade the site of a planned new elementary school.

The board meets at 7 p.m. in the council chambers of Cedar Falls City Hall, 220 Clay St.

McAnnich Corp. of Des Moines was the low bidder of nine companies that submitted proposals on the project.

Other bids to grade the entire 40-acre school site ranged from $473,984 to $796,000. The low bid is more than $150,000 under the estimated cost.

Located near Erik Road west of Hudson Road, the school is on land jointly purchased with the city of Cedar Falls nine years ago.

Cedar Falls Community Schools will develop about half of the parcel with a city park on the remaining land. Rough grading costs will be evenly split by the two parties.

That and other cost sharing is laid out in a memorandum of understanding between the district and the city expected to be approved by the board.

The board will also consider approving a temporary access and grading easement with Midwest Development Co., which is building homes in the neighborhood around the school site.

In other business, the board will:

Consider refinancing $15.95 million in outstanding school infrastructure revenue bonds sold in 2011.

Approve an agreement to provide services to Hudson Community School at its Behavior Intervention Center, 3809 Cedar Heights Drive. Tuition will be $110 per student each day it is used.
WATERLOO  Each year the Covenant Medical Center Acute Inpatient Rehabilitation Center honors a Rehabilitant of the Year. This is an individual who has succeeded from being a patient of the rehabilitation program and gone on to do outstanding things in our communities.

This years recipient is Sara Strottmann of Readlyn, a 30-year-old mother of four who suffered a stroke in June 2013.

Since leaving rehabilitation, she has taken part in a panel for young adults with stroke during monthly Stroke Information Network meetings at Covenant. She is involved in peer visitation for young stroke patients and their families, and also has been a member of the rehab programs patient advisory committee for more than two years.

She also is active in Readlyn, taking part in church activities and volunteering for Community Lutheran Schools. Strottmann gave birth to a fifth child, a son, in 2014, just a little more than a year after finishing rehabilitation.

Covenants rehabilitation team also chooses a business or organization to receive a Community Achievement Award. This years recipient is River Hills School in Cedar Falls. The facility allows Covenant rehabilitation associates to work with patients in a heated adaptive pool to improve walking, range of motion and movement.
WATERLOOAnyone who knows the story of Waterloos five Sullivan brothers usually associates them with water, but a descendant is now taking to the air to help give other former service members their due.

Kelly Sullivan, granddaughter and grandniece of the five Waterloo brothers killed during while serving in the Navy during World War II, has joined the board of Cedar Valley Honor Flight and will serve as a guardian on Tuesdays flight of veterans to visit military memorials in Washington, D.C.

My third-graders have been writing letters for veterans making the flight, said Sullivan, a teacher at Lincoln Elementary School in Cedar Falls. School children write thank-you letters to veterans making the flight for them to read on the trip home.

I wondered if there was any way I could be more involved on the board, she said. I love to work in groups like this. Its an honor for me.

She volunteered at a recent orientation dinner for the veterans going on the current flight.

I just got my foot in the door, she joked. They saw the way I worked at the dinner. I think theyll keep me around.

Sullivan has been added to the board, said Black Hawk County Supervisor Craig White, co-organizer of Cedar Valley Honor Flight with fellow Supervisor Frank Magsamen.

Sullivan said White came to her years ago for permission to use the Sullivan family name for the local organizations original name, Sullivan-Hartogh-Davis Post 730 Honor Flight.

Thats appropriate, since the 100-plus veterans making Tuesdays flight includes World War II, Korea and Vietnam War veterans.

One of those Vietnam veterans is former Black Hawk County Sheriff Mike Kubik. He applied about a year ago, after the local group started accepting applications from Vietnam veterans.

I think its going to be a good time, said Kubik, who served in an Army transportation unit in Vietnam and has never been to Washington. I think its well worth it, especially for the guys who havent been out there. I think they are doing a great job. Theyve worked their butts off raising money.

Sullivan on Tuesday will go as a guardian for Vietnam veteran Jim Brockling of Independence.

Im excited to be involved, Sullivan said. Theyve done an amazing job in fundraising, and she wants to make sure that continues into the future. Currently, funds have been raised to cover only part of a flight into 2017. There are typically three flights a year.

The one-day trips to Washington, D.C., include tours of military memorials like the National World War II, Vietnam and Korean War memorials as well as Arlington National Cemetery. The public is encouraged to attend departures and homecomings at the Waterloo Regional Airport. They typically leave about 7 a.m. and return about 9 p.m.
WAVERLY -- The Waverly Area Veterans post had a "quiet" opening recently, but things aren't staying quiet for long.

Already, the now-nearly $4 million facility has hosted a firefighters convention, a class reunion and has bookings into the next two years, said Sara Stephens, the facility's manager.

The two-level facility overlooking the Cedar River is the result of a community fundraising and volunteer effort and cooperation among several Waverly-area veterans organizations.

"There's some little final touches here and there," Stevens said, but the facility is basically completed and a stark contrast from just three months ago when it was basically a shell. A major push occurred over the past several weeks.

"People love it," Stephens said. "They're excited for it." And bookings are flowing in.

"We get them regularly. We have stuff booked into 2018," Stephens said. "Wedding receptions, anniversaries, graduation parties, class reunions."

An upper level deck is being added overlooking the river as an additional selling point for more bookings.

"The banquet hall's official name is Patriots Hall," Stephens said. And she emphasized the post is not exclusively a military veterans club.

"It's open to everyone, because everyone's a patriot," said Stephens, a U.S. Army Iraq war veteran. The tag line for the facility is "Where Patriots Gather." It's open to the general public at 4 p.m. daily, in addition to being available for general public rentals. Stephens keeps office hours during the day to take calls for reservations and conduct business.

"Waverly is an awesome community. It's like a close-knit family," Stephens said. For example, some community members are donating parts for a boat dock on the river side of the building. "Last week, we had people come up here on boats," she said.

In addition to the upper-level banquet room -- which can be partitioned for multiple events and has a catering kitchen -- the facility has a lower level bar and lounge with its own kitchen; a smaller meeting room for veterans groups and business organizations; and a chapel area for individual contemplation or one-on-one consultation with veterans officials regarding benefits and other matters.

Stephens has been in touch with the Bremer County Veteran Affairs office in that regard. It also has an individual veterans resource area with a computer lab where veterans can do job research or families can consult with deployed family members via Skype.

"We want to make sure the veterans get their claims filed properly, know what's out there for them," she said. "Because nobody tells us. Sometimes you have to go through the hardest part to find out what's really there." The post is there to help.

While many veterans posts all over face problems with aging, dwindling membership, the post hopes to draw more younger veterans who served in Iraq, Afghanistan and even the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

"I want people of my generation to know they can come here and hang out with all of us... . We're kind of outside tradition. We're making our own organization, evolving," she said.

Post board member Hank Bagelmann noted a significant number of younger veterans are showing up already.

"Let's face it, a lot of them don't want to hang out with geezers like me," Bagelmann joked. "It's a generational thing. They want to be with a younger generation. Sara is a big key to that."

Fundraising has exceeded expectations, Bagelmann said, to the point where the post raised its fundraising goal from $3.6 million to $3.95 million. About $3.45 million in donations and pledges has been raised to date.

Bagelmann said the post was within $150,000 of its original fundraising goal and decided to add items like a deck, kitchen improvements and a sound wall to be used in the banquet area on occasions when it may be divided for concurrent events. It made more economic sense to add those items now while construction is in progress, Bagelmann said. Post board members are confident the additional money can be raised.

The Waverly Area Veterans Post is the result of cooperation among individual members of several Waverly-area veterans organizations, including the city's American Legion, VFW and AMVETS posts and the Marine Corps League, after some of the posts were destroyed or seriously damaged in the 2008 flood that devastated the city and much of eastern Iowa.

A grand opening is scheduled for 11 a.m. Oct. 8 at the post, 1300 Fourth St. N.W., preceded by a free-will-donation breakfast beginning at 7:30 a.m. Attendees are encouraged to come early.

Donations to the post project are still being accepted. Information is available online at www.waverlyvets.us.or wavp.org.
WATERLOO  Waterloo will host its inaugural Bill Riley Talent Search in conjunction with the National Cattle Congress Fair at 1 p.m. Saturday in the NCC Pavilion.

This will be a qualifier for the 2017 Iowa State Fair, and Bill Riley Jr. will be the guest emcee for the event.

There are openings in both the Sprout and Senior divisions. Information on signing up is available at www.billrileytalentsearch.com.

The event will be free with admission to the National Cattle Congress.
CEDAR FALLS  Fifteen years after terrorist attacks brought down the World Trade Center towers in New York and struck the Pentagon in D.C., the county is still healing, said the Cedar Falls mayor.

Mayor Jim Brown said recent news coverage of the 15-year mark rekindled memories of the attacks.

Even as these programs have been showing, it also brought up what we were felling that day and the days beyond, such as anxiety, disbelief, maybe fear of the future, sadness, numbness, of course anger, outrage and, honestly, revenge, Brown said.

Brown was the keynote speaker at the AMVETS Post 49s Sept. 11 memorial service, which included a car show and fundraiser for the Sons of AMVETS.

I believe our resolve remains firm, and our country is still healing and will continue to do so throughout the years to come, Brown said.

Soaring over the ceremony was a huge American flag, held high by a Cedar Falls Fire Rescue aerial truck. The Sept. 11 attacks have a special significance for the fire service.

Its the single largest amount of deaths for the fire service in one day  Its a day that always goes on for us, and thats why its very important that we have days like today that others can help remember it with us and that we can share and heal, said Jeff Danielson, a Cedar Falls firefighter.

Some 343 firefighters who responded to the burning Twin Towers died during the collapse - along with 72 law enforcement officers.

Firefighter Jim Cook, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1366, said many firefighters who assisted with rescue and recovery efforts have died of cancer associated with toxins at the scene in the following years.

On this day, every single one of us feels a certain amount of honor to serve our community and remember the sacrifices of those firefighters, police officers and all of the other servants that were there. And its a rededication for ourselves to serve the community, said Capt. Robert Inouye with Cedar Falls Fire Rescue.

Dale Purdy of Luther, Iowa, commander of AMVETS 4th National District, said the attacks changed the country

It changed everyones attitudes towards not only the country, but the firefighters, police, military, everything. It was very much a tragedy, and it should be remembered, always, Purdy said. Sometimes things happen, and we start forgetting after a few years. This is something we should never forget. 9/11, Pearl Harbor, the Holocaust, we should not forget.

In Waterloo, firefighters helped with a firehouse meal for patrons who attended the Sunday performance of The Guys at the Waterloo Community Playhouse.

The off-Broadway play was written following the Sept. 11 attacks and follows two people as they prepare eulogies for the fallen firefighters, said Norman Ussery, the playhouses executive director.

Proceeds from the show will go towards new ice rescue suits for Waterloo Fire Rescue, said Capt. Mike Moore.
Fifteen years after one of the most vivid and violent days in American history, there is still a debate over what the events of Sept. 11, 2001, actually mean.

For some individuals, it is clear enough. They experience horrible, continuing and unrecoverable loss  the immense absence of friends and family chosen for death at random or led there by duty.

But the place of these events in our national life remains disputed in a way that, say, Pearl Harbor was not. No one accused President Franklin Roosevelt of overreacting to the Imperial Japanese threat. This charge, however, is routinely made in assessing the war against terrorism  America overreacted in the surveillance of citizens; in the pursuit, interrogation and killing of enemy combatants; and in the use of the military to confront emerging threats. After the killing of Osama bin Laden in particular, some in the Obama administration seemed to regard the threat of terrorism as diminished, contained and manageable.

This viewpoint  while offering important corrections  has become dramatically less credible with the collapse of sovereignty at the heart of the Middle East; with ongoing mass atrocities against civilians in Syria; with a refugee crisis that incubates resentment and now shakes the foundations of the European Union; and with the establishment of a physical place  a quasi-state  that claims to be the Islamic caliphate. The second largest city in Iraq has been controlled by a terrorist organization for more than two years. And the existence of this faux caliphate, according to security expert Juan Zarate, has rejuvenated [terror] networks in Europe, in Southeast Asia, in the Middle East and elsewhere that were previously suppressed.

Clearly, national passivity  as a matter of conviction or indecision  can also invite serious strategic and moral challenges.

Yet this argument against inaction is becoming dated in some respects. President Obama has returned military advisers to Iraq and slowly escalated Americas commitment to the defeat of the Islamic State (there are several thousand U.S. troops now in Iraq and Syria). Progress is being made in significant increments. Obama is attempting to shape an American role that offers intelligence, coordination and airpower while building up the capabilities of allies and proxies.

The effort has been limited and late  perhaps too late in Syria  but developing this sort of capacity is the correct goal dictated by the correct question: How does America exercise maximum military influence without the risks of invasion and occupation?

And the Obama administration has devoted increasing, useful attention to the ideological battle against Islamic extremism. In one respect, the propaganda produced by the Islamic State has a narrow goal  produce volunteers to fight for, operate and populate its sad excuse for a caliphate. The effort, at its height, produced perhaps 40,000 foreign recruits. As the chances of dying on terrorist vacation have increased, recruitment has slowed. And efforts to counter Islamic State propaganda have skillfully employed defectors who describe menial work, desperate conditions and disappointed expectations.

One response by the Islamic State to military reverses has been to call for terrorist attacks in place  claiming Muslims can demonstrate their fidelity by shooting up a local nightclub or running a truck into a crowd. This approach is not new. But the Islamic State, according to Zarate, has made it a core part of their strategy.

In some ways, fighting a geographic caliphate is the kind of thing American does best, applying deadly force with great precision. But disputes about theology and identity are unfamiliar terrain for the American government. Violent Islamists dont require mass appeal. They set out, via social media and the deep web, to exploit the angry, damaged and vulnerable. Identifying the radicalized involves attention to individuals by family members, peers and imams. And it requires an atmosphere of trust between the FBI and the Muslim community.

In this context, the argument by the Republican presidential nominee that America is too engaged in the world and too soft on Islam is utterly, dangerously wrong on both counts. When he proposes a religious test at the border, or demonizes Muslim refugees, or calls for the murder of the families of terrorists, he feeds social division, alienates important allies, materially complicates the war on terrorism and puts our country at additional risk.

Fifteen years on from 9/11, the main task remains the ideological and religious isolation of the enemy  placing them on an island of unholy cruelty. A war of civilizations  the war they want  will not be won.
Letters to the Editor





Family thanks

The family of Cloris Mehmen

PLAINFIELD  To the many people of Northeast Iowa who helped in some way in our search for Cloris, we thank you. We know hundreds of miles were searched on foot, by air and on water during hot, humid, and stormy weather in tall corn, timber and vegetation under terrible conditions.

We would like to thank the following for their involvement in the search for Cloris: The 27 fire departments responding from across Northeast Iowa; EMS agencies; emergency management agencies; law enforcement agencies; Bremer County dispatchers; CERT from Bremer, Butler and Cerro Gordo counties; Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management; Star 1 (search guidance and canines); Iowa State Patrol; Iowa Department of Natural Resources; Black Hawk County Conservation; Iowa Department of Transportation; American Red Cross; Salvation Army; area churches; private pilots who flew many flights over several days; drone operators who conducted low altitude flights in multiple areas; kayakers who paddled area waterways; ATV operators; horse teams; National Weather Service-Des Moines office; local mews media; the hundreds of family members, friends, and volunteers (many who we never learned your names); those who donated food, water, insect repellent; and the countless folks who have and continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

We want to express a special thank you to the Plainfield Fire Department and city of Plainfield for their support during this difficult time.

Gun owners

JAMES GEIGER

WATERLOO  This is in response to Mr. Blacks anti-gun tirade in the Sept. 4 Courier. As a veteran, gun owner and concealed weapon permit holder, you know I have submitted myself to and passed: a federal criminal background check; given my fingerprints to local and federal authorities; have no violent misdemeanor convictions; have no felony convictions; do not abuse drugs or alcohol; am not mentally incompetent; been trained on the proper and safe use/care/storage/transport of firearms.

As a lawful gun owner, Im one of the most law-abiding citizens on the planet. As you are demonizing me for being a lawful gun owner, maybe I should be asking myself, What do I know about you?

Letter response

RODNEY CARY

CEDAR FALLS  In response to Rick Johnson on Aug. 24 fact check: His response was not a fact check, only his opinion that included raising SSI payroll tax on both employee and employer. You have to go back 30 years to raid the SSI Trust Fund. It was determined at that time, by the year 2000 if SSI is left alone, there would trillions of dollars going to waste. Congress then capped these funds at some arbitrary number and took all excess each year for pet projects.

In July 1941, the three branches military active personal was at 1.8 million. By the end of World War II it was at 12 million-plus. In July 2016 the four branches of active military was at 1.3 million. Do the math.

Now on the illegal aliens problem draining the treasury, this number you came up is mystical. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, illegal aliens cost U.S. taxpayers more than $100 billion each year. I suggest you recheck facts.
Kejal Vyas at the Wall Street Journal dropped a bombshell yesterday with this article on China's position on Venezuelan debt. He argues that China sees Venezuela as increasingly dangerous for its citizens and increasingly such a bad credit risk that it won't throw good money after bad.





Chinas envoy in Caracas conveyed concerns over security and Venezuelas debt repayment during emergency meetings held between April and June with dozens of representatives from Chinese state companies, according to four officials from Chinese companies.

The consensus was that no new money was going to be invested, said one of the officials. There was a clear message from up top: Let them fall, said the official. He said Chinese companies were moving employees to Colombia and Panama for personal-safety reasons and because many Chinese-led projects have ground to a halt.

Whew! I talked in my U.S.-Latin American relations class today about how there has often been concern about the political implications of Chinese investment in Latin America, but that China often acts strictly business-like. It doesn't want influence in Venezuela or ideological togetherness. It wants oil and cash. The real concern is that China gets sick of Venezuelan debt and leaves a huge mess that will rock the region, thus also precipitating some sort of U.S. response.
Advertisement

By The Associated Press

Sep. 11, 2016 | NEW YORK, NY

By The Associated Press Sep. 11, 2016 | 10:24 PM | NEW YORK, NY

Hillary Clinton is calling off plans to visit the West Coast on Monday and Tuesday following a health episode at the 9/11 memorial.



Clinton abruptly left the anniversary ceremony on Sunday morning and needed to be held up by three people before she appeared to stumble off a curb and was helped into a van.



Several hours later, her campaign revealed she was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday and advised to rest.



Her doctor said Sunday evening that Clinton had become overheated and dehydrated at the event in lower Manhattan. Dr. Lisa R. Bardack says Clinton is now "recovering nicely" at home.



The Democratic nominee was scheduled to attend fundraisers on Monday and Tuesday in California, and tape an episode of Ellen DeGeneres' talk show.
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By The Associated Press

Sep. 10, 2016 | LEXINGTON, KY

By The Associated Press Sep. 10, 2016 | 10:23 PM | LEXINGTON, KY

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has asked Kentucky Republicans to pray for his party to maintain control amid what he called a "challenging" election cycle this November.



McConnell was one of several speakers at the Republican Party of Kentucky's annual Lincoln Dinner that also included U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and Gov. Matt Bevin. Republicans are defending 24 Senate seats in November while Democrats are defending 10 seats. McConnell said many of the Republican races are in competitive states that are "in the crosshairs of the presidential" race.



Bevin urged people to elect Republicans to the state House of Representatives, the last legislative chamber in the South still controlled by Democrats. All 100 seats are up for re-election in November. Bevin said the change is needed for him to sign anti-abortion legislation.
Apparently having federal charges dropped, though, is just a game of cat and mouse. There is nothing long-term or binding about it, at least as it was done in Timo Miller's case, and the charges can be picked back up again at any time. For reasons that are obscure both to Timo and to his family, the federal prosecutors connected to the Buffalo, New York, trial (presumably the trial of Philip Zodhiates, who helped Lisa in the U.S.), have decided that he needs to be extradited right now, citing the old charges against him.

He agreed to cooperate fully with investigators in 2011, and hence at that time the federal charges against him were dropped. He was a witness at fellow Mennonite Ken Miller's trial in 2012.

My thanks to reader "Just Me" for updating us in the comments thread below on the current outrageous situation of Mennonite missionary Timo Miller. See here , here , and here . He is apparently giving us information from the site Plainnews.org, which hosts news on Mennonite, Hutterite, and other "plain" folk worldwide. (Timo Miller is no relation either to Lisa Miller or to Pastor Ken Miller.) Timo was originally arrested in Washington, DC, in 2011 for having helped Lisa Miller obtain plane tickets to Nicaragua and for having sheltered her and helped her settle in when she first arrived in Nicaragua. He has stated explicitly that he did not know at the time that he was breaking any laws in so doing. See here for an interesting and in some ways sympathetic portrayal of him in the New York Times.

Timo was always willing to turn himself in and has not resisted arrest or charges in any way. Despite this, the Nicaraguan government has inexplicably cooperated with the U.S. government and Interpol (yes, this is massive overkill) to arrest him in such a way that his family at first thought he was kidnapped by some non-state entity, leaving his bicycle lying on the ground behind him. After this unnecessary cloak-and-dagger abduction, there have been various back-and-forths in which he and his family are told almost nothing and his family for a time could get no information about him. He has not (reportedly) been actively mistreated but is being held in wretched conditions in Nicaraguan prisons and is actually looking forward to being extradited to the U.S. because of the hope of better imprisonment conditions. His wife reports that his health, specifically his blood pressure, appears to be negatively affected by the prison conditions.

And this is how they are treating the guy who is cooperating, who didn't even know he was committing a crime at the time of the "crime."

Timo Miller is a husband and the father of five children. The rest of his family is in Nicaragua. His wife is (understandably) in anguish over him. They don't know if he's just going to have to testify again in the upcoming trial of someone else, if he's going to be tried himself on the old charges and put in a federal U.S. prison (as Ken Miller has been), or what else is going to happen to him. His family knows that they may not see him again for a long time. As for how the family will support itself (they sell doughnuts to help support themselves in Nicaragua), that is unknown to the outside world at this time. Perhaps the Mennonite community has a plan.

Also unknown: Whether the Nicaraguan government's sudden and surprising decision to extradite Timo Miller means that they are more likely to find and extradite Lisa and Isabella as well. My impression is that she is not presently in contact with Timo Miller's family, who originally welcomed her to Nicaragua. Lisa and Isabella "re-disappeared" within Nicaragua in 2011 when Timo Miller was arrested in Washington, DC, no doubt realizing that his testimony then would point to their location in Nicaragua. But I have little doubt that a truly motivated Nicaraguan government could find them and extradite them. It's just that Nicaragua doesn't usually do that kind of thing and isn't signatory to an international agreement requiring them to do so. But they seem to have acquired new motivation, if Timo Miller's current situation is any indication.

Meanwhile, Janet Jenkins is waiting in the wings with a civil suit against Timo Miller, Kenneth Miller, Philip Zodhiates, and Liberty University School of Law. That suit has only been put on hold while the various criminal trials of the defendants in the civil suit go forward.

The degree of determined vengeance in this case is tremendous. Federal prosecutors are operating like well-trained robots whose job is to convict, period. Janet Jenkins is obviously a woman driven by a desire for vengeance against those who dared to withhold Isabella from her or to help Lisa in any way. I doubt that her sleep is troubled by the thought that, if she had been willing to agree to short, supervised visits with Isabella years ago, Lisa and Isabella would in all probability still be living safely in the U.S., and neither of these harmless Mennonite husbands and fathers would be in prison.

We should pray for Timo Miller now along with the others tried in this outrageous case.
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Consistency has proven key for Jim Averill 70, JD73, and his wife, Pat. For 34 years, the Averills have given to the Willamette University Law Annual Fund, with 27 of those years being consecutive.

Rebecca Lerback, director of development, noted their achievement and sent them each a Willamette gift in recognition of their support. Jim placed his gift, a license plate frame, on his old Volvo, which, coincidentally, already sported a DMV-issued Willamette plate. He wrote to Lerback to let her know the frame would be worn well.

Lerback, curious about the car, asked Jim the story behind it. According to Jim, its a 25-year-old standard transmission Volvo, with more than 200,000 miles on it. In 1991, the Averills purchased it for $17,000.

We picked it up in Sweden and drove it around Scandinavia for several weeks, Jim said. It was shipped home free. We got one-and-a-half plane tickets to Sweden, a night in a fancy hotel, and a tour of the factory.

Jim said although his grandkids think he should get a new car, he likes his old one. Its a thing of value, and from his Willamette education to his trusty old Volvo, he knows what has been important in getting him where he wants to go in life.

During my time in the College of Law, there were the courteous exactitude of Professor Courtney Arthur, the sterling Paulus bar review course and the many years that Willamette led the state in passing the Oregon Bar, Jim said. Current times have their own examples of excellence.

I contribute to the College of Law and the College of Liberal Arts so that Willamettes story can continue to be told. Thus, when a person hears the name Willamette University, he will know that he has heard the name of a very special place.
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Sep 12, 2016 | By Nick

A 3D printed electronic implant that can fuse with your own brain tissue and repair damage caused by injury or illness still sounds like science fiction. But its one step closer to reality now that the VolswagenStiftung has awarded Dr Ivan Minev more than $1 million (920,000) in grant money to make it happen. Dr Minev's research could potentially hold the key to curing Alzheimers Disease, Parkinsons and a whole host of other conditions that devastate the lives of millions. It could also help people recover from head injuries that would otherwise prove fatal.

For the next five years Dr Minev will enjoy the freedom to focus on this big issue thanks to his newly acquired status as a Freitgeist Fellow. The fellowship is designed to support outstanding scientists and give them the chance to deal with scientific challenges that could change all of our futures. The Freitgeist Fellowship supports free thinkers, innovators and individuals who have the potential to drive the whole human race forward. It sounds grand, and it is, but the world needs such people to break down the barriers between theoretical concepts and concrete scientific progress.

Making a functional brain implant that can promote repair comes with a minefield of problems, so were curious to see how much progress Minev makes in just five years. We don't truly understand how the brain functions as of now, so fixing it is a bold step.

While technology of this nature is still more-or-less theoretical at present, Minev is hopeful that he can make great strides andat the very leastnarrow down the basic requirements for brain implants within the next decade. The next 5 - 10 years should give us a good idea of the road-map we need to follow in order to make it happen, said Minev. I will use soft materials and 3D printing to build functional implants for integration with the central nervous system. Implants will be designed to match the mechanical properties of brain and will emulate aspects of tissue architecture.

Minev will set up shop at Technische Universitat Dresden, in the city that recently claimed to be the European capital of 3D printing. This claim isn't entirely without merit, as the Fraunhofer Society is there, one of every two electronic chips in Europe has its roots in the city and AGENT-3D is also based there. It has certainly established itself as a European center of technical excellence, although the likes of Amsterdam, London and Paris might have something to say about the capital claim.

The 3D printing activity taking place in Dresden means that Minev has a wealth of experts on hand to help him with his research, modeling and materials. That could prove invaluable as he is stepping into the unknown in trying to create an implant that can not only stay inside the brain without causing a massive adverse reaction, but also needs to promote the repair and production of healthy tissue.

The spirit of scientific collaboration is evident everywhere in Dresden, Minev said. The city hosts the University including many research institutions with their own specific expertise. I was impressed by the idea of the Dresden Concept when I first visited. Getting the various research institutes in Dresden to work together creates a critical mass of expertise which enables interdisciplinary research. This is important for me because in the field of bioelectronics, we need input from both the physical and life sciences and engineering.

Minev might just be the ideal man for this demanding job, as he has worked extensively with neuroprosthetic implants that tackle a lot of the same issues he will now face on a more advanced level. He served as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausannes Center for Neuroprosthetics, where he worked on spinal cord implants that could help disabled patients walk again. That work involved creating materials that were both compliant and compatible with the nervous system, which is a massive challenge on its own.

When working on his PhD at the University of Cambridge, Minev studied materials and technology that could help create stretchable electronics and experimented heavily with elastomer substrates and thin metallic films that could easily have a biomedical application.

While the announcement of this fellowship is just the start for Dr Menev and his project, the fact that were even talking about advances in medical science on this scale has to be taken as encouraging news. We wish Dr Minev well and look forward to the updates.

Posted in 3D Printing Application

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Sep 12, 2016 | By Benedict

3D scanning giant FARO has introduced Freestyle3D Objects, a handheld color laser scanner for public safety forensics and product design markets. The 3D scanner is currently only available through the FARO Early Adopter program.

FARO, a Florida-based provider of 3D scanning equipment, has built a reputation for itself as one of the most reliable companies in the industry thanks to its Freestyle3D and Focus3D 3D scanners and several other 3D scanning solutions. The Lake Mary companys latest offering looks to build on the success of its existing construction BIM/CIM Freestyle3D Scanner Series while offering a handful of exciting new features that make tracking and point cloud registration faster and easier.

The FARO Freestyle3D Objects, the companys new medium-volume, handheld 3D laser scanner, has been developed with crime and crash scene investigation and reverse engineering applications in mind, but is purportedly flexible enough to be used in a broad range of 3D scanning situations. With a scan range of 0.3 to 0.8 meters and a verifiable accuracy of 0.5 mm, FARO Freestyle3D Objects is optimized for scanning mid-sized components and items.

According to FARO, its new Freestyle3D Objects 3D scanner is able to scan the geometry of its target objects into a high resolution color point cloud, making it suitable for scanning anything from industrial pump and wind generation components, molded plastic items, or the inside of a vehicle as part of a crash or crime scene investigation. Other suitable applications include archiving wood sand casting patterns, reverse engineering fiberglass components, documenting historical artifacts, and creating as-built drawings of critical infrastructure.

Working with our customers, FARO identified an unaddressed need for a scanner that provides fast, color, and detailed scan data without the frustration of constantly losing tracking, sticking external targets on the parts, or the time required to manually register the point clouds, said Joe Arezone, FARO's Chief Commercial Officer. The Freestyle3D Objects is easier to use than narrow field-of-view scanners that have high resolution but are difficult to handle as the tracking is easily lost, yet provides more detail and precision than large volume handheld scanners.

Useful features of FAROs new 3D scanner include optional on-site calibration, during which a PDF report with key data permits maximum and verifiable confidence in the acquired data can be generated, and real-time point cloud visualization, which supports the intuitive data acquisition process. The scanner also works with dedicated FARO software: once the object has been measured, the user receives the data prepared in SCENE Process 6.1, which provides a large scale meshing tool. A user can also export the data into other end user applications.

Version 6.1 of FAROs SCENE software, which processes 3D scanner-acquired point clouds into 3D meshes or models, was released last week. The software is able to generate watertight 3D meshes in various formats, such as .STL, .OBJ, .PLY, and .WRL, which can be used for 3D printing. The software is ideal for users who do not own a CAD system with native point cloud support and those with 3D-Scan-to-Print applications, such as printing historical artifacts or fabricating scaled models of complex infrastructure, the company explains.

At present, the Freestyle3D Objects 3D scanner is only available to members of the FARO Early Adopter program, which was established earlier this year to provide customers with early access to new FARO products and to give them the chance to work with FARO Labs engineers to develop future products. Freestyle3D Objects is the first handheld scanner to be released through the scheme.

FARO Freestyle3D Objects 3D scanner features:

Highest precision and ease of use for capturing of mid-sized objects

Auto leveling

Flexibility to work without artificial targets

No extra power supply required

Seamless integration with Focus3D laser scan data, even in grey scale

Worldwide service and support from local FARO facilities

Posted in 3D Scanning

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Sep 12, 2016 | By Benedict

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Strangpresse, LLC have entered into a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) to evaluate the Strangpresse Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) extruder and conduct material testing for long fiber reinforced materials.

Additive manufacturing extrusion equipment from Strangpresse

ORNL, the Department of Energys (DOE) massive research base in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is involved with all aspects of 3D printing. Today, the lab announced its latest additive manufacturing materials endeavora joint project with Strangpresse, a plastic extrusion specialist based in Youngstown, Ohio. The two parties are planning to conduct material testing for long fiber reinforced materials using a new Strangpresse extruder developed for the Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) 3D printer, a machine that ORNL is well familiar with.

As one of the largest 3D printing systems in the world, Cincinnati Incorporateds BAAM is capable of producing massive 3D printed objectsa 3D printed car, for example. Strangpresse, a startup formed in 2014, recognized BAAMs potential to 3D print massive objects, but decided that its flow rate could be improved with a new extruder. Accordingly, the company developed a new extrusion system capable of processing more than 50 kilos/hr, and has now got ORNL on board to validate the flow rate, system response time, and linearity of flow on the new system, as well as to identify processing parameters, make test articles, and qualify material properties with a specific focus on long fiber reinforced polymers.

ORNL's 3D printed Shelby Cobra, printed with the BAAM 3D printer

The joint project to be carried out under the terms of the CRADA will be divided into two key phases. Phase one will mostly concern testing the new Strangpresse BAAM extruder, starting with the coordination of system requirements between Strangpresse and ORNL. ORNL will then proceed to integrate the Strangpresse extruder into a testing system in order to fully characterize it and to validate its physical, electrical, and computational capabilities.

Phase two of the project will introduce evaluative procedures for the new 3D printing extrusion system, with ORNL selecting three long fiber reinforced thermoplastics with which to evaluate the system. Various test objects will then be 3D printed with the new extruder, with ORNL measuring the material properties of such articles. The lab will finally create a finished demonstration article, as well as a CRADA final report that will be submitted to the DOE.

Prior to the new CRADA, Strangpresse had previously worked with ORNL when it became the first company to license an ORNL suit of patents associated with large scale additive manufacturing on a non-exclusive basis. The ORNL continues to work with Strangpresse on the development of additive manufacturing technologies which make uses of these patents.

A BAAM 3D printing system. Soon to be improved?

We are very excited to be teaming up with ORNL again, said Strangpresse CEO Chuck George. The processing of long fiber reinforced polymers is a game changer for Additive Manufacturing, the Industry will no longer be comparing the strength of the part as it relates to the base thermoplastic polymer, but rather a factor related to the fiber strength.

Strangpresse has also been in contact with Lockheed Martin Space Systems regarding the provision of an advanced extruder for use in the defense giants Multi-Robotic Additive Cluster Research and Development initiative.

Posted in 3D Printer Accessories

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I.AM.Magic wrote at 9/13/2016 8:41:37 AM:50 kg per hour...better not load the wrong model, costly mistake.




by Dwight Furrow

The question of whether food preparation can be a fine art turns on two issues:

Does food have the rich assortment of meanings typical of fine art? and Does food express emotion in the same sense that music or painting does?

As I argued in American Foodie, both these questions depend on whether food can function as a complex symbol or metaphor. Food exemplifies or shows what it's trying to say via its flavors and textures, just as a painting displays its meaning in colors, lines, and brush strokes or a piece of music in its melodic/harmonic structure and timbres. As a conceptual matter these questions can be answered in the affirmative. However, the problem is that chefs must satisfy hunger, cater to taste preferences, and make a profit, and these practical constraints often limit their artistic aspirations.

Thus, when restaurants make an effort to highlight the artistic aspirations of their chefs, it is a special occasion, so I could not resist a trip to Chicago to sample the Art Menu of Rick Bayless and his chefs at his restaurant Topolobampo. Bayless is the acclaimed auteur of refined Mexican cuisine. Each summer his chefs create a tasting menu in which each dish expresses an emotion. The chefs then select works of art from the restaurant's collection of Mexican art that expresses the same emotion as each dishall explained and depicted in a helpful brochure that is given to guests who order the menu. This is a fascinating experiment in cross-modal metaphor that if successful adds another data point favoring the artistic credentials of food.

The first course on the menu, a bright, fresh interpretation of Snapper Veracruz using salmon sashimi as the fish was labeled as exuberant, an appropriate description of this dish that features the kinetic energy of olives, capers, jalapenos, and sea urchin all orchestrated to flatter the buttery slices of salmon. As an opener setting an exuberant mood, the dish was superb. But exuberance was less successful as an interpretation of the painting, Tierras by Rolando Rojas . While I get the exuberance of the figures that are depicted as if swimming in rippling tides of color, their wraith-like, ghostly presence haunts the painting suggesting death or decay. This points to a potential problem with these cross modal references. While dishes often express a simple emotion, paintings are sometimes more complex embodying conflicting often negative emotions that a dish might have trouble expressing.

The exuberant sashimi is followed by oysters poached in chile/truffle broth rimmed with sliced truffle and drizzled with creamy foie gras and caviar (pictured above). This dish exudes desire. Oysters, of course have long been a symbol of the erotic, and the voluptuous texture of this dish and the deep, carnal flavors are sensual in the extreme.

The painting Bicicletas Y Constelaciones by Enrique Flores was perfectly paired. The dark night sky is etched with finely drawn outlines of lovers in sexual embrace as if forming constellations overlooking a brightly-lit colorful scene dominated by gendered bikes absent their riders, parked on a dense bed of luscious flowers in the foreground. Where are the riders? The sky tells all. A very successful dish and reading.

Desire is then supplanted with uncertainty (as it so often is). Carne Apache, two tartares, of yellowtail and ribeye, were capped with a guajillo pepper gelatin sheet, radish, and drizzled with a Szechwan pepper/ponzu sauce. (Pictured below) Because the flavor of tartar is subtle and the flavors of citrus, Szechuan pepper and guajillo are bold it was sometimes difficult to tell if I was eating fish or meat. And of course the dish hovers between Asia and Mexico in its influences so uncertainty seems the appropriate label. There is an issue about emotion in art that this dish raises. Uncertainty is sometimes a state of mind with no emotional content. But sometimes uncertainty is a feeling state if the thing you're uncertain about matters. The issue here isn't whether the dish made me feel uncertain. It didn't. The issue is whether it expresses uncertainty. Just as a sad song need not make you feel sad, yet can still express sadness, a dish can express uncertainty by exemplifying it.

Regarding the painting, an untitled work by Rodolfo Morales, uncertainty as an emotion label is at best incomplete. The inset painting on the bottom left of the work depicts a starkly furnished, darkened, room with no inhabitants. In the upper right is an inset painting of a doorway with the feet of a prone body lying across the threshold. Is the body dead or alive? Nothing in the painting provides a clue. There is the uncertainty; the uncertainty of interpretation. But the faces that dominate the painting are stoic with a hint of sadness in the line of the eyes of the middle face. I sense loss and the necessity of endurance in this painting, none of which is captured by the label and I have no idea how to capture it in a dish.

After the strains of desire and uncertainty we are ready for a little serenity, represented by Pastured Chicken resting in a squash-blossom porridge. These flavors brought immediate memories of chicken pot pie or perhaps a thickened chicken soupvery comforting indeed. The gentleness of the soft, yielding chicken and creamy porridge was interrupted only by the spiciness of the roasted serranos that was subtle enough to remain in the background. This was not the most interesting dish on the menu but it was comforting and calming as was the painting by Filemon Santiago with which it was paired. This untitled work of earth tones bathed in soft yellow-tinged light is an evocation of the simple, wholesome foods enjoyed by peasants in a farming community. Another successful joining of visual, gustatory, and emotive metaphor.

The final savory dish, advertised as an expression of nostalgia, was braised short rib with mushroom bread pudding, resting on a puree of greens and sweet potato supported by chile-infused beef broth. I suppose whether this evokes nostalgia or not depends on your own food memories. The painting, entitled Iguana Is Eaten in this House by Roman Andrade LLaguno, and the chefs explanation of his thought process, suggest the dish should remind us of family and friends. It surely is comfort food in that it is rich, warm, soft, and filling, with earthy, familiar flavors. Yet there is something more complex going on in the painting. In the painting, all of the characters save one are women. The most prominent aspect are their intensely concentrating, parallel eyes as well as hints of female companionship if not lesbianism. The only man in the painting has offset eyes showing clear cubist influences suggesting something is not quite right with him. The iguana, although an important traditional source of food, has more symbolic import in this painting. Iguanas in fact have a third eye on the top of their head thus resonating with the eye theme that dominates the rest of the painting. And, since the latter decades of the 20th Century, iguanas have become a symbol of feminine power thanks to a photo of a Oaxacan woman carrying iguanas to the market on her head that became iconic. Although there is clearly something nostalgic about the painting it has layers of meaning that suggest some tension with an easily recoverable past. The painting troubles nostalgia, even as it expresses it.

Resonating colors are the theme of the first dessert, with the white coffee ice cream, white chocolate/coconut ganache, white yogurt foam with pour-over chocolate sauce and a splash of raspberry complementing the colors of the painting, which is entitled El Grito (The Cry). Betrayal is supposed to be the emotion here. If you are a dark chocolate purist, you may feel betrayed by the mere appearance of white chocolate, which the chef describes as the point of dish. There is good thematic continuity here; but thankfully this luscious dessert did not make me cry.

And at last a joyful dessert, called Pinata Dulce, named for its crispy meringue that must be penetrated to get at the medley of sorbets and lemon cookie with lemon verbena crema. It had surprising, explosive flavors and complex textures, although it lacked the alien, fantastical, terrifying aspect of the creature in Miguel Linares's painting Alebrijes. It was anything but joyful since it signaled the end of the meal.

Carnes Apache (two tartares)

What are we to conclude from this flavorful tour through Mexican cultural heritage? In the interpretation of art and food, it is important to distinguish how the work makes you feel from what the work expresses. A work of art can express anger without making you feel angry. A dish can express joy without making you feel joyful. Of course food (and art) makes you feel emotion as well but expression is a different matter. No doubt food can express emotion, but it isn't obvious that it has the capacity to express complex, conflicting, often negative emotions in the way some works of art do. Food must taste good and be harmonious. That makes expressing negative emotions difficult, although perhaps not impossible. There was after all conflict expressed in the Carnes Apache, the dish with the two tartars described above. What would a meal expressing anger, fear, and resentment be like?

Thus, I think we are better off thinking of food as representational, as representing (i.e. exemplifying symbolically) food traditions and cultural sensibilities. Emotional expression is part of food appreciation but is perhaps not as central as it is for music because music has a wider and deeper emotional range from which to draw. In fact I think wine does a better job of expressing conflict and negative emotions than food does although I'm open to being dissuaded of that.

At any rate, this was a thought provoking meal, and the presentation was superb. Some dishes were more successful than others but emotions are like that as wellsome hit their mark, some miss by a mile. There were no wide misses here.

Mr. Bayless and his staff are to be commended for this stimulating meal and if you are in Chicago I highly recommend a trip to Topolobampo.

For more on the aesthetics of food and wine, visit Edible Arts or consult American Foodie: Taste, Art and the Cultural Revolution.
With the arrival of Indian Summer comes a host of hot restaurant openings. Here are six new spots that have us salivating.

Nightbird's interior was designed by Scott Kester. (Courtesy of Michael David Rose Photography)

Nightbird

The long-awaited Hayes Valley restaurant from chef Kim Alter (formerly of Plum in Oakland) is finally here. The refined, 38-seat dining room offers a fresh tasting menu for $125 per person, featuring light and simple dishes such as poached lobster with lobster jus, chanterelles, hearts of palm and summer truffles and rabbit in brown butter, herbs and summer squash with roasted, pickled and raw peaches. For dessert, choose from the amazing orange consomme with Champagne sorbet, or for chocolate lovers, a cocoa nib mousse with a rich chocolate sorbet and salted pluots. If you're just in the mood for a drink, check out the Linden Room, a 7-seat bar adjacent to Nightbird with an Art Deco vibe offering craft cocktails. Whether you choose the Ralphie Boy (whiskey, peach, tarragon, cardamom and smoked egg white) or the Chrimson Hayes (brandy, beet and lemon verbena) this is your new to-go spot for pre-Symphony drinks. // 330 Gough St. (Hayes Valley), nightbirdrestaurant.com





The cresta di gallo pasta from Barzotto. (Kassie Borreson)

Barzotto



Carb lovers will be thrilled with the arrival of Barzotto, an order-at-the-counter, affordable pasta bar in the Mission's former Saint Vincent space. Lead by Chef Michelle Minori (formerly of The Ne Timeas catering group), the menu features five pastas, all made daily in house and in view of diners, including two permanent options and three rotating options. Of the permanent pastas, chooose between a spaghetti with twelve-inch noodles pecorini, parmesan cheese and black pepper or a bucatini with pancetta, tomato, chili and breadcrumbs. Barzotto also offers two saladslittle gem and Italianas well as roasted half-chicken and porchetta entrees. And remember to save room for dessert, their home-made gelato is offered in vanilla, nitro coffee, salted caramel, and dark chocolate. All pastas are $17 and under, perfect for a hearty dinner when you're in a rush. // 1270 Valencia St. (Mission), barzotto.com





The new Black Cat is perfect for date night. (Patricia Chang)

Black Cat



The Tenderloin continues to heat up with another new opening: Black Cat. Chef Ryan Cantwell (Chez Panisse, Zuni) cooks up modern American supper club cuisine such as white bean crostinis, deviled eggs, golden nugget oysters, and country pork and chicken terrine at this sexy date night spot. Of course, the menu pairs perfectly with timeless cocktails, low-alcohol punches and even housemade sodas from bar manager Gabriel Lowe. Designed by Craige Walters, the gorgeous bi-level interior in filled with dim lighting and intimate nooks, perfect for stealing a kiss between Old Fashioneds and bites. The restaurant is open for dinner nightly until 1am, with a limited bar menu until 1:30am, and cocktails until 2am. There are even plans to launch brunch soon! // 400 Eddy St. (Tenderloin), blackcatsf.com





Tartine Manufactory (Michael Short, via The Chronicle)

Tartine Manufactory

The bright and airy new Tartine Manufactory is open inside the Heath Ceramics building in the Mission, offering bread, salads, ice cream, pastries, and more. Unlike Tartine's other location, The Manufactory will bake bread three times a day (instead of only once a day), as well as offering breakfast items such as doughnuts, liege waffles. sandwiches, pastries, to-go. Lunch items includes salads, sandwiches, grain bowls and even Roman-style pizza by the slice, while happy hour bites include hot baguettes, cheese and charcuterie. Guests can order from a central counter and then grab a seat in the spacious open dining room. / 595 Alabama St. (Mission), tartinemanufactory.com





An assortment of eats from Central Kitchen including pastaa new addition to the menu. (Courtesy of Central Kitchen

Reopening of Central Kitchen

Central Kitchen has finally reopened after a lengthy renovation. Physical changes include a new bathroom, updates to the kitchen, repainting the interior and some new furniture. The menu also underwent a makeover, offering lower prices and smaller portions, in the hopes that guests will be more inclined to share dishes. Dishes will change weekly, however, you can expect to find items such as pasta, pork belly, short rib, grilled escargot and seasonal vegetables on permanent rotation. // 3000 20th St. (Mission), centralkitchensf.com





A delicious breakfast dish at Bon Nene (Courtesy of Bon Nene)

Bon, Nene

The Mission has another newcomer offering Asian-inspired, tapas-style plates such as tofu buns, miso beef lettuce wraps, pork gyoza and stuffed chicken wings paired with Japanese beers. Opened by co-owners Miu Furata and Stephanie Chan, Bon, Nene comes from the Japanese name Nenealso the name of Furata's dogand the French word "bon," meaning good. Chan, who has a background in hotel restaurants, will lead the kitchen team offering Japenese dishes made using French techniques. The're offering brunch, lunch, and dinner, but with only 35 seats, make sure to arrive early. // 2850 21st St. (Mission), bonnene.com
Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum fans, get ready for a fresh dose of "make it work" and "you're out!" catchphrases: The new class of Project Runway designers hits the small screen this week.

Season 15 of the Lifetime reality series features three new Bay Area contestants whom we'll be rooting for as they're, no doubt, tasked with making gorgeous-ness out of garbage, forced to work in dysfunctional teams, and make mad fabric dashes through Mood (hi, Swatch).





In preparation for the big premiere on Thursday, September 15, we decided to gather some intel on our talented homies by throwing a slew of fashionable questions at them. Introducing Alex Snyder, Jenni Riccetti and Dexter Simmons...in their own words.





Good luck, designers!





Bespectacled Alex Snyder chatting up his Bay Area buddy Dexter Simmons. (Courtesy Barbara Nitke for A+E Networks)

ALEX SNYDER, AGE 31

Bay Area roots

I was born in Boston. Grew up in Boca Raton, Florida, and the majority of my career was in New York City. Now, I'm settled in beautiful San Francisco. I've lived here for the last four yearscurrently, I'm living in Hayes Valley, which I love because it is central to all the places I really enjoy going to. Thank you, San Francisco for being such an incredible city!





Design school

I received my Bachelors and Masters of Fine Art at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. I also received the title of Business Scholar through the Babson College and Goldman Sachs' 10KSB Initiative (Ten Thousand Small Businesses) program in Boston. It's the best of both worlds to be trained in business and creative studies.





Design aesthetic

My design aesthetic is modern tailoring with a touch of dark, elegant whimsy. I love the ability to mix and match, and design great prints and timeless silhouettes that have a touch of edginess to them. I have always been inspired by strong confident women and have been surrounded by them my entire life. As a designer, I want women to feel beautiful and be able to make my pieces their own.





Personal style

Basic/classic. I don't wear a lot of designer clothes, and I don't want to be overwhelmed by what I'm wearing. Button-downs, v-necks, pants are usually what you'll catch me in. Also, I only wear black. As someone with ADD, color used to distract meand still does. I love designing with color, just not wearing it.





Where to buy your designs

My line [A.M.S.] is a bit newer for San Francisco, though it does sell a lot on the East Coast. We have an e-commerce shop at amsatelier.com, with the entire collection. We manufacture everything inside the atelier, so we are San Francisco-made and proud!





Why Project Runway

One night, my friends from grad school and I were talking and thought it would be fun if we all applied. It was exciting to think that we might all end up on it together. Well, I submitted on the last day, and the day after my friends all told me they forgot to submit. I guess the rest is history.





Describe the PR experience

It was way beyond what I thought it would be, in the absolute best of ways. For me someone who had a business, team/staff, and is managing all of that every dayit was so exciting to have this experience. The judges are wonderful and gracious about feedback and advice. Tim is simply incredible, and the crew was amazing. Living with strangers was horrifying at first, but the bond you leave with is incredible. The time constraints were insane, much more then I thought. But I was there to have fun, put my best foot forward and roll with the punches.





Favorites designers from seasons' past

Jay, from season one. I have always admired his vision and will never forget his runway show. Mondo, I mean, who doesn't love him? His ability to mix and match prints and textures was really inspiring to me. Also, Justin LaBlanc, who is incredibly inspiring and has an awesome design aesthetic. Uli Herzner, who I think is an amazing designer with an aesthetic I really appreciate, growing up in South Florida. Lastly, Dom Streater, who is a wizard at what she does and captivating in her execution.





Local coffee



Philz, hands down. Ether blendlarge, no milk or sugar.





Favorite/least favorite thing about SF

Favorite: The food. I could eat my way around the city. Least: The hills. Though scenic to look at, they are a constant reminder that I need to return to a gym routine.





Future plans

Grow my company and continue to showcase locally made products. Maybe take a honeymoon at one point or another. Continue to teach and inspire students. Who knows what's next? I'm really enjoying the ride I am on now. Though I would love to collaborate with tech companies and develop smart apparelmaybe some day.





Jenni Riccetti having fun (presumably) in the Project Runway workroom. (Courtesy Barbara Nitke for A+E Networks)

JENNI RICCETTI, AGE 22

Bay Area roots

I was born and raised in SF and never left! I live in the Glen Park neighborhood now.





Design school

Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM)





Design aesthetic

Clean, modern, smooth. I design for the minimalist.





Personal style

Street. Lots of gold. Distressed denim. And NUDE, NUDE, NUDE.





Go-to uniform

Some dope kicks with a monochromatic shirt-and-pant combo.





Where to buy your designs

Online at riccetticlothing.com and a consignment shop in the Mission called Artillery Apparel Gallery.





Why Project Runway

I hadn't gotten a job I hoped for, so I decided to try Project Runway. I was finally old enough!





Describe the PR experience

The experience is more then words can describe. It is one I will forever cherish.





Local shopping

Haight, Valencia, Mission, my sewing studio I make a lot of my own clothes.





Eats and drinks

Trattoria da Vittorio for some bomb-ass Italian food, Gino and Carlo in North Beach for a rocking cocktail and a great game of pool, Bernal Star for yummy brunch and Taqueria Vallarta for fresh tacoshella bomb.





Favorite thing about SF

I love the diversity and culture. I love all my local friends and the fact that my family has made a history here. This is the city my grandfather came to, all the way from Italy, to start a new life and to give future generations better opportunities.





Future plans

Build my fashion career, expand my inspiration, and never stop creating.





Whatcha looking at Oaktown designer/sewer Dexter Simmons? (Courtesy Barbara Nitke for A+E Networks)

DEXTER SIMMONS, AGE 33

Bay Area roots

I am born and raised in the Bay Area and have always called it home. Right now I live in Oakland. I have done small stints in NYC and LA.





Design school

I went to FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising).





Design aesthetic

My design aesthetic is kinda like a '90s mood ring. It just depends on how I'm feeling.





Current job

I have designed for a lot of musicians but currently I'm a designer for a technical-cashmere brand called Kit and Ace. I'm a bit of a freelance artist so I'm always designing and styling for different magazines and artists.





Where to buy your designs

I have a shirt line coming out soon at dextersimmons.com and also at Wonderland in the Mission. I'm @DexterFlawk on social media.





Personal style

Leather, T.U.K. creepers, denim, distressed, vintage. My go-to uniform is rock-n-roll meets Union Square with a dash of magic.





Why Project Runway

I didn't apply. I got an email about it, and I was in a period of my life where I was bored with work. I thought: why not? I can be a bit reclusive with mainstream fashion but it just felt right.





Describe the PR experience

It was not at all what I expected, and it's not something I can really explain. It's very stressful, but at times, very validating. One could call it an emotional roller-coaster ride.





Fashion designer heros/icons

Grace Jones and Prince come first. Adam Ant and Peaches Christ are up there. I'm a big fan of Hood by Air and Jeremy Scott.





Local shopping



I shop a lot at Wasteland, Wonderland, Painted Bird, Dolls Kill and Azalea. Neighborhoods: I love Haight Street but the Mission is still one of my favorite areas in the city. Sometimes I shop in Hayes Valley and Union Square, too.





Local coffee

Ritual coffee is just the best!





Describe SF style

SF style is too eclectic to be described without breaking down all the different social groups. It's a hub city so everyone is from everywhere. You can really wear almost anything here and that's why I have always enjoyed living here.





Least favorite thing about SF

The lack of legit fashion shows kinda kills me. When I first started fashion in SF there were more risk takers as far as magazines, ads and streetwear. I miss that.





Future plans

I'm starting to plan shows with Veronica Kerzner of Style Fashion Week, shooting with as many music artists as possible and selling my new t-shirt line.
According to news accounts, Harris, who uses American Sign Language, was shot and killed after failing to pull over during a traffic stop near Charlotte. He was pursued by a state trooper as he drove to his own neighborhood, where he then got out of his car. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is conducting a criminal inquiry into the incident and has declined to give further details.

Did the trooper not understand what Harris was saying to him, or vice versa? Investigators have not commented on whether Harris' deafness played a role, but his brother believes that if the officer had known he was deaf, things might have ended differently.

I am not deaf and not a sign language user, but I am extremely hard of hearing and I know how frightening it can be when the police pull you over and you're unsure you'll be able to understand them  or be able to make yourself understood. I also realize, thanks to my own recent traffic stop, that I made a number of common mistakes that could have gotten me into trouble.

It happened this summer as I was driving on the Massachusetts Turnpike (not speeding, I might add) when I noticed a police car behind me in the lane to my left. He stayed there for many miles before finally turning on his lights to pull me over. The turnpike is a dangerous road, so I drove on to the next exit before pulling over.

As the officer got out of his car, I should have left my hands on the steering wheel where he could clearly see them, but instead I reached up to get a visor card identifying me as a deaf driver. I also reached over to the glove compartment (a risky move, I now know) to get my registration.

I should have watched as he approached the car so I would know on which side of the car to expect him, but I was too busy reaching for things. The next thing I knew, the officer was at the passenger side window. I was already confused about why I'd been pulled over, and I was completely nonplussed to see him on that side of the car. I'm not even sure I remembered to say, "I'm very hard of hearing," which I normally do.

He ignored my offered registration and the "Driver is Deaf" visor card and said brusquely that, according to his computer, my driver's license was expired. I didn't understand what he was saying. I have a valid driver's license. But then I realized I had replaced my Massachusetts driver's license with a New York one, which is my official mailing address. I handed him the New York license. He looked it over, then grudgingly handed it back and walked away.
Laws crafted by those elected should do most good for most people

columns


Annual Report and Financial Statements

Perth, Sep 9, 2016 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Deep Yellow Limited ( ASX:DYL ) ( DYLLF:OTCMKTS ) are pleased to provide the Company's Annual Report and Financial Statements for 2016.



SUMMARY INFORMATION



CORPORATE STRATEGY



DYL's strategy is to successfully make the transition from advanced uranium explorer to developer and producer by single-mindedly focussing on advancing its Namibian projects. Specifically, DYL believes that its Tumas Project, allied to a novel yet relatively simple beneficiation process, has the potential to be Namibia's next uranium mine within the next three to four years. This is considered to be ideal timing as it would coincide with the forecast recovery in the uranium market.



HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2016 FINANCIAL YEAR



TUMAS PROJECT



- A bulk sample metallurgical testwork program, supervised by Marenica Energy Ltd ("MEY"), was conducted and completed on schedule.



- The objective of the testwork program was to confirm the amenability of Tumas ore to MEY's U-pgradeTM beneficiation process, purported to be capable of achieving high levels of uranium recovery in a low mass pull.



- The program was conducted at laboratories in Perth on two bulk samples with combined mass in excess of 1 tonne of Tumas ore generated from an excavation started in December 2015 and completed in January 2016.



- Whilst still awaiting the final report at year-end, DYL released interim results during the testwork program which were largely in line with, and in some cases even exceeded expectations.



- The results indicated that processing Tumas ore through the U-pgradeTM process had the potential to reject up to 98% of the mass whilst recovering over 82% of the uranium, which implies that the project could produce a high grade concentrate in excess of 13,000 ppm U3O8 from ore with a resource grade of some 350 ppm U3O8.



- A project incorporating the U-pgradeTM beneficiation process as an integral part of the overall flowsheet has the potential to have comparatively low capital and operating costs and an accelerated development timeline.



NAMIBIAN LICENCE APPLICATIONS



- Renewal confirmations for Exclusive Prospecting Licences (EPLs) 3496 and 3497 were received during the March 2016 quarter.



- This is the fourth renewal for these two EPLs and allows DYL to continue to progress its attractive Projects.



- The Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy declined the Mining Licence Applications lodged in 2011 for the INCA and the Tubas Red Sands Projects on economic grounds.



- Realistically this had no impact on DYL because the INCA Project has been superseded by the much larger Omahola Heap Leach Project and the Tubas Sand Project is, at current prices, clearly uneconomic.



- The Tubas Sand Project was placed on hold by the Company in 2014 specifically for economic reasons.



To view the Annual Report, please visit:

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/W8TEA079





About Deep Yellow Limited





Deep Yellow Limited (ASX:DYL) (OTCMKTS:DYLLF) (Namibian Stock Exchange:DYL) is a differentiated, advanced uranium exploration company, in predevelopment phase, implementing a contrarian strategy to grow shareholder wealth. This strategy is founded upon growing the existing uranium resources across the Company's uranium projects in Namibia and the pursuit of accretive, counter-cyclical acquisitions to build a global, geographically diverse asset portfolio. A PFS has recently been completed on its Tumas Project in Namibia and a DFS commenced February 2021. The Company's cornerstone suite of projects in Namibia is situated within a top-ranked African mining destination in a jurisdiction that has a long, well-regarded history of safely and effectively developing and regulating its considerable uranium mining industry.


Deep Yellow enters Technology Licence Agreement

Perth, Sep 12, 2016 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Advanced stage uranium explorer Deep Yellow Limited ( ASX:DYL ) ( DYLLF:OTCMKTS ) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a binding Technology Licence Agreement ("TLA") with Marenica Energy Ltd ("MEY") ( ASX:MEY ) ( MARXF:OTCMKTS ) giving it the option to use MEY's U-pgrade(TM) process on its Tumas Project located in Namibia. The agreement is the culmination of over three years of engagement with MEY and allows DYL to rapidly move into the next phase of project development, being further metallurgical testwork, a resource expansion drilling program and a fast track feasibility study program.



KEY POINTS



- Deep Yellow Ltd ("DYL") and Marenica Energy Ltd ("MEY") have executed a binding Technology Licence Agreement for the application of the U-pgrade(TM) process on the Company's Tumas Project in Namibia.



- The commercialisation agreement follows the recent conclusion of a successful metallurgical testwork program and aims to share the economic benefit of the resource/technology combination 75/25 (DYL/MEY) under various conditions.



- The testwork program demonstrated that processing Tumas ore through the U-pgrade(TM) process has the potential to reject up to 98% of the mass whilst recovering over 82% of the uranium, thus presenting the potential to dramatically reduce both capital and operating costs and enabling it to be developed at a lower uranium incentive price.



- The companies are already in an advanced stage of planning a fast track feasibility study which would include metallurgical variability testwork and a resource expansion drilling program.



The TLA aims to share the economic benefit of the combination of the resource and technology in a ratio of 75/25 (DYL/ MEY) and comprises initially a series of lump sum payments and then ongoing fees once the U-pgradeTM plant has met specific performance indicators. The ongoing fee varies with sales price and is nominal if uranium is sold at a price below US$50/lb and is capped at US$4.80/lb if the uranium price received exceeds US$80/lb. As an example, the fee will be US$2.60/lb at US$60/lb.



"We have been carefully managing numerous parallel elements in regard to the Tumas Project and have long been confident that those efforts would soon be rewarded" DYL's Managing Director Greg Cochran said. "This landmark agreement giving us access to the U-pgrade(TM) process will enable us to accelerate the Project's development leveraging off the potential to capture significant cost benefits as a result of the application of this technology."



Key Terms of the TLA



- The agreement gives DYL the option to use MEY's U-pgrade(TM) process in a plant sourcing ore from any of the Company's Namibian EPLs, giving it full operational flexibility;



- The focus will be on the delivery of the relatively advanced Tumas Project;



- DYL will make three lump sum payments which are back-loaded and triggered on the delivery of specific project outcomes during the feasibility, development and commissioning phases;



- Ongoing Licence Fees (which are considered fair for both parties) range from 2% to 6% of price received resulting in a 75/25 (DYL/MEY) sharing of the Tumas Project's NPV;



- The plant must achieve specific performance indicators and there is a detailed and prescriptive process in order for MEY to receive its Licence Fees;



- MEY personnel will be an integral part of the Tumas project development team;



- DYL will fund all project development expenditure including costs associated with U-pgrade(TM) testwork.



The Tumas Project



The Tumas palaeochannel straddles the Company's two wholly owned EPLs (3496 and 3497 - See Figures 1 and 2 in link below) and is divided into three zones. The Tumas deposit has a current 2004 JORC Compliant Resource of 14.8Mt at 366 ppm U3O8 for 11.9 Mlbs U3O8 (see Appendix 1 in link below for JORC Resource and Competent Persons' Statement). However, the palaeochannels have extensive upside potential as demonstrated by DYL's recent exploration success. (See ASX release dated 16 July 2015 titled "Enhanced Palaeochannel Prospectivity" for more information.)



An infill drilling program completed within Zone 1 of the Tumas resource at the end of 2014 and a sophisticated geophysical modelling exercise in 2015 provided confidence in the Tumas deposit and its extended palaeochannel. This enabled the decision to proceed with MEY and with the first phase metallurgical testwork program. Bulk samples were excavated from the infill drilling area in December 2015 and January 2016 and sent to Perth for this purpose.



The metallurgical testwork program was successfully completed on time at the end of June 2016 and the final report has been received from Marenica and is being reviewed. The final results reflect and reinforce the interim results achieved (see DYL ASX releases dated 20 May, 31 May and 1 July 2016) which gave DYL the confidence to finalise the TLA.



The interim results determined that more than 95% of the carbonate minerals could be removed with a loss of less than 5% of the uranium whilst the de-sliming step rejected ~27% of the mass as fine particulate material. These results demonstrated that the critical carbonate and de-slime removal steps of the U-pgrade(TM) process work on the Tumas samples provided and that use of the process would enable a significant reduction in the mass being handled with a minor loss of uranium, allowing the upgrading of uranium into a low mass concentrate.



In fact the results indicated that a concentrate containing less than 3% of the ore feed mass grading greater than 13,000 ppm U3O8 and containing greater than 82% of the uranium can be generated from the Tumas samples by MEY's U-pgrade(TM) process.



This presents two project options for Tumas - the final concentrate produced by U-pgrade(TM) could be processed on site using conventional acid leaching and refining technology to produce yellowcake. Alternatively the concentrate produced could be safely and cost-effectively transported to a third party for final processing (see Figure 3 in link below).



Marenica U-pgrade(TM) Technology



After extensive testwork (especially on Namibian calcretes) MEY's U-pgrade(TM) technology has been shown to improve the processing properties of surficial calcrete uranium ores. Both MEY and DYL believe that this improvement has the potential to dramatically reduce the capital and operating cost for processing these types of ores. (Figure 3 shows the various steps and the effectiveness of the technology's application.)



Next Steps



DYL and MEY have been working together and are already well advanced in planning the next stages of the Tumas Project. The final results of the Metallurgical Testwork Program and a Tumas Resource Update will be released shortly as well as a detailed Project Schedule. The Project Schedule will consider all activities up to and including the completion of a definitive feasibility study and is likely to include:



- A phased 600 metre triple tube geological and metallurgical diamond drilling program (HQ and PQ diameter) is being planned which will inform and generate core for the second phase metallurgical testwork program.



- An extensive metallurgical variability testwork program once again conducted under the supervision of MEY at Perth-based laboratories.



- An accelerated prefeasibility study conducted in parallel with the metallurgical testwork program.



- Updating the Scoping SEIA Report which was completed and submitted to the Namibian Ministry of the Environment and Tourism in 2013.



- A resource expansion drilling program and concomitant resource update/s.



- A pilot plant test program (only if required) and a definitive feasibility study.



As a result of the work already completed and assuming that similar results are achieved in the next phase of metallurgical testwork DYL is now confident that the Tumas Project is ideally positioned to become Namibia's next uranium mine.



DYL and MEY are looking forward with great optimism to making this a reality.



To view tables and figures, please visit:

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/U5IK7IV7





About Deep Yellow Limited





Deep Yellow Limited (ASX:DYL) (OTCMKTS:DYLLF) (Namibian Stock Exchange:DYL) is a differentiated, advanced uranium exploration company, in predevelopment phase, implementing a contrarian strategy to grow shareholder wealth. This strategy is founded upon growing the existing uranium resources across the Company's uranium projects in Namibia and the pursuit of accretive, counter-cyclical acquisitions to build a global, geographically diverse asset portfolio. A PFS has recently been completed on its Tumas Project in Namibia and a DFS commenced February 2021. The Company's cornerstone suite of projects in Namibia is situated within a top-ranked African mining destination in a jurisdiction that has a long, well-regarded history of safely and effectively developing and regulating its considerable uranium mining industry.


Media Interview with Charles Murphy

Perth, Sep 12, 2016 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Strategic Elements Ltd ( ASX:SOR ) is pleased to attach a copy of a Media Interview with Managing Director, Charles Murphy, conducted by Proactive Investors.



Strategic Elements Ltd's Charles Murphy talks technology in Proactive Q&A Sessions(TM)

Strategic Elements Ltd is well-funded with circa $7 million in cash, and no debt, with a focus on advancing its investment in the technology and resource sectors.



Strategic, and the University of New South Wales (UNSW), have delivered another breakthrough in advancing its memory technology.



To tell us more, Charles Murphy, managing director, exclusively joins Proactive Q&A Sessions(TM).



PROACTIVE INVESTORS: Welcome Charles.



First of all, can you outline the latest technology advancement in the field of memory technology?



Charles Murphy: The team have previously developed a transparent prototype that functioned on glass at extremely high levels of endurance. They have also shown the ability to inkjet print the memory ink (printable,) and that Nanocube Ink memory cells can retain data for at least 10 years (high retention) and operate at low voltage.



However, this is the very first time we have been able to demonstrate the potential of a flexible memory ink to be used in flexible electronic devices. Of critical importance is that the memory cells were very reliable.



It is a breakthrough in development that opens up additional, very large global market potential in flexible electronics.



It has already attracted interest from our potential development partners. We hope to be in a position to announce something in the immediate term.



When will the next testing be done, and how soon could the next prototype be available?



Charles Murphy: The rate of development has been spectacular for such a revolutionary technology. However, we have recently added to the team to increase the pace.



We are currently focused on doing the specific type of work that potential development partners may want to see. We will update the market on this in the very near term.



What could be some of the real world applications?



Charles Murphy: Memory is so important for new applications. These include:



- Wearable, flexible electronics



- smart glass in homes and offices



- flexible sensors



- mobile healthcare monitoring systems



- Flexible phones and other devices.



Who then would be the end users, and can you outline a potential market size?



Charles Murphy: The printed electronics market is forecast to be approx. USD 70.4 Billion by 2024.



However, this is only the beginning as being able to add real intelligence to places (windows, plastic) that have never had them before will spur innovation in new products that don't exist today.



Memory is THE key component in electronics. So end users are potentially anyone who uses an electronic device.



How does SOR protect its intellectual property over this technology?



Charles Murphy: Constant development and lodgement of IP to protect all aspects of the technology and engaging leading patent attorneys in the field.



What is the next phase for the company with memory technology, and who do you envisage working with?



Charles Murphy: We have been working very hard to partner up with world leaders in the industry.



We have said in our last few announcements that we are in discussions with potential development partners.



We can't say anything more at this stage, but expect to be able to do so very soon.



Finally, why should an investor consider adding SOR to their portfolio?



Charles Murphy: We like to back things that are a little different to the norm and have potential for very large scale upside at SOR.



Our projects are high risk-high reward. We like that space as there is the potential for large sudden gains.



Significantly, investors can also enjoy capital gains on their ASX shares tax free as we operate under a special government program.



About Strategic Elements Ltd





Strategic Elements (ASX:SOR) shares are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange under the code SOR. The Company is registered under the Pooled Development Program run by the Australian Federal Government to encourage investment into SMEs. To assist Pooled Development Funds to invest and raise capital, the Federal Government enables most shareholders in a Pooled Development Fund to make capital gains and receive dividends tax-free.
Top 100 accounting and business consulting firm Rea & Associates announced on Monday that the firm was recognized with the 2016Association for Accounting Marketing's (AAM)"We AAM to Serve"award for medium-sized firms due to their philanthropic efforts.

"We AAM to Serve" is an annual contest that seeks to recognize firms who make significant and creative charity. Judges consider the total number of hours donated per calendar year, type of involvement, creativity, and overall philanthropic story.

Rea & Associates was recognized for the more than 6,000 hours the firm volunteered last year to approximately 200 local nonprofit organizations, including, but not limited to, the American Heart Association, Junior Achievement, YMCA, Goodwill, Share-A-Christmas, and the United Way. Notably, the firm's "Help Can Hunger" food drive garnered over 29,000 pounds for local Ohio food pantries.

Jackson, Miss. firm Haddox Reid Eubank Betts and Horne CPAs and Business Advisors were awarded the "We AAM to Serve" awards for small and large firms, respectively.

Watch Rea & Associates "We AAM to Serve" submission below. For more on AAM's "We AAM to Serve" awards, head to the Association'ssite here.
Eddie Antar, the founder of the electronics chain Crazy Eddie, which collapsed amid accusations of accounting fraud, has died at the age of 68.

Antar founded the stores in 1969 in Brooklyn, according to The New York Times, and built it into a chain of 43 stores across the Northeast. The chains TV and radio commercials were legendary, with pitchman Jerry Carroll typically ending them with the declaration, Crazy Eddie, his prices are insane!

The company went public in 1984, but after a group of dissident stockholders took control of the company in 1987, they learned that $45 million of merchandise was missing. Antar and his relatives had been faking inventory at the company, sometimes by stacking empty boxes in the warehouse to fool the auditors, while stashing millions of dollars in their homes and offshore in Israel and Switzerland.

After discovering the scheme, federal prosecutors accused him and two of his brothers of stealing from the company, and Antar fled to Israel in 1990. He was arrested in 1992 and pled guilty to one count of racketeering, ultimately spending almost seven years in jail. The companys CFO, Antars cousin Sam, pled guilty to fraud and testified in court about the scheme. Sam Antar later became a popular speaker at conferences about accounting fraud (see Crazy Eddies Cousin Sam Sees Greater Potential for Fraud).

After his release from prison, Eddie Antar tried to relaunch Crazy Eddie as an Internet retailer in 2001, but the company proved unsuccessful.
(Bloomberg) Even at 91, former American International Group Inc. Chairman Maurice Hank Greenberg isnt ready to quit fighting.

Greenberg scrapped with regulators and the Internal Revenue Service and beat the federal government in what some called a no-chance suit. Now, hes set to march into state court in Manhattan to fight an 11-year-old lawsuit accusing him of using sham transactions at AIG to hide the companys financial troubles from shareholders. Opening statements are scheduled for Tuesday.

The World War II veteran has stubbornly refused to settle, seeing the trial as an opportunity to redeem himself, more than a decade after he was pressured to resign from the company that he built, over almost 40 years, into the worlds biggest insurer.

He needs the vindication of this trial now, Peter J. Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit who has followed the case, said in an interview. He doesnt need the aggravation but I think he is looking for some measure of vindication, that he should have been left in charge of AIG.

Greenberg saw his reputation challenged as AIG settled regulatory probes following his departure in 2005, and then again as the company almost collapsed in the 2008 financial crisis from losses on derivatives.

The insurer was wrong to resolve the legal cases and risk management at AIG faltered under his successors, Greenberg has said. He and other AIG executives had agreed in 2009 to pay $115 million to settle shareholder lawsuits and $15 million to resolve a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission suit. There were no admissions of wrongdoing in the settlements.

Those settlements should have ended the New York lawsuit over two re-insurance transactions, Greenberg said. They didnt, although the state abandoned some of the claims in the May 2005 lawsuit filed by then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

The state is no longer seeking damages to compensate shareholders. It now wants to bar Greenberg and former AIG Chief Financial Officer Howard Smith from serving as officers or directors of public companies and force them to give up more than $55 million that they received in bonuses.

No Proof

Greenberg and Smith have argued the attorney general cant prove that either transaction was improperly accounted for, that the defendants knew of any alleged impropriety or that the two deals were material to AIG.

"This is a selective, discriminatory, politically motivated suit against Hank Greenberg," said David Boies, Greenbergs lawyer.

The lawsuit has survived three state attorneys general, numerous appeals and unsuccessful attempts to remove the judge for alleged bias. The case will be decided by the judge, not a jury. Greenberg late last month asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the June decision by New Yorks top court allowing the case to proceed, arguing that the states claims are preempted by federal securities laws because they dont require proof that the defendants intended to commit fraud.

For years, Mr. Greenberg has financed a relentless campaign to dodge accountability for his alleged half a billion dollar fraud, Eric Soufer, a spokesman for New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, said in a statement. Mr. Greenberg will now face the same justice system as anyone else. We look forward to proving our claims in open court.

Greenberg to Testify

The states lawyers plan to call Greenberg to testify in the civil suit, according to court papers.

For him its a very personal battlehes trying to preserve his legacy, said Anthony Sabino, a business professor at St. Johns University School of Law in New York who has also followed the lawsuit. An unintended consequence is hes trying to teach a lesson that private industry should be left alone, government intervention doesnt work and sometimes government prosecutions can take on a life of their own and come out to a meaningless end.

Greenberg still oversees an insurance operation through closely held Starr International Co., which provides coverage for the aviation, construction and energy industries. Hes not on the boards of any publicly traded companies, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Soon after Greenberg stepped down as AIGs CEO, company officials said one of its transactions was improper, restated earnings by $3.4 billion and paid $1.6 billion to settle claims by regulators. AIG didnt admit or deny any wrongdoing.

Martin Act

Greenberg and Smith were then sued by Spitzer under the Martin Act, an almost century-old law that gives New York prosecutors wide powers to probe white-collar crime. Spitzer was retaliating because the former chairman had accused him of overreach in prosecutions, Greenberg claimed after the suit was filed.

The lawsuit stems from two reinsurance transactions: a deal with Berkshire Hathaway Inc.s General Reinsurance Corp. used to reverse a decline in loss reserves at AIG, and an agreement with CAPCO Reinsurance Co. Four former Gen Re executives and one from AIG were convicted of accounting fraud charges in 2008 but won reversals in 2011. Federal prosecutors agreed to drop the charges in 2012 under deferred-prosecution agreements after the former executives admitted aspects of the Gen Re deal were fraudulent.

Long Odds

Meanwhile, Greenberg sued the U.S. government over the 2008 bailout of AIG, claiming the companys equity was wrongfully taken. Initially, Credit Suisse Group AG analysts put his chances of winning at 1 in 10.

Instead, after Boies hauled Ben Bernanke, Henry Paulson and Timothy Geithner to the witness stand, the trial finished with a ruling in Greenbergs favor.

Still, his Starr International is appealing. Although the judge found the bailout was illegal, he didnt award the $40 billion in damages that Greenberg had sought. The court said he wasnt entitled to compensation because, if not for the rescue, AIG likely would have filed for bankruptcy.

In an interview with Bloomberg last year, just after his 90th birthday, Greenberg was asked if hes mellowed with age. He called for an end to the interview.
As part of this year's Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting report, we asked all the candidates: "What has you most excited about the future of accounting?" All of their answers are given in full below.

What isn't exciting about the future of accounting? There are clients who are more engaged than ever and looking for collaboration and advisory services from their accounting professionals. This is a tremendous opportunity for professionals to harness the power of technology and to support customer and client needs.

The increasingly complex global economy relies on the expertise of accounting professionals and it is exciting for us to constantly innovate to provide the best possible tools for our customers so that they can deliver value to their clients.

Karen Abramson, CEO, Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting

I am particularly excited about globalization, not only in the accounting profession, but also across our middle-market client base. Last year we changed our name to RSM US LLP, uniting with more than 120 firms around the world under the common brand -- RSM. Our goal was to better demonstrate to clients the strength and broad reach of our global capabilities, and I think it has been successful so far.

In addition to creating energy among clients and in the marketplace, the RSM global brand has really energized our people. We have more and more individuals traveling overseas to serve clients and taking longer-term secondment and expatriate assignments. I, personally, am spending much more of my time engaged in international activities as well.

Our professionals helped us draft our purpose statement -- committed to guiding clients through their business challenges. The complexities of international business add excitement to our work, provide great opportunities to give guidance to clients and are particularly appealing to the younger generation of professionals whose engagement, energy and enthusiasm are so critical to the future of the accounting profession.

Joe Adams, Managing partner and CEO, RSM US

I think that with the changing of the guard, we will see new leadership embrace significant changes in the way that firms are organized and operated. People models and expectations will change (for the better) as much of the traditional tax season work disappears to automation and we can focus on actually providing services that the client wants.

Gary Adamson, President, Adamson Advisory

The new (and soon to be new) partners in accounting firms all across North America. I have worked with and know hundreds of them and am so impressed with their intelligence, discipline, drive, and courage. They are finding their voice in firms all across our profession and are becoming catalysts for change and innovation within their respective firms. They are way more impressive than I was when I became a new partner in 1991.

Sam Allred, Director, Upstream Academy

I am seeing more firms of all sizes acquiring consulting and advisory companies that complement their traditional accounting and tax services to provide integrated solutions services to their clients. In addition, firm leaders are beginning to invest more in leadership development, which in the long run will help the current succession planning problem. Finally, accounting offers individuals the opportunity to be entrepreneurs, create wealth for themselves and for their clients, and to grow professionally.

August Aquila, President and CEO, Aquila Global Advisors LLC

CPAs are seen as one of the most trusted advisors a business owner or individual can have. In order to maintain this position, accountants have to always stay on top of the latest news and best practices, and find creative ways to continue to be seen as an integral part of their clients' professional lives.

Rather than see this as a challenge, I see it as an opportunity. We must diversify our intellectual ability and our skill sets to be able to keep pace with changing client demands.

Antonio Argiz, Chairman and CEO, MBAF

I think that technology and the information age are breaking down the barriers to enter the profession in a beautiful way. More and more people who don't even have an accounting degree will be able to learn the foundations of accounting, how to serve clients, how to grow their firm and much more from online courses, trainings, and communities. Accounting is an exciting and exhilarating profession that is becoming easier and easier to enter due to improvements in technology and the availability of information and training in the new economy.

Andrew Argue, CEO and Founder, The Argue Co.

I am very excited about the expanding technology capabilities available to firms. The cloud is truly changing how firms can provide historical compliance services. At the same time, it's transforming how firms can deliver outsourced client accounting, one of the highest growth areas in firms today.

Erik Asgeirsson, CEO, CPA.com

After what has felt like three years of pushing the Indiana Jones-sized boulder uphill, it seems that we've reached the tipping point and are now reaping the rewards of what we've been sewing. There is no greater career joy for me than to look back on the path I've just come down and see my partners making huge strides toward bringing their practice online, transitioning to fixed and value-priced models, and truly becoming their clients' most trusted advisors.

Intuit specifically has seen explosive growth out of the QuickBooks Online platform over the past two years. Historically, it took seven years to get the first 100,000 clients on QBO, and less than three months to get the last 100,000 subscribers as we approached 1 million customers worldwide (which we hit in June 2015). Over the past year, our Accountant Segment of Intuit's Small Business Group is the fastest growing segment at the company, and we've played a huge part in QBO soaring to over 1 million clients in the US, and over 1.4 million worldwide as of April 2016.

Kim Austin, Business development manager, Intuit

Accountants are embracing technology in their practices more today than they were even five years ago. This trend will almost certainly continue into the future. This is exciting because the adoption of technology is critical to making sure that accountants stay ahead of software, like Turbotax, that is trying to take away work that accountants can do better, and will always do better, than do-it-yourself software solutions.

Kurt Averell, Founder and CEO, Canopy Tax

Blockchain technology. Even though it was not invented by the accounting profession, it is destined to transform and disrupt how and what accountants do, while adding more value to society.

The Economist labeled Blockchain "The Trust Machine" -- trust the math, not the people ("in math we trust"). George Gilder thinks blockchain is the eighth layer of the Internet -- a trust and transactions layer. Don and Alex Tapscott call it "The Trust Protocol," in their book, "Blockchain Revolution." Other labels include, the World Wide Ledger of value, and a public (distributed) ledger, or distributed (decentralized) database.

Either way, blockchain is a meta-technology -- that is, it affects other technologies. It is not a process improvement technology -- it is a disruptive technology. Similar to any ledger, it could track anything to do with the following (ATOMIC): assets, trust, ownership, money, identity, contracts.

Will blockchain technology lead to triple-entry accounting? Organizations could easily add a third entry to the World Wide Ledger, instantly accessible to those who need to see it -- the company's shareholders, auditors, regulators, etc.

How disruptive will this be to the CPA profession? Auditing is a multibillion-dollar industry controlled by four massive audit firms. According to the book "Blockchain Revolution:" "Traditional accounting practices will not survive the velocity and complexity of modern finance. New accounting methods using blockchain's distributed ledger will make audit and financial reporting transparent and occur in real time."

"Accountants are like mushrooms -- they're kept in the dark and fed shit," said Tom Mornini, CEO of Subledger, a start-up targeting the accounting industry.

If every transaction is recorded in a globally distributed ledger, who will need public accountancies to translate for us? Deloitte & Touche now has 100 people in its cryptocurrency group, spread out in 12 countries. Eric Piscini, who heads up the Deloitte cryptocurrency center, tells clients that the blockchain is "a big risk for your own business model because now the business of banking is to manage risk."

But auditing itself is ripe for disruption. As Piscini said, "Today we spend a lot of time auditing companies, and we charge fees accordingly. Tomorrow, if that process is completely streamlined because there is a time stamp in the blockchain, that changes the way we audit companies."

Or perhaps eliminates the audit function altogether?

Deloitte has developed a solution called PermaRec (for Permanent Record) whereby "Deloitte would record those transactions into the blockchain and would then be able to audit one of the two partners, or both of them, very quickly, because that transaction is recorded."

Will investors demand triple-entry accounting to meet corporate governance standards? After all, Piscini argues, "Who is going to invest in a company that shows you what's going on quarterly, compared to one that shows you what's going on all the time?"

Is blockchain the beginning of the end for auditors and bookkeepers? There's a Chinese proverb that teaches: "When the wind of change blows, some people build walls, others build windmills." Time will tell whether the accounting profession embraces blockchain, or engages in a futile attempt to keep this elegant technology from disrupting its sclerotic business model.

Ron Baker, Founder, VeraSage Institute

Given the world we live in today -- one of rapid technological changes enabling the processing of massive amounts of data -- we have the opportunity to re-invent the profession. Much of the activity we currently perform will be automated in the future. Some studies claim that only half the skills employees use today will be needed in 2020. It sounds threatening but at the same time, it's our opportunity to be what we really want to be -- business advisors for our clients, and to be more relevant to them.

If we embrace the technology available today and that which we can see just over the horizon, we'll be performing at an even more rewarding level. We'll be driving business growth, rather than measuring it after the fact. Further, while this is all occurring we're also training the future leaders of the profession and serving a new breed of client. The inevitable changes in leadership caused by the aging of the profession as well as shifts in client and staff demographics that are more technologically demanding and sophisticated than prior generations is exhilarating.

The client of today expects professionals who serve them to be expert in the digital world (just as they are) and have tools that can enhance their businesses and not simply report on historical information. After all, clients feel they can easily do that on their own. Financial reporting and after-the-fact analytics are table stakes today. What younger clients look for are professionals who can provide them with up-to-the-minute information and data analytics on what impacts their businesses. They want guidance and advice that steers them in the right direction to enhance their position and accelerate their growth. And they expect this information to be available whenever and wherever they need it. The good news -- what excites me about the profession -- is that we have this at our fingertips.

Today, we can connect with these clients through a collaborative portal that's accessible 24/7. We can see their data simultaneously through the use of the cloud and provide proactive guidance and analytics to drive their business growth. We can use workflow tools that truly drive efficiency and allow us to serve clients in a cutting-edge fashion. We have automated research and content that can easily be communicated to our clients, and with the simple movement of a mouse we can advise large and small clients on international expansion. We have sophisticated marketing tools and techniques to drive new client growth in a mobile world. As a result of converging technological changes, we're more mobile, as evidenced by hardware device sales. Excluding the IOT (Internet of Things) market, 92 percent of device sales today are mobile, while desktop PCs are now only 8 percent.

It's very exciting to be part of the accounting profession today. In spite of the challenges we face, the profession is needed by its clients more than ever before. It is developing new, diverse leadership, and we have tools that are up to the task of serving our clients at a much higher level. We are at a time where we can re-invent the profession. What a great place to be.

Jon Baron, Managing director, Professional Segment, Thomson Reuters Tax & Accounting

What has me most excited may be what others most fear: that the profession is on the cusp of revolutionary change. The intersection of technology and generational shifts is dramatically redefining this profession. We are seeing the first digital natives enter the workforce -- a generation for whom technology isn't just a tool for them to streamline workflows as it was for the Baby Boomer generation. Instead, it's a completely integrated part of their lives -- the next generation sees the world through a digital lens. The potential for these tools remains in its infancy; it will take the next generation to fully integrate technology into the business world. We see a little of this now, with young professionals launching virtual firms and new lines of business; but once these junior accountants in larger firms are promoted into managerial roles, we will really start to see innovation. Not until then will we see the United States embrace integrated reporting on a large-scale basis.

Joanne Barry, Executive director and CEO, NYSSCPA

The complexity of changing business models will require evolved expertise on a global and industry scale that will make our profession more valued than it is today. As the profession adopts new tools based on technological advances and access to better data, the work we do will be valued and appreciated at a higher level by the organizations we serve. We have an opportunity to provide even deeper impact and value to the public and organizations we serve.

Brian Becker, Partner, technology, and managing consulting national leader, RSM US

Accountants have more options than ever to network, learn, and manage their careers.

We used to be limited by our peer group and geography. Not everyone was lucky enough to find a mentor to teach them how to manage their career, and live near great jobs. Today high performers can teach themselves, network with hiring managers across the country, and find the best roles for them.

A CPA in Iowa can connect with a recruiter in Texas, practice interviewing online, get hired and work remotely with cheap and easy to use software tools. This wasn't possible just 10 years ago.

Bob Berchtold, Founder, CPA Talent

I am most excited about all of this change and the fact that I and every new accountant can focus on "advisory services" and helping clients be more profitable, liquid, and solvent. We can focus on educating them on what they need to do to be successful in their endeavors. Compliance work will be automated so our time can be better spent in discussion on what keeps them up at night and how we can use technology to project, plan and analyze. Technology also levels the playing field so that solo practitioners can compete more effectively with larger firms as online networks and alliances are formed by these smaller players to give them niche experts to collaborate via the Internet.

David Bergstein, Evangelist, Accountant Segment, Intuit

Until now, major corporations have used technology to penetrate deep into accountants' core services (tax, accounting and payroll). Cloud technology has the potential to help accountants reclaim lost ground, better serve their clients and restore their relevance. That's the most exciting thing about the future of accounting, and that's what has motivated AccountantsWorld to use the cloud to offer accountants remarkable capabilities to revamp their practices.

Chandra Bhansali, CEO, AccountantsWorld

There's no question that cloud technology has made it possible for accountants to revamp their practices, and regain relevance. The implications of the cloud are enormous. Unlike PC technology, where the impact was to help increase productivity, cloud technology has the potential to impact every aspect of running an accounting practice, from hiring, purchasing, marketing, performing client engagements, client interaction and staff management. The only challenge is that most accountants are only reaping a fraction of the benefits the cloud has to offer.

Cloud solutions not only make accounting practices more efficient, they also offer accountants the ability to monitor their clients' fiscal health in real-time, right from their office or anywhere else. This capability helps clients avoid potential problems by quickly taking corrective action.

Sharada Bhansali, Executive vice president and co-founder, AccountantsWorld

The rapid advancement of the use of technology is adding a new dimension to accounting and certainly creates excitement about the future of accounting. The increased use, and reliance on, data analytics is an example of the advancement. In a world of self-driving cars, computer-assisted surgeries and procedures, and new, smart computers, the use of technology to improve the accuracy and precision of accounting and auditing only makes sense. I expect to see continuous growth in how technology and data analytics is used to enhance quality, particularly in audits.

Ken Bishop, President and CEO, NASBA

The increasing realization by professionals aged 25-40 that the value of their expertise lies in the outcomes created for clients, rather than the delivery of professional services in and of themselves.

Martin Bissett, Founder, The Upward Spiral Partnership

We now have a real opportunity to run a firm like an entrepreneur. We can take risks, price higher, and offer new and valuable services that earlier practitioners didn't have the opportunity to offer.

Jason Blumer, Founder and CEO, Thriveal Network

The profession has so many opportunities to "re-shape" itself to maintain the historical role as trusted advisor. Will the grassroots support the profession leadership to make the investments required?

Gary Bolinger, President and CEO, Indiana CPA Society

The opportunity to work in a global and exponentially growing marketing. The challenge is most of us were trained to think linear and local. The CGMA is a positive step towards skating to where the puck will be, rather than where it has been.

Gary Boomer, Founder, visionary and strategist, Boomer Consulting

Watching leading firms transform their business models from simply compliance/transactional services to a more advisory model. Cloud and mobile technology has been the enabler of this shift. As firms adopt collaborative, cloud-based tools, hire diverse skill-sets and adapt their business models, they are in perfect position to act as clients' most trusted business partners.

Jim Boomer, CEO and shareholder, Boomer Consulting Inc.

The pace of change. I enjoy the challenges brought on by change and I am ready to change and adapt to the new marketplace. I believe that firms that deploy and know how to use the best technology will be the most profitable and most successful.

Jim Bourke, Partner, WithumSmith+Brown

The need for CPAs to be true advisors makes me excited about the future of accounting. This is an opportunity for CPAs to look forward and take advantage of the trust that clients place in them, rather than looking backward and reporting history. One way to do this is to specialize and focus on niche and service specialties. CPAs should utilize their expertise and thought leadership to attract and retain clients who need specific industry-related advice.

Jean Marie Caragher, President of Capstone Marketing

The most exciting development for CPA firms today is the opportunity to play a vastly expanded role in serving their clients, moving from work with a large compliance focus to value-added services in exciting new areas such as cyber security, privacy, transaction assistance, human resources, IT services, business strategy and process improvement.

Technology has played a significant role in creating these opportunities as well as in automating much of compliance work to free up professional time to help clients in new ways.

For years, firms have aspired to be the single point-of-contact that clients go to first for help in addressing their business issues. More than ever before, expanded service opportunities are making this aspiration possible.

Carolyn Carlson, President, StangerCarlson

Tax reform.

Paul Caron, Publisher and editor-in-chief, TaxProf Blog

I believe the future of the accounting profession has never been brighter. So much opportunity exists for the practitioners that embrace change. Technology will continue to automate transactional functions, pushing practitioners to offer higher-value strategic services, which will have an increasingly positive impact on the CPA client relationship.

Michael Cerami, Vice president of business development and corporate strategy, CPA.com

The opportunities for those who choose accounting as a profession have never been greater. To stay relevant, professional accountants must broaden their skills and competencies well beyond traditional areas, so they can better communicate, collaborate, and provide insight and strategic direction to their stakeholders. The business issues that accountants are involved in are at the forefront of strategy and risk, which brings extraordinary opportunity for members of the profession to have a meaningful impact on organizations, the public good, and economies.

Richard Chambers, President and CEO, IIA

Two distinct themes:

The first is the continuous thinking that takes place to ensure that the profession remains relevant and adds value. As we all know, technology is the Big Issue, changing the world apace and the profession's response to both the opportunities and the challenges is a testament to its creativity and business savvy. But the thinking extends to promoting the public interest and shaping areas where the profession's involvement is key, such as greater involvement in the management of public finances and new ways of reporting, beyond just the numbers, of how entities create and sustain value.

The second is the emergence of the profession in developing countries, and seeing up-close how important the profession is to nation-building. It's been a privilege to visit many countries in which the profession is building, or rebuilding, in tandem with the economies they serve. The passion and professionalism accountants display in these countries, even when operating in exceptionally difficult circumstances, is unwavering -- as is their dedication to the public interest, transparency and accountability.

Fayezul Choudhury, CEO, IFAC

The U.S. has decided to stake out its own future in standard-setting instead of trying to converge with the IASB in places where it might not always make sense. I think it's fine that we are aware of their directions and try to avoid pointless differences -- but I think we also have to be responsive to the needs of investors here in the U.S. We lost a lot of time on convergence, and I'm glad we're getting back on track.

Jack Ciesielski, Publisher, The Analyst's Accounting Observer

You'll not be surprised that I'm most excited about new technology for CPAs! Technology creates tremendous opportunities for accounting professionals to offer better controls, deeper insights, and improved efficiencies. The combination of those skill sets is going to be essential going forward. Those practitioners who are ready to embrace the latest technologies/new operating paradigm are going to be poised to bring tremendous value to their organizations and their clients.

David Cieslak, Principal, Arxis Technology

Millennials and the change they are forcing in the industry are very exciting. With so many Boomers leaving the industry, the industry is being forced to look at new ways to do business. Technology has become increasingly important not only as a means of gaining efficiency but a way to communicate and gain new business. The firm of the future has to be nimble and adaptable. It has to listen to its client base, which is changing, as well as its employees. The industry has to adapt to this changing business model, which requires a different way of doing business. Firms may no longer be able to require that all employees be in the office from 8 to 5. Rather, they will need to consider allowing the employee more flexibility in how they accomplish their work. I have heard the past two years that mandatory Saturdays are less popular. Value pricing continues to be a topic of conversation.

Lauren Clemmer, Executive director, AAM

The shift from transactional work to being an advisor-focused practice. What I mean by advisor is having the ability to think of future-facing problems or opportunities a client might face, and really play a key role in their life or business. As we see firms also include profit centers/partnerships for service offerings like wealth management, this is positioning many firms to become ingrained into a client's business or life, much more so than before. Part of this change is coming from automation through technology, but also pricing insights delivered through people like Ron Baker. Pairing pricing optimization strategies, with technology automation, and the ability to have strategic conversations (and goal-setting sessions) with clients will continue to make the accountant more valuable, not less.

David Cristello, CEO and founder, Jetpack Workflow

The promise of technology taking over lower-level tasks through such possibilities as continuous auditing, universal ledgers, auto-population of tax returns, and the opportunity to move to a higher level of critical thinking, judgment and consultative value to clients.

Gale Crosley, President, Crosley+Co.

Surprisingly, one of the most exciting developments to me is the clarity projects that were undertaken by the standard-setting bodies. Prior to the clarification of standards, it was difficult for an accountant to differentiate between a requirement and a suggestion as to how that requirement might be achieved.

By segregating the requirements from the illustrations and application guidance, practitioners can get a better understanding of what the requirements are and develop efficient and effective means of applying them, weaning themselves off of checklists and relegating them to the reference tool they are intended to be.

Mark Dauberman, Owner and president, Mark Dauberman Seminars

The things that excite me the most are opportunities to leverage technology to streamline systems, and help clients (and my own) businesses run with incredible efficiency. I love helping clients. I love to see the light come on, when I can show them how they can do things with dramatic improvements to their process.

Seth David, President, Nerd Enterprises

As I spend time with our emerging leaders, I truly get excited about their enthusiasm for our profession. They get fired up when given the opportunity to contribute to our future direction through initiatives around innovation and collaboration.

Rick Davis, Managing shareholder, Elliott Davis Decosimo

The expansion of the scope of services provided by a CPA. The blending and broadening of services and expectations are a challenge but the start of a process to make expansion in the profession happen from a standards and regulatory aspect is exciting. Thinking of the future, growth is good ... grow or die. Although staying in the same place may be comfortable, it's a growth killer.

Loretta Doon, CEO, California Society of CPAs

I see a lot of firms and accounting professionals that are open to new ideas and ways of thinking.

James Doty, Chairman, PCAOB

The development of advanced data and analytics combined with another quickly emerging capability -- cognitive computing -- is exciting. These technologies will take on certain elements of our work, freeing up members of the profession to take on new, elevated roles that focus on the highest risks a company faces. KPMG is investing heavily in these areas.

Lynne Doughtie, Chairman and CEO, KPMG

The people! I am inspired by the passion, commitment, and hard work of accountants. I am excited whenever I meet AICPA members and hear their experiences and ideas. Accountants have unlimited opportunities and are essential for critical decision-making. Accounting is truly a profession with a purpose and I am pleased to join CPAs and CGMAs who serve their firms, customers, businesses, clients and communities in the spirit of protecting the public interest.

Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, Incoming chair, AICPA

It is a great time to be in the accounting and auditing profession. The rapid pace of change and innovation taking place is tremendous -- we're able to witness firsthand how the traditional role of the audit is changing due to the fusion of our physical, biological, and digital worlds. From increased access to information and analytics capabilities, to enhance timeliness, I see greater opportunity to leverage new ideas and technologies, such as artificial intelligence to make a difference in the work we do for the capital markets. What excites me most is the increased scope for higher-order thinking and insights that these changes will enable.

Cathy Engelbert, CEO, Deloitte

We are expanding and growing to be more inclusive in every way -- not just in terms of racial diversity, but also with regard to roles, backgrounds, service offerings, and more. I worked in the "Big Eight" (now the Big Four), owned a small firm, and served in a variety of volunteer roles for different business & civic organizations -- including the AICPA's PCPS Executive Committee. My experiences as a CPA firm owner, as a black woman navigating my career, as a wife and mother trying to maintain balance, and as a volunteer giving back to the profession all melded into a unique perspective that was often different from my peers and colleagues. I have come to see myself as an entrepreneur with a passion for serving the profession who happens to be a CPA, rather than defining myself as a CPA. Tax is what I know but not who I am. I see the AICPA/CIMA merger as validation of the choices I made, and evidence that the future of the profession is more than just being a CPA in a public accounting firm.

Jina Etienne, President and CEO, NABA

That there are so many working together to proactively mitigate the challenges faced. Whether it's human capital, mergers and acquisitions, regulatory issues or anything on the limitless list of issues, we (as a profession) have grown and are taking ownership to proactively manage accounting firms instead of being reactive.

Kim Fantaci, President, CPAFMA

I am excited about the challenges facing the accounting profession and how it will rise to meet them, most notably the need to employ more judgment as FASB moves towards more principles-based rules.

George Farrah, Editorial director, Tax and Accounting, Bloomberg BNA

It will be exciting to see whether the profession can leverage the growing demand for some form of assurance on new matters such as interim financial information, cyber-security, sustainability, and perhaps other areas as an opportunity to increase the relevance of the audit.

Lewis Ferguson, Board member, PCAOB

The profession's changing, diverse workforce: Accounting and auditing will be shaped in exciting ways as the profession taps assertively into a talent pool that is growing more diverse culturally, that has shown fresh ways of thinking, and that can bring the profession critical new skillsets in computer science, data analysis, and statistics.

Cindy Fornelli, Executive director, Center for Audit Quality

What makes me most excited about the future of accounting is how much fun it is! I know that sounds corny but I can tell you honestly that I am having more fun now than I ever have and am so excited about what we are doing to help our profession both in the U.S. and at a global level. It is an exciting time to be in our profession and for those entering our profession, the opportunities are huge and there is more to get done every day than we know what to do with.

Brian Fox, Founder and president, Confirmation.com

I am most excited about the prospect of the accounting profession finally modernizing and operating at or ahead of the pace of business and society. The future is bright for a highly skilled, robust and diverse accounting profession.

In order to achieve this, the profession must accelerate its current efforts to recruit, retain, and develop a diverse workforce, including improving opportunities for the advancement of women and minorities.

Jeanette Franzel, Board member, PCAOB

There has never been a better time to be in the accounting field. Much of the excitement and investments in technology surround the accountant. SaaS companies like Xero are but one cog that is building around the accountants. FinWeb, FinTech and SaaS solutions are integrating both front and back office tasks. The requirements for IT have virtually gone away, and now businesses require a custodian of their workflow and data, this is the heart of the new role of the accountant. Accountants are the cool kids as they will continually make more and more business decisions for their clients and set up their workflows and their software and of course, compliance.

Russell Fujioka, President, Xero US

The emergence of technologies that reduce "friction," when the bank communicates with your accounting system, and your accountant/advisor gets the same information in real-time; all of this will be seamless from an IT perspective. Soon, doing accounting work, communicating with your accountant, and transacting business will be all as easy as playing games in your iPhone.

The result? Small-business owners will have more freedom to innovate and add value to their customers, while future accountants will be leading the way and helping their clients get "on board" the cloud and these technologies.

Hector Garcia, Principal, Quick Bookkeeping

The scope, complexity, and magnitude of the international financial system present significant challenges and also expanded opportunities for the accounting profession. The evolution and proliferation of virtual commerce has multiplied the exchange of goods, services and currencies -- real and virtual -- across jurisdictions. This growing complexity offers an exciting challenge to the accounting profession.

At the same time, technology continues to expand, allowing us to perform audits more efficiently and incorporate the use of continuous auditing, including use of data analytics to proactively identify organizational risk.

Finally, people are our most critical asset because they play such a vital role in achieving organizational mission and delivering service to stakeholders. Generational change and cyclical labor shortages will continue to increase the competition to hire qualified professionals. As Baby Boomers retire, it is becoming increasingly urgent for firms to secure strong talent and plan for the next wave of leaders.

J. Russell George, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration

Technology gives us the greatest opportunity to improve financial reporting. It is important to leverage this tool to its fullest.

Russell Golden, Chairman, FASB

I can't wait to see how the firms evolve in their offerings, their leadership and thinking. I know the typical firm model will continue to change and that technology plays a big role in this. The opportunity for innovation and for leaders to step up and lead in innovative ways is exhilarating. The need for services is ever-growing, regardless of what others think. We need to take advantage of the position that we are in as trusted advisors and offer concrete advice to help our clients be successful now and into the future. Our economy is dependent upon healthy businesses and we are uniquely positioned to provide these business owners with the tools and knowledge they need to be as successful as possible.

Angie Grissom, President, The Rainmaker Companies

An already incipient ground swelling grassroots movement will soon irresistibly envelop, inform, and unite the accounting profession and the general public in addressing the public-interest-mission-critical nature and purposes of institutional fund accounting, auditing, and financial reporting legal and contractual requirements and practices.

Dick Haas, Civic advocate

I'm most excited about seeing how the industry is going to adapt as accountants have more time to spend helping clients (as they reduce the time they spend on things like data entry and calculations).

My hope is that our industry will become one that is much more advising and consulting-focused. No one is better equipped than the legion of U.S. CPAs to provide accurate advice and analysis that can drive down the rate of business failure in the U.S. and drive up the rates of growth and profitability among this country's 26 million businesses. The current wave of accounting technology and automation provides a great opportunity to create change in the industry that will yield positive results for U.S. businesses.

Brian Hamilton, Co-founder and chairman, Sageworks

I periodically travel around the country to meet with accounting students various universities, and I am excited to see the enthusiasm these students demonstrate for a career in public accounting. I see the evolution in the training being provided by universities in new areas that I believe will serve these students well, including data analytics and other information technology skills. These students have a promising future ahead of them in a rewarding and respected profession.

Jay Hanson, Board member, PCAOB

I am excited about adjusting to the new world ... . If we adjust we can help guide our clients to a more successful future, not just explain and report on their past. We will also be able to use our knowledge in many different ways as we work with these clients. Many in our industry take CPE just so they can prepare an accurate tax return, which is still important to do. However, we now may have an opportunity to impact what those numbers are not just where they go on a form.

Roger Harris, President and COO, Padgett Business Services

The last few years have brought a flood of stifling regulations to small business that simply cannot continue at the current pace. I think the new political landscape will stem the tide of business regulation and, perhaps, reverse the trend, bringing more favorable legislation.

The PATH Act, which was signed into law in December 2015, is a start. The PATH Act made permanent several business-friendly tax breaks. The law also extended other tax breaks that will help small businesses prosper.

John Hewitt, Founder, chairman and CEO, Liberty Tax

Technology and the next generation of CPAs have me most excited about the future. The exponential growth in technology driven by cloud, mobile, and social technologies is freeing up CPAs to do more strategic, value-added services for our clients and employers. The next generation of CPAs is bringing new skills like collaboration and a curious mindset that is willing to try new things. Together these two forces can transform us and help solve the big issues facing us.

Tom Hood, CEO and executive director, MACPA

The next generation of firm leaders (the Millennials). I have the unique privilege to probably see deeper into firms than most other consultants do. This is because with the Lean Six Sigma work that we perform, I'm always working with a wide cross-section of the firm from staff associates all the way through senior partners, and including administrative personnel, IT and operations. So I get to see and hear the insights and perspectives of all of these various levels as we work together to optimize process performance and technology utilization.

One common theme that I come away with on a week-to-week basis in my project sessions with clients is that our younger people are incredible. I do not buy in to the notion that there isn't talent in the pipeline. There's an abundance of talent and passion. We just need to do a better job of nurturing and developing that talent. But the future is very, very bright based on what I see every week from the lower and mid-levels in firms. I can't wait to be working with them in 10-20 years when they become partners and managing partners.

Dustin Hostetler, Shareholder and chief innovation officer, Boomer Consulting Inc.

Two things really excite me about the future of the profession:

1. The recognition of the importance of transparency and the engagement of the profession by corporate leadership.

2. The advances in technology and analytics in furthering transparency, data utility, risk assessment, testing and mitigation.

Over the past decade, we have seen the audit profession embraced by CEOs, C-suite, and governance bodies and broadly by users of financial statements. There is broad recognition that the highest quality accounting, financial reporting and audits are a critical component of instilling trust in our capital markets. Among stakeholders, there is also the embrace of the challenge to continuing to perfect these nuanced processes.

We have also watched as governance bodies including corporate boards have brought on top talent to address diverse matters of risk, audit and financial reporting. These topics are important matters on the governance agenda. I am very pleased to see the talent, rigor and time dedicated to assessing issues and raising standards across the governance arena.

A catalyst to transparency and audit quality has been the leverage of audit technology, particularly in analytics. We can already see the advancement of big data and analytics having a real impact on what our audit delivers and the insight it provides. EY has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in audit tools and technologies - including EY Canvas and EY Helix - designed to align audit risk with the procedures that address them, and leverage client data to pinpoint higher-risk audit areas.

Access to more data helps financial reporting and early identification of fraud and operational risks, which in turn can be integrated into a targeted audit approach. With technology as an enabler, our auditors now focus more effectively on risk and their response to it, while challenging the audit in a way that simply was not possible before. What this will mean for our clients and the capital markets is the ability to identify areas of risk with a forward-looking perspective. With deeper insights at our disposal through the application of our technology, we are better positioned to ask more challenging questions. This enables us to deliver more effective and higher-quality audits.

These technologies support our industry's highly skilled and well-trained professionals, and will usher us into a new frontier in audit. It is an exciting time for those of us who have been here to see the industry evolve already, as well as those who are just starting their audit careers.

In addition, mobility and the ability to work in different countries and cultures is growing every day for people in the profession.

Stephen Howe, Managing partner, EY

The advances in technology have me most excited about the future of accounting. Many in our profession bemoan the movement toward do-it-yourself accounting and tax software. We cannot deny that software such as QuickBooks and TurboTax have taken a share of the market from us. However, there are so many more opportunities that technology has afforded us that I believe we can now grow our businesses bigger than ever.

Cloud computing offers the opportunity to work with clients around the world without ever leaving the office. Programs such as Quickbooks Online enable us to work on clients' books without having to travel to their offices. Skype gives us the opportunity to speak face-to-face with a client half a world away. Hosting tax software in the cloud keeps us up and running from home when a blizzard prevents us from driving to the office.

The world is forever changing. If we embrace these changes and work with them, the possibilities are endless.

Sandy Johnson, President, NCCPAP

Our young people and technology. Their minds work differently. They see things in ways we never have and I believe that their perspective combined with today's (and future) technologies is going to absolutely change the way our profession operates. I believe if any generation will solve the work compression issue, it will be them. I think they will continue to elevate the role of the profession in business and bring it to an entirely new level.

Sarah Johnson Dobek, President and founder, Inovautus Consulting

The opportunity to provide higher-value-added services with more support from technology should allow skilled accountants to apply their talents more effectively. The choices available for accountants should allow doing work that is enjoyable, fulfilling, profitable and helpful to others. Key skills will need to be added are for operational advisement with business metrics in addition to traditional tax and audit compliance.

Randy Johnston, Executive vice president and partner, K2 Enterprises; CEO, NMGI

I have been increasingly involved in a more global discussion of tax issues through participation in OECD, IFA and CAPA conferences. I'm also heavily involved in collaboration with the tax directors of the Global Accounting Alliance -- my colleagues in 11 countries around the world. The issues of importance to all of us are very recognizable -- BEPS, ID theft, taxpayer rights, tax ethics, confidentiality, tax administration challenges. Yes, there are cultural, social and political differences. But I'm excited to see that the accounting profession's enthusiastic and energetic approach to solutions that involve the profession, including in the public interest, spans the globe.

Ed Karl, Vice president of taxation, AICPA

I am very excited about the current focus on reinventing the CPA's role as an advisor, consultant, business-success coach to their clients. I have always been saddened by the fact that most CPAs are reactive rather than proactive with their clients. Surveys have told us clients want their CPA to be more proactive, yet many continue to focus on compliance services and once or twice a year contact with clients.

Rita Keller, President of Keller Advisors

The convergence of technologies including big data, artificial Intelligence, digital collaboration, mobile tools, and CPA production workflow is happening at an increasingly faster pace, creating new business models and opportunities to serve clients. Accountants that study these interactions and learn to advise clients will find unlimited consulting opportunities in the future.

Roman Kepczyk, Director of consulting, Xcentric LLC

As I travel around the world talking to IFAC's members and the people and communities they serve, a key theme I hear -- especially in developing countries -- is how much they understand that strong public sector accounting is critical to transparency and accountability, and to sustainable, strong public services like education and health. I'm excited at the prospect of a growing and maturing profession in many developing countries being a trusted, ethical partner to public sector leaders and governments to help drive economic growth. IFAC's Accountability. Now. program, which focuses on public sector accounting skills development and in particular, adoption and implementation of International Public Sector Accounting Standards, is making a meaningful difference in so many parts of the world.

Olivia Kirtley, President, IFAC

Curiously, it is the possibilities that [transformative] technologies have on the business model of accountants. I believe those that can understand these possibilities will have a distinct and lasting competitive advantage over those that do not.

Ed Kless, Senior director, Sage

I feel incredibly fortunate to be in a position to have learned from marketers who were there at the start of professional services marketing. These trailblazers inspired me to make accounting marketing a career. I am incredibly excited to see the next generation of accounting marketers. The table is set for great innovation and success. As firm leadership continues to embrace and empower strategic growth professionals, we are going to see change at a pace never before imagined.

The main initiative that I worked on as president of the Association for Accounting Marketing is our Vision 2020 program. This initiative will help to further integrate the role of marketing and business development within firms by furthering the communication with firm leaders. Historically, the people responsible for growth tend to leave the industry. This brain-drain has significantly hurt firms -- imagine if a tax department turned over every two years -- and we see a positive trend towards the growth positions becoming respected careers within the industry.

Jack Kolmansberger, Chief marketing officer, Herbein + Co.

I'm most excited about the major transformation that is taking place in public accounting, whereby firms are reinvesting and retooling from being compliance shops to truly being in the business of helping their clients with their business and financial problems ... whatever they may be! Firms today understand that many of those new products and services don't necessarily have to be created in-house, as we're seeing many, many strategic partnerships and alliances being formed daily. I really believe we have gone from a profession of providing services that clients don't want but need (audits and tax returns) to a profession that's in the business of providing services that clients both want and need.

Allan Koltin, CEO, Koltin Consulting Group

The future is vast and bright. While some of the change seems scary, the reality is that CPAs are always in the middle of that change. We have to make sure we keep the CPA as the trusted advisor going forward. I'm glad I made the choice to become a CPA 20 years ago and still share that excitement with students and recent graduates. The profession can be what you make of it and there are so many successful CPAs out there, which is fun to see.

Mark Koziel, Vice president of firm services and global alliances, AICPA

Robust financial reporting is at the foundation of economic prosperity -- it is vital to sound capital allocation decisions. To that end, our upcoming Invitation to Comment seeks stakeholder input on what financial reporting issues we should address next. This agenda consultation process will allow stakeholders to provide input on our next challenges -- such as liabilities and equity -- and helps shape the direction of our future agenda. This ensures we're addressing the right priorities so that we can continue to improve GAAP.

Jim Kroeker, Vice chairman, FASB

This profession is undergoing massive change, and to me that is exciting. One thing is for sure, the leading firms of tomorrow will continue to diversify their service offerings, specialize, and develop the thought leaders of our profession. Ultimately, there are so many viable paths the profession can and will take, and the open-ended nature of this is what's exciting. I'd go so far as to say, if firm leadership can dream it -- it can happen.

Art Kuesel, President and owner, Kuesel Consulting

Technology will set accounting professionals free to pursue much more substantive work for clients that speaks directly to growth and profitability. We're certainly seeing this now in the compliance sector, with firms using automated compliance tools that allow them to combine knowledge work with time-saving and accurate cloud solutions, delivering a valuable service to clients, who are then more likely to look to their firm for additional advisory services.

Marshal Kushniruk, Executive vice president of global business development, Avalara

Growth! Accounting and bookkeeping firms are extremely focused on growth -- and that is exciting for the future.

In an industry survey, 67 percent of the respondents agreed that their firms will grow significantly in the next one to two years, with 80 percent of respondents from firms with 51 or more employees anticipating that growth.

I love to discuss how firms will grow. Technology plays a significant role by eliminating physical offices and geographic restrictions for employees and supporting an enhanced level of efficiency. It helps firms attract and retain more clients -- regardless of location.

Firm growth will rely on various trends to propel it forward. Do firms provide value-based pricing? Will firms use technology to offer additional services? Will those monthly client visits to collect bills and invoices be eliminated? Is the firm focusing -- and capitalizing -- on a specialty to bring on clients that specialize in a certain niche of business?

There are multiple opportunities for growth for today's accounting firm. I cannot wait to see how strongly the accounting profession surges forward in the next three to five years.

Rene Lacerte, Founder and CEO, Bill.com

I am most energized by the increasing number of highly specialized technology tools available to make accountant-client interaction more efficient and meaningful. Each year finds more and more vendor companies serving our profession. And the "co-opetition" atmosphere among those companies breeds amazing integrations.

Gregory LaFollette, Strategic advisor, CPA.com

Personally, it is the change in the way we are educated. Continuing education is important because it helps us stay current with the (complex) standards. The live seminars were great back in the day, but required travel and a full day out of the office. Then, webinars came along, and they're great, but they require students to be logged in at a specific time. Learning management systems provide the next major enhancement in the way we obtain training. Courses can be provided on-demand, and students can work at their own pace. The interactive features keep students engaged. Forums help students communicate with instructors and ask questions as needed. The integrated quiz and exams make it easy for students to test their knowledge. Certificates of completion are made available instantly after passing the exam. I'm personally most excited about the future of the way accountants are trained.

Jeff Lenning, President, Excel University

Next-generation CPAs are helping firms change the way they work, creating new opportunities for the use of technology as well as collaboration across levels and specialties that will make a difference for clients.

Kristen Lewis, Director of marketing, EisnerAmper

The forward-looking nature of the profession. Moving from looking backwards to forwards to really help clients manage their businesses in a pro-active real-time manner.

Taylor Macdonald, Senior vice president of channels, Intacct

We are witnessing a sea change on every front of the profession, from the competencies required to the nature of services provided to the expectations of clients to the meaning of assurance itself. In 10 years, the profession will be vastly differently from what we accept as today's norm. At the same time, the need for the values which have defined the profession are greater than ever: competence, integrity and objectivity.

Janice Maiman, Senior vice president, communications, media, news & professional pathways, AICPA

The public's need for the knowledge and expertise accounting professionals provide is growing stronger with the complexities extending beyond tax. The automation and collaboration afforded by technology creates an opportunity for accounting professionals to use their talents to truly engage with clients at an advisory level and leave the transactional work to the technology. This changes the expectations a young professional can have in a career in accounting; they are more than a historical reporter, but a key person of influence in the organizations they operate in. We need to educate college students on this change and build practices that take advantage of this opportunity.

Samantha Mansfield, Director of corporate communications, CPA.com

The accounting profession is facing unprecedented change on a global scale. Technology advancements -- and, in particular, cloud-based tax and accounting solutions -- are driving the change. The accounting function remains mission-critical to business, which means it has a place at the top within the hierarchy of a business. In addition to having an obligation to uphold regulatory requirements and ensure compliance, accounting professionals impact the overall direction of the business. These professionals are seeing the potential to harness technology to complement their traditional services to provide integrated solutions to their clients and offer more useful Advisory services -- all while using real-time data from cloud accounting platforms to engage and advise.

Jason Marx, CEO, Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting, North America

I am most excited about the opportunities to leverage technology to expand the role of accounting and tax planning to a much higher level of effectiveness in influencing the success of independent tax businesses. New affordable computer applications will increasingly enable small tax firms to operate on a level playing field with major corporations. Yet small tax businesses will retain the advantage of greater flexibility and the ability to make and implement game-changing decisions quickly.

Chuck McCabe, Founder, president and CEO, The Income Tax School

The increasing ability to leverage data via technology to help clients better understand where their business is headed, how to get there, how to avoid roadblocks and repeated mistakes, how to forecast for incremental growth more accurately, and bottom-line stuff like how to drive efficiencies and cost savings. CPAs who understand that it's about analyzing rather than validating data will soon play a role that involves them much more closely within the C-Suite. This will be great for their clients, and very beneficial for firms that do it well.

Scott McFarlane, Co-founder and CEO, Avalara

Thanks to the cloud, we now live in an online, borderless world, which opens up the accounting profession to new possibilities that change the very nature of the field. The absence of physical limits allows for a global client base, which helps accounting professionals become even more specialized in the industries they serve. This deep verticalization will become a key differentiator in a competitive global market that's no longer defined by geolocation.

In fact, small businesses -- who were once organized by language and location as well-- are also increasingly being organized by the type of work they do. It's both mindboggling and exhilarating to imagine that an accounting firm's client roster can easily include their friendly neighborhood barbershop as well as a corner bakery along the Champs-Elysees. Not only can firms now work with clients they would never have taken on a decade ago, but it broadens their horizons through exposure to new cultures and business practices, and empowers accountants to choose their own clientele and have a truly unique firm.

Jim McGinnis, Vice president, Accountant Segment, Intuit

The opportunity to shape our future. We're not stuck in a dull, never-changing industry or world. To the contrary, disruption is all around us. That gives us the opportunity to be disruptive as well, to help shape the way businesses and markets work in the future. That can be scary, but it's really exciting, too!

J. Michael McGuire, CEO, Grant Thornton

If you look through history, there are inflection points for our profession. The creation of the computer for solving sophisticated problems was the most dramatic in most of our professional lives. Cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence are creating a new inflection point.

Combined, these innovations are dramatically changing how we collaborate with our clients and organizations. One example is the concept of continuous auditing, and the elimination of testing in favor of technology driven, full data set exception auditing. That shift will be a fundamental change. Technology is empowering CPAs and management accountants to deepen the advisory role they already perform so ably. These are just examples. Fundamentally evolving what and how we perform is a challenge for the profession but for every business and service in the world today.

Barry Melancon, President and CEO, AICPA

The future of accounting is directly at the confluence of all that is changing fastest in the worlds of technological and societal change. With the pervasiveness of available information, I am excited about the opportunities for finding content that is of value and delivering a stream of meaning out of an ocean of noise.

The advance of automation, while uncomfortable for many of us as it re-values the work we're accustomed to doing, frees us to do work of higher value -- looking forward for our clients. This will allow us to spend more time helping companies and individuals prepare for the year and years ahead as we spend less time recounting the past, thanks to ever more sophisticated tools.

Steve Mendelsohn, Managing director, Knowledge Solutions, Thomson Reuters

Two things:

1. As a profession we are getting involved in new areas and business models -- some will work out very well and some won't, but we are involved in some major initiatives. Sustainability, integrated reporting, and corporate social responsibility are major movements that will need accountants to assist and attest to the extensive data gathering and reporting that will be needed.

2. The move by larger firms toward specialization is creating opportunities for expanded knowledge and experience transfer and greater value to clients. At the same time, openings are expanding for smaller firms and practitioners to step into chasms developing by the specializations of larger firms and the partial abandonment by many of them of being a trusted advisor in all facets of a client's financial and business activities. The future is exciting.

Ed Mendlowitz, Partner, WithumSmith+Brown

The use of technology is changing that way that accountants do business. It has the potential to take away many of the mundane tasks that accountants don't like to do and let them focus on more "value-added" consultative service to their clients. Data analytics should allow the accountant to be a better advisor to companies and provide more predictive assistance.

Stan Mork, President, ITA

Robots! They'll make the jobs that are left far more interesting. (Until they take those jobs, too.)

Caleb Newquist, Founding editor, Going Concern

My greatest enthusiasm for the profession focuses on non-traditional areas of income and especially watching my clients do extremely well as advisors to the clients while letting younger partners and staff do the numbers stuff. The areas for me that are very exciting include the acceleration of profitability in the assets under management arena. I have been coaching firms in this area since 1997. My clients today have large businesses in this area -- say, anywhere from a few hundred million under management to the $1 billion arena. This is very profitable and throws large sums of cash to the bottom line, all leveraged income. My clients in this area are all very pleased with their ROI here, especially those doing it right. ...

Additionally I'm excited about my clients building huge niches in the R&D Credit areas as well as the 179D energy studies. ... All of these areas yield excellent results to the bottom line. While some firms private-label these services, I'm not a fan of that. It adds risk unnecessarily. Additionally the areas of conducting strategic modeling for clients of CPA firms is also very profitable

Jay Nisberg, President, Jay Nisberg & Associates

The ability to reach potential clients in a large geographic area regardless of the size of your firm. The Internet provides a forum where any tax adviser -- whether at a "big" or "small" accounting firm -- may establish expertise in the form of a blog or other informal communication. These mediums have tremendous reach, and if you put value-added and informative content out there, the people in need of that information will find it. This allows any tax professional to expand the scope of their practice beyond his or her firm's traditional geographic boundaries, and to add value to a wider array of clients.

Tony Nitti, Partner, WithumSmith+Brown

Continued innovation in technology will revolutionize how financial information is delivered and used, impacting all capital market stakeholders. If accounting is the "language of business," then we, as practitioners, should look to optimize technology in improving how it is used to more effectively and efficiently to communicate with investors and credit providers. This may include expanding the use of social media, videos, and other platforms. I believe the extent of technology's possibilities are limited only by our imaginations.

Charles Noski, Chairman, Board of Trustees, FAF

Finally, the seeds of change are blossoming all around. Many firm owners now get it. They just need to do it. The more firms change, the better product vendors will produce for us as they will have the adoption they need for bigger and better cloud innovation. New technologies are appearing every day! We are challenged to learn how to implement them in our practice and create new service models that can support them.

Jody Padar, CEO and principal, New Vision CPA Group

Looking ahead, I believe there are several traits that will be greatly prized by tax practitioners, which cut across all tax disciplines and which are driven by technological disruption. In the next five years, tax professionals in all industries and geographies will require:

Greater mobility, particularly making it easier to advise clients when away from the office.

Increased automation of time-consuming administrative tasks.

Time for high-value work.

Insight -- and less "noise" (i.e. distracting, high-volume, low-value content.)

Global connectivity.

Comprehensive, integrated and reliable software platforms.

Effective compliance and reporting capabilities.

Resonance with new generations of tech-savvy customers and employees.

By embracing technology, I see the accounting industry undergoing a massively transformative shift that will allow us to provide our clients with greater value, do our jobs more efficiently, and appeal to new generations of accounting professionals.

Brian Peccarelli, President, The Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters

Integration of big data analysis coming to smaller firms which will enable firms to provide analysis and insight into their clients' business transactions beyond the general ledger. This integration will come from sources of big data, both public databases and industry specific data that will take the client relationship beyond where it is today. Integration of big data goes beyond the audit, the real value for firms is the analysis of big data integration to help the clients truly understand their operations.

Carl Peterson, Vice president of small firm interests, AICPA

With the accounting industry shifting the expectations of young CPAs, the 2017 CPA Exam changes will provide the next generation of accountants with a better understanding for real situations that occur on the job. The new exam includes adjusted sections and extensive additions, making it more challenging and time-consuming to prepare, as well as requiring candidates to demonstrate higher-order skills. The next generation of CPAs are expected to enter the workforce at a much higher level, with the ability to handle certain challenges from the forefront. Due to the ever-changing landscape and expectations within the accounting industry, I'm most excited to continue to develop the proper resources to help hopeful CPAs efficiently prepare for the next chapter in their career in an enjoyable and effective way.

Roger Philipp, CEO and owner, Roger CPA Review

I think I'm most excited about the ability to service clients beyond the numbers. The tax and accounting profession has never been just about forms and ledgers, but as the economy changes, there is now more of an opportunity to deliver advising and consulting services. It makes sense: Tax advisors are already aware of our client's financial and business needs -- from planning to compliance. Why not be a part of a more comprehensive solution?

Kelly Phillips Erb, "TaxGirl" blogger

I am most excited to see accounting firms offer more "above the line" services, so they progress from reporting to advising and even leading their clients. Business leaders need expert trusted financial management advisors to help craft strategic financial plans.

Jeff Phillips, CEO, Accountingfly

I am excited to see the improvements to diversity and inclusion within the profession. Diversity and inclusion has become more of a focus at national and state levels, and people are caring more about creating open forums to make progress in this area.

The Illinois CPA Society hosted its first Diversity Summit in June 2016, which focused on discussing the biases we have and how to implement programs to overcome these biases and ensure that diversity and inclusion is a priority in our profession. I look forward to learning more about how to be effective in diversity and inclusion and helping to build resources to continue to advance the profession.

Elizabeth Pittelkow, Director of accounting and compliance, ArrowStream

I think the evolving and expanding role of accountants is something that's very exciting, particularly for the younger people just joining the profession. As our economy becomes more competitive and increasingly global, accountants are brought to the table as value-adding business partners, not the group in the back room crunching numbers and telling management why they can't do something. That stimulates greater interest in our profession, making it easier to recruit a talented, diverse workforce, with leaders who are able to connect all different aspects of a business environment.

Terri Polley, President and CEO, FAF

I believe the profession is entering a new era of delivering value in innovative ways far beyond traditional services. Technology and other factors continue to drive down the value of core tax and attest services and this will continue. However, I see firms delivering an increasing array of specialized services in international trade, wealth management, industry-based and other consulting far beyond traditional core services. All the growth the profession has enjoyed during the economic recovery can be attributed to expanding these services.

Terry Putney, CEO, Transition Advisors

Technology. "Give me a stick long enough and I can move the world," said Archimedes. The intuitive nature of technology today is allowing accounting professionals everywhere to serve more clients faster and better than ever before, and to generate higher profits in a shorter amount of time. As new technology emerges, accountants have the opportunity to impact the lives of their clients and make meaningful improvements in their businesses without extending their workday -- now that's exciting.

Matt Rissell, CEO, TSheets

In April, the SEC opened public comment on a concept release on disclosure reform, which invited feedback on how sustainability disclosure must evolve to meet the needs of today's markets. A preliminary analysis of the comment letters confirms one thing: investors want better sustainability disclosure. While just 3.2 percent of the comment release (11 out of 341 pages) discussed sustainability disclosure, 66 percent of unique responses (150 out of 227 non-form letters) discussed the need for better sustainability disclosure.

The SEC's Disclosure Effectiveness Initiative marks an important moment in history -- it's an opportunity to make sustainability reporting meet the needs of both companies and investors.

Jean Rogers, CEO and Founder, SASB

The shift to tightly integrated, cloud-based solutions and the focus on serving distinct client niches. Advanced technology can be leveraged to serve niche clients across the country, allowing firms to expand well beyond geographic boundaries and capture niche markets across the U.S. I believe these two fundamental shifts will allow practitioners to work when and from wherever they want, as well as build a business founded on ideal clients.

Darren Root, President and CEO, RootWorks

The ramping up by firms to do a better job making their firms a great place to work that trains people well and develops them into leaders. But there is still a huge obstacle: There are either few or no provisions for developing people in firm's partner compensation systems. Until the partners' paychecks are impacted by their effort and success at developing people, CPA firms will continue to fall short of their potential in the area of developing a great staff.

Marc Rosenberg, President, The Rosenberg Associates

The trend of greater specialization by smaller and midsized firms. It's very hard to be all things for all people/businesses, and firms are finding what sets them apart and marketing those differentiators. In most cases, this leads to higher realization, happier clients and even more satisfied staff.

Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk, President, bbr marketing

As I review the challenges the profession faces, I see that the profession building on its relevancy going forward. With new regulatory standards, technology, and human capital development, the profession is more important than ever. Globalization will continue to grow and require skills that many have yet to realize, yet we have such a strong influence over our future and all aspects of accounting, finance, tax, and operations will play a major role in progress.

Michael Sabbatis, COO and Board member, XCM Solutions

We should all be excited by technology's impact on the accounting profession. Many tasks that accountants have done in the past are being revolutionized by smart, awesome technology.

On a practical level, as technology reduces the time needed to complete transactions, a need arises for a totally different business model. "Hours times dollars" is no longer sustainable, and value-pricing is gaining momentum.

On a personal level, I just can't wait to see where this takes us in five, ten years' time. At Sage Summit in Chicago last month, we debuted Pegg -- a smart admin chatbot that makes basic accounting as easy and natural as texting a friend. Accounting firms are constantly having to disrupt our own industry to survive and thrive, and I love the fast pace.

Marc Schiepe, President, Sage North America

Our profession will be retiring many Baby Boomers and, more than ever, we will be able to offer tremendous opportunity to young people from the Generation Xers, to the Millennials, and eventually to the Generation Z. The new generations will be much more diversified and will bring incredible innovation to the profession -- innovation that will be required to address rapid change. Along with this movement, the profession will need to offer experiences to the next generations which will equip them to make solid decisions while implementing change and new innovations. Offering new opportunities to young people has always been a passion of mine and the profession will need to embrace this more than ever.

Dennis Schleper, CEO, CliftonLarsonAllen

It is always exciting to be engaged in an industry that is going through an evolution. I saw an uptick of accounting firm mergers and acquisitions last year and that trend has continued into 2016. The industry consolidation that has resulted from this activity has created new opportunities, resources, technologies, relationships and efficiencies -- all of which add up to greater value for our clients. With such consolidation also comes increased competition for business among the industry's biggest players; however, I see that as a positive. Greater competition has the potential to yield greater value and create a more rewarding client experience.

Russell Shapiro, Partner, Levenfeld Pearlstein

In my view, our profession is standing on the doorstep of a high-tech revolution, where big data, workflow tools, data analytics and artificial intelligence are the first steps being taken on the path to an amazing future. Being an analyst at my core, I'm excited about the unlimited opportunities this presents.

Accounting is the language of business, and harnessing technology will enable the profession to own the role of trusted business advisor, whether supporting the clients of your firm or coworkers of your company.

Todd Shapiro, President and CEO, ICPAS

As much as things have changed for CPAs, there's one thing that hasn't changed -- our role as our clients' most trusted business advisors. Our clients are as confounded by change and complexity as we are. They need someone who will make the future comfortable for them. If we can do that -- if we can learn the skills that businesses will need to succeed going forward, then teach those skills to our clients -- imagine the level of trust we will have earned. We have a huge opportunity here to become the business thought leaders of tomorrow and pass that knowledge on to our clients. If we learn to do that, our status as the most trusted business advisors around will be secured.

Bill Sheridan, Chief communications officer, MACPA

I am thrilled with the opportunities within our grasp in the accounting profession. Recent technological advances have revolutionized the ways audits may be performed and financial reports can be developed. Data processing capabilities will allow accounting professionals to provide more effective business advisory services to clients and offer more relevant financial data points to interested market participants.

James Sinclair, Visiting assistant professor of accounting, Georgetown University

The quantum changes affecting not only the traditional workplace but how people work. Advances in technology have not only allowed staff to work remotely, but now roughly 10-15 percent of newly opened firms are "virtual." It's estimated that by the end of 2017, more than 60 million people will work at least one day out of the office. Also, the premium that was once placed on the timesheet and billable hours is beginning to wane. Staff, meanwhile, is being reviewed by the work completed as opposed to how many billable hours they log. More engagements are becoming value priced. These are more examples of the "culture" of IT.

Joel Sinkin, President, Transition Advisors

We no longer live in a one-size-fits-all world. Business owners want customized solutions tailored to their specific business needs and they crave more insight into their financial data. Apps and software eliminate many of the manual processes of data gathering, so our profession is becoming less about compiling information and more about analyzing big data to produce tangible and actionable insights.

There's a huge variety of add-ons and apps accountants can use to create a more personalized experience, and the professionals who understand the available resources will be able to better position themselves as strategic advisors to their clients. Machine learning will only become even more important as apps become smarter and more catered to you. This will be the major differentiating factor between accountants and will allow professionals to create practices that are reflective of their individual styles and personas, while simultaneously delivering a truly unique experience to clients. Accounting professionals who are able to adapt to these new innovations will also help their small business clients stay ahead of the curve and make better decisions.

Brad Smith, Chairman and CEO, Intuit

The most exciting development for CPA firms today is the opportunity to play a vastly expanded role in serving their clients, moving from work with a large compliance focus to value-added services in exciting new areas such as cyber-security, privacy, transaction assistance, human resources, IT services, business strategy and process improvement.

Technology has played a significant role in creating these opportunities as well as in automating much of compliance work to free up professional time to help clients in new ways.

For years, firms have aspired to be the single point-of-contact that clients go to first for help in addressing their business issues. More than ever before, expanded service opportunities are making this aspiration possible.

Richard Stanger, CEO, StangerCarlson

Technology allows us to capture more data than we ever have before -- not just financial data, but also programmatic data. This big data can provide a whole new level of understanding about your business or government. Using technology to report that data and present it in clever, creative ways lets management focus on the decision-making more quickly.

Jan Sylvis, Vice chair, GASB

It is the new breed of CPA firm that is producing outsized profits for its owners with strategic vision, exceptional talent, and fanatical client service. Mostly, they are flying under the radar, driven by a single savvy owner or a small group of tightly-knit partners.

They flourish in niches and specialties, which you wouldn't find until you go looking. They provide services like cross-border trade; industry-specific regulatory guidance; or management services to the rich or famous, or both. Technology is second nature to them. They don't bill by the hour, but by value. They can afford to be highly selective in their hiring. They shun growth for growth's sake, instead focussing on partner incomes and lifestyles.

They don't want to be famous. In fact, discretion is one of the reasons clients come to them. They are no one's merger target ... yet. They understand that once they merge into a larger firm, they could lose their competitive advantages under the weight of old-school timekeeping, outmoded computer systems, and lethargic bureaucracies.

Rick Telberg, Founder and CEO, CPA Trendlines

Job projections are very robust both domestically and internationally for accounting graduates. Although the new complexities of the profession lead to many challenges, they create opportunities for those who embrace those changes. We'll see a slew of new accounting positions that weren't previously available and the new accountants will thrive in it.

Ralph Thomas, CEO and executive director, NJCPA

We have the potential to be greater influencers in not only improving organizational capability, but to transform entire economies especially in emerging countries with limited infrastructure. Make no mistake about it, the accounting profession makes a difference in people's lives.

Jeffrey Thomson, President and CEO, IMA

We are seeing a rising tide of excitement amongst accountants at companies of all sizes about the potential to leverage technology to have professions that they love. They are asking questions, researching technology, and recognizing that the old batch approach to processing is obsolete. SaaS technologies allow them to select and manage the tools that can revamp their operations without being at the mercy of an IT group.

The concept of "continuous accounting" embodies the changes that accountants are seeking. Continuous accounting embeds automation, control, and period-end tasks within day-to-day activities, allowing the rigid accounting calendar to more closely mirror the broader business and freeing up time for value-add activities.

There's cause for a lot of optimism in finance. By 2020, Accenture predicts that finance productivity will increase by two to three times, and organizational costs will decline by 40 percent. They also foresee a dramatic shift in time spent on analysis, from a mere 25 percent today to 75 percent in the future. These transformative predictions are due in large part to the digitization of accounting, and the digitization of business in general. We believe continuous accounting is the future.

Therese Tucker, CEO and founder, BlackLine

Even though so many firms have automated their processes and work in the cloud, I still get a personal lift whenever I see an accounting firm get on board with cloud-based solutions and realize the incredible cost-savings and efficiency gains -- and then help their clients make the same leap.

Pascal Van Dooren, Chief revenue officer and GM, Avalara

Ultimately technology will lead to timely, searchable financial reports where a given user can more readily access just the information needed -- allowing governments to be compared side by side almost instantaneously. So that's an exciting future to look toward. However, maintaining the world-class level of reliability that we currently enjoy is critical as we move forward.

David Vaudt, Chairman, GASB

The amount of disruption currently occurring in the accounting industry is unprecedented. Millennials, in particular, are introducing the industry to a new way of working, as well as a new set of technology that is changing the way we do business.

From an advisory perspective, we now have the tools required to better serve our small-business clients. From the client's perspective, we're able to move accounting professionals from "the person who does my taxes" to "the trusted business partner I can't do without." While there is a knowledge gap that needs closing, technology is driving new opportunities for accounting professionals and changing the future of our industry.

I'm also excited about the changes technology is creating when it comes to globalization. In the past, accounting professionals were constrained by geographical borders. With the cloud, an accountant in New York can service a small business in the U.K. just as effectively as they would someone in their own backyard. In this borderless tech world, accounting professionals are now rethinking how to market and sell services. With the right approach, opportunities for client prospects are borderless and available for firms of all sizes, not just the large firms anymore.

Amy Vetter, Global vice president of education and head of accounting, USA, Xero

I continue to be fascinated by technology and the way it has changed the accounting business since I entered the industry 37 years ago. Technology has revolutionized the way we work with clients and how we run our firm, and I am excited to see what comes next. I fully expect another technology revolution in how we prepare tax returns and perform audits in the future, and how our work force performs their jobs.

Jeffrey Weiner, Managing partner, Marcum LLP

It is time to tell the great story of accounting and in a big way. This is an amazing profession, with an incredible opportunity for generations to come. There is an inheritance just waiting to be claimed as well as the monetization of the great practices that have been built over the past 50 years by practitioners today. With the technological advances continually being made, we are poised to write the future of accounting now!

Philip Whitman, President and CEO, Whitman Business Advisors

The higher level and stronger relationships that are being built between:

The accounting professional and the client

The accounting professional and the consultant

The accounting professional and the vendor partner

The accounting professional and other accounting professionals

Our future is all about connections!

Sandra Wiley, President and shareholder, Boomer Consulting Inc.

The bright young leaders coming into the profession. They are smarter, more connected, more efficient, and less attached to "old ways and ideas." It is as if they were born looking through different lenses -- they see things that many established leaders cannot see. Their ability to see possibilities for better solutions for clients and employers, more seamless work/life integration and a finer quality of life and a better profession overall is inspiring.

Jennifer Wilson, Co-founder and owner, ConvergenceCoaching

The same technologies that are disrupting the profession are going to serve as an empowerment to the profession. As bookkeeping becomes more automated, accountants will have access to real-time, accurate financial information from their small business clients. Armed with this information, accountants can play a stronger role as business coaches, engaging clients throughout the year. Simply put, accountants, in increasing measure, will become agents of small-business transformation.

Joe Woodard, CEO, Woodard Companies

I am excited about the possibilities that better use of technology can bring to businesses as well as auditors. I believe that efficiencies can be gained with increased knowledge and processes to better analyze data on a more real-time basis. This will allow the accounting profession to stay relevant and provide valuable information to decision makers in a timely manner.

Candace Wright, Chair, PCC
Some of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.

Kansas City, Mo.: Preparer Harry George, Jr., 36, has pleaded guilty to aiding in the preparation of 51 fraudulent returns.

George, owner of Xpress Tax KC, admitted that he prepared 51 false federal income tax returns seeking fraudulent refunds by falsifying filing statuses, education credits, American Opportunity Credits, Schedules A, Earned Income Credits, additional child tax credits, retirement savings contributions credits and dependents.

These fraudulent returns resulted in a tax loss of $116,946. He faces up to three years in prison without parole.

Greenville, Texas: Preparer Lourdes Ramirez, 39, has pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false returns.

According to case documents, Ramirez operated under the names TX ASAP Tax Services and Fiesta Tax Service and admitted that from at least 2011 through 2014 she prepared and filed individual income tax returns for clients that reported materially false information, including false business income and losses, false credits and false deductions to inflate refunds.

Ramirez prepared approximately 1,163 tax returns and caused an intended tax loss to the U.S. of some $1,155,383.

Sentencing is Dec. 21, when she faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison, as well as a term of supervised release and monetary penalties.

Joliet, Ill.: Preparer Gerrie Cokenour, 42, has pleaded guilty to charges of filing fraudulent returns and defrauding Illinois out of more than $400,000.

Cokenour pleaded guilty to laundering money derived from a felony tax prep fraud and was sentenced to 42 months; the sentence will run concurrent to the 18-month federal prison sentence Cokenour is currently serving after pleading guilty to federal tax fraud charges.

In February, the Illinois attorney general charged Cokenour and Nycole Simms-Stevens, 43, also of Joliet, with theft of government property over $100,000 and entering false information on hundreds of Illinois income tax returns. Simms-Stevens case is currently pending.

Cokenour and Simms-Stevens worked for Tax Advocators Inc., a Joliet prep business owned by Cokenour. Between 2012 and 2015, the pair allegedly prepared 764 fraudulent state income tax returns that allegedly contained inflated and fraudulent property tax data and other fraudulent deductions.

The case was initiated after the AGs Consumer Fraud Bureau received complaints from consumers related to undisclosed tax preparation fees and stolen refunds.
Catchnews.com, an online news portal from The Patrika Group has recently completed one year of operation. With the online news landscape growing significantly thanks to increased mobile internet penetration and new consumption platforms including social media and content aggregators, Catch News has also grown rapidly, both in stature and reach.



Being one of the newest entrants into Indias buzzing digital landscape, the site has set itself apart from the rest by finding new ways to deliver the news while always keeping in mind the integrity of the story.



The results of this are clear for all to see. The website has witnessed phenomenal levels of growth in the past year  achieving a remarkable 3.1 M UVs (Comscore) in this period. Catch News is now comfortably ahead of competitors, including brands that have been around for far longer, such as Huffpost India, Scroll, Mid-day, Quint, Forbes India, Outlook and others. As per Similar Web, 61% of the website's traffic is from organic and direct sources.



Catch News is considered amongst the top 10 news websites for India's mobile users. 70% of Catch News' users are HNIs  a demographic with greater discretionary income and spending power. Another readership aspect unique to Catch News is that 45% of the website's readership is female, something that defies industry norms, where the figure generally never exceeds 25%.



About 30% of Catch's News users access the website from premium devices like the iPhone 6, the Samsung Galaxy 6 and models more advanced than both of these.



For its content, reach and audience, Catch News has also started to draw a lot of advertising enquiries from clients and agencies alike.



Some of our advertisers include British Airways, Yatra, Airtel, the Government of India, PSUs, and many more, who spend regularly on digital campaigns reaching out to HNI audience through Catch News' network.



The advertising focus has been on native and brand solutions as most of the advertisers want to connect more organically with Catch News' audience of intellectuals and influencers.



With its success over the past year, Catch News has proved, without a doubt, that there is serious demand for credible journalism in the digital news media space.





Vinny Ganju, COO, Catch News, says: In todays media ecosystem where content has become a commodity it makes me proud to see how Catch news in less than a year has been able to create a dominant position of a credible digital news platform. Catch News was launched with an intent to deliver original content with innovative content delivery experience to appeal to variety of readers and impulses. And looking at the growth in last 1 year where we have gone from zero to over 3 million UVs in less than 12 months clearly shows our idea of news has been well accepted. What readers like about Catch News is that the content ranges over everything from hard news to hard rock and how we handpick whats important, interesting and ignored news of the day giving a complete perspective.





Bharat Bhushan, Editor, Catch News, says: "It is this approach to news, constantly looking for ways to innovate, while keeping in mind traditional values of journalism, that set Catch News apart from a lot of other news portals. It's something that we hope to keep up as we move onward and upward.
Dainik Bhaskar won the WAN-IFRA(World Association of Newspapers and News publishers) World Young Reader Prize, Special Mention award for 2016 in the Public Service category for Ek Ped Ek Zindagi (One Tree, One Life initiative). Dainik Bhaskar is the only Indian publisher to win the award this year.

WAN-IFRAs World Young Reader Prize honors excellence in news publisher engagement of the youth in all ways on all platforms. The Public Service category honors a civic engagement project in areas such as the environment, literacy, youth civic involvement, etc. The World Young Reader Prizes are part of WAN-IFRAs efforts to recognize, encourage and disseminate innovative ideas and thinking to help build stronger and vital news media. World Young Reader Prize-winning strategies are celebrated and shared as they benefit not only the media companies and their young audiences but also society as a whole.

Dainik Bhaskar Groups Ek Ped Ek Zindagi (One Tree, One Life) campaign was run across 34 cities with an objective to motivate people to plant at least one sapling in their name and take care to nurture it till it becomes a fully grown tree. Under the aegis of this initiative, special emphasis was given to promote awareness among school children about the value and environmental importance of planting native trees and medicinal plants. 2.5 million saplings were planted across 14 states with an involvement of more than 1 million children, who were able to name and personalise their trees, thereby ensuring their sustainability.

Praising the initiative, the jury said While it may be impossible for other news publishers to match the massive numbers from India, this environ-friendly project offers good ideas that can be used anywhere on how to engage young people and work with them to make a meaningful and positive impact in their communities in ways that naturally resonate.

On this occasion, Girish Agarwal, Director, Dainik Bhaskar Group said It gives us immense pleasure to be recognized amongst the worlds best media initiatives focused towards youth engagement. It is a matter of pride and will provide impetus to our efforts towards delivering differentiated content for our readers sustainably. We are more than happy to see our reader-centric initiatives not only getting appreciated by our readers but also winning awards at different national and international forums.

The prizes will be awarded on December 1st, 2016 at the Newseum, the interactive museum in Washington, D.C. dedicated to free expression and the five freedoms of the U.S. First Amendment: Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly and Petition. Dainik Bhaskar has also been invited to an International strategic round-table on youth engagement and news literacy.
Dominos Pizza India, leader in the chained pizza segment, is committed to community service and extending support to members of the society. True to its purpose, on the auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, the company has launched a one-of-its kind initiative to make commuting between two pandals easy and comfortable for thousands of devotees in Mumbai.

As a part of the initiative, Dominos Pizza has organized AC buses to help thousands of devotees commute comfortably between two pandals. The pick and drop points for the buses will be the Dominos Pizza outlets across different locations in Mumbai. The buses will cover around 27 different locations of Mumbai - Boriwili West (End of Western Line), Ulhasnagar (End of Central Line) and Nerul (End of Harbor Line) on various days, starting September 6, till September 14.

One of the most awaited festivals in Maharashtra, Ganesh Chaturthi commenced on September 5th this year and will culminate onSeptember 15 with the immersion of Lord Ganeshas idols. Last year, the various pandals across Mumbai were visited by approximately 30 lakh Mumbaikars who celebrated the occasion with great fanfare, and the number is expected to grow further this year.

Speaking on the community service, Mr. S. Murugan Narayanaswamy, Senior Vice President  Marketing, Dominos Pizza India, said, Dominos Pizza India is a responsible member of the society. True to its commitment of serving the community, the company has organized air conditioned commuting options for people looking to travel to the different pandals. This is a small attempt by us to try and make Ganpati Darshan convenient for Mumbaikars and a little joy to their festivities.

Dominos Pizza Bus Route:
For the first time in India, three of Indias most influential women have come together to launch a film that celebrates the rise and triumph of the modern working woman. Virginia Sharma (Director, Marketing Solutions, LinkedIn India), Sairee Chahal(Entrepreneur and Founder at SHEROES) and Nandita Das (Actor and Director) have unveiled the latest film by work-wear jewellery brandMia by Tanishq across social media platforms today. This is the first time that a film has not been officially launched by a brand, but by a group of people who truly believe in the ideology of the film. This is more than just a commercial launch. This is the beginning of a movement. This film celebrates the modern working woman who is confident and brings her best to work  by looking good and doing great work. Mia by Tanishq isnt just empowering women anymore, but celebrating the ones that didnt need it in the first place. A powerful rap echoes throughout the film, narrating various incidences, while reiterating how each incident is the last thing on my mind.

These three influential women who unveiled the film today have carved their own path with undying passion and an immense drive to succeed, while rising above several obstacles along the way. Virginia Sharma, Sairee Chahal and Nandita Das are unstoppable, fierce, have broken several barriers and conquered new avenues. They want to tell each of you to rise above it all, and achieve greatness with sheer hard work and determination. Reach those goals in style, and dont be shy about looking your best at work. Mia presents a film which captures the changing attitude of todays working women and applauds them for being the best version of themselves.

The film captures instances from the workplaces and homes of six women. They vary in their professions and personalities, but yet, face similar situations every day. It attempts to show how none of the small-talk towards women at work, seems to matter to them. They are here for one thing and one thing alone; to bring their best to work. The film showcases driven, ambitious, strong women who bring their best not only in the way they work, but in the way they look at work too.

Sharing her thoughts on the powerful film, Ms. Deepika Tewari, General Manager  Marketing, Titan Jewellery Division, Titan Company Limited said, Mia by Tanishq has always empowered and celebrated the modern working woman. Being the strong-willed performer that she is, todays working woman rises above prejudices and brings her best self to work every single day. She does all this by looking her best, too. This undying spirit is what we have brought to life in the latest film for the brand, and we are proud to say that three of Indias most influential working women have launched the film for us. May this tribe of working women continue to grow and look great while doing great work..

Rajesh Ramaswamy, Director  Mullen Lowe Lintas said, When we first talked about Mia, we were quite kicked by the possibilities. But it was only when we thought some more, did we realize that working women dont really like to express themselves at the workplace. They think if they look good and dress up, they will be judged for that and not the work they do. We found this to be really disheartening, that such conversations and prejudices actually exist. And yet, we looked around and saw so many successful women with admirable careers, amongst our friends and colleagues. This film is a straight-from-the-heart, honest attempt to pay tribute to these women who rise above it all and get down to work, because thats all that matters

You can watch the film on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=qymYx4EhTbc&feature=youtu.be
LIQVD ASIA, a leading digital driven marketing communications agency has appointed Dharmesh Shah as its National Creative Director. Dharmeshs last stint was with FCB Ulka, where he spent close to 14 years with the agency.

Dharmesh joined FCB Ulka, Mumbai in 2002 as a Trainee Copy Writer. He was later promoted to Group Head(Creative) in 2006. In 2011, Dharmesh was moved to FCB Ulka Bangalore as Senior Creative Director and took on the creative responsibilities of the Bengaluru branch.

Commenting on the appointment, Arnab Mitra, Managing Director, LIQVD ASIA said, I am delighted to welcome Dharmesh on board. Dharmesh has an exceptional and widespread understanding of the creative process and has a genuine yearning to take on larger responsibilities and challenges. He is just the kind of talent that will take LIQVD ASIAs creative product to the next level. 

Dharmesh Shah, newly appointed National Creative Director, LIQVD ASIA had this to say, I am ecstatic to join LIQVD ASIA and be part of a team that is so passionate about everything digital. I am looking forward to creating some stimulating work for our clients.

Dharmesh further added, The move from traditional to digital has been a natural one for me and now brands too are prioritizing their ad spends and realize the immense potential and value digital communications adds to their marketing plans. It is a shift from creating content that is centered around the product/brand to creating good content that has the band in the backdrop.

During his 15 year long career, he has worked for several brands like ITC foods (all brands under Sunfeast) and their confectionery business, the entire portfolio of brands under Wipro Consumer Goods, Paragon, Levis, Amul, Tata Indicom, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services, Zee, Tata Chemicals, Nerolac Paints, LIC and ICICI Bank among others.

Dharmesh has won several awards & achievements, including: Best Language(other than English) Film for Minto Fresh(RAPA), Concerned Communicator Award by Rajasthan Patrika 2004- Ad for Literacy published in top 50 journal, CNBC TV 18 Autocar awards for the Best Car Commercial for Tata IndicaV2 Xeta (2007), Mint Wall Street Journal  Campaign of the month for Tata Indicom Unlimited Talktime film in 2007, Amul Probiotic Launch Campaign- Winning the International Dairy Federation best campaign at the World Dairy Summit (London). Some of the other campaigns under his name would be Tata Indicom launch, Dark Fantasy and several Santoor TV commercials.

Dharmesh is a trained diamond grader and has learnt the art of jewellery manufacturing.
Heathrow set a new passenger record for the month of August, welcoming 7.34 million passengers  including a triumphant TeamGB who were greeted by family and friends in Terminal 5 after being flowen back by British Airways from Rio de Janeiro.



Copyright Heathrow Airports Limited



Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said: We were delighted to welcome the golden heroes of TeamGB back from Rio.They have shown that Britain can be successful against tough international competition by backing our winners."



Copyright Heathrow Airports Limited



The use of larger, quieter and more efficient aircraft continued to be a driver for growth in passenger volumes which are up 0.7% for 2016 as airlines deploy more and more new generation Airbus A380s, A350s and Boeing 787s at Heathrow.



Within emerging markets, passenger volumes increased 9.1% to the Middle East, 5.8% to Latin America and 5.1% to East Asia.



Trade growth to fast-growing economies from Heathrow was particularly strong in August, with cargo to Latin America up 12%, the Middle East up 5.7% and East Asia up 3.7%.




NEW YORK, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- European Explosives & Weapons Detection Technologies Market - 2016-2022

Europe is facing a surge of ISIS-inspired explosives and weapon borne terror attacks and threats representing challenges with a far greater reach than their economic ones. This alarming situation shows no signs of declining. Europeans are experiencing a new disturbing reality in which explosives and weapon borne terror is their "new normal". An increase in orders for explosives and weapons detection products had already commenced after the November 2015 Paris carnage (e.g., France manufacturers of weapon detectors reported a 300% sales hike after the Paris carnage).

Based on 6 months of the "Europe's Terror & Migration Crisis Series" research, and over 110 face-to-face interviews and analyses, we forecast that the 2015-2020 market will grow at a

CAGR of 20.2%,

a 5-fold hike from the

3.9% CAGR during 2000-2015

. Such a growth rate has not been seen in the European market since the 2002-2008 years, following 9/11.

The "European Explosives & Weapons Detection Technologies Market  2016-2022" report + the bonus* "Global Homeland Security & Public Safety Industry  2016 Edition" report are the only comprehensive reviews of the market available today. The objective of this study is to provide a detailed, time-sensitive and reasoned intelligence report.

European Explosives & Weapons Detection Technologies Market - 2016-2022

European Explosives & Weapons Detection Technologies Market Report Core Submarkets

The market will undergo a major transformation from 2016-2022 through the following drivers:

The ISIS-inspired complex and well-planned Paris and Brussels carnage (162 killed and 668 injured) sent shockwaves across the continent.

The jihadists used both military grade weapons as well as hard-to-detect homemade improvised explosives (i.e. TATP).

The attacks shook the European governments and their security agencies unlike any other terror attacks since 9/11.

The west European security forces are ill-equipped to encounter 21st century ISIS-inspired and trained terrorists who use hard-to-detect improvised explosives, cutting-edge encrypted communication, make a remarkable use of social networks to recruit and train jihadists and conduct efficient pre-attack intelligence.

European security bodies will have to replace or upgrade their explosive screening systems to new systems capable of detecting improvised explosives like those used in Paris and Brussels (e.g., TATP).

With no "Magic Bullet" technology in sight, the challenge that remains unresolved is to find out how to stop terrorists from detonating explosives in crowded, unscreened public areas.

The terrorists were trained by ISIS ex-Iraqi military officers on planning and conducting modern day guerrilla warfare. Europol estimates that up to 5,000 European jihadists have returned to the EU after obtaining combat experience on the battlefields of the Middle East.

The EU and most of the rest of the European market for homeland security and public safety products are served by local companies. Even with a preference for locally manufactured products, foreign products can usually strongly compete on the basis of cost-performance. They do not encounter any EU direct trade barriers or quotas. Non-tariff, indirect trade barriers may be the approval process of dual use goods, which include many security market products.

This report is a resource for executives with interests in the market. It has been explicitly customized for the security industry and government decision-makers in order to enable them to identify business opportunities, developing technologies, market trends and risks, as well as to benchmark business plans.

Questions answered in this 254-page report + one* report include:

What will the market size and trends be during 2016-2022?

Which submarkets provide attractive business opportunities?

Who are the decision-makers?

What drives the customers to purchase solutions and services?

What are the customers looking for?

What are the present and pipeline technologies?

What is the market SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats)?

What are the challenges to market penetration & growth?

With 254 pages

, 40 tables and 86 figures, this report + one* report covers 12 Countries and Regions 5 technologies and 3 revenue source submarkets, offering for each of them 2015 data and assessments, and

2016-2022 forecasts and analyses.Why Buy this Report?

A. Market data is analyzed via 3 key independent perspectives:With a highly fragmented market we address the "money trail"  each dollar spent  via the following 3 viewpoints:By 12 Country Markets including:UKFranceThe Netherlands & BelgiumSweden, Norway, Finland & DenmarkGermanyAustria & SwitzerlandItalySpainPolandHungary & Czech RepublicRussiaRest of EuropeBy 3 Revenue Sources including:Products Sales RevenuesAfter Sale Revenues Including: Maintenance, Service, Upgrades & RefurbishmentOther Revenues Including: Planning, Training, Consulting, Contracted Services & Government Funded R&D

5 Technology Markets including:

Explosives Trace Detection (ETD)

Metal Detectors

Standoff Explosives & Weapon Detection Systems

Tomographic Explosive Detection Systems (EDS) & Security related BHS

Vehicle & Container Screening Systems

B. Detailed market analysis frameworks for the market sectors, including:

Market drivers & inhibitors

Business opportunities

SWOT analysis

Competitive analysis

Business environment

C. The report discusses directly or indirectly the following current and pipeline technologies:

Backscatter X-Ray Container-Vehicle Screening Systems

Coherent Scatter 2D X-Ray Systems

Desktop ETD Devices

Hand Held ETD Devices

Dual Energy LINAC X-Ray Container-Vehicle Screening Systems

Dual-View LINAC X-Ray Container-Vehicle Screening Systems

Gamma Ray Systems Container-Vehicle Screening Systems

Hybrid Tomographic EDS & 2D X-Ray Screening

IED Placement Detection

Ion Mobility Spectroscopy (IMS) technologies

Liquid Explosives Detection Devices

Luggage, Baggage & Mail Screening Systems

Metal detection Portals

Multimodal Biometric Systems

Narcotics Trace Detection Devices

Natural & Manmade Disaster Early Warning systems

People Screening MMWave (AIT) Portals

People Screening X-Ray Backscatter (AIT) Portals

Shoe Scanners

Standoff Explosives & Weapon Detection Systems

Standoff Suicide Bombers Detection

Suicide Bombers Borne IED (PBIED) Detectors

Suicide Bombers Detonation Neutralization

Tomographic Explosive Detection Systems (EDS)

Transportable X-Ray Screening Checkpoints

VBIED Detonation Neutralization

Vehicle & Container Screening Systems

Vehicle Borne IED (VBIED) Detectors

Vehicle Screening ETD Systems

X-Ray Container-Vehicle Screening Systems

X-ray Screening systems

D. The report includes the following 4 appendices:

Appendix A: European Homeland Security & Public Safety Related Product Standards

Appendix B: The European Union Challenges and Outlook

Appendix C: Europe Migration Crisis & Border Security

Appendix D: Abbreviations

E. The report addresses over 300 European Homeland Security and Public Safety standards (including links)

F. The supplementary* "Homeland Security and Public Safety Industry  2016 Edition" report provides the following insights and analysis of the industry including:

The Global Industry 2016 status

Effects of Emerging Technologies on the Industry

The Market Trends

Vendor  Government Relationship

Geopolitical Outlook 2016-2022

The Industry Business Models & Strategies

Market Entry Challenges

The Industry: Supply-Side & Demand-Side Analysis

Market Entry Strategies

Price Elasticity

Past Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) Events

G. The supplementary* "Global Homeland Security and Public Safety Industry  2016 Edition" report provides a May 2016 updated extensive data (including Company Profile, Recent Annual Revenues,

Key Executives, homeland Security and Public Safety Products, and Contact Info.) of the leading 119 Homeland Security and Public Safety Vendors including:

3M3i-MIND3VR3xLOGICABBAccentureACTi CorporationADT Security ServicesAeroVironment Inc.Agent Video IntelligenceAirbus Defence and SpaceAlcatel-Lucent (Nokia Group)ALPHAOPENAmerican Science & Engineering Inc.AnixterAralia SystemsAT&T Inc.Augusta SystemsAustalAvigilon CorporationAwareAxisAxxonSoftAyonixBAE SystemsBioEnable Technologies Pvt Ltd.BioLink SolutionsBoeingBollinger Shipyards, IncBosch Security SystemsBruker CorporationBTCameroCassidianCelPlanChina Security & Surveillance, Inc.Cisco SystemsCitilogCognitec Systems GmbHComputer Network Limited (CNL)Computer Sciences CorporationCrossMatchDieboldDRS Technologies Inc.DVTelElbit Systems Ltd.Elsag DatamatEmerson ElectricEricssonESRIFaceFirstFinmeccanica SpAFiretideFulcrum Biometrics LLCG4SGeneral Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc.General Dynamics CorporationGetac Technology CorporationHanwha TechwinHarris CorporationHewlett Packard EnterpriseHexagon ABHoneywell International Inc.Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.IBMIndigoVisionIntel SecurityIntuVision InciOmniscientIPConfigureIPS Intelligent Video AnalyticsIris ID Systems, Inc.IriTech Inc.Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd.ISSL-3 Security & Detection SystemsLeidos, Inc.Lockheed Martin CorporationMACROSCOPMDSMer groupMilestone Systems A/SMirasysMotorola Solutions, Inc.National InstrumentsNEC CorporationNICE SystemsNorthrop Grumman CorporationNuance Communications, Inc.ObjectVideoPanasonic CorporationPelcoPivot3ProximexQinetiQ LimitedRapiscan Systems, Inc.RaytheonRockwell Collins, Inc.Safran S.A.Salient SciencesSchneider ElectricSeeTecSiemensSmart China (Holdings) LimitedSmiths Detection Inc.Sony Corp.Speech Technology CenterSuprema Inc.Synectics PlcTandu Technologies & Security Systems Ltd.Texas InstrumentsTextron Inc.Thales GroupTotal RecallUnisys CorporationVerintVialogy LLCVigilant TechnologyZhejiang Dahua Technology

Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p03837916-summary/view-report.html

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Inflazome (inflazome.com) has successfully closed a Series A financing round for up to US$17/15 million. Two leading life sciences venture capital firms, Novartis Venture Funds and Fountain Healthcare Partners, co-led the financing.

Inflazome is developing inhibitors of the inflammasome, a compelling biological target that regulates our innate immune response, now associated with a wide variety of diseases. Following the closure of the financing round, Florent Gros (Managing Director of Novartis Venture Fund), and Dr. Manus Rogan (Co-Founder and Managing Director at Fountain Healthcare Partners) joined the Board of Directors.

Commenting on the launch of Inflazome, Dr. Matt Cooper, Co-Founder and CEO of Inflazome, stated Inflammasome activation is now implicated in many diseases driven by chronic inflammation, from Parkinsons to Asthma. These conditions are often inadequately treated by current therapies. We want to help people with debilitating diseases facing limited or no treatment options.

Prof. Luke ONeill Co-Founder and CSO added, Animal models and clinical data suggests there is tremendous opportunity to stop the cycle of chronic inflammation in a range of diseases. We believe that targeting the inflammasome has tremendous potential for a wide range of inflammatory diseases where current treatments are ineffective.

Dr. Manus Rogan, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Fountain Healthcare Partners said Considering the breadth and depth of possible applications, the commercial potential for a successful small molecule inhibitor of this key target is clearly in the billions of dollars range.

Florent Gros, Managing Director at Novartis Venture Fund said, We have searched extensively for inhibitors of the inflammasome. We are very excited by Inflazome's prospects; the company has outstanding assets, expertise and capabilities.

Inflazome

Utilizing the scientific expertise of our founders and advisors, Inflazome is leading the way in developing orally available drugs to address clinical unmet needs in inflammatory diseases by targeting the inflammasome, which is now thought to drive many chronic inflammatory conditions.

Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, Inflazome was founded by leading academics Prof. Matt Cooper, The University of Queensland (Australia) and Prof. Luke ONeill Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), following a highly productive joint collaboration. Joining the founding management team as VP of Business Development is experienced industry executive, Dr. Jeremy Skillington, formally of Genentech. inflazome.com

Founding investors are Fountain Healthcare Partners (Dublin, Ireland) and Novartis Venture Fund (Basel, Switzerland).

Fountain Healthcare Partners

Fountain Healthcare Partners is a life science focused venture capital fund with 176 million ($200 million) under management. Within the life science sector, specific areas of interest to Fountain include specialty pharma, medical devices, biotechnology and diagnostics. The firm deploys the majority of its capital in Europe, with the balance in the United States. Fountains main office is in Dublin, Ireland, with a second office in New York. fh-partners.com

The Novartis Venture Fund

The Novartis Venture Fund (NVF) manages over $700 million in committed capital. NVF invests in companies that have the potential to change a core therapeutic field or explore new business areas that will be critical to patient care. NVFs primary interest is in the development of novel therapeutics and platforms as well as medical devices, diagnostics, and delivery systems. The Funds invest for financial objectives at all stages, but prefers to invest in the early-stages of company development. With investment professionals located in Basel, Switzerland and Cambridge, MA the team has extensive experience in pharmaceutical R&D and venture capital. nvfund.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160911005008/en/

FTI Consulting for Inflazome

Jonathan Neilan

jonathan.neilan@fticonsulting.com

+353 1 6633686

or

Patrick Berkery

patrick.berkery@fticonsulting.com

+353 1 6633684
RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) has announced the appointment of Mr Clement LAU FRICS as the new chair of its Hong Kong board. He will serve a two-year term, effective 1 September 2016. Mr Lau previous served as vice chair of RICS Hong Kong Board.

Mr LAU is the Head of Development and Valuations of Commercial Property Group for Hongkong Land, a leading property investment, management and development group. He leads commercial property developments and investments and oversees valuations of the companys commercial portfolio, and the performance of its hotel properties. Mr LAU previously worked for the Lands Department of the Hong Kong SAR Government and Airport Authority Hong Kong.

As Chair, Mr LAU will lead the Hong Kong Board by supporting the adoption of RICS qualification and professional standards, promoting diversity of the profession and attract the best future talents as well as collaborating with Hong Kong government and public bodies to establish RICS as the leading voice in issues that concern our profession.

It is an honour to be the chair of the Hong Kong board, said new RICS Hong Kong Board Chair Mr Clement LAU FRICS. We live in an increasingly globalised world, which requires us to open up our minds and be prepared for new opportunities. The Hong Kong Board has been committed to support the development of our property and construction markets. Contribution from all Chartered Surveyors is also crucial in order to achieve these. I encourage all members to shoulder their support to RICS.

Mr LAU holds a bachelors degree in building from The University of New South Wales (UNSW) and a Masters of Business Administration from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He is a Member of the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors (HKIS) and the Hong Kong Business Valuation Forum (HKBVF). He also serves as a director of the UNSW Hong Kong Foundation Board and a member of the advisory committee of the Urban Studies Programme under the Faculty of Social Science, CUHK.

The RICS Hong Kong Board also welcomes three new board members on 1 September 2016. They are Mr Philip CHEN, designate-director of property at The Hong Kong Jockey Club, Mr Dave HALLAM, head of business advisory for Hong Kong and Macau at ARCADIS, and Ms Rita WONG, international director of valuation advisory services at Jones Lang LaSalle Ltd (JLL).

About RICS

Confidence through Professional Standards

RICS promotes and enforces the highest professional qualifications and standards in the development and management of land, real estate, construction and infrastructure. Our name promises the consistent delivery of standards  bringing confidence to the markets we serve.

We accredit 118,000 professionals and any individual or firm registered with RICS is subject to our quality assurance. Their expertise covers property, asset valuation, real estate management; the development of infrastructure; and the management of natural resources, such as mining, farms and woodland. From environmental assessments and building controls to negotiating land rights in an emerging economy; if our members are involved the same professional standards and ethics apply.

We believe that standards underpin effective markets. With up to seventy per cent of the worlds wealth bound up in land and real estate, our sector is vital to economic development, helping to support stable, sustainable investment and growth around the globe.

With offices covering the major political and financial centres of the world, our market presence means we are ideally placed to influence policy and embed professional standards. We work at a cross-governmental level, delivering international standards that will support a safe and vibrant marketplace in land, real estate, construction and infrastructure, for the benefit of all.

We are proud of our reputation and work hard to protect it, so clients who work with an RICS professional can have confidence in the quality and ethics of the services they receive.

About RICS Asia

RICS Asia supports a network of over 20,000 individual professionals across the Asia region with an objective to help develop the land, property and construction markets in these countries, by introducing professional standards, best practice education and training. We promote RICS and our members as the natural advisors on all property matters. We also ensure that services and career development opportunities are provided to members.

RICS Asia region serves local member associations located in Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, The Peoples Republic of China, Hong Kong SAR, Taiwan and South Korea. It also has members working across the region such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Kiribati, Laos PDR, Macao SAR, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, The Maldives, The Philippines, Timor East and Vietnam. For more information, please visit: www.rics.org.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912005779/en/

RICS Asia Public Relations Representatives

Ms. Esther KAM, 3159 2978

esther.kam@creativegp.com

or

Ms Penn LEUNG, 3159 2943

penn.leung@creativegp.com
NEW YORK, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Options Group, a leading global executive search and strategic consulting firm, announces its acquisition of Broadstreet Global, a financial services search and strategic consulting firm based in Sydney, Australia. Broadstreet Global specializes in search and consulting for investment banking, capital markets, structured products, alternative asset classes and insurance. Its client base includes some of the world's largest financial institutions, regional banks, asset managers, insurers and selective boutiques. Broadstreet Global's founder, Adam Gillibrand, will join Options Group Australia as a Partner. "Australia is a critical part of Asia-Pacific and will be a key driver of growth for the firm. As the centre of gravity of the global economy shifts, Options Group's presence in Australia will help the company serve all of the region's talent markets and will open significant opportunities over the next few years for our clients and ourselves," noted Adam Gillibrand.

"This transaction, combined with our acquisition of Whitney Correlate in Hong Kong last year, highlights our commitment to the Asia-Pacific region. We've increased our investments in our global platform and, with our larger presence in the region, we expect to continue to win market share," said Mike Karp, co-Founder and CEO. Bob Reed, co-Founder and President added, "Stuart Halfen, who oversees our Australia practice, was instrumental in this transaction. Stuart, Adam and their teams' areas of expertise are complementary. We look forward to their continued success with our Asia-Pacific teams in Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Mumbai as well as with our significant global research platform."

Options Group is headquartered in New York, with offices in London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Bogota, Frankfurt, Mumbai, Singapore, Sydney, and Zurich.

www.optionsgroup.com

ABOUT OPTIONS GROUP

Founded in 1992, Options Group is a leading global executive search and strategic consulting firm for the financial services industry. Since 2000, we have maintained a local presence on five continents and have placed thousands of mid- to senior-level professionals in all areas of the financial services industry at a range of institutions. With over 140 consultants and market intelligence professionals worldwide, Options Group has a thorough knowledge of key competencies in the financial industry and is at the cutting edge of global hiring services and compensation trends for securities, investment banking, hedge funds, asset management, and information technology.






LONDON, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Peruvian investors and Perus top public officials to travel to London in investment roadshow during Q3 of 2016

Peru's investment sector prepares an investment roadshow in the UK market to promote among London and international investors. The Andean country's top companies will promote investment projects, business climate and investment opportunities.

Francis Stenning, president of inPERU believes that with Brexit, the UKs withdrawal from the European Union, will not interfere with Anglo-Peruvian investment relationships.

inPERU, a non-profit Peruvian association founded by the main business organizations of the Peruvian market: APEF, APESEG, ASBANC, Asociacion de AFP, BVL, CAVALI, CONFIEP and PROCAPITALES, is the country investment platform to promote foreign investment and strength the relations between the international markets and Peruvian companies. InPERU and its members are showing interest in the City of London investors community.

Francisco Stenning De Lavalle, inPERU chairman and currently CEO of the Lima Stock Exchange stated: "It is crucial for the private and public sectors to be linked and that the rest of the world as well as agents linked to the markets and projects see that there is a positive coexistence between these two sectors. We consider this to be the virtue of our model and we believe that it is important to maintain it."

According to ProInversion, the UK is one of the top investors in Peru, representing 18% of Peru's Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and accounting to a sum of 4.422 million USD. This investment goes on to fund many sectors, two of which are most notable, mining and tourism, representing 41% and 39% of foreign investments, respectively.

Another fact worth noting is that the UK is one of the heaviest investing countries when it comes to funding Peruvian businesses.
Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "U.S. Petroleum Market - Analysis And Forecast to 2020" report to their offering.

The report provides an in-depth analysis of the U.S. petroleum market. It presents the latest data of the market size and volume, domestic production, exports and imports, price dynamics and turnover in the industry. In addition, the report contains insightful information about the industry, including industry life cycle, business locations, productivity, employment and many other crucial aspects. The Company Profiles section contains relevant data on the major players in the industry.

The U.S. owns a 12% share (based on USD) of global petroleum exports, tied for first place in the world together with Russia (12%). In 2015, the U.S. exported 79.4 billion USD, 32% under the previous year. Overall, from 2007 to 2015, U.S. petroleum exports showed mixed dynamics. A significant drop in 2009 was followed by rocketing growth over the next four years, before losing its momentum in 2014. In 2015, there was a precipitous drop of the export value, clearly attributable to the sharp fall in oil prices.

In 2010, U.S. petroleum exporters almost regained their pre-recession level achieved in 2008. Even after the wild fluctuations of recent years, exports still remained higher than their 2008 level.

The drop of exports in value terms significantly reduced revenue, which negatively affected the development of the industry and investments in oil refining.

In 2015, the main destinations of U.S. petroleum exports were Mexico (19%), Canada (12%), the Netherlands (6%) and Colombia (6%). The share exported to Mexico (+7 percentage points) and Colombia (+5 percentage points) increased, while the share sent to Canada illustrated negative dynamics (-2 percentage points) from 2007 to 2015.

Before 2010, the U.S. was a net importer of petroleum. Over the years, however, that deficit not only evaporated but turned into a 25 billion USD trade surplus in 2015, driven by rapidly rising exports.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Introduction

2. Executive Summary

3. Market Overview to 2020

4. Domestic Production 2008-2015

5. Imports 2007-2015

6. Exports 2007-2015

7. Competitive Landscape

8. Company Profiles

Alon Refining Krotz Springs

Alon USA Energy

Alon USA Partners

BP



Calumet Specialty Products Partners

Chc McPherson Refinery

Chevron Corporation

Cvr Energy

Cvr Refining

Delek US Holdings

Exxon Mobil Corporation

Hollyfrontier Corporation

Koch Industries

Marathon Petroleum Corporation

Murphy Oil Usa

Northern Tier Energy

Paulsboro Refining Company

Pbf Energy

Phillips 66 Company

Placid Holding Company

Placid Refining Company

Shell Petroleum

The Sinclair Companies

United Acquisition Corp.

United Refining

United Refining Company

Valero Energy Corporation

Valero Refining-New Orleans

Western Refining

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/3t6mqg/u_s_petroleum

Related Topics: Gasoline and Diesel

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912006300/en/

Research and Markets

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USAF. (U.S. Air Force Graphic by Rosario "Charo" Gutierrez)

It takes countless years of education, multiple deployments and temporary duty assignments to become a pararescue team leader.The 68th Rescue Flight recently implemented the Combat Leaders Course, a 65-day course for 10 pararescuemen in which they develop their leadership abilities while obtaining their 7-level certification.The 68th RQF created the course, with Air Combat Command guidance, not only to standardize the way team leaders were trained but also to provide the Air Force with a center of excellence that is solely dedicated to supporting the guardian angel weapon systems training and operational requirements. Guardian angel is comprised of combat rescue officers; pararescuemen; survival, evasion, resistance and escape specialists; and specially trained support personnel dedicated to one of the Air Forces primary functions of personnel recovery and combat search and rescue.Historically, guardian angel units were forced to conduct upgrade training internally, said Capt. Michael Ellingsen, the 68th RQF commander. The 48th Rescue Squadron had their own method of training their team leaders, while the 58th RQS at Nellis (Air Force Base, Nevada), and the 38th RQS out at Moody (AFB, Georgia), also had theirs. Theyre all trained independently and to different standards, whereas now the process is more efficient and effective for the entire weapon system as a whole.The thought process behind CLC was to identify what unique skill sets do we want our future team leaders and pararescuemen to possess, and what capability do we want them to provide to the squadron commanders and the combatant commanders downrange, Ellingsen continued.The 10 students brought diversity to the course as they represented seven different major commands displaying a multitude of backgrounds and experiences. The knowledge and skills they learned during the course and from each other will be used in a variety of combat operations around the world.The students planned their missions and executed a multitude of scenarios, including a jump mission with an overland movement, a mass casualty, and a technical rescue with the rotary wing exfiltration, all within the climates of southern Arizona and California. Aside from daily course tasks, peer performance feedbacks and intelligence briefings were included as well.The environment  its like theyre downrange, said Staff Sgt. Steven Chubb, the 68th RQF NCO in charge of intelligence analysis. Theres a lot of helicopter landing zones that the guys can actually use and implement. (There are) a lot of things for them to do (during) their training and its away from everybody. So, if they want to do things like a real-life convoy or an improvised explosive device explosion, they can do that.The current class is the third iteration of pararescuemen to take on the course.This unit is unique in the fact that its the first of its kind to be implemented in the Air Force, Ellingsen said. Were not a traditional rescue squadron in the sense that we support deployment taskings. This unit provides a specific operational capability for the guardian angel weapon system in order to support the combatant commanders.
PAR program issues EMD request for proposal

On Sep. 12 the Air Force officially requested a proposal from Boeing to complete detailed design, modification, test and fielding of two aircraft that will provide presidential worldwide airlift support starting in the 2024 timeframe. A third production representative aircraft is still under consideration for future procurement.



The request acts upon the authorization received from Frank Kendall, the under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, continuing a deliberate step-by-step approach to reduce program and cost risk. By releasing the RFP now, Boeing will be able to apply the results of the ongoing risk reduction activities to the proposal for the contract modification, which will be the preponderance of the acquisition program.



This is a significant step forward for this program, which emphasizes cost control and risk reduction, in balance with system performance, to meet the requirements of the presidential mission, said Col. Amy McCain, the Presidential Aircraft Recapitalization program manager. We are committed to providing the (Executive) Office of the President of the United States with safe, reliable air transportation that provides high levels of security and communication capability.



To help ensure an affordable program, Boeing will modify the Federal Aviation Administration-certified commercial Boeing 747-8 aircraft to meet presidential operational requirements. The modifications to the 747-8 will include electrical power upgrades, a mission communication system, a medical facility, executive interior, a self-defense system, and autonomous ground operations capabilities.



The results of our ongoing risk reduction efforts are providing data that we can use to make sound decisions regarding the requirements and design trade-offs. These requirements decisions will then be applied to Boeings EMD proposal, McCain said. We are focused on driving out costs where we can, to ensure this program is affordable.



The PAR program will replace the VC-25A in the 2024 timeframe through a highly tailored acquisition program. Parts obsolescence and diminishing sources for VC-25A replacement parts are driving increased costs and increasing out of service times for heavy maintenance to maintain FAA airworthiness standards. That time has already grown to well over a year per heavy maintenance cycle, significantly limiting availability for presidential support. The PAR program requirements are documented in the capability development document, which was approved in November 2014. The acquisition strategy to replace Air Force One was approved by USD(AT&L) on Sept. 4, 2015.


Taking their fight for freedom from the oppressive establishment in Islamabad, Balochistan activists have decided to knock on the doors of the United Nations.

Balochistan activist Dilshad Baloch said, We will now protest on September 13 outside the UN General Assembly.

Every Indian around the world supporting us, its great. We now look to intensify our protests, he added.

Mr Baloch is a prominent freedom movement activists and was recently in New Delhi to seek more support for their cause.

Praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for lending support to the oppressed Balochis, he had requested other world leaders to take notice of the genocide in Balochistan.

Following Prime Ministers speech on Independence Day, the United States had also expressed concern over the human rights situation in Balochistan and said it has been consistently asking all parties in Pakistan to work out their differences peaceably and through a valid political process.

Union Minister Jitendra Singh had last week asserted that Balochistan is a very important security concern for India and said Pakistan should put an end to operational atrocities unleashed by Islamabad in the region.

Balochistan is a very important security concern for India, Singh said.

Singh was replying to a question about Indias reaction to the atrocities and operational terror by Pakistan on the people of Balochistan.

You cannot allow your neighbourhood to be on fire because sooner or later it is going to impact you, you cannot build a heaven inside and leave a hell outside, the minister said.

Singh said that it is example of a boundary wall with another house and the other house being constantly in trouble and sooner or later you run a risk of being impacted by it.
The Cabinet today cleared the process, formation and functioning of the GST Council, which will decide on the rate of tax under the new indirect taxation regime.

The Council, to be headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising of representative of all 29 states and two union territories, will have to be set up by November 11.

It will decide on the tax rate, exemptions and threshold limits in the new indirect tax regime, which is expected to kick in from April 1, 2017.

The government has notified September 12, as the date from which the procedure for setting up of the GST Council will be initiated and which will be completed within 60 days.

According to sources, the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today approved the process, formation and functioning of the GST Council.

The Cabinet also decided on the constitution of the GST Secretariat and the officers who will implement the decisions of the Council.

The GST Council will be chaired by Union Finance Minister and have a Minister of State for Finance and all state finance ministers as its members.

While the Centre will have one-third vote, states together will have a two-third say. To adopt a resolution, three-fourth majority would be required.

The approval came on the day when the Constitution Amendment Act on GST came into effect.

President Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent to the bill last week, paving the way for setting up of a GST Council.

GST is a single indirect tax, which will subsume most of the central and state levies such as Value Added Tax (VAT), Excise Duty, Service Tax, Central Sales Tax, additional Customs Duty and special additional duty of customs.

Parliament on August 8 had passed the bill, which then went to the states for ratification. A Constitution Amendment Bill needs to be ratified by the legislative Assemblies of at least 50 per cent of the 29 states and 2 union territories.

The bill was sent to the Presidents secretariat after as many as 19 states  BJP-ruled Assam being the first  ratified the bill.

The other states, which passed the legislation include Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Nagaland, Maharashtra, Haryana, Sikkim, Mizoram, Telangana, Goa, Odisha and Rajasthan.
The Saudi-dominated Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on Monday condemned a law passed by the United States Congress last week that would allow the families of victims of the September 11 attacks to sue the kingdoms government for damages.

The head of the six-nation GCC said the law was contrary to the foundations and principles of relations between states and the principle of sovereign immunity enjoyed by states, GCC Secretary General Abdullatif al-Zayani said in a statement.

Qatar and the United Arab Emirates also issued condemnations of the bill.

Such laws will negatively affect the international efforts and international cooperation to combat terrorism, UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said in a statement carried by state news agency WAM.

The US House of Representatives passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, known as JASTA, on Friday but the White House has threatened to veto the measure.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers who crashed airliners in New York, outside Washington and in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001, were Saudi nationals, but the Saudi government has strongly denied responsibility and has lobbied against the bill.
Your editorial Acid attack: Finally Justice prevailed clearly shows that the male perpetrators disfigure women as a form of revenge. They get hold of the corrosive chemical without difficulty, and have little fear of the law. The victims die a hundred deaths.

The cases of different victims of acid attack, brings the focus back on the need for effective monitoring and regulation. With acids being available in the market, for purposes ranging from painting, use in car batteries, in de-weeding and as floor-cleaning substances, they easily fall in the hands of those who want to wreak vengeance. Just the regulation of acid sales is, however, not enough. While there are scores of factories manufacturing acid without a licence, illegal sales of the deadly liquid are quite commonplace too. Moreover, the perpetrators of acid attacks, among the most heinous of crimes, deserve the severest punishment. It is necessary to impart and inculcate moral values and streamline the police and prosecuting agencies. Leaders cutting across party affiliations should show the requisite political will, courage and conviction to deal ruthlessly with crimes against women. Instead of preaching always now it is time to awake and do something for ourselves and for society otherwise such incident will continue to occur and we all here will have to repent after that. Only holistic education system and moral upliftment can bring the change in the society for this burning gender-sensitive issue.

Vinod C. Dixit

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
[dropcap]U[/dropcap]nrest has been happening in Kashmir from last two months, which is also known as the Burhan Wanis aftermath, transformed in a series of violent protests in the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir. The violence started with the killing of Burhan Wani, a militant commander of Hizbul Mujahideen by Indian Army on 8th July, this year. After his killing, anti-India protests started in Kashmir Valley. Protesters defied curfew with attacks on security forces and public properties. Curfew was imposed in all 10 districts of the valley on 15 July and mobile services were suspended by the government. Kashmir valley remained under 53 days of consecutive curfew which was lifted from all areas on 31 August, however was reimposed in some areas the next day. Jammu and Kashmir Police and Indian paramilitary forces used pellet guns, tear gas shells, rubber bullets, as well as assault rifles, resulting in the deaths of more than 60 civilians, with over 7,000 injured. Two security personnel also died while over 4,000 personnel were injured in the riots. One Wani created ripples in the Valley while another Wani who is also from the Valley top the recruitment exam and joined the Border Security Force (BSF). One led to protest while another one led to protect people here in Kashmir.

Twenty six year old, Nabeel Ahmad Wani will join the largest border guarding force as an assistant commandant. Wani was accompanied by Director General of BSF K K Sharma when he met Home Minister Rajnath Singh. Rajnath Singh also introduced Wani to top officials, including NSA Ajit Doval, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and others, who had come for a meeting with Singh during that time. Wani is learnt to have said that he felt that unemployment was the biggest problem being faced by the youth. He said it could only be solved by education. BSF sources said, Wani has studied engineering from a Pathankot college and says that he always wanted to join defence forces. He is currently serving as a junior engineer in Udhampur. He is insisting his people to be educated to choose the right path. Inspite of all odds in his native state, he chose to serve the nation and his state.

On the other hand, Burhan Wani was a commander of the terrorist organization Hizbul Mujahideen. He was popular among the Kashmiris due to his activity on social media and had issued many photos and videos on social media against Indian rule in Kashmir. He was killed in an encounter with the Indian security forces in July. Widespread protests have erupted in the Kashmir valley after his death which has been described as the worst unrest in the region since 2010.

Burhan was born in Dadsara village of Tral area of Pulwama, Jammu & Kashmir to Muzaffar Ahmad Wani, a principal of a higher secondary school and Maimoona Muzaffar, a postgraduate of science who teaches the Quran in her village. He had four siblings, including his elder brother Khalid Muzaffar Wani, sister Iram Muzaffar and two younger brothers, one of whom is Naveed Alam. Burhan fled from his home on 16 October 2010 and became a militant at the age of 15. He had reportedly decided to join the militancy due to an incident in which security personnel beat him up, along with his friend and Khalid, according to his father and his friend who claimed to have been accompanying him when the incident occurred. He joined Hizbul Mujahideen in 2011, and was popular on social media.

Khalid was killed by the Indian Army on 13 April 2015, when he had gone along with three friends to meet his brother.

The army claimed that Khalid was a militant sympathizer who had taken his friends to get them recruited and was killed in an encounter by the security forces. The three friends of Khalid were arrested by the army. The Jammu & Kashmir police couldnt confirm or deny whether he and his friends had joined militancy. His father and residents of his home village rejected that he was a militant, claiming that his body didnt bear any bullet wounds and he was tortured because he was the brother of a militant. Government of India had announced Rs. 1 million bounties for finding Burhan Wani. In a video released in June 2016, he assured the Amarnath pilgrims that they wont be attacked by the militants. In addition, he also threatened to attack Sainik colonies because of his belief that it was an attempt to change the demography of the valley to that of Israel. He opposed separate colonies for Kashmiri Pandits saying that they can come live on their own land but an Israel-like situation wont be allowed in Kashmir. He threatened that more attacks will take place against men in uniform and also warned the police of the state to stay out of their way.

The tales of two Wanis are different but both are making headlines.

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@afternoonvoice.com)
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday sacked Mining Minister Gayatri Prajapati and Panchayati Raj Minister of State Raj Kishore, an official said.

A letter recommending the sacking has been sent to governor Ram Naik for acceptance, a senior aide informed.

Prajapati faces a slew of serious corruption charges including kickbacks in mining contracts, land-grabbing and extortion while Kishore was accused of land-grabbing.

Prajapati was considered very close to Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The move comes following the Allahabad High Court (HC) ordering a CBI probe into allegations of illegal mining in the state.

The state government had requested the court to withdraw its order of the CBI probe into the illegal mining charges but the court had refused to yield.

The court will hear the case again later on Monday.

Prajapati openly flaunted his property worth crores to people.

Senior IPS official Amitabh Thakur and his social activist wife Nutan Thakur, who launched a drive to expose the minister, were hounded and Amitabh was even allegedly threatened to back off by Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The threat was recorded on phone by the IPS officer and was placed before the courts.

Raj Kishore too has a tainted past and had been on radar of central government agencies for his acts of commission and sources say the Chief Minister did not want his image to be tainted by conduct of his ministers.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has achieved yet another milestone and launched the INSAT-3DR, an advanced weather satellite that will provide variety of meteorological services. China on the other hand failed in their attempt to launch such a mission and it is yet another feather in our scientists cap. Since BJP took over space missions are getting momentum and we are able to challenge the world with advanced technology and will to learn the know how including better night pictures of low cloud and fog. Further the sea surface temperature can be captured with better accuracy. It is notable that we have the current generation of earth observation satellite of cartosat 2 series.

Chitra Krishnan

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
September 12, 2016

Ahmed Moussa, an Egyptian TV host with ties to the regime, has fiercely criticized Twitter users who oppose President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi running for a second term in office on his show Ala Masuleety. Moussa, who is known as a staunch defender of the regime, conducted a poll on Twitter Aug. 25, asking, Do you agree that Sisi should run for a second term in office? The answer shocked him, as 81% opposed and only 19% agreed.

It all began Aug. 23, when Sisi announced on his official Facebook page that he plans to run for a second presidential term, but only if Egyptians want him to. I can never go against the will of the Egyptian people. I am at their disposal. If their will requires me to run for another term, I will do so, he wrote.

On the same day, Moussa introduced the hashtag #WeCanNeverDoWithoutYouMrPresident to Facebook. He called on his audience and fans to use it as much as they could to let everyone know how much the people love Sisi and send the message that Egyptians want him not only to continue in office, but to run for a second term as well.

The following day, Moussa expressed his joy at the response to his appeal, saying, I would like to thank everyone who interacted with the page of our show. I found over 1,000 comments, and we received many messages. Everyone expressed their opinion in absolute freedom.

He continued, Starting tonight, after the success of the hashtag that was first announced on our show, we will have a new Twitter feed. I call for all my audience to express their opinions freely on my official Twitter feed.

Moussa immediately posted a poll: Do you support the candidacy of President Sisi for a second term? The early results showed objection to a second run, and as more voters joined, the poll reached 81% for no, while 19% voted yes. Moussa decided to shut down the account less than 48 hours after it was first created. Moussa said, I requested the shutdown because of the indecent comments I received. These people lack morals and have nothing to do with patriotism. I found garbage. The families of these people need to raise them again from the beginning. I have never used the words I saw, not even once in my life. I entered a wrong place in which I cannot take part. I cannot stay any longer in this garbage bin.

In an attempt to cast doubt on the poll results, Moussa said, By the end of the day, the voting changed in a strange way, with 81% voting against the president, and 19% for a second term. It is of no surprise that most negative voters reside in Qatar and Turkey and support the Muslim Brotherhood.

He added, Such countries are known for embracing and defending the Muslim Brothers. They want to deceive the world into believing that this result reflects what Egyptians want. This is incorrect.

Moussa delivered a stern message to Twitter users who oppose the president and his re-election, saying, Elections in Egypt are not run from Facebook or Twitter. The typical Egyptian citizen and the large majority of Egyptians are those who cast their votes at ballot boxes. Social media users only represent 1% of those who actually go to the ballot, and the 97% of voters are a broad base that really loves the Egyptian flag. Moussa concluded by insisting that he would never stop defending the state and the president because he loves this country and its flag" and "will never abandon it for traitors and [foreign] agents.

Regarding whether the polls on social media indicate public opinion trends, Samy El-Sherif, a media professor at Cairo University, told Al-Monitor, Social media users for sure affect public opinion and contribute to directing citizens toward what they see as correct, especially in Arab societies, where ignorance and illiteracy rates are high and political participation rates are deteriorating. Sherif continued, At the same time, we cannot simply consider the results of this poll to represent how Egyptians think of the re-election of the president, not even when the poll is run by professional polling agencies, because surveys require a society that enjoys awareness and education, which Arab societies often lack.

Sherif cited the example of the January 25 Revolution, when the people revolted against President Hosni Mubaraks policies. Social media websites contributed to shifting sands before the revolution and made a great contribution in urging the people to revolt and mobilizing the citizens against policies of the regime, as most social media users follow the political scene and are well-educated. Therefore, it is easier for them to affect public opinion, especially in villages and towns, Sherif explained.

Sherif believes that some TV hosts and politicians exploit the deteriorating political culture in which many Egyptians live to promote policies that serve their own interests and agendas. Such exploitation does not serve a democratic community or one that is progressing toward democracy. He added, I would prefer not to mention names. I am speaking in general. This is the culture we lack.

Sisis popularity is decreasing amid the economic crises that face the government. The local currency is devaluating and prices and the budget deficit are increasing. Sherif told Al-Monitor, No one can judge the presidents popularity at the current moment, while he still has about two years left in office. We do not know yet what will happen. If we, for the sake of argument, presume his popularity is decreasing now, this is likely to change in the next two years. Therefore, we have to wait for his term to end before we can talk about future elections.
September 12, 2016

Iranian officials and media have welcomed the Syrian cease-fire deal announced Sept. 9 by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, despite also expressing reservations and warnings.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has always welcomed a cease-fire in Syria and the facilitation of access to humanitarian help for all of the people in this country, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghassemi said Sept. 11. In follow-up remarks, however, Ghassemi noted a variety of concerns that had plagued previous attempts to implement cease-fires. The cease-fire does not include terrorist groups such as Daesh [Islamic State (IS)], Jabhat al-Nusra or other newly formed splinter groups, Ghassemi said, suggesting that Iran has rejected the rebranding effort by al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra, which now calls itself Jabhat Fatah al-Sham.

The cease-fire called for a new, joint effort between the United States and Russia to target IS and al-Qaeda militants. Distinguishing between al-Qaeda and other armed opposition groups had been one of the main obstacles in negotiating a cease-fire as far as the Syrian government and its allies Iran and Russia were concerned. The world community is required to seriously confront extremist takfiri terrorism, decisively, without conditions and without interruption, Ghassemi said, warning that the cease-fire should not serve as an opportunity for terrorist groups to revitalize and transfer fighters and arms.

Ghassemi blamed armed groups for breaking previous cease-fires, saying, Just as the Syrian government has a number of times emphasized, the lack of necessary guarantees on the adherence of terrorist-takfiri groups to the cease-fire have been an obstacle to the success of previous cease-fires. Ghassemi added that for this cease-fire to be successful, there needs to be comprehensive monitoring and control of the borders to block the dispatch of terrorism and arms.

One of the main transit routes for opposition fighters entering Syria from other countries has been through the Turkey-Syria border. Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Jaberi-Ansari, the first Iranian official to welcome the cease-fire, said that Iranian and Turkish officials have been in consultations and will continue them.

Ali Akbar Velayati, the foreign policy adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was more cautious about the cease-fire. A cease-fire and a suspension of the war is the desire of everyone; however, if the cost of it is that the enemies of the government and people of Syria misuse it, not only will this cease-fire not be successful, but it will be harmful, Velayati said. He added that previous cease-fires had been to the benefit of groups like Jabhat al-Nusra.

According to Velayati, an acceptable cease-fire is one that takes into consideration the concerns of all the various sides in the war, especially the Syrian government and its allies Iran and Hezbollah.

In an article in Iran Newspaper, published by the Ministry of Culture, Mohammad-Reza Raouf Shabiani, the Iranian ambassador to Syria, further warned that groups might use the cease-fire to rearm. Shabiani also lamented that the fate of Syria is being decided by Russia and the United States, writing, Syria has been turned into a house of competition between international powers, and the people of Syria, whose demand at the beginning was the political reform of society [but] is now security and calm, are now under the influence of international interests.

The conservative newspaper Vatan-e Emrooz appeared to welcome the news of a cease-fire in an article titled Obamas Force Could Not Reach Assad. It contends that the differences between the United States and Russia will force President Barack Obama to leave office with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad still in office.
September 11, 2016

According to Islamic teachings, the hajj is the annual manifestation of Muslim unity. This is a common theme among Muslim scholars when describing the scene of millions of Muslim worshipers from around the world, all wearing plain white robes and performing the same rituals, despite their ethnic and sectarian differences. This grand, symbolic gesture of Islamic unity seems to be reeling under the effect of politics, in particular the row between the two dominant Islamic states in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and Iran, which since 2012 appear to be engaged in an undeclared state of regional war.

The two countries opened a new chapter in their already tense relations Sept. 5 when Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, launched one of the harshest verbal attacks on the government of Saudi Arabia since being chosen to succeed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989. In his annual hajj message, Khamenei recalled the stampede during last years hajj that led to a reported 2,000 people being killed, among them 472 Iranians.

The heartless and murderous Saudis locked up the injured with the dead in containers  instead of providing medical treatment and helping them or at least quenching their thirst. They murdered them. Khamenei called Saudi rulers disgraced and misguided and referred to Saudi muftis as impious and haram eating  who blatantly issue fatwas against the Book and Sunnah. Khamenei said those who accuse Iran of preventing its citizens from making the hajj are media minions of Saudi Arabia and reporting lies. Khamenei added that Muslims should reconsider the management of the annual pilgrimage.

The Saudi-Iranian tension is dangerous and takes the conflict to the edge of the abyss, said former Saudi diplomat Abdullah Shammari in an interview with Al-Monitor. Shammari, an expert on Iranian and Turkish affairs, accused Tehran of starting the row by interfering in Saudi affairs, referring to Tehrans reaction to the execution of dissident Saudi Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr earlier this year. Protesters then attacked Saudi diplomatic compounds in Tehran and Mashhad.

Shammari said, This led to the severance of diplomatic ties [by Riyadh], and Iran stopped its pilgrims from doing the hajj this year despite the flexibility shown by Saudi officials, but it seems this is serving the agenda of certain lines in Iranian politics.

In response to Khameneis comments, Saudi Arabias top cleric, Grand Mufti Abdulaziz Al Sheikh, accused the Iranians of being non-Muslims, because they are descendants of Zoroastrians. They are the sons of the Magi [Zoroastrians], and their hostility toward Muslims is an old one, especially with the people of the Sunnah [Sunnis], said the mufti. His comment incited another round of responses, including from Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who tweeted, Indeed; no resemblance between Islam of Iranians & most Muslims & bigoted extremism that Wahhabi top cleric and Saudi terror masters preach.

Al-Monitor has learned that Riyadh sent Tehran a message through unofficial channels clarifying that the grand muftis inflammatory comments were not an official position.

The latest comments by the Saudi mufti should be put into the accompanying context, Shammari said. The interview was on the phone, and it reflects an angry personal point of view after the Iranian supreme leaders message that crossed all red lines. He added, The comments are personal and political and cant be regarded as a religious fatwa.

The hajj is only one of several points of conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which are already on opposite sides in several battles around the region. In Yemen, Saudi Arabia is fighting alongside the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, while in Syria, Iran is fighting alongside the government of President Bashar al-Assad against rebels backed by Saudi Arabia among other powers.

The [Iranian supreme] leaders hajj message was linked to regional issues too, Tehran University professor Mohammad Marandi told Al-Monitor. He explained that the message was also related to the constant bombardment of civilian targets in Yemen, the support for Wahhabi extremists in Syria and Iraq, the subjugation of the people in Bahrain, and also it is linked to the general attitude of the Saudi regime toward non-Wahhabis and the fact that they treat non-Wahhabis as inferior beings.

That said, Marandi thinks that there might be a chance for rapprochement. He said, If there is a real change in Saudi policies, then it is very likely that there will be a change in course, but if not, then the Iranians feel that the Saudis are heading toward instability and perhaps demise. So if the Saudis want to spare themselves of such an end, they have to back off and swallow their pride.

Shammari, however, expressed pessimism in regard to a significant change in the situation, explaining that the average Saudi knows very well that the Iranian supreme leader is not using his comments to boost his popularity at home, but means what he said. Shammari remarked, A miracle is needed when the highest [Iranian] authority is using such harsh rhetoric against Riyadh.  Unfortunately, regional and world powers are exploiting this conflict for their interests, while the people of Saudi Arabia and Iran are the ones who will pay the price.

While it is true that Khameneis hajj message was tough, it was not the harshest from an Iranian leader to date. That distinction goes to Ayatollah Khomeinis 1988 hajj message, which made note of the killing of more than 402 pilgrims in Mecca the preceding year, most of them Iranians. He described the Saudi-Iranian struggle as a war between good and evil and presented the House of Saud as pre-Islamic idolaters. Despite the tough rhetoric of today, there might be cause to believe a change in course between Tehran and Riyadh could occur sooner rather than later.
September 11, 2016

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  Palestinian society remains a patriarchal one, hindering womens access to their rights. Palestinian women are often denied their rights by their husbands, fathers or even tribal sheikhs. Some males consider that even mentioning the name of a woman in Palestinian events, such as weddings at the social level or in the elections at the political level, is unacceptable. Womens names are thus hidden, and instead they are identified as sister of or wife of, or by her initials.

Some lists taking part in the Palestinian local elections that were slated for Oct. 8, but have now been delayed, replaced the names of their female candidates with wife of or sister of. When this happened in a list in the village of Tammun, south of Jenin, Palestinians condemned this act and the Arabic hashtag that translates into Our names should not be covered went viral among Palestinians.

Not only are the names of females removed from the electoral lists, the name of the bride is often absent from wedding invitation cards and substituted with her initials.

Nadia Abu Nahla, the director of the Womens Technical Affairs Committee (WATC), told Maan News on Sept. 1, The fact that some lists covered the names of female candidates is viewed as a serious decline in the lists' capabilities and in the way these movements think, even though the actions are justified as being in line with the social [conservative] character in some areas.

Abu Nahla continued, If their names are not recognized, how can womens needs be added to the planning and coordination of the municipal agenda.

Amal Habib, the presenter of the "Beitna" show dedicated to women on the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV channel, told Al-Monitor, I think it's shameful that some people still believe that womens names should be omitted. Im shocked at this culture and how it was embraced. Women should be called by their names out of respect and our names should not be hidden.

In regard to the name of a bride being hidden on wedding invitation cards, Habib said, Ignorance and misconceptions are the first reasons behind young men hiding their brides names on wedding invitation cards. I decided not to attend any wedding when the brides name is not shown on the invitation card.

She added, It is the right of every woman to participate in all political and government institutions, in accordance with Palestinian law.

Activist Sumaya al-Mashharawi wrote on her Facebook page Sept. 2, Our names are not mere terms; our names refer to our identity, which ignorant people do not understand.

For her part, activist Ghada Shoman wrote on her Facebook page Aug. 30, The brides parents have the right to be proud of their daughter, and have the family name proudly used in weddings and written on wedding cards. She is not nobody, and if, in your eyes, her name should be omitted, then her parents names should be omitted too.

Article 5 of the Palestinian Local Elections Law of 1996 allows women to be part of any elections, without discrimination. Also, according to Article 12 of the Palestinian General Elections Law of 1995, Every Palestinian [woman or man] aged 30 years or older on polling day, who is registered in the final electoral register and who meets all the qualifications required to be an elector, has the right to submit his or her candidacy for the membership of the council.

Women's rights activist Diana Maghribi, a member of Filastiniyat Association, told Al-Monitor that the campaign dubbed Our names should not be covered is a call to all educated women to urge the patriarchal society to stop neglecting this powerful social driver, as women, who constitute half of Palestinian society, can participate in the community just like their male counterparts.

Those women who agreed that their names be hidden on special occasions are being oppressed in their community and never wanted to assume any leading role in the community. Today, a lot of women have refused to take their husbands name after marrying, while many opted for pleasing their spouses who link name-changing to manhood, Maghribi said.

Activist Ramadan Nabih said that hiding womens names on special occasions is a type of sexism, is offensive for women and is a tradition that has nothing to do with Islam. He told Al-Monitor, Islam commanded us to be good to women and the names of all of the mothers of believers are mentioned in the sunna [Islamic traditions and practices]. The fact that womens names should be covered has nothing to do with religion. Rather it is linked to obsolete customs and traditions, through which some youths seek to dominate their wives by veiling their features and personalities.

In 2013, Palestinian women made up 49.2% of the Palestinian community, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. There are 2.34 million women and 2.41 million men, which means that there are 103 men for every 100 women.

Jamil Tahrawi, a professor of psychological and family counseling at the Islamic University, told Al-Monitor that hiding womens names is a negative tendency unjustified by customs, norms and religion.

Hiding the names of women is an attempt to obscure their prestige and presence in the community, while some men believe that such acts are linked to their manhood. This is the product of the minor role women assume in the community. In Islam, the Prophet Muhammad called his wives by their names and was not ashamed," he said.

Attaf Abu Ghali, an expert in psychological and family counseling, told Al-Monitor, This phenomenon started to fade with the emergence of social media, and the remaining practices are limited to ignorance and old customs.

He added, As part of the Palestinian social traditions, shame was attached to revealing womens names, due to ignorance. Today, every girl and her family have the right to refuse that her name be covered on the wedding invitation card. The primary goal of the invitation and the event [wedding] is to become known. Women make up one half of society today and they have the right to be integrated in all social institutions.

Social media played an important role in convincing women to defend their right to show their names, and to confront Palestinian patriarchal society. Those who used the hashtag Our names should not be covered proudly and clearly mentioned in their posts their own names and the names of their mothers and sisters.
The 96th-annual Miss America pageant in New Jersey on Sunday wasn't all about glitz and glamour.

One contestant, Miss New Hampshire Caroline Carter, brought to light a disease she has been fighting since she was 11 years old: Type 1 Diabetes. The 18-year-old also wore an Alabama-made adhesive to cover her glucose monitor, which helps her keep track of her insulin levels.

The product was developed by GrifGrips, a Huntsville company that has created its own adhesives that keep diabetic technology securely attached to a person's body. The colorful grips range from kid-friendly and sporty to more basic ovals and squares.

Founder Stephanie Jordan, whose son Griffin was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes when he was 9, said it was great publicity for Carter to wear a GrifGrip on the national stage and to bring awareness to diabetes advocacy.

"It gave us exposure to some new people who didn't know that we were there," she said.

GrifGrips was born as the Jordan family struggled to find a gentle, secure solution to keep young Griffin's insulin pump in place while he maintained an active lifestyle with other kids his age. The products, which move with the user's body and keep the skin cool, have been available since late 2015 to customers all over the globe.

The grips typically sell in packages of five for about $6 and last 5-9 days. Jordan said the goal is to keep prices reasonable for those with chronic illness, since the cost of a new Continuous Glucose Monitor sensor or an insulin pump infusion set can be quite expensive.

"We are excited to be working with Caroline and other diabetics throughout the world - sharing our products and bringing a bit of joy to diabetics and their families," she said.

Carter, who wasn't available for an interview with AL.com on Monday, isn't the first Miss America contestant to bring diabetes into the spotlight. Two years ago, Type 1 diabetic and Miss Idaho Sierra Sandison drew national attention when she wore an insulin pump on stage.

Carter, who was the Non-Finalist Talent Award Winner at Sunday night's event, was diagnosed with diabetes after suffering from complications of mononucleosis.

"Since then, everyone's come up to me and said, 'Oh, you don't look like a diabetic,'" she said. "And that's terrifying because if I was to have a seizure, people would think it's anaphylactic shock or they would think that I have some sort of seizure disorder, but really, I could just be having low blood sugar."

Check out Carter's interview on NJ.com (and get a peek at her GrifGrips patch at 1:20):
sturgill_simpson.jpg

Sturgill Simpson (Reto Sterchi photo)

Sturgill Simpson's horn section consists of Scott Frock on trumpet, Brad Walker on saxophone and Jon Ramm on trombone. His guitarist is Estonia native Laur Joamets, who accidentally got the gig by emailing producer and tastemaker Dave Cobb some YouTube clips. His keyboardist is Bobby Emmett. His bassist is Chuck Bartels. And his drummer is Miles Miller.

And that's the most important thing that you should know about Sunday's sold-out performance at the Alabama Theatre. Simpson gained an audience because his voice is filled with nostalgia, but he's selling out theaters because his band is fantastic. Truly. "Solo" artists don't perform for more than two hours behind no opening act with just three albums of material unless they have a lot of help.

He didn't work with a setlist, and he began barreling through the 125 minute set at 8:30 p.m. with "Sitting Here Without You" from the 2013 debut High Top Mountain. He was never particularly talkative, and his audience was never particularly rowdy, despite frequent shouts at the stage filled with affirmations of love. He noted as much.

"I really thought Alabama would be a lot rowdier than this," he paused to say. "This must be a high brow crowd."

He filled his set with plenty of covers - many that he has recorded, others that he has not - like "The Promise," "In Bloom" and Willie Nelson's "I'd Have to Be Crazy." That remarkable horn section also managed to sneak in a portion of "Soulful Strut" by Grover Washington, Jr. into the closing number, kind of epitomizing what makes what Simpson is doing special.

His last visit to Alabama was at the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater in October of 2015 opening for his contemporary, Jason Isbell. Since, he rewrote his own rule book with the April release A Sailor's Guide to Earth. And all of the people buying tickets to his shows may not be totally aware of that yet. It's quite a phenomenon.

He once asked his Birmingham audience on Sunday, "Read anything interesting on the internet lately?" It was a nod to a recent lengthy Facebook post of his where he criticized "Nashville" for what he perceived as an insincere tribute to his friend and hero Merle Haggard. He included Isbell among artists he believed the country music community deliberately ignores. And Isbell voiced his support of Simpson's comments via Twitter.

Simpson has managed to become immensely popular without really having a hit. And he doesn't have the Grammys that Isbell has. And he doesn't have the mainstream country radio appeal that Chris Stapleton does. He has a horn section; he has a song about alien turtles. His massive popularity is an enigma, as I've never been fully convinced that his audience is completely in on the art they're consuming. And the 2,500 people in attendance on Sunday evening didn't really quell that suspicion. Sure, some were aware of what was happening. But certainly not all.

"I played here three years ago at the Workplay Theater and there were seven people there," he once said. "And eight months later, there were 14 people there and we came back last year and played at Sloss Fest and there were a [expletive] ton of people there and now we get to play this beautiful room. And you did that. Thank you very much."

It's impossible to talk about Simpson's art without acknowledging a disconnect between it and his audience. But for now, that audience has allowed him to sell out bigger stages than he likely ever dreamed possible; he's 38, and this is just his third album. Maybe that collection of loyal - but likely confused - fans can hold down the fort until everyone else comes around. The nostalgia-laden drawl in Simpson's voice is a remarkable cover for high brow art, and for his next trick, I hope that he gets everyone on the same page.

SETLIST: Sitting Here Without You - Time After All - I'd Have to Be Crazy (Willie Nelson cover) - I Never Go Around Mirrors - Railroad of Sin - Some Days - Old King Coal - Water in a Well - Turtles All the Way Down - Life of Sin - Living the Dream - Voices - Long White Line - The Promise (When in Rome cover) - A Little Light - Just Let Go - It Ain't All Flowers - You Don't Miss Your Water (William Bell cover) - Welcome to Earth (Pollywog) - Breaker's Roar - Keep it Between the Lines - Sea Stories - In Bloom (Nirvana cover) - Brace for Impact (Live a Little) - All Around You - Oh Sarah - Call to Arms > Soulful Strut (Grover Washington. Jr. cover)
Nobody knows how a dog from Heflin ended up in northeastern Pennsylvania, but "Fancy" returned home to Alabama this weekend after the work of several volunteers and three volunteer pilots.

Jack Merritt, a pilot, was one of three men who helped fly the dog back to its owners, Pat and Sam Jordan of Heflin, this weekend. The dog was reunited with her family this weekend at Anniston Regional Airport.

Merritt Monday said Fancy was taken to an SPCA animal shelter in Bucks County, Penn., north of Philadelphia, last month. The 15-pound Jack Russell terrier mix was routinely scanned for a microchip, and traced back to the Jordans, who live in Heflin. The dog went missing back in April and may have been stolen. Another of their dogs is still missing.

The Jordans were unable to make a 900-mile car journey for the reunion, so shelter workers consulted Merritt and his organization, Pilots N Paws, which undertake animal reunions.

"They asked, 'You think you and your buds can get this dog back to Alabama?'" Merritt said. "So we set up a return trip."

Merritt flew "Fancy" from Quakertown, Penn. to Roanoke, Va., while pilot Joe Campbell took the dog the next leg of the journey to Knoxville, Tenn. Then pilot David Yates made the last leg of the journey to Anniston.
beers from Alabama.jpg

Good People Coffee Oatmeal Flavored Stout, Blue Pants English Style Barleywine, Salty Nut Hop Naughty India Pale Ale, Yellowhammer Lost Highway Black Lager, Straight to Ale Brother Joseph's Dubbel, Fairhope 51 Pale Ale and Back 40 Trade Day Cuban Coffee Stout.

((Matt Wake/mwake@al.com) )

The Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board expects to change a proposed requirement that breweries and brew pubs record the names and other personal information of customers who buy beer to take home.

The ABC Board discussed the proposed rule at a work session today and could vote on the rule at its meeting on Sept. 28.

The Legislature passed a bill this year to allow breweries and brew pubs to sell beer for off-premises consumption for the first time.

The new law limits those beer sales to a case, 288 ounces, per customer, per day.

The proposed regulation, part of the rule-making process triggered by the new law, would require breweries and brew pubs to record the names, addresses, phone numbers and birth dates of customers who buy beer for off-premises consumption.

The breweries would have to report that information to the ABC board every month.

Free the Hops, a group that has successfully advocated to repeal Alabama restrictions on beer, has called the proposed rule an overreach and an intrusion into privacy.

The Alabama Brewers Guild also has expressed opposition to the rule, saying there are less intrusive ways to enforce the 288-ounce daily limit. The guild includes 22 Alabama breweries and four brew pubs.

At today's meeting, ABC Board Chairman Bubba Lee and Board Member Michael Ingram questioned the ABC staff about the proposed rule and discussed comments received from the public since the rule was proposed.

The rule applies to Alabama wineries and distilleries, as well as beer-makers.

Lee said after the work session he expects the rule to be changed to require that the sellers record the names and addresses of the customers who buy products to take home, but not their phone numbers and birth dates.

Lee said the requirement to record the names and addresses of buyers is part of the state law and not subject to the board's discretion.

Dan Roberts, executive director of the Alabama Brewers Guild, said he disagrees with the ABC Board's interpretation of the law and does not think breweries are required under the law to record the names and addresses of customers who buy for off-premises consumption.

Roberts said the intent of the law and the letter of the law can be met by the brewers keeping records of sales for on-premises and off-premises consumption without recording buyers' names.

Roberts said the law is ambiguous, however.

ABC officials said the requirement to record the names of buyers is to ensure that required taxes are paid in the same way as when the manufacturers, the breweries, sell to wholesalers, rather than directly to a consumer.

ABC Board spokesman Dean Argo said the staff would recommend changing the proposed rule to remove the requirement that the breweries, wineries and distilleries report the personal information of buyers to the ABC Board.

Instead, the proposed regulation will say the sellers will retain the names and addresses for their records, which are subject to ABC audits, Argo said.

Nick Hudson, president of Free the Hops, said there is no justification for a requirement to collect customers' names.

Hudson said Alabama wineries have been able to sell to customers for off-premises consumption for years without any such requirement.

"If I purchase liquor from an ABC store and hand them $20 cash, they don't take my name," Hudson said.

Hudson said Free the Hops would continue to oppose the rule.

Rep. Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville, who sponsored the bill to allow breweries to make off-premises sales, said he appreciates that the board is considering modifying the rule but still believes it puts an unnecessary burden on small businesses and raises privacy concerns for consumers.

"To me it seems that the Board is trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist," Daniels said in an email. "I would ask that they not address this issue at all unless there are reports of problems. I believe this is an undue burden for small businesses."

Updated at 5:38 p.m. to add comments from Nick Hudson. Updated at 10:18 p.m. to add comment from Rep. Anthony Daniels.


paddlemap.jpg

Source: U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection for the 2013-2014

By Trisha Powell Crain

This story was written for AL.com by independent journalist Trisha Powell Crain of Alabama School Connection.

While most of the nation long ago stopped striking children, Alabama principals continue to boast one of the highest batting percentages in the nation, paddling one child every four minutes.

Across Alabama public schools, nearly 19,000 students were paddled in the 2013-2014 school year, according to newly available data from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. The count is of individual students and does not indicate how many were paddled more than once.

Unlike in most of the developed world, Alabama law explicitly allows adults to administer corporal punishment, and education leaders in Alabama find no problem with paddling in schools.

"I don't anticipate this being the focus of change that Alabama needs to move our student achievement higher," said Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, chair of the Education Policy committee in the Alabama House of Representatives.

Collins said no one has brought up the subject of paddling in the legislature. "As a child paddled, and as a parent who paddled, I've not experienced the negative side of corporal punishment personally, only the positive side," Collins said in a statement.

While no studies exist showing improvement of student achievement after corporal punishment is banned, many studies show the negative impact paddling has on children's attitudes toward and achievement in school. After decades of research, all major children's advocacy and medical groups have called for an end to corporal punishment.

But the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of public schools to administer corporal punishment to students in 1977. The new federal data shows that most states decline to use the option, as Alabama is one of just 21 states to report any paddling in any public school.

Alabama is one of just 15 states with a state law that explicitly allows for corporal punishment. Another 29 states specifically ban the practice.

In Alabama, the new data also shows disproportionate usage, as boys are far more likely to be paddled than girls, and black and multi-race students are more likely to be paddled than white students. Though black males made up only 24 percent of the population in the schools that paddle, they accounted for 35 percent of the boys who were paddled.

Alabama is one of just 21 states to report paddling in public schools in the 2013-2014 school year, according to newly released federal data. (File image from Shelby County.)

While the number of total swings is far lower for girls, the racial disparity was higher. About a quarter of the girls in schools that paddle are African-American, but nearly half of the girls who were paddled were African-American.

Dr. Amir Whitaker, an attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center who has studied the effects of paddling, says that Alabama policy contradicts national research. "It's a very convenient and knee-jerk reaction to discipline. And it does nothing but harm the child. All the research shows that, and all the experts know that," Whitaker said.

"Research clearly says you're more likely to be aggressive if someone is aggressive with you. You're more likely to physically abuse someone if someone has physically abused you," he said.

Whitaker points out that if he, as an adult, hit a child with a board, he'd be charged with aggravated assault, yet Alabama law allows adult educators to hit children at school.

No debate in Alabama

Meanwhile, 49 nations, including most of Europe and South America, have outlawed the use of corporal punishment both in schools and in the home, according to the Global Initiative to End Corporal Punishment.

And while pressure has mounted on holdouts, such as France, there has been little public debate in Alabama or neighboring states.

"Proper corporal punishment isn't abuse, and we should be clear about that," said Mary Scott Hunter, a member of the state Board of Education.

Hunter said she had not reviewed any research on the subject, nor had she ever been asked about paddling while serving on the state board. But she said she knows many parents and school leaders who use corporal punishment on children, adding she defers to their judgment about its use in a school setting.

"We often see misbehavior in children that comes straight from the home, and I'd like to see some parents lined up and paddled for that," said Hunter. "Habitual tardiness and truancy comes to mind."

Heaviest hitters in the South

Of the 21 states that paddled in 2013-2014, a dozen are in the South.

And when it comes to frequency of paddling, seven of the top ten heaviest hitters are also in the South. Alabama lands at number three in the nation for percentage of students who are paddled, behind Mississippi and Arkansas.

In Alabama, federal data shows 18,749 students were paddled in 2013-2014. That's about 2.5% of all students in Alabama.

But the paddle is not invoked evenly across the state nor across school districts. More than half of all schools in Mississippi paddled students, but just under half in Alabama use corporal punishment.

This first map shows the number of students paddled at least once.

Meanwhile, American education and child advocacy groups, including the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Bar Association, the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Association for Secondary School Principals, and the American Civil Liberties Union, continue to call for a ban, citing harmful long-term effects of paddling on children and the need to keep physical violence out of the educational environment.

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry policy statement against corporal punishment, reads in part: "Corporal punishment signals to the child that a way to settle interpersonal conflicts is to use physical force and inflict pain ... Supervising adults who willfully humiliate children and punish by force and pain are often causing more harm than they prevent."

The federal definition of corporal punishment is "paddling, spanking, or other forms of physical punishment imposed on a student". Alabama leaves its definition to local boards of education.

Here's what Alabama law says about corporal punishment:

"No student has a right to be unruly in his or her classroom to the extent that such disruption denies fellow students of their right to learn. The teacher in each classroom is expected to maintain order and discipline. Teachers are hereby given the authority and responsibility to use appropriate means of discipline up to and including corporal punishment as may be prescribed by the local board of education."

In practice, spanking largely falls to principals and assistant principals, rather than classroom teachers.

Alabama growing cautious

The Alabama Board of Education just hired a new state superintendent from Massachusetts, a state that banned corporal punishment in 1971. State Superintendent Michael Sentance, who starts work today, could not be reached for comment.

Requests for comment from the Alabama State Department of Education were not successful.

But Dr. Eric Mackey, director of the School Superintendents of Alabama (SSA), said he believes the decision to paddle belongs at the district and school level. Mackey has worked in school districts that paddled students and in those that don't. "I can certainly see both sides of the debate," he said.

Maintaining order in the classroom is necessary to ensure students have a good learning environment, Mackey said. He said he believes Alabama school officials have grown cautious about using corporal punishment due in part to the litigious nature of society, but also due to the national trend away from paddling.

For their part, he said, SSA cautions school superintendents to make certain teachers and administrators know what the local board policy allows and to ensure employees follow local board policy.

While the National Education Association has called for a ban on paddling, the Alabama Education Association has not done so. Efforts to reach AEA President Sheila Remington Hocutt to determine why AEA has remained silent on this issue were not successful.

Inside the numbers

In Alabama in 2013-2014, boys were paddled at a 4.5-to-1 rate over girls.

The federal data showed that 107 of Alabama's 133 school districts engaged in the practice. (Two small city school districts, Satsuma and Troy, were not included in the federal data.)

Here's a look at which districts paddled students. Use the drop-down menu to choose whether you want to see the actual number of students paddled or the rate (or percentage) of students paddled.

Even within districts, some schools paddled far more often than others.

Nearly half, or 657 of Alabama's 1,367 schools, saw at least one incident of paddling. More than 400 of those schools that used corporal punishment enrolled elementary-aged children.

Because grade levels vary widely within schools across Alabama, it's hard to say exactly at which grades most of the paddling happened, but 10,550, or 56% of the students who were paddled attended schools that enrolled kindergartners up to at least fifth graders.

Here's a map of all schools that paddled students during the 2013-2014 school year.

When looking at schools where paddling was practiced, black males received the highest rate of paddling, at 13 percent of black males enrolled. Though black males only made up 24 percent of the population, they accounted for 35 percent of the total male students that were paddled. Alabama's numbers mirror national numbers as black males make up 22 percent of the population nationwide and accounted for 38 percent of the total male students paddled nationwide.

Among males of two or more races, one in ten was paddled, double the rate for Hispanic males, and three times the rate for Asian males. Six percent of American Indian males were paddled.

About 8 percent of white males were paddled. Overall, white males made up 66 percent of the total student population in schools where students were paddled, and accounted for 60 percent of the students who were paddled.

Black girls are being paddled at even more disproportionate rates. Though they make up only a quarter of the population at schools where students are paddled, they accounted for 47 percent of all girls who were paddled. White girls, making up 66 percent of the population in schools where students are paddled, also accounted for 47 percent of girls who were paddled.

Students with disabilities were not paddled disproportionately more than students without disabilities statewide. Although within some schools, the numbers show students with disabilities were paddled at higher rates than those without disabilities.

Trending Downward

Though Alabama is still near the top of the list nationally when it comes to use of corporal punishment, the state's numbers have shown a long-term downward trend.

In 2000, nearly 40,000 students were paddled, according to federal data. That number was nearly 30,000 in the 2009-2010 school year, and in the latest data that number is below 20,000. (It should be noted that a representative sample of schools was used prior to the 2011-2012 collection, when every school was required to report discipline data to the U.S. Department of Education.)

Numbers are also trending downward in two Alabama districts that were among the heaviest users of the paddle in 2013-2014.

In Selma City Schools, the Middle CHAT Academy, now known as R.B. Hudson Middle School, landed at the top of the state list for the percentage of students being paddled. Nearly 65%, or 301 of the school's 464 students were paddled. Males took most of the corporal punishment, with 200 of the 234 male students being paddled. Still, out of 230 female students, 101 were paddled.

Throughout the Selma district as a whole, nearly one in four students was paddled. But that appears to have changed.

Dr. Angela Mangum became superintendent of Selma City Schools in April of 2015. When asked about these numbers, Mangum provided 2015-2016 numbers showing only 178 incidents of paddling for the 3,588 students in the district, or one in 20 students, a difference she called "dramatic".

"One of the primary priorities in our district this year is to improve the socio-emotional well-being of students," Mangum wrote in an email response. "We are addressing this priority through improving the climate and culture of our classrooms and schools, and by implementing advisory programs in grade K-12 that emphasizes character development and positive relationships with others."

"We are moving away from the use of corporal punishment," echoed Mackey with the Alabama Superintendent association.

The use of alternative strategies, such as positive behavioral intervention supports (known as PBIS), are showing promise, he said. However, funding has "decreased precipitously" for teacher training within school districts, and training for programs like PBIS is suffering, he said.

"As a state, we're not investing in those behavioral interventions and professional development like we were ten years ago," Mackey said.

Highest rate in Alabama

While Selma may have claimed the highest rate for a single school, Conecuh County saw the highest rate of paddling by an entire district.

Conecuh County Schools in south Alabama paddled more students at a higher rate than any other district in Alabama. Of the 1,463 students enrolled, 341, or 23.3%, were paddled during the 2013-2014 school year. That was just slightly higher than Selma.

That means all students in Conecuh stood roughly a one in four chance of being paddled. Leading the way in Conecuh, with a 43% rate of paddling, was Thurgood Marshall Middle School in Evergreen, Alabama.

Dr. Zickeyous Byrd, superintendent in Conecuh County Schools, said "Corporal punishment is allowed in Conecuh County Schools with several restrictions. The very first, and most important one, is that any parent can 'opt out' of corporal punishment for his or her child." Byrd said it only takes a simple note from home.

But Byrd also spoke of a move away from corporal punishment. He said since he became superintendent in March 2015, paddling is now used as a "last resort," adding "only after all other corrective actions have been tried do we administer corporal punishment."

Conecuh County's student code of conduct sets out guidelines for how paddling is to be done and specifies "the employee will use a Board issued paddle" and the number of "licks" will be determined by the principal or his/her designee." Also, "at no time more than three (3) licks will be administered."

This map shows the rate of Alabama students paddled at each school by gender. The rate is the percent of students in that school and of that gender that were paddled. https://public.tableau.com/views/CorporalPunishment2013-2014OCRData/RateofStudentsbySchool?:embed=y&:display_count=yes

Why 2013-2014 numbers?

Without the federal civil rights database on school discipline, it is difficult to see what has happened since the 2013-2014 school year. Though many states provide disciplinary actions through their state department of education web sites, Alabama does not.

Discipline data belongs to local school districts, and representatives from the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) have said they do not have access to the data to be able to determine how many students were paddled during a school year.

But paddling students has a long history in Alabama. Much has been said about how southerners tend to spank their children, both at home and at school, more than those living in other areas of the country.

A recent study of all available research, called a "meta-analysis", on the effects of corporal punishment shows that paddling is not effective at controlling behaviors. "Instead of helping children to develop the desire and motivation to behave well of their own accord, corporal punishment teaches children that it is desirable not to get caught: rather than behaving differently next time, they are therefore likely to repeat the undesired behavior and use strategies to avoid being caught."

A recent international study linked corporal punishment with lower grades in school.

Whitaker at the Southern Poverty Law Center said that cultural acceptance of spanking children in the South makes it difficult to end the practice at school.

"As a society, we've acknowledged that bullying in schools should not be tolerated. Arming administrators and teachers with weapons and telling them it's okay to use their physical dominance on children, it's a form of bullying that shouldn't be tolerated," he said. "It sends a message that physical violence is an acceptable way to resolve conflict. In no other area is it acceptable to resolve conflict through violence. It shouldn't be tolerated in schools."

Data was extracted from the U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection for the 2013-2014 school year. Rates and proportions were calculated for purposes of this article.

More than 95,000 schools across the United States and its territories self-report the numbers on many topics including discipline, advanced course offerings and enrollment, chronic absenteeism among students and teachers. School officials must certify the accuracy of the data.

Data is collected every two years.
BEIJING -- Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Estonian counterpart, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, exchanged congratulatory message on Sunday to mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between their two countries.

Noting that friendly cooperation has been a main theme in the development of China-Estonia relations over the past 25 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, Xi said that China-Estonia relations have shown a good momentum for development, and that mutual political trust between the two sides has kept deepening, with fruitful results achieved in practical cooperation, with people-to-people and cultural exchange turning increasingly active, and with close cooperation maintained in international and regional affairs.

China is willing to make joint efforts with Estonia to further consolidate friendship between the two countries, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, and keep bringing about interests to the two countries and the two peoples, Xi said.

Ilves, for his part, said that over recent years, Estonia-China relations have developed in an in-depth way, with increasingly close exchange and cooperation in all fields.

The Estonian president expressed the belief that the relations of friendly cooperation between the two countries will keep developing in the future, and that the friendship between the two peoples will bear even more plentiful fruits.
Famagusta, Cyprus  Four decades ago, time froze in the coastal Cypriot district of Varosha.

Eggs were still boiling on hot stovetops. Childrens toys remained strewn across living-room floors. Clothes were left on their hangers inside brimming closets, a testament to the thousands of lives that were abandoned in an instant.

Greek Cypriots thought it was a temporary measure when the Turkish military ordered them out of their homes in Varosha, a district of the city of Famagusta, in the summer of 1974. But 42 years have since come and gone, and Varosha remains a ghost town  a hulking blight that towers over the Mediterranean seascape. Empty apartment windows gaze out over families playing beach volleyball, while barbed-wire fencing cuts a swath across the sand, patrolled by armed soldiers.

Children dart in and out of the shallow surf, oblivious to the ever-present tension. It has been this way all their lives.

Cyprus is a country divided. Following centuries of Ottoman rule, the tiny island nation was formally annexed by Britain in 1914, spurring resistance from Greek Cypriots who sought to unify the country with Greece. Five years of guerrilla warfare ended with Cyprus gaining independence in 1960, but despite a power-sharing deal struck between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, tensions between the two communities continued to mount.

In 1974, a decade after the United Nations established a peacekeeping force in Cyprus to stem rising violence, Greece staged a coup, attempting to wrest control of the island from former President Archbishop Makarios III. The move failed, and Turkey responded by sending military forces to northern Cyprus. Tens of thousands of Greek Cypriots fled south, while a smaller population of Turkish Cypriots living in southern Cyprus fled north.

The division and military occupation persists to this day, with the six-square-kilometre ghost town of Varosha standing as one of its most iconic emblems. But as negotiations between Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders continue  with a joint progress report expected this week  one group is hoping to change that.

Varosha represents the stagnancy of the Cyprus problem. Its a physical representation of a decades-long conflict that persists and persists, causing despair in the spirit of the people, said filmmaker Vasia Markides, who is leading the Famagusta Ecocity Project, an initiative aimed at reviving Varosha and reintegrating it with the rest of Famagusta to create Europes model ecocity  a walkable, solar-powered, environmentally sustainable hub. Her documentary on the project, slated for release later this year, aims to rally more support.

To see Varosha and Famagusta as a whole becoming an ecocity would be the ultimate goal, Markides told Al Jazeera, noting that Varosha in its current state foreshadows what could come if we dont transform our lifestyle towards one that respects not only one another, but also the natural world.

Markides mother grew up in Varosha, once a thriving stretch of coastline that was reportedly a destination for film stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Brigitte Bardot. For Markides mother, though, her strongest memories include the rich smells of jasmine and citrus blossoms that wafted through the air, and spending her childhood playing among the reeds on the beach.

Over the past few years, Markides has assembled a small team  including Turkish-Cypriot architect Ceren Bogac and Greek-Cypriot urban planner Nektarios Christodoulou, among others  to help generate momentum and collect ideas on how to convert Famagusta into an ecocity. Because the project would involve the entire city and not just the deserted district of Varosha, it would entail a wholesale rethink of the streetscape, electrical infrastructure and building design, while also aiming to preserve as many historic structures as possible.

People have very romantic images of this place ... Some people don't even know that giant trees have grown through their houses and demolished everything, and there is not much to save. by Ceren Bogac, architect

The goal is not simply to open a time capsule, but rather to unify Varosha with the rest of the city, Christodoulou said.

We need to talk about Famagusta as a whole, he told Al Jazeera, noting that beyond reopening the area physically, the ecocity project could help to mitigate regional tensions by bringing Greek and Turkish Cypriots together to work towards a common goal.

We are not looking to design the city [ourselves]. We just want to provide a platform where these issues can be discussed by both communities, Christodoulou said. We have seen that environmental issues [and] cultural protection issues can bring people together across the border, discussing them without ethnicity constantly being the separating factor.

For Bogac, 37, the story is also deeply personal. Her fathers family came to Famagusta from the southern port city of Larnaca after the 1974 partitioning, and she grew up in a house that looked out over the makeshift fence around Varosha  a tangle of barbed wire, wooden planks and sheet metal, peppered with signs declaring it the Forbidden Zone.

I was always facing the border line. It was terrible. It was very traumatic, Bogac told Al Jazeera in an interview along the beachfront next to Varosha.

I was seeing the same curtains deteriorating every year. I thought about the people who were staying there; were they children? Were they happy? Some of the houses were beautiful. The idea of waking up in the Mediterranean, waking up to the sand, and losing this  Building a house is easy, but turning it into a home by adding memories is not.

Political challenges ahead

Despite growing interest among both Greek and Turkish Cypriots, however, the ecocity project still faces massive obstacles. It is contingent upon negotiators reaching a solution to the broader Cyprus dispute, until which time, Varosha will remain frozen in its current state. And even if a resolution were to be struck and Varosha reopened to the public, there could be numerous claims on the abandoned properties by the descendants of developers.

Then would come the significant challenge of reaching a consensus on how to rebuild the city in a manner that suited both its current residents, and those who wanted to relocate to Famagusta. The current population of 40,000 could swell to more than 200,000 upon the reopening of Varosha and the larger redevelopment of the city, Bogac estimated  and many may not be prepared for what they would find upon arrival.

People have very romantic images of this place, so they remember it exactly as they left it in 1974, she said. Some people dont even know that giant trees have grown through their houses and demolished everything, and there is not much to save.

Christodoulou recently worked on a mental map study of Famagusta, asking around 500 Greek and Turkish Cypriots to sketch their image of the citys existing urban fabric. The results showed a stark contrast in their understanding of the city, with Greek Cypriots mainly recalling features of southern Famagusta, including Varosha, and Turkish Cypriots focusing primarily on the north.

They designed two different cities, Christodoulou said, noting that to Turkish Cypriots, Varosha was the colour of the sea; it didnt exist.

Paul Dobraszczyk, a visiting lecturer at Londons Bartlett School of Architecture and author of the forthcoming book, The Dead City: Urban Ruins and the Spectacle of Decay, is among the few people who have been inside Varosha since it was walled off in 1974. He snuck through a hole in the fence in 2013 and says he was struck by the sense of serenity amid the desolate homes.

I had expected to find it upsetting, but it felt so untouched and so quiet that I experienced it as very peaceful and tranquil. Everywhere, nature had begun to overtake the buildings and streets, and most of the buildings were inhabited by pigeons and other animals, Dobraszczyk told Al Jazeera. You could also hear many sounds just outside the Forbidden Zone; I remember the call to prayer from Famagusta, and the sound of children playing in a school just outside the fence.

I would argue that the 40-plus years of abandonment should not be forgotten, but integrated into any proposal for renovating the buildings and reopening the Forbidden Zone. by Paul Dobraszczyk, author

Dobraszczyk, who has done substantial research on the role of abandoned spaces in society, expressed concern that the ecocity project could involve the demolition of many of Varoshas old buildings.

I would argue that the 40-plus years of abandonment should not be forgotten, but integrated into any proposal for renovating the buildings and reopening the Forbidden Zone, he said.

Of course, the expense would be enormous, but to demolish and rebuild the town would be to ignore its recent history. Far better would be to try and incorporate some of the ruins into a new town, renovate others, and rebuild others with recycled and salvaged materials [to] produce a unique urban environment.

About an hours drive west of Varosha stands another relic of the 1974 conflict. The Nicosia Airport has stood abandoned for four decades, part of the buffer zone established by the UN, which is tasked with maintaining order in the region while finding a resolution to the Cypriot dispute.

Just steps from the old airport terminal  which still features decaying posters advertising Seiko watches and Bata shoes  stands a building that, since May 2015, has hosted UN-brokered negotiations between Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci and Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades.

Aleem Siddique, a spokesperson for the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, told Al Jazeera that the talks covered a raft of issues, from power-sharing, to the economy, to security arrangements. Negotiations have entered an intensive phase, with a public update from the two leaders slated for Wednesday, he added.

The Cyprus peace talks  continue to make good progress in an atmosphere of trust and goodwill, Siddique said, noting that any resolution would include stipulations governing the fate of contested sites such as Varosha.

Both leaders have expressed their hope of reaching a comprehensive settlement by the end of 2016. If an agreement is reached, both sides intend to hold a referendum for voters to decide the outcome.

However, despite being backed by a majority of Turkish Cypriots, a previous referendum calling for reunification failed in 2004, after three-quarters of Greek Cypriots voted against it.

Back on the edges of Varosha, a handful of tourists peer over the makeshift fence surrounding the deserted district, as Turkish soldiers stand idle on a nearby rooftop.

Jutting up at peculiar angles, the planks and rusted metal sheets comprising the fence appear to have been hurled upon the beach, like a shipwreck. On the other side, sloping drifts of sand are strewn with weedy outgrowths.

The fence stretches the perimeter of Varosha, effectively severing it from the adjacent city. Famagusta residents living along this line look upon it every day from their front porches  a view of emptiness and decay, of rusted doors that have fallen off their hinges and come to rest against wrought-iron balcony railings. The fence itself has been in place so long that it, too, has started to slump in places, as nature strains to reassert itself from within Varoshas boundaries.

The state of the fence is a sign of hope for Famagusta, Christodoulou said, as he gazed out across the empty district under a setting sun.

This shows that there can be a transition, he said, that things can change.

Follow Megan OToole on Twitter: @megan_otoole
Glasgow, Scotland  At 38 years old, the former British Royal Navy engineer has lived much of his adult life in mental torment. Dispatched to Sierra Leone in 2000 as part of Operation Palliser  Britains military intervention in the then war-torn African state  the young Englishman spent weeks off the West African coast, performing his naval duties and faithfully taking his weekly dose of mefloquine  the antimalarial drug also known as Lariam.

Some 16 years later, and the one-time sailors brush with Lariam continues to haunt him.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, the now self-employed aircraft engineer bristles at the mere mention of a drug he blames for his ongoing bouts of anxiety, depression, suicidal and homicidal thoughts, all of which began shortly after his return home from West Africa.

What started as panic attacks that left him unable to travel through tunnels or on trains soon developed into a daily psychological battle that left him barely able to function. He even attempted to take his own life on three separate occasions while still in the navy.

I subsequently turned to drinking quite heavily, recalls the engineer, who, previously of good health before taking Lariam, resigned his from the navy at the end of 2001. I was that on edge  but I didnt know why.

[I] started putting two and two together and started digging into what Lariam was doing to people, he says. That is when he discovered he was not alone.





A drug of last resort

In Britain, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) prescribed Lariam to more than 17,000 troops between April 2007 and March 2015  though with no data available before 2007, the overall figure is likely to be higher. It remains in use in the British armed forces  to the consternation of many Lariam sufferers and their families  but is not, according to the MoD, the main antimalarial of choice.

The number of people who have suffered side-effects after taking the medication remains unclear, but according to retired Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Marriott, who gave evidence to the inquiry, between 25 and 35 percent of personnel who had been described Lariam were affected.

In May this year, the House of Commons Defence Select Committee criticised the ministry over its distribution of the drug, stating that it should only be used as a drug of last resort (PDF).

The drug was developed by the United States Army in the 1970s to protect against the often fatal mosquito-borne tropical disease, and was given to troops from Britain, the US, Australia, Canada and Ireland. Today, it has been linked to cases of mental disorders, suicides and even homicides in the armed forces. The drug has become for leading Lariam expert Dr Remington Nevin, something of an international public health tragedy.

Nevin, a postdoctoral fellow in environmental health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told Al Jazeera: What needs to be understood is that mefloquine is just the latest in a series of synthetic quinine-like antimalarial drugs developed by the US military, initially out of military necessity, dating back to the World War II era, that have shared these toxic properties, and which have been successively withdrawn from use for reasons of safety when their dangers have become more widely known.

Lord Richard Dannatt, the former head of the British Army, last month admitted he himself refused to take the drug after witnessing its adverse mental health effects on his own son.

The MoD is expected to publish its response to the committee report on September 13.

A public health tragedy

Bill Manofsky is a retired US Navy commander who was given Lariam when he was sent to Kuwait before the 2003 Gulf War. What began as bouts of insomnia, panic attacks and other psychological disorders soon developed into a long-term condition that has left him with vertigo, short-term memory loss, and random tremors in his hands and legs.

It is really sad that this happened, especially when two safer and more effective antimalarial drugs were available  doxycycline and malarone, says the 57-year-old, who lives in California.

In the US, Lariam, which was issued a black box safety warning by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2013, was banned from being dispensed to US Special Forces in the same year. It is used only as a drug of last resort in the US military.

It has been quite a tragedy for the families, too, Manofsky adds. The spouses get back a person who is totally different.

WATCH: 101 East  When the battle comes home

In Australia, army Major Stuart McCarthy, 46, has been a high-profile anti-Lariam campaigner. After taking part in an unethical drug trial for the antimalarial drug tafenoquine towards the end of a 1999 deployment in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, McCarthy was prescribed Lariam, which, according to Australian Defence Force is a so-called third-line agent  to be used when other drugs are not available  while serving at the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea in 2001.

While serving in the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea in 2001, worrying psychological symptoms began to develop while out on the field, and despite ceasing to take the drug, its side-effects carried on after he returned to Australia.

McCarthy told Al Jazeera that the symptoms continue to have a debilitating impact on my career, lifestyle and relationships, adding that his most debilitating problems are cognitive, including short-term memory and concentration difficulties.

McCarthy, who says that he is being medically discharged from the army because he is no longer fit to deploy overseas, said that after a two-and-a-half-year fight with the Australian Defence Force medical system, he has been admitted into an acquired brain injury rehabilitation programme.

I doubt there will ever be a cure for my injury, he says, but I am confident this rehabilitation will help me to improve over time.

A judicial inquiry

For McCarthy, who has since served in Iraq and Afghanistan, his ongoing commitment to highlighting the plight of those impacted by Lariam has included giving testimony to an Australian Senate inquiry, where he called for a judicial inquiry into the use of these drugs in the Australian Defence Force believing that it is likely that criminal offences have been committed by numerous government officials.

In Britain, challenges to the governments Lariam policy are just as strong. When contacted by Al Jazeera, a British defence ministry spokesperson said: The majority of personnel receive alternatives to Lariam, and it is only prescribed after an individual risk assessment. We have a duty to protect our personnel from malaria, and in some cases, Lariam, which continues to be recommended as safe by respected bodies, including Public Health England, is the most effective way of doing that.

The ministry has also established a Mefloquine Single Point of Contact, which provides information for former and serving military personnel who have concerns about their experience with the drug.

Roche pharmaceuticals, Lariams manufacturer, forwarded a media statement to Al Jazeera issued last August that states the company agrees with the findings of the defence committees report  that Lariam should only be prescribed following an individual risk assessment, to those unable to tolerate other treatments, and only after the patient is made aware of alternative treatments.

The company added that it has produced a guide for healthcare professionals  intended to aid compliance with warnings about risks [of using the drug] and to ensure patients are more aware of the neuropsychiatric side effects and to react promptly when these occur.

READ MORE: Malaria drug overused on Guantanamo Bay prisoners?

Yet, for the one-time Royal Navy engineer, who says that he wasnt prescribed Lariam by a doctor or warned of any potential side effects, such words ring hollow.

Id rather have contracted malaria and died than have to go through every day under a big dark cloud, having suicidal and homicidal thoughts, he stated.

Manofsky contends that justice for him and fellow sufferers will only be served when all the global defence and government establishments provide proper healthcare to all those who took mefloquine  no expense spared.

If they can spend trillions on these wars, they can spend a little more to help us out.

Follow Alasdair Soussi on Twitter: @AlasdairSoussi
Piles of debris and rubbish line streets in flood-hit neighbourhoods as repairs move at a snails pace.

Baton Rouge, United States  Beyond an immense mound of destroyed belongings and rotting wood sitting in the yard across from her home, Mary Mercado puts out food and water for her neighbours cat.

It has been a month since this part of Louisiana was submerged by floods, and Mercado has been coming back daily to feed pets and check on her home.

Like most other houses on the block and throughout the Sherwood neighbourhood, hers was so badly damaged that it is still uninhabitable.

Losing everything and stuff  it was just horrible, Mercado told Al Jazeera, lifting up her mobile phone to show an image of her water-filled home after historic rainfall hit Baton Rouge on August 12.

Thirteen people died in the disaster and upwards of 100,000 homes were damaged.

Much like in other neighbourhoods across eastern Baton Rouge and in nearby towns, both sides of the streets are lined with damaged cars, immense piles of debris and moulding mountains of rubbish.

At the height of the crisis, an estimated 11,000 people took refuge in shelters.

According to The Advocate, a local newspaper, at least 850 are still in such centres across the city and the nearby communities of Livingston, Ascension, East Feliciana and Tangipahoa, among others.

Inside her home, Mercado pointed to a line more than a metre and a half up on the doorsill showing how high the water reached in the living room. The homes interior has been stripped of drywall, carpet and wooden floor panels.

We are staying in a hotel because unfortunately we dont have family members here in town, Mercado, a mother of two, said.

We have to pay [for the hotel] out of pocket, she said, explaining that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provided her family with a small amount of financial assistance.

When youre not prepared financially  then its hard. FEMA gives you just a limited amount, she continued.

Im just hoping it will take us about two or three months [to fix the home] because I cant live in a hotel too long.

READ MORE: US declares disaster for Louisiana floods

FEMA says federal assistance to Louisiana communities has surpassed $1bn, with more than 63,000 families receiving grants to help pay for temporary rent, home repairs or other disaster-related needs.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards says the floods caused roughly $8.7bn in damage

In downtown Baton Rouge, the River Center was one of dozens of places turned into impromptu shelters for displaced people. The residents will be transferred from the convention centre to another shelter later this week.

Roberto Baltodano, a regional communications officer for the American Red Cross, said 236 people were still living in the River Centre as of Sunday.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Baltodano said the vast majority of people who are still in shelters are low-income families who cannot afford to rent hotels or find alternative accommodation.

You will find a wide range of emotions  we have a lot of uncertainty, Baltodano said as he walked through the hall, with hundreds of cots covering the floor.

Some of the temporary residents slept while others organised their belongings before the move to another facility.

After the floods hit Baton Rouge, US President Barack Obama toured some of the worst-hit parts of the city, pledging federal support to repair the damage.

But some flood victims and politicians have criticised the emergency response efforts of FEMA, as well as local and state authorities.

John Mica, a Republican congressman from Florida, called FEMAs efforts pitiful after visiting some of the affected areas.

Several of Louisianas state legislators have also accused FEMA of dragging its feet.

Clay Schexnayder, a Republican who represents hard-hit neighbourhoods in East Baton Rouge, blasted federal authorities for setting up only one mobile home during the first three weeks after the floods.

Having one trailer set up so far out of all of this, one trailer, where Im from I dont call that satisfactory at all, he said late last month.

Rafael Lemaitre, a FEMA spokesperson, told Al Jazeera that the agency is providing a wide array of federal support for the state of Louisiana, adding that the recovery effort has received support from many Democrats and Republicans alike.

We are under no illusions that this is going to be a quick recovery. We were there before the news cameras arrived and we will be there long after they leave, he said.
In the Nepali village of Hokshe, many residents have only one kidney.

Tempted by the promise of money, they are victims of an illegal organ trade that preys on poor, illiterate villagers to meet an ever-growing demand for healthy kidneys.

For some donors, the money never arrives. Many are left with long-term health problems.

Al Jazeera spoke with Rajendra Ghimire, a human rights lawyer and executive director of the Forum for Protection of Peoples Rights in Kathmandu, about the devastating effects of organ trafficking.

Al Jazeera: How big a problem is kidney trafficking in Nepal?

Rajendra Ghimire: There has not been any attempt to find out the magnitude of the problem across the country. A survey conducted in the villages of Nepals Kavre district sets the figure at around 150 sold a year. Due to the lack of detailed and comprehensive surveys nationwide, it is difficult to speculate the number of kidney trafficking cases in the country.

Al Jazeera: Why have Nepal and India become a hotbed for the illegal trade in kidneys?

Rajendra Ghimire: Kidney trading happens in other parts of the world as well. In the case of Nepal and India, the causes are that Nepal and India are neighbouring countries with open, porous borders and there are no travel restrictions. Nepali people often travel to India for medical treatment and for employment, therefore it is easy to bring a victim into India and remove his or her kidney. In India, there are big hospitals and a large number of kidney transplant cases from India and abroad. The demand for kidneys is not fulfilled in India, therefore ignorant and poor Nepali people are being lured into this heinous crime.

WATCH: The Organ Traders

Al Jazeera: What challenges do authorities face when trying to tackle international organ trafficking networks?

Rajendra Ghimire: As human trafficking is a transnational criminal trade, the network of organ traffickers is spread across the globe. Arresting these criminals is not often an easy task because of their transnational nature and strong network with powerful people.

Authorities in the countries involved need to make a coordinated effort to tackle the situation. They need to be trained and motivated to work in such complex crime situations. In my opinion, coordination among civil society organisations, local administration, national institutions and international coordination is essential for tackling such situations.

Al Jazeera: For impoverished communities, the lure of money can be a powerful motive for selling a kidney. How difficult is it to remove the financial incentives of organ selling?

Rajendra Ghimire: A holistic and integrated approach should be taken by governments of the countries concerned. I think that for Nepals government, education, awareness-raising activities on a community level and employment-generating activities are necessary.

On top of that, political parties, civil society organisations and government organisations need to be mobilised on a local, district and national level so that the problem is tackled effectively.

There should be an initiative to harmonise laws, so that a criminal from one country can be tried in another country. A system of mutual legal assistance and assistance in crime investigation should be established so that illegal organ removal can be tackled effectively.

READ: Need a kidney? Inside the worlds biggest organ market

Al Jazeera: What more needs to be done to prevent organ trafficking gangs from preying on poor communities?

Rajendra Ghimire: Coordinated activities need to be conducted in all the needy areas of the country. Raising community awareness should be of prime concern, and providing them with opportunities to improve their financial situation is another important aspect.

Awareness training for law enforcement agencies and officials, such as police, court officials, government attorneys and other concerned bodies is also important in increasing the conviction rate and punishing criminals. The Nepali government should have the political will to tackle the situation by coordinating with the neighbouring governments.
Study of Greek and Turkish Cypriots reveals stark difference in how they view the deserted district of Varosha.

The six-square-kilometre Forbidden Zone of Varosha stands as an iconic emblem of the Cypriot divide, but as Al Jazeera reports, one group is hoping to change that by turning it into a model ecocity.
They emerged as the best-suited diplomats to manage a deformed balance of power between the US and Russia in Syria.

Editors note: This article is the fifth piece of a five-part series that examines the bizarre and at times uncanny relationship between John Kerry and Sergey Lavrov. Click to read the first, second, third and fourth articles.

The contrast in their personas has clearly affected the ways in which John Kerry and Sergey Lavrov project their style and thoughts on bilateral relations.

John, 72, leans like a giraffe; Sergey is 65, but stands like a Russian bear. The two have had starkly different experiences growing up on either side of the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.

Kerry is said to have an aristocratic ancestry , and with his wifes fortune, theyre a billionaire couple. Lavrov, on the other hand, is a lifelong diplomat who presumably lives on a government salary.

John has travelled through Europe growing up, fought in Vietnam, won three medals, became an anti-war veteran, served three decades in the United States Senate, and was the Democratic nominee in the 2004 presidential elections.

Sergey, on the other hand, has been a bureaucrat all his life, moving up the ranks to become Russias top diplomat in 2004 when he must have learned all there is to know about Kerry.

Kerrys vast, diverse, rich experiences and ambitions contrast radically with Lavrovs linear background. But what Sergey lacks in terms of diversity and imagination, he makes up for in stubbornness and diplomatic orthodoxy.

YES man and NO man

As time passed, Kerry and Lavrov began to steer international diplomacy jointly rather than separately. Their disagreements decreased, meaning that they either both made compromises, or one gave way to the other.

Records show that Kerry has given in to Lavrov on many or most occasions when he was simply manipulated by his Russian counterpart while Moscow continued to make advances in Syria.

So far, the diplomatic progress on Syria has fed on US compromises; all the while, the country devolved into the greatest disaster of modern times.

Critics say the Obama administration claim Kerry has not merely bowed or kneeled, hes said to have laid prostrate to Lavrov.

But the Obama administration has mainly compromised on Syrian, not American rights.

For example, in mid-May 2013, an excited Kerry announced to the world that he and his friend Sergey agreed to co-host a Syrian peace conference in Geneva.

Kerry went out of his way to thank President Vladimir Putin for his generous hospitality, only to learn from the US intelligence agencies that the Russians were supplying the Assad regime with advanced missiles. The meeting was clearly a waste of time; a Russian joke, and the joke was on Kerry.

Even the wording of their initiative was slanted in favour of the Russian position. Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the Russian Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee of the day, commented that Kerry had finally accepted Russias position on Syria.

OPINION: Kerry and Lavrov  Fatal attraction I

A position that was echoed in the US Senate, where Senator John Barrasso criticised Kerrys hat-in-hand diplomacy: Asking Russia to support US interests in Syria is like asking the fox to guard the henhouse.

For three years, from Geneva I to Geneva II, to Vienna, to the UN Security Council resolution 2254 on Syria, and to Geneva III, the US compromised and Russia gained more leverage, and were able to provide the Syrian regime with more clout.

It got even worse after Russia intervened directly on Bashar al-Assads side in September 2015, taking the lead in bombing opposition strongholds. But instead of zeroing on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al-Qaeda, Russia focused its bombing spree on the Free Syrian army and other moderate opposition.

When things got out of hand in Syria at the beginning of February 2016, Kerry insisted on an immediate ceasefire to take hold within a week.

But Russia, entering the fifth month of its bombing campaign, was helping Assad make major advances against the opposition. Russia agreed to Kerrys call but, as it insisted, no ceasefire would take effect until the end of the month.

Known in US foreign policy circles as the NO man, Lavrov seemed to stay true to his reputation and always get his way. On the other hand, Kerry seemed to play the role of the YES man, in order to get stuff done.

This was despite Kerrys warnings of a Plan B if diplomacy doesnt work, was transparently false and Lavrov could call his bluff. The US secretary of state had no leverage whatsoever, alas.

As time passed, there was no more talk of a new transitional ruling body with executive authorities that would sideline Assad, but rather a national unity government with Assad in place  a real setback for the US and its regional allies and, more importantly, to the Syrian opposition.

OPINION: Kerry and Lavrov  Fatal attraction II

Did the Obama administration fail Syria and err in its assessment of the Russian military intervention? No doubt. But it also continued to build on Russias new role as the patron of the Syrian regime.

Publicly, Kerry continued to shower compliments and appreciations on the Russian regime. To call it schmoozing would be an understatement.

Without Russias cooperation Im not sure we would have been able to have achieved the ceasefire agreement in Syria, Kerry said. The secretary also underlined Russias broad cooperation in Viennas meetings on Syria, which could not have happened without Russias input, or Moscows teamwork in reaching Irans nuclear deal.

And so when the Russians began to pull out some of their hardware from Syria in March 2016, Obama and Kerry could claim that engagement paid off, and that Putin wasnt the crazy, unpredictable man he was portrayed as in Washington.

But that also proved short-lived, as Russia continued and even expanded its bombing campaigns into the summer.

OPINION: Kerry and Lavrov  Fatal attraction III

The Russian humiliation of the US in Syria became so embarrassing that Kerry saw no point in trying to sign on to another deal that was bound to be violated before the ink dried.

But the humanitarian disaster in Syria and the international public outcry forced Kerry and Lavrov to meet once again at the end of August and the beginning of September.

But the deal they reached last week was a security, not a political agreement. One that envisioned a ceasefire in parts of Syria coupled with intensified war against ISIL and al-Qaeda affiliates in other parts of the country.

The deal gave Moscow ever more clout and underlined the role of the Assad regime as a partner in any future arrangement.

Kerrys counterparts in the Pentagon and CIA, and Washingtons relevant allies in the region, are said to be unhappy with the agreement.

Whether the deal holds or not  and judging from past record it wont last long  the ceasefire will only strengthen Putin and Assad, at least in the short run.

After a dozen-plus peace plans from Annan and Brahimi to Geneva I, II, III IV, and Vienna, diplomacy continues to thrive while Syria perishes. Its like saying the surgery succeeded but the patient died.

The real deal

In light of Obamas failure to articulate and implement a sound Syria policy, Kerrys role was focused on conflict or crisis management. Obama wanted to avoid the US involvement in the Syrian conflict at all costs, and Kerry was the man for the job.

On the other hand, Putin wanted at all costs to get involved in Syria, including major military deployment. And Lavrov was the man to reap the rewards. Putin left Washington no other realistic option once Russia became entrenched in Syria.

With this in mind, and despite the US-led sanctions imposed on Russia following its meddling in Ukrainian affairs, Kerry found common ground with Lavrov on Syria.

In fact, it seems to me that the Obama administration has made the strategic decision to cooperate with an emboldened Russia as the best way forward.

It proved easier for the US to work with the adults in the room, namely the Russians, than to deal with Assad, Hezbollah and their Iranian backers in Tehran.

Indeed, the Obama administration appears to prefer working within the dynamics of great power politics than working as a lone superpower. Preferring accommodation to confrontation.

Kerry and Lavrov have reached agreements on cessation of hostilities in Syria, only after their bosses to seal it in a meeting or a phone call.

OPINION: Kerry and Lavrov  Fatal attraction IV

In the process, Syria has become a bargaining chip between two world powers, a retrenching US and an agitated Russia that is exploiting Syria to regain its regional and international standing.

Obama is clearly betting on the fact that while Putin might have won his Syria bet, only Washington could cash in his chips.

And to that end, Kerry and Lavrov have emerged as the best suited diplomats to manage such a deformed and lopsided balance of power between the US and Russia.

When the two powers disagreed, Syria plunged further into civil and proxy war, and when they began to agree to a transitional political process, it seems they had deferred the issue of the dictator stepping down at the outset or the midst of the transition.

As one of my favourite proverbs goes, when elephants fight the grass is crushed, and when elephants make love, the grass is crushed.

In the absence of a deal on Ukraine and the lifting of Western sanctions on Russia, expect diplomacy to fail successfully, and Syria to suffer more and more.

Always remember, Kerry-Lavrov diplomacy is only a reflection of the Obama-Putin legacy. And in Syria, it proved unconscionable.

Marwan Bishara is the senior political analyst at Al Jazeera. Follow him on Facebook.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
State-sanctioned ethnic cleansing and human rights violations are what enabled the Jewish settlers to occupy lands.

Neve Gordon is a Marie Curie Fellow and Professor of International Law at Queen Mary University of London.

Just a few weeks after the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that he cares about the rights and lives of Palestinians in Gaza more than the Palestinian leadership does, he posted a new video message on his Facebook wall, arguing that any future dismantlement of Jewish settlements in the West Bank would amount to ethnic cleansing.

He went on to intimate that insofar as the United States and other western countries support the uprooting of Israeli settlements as part of an agreement with the Palestinians, they were, in effect, supporting the cleansing of Jews.

Would you accept ethnic cleansing in your state? A territory without Jews, without Hispanics, without blacks, he rhetorically asked, thus drawing a direct link between the settlers in the colonised Palestinian territories and racially discriminated citizens in the US.

Netanyahus description of any potential evacuation of the West Bank colonies reflects the ethics of settler colonialism in which any attempt to dislocate the settlers is now equated with injustice.

Unwilling to acknowledge that Palestinians were ethnically cleansed in 1948 and 1967, and that they continue to live under the constant threat of displacement as a direct result of his own governments policies, Netanyahu depicts Israeli and thus Jewish settlers disengagement from the occupied West Bank, which constitutes a mere 22 percent of Mandatory Palestine, as an egregious violation of the rights of Jewish settlers.

The irony is, of course, that these settlers initially colonised this land after it was captured in the 1967 war at the behest of the state.

In sharp contrast to the racial discrimination against African-Americans, Hispanics, and other people of colour in the US, Israeli settlers are an inordinately privileged group. by

Moreover, by invoking the phrase ethnic cleansing of Jews, Netanyahu is clearly mobilising a concept that is deeply ingrained in Jewish collective memory and comprises a red line not only for the Israeli state but also for the international community.

In fact, he is actually repeating a refrain first invoked by Israels former Foreign Minister Abba Eban, who in 1969 defined the return to the pre-1967 borders as something of a memory of Auschwitz.

Through the metaphor of the memory of Auschwitz, Eban suggested that a withdrawal from the territories occupied in 1967 would correspond to another genocide of the Jewish people, this time in the temporal and spatial setting of Palestine.

Tragically, the invocation of the horrific violations perpetrated during the Holocaust has long served to legitimise ongoing colonisation and is presented as a preventive measure against the re-materialisation of Auschwitz.

OPINION: Israel-Palestine  A way to end the occupation

Thus, Netanyahus mobilisation of settler ethnic cleansing echoes Ebans Auschwitz lines, while introducing the novel notion of settler human rights.

Through his Facebook video he transforms the colonising settler into the victim of human rights abuses and the subjected Palestinians into the perpetrators who are ostensibly supported  unjustly, according to this distorted logic  by the international community.

This, to be sure, is a very strange form of human rights: It is the human rights of a dominant ethnic group whose dominance has been instituted precisely through the expulsion and subjugation of Palestinians.

Furthermore, decolonisation becomes a crime against humanity, and the global discourse of human rights is turned into a tool for advancing domination.

In sharp contrast to the racial discrimination against African-Americans, Hispanics, and other people of colour in the US, Israeli settlers are an inordinately privileged group.

Moreover, they are not a minority in the Jewish state, and despite Netanyahus attempts to revise history, it is crucial to remember that state-sanctioned ethnic cleansing and ongoing human rights violations are what enabled the Jewish settlers to occupy the lands on which they live in the first place.

Nicola Perugini is lecturer at the School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh.

Neve Gordon is a Leverhulme visiting fellow at SOAS, University of London.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
In a time of rising division, the spirit of unconditional generosity is more vital than ever.

The end of August capped the most lethal month for the city of Chicago in almost 20 years. The dry statistics tell but one part of the tale: So far, more than 500 people were shot and killed.

The numbers do not remotely convey the full impact of the lives lost, futures snuffed out and communities shattered by the worst chronic urban crisis in the United States.

In cities across the country, decades of disinvestment, de-industrialisation, and cutbacks to social services have left an entire generation of African American youth with few options for decent employment.

Meanwhile, a morbid string of high-profile police shootings drives a wedge between the police and the very communities they have committed to protect, creating an atmosphere of distrust worsened by a pervasive feeling that the police are unaccountable for their actions.

These cycles of violence are the wages of deprivation. They are the terminal signs of a social order ripping apart at the seams under the crushing weight of systemic racism, as minority communities are targeted by unfair social policies and deepening inequality as ever more wealth is redistributed upwards to the very rich.

This is neither a humane way to organise society, nor a recipe for social stability. And if nothing changes, then we face an inevitable future of escalating hostility and quickening disintegration.

We have lost touch with the basic ethical commitment to equality and inclusion that is at the foundation of any genuine community, but such an idea is not as unimaginable as many might think.

The egalitarian ethics of Eid

In fact, today, the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha, is a striking example of this idea in action. Literally festival of the sacrifice in Arabic, the holiday commemorates the prophet Abrahams unyielding devotion to his faith in his willingness to sacrifice his own son, and Gods intervention in which He instructed the prophet to offer an animal instead.

Every year on Eid, the Muslim community celebrates the spirit of unconditional generosity at the heart of the Abrahamic religious traditions by distributing provisions and fresh food to neighbours and the poorest in the community simply because they are human beings, regardless of who they are or where they are from.

A deadly malaise of helplessness and hopelessness is engulfing our communities, and where there is no hope for the future, the turn to violence is almost guaranteed. by

The core values of self-sacrifice and generosity unconstrained by the cold logic of the balance sheet: Such is the absolute ethic of care that animates the spirit of Eid.

It is a communion of radical equality that brings people together regardless of material, social or ethnic differences.

More accurately put, it overcomes those differences  and as such, it represents the nucleus of a truly egalitarian social vision.

Today, and in the days that follow, Muslims across the world will be sharing food and provisions with the forgotten and giving back to communities at risk everywhere, from every cultural background.

The equitable division of the wealth of society and the bounty of the earth between all people, regardless of their social station, is seen as a cardinal obligation for Muslims.

IN PICTURES: Somaliland  Shipping the sheep for Eid al-Adha

Whether its sharing free meals on Chicagos South Side, rebuilding burned-down churches, or simply giving to provide health and educational resources to underserved groups around the world, the Muslim community is stepping in to provide vital help to people who desperately need it and are routinely ignored by the political and business elite (PDF).

These acts are silent but powerful protests against the backwards priorities of a society that constantly places the interests of the rich above the rest, and that turns a blind eye towards the misery, anxiety and aggression that such an arrangement inevitably creates.

Restoring a lost moral order

Ultimately, the grim wave of rising hostility unfolding across the entire country is not a cause, but an effect, of a lost sense of moral order.

Sometime over the last three or four decades, the idea that it is societys obligation to provide the material basis for the health and happiness of all its citizens completely vanished from our social and political lexicon.

As a result, a deadly malaise of helplessness and hopelessness is engulfing our communities, and where there is no hope for the future, the turn to violence is almost guaranteed.

We can hardly imagine what a comprehensive social arrangement would look like any more, one that would provide the basics necessary for a flourishing life to all, without qualification.

Our moral imagination has become so stunted that the very notion might seem outlandish to some.

Yet, the traditions of Eid are a living microcosm of the kind of society we could have if we were to truly commit to recovering the kind of all-encompassing moral vision that we desperately need, excluding no one from the communion of human equality.

Jamie Merchant has a PhD in Communication Studies from Northwestern University with a focus on the role of art and media in social change. He works with Zakat Foundation of America, an international humanitarian organisation.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Nicola Perugini

Nicola Perugini is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Edinburgh. He is the co-author of The Human Right to Dominate (OUP ... more 2015) and Human Shields. A History of People in the Line of Fire (2020).
South African President Jacob Zuma has paid back more than $500,000 of public money spent on non-security improvements to his private home, according to his office, after a scandal over lavish upgrades including a swimming pool and a chicken coop.

The money is just about 3 percent of the total amount of state funds that were spent on the presidents rural home at Nkandla in the KwaZulu-Natal province.

In late March, the Constitutional Court had said that Zuma should repay some of the $16m spent on enhancing his residence.

READ MORE: Has Zuma lost his grip on South Africa?

Three months later, the national treasury valued that sum at 7.8 million South African rand ($542,000), describing it as a reasonable percentage of costs for improvements to Zumas home that were unrelated to security.

President Zuma has paid over the amount  to the South African Reserve Bank as ordered by the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the presidency said in a statement on Monday.

It added that the president had raised the money through a home loan from private VBS Mutual Bank. The treasury confirmed separately that the payment had been received.

Circle of cronies

In a statement, the Democratic Alliance, South Africas main opposition party, welcomed the news of the funds repayment, but said that Zuma should provide proof in parliament that he personally paid back the state, saying he has a history of tapping into his circle of cronies for funds.

Bongani Ngqulunga, the presidencys spokesman, said Zuma had not considered taking money from his supporters to pay the amount as he had been ordered by the court to pay it personally.

There was no special dispensation for the president. He received the loan on standard terms, the same terms as anybody else, Ngqulunga said.

WATCH: What led to ANCs losses?

Zuma is scheduled to answer questions in parliament on Tuesday, an occasion likely to feature harsh criticism from opposition parties.

The Nkandla scandal has dogged Zumas presidency, becoming a symbol of alleged corruption and greed within the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party and triggering several unsuccessful impeachment bids by the opposition.

The ANC suffered historic losses in South Africas local elections last month, garnering less than 54 percent of ballots cast  an eight-point drop from the last local poll in 2011 and its worst showing since the fall of white-minority rule in 1994.
Complaints of faulty seals on ballot papers prompt delay in vote re-run that was scheduled for next month.

Austria is set to postpone a re-run of a presidential election, originally scheduled for October 2, because of glue failing to stick on postal votes, according to officials.

The new round of voting will now take place on December 4, following an agreement on Monday between the countrys coalition parties and two smaller political forces.





The delay came after some postal voters said the glue on their forms was not working properly, making the seals insecure.

The defective vote envelopes have glue on the top edge and on the side, Wolfgang Sobotka, Austrias interior minister, told reporters.

These come unstuck and the flap can still be easily opened and closed even after 20-25 minutes, he added.

We are going to request that parliament approves a postponement of the election.

READ MORE: Austria may elect EUs first far-right head of state

In the original ballot held in May, Austria came within 31,000 votes of becoming the first western European country to elect a far-right head of state since World War II.





Norbert Hofer, of the anti-migrant Freedom Party (FPO), lost that vote by less than one percentage point to independent Alexander Van der Bellen, a former leader of the Green Party.

The Constitutional Court ordered a re-run after a challenge by the FPO, with judges citing irregularities in the way some postal ballots were processed.

The court decision was seen as a victory for the FPO, giving it more time to exploit widespread anti-migrant sentiment in favour of its candidate. In recent weeks, polls have given Hofer a four to six percentage point edge over Van der Bellen.

Austrias president has mostly ceremonial responsibilities.

A Hofer win, however, could be seen as a boost not only for his party but also for far-right and nationalist movements elsewhere in Europe which all are lobbying for a weaker European Union or an outright exit from the bloc.

With no president now in office, the posts functions are being exercised by the three parliamentary presidents, one of whom is Hofer.
Eight days of military exercises come at a time of heightened tension in the contested waters.

China and Russia have launched eight days of naval drills in the South China Sea in a sign of growing cooperation between the countries armed forces against the backdrop of regional territorial disputes.

The exercises come at a time of heightened tension in the contested waters after a UN-backed tribunal ruled in July that China did not have historic rights to the South China Sea and criticised its environmental destruction there. China rejected the ruling and refused to participate in the case.

The Joint Sea-2016 war games will include exercises on seizing and controlling islands and shoals, according to Chinese navy spokesman Liang Yang.

They will involve surface ships, submarines, fixed-wing aircraft, ship-borne helicopters, marine corps and amphibious armoured equipment from both navies, he said in a statement on Sunday.

Compared with previous joint drills, these exercises are deeper and more extensive in terms of organisation, tasks and command.

READ MORE: No legal basis for Chinas South China Sea claims

The ministry did not say exactly where the drills would be held in the South China Sea, the site of heated territorial disputes between China and its Southeast Asian neighbours.

However, Chinese news agency Xinhua said the Russian ships arrived early on Monday in the Guangdong province port of Zhanjiang, and the exercises would be held off the Guangdong coast, apparently in waters that are not in dispute.

Joint Chinese-Russian drills have become increasingly common in recent years. This weeks exercises are the fifth between the two navies since 2012.

China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims.

China has repeatedly blamed the United States for stoking tension in the region through its military patrols, and of taking sides in the dispute.

In July, an arbitration panel in The Hague, Netherlands, issued a ruling invalidating Chinas claims to virtually the entire South China Sea, a result that Beijing angrily rejected as null and void.

Russia has been a strong backer of Chinas stance on the arbitration case, which was brought by the Philippines.

READ MORE: Beijings South China Sea claims scrutinised at summit

While China says the drills do not envision specific enemies or target any third parties, their location in the South China Sea has drawn criticism.

During a visit to China last month, the commander of the US Pacific Fleet, Scott Swift, said: There are other places those exercises could have been conducted. He described them as part of a series of actions that are not increasing the stability within the region.

Xinhua rejected such sentiments in a commentary on Monday, saying those viewing the exercises as threatening were either ill-informed  or misled by their prejudice about China and Russia.

Russian news outlets said 18 ships, 21 aircraft and more than 250 marines from both sides would take part in the drills. The ships include destroyers, cruisers, a Russian battleship, amphibious warfare ships and supply vessels.

However, Xinhua said the Russian component would include three surface ships, two supply ships, two helicopters, 96 marines, and amphibious armoured equipment.

Chinas navy would contribute 10 ships, including destroyers, frigates, amphibious ships, supply vessels and submarines, along with 11 fixed-wing aircraft, eight helicopters, 160 marines and amphibious armour, it said.
Heavy downpours cause severe flooding in North Korea, leaving 133 dead and hundreds more missing.

Torrential rain has caused severe flooding in the northeast of North Korea. According to the UN, 133 people have died and another 395 are currently missing.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) quoted Pyongyang government figures, saying that around 107,000 residents had been forced from their homes in the area along the Tumen River.

OCHA added that more than 35,500 homes had been destroyed along with 8,700 public buildings.

The past few weeks have seen bands of heavy rain sweeping across North Korea. The heaviest downpours fell over the eastern side of the country.

July to September represents the countrys wettest time of the year. Changjon had 70mm of rain during the past five days. Meanwhile, Sinpo recorded 80mm of rain over the same period.

The heaviest downpours have taken place in Wonsan. Almost a months worth of rain has fallen here, with 165mm in four days. This compares to the September average of 178mm.

The North Korean meteorological department said that the flooding was the most devastating natural disaster since the liberation of Korea in 1945.

State media went on to say that the people in the northeastern region near the border with China and Russia were suffering great hardship.

Drier weather has now set in over the peninsula, and soldiers have been called in to help civilians with the clear-up operation.
US authorities urged to investigate attack on Islamic Centre of Fort Pierce during Muslim holiday as a hate crime.

A mosque in the US state of Florida has been set ablaze by an arsonist during the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, authorities said, without ruling out that it was a hate crime.

Fire crews arrived at the scene in the early hours of Monday after receiving reports of flames coming out of the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, located about 160km southeast of the city of Orlando.

No injuries were reported and the extent of the damage was not immediately clear.

Eid al-Adha, one of Islams holiest festivals, was being celebrated on Monday and also could have prompted the attack, Major David Thompson, of the St Lucie County Sheriffs Office, said.

We are not sure exactly whether this is a hate crime or just an arson, we do know that a crime has occurred and that it is arson, he told reporters at a news conference.

Investigators were also considering a connection with the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on Sunday, Thompson added.

READ MORE: Islamophobia is a multimillion dollar industry

At the news conference, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Florida said the blaze was an act of hate.

Ahmed Bedier, president of the civic group United Voices for America, also called for authorities to investigate it as a hate crime.

For this to happen to us, on the morning of our biggest celebration of the year, was something horrific, Hamaad Rahman, associate imam at the mosque, also told reporters.

The mosque temporarily relocated its morning prayers for Eid al-Adha, also known as the Feast of Sacrifice that marks the end of the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

Security video showed an individual approaching the northeast side of the building on a motorcycle around 11:38pm, a flash of light appearing and the individual then fleeing, the sheriffs office said, identifying the suspect as a white or Hispanic male.

In the video, it appears he is carrying paper and a bottle of some type of liquid, it said in a statement.

Photographs posted on the sheriff departments Facebook page showed fire engines parked in front of the building, which is a former church.

READ MORE: Texas Muslims threatened amid increasing Islamophobia

Authorities were working on enhancing the security video to help identify the perpetrator.

The FBI and other federal agencies are collaborating with the local sheriffs office in the investigation.

There were reports that the mosque had been attended by Omar Mateen, the man who opened fire at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, killing 49 people and injuring 53 others on June 12.

Mateen, a New York-born resident of Florida, was killed by police.
Iraqi Kurdish leaders wife is accused of trying to block oil exports, but some say she is being scapegoated by rivals.

A letter written by the wife of Iraqi Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani to the federal government in Baghdad has been leaked, triggering a media storm about a political crisis in Iraqs semi-autonomous Kurdish region. Hero Ibrahim Ahmad is now accused of plotting to block oil exports from Kirkuk, and of threatening to sell the citys oil to Iran instead.

Sources close to Ibrahim Ahmad dismiss the allegations. They insist that the leak  as well as the gross misrepresentation of the letter in local media  was an attempt to smear the most influential female figure on the Kurdish political scene. Both Erbil-based news channels Rudaw and K24 reported that Ibrahim Ahmad had asked Iraqs Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi for oil to be sold through Iran. They allege that she was to blame for the delays in salary payments to civil servants and pensioners  although nothing in her letter indicated that. Still, her image flashed on television screens across the Middle East while her supporters claim she is being scapegoated for larger problems for which she holds little responsibility.

Ibrahim Ahmad was a leading figure in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party during her husbands term as president of Iraq (2005-2014). Now again, during his protracted illness, Ibrahim Ahmads influence has repeatedly been challenged. Vitriolic personal attacks have been been published in local opposition newspapers and spread by rival politicians.

Dr Izat Sabir, a member of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Parliament and an executive member of the oil and gas committee, maintains that Ibrahim Ahmads letter, at least in this case, has been twisted out of context. He also dismisses her alleged threat to sell oil to Iran as a fabrication.



READ MORE: Hero Ibrahim Ahmad  The original female Peshmerga

The economy of the KRG has been in dire straits for the past two years. The sharp drop in oil prices, the refugee crisis and the ongoing fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) have left the Erbil government in near bankruptcy.





The Peshmerga, who have been fighting the coalitions ground war against ISIL, have repeatedly failed to receive their salaries and  like the rest of the civil service  have been subjected to pay cuts. According to the World Hunger Report, the KRG is now poorer and has registered less growth than the rest of Iraq for the first time since 2003.

On September 7, Ibrahim Ahmad penned a letter to Abadi, asking the federal government to consider diverting the revenue from Kirkuk oil sales to pay Peshmerga salaries directly.

At present, and according to an agreement reached between Baghdad and the Iraqi Kurdish capital of Erbil on August 30, the Kurdish share from the daily export of 100,000 barrels of Kirkuk oil goes to the KRG.

Ibrahim Ahmads letter, while contentious, has the support of the head of the municipal oil and gas committee in Kirkuk. In the letter, she writes that Kirkuk is not benefiting from oil exports and the petrodollars are not going to the people of the city. She also calls for greater transparency in how KRG funds are distributed.

If paid to the KRG, percentages would go towards repaying [KRG] debts, Sabir told Al Jazeera. She is asking for feasible solutions to pay salaries on time through Kirkuk oil sales via Baghdad, since the KRG hasnt been able to pay on time.

The issue of delayed salary payments has been ongoing since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2014. In Iraqs Kurdish region, people with special needs, for example, who receive a government pension have only been paid four times in the past year. All civil servants and pensioners have had their incomes cut, some by as much as 70 percent.

With at least 65 percent of the Iraqi Kurdish population dependent on state salaries, it is a highly explosive political issue.

READ MORE: The democratic republic of The Peoples Teahouse

Local partisan media are now putting the blame on Heros letter to [Abadi], even though the letter does not talk about any future deals with Iran or anyone. They are trying to use [Ibrahim Ahmads] letter as a scapegoat, Sabir said. But she has always stated that the nations resources should be treated as such and not to line the pockets of one individual, party or tribe.

Conflicts and disputes over power within the PUK are nothing new. In 2007, a disgruntled faction within the PUK splintered to form the Gorran (Change) party. Talabani, 82, has been the head of the party for 41 years, as several party members have risen in the ranks of both regional Kurdish politics and Baghdad, such as Barham Salih, former prime minister in the KRG, and Kosrat Rasul Ali, currently vice president of the KRG.

Contenders for party leadership have accused the Talabani family of nepotism and criticised Talabanis refusal to step down as secretary-general due to ill health. They have alleged that the PUK is, in this manner, no different from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) led by KRG President Massoud Barzani.

Ibrahim Ahmad has been a powerful figure on the Iraqi Kurdish political scene dating back to her days as a Peshmerga in the late 1970s and 1980s, fighting Iraqs Baathist regime.

READ MORE: A growing identity crisis for Iraqi Kurds

While she is respected widely for her humanitarian work and her progressive stances on controversial issues, she has suffered fierce personal attacks from more patriarchal segments of Kurdish society over the decades.

Ibrahim Ahmads achievements are largely overlooked by her rivals because she is a woman; they prefer to focus on her mistakes  real or imagined  for their own political gain, Sabir said.

Ibrahim Ahmad told Al Jazeera that there would be no changes for the time being to the position of secretary-general, held by Jalal Talabani since the PUKs establishment in 1975, and will be discontinued eventually, and replaced by a new party structure with more accountability. She added that steps have already been taken towards this end, but did not elaborate.

She was responding to an announcement on September 1 from an opposing faction within the PUK party  headed by Salih and Rasul Ali  declaring the establishment of a new decision-making body in an effort to wrest control of the party from the Talabani family. Salih has long had a contentious relationship with Ibrahim Ahmad.

The holding of a new party congress is one of the most divisive topics in the PUK, with Ibrahim Ahmad and what she refers to as the majority of the party favouring an open voting system for all party members, while others prefer a more closed delegate voting system.

Lahur Talabani, head of the PUKs intelligence agency, also slammed the factions unilateral declaration by questioning the legitimacy and authority of those spearheading the campaign against the familys dominance in the PUK party.

They became deputy by applause. They have no legitimacy any more as they were not elected, he told a local newspaper, Rudaw.

Follow Tanya Goudsouzian on Twitter: @tgoudsouzian
Doctors announcement comes as presidential candidates departure from 9/11 memorial raises questions about her health.

Hillary Clinton has been diagnosed with pneumonia by her personal doctor after the US Democratic presidential candidate fell ill at a 9/11 memorial.

The episode has renewed focus on her health less than two months before an election.

The condition was diagnosed on Friday, the doctor said, but was not made public until Sunday afternoon.

Just hours earlier, a video was posted on social media, apparently showing Clinton stumbling and her knees buckling, before being helped by aides into a black van leaving the site of the September 11, 2001 attack in New York City.

She was taken to her daughter Chelseas home in the city and appeared on her own about two hours later, wearing sunglasses and telling reporters that she was feeling great.

READ MORE: Reporters Notebook  What if Clinton or Trump were to drop out

The temperature in New York was about 27C, combined with high humidity.

Clinton wore a high-collared shirt and a dark suit during the memorial honouring the nearly 3,000 people killed in the 9/11 attacks.

Democratic Congressman Joe Crowley said that it was stiflingly hot, and he himself had to leave the ceremony.

Clintons doctor, Dr Lisa Bardack, said in a statement that her patient had been experiencing a cough related to allergies and that an examination on Friday showed it was pneumonia.

She was put on antibiotics and advised to rest and modify her schedule. While at this mornings event, she became overheated and dehydrated. I have just examined her and she is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely, Bardack said.

Major issue

Clinton cancelled her campaign trip to California on Monday because of her diagnosis of pneumonia.

Al Jazeeras Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Washington DC, said Clintons health would now become a major issue in the lead-up to the election, elevated from the ranks of conspiracies to a legitimate campaign issue.

She noted that Sundays event was Clintons second health-related incident in a week.

Clintons speech at a campaign rally on Labour Day in Cleveland was interrupted by a coughing spell. During the speech, she quipped: Every time I think about Trump I get allergic.

She then resumed her speech.

Republican rival Donald Trump and his supporters have been hinting at potential health issues for months, questioning Clintons stamina when she takes routine days off the campaign trail and reviving questions about a concussion she sustained in December 2012 after fainting.

Her doctor attributed that episode to a stomach virus and dehydration.

Clintons doctor reported that she is fully recovered from the concussion, which led to temporary double vision and discovery of a blood clot in a vein in the space between her brain and skull.

Clinton also has experienced deep vein thrombosis, a clot usually in the leg, and takes the blood thinner Coumadin to prevent new clots.

Trump attended the same event marking the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Asked by a reporter about Clintons health incident, Trump said: I dont know anything.

Past presidential candidates have released much more detailed information about their health than either Trump, 70, or Clinton, 68.
Netanyahus controversial comments have thrown another obstacle in the way of Palestinian statehood, analysts say.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett is the leader of the settler party Jewish Home, but does not live in a settlement himself.

Nazareth  On one level, an incendiary video posted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend looked suspiciously like an own goal.

In it, Netanyahu argues that a Palestinian demand to dismantle Jewish settlements amounts to the ethnic cleansing of some 650,000 Jews living in the occupied territories, in violation of international law.

The Palestinian leadership actually demands a Palestinian state with one pre-condition: no Jews, he says in the short video posted on Facebook last Friday. Theres a phrase for that: Its called ethnic cleansing.

Netanyahus aim was not hard to decipher. He wants yet another obstacle in the way of Palestinian efforts to seek international backing for statehood. It comes as pressure mounts separately from France and Russia for the Israeli government to re-engage in peace talks.

OPINION: Portrait of an occupation  Human rights of the settler

Now Netanyahu can argue that when Palestinian leaders call for a state free of armed, Jewish-only colonies breaking up any hope of Palestinian territorial contiguity they should be labelled as ethnic cleansers.

Early indications are that Netanyahus upending of international law may quickly win backing from the US right  and potentially from the next US administration, if Republican candidate Donald Trump is elected president in November.

On Sunday, the Haaretz daily quoted Trump adviser David Friedman as agreeing with Netanyahu and accusing the Palestinians of planning to make any future state judenrein  the term Nazis used to mean empty of Jews.

It is an entirely racist and anti-Semitic position, Freidman added.





Amal Jamal, a politics professor at Tel Aviv University, told Al Jazeera that Netanyahus video should be understood as the flipside of his earlier precondition for peace talks: that the Palestinians recognise Israel as an exclusively Jewish state.

That demand was intended as a trap for the Palestinian leadership, especially given that Israel includes 1.7 million Palestinian citizens who already suffer rampant and institutionalised discrimination.

In Fridays video, Netanyahu again exploited the existence of this large minority of Palestinians inside Israel to advance his right-wing agenda. He explicitly equated the settlers in the occupied territories with Israels Palestinian citizens, saying neither is an obstacle to peace.

The implication is that, should the Palestinian leadership insist on the settlers being ethnically cleansed from their illegal colonies, Israel would be justified in demanding tit-for-tat. If the settlers have to return to Israel, why not a population swap, with Israels Palestinian minority forced into the occupied territories?

Neither Lieberman nor Bennett have gone as far as Netanyahu has now in suggesting that the evacuation of any settlement is ethnic cleansing. That will strengthen him with his power base on the right. by Amal Jamal, politics professor at Tel Aviv University

Palestinian leaders in Israel understood the danger. Ahmed Tibi, a Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament, wrote on the weekend: We are not Israeli settlers, Mr, Netanyahu  [We] are not foreign immigrants that came to Israel and applied for visas or citizenship  [We] are the indigenous population.

Jamal said that Netanyahus claim would also help him to set the domestic agenda against political rivals on the far-right, such as Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Education Minister Naftali Bennett, both of them identified with the settler movement. Lieberman has repeatedly announced plans for land swaps that would redraw Israels recognised borders to move some Palestinian communities outside Israel in return for the annexation of the larger settlements.

Neither Lieberman nor Bennett have gone as far as Netanyahu has now in suggesting that the evacuation of any settlement is ethnic cleansing, Jamal said. That will strengthen him with his power base on the right.

INTERACTIVE: Building the occupation

Nonetheless, this new condition  that Jewish colonies be treated as untouchable  is diplomatically a high-risk strategy.

If, as Netanyahu claims, societies that demand ethnic cleansing dont pursue peace, what does that say about Israel, a state founded on the mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland in 1948?

Chemi Shalev, an analyst with the Haaretz daily, noted: After years that Israel has toiled to prevent the loaded term ethnic cleansing from entering the Israeli-Palestinian lexicon, Netanyahu is now pushing it in himself, through the front door.





As a counter-video hurriedly produced by the Palestinian Authority pointed out, Israels founding fathers spoke out repeatedly in favour of ethnic cleansing.

Extending Netanyahus logic, another commentator in Haaretz observed that, if Jews had an inviolable right to live on Palestinian land, why should Palestinians expelled in 1948 not have an equivalent right to live in their former homes now inside Israel, in cities like Haifa and Jaffa?

Netanyahus claim not only shines an embarrassing light on Israels past crimes: Palestinians are currently being driven off their land to allow for the expansion of Jewish-only settlements, with Israel demolishing Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and in West Bank communities, in the Hebron Hills and Jordan Valley.

It is doing the same to Palestinian citizens inside Israel. The homes of 1,000 Bedouin residents of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev are about to be demolished so that an exclusively Jewish town  also called Hiran  can be built in their place.

In short, ethnic cleansing  of the kind defined by international law  is very much an ongoing project by Israel.

Netanyahu by Jeff

that there is no more occupied territories and no more settlers.]

Then there is the matter of the United States, Israels patron. Netanyahu chose to issue his video in English, indicating that it was intended for a foreign as much as a domestic audience.

Publicly, the Obama administration called Netanyahus comments inappropriate and unhelpful. Behind the scenes the White House was variously reported to be seething and livid.

That was entirely predictable. In the video, Netanyahu states that some otherwise enlightened countries even promote this outrage [of ethnic cleansing of Jews].

It is hard not to read this as an attack on Washington. US President Barack Obama spent his first term trying unsuccessfully to force Netanyahu to freeze settlement expansion, and has regularly called the settlements an impediment to peace. Last month, US officials were reported to have warned of a harsh response if Israel demolished Palestinian homes in the West Bank village of Susiya to make way for settler homes.

READ MORE: Israeli settlement expansion a war on the mind

So why did Netanyahu choose this provocative course?

The video was certainly not a mistake. It is part of a strategy planned by Netanyahus foreign media spokesman, David Keyes. He was appointed in March after coming to prominence for controversial pro-Israel stunts on social media.

Netanyahu has issued eight such videos under Keyess direction, many of which have gone viral and are highly popular among his supporters, both in Israel and the US.

The inspiration for the latest video appears to be Frank Luntz, a high-profile consultant to the Republican party and pro-Israel causes. Famously, he developed a document in 2009 advising Israels supporters on how best to make their case. Netanyahus ethnic cleansing claim is set out almost word for word at the top of page 62 as the most effective argument with American audiences.

The Trump campaigns apparent endorsement of the Netanyahu video suggests that the Israeli prime minister may be reading the political climate in the US correctly.

Jamal said that Netanyahu and his advisers intended to severely limit the terms of any future peace process. Now anyone who demands the evacuation of settlements risks being accused of anti-Semitism, he said.

Jeff Halper, a founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, agreed that Netanyahus goal was to reframe the international communitys assumptions.

Netanyahu is telling them that there is no more occupied territories and no more settlers, he told Al Jazeera. Hes saying, Israel won, and it is time to get used to the reality of a single state. This is the new normal and he wants the language and thinking of the international community to reflect that.
Healthy baby is born in international waters, just 24 hours after his Nigerian family was rescued from overcrowded boat.

A healthy baby boy has been born to Nigerian parents on board a rescue boat in the international waters of the Mediterranean Sea, according to the medical charity Doctors without Borders (MSF).

Newman Otas was delivered on Monday by an MSF midwife on the MV Aquarius vessel, just 24 hours after his parents Otas and Faith and their two elder sons were rescued from an overcrowded rubber dinghy.

A very normal birth in dangerously abnormal conditions, said Jonquil Nicholl, the midwife. I am filled with horror at the thought of what would have happened if this baby had arrived 24 hours earlier.

Faith, the babys mother, said she had been having contractions for three days.

I was very stressed on the rubber boat, sitting on the floor of the boat with the other women and children, panicking that I would go into labour, she said.

I could feel my baby moving; he would move down and then move back up again.

READ MORE: Almost 3,000 drowned in Mediterranean crisis this year

The Aquarius, hired by MSF and SOS Mediterranee, a civil society group working to rescue at-risk refugees at sea, picked up 392 people on Sunday, including women and small children.





Among those saved, 55 people on board were under 18, 141 of them travelling alone without a parent or guardian accompanying them. MSF said.

In total, more than 1,100 people were rescued off the coast of Libya on Sunday by Italian coastguard and naval vessels, a British and an Irish warship, and several ships chartered by humanitarian NGOs, the Italian coastguard said.

Those saved on Sunday had left Libya aboard eight overloaded inflatable dinghies and two fishing vessels, they said.

Growing numbers

According to Italys interior ministry, about 124,500 migrants have arrived since the start of 2016, just slightly more than the 122,000 recorded for the whole of last year.

Italy is sheltering growing numbers of would-be refugees as its neighbours to the north move to tighten their borders and make it harder for migrants to travel to their preferred destinations in northern Europe.

According to interior ministry figures released earlier this month, Italy now has 155,000 migrants in reception centres, compared with 103,000 in 2015 and 66,000 in 2014.
An Italian town devastated by an earthquake last month is pursuing legal action against the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for defamation over a series of cartoons about the disaster that killed almost 300 people.

The magazine caused an outcry in Italy by publishing a cartoon that portrayed victims of the quake in Amatrice, a town known for its homegrown Amatriciana pasta sauce, as various pasta dishes, as well as a separate drawing blaming the mafia for the alleged poor construction of the buildings and the high death toll.

After the legal move was announced the town councils lawyer, Mario Cicchetti, told reporters: It amounts to a macabre, tactless and inconceivable insult to the victims of a natural catastrophe.

Amatrice was largely flattened by the quake on August 24.

OPINION: Charlie Hebdo free speech debate  nobody is listening

One cartoon published in early September, entitled Earthquake Italian Style, captioned drawings of a bloodied and bandaged man with the line Penne in tomato sauce, a scratched and swollen woman with Penne au gratin, and a collapsed building with blood and feet emerging from it Lasagne.

Satirical magazine #CharlieHebdo receives backlash for cartoon depicting Italian earthquake victims as pasta dishes. pic.twitter.com/lmtMHOdfAc  AJ+ (@ajplus) September 2, 2016

After Italians responded angrily, the magazine, known for its provocative cartoons, published on Friday a second one, showing a person half-buried under rubble saying: Italians  its not Charlie Hebdo who built your homes, its the mafia!

There was no immediate response from the French publication to the suit.

Amatrices local government has asked a local prosecutor to investigate Charlie Hebdo for aggravated defamation, a crime for which the town would seek civil damages.

OPINION: Lets not sacralize Charlie Hebdo

Even though the cartoons were published in France, Cicchetti said the legal case could be brought in Italy because they had been widely seen and shared there.

The construction sector in Italy has long been plagued by inattention to regulations, and both regular building work and post-disaster reconstruction has at times been infiltrated by organised crime.

It is now up to the magistrates in Rieti, near Amatrice, to decide whether to take up the investigation against the cartoonists and the magazines director, Cicchetti said.

Twelve people were shot dead at Charlie Hebdos offices in Paris in 2015 by ISIL-linked assailants who accused the magazine of blasphemy for printing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
South Korea says North is set to conduct an additional nuclear test, days after it drew ire by testing powerful device.

North Korea is ready to carry out another nuclear test at any time, South Koreas defence ministry said, three days after the Norths fifth such test drew widespread condemnation.

Pyongyang set off its most powerful nuclear blast to date on Friday, saying it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile and ratcheting up a threat that its rivals and the United Nations have been powerless to contain.

Assessment by South Korean and US intelligence is that the North is always ready for an additional nuclear test in the Punggye-ri area, South Korean defence ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun told a news briefing.

Punggye-ri, near the northeastern coast, is the site of all five of the Norths nuclear explosions.

North Korea has a tunnel where it can conduct an additional nuclear test, Moon said.

READ MORE: North Korea hails successful nuclear test

South Koreas state news agency, Yonhap, reported earlier that North Korea had completed preparations for another nuclear test, citing South Korean government sources who said the North may use a previously unused tunnel at its mountainous test site.

It did not elaborate on what activities had been detected at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site.

Al Jazeeras Harry Fawcett, reporting from Seoul, said it was already unprecedented that the North would carry out two tests in one year.

There are some significant dates coming up: the 10th anniversary of the first test in October, the fifth anniversary of the death of Kim Jong-il in December, Fawcett said.

And North Korea is undergoing a real acceleration of both its missile and nuclear programmes under the leadership of Kim Jong-un, and so this is the assessment as things stand of South Korea.

The US special envoy for the isolated state, Sung Kim, will travel to Seoul on Monday after discussing cooperation among neighbouring countries in Tokyo following the Norths latest nuclear test.

Kim met Japanese officials on Sunday and said that the United States may launch unilateral sanctions against North Korea, echoing comments by US President Barack Obama on Friday after the test.

A push for further sanctions was laughable, North Korea said on Sunday, vowing to continue to strengthen its nuclear power.

The US military delayed a planned B-1B bomber flight to the Korean peninsula, a show of strength and solidarity with ally Seoul, scheduled for Monday, Yonhap reported.

The delay of at least 24 hours was due to bad weather conditions in Guam, Yonhap said, citing an unidentified US Forces Korea official.

READ MORE: North Korea  US push for sanctions is laughable

South Koreas military put the force of Fridays blast at 10 kilotonnes, but a US expert said the highest estimates of seismic magnitude suggested a yield of 20 to 30 kilotonnes.

The test showed North Koreas nuclear capability was expanding fast and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was unwilling to alter course, South Korea said on Saturday.

The UN Security Council denounced the test and said it would begin work immediately on a resolution. The United States, Britain and France pushed for the 15-member body to impose new sanctions.

It was not clear if the Security Council can quickly come to a consensus on fresh sanctions, given the ambivalence by China and Russia on adopting another resolution.

Both countries did join sanctions in March after the Norths January nuclear test.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday a creative response was needed.

The Global Times, run by the Chinese Communist Party, rejected the suggestion by the US that Beijing was responsible for the Norths pursuit of nuclear arms.

It said the US was the root cause of the issue.

China is not capable of persuading North Korea to give up nuclear development, because Chinas efforts are not supported by the others, it said in an editorial on Monday.

Washington has been refusing to sign a peace treaty with Pyongyang.
Four years after anti-rape rule was to take effect, it is proving difficult to adopt in crowded US jails and prisons.

Only 12 US states are in full compliance with an prison anti-rape rule intended to keep juvenile offenders from adults.

Of the nations 7,600-plus prisons, jails, community-based facilities and juvenile detention centres are being checked on their compliance with the law. According to the US justice department, 36 other states say they are working to comply.

Since 2012, states have been working to meet the standards set forth by the Prison Rape Elimination Act which was partially inspired by the 1996 death of Rodney Hulin, an undersized 17-year-old inmate who hanged himself in Texas after his requests for help following repeated rapes by adult inmates were denied.

Texas sheriffs offices say separating the two populations has been a challenge because of overcrowding and steep financial costs.



The System  Juvenile Justice

Its a big logistical headache, Brazos County Sheriff Chris Kirk said.

The law was also supposed to provide for better staff training, improved reporting and investigation of all sexual assaults behind bars and more money for research.

In 2011-12, an estimated 4 percent of state and federal inmates and 3.2 percent of jail inmates reported experiencing one or more incidents of sexual victimisation by another inmate or facility staff, according to the justice department.

The rape-prevention law is a valuable and important act, and we take it very seriously, said Ryan Sullivan, a spokesman for the Harris County Sheriffs Office, which has about 150 youth offenders at its jail in Houston. The facility holds more than 9,000 inmates.

The Harris County Jail was cited in a May audit for not housing 17-year-old offenders apart from adult inmates. Elsewhere in Texas, Dallas County is spending more than $11,000 a week to keep at least 60 juveniles separated from adults at its jail complex.

Art Medina was imprisoned at 17 in Texas. He was later sentenced to life in prison in 1985 for his role in a fatal Houston-area carjacking and spent 15 years in solitary confinement after seriously wounding an inmate who threatened to rape him. He was paroled after serving a total of 26 years.

Now in his 40s, Medina has returned to the prison system as a volunteer to help adopt the PREA standards. He said in the past inmates felt like nobody cares about them.

That culture has changed. People are being held accountable, he said.

Charging juveniles as adults

The age separation has been especially complicated in states such as Texas which prosecute 17-year-olds as adults. Advocates say some facilities still question whether the federal mandate applies to them.

In many jurisdictions, one of the biggest barriers is summoning the political will to make changes, said Brenda Smith, who was a member of the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission, which helped develop the standards.

States that do not comply face losing 5 percent of their federal prison grants. County jails and local lockups are usually not included in the determination of whether a state is in compliance. Locally run facilities have no risk of losing federal money unless that funding is directly tied to a state contract for jail services.

Smith, a law professor at American University in Washington DC, said that means local authorities can be held accountable only by public criticism or lawsuits.

In Michigan, the prison system faces federal and state lawsuits filed by prisoners who allege that officials failed to adequately separate offenders aged 14 to 17 from adults, resulting in sexual assaults.

A Wisconsin legislative report concluded in July that the states prison system was not splitting up the age groups. And an American Civil Liberties Union survey in North Carolina in 2014 found that none of the 60-plus county jails that responded appeared to be in complete compliance.

Those findings have renewed calls for the states that prosecute 17-year-olds as adults to raise their age of adult criminal responsibility to 18. Those states include Texas, Michigan and North Carolina. Sullivan, Kirk and other Texas jail officials say they would be in favour of raising the age.

Efforts to raise the age failed in the last legislative session in Texas, but advocates plan to try again next year, said Elizabeth Henneke, policy lawyer with the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition.
New report says President Salva Kiir, his rival Riek Machar and their allies have amassed great wealth amid conflict.

South Sudans rival leaders have been accused of amassing wealth abroad amid a conflict in which tens of thousands have been killed, according to a US-based watchdog.

A new report, published on Monday by The Sentry group, said that President Salva Kiir, opposition leader Riek Machar and those close to them had looted the country in accumulating assets that included mansions and luxury cars abroad.

The leaders of South Sudans warring parties manipulate and exploit ethnic divisions in order to drum up support for a conflict that serves the interests only of the top leaders of these two kleptocratic networks, according to the two-year-long investigation, entitled War Crimes Shouldnt Pay.

OPINION: South Sudan, a country captured by armed factions

The Sentry said it had obtained images of the leaders family members partying in five-star hotels, as well as documentation of their offshore properties and business deals.

President Kiir officially earns about $60,000 a year. However, this investigation found evidence that President Kiir and his family have amassed a significant amount of wealth  far exceeding what he could have earned in his official capacity  and parked a sizable amount of assets outside South Sudan, the report concluded.

The probe also said that Kiirs immediate family members held stakes in a wide range of businesses involved in South Sudans oil, mining, and financial sectors.

Kiirs office was not immediately available for comment.

WATCH: Whats gone wrong in South Sudan?

The Sentry also said that Machar, Kiirs rival and former vice president, and members of his family had engaged in several questionable transactions and business ventures and enjoy an extremely comfortable lifestyle living outside the country.





The report also accused the system of international banks, businesses, arms brokers, property companies and lawyers of knowingly or unknowingly facilitating the violent kleptocracy that South Sudan has become.

The Sentrys investigation found instances of reliance on these types of institutions and actors on five different continents: Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, and Australia, it said.

Brian Adeba, one of the authors of the report, told Al Jazeera that the document was based on a lot of proof, including financial records and statements.

Our intention is to find solution to the conflict, he said from Washington, DC.

We are looking at new tools that we could leverage to change the calculations of the politicians behind the crisis in South Sudan at the moment.

Peace deal

South Sudan plunged into conflict soon after Kiir fired Machar from his post as vice president in 2013.

A peace deal reached a year ago under international pressure has been violated repeatedly by fighting, and Machar fled the country in recent weeks.

Hollywood actor George Clooney, who cofounded The Sentry with US human rights activist John Prendergast, and other collaborators presented the projects findings at a news conference in Washington DC on Monday.

There are few people in the world who have suffered as much during the past half century as the South Sudanese who suffered three major wars and watched their leaders and international enablers profit from their misery, Don Cheadle, a US actor and co-founder of Not On Our Watch, which collaborated with The Sentry on the report, said at the news conference.
President performs prayers for the Muslim celebration in suburb of Damascus that was recently surrendered by rebels.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has delivered a message of defiance by performing prayers for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday in the Damascus suburb of Daraya, only recently surrendered by rebels.

State media on Monday showed the embattled leader attending the prayers at the Saad Bin Moaz mosque in the suburb, which was previously a rebel stronghold synonymous with resistance to his rule.

I am here with the entire government to send a clear message that we are determined to retake every inch of Syria from the terrorists, to restore peace and stability in the country and to rebuild everything that has been destroyed in the past, he said in footage broadcast on state TV.

After years of government siege and violence, Darayas remaining residents and rebel fighters evacuated in late August after a deal with the government, which has since retaken control.





Assad was joined at the prayers by several members of his ruling Baath party, as well as ministers and members of parliament. The mufti, or Muslim scholar, presiding over the prayers, hailed Daraya as an example for Syria, which has been ravaged by war since 2011.

Daraya is living proof for all Syrians that the only option available to you is reconciliation and abandoning fighting, said Adnan al-Afyouni, mufti for Damascus province.

Rebels said they had been forced to agree the deal with the government after the siege created a humanitarian crisis for Darayas remaining residents.

But the government has touted the deal, and similar agreements, as the best way to achieve local ceasefires and end the violence.

More than 290,000 people have been killed and more than half the population displaced since the conflict began.

Since 2011, Assad mostly performed his Eid prayers in central Damascus, but just once in the same mosque. Last year he appeared in Homs, a once fiercely contested city, to send a similar message of defiance.
Tentative truce brokered by the US and Russia begins across Syria, but there are concerns about whether it will hold.

A nationwide ceasefire in Syria brokered by the US and Russia began at sundown on Monday, coinciding with the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, but there are concerns about whether it will hold.

Several hours into the ceasefire, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said major conflict zones across the country were quiet.

Calm is prevailing, said the observatorys director Rami Abdulrahman, adding, however, that there had been light shelling by both rebel groups and government forces in the countrys southwest.

The deal, agreed to on Friday by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, aims at putting an end to fighting and moving towards a political transition after more than five years of war between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and rebel groups fighting to depose him.

The truce does not apply to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the group formerly known as al-Nusra Front that changed its name after cutting ties with al-Qaeda in July.

The Syrian government, as well as Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah armed group, two of its strongest allies, have all agreed to the deal, but rebel groups expressed serious concerns.

Truce details  Initial 48-hour ceasefire to begin on Monday at 7pm local time (16:00 GMT) and, if successful, can be renewed for another 48 hours at a time  During that time, the Syrian government is to refrain from flying combat missions anywhere where the opposition is present in an area that we have agreed on with very real specificity, US Secretary of State John Kerry said.  Left unclear is whether those areas include places that are held jointly by rebels and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, Al-Qaedas former ally.  If the truce holds for one week, the US and Russia would then work together to develop military strikes against Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.  Deal requires both sides to halt all attacks, including aerial bombardments and any attempts to gain additional territory at the expense of the parties to the cessation, Kerry said.  It requires unimpeded and sustained humanitarian access to all of the besieged and the hard-to-reach areas, including Aleppo city, with both sides pulling back from two key access routes running from the north and south into the divided city.  Any violations would be dealt with based on the original truce agreement reached in late February, which created a joint US-Russian monitoring mechanism, according to US special envoy for Syria Michael Ratney.  From Monday, the US and Russia will create a Joint Implementation Centre for the sharing of information necessary for the delineation of territories controlled by [Jabhat Fateh al-Sham] and opposition groups in the area of active hostilities.  After seven continuous days of adherence to the cessation of hostilities and increased humanitarian access, then US and Russian experts will work together to defeat Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and ISIL, Kerry said.  These measures can only be implemented if groups within the legitimate opposition  distance themselves in every way possible from Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and ISIL, he said.  According to Russias Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, coordinated strikes against the armed groups will be carried out by US and Russian planes in specific areas. The Syrian air forces will be functional in other areas, he said, without specifying where.

Hours after the nationwide truce went into effect, more than a dozen rebel groups, including the Free Syrian Army (FSA) alliance, Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Islam, put out a statement that harshly criticised the agreement, calling it unjust, but stopped short of fully rejecting it.

The statement came a day after Ahrar al-Sham had denounced the deal in a video address.

At a State Department press conference two hours after the ceasefire came into effect, Kerry said there had been reports of violations here and there, but urged all parties to adhere to the truce deal, saying it may be the last opportunity to obtain peace in a united Syria.

No guarantees

Hours before Mondays truce was due to begin, Syrias main opposition group and several rebel factions called for guarantees on the implementation of the ceasefire before fully endorsing it.

We want to know what the guarantees are, said Salem al-Muslet, spokesman for the High Negotiations Committee, Syrias main opposition bloc.

What is the definition that has been chosen for terrorism, and what will the response be in case of violations? Muslet said to AFP.

The FSA had said over the weekend that it would observe the truce, but had major reservations.

The alliance wrote to Washington on Sunday, saying that while it would cooperate positively, it was also concerned that the deal would benefit the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Opposition concerns

Just hours before the truce began, Assad said his government would take back all the land held by terrorists and rebuild the country.

After performing prayers for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday in the Damascus suburb of Daraya, once the heart of the uprising against the government and only recently surrendered by rebels, Assad vowed to retake every inch of Syria from the terrorists.

In the lead-up to the sundown deadline, government air strikes hit rebel-held areas of Aleppo and Idlib on Monday, while Ahrar al-Sham pushed forward in a heavy offensive against pro-government forces in Quneitra in the countrys southwest.

On the ground, what you see is more violence, more fighting and more air strikes, Al Jazeeras Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Gaziantep on the Turkish side of the Syria-Turkey border, said.

Senior members said that they were sidelined by the deal and had no guarantees about what will happen in the future, and that there is no indication about Assad stepping aside in the future, our correspondent reported.

Rebel commanders were also very concerned about the targetting of the Nusra Front, which is a crucial component for the opposition in northern Syria, said Ahelbarra.

Alongside Ahrar al-Sham and other local factions, the group formerly known as al Nusra Front forms the core of the Army of Conquest, which is credited with capturing the province of Idlib and breaking the siege on Aleppo.

In a letter sent to Syrian rebels before the ceasefire, US State Department envoy Michael Ratney urged armed opposition groups to distance themselves from Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, or there would be severe consequences.

READ MORE: Syria ceasefire deal explained

According to the deal, aid access to the countrys many besieged and hard-to-reach areas is due to begin immediately, with government and rebel forces ensuring unimpeded humanitarian access, in particular to Aleppo city.

Questions remain, however, about how the ceasefire will apply in several parts of the country where Jabhat Fateh al-Sham is present.

If the ceasefire holds, the deal says that Washington and Moscow will begin joint targeting against hardline groups, including Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, in a week.





But the former al-Qaeda ally is a powerful partner for many opposition factions on the ground, and a rebel letter to the US over the weekend warned of repercussions if the group was targeted.

Striking Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the rebels said, will spark anger that will be directed towards us and be another factor in the failure of the ceasefire.

The letter, sent by FSA-related groups to the US on Sunday, outlined concerns over the deal.

In the text seen by AFP, rebels wrote that they would deal positively with the idea of the ceasefire, but did not explicitly back it.

The clauses of the agreement that have been shared with us do not include any clear guarantees or monitoring mechanisms  or repercussions if there are truce violations, they said.

Ahmad al-Saoud, who heads the US-backed Division 13 rebel group, a signatory of the letter, said they had received no response to their concerns.
The case against Assange is as political as it is legal; where does it go from here? Plus, Kenyas election influencers.
Iman Zawahry doesnt like to leave her house on Sept. 11.

When the twin towers fell in 2001, the then Islam on Campus president watched news reports on television. Her first response was shock and horror. Then she heard the suspected terrorists were claimed to be Muslim.

The 20-year-old went into survival mode, she said.

I wish that I was able to grieve like every other American, but I couldnt, because I was put on the defensive, Zawahry said.

Fifteen years after the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, the changes in UF and Gainesville are undeniable, seen in the students and faculty who watched them unfold and the officers who protect the city.

Zawahry, then a religion major, went to the Reitz Union after UF canceled classes that afternoon to meet with her board about what to do, the now 35-year-old UF adjunct professor said. The campus was a ghost town.

The organization condemned the attack and held an interfaith walk, Zawahry said. In the weeks that followed, other groups like UF Hillel reached out, offering assistance. UFs Student Government upped the groups funding.

In the aftermath of the attacks, UF came together.

From a tragic event, a beautiful thing happened from unifying the community, she said. From that point on, people were reaching out to us to learn more about us.

Still, she tries to stay inside, as a gesture of respect to those who may not understand that Islam preaches love and doesnt support killing anyone.

But in the weeks following the attacks, UF changed in other ways, said George Esenwein, a UF adjunct professor who specializes in European political violence and terrorism.

In 2002, Florida passed a statute requiring every public K-20 state institution to display the American flag in each classroom.

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This reaction almost forced students to take a loyalty oath when universities are supposed to be places to discuss controversial subjects, he said.

It had a negative impact in the fact that it put a real damper on intellectual discourse, he said.

***

Living in Long Island as a child, Anthony Ferrara would often take field trips to the World Trade Center.

The Gainesville Police captain and New York native said memories of the citys skyline are among his most cherished.

But after the 9/11 attacks razed the twin towers and killed nearly 3,000 people, the context of Ferraras memories  and his job as a law enforcement officer  changed forever.

This was nothing we had ever seen, he said.

Within minutes of the terror attack, all non essential police activity was suspended, and off-duty officers were patrolling the city.

The attack bred a new fear, a new type of criminal: one who wouldnt mind dying for a cause.

After the towers fell, GPD officers received briefings from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Ferrara said.

A new policy, enacted by the federal department, tasked police to report suspicious activities.

Suspicious Activity Reports, which would be sent by each department to the Department of Homeland Security, added an extra layer of responsibility to officers shoulders, Ferrara said.

Cars parked in front of government buildings. Chemicals stored in bathrooms. Airplanes flying low.

These were reasons to worry, he said.

Violence from abroad had trickled down onto the countrys doorstep. In Gainesville, police felt this new threat, said Lt. Tscharna Senn.

Before 9/11, officers training centered on proficiency in shooting, driving and fighting, she said.

After 9/11 it was more of trying to prepare for the unknown, something we werent really comfortable with training for, she said. Its scary  its very scary.

A visitor reaches to touch a name engraved at the Sept. 11 memorial site to remember the victims of the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, Thursday Sept. 8, 2016, in New York. Sunday marks the 15th anniversary of the terror attacks.
A conservative UF group announced plans Friday to invite journalist Milo Yiannopoulos to speak on campus in October.

Keira Hornyak, the president of Turning Point USA at UF, said Yiannopoulos, a technology editor and writer for conservative news website Breitbart News, contacted the group about a month ago to add UF to his cross-country Dangerous Faggot speaking tour.

Hornyak said she hoped to hold the event Oct. 4 but could not clarify its location. The group is currently undergoing a registration process to reserve a space on campus for the event, she said.

Hosting Yiannopoulos, who is gay, would hopefully spark meaningful dialogue among students, Hornyak said.

I want to show the world that UF is civil and we can act like adults, she said.

Paul Bernard and Steve Orlando, UF spokesmen, said they are not aware of Turning Points plans to host the journalist.

As of press time, Yiannopoulos could not be reached for comment, and UF is not on the list of nearly 50 tour stops available on his official website.

He is scheduled to visit four Florida universities later this month including Florida State University, the University of South Florida and the University of Central Florida, according to his website.

Other notable tour stops include Dartmouth College, Columbia University and Stanford University.

Yiannopoulos has been the subject of controversy  his critics accuse him of promoting racism, and his supporters defend his right to free speech.

In July, Twitter permanently suspended his account from its social media site.

Ben Duong, a UF microbiology and political science senior, said if Yiannopoulos were to visit campus, his speech would likely be met by protesters.

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The 21-year-old said Yiannopoulos has publicly supported sexism, racism and xenophobia.

He also said the journalist is a proponent of the alt-right movement, which Duong described as a modern rebranding of white nationalism.

Hes definitely not above causing controversy, Duong said. In fact, I know him to usually embrace the controversy.

Noah MacGinnis, a UF political science sophomore, said both critics and supporters of Yiannopoulos would benefit from hearing him speak. Doing so would help them understand each other, he said.

The 19-year-old said although he does not align himself with Yiannopoulos social views, he has the right to say what he wants  even if some may disagree with his message.

I definitely share his values for sharing what he feels and expressing his First-Amendment rights, MacGinnis said.
Ryan Murphy and his aunt had a bond that spanned across the country.

The now 19-year-old didnt see Trish Murphy often, but her job working in a hospital, taking care of sick children, was something he always admired.

She would give her life for anyone, he said.

But when she died last year after suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic inflammatory disorder affecting the joints, the now UF biomedical engineering sophomore struggled to find a way to honor her memory.

His parents told him about Ladybug House, a non-profit organization that raises money to build hospice homes for children, an organization his aunt was heavily involved with.

Murphy reached out to Suzanne Gwynn, the founder of Ladybug House and a former roommate of his aunt. He wanted to help in any way he could, he told her.

After launching the first national chapter of the organization at UF in February 2016, hes raising money to help build the first Ladybug House in Seattle. As of press time, hes raised more than $1,200.

Ive always wanted to help people in some way, and I feel like this is my calling, he said.

Gwynn, who lives in Seattle, hopes to raise $20 million to build and operate the first house, which will be 25,000 square feet with 12 suites. The house will allow children with life-threatening illnesses to stay in a comforting environment near a hospital, she said. The United Kingdom has 54 similar houses, but there are only two in the U.S., she said.

Trish Murphy supported Gywnn more than anyone after she established Ladybug House, Gwynn said. Gwynn would call her in tears, and she would help her cope with the stress of starting the organization while balancing her job as a nurse.

She was my biggest cheerleader, she said. Together, they worked the night shift at Seattle Childrens Hospital, helping young patients going through their hardest days.

Ryan Murphy remembers how his aunt radiated joy, despite her demanding job.

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(Trish) was around these type of kids who had these illnesses, he said. She treated them like her own children.

Gwynn and Murphy have never met, but their connection through Trish Murphy is helping the organization expand across the country.

After all his work, Gwynn said her friend would be proud of her nephew.

Its people like Ryan, she said. Those are the people who are going to make a difference in the world. The ones who lead with their hearts.

Murphys fundraising goal of $10,000 will give him and the about 50 members of the UF chapter a goal to strive for, he said. He plans to have his friends at five other universities start more chapters. After graduating, Murphy wants to continue working with the organization to help as many kids as possible.

I hope to grow this across the whole country, he said. To think that these kids are given a date on their life, it really puts things in perspective for me.

Ryan Murphy and his Aunt Trish Murphy, pose for a picture. Ryan started the UF chapter of Ladybug House, which was co-founded by his aunts friend. He is currently raising money for the organization.
A county detention deputy was charged Thursday for sexually assaulting a minor.

Deputies with the Alachua County Sheriffs Office arrested Donald Adam Dixon, 34, on a warrant for sexually assaulting a person between the ages of 12 and 18 and for using a computer to seduce, solicit or lure a child, according to an ACSO press release.

Dixon had worked at the ACSOs Department of the Jail since June 1, 2015, according to the release.

ACSO Sheriff Sadie Darnell suspended Dixon after the allegations came out last week. He was fired following the arrest, according to the release.

On Friday, Judge Robert E. Roundtree Jr. issued a standing no-contact order against Dixon, which prevents him from going within 500 feet of the childs home or car, according to Alachua County Court records. Additionally, Dixon cannot communicate or have physical contact with the person.

Following a question posted to the ACSO Facebook page Friday asking why a photo of Dixon has not been released, the Sheriffs Office responded by citing Section 119 of Florida Statute. The section states photos of active and former law enforcement officers are exempt from public disclosure without the individuals consent.

Authorities took Dixon to the Alachua County Jail where he remains, as of press time, in lieu of a $350,000 bond. Additional charges are pending as the investigation continues, according to the release.
On the 45th anniversary of New Yorks Attica Correctional Facility riots, a group of Gainesville residents protested inmate mistreatment.

Waving signs outside of the Wal-Mart on Waldo Road, about 35 people attended a rally held Friday evening by the Gainesville chapter of the Industrial Workers of the World.

Protesters denounced prison slavery, which they described as the corporate use of prisoner labor with little or no compensation. They also spoke out about poor living conditions in prisons.

The rally, held in conjunction with prison strikes across the country, took place at Wal-Mart because protesters said the company benefits from prison labor.

Gainesville resident Logan Glitterbomb, 26, said she attended the rally to show solidarity with prisoners and to commemorate the 1971 riots, when inmates of a New York prison held guards hostage, pushing for reforms like improved health care.

Joined by other members of the Gainesville IWW, Glitterbomb held a sign that read Working class solidarity against prison slavery.

She said the average person may be unaware of what goes on inside prisons, which she said motivated her to lend them her voice.

Were here because (the inmates) asked us to be, Glitterbomb said. It is a literal case of slavery.

Joseph Spillane, a UF associate professor in the Department of History, said prison conditions have not improved significantly since the Attica riots.

It did not change much for the better, Spillane said.

Like the inmates who began protesting Friday, Spillane said one of the key issues of the Attica riots was the use of prison labor without proper compensation.

During the uprising, the prisoners compiled a list of grievances, which included inadequate health care and prison guard brutality. Following the riot, which left more than 40 people dead, prison authorities complied with some of the prisoners demands, but adequate reforms were never enacted, Spillane said.

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It is very difficult  almost impossible  for inmates to have their voices heard, he said.
Cambridge Bancorp in Massachusetts has recruited two finance executives to spearhead its new asset-based lending practice.

The $1.8 billion-asset parent of Cambridge Trust Co. said in a press release Monday that it had hired Chris O'Connor as senior vice president and Peter Coates as vice president of the practice, part of its commercial lending division.

O'Connor and Coates join Cambridge Trust from Salus Capital Partners, a Needham Heights, Mass., private finance firm that focuses on retail finance. O'Connor was president and chief credit officer at Salus; Coates was senior vice president of special assets.

Cambridge Trust has 11 locations in Massachusetts, including Cambridge, Boston and Lexington.
The Federal Reserve Board and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. are set to give at least four megabanks a "harsh verdict" on their living wills, including JPMorgan Chase, according to an article by The Wall Street Journal, which cited "people familiar with the matter."

The paper said the results of the living wills, which it said are "not yet final and could change," are due out this week for the eight biggest and most complex U.S. banks. Two other banks that were said to have flunked their living wills are: Bank of New York Mellon and State Street, the paper said. Citigroup is expected to receive a positive review, according to the article.

If banks receive failing grades, they start a regulatory clock to improve their living wills within a year or face possible asset divestures and other steps mandated by regulators.

Law and regulation Regulators Agree Living Will Process Is Flawed, Needs Changes WASHINGTON  The Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. should rethink the review process for big banks' resolution plans, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Tuesday. April 12

Law and regulation Living-Will Grades for Foreign Banks Are Already Obsolete Regulators have yet to provide feedback on last year's living-will resolution plans, but for foreign banks with significant operations in the U.S., those assessments are too late. Such institutions are required to put in place an entirely different business model by July of this year. April 11

The FDIC found flaws with the living wills of several big banks last year, but the Fed declined to start the regulatory clock for fixes, saying the process was still too new. Regulators have not yet provided feedback to the firms involved, but that is expected soon.

A spokesman for JPMorgan declined to comment on the article.


The expanded Panama Canal locks, which just opened June 26 to handle vessels up to 14,000 TEUs, are expected to reshape U.S. East Coast port operations.



All photos courtesy of the Panama Canal Authority and Chris Dupin

It seemed a little incongruous, lying there on the stage minutes after Jorge Quijano, the chief executive officer of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), had spoken to thousands of executives from shipping companies, port authorities and shippers at a reception the day before the waterways new, third lane opened for business.

It was a Spanish edition of Don Quijote de la Mancha. An employee explained it was given to Quijano by a Spanish guest because of his nameat the end of the novel the hero reveals his real name to be Alonso Quijano.

The canal expansion had seemed for many to be an impossible dream. Yet here it was, completed after nine years of construction, even though, as ACP Chairman Roberto Roy has written, it was something pessimists and doomsayers bet plenty of money against!

Juan Carlos Varela, president of Panama, said the expanded canal is the largest investment and infrastructure project in Panamas history and is designed to maximize the advantages of the companys geographic position.

Panama expended treasure, labor and even lives to the canal expansion.

The cost of the canal was originally estimated to be about $5.25 billion, including around $3.18 billion for the new locks at the canal. That was about a third of the countrys annual GDP when voters in a national referendum voted to go forward with the project.

The cost did increase to about $5.4 billion, part of which was anticipated as there were escalation clauses in the contract where the price of the project would rise up and down because of changes in the cost of labor, steel, diesel fuel and cement.

The country is now engaged in a tussle with contractors over the legitimacy of billions of dollars more in cost overruns.

Varela noted that 95 percent of the 40,000 persons who worked on the project were from Panama.

Celebrations were held throughout the country on June 26, when the 9,400-TEU vessel COSCO Shipping Panama became the first neopanamax ship to pass through the waterway on its way from Piraeus, Greece to Asia.

Tens of thousands were invited to watch the first neopanamax pass through the locks at either end of the canal and the entire passage was broadcast live on Panamanian television. About 1,000 members of the media from around the world were present. In short, it was a very big event for a country of 4 million people.

There were special ceremonies held to recognize the men and women who worked on the canal expansion, and the eight workers who lost their lives during its construction.

Panama should be so proud they built the 21st century project of the Western Hemisphere, said Mario Cordero, chairman of the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission, one of many dignitaries that were present at the canal locks opening. Its going to do a lot for the new dynamic of trade and commodities.

The expansion project included several different components:

 Deepening and widening the entrance channels to the canal on both Atlantic and Pacific sides of the waterway.

 Construction of three massive new locks on each side of the canalthe Cocoli locks on the Pacific side near the Port of Balboa and Panama City and the Agua Clara locks on the Atlantic side near Colon.

 Three water-saving basins that accompany each lock chamber. These ingenious devices allow lockage of ships through the expanded canal with 7 percent less water than is required to lift or lower ships in the 1914 locks, even though the new locks can lift and lower ships that are much larger. The technology has been used elsewhere, but never on this scale.

 Deepening, widening, and raising the elevation of Gatun Lake, which supplies the water for the canal.

 Deepening of the Culebra Cut, the eight-mile artificial gorge that was dug through the Continental Divide in Panama during its original construction.

 A new 3.8 mile Pacific access channel that joins the new Cocoli locks with the Culebra Cut, a project that involved construction of a dam that was nearly 1.5-miles long.

A Good Start. Only time will tell how heavily the new third lane of the canal will be used, but canal officials predict an eventual doubling of tonnage moving through the waterway.

The first signs are encouraging. The day the canal opened, 170 ships had reserved bookings in advance, even as the port was limiting reservations to four neopanamax ships per day, two in each direction, but said it can handle more.

In just the first two weeks after it opened, two dozen neopanamax ships had used the canal11 containerships, 11 liquid petroleum gas (LPG) carriers, and two car carriers.

The major beneficiaries will continue to be the people and places joined by our reliable connection, Quijano said.

American consumers of construction materials, household goods, electronics, clothes, shoes and toys will benefit from the ability to move cargo on larger, more economical containerships.

For the roll-on/roll-off trade, it means that ships carrying 30 percent more cars, trucks and other vehicles8,000 car equivalent units (CEUs)will be able to pass through the locks. The first of those neopanamax ro-ros, the NYK Iris Leader, called the Blount Island Marine Terminal at the Port of Jacksonville on July 11.

In South America, Ecuadorian exporters of bananas and Chilean producers of wine, grapes, apples, salt, and copper will be able to take advantage of lower transportation costs.

The dry-bulk and tanker trades will be able to use ships with twice the capacity, which should make U.S. exporters more competitive.

Even the size of the cruise ships that transit the canal will double in size, from ships able to carry 2,000 passengers to those capable of transporting 4,000 passengers.

The ears of FMC Commissioner William P. Doyle perked up when Quijano mentioned that a ship carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) had made a reservation to transit the canal. It turned out that ship was coming from Trinidad and Tobago, but Doyle, as well as Panama Canal officials, expects large amounts of both LNG (predominately methane) and LPG (propane and butane) to be exported from the United States as the trains at LNG liquefaction plants come on line.

The U.S Energy Information Agency said the Panama Canals new lane will be able to accommodate 90 percent of the worlds current LNG fleet compared with 6 percent prior to the expansion. Sailing time from the U.S. Gulf through the Panama Canal to Japan, South Korea, China, and Taiwanand those four countries collectively account for two-thirds of global LNG importswill be reduced sharply. For example, the voyage to Japan will take 20 days, compared to 34 days for voyages around the southern tip of Africa, or 31 days if transiting through the Suez Canal. To Chile regasification terminals, transit time will be cut from 20 to eight or nine days.

Much Needed Improvement. The original two lanes of the canal opened in 1914 and will continue to operate.

Panama has seen the need for a third lane for a long time.

Even before the canal was transferred from the United States to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999, an office had been established to study an expansion.

The canal was able to increase capacity by upgrading the original canal. Quijano said by spending $3.3 billion on improvements it was able to increase the total tonnage moving through the waterway from 228.5 million tons in 1999 to a record 341.8 million tons in 2015.

Those improvements, which also increased the depth of the lake channels by 2.1 meters, and added better lighting, new tugs and launches, mooring stations and vessel traffic systems, have also increased the reliability, safety and improved transit times at the canal, he noted.

Manuel Benitez, the canal authoritys deputy administrator, said the expansion comes just in time as the 1914 canal was nearing its capacity.

Even though shipping, especially in the container sector, which is in one of its worst years, we have had a very sound year. Last year we had a record in terms of tonnage that passed through this canal even though the container industry and the world as a whole is in a slow period, Benitez said.

In addition, the shipping industry has seen a continued increase in the size of ships.

Last year saw transits by 12,386 oceangoing vessels. About 63 percent of those ships were panamax vessels, compared with 35.4 percent in 1999. Panamax ships are 965-feet long and 106-feet wide, the maximum size that can be accommodated by the original 1914 locks, 1,000-feet long and 110-feet wide.

The new locks, which are 1,400-feet long and 180-feet wide, can accommodate ships up to 1,200-feet long and 160-feet wide. The depth of water in the new locks is also 60 feet, compared to 42 feet in the 1914 locks.

The water level in the canal is quite important, because we would always like to go through with full ships and occasionally we have had times of the year where with the old locks there were restrictions where you could not go through with a full load, said Anders Boenaes, head of network for Maersk Line.

This past year has been particularly difficult, because Central America went through one of the most intense La Nina droughts, the counterpart to the El Nino that brought much needed rain and snow to California over the past year.

Benitez said the expansion includes extensive improvements to improve the water supply for the canal. He noted that in late June the old canal was able to allow ships drawing 39.5 feet and that the draft in the new canal was 43 feet.

He said the new locks can handle ships drawing 55 feet of water, but said we will not be able to give that throughout the year. We think that throughout the year, with 99.9 percent confidence, we can offer 46 feet and most of the time we could offer 50 feet of draft. He noted this is tropical fresh water, which is less buoyant than salt water.





A roll-on/roll-off carrier squeezes through the Miraflores locks at the Pacific entrance of the original Panama Canal



Container Industry Boost. Containerships account for about a third of the tonnage and 47.4 percent of the revenue at the canal.

What this means for the container-shipping industry is that carriers can now increase the size of vessels that they can move through the canal from about 5,100 TEUs to those carrying as many as 13,000-14,000 TEUs, though Benitez said its expected the workhorse ships will initially be smaller. For example, in the two weeks immediately after the canal opened, the neopanamax containerships transiting the canal initially ranged from 6,655 TEUs to 10,000 TEUs.

Benitez said one advantage of the new locks is that wider, more stable ships will be able to transit the waterway, and carry less ballast and more cargo.

Unlike the original locks at the canal that have swinging miter gates, the new lock gates roll out from the side of the canal, much like pocket doors. Each lock has both an inner and outer gate. Benitez explained this was done originally so that the locks would be easier to maintain and repairthe locks would not have to be drained and the canal closed. But by combining an inner and outer gate, or using the two outer gates, the lock chamber can be extended to 1,500 feet or 1,600 feet.

Carriers sending neopanamax ships through the canal in the first two weeks included COSCO China Shipping, MOL, Hanjin, Mediterranean Shipping Co., Evergreen and K Line, and other carriers have made reservations.

Benitez expected the canal will have at least six container services using neopanamax ships by the end of this year. By next year we are estimating 11 services of neopanamax and 21 services with panamax ships, he added.

The inability to operate large ships has seen more companies in recent years routing vessels from the Far East to the U.S. East Coast via the Suez instead of the Panama Canal.

But the information service Alphaliner reported on July 6 that the Panama Canal has successfully pushed back the Suez Canals inclusion into this trade, with its share of trade jumping to 57 percent after the opening of the new lane compared to 48 percent at the beginning of 2016. The Panama Canal did this even as the number of strings through the Panama Canal fell from 16 to 13, as carriers combined some strings.

Of course, there are some ships that are larger than 14,000 TEUs that will not fit through the expanded canal, and more are on order, but most of those operate between Asia and Europe. But the canal authority said that about 98 percent of containerships are able to fit through the expanded canal today. That percentage will drop to 95 percent by 2019, as more of the big ships are delivered.

Maersk, the worlds largest container carrier, has had five services that use the Panama Canalone between Australia/New Zealand and the U.S. East Coast; two between Ecuador and North Europe and Ecuador and the Mediterranean and Black Sea; one, the TP10, between China and Korea and U.S. East Coast ports; and another, the TP18, between China and Korea, and Houston, Mobile and Miami.

He said Maersk would only increase the size of its ships in the TP8 or TP10 strings if demand was there.

None of those services use neopanamax ships, but the company has announced plans to reroute one of its transSuez services through the expanded canal starting in September.

The TP12 will be transformed into an eastbound around-the-world service. That string uses 11 ships with 8,500 TEU capacity. Maersk will continue to use the Suez Canal for its TP11 service.

Boenaes said routing a ship through the Panama Canal instead of the Suez will improved transit times.

According to the ACP, it is 10,582 nautical miles from Shanghai to New York via the Panama Canal and 12,370 miles via the Suez Canal.

But carriers, including Maersk, reduced or abandoned routings via the Panama Canal in favor of the Suez Canal despite the longer route, because the economics of larger ships were attractive even if they had to travel further and a ship had to be added to a string to maintain a weekly schedule. Now, with the new lane of the Panama Canal open, Panama is in the big ship game.

Griffith Lynch, executive director of the Georgia Ports Authority, said in 2011 about 25 percent of Savannahs traffic came through the Suez Canal, 50 percent through the Panama Canal, and 25 percent from other parts of the world. At the end of 2015, the ratio had flippedthe Suez Canal was 48 percent and the Panama Canal 30 percent, even though, he said, the Panama Canal has told Savannah that it is its biggest trading partner.

But with the expanded canal, carriers are upsizing their vessels to take advantage of the new Panama Canal locks. Savannah said the share of ships with 6,000 TEUs or more will jump from 39 percent to 56 percent in July.

With the third lane and lower fuel prices, the tide is turning in Panamas direction.

Boenaes said there issues at many U.S. portswater depth, berth length, crane height, and lack of landside capacitythat would prevent carriers from handling the very largest containerships able to use the new third lane at the Panama Canal.

A major obstacle, he said, is the Bayonne Bridge between Staten Island, N.Y., and Bayonne, N.J., which has a roadway thats too low for containerships carrying more than about 8,500 TEUs to pass beneath.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is in the process of modifying the bridge so that the roadway is higher. The lower roadbed is expected to be demolished by late 2017, so larger ships can pass beneath it. The entire bridge project will be completed in 2019.

He explained New York is key to the Asia-East Coast services, because if a carrier does not call New York it is not possible to fill up the larger ships.

Noting the restrictions on the size of ships in New York at the moment, Boenaes even called 8,500-TEU ships Bayonnemax.

But not all companies are waiting for the Bayonne Bridge to be raisedthe G6 is using ships with capacities of about 10,000 TEUs in its NYX string, which calls New York, Norfolk and Savannah.

The G6 can do that because the ships are calling the Global Terminal in New Jersey, which can be reached without sailing beneath the Bayonne Bridge.

Bob West, an independent maritime consultant, believes that even as ports like Miami and New York that are capable of bringing in 10,000- or 11,000-TEU ships, the amount of cargo moving through the Panama Canal will grow at ports such as Kingston, Freeport, Cartagena and terminals in Panama itself, including a new container terminal that Panama plans to build in Corazal.

While some shippers prefer cargo to move directly to the United States without stopping at transshipment hubs, West said transshipment can be highly attractive to both carriers and shippers because you can load the ship quickly and load it fuller.

Quijano said the ACP is providing incentives to promote the use of the Panama Canal. These include a loyalty program for container vessels that provides tiered price improvements of as much as six percent. He said 10 container lines are participating in the program.

The ACP is also providing incentives to other sectors of the shipping industry to use the canal.

Quijano said the canal, for example, will apply a ballast rate for LNG vessels so long as the voyage is 60 days after the laden transit and is developing a similar ballast rate for dry bulkers to promote the repositioning of ships that need to use the larger locks.

Maersks Boenaes said moving cargo via the canal will help reduce the cost of transportation for carriers moving cargo from the Far East.

Im not going to relate that directly to prices for customers, but we are always fairly goodand this is meant very ironicallyat giving our cost savings away for our customers, he said.

The London-based consultancy Drewry wrote in July that it believes cargo will shift from the U.S. West Coast to the East Coast gradually.

Without doubt, the ability of the canal to handle much larger ships is a groundbreaking event and heralds a new era in which a large swathe of U.S. importers will have a much wider choice of options routing goods from the Far East. However, it will not all change overnightthe migration of seaborne cargo from the West Coast to the East Coast will continue to be a steady evolution, Drewry said. Like Boenaes, the firm pointed to the Bayonne Bridge as one reason the ramp-up in ship size will be gradual.

The American market has become a difficult one to predict and, while demand for East Coast space improved from mid-May onwards, it is impossible to say with any conviction whether this years peak season is going to be a strong one or not, Drewry said. It has caused the carriers to err on the side of caution. On the one hand, they have introduced larger ships into new loops, but on the other they have removed services.

Carriers, Drewry said, are aware that with spot rates at historic lows they can ill-afford to flood the market with excess capacity.

Oslo-based Xeneta, which maintains the worlds largest database of container freight rates, predicted freight rates could potentially deteriorate as carriers attempt to fill the larger ships capable of transiting the expanded canal.

There could be real trouble brewing on the horizon, Xeneta CEO Patrik Berglund said. Firstly, the neo-panamax vessels have to attract trade to this fresh route, and this could initially force them to keep rates artificially lowthe last thing the industry needs. Then we have the fact that more ships will be able to compete on the East Coast, potentially pushing rates even lower.

Newly arriving 18,000-20,000 TEU megaships could also be deployed into the U.S. East Coast via the Suez.

Boenaes said moving cargo via the Panama Canal to destinations in the eastern United States will certainly be lower than moving it by rail or truck.

For years consultants have been speculating about how much cargo will shift to all-water routings.

The Boston Consulting Group and C.H. Robinson have estimated that with the Panama Canal opening, as much as 10 percent of container traffic between East Asia and the United States could shift from West Coast ports to East Coast ports by the year 2020.





Gates for new locks each have duplicates so locks do not have to be drained for maintenance



Costs And Concerns. There were a number of problems that developed during the canal construction, and continuing concerns about the operation of the new locks, but it is still far from clear how important these will eventually turn out to be.

The third lane of the canal was projected originally to have been completed in 2014 to coincide with the centennial of the opening of the original canal

During the construction, disputes developed between the canal authority and the multinational consortium building the locks. Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC), a joint venture of Spains Sacyr Vallehermoso, Italys Impreglio, Belgiums Jan De Nul group and Urban Construction Inc. of Panama (CUSA).

The dispute reached a crescendo with work stoppages in early 2014, but the two sides were able to come to an agreement so the work on the canal continued.

ACP advanced $872 million to the consortium so that the project would be completed and the funds do not have to be repaid until 2018, when disputed claims must be adjudicated.

Of the $3.5 billion in disputed claims, $1.5 billion has been taken to a dispute adjudication board and the other $2 billion has yet to begin the dispute resolution process.

The dispute adjudication board has resolved around $950 million in disputed charges and awarded the contractor more than $300 million. Neither side is pleased with the ruling by the dispute resolution board. They have both taken the disagreement to a second stageinternational arbitration, Benitez said.

Benitez said in the event of that the rulings are nfavorable to ACP, the amounts awarded to the consortium would be taken out of the $872 million advance to the consortium.

Its not clear how much luck the consortium will have in recovering additional funds. The disputed claims seem to confirm the skepticism of other companies that bid on the project which thought GUPC had offered far too low a price. A consortium led by Bechtel bid $4.2 billion for the job, while the C.A.N.A.L. consortium led by Spains ACS bid $6 billion.

A major bone of contention between the consortium and ACP had to do with the concrete mix.

Ilya Marotta, executive vice president of engineering and administration of programs at ACP, said when contractors began pouring concrete there were problems with the quality and they had to repair or demolish and rebuild some areas.

They came in with a better mix of concrete and it worked much better. We have strict requirements for concrete and every meter of concrete deposited complied, Marotta said.

During testing, some concrete sills in the locks developed leaks, but the canal had those sections reinforced with additional steel.

Benitez said ACP believes that eventually 15 ships could be moved through the new canal lane each day if the water-saving basins were used and 17 if they are not used.

As ships move through the locks in the original 1914 canal, they are centered and pulled through by locomotives, known as mules. With the new locks, the ships use their own propulsion and are guided by tugboats. Tugs are also used to guide ships into the older portion of the canal and big ships are escorted the entire length of the waterway.

Ivan de la Guardia, president of the union of canal towboat captains, said in the first weeks of operation there was an average of only one ship using the third lane, though on some days there were as many as four. Average transit times for each set of locks are about 3.5 hours, he estimated.

He complained about a lack of training for the 130 tug captains and said there was a need for about 40 more. He also said more tugs are needed.

De la Guardia also said there have been problems with lines snapping as ships are moved through the locks and fenders on the side of the lock sliding from the wall.

While in the old locks ships are centered by the mules, in the new ones tugs are being used to press them against the sides of the locks, and Benitez said this procedure has worked well.
The Donald never ceases to amaze. Much like the developer's ladder he climbed under the tutelage of his father, Trump has scaled the political ladder with equal speed and facility. He has risen from the no-chance dilettante candidate to the GOP's nominee in a (current) statistical tie with his Democrat adversary for the White House. Friend and foe alike are nonplussed. But the quick-study presidential candidate would be no surprise to Alexis de Tocqueville.

Sent to the United States by the French government to study prison reform, Tocqueville encompassed the entire republican experiment, publishing his reflections as Democracy in America.

The New World's break with aristocratic Europe fascinated him; immediacy, dynamism, and action took the place of refined, unhurried contemplation. "The democratic social state and democratic institutions lead most men to act constantly," Tocqueville wrote; "now, the habits of mind that are appropriate to action are not always appropriate to thought."

Critics of Trump will read into these sentiments an indictment of the Republican presidential nominee, whose early campaign was marked by cringing off-the-cuff statements and unfiltered appraisals of his opponents. The Democrat contest, in contrast, praised itself for policy-heavy debates  never mind that dialogue consisted of nothing more than Sanders's sixties-era socialism and Clinton's nostrums to Progressivism.

The 2016 match-up echoes the political confrontation sketched by Austrian economist F. A. Hayek: intellectuals' ideological constructs versus the practical world of everyone else. Intellectuals pride themselves as leaders capable of planning myriad socioeconomic interactions; while normal citizens don't have the luxury of social engineering daydreams  they have "real world" jobs to do.

For Hayek, this was a fatal disadvantage, since their lack of expertise left political neophytes vulnerable to socialist intellectuals who not only enjoyed policy know-how, but had drawn up the terms of debate, too.

But Donald Trump, real estate developer and reality TV star, frustrates Hayek's framework. Trump has defied the intellectuals and charted his own course. Contrasted with Clinton  Obama's avowed third-term surrogate  he runs the tables in a political season yearning for novelty from failed past policies. Political correctness and establishment verities be damned.

The Trump campaign signals change under the banner of "Make America Great Again," in pursuit of which The New York Sun has chronicled two important shifts in economic policy.

An external component consists in fighting back against bad trade deals, the mantra of The Art of the Deal author, who promises renegotiation that puts "America First." Such braggadocio sets free traders' teeth on edge, and supporters are at pains to explain how a trading nation is to prosper under the threat of tariff walls.

By using protectionist leverage to end currency instability  with China being Trump's main bugbear for undervaluing the yuan to give exporters an unfair trade advantage. "He's going to have to find a way to turn his abhorrence of monetary manipulation into systems reforms designed to restore predictability and confidence to the international and domestic economies," a Sun editorial issued forth. "In other words, he'll have to seize the lead in the monetary debate."

A debate, The Sun contends, America desperately deserves. Quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve is one key factor contributing to economic malaise  with punitive taxation policy, regulatory obstruction, and redistributive disincentives rounding up the usual suspects. Removing these government hurdles will highlight Trump's internal reforms for American growth.

"We finally have a candidate who is getting to the bottom of the so-called Obama recovery," was The Sun's Hallelujah moment; for "... in using the phrase 'false economy' Mr. Trump has signalled that he comprehends that we need to reconnect the economy to some measure of value that is real." Or as editor Seth Lipsky sums up: "Bullseye."

In Tocqueville's judgment, America will reward the practical man of affairs: "The rapid view of a particular fact, the daily study of the changing passions of the crowd, the chance of the moment and the skill to grab hold of it, decide all matters there." Donald Trump has evolved from missteps to sure-footedness on his path to the White House, demonstrating that the candidate not only embodies the showman's skill but evinces every indication he can transition to a serious statesman.

Stephen MacLean maintains the weblog The Organic Tory.
Hillary Clinton attended the 9/11 tributes and remembrances Sunday morning in New York City. Donald Trump was there too along with thousands of 9/11 family members, memorializing the fallen and showing American fortitude 15 years after that tragic day.

For Mrs. Clinton, it was a difficult morning. She stumbled and nearly fell as she attempted to get into her waiting van. She was literally held up and dragged into the van. Her press pool was kept away meaning the only video evidence of her collapse was from a few bystanders. Media reports described it as a medical episode.

Clintons campaign staff attributed the episode to Mrs. Clinton feeling overheated. It could be due to overheating if it was a hot day. But was it?

The temperature in New York City Sunday morning was a comfortable 80 degrees, hardly a NYC summer scorcher. The forecast was for cooler temperatures than the day before. Were there reports of other memorial attendees suffering a similar fainting spell?

Syncope is a medical term for a transient self-limited loss of consciousness with an inability to maintain postural tone that is followed by spontaneous recovery. There are lots of potential causes, mostly benign such as dehydration or temporarily low blood pressure. But sometimes syncope presages a life-threatening event in a small subset of patients.

Causes range from circulation, heart conditions, metabolic/endocrine issues or central nervous system dysfunction. In a woman turning 69 next month, a first episode of syncope should be of concern, particularly in a high profile presidential nominee in the midst of a busy campaign season. A trip to the hospital emergency room would not be unreasonable in this situation. On the other hand, if these episodes are common and have already been medically evaluated and attributed to an underlying condition, racing off to the emergency room would not be warranted.

The fact that Mrs. Clinton went not to the hospital but instead to her daughter Chelseas apartment, then to her home in Chappaqua, suggests that her syncopal episode was not of serious concern to her or her staff. Or that she is traveling with one or more medical personnel. If the former, that this type of spell is commonplace, why hasnt Mrs. Clinton told us about it? Seems a presidential candidate would be forthcoming about any significant health issues. What are the implications of such an episode during Mrs. Clintons hypothetical 3 AM phone call? If the latter, and she is traveling with a medic, why is that? The president travels with medical staff, but candidates do not, unless they need it. And if they do, why?

Legitimate concerns about Mrs. Clintons health, dating back several years, have been dismissed as conspiracy theories. She suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2012 described by her husband former president Bill Clinton as a terrible concussion that required six months of very serious work to get over. She was, and perhaps still is, taking blood thinners. She has an underactive thyroid. Then there are her recent coughing spells. Not to mention the possible seizures, falls and mysterious medical syringe.

These health concerns are not a big deal if they involve the 68-year-old woman living down the block, but they do if the 68-year-old woman is the potential President of the United States, Commander in Chief of the U.S. Armed Services, arguably the most powerful leader in the Free World.

CNN, not surprisingly, disagrees. Several weeks ago they attempted to debunk the Clinton health conspiracy theories, coining a new term, healthers, similar to the Obama conspiracy theorists or birthers. Predictably they assert a Trump-Brietbart connection as the source of these wild theories. If the Koch Brothers werent part of the #NeverTrump movement, they would have likely been tied to the conspiracy too.

Just a few days ago, Chris Cillizza of the pro-Clinton Washington Post wrote an article entitled, Can we just stop talking about Hillary Clintons health now? He referred to concerns over Mrs. Clintons health as, wacky theories that emerge out of the fever swamps on the very fringe of the conservative movement.

What a difference a few days and a syncopal episode make. Today Mr. Cillizza has changed his tune, wading into his own fever swamp. Writing again in the Washington Post, Hillary Clintons health just became a real issue in the presidential campaign. After several recent coughing fits and her medical episode today, he acknowledges, talk of Clinton's health no longer just the stuff of conspiracy theorists.

Another pro-Clinton news outlet weighed in. NY Times bureau chief Adam Nagourney tweeted, Feels like a good day for Clinton to release her medical records and call on Trump to do same. Cant argue with that.

Interestingly Mr. Cillizza, eight years ago, was quite concerned over John McCains health. If elected in 2008, he would have been 72 years old at the time, only three years older than Mrs. Clinton if she is elected in November. The concerns over Senator McCain stemmed from potential physical and emotional injuries inflicted during his time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam as well as his previous malignant melanoma.

Fair concerns at the time, despite the fact that eight years later, Mr. McCain is alive and well, seeking yet another 6-year Senate term.

So why arent concerns about Mrs. Clintons health worthy of disclosure and discussion? Mr. McCain, unlike Mrs. Clinton, was not exhibiting any behaviors or symptoms of concern, yet the media still fretted over his health.

Perhaps Mrs. Clintons medical episode on 9/11 will be the proverbial straw that broke the camels back, moving her health issues from the realm of conspiracy theory to a legitimate concern and campaign issue.

Brian C Joondeph, MD, MPS, a Denver based retina surgeon, radio personality, and writer. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
Friday night, Hillary Clinton said out loud what our progressive friends have long been thinking. It may cost her the election.

Half of Donald Trumps supporters, claimed Hillary, were merely anxious about the future. The other half belonged in a "basket of deplorables." What made them deplorable, said Hillary, was that they were "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it."

Having been called all of these things, I can assure you that to be so defamed one need only express a common sense opinion on, say, affirmative action, gender differences, traditional marriage, immigration or terrorism -- an opinion that the defamer may have held as recently as yesterday.

In my 2015 book, Scarlet Letters, I explored the desperate urge felt by Hillary and her fellow travelers to demonize their fellow citizens. My inspiration came in watching an HBO documentary called Fall to Grace and directed by Alexandra Pelosi -- yes, Nancys daughter. Pelosi revealed, without intending to, how easily the failure to follow the shifting multicultural creed could become a sin.

The documentary tracks the career of former New Jersey governor, Jim McGreevey, the self-dubbed gay-American disgraced in a sex and security scandal. In one passing scene, McGreevey enters an Episcopal Church ostensibly more welcoming than the hidebound Catholic Church of his childhood. The message board on the church front reads, Lord help us overcome the sins of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia.

Had the message board been bigger, I argued, the good pastor might have added xenophobia, Islamophobia, and global warming denial. Although there are many other ways an individual can go wrong, I wrote, these stand for the moment as the seven new deadly sins. In her speech Hillary cited five of the seven. By concluding with the phrase you name it, she encouraged her audience to conjure up some other new sin, transphobia perhaps.

The rubric multicultural does not really capture the spirit of Hillarys mutant progressive faith. It is too benign a term. In truth, the faithful have less interest in celebrating the many colors of their rainbow than they do in condemning those who resist the celebration. For the record, the audience at this LGBT gala laughed when Hillary trashed her fellow citizens.

That resistance, as Hillary seems to believe, is born out of hatred -- hatred of blacks, of gays, of immigrants, of Muslims, of women. Hate is the umbrella sin for all dissenters. For all of their postmodern prattle about relativism and multiculturalism, progressives like Hillary have proved quicker to judge and harsher in their judgments -- basket of deplorables, oh my!-- than the most spiteful Puritan divine.

Throughout the western world, author Mark Steyn has observed, tolerance has become remarkably intolerant, and diversity demands ruthless conformity. As Hillary made much too obvious, progressive multiculturalism may well be the most judgmental, vengeful, unforgiving quasi-religious sect abroad in the western world today, Islam included.

Black author Shelby Steele coined the phrase zone of decency to describe the sacred preserve in which progressives imagine themselves clustering. To distinguish themselves from lesser mortals, argued Steele, they are quick to decertify those who do not embrace the values du jour. As Steele argued, progressives need only the display of social justice to win moral authority.

Throughout her career, Hillary has shifted her positions to avoid decertification by the lefts Red Guard. In 2003, for instance, she told a radio audience she was adamantly against illegal immigrants. When she ran for president in 2008, she considered marriage "a sacred bond between a man and a woman, the same position that cost the homophobic Carrie Prejean the Miss USA title months later.

Then, too, the Clintons have committed their fair share of arguably real sins. Any number of witnesses have heard Hillary using anti-Semitic slurs. In 2008, Bill Clinton joked to Ted Kennedy about Barack Obama, "A few years ago, this guy would be getting us coffee." In the 2016 campaign, Hillary has used retired general Wesley Clark as a surrogate despite his call to put Muslims suspected of disloyalty in internment camps. And for at least forty years now, Bill has been preying on vulnerable women, occasionally violently, and Hillary has been enabling him.

Yet by the simple act of displaying her rainbow flag and decertifying at least a quarter of all Americans as racist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, and even sexist, Hillary is allowed to pose as a social justice warrior.

In Scarlet Letters, I highlight those individuals who have resisted the lefts cultural pogroms, among them Duck Dynastys Phil Robertson, a Trump supporter. Robertson understood the nature of the religious war being waged. The struggle was not between left and right in any political sense. It was a struggle between the politically correct and the biblically correct. The hate that Hillary and her peers assign to those who oppose them is, Robertson believes, a hatred towards God.

I would not go so far as to call Trump biblically correct, but almost alone among the Republican candidates he has shown the will to resist. On June 10, 2015, just as my book was coming out, I wrote an article titled, If Only GOP Candidates Would Say This. In my opening sentence I contended, The Republican nominee for president will be that candidate who best learns that there is no future in apologizing.

The only way to beat [the left], I wrote, is to stand your ground, to not apologize for yourself or for your political allies, even those less verbally adroit. An apology is never enough. Progressives, I added, want you to grovel, and then they want you gone.

I did not even mention Donald Trump in the article. I did not know he was running. But love him or not, he stands his ground. That is why he might very well be the next president of the United States.
Shouldn't we all be willing to allow people of every race, religion, sexual orientation, age, and gender to come live with us? Isn't it just plain wrong to shut your door on a face just because you perceive that face to be of a dark shade? It's so hurtful to be refused entry to someone's home just because you're Airbnb'ing while black, or while gay, or while a man. Something must be done.

That's the argument being made by some black Americans who claim they have suffered discrimination by Airbnb hosts. There have been some participants in Airbnb who say they were repeatedly rejected by hosts who are white. They make the assumption that the only reason this could possibly be happening is because of their color. They can't conceive, apparently, that there could be any other reason.

I can.

Perhaps the hosts are unfamiliar with the workings of Airbnb and mistakenly posted a date they later realized was inconvenient for them. Or the guest requested only one night, and they preferred to rent to another guest who needed several nights. Or they had a bad experience with a former guest and were being extra cautionary. Or, in the case of gender, let's say the host is a single woman who is uncomfortable allowing strange men in her home. Then again, it could be that they are rejecting someone because of the perception that he is black.

You may consider, for example, Host Archie (fictitious name) to be a bigot. You may demand that he be chastised for his behavior. You may think that he needs to take a class in sensitivity training. It sounds reasonable. We all want a better society and more tolerance, and Airbnb, with its massive influence, should be at the forefront of this effort.

Airbnb, for its part, has decided to accept these charges as fact and has responded with the following changes: minimizing the use of photos in the booking process, requiring "anti-bias" training for employees, pushing hosts to use a feature that instantly books rooms, and creating a "diversity promoting team." Can they be more politically correct?

The problem is, this entire response is based on buying into a series of falsehoods and one-sided vision. The knee-jerk reaction that anyone claiming discrimination is always a victim and that anyone discriminating for whatever reason is always at fault is just going with the flow of lazy thinking.

This chain of claims and reactions is built on a series of false premises: not only that there is discrimination in the Airbnb "community," but that it's widespread, it needs to be fixed, and we should focus solely on the hosts.

Let's begin with the assertion of serious discrimination. The widely cited Harvard University research paper on which those clamoring for change base their assumptions states that customers with "black" names were 16 percent less likely to be accepted for rentals. Not having access to this research and how it was conducted, I'll just accept it at face value. Sixteen percent, or one in six or seven, doesn't sound like widespread discrimination. Based on this figure, a person looking for a rental will encounter a rejection in one of six times he or she looks for accommodations. It is a given that the sole reason for this rejection is his race.

I wonder how many times a non-black is rejected.

Another shortcoming of the report is that it was limited to those with "black-sounding names." I can only assume that these guests, although encouraged to post a photo, had not done so. So the study is further limited to those with black-sounding names and without photos. Perhaps these guests were rejected  not because of their perceived race, but because of their lack of photos and reviews.

Nevertheless, out of a desire to appease a vocal but probably small segment of their audience, Airbnb is accepting these accusations as gospel and went to great expense and trouble to "remedy" this alleged problem, probably for public relations purposes.

What's missing in this whole brouhaha is any consideration whatsoever for hosts. Guests have an arsenal of information they can use to select a place to stay. Hosts, not so much. Guests can access photos of the premises, photos of the hosts, detailed descriptions of the property, and reviews from previous guests. And they are free to discriminate as to which properties to book for whatever reason, and nobody is the wiser. Hosts have less information: just a name, one photo, and reviews from previous hosts. Based on this scanty amount of information, they choose which of the total strangers who apply can gain access to their home, where valuables (both monetary and emotional) are kept. Each time they open their door, they face a potential risk.

Should we really be pressuring homeowners to allow anyone who asks into their homes? Don't homeowners have any rights? The 4th Amendment to the Constitution states that citizens have a right to protection from illegal search and seizure. It reflects the belief that a person's home is his private domain.

Homeowners should have the right to refuse access to their homes to whoever they please and for whatever reason. They shouldn't apologize for considering their own safety in choosing whom to admit into their home.

Airbnb has been enormously successful so far. Millions of transactions have been brokered between hosts and guests to the mutual satisfaction of both parties. Airbnb should be held accountable for the concerns of all their participants, not just those who shout "discrimination." By making these changes, Airbnb is going down the wrong path and putting people in the uncomfortable position of having to choose between conforming to a faceless company's idea of moral correctness and preserving their own sense of well-being.
The leftist media, dominated by a determination to elect Hillary Clinton and take out Donald Trump, has generated a shameless tsunami of ideological fervor. Their job now, this force that is the media, is to see that Clinton is elected, despite her criminal activities disclosed over the last thirty years. They do not care that she is a brazen pathological liar; they only care that she is the Democrat candidate. She is one of them. They are not bothered one bit by her crimes against the Constitution, against the body politic, on which she is a blight.

For the twenty-four years the Clintons have been on the national stage, they have been corrupting our culture and the traditional values on which the nation was founded. Bill Clinton's promiscuity, once it became public, altered and degraded the notions of sex for children who were in middle school. His escapades took a toll on young people that reverberates today. Our millennials, many of whom have not grown out of the casual sexual entitlement they learned at Bill Clinton's knee, are a sad commentary on the cultural rot with which he infected the nation.

He was a vulgar man, as were his defenders. JFK, the public learned years after his death, was a profligate adulterer but enjoyed the protection of a compliant media. So confident in his power over the media and the people, Bill Clinton was indiscreet his entire life. He rubbed his indiscretions in our faces and Hillary stuck by him, as did the media. Neither she nor they are defenders of women or the America that once was.

For her "loyalty" to her philandering husband, Hillary is to be rewarded with the presidency. That was and is the deal. She stood by him, defended him, handled the many women he involved himself with and expected that her subsequent steps to the Oval Office would unfold as naturally as planned. For the most part, they have. So far.

In the meantime, the Clintons set out to enrich and empower themselves on a scale a Borgia would envy and they have succeeded wildly. They own the Democratic Party. And they are owned...by Soros and all the other billionaire scalawags who donated millions of dollars to their "foundation" for access, privilege, and urther wealth, all of which they got. And on top of this, the Clintons, and Obama throughout his eight years as President, have done as much to stratify American society as the Democrats who opposed desegregation until forced to swallow it by Republicans. They fought it for a hundred years and were forced to accept it in 1964 and '65. Obama and Hillary see civil rights always and only as a political and electoral issue, to be used and abused. They have set race relations back fifty years. They are race hustlers of the lowest order.

Fast forward to the current campaign. Donald Trump is the Republican nominee, the vulgarian of the not-so-right but the one who beat sixteen other also-rans. No one a year ago could have predicted he would be the Republican candidate. He was indeed vulgar throughout the primary season. He was cringe-inducing, crude, insulting to anyone and everyone. He crossed many lines of decency and decorum. And yet he won.

Why? Because so many Americans are sick to death of the status quo: the tyranny of political correctness, the indoctrination of their children by a federalized education establishment; the imposition of ridiculous rules on speech and gender, the ruination of their medical care; the unconstitutional autocracy of the EPA, IRS, and the other regulatory agencies.

The voters who made Trump the nominee are rebelling against big government overreach. Obama's leftism is authoritarian, repressive and it has bankrupted the nation. Hillary would be more of the same or worse. Is it any wonder that the "people" gravitated toward a rapscallion like Trump? The known is despicable, so embrace the unknown. He cannot be worse than the powers that be, no matter how vulgar.

But Hillary Clinton is the true vulgarian. She oozes no charm from any pore as she makes her way around the floor. She has lied her way to prominence for thirty years without a shred of actual accomplishment. She claims all manner of achievement but there is none; she has remained in the public realm for no reason but her last name --which she reluctantly took. She accomplished exactly nothing as a senator and was a wholesale disaster as Secretary of State. And she still claims to be qualified to be commander in chief! She is not. She is a mediocre intellect, an ideologue that has done far more harm than good. The mess that is the Middle East is in part on her. But she did get very, very rich.

As the campaign ramps up and winds down, as outrageous as Trump continues to be, as alarming as he is to establishment conservatives, it is becoming clearer and clearer that it is Hillary Clinton who is the true vulgarian. It is her specious and unending lies that are an affront to the American people who she assumes are all dumb as rocks. As she panders to African-Americans, Latinos, LGBT's, illegal immigrants, and other putative victims more and more citizens recognize that she is a crude woman. She believes she can lie her way to the presidency, that she has already bought and paid for it...by selling it to the highest bidder.
Hillary Clintons mean-spirited put-down of half of Donald Trumps supporters as a basket of deplorables gives further proof that she is the real basket case.

The term, itself, is so archaic that I keep forgetting it. I have to remind myself that it rhymes with adorable, though Im sure that adjective is not in Her Heinous anti-Trump vocabulary. Yet somehow the strange term fits Hillarys image as a relic of the past. She has not driven a car for over 20 years. Her excuse is that the Secret Service demands it. Nor does she demonstrate the slightest understanding of technology, for which there is no excuse. So Hillarys outrageous use of a quaint metaphor suits her well.

It doesnt suit in other ways, though. We have many hundreds of millions of voters in America but only two major contenders running for president. A candidate cannot be excoriated for the makeup of his supporters any more than a novelist can be blamed for those who read his books.

Further, Hillarys blast at Trump supporters defies Logic 101, since the premise is suspect. To hold water, arguments must be based on fact, not mere assumption. Classic example:

In most states, American citizens over 18 are eligible to vote.

John Doe, 20, is an American citizen.

Therefore, in most states, John Doe is eligible to vote.

Without getting too technical about propositional logic, its fair to say that the first two statements in this formula must be accurate in order for the conclusion to be the same. If in the premise you substitute the word permitted for eligible it changes things. And if John Doe is only 16 and is not an American citizen as stated, it also invalidates the conclusion.

What Hillary Clinton took for granted in her accusation was this:

Donald Trump is a bigot who incites followers.

Half of these followers are bigots.

Therefore, they support Trump.

The proof for charging Trump as a bigot, sexist, or racist resides solely in the feverish minds of Clinton advocates. And from that yearning comes the claim that those who support Trump are equally guilty of phobias and disparaging isms. Trumps remark about Carly Fiorinas face has been metastasized into his supposed deep-seated misogyny, even though the facts of Trumps life dispute that. His response to personal attacks by a gold-star parent is presumed to mark him for life as an Islamophobe. And although he has repudiated rather than encouraged the ideological followers of David Duke, he is branded as a racist. By conveniently creating a Monster Trump, Hillarys camp legitimizes its monstrous charges against him and those who intend to vote for him.

In the case of the deplorables, however, the uproar went viral. And once again Hillary Clinton is walking back an imprudent remark. Months ago I suggested this happens so often, she should start wearing her pantsuits backwards.

The candidate has become a nonstop apologist for her own blunders. But it does not end there. Her surrogates fall in lockstep to pull her fat out of the fire of poor judgment. I feel for them. They cannot manage to discuss this issue, or any others, without changing the subject and pointing another finger of blame at The Donald. In their rebuttals, the but is foremost. She shouldnt have said this or done that But...

No doubt, Madame Secretary fancied the basket metaphor to be as clever as her gimmicky Soviet reset button. Although she introduced the slur as grossly generalistic -- a rather elitist-sounding phrase -- she just couldnt resist laying it out there nonetheless. Clearly, she places a higher value on fanfare than on fairness.

Even more demeaning than the remark itself, however, was the outburst of laughter that greeted it. Hillary was fundraising at a group of LGBT supporters. Surely, these folks are aware of the deep humiliation experienced when groups of outsiders laugh at and demean them. Yet without personally knowing any of these tarnished Republicans, the crowd dismissed them in the same insufferable manner.

The greatest irony, however, is Clintons use of the campaign slogan Stronger Together, while tearing Americans apart in her hunger for power. It is hard to imagine that, if elected, Hillary would be president to all the people, or if she would visit revenge on those who opposed her.

If Clinton misspoke about the basket of deplorables, she is also dead wrong about this: The other half of Trump voters arent necessarily for him on strictly economic grounds, or even out of a sense of general frustration. Some of us are for Trump because we abhor Hillary. We cringe at the thought of the hypocritical Clintons back in the White House. The last time they left, they pilfered several items of furniture and flatware that rightly belonged to the American people. Those had to be returned, but the Clintons dont.
The plodding pol that Hillary is, her comment branding half of Donald Trumps supporters as deplorable may have been a misspeak. But maybe not. It could have been typical liberal condescension, along the lines of Barack Obamas 2008 rip at Middle Americans clinging to their guns and bibles. But maybe more.

Note the context. Hillary made her remarks at a fundraiser open to the media. Sure, she was throwing red meat to high-dollar contributors -- coastal elites -- who think as little of flyover country Americans as she does. Its very likely, though, that with the media permitted, Hillary intended to offer up a specific message targeting some Democrats (Berns legions) and a lot of independents who appear to be deserting her. This is bad news for our inevitable first woman president.

Chances are that Hillary strayed from the script; to wit, that Trump is a dangerous, gun-loving closeted Neo-Nazi, skinhead-sympathizing, white supremacist-backing, bare-knuckled rich cowboy who deserves to be banished to societys margins (or back to reality TV). Instead, Hillary riffed that half of Trumps growing constituency is the scum of the earth. That she didnt call for reeducation camp justice for these reprobates means she wasnt mentally agile enough to think of how to wrap the comment tightly enough into a sound bite.

Hillary has a long pedigree of asserting that theres a vast rightwing conspiracy out to get Bubba and her. Shes long outstripped Dick Nixons paranoia. Note, too, that in her walk-back about tons of Trump supporters being deplorable, she refocused on Trump, repackaging the charge against him. This strongly suggests thats what she was supposed to say from the get-go.

In campaign politics, theres a cardinal rule (and there's not many of them) that you dont attack your opponents supporters. It ranks just below attacking your opponents mother, wife , kids, and dog, but not by much. It only stirs the passions of the people youre labeling as creeps. No candidate worth his or her salt wants to help mobilize the opposition.

Moreover, it may not sit well with the very independents youre trying to woo. Plenty of average voters know a family member, friend, coworker, or neighbor whos backing The Donald and know they arent double-secret KKK just itching to burn crosses on black peoples or Hispanics lawns. The charge isnt credible and should bite Hillary hard where it hurts most: at ballot boxes in critical states this autumn.
House Republicans huddled behind closed doors on Friday to map out their strategy for passing an omnibus spending bill before the September 30 deadline.

The consensus that appears to be emerging is to draft a short term bill that would fund the government through December 15.

But a small group of conservatives, backed by the Freedom Caucus, are pushing for a bill that would fund the government through the middle of April.

Politico:

The at-times contentious conference meeting comes just weeks before the government runs out of money on Sept. 30. Republican leaders are adamant that they will not allow the government to shut down in what's proving to be a tough election year for the GOP with Donald Trump at the top of the ticket. Still, Ryan and his top lieutenants, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Whip Steve Scalice (R-La.) and Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), are seeking a path that will garner the support of a majority of his GOP conference. And Friday mornings meeting showed they still have some work to do. Ryan opened up the session by going through the pros and cons of both a three-month and six-month continuing resolution. He also floated the idea of passing "mini-bus" spending packages, clustering two or three agency funding bills together at once, rather than a massive omnibus that combines 12 bills to fund the government. Theres a realization within the conference that an omnibus is not popular, House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) told reporters after the meeting. The idea is to try to do a few mini-buses that are bite-sized appropriations that we can digest and look at carefully. Many lawmakers exiting the meeting liked the pitch, though the conference was not completely unified. "Some people are for a short-term, some people are for a long term," said Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), who noted he personally liked the mid-December plan. "There is nothing good that is going to come out of a funding bill in the lame duck session," said conservative Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Texas), echoing concerns held by the House Freedom Caucus. They fear leadership will negotiate an expensive $1 trillion year-end spending package favorable to Democrats. That's the principle reason conservatives say they want to punt into next year.

Congressional Democrats and the White House back the short term bill. They believe the GOP will be in a weaker position after the election, giving them more leverage over lame duck Republicans.The Republican leadership, on the other hand, think that the short term bill would give them a better hand to play in a longer term spending bill that they would like to pass in December.

Many Republicans want to attach policy riders to the CR, including an amendment that would ban Syrian refugees and another that would halt the administration's conversion of the internet. These provisions are less likely to pass in a longer term spending bill.

Historically, the shorter term CR's have somewhat restrained government spending while the longer term measures break the bank. Any way it turns out, the government deficit is going to soar in the next year thanks to the inability of Congress and the reluctance of the president, to control spending.




On Saturday, my amazing God-sent team pulled off our first powerful Blue Lives Matter Celebration event. Each celebrity guest spoke masterfully on their topic; educating and dispelling negative myths about our brave men and women in blue.

Radio talk show host Andrea Shea King's incredible tribute to fallen officers had many wiping away tears. Humorist AlfonZo Rachel's rant supportive of cops had the audience in stitches laughing.

Congressman Ron DeSantis spoke expressing his appreciation and support for law enforcement officers. We were presented with a proclamation which concluded, Now, Therefore, I, Derrick L. Henry, Mayor of the City of Daytona Beach and on behalf of the City Commission do hereby proclaim Saturday, September 10, 2016 as Celebrate The Blue Day.

While I was elated that our event went so well, rich with great musical performances and compelling speeches, I was stunned that not a single media outlet covered the event. We sent numerous press releases and made phone calls to Central Florida radio stations, TV stations, and newspapers.

As president of a Central Florida arts center for over a decade, local media routinely responded to every press release I sent from art openings to talent shows and everything in between. Today's Blue Lives Matter Celebration event was newsworthy, the first of a nationwide tour honoring America's police. The event was extremely educational, entertaining, touching and uplifting, a positive response to those who paint targets on the backs of our courageous law enforcement officers. Why was there clearly a media blackout? Not one news reporter showed up, folks. Not one.

One has to wonder. How intimidating and entrenched is the evil bogus narrative promoted by the Obama administration, mainstream media, Hollywood, and Black Live Matter that claims police are our enemies, racist and murder blacks? Why did Central Florida media behave as though our event celebrating police was a leper colony?

To broaden our appeal, someone suggested that I change the focus of my celebration from police to include EMT, firefighters, and military. While the suggestion sounded reasonable, it did not connect with my spirit; not in sync with what I felt God led me to do. Still, I ran the suggestion past one of the powerful orators who spoke at the event, Detective Peter Hernandez.

Detective Hernandez said he would really appreciate me keeping the focus of my celebration on cops. He said civilians do not understand what they go through. When EMT shows up, they are there to attend to someone's medical needs. Firefighters show up to save someone's home from burning down, and are greeted with appreciation. Routinely when police arrive, people are behaving at their worst. Cops are greeted with hostility, danger, and extreme scrutiny. Detective Hernandez was not whining or complaining. He was merely explaining why our support and encouragement is so sorely needed.

Detective Peter Hernandez in his own words:

Thank you again, Mr. Marcus for putting on a great and very supportive event. Thank you for also giving me the opportunity to get the word out about the Wounded Officers Initiative. The program's we are working on will save lives, families, and help law enforcement like no other organization has done before. It's really sad to speak about an event to honor law enforcement as being controversial. An event to honor law enforcement should be viral, proudly proclaimed, and most importantly celebrated. Law Enforcement Officers provide the safety and security for all other first responders to operate. Law enforcement are the ones that secure the scenes that provide the fire departments safety so they could extinguish a fire. It's law enforcement who is first on the scene of those injured and it is them who render first aid until the paramedics arrive. In 2012 I wrote this blurb which I thinks best defines what a law enforcement officer is and how they stand out. It's called, What am I? I'm a professional driver who drives at high speeds, avoiding moving obstacles, on an open track. But I don't have sponsors nor endorsements. I am an educator, a professor of sorts. I'm supposed to know it all and be capable of teaching everyone no matter their grade level. But I don't get every weekend, holiday, spring break, Christmas or summer off. I'm a professional fighter. I'll fight anyone, anytime, anyplace. No matter how many, the size, or the skill; I must win every time. But I don't get a golden belt after my win nor cheering fans. I'm a therapist, a family counselor, a rehab specialist, and a mental health coordinator. I'm expected to give advice, council a family in crisis, identify an addiction, and diagnose a mental illness in no less than 10 minutes from meeting the person and without the aid of a leather couch. I'm a paramedic. I'm expected to go into a chaotic scene, triage the casualties, determine the appropriate aid, and administer that aid. I do all this as everyone else who is not hurt runs away. I'm a firefighter. I'm first on the scene of fires. I have no fireproof clothing nor real firefighting skills or equipment. I run in to save as many lives I can and I do it equipped with pure will and a small extinguisher. I'm a lawyer. I must know all the laws both civil and criminal. I must know the elements to those laws and how to rapidly apply them. I must attend court, truthfully testify, present evidence, and do it on my day off. I'm a robot. Do without question. Feel without showing. Endure what others can't. Be fearless while others are in terror. Have skin of steel so that no harsh words, or actions may penetrate. What am I; I am an American Law Enforcement Officer who answered the call of service for their community. I am the thin blue line that is between those who wish to do evil and those who wish to live in peace. I am the one you run to when you need help but the one you run from when you've done wrong. But most importantly I am the one who Cares. Peter Hernandez, President/ Founder Wounded Officers Initiative, Inc. So Their Sacrifice is Never Forgotten

Words cannot express my deep appreciation to all who contributed to cover the cost of our first Blue Lives Matter Celebration. My team of speakers, entertainers and crew are pumped; excited and ready to do the next celebration event. It looks like we are being lead to do our next celebration event in Nashville. My western boots are at least ten years old. Mary has been bugging me to purchase a new pair. Perhaps, I will find a pair in Nashville.

Before I sang America The Beautiful at my Blue Lives Matter Celebration, I said, Red, yellow, black and white. They are precious in His sight. That means all lives matter! The audience loved it.

Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American

Chairman: The Conservative Campaign Committee

http://www.lloydmarcus.com/
Google has officially confirmed that its starting its crackdown on websites that arent encrypted. Googles Chrome browser will start warning its users when websites dont use HTTPS, which means that they may not be securing passwords or credit card details properly. The move is part of Googles plan to fundamentally change how everyone views web encryption.

The reason why Google considers encryption to be so important is the fact that it can hide data so that hackers cant understand the information that is being sent and received by a computer. As well as this, encryption also stops people who try to modify certain websites by inserting their own advertisement. The only downside, at least in the eyes of the government, is that it makes it harder for law enforcements or surveillance authorities to do their jobs, though many internet users see this as a positive.

Googles goal is for encrypted websites to become the norm in order to improve consumer privacy and security, which is why starting with Chrome 56, which is due in January 2017, the companys browser will start marking websites that handle passwords or credit card details and dont utilize an HTTPS connection as not secure. Obviously, the change is only a small one, but the internet giant is hoping that it will make users more aware of their security. Initially, as stated above, the warning will only be limited to websites that handle passwords or credit card details, though, eventually, it will cover all websites that use dont use a secure connection. The idea behind this is to encourage web developers to switch to a secure connection in order to avoid being flagged as not secure.

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The announcement of this update to Googles browser comes just days after the release of the latest version, Chrome 53, which brought the long awaited Material Design makeover to Windows and saw the same version of Chrome OS disappoint a number of users by not including the highly anticipated Android apps support that many believed would be included in the update. It remains to be seen if Googles encryption efforts can convince developers to adopt a secure connection, but with the possibility of websites being marked as not secure, there could be a sudden increase of secure connections over the coming months.
Xiaomis Mi Note phablets were launched back in January 2015. Now it seems like the Chinese smartphone manufacturer is working on a successor for its nearly two-year old devices. Though we were getting rumors about this alleged Mi Note device for quite some time, this time around we have some more details to share with you including some photos of the allegedly upcoming device, as well as a more updated spec sheet. For more details, read on.

Photos and specs of this alleged device have been posted on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo quite recently. As per leaked details, the possible Mi Note 2 handset will come in two variants. These rumors came just after the Mi Note 2 got certified (3C certification) in China. According to details leaked on Weibo, the Mi Note 2 will feature a 5.7-inch QHD pressure sensitive curved display, and its pressure-sensing tech will be called 3D Touch. Moving on to the hardware side, the base Mi Note 2 model will be powered by Qualcomms Snapdragon 820 chipset, while the premium model will feature Qualcomms upgraded Snapdragon 821 chipset. In the camera department, the Mi Note 2 will boast a dual camera setup on the back, similar in fashion to the recently launched Redmi Pro device, with two 16-megapixel sensors accompanying by an LED flash, as you can see in the images posted below, while the front facing camera will be a 5-megapixel sensor. On the memory side, the Redmi Note 2 base model will house 4GB of RAM with 32GB of internal storage and a premium model will pack a whopping 6 GB of RAM and 128GB/256 GB of internal storage. The battery on the Mi Note 2 will be a 4000mAh cell with Qualcomms proprietary Quick Charge 3.0 technology support. The Mi Note 2 is expected to come running Android 7.0 Nougat out-of-the-box with Xiaomis custom interface MIUI 8 on top of Googles OS. The Mi Note 2 will be available in three different color variations: White, Black and Pearl Powder.

While Xiaomi did not share any official details when it comes to the Mi Note 2, rumors are pointing to a September 14th launch date, which also could see a launch of upgraded Mi 5s device. We will update you as soon as we stumble upon more info.
Nokia Chief Executive Rajeev Suri is optimistic about the future of the former market leader. In an interview with FierceWireless, Suri explained that as a company boss, Suri considers himself to be very customer orientated. He spends much of his time traveling between customers. Because he meets so many customers, he has his finger on the pulse of todays telecommunications industry. As a business, he considers Nokia to be data-based and of course he has access to this. However, with thirty years of experience he also relies on his gut instinct. In Suris own words: that gut feel helps a lot. Ive seen this before, I know what its going to be like. So I tend to be able to be good with predictions. This gut instinct has helped the business anticipate key technological advances. For the networking equipment market, this acumen has allowed the business to be able to offer the right product to the market at the right time, such as investing into small cells and higher performance LTE towers.

Suri also believes Nokia is the only company with global exposure to both the networking and device technology aspects of the industry, which he believes gives it a sense of perspective that other companies are missing. The business is currently in the process of licensing the Nokia brand to a smartphone manufacturer and has a successful networking business. Huawei may beg to differ with Suris perspective, but he believes that the Chinese networking-and-device business lacks the critical exposure to the North American market. Another networking competitor, Ericsson, no longer has a handset business after selling its stage in the Sony Ericsson joint venture a number of years back. Nokia, however, have not produced a Nokia-branded device since the end of 2014.

2017 is likely to be a very interesting year for Nokia. The companys networking business is struggling at the moment because carriers around the world are investing less into their networks. The company also completed the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent back in January 2016 and there are costs associated with this deal still to be worked through. And yes, Nokia-branded devices are still expected to appear in the next few months but whilst these may capture a great deal of the consumer mindshare, it is unclear how much of an impact they will make to Nokias operating revenue and profits.
Googles two new smartphones, believed to be the Pixel and the Pixel XL, are reckoned to be the first to be released into the United States market using the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 flagship System-on-Chip. This rumor comes via Android Polices David Ruddock, and if this is true it potentially answers several questions about the new Pixel smartphone range as well as asks more! To date, there are only a limited number of devices using the Snapdragon 821 with the first being the ASUS ZenFone 3 Deluxe, currently only available in Taiwan. The reason for the limited uptake of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 appears to be be caused by price: Qualcomm are charging a hefty premium over the Snapdragon 820 and it appears that most manufacturers are not (yet) persuaded to opt for the more powerful chip.

Google could be opting for the Snapdragon 821 in order to make the new Pixel handsets the most powerful Android devices available, subject to Samsungs high-end Exynos-based devices. On paper and looking through the Snapdragon 821s specification relative to the 820, much of the chipset appears to be a polished variant. It has higher clock speeds and so should be more powerful, plus Qualcomm are also claiming power efficiency improvements, so perhaps it will be able to run at higher clock speeds for longer. However, there is another clue as to why Google could be using the Snapdragon 821 in the new Pixel devices rather than the Snapdragon 820: virtual reality. Qualcomm have released the Snapdragon 821 with the virtual reality development kit, which is not something that the Snapdragon 820 comes with. Google are currently pushing virtual reality technology and of course, including a more advanced VR solution into the new Pixel devices may well be a means of differentiating the product from the competition.

Current rumors point towards Google releasing the Pixel and Pixel XL in early October with the devices being up for sale on that day. Industry commentators are seeking justification for Google removing the Nexus branding from its range of smartphones and tablets and switching to Pixel branding. One school of thought has been that the Pixel branding could be used for something that is designed to be more productive: weve already seen two Pixel-named Chromebook computers and the Pixel C Android tablet. However, with the Nexus devices being designed around showing the industry the direction that Google would like to see the industry heading, it would be logical for the two new Pixel smartphones to have a bias towards virtual reality technologies and that may well mean the Snapdragon 821.
The last few months of any given year are supposed to be busy ones for Samsung, with their latest Galaxy Note handset supposed to be flying off of shelves. So far however, this hasnt been the case, and samsung has had to deal with a product recall for the Galaxy Note 7, their latest in the prestigious line of larger-than-life devices. The recall has been down to exploding batteries, something which Samsung has apparently found a solution to. Amid the fallout from this, weve seen Samsungs stock price take a substantial hit, and now, the South Korean firm is mixing things up at the top, speeding up the succession of Jay Y. Lee, son of Samsungs Lee Kun-hee.

In the fallout from the Galaxy Note 7 recall, its been announced that the board of Samsung Electronics, often referred to as the beating heart of the Samsung Group, has elected Jay Y. Lee as its Director. This is important for a number of reasons, but not least due to the fact that Jay Y. Lee is seen as the heir apparent to the Samsung Group as a whole, following the hospitalization of Lee Kun-hee back in 2014 at the hands of a heart attack. In South Korea, there is a lot of talk surrounding Y. Lees move to the top of Samsung, and many see it as a way for the family heart of Samsung to keep going. Whether or not he has the skills needed to keep the company performing well, will no doubt be proven with this new appointment. Reuters is quoting those familiar with the matter as saying that rather than wait until next years annual meeting in March, the thinking was Samsung has a lot of things coming, so sooner rather than later.

This is the sort of move that will no doubt have been all over the news in South Korea, but perhaps one that might not mean much to us here in the West. For Samsung, this move could perhaps give them a newfound confidence in amongst the turmoil that the Galaxy Note 7 recall has no doubt delivered the firm. Regardless, it looks as if the long-rumored ascension to the throne for Jay Y. Lee is finally underway.
For some time now, weve been hearing rumors of new and upcoming Nexus devices, only this time around, theyll be everything Nexus aside from the name itself. Currently, its expected that Google is to use the high-end Pixel branding that has been used for last years Pixel C as well as the Pixel line of Chromebooks. Production by HTC is still rumored, and now were getting a look at what could be the first screenshots of the Pixel phones launcher, which is said to be a lot different from the previous Google Now Launcher weve become accustomed to.

These screenshots come from the Twitter handle @LlabTooFer, a prominent leakster in the HTC community, and one that often sees updates before the rest of us do. Predicting updates as well as specs seems to be the usual for @LlabTooFer, but these latest screenshots seem more like something wed see from @evleaks. Either way, the screenshots, shown above and more down, dont seem to offer us much in the way of new information, but they do help to confirm a few things. Its been rumored that, with the arrival of Android 7.0 Nougat on these new Pixel devices, a stronger, and more forward Google-branding would be coming along with it. The Google logo featured above in the leaked screenshots pretty much confirms as much, and while the widget picker her isnt too exciting, it does help us to see what Google has in store for the Pixel launchers; a cleaner and more professional look and feel. At least compared to previous versions of the Google Now Launcher, that is.

So far, weve seen that the new Pixel devices could be running a Snapdragon 821 CPU, which would make these the first smartphones to debut Qualcomms improved chip in the United States. On top of this, Android 7.1 could make its debut with these Pixel smartphones, but right now theres not much we know for definite concerning other specs and features. We do however, have some idea of what these devices could look like, and while its not certain, theres a good chance that this leak could be a precursor to a leaked APK of the new launcher, or at least some more content surrounding these upcoming devices.
(ANSA) - Rieti, September 12 - The Amatrice town council on Monday filed a petition against Charlie Hebdo with prosecutors in Rieti for alleged aggravated defamation over the French satirical magazine's controversial cartoon showing the victims of the central Italian earthquake that killed 295 people last month as pasta dishes. Most of the victims of the quake were in Amatrice, the birthplace of the world-famous amatriciana pasta sauce. The drawing titled 'Earthquake, Italian-style' depicted bloodied victims buried under layers of pasta. "Approximately 300 dead in an earthquake in Italy," the cartoon said. "It is still unknown whether it shouted Allahu Akbar (God is Great in Arabic)".

The cartoon prompted widespread outrage. "I respect freedom of satire and irony but I can also say I have the freedom to say that (the Charlie Hebdo quake cartoon) stinks," said Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso.

The French embassy in Rome issued a statement distancing Paris from the cartoon.

Amid the furore, Charlie Hebdo published a second cartoon saying "it's not Charlie Hebdo that builds Italian homes, it's the mafia".

In its suit, the Amatrice town council said the French satirical magazine portrayed the quake victims "in such a way as to resemble stereotyped dishes of the Italian culinary tradition" while the second cartoon "attributed the blame for the devastation of central Italy to the mafia".

A lawyer acting for the council, Mario Cicchetti, said: "This is a macabre, senseless and inconceivable vilification of the victims of a natural disaster.

"Criticism, even in the form of satire, is an inviolable right both in Italy and France, but not everything can be 'satire' and in this case the two cartoons offend the memory of all the victims of the earthquake, the people who survived and the town of Amatrice". In the lawyer's opinion, "the crime of aggravated defamation is absolutely in play.

He said: "one cannot in any way admit the excuse of the right of criticism in the form of satire".


(ANSA) - Vatican City, September 12 - The final details of Pope Francis's trip to Georgia and Azerbaijan between September 30 and October 2 were announced on Monday.

The first stop will be in Tbilisi, where in the early afternoon the pope will be meeting with the head of state at the presidential palace and will greet authorities, the diplomatic corps and civil society representatives. He will later meet with Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II at the patriarchate of Georgia and the Assyrian Chaldean community at the Chaldean Catholic church of Saint Simon Bar Sabbae. On Saturday, October 1, the pope will be officiating over mass at the Meski stadium, followed by meetings with the clergy and churchgoers and those working for and those receiving help from Church charity. His last appointment of the day will be a visit to the Svietyskhoveli Patriarchal Cathedral of Mskheta. On Sunday, October 2, the pope will go by plane to Baku, where he will receive an official welcome at the airport in Azerbaijan. Following the official welcome, he will celebrate holy mass in the Salesian centre in Baku. After lunch with the Salesian community, he will attend the protocol welcome ceremony in the presidential palace of Genclik, and pay a courtesy visit to the head of state. In the afternoon he will meet with the authorities in the Heydar Aliyev Centre, to be followed by a private meeting with the Sheikh of the Muslims of the Caucasus in the Heydar Aliyev Mosque, and a private meeting with the Orthodox bishop of Baku and the president of the Jewish community. A total of 13 speeches and prayers will be made by the pope during his three-day trip.


Croatia:ballot counting completed,center-right win confirmed 61 seats to conservatives, 54 to center-left. Plenkovic exults

(ANSAmed) - ZAGREB, SEPTEMBER 12 - Final results of early elections held Sunday in Croatia confirmed a clear victory for conservative EU lawmaker Andrej Plenkovic, a diplomat by career, whose Hdz party won a relative majority in the parliament of Zagreb. According to data after ballot counting was completed at all polling stations, released on Monday morning by the central electoral commission (Dip), the Croatian Democratic Union (Hdz) led by Plenkovic has obtained 61 lawmakers in the 151-seat Sabor, the single-house parliament in Zagreb.



The social democrats of ex-premier Zoran Milanovic, together with the other three partners in the center-left coalition, obtained 54 seats in parliament.



Conservative leader Plenkovic has announced he wants to form a stable, moderate, reformist cabinet. He will thus need a coalition partner, most probably the young Most (bridge) party led by current deputy premier, Bozo Petrov, with 13 MPs in parliament.



Representatives of the Serbian minority, with three guaranteed seats in parliament, could join them with other minor parties, without the far right that did not make it into parliament this time.



Low turnout at the election has sparked concern as it was among the lowest in Croatia's history with just 52.6% of the 3.8 million would-be voters casting their ballots. (ANSAmed).




- NICOSIA - Italian troops will guard an Italian military hospital to be sent to Libya at the request of the UN-backed government in Tripoli, Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Monday. Asked about press reports 200 paratroopers will be sent to guard the hospital, Gentiloni said "these technical aspects" will be explained to parliament by Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti Tuesday. "As a government we have met the request from the UN-backed government in Tripoli to send a military hospital, which obviously will have its protection," Gentiloni said.
- BEIRUT - Airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition on Saturday hit a water well in northern Yemen and killed at least 30 people including several children. The U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, said in a statement that he was ''deeply disturbed by the unrelenting attacks on civilians and on civilian infrastructure'', urging rival parties to resume a cease-fire declared by the UN in April. The Saudi-led coalition began the offensive against Houthi rebels in Yemen in March 2015. Last month a hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) was hit in the northern province of Hajjah. Nineteen people were killed and 24 were injured in the attack, the fourth in less than a year on an MSF-supported medical facility. Iran-allied Shia Houthi rebels control vast swathes of the country including the north and the capital, Sanaa, alongside the troops loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The government under the internationally recognized president Abd Rabbo Mansur Hadi is temporarily based in the southern port city Aden.
ISTANBUL - At least 27 people have been reportedly injured, including two in critical condition, after a car bomb exploded on Monday morning at a police checkpoint near the headquarters of the AKP party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Kurdish-majority city of Van, in eastern Turkey, according to local police sources quoted by CNN Turk. At least two of those injured are police officers.



According to lawmaker Burhan Kayaturk (AKP), who was at the site of the attack, the intended objective was the AKP office.
China has expressed strong opposition to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's latest nuclear test, saying the event has increased tensions and is not conducive to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

"China urges the DPRK not to take any more action that could exacerbate tensions, and to return to the correct path of denuclearization as soon as possible," Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Zhang Yesui told Ji Jae-ryong, the DPRK's ambassador to China Saturday.

In the meeting, Zhang reaffirmed China's position on the peninsula, which is to realize denuclearization, maintain regional peace and stability, and resolve problems through dialogue and consultation.

Pyongyang's development and testing of nuclear weapons goes against the expectations of the international community, intensifies tensions and is not conducive to peace and stability, Zhang said.

The DPRK conducted its fifth and biggest nuclear test on Friday to measure the power of its nuclear warhead, the explosive yield of which was estimated at about 10 kilotons.

The Republic of Korea and Japan condemned the test, as did United States President Barack Obama, who said it posed a grave threat to regional security and international peace.

According to a statement on the White House website on Friday, Obama said the US does not, and never will, accept the DPRK as a nuclear state.

The United Nations Security Council also strongly condemned the test, saying on Saturday that it was a clear violation of repeated calls for the DPRK to halt such activity. The UN approved a series of sanctions against Pyongyang after its fourth nuclear test in January.

Su Xiaohui, a researcher of international strategy at the China Institute of International Studies, said, "China has sent a clear message that it will never accept the DPRK as a nuclear state, and it will continue to firmly push forward denuclearization of the peninsula."

Wang Junsheng, a researcher of Asia-Pacific studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the latest test will bring fresh tension to the region, but added that any decision should be made in the common interest.

"It requires concerted efforts from all parties to maintain peace and stability on the peninsula," he said.
ZAGREB - The center-right led by EU lawmaker Andrej Plenkovic is headed for a clear victory in political elections in Croatia. Plenkovic is expected to have in Zagreb's Parliament a relative majority, placing it in a good position to form the new Croatian government.



With almost three-fourths of ballots counted, the conservatives of the Croatian Democratic Union (Hdz) of Plenkovic obtained 61 MPs out of the 151-seat one-chamber Parliament of Zagreb, remaining the country's leading party. The Social democrats of Zoran Milanovic have stopped at 54 and the gap between the two parties now appears significant.



Even summing up the four Istrian regionalist lawmakers, traditionally allied with the center-left, Milanovic remains below the threshold by three MPs. The third party is the young Most (bridge), which has a strong populist streak, whose 12 lawmakers will once again be key for the future majority.



Early elections registered a low turnout, among the lowest in Croatia's history with just 52% of the country's 3.9 million voters heading to the polls.



Speaking overnight in Zagreb, Plenkovic promised he will do everything possible to form a stable, reformist, pro-European cabinet. The European MP stressed he wants to lead the country in a more moderate direction, continuing economic reforms that are at the basis of the country's recovery.



In total contrast with his predecessor at the helm of the Democratic union, Tomislav Karamarko, who was forced to step down in June, Plenkovic gave a calm speech, without nationalistic tones and open to dialogue both with partners in Parliament and ethnic minorities.



This new style of the center-right has likely weighed on the almost certain victory of Plenkovic, a diplomat by career and a European lawmaker since 2013, the year Croatia became an EU member. As a true diplomat, he has avoided comments on his preferences for future partners in the coalition. He will be able to choose between the new party Most (Bridge), which has however already set a number of conditions with a strong populist connotation, or the Social Democrats of Zoran Milanovic, who indirectly opened last night to the hypothesis of a grand coalition.


ZAGREB - Final results of early elections held Sunday in Croatia confirmed a clear victory for conservative EU lawmaker Andrej Plenkovic, a diplomat by career, whose Hdz party won a relative majority in the parliament of Zagreb. According to data after ballot counting was completed at all polling stations, released on Monday morning by the central electoral commission (Dip), the Croatian Democratic Union (Hdz) led by Plenkovic has obtained 61 lawmakers in the 151-seat Sabor, the single-house parliament in Zagreb.



The social democrats of ex-premier Zoran Milanovic, together with the other three partners in the center-left coalition, obtained 54 seats in parliament.



Conservative leader Plenkovic has announced he wants to form a stable, moderate, reformist cabinet. He will thus need a coalition partner, most probably the young Most (bridge) party led by current deputy premier, Bozo Petrov, with 13 MPs in parliament.



Representatives of the Serbian minority, with three guaranteed seats in parliament, could join them with other minor parties, without the far right that did not make it into parliament this time.



Low turnout at the election has sparked concern as it was among the lowest in Croatia's history with just 52.6% of the 3.8 million would-be voters casting their ballots.


Cypriot FM expresses hope for accord with Turkey by yearend 'Excellent relations with Italy, key role with Eni'

(ANSAmed) - NICOSIA, SEPTEMBER 12 - Talks on a solution to the Cyprus issue have seen considerable progress and an agreement could help bring Turkey in line with EU standards, Cypriot foreign minister Ioannis Kasoulides said on Monday.



He was speaking after a meeting with his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni, adding that he hoped that the agreement would be reached by the end of the year. On Wednesday there will be a meeting between Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades and the leader of the Turkish-Cypriot community Mustafa Akinci, which could help accelerate the talks and may be followed by a three-way meeting with UN chief Ban Ki-Moon ahead of the upcoming UN Assembly General. The foreign minister noted that there were a number of unresolved issues and that one of the key issues was that of the future administration of the island's territories if a federal state were to be created. Part of the island has been occupied by Turkey since 1974. On the issue of relations with Italy, the minister said that the talks with Gentiloni had been very useful to strengthen economic ties especially in the energy sector.



Italian energy giant Eni, he said, can contribute to the ''Italy's key role in the eastern Mediterranean''.



CEO Claudio Descalzi has recently paid a visit to Nicosia to take stock of Eni's activities there. (ANSAmed).




BRUSSELS - An External Investment Plan expected to mobilize some 30 billion euros set to be launched on Tuesday by the European Commission, confirmed Deputy Minister for International Cooperation Mario Giro on Monday. The plan consists of three billion euros that ''will be multiplied by 10'' due to investment and might rise as high as 30 billion euros. Member states will be able to add additional resources as well. EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini said that the plan is a ''pillar on which European migration policy is bound to be based on and aims to activate an enormous flow of public and private investment towards African countries of origin and transit'', in an attempt to resolve the roots of migration and to achieve readmission agreements to repatriate migrants. The new foreign policy tool was brought ahead by a month to speed up its implementation. The countries of interest for Italy are West African and Horn of Africa countries, especially those south of the Sahel. ''If there will actually be 30 billion, it could be enough.

We need to spend at least 15 (billion) in West Africa and 15 in the Horn of Africa. This can make a difference,'' Giro said.

But while Africa is the priority of Mediterranean countries, as agreed by their leaders at a meeting in Athens, it is not clear how reconcilable this will be with other EU countries. The issue will be discussed at an informal summit on September 27 in Bratislava.
ROME - Syrian President Bashar al Assad on Monday prayed at the mosque of Darayya, the city that became a symbol of the rebellion which surrendered at the end of August to regime forces after four years. Photos and videos of the president arriving in the suburb of Damascus to mark the festival of Sacrifice, just a few hours since the start of the truce, were broadcast by State television and posted on Twitter.
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One person suggested that it could be a drone, but opined that if it was a drone it was a particularly fast and circular drone that does not match the description of any known existing defense products. Others opined that whatever the flying vehicle that may have given rise to the explosion, it appears it was a "well planned attack from a competitor."



Although speculation continues to circle around the explosion of the Space X Falcon 9 rockets with the most fascinating theory by far being the potential that space aliens beamed the rocket, many more plausible alternatives exist including a leak of propellant fuel, metal on metal contact sparking just enough initial flame, or a buildup of oxygen. Some commenters are even blaming Vladimir Putin and/or China  which makes maybe less sense than even space aliens.



The truth is out there.







The statement by the vaunted entrepreneur that he couldnt rule out that UFO hunters were correct that an unidentified object or weapon initiated the explosion has alien enthusiasts out in full force.The frenzied excitement for alien hunters hit new heights on Friday when the innovative wunderkind Elon Musk wrote to a commenter on Twitter that "We have not ruled that [a UFO hitting the Space X Falcon 9 rocket] out" with theories ranging from an attack by foreign defense forces to a laser attack by an alien ship quickly cascading through social media.The statement comes one week after self-proclaimed UFO hunters pointed to video footage from the SpaceX explosion noting that there was a black object barreling near the rocket only seconds before explosion with YouTube viewers quickly dispatching theories that the flying object was a bird or a bug based on the relative speed of the object  over 1,000 MPH  and its appearance behind riggings that ruled out the possibility that it was a bug in the camera lens.The explosion quickly consumed the rocket destroying Facebooks AMOS-6 internet-beaming satellite and causing unprecedented damage to the launchpad  a fairly unusual incident for a rocket explosion. Musk said the explosion was "really a fast fire" and was unable to point to specific mechanical causes for the failure of the rocket.One Twitter user said that the sound at 54 seconds in a video posted "sounds like a metal joint popping under stress" which Elon Musk said was "most likely true" but also said that "we cant yet find it on any vehicle sensors" pointing to the possibility of some outside sabotage."Important to note that this happened during a routine filling operation. Engines were not on and there was no apparent heat source," said Musk questioning how the rocket could spontaneously erupt in flames. "Particularly trying to understand the quieter bang sound a few seconds before the fireball goes off. May come from rocket or something else."
by Nirmala Carvalho

About 2,000 people attended a Mass in St Vincent Cathedral led by the Archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar. Even if Mother Teresa never sought fame, she wielded immense charm, said regional superior of the Missionaries of Charity. The persuasive power of Mother Teresa's love could win hearts, local official said.

Bhubaneshwar (AsiaNews)  Welcomed by the Missionaries of Charity, about 2,000 faithful, widows, orphans, sick, disabled, poor people, took part in a thanksgiving yesterday Mass to honour Mother Teresa in the presence of many priests and Mgr John Barwa, Archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar.

"Saint Teresa represents the new identity of Christians and a model of goodness for humans in modern times, said the prelate who led the service. Mother Teresa restored human dignity to people who were abandoned, forgotten, uncared for, not respected, without recognition, and served them with love, with total commitment, loyalty and fraternity."

The ceremony took place at St Vincent Cathedral in Bhubaneshwar, capital of Odisha where the faithful gathered to thank the saint of the poorest of the poor, following her canonisation on 4 September.

"The saints life and her example as the 'Mother of the Poor' speak eloquently to each of us, believers or non believers, and are clearly visible as the city on the hill, Mgr Barwa noted.

"Even if Mother Teresa never sought fame, she wielded immense charm that cannot be explained with the categories of this world, but must be seen in its supernatural horizon, one that nurtures the saints, said Sr Olivet, regional superior of the Missionaries in Orissa.

Indeed, the attraction [exerted] by her holiness reaped countless good fruits, first smitten and then captivated in a chain of love."

Today we are here to thank God for the light that reached each one of us and the whole world through Mother Teresa, said Sr Samuel, the previous regional superior for Odisha Region.

This great woman of our time, this valiant messenger of the Gospel, whose life was deeply marked by love, is now a saint, one of the saints of the Catholic Church. Let us therefore look to her as an example and a source of inspiration.

Andrias Tigga, additional commissioner of income tax in Bhubaneswar, also spoke at the ceremony. Mother Teresa was a missionary, a messenger of God's love and an ambassador of his peace, he said.

She wanted the people she cared for to experience the tenderness of God's love. Her affectionate hand, her wide open arms, her luminous smile, her welcoming gestures, all carried the message: You are loved, you are accepted, there is someone to take care of you. The persuasive power of Mother Teresa's love could win hearts.
Cambodia National Rescue Party acting leader Kem Sokha refused to show up at a trial for political reasons. He threatens to hold mass demonstrations throughout the country, refuses to be gagged. The government lifted his parliamentary immunity thanks to a constitutional provision.

Phnom Penh (AsiaNews/Agencies)  On 9 September, a Cambodian court sentenced Cambodian opposition leader Kem Sokha to five months in prison.

We will consider using our right to hold mass demonstrations throughout the country and in Phnom Penh, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) acting president said in a speech to his supporters at the party headquarters.

We cannot lie down, let them tie our hands and legs, close our nose and mouth till we die. Even animals will also struggle.

As a result of this, tensions are rising over (a politically motivated) legal battle that has pitted government and the main opposition party against each other.

Sokha was convicted on Friday for refusing to appear for questioning in a prostitution case against two fellow lawmakers. He has always stated that the case is the work of the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) to weaken the opposition.

On 26 May, police raided his partys headquarters hoping to arrest him, but he eluded them.

The courts ruling has angered CNRP supporters, who demonstrated in front of the Phnom Penh municipal court

After a brief scuffle with police, the demonstration ended with the arrest of an activist, released after a few hours.

Held up in his partys headquarters, Sokha attacked Prime Minister Hun Sen (who has been in power for 30 years) for applying a "double standard " to prosecute opposition members.

Not only does this affect the legitimacy of the election, but it is an attack on democracy, the embattled opposition leader said.

The 2013 election saw the CNRP win 44 per cent of the vote, with 55 Members of Parliament versus 68 for the ruling party.

Under normal conditions, the opposition leader can benefit from immunity granted to MPs. This can only be lifted by a two-third majority in Parliament, which does not currently exist.

The CPP has, however, invoked on a constitutional provision according to which immunity can be removed without a parliamentary vote if the MP is caught in flagrante delicto.

The lawyers of the opposition leader have appealed the sentence. When the appeal is rejected, as it seems likely, Sokha could be arrested at any time.

This case is the third legal attack in a few weeks against opposition leaders.

In August, President Hun Sen denounced exiled CNRP president Rainsy for calling the killing of Kem Ley, a well-known political scientist, on 10 July in Phnom Penh, "an act of state terrorism".

In June, the government convicted CNRP three activists to seven years in prison.
by Sumon Corraya

At the time of the explosion, more than 100 people were in the structure. At least 10 are still missing. Tampaco Foils packaged goods. Reported eight people, including the owner reported to police.

Dhaka (AsiaNews)  The death toll from the violent explosion in a packaging factory in the industrial complex of Tongi, Gazipur (about 20 km from Dhaka), Saturday morning worsens by the hour. The blast was followed by a fire and collapse of the structure. This morning firefighters have recovered two bodies, bringing the death toll to 31.

Prodip Rozario, a Catholic who worked in the factory for 22 years, tells AsiaNews about the time of the explosion: "I heard a huge roar and then one side of the building collapsed. Luckily I am alive and well. "

The incident occurred at Tampaco Foils Ltd, a packaging factory. According to witnesses, at the time of the explosion there were about 100 people in the building. Of these, 10 are still missing and more than 60 were injured. The blast caused a fire which spread at great speed and then brought70% of the three story building down.



After two days, the origin of the explosion is still unclear. It is believed that the blast originated in the boiler room, but then government officials have stated that the boilers are not damaged and that the blast was caused by a gas leak.



The fire was extinguished after 36 hours, but the fire department still cannot get into what's left of the building.



Meanwhile, this morning the father of a dead worker has registered the case against eight persons, including the owner Syed Mokbul Hossain Mia Lechu. The government then established initial compensation: the victims' families will receive 200 thousand taka [approximately 2,300 Euros, and], injured 100 thousand taka [1,135 euro, ed.]



The blame now is being laid on building security in the country. In the past two accidents of buildings occurred in Bangladesh due to poor construction and building speculation that surrounds the industry. The most famous one Involved the collapse of Rana Plaza in April of 2013, which killed 1,100 workers.
by Mathias Hariyadi

Jakarta (AsiaNews) - The Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has given the green light for the execution of Mary Jane Veloso, a filippino woman held on death row on charges of drug dealing. The news came via the statements of Joko Widodo, President of Indonesia, which reported a conversation with the leader of Manila.



Duterte is in Indonesia for a two-day visit. Widodo spoke to the press in Serang (Banten), during which he took part in the Hajj "Lebaran" Idul Adha, the Islamic feast which includes a sacrifice in the Great Mosque of the city. "I talked to the president Duterte about the Mary Jane Veloso case - said Widodo - and the fact that the woman brought 2.6 kilos of heroin into Indonesia. I also shared with him my thoughts on the possible cancellation of her execution. "



"During our discussion - he added - President Duterte told me that 'it's ok' if the Indonesian authorities decide to go ahead with the execution".



Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, a 31 year old domestic worker, has been held on death row in Indonesia since 2010 after she was stopped at the airport with 2.6 kilos of heroin. The woman has always declared herself innocent, claiming she became a drug courier without unknowingly. Requests for clemency have been made by the Philippine Church, the Indonesian, and several Asian countries. In recent weeks, the defense lawyers have produced "new evidence" that would prove the woman innocent. Joko Widodo said that the Indonesian Justice Department has not yet disclosed the decision on the new evidence.



So far Veloso has been spared in rounds of executions carried out by the Indonesian authorities, the last of which was in July. The woman is set to appear as a witness in the trial of Maria Kristina Sergio, suspected of having "recruited" Veloso under false pretenses to make her a drug courier.



Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation in the world, has one of the strictest anti-drug laws in the world, to fight what President Joko Widodo has called "a national emergency." From 1979 to 2015, 66 executions have been carried out.



Former Philippine President Benigno Aquino had tried to put pressure on the Indonesian Government to suspend the Velosos sentence. Unlike the Rodrigo Dutertes approach who, from the outset of his election campaign, promised death to all the dealers present in the Philippines and is condemned by the international community for the spate of extrajudicial killings (about 3 thousand) of alleged traffickers.
Five days of rain kill 133 people in North Korea, with hundreds of thousands displaced. South Korea announces plan to destroy the norths capital in case of attack. Japan warns that it will not stand idle by and watch Kims follies. For its part, North Koera wants the US to recognise its nuclear status. Source tells AsiaNews they are running out of basic foodstuff, and there is a risk of famine again.

Seoul (AsiaNews)  South Korea has a plan to destroy Pyongyang in case of nuclear attack, the news agency Yonhap reported, citing South Korean military sources. The plan entails a barrage of pre-emptive missile firings against areas where North Korean dictator might hide. Meanwhile floods killed 133 people in North Korea.

South Koreas Ministry of National Defense reported details about its Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation (KMPR) plan to the National Assembly. Yonhap noted that a ministry source said that the plan is the only possible response to the Norths latest nuclear test on Friday.

According to a spokesman, "all districts of Pyongyang, especially in those where it can be hidden the North Korean leader, will be completely destroyed by high explosive missiles and ballistic missiles in the event that North Korea shows signs of wanting to use the arsenal nuclear. In other words, the North Korean capital will be reduced to ashes and erased from the map ".

Under the plan, Pyongyang is divided into several districts that would be hit, especially certain sections in which Kim might be hiding before North Korea uses a nuclear weapon. In other words, the Norths capital city will be reduced to ashes and removed from the map, the source noted.

The South Korean military plans to mobilise its locally developed surface-to-surface ballistic and cruise missiles, the Hyunmoo. The Hyunmoo 2A and 2B ballistic missiles have ranges of 300 and 500 kilometers, respectively, while the Hyunmoo 3 cruise missile has a range of 1,000 kilometers.

Japan too is preparing militarily against a possible aggression. A Japanese government source told Asahi Shimbun that the government would not just look on Kims follies of Kim.

Meanwhile, North Korea is demanding the United States recognise it as a nuclear power. US President "Obama is trying hard to deny the DPRK's (North Korea's) strategic position as a legitimate nuclear weapons state, but it is as foolish an act as trying to eclipse the sun with a palm," the statement quoted by the official KCNA news agency said.

North Korea has been under UN sanctions since it began its nuclear tests in 2006.

According to the South Korean military, Fridays test was estimated at 10 kilotons. By comparison, the American bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945  which is well-remembered in Asia  was about 15 kilotons.

Because of the sanctions, which have been tightened as tensions increased, North Korea seems unable to react to natural disasters affecting the population.

For the past five days, floods have killed more than 130 dead, with nearly 400 missing and more than 100,000 displaced, this according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

North Korean authorities confirmed 133 deaths and 395 missing. More than 35,500 homes were damaged, 69 per cent of them completely destroyed.

A source in Korea told AsiaNews that "they are running out of basic foodstuff, and there is a risk of famine again.
by Santosh Digal

Sister Hilda Mary belongs to the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. An archipelago of 572 islands, the union territory is home to various tribal groups speaking different languages. The only diocese was set up in 1985. Male, female and youth groups are involved in the parish. Missionaries serve locals.

Port Blair (AsiaNews)  The mission to the Andaman Islands is really difficult. We have taken it as a challenge to reach out to the people with God's grace, said Sister Hilda Mary, of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, as she spoke to AsiaNews.

For 20 years, she has carried the Gospel message in a hostile environment. Yet the nun is not discouraged and has already started a series of activities for the Jubilee Year of mercy.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a territory of the Indian Union, located in the southern part of the Bay of Bengal. The archipelago comprises 572 islands, islets and rocks. The capital is Port Blair, which takes its name from Captain Blair of the East India Company.

The islands are accessible by air and sea  1,244 km from Kolkata (West Bengal) and 1,190 km from Chennai (Tamil Nadu). The population includes various tribal groups and ethnic minorities: Tamil, Bengali, Negrioti, Adivasis, Punjabi, Malaysians and Telegu.

Port Blair is the archipelagos only archdiocese, created in 1985, with 14 parishes, four men religious and 10 sisters, including some of Mother Teresa's Missionaries.

Sister Hilda belongs to the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, one of the congregations active in the area. Present since 1995, it is involved in pastoral work among the natives and aboriginals.

The nun, who works at St Joseph church in Ferrargunj, said that the missionaries "arrived in Ferrarange, 37 km from Port Blair, on 29 September 1995.

St Joseph Parish is run by Salesian priests, and covers 15 locations with 709 Catholic families. We collaborate with priests in all activities and work together in the villages."

The missionary says that she and three other sisters live as a family in a community called Navadeep, i.e. new light. They collaborate with the pastoral and educational ministry, animate the liturgy and prepare what is needed for Mass.

"Here people are simple and comprise various cultures, she explained. Tribal groups speak different languages. We carry out our mission for them, living our religious and missionary life with a new way of being and see God in each one of them, everywhere. "

Locals contribute to different activities as groups. Women are involved in the Mahila Sang group, in charge of maintaining the church, helping the sisters and keeping the faith alive in the family. It meets every month in the parish church to lay out the work to be done.

Young people are in a second group, which is very active in the life of the villages. They participate in the choir, medical camp, and visiting villages. "Young people play a very important role in the local church, the nun says, and we are very interested in the growth of children."

The male group, the third and last, is called Purush Sang, and is involved in parish decisions under the guidance of the parish priest.

As for the work of Franciscan nuns, Sister Hilda notes that they are in charge of the catechism for communion, confirmation, premarital courses and accompany parents until their childs baptism. The nuns also visit the sick and the elderly and bring them the Eucharist.
by Lucia Leung

Hong Kong (AsiaNews) - A solemn Mass of thanksgiving for Mother Teresa's canonization was held yesterday in the Cathedral in Hong Kong. It was attended by the Missionaries of Charity in the diocese, the two cardinals, John Tong and Joseph Zen, and the auxiliary bishops, with more than a thousand faithful.



The homily was held by Msgr. Joseph Ha Chi-Shing, auxiliary bishop and president of the Ad Hoc Commission for the Jubilee of Mercy.



In addition to many of the Mother works, Msgr. Ha highlighted "another heroic side of this great woman that was revealed only after her death. Hidden even to those closest to her, there is the fact that her inner life was marked by a deep, painful and permanent feeling of being separated from God, even rejected by Him, along with an ever greater desire to love Him . This darkness of suffering of her soul, led Mother Teresa to an even deeper union with God. "



Msgr. Ha did not mention the desire of Mother Teresa to be present in China, nor her attempts to come to that great country.



15 Missionaries of Charity work throughout the territory of Hong Kong. They arrived in 1983. At the beginning their main service was visiting the sick in hospitals and the poor, the homeless, the Vietnamese refugees locked up in camps. Now they have two homes in the area and give hospitality and food to people who are alone and abandoned. The sisters are also in charge of girls and mothers fleeing domestic violence.



The Diocesan Committee for the Jubilee of Mercy, together with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul has also prepared several events on the occasion of the canonization, including an exhibition on the new saint, titled "The Saint of Mercy, Mother Teresa", with some relics , photos, videos, films and meetings.
Ceasefire comes into effect today. Syrian and Russian air strikes kill hundreds over the week-end. Iran and Hezbollah back truce. Free Syrian Army agrees with doubts. Jihadist movements oppose it. Mgr Zenari calls for a stop to the violence to bring in humanitarian aid.

Damascus (AsiaNews)  The fact that the international community, most notably the United States and Russia, faced "with resolution" the goal of reaching a ceasefire is "a good thing because the conflict in Syria has reached an "unbearable" level and every diplomatic action aimed at stopping the weapons is welcomed, said Archbishop Mario Zenari, apostolic nuncio in Syria, who spoke to AsiaNews about the ceasefire agreement recently reached by the US and Russia.

The ceasefire is set to take effect today. Over the weekend, intense bombing affected different parts of the country. Syrian fighter jets, supported by Russian jets, hit several rebel-held areas. Sources close to the opposition said that at least a hundred have died in two days. Russian planes centred their operations in Idlib and Aleppo provinces.

"We are bound to what will happen in the coming days, the Vatican diplomat said with respect to the agreements effectiveness and respect. "We really hope that the ceasefire will succeed.

The main thing is to stop the violence and bring in humanitarian aid. The solution to the conflict goes hand in hand with the cessation of fighting on the ground. Every effort that goes in that direction is a positive sign."

Under the agreement signed by Washington and Moscow, Syrian forces will stop attacking specific areas currently controlled by the opposition. During a ten-day truce, the US and Russia will plan joint air strikes against Islamic State (SI) targets and other jihadist groups, including Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly known as the al-Nusra Front).

Syrian state media report that Syrian President Bashar al Assad welcomed the agreement. He recently was shown celebrating the Muslim festival of sacrifice (Eid al-Adha) in Daraya, a city that symbolised the rebellion. Syrias allies, Iran and Lebanons pro-Shia Hezbollah, also back the ceasefire.

After weeks of mediations between the US and Russia (in the wake of the failed ceasefire on 27 February repeatedly violated by both sides), this agreement began at dawn today to coincide with the celebrations of Islamic holiday.

However, it is unclear which opposition groups will accept the ceasefire agreement reached in Geneva. The Free Syrian Army group has written to the United States administration saying that it would "co-operate positively" with the ceasefire. Another group, Saudi- and Qatari-backed hard-line Islamist Ahrar al-Sham, has rejected the deal fearing that the Assads army and government would be the only beneficiaries.

Upholding the ceasefire is essential to proceed with the distribution of humanitarian aid in the areas under siege or in the cities devastated by months of a bloody conflict that in five years caused 290,000 deaths and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe with millions of refugees.

Attention remains high on Aleppo, which has become the epicentre of the war in Syria. The goal is to "demilitarise" Castello Road, north of the city, the main route used to supply the rebel-held eastern part of the city. The road fell to government forces in July.

This is not the first time that the parties sign a truce, Mgr Zenari said, but the great determination now shown by the superpowers in trying to reach an agreement is an element that gives hope. It seems the parties have more good will even though we need everyone to be on board.

Of course, the long meetings before the signing show good will, but they also highlight the difficulties of mediation. "The truce is the foundation, the prelate said. Now it is essential to deliver humanitarian aid to the civilian population. The sufferings of the people, of all Syrians, are becoming ever greater."
"Sewing jealousies, ambitions, ideas, but to divide! Or sow greed. " And as happens after a war "everything is destroyed. And the devil goes away happy. And we - naive, we are to his game. " "The divisions in the Church do not let the Kingdom of God grow; do not let the Lord show how good He is. "

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "The devil sows jealousies, ambitions, ideas, but to divide! Or sow greed. " Everything to destroy the Church. He tries to attack that which is the root of unity, namely the Eucharistic celebration said Pope Francis at Mass celebrated this morning in Casa Santa Marta, commenting on the Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, whom the apostle reprimanded for their fights.

Pope Francis said, The devil has two very powerful weapons to destroy the Church: divisions and money. And this has happened from the beginning: ideological, theological divisions that lacerate the Church. The devil sows jealousy, ambitions, ideas, but to divide! Or greed. And, as happens after a war, everything is destroyed. And the devil is pleased. And we, naive as we are, are his game. It is a dirty war, that of divisions, he repeated. Its like terrorism, the war of gossiping in the community, that of language that kills:

And the divisions in the Church do not allow the Kingdom to grow; they do not allow the Lord to be seen as He is. Divisions make you see this part, this one against the other. Always against! There is no oil of unity, the balsam of unity. But the devil goes elsewhere, not only in the Christian community, he goes right to the root of Christian unity. And this happens here, in the city of Corinth, to the Corinthians. Paul rebukes them precisely because divisions arise, right at the heart of unity, that is, in the Eucharistic celebration.

In the case of Corinth, riches make divisions between the rich and the poor precisely during the Eucharist. Jesus, the Pope said, prayed to the Father for unity. But the devil seeks to destroy it even there:

I ask you to everything possible to not destroy the Church with divisions; they are ideological, they come from greed and ambition, they come from jealousy. And above all to pray, and to keep the founts, the very roots of the unity of the Church, which is the Body of Christ; which we, every day, celebrate [in] His sacrifice in the Eucharist.

Saint Paul speaks about the divisions among the Corinthians, two thousand years ago:

Paul could say this to all of us today, to the Church of today. Brothers, in this I cannot praise you, because you are gathered together not for the better, but for the worse! But the Church gathers everyone together  for the worse, for divisions: for the worse! To soil the Body of Christ in the Eucharistic celebration! And the same Paul tells us, in another passage: He who eats and drinks the Body and the Blood of Christ unworthily, eats and drinks his own condemnation. Let us ask the Lord for the unity of the Church, that there may not be divisions. And for unity also in the root of the Church, which is precisely the sacrifice of Christ, which we celebrate every day.

Among those present at the days Mass was Archbishop Arturo Antonio Szymanski Ramirez, the Archbishop emeritus of San Luis Potosi in Mexico, who turned 95 in January. Pope Francis noted his presence at the beginning of his homily, recalling that the Archbishop had taken part in the Second Vatican Council, and that he still helps in a parish.
Dominos announces biggest change to menu in over five years



An example of Domino's new Australian menu

Dominos has announced its biggest menu relaunch since 2009 with new pizzas, desserts, sides and ingredients soon available.

Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Dominos, Don Meji, said the menu relaunch places food innovation at the heart of the business.

While we have been making a lot of significant digital announcements recently, we are a pizza company at heart and the number one reason our customers keep coming back to us time and time again is because of our food which is why we are so proud to be launching our Taste the Colour menu, said Meij.

The new menu will include three new pizza flavours; Lamb Tzatziki, BBQ Lamb and Bacon and Creamy Chicken Carbonara.

The new side dishes include Korean Spiced Sticky Wings and MacnCheese Croquettes, whilst the desserts include Cookie Brownie and Caramel Fudge Pie.

Our customers will be able to taste the colour and taste our improved quality ingredients from the new menu, Meij said.

The new menu will be rolled out into Australia and New Zealand in three phases, with the first phase launching Monday 19 September 2016. The other two phases will launch just before Christmas 2016 and in early 2017.

As soon as the Australian and New Zealand roll-outs are complete Dominos says it will look to roll out the new menu in several other countries including Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Japan and Germany.
Seafood fraud rampant worldwide, new report





A study into seafood fraud has found, on average, one in five pieces of seafood tested worldwide were mislabelled.

The study tested a total of 25, 000 pieces of seafood from across the globe.

Conducted by US-based conservation group, Oceana, the study was part of a report which describes seafood fraud as a serious global problem that undermines honest business and fisherman that play by the rules.

The report explores different aspects for seafood fraud including improper labelling, hiding the country of origin of a product and adding breading, water or glazing to seafood just to increase its weight.

Key findings from the report

Studies reviewed found seafood mislabelling at every sector of the seafood supply chain; retail, wholesale, distribution, import/export, packaging and processing

Seafood fraud was found in every continent except Antarctica

Asian catfish, hake and escolar were the three types of fish most commonly substituted

Farmed Asian catfish was found being sold as 18 different types of higher-value fish

More than half of the samples substituted for other seafood posed a species-specific health risk to consumers

98 per cent of the 69 bluefin tuna dishes tested in Brussels restaurants were mislabelled

In Brazil, 55 per cent of shark samples turned out to be largetooth sawfish

Hope in European Union

Despite discovering thousands of seafood fraud cases worldwide, the report said incidences have been falling in the European Union (EU).

With multiple EU investigations and crack downs over the past 12 years, the report says overall fraud rates within the region have fallen from 23 per cent in 2011 to as low as 8 per cent in 2015.

According to Oceanas analysis, preliminary data out of the EU suggests that catch documentation, traceability and consumer labelling are feasible and effective at reducing seafood fraud, Oceana said.
Global law firm Dentons has announced that a former prime minister will be working alongside its lawyers.Canadas former premier the Right Honourable Stephen Harper will locate his consulting business Harper & Associates in Dentons Calgary offices and will work as a consultant with the firms worldwide team and clients.With almost ten years as prime minister, Mr Harper will provide advice to clients on market access, managing global geopolitical and economic risk, and how to maximize value in global markets.Employment and labour partner Katherine Morris is returning for Norton Rose Fulbright as a partner in Sydney. She was previously with the firm from 2005-2008.Morris joins from Gaden where she has been a partner in the employment and safety practice.Her appointment follows that of Samantha Maddern in Perth and NRF says that the new partners are part of its commitment to grow its national employment and labour offering.Including the latest, NRF has added six partners to its Australian team this year; Peter Lamont, Ellen Thomas, Jacques Jacobs, Samantha Kelly and Peter Bowden.Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton has announced that Michael Gerstenzang has been elected as the firms global managing partner to succeed Mark Leddy following a 5-year term.Gerstenzang is a partner in the funds practice of the firms New York office and will take over his new role in January 2017 with Leddy remaining with the firm as head of the antitrust practice.Latham & Watkins has hired Hui Xu as a partner in its Litigation & Trial department in Shanghai.Xu joins from Covington & Burling in Shanghai where he was special counsel and his practice focuses on advising clients on complex, cross border government investigations and litigation matters in Asia.
With legal assistance facing a tight budget, the Australian Bar Association has suggested sourcing funds from a levy on the alcohol and gambling industries.The suggestion comes as the organisation reiterated that it will continue to push for the Federal and State Governments to appropriately fund legal assistance.We know Australias legal assistance services such as legal aid and community legal centres throughout the country are in crisis and everyday Australians are being denied access to justice as a result. We also know governments are working with increasingly strained resources. said ABA President Patrick OSullivan QC.Were not suggesting governments take their eyes off the ball. Were suggesting that we need to start thinking about doing things differently and look at the current challenges as an opportunity to innovate and change, he added.In an interview with ABC, the bar association president said that there are two choices and they are to keep campaigning to get more money from the government when the money is not coming, or taking the opportunity and working as a society and as a profession to practically address the situation.Legal assistance funds coming from the federal government increased 2.5% this financial year to $257m, but it is expected to decrease 3% next fiscal year, the news organisation noted.OSullivan also pointed out that the Productivity Commission recommended an immediate injection of $200m, which points to the current increase not being nearly enough.According to the ABA, it held a round-table discussion in Brisbane last week with representatives from State Bars, the Queensland Public Defenders Office, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service and the National Association of Community Legal Centres.The forum presented an open discussion about ways to increase the funding of legal assistance through other means, and also looked at how we can deliver justice differently and more efficiently through better use of alternative dispute resolution, it said in an announcement.As part of the discussion, we looked at the precursors that lead people to come into contact with the justice system, such as alcohol and gambling. We need to have a good look at these issues and consider revenue raising options from the alcohol and gambling industries to directly support legal assistance.In addition to a levy on the alcohol and gambling industries, the ABA proposes to source money to augment legal assistance funds from the entire justice system, the speeding fines levy and the High Income Corporation levy.It also proposed looking into alternative dispute resolution such as legislative amendments to Family Law Regulations to allow for arbitration in non-complex childrens matters to make judicial options more efficient.The organisation said that it will prepare a detailed discussion paper on the matter and present it to the Federal Government later this year.It stressed, however, that additional sources of funds is not a replacement for government funding.The ABA considers that more equal access to justice through the legal assistance sector is a crucial issue for society. While the ABA is looking at new ways of doing things, it remains a core part of what government should fund and provide. The options which the ABA is considering are not in substitution for government funding, it said.Campaigns such as Legal Aid Matters have an important role to play and the ABA is entirely supportive of them. However, we also believe it is time to consider alternatives available to assist and support current funding sources.
US President Barack Obama has made the first nomination of a Muslim American to federal judicary.

Abid Riaz Qureshi  who was nominated to U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia  is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Latham & Watkins where he oversees the BigLaw firms pro bono practice and specializes in cases involving the False Claims Act, health care fraud, and securities violations.



I am pleased to nominate Mr. Qureshi to serve on the United States District Court bench, said Obama in a statement.



I am confident he will serve the American people with integrity and a steadfast commitment to justice.



Muslim advocates welcomed the nomination, though observers note it may be more a symbolic gesture granted it is unlikely to be confirmed by Senate Republicans.



Farhana Khera, executive director of legal advocacy organisation Muslim Advocates, said that it is vital for everyone to be included in Americas judiciary.



I commend President Obama for taking this important step in continuing to pick the best and brightest from every community to serve as part of our nations judiciary, said Khera.



A judiciary that reflects the rich diversity of our nation helps ensure the fair and just administration of the law, and it is vital for American Muslims to be included. Mr. Qureshis profound commitment to the rule of law and justice for people of all backgrounds makes him an exceptional nominee, he added.



Qureshi completed his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1997. He is a partner in Latham & Watkins Litigation & Trial Department in the Washington, D.C. office and formerly served as Co-chair for the firms Washington, D.C. office Litigation & Trial Department.


settlement1 said: Currently on 457.



Considering applying for PR through 189. Is an agent necessary/recommended? Click to expand...

Necessary ? Depends on how organised you are and if you properly understand all the requirements.Recommended? I use professionals for many services: accountants, plumbers, painters,web-builders etc.I could probably do most of it myself, but I prefer to pay a specialist.If you can afford it, using a specialist professional is always recommended.
Translations provided by non-accredited translators overseas should be endorsed by the translator with their full name, address, telephone number, and details of their qualifications and experience in the language being translated. Click to expand...

My mother in law will provide a stat dec/statement for our 820 application, however she doesn't speak English so it will need to be translated. I've done all the research I can but still really confused about the best way to get this done.Can anyone who has had this done confirm the correct procedure - does she need to get it translated then witnessed, or witnessed then translated? Is there any certification needed at any point?In regards to who translates it, the information given is:I am not sure what would be considered an 'accredited translator' in her country of residence (Poland). Could she theoretically ask anyone to do it for her if they speak English?A further translation question - we have a few documents we would like to use as evidence which are in Dutch (mostly bills, utility accounts, tax returns etc). Given that our names/addresses are clearly visible, and in most cases it can be fairly easily made out what the document relates to without translation (many of the relevant Dutch words are similar to the English equivalent), is it necessary to have these translated? I can imagine having them all fully translated would involve a huge cost, when most of the text on them may be irrelevant anyway.I am hoping that I can get away with just submitting them as they are with an explanation of what they relate to. In my opinion, if really necessary, the CO could confirm simply by plugging literally only one or two words into google translate - or is this total wishful thinking?If I would submit them as they are and the CO was not happy with that, would they be likely to request a translation or simply disregard the documents?
The term is not defined.It might mean work experience undertaken in Australia.Here is a link to a paper in which it appears:
Its 5am, the rain is incessant and a convoy of 20 Mahindras (a mix of new-gen Scorpios, XUV500s, TUV300s and a NuvoSport) snake up the steep, twisting road ahead of me. The headlights look like a string of pearls on the dark, ominous neck of the mountain. We pass a green board that tells us Jammu is still 150km away; on these roads, with the rain and darkness making progress slower, that probably means another four hours of driving. Quite a stretch to drive, given that wed left Srinagar at 11pm and havent stopped since. The leader of the convoy mustve realised the same thing because 10-15 minutes later, the radio crackles out: Lead to convoy, the scout vehicle has informed us theres a tea shop ahead with enough parking space and facilities to cater to us. Well break there, about 5km down the road, so start cutting your speed gradually. And please mind the BSF personnel by the side of the road  you probably wont spot them until youre almost upon them. As we pull up to the small tea shop that is bustling with truckers, some army personnel and members of the convoy who had reached the spot before us, the rain lets up and dawn starts to creep up on us. In the faint, magical diffused light of the wee hours, the grandeur of Kashmir valley is revealed to us, for the first time since we left the calm shores of Nigeen Lake in the states capital. We are on day one of a 16-day, pan-India journey Mahindra Adventure has dubbed the Kashmir to Kanyakumari drive. The plan is to drive down the western coast of the country, with stops in each of the states on the way. Autocar India, however, is only driving from Srinagar to Amritsar, and were looking forward to making the most of the three days we have at hand.

Srinagar is where it all started, with 11 groups of participants from across the country and three media teams coming together. Unfortunately, unrest in the state amid civilian protests and political strife meant we landed up in the middle of a state-wide shutdown. Getting a 20-car-strong convoy out safely under these circumstances would be quite a challenge. So, instead of leaving early in the morning, we departed late that very night and instead of driving to Jammu  the next stop on the itinerary  we planned to leave the trouble-torn state of J&K behind and drive straight through to Dharamshala. By mid-day, we descend from the mountains to the plains, on the outskirts of Pathankot in Punjab. With the change in landscape comes a change in the people, how they speak and dress and importantly, drive. While up in the hills, most of the vehicles on the road were goods or army trucks, SUVs and buses. Here, we saw a lot of hatchbacks on their way from one urban centre to the next. And while on the narrow, twisty mountain roads, people were more careful and courteous to other traffic. Here on the level, wide four-lane highways, there is a lot more reckless abandon. The drive up to Dharamshala was pretty uneventful although most of us driving in the convoy admit to each other at a snack-stop that we preferred the unruly hatchback drivers of Punjab over the manic bus drivers in Himachal who seemed to take the adage Better late than never in the reverse order. As we close in on our stop for the day, a dense fog settles on the landscape, prompting everyone to switch on their fog lamps and headlamps. The final few kilometres of the long, long day are a steep climb and everyone tucks into the delayed lunch gratefully as soon as we reached.
James Liang admits conspiring to defraud the US by developing a device that cheated emissions tests

A long-serving Volkswagen engineer has pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the US, in the wake of the dieselgate emissions scandal.

James Liang, a German national, is the first individual at Volkswagen to face criminal prosecution. He entered the guilty plea at a federal court in Detroit to charges of conspiring to defraud the US, violating the countrys clean air act, and a count of wire fraud. Liang, who has worked for VW since 1983, faces up to five years in prison. He has agreed to co-operate with the investigation, and will be sentenced in January.

Prosecutors say Liang was one of the engineers at VWs Wolfsburg headquarters who developed a cheat device for the Jetta in 2006. He then moved to the US in 2008 and conducted tests as part of efforts to conceal the defeat devices impact from regulators in 2014 and 2015.

The lawsuit against Liang was brought by New York attorney general Eric Schneidermann.

VW has already reached a deal with the US authorities to settle with affected customers, a move that could cost up to $16.5 billion (over Rs 1,00,000 crore) and covers 482,000 cars. However, criminal enquiries continue in the US, as well as in Germany and South Korea.

The US Justice Department established a policy in the wake of the dieselgate scandal that required all corporate cases to include a plan to prosecute individuals, after criticism that not enough people were being held to account. Past cases brought against General Motors and Toyota saw no high-ranking executives accused of wrongdoing.

Phill Tromans

(Autocar UK)
SUV

Priced from 9,500 and 8,745, respectively, the entry-level model in the Opel and Vauxhall lineups has been developed from the get-go as a cheap means of personal mobility. In a continent where the Dacia Sandero is king of the hill as far as the low-cost segment is concerned, the Karl is an attractive alternative to the Sandero. So why is the Rocks softroader not making sense?The Dacia Sandero Stepway is the answer to that.style, subcompact size, starting from 9,590 and 8,495, respectively. And while Dacia is careful not to describe its Sandero Stepway as stylish, trendy, or upmarket, the peeps at Opel do the exact opposite. But then again, the Opel badge is more appealing to the general public than the bottle opener-like Dacia badge.Slated to make its world debut later this month at the 2016 Paris Motor Show, the Karl Rocks differentiates itself from the regular Karl with an increased ride height (by 0.7 inches or 18 millimeters) and the addition of roof rails, black plastic cladding on the wheel arches and bumpers, and SUV-like side skirts. Also, the cabin also boasts an exclusive feature.Im not making this up, but the privileged feature Opel is talking about is... wait for it... Favo fabric upholstery. Oh man, Im at a loss for words here. On the upside, the Karl Rocks can be had with an IntelliLink infotainment system that allows navigation via Android Auto or Apple CarPlay.Regarding the oily bits, Opel is keeping quiet about whats hiding underneath the sheet metal and cheap-looking plastic. Mind you, its a sure bet were dealing with front-wheel-drive, a 1.0-liter three-cylinder naturally aspirated engine, and a five-speed manual. If, for no apparent reason, someone needs the Karl Rocks in his or her life, the order books will open late this year.
kW

CVT

You see, the Koleos is supposed to be some hot-shot flagship model, but the engine is just the average one used by the Nissan X-Trail, a 2.5-liter naturally aspirated unit with 168 PS (126) and 226 Nm (167 lb-ft) of torque. that's matched to a. From what we understand, a 2.0-liter turbodiesel with 170 PS (127kW) and 360 Nm (266 lb-ft) of torque will also be offered around the middle of 2017. That should give us a good starting point for the European model.To be honest, it's not Renault's fault. Everything it has touched is in excellent condition, and that includes the styling, the interior and the warranty offered with the car. But it's let down by the bits it got stuck with from the alliance. The upside is that it's about AU$500 cheaper to buy than the X-TrailDespite this, company bosses expect this to become the top seller. And time will likely prove them right, as rivals like the Mazda CX-5 and VW Tiguan are posting increases.Even if you are considering buying this car elsewhere in the world, you might want to check out the Australia-only photo gallery. That's doubly true if you're in another right-hand drive market... like Britain.The basic Life and Zen trim levels usually come with front-wheel-drive and get a 7-inch landscape R-Link system. The flashy new 8.7-inch portrait setup is reserved for the Intens top trim level.We've fallen in love with the interior of that one. It's covered in leather from head to toe and feature ambient lighting that reminds us of the Megane GT . You also get a 12-speaker sound system from Renault's favorite partners, Bose, an electric tailgate with hands-free opening and a sunroof. It looks like an affordable version of the Volvo XC90 in there!
6x6

They named it the Tomahawk , and it is aconversion based on the Jeep Wrangler. We are aware of the origins of this model thanks to the fact that its creators have kept the original steering wheel and dash of the Wrangler, as well as various styling elements.However, the 6x6 conversion also brings a covered pickup bed, which is not a part of the Jeep offering. The vehicle came to our attention thanks to Car News China , who showcased the G. Patton Tomahawk in a separate story.They have also observed that its badging is misaligned, and that its rear wheels appear to be improperly lined up. The latter might happen because the exhibit is probably a prototype, but an official explanation has yet to be presented.Instead of directly utilizing the Jeep Wranglers Pentastar V6 in stock form, the Chinese company named after an American General has fitted it with a supercharger, and the growl of the 3.6-liter unit will make itself heard thanks to a custom exhaust.The interior of the Tomahawk does feature a stock Jeep Wrangler dash and steering wheel, but the rest of it is covered in leather. The passenger compartment also features custom elements.The most dramatic changes have been made on the outside of the G. Patton Tomahawk (the brand name is spelled with a dot, no typo here).Instead of the Wranglers signature front grille, G.Patton fitted the car with a custom front end, as well as a significantly modified rear end. The pickup truck conversion of the Wrangler has been altered to be able to handle rugged terrain, and it comes with 35-inch Mickey Thompson tires fitted to 17-inch alloy wheels.The front end has a Warn Zero 10S winch, which is controlled by a remote, and the occupants get inside with ease thanks to an electrically-operated step that retracts from the side sills. You cannot buy this in any other market except China.
SUV

The new exhibit from SsangYong is a large premium, which will be showcased at this year s Paris Motor Show . Its name, LIV-2, stands for Limitless Interface Vehicle, and it represents the final concept car inspired by the Y400 development model. SsangYong will build a production version of the car, which will be released next year. SsangYong has already specified that the model comes with an in-house designed 2.2-liter diesel engine, which complies with Euro 6 norms, and will provide efficient performance.Customers will be able to choose a 2.0-liter GDi gasoline turbocharged engine for the production model that will be inspired by the LIV-2 concept.

SsangYong has also mentioned that the LIV-2 will feature a luxurious interior, which will be equipped with a suite of advanced communication technologies. While these elements have not been detailed, expect the latest concept from the South Korean brand to feature modern connectivity options.

We are referring to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support, as well as an onboard 4G LTE Internet connection, Wi-Fi, and possibly a range of dedicated apps that can be run from a users smartphone through Mirror Link or similar technologies.As you can observe in the teaser images, the interior of the concept car has four individual seats instead of a bench for the rear occupants. The tech elements are not detailed in the sketch published by SsangYong. Meanwhile, exterior design looks fresh, and seems to suit the new SUV well enough to have a chance of being attractive in this segment.The creation of another SUV is not a surprise from SsangYong , as the oldest vehicle manufacturer in South Korea is specialized in cars with 4x4 traction systems. SsangYong was founded in 1954, and its the only specialist brand in its country that focuses on SUVs and 4x4 vehicles.SsangYong is currently owned by Mahindra&Mahindra, an Indian corporation that holds a 73 percent stake in the South Korean automaker.
Photo by Chris Wolski.

Mercedes-Benz introduced its next-generation 2017 E-Class mid-size luxury sedan to Southern California fleet managers at its Vehicle Preparation Center  a cavernous former aircraft assembly hanger that processes in-bound vehicles before they reach local dealers.

The luxury automaker has begun distributing 2017 E-Class sedans to dealers from a wholesale operation that occupies 1.1 million square feet of space in Long Beach, Calif., at Douglas Park, a commercial campus once home to the Douglas Aircraft Co.

Douglas used the hanger to build warplanes starting in 1941, and Boeing later built 717 passenger jets in the space. Mercedes-Benz now stages hundreds of vehicles that undergo quality checks and minor modifications or repairs before being wholesaled to dealers.

Vehicles arrive at the wholesale center from the Port of Long Beach after arriving from Germany. Nearly 5,000 Mercedes-Benz vehicles move through the center per month, which equates to about 300 per day.

Arriving vehicles are staged at the centers expansive parking lot and assigned one of four priority levels. A Priority One vehicle has been ordered by an end-point customer, and will be processed the most quickly. A Priority Two vehicle will be added to dealer stock. A Priority Three vehicle is considered stock. A Priority Four vehicle has the lowest priority.

The center will add rear spoilers, illuminated stars, chrome door handles, and other trim pieces as the final touches. Any door dings or dents will be fixed. The center also has a paint shop, so workers can perform paint matching if needed.

The center also includes Mercedes-Benz USAs Western Region Office that supports 84 dealerships in 12 states and the Mercedes-Benz Academy that provides training to dealers and employees.

Fleet managers arrived July 13 for a tour of the center. Following the tour, Mercedes-Benz provided a safety demonstration of its 2017 E-Class mid-size sedan, which adds safety technology as it enters its fifth generation.

For 2017, the E-Class sheds about 150 pounds and adds an array of driver-assist features such as radar-guided cruise control, pedestrian detection, and automatic emergency braking. The new Drive Pilot suite includes steering pilot, speed limit pilot, active lane change assist, and active emergency stop assist.

Fleet managers participated in several demonstrations of the cars capabilities with driving trainers. In one test, the vehicle headed toward a fixed barrier at 18 mph. The Active Emergency Stop Assist feature brought the vehicle to a halt before striking the barrier. In another demo, the vehicles Parking Pilot parking assist feature showed how the vehicle can back into a parallel or perpendicular stall while the diver takes his or her hands off the wheel.

Fleet managers were given an opportunity to test drive the entire Mercedes-Benz lineup for 2017, including the GLS-Class, GLE-Class, GLA-Class, S-Class, E-Class, C-Class, CLA-Class, smart car, and Metris van.

Mercedes-Benz also gave fleet managers a presentation about its move into the realm of plug-in hybrids. The automaker already sells a PHEV S-Class, the 2016 S550e, and a a four-wheel drive SUV, the 2016 GLE 550e 4MATIC. The automaker is also working on a PHEV C-Class for later in 2016 known as the C 350e, as well as a PHEV GLC in 2017, the GLC 350e 4MATIC.

The July 13 event was folded into the July NAFA Pacific Southwest chapter meeting, where NAFA CEO Phil Russo spoke about possible changes to the organizations leadership path.
Photo courtesy of Driving Dynamics.

Driving Dynamics, Inc. has formed a new simulator-based training services division and hired Michael Griffin to manage the business unit, the company has announced.

Griffin joins the company in the newly created position of manager of simulation training services. He will oversee DrivActiv Simulator-Enhanced Training Services, a new unit that includes training with new physical simulators as well as the existing Web-based training lessons.

The company will bring the physical simulators to a company's site for a day of instructor-led training for fleet drivers.

Griffin will report to Art Liggio, the company's president. He will collaborate with training services and sales leadership to leverage his expertise to develop and deliver safety courses, grow market share for instructor-led simulator training and provide ongoing support and service to Driving Dynamics clients.

Griffin comes to Driving Dynamics from D.P. Associates (DPA) based in Arlington, Texas, which engages in the analysis, development and implementation of training systems. During his eight-year tenure at DPA, a division of Fortune 500 L-3 Communications Corp., he produced and delivered driver safety simulation training programs to fleet operators around the globe.

Prior to that, Griffin was the premier simulation trainer with TMC Transportation headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa where he first successfully applied adult learning concepts to simulation scenario development for the trucking industry.

"Introducing high-quality simulator-based training to fleets marks a significant expansion of our services and Mike brings the right blend of skills and talent to help us manage this initiative and achieve our goals," Liggio said.

Griffin's experience includes consulting with more than 200 colleges and numerous overseas business operations, and delivering simulation training to more than 20,000 drivers. Griffin has been recognized with a number of driver safety and sales management awards.
A man was critically shot in the head as he was sitting in the driver's seat of a luxury sedan vehicle in Queens on Saturday evening.

The police department said that the shooting took place around 11 p.m., an hour before midnight, in the South Jamaica section of the borough at 124-08 153rd Street. It remains unclear as to whether or not a suspect has been determined, according to Pix 11.

Nearby neighbors contacted 911 and complained about hearing a vehicle loudly "revving" up its engine.

"At first I thought it was firecrackers," said one neighbor, who refused to give out her name. "It sounded like cherry bombs. It was the revving that made me think twice."

Other neighbors heard at least three more gunshots during the late night attack. "It's crazy," the neighbor added, according to the New York Daily News. "Somebody's child is not coming home tonight."

Officials revealed that the victim succumbed to his injuries and died before he could be taken to the hospital. His body was still inside the car, which had plush red padding, hours after the shooting took place. Cops were also at the scene picking up shell casings and looking for surveillance footages.

This isn't the only shooting-related incident that took place in Queens. Just last month, an imam and his assistant were shot dead in the head by a man who approached them from behind as they were walking along the streets in the borough.

Some mosque-goers believed that the deaths of Imam Maulama Akonjee, 55 and his assistant Thara Uddin, 64 was because the suspect hated Muslims. However, police found no evidence that showed that the killings were motivated by hate crime.

"He would not hurt a fly," Imam Akonjee's nephew Rahi Majid said, according to BBC News. "You would watch him come down the street and watch the peace he brings."
Following the nuclear test that North Korea concluded last Friday that produced a 5.2 magnitude earthquake, the South is preparing itself to launch a major offensive assault against the North should worse come to worst.

Yonhap news agency, known to have close ties with the South Korean government, apparently has received a military source that if the South should retaliate the Pyongyang capital "will be completely destroyed by ballistic missiles and high-explosive shells."

Last Friday's nuclear test was North Korea's fifth this year and is the strongest blast that the country ever created. There are various measurements as to how powerful the impact bomb yielded. South Korea's military said that it was about 10 kilotonnes, while other measurements from neighboring countries said it was 20 kilotonnes or more.

To put into perspective, the bomb that the US dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 yielded a blast of 15 kilotonnes.

According to BBC's Korea correspondent, Steve Evans, there is growing criticism within South Korea that its attempt at slowing down the North in its nuclear program is utterly failing in preventing Kim Jong-un from furthering its alarming experiments.

Evans further said that the South's statement is echoing the North's chilling threats. South Korea's plan in attacking the North was revealed in parliament after the latest nuclear tests. Aside from actual assault, the South is also planning to resume its propaganda broadcast sometime in November, according to CNN.

Reports are also coming in that the US, Japan, and South Korea are looking into unilateral measures, bilateral measure, and a possible trilateral cooperation. As for the sanctions that the North will be facing, the US is still considering the path it will take, barring the ones that the UN Security Council, Japan, and South Korea will be enforcing.

But the North is shrugging these sanctions off similar to its response to the ones that have already been imposed on it in the past.

"The Obama administration running around and talking about meaningless sanctions until today is highly laughable," state media said Sunday.

"We will continue to strengthen our nuclear power in quality and quantity to protect our dignity and the right to live as well as to ensure genuine peace from the increasing threat of a nuclear war by the United States."

Neighboring countries of North Korea are closely monitoring the situation's development hoping that some kind of civil discourse will be reach rather than settling in an all-out violence.
Investigators looking for the final resting place of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 have spent more than $150 million using the latest sensing and navigation technology without result and now theyre hoping to try a high-tech version of a message in a bottle. Australian scientists have built six replicas of the flaperon from the Boeing 777 that operated as MH370 that washed up on a beach on Reunion Island last year. The idea is to drop the bright yellow flaperon-shaped floats in areas thought to be likely sites of the crash or ditching and see where they end up. Presumably if one makes it to Reunion Island, its point of entry in the ocean could be near the location of the wreck.

Peter Foley, Australias director of MH370, said he hopes the drift experiment will narrow the search area to a 340-mile circle. Even the best drift analysis is not going to narrow it down to X-marks-the-spot, he told the Sun newspaper. The search was called off in July and Foley said hell need more money to put satellite tracking beacons on the faux flaperons. If the drifting decoys indicate the 46,000 square miles already searched is in the wrong area, more money would be needed to fire up the search in the new target site. The original search area was determined based on the assumption that the aircraft was out of control when it went in the ocean. Critics of that theory say the aircraft would have glided a lot further if it was under control when it went down. We will never know what happened to that aircraft until we find it, Foley said.
(Saturday, September 10)

Haykakan Zhamanak says that President Serzh Sarkisians decision to appoint Karen Karapetian as Armenias new prime minister has gone down well with some sections of the society. The paper wonders whether this has to do with Karapetians personal charm, his record as Yerevan mayor or other factors. It is unimpressed with his brief mayoral work, saying that the former mayor did nothing to sort out the terrible state of public transport in the Armenian capital.

Chorrord Ishkhanutyun speculates, meanwhile, that Russia may have had a hand in Karapetians appointment, rewarding him for his contribution to making Armenia even more dependent on Russia. The paper claims that the Gazprom gas monopoly will now have a direct influence on government policy in Armenia. It too says disapprovingly that some Armenians look forward to Karapetians premiership even though he is a manager sent from abroad.

Oligarchs will hinder Karen Karapetian as well because he is not one of them and because he represents the Russian, not Armenian, oligarchy, writes Aravot. Having said that, one can pin some hopes on him, if he does not get fed up and walk away a few months later and say through spokespersons that his brilliant plans were obstructed.

One of the greatest misfortunes of our country is a lack of competent specialists ready to work hard in the government system, writes Zhoghovurd. The reason for this is that high-level positions are occupied by people that are connected with the authorities in one way or another and government figures seek to give their golden offspring lucrative jobs. Until this mentality changes, as much as Serzh Sarkisian expects changes from the new government they will not materialize. Why? Because the incoming Prime Minister Karen Karapetian has the same mindset. The paper says that Karapetian has extensive business interests in Armenia that are managed by his son Tigran. Some of them are connected with Armenias gas distribution network that was managed by Karapetian until 2011. Tigran Karapetian joined that network in 2012.

(Anush Mkrtchian)
12 September 2016 09:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

Eid al-Adha (Qurban Bayrami), one of the two most important festivals in the Muslim calendar, is celebrated in Azerbaijan on September 12-13.

The Festival of Sacrifice, as is also called, is Islams most important religious holiday embodying a love of God, faithfulness, generosity, and spirituality.

Eid al-Adha means getting closer to God and strengthening Islamic principles like maintaining brotherhood in society, keeping alive the spirit of cooperation and solidarity, and contributing to the realization of social justice. At Eid, it is obligatory to give a set amount of money to charity to be used to help poor people buy new clothes and food so they too can celebrate.

The celebration marks the willingness of Ibrahim to accept the command of Allah (God) and to sacrifice his dearest possession, his only son -- Ismail -- to demonstrate his devotion to the Almighty.

He obeyed and took Ismail to Mount Moriah. Just as he was to sacrifice his son, an angel stopped him and gave him a ram to sacrifice in place of his son.

A similar story is found in the Jewish Torah and the Christian Old Testament, but in the Judeo-Christian tradition, the story goes that Abraham was set to kill his son Isaac.

The holiday varies year by year, and its date is determined by the Islamic lunar Hijri calendar, which also means the end date of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj).

Eid al-Adha is not only about sacrificing an animal, it is just a good chance to express goodwill and make kind deeds before God. It is an important time for charity, and those who can afford it make an effort to ensure they help those less fortunate.

As kindness, purity, trust and love of God are the basis of the ritual, the main importance of the holiday is distribution of sacrificial meat for the sake of God among poor people.

One of the most beautiful aspects of Islam is that there is no discrimination in the faith.



During the holiday every orphan or pauper from any religion has the right to avail the opportunities of rich, to taste the sacrificial meat, which he himself would not be able to afford otherwise.

Sacrificial offering is preferred, but not obligatory for everyone. Making a sacrifice through debt is not favored in Islam, as all religions including Islam are meant not for complicating the lives of people, but for improving their well-being.

There are several conditions required for giving a sacrifice on Qurban Holiday. First of all, the sacrificial animal should be healthy and well-fed. Furthermore, only four-legged animals such as sheep, calves or camels, buffaloes, bulls, cows, and goats can be sacrificed and distributed among the poor and needy, which symbolizes the compassion towards the poor and also calls on people to help each other.

The meat of a slaughtered animal is to be divided into three pieces: one for the poor, one for the holiday feast prepared for the family, neighbors, and friends, and one for the individual who is sacrificing the animal.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
12 September 2016 11:32 (UTC+04:00)

The next session of the CIS Heads of State Council to be held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on September 16 will see discussions on more than 10 draft documents on political interaction, humanitarian cooperation, and security affairs, according to BelTA.

Participants of the session are expected to sign their statements on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the 70th anniversary of the end of the Nuremberg Trials. The two documents have been previously approved by the CIS Foreign Ministers Council. Apart from that, the session will focus on adapting the Commonwealth of Independent States to new reality with a view to improving the performance of CIS agencies.

Participants of the session will also discuss the draft resolutions on declaring 2017 the Year of Family, 2018 the Year of Culture in the CIS, on implementing the interstate program CIS Cultural Capitals in Azerbaijan in 2017, and on amending the regulations concerning this program. For the sake of expanding and advancing economic cooperation plans have been made to consider matters concerning the organization of population censuses in the CIS states in 2020 and the development of interregional cooperation.

A number of important documents the session participants will discuss are meant to take care of security matters and counteract new challenges and threats. In particular, participants of the session are expected to adopt programs on cooperation of the CIS member states in fighting terrorism and other violent manifestations of extremism in 2017-2019, cooperation in fighting cyber security crimes in 2016-2020. Protection of parties to criminal proceedings will be discussed as well.

Apart from that, the heads of state are expected to decide on the CIS presidency in 2017.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
12 September 2016 13:38 (UTC+04:00)

Latest on the car bomb attack in Van, Turkey

14:37 (UTC+04:00) Forty-eight people were injured in the car bomb explosion in the Turkish province of Van, the Dogan news agency reported citing a source in police Sept. 12.

Reportedly, two of the injured are police officers.

The injured have been taken to the hospital. The police have launched an operation to catch the terrorists.

The prosecutors office of Van has initiated a criminal case over the terrorist attack.

---

14:03 (UTC+04:00) Nineteen people were injured in the car bomb explosion in the Turkish province of Van, TRT Haber quoted the province governor Ibrahim Tasyapan as saying Sept. 12.

He noted that the terrorists were targeting the policemen guarding the nearby buildings.

---

13:01 (UTC +04:00) Turkish A Haber TV channel reports that the explosion occurred as a result of a car bomb attack.

The report said the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) terrorist group stands behind the blast.

There are so far no exact numbers on casualties.

---

12:53 (UTC +04:00) The explosion occurred in the center of Turkish city of Van between the buildings of the governorship and office of the Justice and Development Party, the Anadolu Agency reports.

Several people were injured in the explosion.

---

12:23 (UTC+04:00) A large explosion has occurred in Turkish province of Van, the Haber 7 newspaper reports.

Rescuers and ambulances have been sent to the scene.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
A 12-year-old boy single-handedly to block thousands of anti-gay protesters in in Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico this weekend by standing all alone in the middle of the street because his Uncle is gay.

Over the weekend, thousands of members of Mexicos pro-family hate group Frente Nacional por la Familia took to the streets across the nation to protest the impending passage of same sex marriage.

As Mexico makes a national move toward marriage equality, pockets of protest sprung up, with marches taking place across many parts of the country.

Journalist Manuel Rodriguez photographed a boy standing ahead of the car-led parade attempting to halt their advance.

At first I thought the child was only playing, Rodriguez told Regeneracion. But when Rodriguez later interviewed the child, he told the reporter, I have an uncle who is gay and I hate the hatred.

Same-sex marriage is now legal in Mexico City and nine of the countrys 31 states.

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UK bakery and coffee chain BBs Coffee & Muffins has created 13 new vacancies as part of a new store opening at the McArthurGlen East Midlands Designer Outlet in Nottingham.

The 1,025sq ft store opened last week and includes an outdoor seating area.

The new shop has already employed seven members of staff, but the company is seeking a further six employees.

Paul Tyler, centre manager of East Midlands Designer Outlet, said: Were excited to welcome another great brand to our dining offering; were all big fans of the BBs menu and with an outdoor seating area as well, its bound to be a popular spot within the centre.

The opening is part of the chains plans to double the number of stores around the country over the next five years, with group chief executive of BBs Andrew Moyes aiming for between 80-100 shops during the time target.

BBs is a bakery cafe group operating in the UK and Ireland. Each of its stores serve fresh sweet and savoury products, including 120 types of muffins, paninis and sandwiches, and freshly ground barista-made coffee.
This photo taken on Sept 10, 2016 in Bukoba region in northwest Tanzania, shows houses damaged following an earthquake measured 5.7 magnitude which struck the country's Lake Zone. [Photo/Xinhua]

DAR ES SALAAM - Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa on Sunday visited Kagera region to console people and inspect damage caused by an earthquake on Saturday as the number of dead rose from 11 to 16.

Salum Kijuu, the Kagera regional commissioner, said the number of people killed by the earthquake measured at a magnitude of 5.7 on the Richter scale rose from 11 on Saturday to 16 on Sunday, adding that over 100 injured people were being treated in hospitals.

Kijuu said 840 houses were flattened to ground and 1,264 other houses developed huge cracks following the earthquake that hit the region bordering Uganda and Rwanda.

"Over 40 buildings belonging to the government, including schools, were also damaged," said Kijuu.

"Bodies of the deceased were brought to a national stadium in Bukoba town for final prayers before they were ferried to their native places for burial," said Kijuu, adding that the prayers were also attended by the Prime Minister after he had inspected some of the areas most affected by the quake.

Kijuu said no foreigners were killed or injured by the earthquake. "All the victims are locals," he told Xinhua by telephone.

Speaking at the Kaitaba National Stadium, Premier Majaliwa said a team of experts from the government will assess the damage caused by the earthquake.
A Hernando County family is mourning the death of a 6-year-old girl in North Carolina.

Lila Marie Pickering found dead in North Carolina Friday night

Mother said child was at center of bitter custody dispute

Father charged with first-degree murder

The body of Lila Marie Pickering was discovered along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Buncombe County Friday night.

Her father, Seth Pickering, 36, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

The child's mother, Ashley Pickering, said they had been locked in a bitter custody battle.

She said she left Seth Pickering about 15 months ago because of alleged abuse and moved to Spring Hill, Florida to be closer to her family. She said authorities wouldn't let her bring Lila with her.

"I just talked to her case worker on Friday and she said she had been placed in a safe, temporary home and they were going to work with me to get her back down here with me," Ashley Pickering said.

The family isn't sure how Seth Pickering got the child away from that home.

"How, how does that happen? I don't want any family to ever, ever go through something like this," said Cindy Dabill, the child's grandmother.

The family doesn't know why Seth Pickering would want to hurt his daughter.

"She worshipped him, she loved her daddy so much. In pictures she was always sitting in his lap, smiling. I can't imagine how he could hurt someone who loved him so deeply. I never thought he'd do something like this," said Ashley Pickering.

She describes her daughter as a "happy" child.

"She was definitely a miracle in this world. She loved helping people. She was always giving stuff to everybody. She always wanted to talk to everybody. She was curious, so smart, already reading and writing before she hit school," said Ashley Pickering.

The child's mother and grandmother are making plans to go to North Carolina.

"We're bringing her home, one way or another, she is coming home," said Cindy Davill.

Because of where the murder occurred, the FBI is handling the case.

Agents aren't saying yet how the child was killed or why.
Hundreds of people descended upon Winter Haven's Central Park Sunday to honor first responders and pay tribute to the people who lost their lives during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Winter Haven Honoring Our Heroes Event

Featured Some Gave All traveling memorial

The seventh annual "Honoring Our Heroes" event was coordinated by the Polk County Veteran's Council and the Winter Haven Police department.

Sheriff Grady Judd was the guest speaker.

The event kicked off with a Freedom Walk, each step symbolizing the sacrifices first responders make every day. The walk was led by the Winter Haven High School Army ROTC honor guard.

Throughout the day, people visited the "Some Gave All" traveling memorial that lists the names of service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and people who died on 9/11.

I was amazed for one thing that they took the time to do that tribute," said Furman Gerald, who saw the memorial. "And its very, very thorough for you know Desert Storm, 9/11 and the other conflicts that they have there. Its beautifully done.

Edwin Cotto, who lived in New York City for many years, said the display hit close to home. Several of his friends died in the attacks.

"I felt anger a lot until I started going to church and reading the scriptures and learning I can't hold that hate, you know?" Cotto said. "Because one small group of people did something, I can't blame them all."

The event also featured a boot display in the park, honoring each Polk County law enforcement officer, service member or firefighter who died in the line of duty.

Karen Keel was glad to see her friend's son, Army Staff Sgt. John Reiners, was included. He was killed while serving in Afghanistan.

"It's heartbreaking because I know his mama's heart is broke too," said Karen Keel. "It was his third tour over there and I want my grandkids to know its not easy out there. There's mean people in this world and there's people out there to protect our freedoms so we can come out and celebrate."
A Polk County teacher facing 22 years in prison for child sex crimes will ask for a lighter punishment, according to a Polk County newspaper.

Jennifer Fichter arrested in April 2014 on child-sex charges

Fichter pleaded guilty, was sentenced to 22 years



Fichter and attorney to ask for lighter sentence

Jennifer Fichter, a former English teacher at the Central Florida Aerospace Academy, pleaded guilty to 37 child-sex charges in March 2015 and was sentenced a few months later.

Fichter, now 31, was initially arrested on allegations she had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student at the academy. Investigators said she also admitted to having sex with two other teens at the school.

Before Circuit Judge Glenn Shelby handed down the sentence, he told Fichter that even though the victims were willing participants, their age doesnt take away from the fact that this is a crime.

With a face full of tears, Fichter told the court she was sorry.

Now, according to the The (Lakeland) Ledger, Fichter and her lawyer have submitted a motion stating several reasons why she should get a reduced sentence.

The reasons listed include an undisclosed mental condition, the victims being willing participants and a lack of treatment options available to her in prison.

She is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday to ask for that lighter sentence.
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On this day 64 years ago, then-Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Bouvier after dating for two years.

The man who went on to become the 35th president of the United States met his wife at a dinner party in Georgetown, according to history.com.

The couple wed in Newport, Rhode Island, in front of 750 guests, and 1,200 guests attended the reception at Hammersmith Farm. The pair danced to "I Married an Angel" during their first dance as a married couple.

According to history.com, the Kennedys are the youngest elected U.S. president and first lady.

See photos from their wedding day in the gallery above.
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The Cameron Preservation Alliance and Sabine Pass Lighthouse Inc. will host 1-mile, 5K and 10K races to raise awareness and funds for the Sabine Pass Lighthouse.

The races will take place from 4-7 p.m. Saturday, Oct.15 at Holly Beach, Louisiana. The sand-based races will start and end at the beach end of Barataria Boulevard.
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The family of a district court judge that sued Jefferson County in 2005 for contributing to his death concedes the case is likely at an end because of a recent court ruling that could prolong it several more years and a 2014 Texas Supreme Court decision that limited manufacturers' liability.

Ellarene Farris, the wife of late District Judge James Farris, sued the county and other defendants, including asbestos manufacturers, in her husband's 2004 death, contending asbestos remediation in the Jefferson County courthouse exposed her husband to the deadly fibers that were in widespread use throughout much of the 20th century as insulating material in buildings.

A district judge in Harris County, where all asbestos-related cases are reviewed and cleared for trial in the courts where they were first filed, ruled earlier this month that the county and other defendants could appeal any decision he would make in the case, meaning the case could continue for years.

A Texas Supreme Court decision from 2014 that limited liability of asbestos manufacturers in cases where lung disease resulted during decades of exposure also lengthened the family's odds of success.

Farris, who was 72 when he died, spent almost his entire legal career in the Jefferson County courthouse, first as an assistant district attorney, beginning in 1961; county Court-at-law No. 2 judge from 1969 to 1977; and 317th District Court judge from 1977 until 1996, all within the old courthouse building built in 1931.

He pursued a side career as an in-demand dinner speaker that took him across the country, usually for juvenile justice advocacy groups, which was his main legal focus in the 317th court.

"He had just given a speech in Idaho in October 2004," Ellarene Farris said. "He came home and said he couldn't do it any more. He went into the hospital and nine days later, he was dead."

She said her husband had no idea he suffered from mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs. The symptoms began as an abdominal pain that wouldn't quit and ended soon after with a struggle to breathe.

"He was so scared. He didn't even know he had mesothelioma," Ellarene Farris said.

Farris, her son, Gary Wallace, and her attorneys, Aaron Heckaman and Kyle Beale, said the Texas law requiring plaintiffs to find others who had similar exposure creates an almost impossible standard.

"The test is a legal fiction," said Beale, who said the case is personal because he knew Farris when Beale was a law student at Baylor University, also Farris' alma mater.

The latency period takes decades, Heckaman and Beale said. Trying to find others similarly affected makes a successful case virtually impossible, particularly in a setting that is non-traditional for asbestos-related diseases.

The Texas Supreme Court in 2014 ruled against a plaintiff who won a judgment against brake pad manufacturer Borg Warner, upheld by an appellate court in Corpus Christi. The state high court said the defendant in the case wasn't the only brake pad manufacturer whose products were used by the shop in which the plaintiff claimed illness resulted after 30 years.

The Farris case also bogged down because government entities since 1970 had legal exposure capped at $100,000.

"It's never been about money," Ellarene Farris said.

Her son, Gary Wallace, agreed.

"There's not any money in this. The Texas Legislature made sure of that," he said. "We just want the courthouse cleared."

Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick said the courthouse is clear of asbestos.

DWallach@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/dwallach
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Southeast Texas schools are trying everything from counseling to bribery to remedy absenteeism, which is prevalent in several local districts, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Education in June.

A report released last week, which analyzed 2013-14 data from the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, found that half of the nation's chronically absent students attend just 4 percent of districts across the country, one of which is Beaumont ISD.

The Office for Civil Rights defines a chronically absent student as one who misses 15 or more days in a school year, regardless of whether the absences are excused or unexcused. The 2013-14 school year was the first for which the department requested the information from schools.

Nationally, more than 6.5 million students - or about 13 percent - missed that many days. Texas students were slightly lower, at 12 percent.

Since the 2013-14 school year, however, truancy regulations in Texas have changed, and districts are now required to implement programs for preventing and confronting chronic unexcused absences.

>> See how Southeast Texas school districts' chronic absenteeism rates compared to the national and state average in the slideshow above.

Until 2015, Texas was one of two states that made truancy a criminal violation, with sanctions and fines. Now, schools are required to have programs in place to notify parents when students are chronically absent and to provide situational support, with students referred to truancy court if those measures fail.

The state uses a measure of 10 days within six months to determine truancy. The Texas Education Agency tracks school's overall attendance rates, but does not specifically monitor chronic absenteeism.

Those average daily attendance rates are also used in determining state funding, Many districts offer students rewards to boost that number, by incentivizing perfect or close-to-perfect attendance.

Students who miss substantial amounts of class time are at risk of not receiving credit for the courses they are enrolled in, which can impact promotion to the next grade or graduation. Common causes of recurring absence include illness, transportation issues or simply not making attendance a priority, local districts said. For older students, employment can also contribute to chronic absence, especially if students are families' primary wage-earners.

Reasons vary by age

Senecia Saveat, Beaumont's assistant director for student services, said those are all issues that the district tries to identify and address as part of truancy prevention programs.

"It's going to look a little bit different at different campuses," she said, because reasons for absence vary by age level. At all levels, classroom teachers or campus administration are prompted to contact parents when students are absent for consecutive days.

From there, students could be referred to counselors or Communities in Schools liaisons, who work specifically with students at risk of dropping out. Sometimes, the campus finds a teacher or staff member on the campus who students are required to check in with or finds an extracurricular activity for the student to commit to.

"That's one of our big deterrents (to absence) at the secondary campuses," Saveat said, because extracurricular involvement keeps students engaged in coming to school.

The key is identifying the barriers that are interfering with regular attendance, she said.

Attendance committees also review cases if students attend less than 75 percent of a class, and determine if extenuating circumstances and credit recovery will allow the student to pass that class.

Beaumont's overall attendance rate has generally been above 94 percent, she said.

The prevention programs haven't been in place long enough to determine whether they will be more effective than the previous policies, said Nederland ISD Assistant Superintendent Stuart Kieschnick. "It took some schools away from the school" for filing truancy cases with a justice of the peace, he said, "but it also put more steps in the process to fix it before it becomes a legal matter."

Elsewhere in Southeast Texas, 12 other districts also had rates above the state average. West Orange-Cove CISD had the highest chronic absence rate, at 49.27 percent for 2013-2014.

Outreach to families

Local administrators, however, emphasized their high overall rates of attendance, which are calculated based on the percentage of registered students who attend each day. Several districts encourage attendance with incentive programs, offering everything from class celebrations to additional privileges and valuable prizes.

As in Beaumont, preventing both sporadic and chronic absence starts with working with families.

In Evadale, where the 2013-14 chronic absence rate was about 21 percent, the district also uses incentives to encourage attendance, superintendent Gary Fairchild said, though he doesn't consider chronic absence to be a major problem.

In his four years in the position, "we have not had a kid that has not graduated because of absences," he said. When a student misses several consecutive days, "the first thing we do is make contact with a parent and find out what is going on there," he said. "There may be an issue that we need to deal with."

If a student lives with grandparents or foster parents, for example, he said, or if students are sick or have a chronic illness, that will impact attendance.

Overall, though, "our community is cooperative, it's been pretty easy to get them here," Fairchild said. Incentives like recognitions for good attendance and prize drawings also "seemed to improve (attendance) some," he said.

Vidor's attendance rate in 2013-14 was 96 percent, according to Director of Communications Sally Andrews, though the Education Department reported that 29 percent of the district's students missed more than 15 days that year.

In addition to automatically contacting parents when students have more than three consecutive unexcused absences, sending letters after six absences and calling families to check on students, the district also runs incentive programs at each campus to encourage attendance, Andrews said. Those range from popcorn parties to privileges like using cell phones at lunch and wearing shorts on Fridays.

High school students with perfect attendance also can receive scholarships when they graduate, ranging from $360 to $1,000, depending on how many years of perfect attendance they have; nearly 20 percent of graduates earned those in the last two years, Andrews said.

Attendance incentives

Other districts use similar rewards to motivate attendance, which can be as small as five extra minutes of reading or recess time for young students, or as large as drawings for iPads and other prizes for older students. Those are less targeted at students with critical attendance issues and more at reaching perfect attendance whenever possible.

In Hamshire-Fannett, classes and grades with high attendance can win pizza or ice cream parties, Superintendent Pamela Lechler said, as well as be entered into drawings for gift cards.

In Beaumont, Saveat said that campuses sometimes have competitions between grades for best attendance. Students also can lose privileges, such as being able to drive to school or attend events, if they have poor attendance.

Nederland ISD has perhaps the largest attendance award: Each year, high school students who missed fewer than three days are entered into a drawing for a new car, donated by Philpott Motors.

Kieschnick said that the district began the drawing in the late 1990s, when attendance was around 93 percent.

The incentive had an immediate impact, improving attendance 4 percent and keeping it there. Students who meet attendance criteria and other academic standards also can be exempt from final exams, he said.

Incentives like those, however, are targeted more at improving general attendance than resolving chronic absence, because those cases tend to have deeper causes that can't be solved by offering a reward.

"Usually there's a problem area that exists before truancy becomes a problem," Kieschnick said, such as family problems at home or drug and alcohol abuse.

No chronic absences

According to the report, 89 percent of school districts in the country reported having chronically absent students. Locally, however, five districts had none: Deweyville, East Chambers, Hull-Daisetta, Port Neches-Groves and Woodville.

PN-G superintendent Rodney Cavness credited the district's parents and teachers with making sure students are in school. "We've just got a winning combination. If kids feel welcome and loved and safe, they come to school," he said.

Hull-Daisetta superintendent Mary Huckabay said that an advantage of being a small district is that administrators "know most of the parents and kids personally so we try to keep on top of it."

Connecting with parents is the first line of defense against truancy, local administrators said, and the first step all districts take in dealing with extended absences.

Beaumont ISD has been trying to send a message to families this year about the cumulative impact of absence, Saveat said. "Most people don't realize how as little as two days a month can add up" over time, she said. "That means that a kid misses 10 percent of the school year."

LTeitz@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/LizTeitz
For more than a year, an independent physician group has challenged the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems and St. Albans, Va.-based Northwestern Medical Center over state certificate-of-need approval for Green Mountain Surgical Center in Colchester, Va., according to Vtidgger.

Here are five things to know:

1. Both the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems and Northwestern Medical Center argue the surgery center would negatively impact the healthcare system, as the surgery center would offer the same services the two hospitals offer. Jill Olson, vice president of policy for the hospital association, said by offering duplicate services, the center would increase costs.

2. In the proposal, the surgery center says it would offer basic surgeries as well as knee surgeries, shoulder surgeries, hysterectomies, certain pelvic exams, colonoscopies and spinal pain treatments.

3. In the regulatory filings, the surgery center investors said the center would bring in 14 percent of patient surgeries from University of Vermont Medical Center and 3 percent from Northwestern Medical Center.

4. Those supporting the surgery center said it would improve care for patients by reducing wait times and saving patients money as independent physicians do not bill for facility fees.

5. Physician inventors hope to obtain a permit from the state by December and open the surgery center in 2018.

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Police investigate bomb threat at Shrewsbury Surgery Center

On Sept. 7, police investigated a bomb threat at Shrewsbury (N.J.) Surgery Center. The threat was reported after 2 p.m., and police were still conducting an investigation at 4:20 p.m. During the investigation, Monmouth County Sheriff's Office's K-9 team performed a sweep of the building's interior and exterior. Police also employed a medical ambulance for assistance, according to a sheriff office's spokesperson. Police evacuated the building during the investigation. Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office is currently investigating the incident at the surgery center.

New charges in California cosmetic surgery center $50M healthcare fraud scheme

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AmSurg-Envision merger closer to final stages as Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period expires

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Aetna and Humana in-house lawyers have restrictions placed on them in antitrust case

Special master Richard Levie, who is overseeing the evidence gathering process in the antitrust case, rejected a request from four in-house lawyers for Aetna and Humana to review confidential information. Mr. Levie  the court-appointed official ensuring judicial orders are executed properly  sided with the Justice Department and ruled "that the risk for inadvertent disclosure outweighed the need for the four in-house lawyers to have access to confidential information."

Healthmark adds 'clean' label to product line

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Orthopedics came out on top as the highest paying specialty for young physicians, according to "Medscape Young Physicians Compensation Report 2016."

Medscape surveyed 19,200 physicians in more than 26 specialties. Of that total, 4,162 respondents were under 40 years old, qualifying as 'young physicians.'

The top five highest-paying specialties include:

1. Orthopedics  $329,000

2. Dermatology  $312,000

3. Anesthesiology  $309,000

4. Cardiology  $307,000

5. Gastroenterology  $294,000

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Tens of thousands of people who worked at ground zero following 9/11 are still dealing with long-term physical and mental health effects, many of which have been linked to responders' exposure to toxic dust and ash. The WorldTradeCenter's collapse created a toxic dust filled with hundreds of carcinogenic substances, including jet fuel, asbestos, lead, mercury and fibrous gas.

The death toll among those sickened by airborne toxins is expected to exceed the number of people killed on 9/11, in as little as five years, experts told The Guardian. Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks.

Congress established the federal World Trade Center Health Program in 2011 to cover medical expenses for responders, survivors and New York residents effected by or involved in events on 9/11. The program covers asthma, PTSD, mental illness and more than 50 types of cancer and respiratory illnesses, among other diseases, according to PBS.

President Barack Obama signed legislation in May extending the program until 2090. But there are many people who qualify for full medical coverage who haven't signed up, according to Business Insider.

About 90,000 individuals provided assistance in the aftermath of the attacks on the WorldTradeCenter. About 9,500 responders came from outside of the state of New York, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Right now, only about 75,000 people are enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program.

"There's still a good chunk of folks out there who responded to the event and most likely have not been seen by anybody yet," Michael Crane, MD, medical director of the WTCHP at Mount Sinai in New York City, told Los Angeles Times. These people may have received cancer diagnoses in other states and have not connected it to events from 15 years ago, Dr. Crane said.
Memorial Hospital at Gulfport (Miss.) plans to sell or lease its mental health services due to reduced Medicaid payments that the hospital claims are insufficient to sustain operations, reports Mississippi Public Broadcasting.

Memorial CEO Gary Marchand told MPB Medicaid underpays the hospital about $10 million a year for mental health services. The state began reducing Medicaid mental health payment rates in 2013, according to the article.

Mr. Marchand said Memorial will hire a consultant to oversee either the sale or long-term lease of its mental health unit, according to MPB.
Lebanon, N.H.-based Dartmouth-Hitchcock will lay off between 270 and 460 employees by the end of 2016, according to the Concord Monitor.

Dartmouth-Hitchcock employees were told Friday about the planned layoffs in a memo from system President and CEO James Weinstein, DO. According to the memo, the system is trying to cut costs after closing the fiscal year that ended June 30 with an unexpected $12 million deficit.

It is unclear which service areas will be affected by the cuts. Dartmouth-Hitchcock will provide more details about its layoff plans in mid-October after a review of its clinical programs.

"Services will be evaluated, not just through the lens of whether they are financially beneficial, but also in terms of how they contribute to our patient care, research and education missions," according to the memo from Dr. Weinstein published by the Valley News.

The health system's workforce is expected to be reduced by 3 to 5 percent. As of June, Dartmouth-Hitchcock had 9,239 workers, according to the Valley News.

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Five U.S. senators sent a letter to Aetna's CEO Thursday calling into question the insurer's decision to exit a majority of its 2017 Affordable Care Act exchanges.

The Hartford, Conn.-based insurer pulled back its ACA footprint in mid-August. In a July 5 letter sent to the U.S. Department of Justice, the insurer said if its proposed acquisition of Louisville, Ky.-based Humana was challenged, it would immediately take action to reduce its 2017 ACA exchange presence. The DOJ sued to block the transaction July 21.

In response to the insurer's hardball tactics, the senators' letter  signed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.)  called the actions "inexplicable and irresponsible."

The senators also said they were "particularly troubled that Aetna's decision to leave the ACA exchanges appears to have been motivated by the Justice Department's decision to challenge Aetna's proposed $37 billion merger with Humana," a deal they said would harm competition and negatively impact healthcare quality.

In regards to a pending $1 billion breakup fee set in place should the deal collapse, the senators said it was a "dangerous and irresponsible bet that the Justice Department would not block the deal because Aetna has structured the deal in a way that would cause significant damage to itself and, by extension, to the public exchanges, if it was blocked."



Aetna spokesperson T.J. Crawford said in an emailed statement to Becker's Hospital Review that Aetna is "one of many insurers, large and small, that has been forced to reduce its public exchange participation due to an increasingly unstable marketplace. This isn't a recent development, as more than 40 companies exited certain geographies for the 2016 plan year."

"Singling Aetna out may be politically convenient during election season, but this letter ignores realities and takes the focus away from needed reforms," Mr. Crawford said. "The ACA is not sustainable without bipartisan action that improves access, affordability and quality of care for consumers."

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Insight from the top performers on Gartner's Healthcare Supply Chain 25.

In today's changing healthcare landscape, hospitals and health systems are facing more financial risk than ever before. At the same time, they must identify new ways to improve patient outcomes while reducing the cost of care.

As the entire industry moves toward a value-based model, providers also need to find new methods of understanding their true costs  per case and per episode of care.

That's why it's now more important than ever for hospital leaders to view their supply chains as valuable assets for mining data and transforming it into action that can help them address each of these strategic priorities.

Here, Bruce Mairose, vice chair of supply chain at Mayo Clinic, and Mike Duffy, president of hospital solutions and global supply chain at Dublin, Ohio-based Cardinal Health (the two organizations that command the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in Gartner's Annual Healthcare Supply Chain Top 25) answer questions for Becker's Hospital Review.

What's possible and what's next?

Bruce Mairose: In today's healthcare market supply chain management, organizations are expected to drive waste and expense out of the system while reducing supply chain operations expense. As a result, there are simply not enough resources  human, technological or information  across many competing priorities.

Most SCM organizations segment their customers based on spend, complexity and opportunity. Clinical areas such as cardiology and surgery hold a favored position on the high end of that continuum due primarily to implantable devices. Departments such as ophthalmology, cardiopulmonary and the gastrointestinal lab often land on the low end of the scale with respect to opportunity. It is an issue of limited resources.

Investment in EMRs over the past decade has provided limited insight for high spend areas and has propelled data capture forward for both clinical and business functions. However, investment in transforming data into actionable insights lags significantly.

Finally, investment in automated data capture will enable accurate collection of usage by ICD10 or diagnosis related groups. There is functionality available within some EMRs that allow clinicians in procedural areas to identify products that are used or wasted, and then that data is incorporated into the clinical documentation. This can be difficult to report from unless product information from the clinical arena is interfaced to a data warehouse or robust reporting system. The use of barcode or RFID-enabled scanning for this data capture can accelerate the transformation of quality data to information. Imagine for a moment, the ability for a surgeon to be able to walk out of a surgical suite knowing exactly what it cost to perform a procedure and using ICD10/11 data to compare to his or her peers. This is actually occurring in pockets today.

Mike Duffy: We know that supplies can make up as much as 30 percent of a hospital's annual operating budgets. Contributing to the high spend percentage is the more than $5 billion of waste trapped in the device and implantable supply chain. This is due, in large part, to a lack of inventory visibility across the extended supply chain. This opaqueness drives manual, redundant, and inefficient practices in managing the supply chain which adversely impacts clinician time and workflow  ultimately affecting the patient experience.

An efficient, transparent supply chain that connects data from the point of use all the way back through the entire value chain to the point of manufacture is our goal. This ensures we are making manufacturing and purchasing decisions based on actual usage, and not simply forecasts. Additionally, we must move beyond capturing data by providing the right analytics to support better decision-making and patient care. It's a "must" in today's world of value-based reimbursement. Having deep insight into supply expense is key to truly understanding total cost of care. As supply chain leaders in other industries (such as retail or automotive) know, the answer to creating this "patient-driven supply network" lies in the adoption and use of connected technological solutions throughout the value chain.

Capturing data at the point of use is the key enabler to creating transparency. With an RFID-enabled inventory management solution that integrates with EMRs and materials management information systems, hospitals, distributors and manufacturers will have the right information for predictive planning and supply chain optimization, benefitting all stakeholders. Usage information, by case or physician, can also be used to reduce product variation and support additional cost reductions. Expiration can be eliminated and charge capture improved. Importantly, patient safety and enhanced patient experience are better supported by reduced administrative workload for clinicians and the ability to track devices by patients.

What kinds of investments are needed for hospitals to transform data into insights in a powerful way?

BM: Enterprise resource planning systems are very good at collecting data from all aspects of the business, answering basic questions as to how much, when and where resources were used. If healthcare systems wish to drive out waste and unnecessary costs, more complex questions must be addressed. The latest versions of EMRs capture some of this data and can assist in aggregating the right information to address these questions, but this information is difficult to normalize and is not well suited to address utilization, waste and cost per procedure.

Clinicians must be the decision makers when it comes to determining what product or intervention is most appropriate for the patient. Today, leading organizations are investing in highly skilled allied health staff and using analytics to work collaboratively with their clinicians. These workers primarily focus on converting data to information. This process requires an ongoing investment in human capital. The key is to find the right mix of technology and staff skills to enable accurate capture, normalization and manipulation of data that can be integrated with clinical information to optimize both clinical and business outcomes.

Mayo Clinic is fortunate to have had a self-developed system for over 17 years that is capable of tracking products used or wasted, including costs by facility, by DRG, by clinical specialty and by physician. The technology was originally designed to manage preference cards and inventory within our surgical suites. The technology now scans manufacturer's bar codes to capture usage data for clinical documentation and business analytics. In recent years this information has been introduced into a data warehouse that allows a physician to receive a "hotel bill," which details what products were used, open and unused when she or he leaves the procedure room.

On the other end of the customer segmentation continuum, monthly reports are often generated from the ERP to assist leaders in monitoring budgets and overall expenditures. These reports are typically constituted by data rather than information. Mayo SCM has develop technology and reporting that provides information and direction to the user at the outset. Today, clinical and administrative areas can open reports that illustrate the net budget change based on changes in utilization of a product, new technology that may have been introduced, and/or change in the cost of a product from the previous periods. The creation of actionable information allows for a more focused effort of expense management associated with consumable products.

What's standing in the way? Why aren't more hospitals making those investments?

MD: Today's hospital system is facing significant challenges, and as Bruce noted, numerous competing priorities  reimbursement challenges, consolidation and integration, talent recruitment, etc.

Historically, technology investment has focused on medical technology  items that help retain physician talent and drive revenue. More recently, capital has been directed to EHR/EMR systems as a result of meaningful use initiatives.

Hospital C-suite executives are starting to recognize the value of an efficient, data-enabled supply chain and the operational insights it can generate. As a result, the supply chain agenda is elevating higher in the minds of hospital leadership.

However, there is still the challenge of needing to drive out cost today vs. investing in technology that can have sustainable benefit in the long run. Many administrators do not have a deep understanding of the complexity of the supply chain, nor do they understand how manual or outmoded business processes truly impact their organizations  from overinvesting or underinvesting in inventory; the amount of time nurses spend on supply chain or administrative tasks vs. patient care; cost of expiration and loss; potential risk of expired product use on patients; and uncaptured charges. Nor do they understand how quickly investment in this kind of technology can pay off  in many cases in less than a year.

What are the key steps hospital leaders can take to start moving in the right direction?

BM:

1. Investment in a clean, robust item master, accurate price and UOM data is foundational to analytics

2. Invest in human capital that can interpret information in a way that is meaningful to clinicians (speak their language)

3. Use experiences from 1 & 2 to construct automated reporting and analytics that supports decision making by the clinical practice

4. Use data, skilled staff, and analytics to build trust with clinical and administrative staff that SCM is not there to dictate actions but rather be an indispensable partner in meeting their goals and objectives.

As Benjamin Franklin said, "An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."

MD: When thinking about how to get started in building a data-enabled supply chain that delivers the most value, there are a few keys to success:

1. Assess your current state  understand and benchmark where you are today related to your supply chain processes. Follow the life of an order and process map your value chain. Are there gaps in data that can be remedied by better technology? Do you have a complete picture end to end of your value chain?

2. Build the vision, strategic plan and business case for investing in additional resources (technological or human) to drive the visibility and insights that can lead to significant reduction in waste.

3. Align goals and incentives with all constituents, inside and outside your organization, to ensure commitments to action plans, milestones, and business case realization.

4. Last but not least, drive the adoption of data standards  such as GS1  across your extended supply chain to increase the visibility and transparency of the health care supply chain.
Hillary Clinton's physician Lisa R. Bardack, MD, said the presidential candidate left a Sept. 11 ceremony after suffering pneumonia symptoms, according to The New York Times.

Here are eight key takeaways:

1. Providers are treating Ms. Clinton for both pneumonia and dehydration after Secret Service agents quickly escorted her into a van midway through a ceremony for the Sept. 11 attacks' 15th anniversary.

2. Although a campaign spokesman initially said Ms. Clinton was 'overheated,' Dr. Bardack examined Ms. Clinton and said she was provided antibiotics following a pneumonia diagnosis. Ms. Clinton also is under instructions to rest and change her schedule accordingly.

3. For months, many Americans and her contender, Donald Trump, have implored Ms. Clinton to release detailed medical records after questions mounted surrounding her coughing bouts. However, Ms. Clinton declined to release her records.

4. An Association of American Physicians and Surgeons survey found of 250 responding physicians, almost 71 percent said concerns over Ms. Clinton's health are "serious  could be disqualifying for the position of President of the United States."

5. NYT reports some campaign staff members were not aware of Ms. Clinton's pneumonia diagnosis. One aid wrote an email to the full staff on Sept. 11, which included Dr. Bardack's note so everyone would get the "full picture."

6. Following the incident, Republican candidate Donald Trump said he will release his detailed health report and he hopes she gets well. He told Fox News, "They say pneumonia  on Friday but she was coughing very, very badly, a week ago and even before that if you remember. It's very interesting to see what's going on."

7. The public has also speculated about Mr. Trumps' health. His gastroenterologist Harold Bornstein, MD, released a four page letter on Mr. Trump's health saying, "If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency."

8. Dr. Bornstein signed the letter as a member of Lenox Hill Hospital's gastroenterology section, despite not being on staff there. He is affiliated with the hospital. On Aug. 26, 2016, Dr. Bornstein told NBC News that he wrote the letter  which has been widely criticized as unscientific  in five minutes, while a limo sent by Mr. Trump waited outside Dr. Bornstein's office.







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Board-certified spine surgeon Randall F. Dryer, MD, of Austin-based Central Texas Spine Institute, created a "wall on honor" in the institute's northwest office location, to recognize first responders.

Here are four highlights:

1. The "wall of honor" features framed uniform patches that first responders gave Dr. Dryer after he performed their surgeries.

2. Dr. Dryer has received hundreds of these uniform patches from public servants living as far as Europe.

3. Central Texas Spine Institute is also sponsoring First Responder Appreciation Week from Sept. 11 to Sept. 18.

4. Dr. Dryer completed his spine and hand surgery fellowship at New Addenbrooks Hospital in Cambridge, England.
Deepika Padukones Hollywood debut alongside Vin Diesel xXx: The Return Of Xander Cage is all set for release next year around January 20th. The film is being marketed in India by Viacom18 Motion Pictures who is reportedly planning for on-ground promotions in India during the post-release period of the film. Which means that Vin Diesel might be invited to India to be a part of the films promotions along with Deepika Padukone.



It must be noted that during the release of Tom Cruises Mission Impossible 4 (also released by Viacom18), the Hollywood star was seen attending the premiere of the film in Mumbai, also doing promotions for it.According to a report, the ace distributors are trying to make it happen this time around also.
Jeremy Wright says the Government will consult on plans to extend "failure to prevent" offences

Senior corporate executives could be prosecuted for offences including fraud and money laundering carried out by staff under an expansion of laws targeting so-called white-collar crime.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright said the Government is to consult on plans to extend "failure to prevent" offences, currently only covering bribery and tax evasion, to a wider range of economic crimes committed by employees, also including false accounting.

It comes after former prime minister David Cameron in May announced a consultation on plans for a new law as he held an anti-corruption summit in London.

In a speech to the Cambridge Symposium on Economic Crime on August 5, Mr Wright said: "When considering the question 'where does the buck stop?' and who is responsible for economic crime, it is clear that the answer is to be found at every level, from the boardroom down. Both corporations and individuals are responsible.

"The intention of the Government actions I have described is not only to prosecute and to fine for breaches of the law, but to promote a culture of corporate responsibility so that we are addressing the threat earlier on and not just reacting to it through investigation and prosecution.

"A change in culture is something that will take time but the results, as we are already starting to see, will be worth the effort."

Writing in The Guardian in May ahead of the London summit, Mr Cameron said the new laws would mean "firms are properly held to account for criminal activity that takes place within them".

Barry Vitou, partner in fraud and white-collar crime at law firm Pinsent Masons, told The Times: "The present regime makes it practically impossible to hold corporate boards to account for corporate misconduct because evidence of that misconduct must be found at the highest level.

"In practice the evidence trail usually dries much lower down the corporate tree. There is no responsibility for the damage caused by failing to prevent economic crime nor incentives offered which motivate people to do the wrong thing."
Steelworkers have warned of a continuing crisis in their industry as Indian giant Tata slumped to a net loss of 31.8 billion rupees (358 million) for the quarter to June amid continued uncertainty over its UK operations.

The first-quarter results were published in Mumbai just before a passionate debate at the TUC Congress in Brighton attended by steelworkers from across the country.

The conference "deplored the neglect" of the Government over the threat to jobs and vowed to step up efforts to safeguard plants such as Port Talbot in South Wales.

GMB member Ian Kemp, who works at the Tata plant in Rotherham, wore his bright yellow and blue works jacket as he told delegates: "I have never seen the industry in such a crisis. We have lost jobs, had plants sold off and on/off plans to sell the rest. It is no wonder morale is so low."

In a message to Tata, he said: "You might want to dress me like a minion, but you will not treat me like one."

Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of the Community union, said: "We will not let the sun set on our industry or let steel communities be forgotten. We will not let employers use this crisis to attack our members. Tata needs to honour its moral and social obligations - they need to guarantee a future."

The Indian conglomerate was stung by losses linked to discontinued operations, including its UK businesses, saying that liquid steel production in Europe fell by 15.7% compared with the same period last year.

Tata sold its European long products division based in Lincolnshire to Greybull Capital during the quarter for a nominal sum.

It still owns Port Talbot, which employs more than 4,000 workers, and thousands more at other plants in Shotton, Hartlepool, Rotherham and Stocksbridge.

After deciding to sell its remaining UK business, Tata announced in July that it was putting that process on hold while it pursued a European tie-up.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks has been the legacy of the British steel pension fund that Tata inherited when it bought the business in 2007.

Tata said talks about the pension deficit were continuing with all relevant parties including the UK Government, trustees and unions.

Koushik Chatterjee, Tata's group executive director, said: "In Europe, the positive impact of the structural restructuring undertaken in the UK in the last six months along with a weaker pound, cost reduction measures and an effective hedging strategy on raw material imports have enabled the business to report better performance for the quarter.

"With the completion of the Long Products Europe divestment, Tata Steel Europe will focus on being a premium strip player and the management and employees of Tata Steel Europe continues to strive to structurally improve the business performance. The strategy for exploring further strategic consolidation in Europe is a step in that direction. Tata Steel UK also continues to be engaged with several stakeholders including unions, the Trustee and the UK Government to find a structural solution to the pension exposure of the UK business."

The TUC conference agreed a motion accusing the Government of "warm words" but little in terms of tangible results for the steel industry.
Helena Bonham Carter joins survivors and supporters walking across Millennium Bridge, London, during Refuge's 10km walk to raise funds for the domestic violence charity.

A charity appeal inspired by the domestic abuse plot line in The Archers has raised more than 150,000 for Refuge.

The finale of the BBC Radio 4 soap saw character Helen Titchener acquitted of attempted murder after stabbing her abusive husband Rob in front of her young son Henry.

Thousands of fans made donations to women's charity Refuge, which supports victims and their children fleeing from domestic abuse.

Paul Trueman, who set up the JustGiving page, said he started the campaign "because for every fictional Helen, there are real ones".

He said: "I have been absolutely bowled over by the thousands of comments left on the page and would urge everyone to take a look.

"They speak both to the scale of the lives affected as well as the healing power of charities like Refuge to help families put their lives back together."

Sandra Horley, Refuge chief executive, said: "Never before in my 33-year career at Refuge have I seen such amazing public support for our work.

"I am humbled by each and every one of the almost 7,500 individuals who have supported this fund."

Louiza Patikas, the voice of Helen Titchener, joined actress Helena Bonham Carter in a charity march around London on Sunday to raise awareness of domestic abuse.

Speaking at the event Patikas said: "Playing Helen in The Archers has taught me a great deal about the horror of domestic abuse and coercive control, and also introduced me to amazing people - the most courageous survivors of abuse, and the wonderful people who work for and support charities like Refuge."

Women's charities have welcomed the outcome of The Archers storyline and praised the scriptwriters for bringing the issue into the public's focus.

Ms Horley said: "The trial of Helen Titchener may now be over, but the impact of The Archers' storyline will continue.

"By broadcasting such a realistic portrayal of abuse, the BBC has shone a light on the insidious, controlling nature of domestic violence and raised unprecedented awareness of an issue that has long been considered taboo.

"Refuge is grateful to The Archers' team for bringing the daily reality of abuse into people's living rooms and kitchens - now, more women will know how to recognise abuse and where to get support."

Polly Neate, chief executive of Women's Aid, said: "We wish we could say that all survivors have an experience like Helen: that their judge and jury recognise why she was driven to attack.

"There is an acute failure throughout the criminal justice system to understand the dynamics of domestic abuse - especially coercive control.

"More specialist training on domestic abuse is needed for all who work in both the criminal courts and the family courts - especially judges."

Statistics show that around 46% of women offenders are domestic abuse survivors, according to Women's Aid.

Shadow justice minister Jo Stevens MP tweeted: "Absolute applause to @BBCRadio4 @BBCTheArchers for brilliantly scripted/acted story of DV (domestic violence) and women in prison".
Theo Tasker (5) from Coleraine played the part of one of the Dingle clan in the ITV soap before his devastating illness. Now his mum, Ballymoney musician Deirdre Halvin, tells Una Brankin about the joy her Down's Syndrome son brings to all their family.

When Theo Tasker appeared on Emmerdale at only two months old, his mother, renowned Ballymoney flautist and whistle player Deirdre (Dee) Halvin, was delighted to help the UTV soap depict the happiness a special needs baby can bring.

Alternating with another Down's Syndrome baby, tiny Theo played the part of Leo, the love-child of central characters Marlon Dingle and Rhona Goskirk, for eight months on the show, which is regularly watched by an average of eight million people.

He landed the role when former Irish traditional singing star Dee, then based near Leeds where she taught IT, was approached at her local hospital's Child Development Unit by an Emmerdale representative seeking a Down's baby to play the part.

Married to Yorkshireman Gary Tasker, Dee was initially reluctant but eventually agreed when the producers explained how they were going to handle the issue so positively and sensitively. The cast, in particular Zoe Henry who played Theo's screen mum, quickly bonded with the baby, and Dee was thrilled to meet the stars of the show in the famous Woolpack pub.

But before the Taskers could decide if Theo would grow up as a character on the series, the child suffered a heart attack and stroke, at 10 months old.

"He'd had a stent put in and the wound became infected," Dee (46) explains. "He was left with no movement on his left side; it's a form of cerebral palsy weakness. He couldn't speak or communicate or do anything. He lost his swallow and became epileptic, but it's only a mild form.

"It was a horrific time but when it's your child going through something like this, you have to be strong and stay focused. All we wanted to know from the doctors was, 'will he be happy; can he be happy in his own wee world?'" Theo had surgery and remained in hospital for three months. He was left with a congenital heart condition, epilepsy and left-sided hemiplegia, a condition that affects his movement and posture.

Since then, Dee has moved back to Ballymoney with Gary and Theo, now five, whose condition has improved remarkably with the help of intensive physiotherapy.

Given his early brush with death, the bubbly little boy's progress is nothing short of a miracle.

His parents met at a concert 17 years ago in Yorkshire, where Dee was teaching IT after studying for a diploma in education in Liverpool. Gary has two grown-up daughters from his first marriage. He and Dee underwent IVF to have Theo and when the 20-week scan showed up a high risk heart condition, along with Down's Syndrome, it was the former that caused the Taskers the gravest concern.

"We went through so much to have Theo, the extreme heart condition put the Down's in the shade," Dee recalls. "He had scan after scan and we had to be very strong. But we don't want pity -Theo has an amazing quality of life.

"He's so joyful and fun-loving and affectionate - and very mischievous. We have great fun with him and we work really hard to give him stimulation and to get him walking.

"He can communicate by sign language - please and thank-you and so on, and he has a wicked sense of humour. He loves the sign language programme Mr Tumble and laughs and squeals at it."

Gary gave up his job in rugby league management to become Theo's full-time carer, while Dee works as a part-time teacher in Coleraine. They initially moved from Yorkshire to a house they own in Portrush, but have settled in a larger property in Ballymoney for the extra space needed for Theo's equipment, and to be near family.

"My family and friends have been brilliant minding Theo and taking him for walks and so on," says Dee. "My sisters Donna and Louise have been so supportive - Donna is a second mammy to him, and Gary's two daughters, Annis (34) and Lucy (29), adore their little brother.

"Theo is full of life - he has a fantastic sense of humour and he's on the go all the time. He's just so resilient, despite the fact he had a cardiac arrest and stroke when he was just 10 months old.

"Looking after Theo is a two-person job, especially at bathing and feeding times. But we don't want to complain - bringing up any child can be challenging. It's just the way it is; it's a way of life for us. We can't leave him for a minute because he doesn't understand danger - but we are very positive people and we're a good team.

"We have such fun with Theo, we think 'what did we do before he came along?' A special needs child makes you selfless - they are the only thing that matters."

Theo's condition requires intensive physiotherapy. Unable to walk until recently, Theo now has the use of his legs when assisted, thanks to fundraising support from Caudwell Children, the national charity that provides practical and emotional support to disabled children and their families.

The Taskers are so indebted to the organisation that Dee has launched an annual event, 'Theo's Charity Fundraiser' concert, presented by her musical group, the Causeway Traditional Players.

The charity has provided funding support for Theo to attend regular physiotherapy sessions with Professor Goshi, a specialist senior neurological physiotherapist based in Newry.

"We travel weekly to Newry for a physio session with Dr Goshi at his centre and he had an intense week of therapy during the summer and can see good improvement in Theo's mobility. He can walk hand-in-hand with him for short periods of time - our aim is to get him walking unaided," says Dee.

"We bring him to Barry's Amusements, which he loves, to give him the motivation to walk from ride to ride. We also take him swimming twice a week and to horse-riding lessons. The volunteers there are great with him. It important to keep him busy and active, and it keeps us fit, too."

Now in primary two at Sandleford Special Educational School in Coleraine, Theo has recently learned to ride a special tricycle provided by the Caldwell Children charity.

"They provided the dedicated fundraising support that allowed us to buy a specialist tricycle, costing 600, for him," Dee explains. "It's engineered to make pedalling that much easier. It not only provides vital physical therapy, but also develops and increased sense of independence and social inclusion, which is so important for children of Theo's age."

Theo's father Gary adds that the sessions have had a profound effect on his son.

"From only being able to shuffle around on his bottom Theo can now walk with assistance, which is a remarkable transformation," he says.

"The cost of his specialist equipment and the physio treatment came to nearly 3,000, which is obviously way beyond the reach of many families. Unfortunately, this cannot be funded through the health service so Caudwell Children's support has been vital in Theo's progress."

Now, with the rest of the popular Causeway Traditional Players, Deirdre is set to pay back her debt of gratitude to the charity.

"The fundraiser was the obvious way for me to thank the charity. I'm a musician who loves to play and so what better way to say thank you," she says.

"I'm sure the gig will become a highlight in the annual musical calendar in Ballymoney and with the help of the outstanding London Lassies, who I used to play with, we are going to have a fabulous time."
Schools across Northern Ireland must improve their sex education after one in five people admitted that they were embarrassed when buying condoms, a sexual health charity has said

Schools across Northern Ireland must improve their sex education after one in five people admitted that they were embarrassed when buying condoms, a sexual health charity has said.

A fifth of people responding to a survey carried out by the Family Planning Association (FPA) also said that lessons about sex and relationships were based on the personal beliefs of the teacher or stance of the school, rather than evidence-based information.

With 9,600 people in Northern Ireland diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection (STI) last year, the FPA said the results of its survey prove more needs to be done to educate young people about sexual health.

"It is so important that the education young people receive at school adequately prepares them for the relationships they will have during their life, especially when it comes to staying safe from infections and being able to make positive choices about their own sexual health and wellbeing," said the FPA's Northern Ireland director Mark Breslin.

"Relationship and sexuality education and how it is delivered is often a postcode lottery when it comes to schools.

"Sexual health information should not depend on the personal views of teachers or the ethos of schools. Even when there is accurate information, it needs to go beyond basic biology, to help young people explore relationship and sexuality issues."

The FPA surveyed more than 2,000 people across the UK.

In Northern Ireland, only 10% said they learnt how to confidently talk to a partner about using condoms.

Even fewer - just 7% - were taught about dealing with situations where a partner puts pressure on you to have sex without using a condom.

Mr Breslin added: "One in 10 people in our survey said they think it is still taboo for women to buy and carry condoms, and 26% said men should take more responsibility for buying and carrying condoms than women.

"We need to challenge these attitudes around safer sex, because protecting yourself from infections and unplanned pregnancy is nothing less than a responsible health choice for men and women."

The FPA is using Sexual Health Week to raise awareness of what STIs are and how they can be passed on, and to give people information on accessing support when they need it.

According to most recent official figures, there were 94 new cases of HIV diagnosed in 2014, with 809 patients receiving care for the disease.
Scene of the incident on the Lisburn Road in which a man was badly injured after being struck by a car

A man in his 40s who was the victim of a hit-and-run on Saturday in Belfast was fighting for his life in hospital last night.

The pedestrian was struck by a car on the Lisburn Road, close to Wellesley Avenue.

Police were informed of the incident shortly before 10pm and the man was taken to hospital.

The Belfast Trust confirmed the man remained in a critical condition.

The police say the car involved was silver in colour and may have significant damage to its front.

It did not stop, and continued countrywards along the Lisburn Road.

It is believed the vehicle may have then turned left, heading in the direction of Malone Road.

Belfast councillor Jim Rodgers said the number of similar incidents in the city and across Northern Ireland was a serious concern.

The UUP man has urged the driver of the car to turn him or herself in before police paid a visit.

Mr Rodgers said: "The number of accidents on our roads is very frightening, and the number of similar hit-and-run accidents is very alarming.

"The standard of driving in this case has been terrible.

"If anyone knows the driver they should contact the police immediately.

"Indeed, the driver him or herself should own up and hand themselves into the police before they come knocking on their door."

Mr Rodgers added: "I sincerely hope the man makes a speedy recovery.

"My thoughts and prayers are with this man and his family.

"It's dreadful to think about all the people in hospital with injuries sustained by hit-and-run drivers.

"These people are often forgotten about by the public and only their families know the battle they go through trying to recover.

"I am sorry to say that alcohol plays a big part in many of these hit-and-run accidents. I am not saying alcohol has been involved in this case, but all too often people take a chance and drive home, hoping they will not be caught.

"The police are very proactive in these types of accidents and I am sure will apprehend the person responsible very soon.

"I strongly urge the driver of the silver car to own up and hand themselves in to the police before they receive a knock on the door from the authorities.

The PSNI is appealing for anyone who was on the Lisburn Road on Saturday night and who witnessed the collision, or anyone with any information about the silver car, to contact officers at Lisburn Road on 101, quoting reference number 1512 of 10/09/16.
Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Firefighters deal with a major fire in the Great Victoria Street area of Belfast on the 11th September 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Firefighters deal with a major fire in the Great Victoria Street area of Belfast on the 11th September 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Firefighters deal with a major fire in the Great Victoria Street area of Belfast on the 11th September 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Firefighters deal with a major fire in the Great Victoria Street area of Belfast on the 11th September 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Firefighters deal with a major fire in the Great Victoria Street area of Belfast on the 11th September 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Firefighters deal with a major fire in the Great Victoria Street area of Belfast on the 11th September 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Firefighters deal with a major fire in the Great Victoria Street area of Belfast on the 11th September 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Firefighters deal with a major fire in the Great Victoria Street area of Belfast on the 11th September 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Firefighters deal with a major fire in the Great Victoria Street area of Belfast on the 11th September 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Firefighters deal with a major fire in the Great Victoria Street area of Belfast on the 11th September 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Firefighters deal with a major fire in the Great Victoria Street area of Belfast on the 11th September 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Firefighters deal with a major fire in the Great Victoria Street area of Belfast on the 11th September 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Firefighters deal with a major fire in the Great Victoria Street area of Belfast on the 11th September 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Firefighters deal with a major fire in the Great Victoria Street area of Belfast on the 11th September 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Firefighters deal with a major fire in the Great Victoria Street area of Belfast on the 11th September 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

Firefighters deal with a major fire in the Great Victoria Street area of Belfast on the 11th September 2016 ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )

A huge fire which was fanned by high winds in Belfasts Great Victoria Street on Sunday evening was brought under control before it could spread to a nearby petrol station.

Eyewitness Lori McCully (21) told the Belfast Telegraph: There is a Go garage nearby and all of the flames and debris were flying off the building and we were worried in case something caught fire. The wind really didnt help, it just escalated it because the flames were just getting carried and we couldnt see out of our window for a time because the smoke was so thick.

A three-storey building was ablaze.

Lori, who was home from Liverpool, where she is at university, added: The police were there in two minutes and my brother phoned the fire service.

We were wondering if there was anyone in the building because it had been renovated and it went up in flames, but all the buildings near it are abandoned so we were happy that it didnt look as if there was anybody inside. The ceiling collapsed.

She said residents had to enter their apartment building  which is across the road from the blazing building  through the back during the drama.

A Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service spokesman said last night: Despite challenging operational conditions caused by this evenings high winds, fire crews have successfully prevented fire from spreading to adjacent properties.

Five fire appliances, one aerial appliance and a command vehicle were at the scene.

A spokesman at the Kitch Restaurant in the nearby Dublin Road said they were aware of the blaze but it did not impact on their business.
Former Assistant Chief Constable Alan McQuillan talks to Suzanne Breen about his life in the RUC, eye candy policemen, and the challenges facing the current force.

Q. Some people believe that you're the best Chief Constable that Northern Ireland never had. Do you resent that the top job eluded you?

A. Not getting that job was the best thing that ever happened to me. Of course, when Hugh Orde got the job over me in 2002, I was disappointed. It was a matter of professional pride. I knew the politics at the time - that the outsider would be preferred over the local man - but I decided to have a go anyway. I did a poor interview, I wasn't on form. I wouldn't have appointed me. I told Hugh that I'd the horrible feeling that the best man won. I'd no grievance against him. He was a great Chief Constable and we remain friends. We still call each other for advice. I was talking to him last week.

Q. Do you think Matt Baggott also did a good job as Chief Constable?

A. I felt sorry for Matt. Northern Ireland probably wasn't what he thought it would be like. I don't think he ever really settled here. He was a nice guy, but I don't think Matt would say that his time here was a huge success for him.

Q. George Hamilton recently caused controversy by telling an officer complaining of work pressures to 'dry your eyes'. Was that poor judgment and is he up to the job?

A. George Hamilton is an excellent Chief Constable. He is extremely competent, honest and transparent. George is exactly what it says on the tin. When I was Assistant Chief Constable in Belfast, he was a uniformed officer that we decided to promote into CID. He was made a detective superintendent. Even then, George was a real star. His potential shone out.

Q. But is the Chief Constable tweeting at midnight really advisable, and should he not have shown more sympathy to an officer under pressure?

A The fact that George was up so late engaging with one of his constables shows his commitment and work ethic. Unlike most of us, I suspect George doesn't even drink. I agree wholeheartedly with what he said. The officer was complaining that he shouldn't have to be a social worker, a paramedic and whatever. Look, police are there to help people. When someone dials 999 at 3am, officers may have to deal with a psychotic or a drunk who has beaten his partner and children. They may have to keep a road traffic victim alive until paramedics arrive. There's no point moaning, that's the job.

Q. Why don't you tweet?

A. I'm extremely IT literate, but I'm not on Twitter for a reason. Like George, I'd have a tendency to say things that could get me into trouble!

Q. The PSNI has been accused of sexism after describing a male officer as eye candy on Facebook and suggesting that women should join the force so they can meet him. Was that exploitation of the detective involved?

A. Ah, Bobby Singleton, the hunk, God help him. I know what it's like myself to have been a sex symbol! The people complaining about this need to get a life. Of course, we wouldn't want to get to the point where the officer feels harassed, but it was only a bit of banter.

It wouldn't be the first time that women came into a police station asking for a nice constable. And I recall a very senior English female politician who had a great attraction for a man in uniform. Indeed, my biggest problem in a Belfast hotel on one occasion in the 1990s was trying to keep her away from my constables, who she kept inviting up to her room!

Q. You're from north Belfast. Tell me about your background.

A. I was born in the Oldpark, the son of a shipyard worker. After interment in 1971, an IRA gunman came to our door. "You've two hours to get out," he said. We packed our belongings onto the back of a coal lorry and left. My family moved to the Protestant part of Ardoyne, but we were forced from there after I joined the RUC.

Q. Did you always want to be a policeman?

A. No, I had no interest in the police as a career. I studied physics at Queen's University. The sun and the stars, they were my passions.

But after graduation, a friend mentioned an RUC graduate recruitment scheme in Eastbourne. He said it would be a free week away in England. Off we went.

The other recruits were in bed at 10.30pm but we had a great time. Yet somehow, I was successful.

Q. Where was your first posting?

A. It was to Magherafelt, which I had to look up on the map! There were some very heavy times. I saw a lot of people murdered, including a nine-year-old child. I remember lifting her from the car to a body bag.

It was heartbreaking. I froze and couldn't continue. Francis Hughes (who was later to die on hunger strike) was very active in the area. I arrested him after an IRA gun battle in which a soldier was killed. Hughes had escaped but a large chunk of his thigh bone had been shot away.

We were there in the dark of night, with torches, following a trail of bullets, blood and a beret he'd discarded when crawling away. He hid for hours in thorn bushes until he was in such pain that he shouted to a soldier. He was very dehydrated but as he was being carried away on a stretcher, he raised a clenched fist and yelled 'Up the Ra!' Hughes killed a lot of people. He was a very dedicated and ruthless terrorist.

Q. Was policing at the height of the Troubles relentlessly tough?

A. It was hard, but there were plenty of good times too. I loved small town policing in Magherafelt. I remember a dispute where one woman in a semi-detached house accused her neighbour of training a chicken to peck away at the walls of her home so it would collapse.And then there was Willie, a local man who liked a wee drink. He set his trousers on fire and called 999. I put out the blaze with a fire extinguisher. Willie later lodged a complaint that I had frozen one of his testicles with the extinguisher and reduced his chances of having a family.

Q. What is the most important thing in your life?

A. Without a doubt, my wife Heather. She is a retired teacher and we are very much a partnership. It was love at first sight. Friends set us up together. I was visiting India, and they suggested that a geography teacher would like a few photographs taken there for her class. I'd never met the teacher, but I obliged. She invited me round for dinner one Saturday night to say thank you. We hit it off immediately, we just talked all night. The next morning I turned up at her door with a bunch of red roses. I'd had to go to Dundonald cemetery to buy them because there weren't any flower shops open on a Sunday.

I presented the flowers to Heather and declared, "I intend to marry you!" She thought, "This guy's a nutter!" (laughs), but she still invited me in. We were married a year later. We have two grown-up children. We get along now just as well as that night 33 years ago. Although, she does nag me about my weight and lack of exercise. She has got me out walking recently.

Q. Are you concerned about your weight?

A. It represents my biggest single weakness, but what's important in life is to be happy. I'm a big foodie and I love cooking. Curries, Chinese food, and roasts, I can turn my hand to them all - and Heather is a far better cook than me. We're heading off on a three-week driving holiday to England and Wales. The 'Good Food' and 'Good Pub' guides are in the car.

Q. After you left the PSNI, you became head of the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) pursuing the assets of paramilitaries and criminals. Why was that organisation abolished in 2008?

A. I believe it became a casualty of the peace process. The government wanted to encourage certain groups in a peaceful direction and, if that involved turning a blind eye towards crime, so be it. When ARA was wound up, we had 250 live cases across the UK with assets to the value of 250m on our books.

Q. How big a problem is organised crime still in Northern Ireland and are the authorities dealing adequately with it?

A. Well, in Afghanistan, organised crime accounts for 50-60% of the GDP. It's nothing like that here, but it is still very disappointing that 20 years into the peace process, paramilitaries continue to bleed their communities dry. Republicans are heavily involved in smuggling, diesel laundering and counterfeit cigarettes. Loyalists are engaged in drug-dealing, extortion, and prostitution.

People want criminals dealt with. They don't want paramilitaries rebranded as community workers. There's a huge amount of paramilitary crime along the border, and Brexit could lead to massive new opportunities for smugglers.

The government has recognised the problem with the Fresh Start panel report on the disbandment of paramilitary groups. But, really, it's about doing it, not talking about it. We have a good police force - which has a superb relationship with the Garda - and the National Crime Agency is now operating here to back them up. All the tools exist to tackle the problem, but is the political will there? That's the question that jumps out at me.

Q. How do you judge the ongoing threat level posed by paramilitaries?

A. It shouldn't be under-estimated. Despite all the hype about Islamic fundamentalists, figures show that 50% of terrorist incidents in the EU occur in Northern Ireland. Loyalists are involved mainly in crime and feuding. The overwhelming threat of wider violence is from republicans, but most incidents nowadays are low-level.

Haven't the police and security services done a fantastic job? They've worked away quietly, unobtrusively behind-the-scenes - and been incredibly successful.

Q. The security forces' current success against republican paramilitaries has been achieved without shoot-to-kill, plastic bullets, and the like. Isn't that an indictment of the measures the RUC used in the past?

A. The response is much more sophisticated and controlled, but it's an entirely different scenario now. The volume of attacks doesn't compare to what we faced in the '70s, '80s, and '90s.

The police today aren't working under the same pressure that we had to. They have the ability to do it better and right. They also benefit from huge advances in intelligence-gathering and forensic science techniques. Look what's happened regarding Kingsmill. A palm-print from 40 years ago has allegedly just been matched. The PSNI is also blessed with far more support from the nationalist community than the RUC was.

Q. It was revealed last week that the PSNI is having huge difficulty recruiting Catholics, who make up only 30% of applicants. Why do you think that is so?

A. The statistics for both Catholic and female recruits are very disappointing and concerning. It is a problem for the community and politicians to tackle. The dissident campaign has had some effect, but I believe there is just far too much negativity in the media about the police from nationalist politicians. Sinn Fein and the SDLP need to be actively saying to Catholics, "There are jobs in the PSNI, go and apply for them."

Q. As a former senior police officer, do you think your life is still at risk from republican paramilitaries?

A. I know it is. I'm 13 years out of the police, and eight years out of ARA, but I'm still a target for some people. A dissident republican was convicted four years ago for collecting information on me. I was meeting people in a cafe in central Belfast from time to time, and had established a pattern. This man had been following me. He had my car registration and other details. He was convicted and sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail for possessing my personal details and those of others. I wasn't given his name. There was very little publicity about the case. It was hushed up.

Q. Do you support inquiries into past wrongdoing, including murders and collusion, by the security forces?

A. I believe absolutely in the rule of law. Whether it's Kincora or Stakeknife, all the material should be examined to see if it has substance. When that doesn't happen, the whole thing just becomes a media feeding frenzy. If even half the allegations regarding Freddie Scappaticci are true, it's a very interesting case. But I also believe that the primary focus should be on the future, and not using scarce resources to constantly rake over the past.

Q. What is your view of the Police Ombudsman?

A. If I was contacted about any case I was involved in, I would co-operate fully. But I also know that the current approach of the Police Ombudsman's office is causing officers much grief.

If wrong things were done in the past, that needs to be exposed. If police officers have been guilty of criminal activity, that must be dealt with. But I detect a complete lack of perspective in some cases.

Take the Loughinisland report. One criticism is that investigating officers didn't adequately follow up with house-to-house inquires. In those days, you generally didn't get anything out of house-to-house inquiries, because people were afraid to talk.

With limited resources, why would the police spend time on a likely futile activity?

I've other concerns too. Last month, it was alleged that an investigator with the Ombudsman's office had kept a gun - that had been under examination - in his filing cabinet for nine years. If that is true, what kind of an organisation is this? What sort of controls are there? Had it been a police officer, that officer would be investigated and potentially charged. But it just seems to be glossed over because it's the Ombudsman's office.

Q. You've just finished a five-year stint on the Independent Financial Review panel into MLAs' salaries, expenses, and pensions. What do you plan to do next?

A. I don't know but, because of the level of cronyism here, I don't intend to seek any further public appointments in Northern Ireland. We don't have anything like the level of transparency that there is in Britain.

Q. That is a startling claim. What do you mean?

A. My impression is that a culture of cronyism exists in Northern Ireland in which corruption can thrive. The key for me is the lack of transparency regarding political donations. We are the only part of the UK where donations to the parties are kept secret. That must change, otherwise allegations will persist that people are getting favours.

Northern Ireland is a very small place. Too many jobs are filled by people who simply have the right political connections.

I have major concerns about how public appointments work here. When an inquiry is set up, the classic response is to appoint 'one of ours and one of yours'. Not the best people for the job, the most acceptable people. We need to break away from that, because it damages the reputation of politics entirely.
Colm Meaney attending an interview in Toronto about The Journey

Actor Colm Meaney has described Sinn Fein politician Martin McGuinness as an "extraordinary statesman" after playing him in a new film.

Meaney said the former IRA commander, now Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister, is an "astute politician" working towards the "laudable goal" of uniting the island of Ireland.

The Irish actor stars in The Journey, a fictional drama about the friendship forged between Mr McGuinness and his political opponent Ian Paisley during the Northern Ireland peace process.

Appearing at the Toronto International Film Festival, Meaney told the Press Association: "I think Martin McGuinness has become an extraordinary statesman, a real statesman.

"I supported him in his candidacy for president of Ireland at the last election because I thought he was the most qualified person to do it.

"He's proved himself over the last 10 years to be a very astute politician and a remarkably competent statesman, which surprises a lot of people."

Meaney - known for his roles in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa - brushed off controversy surrounding Mr McGuinness, saying: "Anyone who is involved in politics in Ireland is controversial."

He added: "I think what Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein have achieved in Ireland in the last 10 years is tremendous.

"They're the only all-Ireland party. They're moving towards bringing the island of Ireland together which I think is a laudable goal."

Mr Paisley, the Democratic Unionist Party leader who died in 2014, is portrayed in The Journey by English actor Timothy Spall.

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His widow, Baroness Paisley, is reportedly boycotting the film, telling the Belfast News Letter: "I don't think it was written with great knowledge."

Director Nick Hamm insisted the the film is not a documentary but a fictionalised account of "two A-list politicians".

"We were not looking for either side to feel comfortable with the film," he said. "Neither were we looking for either side to condemn the film. We were looking to present a balanced argument where both sides would be equally comfortable and equally uncomfortable.

"It is not a documentary. It's a fictionalised, entertaining feel-good movie about peace."

A UK release date for The Journey has not yet been announced.
The funeral of teenager Rebecca Haughey has taken place, with her devastated mother and sister leading mourners at the heartbreaking service.

Mum Colette and her daughter Lisa fought back tears as the coffin was carried from St Patrick's Church in Derrymacash yesterday morning, while pals from St Catherine's College, Armagh, where Rebecca was in sixth form, formed a guard of honour.

A JustGiving fundraising page set up by Ms Haughey just hours after her daughter lost her brave fight with cancer had by last night received over 1,200, with donations going to CLIC Sargent.

In an emotional tribute to her daughter on the fundraising page, Ms Haughey highlighted her daughter's "strength, determination and relentless hope" in her bid to beat the disease.

She said her "positivity was infectious and anyone who knew her could see this straight away".

She added: "Rebecca would want to be remembered, not as the 'cancer patient' - she wouldn't want sympathy - but instead would want everyone to remember her for being herself, for her personality and the love she had for her family, friends, and anyone she met.

"There were a lot of charities that supported us as a family over the last two years, from Friends of the Cancer Centre (Renee Reid our Clinical Nurse Specialist), Cancer Fund for Children (Lynn our Community Specialist), Boom foundation and more - from the bottom of our hearts, we can't thank you enough.

"We want to thank CLIC Sargent in particular, which provided us with Simon Darby our social worker, who was there from day one to support us, listen to us and help us where needed."

Ms Haughey said the charity provided her with accommodation near Belfast City Hospital, so she was only a few minutes from Rebecca as she received her gruelling cancer treatments.

"Without CLIC Sargent and the other charities, our experience would have been very different," she added.

Rebecca, the daughter of Ms Haughey and the late Owen Haughey, died peacefully at Belfast City Hospital last Thursday - less than seven weeks after doctors told her she was no longer responding to treatment the way they would have wanted.

Days after the devastating news Rebecca took to Facebook to update her friends and vowed to continue fighting.

In an inspirational message posted on July 25, which prompted countless messages of support, she said her consultant had told her there was very little she could do to halt the cancer.

"I was basically just told that I was going to die," said Rebecca.

"All I could say was: 'No. This can't be happening. No. There has to be something you could do. No. No. No. You need to do something. I need to do something. We can't let this happen. I'm not going to die. I need to do something'.

"I went straight into problem solving mode. That news gave me the kick up the backside I needed to make me more determined than ever to succeed. To beat this ruddy cancer that had taken over my life. I was determined to see the end of this."

She added: "It's going to be a long, difficult journey ahead but through Hell or high water, I'm going to get through it all and prove to my consultant that this will not beat me."
Drugged-up, drunk or assaulted MTV concert-goers caused a "significant" increase in the number of patients attending a Northern Ireland hospital.

MTV Crashes returned to Derry on Saturday night with thousands swarming to the Ebrington Square venue.

However, doctors said many concert-goers required medical treatment - with some admitted to intensive care in Altnagelvin Area Hospital.

Paul Baylis, emergency medicine consultant at the hospital, said: "There was a significant increase in attendances at Altnagelvin Hospital's emergency department from the early evening on Saturday through to the early hours of Sunday morning as a result of the outdoor MTV concert in the town.

"There was a large number of 16 to 25 year olds who presented at the department, most of them intoxicated with alcohol and or recreational drugs.

"Out of the 100 overall attendances at the Emergency Department between 6pm on Saturday 10 September and 6am on Sunday 11 September, 30 of them were alcohol or drugs related.

"There was also an increase in the number of cases of assault attending our service whom the injured patients stated that they had been assaulted by drunk or stoned assailants"

Mr Baylis continued: "Weekends are usually quite busy in our emergency department anyway.

"Our staff were managing their usual busy workload alongside having to deal with the increase in intoxicated young people presented to the department.

"Many of the additional intoxicated young patients were extremely distressed and required significant nursing support.

"In essence as a direct consequence of the MTV event our usual challenging emergency department Saturday evening environment became a more dangerous environment for all our patients as our fixed staffing resources strived to cope with the additional workload.

"Some of those who attended the emergency department were extremely ill and needed to receive intensive care treatment. Many needed overnight observation."

Mr Baylis added: "All young people, and their parents, need to be conscious of the dangers associated with consuming alcohol and drugs in an uncontrolled environment.

"The drugs that are being peddled at these events are not regulated in any way and there is no way of knowing the dangers of consuming them, especially when washed down with alcohol.

"The effects of drugs and alcohol often result in paranoid and distressing behaviours which directly endangers the health and safety of the person taking them and also the safely of the people around them.

"In addition they can lead to extreme vulnerability to all forms of assault as they lose their ability to object to what may happen to them.

"Personal safety should be of paramount importance when frequenting outdoor events. All parents should give careful consideration before allowing their children to attend such an event in the future."

The concert is the third event the music broadcaster MTV has held in the city.

The Belfast Telegraph has attempted to contact promoter Legacy promotions. It told the BBC there were 12,000 attending the concert with 65 treated in the welfare facility on site and 12 sent to hospital as a precaution.

There were two arrests on the night, it said, and police and the Ambulance Service were on hand within the venue.

The promoter also said "drunk children without their parents" were turned away at the door but given treatment regardless.

PSNI Chief Inspector Alan Hutton said the main aim of the policing operation at the weekend was to keep people safe.

He added: We worked very closely with the event organisers and other key stakeholders throughout the planning process particularly around the issue of licensing and public safety.

"We did have cause to deal with a number of young people who were intoxicated. Some of them were dealt with in a special triage area however others did require treatment at hospital.

"We did have cause to speak to several people who became disorderly after being removed from the event space, we are following up on a report of an assault on a 15 year old boy and we arrested a 17 year old male for disorderly behaviour.
A woman who oversaw the wounds and warpaint of 14,000 extras on Game of Thrones is one of three talented people from Northern Ireland who helped the HBO fantasy drama clean up at the Creative Emmy Awards.

Chief make-up artist Pamela Smyth, sound man Ronan Hill and casting director Carla Stronge took home the prestigious awards at a star-studded ceremony in Los Angeles.

It means the HBO sex and swords epic has now won more Emmy awards than any other drama in television history.

The Creative Emmys recognise the work done behind the scenes by individuals who often don't get the credit they deserve.

Crawfordsburn make-up artist Pamela was responsible for outstanding work on an epic battle scene regarded as one of the show's finest moments.

And Ballycastle man Ronan has won his third Emmy for his outstanding sound mixing on the same episode.

"Game of Thrones has put us on the map, not only showcasing the natural beauty of our surrounding landscape but setting out the stall for Northern Ireland as a centre for excellence in film and television drama production," he said.

In a Belfast Telegraph interview in January, Pamela revealed how she became a make-up artist after she left school.

"Initially I worked as a hair model but would end up doing all the other girls' make-up at shows. I really enjoyed it and kept getting asked back to do more shows so I decided to do a beauty course.

"As my career took off, I did further training at Pinewood Studios where I learned about special effects and film make-up. Soon I was getting asked to work on films and television programmes - that proved a fantastic opportunity."

Next weekend, Northern Ireland-born director James McGrath (47) will be vying for an Emmy at the main awards.

McGrath, from Saul near Downpatrick, produced US broadcaster CBS's 48 Hours: Paris Under Attack, a one-hour special the day after the tragedy in which 130 people were killed by extremists.

Normally a weekend director, the Ulster University graduate took charge of the week night programme because the usual director was in Cleveland preparing for a special presidential debate.

Mr McGrath said it was often the story which propelled shows like his into the limelight. He added: "If we were to win that would be the cherry on the top."
Police and Forensic officers at the scene of reported Sexual assault in Belfast. Picture Colm Lenaghan/ Pacemaker

Police and Forensic officers at the scene of reported Sexual assault in Belfast. Picture Colm Lenaghan/ Pacemaker

Police and Forensic officers at the scene of reported Sexual assault in Belfast. Picture Colm Lenaghan/ Pacemaker

Police and Forensic officers at the scene of reported Sexual assault in Belfast. Picture Colm Lenaghan/ Pacemaker

Police and Forensic officers at the scene of reported Sexual assault in Belfast. Picture Colm Lenaghan/ Pacemaker

Police and Forensic officers at the scene of reported Sexual assault in Belfast. Picture Colm Lenaghan/ Pacemaker

Police and Forensic officers at the scene of reported Sexual assault in Belfast. Picture Colm Lenaghan/ Pacemaker

Police and Forensic officers at the scene of reported Sexual assault in Belfast. Picture Colm Lenaghan/ Pacemaker

Police and Forensic officers at the scene of reported Sexual assault in Belfast. Picture Colm Lenaghan/ Pacemaker

Police are investigating reports of a sexual assault in the south Belfast area.

The incident is believed to have happened in the early hours of Monday morning.

Police cordoned off an area in University Street and forensic officers spent much of the day at the scene.

Inspector Lynne Knox added: Police are investigating the report of a sexual assault in the University Street area of Belfast.

Enquiries are ongoing.

SDLP South Belfast MP Alasdair McDonnell said: "This report of such a heinous crime will shock and disgust the entire community of south Belfast.

"This area has long enjoyed a reputation for being vibrant and welcoming. Those who would perpetrate such a despicable act are no reflection of the kind people who come from far and wide to make their home here.

"An attack of this nature must have been deeply distressing for the victim. I appeal to anyone who may have any relevant information to pass it onto the police immediately so the person responsible can be taken off our streets."
The Ulster Unionist Party has demanded a massive tripling of investment in Northern Ireland's infrastructure and a peace centre at the site of the derelict Crumlin Road courthouse as the UK starts Brexit negotiations.

In its strategy to steer the province through withdrawal from the European Union, Stormont's main Opposition party also said there must be a "Brexit war room" to ensure our interests.

The UUP said Northern Ireland was due to receive almost 3.4bn over the current EU budget period 2014-20, with additional funds from centrally-managed programmes.

But it said there are real fears over the future of this money.

The party has developed 10 "key asks". They include:

A trebling of infrastructure development.

An NI-wide enterprise zone.

Financial guarantees for those in receipt of EU funding.

No hard borders at our ports and airports.

Unfettered access to the EU's single market.

Leader Mike Nesbitt summarised its vision as aiming to make Northern Ireland the "UK's gateway to the EU".

The party has claimed we will be the most impacted region of the UK, yet are the "least well prepared".

Last week First Minister Arlene Foster told the Belfast Telegraph she will ensure that Northern Ireland's voice was heard in the Brexit negotiations.

But the UUP has challenged her Executive to undertake "urgent, comprehensive, coherent action".

In its new policy document published today - A Vision For Northern Ireland Outside The EU - the party urged the Executive to deliver a "positive for the people of Northern Ireland in the post-Brexit environment".

It wants the Executive to create a "Brexit war room with the skills and capacity to ensure the Executive identified the best policy options and priorities for Northern Ireland", and to "define key 'asks' of the Government and EU to maximise the potential benefits for Northern Ireland".

Some of the most ambitious of the UUP's 10 key 'asks' include trebling investment in infrastructure - upgrading the road network, the rail link to Dublin, energy and superfast broadband.

The party has also suggested reopening bids for EU funding of a peace centre. No agreement could be reach over the creation of a peace centre at the Maze, now the UUP is suggesting one be built on the site on the old Crumlin Road courthouse.

The building - where many of the biggest trials of the Troubles took place - is opposite Crumlin Road Gaol, now a popular tourist attraction, and the two are connected by an underground tunnel that brought prisoners to the dock.

"The previous proposal to build a so-called Peace Building and Conflict Reconciliation Centre at the Maze is discredited," the document says. "Rather than allowing the debilitating stalemate at the Maze to continue, the Executive should engage the EU in funding a peace centre at an alternative venue, reclaiming the former Crumlin Road courthouse, reopening the tunnel connecting the courthouse to the highly successfully reimagined gaol."

The UUP also proposes that, as a "final pre-Brexit legacy project", the Executive should seek EU funding for a People's Park, "celebrating the global impact across all aspects of life of the people born in the north east of this island".

"It should be based at Titanic Quarter, where record numbers of tourists arrive on cruise ships," the document says.

"As one example of the proposal's potential, many visitors are American but unaware of the heritage of the Ulster-Scots US Presidents whose homesteads they pass close to, en route to the Giant's Causeway."

Mrs Foster told the Belfast Telegraph last week that although Brexit negotiations between London and Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales had not yet begun, she was expecting a fair and constructive dialogue.

"The UK devolved regions must be involved, but it is also important that we all come with a positive approach and work to secure the best possible outcome for our individual regions and for the UK as a whole," she said.

"I am confident there will be a two-way conversation between London and each of the devolved administrations. The negotiations have not yet commenced and they will not be carried out via the media. Those of us who want to see a successful and strong United Kingdom must work to achieve that outcome."
A Transport NI team at the scene in Comber where a fallen tree injured a woman in a car.

Police at South Street which was closed due to an unsafe building which later collapsed in high winds.

Police closed the Comber Road due to fallen trees, one of which fell onto a car.

Emergency services at the scene of a fallen tree in Comber.

A woman in her 30s had to be cut out of her car in Comber after a tree fell on the vehicle in high winds.

The tree crashed into the vehicle on the Belfast Road on Sunday sometime around 6.30pm.

Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service had to attend with cutting equipment to free the hurt woman.

A police spokesman said she was taken to hospital for treatment to injuries that were described as serious but not-life threatening.

The road was closed overnight as the conditions proved too dangerous for crews to continue working in in the dark.

The road reopened at around 11.30am on Monday after contractors cleared the area.

In Newtownards, a building has collapsed due to the gales. PSNI Ards had commented on social media on Sunday that South Street had to be closed after structural engineers deemed the site unsafe.

Diversions are in place and delays are expected, Trafficwatch NI advised on Twitter.

In Portaferry the A2 Cloughey Road was also closed for a period due to a fallen tree but has since reopened.

The strong winds are set to gradually ease on Monday, according to forecasters.
Currency pressures could translate to losses of more than 700 million euros in food exports, bosses warned

More than 7,000 jobs are at risk in Ireland following the UK's Brexit vote, business leaders warned.

Britain is one of the Republic's biggest trading partner and a fall in the value of the pound makes Irish products more expensive for British consumers.

An Ibec report warned if sterling was to weaken further towards the 0.90 mark, this would translate to losses of more than 700 million euros in food exports and about 7,500 Irish jobs.

The organisation's food and drink industry director Paul Kelly said: "Urgent action is now required to protect our vital exports to the UK market, limit damage in the domestic market from imports, and address competitive pressures caused by the fall in sterling.

"A failure to act will compound the pressure on exporters, undermine Ireland's long-term position in the market and threaten jobs."

Ibec called for a review of the agri-food strategy, tax reform in the budget to improve competitiveness and an employment subsidy scheme.

Mr Kelly added: "In addition to an immediate response to the currency shock, we need to work towards a positive outcome in formal exit negotiations.

"The main objective must be to maintain full unfettered access to the UK market for Irish exporters. UK access to the EU single market is much more preferable to UK bilateral agreements with third countries."

He warned a structural shift in exchange rate relationship combined with Brexit-related trade risks meant UK buyers were planning significant supply chain restructuring following the June 23 British vote to leave the EU.

"The real threat is a loss of confidence in Ireland as a competitive supply base resulting in loss of markets and exports."

Mr Kelly said t he Government's short-term objective must be to support companies as they repositioned their businesses during this period of uncertainty.

"The focus must be on maintaining markets in the UK, developing other markets as well as ensuring that, in the domestic market, companies remain competitive against imports and the threat of cross-border shopping."

The report recommended a review of the national agri-food strategy FoodWise 2025; budget tax reform to improve Ireland's competitive position; and the re-introduction of the Employment Subsidy Scheme and the Enterprise Stabilisation measures that were last applied in 2009-11.

The document, entitled Brexit: The challenge for the food and drink sector, also included a survey of food and drink companies: 64% said exchange rate movements would have a negative impact, 42% expected negative impact on the value of export sales, 42% identified exchange rate volatility as the biggest problem and 51.5% have hedging or pricing arrangements in place.

An economic analysis highlighted the intense pressures on margins and pricing strategies. A review of the historical exchange rate and agri-food export relationship showed that a 1% drop in the value of sterling results in a 0.7% drop in Irish exports to the UK.
An Aussie-American who put the call out for Irish men to bring her to a wedding during her Irish adventure has received several non-conventional invites.

Tara Foster, 36, is planning on travelling around Ireland on nothing more than a push-bike and she is letting her Twitter followers plot her journey.

However, since putting the call out on Twitter she has received more than a few strange challenges from the Irish public.

"Since the article went live last week, I've had 2,500 Twitter likes, over 200 Faceboook friend requests, 20 wedding invites, a 12-year-old asking me to go to the pub and a nudist colony asking me to hang out at at the beach with them."

Ms. Foster said she was hoping to be invited to an Irish wedding, however she did not think that she would have the opportunity to be going to her own wedding.

"I've also received a marriage proposal. It's been overwhelming. It's taken me two hours to sift though the messages. I also got a lot of messages like "the guy across from me is reading about you on the train right now"

Foster arrives in Dublin from Sydney on September 13. She is taking a few days to adjust from jetlag, then setting off on her journey from Wexford on September 18.

She will also be appearing on the Ray D'Arcy show on RTE Radio One during her time in Ireland.

You can follow Tara's adventure on @Taraustralis
The Republic's Foreign Affairs Minister has said it is time for politicians to step up to the mark and overcome obstacles to dealing with the legacy of the Troubles.

Charlie Flanagan was speaking at a conference attended by British and Irish politicians in Oxford.

A plan to deal with delays to Troubles inquests has been proposed by Northern Ireland's Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan.

He has requested 10m funding for a five-year programme to deal with inquests into the some of the conflict's most controversial killings.

However, the funding has yet to be granted.

Mr Flanagan said: "I believe it is the solemn responsibility of politicians in London, in Belfast and in Dublin to deliver a framework for dealing with legacy issues.

"This must ensure equality of access for victims and survivors to whatever truth and justice is available in their case and provide a platform for genuine reconciliation in society."

He added: "Our collective inability to find a better way to address individual experiences of loss and horror damages our collective wellbeing and our ability to build the fully reconciled society we all want to see. It is time for all of us to step up."

Mr Flanagan also welcomed the new Northern Ireland Secretary's position on addressing legacy issues.

James Brokenshire said on Friday that dealing with the legacy of the province's troubled past was a priority, and it should enter a public phase.

Delivering a keynote address at the British Irish Association conference at Pembroke College on Saturday, Mr Flanagan said: "What has been achieved in Northern Ireland over the past decades is extraordinary, but there is a long way still to go.

"The challenges, however complex, must be addressed.

"I have worked consistently to deliver because I believe it is the solemn responsibility of politicians in London, in Belfast and in Dublin to deliver a framework for dealing with legacy issues."
Doolin coastguard volunteer Caitriona Lucas, who tragically died during a search and recovery mission has been remembered today for her dedication to others.

The 41-year-old woman, who has worked as a volunteer with the Doolin Coastguard for over 10 years, died after she was plunged into the rough water alongside two of her Kilkee colleagues when their boat capsized.

The librarian, who was originally from Ballyvaughan in North Clare, had joined the Doolin coastguard in January 2006, taking part in countless rescue missions as well as recording a number of the missions.

The mother of two had been a member of the Doolin team alongside her husband Bernard Lucas.

The couple, who lived in nearby Liscannor had also been involved in the Search and Rescue Dogs Association (SARDA) and helped to train dogs to assist in search and rescue operations.

She served as the organisations national secretary from 2011 to 2014.

The community in the area are finding it difficult to cope with this shocking tragedy.

Manuel Dilucia, founder of the Kilkee Marine Rescue and local businessman, said: Its an awful tragedy, especially considering that they were on a rescue mission. The whole town is stunned. All of West Clare is stunned. The whole area is stunned. Everybody is just standing around looking at each other. 

Caitriona had worked as a librarian for Clare County Council for over 16 years.

Fianna Fail Councillor for West Clare, Bill Chambers, praised the incredible work Lucas had been doing when tragedy struck.

He said:  She was a hero, she was trying to save a person and do her job. It cant be described as anything other than an awful tragedy. They were trying to save another man.

Work colleagues in the council were said to be grief stricken at her loss today.

She was remembered by friends for her good humour and as a woman who was always available to help others.

She was such a dedicated member of the Doolin coastguard team, she was at the heart of it all. Its hard to believe this is happening, said one friend.

Another remembered her for her love of keeping fit, trekking, the outdoors and travelling.

Everyone is just in absolute shock. I cant believe shes gone like this, added another.
A search and rescue volunteer has died trying to recover the body of a missing man off the west coast of Ireland.

Caitriona Lucas, of Doolin Coast Guard in Co Clare, was on a rigid inflatable with two colleagues when it capsized near cliffs in heavy Atlantic swell.

The mother-of-two had gone to sea with two colleagues in testing conditions off Kilkee in an attempt to recover the body of teacher David McMahon, from Lissycasey, Co Clare who went missing on Friday.

She is the first member of the Irish Coast Guard to die on duty.

It is understood a mayday was sent after the crew got into difficulty and the boat they were in flipped over at about 1pm.

Ms Lucas was airlifted unconscious from the water and repeated but unsuccessful attempts were made to resuscitate her.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said: " To learn of the death of Caitriona, and of injury to her colleagues brings home the real dangers our rescue personnel face and this awful news casts a dark shadow over people all over the island."

Shane Ross, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, said Ms Lucas had made the ultimate sacrifice.

"Caitriona was a member of that extraordinary group of men and women who dedicate their skills, time and passion so that others may be safe on our coastlines," he said.

"This is an appalling tragedy; the loss of a brave and valiant woman engaged in the most heroic of and unselfish of duties."

"Such remarkable courage and heroism in the service of others is rarely equalled and never surpassed."

Mr Ross also praised the other rescuers involved and said: "I can only applaud their bravery and empathise with their sorrow on this very, very tragic day."

Ms Lucas , understood to be aged in her 40s, lived in Liscannor with her husband Bernard, who was also involved in Doolin Coast Guard.

Originally from Ballyvaughan in Clare, she worked as a librarian with the County Council and s he also trained her dogs with the Search And Rescue Dog Association.

Two other crew were rescued in the incident at the cliffs.

Jenny Carraway, aged in her 50s, from Kilkee and a member of the local Coast Guard unit, was said to be in a stable condition after being taken from the water.

James Lucy, the coxswain, also from Kilkee, was rescued more than four hours after the capsize.

He had scrambled on to rocks beside a cave at the bottom of cliffs but the spot was inaccessible from both air due to the gusting wind, heavy seas and overhanging rocks.

The rigid inflatable which capsized was also being thrown against the cliffs and blocked access by rescue teams from the sea.

A rescue crew abseiled about 100 feet down the cliff to reach the volunteer.

He was brought to safety by a Coast Guard helicopter winchman after teams moved him to a safe extraction point and was said to be in a stable condition but exhausted and badly shaken.

Manuel Di Lucia, a founding member of the former Kilkee Marine Rescue which later became the Coast Guard unit, expressed how the trauma of the tragedy would hit local coastal communities.

"This will have a devastating impact on the whole community here locally," he said.

"These people have been carrying out these operations for the last years, the coxswain was a former member of the marine rescue. It's very tragic for the whole area.

"There's a lot to be learnt from this incident."

Members of Lissycasey GAA club, who had been out on the shorelines for the last three days searching for their friend Mr McMahon, extended their condolences to the search and rescue teams.

The 33-year-old married man had trained with his teammates the night before he went missing.

Timmy Dooley, Fianna Fail TD for Clare, was at the scene for two hours while efforts were made to bring the coxswain away from danger.

"It's devastating for the two families of the two communities," he said.

"What makes it even worse is that someone in the line of duty, a frontline worker, has lost their life ... it brings into sharp focus what people in the frontline encounter on a daily basis."

RNLI and Coast Guard crews from around the country paid tribute to the volunteers caught up in the tragedy.

Two Coast Guard rescue helicopters were involved in the operation at different stages while the RNLI crew from Kilrush on the Shannon estuary also joined initially efforts followed by the lifeboat team from the Aran Islands.

Fire and ambulance crews were also called in and assisted in the cliff face absail by members of Doolin Coast Guard while local divers and the Lahinch Surf Rescue Team were also involved.

It is understood rough weather had delayed the search for Mr McMahon and there were reports of heavy swells before the tragedy struck.

An investigation will be carried into the incident by the Marine Casualty Investigation Board.

The Irish Coast Guard added: " The Coast Guard extends sincere condolences to the Lucas family and all the volunteer members of the Doolin and Kilkee units.

"The Coast Guard also wishes to thank all the other organisations that participated in today's search."
The Gurdwara Temple in Leamington Spa after it was stormed by a group of men armed with knives.

Sikh community leaders have accused police of over-reacting to a peaceful demonstration after more than 50 protesters were arrested at a temple.

The Sikh Federation UK urged Warwickshire Police to apologise for its "disproportionate" response to reports that a group carrying blades and wearing masks had forced their way into Leamington Gurdwara.

Officers detained 55 men on suspicion of aggravated trespass and seized one non-ceremonial weapon after being called to the Tachbrook Drive temple at about 6.45am on Sunday.

The Sikh Federation UK said in a statement that those arrested had walked into the Gurdwara to protest against an interfaith marriage being carried out as a Sikh religious ceremony.

The organisation's national press secretary, Gurjeet Singh, said: "We stand with those who peacefully protested against the actions of the Management Committee at Leamington Gurdwara.

"It now materialises the police were told masked men forced their way into the Gurdwara carrying a range of bladed items other than Kirpans, that are worn at all times by initiated Sikhs, and it may have been suggested they were holding hostages.

"The police have now admitted those protesting simply walked into the Gurdwara in the early hours and they have only found small Kirpans that were being legitimately worn.

"This was a small group of young protesters who justifiably objected to an interfaith marriage that was to be carried out as a Sikh religious ceremony."

Warwickshire Police said officers responded to an initial report of a group of around 20 masked men forcing their way into the place of worship.

The force said in a statement: "These were reported to be carrying a range of bladed items, some of which were initially described as not being for ceremonial use. Officers assessed the situation and responded accordingly.

"Having contained the situation, it became apparent that there were 55 masked men involved, all of whom were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass.

"Blades seized so far have been ceremonial. Another non-ceremonial weapon was seized. This is an ongoing investigation and we will be investigating the initial report that other weapons were involved."

Secretary general of the Sikh Council UK, Gurmail Singh, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that that type of ceremony was reserved for two Sikhs.

"It was unpleasant. I think peaceful demonstrations, I have no issue with that. Even if it is at a wedding, as long as it's peaceful. It's not ideal. We don't want to spoil anybody's special day.

"I think the issue here is that the management committee which books these weddings needs to also reflect on what they are actually doing.

"There is nobody opposed to inter-racial, inter-ethnic weddings, that's not an issue. But when you are talking about a religious law, ordinary people don't have the right to change something.

"The view remains that that wedding ceremony is reserved for two Sikhs," he said.
President John F Kennedy openly admired Nazi Germany when he toured the country as a young man, according to a new book marking the 50th anniversary of his historic 1963 visit to Cold War West Berlin.

The views once held by one of Americas most esteemed presidents, who won the citys heart in 1963 when he declared Ich bin ein Berliner, are recorded in diaries and letters Kennedy wrote on three visits to Germany in 1937, 1939 and 1945.

The book, John F Kennedy among the Germans, suggests that in the late 1930s Kennedy, who was a student in his twenties, accepted Nazi race theories and approved of fascist rule.

After a visit to the river Rhine in 1937, Kennedy wrote: Very beautiful, because there are many castles along the route. The towns are all charming which shows that the Nordic races appear to be definitely superior to their Latin counterparts. The Germans are really too good  thats why people conspire against them  they do it to protect themselves.

A fortnight earlier, Kennedy, who was touring with his friend Lem Billings, wrote in his diary: I have come to the conclusion that fascism is right for Germany and Italy. What are the evils of fascism compared to communism? Billings later recalled that Kennedy was completely consumed by his interest for the Hitler movement during their trip.

Kennedys writings do not reveal whether he was influenced by his anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi father Joseph, who was US ambassador to London in the late 1930s and regarded by the Nazis as Germanys best friend in London.

President Roosevelt sacked Kennedy Snr in 1940 after he remarked during the Battle of Britain that democracy is finished in England and sought to negotiate with Hitler to prevent America entering the Second World War.

But even after Germanys defeat in 1945, when the Holocaust was common knowledge, JFK appears to have retained an extraordinary fascination for Hitler. By then a naval officer he accompanied the US Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal, on a tour of Germany that August.

After visiting Hitlers bomb-damaged Bavarian Berghof residence and his Eagles Nest mountain retreat, Kennedy noted in his diary: Anyone who has visited these places can imagine how in a few years, Hitler will emerge from the hate that now surrounds him and come to be regarded as one of the most significant figures ever to have lived. He adds: There was something mysterious about the way he lived and died which will outlive him and continue to flourish. He was made of the stuff of legends.

Oliver Ulbrich, the publisher of the diary excerpts, said he did not believe Kennedy admired Hitler, but was rather fascinated by him. Kennedy was trying to understand the fascination that was still surrounding Hitler, he said.

But by 1945, Kennedy was clearly put off by the defeated Germans and their total acceptance of authority. It shows just how easy it would be to seize power in Germany, he wrote after a 1945 visit to a U-boat building yard.
There has been a concerted search of the southern Indian Ocean for MH370

Relatives of some of the 239 passengers and crew on missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 have called for more of its possible debris to be examined to define a new search area.

Malaysia, China and Australia agreed in July that the search in the southern Indian Ocean would be suspended after the current 120,000-square kilometre expanse has been thoroughly examined with deep sea sonar equipment in the absence of credible new evidence that identified the plane's location.

Eight relatives of lost passengers who met with Australian officials coordinating the search on behalf of Malaysia expressed frustration that they were not given a definition of what constituted credible new evidence that would result in a continuation of the search.

American wreckage hunter Blaine Gibson attended the meeting at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau headquarters with the relatives from Malaysia, China, Australia and Indonesia and handed over to investigators five pieces of potential debris that he found on beaches in Madagascar. Two of the pieces were burnt, which could indicate a disastrous fire on board, he said.

Mr Gibson previously found a panel from Flight 370 in Mozambique. Malaysia has yet to collect other potential debris that he has found washed up on Madagascar since June and handed to authorities there.

"I hope that the search will go on and in my amateur opinion this constitutes new, credible evidence that justifies continuing the search," he told reporters of his unconfirmed debris find.

Some confirmed pieces of debris have washed ashore in the western Indian Ocean, and the families believe other items yet to be examined may be clues to the plane's location.

Grace Nathan, a Malaysian whose mother was on the Boeing 777 that vanished during a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing on March 8, 2014, said governments should be coordinating a search for debris and using drift modelling to define a new area to search after the current search is to be completed in December.

"We want to call on the three nations - Australia, China and Malaysia - to make a concerted effort to go out and look for this credible new information," Ms Nathan said.

"It's very impressive that one private individual citizen, Blaine Alan Gibson, has managed to find up to 15 pieces of aircraft debris and we hope that these three nations do more than just hope by fluke people find more debris," she added.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau confirmed in a statement that it had received debris from Mr Gibson and was seeking advice from Malaysia on how Australia should proceed.

Jennifer Chong, a Melbourne-based Malaysian-Australian dual citizen whose husband was aboard Flight 370, wondered why Malaysia had not sent diplomats to the five-hour meeting with Australian search officials. China and Indonesia both sent diplomats to support their citizens.

Oceanographers are analysing the first piece of wreckage found, a wing flap known as a flaperon that washed up on Reunion Island off the African coast in July last year - 16 months after the plane went missing - in the hope of narrowing a possible next area adjoining the current search boundary through drift modelling.

A wing flap found on Tanzania is also being examined at Australian Transport Safety Bureau headquarters for clues. Search officials expect more Flight 370 wreckage to wash up in the months ahead.

Sheryl Keen, chairwoman of Air Crash Support Group, which is supporting the relatives during their week in Australia, called on Malaysia to collect the debris found by Mr Gibson on Madagascar and to consider handing responsibility for the search to Australia.

AP
Syrian president Bashar Assad prays at the dawn Eid al-Adha prayers at the Saad ibn Muaaz Mosque in Daraya, Syria (Syrian Presidency via Facebook/AP)

A US-Russian brokered ceasefire for Syria has come into effect, with monitoring groups and state media reporting clashes up until the final minutes and the most powerful rebel groups having yet to commit to the truce.

Syria's military announced at 7pm local time that it would abide by a ceasefire until Sunday at midnight, while maintaining its right to defend itself against any violations.

The ceasefire marks the latest attempt to end the five-year conflict, which has killed more than 250,000 people and driven some 11 million from their homes. The 2011 uprising against President Bashar Assad began with peaceful protests but escalated into a civil war following a brutal government crackdown and the rise of an armed insurgency.

Russia and Western nations hope the truce can lead to the revival of peace talks between Assad's government and the rebels battling to overthrow him, and contribute to efforts to defeat the Islamic State group and other extremists in Syria.

Russia's deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov said peace talks between opposition groups and the government could resume as early as next month.

Ahmad al-Masalmeh, an opposition activist in the contested city of Daraa, said calm had prevailed over the city since 4 pm, but observers elsewhere in the country reported fighting all the way up to and after the start of the ceasefire.

In Aleppo, the northern city that has emerged as the epicentre of the fighting, opposition media activist Mahmoud Raslan said government helicopters dropped crude barrel bombs on a contested neighbourhood, while a doctor reported heavy shelling along the Castello road, a key route to besieged, opposition-held areas.

The terms of the agreement permit government forces to target the al Qaida-linked Jabhat Fatah al-Sham for the first week of the ceasefire. It was unclear whether the group's positions were being targeted after the truce began.

Hours before the ceasefire went into effect, Assad vowed that his government would take back land from "terrorists" and rebuild the country.

Assad spoke during a rare public appearance that included attending prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha in the Damascus suburb of Daraya, where rebels surrendered last month after a four-year siege.

But in the build-up to the start of the truce, government forces and their allies bombed opposition areas in the north, while al Qaida-linked militants pushed on with an offensive in the south.

In Geneva, the UN envoy for Syria said his office would monitor the start of the ceasefire "carefully, before making any hurried comments". Staffan de Mistura said no statement from his office about the truce was expected before the following afternoon.

The ceasefire deal, hammered out between US secretary of state John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Saturday, was backed by Assad's government. But it has received mixed messages of commitment from various rebel factions.

It allows the Syrian government to continue to strike at the Islamic State group and al Qaida-linked militants with the Jabhat Fatah al-Sham group, earlier known as the Nusra Front, until the US and Russia take over the task in one week's time.

The rebels and the Syrian government are expected to stop attacking one another. Assad's key allies - Russia, Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah - have also endorsed the deal.

But that scenario is complicated by the fact that Jabhat Fatah al-Sham remains intertwined with several other groups fighting on the ground.

One of the more immediate goals of the Kerry-Lavrov agreement is to allow the UN to establish aid corridors into Aleppo, the contested northern Syrian city. Over 2,000 people have been killed in fighting over the past 40 days in the city, including 700 civilians and 160 children, according to a Syrian human rights group.

On Saturday, presumed Russian or government air strikes on rebel-held Idlib and Aleppo provinces killed over 90 civilians, including 13 children in an attack on a marketplace in Idlib, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In the aftermath, rebels and opposition activists were asking on Sunday whether the government side could be trusted.

Several previous negotiated ceasefires have all eventually collapsed. A partial "cessation of hostilities" that brought sorely needed relief to civilians in March unravelled as the government continued to strike targets in opposition areas, including near a hospital and school near Damascus and a marketplace in Idlib province, killing dozens of civilians.

Previous ceasefires were also preceded by soaring violence as parties on all sides sought to improve their positions before the pause in fighting.

In Turkey, meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his earlier calls for establishing a no-fly zone in northern Syria, saying it is essential to boosting security in the area.

Erdogan said he told the leaders of Germany, France, Russia and the US that training and equipping troops on the ground to battle IS is "not enough," and that a no-fly zone should be the next step.

Turkey launched an incursion into northern Syria in late August, driving IS away from the border and also seeking to counter the advance of US-backed Kurdish forces, which Ankara views with suspicion.

AP
Police and medical staff carry a wounded suspected militant on a stretcher for treatment at a hospital in Dhaka, Sept. 10, 2016.

Updated at 5:29 p.m. ET on 2016-09-12

A suspect believed to be linked to a deadly terrorist siege in Dhaka in early July died during a police raid in the Bangladeshi capital over the weekend, amid questions about whether officers killed him or he committed suicide.

Police initially said they had shot dead Shamshed Hossain (alias Abdul Karim and Shamser Uddin) during the operation, but later claimed that he took his own life by slitting his throat.

Hossain is among nearly 20 suspected militants who have been killed during police operations since the attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe that left 20 hostages and two police officers dead on July 1 and 2.

Human rights groups have raised questions about police practices during such anti-militant raids where relatively few suspects are captured alive, including whether authorities have deprived those killed their day in court.

The recent deaths of suspected militants also added to the countrys record of extrajudicial killings in which scores of people have died to date this year alone, according to human rights groups.

Police are defending the actions of officers during recent raids, saying they face great risk when trying to arrest militants who are not afraid to die or kill policemen while resisting arrest.

Two police officers were killed by the Holey Artisan attackers. Two more constables were killed in the Sholakia Eid congregation attack. They do not want to see more deaths of colleagues, and resort to shooting at the militants when militants reject the surrender calls, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) spokesman Masudur Rahman told BenarNews.

He was referring to the cafe attack and a July 7 attack on Bangladeshs largest annual prayer service that marked the end of Ramadan.

Our police force has yet to develop the expertise and professionalism necessary to tackle such a situation, he added. They are used to dealing with criminals, not the high-profile criminals like the militants. They need more training.

On Sept. 3, the chief of national police suggested that militants did not deserve a chance for due process.

Many people talk about the human rights of the militants. Why [should there be] human rights for the militants, Police Inspector-General A.K.M. Shahidul Hoque told a news conference following a raid where police reportedly killed a suspected militant.

He had a pistol and machete

The killings of 18 other suspected militants that preceded Hossain's killing on Saturday occurred during four operations dating to July 2  the morning when security forces killed five suspected attackers while storming in and breaking the overnight siege at the cafe.

Although Islamic State (IS) claimed the attack, Bangladeshi officials have denied that IS had a role in it, instead blaming home-grown militants.

In late July, nine more suspected militants were killed in a police raid in Dhaka. One suspect was captured.

And in late August and early September, Bangladeshi police killed four more suspected militants in two other raids in the greater Dhaka area. One of the four slain suspects was Tamim Chowdhury, a Canadian citizen who was the leader of Neo JMB, police said. According to IS propaganda magazine Dabiq, he was the emir of ISs network in Bangladesh.

Six days later, police killed Maj. Zahidul Islam, a suspected militant and renegade army officer who was known as Major Murad among militant ranks. Police believe that he had trained the young men who carried out the cafe attack.

On the night of Sept. 2, as police and security personnel closed in on Major Murad who was holed up in an apartment in Dhakas Rupnogar area, at least three police officers were shot or suffered machete cuts as they tried to apprehend him, DMP spokesman Masudur Rahman said.

Look, he had a pistol and machete. When the officers were injured, the police were forced to shoot him dead. Otherwise, there could be more casualties, Rahman told Benar.

At least 98 killed in 2016

However, local human rights groups are questioning the conduct of police and members of the elite counter-terror unit Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in such operations. They say the problem of extrajudicial killings persists nationwide and undermines the rule of law.

At least 98 suspected of militant and other criminal activity have been killed this year during operations by the security services, according to rights organization Ain-O-Salish Kendra (ASK).

Killing a person suspected of being involved in killing others violates the rule of law, deprives a suspect of trial, and is unconstitutional, ASK Executive Director Nur Khan Liton said.

We have a constitution and we live in a civilized world. So we cannot accept extrajudicial killings , Liton told BenarNews.

Another Bangladeshi rights group, Odhikar, reported that at least 108 people were killed in extrajudicial incidents between Jan. 16 and Aug. 16.

We, the rights bodies, have been in deep trouble for criticizing the extrajudicial killings, Adilur Rahman, who heads Odhikar, told Benar News.

Our [web]site has been blocked and our office is almost closed. There is no space for us to criticize the police or the government on extrajudicial killings.
Bezwada Wilson addresses sanitary workers during a recent rally in New Delhi against the practice of manual emptying and cleaning of dry latrines.

During his teen years a depressing reality pushed Bezwada Wilson to thoughts of suicide: his parents cleaned local latrines by hand  a job reserved for lower-caste Hindus, including his family.

Wilson, who was repeatedly taunted over this by boys his age, vowed then to fight against the practice where mostly Dalits  a historically marginalized community in India  are relegated to cleaning out human excreta from dry latrines, using baskets, metal scrapers and their bare hands.

Though there is a government legislation banning manual scavenging, the practice continues in several states in India, Wilson, 50, told BenarNews in an interview.

Wilsons 32-year crusade to end the practice of manual scavenging of latrines  as it is known in India, where 180,000 Dalit households still work in manually cleaning and emptying dry latrines  has earned him a Ramon Magsaysay Award.

The award, named after a former Philippine president, has been called Asias Nobel Prize. Wilson is among six people and organizations that were named winners of the 2016 Ramon Magsaysay Award in late July.

He is one of two Indians to receive the prize this year, and he earned his for asserting the inalienable right to a life of human dignity, according to the foundation that hands out the award.

Soft-spoken and mild-mannered, Wilson was named a winner of the award for his work as the founder of the Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), a New Delhi-based human rights organization that has been campaigning for the eradication of manual scavenging.

The foundations board of trustees recognized Wilsons moral energy and prodigious skill in leading a grassroots movement to eradicate the degrading servitude of manual scavenging in India, reclaiming for the [D]alits the human dignity that is their natural birthright.

Wilson began his agitation at the Kolar Gold Fields in the southern state of Karnataka, where his parents scavenged for human waste, by destroying latrines there.

The government wants to wash its hands of the matter, but there is no denying that several government departments, including the Indian Railways, continue to employ manual scavengers, he said.

Wilson said the SKA was in the process of determining the number of dry latrines in the country. Once that is done, we will share the information with the government and give it three months to shut these latrines, failing which, we will go and destroy the toilets ourselves, he added.

Bezwada Wilson

Here is the rest of Benars interview with Bezwada Wilson:

BN: What is the biggest roadblock in ending manual scavenging?

Wilson: The government, bureaucrats, the officials  they are the biggest impediment in the way to ending manual scavenging.

After the 1993 Act, when the various governments were asked to give reports about the existence of dry latrines and manual scavenging, these officials have all denied the very presence of the practice. So when it comes to taking action to end it, they hide behind the paper reports.

When we confront them with photographs and affidavits of manual scavengers, they refuse to accept the reality.

No one has been penalized for hiring manual scavengers, except in Haryana, when 22 people were arrested in 1993.

In fact, when we go to demolish the dry latrines and the officials try to stop us, we tell them, how can you stop us from demolishing something that according to you does not exist?

BN: How do you think the Magsaysay award is going to affect your efforts against manual scavenging?

Wilson: We have been fighting for decades now. But despite the 1993 legislation outlawing dry latrines and the engagement of manual scavengers, the practice continues.

I hope that with this award, awareness about the problem will rise.

Already, we are getting calls and emails from people asking how they can help, volunteering to be part of our movement. This award will go a long way in earning us goodwill and helping us in our campaigns.

BN: Who was the first person you shared the news of your award with?

Wilson: When I received the call about getting the Ramon Magsaysay award, I was told not to tell anyone until the official announcements were made. So actually I did not tell anyone.

But when the news became public, the person I wanted to share the news with first was Narayanamma. She is a former manual scavenger and has been one of our volunteers at SKA for over 25 years now.

In fact, I also asked her to accompany me for the award ceremony. We had to get her a passport at real short notice and she went with me. Maya Gautam, another volunteer with our organization, also went with me to receive the award.

BN: What is your roadmap for the future?

Wilson: We have to tackle the issue in a phased manner. First of all, we have to close down the dry latrines. This is the root of the problem.

Once the root is removed, the next phase will be rehabilitation. We have given the government an ultimatum. We are in the process of compiling nationwide data on the number of dry latrines.

Once the data is complete, we will present it to the government and give them a three-month deadline to destroy the dry latrines. If the government fails to do so, we will go and break the toilets ourselves.
An Indonesian steakhouse owner and former convicted radical says hes savoring his freedom and has renounced his old ways, but helps friends who are still behind bars through small kindnesses.

Yusuf Adirima has been out of prison for more than seven years now, after serving slightly more than half of a 10-year sentence on terrorism-related charges for stockpiling 26 bombs and ammunition at a house in Semarang, Central Java, in 2003.

Now I can eat whatever I want and it is very easy. While in the prison, if you want to eat delicious food you have to think first, Yusuf, the 40-year-old owner of the Dapoer Bistik restaurant in the city of Solo, told BenarNews.

Yusuf (also known as Machmudi Haryono) is a former member of Jemaah Islamiyah, al-Qaedas Southeast Asian affiliate that carried out the 2002 Bali bombings, among other terrorist acts, and he also served with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a rebel group in the southern Philippines.

In an interview, he related how he drifted into radicalism following his graduation from high school. After leaving high school, Yusuf enrolled at an Islamic boarding school (pesantren) in Jombang, East Java.

While studying there, he said he learned about another pesantren in Lamongan, which was run by Amrozi, a militant who was later convicted and executed for his role in the Bali bombings that killed 202 people.

The pesantren was in the jungle, very small and even had no mosque, Yusuf said.

He said he was surprised to discover that it had classes where primary grade students were trained to use weapons.

In 2000, he set off with 35 other people on a journey to jihad. He headed to Malaysia, and then to the Philippines, where he wound up in a camp operated by the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), another militant group based in the southern Philippines. Abu Sayyaf has recently carried out maritime kidnappings of Indonesian and Malaysian sailors.

There, I saw for myself how small children carried weapons, just like in my jihadist books. They were holding M-16s, Yusuf recalled.

He received weapons training, became a marksman and returned to Indonesia in mid-2002. He was arrested the next year.

Helping others

Since being freed from prison in January 2009, Yusuf has built a nice life for himself.

He says he has put his radical past behind him, but stays in touch with former friends in the old terrorist networks who remain locked up.

He tries to find time to get away from his restaurant and rental car businesses to visit them in prison, sometimes bringing along steak dinners that he cooks up for them in the prison yard.

He will help friends with special requests that are harmless. One pal who is serving a life sentence asked Yusuf for a pair of jeans, which Yusuf promised he would deliver during his next visit to the prison

A simple thing, a simple request, but it is difficult for him to fulfill since he is in prison, Yusuf said.

He will also pick up his friends who need rides when they are released from prison. If Yusof isnt free, he will ask his car rental employees to fetch them because he does not want the ex-prisoners to be lonely.

If, after their release, they want to return to the community or to their family, I will help. But if they want to go back to bombing, please do business with Densus 88  I do not want to be involved, Yusof said, referring to the Indonesian polices special anti-terror unit.

Many of them invited me to bomb again. They said what I do now is for materialistic purposes while bombing is a way to heaven, Yusuf said.

I have a religious teacher who received a life sentence, who always [tried to persuade] me to become an IS [Islamic State] supporter, every time I visited him. After I was asked for the fourth time, I stopped seeing him, he added.

Not afraid

Meanwhile, people in the Solo community know that Yusuf is an ex-militant who owns a local restaurant, but that hasnt scared them from frequenting his establishment.

The important thing is the food is yummy and cheap, said Anangga, a customer who often dines at the steakhouse with his wife and two children.

While Yusuf owns the place and does a lot of the cooking, he has entrusted the restaurants management to a friend, Widodo, with whom Yusuf worked at a restaurant close to the Central Java police headquarters in 2009.

He is a good person, helpful and quick to respond, Widodo, 39, said about his friend.

Although Yusuf occasionally answers questions from police, who come by asking questions related to investigations into terrorist cases, he says that he is not on the payroll of National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT).

Liliek Darmanto, a spokesman for Central Java police, acknowledged that officers do keep an eye out on Yusuf even though he has served out his prison term.

Just to know how he has been, if he is OK, thats all. The rest of the monitoring is by the community, Liliek told BenarNews.
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By Bob Cunningham

Theres nothing odd about Ryan and Kristin Scotts passion for beer and business.

The Falcon Flames couple recently celebrated the third anniversary of Odd13 Brewing Co. in Colorado, home to more than 300 craft breweries.

The name of their brewery, located in the Boulder suburb of Lafayette, has a Midwest area code connection. Ryan 01, 03 is from Flint, Mich., which used to have a 313 area code, and Kristin 02, 03 grew up in Cincinnati, which has a 513 area code. Both area codes start with odd numbers and contain the number 13.

We wanted something that had roots to the founders of the organization and not just name it Lafayette Brewing Co. or whatever, Kristin said. We wanted something unique and memorable, so thats what we came up with.

The couple met while attending Bowling Green State University.

We actually met on the Bowling Green ski team back when that was a thing, Ryan said. I was a junior and she was a sophomore. We got married in 2004.

Ryan started homebrewing as a hobby in 2008, when the couple lived in the Chicago area.

Basically, he really got into homebrewing and he kind of coerced me into liking beer, Kristin said. As a consumer, I really enjoyed drinking his beer, but I really didnt get into the brewing aspect of everything.

Meanwhile, Kristin, who earned a Bachelor of Science in business administration (BSBA) and an MBA from BGSU, was a market analyst for BP in Naperville, Ill.

I loved it, but at a certain point I was over the whole corporate culture thing, Kristin said. We had two kids (Madison 11, and Tanner, 8) and I wanted to take some time off to raise them. Then once they started school full time, I was ready to take on something new.

Cans of Codename: SuperfanWith a business background, Ive always been interested in starting something from the ground up. I just didnt know what it would be. And then when Ryan was really into homebrewing and making some awesome beers, I was thinking I could do more of the marketing/business side of things and he could focus on brewing. And, literally, it sprung from there. We got some family investors upfront to fund the business, and things have been taking off like crazy.

The Scotts had moved to Colorado in 2010. They opened Odd13 brewing in August of 2013, which oddly enough didnt factor into the brewerys namesake.

Ryan has a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in computer science from BGSU. He said he was really immersed in the science of making beer, as well as the art of it.

I did a lot of research and some of it would touch on the commercial aspects of brewing as well, Ryan said. So we had a pretty good understanding of the industry before we got into it. It was definitely a leap of faith to move into this industry with no experience, but it worked out pretty well for us.

I thought that opening a brewery might be something fun to do when we retired, or something along those lines. Of course, Kristin caught the entrepreneurial bug and thought we could make it happen quite a bit sooner than that.

Ryan said Odd13 has made more than 100 styles of beer since it opened, and features three year-round beers and a broad array of seasonal selections. The brewery expanded in January from its original 10-barrel system to a new, 30-barrel production line.

Odd13s best-selling beer is called Codename Superfan, a Vermont-styled American India Pale Ale (IPA) that highlights the brewerys ideology.

Our brewing philosophy is, we specialize in progressive hops and progressive hopping and progressive fermentations, Ryan said. By that I mean using hops in a way that is not necessarily the way they have been used all along. We make a lot of IPAs, but our IPAs are not as bitter as many traditional IPAs. We focus a lot more on hop flavor and aroma. With progressive fermentation we can make quite a few sour beers as well with a lot of fruit and heavy hopping. Really, those are the two styles  hoppy beers and sour beers  that are the hallmark of our brewery.

Eric the RedBesides the quality of the beer Odd13 makes, the packaging also stands out. Each beer has its own superhero-type character to go along with its standout name. In addition to Codename Superfan, there are beers named Eric the Red, Boulder Brett and Hawaiian Bartender, etc.

The idea is to catch the consumers eye.

I was really into comics growing up, Ryan said. I reached out to a friend who still lives in Michigan for some artwork for us. Even if your beer is really good, if youre not a known product in a liquor store, you have to get creative. [The pairing of our beer names and art] is often humorous, but not always. As a new brewery startup without a lot of marketing money, being creative is necessary.

The Scotts said they can trace the roots of their success back to Bowling Green, Ohio.

For me, just with the business classes I took there, a lot of the strategy classes and marketing classes were really great, Kristin said. Overall, just having that solid business background, I think I was able to relate that directly to business planning, forecasting and things like that. I learned all that at Bowling Green.

As for Ryan, he said he developed invaluable skills outside of the classroom that have proved to be a great asset in running a brewery.

I was the captain of the ski team at the end of my freshman year, I was an officer in my fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha, and that really helped me learn how to be an effective leader, he said. We have an excellent staff and I think we have a really positive work environment. Its a place where people really enjoy working and I think a lot of it comes from my involvement in the campus organizations I was involved with when I was at Bowling Green.


For Immediate Release, September 12, 2016

Contact: Taylor McKinnon, Center for Biological Diversity, (801) 300-2414, tmckinnon@biologicaldiversity.org

Lawsuit Launched Over Fracking, Water, Climate Change in Colorado River Basin

DENVER The Center for Biological Diversity and Living Rivers today filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to compel them to update invalid, outdated Endangered Species Act consultations on the impacts of climate change and expanded fracking in western Colorado on the Colorado River system and its four endangered fish. The challenge seeks to halt all new oil and gas leasing and development on federal public lands in the Upper Colorado River Basin of Colorado  including the White River and Grand Junction field offices  pending updated consultations.

Fracking near the White River in Utah, located immediately downstream of the Bureau of Land Managements White River Field Office that is subject to todays notice. Photo by Taylor McKinnon / EcoFlight. This photo is available for media use.

The Colorado River systems endangered fish cant handle more water depletions. The river system is already overtaxed, and declining flows because of climate change are making a bad situation worse, said Taylor McKinnon with the Center. Its hard to imagine a more self-destructive policy for the Colorado River Basin than using scarce water to fuel more climate-warming fossil fuel extraction  but thats exactly what the Obama administration is allowing.

The notice asserts that a programmatic biological opinion study authorizing water withdrawals for oil and gas development on public lands in the Upper Colorado River Basin is outdated and invalid. The study fails to consider impacts to endangered fish from the drawing-down of large amounts of water that would be used for horizontal drilling, as well as the impacts of developing expanded estimates of Mancos shale gas deposits, existing and projected future climate-driven Colorado River declines, oil and other toxic spills, mercury and selenium pollution, and the failure of the federal recovery program to provide minimum river flows in critical habitat for the fish.

The notice challenges both agencies reliance on the study when they approved new land-use plans for the Grand Junction and White River field offices last year and other oil and gas development plans this year. Together the new land-use plans would allow nearly 19,000 new oil and gas wells in western Colorado. Yet the Fish and Wildlife Service has already conceded that any further water depletions from the Colorado River or its tributaries would jeopardize the four endangered fish  the Colorado pikeminnow, razorback sucker, humpback chub and bonytail.

Fracking in the Colorado River Basin comes at the peril of public lands, our climate, the river, its endangered fish, and tens of millions of downstream water users, said McKinnon. Its backward public policy in face of a worsening climate crisis. Nows the time for the Obama administration to align our countrys energy policies with its climate goals by ending new fossil fuel leasing on Americas public lands.

Center for Biological Diversity attorneys Wendy Park and Michael Saul are staffing the case.

Download todays notice here.

Background

On behalf of the American people, the U.S. federal government manages nearly 650 million acres of public land and more than 1.7 billion acres of the Outer Continental Shelf  and the fossil fuels beneath them. This includes federal public land, which makes up about a third of the U.S. land area, and oceans like Alaskas Chukchi Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Eastern Seaboard. These places and the fossil fuels beneath them are held in trust for the public by the federal government; federal fossil fuel leasing is administered by the Department of the Interior.

Over the past decade, the combustion of federal fossil fuels has resulted in nearly a quarter of all U.S. energy-related emissions. A 2015 report by EcoShift Consulting, commissioned by the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth, found that remaining federal oil, gas, coal, oil shale and tar sands that have not been leased to industry contain up to 450 billion tons of potential greenhouse gas pollution. As of earlier this year, 67 million acres of federal fossil fuel were already leased to industry, an area more than 55 times larger than Grand Canyon National Park containing up to 43 billion tons of potential greenhouse gas pollution.

Last year Sens. Merkley (D-Ore.), Sanders (I-Vt.) and others introduced the Keep It In the Ground Act (S. 2238) legislation to end new federal fossil fuel leases and cancel non-producing federal fossil fuel leases. Days later President Obama canceled the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, saying, Because ultimately, if were going to prevent large parts of this Earth from becoming not only inhospitable but uninhabitable in our lifetimes, were going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground rather than burn them and release more dangerous pollution into the sky.

Download the September 2015 Keep It in the Ground letter to President Obama.

Download Grounded: The Presidents Power to Fight Climate Change, Protect Public Lands by Keeping Publicly Owned Fossil Fuels in the Ground (this report details the legal authorities with which a president can halt new federal fossil fuel leases).

Download The Potential Greenhouse Gas Emissions of U.S. Federal Fossil Fuels (this report quantifies the volume and potential greenhouse gas emissions of remaining federal fossil fuels) and The Potential Greenhouse Gas Emissions fact sheet.

Download Over-leased: How Production Horizons of Already Leased Federal Fossil Fuels Outlast Global Carbon Budgets.

Download Critical Gulf: The Vital Importance of Ending Fossil Fuel Leasing in the Gulf of Mexico

Download Public Lands, Private Profits about the corporations profiting from climate-destroying fossil fuel extraction on public lands.

Download the Center for Biological Diversitys legal petition calling on the Obama administration to halt all new offshore fossil fuel leasing.

Download the Center for Biological Diversitys legal petition with 264 other groups calling on the Obama administration to halt all new onshore fossil fuel leasing.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.


For Immediate Release, September 12, 2016 Contact: Jamie Pang, (858) 699-4153, jpang@biologicaldiversity.org Feds to Confine Red Wolves in North Carolina to Federal Lands, Find New Reintroduction Sites WASHINGTON Sending a mixed message for the future of red wolves, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today it will confine red wolf recovery to just federal lands in Dare County, but will identify new sites for wolf introductions and double the number of captive-breeding pairs. The long-delayed announcement comes after the agency announced back in June 2015 that it was suspending red wolf reintroductions into the wild while it re-evaluated the feasibility of the recovery program. Its good the Service is acknowledging that we need more breeding pairs and new reintroduction sites to spur red wolf recovery, said Jamie Pang, endangered species campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. But were extremely disappointed in the agencys highly political decision to confine red wolves to only federal public lands. The best opportunity for red wolf survival is to allow these animals to expand onto the private lands surrounding the refuges. The best available science demonstrates that red wolves are still recoverable. A 2014 report written by the Wildlife Management Institute at the behest of the Service concluded that if the red wolf is going to recover, two additional populations need to be established in the wild, and additional resources need to be invested to build local support for red wolf recovery. A recent population viability analysis, released in June, also concluded that red wolf survival is possible if more captive populations are released into the wild and mortality is reduced. The Center for Biological Diversity submitted an emergency petition to revise the 10(j) rule requesting the Service reduce shooting deaths on private lands and identify additional reintroduction sites. Nearly 500,000 red wolf supporters signed a petition delivered last month to the Fish and Wildlife Service calling on the agency to continue to work to recover the dwindling red wolf population, with only a reported 45 red wolves left in the wild. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.


For Immediate Release, September 12, 2016 Contact: Tierra Curry, (928) 522-3681, tcurry@biologicaldiversity.org White Fringeless Orchid Gains Endangered Species Act Protection in Six Southeastern States Monkey-face Flower Protected After 41 Years on Waiting List WASHINGTON Under an agreement with the Center for Biological Diversity, a 2-foot-tall orchid hanging on in small populations in six southeastern states was protected today under the Endangered Species Act. The white fringeless orchid, sometimes also called a monkey-face orchid, has already been wiped out in North Carolina is known to survive at only 34 sites in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee. The rare orchids flower, which resembles a monkeys face, was first identified as being in need of federal protection in 1975. White fringeless orchid photo courtesy USFWS. Photos are available for media use. Im breathing a sigh of relief that this beautiful flower has finally gained Endangered Species Act protection after a 41-year wait, said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center. Protecting the white fringeless orchid will also protect the threatened marshy habitats that are such a special part of the Southeasts natural heritage. Publicly owned lands account for more than half the places where the rare flower survives. It is found in the Cumberland and Blue Ridge plateaus in the Appalachian Mountains, on the coastal plain and in the Piedmont region, which stretches between the Appalachians and the coastal plain. The white fringeless orchid grows in the wet soils of bogs, marshes, fens and swamps. Its pollinated by butterflies, including eastern tiger swallowtails, spicebush swallowtails and silver-spotted skippers. Because of these very specific relationships, it is threatened by global climate change, which, in addition to threatening its habitat with drought, poses threats to the fungus and pollinators the orchid depends on for survival. The orchid is also threatened by logging  primarily conversion of native hardwood forests to monoculture pine plantations. Other threats include sprawl, mowing and herbicide spraying on right-of-ways, wetland draining, invasive plants and feral hogs. In July the Center unveiled a mural of the orchid in Berea, Ky., the ninth installment in a national endangered species mural project. The white fringeless orchid mural is in historic Old Town and was developed in coordination with Kentucky Heartwood, a local group that works to protect the orchids habitat on the Daniel Boone National Forest. In 2011 the Center and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service entered into a settlement agreement that requires the Service to make decisions on protection for 757 petitioned and candidate species, including the orchid. Under the agreement 148 species have already gained protection, and 11 more have been proposed for protection. The white fringeless orchids scientific name is Platanthera integrilabia. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras looks on during a news conference at the annual International Trade Fair of the city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Sept 11, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

ATHENS - Greece is closer than ever to a solution for the sustainability of the Greek debt load, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Sunday, assuring that some positive developments should be expected soon.

The Greek leader made the remarks during a televised customary press briefing given by Greek Premiers during the Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF).

"For our part, we are honoring the agreement and we expect the same from our partners," he said, stressing that Greece has made progress since the signing of the third bailout program in the summer of 2015.

Therefore, Greeks expect in return concrete measures from lenders to ease the pressure on recession-hit people, he added.

"Growth will return. Economy will make a great rebound in 2017. The question is whether this will last and this will depend on the negotiations between the EU and the International Monetary Fund on debt relief," the Greek leader stressed.

In order to ensure the sustainable growth the Greek government will also strive for and achieve in the next round of negotiations with creditors the lowering of primary surplus targets after 2018, Tsipras said.

As bailout inspectors are expected to Athens this week to discuss with Greek officials the pending prior actions for the release of the next rescue loans to the debt-ridden economy, the Greek premier underlined that only technical issues remain to be resolved.

The Greek government's will is to "pick up pace and conclude all actions according to the agreement quickly," he said responding to recent comments by European officials that Athens is again lagging on the implementation of the needed reforms.
NAIROBI, Kenya - Kenyan journalists angered by the suspicious deaths of two colleagues within a fortnight turned out to protest in several cities including Nairobi, saying they faced an increasingly hostile environment.

Image by 123RF

Waving placards reading "JournalistsUnderSiege" and "Reporters deserve to return safely to their loved ones", around 100 people rallied in downtown Nairobi while smaller groups protested in western Kitale, Eldoret and southwestern Nakuru.

The demonstrations came a day after Kitale-based freelance photojournalist Dennis Otieno was shot dead by three men armed with Kalashnikovs in what colleagues said was a killing linked to his job. "Journalists will not relent until justice is done for the departed colleague," Simon Ngure, a journalist with Royal Media Services said in Kitale.

Last week a journalist with the Standard Media Group, John Masha, collapsed and died in what his family and colleagues said was due to poisoning.

"We are tired of being harassed and intimidated in the course of our work," said a protester in Nairobi. "Journalism is becoming too dangerous a profession."

The secretary-general of the Kenya Union of Journalists, Eric Oduor, has linked Masha's killing to earlier complaints by a local politician over a story by the reporter. "The suspicious death of Standard journalist John Masha is a culmination of the increasingly hostile environment journalists in Kenya are working in," said Victor Bwire, deputy head of Kenya's Media Council. The attacks against and the harassment of journalists call for urgent attention."

He said that a number of journalists had faced serious harassment from national and local government officials as well as from political activists, business people and organised gangs. "The most worrying thing is that there has never been a conviction of a person involved in harassing journalists in Kenya, even in obvious cases."

Kenya, which has a history of political assassinations, is ranked 95th of 180 nations for press freedom by press watchdog Reporters Without Borders.

Source: AFP.
Banking group FirstRand says it has R13.8bn to spend on growth strategies including developing investment products for its domestic customers and acquiring banks in Nigeria and Kenya.

Image by 123RF

FirstRand had set aside R7.5bn to acquire predominantly corporate and commercial banks in Kenya and Nigeria, CEO Johan Burger said on Thursday. It was carefully analysing the banking market in Nigeria, and engaging with the regulator in Kenya, but had not yet found a suitable platform. It had R2.4bn for its existing organic strategy in the rest of Africa, he said.

The group, which owns FNB, RMB, and WesBank, had set aside R2bn to capture a larger share of profit from the domestic financial services market. This involves growing FirstRand Insurance, Ashburton Investments, and its value-added insurance business MotoVantage, which is a joint venture between WesBank and Hollard.

For the year to June, FNB had sold 500,000 policies, mostly funeral, on the FirstRand Life licence. Its unit trust funds, called the FNB Horizon Series, had attracted R100m of client inflows since July.

FNB would use its knowledge of customers' spending habits and risk profiles to sell them insurance and investment products, said CEO Jacques Celliers. Its execution would be more efficient, since compliance requirements were already met through the banking relationship.

"Banks are under pressure in terms of returns on lending and are looking to diversify," said Harry Botha, an analyst at Avior Capital Markets. To grow meaningfully in insurance and investments, FNB would need a strategy to win business from independent financial advisers, Botha said.

Neelash Hansjee, a senior investment analyst at Old Mutual Equities, said FNB had a strong customer franchise to sell more products to. He said it was positive to see the rapid uptake by FNB clients of new products such as funeral policies, adding: "It shows they trust the brand."

FNB's retail business in SA grew 6% to R14.3bn for the year to June, as bad debt began to trend upwards in line with a worsening economic cycle. FirstRand's credit loss ratio, or the percentage of losses it was making on its overall loan book, grew from 0.77% to 0.86% during the period.

This was still below its expected charge of about 1%, but Burger expected it would increase as the current credit cycle fully emerged. More of FNB's customers were opting for debt counselling, Celliers said, which was a function both of financial pressure and more advertising by debt counsellors.

"The credit loss ratio at 0.86% was a slight damper, given the high levels of provisions the group has. Perhaps, more could have been released to manage the rising credit loss ratio," Hansjee said.

FirstRand has R8.4bn in provisions for potential future bad debts as a cushion, which is about 1% of its total performing loan book. "FirstRand maintains levels of capital that are higher than what other banks have reported," Hansjee said.

Given such high levels of capital, some investors might have expected a higher dividend, he said. FirstRand declared a dividend of 226c a share, an 8% increase from the previous period. Surplus capital had been earmarked for opportunities that would support future growth, Hansjee said.

The risk of a sovereign debt downgrade towards the end of the year also made it prudent to safeguard capital, he said.

Source: Business Day.
magazine recently contributed to the ongoing critique of traditional polling. Correctly, the magazine identified social media as the new frontier in gauging public sentiment - as opposed to random cold-calling of a tiny slice of the electorate. This is definitely the future.

But perhaps there is another layer of analytics still to add, if one is to apprehend the full picture of what voters and consumers are expressing on social media.

Wired quoted Apoorv Agarwal, a computer scientist at Columbia University, when he states, Machines are much better at doing sentiment analysis than humans now, especially on a large scale.

Machines today are more sophisticated than ever. And it is certainly true they are vital for big data collection and understanding popular sentiment.

But social media analytics company, BrandsEye, believe that their approach to the process of understanding digital data adds a vital step in accurately mapping out what people are thinking and feeling, and where their loyalties and sentiments truly lie.

This additional step in the approach is something they call the Crowd - in which a team of online contributors process large quantities of unstructured data and apply human understanding to it. The defining characteristic of the BrandsEye Crowd is accuracy, with every data point subject to analysis by multiple contributors ensuring relevant sentiment based data is produced.

Through this approach and by integrating the information with intelligent software, companies can ensure the production of consistently accurate and reliable data.

To demonstrate the necessity of this component of garnering accurate insights, one can put the worlds most famous supercomputer, IBMs Watson to the test.

Below is a tweet from the member of the public, who quotes a Trump tweet and then juxtaposes it with a data point from a poll, concluding her own tweet with the hashtag, #trumped.

The problem is that when you insert such a tweet into Watsons language processor, Alchemy Language, the supercomputers API (Application Programming Interface) misinterprets what does amount to a deceptively complex piece of political rhetoric.

Watson identifies the entities at hand  namely Trump and Clinton  but misattributes a positive sentiment to Trump, and a neutral sentiment to Clinton. The problem is Watson does not quite get the irony of the Twitter users Trump quote.

Sentiment reference entity IBM Watson BrandsEye Correct Hilary Clinton Neutral Positive Positive Donald Trump Positive Negative Negative

Twitter sentiment data for tweet mentioning Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump

One comes across an even more basic problem when you use Googles API to analyse the same piece of data. The Google alternative does not take the tweet and assign sentiments expressed to any identified entity  leaving any sentiment analysis adrift with no anchor in the real world.

In short, the Crowd integration may just provide an inside track in using the vast datascape of social media to assess sentiment and thus make both predictions and new strategic decisions.

Lets take a look at one more tweet:

Here, Watson cannot understand the sarcasm of the statement. (AI experts have long noted humour and irony, which are innately human concepts, as the biggest obstacles in developing true AI.)

Sentiment reference entity IBM Watson BrandsEye Correct Trump Positive Negative Negative

Twitter sentiment data for tweet referencing Donald Trump

Technology is vitally important in politics, business, and data analysis, but it should never be forgotten that both politics and business remain, at their heart, human pursuits, which always consist of language, narrative, irony and emotion.

By integrating human analysis, and therefore adding local context and judgment to the process, one can cut through the clutter of unstructured data to produce a clear picture of what the publics actual feelings are towards a brand or political candidate.

BrandsEye CEO, JP Kloppers, explains the process step by step:

The first step is to hunt, gather, and store mentions based on predefined criteria across online, social, print and broadcast media.

That data is then sent to the Crowd  that is, regular people, who can apply local knowledge and idiomatic and idiosyncratic understanding of the data so as to garner an accurate appraisal of the human sentiment contained within said data.

The Crowd has been proven to evaluate these mentions at a success rate of up to 97%.

This method would posit that it is a fallacy that machines are infallible and humans are not  because, unlike machines, humans can understand slang, the vernacular, and sarcasm.

The Crowd may make a few mistakes here and there  but given enough data, these errors can vanish into the negligible especially when one considers the current shortfall in machines understanding wordplay and paradox.

In a world in which emotion and sentiment still rule so much of our lives and choices, it is of course quite logical that we still need human understanding to perfect the data analysis process even when using the worlds most impressive and advanced systems.

The effectiveness of the Crowd shows just why human involvement in the sorting of big data is an ongoing necessity  especially in the highly sophisticated discourse of social media.

In what is shaping to be a pivotal, and entirely unprecedented, American election season, this effectiveness might just be critical as political parties and media players seek to stay ahead of the information curve.
When it comes to setting up an e-commerce offering, payment options are often the last thing business owners consider and, unfortunately, this is where the real challenges can creep in.

While online retail still only accounts for 1% of retail revenue in South Africa, the growth rates of more than 20% year-on-year since 2000 speak volumes about the need for every business to seriously plan for an online presence.

The 2016 numbers from World Wide Worx released in April this year, not only show good growth for the year, but also forecast for 2020, showing the figures doubling from their current baseline.

Most website platforms have e-commerce plugins, which will accommodate global payment options such as PayPal. Many payments service providers also offer card payment facilities and this increases the merchants ability to take payments. However, South Africas broader payment landscape is not nearly as sophisticated as we assume.

As we know only 1% of retail spend is channelled online and while some seasoned online shoppers may be perfectly happy with online security, there is still many a wary first-time shopper who may feel daunted by having to set up a PayPal account or nervous about sharing credit card details.

To add to the card challenge, only one fifth of South Africas banked population has a credit card, which further narrows a merchants pool of potential customers.

Fees, fraud and fuss

There are two main questions facing merchants when it comes to payment options: what are the benefits to my business, and how easy will it be for my customers to use?

The costs to merchants when the customer uses a credit card for a transaction can be unattractive. Merchants have to pay transaction fees to their payment service provider, as well as additional fees to the (acquiring) bank that holds their internet merchant account.

Trust can also be an issue. While we may feel a level of comfort when transacting with an e-Bay or an Amazon, when using a small, local etailer for the first time, many shoppers will feel uneasy about parting with their personal and financial details.

Chargebacks add to the merchant risk. Should credit card fraud take place, the onus is on the merchant to prove that the cardholder in fact made the purchase. Should they fail to do so, they could bear the costs of the reimbursements.

Merchants accepting credit cards will also need to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). This is a proprietary information security standard for anyone who handles branded credit cards from the major card schemes, including Visa and MasterCard.

Setting up an internet merchant account can also result in delays and administrative hassle for a business eager to get their offering online.

Not only will the acquiring banks consultant do a full audit of the websites compliance (terms and conditions, privacy, delivery and refund policies etc) but the company will have to undergo additional compliance checks on its financial history.

Working through a payment aggregator can cut out the frustrating process of applying for an internet merchant account. However, the trade off will be paying higher transaction fees in order to make use of their platform.

Offering workable choices

Merchants need to find the best method to reach their customers in a way that makes the best business sense.

Adding an instant EFT solution to the e-commerce payment offering can make a significant difference to both the merchants business as well as the user experience.

Merchants stand to save significantly on transaction fees, when receiving instant EFTs. Credit card payments can often be charged at a rate of 2 to 4% per transaction, whereas instant EFT fees are generally significantly lower.

It should be noted however, that merchants must also take into account how long it will take to receive their funds from their payment service provider. This can vary from anything from one to two days (as in the case of SID) or up to five days in the case of some of the aggregators. While this is important for any business, it is critical to smaller businesses, which are reliant on cash flow.

Instant EFT payment facilities are easy to set up and website developers can quickly get the merchant trading online.

From the buyers point of view, EFT is something they know and trust. Online customers will interface with their banks via a secure payment page, which adds to their comfort and sense of security.

Moreover, because there is instant feedback, should there be insufficient funds in the account, both the customer and the merchant will know immediately, cutting down on fees resulting from returned transactions.

Most importantly, instant EFT allows far more people to actually trade and shop online. All a merchant needs is a valid bank account and the customer simply needs their regular online banking username and password.

EFT has reached its maturity in South Africa. Customers know and trust it as a means of transaction. Businesses who are looking to go digital should ensure that they have included instant EFT into their payment bouquet. To ignore instant EFT would not only cut them off from the lions share of local shoppers, but would cut themselves off from a payment method which offers the lowest cost to company available.
Next year's Automechanika trade fair for the automotive aftermarket, which takes place at the Johannesburg Expo Centre from 27-30 September, will be co-located with three new, related shows. The new shows are Futuroad Expo (Africa's international commercial vehicle show), Scalex Johannesburg (SA trade fair for transport systems, infrastructure and logistics solutions) and REIFEN (trade fair for the tyre industry).

Michael Johannes, vice president for mobility and logistics at Messe Frankfurt in Germany.

The announcement was made by Michael Johannes, vice president for mobility and logistics at Messe Frankfurt in Germany, at an Automechanika Johannesburg media conference held at the SA Festival of Motoring at Kyalami. All the shows will be organised by SA Shows Messe Frankfurt, a wholly owned subsidiary of Messe Frankfurt Exhibitions of Germany.

"This is a huge boost for businesses operating in the automotive and transport environments not only in South Africa, but also in sub-Saharan Africa," said show director Philip Otto.

"We believe this will now be a particularly attractive offering for business people north of our borders as we offer four specialised shows at one venue over a four-day period. The new arrangement enables us to optimise the synergies that exist between the industry sectors served by these related trade fairs," added Otto.

Next year's Automechanika Johannesburg will mark the fifth time that this trade fair for the automotive aftermarket has been staged in South Africa since the inaugural event in 2009. Over the years this biennial trade fair in Johannesburg, one of 15 in the world, has grown significantly both in terms of the number of exhibitors and visitors, but also regarding its importance in the African market.

REIFEN co-location

Messe Frankfurt, the owner of the Automechanika brand, is in the process of co-locating the established REIFEN tyre expo brand with Automechanika trade fairs worldwide. Originally, REIFEN, which is owned by Messe Essen, was predominantly a German-based event although it had a subsidiary in China. It was first rolled out as a co-located Automechanika trade fair at the inaugural show in Birmingham in April this year and will be co-located at the premier Automechanika trade fair in Frankfurt from 2018. REIFEN provides a range of tyres and a spectrum of garage equipment and tools for the tyre sector.

Other product groups, besides tyres, which will be on display at the Johannesburg Expo Centre next year, will be: parts and components, repairs and maintenance, electronics and systems, accessories and customising, management and digital solutions, car wash, care and reconditioning, safari and off-road vehicles, government utility vehicles and trailers.

The various Automechanika product groups have been redefined to keep pace with the dynamics of the global automotive aftermarket. This includes developments such as electro mobility and the important factors of sustainability and care for the environment.

Futuroad Expo

The Futuroad Expo replaces the Johannesburg Truck and Bus Show, which was previously co-located at the Johannesburg International Motor Show. The big change is that it will now be part of a four-day business-to-business trade fair instead of being located at an 11-day consumer exhibition and this change in direction has been welcomed by the local truck and bus industry.

Futuroad Expo will also include commercial vehicle body builders, suppliers of tracking and navigational systems, home base refuelling systems, fleet management systems, cross border services, hoists and cranes as well as specialised utility vehicles such as ambulances, police vehicles, first and rescue vehicles and waste compactors.

Scalex Johannesburg

Scalex Johannesburg 2017 is a trade fair for the logistics sector to provide a dynamic business platform for this vital cog in the global economy. "The indispensable role of the logistic sector, with all the complexities it embraces, is a key contributor to business operations in the supply chain and a crucial element for economic growth," added Otto.

"Nowhere is this more apparent and necessary than in Sub Saharan Africa, with its large number of land-locked countries, where logistical services are very dependent on road transport and will remain so for decades to come," concluded the show director.
In association with First Instinct, a fragrance by Abercrombie & Fitch, the 9th Men's Health Menswear Collection fashion show will be hosted at the Shimmy Beach Club at 7pm on 21 September 2016.

Aptly themed Hot in the City, this years event will feature the latest ready-to-wear fashion from some of the popular South African and international fashion brands, providing a world-class platform to showcase 15 of South Africas leading fashion brands on the runway.

This event continues to grow and evolve and we are excited to be hosting it in Cape Town this year, says Mens Health fashion editor, Azeez Jacobs. Our annual Collection brings the iconic Mens Health style coverage to life by showcasing well-known local and international brands in an energetic, fun and super-stylish show that never fails to wow the crowd. We are thrilled to have a fragrance brand, such as Abercrombie & Fitch, on board as our headline sponsor in this celebration of Spring/Summer style.
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[Newsmaker] Susie White from Times Media

Susie White has recently been appointed as the new national sales manager for retail & agencies at Times Media. White was previously the general manager of Business Media and was also the national sales manager of Associated Magazines in Johannesburg.

Briefly tell us about your role as National Sales Manager? Briefly tell us about your role as National Sales Manager?

White: My role as NSM is to assist a very capable team in representing the TMG portfolio of media platforms to agencies and advertisers. The portfolio offers advertisers a 360 solution, driven by print, but includes television, radio, activations, consumer and business events and a strong digital offering. My job is to ensure that agencies are aware of the solutions available, and that the account managers have the tools and support to deliver them.

What will your first order of business be? What will your first order of business be?

White: First order of business will be to work with the outgoing NSM, who is emigrating to Australia at the end of October, to fully understand the nuances of the business.

What will your core strategy be? What will your core strategy be?

White: My core strategy will to be focus on the 360 offering and to improve on the efficiencies of an already super strong and award-winning sales team. In a tough business environment, competitiveness is key.

What is your main business challenge? What is your main business challenge?

White: The main business challenge facing our industry is the increasing cost of doing business aligned with conservative advertising budgets in many sectors.

The biggest trend in your industry? The biggest trend in your industry?

White: The biggest trend in the media/advertising industry is the growth of digital media and the exciting opportunities that come with it.

Most important attribute needed to do your job? Most important attribute needed to do your job?

White: I would say commitment is the most important attribute.

What inspires you? What inspires you?

White: People who live life to the full inspire me.

What's at the top of your bucket list? What's at the top of your bucket list?

White: I would love to watch the Arsenal play at the Emirates (again)
It is a sweltering day in Malawi's Nsanje district and the gravel paths in Nelson village are deserted. Two young women lie under the shade of a big tree that hangs low over their mud house

The womens father, Stephan Nkhono, watches them from the doorway. I didnt think I would be here today, he says.

Last year Nkhono fell ill. He had diarrhoea, a high temperature and was vomiting. He had malaria, which is endemic in the area. Although Trinity hospital is less than 2km from his home, Nkhono was too weak to walk.

My relatives came here but there was no motor vehicle to take me to the hospital, Nkhono recalls.

Source: Bhekisisa Centre of Health Journalism/ Amos Gumulira

Even if the family had access to a car, they would have struggled to get him to the hospital. Nsanje is one of the districts hardest hit by the floods of 2015 and the infrastructural damage is yet to be repaired: the road leading to the Nkhonos home is narrow, steep and bumpy.

My family had to run to the hospital to collect the bicycle ambulance and used it to transport me to the hospital. That way they didnt have to carry me and I was able to get help before it was too late, he says.

The bicycles are especially designed to pull a stretcher or a similar structure, turning them into ambulances for use in rural areas where people struggle to get to clinics or hospitals because the facilities are too far away and the patient is too weak to walk.

A lifeline for mothers and infants

Normally, when we talk of ambulances, we always think of motor vehicles. But here in the rural areas, our village is difficult to access because our roads are very bad. Its not everywhere where you can have motor vehicles, says William Allan, the chief administrator at Trinity Hospital.

He removes his spectacles and wipes the sweat off his face and neck with a washcloth. In long, quick strides he walks down the crowded corridors of the hospital towards his office.

A lot of people were dying, obviously, because they couldnt reach the hospital. Many pregnant women would not make it to hospital in time and delivered their babies on their way here. As a result, many babies died, and so did some of their mothers.

Transport is critical in healthcare access, according to a 2015 article in the journal, BMC Health Services Research.

Allan says many women in his village turned to traditional birth attendants when they could not get to the hospital, which often results in babies and mothers dying. Trinity Hospital has a catchment population of about 150,000 people.

This hospital is strategically situated because the other hospitals are far. The nearest hospital is in Thyolo, which is 70km from here. Nsanje District Hospital is 80km to the south, but you cannot drive directly from here. Because the bridge we had was washed away by the floods, you have to travel 200km just to get to the other hospital, says Allan.

A 2014 Pan African Medical Journal study in Kenya found that pregnant women whose medical care was delayed because of the long distance between their homes and the nearest health facility resulted in some women arriving at the hospital too late to save the life of the unborn baby.

Failure to access healthcare is also a key contributor to child mortality. A 2014 survey published in the Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition showed that children from poor households were less likely to be seen by a doctor when they are ill than their wealthier counterparts. Conducted in Malawi, the survey found that families from rural households spent more time travelling compared to urban households. In addition, visiting a trained healthcare provider was associated with longer travel time and higher direct costs compared to visiting an untrained provider.

Bikes go missing

Bicycle or bush ambulances were introduced at Trinity Hospital in 2002 when businessmen from Blantyre, Malawis commercial capital, donated the bicycles.

Every group village headman was allowed to keep a bicycle ambulance so that if anybody in the village fell ill they could use the bush ambulance to take the patient to the hospital and then bring the bicycle back, explains Allan.

It was important to keep them in a central place so that anybody who can ride a bicycle can use the bush ambulance. Those who cannot ride a bicycle can just push it.

Bicycle ambulances, which are provided mostly by charity organisations, are common in Malawian villages. They are also used in rural areas in Nepal, Uganda and Namibia.

But most of Trinity Hospitals 12 bicycle ambulances are gone  there are only three left and they are badly damaged. Unfortunately, we cannot trace where they are. If we had a GPS we could easily track down where they go.

Some patients use spare parts from their own bicycles to fix bush ambulances but when they are done with an ambulance they take their spare parts back.

One of the three bush ambulances we have left is new; we recently received it from Gift of the Givers, says Allan. The international aid organisation works with rural communities and health officials around the country to create committees to run the bicycle ambulance project at community level. These committees raise funds each month to carry out any repairs needed on the bicycle ambulances. Gift of the Givers is hoping to establish similar groups in Nsanje.

But Allan says getting to the hospital is only one problem that rural communities face in getting medical care  the hospital is also severely understaffed.

Allan hopes to raise the funds for more bicycles. To prevent loss of the three remaining bicycle ambulances, he has enlisted the help of the village chiefs.

We have talked to the traditional leadership to tell their people that the bicycle ambulances must remain at the hospital all the time when not in use. Whoever is found to have a bicycle ambulance at his home will be punished.
Rhino poaching is on the decline in the Kruger National Park - the area hardest hit by the crime - says Minister of Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa.

Between January and the end of August 2016, a total of 458 poached rhino carcasses were found in the Kruger National Park, compared to 557 in the same period last year.

This represents a 17.8% decline in the number of rhino carcasses.

The minister said this in a statement on Sunday, 11 September, on progress in the implementation of the Integrated Strategic Management of Rhinoceros. The period under review covers the period 1 May 2016 to 31 August 2016.

The report revealed that poaching rates, or the number of carcasses as a percentage of the number of live rhinos, estimated the previous September for each year, reduced by 15.5% compared between the same periods in 2015 (9.6%) and 2016 (7.9%).

The figures come amid a 27.87 % increase in the number of illegal incursions into the Kruger National Park  a staggering 2,115 for the first eight months of 2016.

Nationally, 702 rhino were poached since the beginning of 2016 whereas between January and July 2015, a total of 796 rhino were poached.

Minister Molewa said there may be indications that the success of anti-poaching efforts in the Kruger National Park has led to poaching syndicates shifting operations to other provinces.

In the period under review, the number of rhino poached has increased in a number of other provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State and the Northern Cape, in comparison to the same period in 2015.

She said despite these increases there is still a downward trend in the number of rhino poached.

It is also of concern that we have begun experiencing an increase in elephant poaching, despite the vigorous and determined efforts by our rangers, the police and soldiers on the ground.

Since January 36 elephants have been poached in the KNP, said the minister.

She said government was utilising experience and expertise gained through efforts to combat rhino poaching to end elephant poaching as well.

What is evident, is that these successes can be attributed to the work being done on the ground by our people, our hardworking law enforcement teams and our rangers in particular, said Molewa.

The combined efforts of the department, law-enforcement and the conservation agencies with the support of international partners and donors are slowly but steadily making a dent in the rhino poaching numbers.

Rhino poaching was declared a National Priority Crime in 2014 and the issue continues to receive the highest level of attention from the department, the countrys law-enforcement authorities, and the prosecution service.

Field Ranger of the Year award

Meanwhile, Molewa congratulated a member of the Environmental Monitors programme in Mpumalanga, Anton Mzimba, who won the coveted Field Ranger of the Year award at the 2016 Rhino Conservation Awards.

I am concerned that while there are rangers and security officials who go the extra mile to ensure our wildlife is protected and criminals involved in wildlife crime are brought to book, there are also those who have allegedly chosen to embrace the wrong side of the law.

To these rangers and officials I would like to send a strong message: You will be arrested and prosecuted, said Molewa.
KwaZulu-Natal's Agricultural Union, Kwanalu recently announced 34-year-old Vryheid farmer, Neville Schefermann as the winner of the 2016 KZN Kwanalu Young Farmer of the Year at its Annual Congress. Neville will represent KZN for the national 2016 Young Farmer of the Year title which takes place in October 2016 where he will compete against top young farmers from all nine provinces, in an effort to secure the much sought after title.

Neville Schefermann

We are encouraged by the positive attitude that all our finalists displayed. They all see social development and land reform as an opportunity rather than a challenge and it is very exciting and encouraging to see young farmers who all want to make a difference. With farmers like this in KZN we can only look forward, said CEO, Sandy La Marque, speaking at the event attended by members, industry leaders and multiple farmers association representatives from all over KZN.

The KZN Kwanalu Young Farmer of the Year competition is open to farmers under the age of 35, male or female who are full members of their province's agricultural union. The judging and evaluation of the farmers and their agricultural practices take place at provincial level with the applicants being evaluated on all aspects of their business including their overall vision for the future of their farm/business. The main features on which young farmers are judged is their management/business philosophy as well as the technical competence with which their philosophy is applied.

A fourth-generation farmer on four farms

Neville, the fourth consecutive generation of Schefermanns to farm at Alford farm in the Khambula district of Vryheid, joined the family farming business in 2007 following completing a National Diploma and a B-Tec Degree in Forestry. In 2015, he bought the three family farms from his father, Trevor. Neville also leases a fourth farm from his aunt in the district.

On the four farms (1,290ha), Schefermann farms with 233 Simmentaler stud cattle comprising of bulls, cows, and heifers which he recently purchased from his father. He also runs a three-way commercial herd of 303 cows and heifers made up of Sussex, Afrikaner, and Simmentaler breeds.

The Schefermann family are well-known in the beef industry for their commercial beef enterprise thanks to their innovative three-way crossbreeding system of Simmentaler, Afrikaner, and Sussex breeds. The system was implemented by his late grandfather, Vernon, and his father  a successful system which Neville has continued since taking over the business in 2012.

The thinking behind this system is that it has allowed us to have a closed female herd, meaning never having to buy in any breeding females. This significantly reduces the risk of introducing venereal diseases, ensuring generations of females that have been born and bred on the property are now well-adapted to the operations particular production environment, explains Schefermann.

Schefermann also farms 205ha of white, precision planted maize, including 14ha for silage, 215ha wattle timber in rotation and 129ha pine timber of various ages. And in 2014, Schefermann won the NCT Forestry Cooperatives Tree Farmer of the Year award. The farms also include 532ha of natural veld and 143ha of planted Kikuyu and Erogrostis.

Schefermanns vision for growth

Since taking over the running of the business, Nevilles vision for growth is to ensure maximum use and production of his existing lands.

With boundary farms not changing hands much in our area we have come to the conclusion that we have to grow vertically. By this I mean I need to ensure that my farming practices are as intensive as possible and that production functions to the best of its ability, said Schefermann. Examples of this plan include removing of unproductive grazing lands and replacing them with productive maize fields. It also entails refining his herds by keeping only the best producers to ensure no land or feed is under-utilized.

Neville also places great importance on using technology where applicable to assist with farming practices. This includes using the knowledge of reps to advise on the latest products and trends as well as attending farmers days and study groups to ensure he is always building on, and improving, his knowledge base.

Neville is an active community member and until recently was the secretary of the Khambula Farmers Association of which he was a key role player in the revival of this once defunct association. He also serves on the Gencom of Forestry SA.
Many developing countries are seeing indigenous knowledge systems transforming to a commercial stage. This is exposing the myth that indigenous knowledge can remain pure and undiluted in the current rapidly globalising world. This is according to Charles Dhewa, CEO of Knowledge Transfer Africa (KTA.)

Neil Palmer via Wikimedia Commons

The modern economy forces farmers, traders, and other economic actors to contribute knowledge to their socio-economic networks. Every farmer or trader should control his or her own learning and belong to a network. Engaging with other value chain actors, especially those different from you, is the key to making sense of too much information whose volume and diversity is rapidly increasing.

Traditionally, African communities had tacit mechanisms for transferring skills from one generation to another. That is how career paths were forged, for example, children of farmers, artisans, and blacksmith had important knowledge passed to them from their parents. There were no formal Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) which enabled formal and informal knowledge exchange.

Retrenchments that have become a common feature of African economies over the past decades have resulted in many formal skills being offloaded onto the informal sector. For example, motor mechanics and metal fabrication are now part of the informal sector. Previously locked in formal systems, these skills are now being unpacked and applied in informal markets. This is leading to the integration of indigenous knowledge systems into formal knowledge sharing pathways. Since indigenous knowledge is more customer-oriented, it results in the production of needs-based products, tailor-made to meet the needs of diverse customers. For example, ploughs and hoes are made as per customer requirements unlike the previous mass production ethos in the formal sector which had little consideration for existing draught power dynamics in different farming communities.

The power of empathy

While mobile technology and social media can digitise some information, in many developing countries, more complex work still requires human interaction. In order to survive the current network economy that thrives on creativity, farmers and agricultural value chain actors have to create unique ways of working and connecting. This interaction ensures relationships are built on empathy. Technology and digital tools do not know empathy and why it is important. Yet, it is only by empathising that value farmers and traders can truly understand their relationships and networks.

A standardised curriculum is completely inadequate for solving complex problems confronted in the agriculture sector daily. By creating new meaning through cooperation and building value with their peers, farmers, traders, and consumers are becoming knowledge artisans. Implicit knowledge held by agricultural value chains requires constant interactions to make sense of it. Value chain actors have to explore different ways to curate information and a variety of ways to express themselves. They cannot continue using word of mouth or mobile technology alone. That is why community knowledge centres and communities of practice become critical in ensuring every actor develops his or her skills at their own pace until things start making sense. Most farmers do not immediately use all the information they get from a workshop before making sense of it.

Importance of getting out of echo-chambers

Reliable agricultural knowledge networks should provide farmers and other actors with a diversity of views. They have to ensure more signal and less noise in their networks. This means identifying and supporting the creation of trusted communities of practice for testing out new ideas and ways of working. For all this to happen, farmers and other value chain actors need to get outside of their current knowledge bubbles and echo-chambers. In a society that is increasingly becoming digitally-mediated, each economic value chain actor has to be informed through active engagement.

Nothing prevents farmers from consciously developing their own expert networks that they trust. This will simplify their sense-making. Without personal knowledge networks, farmers are at the whim of whatever information is flowing through social media platforms. They need the capacity to see the value of understanding viewpoints that diverge from their own. Unfortunately, in most rural farming communities, close-knit social groups cannot give farmers the diversity of knowledge they need to navigate the complexities of the current networked economy. Simple solutions are no longer enough in confronting complex challenges such as climate change.

Knowledge Transfer Africa, eMkambo
The Innovation Hub's OpenIX, toegther with Gelvenor Textiles, a South African fabric engineering company, has launched a challenge to identify innovative entrepreneurs for joint product and market development.

The challenge calls on SMMEs and research groups, preferably based in Gauteng, to submit innovative product or business ideas on how to commercially apply Gelvenors K27 textile technology. K27 is a strong, water and UV resistant fabric that can repair itself when punctured. The fabric also has an extremely high strength to weight ratio, as well as shape memory.

Developing new applications

OpenIX is a programme of The Innovation Hub, a subsidiary of the Gauteng Growth and Development Agency (GGDA). Gelvenor Textiles has been driving innovation in the textile industry for over 50 years where all technologically engineered fabrics are developed, tested and manufactured in-house. The challenge is being implemented in partnership with the Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability, a local innovation consultancy.

Successful SMMEs will work closely with Gelvenor to develop new applications for the technology and market it through close collaboration. Solution providers based in Gauteng will also be eligible for proof of concept or pilot funding from The Innovation Hub to support the development of their product and business model.

The challenge deadline is 13 October 2016 and proposals should be submitted via the OpenIX website.

There will be a workshop on 16 September 2016 at The Innovation Hub in Tshwane to assist SMMEs with the development and submission of successful proposals to this challenge.

For any challenge process or technical queries contact +27(0)608300458 or email moc.buhnoitavonnieht@xinepo.
As has become tradition over the past few years, members of the public will be able to have a basic will drafted by an attorney, free of charge, during National Wills Week, held from 12 - 16 September 2016. Attorneys' firms throughout the country are participating in the National Wills Week project.

"A valid will allows you to state who should inherit your assets and property, to appoint an executor of your choice for your estate, and also a guardian for your minor children. By ensuring that you have a valid will, you can protect the interests of your loved ones and ensure that your executor will act according to your wishes, as set out in your will," say Law Society of South Africa co-chairpersons Jan van Rensburg and Mvuso Notyesi.

Those who have been recently married, divorced or widowed, or those who have been cohabitating with their partners for some time, should also consider having a will drafted.

If you have been cohabitating with your partner, it is advisable to have a will to ensure that there are no competing claims on your estate. Similarly, unmarried persons "particularly those who may have a number of people who depend on them financially" should ensure they have a will in place, as several people could make a claim on their estate.

During National Wills Week, participating attorneys will display posters with their contact details, so that members of the public can make appointments with attorneys in their area. In addition, the contact details of all participating attorneys can be accessed on the LSSA website, or by contacting the relevant provincial law society.

What you should take to the attorney for your will to be drafted:



Your ID document; and



A list of what you own (including specific personal items that you wish to bequeath to specific people).

Before you go to the attorney, think about:



Who must get what;



Who should be the legal guardians of your minor children (those under 18); and



Who should be the executor of your will. This could be your attorney, or a close family member or friend. If you decide on a family member or friend, it is advisable also to nominate the attorney as co-executor, as the attorney will deal with any legal issues.

Why should an attorney draft your will?

A practising attorney has the necessary knowledge and expertise to ensure that your will is valid, by complying with all of the legal requirements in the Wills Act, and also that it complies with your wishes.

An attorney can also advise you on any problem that may arise with your will, and assist your executor.

Often a will is not valid because the person who drafts it does not have the necessary legal knowledge to ensure that all of the legal requirements of the Wills Act are met. These include the fact that the will must be in writing, it must be signed by the testator in the presence of at least two competent witnesses, and also signed by the witnesses.

What could happen to your estate if you die without a valid will?

If you die without leaving a valid will, your assets will be distributed according to the provisions of the Intestate Succession Act. These provisions are generally fair and ensure that your possessions are transferred to your spouse and children, and, where applicable, to siblings, parents, and, if required, then to the extended family in terms of degrees of relationships.

But, the following problems may arise if you die without leaving a will:

Your assets may not be left to the person of your choice;



It can take longer to have an executor appointed, and the executor who is appointed may be somebody you may not have chosen yourself;



There could be extra and unnecessary costs; and



There could be unhappiness and conflict among members of your family because there are no clear instructions on how to distribute your assets.

For more information, contact the Law Society of South Africa on +27 (0)12 366 8800 or visit www.LSSA.org.za.

Source: The Times via I-Net Bridge
In an effort to lower their monthly bond repayment many prospective buyers might be looking at financing their bond over a period of 30 years. However, before they do so, it is best for potential buyers to carefully consider the financial impact of the additional interest charged over the longer term loan period.

Many would-be homeowners may look at a 30-year bond as an attractive option because the lower monthly repayment makes it seem more affordable from the onset. However, while the buyer will pay around 8.3% less on their bond each month, over a period of 30 years they will end up paying 64% more interest than they would on a 20-year bond term. The savings on the monthly bond repayment is not enough to justify paying the massive amount of additional interest.

Affordability

He adds that home prices have seen an upward trajectory over the past few decades, while salaries have not followed suit. Getting into the property market has become more difficult for younger generations, which is why many buyers tend to choose a longer-term bond option. Affordability is an issue for many South Africans who are forced to find ways to cut down on repayments to get by; however it comes at a cost over the long term.

If a buyer purchases a home for R1m at prime, which is currently 10.5%, on a 20-year bond term, their repayments will be R9,984. If the buyer makes no additional payments into their bond account and pays the minimum instalment over the 240-month term, they will pay back a total of R2,396,112, of which R1,396,112 is interest.

If the buyer purchased the same property over a 30-year bond term, their monthly bond repayment would be R9,147. Again, if they made no other payments other than the monthly instalments, they would pay back a total of R3,293 061. In this instance the interest paid is over the term of the loan is R896,949 more.

Careful consideration

If the money saved on the monthly repayment is used to pay off other short-term debt or is spent on an interest-bearing investment with a higher return than the additional interest paid on the longer bond term, it might be a worthwhile endeavour. However, if the money is spent on consumables each month, the buyer will be in a far worse financial position in the long run. Prospective buyers might be convinced to opt for a 30-year bond due to the perceived short-term gain, but the accumulative effect of the additional 10-year period should be carefully considered before any final decision is taken. It is imperative that the pros and cons are carefully weighed up and an informed decision is made.

If a buyer has purchased their home with a 30-year bond and their financial situation has changed, if they can afford to pay more into their bond they should. This will reduce the term of the loan and overall interest paid. Regardless of the term of the loan, interest is only charged on the outstanding balance of the bond. Therefore, if the buyer pays more than they are contractually required to, they will bring down the total amount of interest payable, simultaneously cutting time off the loan period.

There are very few situations where a longer-term loan would be financially beneficial. Therefore before buyers are enticed by a lower monthly repayment, they need to consider their long-term finance position.
LONDON: British group Micro Focus will merge with some of Hewlett Packard Enterprise's software assets, the pair said, in a further consolidation of the global tech sector after SoftBank's blockbuster purchase of ARM Holdings.

The deal creates an entity worth $8.8 billion that will be "one of the world's largest pure-play enterprise software companies," the two said in a statement. Shares in Micro Focus soared more than 16% in early London trade Thursday.

String of mergers

It marks the latest in a string of tech sector mergers and acquisitions, topped by Japanese mobile firm SoftBank's vast $32 billion takeover of British iPhone chip designer ARM Holdings in July.

"With today's announcement, we are taking another important step in achieving the vision of creating a faster-growing, higher-margin, stronger cash-flow company well-positioned for our customers and for the future," HPE chief executive Meg Whitman said in a statement, unveiling the deal late Wednesday.

The move comes after the breakup of computer giant Hewlett Packard last year into two companies: software and services HPE and computer and printer maker HP Inc. HPE shareholders will get 50.1% ownership of the new combined company to be entitled HPE Software and a $2.5 billion cash payment. HPE Software and Micro Focus will have combined annual revenues of $4.5 billion and operating profit - as measured by EBITDA, or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation - of $1.35 billion.

The deal is the biggest announced purchase of a foreign target by a British firm since voters opted to quit the European Union in June. "The merger will create one of the world's largest infrastructure software companies with leading positions across a number of key products," Micro Focus chairman Kevin Loosemore said.

Other headline-grabbing takeovers recently have included Microsoft's $26-billion acquisition of social media company LinkedIn, and US cyber security leader Symantec's $4.65-billion purchase of Blue Coat Inc. Separately Wednesday, Intel announced plans to spin off its cyber security operations as an independent company under the name McAfee, as the US giant also sought to offload non-core operations.

"The tech sector is going through a rapid phase of consolidation. Tech is leading (the) deal market this year - as it did in 2015," ETX Capital analyst Neil Wilson told AFP. "The pace of tech deals is the second fastest ever after 2000, while the number of deals across the rest of the market is down."

British doing the buying

After ARM Holdings was snapped up in July, the latest merger also illustrates that British companies are able to do the buying, Wilson said. "After Arm Holdings was sold to SoftBank, it's also a sign that the UK tech sector is still capable of making deals in the other direction," he added.

"It's a confident move - it would be the biggest acquisition by a British company of a foreign tech firm and comes in the face of a massive drop in the value of the pound that has made UK firms the target of overseas bidders."

Analyst Markus Huber, of City of London Markets, said the developments were partly down to the fact that British tech companies were "simply very good in what they are doing".

A weakening of the pound in the last few years has also made British marketplace a sweeter proposition, he told AFP. "Despite all the Brexit talk and negative fall-out which many fear will follow, the fact is that the UK is and will remain a very attractive market place where foreign companies are not only eager to be well placed in, but also where they can't afford not to be in the first place," he said.

Source: AFP
Starting with San Francisco, Ford is teaming up with major global cities on current and future transportation needs to solve congestion issues and help people move about more easily. The company announced an agreement to acquire San Francisco-based crowd-sourced shuttle service, Chariot , and collaboration with Motivate , a bike-sharing provider, to expand transport solutions in city centres. Further, Ford is establishing a new City Solutions team to work with cities on their transportation needs.

"We're expanding our business to be both an auto and a mobility company, and partnering with cities on current and future transportation needs is the next major step," said Mark Fields, Ford president and CEO. "For more than 100 years, Ford has been part of the community and the trusted source for automotive transportation. Now, we want to work with communities to offer even more transportation choices and solutions for people - for decades to come."

Developing mobility solutions for increasingly congested cities

Today, half the world's population lives in cities. By 2030, that number is expected to grow to 60 percent. As city populations grow, the challenges tied to moving people and goods around become tougher. Ford is committed to being part of the solution.

"Cities globally are dealing with increased congestion, a growing middle class, and environmental issues - all of which can be alleviated by developing mobility solutions fine-tuned to the unique challenges of each location," said Jim Hackett, chairman, Ford Smart Mobility LLC, the company's subsidiary created to design, build, grow and invest in emerging mobility services.

"At the same time, by expanding our business model to include new forms of transportation - from bikes to dynamic shuttles and more - we are introducing new customers to Ford and creating new revenue and profit opportunities for the future."

Filling the gap between taxi and bus services

Ford's acquisition of Chariot, subject to normal customary closing conditions, will serve as the cornerstone for its new global shuttle services business. The shuttle service is expected to be expanded beyond San Francisco to at least five additional markets in the next 18 months.

Started in 2014, Chariot operates nearly 100 Ford Transit shuttles along 28 routes throughout San Francisco Bay Area. Today, Chariot's routes are crowd-sourced based on rider demand. In the future, they will operate dynamically - using data algorithms to map efficient routes to best serve the real-time mobility needs of communities.

The Chariot shuttles complement mass transit by filling the gap between taxi and bus services - providing an on-demand, point-to-point transportation option that is convenient, efficient and cost-effective. For every dynamic shuttle that is placed into service during peak travel times, urban congestion could be reduced by up to 25 fewer vehicles, according to a private study for Ford conducted by KPMG.

"Chariot's mission from day one has been to solve the commute by providing a mass transit solution that is fast, reliable and affordable for people living in today's cities," said Ali Vahabzadeh, Chariot co-founder and CEO. "We started our Chariot service with Ford's 15-passenger vehicles and continue to use Ford Transit shuttles to this day. We couldn't be more thrilled to be Ford Smart Mobility's first acquisition and leverage its leadership in transportation to fulfill Chariot's goals worldwide."

An interconnected mobility network

Bikes are another important mode of transportation for commuters in the Bay Area. Ford and Motivate, the global leader in bike share, are working with city officials to add new stations and increase the number of bikes to 7,000 in the Bay Area by the end of 2018. When it launches next year, Ford GoBike will be accessed by users through the FordPass platform.

"A transportation revolution is coming to the Bay Area," said Jay Walder, CEO of Motivate. "This unique partnership with Ford shows that bike share is no longer alternative transportation; it is central to creating smart, on-demand mobility that represents our values for equity and sustainability. Thanks to the partnership of Metropolitan Transportation Commission, San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, Berkeley and Emeryville, bike share will soon be available for all in the Bay Area."

Ford plans to develop technologies to use data collected from the bikes to build an interconnected mobility network. This could include real-time data, such as weather conditions, usage patterns, and bike availability, to optimize commutes.

Expanding mobility services worldwide

Ford also is establishing its new City Solutions team to work with cities on expanding mobility services worldwide as part of Ford Smart Mobility LLC. John Kwant - who has worked with several global cities during his Ford career as part of the company's government affairs and global strategy teams - has been tapped to lead the effort as vice president, Ford City Solutions.

The team will address the reality that each city's transportation ecosystem has evolved over time and poses a unique set of transportation challenges. Through a joint discovery process, Ford City Solutions will work with municipalities to propose, pilot and develop mobility solutions tailored to the community. Discussions are already under way with several global cities.
Schalk Bezuidenhout returns to the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town with his one-man act, Second Language, on 21 and 22 October, due to popular demand.

The hilarious and award-winning stand-up comedian recently debuted the show at the Golden Arrow Studio Theatre to a sold out run.

The Golden Arrow Studio run exceeded all my expectations. It was so lekker that the Baxter has invited me back to do another run of the show in October at the Main theatre, which is any comedian on my levels dream! Get tickets for Second Language soon, you dont want to be that person who has to watch the show on DVD because you didnt get tickets. Did I mention that were shooting a DVD? adds Schalk.

This talented youngster brings his wild fro to the stage as he explores his conservative upbringing in Kempton Park (Johannesburg) with his current liberal outlook on life.

Schalk Bezuidenhout is one of South Africas best young comedians and has genuinely made an impact in the comedy world. In the few short years that he has been on the comedy scene, Schalk has won two Comics Choice Awards and has opened for Trevor Noah.

About Schalk Bezuidenhout

Bezuidenhouts personable style and true-to-life stories make watching him a unique experience.

He took his career like a fish to water and has had the opportunity to perform at great venues around the country with fellow comedians. On stage, his fun and energetic style appeals to people of all walks of life.

Apart from his Comics Choice Awards, Schalk is the 2012 winner of the Cape Town Graca Comedy Showdown, has performed at Blacks Only multiple times, the full run of Jive Cape Town Funny Festival in 2014, took part in Trevor Noahs NationWILD Tour in 2014 and 2015 and opened for Noah in 2015. He also received the KKNK Kanna Award for Best Up and Coming Artist in 2015 and recorded his own Comedy Central Special in the same year.

Ticket details

Tickets cost R100 and are available through Computicket.
Shimmy Beach Club is to host the ninth annual Men's Health Menswear Collection Fashion Show and VIP event at 19.00 on 21 September 2016.

Hot in the City

Themed Hot in the City, this years event will feature the latest ready-to-wear fashion from some of the most popular South African and international fashion brands, providing a platform to showcase some of the latest fashion collections from a number of menswear ranges.



Launched in 2007, Menswear offers celebrities, stylists, local fashion icons, trendsetters and VIP guests an opportunity to gather under one roof and watch 15 of South Africas fashion brands on the runway.

A word from the editor

This event continues to grow and evolve and were extremely excited to be hosting it in Cape Town this year, says Mens Health fashion editor, Azeez Jacobs. Our annual Collection brings the iconic Mens Health style coverage to life by showcasing well-known local and international brands in an energetic, fun and super-stylish show that never fails to wow the crowd. We are thrilled to have a fragrance brand, such as Abercrombie & Fitch, on board as our headline sponsor in this celebration of Spring/Summer style.



Attendees may expect appearances on the runway from well-known faces, including recent Mens Health cover stars.



The Mens Health Menswear Collection fashion show is presented in association with First Instinct, the fragrance created by the global retailer, Abercrombie & Fitch.



Only a limited number of tickets will be available. The event will also be open to the public from 22.00, where people are encouraged to attend the after party with their friends.

Visit mh.co.za for more information. Follow the brand at @menshealthza and #MHStyle on Twitter, and visit the Facebook page at facebook.com/MensHealthSA.
I took some rare me-time out to treat myself to the media offer of a ZO Skin Brightening treatment at the Green Point branch of LegsEleven beauty and aesthetic specialists.

The session consisted of a hydrating cleanse, a finely abrasive tea tree and minty fragranced exfoliating scrub, a chemical peel and mask, finished off with an application of silky serum.

Throughout the treatment session, therapist Liezl explains the step-by-step approach of the ZO product range, named after Zein Obaji, the dermatologist who is credited with conceiving and bringing to market his new philosophies and principles in skincare.

Pitched at the top end of the price spectrum, the skin brightening regimen offers sumptuous textures and fragrances and left a definite afterglow of brightness and plumpness on my skin. Like all chemical peels its a little bit prickly and stingy, but nothing my particularly sensitive skin couldnt handle.

The ZO skin brightening regimen may be slightly different from any you have previously practiced. Advocating daily at home microdermabrasion with an exfoliating polish, a less is more approach to moisturising with collagen stimulating serums and the essential daily application of a UV and infrared sun screen primer  all designed to offer a multi-prong approach to fight the ravages of aging.

Products claim to have been designed to wake up the cells in the deeper layers of skin by employing the latest technologies in bio-engineered complexes, plant stem cell components and antioxidants.

Under the take no prisoners hashtags #fightageing #fighthard, new skincare regimens may be as abrasive on the pocket as they are on the skin, but if prematurely ageing or problem skin is a cause youre willing to fight for, it might be worth saving up, because a little does seem to go a long way. While this review is not meant to be an endorsement, my skin enjoyed the pamper session and suffered no adverse after effects.

Thanks to Sue, Liezl and LegsEleven Salon for the treat.

www.legs11.co.za
WASHINGTON: Electric carmaker Tesla announced Sunday it was upgrading its Autopilot software to use more advanced radar technology.

In a teleconference, Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk said the update, which should be downloadable in two weeks for models delivered after October 2014, "very likely" would have saved the life of a Florida driver who died in May after colliding with a truck. With the latest update, the system would have identified a "large metal object across the road," Musk said.

The Florida tragedy - the first deadly crash with a driverless system - took place after Autopilot failed to detect the truck due to poor weather and low luminosity. The radar technology - which will now be used as a primary control sensor, rather than relying on the standard camera system - easily sees through fog, dust rain or snow.

"It should work for something like a moose, because a moose is quite a big mass, but it may not work for something like a small deer," Musk said.

Tesla explained that "the net effect of this, combined with the fact that radar sees through most visual obscuration, is that the car should almost always hit the brakes correctly even if a UFO were to land on the freeway in zero visibility conditions." The company's cars, it said, will also be able to bounce the radar signal under a vehicle it is trailing and still brake, avoiding a potential pile-up should the car in front crash.

"Perfect safety is really an impossible goal," Musk said in discussing the update, which was developed over the past three to four months. "It's about improving the probability of safety. There won't ever be zero fatalities, there won't ever be zero injuries."

The Tesla chief estimated that the new system was a threefold improvement of safety, while stopping short of considering the update a recall of the old system.

Source: AFP
Winners for the Unilever Food Solutions Chef of the Year mystery basket national finals have been announced. Henrico Grobbelaar from Tsogo Sun's Southern Sun The Cullinan (Cape Town) emerged victorious in the senior category, and the junior category chef to take the title is Richard Ellis from 1000 Hills Chefs School (Durban).

Richard Ellis and Henrico Grobbelaar

Grobbelaars top prize for the Senior Chef of the Year title is R20,000 and Elliss prize for the Junior Chef of the Year title is R15,000. Second place went to Michaela van der Merwe from Kloof Street House in Cape Town with a prize of R10,000, and third place to Sydney Nyandeni from the South African embassy in Vienna, Austria, with a prize of R5,000 in the senior category. For Junior Chef of the Year, Aaron Subroyal from 1000 Hills Chefs School in KZN won R7,000 in second place and Amerae Vercueil from Ameroozle in Johannesburg won R5,000 in third place.

Participants in the junior and senior categories of this years Chef of the Year were required to create recipes using Unilever Food Solutions products for a starter, main course, and dessert, with accompanying photographs. These recipes were assessed by an experienced judging panel and the regional finalists took part in the regional final cook-offs in July in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban respectively, bringing the finalist numbers down to seven in each category.

Our heartiest congratulations to all the finalists and particularly to the winning chefs in each category on what was a nerve-racking challenge producing world-class dishes, says Remco Bol, MD of Unilever Food Solutions South Africa. Our theme for this year was A Cut Above which by all accounts inspired chefs from all over the country to enter highly innovative and tasty recipes in the competition. The end result was a powerful line-up of top caliber chefs going head to head in both categories in the final cook-off, giving our judging panel the difficult task of identifying the top chefs.

The judges in the senior category included Garth Shnier (Executive Chef of Sandton Sun, InterContinental Johannesburg Sandton Towers and Sandton Convention Centre) as the head judge, Tony Kocke (Beverly Hills), Warren Frantz (Ushaka Marine World), and Shaun Smith (Fusion Cooking School) as the kitchen judge. In the junior category they were Desmond Davies (International Convention Centre, Durban), Nardia Adams (Fudart), Clinton Bonhomme (Southern Sun Elangeni and Maharani), and Sean Webber (Bravo Foods) as the kitchen judge.

Senior chef of the year

Senior chef of the Year, Henrico Grobbelaars winning dishes included a starter of soy seared tuna titaki, pan-fried pancetta sage wrapped scallop, crumbed tentacles, blanched bok choy, cayenne paprika mayonnaise, apple, kiwi, celery and avocado salad, soy mushrooms with lemon hollandaise sauce; slow roasted lamb loin, pan fried kidney, roasted butternut and pear puree, fried onion mash, pickled carrot, mint infused baby marrow, milk poached cauliflower with tomato beef sauce on the side for the main course; and baked genoise sponge, soaked in strawberry syrup layered with chocolate mousse, Amarula sabayon, orange nut meringue sheet, nut praline with wild berry jelly and salad for dessert.

Grobbelaar is the current Captain of the South African National Culinary Team and will be leading the Team that will compete in the Culinary Olympics in Germany in October.

Junior chef of the year

Junior Chef of the Year, Richard Elliss dishes were pan fried salmon, scallop ceviche, tartare foam, thyme granita and vegetables finished in beurre monte finished in smoke for starter; braised pork belly, roast vegetables, cauliflower puree, pomme crumpet, rosemary caramel, beetroot jus and duxelles for the main course; and sable pastry tart, meringue and poached fruit with red wine melting peppered candy floss sauce for dessert.

Commenting at the prizegiving, head chef Garth Shnier, who is a member of the World Association of Chefs Societies Culinary Guidelines Committee, which adjudicates competitions around the world, said, The Unilever Food Solutions Chef of the Year is a WACS-accredited competition and, as such, these winners are considered to be at an international competition level. This is an exceptionally important competition for South Africa, in ensuring that our culinary standards are on a par with the rest of the world. This years competitors proved that South Africas culinary skills, talent, and creativity can stand up against the very best.
The 2016 African Legal Awards were held on Friday, 9 September 2016, at the Wanderers Club in Johannesburg. Hosted by Legal Week and the Corporate Counsel Association of South Africa (CCASA), the awards recognise excellence and innovation in the legal profession on the African continent.

The awards are adjudicated by an independent panel made up of general counsel and other senior members of the legal community.

South Africa's outgoing Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, was awarded the Corporate Counsel Association of South Africa Achievement Award.

Christo Els, senior partner at Webber Wentzel

South African firm, Webber Wenztel took home four awards, including Attornery of the Year, which went to a member of their pro bono team, Odette Geldenhuys. The company had been shortlisted in 13 categories, receiving a total of 14 nominations, the highest number for a single firm in this year's awards.

A special acknowledgement goes to two of our lawyers, Odette Geldenhuys, winner of the Attorney of the Year award and Pooja Dela, who was nominated for the same award, for their outstanding work in the pro bono space in the last year. Both are also in the running for the IBA Pro Bono Award 2016, which will be announced in Washington DC later this month, said Christo Els, senior partner at Webber Wentzel.

In an impressive showing, ENSafrica won three of the four categories in which it was nominated. Newly-rebranded Bowmans also picked up three awards.

Complete list of winners
Global home-sharing giant Airbnb announced on Thursday it is implementing new policies aimed at curbing racial discrimination by hosts and creating a permanent team aimed at fighting bias.

SAN FRANCISCO - The new policies come from a review launched earlier this year in the face of concerns over discrimination on the platform, which allows users to rent out a room, a bed or an entire lodging.

"Discrimination is the opposite of belonging, and its existence on our platform jeopardizes this core mission," Airbnb chief Brian Chesky said in an email to hosts and guests.

"Bias and discrimination have no place on Airbnb, and we have zero tolerance for them. Unfortunately, we have been slow to address these problems, and for this I am sorry... We will not only make this right; we will work to set an example that other companies can follow."

Chesky said that a new "Open Doors" policy starting 1 October will allow a guest anywhere in the world who feels subject to discrimination to be booked in a similar place on Airbnb, or an alternative accommodation elsewhere.

Airbnb will also seek to increase its "instant book" lodgings, which do not require approval of a specific guest.

The home-sharing group will also create "a permanent team of engineers, data scientists, researchers, and designers whose sole purpose is to advance belonging and inclusion and to root out bias," according to a document produced by its review committee.

Airbnb earlier this year asked former American Civil Liberties Union executive Laura Murphy to head up a review, which included input from former US attorney general Eric Holder. The report said Airbnb should also de-emphasise the use of photos, which may lead to discrimination.

"Airbnb's new product team dedicated to fighting discrimination will experiment with reducing the prominence of guest photos in the booking process and enhancing other parts of host and guests profiles with objective information," the report said.

The high-profile campaign to ferret out discrimination came after an Airbnb host in the US state of North Carolina fired off hateful, race-based messages to a black woman while canceling a stay she had booked at his home.

Airbnb operates in more than 190 countries and has been valued at an estimated $30 billion.

Source: AFP
Facebook was confronted on Friday with fierce indignation in Norway as the nation's top newspaper, the prime minister and users voiced outrage over the network's decision to censor a historic Vietnam War photo.

OSLO - Facebook has been deleting from users' pages, including that of Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, the 1972 picture of a naked Vietnamese girl running from a napalm attack, one of the war's defining images.

Taken by Vietnamese photographer Nick Ut Cong Huynh for Associated Press, the picture was honoured with the Pulitzer Prize.

"Facebook is taking the wrong road when it censors photos like this. This contributes to blocking freedom of expression," the prime minister wrote on her Facebook page early Friday, in a comment that quickly received thousands of "likes".

The affair began several weeks ago after Norwegian author Tom Egeland published a post about war photos, illustrated by the iconic picture. It was promptly deleted by Facebook.

Egeland's fans rose to his defence and published the photo, posts which Facebook also deleted in line with its rules barring nudity.

Many are in uproar over the removal.  Ufuk Uyanik  123RF.com

In recent days, Facebook has continued to remove the photo and even suspended the accounts of other Norwegians who posted it.

Facebook's moves have sparked fierce reactions in Norway, an ardent defender of civil liberties.

"I appreciate the work done by Facebook and other media to stop images and content showing physical abuse and violence. It's important that we all contribute to the fight against violence and physical abuse of children," the prime minister's Facebook post said.

That post was deleted at midday, with the prime minister's office saying later Facebook had removed it.

Solberg re-posted the picture several hours later, this time with the nudity blacked out in protest and a plea to Facebook to "review its censorship policy and assume the responsibility befitting of a large company with a broad communication platform."

Norway's biggest daily Aftenposten also shot back against Facebook's censorship by publishing the photo on its print front page on Friday, under Facebook's logo, accompanied by a two-page open letter to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

"I write you this letter because I'm concerned by the fact that the biggest media in the world is limiting freedoms instead of trying to broaden them, and because this is happening in a sometimes authoritarian fashion," editor-in-chief Espen Egil Hansen wrote under the headline "Dear Mark."

Aftenposten had also published the picture on its Facebook page several days previously. Facebook had asked it to take down the picture, but then deleted it before Aftenposten editors could respond to Facebook's request.

"I'm afraid we're becoming a society where the lowest common denominator determines what is shocking to the global population," Hansen told AFP.

"The information has to be as acceptable in a small village in Pakistan as in an intellectual milieu in Paris. This lowest common denominator is a very dangerous mechanism when it is implemented by the most influential editor-in-chief in the world," he said in reference to Zuckerberg.

The affair has taken on such proportions that the Norwegian Press Federation has asked the country's powerful pension fund, the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, to examine whether the censorship practice was in line with its ethical criteria for investments.

At the end of 2015, the fund owned 0.52 percent of Facebook.

This is not the first time Facebook has been accused of censorship, which is problematic because of its growing importance as a key channel of information for many people.

Facebook has in the past blocked several artworks.

The company is to go on trial in France after a schoolteacher accused it of censorship for blocking his account after he posted a photo of a painting by Gustave Courbet called "L'Origine du monde" (The Origin of the World) that shows a woman's genitals.

And earlier this year, a Danish lawmaker also complained that Facebook had removed her picture of the Copenhagen statue of the Little Mermaid because of its nudity rules.

Source: AFP
J.C. Le Roux was recently hailed in the Ask Afrika Icon Brands Survey, taking home the category win for the sixth time. Jackie Olivier, global marketing manager of sparkling wines at Distell, explains their innovation focus.

Jackie Olivier

Its always a proud moment when your brand comes out on top, especially in awards that are voted for by consumers. Thats what happened when the J.C. Le Roux range of sparkling wines was named the only alcoholic beverage and one of just 39 brands to achieve iconic status in the 2016/2017 Ask Afrika Icon Brands consumer survey, which polled over 15,000 consumers countrywide on brands in 163 product categories in total.

More than just the countrys leading sparkling wine, the title shows the brands marketing team is effective as it has a loyal customer base across home language, cultural background and even income level. Thats all the more impressive when you consider sparkling wine is usually seen as a luxury item, only purchased to celebrate special occasions  you dont exactly drown your sorrows with a solitary glass of bubbly.

Olivier shares how the range of sparkling wines crafted at The House of J.C. Le Roux in the heart of the Stellenbosch Winelands has captured consumer loyalty across South Africa.

1. What does it mean to be named an SA Icon Brand?

Olivier: Being Ask Afrikas Icon in the sparkling wine category reflects the fact that J.C. Le Roux has won the hearts and souls of South African consumers, has become an integral part of their lives and is a brand that they know intimately and trust. Its a great honour, and an achievement for everyone who has worked on the brand, past and present.

2. Indeed, youre clearly doing something right. What does it take to resonate with consumers when theyre survey respondents, so theres no direct interaction?

Olivier: There are a number of factors that work in J.C. Le Rouxs favour when the brand is not physically on the table in front of the consumer, as it wouldnt have been while Ask Afrikas respondents were being interviewed.

Firstly, theres our heritage. J.C. Le Roux is an established brand with a long and well-known tradition of being there when South Africans celebrate weddings, birthdays, births, promotions, engagements, victories  or even just another beautiful day in the company of friends.

Some of the J.C. Le Roux range...

Then, theres its strong distribution network, ensuring that when South Africans feel the need to pop the proverbial cork, a bottle or two of J.C. Le Roux is never far. Its also the marketing teams continuous efforts to ensure that the brand reaches out to consumers at every possible touchpoint from television advertising to in-store visibility and so on.

Most importantly, its the fact that our communication resonates with our target market in a way that is innovative and memorable.

3. How do you effectively market an alcohol brand so that it appeals to multiple subsets of consumers?

Olivier: You are quite right. J.C. Le Roux is a brand that is very occasion-specific, and therefore tends to be relevant to a larger number of consumer segments. The obvious action is to constantly reference the occasion when marketing the brand. Our tack has been slightly different and its one that has relied to a fair degree on innovation, and an appreciation that different people would want a different product, despite the occasion theyd consume that product being the same, or very similar.

For example, we have an alcohol-free J.C. Le Roux for those who want to celebrate with a bubble, but dont consume alcohol. We were also the first to produce a demi-sec or off-dry MCC to appeal to those who are not fond of the austere brut styles, and then there was our red sparkling wine for the even more adventurous. The key is to provide the consumer with choice, to be accessible but inspirational.

4. How does this title play into your future branding/marketing of J.C. Le Roux?

Olivier: The title is affirmation that what weve been doing on all levels from product innovation to marketing communications is working, that our actions are steadily and relentlessly building the brand. But, it is also a challenge. As the market leader, J.C. Le Roux cannot dwell on its past successes, it must look to the future and create new ways of entertaining and surprising its consumers, keep moving with the times and evolve. So, the title is a catalyst for change, but change that is meaningful and adds to the relationship consumers have with the brand.

Inspirational, to say the least. Click here for more on the Ask Afrika Icon brands 2016, and visit the J.C. Le Roux website, or keep up with their social media innovation on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
Brand Finance has announced that Jeremy Sampson has been appointed a director of Brand Finance Africa, officially assuming the position on 8 September 2016. Sampson joins Ollie Schmitz and Thebe Ikalafeng, the managing director and chairman, respectively, in the Africa division of Brand Finance.

Jeremy Sampson

Sampson has had a long career in marketing, advertising, graphic design, public relations, reputation management, and branding. Previously, he had a successful career at Interbrand where he founded and was the executive chairman of the Africa operations of the international branding group.

During his time at Interbrand, Sampson was awarded the prestigious Financial Mail AdFocus Lifetime Achievement Award, amongst numerous others from the UK, the US and South Africa.

On being appointed, Sampson commented, I am delighted to be joining the Brand Finance team at a time when brands have never been more important, their impact ever increasing and embracing most aspects of our day to day lives on a global scale. In Africa, many brands are not measured, monitored nor leveraged to their full potential. My appointment presents an opportunity to change this.

The list of Sampsons accomplishments ranges from being a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (UK) to a Visiting Professor at the University of Cape Town, Graduate School of Business. Today, Sampson consults and mentors, sits on advisory panels and plays an active role in the media, which includes hosting programmes for Classic FM. Aside from the world of branding, his interests include art and printmaking and the world of wine.

Thebe Ikalafeng, chairman of Brand Finance Africa, stated, It is an honour to welcome Jeremy to Brand Finance. He brings an unparalleled pedigree in branding in Africa which will enhance our efforts to broaden the role of branding on the bottom line and in the boardroom.

David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance, commented, As African brands grow in stature both at home and abroad, it is becoming increasingly important for the continents companies to understand and manage brand value. Jeremys breadth of experience and focus on helping African brands to succeed make him the perfect candidate to spread this crucial message and to help African brands make their mark on the domestic and international stage.
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Armed skirmishes between BGF and DKBA forces have intensified in recent days in a series of tit-for-tat engagements.

Eyewitnesses and local villagers told Karen News that more than one hundred pick-up trucks fully loaded with Government soldiers were seen heading up to Mae Tha Wor areas and taking positions in Hlaingbwe Township, Karen State.

According to sources close to the BGF, Karen News understands that troops from Burma Army Division #22 and #44 have now also joined the armed clashes with a purpose to wipe out the DKBA in the areas of current conflict. If this is true, then it would mean a serious escalation in the conflict.

The 2,000 villagers evacuated on September 9 with the help of well-known and influential Myaing Gyi Ngus Abbot U Thuzana, who has given over his monastery for the displaced.

The following day, September 10, villagers from Mae Tha Wor areas who live close to the Thai border, crossed the Moei River in to Thailand, Tha Song Yang district of Tak province seeking temporary safety from the conflict.

Tension between the BGF and DKBA troops in Mae Tha Wor areas mounted after DKBA troops in the area announced an offensive against the BGF on September 1.

The DKBA have since carried out several small attacks on BGF bases.
Fridays discharge marked the first release of child soldiers from military service since the U Htin Kyaw Government took office in April this year.

We call on the government to accelerate the essential remaining steps, particularly by clearly banning the use and recruitment of children in the soon to be adopted, nationally recognised Child Law, which will further reinforce age assessment procedures within the military recruitment process, including the prevention of violations against children in the military curriculum, said Bertrand Bainvel, UNICEFs Burma representative.

The UNs statement also mentioned that the newly released children and young people will benefit from socio-economic reintegration programs, including access to education, vocational training, and income generation activities, to restart their lives.

We welcome this discharge, while stressing the need for the government to continue making every effort to end the recruitment and use of children in its armed forces, said Renata Dessallien, the UNs Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar.

The exact number of underage soldiers in the Tatmadaw is unknown.

At least seven ethnic armed groups, including Kachin Independence Army, United Wa State Army (UWSA) and Shan State Army-South, recruit minors, according to the UN.

Since the joint action plan was signed between the military and UN in 2012, the total number released from military service is at 800.

On the same day, in addition to the 55 children released from service, 13 young people who were recruited as children but are now adults, were also discharged.
The $1.3 billion refinancing this week of One Bryant Park, a Midtown Manhattan office tower, may be the first deal of its kind.

The New York Liberty Development Corp. Wednesday plans to issue $650 million of refunding Liberty bonds on behalf of the owners of the building, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and the Durst Organization. The refunding will be the first for Liberty bonds. At the same time, $650 million of commercial mortgage-backed securities will be marketed to refinance outstanding loans and pay for additional costs and fees.

The LDC is an affiliate of the Empire State Development Corp.

One Bryant Park LLC owns the LEED-certified building. The corporation is 50.01% owned by an affiliate of Durst and 49.99% owned by Bank of America.

The fixed-rate tax-exempt bonds and fixed-rate taxable CMBS are secured by a leasehold mortgage on the building  a 51-story Class-A glass and steel office tower located a block away from Times Square on the corner of 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue overlooking Bryant Park. Construction began on the 2.35-million-square-foot building in 2004 and was completed last year.

The ESDC holds title to the building and land underneath and leases it to One Bryant Park under a 99-year term. This arrangement allows One Bryant Park to make payments in lieu of taxes on the property that are lower than property taxes would be for 20 years. At the end of 20 years, One Bryant Park has the right to purchase the title for $10, according to the preliminary official statement.

The Durst Organization is a commercial real estate developer in Manhattan with a portfolio of more than eight million square feet of office space. The building serves as Bank of America's headquarters for operations in New York City and houses several of the Charlotte, N.C.-based firm's businesses, including global corporate and investment banking.

Durst spokesman Jordan Barowitz and Bank of America spokeswoman Danielle Robinson declined to comment for this article. Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan are underwriting the debt.

Winston & Strawn LLP is bond counsel and Chatham Capital Advisors LLC is financial adviser.

The federal Liberty bond program is an $8 billion private-activity bond program established by Congress following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

This deal has been structured as a CMBS transaction and Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's rated it using structured finance analysts rather than municipal bond analysts. Moody's Investors Service does not rate the deal.

The four tranches of debt have been preliminarily rated according to their priority of payment under CMBS criteria, rather than municipal bond criteria. Unlike municipal bonds, CMBS ratings are preliminary until the deal closes.

Fitch and Standard & Poor's each assign a preliminary AAA to the CMBS certificates, which have a senior lien on the loans that secure the debt. Fitch and Standard & Poor's preliminarily rate the three tranches of Liberty bonds AA, A, and BBB-minus. Standard & Poor's ratings on the Liberty bonds were unavailable at press time.

"The CMBS bonds are senior, and the Liberty bonds are junior for both payments and losses, so payments of principal and interest are distributed on a sequential basis," said Fitch analyst Eric Rothfeld. "If the loan were to default and losses were incurred, they would work reverse sequentially  so because of the payment priority, the ratings are different."

The use of Liberty bonds on a CMBS deal is one reason the transaction is unusual.

"You have two loans and one mortgage and they're cross defaulted," said Fitch analyst Jeff Watzke. "We deal with that all the time  with two loans  but just having the Liberty bond financing has allowed them to get the tax exempt status, a lower cost of funding, and some other benefits as well."

The triple-A CMBS certificates pay interest only for the first 10 years with an anticipated repayment date in 2020. At that time, the debt will either be refinanced or hyperamortized. That debt is expected to be repaid in 21 years, according to Fitch's rating report.

The Liberty bonds will begin amortizing in 2040. The first tranche, Class 1, consists of two series that are preliminarily rated AA by Fitch. The first series has a par amount of $100 million and matures in 2042. The second series has a par of $251.6 million and matures in 2046. The second tranche, Class 2 bonds, is preliminarily rated A by Fitch, has a par of $87.1 million, and matures in 2047. The third tranche, Class 3, is preliminarily rated BBB-minus by Fitch, has a par of $211.3 million, and matures in 2049.

"The servicing structure of all the classes are very similar to a traditional CMBS deal," Rothfeld said.

A single-asset securitization such as this is more susceptible to a single event risk related to the market, owner, or largest tenant  in this case, Bank of America  Fitch said in its rating report.

The firm invested $260 million on infrastructure and $206 million to build out the space. Bank of America's lease expires in 2028, at which time it has a 10-year renewal option and two five-year renewal options. If the firm doesn't renew the lease in 2028, it has to give two and half years notice.

"If they were to leave, we felt that the notice period should be sufficient to lease the majority of that space," Rothfeld said. "Given their significant investment in the space, it also lessens the likelihood that they would leave."

The recession has hurt the commercial real estate market but there are signs that it's coming back. According to a report this month by real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, May was the strongest month for new commercial leasing activity since 2006. Manhattan Class-A office space vacancy declined to 12% in May from 12.5%.

The vacancy rate for Class-A office space in midtown declined to 13.2% in May from 13.9% in March. That is still considerably higher than when the market was at its peak in January 2007, when Midtown's vacancy hit a low of 5%.

"Without question, the Midtown Manhattan office market has stabilized," said Ken McCarthy, Cushman & Wakefield managing director of research for the New York metro region, in a press release.

One Bryant Park has an average gross rent of $81.50 per square foot compared to average asking rents of $65.44 per square foot in the Times Square submarket, according to data cited in the Fitch report.

"This building commands higher rents than other buildings in the submarket because of its asset quality," Rothfeld said. Bank of America's lease is "consistent with or probably below what this building could command."

The Liberty bonds being refunded were sold in 2004 as variable-rate debt through the New York City Industrial Development Agency. When the IDA approved the original sale, Bank of America agreed to occupy at least 1.1 million square feet of the tower, consolidate 2,995 jobs in the building, and create 2,800 jobs. In return, the IDA agreed to sales and real estate tax breaks worth $38.5 million and energy benefits worth $3.5 million over 35 years.

In late 2007, the issuer approved the refunding of the bonds, but that deal was put on hold in 2008 due to poor market conditions. IDA spokesman Kyle Sklerov referred questions about why the borrower was refinancing through LDC to the borrower. IDA and LDC split the refinancing fees, Sklerov said.

"One of the things that differentiates this from other Liberty bond deals in general and a lot of other deals is the fact that the building's built," said Frances Walton, LDC treasurer and ESDC chief financial officer. "It's a fantastic piece of real estate in a central location in Manhattan."
Djibouti becomes Afreximbank participating state

The President of Djibouti, Ismail Omar Guelleh, has announced the countrys accession to the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) Establishment Agreement, making it a participating state of the continental trade finance institution.

President Guelleh, who announced the accession on Monday while receiving Dr. Benedict Oramah, President of Afreximbank, at the Presidential Palace in Djibouti, said that the country wanted to build up its logistics and renewable energy sectors as development priorities to drive sustainable economic growth and regional integration and looked forward to collaborating with the Afreximbank to deliver on some of the significant infrastructure projects linked with that objective.

Djiboutis strategic location on the East African coastline, where there is high marine traffic, means that it offers significant viable opportunities for industrial development, particularly in ship building and repairs, said President Guelleh.

Responding, Dr. Oramah said that the signing of the instrument of accession would allow Djibouti to start enjoying full access to the range of services, programmes and facilities offered by the Bank.

The trade and infrastructure development plans initiated by Djibouti are very impressive, he said. They have the potential to transform the country and to make an impact, not only in the region but across Africa, as the country moves toward becoming a key logistics hub for the continent.

Dr. Oramah pledged that Afreximbank would work with public and private entities in Djibouti and would link them with other African and international economic players in order to deploy the Banks trade finance programmes in support of the countrys priorities, including the development of renewal energy infrastructure through the Banks funding programme with KFW, the German development bank, construction of world-class tourism amenities under the Banks CONTOUR facility, and expansion of Djiboutis transport and logistics infrastructure.

Djiboutis vision and trade development drive, and its regional potential were consistent with Afreximbanks strategy to boost intra-African trade and promote the industrialisation of the continent, he added.

President Oramah urged Djibouti to move quickly to conclude the ratification of the Agreement as required under the terms of the 1993 Abidjan Agreement on the Establishment of the Bank.

In addition visiting President Guelleh, the Afreximbank President also met with Ilyas Moussa Dawaleh, Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry of Djibouti, with the executives of the Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority, and with representatives of Electricite de Djibouti, the national electricity company, to discuss projects that required financing.

www.afreximbank.com




NEW DELHI (PTI): The Indian Air Force (IAF) has put all it bases in the western sector under UAV surveillance in the run up to an air exercise scheduled this week.



As part of the forthcoming Air exercise in WAC (Western Air Command) and to enhance security measures, all Air Force bases in Western Air Command are now under continuous security surveillance by UAVs, an IAF source said.



Pathankot air base, which came under attack from Pakistan-based terrorists earlier this year, also comes under the Western Air Command.



The air exercise, which comes in the aftermath of the Pathankot terror attack, is scheduled to be held in Haldwara in Punjab this week.



During the exercise full strength of a base is on operational deployment and the security pickets and patrols are enhanced and strengthened.



The WAC also rates its performance and compares it with reports by independent bodies like DASI and AEB.



The AF operations are highly centralised. The command monitored very closely its own plans unfolding without major glitches.



"With the passage of time, change of equipment and Manning state, fresh realignments must work in sync. We also rate our performance and compare with reports by independent bodies like DASI and AEB," the source said.



"Since all bases have gone through special security audits post Pathankot terror attack and actioned upon the issues flagged therein, the surveillance would be a good feedback mechanism also," source added.



The exercise also allows commander to cross check actual redeployment of assets and personnel on ground, the sources said.


The Taoiseach Enda Kenny has described the European Commission's recent Apple tax ruling as "profoundly wrong".

Discussing the commission's ruling that Apple owes Ireland 13bn in taxes, the Mr Kenny defended Ireland's right to set its own taxes.

Speaking on Newstalk's Pat Kenny Show, the Taoiseach said: "We are entitled as a sovereign nation to set the level of corporate tax that we believe is appropriate as an attractive element for foreign direct investment here to create jobs and opportunities for people to work and live in our country."

He argued that accepting the decision would send the "signal of having willfully and intentionally involved ourselves in something illegal".

He said: "Apple have paid what they're due."
Lezlie Bauler works at a gym in Maryville, Tennessee. Yesterday, on the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, a firefighter came in by himself with a special request.

"This man asked if it was okay for him to climb 110 sets, fully suited, of stairs in honor of his fallen brothers and sisters for 9-11, " Lezlie wrote on Facebook.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has described allegations of bags of cash being paid to a former adviser to Nama as incredible and extraordinary.

Mr Kenny said he was not opposed to an inquiry into the handling of Project Eagle, the biggest property deal in Northern Ireland when US investment giant Cerberus paid Nama 1.2bn (1.4bn) for a loan portfolio in 2014.

The sale was first dogged by controversy after 7m (8.2m) linked to it was found in an Isle of Man bank account.

Subsequently BBC Spotlight reported a series of taped conversations between developer John Miskelly and Frank Cushnahan, the former member of Nama's Northern Ireland advisory committee, including one about a handover of 40,000 (47,200) cash in a hospital car park.

Mr Kenny said he had watched the programme.

"I found it quite incredible," he said.

"Nothing surprises me at the kind of activities that take place in politics, in that sense I find it extraordinary to hear the audio reports of engagements and meetings between certain personnel."

Project Eagle has been examined on several occasions at the Public Accounts Committee in Dublin.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) ran its own audit of the same. Its report, which is due to be examined by cabinet ministers this week, is expected to find that taxpayers lost out on hundreds of millions of euro.

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin has joined calls from opposition politicians for an inquiry.

Mr Kenny told Kfm: "If I find or our colleagues in Government find that this is a case that has to be examined then I won't be opposed to that.

"If there are questions arising from the Public Accounts Committee engagement with Nama, and they are due before them shortly, I'm not averse to taking action, but I need to know what it is I'm taking action on."

Mr Cushnahan has denied any wrongdoing.

Nama is due to appear before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on September 22 and its executives are also to be questioned at the Oireachtas Finance Committee, chaired by John McGuinness, a former PAC chairman.

Investigations have been launched into Project Eagle by the UK's National Crime Agency, the US Department of Justice's Securities and Exchange Commission as well as a parliamentary inquiry in Stormont.
An environmental engineer has been spared a jail sentence for assaulting a solicitor with an umbrella after they bumped into each other on a rainy evening in Dublin.

David Christie, aged 53, brought a private prosecution at Dublin District Court alleging he was assaulted by Frank Lunny, aged 73, of Stewarts Hall, Parnell Street, Dublin 1, at Capel Street, on July 27 last year.

Lunny, who is a director of the management company of Mr Christie's office building, was convicted and fined 100 and also ordered to pay prosecution costs.

It was a rainy and windy evening and both men had been walking with their umbrellas up at the time of the incident, Judge John O'Neill heard.

Mr Christie said he was the victim of a cowardly assault which has left him feeling absolutely paranoid on the street when I see or hear someone behind me.

He said he felt an "unmerciful bang" to his right leg from behind and that he was struck twice to his head with an umbrella by Mr Lunny. He told the court that they did not make contact with each other beforehand.

Mr Lunny denied assaulting him.

He claimed that his leg had been hurt after he and the complainant passed each other and he went after the solicitor to demand an apology. He told the court he just swished Mr Christie's umbrella with his own.

Judge O'Neill viewed CCTV footage and said he was satisfied there was an earlier incident and Lunny took offence and reacted badly. He also said that all Mr Christie's evidence had not been corroborated.

Judge O'Neill said the footage showed two parties passing and Mr Lunny coming after Mr Christie.

He said the footpaths on Capel Street are narrow but that did not give Lunny the right to run after Mr Christie and strike him.

The court heard that there had been High Court proceedings previously involving both men in connection with Mr Christie's offices.

The solicitor told the court he walked to Capel Street to his office car park and was carrying a rucksack of heavy files over his right shoulder and he had an umbrella in his right hand.

He said it was raining heavy and as he reached the junction with Parnell Street he felt an unmerciful bang on his right leg and he was hit a number of times on his head.

He said he was shocked when he turned to see it was Mr Lunny who had carried out that assault behind my back.

He said Mr Lunny attempted to hit him again and he alleged the defendant burst into expletives before he walked away quickly.

He said Lunny was a director of the management company of his office and he agreed there had been tension between them as a result of his office being destroyed with raw sewage which led to legal proceedings.

He said that after the attack he went to Gardai but they did not prosecute.

He saw his doctor afterwards and was in shock. He said he had trouble sleeping for which he was prescribed tablets.

He also obtained the CCTV footage from a shop on Capel Street, the court also heard.

He said that during the incident Lunny had called him a fucking bastard.

He agreed that he thought he was hit with such force the umbrella broke. He said that he had a large bump on the back of his head.

David Staunton BL put it to him that his accounts were inconsistent.

Mr Christie agreed that in a statement he gave he said Lunny also told him Christie, you'll never get me off the board.

He also said he was struck with an umbrella and when he told a garda he was punched with full force it was because it felt like that and he had felt Lunny's hand when he was struck.

Mr Lunny gave evidence saying he and his wife were on their way to a show.

She was walking ahead of him and he had his umbrella up.

He said he was walking close to the wall and he received a dreadful kick and he wanted an explanation and an apology.

He said he shouted at Mr Christie to stop and walked quickly for about 40 metres to catch up with him to remonstrate.

He said he wanted to ask why he had bumped into him and why did not stop to apologise.

He claimed he had not known it was Mr Christie until he got close and he just reached out and swished his umbrella.
Gardai are investigating after a man ended up in critical condition at a Soapbox Derby in Tipperary.

The man, Donie Walsh, who is in his 50's, was a stewart at the Soapbox Derby in Roscrea when one of the carts lost control and struck the stewart.
Update at 11.30pm: A search and rescue volunteer has died trying to recover the body of a missing man in Co Clare.

Caitriona Lucas, of Doolin Coast Guard in Co Clare, was on a rigid inflatable with two colleagues when it capsized near cliffs in heavy Atlantic swell.

The mother-of-two had gone to sea with two colleagues in testing conditions off Kilkee in an attempt to recover the body of teacher David McMahon, from Lissycasey, Co Clare who went missing on Friday.

She is the first member of the Irish Coast Guard to die on duty.

It is understood a mayday was sent after the crew got into difficulty and the boat they were in flipped over at about 1pm.

Ms Lucas was airlifted unconscious from the water and repeated but unsuccessful attempts were made to resuscitate her.

Caitriona Lucas, understood to be aged in her 40s, lived in Liscannor with her husband Bernard, who was also involved in Doolin Coast Guard.

Originally from Ballyvaughan in Clare, she worked as a librarian with the County Council and she also trained her dogs with the Search And Rescue Dog Association.

Two other crew were rescued in the incident at the cliffs.

Jenny Carraway, aged in her 50s, from Kilkee and a member of the local Coast Guard unit, was said to be in a stable condition after being taken from the water.

James Lucy, the coxswain, also from Kilkee, was rescued more than four hours after the capsize.

He had scrambled on to rocks beside a cave at the bottom of cliffs but the spot was inaccessible from both air due to the gusting wind, heavy seas and overhanging rocks.

The rigid inflatable which capsized was also being thrown against the cliffs and blocked access by rescue teams from the sea.

A rescue crew abseiled about 100 feet down the cliff to reach the volunteer.

He was brought to safety by a Coast Guard helicopter winchman after teams moved him to a safe extraction point and was said to be in a stable condition but exhausted and badly shaken.

Manuel Di Lucia, a founding member of the former Kilkee Marine Rescue which later became the Coast Guard unit, expressed how the trauma of the tragedy would hit local coastal communities.

"This will have a devastating impact on the whole community here locally," he said.

"These people have been carrying out these operations for the last years, the coxswain was a former member of the marine rescue. It's very tragic for the whole area.

"There's a lot to be learnt from this incident."

Members of Lissycasey GAA club, who had been out on the shorelines for the last three days searching for their friend Mr McMahon, extended their condolences to the search and rescue teams.

The 33-year-old married man had trained with his teammates the night before he went missing.

Caitriona Lucas

Update at 9.30pm: The Irish Coastguard has named the crew member who died off the Co Clare coast today as Caitriona Lucas.

Ms Lucas died when the Irish Coast Guard Rib from Kilkee capsized while searching for a missing man.

The Irish Coast guard has extended its condolences to Ms Lucas's family.

A RIB from Kilkee Coast Guard Unit, is believed to have capsized and the three occupants (two female and one male) entered the water.

Valentia Coast Guard Rescue Coordination Centre immediately launched a major Search and Rescue operation. The two females were located and recovered from the water.

Caitriona Lucas

Both were taken to hospital where Ms Lucas was pronounced dead.

The third casualty, a male, was recovered from a nearby cave area, at around 5.30pm by a Coast Guard helicopter following an extensive and complex operation.

The Coast Guard extends sincere condolences to Lucas family and all the volunteer members of the Doolin and Kilkee units.

The Coast Guard also wishes to thank all the other organisations that participated in todays search.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has spoken of his great sadness on hearing of the death of Caitriona Lucas, a member of the Irish Coast Guard during an operation off the Co. Clare coast this afternoon.

The Taoiseach said, I was greatly saddened to hear the tragic news from Kilkee today. The heroic work and selflessness of the Irish Coast Guard is well known around our coastline.

"To learn of the death of Caitriona, and of injury to her colleagues brings home the real dangers our rescue personnel face and this awful news casts a dark shadow over people all over the island."

"I want to convey my deepest sympathy to Caitriona's family, her husband Bernard, also a Coast Guard volunteer, and to the wider Coast Guard family.

"I hope the other members of the team make a full and speedy recovery. Our prayers and thoughts are with them all at this difficult time.

Update 6pm: Rescue services have now located the third person - a man - from the water off the Kilkee coast in Co. Clare.

The coxswain was airlifted from beneath the cliffs at about 5.30pm.

It is understood he was taken to University Hospital Limerick.

Rescue operation under way in Kilkee - coast guard member in cave at base of cliff pic.twitter.com/YiQqMYJ32b  Timmy Dooley (@timmydooley) September 12, 2016

Manuel Di Lucia, a founding member of the former Kilkee Marine Rescue, expressed the impact of the tragedy on the coastal community.

"This will have a devastating impact on the whole community here locally," he said.

"These people have been carrying out these operations for the last three years, the coxswain was a former member of the marine rescue. It's very tragic for the whole area.

"There's a lot to be learnt from this incident."

Doolin Coast Guard, the RNLI and the Lahinch Surf Rescue Team and divers were all involved in the final rescue.

Pat Breen, TD for Clare and a junior minister, expressed his condolences following the tragedy.

"My thoughts and prayers are with the coastguard crew and their families who were involved in this dreadful incident this afternoon in Kilkee," he said.

Update 5.40pm: It has been confirmed that a woman on a Coast Guard search operation has died.

The rescue worker was with two colleagues on the third day of attempts to find a missing man off the Co Clare coast.

A spokesman for the Irish Coast Guard said the crew - two women and a man from the Kilkee unit - were thrown from the rigid inflatable in a heavy swell as they scoured cliffs and the shoreline near the town.

The dead woman was airlifted from the water unconscious and was transferred to University Hospital Limerick where she was pronounced dead.

A second woman was also taken from the water and she is believed to be in a stable condition.

The man on the crew, the coxswain of the unit, was found on rocks near where the Kilkee Coast Guard boat capsized but rescue teams were unable to reach him by helicopter or by boat due to overhanging cliffs and the heavy seas.

A spokesman for the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport said efforts were made to reach him.

It is understood rescue teams were attempting to remove a boat blocking access to the cliffs and others were attempting to use ropes to come down the cliffs.

Earlier: A major rescue operation is underway in Co Clare after a Coast Guard boat capsized during a search operation this afternoon.

It is has been reported that one male member of the Coast Guard team is being treated at the scene, while another, a woman, has been airlifted to University Hospital Limerick.

Efforts to recover another casualty are continuing. The third man is said to be on a ledge and rescue efforts are underway to retrieve the individual.

The Coast Guard volunteers had been involved in the search for a man who has been missing since Friday.

Thoughts and prayers with the volunteers at the coast guard in Kilkee today.  BreffniClack (@BreffniClack) September 12, 2016

It is believed they were thrown into the sea at around 1pm.

The Doolin unit of the Coast Guard; Kilrush RNLI lifeboat and Kilkee Fire and Rescue Service are involved in the operation.

The Shannon based search and rescue helicopter Rescue 115 has recovered one casualty while a second helicopter is on its way to the scene.
Lawyers for the families of those killed in the 1976 Kingsmill massacre have appealed for top secret intelligence material to be released to an inquest.

Coroner Judge Brian Sherrard, who is considering formal requests for some police and army documentation to be blanked out, was told how the families' trust in the legal system had been eroded.

Barrister Fiona Doherty QC, representing relatives of John McConville, said: "The immediate reaction is to suspect sinister motives for a request.

"That is not helped by the history of the case and by recent developments."

During a hearing at Belfast Coroner's Court it was revealed about 1,100 pages of classified material relate to the controversial case.

Barrister Richard Smyth, acting for the majority of bereaved relatives, said: "We would ask the court to consider how fundamentally important this process is to the families; how long they have waited."

He said the court should also take into account the impact of recent developments including a major forensic breakthrough and the arrest of a murder suspect.

"Coming at the eleventh hour, that has damaged trust," added Mr Smyth. "The families have been left not knowing what to think.

"That trust is damaged and fragile."

Ten Protestant workmen were gunned down when their minibus was ambushed in rural south Armagh on January 5, 1976, in an attack seen as a reprisal for loyalist killings in the same area.

Those on board were asked their religion and the only Catholic was ordered to run away.

The killers, who had been hidden in the hedges, forced the rest of the textile factory workers to line up outside the van before opening fire.

Those who died were John Bryans, Robert Chambers, Reginald Chapman, Walter Chapman, Robert Freeburn, Joseph Lemmon, John McConville, James McWhirter, Robert Samuel Walker and Kenneth Worton.

One man, Alan Black, survived, despite being shot 18 times.

No-one has ever been convicted.

The original inquest held in 1978 lasted just 30 minutes and recorded an open verdict, but after years of campaigning, Northern Ireland's Attorney General John Larkin ordered the fresh probe in 2013.

Public evidence sessions in the high-profile inquest have been adjourned to facilitate two days of private hearings during which the reasons for so-called public interest immunity (PII) applications will be interrogated.

Ms Doherty QC said the coroner had an important task in balancing the public interest in disclosure against the public interest of non-disclosure.

She said: "The default position in legal proceedings should always be openness and transparency."

Meanwhile, addressing his remarks to the campaigning families who had packed into courtroom number seven, Judge Sherrard said he would consider each PII request on its own merits.

"Each and every one of the proposed redactions will have to be justified," he said. "It will be up to the applicant to persuade the court."

Afterwards, victims campaigner Willie Frazer, who accompanied some relatives to court, said: "If there's evidence there they should not be hiding it.

"If they do not disclose it all, then we will disclose it afterwards."

The case has been adjourned.
A 650m increase is needed in public investment, according to the trade union Unite.

The group is calling for the Government to invest in Ireland's infrastructure - namely water, broadband and transport - through an expanded budget.

Increased investment is one of five areas that the union says the Government needs to focus on in the upcoming budget.

It is calling for a 2.8bn expenditure package, which would also include an emergency housing programme, an increase in social protection rates, pay-related social insurance benefits and more public service expenditure.

Unite Regional Secretary, Jimmy Kelly, says investment is key to long-term economic growth.

Mr Kelly said: "50% of economic growth, for example, is made up of investment - infrastructure, business, transportation, social housing - and Ireland has one of the lowest levels of public investment in the EU 15.

"So what we are saying is that has to be an area that is driven in the Budget.

"It will bring us advanced broadband, the sort of research and development that we need, the investment in water, waste and our public transport."
Syrian President Bashar Assad says his government is determined to "reclaim every area from the terrorists, and to rebuild" the country.

His remarks came just hours ahead of the start of a ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia.
The family of a much-loved skydiver who died at the weekend when her main chute failed to deploy said she was an independent woman who "let nothing get in her way".

Pamela Gower, 49, from Hebburn, South Tyneside, suffered fatal injuries when she fell from 15,000ft and hit a parked car in a cul-de-sac next to the airfield in Shotton Colliery, County Durham, on Saturday afternoon.

She was using a modified sky diving rig, approved by the British Parachute Association (BPA), as she had restricted growth.

Durham Police has said her reserve parachute did deploy, and the circumstances of her death were being investigated jointly by the police, the BPA and the Civil Aviation Authority.

Friends have described popular Miss Gower, who worked for Remploy, as living life to the full.

And her parents Catherine and Len said in a statement: "Pamela was a great girl who was loved by her family so much and was a wonderful daughter and sister.

"Pamela was a very determined and independent woman who let nothing get in her way and we feel this photograph of her next to the Taj Mahal is a perfect example of this.

"Our mam always told Pamela how proud she was of her, as was the rest of our family. We will remember how she always saw the funny side of things, just like her 'da'.

"She often asked her 'da' who was his favourite, and he used to say 'you were the best of a bad bunch!' as there were five children.

"She will be a huge miss as she was loved by everybody.

"It was lovely to hear the warm messages from everyone and we would like to thank people for sending us their kind words."

Locals in Shotton Colliery tried desperately to save her before the emergency services arrived and her family expressed their gratitude.

The family said: "We would also like to thank all those who were involved in trying to help Pamela, from the nurse and the ex-soldier who were first on the scene to the various agencies who tried to save Pamela, including the police, ambulance service, paramedics and the hospital.

"As a family we are devastated at this very difficult time and would appreciate privacy to grieve in peace."
A 20-year-old British man accused of attempting to shoot Donald Trump at a Las Vegas casino will plead guilty to lesser charges when he appears in court, his mother has said.

Michael Sandford, of Dorking, Surrey, is due to stand trial later this month over an incident at a rally on June 18 in which he allegedly tried to grab a policeman's gun to attack the Republican presidential candidate.

But his mother, Lynne Sandford, told ITV News London he has signed a plea agreement, and the family's lawyer is hopeful the trial will be adjourned.

"I was very relieved that he signed it," Mrs Sandford said.

"It was a bit of a battle because he is quite headstrong. But we all laid the options out there for him on the table and, of course, it is a gamble."

Mrs Sandford previously said her son is extremely vulnerable and suffers from various mental health issues including autism, anxiety, depression and anorexia, and said he would not have foreseen the consequences of his actions.

The Briton faces three charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty, of disrupting government business and official functions, being an illegal alien, and possession of a gun.

According to ITV News London Sandford has agreed to plead guilty to being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm and disrupting government business. He is expected to enter his plea on Tuesday September 13 before the US district judge.

Mrs Sandford added: "There's no certainty. But he has signed the plea agreement. Now we have to wait to see if the judge will accept it and hopefully it's the end of one stage and the beginning of another stage.

"Every stage is a stage closer to him being able to come home."

The family's lawyer, Saimo Chahal, said she is also hopeful a psychiatric report will play a key part in Michael's defence.

Ms Chahal said: "We are regularly in touch with the public defender's office in Nevada. Our main aim would be to try and secure Michael's repatriation to the UK so that he can be assisted in a medical facility.

"Michael has a number of psychological and psychiatric conditions, some possibly yet undiagnosed. The best place for Michael would be to come back to the UK to receive medical treatment.

"At the moment there is a trial date listed for August 22. We hope that that trial will be adjourned so that we can gather together psychological evidence and psychiatric evidence at this end and submit it to the public defender's office."
The White House says President Barack Obama continues to believe that former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden should return to the United States to face charges for leaking classified information.

Snowden's supporters are pushing for Mr Obama to pardon him, and a new movie is coming out on Friday about the case.
A ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia is set to begin in Syria at sunset today.

The deal comes amid mixed messages of commitment from various rebel factions but with verbal backing by Syrian president Bashar Assad's government.

In a stark message to opponents, Mr Assad made a rare public appearance today by attending prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha at a mosque in the Damascus suburb of Daraya.

The suburb, previously held by the rebels, surrendered last month and reverted to Damascus' control after four years of government siege.

The ceasefire deal, hammered out between US secretary of state John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Saturday, allows the Syrian government to continue to strike at the Islamic State group (IS) and al Qaida-linked militants with the Jabhat Fatah al-Sham group, previously known as the Nusra Front, until the US and Russia take over the task in one week's time.

Rebel factions have expressed deep reservations about the deal.

Under the terms of the agreement, the rebels and the Syrian government are expected to stop attacking one another.

Along with Mr Assad's government, his key allies - Russia, Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah - have also endorsed the deal.

But that scenario is complicated by the fact that Jabhat Fatah al-Sham remains intertwined with several other groups fighting on the ground.

One of the more immediate goals of the Kerry-Lavrov agreement is to allow the UN to establish aid corridors into Aleppo, the contested northern Syrian city.

More than 2,000 people have been killed in fighting over the past 40 days in the city, including 700 civilians and 160 children, according to a Syrian human rights group.

On Saturday, presumed Russian or government air strikes on rebel-held Idlib and Aleppo provinces killed over 90 civilians, including 13 children in an attack on a marketplace in Idlib, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In the aftermath, rebels and opposition activists were asking on Sunday whether the government's side could be trusted.

Several previous ceasefires have all eventually collapsed. A partial "cessation of hostilities" that brought sorely needed relief to civilians in March unravelled as the government continued to strike targets in opposition areas, including near a hospital and school near Damascus and a marketplace in Idlib province, killing dozens of civilians.

Previous ceasefires were also preceded by soaring violence as parties on all sides sought to improve their positions in the build-up.

In Turkey, meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his earlier calls for establishing a no-fly zone in northern Syria, saying it is essential to boosting security in the area.

Mr Erdogan said he told the leaders of Germany, France, Russia and the US that training and equipping troops on the ground to battle back IS forces is "not enough" and that a no-fly zone should be the next step.

Speaking after holiday prayers on Monday, he said Turkey remains resolute in eliminating the threat posed by IS at its borders and has made that clear to world leaders.

Turkey launched an incursion into northern Syria in late August, driving IS away from the border and also seeking to counter the advance of US-backed Kurdish forces, which Ankara views with suspicion.
A scientific aircraft is set to soar over the Atlantic in a mission to improve the accuracy of weather forecasts.

The FAAM (Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements) aircraft will set off from Cranfield, Bedfordshire, England, next month on a trip that will see it explore jet streams to measure factors such as wind speeds and humidity.

Scientists hope this information may help give a clearer picture of weather coming from countries in the west, such as Iceland and North America.

The NAWDEX project has been organised by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and will work closely with teams in Germany and France.

Professor Geraint Vaughan, who will be conducting the research on board the BAe 146-301 aircraft, said: "We are working towards solving the long-term problem of our inaccurate weather forecasting.

"When we get it wrong, it can usually be traced back to something happening in the jet stream that we didn't pick up, something coming towards us from upstream. It's to our embarrassment as a community that our forecasts are not capturing this properly."

He hopes that flying into the jet stream at a high level to capture information on factors such as temperatures will pave the way to developing a more accurate model for forecasting the weather.

"If it doesn't help," he said, "then we need to look at other improvements."

But while that result would mean a new line of investigation for the NAWDEX team, the work will not end there for the FAAM, which is set to embark on a five-year project measuring longer term weather patterns across the globe.

The 9m programme, in collaboration with the UK's Met Office, is a world first and will also involve RRS Discovery, a 100m-long research ship that will explore temperatures and atmosphere under the ocean.

Professor Rowan Sutton, director of climate research at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) who will be flying the FAAM, said: "It's very much a new venture. We will be bringing together a whole range of capabilities and technologies in a way that has never been done before."

He said the North Atlantic Climate System Integrated Study (ACSIS) results will bring a range of crucial benefits, such as enabling farmers to plan crop planting and helping water suppliers control supplies.

"What we are looking at directly affects us in the UK," said Prof. Sutton. "There have been a lot of changes in the climate over the last decades and we are specifically trying to address the big problems in the environment.

"We are looking at the climate as a whole and the weather patterns in wind and rain in our corner of the planet to get a picture of how these changes will affect us in the future. We also want to investigate the quality of the air coming in over the Atlantic, which can carry pollution from North America and Africa."
With rumours circulating in recent weeks and months about the health of Hillary Clinton, many are wondering what would happen if the Democratic presidential hopeful was forced to pull out of the race, writes Greg Murphy.

Over the weekend, while attending a September 11 memorial in New York, Mrs Clinton was taken ill and escorted away from the event by her team.

It has since been revealed that the former Secretary of State was diagnosed with pneumonia last Friday by her doctor Lisa Bardack, who said she was now "recovering nicely" at home.

Republican rival Donald Trump has spent the last few months questioning her health, saying she does not have the stamina to become commander-in-chief.

Last week, while speaking at a New York rally, Mrs Clinton suffered a severe coughing fit during her speech.

With less than two months to go until the November 6 polling day, could this 'health episode' damage her chances at becoming president?

And what happens if she is forced to withdraw from the race?

Contingency plan

The Democratic National Convention has a contingency plan in place, should a candidate drop-out before polling day.

According to Article 2, Section 7 of the DNC Bylaws a meeting will be called by the Chairperson of the Committee to choose a new candidate, based on decisions made by the majority in attendance.

This new candidate then goes on to contest the election for President of the United States.

If Mrs Clinton gets elected on November 6 but is forced to withdraw before being sworn in on January 20, things get more complicated.

The nature of US Presidential Elections means that rather than winning by a popular vote, a candidate must secure a majority of 'electoral college votes' to become president.

Each State is awarded a specific number of electoral college (EC) votes. If a candidate wins the popular vote in a state, he/she receives the EC votes from that state.

The Electoral College is the body that represents the states - it consists of 538 electors from all over the US. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President.

If Mrs Clinton withdraws from the process after she wins election, but before the Electoral College meets, her pledged electors will be free to vote for whomever they choose.

If she becomes incapacitated between the meeting of electors and counting of EC votes in Congress, a grey area can arise as the Constitution is silent on whether or not she meets the definition of 'President elect' in that scenario.

However, should Mrs Clinton receive a majority of EC votes and be considered President elect, section 3 of the 20th amendment comes into effect.

The 'Vice President elect' - Senator Tim Kaine in this instance - would become president if Mrs Clinton withdraws from the race at this stage.

This is also the procedure should she withdraw between any of the relevant counting stages - including the electoral college and the congressional vote - and her inauguration in January.

Next in line?

Likely favourites to replace Mrs Clinton - should she be forced to withdraw - have been suggested as far back as the primary elections.

Her democratic rival Senator Bernie Sanders and current US vice president Joe Biden lead the list of potential candidates should she withdraw.

Some doubt has been cast over Bernie Sanders selection as he has since left the Democratic party, and is now an Independent member of the Senate.

No special privilege will be given to Vice Presidential hopeful Tim Kaine, who will remain in his current role unless chosen by the DNC to replace Mrs Clinton.
Workers at a Scottish manufacturing firm have found a venomous tropical spider stowed inside a shipping container.

The huge arachnid was found at the company in Dumbarton, West Dunbartonshire, and concerned staff called animal welfare officers, fearing it could be poisonous.

Scottish SPCA officers removed the interloper, identified as a huntsman spider, which is common in most warm-to-tropical areas and can give a painful venomous bite.

Scottish SPCA Animal Rescue Officer Emma Bonner was called to the scene on Friday.

She said: "When I arrived one of the employees had managed to get the spider inside a clear bag within a container. We didn't know if it was venomous."

Scottish SPCA Chief Inspector Fiona Henderson said: "An arachnid expert identified it as a huntsman spider. We believe that due to a yellow stripe on its abdomen that the spider is female.

"It would be hard to say where it is from exactly due to the fact it arrived here in a shipping container.

"It must be a tough little spider as it has done well to survive living in a cold container for so long before arriving in Scotland.

"If a huntsman spider bites you it will not kill you, but it does contain venom. If you do get bitten by one it can be extremely painful.

"Because it's a huntsman it's not native to this country, so we can't release the spider anywhere in Scotland.

"Collectors would also be concerned due to the fact that it's a wild species. If there are any bacteria or bugs that the spider is carrying that we are not aware of then it could introduce those to other species.

"The spider appears in good condition and is already an adult so we are going to try to find a specialist home for it."

Arnold Bretman, development engineer at Aggreko Manufacturing, was brave enough to catch the spider.

He said: "It was about five inches across the legs, so fairly obvious that it was no ordinary local spider.

"It was scurrying around the factory and people were hopping around to avoid it, so I collected it.

"The Scottish SPCA girl turned up with a small plastic tub, but the spider was too big to fit.

"It was identified as a Chinese Huntsman that probably got into one of our containers in China, which had been at sea for at least a month. How it survived for that length of time and then in our climate, is amazing."
MOSCOW: Russia is ready to supply up to 500,000 tonnes of grain to poor countries in the next four months, with...
Canberra filmmaker Kim Beamish is making a movie about the oyster and the farmers who make a living pulling them from the seas from Batemans Bay down to Merimbula.

The film, Oyster, focuses on second generation farmers Pip and Dom Boyton and the challenges they face as the changing climate affects the oyster, the coast and their livelihood.

Fresh oysters. Credit:Adam Gibson

He's trying to raise $25,000 to fund the film and The Durham pub in Kingston is helping out this week.

On Thursday, September 15, they'll release 5 Barrel Brewing's Oyster Stout with $1 from each schooner and pint going to the film. And on Friday, September 16, there'll be a fundraiser with fresh shucked $1 oysters and $10 platters of oysters and sparkling wine. Have an oyster, grab a pint and support the film.
The Islamic School of Canberra has had its federal funding reinstated after vowing to improve its governance and financial management.

The news came as a huge sigh of relief to the embattled school in Weston, which was struggling to pay staff wages and bills since being stripped of $1.1 million of annual federal funding in April.

The Islamic School of Canberra's federal funding ran out on July 1. Credit:Jay Cronan

But federal Education and Training Minister Simon Birmingham stressed the continuation of funding was subject to a number of conditions including extra reporting requirements.

"This decision follows the school authority providing further information on a range of measures intended to improve their governance and financial management and also delivers financial and operational independence from the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils [which operates the school]," he said.
Two men charged with escaping Canberra's jail used a cable tray that resembled a ladder to help them scale three fences in four minutes before they fled on foot, court documents have revealed.

Jacob Robert Howard MacDonald, 21, fled the remand section of the Alexander Maconochie Centre, allegedly with another detainee, Patrick McCurley, 28, the night of Friday, September 2. Macdonald has plead guilty to a charge of escaping the prison, but McCurley is yet to enter a plea.

Breakout: Jacob MacDonald (left) and Patrick McCurley (right) have been charged with escaping from the prison.

Police said they arrested McCurley following a police chase in Majura last weekend and officers captured MacDonald in Narrabundah on Saturday.

A statement of facts, tendered in the ACT Magistrates Court on Monday during MacDonald's appearance, said the pair took less than 10 minutes to escape the grounds of the Hume jail shortly after 11pm and were not discovered missing until a muster nearly six hours later.
National Australia Bank will soon offer a credit card that customers can use without having received the physical piece of plastic, as banks rush to bulk up their "digital wallets".

As part of a mobile banking overhaul, the lender will in the coming weeks launch an app that allows consumers to sign a "digital contract" for a credit card.

Customers can then upload the card's details to a smart phone, and use it to make contactless payments of less than $100 before the card arrives in the mail, the bank says.

"We believe this is a world-first for credit cards," Angus Gilfillan, general manager of consumer lending, said of the digital contract.
If a company tricks their customers about the product they're selling, is that any less serious than colluding with a rival business?

For consumer groups and the competition watchdog, the answer is often "no"  misleading customers can be just as damaging as anti-competitive behaviour.

But did you know the maximum civil penalties for misleading corporate conduct are about a tenth of those for breaching competition laws?

This issue is now being looked at in two separate reviews. Economics  not to mention common sense  suggest it's a discrepancy that should be corrected.
Tesla Motors chief executive Elon Musk said the car maker was updating its semi-autonomous driving system Autopilot with new limits on hands-off driving that likely would have prevented a fatality in May.

Musk said the update, which will be available within a week or two through an "over-the-air" software update, would rely foremost on radar to give Tesla's electric luxury cars a better sense of what is around them and when to brake.

New restrictions of Autopilot 8.0 are a nod to widespread concerns that autopilot lulled users into a false sense of security through its "hands-off" driving. The updated system now will temporarily prevent drivers from using the system if they fail to respond to audible warnings to take back control of the car.

"We're making much more effective use of radar," Musk told journalists on a call. "It will be a dramatic improvement in the safety of the system done entirely through software."
Only a few days ago, Mark Zuckerberg told an audience of Italian students that he was the boss of a technology firm, not a media company.

Even at the time, it was clear the Facebook boss was being disingenuous  either to his audience, or to himself. Because Zuckerberg is indeed a media tycoon. The most powerful one there has ever been.

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg is a media tycoon whether he admits it or not. Credit:AP

Facebook's billions of users spend an average of 50 minutes a day posting material and interacting with online friends. Because of this, Facebook is also where we get our news: either from the little "trending" box tucked away in the corner of the screen, or from the news feed.

How this works is that if you've "liked" a particular news organisation, you'll see the stories it has posted, or that your friends have chosen to share. Except that you don't. Unless you actually visit its page, you won't see everything it posts  just the stuff that Facebook calculates (or perhaps guesses) you will enjoy most.
Baldrick of Blackadder fame has a job  financial efficiency officer for ActewAGL. The plan: Send out random overpriced bills. The "customers" read their meters and send corrected readings to ActewAGL. The supplier then wrongly "corrects" each bill. The customer now not only reads the meter but does the processing of a true bill. The customer becomes both meter reader and bill processing clerk. Meter readers and clerks are fired. Profit goes up. The app, including reminder, is out next week. Baldrick now redundant. Roy Bray, Flynn Keep eyes on the road Texting at the wheel is stupid and dangerous  worse than drink-driving ("Tough new penalties for texting and driving", September 1, p3). Diversion of driver attention from the road ahead is the culprit, and its result is terrible when it involves some other innocent but luckless road user. Texting aside, drivers who look their front-seat passengers squarely in the eye to convey sincerity and take their gaze off the road ahead put the wind up me. I find it hard to suppress a shout of "eyes front"!

A device for detecting when the vehicle is in normal forward motion has been proposed for truckies nodding off at the wheel. A simple adaptation to the private car should be a doddle! Colin Glover, Canberra City Fatuous US tradition John Perkins (Letters, September 9) reiterates the myth that the "hand on heart" gesture, often mistakenly and inappropriately used by some RSL members, stems from Remembrance Day in 1920. In my 30 years service in the Australian Army (five years regular army, including war service; 25 reserve) I never once observed this being done. It is a recent and absurd imitation of an American custom, not an Australian tradition.

My ex-service comrades confirm this. Moreover, if the hand is placed over the medals, not the heart, as Mr Perkins asserts, where were the medals on the PM's chest? And why did Mr Shorten choose to simply stand, respectfully, without adopting that fatuous posture. Still, customs must start somewhere. I would recommend that the RSL and others establish an Australian tradition. Fergus Thomson, Weetangera Fergus Thomson (Letters, September 6) complains that the PM placing his hand over his heart at the Black Hawk wreath laying ceremony is a craven mimicking of US practice. Having lived in the US for three years I can agree that it is indeed US practice and apparently has been for a long time. I think it is also practised in other countries such as France.

However I recall that when I first entered (state government) school in the late 1940s and through the 1950s we used to have a weekly, or maybe monthly, school assembly at which we were taught to recite the pledge "I honour my God, I serve my king, I salute the flag". On the final phrase we were taught to place our right hand over our left breast. We also learnt that only a person in uniform should actually use the hand-to-forehead salute  for mere citizens/subjects the hand on chest was appropriate. Perhaps this came from the days when most people wore hats and the proper thing to do was to place your hat across your breast  I believe there is a photo of Prime Minister John Curtin doing exactly that. I don't know when these ceremonies ceased in public schools  perhaps after/during the reigns of those vicious revolutionary comrades Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser? If they had not then maybe people would realise this gesture is not uniquely American and therefore feel less offended. But clearly, customs change. Charles Ellis, Weetangera

Commissioner should be shown public service door ahead of staff I see our Public Service Commissioner, John Lloyd, moaning at the number of over 50s in the Commonwealth Public Service ("Public service in need of new blood", September 10, p18) and wanting to ease them into retirement. There is certainly one bureaucrat over the age of 50 who needs to go and that is John Lloyd. Where did they get this bloke? The over 50s will go soon enough and the public service will miss their experience and knowledge. But what the public service needs now, more than anything else, is a period of stability, free of the endless cuts and restructurings which are the things that sap morale and hamper efficiency. John Lloyd has shown himself remarkably unable to see this, or doesn't want to, and for that reason is the first person who should be shown the door. If he were replaced by someone who really understood the way things work (as distinct from hard right ideology), then the public service and Australia as a whole, would benefit. Stan Marks, Hawker

Climate of corruption Roger Clement's comments (Letters, September 10) about the undue influence of the mining and oil and gas industries on government climate policy are all the more pertinent in light of the Dastyari affair. Rumours and innuendo about the corruptibility of politicians through political donations have been all but confirmed, and Senator Dastyari might find he's the most unpopular person in political circles, forever remembered as the villain who took it too far and ruined it for everyone else. The scale of the moral crimes that have been perpetrated by both sides of politics will become clear when corporate political donations are banned, as seems likely, and genuine climate mitigation steps are finally implemented, 20 years too late. Let's have a discussion about retrospective political accountability laws and capital punishment.

James Allan, Narrabundah Imitate 'Asia' mate So Australians aren't world competitive, and must give up time off and work 24 hours, according to Harold Mitchell ("Australians, we can't afford for you to relax on your days off", BusinessDay, September 2016, p31). These would be the same Australians who have 120 million days off untaken, in formal leave eligibility, and who routinely work beyond time in lieu or paid time. These would be the same Australians who lead the major economies in labour productivity over the last 5 years by a big margin. And who lead over the last 10 years, more narrowly from second-placed South Korea.

Yes, we should imitate "Asia" (apparently it's all one place, rather than a number of different countries) and work "harder and smarter". Go on, Harold. Imitate "Asia": reduce our labour productivity and take more time off. Christopher Hood, Queanbeyan, NSW Angel atop our pin Further to Sir David Smith's misleading comment about our head of state (Letters September 9), the High Court in 1907 said that a state governor acts as a "Head of the State", not as an agent of the sovereign as the governor is acting upon a power given by the state constitution, in that case to issue writs for Senate elections. She is our head of state. As my first cousin four times removed appeared for the Governor of South Australia, the case was well argued. Brian Hatch, Berrima, NSW

David Smith uses his esoteric knowledge and understanding of the constitution to designate which angel dances on the head of our pin. Where was this expert when Sir John Kerr conspired with Anthony Mason to depose the elected government  all the while deceitfully pretending to co-operate with the PM whose advice he was constitutionally bound to follow? Or when Kerr asked Prince Charles what the royals would think if he dismissed the government? Or when Kerr refused to accept that the House of Reps had passed a motion of no confidence in his appointee PM, Fraser? Is that enough, or need I go on? S.W. Davey, Torrens Heed Churchill advice Conservatives seeking to repeal section 18C of The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 in the name of "freedom of speech" should heed the words of the hero of conservatives everywhere, Winston Churchill.

He had clearly witnessed decades ago the same hypocritical behaviour we now see displayed regularly by conservative shock jocks, commentators, and politicians: "Everyone is in favour of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people's idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone else says anything back, that is an outrage." J. Adams, Curtin Coalition's dark arts The article "Barnaby Joyce won't release analysis of forced relocation of public servants to Armidale" (canberratimes.com.au, September 11) is yet another example of how successive Coalition governments have turned their use of opacity into an art form. But it does not quite fit the "on-water matters" cop-out, or the old "national security" standby. Is there a name for this new rationale for keeping the Australian public in the dark? Peter Grabosky, Forrest

Memorial misinforms Rob Westcott (Letters, September 12) misses the point of Dr Sue Wareham's letter about the War Memorial's Open Day. He denies that military history enthusiasts like himself glorify war. Only fools glorify war and Dr Wareham's letter did not accuse anyone of glorification. But glossing over the main role of the weapons and other machinery of war  to kill as many of the enemy as possible  helps war to become an acceptable part of our future. The main war memorial has the same effect, with its colourful depiction of how our servicemen and women fought and its relentless and sentimental memorialisation of our war dead. It, too, sanitises and pulls punches. Like Rob Westcott, I am all for people, particularly children, learning about the causes and consequences of military adventurism but they won't get that from the memorial. David Stephens, Bruce TO THE POINT

The Canberra Times wants to hear from you in short bursts. Email views in 50 words or fewer to letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au TRUMP MUTINY LIKELY In his latest doltish rant on how, as president, he will defeat IS and give US generals a 30-day ultimatum to devise tactics that will reflect his own strategy, surely Donald Trump is setting the stage for a real life Caine Mutiny scenario between the Joint Chiefs of Staff and himself as Commander-in-Chief? John Murray, Fadden DONATION/BRIBE BIAS

Peter Stubbs (Letters, September 10) asks what the difference is between a bribe and a donation. The difference is whether the observer supports the recipient's politics or not. It's a bit like the difference between a political party being either a broad church or riven by dissent. Bill Deane, Chapman The difference between a bribe and a donation is that donations to trade unions are bribes, whereas bribes to political parties are donations. Colin Whittaker, Torrens IMMUNE TO SHAME

Dave Jeffrey (Letters, September 12) argues that Sam Dastyari is a security risk because he exposes himself to risk by soliciting funds from foreign organisations. Dastyari is clearly incapable of shame or embarrassment when his behaviour is exposed and consequently would not care what he is threatened with. George Beaton, Greenway GOVERNMENT PROMISES The current ACT government is now promising us trams and a new hospital. Wow! What next I wonder. Maybe suburban renewal and affordable water? I wish. Ed Highley, Kambah

POSTERS DON"T HELP It's the misplaced belief of some of our candidates that by placing a poster of their smiling face every 50 metres along a road way, this will in some way convince me that they are worthy of being my elected representative. News flash, it will actually have the opposite effect. Kim Fitzgerald, Deakin UNIFORM PLANS BAD FIT So Australian military uniforms are to be made in China because its cheaper to do that.

Using the same rationale, why not recruit the wearers from China too? John Sever, Higgins PATH TO CREDIBILITY Malcolm Turnbull could regain credibility by closing Nauru and Manus, withdrawing troops from the Middle East and adopting Labor's negative gearing policy which he and the Treasurer are known to support. There are billions in savings here. Ray Armstrong, Tweed Heads South, NSW
I loved my great-grandmother, and it made me sad and confused to see her age. I knew she was unhappy about moving into an aged care facility. She missed her home, her things, her autonomy, her personhood.

I did know that. That's what made it so hard. I felt awful for not wanting to visit my great-grandmother in her care home. But at four years old, I was faced with a barrage of complex emotions in this situation that I didn't understand and would rather have avoided.

"Aubrey, you're not being very nice," my mum would say. "She looks forward to seeing you. You know that."

I dreaded it. It was one of those things my mother made me do that turned my stomach. And part of the dread was the guilt I felt for not wanting to go. The guilt I felt for "not being nice".

And it seemed that many of the inhabitants of the facility felt the same way. Most sat stooped and slumped in their chairs, their eyes downcast and out of focus.There was an ever-present and off-putting sense of waiting that hung in the air. Waiting for the nurse to come and raise the bed or give a pill; waiting to be rolled over to avoid bedsores or for the bedpan to be changed; waiting to be wheeled to the lunch room or to the dinner table; waiting for a favourite program to come on the TV; waiting for a doctor; waiting for a visitor; waiting for what comes next.

And they all seemed to be waiting for me. When my mother and I entered the reception area, the elderly came to life like robots that had been switched on. Inevitably, one of them would reach out a long, skinny arm and catch me and pull me in close. I saw my reflection in their glazed-over eyes, and they'd call me some other name, not my own  a relative they wanted me to be  and talked to me as though I were there with them in their past, in their memory, playing a game, reliving a moment.

I'd wriggle free as quickly as I could and dash down the corridor to my great-grandmother's room, angry at my mother again for bringing me here and letting those strangers have me.

Over time, my great-grandmother deteriorated while I emotionally matured. By the time I was six, she didn't recognise me anymore. Once, on the car ride back from the care home, my mother explained to me what was happening  dementia, ageing, getting old.

"It happens to us all. Our bodies just stop working, sweetheart. And eventually they can't be fixed anymore."
She claimed that she was entitled to be compensated by federal workplace insurer Comcare because she was working from home at the time. An interview set down for 9.30am was delayed and she decided to go for a 7km run; 30 minutes into it she tripped on an uneven surface and broke her hip. She argued that going for a run was a way for her to clear her head. Her producer also considered her exercise relevant to Demasi's employment. Every taxpayer funds Comcare. The public reaction to this case shows that Australians are keen to draw a line between genuine workplace injuries and other accidents that clearly don't relate to work at all. To me, these two cases, simply stretch the boundaries of entitlements of people who should know better. Health insurance and income protection insurance exist for these unfortunate accidents and it is incumbent on everyone to make sure they take responsibility for themselves.

Yet in the modern age, the era of entitlement we so often hear about, should any of us really be surprised by Demasi's actions in trying to claim? Twenty-five years ago, there was also public outcry when the then Speaker of the Federal Parliament Leo McLeay lodged a compo claim against his own parliamentary department. He claimed various injuries after an improperly assembled fold-up bicycle on loan from Parliament House collapsed under him when it hit a pothole. Gymnasium staff had warned him he was too heavy for the bicycle. Yet Mr McLeay was still awarded $65,000. But perhaps, the real precedent for Demasi's case was actually set back in 2007 when taxpayers ended up spending more than $600,000 defending a workers' compensation claim from a female public servant who was injured while she had sex in a motel room on a work trip.

While at the motel, she met a friend for dinner and they went back to her room for sex. During the act, a glass light fitting above the bed was ripped from its mount, causing damage to the woman's nose and mouth. She claimed that the psychological impact was so great that she suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and was unable to continue working for the government. She sought compensation from Comcare under the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act on the basis the injuries were suffered 'in the course' of her employment. I kid you not! Most people would have been too embarrassed to even admit what had happened, let alone pursue it. It's not exactly something you would want to have on your CV applying for another job.

The case became a test of employers' liability and, of course, in our democracy everyone is entitled to their day in court. So the case between this public servant and Comcare dragged on for four years, all the way to the High Court. Early on, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal had found the government and Comcare were not liable for the woman's injuries, but the Federal Court had later found the tribunal had erred and ruled the woman should be compensated. Comcare was granted special leave and appealed to the High Court, with the matter seen as an important test case. The High Court ended up ruling she was not eligible for compensation. Comcare won. But to win, taxpayers forked out $600,000 in legal fees. The opposition spokesman on workplace relations at the time, Senator Eric Abetz, hailed the ruling as a victory for common sense and suggested that had the decision gone the other way it would have opened the floodgates for public servants to claim compensation for anything from paper cuts suffered during card games to sexually transmitted diseases.

"In Australian workplaces there has to be a form of 'mutual obligation' where employees and employers both work together and are prepared to accept personal responsibility," he added. Personal responsibility is a strong theme in many of my columns. To me, these two cases, simply stretch the boundaries of entitlements of people who should know better. It is simply playing a game with the money of Australian taxpayers, who at the end of the day are the ones who foot the bill for Comcare. However, it is also possible that in cases like these the applicants were taken along by overly litigious lawyers who were perhaps wanting to set a precedent and win a sensational case.
Thomas Steinbeck, who has died aged 72, was the eldest son of John Steinbeck, the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men, and himself achieved modest success as an author; in later years he became involved in a protracted battle to win the rights to works by his father that, he claimed, should have been passed to him and his family on his father's death.

Thomas Myles Steinbeck was born in New York City on August 2, 1944, to John Steinbeck and his second wife Gwendolyn. Shortly afterwards, Steinbeck moved the family to Cuernavaca in Mexico, where he felt he could ensure his family's safety by hiring pistoleros to protect them while he covered the Second World War in North Africa as a journalist. "My first nanny was a skinny little gunslinger named Victor with bullets across his chest," Thomas recalled.

Nobel prize-winning author John Steinbeck, right, admires a prize-winning poster by his son, Thomas Steinbeck. Credit:AP

After the war, the family returned to New York, but the marriage did not last. The Steinbecks divorced when Thomas was nine. Raised on both coasts, Thomas and his younger brother John Jr attended numerous boarding schools. They spent their summers with their father in Sag Harbor, Long Island, and accompanied him on travels to Europe, Greece, North Africa.

Thomas recalled that the famous author, while not always available to talk to family members, spent a great deal of time having conversations with inanimate objects. "This was a man who named his suits," Thomas recalled. "I remember there was a 'Dorian Gray', grey of course, a fawn-coloured suit that he called 'Old Yeller' and a brown one called 'Chestnut Bay'. He also named his shoes, his comb, his screwdriver. This was a man who talked to parking meters, seriously. His life was in his head."
The general held out the palm of his hand. "They're already making small, remote-controlled, UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] this big. It's incredible. Instead of having to risk the life of a forward scout to find out if there's anything behind the wall, you can send one of these to do the job for you. Technology is already changing the way we fight." Spending a week at Adelaide's Land Warfare Exhibition comes as an utter shock to someone who thought they knew about the new dimensions of warfare. Advances in computerisation have dramatically shrunk the cost and size of the new weapons that will transform war. And you don't need to be some sort of military enthusiast to guess the follow-on effect this will have. Everyone, everyone, needs to understand what's happening because these changes are coming to seek us out, whether we want them or not. An AscTec Firefly unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or drone. Credit:Andrew Harrer Just recently, the "section" was the smallest unit in the army. It had one machine-gun, a corporal, and eight other rifleman carrying backpacks and plain-green plastic sheets that the soldiers would clip together to make tents, called hutchies, at night. Today the soldiers have night-vision goggles, body-armour, and equipment that already makes the old army look like something out of the Napoleonic period. Tomorrow the changes will be even greater. Every soldier in the section will be connected by radio, wearing exo-skeletons to distribute weight and boost strength, and carrying weapons capable of effective fire more than a kilometre out. They'll be travelling in vehicles with reactive armour that's capable of destroying missiles before they hit, and equipped with UAVs and computers to provide incredible situational awareness and communications to link them directly with aircraft so they can guide artillery fire directly and automatically onto the target, using the precision of an eight-figure grid reference. The point of this description is not to glorify the technology of killing; far from it. It's simply pointing out that we now live in a new world  one where our comfortable assumptions of the past need to be thrown out because they are no guide to the present, let alone the future.

It will take time for these changes to ripple through society, but change us they will. Prominently on display was Rafael (a Hebrew word meaning "God has healed"), with their "Iron Dome" missile shield that protects settlements in Israel's south-west and unmanned naval vessels. Arguments about whether these are defensive systems rapidly become irrelevant when civilians are being killed, and that's not the point. The message of this column is simply that conflict is already unrecognisable. Australian companies are displaying similar agility. Queanbeyan's EOS defence systems has sold automatic vehicle-turrets overseas in hugely competitive markets. These developments all beg three, almost existential questions. The first will be "where's the money coming from?" The navy and air force are used to handing over (just) enough money for their poor relation to buy an armoured vehicle every decade or so, but the new requirements are immense and show no sign of deflating. Over the past 30 years the amount of the defence budget spent on equipment has already spiralled from 35 to 54 per cent feeding the urgent needs of those services. Now there are new requirements. We just can't afford the structure we've got and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying or living in cloud-cuckoo land. At some point hard decisions will need to be made. Either the taxpayer will have to cough up more (not likely!) or politicians will have to take some hard decisions (not likely either!) about what capabilities we just can't afford. The real point is that politicians won't be able to send the soldiers off on missions if they're not equipped correctly. It's up to them to get serious. The second issue is waste and this is also, far too often, the responsibility of government. Yesterday the navy welcomed its final MH-60R helicopter. We'd bought these after the 2009 White Paper identified an urgent requirement. I watched, years ago, as the first machines were being completed in Oswego, up-state New York. Tick for the navy, tick for Lockheed Martin. What could go wrong? Well, a parliamentary works committee didn't approve money for a hangar back in Nowra, so we paid tens of millions to send 98 aircrew over to train in Florida for 18 months. The hangers are now the most expensive in the Southern Hemisphere, if not the world. We're at the cutting edge of worst practice!
Here's a question that, on the face of it, seems refreshingly simple to answer: should public money be used to promote hate speech?

And at first glance the answer would appear to be "no, obviously". But when you think about it a little bit more deeply, the answer becomes: "Seriously? Still no, for all sorts of legal and moral reasons. Why are you even asking this? Do you need a hug and some quiet time?"

Eric Abetz's constant demands that senate colleagues pull his finger grew increasingly tiresome. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

However, it's the question which the Coalition party room is going to be inexplicably struggling with this week as it decides whether or not the $160 million plebiscite on whether or not to legalise same sex marriage should be even more expensive by using even more public money to fund publicity campaigns for the Yes and the No cases.

The problem that the No case, and by extension the federal government, have with funding such a campaign is that it would encourage activity which is arguably illegal.
The Turnbull government has suffered more embarrassing scenes in Parliament, with senators forced to give rambling monologues about their colleagues and favourite television shows because the government had no bills ready for debate.

The filibuster tactics in the Senate, which ran for four hours, followed the debacle in the House of Representatives two weeks ago when the government lost several divisions because MPs had left early.

Government senators were told on Monday morning that they would have to give 20 minute speeches to pad out the government business session until Question Time at 2pm.

Some of the government's most senior cabinet ministers, including Defence Minister Marise Payne and Cabinet Secretary Arthur Sinodinos, were called in to give speeches to keep the Senate operational.
The Turnbull government needs to wake up to itself, fast.

Fresh from embarrassing scenes just over a week ago that saw it lose three votes on the floor of the House of Representatives in a row, government senators returned to Canberra, bright and bushy-tailed on Monday morning, to debate...nothing.

Well, not exactly nothing, but pretty damn close to it.

Queensland senator James McGrath spoke about his love of the Australian flag. Fellow Queenslander Matt Canavan talked about the importance of roads. Tasmanian senator Jonathon Duniam, desperately filling for time, promised not to offend anyone. Victorian senator Bridget McKenzie praised a defeated Nationals candidate in the seat of McEwen - but forgot the bloke's name.
Prayers were barely completed before the President of the Senate comprehended the frightfulness awaiting his chamber.

All those Senators and nothing to do!

No, he didn't mean the usual.

He meant really, nothing to do.
A south-west Sydney student charged over a terrorist stabbing attack in Minto told police as far back as 2013 that he hated Australia because of its involvement with America in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, police documents reveal.

Ihsas Khan, then 19, made the admissions after he went on a bizarre rampage with a large pair of scissors, cutting down Australian flags on homes in his street and then standing on the road staring at one of the homeowners.

The pharmacy student, who dropped out of university after the incident and was put on psychiatric medication, allegedly stabbed a stranger on Saturday afternoon in a planned yet random attack that police said was inspired by Islamic State.

Wayne Greenhalgh, who was walking his dog through Minto at the time, suffered near-fatal wounds to his hands and body and had to run for his life into a neighbour's home before Mr Khan tried to smash his way in through a glass door while allegedly shouting "Allah Akbar" and "somebody's going to die today".
The biggest monetary reward in NSW is on offer for anyone that can lead police to the whereabouts of missing toddler William Tyrrell.

In a significant development in the mystery that has gripped Australia, NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione and Premier Mike Baird announced the $1 million reward on Monday, the second anniversary of the three-year-old's disappearance.

It is double the amount of the state's previously highest standing reward of $500,000, attached to the 1999 case of murdered teenager Michelle Bright.

Unlike other rewards that are contingent on someone being convicted of a crime, the $1 million reward in William's case is for his location.
The Labor government's proposed changes to Queensland's bikie laws are likely to be introduced in the State Parliament on Tuesday.

Labor promised changes to the Newman government's VLAD laws ahead of last year's state election.

Bikies

Attorney General Yvette D'Ath has led a review of the legislation for the past 12 months.

Prior to Monday's cabinet meeting, Leader of the House Stirling Hinchliffe said Labor's amendments could be tabled on Tuesday.
Police are searching for two men who broke into a home and assaulted a woman in far north Queensland overnight.

Two men entered a unit on Keeble Street at Mareeba about 11pm Sunday night and while one of the men stood in the hallway, the other entered a bedroom and stole money from a purse.

Police are searching for two men who robbed a woman during a home invasion overnight. Credit:Glenn Hunt

A woman, 60, was threatened with a knife after she walked into the bedroom and disturbed the robber.

The man pushed her and inappropriately grabbed her before both men fled the unit, police said.
Police are searching for a crowbar-wielding robber who was foiled with air freshener in central Queensland.

The man broke into a Gladstone unit early on Sunday morning and demanded property from a man, 23, and woman, 17.

The woman sprayed him in the eyes, which prompted him to flee. Credit:Louise Kennerley

He attacked the man with the crowbar, leaving him with leg injuries, before the woman sprayed him in the eyes with air freshener, which prompted him to flee.

AAP
A teenager has been sexually assaulted on board a morning peak-hour train in the city's south-east, sparking a police probe to find the offender.

The teen got onto the city-bound train at Narre Warren at 7.35am last Thursday. Her attacker boarded the train at the same station.

A technical breakdown has brought all display systems at Metro train stations across Melbourne to a halt. Credit:Craig Abraham

Detectives from the transit crime unit said the man then assaulted the teenager by thrusting against her back and groping her.

"After boarding, he repeatedly pushed his groin into the back of the teenage woman and groped her buttocks," a police spokeswoman said.
Shootings in Melbourne have hit triple figures since January 2015, as the city's surge in gun crime shows no sign of slowing down.

A gunman is on the run after a man was shot in the leg in Broadmeadows on Sunday night, the latest shooting amid an unprecedented wave of firearm violence.

Part one of a Fairfax Media investigation revealed on Monday that shootings have become an almost weekly occurrence in Melbourne, with 99 people shot up until last Friday.
A sword-wielding thief has been arrested after allegedly committing an aggravated burglary at a home west of Melbourne and terrorising staff at a Ballarat milk bar over the weekend.

The 26-year-old Wendouree man allegedly entered a milk bar on Joseph street, Ballarat, about 2.30pm on Sunday wearing a mask.

Police arrested the 26-year-old after he allegedly entered a home West of Melbourne armed with a sword. Credit:Cathryn Tremain

He was allegedly armed with an axe, but fled the scene after being confronted by the owner.

Minutes later, the same man entered another milk bar less than two kilometres away on the corner of Kline Street and Wesley Court.
The father of a nine-year-old girl who was mauled by two dogs in a Bassendean park has called for the owner to come forward.

The girl underwent surgery after her head and body were injured in the attack at Success Hill Park on Friday afternoon.

Nine News Perth spoke to the family who said her 16-year-old brother saved her life.

"If my son had not put his own safety at risk and fearlessly intervened, it is likely that the dogs would have killed her," the family said.
The mosque where Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen occasionally worshiped was intentionally set on fire this weekend, authorities in Florida said.

The St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office said emergency crews responded to the Islamic Centre of Fort Pierce shortly after midnight Sunday - the 15th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks - and extinguished the flames that were spilling out of the mosque. Authorities are investigating the incident as arson.

Firefighters work at the scene of a fire at the Islamic Centre of Fort Pierce on Monday. Credit:St. Lucie Sheriff's Office via AP

"A fire at any place of worship is alarming, regardless of the circumstances," the sheriff's office said in a statement. "Video captured at the Fort Pierce Islamic Centre shows an individual approached the east side of the building just moments before a flash is seen and the fire starts."

Sheriff's officials said they will soon release the video to the public and ask for help identifying the suspect in the arson case.
New York: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has cancelled a campaign trip to California because of her diagnosis of pneumonia, a campaign official said on Sunday.

Clinton was scheduled to leave for California on Monday morning for a two-day swing that included fundraisers and a speech on the economy.

After the incident: Hillary Clinton's campaign said the Democratic presidential nominee left the 9/11 anniversary ceremony in New York early after feeling "overheated." Credit:AP

No other details about her travel were available. Hillary Clinton was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday, her doctor said, after the candidate appeared to faint while abruptly leaving the September 11 commemoration in New York.

In a statement, Dr Lisa Bardack said the 68-year-old politician had been treated for allergies and was found during a follow-up evaluation on Friday to have pneumonia.
Nigeria offers three-year tax holiday to mining companies

Nigeria offered a three-year tax holiday to mining investors as the West African nation seeks to raise as much as $7 billion to develop its minerals and steel industries.

The tax incentive will start "from the date the investor commences mining operations in the country," Mines and Steel Development Minister Kayode Fayemi told prospective investors at a meeting in Perth, Australia, according to a statement posted on the ministrys website. He confirmed deposits of nickel were discovered in the northern Kaduna state.

Other incentives to lure investors include 100 percent foreign ownership of mining projects, and an exemption of import duties on mining equipment, according to the statement. The Nigerian government also pledged to boost security around mining sites.

Nigerias plans to diversify its oil-dominated economy into solid-mineral development and agriculture intensified after a slump in crude prices caused an economic contraction in the first and second quarters. The International Monetary Fund forecast the economy will shrink 1.8 percent this year, the first full-year decline since 1991.

www.bloomberg.com
Latest News Lendi Group settles $33.6 billion in FY22 Ambitious target of a deal a day for brokers

APRA announces new appointments The prudential regulator has a new chair, deputy chair, and members

The Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC) has permanently banned a former finance broker from engaging in credit activities and providing financial services after she entered a guilty plea to three criminal charges.ASIC handed the ban to Jennifer Farias after she pleaded guilty to three counts of loan fraud earlier this year after an investigation by the regulator found she had submitted 10 fraudulent loan applications containing false invoices and false information. Farias pleaded guilty to the charges in June this year and was given a one-year intensive correction order after it was revealed she had received more than $100,000 from the fraudulent applications.Farias had received $96,270 in loan funds and $10,349.26 in commissions from a credit provider after providing the fraudulent loan applications.Loan funds totalling $20,000 and commissions totalling $4,675.80 were then transferred to other persons after being paid to Farias by the lender.In addition to being sentenced to the correction order, Farias was also ordered to pay compensation totalling $100,000.00 to the lender for loan funds and commissions paid to her.ASIC deputy chairman Peter Kell said the permanent ban showed the regulator was committed to stamping out loan fraud in the broking industry.ASIC's action in this matter demonstrates how serious we are about tackling loan fraud. We won't hesitate to take action against dishonest brokers who falsify documents and remove them from the industry, Kell said.Farias has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC's decision.
Latest News Lendi Group settles $33.6 billion in FY22 Ambitious target of a deal a day for brokers

APRA announces new appointments The prudential regulator has a new chair, deputy chair, and members

An overhaul of land tax arrangements has had significant impact on the property market in the Australian Capital Territory and in turn mortgage holders.In 2012, the ACT government embarked on a long-term program of tax reform that will eventually see stamp duty abolished in the territory, with a broad based land tax rolled out to replace the revenue stream.The overhaul is expected to run across a 20-year period and will see the ACTs previous land tax, which exempted owner-occupied residential land, phased out and replaced with a single general rates charge levied annually on the value of all land.According to The First Interval: Evaluating ACT's Land Value Tax Transition report from think tank Prosper, growth rates for both home prices and the size of mortgages have slowed since the tax changes were introduced.The report, authored by Dr Cameron Murray, claims home price growth in Canberra was tracking at around the national average before diverging when the reforms were first introduced midway through 2012.While the median dwelling price in Canberra currently sits $535,000, Dr Murray claims it would more likely be around $642,000 had the tax changes not been introduced.With price growth having slowed, the report shows buyers in Canberra are no longer required to borrow as much as they once were.Much of the anticipated future tax obligations appear to have been already capitalised into lower land prices. Additionally, the tax transition may have also deterred speculative buyers from the housing market, adding even further to the recent pattern of low and stable property prices in the Territory, Dr Murray wrote.Because of the price effect of the land tax, a typical new home buyer in the Territory will save between $1,000 and $2,200 per year on mortgage repayments, he wrote.According to the report, the average mortgage in the ACT is currently worth $364,000 and has increased by 9% since July 2012.Over the same period, mortgages in all other states and territories have increased by an average of 14%.For borrowers, the slowdown in price growth also means they are benefiting when it comes to saving for a deposit.Based on the current median dwelling price in Canberra, borrowers would need $107,000 to meet the typical 20% deposit, $21,400 less than they would need had the pre-tax change rate of growth continued.
Latest News Lendi Group settles $33.6 billion in FY22 Ambitious target of a deal a day for brokers

APRA announces new appointments The prudential regulator has a new chair, deputy chair, and members

The Finance Brokers Association of Australia ( FBAA ) has promised to deliver the Australian government comprehensive research on commissions as it continues to push for the current commission structure to be retained.The FBAA has told Federal Minister for Finances and Revenue Services Kelly ODwyer that it will deliver a global research document that will show how brokers are paid in six overseas and relevant markets.FBAA spokesperson Peter White said the research is among the most comprehensive ever carried out in the industry and will prove that Australias current commission model is appropriate.At no other time has the broking industry seen a collection of data and other information which comprehensively argues the case for retaining the current broking commission model, White said."The data collected proves that our commission environment is globally sound and fundamentally competitive, he said.White made the promise to ODwyer at a recent private dinner, at which he said the minister also revealed that it is likely to be some time before the model of having the mortgage industry fund the Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC) is finalised.We also discussed where matters were at in regards to Treasurys move to fund ASIC back to industry ACL and AFSL Holders which was due for announcement around May of this year, and she advised that there is still a long way to go before a decision is reached on the makeup of the new financial industry funding model for ASIC, he said.White also said he used to the meeting as a chance express to ODWyer that the FBAA wants to see an end to the Point of Sale Motor Dealer finance exemptions under the National Consumer Credit Protection act and argued that motor dealership finance operations must comply with the same regulations as brokers.These exemptions are wrong and to back our case, we will provide the minister with a comprehensive expert regulatory review document showing why they must be removed.
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Brooklyn is headed to the polls once again on Sept. 13  this time to decide the primaries for state reps. In deep blue King County, these Democratic races will all but decide who takes the seat in November, so get to know the men and women who could be representing you in Albany for years to come. (Looking for more Southern Brooklyn races? Youll find them with our friends at BrooklynDaily.com)

18th State Senate District Democratic

Williamsburg housing activist Debbie Medina scored an impressive 42 percent of the vote against longtime state Sen. Martin Malave Dilan in the 2014 Democratic primary, and was looking to ride the new wave of fervor for Bernie Sanders-style democratic socialism into the seat, which covers Bushwick, Williamsburg, and Greenpoint.

But her campaign became sidetracked by revelations that she beat one of her sons when he was a kid  a confession she made while pleading for his life in a courtroom after he was convicted of killing his girlfriends 3-year-old boy  and she didnt get the endorsement of the Working Families Parties, who backed her in the previous primary.

Martin Malave Dilan

 The 66-year-old Williamsburg native is married and has three kids, including Bushwick Assemblyman Erik Dilan

 Parents from Puerto Rico

 Previously represented the area as a councilman for 10 years

Assemblywoman Pamela Harris File photo by Georgine Benvenuto

Debbie Medina

 The 52-year-old Williamsburg native is married and has four kids

 Parents from Puerto Rico

 Has worked as an organizer at community housing organization Los Sures for 29 years

Issues:

 Both candidates are trying to convince longtime locals that they are the true champions of struggling tenants. Dilan slammed Medina for her association with the New Kings Democrats, a reform club created to oust disgraced Democratic power broker and former Dilan ally Vito Gropez Lopez, but Dilan claims represents the young professionals moving into the rapidly gentrifying area. Medina hit back arguing that he has accepted tens of thousands in donations from landlords and the real-estate industry.

Our take:

Dilan is safe. Medina put up impressive results in 2014 and enjoys local support for her tenant advocacy and with the Berner crowd, but with her high-profile family woes and without the of Working Families Party endorsement, it is difficult to imagine her scoring a better result than she managed last time.

25th State Senate District Democratic

Longtime State Sen. Velmanette Montgomery is facing a challenge from upstart Michael Cox to retain her 32-year post representing Fort Greene, Boerum Hill, Red Hook, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Sunset Park, Gowanus, and Park Slope. Cox, a former Obama staffer, is hoping to offer voters a fresh face and paint his incumbent rival as a dinosaur.

Michael Cox. Michael Cox campaign

Michael Cox

 A lifelong Brooklynite, the 31-year-old lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant with his daughter

 Worked as an eighth-grade teacher in East New York with Teach for America, and most recently in community engagement at New York University

 Worked in federal politics for the Obama administration as an advisor in the United States Commerce Department, and as a staffer for Rep. Gregory Meeks (DQueens) and former upstate congressman Dan Maffei.

 Sits on the economic development committee of Community Board 2, and is a member of Community Board 8

Velmanette Montgomery

 Originally from Texas, the 74-year-old now lives in Clinton Hill and is married with a son

 Became the first New York state senator to have a baby while in office in 1987

Karen Cherry. Karen Cherry Facebook

 Before taking office, she worked as a teacher, adjunct professor, and day-care director

 Has a masters degree in education from New York University

Issues:

 Cox claims that Montgomery has become stagnant after more than three decades in office and isnt doing enough to address the growing disparity between the districts richest and poorest, and the education, housing, and criminal justice issues facing struggling communities.

 Montgomery is known for championing womens rights, and Cox is a dude

 Some voters may remember when Montgomery, who is black, made city-wide headlines by saying, White people dont eat the way we do, at a public meeting about the closure of a Clinton Hill grocery store in 2014. She later apologized, but that got far less attention.

Our take:

Montgomery is generally well liked by constituents, respected by the local political establishment, and will keep her seat. But Cox boasts an impressive resume, strong local bona fides, and has campaigned hard, so expect him to make a dent and show up on ballots in future elections.

State Sen. Velmanette Montgomery.

44th Assembly District Democratic

Assemblyman James Brennan abruptly announced his exit from Albany after 31 years representing the district  which includes Kensington, Windsor Terrace, Park Slope, Greenwood Heights, Borough Park, Flatbush, and Ditmas Park  at the end of May and was quick to endorse 29-year-old lawyer Robert Bobby Carroll as his successor. Carroll quickly amassed an enviable list of endorsements from 12 other elected officials including local Councilman Brad Lander, nine political organizations, and 16 unions.

Brennans announcement came just before the petitioning period began and Carrolls opponents  public-school teacher Robert Curry-Smithson and community organizer Troy Odendhal  say they only had a short time to put together their campaigns, while others say they decided not to bother due to the brief time frame.

Robert Carroll

 Born-and-raised Windsor-Terrace resident, he is single and has no kids

 A member of Community Board 7, the Park Slope Civic Council, and the Windsor-Terrace Food Co-op

 The youngest person to be elected president of the long-running Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, which his grandfather co-founded

 His dad John Carroll, also a former president of the club and also a lawyer, ran unsuccessfully against now-Mayor DeBlasio in the Democratic primary for the local Council seat in 2001. His cousin is Bay Ridge Democratic District Leader Kevin Peter Carroll

State Sen. Martin Malave Dilan.

 A theater buff, he wrote a play called The Believers about Brooklyn politics

Robert Curry-Smithson

 A 33-year-old Kensington resident who has lived in the district for three years

 This Vermont native is a strong supporter of Bernie Sanders and first felt the Bern in the 10th grade, when he volunteered for the democratic socialists 1998 congressional campaign

 Works as a history teacher at NEST+m, a Manhattan public school for gifted and talented students, where he was elected chapter leader of the United Teachers Federation  though the union is endorsing Carroll

Troy Odendhal

 A 45-year-old lifelong Brooklynite who currently resides in Kensington with his wife and daughter

 Previously worked with community network Pacifica Radio, where he served as a correspondent for Latin America from 20062012

Debbie Medina.

 At one time worked with the mayors task force on HIV and AIDS

 Has been a member of many activist and civic groups, including Uprose, the Native American Youth Council, and Occupy Wall Street

Issues:

 The two underdogs have both criticized the seamless passing of the torch from Brennan to a politically-connected 20-something, characterizing it as establishment cronyism  and theyre not the only locals bent out of shape about it

 All three candidates are Berni-crats with progressive reform agendas focused on improving public education and cleaning up Albany, though Odendhal is also pitching himself as a working-class man who will fight gentrification and push for more affordable housing.

 Carroll has zeroed in on local anxieties about a planned express F train service skipping stops in the district, promising to upgrade the track to increase capacity,

Our take:

Its the election Carroll was born to win!

Troy Odendhal.

46th Assembly District Democratic

Freshman Assemblywoman Pamela Harris is battling longtime politico Kate Cucco for the seat that meanders from Bay Ridge down to Coney Island and Sea Gate. The pair faced off last year, but Harris emerged successful when the party nominated her in a special election. But the race is symbolic of a larger struggle between Bay Ridge and Coney Island political clubs vying against one another for control of southwestern Brooklyn.

Katie A. Cucco

 Unmarried, lives in Bay Ridge, no children.

 Former chief of staff to Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny, who stepped down in 2015.

 Boyfriend Jonathan Yedin is the former executive director of the Brooklyn Democratic County Committee.

Pamela Harris

 Married, lives in Coney Island, no children.

 Retired corrections officer and community organizer.

Robert Curry-Smithson.

 First black candidate in the city to win in a majority-white district.

Issues:

 Harris has fought off accusations shes too cozy with the non-profit she founded before taking office and which operated out of her home while she was in Albany.

 Critics have questioned Cuccos politic because she interviewed to run on the Conservative party line last year.

 The Bay RidgeConey Island district hasnt had a rep from the Ridge since the 1940s, and Cucco says she wants to amplify neighborhoodss voice in Albany.

Our prediction:

Too close to call. Harris and Cucco both vied for the nomination in last years special election to replace Brook-Krasny, but its not clear how voters would have ranked them, because the county committee hand-picks nominees in special elections, and it went with Harris. But the battle lines are drawn with Bay Ridge on one side and Coney Island on the other  its all about who can get out the vote on primary day.

56th Assembly District Democratic

Outgoing Assemblywoman Annette Robinson tapped Community Board 3 chair and local businesswoman Tremaine Wright as her heir apparent after announcing she was retiring in March, and Wright promptly gained the endorsement of the influential Vanguard Independent Democratic Association. But she faces a tough fight from Karen Cherry, a longtime community activist and staffer for Bushwick Assemblyman Erik Dilan.

Kate Cucco Kate Cucco

Expect this to be one of the most competitive races in the borough, as both hopefuls are familiar faces in the district  which covers Bedford-Stuyvesant and part of Crown Heights  and have powerful political allies.

Tremaine Wright

 A lifelong BedfordStuyvesant resident, she is 43 years old and unmarried with no kids

 A former lawyer, Wright studied under President Obama at the University of Chicago Law School, and later opened popular neighborhood coffee shop Common Grounds

 Challenged then-Councilman Al Vann for his seat in 2009

 Wright has been a member of Community Board 3 for 13 years, and has served as chairwoman for the last three years

Karen Cherry

 A 51-yearold single mother of two boys who also lives in BedfordStuyvesant

Tremaine Wright. Sakiyah Wright

 A housing activist, Cherry grew up in the Tompkins Houses, where was part of the Tompkins Houses Tenants Union

 Cherry worked for former Congressman Ed Towns for more than 20 years, and now works as community liaison for Dilan

Issues:

 Cherry is promoting herself as a champion for people in need, especially those in public housing. She recently gained press for railing against leaky and moldy pipes at the Tompkins Houses, forcing the New York City Housing Authority to apologize and make repairs.

 Both candidates are pushing hard on health-care issues in an area where many are uninsured but have seen several local safety net hospitals flatline in recent decades and almost lost cash-strapped Interfaith Medical Center a few years back. Cherry used to sit on Interfaiths community advisory board and says shell fight to keep it open, while Wright is an advocate for single-payer health care.

Our take:

Wright has the edge thanks to her high profile in the community and endorsements from the Vanguard Independent Democratic Association and a host of area politicos. But we wont rule out an upset from Cherry, who has plenty of supporters herself and has campaigned hard.
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October 3, 2022

Dee Gambit

Hundreds  if not thousands  of new and returning TV shows and movies are released every month  your options of what to watch are endless. Variety, they say is ...
Great Lakes Medical Imaging joins the Department of Radiology in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB

A key goal is re-establishing UBs medical residency program in radiology

This transition takes advantage of the very talented pool of radiologists at Great Lakes Medical Imaging and complements the strong collaborations between the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and our hospital partners. 

BUFFALO, N.Y.  The University at Buffalo announced today that the 35 practicing radiologists employed by Great Lakes Medical Imaging (GLMI) are joining the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences as full-time faculty members in the Department of Radiology. They also will provide care to the community as clinicians with UBMD Radiology and UBs hospital partners in the Great Lakes Health System.

Kenneth D. Pearsen, MD, the co-founder and former president of GLMI, has been appointed chair of the Department of Radiology in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences; he has also been named president of the UBMD Radiology practice plan. Angelo DelBalso, MD, DDS, who served as chair of the UB Department of Radiology, has returned to the faculty full-time.

The UBMD Radiology practice plan will provide radiology services to Buffalo General Medical Center as GLMI has done for years. The new agreement also makes UBMD Radiology the sole provider of radiology services at Erie County Medical Center.

The move is an important step forward for the Great Lakes Health System, the planning entity comprised of UB, Kaleida Health and ECMC, created in 2006 by the Berger Commission, whose mission was to restructure and streamline the hospital and nursing home industries in New York State.

The new arrangement could not have happened without the strong collaborative relationships among the three partners, according to Michael E. Cain, MD, vice president for health sciences at UB and dean of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Legislative amendments passed by the New York State Senate in April that allow ECMC to further integrate health care delivery among the Great Lakes Health partners also played a role.

This is a major success story for Great Lakes Health, Cain said. This transition takes advantage of the very talented pool of radiologists at Great Lakes Medical Imaging and complements the strong collaborations between the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and our hospital partners at Kaleida Health, ECMC and elsewhere on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

The transitioning of the radiologists from Great Lakes Medical Imaging into the UB Department of Radiology and UBMD Radiology will re-energize radiological care, education and science in Western New York, providing UB medical students with a solid foundation in the science of imaging and how it applies to patient care.

Toward reestablishing a radiology residency

Cain explained that a critical benefit of the new arrangement is that it allows the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences to re-establish a residency program in radiology. In 2006, the school voluntarily withdrew the program from the national accreditation process conducted by the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education, partly as a response to the departure of several faculty members.

The need to re-establish a medical residency training program in Western New York was a key motivation for the new arrangement, according to Pearsen. Medical residency programs provide training in a medical or surgical specialty for medical school graduates; they typically last three to seven years.

Residency education is the primary pathway to securing the future of our specialty, Pearsen said, assuring that Buffalo has a steady supply of expertly-trained radiology specialists to service our community for the foreseeable future and beyond.

The school begins the residency application process this year with the goal of enrolling its first class of radiology residents in 2018.

Improving research and patient care

In addition to filling the pipeline of local radiologists, the new UB radiology faculty members will help bolster the provision of radiological services to Western New Yorkers through outpatient facilities with UBMD Radiology and at Buffalo General Medical Center and ECMC.

Cain added that the new faculty also will advance clinical research in the field, complementing the highly-acclaimed basic science and radiation physics research performed by Stephen Rudin, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Daniel R. Bednarek, PhD, professor, both in the Department of Radiology.

Jody Lomeo, president and chief executive officer of Great Lakes Health and Kaleida Health said, This is another step forward for Kaleida Health, ECMC, UB -- and now Great Lakes Medical Imaging. We are working together every day to better serve our patients as well as this community. This type of collaboration is another example of this. Just as important, the partnership will help advance the teaching mission and fill the pipelines of radiologists here in Western New York.

This important initiative reinforces precisely what was envisioned by the partner organizations that came together as the Great Lakes Health System, fostering strong collaborative efforts that ultimately provide the highest quality health care options for the residents of Western New York, said Thomas J. Quatroche Jr., PhD, president and chief executive officer, Erie County Medical Center Corporation.

The addition of GLMI radiologists to UBs Department of Radiology will educate future radiologists to care for patients in our region and will add an even higher level of medical service capability for ECMC, Kaleida and UB, which will ultimately benefit the patients we serve, he added.

Pearsen explained how the new initiative would benefit the provision of radiological services in the community.

UBMD Radiology will create an unprecedented, integrated imaging network serving the Great Lakes Health System, including Buffalo General Medical Center and Erie County Medical Center, as well as the numerous specialty services under the umbrella of UBMD, he said. In addition, UBMD Radiology will provide radiologic expertise at our multiple GLMI outpatient sites canvassing Western New York. This transition will provide imaging expertise from the most rural locations to the bedside at our most specialized hospital locations.

As UBMD Radiology, we will now be able to strengthen our collaboration with other UBMD specialty practices throughout Western New York, including neurosurgery, orthopaedics, neurology, general surgery and internal medicine, to name a few, Pearsen continued. This will ensure the highest educational standards and most comprehensive collaborative health care service in the region.

Pearsen noted that he has been a hospital-based radiologist and educator throughout his career, dating back to his training in Boston at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and that he is anxious to give back to the Western New York community, where he has lived and worked for the past 25 years. He is quick to note that it will be a true team effort.

I am privileged to have as my partners among the best-trained physicians in the country from programs including Harvard, Georgetown, University of Rochester and Stanford, he said. Collectively, we are up to the task of unequivocally placing radiology training and education back on the map in Buffalo to stay.
Campus News

They come for the tea but stay for the people

By LAURA HERNANDEZ

Every time I come here, I meet someone new and learn how to speak to different people from different cultures. 

Deepak Rai came for the tea but stayed for the people.

Every time I come here, I meet someone new and learn how to speak to different people from different cultures, says Rai, a senior mechanical engineering major who was born in Nepal but now lives in New York City. I look forward to this every week.

And thats precisely the goal of International Tea Time, a weekly program presented by UB Counseling Services to help students interact and make friends with people from different cultures.

Students play games and meet new people while treating themselves to an assortment of teas and international snacks. The sessions are held from 5-6:30 p.m. at the Intercultural and Diversity Center in the Student Union.

The program began in the summer of 2013, the brainchild of Elena Yakunina and Heweon Seo, staff psychologists at Counseling Services. Both women have international backgrounds  Yakunina is from Bulgaria and Seo is from Korea  so they had an interest in developing a fun and interactive program to help students meet new people.

UB is such a big school, and sometimes students dont get an opportunity to have close interactions, says Yakunina. The program bring students together to have a positive experience.

The sessions start with students playing games like Jenga, charades and UNO as an ice-breaker. They then talk and share their opinions on a variety of topics, among them food and cultural traditions.

Rai started attending the sessions when a friend invited him to join his freshman year. He has become good friends with Abhishek Kulkarni, a computer science and engineering graduate student from India. Once shy and introverted, Kulkarni says the sessions have helped him gain confidence and become more outgoing and social. He has been attending the meetings for the past two years.

This is a safe place where you can discuss anything, says Kulkarni. Its a very comfortable environment because no one judges you. When you walk in, you feel like youre part of this community.

Newcomer Elaine Lin, a freshman aerospace engineering major from New York City, walked in after a sign posted outside the Intercultural and Diversity Center caught her attention. She found her first meeting to be fun and interesting.

I like the friendly atmosphere because Im not really good at talking to other people, says Lin. Its interesting to be around diverse people because you get to learn about different cultures and see new perspectives. You get a new experience around diverse people.

After receiving an email about the program, Rutuja Sawant, an undeclared student from India, felt like stepping out of her comfort zone. She intends to return and attend the meetings each week.

The environment is very comfortable and welcoming, says Sawant. Im loving it here. I like to meet new people. Everyone here is friendly and dont judge you.

As more students attend throughout the school year, more new friendships are made.

We want to provide a community to make students feel happy and at home, says Yakunina. We want to let students know that if they need help, we are here.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has issued show cause notices to 10 public and private sector energy companies, including the Adani Group, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) and Essar Group firms. The notice is for allegedly inflating the value of coal imports from Indonesia for their power plants to siphon money aboard and avail higher power rate compensation, according to DRI sources.
The planned merger of Cairn India with Vedanta has received required approvals from its shareholders, Cairn India said in a statement to the BSE on Monday.
and Industries, once a star among Indian investors, is looking to demerge its textile business. It may merge it with Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail (ABFRL) to bring the entire textile and fashion business of the Aditya Birla Group under one roof.


Guenter Butschek, who took charge as the CEO and MD of earlier this year, has been accused of focusing too much on reorganising and realigning the companys internal operations instead of addressing the external factors first.
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Tata Motors-owned Jaguar will shift production of Jaguar XE to its Castle Bromwich Assembly Plant (pictured) in the United Kingdom (UK), where it is investing 100 million (Rs 890 crore). The XE will gradually shift from its current home at Solihull.
Cairn India shareholders on Monday approved the merger of the company with its parent Vedanta, after LIC and Cairn Energy of UK voted in favour of the sweetened merger ratio.
Baba Ramdev-promoted Patanjali Ayurved plans to commission its proposed herbal food park at Nagpur by the end of the current financial year. The company also expects to clock annual turnover of Rs 10,000 crore by March 31, 2018.
IdeaChakki, a food-tech venture, has raised money from Ratan Tata. The Delhi-based start-up, however, did not disclose the quantum raised. The company also partnered with Enablers for their next round of funding.
(RNLI), a part of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Capital, on Monday said it plans to expand reach in Uttar Pradesh, which the company sees as an important market.

"UP accounts for nearly 15 per cent of RNLI's total business and plays an important role in the overall business performance of the company. We plan to expand our footprint, and the contribution from UP in the overall business portfolio, going forward," said Manoranjan Sahoo, Chief Agency Officer, .

"We have a range of new and innovative products to offer and will offer them with special emphasis on covering smaller regions where penetration is low," Sahoo told reporters here.

Elaborating on the plan, the CAO said that RNLI plans to double the policies sold in the state, from existing about 60 thousand to over 1 lakh by March 2017.

The company registered a steady growth in its business performance within the state with New Business Premium recording a growth of 13per cent.

Total Premium was up by 12per cent and Renewal Premium growing by 12 per cent during the last fiscal, he said.

The prime focus for RNLI has been in selling traditional products, that accounts for over 80 per cent of company's overall portfolio, and plans to maintain this ratio in the state.
on Monday said that the company's fertiliser plant at Haldia, West Bengal is likely to be closed for 5 weeks in February-March 2017 due to "interruption in the supply of ammonia".

The company had signed a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Sanjana Cryogenics Storage (SCSL), its ammonia terminal operator, for re-routing a portion of the ammonia pipeline that runs from Haldia Dock to ammonia storage tank.

The pipeline re-routing activity has been done at the directive of Kolkata Port Trust for facilitating the set up a Multi-Modal Terminal Hub at Haldia by Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), the company said.

"As per the current project status, the expected pipeline re-routing will be scheduled in the month of February-March, 2017 for about five weeks. Further updates in this regard will be provided when the actual shutdown of the Haldia plant for the above purpose is undertaken in February and March, 2017," the company said in a filing to Bombay Stock Exchange.

Earlier, the fertiliser producer had announced that this pipeline re-routing activity would cause a shutdown of operations by about 5 weeks in September-October 2016 due to interruption of ammonia supply to its Haldia phosphatic fertiliser plant.
Net loss of Tata Steel mounted manifold to Rs 3,183 crore on consolidated basis in the first quarter ended June 30, 2016-17.

The steel giant had reported net loss of Rs 316.91 crore for the April-June quarter in the last financial year.

Its total income fell by 6% to Rs 26,406.10 crore during the quarter under review, as against Rs 28,025.43 crore in the year-ago period, the Mumbai-based firm said in a BSE filing.

Total expenses were however lower at Rs 24,405.86 crore, from Rs 26,679.76 crore.

Loss of Rs 3,296 crore from discontinued operations was recognised on account of divestment of Long Steel UK Ltd, it said, adding that the sale was completed during the quarter.

Tata Steel's gross debt rose to Rs 85,475 crore at the end of the June quarter of current fiscal, from Rs 81,975 crore in the year-ago period, mainly due to increase in India and Tata Steel Global procurement. Its net debt also rose by Rs 4,171 crore to Rs 75,259 crore.

"The company tapped the Commercial Paper market in India to capitalise on lower yields in the short end market. Power purchase agreements of captive nature have also been classified as finance lease under IND AS resulting in an increase in gross debt," it added.

The company said it has a strong liquidity position with cash and cash equivalents including drawn and undrawn lines of Rs 12,746 crore.

Its total steel deliveries stood at 5.41 million tonnes in the April-June quarter of 2016-17.

On asset sale, it said: "Tata Steel UK is currently progressing with the divestment of the Speciality Steel business and the pipe mills in Hartlepool. The shortlisted bidders are being given access to due diligence and management meetings."



It further said: "As disclosed earlier, Tata Steel Europe continues to be in discussion with industry players to explore options for a strategic collaboration through a potential joint venture. Appropriate disclosure in the regard will be made in due course."



Tata Steel UK is in engagement with all relevant stakeholders including the UK government, the Trustee and the unions on the exposure to pensions of the UK business. The discussions are currently ongoing, it added.

The company incurred a capex of Rs 2,442 crore during the June quarter. Of this, Rs 1,118 crore was in India, largely on the completion of the 3 MT per annum greenfield steel plant at Kalinganager and related projects, while Rs 679 crore was incurred in Europe.
Tata Steels consolidated net loss widened about 10 times to Rs 3,183 crore in the quarter ended June (Q1), against a Rs 317-crore loss in the corresponding period last year, according to the new accounting standard Ind-AS. The loss was mainly on account of divestment of its long steel products division in the UK.
Monthly data on import refusals by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this year paint a grim picture of Indian food products. India consistently ranked among the top three countries whose products were rejected for import by the regulator.
Armed men entered a Delhi-Gorakhpur express train that had slowed down near the Shakur Basti railway station here and looted cash and valuables from passengers, police said.

The Gorakhdham Express slowed down before entering the Shakur Basti railway station around 8.30 PM on Saturday when around seven-eight men entered the train, police said.

They looted passengers and even stabbed two men who tried to protest, said a senior police officer, adding that the two men were carrying Rs 40,000 and Rs 70,000, respectively, and they were robbed and attacked.

The miscreants jumped off the train when it reached the station, police said.

The injured passengers were taken to a hospital, police said.

The station doesn't have CCTV cameras.
In an apparent fallout of the ongoing Cauvery crisis, suspected pro-Tamil protesters on Monday attacked and damaged a hotel run by a native of Karnataka here.

The incident occurred during the wee hours on Monday when the group of protesters gathered around the hotel situated in Mylapore and damaged its window panes using iron rods and wooden logs, police said adding that no one was injured.

So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack and a probe is on, police said.

The incident comes a day after a video purportedly showing a 22-year-old Tamil youth being beaten by a group of men in Bengalur for allegedly posting "derogatory" remarks on social media against Kannada film actors went viral.

It was also alleged that the youth had made comments, which were later deleted, against the ongoing Cauvery water agitation in Karnataka on the social media.

Protests by farmers and pro-Kannada outfits have been reported from several parts of the neighbouring state over the Supreme Court order asking Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile, Tamilaga Valvurimai Katchi founder T Velmurugan here said his party workers will stage "democratic protests" outside Kannada establishments including their government offices in the state.
Bengaluru came to a halt on Monday, the second time in a week, after protesters targeted property and vehicles of Tamil speaking people over the Cauvery river water dispute. One person was killed and another injured in police firing in the city.
Tamil film industry on Monday expressed concern regarding violence in Karnataka over the Cauvery water dispute and urged for the security of Tamil- and Kannada-speaking people in Bengaluru and Chennai, respectively.

They also slammed the recent criticism of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa by some Kannada actors and other groups.

"The violence in Karnataka against release of water for Tamil Nadu farmers is a matter of concern," said a joint statement issued by the Tamil Film Producers' Council, Tamil Nadu Film Directors' Association and South Indian Artistes' Association (Nadigar Sangam).

"It is a matter of regret that some people cannot understand the Supreme Court order that water should be released to Tamil Nadu, and are holding protests," it said.

The statement said that Jayalalithaa was against violence.

"That is why we have also not resorted to violence and taken to peaceful protests. We strongly condemn those Kannada groups and actors who insulted the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister," during the protests there, it said.

While there were Tamils living in Bengaluru and Kannadigas in Chennai, the livelihood of these common people getting affected by a few chauvinists should be resisted by all concerned, they said.

"Let the issue be resolved through talks and legal means," it added.
The Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) Chief S Christopher on Monday briefed Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on the $208-million Aircraft Deal of 2008 which has come under cloud over allegation of bribery.

Christopher visited the minister's office earlier in the day and briefed him over the matter.

The DRDO has already approached the Brazilian company for an explanation over media reports suggesting the firm had hired an Indian middlemen based in the UK to get the deal through in 2008.

Parrikar has said if there is a criminal angle to the deal than it would be probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

"The report is yet to come to me. I will have a look once I receive it," Parrikar said.

The deal for the purchase of three aircrafts was signed between the company and the DRDO during the UPA-1 rule for supply of three aircraft equipped with indigenous radars for Airborne Early Warning and Control Systems.

It came under the scanner after the US Justice Department started probing Embraer for alleged payment of bribes to secure contracts in foreign countries.

Interestingly, Brazilian Air Force Chief Nivaldo L Rossato is in New Delhi and held talks with Indian Air Force Chief Arup Raha.
Security forces gunned down one more militant in district, taking the total number of ultras killed in the operation, which is still underway, to four.

"One more militant has been eliminated.

With this, the number of total militants killed in the encounter since yesterday has gone up to four", a Defence spokesman said on Monday, Three militants and a policeman were killed and six others, including a police officer, were injured on Sunday, in twin encounters between security forces and four terrorists in town. The cop was cremated on Monday in town.

IG Johny Willian, who is in-charge of Rajouri-Poonch range, said one more body of a militant has been recovered from a house where one ultra was killed on Sunday.

Firing is going on in the under-construction Mini Secretariat and the operation is on, he said.

Security forces were engaged in day-long twin encounters with four terrorists holed up at two places near the under-construction Mini Secretariat in Poonch town since Sunday morning.

The fire fight broke out near the Mini Secretariat building close to Army's 93 Brigade headquarters, Poonch district and a house in Allahpir Mohalla in the town around 7:30 a.m. on Sunday.

"Four militants are involved in the two encounters at two different locations", Director General of Police Rajendra Kumar had said.

A civilian couple were safely evacuated from the house in which militants had taken shelter last evening, police said.

The authorities had used drones to track down militants in the Mini Secretariat complex and other places. See below for a video footage of the firing.
Bengaluru, India's technology hub came to a halt on Monday, second time in a week, after goons targeted property and vehicles of Tamil Nadu people, reminding locals of targeted attacks on Tamilians 25 years ago over the Cauvery river water dispute. The violence has hit the city's reputation as a safe destination for businesses globally.
Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh on Monday expressed gratitude to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and commended their cooperation in nabbing terrorists in the Sector where an encounter is presently underway.

Speaking to ANI, Singh also heaped praise on the security forces, saying they are doing a very commendable job in Sector, adding the operation would culminate successfully very soon.

"What is even more gratifying is the local population there has a very high morale and they are absolutely in a cooperative mode. They wish the forces to go ahead with the operation till it is successfully concluded. They also wish the government and New Delhi to go ahead and call the bluff of Pakistan," he added.

One more terrorist was killed in the ongoing encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's on Monday.

The total number of terrorists killed so far is four.

In the fierce firefight that ensued, one personnel of state police was killed while two army jawans, one police personnel and other civilians sustained injuries.

Firing resumed on Monday morning in Poonch where the encounter started on Sunday.

The Poonch attack began when terrorists, holed up in an under-construction building close to an army camp, opened fire at police when the latter tried to cordon off the premises.

In another incident, four terrorists were killed at the Line of Control in Nowgam Sector of Handwara during an infiltration bid on Sunday.

Kashmir is witnessing unrest post the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8.
Residents of Jammu and Kashmir's district castigated Pakistan for creating an environment of panic at the time of Eid al-Adha.

Encounter between holed up militants and security forces in Sector is underway.

"This is a conspiracy from the side of Pakistan, especially on the occasion of Eid. Such incidents should not take place and especially not on pious occasions. Militants, who are responsible for such activities, either should be handed over to the army or be killed. This is shameful act by Pakistan, that too on Eid," said a resident of district.

Fresh rounds of fire between the security forces and militants were exchanged between the two sides at the mini secretariat building earlier on Monday morning.

A policeman died and another was injured while seven terrorists died in four separate encounters in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday.

Three of the encounters were with terrorists who were trying to infiltrate in Tangdhar, Gurez and Nowgam Sectors. The other was between the police and a group of terrorists who had held up in a building in Poonch Sector.

Dozens of people, meanwhile, were injured after a joint team of security forces carried out raids at Pulwama's Karimabaf village.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday chaired a high-level meeting on Kashmir later in the day, attended by the Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, IB Chief Dineshwar Sharma, BSF DG KK Sharma and Home Secretary Anil Goswami.
President on Monday greeted fellow citizens on the eve of Eid and expressed hope that the festival will strengthen the efforts of the people to enhance universal brotherhood, peace and harmony in the society.

"On the occasion of Idu'l Zuha, I extend warm greetings and good wishes to all Muslim brothers and sisters in India and abroad.

"The festival epitomises trust, compassion, sacrifice and forgiveness. Let us on this day recall the selfless sacrifice made by Hazrat Ibrahim and engage in the service of humanity," he said in his message.

"Let us strive to lessen the pain of the suffering and needy. May this festival strengthen our efforts to enhance universal brotherhood, peace and harmony in society," the message said.
Fresh trouble erupted in Bengaluru after violent protestors set fire to at least two vehicles, agitated against the Supreme Court (SC) directive to release more water from the river Cauvery.


The unseemly scramble among the telecom companies on display over the interconnection problem has a win-win solution if only the broader issues are understood.
The Congress on Monday returned fire at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), alleging the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, in 2003, had entertained Islamic scholar Zakir Naik (pictured), whose role in the recent Dhaka terror attacks has come under scanner.


Investment bankers will be managing the Rs 60,000-crore share sale in companies including ITC, Axis Bank and Larsen & Toubro (L&T) by the government for a token amount of Rs 1, said four people with direct knowledge of the development.
To project itself as a party that works for the welfare of the poor in the run-up to a series of Assembly polls scheduled from February 2017 to end-2018, some of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief ministers met in Bhopal on Monday to decide on the partys garib kalyan (welfare of the poor) agenda.
The will shortly circulate a Cabinet note to merge the railway budget with the Union Budget, advance presentation by a month and doing away with Plan and non-Plan expenditure head in the Budget.

The draft note will be floated for inter-ministerial discussion before it is tabled before the Cabinet, which is likely to take up these issues towards the end of this month, sources said.

If the Cabinet agrees to the finance ministry's proposal, the Budget will be presented in January instead of the last working day of February.

The ministry also seeks to end distinction between Plan and non-Plan expenditure and replace it with capital and revenue expenditure.

The is seeking approval for these three proposals with an intention to get them implemented in the Budget for 2017-18, the sources said.

There is no specific date mentioned in the Constitution for presenting the Union Budget. The Narendra Modi government is planning to present it in the last week of January so that the entire process can be wrapped up by March. The new financial year starts from April 1.

Besides, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has favoured scrapping the practice of having a separate railway budget. He wants it to be merged with the general Budget like it happens in all other ministries, including the all-crucial Defence.

Considered a British legacy, India follows accounting period from April to March, in line with the Gregorian calendar of accounting.

The government has constituted a committee headed by former chief economic advisor Shankar Acharya to study the feasibility of adopting a new financial year. The panel is slated to submit its report by December 31, 2016.

Previously, the L K Jha Committee, appointed in May 1984 to look into the matter, had recommended switching over to the calendar year, but the government did not accept the recommendation, saying it would cause large-scale problems as most Indian companies follow the April-March cycle.

As the financial year begins on April 1, the government in March takes Parliament's approval for Vote-on-Account for a sum of money sufficient to meet expenditure on various items for the next 2-3 months till the full Budget is passed. The Demands and Appropriation Bill entailing full-year expenditure as well as tax changes is then passed in April-May.
Maintaining that the world is changing with increasing energy demand, shifting energy markets and the effects of climate change, India and Canada have agreed take action to combat climate change through innovation and deployment of low-carbon solutions, according to provisions of the 2015 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

A joint statement issued by the India and Canada said that while both nations recognise the significant scope and wide-ranging potential for cooperation in the field of energy cooperation between governments, the private sector, research organisations and regulators, both nations also agreed to explore ways to further strengthen the institutional framework for this cooperation.

"Both sides agree to consider expanding the scope of their future bilateral dialogues to cover other areas of energy such as electricity and renewables; energy efficiency, clean technology and innovation; and civil nuclear energy," the statement said.

The statement was issued after Canada's Minister of Natural Resources, Jim Carr, led the Government's first official visit and trade mission to India last week.

Carr focused on reinvigorating the two countries' energy relationship and strengthening collaboration on clean energy and innovation.

Asserting that India and Canada have shared and complementary interests in oil and gas, the statement said that an expanded Energy Dialogue and action plan will also facilitate greater collaboration between Indian and Canadian entities associated with oil and gas.

"Our objective is to enhance understanding of policies, programs and regulatory practices in both countries to promote and facilitate greater two-way trade and investment in the oil and gas sectors, including clean technology applied to the sector, for mutual economic benefit, " the statement added.

Both nations also agreed to encourage consideration of investment opportunities in their respective energy sectors, including the Indian upstream sector under the Discovered Small Fields bid round and the Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy.

The statement added that while Canada welcomes investment in major projects, it will keep India informed of federal environmental approvals for the Pacific NorthWest LNG Project.

Recognising that India and Canada has great potential for growth between energy sectors and broader economies, the statement highlighted that both nations has tremendous opportunity for cooperation in mutual and continuing transitions to cleaner energy economies.

"Our actions to promote access to energy and align climate and energy policies will promote sustainable development and help enhance two-way trade between our countries and provide better energy reliability for households," the statement added.

The statement also said that by working together on shared priorities, both nations can meet their international obligations on climate change, enhance energy security and ensure continued growth and prosperity for the middle class.

Twenty representatives from Canada's oil and gas, renewables and electricity, and academic sectors joined the trade mission and were successful in creating new partnerships and new applications for renewable energy and clean technology, which will match Canada's expertise and resources with India's needs and expand India's interests in Canada.

Carr held meetings with his counterparts, including Renewables, Power, Coal and Mines Minister Piyush Goyal, Oil and Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State for Atomic Energy Jitendra Singh, and Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh.

The ministers underscored the importance of the Canada-India Energy Dialogue and discussed ongoing work in support of the objectives established under Mission Innovation.

Canada and India are among the 21 Mission Innovation partners that have committed to doubling government investments in clean technology research and development and to stimulating private sector investment in clean technology over the next five years.
BankBazaar.com, an online marketplace for financial products, has launched a multi-brand, paperless e-KYC platform for instant loan approval. This eliminates the need for physical document submission for loan approvals through the company's online platform.
Private sector lender ICICI Bank will bring down its stake in to 54 per cent (down from 67.52 per cent as of September 7) over the next three years. Public shareholding will rise to 25 per cent in the period. It will stand at 19 per cent once the insurer is listed.
Ratings agency Fitch has said that the progressive increase in minimum capital requirements under is likely to put nearly half of Indian in danger of breaching capital triggers.
Cabinet approves Cadre Review of Group 'A' Executive Officers of Border Security Force

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has approved the Cadre Review of Group 'A' Executive officers of BSF with net creation of 74 posts of various ranks from Assistant Commandant to Additional DG ranks to enhance the operational and administrative capabilities of BSF.

Increase of existing structure of Group 'A' posts from 4109 to 4183 posts are as follows:

1. Increase of one post of Additional DG (HAG level).

2. Net increase of 19 posts of Inspector General (SAG level).

3. Net increase of 370 posts of DIG/Commandant/2 1C (JAG level).

4. Net increase of 14 posts of Assistant Commandant (JTS level).

5.

Net reduction of 330 posts of Deputy Commandant (STS level).

Background:

The BSF is the largest border guarding force established in 1965. The present sanctioned strength of the Force is 2,57,025 having 186 Battalions (including 03 NDRF Battalions). Of these the Executive Group 'A' cadre has sanctioned strength of 4065 officers (4109 including the IPS quota). About 90% of the troops are deployed in Indo-Pakistan Border, Indo-Bangladesh Border (including North East) and Left Wing Extremism (LWE) States. The last cadre review of the service was done in 1990.
Cabinet approves initiation of the Third Phase of Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP)

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has approved the proposal for initiation of the Third Phase of Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP).

The Project will be implemented as a 'Central Sector Scheme' with total project outlay of Rs. 3600 crore. However, the project would be initiated with a cost of Rs. 2660 crore, with the possibility of additional financing of Rs. 940 crore at later stage. Out of the Rs.2660 crore, the Central share will be Rs.1330 crore and external assistance from the World Bank through International Development Association (IDA) Credit of Rs. 1330 crore ($ 201.50 million as first tranche).

The project will be implemented with the facility of Direct Funds Transfer to the accounts of beneficiary institutes. The project will be initiated in the current year and will be co-terminus with Fourteenth Finance Commission (FFC) i.e. 2019-20,

The major outcomes of the project are:

(i)

Better academic standards, through accreditation, filling up faculty positions, training faculty in better teaching methods, improved research outputs in institution in Focus States/UTs.

(ii)

Better administration of the institutions with improved financial/academic autonomy.

(iii)

Better systems for assessment of Student Learning, higher transition rates.

(iv)

Transparent and expeditious release of funds to institutes by way of Direct Funds Transfer (DFT) System.

An estimated 200 Government / Government aided engineering institutes and Affiliating Technical Universities (ATUs) including the Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs) will be selected.

The project will cover all Government / Government aided engineering institutes, ATUs and CFTIs from Focus States/UT. High-performing TEQIP-I/ TEQIP-II Government / Government aided institutes/ATUs across the country would be eligible to participate in twinning arrangements for knowledge transfer, exchange of experience, optimizing the use of resources and developing long-term strategic partnerships.

The Focus States are 7 Low Income States (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh), 3 Hill States (Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand), 8 North-Eastern States (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura) and Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Background:

The Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP) commenced in 2003 with World Bank assistance as a long term programme to be implemented in three phases. The first phase of TEQIP commenced in 2003 and ended on March 31st, 2009.

It covered 127 institutes across 13 States including 18 Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs). TEQIP-II commenced in August 2010, covering 23 States/Union Territories (UTs) and 191 Institutes (including 26 CFTIs). TEQIP-II is scheduled to conclude in October, 2016. Both projects have had a positive impact on the infrastructure and educational standards in the technical institutions where they were taken up. Institutions in the central, eastern and north-eastern region and hill States are at present in need of similar and specific interventions. The initiation and implementation of the project TEQIP-III will bridge this gap.
Cabinet approves signing of the Extradition Treaty between India and Afghanistan .

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has approved the signing and ratification of the Extradition Treaty between India and Afghanistan. .

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The treaty would provide a legal framework for seeking extradition of terrorists, economic offenders and other criminals from and to the Afghanistan. .

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To evolve common agenda for HABITAT-III Conference to be held next month .

Ministers and experts from BRICS countries will discuss urban transition and the attendant challenges in the member countries over three days from Wednesday this week in the emerging smart city of Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. Minister of Urban Development and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation will inaugurate the three day conference on Urban Transition in BRICS on September 14,2016 which seeks to promote cooperation among member countries in urban sector. .

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Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Shri N.Chandrababu Naidu, Ministers from other BRICS nations besides a large number of urban planners, experts, members of academia etc will attend the conference. .

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The conference will discuss and evolve a common agenda for BRICS (Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa) countries to be presented at the HABITAT-III Conference to be held in Quito, Eucador. Other issues to be discussed are ; development of smart cities, financing urban infrastructure, inclusive housing, Climate change, regional planning, water and sanitation management and new reforms for urban renaissance. .

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The Visakhapatnam Conference is being organized as a part of the Governments efforts to take cooperation among BRICS group on various issues to the people for which several such meetings are being organized across the country. .

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India currently holds the chairmanship of BRICS and has chosen Building Responsive, Inclusive and Collective Solutions as the theme for this year and the BRICS Summit will be held in Goa in October this year. .

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In his message to the Conference, Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu said The underlying rationale of cooperation on urbanization between BRICS countries is to share urban knowledge, develop mechanisms for peer to peer exchange, promote evidence based policy making and learn useful lessons from individual experience of urban transition". .

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BRICS nations account for over 3 billon population constituting 53.40% of worlds population, 23.10% of global GDP and 26.70% of worlds geographical area, spread over four continents. .

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Range of urbanization varies from 84% in Brazil, 73% in Russia, 64% in South Africa, 57% in China and 32% in India. .

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AAR/KM .

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Dilshad Baloch, an activist, has warned of more protests against the concerned authorities in Pakistan for the human rights violations taking place in . He also confirmed that Baloch activists will now protest outside the United Nations General Assembly on September 13.

"We are going to hopefully see more of these protests in the future and there are going to be bigger and more frequent protests. We will now protest on September 13 outside the UN General Assembly," he told ANI.

Talking about the Melbourne protest where the protesters raised slogans and banners of 'stop genocide of Baloch people', 'we want peace' and ' zindabad' slogans during their protest, Dilshad said that the Baloch National Movement (BNM) has also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for highlighting the atrocities of Pakistan in .

"They have also thanked Prime Minister Modi, especially Mir Baloch. Mir Baloch is the President of Baloch National Movement in Australia," he said.

He added that there has been a protest in Melbourne to save Baloch women and atrocities going on in Balochistan, especially to highlight that the house of Peer Jan Baloch in Turbat is under siege by the Pakistan Army for the past six days. Peer Jan Baloch is the nephew of Rauf Baloch

While both are reported to be staying together, Rauf Baloch has been alleged by the forces of hosting the family members of a senior Baloch political leader.

The Baloch Human Rights Organisation (BHRO) on Sunday also staged a protest in front of Karachi Press Club.

Baloch Republican Party (BRP) activists also staged a protest in Busan, South Korea on Sunday, to highlight the atrocities and human rights violations in Balochistan.

Talking about the South Korea protest, Dilshad said, " There has been protest in South Korea and long march in the past. These protests are against the Baloch genocide and what Pakistan is doing in Balochistan."

He said that this move is to show to the world on what is going on in Balochistan.

"There is a media blackout . No human rights organisations are allowed inside and everything is happening behind the curtain," he added.

Earlier, welcoming Prime Minister Modi's statement on Balochistan in his Independence Day address, several Baloch activists claimed that the people of the region support him and he should take up the Baloch issue with the community at the United Nations.

Last month, in a bid to highlight the ongoing Baloch genocide and human rights violations and the disappearance of Baloch people through the hands of Pakistani military and intelligence agencies in Balochistan, the Baloch National Movement (BNM) Germany chapter held demonstrations in different cities.

Many activists are asserting that since 2003, more than 23,000 activists, students, lawyers, women, journalists, writers and human rights defenders have been enforced disappeared by the Pakistani army and its death squads.
British police on Sunday made "a number of arrests" after more than 20 men, some carrying swords, entered a gurdwara on Sunday.

Pictures aired by local media showed police have arrested some members of the gang consisting of 20 to 30 men in the town, where a marriage between a Sikh and non-Sikh was due to take place, Xinhua reported.

Mixed marriages had been a contentious issue in the local Sikh community.

Armed officers were on the scene at the Gurdwara on Tachbrook Drive and attempted to negotiate a peaceful solution, the Guardian reported.

"At this time we believe that it is an escalation of an ongoing local dispute," a police official said.

"The report was received at 6.47 a.m. after a group of between 20 and 30 men entered the temple. We believe that some of the men are in possession of bladed items and as such armed officers have been deployed to the scene," the police official added.

Jatinder Singh Birdi, a former treasurer at the temple, said a marriage between a Sikh and non-Sikh couple was due to take place, BBC reported.

Birdi said mixed marriages has been a contentious issue in the local Sikh community, with a minority opposing using the temple for such services.

"There have been tensions that have been going on for a couple of years with some people objecting to mixed marriages in taking place in the gurdwara," Birdi said.

It is still unknown whether there were any casualties in the operation.
Voicing confidence, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said that once ready, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would turn around the economic outlook of the whole region.

Sharif's remarks came a day after Vice Minister of the Department of the Communist Party of China, Zheng Xiaosong, said that political consensus is essential for fully exploiting the potential of the economic corridor.

"The law and order situation in the country is much improved and the backbone of extremist elements has been broken. The government is striving day and night to eliminate load-shedding, one of the biggest hurdles to economic growth. Completion of projects will turn around the economic outlook of the whole region," The Express Tribune quoted Sharif, as saying on the 68th death anniversary of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

Talking about Jinnah, Sharif said that the best way of paying tribute to him is to sincerely strive for making Pakistan a peaceful, moderate, welfare and a developed Islamic state.

Considered a part of China's One Belt, One Road initiative, the covers Balochistan and Sindh provinces and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The Baloch activists, who have been protesting against the project, say that is causing much damage to the environment and would not benefit the people of the region but alleged that Balochistan's abundant resources are being diverted for Pakistan's most populous province Punjab.
French Prime Minister has warned the country of more terror attacks in the days to come, saying that some 15,000 people are in the process of radicalisation in France and on police radar, while 1,400 are under investigation.

In an interview with Europe 1 radio and Itele television, Valls on Sunday said authorities prevent terror attacks on a daily basis but not every terrorist can be apprehended.

Valls said two attacks were foiled last week, and warned: "There will be new attacks, there will be [more] innocent victims."

"It is my job to tell this truth to the French people? We are a target - everyone understands this," he said.

He said the threat of attacks is "at its highest...in recent days".

"We have nearly 700 French jihadists and residents, who are currently fighting in Iraq and Syria," he said, noting that this figure included "275 women and dozens of children."

Paris was put on "maximum" alert this week after French officials said they cracked an Islamic State-affiliated "terrorist cell" that was allegedly planning to bomb the populous Paris Gare de Lyon railway station.

Police arrested three radicalised women who reportedly intended to bomb the railway station to avenge the death of IS leader Abu Muhammed al-Adnani, reported RT news.

Valls slammed French President Nicholas Sarkozy's idea of putting French citizens having militant links in preventative detention for security and said such measures could inspire more attacks.

He also criticised the anti-terrorism measures Sarkozy took while he was in office.

"He is wrong about trying to wring the neck of the rule of law against the threat. His method is wrong...there would be more attacks," Valls said.

The PM also mentioned a suggestion recently made by French Justice Minister of creating "10,000 prison spaces within the next ten years" to incarcerate those accused of plotting or carrying out terror attacks.

On Saturday, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced that the authorities have arrested some 293 people "engaged in terrorist networks" since the beginning of the year.

France has been on high alert since January of 2015, when it was hit by a series of terrorist attacks.

The deadliest attack was in November that claimed the lives of at least 130 persons and left 368 injured in coordinated terror strikes in Paris and Saint-Denis.

Another attack struck Nice on July 14 this year that killed at least 84 persons when a truck driven by an IS sympathiser plowed through crowds during Bastille Day celebrations. Following this the French Parliament voted to extend the country's state of emergency by six additional months after the Nice attack.
has stepped back from its attempt for a particular patent related to creation of an online community within an online social network using the search system.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said the "damage" done by her rival Donald Trump needs to be undone after the elections and underlined that the real estate tycoon's "ignorance" towards Russian President Vladimir Putin is "dangerous".

"We already know he (Trump) has done damage. We already know, from experienced intelligence and counter-terrorism experts, that leaders within ISIS are rooting for his victory," Clinton said.

"Now, you combine a free pass for Putin on aggressive behaviour and a welcome by ISIS that his language plays right into their hands and will give them more credibility in saying that this is some kind of civilisations war, we're going to have to undo the damage that he's already done in the campaign after this election and make it very clear, the US stands by our word, we stand by our friends and allies," she said.

Clinton said the US is willing to work with anybody, including, of course, Putin.

"I have had many conversations with Putin. But we're not going to do it by just rolling over and adopting his wish list, which is exactly what Donald Trump has done," she said.

The former Secretary of State said Trump's "ignorance" about Russia and Putin are "dangerous".

"In an interview, he didn't even know that Putin had invaded and occupied Crimea. So, this is just more of his loose talk, his kind of reckless pontificating that really doesn't have any substance to it. I think that, if there are ways to do business with Russia, we should always be open to it," she said.

"That's what the reset accomplished. When Putin came back, he came back, with the view that his highest goal had to be to prevent what he considers to be the  his neighbourhood in Eastern and Central Europe all the way to Central Asia from falling under European Union and American influence," she said.

And he has tried to disrupt and interfere with democratic elections, as he has, even in our country, attempted to do with this round of elections. So, he is pretty transparent that he is looking for ways of elevating Russia and himself, she added.

Clinton reiterated that she does not think putting American ground troops in Syria to hold territory, to become occupiers, to try to govern people is at all the right strategy.

"Then we have got to figure out what the day-after strategy is, what do we do, and how do we support a more effective governing structure inside Iraq," she said.

"I feel very, very committed to depriving ISIS of their so-called caliphate. That's a huge symbolic recruitment message that we should pull from them.I also believe that Baghdadi is a central figure in the promulgation of this ideology," she said.
An American amateur investigator handed possible debris from missing flight to Australian officials on Monday and said several pieces were blackened by flames, raising the prospect of a flash fire onboard.

Mystery has surrounded the fate of Malaysia Airlines flight since it disappeared on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 passengers and crew on a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The Boeing 777 is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean after inexplicably veering off course, but its final resting place has not been found despite an intense underwater search off Australia's far west coast.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), which is coordinating the search, said Blaine Gibson had handed over unspecified debris today.

"We are seeking advice from the Malaysian authorities regarding how they would like to proceed," an ATSB spokesman told AFP.

Gibson told local reporters the debris which had washed up in Madagascar included what appeared to be an internal panel and he had brought the pieces to Australia for forensic investigation.

"The top layer of paint has been singed, scorched black," he told Channel 7 of one piece. "It also shows some signs of melting... As you see when something is exposed to fire.

"It appears to be from the interior of the plane but not the main cabin, perhaps the cargo hold, perhaps the avionics bay."

Gibson, a lawyer from Seattle, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the pieces could be a "real game changer" if they were found to belong to .

"One of the theories is that there was a fire on the plane," he said, adding that there was as yet no evidence to support this theory.

The debris was handed over as eight relatives of those onboard the flight had a private visit with ATSB officials.

The relatives from China, Malaysia and Indonesia had earlier been shown around one of the search vessels in Western Australia.

Canberra has been leading the massive search for MH370 within the 120,000-square-kilometre (46,000-square-mile) search zone set to be fully scoured by December.

But the underwater hunt has so far failed to find a single piece of debris from the plane, fuelling speculation that the crash site may be outside the current search zone.

The zone was defined under the "most likely" scenario that no one was at the controls as the plane ran out of fuel.
Japanese stocks posted their biggest decline in more than a month on Monday after comments by US Federal Reserve officials sparked fears of a rate hike as soon as next week, weighing on shares and other risk assets globally.

The share average fell 1.7 per cent to 16,672.92 points, its lowest closing level since August 26. It was the largest daily percentage drop since early August.

Anxiety is also growing ahead of next week's Bank of Japan (BoJ) policy review, which coincides with the Fed's.

Sources familiar with BOJ thinking told Reuters last week that the central bank is studying several options to steepen the bond yield curve as authorities desperately seek tools to revive an economy that has failed to emerge from stagnation despite years of massive stimulus.

The broader Topix dropped 1.5 per cent to 1,323.10 and the JPX- Index 400 declined 1.5 per cent to 11,870.36.
Crude prices fell over 1.5 per cent on Monday after US oil drillers added rigs to look for new production as producers adapt to cheaper crude, with speculators cutting positions betting on further price rises.

Brent crude futures were trading at $47.29 per barrel at 0200 GMT, down 72 cents, or 1.5 per cent, from their last settlement.

US West Texas Intermediate futures were down 80 cents, or 1.74 per cent, at $45.08 a barrel.

Traders said the price falls on Monday and Friday were a result of increasing oil drilling activity in the United States, which indicated that producers can operate profitably around current levels.

"Each dollar is being used far more efficiently and, as a result, $50 oil appears much more palatable," Barclays bank said in a note to clients.

US drillers added oil rigs for a tenth week in the past 11, according to a Baker Hughes rig count report on Friday. It was the longest streak without rig cuts since 2011.

Speculative oil traders also became less confident of higher oil prices, cutting their net long US crude futures and options positions for a second consecutive week last week, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday.

Oil's near five-per cent price decline since September 8 partly reverses a 10-per cent rally early in the month, which was fuelled by speculation that oil exporters could cap production.

Algeria's energy minister said there is a consensus among Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC members about the need to stabilise the oil market to support prices, state news agency APS reported on Saturday.

OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo told APS that OPEC was not seeking a definite price range for oil but rather "sustainable stability" for the market.

Moves towards clinching a global deal on stabilising crude output come five months after similar talks for a production freeze failed when Saudi Arabia insisted that Iran join the pact.

Tehran says it supports any measures to stabilise the market, but has stopped short of committing to output restraint before its production reaches 4 million barrels per day, the level at which it says it was pumping before the imposition of Western sanctions which were lifted last January.

Even if exporters agree on freezing output around current levels, analysts said that would do little to raise prices as most exporters are pumping out oil at or near record levels, and have adapted to do so at lower prices.

"Producers and service companies... are well positioned to return to growth mode at much lower prices," Barclays said.
Electronics will sell its printer business to US computer maker HP, the said on Monday, as the South Korean giant accelerates restructuring efforts amid a generational power transfer in the founding Lee family.
A contentious visa program that allows wealthy foreigners to obtain United States citizenship by investing in economic development projects will expire at the end of this month unless Congress acts to extend it.
Market rally came to an abrupt halt on Monday with the S&P BSE Sensex and the Nifty 50 indices losing over 1.5% each in morning trade, in line with global peers. While the S&P BSE Sensex slumped over 500 points to hit an intra-day low of 28251, the Nifty 50 hit a low of 8,699. However, they recovered some of the lost ground by late morning deals.



Also Read: Small investors have a huge opportunity to make money: Marc Faber

Asian shares followed the US finish on Friday, amid concerns central banks will become less accommodative. Sentiment was also dented after North Korea conducted its fifth and most powerful nuclear test on Friday, amid geopolitical tensions in the region at a time when global investors are grappling with slowing global growth.

I think there were repeated warnings given the bond yields globally. Given the current level and the likely trajectory (of bond yields), we do expect some correction in the from here on. Having said that, the correction / trend reversal can happen very swiftly, says Vaibhav Sanghavi, managing director, Ambit Investment Advisors.



Also Read: Concern is if high earnings expectations are not met: Abhinav Khanna

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), according to NSDL data, have pumped over Rs 38,000 crore in the equity segment thus far in September. As a result, the benchmark indices have risen nearly 1%, buoyed by liquidity.

So will this momentum sustain, or will the bears tighten their grip on the in the days ahead?

Global markets are worried about the possibility of rate hike by the US Federal Reserve (US Fed) in its upcoming meeting in September. Over the last three months, there has not been much movement in the US markets, and most emerging markets have performed in line. Given the probability of a rate hike by the US central bank, we are seeing a risk-off in asset classes across the globe. The road ahead for the markets now will depend on global developments, says Tirthankar Patnaik, India Strategist at Japan-based Mizuho Bank.



Also Read: Has the auto rally run its course?

Analysts say that the road ahead for the markets will depend mostly on global factors. Though the India story still remains strong and a favourite among global investors, a risk-off may see a flight of capital in the short-term.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley, however, believe the risks of a US Fed hike this year are manageable, and would be more concerned that the European Central Bank (ECB) disappoints dovish expectations.



Also Read: Mid-, small-cap stocks on a roll but experts see bubble ahead

Our forecasts continue to expect developed markets and China growth to disappoint, with the rest of emerging markets (EM) doing relatively better, Morgan Stanley says in a report.

Even if the US Fed were to hike rates in September, Patnaik of Mizuho Bank expects a knee-jerk reaction in the markets, but I does not see the Nifty 50 index dipping below the 8,200 levels.



Also Read: Investing strategies for a range-bound market

I believe investors will start to get constructive on the markets around those levels. Having said that, there are concerns about the Indian markets being richly valued at the current levels. So, one can expect money moving out of sectors like banking, cement and getting deployed in the defensive plays like fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), pharmaceuticals and information technology (IT), he adds.
A7 notification from the Centre last week directed mills not to hold more than 37 per cent of their annual production as inventories by the end of this month, to go down to 24 per cent by end-October. Industry sources estimate 4.8-4.9 mt would be released in the market by October 31, nearly one mt of additional quantity.
was locked in upper circuit for the six straight trading session, up 5% at Rs 108 on the BSE, on back of heavy volumes.
The primary market is buzzing with activity. There are road shows, press conferences and the media is flooded with should-you-subscribe stories and other recommendations. Bonds, non-convertible debentures and shares are all up there for grabs.
Dilshad Baloch, an activist, has warned of more protests against the concerned authorities in Pakistan for the human rights violations taking place in Balochistan. He also confirmed that Baloch activists will now protest outside the United Nations General Assembly on September 13.

"We are going to hopefully see more of these protests in the future and there are going to be bigger and more frequent protests. We will now protest on September 13 outside the UN General Assembly," he told ANI.

Talking about the Melbourne protest where the protestors raised slogans and banners of 'stop genocide of Baloch people', 'we want peace' and 'Balochistan zindabad' slogans during their protest, Dilshad said that the Baloch National Movement (BNM) has also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for highlighting the atrocities of Pakistan in Balochistan.

"They have also thanked Prime Minister Modi, especially Mir Baloch did. Mir Baloch is the President of Baloch National Movement in Australia," he said.

He added that there has been a protest in Melbourne to save Baloch women and atrocities going on in Balochistan, especially to highlight that the house of Peer Jan Baloch in Turbat is under siege by the Pakistan Army for the past six days. Peer Jan Baloch is the nephew of Rauf Baloch

While both are reported to be staying together, Rauf Baloch has been alleged by the forces of hosting the family members of a senior Baloch political leader.

The Baloch Human Rights Organization (BHRO) yesterday also staged a protest in front of Karachi Press Club.

Baloch Republican Party (BRP) activists also staged a protest in Busan, South Korea yesterday, to highlight the atrocities and human rights violations in Balochistan.

Talking about the South Korea protest, Dilshad said, " There has been protest in South Korea and long march in the past. These protests are against the Baloch genocide and what Pakistan is doing in Balochistan."

He said that this move is to show to the on what is going on in Balochistan.

"There is a media blackout . No human rights organisations are allowed inside and everything is happening behind the curtain," he added.

Earlier, welcoming Prime Minister Modi's statement on Balochistan in his Independence Day address, several Baloch activists claimed that the people of the region support him and he should take up the Baloch issue with the international community at the United Nations.

Last month, in a bid to highlight the ongoing Baloch genocide and human rights violations and the disappearance of Baloch people through the hands of Pakistani military and intelligence agencies in Balochistan, the Baloch National Movement (BNM) Germany chapter held demonstrations in different cities.

Many activists are asserting that since 2003, more than 23,000 activists, students, lawyers, women, journalists, writers and human rights defenders have been enforced disappeared by the Pakistani army and its death squads.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani will hold discussions with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on wide range of matters of mutual interest during his upcoming visit to India from September 14-15.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), in a statement, said that Prime Minister Modi will also host a lunch in the honour of the visiting dignitary.

During the visit, Ghani will also interact with business community and deliver an address at a prominent think tank in the national capital.

The upcoming visit will provide an opportunity to continue the close and frequent consultations between the two friendly neighbours, including at the highest level, the statement added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Condemning the incident where three girls were attacked with acid in West Bengal's Bankura district, lawyer Abha Singh today described it as 'gross violation of the law' and demanded strong action against the culprit.

"It is a gross violation of law and order where three young girls returning from a college, getting down from a bus in Bankura district in West Bengal, are victims of an acid attack and are injured badly. This is when we have a strong law...Inspite of such a strong law, why are such incidents happening? Primarily, because acid can be brought over the counter, any person can go and buy acid," she said.

Former DCW chairperson Barkha Shukla Singh said, "Law and order has totally vanished in the city. The chief minister (Mamata Banerjee) should pay more attention to women."

The three girls were attacked with acid in Bankura district on Sunday evening after attending tuition classes.

"We were returning from our tuition class in the evening when the incident took place. We were about to get down from the bus. I don't suspect anyone. I want them hanged so that they can't repeat it with someone else," said a victim.

The case is under investigation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday saidit will carry out massive protests to pressurize the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government to approach the Supreme Court and get former RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin's bail cancelled.

Sushil Modi, BJP state chief for Bihar, said they will ask the Nitish government to hire best lawyers and get Shahabuddin's bail cancelled.

"We will organize massive protest to pressurise the state government to approach the Supreme Court and get Shahabuddin's bail cancelled. We will ask the state government to hire best lawyers and get his bail cancelled. What Shahabuddin said is correct-Nitish Kumar won because of Lalu," said Modi.

Further backing Shahabuddin's statement that Nitish became the Bihar Chief Minister due to "circumstances", Modi said, "Nitish Kumar's vote share was very low. It is because Lalu is an accused in a scam that is why he could not become the chief minister, otherwise there we no chance of Nitish being bestowed with the coveted post."

Shahabuddin had been sent to jail in November 2005 in connection with the murder of Rajiv Ranjan, a prime witness in the murder of his two brothers Girish Raj and Satish Raj. The brothers had been murdered in Siwan in August 2004.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With protests escalating in the wake of Cauvery water dispute that escalated between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the Bengaluru Police on Monday imposed Section 144 of the CRPC from 5 p.m. onwards, meaning that no more than five people will be allowed to gather in public places in the city.

A massive violence broke out today in parts of the city as several trucks, school buses and bus stands were seen being set on fire by the pro-Kannada protestors in West Bengaluru.

This afternoon, protesters targeted vehicles bearing Tamil Nadu registration numbers and set them on fire. They also vandalised trucks near Hubli bypass in Karnataka.

The Bengaluru Police have appealed for calm and urged the people not to pay heed to rumours.

Around 270 police patrol vehicles have been deployed across the city in the wake of the protests, said city police.

Meanwhile, saying "we will fight it legally", Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara has requested pro-Kannada activists and farmers associations to maintain peace.

"Our appeal is if you are protesting, please protest peacefully. We know that injustice has been done to Karnataka. We have deployed sufficient amount of police force. We have got support from Centre," Parameshwara said.

He also informed that 10 companies of CRPF and the Rapid Action Force (RAF) have been sent.

"We have also requested for 10 more companies from the Centre. Tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has called emergency Cabinet meet to discuss Cauvery issue," he said.

Bus services running from Bengaluru to Tamil Nadu were temporarily suspended in the day as pro-Kannada activists vandalised shops at the bus station.

Metro services resumed in the city after 20 minutes of suspension. Following fresh protests, maximum schools in the city were closed or asked to shut down early today. Bus services (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation) from Bengaluru to Tamil Nadu have been temporarily suspended from the city.

Incidents of stones pelting were reported at a Karnataka Bank branch in Chennai's Anna Nagar.

There were reports of some shops and Tamil Nadu registration cars being vandalised. A number of stores and markets in parts of the city downed their shutters as a precautionary measure.

There were reports of crowds stopping Tamil Nadu registered vehicles at Whitefield in Bengaluru.

Siddaramaiah has also appealed for peace and has written to his counterpart in Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa, urging her to ensure the safety of Kannada speaking people living in the state. He also urged the Tamil Nadu authorities to take action against those indulging in violence.

A group of pro-Tamil activists attacked the New Woodlands Hotel in Chennai over the ongoing Cauvery water row between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in the wee hours.

The RAF and at least 15,000 police personnel have been deployed in large number across the city to control the violence as Cauvery water tension escalated between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu after the Supreme Court's latest verdict today.

Modifying its September 5 order, the apex court today asked the Government of Karnataka to release to release 12000 cusecs of Cauvery River water every day to Tamil Nadu till September 20.

It had earlier directed the Government of Karnataka to release of 15,000 cusecs of water for 10 days as immediate relief to farmers in Tamil Nadu.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bengaluru City Police has appealed to protestors in the state to maintain calm and desist from destroying public and private property, after almost 20 buses were torched during the demonstrations today in a bus depot, amid protests in the wake of Cauvery water dispute.

Meanwhile, KSRP and Quick Reaction Teams have been deployed all over the city to check violence, which have escalated.

According to reports, over 200 protestors have been detained so far.

The Bengaluru Police today imposed Section 144 of the CRPC from 5 p.m. onwards, meaning that no more than five people will be allowed to gather in public places in the city.

Massive violence broke out today in parts of the city as several trucks, school buses and bus stands were seen being set on fire by the pro-Kannada protestors in West Bengaluru.

This afternoon, protesters targeted vehicles bearing Tamil Nadu registration numbers and set them on fire. They also vandalised trucks near Hubli bypass in Karnataka.

The Bengaluru Police have appealed for calm and urged the people not to pay heed to rumours.

Around 270 police patrol vehicles have been deployed across the city in the wake of the protests, said city police.

Meanwhile, saying "we will fight it legally", Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara has requested pro-Kannada activists and farmers associations to maintain peace.

"Our appeal is if you are protesting, please protest peacefully. We know that injustice has been done to Karnataka. We have deployed sufficient amount of police force. We have got support from Centre," Parameshwara said.

He also informed that 10 companies of CRPF and the Rapid Action Force (RAF) have been sent.

"We have also requested for 10 more companies from the Centre. Tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has called emergency Cabinet meet to discuss Cauvery issue," he said.

Bus services running from Bengaluru to Tamil Nadu were temporarily suspended in the day as pro-Kannada activists vandalised shops at the bus station.

Metro services resumed in the city after 20 minutes of suspension. Following fresh protests, maximum schools in the city were closed or asked to shut down early today. Bus services (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation) from Bengaluru to Tamil Nadu have been temporarily suspended from the city.

Incidents of stones pelting were reported at a Karnataka Bank branch in Chennai's Anna Nagar.

There were reports of some shops and Tamil Nadu registration cars being vandalised. A number of stores and markets in parts of the city downed their shutters as a precautionary measure.

There were reports of crowds stopping Tamil Nadu registered vehicles at Whitefield in Bengaluru.

Siddaramaiah has also appealed for peace and has written to his counterpart in Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa, urging her to ensure the safety of Kannada speaking people living in the state. He also urged the Tamil Nadu authorities to take action against those indulging in violence.

A group of pro-Tamil activists attacked the New Woodlands Hotel in Chennai over the ongoing Cauvery water row between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in the wee hours.

The RAF and at least 15,000 police personnel have been deployed in large number across the city to control the violence as Cauvery water tension escalated between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu after the Supreme Court's latest verdict today.

Modifying its September 5 order, the apex court today asked the Government of Karnataka to release to release 12000 cusecs of Cauvery River water every day to Tamil Nadu till September 20.

It had earlier directed the Government of Karnataka to release of 15,000 cusecs of water for 10 days as immediate relief to farmers in Tamil Nadu.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday assured full assistance to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka Governments to deal with the current state of violence that is prevailing in both the states over the Cauvery water issue.

Singh has assured assistance to both Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to tackle the present state of unrest.

Meanwhile, in wake of the protests erupting over the Cauvery issue, Jayalalithaa has written to Siddaramaiah, requesting him to ensure safety and security of Tamilians residing in Karnataka.

With protests escalating in the wake of Cauvery water dispute that escalated between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the Bengaluru Police today imposed Section 144 of the CRPC, meaning that no more than five people will be allowed to gather in public places in the city.

A massive violence broke out today in parts of the city as several trucks, school buses and bus stands were seen being set on fire by the pro-Kannada protestors in West Bengaluru.

This afternoon, protesters targeted vehicles bearing Tamil Nadu registration numbers and set them on fire. They also vandalised trucks near Hubli bypass in Karnataka.

Meanwhile, saying "we will fight it legally", Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara has requested pro-Kannada activists and farmers associations to maintain peace.

"Our appeal is if you are protesting, please protest peacefully. We know that injustice has been done to Karnataka. We have deployed sufficient amount of police force. We have got support from Centre," Parameshwara said.

He also informed that 10 companies of CRPF and the Rapid Action Force (RAF) have been sent.

"We have also requested for 10 more companies from the Centre. Tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has called emergency Cabinet meet to discuss Cauvery issue," he said.

Siddaramaiah has also appealed for peace and has written to his counterpart in Tamil Nadu, urging her to ensure the safety of Kannada speaking people living in the state. He also urged the Tamil Nadu authorities to take action against those indulging in violence.

Modifying its September 5 order, the apex court today asked the Government of Karnataka to release to release 12000 cusecs of Cauvery River water every day to Tamil Nadu till September 20.

It had earlier directed the Government of Karnataka to release of 15,000 cusecs of water for 10 days as immediate relief to farmers in Tamil Nadu.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Modifying its September 5 order, the Supreme Court on Monday asked the Government of Karnataka to release to release 12000 cusecs of Cauvery River water every day to Tamil Nadu till September 20. It had earlier directed the Government of Karnataka to release of 15,000 cusecs of water for 10 days as immediate relief to farmers in Tamil Nadu.

The apex court also rejected Karnataka's demand to keep its September 5 order for releasing water to Tamil Nadu in abeyance.

The Karnataka Government again approached the apex court for modification of today's order.

However, the top court refused to change it.

The "agony claimed by Tamil Nadu on the water crisis" doesn't exist, the Karnataka government maintained before the apex court.

Supreme Court judge Justice Dipak Mishra, however, expressed his displeasure over the Karnataka Government's failure to implement its order of September 5 and observed that "Citizens and executive of this country have to accept and obey orders of the Supreme Court unless it is modified. If the court passes an order, either comply or come for modification. People cannot take law into their hands."

Justice Mishra also took objection to the language and tone of the Karnataka affidavit, saying that the court was unhappy with the drafting of the affidavit, adding that this was not the way to file it.

An immediate fallout of the Cauvery water dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu was visible on the streets of Mylapore in Tamil Nadu, when petrol bombs were hurled at an Udupi restaurant - New Woodlands hotel on Monday.

A written note was also found which said that more attacks will follow if Tamilians are assaulted in Karnataka.

Police said that the incident occurred around 3.15 a m, and confirmed that the attack was carried out by a group of people protesting against Karnataka's obstructionist attitude in releasing Cauvery river waters. No person was injured in the attack, the police and the hotel management added.

The sharing of waters of the Cauvery river has been a source of serious conflict between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The genesis of this conflict rests in two agreements one in 1892 and the other in 1924 between the erstwhile Madras Presidency and Princely State of Mysore.

The 802-kilometre-long Cauvery river has a 44,000 square kilometre basin area in Tamil Nadu and 32,000 square kilometre basin area in Karnataka.

Karnataka contends that it does not receive its due share of water from the river. It claims that the agreements were skewed heavily in favour of the Madras Presidency, and has demanded a renegotiated settlement based on "equitable sharing of the waters".

Tamil Nadu, on the other hand, pleads that it has already developed almost 3,000,000 acres of land and as a result has come to depend very heavily on the existing pattern of usage.

Any change in this pattern, it says, will adversely affect the livelihood of millions of farmers in the state.

Decades of negotiations between the parties has borne no fruit.

The Government of India constituted a tribunal in 1990 to look into the matter.

After hearing arguments of all the parties involved for the next 16 years, the tribunal delivered its final verdict on February 5, 2007. In its verdict, the tribunal allocated 419 billion cubic feet of water annually to Tamil Nadu and 270 billion cubic feet to Karnataka; 30 billion cubic feet to Kerala and 7 billion cubic feet to Puducherry.

The dispute however, appears not to have concluded, as all four states have filed review petitions seeking clarifications and possible renegotiation of the order.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Cauvery Supervisory Committee, headed by Union Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekhar, will today meet in New Delhi to decide on the quantum of Cauvery river water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states.

As per sources, the Committee would strictly adhere to the final order of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal while deciding on the quantum of the water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states as directed by the Supreme Court.

Chief Secretaries of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry besides officials of Central Water Commission will attend the meeting.

In an interim order on September 5, the apex court had asked Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery water daily for next 10 days to Tamil Nadu. This had led to protests in parts of Karnataka.

The apex court will next hear the matter on September 16.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With the states governments of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu set to meet with Cauvery Supervisory Committee today over the Cauvery water issue, due to which the state of Karnataka saw massive protests and agitation in recent days, senior Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader TKS Elangovan said that the agitation in the sates indicates the failure of state government.

"No government should allow the farmers to agitate. Before hand the state government should have taken a stand. They should have approached, they should have met the government in Karnataka and should have sought a solution over this," Elangovan told ANI.

He further said that the Karnataka government was sleeping for a long time and had reacted when the farmers came on to the street to protest.

"They should have acted earlier so that the problem would not have gone to the streets. So, it is the failure of the state government," he added.

Siddaramaiah on Thursday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to call a meeting of chief ministers of states concerned to resolve the Cauvery water dispute following the Supreme Court's direction to release water from the river to Tamil Nadu.

The apex court last Monday, directed the Karnataka government to release 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu for the next 10 days to ameliorate the plight of farmers.

The Cauvery Supervisory Committee, headed by Union Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekhar, will today meet in New Delhi to decide on the quantum of Cauvery river water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states.

As per sources, the Committee would strictly adhere to the final order of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal while deciding on the quantum of the water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states as directed by the Supreme Court.

The apex court will next hear the matter on September 16.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least four suspected terrorists were killed in the Sistan-Baluchestan province near the border with Pakistan by Iranian security forces.

According to the official Fars news agency, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) dismantled a group of nine terrorists killing four, including their commander, and injuring two others in the city of Saravan yesterday, reports the Express Tribune.

The terrorists, hailing from the Jeish al-Adl group, intended to carry out "sabotage acts inside Iran" but was disbanded by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the Kouhak border region, the official statement said.

The statement added that weapons, ammunition, wireless equipment, night-vision goggles and three Toyota vehicles were recovered from the terrorists.

The Iranian intelligence and security forces last week claimed to have dismantled a group of 12 terrorists in the western city of Sardasht.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Extending his greetings to the fellow citizens on the eve of Idu'l Zuha, President on Monday said the festival epitomises trust, compassion, sacrifice and forgiveness.

In his message the President said, "On the occasion of Idu'l Zuha, I extend warm greetings and good wishes to all Muslim brothers and sisters in India and abroad."

"The festival of Idu'l Zuha epitomises trust, compassion, sacrifice and forgiveness. Let us on this day recall the selfless sacrifice made by Hazrat Ibrahim and engage in the service of humanity. Let us strive to lessen the pain of the suffering and needy. May this festival strengthen our efforts to enhance universal brotherhood, peace and harmony in society," he added.
FICCI's Forum of Parliamentarians is organising the annual delegation of India US Forum of Parliamentarians to the United States. The delegation shall visit Washington D.C from 11th to 17th September 2016 for a series of high level political call-ons, round tables with think tanks, interaction with Indian and American industry leaders, diaspora, students and media interactions.

The multiparty group of MPs led by Baijayant 'Jay' Panda, Member of Parliament and Chair, FICCI's India-US Forum of Parliamentarians and Harshavardhan Neotia, President, FICCI shall spend two days at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

India and the United States have declared themselves as 'enduring global partners of the 21st century'. From climate change, clean energy to standing together against terrorism, the two countries share several common interests and have a growing synergy in international affairs.

US Ambassador to India, Richard R Verma, who hosted the delegation for a pre-departure briefing, emphasized that the United States supports the rise of India as a leading global player. He also shared that the India US relationship has been extremely upbeat in recent times and has been progressing on political, economic, strategic and specific sectors such as agriculture and defence.

He welcomed FICCI's initiative of providing a track two dimension to promote the understanding between Indian MPs and policy makers, opinion shapers and thought leaders in the US.

Highlighting the importance of this visit, Baijayant 'Jay' Panda, Member of Parliament and Chair of the Forum stated, 'As every year the mission of the delegation would be to supplement the buoyant economic and strategic relations between the two countries. He pointed out that it was heartening to note that the India US relationship has had bipartisan support in the US'.

He mentioned that the delegation would focus on the priority sectors of interest of both India and the US such as defense, infrastructure, bilateral trade, copyright and IPR.

"The visit is taking place at an opportune time. The world is eagerly watching the unfolding of the Presidential elections in the US. It is essential to connect to US industry to continue the dialogue. Indeed there are issues of concern on either side, but, the trajectory of this relationship would continue to move upwards," said President FICCI, Harshavardhan Neotia.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
One of the US Navy's major community outreach programs is coming to Albuquerque for a series of events and programs beginning Monday, September 12 with a Kick-off celebration at the New Mexico Veterans' Memorial Amphitheater. The Ceremony will also feature the US Navy Band, followed with refreshments and a brief reception in the Memorial's Visitor Center. Guests will find that there is ample off-street parking at the Memorial.



One of only 15 US cities selected this year to host Navy Week, September 12-18, Albuquerque residents will have a number of opportunities to interact with and learn from Naval personnel at various locations through the city.



The dates coincide with the New Mexico State Fair, where the Navy Band Northwest Popular Music Group will perform on the Expo NM Pavilion Stage on Monday and Tuesday, September 12 and 13, from 6-7pm, and the Band's vocalist will sing the National Anthem at the beginning of the 7pm concert on the 12th. Navy personnel will hold a recruiting drive at Expo New Mexico on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 13 and 14, from 9am-3pm.



At the ABQ BioPark Zoo on Wednesday, September 14, from 11am-2pm Navy divers will be set up at the Seal Habitat where they will feature high-tech gear, including their MK-5 traveling exhibit, dive helmets and information on how they operate, as well as how they are connected to STEM. Also on Wednesday, the Navy Band Northwest will perform from noon-1pm on the UNM Cornell Mall, between the SUB (Student Union Building) and Mesa Vista Hall West.

On Saturday, September 17, from 12:30-1:30pm the Navy Parachute Team "Leap Frogs" will thrill the crowd by jumping into the Downs to kick off the horse race, and the Navy Color Guard will present colors during the pre-race festivities.

Navy Week's week-long celebration will also include events featuring:

-Navy Divers and Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams

-Sailors from USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world

-Senior Navy leaders, who will engage with local corporate, civic, government and education leaders

-Navy STEM Vehicle

-Visits to area schools and with local veterans

-Community service projects

-Navy Medicine Ambassadors



Prior to the Kick-off Celebration the Navy Band Northwest will present a free concert in Old Town Plaza on Sunday, September 11 from 1-2:30pm.



Since 2005 the Navy Week program has served as the service's signature outreach effort into areas which have no significant Navy presence, with 181 Navy Weeks being held in 68 different US cities.



"Navy Weeks are designed to help Americans understand that their Navy protects and defends America on the world's oceans, that their Navy is deployed around the world around the clock, and is ready to defend America at all times," said John Wallach, Deputy Director of the Navy Office of Community Outreach, which plans and executes the Navy Week program.



For updated information on Navy Week events and activities visit outreach. navy. mil/ NavyWeeks/ albuquerque.
On the premiere of their reality show 'Rob & Chyna,' the duo made a doctor's appointment to find out the sex of their baby, which revealed that revealed they are going to have a baby girl.

"I'm pretty nervous. I'm excited," Rob says before the big reveal. "I really want a boy," reports E!Online.

Withing a moment after, the doctor announced, "You are having.a girl!"

"Rob, it's a girl!" Chyna exclaims excitedly.

"Oh, that's crazy," Rob adds.

To this the doctor asked them, "You have a boy at home, right?" referring to Chyna's son with former partner Tyga, named King Cairo.

"Yeah, but I don't," Rob prompted. "That's OK, this is your first," the doctor said.

Moments before the doctor revealed the sex of their baby, Rob made a confession, "It's an emotional moment. Me wanting to have a boy, it definitely stems from my dad but I'm sure I'll have the same relationship that I had with my father with my daughter. I'm just happy that the baby's healthy and I'm gonna be super happy with a girl."

"That's a nice, normal heartbeat. It's regular and there's no problems with the beat of the baby's heart,"" the doctor further tells Rob and Chyna.

The doctor continues the ultrasound and mocked a little, "Look it, she's putting her little booty right up at ya."

"She better not be doing that!" Rob jokes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Taking strong exception to Rahul Gandhi's taunting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his Rs. 15 lakh suit, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday said perhaps it's time the Congress vice president undertake another foreign trip for introspection.

BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli told ANI that it is up to Gandhi whether he wants to present himself as a serious political personality or as a joke.

"He is constantly raising these foreign trips...perhaps time has come that he should undertake another one of his famous foreign trips for introspection. Last time, I think he had gone to Thailand. He can go and introspect whether he wants to be seen as a serious political person, who has something to contribute in the line of whatever the Congress tradition is for a long time, or he wants to move in this path in which over a period of time people will take him even less seriously," he added.

In a veiled attack to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Kohli said Gandhi wants to walk on the paths traversed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor.

"So far, in this country we have only seen one particular leader... the Chief Minister of a Union Territory, not even a full state who can say anything without any foundation or facts...on the basis of no logical things, make any kind of allegation. Rahul Gandhi ji also wants to walk on that path...he is entitled to," he added.

Extending his favourite 'suit-boot' analogy, Gandhi yesterday took a jibe at Prime Minister Modi and his Rs. 15 lakh monogrammed suit.

Gandhi said the Prime Minister is concerned about his suit getting dirty and that's why he doesn't come amidst the farmers, but visits America to meet President Barack Obama.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Despite the present unrest going on in the entire Kashmir Valley, people in state's Doda town are trying to find a reason to smile and celebrate and what better timing could have been there with the arrival of Eid al-Adha, giving them the opportunity to escape from the violence and strife and experience some peace.

Eid-ul-Adha, one of the holiest Muslim festivals, is otherwise going to be a highly subdued event in Kashmir this year because of the prevailing unrest that has been there ever since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8.

One of the shoppers, Kiran Bala, told ANI that she rejoices this festival and loves to shop along with her Muslim friends.

"We always support Muslims in every circumstance. There is a sale going on in Town Hall area where you can get everything you require, be it clothes, bangles, groceries, cosmetics, etc. All the Hindus of this area are actively participating in this sale. We are very happy and are anxiously waiting for Eid and we want to celebrate it with our Muslim brothers and sisters with much joy and enthusiasm," Kiran said.

"When Diwali comes, our Muslim friends come to our homes and celebrate the festival along with us," she adds.

One of the Muslim vendors said that there is a great hustle bustle in the area because of the Eid festival.

"We are extremely happy that people from all walks of life and all religions are participating and are celebrating with us," he said.

The whole area in the town was seen crowded with people who were busy in buying new clothes, utensils, sweets, etc. Especially, there was a unique excitement that was visible in the eyes of the children who accompanied their parents.

Bakery outlets were seen crowded with people who were busy buying their choice of cookies, cakes and biscuits.

However, the situation is not the same in the other parts of the valley. The only visible sign of Kashmiris preparing for the festival that falls on Tuesday is the buying of sacrificial animals at some places in summer capital Srinagar and other parts of the Valley.

Separatists have appealed to locals to celebrate Eid with austerity as a mark of respect for the victims of the ongoing Valley unrest.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The third edition of the Travel Mart will be held from the 14th to 16th of October, 2016 at the Hotel Lake View Ashok in Bhopal. Over 70 international buyers from 25 Countries, 175 and about 80 representatives of distinct Indian markets are expected to participate in the travel mart.

The year 2015 saw around 7.8 crore tourist in out of which 4.5 lakh were foreigners. This year the number is expected to cross well over 8 crore.

Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chauhan will inaugurate the event. It will also bring tourism stakeholders on a platform where they would get to explore opportunities of mutual trade.

"The travel mart aims to create a platform for like-minded people to interact and do business together. The current years have seen tourism in MP emerging as one of the major sectors for growth of the economy. International Tourist Arrivals and the foreign exchange earnings through tourism in terms of rupees registered an impressive growth.

MP was declared amongst top tourism destinations among other states by the leading tourism personalities and we hope that this mart takes this growth to even greater heights," said Managing Director of MPSTDC, Hariranjan Rao.

The primary objective of this mart is to market and promote as a destination throughout the year. There will be post event FAM Tours for the buyers and media to places of interest such as Mandu, Sanchi, Kanha and Pench.

"Madhya Pradesh is the heart of India and an all season destination. Our tourism figures continue to show growth over the past couple of years and this year we encourage the entire tourism community to explore us in a new avatar. This travel mart is our attempt to build a bridge towards this effort and we hope this all our guest see this as a worthwhile investment of their time and money," said Additional Managing Director of Mandu, Sanchi, Kanha , Tanvi Sundriyal.

"We wanted to showcase MPTM in a new avtar to the audience, hence we offered some new ideas such as a Webinar room for sellers to make presentation to those who could not attend the mart, a special training session for the products to understand presentation skills as per international standards and a whole lot of new brand building efforts to ensure all roads lead to the event," said CMD- CS Direkt Exhibitions and Events Pvt. Ltd, Sanjeev Pasricha.

"The screening process this year for international buyers was tough. We went through each buyer's profile by visiting their websites, Facebook pages, twitter handles etc. before approving them. As for domestic buyers and trade visitors, we have received more than 500 applications. Hence it was a difficult decision to select 175 domestic buyers," added Founder CEO- Candid India, Deepika Chowdhry.

The event is being held in collaboration with Adventure Tour Operators Association of India, Indian Association of Tour Operators, Travel Agent Association of India and Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India. Representatives from America, Britain, Germany, France, Canada and other countries are also expected to take part in the event.
Slamming Aam Aadmi Party (AAM) for not accepting the resignation of its leader Amanatullah Khan against whom an FIR was registered following molestation charges by his sister-in-law, social activist and eminent lawyer Abha Singh described the act as "shameful and opportunistic" adding the party is scared that if they do so there could be a bi-elections and they might not win this time.

"Manish Sisodia only wants to protect his MLA because if he accepts the resignation there could be a bi-elections and he knows way they are performing his MLA's will not win again. So, it is basically a method to keep power to themselves," Singh told ANI.

Singh further advised Sisodia to brush up his legal knowledge adding that if an FIR has been registered against Amanatullah on serious offence of molestation under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 354, which is a cognizable offence with 3 years imprisonment, then how can it be a family matter.

"Going by Manish Sisodia's logic then 70-80% rape cases takes places within the family. That means all rapists should go scot free because we should say that it is a family matter. Manish Sisodia should brush up his legal knowledge and not make such child like statement and protect his MLA's who are committing crime one after the other," she said.

Yesterday, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia rejected the resignation of Amanatullah and said "whatever is happening with Khan is his family's internal matter."

A case of sexual harassment has been registered against Amanatullah on a complaint by his sister-in-law, forcing him to quit as the city's Waqf Board chairman.

Amanatullah's sister-in-law approached the Jamia Nagar police station alleging that he had put pressure on her to get into a physical relationship with him.

A case under Sections 354A (sexual harassment), 506 (criminal intimidation), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 498A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered against the AAP MLA and the woman's husband.

The AAP MLA has so far claimed that the charges against him were baseless.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
K.P. Sharma Oli, Nepal's former prime minister has warned his successor Pushpa Kamal Dahal not to sign any treaty with India that could jeopardise the country's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Oli leading a CPI-UML delegation met Dahal at the Singha Durbar yesterday and submitted a memorandum, urging the Prime Minister to make national welfare the first priority of his four-day visit to India, which begins from Thursday.

The demands also included taking concrete steps to revise the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship with India, implementation of the Mahakali Treaty while mobilising domestic resources for constructing the Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track, reports the Kathmandu Post.

While asserting on demanding consultation with India on the construction of the Postal Road in the Tarai, Oli requested Dahal to draw India's attention to the what he called illegally constructed structures on the Nepal-India border that cause inundation in the Nepali territory.

The UML chairman asked Dahal to defend Nepal's interests while reaching a deal on distribution of water resources and energy generated from the proposed Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project.

The memorandum cautions Dahal against signing any agreement in New Delhi that could jeopardise Nepal's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Meanwhile, Dahal's Press Adviser Gobinda Acharya, said that the former responded that he would abstain from signing agreements with India that affect national independence and integrity.

Dahal was also reminded about the 10 agreements the Oli-led government reached with China including on trade and fuel import are beneficial for both Nepal and China.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Just two days ahead of Kerala's biggest festival, Onam, the markets can be seen abuzz with people, especially the flower market in Coimbatore, gearing up for the final celebrations of the harvest festival.

According to flower traders in Coimbatore, the flower business is presently in boom, mainly because flowers attach a lot of importance with this Malayalee festival.

Onam brings along with it the traditional 'Pookalam', which is an intricate and colourful arrangement of flowers laid on floor, which requires large quantity of flowers and creativity to prepare.

The ritual of making the flower mats continues for all ten days of Onam. Basic design is prepared on the first day and the size of a Pookalam is increased by adding more to it on every passing day, hence a massive Pookalam gets ready for the main day of the occasion.

A flower trader in Coimbatore told ANI, "This Onam season we got a bumper flower crop and the sale will continue. Mainly our produce goes to Kerala. The prices have shown a downward trend reducing to Rs 50-60 but last year it went to about 100.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday accused Pakistan of conspiring to disturb harmony and unity of India.

"Four terrorists have been killed in the encounter which is going on (in Pulwama). There has been constant effort of infiltration. This is a conspiracy to disturb the atmosphere of Jammu and Kashmir. The people have been kept captive under the terror and fear of the separatists. The Pakistani militant and the ISI are involved in this. It is a matter of concern," BJP leader Ravinder Raina told ANI.

Raina said a conspiracy is being hatched in Pakistan to disturb the nation's harmony and unity.

"It is extremely dangerous. I think it would raise more concern in the future. Pakistan doesn't want situation normalises in Jammu and Kashmir. It does not want the people to celebrate Eid. Be it Pakistan, terrorists or separatists, they are the greatest enemy of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. They are not only enemy to Muslims, but also to humanity," he added.

Raina said the BJP-PDP-led government in the valley and the Centre should deal with it firmly.

"I want the Jammu and Kashmir Government and the Centre to deal with it firmly. We should take action against the separatists in the Kashmir Valley. We have to take strong action against terrorism and separatism," he added.

One more terrorist was killed in the ongoing encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch earlier today.

The total number of terrorists killed so far is four.

In the fierce firefight that ensued, one personnel of Jammu and Kashmir Police was killed while two Army Jawans, one Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel and one civilian sustained injuries.

Firing resumed on Monday morning in Poonch where the encounter started yesterday.

The Poonch attack began when terrorists holed up in an under-construction building close to an Army camp opened fire at police when the latter tried to cordon off the premises.

In another incident, four terrorists were killed at the Line of Control in Nowgam sector of Handwara during an infiltration bid on Sunday.

Kashmir is witnessing unrest post the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8.

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The police chief of Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, General Zarawar Zahid, has been killed in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosion in Hesarak district.

General Zahir was killed yesterday and the news was confirmed by the governor's spokesman, Ataullah Khogyani, reports the Khaama Press.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the incident.

General Zahid is said to be the second senior police official killed in the past one week in attacks for which the Taliban has claimed responsibility.

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Residents of Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district castigated Pakistan for creating an environment of panic at the time of Eid al-Adha.

Encounter between holed up militants and security forces in Poonch Sector is underway.

"This is a conspiracy from the side of Pakistan, especially on the occasion of Eid. Such incidents should not take place and especially not on pious occasions. Militants, who are responsible for such activities, either should be handed over to the army or be killed. This is shameful act by Pakistan, that too on Eid," said a resident of Poonch district.

Fresh rounds of fire between the security forces and militants were exchanged between the two sides at the mini secretariat building earlier this morning.

A policeman died and another was injured while seven terrorists died in four separate encounters in Jammu and Kashmir yesterday.

Three of the encounters were with terrorists who were trying to infiltrate in Tangdhar, Gurez and Nowgam Sectors. The other was between the police and a group of terrorists who had held up in a building in Poonch Sector.

Dozens of people, meanwhile, were injured after a joint team of security forces carried out raids at Pulwama's Karimabaf village.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh yesterday chaired a high-level meeting on Kashmir later in the day, attended by the Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, IB Chief Dineshwar Sharma, BSF DG KK Sharma and Home Secretary Anil Goswami.

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Pune Smart City Development Corporation Limited (PSCDCL) and Global Compact Network India (GCNI) together announced signing of a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on July 1st, 2016 to prepare a framework of Governance for Pune Smart city through compliance and procurement management as well as Public Private Partnership Module (PPP) to develop Pune as a world class city under the Smart Cities Mission.

GCNI will be partnered by Legasis Services Pvt. Ltd (Legasis), Mumbai and VMC Management Consulting Pvt. Ltd (Vision 360), New Delhi to achieve the objectives as specified in the MoU.

GCNI, formed in November 2000, was registered in 2003 as a non-profit society to function as the Indian Local Network of the UN Global Compact.

It is the first Local Network in the world to be established with full legal recognition. GCNI provides a country level platform for businesses, civil society organisations, public and private sector, aids in aligning stakeholders' responsible practices towards the Ten Universally Accepted UNGC Principles in the areas of Human Rights, Labour, Environment and Anti-corruption, broad UN goals including Sustainable Development Goals and other key sister initiatives of the United Nations and its systems.

GCNI established the Centre of Excellence for Governance, Ethics and Transparency (CEGET) in March 2015 to develop pragmatic approaches to the 10th UNGC Principle of Anticorruption. The 'Governance of Smart Cities' programme is a flagship initiative of CEGET.

The timelines and the scope of work of the project have been crystallized through subsequent meetings and will remain dynamic in the 1st year of the Project. The advisory service on governance and compliance to the Special purpose Vehicle (SPV) shall be based on statutory provisions under Indian law and standard industry norms.

The focus shall be on developing an integrated customized IT solution for governance, compliance and performance of statutory functions of the SPV and providing a Public Private Partnership (PPP) framework for designing transaction procedures, formulating evaluation parameters, building financial models and defining an acceptable exit strategy.

Relaying the quintessential idea behind Smart Cities Mission, Municipal Commissioner of Pune Municipal Corporation and Director of PSCDCL, Kunal Kumar said, "There was a time when ends justified the means, but that adage does not hold true any longer. In the newly evolving public governance debates good governance, ethics and transparency are the key enablers for Sustainable Development."

"Pune Smart City is happy to be the first smart city to partner with UN Global Compact India (GCNI), and align its implementation strategy with the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals set forth by the United Nations in September, 2015 and adopted by 193 member countries. We are confident that with this added edge Pune will lead the smart city implementation plans in the country," added Kumar.

"Specific goals need to be prioritized out of 17 SDGs and then quantified along the targets set to be achieved within those goals. Good governance will be a subterranean force that will see through the dynamic execution of smart cities project," said Additional Commissioner (Spl), Pune Municipal Corporation and also Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PSCDCL, Prerna Deshbhratar.

"The UN Global Compact India stands committed to the implementation of vision of Smart Cities, as all the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals find a reflection in the smart city mission of the Government. Pune joins 149 cities and regions around the world in its commitment to address complex global challenges at a local level through a collaborative model between government, civil society, and businesses," added Director GCNI, Shabnam Siddiqui.

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Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will embark on a five-day visit to Russia beginning from September 18.

During his visit, Singh will have bilateral talks with Russian Minister for Internal Affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev and discuss issues related to Indo-Russia joint anti-terror cooperation.

Cross border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and growing activities of ISIS will also be among the major topics of discussion between the two nations.

After visiting Russia, the Home Minister will travel to Washington on September 26 for a seven-day visit for the Indo-U.S. Homeland Security Dialogue with his American counterpart Jeh Charles Johnson.

Singh will also raise the issue of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism and activities of ISIS in India and other South Asian countries.

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The convoy of former Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Mohammad Shahabuddin, which was enroute to Siwan crossed a toll plaza at Muzaffarpur without paying the charges.

The cavalcade of the gangster-turned politician had started from Bhagalpur to reach Siwan, as the Patna High Court has granted him bail in the much-publicised Rajiv Raushan murder case.

The entire incident was captured by the cameras installed at the toll plaza.

Muzaffarpur toll plaza Assistant Manager Dipak Chaube said they had police orders to let more than 200 cars in Shahabuddin's convoy pass without toll.

"According to the rule they would have paid the toll. But if there is a VIP moment then we allow the cars to pass. Had police orders to let more than 200 cars in ex-mp Shahabuddin's convoy pass without toll. The convoy included many red beacon cars and many from the administration," he added.

The Patna High Court granted bail to the tainted leader in the controversial Rajiv Roshan case.

Shahabuddin was found guilty in 2004 for kidnapping of brothers Girish Raj and Satish Raj, giving them 'an acid bath' and then murdering them.

Shahabuddin's son Osama was charged for killing of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rajiv Roshan, who was a witness in the case.
With scores of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs being booked on various allegations of molestation, intimidation or corruption recently, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Monday expressed suspicion, saying there seems to be a design made to humiliate the AAP MLAs.

"Well the allegation against yet another AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan of molestation is now creating some kind of suspicion in the minds of the people because every other day, one MLA of AAP is picked up and is receiving some kind of charge-either of molestation, intimidation or corruption," NCP leader Majeed Memon told ANI.

"It seems there is a design to ensure that one after the other, an AAP MLA is humiliated. As far as Amanatullah is concerned, he immediately chose to quit because he feels because he is an AAP MLA, he should be subject of such controversial allegations," he added.

The NCP leader further stated that people should wait and see whether the allegations made against the AAP MLAs are true and, if, they are found to be correct then it was a very disgusting thing for AAP as a whole.

AAP, which was formally launched in 2012, is currently embroiled in several controversies.

The comments from the NCP come after the Arvind Kejriwal-led party yesterday defended Amanatullah Khan against whom Delhi Police has filed an FIR following molestation charges levelled by his relative.

The party has rejected his resignation, which he had tendered, saying the controversy surrounding him is his family's internal dispute which is being given political colour.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia told reporters in New Delhi, it is a six-year-old family matter and his in-laws are dragging him into it.

He said party's internal probe found no wrongdoing his part. Mr. Sisodia also criticized Delhi Police for acting promptly against AAP workers without verifying facts.

Khan had on Saturday tendered his resignation from all posts including the chairman Delhi Waqf Board as well as MLA.

A case of sexual harassment has been registered against Khan in southeast Delhi's Jamia Nagar Police station.

Meanwhile, Delhi Police has filed an FIR against another AAP MLA and former minister Somnath Bharti and his supporters for allegedly misbehaving with security guards of AIIMS on Friday.

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The Union Cabinet on Monday approved the extension of a contract between India and the International Seabed Authority (ISA) for exploration of poly-metallic nodules

The contract exists between the Ministry of Earth Sciences and the ISA. The present contract for exploration of poly-metallic nodules has been further extended for a period of five years (2017-22). The earlier contract is set to expire on March 24, 2017.

By extending the contract, India's exclusive rights for exploration of poly-metallic nodules in the allotted area in the Central Indian Ocean Basin will continue and would open up new opportunities for resources of commercial and strategic value in area beyond jurisdiction.

Further, it would provide strategic importance for India in terms of enhanced presence in Indian Ocean where other international: players are also active.

Poly-metallic nodules (also known as manganese nodules) are potato-shaped, largely porous nodules found in abundance carpeting the sea floor of world oceans in deep sea. Besides manganese and iron, they contain nickel, copper, cobalt, lead, molybdenum, cadmium, vanadium, titanium, of which nickel, cobalt and copper are considered to be of economic and strategic importance. India signed a 15 year contract for exploration of poly-metallic nodules (PMN) in Central Indian Ocean Basin with the International Seabed Authority (ISA) (an Institution set up under the Convention on Law of the Sea to which India is a Party) on March 25, 2002 with the approval of Cabinet. India is presently having an area of 75,000 square kilometers located about 2000 kilometers away from her southern tip for exploration of PMN.

The Ministry of Earth Sciences is carrying out a survey and exploration, Environmental Impact Assessment, Technology Development (Mining and Extractive Metallurgy) under poly-metallic nodules program through various institutes viz. Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT), National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML), National Centre for Antarctica and Ocean Research (NCAOR), National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) etc., in accordance with the Contract provisions. India is fulfilling all the obligations of the contract.

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Sanctioning Pakistan or declaring it a state sponsor of terrorism could backfire, the United States lawmakers were warned at a congressional hearing.

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on relations and had a lively debate on the issue whose transcript was released yesterday.

Senator Bob Corker, the committee's chairman in his opening statement expressed frustration with Pakistan's alleged lack of cooperation in defeating militant groups still active in neighbouring Afghanistan.

In order to make Pakistan cooperate, Senator Corker, a Republican, and Senator Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the committee asked the witnesses to explain what measures US policymakers could take.

"In order to justify major policy shifts like eliminating aid, labelling Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism or enacting sanctions, US policymakers should be able to explain how such actions would make America's strategic predicament better, " Dawn quoted one of the witnesses, Prof Daniel Markey of the Johns Hopkins University as saying.

He added that Islamabad would need to consider the possibility that coercion could backfire, raising tensions and making Islamabad less willing or able to advance any constructive agenda.

He was of the opinion that next US president could take "a far more coercive approach" with Pakistan than the outgoing president, Barack Obama.

Meanwhile, Toby Dalton, a co-director of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace said that there was a vast difference between what the US should and could do.

"Ideally, the United States and should seek ways to convince Pakistan to flatten the growth curve of its nuclear programme. The honest assessment is, however, that since Pakistan embarked on a nuclear weapons programme, very little the US has tried, whether sanctions or inducements, has had an appreciable impact," he said.

Recalling that this May, the Senate put a hold on allowing Pakistan to use US funds for buying F-16 aircraft, "which I think is appropriate" said Senator Corker.

The senator claimed that the Afghan militant Haqqani network's leaders had been living in Pakistan and the Pakistani Government knew where they lived but would not cooperate with US' efforts to eliminate them.

While noting that banning Pakistan from using US funds to buy F-16s was very complicated, senator Cardin said that Islamabad was a strategic partner in the war against terrorism but the US still had major concerns about that relationship, "as they seem to be very selective in fighting terrorism".

Senator Perdue meanwhile, said that of $19 billion provided to Pakistan since September 11, 2001, only $8 billion were actually for security efforts, while $11billion were for humanitarian purposes.

Prof Markey said that US assistance to Pakistan should be divided into three categories.

"Category one, things where they want and we want. Category two, we and they want similar things but they want to do it differently than we think is right. Category three, areas where we want to tell them what we think they should do and we believe they are not doing," he added.
Fourteen bank stocks lost 0.57% to 4.63% at 11:12 IST on BSE after Fitch Ratings said that the progressive increase in minimum capital requirements under Basel III is likely to put nearly half of Indian banks in danger of breaching capital triggers.

Among public sector banks, Bank of Baroda (down 4.3% at Rs 164.50), Indian Bank (down 3.64% at Rs 220.95), Union Bank of India (down 3.62% at Rs 143.90), Bank of India (down 3.28% at Rs 119.35), State Bank of India (down 3.03% at Rs 256), Punjab National Bank (down 2.76% at Rs 140.90), Canara Bank (down 2.43% at Rs 303.65) and IDBI Bank (down 1.63% at Rs 78.25) declined.

Among private sector banks, Yes Bank (down 4.63% at Rs 1,218.05), Axis Bank (down 3.64% at Rs 590.85), ICICI Bank (down 2.41% at Rs 267.55), IndusInd Bank (down 2.18% at Rs 1,187.55), HDFC Bank (down 1.2% at Rs 1,275) and Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 0.57% at Rs 813.95) edged lower.

The S&P BSE Bankex index was currently down 2.31%. It underperformed the S&P BSE Sensex which was down 425.33 points or 1.48% at 28,371.92.

The S&P BSE Bankex index had outperformed the market over the past one month till 9 September 2016, gaining 7.37% compared with Sensex's 2.54% gain. The index had also outperformed the market in past one quarter, advancing 13.4% as against Sensex's 7.6% gain.

Fitch Ratings has said in a report dated 11 September 2016 that the progressive increase in minimum capital requirements under Basel III is likely to put nearly half of Indian banks in danger of breaching capital triggers. State-run banks are the most at risk, given their poor existing capital buffers and weak prospects for raising capital through market channels, Fitch said. Fitch estimates that Indian banks will require around $90 billion in new capital by FY 2019 to meet Basel III standards, with the state banks accounting for about 80% of the total. According to Fitch, state-run banks will continue to face difficulties in raising capital from the market, which will keep their Viability Ratings under pressure and will weigh on the sector outlook.

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Mumbai Port Trust needs to bring administrative reforms to develop ability to compete with the private ports

Mumbai Port Trust needs to bring about administrative reforms to develop ability to compete with the private ports, said Minister of State for Shipping, Road Transport & Highways, Chemicals & Fertilizers, Shri Mansukh L. Mandaviya on an inspection visit to Mumbai Port Trust today. He further expressed a need for the port to have a clear vision and road map for development for next ten to twenty years and appealed to all the stakeholders to work in this direction.

The Minister held a meeting with the Deputy Chairman and the Heads of Departments and reviewed the functioning of the Mumbai Port in all its scope and ambit. While reviewing the existing and the future projects undertaken by the Port, the Minister assured that Government would ensure that all resources are made available to the sector to ensure maximum growth of business.

The Minister also visited the Cruise Terminal at BPX Mumbai Harbour and inspected the liquid cargo handling facilities at Jawahar Dweep and Pir Pau. He appreciated the facilities created at Second Chemical Berth, which provides handling capacity of 55000 DWT tankers and capacity to handle 2.5 MMTPA cargo. He was informed that the MPT facilities have provided a lot of advantages mainly to the Public Sector Oil Companies and eliminated the waiting time of oil tankers at Mumbai Port as also reduced the ship's turn round time.

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Yes Bank fell 4.58% to Rs 1,218.80 at 12:40 IST on BSE, with the stock extending recent losses triggered by the bank deferring its qualified institutional placement of shares.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 384.30 points, or 1.33%, to 28,416.89.

On BSE, so far 3.2 lakh shares were traded in the counter, compared with average daily volume of 2.06 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 1,254.95 and a low of Rs 1,201.55 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 632.25 on 20 January 2016. The stock hit a record high of Rs 1,450 on 7 September 2016. The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 9 September 2016, gaining 1.42% compared with Sensex's 2.54% gain. The scrip had, however, outperformed the market in past one quarter, rising 22.78% as against Sensex's 7.6% gain.

The large-cap company has equity capital of Rs 421.35 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

Shares of Yes Bank had dropped 4.01% to Rs 1,277.25 on Friday, 9 September 2016 after the bank announced deferral of its proposed qualified institutional placement (QIP) as advised by its appointed Merchant Bankers for the QIP due to extreme volatility during trading day on 8 September 2016 because of misinterpretation of new QIP guidelines. The announcement of QIP deferral was made by the bank after market hours on 8 September 2016. The bank had announced on 7 September 2016 opening of its QIP of equity shares of face value Rs 10 each to raise up to $1 billion. The bank had announced Rs 1,371.84 per share as the floor price for the QIP at that time. The stock slumped 5.32% to Rs 1,330.65 on 8 September 2016 after opening its QIP, which resulted in bank calling off its QIP issue.

The stock has dropped 15.41% to its current ruling price of Rs 1,218.80 in four sessions, from its close of Rs 1,440.90 on 6 September 2016.

Yes Bank's net profit rose 32.8% to Rs 731.80 crore on 25.4% growth in operating income to Rs 4762.83 crore in Q1 June 2016 over Q1 June 2015.

Yes Bank is one of the leading private sector banks in India.

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The 15th anniversary of the horrific 9/11 attacks saw President Obama's call for unity against terrorism, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's fainting and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's only statement on social media.

US President on Sunday led millions of Americans in paying moving tribute to the victims of the 9/11 attacks urging Americans to stand united against terrorism.

During a ceremony at 15th anniversary 9/11 attacks at the Pentagon he said, "together, there is nothing we Americans cannot overcome."

At the Pentagon, a trumpet played as the President took part in a wreath-laying ceremony.

"We remember, and we will never forget, the nearly 3,000 beautiful lives taken from us so cruelly, including 184 men, women and children here, the youngest just three years old. We honour the courage of those who put themselves in harm's way to save people they never knew," Obama said in a statement.

"We come together in prayer and in gratitude for the strength that has fortified us across these 15 years. And we renew the love and the faith that binds us together as one American family," he added.

"It is so important today that we reaffirm our character as a nation, of people drawn from every corner of the world, every colour, every religion, every background," he said.

"Bound by a creed as old as our founder ... Out of many, we are one. For we know that our diversity, our patchwork heritage, is not a weakness, it is still and always will be one of our greatest strengths," Obama said.

Obama also vowed that the US will never bow to the wishes of terrorists who, through their attacks, hope to change the way Americans live.

"We have delivered justice to Osama bin Laden. We have strengthened our homeland security. We have prevented attacks. We have saved lives. We resolve to continue doing everything in our power to protect this country that we love," he noted.

"...And today, we once again pay tribute to these patriots, both military and civilian, who serve in our name, including those far away from home in Afghanistan and Iraq," Obama said.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump released a statement on Facebook page and offered his condolences to the victims.

"Fifteen years ago, America suffered the worst terrorist attack in its history. Today, we mourn for all the lives lost. We mourn for all the children who had to grow up without a mom or dad, and for all the parents who have had to struggle on without their children," he wrote.

He praised the firefighters, police officers and port authority workers who rushed into danger, into smoke, into fire to save the lives of people they had never met, performing their sacred duties until their last moments on Earth.

"Today is a day of sadness and remembrance. It is also a day of resolve. Our solemn duty on behalf of all those who perished that September day 15 years ago, is to work together as one nation to keep all of our people safe from an enemy that seeks nothing less than to destroy our way of life," Trump noted.

Hillary Clinton, who had fainted at a public event due to "overheating" and was later diagnosed with pneumonia, said the attack was the closest thing to "hell" she had ever seen.

She visited the Ground Zero memorial to pay her respects and observe the annual moment of silence but soon fell ill.

According to the reports, Clinton took rest in her daughter's Manhattan apartment.

"She was put on antibiotics and advised to rest and modify her schedule. She is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely," her physician Lisa Bardack said.
All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) has witnessed five deaths due to dengue and one from chikungunya since September 1, even as the premier hospital continues to get hundreds of patients suffering from the vector-borne diseases.

" has witnessed a total of six deaths due to vector-borne diseases this month," a senior authority at told IANS on condition of anonymity.

According to the official, the last death was of a 30 year-old man, who tested positive for dengue in the first week of the month. He died on September 9.

"The victim succumbed due to complications from dengue on September 9. He was a resident of east Delhi," said the official.

Last week, over 400 patients tested positive for chikungunya at AIIMS, taking the cases being treated by the hospital alone to nearly 900.

Speaking to IANS, Lalit Dar of AIIMS' Department of Microbiology told IANS, "Cases testing positive for chikungunya are rising. Till now some 885 samples have tested positive for dengue, of which over 400 are new ones in the last two weeks."

However, the civic bodies data shows a lower count. According to it, the total number of chikungunya cases in Delhi stood at only 560 till September 3, while the total dengue cases were 771.

Following the rise in vector-borne diseases, which also includes malaria, the Cabinet Secretary has directed the authorities at the central and state governments and municipal corporation level to increase public awareness, with the aim of prevention and also ensure availability of medicines.

Among those affected by the mosquito-borne diseases are a number of doctors of both central and Delhi government hospitals, which has led to staff crunch in many departments.

Government-run Safdarjung Hospital officials told IANS that 10-12 senior faculty members have tested positive for chikungunya, while at least 25 junior doctors, including senior and junior residents, are suffering from chikungunya and dengue.
Human rights watchdog on Monday blamed India for excessive use of force against protesters in Kashmir.

Executive Director of India, Aakar Patel, in a statement issued here, said: "Security forces are using arbitrary and excessive force in response to protests in Jammu and Kashmir."

He added, "India is violating international standards and worsening the human rights crisis in the state."

Aakar said: "Pellet-firing shotguns have injured and blinded even peaceful protesters and bystanders. Children have been hit by pellets from these shotguns while sitting inside their homes."

The statement quoted media reports of September 2, saying, "India's Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) approved the use of PAVA (Pelargonic Acid Vanillyl Amide) shells, a chilli-based munition, as an alternative to pellet-firing shotguns, to be used only in 'rare' cases."

"However, there have been over 100 reported cases of pellet injuries in the first week of September at hospitals in Srinagar," it stated.

The statement said that the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms state that firearms should not be used "except in self-defence or defence of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury".

It said the UN charter clarifies the use of firearms "only when less extreme means are insufficient". The UN Code of Conduct for law enforcement officials states that they may use force "only when strictly necessary and to the extent required for the performance of their duty".

"At least 78 people, including two security force personnel, have been killed in the state since July 9, following protests and violent clashes after the killing of a member of the Hizbul Mujahideen armed group," the Amnesty India statement also said.

"Some demonstrators have thrown stones and attacked police stations, government buildings and politicians' homes."

"Security force personnel have fired live ammunition, tear gas and pellets from pump-action-shotguns."

"These weapons are inherently indiscriminate and always carry the risk of causing serious injury to people who are not engaging in violence... There is simply no proper way to use these weapons, and they should be prohibited."

About the use of PAVA shells for crowd control, the statement said, "Chemical irritants have the potential to be used in an arbitrary or indiscriminate manner... Before being deployed, these weapons should go through a rigorous safety testing and approval process."

It also stressed on training of security forces "to use them correctly to reduce risk of unnecessary injury, and they must be accompanied by clear instructions and warnings on their use, effects, risks and the necessary precautions to be taken".

Amnesty said: "Law enforcement officials in Jammu and Kashmir must only use force as a last resort after non-violent means have been ineffective, and ensure that any force used is both necessary and proportional."

It said, "Anyone suspected of using arbitrary or abusive force should be prosecuted."

Calling on the central and state governments to "abandon their heavy-handed tactics in Kashmir", Amnesty India's statement adds that nowhere else in India have either the pellet shotguns or PAVA shells been used by the security forces for crowd control.
The Union Cabinet on Monday approved the inking of an Extradition Treaty between India and Afghanistan.

"The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the signing and ratification of the Extradition Treaty between India and Afghanistan," said an official statement.

According to the Government, the treaty would provide a legal framework for seeking extradition of terrorists, economic offenders and other criminals from and to Afghanistan.

The cabinet nod comes ahead of Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani's two-day visit to India from September 14.

--IANS

rup/rn

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The Union Cabinet on Monday gave its ex post-facto approval for a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Kenya on cooperation in National Housing Policy Development and Management (NHPDM), an official statement said.

The MoU was signed on July 11, 2016 at Nairobi during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit.

The cabinet meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Modi.

Under the MoU, both the sides will collaborate on all matters relating to housing and human settlements through various strategies including training of personnel, exchange visits, expos/exhibitions, conferences and workshops.

"The cooperation between the two countries will focus on upscaling slum upgradation and prevention initiatives based on the experience and implementation process of each country. They will collaborate on development and sharing of information on housing and real estate data base including market trends, best practices and investment opportunities," the statement said.

"It will encourage technical cooperation in facilitating access to affordable housing from locally available building materials and also promote technical cooperation in development of government/public employee facilitated housing," it added.

--IANS

am/ask/bg

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Philippines President said on Monday that US special forces in southern Philippines should leave, media reported.

"The US special forces have to go," Xinhua news agency quoted Duterte as saying in a speech at the oath taking ceremony of newly appointed officials in the presidential palace.

The President said that during his attendance at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and the East Asia Summits in Laos last week, he wanted to mention the plan, but he did not raise this "out of respect."

"I do not want rift with America, but they have to go," he said.

Duterte said he wanted the US forces to leave Mindanao because they can be targeted by the kidnap-for-ransom groups.

Earlier, the President had said that the Philippines under his administration would pursue an independent foreign policy "without any interference" from any country.

In Vientiane, controversy hounded Duterte for making "strong remarks" against US President Barack Obama in connection with comments made by American officials on drug-related extrajudicial killings in the country.

Duterte's remarks prompted Obama to cancel a scheduled meeting with him on the sidelines of the Asean meetings.
Director Sumanth Radhakrishnan's forthcoming Tamil "philanthropical" thriller "Sadhuram 2", a crowd-funded film, is made from the contribution of fans of James Wan's "Saw" franchise.

The film, which releases in cinemas on Friday, is inspired by American psychological thriller "Saw".

"It was really difficult to get the film made because nobody believed in it. Nobody in India could watch 'Saw' on the big screen, so when some fans of the movie heard about my film; they came forward to support it," Sumanth told IANS.

Nearly 30 people contributed to the making of the film.

While admitting that the film is based on "Saw", Sumanth clarified it's not a frame-to-frame rip-off.

"We have given credit to the original. My music director Girish met someone from the team of 'Saw' long back and authorisation was given to make the film. We haven't made anything as gory as 'Saw', because frankly you can't, given our censorship rules," he said.

"Even though we've followed the same template used in 'Saw', we've managed to tone down everything. People who loved 'Saw' and films that fall in the same league will love ours too. We've made an honest film," he added.

When asked why the film is being promoted as a "philanthropical" thriller, he explained, "It's because it has social consciousness elements attached to it. It belongs to a completely new genre and we're eager to know how audiences react to it."

The film stars Yog Japee, Kaushik, Riaz and Sanam Shetty.

"We are releasing the film as 'Sadhuram 2' because it has an ambiguous beginning and ambiguous end, but it won't be confusing. Hence, we decided to go with this title," he said.

--IANS

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi's suggestion to simultneously hold elections to the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies, on which the government has invited opinion from the general public, has few takers among political circles, with many parties terming it "impractical".

"It's impractical. How would it be done," asked Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the

opposition Congress in the Lok Sabha.

"Modi-saab suggests it and leaves it. He should have given solutions to the problems related to it," Kharge contended, asking that if a state assembly was dissolved one year into its five-year tenure, would there be president's rule for the remaining period.

Simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the assemblies were held till 1967, when the dawn of coalition in the states saw many assemblies being dissolved without completing their full terms.

Modi, at a conference of chief ministers and chief justices of high courts in April supported the idea of simultaneous polls, saying that otherwise, "things get stalled and a lot of time is spent on elections".

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's manifesto for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections thats brought it to power also backed the idea of having simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the Legislative Assemblies.The BJP-led NDA government has also begun a discussion on on the issue on MyGov, its citizen interface website, asking people to submit their views on the subject by October 15.

D. Raja of the Communist Party of India (CPI) also wondered how the idea would work.

"How is it possible? India is such a diverse country and it has federal structure," he said, adding that it is not "feasible" as it would create lots of problems related to governance.

K.C. Tyagi of the JD-U said that it is a "nobel idea but very impractical".

However, senior Supreme Court advocate and constitutional expert Shanti Bhushan said that "the idea is good".

Interestingly in June, the Election Commission (EC) had told the Law Ministry that it supports the idea of simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

The ministry had sought the EC's views on the recommendation.

--IANS

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Continuing with road shows abroad to attract foreign investors in exploiting India's discovered small oil and gas fields, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday assured investors here that the government will "proactively facilitate" their working in the Indian oil and gas sector.

"Assured the investors that Govt will proactively facilitate their working Indian oil & gas sector," Pradhan said in a tweet after addressing an interactive meet on the upcoming auction of India's 67 hydrocarbon discovered small fields (DSF)

"India is growing at fastest rate and government is committed to open up the market," he said in a separate tweet.

The minister earlier inaugurated the physical data room here of the Discovered Small Fields Bid Round.

An Indian Petroleum Ministry release earlier said that Pradhan will interact with officials of the UK Trade and Investment department on the ongoing hydrocarbon sector reforms in India and have one-to-one meeting with prospective bidders, representatives of commodity exchange market and regulators.

He is also slated to meet British Energy Minister Greg Clark and the Scottish Energy Minister in Aberdeen, the statement added.

India's Petroleum Ministry along with the Directorate General of Hydrocarbon (DGH) has organised this series of interactive meet-cum-roadshows between September 9-14, earlier in Singapore and currently in Britain.

"During the meetings, Pradhan is expected to highlight the paradigm shift in the policy regime for the exploration and production sector in India and the improved investment environment for E&P (exploration and production) companies under the new Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP) which emphasises on improving the ease of doing business and operational autonomy to attract investment," DGH had said in a statement.

At the event, Director General of Hydrocarbons Atanu Chakraborty elaborated on the changes made in the Indian oil and gas exploration regime.

"To ensure transparency, bidding process is made completely online," DGH said in a tweet citing the presentation here by Chakraborty.

"DSF policy offers, No minimum work programme, Free pricing and marketing freedom," DGH said in another tweet citing Chakraborty.

Road shows were earlier held in July in the US and Canada, for the auction of India's discovered small fields.

Bidding is open between July 15 and October 31.

The previous exploration licensing round ended in March 2012.

The auction will be under the new Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) approved in March, based on a revenue-sharing model as opposed to cost-and-output-based norms earlier.

The new model will replace the controversial production sharing contracts -- by which oil and gas blocks are awarded to firms which show they will do maximum work on a block -- that has governed the bidding under the earlier nine NELP rounds.

Under the Discovered Small Field Policy, the government is offering for bids 67 discovered small fields in 46 contract areas spread over nine sedimentary basins on land and in shallow and deep water areas.

The offered fields hold 625 million barrels of oil and gas reserves.

Of the 46 small fields, 26 are on land, 18 offshore in shallow water and two in deep water.

While 28 discoveries are in Mumbai offshore, 14 others are in the east coast's Krishna-Godavari basin.

Eventual operators will be issued a single licence for exploration of conventional and non-conventional hydrocarbons and will have the freedom to sell oil and gas at "arms length" market prices. There would be no cess on crude oil.

The production sharing contracts regime, which allows operators to recover all investments made from sale of oil and gas before profits are shared with the government, was criticised by India's official auditor, who said it encouraged companies to keep inflating costs -- "gold plating" -- so as to postpone giving a higher share of profits.

The change in model is designed to help keep the government share in cases of windfall from both a steep rise in prices as well as a quantum jump in production.

--IANS

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Samsung Electronics on Monday said it has agreed to sell its printer business unit to US personal-computer maker HP. While the deal size has not been divulged, industry watchers put the figure at $1.05 billion.

The transaction is part of its "efforts to concentrate on its core business areas", Samsung said. Under an agreement, Samsung will source printers from HP and continue to market them in Korea under the Samsung brand, the company said in a statement.

"Samsung will spin off the printing business unit into a separate company as of November 1 upon the approval of shareholders, and sell a 100 percent stake of the newly created company and overseas assets related to the business to HP," the statement said.

The transaction is expected to close within one year, subject to the appropriate regulatory approvals.

Samsung's printing business, with 6,000 employees, a production base in China as well as more than 50 sales offices globally, posted 2 trillion Korean won in revenue in 2015, according to the statement.

--IANS

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India-Bangladesh will fight against terrorism jointly, Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Harsh Vardhan Shringla said here on Monday.

"Not just as a mere partner of each other, India-Bangladesh would fight against terrorism jointly. Both the countries resolved to do so during the Home Minister level meeting in New Delhi in July," Shringla told reporters here.

He said: "The Home Ministers of India and Bangladesh during their last meeting in New Delhi in July had decided to curb terrorism jointly for the betterment of the two neighbours."

The Indian envoy said that the Bangladesh security forces have done well in dealing with the situation and arresting the terrorists after the deadliest terror attack in Dhaka on July 1 that killed 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, at an upscale restaurant in the heart of the capital's diplomatic zone.

"Bangladesh security forces more or less were successful in unearthing the blueprint of the recent terror activities in their country. We believe Bangladesh would be successful in flushing out terror activities and the threat from that country," he added.

After joining as Indian High Commissioner in Bangladesh in January, 2016, Shringla came here on Monday on a four-day maiden visit to Tripura, which shares a 856-km border with Bangladesh.

The visiting envoy is scheduled to meet Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, Chief Secretary Yashpal Singh and other officials and dignitaries and discuss India-Bangladesh issues.

About the Bangladesh government's announcement that foreign diplomats would be given bulletproof protection, Shringla said: "We are better protected in Bangladesh now than earlier. We believe that the situation would further improve in the days to come."

"After the implementation of pending and ongoing India-Bangladesh projects, the relations between the two countries would improve more."

The pending projects include railway connectivity between Agartala railway station and Bangladesh railway junction at Akhaura, construction of a bridge in southern Tripura over river Feni to connect northeastern states to the Chittagong international seaport and extension of Bangladeshi highways linking northeastern states.

"If the multi-sectoral connectivities between Bangladesh and India were established, both the countries would get twin benefits -- boosting of trade and economy and people to people close contact," the High Commissioner added.

Five Indian states -- West Bengal (2216 km), Tripura (856 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Mizoram (318 km) and Assam (263 km) -- share a 4,096-km border with Bangladesh.

--IANS

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The Union Cabinet on Monday gave its approval for signing the technical arrangement between India and Switzerland to formalise the procedure for cooperation on the return of irregular migrants between the two countries.

The cabinet meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Conclusion of the Bilateral Technical Arrangement (BTA) has been linked to the Visa Free Agreement for holders of diplomatic passports as a package deal. The BTA essentially aims to formalise the existing procedure for cooperation on the return of irregular migrants between the two countries without introducing any additional obligations or exacting time frames," an official statement said.

According to the statement, the estimated number of irregular migrants in Switzerland, who are thought to be from India, is less than 100. If the BTA with Switzerland is approved as proposed, it would offer an opportunity to use the same as a model template for negotiations on the subject with other European Union (EU) countries.

"It would also help to leverage the Readmission Agreement to liberalise visa and work permit regimes for legitimate Indian travellers. This has been envisaged as a key goal in the recently concluded India-EU Common Agenda on Migration and Mobility (CAMM)," it added.

--IANS

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The Muslim community of Kerala celebrated Eid on Monday and visited specially erected Eid-Gahs, halls and mosques across the state to offer prayers. It was a public holiday for all offices here.

Eid Gahs -- open-air gathering outside the city -- with special enclosures for women witnessed a large footfall, as many attended special prayers and messages given by the clerics.

Kerala has 88.73 lakh Muslims and huge crowds participated in prayer centres in Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasargode ditricts.

As the day coincided with the Haj pilgrimage in Makkah, sacrificial meat was also distributed after the prayers.

The Onam festival would start here on Tuesday.

As this Eid is celebrated with the sacrifice of a sheep, goat, buffalo or camel along with the Eid prayers, the price of mutton touched a record Rs 700 per kg.

--IANS

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South Korea's military said on Monday that North Korea was ready to conduct another nuclear test following its fifth nuclear detonation.

Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-kyun said that according to intelligence authorities of South Korea and the US, North Korea was "always ready" to carry out additional nuclear test in its main Punggye-ri nuclear test site, Xinhua news agency reported.

His comments followed North Korea successfully staging an explosion test of a nuclear warhead that can be mounted on ballistic missiles "at will".

The warning of additional test is based on three tunnels excavated at Punggye-ri near which all of its underground nuclear tests were conducted.

"If North Korea conducts additional nuclear test, it would be possible to happen both from a branch of the second tunnel or the third tunnel where all preparations are already done," said Moon.

All of Pyongyang's nuclear device tests took place in Punggye-ri. The first test was conducted in the first tunnel, while the second, the third and the fourth detonations came from the second tunnel.

The site of the fifth nuclear test is some 500 metres away from where the fourth test was conducted, according to Yonhap news agency report citing government sources.

Pyongyang reportedly completed all preparations for a nuclear test at the third tunnel, where any atomic device test has not occurred yet, the sources added.

--IANS

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Launching a sharp offensive at its erstwhile partner, senior Nationalist Congress Party leader Praful Patel has squarely blamed the Congress for his party's downfall.

He also accused the Congress of "conspiring" to defame the NCP at all times even during their 15-year long alliance in Maharasthra and at the central level during the Congress-led UPA rule.

"You sank, but you took us along. Presently, we have no political tie-ups at the state or national levels," said the former Union Minister, indicating strained relations between the two erstwhile partners.

Addressing a rally of party workers here and in Washim in Vidarbha region of eastern Maharashtra last evening, Patel also trained guns at former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan of the Congress.

"There were no 'scams', but it was a conspiracy by the Congress and its leaders like Prithviraj Chavan to defame us. But, we have the capability to swim back. They did not view so many enemies in the BJP as they did in the NCP," he said.

Patel rued that in the past five years, his party and workers have suffered because of the Congress, which "sank" and took down the NCP with it.

The Congress reacted mildly to the NCP leader's statements, with state spokesperson Sachin Sawant saying that "they (NCP) just want to keep the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in good humour".

Patel's statements assume significant in the wake of the upcoming February 2017 civic elections in big civic bodies including Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nashik, which they are hoping to contest jointly.

The 15-year long alliance between Congress-NCP had snapped just before the October 2014 assembly elections in which the BJP-Shiv Sena coalition returned to power after 15 years.

--IANS

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Nepal on Monday announced the four-day state visit of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' to India from Thursday -- his first foreign visit after taking over as prime minister last month.

Prachanda is paying a state visit on the invitation of Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, said a Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement.

The Prime Minister will be accompanied by his spouse, Sita Dahal. He will be staying at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi as the State Guest of the Government of India.

Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat who is currently in New Delhi in preparation for the high level visit, will accompany the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister will attend a reception to be hosted by the Embassy of Nepal in New Delhi on Thursday.

On Friday, he will attend a Ceremonial Reception and inspect a Guard of Honour at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. He will then pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat.

On the same day, Prime Minister Prachanda will call on Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, and hold official meeting with Indian Prime Minister Modi. Some senior Cabinet members of the Government of India will call on Prachanda on the same day.

During the visit, Dahal will inspect the Nathpa Jhakri Hydropower Project in Himachal Pradesh and visit Patanjali Yogpeeth and its industrial/manufacturing units in Haridwar.

According to the statement, Prachanda is also to interact with the intellectual circle and business community in New Delhi as well as with the Nepali community in India during the visit. The PM and his delegation will return home on Sunday.

According to the statement, Ramesh Lekhak, Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport, Members of the Legislature-Parliament, Secretaries and other officials from different Ministries, media persons and representatives of business community will also be part of the delegation.

Announcement of the visit comes as Nepal Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat met his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj at New Delhi on Monday.

Mahat, who is in New Delhi to prepare the ground for the first foreign visit of the Prime Minister, discussed issues related to Prachanda's visit and other bilateral issues during the meeting.

Mahat also met some political leaders in New Delhi during the visit. These include Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Nationalist Congress Party general secretary D.P. Tripathi, Janata Dal (United) secretary K.C. Tyagi, Vijay Pratap of Socialist Font, among other leaders, the Kathmandu Post reported.

Mahat is to discuss about implementation of Pancheswor Project, solution to Nepal's energy crisis and other energy-related issues with Indian Power Minister Piyush Goyal.

He is to also meet Indian Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari to discuss construction of the Postal Road.

He returns home on Tuesday.

Prachanda was Prime Minister earlier from 2008 to 2009.

--IANS

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With mobile and broadband services suspended on Monday, curfew to be re-imposed and few signs of any celebrations, the Valley braced for a tense Eid on Tuesday with separatists calling for a march to the office of United Nations Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) here.

All mobile phone services, apart from BSNL's post-paid connections, were suspended across the valley on Monday, the 66th day of the shutdown, as intelligence officials said there were "inputs that separatists are planning large-scale violence on Eid in Srinagar and elsewhere".

Broadband Internet facility on fixed landlines was suspended later.

Authorities on Monday decided to impose curfew in all 10 districts of Valley as well as in Srinagar to prevent the march to the UNMOGIP office in the Sonwar area of the summer capital.

Even as shops, businesses, schools and colleges, petrol bunks and offices remained shut on a call by separatists, now extended to September 16, some areas on Srinagar's outskirts had some shops selling essentials ahead of the festival, though two of the most sought-after food items on Eid -- mutton and breads -- remained largely unavailable to the people of the valley.

Separatists have appealed for austere Eid celebrations as a mark of respect for the victims of the ongoing unrest, sparked by the July 8 killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.

The toll in the unrest stands at 80, including two policemen, and several thousand injured, many of them partially or fully blinded by pellets used for crowd control.

Security personnel have been deployed in Srinagar and other places in the valley. Before the decision to impose curfew on Eid day, a senior police official had told IANS: "Restrictions have been imposed in Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama districts."

Curbs had also been imposed in Khanyar, Nowhatta and M R Gunj police station areas of Srinagar city, the official said. The valley will remain shut despite Eid celebrations on Tuesday, he added.

One civilian was killed and 17 others, including seven policemen, were injured when guerrillas lobbed a grenade on Monday evening at Sherbagh police station in Anantnag town, said a police official. Five of the seven injured policemen were critical and have been shifted to Srinagar for treatment.

Meanwhile, security forces found the body of a fourth militant inside an under construction mini secretariat building in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, where a gunfight began on Sunday.

A senior police official said while carrying out room-to-room searches in the building in Poonch town, security forces found the body, taking the toll of militants killed in the operation to four.

On Sunday morning, the holed-up guerrillas had started a gunfight with the security forces which resulted in the killing of three militants and one policeman.

Five others -- a police official, a civilian and three soldiers -- were injured in the attack.

Authorities said 'Carvan-e-Aman', the weekly bus service across the Line of Control (LoC) from Srinagar to Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-held Kashmir, was suspended on Monday because of Eid, and all passengers informed about the decision.

Despite the ongoing unrest in the valley, the bus service had continued uninterrupted carrying about 78 people who travelled across the LoC between the two parts of divided during this period.

"The cross LoC bus service continued uninterrupted since July 9 except on July 11 and July 18 when the service was suspended because of the law and order situation in the valley," an official said here.

Meanwhile, Human rights watchdog Amnesty International accused India of using excessive force against protesters in Kashmir.

Executive Director of Amnesty International India, Aakar Patel, in a statement issued here, said: "Security forces are using arbitrary and excessive force in response to protests in Jammu and Kashmir."

He added, "India is violating international standards and worsening the human rights crisis in the state."

"Pellet-firing shotguns have injured and blinded even peaceful protesters and bystanders. Children have been hit by pellets from these shotguns while sitting inside their homes."

The statement quoted media reports of September 2, saying, "India's Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) approved the use of PAVA (Pelargonic Acid Vanillyl Amide) shells -- a chilli-based munition -- as an alternative to pellet-firing shotguns, to be used only in 'rare' cases."

"However, there have been over 100 reported cases of pellet injuries in the first week of September at hospitals in Srinagar," it stated.

--IANS

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President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan greeted the nation on Eid-ul-Zuha with a message of peace and harmony.

"On the occasion of Eid-ul-Zuha, I extend warm greetings and good wishes to all Muslim brothers and sisters in India and abroad," Mukherjee said on Monday.

He called upon fellow citizens to live peacefully and instil a sense of self-sacrifice, adding, "This festival epitomises trust, compassion, sacrifice and forgiveness."

Mukherjee said: "On this day, let us recall the selfless sacrifice made by Hazrat Ibrahim and engage in the service of humanity. Let us strive to lessen the pain and suffering of the needy."

Vice President Hamid Ansari said, "Eid-ul-Zuha highlights the virtues of sacrifice and compassion in our lives and inspires us to inculcate the spirit of sacrifice, sympathy and brotherhood in our society."

"May this festival bring peace, harmony and prosperity in our country," he said in his message.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan in her message said: "I extend my wishes to all my Muslim brothers and sisters on the occasion of Eid-ul-Zuha. I hope that this festival will increase brotherhood among the people of this country."

Eid-ul-Zuha will be celebrated on September 13 (Tuesday).

--IANS

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The deal for buying 36 Rafale jets from France is in its final stage, with some "fine tuning" going on, Defence Ministry sources said on Monday.

The deal for purchasing three dozen Rafale combat jets in fly-away condition was inked during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to France in April 2015.

Sources said the deal is in the final stage and there are some points are being worked upon.

A team from France in also present in the national capital, and both sides are keen on concluding the deal soon.

According to sources, the Prime Minister's Office has pushed for concluding the deal soon, after more than a year-long negotiations, in which price had been a major sticking point.

While the final price after the negotiations has not been announced, India has bargained for bringing the price close to $8 billion.

In April this year, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claimed in a post on social media that the deal has been finalised at $8.8 billion.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had however later clarified that it was not an official figure.

In 2012, India decided to ink a deal for 126 Rafale jets.

As the deal could not be worked out, the deal for the 36 Rafale combat jets came last year.

Both the sides also agreed to conclude an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) for supply of the aircraft after which a Negotiating Team was constituted.

In an interview to IANS in May, Parrikar had said the deal is in the final stage and the deal would be concluded in "a couple of months".

--IANS

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The Delhi Police on Monday arrested a 70-year-old retired government official from east Delhi for the alleged murder of his son.

Ganesh Prasad Shukla allegedly shot dead his son on Friday afternoon following a heated argument after the former attacked and injured his daughter-in-law over a property issue, police said.

The incident was reported around 1.25 p.m. from east Delhi's Mandawali area.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Rishipal told IANS that Ganesh Prasad opened fire on his son Mahendra Nath Shukla, 30, following the argument.

During interrogation Ganesh Prasad stated that there were frequent quarrels in the family over the distribution of property between his son Mahender Nath Shukla and his daughter, the officer said.

According to police, Shukla wanted to gift half of his ancestral property to his daughter which was vehemently opposed by his son and daughter-in-law.

"On Friday, his daughter-in-law again quarrelled with the accused over the same issue and out of anger, the accused hit her with a stick. The daughter-in-law complained to her husband, Mahender."

"Mahender confronted his father over the issue. Ganesh then shot dead his son with a single barrel gun," the officer added.

--IANS

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Samsung shares fell sharply on Monday, hitting a two-month low after the South Korean tech giant urged users not to use it and exchange devices due to fears it might explode.

The company's shares dropped more than 5 per cent on Monday morning, BBC reported.

Samsung recalled 2.5 million phones last week after reports of the device exploding during or after charging.

Airline passengers were warned by US authorities not to use or charge the phones while on board.

Aviation authorities in several other countries and individual airlines have since then also banned the use of the devices on their flights, the BBC reported.

The company has said it will replace all devices that were handed in from September 19.

--IANS

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Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt sought blessings from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during a visit to the state secretariat Nabanna in neighbouring Howrah district on Monday.

He also lauded the development initiatives taken by Banerjee in the state.

"After what happened to me in the 1993 incident, Didi (elder sister - as Banerjee is affectionately called) was the only one who supported me. After that I always wanted to come to Kolkata and thank Didi. Because no one had supported me back then. Only Shatrughan Sinha and Didi were by my side," Sanjay told reporters here.

Sanjay was handed a five-year sentence by the Supreme Court for illegal weapons possession in a case linked to the 1993 serial blasts that killed 257 people in Mumbai.

"I came to thank her. I said thank you, took her blessings. I told whenever she needs me I will be around. She has invited me for the (Kolkata International) Film Festival on November 11 and I will definitely come," added the actor.

"I heard she is working on reformation of jails. This is good."

Sanjay lavished praised on the chief minister for what she has done to transform the city since his last visit.

"Last time I visited was during (the filming of) 'Parineeta'. This time, while coming from the airport, I was pleasantly surprised by what Didi has done in such a little time."

Banerjee exchanged pleasantries and introduced the "Munna Bhai M.B.B.S" actor to her cabinet ministers.

The Trinamool Congress supremo had good relations with Sanjay's star father, the late Sunil Dutt and had rallied behind Sanjay who was sentenced to five years in jail in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.

--IANS

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The Supreme Court on Monday told the Karnataka government to release 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu every day till September 20, modifying its earlier order of 15,000 cusecs for 10 days.

A bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit also rejected Karnataka's plea to keep the September 5 order in abeyance as the state argued while 15,000 cusecs of water was released every day to Tamil Nadu, it was utilising just 1,250 cusecs.

The court also asked the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu governments to ensure observance of law and order in both states. "Executive of both the States are under the constitutional obligation to see that the law and order prevails," the bench said.

Noting that the meeting of the Cauvery supervisory committee that would examine Tamil Nadu's plea for the release of 35 TMC of Cauvery water, as directed by the court, is commencing on Monday and would take time to complete its job, the court directed the next hearing on September 20.

At the outset of the hearing, Justice Misra told senior counsel Fali Nariman, appearing for Karnataka, that the ground of law and order raised by Karnataka could not call for an urgent hearing or for seeking modification of order.

Karnataka had cited the widespread agitation in Bengaluru, Mandya, Mysore and Hasan after September 5 order as grounds for its modification.

Pointing out that the way the application seeking the modification of September 5 order and the affidavit for urgent hearing has been drafted was not a "happy one", Justice Misra took exception to its "tenor, language and assertion".

"Do they really call for a modification of an order. To put it in a constitutional frame, the executive has to implement the orders of this court, they can't put the blame on X,Y,Z, .." he observed.

Both the affidavit and application "if we allow ourselves to say so, is absolutely disturbing and to say the least, totally deprecable", said the bench, adding that such an application "cannot be conceived of to be filed in a court of law, seeking modification of an order".

Terming it the "obligation of the executive that the (top court's) order is complied with in letter and spirit", the bench said: "Concept of deviancy has no room; and disobedience has no space.

"The citizens cannot become law unto themselves. When a court of law passes an order, it is the sacred duty of the citizens to obey the same. If there is any grievance, they are obligated under the law to take recourse to permissible legal remedies."

Accepting the disapproval of Karnataka's application by the bench, Nariman said he would withdraw it and file a fresh one but urged the court to consider the plea for putting September 5 order in abeyance.

He said that while seeking the release of Cauvery water during the September 5 hearing, Tamil Nadu had said that if Karnataka doesn't release water then it would "absolutely damage" the "summer crop" leading to an "unacceptable plight" of the farmers.

Noting the court had directed Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs every day for next ten days while recording "the plight (of the farmer) that has been projected with agony" by Tamil Nadu, Nariman said that in last seven days from September 6, Tamil Nadu has utilised only 1,250 cusecs per day from Mettur Dam, and the plight of the farmer that was projected in the last hearing "is not there, was not there at all".

Nariman said that total water released So far is more than 10 TMC, but utilisation by Tamil Nadu was less than one TMC.

However, senior counsel Shekhar Naphade appearing for Tamil Nadu told the bench that they needed 50 TMC of water in Mettur Dam to meet the water requirement throughout September and claimed that reservoirs in Karnataka were depleting because they had utilised excess water in June, July and August.

"They (Karnataka) suddenly jacked up their needs (of water) disproportionately" and now "they want premium on that", he said.

He said that even if Tamil Nadu were to accept that there were deficit rains, then the withdrawal of water has to be scaled down proportionately and same could not be citied as a ground to deny Tamil Nadu its share of water under Cauvery river water award.

--IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Security has been beefed up for business establishments owned by Kannadigas and also outside the homes of noted Kannada personalities in Tamil Nadu, police said on Monday.

Police also said action has been taken against the assailants who had attacked the New Woodlands Hotel.

A group of unidentified assailants attacked the New Woodlands Hotel in Mylapore over the ongoing Cauvery row between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, police said.

"Around 3.15 a.m., a group came to the hotel and damaged glass panels. It seems the group attacked the hotel in protest against Karnataka's attitude in release of Cauvery river water," a police official told IANS.

A hotel employee confirmed the incident, adding that no one was injured in the attack.

On Friday, there was shutdown in Karnataka protesting the release of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China and Russia on Monday began their largest joint military drill in the South China Sea off Guangdong province.

Five ships, two helicopters, submarines and nearly 100 soldiers are part of the eight-day long drill, said the Chinese Ministry of National Defence.

The military sources had said over the weekend that Russian and Chinese forces will be conducting defence and rescue operations and anti-submarine exercises along with simulation of island takeovers by the navy, EFE news reported.

The drill - Joint Sea-2016 - aims to consolidate and advance the Sino-Russian comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, and deepen friendly and practical cooperation between the two militaries, Chinese spokesperson Liang Yang said on Sunday.

It will also improve coordination between the two navies on joint defence operations at sea, he said.

Although the drills come amid tensions between China, its southern neighbours and the US but Beijing claimed that the drill, that will concluded on the September 18, was a routine activity between the two armies.

The military maneuvers takes place two months after the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague ruled against Beijing and in favour of Manila in the dispute between both the countries over several territories in the South China Sea.

China had rejected the ruling and urged the Philippines to settle its disputes bilaterally, an offer the new government of President Rodrigo Duterte accepted.

Moscow had backed Beijing's refusal to accept the Hague's ruling over the South China Sea.

The annual China-Russia joint naval exercise is the fifth of its kind between the two countries since 2012.

In 2015, the drill was conducted in two phases: in the Mediterranean, and then in Peter the Great Gulf in the Sea of Japan

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made a rare public appearance on Monday at prayers of Eid al-Adha in the town of Daraya, which was recently surrendered by rebels.

In August, rebels and their families fled Daraya after years of indiscriminate barrel bombing and skirmishes, surrendering it to the Assad regime, the Independent reported.

According to the local media, Assad performed prayers of Eid al-Adha at the Saad Ibn Muaz Mosque in Daraya.

A photo published by the media showed Assad kneeling at prayer in a bare hall alongside the state's grand mufti and other worshippers.

And a video aired on state TV appeared to suggest that Assad drove himself to the mosque, as if to highlight the security of what was described as the newly "liberated" suburb.

Fighting continues across the capital's eastern outskirts, ahead of a nationwide ceasefire brokered between the US and Russia and due to begin at sunset on Monday.

Many of the rebels who left Daraya fled to Syria's rebel-controlled Idlib province, under a locally-brokered agreement between the warring sides. Some civilians were evacuated to other government-held areas near Damascus.

In total, Daraya was blockaded and bombarded by the government for four years. It was the scene of many now-familiar videos posted by opposition activists to social media, showing regime helicopters dropping bombs on built-up areas.

The suburb was home to a number of leaders of the civilian opposition. When they finally left last month, residents kissed the ground and said their last goodbyes to family graves, not expecting to return any time soon.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dubai, Sep 12 (IANS/WAM) The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has expressed concern about the US Congress adopting a law referred to as the "Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act", authorities said on Monday.

Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, said that this law, adopted by the US House of Representatives on September 9, is contrary to general liability rules and the principle of sovereignty enjoyed by states.

The bill authorises US courts to hear cases involving claims against a foreign state for injuries, death, or damages that occur inside the the country as a result of a tort, including an act of terrorism, committed anywhere by a foreign state or official, the Congress statement said.

"This law is not equal with the foundations and principles of relations among states, and represents a clear violation given its negative repercussions and dangerous precedents," Abdullah said in a statement.

He stressed that the UAE is looking forward to the US legislative authorities reviewing the law and not ratifying it in light of the serious consequences associated with implementation of this law.

Abdullah also warned of the negative effects of the law on all countries, including the US, and the possible impact of chaos in the context of diplomatic relations, that might negatively affect international efforts and cooperation to combat terrorism.

The White House has said that President Barack Obama would veto the bill, arguing that the legislation could harm US' relationship with Saudi Arabia and put American officials stationed overseas in jeopardy, Xinhua news agency reported.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
UK's will grow 1 per cent this year, down from the March estimate of 2.3 per cent, due to the fallout of the country's vote to leave the European Union (EU), according to the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC).

In its first set of forecasts since the vote to leave the EU, the BCC on Monday more than halved its gross domestic product (GDP) growth prediction which would mark the worst economic performance since 2009, when the was emerging from a deep recession sparked by the global financial crisis, the Guardian reported on Monday.

Recent economic indicators suggested that activity has rebounded from an initial post-referendum dive but the BCC's gloomy outlook shows that businesses remain nervous about the prospect of protracted negotiations to leave the EU and about potential trade deals.

BCC's new forecasts put it broadly in line with the Bank of England, which also sees a sharp slowdown in GDP growth next year to just 0.8 per cent from 2 per cent this year.

In its first forecast since the referendum, the BCC added that Britain would avoid an economic recession, but admitted that the business world is still evaluating the impact of the vote.

"Although individual businesses continue to report strong trading conditions, the overall picture suggests a sharp slowdown in growth lies ahead," EFE news quoted the BCC acting director general Adam Marshall as saying.

Marshall also urged British authorities to set a clear timetable on exit negotiations with the EU.

The Theresa May government said it will not trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty  which provides for a two-year period to negotiate an exit from the EU  until the beginning of next year.
China on Monday denied that President Xi Jinping's visit to Nepal was cancelled, saying it was improper to say that.

"It is not proper to say that his visit to Nepal was cancelled. We can't say if it is cancelled or not," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters here.

She said the two sides were in touch with each other.

Hua said China attaches great importance to its relationship with Nepal.

"We would like to promote new development of bilateral relations with Nepal," she added.

According to some media reports, Xi cancelled his visit to the Himalayan nation in October because of Kathmandu's lack of preparedness and its tilt towards New Delhi.

The reports also said China was miffed over the non-implementation of the deals clinched with Nepal when former Prime Minister K.P.Sharma Oli visited Beijing in March.

Nepal, too, has denied the reports.

"We are expecting the visit of the Chinese President, though the date of the visit has not yet been fixed," said Minister of Foreign Affairs Prakash Sharan Mahat said earlier.

If it happens, this would be the Xi's maiden visit to Nepal as China's President.

After constitutional crisis in Nepal, the ever cordial relation between New Delhi and Kathmandu hit rock-bottom, pushing the latter close to Beijing.

(Gaurav Sharma is the Beijing-based IANS correspondent. He can be contacted at sharmagaurav71@gmail.com and gauravians@yahoo.com)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Karnataka Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy received more invitations to visit Ganesha pandals this festive season than he could hope to attend. So he devised a simple rule to whittle down the list: he would visit a pandal only if it was eco-friendly; plaster of Paris idols were also a no-no.
At the company's 42th annual general meeting in Mumbai last week, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani said Jio was a company of the young, by the young and for the young.
With reference to "The new extreme reality of floods" (September 12), human beings are indeed exerting more influence on flooding today than ever before. The author has described changes in a category of floods - fluvial flood that is riverine flooding which is either caused due to flow of water level over the edge of a river or due to quick torrential rain for small duration (flash floods). The damage is intense in the latter.
Slamming Bihar Chief Minister for indulging "politics" in Jharkhand, Chief Minister Raghubar Das today said Kumar was "helpless" as his own allies in Bihar were "opposing" him.

Das asked Nitish to first rein in Mohammed Shahabbudin and take confidence of 'fearful' people there before bothering about Jharkhand, an official release said quoting him.

The Jharkhand CM further blamed Kumar of riding piggyback on such leaders of Jharkhand who lacked the base and resources.

Commenting on Kumar's Jamshedpur visit yesterday where the CM demanded to enlist kurmi caste in the tribal list, Das took a swipe at the Bihar Chief Minister and accused Kumar of indulging in in Jharkhand.

While sometimes Kumar calls for banning liquor, at other times he raises demand for inclusion of kurmi caste in tribal list, Das said.
Taking strong exception to Rahul Gandhi's taunting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his Rs 15 lakh suit, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday said perhaps it's time the Congress vice-president undertake another foreign trip for introspection.

BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli told ANI that it is up to Gandhi whether he wants to present himself as a serious political personality or as a joke.

"He is constantly raising these foreign trips...perhaps time has come that he should undertake another one of his famous foreign trips for introspection. Last time, I think he had gone to Thailand. He can go and introspect whether he wants to be seen as a serious political person, who has something to contribute in the line of whatever the Congress tradition is for a long time, or he wants to move in this path in which over a period of time people will take him even less seriously," he added.

In a veiled attack to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Kohli said Gandhi wants to walk on the paths traversed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor.

"So far, in this country we have only seen one particular leader... the Chief Minister of a Union Territory, not even a full state who can say anything without any foundation or facts...on the basis of no logical things, make any kind of allegation. ji also wants to walk on that path...he is entitled to," he added.

Extending his favourite 'suit-boot' analogy, Gandhi on Sunday took a jibe at Prime Minister Modi and his Rs 15 lakh monogrammed suit.

Gandhi said the Prime Minister is concerned about his suit getting dirty and that's why he doesn't come amidst the farmers, but visits America to meet President Barack Obama.
Two persons have been arrested for allegedly duping a man of over Rs 4 lakh on the pretext of providing loan, police said today.

The victim, Dhanraj Arudhia, had filed a complaint against Manoj Kumar Verma and Dharmender Kumar Chauhan on August 20 in Nagpur accusing them of duping him to the tune of Rs 4.67 lakh, a police official said.

The accused had cheated Arudhia by posing as employees of a finance company and luring him with a loan of Rs 50 lakh, said Ravindra Yadav, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch).

The duo was caught with incriminating material including ATM cards, SIM cards and mobile phones which were used in cheating people on the pretext of easy loans, he said.

They were produced in Karkardooma court and later handed over to Nagpur police on a three-day transit remand, the officer said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In an image-refurbishing exercise ahead of Assembly elections, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday sacked two ministers facing corruption charges while more heads could roll.

Mining minister Gayatri Prajapati and Panchayti Raj minister Rajkishore Singh were dropped within a span of an hour, just days after Akhilesh spoke of "zero tolerance" on the issue of corruption and allegations of land-grabbing against some ministers.

The Opposition, however, termed it as a "poll-oriented eyewash".

Prajapati was first to be axed on Monday over the allegations of corruption. The action came three days after the Allahabad High Court rejected the SP government's plea to withdraw an order for a CBI probe into alleged illegal mining in the state.

Taking grim view of illegal mining in Uttar Pradesh, the HC on July 28 directed the CBI to probe the matter across the state, including the role of government officials in facilitating the same, and submit a report within six weeks.

Akhilesh was said to be unhappy with the minister who was mired in controversy over allegations of promoting illegal mining.

The chief minister then showed the door to Singh, who too was facing allegations of corruption.

Governor Ram Naik accepted the chief minister's recommendation to sack them, a Raj Bhawan communique said.

Social Welfare Minister Ramgovind Chowdhury was given the charge of Panchyati Raj department while Food Processing minister Moolchandra Chauhan of Mining department, it said.

SP insiders said a few more heads could roll in the coming days.

The action comes close on the heels of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav sounding a warning to party leaders, saying action needed to be taken against those involved in land grabbing and other corrupt activities if the party wanted to return to power in the 2017 Assembly polls.

The Opposition, however, alleged that the sacking of ministers was just an eyewash to hide the corruption charges faced by certain ministers.

"Illegal mining is rampant in UP and it is an open secret that she (Prajapati) was promoting it. Now when the HC has taken serious view of the matter and ordered CBI probe, the CM's decision is a mere eyewash. It will not help as people know the reality," Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi said.

BJP said it was good that the chief minister has taken the decision but it should have been taken earlier.

"Our party has been raising the issue of illegal mining in the state. The decision should have been taken earlier," BJP state general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak said.
British police today said they have "contained" the situation at a Gurdwara in the West Midlands region of England after an eight-hour standoff with a gang of sword-wielding men who opposed a mixed race marriage there and released on bail 54 men who were arrested during the clash.

Warwickshire Police said 54 accused have been given bail until next month while a 30-year-old man remains in police custody as investigations are on the nature of the weapons used during the incident.

The force had made 55 arrests on charges of "aggravated trespass" after an involving armed officers at Gurdwara Sahib in the town of Leamington Spa.

They were responding to reports of a gang of men carrying "bladed weapons" disrupting a mixed race wedding ceremony.

"Officers responded to an initial report of a group of masked men, initially thought to be around 20 in number, forcing their way into the Gurdwara.

"These were reported to be carrying a range of bladed items some of which were initially described as not being for ceremonial use. Officers assessed the situation and responded accordingly," a Wariwckshire Police statement said today.

"Having contained the situation, it became apparent thatthere were 55 masked men involved, all of whom were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass. Blades seized so far have been ceremonial. Another non-ceremonial weapon was seized. This is an ongoing investigation and we will be investigating the initial report that other weapons were involved," it adds.

Kirpans or short swords, are legally allowed to be worn by Sikhs in the UK as a symbol of their faith.

However, police have seized a blade not believed to be ceremonial.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that protesters from Sikh 2 Inspire and Sikh Youth UK were demonstrating in what they describe as a "peaceful protest" against an inter-faith Anand Karaj or Sikh matrimonial ceremony taking place at the Gurdwara.

The group believes Gurdwara Sahib Leamington Spa on Tachbrook Drive is a "rogue" group, which decided to break an agreement made last year between over 300 Sikh representatives at a meeting led by the Sikh Council UK to not hold an Anand Karaj in inter-faith cases.

Sikh Youth UK said, "Local Sikh youth attended the early morning prayers at the Gurdwara and began a sit-down peaceful protest by reciting prayers."



"There was no violence, so it does not make sense why Kirpans were confiscated and have to remain in police custody. We feel the police should not be holding onto the Kirpans...We are not sure where the media has picked up their distorted narrative which damages the reputation of the Sikhs," added Gurmail Singh of Sikh Council UK.

"We condemn the over-reaction by police and the disgraceful and inexcusable behaviour by the management committee at Leamington Gurdwara that have unashamedly brought the law-abiding Sikh community into disrepute by fuelling false and sensationalised media reports," added Sikh Federation UK.

Former treasurer of the Gurdwara, Jatinder Singh Birdi,



confirmed that a marriage between a Sikh and non-Sikh was due to take place.

Superintendent David Gardner of Warwickshire Police said: "We would like to reassure people that this was a contained incident that we believe was an escalation of a local dispute. A significant number of bladed weapons were seized from the scene. As a result of reports that the men were in possession of these weapons we deployed armed officers as a precaution. Nobody was injured in the incident."



"Over the coming days we will be working with local Sikh community to address some of the ongoing issues," Gardner said.
An unidentified gang allegedly broke into the house of a retired teacher here and decamped with gold jewels weighing 60 sovereigns and cash Rs 20 lakhs, police said today.

The incident came to light when the owner of the house located at Sathyamangalam Rajivnagar here, Joseph (62), who had gone to Chennai with his family had returned to Sathyamangalam yesterday evening.

He was shocked to find the front door of the house broken open and when he entered it, he found 60 sovereigns of gold jewels and cash Rs 20 lakh kept inside the almirah missing.

Joseph immediately lodged a complaint with the police.

Fingerprint experts and sniffer dogs were pressed into service.

A case has been registered, police said adding that special teams have been formed to nab the criminals.

In another incident, a woman was relieved of her nine-sovereign gold chain by two unknown persons who came on a motorcycle, in Siruvalur village, about 40 kms from here.

The incident took place last evening when Parvathy was coming in a two-wheeler near Siruvalur village, and two persons who came on a motorcycle dashed against her vehicle, causing Parvathy to fall down.

Immediately, one of the suspects snatched the nine sovereign gold chain from her and escaped before she could raise an alarm.

Based on a complaint, police have registered a case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Police have arrested 70-year-old Ganesh Prasad Shukla who had allegedly shot dead his son a few days ago over a fight involving property in Mandawali area of east Delhi.

Ganesh, a retired government employee, was arrested by police near Sanjay Jheel area in Pandav Nagar for allegedly gunning down his 38-year-old son Mahendra Nath Shukla on September 9, said Rishi Pal, DCP (East).

The accused allegedly shot Mahendra in the chest during a fight with him over question of distribution of property between siblings. He also allegedly hit his daughter-in-law during the fight.

During interrogation, the accused told police that there were frequent quarrels in the family over distribution of property between his son Mahendra and his daughter.

He said that he wanted to gift half of his ancestral property to his daughter which was "vehemently opposed" by his son and daughter-in-law.

The single barrel gun used in the murder and an empty cartridge have been recovered at the instance of the accused, the officer said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An AAP MLA and a Congress councillor from east Delhi had a minor face-off today over civic issues of the area.

Gandhi Nagar MLA Anil Bajpai claimed that Varyam Kaur, Raghubarpura councillor, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the BJP-led East Delhi Municipal Corporation, has "not been serious" about addressing issues related to sanitation and vector-borne diseases control measures.

"I wanted to go to her office and submit a memorandum, in which I have asked 10 questions related to civic issues in her area, including on sanitation and fogging for mosquito-breeding control.

"We were stopped close to the office by a barricade. The councillor herself came out and met us, and I handed over the memorandum to her there," Bajpai said, while claiming that the police accompanied him when the group went to meet her.

The congress councillor, however, has alleged that the lawmaker's supporter were not local residents.

In a statement released by the EDMC, Kaur is quoted as saying that she has asked the AAP MLA to "use RTI and know for himself how much work she has done in her area".

She also alleged, "Though AAP talks so much about dengue, malaria and chikungunya, it has not opened any mohalla clinic in the area.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The AAP government has proposed a 250 per cent hike in MLA Local Area Development (LAD) funds for the current financial year, enhancing it to Rs 14 crore from the existing Rs 4 crore.

The proposed hike is to ensure that shortage of money doesn't affect development works being carried out through MLA LAD fund in colonies of the national capital.

The Kejriwal government has sent a proposal to the Centre to seek its prior approval, a senior government official said.

If the Central government gives its nod, the proposal will be tabled in the Cabinet and thereafter in the Delhi Assembly where the Aam Aadmi Party has an overwhelming majority with 67 MLAs.

In 2011, the Sheila Dikshit government had increased MLA LAD fund from Rs two crore to Rs 4 crore for carrying out development works in Delhi. However, the current proposed hike will only be for the ongoing financial year.

"Out of Rs 4 crore MLALAD fund, Rs one crore is allocated for executing works pertaining to Delhi Jal Board every year as per the rule. Rest of the funds are also fixed for some other works following which MLAs do not have more fund left to carry out development works in their constituencies.

"In view of this, government has proposed to provide one-time additional allocation of Rs 10 crore for each MLA in the current financial year," the official said.

The official also said that if the Centre gives its nod, the AAP government will allocate Rs 700 crore to all 70 legislators.

According to officials, Rs 280 crore meant for MLA Local Area Development (LAD) funds has been already disbursed by the AAP Government and this Rs 700 crore would be in addition to that.

If the government increases Rs 10 crore for each MLA, it would be perhaps the highest in the country.

The officer said that all three MCDs have "failed" in effectively carrying out development works for want of adequate funds.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing," days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a similar allegation.

The remarks follow Netanyahu's claim during an address rejecting criticism of Israeli settlement building that the Palestinians were seeking a state with "no Jews".

Netanyahu called that "ethnic cleansing," drawing a strong rebuke from the United States.

Speaking yesterday night before the Eid al-Adha Muslim festival, Abbas said the Israelis "don't want to progress one iota towards peace, in spite of their deceptive allegations."



"On the contrary, they go deeper with their settlements, infringement of holy places, ethnic cleansing and deliberate killing," he said, according to official Palestinian agency WAFA.

In a video address today, Netanyahu said that the Palestinian leadership wanted a state on the basis of "no Jews."



"There's a phrase for that, it is called ethnic cleansing," he said.

The US State Department called the video "unhelpful" and "inappropriate".

"We obviously strongly disagree with the characterisation that those who oppose settlement activity or view it as an obstacle to peace are somehow calling for ethnic cleansing of Jews from the West Bank," spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said.

The Palestinian leader has made the allegation against Israel before.

Palestinians accuse Israel of ethnic cleansing during the war surrounding the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, a claim Israel denies.

In his Eid address, Abbas also reiterated he was in favour of meeting Netanyahu in Russia, with President Vladimir Putin looking to mediate between the two sides.

Netanyahu has said he is ready to meet Abbas at any time, but without preconditions.

Abbas did not say whether he had preconditions for such a meeting, but in the past the Palestinians have demanded a freeze in Israeli settlement building, a deadline for the end of the occupation of the West Bank and the release of prisoners.

"In recent days, we have agreed to a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the kind invitation of the Russian president," Abbas said.

The last substantial public meeting between Abbas and Netanyahu is thought to have been in 2010, though there have been unconfirmed reports of secret meetings since then.

Peace efforts have been at a standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Three college girls fell



victim to acid attack at Gelia village under Jaipur police station of Bankura district, police said today.

An unidentified man threw acid to the three first year students just after they got down from a bus at Gelia bus stop.

While one girl suffered burns on the back, the other on her hand and leg, and the third girl's injuries were negligible, police said.

They were taken to a local hospital from where they were released after first aid.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As the Meteorological Department has forecast heavy rains in Telangana, the state government today decided to evacuate people from low-lying areas to safer places.

The IMD in its weather bulletin said, heavy to very heavy rains are likely to occur in isolated areas of Telangana.

Following the forecast, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao directed the officials concerned to take necessary steps and convene District Disaster Management Authority's meeting for the course of action to be followed in event of heavy rains, an official release said.

"The officials will have to identify areas that would be affected by rains and evacuate people from there. Drinking water and power supplies in those areas are to be kept ready. Necessary medical services are also to be made available to the affected people," the Chief Minister was quoted as saying in the release.

National Disaster Response Force, the Army and the Air Force will also be ready to extend services in case of emergency, it added.

Rao also spoke to the Commissioners of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and the City Police and directed them to be ready to tackle the situation, it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
AAP MLA Somnath Bharti, who has been booked for allegedly inciting a crowd to damage AIIMS' fence, today said the structure blocked the passage of vehicles and was razed with the help of PWD officials after the hospital authorities did not attend PWD meetings in this regard.

"The bone of contention is a wall that blocks the passage of vehicular traffic from Gautam Nagar and nearby areas to Ring Road and AIIMS. It forces the residents to take a detour which, sometimes, takes around 40 minutes...This inhumane Berlin wall has to go," he said.

The fence is not on AIIMS' property. There is a 100 metre-long road between the hospital and the structure, the Malviya Nagar MLA said.

"I have done no wrong. We went to raze the wall along with PWD officials who brought a JCB. It was the AIIMS' personnel who pelted stones at us.

"The AIIMS officials then asked for more time. Later, it was decided that AIIMS and PWD officials, local residents and I would meet on Wednesday to resolve the issue," he said.

Hinting at a political conspiracy behind the filing of an FIR against him in connection with the matter, he said, "The incident took place on September 9 and there was no case till September 11. This (FIR) is because of the massive response AAP's rally has got in Punjab."



The AAP MLA also said five meetings have been held this year between local residents and PWD officials to resolve the issue and "not a single sitting was attended by the AIIMS officials. The decision to break the wall was taken only after AIIMS failed to respond".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Anoop Kumar Sharma has taken charge as the chairman & managing director of Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) for a period of three years.

"Anoop Kumar Sharma has taken charge of the post of CMD, SCI, with effect from September 12, 2016 for a period of three years," informed the BSE.

As the country's premier shipping line, the owns and operates around one-third of the Indian tonnage, and has operating interests in practically all areas of the shipping business, servicing both national and international trades.

The also has substantial interests in various segments of the shipping trade. Its owned fleet includes bulk carriers, crude oil tankers, product tankers, container vessels, passenger-cum-cargo vessels, phosphoric acid/ chemical carriers, LPG/ammonia carriers and offshore supply vessels.
The Florida mosque where Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen worshipped was targeted in an arson attack today, authorities said.

Fire crews responded to a 911 call reporting that flames were coming out of the Fort Pierce Islamic Center, Major David Thompson of the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office said.

Security video showed an individual approaching the building from the east, he said.

"Immediately after the individual approached, a flash occurred and the individual fled the area," Thompson said.

"Evidence has revealed that this fire was set intentionally," he said. "The sheriff's office is currently investigating this as an arson."



No injuries were reported and the extent of the damage was not immediately clear.

Photographs posted on the sheriff department's Facebook page showed fire engines parked in front of the building, a former church, with the facade appearing undamaged.

Authorities were working on enhancing the security video to help identify the perpetrator.

Thompson declined to speculate on a motive, but noted that it came shortly after the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States.

"We all know the implications of the date... Is that related? I would not want to speculate but certainly that is in the back our minds," he told reporters.

The attack also came as Muslims worldwide prepared to celebrate Eid al-Adha, Islam's feast of sacrifice.

The Fort Pierce mosque's gathering on Monday was moved "to another area and they're going to allow us to conduct our investigation so we can hopefully determine who set it," Thompson said.

Forty-nine people were killed and another 53 injured on June 12 when Mateen, a 29-year-old US citizen of Afghan origin, opened fire on the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando. Mateen was killed by police.

The mass shooting was the deadliest in modern US history.

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Irked by the absence of a befitting representation of Indian poets online, a city-based artist has taken the initiative to revive their identities through a range of artworks.

Shiraz Hussain's 'Khwaab Tanha Collective' includes portraits, postcards, paintings, merchandise and posters on poets and writers, who are not known by their faces despite being widely read.

Hussain, 30, points out how "cliched and substandard visuals" pop up when one looks up for Urdu poetry on the Internet instead of relevant images of the writers.

"It would invariably be a blonde or a sea shore, a rose or a tear drop! That is so cliched and not befitting the aura of the literature," he says.

The artist, who teaches at Jamia Millia Islamia University here, paints by night, artworks which mostly feature an image of the poet and some of his verses.

"People readily identify Leo Tolstoy, Mark Twain, Michael Jackson and Lenin. They flaunt a Che Guevera t-shirt because they recognise them and thus connect to them.

"We have our own rockstars in the form of our poets and writers. They were revolutionaries. We should identify them and celebrate them," he says.

Besides the renowned names of Saadat Hasan Manto, Ghalib, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ismat Chugtai, Munshi Premchand, Kaifi Azmi, Firaq Gorakhpuri and Gulzar, Hussain's collection also has works on bards like Joun Elia, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Akhtar-ul- Iman, Sheikh Ibrahim Zauk, Gajanan Madhav, Munir Niyazi, Avtar Singh 'Paash' and Parveen Shakir among others.

"These poets should regain their identity as popular faces. My effort is to make them reach more people visually through the medium of posters, wall hangings, murals, t-shirts, coffee mugs and various forms of creative and collective art," he says.

Even though most of his works revolve around Urdu litterateurs, he is also attempting to expand his work to revive poets from other languages like Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam and Odia.

"I am coming up with works on Hindi writers like Harishankar Parsai and Baba Nagarjun, the people's poet. I have also worked a little in the Bengali language. There are invitations to work on writers in Malayalam and Odia as well, which I am looking forward to," he says.

The initiative, which was launched in February this year has found admirers in popular personalities like poet-lyricist Javed Akhtar, actress Shabana Azmi, lyricist-screenwriter Varun Grover and Pakistani poetess-screenwriter Zehra Nigah, besides creating a niche following on social media.

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Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa, who refused to quit even after being nudged by the Centre, was today sacked as Governor of .

A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said Rajkhowa "shall cease to hold the office of the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh".

President Pranab Mukherjee has asked Meghalaya Governor V Shanmuganathan to discharge the functions in addition to his own duties, until regular arrangements are made, it said.

Rajkhowa, who was appointed the Governor of on May 12, 2015, was the first gubernatorial appointee of the Modi government and has also been sacked by it after informing the President that it has "lost trust" in him.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had called on the President last week and conveyed to him that Rajkhowa's continuance in the post has become untenable after the Supreme Court's observations against him over dismissal of the Congress government in the state.

The Home Minister's meeting with the President came after Rajkhowa refused to step down despite a nudge by the Centre to put in his papers after the Supreme Court passed serious strictures against him over the dismissal of the Congress government last year.

A defiant Rajkhowa had said he would not step down but was ready to be sacked.

"I want the President to dismiss me. I will not resign. Let the President express his displeasure. Let the government use provisions of Article 156 of the Constitution," the Governor had told a Guwahati-based TV news channel on Monday.

Rajkhowa said he had been asked to resign "on health grounds" weeks after the Supreme Court had restored the Congress government in and censured him.

Rajkhowa had also written to the President explaining his position and the letter was forwarded to the Home Ministry by Mukherjee.

However, when the Home Ministry submitted a detailed report on the Governor to the President, he finally sacked Rajkhowa on Monday.

Rajkhowa, a 1968 batch IAS officer, had retired as Chief Secretary of Assam before being appointed as Governor.
An 'ashtadhatu' Nataraj idol worth Rs 1.8 crore was recovered from Sujauli area on Indo- Nepal border here and a person arrested in connection with it, police said today.

A joint team of police and SSB arrested Deen Dayal Chowdhury yesterday when he entered the Indian side from Nepal with the idol, they said.

The idol is stated to be worth about Rs 1.8 crore in the international market.

During interrogation, the accused revealed that he was taking the idol to Delhi from Kathmandu. Probe is on in the matter.

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After selling off its long products business, Tata Steel Europe is now planning to become a premium strip player and concentrate on improving its performance, a senior company official said today.

"Following the sale of long products business, Tata Steel Europe would focus on being a premium strip player and concentrate on improving its performance. The strategy for exploring further strategic consolidation in Europe is a step in that direction," Tata Steel Group Executive Director Koushik Chatterjee said here.

Tata Steel's Europe division was sold at a loss of Rs 3,296.48 crore to Greybull Capital LLP in the quarter ended June 30, 2016.

Chatterjee said the company's recent restructuring and cost-cutting initiatives in the UK, along with weaker sterling, had helped the business to report better performance in the quarter.

Meanwhile, Tata Steel Europe said it is in discussion with industry players to explore a strategic collaboration through a potential joint venture.

The company in March announced plans to sell all its UK operations after years of losses. Tata still owns the Port Talbot steel works in Wales, which employs more than 4,000 workers, and 2,000 workers at other plants in Hartlepool, Rotherham and Stocksbridge.

Tata earlier said it is in talks with companies, including Thyssenkrupp, for a joint venture.

"We are open to strategic conversation with partners. We continued to be in discussion with industry players to explore options for a strategic collaboration through a potential joint venture. Appropriate disclosure in this regard will be made in due course," Chatterjee said without giving any time-frame.

The company's UK business is currently progressing with divestment of the specialty steel business and the pipe mills in Hartlepool. The shortlisted bidders are being given access to due diligence and management meetings.

Tata Steel UK also continues to be engaged with several stakeholders, including trade unions, the trustee and the UK Government to find a structural solution to the pension exposure of the UK business, he added.

Hans Fischer, MD & CEO of Tata Steel in Europe, said: "We are making progress as a result of business improvement initiatives and the restructuring announced last year. We remain committed to investing in our customers through new product development and enhancing our manufacturing capability.

"In July, we started construction of a new slab caster in IJmuiden which will enable us to make more higher-strength steels, particularly for car manufacturers.

"Modest growth forecast in European steel demand this



year is still being undermined by increased imports, which is leading to continued declines in domestic deliveries. That's why it's vital we continue every effort to improve our competitiveness," Fischer added.

The company, however, warned that the Brexit vote could affect economic growth in the UK.

"A weaker pound is expected to improve UK's short-term competitive position on exports, however, it will add to cost pressure due to higher cost of raw materials purchased in US dollars," it added.
Authorities say a New York City woman attacked two Muslim women who were pushing their young children in strollers and tried to rip off one woman's hijab.

Court documents say Emirjeta Xhelili approached the women near her Brooklyn home Thursday afternoon, punching one of them in the head as she screamed obscenities and told her to leave America.

Authorities say Xhelili pushed the woman's stroller toward the ground and later tried to grab the second woman's stroller away from her.

Xhelili faces charges including assault, menacing and endangering the welfare of a child. The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office has described the incident as a hate crime.

Xhelili is being held on USD 50,000 bond or USD 25,000 cash bail. Her lawyer tells the New York Daily Xhelili has no previous arrests.

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Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today accused Congress of "running away" and "deliberately sabotaging" the debate on a no-confidence motion in the Assembly.

Utter chaos was witnessed in the House throughout the day. Leader of Opposition and Congress MLA Charanjit Singh Channi initially complained about less time being alloted to his party legislators during the debate.

Later the Congress members stormed into the Well over MLA Iqbal Singh Jhundan, who was conducting the proceedings, sporting an Akali Dal badge.

Badal said he was deeply saddened by the manner in which the Opposition chose to "disgrace democracy."



"This was a very sad day. It seems that the Opposition was either not serious or utterly unprepared to face the government in an open and full fledged discussion on development," Badal said.

"In a democracy, the Opposition parties desperately latch on to any opportunity to discuss the government's performance. This was the first instance in history where a government wanted a discussion and the Opposition was running away from it," he said.

The Chief Minister said that he watched the proceedings with complete surprise as the Opposition was throwing away an opportunity which it had demanded.

"Perhaps they had sought permission for a no confidence motion only as a publicity gimmick and did not seriously think that the government would show such prompt readiness to accept the challenge. In the end, they were just inventing excuses to run away," he said.

"We were very pleased over this no confidence motion as it created an opportunity for us to talk about our performance at great length. The Congress realised this and therefore did not allow it to materialise," Badal said.

Badal said that the Congress used a "flippant excuse" of a SAD MLA sporting a party badge to run away from discussion.

During the debate, Congress members had objected to Akali MLA Iqbal Singh Jhundan sporting an Akali Dal badge.

They rushed to the Well of the House and demanded that Jhundan remove the badge, saying he needed to be "impartial" while seated in the Speaker's chair.

"Is a party badge the most important issue of the people of Punjab," Badal said.

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In an escalation of their confrontation, the ICC today disclosed that it has refused to bail out the BCCI in its tussle with the Supreme Court- appointed Lodha Committee over implementing the reforms.

ICC Chief Executive Dave Richardson said the BCCI had sought a letter from the world body, stating that it will disaffiliate the Indian Board if there is governmental interference as a shield against the implementation of Lodha Committee reforms.

However, he said it refused to issue such a letter unless a formal request is received from the member-board concerned.

"The BCCI President Mr Thakur did verbally ask the ICC to write a letter to the BCCI asking the BCCI to explain whether the recommendations of Lodha Committee might constitute govt interference," ICC Chief Executive Dave Richardson said.

"But Mr Manohar said that the ICC should not write such a letter unless the BCCI first writes to the ICC requesting ICC to intervene or ICC receives a letter from another of its member board to do so but no such letters have been received.

"So I understand that Mr. Manohar is reluctant to interfere in the domestic affairs of a member country. He will not do so without being formally requested to do so by the member concerned and nor is he prepared to put the ICC in a position where it could be perceived as challenging the authority of the Supreme Court of India.

"Without being formally requested to intervene, specially without the full consent of the ICC board. Don't forget...The consequences of the government interference could lead to the suspension of a member board and nobody really wants the BCCI to be suspended," the former South African wicket-keeper batsman told 'India Today'.

He said the BCCI President, in fact, criticised the ICC for not providing help in its hour of crisis.

"Yes there were other board members present when that request was made by Mr Thakur. As far as I see Mr Thakur actually criticised the ICC for not sending the letter," Richardson said.

The BCCI and ICC are at loggerheads over a host of issues after Shashank Manohar took charge as the independent Chairman of the world body.

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A former top American spymaster who headed the CIA during the presidency of Bill Clinton in 1990s today joined the presidential campaign of Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Such an announcement by James Woolsey, who headed the CIA from 1993 to 1995, is seen as a setback for the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton of the Democratic party.

In a statement issued through the Trump Campaign, Woolsey raised questions on Clinton's ability to lead the nation.

"Since Clinton left the State Department we have learned that she demonstrated a complete lack of understanding and an inability to lead the agency she headed in such a way as to maintain its mission and security," he alleged.

"Based on the emails thus far released we know that Secretary Clinton also lacks the ability to lead her senior managers while complying with and maintaining the basic protocols designed to protect our government's sensitive and classified information," Woolsey said.

"Trump understands the magnitude of the threats we face and is holding his cards close to the vest. Bravo Zulu, Trump," said the former CIA director announcing that he would now be advising the Trump Campaign.

"I have been a 'Scoop Jackson', 'Joe Lieberman', Democrat all of my adult life, but I am pleased to be asked to participate with others I respect inadvising GOP candidate Donald J Trump on the urgent need to reinvest in and modernize our military in order to confront the challenges of the 21stcentury," he announced.

"Trump's commitment to reversing the harmful defense budget cuts signed into law by the current administration, while acknowledging the need for debt reduction, is an essential step toward reinstating the US' primacy in the conventional and digital battlespace," Woolsey said.

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Boding trouble for comedian Kapil Sharma, who kicked up a row through his bribe tweet, the Raj Thackeray-led MNS on Monday filed a complaint against the artist for keeping mum on his allegation that he was asked money by the civic officials, and violation of building norms by him.

Sharma had kicked up a controversy last week by alleging that he had been asked to pay a bribe of Rs 5 lakh by an official of BMC which, in turn, claimed that the actor had flouted norms not only in his Versova office building but also at his apartment in suburban Goregaon.

MNS group leader in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Sandeep Deshpande on Monday filed the complaint against Sharma at Versova police station. He demanded that the complaint be turned into an FIR and an investigation be ordered into the matter.

"Yes, I filed a complaint with Versova police through my advocate against the comedian under the section 176 of IPC as he kept mum on the alleged bribery issue and did not file a complaint nor brought this to the notice of the concerned authorities," Deshpande told PTI.

A copy of the complaint, filed by Deshpande's lawyer, mentions that since BMC officials are public servants under section 21 of the Indian Penal Code, and if they have demanded bribe, it amounts to an offence under section 39 of CrPc.

Also, it is a duty of a person to lodge a complaint against that public servant with the concerned authority, and if he fails to perform his duties as per section 176, it amounts to an offence, the complaint further says.

"In this case, Sharma did not act as a responsible citizen and failed to live up to his duty. Therefore, I have demanded the police officials to go into the merits of my complaint, convert it into an FIR and call him for further investigation," Deshpande said.

Besides, MNS general secretary Shalini Thackeray today visited the tehsildar office in suburban Andheri along with her supporters and demanded officials concerned to register an FIR against Sharma for allegedly destroying the mangroves.

"We have filed complaints against the comedian with tehsildar as well as with Versove police station to investigate the matter thoroughly. This is really very unfortunate that celebrities are given special treatment and they often take law into their own hands," Thackeray said.

"Owing to our persistent demands, the concerned officials are going to do 'panchnama' and forward their report to Versova police. We are going to take up this issue up to its logical end," she added.

The MNS had also last week reacted sharply to Sharma, seizing on a statement he reportedly made alluding to role of its workers.

The opposition Congress had used the issue to target BJP and Shiv Sena, who together control BMC.

However, the Shiv Sena had dared Kapil to name the bribe seeker.

BJP MLA Ram Kadam had earlier lodged a complaint with the cyber cell of Mumbai police and demanded to forward it to the Anti-Corruption Bureau to investigate into Sharma's allegations.

Kapil had on Friday tweeted his anguish and said, "I am paying Rs 15 cr income tax from last 5 year n still i have to pay Rs 5 lakhs bribe to BMC office for making my office @narendramodi (sic)."





I am paying 15 cr income tax from last 5 year n still i have to pay 5 lacs bribe to BMC office for making my office @narendramodi  KAPIL (@KapilSharmaK9) September 9, 2016

"Yeh hain aapke achhe din? @narendramodi (are these your good days)," he had sought to know in another tweet, referring to Modi's 2014 poll slogan of "good days are ahead".

Sharma has 63 lakh followers on his Twitter handle and since he tagged the Prime Minister, the tweet generated sharp reactions from all major political parties, with an eye on the forthcoming civic elections.

I just voiced my concern on the corruption I faced with certain individuals..Its No blame on any political party be it BJP, MNS or ShivSena  KAPIL (@KapilSharmaK9) September 9, 2016

It also sparked an instant response from Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who requested Sharma to provide the authorities with necessary information to punish the culprit.

Later, in an apparent attempt to cap the controversy from escalating, Sharma said he did not seek to blame any political party.
Ministers and experts from BRICS countries will discuss the transition and challenges they face in urbanisation during a three-day conference which will begin on Wednesday in Visakhapatnam.

Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu will inaugurate the conference on 'Urban Transition in BRICS', which seeks to promote cooperation among member countries in the urban sector.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, ministers from other BRICS nations, besides a large number of urban planners, experts and members of the academia will attend the conference, an official release said.

The conference will discuss and evolve a common agenda for BRICS (Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa) countries to be presented at the HABITAT-III Conference which will be held in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, next month.

The other issues which will be discussed at the conference are development of smart cities, financing urban infrastructure, inclusive housing, climate change, regional planning, water and sanitation management and new reforms for urban renaissance, it said.

India currently holds the chairmanship of BRICS and has chosen 'Building Responsive, Inclusive and Collective Solutions' as the theme for this year. The BRICS Summit will be held in Goa in October this year.

In his message to the conference, Naidu said, "The underlying rationale of cooperation on urbanisation between BRICS countries is to share urban knowledge, develop mechanisms for peer to peer exchange, promote evidence based policy making and learn useful lessons from individual experience of urban transition."



BRICS nations account for over three billion people constituting 53.40 per cent of the world's population, 23.10 per cent of global GDP and 26.70 per cent of world's geographical area, spread over four continents.

The range of urbanisation varies from 84 per cent in Brazil, 73 per cent in Russia, 64 per cent in South Africa, 57 per cent in China and 32 per cent in India.

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Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate will be accompanied by their two children, George and Charlotte, during their visit to western Canada later this month, Ottawa said today.

The trip marks their second visit to Canada, following their first tour in 2011 just two months after their marriage.

The family arrives in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, on September 24, for an eight-day visit that will take them all the way to the city of Whitehorse in the Yukon, according to an itinerary released by the Canadian government.

Governor General David Johnston, the representative of Queen Elizabeth II in Canada, will welcome the couple, who plan to address environmental issues and the mental health of native peoples and children.

The family will leave Victoria by seaplane on October 1, before returning to Britain on their official plane.

The trip marks the first royal tour for Princess Charlotte, whose is 16 months old, and the second for three-year-old Prince George, who has already been to Australia and New Zealand in 2014, according to the BBC.

During their 2011 trip to Canada, William and Kate toured several eastern provinces before heading west to Alberta and the Northwest Territories.

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The Union Cabinet today approved the much-delayed cadre restructuring for the officers of the Border Security Force (BSF) leading to creation of 74 posts, an exercise aimed at enhancing operational and administrative capabilities of the force.

A government statement said the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has "approved the cadre review of group 'A' Executive officers of BSF with net creation of 74 posts of various ranks from Assistant Commandant to Additional Director General ranks to enhance the operational and administrative capabilities of BSF."



The last time such an exercise was carried out was in 1990 and after it got delayed for a number of years, a group of officers of the country's largest border guarding force last year moved the Delhi High Court, which directed the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) to complete the activity within a month's time.

The restructuring will lead to the creation of a maximum of 370 posts in the ranks of Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Commandant and Second-in-Command followed by 330 in Deputy Commandant rank, 19 in Inspector General, 14 in Assistant Commandant and one post will be created in the Additional DG rank.

Cadre restructuring is conducted in an organisation to better place the workforce in keeping with the changing scenario over a period of time and is aimed at enhancing the morale of the men and women employees.

It also helps in getting better work productivity from them in the interest of the department.

However, officials said the latest policy decision will not fully ease the issue of stagnation as few posts under the restructuring will be reserved for officers of the Indian Police Service (IPS), who come on deputation to the over 2.57-lakh personnel strong border guarding force with 186 battalions at present.

The exercise for the creation of the new posts has been



"cost neutral" as almost 330 posts have been abolished or surrendered by the BSF in lieu of getting the new 74 posts.

"While this much-delayed exercise will not bring completely ease stagnation and promotion issues, it being implemented after so many years is surely a positive step," a senior official said.

Apart from being the 'first line of defence' along Pakistan and Bangladesh borders, the BSF, under the command of the Union Home Ministry, is extensively deployed to conduct anti-Naxal operations in Left Wing Extremist-hit states of Chhattisgarh and Odisha and also renders a variety of internal security tasks.

About 90 per cent of the BSF work force is deployed for border guarding tasks and operations in the LWE theatres of the country.
The Cabinet today cleared the process, formation and functioning of the GST Council, which will decide on the rate of tax under the new indirect taxation regime.

The Council, to be headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising of representative of all 29 states and two union territories, will have to be set up by November 11.

It will decide on the tax rate, exemptions and threshold limits in the new indirect tax regime, which is expected to kick in from April 1, 2017.

The government has notified September 12, as the date from which the procedure for setting up of the GST Council will be initiated and which will be completed within 60 days.

According to sources, the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today approved the process, formation and functioning of the GST Council.

The Cabinet also decided on the constitution of the GST Secretariat and the officers who will implement the decisions of the Council.

The GST Council will be chaired by Union Finance Minister and have a Minister of State for Finance and all state finance ministers as its members.

While the Centre will have one-third vote, states together will have a two-third say. To adopt a resolution, three-fourth majority would be required.

The approval came on the day when the Constitution Amendment Act on GST came into effect.

President Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent to the bill last week, paving the way for setting up of a GST Council.

GST is a single indirect tax, which will subsume most of the central and state levies such as Value Added Tax (VAT), Excise Duty, Service Tax, Central Sales Tax, additional Customs Duty and special additional duty of customs.

Parliament on August 8 had passed the bill, which then



went to the states for ratification. A Constitution Amendment Bill needs to be ratified by the legislative Assemblies of at least 50 per cent of the 29 states and 2 union territories.

The bill was sent to the President's secretariat after as many as 19 states -- BJP-ruled Assam being the first -- ratified the bill.

The other states, which passed the legislation include Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Nagaland, Maharashtra, Haryana, Sikkim, Mizoram, Telangana, Goa, Odisha and Rajasthan.

Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia had recently said the government is ahead of schedule for implementation of GST.

"Instead of 30 days kept for this (states' ratification), it is achieved in 23 days," he had tweeted.

The states and the Centre are working overtime and talking to stakeholders to draft the Central GST, State GST and Integrated GST laws, which are to be passed in Winter Session of Parliament.

The CGST and IGST will be drafted on the basis of the model GST law. The states will draft their respective State GST (SGST) laws with minor variation incorporating state-based exemptions. The IGST law would deal with inter-state movement of goods and services.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday night called up Chief Ministers of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and assured them all central assistance in handling the law and order situation in both states which have been hit by violence over Cauvery water sharing dispute.

The Home Minister spoke to the Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and reviewed the situation in Bengaluru and other parts of the state where violence erupted over the Cauvery water sharing dispute.

Separately, Singh also called up the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and enquired about the situation in Tamil Nadu, where similar violence reported.

The Home Minister assured both the Chief Ministers all central assistance to maintain law and order and ensuring peace.

Protests over the raging Cauvery water sharing dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu turned violent on Monday with incidents of attacks on trucks and hotels reported in both the states, sparking fresh tensions.

Sporadic violence broke out in Bengaluru and in some other parts of Karnataka even as the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote to his Tamil Nadu counterpart Jayalalithaa to ensure adequate safety and protection for Kannada-speaking people in the state.

Protests by fringe Tamil outfits erupted in parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry with some commercial and government establishments of Karnataka being targeted.
Widespread violence erupted today in Bangaluru and some other parts of Karnataka while sporadic trouble was witnessed in Tamil Nadu over the Cauvery water sharing dispute arising out of Supreme Court's verdict.

Soon after the apex court gave its amended order, directing Karnataka to release 12000 cusecs of water daily to Tamil Nadu till September 20, violence and arson flared up in Bengaluru, with rampaging mobs setting afire at least 30 buses and trucks with Tamil Nadu registration number plate.

Trucks with Tamil Nadu registration number plate were stoned or set on fire also in Mandya, Mysuru, Chitradurga and Dharwad districts as Kannada activists gave vent to their anger against the order of the top court which had earlier directed Karnataka to give 15000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu.

Parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry too saw protests by fringe outfits, with some commercial and government establishments of Karnataka coming under attack, in an apparent retaliation of happenings in Karnataka.

In view of the deteriorating situation, the Centre rushed 10 companies (about 1,000 personnel) of the special anti-riot paramilitary force RAF to Karnataka.

Officials said if need arises, some of the contingents will also be deployed in Tamil Nadu.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh also called up Chief Ministers of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu tonight and assured them all central assistance in handling the law and order situation.

In Delhi, the Cauvery Supervisory Committee also met but failed to arrive at a decision on quantum of water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states pursuant to the Supreme Court order and decided to meet again on September 19.

With people and assets of her state being targeted in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa dashed a letter to her counterpart Siddaramaiah, urging him to ensure safety and security of lakhs of Tamilians in that state.

She also assured him that safety of people from Karnataka will be ensured in Tamil Nadu.

(Repeating after adding first two paras)



Earlier, the Karnataka Chief Minister, while voicing concern over violence against Kannada-speaking people in Tamil Nadu, wrote to his Tamil Nadu counterpart, asking her to ensure their safety and protection while assuring her that interests of Tamils in the state would be safeguarded.

"While we are taking all necessary precautions to ensure maintenance of law and order in our state, I would urge you to direct authorities in Tamil Nadu to ensure that perpetrators of violence are immediately brought to book," Siddaramaiah said in his letter.

Shortly after the modified Supreme Court order on release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu and amid reports of alleged attacks on Kannadigas in the neighbouring state, violence broke out in Bengaluru, sending a wave of panic across the city, which was brought under prohibitory orders till normalcy is restored.

Buses and trucks with Tamil Nadu registration number plate and several shops and establishments with roots there bore the brunt of vandalism by protesters with a travel company depot being the worst affected with several parked buses buses set afire.

Incidents of arson came even as police said they have made elaborate security arrangements with 15,000 policemen being deployed, bolstered byKarnataka State Reserve Police, City Armed Reserve Police, Rapid Action Force, Quick Reaction Teams, special forces, Central Industrial Security Force and Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force.

Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara said the government did not expect the protest to go to this extent. "We expected that if the decision goes against us, there will be some protest, but definitely not to this extent. This is all hit and run kind of thing where 20-30 people join together to protest where police are not there, then theysuddenly run away".

The situation was being brought under control, he said adding that 200 people been detained.

He said forces have been deployed at sensitive points, particularly where Tamil population and establishments are located. "We have taken utmost precaution. We have received 10 companies of central forces. We have requested formore."



In Tamil Nadu, outfits such as Naam Tamizhar Katchi and Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi hit the streets protesting the ongoing agitations in Karnataka opposing release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, police said.

A popular restaurant in Chennai owned by a native of Karnataka was vandalised while protesters created a ruckus at a Karnataka Bank branch in neighbouring Union Territory of Puducherry, police said.

Four persons were detained in connection with the restaurant attack while around 25 taken into custody in Puducherry, they said.

Police protection was provided to the Karnataka Bank branches in Tamil Nadu.

In Rameswaram, seven tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration that were parked at a temple were damaged when agitated members ofvarious outfits including Naam Tamizhar Katchi allegedly indulged in vandalism.

The group entered the parking lot of the templenear Agni Theertham sea in the town and damaged the vehicles with clubs and stones, police said.

Cases have been registered against seven persons in connection with the episode, they said.

"You would agree that the incidents of violence against



Kannada speaking people that are being reported from Tamil Nadu would incite passions threatening peace in our state, which all of us should prevent," Siddaramiah said.

Siddaramaiah said his government was firmly committed to maintaining law and order in the state and had taken "utmost" precaution to ensure the safety and security of all citizens, particularly Tamil speaking people, in the state.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan expressed concern over the "attacks on Tamils" in Karnataka and put the onus of ensuring their safety on the ruling Congress.

In Bengaluru, as reports of arson and vandalism spread, office goers rushed back home, with many companies calling off work as a precautionary step and schools and colleges declaring holiday. The sudden rush caused traffic gridlocks in several parts.

The Metro, on which lakhs of commuters depend, also temporarily suspended its services.

Activists of disparate pro-Kannada outfits took control of streets in several areas and engaged in stone throwing and arson, targeting buses and trucks.

Two Chennai-based hotels and mobile shops were attacked and vandalised in Bengaluru.

Schools and Colleges in Mandya, the epicentre of Cauvery protests schools and colleges have declared holiday till 14 September as a precautionary measure.

In Mandya district, two trucks were set ablaze and the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway was blocked.

Police made a lathicharge to disperse a violent mob, which tried to loot some shops. Several vehicles with Tamil Nadu registration number plates were damaged on the highway, police said.

In parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, protests by fringe Tamil outfits erupted with some commercial and government establishments of Karnataka coming under attack.

The protests came a day after a video purportedly showing a 22-year-old Tamil youth being beaten up by a group of men in Bengaluru for alleged "derogatory" remarks on social media against Kannada film actors went viral.

Outfits such as Naam Tamizhar Katchi and Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi hit the streets protesting the ongoing agitations in Karnataka opposing release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, police said.

A popular restaurant in Chennai and tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration plates in Rameswaram were vandalised, while protesters created a ruckus at a Karnataka Bank branch in neighbouring Union Territory of Puducherry, police said.
The Supreme court on Monday modified its September 5 order, asking Karnataka to release a reduced amount of 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery River water per day to Tamil Nadu till September 20 from the earlier 15,000 cusecs a day to ameliorate the plight of farmers of the neighbouring state.

A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and U U Lalit, which sat on a holiday to consider the urgent plea of Karnataka, however, expressed deep anguish over the "tone and tenor" of the fresh plea and said the law and order situation cannot be taken as a ground for non-compliance of the order of the court.

It rejected one of the prayers of Karnataka that the apex court direction asking it to release 15,000 cusecs water per day to Tamil Nadu be kept in abeyance till next date of hearing on the ground that there has been a fault in the Cauvery Water Tribunal award, which does not deal with the issue of deficient water in the reservoir in a particular month.

Referring to the content of Karnataka's fresh plea, the bench said, "If we are allowed to say then we must say that the tone and tenor of the application is absolutely disturbing and to say the least, totally depricable...That apart the application for modification contain certain averment which follow the tenor or similar language which cannot be conceived of in a court of law seeking modification of an order."



"Agitation, spontaneity or galvanised riot or any kind of catalystic component can never form the foundation for seeking modification of an order..

"An order of this court has to be complied by all the concerned and it is the obligation of the executive to ensure that the orders are complied in letter and spirit.

Protests by farmers have been reported from several parts of Karnataka over the Supreme Court order asking it to release water to Tamil Nadu.

During the hearing, the bench noted the stiff claim and counter-claims of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and said that it would apply the concept of fair compensation in the matter and fixed it for further hearing on September 20.

The apex court was hearing the application filed by Karnataka seeking a direction to reduce the quantum of water to be released from Cauvery River to Tamil Nadu from 15,000 cusecs to 1,000 cusecs.
One person was killed and another injured in police firing in Karnataka as the Cauvery water dispute with Tamil Nadu turned violent on Monday, escalating tensions between the two states.

Widespread violence erupted on Monday in Bangaluru and some other parts of Karnataka, while sporadic trouble was witnessed in Tamil Nadu following Supreme Court's modified order on sharing Cauvery water by the two riparian states.

Police opened fire when a mob tried to attack a patrol vehicle at Hegganahalli in Rajagopal Nagar police limits as violence flared up in Bengaluru city with rampaging mobs setting fire to buses and trucks with Tamil Nadu registration plates.

"Two were brought with bullet injuries. One with bullet injury near the heart has died. The other is being operated for injury on right thigh," Dr Giridhar, managing director of Lakshmi Multi-Speciality Hospital, where they were taken told PTI on Monday night.

Soon after the apex court gave its amended order, directing Karnataka to release 12000 cusecs of water daily to Tamil Nadu till September 20, violence and arson flared up in Bengaluru, with rampaging mobs setting afire at least 30 vehicles bearing Tamil Nadu number plates.

As violence broke out sending a wave of panic across Bengaluru, the city was brought under prohibitory orders till September 14.

A prominent transport company depot in the city bore the brunt with at least 30 buses going up in flames.

Managing Director of Salem headquartered KPN Tours and Travels Limited Rajesh Natarajan claimed in Chennai 40 of his buses were set on fire.

Incidents of arson came even as police said they have made elaborate security arrangements with 15,000 policemen being deployed, bolstered by Karnataka State Reserve Police, City Armed Reserve Police, Rapid Action Force (RAF), Quick Reaction Teams, special forces, Central Industrial Security Force and Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force.

In view of the deteriorating situation, the Centre rushed 10 companies (about 1,000 personnel) of the special anti-riot paramilitary force RAF to Karnataka.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh also called up Chief Ministers of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu tonight and assured them all central assistance in handling the law and order situation.

After the Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah spoke to Singh, an official statement issued in Bengaluru described the situation as fully under control.

The Union Home Minister responded positively to the request for aditional central forces, it said.

Describing the violence in Karnataka as alarming, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa wrote to Siddaramaiah, seeking protection for Tamil speaking people and their property, hours after he had made a similar plea to her.
Amidst the raging row over Cauvery water sharing between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and subsequent sporadic violence in Karnataka, Kerala today decided to cancel temporarily the bus services from and to Bengaluru, causing concern to Malayalees who want to reach home to celebrate Onam on Wednesday.

Taking a serious note of the situation, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan spoke to his counterpart in Karnataka over phone and took stock of the developments, official sources said.

Kerala Transport Minister A K Saseendran said in view of the serious situation prevailing in Karnataka, Kerala government has decided to temporarily cancel the services of state-run Kerala Road Transport Corporation buses.

"The primary concern of the government is the safety of our passengers. We are aware that many Keralites in the neighbouring states want to reach their home state to celebrate Onam," he told PTI.

"We are keenly monitoring the developments in both the states and the moment there is any relaxation in the present tension, we will take steps to resume the service," he said.

He said "there is risk to continue service when the tension prevails."



"DGP Loknath Behera also spoke to his counterpart in Karnataka. They have assured necessary protection to our vehicles if there is any relaxation to the situation. But, the report which we are getting from Bengaluru is that agitators are asking to close down our bus counters there," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sporadic violence broke out here and in some other parts of Karnataka amid the raging Cauvery water sharing row, with the Siddaramaiah government asking Tamil Nadu to protect Kannadigas and assuring to safeguard Tamils in the state.

Trucks with Tamil Nadu registration numbers were either stoned or set on fire in Bengaluru, Mandya, Mysuru, Chitradurga and Dharwad districts as Kannada activists gave vent to their anger over alleged attacks on state vehicles and property of Kannadigas in the neighbouring state.

Karnataka Director General of Police Om Prakash said the situation was tense, but under control.

The violence also flared up shortly after the Supreme Court, modifying its September 5 order, today asked Karnataka to release a reduced amount of 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery River water to Tamil Nadu till September 20.

In its September five order, the apex court had directed release of 15,000 cusecs for 10 days to ameliorate the plight of farmers of the neighbouring state, which had triggered strong protests from farmers and pro-Kannada outfits with Karnataka observing a bandh against it on September nine.

At least six Tamil Nadu trucks were set on fire or stoned and a Chennai-based mobile shop and two hotels were attacked in Bengaluru, police said, as activists of different pro-Kannada outfits took to the streets.

Bengaluru police said prohibitory orders had not been imposed in any part of the city and asked people not to pay heed to rumours.

Elaborate security arrangements are in place in the city with 15,000 policemen being deployed.

Karnataka State Reserve Police, City Armed Reserve Police, Rapid Action Force, Quick Reaction Teams, special forces, Central Industrial Security Force and Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force and 3000 home guards are also on duty. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has called an emergency cabinet meeting tomorrow.

In Mandya district, the main epicentre of the Cauvery agitation, two trucks were set ablaze and the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway was blocked after the Supreme court order came out.

Police made a lathicharge to disperse a violent mob, which tried to loot some shops.

Several vehicles with Tamil Nadu registration number were damaged on Bengaluru-Mysuru highway, police said.

Incidents of Tamil Nadu trucks becoming the target of



stoning were reported also from the districts of Mysuru, Chitradurga and Dharwad.

Voicing concern over violence against Kannada speaking people and their properties in Tamil Nadu over the past two days, Siddaramaiah wrote to his counterpart Jayalalithaa to ensure adequate safety and protection for Kannada speaking people in Tamil Nadu.

"You would agree that the incidents of violence against Kannada speaking people that are being reported from Tamil Nadu would incite passions threatening peace in our state, which all of us should prevent," Siddaramiah said.

Siddaramaiah said his government was firmly committed to maintaining law and order in the state and had taken "utmost" precaution to ensure the safety and security of all citizens, particularly Tamil speaking people, in the state.

Speaking to reporters earlier, Siddaramaiah said he would also speak to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, if necessary, on the incidents targeting Kannadigas.

The state Chief Secretary and Director General of Police had spoken to their Tamil Nadu counterparts and asked them to ensure stern action against the culprits and to see that such incidents do not recur, Siddaramaiah said.

Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara said police forces had been deployed in areas where Tamils live in large numbers in Bengaluru and elsewhere in Karnataka.

"We have taken precautions", he said.

Suspected pro-Tamil protesters today attacked and damaged a hotel run by a native of Karnataka in Chennai, damaging its window panes using iron rods and wooden logs.

Seven tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration parked at a temple in Rameswaram were damaged allegedly by activists of various outfits including Naam Tamizhar Iyakkam.

In Mandya, G Madegowda, President of Cauvery Rythara Hitha Rakshana Samithee, that is spearheading the agitation, said "the Supreme Court has not given us justice. We cannot expect justice from the court. The only option to get justice is to intensify the agitation," he said.

Throughout Mandya district, activists of different organisations took out rallies or held dharnas and road blockades to protest against the modified Supreme Court order. Security has been tightened around Krishnaraja Sagar dam and prohibitory orders around it extended till September 26.
Protests over the raging Cauvery water sharing dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu turned violent today with incidents of attacks on trucks and hotels reported in both the states, sparking fresh tensions.

Sporadic violence broke out in Bangalore and in some other parts of Karnataka even as Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote to his Tamil Nadu counterpart Jayalalithaa to ensure adequate safety and protection for Kannada-speaking people in the state.

Protests by fringe Tamil outfits erupted in parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry with some commercial and government establishments of Karnataka being targeted.

A popular Kannadiga-owned hotel in Chennai and seven tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration in Rameswaram were vandalised while protesters created a ruckus at Karnataka Bank branches in Erode and neighbouring Union Territory of Puducherry, police said.

Four persons have been detained in connection with the hotel attack while around 25 taken into custody in Puducherry, they said.

Lorries with Tamil Nadu registration number were either stoned or set on fire in Bengaluru, Mandya, Mysuru, Chitradurga and Dharwad districts as Kannada activists gave vent to their anger over alleged attacks on state vehicles and property of Kannadigas in the neighbouring state.

Karnataka DGP Om Prakash said the situation was tense, but under control.

The violence in Karnataka flared up shortly after the Supreme Court, modifying its September 5 order, today asked Karnataka to release a reduced amount of 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery River water to Tamil Nadu till September 20.

The Cauvery Supervisory Committee, meanwhile, at its meeting in Delhi failed to arrive at a decision on quantum of Cauvery river water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states in furtherance of the Supreme Court order and decided to meet again on September 19.

At least six lorries with Tamil Nadu registration were set on fire or stoned and a Chennai-based mobile shop and two hotels were attacked in Bengaluru, police said, as activists of different pro-Kannada outfits took to the streets.

Bengaluru police said prohibitory orders had not been imposed in any part of the city and asked people not to pay heed to rumours.

Elaborate security arrangements are in place in the city with 15,000 policemen being deployed.

In Mandya district, the epicentre of the Cauvery agitation, the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway was blocked.

Police made a lathicharge to disperse a violent mob, which tried to loot some shops.

Several vehicles with Tamil Nadu registration were damaged on Bengaluru-Mysuru highway, police said.

Protests were held outside the branches of Karnataka Bank in Erode even as protestors barged into the bank's branch at Puducherry and created a ruckus.

Movement of commercial and non-commercial vehicles including two-wheelers to Karnataka from Erode was restricted while inter-state road transport through Hosur was also affected on account of escalating protests in Karnataka.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A woman television journalist andher cameraman were assaulted during violence that broke out in various parts of the city after the Supreme Court's modified order directing Karnataka to release reduced quantum of 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu.

"My colleague, Rohini Swamy, and myself - we both were roughed up and beaten by those protesting against Supreme Court direction to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu," India Today Cameraman Y Madhu told PTI here.

Rohini and Madhu, who were covering Cauvery violence in the city, were attacked by protesters after they objected to the media coverage given to violence and protests staged by pro-Kannada outfits, Madhu said.

"I was punched and later, Rohini also was punched in her stomach, and it was painful - that prompted us to rush her to a nearby hospital," Madhu said.

"As we were shooting the violent incidents near Gopalan Mall at Nagarbhavi, some protesters came up to us and threatened us to stop shooting the violence, and join them in their protests if they were Kannadigas," Madhu said. "As we shut our camera, a separate group of people came to us and started to rough us up and in the melee they snatched and smashed our camera and mike," Madhu said. The condition of Rohini, however, was fine after she was given treatment at a private hospital, Madhu said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Stressing on the need for increasing production of pulses and oilseeds, Union Minister Radha Mohan Singh today said the Centre was taking several steps to make India pulses self-sufficient.

"On a priority basis, large-scale frontline demonstration of pulses and oilseeds is being done in 2016-17 to overcome shortage," he said while addressing the 8th Convocation function of Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya (IGKV) here.

As many as 150 pulses seeds hub centres are being set up all over the country with the joint support of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), agriculture universities and agriculture science centres, the minister said, adding that five of them were in Chhattisgarh.

"The key purpose of these hubs is to provide rich quality pulses seeds to farmers. Each hub will have a yielding capacity of 1,000 quintal pulses seeds," he said.

Giving a detailed description of the efforts made by the Central government to promote farm research and agriculture education, the Union Agriculture and Farmer Welfare Minister said the budget for agriculture education was hiked to Rs 570 crore in 2016-17 from Rs 405 crore in 2013-14.

Ten new agriculture universities havebeen set up in 2014-16, while the budget allocated to agriculture science centres had been hiked to Rs 745 crores, he said.

Singh expressed satisfaction that the lone agriculture university in Chhattisgarh had inked more than 40 MoUs with leading institutions in the field of research works.

Under the 'Mera Gaon-Mera Gaurav' mission, ICAR and agriculture universities had adopted 10,000 villages, he said.

He apprised that under 'Kisan Pratham' scheme, a forum of communication between farmers and the agro scientists, a centre will also be set up at IGKV, Raipur soon.

On the occasion, Chhattisgarh Governor Balramji Das Tandon called upon the intellectuals to prepare the agriculture curriculum and syllabus to suit the future needs of the society.

Emphasising the need to give thrust to organic farming,



the Governor said a road map should be prepared through which farmers can benefit by adopting bio-farming (organic farming).

There should be minimum usage of chemical fertilisers and extra usage of bio-pesticides and organic manures, he said.

Meanwhile, speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Raman Singh appreciated the students for taking up agriculture education.

"When the entire world is running after 'white collar' jobs, the youth in the state are showing interest in farm sector," he said.

Describing enhancing productivity as a big challenge, the CM said there were times when the agriculture sector had become stagnant, but new research had increased the farm production.

He urged the students to work in the direction to increase farm output.

As many as 1,997 students were conferred with degrees at the convocation. Besides, 26 students were awarded PhDs and 15 students won gold medals.

Earlier, Tandon and Singh inaugurated the first-of-its-kind agriculture museum and agriculture science centre in the university premises.
Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Charanjit Singh Channi, today accused Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia and their associates of "patronising" drug and sand mafias in the state and demanded their immediate arrest.

Submitting two complaints to Director General of Police Suresh Arora in this regard, he alleged that the name of Majithia had surfaced in the drug scam long time back.

The state has been converted into a drug haven with the mafias having a free run under their patronage. Sukhbir is also the state Home Minister and thus he is "directly responsible" for the situation, Channi alleged.

"Sand, gravel and other minor minerals are being illegally extracted without any consideration for the environment. The people in power are carrying out this exercise with assistance of police and officials of the mining department," Channi alleged.

"It is due to their vested interests that auction of mines had not taken place. The total loss to the state exchequer is around Rs 25,000 crore. Corrupt police and other officials were part of this sand mafia," he alleged.

The transporters who load sand from these illegal mines have to pay the mafia. This royalty is commonly referred to as 'Gunda Parchi', Channi alleged, adding the irony is that the poor farmers are penalised for lifting sand from his own field while the sand mafias have monopolised this business.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A private firm and its director have been directed by a Delhi court to pay Rs 30 lakh as compensation to another company for issuing three cheques totalling Rs 15 lakh which got dishonoured.

The sessions court dismissed the appeal of the firm and its director challenging a magisterial court's order which had sentenced the individual to imprisonment till rising of the court and imposed a fine of Rs 30 lakh to be given to the complainant company as compensation.

"The appeal is dismissed. The trial court by the impugned order on sentence...Had imposed a fine of Rs 30 lakh upon the appellants to be paid as compensation to the respondent/ complainant within one month of the said order. The said fine has not been deposited," Additional Sessions Judge Reetesh Singh said.

The court said if appellants -- Haryana Auto Castings Ltd and its director Vinay Kumar Jain -- failed to deposit the fine, the director shall surrender to serve the default sentence of six months simple imprisonment.

As per Delhi-based firm APD Investments Pvt Ltd, it was approached by Jain's company with a representation to provide working capital of Rs 15 crore and the complainant paid Rs 15 lakh to it as commission in advance for the services.

Jain's firm, however, failed to arrange the working capital and it was to return the advance amount of Rs 15 lakh, the complainant said, adding that Jain's firm issued it three cheques for Rs 15 lakh in April 2005.

When the cheques were presented in the bank for encashment by the complainant, these were returned dishonoured with the remark 'insufficent funds' in April, 2005, the complaint said.

It said that on being informed about dishonour of the cheques, Jain's company apologised and asked the complainant to present the cheques in bank after two months but these were again dishonoured with the remarks 'cheque stopped'.

It said that when Jain's company did not make the payment, the complainant filed a case against it.

During the trial, the firm and its director had denied the allegations levelled against them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Amid global criticism over its rights record, China today announced reforms in laws protecting human rights as well as outlined measures to improve the conditions of prisons and detention centres.

Chinese judicial authorities have introduced reforms in many areas in order to further improve the legal guarantee procedure of human rights, an official white paper issued today said.

Titled "New Progress in the Judicial Protection of Human Rights in China", the White Paper issued by the central cabinet said China has introduced reforms in the case admitting system by converting the case-filing review system into a case-filing register system.

China has revised the Criminal Procedure Law, and implemented principles of legality, in dubio pro reo, exclusion of unlawful evidence, the white paper said.

The reforms followed criticism over the treatment meted out to dissidents and the human rights lawyers with prison terms.

The country also revises the Civil Procedure Law to effectively settle disputes, revised the Administrative Procedure Law to strengthen the protection of legitimate rights and interests of private parties in administrative lawsuits, the white paper said, adding it enacted the first Anti-Domestic Violence Law to strengthen legal protection of the personal rights of victims of domestic violence.

Judicial authorities have "put in place a system to exclude unlawful evidence and protect the legitimate rights and interests of criminal suspects," the paper said.

In 2014, the Ministry of Public Security issued more explicit regulations concerning the scope of and interrogation recording requirements for cases subject to audio and video recording.

The paper also outlined measures to improve the conditions of prisons and detention houses and to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of detainees to address criticism over labour camps and poor conditions in jails.

The interrogation rooms of public security organs and detention houses are all equipped with audio and video recording facilities to prevent misconduct in law enforcement such as extorting confessions by torture and obtaining evidence through illegal means.

In 2015, the procuratorial organs at all levels demanded



the withdrawal of 10,384 cases wrongly filed by investigation bodies and regulated 31,874 cases of illegal conduct involving abuse of compulsory measures and unlawfully obtaining evidence, the white paper said.

China has also improved procedures for juvenile criminal cases to help underage offenders better reintegrate into the society, it said.

China will enhance scrutiny of supervisory activities and the execution of punishment, standardise commutation, parole, and execution of sentence outside prison, it said.

The new rules stipulate that criminal defendants and appellants no longer need to wear clothing bearing the name of the detention house, so as to safeguard the detainees' personal dignity, safety, legal property, and legitimate rights including the rights to defence, to appeal, to complain, and to report violations of law, the white paper said.

By the end of 2015, psychological counselling rooms had been built in 2,169 detention houses in China, and 2,207 detention houses had provided two-way video via the internet for those who serve their term of imprisonment in the detention houses, the white paper said.

It added that medical services and life management in prisons and detention houses will be standardised in a bid to safeguard detainees' right to health, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

The country will also standardise commutation, parole and execution of sentence outside prison and safeguard detainees' rights to implementation of penalty change, the white paper said.

Officials say over the years Chinese prison system is undergoing reforms.

Since, last yearChina has banned the harvesting of organs from executed prisoners for organ transplants and ordered all hospitals stop using organs from death-row prisoners.

The ban came amid criticism over the high rate of executions to cater to the heavy demand for organs.

Ahead of the ban China also removed a number of economic offences from the category of death sentence as part of its judicial reforms which brought down the number of executions.
China and Russia today launched a major naval exercise in the South China Sea, firming up their growing strategic alliance apparently to counter military push by the US into the region amidst muscle-flexing by the PLA into the disputed waters.

The eight-day "Joint Sea 2016" drill will feature the highest ever level of standardisation, combat and digitalisation in recent China-Russia drills, Chinese Navy spokesperson Liang Yang said.

China has not clarified whether the exercises would be held in the disputed parts of the South China Sea, especially Beijing's nine dash-line which was struck down by international court of arbitration in July.

However, the state-run Xinhua Agency said a Russian fleet today arrived at Zhanjiang port in the Guangdong province and the exercises would be held off the Guangdong coast, which is further away from the contested areas.

The participants will undertake joint air defence, anti-submarine operations, landing, island-seizing, search and rescue and weapon use.

The Russian Navy deployed three surface ships, two supply ships, two helicopters, 96 marines, as well as amphibious armoured equipment.

Most of the Chinese forces came from the Nanhai (South China) Fleet under the People's Liberation Army Navy, with some from the Beihai Fleet and Donghai Fleet.

A total of 10 ships from the Chinese Navy, including destroyers, frigates, landing ships, supply ships and submarines, are taking part in the drill, as well as 11 fixed-wing aircraft, eight helicopters and 160 marines, as well as amphibious armored equipment.

Wang Hai, Chinese chief director of the exercise and deputy commander of the Chinese Navy, said this year marks the 20th anniversary of the two sides establishing strategic cooperation.

The two sides have conducted six joint navy drills in five years, and the drill will enhance the abilities of both sides to counter common security threats, Wang said at the welcoming ceremony.

A Chinese Defence Ministry spokesperson in July said the drill will not target a third party but the growing alliance firmed up steadily after Russia annexed Crimea widening Moscow's estrangement with US and European Union prompting it to move closer to Beijing.

China's claims over almost all of South China Sea was fiercely contested by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan which have counter claims over the area.

China has rejected the international tribunal's verdict which invalidated Beijing's extensive claims in the area, saying the tribunal has no legal standing.

Russia backed China's stand of rejecting the verdict while asserting that the dispute should be resolved directly by parties concerned.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
responded on Monday to calls that it needs to do more to rein in North Korea's nuclear programme by saying that American officials were truly to blame for inciting conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

The detection on Friday of North Korea's fifth nuclear test brought new pressure on China, Pyongyang's economic lifeline and the closest thing it has to a political ally US Defence Secretary Ash Carter said had an "important responsibility" in North Korea.

But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters today that Carter was "being too modest."

She cited a Chinese saying - "Whoever started the trouble should end it" - in calling on the US to "take on its due responsibility."

"I think the US should go over the process of the development of the nuclear issue and earnestly work on a tangible and effective resolution," Hua said.

has agreed to allow sanctions at the UN Security Council after previous tests by Pyongyang, and says it has restricted shipments of jet fuel and imports of certain minerals from North Korea, which otherwise remains in almost total isolation from the world.

Critics, however, say China hasn't done enough to tighten economic pressure on North Korea as punishment for its nuclear tests, which the Chinese government has publicly opposed.

Since Friday, Chinese state media have repeatedly linked North Korea's latest nuclear test to the American deployment of a high-altitude missile defence system in South Korea, which China has long opposed.

Hua did not mention the missile defence system, known as THAAD, today. But she said all sides needed to resolve their concerns in a "balanced way."

Even if China wanted to rein in North Korea, analysts say it's not clear that it could.

North Korea has repeatedly rejected China's entreaties not to test nuclear warheads, and Pyongyang officials appear to be exploiting tensions between China and South Korea over THAAD, said Tong Zhao, an associate at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center think tank.

"Beijing apparently has very little real leverage," Zhao said in an email.

One possibility is that China could try to broker a deal to freeze North Korea's development of new missiles and warheads as part of the US and South Korea suspending joint military exercises, Tong said.
China and Vietnam today vowed to promote healthy and stable bilateral ties as Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc held talks with his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang amid differences between the two countries over the disputed South China Sea.

Phuc and Li's talks were preceded by the Vietnamese leader's meeting with Zhang Dejiang, head of China's legislature National People's Congress (NPC).

"Both leaders vowed to promote the healthy and stable development of bilateral ties," Chinese state-run Xinhua agency reported.

Zhang said the two sides have reached important consensus on deepening bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperation.

"China is willing to work with Vietnam to push forward the long-term and healthy development of bilateral ties," he said.

Phuc said Vietnam attaches great importance to the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership with China as well as exchanges and cooperation between the legislative bodies of the two countries.

"Vietnam is ready to work with China to cement friendship and deepen pragmatic cooperation to achieve mutual benefits," he said.

Phuc is on an official visit to China from September 10 to 15 at the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

Phuc's visit comes close on the heels of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Vietnam this month during which the two countries made several agreements including promoting defence cooperation.

Vietnam along with the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan strongly oppose China's claims over almost all of the South China Sea.

An international tribunal has invalidated China's extensive claims in the SCS. However, Beijing rejected the tribunal's verdict, saying it has no legal standing.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today held a discussion on finer points to be included in BJP's Garib Kalyan Agenda with his Maharashtra and Jharkhand counterparts.

Besides Chouhan, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Jharkhand Chief Minister Rahuvar Das, BJP vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe was also present at the meeting at the chief minister's residence here.

"Talks of 'garibi hatao aur garib kalyan' (eradicate poverty and welfare of the poor) have been going on in this country for years. Congress had come up with the slogan but it has remained a slogan and nothing has happened," Chouhan told reporters after the meeting.

"Several states are running various schemes for poverty alleviation and we were given the task of studying them and bringing parity among them so that the development of the poor happens in its real sense," he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the chief ministers of BJP-ruled states to work in a "mission mode" to make their respective states models for the execution of the Centre's schemes, following which a committee comprising Chouhan, Fadnavis, Das and Sahasrabuddhe was formed to prepare the agenda.

"We will submit our report to the BJP president and to the Prime Minister on the issue after which the party will finalise the agenda," Chouhan said.

"The country will be celebrating the (birth) centenary of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (founder of Jan Sangh) on September 25 and the report will be submitted before it. The party's national council, scheduled to be held at Calicut in Kerala will then deliberate on it that day," he added.

"The basic aim of the agenda is to ensure that the poor gets food, cloth and house and their earnings increase and they become self-dependent. We have deliberated on all the aspects of these issues and would submit our report soon," Chouhan said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
"Citizens cannot become law unto themselves," the Supreme Court today said while asking the Executives to comply its orders in "letter and spirit" as concept of "deviancy" and "disobedience" has no room.

The apex court was irked over the contention of Karnataka that the "law and order" situation and state-wide protests led it to file the fresh plea seeking to keep in abeyance the September 5 order that had asked it to release 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu till September 16.

"An order of this court has to be complied with by all concerned and it is the obligation of the Executive to see that the order is complied with in letter and spirit. Concept of deviancy has no room; and disobedience has no space," a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and U U Lalit said.

The court modified its order asking Karnataka to release 12000 cusecs of water per day to Tamil Nadi till September 20, 2016.

It said when a court of law passes an order, it is the "sacred" duty of citizens to obey it and if there is any grievance, they are obliged to take permissible legal recourse.

Terming the "law and order" ground taken by Karnataka as "absolutely disturbing" and "totally deprecable", it said that the averments in the application "cannot be conceived of to be filed in a court of law".

"Agitation in spontaneity or propelled by some motivation or galvanized by any kind of catalystic component, can never form the foundation for seeking modification of an order," the bench said.

The Karnataka government, in its plea, said the application for modification of the September 5 order is "necessitated due to the spontaneous agitations" in the various parts of Karnataka including Bangalore, Mandya, Mysore and Hassan in the Cauvery basin and these have paralysed normal life, besides causing destruction of public and private properties.

"We expect the inhabitants of both the states, namely, the state of Karnataka and state of Tamil Nadu, shall behave regard being had to the respect for law and order and the executive of both the states are under the constitutional obligation to see that the law and order prevails," it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A city Orthopaedic surgeon has taken over as President of International Society for Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery (SICOT).

Chairman, Department of Orthopaedics,Trauma and Spine Surgery, Ganga Hospital here, Dr S Rajasekaran, took over as president at the Annual meeting of SICOT held in Rome on September 10, an hospital release said today.

The term of International President is for two years from 2016-2018 and he is the second Indian to become the president of this association in the last 85 years.

Headquartered at Brussels, SICOT is the largest Society of orthopaedics and Trauma surgery around the world, with more than 32,000 members and membership affiliation of National Associations of 127 countries, the release said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Militants hurled a grenade at a police post in Ananantnag district tonight, killing a civilian and injuring 10 people including three policemen.

Police said the militants hurled a grenade at the police post in Sherbagh area, nearly 55 km from here, at a time when people were busy doing last-minute shopping for Eid tomorrow.

The grenade exploded on a road injuring 10 people, including Bilal Ahmed, who later succumbed to his injuries in a hospital, police said.

Out of the 10 injured, three policemen were critical and had been rushed to the Army hospital here. Two injured civilians were also moved to a hospital in Srinagar.

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The attack took place around 8.25 PM, a police official said.

The in-charge of the police post, sub-inspector Feroz Ahmad, and constable Zahoor Ahmad were among those injured in the grenade attack, the official said.
Big things have been happening in North Dakota. "Last week, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota emerged as climate change heroes when, with little political clout or media spotlight, they halted construction of the $3.7 billion Dakota Access oil pipeline." The proposed pipeline violated Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as it would cross Sioux land and any potential spills would contaminate the tribe's drinking water. Read Mark Sundeen's excellent report from the camp.

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron announced that he's stepping down from his seat in parliament today, citing conflict of interest. This news comes three months after he resigned as PM of the country, after his failed campaign to keep Britain in the European Union. His successor as PM, Theresa May, is overseeing the process of Brexit. Cameron's resignation is effective immediately.

After a video hit the internet of Hillary Clinton appearing to stumble -- and possibly faint -- after a 9/11 memorial ceremony on Sunday, pundits have been quick to latch onto claims of the failing health of the Democratic presidential nominee. Several hours after the incident, Clinton's physician released a note saying that she'd been diagnosed with pneumonia. Some have said that her health could be a serious issue in the election. I think that attending a memorial service in Manhattan summer heat despite having pneumonia speaks volumes about Clinton's tenacity.

China and Russia have launched eight days of joint naval drills in the South China Sea. The sea that the UN said that China had no rights over. So, yeah.

There's a temporary ceasefire in effect in Syria, due to a deal brokered by the US and Russia. The ceasefire will ensure that Syrian government forces will stop airstrikes on civilian neighborhoods in an attempt to flush out rebel forces. This time is also being used for much-needed humanitarian aid to be delivered to besieged areas like Aleppo.

There are ongoing concerns about lead contamination in Pittsburgh's tap water.
The video of a buckling and stumbling Hillary Clinton lurching into the arms of her security staff at Ground Zero in New York may increase pressure on the Democratic presidential candidate to release her detailed medical records, US media reported on Monday.

The incident, which occurred after months of questions about her health from her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, and his campaign, is likely to increase pressure on Clinton to address the issue and release detailed medical records, which the 68-year-old former secretary of state has so far declined to do, The New York Times said.

Clinton is being treated for pneumonia and dehydration, her doctor said, hours after she abruptly left a ceremony in New York honouring the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and had to be helped into a van by Secret Service agents.

Clinton's campaign on Monday said she was canceling her plans to travel to California on Monday for what had been a planned two-day trip there as part of the election campaign for the November 8 presidential poll.

The episode thrust questions about Clinton's health and the transparency of her campaign squarely into the last two months of the race, which many polls show has grown tighter, the leading newspaper said.

"The incident quickly renewed attention to Clinton's health," The Washington Post said, noting that her rival Trump, 70, has repeatedly questioned her well-being, saying that she doesn't have the "strength" or "stamina" for the presidency and accusing her of being "exhausted".

"A weekend of stumbles has Hillary Clinton suddenly looking vulnerable at a pivotal moment of her battle with Donald Trump," CNN commented.

"Her swoon Sunday at muggy Ground Zero  and damaging video of Clinton lurching into the arms of her security detail -- dramatically turned the state of her health from conservative conspiracy theory into a genuine campaign issue," the network said.

The episode also exacerbates questions about transparency that have long dogged Clinton's White House bid after the campaign revealed the Democratic nominee is suffering from pneumonia  a fact it kept quiet since Friday, it noted.

"But Sunday's drama was just merely a capstone on Clinton's rough 48 hours," the network commented, referring to her remark that "half" of Trump's supporters were "deplorables," meaning racists, sexists and homophobes.

The remark, for which she later expressed "regret," had suddenly united a Republican Party that has struggled to get behind its divisive nominee, it said.

"The double blows came at just the wrong time for Clinton, as Trump closes in the polls and pressure builds ahead of the first presidential debate in two weeks  an event shaping up to be a potentially pivotal moment of the campaign," it said.

Whether Clinton's rocky weekend will turn out to be just another unexpected twist in an election season that has had everything, or exert a lasting political impact will only become clear in the coming days, it said.

"The speed of her recovery and the way her enemies handle the episode will do much to shape how voters respond to her health issue," it added.

Fox News reported that the Clinton campaign for weeks has been dealing with - and working to quell - speculation about her health, including a 2012 concussion, and yesterday's incident is "sure to fuel that fire".

It noted that her campaign last year had released a summary of Clinton's medical records and conditions.

In the July 28, 2015, letter, Dr Lisa Bardack, an internist in Mount Kisco, New York, described Clinton as "a healthy 67-year-old female whose current medical conditions include hypothyroidism and seasonal pollen allergies," Fox News noted.

The letter took note of her elbow fracture in 2009 and concussion in 2012. Bardack detailed how Clinton, had to undergo "anti-coagulation therapy" to dissolve a clot, and experienced "double vision for a period of time," after the concussion.

Bardack concluded that Clinton was in "excellent physical condition and fit to serve."

But the medial summary has not satisfied some skeptics, who have pointed not only to the concussion but her occasional coughing bouts on the campaign trail, the channel reported while pointing out that Clinton's chief strategist Joel Benenson recently said the campaign has no plans to release more detailed records.

Interestingly, asked whether she was concerned that such questions about her health would affect the election, as the polls have tightened, Clinton had told reporters on her campaign plane last week: "I'm not concerned about the conspiracy theories. There are so many of them, I've lost track of them.
A security guard deployed at the residence of Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar here was injured today in an "accidental fire", police said.

"Parminder Singh, a police commando, sustained injury after a bullet went off accidentally when his service pistol was being cleaned," Station House Officer (SHO) Neeraj Sarna said.

He said the bullet hit the ground and the cop was hit in the foot by a pellet.

All the commandos deposit their weapons outside the Chief Minister's residence where these are checked, Sarna said, adding the bullet could have been left behind in the pistol inadvertently.

The injured cop was later taken to a hospital.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Devi Ahilya Vishwavidayala (DAVV) here will take part in the 13th Yuva Sansad (Youth Parliament) contest organised by Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs Ministry tomorrow here.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, the MP from Indore, will be present at the contest which will be presided over by DAVV (University) Vice-Chancellor Narendra Dhakat, event in- charge Prakash Garwal told reporters here.

He said 55 students of DAVV will participate in the event, which will comprise Question Hour, tabling of bills and other business.

A total number of 56 universities are going to take part in the contest and hold Yuva Sansad in their premises separately.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Activists of BJP's youth wing today protested outside the office of Indian Youth Congress here, demanding answer from the latter over controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik's NGO donating Rs 50 lakh to an allied entity of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.

Holding placards and shouting slogans, the members of Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM) gathered outside the office of Congress' youth wing at Raisina Road.

The Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), founded by Naik, had donated Rs 50 lakh to Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT), an associate entity of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, in 2011 but the amount was returned to IRF by RGCT in July this year.

The IRF is embroiled in a controversy because of allegations that Naik was inciting youths for terror.

BJP has earlier alleged that the donation to RGF, headed by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, by Naik's NGO was a "bribe" to "shelter" his "anti-national" activities.

Congress had accused the government of hatching a "venal conspiracy of muckraking" to "slander, malign and defame" the party over Rs 50 lakh donation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Rodrigo Duterte ratcheted up his feud with the United States today, ordering all American special forces out of the southern Philippines where they have been advising local troops battling Muslim extremists.

Duterte's order came a week after he called US President Barack Obama "a son of a whore", causing Obama to cancel their scheduled bilateral meeting at a summit in Laos.

The Filipino leader, the first to hail from the south and who claims Muslim ancestry, has been stepping up efforts to bring peace to the southern Philippines, where decades-long insurgencies with Muslim and communist rebels have claimed more than 150,000 lives.

Last month he restarted peace talks with the largest separatist group, the 12,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which like others has been fighting since the 1970s for an independent Islamic state or autonomous rule.

US advisors in the area help train Filipino troops but are barred from engaging in combat except in self-defence.

Previously, about 500-600 US personnel rotated through the Mindanao region but in 2014, then-defence secretary Voltaire Gazmin said this would be cut back to 200.

Duterte did not specify when or how many Americans would be expelled but said the Philippines alignment with the West was at the root of the persistent Muslim insurgency.

"These US special forces, they have to go in Mindanao," he told a gathering of government employees.

"The (Muslim) people will become more agitated. If they see an American, they will really kill him."



The US embassy could not be reached for comment.

The United States is Manila's main military ally and the Philippines' colonial ruler until 1946. In his speech, Duterte showed photographs and cited accounts of how US troops killed Muslims during America's occupation of the Philippines in the early-1900s to explain his decision.

Duterte's spokesman Ernesto Abella said that "the statement reflects (President Duterte's) new direction towards coursing an independent foreign policy".

The Filipino leader also hit out at Obama and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for criticising his bloody crackdown on crime that has claimed 3,000 lives in a little over two months.

"This Obama, when you accuse me of killing... Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone," he said.

In a brief encounter in Laos, Obama urged the Filipino leader to conduct his crime war "the right way" and protect human rights, but Duterte has dismissed it as being none of America's business.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The usual festivities that mark the eve of Eid-ul Azha are missing in Kashmir where markets today wore a deserted look as normal life remain paralysed due to continued violence and shutdown since July.

While a fair number of private vehicles were plying on some roads, especially the city centre Lal Chowk and adjoining areas, shops and business establishments remained closed during day time due to the strike called by separatists.

The massive footfall of customers at bakeries, sweets shops and garment stores, a usual sight on the festival eve, remained missing with all these outlets closed.

One of the famous confectionery-cum-bakery on the upmarket Residency Road -- Modern Sweets -- stuck a poster outside its store reading: 'No bakery available on Eid'.

Shakti Sweets, which is right next to Modern Sweets, also had its shutters down.

However, sale of sacrificial animals is going on at many places in the city.

"Our sale is around 10 per cent of what it used to be on the eve of Eid-ul Azha. I do not think there is any chance of it picking up with less than 24 hours left for the festivities," Altaf Ahmad, a livestock dealer, said.

The separatist groups have urged people to observe Eid with austerity.

Normal life in Kashmir Valley has been badly affected since July 9, a day after Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter with security forces in south Kashmir.

As many as 76 persons, including two cops, have been killed and thousands others injured in clashes with security forces over the past 65 days.

Authorities are expected to strengthen the security, which might include imposing curfew and restrictions in parts of Kashmir, tomorrow to foil the separatist plan to march to the local office of the United Nations Military Observers Group to seek implementation of the UN resolutions on Kashmir.

The separatists have called the rally to coincide with the 71st session of UN General Assembly which begins in New York tomorrow.

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As the separatists have been relaxing the shutdown in evening hours on most of the days, shoppers are expected to turn up in the markets later in the day.

However, groups of youth have been fanning out in different markets and forcing shutdown during the relaxation period in the past.

These activities of the youths prompted even hardline Hurriyat Conference to issue a statement, asking people to follow the protest programme in letter and spirit.

"Hurriyat has taken a strong note of some youths compelling the shopkeepers for shutdown during the relaxation time. Hurriyat has clarified once again that this period is part of the programme and is meant to get the essential commodities ... Whosoever violates the joint programme is not a well wisher," Hurriyat said yesterday.
European Union (EU) leaders will hold a summit without Britain in Malta in early 2017 as part of efforts to map out a future for the bloc following the vote, Malta's prime minister said on Monday.

The meeting of 27 leaders will follow a similar gathering in the Slovakian capital Bratislava this Friday, and comes ahead of a Rome meeting in March that ties in with the 60th anniversary of the EU's foundation.

Maltese premier Joseph Muscat tweeted that he had agreed with the EU President Donald Tusk to have a meeting of the EU leaders in Malta beginning 2017 to increase momentum for new idea of Europe.

An EU official told AFP that the Malta meeting would be like Bratislava and part of the reflection process.

The Bratislava summit is the first in a series aimed at relaunching the EU after Britain's dramatic June 23 decision to leave, even as the bloc faces a number of other crisis.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is also set to lay out new priorities in his annual State of the European Union speech at the EU parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

Tusk has said he wants to use the summit in Bratislava to plot a new roadmap for Europe with security concerns, borders and defence at the top of the agenda.

Tusk said earlier this month that he wants the 27 EU leaders to rebuild a sense of political unity in the months to come, also ahead of our meeting in Rome in March 2017, 60 years after the founding of our community.
Children who are heavy users of social networking sites such as Facebook may be more unhappy with their appearance and more likely to argue with their parents than non-users, a new UK study has found.

The study by Essex University in the UK, involving 3,500 children aged ten to 15, found that of those who used social media for more than three hours a night, only 53 per cent were content with their appearance, compared with 82 per cent of non-users.

Researchers also found that girls are twice as likely as boys to be online for long periods and heavy social media users are more likely to argue with their parents.

The UK government-backed survey also that found that 17 per cent of heavy social media users are bullied a lot as compared with 11 per cent of light users.

It found that truancy rates or absenteeism was much higher for heavy users - 14 per cent compared to six per cent.

Heavy users were also twice as likely to say that they misbehaved in class, 'The Sun' reported.

Children who defined themselves as heavy social media users were more dissatisfied with relationships.

They were less happy with friends and family, with five per cent saying they did not feel supported by relatives as compared with just one per cent of youngsters who were seldom on social media sites.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The contract for 36 Rafales is in the last stages of finalisation and the multi-billion euro deal with France could be announced soon.

"Final points of the contract are being worked out. The deal is almost in final stages," government sources said.

Last month, a report submitted by a team negotiating the much-anticipated with France was cleared by the ministry. The file was then sent to the Prime Minister's office for review and clearance.

Sources said the PMO had sought from Ministry some clarifications on the life cycle costs and unit price of the aircraft which was replied to.

French sources have said they are expecting a positive development this month.

During his visit to France in April last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that India would purchase 36 Rafale jets in a government-to-government contract.

Soon after the announcement, the ministry scrapped a separate process that was on to purchase 126 Rafale fighter planes, built by French defence giant Dassault Aviation.

The deal is expected to be worth around 7.89 billion euros for the 36 fighter jets in fly away conditions. The weapon systems, part of the deal, will also include the new-age, beyond visual range missile, Meteor, and Israeli helmet mounted display.

The price of the deal was brought down from nearly 10 billion euros, as sought initially, due to various reasons including tough negotiation by India, the discount offered by the French government and reworking of some of the criteria.

It is not clear if the price has been brought down further, but India has been keen on it.
A 65-year-old man on Monday died of at a hospital in Delhi, in what could be the first fatality from this vector-borne disease in the national capital.

The victim, R Pandey succumbed to the disease, considered generally as non-fatal, in the wee hours at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

"He died at the hospital at 4 AM. The patient was brought here in a critical condition from Yashodhara Hospital in Ghaziabad on Saturday at 10.30 PM and admitted to ICU. The cause of the death was with sepsis," hospital authorities told PTI.

"The patient died in ICU. His test for done by RT-PCR method at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital came positive with high viral count," they said.

Incidentally, one suspected chikungunya death has also been reported at All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), but hospital authorities on Monday said they have not yet confirmed it.

"We are yet to confirm if the death was due to chikungunya. We are trying to do so, but till then it is a suspected case," AIIMS spokesperson Amit Gupta said.

According to reports, the chikungunya death at AIIMS took place sometime in September and five persons have also died of dengue this month.

"The remaining five death cases too are also suspected to be due to dengue. We are trying to confirm them too," Gupta said.

Chikungunya cases in the national capital has sharply risen to over 1,000 this season, marking a jump of nearly 90 per cent from its count last week.

According to a municipal report released on Monday, at least 1,057 cases of this vector-borne disease have been recorded till September 10, however, hospitals in the city altogether are reporting much higher number.

Authorities at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said, Pandey was kept under the care of a senior specialist in the Department of Medicine and a team of doctors from the Internal Medicine-ICU.

Lalit Dar of Department of Microbiology at AIIMS said, "At our laboratories, 1,360 chikungunya blood test samples have tested positive in the last till yesterday. Cases are rising and more and more people are getting affected."

Doctors say that chikungunya is not a life-threatening disease in general, but in rare cases leads to complications that prove fatal, especially in children and old persons.
Prices of almost all flowers in the wholesale flower market in the district have spiralled owing to an increase in demand ahead of the Onam festival to be celebrated in Kerala, on September 13.

The Dindigul wholesale market, one of the biggest markets in South Tamil Nadu, supplies several tonnes of flowers to Coimbatore, Thanjavur, Vellore, Chennai and Kerala, which is a major buyer from the market during the Onam Season.

Despite good arrivals, the increasing demand has pushed up the flowers prices, traders said.

The market received around 10 tonnes of flowers for the past one week and 50 percent of them were sent to Kerala.

Some of the varietes in great demand in Kerala are Mary Gold, Vadamalli, and Tulasi, said Kennedy, a trader in the Dindigul Flower Market.

Prices of Vadamalli have shot up to Rs 80 from Rs 20 per kg last week, and that of Marigold rose to Rs 120 from Rs 20 per kg.

Prices of other flowers too has been soaring high in the market for the last one week.

On saturday, two tonnes of Vadamalli and Mary gold arrived in the market.

While Jasmine is being sold at Rs 500 per kg, Mullai costs Rs 300 per kg, Sampanki at Rs 350, Jaathimalli Rs 120, Button rose at Rs 100 and rose varieties at Rs 60 per Kg, said Baskar, a member of the Dindigul flower traders' association told PTI.

Flower prices are expected to rise by 30 to 40 percent in the coming days, he said.

Nilakottai, Reddiyarchatram, A. Vellodu, Vadamadurai, Sempatti, Perumalkovilpatti, Panjampatti, Kodai road, Sendurai, Ambathurai, Athur are the major flower producing centres in Dindigul district.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former British Prime Minister David Cameron, who quit after losing June 23 Brexit vote, resigned today as an MP with immediate effect, saying it was "very difficult" to continue on the backbenches and he wanted to avoid becoming a "diversion" for his successor Theresa May.

He will step down as MP for Witney in Oxfordshire, triggering a by-election in his constituency. He has represented Witney since 2001, becoming Conservative leader in 2005 and serving as prime minister for six years from 2010.

The 49-year-old Conservative party MP had stepped down as Prime Minister on June 24, a day after the UK voted to leave the European Union (EU).

He had initially indicated that he would continue as a back-bench Tory MP under the leadership of May but today he announced his decision to step down from that role as well to avoid becoming a "diversion".

"Having fully considered my position over the summer, I have decided that I am going to stand down as the Member of Parliament for Witney. There will now be a by-election and I will do everything that I can to help the Conservative candidate win that election," Cameron said in a statement.

He said: "In my view, the circumstances of my resignation as Prime Minister and the realities of modern politics make it very difficult to continue on the backbenches without the risk of becoming a diversion to the important decisions that lie ahead for my successor in Downing Street and the government.

"I fully support Theresa May and have every confidence that Britain will thrive under her strong leadership."



It is unclear what Cameron's future career plans would involve but he said he now looks forward to "a life outside of Westminster, but hope to continue to play a part in public service and to make a real and useful contribution to the country I love".

The former Conservative party leader was praised for modernising the party and last year guided the party to its first outright majority for 23 years.

His tenure as Prime Minister, however, came to an abrupt end when he failed to convince the British public to vote to remain within the EU.

It would now seem that failure has also resulted in him abandoning parliamentary life altogether.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
German discount clothes retailer KiK has agreed to pay another USD 5.15 million in compensation to victims of one of Pakistan's worst-ever industrial accidents, the company said in a statement.

The sum will come on top of the USD 1 million KiK paid out in late 2012 in the wake of the devastating fire at the Ali Enterprises factory in Karachi that killed at least 255 people, the company said.

"KiK has voluntarily taken on responsibility for those affected, because this aid was a real concern for us," chief executive Patrick Zahn said in a statement published on the firm's website on Friday.

KiK said the final compensation figure was agreed after months of talks with victims' representatives, the International Labour Organization, the German development ministry and the Clean Clothes Campaign - which fights for improved working conditions in the garment industry.

In its own statement, the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) labelled the agreement a "landmark compensation arrangement".

"It is a day of respite for the victims' families as their cries have been heard," said Saeeda Khatoon, vice president of the Ali Enterprise Factory Fire Affectees Association, in the CCC statement.

"We know that our nearest and dearest will never come back, but we hope that this kind of tragedy will never ever happen again".

The Ali Enterprises fire was one of a series of industrial accidents in recent years that have prompted Pakistan to review its industrial safety arrangements.

After the Karachi fire, the European Parliament told big brands to re-examine their supply chains in Pakistan and demanded the creation of a new effective and independent system to monitor factories.

A judicial review into the blaze found that a lack of emergency exits, poor safety training, closely-packed machinery and the failure of government inspectors to spot the faults all contributed to the heavy death toll.

In January, the government in Islamabad acknowledged that the country lacked specific legislation to protect workers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Berlin accused Moscow today of falsely claiming Chancellor Angela Merkel had tried to pressure Bulgaria to select a new candidate to succeed UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

German foreign ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said a Russian official representative had "spread things that are objectively false", branding the move as "unfriendly".

Yesterday, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova asserted that at this month's G20 summit, Moscow had indicated to Merkel in a "clear way" that "any direct or indirect attempt to influence (Bulgaria) was unacceptable".

The skirmish comes as Bulgaria has worked, according to some media, to change its candidate for the post of UN secretary general, which becomes vacant next year.

Bulgaria would replace UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova as its candidate with European Commission Vice President Kristalina Georgieva, according to these reports.

A spokesman for the EU executive declined to comment today on "speculation in the press".

Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Rumiana Bachvarova said today that Bokova's candidacy was "not sufficiently convincing" and that there would be " in coming days" on the subject.

Ten candidates are running to succeed Ban, and the name of the next secretary-general could be announced in October at the earliest.

After four preliminary votes as an indication to the UN Security Council, the former Portuguese prime minister Antonio Guterres, who also served as UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is leading the race, with Bokova in fifth position.

At the next round of voting on October 4, the five permanent and veto-wielding members of the Security Council - the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China - could potentially block any of the candidates, changing the dynamics of the race.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Top leaders of 11 countries, including the heads of BRICS nations would take part in the eighth BRICS summit and retreat in Goa on October 15 and 16 to discuss bilateral ties and wide range of issues.

"Besides Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS), Prime Minister Narendra Modi has especially invited the leaders from Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) countries - Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand, who will be participating in the retreat that will follow the Summit on October 16," Sanjiv Verma, Chief of Protocol, Ministry of External Affairs, told reporters here today.

The BRICS summit that will start on October 15 and will end the next day, following which there will be a retreat, in which BIMSTEC countries will take part.

"The Prime Minister has especially invited leaders from the BIMSTEC countries... At the end of summit, the world will be looking at what will go down in the history as the 'Goa Declaration'," he said.

During the BRICS summit, besides financial and economic issues, the countries will discuss counter-terrorism.

"The entire idea is to have broad-based discussions... BRICS signifies emergence of a new global balance, where power is diffused in a multipolar reality. This grouping increasingly plays a major role in shaping the global agenda," Verma said.

Hosting an international summit has given an opportunity to India to set the agenda of an event of major diplomatic importance, he said.

Disclosing why Modi-led government decided to host the summit outside the capital, Verma said the Prime Minister's vision is of cooperative federalism.

"This is an opportunity to move out of the Delhi-centric approach and showcase the great diversity of India to the world," he said.

Goa was competing with another south Indian city with much better conferencing facility to host BRICS, but the Prime Minister gave preference to the coastal state (Goa), Verma said.

"Goa is a vibrant, cosmopolitan state that has always been welcoming visitors. Besides, some participating countries are linked to Goa, like Brazilians and Russians," he said.

"With presence of 11 heads of states, Goa will be the cynosure of all eyes for three days hosting bilateral, E-BRICS and the BRICS outreach summit," Verma said.

The Chief of Protocol recalled that in 1983, Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) was held in Goa, which showcased the state as a destination for conferences.

"The international attention on Goa during the conference will boost tourism," Verma claimed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Goa Congress today raised questions on the state government's ropeway project connecting Panaji to Reis Magos village situated across Mandovi river, asking whether it is a domestic project or one developed by China.

Goa tourism department has proposed the project between the two locations, to be be operated by a private firm on five per cent revenue sharing basis with the government.

"Though we don't oppose the ropeway project per se, it has many questions that need to be answered. What is conspicuously absent is the time frame for which the project is to be completed?," Goa Congress spokesman Trajano D'Mello told reporters today.

He said Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) has on record mentioned that the private company (which will run the project) is sole distributor in India for Beijing Goodyou Ropeway Eng Co Ltd, the largest ropeway manufacturing firm of China.

"Government should come out clean whether the ropeway project will be a China-made project or an Indianproject? Also, it should fix the term of completion of the project and a penalty imposed for every month in the delay of the project with an ascending strata," he said.

On the five per cent revenue sharing model, he asked, "Is the government agreeing to terms of five per cent gross turnover? This five per cent gives chances of gross manipulation keeping doors open to corruption."



Congress demanded that a fixed rent be charged - which should begin within one year of the date the agreement is signed.

D'Mello said the governmentshould levy a fixed fee to be paid instead of the five per cent of turnover which is highly open to corruption.

"Government's stand that there is no investment and no tax-payers' money involved is a blatant lie as the land acquired on the Panjim side by tourism department of 5,200 sq metres was acquired by tax-payers' money and also the Nerul Communidade (community) from the other side is being acquired from the tax-payers' money," he alleged.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Newly appointed Goa RSS chief, Laxman Behre today criticised Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar for 'mishandling' the Medium of Instruction (MOI) issue, over which regional language crusader and former state head of Sangh Subhash Velingkar broke ranks and floated a parallel outfit recently.

"Parrikar has been successful as a politician. That is why he was inducted as Defence Minister. But he did not handle the MOI issue properly (when he was chief minister)," Behre told PTI at Ponda town today.

"He should have handled the MOI issue properly, soon after taking over the reins during the first session of Goa Legislative Assembly itself," he said.

Behre, however, was quick to add that Parrikar remains to be a Swayamsevak.

"Once you attend the Shakha and sing prayers, you become a Swayamsevak. He can now come to any Shakha, if he wishes to. We will not force him to come to Shakha," Behre said.

He said the Sangh does not ask its Swayamsevaks to vote for any political party, not even the BJP.

"Let BJP work on its own. Sangh will not ask its workers to vote for any particular party. We have not issued any such instructions even in the past. What we tell the workers is to ensure 100 per cent voting, and elect a good person. Sangh treats all political parties at par," Behre stated.

He said the decision of Sangh to "relieve" Velingkar was to allow him work more vigorously for the Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch.

"Velingkar was relieved from the post because he should be working with more vigourously for BBSM," Behre said.

"After that decision, the post remained vacant.In Sangh we have a system wherein we will have to listen to what the seniors say. They gave me the responsibility, which I accepted," said Behre, who has a 47 years of association with the outfit and was Secretary for its Keshav Seva Sadhana.

He said the Sangh and "RSS Goa Prant" floated by Velingkar has "no differences of opinion".

"We have no differences of opinion with them. Whatever differences we have are temporary," Behre said recalling Velingkar's statement that they would be merging with RSS after Goa elections and work unitedly.

"Sangh completely supports BBSM and their demand on MOI. But Sangh has a rule that an office bearer should not get into politics or should not play a role clashing with the ruling party," he said, adding that Sangh had no interest in BBSM's decision to float a new political party.

"Mother tongue as MOI is a demand of common people, and



they (the BJP government in the state) should fulfill it as they are running the government from the taxes paid by common man," Behre said.

Velingkar was "relieved" as Goa RSS chief on August 31 after BBSM hinted at its intent to launch a political party to take on BJP in the 2017 Goa Assembly polls.

His supporters had detached themselves from the RSS' Konkan prant, and had formed the 'Goa prant', which the RSS leadership had refused to recognise.

He has been spearheading a hectic campaign for the primacy of regional languages like Konkani and Marathi as MOI in schools and wanted the BJP government to stop support to English medium schools.

Velingkar has locked horns with the BJP government headed by Laxmikant Parsekar over the issue, with members of his outfit even showing black flags to party chief Amit Shah during a recent visit to the state.

He recently said the "Sangh unit" in the coastal state will function "independently", at least till the Assembly polls.

However, RSS had been quick to debunk him, saying none of its units can dissociate itself from the outfit.
has added Hyderabad to its network and the low-cost air carrier will launch its services in the city from October 12.

This is the 23rd destination on the airlines' network.

The new Hyderabad schedule introduces daily non-stop flights connecting Chennai, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar and Kolkata. It will also be connected to Port Blair via Bengaluru, which will provide leisure travellers additional travel option, the statement said.

"This latest addition to network reflects airline's phase of growth with a focus on scaling up operations gradually in the coming weeks while strengthening value proposition to suit customer's demand. With new additions of aircraft in coming months, will operate up to 184 daily flights by the end of December from current 144," it added.

Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, chief executive officer (CEO), GoAir said Hyderabad is a key market in South and Central India and a significant base for business and tourism in the region.

"Adding Hyderabad with its ideal geographical location, we reinforce our commitments towards connectivity across the country. It is our constant endeavour to provide flexibility of choice to our customers along with on time, convenient and affordable flying experience," Prock-Schauer said.

S G K Kishore, CEO of GMR Hyderabad International Airport said, "We are very happy to welcome GoAir to Hyderabad airport. As one of the fastest growing airports in the country, our focus has been on providing more options to our passengers and with the introduction of services by GoAir, we now offer a wider range of choices in terms of destinations and frequencies."

Tickets for the new flights will open soon and can be booked through the company website, online travel portals, GoAir Call Centre, airport ticketing offices, through travel agents and the GoAir mobile app that is available on both Apple iOS and Google Android, it explained.
City-based no-frills Airline GoAir has said it will add Telangana capital in its network with the launch of non-stop flight services from Hyderabad, connecting Chennai, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar and Kolkata from next month.

As of now GoAir flies to 22 domestic airports with a fleet of 21 Airbus A320 including A320neo.

Hyderabad will also be connected to Port Blair via Bangalore which will provide leisure travellers additional travel option, GoAir said in a release today.

"Hyderabad is a key market in south and central India and a significant base for business and tourism in the region. Adding Hyderabad with its ideal geographical location, we reinforce our commitments towards connectivity across the country," GoAir Chief Executive Officer Wolfgang Prock-Schaeur said in the release.

In June 2011, the Mumbai-based airline had placed an order with European aviation major Airbus for 72 new A320 neo aircraft valued at about Rs 32,400 crore on list price.

Besides, the carrier inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Airbus for another 72 A320neo aircraft at Farnborough International Airshow in July.

This latest addition to GoAir network reflects the airline's phase of growth with a focus on scaling up operations gradually in the coming weeks while strengthening the value proposition to suit customer's demand, the airline said.

GoAir had last month said it plans to add five more planes in the fleet by March next year.

GoAir had last month said it plans to add five more planes in the fleet by March next year besides commencing international operations.

Tickets for the new flights are already up for sale from today, the release said.

With the new additions of aircraft in coming months, GoAir will operate up to 184 daily flights by the end of December from current 144 daily flights, it said.

"We are happy to welcome GoAir to Hyderabad Airport. As one of the fastest growing airports in the country, our focus has been on providing more options to our passengers and with the introduction of services by GoAir, we now offer a wider range of choices in terms of destinations and frequencies. We keenly look forward to working together with GoAir towards our goal of establishing Hyderabad Airport as the gateway to south & central India," GMR Hyderabad International Airport CEO, S G K Kishore said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Invoking a rare provision of law, the government today issued a gazette notification to ban an NGO, run by controversial preacher Zakir Naik, from receiving foreign funds directly and asked RBI to seek prior permission from it before releasing any money to it.

The gazette notification, issued by the Home Ministry, said that Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) has violated certain provisions of Foreign Contribution Regulations Act and therefore "would obtain prior permission from central government before accepting any foreign contribution".

Issuance of a gazette notification under Section 11(3) of the FCRA 2010 is a rare instance and such an act could also be done through an official order, sources said.

The Home Ministry said the decision has been taken after a preliminary inquiry conducted by it found that the NGO was carrying out activities contrary to the provisions of the FCRA under which it has to function.

The Reserve Bank of India, henceforth, has to inform the Home Ministry about all funds coming to the NGO and permission has to be taken from the ministry before releasing them to IRF.

Sources said last month the Home Ministry had renewed the FCRA licence of IRF despite several ongoing probes against the NGO and its founder Naik including one by the Home Ministry itself.

Taking strong exception to the goof-up, the Home Ministry suspended Joint Secretary G K Dwivedi, who was heading the foreigners division of the ministry looking after the FCRA-related issues, and three other officials.

Naik was accused of radicalising and attracting youths for terror acts.

Naik has come under the scanner of the security agencies after Bangladeshi newspaper 'Daily Star' had reported that one of the attackers of the July 1 terror strike in Dhaka, Rohan Imtiaz, ran a propaganda on Facebook last year quoting Naik.

He, in a lecture aired on Peace TV, an international Islamic channel, had reportedly "urged all Muslims to be terrorists".

Naik, a popular but controversial Islamic orator and founder of Mumbai-based IRF, is banned in the UK and Canada for his hate speeches aimed against other religions. He is among 16 banned Islamic scholars in Malaysia.

He is popular in Bangladesh through his Peace TV, although his preachings often demean other religions and even other Muslim sects.

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Government is moving ahead of its schedule and is fully geared up to roll out Goods and Services Tax (GST) from April 1 next year, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said today.

The first meeting of the newly constituted GST Council, which will decide on the rates, exemption and threshold, will be held on September 22 and 23, he said while briefing reporters about today's Cabinet decision.

"As far as the administrative requirement is concerned, we are fully geared up for that. The Government of India is also monitoring IT implementation at the state level. As far as IT preparedness is concerned, we are fully on track," Adhia said.

Asked if the government is sticking to April 1, deadline, he said: "So far, yes... Right now we are all geared up for April 1, deadline. We will have to see how things proceed."



The industry, however, has been demanding more time to update their IT infrastructure to meet the requirement of the new tax regime.

"The demand has not formally come to us. It is for them to decide and represent to the government in case they find it very inconvenient to go with the deadline," Adhia said.

The Cabinet today set up the GST Council after President Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent to the GST Constitutional Amendment Bill last week.

So far, Adhia said "we are ahead of the time schedule. The main thing to be done now is to call as many meetings of the GST Council and try and sort out all the major issues so that we are ready with the draft law completely and the industry can get itself ready".

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To protect consumers from frauds, the government today issued new norms mandating direct sellers to maintain confidentiality of private information of buyers as well as maintain record of complaint redressal.

It also makes it mandatory for e-retailers and online marketplaces to get prior written consent of the direct selling entities like Amway before soliciting sales.

The model guidelines, which have been sent to states, also seek to define direct selling and direct sellers as well as pyramid schemes involving chain of subscribers wherein a buyer enrols one or more subscribers and the chain continues.

The norms also provided for direct selling companies for setting up a Grievance Redressal Committee to attend to consumer complaints that will necessarily have to carry a unique number through which they can be tracked for redressal.

Also, the guidelines mandate such firms to provide name of purchaser and seller, delivery date, procedure of returning goods and warranty.

The direct selling industry was pitching for a clearcut guidelines for the sector to remove legal ambiguities to differentiate between fraudulent ponzi schemes and genuine businesses run by them.

The process for framing proper guidelines was started in 2013 by the government after the police arrested the then Amway's India Chairman William S Pinckney and two company directors over allegations of fraud in Kerala under the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act.

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs issued the guidelines for states to regulate direct selling and multi-level marketing (MLM), that prohibited pyramid scheme as well as money circulation schemes under the garb of direct selling business.

The 'Direct Selling Guidelines 2016' framework was released by the Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and has been sent to the states/Union Territories for adoption.

The industry welcomed the move saying that it will bring clarity in the Rs 7,500 crore-sector and end regulatory conflicts, leading to future growth in direct selling segment.

The government has defined legitimate direct selling and differentiates it from pyramid and money circulation schemes to help investigating agencies identify fraudulent players.

"We are sending the model guidelines to all state governments. States can make some changes as per their localised requirements. The guidelines were necessary for better growth in the direct selling business," Consumer Affairs Secretary Hem Pande told reporters here.

Guidelines are always optional, he said when asked whether it would be mandatory for states to adopt these norms.

Indian Direct Selling Association (IDSA) President Jitendra Jagota said: "In the absence of proper policy or guidelines, numerous fraudulent players have been taking advantage of the situation. Now that the guidelines are out, it shall address the current concerns of the industry and provide much needed impetus".

(REOPEN DEL98)



The secretary said the norms will help protect consumers as direct sellers can now be identified.

The Centre asked state governments/UTs to implement the guidelines and also set up a mechanism to monitor the activities of direct sellers, direct selling entity regarding compliance of the guidelines.

Direct selling entity has been asked to comply these guidelines within 90 days and submit an undertaking to the Department of Consumer Affairs in this regard.

According to Amway CEO Anshu Budhraja said: "We also believe that legislation will help the industry actualise its potential. We, along with others in the industry plan to continue to engage with the central government in pursuit of appropriate regulations for the direct selling industry".

In the guidelines, direct selling has been defined as "marketing, distribution and sale of goods or providing of services as a part of network of direct selling other than under a pyramid scheme".

Pyramid Scheme means "a multi layered network of subscribers to a scheme formed by subscribers enrolling one or more subscribers in order to receive any benefit, directly or indirectly, as a result of enrolment or action or performance of additional subscribers to the scheme".

Money Circulation Scheme has the same meaning as defined under Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act.

Prohibiting pyramid and money circulation schemes, the guidelines said: "No person or entity shall promote a pyramid scheme as defined in Clause 1 (11) or enrol any such person to scheme or participate in such arrangement in any manner whatsover in the garb of direct selling business."



To conduct direct selling business, the guidelines have prescribed many conditions.

They bar direct selling companies from charging any entry fee from agents or compelling them to buy back unsold stocks. These entities will have to enter into an agreement with direct sellers or agents, and give full refund or buy-back guarantee for goods and services sold to them.

The norms have laid down remuneration system for person engaged by direct selling firms on sharing of incentives, profit and commission.

The guidelines have also made provision for appointment of monitoring authority at both Central and state level to deal with the issues related to direct selling.

The guidelines also prohibit direct selling firms from using misleading, deceptive or unfair recruitment practices.

A direct selling entity should not ask direct sellers "to provide any benefit including entry fees and renewable fees or to purchase any sales demonstration equipment or material in order to participate in direct selling operations".

The guidelines have also put conditions for contract between direct sellers and direct selling entity, saying that all such agreements should be in writing.

The agreement should not compel or induce the direct seller to purchase goods or services in an amount that exceeds an amount that can be expected to be sold to consumers within a reasonable period of time.

The contract should provide direct sellers a "reasonable cooling-off period" in which they can cancel it and receive a refund for goods and services purchased.

The guidelines have also specified certain obligations of direct sellers such as full disclosure of the good and services offered by the direct selling entities.

"The Direct Selling entity will be liable for grievances arising out of sale of products, services or business opportunity by its direct sellers.
Muslim pilgrims reached Mina today for the ritual stoning of the devil, the last major rite of the annual hajj and the scene of a devastating stampede last year.

A number of safety measures have been introduced to prevent a repeat of last year's tragedy, which killed around 2,300 people as they made their way to the Jamarat Bridge to perform the stoning.

The bridge is multi-storey to accommodate the huge number of pilgrims -- more than 1.8 million this year.

Pilgrims threw pebbles they had gathered in nearby Muzdalifah yesterday evening at walls representing the devil.

Saudi King Salman arrived in Mina yesterday to ensure the pilgrims can "perform their rituals easily, conveniently and safely", the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

He was also briefed on preparations for the safe movement of pilgrims between Muzdalifah and Mina.

The stoning ritual is performed three times over the coming days.

The first comes at the start of Eid al-Adha, the feast of sacrifice, Islam's holiest, which is marked by more than 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide.

After the stoning, sheep are slaughtered and the meat distributed to needy Muslims, symbolising Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Ishmael on the orders of God, who provided a lamb in the boy's place at the last moment.

The stoning ritual emulates the actions of Abraham in resisting the temptation to disobey.

Last year's stampede was the worst disaster in the pilgrimage's history.

Saudi Arabia has stuck by its initial death toll of 769, but figures compiled from officials in more than 30 countries gave a tally almost three times higher.

Authorities announced an investigation into the tragedy but no findings have ever been released.

Several new safety measures have been introduced this year.

Among these is the distribution of bracelets which store pilgrims' personal data. Roads have also been widened in the Jamarat area, newspapers reported.

Aerial photographs on Saudi television showed rivers of pilgrims flowing toward the Jamarat on multiple roads.

A security officer was shown monitoring the crowds on closed-circuit television screens.

Helicopters have been monitoring the flow of pilgrims, while police have been directing them on the ground to make sure there are no bottlenecks.

Pilgrims have told AFP they feel safe and have noticed organisational improvements.

"The Saudis organise everything for us. We are truly at ease here," Youssef al-Mehri, 24, from Oman said with a prayer rug slung over his shoulder.

But the new safety measures adopted by Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia failed to satisfy Shiite Iran, which has angrily questioned the kingdom's custodianship of Islam's holiest places.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Muslims from around the world today returned to the scene of last year's deadly stampede to perform a stoning ritual near Mecca that is the final major rite of hajj.

Rivers of pilgrims flowed on multiple ramps toward the Jamarat Bridge where the "stoning of the devil" is taking place under high security.

Authorities in Saudi Arabia do not talk about last year's stampede, which killed hundreds around Jamarat on the first day of the ritual.

Riyadh issued a death toll of 769, although figures compiled from foreign officials in more than 30 countries gave a stampede tally of roughly 2,300.

But a number of safety measures have been taken and pilgrims on Monday expressed no concern.

"There has been a clear improvement," said Saudi pilgrim Ibrahim Ayed, 40, returning for hajj and the stoning for the first time in a decade.

The stoning ritual coincides with Eid al-Adha, Islam's feast of sacrifice, which is celebrated by more than 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide.

Sheep are slaughtered and the meat distributed to needy Muslims, symbolising the prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Ishmael on the orders of God, who provided a lamb in the boy's place at the last moment.

Pilgrims no longer carry out the sacrifice rite themselves but pay agencies to distribute the meat.

The Jamarat ritual, which occurs in Mina at the eastern edge of Mecca, emulates Abraham's stoning of the devil at three spots in resisting the temptation to disobey God's order.

On the first of three days of stoning, elevated cameras stationed several metres (yards) apart filmed the pilgrims, most clad in white moving behind coloured flags identifying their groups.

The stoning bridge, which resembles a large multi-storey car park, was erected in the past decade at a cost of more than USD 1 billion (900 million euros) and was designed to prevent overcrowding.

Hundreds of police were stationed on each of the Jamarat's five floors, linked by escalators, from where pilgrims toss gravel-sized stones against rough stone walls.

More than 1.8 million faithful, most of them from abroad, are performing the six-day hajj, which ends Thursday.

Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, which capable Muslims must perform at least once.

Many pilgrims this year expressed faith that new security measures would prevent a repeat of last year's crush.

Faruk Hamloui, an Algerian who for years has guided his compatriots at the hajj, said "people learned and understood that only organisation and respect for the routes imposed to control the crowds helps to avoid dramas."



It is a message emphasised by officials.

"Authorities have stressed the need to adhere to directives and not take lightly the movement of pilgrims towards the Jamarat Bridge," Mahmoud Damanhoori, board member of a local foundation which assists Southeast Asian pilgrims, told AFP.

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A wife, who is a working professional, should be able to take care of herself, the Delhi High Court has said while denying maintenance to a woman chartered accountant from her estranged husband.

A bench of Justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Pratibha Rani observed this while rejecting recently the plea of the woman, who had challenged a trial court's order denying interim maintenance of Rs three lakh per month for herself and her two children.

The lower court had awarded Rs 22,900 per month as interim maintenance towards her two children but had declined to award her any monetary benefit, contending she was a chartered accountant with sufficient means to maintain herself.

"So far as refusal to award interim maintenance to the appellant/wife is concerned, we concurred with the finding of the Judge of Family Court.

"The wife who is a qualified chartered accountant (CA) and has been in profession since the year 2003 need not be granted interim maintenance under Section 24 of Hindu Marriage Act," the court said.

According to the woman's petition, the duo had got married in 2005 in Delhi and her husband, an electrical engineer, runs his own business. He filed for divorce owing to "differences".

The wife, who works at AIIMS, had sought as maintenance Rs three lakh per month for herself and their two children, and also around one Rs lakh towards litigation expenses.

The trial court had turned down her plea following which she moved the high court in appeal, contending that her income is only Rs 7,000 per month. Her plea was dismissed by the high court, which observed she was "a qualified chartered accountant and practising since the year 2003. After putting in 13 years in profession she cannot be expected to earn only Rs 7,000 per month which is below the minimum wages payable to an unskilled worker."



The high court observed in its order that the husband, while appearing before it, "acknowledged his responsibility to support his children and did not question the maintenance awarded to them."



"He assures the court that he will ensure good education for his children and bear the additional burden in terms of increase in school fees, transport allowance etc. As and when necessity arises and is brought to his notice.

"He has only objected to award of maintenance to his wife who is a CA and to this extent we have also not granted any relief to her," the court said.

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The Gujarat High Court today denied permission for termination of pregnancy of a 14-year- old rape survivor, citing medical reports which said the 28-week foetus is developed to such an extent that its termination will put the life of the mother at risk.

Justice Sonia Gokani said the report submitted by medical experts of Sola Civil Hospital here suggested that the termination was not possible.

The court, however, directed the state government to take care of the victim and her child after birth under its various schemes.

The judge asked the government pleader to get details of the government-assisted NGOs operating around Dhoraji in Rajkot district, from where the victim hails, which can take care of the girl and her baby.

Justice Gokani also asked the government pleader to list the government schemes to help the victim and the orphanages, where the child could be raised.

The court directed the pleader to submit all the information regarding the NGOs, orphanages and government schemes on September 14, until which the victim will remain admitted to a hospital here.

The minor was allegedly raped by a friend of her father in Dhoraji around seven months ago. However, an FIR was lodged at Dhoraji police station on August 1 and the victim's parents moved a plea in the high court last week seeking termination of the pregnancy on the ground that it has caused her mental and physical trauma.

The accused in the case has been arrested.

The HC had earlier directed Sola Civil Hospital here to conduct her physical and mental check-up.

The medical report said the foetus cannot be terminated. It also said the psychological assessment of the victim indicated that she was mentally fine.

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The Gujarat High Court today started dictating its order on appeals filed in the 2002 post- Godhra riots case of Sardarpura village in Mehsana district where 33 members of a minority community were burnt alive.

On November 9, 2011, a Special Court in Mehsana had awarded life imprisonment to 31 persons for the massacre and acquitted 42 others.

A division bench of Justices Harsha Devani and Biren Vaishnav started dictated its order on appeals filed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) and the state government challenging the acquittals.

Some of the victims have also challenged the trial court's order acquitting 14 of the accused persons, claiming there was enough evidence against them.

The dictation will go on for a few days before the order is pronounced. Today the HC focused, among other things, on submissions made by the SIT special prosecutor challenging the rejection of "conspiracy theory" by the trial court.

The HC dictated submissions of the SIT claiming the sequence of events suggested it was "a clear case of conspiracy".

The Supreme Court-appointed SIT said a conspiracy was hatched by some local leaders to target members of a minority community of Sardarpura in Vijapur taluka on the intervening nights of February 28 and March 1, 2002, in reaction to the February 27 Godhra train burning incident that left people 59 dead.

As per SIT submissions, villagers started gathering at the Panchayat office from around 9.30 PM on February 28, 2002, as part of a conspiracy.

Between 11.30 PM and 2.30 AM on the intervening night of February 28 and March 1, the mob torched the house of one Ibrahim Sheikh and stood there to ensure nobody could rescue people shouting for help.

According to SIT, if the witnesses did not touch upon the conspiracy aspect, it was because they were mentally traumatised when examined in the trial court.

Lawyers linked to the case said the dictation will go on for a few days during which submissions made by government pleader, counsel of victims and the defence will be noted.

Out of the 42 acquitted, 11 were freed due to lack of evidence and 31 were given benefit of doubt.

On the fateful night, a violent mob targeted a minority population of the village who took shelter in the 'pucca' house of Sheikh. The mob torched the house after pouring petrol, killing 33 people, including 22 women.

In all, 76 people were made accused, of which two died during pendency of the trial, while one was a minor against whom proceedings are on in a juvenile court. The Special Court had framed charges against 73 accused in June 2009.

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The Delhi High Court has upheld the sacking of a CISF personnel for sharing information on social networking site about various units with a woman of a "hostile foreign country", saying divulging such inputs through chat with an undercover agent was detrimental to national security.

The court's observation came while rejecting a plea of a CISF constable, who was dismissed from service in 2011 after he was found involved in chatting on Facebook with a woman, who as per intelligence report was working as an undercover agent of Pakistan.

"..From perusal of the aforesaid reasoning and noting the allegation against the petitioner of divulging information with regard to CISF units and his colleagues, is surely an aspect, which is detrimental to security interest of the organisation, more so, when the person to which the information has been divulged is an undercover agent of a hostile foreign country..," a bench of justices Indira Banerjee and V Kameswar Rao said.

Petitioner Balkar Singh, who was appointed as a constable in CISF in June 2000, has moved the high court challenging the December 7, 2011 order dismissing him from service.

In his plea, Singh said that while working at NTPC unit, Simhadri, he was directed to proceed on temporary duty to CISF headquarters in New Delhi on October 24, 2011.

He said that at the CISF headquarters, he was asked about his Facebook account and he told the senior officials that he had not disclosed any kind of information to anyone.

The petitioner said that after returning to his unit, he received an order of December 7, 2011 which said he was being dismissed from service since he was involved in chatting on Facebook with one Tanzeela Mazeed, who was working as an undercover agent, and had allegedly exchanged information with her.

Singh, while denying the allegation levelled against him, said he was told that it was not possible to hold a regular departmental inquiry against him.

Singh claimed he had befriended Mazeed on Facebook after checking that many of his superior officers and colleagues were also on her friend list but later stopped communicating with her and immediately deleted his Facebook account.

Meanwhile, the counsel appearing for Centre claimed that CISF Headquarters had received an information from a sister intelligence agency that Singh was in contact on Facebook with a Pakistani agent and had been exchanging information through draft mode by creating an gmail ID on her instructions.

The Centre's counsel claimed that when Singh was called



to CISF headquarters on October 24, 2011, he confessed to having given bank account number and certain information regarding CISF units in Rajasthan and his e-mail address to Mazeed.

However, Singh's counsel said dismissing his client after 11 years of outstanding service on this ground was "clearly untenable" as he had not shared any information with Mazeed.

The court, while dismissing his plea, said the view taken by the authorities in the order was "justified" as even if a departmental inquiry was held, the charges against him cannot be proved in the absence of a crucial witness.

"There was material in the form of a statement of the petitioner himself and the information given by the sister intelligence agency and on analysing the same, if the competent authority concludes that in the scenario, it is not possible to hold an inquiry, this court is of the view that the same cannot be faulted," it said.
Shares of realty firm Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) today slumped nearly 9 per cent after the company reported a 30 per cent decline in net profit for the quarter ended June 30.

The stock plunged 8.81 per cent to Rs 92.05 on BSE.

At NSE, shares of the company dropped 8.73 per cent to Rs 92.

HDIL on Saturday reported a 30 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 40.89 crore for the quarter ended June 30.

It had posted a net profit of Rs 58.42 crore in the year-ago period, Mumbai-based developer had said in a regulatory filing.

Income from operations fell marginally to Rs 260.71 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal from Rs 266.75 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Total income stood at Rs 265.21 crore for the quarter ended June against Rs 272.58 crore in the year-ago period.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Himachal Pradesh Governor Acharya Devvrat and Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh have greeted the people of the state on the eve of Eid-ul-Zuha.

In his greetings, Acharya Devvrat hoped the festival would strengthen peace and brotherhood and bring prosperity to the state.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh in his message said Eid-ul-Zuha symbolises sacrifice, faith and devotion. He appealed to the people to work unitedly for peace, progress and prosperity of the state.

Leader of the Opposition P K Dhumal and state BJP chief Satpal Singh Satti also greeted the people on the occasion.

State unit of CPI(M) also greeted the people on the occasion and said the festival should unite the people and strengthen religious harmony.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An alleged racket involving dumping of medical waste from Kerala, was busted in nearby Pollachi by an alert group of farmers, on whose tip-off one person has been arrested in this connection, police said today.

The matter came to light after farmers in C Gopalapuram on the outskirts of Pollachi had complained about foul smell emanating from an eight-acre farm land belonging to one Manikandan a few months ago there, police said.

However, Manikandan had managed to convince them saying he was rearing white pigs and the smell could be that of it.

A group of farmers had then noticed small pits that were dug up in the farm and decided to monitor the activities of Manikandan and kept a close vigil since last night, police said.

To their surprise, they noticed a mini lorry entering the farm around 3 AM and dumping some bags into a pit.

Immediately, the farmers rushed to the spot and found medical waste and parts of human body in the bags, they said.

Though a few persons managed to escape, one Shahul Hamid was caught and handed over to police.

Hamid has been taken into custody for interrogation, and a hunt is on for Manikandan and others involved in it, police added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India is at an early stage of smartphone boom but the country is "highly likely" to become a "genuine global power in the smartphone world", a Chinese media report said today.

"Worth noting is how essentially different India is from other emerging markets," an article in the state-run Global Times said.

"Factoring in its strength in software, which, coupled with the country's continuing demographic dividend and the Indian government's strong push for developing the nation's manufacturing sector, the country, presently in the very early stage of a smartphone boom, is highly likely to transform into a genuine global power in the smartphone world," it said.

"All these seem to be laying the foundation for India's local brands to possibly become the next Apple, Samsung, or China's ZTE or Huawei, in years to come when eventually India joins the global smartphone supply chain and follows in the footsteps of the US and China to become a new trendsetter in the smartphone arena," said the article based on observations by Chinese smartphone companies executives.

"When that day comes, India's phone brands might even be among the bestsellers in China," it said.

India is one of the few spots still buzzing with high growth in the global smartphone landscape, and has thereby increasingly become a magnet for smartphone makers from its giant northeastern neighbour, China, where its market has now hit a plateau after years of explosive growth, it said.

"With a rising number of Chinese technology brands making inroads into the Indian market, competition in the South Asian marketplace for smartphones is certain to heat up. However, it will not be the case that Chinese tech firms come face to face with India's local phone manufacturers in a cruel price war," it said.

"It is by no means an easy job for Chinese firms to actually make a profit at this stage, although sales may be boosted by the introduction of a few phone models that are capable of hitting it big in the local market," it said.

It advised the Chinese tech brands to forge partnerships with not only Indian firms but also their countrymen to create a bigger pie, thus enabling them to be truly commercially viable.

It's likely that within two years, Chinese phone brands will be among the top three or four phone vendors in the market, with a question mark hanging over how many of the top ones will be Chinese brands, the paper said.

"It would be more reasonable to assume that Apple and Samsung will still be tough rivals for any Chinese brands aiming for the more premium segment of the Indian smartphone market, considering that other companies, particularly Apple have been placing high bets in the Indian market and many of the Indian elite who have studied or worked in the US tend to naturally appreciate the American lifestyle that Apple is seen to embody," it said.

"Also, there is a possibility that China's foray into the Indian market may help catapult India's local smartphone manufacturers to be among global top brands some day," it added.

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Four prominent Indian Americans and three Americans have been awarded by a Houston-based chamber of commerce for their outstanding work as entrepreneurs and "building bridges" between India and the US.

The awards were given by Indo-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston (IACCGH) at a gala event here.

The "Young Professional of the Year"was presented to Malisha Patel, 36, who is the Chief Operating Officer of Memorail Hermann Hospital Sugarland.

Woman entrepreneur award was presented to Revati Puranik, CFO, Worldwide Oilfield Machine, a company that specialises in manufacturing oil and gas equipment.

Bhavesh (Bob) Patel, CEO LyondellBasell was awarded Business leader of the year, while entrepreneur of the year was given to Abezaar S Tayabji, founder and CEO Shipcom Wireless.

Lifetime Achievement awards were presented to three Americans- Marvin Odum, former Shell USA President, Richard Huebner, former president Houston Minority Supplier Development and Dr John Mendelsohn, former President M D Anderson Cancer Center, for bridging barriers between India and USA.

A gala event themed "Building Bridges" was attended by over 700 guests, comprising top business leaders, prominent community members, Counsil General of India Dr Anupam Ray, University of Houston Chancellor and President Dr Renu Khator.

Various elected officials likeCongresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Congressman Al Green and Pete Olson, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, Mayor of Houston Sylvester Turner, Council member Jack Christie, City of Houston Controller Chris Brown were also present.

The chief guest and keynote speaker was Bruce Culpepper, President, Shell USA.

Executive Director of IACCGH Jagdip Ahluwalia said the Chamber has connected entrepreneurs, doctors, educators, technocrats in an informal setting to create lasting business relationships.

Consul General Dr Ray in speech said it is a good time to be a diplomat in the US and this is evident from the fact that a few days ago on the same day the US Secretary of State was in India and the Indian Defense Minister was in Washington.

Both countries were talking about issues like defense, cybersecurity, increase in trade, he said.

"When you do business in India you are essentially doing business with a country that is more like the US than many countries in the world", Ray said.

Houston Mayor Sylvestor Turner said the Indian presence in Houston makes it the most diverse city in America.

More than 700 companies in Houston do business with India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A team of Australian researchers has partnered with an Indian research foundation in an effort to develop a variety of salt-tolerant rice, as part of a broader project to address the issue of food security.

An agreement was signed between the University of Tasmania (UTAS) and M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai last week for a $2 mllion project supported by the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund.

They will conduct research on salt-tolerant varieties identified from wild species using biotechnology approaches in India and in Australia.

was one of the most important staple foods in the world, with 92 per cent of all produced in Asia, said Holger Meinke, head of the university's School of Land and Food head.

Production in this region was increasingly impaired by seawater intrusion or saline water tables rendering vast areas of land unproductive and threatening the livelihood of many rice farmers.

"Researchers from UTAS, supported by Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, will be using a variety of wild rice that is capable of growing in highly saline coastal areas to identify and transfer traits that confer its remarkable salinity-stress tolerance," Meinke said.

"These traits will be transferred to traditional rice cultivars using a range of modern plantbreeding techniques to create a salt-tolerant rice variety which will be suitable for growing conditions in India and other saline environments around the world," Meinke added.

"The project will include exchange visits between India and Australia and is a great example of Tasmanian researchers forming international partnerships and sharing expertise to address issues of global significance," he said.

The three-year project is being led by Sergey Shabala from UTAS who said the project is an important effort to improve global food security as well as production efficiencies for Australian farmers.

"Rice is Australia's third largest cereal grain export, and the ninth largest agricultural export. The industry generates around $800 million revenue per annum, with around $500 million of this coming from value-added exports," Shabala said.

"The development of a salinity-tolerant rice variety will help improve outcomes for Australian farmers who are affected by transient salinity. This is the first step towards developing agricultural systems that are highly salt-tolerant. The capabilities and technologies developed through this project have the potential to ultimately enhance the agricultural productivity for other major crops such as barley and wheat," Shabala said.

The UTAS will also work closely with Zhonghua Chen from the University of Western Sydney.
A solidly crafted, emotionally stirring Australian film about an Indian boy who ended up on the mean streets of Calcutta and eventually in the cozy home of an Australian couple in Hobart has generated a giant buzz at the ongoing 41st Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

"Lion", helmed by first-timer Garth Davis and top-lined by Dev Patel, is the amazing true story of Saroo Brierley, an impoverished Madhya Pradesh five-year-old who lost contact with his birth mother after being carried 1600 km away from home by a train on which he fell asleep.

The film, also starring Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara, David Wenham, Mumbai actress Priyanka Bose and child actor Sunny Pawar, tracks Saroo's search for his home in Khandwa a quarter century later with the help of Google Earth.

Based on Brierley's book, "A Long Way Home", "Lion" has been produced by The Weinstein Company and is expected to go all the way when the Academy announces its next Oscar nominations.

The film is expected to be a strong contender for TIFF's audience choice award, which is usually a harbinger of Oscar night glory.

At the post-premiere press conference on Sunday, Nicole Kidman, who plays the protagonist's adoptive mom, Sue Brierley, said, "This is a film about the power of mothers, whichever form they come in."



The role of Saroo's biological mother Kamla is played by Priyanka Bose. She said, "Lion is an incredible story of a lost man finding his way back home in circumstances that are stranger than fiction."



For both lead actor Dev Patel and director Garth Davis, "Lion" has been a self-confessedly life-altering experience.

"The 'Lion' role was unlike anything that I've done before on the screen. It was deeply introspective. In real life, I am a fidgety kind of person. Playing Saroo Brierley was life-changing, and one of the more nourishing experiences I've had as an actor," said Patel.

Patel dismissed the suggestion that there were



similarities between his 2008 breakout film "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Lion".

"The similarity between the two films ends with the fact that they are both about young boys lost on the streets of a city. Thematically and tonally, they are very different. Slumdog had frenetic energy. Lion is a sweeping human drama," the actor said.

Patel pointed out that in this movie, his character was more Aussie than Indian.

"Saroo is an outsider in India. He cannot even speak the language," he added.

"'Lion' is my fifth film to be shot in India. The country is the most incredible canvas to shoot on. It is beautifully chaotic. You have ten people behind the camera to capture one moment," said Patel.

For Davis, finding Sunny Pawar to play the five-year-old Saroo was almost as dramatic as anything that the film could conjure up.

"Putting a young boy at the very centre of half of the story required a lot of hard work.

"Children in India are a staggering lot. Their spirit is absolutely infectious," said Davis, who hitherto directed commercials and television shows.

"I love difficult locations," said Davis. "People go to the easy places to shoot. I went to places in India that few films have gone to before."



If the TIFF response is anything to go by, "Lion" seems destined to go places.
Horticulture firm INI Farms, which exports fruits to 21 countries, is planning to expand its domestic business by entering markets of 10 cities by this fiscal, a top company executive has said.

"Currently, Kimaye products are available in Jaipur, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. We are planning to be in about 10 cities by 2016-17 fiscal," INI Farms Managing Director Pankaj Khandelwal told PTI here.

The company is focused in dealing with fruits like pomegranates and bananas, he said, adding that INI farms will soon launch coconut chunks.

"However, we also supply pineapple and are done with the trials for coconut chunks and will soon commercially introduce it," INI Farms CEO Purnima Khandelwal said.

The firm is targeting 15 per cent market share in its domestic business this financial year and double it to 30 per cent going forward, Khandelwal said.

To further strengthen its source recently, INI Farms along with the Future Group's Future Consumer Enterprise signed an MoU with the Department of Horticulture, Andhra Pradesh for a project in the state.

The MoO was signed to encourage and support productivity improvement, post-harvest infrastructure, capacity building, value chain development of banana and pomegranate. It involves an investment of about Rs 180 crore.

It has also launched a new integrated pack house at Vasunde near Pune that will cater to both domestic and international markets for pomegranates and banana.

Meanwhile, the company is also looking at new destinations for shipments like Canada for pomegranates and coconut chunks, she added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Initial results of Croatia's early elections have shown that the conservatives were leading the vote, but won't be able to rule on their own, paving the way for another coalition government in the European Union's newest member state.

With more than half of the ballots counted, Croatia's state election authorities said early today that the conservative Croatian Democratic Union, or HDZ, have won 62 seats in the 151-seat parliament, while rival left-leaning People's Coalition won 53. Third-placed are kingmakers Most, or Bridge, with 12 seats.

Although incomplete, the results are not expected to change dramatically until the full count later today.

If confirmed, the results will present a major success for the HDZ party, which also led the previous right-wing government that collapsed in June after less than six months in power, triggering the worst political turmoil in the country since it joined the EU in 2013.

"After such a victory, we are the party that will have a chance to form a stable, future Croatian government in the next four years," HDZ leader Andrej Plenkovic said. "We have shown that we have regained the trust of our voters."



The election outcome comes as a major blow for Croatia's left-leaning Social Democrats, the main party in the People's Coalition, who were leading the polls ahead of the elections, but apparently have failed to capitalize on the political crisis created by their opponents in order to win the election.

The Social Democrats leader, former Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic, expressed regret over the results and expressed hope that the next government will be formed soon, saying that the instability of the past several months must not be repeated.

"Unfortunately, this was not a happy day for Croatia," said Milanovic, adding "But Croatia needs a stable government now, whoever may be part of it."



The previous Croatian government was formed after an inconclusive election last November following weeks of negotiations between the HDZ and Most. It fell because of bickering within the ruling coalition.

HDZ and the Social Democrats, which is the largest party in the Peoples' Coalition, have been the two dominant parties in Croatia since the country split from former Yugoslavia in 1991.

Croatia had tilted to the right under the HDZ-led government that took over following the inconclusive vote last November. However, in the past few weeks it has sought to remake its image as a centrist party under new leader Plenkovic.

Hours before the polls closed, the turnout among Croatia's 3.8 million voters was nearly 10 per cent less than in November. President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic urged Croats to come out and vote, saying the country's future is in their hands.

"The following months and years are truly decisive for Croatia, and today we have to be serious," he said. "We can't complain later if the outcome of the election is not the way we want it to be.

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Defence Minister has said the long pending issue of demand for transfer of defence land here to Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) will be resolved at the earliest.

City Mayor Bharat Dangar, Vadodara BJP MP Ranjanben Bhatt and VMC Commissioner Vinod Rao met Parrikar in this regard during his visit to the city on Sunday.

"I have sought details from the Defence office in Pune and after getting it, the bottlenecks in the transfer deal will be cleared," Parrikar told PTI before leaving from here late on Sunday evening.

He said they have to look into all aspects related to transfer of defence land to the institutions who want it.

VMC requires the land for solving the problem of traffic congestion in the city, which has witnessed a considerable increase in vehicular traffic in past 20 years.

The VMC has been seeking since 1996 transfer of 12,438 sq m of defence land for widening of roads. This includes 8,752 sq m land in Tarsali, 1,887 sq m land near EME School in Harni, 289 sq m land near Lalbaug Bungalows in Manjalpur and 1,510 sq m near Kapurai range in Danteshwar.

In this regard, Dangar also handed over a letter to Parrikar, who assured him of looking into the matter to resolve it soon.
Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) today said it has awarded a contract to DST Germany for designing special vessels to navigate the 1,620-km stretch of National Waterways I (NW - 1).

In keeping with its objective of providing safe, environment-friendly and economical mode of transportation through NW-1, IWAI has signed a contract with DST, Germany on to design vessels, especially suited to navigate the 1620 km stretch of NW-1, IWAI said in a statement.

One of the most important navigational challenges for NW-1 is the kind of vessels that will ply on the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly stretch, it said.

"Keeping in view the difficult hydro-morphological characteristics of the river in the upper reaches between Patna and Varanasi, it is important to have vessels which can ply on low draft, with high carrying capacity, and are economically viable and environment friendly," it said.

DST, Germany, a ship building company, which won the contract has been tasked with designing such vessels in three months from the time of the award of contract, it said.

"Considering the expected growth of the Inland Waterways sector in India, the company is expected to develop a number of standardised vessels to meet the requirement of various types of cargo," it said.

Thomas Guesnet, Senior Project Manager of DST Germany said, "We at DST in Germany are very proud to be associated with IWAI. Navigation here in Indian rivers is not easy, and therefore the ships that are to be designed have to be specially made keeping in view the low draft and multiplicity of the volume of the cargo."



IWAI had received 17 Expression of Interest (EoI) from various reputed firms, and DST, Germany won the contract after a tough and rigorous procurement process.

The Government is developing NW-1 under the Jal Marg Vikas Project, with assistance from the World Bank at an estimated cost of Rs 4,200 crore.

The project would enable commercial navigation of vessels with capacity of 1500-2,000 tonnes.

Phase-I of the project covers the Haldia-Varanasi stretch. The project includes development of fairway, Multi-Modal Terminals at Varanasi, Haldia, and Sahibganj, strengthening of river navigation system, conservancy works, modern River Information System (RIS), Digital Global Positioning System (DGPS), night navigation facilities, modern methods of channel marking, construction of a new state of the art navigational lock at Farakka etc.

NW-1 is a waterway of national significance passing through Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, potentially serving the major cities of Haldia, Howrah, Kolkata, Bhagalpur, Patna, Ghazipur, Varanasi, Allahabad and their industrial hinterlands including several industries located along the Ganga basin.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
American musician Jay Z, along with Bollywood A-listers like Aamir Khan, AR Rahman, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Ranveer Singh, will join Coldplay for its debut concert here on November 19.

Other big names for the concert, which is part of Global Citizen Festival, are Katrina Kaif, Farhan Akhtar, Arijit Singh, Shradhha Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor, Monali Thakur, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Dia Mirza and Monali Thakur, the British band announced on its Twitter page.

The tickets will be free for the fans, who sign up to become a Global Citizen and participate in the campaign of Global Citizen initiative to support causes like education, equality and sanitation.

The band's frontman Chris Martin, who had visited Delhi and Mumbai last year, is the creative director of the Global Citizen Festival.

The concert is happening on World Toilet Day to draw attention towards sanitation problems in the country.

The band had made headlines ever since they were spotted shooting for the video of their track "Hymn for the Weekend" from seventh studio album, "A Head Full of Dreams", which was released in December last year.

The track's video, featuring Beyonce and Sonam Kapoor, was released in January this year.

The pictures of the shoot had surfaced on social media and was followed by Martin's impromptu performance at Summer House Cafe. Martin also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit here.

Global Citizen India, in its first year, will offer a wide cross-section of content and actions focused on creating meaningful impacts in the areas of education, equality, and clean water and sanitation.

Convened in 2012, the festival is a star-studded benefit concert held annually in New York. This year's edition in the American city will feature international music celebrities like Kendrick Lamar, Beyonce, metal legends Metallica, Alicia Keys and Rihanna among others.

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In a first major reflection of strain within the alliance government in Bihar, the Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) on Monday strongly reacted to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Raghubansh Prasad Singh's remarks backing the comments of Mohammad on the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

The party also appealed to the RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav to enforce the code of 'gatbandhan dharma (coalition principles)' among his partymen.

"We appeal to the RJD president Lalu to instill the confidence in us that such errant leaders will be disciplined," senior ministers Bijendra Prasad Yadav and Rajiv Ranjan Singh Lallan told reporters.

Kumar had on Sunday trashed Shahabuddin's comments that he was a "chief minister of circumstances" and "unimportant" and had asserted that everybody knows about the mandate of the people.

The two JD(U) ministers sought to ignore Shahabuddin's remarks against the Chief Minister after his release from jail on bail on Saturday, but came down heavily on the RJD vice president and former Union minister Raghubansh Prasad Singh.

Singh had on Sunday said, "There are different parties in the alliance and Lalu Prasad is our leader. The leaders of the alliance partners had decided to make Nitish Kumar the chief minister (even before the election). I did not favour it but they had already taken a decision."

"What is wrong in it (Shahabuddin's statement)? Nitish Kumar has indeed been a chief minister of circumstances and not because of his own strength and numbers," Singh had said.

Reacting strongly, state Energy Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav told reporters, "Raghubansh Prasad Singh is making uncharitable remarks, laced with filth against the government and the chief minister, even more than the opposition, BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). His comments are not dignified and guided by personal grudge."

Lallan also lashed out at senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi for regularly making statements against the state government in the wake of Shahabuddin's release from jail after he was granted bail by the Patna High Court.

"Sushil Modi is trying to create an environment of fear among the citizens of Bihar," he alleged.

The two state ministers were dismissive of Shahabuddin's comments.

"Hundreds of people go to and come out of jail and speak filth. We do not take note of such views. For us, he is a non-entity," the two said.

"How can the comments of somebody, who is in and out of jail in criminal cases, tarnish the image of a government?" Bijendra Yadav asked, referring to the controversial former RJD MP.

Lallan Singh said there was always a Lakshmanrekha (limit) for parties within any coalition. No JD(U) leader has ever made any comment against RJD leaders.

Coming down heavily on Sushil Kumar Modi for demanding slapping of charges under the Crime Control Act against Shahabuddin, like expelled JD(U) MLA Anant Singh, Lallan said, "The man who is claiming to be a law expert, should have read the 2014 Patna High Court order where it had questioned the detention of a person on the basis of a case registered nine months ago in 2013."

"How can charges under the CCA be slapped on in an 11-year-old case (murder of witness)?" he asked taking a potshot at Sushil Modi.

Regarding the murder case of journalist Rajdeo Nandan at Siwan in which a close aide of is in jail, Lallan asked the BJP why was the Central Bureau of Investigation yet to launch its probe even though the state government had recommended an investigation by the central agency.

Asked if the state government would appeal against the decision to grant bail to Shahabuddin in a higher court, the two ministers said there was a rule of law in the state and the legal course would run according to laid down provisions in any case.

Bijendra Yadav said the Grand Secular Alliance came to power to fulfil the promises of the seven resolves of the Chief Minister which have been adopted as the policy of governance.

The JD(U) is also mulling action against the party MLA Girdhari Yadav after he was seen in the company of Shahabuddin at Bhagalpur following his release.
The Centrally sponsored JIPMER here will embark upon enhanced security and fire safety measures to rise to the growing demand following increase in patient turnout.

A five member team of Central Industrial Security Force will be camping in the institute for four days from September 15 and review the present security and safety measures in the hospital and institute.

It had been proposed to bring JIPMER on par with the security and fire safety systems in vogue in the other centrally sponsored institutes like AIIMS and also in Indian Institutes of Technologies across the country, a release from Director of JIPMER Dr S C Parija said today.

He said that the need for augmenting the security systems and also fire safety measures had been felt with the strength of patients at the OPDs and also number of visits being on the rise every day.

He said that around 7500 patients seek the service of the hospital in various departments daily while 25,000 visitors come to the hospital every.

Presently the JIPMER has a strength of 280security personnel and already 115 closed circuit television cameras had been installed.

A Security Advisory committee has also been functioning with the guidelines of the Senior Superintendent of Police of Puducherry Rajiv Ranjan and Col (retired) Vijayaraghavan.

A team of CISF under the head of Senior Commandant N Sridhar will be camping in JIPMER for four days from September 15. A team of fire service security team would also be camping in JIPMER from the CISF to make JIPMER one of the safest hospitals.

The CCTVs would also be upgraded in terms of coverage issue with high definition cameras.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Coming out in support of comedian Kapil Sharma, who is facing the ire of MNS and Shiv Sena over his bribery charges against BMC officials, Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam today said the artiste was being "victimised" to divert attention from the issue of graft, and urged the Governor to intervene in the matter.

Kapil had recently tweeted that he had been asked to pay a bribe of Rs 5 lakh by an official of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) which, in turn, claimed that the actor had carried out "illegal construction" at his office for which a notice had been served to him two months ago.

Nirupam, the Mumbai Congress chief, in a letter written to Governor C Vidyasagar Rao, alleged that there were several illegal constructions linked to political parties in the city, including the CM's bungalow, BJP head office at Nariman Point and most shakhas (branch offices) of Shiv Sena.

He also urged the Chief Minister to take action in this regard.

"In an attempt to divert attention from the main issue of bribery, the BJP, Shiv Sena and MNS have accused Mr Sharma of illegal works in his office and threatened him with demolition and other drastic actions. I personally believe the municipal authority has all the right to take action against any illegal structure in Mumbai," Nirupam said.

"But in this case, it seems they have targeted Mr Kapil Sharma, a whistleblower, since he is an artiste and a soft target, with the sole intention of suppressing the bribery issue. It is a well known fact that in Mumbai, common man cannot get any work done without paying bribes," he said.

The former Lok Sabha MP also raised the issue of illegal constructions not only in Mumbai, but across the state, and sought action against such structures.

"The long list of illegal constructions are not as per the approved plans. If at all the CM wants to take a high moral ground, he should take action against all illegal constructions rather than targeting a whistleblower which will only result in suppression of truth," Nirupam said.

The Congress leader said the CM had regularised hundreds



of illegal constructions across Maharashtra recently and therefore, he has no moral right to speak on the matter.

"The reaction of the government and Shiv Sena-BJP smacks of a conspiracy to target and victimise Kapil Sharma as a defence mechanism to suppress the issue of bribery since they are scared of being exposed," Nirupam said.

In the letter, Nirupam also urged the Governor to direct Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to initiate either an inquiry by Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) or a judicial probe into the charges made by the artiste.

"Your Excellency is requested to kindly intervene in the matter and direct the Chief Minister to institute an inquiry by the ACB or a judicial enquiry into the charges of bribery and corruption in order to cleanse the BMC of corrupt practices," he said.

Earlier today, the Raj Thackeray-led MNS filed a complaint against Kapil for keeping mum on his allegation that civic officials had demanded money from him, and violation of building norms by him. Following Kapil's tweets, the Shiv Sena had dared him to name the bribe seeker.

In an apparent attempt to cap the controversy from escalating, the comedian-actor had said that he did not seek to blame any political party.
Stating that her government would follow the Supreme Court order cancelling the Singur land acquisition "line by line", the West Bengal government today asserted land 'parcha' would be distributed among 9,117 farmers on September 14.

'Parcha' is a document which establishes the ownership of a farmer over a piece of land in revenue records.

The Supreme Court had on August 31 ruled that the land acquisition process in Singur was faulty and not for public purpose and had directed to return it to the farmers within 12 weeks.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the land 'parcha' would be distributed among 9,117 farmers of Singur on September 14.

She also said 800 cheques would be distributed among the farmers who had not taken them earlier during the erstwhile Left front government when compensation was paid for acquiring the land.

"Of the total 997 acres of land in Singur, the district administration has completed the survey and demarcation work for 620 acres, and 800 cheques are ready for distribution among land-owners," Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat.

She said, "Altogether 9,117 parchas are ready for handing over to the farmers on September 14 when 'Singur Diwas' would be observed."



"We will follow the Supreme Court ruling line by line," she said, adding the land would be turned cultivable.

Referring to the factory sheds on the land, she said, "There are some temporary structures on the land. We hope they (the Tatas) will remove them within the next 2-3 days. I told (finance minister) Amit Mitra to request them (Tatas) to remove them".

"If they remove them it is good, otherwise we will remove them," she said as she stressed the government was acting as per the apex court's landmark verdict.

On whether the government was facing non-cooperation from the Tatas, she replied in the negative.

"They have taken it sportingly and we have also taken it sportingly. The Tatas are also working in Bengal. There is no problem," she said.

The government would also send a CD to the court to apprise them of the "hard work" being done to honour the order, she said.

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Libya's UN-backed unity government lost control today of a third oil port seized by rival forces, raising fears of a major outbreak of fresh violence in the chaos-ridden country.

The loss comes after fighters backing a rival administration in east Libya seized two other terminals from guards loyal to the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) yesterday.

All three Mediterranean ports are in Libya's "oil crescent", an area seen as a vital source of income for the GNA, which has struggled to assert its authority across the country.

"Our armed forces were able to take control of Zuwaytina port and secure it completely," a spokesman for the fighters that took the terminals said.

The LANA agency loyal to the eastern administration reported a military source as saying: "The armed forces are now concentrated at the port and have secured it after expelling outlaw militia from it."



The forces are commanded by controversial general Khalifa Haftar, who has refused to back the GNA and supports the parallel authority based in east Libya.

Yesterday they took the Al-Sidra and Ras Lanuf ports before attacking Zuwaytina to the east.

It is the first time that Haftar's forces and fighters loyal to the GNA have clashed directly since the unity government started working in the capital in March.

The unity government called on all forces loyal to it to "protect and defend" the ports against what it called "flagrant aggression" against Libyan sovereignty.

It warned overnight that the country was at a "critical juncture", adding "the hopes of Libyans for stability in the country have been dashed".

The head of the rival government in the eastern city of Bayda said it would work on reopening the ports as soon as possible.

"We will work on the oil ports resuming work as soon as possible so as to guarantee all Libyans a decent life," Abdullah al-Thani said.

Haftar's forces said they would hand over the management of the ports to the National Oil Corporation (NOC) to resume oil exports.

The NOC is split into two rival branches, one allied to the GNA and the other to the administration that Haftar supports.

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been invited by the organizers to speak at the Bangkok global Asian conference, which gets underway in November this year.

According to her, the invitation was extended to her as the organizers felt that "Bengal is the destination now".

The two-day conference in the Thai capital begins on November 27.

She pointed out that businesses set up in Bengal can expand their operation to other Asian countries due to the geographical proximity of the state with countries like Malaysia, Myanmar, Kunming in China, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Bangkok, etc.

On her recent visit to Germany to attract investment, she said projects worth Rs 450 crore had been signed already.

Besides solar industry, orders for 25 lakh jute bags were also procured. She said talks were held with engineering, automobile and food processing industry players and a delegation from Germany would be attending the Bengal Global Business Summit in January, next year.

"The beginning is very good. Every state is now exhausted but Bengal has capacity," she said.

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Police have arrested a man for allegedly selling "sex toys" from a shop in Palika Bazar in central Delhi.

A trap was laid to to arrest Khem Chand after a complainant alleged that he sold the "prohibited item".

A constable posed as a customer and purchased an item from him last evening. Later, a case was registered at Connaught Place police station under Section 292(2) (sale of obscene material) of IPC and the accused arrested, said a senior police officer.

Police also seized two battery-operated male sex toys from the shop of the accused, said the officer.

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In an incident of road rage, a lab technician working with Gurgaon's Fortis Hospital was attacked with an iron rod when his car accidentally scraped a man's vehicle from behind in south Delhi, police said today.

The victim Pradeep Chauhan, 35, was returning from Janakpuri to his home in Sangam Vihar with his wife and kids when the incident happened near Qutub Minar Metro Station last week.

The accused, identified as Vineet Kumar, a hairdresser, was arrested and a case under relevant sections has been registered against him, police said.

The accused was enraged after Chauhan's car accidentally hit Vineet's car from behind.

"There was a jam near Qutub Minar metro station and cars were moving really slowly. When there was a red light, the owner of the car moving ahead applied emergency brakes and my husband also applied brakes. My husband's car accidentally touched the vehicle ahead," said Chauhan's wife Anjana who also sustained minor injuries.

She said that the owner of the car ahead came out of his car in anger.

"Even though me and and my husband apologised and told him we are ready to pay the damages, he went back to his car and took out a rod to hit my husband. He was accompanied by his wife and kid. We were also accompanied by our two kids, who are aged 12 and 10 respectively," said the woman.

"His wife asked him to not hit my husband but he hit my husband two-three times. When the public gathered, someone called the police and my husband was taken to the hospital," she added.

The accused tried to flee from the spot but he was caught by the crowd and handed over to the police.

Chauhan is currently admitted to Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj. He sustained severe head injuries and is not in a position to talk, said his wife.

Chauhan works as a dentist in Fortis Hospital, Gurgaon and he was returning from his in-laws' house in West Delhi when he was attacked.

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The naked body of a 26-year-old man was found lying on the ground under mysterious circumstances at an apartment complex in southwest Delhi's Dwarka where he had gone to meet a friend, police said today.

The victim, Saurabh Ghai, had gone to meet Amit Puri (31) whom he had befriended on Facebook around 2-3 weeks ago.

A senior police officers said their Facebook chat showed that they were homosexuals.

Saurabh had gone to Amit's third-floor flat in Dwarka yesterday evening, the officer said, adding that the duo consumed alcohol and even got "physically intimate".

Around 8 PM, Saurabh fell from the third floor of the building. He was found lying on the ground "without clothes" and a PCR call was made by an onlooker, said the officer.

The body has been sent for post-mortem and results are awaited, the officer said.

A case will be registered after post-mortem report is received.

"We don't know whether there was any foul play in the incident. It remains to be determined whether Amit pushed Saurabh after they had a fight or Saurabh fell down accidentally since he was drunk. The boys had also consumed drugs," said the senior police officer.

Amit is working with a Gurgaon-based BPO while Saurabh was unemployed. Saurabh was working with Taxi For Sure but after Ola took over the tax aggregator, he had been laid off.

Saurabh was a resident of Uttam Nagar and had lied to his family that he is going for a movie, said the officer, adding that his family was in a state of shock after the incident.

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Taking note of the claims of a gangrape survivor from Mewat that her attackers asked her if she ate beef, the NCW Chairperson today said the panel has written to the authorities seeking an action taken report even as she refrained from commenting on cow vigilantism.

"We had conducted an inquiry when the gangrape incident happened a few weeks ago. At that time, we got a different version. Now they seem to have changed their version totally.

"...An FIR has been registered and a probe is on so we can't interfere. We have written to the police and the District Magistrate and sought an action taken report," NCW Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam said.

"Cow vigilantism has nothing to do with us. Perpetrators have to be brought to book regardless of cow vigilantism... Cow vigilantism is not part of our work. We are not a political outfit. We should make an effort to give survivors justice," she said.

She also said that she did not want to politicise the crime because "then politics takes precedence over crime".

"To me crime doesn't become bigger because of caste or creed or cow vigilantism. To me a rape is rape regardless of the victim and her social/cultural/ political background. Similarly for the perpetrator," Kumaramangalam said.

In an interview to NDTV one of the two gangrape survivors said, "They asked if we eat beef. We said we don't, but they insisted we did. Then they said we're hurting you before so you don't and that if we tell anyone we'll will be insulted."



On Congress activist Shehzad Poonawalla's complaint to her on the matter seeking "directions to the central government to enforce a ban on cow vigilantes", the NCW chief said, "He is unnecessarily politicising the issue."



Poonawalla, in an e-mail this morning, made five demands from NCW which included a fair probe, summoning of the Haryana Chief Minister, directions to the Centre on cow vigilantism and compensation for the rape survivors



The 20-year-old woman and her 14-year-old cousin were sexually assaulted by several men in their home in Mewat on August 24. Their uncle and aunt were tied up and then beaten to death.

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Most Chinese don't regret and back Air China's offensive advice asking travellers to be cautious in areas populated by "Indians, Pakistanis and black people" when visiting London, the state media today said, terming the flag carrier's racially-charged warning a "careless mistake".

"Most Chinese on social media are not expressing much regret over the incident. Many have shown understanding of the Chinese airline, suggesting that it had done something right, but unfortunately not in an appropriate way," an article in the Global Times said.

"The travel alert, however, has unintentionally insulted Londoners and many other people who are inclined to use euphemisms to imply the connections between race and crimes. As wonderfully diverse as London may be, harmonious it is not," it said.

The travel advice in Air China's in-flight magazine 'Wings of China' had warned passengers that London is generally a safe place to travel, but "precautions are needed when entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and Black people."



It triggered a huge controversy after journalists noticed the tip and tweeted the picture to Sadiq Khan, London's mayor, who is of Pakistani origin on September 8.

The magazine's publisher has since apologised and withdrawn the controversial issue, saying it was an editorial mistake. Chinese Foreign Ministry too has asked the airline to investigate the incident.

The article today suggested that the airline "should have just named boroughs and streets that have high crime rates without mentioning who lives there, a lesson for other Chinese companies that must keep in mind the sensitivity of racial issues in many Western societies."



"Air China's careless mistake is not an example of how racism is tolerated in China," it said.

"It is merely a reflection of the Chinese' unawareness of racial issues because of their much less exposure to other groups compared to most Westerners. Though many may seem prejudiced, they are not racist."



Referring to the protest lodged by British MP Virendra Sharma, the article said "for these British politicians who are making a fuss over the incident, perhaps they should just make their constituencies safer for both local citizens and travellers, so that travel alerts are no longer necessary".

"As China's population diversifies, it would benefit greatly to do away with prejudice and nurture trust among different people," it said.

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Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt today thanked West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her support during his tough times.

"I came here to thank her. When I was in jail it was Mamata didi and Shatrughan Sinha who stood by me. She was also good friends with my father," Dutt, 57, said after a meeting with her at the state secretariat 'Nabanna'.

In March 2013, Banerjee had said the actor, convicted in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, "already suffered a lot for the blunder".

The "Munna Bhai" star has also accepted an invitation to attend the state-run Kolkata International Film Festival to be held later in the year.

Recalling that he had shot the hit film "Parineeta" in the city, Dutt said he is impressed by the changes in the metropolis.

He said he likes the idea of open jail and wants to be a part of the state government's project on this.

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Muslims in Kerala today celebrated Eid-ul-Azha or Bakrid, the festival of sacrifice, with hundreds of faithful thronging mosques and specially arranged Idgahs for the morning prayers in towns and villages across the state.

Giving out the Eid message, religious scholars exhorted the faithful to uphold the Islamic ideals of love, compassion and unflinching faith in the will of Almighty.

The Governor Justice (retd) P Sathasivam, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala and other political parties greeted people on the occasion.

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Severe flooding in a North Korean border region has killed at least 133 people with another 395 missing and thousands of homes swept away, the UN says, after Pyongyang reported "great hardship" in the area.

Some 107,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the area along the Tumen River, the world body said in a statement received today which cited Pyongyang government figures.

The North's official media has described the downpour which led to the floods near the northeastern border with China and Russia as the worst for decades, and said it brought severe hardship to residents.

It says a nationwide mass-mobilisation 200-day labour campaign intended to bolster the economy has been redirected to assist the flood victims.

The impoverished nation is vulnerable to natural disasters, especially floods, due partly to deforestation and poor infrastructure.

At least 169 people were killed by a massive rainstorm in the summer of 2012.

Major state resources are swallowed up by a missile and nuclear weapons programme which Pyongyang says is essential to deter US aggression.

More than 35,500 houses have been hit by the latest floods, with 69 percent of them completely destroyed, and 8,700 public buildings have been damaged, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement dated Sunday.

Around 16,000 hectares (39,540 acres) of farmland have been inundated and at least 140,000 people urgently need help, it said.

OCHA said a group made up of UN agencies, international NGOs, the international Red Cross and the North's Red Cross had visited parts of the flood-stricken region last week to assess needs.

It said aid agencies have released material from stockpiles in the North such as food, shelter and kitchen kits and water purification and health supplies.

The North's government was working urgently to reopen roads and was distributing relief goods and building materials. The priority was to rebuild 20,000 homes by early October, before the bitter Korean winter sets in.

The North has trumpeted the role of its ruling Workers' Party in responding to the disaster in North Hamgyong province.

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The 34-year-old Army jawan, who died in Jammu and Kashmir, was cremated with full military honours today at his native place near here in North Maharashtra.

Shahaji Gopala Gorde, a resident of Waki Khurd village of Nashik district, died yesterday.

His mortal remains were brought from Kashmir to Mumbai airport from where they were taken to the Devlali Army camp near here last night, Deputy Collector Ramdas Khedkar said.

Later, the remains were taken in an Army vehicle by road to his native village, where they were consigned to flames with full military honours, he said.

Several government officials and villagers paid tribute to the solider before Gorde's father and son lit the funeral pyre.

The jawan, from 26 Rashtriya Rifles unit, was on patrolling duty at Bandipur in Kashmir at the time of his death. Khedkar said it was not known under what circumstances he died in the militancy-affected state.

He is survived by father Gopala (65), mother Janabai (60), wife Rekha (28), son Om (6) and daughter Sidhhi (8).

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In order to put the Nitish Kumar government under pressure on the issue of Md Shahabuddin's release from jail, the NDA today submitted a memorandum to Bihar Governor Ramnath Kovind demanding slapping the Crime Control Act (CCA) against the RJD strongman.

"We have sought the Governor's direction to the state government for invoking the CCA against the dreaded RJD strongman to put him behind the bars again as an atmosphere of fear has gripped Bihar, particularly Siwan district," senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said after meeting the Governor.

Shahabuddin, an ex-RJD MP, hails from Siwan.

"The Governor gave us a patient hearing and said he will look into the matter as under the Constitutional framework," Modi, a member of the NDA delegation that met Kovind at the Raj Bhavan here, said.

The Patna High Court on September 7 granted bail to controversial RJD leader Mohammad Shahabuddin in a case of murder of a witness in the killing of two brothers in Siwan by bathing them in acid.

Despite the bail, Modi said, the government should put Shahabuddin behind bars by invoking provisions of the CCA to restore the faith of the people in the government as had been done in the case of expelled JD(U) MLA Anant Singh.

Modi also lashed out at the Nitish Kumar government for 'stage managing' the release of Shahabuddin on bail from Bhagalpur jail last week alleging the state government deliberately delayed trial in one of the cases against him.

Even if it was not possible to invoke CCA against Shahabuddin due to procedural reasons, the man should be expelled from Bihar and brought back only to stand trial in the cases against him, Modi said.

The leader of Opposition in the state Legislative Council said the state government should set up a cell in the police department under an IG rank officer to monitor trial of the cases against Shahabuddin in a time-bound manner.

A panel of best lawyers in the country should be hired for bringing the 'dreaded' RJD strongman to justice for his crimes over the years, including those that he had arranged from inside jail while being incarcerated, Modi said.

Modi also sought action against the officers who are responsible for not serving High Court notices to Shahabuddin in the cases in which trial was scheduled to begin in 2013, but could not be initiated leading to his bail recently.

The former deputy chief minister sought security for family members of slain persons in whose murder cases Shahabuddin was allegedly involved.

RLSP MP Ram Kumar Sharma, HAM (Secular) leader Danish Rizwan and the BJP leaders Nandkishore Yadav and Prem Kumar were also present at the press conference.

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Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) has moved the National Green Tribunal seeking its nod for commencement of boat transport service on a section of Yamuna, prompting the green panel to seek response from Centre and Delhi government on the issue.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar issued notices to Ministry of Water Resources, Environment Ministry, Delhi government, Delhi Development Authority, Delhi Pollution Control Committee and others while seeking their reply by October 19.

The Waterways Authority has sought permission to construct environment friendly " project" on Yamuna, declared as National Waterway 110 under National Waterways Act 2016, for shipping and navigation water transport facility from Wazirabad to Fatehpur Jat (Saharanpur, UP) in accordance with the Inland Waterways Authority of India Act, 1985 and the National Waterways Act 2016.

"This tribunal while discussing Maily se Nirmal Yamuna Revitalisation Project, 2017 had issued comprehensive directions with respect to the demarcation of the flood plains of river Yamuna and the measures required for protection thereof and also in relation to the drainage system in Delhi.

"While passing the directions, the Tribunal had also prohibited carrying out of construction activity in the demarcated floodplain of Yamuna. It is in pursuance of this order of this tribunal that the applicant is seeking the indulgence and permission of NGT for the development of an environment friendly and complimentary water transportation in the Delhi stretch of Yamuna," the plea said.

In its plea, IWAI said it has conducted pre-feasibility study through a reputed consultant for the integrated development of Yamuna to enable navigation and to develop water transport facilities in the Delhi region(Palla- Wazirabd-Okhla) which has revealed that water taxi, ferry options and recreation activities are the most feasible and environmentally sustainable for the said stretch.

The proposal of the project involves development of five floating terminals/jetty like structures which would be anchored by cables. These jetties will be less than the 20,000 sq metre each structures, the plea said.

"These floating terminals may be deployed and withdrawn at will and the effect on the flood plain will be negligible. Approach roads at these five terminals, which would be kuchcha roads and developed without any tarred or permanent material. The applicant proposes to provide e-rickshaws for ensuring the connectivity from the approach road to the terminal.

"Spaces will be marked for parking and no parking spaces are planned in the vicinity of the floodplains. A waiting area with toilets which will not be be a permanent structure but a steel shed supported by poles. Maintaining dredging will be undertaken to ensure assured depth of the river stretch of 16 kms for light moving vessels and also for the terminals to the main channels," the plea said.
With the government claiming to have set up 18 one-stop centres to extend support to women affected by violence under the Nirbhaya fund, an NGO today said only one of these facilities was functional.

Officials of the Women and Child Development Ministry, however, maintained that 18 one-stop centres were functional.

The founder of Aman Satya Kachroo Trust, Rajendra Kachroo, said, "17 of 18 One Stop Centres are dysfunctional. None of these 17 are operating. They are just bluff, they exist only in name. Corruption, favouritism, incompetence and arrogance is seen in almost every state."



When the OSC scheme was introduced in 2015, 35 centres were to be set up. In May, 2016, the government revised that figure to 150 centres.

"Why is the government setting up more centres when these 17 centres are as good as non-existent?" Kachroo asked.

"Many centres have a board outside but nothing inside. Some have a desk with files. Those that are marginally better do not have any provision for food or changing facilities."



"...None of the centres are collecting computerised data about the survivors brought there and details of the crime. Update on a daily basis through web-based software for UID and facility for video conferencing is also not available anywhere except in the model centre in Raipur," he claimed.

He said the Centre should actively monitor the implementation of OSC scheme, while officials maintain that execution is the responsibility of the states.

Kachroo claimed, "Money spent on this scheme is not from regular budget allocation of the Union government to states. It comes from the Nribhaya Fund. The Ministry of Women and Child Development is the custodian of the fund."



"...It is not the Government of India but an agency that has the responsibility to spend the money and to ensure that the money is utilised properly."



The government has shared in Parliament details of women who were assisted at six OSCs, which is at 689.

Ministry sources said that funds are allocated for two kinds of OSCs -- temporary and permanent. A sum of Rs 1 lakh is sanctioned for a temporary centre in an existing building like hospitals. A sum of Rs 46 lakh is sanctioned for a permanent structure.

Kachroo, who is also the contractor for the model One Stop Centre at Raipur, claims that apart from Goa, Meghalaya, Ranchi, no other state has accepted his proposal for setting up an OSC.

The Nirbhaya fund was set up in the aftermath of December 2012 gangrape incident in the capital.

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Punjab government today said there is no proposal to raise the daily wages of cooks working under the scheme who are paid a mere Rs 1,200 per month.

During the Question Hour in the ongoing monsoon session of Punjab Assembly here, Punjab Education Minister Daljit Singh Cheema in a reply to a question said, "Under mid day meal scheme, cook-cum-helpers are engaged on part time basis. They are paid honorarium of Rs 1,200 per month. At present, there is no proposal under consideration of the government to increase their honorarium."

Akali MLA MLA Chatin Singh Samaon had asked if it was a fact that only Rs 33 per day was being paid to cooks as daily wage under the scheme in government schools in the state and if there was any proposal to raise the same.

"They are getting just Rs 33 for working 7 hours a day," rued Samaon.

Another Akali MLA Deep Malhotra also demanded that the honorarium be raised.

Expressing displeasure over the meager amount of honorarium, Congress members raised slogans against the Punjab government and rushed to the Well of the House seeking reply from the government.

To this, Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal said he cannot force the government to make a statement on this issue.

Following the Question Hour, Congress MLA Rana Gurjit Singh levelled allegation against a 'Tehsildar' of Amritsar seeking "sexual favour" from the wife of an army man for getting the registration of plot done in her name.

An inquiry has also been set up by the DGP, but nothing has happened in this case, alleged Singh.

The MLA alleged that the Tehsildar in question had the support of revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia who rubbished the charge and asked him not to politicise the issue.

However, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on the floor of the House ordered the DGP to take action in this case.

During the Zero Hour, former union minister and Congress MLA Preneet Kaur raised the issue of dispute over a land on which a Gurudwara is located. She said that a court had ordered to give the land on which Gurdwara was situated to Punjab Wakf Board.

She warned that it could lead to "bloodshed" while seeking intervention of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in this regard.

Former CLP leader Sunil Jakhar raised the issue of non-disbursement of Rs 129 crore of scholarship amount to SC students.

Welfare minister Gulzar Singh Ranike said that Rs 44 crore has already been disbursed while rest of the amount would be disbursed by end of September.



Meanwhile, Punjab Assembly passed the Pepsu Township Development Board (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets (Second Amendment) Bill, 2016.

The House also ratified the Constitution Amendment Bill on GST.

The resolution in this regard was moved by Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa.

Earlier, the House also paid tributes to Panna Lal Nayyar, ex-deputy Speaker of Punjab Assembly.
Normal life remained affected for the 66th consecutive day on Monday in violence-hit Kashmir, where authorities imposed restrictions on the movement and assembly of people in some areas on the eve of Eid-ul-Azha.

Restrictions have been imposed in some of the towns in Kashmir as well as in three police station areas of Srinagar, a police official said here.

He said restrictions have been imposed in the towns of Ganderbal, Kupwara, Baramulla, Budgam, Shopian, Kulgam, Pulwama and Anantnag. The curbs have also been imposed in Khanyar, Nowhatta and M R Gunj police station areas of Srinagar city, the official said, adding the step has been taken to maintain law and order.

Meanwhile, normal life continued to remain affected due to the restrictions and the shutdown called by separatist groups against the death of civilians in clashes in the aftermath of killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani in an encounter.

Shops, business establishments and petrol pumps continued to remain shut during the day even on Eid eve on Monday.

They open in the evening on some days of the week in view of the 12-hour relaxation in the strike from 6 PM announced by the separatists.

The separatists have extended the shutdown programme till September 16.

They have called for a march towards the local office of United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) on Eid-ul-Azha on Monday.

Schools, colleges and other educational institutions in the Valley continued to remain closed.

Some of the areas in the outskirts and civil lines of Srinagar witnessed increased movement of private vehicles and auto-rickshaws this morning, while some shops selling essentials were also open in view of the festival.

Few bakery and mutton shops were open at some places in the Valley where people were seen shopping for the items, the official said.

The deadly violence has left 76 people, including two police personnel, dead and more than 10,000 others injured.
US President Barack Obama today greeted Muslims across the world on the occasion of Eid al-Adha and noted that the US remains committed to its refugee policy.

"As we mark Eid al-Adha this year, we are reminded of the millions of refugees around the globe who are spending this sacred holiday separated from their families, unsure of their future, but still hoping for a brighter tomorrow," Obama said.

"And as a Nation, we remain committed to welcoming the stranger with empathy and an open heart-from the refugee who flees war-torn lands to the immigrant who leaves home in search of a better life," said the US President.

Extending his warmest wishes to Muslims across the country and around the world celebrating Eid al-Adha, Obama said this "special holiday is a time to honour the sacrifice, resolve, and commitment to God demonstrated by Abraham".

"It marks the end of the pilgrimage of Hajj performed each year by millions of Muslims who journey from all corners of the world to Mecca as a testament to their faith. It is also a celebration of the ways faith can transcend any differences or boundaries and unite us under the banners of fellowship and love," Obama said.

"During this time, Muslims from all walks of life join their neighbors and friends at their local mosques, community centers, and homes to pray, give alms, exchange gifts, and recommit to helping others. Food and money are distributed to those in need as men, women, and children reflect on their fortune and look towards the next year," he said.

"May the spirits of community togetherness, principled service, and compassionate generosity bring good tidings to those celebrating Eid al-Adha. From our family to yours, Eid Mubarak," Obama said.

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A petrol bomb was hurled at the house of a Hindu Munnani leader by some miscreants in the wee hours today in neighbouring Tirupur, causing damage to the building, police said.

The attack was carried out on the house of Hindu Munnani's Tirupur treasurer, Shanmugam at around 2 AM. The portico of house suffered some damage in the incident, they said.

Protesting the attack, the outfit has called for a bandh in Tirupur tomorrow.

The Hindu Munnani along with Tirupur Industrial Protection Committee, of which Shanugham is a member, appealed to the traders and establishments to support to shutdown.

The attack comes a day after a similar incident on the house of a Hindu Munnani leader in Vellore district.

Three unexploded crude petrol bombs were reportedly found at a divisional functionary's house in Vellore yesterday.

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A policeman was today injured when militants opened fire on a police party in Sopore area of north Kashmir's Baramulla district.

Constable Mohammad Shakeel was hit in the arm by a bullet fired by militants at the police party at Hathi Shah in Sopore town while the police team was dealing with law and order problem in the area, a police official said.

He said the injured constable was shifted to a nearby medical facility inside an army camp for treatment.

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India and the UK are "natural allies" and there is huge scope for collaboration between the two strategic partners in the wake of Britain's vote to leave the European Union, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister said on Monday.

The minister highlighted the potential offered by Britain to India, with London as a financial capital and great "centre for technology and innovation".

"I am hopeful after Brexit also, there is huge scope between India and UK. We are natural allies; we have a strategic relationship. London has its own advantage as a financial capital for majority part of the world," Pradhan said here on the sidelines of the 'Road Show on Discovered Small Fields by Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH).

"The Indian market and London's financial power and technology can be synergised. Two of the UK companies are major players in the Indian market - BP and Cairn. They are doing well in India and they are going to invest further in a big way," he said.

In reference to controversies around historic tax dispute cases involving firms like Cairn Energy in India, he said: "I would quote Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi's words: 'Gone are the days'. There is a new regime in India. We are very transparent on all tax issues. There will be no problem in future.

"Specifically, in the case of Reliance (Reliance Industries Limited), its UK partner BP itself said in a public domain in London that there has been no new case in the last two years. Those are our credentials and credibility."

Several presentations were made as part of the road show in London on Monday, which concludes Pradhan's international tour to attract foreign investment after Houston, Calgary, Dubai and Singapore.

His road shows were aimed at highlighting details of policy reforms, the improvements on ease of doing business, the regulatory and tax innovations and the specific attractiveness of the present bid.

"We are offering these oil fields with the ambition to augment our production. There is aparadigm shift in the Indian energy market, primarily in hydro-carbon," he said.

In line with the Indian government's aim to reduce import dependency on oil and gas by 10 per cent by 2022, India is offering 46 Contract Areas consisting of 67 small fields across nine sedimentary basins for exploration and production of oil and gas in India under a liberalised policy regime.

DGH, the technical arm of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, is inviting bids for these areas which hold 625 million barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas (O+OEG) in-place volumes, spread over 1500 sq km, in 26 on-land, 18 shallow water and 2 deep water areas.

"I am here to extend the Prime Minister's invitation to all - please come to India. It is the No 1 FDI [foreign direct investment] destination in the world today. We have taken a lot of initiatives...I would emphasise that ease of doing business is not mere lip service for us," the minister told oil majors, financiers and service companies.

He also inaugurated a "Data Room" in London through remote access to facilitate investors to access technical data for offered fields, which would be operational from Tuesday.

Pradhan will be holding one-to-one meetings with prominent UK industry leaders such as BP, Cairn and Hardy during his London tour this week.

He is also scheduled to meet his UK counterpart, Greg Clarke - Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Nepal government today announced Prime Minister Prachanda's upcoming visit to India, his first foreign trip since asssuming office, from Thursday during which he will stay at the Rashtrapati Bhawan as state guest.

According to the itinerary, Prachanda will fly to New Delhi on September 15 and return home on September 18.

Prachanda and his wife Sita will stay at the Rashtrapati Bhawan as state guests, a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

The Nepalese prime minister's delegation includes Minister for Foreign Affairs Prakash Sharan Mahat and Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Ramesh Lekhak.

No minister from Prachanda's CPN-Maoist Centre party would be in the team, The Himalayan Times reported.

Mahat is currently in New Delhi to prepare for the visit.

Others in Prachanda's delegation include lawmakers, senior government officials, mediapersons and representatives of the business community.

Ahead of his visit, Prachanda on Saturday said he would lay a "strong foundation" for mutual trust between India and Nepal after ties went through "some bitter experience" over the recent Madhesi agitation.

India has said Prachanda's visit "will provide an opportunity for both sides to discuss issues of mutual interest and concern, as well as seek ways to strengthen the age old, close and friendly ties between the two countries in diverse sectors."



During his four-day visit, Prachanda will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on bilateral and regional issues.

Nepal-India ties had soured after months-long border blockade last year by Madhesi protesters over the new Constitution which they claimed marginalised them.

Kathmandu had then accused India of imposing an "unofficial blockade" on the landlocked nation in support of the Madhesis, who share close cultural, linguistic and family links with Indians across the border.

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Ahead of crucial local body polls in Maharashtra, senior NCP leader Praful Patel today accused the Congress of pulling his party down even as it "sank" itself by wrongfully charging it with involvement in scandals.

Singling out Prithviraj Chavan for the attack, Patel told a meeting of party workers here that Congress and the former Chief Minister were instrumental in a conspiracy to malign the NCP as they felt that BJP-Shiv Sena combine was a "lesser enemy" and "what was needed was to down us".

"They themselves sank, but also took us along," the former Union Minister said.

"Scams were not really scams but a conspiracy by Congress itself and leaders like Prithviraj Chavan to defame us," he said.

He preceded his remarks by saying if the NCP has suffered from anything over the last five years then it is because of "our friends in the Congress".

He told partymen that the NCP knows how to swim and "we will bounce back with the same force that took us down. We are second to none."



Noting that there is a notion that the minorities and Dalits are with the Congress and that it is the old brand of the party which clicks, Patel told partymen, in reality the Congress has lost influence in the state as well as at the national level.

"It is now evident to you all," Patel said.

The Congress and the NCP alliance ruled the state for 15 years.

They parted ways before the 2014 state Assembly polls, which resulted in the Congress securing just 41 seats and NCP bagging a seat less in the 288-member House, their lowest tallies ever.

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Protests by fringe Tamil outfits erupted in parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry today with some commercial and government establishments of Karnataka coming under attack, in an apparent fallout of the ongoing agitation in the neighbouring state against release of Cauvery water.

The protests came a day after a video purportedly showing a 22-year-old Tamil youth being beaten up by a group of men in Bengaluru for alleged "derogatory" remarks on social media against Kannada film actors went viral.

Outfits such as Naam Tamizhar Katchi and Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi hit the streets protesting the ongoing agitations in Karnataka opposing release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, police said.

A popular restaurant here and tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration in Rameswaram were vandalised while protesters created a ruckus at a Karnataka Bank branch in neighbouring Union Territory of Puducherry, police said.

Four persons have been detained in connection with the restaurant attack while around 25 taken into custody in Puducherry, they said.

Police protection was provided to the Karnataka Bank branches in Tamil Nadu.

In an early morning incident here, protesters owing allegiance to Thanthai Periyar Dravida Kazhagam (TPDK) allegedly vandalised a popular restaurant owned by a native of Karnataka.

They smashed the window panes using iron rods and wooden logs and four persons belonging to the outfit had been detained in connection with the incident, a police official said.

At Rameswaram, seven tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration that were parked at a temple were damaged when agitated members ofvarious outfits including Naam Tamizhar Katchi allegedly indulged in vandalism.

The group entered the parking lot of the templenear Agni Theertham sea in the town and damaged the vehicles with clubs and stones, police said.

Cases have been registered against seven persons in connection with the episode, they said.

Protests were held outside the branches of Karnataka Bank in Erode even as protestors barged into the bank's branch at Puducherry and created a ruckus.

Around 25 workers of Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi entered the branch on Misson Street in the Union Territory wielding broomsticks, banged them on the tables and asked the bank staff to vacate the premises.

The staff ran helter skelter while the panic-stricken customers rushed out.

Policemen, who were deployed in the vicinity, rushed there and took the protesters into custody.

The bank was closed for a few hours after the incident and later reopened. However, it was again shut following advice from police.

At Vellore in Tamil Nadu, students of Government Law College boycotted classes over the issue.

For the eight consecutive day, buses to Mysuru, Chamrajnagar and other places in Karnataka from Erode, Tirupur and Coimbatore in western Tamil Nadu were not operated.

Movement of commercial and non-commercial vehicles



including two-wheelers to Karnataka from Erode was restricted while inter-state road transport through Hosur was also affected on account of escalating protests in Karnataka.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan expressed concern over the "attacks on Tamils" in Karnataka, and put the onus of ensuring their safety on the ruling Congress.

"If the Congress government in Karnataka is not prepared to stop this (attacks), there are chances of bad consequences and the Karnataka government has to take responsibility for that," he said.

Tamil Maanila Congress leader and former Union Minister GK Vasan said that the failure by police to prevent the attack on the Tamil youth for his post against Kannada actors amounted to them remaining "spectators" to the incident, which he said was "reflective" of state government's "ignorant attitude."



He urged the Karnataka government to ensure safety of Tamils while urging the Centre to be non-partisan.

In Thanjavur, a Cauvery delta district, President of the Coordination Committee of Tamil Nadu All Farmers Associations P R Pandian welcomed the Supreme Court's order that water should be released to Tamil Nadu till September 20.

He said the Mettur Dam water level should be 90-feet (maximum 120 feet) for cultivation of a single crop and asked the state government to pressurise the Centre and make Karnataka release more water.

Meanwhile, actor M Nasser-headed Nadigar Sangam (South Indian Artistes' Association) has lauded Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa for securing Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu by approaching the Supreme Court.

In a statement, the Association also took exception to the criticism of Jayalalithaa by some of the Kannada actors during a protest on Cauvery last week, saying it had "crossed boundaries".

"Nadigar Sangam has never hesitated to express its voice whenever there had been problems for Tamils...We thank Chief Minister Amma (Jayalalithaa) for achieveing success (in this matter) by approaching the Supreme Court and establishing our rights in the present situation," it said.
The proximity of North Eastern states including Meghalaya to the Golden Triangle, which is considered a transit route for drugs, is the reason for the high drug trafficking trends in the region and in the state, state home minister H D R Lyngdoh said today.

"There is a direct co-relation between proximity to the border and drug traffickers coming from areas contiguous to the borders and entering the state through national highways and the capital city," Lyngdoh told the Assembly while replying to a special motion moved by Hill State Peoples Democratic Party legislator Ardent Basaiawmoit.

"Heroin still finds its way across the border and traffickers make it accessible to the youth," he said.

In the past three years, 209 persons were arrested and charged for possessing illegal substances, 13 have been convicted, while 19 cases charged under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic substance Act 1985 are pending," Lyngdoh said.

According to Lyngdoh, there was an apprehension that small time consumers may have turned to peddlers to sustain the habit since the margin of profit was high.

Among the other action plans put in place to tackle the problem, he said the state agencies were collecting inputs on the hierarchy of suppliers, investigate in a more focused manner and alerts were shared with other state police.

He said the state government was sensitive to the users and two NGOs were being funded through the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment under the integrated rehabilitation centre for addicts.

Earlier, several legislators expressed disappointment at the state turning into a destination for drug users.

HSPDP legislator Ardent Basaiawmoit argued that Meghalaya has the highest proportion of drug users, which stood at 27.3 per cent followed by Punjab at 19.3 per cent and Jharkhand at 16 per cent.

United Democratic Party MLA Paul Lyngdoh said the network of drug traffickers was very strong.

Independent legislator John Leslee Sangma said he was a victim of the chain of drug addiction wherein his personal security guard was a drug user.

"I am bringing this to the government's attention with an aim to bring about a solution to the problem," he said.

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Congress today said BJP government has "dumped" Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa, who was removed as Arunachal Pradesh Governor this evening, after his "utility was over" and he did not execute the "insidious agenda" of the ruling party.

"If Supreme Court strictures is the reason for his sacking then the Modi Cabinet is equally culpable. It should also go," Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said here.

In July, the Supreme Court had quashed all decisions Rajkhowa has taken as Governor that had led to imposition of President's rule in of Arunachal Pradesh and later formation of a new government led by the Congress breakaway faction.

The apex court had restored the previous Congress government.

Tewari alleged the BJP government first "misused" the Governor to destablise a democratically elected government in the state and has now "dumped" him "because he was not able to execute the insidious agenda of the BJP the next time".

Rajkhowa had refused to quit even after being nudged by the Centre earlier.

Following his refusal, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had called on President Pranab Mukherjee last week and conveyed to him that Rajkhowa's continuance in the post has become untenable after the Supreme Court's observations against him over the dismissal of the Congress government in the state.

A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said Rajkhowa "shall cease to hold the office of the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh".

The President has asked Meghalaya Governor V Shanmuganathan to discharge the functions in addition to his own duties, until regular appointment is made, it said.

Rajkhowa, who was appointed the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh on May 12, 2015, was the first gubernatorial appointee of the Modi government.

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Controversial Governor Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa, who refused to quit after being nudged by the Centre in the wake of Supreme Court strictures on him over the political crisis in Arunachal Pradesh, was today sacked from the post.

Rajkhowa "shall cease to hold the office of the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh", said a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique.

Meghalaya Governor V Shanmuganathan has been asked by the President to discharge the functions in addition to his own duties, until regular arrangements are made, it said.

Appointed Governor of Arunachal Pradesh on May 12 last year, Rajkhowa is the first NDA gubernatorial appointed to be sacked with the government informing that President that it has "lost trust" in him.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had called on the President last week and conveyed to him that Rajkhowa's continuance in the post has become untenable after the Supreme Court's observations against him over dismissal of the Congress government in the state.

The Home Minister's meeting with the President came after Rajkhowa refused to step down despite a nudge by the Centre to put in his papers after the Supreme Court passed serious strictures against him over the dismissal of the Congress government last year.

A defiant Rajkhowa had said he would not step down but was ready to be sacked.

"I want the President to dismiss me. I will not resign. Let the President express his displeasure. Let the government use provisions of Article 156 of the Constitution," the Governor had told a Guwahati-based TV channel last Monday.

Rajkhowa had said he was asked to resign "on health grounds" weeks after the Supreme Court had restored the Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh and censured him.

Rajkhowa had also written to the President explaining his position and the letter was forwarded to the Home Ministry by Mukherjee.

However, when the Home Ministry submitted a detailed report on the Governor to the President, he finally sacked Rajkhowa today.

Rajkhowa, a 1968 batch IAS officer, had retired as Chief Secretary of Assam before his appointment as Governor.

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Chronically ill, homebound children who use robotic surrogates to "attend" school feel more socially connected with their peers and more involved academically, according to a first-of-its-kind study.

"Every year, large numbers of K-12 students are not able to go to school due to illness, which has negative academic, social and medical consequences," said lead author Veronica Newhart, a PhD student in University of California, Irvine's School of Education in the US.

"They face falling behind in their studies, feeling isolated from their friends and having their recovery impeded by depression," said Newhart.

"Tutors can make occasional home visits, but until recently, there hasn't been a way to provide these homebound students with inclusive academic and social experiences," she said.

Telepresence robots could do just that. The Internet-enabled, two-way video streaming automatons have wheels for feet and a screen showing the user's face at the top of a vertical "body."



From home, a student controlling the device with a laptop can see and hear everything in the classroom, talk with friends and the teacher, "raise his or her hand" via flashing lights to ask or answer questions, move around and even take field trips.

However, the robots have gone straight from production to consumer, the researchers noted, and there is great need for objective, formal studies in order for schools, hospitals and communities to responsibly engage in this innovative educational practice.

The exploratory case study - co-authored by Mark Warschauer, UCI professor of education and informatics - involved five homebound children, five parents, 10 teachers, 35 classmates and six school/district administrators.

The students - four males and one female - ranged in age from 6 to 16, and their chronic illnesses included an immunodeficiency disorder, cancer and heart failure.

Getting to see their friends and staying socially connected was what they said they liked best about using the robots.

The school day felt more normal, they said, because they were able to participate in discussions, interact with peers and undergo new experiences with their classmates.

"This is a solution for any student who's prevented from completing a course or degree programme because of a long-term injury or illness," said Newhart.

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North Korea is capable of detonating another nuclear device at its main atomic test site any time it chooses, Seoul officials said today, as the United States reportedly planned to send two nuclear-capable supersonic bombers to the South in a show of force against Pyongyang.

The speculation came three days after the North conducted its fifth atomic bomb explosion. Friday's test was the North's most powerful test to date, and its claim to have used "standardized" warheads has sparked worries it was making headway in its push to develop small and sophisticated warheads to be topped on missiles.

After the test, the North's nuclear weapons institute said it will take unspecified measures to further boost its nuclear capability, which analysts said hinted at a possible sixth nuclear test.

South Korea's Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun said today that South Korea and US intelligence authorities believe North Korea has the ability to detonate another atomic device anytime at one of its tunnels at its main Punggye-ri nuclear test site, where the five previous atomic explosions took place.

Moon refused to say what specific evidence pointed to another possible nuclear test.

But Yonhap agency, citing unidentified Seoul government sources, reported today there were signs the North had finished test preparations at one tunnel that has never been used. Yonhap did not elaborate.

Seoul, Washington and their allies vowed to apply more pressure and sanctions after the test, the second this year. Bad weather today delayed for at least 24 hours a US plan to send warplanes from Guam to South Korea, as it has done after past provocations by North Korea.

Yonhap said the US military will try again tomorrow to fly two B-1 bombers, capable of carrying 24 atomic weapons, over its main air base near Seoul.

The US military said some aircraft will be deployed tomorrow but declined to disclose what type or how many planes.

South Korea's military on Friday revealed it has retaliation plans involving precision-strike missiles and special operations forces for direct attacks on the North's leadership in the case of a North Korean nuclear attack.

Yonhap said yesterday that the plan would turn areas in Pyongyang, where the North's war commanders were likely to hide, into ashes and "eliminate those places from the map permanently." South Korea's Defense Ministry said it would not comment on the report.

South Korea has previously avoided harsh rhetoric against North Korea and its leader Kim Jong Un but after Friday's nuclear test, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Kim's "mental state is spiraling out of control" and that his government has "fanatic recklessness."



North Korea's propaganda machine, for its part, has kept up its typical anti-Seoul threats and crude insults against Park, calling her "hideous confrontation manic" and "the Korean nation's biggest trouble-maker."



It previously called Park a "prostitute." Park said today the "danger of war" and a possibility of North Korean provocations could loom on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea's pursuit of missiles and nuclear weapons is one of the most intractable foreign policy problems for the US and South Korea. Regional disarmament-for-aid talks on the North's nuclear ambitions have not been held since late 2008.

The toughest UN sanctions in two decades were imposed on the North for its fourth nuclear test in January, but the new test raised a question over whether sanctions can force a change in North Korea.

The Korean Peninsula remains technically at war, as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. The United States has about 28,500 troops in South Korea.

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Several areas of Shimla remained without water for the fourth day today while water came in trickles in several other localities, causing unrest among the residents.

The residents in over a dozen localities complained that there was no supply for past four days and they were forced to fetch water from natural sources from a distance and were facing great hardship.

The Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) reviewed the situation at a high level meeting under the chairmanship of Mayor Sanjay Chauhan and attributed the shortage to massive leakage in pipelines of Giri Water supply scheme, supplying about 20 MLD of water.

A senior engineer of Water Works department of SMC said that the main cause of shortage of water was interruption in power supply but the situation has improved and water supply on alternate days would be assured and if possible, water would be supplied daily in days to come.

The water availability was about 37 MLD and it was sufficient to meet the requirements of the people during the off season and after plugging the leakages and replacement of worn out pipes with World Bank funding, normal water supply would be possible, he added.

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A 55-year-old ration shop owner was strangulated to death and robbed allegedly by her two employees along with their accomplice in northwest Delhi, police said today.

Bunty used to work at Kusum Gupta's ration shop in Model Town area but had quit a month back owing to some allergy and had got his relative Sadik employed at the shop, DCP (northwest) Vijay Singh said, adding that there was no verification done for both of them.

One of the duo, yesterday told the landlord of the shop from where Gupta ran her business, that she had committed suicide by hanging herself in her house in Model Town, he said, adding following which the landlord made a PCR call.

When police reached the spot, they saw Gupta lying on a sofa with blood oozing out of her right ear while the house was ransacked and all the items were scattered on the floor, Singh said.

Gupta used to live with her son Piyush, who was away for some official work in Chennai when the incident took place, he said.

The staff of Gupta's shop were interrogated and Sadik's statement were found to be contradictory which gave rise to suspicion regarding his involvement in foul play, the officer said.

He was further interrogated during which he disclosed that he had come a month back to stay with Bunty, who had been employed at Gupta's shop for the last 12-13 years and knew that she kept a lot of jewellery and cash at her house, he said.

They made a plan and bought a wire to strangulate Gupta, Yadav said.

Since Gupta knew Bunty and Sadik, she let them in along with their accomplice Sunty following which they strangulated her and took away her earrings and nosepin and decamped with other valuables kept in the house, he said.

Later, Bunty and Sunty were arrested in Model Town and stolen cash amounting to Rs 37,000 and jewellery worth Rs five lakh was recovered from their possession.

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Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday assured Tamil Sangam of protection for Tamils in the state in the wake of violence in the city following a Supreme Court direction to release 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery water everyday for next ten days to Tamil Nadu.

Siddaramaiah also informed the Sangam leaders, who met him at his residence, that a suo motu case has been filed against culprits who had assaulted a youth Santosh Deena for posting comments on Cauvery issue on Facebook on September 10.

A suo motu case has been filed against the persons who had assaulted Santosh, Sangam president George Damodaran told reporters here.

The youth was allegedly beaten up by culprits as he had questioned Kannada film stars for protesting over Cauvery issue.

Siddaramaiah also asked the Sangam leaders to petition Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to give protection to Kannadigas living in Tamil Nadu, Damodaran said.

"We are petitioning the Tamil Nadu chief minister via email," he said.

The chief minister has directed the police to maintain law and order and provide security to Tamils living in the state, the Sangam president said.

Damodaran said he also brought to the notice of the chief minister the "provocative" statement of Narayana Gowda who is heading 'Karnataka Rakshana Vedike'.

Gowda had reportedly said the situation that prevailed in 1991 should prevail and all Tamil films should be stopped from screening to teach them lesson.

In 1991, during Bangarappa's tenure as chief minister, anti-Tamil violence had taken place in Bengaluru in which 18 people had died and hundreds fled.
South Sudan's warring leaders and their cronies have amassed fortunes -- including foreign properties and stakes in international firms -- while prosecuting a murderous conflict, George Clooney charged.

After presenting the results of a detailed two-year inquiry to the media, Hollywood stars Clooney and Don Cheadle stopped by at the White House to discuss the crisis with President Barack Obama, a US official said.

South Sudan is the youngest country in Africa and support from the United States was instrumental in shepherding it into existence, but patience is running out with local leaders after it slipped back into civil war.

The latest bout of bloodshed erupted in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup and has already claimed tens of thousands of lives and forced many more to flee their homes.

United Nations experts have blamed both Kiir and Machar's camps for reigniting the fighting and the world body is seeking to recruit forces for a stronger peace-keeping effort to protect civilians and aid workers.

But the report by The Sentry -- a watchdog group founded by Clooney and rights activist John Prendergast -- goes further in detailing the web of corruption sustaining and motivating the predatory behavior of local leaders.

Appearing in Washington, Clooney accused the rival leaders of overseeing mass atrocity, starvation and rape "while plundering the state's resources and enriching themselves and their families."



At his side, Prendergast warned that South Sudanese officials "no longer take seriously the threats made by the United Nations, by the United States and others to impose consequences for their behavior."



The report gives a detailed breakdown, backed by research on the ground and through international business networks, of the looting and describes a conflict that degenerated into a battle of resources between corrupt gangs.

Almost half of the population of South Sudan relies on food assistance for survival, and more than 800,000 South Sudanese have fled to neighboring countries as refugees.

Countless villages have been burnt to the ground and human rights organizations say both government forces and Machar's rebels frequently use rape as a weapon of war.

The report said that while political rivalry is often blamed, the war's "key catalyst" is actually "competition for the grand prize -- control over state assets and the country's abundant natural resources -- between rival kleptocratic networks.

According to the report -- entitled "War Crimes Shouldn't Pay" -- this form of "competitive corruption" has dominated South Sudan's politics since long before the nation voted for independence in a 2011 referendum.

Both Kiir and Machar the report says, "benefit financially from the continuing war and have effectively ensured that there is no accountability for their human rights violations and financial crimes".

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Domestic budget carrier SpiceJet today said it has signed an interline pact with German scheduled operator and service distributor Hahn Air to spread its presence in the international markets, particularly European destinations.

An interline arrangement refers to a pact to issue and accept tickets for flights that are operated by the partner airline. When selling an iinterline ticket, the operating airline's own flight numbers are used.

With this pact, SpiceJet would be able to sell its flight tickets on Hahn Air's booking system, thereby giving the airline a direct access to the global platform while making passengers' travel worldwide easy, a release said today.

This is the second time the Gurgaon-based airline has entered into such a pact with an overseas airline. In 2013, SpiceJet, then owned by Kalanithi Maran, had tied up with Singapore's Tiger Air for a similar arrangement. However, it was called off within a year after the airline nearly went belly up in December 2014.

"We have charted out a systematic growth path for SpiceJet and the time is ripe for us to reach out to a wider audience while enabling our customers to avail an extensive network with elevated convenience. The association will help us to penetrate the untapped markets," Shilpa Bhatia, Senior Vice President for Commercial, SpiceJet, said in the release.

The Dusseldorf-based Hahn Air is a global leader in providing distribution services for air, rail and shuttle partners, and a ticketing expert for travel agents.

Apart from giving access to retail customers worldwide, Hahn Air offers a network to non-GDS (global distribution system) airlines enabling them to be booked through over 95,000 travel agencies across 190 markets.

"We are proud to welcome SpiceJet as the latest airline to join the H1-Air network. This is especially momentous as they are Hahn Air System's 50th partner," Alexander Proschka, Head of Hahn Air Systems, said.

With the interline agreement in place, SpiceJet's domestic and international services will now be available on all GDSs and will be issuable on the Hahn Air platform.

The country's second largest budget airline in terms of market share, SpiceJet currently operates 298 daily flights to 41 destinations, including 35 domestic and six international ones with a fleet of 28 Boeing 737NG and 14 Bombardier Q-400 planes.

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Amid fresh arson, Balasore district administration today invoked more provisions of CrPC and banned movement of the public for 12 hours from 6 pm till 6 am tomorrow at Soro town besides arresting three persons and detaining 30.

"In view of sporadic arson last night, we have imposed stricter provisions of CrPC to contain violence at Soro town. People are told not to come out of their houses unless its emergency situations," Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Satyajit Mohanty, told PTI.

Mohanty, who along with many senior police officers is camping at Soro, said, "This is not exactly curfew. People are simply requested not to move out of houses unless required urgently."



Information about dusk-to-dawn restriction on movement was being conveyed through public announcement system across the town, police said.

The mischief mongers last night had set afire seven shops located in isolated places and put a broiler firm ablaze which led to some tension in the town.

Meanwhile, police arrested at least three persons and detained another 30 people suspecting them to have role in instigating violence which erupted on Friday night over immersion of Ganesh idol at Soro town.

Police have sealed all the entry and exit points of the town by deploying 17 platoons (1 platoon comprises 30 personnel) of armed police besides a number of senior officers including two commandants of armed police and three DSPs.

People entering the town were being frisked and their vehicles checked by the security personnel.

Police have tightned security in view of EId-Ul-Juha tomorrow, Balasore SP Niti Sekhar said.

"Though the members of the Muslim community are allowed to perform prayers tomorrow during the day time, all processions have been banned at Soro town," Balasore district Collector Pramod Kumar Das said adding today there was relaxation in section 144 of CrPC for some hours to enable people to purchase essentials from the market.

Mass prayer on the occasion has been arranged from 9 AM to 10 AM by the administration and security arrangement has been made for the devotees intending to join, officials said.

Though shops, business esblishments, schools, colleges and offices remained closed during the day, traffic on the National Highway remained unaffected, police said.

Tension prevailed in the costal town following a series of clashes between two groups of people during an immersion procession of Ganesh idol.

About seven people including two police personnel were injured during the clash on Friday.
Three policemen were today suspended for their alleged inaction in preventing the suspected hooch tragedy at Vareli village here, where the toll rose to 16 with the death of one more person.

In a related development, the Gujarat government asked the ATS to find out the source of methanol, a highly toxic substance which is said to be responsible for the tragedy.

Surat Range IG N N Komar suspended Inspector Hasmukh Bharwad, Assistant Sub-Inspector Anil Tulsiram and Head Constable Jayatibhai Vazir, all attached to Kadodara police station, for dereliction of duty.

"I have suspended these policemen for not doing their duty properly. Since the last one week, our teams have conducted raids at more than 25 places in that area," he said.

The government has not officially termed the incident as a hooch tragedy and referred to it as "unnatural deaths".

In-charge District Collector K Rajesh said one more person from Vareli died at Surat Civil Hospital.

"We have learned that one more person of that village, who was admitted to the civil hospital four days back, died today. With this death, the toll has reached 16," Rajesh said.

According to Komar, the post-mortem reports of all deceased are "inconclusive", though they suggested presence of methyl alcohol in their bodies.

"Postmortem reports suggested presence of methyl alcohol in the bodies. Since it is not enough to establish cause of the death, we have sought viscera reports from the forensic science laboratory," the senior police officer said.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani held a video conference with senior police officials on the issue and announced to hand over the probe related to the use of methanol to Anti-Terrorism Squad, an official release said.

Methanol, also known as methyl alcohol, is used in making country-made liquor.

The Superintendent of Police of ATS has been asked to find out the source of methanol and people responsible for the illegal distribution of the chemical in and around Vareli, the release said.

'During the conference, Rupani instructed officials, right from Additional DGPs to District SPs, to strictly implement the prohibition law in Gujarat.

On Saturday, the government formed a three-member probe committee, headed by ADGP (Police Reforms) V M Pargi, and asked it to submit a report within three days.

Meanwhile, Opposition Congress stepped up attack on the BJP government over the issue and called for Vareli bandh today. Congress leader and ex-Union Minister Tushar Chaudhary staged a dharna in Vareli and demanded a free and fair probe.

"There is no meaning of setting up committees. Reports of many such committees have been put in cold storage in the past. We want decisive action," he said.

(Reopens BOM21)



OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, spearheading a movement against illegal liquor trade in Gujarat since the last few months, today visited the village and demanded a High Court-monitored inquiry.

"We don't have faith in this committee. We want an inquiry under the supervision of High Court. The government must curb this menace by bringing a strict law. If it fails to do so, thousands will gherao the state Assembly in Gandhinagar on November 6," he said.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela demanded harsh punishment for policemen found guilty of dereliction of duty in such cases.

"Though the administration knew everything about this liquor trade, no action was taken. Hooch is being sold at every corner of Gujarat and bootleggers are given protection. The government must book police officials, under whose jurisdiction such crime happens, on the charge of murder," demanded the Leader of Opposition in Assembly.
Seeking to mend their frail ties, India and Nepal today held wide-ranging talks and decided to step up cooperation in key areas of security, energy and water resources ahead of Nepal Prime Minister Prachanda's visit, which is being seen as an opportunity by Indian side to discuss issues of mutual interest and concern.

During the talks between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Nepalese counterpart Prakash Sharan Mahat, the two sides also discussed the upcoming visit of Prachanda from September 15. This will be his first foreign trip after assuming office last month.

"Both the Ministers held wide ranging talks on issues of mutual interest, and covering the entire gamut of bilateral relations, including the upcoming high-level exchanges between the two countries.

"Both sides reiterated their commitment to further strengthen and deepen age-old, close and friendly ties in diverse sectors such as trade and mutual investments, defence and security, economic and development partnership, infrastructure development, energy and water resources, and forging connectivities to facilitate movement of goods and services, people and ideas," External Affairs Ministry said after the meeting.

The Ministry also said that the "visit of the Prime Minister of Nepal will provide an opportunity for both sides to discuss issues of mutual interest and concern, as well as seek ways to strengthen the age old, close and friendly ties between the two countries in diverse sectors."



During his four-day visit, Prachanda will hold talks with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on important bilateral and regional issues.

Nepal-India ties had soured after months-long border blockade last year by ethnic minority protesters over the new Constitution which they claimed marginalised them.

Kathmandu had then accused India of imposing an "unofficial blockade" on the landlocked nation in support of the Madhesis, who share close cultural, linguistic and family links with Indians across the border.

Even after the normalisation of supply of goods from India, the bilateral ties continued to reel under strain after former Nepal Prime Minister K P Oli accused India of toppling his government and creating political instability in his country, a charge that was categorically denied by India.

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Syria's main opposition umbrella group and several rebel factions called for "guarantees" on the implementation of a landmark truce deal before endorsing it, hours before it was to begin today.

The Russian-US brokered ceasefire is due to start at sundown, but it has yet to win support from Syria's political or military opposition.

"We want to know what the guarantees are," said Salem al-Muslet, spokesman for the High Negotiations Committee, which groups political and military opposition factions.

"What is the definition that has been chosen for 'terrorism', and what will the response be in case of violations?



"We are asking for guarantees especially from the United States, which is a party to the agreement," Muslet told AFP.

Rebel groups yesterday sent a letter to the United States outlining a list of "concerns" over the deal, which calls for a 48-hour ceasefire "anywhere where the opposition is present", which is then renewable.

In the text seen by AFP, rebels wrote they would "deal positively with the idea of the ceasefire," but did not explicitly back it.

"The clauses of the agreement that have been shared with us do not include any clear guarantees or monitoring mechanisms... Or repercussions if there are truce violations," they said.

Ahmad al-Saoud, who heads the US-backed Division 13 rebel group which signed the letter, said they had received no response to their concerns.

According to the deal, aid access to the country's many besieged and "hard-to-reach" areas is set to begin, with government and rebel forces ensuring unimpeded humanitarian access in particular to Aleppo city.

Questions remain, however, about how the ceasefire will apply in several parts of the country where the former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front, previously known as Al-Nusra Front, is present.

The deal says that Washington and Moscow will begin joint targeting of jihadists including Fateh al-Sham in a week, if the ceasefire holds.

But the jihadist group is a powerful partner for many opposition factions on the ground, and the rebel letter to the US warned of repercussions if the group was targeted.

Striking Fateh al-Sham "will spark anger that will be directed towards us and be another factor in the failure of the ceasefire," it said.

And Ahrar al-Sham, an ally of Fateh al-Sham in Idlib and other provinces, said late yesterday that the truce deal would only serve to boost the regime.

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Union minister and senior BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya today said the Telangana government should officially celebrate 'Hyderabad Liberation Day' on September 17, even as the Telangana Joint Action Committee (T-JAC) insisted it be celebrated as 'Integration Day'.

"Our (BJP) stand is clear that Telangana government should officially celebrate September 17 as Hyderabad Liberation Day," Dattatreya said on the sidelines of a round-table conference for 'Official Celebration of September 17 by Telangana government' here.

The ruling TRS in Telangana, however, has rejected the suggestion and said it's a merger, and not a liberation day.

T-JAC chairman M Kodandaram said a significant event in Hyderabad's history - September 17 - was forgotten.

"September 17, 1948, was the day when the Hyderabad state, which was under the Nizam's rule, was integrated into the Indian Union. That has lot of significance...Nizam rule came to an end and it became part of republic," he said.

"Some people call that we were liberated that day while the others say we began to suffer after September 17. But, after the Telangana agitation (separate statehood movement) arose, there emerged a consensus that September 17 was an Integration Day," Kodandaram explained.

He said, "Let us atleast recognise the historical fact that it got integrated into the Indian Union and atleast it allows us to take note of the local history and have a discussion about the specificity of the region."



"There was a consensus that let the Integration Day be celebrated. Let us not call it as a Liberation Day or let us not even call it as some kind of a Betrayal Day...But let us at least recognise this as a Integration Day," he suggested.

He said the Telangana government should celebrate the day as Integration Day and urged the government to convene an all party meet and hold discussions on the issue.

"Through negotiations we should try to resolve it rather than entering into confrontation. It is always better to have a dialogue and evolve a consensus," he said.

BJP Telangana chief K Laxman recently said the party's national president Amit Shah would address a public meeting in Warangal district of the state on September 17 as part of the 'Hyderabad Liberation Day' being celebrated by the state unit.

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A court in North 24 Parganas district today granted bail to ruling Trinamool Congress councillor Anindya Chattopadhyay, as the police failed to submit a charge sheet within the stipulated 60-day period in an extortion case.

Chattopadhyay, who was arrested on July 12 for his alleged involvement in extortion, secured bail by the court of Bidhannagar sub-divisional judicial magistrate.

The Trinamool councillor of ward no. 41 of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, had been taken into custody by the police following a complaint by a person in the area that he was pressurised by the leader to pay Rs 12 lakhs when he had undertaken a construction work at his residence.

He was called for questioning at Bidhanagar North Police Station and after he allegedly failed to give satisfactory reply, he was arrested.

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A top Maoist operative has been gunned down in an encounter with security forces in Gumla district of Jharkhand, the police said here.

Getting a tip-off, personnel of the CoBRA and the police yesterday raided the jungles near Akhrakona and in the ensuing gun battle the Maoist, identified as Ashish'da, who carried Rs 25 lakh on his head, was killed, Superintendent of Police Chandan Kumar Jha said.

The rebel was a member of Bihar/Jharkhand special area committee.

An American rifle, an INSAS and one AK-47 were recovered along with the body.

(REOPENS ERG2)



Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das today



congratulated the CRPF, district police and CoBRA for gunning down the dreaded Maoist operative.

The success achieved by the security forces would give a big boost in rooting out Left Wing Extremism in the state, a release said here.

Appealing to the Maoists to join the mainstream, Das called upon them to be a part in the state's development, otherwise law would take its own course, the release added.
Telecom operators, including Reliance Jio, will face immediate action by regulator Trai for breaching call-drop threshold and below-par service, despite the 90-day period mutually agreed upon between the incumbents and the new player on providing inter-connection ports.

"Regulation is law. No one can play with it even if there is a mutual agreement. Though telecom operators are given time of 90 days to provide inter-connection, it is only applicable in the case of normal inter-connection when the networks are operational and there is additional capacity available," an official source told PTI.

"The inter-connect agreement cannot violate quality of service rules including one on network congestion."



As per quality of service rules, not more than five phone calls by a subscriber in 1,000 should fail due to network congestion.

Reliance Jio -- which commercially launched its services on September 5 -- has accused incumbent players of not releasing sufficient inter-connection ports and had sought legal action against them.

RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani, on September 1, alleged that Jio network had suffered 5 crore call failures in the preceding week due to inter-connectivity issues.

Inter-connection is required to enable mobile users to make calls to customers of other telecom networks. A mobile operator levies inter-connection usage charge for each incoming call it gets from subscriber of another network.

Last week, industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), representing incumbent telecom operators -- Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular -- said the players will meet to negotiate reasonable incremental capacity to be provided to Reliance Jio and following an agreement, they will have 90 days to comply with the latter's request for ports.

"Trai has sufficient powers to ensure telecom operators comply with the stipulated norms," the source said.

Under the Quality of Service norms, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India can impose penalty of Rs 1 lakh for every instance of rule violation.

Further, under the Trai Act, the regulator can take stringent action leading to cancellation of telecom licences.

COAI has accused the regulator of being biased and said various consultation papers, including review of inter-connect usage charge (IUC), issued by it can adversely impact business of incumbents and favours a new entrant.

Trai issued a discussion paper to review IUC following a complaint by COAI against BSNL service that allowed the latter's subscribers to make calls on mobile and landline through a mobile app. This service of BSNL could not be made operational as the regulator asked them to hold it till the matter is resolved.

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Rapper Travis Scott had to abandon plans to stage a surprise outdoor concert in New York when too many fans showed up to support the launch of his new fashion collection.

The hip-hop star announced his new merchandise line during a performance at the Made In America festival in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania earlier this month, and he unveiled the range on Thursday, during New York Fashion Week.

He planned to treat supporters to a "special pop up show" on the streets of the Big Apple to mark the occasion, and told fans on social media to meet him at the Bape Store in Manhattan at 7pm local time, reported Contactmusic.

Hundreds showed up, causing traffic in the area to come to a standstill as police officers monitored the huge gathering.

Video footage posted online by Travis shows fans chanting his name, but the free gig was subsequently scrapped, and he suggested cops had shut the show down in a tweet.

"They won't let me rock outside," he wrote. "I love you guys. We going to do this at a (official) show I guess."



He added, "I left though the back door get home safe (sic)".

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Two persons were arrested here today after being found in possession of leopard skin worth Rs 12 lakhs in the international market.

Babu Ram Uniyal and Himalayan Sherpa were arrested from Clement Town area of the city by the Special Task Force following a tip-off, police said.

Two pieces of leopard skin worth Rs 12 lakhs in the international market were seized from their possession, they said.

A case under the Wildlife Protection Act has been registered against the duo at the Clement Town police station, police said.

The arrests come in the wake of complaints that endangered wildlife species were being poached in the Himalayan highlands and their parts smuggled to Nepal and Tibet.

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More than 150 people, mostly of Indian-origin, had a lucky escape when the leisure boat on which they were having a celebration caught fire and crashed into the Canary Wharf pier on River Thames in east London.

Most of the passengers on the vessel were Bengalis from 'The Tagoreans' - one of UK's oldest cultural organisations established in London in 1965, and were marking its golden jubilee year celebrations yesterday.

"It was quite a shock as towards the end of the three-hour cruise two of the engines caught fire. We could see smoke billowing at the back of the boat, which was coming inside. There was a bit of panic but all the passengers remained surprisingly calm," a spokesperson for 'The Tagoreans' told PTI.

"The emergency services were at scene promptly, including a police helicopter and paramedics. Thankfully, there were only some minor injuries," she added.

The company which owns the boat has since apologised to the group, which included young children and disabled members, and said a "full investigation" is underway.

"We wait to hear back from them. It is a relief as things could have been much worse. We had an enjoyable afternoon of Rabindra Sangeet and fun and games until then," said the spokesperson.

The fire was put out before firefighters arrived at the scene and passengers and crew were taken off the ship by two other boats on the river.

No serious injuries were reported among the 142 passengers and nine crew members on board and the pier was briefly closed before being reopened.

"Firefighters and officers were called to a small engine fire on a tour boat in the Thames this afternoon [Sunday]. The fire was extinguished before the Brigade arrived," London Fire Brigade said in a statement.

"Crews checked the boat for safety and ensured that the fire was out. Eight fire engines and the fireboat attended the incident from stations including New Cross, Greenwich, Millwall and Shadwell," it added.

The Port of London Authority said boat is currently "safe and secure" by the river bank with its anchor dropped, and will be towed away in due course.

Transport for London's river services from Canary Wharf were suspended on Sunday as a result of the incident.

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A 48-year-old American citizen has been arrested from the Nepalese capital's tourist district on charges of sexually abusing children and five minors have been rescued from his hotel room, police said today.

Kenneth Joseph Coombs, of Illinois, frequently visited Nepal and was a serial paedophile, said Superintendent of Police Dibesh Lohani of the Central Intelligence Bureau.

Coombs introduced himself as a mobile phone app developer. He was popular in Kathmandu's tourist areas as a professional tarot card reader and has claimed to have written two books on the art and two on mobile apps.

His Facebook profile says he studied Chemistry at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, police said.

Coombs arrived in Nepal on August 23 and was staying at Hotel Yambu in Thamel - the tourist hub of Kathmandu.

He allegedly took help ofa 21-year-old local youth to lure children to his hotel room, where he allegedly sexually abused them.

The youth has also been arrested on Friday.

They rescued five children, aged between 6 and 12, from the room.

The police haveseized Coombs' laptop, camera and mobile phone, suspecting he might have filmed his sexual acts. Both the suspects have been found to have posted their photographs with several young boys on their Facebook accounts.

The CIB swung into action after receiving complaints from some of the victims' family members.

Preliminary investigation revealed that Coombs had preyed on dozens of Nepali children, Lohani said.

All the victims are said to be boys in their teens.

The American national and his Nepalese accomplice were presented before the Kathmandu District Court and remanded into custody for further investigation, police said.

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Two persons, including a woman, have been arrested in connection with the murder early this month of a 65-year-old woman NGO worker in Man Sarovar Park area in north east Delhi.

Initially, the police had a dozen persons under their radar as suspects in the murder of Vimla Tiwari, who was found dead at her house with a head injury and a rope around neck on September 4.

"Following further probe, we zeroed in on Surender and the 30-year-old woman from Khora Colony in Ghazibad," said AK Singla, DCP(north east).

Police investigation also revealed there was a complaint against Vimla that she was allegedly involved in providing space to couple seeking "privacy".

Some persons were detained based on that complaint, but nothing substantial came up to make a cognisable offence against her.

Later, Vimla had filed complaints against the beat staff in this connection.

"Her involvement in such activities was confirmed from the interrogation of his son Ankit. He was living separately for the last few years due the embarrassment he had to face because of his mother's activities," Singla said.

The accused woman told police during interrogation that she tried to set up an independent network parallel to that of Vimla due to which she scolded her, the officer said.

She said they thought of eliminating her after the run-in, added the officer.

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A woman in northwest China allegedly killed four of her children and later committed suicide after her family was reportedly denied government poverty allowance because they were not poor enough, highlighting the wealth gap in the Communist nation.

The tragedy in Kangle county in China's Gansu province was compounded when the husband was found dead eight days later in another apparent suicide, China Youth Daily reported yesterday.

Villagers found 28-year-old Yang Gailan near her house on August 26, together with her four children aged three to six.

All five were either already dead or died in hospital soon after, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported today.

Apparently the four children had been hacked with an axe before being fed pesticide, and the mother, who was accused of the murders, had poisoned herself, the local government said in a statement.

Eight days later, the husband, Li Keying, was found dead in the woods after taking poison, police said.

Yang and her four children lived together with her father and grandmother in a mountainous village while her husband worked in the city for extra money.

They barely survived on the crops - mainly peas and wheat from a small farm as well as three cows and three sheep, the Youth Daily said.

The family was included in their village's allowance programme for poor families in 2013, but was removed from the list in 2014 "because Yang's family was not mentioned during a consultation meeting for low-income family qualification", the newspaper cited the village director as saying.

China's poverty relief 'grading scheme' will rate top officials based on how much they improve life for the poor The Yang family was also barred from another government programme for low-income families because they earned too much.

The Yang's average income from the husband's work and the family crops was 5,226 yuan (over USD 870), much higher than the maximum allowed income of 2,300 yuan (USD 385), according to the local government.

Inequality in China, the world's second largest economy has long been a concern.

Local authorities in 22 provinces and autonomous regions have spent 58 billion yuan (USD 8.8 billion) on relocation projects, with construction started on over 10,000 of them, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said last month.

China plans to relocate 2.49 million poor people in 2016. So far, 718 projects have been completed and 226,000 people have moved, the NDRC said.

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Women's rights activist Trupti Desai today claimed she has been offered popular reality show "Bigg Boss", but said she would participate on the condition that a female voiceover will be roped in for the series.

Desai claimed she received the offer from the concerned television channel (Colors), and she is thinking of participating in the forthcoming season of the show.

"I am ready to enter into the ('Bigg Boss') house. During my meeting with the TV channel and its producers, I conveyed them that if they rope in a female as the voice of 'Bigg Boss', I will accept the offer," Desai told PTI.

Since its inception, a male voiceover has been used for the "Bigg Boss".

"I have not given them any confirmation and had told them during the meeting to give a thought over the condition and get back to me," she said.

"I know, for them it is difficult to replace the male voice with female for this season, but if they assure me that they would rope in a female as voice of 'Bigg Boss' in the next year season, I would accept the offer."



Desai said it won't be easy for her to stay in the house for a long time as she has campaigns lined up for coming months, but believes "Bigg Boss" is a good platform to promote male-female equality.

"Since there are several campaigns on various issues lined up in next few months, it would be very difficult to stay in the house for a long time. However, the platform of 'Bigg Boss' will be a good medium to spread our message about equality."



Colors is, however, yet to make an official announcement on the contestants in the upcoming season, which will be hosted by superstar Salman Khan.

The activist, who belongs to the Bhumata Brigade, had successfully campaigned for women's entry into the inner sanctum of Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra and fuelled a national debate on gender bias in various other temples of the country.

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Drawing battle lines with the Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch (BBSM) over the issue of medium of instruction (MoI), the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Goa on Monday reiterated its stand that it would not withdraw grants given to the English-medium schools in the state.

"BJP is a political party and we believe in taking all people along. We respect the decision of (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) to support mother tongue, but our stand on MoI will continue to be the same," BJP MP Narendra Sawaikar told reporters here on Monday.

Sawaikar's statement comes a day after 'Goa Prant' held a mega convention appealing people to vote against BJP, and RSS' newly-appointed Goa Vibhag Sanghchalak Laxman Behre's demanded that BJP should withdraw grants to English-medium schools.

The Lok Sabha MP clarified that the party has utmost respect for . "RSS is one of the rewarded and respectable organisation, not only in India but across the world," he said.

When asked about the call given by the Subhash Velingkar-led 'RSS Goa Prant' not to vote for BJP in the upcoming Assembly polls, Sawaikar said such things will have no impact on the party's prospects.

"BJP will win election because of its work. Our work will speak and we are confident of winning 2017 election," he said.

BBSM has been vociferously opposing grants to English medium schools in Goa and led agitations against the Laxmikant Parsekar government demanding that primacy be given to Marathi and Konkani languages as the MoI in schools.
Amid reports that a miffed Chinese President Xi Jinping cancelled his maiden visit to Nepal, Beijing today said both countries are in "close communication" on the issue and China attaches importance to the new Nepalese government.

"You said the visit was cancelled. This not appropriate to say it", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing here responding to reports of cancellation of Xi's visit.

"China and Nepal are in close communication on high-level exchanges. China attaches importance to the new Nepalese government and we would like to promote new development of bilateral relations with Nepal", Hua said.

Pressed further for details she said "I don't think it was appropriate way to say it is cancelled because two sides have high-level exchanges", she said.

"The two sides are always in communication on high-level exchanges so we cannot say it is cancelled or not as it is not defined yet", she said.

"All we can tell you we are in close communication with Nepal on the relevant issue and we will release information in due course", she added.

Xi was due to visit Nepal next month.

But reports from Kathmandu said the visit has been cancelled as China is unhappy with the new government led Prachanda who is set to visit India this week to mend ties between the two countries after his predecessor, K P Shama Oli followed pro-China policy.

Reports said China was displeased with the lack preparations for Xi's visit as well as commitment to implement China's Silk Road plan (officially called One Belt and One Road) as well as agreements reached by Oli government to step up road and rail links connecting Nepal with Tibet to reduce landlocked Nepal's dependence on India.

Nepal government had dismissed the reports saying there was no truth report about the cancellation of Xi's visit.

Nepal's Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat had said "We are expecting the visit of the Chinese President, though the date of the visit has not yet been fixed".

During his visit, Oli had signed the Transit Transport Agreement to improve the connectivity between Nepal and Tibet in a bid to end decades-old dependency on India for daily supplies.

The deal was widely regarded as an attempt by Oli to open trade links with China in a bid to reduce dependence Nepal's imports through Indian ports.

China also agreed to Oli's request to build railway link connecting the two countries through Tibet.

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Yogalates, the trend of combining Pilates exercises with the postures and breathing techniques of Yoga, is among 1,200 new entries unveiled today in the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

As September marks the centenary of the birth of British author and screenwriter Roald Dahl, the edition also contains a range of revised and newly-drafted entries connected to Dahl and his writing.

"Revised entries in this range include those for words which many of us encountered for the first time in his books for children such as the adjectives frightsome, scrummy, scrumptious, splendiferous and splendiferousness," said Jonathan Dent, senior assistant editor of the OED.

"This quarter's update strays into other fictional worlds and beams down a new entry for the science-fiction sense oftransporter(along with the fullermatter transporterand the abbreviatedtransmat)," he adds.

Other unusual entries include moobs, used to describe unusually prominent breasts on a man, typically as a result of excess fat, and gender-fluid, which refers to a person who doesn't identify with a single fixed gender.

Further to a number of food-related terms - includingthe Malaysian or Indonesian dish, rendang-social media expressions have also made an appearance.

YOLO, anacronymmeaning 'you only live once', has been included in the latest edition.

'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' character Willy Wonka's team of Oompa Loompa workers finds an entry for the first time as well as Westminster Bubble - the term used to describe an insular community of politicians, journalists, and civil servants, who appear to be out of touch with the experiences of the wider British public.

Michael Proffitt, the chief editor of the OED, said the latest update "confirms the OED as one of the largest and longest-running language research projects in the world.

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MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's government bond trading time was extended by half an hour to 1730 local time on Monday due to late settlement of state government securities that were auctioned earlier in the day, two traders told .

The message regarding the extension was displayed on trading screens of dealers.

On normal days, the government bonds market closes at 1700 local time (1130 GMT).

(Reporting by Suvashree Dey Choudhury; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

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As part of the ongoing Indo-US defence cooperation, a joint military training exercise, 'Yudh Abhyas 2016' is set to be conducted in Uttarakhand from September 14 to 27, a military official said on Monday.

The exercise in Chaubattia was being conducted by the headquarter Central Command.

"It is a series of one of the longest running joint military training and a major ongoing bilateral defence cooperation endeavours between India and the US. It is the 12th edition of the joint military exercise hosted alternately by the two countries" the official said.

The exercise is aimed at simulating a scenario where both nations were working together to counter insurgency and terrorism in mountainous terrain under UN charter.

The two week exercise will witness participation of about 225 personnel of the US Army and similar strength of Congo Brigade of the Indian Army.

The exercise curriculum is progressively planned where the participants are initially made to get familiar with each other's organisational structure, weapons, equipment and tactical drills, the official said.

Subsequently, the training advances to joint tactical exercises wherein the battle drills of both the armies are coherently unleashed.

The training will culminate with a final validation exercise in which troops of both countries will jointly carry out an operation against terrorists in a fictitious but realistic setting, the official added.
Artificial intelligence has a wide range of uses in businesses, including streamlining job processes and aggregating business data.

Researchers arent exactly sure what artificial intelligence means for the future of business, specifically as it relates to blue-collar jobs.

AI is expected to take digital technology out of the two-dimensional screen and bring it into the three-dimensional physical environment surrounding an individual.

This article is for business owners and employees who are looking to understand how the use of artificial intelligence transforms the business sector.

You probably interact with artificial intelligence (AI) on a daily basis and dont even realize it.

Many people still associate AI with science-fiction dystopias, but that characterization is waning as AI develops and becomes more commonplace in our daily lives. Today, artificial intelligence is a household name  and sometimes even a household presence (hi, Alexa!).

While acceptance of AI in mainstream society is a new phenomenon, it is not a new concept. The modern field of AI came into existence in 1956, but it took decades of work to make significant progress toward developing an AI system and making it a technological reality.

In business, artificial intelligence has a wide range of uses. In fact, most of us interact with AI in some form or another on a daily basis. From the mundane to the breathtaking, artificial intelligence is already disrupting virtually every business process in every industry. As AI technologies proliferate, they are becoming imperative to maintain a competitive edge.

What is AI?

Before examining how AI technologies are impacting the business world, its important to define the term. Artificial intelligence is a broad term that refers to any type of computer software that engages in humanlike activities  including learning, planning and problem-solving. Calling specific applications artificial intelligence is like calling a car a vehicle  its technically correct, but it doesnt cover any of the specifics. To understand what type of AI is predominant in business, we have to dig deeper.

Machine learning

Machine learning is one of the most common types of AI in development for business purposes today. Machine learning is primarily used to process large amounts of data quickly. These types of AIs are algorithms that appear to learn over time.

If you feed a machine-learning algorithm more data its modeling should improve. Machine learning is useful for putting vast troves of data  increasingly captured by connected devices and the Internet of Things  into a digestible context for humans.

For example, if you manage a manufacturing plant, your machinery is likely hooked up to the network. Connected devices feed a constant stream of data about functionality, production and more to a central location. Unfortunately, its too much data for a human to ever sift through; and even if they could, they would likely miss most of the patterns. [Related: Artificial Insurance? How Machine Learning Is Transforming Underwriting]

Machine learning can rapidly analyze the data as it comes in, identifying patterns and anomalies. If a machine in the manufacturing plant is working at a reduced capacity, a machine-learning algorithm can catch it and notify decision-makers that its time to dispatch a preventive maintenance team.

But machine learning is also a relatively broad category. The development of artificial neural networks  an interconnected web of artificial intelligence nodes  has given rise to what is known as deep learning.

Did you know? Machine learning is useful for putting vast troves of data  increasingly captured by connected devices and the Internet of Things  into a digestible context for humans.

Deep learning

Deep learning is an even more specific version of machine learning that relies on neural networks to engage in what is known as nonlinear reasoning. Deep learning is critical to performing more advanced functions  such as fraud detection. It can do this by analyzing a wide range of factors at once.

For instance, for self-driving cars to work, several factors must be identified, analyzed and responded to simultaneously. Deep learning algorithms are used to help self-driving cars contextualize information picked up by their sensors, like the distance of other objects, the speed at which they are moving and a prediction of where they will be in 5-10 seconds. All this information is calculated at once to help a self-driving car make decisions like when to change lanes.

Deep learning has a great deal of promise in business and is likely to be used more often. Older machine-learning algorithms tend to plateau in their capability once a certain amount of data has been captured, but deep learning models continue to improve their performance as more data is received. This makes deep learning models far more scalable and detailed; you could even say deep learning models are more independent.

AI and business today

Rather than serving as a replacement for human intelligence and ingenuity, artificial intelligence is generally seen as a supporting tool. Although AI currently has a difficult time completing commonsense tasks in the real world, it is adept at processing and analyzing troves of data much faster than a human brain could. Artificial intelligence software can then return with synthesized courses of action and present them to the human user. In this way, we can use AI to help game out pfossible consequences of each action and streamline the decision-making process.

Artificial intelligence is kind of the second coming of software, said Amir Husain, founder and CEO of machine-learning company SparkCognition. Its a form of software that makes decisions on its own, thats able to act even in situations not foreseen by the programmers. Artificial intelligence has a wider latitude of decision-making ability as opposed to traditional software.

Those traits make AI highly valuable throughout many industries  whether its simply helping visitors and staff make their way around a corporate campus efficiently, or performing a task as complex as monitoring a wind turbine to predict when it will need repairs.

Common uses of AI

Some of the most standard uses of AI are machine learning, cybersecurity, customer relationship management, internet searches and personal assistants.

Machine learning

Machine learning is used often in systems that capture vast amounts of data. For example, smart energy management systems collect data from sensors affixed to various assets. The troves of data are then contextualized by machine-learning algorithms and delivered to your companys decision-makers to better understand energy usage and maintenance demands.

Cybersecurity

Artificial intelligence is even an indispensable ally when it comes to looking for holes in computer network defenses, Husain said. Believe it or not, AI systems can recognize a cyberattack, as well as other cyberthreats, by monitoring patterns from data input. Once it detects a threat, it can backtrack through your data to find the source and help to prevent a future threat. That extra set of eyes  one that is as diligent and continuous as AI  will serve as a great benefit in preserving your infrastructure.

You really cant have enough cybersecurity experts to look at these problems, because of scale and increasing complexity, Husain added. Artificial intelligence is playing an increasing role here as well.

Customer relationship management

Artificial intelligence is also changing customer relationship management (CRM) systems. Software programs like Salesforce and Zoho require heavy human intervention to remain current and accurate. But when you apply AI to these platforms, a normal CRM system transforms into a self-updating, auto-correcting system that stays on top of your relationship management for you.

Tip: For those in brand-new companies, read our Zoho CRM review, or our review of Salesforce to learn about one of the most popular CRMs.

A great example of how AI can help with customer relationships is demonstrated in the financial sector. Dr. Hossein Rahnama, founder and CEO of AI concierge company Flybits and visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, worked with TD Bank to integrate AI with regular banking operations.

Using this technology, if you have a mortgage with the bank and its up for renewal in 90 days or less  if youre walking by a branch, you get a personalized message inviting you to go to the branch and renew purchase, Rahnama said. If youre looking at a property for sale and you spend more than 10 minutes there, it will send you a possible mortgage offer. [Related: CRM vs. Marketing Automation: Whats the Difference?]

Internet and data research

Artificial intelligence uses a vast amount of data to identify patterns in peoples search behaviors and provide them with more relevant information regarding their circumstances. As people use their devices more, and as the AI technology becomes even more advanced, users will have a more customizable experience. This means the world for your small businesses, because you will have an easier time targeting a very specific audience.

Were no longer expecting the user to constantly be on a search box Googling what they need, Rahnama added. The paradigm is shifting as to how the right information finds the right user at the right time.

Digital personal assistants

Artificial intelligence isnt just available to create a more customized experience for your customers. It can also transform the way your company operates from the inside. AI bots can be used as personal assistants to help manage your emails, maintain your calendar and even provide recommendations for streamlining processes.

You can also program these AI assistants to answer questions for customers who call or chat online. These are all small tasks that make a huge difference by providing you extra time to focus on implementing strategies to grow the business.

Key takeaway: Rather than serving as a replacement for human intelligence and ingenuity, artificial intelligence is generally seen as a supporting tool. Humans can use AI to game out possible consequences and streamline the decision-making process.

The future of AI

How might artificial intelligence be used in the future? Its hard to say how the technology will develop, but most experts see those commonsense tasks becoming even easier for computers to process. That means robots will become extremely useful in everyday life.

AI is starting to make what was once considered impossible possible, like driverless cars, said Russell Glenister, CEO and founder of Curation Zone. Driverless cars are only a reality because of access to training data and fast GPUs, which are both key enablers. To train driverless cars, an enormous amount of accurate data is required, and speed is key to undertake the training. Five years ago, the processors were too slow, but the introduction of GPUs made it all possible.

Glenister added that graphic processing units (GPUs) are only going to get faster, improving the applications of artificial intelligence software across the board.

Fast processes and lots of clean data are key to the success of AI, he said.

Dr. Nathan Wilson, co-founder and CTO of Nara Logics, said he sees AI on the cusp of revolutionizing familiar activities like dining. Wilson predicted that AI could be used by a restaurant to decide which music to play based on the interests of the guests in attendance. Artificial intelligence could even alter the appearance of the wallpaper based on what the technology anticipates the aesthetic preferences of the crowd might be.

If that isnt far out enough for you, Rahnama predicted that AI will take digital technology out of the two-dimensional, screen-imprisoned form to which people have grown accustomed. Instead, he foresees that the primary user interface will become the physical environment surrounding an individual.

Weve always relied on a two-dimensional display to play a game or interact with a webpage or read an e-book, Rahnama said. Whats going to happen now with artificial intelligence and a combination of [the Internet of Things] is that the display wont be the main interface  the environment will be. Youll see people designing experiences around them, whether its in connected buildings or connected boardrooms. These will be 3D experiences you can actually feel. [Interacting with digital overlays in your immediate environment? Sounds like a job for augmented reality.]

Did you know? AI is predicted to take digital technology out of the two-dimensional screen form and instead become the physical environment surrounding an individual.

What does AI mean for the worker?

With all these new AI uses comes the daunting question of whether machines will force humans out of work. The jury is still out: Some experts vehemently deny that AI will automate so many jobs that millions of people find themselves unemployed, while other experts see it as a pressing problem.

The structure of the workforce is changing, but I dont think artificial intelligence is essentially replacing jobs, Rahnama said. It allows us to really create a knowledge-based economy and leverage that to create better automation for a better form of life. It might be a little bit theoretical, but I think if you have to worry about artificial intelligence and robots replacing our jobs, its probably algorithms replacing white-collar jobs such as business analysts, hedge fund managers and lawyers.

While there is still some debate on how, exactly, the rise of artificial intelligence will change the workforce, experts agree there are some trends we can expect to see.

Will AI create jobs?

Some experts believe that, as AI is integrated into the workforce, it will actually create more jobs  at least in the short term.

Wilson said the shift toward AI-based systems will likely cause the economy to add jobs that facilitate the transition.

Artificial intelligence will create more wealth than it destroys, he said, but it will not be equitably distributed, especially at first. The changes will be subliminally felt and not overt. A tax accountant wont one day receive a pink slip and meet the robot that is now going to sit at her desk. Rather, the next time the tax accountant applies for a job, it will be a bit harder to find one.

Wilson said he anticipates that AI in the workplace will fragment long-standing workflows, creating many human jobs to integrate those workflows.

What about after the transition?

First and foremost, this is a transition that will take years  if not decades  across different sectors of the workforce. So, these projections are harder to identify, but some other experts like Husain are worried that once AI becomes ubiquitous, those additional jobs (and the ones that had already existed) may start to dwindle.

Because of this, Husain said he wonders where those workers will go in the long term. In the past, there were opportunities to move from farming to manufacturing to services. Now, thats not the case. Why? Industry has been completely robotized, and we see that automation makes more sense economically.

Husain pointed to self-driving trucks and AI concierges like Siri and Cortana as examples, stating that as these technologies improve, widespread use could eliminate as many as 8 million jobs in the U.S. alone.

When all these jobs start going away, we need to ask, What is it that makes us productive? What does productivity mean?' he added. Now were confronting the changing reality and questioning societys underlying assumptions. We must really think about this and decide what makes us productive and what is the value of people in society. We need to have this debate and have it quickly, because the technology wont wait for us.

A shift to more specialized skills

As AI becomes a more integrated part of the workforce, its unlikely that all human jobs will disappear. Instead, many experts have begun to predict that the workforce will become more specialized. These roles will require a higher amount of that which automation cant (yet) provide  like creativity, problem-solving and qualitative skills.

Essentially, there is likely to always be a need for people in the workforce, but their roles may shift as technology becomes more advanced. The demand for specific skills will shift, and many of these jobs will require a more advanced, technical skill set.

AI is the future

Whether rosy or rocky, the future is coming quickly, and artificial intelligence will certainly be a part of it. As this technology develops, the world will see new startups, numerous business applications and consumer uses, the displacement of certain jobs and the creation of entirely new ones. Along with the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence has the potential to dramatically remake the economy, but its exact impact remains to be seen.

David Cotriss contributed to the writing and reporting in this article. Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.
Artists come together to drink beer and make art. Participants must bring personal supplies.

Join us every Monday evening at 8 on the patio at Tractor Brewing Company in Nob Hill for ABQ Pens & Pints! Where Albuquerque artists spend quality time drinking beer and doing artwork together.

Bring any of your current art to work on, and look for the tables reserved with our logo. We do not provide any extra art supplies, so make sure to bring your own.

This is a low-key, no agenda, show-up-&-leave-whenever event, so let nothing hold you back from joining us!

The Virginia Creepers will be having their usual Monday night "Tractor Tune-Up" from 7-9, so come early if you like bluegrass, and come late if you don't!

Oh, and did we mention, Happy Hour starts at 9. Wahoo!

Like us on Facebook to get more connected + involved in the ABQ art scene!
Cairn India shareholders have cleared the merger with its debt-laden parent Vedanta Ltd.

93 per cent of Cairn India equity shareholders favoured the merger in voting done on September 9. The merger with Vedanta is expected by the end of this fiscal year, Cairn India said in a statement.

Navin Agarwal, Chairman of Cairn India, said: "I am pleased that the shareholders of Cairn India have approved the merger of Cairn India with Vedanta Limited. We are confident that the financial strength and diversified portfolio of Tier-I assets of the merged company, with strong growth potential, will provide de-risked earnings and stable cash flows and drive long-term value."

Vedanta's shareholders had already approved the merger on September 6.

Sudhir Mathur, CFO and Acting CEO of Cairn India, said: "The shareholders of Cairn India have approved the merger with Vedanta Limited, and I am confident that they will benefit from exposure to Vedanta's diversified portfolio of assets while retaining the upside from Cairn's strong oil & gas assets."

Anil Agarwal's Vedanta Group had in 2011 acquired Cairn India from its British promoters, Cairn Energy, and last year proposed to merge the cash-rich firm with BSE-listed Vedanta.
The Supreme court on Monday modified its September 5 order, asking Karnataka to release a reduced amount of 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery River water per day to Tamil Nadu till September 20 from the earlier 15,000 cusecs a day to ameliorate the plight of farmers of the neighbouring state.

A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and U U Lalit, which sat on a holiday to consider the urgent plea of Karnataka, however, expressed deep anguish over the "tone and tenor" of the fresh plea and said the law and order situation cannot be taken as a ground for non-compliance of the order of the court.

It rejected one of the prayers of Karnataka that the apex court direction asking it to release 15,000 cusecs water per day to Tamil Nadu be kept in abeyance till next date of hearing on the ground that there has been a fault in the Cauvery Water Tribunal award, which does not deal with the issue of deficient water in the reservoir in a particular month.

Referring to the content of Karnataka's fresh plea, the bench said, "If we are allowed to say then we must say that the tone and tenor of the application is absolutely disturbing and to say the least, totally depricable...that apart the application for modification contain certain averment which follow the tenor or similar language which cannot be conceived of in a court of law seeking modification of an order."

"Agitation, spontaneity or galvanised riot or any kind of catalystic component can never form the foundation for seeking modification of an order..

"An order of this court has to be complied by all the concerned and it is the obligation of the executive to ensure that the orders are complied in letter and spirit.

Protests by farmers have been reported from several parts of Karnataka over the Supreme Court order asking it to release water to Tamil Nadu.

During the hearing, the bench noted the stiff claim and counter-claims of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and said that it would apply the concept of fair compensation in the matter and fixed it for further hearing on September 20.

The apex court was hearing the application filed by Karnataka seeking a direction to reduce the quantum of water to be released from Cauvery River to Tamil Nadu from 15,000 cusecs to 1,000 cusecs.
Union minister for Road Transport Nitin Gadkari on Sunday said a new access control highway would be constructed between Delhi and Jaipur which would reduce the travel time between the cities to just two hours.

The 270-km distance takes over six hours by road now.

The Minister also said an "intelligent transport" system - with CCTV cameras installed to monitor the traffic rule violators - would be put in place on NH-8.

ALSO READ: Spanish Talgo train completes Delhi-Mumbai trial run in less than 12 hours

Speaking after laying the foundation stone for improvement work on three junctions on NH-8, at an estimated cost of Rs 1,005 crore, Gadkari said the work would be completed in 15 months instead of the originally planned 30.

Referring to the new Delhi-Jaipur access control highway, Gadkari said the project would cost Rs 16,000 crore and work on it will be started in January, 2017. The land acquisition process for the new highway would be started soon.

On plans to ensure seamless traffic flow on NH-8, he said work on the flyover at IMT Manesar Chowk would be completed soon. He said four underpasses and as many flyovers would be constructed to make the traffic movement seamless.

Gadkari said work on the Dwarka Expressway had commenced and it would be completed soon.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar urged him to get the 1.75-km stretch of this expressway, which falls in Delhi area, done quickly.

Gadkari said the junction near Ambience Mall would also be improved.

In addition, he assured to start construction work on the Manesar-Gurgaon bye-pass in near future. The pilot project of Metrino System between Dhaula Kuan in Delhi and Manesar had been cleared and work would be started soon, he said.

Gurgaon MP and Union Planning, Urban Development, Housing and Poverty Alleviation Minister, Rao Inderjeet Singh demanded waiving of the toll charges for the residents of Gurgaon at Kherki Daula Toll Plaza on the pattern of Gujarat.
The government on Monday approved the process, formation and functioning of Goods and Services Tax (GST) council, which will eventually decide the uniform tax rate applicable in the country.

The move comes after President Pranab Mukerjee last week gave his assent to the GST Bill making it an Act.

GST Council, which will have have the Union finance minister and state finance ministers as members, would decide on the GST rate, exemptions and thresholds and also finalise the law.

ALSO READ: Here is what you need to know about Monday's market mayhem

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said it does not expect GST Council to arrive at tax rate in next two months. It believes the govt would not be able to meet the April 2017 deadline to roll out the GST.

However, being a transaction tax, GST can be implemented middle of the year.

Any resolution in the GST Council would be passed only after 75 per cent of the members present agree. The Centre has a one-third weightage in the vote while the state governments together will have two-thirds weightage.

The GST Council would be a powerful body given it would decide the GST rates and draft rules for Central, state and Integrated GST.

Arriving at a consensus on GST rate itself is going to be a tough task ahead given that states have already rejected the standard rate of 18 per cent suggested by the GST Committee headed by Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian.

Drafting of GST rules by the Council would also take time given the number of flaws experts have pointed out in the Model GST law. The other important decision that the GST Council would have to take is deciding the list of exempted goods.

In the present indirect tax regime, there are around 300 items that are exempted from central excise duty and around 90 items exempted from value-added tax (VAT). Now, the government will have to merge all the exempted items and decide on a final list of exempted goods.
The hum of the pesky mosquito is getting louder. Not only are diseases like Dengue and Chikungunya becoming a growing concern, but now, there are news reports that the deadly Zika virus is also knocking our doors. All these diseases are spread through a mosquito bite. Infact, after Zika was first detected in Brazil in 2015, Dr. Kleber G Luz, an infectious diseases specialist at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil and one who attended some of the first patients of this virus, told Business Today that India, too, needs to be worried about Zika. He said: "India is a big country. People travel within India and out of the country all the time and most importantly, while India doesn't have rainforest like Amazon in Brazil, still India has plenty of mosquitoes." But, at the moment, it is not Zika that is hurting. What is stinging the mind space of many Indians is the development next door in Sri Lanka.

On September 5th, the World Health Organisation certified island-nation Sri Lanka as malaria-free after a long battle against the life-threatening disease. Whereas, India, almost 50 times in area compared to Sri Lanka, is still grappling with the disease as one to two million malaria cases are reported in the country every year, though numbers are under-reported. Many cases and deaths, especially in remote, tribal locations and disturbed areas do not get reported and in many cases the cause of death is also not clearly assigned.

The story was not always bad like this. In fact, in 1960s, India was pretty close to not only eliminate malaria, but eradicate it. The main weapon to deal with malaria at that time was the DDT spray, a powerful insecticide against the Anopheles mosquito, the main carrier or the host for malaria parasite. But in 1970s, the cases of malaria start increasing. "This happened due to a bit of complacency which led to some laxity in the programme. Plus, by then even DDT resistance may have developed," feels Dr Sowmya Swaminathan, director general of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). But, she sees some improvement in the situation as some states like Punjab are looking poised to get to a stage of eliminating malaria, however, there are still regions where problems exist.

In fact, malaria has become a complex problem today with a rise in number of drug resistance cases and its inter linkages with the patterns of human habitation and health. Malaria cases are surfacing in areas where population is more prone to hunger and undernourishment.

"The most-affected areas in India are in the central belt - Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and North East - but today we have good tools. We have good treatment for malaria, we have good diagnosis system and we are looking at vector control through means other than medicines in the form of supply of bed nets," says Dr Neena Valecha, scientist and director, National Institute of Malaria Research of the Indian Council of Medical Research. She feels with good implementation, proper supply chain, quick diagnosis and patients care, the goal to be malaria- free by 2030 should be attained.

So, are we on the track to eliminate the disease? Dr. Valecha says: "we have reached the community-level diagnosis and treatment, which is to be strengthened further. Also, in keeping with the commitment made to eliminate malaria by 2030, the government has prepared a national framework for malaria elimination that was launched in February this year. Along with that each state has been asked to give its plan of action (since it is a state subject though the elimination programme is being driven at the central level)." Further, she said there are other initiatives at work. For instance, she said, "we are also researching on early case management in Odisha (which has a relatively high annual parasite incidence for malaria - number of cases per thousand population in a year)."

She added that even the treatment policy is being revised, something which was successfully done in the North East in 2013 and now government plans to take this to the rest of the country. Talking about the key challenges Dr. Valecha said, "the key is to maintain a good supply chain and implementation of all the vector control strategies." This means a management of whole chain from attending the patient to diagnosis, treatment through rapid diagnostic kits and medicines and reaching them in time and in good supply. This could prove be a challenge in conflict prone regions or places that get cut off during heavy rains or monsoons. For prevention, she advised spraying of insecticide called 'Indoor Residual Spray' and use of bed nets. Experts feel that elimination of malaria is going to be a challenge for India considering the major issues it still has to deal with. But Sri Lanka presents a good example of how to do it. Although Sri Lanka is a small nation in terms of size and in complexity of the disease as compared to India, but what stands out in Sri Lanka's case is that it could achieve the target despite having conflict zones in the country. India can also take a leaf out of its efforts from elimination of polio. But then, polio had a vaccine, which malaria does not have.

(API: Annual parasite incidence: number of cases per thousand population in a year)

SOURCE: NVBDCP (National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme)


Terming its recent confrontation with regulator TRAI in the wake of Reliance Jio controversy as unfortunate misunderstanding, the cellular operators' body has said it has no intention to disparage anyone and is keen to move forward and resolve issues.

The telecom regulator had convened a meeting of telcos to resolve the ongoing dispute between the incumbent operators and the new entrant Reliance JIO over interconnecting joints.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) on Friday alleged that TRAI in an unprecedented manner had acquiesced to Reliance Jio's demand to keep the association out of the crucial interconnect meeting between the operators.

Taking a stern view of allegations, the telecom watchdog thereafter asked the cellular operators' body to take back its words and apologise for malafide and patently wrong statement.

When contacted, COAI director-general, Rajan S Mathews said, "There is no intention to disparage anyone... We said that our association respects TRAI and its work...This was an unfortunate incident."

Mathews emphasised the association is keen to move forward and resolve, not create, issues. "It is an unfortunate misunderstanding...we want to proceed forward on real issues that impact consumers...the matter has been resolved," Mathews claimed.

Asked if he would tender an apology as demanded by the regulator, Mathews said, "No apology is required...it was a misunderstanding."

As TRAI's letter was addressed to Gopal Vittal, Chairman of COAI, it was Vittal who spoke to TRAI, Mathews added.

Mathews drew flak from the regulator on Friday over his statement that he was kept out of the Trai meeting at the insistence of Reliance Jio and Trai acquiesced to their demand, in an unprecedented manner.

Soon thereafter, TRAI shot off a letter to COAI chairman, Vittal saying that "the statement of Director General, COAI...alleging that he was not allowed by Trai to participate in the said meeting at the behest of Reliance Jio is to say the least patently wrong, mischievous and perhaps with malafide intention.

In order to set the record straight, the Director General COAI may be directed to retract his false statement made in the media and issue apologies for the same," the letter had said.
Private operator Vodafone and state-owned BSNL on Sunday announced a 2G intra-circle roaming agreement (ICR) that is designed to benefit their customers and help reduce call drops.

"The agreement will enhance coverage for both Vodafone and BSNL customers. Next month, we will jointly provide seamless connectivity at the BRICS summit, which is to be held in Goa," BSNL CMD Anupam Shrivastava told PTI.

The state-run firm, which regained its 5th position in terms of mobile subscribers in June, has nearly 1,14,000 sites across the country with a wide reach in rural areas.

Shrivastava added: "This partnership with Vodafone will help us make our network coverage better, especially in urban areas."

The availability of additional towers is expected to help both the companies address the coverage gap, thereby minimise chances of call drops.

Vodafone India has over 1,37,000 mobile sites across the country. The agreement will allow Vodafone to expand its 2G network further, especially in rural areas, and strengthens BSNL's network reach in urban localities.

"We made significant investments to expand, enhance and upgrade our network, making Vodafone SuperNet our best network ever, world-class and future-fit. This partnership with BSNL will further strengthen the reach of our network, especially in the hinterland and surrounding rural areas," Vodafone India MD and CEO Sunil Sood said in a statement.

Additionally, the agreement will support Vodafone's coverage plans in Tamil Nadu where it failed to win back 900 Mhz spectrum that it used for 2G services in the 2015 auction.

Vodafone India, the fully-owned subsidiary of the UK's Vodafone Group, has operations across India serving over 199 million customers.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) had a user base of 89.54 million at the end of June this year.




Meet the former refugee on the campaign trail in Berlin

Published on September 12, 2016

Story by Sebastien Vannier Translation by: Emily Spencer

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As a child, Maja Lasic escaped the conflict in the former Yugoslavia and found refuge in Germany. Now 37 years old, the young Social Democratic Party (SPD) candidate hopes to use the education system as a stepping stone to integration for her first electoral campaign in Berlin.

With wet hair and towels on their shoulders, two boys leave the Humboldthain Park swimming pool. "Come and try your luck!" - the red and white lottery wheel is too enticing. The boys return with two ice lollies; the visit to the SPD's makeshift stand has been a success. Barely having greeted her fellow campaigners, Maja Lasic takes a handful of fliers and makes her way over to the local residents who have gathered to enjoy a picnic under the Berlin sun. With surety in her step and a sympathetic ear, Lasic is on a mission to speak to as many people as possible. "Ah, the elections? I thought they had been and gone," says a boy sitting on a bench. The public seems to have little interest in the regional election that will take place in Berlin on 18 September, but the SPD candidate in the multicultural region of Wedding remains determined. Determination is an attribute that has served the SPD candidate well, and she's never shied away from the challenges that life has thrown her way since her youth.

School of hard knocks

For many Europeans, Mostar evokes the conflict that ravaged the Balkans in the '90s. Today, it is a city which is trying to rediscover its past splendour. It is also the birthplace of Maja Lasic, who can still remember the consequences that the conflict had on the life of the young school girl.

"The embargo was part of our daily lives," she recalls. "I remember, for example, queuing to buy a litre of milk. Sometimes, I returned without any. I also remember the atmosphere that completely ravaged our classrooms. Every child knew exactly who belonged to which camp, factions developed in the playground."

Lasic remembers the summer of 1993 in detail. Her father, a diplomat, was in Bonn (the capital of West Germany) at the time. She left Belgrade - where her family live today - to spend a summer with him in Germany and never went back. "I had to stay there for two months. Ultimately I had been exiled, but I didn't know that when I arrived. I didn't have a chance to say goodbye." Lasic later received refugee status, but she remembers above all else the role that education played in her successful integration in Germany.

"My parents' message was clear; I had to be successful. I was given the opportunity to attend a prep class in school. I had to learn the language from the time that I started to prepare for the Abitur [the German equivalent of A-Levels - ed.], but I had teachers who helped me greatly." It is an experience which to this day influences the political motivation of the young social democrat.

Lasic's university studies allowed her to travel around more of Germany. After Bonn and Bielefeld, her studies took her to Munster and Stuttgart. With a PhD in Biochemistry under her belt, she started work in the pharmaceutical industry in Rosenheim. "I understood the workings of the industry; my career path was clearly delineated, from promotion to promotion. Money would never be a problem." But at the age of 30, her life seemed to be too straightforward. Third-life-crises were becoming the new mid-life-crises. People were asking - who am I? Where should I go? And, as was the case for many Europeans in her situation, the answer was simply: Berlin. The educational programme Teach First, which in Germany was still in its infancy, offered her the opportunity to teach for two years in a disadvantaged school in the Wedding area. It was a revelation.

"I know what I am talking about"

Her political interest had until then been focused on the Balkans region, but her desire to make a difference to the educational system made her change focus. In 2010 she joined the Social Democratic Party before adopting German citizenship. After an internal campaign, which lasted several months, she became the SPD candidate for the Wedding constituency. At a time when the issue of refugee integration is a major political topic of debate, she acknowledges that her own story isn't meaningless.

"We are now coming to a point where we must find a way to integrate refugees into the job market and into our educational system. For adults, it is clear that some will only get jobs for which they are overqualified. Others will get low-skilled jobs or unskilled jobs" she explains.

"But where we can really make a difference is in the lives of children and in schools and that's where I want to focus my energy. When locals tell me that the large majority [of refugees] will have a negative influence on this country, I am all too ready to tell them that that simply isn't the case. We have already experienced waves of migration and they haven't ruined the country. On the other hand, I will tell those arriving: 'It won't always be simple. I know what I am talking about. I've been in your shoes.'"

In Huboldthain Park, Lasic continues to distribute the bundle of flyers at a steady pace. Neither the strain of a long campaign, nor the scant interest of the citizens, nor the rise of right-wing populism will slow her down.

Story by Sebastien Vannier

Translated from Maja Lasic : une ancienne refugiee en campagne a Berlin
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By Beatriz Alvarado of the Caller-Times

If you're into discussion on gravitational waves, particle physics and cosmology, you won't want to miss Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi's Distinguished Speaker Series.

The mysteries of the universe will be discussed during the fall 2016 A&M-CC Distinguished Speaker Series featuring Brian Greene, American theoretical physicist and string theorist.

The event will be at 8 p.m. Oct. 18 in the university's Performing Arts Center. Tickets range from $30 to $150. VIP seating and sponsorships also are available. A free student forum will take place at 2 p.m. before the Distinguished Speaker Series event.

Greene is a professor of physics and mathematics and the director of the Center for Theoretical Physics at Columbia University. He's lectured in more than 30 countries, a university news release states. Greene also is co-founder of the World Science Festival, which has drawn an audience of more than 1.5 million to its annual events.

"Besides being a well-known scientist, Brian Greene is an award-winning science communicator who can bring to life processes that occur  from the vast universe to the inside of tiny atoms," Philippe Tissot, Associate Research Professor in the College of Science and Engineering at A&M-CC and Associate Director of the Conrad Blucher Institute states in the release.

Learn more online at www.tamucc.edu.

Twitter: @CallerBetty
David Strickland

SHARE Molli Olgin Kristene Chapa CALLER-TIMES FILE PHOTO Kristene Chapa's mother Grace Chapa puts a device called a Saebo Reach orthosis on Kristene's left hand and arm. The rehabilitation device will help her regain use of her hand and arm. CALLER-TIMES FILE PHOTO Kristene Chapa has a tattoo with the quote "Let God let go" and the date of June 23, 2012. The date on the tattoo was the night Chapa and her girlfriend Mollie Judith Olgin were sexually assaulted and shot in the head in a Portland park. Both women were left for dead in a grassy area of the park, but were later found by a couple passing by. Olgin died at the scene, but Chapa survived.

By Krista M. Torralva of the Caller-Times

Lawyers this week will begin selecting a jury in a small county for a case that grabbed national attention and went two years without an arrest.

About 750 San Patricio County residents were summoned for the county's first capital murder trial in recent memory. David Malcom Strickland is charged with capital murder among other charges related to the shooting of two teenage girls who also were found bound and raped at a Portland park in June 2012.

Mollie Judith Olgin, 19, was dead. Her then-girlfriend, Mary Kristene Chapa, survived but lost functionality on the left side of her body. She's had to relearn how to walk and talk.

Strickland, through his family and team of hired lawyers, has maintained he was not involved in the crime. He and his wife were arrested in their Helotes apartment in 2014. Charges were later dropped against Strickland's wife, Laura Strickland, who had been charged with tampering with evidence. Portland police said she wrote a letter addressed to Chapa's father detailing the assaults and shooting written from the perspective of a hit man.

The letter contained information that had not been released to the public, District Attorney Michael Welborn said.

Another man was implicated in the letter, police said, but he had an alibi and was not charged.

Police reports state David and Laura Strickland lived in a house near the Portland park at the time of the shooting. Strickland voluntarily went to the Portland Police Department five days after the shooting and provided information on his whereabouts, reports state. He told police he saw a white car at about midnight driving down Bayview Boulevard, near where the women were attacked.

Later that day Strickland approached a group of people in mourning at the shooting site and asked what they knew about the investigation, according to the reports. He told the group his girlfriend knew one of the victims, and a witness later told police she saw him searching the grass near the crime scene.

Initially, it was widely believed Chapa and Olgin were targeted because of their sexuality. Vigils were held in their honor across the country and last year Chapa was a presenter and speaker at the annual Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Media Awards in New York.

But police and prosecutors have said evidence does not support the hate crime narrative.

San Patricio County, whose county seat is Sinton, has a population of about 66,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That's about five times smaller than the population of Nueces County and is smaller than Corpus Christi.

Twitter: @CallerKMT
ETATS-UNIS :: Mom would kill me over Trump, and dad would kill me over Clinton :: UNITED STATES

I love politics. But since the confirmation of Trump and Clinton as their respective Partys nominees, I grew numb to what politics has to say. Not that I have no admiration for neither of the two presidential candidates, no, I admire each of them in their own way, but they are just not who we would expect to be president in a conventional world.

Donald Trump has my admiration for his courage and decisiveness. The man had received a million dollars from his dad and had built an empire of his own. Yes, a million dollars, that is a lot of money even today to start a business but how many people have received the same amount and never earned a penny more? We cannot know because the crowd forgets about the losers. Until a little more than a year ago nobody thought Trump was going to be remembered three months after he had started his presidential joke. The word joke is in quotation marks because it is not a joke anymore. What media outlet did not shoot on Donald Trump? What moralist did not teach not to listen to the man? And what college educated person did not think that man is a total shame for the political class? You see, Trump stood still and is winning in the polls, AGAIN.

America is a highly civilized country. It is common to hear that you are rude, you are mean, or you have an attitude. All those terms mean that people will soon lose interest in you and isolate you. America is the land of Dale Carnegie, the father of interpersonal relationships, the man who influences the world until six decades after his death. His methods and training teach good manners and meekness. But look at Trump and listen to him.

Trump curses, threatens and mocks without ceasing. He uses all the vulgar and slang terms of the creepiest ghetto and is applauded in public. He says all the thing my mom would kill me about if I were to say one of them. I tend to wonder if politics is not switching gears. Did you say Clinton?

I admire Clinton for her determination. She is the one who approached her husband in the school library decades ago to tell him to stop staring at her saying nothing. Bill could then start talking to the girl that would become her wife later. She stood firm to her husbands side even when the country was roaring over him when the dramas of the then president were shaking the world. She believes she once was at the White House and can come back again, and there she is.

Now, if I were to introduce to my dad a woman that has Mrs. Clintons history, he would probably tell me to leave her because almost nobody is giving a good testimony of her. But yet, a good part of the American people wants her to be their next president. How can I easily love

politics in these instances? I am not in love with politics anymore; I just gotta love it.
| BY Lynchy |

Trying to describe what L&P tastes like is tackled in a distinctly kiwi way this week in the new Saatchi & Saatchi campaign for L&P via Saatchi & Saatchi and directed by Wade Shotter from Flying Fish.

The iconic kiwi brand launches four new 15 second TV spots with the Bit Different Aye campaign, which follows an online competition on their Facebook page.

Saatchi & Saatchi ECD, Antonio Navas, says that it was key to retain the iconic kiwi humour, but that the brand needed a more contemporary look and feel.

Says Navas: Its one of New Zealands favourite brands, so the last thing we wanted to do was change it completely. We wanted to contemporise L&P in a way that still made everyone smile.

The great thing about L&P is when you ask someone to describe the taste, they really cant put their finger on it. We had a lot of fun exploring this in the scripts, and trying to bring the taste to life in a more interesting way.
| BY Ricki Green |

The MFA have selected 5 finalists in the NGEN category and 2 finalists in the MFA 5+ category for its annual Awards.

Says Greg Graham, chairman, MFA Awards: Once again the judging panels were blown away with the quality of entries received in both categories. The ideas presented were inspiring, realistic and provided great value for the clients. With the talent showcased, we as an industry are well placed for the future.

The MFA Awards charity partner UnLtd nominated The Pyjama Foundation as the charity for 2016.

The Pyjama Foundation was founded with the aim of making a positive impact on the lives of our communitys most vulnerable children. Entrants were asked to respond to a brief to create a bespoke fundraising approach that will raise funds to fund the Love of Learning program and train volunteers.

The 2016 NGEN Award finalists are:

 Johanna Futcher and Emily Brydon, Carat, Make an Iconic Difference

 Johanna Futcher and Emily Brydon, Carat, Right The Story

 Cindy Tan and Phi Dang, Mediacom, Home 2 Home  Airbnb

 William Berner, Mediacom, Every Word Counts

 Brooke Swavley and Raymond Ly, Mindshare, Books For Bucks

All entry fees from this category will be donated to The Pyjama Foundation after the Awards.

The MFA 5+ Award launched in 2015 and has been designed to reflect the purpose of the MFA 5+ program; to inspire, motivate and challenge the industrys 5+ community, with a particular focus on developing business skills.

The 2016 MFA 5+ Award finalists are:

 Aaron Vardon, Eline Rannou and Tim Micallef, Ikon Communications, DTO 2.0

 Gregory Cattelain, Elise Gill and Ryan Haeusler, Initiative, The Power Of Together

The winning entry will be awarded a $5,000 business scholarship to be used to further develop their skills within the media and communications industry.
| BY Lynchy |

The Ad Council in the US has won the Outstanding Commercial Emmy for its campaign Love Has No Labels via agency R/GA, New York.

The campaign competed against work from Snickers, Gatorade, Honda and Google for the top prize.

The campaign, led by Aussie expat ECD Chris Northam and chief creative officer Nick Law (pictured), together with ECD Eric Jannon (pictured below with Northam), challenged Americans to open their eyes to its bias and prejudice and work to stop it in themselves, their families and their colleagues.

While the vast majority of Americans consider themselves unprejudiced, many unintentionally make snap judgments about people based on what they see  whether its race, age, gender, religion, sexuality, or disability.
| BY Ricki Green |

BlueJeans Network, a cloud-based video communication services, has announced that it is the first platform to bring interactive and large-scale broadcasting capabilities to Facebook Live. For the first time, companies, organizations and brands can create large-scale, interactive broadcast experiences for their own Facebook audiences.

Says Krish Ramakrishnan, CEO, BlueJeans Network: Facebook Live has become the must-have channel for every major brand and business to interact with their key audiences through todays most powerful medium  live video.

Until today, Facebook Live has been primarily a one-way viewing experience. BlueJeans changes that dynamic by enabling multiple people in different locations to come together and interact on Facebook Live. Now brands can have meaningful conversations with their communities and create powerful, signature experiences that engage, inspire and truly connect.

BlueJeans Primetime was the first large-scale video event platform to give multiple participants the power to engage in live conversations with thousands of viewers. Now, through this new integration with Facebook Live, the BlueJeans platform is the only one to expand the capability out to established communities on Facebook. This extends the reach from thousands to millions so that every person and organization is able to participate in multi-party live video on Facebook.

BlueJeans Primetime already powers large-scale, brand-building events for The Players Tribune, The Sundance Film Festival, TED, and more. Individuals such as Chelsea Clinton, Drew Brees, and David Ortiz have also leveraged the platform to connect and interact with their audiences.

Now every BlueJeans customer will be able to multiply the reach of their events through the integration with Facebook Live. The possibilities are endless  businesses can leverage the platform for major brand launches with celebrity spokespeople, Q&As with filmmakers, fan events with all-star athletes, fireside chats with top executives and a myriad of other options.
| BY Ricki Green |

Clio has announced the Gold, Silver and Bronze winners for the 2016 Clio Awards ahead of the presentation night on September 28th at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Australia has been awarded a total of seven Gold, seven Silver and five Bronze with Clemenger BBDO Melbourne leading the Australian agency pack with four Gold, two Silver, and four Bronze.

Clemenger BBDO Melbournes The Boys work for Bonds has picked up four Gold; two in Film, one in Direct and one in the Integrated Campaign category as well as two Silver in Branded Content and in Direct and two Bronze in Branded Content and in Direct. Clemenger also picked up a Bronze in PR for Snickers Hungerithm and a Bronze in Audio for Myer Wonderful Hold Music.

Production company Revolver/Will ORourke has picked up two Gold in Film for Old Spice Whale and Old Spice Rocket Car both directed by Steve Rogers. Leo Burnett Melbourne has secured a Gold statue in the Digital/Mobile Technique category for Headspace Reword campaign. The Reword campaign also scored two Silvers; one in Digital/Mobile and one in the Innovation category.

Scoring one Silver each is FINCH Sydney for St Kilda Film Festival Every Second Counts in the Film Technique category, Leo Burnett Sydney for Samsung BrainBAND in Innovation and J. Walter Thompson Melbourne in the Out of Home category for Melbourne Queer Film Festival To Russia With Love. Cummins&Partners Melbourne has picked up a Bronze in Film for Doritos Ultrasound.

Asian agencies picked up 32 awards including 5 Golds to the Dentsu Network.

Select Gold winners will be elevated to Grands and presented on stage during the event on September 28th at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, hosted by Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally. Grand winners will not be announced until the night of the event.
| BY Lynchy |

Juhi Kalia was locked up for days in a room filled with clients but she never gave up hope. The location was the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Bali and the occasion was the 2016 Clio Awards judging where Kalia was joining the Brand Innovation and Integrated jury panel. Bucking the usual trend, this year Clio had invited some of the worlds top clients to join the jury. Following the judging Campaign Brief Asia sat down with the Kalia, Head of Creative Shop, India and Indonesia at Facebook, to talk about the experience and her work life after agencies.

Juhi Kalia left the ECD role at J Walter Thompson Singapore and joined Facebook in May this year as Head of Creative Shop, India and Indonesia. She is one of the exodus of experienced creative directors to turn their backs on the traditional agency model for the worlds largest social media network.

Her role at Facebook is to help brands and agencies in India and Indonesia, understand how to create the most original, impactful work on Facebook and Instagram.

Its also to show these brands whats possible when you creatively combine mainstream advertising basics like insights, ideas and storytelling with data, technology, behavior on our platform and the social and mobile environment, said Kalia. There is so much to love, so much to get excited about and so much to learn because its dynamic and constantly evolving. So if you thrive on curiosity and change then this is a dream job.

It certainly seems to be a dream job as several of Asia-Pacifics great creative minds have jumped ship and also joined Facebook in similar roles in different countries. In addition to Kalia, in Singapore Valerie Cheng (also ex J Walter Thompson Singapore), in China Kitty Lun (Mullen Lowe China), in Australia + New Zealand Rebecca Carrasco (Clemenger BBDO), in Japan Jun Fukawa (ex JWT Tokyo, Singapore & London) and just recently in Australia Andy Blood (ex Colenso BBDO, Whybin\TBWA Auckland) have been hired across Asia Pacific. So in what ways does working for Facebook beat working for agencies?

I cant speak for everyone else on the team but for me it was the freedom to create, said Kalia. I love the autonomy. I love that my learning curve has gone nuts. I love that I dont know everything. I love that I can collaborate with any amazing creative team from any agency and I love that its still very much about what Im dyed in wool to do. Also, people and culture matter more than you can imagine. I have tremendous respect for Fergus OHare (Head of APAC for Facebook Creative Shop) and hes a huge part of why I joined. I wouldnt be me today if it wasnt for all the agencies and teams Ive worked with over the years so Im grateful for that journey. That said, this does beat working for an agency in many ways.

That said, it seems to Campaign Brief that great creative ideas on Facebook are, like traditional media, few and far between. Can clients/agencies be creative on Facebook?

Being creative used to be and still is about the freedom to make mistakes, iterate, explore and experiment, said Kalia. I feel like weve lost so much of that in the industry for many reasons. The revenue model thats structured around time sheets rewards effort not impact. And after 179 years of outdoor, 90 years of radio and 75 years of TV advertising, so much great stuff has already been done. But imagine if the TV had just been invented and no one had made a mind blowing commercial, a reality show, or a sitcom yet. Thats what Mobile advertising is like right now!

For Facebook, one of the places where one can really explore the edges of creativity is the News Feed. Engagement is key. If you dont earn or keep my attention, you lose. Your ad is competing with all kinds of content  from your friends dog video to a 360 trailer for Benhur. So to be thumb-stopping and to reward peoples attention with emotional value, brands and agencies can and must be creative.

Because its relatively new, I feel like we have more great work ahead of us than behind us and thats the reason the team at Creative Shop exists  to help figure out what lighthouse work looks like. But theres lots of stuff Ive seen since Ive joined, that Ive loved. There is a Wendys piece for the launch of their BBQ burger, that used big data to uncover the fact that it was not the expected Southern States where this burger would be loved, but actually places like NY that were BBQ deprived, that would appreciate it more. This defined the entire idea of the launch  BBQ inaccessibility and a spoofy public service tone to some hilarious spots which they then geo-targeted to cities that they hadnt even considered. Theres another piece for Zolando, I like very much, where they got Cara Delevingne to announce the names of 60,000 impossible to pronounce rural towns in Europe, where they now delivered. Then they cut the same basic ad but with 60,000 customised edits and served them to the right town, making each tiny town feel special. Personalisation at scale!

When Campaign Brief Asia caught up with Kalia she was on the ground in Bali at the judging of the 2016 Clio Awards. Kalia had been invited to join the Brand Innovation and Integrated judging panel and it was a non-typical judging gig as five of the seven jury members were clients. She said her week of judging was a week full of stories.

Tell me a fact and I will listen. Tell me a truth and I will learn. But tell me a story, and it will live in my heart forever. Kalia quotes an old native American saying.

For Kalia stories can be transformational: Stories are the way we make meaning and find purpose, she says. They help us understand our place in the universe.

Stories about elections in Africa, Stranger Things and 80s sci-fi, geothermal heating, what went into making the switchboard for The Swedish Number, Jim Morrisons last days in Paris, life in Ubud, Greece, Seattle and a man named Boris. We even crashed a big fat Indian wedding that was happening at the hotel and almost got caught. But thats another story for another time.

A week before the Clio judging in Bali Kalia was sitting with an old friend in Jakarta, listening to his story about the time he switched to a big agency and got a fancy title. I got a big raise, but I felt poor, he said as he drained his whiskey.

These words stayed with me as I walked in, to day one of the Clio judging for Brand Innovation and Integrated, hoping to leave richer for the experience. Hoping to feel that electric high you feel when youre surrounded by stimulating ideas and creative people.

But she had her doubts, given that the majority of the judging panel were from the client side. Clients kill ideas. Clients care more about sales than originality these were stories Kalia had heard and internalized over the past twenty years as an agency creative, with some of the largest networks including JWT, Saatchi & Saatchi, Ogilvy, McCann and Lowe.

And so, with a fat dose of healthy skepticism and a room full of clients barring me and Steve Vranakis, the jury chair from Google, it began. But the best stories are the ones that have the power to take you by surprise. The ones that transform your perception of the world. And surprised I was. The shortlist we had all arrived at was pretty close to what I imagine a room full of creatives would have arrived at, said Kalia.

Over the next two days as we debated, discussed and voted, my world view shifted even more. Whether it was Kathleen Hall who was behind the wonderful Womens Day Make Whats Next Microsoft stuff or Lars Terling, who made Van Dammes Epic Split for Volvo possible, I realized what a unique and unusual jury I was in. A jury of clients that was not judging effectiveness like they do at the Effies but creativity and originality at the Clios. And doing a damn good job of it.

There were of course differences too. I got some powerful insights into how an analytical business-first brain processes things and reacts and responds to both ideas and case studies. How if it chooses to, it

can follow through, sweat the small stuff, ask real world questions and make a terrific idea even better.

Kalia said as our job titles get big and our hubris bigger still, we must remind ourselves constantly that it is easy to judge, but incredibly hard to create. So it is always with great humility that she talks about stuff she liked or stuff that fell short.

She said of her Clio judging the most powerful ideas are a response to the world with a real problem to solve.

Some of the ideas that were very creative but started with a solution and then went hunting for a problem, felt less authentic, less important, said Kalia.

Awareness is a lazy goal. Dont tell me about an issue. Solve it. Because storydoing is even better than storytelling. Technology is not a story. VR is not an idea. The new UGC is inviting people to design product not content.

Free media impressions dont always make for compelling results. If your idea got famous or got press thats fantastic but if you had set out to save lives, did you? If you had set out to change a perception, did you? If you had set out to solve a mass problem, did your solution scale? Did you manage to achieve what you set out to do in a demonstrable and if possible measurable way?

Great creative makes real impact. But of course an average idea fantastically scaled or measured is still average.

The ideas that were clear on their story were home runs for Kalia.

For Kalia judging work is always a process of asking questions: Whats your story? If you had to tell it in one sentence what would it be? It may be an innovative solution, but do I care about the problem enough? Why are you telling this story? Does it matter? How is it transformational? Does it make new meaning? Does it change behavior? Have you earned the right to tell it? Is it yours to tell? Entries that had thought through all these questions, stood out for her.

As the week ended, Kalia (pictured right with The Gunn Reports Emma Wilkie, Cheils Malcolm Poynton and Clios Nicole Purcell) said she was leaving Bali with hope and heart and the realization that the stories we ought to pay most attention to, are the ones we tell ourselves.

They become our reality. But one things for sure, we can change the narrative. The world just needs more brave clients. Marketeers who dont just appreciate or approve innovative ideas, but demand them.

So does Kalia miss anything from her two decades of agency-life?
| BY Lynchy |

WMF is a 160-year-old German brand known for making knives with superior precision cutting ability. But in the hurly burly of a department store, with a plethora of similar looking products, how could WMF stand out?

Instead of shouting louder than the rest, TBWA Singapore chose a medium no one else had considered  gift wrapping paper. They created unique, ultrathin gift wrapping that brought to life WMFs precision cutting capabilities on various food items.

Rather than explain the fine cut, they demonstrated it in a visually arresting, and rather useful way.

Credits  Chief Creative Officer: Edmund Choe. Executive Creative Director: Gary Steele. Creative Directors: Jimmy Neo, Mohan Prabhakar. Art Directors: Lawrence Hu, Weilun Choong
"The public record is pretty clear on what the standard approach is, that people have to make the choice one way or the other," he said. "Once you've moved on from military life your military background is part of your CV, within appropriate boundaries. Those photographs are a part of who you are and what you've achieved."
"I had a pretty good pregnancy but by the end I had toxaemia and they were in a hurry to get him out," she said. "Things went a bit pear-shaped from there and I ended up having a caesarean."
His fellow caucus members called him "autocratic", "self-serving", a "narcissist", a "micromanager with a dysfunctional office" and a whole lot worse. His colleague, Wayne Swan, said Rudd put "his own self-interest ahead of the interests ... of the country as a whole". Gillard accused him of "a long-running destabilisation campaign" against her. That wise owl of Australian political commentary, Richard Farmer, says Rudd was "one of the most untrustworthy and self-centred men ever to achieve high office in Australia". Many of these things are matters of judgment, some may be self-serving and others are difficult conclusively to prove  however, they cannot be brushed aside. Taken together, they are more than sufficient to create serious doubts about Rudd's qualities and go a long way towards justifying Turnbull's view that Rudd has "neither the skills nor the temperament to be a candidate" for secretary-general.
The impoverished Zimbabwean Government has impounded the Universal Services Fund (USF) - established to help develop and support telecommunications infrastructure in remote areas  and has declared that it will use this resource to fund the digitalisation program for the state broadcaster.

Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said: Implementation of the Digitalisation Migration Project, which started in February 2015, has been facing funding challenges," and that progress had halted.

Only US$30 million of the US$172.9 million required has so far been disbursed. Zimbabwe continues to face a series of cash crisis have left the economy crippled and almost certain to miss its already low growth projection of 1.2% in 2016.

Authorities have now allocated resources from the USF to fund the broadcasting digitalisation project.

"The government will facilitate implementation of the project with funding drawn from the Universal Services Fund, to be reimbursed once the resources have been mobilised from the market," Chinamasa said in his 2016 midterm budget statement.

Initially, the project was supposed to have been funded from the Broadcasting Fund using cash made from the migration from analogue to digital.

The crisis was compounded by the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe selling the spectrum for US$200 million to Net-One (which is a state-owned telecom company) which failed to pay the asking price.

As a result the government decided to dispose of the spectrum to other players, although there have been no further details on how this sale will work.

Telecommunications companies contribute into the USF through a 1.5% tax. Econet has claimed that it has contributed as much as US$59 million into the fund during the period March 2009 to November 2015.

While infrastructure constructed using the fund is supposed to be shared by all operators Econet Wireless has demanded that the Posts and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) disclose how it has been utilising funds from the USF.

Chinamasa has been reported as saying said the Ministry of ICT will handle the fresh disposal of spectrum for digital broadcasting.
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The rating agencys special report on the reinsurance sector, Innovation: The Race to Remain Relevant, which was published last Monday, contains a listing of the top 50 global reinsurance groups ranked based on 2015 gross written premiums for life and non-life business taken together.

Pulling out just the non-life gross premiums for 2015 and comparing those to 2014 non-life gross premiums presented in a prior A.M. Best report (published Sept. 2, 2015) reveals Swiss Res repositioning, with $19.6 billion of gross reinsurance premiums putting the Swiss giant just about the $19.3 billion total of its German peer. (Click on image to enlarge.)

But when life reinsurance premiums are added in, Munich Re is back on top with $5 billion more gross premiums written than Swiss Re on the life reinsurance side of the house.

The top 10 excerpt from the top 50 global reinsurer list in A.M. Bests report (shown below) reveals that both Swiss Re and Munich Re saw total reinsurance premiums fall in 2015. While Munichs premiums fell just a little bit more than Swiss Reroughly 5 percent for Munich vs. 3 percent for Swiss Reneither saw a decline close to the double-digit drop recorded for Berkshire Hathaways reinsurance operations.

With non-life premiums falling nearly 29 percent in 2015 and total reinsurance premiums down roughly 18 percent, Berkshire slipped in the rankings, coming in at No. 4 behind Hannover Re based on just non-life reinsurance premiums and at No. 6 for overall reinsurance premiums, with Hannover, SCOR and Lloyds all eclipsing Berkshires $12.2 billion gross premium total.

A.M. Best analysts highlighted Berkshires tumble, both in the report and during a webinar late last week, a few days ahead of the start of the Rendez-Vous de Septembre in Monte Carlo.

Thats a conscious decision on their part. They have pivoted away from the reinsurance market, said Scott Mangan, an A.M. Best senior financial analyst, noting public comments by Berkshires leaders, including Chairman Warren Buffett, who has noted the lack of opportunities in the reinsurance market and the emphasis on the specialty insurance segment as an alternative avenue for growth.

The Berkshire pivot is just one example of the strategies that global reinsurers are undertaking generally in the face of challenging market conditions, increased ceding company retentions, and stiff competition within the traditional reinsurance market and from alternative capital players, said Robert DeRose, an A.M. Best vice president. There truly is a race to remain relevant, he said, referencing the title of the report as he kicked off last Thursdays webinar.

DeRose and other Best analysts listed an array of innovations, including acquisitions of managing general agencies, build-outs of life reinsurance platforms and increased participation in specialty lines. They are just trying to find ways to access the market, to get closer to the client, to secure the risk and yet remain disciplined, DeRose said, also listing partnerships with competitors as a less popular but notable strategy.

Building on the same theme, the written report highlights another action by Berkshirea July 2016 agreement between TransRe and Berkshires General Re under which the 11th largest non-life reinsurer, TransRe, serves as the exclusive underwriter for U.S. and Canadian broker-sourced treaty business on behalf of General Re. One might be inclined to describe this deal as unfathomable, the report said.

You have two very relevant players who feel they have to find a way to be even more relevant to the market. And if its successful, it will certainly improve the relevancy of both. But then you have to ask yourself the question, what does that mean for the players at the lower end of the ranking, DeRose said during the webinar.

Does this compel other companies to try to become more relevant or to come up with some other innovative way to bring more capacity to the market? asked Mangan.

More M&A Inevitable

You have two very relevant players who feel they have to find a way to be even more relevant to the marketWhat does that mean for the players at the lower end? Robert DeRose, A.M. Best Vice President

Assessing the deal environment going forward, Reisner noted that improving reinsurer valuations make deals easier to get done than they had been in some recent past years and that the deal drivers of 2015access to broader product capability, geographic reach, greater influence with brokers and potential attractiveness to third-party capitalare still present.

I do think that investment bankers are working very hard to try to construct deals, and I do think that deals are being entertained, said DeRose. Whether they actually occur, no one can predict. But I do think that [given] the dynamics of the market, its inevitable that there will be more M&A.

DeRose continued: The smallest players are going to be under greater pressure to remain relevant to the market, and ultimately, whether they like it or not, or whether the conditions are prime or not, it may force M&A to occur. If your share on a [reinsurance placement] slip is being reduced because youre small, or youre not viewed to be relevant in the eyes of the client, that can only go on for so long. Ultimately you have to come to the [conclusion] that something needs to be done, and usually its in the form of M&A, he said.

Chirico and Reisner noted that pressure from shareholders and private equity investors will factor in as well. On the one hand, reinsurers try to be disciplined, but at what point do you shrink to the point where youre not really relevant anymore? Chirico asked.

Reisner said that ROEs in the Bermuda reinsurance market fell below 10 percent for the first time in 2015. And we know returns are somewhat inflated by favorable reserve development, DeRose added. If levels of favorable development start to taper off, youre probably looking more at 4-4.5 percent ROEs, he said, Shareholders, investors, boards are going to become impatient, and theyre going to drive change, he said.

Mangan noted that M&A typically occurs in spurts, explaining that the intermittent surges take place because initial deals in the wave give a sense of urgency to competitors. After they see some of their peers grow or make some drastic changes, it increases the need for the other companies to be active, he said.

Rated Balance Sheets for Non-Traditional Competitors?

Mangan and DeRose also suggested that the race to remain relevant is not confined to traditional reinsurers.

Theres also some irony in that it was the convergence capital that was pressuring the traditional reinsurance players. Now you have traditional players entering or playing in the collateralized market, and its pressuring the collateralized players to innovate and come up with different ways of reducing their cost of capital and increasing their profitable business, Mangan said.

Turning to DeRose, Mangan went on to ask: At some point, do you see collateralized markets looking at a rated balance sheet, turning everything upside down?

Theres no question. Thats already happening, DeRose replied, noting that alternative capital providers are using their own MGA facilities to get closer to clientto find a controlled level of distribution.

Currently, collateralized capacity identifies a risk, finds a front who is willing to provide the paper but doesnt want that type of risk to pass through. But theres a cost to doing that, he said. Forming a company to replace the front and reduce the cost in deal flow is a trend that is evolving, DeRose suggested.
BMW is apparently weeks away from approving a host of new electric models beyond its existing i range.



German publication Handelsblatt says that the carmaker is looking to tweak its electric mobility strategy in an effort to keep up with Tesla. To do so, all-electric versions of both the 3-Series sedan and X4 SUV are soon to be given the green light for production. Additionally, a fully electric Mini is also due to hit the market soon.

As it stands, BMWs only affordable electric model is the i3 starting from around $44,000. However, compared to the Chevrolet Bolt and Teslas upcoming Model 3 which are both promising prices around the $30,000-$35,000 mark, the i3 is rather expensive, especially considering the 2017 models range sits at just 114 miles (183 km).

Offering an affordable electric variant of an existing model within BMWs ground of brands could therefore prove the best option. Such a vehicle would likely be based around the Mini Cooper which starts at just $20,700. The electric 3-Series and X4 would then serve the slightly more premium market.

Handelblatt claims that the three models will receive approval towards the end of the month.

PHOTO GALLERY
Meet chassis 022 of only 186 Lamborghini Murcielago SVs built by the Italian supercar manufacturer, and at the same time, one of just 28 RHD Murcielago SVs.



According to Super Veloce Racing (SVR), this is one of the rarest Lamborghinis in existence and its currently located at their Buckinghamshire showroom.

When it came to the Murcielago, SV meant no fewer than 670 PS (661 HP), a six-speed semi-automatic E-gear transmission and an aggressive aerodynamics package. This particular one also came with optional enlarged air vents and additional vents adjacent to the engine cover.

Furthermore, it has the full factory-order carbon-fiber package which includes carbon brakes with additional cooling exiting in front of the mirrors, a carbon fiber Aeropack Wing and a double-deck diffuser. If thats not eye-catching enough, look closer at the fluorescent Giallo-yellow paintwork, SV graphics, gloss black alloys, Giallo-yellow brake calipers and carbon fiber & glass engine cover.

Inside, its a mainly dark atmosphere with carbon fiber and Alcantara seats, as well as trim with contrasting yellow stitching on the seats, floor and roof.

The car has been fully serviced throughout its life at official Lamborghini Service Centers and has covered only 15,646 miles (25,179 km). Unfortunately, pricing will only be revealed to those who submit their applications  which are now being accepted by Super Veloce Racing.

PHOTO GALLERY
Jaguar Land Rover has announced it will move production of the Jaguar XE from its current home in Solihull to the firms Castle Bromwich plant in Birmingham, UK.



The British marque says that the change comes on the back of increasing demand for the XE as well as the F-Pace crossover and has been joined by a 100 million pound investment in the plant which already builds the XF, F-Type and XJ.

The switch means the Solihull plant can increase production of the F-Pace and Range Rover Sport which are built on the same line.

Jaguar hasnt given an exact date as to when the Castle Bromwich facility will be the sole producer of the XE, simply saying production will gradually transfer to the Birmingham site.

According to Castle Bromwich operations director Nicolas Guibert, 2016 is a pivotal year for Castle Bromwich. The arrival of the XE sees us increase our model lines and volume.

This plant has a rich heritage and is undergoing its most significant transformation in decades, with major infrastructure projects either complete or under way. The commissioning of our all-new press line and launch of our body shop to support the introduction of XE means Castle Bromwich is future-proof.

PHOTO GALLERY
Toyota made waves when they unveiled the intricate-looking C-HR at the Geneva Motor Show, and although the models design might be polarizing, the Japanese car maker wants to see it become a hit.



In a recent interview with Automotive News, Toyota Europe CEO Johan said Toyota expects to sell between 50,000 and 100,000 C-HRs in Europe, with a whopping 70 percent of the sales to be the hybrid variant.

We are quite bullish. We think the driving dynamics are very good. The styling is strong  some may even say it is polarizing  but that is what we wanted to do. We wanted to show a different face, said van Zyl.

The C-HR comes with either an 115 hp 1.2-litre turbo unit or a 122 hp 1.8-litre hybrid. The latter was borrowed from the Prius, delivering less than 90g/Km, of CO2 emissions, which Toyota says is unrivalled within its segment. The Japanese car maker wants hybrid to account for half of its European sales by 2020, and the hybrid C-HR is part of the plan, targeting new customers with its risk-taking appearance.

The model is produced at the companys plant in Turkey, being the first factory outside of Japan to produce a model based on Toyotas TNGA platform. When asked where the U.S. variant of the model will be produced, Johan van Zyl said its not decided yet.

PHOTO GALLERY
At a federal court in Detroit, James Liang, a German VW engineer, pleaded guilty to charges of violating the US Clean Air Act, conspiring to defraud the US and wire fraud.



In doing so, he is the first individual from VW to face criminal prosecution in relation to the ongoing Dieselgate saga and faces up to five years in prison.

Liang first started working at Volkswagen in 1983 and in 2006, played a key part in developing a cheat device for the Jetta, reports Autocar. This device was then tested in the United States and its affects hidden from emissions regulators.

While Volkswagen has agreed to a settlement with US authorities worth upwards of $16.5 billion, the company still faces criminal charges in the country and more of its employees may also face criminal charges individually.

PHOTO GALLERY
Warner Bros. is currently negotiating with actor/writer Dax Shepard (Parenthood, the upcoming Chips) to co-direct a Scooby-Doo animated feature with Warner Bros. Animation veteran Tony Cervone (Space Jam animation director, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated supervising producer).

If Shepard joins the film as director, it would follow the existing Warner Animation Group strategy to stunt cast Hollywood personalities with no animation experience as directors of animated features. The studios upcoming animated feature, Storks, also includes a co-director with no prior animation directing experienceNicholas Stollerwho wrote the films script.

Shepard is also set to co-write the Scooby screenplay with Matt Lieberman (Dr. Dolittle: Tail to the Chief), while Phineas and Ferb co-creator Dan Povenmire will exec produce. The film is slotted for release on September 21, 2018.
Photo: Google Street View

Saskatoon's SPCA has started an investigation into the deaths of 14 dogs at a boarding kennel over the weekend.

The organization's executive director, Patricia Cameron, says she was shocked when she learned of the incident Saturday at Playful Paws Pet Centre where the animals appear to have perished from too much heat.

The centre posted on its Facebook page that a mechanical failure on a rooftop heating unit caused it to continuously push heat into one of its upstairs kennel rooms.

It says the heat continued to the point that the dogs died.

Cameron says the SPCA handles investigations under Saskatchewan's Animal Protection Act, but notes that there are no licencing regulations for kennels.

The post from Playful Paws Pet Centre says staff are devastated.

"We are incredibly saddened by this travesty of life and cannot express enough our sympathy to the families of these dogs," the post from Saturday stated.

"We love our dogs and each of our team is trying to personally cope with this terrible loss."

Sarah Gee, the owner of a German shepherd-cross named Aurora that died, said she was an hour-and-a-half north of Saskatoon conducting field work for a master's program when she took a break on Saturday and called the kennel to see how her dog was doing.

Gee said she was put on hold for a moment and then the manager came on the line. The manager said there had been a terrible accident  an electrical malfunction with the heating system. The manager was holding back tears to give her the news, Gee said, but still hadn't told her Aurora's fate.

"I interrupted her and, 'I said is the dog dead?' And she said, 'Yes, your dog is dead. All the dogs in that area died,'" Gee said.

Gee said she left her field work and made her way back to Saskatoon. She said she met with the owner of Playful Paws, who was compassionate, crying and embarrassed. The owner said staff had left at 8:30 p.m. on Friday and when they came back at 6:30 a.m., all the dogs in the upstairs area were dead.

Gee was directed to the Small Animal Clinic at the University of Saskatchewan where the body of her dog had been taken. She said there was a social worker at the clinic, and staff asked several times to make sure she was up to seeing the dead dog.

She said she was told Aurora died of heat exhaustion.

"They brought her in and she had a blanket over her, and they took it off and she was still big and fluffy. She just had some sweat around her head and she looked very noble. I told my boyfriend she looked like a bodyguard that just went to sleep," Gee said.

"She was just a big, beautiful animal that was laying there and I hugged her and kissed her. So I got to say goodbye."

Playful Paws Pet Centre did not immediately return calls or emails.
Skaha Lake was flooded with dragon boats and athletes this weekend for the 16th annual Penticton Dragonboat Festival at Skaha Lake Park.

The event ran Saturday and Sunday with more than 87 teams and 2,200 paddlers on the lake to compete in the two-day competition, the second largest of its kind in Western Canada.

The festival saw teams of 20 paddlers (plus a drummer and steers person) on both mixed and womens crews racing the 15-meter canoes in 500 meter sprints.

Along with the finals, races on Sunday included a moving Breast Cancer Survivor Finals and carnation ceremony.

As with many clubs around the world, it started with a group of breast cancer survivors  Survivorship  and has grown to include hundreds of local paddlers training out of the boathouse on Skaha Lake.

Survivorship itself, sponsored by the Penticton Lakeside Resort, crossed the line first, once again taking the title of breast cancer champions.

Dragon boating began in Penticton in 2000.

Saturday's list of results is already available on the website here , while a full list of results will be posted later today.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Cindy Tom-Lindley says her grandmother had all her children taken to residential schools and the family had no choice but to comply with the federal government policy designed to assimilate aboriginal people.

Generations of her family would experience the abusive system with Tom-Lindley herself spending three intermittent years at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.

"The pain and the suffering that our people have endured is very real," said the Upper Nicola Indian Band member.

The Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre being developed at the University of British Columbia will house stories from survivors like Tom-Lindley and her family to ensure their experiences aren't forgotten.

The centre acts as a west coast branch for the national archive of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission based at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

Construction for the centre, which will be located in the middle of the University of B.C.'s Point Grey campus, begins Monday.

Audio and visual records collected by the commission will be presented in interactive displays so that visitors to the centre can explore the materials and draw their own conclusions about the history, said Linc Kesler, director of the university's First Nations House of Learning.

Kesler said educating Canadians is one of the goals of the centre in order to improve relationships between aboriginal people and non-aboriginal people.

"We want this to be a place... where people can say ok, this is the history, we understand this, this is what brought us to this point, our society is now in this state because these things happened and evolved this way, and we now have some choices about what we want to see next," he said.

For communities traumatized across generations in the 150 years the residential school system operated, Kesler said the centre also provides the opportunity for young aboriginal people to learn about the history and understand how their lives may be affected by that trauma.
If You Feel Too Much

PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!

All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!

(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)
Urbans interaction with the crowd stood out against other performers of his caliber that have passed through Prosperas doors.

He took selfies, rocked guitar solos and even let women in the front row play with his hair as he laid on his back on stage.

Among the set list of more than 20 of his greatest hits, and a few hits of others, Urban shared his love for the Okanagan.

He said he stays up near Vernon every year and has enjoyed a Rockets match in Prospera Place in the past.

Urban played a long list of some of his greatest hits including You Look Good in My Shirt and Days Go By.

More than half way through his set he walked through the crowd to a smaller stage set at the back of the floor.

Noting to the crowd that he started on smaller stages and he loves playing to all his fans.

Who's got the good seats now? he shouted to the crowd to a round of loud cheers.

As he did in a past concert this tour, Urban signed a guitar right on stage and handed it out to one ecstatic audience member.

He quickly grabbed another guitar and began playing his hit Somebody Like You.

The cheers were deafening by the time he made it back on the main stage.

Urban finished off the first set with his hit Wasted Time before the crowd cheered for an encore.

He came back out on stage, bringing his long-term tour manager. Urban asked the crowd to sing his tour manager Happy Birthday and the crowd obliged.

He then stood alone on stage and played a stripped down acoustic version of Stupid Boy, followed by Raise Em Up.

The crowd, both on the floor and in the stands, stood for the entirety of his nearly two-hour set and encore.

Maren Morris opened the show, followed by Dallas Smith who both spent more than 90 minutes getting the crowd ready for Urban.

After their sets, both Morris and Smith joined Urban on stage to sing a song during his set.

Urban finally left the stage shortly after 11 p.m. Sunday night.

After he finished his final song, he took a moment to thank the crowd for supporting him and the opening acts before he and the band took a final bow.

Thanks for always making us feeling good, said Urban. We love you. Thank you so much.

For more photos check out our Facebook gallery here.
Photo: Contributed

With Parliament poised to look at changes to how temporary foreign workers are treated, people who came as live-in caregivers are speaking out about what they call injustices within the federal programs.

Kristina Torres, 28, came to Canada from the Philippines under a federal live-in caregiver program that she said has left her feeling "disposable" and less than human. Torres joined other caregivers in Toronto on Sunday to discuss allegations of exploitation in the program.

The federal initiative allowed families to hire someone from another country to live with them and provide care for children, seniors and people with medical needs or disabilities. After two years in the program, the caregiver could then apply to become a permanent resident.

The program was changed in 2014 so new applicants were no longer required to live in their employers' homes. But people already employed through the live-in program would continue in that stream, and couldn't apply for so-called "live-out" jobs. Along with that amendment, caregivers lost the right to apply for permanent resident status.

Federal programs involving temporary foreign workers have been no end of embarrassment for the government.

They've been criticized for giving Canadian jobs to foreign nationals, and leaving those foreign nationals in precarious work situations.

Reforms were made after a series of controversies, including reports of fast-food restaurants favouring temporary foreign workers over local employees. The Royal Bank also came under fire for cutting Canadian jobs while a new supplier it hired to provide technical support brought in foreign workers.

A Commons committee studied potential reforms to the programs this spring, and is expected to release its report after MPs return to Parliament Hill next week.

Many workers in the programs, such as Torres, are tied to the employer who brought them over  if they quit or are let go, they lose their living place and can't accept a job elsewhere without jumping through bureaucratic hoops.

"If we don't have an employer, we don't have a home," Torres said.

She said workers' hands are tied when their employers ask them to work unpaid overtime or do tasks that are outside of their job description. They can't decline without risking their job. Torres said she's had to agree to work that doesn't fall within the scope of her job, including fixing the caulking on an employer's bathroom floor.

"It was lucky I knew how to do it," she said.

But in 2014, when the program was in the midst of its overhaul, she was less lucky. She had been working for someone for a while, but she said she was let go a short time after she declined to help her employer renovate  something that was completely outside of her job description. She said she thinks her refusal is what triggered her termination.

Torres had to apply for a new work permit, and said she was rejected several times before finally being accepted.

The process was completely different from what she expected, she said. When she first applied for the program  years ago  she was promised a "pathway to permanent residency."

But no such pathway existed for her.

"You just collapse from all those expectations that you have, hoping that you'll have a good life in Canada," she said. "And then you're treated as less than a human being."
Photo: Twitter - NBC News

UPDATE: 10:45 a.m.

Three people who died in a small plane crash into a vehicle parking lot at Reno-Tahoe International Airport had been headed to the San Francisco Bay Area, an airport official said Monday.

The identities of the victims weren't immediately made public by the Washoe County coroner's office. But airport spokesman Brian Kulpin said the single-engine Piper Cherokee that crashed on takeoff Sunday evening had been bound for San Carlos, California.

Several vehicles in the parking lot were damaged, but officials said no one on the ground was killed or injured.

Kulpin said airport operations weren't affected by the crash.

The plane was registered to a corporation in New Mexico, where a telephone call for a person listed as a company officer went to a wrong number.

The cause of the crash was being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, agency spokesmen said.

It was the second fatal small plane crash in two weeks near the airport in northern Nevada.

ORIGINAL 6:35 a.m.

Officials say three people are dead in a small plane crash in a parking lot at Reno-Tahoe International Airport.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor says the single-engine plane crashed on takeoff around 6:15 p.m. PDT Sunday.

Airport spokesman Brian Kulpin tells the Reno Gazette that the three were aboard the aircraft. No one on the ground was hurt.

TV station KRNV reports that several cars in the parking lot suffered damage from crash debris and the lot was closed to allow clean-up.

Kulpin says it's still unclear what caused the Piper Cherokee to crash.

The paper says an investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board is scheduled to arrive Monday.

Airport operations weren't affected.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Turkish authorities have accused Kurdish militants of detonating a car bomb that wounded 48 people Monday in the eastern city of Van.

The state-run Anadolu news agency quoted a statement by the governor's office alleging that members affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party were responsible for Monday's blast at a police point in front of the ruling party municipal headquarters.

The statement added that 46 of the wounded were civilians, and the two others were police officers.

The governor's office said security forces were engaged in operations to apprehend the perpetrators.

Van Police Chief Suat Ekici earlier told Anadolu two of the wounded were in critical condition but did not say whether they were police officers or civilians.

The explosion occurred Monday around 10:50 a.m. local time on the first day of Eid al-Adha, an Islamic holiday.

Development Minister Lutfi Elvan condemned the attack, the perpetrators had no respect for the holiday.

"Of course the necessary response is being given to these traitors, and will continue being given," Anadolu quoted Elvan as saying. "Our nation and our state are strong. we are easily overcoming them and God willing we will root out this divisive terrorist organization as well as Daesh. We don't want even a single person remaining."

Daesh is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State.
Photo: CTV

UPDATE: 3:40 p.m.

UBC Okanagan is rolling out the red carpet for its royal guests.

Students, faculty and staff at the campus are preparing to welcome the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to Kelowna later this month.

Prince William and Kate Middleton will visit the university Sept. 27 to dedicate a new aboriginal art installation and take in an exhibition match of the campus nationally ranked womens volleyball team.

It will be an honour to welcome the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to the University of British Columbia and introduce them to the exceptional academic community at UBCs Okanagan campus, said Deborah Buszard, UBC deputy vice-chancellor and principal.

I look forward to offering the Duke and Duchess a glimpse of the 21st century approaches to learning and research that make UBC Okanagan one of the fastest growing university campuses in Canada.

Their Royal Highnesses will also visit Mission Hill Winery to sample the Okanagan's "world-class wine, cheese, and food" and meet with local young people who are learning about potential careers in food and agriculture.

UPDATE: 12:05 p.m.

The royal couple is scheduled for a busy tour of British Columbia and Yukon, with bear watching and wine tasting included in the itinerary for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who are also set to visit Vancouver's infamous Downtown Eastside.

Full details of their trip have been released by Kensington Palace, which confirms that Prince William and his wife Kate will bring their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, as they arrive on the afternoon of Sept. 24.

"This visit is a chance for the duke and duchess to deepen their relationship with a country that they will visit many times over the course of their lives," the release says.

The family is to be based in Victoria, but will spend the first full day in Vancouver at a civic welcome downtown before visiting the Downtown Eastside charity Sheway, which helps mothers fighting addiction.

In addition to trips to Bella Bella and the Great Bear Rainforest, the royal couple is also scheduled to spend a day in Kelowna  where they'll visit Mission Hill Winery and visit UBC Okanagan  before flying to Whitehorse on Sept. 27.

Events for Prince George and Princess Charlotte are also planned, with the youngsters and their parents attending a children's party in Victoria on Sept. 29.

"They have received so many wonderful messages from Canadians since the birth of their children and look forward to having the chance to introduce their young family to the country," the statement says.

Organizing officials say there will be glimpses of the children, but the only official confirmed opportunities for the public to see them will be at the family's arrival and departure.

ORIGINAL: 7:35 a.m.

In just two weeks the Royal couple will descend on B.C. for their second visit to Canada, and they wont be alone.

CTV News has confirmed the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will be accompanied by little Prince George and Princess Charlotte on their upcoming tour.

The last time the Royal couple was in Canada was in 2011, but this visit marks the first for their two young children.

The official itinerary is also being announced. Premier Christy Clark says during their visit to B.C. the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will learn more about the provinces diverse urban, rural and remote wilderness regions.

The Duke and Duchess will also be meeting British Columbians making positive changes such as conserving the Great Bear Rainforest, innovating approaches to addressing mental illness, and welcoming new Canadians, she said.

Kelowna is an official stop on the tour and it has been confirmed their Royal Highnesses will attend UBC Okanagan as well as a West Kelowna winery on Sept. 27.

The Royal Family will start their adventure in Victoria, on Sept. 24 for their first stop of a week-long tour that will see them travel through British Columbia and the Yukon. With more than 30 engagements booked, the Duke and Duchess are hoping to meet thousands of Canadians along the way.

While they are in Victoria, the Royal Family will be greeted at the airport by the Royal Canadian Air Force before making their way to Government House and British Columbias Parliament Buildings.

On Sunday Sept. 25 their Royal Highnesses will arrive in Vancouver and will visit the Jack Poole Plaza.

The official departure from Canada will take place Oct. 1 from the Inner Harbour in Victoria.

 With files from CTV Vancouver
Photo: The Canadian Press

Someone set fire to the mosque once attended by Omar Mateen, the man who opened fire at an Orlando nightclub in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, authorities said Monday. No one was injured.

The blaze happened a day after Americans commemorated the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and also coincided with the beginning of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha. However, Maj. David Thompson of the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office declined to speculate on whether the arson was tied to 9-11 anniversary.

The St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office said on its official Facebook page that surveillance video shows someone approaching the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce around 12:30 a.m. Monday, moments before a flash was seen and the fire started. The fire was put out, but there was no word on how much damage it caused.

Mateen who opened fire at the Pulse nightclub on June 12 in a rampage that left 49 people dead and 53 wounded. His father is among roughly 100 people who attend the mosque.

About 30 investigators were still at the mosque after 9 a.m. Monday. The mosque is on a fairly busy two-lane road in a neighbourhood. A Baptist church is nearby, along with a couple of small businesses.

Multiple agencies, including the State Fire Marshal's Office, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI, are investigating. Sheriff's officials said they will be releasing the video and asking for the public's help in identifying the person who set the fire.

Officials say the mosque has had other trouble since the Orlando attack.

A few weeks after the nightclub shooting, a man was beaten outside the mosque, according to Sheriff Ken J. Mascara. Early on July 2, deputies were called by a man who said someone was trying to break into a vehicle. Arriving deputies found a man bleeding from the mouth who told them he was approached by someone who "asked him what he was doing and then punched him several times in the face and head."

The attacker was stopped by deputies and arrested a short time later.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement that a man in a truck had stopped outside the mosque earlier that same day and made slurs, including, "you Muslims need to get back to your country."
Photo: Twitter

The country's biggest civil service union is back at the bargaining table with the federal government this week in what it calls make-or-break contract talks.

The negotiations centre around proposed changes to sick leave for about 80,000 workers, but also focus on wages.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada says the relationship between the government and public servants has been damaged recently by the debacle with the Phoenix pay system, which has resulted in thousands of government workers being improperly paid, or in some cases not paid at all.

Treasury Board negotiators have been holding firm on a proposal to replace the existing sick leave system with a new short-term disability plan.

But PSAC says the proposal would force workers to choose between a pay cheque and going to work sick.

The talks have been going on for more than two years.
Photo: volunteertoronto.ca

The Central Okanagan Refugee Committee is asking residents to not pull the welcome mat out from under those from Syria still arriving in the region.

Jodine Ducs, treasurer for CORC, says a tentative cease fire scheduled to start Monday and with the general case of media exhaustion, Syria and the plight of its refugees has somewhat fallen off the radar for many Canadians.

For millions of Syrians already displaced, there is simply no home to go back to, said Ducs. Entire cities are in ruins, destroyed.

She says a government aircraft has dropped chlorine gas in Aleppo and believes a new round of violent airstrikes will be blasted at rebel controlled areas following the potential ceasefire.

Canadas sponsorship program, although certainly not perfect, does in fact work. Many of the first waves of refugees are now working and supporting themselves; their children are fluent within months, explained Ducs.

The CORC is urging those in the valley to not give up and is hoping the arrival of one refugee in particular will help stop the complacency.

Kamal Al-Solaylee, an award winning Canadian author, (Intolerable, Brown) is speaking in Kelowna on Friday Sept. 30 as a fundraiser for this sponsorship.

Al-Solaylee is a member of the LGTBQ2 community, a sponsorship that is being partnered with Rainbow Refugee Canada.

He will be speaking on topics near to him such as: growing up gay in the Middle East, living in exile, and the significance of being part of the brown race in todays globalized society.

Although a fundraising event, this evening will also be an education opportunity and a continued call to action, says Ducs.

Tickets are $25 and are available at kelownatickets.com. The event is hosted at Kelowna First United: 721 Bernard Avenue, at 7 p.m.
Photo: UBCO

Public awareness campaigns aimed at encouraging parents to get their kids to exercise aren't helping, a UBC Okanagan study suggests.

In fact, one PSA was found to be detrimental, says Heather Gainforth, an assistant professor of health and exercise sciences at UBC's Okanagan campus.

The study uncovers a catch-22, acknowledging that more needs to be done to instil confidence in parents to get their kids active, while at the same time finding public service announcements don't seem to work.

"With statistics outside this study showing 88 per cent of parents believe their children exercise enough and only seven per cent of kids meet recommended guidelines, it is clear more needs to be done," says Gainforth. "While mass media campaigns appear to increase awareness, parents need the support of public policies and programs to help them successfully encourage behaviour change.

"Without that support, parents may not have the tools they need to help their kids become more active."

Gainforth surveyed 700 parents of children aged five to 17 across Canada three months after ParticipACTIONs 2011 Think Again campaign aired, and another 700 parents 15 months after.

The study found that parents who saw the campaign were on average less confident that they could encourage their kids to exercise more.

The Public Health Agency of Canada says a lack of exercise is one of the contributing factors that has led more than 25 per cent of Canadian children to become overweight or obese.

Gainforth's study was recently published in the journal of Health, Education and Behaviour.
Photo: Contributed

The University of British Columbia's new president says he commends an expert panel for its thoughtful, comprehensive report on the school's approach to sexual assaults.

Santa Ono released the report to the campus community on Monday, months after the UBC-appointed panel submitted it to the president's office.

The report calls for the university to undertake major changes to counter the perception on campus that UBC has downplayed the severity of the issue and avoided responsibility.

Some panel members questioned last week why the report had not been published, but a UBC spokeswoman said it would have been ineffective to release it in the summer when students and faculty were away.

Ono says in a statement that the report will help inform dialogue and spark further engagement on campus as public consultations on a draft sexual assault policy continue until the end of October.

He says he has also struck a working group to make recommendations to the UBC executive on the processes, infrastructure and resources to best serve its community and support survivors.
Photo: worldwildlife.org

In a picturesque corner of Afghanistan, a unique conservation effort has helped bring the elusive snow leopard back from the brink and given hope to one of the poorest and most isolated communities on earth.

The leopards range across the snowy mountains of a dozen countries in Central and South Asia, but their numbers had declined in recent decades as hunters sought their spotted pelts and farmers killed them to protect livestock. Now they appear to be thriving, thanks to a seven-year program and a newly declared national park.

Scientists who have been tracking the shy leopards estimate there are up to 140 cats in the Wakhan National Park, established two years ago across 1 million square hectares (4,200 square miles). Stephane Ostrowski, a specialist with the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, says that's a healthy and sustainable number, and indicates that other species like the Siberian ibex and golden marmot  the leopards' main prey  are also doing well.

The WCS believes global leopard numbers could be much higher than a previous upper estimate of 7,500, after data gathered by Ostrowski and others showed there could be more than 8,000 in just 44 per cent of the animal's known range. The World Wildlife Fund lists the species as "endangered."

His findings are the result of research carried out in one of the most hard-to-reach places on earth. The Wakhan corridor is nestled high in the Hindu Kush mountain range and cut off by snow for most of the year. The 15-year-old war with the Taliban rages 30 kilometres (18 miles) to the south, and the nearby borders with Tajikistan, Pakistan and China are usually closed.

The United Nations Development Program funds and oversees all the WCS activities in the Wakhan, and will provide $3 million for the snow leopard project over the next two years.

The snow leopard is the national park's star attraction, even if most visitors are unlikely to see one. But the region also boasts wolves, brown bears, red foxes, and the long-horned Marco Polo sheep.

Only around 100 visitors reach Wakhan every year, most entering from Tajikistan during the summer months. Wakhan's poverty and isolation has insulated it from decades of war, but has also deterred all but the most adventurous travellers.
It is 100 per cent preventable, there is no treatment for it and it affects thousands of people in B.C.

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is the leading known cause of developmental disability in children.

September is FASD Prevention and Support month.

Health Canada estimates nine in every 1,000 infants are born with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, making it the leading known preventable form of disability in Canada.

One of those born with FASD is Carson Holtz.

Holtz is one of Vernon's best-known buskers and can often be seen downtown playing his guitar and greeting people with a smile.

He is also an advocate for raising awareness of FASD.

Holtz knows first hand the challenges of FASD, having been born with it and he is encouraging people to come down to Polson Park Sunday, Sept. 18, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Holtz said the event will raise awareness of FASD and will feature booths from North Okanagan Youth and Family Services, North Okanagan Neurological Association and other agencies.

Holtz said there are challenges living with FASD.

It's 100 per cent preventable and zero per cent curable. If you are born with it, you have it for life, said Holtz.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Pat Pimm, a member of British Columbia's legislative assembly, has been charged with one count of assault.

The province's Criminal Justice branch announced the assault was alleged to have occurred in Dawson Creek on Aug. 13, but is releasing few other details.

Pimm was due to make a first appearance in provincial court in Dawson Creek on Sept. 13.

A special prosecutor was appointed last month after Pimm revealed the unspecified allegations and also announced he would quit the B.C. Liberal caucus and sit as an independent while the matter is before the courts.

Pimm, who represents the riding of Peace River North, was first elected in 2009 and appointed agriculture minister in 2013 but left the post after being diagnosed with colon cancer.

He announced last November that he would not seek re-election in the May 2017 provincial election.

The branch says special prosecutor Michael Klein assessed and approved the charge against Pimm and will conduct the prosecution.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Some suspects are tougher to take into custody than others, but Mounties in Chilliwack had no trouble with one unusual arrest.

Officers were called to an area behind a home in the Fraser Valley community, where they found a metre-long boa constrictor lounging in the backyard.

Cpl. Mike Rail says officers managed to corral the reptile until a company specializing in snake rescues could arrive from nearby Abbotsford.

He says there was the potential for injury to either the public or the boa, but no one was hurt.

The snake, which is believed to have escaped or was abandoned by its owners, is now safely in the care of a reptile facility.
Photo: The Canadian Press

UPDATE: 5 p.m.

Advocates on both sides of a legal debate over the future of public health care in Canada are offering opposing diagnoses on how to rejuvenate what many consider an overburdened medical system.

Jonathan Penner, a lawyer for the British Columbia government, told B.C. Supreme Court on Monday that a lawsuit proposing to revamp the rules around how medicare operates may undermine the principle of equal medical access for all, to the detriment of the majority of residents in the province.

Cambie Surgery Centre, a private clinic in Vancouver, is suing the B.C. government for using the Medicare Protection Act to prevent doctors from providing medically necessary treatment in both the public and private systems and to forbid private insurance for core medical services.

Penner said in his opening remarks Monday that upcoming evidence from proponents will probably show that some British Columbians wait longer for surgery than they would like or than what would be considered ideal.

"The evidence will show, however, that overall the quality of care that British Columbians receive is among the best in the world and that when urgent or emergency care is needed it is almost invariably provided without delay," he added.

"In terms of the overall provision of health care in British Columbia, the patients who are waiting too long are the exception and not the rule."

Last week, a lawyer for Cambie Surgery Centre argued that a public-private system would help B.C. curb skyrocketing health-care costs by reducing pressure from the public system, freeing resources and shortening wait times.

Penner countered by saying privatization "would create perverse incentives for physicians and would introduce a private system that would depend on abandonment of present efforts to reduce wait times in the public system."

"The health-care system is highly complex and the repercussions to various components of that system of striking down those prohibitions are uncertain and problematic," he said.

Along with the Cambie Surgery Centre, plaintiffs include several patients who argue that forcing people onto wait lists for medically necessary procedures violates Canadians' charter rights.

ORIGINAL: 12:40 p.m.

The British Columbia government says a lawsuit challenging the public health-care system risks propelling the country toward a two-tier model that would undermine the Canadian principle of equal medical access for all.

Crown lawyer Jonathan Penner told a B.C. Supreme Court that a legal challenge looking to change the laws around private insurance and doctors' billing practices would create incentives that would drain the public system of workers and likely lengthen patient wait times.

Penner says medicare is designed to preserve a publicly managed, fiscally sustainable system and that the expansion of privatized elements would destroy that structure.

Cambie Surgery Centre, a private surgical clinic in Vancouver, is suing the B.C. government for stopping doctors from providing medically necessary treatments in both the public and private systems, as well as for forbidding private insurance for core medical services.

A lawyer for the surgery centre has argued that a public-private system would help B.C. curb skyrocketing health-care costs by releasing the pressure valve off the public system, freeing resources and shortening wait times.

The province's opening statement is expected to run until tomorrow, and the entire trial is scheduled to run through to February.
Photo: Contributed

The British Columbia government has announced a reconciliation agreement for members of a tiny First Nation whose community has experienced regular flooding for decades since the government approved a hydroelectric dam.

Premier Christy Clark is visiting the Cheslatta Carrier Nation near Burns Lake where water from the Kenney Dam powering an aluminum smelter regularly floods the graveyard, exposing coffins and human remains.

Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation Minister John Rustad says the economic and cultural initiatives in the agreement will right wrongs of more than 60 years ago with the construction of the dam that supplies power the Rio Tinto Alcan smelter.

Rustad says the Cheslatta people have been waiting patiently for years for the government acknowledgment that the project flooded their traditional territory, destroying hunting, fishing and living areas and drying up parts of the Nechako River.

He says the Cheslatta were barely given two weeks notice to leave their traditional lands before flood waters from the dam arrived.

Rustad says he doesn't expect the province to be making similar reconciliation statements decades in the future when it comes to the completion of the $9-billion Site C hydroelectric dam in B.C.'s northeast.
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All photos: Ricardo Pinto / ACEA. Vdeo : Raw Footage of Race 1. Nothing to see here again, not even paying the AC+ or a stream replay. On footage Im now subscribed to a news feed, whhich at least post 3 mins of Race 1 from today to see conditions. The feedback I have from the locals is that inspite of low range winds the event was great to follow onsite , specially at Toulon I might add, and that is a must see event.

For more details check report below report & results sent by Americas Cup press.

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Artemis Racing take Toulon

Late summer sunshine greeted the thousands of spectators who made it out in force for Super Sunday at the Louis Vuitton Americas Cup World Series Toulon, and it is Artemis Racing who leave France celebrating after taking the regatta honours.

Behind them, Softbank Team Japan went from last on Saturday to finishing second overall, an incredible turnaround, but the British boys on Land Rover BAR were also looking much happier than they had on Saturday night, ending up third overall from fifth the day before.

That result extends their overall lead in the Louis Vuitton Americas Cup World Series as attention now turns to the final event in Fukuoka, Japan.

The first race of Sunday was race four, led away by Emirates Team New Zealand under the helm of Olympic Champion Pete Burling, but, as per Saturday, Artemis Racing were quickly up ahead and around the first mark ahead of Softbank Team Japan who were very keen to make amends for their disappointing Saturday.

Behind them Land Rover BAR had a penalty before the startline but fought hard up to third place at the halfway mark with ORACLE TEAM USA, Groupama Team France and Emirates Team New Zealand behind. Artemis stretched their lead, crossing the line at the end of race three first for the third time over the weekend, but it was Groupama Team France who were most disappointed with race four, finishing in sixth behind Emirates Team New Zealand and slipping to fourth in the regatta standings. Land Rover BAR held that third place, but ORACLE TEAM USA kept up the overall standings pressure just behind in fourth, so everything was there to play for in races five and six.

The thousands of fans lining the Toulon shore were hoping for a better showing from Groupama Team France in race five but it was Ben Ainslies Land Rover BAR who seized the early advantage, streaking ahead to the first mark, but to loud cheers from the shore, Groupama Team France were second, showing the sort of form that put them into second place overnight in the regatta on Saturday. Artemis Racing and Softbank Team Japan both had to serve penalties after the start, but all eyes were on the French team in second and they did not disappoint, pushing the Brits all the way. However, yet again in Toulon, Artemis Racing were the team to watch, moving their way up to third by the start of leg four. Behind them, ORACLE TEAM USA were having a race to forget in sixth, as were Softbank Team Japan who were in fifth, leaving Emirates Team New Zealand in fourth.

At the finish line of race five the positions had not changed  Land Rover BAR in first, Groupama Team France second and Artemis Racing third, but Softbank Team Japan had moved into fourth, leaving ORACLE TEAM USA battling it out with Emirates Team New Zealand for fifth and sixth respectively.

Race six, the decider and an utterly enthralling and topsy-turvy race. A messy start for ORACLE TEAM USA and Artemis Racing who were both hit with penalties for crossing the startline early, but Groupama Team France finally showed their mettle, putting clear air between themselves and Softbank Team Japan in second and taking a huge early advantage. Land Rover BAR picked up a penalty for not giving room to Emirates Team New Zealand, relegating them to the back of the fleet, but throughout the race that ensued there were lead changes in the overall standings throughout, keeping the fans watching live at the event and on TV on the edge of their seats.

One minute it was Groupama Team France up ahead, then suddenly Softbank Team Japan were out in front, Emirates Team New Zealand were second and the home team, Groupama Team France, were third, and thus race six finished.

With that result in the last race, Softbank Team Japan, sixth on Saturday, had, incredibly, put themselves into second overall in the regatta, but it was Artemis Racing who were really celebrating, taking overall regatta honours despite finishing fifth in race six.

Land Rover BAR finished the weekend third, Groupama Team France fourth, Emirates Team New Zealand fifth and ORACLE TEAM USA sixth.

Those results extend Land Rover BARs lead in the overall series to 14 points over ORACLE TEAM USA, so the pressure in the last round in Fukuoka, Japan, will be intense, but for now, the Swedish are celebrating harder than anyone and will be looking to continue that form in Asia.

For full results and standings please see the results section of www.americascup.com

Louis Vuitton Americas Cup World Series Toulon Leaderboard:

Position. Team (Race Finish Positions)  Total Points

1. Artemis Racing (1, 1, 3, 1, 3, 5)  76 points

2. SoftBank Team Japan (5, 4, 5, 2, 4, 1)  71 points

3. Land Rover BAR (6, 6, 1, 3, 1, 4)  70 points

4. Groupama Team France (4, 3, 2, 6, 2, 3) 68 points

5. Emirates Team New Zealand (2, 2, 6, 5, 6, 2)  63 points

6. ORACLE TEAM USA (3, 5, 4, 4, 5, 6)  57 points

Louis Vuitton Americas Cup World Series Overall Leaderboard

1. Land Rover BAR  437 points

2. ORACLE TEAM USA  423 points

3. Emirates Team New Zealand  420 points

4. SoftBank Team Japan  399 points

5. Artemis Racing  391 points

6. Groupama Team France  360 points

Selected Team Quotes:

Nathan Outteridge, Skipper, Artemis Racing: Very happy indeed! To come away with a win in Toulon in what were very light, difficult conditions is good. We had a very good day on Saturday but to back it up with another strong performance on Sunday is obviously very pleasing.

I think weve made some big strides in how we sail the boat and how we deal with the racecourses and the race format. It was pretty obvious that we werent really up to it at the start of the series, but thats what the Louis Vuitton Americas Cup World Series is for, its to prepare you for the Americas Cup and it feels like were on the right way up. Were very happy with the decision making in the races between Perc (Iain Percy) and myself and we couldnt be happier with how were sailing the boat right now.

Our boat handling skills in light winds were a bit of a weakness and weve been preparing for a while now for dealing with exactly these sorts of conditions so when youve put that much time and effort into preparing for a certain wind range, you kind of want it, and thats what we got this weekend. A lot of teams were disappointed with the weather, but we were excited as it gave us a chance to put into practice what weve been working on, so to win as we did is just great.

Dean Barker, Skipper, Softbank Team Japan: Yesterday was a tough day. We felt like wed sailed ok but we just had some bad results. Today though we spent a lot of time talking through the situations and how we could do things better and to bounce back with a strong day means were really happy with how this weekend has ended. To be on the podium is very pleasing, and thats obviously the goal, to keep improving.

These events are the chance we have to measure the performance of the team, to see where were performing and improving as a group. Theres obviously a lot of relevance to what were doing in Bermuda but theres elements at the Louis Vuitton Americas Cup World Series that are missing, in terms of technology and design, but we can still see improvements in how we work as a team, so thats good.

Looking ahead to Japan its going to be great for us, let alone it being a home race for our team, its another chance to take another step up in performance again. Seeing the support the British guys had at Portsmouth, and Franck and his crew had here, it will be special for us to race in Fukuoka so we cant wait to get out there and perform in front of our teams home fans. That, and the fact its another chance to prepare again for next year, theyre both good reasons to be excited about the last round of the series.

Giles Scott, Tactician, Land Rover BAR: It was a tricky day. We were a bit disappointed with the way we started yesterday in particular and last night we came together and had a really productive debrief. We went through what we needed to change today and I think we showed that worked. We went back to being our normal selves and started sailing the right way. Its a bit of a shame that in the last race we came off poorly from the penalty at the start, but overall we recovered somewhat.

Really though, the win of the weekend for us is the fact that we have managed to pull away in the overall standings in the Louis Vuitton Americas Cup World Series. Were super happy with that and, looking forward to Japan, theres still an awful lot of points up for grabs so well approach that regatta like no other and hope we can stay on top of the leaderboard.

Franck Cammas, Skipper, Groupama Team France: It was amazing this weekend. To hear all the people who came out to see the show was a great feeling for us and all the teams. The event was organized really well and to have this many fans all weekend was almost a great surprise! To find out that many people wanted to come and support us was something special and we will use that as extra motivation to keep pushing everyone in Groupama Team France.

In Japan the goal is clear  we want to improve as a team. Its good to be able to work from our base, but when youre in these events you can measure yourself against the competition, and Japan is another chance to do that. We have the chance to improve our communication and teamwork as a crew on board, in the live race environment, and thats why these world series events are so important.

Glenn Ashby, Skipper, Emirates Team New Zealand: As weve seen, teams are winning regattas even when theyre finishing last, so it just shows that anything can happen. Were still in touch with the lead and with a good performance in Japan, who knows what can happen. I can say though that we will certainly be going for the win in the last round and the overall series, so lets see what happens.

Tom Slingsby, Helmsman, ORACLE TEAM USA: At ORACLE TEAM USA we hold ourselves to a high standard and when we dont perform were hard on ourselves. But what we do is learn from our mistakes and we come back stronger. Im focusing on that now and what I can do to come back and help our team win the Louis Vuitton Americas Cup World Series.

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Lehigh Cement lays off 39 workers

12 September 2016

According to the union that represents more than 75 per cent of the workers at Lehigh Southwest Cements plant north of Redding, California, USA, Lehigh Cement made the decision to lay off 39 workers on Friday, 9 September 2016.

Curt Aderhold, president of the union, said an email was sent out on Thursday evening to inform of the layoffs. Junior employees were said to be immediately let go. The email cited a catastrophic breakdown of equipment at the plant as the catalyst. Mr Aderhold said, It's very disturbing, because this catastrophic failure they talk about has been going on for about a year.  We told them about it, that there was a problem. He went on to discuss how he is disappointed that those affected were not given the courtesy of seven days notice. They are using that it was an emergency, but they knew this was going on for a year.

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Chinese imports into Kenya show 10-fold rise

ICR Newsroom By 12 September 2016

New figures from the Kenyan National Bureau of Statistics reveal that the country imported KES2.2bn (US$21.7m) of cement from China in the first six months of 2016, up more than ten-fold on last year.

A report by Business Daily Africa notes that these latest data look set to increase tension between Kenyan producers and Chinese contractors working on some of the countrys biggest infrastructure projects.

The Chinese building firms have repeatedly denied claims that they import cement and other raw materials, maintaining that construction materials are sourced locally. The new figures throw this version of events into doubt and will provoke hostility from Kenyan firms at a time of falling cement prices  they are down by almost 10 per cent on their 2008 peak  and output rising.

In the first half of 2016, Kenyan cement output reached 3.2Mt, up by 4.1 per cent on the same period in 2015. Perhaps stimulated by the lower prices, demand grew even more quickly  by 7.4 per cent  to reach 3Mt.

The country is on course to see consumption reach 6Mt in 2016, but with domestic capacity in excess of 8Mta, Kenya's cement industry is able to meet this demand. However, imports are rising, with Dangote stating that it has begun to ship cement from its plant in Ethiopia to northern Kenya. With the company also planning to enter the Kenyan market directly in 2019 with a 3Mta plant, it is envisaged that competition will only intensify.

Published under
Nigeria: Bricklayers threaten protest over cement prices

ICR Newsroom By 12 September 2016

The Lagos State Bricklayers Association have called on the Nigerian government to take action to lower cement prices, the Nation reports.

According to the newspaper, if the authorities do not succeed in bringing down the cost of cement by 20 September, bricklayers will hold a rally in Nigerias largest city to air their grievances.

President of association, Deacon Abel Olukayode, stated: We have been lamenting over rising incidents of building collapse in the country. Are we not going to lose more lives and property, following the astronomical rise in cement price?

Now we are pleading with the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to save Nigerians by reducing the exchange rate to between NGN100 and NGN170/per dollar.

According to the bricklayers, cement prices have risen from NGN1600 (US$5.07) to NGN2000-2600 per bag.

Published under
In the wake of the historic floods which swept through southern Louisiana, the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors (GCAR) is putting into place an ongoing donation effort to provide needed support for not only the recent flood victims, but also future survivors of natural disasters and terrorist attacks. As part of a long-term commitment to the cause, GCAR will be donating $5,000 each year to the Realtors Relief Foundation (RRF) with 100 percent of funds going toward disaster relief efforts.

As both realtors and responsible citizens, one of our primary roles is that of a good neighbor, said Nathan Walldorf, GCAR president. Regardless of where and when relief efforts are needed, we want to play a part in helping communities rebuild, families heal and homes become that much stronger. This is one way we can do that on an ongoing basis.



The Realtors Relief Foundation was first launched by the National Association of Realtors in 2001 within hours of the September 11 terrorist attacks raising more than $8.4 million to help surviving family members remain in their homes. Since then, more than $25 million have been raised for victims of disasters, providing housing-related and other needed assistance.



With more than an estimated 60,000 houses left damaged by the devastating Louisiana floods and an aftermath compared by some to that of Hurricane Katrina, the Realtors Relief Foundation has recently committed up to $350,000 to assist the thousands of residents now displaced from their homes. Donations from local realtor associationslike GCAR and from individual donors are playing a significant role in the RRFs response to this mounting housing crisis.



Beyond GCARs pledged annual contribution, local realtors also contribute to the Foundations annual online silent auction at the time of the Realtors Conference & Expo, which raises funds for the organizations relief efforts.



For more information about the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors, visit www.GCAR.net or visit GCAR on Facebook and Twitter.


To understand how molecules undergo light-driven chemical transformations, scientists need to be able to follow the atoms and electrons within the energized molecule as it gains and loses energy. In a recent study, a team of researchers at Argonne, Northwestern University and the Technical University of Denmark used the ultrafast high-intensity pulsed X-rays produced by the Linac Coherent Light Source to take molecular snapshots of these molecules.

For people who enjoy amusement parks, one of the most thrilling sensations comes at the top of a roller coaster, in the split second between the end of the climb and the rush of the descent. Trying to take a picture at exactly the moment that the roller coaster reaches its zenith can be difficult because the drop happens so suddenly.

For chemists trying to take pictures of energized molecules, the dilemma is precisely the same, if not trickier. When certain molecules are excited -- like a roller coaster poised at the very top of its run - they often stay in their new state for only an instant before "falling" into a lower energy state.

To understand how molecules undergo light-driven chemical transformations, scientists need to be able to follow the atoms and electrons within the energized molecule as it rides on the energy "roller coaster."

In a recent study, a team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, Northwestern University and the Technical University of Denmark used the ultrafast high-intensity pulsed X-rays produced by the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), a DOE Office of Science User Facility at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, to take molecular snapshots of these molecules.

By using the LCLS, the researchers were able to capture atomic and electronic arrangements within the molecule that had lifetimes as short as 50 femtoseconds -- which is about the amount of time it takes light to travel the width of a human hair.

"We can see changes in these energized molecules which happen incredibly quickly," said Lin Chen, an Argonne senior chemist and professor of chemistry at Northwestern University who led the research.

Chen and her team looked the structure of a metalloporphyrin, a molecule similar to important building blocks for natural and artificial photosynthesis. Metalloporphyrins are of interest to scientists who seek to convert solar energy into fuel by splitting water to generate hydrogen or converting carbon dioxide into sugars or other types of fuels.

Specifically, the research team examined how the metalloporphyrin changes after it is excited with a laser. They discovered an extremely short-lived "transient state" that lasted only a few hundred femtoseconds before the molecule relaxed into a lower energy state.

"Although we had previously captured the molecular structure of a longer-lived state, the structure of this transient state eluded our detection because its lifetime was too short," Chen said.

When the laser pulse hits the molecule, an electron from the outer ring moves into the nickel metal center. This creates a charge imbalance, which in turn creates an instability within the whole molecule. In short order, another electron from the nickel migrates back to the outer ring, and the excited electron falls back into the lower open orbital to take its place.

"This first state appears and disappears so quickly, but it's imperative for the development of things like solar fuels," Chen said. "Ideally, we want to find ways to make this state last longer to enable the subsequent chemical processes that may lead to catalysis, but just being able to see that it is there in the first place is important."

The challenge, Chen said, is to prolong the lifetime of the excited state through the design of the metalloporphyrin molecule. "From this study, we gained knowledge of which molecular structural element, such as bond length and planarity of the ring, can influence the excited state property," Chen said. "With these results we might be able to design a system to allow us to harvest much of the energy in the excited state."
Richard "Dick" Kiphart, one of Chicago's most prominent investment bankers and an influential startup investor, died Saturday at 75.

Kiphart rose to prominence during decades at investment banking firm William Blair before his retirement earlier this year.

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"Dick enjoyed a fabled 50-year career at William Blair and will be remembered for his enthusiasm and passion for investing. He was perennially young at heart, with the ability to inspire clients, colleagues, and anyone lucky enough to meet him," said John Ettelson, president and CEO of William Blair, in an emailed statement.

More recently, Kiphart co-founded venture firm KGC Capital with son-in-law Chris Capps. Through that family office and another firm, KDWC Ventures, he invested in companies including Chicago-based CityBase, Shiftgig and TurboAppeal.

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He was also an early investor in Trustwave, which sold to Singapore-based Singtel for $810 million in 2015. That was one of Chicago's biggest tech deals ever.

"I've got all these other crazy investments in the technology fields, 32 deals I'm the lead investor on, and what you learn on these deals is you need really good management," he told Blue Sky at the time.

Kiphart was active in Chicago's business, civic and arts scenes, serving on boards of organizations including the Poetry Foundation and Lurie Children's Hospital.

He was a longtime supporter of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he was chairman of the board. In 2015, Kiphart briefly served as acting president and CEO of the Lyric following the death of Ken Pigott. He was president and CEO of the organization from 2006 to 2011.

He is survived by his wife Susie, their three daughters, seven grandchildren and extended family. A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Sept. 21 at Kenilworth Union Church, 211 Kenilworth Ave. in Kenilworth. It will also be livestreamed at the church website, kuc.org.

aelahi@tribpub.com

Twitter @aminamania
Teen clothing retailer Aeropostale Inc. won court permission to sell its assets to buyers led by Simon Property Group Inc. and General Growth Properties Inc. after the landlords banded together with liquidators to save jobs and stores -- a novel approach that lawyers said could be a model for distressed retailers.

The group prevailed at a Sept. 2 auction with a $243 million bid and a plan to keep open at least 229 stores. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane approved the sale in Manhattan court Monday after being told by the retailer's lawyers that the arrangement would save at least 7,000 jobs.

"This could be a model for future restructurings in the years ahead," Ray Schrock, a lawyer for Aeropostale, told Lane.

Simon was a landlord at more than 160 Aeropostale stores at the time of the New York-based chain's bankruptcy in May, according to court filings.

When no bids to buy the company as a going concern emerged, Simon and General Growth, also an Aeropostale landlord, started exploring ways to save a key tenant, according to a court filing by Stanley Shashoua, a vice president at Simon. They got Authentic Brands Group, Hilco Merchant Resources and Gordon Brothers Retail Partners to join in a bidding consortium, Shashoua said.

Before that, the retailer only had bids to liquidate its assets, including an opening offer from a joint venture of Tiger Capital Group and Great American Group for $184 million, Schrock told Lane.

Hilco and Gordon will conduct some store closing sales and provide working capital for the transactions, Aeropostale's lawyers told the judge. The deal sets aside about $74 million to fund a Chapter 11 plan. A hearing to confirm it is expected in late November, they said.

A backup liquidation bid from senior lender Sycamore Partners would be next in line if the landlord-led deal isn't completed.

The chain filed for bankruptcy after succumbing to competition from big-box stores, online merchants and "fast fashion" rivals. It had about 800 stores before it went into Chapter 11.
Better-known for low-paid jobs than generous incentive packages, McDonald's is facing a labor shortage so dire in Hungary that it's offering free rooms to out-of-town burger flippers.

The accommodation  a rare benefit in the more than 100 countries where the fast-food giant sells Big Macs and Happy Meals  is just one perk employers in eastern Europe are dangling to fill open jobs. Others getting sweeteners include cashiers at Lidl Ltd. in Prague and software developers in Bucharest.

Once deemed a land of abundant cheap labor, the region has become a headache for employers. Aging populations, an aversion to mass immigration and the exodus of millions to richer European states have left thousands of jobs unfilled and bumped salaries higher. That spells increased costs for companies, and the threat of reduced investment for economies that have thrived since European Union membership.

"The labor shortage is what keeps executives up at night across eastern Europe," said Robert Bencze, director of PricewaterhouseCoopers's human resources consultancy business in Budapest, citing an annual PwC survey. "The first question investors now ask themselves before coming here is 'will I be able to find enough employees to make my business work?"'

The labor drought is worsening at an alarming pace. The number of unfilled positions climbed 166 percent in the past two years to about 110,000 in the Czech Republic, where unemployment is among the EU's lowest. In Latvia, that share has tripled over the past year while in Poland it's doubled since December.

In a bid to fill its own vacant jobs, McDonald's ran ads this year in Hungarian newspapers offering free lodging, with employees only required to pay utility bills. The Oak Brook-based company declined repeated requests for comment beyond a press statement published in May.

The dearth of labor isn't limited to the restaurant business.

Lidl, which operates grocery stores, raised salaries by a quarter in the Czech Republic and by a fifth in Hungary. Romanian software engineers are being plied with gym and spa vouchers.

In Slovakia, a manufacturing powerhouse that makes the most cars per capita globally, Peugeot Citroen employs Romanians, Bulgarians, Serbians and Hungarians, though most staff remain local, human-resource director Lubomir Kollar said last year. Companies must offer training and housing to lure more workers, Slovak Automotive Industry Association head Jan Pribula told the Hospodarske Noviny newspaper in August.

Kia Motors is a case in point. While its plant in Zilina, northern Slovakia, is set for another record year, it's starting to feel a "real shortage of labor," according to local spokesman Jozef Bace.

"Increasingly more applicants lack the skills needed in the car industry, and quite often they aren't interested in long-term employment," he said by email. "Recently, it's hard to fill even less-qualified positions such as assembly-line and paint-shop operators."

The result is surging pay checks and higher corporate expenses: Romanian gross wages grew 12.4 percent year-on-year in July following a 14.3 percent jump in June, the Statistics Office said. Wage hikes are in many cases outstripping efficiency improvements, with Lithuania predicting salaries will rise 6.5 percent a year through 2019, double the pace of productivity growth.

Hungarian unit labor costs have risen the most in central Europe this year, according to Morgan Stanley. The increase wasn't offset by a higher productivity, "which matters a great deal" for economic growth, the bank said in an August report.

Shrinking pools of labor risk jeopardizing inflows of foreign investment, which helped propel ex-communist nations such as Poland and Slovakia to average annual growth rates of about 4 percent since joining the EU in 2004, more than twice the pace of western peers. Hungary recently lost out on a car-industry project because of the dearth of labor, Economy Minister Mihaly Varga told the Figyelo magazine in August, without naming the company.

"It's a question of quantity and quality of labor across eastern Europe," said Dirk Wolfer, a spokesman at the German-Hungarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, which represents companies including Daimler and Commerzbank. "This needs to be solved in the next few years, otherwise investment may suffer."

For the time being, companies are still coming. Jaguar Land Rover is seeking 2,800 workers for a new plant in Slovakia, due to begin operations in 2018. While large-scale recruitment won't start for 12-18 months, a Jaguar spokeswoman said by email that the company had been "overwhelmed" by early interest in positions.

Daimler's Mercedes division announced in July it would expand capacity in Hungary, adding 2,500 jobs by 2020. It didn't respond to emailed questions about labor challenges.

Eastern Europe still has its advantages. Wages remain a fraction of those in the west, even after the recent upsurge. Governments are overhauling educational institutions to gear them more toward the labor market.

In the meantime, companies may have to follow McDonald's lead and get creative to help meet their hunger for workers.

"Providing housing can be an effective recruitment tool for other industries as well in areas suffering from labor shortages," McDonald's said in its statement.

Contributors: Andra Timu, Peter Laca, Krystof Chamonikolas, Marek Strzelecki, Dalius Simenas, Elizabeth Konstantinova, Slav Okov, Leslie Patton and Radoslav Tomek
Warning: Spoilers ahead

Chicago copywriter Annie Busiek may want to consider visiting Thailand with her winnings from Monday's episode of "Jeopardy."

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Busiek, 33, won $21,100 after correctly answering that Phuket is an island of Thailand. Her fellow contestants gave the wrong answers for the Final Jeopardy clue.

Busiek, who works for Slack and Company after a turn as editor of Loyola University's magazine, led the competition going into Final Jeopardy after nailing a Double Jeopardy clue about British poet Ted Hughes.

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"Jeopardy" host Alex Trebek applauded Busiek for her effort on Monday's episode, which kicked off the quiz show's 33rd season in syndication.

"We are starting the year off with a bang," Trebek said.

Busiek is set to face Washington, D.C. writer Andre Hereford and North Carolina pastor Elizabeth Troyer on Tuesday's episode.

"Jeopardy" airs 3:30 p.m. weekdays on WLS-Ch. 7.
They have been Jeremy von Halle's most prized possessions, but they have also become a burden.

Toting his grandfather's trove of World War II-era family documents from apartment to apartment in Chicago, the 27-year-old operations director for a technology company worried about fire. He worried about theft. He worried about flooding if he kept the materials in a basement, and he worried about a pipe bursting overhead if he kept them on a closet shelf.

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"I've been feeling like at any moment, anything could happen," he said. "It's terrible."

And so, on a weekday afternoon this summer, he met at his parents' apartment north of Lincoln Park with curators from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. His mother served brownies. She and Jeremy's father spoke with pride of their son's undergraduate thesis, which told how his grandfather and great-grandmother, German Jews who had moved to the Netherlands after Hitler took power, had lived through that time while other family members did not.

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With von Halle were clear plastic bins containing the documents. He had a map his architect great-grandfather had drawn while in hiding at a Dutch farmhouse during the war. He had that same man's service documents from the German army during World War I, proof of him fighting for a country that a quarter-century later would kill him, at Auschwitz. There were postcards, photographs, letters, passports and certificates of marriage and birth, some of it dating to the 19th century.

There was a copy of a letter Eleanor Roosevelt had written on behalf of his family asking U.S. officials to plead with German authorities to let the von Halles exit Europe. Toward the end of 1941, a top State Department officer seemed to take up the case, but his letter indicating interest was dated Dec. 6, the day before Pearl Harbor.

Von Halle has kept these materials close at hand since his grandfather Gerd died in northern New Jersey four years ago, and even before that he knew much of the tale intimately. His senior history thesis at Duke University told his family's story, and its online publication has put him in touch with von Halles and people who knew them all over the world.

"There's all the different things along the way that made the chances of me being here so minuscule," he said. "Yet I am here."

Some of the materials von Halle had seen before his grandfather's death, and his grandfather had already donated some key documents to the museum in Washington, D.C. (The younger von Halle has maintained the relationship with the U.S. museum, rather than the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie, in part because his grandfather never lived in Illinois.) But much more had been discovered in cardboard boxes afterward, and von Halle found something new virtually every time he looked, including when he showed the materials to the museum officials on his parents' tabletop.

Jeremy von Halle's great-grandfather Oscar Halle in his WWI German military attire. (Family photo)

Yet it was time, he had decided.

"It's a little bit emotional to give it up," he said, "but I think it's important that it survives. As much as I really want it at arm's length, I would rather be reassured that it's going to be safe and sound. There's just too much risk involved in carrying it around, and it's time. It's just too much."

Across the country, such decisions have been taking place with regularity, especially in recent years with the opening of two major national museums. The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture will open its doors on the National Mall in Washington on Sept. 24, and the past decade of development has included a nationwide search for telling and surprising artifacts, many of them gathered from private donors. In May 2014, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum opened at ground zero in New York City with its own collection of donated possessions.

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The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has been taking in materials that help tell the story of the Holocaust for decades and with enough diligence that it is about to open a big new archives facility in suburban Washington built to handle its burgeoning collection and make it more accessible to the public. The museum's annual benefit luncheon in Chicago takes place Wednesday at the Sheraton Grand (more information at www.ushmm.org or call the museum's Midwest office at 847-433-8099).

"We get a private collection a day, some 400 a year from private individuals," said Suzy Snyder, the museum curator who had traveled from Washington to meet with the von Halles and others in Chicago and was headed next to California for the same reason. A colleague who just returned from two weeks in Israel typically comes back with more than two dozen such collections, she said, and people now know to seek out the museum.

Yet even though what they seek are historical documents, she is in a race against time, she said: "It's urgent. That generation is withering.  You really want to deal with survivors because they have the answers to everything. If you receive a collection from survivors, they can tell you the significance of everything.

"Jeremy's sort of a unique case. He really wants to know about his family history. He's done a lot of digging himself. He's a great third-generation person to go back to. But every generation after the original generation knows less, and can't answer questions. And we do go back to people."

The museum wants documents relating to all survivors, which it defines as those who lived under Nazi occupation, she said, whether or not they are Jewish; recently there's been a "big push for Polish non-Jews, Polish Roman Catholics, to come forward," said Snyder.

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And if people know their relatives have materials they aren't ready to donate, she urged them to talk to the relatives about their experiences, to record the conversations following guidelines posted on the museum's website and at www.worldmemoryproject.org.

"It's all important," said Snyder. "It can be one collection. It can be one box. It can be one postcard. It's all important because every collection illustrates a different story."

The donation the von Halle family is preparing to make will travel east via a professional art handling service, the stuff of everyday life elevated to the status of fine art. The documents will be stored according to the best modern conservation methods, and they will be digitized for easy access at a remove.

"For a lot of historians, this is primary source material," Snyder explained.

Jeremy's father Robert von Halle, an options trader, had a question: "Somehow we're going to get all this stuff to Washington, donate it, and then you guys are going to go through and figure out what all this is?"

"Yes," Snyder responded. "With (Jeremy), we'll go through it. Part of the relationship we create is to make sure you're involved." (Earlier, Snyder had said, "Wow, this is really impressive. This is my second donor today where somebody actually sat down and tried to organize things.")

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Jeremy von Halle spoke of his anxiety at having the documents in his possession, including having them with him on the train that morning. Snyder offered a way to proceed.

"OK," she said, "it has to live in your parents' house for a few weeks. Don't reorganize it at all. When it gets to me I will keep it in your sort of organized fashion. Once we digitize the photographs, even though you've written on many of them, I'm going to send you Xerox copies, and I want you to circle everyone you know and write down who it is. Which sounds like a lot of work, but if you don't do it, we can't have a catalog record. And they're beautiful photographs, but it's even more beautiful to know who they are. Does that sound like a plan?"

"That sounds like a good plan," said von Halle, whose blog containing family photos and some of the story is at https://snapshotsofourpast.com. (The thesis is at http://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/handle/10161/3753.)

In the weeks since he visited with Snyder, von Halle has gotten in touch with a Northwestern professor who works with the museum. He wants to sit down with the scholar and go through the documents before he sends them off in hopes of gaining further understanding.

"I would love to get an academic's eyes on what I have," he said last week. "I think it's a pretty special collection."

And after that meeting, he'll call the art handlers and send the materials off. But for now, he frets.

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"In the back of my mind, I'm still worried," he said. "It's at my parents' house. I went and checked on it this weekend to make sure it was fine."

sajohnson@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @StevenKJohnson

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 126 Woody introduces the gang to a homemade spork toy with self-esteem issues in "Toy Story 4." Read the review. (Pixar / AP)
Toby Nathaniel Willis, the father of The Willis Clan, a musical group featured in the TLC show "The Willis Family" was arrested Friday on child rape charges.

Willis, 46, of Ashland City, Tenn., was arrested in Greenville, Ky. as he attempted to avoid law enforcement, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. He was charged with one count of rape of a child.

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Willis is being held without bond in the Muhlenberg County Jail in Kentucky until he can be extradited back to Cheatham County, Tenn.

The TBI began investigating Willis on Aug. 29 after receiving information that Willis had a sexual encounter about 12 years ago with an underage girl.

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The investigation remains ongoing.

The Willis Clan, including 12 children, appeared on America's Got Talent in 2014 and have released at least three Irish-pop albums.

The group's success came nearly two decades after the members' grandparents suffered a tragedy that dominated political debates across Illinois for years. The act is made up entirely of the Willis siblings, the grandchildren of the Rev. Duane "Scott" and Janet Willis, who lost their six youngest children in a fiery 1994 crash that came to symbolize the bribes-for-licenses scandal that led to former Gov. George Ryan's downfall.

Scott and Janet Willis were on their way to Wisconsin to celebrate family birthdays in November 1994 when their minivan erupted in flames after striking a piece of debris that fell from a truck whose driver had paid a bribe to obtain his license from one of George Ryan's secretary of state offices.

Toby Willis, the father of The Willis Clan members, and two other siblings were not in the minivan at the time of the accident.

At least nine people died after crashes involving truckers who got illicit Illinois driver's licenses in the bribes-for-licenses scandal that bolstered Ryan's campaign coffers.

A federal investigation led to 75 convictions, including that of Ryan in 2006 for racketeering, conspiracy and fraud.

The former governor spent more than five years in prison before being released last year. Ryan finally acknowledged the Willis family's "unimaginable pain and loss" when he petitioned for clemency in 2008.

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Tribune Content Agency, Chicago Tribune contributed


Toronto  "You're my first, so I apologize if I'm a little rusty."

Ryan Gosling  he of the "ludicrous good looks" (Danny Leigh, The Guardian) and bona-fide movie-star resume including, once upon a showbiz childhood, "The All New Mickey Mouse Club"  is making a cup of tea and readying himself for a string of interviews at a downtown Toronto hotel, in support of his new film, "La La Land."

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It's a musical, if you hadn't heard, and it's really something. Writer-director Damien Chazelle's third feature, following "Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench" (same excellent composer, Justin Hurwitz) and "Whiplash" (also featuring Hurwitz's compositions and arrangements), appears to be a likely story in the larger story of the imminent awards season.

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Heavily indebted in style and tone to Jacques Demy's beguiling "Umbrellas of Cherbourg" and "The Young Girls of Rochefort," dotted with visual allusions to Hollywood musicals ranging from "The Big Broadcast of 1940" to "Singin' in the Rain" and "The Band Wagon," "La La Land" enjoyed a gaga reception in its Aug. 31 Venice Film Festival world premiere. A couple of days later: a similarly warm response at the Telluride Film Festival for its unofficial North American premiere. Monday night brought the first big public screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, with press and industry screenings preceding it.

Emma Stone won the best actress award at Venice, and she's a pretty good bet for an Oscar, I'd say. She plays Mia, a barista and aspiring actress. She meets jazz pianist and aspiring club owner Sebastian, played by Gosling, a "pigheaded, stubborn guy," in the words of writer-director Chazelle. Is it a love meant to be?

Gosling had to skip the Venice world premiere; he was filming the "Blade Runner" reboot in Hungary. But he's Canadian by birth, so his presence in Toronto for Monday's festival screening was much appreciated by Canadians, for starters.

He met Chazelle, he tells me, over dinner "at a restaurant near my house. I really liked 'Whiplash' and I wanted to meet him. And he started talking about this musical." Miles Teller, the star of "Whiplash," was initially penciled for the leading male role in "La La Land," but Chazelle, as they say, went a different, Gosling-er direction.

"Damien," says the 35-year-old actor, "just has this infectious love of movies, and also of the experience of going to the movies. That night at dinner, he talked a lot about wanting to make a film you didn't want to see on your iPhone, something you wanted to take the time for, to go out, to a theater, to see. With people." Festival screenings aren't always reliable barometers, but at the Venice premiere the crowd burst into applause at the conclusion of the opening number, a traffic jam ensemble showcase titled "Another Day of Sun."

Watch the trailer for "La La Land."

Gosling says the project was intimidating without being entirely foreign to his performance history. "I danced a little as a kid, here in Canada, in Ottawa at the Elite Dance Studio, and at the Top Hat Dance School in Cornwall, where I grew up. So I had some experience of having to learn routines. But that was a long time ago. And '90s hip-hop," he says, smiling, "is a long way from what I had to do here." He credits choreographer Mandy Moore with having "a lot of patience."

Gosling's uncle was an Elvis impersonator, and Gosling appeared in his act. "My father (divorced from Gosling's mother when Ryan was 13) put on talent shows. So I've been around it, a lot of my life. But the stakes were much higher on this, partly because of the way Damien shot it, with the dance sequences done in long takes, or I should say many takes, but one shot." The first major duet for Gosling and Stone, photographed during the so-called sunset "magic hour" on a real street in the Hollywood Hills, is photographed to look like MGM studio lighting, but paradoxically on location. Gosling, Stone and company did seven takes of the complete number, dialogue, song and dance, across two evenings.

The look and feel of "La La Land," Gosling says, is "heightened romanticism and kitchen-sink drama, both. The movie straddles both worlds." A key scene, in which Sebastian surprises Mia with a homemade meal after a long time apart, turns into an arresting and painful breaking point. The dialogue was largely improvised, Gosling says.

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His defiantly analog character, he says, "may be cynical but the film itself is anything but. It's unapologetic."

The inspired climax of "La La Land" refers directly to extended dance sequences such as the "Broadway Ballet" in "Singin' in the Rain," or the ambitious ballet at the close of Gosling's own favorite musical.

"I love 'An American in Paris,' " he says. "That's the one for me. Some of the visual ideas in that film are just haunting, and very free. It's interesting the kind of freedom the musical form gives you. The rules are out the window. You can get impressionistic without seeming pretentious. Because it's perceived as an inherently accessible form, it gives filmmakers some leeway."

Oh, one thing about "Singin' in the Rain," Gosling says, before we part ways.

"We had the great opportunity to meet Gene Kelly's widow before we filmed. We had dinner at her house, and got to see a lot of Gene's personal things including leather-bound copies of all his scripts. He made notes in all of them, and in the 'Singin' in the Rain' script (written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green), he'd written some ideas for the title sequence, the 'Singin' in the Rain' dance. One of them said: 'Hand umbrella to a passerby when the number's over.' "

Gosling grins. "As grand and as legendary as that number is," he says, "it's sort of amazing to remember (the details) sometimes come down to one guy making notes in a script."

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"La La Land" opens in Chicago Dec. 9, a week after the LA and New York release.

mjphillips@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @phillipstribune

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox)
Screenwriter and playwright Laura Eason has penned the script for a new musical drama starring Sarah Jessica Parker. (Meredith Zinner)

Sarah Jessica Parker, who returns to television next month in the HBO series "Divorce," will star in a new film about a "New York chanteuse who wrestles with the implications of a serious health diagnosis," per The Hollywood Reporter, with a script by Lookingglass ensemble member Laura Eason.

Shooting is set to begin in New York this winter.

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Eason relocated from Chicago to Brooklyn in the mid-2000s. "I'm much more on the national radar," she told me in 2011. "Also, New York is weirdly not knowing what's up here. If I were back in Chicago on a permanent basis, I think work would dry up  at least right now."

In addition to her work in the theater (including her most well-known play, "Sex with Strangers," which got its start at the Steppenwolf) she writes for the Netflix series "House of Cards."

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nmetz@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @NinaMetzNews







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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox)
Guitarist Mike Bloomfield, shown in 1968, grew up in the Chicago area and made his early mark playing blues clubs in the city. He went on to play with Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and others and led his own band. Ed Ward has a new book, Michael Bloomfield: The Rise and Fall of an American Guitar Hero. (Michael Ochs Archives)

On the morning of Feb. 15, 1981, on a quiet street in the affluent Forest Hill neighborhood of San Francisco the body of a man could be seen slumped inside a battered 1971 Mercury Marquis. Police and paramedics were called. The car's doors were locked but one of its windows was rolled down far enough so that a cop could reach his hand inside and open a door. Keys were in the ignition. The man inside was dead. He was 37 years old and his name was Michael Bloomfield.

Ring a bell?

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It might. It should. There are still more than a few people around who can remember seeing and hearing him play his guitar at local clubs or as a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, with Bob Dylan when he "went electric" at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival and on Dylan's seminal album "Highway 61 Revisited," with Al Kooper and Janis Joplin, with his own band, Electric Flag. He does, of course, "live" on in various internet sites and it is good to hear him once again. But his cometlike and influential musical career really jumps off the pages of a fine new book, "Michael Bloomfield: The Rise and Fall of an American Guitar Hero."

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Written by Ed Ward, a journalist/historian who writes for various publications, is a frequent contributor to NPR's "Fresh Air" and one of the founders of the South by Southwest music confab in Austin, Texas, it is based on a previous book of the same title published in a limited edition in 1983. This book is, as the author writes, "a completely revised and greatly expanded edition with much new research  for all intents and purposes a new book."

And a terrific book, which charts the course of Bloomfield's life and career with style, detail and insight.

Bloomfield was born at Michael Reese Hospital here in late July 1943 and grew up in the city, mostly on the North Side, before the family moved to Glencoe when he was 12. His parents were Harold and Dorothy, who ran a very successful manufacturing business.

Mike and his younger brother Allen were given guitars shortly after moving to the suburbs. Allen gave it up after a couple of months but Mike played on and on and on. As an indifferent and underachieving student at New Trier High School, he began to haunt South Side clubs where he heard and would eventually play with such giants as Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. He formed his own bands and later teamed with Butterfield for many shows and three albums. His reputation grew fast and furiously. "Before Bloomfield, there was no glory in being a guitarist; after he appeared, mastering electric lead guitar became the test of manhood," Ward writes.

Ward interviewed a vast number of people. In addition to those mentioned above (Waters said, "When I first heard Michael, I knew he was gonna be a great guitar player.  One of the greats!"), we hear from B.B. King, Peter Yarrow and, strikingly, Bloomfield himself, who told Ward during a 1974 interview, "As long as I mature as an artist, my life is not in vain."

That life was, of course, cut short. Bloomfield was a troubled young man, often indulging in dangerous drugs (the circumstances surrounding his death, which was ruled a drug overdose, remain mysterious). In the book, younger brother Allen puts it like this: "(His) fearless quality cuts both ways  musical savant and self-destructive."

One person not in the book is Corky Siegel.

He and his like-minded, hungry-for-the-blues musical pal Jim Schwall followed in the footsteps of Bloomfield (and Butterfield) in walking into and eventually playing at the city's predominantly black blues clubs.

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"(Michael and Paul) were the pioneers, made it easier for us no doubt," Siegel said. "But just imagine us, two young white kids just learning to play the blues and having this mind-blowing experience. It was nothing less than outrageous. I listen to my contemporaries that rave that they once got to sit in with Muddy or Buddy Guy or Otis Spann for a few minutes here and there. Then it becomes clear to me how fortunate it was for me to be able to be on stage every week with these blues masters coming and going all night long."

Last week Siegel, ever active (www.chamberblues.com) playing music, recalled one night in the mid-1960s when he met Harold Bloomfield at the bygone Wells Street club called Big John's. "He told me that he was very concerned that Michael should be a doctor or a lawyer and that he didn't like the idea that he played guitar," said Siegel. "I told Mr. Bloomfield that Michael was a genius and no one else can do exactly what he did in the way he did it, with such pure enthusiasm. I told his dad that there were plenty of doctors and lawyers but only one Michael and that it was important for the world that he does what he does. And someone last year told me that Michael always credited me with helping his dad have a change of heart.

"I always thought Michael was a special being. Just look at his photographs. You can tell. He didn't even need to play guitar. There were always sparks coming out of his head. Anyone who knew him would understand completely what I'm talking about. I don't care about his guitar. I really miss Michael. What a beautiful one."

You get that impression from this new book, too. And though Siegel has yet to read the book, its title prompts his final and moving comment: "There was no rise and fall. Just rise. But he rose so high he bumped his head on a cloud, and that was that."

rkogan@chicagotribune.com

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox)
First he called Hillary Clinton a "bobblehead" for her habit of nodding like a toy dog.

Now President Barack Obama's former adviser, David Axelrod, is knocking Clinton while she lies in her sick bed.

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Axelrod  director of the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics  tweeted Monday morning: "Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia. What's the cure for an unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?"

Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia. What's the cure for an unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?  David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) September 12, 2016

While Axelrod didn't mention Clinton by name, there are no prizes for guessing who he was talking about. Clinton had to cut a 9/11 memorial visit short Sunday and cancel a campaign trip to California after she felt poorly, and she has been criticized for not being quicker to release information about her diagnosis with pneumonia. Though she was told she had the condition Friday, her campaign did not release the information until after she nearly collapsed Sunday.

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Clinton has a long-standing reputation for dodging the media, which critics  including Axelrod  say causes self-inflicted political wounds.

Donald Trump's campaign has been trying to make an issue of Clinton's health, and Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway seized on Axelrod's criticism, retweeting it with the comment, "Whoa. Well said."

He fired back saying transparency works both ways and that Trump should release his tax returns and health records.

Axelrod, who helped mastermind Obama's victory over Clinton in the hard-fought 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, has been supportive of Clinton's 2016 campaign. But he hasn't been shy about nitpicking. In July he said she needed to stop acting like a "bobblehead" when receiving praise.

kjanssen@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @kimjnews
A veteran Chicago police officer has been accused in a federal lawsuit of beating a mentally disabled teen while off duty last year, sticking his gun in the young man's mouth and filing a false police report to cover it up.

Both the Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates police misconduct, and the Cook County state's attorney's office are looking into the September 2015 incident at the West Side home of Officer Matthew Jackson, the Tribune has learned.

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Jackson, a 21-year veteran of the force, became enraged after Nathaniel Taylor, 18, crossed onto his lawn on his way home from school, according to the lawsuit, which was filed Friday. Jackson beat the boy with his fists and shoved his service revolver into Taylor's mouth, causing multiple lacerations, according to the suit.

Taylor, who has an IQ of 44, was treated at Mount Sinai Hospital and then sent to Cook County Jail on charges of assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest, the lawsuit alleged. He spent a week behind bars before being placed on electronic monitoring, an experience that caused severe emotional trauma, according to the suit.

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Richard Dvorak, the attorney representing Taylor's aunt and legal guardian, sent the Tribune photographs of the scene that appear to show Taylor's blood splattered on a walkway outside Jackson's home. He also provided photos of Taylor taken at the hospital that day depicting him with a bloodied nose, a fat lip and blood stains on the pants of his school uniform.

Dvorak said Taylor's severe mental impairment made the consequences of Jackson's actions "even more tragic."

"He's not someone who should be subjected to this kind of treatment," Dvorak said. "All (Taylor) did was cross this officer's lawn. The officer placed felony charges on this young man to cover up his own misconduct."

Records show Jackson, 47, filed a police report stating Taylor had "attempted to enter his residence" in the 1200 block of South Albany Avenue in the Lawndale neighborhood when Jackson opened the door and announced he was a police officer.

According to the report, Taylor tried to flee, but Jackson caught up to him and a "struggle ensued," during which Taylor tried to grab Jackson's gun from the holster. As they wrestled for control of the gun, the weapon "made contact with (Taylor's) face and mouth area," the report stated.

Jackson also said he repeatedly yelled, "Chicago police! Stop resisting!" but Taylor continued to fight, according to the report. The officer was treated at a nearby hospital for minor scrapes.

The aggravated battery charge filed against Taylor, which carried up to seven years in prison, was dismissed in April and Taylor instead pleaded guilty to misdemeanor trespassing, court records show.

Reached on his cellphone Friday, Jackson declined to comment on the allegations.

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Dvorak said Taylor lodged a complaint with IPRA soon after the incident and that investigators have swabbed Taylor's DNA to see if there is a match to Jackson's gun. The test results are pending, he said.

IPRA spokeswoman Mia Sissac confirmed there is a pending investigation but declined to provide details.

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The Cook County state's attorney's office, meanwhile, plans to review IPRA's findings to determine whether criminal charges against Jackson were warranted, according to spokeswoman Sally Daly.

Jackson, who is currently on active duty as a patrol officer in the Harrison District, worked for years in the department's News Affairs office. Available records show two citizen complaints have been lodged against him, both of which were unsustained.

Jackson made headlines six years ago when he obtained an emergency order of protection against his ex-girlfriend, police Cmdr. Penelope Trahanas. Jackson accused Trahanas of making veiled physical threats and said she'd threatened his job security in numerous phone calls after a bitter breakup, according to court documents.

Trahanas was arrested and charged with telephone harassment but later acquitted. She's currently serving as a police captain.

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Chicago Tribune's Jeff Coen contributed to this report.

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @jmetr22b
In convincing a jury that Marco Lopez was not guilty of killing a father and son in Palatine, his lawyers had to cast doubt on the testimony of a man who said he heard gunfire and then saw Lopez hustling from the crime scene.

Their strategy was to bring in an expert to testify about why eyewitness accounts can't always be trusted, and it apparently worked: Lopez was acquitted Thursday of the 2014 shooting deaths of 15-year-old Luis Reynoso and his 38-year-old father, Segundo.

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In recent years, Illinois courts were generally reluctant to allow experts to tell jurors during trials why eyewitnesses sometimes get it wrong.

But a recent Illinois Supreme Court ruling has opened the door much wider to such testimony, nodding to a growing body of scientific evidence that we can't always believe our own eyes  and that jurors and judges shouldn't always, either.

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In a case involving a man accused of killing his neighbor in Chicago, the high court justices wrote in their January ruling that in the last 25 years, "we not only have seen that eyewitness identifications are not always as reliable as they appear, but we also have learned, from a scientific standpoint, why this is often the case. ... Today we are able to recognize that such research is well settled, well supported, and in appropriate cases a perfectly proper subject for expert testimony."

In Lopez's trial in Cook County court, prosecutors had to rely primarily on the testimony of people who knew him and saw him the night the Reynosos were killed. That included the man in the same apartment complex who testified that he saw Lopez out his door window, ran upstairs and then found the Reynosos wounded and dying.

A judge in the case initially denied the defense's request to bring in a psychology professor to testify to the unreliability of eyewitnesses. But after the state Supreme Court ruling, the judge allowed it.

So at Lopez's trial, Geoffrey Loftus, who conducts laboratory experiments in sensory perception and memory at the University of Washington in Seattle, took the stand and described how varying conditions such as lighting, duration of the event and pre-event information could affect a person's recognition.

"It's possible to mis-recognize a stranger as someone you know," he said.

In this case, the witness testified that he saw the suspect from about 10 feet away through a glass door shortly after midnight, when the lighting might not have been sufficient.

Under cross-examination, Loftus said he had not interviewed the witness nor seen his apartment, and allowed that it was possible Lopez did shoot the victims.

Also testifying were two teenage brothers who lived with Lopez at the time and told authorities that Lopez had left that night with a gun, saying he had to take care of something. But the brothers contradicted their statements on the witness stand.

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And the state's case had other challenges: The murder weapon was never found, nor was any DNA or other physical evidence linking the murders to Lopez, who was 17 at the time. Defense attorneys suggested that another man, who had been questioned in the case by police and released, might be responsible.

"Seeing Marco walking on a sidewalk doesn't mean he committed this crime," said Assistant Public Defender Caroline Glennon. "They want you to convict a man of two murders based only on that."

Questionable eyewitness identifications have been a key factor in several exonerations. In April, a man who was convicted of a Chicago double murder based primarily on eyewitness identification was freed after 22 years in prison.

The judge who reversed the conviction called the case against Eddie Bolden  which relied not on physical evidence but the identification of a man who was injured in the shooting  "extremely thin." Prosecutors agreed not to retry Bolden, given that alibi witnesses who were never called to testify at his trial said he was elsewhere at the time of the crime.

But it was the January state Supreme Court ruling in the case of Eduardo Lerma that provided defense attorneys the new tactic for blunting the impact of eyewitnesses. Lerma too was convicted almost entirely on eyewitness testimony.

In 2008, Jason Gill and his friend Lydia Clark were sitting on the steps of his front porch in Chicago when a man approached and opened fire. Gill shielded Clark and was struck several times, according to court records. Clark dragged Gill into the house where, before he died, he told his uncle that the gunman was a man nicknamed "Lucky"  Eduardo Lerma  who lived across the street.

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Clark also identified Lerma in a lineup, and later at his trial testified that she had seen him multiple times before, but only from across the street. She acknowledged she had never spoken to him or been in the same room with him.

In what some legal advocates hailed as a landmark decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Lerma must receive a new trial to allow expert testimony on eyewitness identification.

It was testimony from the same expert, Loftus, that had been excluded from Lerma's trial. For the Lopez case, Loftus said he was paid $250 an hour and $10,000 in total.

Karen Daniel, director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University, lauded the state Supreme Court's ruling, saying studies have shown that eyewitness testimony can be extremely unreliable.

Identifications are particularly questionable when they come at crime scenes, where witnesses may be under stress, in danger, rushed and distracted by a weapon or noise. Positively identifying a person who is unknown to the witness, or who is of another race, has been shown to be even more problematic. And a witness's confidence in being correct about an identification does not necessarily correlate to its accuracy, she said.

Memories can even be implanted by leading witnesses to certain conclusions. In studies, for example, people have "recalled" vivid encounters with Bugs Bunny at Walt Disney World, even though Bugs Bunny would not have been there because he's not a Disney character.

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In criminal trials, jurors typically are instructed that they are the sole judge of the reliability of witnesses and may take into account their memory, manner, bias and reasonableness.

Now, Daniel argued, the Supreme Court should consider expanding the instructions to include some of the doubts raised by research on the subject.

"The trend is definitely rapidly growing in favor of not only allowing this type of expert testimony, but revamping in general the way this type of (eyewitness) evidence is presented to juries," she said.

One of Daniel's clients is Kerry Masterson, who was sentenced to 58 years in prison for the 2009 murder of Chicago candy shop owner Michael Norton. An appeals court in May ordered a new trial for Masterson to introduce expert testimony on eyewitness identification.

Cook County Public Defender Amy Campanelli said her office has been fighting for years to bring in such experts at trials.

Even before the Lerma decision, she said, some judges had begun allowing them in limited circumstances, but now their admission is much more likely, not only at trial but in pretrial motions aimed at keeping out questionable eyewitness testimony altogether.

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"People make mistakes," Campanelli said. "They get it wrong and convince themselves they're right."

She cited the case of Robert Wilson, whom she once represented. He was convicted of slashing a woman's face based on the victim's identification. But after Wilson served nine years in prison, the victim said she had been pressured into identifying him and made a mistake. Wilson was freed and settled for $3.6 million in a lawsuit against the city of Chicago. Another man ended up admitting to similar attacks.

But Tom Bilyk, a longtime Cook County prosecutor who is now a civil and criminal defense lawyer, cautioned that each eyewitness must be judged on his or her own merits.

He had a personal experience with the issue several years ago when he and his wife heard a car spinning its wheels outside their home and went out to find that a woman had been hit by a car.

A driver got out and asked how she was before quickly leaving, Bilyk said. He and his wife realized it was the man who'd hit the woman and independently identified the driver in lineups.

"You can have all the expert testimony you want," Bilyk said. "But it's what the witness is saying about that moment of identification that's the key factor. That's where I focused as a prosecutor: How clear was that moment of recognition?"

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Freelance reporter George Houde contributed.

rmccoppin@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @RobertMcCoppin
A special grand jury will be impaneled to investigate a possible cover-up by Chicago police in the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald at the request of a special prosecutor appointed in July to investigate the matter.

Patricia Brown Holmes, the special prosecutor, said Monday she has enough evidence to present to a grand jury as she made her request that one be convened.

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Judge LeRoy Martin Jr., the presiding judge of Cook County's criminal division who appointed Holmes, said he would convene the special grand jury in the next two weeks to hear evidence.

Holmes, a former Cook County judge, told reporters after the court hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building that a grand jury investigation would be the fairest way to handle the case rather than making a decision to bring charges on her own.

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"In a decision that's this weighty and important, I think the public would want to have some oversight," Holmes said of her decision to use a grand jury. "It's fair and it's impartial and it lends credibility to the process."

Martin named Holmes to look into whether the officers lied to justify the October 2014 shooting of the 17-year-old. Her investigation also could extend to police supervisors who were involved, according to lawyers who had asked the judge to appoint a special prosecutor.

Late last month, police Superintendent Eddie Johnson moved to fire four patrol officers and a sergeant he accused of lying about the shooting.

Holmes declined to say Monday how many officers were under criminal investigation, but she emphasized there would be "no rush to judgment."

"We want to make sure that they are treated fairly ... and that we're doing things the way that they ought to be done," she said.

She said the case "tugs at you from both sides."

"I've got friends who are police officers, but then I understand the (victim's) families in this case," she said.

The special grand jury  typically made up of 16 people  would be drawn from the pool of people regularly called to jury duty at the county's main criminal courthouse at 26th Street and California Avenue. By law, it must meet at least once a month, but its deliberations would be secret.

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Grand jurors can ask questions and help steer the investigation, but the prosecutor typically still plays a key role in who, if anyone, would be indicted.

Holmes said the investigation could last anywhere from weeks to months before the grand jury decides whether to indict any officers or not.

"You present one thing and then the grand jury gets to say, 'Hey wait a minute, what about this? What about that?' Or they say, 'I like this information, let's go.' And you don't really know until you present the information how they're going to go," she told reporters.

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The dashboard camera video of white police Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting the black teen 16 times has caused a firestorm of controversy and led to calls for major reforms and a U.S. Justice Department investigation of Chicago police practices. The accounts of several officers dramatically differed from the video.

In February, a coalition of about 25 community groups, prominent attorneys and a member of McDonald's family filed a petition asking that a special prosecutor be appointed to investigate not only McDonald's shooting but also the officers at the scene. State's Attorney Anita Alvarez opposed a special prosecutor during her hard-fought re-election effort earlier this year, but after her primary loss, she withdrew her opposition.

Judge Vincent Gaughan, who is overseeing the criminal case against Van Dyke, appointed Kane County State's Attorney Joseph McMahon as a separate special prosecutor to handle the prosecution of Van Dyke, who was charged with first-degree murder.

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The video showed Van Dyke opening fire within seconds of exiting his police SUV as McDonald walked away from police with a knife in his hand, contradicting many of the officers' written accounts that the teen had lunged with the knife. Federal prosecutors also have been looking into possible charges against those officers for many months. In addition, the city inspector general's office, which has the power to investigate and make recommendations on employee matters and policies, is looking into the matter.

For the better part of a year, Mayor Rahm Emanuel fought the release of the dashcam video of the shooting. A judge ordered Emanuel to release the video in November 2015, more than a year after the shooting occurred. Van Dyke was charged with murder hours before the video was made public, leading some to accuse Emanuel of being complicit in a cover-up and fueling weeks of protests.

sschmadeke@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @SteveSchmadeke
The three-block stretch of Argyle Street between Broadway and Sheridan Road in Uptown has been reopened as Chicagos first shared street. (Alyssa Pointer / Chicago Tribune) (Alyssa Pointer / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)

A three-block stretch of Argyle Street in Uptown that was transformed into Chicago's first "shared street" has created confusion among drivers and garnered mixed reviews from local business owners and pedestrians.

The $3.6 million project on Argyle between Broadway and Sheridan Road, designed to mirror a European-style plaza shared by pedestrians, cyclists and drivers, reopened in late August to traffic in each direction after more than a year of construction. But drivers are uncertain how to maneuver the street, which is at the same level as the sidewalk and without curbs, signs or typical pavement markings.

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Asphalt streets and concrete sidewalks were swapped out for colored pavers on the shared street, which is dotted with Vietnamese restaurants, Asian grocery stores, flower shops and a few empty storefronts  as well as the CTA's Argyle Red Line stop, which received $10 million in improvements in 2012. The street is so confusing to some people that the local alderman's office is handing out fliers telling people how to navigate it.

"The parking here is kind of confusing after this (project) because you're not sure where to park, so you park anywhere," said Kuin Lieu, 20, who has lived nearby for 10 years and works at Miss Saigon restaurant on the street. He said he's seen people park blocking an alley and encroaching on the sidewalk.

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Officials stressed the project is not finished. New pavement, streetlights and decorative bike racks have been installed, but signs, parking meter boxes and trees are still missing. Landscaping is slated for later in the fall when cooler weather arrives.

"Because this is a new concept, we've been well aware an education effort is required," said Mike Claffey, spokesman for the Chicago Department of Transportation.

Claffey acknowledged one hiccup in particular: the hues of batches of pavers to signify parking spots did not match. The city decided to have the contractor install them anyway to avoid delaying the project, he said. Over the next four to six weeks, crews will continue to replace the pavers in the parking lane so they are one consistent color, a cost that will be paid for by the contractor, not the city, he said.

The city selected Argyle as a pilot location with the aim of boosting economic development, creating space for outdoor cafes and providing flexibility to easily close the street to vehicles and host special events, such as Chinese New Year festivities and the Argyle Night Market held weekly in the summer at Sheridan Road, Claffey said. The project also addresses traffic on Argyle, which has heavy pedestrian use but isn't a major through street, he said. Argyle has low vehicular traffic but enough that city officials wanted to reduce drivers' speed because it's a shared space  not a typical city street, Claffey said.

The project was funded by money from tax-increment financing, bonds issued by the city's Department of Water Management and city funds allocated to the alderman for infrastructure projects, Claffey said.

The new road slightly curves with the help of planters, which will collect stormwater. It also features raised crosswalks and retains parking and loading areas. Light sandstone-colored pavers designate parking spots, while brown pavers are used for pedestrian areas and traffic lanes. Dark gray grooved pavers mark the curb line, but drivers appear to be incorrectly using the concrete gutter as the defining line where the street meets the sidewalk.

It's easy to see how the street has become chaotic. While construction was underway, the street was temporarily turned into a one-way route to keep access open. Now, traffic is allowed to travel east and west. But despite orange road signs indicating two-way traffic, cars still park on both sides of the street facing east.

Leigh Ferguson, who works in the area and visited Argyle Street for lunch on a recent afternoon, said she liked the idea of a more pedestrian-friendly area with wider sidewalks. "It invites people to come, eat and shop in the area," she said.

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But Ellen Duong, 25, who had to endure noise of construction while working inside the Qideas plant shop her family has owned for 15 years, said "it wasn't built efficiently or effectively." She said more lighting is needed on the street, and people have stumbled over tree grates that have holes where trees will be planted. The holes have been temporarily covered by wood planks.

Employees and volunteers from Ald. Harry Osterman's office are planning to hand out fliers to drivers and pedestrians Thursday and Friday informing them how to use the street, said Dan Luna, Osterman's chief of staff. On Friday, the alderman visited various businesses, asking them to post fliers in their windows showing customers how to park and drive there, he said.

Chicago doesn't have many pedestrian-oriented corridors, said Joseph Schwieterman, director of the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development at DePaul University. Having a bigger space for pedestrians allows people to gather, explore and shop without cars whizzing by, he said.

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The project has marketing benefits too, Schwieterman said, because it helps "give Argyle a more distinctive cultural brand and image, and that's long overdue." That identity can help Argyle Street become more of a destination for people with spending power and those looking for a cultural experience, he said.

"Argyle has never quite achieved that. When people think of an Asian neighborhood they think of Chinatown, and Argyle Street barely registered," Schwieterman said.

Officials hope the shared street will encourage businesses to stay open later. "It's the alderman's wish to really try to keep Argyle energized not just before 6 p.m. but throughout the evening as well," said Luna, of Ald. Osterman's office.

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Shop owners said their businesses suffered duringthe road construction, but they are hopeful things will pick up.

"Now it looks better than before," said An Dang, owner of New World Watch Sale & Repair. "But business I hope goes up when it's finished."

lvivanco@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @lvivanco
An 18-year-old woman was killed and two other teens were wounded Sunday while attending a vigil for a man who was shot to death at the same spot on the South Side the evening before, police said.



The three were in a group gathered around candles and a makeshift memorial near 89th and Justine streets about 8:15 p.m. when a gray van pulled up and someone inside opened fire, police said.



The woman was hit in the head and pronounced dead at Little Company of Mary Hospital, according to police and the woman's family.



A 16-year-old boy was shot in the buttocks and an 18-year-old man was shot in the armpit and chest, according to police. They were taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where they were in serious to critical condition, according to Chicago Fire Cmdr. Frank Velez.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 8 A memorial for shooting victim Nahmar Holmes, 23, sits at South Justine and 89th streets in Chicago on Sept. 12, 2016. Keekee Fleming, 18, was killed and two other teens were wounded on Sept. 11, 2016, while attending a vigil for Holmes, who was shot to death at the same spot the day before on the South Side. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)

The vigil was being held for Nahmar T. Holmes, 23, who was shot to death around 5:20 p.m. Saturday as he stood in front of a home in the same block. Police said two people walked up and began firing, hitting him several times. He was taken to the Little Company of Mary Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Authorities said he lived on that block.



The three at the vigil were among 14 people shot, three fatally, in Chicago from Sunday afternoon to early Monday.



-- About 2:15 a.m. Monday, a man was shot to death in the East Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side, police said. Officers responded to a call of a person shot in the 3900 block of West Monroe Street and found a man lying in a lot with gunshot wounds to his legs, neck and abdomen. The man was pronounced dead on the scene, police said.



-- Around 3:10 p.m. Sunday, a man in his late 20s was fatally shot in the Hermosa neighborhood on the West Side, police said. Sergio Zaragoza, 29, of the 1700 block of North Karlov Avenue, was shot in the chest in the 1600 block of North Karlov, said Officer Michelle Tannehill, a police spokeswoman. Zaragoza was pronounced dead at 3:47 p.m. at Mount Sinai Hospital, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.



-- About 4:30 a.m. Monday, a 22-year-old man was wounded in the Kilbourn Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side, said Officer Jose Estrada, a police spokesman. The man was standing on the sidewalk in the 4400 block of West Belmont Avenue when someone fired shots from a dark-colored vehicle, Estrada said. The man was hit in the leg and was taken in serious condition to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.



-- About 2:10 a.m., a 25-year-old man was wounded in the Lakeview neighborhood on the North Side, police said. The man was standing on the sidewalk in the 3400 block of North Clark Street when someone approached and fired. He was struck in the left shoulder and was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where his condition was stabilized, police said.



-- About 1:55 a.m., a 26-year-old man was wounded in the South Deering neighborhood on the Far South Side, police said. Officers responded to a call of shots fired in the 10100 block of South Exchange Avenue and found the man with a wound to the back. He was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition, police said.



-- About 9:35 p.m. Sunday, a 22-year-old man was wounded in a shooting in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the South Side, police said. He was sitting in the driver's seat of a parked vehicle in the 4900 block of South Hoyne Avenue when another vehicle pulled up and someone fired, hitting him in the left arm. The man was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where his condition was stabilized, police said.



-- About 9 p.m., a 24-year-old man and a 57-year-old woman were shot during a robbery in the South Shore neighborhood on the South Side, police said.



The man was walking in the 7800 block of South Saginaw Avenue when someone walked up to him, pulled out a gun and announced a robbery. The man tried to push the attacker away, but the robber fired and hit him in the right leg. A woman standing behind the man was grazed in her right hand by a stray bullet, police said.



The attacker fled with the man's iPhone. The man managed to get to South Shore Hospital, where he was listed in good condition. The woman was also taken to South Shore Hospital, where she was in good condition, police said.



-- About 7 p.m., a 17-year-old boy was shot in the left foot in Logan Square on the Northwest Side. He was walking on the sidewalk in the 2300 block of North Kedzie Boulevard when a vehicle pulled up and someone in the backseat fired. The boy was taken to Norwegian-American Hospital, where he was listed in a good condition, police said.



-- About 6:30 p.m., a 20-year-old man was wounded in a shooting in the Cragin neighborhood on the Northwest Side, police said. The man was walking in the 3100 block of North Linder Avenue when someone fired from a passing vehicle. The man was hit in the right side and was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where his condition was stabilized, police said.



-- About 12:40 p.m., a 43-year-old man was wounded in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side, police said. The man was in the 5500 block of West Monroe Street when he was hit in the back. He was taken to Loretto Hospital by an acquaintance and then transferred to Stroger Hospital. He was listed in critical condition, police said.
The body of a man was discovered with his throat slit Sunday evening in the West Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side, according to police.

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About 8:45 p.m., police officers found the body near railroad tracks in the 4500 block of West Monroe Street, said Officer Veejay Zala, a Chicago police spokesman.

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The man was pronounced dead at the scene. His age was estimated to be about 25 to 30. A knife was found nearby, Zala said.

Detectives are investigating the death as a homicide, and no other information was immediately available.
A Baptist minister who founded a church in Woodstock pleaded guilty Monday to possession of child pornography involving children younger than 13.

Timothy WIlliams, 51, who resigned as senior pastor at Heritage Baptist Church amid the criminal investigation, entered his plea in McHenry County Circuit Court. His sentencing was set for Oct. 28, where he could receive probation or up to seven years in prison and will be required to register as a sex offender for life, prosecutors said.

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Five additional counts of child pornography possession were dropped in exchange for his guilty plea to a single count.

A man who answered the phone at the church Monday but declined to give his name said Williams had approached church board members prior to his arrest last year, told them he was under investigation and resigned. Williams did not provide church leaders with details of the investigation, and the church has had "very limited" contact with him since, the man said.

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He confirmed that WIlliams founded the church, which began as a small Bible study group, in 2001. The man also said church leaders did their "due diligence" in investigating and meeting with parents to ensure no children from the church were involved in the images or harmed by Williams. The man said it has been a "difficult" situation to deal with.

Williams, who is free on bond, was the subject of an eight-month investigation by the McHenry County sheriff's office and the Illinois attorney general's office, prompted by a "cybertip."

Authorities said they found the child pornography on a computer in Williams' home, as well as online chat messages referring to child pornography and other "deviant" behavior, authorities said.

Amanda Marrazzo is a freelance reporter.
A man who authorities say killed an Island Lake woman did not "appreciate the criminality of his actions" because of his severe mental illness, a defense expert testified at the start of the man's murder trial Monday.

Howard Dibbern, 52, is charged with beating and stabbing Karen Scavelli to death in her home June 2, 2014. Authorities alleged that Dibbern then fled in Scavelli's car, stopped at bars and then crashed the car into a Mundelein home as an officer tried to pull him over.

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Defense attorneys for Dibbern, who sat quietly during proceedings in McHenry County court Monday, are not disputing that he killed Scavelli. Rather, they're mounting an insanity defense, and called as their first witness a psychologist who evaluated Dibbern and determined that he suffers schizoaffective disorder and delusions of grandeur.

Licensed psychologist Denise Dojka, who conducted an hourlong interview with Dibbern in McHenry County Jail and reviewed police and medical reports, testified that Dibbern has likely suffered mental health illness since the 1990s. Over the years he has been on different medications for psychosis, depression and mood disorders, and has had five electroconvulsive therapy treatments.

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She said Dibbern, who has a long criminal record, had been in at least two mental health institutions and did a stint in a prison suited for those prisoners with mental illness. He has made up stories that he has mob connections, is a wealthy business owner and is supported by wealthy women.

"He really believes these stories are true," Dojka said. "He's bragging, but I believe he believes what he is bragging about."

Two weeks before the 48-year-old Scavelli was murdered, Dibbern was released from a mental health facility after a suicide attempt, one of many he had tried over the years, according to testimony. At the time of the alleged murder he was prescribed Prozac but was not taking it.

Dojka said Dibbern at times is not in touch with reality, displays mania and psychotic features, experiences auditory and visual hallucinations and has thoughts of grandiosity and delusions.

Prosecutors said Dibbern murdered Scavelli by beating, strangling and stabbing her twice in the neck. They say he then attempted to cover up the crime by moving her body upstairs, where he wrapped her head in a plastic bag and put blankets over her. Dojka testified that in 2004 Dibbern had threatened to kill another woman in the same manner.

Prosecutors said Dibbern attempted to clean up the crime scene at Scavelli's house, changed into clothing belonging to her son and stole her purse and car. He then drove to bars in Mundelein where he attempted to flirt with women, ordered drinks, used Scavelli's credit cards, gave away her bracelet to a waitress and then to drove to another bar where he tried to give her purse to another woman.

When police caught up with Dibbern in Mundelein, he had crashed Scavelli's car into a home. He got out and began hitting himself in the head with a hammer and cutting himself with a knife saying he did not want to go back to prison, according to testimony.

These were not the actions of someone who did not know what he was doing, Assistant State's Attorney Robert Zalud said while cross examining the psychologist.

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Zalud questioned the doctor's evaluation, noting she did not conduct follow-up testing. Zalud also noted that there are many people with schizoaffective disorder who live productive, law abiding lives. The prosecutors noted Dibbern has the presence of mind that day to clean up the crime scene, attempt to hide Scavelli's body, change clothes and drive a car.

"Having schizoaffective disorder does not mean he didn't (appreciate) the criminality of his actions," Zalud said. His mental illness "doesn't mean he doesn't know his actions are wrong."

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Scavelli had three grown children and had recently become a grandmother at the time of her death. Family members have said she was a cancer survivor and had been a single mother for many years.

Dibbern had a long history of criminal arrests and convictions and had been paroled from prison months before Scavelli's death after serving time for a weapons-related conviction in Cook County, according to court and Illinois Department of Corrections records.

Dibbern has been held on a $2 million bond since his arrest days after Scavelli's death.

He opted for a bench trial, meaning a judge, not a jury, will determine his guilt. He has been held in McHenry County Jail on a $2 million bond since his arrest days after Scavelli's body was found by police in the home she shared with her daughter.

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Dibbern's criminal history includes convictions for aggravated battery, residential burglary, forgery and theft, records show.

The trial is set to resume Wednesday when prosecutors will call their own mental health expert.

Amanda Marrazzo is a freelance reporter.
No one was hurt after a hazardous materials alarm was activated at Thorek Memorial Hospital Sunday night. Sept. 11, 2016. (WGN-TV) (Chicago Tribune)

A hazardous materials incident at a North Side hospital was under control Sunday night, authorities said.

It happened at Thorek Memorial Hospital, 850 W. Irving Park Road, according to the Chicago Fire Department.

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At 6:36 p.m. an alarm actived at the hospital and at 6:38 p.m. the decision was made to evacuate staffers, not any patients, who worked in the basement and the first floor, said Chicago Fire Dept. Cmdr. Frank Velez.

An electrical panel showed the "very small'' Freon leak was located in the basement. It was "immediately sealed off,'' said Velez. "At no time were patients compromised.''

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Oxygen levels were good and the people who were evacuated were allowed back in.

No one was hurt and the Level 2 hazardous materials alarm was canceled, said Velez.

Earlier, police officers blocked traffic to allow Fire Department rigs in the area.
A body was discovered bound and set on fire Sunday evening in a wooded area near the Little Calumet River on Chicago's Far South Side, authorities said.



The body, believed to be that of a male, was found some time before 8 p.m. in the Beaubien Forest Preserve, just south of 130th Street and the Bishop Ford Freeway.



Two people came across the body and police were called, authorities said. The victim's hands were tied in the front of the body, authorities said.



Check back for details.
Holy Patronage Church, 900 N. Washtenaw Ave. in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood, is part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate, one of three major Orthodox groups in that country. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

Ukrainian Orthodox authorities have barred the pastor of a Humboldt Park church from serving as a priest following allegations that he improperly took more than $500,000 from a 93-year-old parishioner diagnosed with dementia.

Nicholas Chervyatiuk has not been charged with a crime, and he has vigorously denied the allegations, made in papers filed in probate court this spring by the Cook County public guardian.

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Church leaders began gathering legal documents and acted against Chervyatiuk following an Aug. 19 Tribune report on the case. He had served as a priest at Holy Patronage Church, 900 N. Washtenaw Ave.

Chervyatiuk, 55, allegedly used the money he took to support two restaurants he ran with a convicted drug dealer, his Brash & Sassy, Inc. hair salon and his portfolio of Chicago-area rental properties, according to probate court papers and separate land, business and court records.

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During a June court examination, Chervyatiuk said he considered the money to be payment for care he provided to parishioner Nelly Bridgeman as her health and mental faculties failed.

"I think it was time for me to get paid. ... Nelly wanted it that way," he testified.

Chervyatiuk's former parish is part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate, one of three major Orthodox groups in Ukraine.

A North American church leader, the Rev. Victor Poliarny, told the Tribune: "His behavior doesn't coincide with the responsibilities of a priest. I think it's terrible. We don't approve of the behavior even by a layman."

Under the order from the patriarch's office in Kiev, Chervyatiuk will not be allowed to serve as a priest at religious services and he has been removed from the list of the church's clergy, said John Jaresko, president of the board of St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the administrative center for the patriarch in the U.S.

"I hope this puts clergy of all denominations on notice that this behavior . . . is not fitting and will not be tolerated," Jaresko said.

In a series of recent telephone interviews, Chervyatiuk told the Tribune he did nothing wrong.

"I've been very honest to this lady," he said. He blamed the Tribune for his ouster from the priesthood, saying: "You are happy you did this, right?"

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Church authorities said Chervyatiuk has removed his personal belongings from the Holy Patronage facility and that interim priests have been sent to conduct recent services. The parish board has begun interviewing candidates in a search for a permanent replacement, a process that could take weeks or months.

Nelly Bridgeman poses for a portrait with her husband, Russell, who died in 2004 at age 79. (Family photo)

A Nazi prison camp refugee, Bridgeman married an American service member after arriving in the U.S. in 1950. She served for more than two decades as secretary of Chervyatiuk's church, court records show. Her husband died in 2004 at age 79, and the couple had no children.

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Chervyatiuk assumed power of attorney over Bridgeman's affairs last year, when she was diagnosed with dementia and he moved her into a nursing home, records show.

In the following months, he cashed CDs of Bridgeman's worth $170,000 and transferred other funds to accounts he alone controlled, according to probate court records filed by the public guardian.

Chervyatiuk used his legal status to control Bridgeman's accounts, worth at least $540,000 and perhaps as much as $625,000, according to the public guardian.

Nelly Bridgeman is seen in an undated photo provided by the Cook County public guardian. (Family photo)

Suspecting fraud, a bank official in December contacted the public guardian's office. In March, Associate Cook County Judge Shauna Boliker authorized the office to gather financial records and determine how much of Bridgeman's money Chervyatiuk spent on her care and how much he allegedly converted for his own use.

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The agency, which now is Bridgeman's legal guardian, says it will seek court permission to recover any funds wrongly converted by Chervyatiuk. As the probate case proceeds, Boliker has ordered financial institutions to freeze $170,000 of the priest's personal and business bank accounts.

dyjackson@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @poolcar4
The Canadian federal judge who found himself in hot water for asking an alleged rape victim during a trial why she couldn't keep her knees together said he now regrets those comments.

Federal Court Justice Robin Camp testified in a hearing on Friday before a five-member committee - three judges and two lawyers - that will hear evidence and testimony until Wednesday.

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The Canadian Judicial Council, a federal body that polices judges, launched an investigation into Camp's conduct after four law professors filed a complaint against him.

"I'm very sorry that, on reflection and rereading what I said, that I intimidated her using facetious words," Camp told the committee in his testimony, according to CBC News.

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During a trial in 2014, Camp accused the woman of not doing enough to defend herself during the alleged attack and suggested that she wanted to have sex. The then-19-year-old woman had accused a Calgary man of raping her over a bathroom sink during a house party.

At times, Camp falsely referred to the woman as "the accused," according to media reports.

"Why couldn't you just keep your knees together?" he told the woman, according to a notice of allegations posted on the Canadian Judicial Council website. "Why didn't you just sink your bottom down into the basin so he couldn't penetrate you?"

Camp also said that young women "want to have sex, particularly if they're drunk," and that "some sex and pain sometimes go together."

He acquitted the accused, Alexander Wagar, in September 2014. The woman appealed, and the Alberta Court of Appeal overturned Camp's ruling, according to a statement of facts. Wagar is scheduled for a retrial in November.

Camp told the committee that "to [his] shame," he didn't realize his mistakes until his verdict was appealed, CBC News reported.

The 64-year-old judge said his words came from a "deep-rooted" bias "that all women behave the same way and should resist," CBC News reported.

"I wish I hadn't said them," Camp said, according to CBC News. "I can't guarantee that I'm not prejudiced in other areas. ... I have learned to be constantly vigilant against it."

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Camp was a judge for the Alberta Provincial Court Criminal Division in Calgary when he made those comments against the woman. He became a federal judge last year and is at risk of losing his post. Federal judges in Canada may stay on the bench until they are 75.

Camp also apologized to his wife and daughter for the "embarrassment" he has caused them, CBC News reported.

"I recognize that I'd made a number of vulnerable people miserable. I was very unhappy with myself," Camp said. "The person I most want to apologize for is the complainant."

The woman, whose identity has been concealed, said the judge's remarks made her hate herself, according to media reports.

Camp's daughter, who said she herself is a rape victim, testified Thursday that her father's comments were "disgraceful." But she said she stands by him, according to CBC News.

Kim Stanton, legal director for the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, told CBC News that Camp's comments represent a larger problem within the criminal justice system and will have a lasting impact on the public.

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"It's terrible that sexist language was used; it's much more terrible that the public may have a perception that they will go into a courtroom and the judge won't apply the law," Stanton said.

Records say Camp, who grew up in South Africa and studied at the University of Stellenbosch, did not receive training or judicial education on sexual assault law in Canada and how to preside over rape trials.

During his Friday testimony, Camp acknowledged his lack of knowledge about Canadian criminal law.

"My colleagues knew my knowledge of Canadian law was very minimal. It was nonexistent," Camp said, according to the Canadian Press. "Please remember I wasn't in this country through the 1960s, '70s and '80s. I was in South Africa, where we had other issues."

Camp moved his family to Calgary in 1998. His practice focused mostly on contractual, trust, oil and gas, and bankruptcy litigation. He was appointed to the Alberta Provincial Court Criminal Division in March 2012. He became a federal judge in June 2015.

After hearing testimonies, the committee will prepare a report that will then go to the Canadian Judicial Council for discussion. The council will then make a recommendation to the Canadian parliament on whether Camp should be removed from the bench.

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This surveillance video released by St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office reveals a man arriving via motorcycle on Sept. 11, 2016, to the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce in Florida, a mosque linked to Omar Mateen. According to sheriffs, it appears the man is either white or Hispanic and is carrying paper and a bottle of some type of liquid. The male is then seen leaving when there was a flash. (Chicago Tribune)

FORT PIERCE, Fla.  The mosque that Orlando nightclub gunman Omar Mateen attended was heavily damaged in an arson fire that Muslim leaders said was the latest incident in an escalating campaign of harassment and violence against the house of worship and its members.

Given the timing  Sunday's 15th anniversary of 9/11 and the start of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha  investigators believe the blaze that broke out shortly before midnight Sunday at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce may have been a hate crime, St. Lucie County sheriff's spokesman Maj. David Thompson said.

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No one was injured. The fire burned a 10-by-10-foot (3-by-3-meter) hole in the roof at the back of the mosque's main building and blackened its eaves with soot.

A surveillance video from the mosque showed a man on a motorcycle approaching the building with a bottle of liquid and some papers, then leaving when there was a flash and shaking his hand as though he may have burned it, Thompson said.

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This surveillance video released by St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office reveals a man arriving via motorcycle on Sept. 11, 2016, to the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce in Florida, a mosque linked to Omar Mateen. According to sheriffs, it appears the man is either white or Hispanic and is carrying paper and a bottle of some type of liquid. The male is then seen leaving when there was a flash. (Chicago Tribune)

The arsonist "is terrorizing our community because we don't know where he is at and we don't know what he is capable of doing," said Wilfredo Amr Ruiz, a Florida spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Mateen was killed by police after opening fire at the Pulse nightclub June 12 in a rampage that left 49 victims dead and 53 wounded. He professed allegiance to the Islamic State group. His father is among roughly 100 people who attend the mosque.

Ruiz said the mosque and its worshippers have been harassed since the massacre.

"First there were threating voicemails," he said. "Then drivers would splash water on the parishioners leaving on Fridays, and then a member got beat up in the parking lot when he came to the mosque for early morning prayers, and now the mosque has been set on fire."

The mosque has received more threats since the nightclub shooting than it did in its previous 20 years of existence, assistant imam Hamaad Rahman said.

(Photo courtesy of the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office)

"For this to happen to us on the morning of our biggest celebration of the year has made everyone saddened and scared, but our community is bigger than a building. We are stronger than that," he said. "I feel we will be able to pull together from this, and as time goes by we will be able to rebuild."

The FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined the investigation into the fire. Sheriff's officials released the video and asked for the public's help in identifying the arsonist.

Ariana Borras stopped by the mosque with her 2-year-old son to pay respects Monday morning. Borras said she is Hispanic and not a Muslim but is sometimes asked if she is Muslim because of the color of her skin.

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The fire "makes me scared for my son. It makes me scared for my skin color," she said. "There have been a lot of racial issues going on and there's so much hate in the world right now."

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 94 Omar Mateen, right, with his wife, Noor Zahi Salman, and their son. (Facebook)

Michael Parsons, 22, was standing outside his parents' home, directly across the street from the mosque. He said that since the Orlando shooting, "a lot of people have been driving by hollering and yelling expletives at the church or mosque or whatever they call it."

Parsons, a gutter installer with "trust no one" tattooed on his chest, said his mother's cancer doctor attends the mosque.

"America was founded so people can believe what they want to believe and do what they want to do," he said. "These guys flying the American flag on their trucks don't really know what the freedom is they're fighting for."

On July 2, a man was beaten outside the mosque. CAIR said the victim was a Muslim and the attacker hurled slurs. A suspect was arrested. CAIR said that earlier that day, a man in a truck stopped outside the mosque and said, "You Muslims need to get back to your country."

On Monday morning, a pickup truck with a "Don't Tread on Me" bumper sticker rolled past the mosque. The driver revved his engine and raised his index finger in the air as if making the gesture for No. 1.

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Reporting from Washington  It would be hard to find a more potent example of the Latino success story than Helen Aguirre Ferre.

Her family, of Nicaraguan descent on her father's side, started Miami's earliest Spanish-language newspaper in the 1950s, easing the cultural transition for the waves of exiles who fled Cuba after Fidel Castro took control. Her Puerto Rico-born father-in-law served as the city's first Latino mayor in the 1970s and 1980s, marking Miami as a multicultural capital.

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Aguirre Ferre then carved her own path as a columnist, television host and radio personality in two languages. As the chairwoman of the nation's largest community college, Miami Dade, she provided comfort, vigorous political support and financial aid for immigrants in the country illegally who were seeking a slice of American prosperity.

So it was more than a big leap, and nothing less than a shock to many who know her, when Aguirre Ferre cast aside her sharp criticism of Donald Trump to become his chief marketer to the nation's Latino voters.

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It may be one of the toughest jobs in politics. Aguirre Ferre, director of Hispanic Communications for the Republican National Committee, has to appear on television defending a man she once compared to a "street dog" and explaining him to deeply skeptical Latino voters.

"The RNC is lucky to have someone of her competence, but they couldn't pay me enough," said Rudy Fernandez, a former RNC and George W. Bush official. Fernandez helped Bush make inroads with Latinos in his 2004 reelection and worked closely with Aguirre Ferre to build public support in 2013 for an immigration overhaul that Trump has condemned as amnesty.

Her predecessor at the RNC left in June, reportedly because of her discomfort about working to elect Trump. Other high-profile Latino Republicans, including members of Miami's congressional delegation, its mayor and activists on the nominee's own Latino advisory council, have renounced Trump, who has support from only about one in five Latinos nationwide.

In the three months since Aguirre Ferre took the job, she has been grilled on CNN for defending a man who's "been kicking us like puppies," been confronted by people who once called her an advocate, and subjected to a campaign seeking to oust her from her unpaid post at Miami Dade College.

Aguirre Ferre -- 58 and well-liked on both sides of the aisle -- didn't seem to need the headache at this stage of her career.

"That's a mistake that I would have expected a 25-year-old to make," said Jose Dante Parra, a Democratic strategist who headed Latino outreach for Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and has frequently debated Aguirre Ferre on her radio show.

"I can't for the life of me figure what her end game is. And she can't be effective when she goes on Hispanic media," he added, "she has to spend half the time defending her past very strong criticism of Donald Trump."

"I wanted to have a voice," Aguirre Ferre said, a few minutes into a recent interview. "I wanted to be able to work for something that I truly believe in."

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Asked what, exactly, that was, Aguirre Ferre did not initially mention Trump, instead falling back on the Republican Party and the need to reach communities that have, in her opinion, been pandered to by Democrats.

"I'm not marketing Donald Trump," she insisted. "I'm talking about the Republican values and vision that we represent as a party."

Only later, after prodding, did she clarify.

"I believe in Donald Trump. I'm going to vote for Donald Trump," she said.

Trump, she said repeatedly, was far better than Hillary Clinton. It's a unique time, and voters want a new approach, she added, ticking off a list of conventional Republican positions on financial regulations, healthcare and security.

And wasn't President Obama the real "deporter in chief"?, she added, using a term coined by left-leaning immigration activists who have attacked Obama's record number of deportations.

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Even allowing for those arguments, the candidate clearly has put Aguirre Ferre in a difficult position.

Did she agree with him that Mexico was sending mostly rapists and drug dealers across the border? No.

Or when he declared that all Muslims should be banned from entering the country? No.

Or when he questioned the impartiality of an Indiana-born federal judge because of his Mexican heritage?

"I think that Mr. Trump, I can't really comment," she said, briefly breaking her calm smile. "The issue with the judge, I don't agree with that."

Some close to Aguirre Ferre believe she came to the RNC in hopes of softening Trump's rhetoric and immigration policy, or at least protecting the GOP. In a brief statement, Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, whom Aguirre Ferre worked for in the primary, praised her friendship, conservative values and "commitment to the party."

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When her father-in-law, Maurice Ferre, the former mayor and a Democrat, asked her if she would be embarrassed to take the job helping Trump, she pointed to the party, he recalled.

"If you take people like Helen away from the Republican Party, then what you're doing is giving it to the extreme right," said the 81-year-old Ferre. "That's the worst thing that could happen."

Yet Aguirre Ferre's ability to influence Trump is limited. Two days before Trump delivered his hard-line immigration speech in Phoenix, she said she had no role in crafting it. Nor did she know what Trump would say.

"I'm not sure what his immigration policy is going to be," she said.

She had been in a room with Trump only twice, in group settings, she said.

"He's affable, a very gracious host," she said. "When he asks a question, he's very intent on listening. He loves hearing other people's suggestions and conversations, takes it all in, and then formulates his own ideas."

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After Trump delivered the speech -- blaming immigrants in the country illegally for "countless" deaths and lost jobs, setting out a plan for millions of deportations, and calling for new limits on legal immigration  several of the Latino supporters who had been in meetings with Trump and Aguirre Ferre said they could no longer support him, with one prominent supporter calling the speech "nativist." .

Aguirre Ferre said her own support has not wavered and that, even as two members of the advisory council had stepped down, more supporters would be added. She said that if Obama had pushed through an immigration bill when Democrats controlled Congress, the problem would have been solved.

For many in her home community, Aguirre Ferre's transformation from a commentator on the edge of politics to full-time operative with an unpopular candidate has been too much.

Gaby Pacheco, a nationally known immigration activist, met Aguirre Ferre about a dozen years ago, when Pacheco was president of the Miami Dade College student body and an early activist for students in the country illegally in what would later become the Dreamer movement.

Pacheco had come to the United States from Ecuador on a tourist visa when she was 7. In 2006, Pacheco was awakened from a sound sleep to find the rest of her family being rounded up and taken in for deportation proceedings. Many of the college's politically connected leaders stepped in to help the family, who believed the deportation proceeding was motivated by Pacheco's activism.

Aguirre Ferre promised to help Pacheco with anything she needed, and over the years, the two have spoken regularly, often on Aguirre Ferre's television or radio show.

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"She's probably been one of the strongest Latina spokespeople in the country," said Pacheco. "When the college had undocumented students, she did everything she could to help figure out how to support them."

After activists began circulating a petition demanding that Aguirre Ferre step down as chairwoman of the college, Pacheco called to urge her to stay on the board. If Aguirre Ferre left, Florida Gov. Rick Scott might appoint a replacement who would put the thousands of students at the college who are in the country illegally at risk, Pacheco reasoned.

But the call was not a happy one. Pacheco says she told Aguirre Ferre she felt sad for her.

"How in anyone's mind can they be an apologist for this man, be his dictionary trying to explain for what he says when everyone can clearly see what he means?" Pacheco said.

"I told her I have high regard for her," Pacheco recalled. "But just seeing her doing this was disappointing."

noah.bierman@latimes.com

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Twitter: @noahbierman
Speaking in Geneva, Switzerland, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announces a military partnership with Russia targeting Islamic State and al-Qaida-linked militants in Syria. Sept. 9, 2016. (U.S. Department of State) (Chicago Tribune)

BEIRUT  A Syrian cease-fire plan backed by the United States and Russia went into effect Monday amid cautious hopes it may herald at least a pause in the relentless violence that has raged for five years.

Although there were no immediate reports of major fighting, it remained too early to tell whether the plan would work.

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The Syrian government and the rebels have both signaled that they will comply, despite reservations. But neither side has publicly given an outright endorsement to the deal, announced in Geneva on Saturday by Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Halting the fighting is intended as just the first step in a series of measures including the delivery of humanitarian aid and culminating in new negotiations for a political solution to the conflict.

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Whether the process will work depends to a large extent on whether Russia and the United States can bring pressure on their allies - the government and the rebels, respectively - and whether Washington and Moscow are committed enough to make the deal stick.

Even before the cease-fire was scheduled to take effect - sundown in Syria, or 11:48 a.m. Eastern time - the difficulties were underscored.

On Monday, Syrian President Bashar Assad reiterated his determination to reconquer all of Syria from what he termed "terrorists," making it clear he has no plans to completely stop fighting to crush the five-year-old rebellion against his regime.

The pact spells out a process that intends - at least according to the Obama administration - to culminate in Assad's departure.

"We as a nation . . . are delivering a message that the Syrian state is determined to recover all regions from the terrorists and restore security, infrastructure," Assad said after he attended prayers marking the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday in Darayya, a Damascus suburb that was recently recaptured from the rebels after a four-year siege.

"We come today here to replace the fake freedom they tried to market at the beginning of the crisis . . . with real freedom," he added. "Not the freedom that begins with them and is sustained by dollars . . . and by some promises of positions."

He seemed to be referring to U.S. backing of the rebels and opposition proposals to replace the Assad regime with a more representative government. In Saturday's announcement in Geneva, Kerry stressed that replacing Assad should be the ultimate goal of the deal reached with Russia, a key ally of the Syrian president.

The Syrian opposition has still not given a formal response to the cease-fire agreement, but rebel representatives say they have told U.S. officials they plan to comply with the cessation of hostilities and expect to make an announcement in the coming hours.

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Yasir Ibrahim al-Yusuf, a member of the political office of the rebel Noureddine al-Zinki movement, said the armed opposition has raised many concerns about the details of the deal with the Obama administration, notably the absence of enforcement mechanisms or penalties for noncompliance by the Assad regime or the Russians.

A letter to the opposition delivered over the weekend by the U.S. special envoy for Syria, Michael Ratney, spelled out details similar to those outlined by Kerry and Lavrov in Geneva on Saturday. They include a cessation of hostilities, the delivery of humanitarian aid and the eventual launch of joint military operations by the United States and Russia against terrorist groups.

The letter offered no new enforcement measures other than the reporting mechanism established by cease-fire agreement earlier this year, which collapsed within weeks amid escalating government airstrikes. The armed opposition is nonetheless committed to complying "because it is incredibly important that aid reaches people and that there is a decrease in the numbers of people dying," Yusuf said. "Also, we are hoping this is the beginning of a political solution to conflict."

The United States has also sought to reassure the rebels that Russia is committed to the deal, he added.

"The one assurance we have is that the Russians are very invested because they want to extricate themselves from this conflict as quickly as possible," he said. "This is the one reason we are agreeing to the cease-fire. It seems everyone very much wants to make it work."

Syria's government, meanwhile, has already indirectly said that it accepts the deal. Lavrov told reporters in Geneva that Assad has given his assent. The official government news agency SANA added that "sources underscored that the Syrian government had been informed of the agreement and agreed to it," which appeared to imply acceptance.

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Pro-government news organizations reported, however, that the government would not accept all of the cease-fire's terms, including a requirement that pro-Assad forces retreat from a key road into Aleppo that was seized from the rebels nearly two months ago.

According to the timetable laid out by Kerry and Lavrov, if the cease-fire holds for seven consecutive days, and humanitarian aid flows unimpeded to besieged areas, then Moscow and Washington will start working out plans to conduct joint military operations.

One of the groups that could be increasingly targeted is Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, or Front for the Conquest of Syria, the former al-Qaida affiliate previously known as Jabhat al-Nusra. The U.S. letter to the rebels urges them to disengage from the Front, warning of "dire consequences" if they do not.

A surge of violence over the weekend in which at least 90 people died compounded skepticism that the cease-fire would result in much more than a temporary lull - and underlined why it is so important to stop the fighting.

The vast majority of the victims - at least 85 people - were killed by a wave of suspected government airstrikes on Saturday against the rebel-held cities of Idlib and Aleppo, according to doctors in the two cities. On Sunday, five more people died in another strike in Aleppo, two of them children, and warplanes returned again on Monday, doctors and residents said.

In the deadliest attack, warplanes struck a busy market in the northern city of Idlib Saturday afternoon, killing at least 49 people, according to doctors and activists. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the toll at 62. The market was packed at the time with people shopping for the Eid holiday,

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Government planes also carried out strikes over multiple neighborhoods in Aleppo, killing 36 on Saturday and an additional five on Sunday, according to doctors in the city. Warplanes dropped more bombs on Monday morning, residents said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Heba Habib in Stockholm contributed to this report.
Ramon Torres peers from his food truck Aztec Dave's on Wacker Drive and Adams Street in the Loop on Sept. 8, 2016. Torres owns the truck with his father and brother. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune)

Every day at lunch, customers wait in a long line outside Aztec Dave's food truck to buy three tacos for $8.

The most requested item on the menu is arrachera, prepared the same way the Torres family has been cooking skirt steak for three generations.

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"To prepare it tender, we marinate it the day before in our special seasoning and lime juice. We grill it over the open flame and it gets nice and juicy on the inside with char on the outside," said Ramon Torres, co-owner of Aztec Dave's. "The cuts that we use, they have no nerves, no fat at all. This is why we get these (customer) lines."

When the Torres family decided to open the food truck in March 2015, they were ready for the rigors of running a small business.

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What they didn't anticipate was being forced by City Hall to turn away customers during the busy lunch hours.

But that's exactly what's happened in recent weeks to Aztec Dave's and other food trucks after the city began enforcing its restrictive ordinance on mobile food vendors.

Food trucks are severely limited in where and how long they can serve customers.

The trucks cannot be within 200 feet of brick-and-mortar restaurants, and they're not allowed to stay in the same location longer than two hours.

These rules have been on the books for four years, though the city rarely enforced them  until recently.

A few weeks ago, the Chicago Sun-Times and ABC-Ch. 7 targeted food trucks in a joint "investigation."

A TV reporter confronted food truck operators he thought were parked illegally, asking them on camera if they knew they were breaking the law. He walked around the city using a tape measure to prove the 2012 ordinance wasn't being enforced to the fullest degree.

In response to the findings, Mayor Rahm Emanuel issued a firm directive to city officials, telling them to enforce the ordinance.

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The Chicago Sun-Times, clearly pleased that its story with ABC-Ch. 7 prompted this response, reported that the city had embarked on a "blitzkrieg" of citations and fines.

Back on the streets, food trucks were reeling.

City officials were out at lunchtime, forcing food trucks to drive away from lines of customers because the two-hour mark had passed. At least one food truck got a parking boot.

Leave it to Chicago to give a whole new meaning to the phrase "lunch rush."

Truck owners began worrying how customers would react. Would hungry Chicagoans return to their favorite food truck, or would they be too turned off by the poor customer service experience? How much would the enforcement cut into sales? How long would the vigorous enforcement last, and would they need to lay off employees?

"I don't like turning people down," Torres said. "But we have to do what we have to do at this time because the crackdown is real."

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To be clear, food trucks (or anyone else for that matter) shouldn't park in loading zones, tow zones or bus stops. And food trucks certainly should follow all food preparation and food safety rules.

Generally, rules should be enforced, and they should be enforced equally and consistently.

But when it comes to the 200-foot rule and two-hour rule, the real issue isn't a lack of enforcement; these rules should never have become law in the first place.

"These regulations are some of the worst, if not the worst, in the entire country," said Baylen Linnekin, a food lawyer and adjunct professor at George Mason University Law School. "Food trucks should be allowed to park anyplace that anyone else can park. And there should never be a time limit. A food truck will only stay as long as they have customers."

When these regulations were enacted in 2012, food truck owners warned the rules were too strict and would strangle the burgeoning industry.

But numerous aldermen admitted at the time that limiting food trucks in order to protect restaurants was exactly their intention.

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Ald. John Arena, 45th, was the lone voice against the onerous requirements.

"The brick-and-mortar restaurant lobby got a hold of (the plan) and it was stuffed with protectionism and baked in the oven of paranoia," Arena said back then.

Even without the 200-foot and two-hour rules, food trucks face steep barriers to success.

The Torres family spent more than $75,000 on their truck, equipment, licenses, certificates, menu, food and related costs before selling their first taco.

Brick-and-mortar restaurants can stay open past closing time to take care of customers. But not food trucks; when the two-hour mark hits, it's time to hit the road.

And it's tough for food trucks to find another place to park, as most of the city is off limits to them.

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It's not the government's job to enact laws that favor one industry or business over another. Every entrepreneur deserves equal opportunity to succeed. As long as the 200-foot and two-hour rules are in place, that's not the case.

The past four years offer strong evidence that the 200-foot and two-hour rules are not necessary.

Even though City Hall didn't enforce those facets of the law, we now see that the restaurant industry survived and Chicagoans were not harmed in having a few more food options.

So instead of the so-called "crackdown" on food trucks, city officials should take this opportunity to toss these onerous and arbitrary rules.

In the meantime, if you want to eat some of the best tacos in town, get out early to Aztec Dave's food truck.

Beat the crowd, but more important, beat the food police.

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Diana Sroka Rickert is a writer with the Illinois Policy Institute. The opinions in this essay are her own.
Hillary Clinton became "overheated" and left the Sept. 11 memorial service abruptly after an hour and a half. Television cameras were rolling, allowing much of the world to see her being loaded into her van. She went to her daughter's nearby apartment for a breather, emerged looking chipper, stopped for a picture with a child, and drove off.

If it had ended there, the incident would have been unfortunate, but wouldn't have altered the course of the campaign. Instead, the public learned later that Clinton had been diagnosed with pneumonia on Sept. 9 and neglected to tell anyone.

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The lack of transparency played right into Donald Trump's hands. Clinton began her career as a staffer on the Watergate hearings, yet she has repeatedly ignored the central lesson of the scandal: It's not the crime that gets you but the cover-up. Pneumonia is hardly a crime and neither is a private server, but by covering up both she made them seem worse. On Labor Day, she brushed off a coughing episode in Ohio merely as evidence that she is "allergic to Trump." But four days later, a doctor put her on antibiotics for pneumonia and she didn't find it worthy of comment. Too bad she didn't get a prescription for truth serum.

Now the burden is on her to prove she's fine. She would have to drop and do 20 push-ups to satisfy Trump that she is. Just as he tried to delegitimize Barack Obama with birtherism, Trump has tried to swift-boat Hillary by delegitimizing her physically. For months, the Republican nominee has been stoking the charge that something serious is wrong with her physical and mental "strength and stamina."

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His wingman, Rudy Giuliani, directs voters to go to the internet and look up "Clinton illness" and watch a ginned-up video that makes it look as if Clinton is having a seizure. After the coughing, Trump tweeted that the media wasn't covering it enough.

Henceforth it will all be covered  every sniffle and every pause that could be a sign that her mind is going. In addition to his medical diagnosis, Trump has taken to charging that she doesn't "look presidential," a catch-all that adds the dig that the little lady keeps a light schedule so that she can get home to bed early and isn't, obviously, a perfect male specimen of health like Trump himself, even though, at 70, he's two years older.

Trump himself has been somewhat wanting when it comes to his health records. First, he made public a laughable letter from his doctor  idiosyncratically addressed "To Whom My Concern"  that echoed Trumpian grandiosity with the assessment that the Donald would be "the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency." Then, with a good sense of timing, Trump got a physical last week, presumably at the hands of another physician, which he is releasing any day. He's set to appear Sept. 15 on on "The Dr. Oz Show" to unveil "his personal health regime," presumably without pictures of his fast-food habits on his plane.

After the episode Sunday, he knew enough to let the facts stand for themselves, congratulating himself for taking no "satisfaction" in her troubles. On Fox News on Monday morning, he sent her a Hallmark card hoping "she gets well soon." He inched back to his usual self a bit later on CNBC, saying, "It was interesting because they say pneumonia on Friday but she was coughing very, very badly a week ago and even before that this wasn't the first time."

Getting pneumonia doesn't mean you're unhealthy. It's one of the many occupational hazards of the endurance trial a modern campaign is. But she's going to have a hard time proving she's healthy now.

Imagine an alternate drama. Clinton reveals before the weekend that she has pneumonia. She soldiers on. She kept her schedule, including the LGBT fundraiser with Barbra Streisand where the candidate offered her controversial description of some Trump voters as "deplorables." She was up early Sunday, but the crowd, the sun (New York congressman Joe Crowley said that he and Sen. Chuck Schumer had soaked through their suits), and the sadness of the day were too much and she left after an hour and a half. Most people would think she was a trouper to play through the pain and wish her a long nap in a cool room with a bowl of chicken soup.

Instead, much of Sunday, no one knew what was going on. Information dribbled out. Her motorcade back to her home in Chappaqua, N.Y., was covered like O.J.'s ride in the Ford Bronco. Hours later, a statement from her doctor came out. That's no way to overcome a trust deficit.

Still, Clinton has nine lives. Terrible things happen  having to stand by her man after Gennifer Flowers, Whitewater, the health care debacle, Monica. But she has repeatedly turned adversity into triumph, not least by becoming the first first lady to win a Senate seat in a state she'd only visited as a tourist. She's now the first female candidate for president. Memo to Trump and the men who love him: misunderestimate her "strength and stamina" at your peril.

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Margaret Carlson is a Bloomberg View columnist.
This undated picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Aug 4, 2016, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un delivering a speech at the 3rd Meeting of KPA Activists in O Jung Hup-led 7th Regiment Title Movement at the April 25 House of Culture in Pyongyang. (KCNA / AFP/Getty Images)

"There's going to be a global shaming campaign."

 Professor Andrei Lankov of Kookmin University in Seoul, South Korea, on an international plan to rein in North Korea's nuclear arsenal, Sept. 11, 2016, The Washington Post.

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Earlier this month, North Korea celebrated the 68th anniversary of its regime with an underground nuclear blast, its fifth since 2006. A few days before that, the North launched a round of medium-range ballistic missile tests toward Japan.

The responses have been predictably feeble, including:

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A theatrical sputtering of outrage from President Barack Obama and world leaders.

Threats of more international sanctions via the United Nations.

Dark mutterings about cranking up the heat on China to pressure North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. (China resists doing that for reasons we discuss below.)

And, potentially, a new strategy: A "global shaming" campaign, which would rein in North Korea's practice of sending workers overseas to earn cash for the Kim regime. Those workers funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to help keep Kim supplied with fine whiskey and cognac, Kobe beef, French designer cigarettes and Iranian caviar.

The U.S. and South Korea are reportedly urging host countries such as China to stop letting in North Korean guest workers as part of the "shaming" campaign.

That's worth a try. But we're dubious that Kim and his kleptocracy can be shamed. Remember, this is a regime that let millions of its people starve to death rather than pull the plug on its nuclear program.

Kim won't capitulate to reasoned appeals or halfhearted sanctions. The only chance to halt North Korea's nuclear progress is to dial up the costs for Kim if he continues the country's nuclear program. The only thing that matters to Kim? His grip on power.

The key player in this is China. China is North Korea's biggest trading partner and major lifeline, propping up the Kim regime with food and oil deliveries. But China won't seriously crimp its border trade with North Korea for three reasons.

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First, it doesn't want to destabilize its ally, potentially sending tens of thousands of North Korean refugees into China.

Second, if the Pyongyang regime collapses, China risks facing a newly united Korea. Why would Beijing exchange an ally, even a goofy ally, for an emboldened rival?

The third reason is a paraphrase of Mad Magazine's Alfred E. Neuman famous dictum: What, us worry? China knows that North Korean missiles won't be pointed at Beijing or Shanghai. They'll be aimed at Tokyo, Paris, Washington and Berlin.

Washington has a few new levers besides the "shaming" campaign to twist up the pressure on the Chinese.

Earlier this year, Congress gave Obama the power to sanction companies that "materially contribute" to North Korea. That includes a broad range of products, including luxury items that Kim Jong Un favors. Many of those suppliers are Chinese companies. Sanctions wouldn't shut off all trade with North Korea, but slapping Chinese companies could get Beijing's attention.

Another possible bargaining chip to gain Chinese buy-in: The U.S. plans to deploy a missile-defense system in South Korea. It is designed to protect Seoul from North Korean missiles, but the Chinese fear that it could also track Chinese missiles and dilute China's nuclear deterrent. The Chinese strongly oppose the Seoul missile shield.

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Three presidents and two decades of diplomacy haven't persuaded North Korea to reverse course. Kim Jong Un is carrying on his family's tradition: Take care of No. 1 first, last and always.

North Koreans are fed 1950s propaganda and warned about enemies who allegedly seek to conquer the rogue nation. If too many North Koreans caught a glimpse of truth  if they had unfettered internet access, for instance  Kim's regime would crumble.

Instead, the threat from North Korea grows. The next nuclear test, the next missile test, is days or months away. The most powerful nations on Earth shrug as if there's nothing much that can be done to rein in the Boy King.

That conclusion is wrong.

Join the discussion on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Board and on Facebook.
Martin O'Malley, left, the bagman in the red light camera scandal, leaves the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on Sept. 12, 2016, after being sentenced to six months in prison. At right is O'Malley's attorney, Mike Gillespie. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune)

The admitted bagman who funneled more than half a million dollars in bribes to the City Hall insider at the center of the red light camera scandal was sentenced to six months in prison Monday by a judge who said she tried to balance his fragile health with the extent of his misconduct.

Martin O'Malley, 75, had provided key testimony at John Bills ' trial, telling jurors he passed envelopes stuffed with thousands in cash at a time to the city official at Manny's deli and other restaurants during the decadelong conspiracy.

Bills also accepted lavish vacations, meals, a Mercedes-Benz, a boat, hotel stays and an Arizona condominium purchased by O'Malley on Bills' behalf. In all, federal agents put the total tally of bribes at more than $2 million, one of the priciest schemes in Chicago's storied history of public corruption.

The charges stemmed from a four-year Chicago Tribune investigation that exposed the scheme, as well as the mismanagement, failed oversight and dubious safety record of the $600 million red light camera program.

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It was revealed for the first time at Monday's hearing that O'Malley is cooperating with federal authorities in Australia who are investigating the role of the Melbourne-based parent company of Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., the Arizona business that doled out the massive bribes to obtain and keep tens of millions of dollars in contracts with the city of Chicago.

O'Malley had faced up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to a single count of conspiracy to bribe a public official, but even prosecutors on Monday recommended he be given a year of house arrest because of his extensive cooperation and health issues.

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U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall praised O'Malley for his quick acknowledgment of guilt after federal agents approached him three years ago, his ongoing cooperation with investigators and his years of community service as a sponsor to hundreds of men in Alcoholics Anonymous.

She noted that Bills had first approached O'Malley at an AA meeting with a job prospect with Redflex as part of the scheme back in 2002. At the time, O'Malley was unemployed and caring for an ill wife who died in 2012.

"He preyed upon you in an AA meeting," the judge told O'Malley while referring to Bills, whom she sentenced late last month to 10 years in prison after his conviction on 20 counts of bribery, conspiracy, extortion and fraud. "He chose you for those weaknesses."

Still, Kendall rejected house arrest for O'Malley, saying he played an integral role in "one of the most lucrative abuses of public trust in the history of the city of Chicago."

"That crime could not have continued for 10 years without your involvement," said Kendall, who called the six-month prison term the "appropriate balance of the harm to the people ... your extraordinary help to others and the seriousness of this case."

The judge said she also considered O'Malley's troubled childhood and fragile health. He suffers from diabetes, coronary artery disease and has worn a pacemaker since his arrest in 2012, according to his attorney, Michael Gillespie.

In a brief statement to the judge, O'Malley, of south suburban Worth, accepted blame for his role as the conduit for cash bribes and gifts between Redflex and Bills.

"I stand before you a guilty man," he told Kendall. "There is no excuse for what I have done. It's deplorable. ... Not a day has gone by in the past three years where I do not think about the horrible decision I made."

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O'Malley, who showed no emotion after Kendall imposed the short prison term, was ordered to report to prison Jan. 3.

The former Redflex chief executive who approved most of the bribes, Karen Finley, is set to be sentenced in November. She, too, pleaded guilty and testified for the government at Bills' trial.

O'Malley, who was hired by Redflex after Bills told him to answer a advertisement for a Chicago consultant, testified at Bills' trial in January that he funneled as much as $2,000 in cash to Bills for each of the 384 cameras installed by Redflex throughout Chicago. O'Malley said he would deliver the bribe cash in Manila envelopes, often over lunch at such well-known restaurants as Manny's and Schaller's Pump, a Bridgeport neighborhood institution and political stronghold across the street from the 11th Ward Democratic headquarters.

Bills, a longtime political operative of powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan , has maintained his innocence since the Tribune first broke the story of graft in October 2012. At trial, his attorney told jurors that the bribes really went to politicians and their favored lobbyists. At the same time, Bills has refused repeated offers from federal authorities to provide evidence to support that claim.

Bills, a 32-year city employee, rose through the ranks as a member of Madigan's patronage army in the 13th Ward political organization. As the No. 2 in charge of the city's Transportation Department, Bills was handed the task of overseeing the traffic camera program, placing cameras and managing the city's contract with Redflex.

Within months after the first Tribune stories, Mayor Rahm Emanuel moved to fire Redflex and transfer the program to a new vendor. During his re-election bid last year, Emanuel also ordered the removal of 80 cameras within the embattled program.

A series of Tribune reports revealed failed oversight, mismanagement, inconsistent enforcement practices, malfunctioning cameras and millions of dollars in tickets issued purposefully by City Hall even after transportation officials knew yellow lights times were dropping below federal minimum guidelines.

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Emanuel has defended the safety record of the program, citing a reduction in right-angle crashes involving injuries throughout the city. Still, Emanuel's administration has filed suit against Redflex seeking more than $350 million in damages, three times the $120 million the company received to operate the program.

A Tribune-sponsored study of the red-light program in 2014 found that nearly 40 percent of the intersections equipped with the cameras are likely making the streets more dangerous. The study found that the cameras caused a 22 percent increase in rear-end crashes, yet provided no safety benefit at intersections that never had a problem with right-angle crashes in the first place.

City Hall has been unable to explain how intersections were chosen for cameras while Bills was running the program. Most of those cameras are still up and running.

Problems also extended to Emanuel's new speed camera enforcement program. The Tribune found the city often ignores requirements for children to be present in school zones where reduced speeds are enforced.

The scandal has prompted a half-dozen lawsuits challenging both programs, which together have raised more than $700 million in traffic fines from Chicago motorists. Throughout the scandal, the Emanuel administration has been reluctant to issue refunds, in some cases forcing drivers to file paperwork and apply for a rehearing process some critics have called onerous.

At Monday's sentencing, U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon alluded to the public's lack of confidence in the corrupted program, but he called for leniency for O'Malley because he was "exploited" and "vulnerable."

"Mr. O'Malley is at the bottom of the wrung in terms of his relative culpability among his co-conspirators," Fardon told the judge. "He went along with this scheme for one simple reason  he needed a job."

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dkidwell@tribpub.com

Twitter @DavidKidwell1
St. Mary Catholic Parish in Plano honored police officers and firefighters as well as other first responders at a Blue Mass Sunday.

In attendance were members of the Plano Police Department, firefighters from Little Rock Fox Fire Protection District and members of other area police and fire units, church officials said.

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The Rev. Andy Davy, pastor of St. Mary Catholic Parish, said the Blue Mass was a special event.

"As a parish, this is the first time that we have celebrated a Blue Mass, and it is something that I hope that we are able to continue for years and years to come," he said. "The tradition of a Blue Mass is a way of particularly honoring first responders, police officers, firefighters, EMTs, ambulance drivers, anyone who would deal with quickly responding in times of crisis. So this tradition is a way for a local community to say 'we thank you and we want to honor you' and know that each of you is in our prayers as you take care of us in times of crisis."
A man and an Aurora police officer were both shocked by a Taser during an altercation at a far East Side Starbucks on Sunday.

Sang Le, 32, of the 2000 block of Clarendon Lane, Aurora, faces felony charges in connection with the incident that began after two officers responded about 9:19 p.m. to the coffee shop on the 2800 block of East New York Street, police and DuPage County prosecutors said Monday. Employees said a man who had been sitting in the Starbucks for five hours refused to leave when the business closed, according to police reports.

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Starbucks employees told police the man became hostile toward employees, telling them to call the police and "get the (expletive) out," according to police reports.

According to reports: One officer asked Le for identification, and he refused; the man asked if police were going to arrest him and stuck out both his wrists; the officers said they just needed his identification and he again refused, this time also telling police he was going to leave if they didn't have a warrant.

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One of the officers told Le he could leave after they identified him, and Le then gave police an identification card out of Arizona, according to reports.

As police checked out his information, Le became anxious, stood up and said he was leaving again, according to reports.

One officer put his hands up at his chest and told Le he couldn't leave. Le then moved the officer's hands in "a pushing motion" and "became very aggressive," according to police reports. During the fight that ensued, the officer took him to the ground, police said.

According to police, the man grabbed the other officer by the top of her hair and took her down with them. Le would not let go of the officer's hair, but kept pulling it and pushing her head downward while resisting the officers, according to reports.

"To the best of my memory, I then gave Sang (Le) a closed-fist right-hand strike to the face and upper chest," the officer wrote in his reports. "I also recall giving (Le) a right knee strike to his body."

The female officer then used her Taser on Le, according to an email from police spokesman Dan Ferrelli.

Le then wrapped the Taser wire around the male officer's right leg, hip area and shoulder area, causing the officer to get shocked too, according to reports.

"After I felt the jolts from the Taser stop throughout my body, I attempted to get Sang (Le) onto his back," the officer wrote. "I then felt Sang grab my duty weapon, at which time I turned onto my back and gave him a right foot strike to his chest area."

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Le got up from the ground and sat down on a bench, according to police reports.

Aurora Fire Department paramedics transported Le to Rush Copley Medical Center. Le was transported to Mercy Behavioral Center for an evaluation, where he was held for treatment, according to reports.

The DuPage County state's attorney's office said Le faces two counts of aggravated battery to a peace officer, both class 2 felonies, and one count of aggravated resisting a peace officer, a class 4 felony.

Le could not be reached for comment Monday.

Aurora police are trying to get video footage of the incident from Starbucks' corporate office, which has access to cameras that may have captured the fight, according to police reports.

During the altercation, the female officer sustained head pain, a significant amount of hair loss, neck and back pain and scratches to her face and neck, according to police reports. The male officer had right knee and shoulder pain, according to reports. Both officers were taken to an Aurora hospital for their injuries, Ferrelli said.

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In a separate incident over the weekend, Aurora police officers used a Taser on a man who is accused of resisting them after he was involved in a fight.

"In both instances, the arrested subjects were extremely combative and physically assaulted the officers forcing them to deploy Tasers in order to gain compliance and safely take the subjects into custody," Ferrelli said in an email. "A total of three officers were injured in the two incidents to the point where they had to be checked out at Aurora hospitals."

hleone@tribpub.com

Twitter @hannahmleone
U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville, and Lincoln interpreter Michael Krebs, admire a statue of the 16th president. The statue, located at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, is the first statue of a U.S. president to be featured in a national cemetery. (Alicia Fabbre / Daily Southtown)

Don Walden could hardly contain his excitement when the black cloth came off the statue at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood.

He stood back and gazed at the life-size statue of Abraham Lincoln, the first statue of a U.S. president to be featured in a national cemetery.

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"Look at how pretty," said Walden, chairman of the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery Support Committee. "How wonderful!"

The committee began working on the project 10 years ago. Approval from the U.S. Veteran's Administration took five years. It took another five years of fundraising to get the $110,000 needed for the project.

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"The Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery Support Committee have worked very hard to ensure this statue came to fruition," said Diana Ohman, executive director of the National Cemetery Midwest District. "How thankful I am for their persistence."

Ohman and U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville, along with other local dignitaries and a Lincoln interpreter, were on hand for the unveiling Saturday that drew about 400 guests.

Many noted how fitting it was that the first statue of a president in a national cemetery was of a likeness of Lincoln. The bronze statue stands 6 feet 4 inches tall.

A planned bench, which will include the five bronze plaques honoring each of the branches of the Armed Services, will be completed nearby later this year. It also will feature two bronze tablets on either end. One will detail the creation of the national cemetery system, the other features the last paragraph of Lincoln's second inaugural address.

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"Was it worth it?" Ohman said of the years-long project. "Absolutely."

Foster said the deceased president serves as a reminder "to unify this country," and the statue shows what can be accomplished when people work together.

Ohman, who described Lincoln as the best president in the country's history, said he started the national cemetery system following the Civil War. Today there are 149 cemeteries. The Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery, which opened in 1999, is the second largest national cemetery and the largest cemetery in Illinois.

"This statue of Lincoln serves as a reminder of his legacy and the price of freedom," she said.

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Several gathered after the unveiling to take pictures with the statue.

"He's my favorite president," said Al Evans, of Joliet. "He kept this country together and showed empathy for those in need."

Alicia Fabbre is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
The concrete marker and informational gazebo that sit in front of Lincoln-Way Central High School in New Lenox tell the history of Lincoln Highway, the nation's first successful coast-to-coast highway. The marker will become a Will County historic landmark. (Susan DeMar Lafferty / Daily Southtown)

The 4-foot-tall marker once stood just outside Mount Olivet Cemetery on Lincoln Highway in Joliet. As a young boy, Darrell Holmquist wondered why someone would be buried outside the cemetery. But he later discovered that the concrete post marked with a large blue "L" was not a grave, but one of 3,000 markers installed at 1-mile intervals along Lincoln Highway, the nation's first successful coast-to-coast highway, from New York City to San Francisco.

The 4-foot-tall marker once stood just outside Mount Olivet Cemetery on Lincoln Highway in Joliet.

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As a young boy, Darrell Holmquist wondered why someone would be buried outside the cemetery. But he later discovered that the concrete post marked with a large blue "L" was not a grave but one of 3,000 markers installed at 1-mile intervals along Lincoln Highway, the nation's first successful coast-to-coast highway, from New York City to San Francisco.

Holmquist, a New Lenox resident and retired Lincoln-Way Central High School history teacher, also learned that the school district was named after the highway on which it is located.

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In 1996, he lobbied then Superintendent Lawrence Wyllie, who persuaded the Illinois Department of Transportation to move the marker from Joliet to the school, where it would be better protected.

"That marker was ripe for a snowplow," said Holmquist who recently decided it needed to be preserved as a Will County historic landmark.

Most of the markers disappeared over time, falling victim to vandals, road construction or those who realized their historic value and took them.

Now standing in front of Lincoln-Way Central High School, next to the historic road, it is one of about a dozen that remain of the 2,436 that were installed by the Boy Scouts of America on Sept. 1, 1928, said Holmquist, who is now writing a book about the history of Lincoln Highway in New Lenox Township, its first paved road.

He nominated it for landmark status, and the Will County Historic Preservation Commission last week agreed with Holmquist and recommended that it be so designated. The County Board is expected to approve it during Thursday's meeting, making it the 10th historic landmark in New Lenox Township.

It is a great part of the school's history, and officials there were "very proud" to have it landmarked, said Janine Wilkosz, preservation manager with Will County's Land Use Department.

But it is the "rarity" of this object that makes it so special, she said.

"When you think that over the years, with all the highway construction and turmoil that the road has gone through, it is amazing that Darrell Holmquist was able to step in and save this. This is of great importance in the history of transportation in the United States and the advent of the automobile," Wilkosz said.

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While it is rare, it is not unusual to have an object become a landmark. "This is a great example of a landmark that shows people it doesn't always have to be a structure," she said.

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According to Holmquist's research, the Lincoln Highway Association was created in 1913 by automobile and tire manufacturers who convinced the government and the public that better roads were needed with the growing popularity of the automobile.

The Road Act of 1916 provided the seed money to begin the project, named in honor of President Abraham Lincoln, and the Federal Highway Act of 1921 provided another $75 million to state highway departments. In Illinois, where it stretches for 179 miles and was designed to avoid Chicago traffic, it has been designated as a National Scenic Byway  the only state to do so.

The road was originally marked with red, white and blue bands with an 'L' painted on roadside objects such as telephone poles or rocks. In 1920, metal or porcelain signs were installed with same logo, but they were frequently damaged by motorists using them for target practice.

In 1925, the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads eliminated named trails and highways. As a result, the Lincoln Highway became known U.S. Routes 1, 30, 530, 40, and 50. But before the Lincoln Highway Association quit functioning in 1927, it wanted to make sure the highway would be remembered, so the 3,000 cast concrete markers were created and were the last type of signs installed.

The marker in front of Lincoln-Way Central High School sits in front of an informational gazebo, and still bears the distinctive logo, along with a directional arrow, and a bronze Lincoln head medallion.

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According to Holmquist, the medallion and gazebo were added by the Lincoln Highway Coalition, which also created murals along the route to tell the story of the well-known highway.

slafferty@tribpub.com
Brett Chudina, an Oak Forest High School senior and honor roll student, has wanted to be a police officer since kindergarten.

"I'd like people in and around my community to know that when danger comes, I am a person who wants to save them," Chudina said. "I have always been a leader and wanted to watch over others. Being a police officer and being a guardian of my community, I can be a leader and inspire children to grow up and be good people and do great things."

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So when the 17-year-old learned that the Oak Forest Police Department was teaming up with Oak Forest High School to develop the town's first-ever police cadet program, Chudina was ready to join the initiative.

"I heard the new cadet program would let you see what it is like to be a police officer," said Chudina, who completed the application and attended an interview one week later. "The police officers were nice and asked me a lot questions."

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Right after that, Chudina learned he was accepted and became one of eight students in the program, which started in September 2015.

"We have classes and learn about criminal procedures and learn how to be a police officer," Chudina said.

As a cadet, Chudina attends various events on a monthly basis or every two months as they arise.

"We do community service and go on ride-alongs so we get a feel for what it is like being a police officer, and we work in the dispatch call center," he said. "It is a beautiful experience, and I'm loving every minute of it."

In a given week, he will work in the radio room and go on ride-alongs, logging in six to eight hours a week.

"Ride-alongs are in four-hour shifts and then there is classroom time of two hours per session," Chudina said. "For its first year, the program is doing a tremendous job. They are showing us how to work in this field. It is very impressive.

"Police officers get a bad rap, and it is a good way to show that police officers are good people. I think the officers are doing an amazing job," added Chudina, who has also taken criminal law classes at Oak Forest High School.

There, in addition to being a member of the Explorer Program, also known as the Cadet Program, he is a member of the National Honor Society, Ecology Club, Operation Snowball and competes on the lacrosse and swim teams.

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Chudina said his parents, Debra and John Chudina of Oak Forest, are his mentors.

"They instilled in me morals," Chudina said. "They would always tell me to be a nice person, be a good person, don't lie. They would always repeat it.

"As I am progressing in life, it is because of them I am who I am now. They were always so supportive of me and encouraged me to be my best. I always think I am an honor student with good grades and I help out in my community because of my mom and my dad."

Chudina would like to attend Western Illinois University in Macomb next year to major in criminal justice and Spanish.

"I want to become a police officer in Oak Forest, and after that I'd like to become a detective," Chudina said. "Later on, when I'm a seasoned officer, I'd like to apply for the FBI.

"This is something I've wanted to do for a long time. When I see a teenager who is my age and is an honor student get shot and killed, I feel terrible because I want to see that a police officer saved the kid. Police officers are there to keep the community safe. I want to help a life or save a life. In the long run, I'll be doing what I love."

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Cheryl Dangel Bartolini is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
With the scope and penalties of Chinas social credit system being further clarified in 2021, legal and regulatory compliance has become more important than...
Indonesian leading carrier, PT Garuda Indonesia, on Sunday banned passengers from using or charging Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone in all flights following a battery fire incident, an airline official said.

The decision was made after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told passengers not to use the smartphone following a recall of all the products due to a problem on its battery, according to Vice President Corporate Communication Benny S. Butarbutar.

"Garuda Indonesia asks all passengers not to operate mobile phone during flight due to the advisory from the FAA on the use of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phone," he said in a statement.

"Therefore, Garuda Indonesia urges passengers not to turn on or recharge the battery or place the mobile phone in baggage facility," Butarbutar said.

He said the airline will evaluate the call until the FAA issue a new guideline.

On Sept. 2, Samsung Electronics said in Seoul that it has decided to recall all of Galaxy Note 7 smartphones sold worldwide as some of the gadgets were founded faulty in battery.

Koh Dong-jin, head of Samsung's mobile division, told reporters that a total of 35 complaints had been filed with its service centers at home and abroad for the Galaxy Note 7's battery problem as of Sept. 1.
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd on Saturday urged users of its Galaxy Note 7 phones to turn in their handsets as soon as possible as part of a recall aimed at limiting the damage caused by the fire-prone devices.

The world's top smartphone maker said last week it would exchange all Note 7 phones in 10 markets including South Korea and the United States, a costly setback for a company that was counting on the US$892 model to bolster sales momentum as rivals such as Apple Inc launch new devices.

"We are asking users to power down their Galaxy Note 7s and exchange them as soon as possible," said Koh Dong-jin, head of Samsung's smartphone business.

Reports that the phones' batteries have combusted while charging or in normal use prompted the US Consumer Product Safety Commission to stop using the Note 7 device.

Some analysts say the recall could cost Samsung nearly US$5 billion in revenue, after accounting for expenses from the recall process.

Aviation authorities and airlines across the world have also issued bans or guidelines prohibiting passengers from turning on or charging the phone inside planes in response.

For Samsung the scale of the recall is expected to be unprecedented. Some 2.5 million of the premium devices have been sold worldwide, the company has said. "The cost of the recall is going to be astronomical," said the chief executive officer of Real-World Forensic Engineering, Jahan Rasty.

"They have to compensate people, fix the problem and give them a revised version of the product that doesn't have the same manufacturing or design defect. "The longer this story lingers, the more it will etch itself in people's minds," the product liability expert said.

On Thursday, the US Federal Aviation Administration said travelers should not use or charge them while in the air, or stow them in checked luggage. South Korea made similar recommendations on Saturday.
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The profit decline posted by China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) narrowed during the first seven months of the year, official data showed Monday.

Profits fell 6.5 percent year on year to 1.31 trillion yuan (around US$195.8 billion) during the January to July period, according to a statement by the Ministry of Finance.

The pace of decline was slower than the 8.5-percent fall registered in H1.
Government officials, experts and representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from China and South Korea gathered in Beijing on Sept. 10 to share their views and experiences in cutting carbon dioxide emissions in people's daily lives.

"It is a trend that emissions arising from investment-driven development will see a gradual drop, while consumption-based emissions will keep growing," said He Jiankun, vice chairman of National Experts Panel on Climate Change and director of Institute of Low Carbon Economy of Tsinghua University.

He Jiankun, vice chairman of National Experts Panel on Climate Change and director of Institute of Low Carbon Economy of Tsinghua University, addresses the conference to promote carbon emissions reduction in people's daily lives in Beijing, Sept. 10, 2016. [China.org.cn]

He emphasized the need to guide the public to be low-carbon-oriented in their consumption habits and lifestyles, which will "bring changes to their production activities and industrial structure, and hence promote the building of a low-carbon society."

In 2013, China rolled out the first round of pilot projects for low-carbon cities, and trials for trading carbon emissions rights were carried out in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangdong, Hubei and Shenzhen. It pledged last year to launch a nationwide carbon emission trading market in 2017.

Such a trading system mainly targets key industrial sectors, including iron and steel, electricity, chemicals, construction materials, papermaking and nonferrous metal. "It is important to make the market play the decisive role in resource allocation," said He. "We also welcome the use of market tools to encourage the public to reduce emissions in their own way."

Director Choi Min Ji from the South Korean Ministry of Environment echoed He's opinion, adding that her country has been promoting market measures to arouse enthusiasm among its citizens to lead a greener life, including the green credit card scheme and the carbon labeling system.

Director Choi Min Ji from the South Korean Ministry of Environment addresses the conference to promote carbon emissions reduction in people's daily lives in Beijing, Sept. 10, 2016. [China.org.cn]

The green credit card scheme was launched in South Korea in 2011 to encourage consumers to adopt more sustainable lifestyle patterns by providing tangible economic rewards.

"Points are accumulated as rewards for saving on utility use  such as tap water, electricity and gas heating  using public transport or purchasing eco-friendly products," said Choi. "Accumulated points can be used like cash to purchase products and services at a variety of places, such as hotels, restaurants and theaters. Points can also be used to buy eco-friendly products, such as hybrid cars or energy-efficient light bulbs."

Statistics from BC Card show that 13 million green credit cards have been issued in the five years since the launch, accounting for a quarter of the country's total population.

"The number is great and will keep growing. By using such bank cards, our customers can have full participation in energy conservation and environmental protection during their daily life," said Jeon Jihwan, a team leader from BC Card.

Hosted by the South Korean Ministry of Environment and International Ecological Economy Promotion Association (IEEPA), the conference's aim was to promote such successful practices as the green credit card scheme and launch relevant pilot projects in China.

Three South Korean NGOs  Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute, Korea Environment Corporation and Korea Climate & Environment Network  co-organized the conference.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama discussed the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine at their meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in China's Hangzhou, China. [Agencies]

The latest deal between the United States and Russia to "calm" the raging Syrian conflict will have to overcome several hurdles before a semblance of peace is possible in the war-ravaged country.

Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov maneuvered for weeks before agreeing on the details of a proposed ceasefire.

The real task starts now (Sept. 12) when the ceasefire is due to start. At least a full week free of gunfire is needed before the next phase of the agreement begins. A crucial test will be whether the warring parties give proper access for humanitarian aid to besieged people.

The crucial part of the U.S.-Russian understanding is establishment of a joint center to target Islamic State (IS) and the former al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. The two groups are a common concern and a joint front against them is a good beginning to build trust to find a way to end violence.

Ironically, both the big powers have so far kept the conflict alive by supporting camps and following contradictory policies that have indirectly strengthened militants.

The Syrian war is multi-layered. For example, the defeat of terrorist groups through joint efforts might conceivably make the world safer, but it might not bring peace in Syria. This is because the process of neutralizing IS and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the most lethal threats to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, could make him more secure.

This would certainly vindicate Russian position that it was right to support Assad who had been threatened by "terrorists," and show him as still a "popular leader" who can deliver peace, which is not necessarily the case.

This is not a plea in support of militants, but, rather, an effort to highlight the complexity of the situation.

The latest deal creates space for the Syrian armed forces to deal with other rebel groups, supported by the U.S. and some countries in the region. Since Russia and U.S. would take care of the IS in the designated areas, the regime would get enough freedom to teach a lesson to the so-called moderate groups demanding Assad's removal from office and democratization of the country. This, in fact, might well further deepen the conflict.

There are early signs of this targeted aggression as up to 100 people were reportedly killed over the weekend in fresh airstrikes at rebel-held positions even before the start of the ceasefire.

Despite glaring weaknesses, however, the deal creates a window of opportunity for delivering aid to the besieged people in selected areas. However, the provision of essentials will only make marginal difference to the lives of these people, because after the complete destruction of the infrastructure and threat from constantly raining bombs, they need more than just food, water or medicine.

Actually, they need complete peace to rebuild their lives, which is not possible unless the powerful countries stop squabbling over their flimsy interests.

Lack of agreement on a roadmap for a political transition in Syria is a big hurdle. A ceasefire without anything tangible concerning the political future of the country will go nowhere. A similar ceasefire in February failed as the forces and factors pushing the conflict were not tackled.

Nothing has changed since then, except a general perception that Assad has become stronger, and it is a matter of opinion if this situation is good or bad for peace.

The main issue at the heart of the bloody war is undoubtedly his future. Instead of wasting time on arranging truces that may not hold very long, the United States and Russia should seek agreement on the "role" of Assad.

If he is still indispensable for Syria, then why kill more people? Give him full support, tell "moderate rebels" to wait for another day and forge a common front to defeat terrorism.

Conversely, the two big powers should find a consensus replacement and ask Assad to step down for the sake of peace. Or, he should be asked to rule for a transitional period to help organize genuine elections and then honorably hand over power to a successor and retire with a guarantee he won't be bothered.

Those still clinging to their grand ideas about Syria should spare a thought for the common people who are being killed, or herded out of the country like sheep and goats.

Sajjad Malik is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/SajjadMalik.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
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Iran supports the deal between Russia and the United States to bring about a truce in Syria, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency on Sunday.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has always welcomed the establishment of ceasefire in Syria and easier access to the humanitarian aid for the whole people of the country," Qasemi said.

A lasting ceasefire will require a comprehensive mechanism to monitor the situation and control the borders in order to prevent the inflow of new fighters, arms or financial resources into Syria, he said.

In the meantime, the pause in the fighting should not give the terrorist groups the opportunity to replenish forces, he added.

The Iranian spokesman urged the international community to keep fighting against the extremists and terrorist in Syria seriously.

On Sunday, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari said that Tehran welcomes the cease-fire in Syria and the peace plan to stop deterioration of humanitarian situation in Syria, according to official IRNA news agency.

The Islamic republic believes that the Syrian crisis has no military solution and this issue should be resolved through political means, Jaberi Ansari said.

He also stressed that any option for solving Syria's problems should take into consideration the significant role of Syrian nation to determine their own fate.

The United States and Russia early Saturday announced a landmark agreement on a nationwide cease-fire in Syria, which would commence with the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

The week-long truce also includes improving humanitarian aid access and a joint military operation against banned terrorist groups.

According to the truce, all attacks and airstrikes will be stopped and unobstructed access will be allowed to besieged areas, including the northern city of Aleppo.

Iran, a major regional ally of the Syrian government in its fight against militant groups, has repeatedly acknowledged the presence of its military advisers in the Arab state.
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A prominent Afghan police general was killed in a bomb attack in the country's eastern province of Nangarhar on Sunday, a source said.

Brigadier General Zarawar Zahid, police chief of Nangarhar province, was killed following a roadside bomb attack in Hisarak district, Nangarhar on Sunday evening, the source told Xinhua anonymously.

Further details about the attack are still forthcoming amid the absence of official statement.

The late Zahid was monitoring the situation and was inspecting the security checkpoints in front line of battle with the Taliban insurgents in the restive district before came under attack, the source said, adding "details about the incident would be made public later as investigation into the incident is underway."

"Zahid was an outstanding member of Afghan National Police (ANP), he was also a well-known anti-Taliban officer, he had served as police chief of eastern Ghanzi province in the past. His death was a big blow for the ANP, the source added.

The Afghan security forces' casualties have risen recently as they struggle against a surge in attacks by Taliban militant group and other anti-government fighters.

The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since early April when the militant group launched its annual rebel offensive in different areas of the country.

The province with Jalalabad as its capital, 120 km east of Afghan capital of Kabul, is also a known Islamic State (IS) militants stronghold.
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U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Sunday left early a memorial service marking the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks after she felt "overheated", according to a campaign spokesman.

A video posted on Twitter shows Hillary Clinton stumbled and she was being helped by her staff into a waiting van.

According to her campaign, Clinton had a rest in her daughter's apartment in Manhattan. As she went out the apartment shortly before noon, Clinton said, "I'm feeling great."

Clinton's rival, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his supporters have questioned the 68-year-old Clinton's health, saying Clinton is physically unfit for the White House, accusing her of being "exhausted" and sleeping too much.

Last July, Clinton released a letter from her doctor saying she was a healthy female whose health issues were only as bad as hypothyroidism and seasonal allergies.

Doctors also found a blood clot at the time, but the letter says those issues were mostly cleared up after two months of various treatments.
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday that Israel is internationally isolated because it doesn't want to make any progress towards peace.

He made the remarks in a recorded televised speech addressed to the Palestinian people worldwide on the occasion of Eid al-Adha, Muslims' annual religious festival.

Abbas blamed Israel for expanding settlements, violating Palestinian holy sites and carrying out murders.

The Palestinians "manifest peace on the ground" and their position was largely respected by the international community, he said.

Abbas said he has agreed on a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to conduct talks in Moscow upon an official invitation from Russian President Vladimir Putin, following failure of the International Quartet to push forward the peace process.

Palestinians support France's initiative of holding an international peace conference "to discuss the Palestinian cause and establish our state upon a specific and limited timetable," Abbas said.

The last direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke off in April 2014 after it went on for nine months. Sponsored by the United States, the talks failed due to deep differences on settlements, borders and security.

Abbas also stressed in the speech that although the Palestinian High Court ruled to suspend holding the municipal elections in the Palestinian territories, "we are determined to carry on with our democratic process at all levels."
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U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was diagnosed with pneumonia at home after she fell sick during a memorial service marking the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York City on Sunday.

U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks on the last day of the 2016 U.S. Democratic National Convention at Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the United States on July 28, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

Local media quoted physician Lisa Bardack as saying "She was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule. While at this morning's event, she became overheated and dehydrated. I have just examined her and she is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely."

A video posted on Twitter shows the 68-year-old Clinton stumbled and she was being helped by her staff into a waiting van and left the memorial service early.

According to her campaign, Clinton had a rest in her daughter's apartment in Manhattan. As she went out the apartment shortly before noon, Clinton said, "I'm feeling great."

Clinton's rival, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his supporters have questioned Clinton's health, saying Clinton is physically unfit for the White House, accusing her of being "exhausted" and sleeping too much.

Last July, Clinton released a letter from her doctor saying she was a healthy female whose health issues were only as bad as hypothyroidism and seasonal allergies.

Doctors also found a blood clot at the time, but the letter says those issues were mostly cleared up after two months of various treatments.
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Despite all the recreations Chicago provided to its residents and tourists, Chicago Police had a difficult time this summer to cope with increased violence in the city, the third-most populous city in the United State.

According to the newly released data, only in the summer, 69 were shot, six of them fatally at the Memorial Day weekend; 66 were shot, five of them fatally at the Fourth of July weekend; and 65 were shot, 13 of them fatally at the Labor Day weekend.

In the past eight months, Chicago has recorded the bloodiest May in 21 years, the bloodiest July in 10 years, and the bloodiest August in 20 years.

While citing gang conflicts and the proliferation of guns for increased violence in Chicago, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson further deliberated recently that in "impoverished neighborhoods, people without hope do these kinds of thing". He said "it's not a police issue, it's a society issue" .

Chicago Police Department has been doing all it can to combat violence rooted in "impoverished neighborhoods" , Johnson said, pointing to increases in gun arrests this year over the last year.

But he also admitted that the distrust between the police and African-American communities doesn't make it easy for his officers.

The distrust of police in these neighborhoods has to certain extent aggravated the situation.

Development of the distrust is a slow process. But it took a sharp turn in November 2015 when the video of police shooting of Laquan McDonald was released. The video told a different story from what the police gave.

Mass protests ensued across the U.S. afterwards, amplifying the distrust.

The fallout of the distrust is: homicides in Chicago this year have risen to levels not seen since the 1990s. There were 65 homicides in May; 99 in July and 92 in August.

By last Tuesday, the police department statistics put homicides in Chicago so far this year at 488, a 47 percent increase from 331 in the same period of last year and exceeding the 481 figure for the entire year of 2015.

It is notable that the homicide data collected by Chicago Tribune are higher than that provided by Chicago Police Department as the police excludes killings on expressways and those that are considered justifiable homicides, Chicago Tribune reported.

In contrast, Chicago Tribune' s Chicago homicides data hit 512 for this year by last Tuesday, as against 490 in the whole year of 2015.

Chicago is now on the path to 600 homicides for 2016, a threshold it has not reached since 2003. Chicago regularly recorded more than 700 murders a year in the 1990s as a result of gang violence.

Another fallout of the distrust is low clearance rate of homicides in Chicago, being about 30 percent at present. But if old cases are excluded, Chicago's clearance rate for 2016 homicides sharply drops to about 21 percent. Chicago police had solved just 92 of 432 homicides committed in 2016 by August 16, police statistics show.

A "reason for low clearance in gang killings are people just don' t trust the police," Chicago Tribune quoted Thomas Alexander, professor of University of Maryland as saying. Victims of crime would rather retaliate themselves than going with information to the police.

The fact is: in some impoverished neighborhoods in south and west sides of Chicago, residents see the police as adversaries rather than protectors.

Chicago is notorious for shooting that happens every day. And data show that the situation has gotten worse since this year, with shooting approaching 3,000 for the year. Increasing residents having the intention of moving out of the city.
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African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM) backed by local forces on Sunday arrested two Al-Shabaab bomb experts in southern region amid heightened security ahead of a regional summit to be held on Tuesday.

The pan African body said the two bomb experts were arrested during security operations in Lower Juba, outside the southern port city of Kismayo.

"The determination of Somalia National Army and AMISOM to rid Somalia of Al-Shabaab is an assurance to the people that they will continue to enjoy peace and security," AMISOM said in a brief statement issued on Sunday.

The militant group did not comment on the latest operations by the AU and SNA forces which come ahead of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development summit to be held in Mogadishu.

Heavy security is underway across the Horn of Africa nation especially in Mogadishu to enhance the security, seal all loopholes and make sure the significant summit takes place successfully.
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Roadside bombs killed four women and a female child fleeing a besieged town in Iraq's northern province of Kirkuk Sunday, a security source said.

The female civilians were headed to the neighboring northern central province of Salahudin, according to the same source.

The first blast killed three women in the mountainous area of Himreen along the border between the two provinces, when the bomb planted by Islamic State (IS) militants detonated near them, a source from Salahudin Operations Command told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In a separate incident, another woman and her female child were killed in a roadside blast in the same mountainous area, the source added.

Iraq has witnessed increased violence since the IS group took control of parts of its northern and western regions, including Mosul, in June 2014, 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

Terrorist acts, violence and armed conflicts killed 691 Iraqis and wounded 1,016 others in August throughout Iraq, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq said earlier.

Many blame the current chronic instability, cycles of violence, and the emergence of extremist groups, such as the IS, on the United States due to its invasion and occupation of Iraq in March 2003.
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South Korea's military said on Monday that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is ready to conduct another nuclear test following its fifth nuclear detonation.

Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-kyun told a press briefing that intelligence authorities of South Korea and the United States are assessing the DPRK is "always ready" to carry out additional nuclear test in its main Punggye-ri nuclear test site.

His comments followed the DPRK's announcement on Friday that it successfully staged an explosion test of a nuclear warhead that can be mounted on ballistic missiles "at will."

The warning of additional test is based on three tunnels excavated at Punggye-ri in northeastern DPRK, near which all of its underground nuclear tests were conducted.

"If the DPRK conducts additional nuclear test, it would be possible to happen both from a branch of the second tunnel or the third tunnel where all preparations are already done," said Moon.

All of Pyongyang's nuclear device tests happened in Punggye-ri. The first test was conducted in the first tunnel, while the second, the third and the fourth detonations came from the second tunnel.

The site of the fifth nuclear test is some 500 meters away from where the fourth test was conducted, according to Yonhap news agency report citing unnamed government sources.

Pyongyang reportedly completed all preparations for a nuclear test at the third tunnel, where any atomic device test hasn't occurred yet.
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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Monday expressed concern over a bill adopted by the U.S. Congress that would allow 9/11 victims' families to sue the government of Saudi Arabia.

The legislation "represents a clear violation given its negative repercussions and dangerous precedents," state news agency WAM quoted UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan as saying in Abu Dhabi.

The minister said that the bill, adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives last Friday, months after the Senate approved the measure in May, was "not equal" with the foundations and principles of relations among states.

The bill, which would allow families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks to take legal actions against Saudi Arabia, a UAE neighbor and close political ally, is contrary to general liability rules and the principle of sovereignty enjoyed by states, the minister said.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers involved in the terror attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, outside Washington and in Pennsylvania, were Saudi nationals.

The government of Saudi Arabia, a major U.S. ally, has denied responsibility and expressed strong objections to the legislation.

Al-Nahyan, the top UAE diplomat, expressed the hope that the U.S. law would not be implemented, taking into consideration its "serious consequences."

The White House has said that President Barak Obama would veto the bill, arguing that the legislation could harm Washington's relationship with Saudi Arabia and put U.S. officials stationed overseas in jeopardy.
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China and Japan will hold the fifth round of high-level talks on maritime affairs Wednesday through Thursday, a foreign ministry spokesperson said Monday.

The talks, to be held in Hiroshima, Japan, will see officials from both countries in foreign affairs, defense, maritime law and marine management.

"The Chinese side hopes to exchange views on sea-related issues of common concern and enhance mutual trust with the Japanese side," spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a press briefing.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida discussed Monday in a telephone conversation the recent nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Russia stressed the need for faithful implementation of the U.N. Security Council resolutions, and the importance of "political and diplomatic settlement of the situation within the context of the overall military and political detente in Northeast Asia," the ministry said in a statement.

The DPRK's state-run television reported early Friday that the country had conducted a nuclear warhead explosion test. It was Pyongyang's fifth nuclear test, which followed the previous one by eight months.

The Russian Foreign Ministry reacted on Friday with a statement strongly condemning the test and confirming Moscow's readiness for a "very tight coordination of steps aiming to elaborate an international response to Pyongyang's provocative actions."
ch-aviation | Sep. 12, 2016

China Airlines (CI, Taipei Taoyuan) chairman Ho Nuan-hsuan says a decision concerning the future of the carrier's Tigerair Taiwan (IT, Taipei Taoyuan) unit will be made by the end of this year.

Speaking to the Central News Agency, Ho said China Airlines may be forced to withdraw from the LCC should its bottom line fail to improve. He also noted that talks over a revised partnership plan with Tigerair (TR, Singapore Changi), which owns 10% of Tigerair Taiwan, would have to be negotiated.

He said that China Airlines is unhappy with the current joint-venture agreement given that the Singaporeans, despite owning just 10% of the carrier, have one board seat which gives them the power to veto major decisions.

Tigerair Taiwan's constitution also requires at least four of the five board members to be present to consider a decision while all five must agree in full for any decision to be passed.

Chairman Ho, who has been in his position since June, said he could not understand how such an "unreasonable" arrangement had been agreed to in the first place. He added that he would undertake a full review of all contracts as part of his tenure.

As with rival V air (ZV, Taipei Taoyuan), Ho said Tigerair Taiwan had racked up losses of NT$1.2 billion (US$38 million) in the two years it had been operational.

Related News:

V Air to End Operations from October 1
BEIJING - Vice-Premier Ma Kai on Friday called for more to be done to promote supply-side reform as a tool to move the manufacturing sector up the value chain.

Although solid progress has been made over the past three decades, challenges remain for the sector, such as overcapacity and a shortage of high-end products, Ma said at a forum.

He called for efforts to propel supply-side reform and the efficient implementation of the "Made in China 2025" initiative to upgrade the manufacturing industry.

Authorities at all levels should try hard to eliminate overcapacity and enhance innovation in all areas, Ma said.

He said the future was in the integration of manufacturing and the Internet, and measures that would help establish modern corporate systems and a salary distribution system.

Ma also called for a more friendly business environment to better protect intellectual property rights and help ensure orderly market competition.
Two women admire a gold bracelet at a jewelry shop in Suzhou, Jiangsu province. [Photo/China Daily]

When 52-year-old Ma Aiju invested 100,000 yuan ($15,150) in gold futures online in late August, her hands trembled while tapping the laptop's keyboard to enter her details.

Until that point, gold bars and jewelry were the preferred investment option for the Shanghai-based Ma. She had invested bigger sums in the past; but, somehow, futures was a new frontier and appeared "scary".

"I don't see one bit of gold (in futures), and money flows in and out, and when you look at the price index's surges and dives, your heartbeats accelerate and you can't sleep well," she said, laughing, resting her palms on her heart.

Investors such as Ma are diversifying their portfolios. Gold is in. Yields from such investment channels appear stable relatively.

"If you sub-categorize gold investments, you'll see physical gold, gold futures and gold-backed (exchange-traded) funds. They all produce different results," said Ma.

Analysts said investors now have more gold-related investment channels than ever.

According to Thomas Huang, deputy CEO with Harvest Wealth Management Co Ltd, investors can choose from at least three ways. To wit, gold futures, stocks of gold-related companies such as miners and processors, and gold-backed ETFs. These are besides the option of buying physical gold.

While physical gold yields profits only if its price rises, the gold futures market enables investors book profits from shorting, giving more flexibility.

Also, fluctuations in prices of shares of gold miners, processors and jewelry retailers may be wider than that of physical gold because more factors are at play, like investor sentiment, government policy, company performance and speculation, Huang said.

Investors are slowly learning to appreciate the nuances underlying the pricing rationale behind various types of gold investments.

"For gold jewelry, the costs of material, processing, branding and marketing are considered. For gold bars and coins, you need to take the cost of delivery and storage into consideration. As for ETFs and gold futures, prices can be more volatile as more factors affect the market," said Wang Bowen, 41, an investor in Shanghai who has been investing mainly in gold-backed ETFs.

Yields from these channels may vary and investors need to have clarity about their investment goals and risk tolerance, said researchers.

According to Wu Hao, a researcher with Guotai and Junan Securities Co Ltd, investors need to test their own risk tolerance and gain clarity about investment goals before making decisions.

"For example, margin trading in gold futures could be quite risky. If risk tolerance is not quite high, then investors should put only a small amount of money into this category and more in ETFs and paper gold," said Wu.
Tourists at the Infinity Pool on Marina Bay Sands' skypark in Singapore. [Photo/Agencies]

An influx of tourists to Singapore this year has brought little joy to the city's hoteliers, as a glut of rooms sends a key revenue measure to a six-year low.

Revenue per available room, a metric used by the hotel industry, slumped 7.4 percent in June to S$179.40 ($132) a night, the lowest since 2010, according to data from the Singapore Tourism Board. Even as tourist arrivals have risen each month this year, room rates have fallen because of shorter trips by visitors and a 5 percent increase in the number of hotel rooms.

There's no relief in sight. Of the 2,866 hotel rooms slated for addition this year, about two-thirds were expected to open in the second half, according to UOB Kay Hian. Marriott International Inc and the owner of the Holiday Inn Express chain are among operators that have planned new hotels in Singapore this year or already opened them.

"The high supply of new hotel rooms will be a headwind for room rates," Macquarie Group analysts Ken Ang and Tuck Yin Soong said in a note to clients. "While visitor arrivals have increased, average length of stay is falling, including from a higher proportion of day visitors," said the analysts, who have a negative rating on hotel stocks.

Chinese visitors, the largest group of tourists to Singapore, posted a 53 percent increase in June from a year earlier, the tourism board data showed. However, many price-conscious tourists are stopping over before crossing into Johor Bahru in Malaysia, which is about a 30-minute drive from the city center, according to Derek Chang, an analyst at UOB Kay Hian in Singapore.

"Chinese tourists are coming in from secondary cities in China and they are more budget-conscious," Chang said.

A pullback by Chinese visitors has also hurt hotels in Hong Kong. Average room rates in Hong Kong were down 9.2 percent to HK$1,337 ($172) last year, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board. In Tokyo, a popular destination for Chinese tourists but which has a shortage of hotels, average daily room rates last year rose 9.4 percent to 18,225 yen ($176), data from Savills showed.

The glut of rooms is hurting Singapore hotel operators. Shares of Hotel Properties Ltd, which owns the Four Seasons, Hilton and Concorde hotels in Singapore, have fallen 10 percent this year, compared to a 1.1-percent drop in the benchmark Straits Times Index. Global Premium Hotels Ltd, which runs a chain of budget hotels, has dropped 12 percent.

An outbreak of the Zika virus may further dissuade tourists. More than 240 cases of the mosquito-borne virus have been detected since the city's first case was identified last month.

When Singapore was hit by SARS in 2003, visitor arrivals plunged 70 percent in the first three months of the pandemic, sending hotel occupancy plunging more than 40 percent, UOB Kay Hian said.

Bloomberg
TCL Multimedia to expand Chengdu TV plant capacity, grow European sales; also plans Russian factory

TCL Corp, the Huizhou, Guangdong-based and Shenzhen-listed company, will expand the annual production capacity of its factory in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, by 800,000 TV sets by the end of 2017, to exploit a new opportunity presented by a Eurasian railway service.

The Chengdu plant's current annual capacity is 2 million TVs, which are sold mostly in northwestern and southwestern China.

The planned capacity expansion would make it TCL's second-largest plant after the facility in Huizhou.

"We will make Chengdu our major manufacturing base for TVs sold in Europe," said Liang Tiemin, vice-president of TCL Multimedia Technology Holdings Ltd, a Hong Kong-listed subsidiary with focus on manufacturing and distribution of TVs.

So, the new components to be made in Chengdu will be transported by train to the company's plant in Zyrardow, 45 kilometers southwest of Warsaw, Poland's capital.

There, they will be assembled into TVs and sold in Europe, said Liang.

The Zyrardow factory is one of TCL's major plants in Europe. It is also the biggest factory set up in Poland by a Chinese company, with an annual capacity of 2.2 million TV sets.

It can ship products to major European cities in just one day and far-flung areas in under four days.

Liang said TCL Multimedia restructured its production to exploit the 9,800-km nonstop Chengdu-Lodz cargo route of China Railway Express, which opened in April 2013.

The line runs through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus before reaching a terminal with cargo unloading facilities in Poland.

Since January, 99 percent of the components of TVs sold in Europe were made in Huizhou and Chengdu and transported on the Chengdu CR Express, said Tomasz Olender, deputy general manager of TCL Operations Polska, the company's unit in Poland.

In the past, Olender recalled, TCL exported such components to Europe by sea, which used to take more than six weeks. Now, the Chengdu CR Express takes less than two weeks.

"This makes us more competitive, because our customers in Europe want to receive our products very fast," he said.

Liang said the company had considered shipping TV components to Europe by rail 10 years ago. But the effort did not bear fruit for want of adequate government support.

Now, however, the Belt and Road Initiative and the launch of the Chengdu CR Express have helped the company realize its dream as well as boost its business in Europe.

TCL is nursing ambitious plans for the European market, he said.

According to the Chengdu Port and Logistics Office, Chengdu is planning to launch an express goods rail line to Russia by the end of this year.

Liang said the company would build a new factory in Russia if the Chengdu CR Express is given the benefit of a cargo terminal close to Moscow.

For, TCL already has a factory in Kaliningrad, from where products take four days to reach Moscow.

TCL is also considering to sell more air conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines to Europe by making their components in Chengdu and transporting them on rail to Poland for assembly, Liang said.

He said railway is generally more expensive than sea for shipping cargo, but with the subsidy offered by the Chengdu government, it costs less now.
Anthoni Salim, chief executive officer of PT Indofood CBP Sukses Makmur Tbk. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A company controlled by Indonesian billionaire Anthoni Salim offered to acquire the rest of China Minzhong Food Corp in a deal valuing the Chinese company at S$786 million ($584 million).

The deal could help the tycoon exercise greater control over a food empire spanning potato chips, instant noodles and cooking oil. Full ownership of Minzhong Food could also make it easier to sell it off.

Marvellous Glory Holdings Ltd offered S$1.20 in cash for each share in Minzhong Food, according to a filing in Singapore, where Minzhong Food is listed.

That's 25 percent more than the stock's last closing price. Investors can choose an alternative in the form of cash and exchangeable bonds under terms in the offer. Shares of the Chinese vegetable-processing company jumped 17 percent to S$1.12 in Singapore on Wednesday.

The deal makes sense for Minzhong Food's largest shareholder, Salim's Indofood Sukses Makmur, according to Syaiful Adrian, an analyst at Ciptadana Sekuritas. A buyout would allow Minzhong Food, which reported a third decline in annual profit for the year ended June 30, to be removed from Indofood's books.

"Minzhong Food has been weighing on Indofood," Adrian said by telephone from Jakarta. "Indofood could also use the proceeds from the (possible) sale (of Minzhong Food) to repay some of its foreign-currency debts and reduce the exchange-rate risk on the company."

Indofood had total foreign-currency debt of about $1.1 billion as of June, or about half of its 28.6 trillion rupiah ($2.2 billion) in liabilities, according to the company's financial report.

Minzhong Food will be delisted if the Marvellous/Indofood offer goes through, according to the document.

Salim has a net worth of $3.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His First Pacific Co, through Jakarta-listed Indofood, owns 82.88 percent of Minzhong Food. Salim has a combined direct and indirect interest of about 45.11% in Hong Kong-listed First Pacific, the filing dated Sept 6 showed.

The offer requires preconditions to be met, including approval from independent shareholders of Indofood and First Pacific for the Jakarta-based company to sell its stake in Minzhong Food. Salim will be required to abstain from voting on the resolution, according to the document.

The offer is also contingent on the acquirer gaining acceptances for shares carrying more than 50 percent of voting rights, the document showed.

Minzhong Food said the proposal would allow "greater control and management flexibility" in implementing "strategic initiatives," according to the filing.

A takeout of Minzhong Food would add to more than a dozen delistings announced in Singapore with a combined market value of S$4.5 billion in the first half of 2016 alone, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

"Valuations have been beaten down so there is a lot of incentive to take them private," said Jeremy Teong, an analyst at Phillip Securities in Singapore.

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An employee of a robot manufacturer in Xianghe county, Hebei province, calibrates the robots. [Photo/Xinhua]

Exports are down in terms of absolute numbers, but China is eating up a larger chunk of the world's shrinking trade pie.

Brushing off rising wages, a shrinking workforce and intensifying competition from lower cost nations from Vietnam to Mexico, China's global export share climbed to 14.6 percent last year from 12.9 percent a year earlier. That's the highest proportion of world exports ever in International Monetary Fund data going back to 1980.

Yet even as its export share climbs globally, manufacturing's slice of China's economy is waning as services and consumption emerge as the new growth drivers. For the global economy, a slide in China's exports this year isn't proving any respite as an even sharper slump in its imports erodes a pillar of demand.

Those trends were replicated in August data that was released on Thursday. In dollar terms, China's exports fell 2.8 percent from a year earlier but imports rose 1.5 percent, leaving a monthly trade surplus of $52.1 billion.

While China's advantage in low-end manufacturing has been seized upon by Donald Trump's populist campaign for the US presidency, the shift into higher value-added products from robots to computers is also pitting China against developed-market competitors from South Korea to Germany. A weaker yuan risks exacerbating global trade tensions, which became a hot-button issue at the G20 meeting in Hangzhou over cheap steel shipments.

"All the talk we have heard over the last few years about China losing its global competitive advantage is nonsense," said Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital Investors in Sydney. "This will all further fuel increasing trade tensions as already evident in the UK with the Brexit vote and in the US with the support for Trump's populist protectionist platform."

China is also facing opposition to its global shopping spree and calls from bodies such as the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China for improved market access.

A key driver of China's export share gains is its move toward more sophisticated assembly, especially in electronics, which eliminates the need to source components from a vast supply chain across Asia, said Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economic research at HSBC Holdings Plc in Hong Kong. That's hurting companies and economies from Singapore to Thailand, Malaysia, China's Taiwan and South Korea, said Neumann.

China is subsidizing higher technology industries including new advanced information technology, robotics, and new energy vehicles under the "Made in China 2025" plan. More is to come as President Xi Jinping's blueprint envisions global competitiveness within a decade in 10 industries from machine tools and robots to advanced railway equipment and medical devices.

China increasingly is turning into an economic competitor as it pushes to produce higher-value exports, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel on a trip to the nation in June. Those words from the leader of China's fifth biggest trade partner pale in comparison with the rhetoric from Trump.

"Political support for open trade and investment is evaporating globally," said David Loevinger, a former China specialist at the US Treasury who is now an analyst at fund manager TCW Group Inc in Los Angeles.

Bloomberg
China's efforts to tame financial-sector risks have slowed the overall growth in banks' shadow loans, though some of the country's mid-sized lenders are still pushing rapidly into the sector, according to an analysis of their latest filings.

So-called investment receivables, or "debt securities classified as receivables", at 25 listed Chinese banks grew to 11 trillion yuan ($1.6 trillion) as of June 30, from 9.7 trillion yuan at the end of December, according to first-half earnings statements released so far. That category provides the best insight into their shadow-banking exposure.

The continued growth suggests a limited impact from regulations introduced in April by the China Banking Regulatory Commission to curb the shadow-lending industry.

Banks issued a record 26.3 trillion yuan of wealth-management products to individuals, companies and other lenders as of June 30, China Banking Wealth Management Registration System data showed on Aug 31, underscoring the urgency of the regulator's attempt to reduce risks in an increasingly leveraged financial system.

Other than wealth-management products, the investment-receivables category in banks' statements includes asset-management plans and trust-beneficiary rights, all of which can be used by lenders to disguise what are in effect loans. The intermediary structures offer a way to get around regulatory curbs on lending to riskier borrowers - such as industries with overcapacity - by keeping the loans off their books.

The quasi-loan nature of some products has the added advantage of reducing the banks' need to set aside capital and provisions for loan losses.

Five out of the eight publicly traded mid-sized lenders saw increases in their investment receivables during the second quarter of 2016, according to their filings. Mid-sized Chinese banks have been some of the most aggressive shadow-banking lenders.

Despite the gains in outstanding investment receivables, the overall rate of growth at the eight mid-sized banks has slowed. The receivables increased only 6 percent in the second quarter, well below the 26 percent rate in the same period a year earlier.

Among all listed banks that have reported first-half results, the fastest growth in investment receivables was seen at mid-sized lender Huaxia Bank Co, where the category grew 124 percent. Next was China Minsheng Banking Corp, where the receivables rose 77 percent, followed by Huishang Bank Corp, with a 56 percent increase.

Among the banks that disclose the breakdown of investment receivables, the one with the largest exposure - Shanghai Pudong Development Bank - said 88 percent of those assets were trusts and asset management plans, with WMPs the next-largest category.

Bloomberg
Investors surf the internet at a brokerage in Beijing. [Photo/China Daily]

Software developers tap AI to scan, analyze posts on Shanghai, Shenzhen shares

More than 125 million Chinese use their Sina Weibo accounts every day to gossip about celebrities, find hip restaurants and stay in touch with family. They also talk about stocks, and that has entrepreneurs listening.

At least a dozen developers are introducing products that use artificial intelligence to scour social-media posts in China for comments about shares on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges. The software searches for keywords and then distills its findings into summaries of whether investors are positive or negative about particular companies.

Individuals comprise the majority of investors in China's $6.4-trillion stock market, and institutional traders want tools to find out which ways the retail crowd are leaning before making their own decisions.

Programs such as Market Mood, FinSentS and WiseEnterprise that analyze internet forums are part of the $1.2 billion spent annually by financial-services firms on market-data feeds, according to consulting firm Greenwich Associates.

"If you see the Chinese stock market, people just react to any news flow coming from WeChat, Weibo or any type of social media," said Kevin Leung, director for global investment strategy at Haitong International Securities Group Ltd in Hong Kong. "There is definitely an impact on stocks."

The programs also help investors follow company-generated posts on Weibo, the most popular of China's Twitter-like microblogging platforms. Twitter and Facebook are not available in China, giving rise to local counterparts from Weibo Corp and Tencent Holdings Ltd, operator of WeChat.

Other Chinese social-media networks being scraped include Minkabu Inc's Caiku and East Money, which host blogs about stock trading. The Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges have a combined 111 million investor accounts, according to China Securities Depository and Clearing Corp data. There are about 80 billion social-media posts a year on China's internet.

China Market Mood was developed by Berkeley, California-based startup Pluribus Labs LLC, which already offers a "sentiment analytics" product in the US. The Chinese version will be released this month, and the company plans to open an office in the region by year-end, Chief Executive Officer Frank Freitas said.

"The Chinese market is increasingly a bellwether for moves in other markets, not just in the Asian region but in other regions," Freitas said. "Given the high degree of retail-investor involvement in this market, maintaining a timely understanding of the tenor of these participants can provide valuable insights."

Weibo, which counts Sina Corp and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd as shareholders, had an average of 126 million daily active users in June - a 36 percent increase from a year earlier, according to a company statement.

The companies interviewed for this story declined to comment on their revenue from market sentiment products and how much they have spent on their development.

The efforts to scan Chinese investor sentiment comes amid a downturn in the mainland's markets. The benchmark Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index has fallen 13 percent this year after a 9.4 percent gain in 2015.

Market Mood uses a proprietary dictionary compiled through machine learning to search posts for words such as bullish, bearish, gap and rip, Freitas said. The program also scans for pairs of words that denote positive or negative values.

The software compiles what Freitas calls a sentiment score. That number is tallied for specific periods of time to meet the requests of clients, who may want to target certain industries.

News sentiment analysis, including that provided by Bloomberg LP, Thomson Reuters Corp and other news and data providers, is being increasingly used by investors.

Freitas has worked in the financial services industry for 25 years, including as chief operating officer for Instinet LLC. He helped start Pluribus Labs in 2014.

InfoTrie Financial Solutions Pte Ltd uses its Financial News and Sentiment Screener, or FinSentS, to scan more than 1,000 blogs and news sources.

Bloomberg
Zhang Xiaogang, president of International Organization for Standardization. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Chinese enterprises should make more efforts to participate in international cooperation in standards to promote their overseas development, said Zhang Xiaogang, president of International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

"Chinese enterprises should pay more importance to international standards and increase awareness in participating in international standardization affairs," Zhang said in an exclusive interview with China Daily ahead of the 39th ISO General Assembly. "They should increase their familiarity of the rules on the formulation of international standards."

The 39th ISO General Assembly will open on Monday in Beijing, and delegates from all of the ISO's 163 members are expected to attend the meeting. This is the second time that the general assembly of the world's biggest organization for standardization has been held in China.

"The meeting will expedite China's participation in international standardization affairs, and play a role beyond measure in facilitating integration between China and the international community in economy, trade, science and technology, and other fields," Zhang said. "It will also greatly contribute to China's economic upgrade."

The technical standards, such as those for measurements and units, and industrial standards issued by the ISO have been widely adopted and have had far-reaching influence in global technological and economic development, Zhang said.

Participation into international standardization can help enterprises to master international rules, familiarize themselves with the latest technological development, increase their competitiveness and brings them economic benefits, he said.

China has made remarkable progress in international standardization in recent years. China led in the formulation of 182 international standards between 2001 and 2015. The figure was 13 between 1947, when the ISO was founded, and 2000, Zhang said.

Despite this progress, China still lags far behind developed countries in international standardization. Around 95 percent of international standards are made led by Western countries, he said. Only 0.7 percent of international standards were led by China, and these standards are mainly limited to industries in which China enjoys traditional advantages, such as fireworks, he said.

To reduce the gap, China needs intensified participation in the formulation of international standards, and the government should consider national plans for internationalization of Chinese standards, he said.

Meanwhile, the government should foster an incentive mechanism to encourage enterprises to cooperate with standardization research institutes to promote advantageous technical standards held by enterprises to become international standards, Zhang said.

In addition, enterprises should make more efforts to cultivate employees who excel in foreign languages, master certain fields of technology, and are familiar with the rules of international standards formulation, to improve international cooperation and exchanges in standardization, he said.

Meng Yongye, deputy director of the Center for International Language Service and Management, at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, said with more Chinese enterprises investing overseas, more Chinese technologies will also go overseas, and they should aim to internationalize their standards if they want to become world-class enterprises.

Less than 5 percent of Chinese standards have English versions, far below countries such as Japan and Germany.

China will take a series of measures to encourage internationalization of Chinese standards, such as encouraging enterprises and experts in the formulation and revision of international standards, and carry out mutual recognition of standards with China's major trade partners, Tian Shihong, director of China's Standardization Administration, said at a news conference in August.
Saturday's opening of a new high-speed railway connecting two major existing lines in China is expected to benefit thousands of travelers across the country.

The new east-west line links Zhengzhou, Henan province, with Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, at roughly the midpoint of the two north-south lines - the Beijing-Guangzhou railway and the Beijing-Shanghai railway.

Zhu Xinhua, a frequent rail traveler, was one of the first passengers to experience the new line. And he was thrilled.

"I can be home in four hours instead of about 10 hours," the 48-year-old said.

The native of Chaohu, Anhui province, is employed by a software company in Zhengzhou and travels between home and work every week.

"In the past, I usually took an overnight trip when commuting between home and work. The train is slow and old, and it sways a lot. But from now on, I have a more convenient and comfortable choice," Zhu said, adding that the new carriages are so stable he can even work on the train.

"The environment on the high-speed train is better than the previous one, including electronics chargers on board and more comfortable seats," he added.

Zhu's youngest daughter is 18 months old. The faster train reduces travel time, so he gets more time to visit. It is also more convenient for another daughter to visit her father.

"I traveled to Zhengzhou to visit my father at work some years ago when I was in high school," said Zhu Liyi, 24, the eldest daughter. "It was an overnight train. I can definitely visit him more often since the faster train opened."

Another beneficiary of the new railway is Chen Fengzhen. She and her husband, Zhang Yanxi, who are in their 70s, left their hometown in Henan province when they were in their 20s. They now live in Fujian province.

"When I first left Henan and took the train to Fujian, it took me three days and nights. It takes about eight hours now," Chen said.

The new railway is a part of railway between Henan and Fujian.

"My sister still lives in Henan, and as I am getting older, I would like to visit my hometown more," she said. "With the opening of the new railway it will be much more convenient."
After more than half a year trying, Song Ziming, 25, finally managed to buy an apartment in Hefei, Anhui province, about 300 kilometers from Shanghai.

"It was just so hard," Song said.

Originally from Huaibei, Song was recruited by a Hefei-based company in 2014 after he graduated from college.

"In the second half of last year, I fell in love with a Hefei girl, and I prepared to buy an apartment in the city," Song said, joking that he regrets he had not fallen in love earlier.

He had scarcely any savings, but his parents offered 200,000 yuan ($30,000) for the down payment. First-time buyers are required to pay at least 25 percent of the purchase price up front.

"I used to think a total of 800,000 yuan would be enough to buy a 100-square-meter apartment in the downtown area," said Song, who found out differently after inquiring with dozens of developers.

"The answers were incredibly the same: They don't have any apartments left, and new apartment buildings have not launched yet," he said.

His girlfriend, Zhu Linlin, added: "Sometimes the sales managers asked how much money we had, and we pretended to have enough money. Then the prices just scared us off."

Since the beginning of this year, housing prices in Hefei have been skyrocketing. According to data released by the China Index Academy, the average housing price there climbed to 9,968 yuan per square meter as of the end of August, from 7,577 yuan per square meter in the same period last year.

Having tried and failed, the couple had to give up on the downtown area. They learned in July that there would be a large community in the city's rural Feixi county, which lies near Hefei's outer suburbs.

"It was almost our last chance," said Song, who registered his information with the developer.

On Friday, as the couple were visiting Song's parents in Huaibei city, Song got a call informing him that the developer would launch about 500 apartments in a few hours. He had to ask his girlfriend's brother, who was in Hefei, for help.

Good news came early the next day.

"My brother succeeded in grabbing an 89-square-meter apartment, priced at 670,000 yuan," Zhu said. Her brother paid 50,000 yuan on site to reserve the apartment.

Song showed some photos taken by Zhu's brother and described them this way: "Hundreds of panicky people were lining up in front of the sales center, like starving beggars waiting for free food."
BEIJING - China's steel industry improved its profitability in the first seven months, due to rising steel prices, an industry insider said Saturday.

Although sales revenues of 373 steel companies fell 11.91 percent to 1.5 trillion yuan ($225 billion) during the period, their profits hit 16.3 billion yuan, Zhao Pei, secretary general of the Chinese Society for Metals, said at a forum.

However, market demand remained tepid, with steel consumption falling 3.6 percent year on year in July, Zhao said.

The old growth model of the steel industry cannot continue because of the slowing economy and lingering overcapacity, he said, while calling for the sector's transformation and upgrading.

As of July, China had achieved 47 percent of its target to cut steel capacity by 45 million tons this year.
NANNING - Alibaba will boost investment and development in ASEAN, according to founder and chairman Jack Ma on Sunday.

The e-commerce giant will "participate in the development of local small- and medium-sized enterprises and young people," said Ma at the opening ceremony of the 13th China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning, which runs from Sunday to Wednesday.

He did not, however, elaborate or share any specific plans.

China-ASEAN trade has exploded, it is now 58 times larger than when the two sides established dialogue relations 25 years ago, which translates into great business opportunities and social development, according to Ma.

If hundreds of millions of young people and small businesses participate in globalization, the world economy and trade will be changed in a greater way, he said, adding that the Belt and Road Initiative is the start of inclusive globalization.
A total of 345 Volkswagen luxury Phaetons drove into the spotlight when they provided an exclusive premium mobility service to the government heads and senior delegations at the G20 Leaders Summit, which wrapped up last week in Hangzhou.

Volkswagen Import and Zhejiang Zetastone Financial Leasing Co Ltd brought a unique sense of class to the grand gathering through the Phaeton fleets handed over to the Hangzhou government as the official core limousine.

The company saw Phaeton's designation as the official core limousine for the G20 Summit as a recognition of the car's incredible achievements in the industry. The luxury saloon has lived up to this honor by serving summit leaders from around the world with the utmost quality and esteem. The Volkswagen Import Phaeton enjoys enormous popularity in the market, based on its sophisticated yet understated and classic appearance.

The heads' and leaders' ultimate safety is secured in the luxury car, which adopts class-leading dual safety standards. The dual storage battery, dual fuel tank and dual oil pump are installed as standard in every Phaeton for passengers' safety in extreme conditions. A multiple protection design philosophy ensures that the driver can easily handle all difficult situations.

As for active and passive safety, the Phaeton is equipped with a high torsional rigidity frame, electrostatic precipitator, Anti Slip Regulation, Traction Control System and eight airbags. The 4Motion All-Wheel Drive system has a mechanical Torsen differential as the main body. It guarantees the Phaeton's easy cornering at every bend and smooth driving even in bad weather, despite the longer than five-meter body and more than three-meter wheelbase.

The summit participants could have quiet conversations in the hand-built, large-size Phaeton whizzing as fast as 300 km/h, as the dual-layered, glued and wired glass ensures interior tranquility, and the less than one mm metal sheet margin between the trunk and its lid is crafted for vibration-free stability.

Each delegation could adjust the air conditioning for his or her individual zone to achieve the desired temperature. The car is equipped with a four-zone Climatronic, independently adjustable air conditioner, which supplies air gently and finely circulates interior air.

The Phaeton also features a Dynaudio Temptation audio system. When this audio system was first designed, Dynaudio engineers tuned the position, direction and frequency of the speakers based on the different acoustic reflection properties of glass, leather and plastics, ensuring a perfect match in atmosphere between the audio system and the interior.
A photographer takes a picture of Mitsubishi Motors' logo during a news conference of its chairman and CEO Osamu Masuko at its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, August 2, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

Mitsubishi Motors Corp, which has been raided three times by Japan's transport ministry over its decades-long fuel economy scandal, could be searched again by the regulator, because a planned rescue by Nissan Motor Co has fallen behind schedule.

The ministry may raid Mitsubishi Motors' offices a fourth time if the evidence collected during its latest inspection does not fully detail the scope of Mitsubishi Motors' misdeeds, said Yuki Ebihara, an official within the regulator's recall division. Another search may also be warranted if the ministry's findings point to bigger problems, he said.

"You can't deny the company has a culture that's prone to malpractice," Ebihara said in a phone interview. "Compared with other makers, we have to take a closer look."

Yuki Murata, a Mitsubishi Motors spokesman, said the company regrets that its scandal has led to distrust and will cooperate with the ministry's investigation.

The possibility of another raid underscores how Mitsubishi Motors has struggled to move past a scandal that emerged four months ago, when it admitted to improperly measuring fuel economy and manipulating testing data. A mea culpa by Chairman Osamu Masuko, 67, led to the carmaker's planned rescue by Nissan. The latter has continued with the due diligence process, which it aimed to complete last month, on the purchase of a $2.2 billion stake.

Nissan expects to close its deal with Mitsubishi Motors before the end of the year and remains convinced of the merits of the transaction, Nick Maxfield, a spokesman for the Yokohama-based company, said by e-mail.

Japan's transport ministry is reviewing documents obtained on Sept 2 from Mitsubishi Motors' head office in Tokyo and its research-and-development center in Aichi Prefecture, Ebihara said. The regulator is also holding hearings with Mitsubishi Motors' executives, including Masuko, to get to the bottom of the company's wrongdoing.

Three days before its latest raid, the ministry said eight of the nine Mitsubishi Motors models it tested fell short of the company's advertised fuel economy figures. The regulator tested the models itself after Mitsubishi provided recalculated mileage figures to the ministry on May 18 that were still inaccurate.

Nissan Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn stepped up with plans to buy a 34 percent controling stake in Mitsubishi Motors in May, after the scandal had led the company's shares to plunge more than 40 percent. Two minicars that Mitsubishi Motors produces for Nissan through a joint venture were among the models that initiated the company's woes in April.

Mitsubishi Motors named former Nissan executive Mitsuhiko Yamashita to revamp its research and development department, and to help prevent a recurrence of the misconduct from June 24. Ghosn also assigned Chief Competitive Officer Hiroto Saikawa to lead a team that is identifying ways the two companies could save costs and boost production efficiency.

Bloomberg
Huang Wang speaks at the launch of the firm's Amazfit smartwatch on Aug 30 in Beijing. The company has sold more than 20 million fitness-tracking wrist bands by June-end under the Xiaomi brand name. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The Hefei, Anhui-based wearable gadget maker is looking at 1.5b yuan in revenue this year, up 50 percent

Wearing a Xiaomi wrist band on his left hand and an Amazfit smartwatch on the right, Huang Wang proposed a toast to his business partners during an evening banquet on Aug 30 after he announced the launch of the smartwatch in the afternoon.

"The Xiaomi band reminds us of the success and glory we have achieved, while the smartwatch represents our ambitions for the future," said Huang, chief executive officer of Anhui Huami Information Technology Co Ltd.

As Huang admits, people who know the firm are not as many as those who know the Xiaomi band, or the Mi band.

Under the Xiaomi brand, Huami had sold more than 20 million fitness-tracking wristbands by June, ranking No 2 in the smart wearable sector globally. Huami is second only to the United States rival Fitbit Inc, the world's largest manufacturer of wearable fitness gadgets, in terms of total shipments.

On Huami's product catalog is also the Xiaomi smart weight.

Huami reported a total sales revenue of 1 billion yuan ($151.5 million) in 2015, while the number for this year is expected to hit 1.5 billion yuan.

The company headquartered in Hefei, capital city of east China's Anhui province, was established in January 2014 and was financed by Xiaomi Corp, a leading electronics and smartphone maker in China, and Shunwei Capital Partners. The Xiaomi band was rolled out in August 2014.

In December of that year, Banyan Capital, Sequoia Capital and Morningside Ventures injected another $35 million into Huami. Huang said the company is now planning its third round of financing, with the firm's valuation hitting $800 million.

After exchanging some congratulations and thanks with the guests at the banquet, who were government officials, investors and media reporters, Huang went back to the table of his colleagues. "I should stay with them on this big day."

Though Huami was named one of the 50 fastest-growing tech companies in China by Forbes at the end of 2015, Huang said he actually has spent more than 18 years to achieve what he has got.

Born in 1975, Huang graduated in 1997 from the University of Science and Technology of China, which is based in Hefei. He majored in microelectronics and was recruited by the Shenzhen-based global technology giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.

After joining the company, Huang participated in the founding of a joint R&D center by Huawei and Motorola, a global telecommunications giant then, until 1998, when Huang quit the job and returned to Hefei to start his own business.

"It was the experience in Huawei that gave me some basic ideas of how to run a company of my own," said Huang, who has founded four companies in the last 18 years.

The first company was focused on embedded development tools based on the Linux system. "Through cooperation with Motorola's chip development department, our technology was applied in the Motorola mobile phones globally," said Huang.

In 2009, Huang founded Hefei Huaheng Electronics Technology Ltd, which was focused on a tablet personal computer brand and a smartwatch brand.

"At that time, Apple Inc hadn't launched the iPad products yet and our products had been very profitable until around 2012, when the whole tablet personal computer business started to decline sharply, including the iPad, partly because smartphones began getting bigger," said Huang, whose company had also developed a smartwatch by 2013.

"To start with the tablet computer or smartwatch would be too risky. Back then, we didn't have enough feedback from the consumers for the much more sophisticated products, while a fitness band is much easier and has a much lower cost," said Huang.
An employee helps customers purchase a Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Note 7 new smartphone at its store in Seoul, South Korea, September 2, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

China's Amperex Technology Limited is now providing batteries for Samsung Electronics Co's Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, after faulty batteries prompted a worldwide recall of the phones, an ATL manager said on Monday.

Battery shipments from ATL, whose headquarters are in Hong Kong, will increase greatly, said the manager, who declined to give his name. He did not provide the number of batteries to be shipped.

ATL also offers batteries for other domestic and foreign smartphone manufacturers

The confirmation followed a report by South Korea's Yonhap News Agency that Samsung will now use only batteries provided by ATL for the Galaxy Note 7.

Samsung declined to comment on Monday.

Following the recall, which was announced earlier this month, Samsung ordered an additional 4 million batteries from ATL, Yonhap reported on Sunday, citing unidentified industry sources.

Shares of Samsung Electronics plunged by 6.98 percent on Monday after the South Korean electronics giant urged users worldwide to stop using its Galaxy Note 7 following reports of exploding batteries.

Some Chinese experts urged further investigation of the reports that the smartphones had exploded, saying other parts might have been faulty.

Meanwhile, international airlines and aviation agencies have banned passengers from switching on or charging the Samsung phones during flights.

Chinese airlines such as Air China said they haven't received a notification to ban in-flight use of Galaxy Note 7 phones.

South Korean electronics giant Samsung decided to cease sales and recalled 2.5 million Note 7 units in 10 markets, including Singapore, the United States and South Korea, on Sept 2. The decision came after some of the phones were found to have faulty batteries.

The Galaxy Note 7 recall does not cover customers in China. A statement from Samsung China confirmed that the smartphones sent for customers in China use batteries from a different supplier.

ATL is poised to become the only battery provider for Samsung, which is the world's largest smartphone maker by shipments, the Yonhap agency said.

Since ATL also supplies batteries for Apple's iPhone series, Samsung could face supply problems if demand soars for the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, Yonhap said.
A divorce registration office of the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau is bombarded by couples on Aug 30. [Photo by ZHANG RUIQI/FOR CHINA DAILY]

Shanghai natives Tang Tao and his wife, who tied the knot three years ago, were determined to divorce on Aug 30 to save some money.

They left their 20-month-old girl with their parents and rushed to the district's marriage and divorce registration office before sunrise.

Luckily, they got No 7 on the waiting list to have their divorce registered that day. Because of the surprising rise in the number of people swarming to the office that week, it had limited the number of divorce registrations to no more than 60 per day.

Such offices all over Shanghai had been bombarded by couples since rumors began circulating that, beginning on Sept 1, couples who divorced would still be recognized for a whole year as married under home purchase policies.

The policies require higher down payments and sales taxes on houses purchased by couples who already own a home.

Statistics from Didi Chuxing, China's largest car-on-demand service, showed that the number of trips to marriage and divorce registration offices in Shanghai on Aug 29 and 30 tripled that of the same period the previous week.

Tang and his wife bought an apartment when they got married, but they wanted to buy a larger one.

"My wife doesn't have an apartment under her name. If we divorced and bought an apartment under her name, we will save more than 100,000 yuan ($15,000) in sales taxes," said Tang, 34.

"We just don't want to waste money. Why don't we spend that 100,000 yuan on something more meaningfulfor example, a luxury trip to Europe for the family? Even though we are apart legally, we don't regard ourselves as divorced. We are still happy together," he said.

Staff at the divorce registration offices were familiar with couples who took the "fake divorce" approach to avoid the limits on home purchases.

"When my husband and I were at the office, about five other couples beside us didn't look like those whose marriages were on the verge of splitting up," said Wang Yongyong, a 58-year-old from Shanghai who divorced her husband last year in order to save more than 20,000 yuan in taxes when purchasing an apartment for their son once he is married.

Wang said she was prompted by her former classmate to take the divorce approach.

"At least three people in our WeChat group of 20, who used to be classmates in junior high school, got divorced to dodge the limits on home purchases," Wang said.

However, there are also cases where people made the "fake divorce" real.

A Shanghai resident surnamed Jiang said it might be impossible for her and her ex-husband to remarry, which was their mutual promise when they got divorced a year ago.

Jiang and her husband bought an apartment in 2013. They agreed to divorce and put the apartment under the husband's name so that Jiang could buy another apartment with lower taxes and down payment.

"But we had huge conflicts in the process of purchasing the new apartment, and he didn't pay the mortgage with me as he promised," Jiang said.

Zhou Haiwang, vice-director of the Institute of Population and Development at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said that when so many people decide to divorce against their wishes for family stability, policy makers should consider an adjustment.
China's marriage certificate [Photo/Xinhua]

To avoid the public embarrassment of a messy divorce Chinese women are looking at alternative ways to save a marriage from their husband's infidelity. The AFP reported on the services of a 'mistress hunter,' a woman hired to persuade the mistress to leave the husband.

"My goal is to prevent divorces," Shu Xin, the founder of Weiqing, a company that offers such services, told AFP. "Every year we save some 5,000 couples."

AFP describes the mistress hunters as women who all have psychology, sociology or law degrees. They train for three years before their first field mission, where they find opportunities to make contact with the mistress and persuade them to leave the married man. According to Xinhua, in 2014 the divorce rate was double what it was a decade ago. For couples to divorce in the past, many had to request permission from their employers or communities and public embarrassment kept many couples together. Since 2003, regulations have simplified the marriage and divorce procedure in China. Next to registry offices in Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai and other provinces, marriage guidance offices and psychologists are available for newlyweds.

Financial uncertainty also detains divorce and the option of simply removing the mistress from the equation for some is the desirable option.

"Some women do not want to divorce out of fear of getting into financial difficulty. They just want to get rid of the mistress. That's where we come in," Shu continued to tell the AFP.

According to Baihe.com, a Chinese dating site, 21% of first-time husbands and 20% of first-time wives have other lovers.

Regardless of infidelity, for some, saving a marriage by hiring a spy to persuade your husband's mistress to leave him is a novel and unique approach to keeping a household together.
Vice-premier says China has key role to play in investment and trade ties

China is willing to help drive industrial upgrading in Southeast Asian nations in the form of direct investment, projects, technological cooperation, and imports and exports of equipment, Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli said on Sunday.

"China, with its advantages in capital, technology, engineering and management for infrastructure construction, will help ASEAN countries to elevate their industrialization based on demand in different countries," Zhang said at the opening ceremony of the 13th China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) in Nanning, capital of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

He said China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should establish closer ties with an e-commerce trade platform being built in Nanning.

Jack Ma, chairman of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, said during the four-day event that the company will expand its investment in the Southeast Asian countries, using Guangxi as a springboard for regional development.

Alibaba, the world's largest online retailer, has taken a controlling stake in Southeast Asian online retailer Lazada to tap into the lucrative consumer market in countries such as Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.

"The development of online business not only promotes more consumption, but has helped to create nearly 30 million jobs in China" said Ma.

"I believe that Southeast Asian countries will gain great development opportunities from e-commerce," he said.

At the same time, the Belt and Road Initiative under the framework of the China-proposed Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, also provides opportunities for energy cooperation.

China General Nuclear Power Group, the country's largest nuclear operator in terms of capacity, said it would follow the Belt and Road Initiative to seek further business development in Southeast Asia.

Chen Jian, general manager of Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Co Ltd, CGN's subsidiary, said the establishment of its regional headquarters in Malaysia shows its determination to push forward cooperation in Southeast Asian countries.

"Currently we have many projects in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and other countries in the field of clean energy," he said.

"It's of mutual benefit, as it not only helps meet the energy demand but it drives up the whole value chain for ASEAN countries in terms of technology and equipment manufacturing through our cooperation."

China is ASEAN's largest trading partner, while ASEAN is China's third largest. Bilateral trade between China and ASEAN has increased considerably over the past 25 years since the two sides established dialogue relations in 1991, growing 18.5 percent year-on-year from $7.96 billion to $472.16 billion last year.

China and ASEAN have pledged to further expand bilateral trade to $1 trillion by 2020. To achieve the goal, China and ASEAN signed an agreement late last year to upgrade the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area to further liberalize and facilitate bilateral trade and investment. The agreement officially came into force in July.

Zhou Mo contributed to the story.
Huang Xingguo, mayor of Tianjin and a member of 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, has been placed under investigation on suspicion of corruption, bringing the number of committee members investigated or convicted to 10.

Huang, 61, was said to have "seriously violated Party discipline", a phrase that often refers to corruption, according to a statement from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, China's top anti-graft watchdog, on Saturday.

He was appointed mayor of the northern port city southeast of Beijing in January 2008. He was also the city's acting Party chief from December 2014.

Tianjin, one of China's four provincial-level municipalitiesalong with Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqingcaught worldwide attention after massive explosions in August last year at a chemical warehouse that killed about 170 people.

No details about the allegations against Huang were immediately available from the CCDI. He was reported to have performed his duties a day before he was placed under investigation.

Last month, the Party announced it was investigating Yin Hailin, a longtime city planning official who became Tianjin's deputy mayor in 2012, also on suspicion of corruption.

The 18th Central Committee was elected by the 18th National Congress of the CPC in November 2012 and will sit until the next congress, which is expected to be convened in 2017. The Committee was composed of around 205 members and 171 alternates when it was elected.

When a member is removed from the committee, the vacancy is ordinarily filled by an alternate member at the next committee plenum.

According to public information, nine other members of the Central Committee were brought down on corruption charges, including Jiang Jiemin and Ling Jihua, both former senior government officials.

Jiang, the former head of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, was sentenced to 16 years in prison in October.

Ling, former vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China's top political advisory body, and former head of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, was sentenced to life imprisonment for taking bribes, illegally obtaining State secrets and abusing power in July.

Thirteen alternate members have been placed under investigation since the nationwide anti-graft campaign started in 2012.
A daytime view of Yongkang Road in downtown Shanghai in 2014. [Photo by Gao Erqiang/China Daily]

Yongkang Road in Shanghai is a tree-lined thoroughfare bounded on both sides by rows of three-story, residential buildings that are almost a century old.

In recent years, more than 40 bars have sprung up all along the 50-meter-long street, attracting throngs of Westerners and tourists who come to party late into the night.

Travel and lifestyle magazines have dubbed the area, in the former French concession of Shanghai, a must-see and "first stop" for newly arrived expatriates.

But now, everything seems to have changed.

Most of the bars are closed, with notices on their doors informing customers that they will be back soon or are moving elsewhere.

"We're all clear that the prosperous days for Yongkang Road are gone," said Xie Yong, one of the street's residents.

"Urban management officers and police cars patrol the road all the time now, except in the early morning hours. The number of customers has also dropped by at least 80 percent."

Bao Bingzhang, head of Xuhui district where Yongkang Road is located, said in July that noise complaints had been an issue for years and were the ultimate reason for the suspension of business.

"I've never seen a street like this anywhere else. Customers from all over the world have said the same as well. Having neighbors above us is unique and I can see why it has created problems," said Alexandre Fortin, a bar manager from Canada with 20 years experience who works on Yongkang Road.

Starting from August, all the bars on the street were ordered to remove their outside tables and chairs, and around 30 establishments were closed for not having a business license.

It turned out that some had rented the space they were using from former residents.

"The city- and district-level governments are still working on a future plan for Yongkang Road and haven't decided whether to reopen the bars, introduce a new business format, or let residents live on the first floors again," said a spokesman from the Tianping sub-district of Xuhui who only gave the surname Huang.

Angering the locals

Yongkang Road used to host a bustling food market where vegetables and live poultry were sold. Residents complained about the noise, smell and mess until 2009, when the government decided to give the street a facelift.

Shanghai Paifeng Yongkang Business Management Co was authorized to try and attract more business to the area. Several clothing stores opened, but trade was sluggish.

Then, in 2011, five French nationals opened a bar, which became popular among expatriates, and many more followed. About 90 percent of the bars on the street were opened by foreigners, including French, Italians, Americans, Australians and Belgians, the company said.

The street quickly gained in popularity among many of Shanghai's 170,000 or so foreign permanent residents, who loved grabbing a beer and catching up with friends after work. On many evenings, the area became so busy that patrons spilled out onto the street, leaving barely enough room for cars to squeeze through.

The revelry would often begin at around 5 pm and last until midnightor even longer during "foreign festivals", according to Ding Weifen, who lives in the neighborhood.

All the noise caused problems, however. Most of the street's buildings have poor sound insulation and many residents on the upper floors said they had trouble sleeping. Some complained that they could only hear their television sets if they turned the volume all the way up and closed their windows.

One-third of the residents in Yongkang Road, more than 1,500 people, are age 60 or older, according to the neighborhood committee's statistics.

About 50 residents are age 90 and above.

There were also fears that public security was being endangered by the bars, which were also thought to be attracting prostitutes.

"It wasn't rare to see drunk foreigners throwing up in our neighborhood, and some people even climbed up on the roofs," Ding said.

Some residents became so exasperated with the situation that they starting dumping water onto the noisy crowds below.

After several of these "water attacks" in 2013, the bars agreed to stop taking orders after 10 pm.

They also began paying each upstairs household 1,000 yuan ($150) per month to subsidize their electricity costs, as residents complained that they could not open their windows because of the noise, and so had to use air conditioning.

"We signed a contract with the business management company. Upon receiving the money, we agreed not to abuse the patrons, complain to government authorities, or release negative information to the media," said a resident who asked to remain anonymous.


Drolma, a Tibetan woman in Ganzi, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Southwest China's Sichuan province, was reported to have released 6,387 goats to a prairie in Sertar County. [File photo/ifeng.com]

As the country passed the revised edition of China's Wild Animal Protection Law which bans random releasing of captive animals to the wild, a similar incident has drawn people's attention lately causing controversy, reported the Beijing News on Saturday.

Drolma, a Tibetan woman in Ganzi, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in southwest China's Sichuan Province, was reported to have released 6,387 goats to a prairie in Sertar County after she saved them from slaughter houses with 5.1 million yuan (around $763,000) of donated money, organized by a group called "Snowland Release Group".

The incident immediately drew great attention after it was exposed on September 4 on Sina Weibo, Chinese version of Twitter, with some praising her for doing a good deed and others, including experts, fearing the environmental balance of the prairie could be harmed with such a large number of goats suddenly introduced to the ecosystem.

Later it was revealed that the woman was just sending those goats to a local pasture and not releasing them randomly, but despite this the incident revealed the seriousness of the problem in China and some people's attitude towards it.

There have been a number of reports recently in China in which captive animals were released randomly into the wild by animal activists or by those following a Buddhist ritual known as "fangsheng" or "release life" which demonstrates spiritual compassion and piety by releasing captive animals back into nature.

However, experts say an ecosystem has a very delicate balance which could be jeopardized easily by changing the number of certain species or introducing a new species to the area.

The revised China's Wild Animal Protection Law is to take effect starting from the year 2017, with added special items to regulate the release of captive animals into the wild.

Any organization or individual releasing captive animals should choose indigenous species that are fit to survive in the wild, and the release should have no impact upon local people or harm to the ecosystem, the law said. Anyone who frees captive animals in a reckless manner and thus causes property damage or physical injury to others, or jeopardizes the ecosystem, will be held accountable.


Jiang Chengbo looks at an ancient book in his bookstore(R). Two customers pick up books in Jiang's bookstore (L). [Photo/Yangtze Evening News]

A 90-year-old man who runs a 117-year-old antique bookstore inherited from his grandfather has become an internet celebrity, Yangtze Evening News reported.

Jiang Chengbo, the owner and third generation successor of the bookstore, said that since a visitor put information about the bookstore on the internet, antique book lovers from across the country have come here to look for books and take photos with him.

Located in Niujia Alley, Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, the bookstore covers an area of about 13 square meters and is filled with bookshelves on three sides with antique books neatly categorized as literature, history and philosophy.

The bookstore "Wenxueshanfang", which translates literally into "literature mountain house", was founded in 1899. At the time, the bookstore had a large number of antique books, some of which were rare books.

Hearing of the bookstore's good reputation, Xu Shichang (1855-1939), president of the Republic of China between 1918-1922, honored the store by inscribing the plaque for it.

The bookstore rose to fame afterwards and many renowned literary superstrs of the time, such as Zhang Yuanji, President of the Commercial Press, historian Gu Jiegang, writer and translator Zheng Zhenduo, and philologist and philosopher Zhang Taiyan, became frequent visitors. It was a common scene to see scholars and writers have discussions in the store.

In 1956, the bookstore was merged into state-owned Suzhou ancient books store and the "literature mountain house" disappeared.

But Jiang's heart was always in the original bookstore. Since he was 16 years old, Jiang helped his grandfather to run the bookstore and he became the employee of Suzhou ancient books store where he was responsible for collecting antique books after the store was merged. After retirement, he was still involved in exploring, rescuing, repairing and preserving antique books.

Decades of working with antique books have made Jiang a famous scholar of antique editions.

In 2001, constraints on family finance urged retired Jiang to reopen the bookstore but with a new name. The new store took 10 years to become a flagship among the privately-owned antique bookstores in Suzhou. Many customers suggested Jiang change the store's name into its original one and "literature mountain house" was revived in September, 2012.

As Jiang gets older, Jiang's children try to persuade Jiang to give up the bookstore. Because family finances have improved now and the store's profits have declined as rent climbs.

Jiang refused, saying, "This is the career of my life. As long as I can walk, I will never give up." Obeying his will, Jiang's three children help him to run the store every day, taking turns.

The national library and provincial libraries, who Jiang called his "big clients", collect books from his store to fill their collections. Many university professors, scholars and book collectors are also his regular customers.

In the age of internet, Jiang's bookstore welcomes a new lot of antique book fans, who know of the store through the internet. They visited Jiang from all over China, including North China's Beijing municipality and Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Central China's Hubei province, Southwest China's Sichuan province and etc, turning him into an "internet celebrity".

A netizen, using the internet name "Shufan", is a case in point. He wanted to visit the bookstore but lost his way, when he came to Suzhou during summer vacation. He called Jiang and found the store in 10 minutes with Jiang's directions. "Shufan" picked up three books, chatted with Jiang about the history of the store and took a photo with Jiang before leaving.

Aside from providing books to customers from his current stock, Jiang also helps readers to collect books they are looking for.

In 2015, the bookstore was awarded as an "excellent bookstore of Suzhou", getting a bonus of 30,000 yuan ($4,492). Jiang used the money to replace the book shelves, bringing a new look to the revered old bookstore.
BEIJING - A white paper published Monday by the State Council Information Office hailed the new progress made in human rights protection in the field of justice as China enhances the rule of law in all respects.

The white paper, titled "New Progress in the Judicial Protection of Human Rights in China," said the judiciary is the last line of defense to safeguard social fairness and justice, and judicial protection of human rights is an important part of human rights progress in a country.

It said that in recent years, especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), progress has been made in modernizing the system and capacity of state governance. The country has effectively protected the people's rights and freedoms in an extensive array of fields in accordance with the law, while its people duly fulfill their obligations.

In particular, the white paper noted that since the CPC's 18th National Congress, the allocation of judicial powers and responsibilities have been further improved, and the independent and impartial exercise of the judicial and procuratorial power ensured.

Since 2014, pilot programs have been promoted nationwide to improve performance in the following areas: judicial accountability, category-based management of judicial personnel, job security for the judicial profession, and unified management of the personnel, finance and property of people's courts and procuratorates below the provincial level.

Meanwhile, the judicial accountability system has been improved, while judicial transparency promoted to ensure the right to know and the right to supervise for concerned parties and the public.

Progress was also made to ensure lawyers' right of practice, so that lawyers are playing a bigger role in safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of parties concerned.

The Regulations on Protecting Lawyers' Right of Practice in Accordance with the Law, issued in 2015, made clear various measures to protect lawyers' right of practice, made it more convenient for lawyers to participate in litigation, and improved the remedy and accountability mechanisms for ensuring lawyers' right to practice.

The white paper also highlighted pilot programs to reform the system of people's assessors and supervisors, the establishment of a national judicial assistance system, and the abolishment of the system of reeducation through labor.

It nonetheless said there is still much room for improvement for the rule of law in China.

Strengthening judicial protection of human rights will continue to be a major task in implementing the rule of law, it said, adding that the country will proceed from its prevailing reality, learn from the achievements of other countries regarding the rule of law, enhance judicial protection of human rights, safeguard social fairness and justice, and implement the rule of law in all respects.
A university in East China's Jiangxi province recently launched a service that will help freshmen choose their favorite teachers based on their requests, China news services reported on Saturday.

Beginning from this year, students of Metallurgy and Chemical Engineering department in Jiangxi University of Science and Technology can avail this service before starting their four-year college life as long as they applied for the personalized service during the enrollment process.

The options of the service include the age and gender of the teachers, as well as the different teaching styles.

"The service caught my eyes immediately as it meets the taste of youth quite well, " said Ding Yanjun, a freshman."I chose a young female teacher as my head teacher as she might be more considerate compared to the male teachers," she added.

"I never thought I could have a custom-made teacher and I am very excited," said Xie Yu, another freshman. "It shows that the university cares for us, and we must study hard," he said.

According to the report, the institute received 180 requests for preferred teachers on the first day of enrollment. The results show that 70 percent of the freshmen would like a teacher who is funny and has a positive attitude, while 65 percent prefer teachers aged from 25 to 40.

To meet the various demands of the students, the institute has assigned a batch of young teacher who have advanced academic degrees. And Ding Yanjun finally got a post-90s younger teacher as her tutor.

"Custom-made teachers could help the school know more about the students' requirements for their teachers," said Xu Zhifeng, head of the Metallurgy and Chemical Engineering department.

Through this way, the teachers could work better with the students, he added.
The photo taken on Aug 17, 2016, shows a section of the eastern branch of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in Weishan, East China's Shandong province. [Photo/IC]

Scientists are brainstorming how to utilize the water vapor in the air to fulfill the goal of solving water shortage in the country's northern areas, Xinhua News Agency reported.

From Sept 9 to 11, scientists took part in a meeting to discuss the "Tianhe Project", or Sky River Project, in Xining, capital of Northwest China's Qinghai province.

The project will carry out water diversion in regions in the air, forming an "air corridor" of south-to-north water diversion, said Wang Guangqian, president of Qinghai University and an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

According to observations, there is a stable and orderly passage of water vapor transportation between the atmospheric boundary layer and the troposphere, which could be called "Tianhe", Wang said.

Tianhe Project is the trans-regional water diversion mode on utilizing the air passage to fulfill water diversion in regions, he said.

Scientists will analyze the water vapor distribution and transportation in the air, and will carry out manual intervention measures to fulfill the redistribution of atmospheric and surface water resources.

"We will first monitor the water vapor amount and the 'migration' routes in the air to master the rules of water vapor's 'migration', and will take manual intervention measures in some conditional regions to solve the surface water shortage in the north," Wang said.

In the past three decades, the runoff of main rivers in the country's northern part has been declining, according to authoritative reports based on observations, and by 2025, the northern part will possibly face severe water shortage.

The eastern and central branches of the strategic South-to-North Water Diversion Project have been constructed and, to a certain extent, have alleviated the water shortage in the northern areas.

However, the western part of the project is still under discussion, because the branch will go though areas of higher altitude, complex topography and fragile ecological environment.

The concept of the air corridor of south-to-north water diversion will maximize the ecological effects of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, boosting the economic and social development to the whole country, especially in the northern areas, said Bao Weimin, a space expert from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Tianhe Project is expected to bring 2.5 billion cubic meters of precipitation in Sanjiangyuan area, 200 million in Qilian Mountains area and 120 million in Qaidam area every year between 2016 and 2020, according to a plan.

The project aims to complete 5 billion cubic meters of trans-regional water diversion every year, an amount equal to 350 West Lake's water storage, in the medium- and long-term goal.
The China-Russia naval drill, starting on Monday, is expected to improve the capacity of dealing with "common security threats," said a senior Chinese navy officer.

Wang Hai, deputy commander of the Chinese navy and also the director of the drill from the Chinese side, made the remarks at a ceremony to welcome the arrival of five Russian ships in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province, on Monday morning.

The naval forces of both sides are expected to enhance cooperation, learn from each other, deepen friendship, and push forward the bilateral ties during the eight-day drill, he said.

The drill, "Joint Sea-2016", will feature naval surface ships, submarines, fixed-wing aircraft, ship-borne helicopters marine corps and amphibious armored equipment from both navies, spokesman Liang Yang said on Sunday.

The naval exercise will be held in the eastern waters of Zhanjiang, the southernmost city of Guangdong province, where the Nanhai Fleet under the People's Liberation Army Navy is headquartered.

Most of the Chinese participants will come from the Nanhai Fleet. The exercise will be commanded by Rear Admiral Yu Manjiang, vice-commander of the Nanhai Fleet.

The Russian anti-submarine ships Admiral Tributs and Admiral Vinogradov, the amphibious ship Peresvet, the towboat Alatau, and the tanker Pechenga will take part in the drill.

The annual China-Russia joint naval exercise is the fifth between the two sides since 2012. It's for the first time that the drill will take place in the South China Sea.
Beijing Haidian District People's Court said it will publicly sentence four executives charged with posting pornography on the internet on Tuesday.

The court released the information via its official microblogging service on Monday, saying that the public sentence and related pictures will be also disclosed on Sina Weibo.

In addition, documents related to the case and the judgment are also to be disclosed on the court's website, bjgy.chinacourt.org.

The four defendants worked for Shenzhen QVOD Technology in Guangdong province, including Wang Xin, the chief executive officer.

In a change of tone from the first trial in January, Wang and the other three defendants pleaded guilty in the second trial, which began on Friday last week, saying that they had not shown sufficient self-discipline and lacked awareness of legal issues.

The four were accused of using the company platform to make profits by uploading pornography that was downloaded by paying customers, prosecutors said.

The prosecuting authority said during the first trial that Beijing police reviewed 29,841 videos from three servers seized from the company, of which, 21,251 contained pornographic content.
Organized by Beijing International Studies University, the 13th Beijing Dialogue of China Tourism Development was held on Monday in Hongya county, Sichuan province.

The dialogue drew more than 300 government officials, researchers and leaders in the tourism and medical tourism sectors to Qiliping in Hongya to compare notes on the development of the sectors and of tourism in the area.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Cao Weidong, president of Beijing International Studies University, said that the dialogue was of great significance to the development of China's tourism and medical tourism sectors as well as poverty alleviation in West China.

Monday marked the first time the dialogue has been held in West China since its debut in 2004, said Yang Yunliang, Party chief of Hongya.

Hongya is one of Sichuan's less developed county's, but it boasts abundant tourism resources.

Qiliping is known as the mountainside of Mount Emei, one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains in China.

The others are in Wutai, Shanxi province; Jiuhua, Anhui province; and Putuo, Zhejiang province.

Buddhism spread to Mount Emei about 2,000 years ago, and the mountain, with its approximately 30 monasteries, is a pilgrimage destination for Buddhists today.

Emei is a poetic term for "beautiful women" in Chinese.

Covering 154 square kilometers, Mount Emei was included in the UNESCO World Natural and Cultural Heritage List in 1996.

The mountain offers a panoramic view of the landscape throughout the year.

In spring, its azaleas are a vibrant red.

In summer, its lush green trees and grass give it a verdant look.

In autumn, the mountain is a riot of colors; the green, yellow, orange and red of the trees mingling with the blue sky.

And in winter, the mountain becomes a white wonderland, with the ancient temples, trees and mountain slopes covered in snow.
The president of the Islamic Association of China extended his best wishes to Muslims living in China and across the world as the association held a banquet in Beijing to celebrate the Eid al-Adha on Monday.

Xilalunding Chen Guangyuan, the association's president, was joined at the banquet by Vice-Premier Liu Yandong and Sun Chunlan, head of the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, as they congratulated Muslims across the country for Eid al-Adha, which marks the end of the annual Hajj to Mecca.

Chen addressed the celebration by extending his greetings to Muslims living in China and across the world, and thanked local Islam associations and communities for their support.

He added that the association had successfully held a symposium on resisting extremism and retaining social stability in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region this year, which will contribute to the region's stability and development.

He also shared wishes that the Chinese Muslims currently making their pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, will successfully fulfill their duty.
A recent assessment on air pollution controls has advised northern regions to put stricter guidelines on bulk coal consumption, especially in the heating seasons, while also arguing a cap on coal consumption could further reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Bulk coal consumption has been proven to be more polluting than coal consumption in industries, which generate more airborne pollutants than the level discharged from companies, according to the recently-released China Air Quality Management Evaluation Report.

For example, bulk coal consumption, including those used in households for heating in winter, was more than 36 million tons annually, accounting for less than 10 percent of the total consumption in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

But half of the total airborne pollutants emitted was generated from bulk coal consumption, which could rise to be the prime source of the severe smog in some instances, replacing traditional sources such as industrial production and vehicle exhausts, said Wang Lisha, one of the authors of the assessment report, which was conducted by the Clean Air Alliance of China, a green organization based in Beijing.

"The effective curbs in bulk coal consumption could help the governments control the smog, which has been proved true in the process of easing the severe air pollution last year, and it will remain a major effort that the governments take in the coming winter," Chai Fahe, deputy head of the China Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, told the conference where the assessment report was released.

Beijing has continued to phase out coal-fire boilers in its suburbs, which were mainly used for household heating in winter. And Tianjin invested 1.72 billion yuan ($258 million) last year to reduce bulk coal consumption.

A cap on coal consumption would facilitate the green growth of industries and also help China reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to offset global warming, said Xie Hongxing, secretary general of the alliance. If the nine provinces, which released their plans to cap coal consumption (including Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei), reach the reduction goals they set by 2017, carbon dioxide emissions could be reduced by 600 million metric tons, Xie said.

China has promised to reach the carbon emission peak around 2030, in a bid to deal with climate change, and has undertaken a mix of measures such as expanding the use of green energies, such as solar power, to reduce coal consumption.
Premier Li says strategic communications, cooperation should be strengthened

Premier Li Keqiang welcomes visiting Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in front of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Monday. Wu Zhiyi / China Daily

China and Vietnam pledged on Monday to properly manage differences over the South China Sea and to strengthen maritime cooperation to enhance bilateral ties.

The pledge was made on Monday when Premier Li Keqiang met with visiting Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

Despite increasing bilateral trade, Beijing and Hanoi have competing claims over some islands of the South China Sea.

Phuc is leading an unprecedentedly large delegation of 132 members to Beijing during a six-day trip, his first to China as prime minister after a leadership reshuffle in Vietnam in July.

The South China Sea issue concerns China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights, and both countries should work together to safeguard stability at sea by managing differences and promoting maritime cooperation, Premier Li told Phuc.

China is willing to strengthen strategic communications and high-level exchanges as well as expand people-to-people exchanges with Vietnam, Li said. He added that he hoped both sides could link their development strategies, advance cooperation at sea, on land and in finance, and enhance practical cooperation in various fields.

Phuc said Vietnam will properly handle maritime differences to solve the issue in a peaceful way, boost maritime cooperation in less-sensitive fields and maintain stability at sea. He also said the Southeast Asian country will strengthen political trust, keep high-level exchanges and boost practical cooperation with China.

After their meeting, the two countries signed nine agreements to boost cooperation in such fields as production capacity, infrastructure, education, cross-border trade and climate change.

Last week, China and 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations released documents to apply the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea to the South China Sea and to establish a senior diplomats' hotline for maritime emergencies.

The agreements were signed after the 19th ASEAN-China Leaders' Meeting in Vientiane, the capital of Laos.

China and Vietnam will manage differences over the South China Sea in accordance with agreements that both sides signed a few years ago and the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, Vice-Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said.

Phuc said Vietnam maintains that maritime disputes should be solved peacefully through negotiations.

Phuc arrived in Beijing on Monday after attending the opening ceremony of the 13th China-ASEAN Expo on Sunday in Nanning, capital of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Phuc will head for Hong Kong on Wednesday after meeting with five members of China's top leadership, Liu said.

From January to July, the trade volume between the two neighbors reached $52 billion and is expected to exceed $100 billion this year.

huyongqi@chinadaily.com.cn
Fancy a kindle? Click here to take the Long March quiz.

The country's first commercial space industry base will be built in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, according to an agreement signed on Monday.

The Wuhan National Space Industry Base will focus on the development of carrier rockets and satellites, commercial launch services and applications of satellite data.

The base plans to establish an annual production capacity of 50 carrier rockets and 140 commercial satellites by 2020, said Zhang Di, deputy head of the Fourth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, after a signing ceremony between his company and the governments of Hubei and Wuhan at the Second China Commercial Aerospace Forum.

More than 700 government officials, military officers and experts from the space industry and universities attended the forum in Wuhan.

In mid-February, the Fourth Academy set up the nation's second commercial launch provider, Expace Technology Co, as the backbone of the Wuhan space base, with Zhang as the new company's chairman.

The company, which has registered capital of 300 million yuan ($44.9 million), has signed a 100 million yuan launch contract with several domestic clients, Zhang said. He declined to give clients' names due to business confidentiality.

He added that Expace has received orders for more than 10 launches using the academy's solid-fuel Kuaizhou, or Fast Vessel, rockets.

"In fact, orders have been continuing to swarm into our company, but we have to reject some of them because we must guarantee a good service quality," Zhang said. "We don't worry about orders because our rate, around $10,000 for each kilogram of payload, is much lower than the average charge in the international market, which ranges from $25,000 to $30,000."

In China, a commercial launch generally refers to a space launch activity paid for by an entity other than a Chinese government department or military agency.

China has launched 53 Long March rockets to carry 61 satellites into space for 24 foreign clients.

However, all of these commercial missions were undertaken by the country's Long March rockets, which were developed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, another major contractor in China's space sector.

Because of different mission requirements, the Long March series, which mainly uses liquid propellant, has heavier launch capacities and longer flight ranges.

China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp began to develop Kuaizhou solid-fuel rockets in 2009, intending to form a low-cost, quick-response rocket family for the commercial launch market.

The first flight of a Kuai-zhou rocket occurred in September 2013, when the company launched the Kuaizhou 1 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province to put an Earth observation satellite into orbit. In November 2014, the Kuaizhou 2 sent another satellite into space from the same launch center.

The Fourth Academy is now making the Kuaizhou 11 and plans to launch it in 2017, according to Liang Jiqiu, chief designer of the Kuaizhou program at the Fourth Academy.

Liang said the Kuaizhou 11 has a liftoff weight of 78 metric tons and will be capable of placing a 1-metric-ton payload into a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 700 kilometers, or a 1.5-metric-ton payload into a low Earth orbit at an altitude of 400 km.

He said the road-mobile rocket's prelaunch preparations will take very little time, and the launch can be conducted on rough terrain.

Gao Hongwei, chairman of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, said the Kuaizhou rockets have a high level of strategic importance and a huge market potential.

He said investments in the commercial launch sector bring a return of up to 14 times the original input.

Hu Shengyun, a senior rocket engineer at the Fourth Academy, estimates that by 2020, the market value of commercial space activities in China will reach 30 billion yuan annually.

zhaolei@chinadaily.com.cn
Winna a kindle? Click here to take the Long March quiz.

Deputy Commander of the Chinese Navy Wang Hai and his Russian counterpart Aleksandr Fedotenkov walk on Monday to greet a group of five Russian ships arriving for eight days of joint drills in the waters off Zhanjiang, Guangdong province. The two navies expect to further improve their abilities for joint operations with these fifth annual exercises. LI JIN/CHINA DAILY

Chinese, Russian navies begin drills to fine-tune joint military operations

The China-Russia navy drill, taking place for the first time in the South China Sea, is expected to improve their combined ability to counter "common security threats", a senior Chinese Navy officer said on Monday.

Wang Hai, deputy commander of the Chinese Navy and director of the drill for China, made the remarks at a ceremony on the arrival of five Russian ships in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province.

Both countries' navies are expected to improve their cooperation, learn from each other, deepen friendship, and advance the bilateral ties during the eight-day exercise, he said.

The Joint Sea-2016 drill is being held in the eastern waters off Zhanjiang, Guangdong's southernmost city, where the Chinese Navy's Nanhai Fleet is headquartered.

Wang said this is the fifth annual joint naval exercise between China and Russia. China has also taken part in Russia's international military competition for two consecutive years, and the two countries' forces have improved their abilities in joint military operations, he said.

Vice-Admiral Aleksandr Fedotenkov, the Russian Navy's deputy commander-in-chief and director of the drill for Russia, said that with the advances they have made through naval exercises, the two navies are able to jointly cope with maritime threats. The Russian Navy has three surface ships, two supply ships, two helicopters, 96 marines and amphibious armored equipment participating in the drill.

Ten Chinese Navy shipsdestroyers, frigates, landing ships, supply ships and submarinesare participating in the drill, as well as 11 fixed-wing aircraft, eight helicopters, 160 marines and amphibious armored equipment.

On Monday afternoon, both sides' sailors engaged in various exchanges, such as boarding each other's ships and exhibiting combat weapons.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday that the strategic ties between China and Russia are "self-evident".

"It proves that China-Russia cooperation is a positive factor to maintain regional peace and stability," she told a regular news conference, adding that the strategic cooperation has benefited not only the people of both countries, but also the whole world.

Zhang Junshe, a senior researcher at the People's Liberation Army's Naval Military Studies Research Institute, said that the China-Russia joint exercise is a mark of the high political trust between the two countries.


Photo of Wu Wei taken by American Journalist Edgar Snow during the Long March in 1936.

A Red Army soldier's photo underwent twists and turns for more than half a century before it was sent back to its owner's home, Liberation Army Daily reported.

In 1936, the Communist International published an article titled The Long March of the Twenty-fifth Army of China's Red Army. It carried this paragraph:

"In the desolate mountains at the borders of Central China's Hubei province, Henan province and East China's Anhui province, children, as young as 12, started on a journey of looking for their fathers. They saw all the miseries imposed by reactionary ruler and knew all political common sense in their childhood. This is how the Twenty-fifth Army of China's Red Army, also known as Children Army, was born. The age of most soldiers is between 13 and 18..."

The man in the photo was one of the children depicted in the article. His name was Wu Wei, or Wu Jianjun in the Red Army period. In 1931, the 13-year-old joined the Red Army to search for his father, Wu Sizhen, who was then a leader of a guerrilla force led by Chinese Soviet in western Anhui.

Having three years of schooling, Wu was appointed as a publicity agent and later the secretary of Army leader Xu Haidong, before becoming the publicity director at the Political Department of the Twenty-fifth Army.

He with the Army took part in the Long March on Nov 16, 1934, and trudged thousands of kilometers to reach Northern Shaanxi province 10 months later. After Twenty-fifth Army merged into the Fifteenth Army Group of China's Red Army in Sept 1935, the 17-year-old Wu Wei acted as the political commissar at the Office Agents Battalion of the fifteenth Army Group.

This photo of Wu Wei was taken by American Journalist Edgar Snow in 1936 when he went to northern Shanxi province for interview. Snow visited Xu Haidong, the then commander of the Fifteenth Army Group, and took a photo of Xu Wei as Xu was just around. But Xu Wei did not get the photo until 1950 when a comrade-in-arms give it to him.

The historical materials show that most figures in Snow's lens are Red Army's leaders or senior army generals. So it is unusual and precious to have a photo of a grass-roots Army cadre and has been kept to today.

In 1951, Wu Wei was going to study at Nanjing PLA Military Academy while his comrade-in-arms Li Jing was to join the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. At the departing time, Wu gave Li the precious photo as a gift for commemoration. Wu Wei never saw this photo again until he died of an illness in 1974.

In 2003, Li JIng's wife returned the photo to Wu Hongying, the daughter of Wu Wei. The photo finally came back to its owner's home after drifting for more than half a century.
A lifelike statue of Chancellor Zhu Kezhen, also known as Coching Chu, at the old campus of Zhejiang University in Zunyi, Guizhou province, southwestern China. Photo taken on Sept 7, 2016. [Photo by Faisal Kidwai/chinadaily.com.cn]

In the mornings he went to classes, in the evenings he hung out with friends. He was happy and content, but more than that he was proud that he was attending a university that had a colorful culture and an intellectually stimulating atmosphere.

He had no idea that not only his life but that of everybody at the university was about to change forever.

The year was 1937. The place Hangzhou. The university Zhejiang. And the student: A nameless figure.

In the winter of that year, the Japanese forces after capturing Nanjing, the then-capital of China, moved southward, killing, raping and bombing towns and villages, and began marching toward Hangzhou.

The authorities knew that the only way to escape the relentless and indiscriminate bombing was to move the whole university, dubbed the "Oriental Cambridge" by British scholar Joseph Needham, to a safer place. Thus began the great exodus.

Nearly all the students, faculty members and others gathered whatever they could and left the campus for a journey that would take them through several cities and provinces, largely by foot, before finally reaching Zunyi in Guizhou province, southwestern China, a place that would be their home for the next seven years, until the withdrawal of Japanese forces from the country.

Traveling through mountains, rivers and forests is tough even now, especially by foot, so imagine the difficulty they would have faced 80 years ago when the whole region was undeveloped. They not only battled the harsh terrain, diseases, hunger and constant fear of Japanese bombardment, but also carried with them thousands of books, equipment and specimens.

What's even more remarkable is that during the period the university did not shut down. The teachers held classes wherever they could  temples, homes and town halls.

To understand their sheer audacity and resilience, the place to visit is the old campus of Zhejiang University in Zunyi. The well-kept building houses, handwritten letters, photos and other historical records that tell the tales of bravery and suffering.

One person who stands out is Chancellor Zhu Kezhen, also known as Coching Chu. Zhu, who earned a doctorate from Harvard, kept the university going despite the unimaginable challenges and turned it into one the best in the country. Even today, the university which traces its roots to 1897, making it one of the earliest higher learning institutions in the nation, remains a sought-after.

As if the problems were not enough, Zhu also suffered personal blows when his wife and second son fell ill and died in 1938.

Under his chancellorship the university donated property and equipment to Zunyi before it moved back to Hangzhou, thus leaving a lasting legacy.
Every building, bridge and street in Moutai town in Guizhou province is lit up in yellow, Sept 10, 2016. [Photo by Faisal Kidwai/chinadaily.com.cn]

As our bus climbed the meandering road through the steep mountains and green hills, it was the color under the clear night sky that caught our attention. Like a bride dressed in red on her wedding day, the town was sparkling in yellow. It was streaking across rooftops, doors, windows, bridges and even streets.

Even before our senses could recover, we were hit by something else: the smell of liquor in the air. It meant only one thing: we were now in Moutai town, the home of China's most famous wine, in Renhuai city, Guizhou province.

Located on the banks of Chishui River, it is one place that will leave a visitor intoxicated in more than one way. From the laser light show and dancing fountains near the river to ceramic jars storing the liquor in shops, the town serves something that's truly different.

But it's not just Moutai whose memories will stay with you long after you leave its narrow cobblestone alleys.

Guizhou has long been described as "not three feet of flat land, not three days without rain, not a family with three silver coins".

It's time to bury the last description.

Today the province is posting double-digit growth, with its GDP in 2015 crossing the one-trillion-yuan mark. It now has airports that connect to all parts of the country, a high-speed rail network and gleaming highways. From a place that not long didn't even have a decent highway; it's now driving on the information superhighway.

The economic turnaround is just one part of the story. By far the most interesting chapter  and the one that will change the landscape of this mountainous province  is its natural beauty.

Whether it's the colorful culture of Miao ethnic group, famous for its hair buns, or Dong ethnic group, known for its unique dresses, or Huangguoshu Waterfall, the largest waterfalls in the country, Guizhou is still unspoiled and unexplored.

With more Chinese traveling than ever before, the province, which has spicier food than the more famous Sichuan cuisine, is poised to see its tourism industry grow.

However, what left a lasting impression on me after a recent trip was the simple and helpful nature of its people. I was standing on a mountain road with my colleague in Liping county trying to reach a scenic spot on a hill, but there were no buses or cars available as it was already getting dark. Then a guy driving an SUV stopped and gave us a ride.

On the way, he and a woman sitting next to him halted the vehicle and let us photograph the famous rice terraces of the province. But that was not all. Once we reached the scenic spot, the woman came with us and not only showed us the whole village, but also offered to parcel an authentic dress of Dong ethnic people. It was already dark by the time we finished the tour but both of them drove us back to the hotel.

When on the last day of my trip to the province, a journalist based in the capital Guiyang heard that I will not have time to buy the spicy Lao Gan Ma, or Old Godmother, chilli sauces, she volunteered to courier it to Beijing.

I reflected on these kind acts, the rapid pace of development and the rugged but equally enchanting terrain as the plane flew into the clear blue sky.
Houchang Conference is reputed as the prelude to a reform in the Red Army history, laying a solid foundation for the success of the Long March. [Photo by Zhang Xingjian/chinadaily.com.cn]

Cameras constantly clicked to capture the contrast between the glowing red stars hanging on the bridge on the attractive Chishui River and high-rise buildings at various stages of completion in Moutai, a town filled with fragrance of liquor in Southwest China's Guizhou province.

All I could see was a magnificent fountain show decorated by warm lights in this small town; all I could hear was the clear sound of raindrops, as a member of the media group to review the Long March route in Guizhou province, I was hushed to a concentrated silence, trying to capture the magical mix of modern and tradition with my lenses.

Actually, Moutai is the epitome of Guizhou province. During the five-day visit, I was enthralled by what Guizhou province offers best: green development and red spirit.

A visit to Guiyang was an ideal introduction to the province and a chance to catch a glimpse of fast economic performance in the capital city.

One year ago, President Xi Jinping visited a demonstration center on big data here and stressed the need for more investment and research into this field as China's big data industry is still in its infancy.

One year later, Guiyang has already made major push to promote the big data industry. The industry has been designated as one of the three strategic sectors in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) in Guizhou province. Guiyang has also boosted infrastructure construction and spent 3.14 billion yuan ($484 million) on information infrastructure in 2015.

Although Guizhou is among the least developed regions in China, it has established a state-level big data agglomeration and aims to contain two million servers. Also, some cities are already offering free city-wide Wi-Fi .

After visiting Guiyang, I took a high-speed rail from Guiyang to Congjiang. Short as the voyage was, it passed through so many tunnels, a reflection of the tough journey the Red Army had to go through, that too on foot as there was no other mode of transportation 80 years ago.

When I arrived at Congjiang, I together with other media friends took a bus directly to Liping, a county filled with traditional Dong culture. This was a unique experience for me, as it was my first time to get in touch with Chinese ethnic groups. People here stay in a traditional lifestyle in every aspect from clothing to residence.

In recent years, regions along the Long March have striven to grasp the red culture to boost tourism. And I realized Liping was no exception.

According to the latest government report, during the period of 12th Five Year Plan (2011- 2015), the overall GDP in Liping increased from 3.16 billion yuan to 6.73 billion yuan with an average annual growth rate of 16.3 percent; tourist arrivals increased by 26.2 percent year-on-year from 1.28 million to 2.63 million.

Several blocks away from the Dong cultural zone stands the Liping Conference site, which marked the beginning of a series of CPC vital conferences addresses.

Be it Liping Conference, Houchang Conference or Zunyi Conference, these meetings have been endowed with much historic significance in the Long March.
The Shanghai International Dance Center will become a new cultural icon when it opens in October.[Photo provided to China Daily]

The new Shanghai International Dance Center will celebrate its opening on Oct 1, adding one more landmark to the city's cultural map.

The opening season features original productions of the Shanghai Ballet and the Shanghai Song & Dance Troupe, outstanding dance companies from other parts of China, and internationally acclaimed dancers such as Tan Yuanyuan, the Shanghai native who is the principal dancer with the San Francisco Ballet, and groups like the Batsheva Dance Company from Israel.

The center consists of four new constructions and six historical buildings, which will be the home of Shanghai Ballet, Shanghai Song & Dance Troupe, the Dance College of Shanghai Theater Academy, and the dance school attached to it.

The core of the center is a new theater with 1,080 seats. The opening performance, Hamlet by Shanghai Ballet, will be presented here.

There is also a smaller performing hall, as well as a total of 48 rehearsal rooms in the complex.

Equipped with the latest in cushioned floors, the rehearsal rooms and stages will provide maximum protection for the "knees, backs and necks of dancers", says Xin Lili, director of Shanghai Ballet.

The new facilities will help dancers significantly extend their careers, she says. "In many countries, ballet companies often sign contracts with their dancers until the age of 42, while in China, dancers used to retire in their 30s due to frequent injuries."

Chen Feihua, director of Shanghai Song & Dance Troupe, describes the new facility as "a dream come true" and "a landmark for dancing art second to none, even internationally".

This facility will draw top-notch international productions, he says.

Xin says that the new facilities will enable her company to have more interaction with overseas counterparts; quite a few ballet companies have expressed interest in exchanges with Shanghai Ballet.
A terracotta figurine from Yuan Dynasty is on display during the exhibition at the Capital Museum in Beijing, Sept 9, 2016. [Photo/VCG]

The year 2016 marks the 740th anniversary of the founding of Dadu, the capital city of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), and the 35th anniversary of the founding of the Capital Museum in Beijing. A special exhibition was unveiled recently at the Capital Museum, showing 160 pieces of precious treasures from Yuan Dynasty, and presenting the prosperous scene of the ancient capital. The exhibition will run through December 9.
From Sept 12 to 18, varies of Chinese cultural activities will be held in the country. The culture week is aimed at encouraging more Kiwis to try speaking Chinese in an attempt to bridge the cultural and linguistic knowledge gap between China and New Zealand.[Photo/Xinhua] New Zealand needs much more Kiwis who are culturally capable of working in a Chinese environment, former Ambassador to China Tony Browne said on Sunday. "New Zealand is now a country that embraces many culture traditions. We need to know the region that NZ situated, we need to know the country with which we have our largest trading partnership, and we need to know the county that sending millions of tourists to NZ in ten years time," Browne said at the launching ceremony of the New Zealand Chinese Language Week. From Sept 12 to 18, varies of Chinese cultural activities will be held in the country. The culture week is aimed at encouraging more Kiwis to try speaking Chinese in an attempt to bridge the cultural and linguistic knowledge gap between China and New Zealand. Jin Zhijian, the Chinese consul general to Christchurch, echoed with Browne. Jin said the key reason for the Chinese government to promote Chinese language and Chinese culture in New Zealand is to deepen people-to-people mutual understanding and to further the good relationship between the two countries. There are more than 9,000 students who are studying Chinese in New Zealand South Island. About 200 Chinese culture activities were held in South Island in the past year, attracting thousands and thousands of participants.
Charlotte EL Moussaed's works exhibited at Yishu8 Art Center in Beijing, Sept 11, 2016. [Photo by Li Hongrui/chinadaily.com.cn]

Black and white old photos pieced together with colorful picture-cut, a shot of a plastic bag of silk placed on a small platform, an image of a half-statue hanging from the roof of a hallthese are the works of French artist Charlotte EL Moussaed that were inspired by her understanding of Chinese ancient poems.

Beijing, in these images, is a fusion of the past and the present. There are people who smile innocently in the old photos, and colorful modern women who appear seductive.

Moussaed portrayed Beijing with the feeling she got from Chinese poems. And she used the name of Chinese poet Lu You's poem as the title of this series of works that were showcased at Yishu 8 Art Center in Beijing on Saturday.

"I got new inspirations from China, and found a relation between people and things. These works are the final fruit of my discovery," said Moussaed.

Through her eyes, visitors can see a city in which people and things are closely connected in a seemingly chaotic way.

"These works are a lonely stroll of a traveler, a period of boring time, a desire for reading and a short cultural shock," she said.

Moussaed's three months in Beijing brought her closer to Chinese ancient poems. The rhythm and beauty of the poems stirred her imagination.

She observed people and things and pictured Beijing based on her perception, observation and a little imagination.

"Beijing, a city that has so many people with different outlooks, is mysterious and hard to decipher," said Moussaed.

Yet, in her mind, those lonely souls, couples and families are her greatest interest.

"My stay in Beijing this time gave me some real freedom in creation. I put myself fully in the stories that Beijing and China told me. And this feeling is like a Chinese ancient poem with some fast pace, confusion, intoxication, and joy."

Jia Yue, founder of Yishu8, said Moussaed's works expressed the things she had experienced in the flesh. China is a great book with colorful images, which will provide endless inspirations to artists.

The exhibition will run until October 13.

If you go:

Yishu 8 Art Center, No. 20, Donghuangcheng North Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing
Song Zhenning died of heart attack after being swindled in a telephone scam . [File photo]

THE LOCAL POLICE in East China's Shandong province and South China's Guangdong province have detained 28 suspects involved in three recent telecom fraud cases and in so doing exposed a nationwide network of telecom fraudsters and hackers. Beijing Youth Daily commented on Saturday:

It is reported that there is a giant underground telecom fraud network of more than one million people. A 19-year-old would-be freshman in Guangdong province was defrauded of 9,800 ($1,470) yuan in a telephone scam in July, while a freshman-to-be and a college student, both in Shandong province, died of heart attacks after they were defrauded of their money in August.

Within this criminal network are those who steal people's personal information and sell it to fraudsters and those that sell fraudsters SIM cards so they don't need to register their phones. They usually cooperate knowing little about one another.

This coalition of illegal interests needs to be tackled by all means possible. But simply legislating to protect personal information is hardly enough, as there are always loopholes in data management that can be exploited.

The criminals must be made fearful of harsher punishments and more efficient police enforcement. They must pay the price for what they have done or are planning to do. It is truly an encouraging achievement that 28 suspects have been held accountable not long after they committed a crime. But the fight must go on, as at least 57,000 telecom fraud cases were discovered just in the first half of this year, almost 2.5 times those in the same period of last year.

On their part, local police should pay more attention to such cases. More efforts are also needed to trace and recover the losses of the telecom victims. Financial and telecom sectors, too, need to assist the police in their law enforcement and report to them any abnormal transactions or suspicious telephone calls.
New energy vehicles will set a new ground in China's auto market in the next few years. Provided to China Daily

AFTER AN INVESTIGATION of 90 manufacturers starting earlier this year, the Ministry of Finance disclosed the names of five automakers on Thursday, which it said had defrauded the central government of the new energy vehicle subsidies it provides. Changjiang Daily commented on Saturday:

It is the first time that China has imposed harsh punishments, ranging from severe fines to disqualification from auto industry, on the producers of new energy vehicles.

The five auto companies, which illegally obtained 1.01 billion yuan ($150 million) in subsidies in 2015, claimed to have sold 3,547 vehicles that proved to be actually either unfinished or unsold.

The punishments for the five lawbreakers should be a wake-up call to all Chinese automakers that they will have to meet the requirements to receive the subsidies and any who try to cheat will be punished.

In fact, many countries besides China subsidize emerging high-tech industries to expedite relevant research and help them survive in their early days.

Of course, that does not mean the governments' financial support is unnecessary or interfering with the market-based competition. The successful promotion of new technologies cannot be finished in a day, hence government subsidies are used to encourage enterprises to continue their research and help them overcome teething problems. As they develop the subsidies and support are reduced and eventually they are cut loose to let the market have a decisive say. In the case of China's subsidies and policy support for new energy vehicles these are due to end by 2020.

Therefore, what these new energy vehicle producers should do is to strengthen their efforts to secure a place in the auto market, and not rely on government subsidies. Staying in the "comfort zone" of government support will not help them survive in the long run, the market is bound to eliminate those who lag behind.
China's first national gene bank will open on Sept 22. The national gene bank, which took five years to create, was approved by four government departments including the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner, and is operated by BGI-Shenzhen.

The national gene bank is the fourth national gene bank to be established globally after the establishment of the US' National Center of Biotechnology Information, the European Bioinformatics Institute and the DNA Data Bank of Japan.

China's national gene bank is not only a database but also a comprehensive gene bank that will preserve samples of living animals and plants.

China's national gene bank aims to build a biological information database, biological sample resource library and living animal and plants bank, as well as a digital platform and gene editing platform. It will thus be the world's biggest and most comprehensive gene bank.

It aims to achieve comprehensive integration of resources, data, science and industry to benefit human health, agriculture, biology and protection of the ecological environment.

About 780 million yuan ($117 million) has been invested in the first phase of the gene bank.
President Xi Jinping addresses the media on Sept 5 after the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. Feng Yongbin / China Daily

In response to global economic growth that had been "too low for too long for too few", as International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde described, the G20 wrapped up the Hangzhou Summit on Sept 5 with a resounding call to revitalize globalization.

In a way, the "Hangzhou Consensus", which is aimed at facilitating global economic growth in a more comprehensive, innovative and inclusive manner, can serve as a "new starting point" for both China and global governance. To make that possible, global leaders should bear those principles in mind while addressing problems at home, and heed lessons from the previous attempts to fix the international economic order.

The Washington Consensus, coined by US economist John Williamson in 1989, proclaims the solution to the problems faced by the less-developed economies in Latin America and post-Cold War Eastern Europe is "neo-liberalism" which stresses the primacy of markets and limits the role of the state.

Featuring fiscal discipline, cuts in public subsidies, trade liberalization, and "shock therapy", the consensus, instead of solving problems, led to severer polarization of the rich and poor in the countries that adopted its prescriptions. Its failure prompted Goldman Sachs' Joshua Cooper Ramo to consider a "Beijing Consensus" as an alternative path to development in 2004. His proposal was based on China's unprecedented economic success after it launched reform and opening-up in the late 1970s.

The Beijing Consensus, as Ramo argued, consisted of a commitment to innovation and constant experimentation, focus on sustainability and equality, and resolute defense of national sovereignty and interests. Seen by many as a challenge to the Washington Consensus, the Beijing Consensus, to some extent, outlined what the Hangzhou Consensus has offered.

In Hangzhou, leaders from the world's 20 largest economies agreed to enhance policy coordination and innovation-led growth, and improve global economic governance to reinvigorate cross-border trade and investment. The focus on "innovation", a term cited in the G20 communique repeatedly, is solid proof that Chinese leaders have been consistent in pursuing innovation-driven growth.

Besides, internet-based innovations are expected to play a major role in future economic recovery, especially when the last round of industrial and technological revolution is losing momentum and new alternatives are still in the making. This is exactly what the Hangzhou Consensus has underlined.

Inclusiveness and openness, too, are needed to help innovation live up to its potential and use the international order to the optimum extent. China's rise to be the world's second-largest economy is an apt example of how much difference the reform and opening-up policy has made. So China will keep providing quality public goods to the international community, rather than building trade barriers like some Western politicians have proposed to do in recent days.

On the other hand, the fact that 57 countries have joined the Beijing-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and that many of them may be interested in the Belt and Road Initiative, is further evidence of China's fruitful endorsement of inclusive global governance. And the implementation of the Hangzhou Consensus will surely add new impetus to the world economy.

The author is an associate researcher at the China Institute, Fudan University.
Democratic People's Republic of Korea launches a long range rocket launched into the air in this file still image taken from KRT video footage, released by Yonhap on February 7, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea conducted its fifth and biggest nuclear test on Friday, when the country observed the 68th anniversary of its founding, and it claimed it has mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile.

In a statement issued on Friday, the United Nations Security Council strongly condemned the DPRK's latest test, calling it a clear threat to international peace and security.

The DPRK has sped up development of its nuclear and missile programs this yearin UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's words, an "accelerating spiral of escalation"in defiance of several Security Council resolutions.

Its provocative acts have made the situation on the Korean Peninsula and in East Asia more complicated, offering a ready pretext for Japan, the Republic of Korea and the United States to make joint and individual military deployments.

US President Barack Obama spoke by phone with ROK President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday, with the three agreeing to take "additional significant steps, including new sanctions" against the DPRK.

The ROK and Japan joined the US in a joint missile defense drill in June off the coast of Hawaiithe three countries' first maneuver focused on tracking and defending against the DPRK missile launcheson the sidelines of RIMPAC, the Rim of the Pacific Exercise, which is the world's largest international maritime warfare exercise.

The US, the ROK and Japan have also started a new initiative to share military intelligence on the DPRK's ballistic missiles after the DPRK fired three midrange ballistic missiles in August that landed in Japanese territorial waters.

Wariness made Seoul cancel an agreement to share intelligence with Tokyo at the last minute in 2012. Now the DPRK's nuclear and missile programs have pushed the two estranged US allies to join hands. The defense ministers of Japan and the ROK also talked on the phone on Saturday, agreeing to cooperate closely and with the US in dealing with the DPRK's nuclear program.

Still, each of the three allies is making its own moves.

On July 29, the US Air Force said it would upgrade its hardware on Guam by sending the B-1 for the first time since April 2006, providing US Pacific Command and its regional allies and partners with "a credible, strategic power projection platform".

On Aug 31 Japan's defense ministry submitted a request for a record budget of $50.12 billion for the fiscal year starting April 2017. If approved by Japan's parliament that will convene on September 26, the country's defense spending will be up by 2.3 percentthe fifth increase in a row since Abe took office for the second time in late 2012.

The budget request includes $1 billion to upgrade a dozen of Japan's PAC-3 surface-to-air missile defense systems so as to increase their range and accuracy for deployment in 2020.

The ROK, meanwhile, announced it will deploy THAAD, the US' Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system by the end of this year despite strong protests from China and Russia.

China and Russia take the deployment of THAAD in the ROK as a threat to their own security, and say that it will do nothing to bring the DPRK back to the negotiating table.

Russia's foreign ministry warned that the THAAD deployment would spark an arms race in the region and complicate the resolution of the nuclear problem on the Korean Peninsula.

Tensions are rising in the delicately balanced region, and distrust is building up. This is an alarming scenario.

The author is China Daily Tokyo bureau chief.

caihong@chinadaily.com.cn
BEIJING - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday held a telephone conversation with his French counterpart, Jean-Marc Ayrault, to discuss bilateral relations and the issue of the Korean Peninsula.

During the talks, Wang said China is willing to make concerted efforts with France to promote the two countries' comprehensive strategic partnership toward the achievement of new development and add new connotations to this relationship.

He also expounded China's stance on the nuclear tests conducted by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

For his part, Ayrault congratulated China on its successful hosting of the recent summit of leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, saying the meeting between the two countries' heads of state is also a success.

Ayrault voiced appreciation for China's firm stance on and responsible role in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

France stands ready to strengthen communication and coordination with China on the issue, he noted.
Sputnik Press-Office - According to a Sputnik.Polls survey, the majority of people in Germany (74%), France (65%), and Italy (63%) believe that the measures taken by the United States in fighting terrorism after the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001 have not strengthened global security.

Americans were less skeptical about the actions their government has taken to enhance global security: 54% of American respondents said the US is fighting terrorism successfully, 39% disagreed, and 7% were undecided. The poll was conducted by French opinion and marketing research company Ifop on behalf of Sputnik International News Agency and Radio.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001, the United States took measures to strengthen domestic and international security. In particular, Congress passed the Patriot Act which expanded the FBI's authority to collect information about people and companies in the United States and beyond. The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were also part of the American effort to combat global terrorism.

When asked if the US counterterrorism measures taken after 9/11 made the world a safer place; only 20% of Germans, 24% of French people, and 30% of Italians said "Yes". Six percent of respondents in Germany, 11% in France, and 7% in Italy said they were undecided.

The poll was conducted by the oldest French opinion and marketing research company, Ifop, from June 28th to July 4th 2016 in Germany, France, and Italy, and from August 26th to 30th in the United States. Ifop interviewed 4,015 people over the age of 18 years in Germany (1,000 respondents), France (1,004), Italy (1,002) and the United States (1,009), and the samples were representative of each country's population in terms of gender, age, and geography. The confidence interval was +/- 3.1% at 95% confidence.
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Hillary Clinton attends 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York. JUSTIN SULLIVAN / AFP

Hillary Clinton's stumbles as she left Sunday's 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York have put her health at the forefront of the US presidential campaign.

The two major party nominees are among the oldest ever and have disclosed little information about their medical histories.

Clinton "became overheated and dehydrated" at the ground zero event, her doctor said. She left after about 90 minutes, and a video of her departure shows her appearing to stumble as staff members hold her up and help her into a van.

The former secretary of state later emerged from her daughter's nearby apartment, saying she was "feeling great," and her doctor said Clinton had recently been diagnosed with pneumonia and was at home "recovering nicely".

The episode focused attention on the Democratic nominee's health with eight weeks remaining in the election, in which Republican nominee Donald Trump has tried to sow doubt about her health and fitness to serve.

Trump, who also attended Sunday's memorial, said, "I don't know anything," when asked about Clinton.

He has repeatedly questioned Clinton's health, telling supporters last month that she "lacks the mental and physical stamina" to serve as president.

It's an accusation that Clinton has tried to play off as a "wacky strategy."

Trump turned 70 in June; Clinton is 68.

Lisa Bardack, an internist who has been Clinton's personal doctor since 2001, released a letter in July last year that said Clinton was in "excellent physical condition and fit to serve as president".

Trump's gastroenterologist, Harold Bornstein, wrote a letter last year saying Trump would be "the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency".




China's Global Newspaper





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Forty-three years after joining his father on a visit to the Forbidden City, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was welcomed by Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday at the UNESCO World Heritage site as he started an eight-day visit to China.

The wooden chairs and tea tables in traditional Chinese style might have reminded Trudeau of his subsequent private visits to the Forbidden City. On Tuesday, he wore a red tie, a color often interpreted as a token of luck in China, to dine with Li in a rare arrangement at Jianfu Palace inside the Forbidden City.

Trudeau will also visit Shanghai and Hong Kong and attend next week's G20 Leaders Summit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

This is Trudeau's first visit to China since taking office in November. In 1973, his father, Pierre Trudeau, was the first Canadian prime minister to visit Beijing, three years after diplomatic ties were established.

Since the establishment of ties, the two countries have greatly deepened political, economic, trade and people-to-people links, Li said.

China is now Canada's second-largest trade partner, second-biggest source of imports and second-largest export market, and both countries have bright prospects for bilateral relations and cooperation, the premier said.

Both countries advocate diverse cultures, Li added, and China is willing to work with the Canadian government to take bilateral relations to a new stage of development and achieve mutual benefits.

Trudeau said his administration will continue its traditional friendship with China and deepen bilateral relations and all-around pragmatic cooperation to enhance their positive, stable and strong relationship.

In the first 11 months last year, bilateral trade between China and Canada reached $50.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1.6 percent, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Trudeau's private visits to Beijing, including as a toddler with his father 43 years ago, might have influenced his friendly policies toward China, said Ruan Zongze, executive vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies. "His visit is expected to restart relations with China, as the new government wants to expand economic ties and trade with us."

Canadian Ambassador to China Guy Saint-Jacques said, "Our prime minister wants to be very supportive of China and wants to make a success of the summit."

Saint-Jacques said Canada's new government is putting a lot of effort into expanding its relations with China in all fields, including trade and the economy, since Trudeau wants to have "a robust and comprehensive relation with China".

He also said the Canadian government is considering ways to increase trade.

Regarding a free trade agreement between the two countries, the ambassador said there is a lot of work being done to speed up negotiations.

Mo Jingxi contributed to this story.

huyongqi@chinadaily.com.cn

Premier Li Keqiang joins his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau on Tuesday during a visit to the Forbidden City in Beijing. Feng Yongbin / China Daily

(China Daily 08/31/2016 page1)
Premier Li Keqiang meets and holds talks with his visiting Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau in Beijing, Aug 31, 2016. [Photo/provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

China and Canada will establish an annual dialogue between both heads of government to boost bilateral relations and exchanges of views on international affairs, Premier Li Keqiang said while meeting with the visiting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday.

Trudeau is on an eight-day visit to China, which is Canada's second-largest trading partner, and he will attend the G20 Leaders' Summit on Sunday and Monday in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

Both sides agreed to enhance high-level engagement, exchanges and communication based on mutual respect and equality, Li said.

Both countries have great potential for cooperation, especially in high-tech and agricultural fields, Li said. "We agreed to conduct feasibility research for a free trade zone as soon as possible and  safeguard trade liberalization and investment facilitation," he added.

Trudeau said, "Renewing our relationship with China is extremely important for Canada." He also vowed to boost the "stability and regularity" of bilateral relations.

Premier Li Keqiang meets and holds talks with his visiting Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau in Beijing, Aug 31, 2016. [Photo/provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

"China will play a central role in shaping the global landscape in the years to come, and it's in the best of our countries' interest to develop a stronger partnership," Trudeau said.

He said both countries agreed to expand trade and investments in energy, clean technology and agriculture as well as improve people-to-people ties such as tourism and cultural exchanges. Both sides will cooperate in climate change, environmental conservation, judicial training, gender equality and support for the UN peace operations, Trudeau added.

After their meeting, a number of agreements were signed in fields such as education and tourism.

Ruan Zongze, executive vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies, said Trudeau's trip can boost trade and economic cooperation, as well as intensive people-to-people exchanges in forms of tourism and education.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Beijing, Aug 31, 2016.[Photo/Xinhua]

President says Beijing, Ottawa should boost energy, financial and technological cooperation

President Xi Jinping called for linking China's and Canada's development strategies and promoting a series of "landmark projects", while meeting on Wednesday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The president said both countries should strengthen cooperation in fields such as energy, financial services, technological innovation and equipment manufacturing.

Leaders from both countries should maintain exchanges of views and coordination on issues of common concern, Xi added.

Trudeau is on an eight-day visit to China, which is Canada's second-largest trading partner, and he will attend the G20 Leaders Summit in Hangzhou.

Meanwhile, the two countries will establish an annual dialogue between both heads of government to boost bilateral relations and exchanges of views on international affairs, Premier Li Keqiang said while meeting with Trudeau on Wednesday.

Both sides agreed to enhance high-level engagement, exchanges and communication based on mutual respect and equality, Li said.

Both countries have great potential for cooperation, especially in high-tech and agricultural fields, Li said.

"We agreed to conduct feasibility research for a free trade zone as soon as possible and ... safeguard trade liberalization and investment facilitation," he added.

Trudeau said, "Renewing our relationship with China is extremely important for Canada." He also vowed to boost the stability of ties and frequency of meetings.

"China will play a central role in shaping the global landscape in the years to come, and it's in the best of our countries' interest to develop a stronger partnership," Trudeau said.

He said both countries agreed to expand trade and investments in energy, clean technology and agriculture as well as improve people-to-people ties such as tourism and cultural exchanges. Both sides will cooperate in climate change, environmental conservation, judicial training, gender equality and support for the UN peace-keeping operations, Trudeau added.

Ruan Zongze, executive vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies, said Trudeau's trip can boost trade and economic cooperation, as well as intensive people-to-people exchanges such as tourism and education.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is on an eight-day official visit to China, during which he will be seeking to reset a "critical" relationship that was often bumpy during his predecessor's tenure.

He has called it an opportunity to build a closer long-term relationship with China after the "inconstant relations" under the previous government of Stephen Harper, which he said went from "hot to cold depending on the issue, depending on the day".

With this in mind, Trudeau said his government was "looking very favorably" at the possibility of joining the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank when he met with Chinese business leaders on Tuesday, citing his administration's strong belief in the "importance of investing in infrastructure".

On Wednesday in Beijing, Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau confirmed his country would apply to join the AIIB.

Some of Trudeau's domestic critics have claimed the move is simply a bid to curry favor with China. But even though it is a latecomer in seeking to join the bank - the AIIB already has 57 founding members - for Canada, it is a case of better late than never.

In terms of business opportunities, Canada could benefit greatly from membership of the AIIB, which plans to invest $100 billion in infrastructure throughout the region. And joining the AIIB would serve as a stepping stone for Canada to rebuild trust with China, which, once achieved, would usher in the "new era of positive collaboration" Trudeau hopes to cement with Canada's second largest trading partner.

Trudeau, who brought his daughter on the trip, said he hopes to pass along "friendship and the openness towards China" not only to his own children, but to future generations of Canadians, and if his goal of renewing his country's openness toward China is realized, there are big opportunities for the two countries to tap.

The huge Chinese market, with the world's biggest and ever-growing middle class, offers plenty of opportunities for Canadian companies, while Chinese entrepreneurs, with ambitious overseas investment strategies, will undoubtedly make Canada's agriculture, energy and culture sectors investment targets, further contributing to the bilateral trade on which half a million Canadian jobs are dependent.

Trudeau's visit has already achieved some positive outcomes, as reflected in the agreement over their spat about canola imports from Canada. Now the two countries should try and forge stronger and deeper relations and advance their discussions on their proposed free trade agreement.
China lawyers love China business licenses and we frequently use them to make sure the signing party to a China contract actually exists and is an officially registered entity. We also love them because they are often a fast and cheap treasure trove of helpful information. Reviewing a China business license is usually the first thing we do by way of due diligence in most China deals.

The below is an email from one of my firms China attorneys to a client, explaining what we were able to garner from the China business license of a Chinese WFOE our client was interested in purchasing.

Company name: _____________.

No English language equivalent is given in the documents (which is unusual), but this translates as _____________(Beijing) International Trading Company Limited.

Company address: Beijing City, Dongcheng District, ________Number ____, Unit ____.

This is a prestigious location in the center of the highend retail/office district.

Registered Capital: $600,000 US.

The amount is relatively high because high registered capital is typically required for trading companies. A Chinese CPA must verify all registered capital contributions. You should obtain a copy of the verification. Note also that all WFOEs must undergo an annual audit and file an annual tax return. We should obtain a copy of the audit and the filed tax return(s).

Representative Director: ____________

This person has primary authority for all company operations. We should ensure that you have complete control over this person together with the company seals/chops, bank accounts/bankcards and primary company documents. We should also immediately determine 1) who is the general manager and 2) who are the members of the board of directors.

Formation date: __/__/2011. Inspected and approved: __/__/2012.

It is good that the company has been formally inspected. It means someone is trying to follow proper procedure.

Scope of Business: Wholesale for various consumer goods; financial and business management; import and export of goods and technology, including exportimport agency.

This is a very broad scope of business that allows you to do consulting business in addition to trading. This is somewhat unusual and is a very good thing for you since it maximizes the flexibility of the WFOE. However, this scope of business does NOT allow the WFOE to operate as an advertising agency (see discussion below). On the other hand, the existing scope of business allows you to advise your customers on where and how they should place advertising and you can charge a fee for the service. You can also act as an intermediary in arranging with an advertising agency for placement. However, you cannot contract directly place the advertising. Only an advertising agency can do that.

Shareholder: _______________Holding Company.

This appears to be the proper shareholder.

Advertising Agency Issue. Here is a brief review of the advertising agency rules. To place advertising in China, a company must be a licensed advertising agency. Foreign companies are permitted to form a wholly foreign owned advertising agency but the rules for doing so are quite strict. The primary rule is that you must prove that 85% of your income over the last 3 years comes from advertising. How you prove this is not stated in the rules. There are also special rules related to staffing and registered capital that add extra burdens.

The main issue, however, is the one I raised above. You cannot simply amend your current scope of business to add operation as an advertising agency as an additional item within the scope. Instead, you must form an entirely separate company, with a separate office address, staff, registered capital and the rest. As we discussed, you can, of course, enter into contracts between your Chinese entities that would allow you to offer an integrated package of services to your customers. But beneath that integrated package you will need to maintain a strict separation between the entities. Thus the person who formed the existing WFOE trading company did not make a mistake with respect to the scope of business. Rather, no one has taken the additional step of forming the additional company that would act as an advertising agency in China.
(Photo : Getty Images.) Chinas BYD Auto Co. has supplied London with Europes biggest all-electric bus fleet.

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China's electric car manufacturer BYD Auto Co on Friday unveiled 51 new single-decker electric buses in London. The company claims that these buses are Europe's biggest all-electric bus fleet till date, which would help London to curb its CO2 emissions.



China Daily reported that the launch ceremony was attended by London's Deputy Mayor Val Shawcross, who is also responsible for looking after city's transportation facilities. The 51 buses would be managed by London's transportation service company Go Ahead. The company would operate these buses primarily on two routes; 507 route linking Waterloo with Victoria and 521 route connecting Waterloo and London Bridge.



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BYD supplied two single-decker buses to Go Ahead three years ago, which gave better-than-expected performance in reliability and consistency. The bus ran a 16-hour shift at a stretch without a single recharge. BYD is also in the process of testing the world's first pure electric double-decker fleet of five buses. The trail project is being conducted in partnership with London bus operator Metroline.



BYD Auto is one of the primary players in China's fast-growing electronic car market. The company, which is backed by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, reported a jump of 384 percent in its net profit last month. It faces fierce competition from American electric car giant Tesla, which has been aggressively working to consolidate its presence in China's electric car market.



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(Photo : Getty images) A bridge collapses in China

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A bridge collapsed, leaving workers missing and damaging properties estimated to be worth millions in Jiangxi, China at 9:00 am on Sunday.



The incident occurred while the bridge was being demolished to pave the way for another bridge around the same region.



A group of eight workers fell into the river. Five were recovered and immediately rushed to the hospital, and three are still missing.



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"I was driving an escavator when the floor of the bridge suddenly collapsed. I lost all consciousness after the fall," said Hu Qihua, one of the five recovered workers.



Two of the workers were left in a critical condition as they suffered massive bone fractures. The two, Shan Yongkun, 27, and Huang Yong, 32, still count their blessings after the incident



Police officers and rescuers are still looking for the missing workers.



About three trucks were buried under the chaotic scene while five were secured with three still missing.



Some have raised questions about why the workers were at the site on a Sunday and how many they were in total.



The incident left many bystanders in shock as they stopped their vehicles and motorcycles to stare at the whole massacre.



A CCTV surveillance camera captured the whole incident.



Investigations are still ongoing into what might have caused the incident.



The 828-meter-long bridge was finished in the 1990s. An inspection showed that the bridge needed repairs in late 2012. Rennovations had kicked off in August.



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(Photo : GettyImages/GuangNiu) The 13th China-ASEAN Expo features over 2,500 companies from 29 countries.

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The city of Nanning in Guangxi province is hosting the 13th China-ASEAN Expo as well as the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit.



The Expo has attracted over 2,500 companies from 29 countries. It seeks to boost economic and trade relationship between ASEAN countries. The expo is themed "Jointly building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, Forging an Even Closer China-ASEAN Community of Common Destiny."



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The expo started with an opening address from Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli. "Among ASEANs' dialogue partners, China was the first to establish a strategic partnership with ASEAN and has established a cooperative partnership with each and every ASEAN member states," he said.



The expo includes 5,800 booths - up by 12,000 from the last event. According to Business Standard, the expo also hosts more than 30 forums. These forums are meant to inspire cooperation between China and ASEAN in various areas including tourism, transport, culture and education. ASEAN are China's third-largest trading partner while China is ASEAN's largest customer.



About 29 countries (including the 10 ASEAN members) are participating in the expo. Other countries such as India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan are also participating in the expo. China is looking to strengthen its bilateral ties with ASEAN. During his opening speech, Zhang proposed that both the parties should work towards implementing the 2+7 Cooperation Framework for promoting inclusive development.



The ASEAN region presents a market with over 600 million people and is an attractive market for information technology and power businesses.



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TagsNanning, ASEAN, Zhang Gaoli, China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit
(Photo : GettyImages/Wang He) Alibaba is planning to boost its presence in Southeast Asia.

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E-commerce giant Alibaba is planning to boost its presence in member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).



Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 13th China-ASEAN Expo on Sunday, Alibaba founder and chairman Jack Ma stated that the company would "participate in the development of local small- and medium-sized enterprises and young people." The expo is being held in Nanning, Guangxi province. It would run from Sunday to Wednesday.



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Ma is currently charting a global course for his business. Over the last couple of months, Alibaba has increasingly gained clout and foothold in diverse markets. According to Xinhua, Ma has stated that world trade and the global economy would benefit greatly from the participation of young people. He stressed that small businesses should form an integral part of the ongoing globalization process.



Ma's focus on ASEAN investment is likely to attract wide attention. Earlier this year, Alibaba acquired a controlling stake in Singapore-based Lazada Group. The deal was estimated to be worth $1 billion. Lazada is an e-commerce company and is active in six countries including Indonesia, Vietnam, and Singapore. The company also operates in Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia.



Alibaba has received a positive response from ASEAN countries. According to Global Times, Indonesian President Joko Widodo asked Ma to act as an e-commerce adviser on a government committee while visiting Alibaba's offices in Zhejiang Province.



China and ASEAN have strong trade ties. In the past 25 years, the volume of trade between both sides has grown by 58 times. However, the first eight months of this year showed some cooling in the trend with a 7.3 percent drop on a year-on-year basis.



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TagsAlibaba, Jack Ma, Joko Widodo, Lazada Group
(Photo : Getty Images) Political and military analysts say China is far from punishing North Korea for its latest nuclear test

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Despite repeated calls from the United States for China to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test on Friday, political and military analysts said Beijing cannot afford to rein in Pyongyang citing the grim alternative it would face if the North Korean regime collapses.



Shi Yinhong, a professor of International Relations at Renmin University in Beijing, said the US cannot rely on China to reverse the course of the North or pressure it to abandon its nuclear program. He said China would rather live with a nuclear-armed nation on its border than bear the chaos of a collapsed North Korea.



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Chinese analysts said the North relies heavily on China for food and oil, and Beijing is not about to cut its ties with Pyongyang.



Oil and food



"The United States cannot rely on China for North Korea," said Shi adding that "China is closer to North Korea than the United States."



Shi said the Chinese leadership is confident that the North's nuclear weapons would not be aimed at China and that as long as Beijing continues to supply Pyongyang with oil and food, it would be able to control its neighbor.



Political analysts said Beijing faces grim scenarios if China slaps sanctions on Pyongyang such as the piling of North Korean refugees to China and the eventual creation of a unified Korean Peninsula under a US defense treaty.



Worst case scenario



South Korea recently said it is preparing for the "worst-case scenario" and that its military is in place to defend itself against the North's nuclear test including targeting its leader, Kim Jong-un.



Washington and Seoul have agreed to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system on South Korean soil in 2017 to counter North Korea's nuclear tests.



China has vehemently opposed the agreement saying it would destabilize the peace and security in the region and that the anti-missile system might later be used to target on Beijing.



Political analysts said Beijing has become "lukewarm" in cooperating with the United Nations and the US in working on the denuclearization of Pyongyang with the THAAD deployment in Seoul.



US Defense Secretary Ash Carter has been quoted saying that China bears "great responsibility" for North Korea's nuclear test as it urged Beijing to use its influence and double its pressure on the isolated nation to halt its nuclear tests.



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(Photo : Getty Images) Some of the Schwarzmann Scholars

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Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a letter on Sept. 9 congratulating the opening of the new Schwarzman College (Sushimin Shuyuan) at the Tsinghua University in Beijing. The college will be home to the "Schwarzman Scholars."



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U.S. President Barack Obama also sent a letter congratulating the opening of the college.



The "Schwarzman Scholars" is an international scholarship program set-up by American billionaire Stephen Schwarzman to bring China and the United States closer together. Schwarzman is CEO and co-founder of the Blackstone Group, the largest alternative investment firm in the world that specializes in private equity, credit and hedge fund investment strategies.



Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong attended the launch of the scholarship at Tsinghua University. The first group of 110 Schwarzman Scholars comes from 70 colleges in 32 countries.



The program covers all expenses for students in a one-year master's degree program that will also emphasize cultural immersion, travel around China and efforts to grasp and understand China's economy and its status as a rising superpower.



Chosen from more than 3,000 applicants, the Schwarzman Scholars represent 32 countries, with 44 percent coming from the United States and 21 percent from China. The program hopes eventually to provide support for as many as 200 scholars annually.



Scholars will live at the Schwarzman College, a building designed by Robert A.M. Stern, dean of Yale University's architecture school. The college was based on residential buildings at Yale, Harvard, Oxford and other elite schools.



Schwarzman said the program had sought out students that were talented, creative and insightful, with strong leadership and communications skills. The scholars are drawn from the sciences, business and even the military.



He said the scholars will go on to be "people of influence" who can explain China to the world and the world to China.



"In a world of populism and strong views on the Internet, there need to be people who can explain such complex issues," said Schwarzman.



Schwarzman said the program fit perfectly with Xi's call to elevate at least two Chinese universities into the top global rankings in coming years.



The Schwarzman Scholars aims for an endowment of $300 million, of which $200 million has been raised from private sources. This total includes a $100 million gift from Schwarzman.



Liu called on the Schwarzman College to cultivate youth with broad vision, excellent capability, responsibility and leadership. She hopes the first group of Schwarzman scholars will promote cultural exchanges between China and other countries, and cooperate to face the global challenges.



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TagsSchwarzman College, Schwarzman Scholars, Tsinghua University, Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone Group, Xi Jinping, Barack Obama
(Photo : Getty Images) A satellite image of the Senkaku Islands located in the East of China on April 01, 2016 in Japan. The area is controlled by Japan but currently disputed by China and Taiwan

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Four Chinese vessels entered the territorial waters surrounding the disputed East China Sea islands, Japan's Coast Guard said on Sunday.



The four coastguard vessels sailed into the waters near the disputed islets at approximately 10:30 am and departed about an hour and a half later after being asked to leave, according to Sputnik News.



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Japan and China have been locked in a territorial dispute over the uninhabited East China Sea islands, known as the Senkaku islands by Japan and claimed as Diaoyu by China, with both countries claiming the islands as their own.



This comes a week after Chinese President Xi Jinping told Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that both countries should "put aside disruptions" and Japan should "exercise caution" on territorial disputes when the two met at the G20 summit.



Japan has repeatedly protested that China is escalating tensions by regularly sending ships to the disputed islands in spite of several warnings from Tokyo. Last month, Japan's coast guard also released video footage showing several Chinese vessels approaching the Senkaku islands.



The latest incident comes at a time when tensions are high in the region after North Korea carried out its fifth and most powerful nuclear test on Friday (Sept. 9), infuriating its neighbors and the international community.



Japan, U.S. and South Korea are counting on China, which is one of North Korea's few allies, to convince Pyongyang to adhere to UN sanction resolutions.



Tokyo is boosting defence ties with Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries, some of which are involved in territorial disputes with Beijing over the South China Sea.



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TagsJapan, china, East China Sea, Senkaku Islands, Japan coast guard, Diaoyu Islands, East China Sea dispute, South China Sea
(Photo : Getty images) A drug trafficker waits for his conviction verdict in a court during a public sentencing.

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The Chinese government has defended the country's judicial system, arguing that the death penalty sentence is rarely pronounced on suspects.





In a Monday report titled 'New Progress in the Judicial Protection of Human Rights in China,' the Chinese government noted that authorities "strictly control the death penalty and employ it with prudence."



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According to the Xinhua, the report explained that the country had made improvements in its judicial system.



The current judicial system allows the death penalty only for a handful of offenses including treason, spying, arson, rape, separatism, murder, robbery, and human trafficking. This was after a revision led to the removal of some of the offenses that were punishable by death including smuggling of arms and ammunition, counterfeiting currency, forcing others into prostitution, and obstructing military personnel in the performance of their duty.



In the report, the government stated that "special actions" need to be taken to combat human trafficking especially in areas where women and children are concerned.



The number of people executed in China is considered a national secret. Amnesty International, however, suggests that China executes a greater number than the rest of the world, which was adding up to 1634 in 2015.



"Available information indicates that thousands of people are executed and sentenced to death in China each year," Amnesty International stated.



Human rights groups argue that often a death sentence is issued in China following an unfair trial where confessions are obtained through torture.



Since he took power, President Xi Jinping has worked on ensuring that the judicial system restores public confidence in the ruling Communist Party while doing away with wrongful convictions.



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Tagschina, Amnesty International, Human Rights, Death Sentece
(Photo : PAF) FA-50PH jets of the Philippine Air Force.

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The Philippines' plan to buy 12 more FA-50PH light attack fighter jets from South Korea to arm the Philippine Air Force (PAF) is being threatened by President Rodrigo Duterte's low regard for this aircraft, and his maniacal obsession with stamping out the Philippines' drug problem by the end of this year.



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In 2012, the Philippine Air Force (PAF) chose to purchase 12 two-seater TA-50 jets developed by the South Korean aerospace firm Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) along with the American aerospace company Lockheed Martin.



The 12 jets, which were renamed FA-50PH, were selected to fulfill the PAF's need for a light attack jet and a two-seat Lead-in Flight Trainer (LIFT), which is a fast but easy-to-fly jet intended to prepare Filipino pilots for jets such as the F-16 Flying Falcon the air force intends to purchase later on.



The PAF doesn't consider the FA-50H an air-superiority fighter because it lacks the range to operate over the South China Sea. The fighters on order haven't been prepared to launch medium-and long-range air-to-air missiles essential against the Russian-made jets operated by the People's Liberation Army Air Force.



The more immediate combat role for the jet is ground-attack and anti-shipping since it can launch precision-guided munitions.



The jet was also acquired to allow Filipino pilots to train in flying a modern jet fighter with sophisticated avionics and weapons systems. The PAF retired its last fighter jet -- the Northrop F-5 -- in 2005. The FA-50PH is the first step in a long-term plan to modernize the PAF.



This plan, and with it the Philippines' plan to mount a credible defense against China, is in jeopardy because of Duterte's mania for making hasty and misinformed comments without any apparent reference to data.



Duterte's opposition also endangers the Philippines' plans to acquire 12 more FA-50s provided for by the PAF Flight Plan 2028. The Philippines has now taken delivery of four FA-50s with the remaining eight jets to be delivered before the end of 2017. The first two TA-50s are being used for initial training and familiarization.



Duterte questioned the decision by former president Benigno Simeon Aquino to buy the FA-50PH jets from South Korea. The jets, costing a total of $406 million, are the most expensive acquisitions under the Philippine armed forces' modernization program.



The first two jets were delivered to the Philippines in November 2015. The 10 other jets are to arrive before the end of the year. The jets are the first new fighters to arm the badly equipped air force in 40 years.



Duterte, who was the former mayor of Davao City that was plagued by both the Muslim and communist insurgencies, said the jets can't be used to fight the rebels. In a fit of irrational pique, he said the two FA-50s delivered to the Air Force can't challenge China. The jets are only good for ceremonial fly-bys, said the uncomprehending Duterte.



"We only have what two FA-50s? Why did you buy that?" asked Duterte, apparently ignorant of the 12 jets the Philippines bought.



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TagsPhilippines, FA-50PH, South Korea, Rodrigo Duterte, Philippine Air Force, Korea Aerospace Industries, South China Sea, Benigno Simeon Aquino
(Photo : Getty Images ) China held U.S. responsible for North Korea's recent nuclear test.

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China has hit back at the United States after Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Beijing is responsible for North Korea's latest nuclear test. On Monday, Chinese foreign ministry said the United States has a responsibility to provide effective solutions to the North Korean nuclear issue.



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Beijing also held Washington responsible for the current situation in the peninsula saying the conflict between North Korea and the United States is the core of the North Korean nuclear issue.



"The cause and crux of the Korean nuclear issue rest with the US rather than China. The core of the issue is the conflict between the DPRK and the US," the ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Monday. "It is the US who should reflect upon how the situation has become what it is today, and search for an effective solution. The US should shoulder its due responsibilities."



"China shares important responsibility for this development and has an important responsibility to reverse it," Carter said on Friday.



Last week, the Democratic People' Republic of Korea (DPRK) conducted a test at the country's northern nuclear test site. It was North Korea's second nuclear test this year and fifth since 2006. China, the United States, South Korea, Japan, and United Nations Security Council (UNSC) denounced the communist state's latest nuclear test.



South Korean intelligence officials claimed on Monday that North Korea is ready for another nuclear test.



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Black Americans should convert to Islam says Al-Qaeda leader 12 September, 2016 by Gregory Tomlin , |

NEW YORK (Christian Examiner)  Ayman al-Zawahiri, who became the leader of al-Qaeda after Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy Seals, celebrated the 15th anniversary of the terror group's Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Flight 93 with a call for black Americans to turn to Islam.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reports that al-Zawahiri appeared in a 20-minute address recalling the attacks and, after excoriating the U.S. as the source of the world's evils, said the American system of just will never be reformed to give equal treatment to minorities. The video was also accompanied by an archival clip of Malcolm X speaking.

We inform every weakened [person] in the world: America is the source of calamity and the head of evil in this world. It is the one that humiliates the Africans [African Americans] until this day, and no matter how much they try to reform and obtain their rights according to the law and the [U.S.] Constitution, they will not attain it, for the law is in the hands of the white majority, [who] control it as they wish. And [African Americans] will not be saved but by Islam.

Malcolm X was once part of the Nation of Islam, now led by Louis Farrakhan, but was "put out" after a dispute with its leader Elijah Muhammad. He claimed Elijah Muhammad was the father of eight illegitimate children by six different teenage girls who were his "private personal secretaries." He was later assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam for the allegation.

"We inform every weakened [person] in the world: America is the source of calamity and the head of evil in this world," al-Zawahiri said. "It is the one that humiliates the Africans [African Americans] until this day, and no matter how much they try to reform and obtain their rights according to the law and the [U.S.] Constitution, they will not attain it, for the law is in the hands of the white majority, [who] control it as they wish. And [African Americans] will not be saved but by Islam."

In the video released by al-Sahab, al-Qaeda's media arm, al-Zawahiri memorializes the Sept. 11 hijackers for the "blessed raids" that used planes to kill 3,000 Americans in New York and Washington, D.C. He also confirmed that the White House or the U.S. Capitol, home to what he called "the biggest criminals," was the fourth intended target for the day. Those sites were spared when passengers revolted on United Flight 93, which the terrorists crashed in Pennsylvania.

He also said the attacks were meant to be a wakeup call for Americans.

"The events of 9/11 were a direct result of your crimes against us, your crimes in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Mali, Somalia, Yemen, Islamic Maghreb, and Egypt [and] the result of your occupation of Muslim lands, theft of their resources, and support for the murderous corrupt criminals, who rule over them," al-Zawahiri said.

Al-Zawahiri then claimed the tragedy of Sept. 11 would be repeated "thousands of times, by the will of Allah" if the U.S. did not withdraw from the Muslim world. He said Muslims should concentrate on bringing the fight to American soil and to the lands belonging to U.S. allies.

They should also, he said, be wary of Muslim movements  such as the Salafists (the Islamic State or ISIS)  that emerged during the Arab Spring. He called those movements "sheep" and agents of the U.S. that have sought to divide the Muslim world.

On his Facebook page Sept. 11, Louis Farrakhan  who has called for "10,000 fearless blacks" to "stalk and kill" whites  posted a video claiming the attacks were not committed by Muslims or Arabs.

"It is now becoming apparent that there were many Israelis and Zionist Jews in key roles in the 9-11 attacks," Farrakhan said. "If they can prove me wrong, like I said, I'll pay with my life, since they want to kill me anyway."
Archbishop: Aussie church may have to accept gay marriage, but not as 'holy matrimony' 12 September, 2016 by Gregory Tomlin , |

MELBOURNE (Christian Examiner)  The head of the Anglican faithful in Australia has written a letter to the church claiming it eventually may have to accept the federal government's redefinition of marriage, but the church will not change its doctrine to align with the change.

Archbishop Philip Freier wrote the letter to the church because of the public debate that would occur over the issue of same-sex marriage if parliament authorized a nationwide "plebiscite vote" on the issue.

That means the people would debate the issue and vote to illustrate whether or not they want parliament to enact same-sex marriage. Plebiscite votes, however, are non-binding and would still leave a change in law up to the members of parliament. The vote is more a barometer of public opinion than anything else.

The doctrine of the Book of Common Prayer remains unchanged, that marriage is between a man and a woman, under God, forsaking all others until death parts them. I do not believe that the Anglican Church in Australia is likely to revise its doctrine of marriage.

Approval of same-sex marriage is not a change conservatives want, so they have already opposed several bills that would have changed the law. They also do not want to see the plebiscite vote take place.

Ironically, LGBT advocacy groups also do not want to see the issue debated among the Australian public. They instead want parliament to make the change to align Australia with 21 other countries that have legalized same-sex marriage. The United States is one, though the right to same-sex marriage was created by the U.S. Supreme Court instead of by Congress.

LGBT advocates said recently that a plebiscite vote, which would follow a long public debate on the matter, would harm gays, lesbians and others because of the campaign of "vitriol and prejudice" they would face.

In the letter, Archbishop Freier claims Anglicans should expect the government will eventually hold a plebiscite as a basis for later passing a bill to authorize same-sex marriage, but in reality it already has enacted numerous protections for people in same-sex relationships. Those relationships may not be official, but they are "de facto" relationships similar to marriage, he wrote.

Freier wrote that he supports the proposed plebiscite vote to give Australians a chance to voice their positions on the matter of same-sex marriage, which he called "one of the more contentious topics in 2016."

"If the plebiscite does happen it will be important that Christians  and others  vote according to their conscience and their view of what is best for society, and that the Government brings legislation to enact the will of the people. It is proper to expect that the Parliament should honor the results of the plebiscite," Freier wrote.

Freier believes a plebiscite vote would go in favor of same-sex marriage, based on recent opinion polls, but he said the church "can still stand for and offer holy matrimony between a man and a woman as a sacred ordinance given by God, while accepting that the state has endorsed a wider view of marriage  as, indeed, the state has endorsed de facto relationships by legislating similar protections to those offered by marriage for people in such relationships."

Freier said the Book of Common Prayer, first developed in the 16th century but modified throughout the years, would maintain its definition of marriage, and that is "between a man and a woman, under God, forsaking all others until death parts them. I do not believe that the Anglican Church in Australia is likely to revise its doctrine of marriage."

Like LGBT advocates, public discourse is something the archbishop wrote of as a concern. He said he wants to avoid "harsh or vilifying" language and also said the church should demonstrate pastoral care for those who are gay or lesbian.

"We understand that this is not a theoretical issue for many people, but one that directly impinges on their lives. We understand that sometimes gays, lesbians and others have felt judged and rejected, even ostracized, inside the Church and that we have to be much more pastorally sensitive in the future," Freier wrote.

"Whether this is the threshold event that many in our church think or whether the widening of marriage happened many years ago and further widening is inevitable remains to be seen. What does matter is that we approach this question with prayer, confidence in the Church's teaching as well as kindness in our speech towards those with whom we disagree."
A couple of Christian groups are advocating for the creation of a homeland of security and refuge for persecuted Christians in the Middle East.

According to ChristianToday.com, the Philos Project and In Defense of Christians are partnering together in working to establish a safe haven for Christians who have been persecuted and displaced in the Middle East, due to the Syrian civil war and terrorist groups such as ISIS.

Advocates for persecuted Christians recently gathered in Washington, D.C. to raise awareness about the genocide Middle East Christians are facing and to put forth possible solutions to this crisis.

Robert Nicholson, president of the Philos Project and the keynote speaker at the event, stated, "We all feel the temptation to stay out of it and mind our own business... But minding our business is simply not an option.

"Everyone wants to help Christians with aid, but until now there has been no structure through which to deliver it  no address to mail the check," Nicholson continued. "Christians in the Middle East will only be safe when they have a protected homeland, a foundation on which to build their shattered society.

Some critics say establishing a homeland in the Middle East for persecuted Christians is not feasible, but advocates point to the success of this concept with other countries.

"History has shown us various examples of this concept working in practice, of minority peoples under existential threat surviving and thriving by securing territory: Israel, Armenia, Iraqi Kurdistan, even (to a far less satisfactory degree) Native American reservations in the U.S.," Nicholson said.

Publication date: September 12, 2016
New Yorks highest court changed the definition of parenthood in September to include former partners with no biological or adoptive tie to a child.



The decision by the New York Court of Appeals overturns a 25-year-old definition restricting parenthood to a biological or adoptive person. The new definition expands the term parent to include caretakers who initially agreed to conceive and raise a child. Under the ruling, if an unmarried same-sex couple with children splits, the non-biological partner has a right to the children just like the biological partner.



The court said the previous definition was unworkable when applied to increasingly varied familial relationships.



But the ruling also applies to unmarried heterosexual couples who conceive through artificial insemination, and critics say it might open the door to individuals with no close ties to a child dragging a biological parent into court to fight for visitation and custody rights. It also means marriage or adoption is no longer necessary to establish parental rights.



The previous definition, established in 1991, set a clear delineation: parenthood comes through biology or adoption only. The court then said such a specific definition was needed to promote certainty in the wake of domestic breakups, according to The Wall Street Journal.



But the New York court said such certainty was inadvertently separating children from persons who had acted as a parent.



The court ruled on two specific cases, both involving former lesbian couples. In both cases the couples agreed to conceive a child but later split up. The biological mothers took full custody and eventually cut off contact between the children and their former partners. In the first case, the non-biological partner sued for custody and visitation rights. Lower courts ruled the partner had no right to the child. In the second case, the biological mother wanted child support from her former partner without allowing custody and visitation rights.



This ruling allows both former partners to petition for parental rights in lower courts.



Where a partner shows by clear and convincing evidence that the parties agreed to conceive a child and to raise the child together, the non-biological, non-adoptive partner has standing to seek visitation and custody under Domestic Relations Law, Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam wrote in the majority opinion. The court specifically said the ruling did not apply to couples co-parenting a child who did not have an agreement in place before conception, leaving the door open for future court decisions in those situations.



LGBT advocates applauded the decision.



Finally, New York is bringing its law in line with the reality of thousands of children who need protection for their relationships, Susan L. Sommer, attorney for one of the partners, told The Wall Street Journal. No longer is there some harsh, absolute bar.



Other states, including Maryland, Colorado, Texas, and New Jersey, have already moved to expand the definition of parenthood. The Massachusetts high court is expected to issue a decision in a similar case soon.



But critics say changing what it means to be a parent further muddies the water surrounding marriage and children.



Moving away from the limited definition of families as being formed by marriage, biology, or adoption is a move in the direction of the further deconstruction of the family as an institution, said Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at the Family Research Council. Granting greater power to the government to define or even create family or parental relationships, meanwhile, is a move toward concentrating greater societal power in the hands of the state across the board.

Courtesy: WORLD News Service

Publication date: September 12, 2016
A United Methodist pastor in Charlotte, N.C., who performed a same-sex wedding earlier this year against the rules of her church is escaping without punishment.



The Rev. Val Rosenquists overseeing body, the Western North Carolina Conference, admitted in a Sept. 6 statement she will keep her position as pastor and will not face a church trial. The decision reflects the ongoing United Methodist battle between recognizing same-sex marriage and preserving the precepts of holiness put in place by founder John Wesley.



Over the last 4 1/2 years there has been a building movement  to disregard the churchs biblical teaching on human sexuality, said the Rev. Tom Lambrecht, the vice president of the conservative Methodist Good News Magazine. This is just part of that.



Methodists in Rosenquists area immediately filed complaints to the conference after the wedding. She performed it in the church, wearing her robes, and joining the hands of the two men before the altar. The conferences statement promised a just resolution, officially defined as a focus on repairing harm, had been reached between the people who filed the complaints and Rosenquist. The conference has sealed the specific wording of the resolution until 2018.



Lambrecht suggested the conference refused to put Rosenquist on trial because of the fear it would cause controversy and help unofficially define a Methodist position on gay marriage.



The people who are in charge of the institutional church would like to prevent conflict, he said. I think it is also a matter of the fact that we are in a kind of uncertainty.



The United Methodist Church has been debating the issue for years. Rosenquist is not the first pastor who has broken the rules.



Frank Schaefer, a former pastor in Pennsylvania, presided at his sons same-sex wedding in 2007 and lost his job under church discipline. He was told he could keep his clergy credentials if he recanted his support for gay marriage, and he refused.



In 2014, a New York bishop publicly dropped a case against a dean who officiated at a same-sex wedding. In response, 80 conservative Methodist pastors signed a statement suggesting a split in the church.



We define salvation differently. We define the churchs mission differently, Lambrecht said. For us to stay together would be for us to be working against each other.



Conservatives stopped a bill possibly revising United Methodist policy on same-sex marriage at the General Conference in May. Instead, the church decided to call a new session in 2018 specifically to discuss this issue.

Courtesy: WORLD News Service

Publication date: September 12, 2016
Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Kaine recently gave a speech in which he said his Roman Catholic faith is not at odds with his support of gay marriage.

The Virginia Senator spoke at the Human Rights Campaigns annual Washington, D.C. dinner. According to The Christian Post, in his speech, Kaine referenced Genesis 1 to argue that his support of LGBT rights does not conflict with Scripture and his Christian faith.

Kaine also stated that he believes the Catholic Churchs stance toward gay marriage will eventually change.

"I think it's going to change because my church also teaches me about a creator who surveys the entire world, including mankind, and said it is very good, he said.

Dr. Michael Brown, a conservative Christian author and radio host, disputed Kaines claim that the LGBT agenda is consistent with the Bible and Christian faith in an article published on Stream.org.

Brown said that Genesis 1 does the exact opposite of supporting Kaines assertion that God sanctions homosexual relations.

Sir, although you will find no support for your position anywhere in the Bible, the worst place you can go to argue your case is Genesis, wrote Brown, noting that in Genesis 1, God creates only two genders.

Brown also notes that Genesis 1 takes place before the fall.

As for Kaines argument that when the Creator surveyed the entire world, including mankind [He] said, It is very good,  meaning that homosexuality and bisexuality and more are all good  he seems to have forgotten that very good was Gods description of His creation before the fall, when sin entered the world.

Kaine also referenced a popular statement by Pope Francis when the Pope said Who am I to judge? when questioned about those who live a homosexual lifestyle.

However, Brown also notes that the Popes entire statement was If someone is same-sex attracted and wants to be part of the Church, who am I to judge? which Brown argues is very different than condoning a homosexual lifestyle.

Publication date: September 12, 2016
Zimbabwes Human Rights Commission has accused the ruling party of withholding food aid from opposition supporters amid mass starvation triggered by the countrys worst drought in years.



The commission said its investigation, conducted between May and August this year, confirmed that some opposition supporters in five constituencies could not access the governments food aid program.



There was unbridled maladministration on the part of some public officials who were allegedly performing their duties partially and with bias against persons of particular political affiliations, the commissions chairman, Elasto Mugwadi, told journalists in a press conference.



Some 2 million Zimbabweans annually require food aid due to poor harvests in the mainly dry regions. But the El Nino weather patterns beginning last year resulted in a severe drought across southern Africa. Nearly 5 million people in Zimbabwe now require food assistance.



Mugwadi said some community leaders and councilors belonging to President Robert Mugabes political party openly told opposition supporters in some districts they would never receive food aid. In some other areas, the leaders excluded people perceived as opposition supporters from food-for-work programs. The commission said the leaders manipulated some community members who were unaware of the food distribution criteria.



This is uncalled for, resident Abiot Moyo told The Zimbabwean. We are a community in danger of starving and should not be faced with the politicization of food distribution.



Mugabe has denied the claims. Earlier this year when the charges first surfaced, Mugabe said, We might differ on policies but when we talk of food, all of us should be served.



The accusation violates the United Nations Principles on Fundamental Human Rights, which guarantee freedom from hunger. The commission called on officials to remain unbiased in their service and asked the countrys authorities to investigate and prosecute all those guilty of human rights violations.



The government must ensure that public officials act in their official capacity and desist from using political affiliation as yardsticks in any food aid, the commission said.

Courtesy: WORLD News Service

Publication date: September 12, 2016
'He Will Always Be a Hero': Teen Dies after Jumping in Front of Speeding SUV to Save His Sister
The US and Russia agreed upon a ceasefire plan for Syria, which will be effective from the evening of September 12. The deal proposes a 48-hour truce, which can then be extended for the whole week.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov brokered the deal during a 13-hour meeting in Geneva on September 9.

The new plan has five documents, which lay out steps to secure humanitarian aid delivery, improve cooperation, assist in the political process, and ensure compliance with the ceasefire.

The negotiations aim to foster lasting peace, to launch a joint operation against ISIS and other extremist groups, to separate Syrian rebel forces from terrorist groups, and a cessation of hostilities between the Syrian government and the rebel forces.

The deal also proposes the Syrian Arab Air Force to stop flying planes over regions with a limited opposition presence. The US has also promised to weaken an al-Qaeda affiliate and terrorist organization known as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham which has joined forces with some of the US-backed opposition rebel groups, according to Al Jazeera.

The leaders were cautious about the scope of the deal, but said that this is the best agreement which has yet been arrived at in the last five years of war which has claimed over 400,000 lives.

"No one is building this based on trust," Kerry said. "It is based on oversight, compliance, mutual interest. This is an opportunity, and not more than that until it becomes a reality."

The ceasefire takes effect on the day Muslims celebrate Eid al-Adha, and the halt in fighting will allow humanitarian organizations to take the aid to war-torn pockets of the Syrian cities.

Syria's High Negotiations Committee (HNC), which represents the opposition groups, said that they have accepted the deal, and that it was up to Russia to get the Syrian regime to comply with it.

However, Lavrov said that some of the rebel groups are hesitating to carry the peace deal forward, which may make it difficult to deliver humanitarian aid to Aleppo.

The new deal hopes to unite the US and Russia and other fighting groups in Syria against ISIS and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday and was put on antibiotics and recommended by her doctor to rest and modify her schedule, according to The New York Times. She had abruptly left the 9/11 memorial held at ground zero in New York on Sunday morning after feeling dehydrated.

Her spokesman Nick Merrill said that Clinton attended the ceremony for about an hour-and-a-half after which "she felt overheated so departed to go to her daughter's apartment, and is feeling much better."

After about an hour and 45 minutes at her daughter Chelsea's home, she came out waving to the onlookers and reporters.

"I'm feeling great," she said. "It's a beautiful day in New York."

The temperature in the city at the time was in higher 70s, with moderate to high humidity.

The same day, her physician, Dr. Lisa R. Bardack, said that Clinton was "rehydrated and recovering nicely."

As the secretary of state, she generally has a busy travel routine.

Bardack released Clinton's medical report in 2015, which said that she maintains an overall good health.

The report also mentioned that she takes blood-thinners to prevent clots on long flights.

Trump was also attending the Sunday ceremony. When he was asked about Clinton's health issue, he said, "I don't know anything."
It's time to stop saying, "the Bible says." At least that's what Andy Stanley says.

At Exponential, a church-planting conference attended by 5,000 in late spring (with another 20,000 watching via video), the senior pastor of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, said pastors should instead use phrases like "Paul says" and "Jesus says" when citing Scripture.

Stanley (who also made the case in his 2012 book Deep & Wide) told CT the main reason for his injunction is "to keep people who are skeptical of the Bible's authority engaged in the sermon." It's a question of evangelism, not theology, he says. "The goal is to lead [people] to the place where they acknowledge Jesus to be who he claimed to be. They don't have to believe Noah built an ark and put animals on it to get there.  To get a person to the point where they believe the Bible is authoritative, they first have to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. The reason Christians take the Old Testament seriously is because Jesus did."

But Stanley adds that the approach has "helped Christians in our congregation have a greater appreciation for the historicity of the New Testament, that these were actual people who said these things." (An edited transcript of our interview with Stanley appears today on our website.)

It's hard to know how many preachers today use "the Bible says" rather than more specific citations. But Paul Gutjahr, professor of American and religious studies at Indiana UniversityBloomington, said the phrase "gained its popularity in the early 20th century with revivalists like Billy Sunday and later Billy Graham."

Grant Wacker, ...

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Our age is characterized by what psychotherapist Joseph Burgo called an anti-shame zeitgeist. The beloved researcher Brene Brown wrote two No. 1 New York Times bestsellers decrying shame, and her TED Talk, The Power of Vulnerability, has been watched more than 26 million times.

This year, the anti-shame revolution is front and center in Christian publishing, with three new Christian books all titled Unashamed. Go to your local Christian bookstore and ask for a copy of Unashamed, and you may hear, Which one? Lecrae, Heather Davis Nelson, or Christine Caine? Take your pick.

There is no shame in sharing a title, but this coincidence points to a marketing reality: becoming proudly unashamed is all the rage now.

Lecraes Unashamed is a memoir, and as a fan of his music, I couldnt put it down. (My six-year-olds most requested musical artists are Elsa and Lecrae.) Lecraes story is compelling and deals with different facets of shame. As a young boy, he confronted deep shame over his fathers abandonment; he also faced sexual abuse. Throughout the book, he returns to the theme of not quite fitting inwhether it be because he was an arty kid in a rough neighborhood or because he is now a successful Christian rapper who neither fits neatly into mainstream Christian music nor mainstream rap.

Caines Unashamed follows the Australian teacher and speakers two previous titles, Undaunted and Unstoppable. Her womens ministry, Propel, also lists more than a dozen un terms to describe the woman they hope to encourage, including unashamed: She does not minimize or hide who God has made her to be. Caines book ...

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I had the privilege or reading a pre-release version of "God Shines Forth: How the Nature of God Shapes and Drives the Mission of the Church." Here are 20 quotes from the book, which you should pick up.
I just bootleg the gospel, Howard Butt Jr. told 1,500 Baptist men in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1954. Butt meant he had no license to preach, but that didnt stop him from doing it. The 89-year-old well-known author and speaker, as well as creator of the Laity Lodge Retreat Center, passed away yesterday evening from complications related to Parkinsons.

Howard was a mentor, a motivator, and a model servant whose mind and heart were profoundly poured out on me at a most critical time, said Christianity Today International president and CEO Harold Smith.

His words of exhortation and encouragement to both my wife and me during a challenging first year of executive leadership offered us the assurances of Gods watchcare and directioneven in an industry experiencing such tumultuous change, Smith stated. Truly, the power of Howards presence in word and deed has left a God-anointed legacy that will inspire me and the entire ...

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A few months ago in the early morning, I joined a group from my Atlanta-based church on a two-and-a-half-hour drive down I-85 South to the Stewart Detention Center, one of the largest immigration detention centers in the country. Some of the immigrants detained in the facility had requested visitors, and so our church responded. I tried to imaginewho would be so lonely as to ask a stranger to meet with him? Someone living in a very isolated place. Stewart is located in Lumpkin, Georgia, a rural town near the border of Alabama. Many of the centers residents have been transferred from other statessome as far away as Californiaand as a result are cut off from family, legal representation, and support networks.

When our congregation asked about the purpose of our trip to Stewart, we relied on Christs invitation in Matthew 25:36: I was in prison and you came to visit me. Of course, this wasnt prison exactly. It was immigration detention. Maybe thats why, when we arrived, I was unprepared for the distinctly prison-like look of the facility.

Shrouded in barbed wire, Stewart was built as a medium-security prison. Its almost 1,800 beds are filled with men whove entered the country illegally, overstayed a visa, or served US prison sentences for previous crimes and are now awaiting removal proceedings. Perhaps the most important feature of the detention center is hidden behind the scenes: Its owned by CCA (Corrections Corporation of America), a for-profit prison corporation that operates numerous detention centers as well as state and federal prisons across the country.

This August, the federal government announced a move to reduce contracts with private prison ...

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home World Angela Merkel's allies propose favoring Christian migrants over Muslims; 'Germany must stay Germany'

The Bavarian-based allies of German Chancellor Angela Merkel released a paper calling for strict immigration policies that will prioritize migrants over Muslims.

In the paper, the Christian Socialist Union (CSU) proposed a ban on Islamic face veils and dual citizenship. CSU demanded strict rules for newcomers to integrate with German society and learn the language. The party also sought to limit the admission of immigrants to 200,000 people a year.

"Germany must stay Germany," the CSU wrote. "We are against our welcoming country being changed through migration and waves of refugees," it continued.

CSU suggested that Germany should prefer migrants "from our Christian-occidental cultural sphere."

"A state must decide by itself whom it accepts a it's not the migrants who decide," the paper added.

CSU vehemently opposed Merkel's stance on immigration which allowed the entry of a million asylum seekers into Germany. Merkel's party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), was recently defeated in a state vote by the anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Green party leader Simone Peter criticized CSU's proposal, stating that the party was trying to be "the Bavarian sister party of the AfD".

Jan Korte of the far-left party Die Linke called the proposals "irresponsible, backward-looking and brimming with hypocrisy."

Frauke Petry, leader of AfD, noted that the support for Merkel's party was waning. "We see the political climate changes towards AfD and against the established parties, especially the Christian Democrats, Angela Merkel's party a 21 percent in the northeast of Germany is an absolutely brilliant result," Petry told CNN.

Merkel conceded that the immigration policy played a big role in the party's loss.

Aiman Mazyek, head of the Central Council of Muslims, attributed the loss to racism. "Those who blame the chancellor's refugee policies alone for the AfD's poll success ignore the deep rooted racist resentments in our society," he said.

Attacks against non-Germans have reportedly increased since the influx of refugees to Germany. Mazyek stated that there has been a surge in physical and verbal attacks against Muslims. He said that attacks against mosques and their congregations have increased as well.
home Faith Bill Nye's new Netflix series will likely criticize creationism, says Ken Ham

Ken Ham said the focus of Bill Nye's show "Bill Nye Saves the World" will probably be on climate change but Ham believed that it will also tackle creationism. Ham, president and CEO of Answers in Genesis, also speculated that millennials will be the most likely target audience of the new Netflix show.

"I am sure Bill Nye will see his new TV series as one where he can try to 'save the world' from those biblical creationists that he falsely believes undermine science/technology," Ham told Baptist Press.

"I believe he will try to appeal to the millennials in particular that he is going to save the world from creationists. He also wants to save the world from what he believes is the most important issue of the day - climate change," he added.

Ham argued that the man's sin is a more serious problem than climate change and added that people should put their trust in Jesus instead of Nye.

The show is set to debut in spring 2017 on Netflix. Nye said in a statement that the episodes will feature topics such as genetically modified food, vaccines and climate change.

"Each episode will tackle a topic from a scientific point of view, dispelling myths, and refuting anti-scientific claims that may be espoused by politicians, religious leaders or titans of industry," the official synopsis stated.

The rivalry between Ham and Nye started when Nye appeared in a Big Think video criticizing creationism. The two then faced each other in a debate in 2014 at the Creation Museum in Kentucky. The debate amassed over 5.6 million views on Youtube.

The two engaged in an impromptu debate last month when Nye visited Ham's newly-opened theme park, Ark Encounter. Nye stated that the exhibits at the theme park amounted to brainwashing but he insisted that he is only speaking out against misinformation and not religion itself.

Ham had offered his friendship to Nye and shared the Gospel with him several times in the past. He still hopes that Nye will someday turn to God.
home US Donald Trump vows to defend Christian heritage at Values Voters Summit

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump promised the attendees of the 2016 Values Voter Summit in Washington D.C. last Friday that he will protect the Christian heritage of America. Trump reiterated that he will repeal the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits non-profit organizations from publicly endorsing political candidates.

"In a Trump administration, our Christian heritage will be cherished and protected like you've never seen before," Trump declared. "There is no more charitable group in this country than Christians," he continued.

"The Johnson amendment has blocked our pastors and ministers and others from speaking their minds from their own pulpits. If they want to talk about Christianity, if they want to talk about politics, they're unable to do so," he added. Trump fully intends to get rid of this law.

Trump also vowed to end Common Core and said that he will campaign to persuade the states to re-allocate their budgets for school choice programs.

He criticized the Obama administration for not allowing the entry of enough Christian refugees from Syria. He also brought up Hillary Clinton's email scandal and got loud cheers from the crowd when he declared, "Hillary Clinton is unfit to be president." At one point, the crowd reportedly chanted "Lock her (Clinton) up!"

Celebrities such as Jon Voight and Kirk Cameron also gave their speeches at the summit hosted by the Family Research Council. Reality TV stars Benham Brothers and two members of the "Duck Dynasty" were also present at the summit.

Trump seemed to be well-received at the summit this year. Dylan Miller, a college student who attended the event, said that Trump "doesn't seem maniacal" compared to his previous appearances. Sarah Ocker, another student, said that she agreed with a lot of what Trump said but mentioned that she is still thinking about voting for Trump.

Last year, Trump only finished fifth at the Values Voters Summit straw poll. He was booed at last year's summit when he referred to Marco Rubio as a clown.
home World German Protestant Church forbids parishioners from joining pro-life rally

The parishioners of the Protestant Church of Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland or EKD) are being discouraged from joining the "March for Life" protest in Berlin. Catholics, evangelicals and other pro-life protesters are scheduled to meet in front of the Reichstag on Sept. 17.

EKD spokesman Christoph Heil said the Church discourages its members to join the protest due to "differences of opinion" and the "aggressive manner" of the protestors.

Martin Lohmann, president of the Federal Association for the Right to Life, expressed his disbelief regarding the decision of the Church.

"You cannot believe your eyes and just don't want to believe it: representatives of the Protestant Church in Berlin-Brandenburg set themselves against the protection of life and pursue evidently left-wing hate slogans," Lohmann told Life Site.

"Has the Church in the German capital really said goodbye to the Word of God? Does she only want to be in the socio-political mainstream? Does she really wave a 'bye-bye' Jesus to the Son of God?" he asked.

Hartmut Steeb, chairman of Christian Pro-Life groups, was also disappointed by EKD's decision. "Human life is under the protection of God from beginning and a church cannot stand for anything but a definitive 'yes' to the child," he said.

The EKD had also advised its members against joining the march in 2014. About 7,000 Christians from different denominations participated in the protest last year. The pro-life protesters are mostly composed of families, children and senior citizens.

Those who participate in the march have to face pro-abortion activists and left-wing extremists every year. About 1,000 police officers were deployed last year to protect the pro-life protesters. Pro-abortion activists had previously attempted to block the march by sitting on the street.

Lohmann challenged Protestant Bishop Markus DrAge to explain his arguments for discouraging pro-life Christians from participating at the event. He also demanded an apology from the EKD for the insults to the pro-life protesters.

People from 36 cities across Germany are expected to join the march this year. Aside from campaigning against abortion, the March for Life also aims to highlight the increasing acceptance of euthanasia in Europe.
home World Teen son of radical imam confesses of plot to kill Christians with chainsaw at shopping center in Belgium

A teenage son of a radical imam confessed that ISIS is planning to kill Christians with a chainsaw at a shopping center in Belgium. The teenager was previously arrested by the police after he was seen in a video praying for the annihilation of Christians while walking down a street.

During questioning, the unnamed teenager revealed that one of the attacks targeted Christians while another will be directed at an imam who was deemed "not radical enough." Belgium publications released the news last Friday.

The teenager is reportedly the son of Imam Shayh Alami from the city of Verviers, Belgium. State authorities have attempted to deport Alami in the past. Theo Francken, the Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, wanted to deport the son as well.

"I already signed the order to remove the imam from Belgian soil. But he appealed the decision, so I can only hope for a quick sentence," said Francken.

Alami's son reportedly told authorities that ISIS is currently recruiting in Belgium. The jihadists fighting in Syria are allegedly trying to convince the ones who stayed behind to carry out attacks in their home cities.

The Middle East Media Research Institute released the English translation of the teenager's prayer. A part of it read, "Oh Allah, annihilate the hateful Christians. Oh Allah, kill them all. Do not leave a single one of them. Oh Allah, make their weapons and ammunition booty for our brothers."

Last month, ISIS allegedly used chainsaws to execute nine young men who were accused of joining a resistance group in Iraq, Iraqi News reported.

"The death sentence pronounced by ISIS sharia court stated that the men should be tied to an iron pole in the center of Tal Afar Square in Mosul and then sliced into two with an electric chainsaw," an unnamed witness said of the brutal verdict handed down to the youths.
home US America needs a president who will 'walk humbly with God', says Hillary Clinton

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton declared that America needs a president who will "pray with you" and "walk humbly with our God" during her speech at the National Baptist Convention (NBC, USA Inc.).

Clinton emphasized why a "praying person" should be president, at the event held on Thursday in Kansas City, Missouri.

"We need a president who understands the powerful role that faith a and communities of faith a have always played in moving our country toward justice, from the abolitionists of the 19th century, to the Civil Rights Movement of the 20th century, to the unfinished business of today," Clinton said.

"A president who will pray with you, and for you, who will defend the dignity of every individual, and the principle of religious freedom that was woven into the moral fabric of our nation from the very beginning," she continued.

The convention is notably the largest African-American religious organization in the U.S with an estimated 7.5 million members.

The Secular Coalition for America immediately raised their concern regarding Clinton's speech. The coalition stated that her speech "reinforce[s] the de facto religious test imposed on nonreligious Americans seeking elected office."

The coalition noted that Clinton previously received a score of "A" on its presidential voter guides. It gave this rating to Clinton for her consistency in defending the separation of church and state as well as her efforts in promoting science-based public policy. The atheist organization added that her speech implying that prayer is a requirement for the presidency was inexcusable despite her track record.

The Washington Times recently reported on the absence of religion in Clinton's campaign. The publication mentioned that Clinton had not gone to church except to garner votes at the pulpit and discuss her political objectives with religious leaders.

Analysts have speculated that the absence of faith in her campaign is due to the large number of atheists and agnostics in the Democratic Party. Another reason cited was the public perception of Trump as the most nonreligious presidential candidate in history.

A pew poll reportedly revealed that only 30 percent perceive Trump as religious while 48 percent say the same about Clinton.
10 things we can learn about Islam from Nabeel Qureshi

I was reading apologist Nabeel Qureshi's autobiography Seeking Allah, finding Jesus last week, when I checked Facebook and learned the terrible news that he has been diagnosed with advanced stomach cancer, with a 'grim' prognosis. He's asking Christians to pray and fast for his healing.

Nabeel is a former Muslim who is now an inspiring and effective evangelist. As he puts it:

I left Islam because I studied Muhammad's life. I accepted the Gospel because I studied Jesus' life.#MyStory #SeekingAllahFindingJesus  Nabeel Qureshi (@NAQureshi) April 15, 2014

As we pray for him, let's learn from him. His testimony has much to teach us. Here are a few nuggets I picked up from his book, which I'd say is essential reading for any Christian:

1. Conversion involves a huge change in culture, worldview and identity

Islam is the filter through which Nabeel understood the world, how he assessed truth, and he was "brimming with respect and pride for [Muhammed]". Doubt only came after multiple arguments that supported the reliability of the Bible and the rationality of Christian belief. This seemed to provide a foundation for being willing to question whether the Qur'an was trustworthy, and whether what he had been taught about Muhammed was true.

2. Islam teaches its followers about Christianity in a way we don't teach about Islam

Nabeel had been told a lot about Christianity. Disbelief in Jesus' divinity and the Trinity is woven into Islamic doctrine. Nabeel believed that Jesus hadn't died on the cross and that the Bible had been changed (though he trusted other Bible verses that he'd been told supported Islam). When Christians spoke to him about his faith  which was rare  they didn't have the information needed to challenge these ideas, until he met David Wood and some senior apologists at university.

While he'd been taught to take a critical stance towards Christianity, he'd never seen this same stance applied to Islam.

3. There are more differences between Islam and Christianity than doctrine and belief

For example, Christians focus on the meaning of the Bible, but Muslims would see the words of the Qur'an as holy in and of themselves. Therefore reciting the Qur'an in Arabic is seen to be pious even if the person can't understand it. Also, Muslims don't expect to hear from God, other than in dreams. In the end, while Nabeel had extensively investigated the rational arguments for Christianity and Islam, and had accepted the former: it was three dreams and a vision that gave him certainty.

4. A Muslim's impressions of Christians may be negative

Muslims from the East have often been taught that Christians in the West are promiscuous  they wouldn't make the distinction that we generally make between the behaviour of practising Christians, cultural "Christians" and those who do not identify as Christians at all. He said that the first time he saw anyone reading the Bible in their free time was when he shared a room with David.

5. In the West, Muhammed is usually presented as a loving, peaceful figure

Nabeel was an Ahmadi Muslim, a sect that holds to non-violence. He heard that Muhammed only went to war in self-defence. When Nabeel investigated the historical hadith for himself he discovered this wasn't true. He was also shocked to discover the history of taking sex slaves following war  the kind of behaviour we're seeing from Isis today.

"The peaceful practice of Islam hinges on later, often Western, interpretations of Muhammed's teachings, whereas the more violent variations of Islam are deeply rooted in orthodoxy and history," says Nabeel in Seeking Allah.

6. Differences in culture go beyond religion

Western cultures assess truth primarily through reason and critical thinking, but Nabeel says "people from Eastern Islamic cultures generally assess truth through lines of authority, not individual reasoning". Elders and leaders are assumed to have done the thinking, they know best and they should be obeyed. The honour/shame sense of morality is also very different.

7. Living between two cultures is difficult

As a child of immigrants to the US, Nabeel was shaped to some extent by Western culture so he became different from his parents, but he felt he was "too Pakistani" to fit in well with his US friends.

8. The surpassing worth of knowing Christ

Though Nabeel was a devout Muslim and saw great beauty in Islam, it was nothing compared to knowing Jesus. "My heart was filled with a new joy, the joy of meeting God Himself," he said. "I thought I had known Him my entire life, but now that I knew who He really was, there was no comparison. Nothing compares to the one true God."

9. For a Muslim to accept Jesus requires sacrifices that Western Christians can't even imagine

Nabeel had a loving upbringing in a very close family. He knew that accepting Jesus would devastate this, and that he could be cut off forever from his parents. He had to weigh this up when he gave his life to Christ, though he was guided with Bible verses such as "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me."

His father said, after being told of his son's conversion: "I feel as if my backbone has been ripped out from inside me."

10. Why does God wants us to tell others, even if it hurts them?

Nabeel was filled with despair at the pain he'd caused his parents. What comforted him was words from God: "This is not about you". He was shown that the whole world is in desperate need of the message of Jesus Christ, and that they need to be told. Ultimately it seemed, God judged this as more important.

Are we considering this message, and the desperate need of the world to hear it, as the most important part of our lives? What are the barriers that stop us from doing so? If God requires Muslims to make such huge sacrifices, and even risk death  surely He requires those of us with much less to lose, to give even more for the sake of the gospel.

Heather Tomlinson is a freelance journalist who communicates the Christian faith. Find her at www.heathert.com and @HeatherTomli
Americans think it's inappropriate for Christian pastors to endorse politicians

Should pastors use church services to endorse their preferred political candidates? A large majority of people in the United States think this is unacceptable behavior.

Recently published results of a survey conducted by Nashville-based LifeWay Research showed that almost 8 in 10 Americans or 79 percent think it is inappropriate for their pastors to use the pulpit to recommend a politician.

While this is still a big number, this represents a drop in the number of U.S. residents who do not want to hear their pastors talk about politics in Church from a similar conducted in 2008, when 86 percent said political endorsements from pastors were inappropriate.

LifeWay Research Executive Director Scott McConnell gave a simple reason for this adverse reception towards political recommendations from pastors: Christians go to church to pray, not to talk about politics.

"Americans already argue about politics enough outside the church. They don't want pastors bringing those arguments into worship," McConnell said, as quoted by Religion News.

This negative attitude towards political endorsements done in church cuts across all Christian denominations, according to the LifeWay Research survey. Very few Roman Catholics (13 percent) and Protestants (20 percent) welcome pastors recommending certain politicians to the faithful.

Even for political endorsements from pastors outside church, Christians are also lukewarm. Less than half or 43 percent of those who participated in the survey think pastors should recommend politicians even while not performing their church duties.

In fact, Americans in general want their churches to be insulated from politics. Three-quarters of the survey respondents disagreed with the statement: "I believe it is appropriate for churches to publicly endorse candidates for public office."

Despite these figures, Americans do not think that pastors and churches who recommend politicians should be penalised. Only 42 percent of the respondents think churches that publicly endorse politicians should lose their tax exemption.
Atheist minister Gretta Vosper receives standing ovation after ban from church

Gretta Vosper was given a standing ovation by her congregation after taking her first Sunday service since being banned as a minister.

Vosper's self-described atheism led to a United Church report published last Wednesday that said she was "not suitable" to carry on. But after a long-planned talk on acceptance on Sunday, her congregation at West Hill United Church in Toronto, Canada, made it clear where their loyalties lay.

"Wherever Gretta goes, I go," said one member, 96-year-old Jeanne Hamel, who has been part of the church for 91 years.

"My heart left the United Church when I heard they had rejected Gretta. I was stunned," she said according to The Star news site in Toronto.

Another said he would not have remained a churchgoer for 23 years if not for Vosper. Morlan Rees, who describes himself as an "agnostic, an atheist, a non-believer", said: "Her ideas reflect what I've been feeling about the scriptures needing to be put into a modern context."

The 39-page report by the church's Toronto Conference Review Committee was damning over Vosper's views.

"In our opinion, she is not suitable to continue in ordained ministry because she does not believe in God, Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit," the report stated.

"We have concluded that if Gretta Vosper were before us today, seeking to be ordained, we would not recommend her."

In response Vosper used her service on Sunday to deliver a sermon on acceptance and inclusion.

"In these weeks going forward, may we find a way to get to that place of acceptance in ourselves," Vosper said.

"Let that change lead toward truth and beauty and goodness."

Vosper told The Star she would not make any decision quickly and said it was up to the congregation whether to remain a part of the denomination or leave.

David Allen, United Church leader and executive director of the decision-making Toronto conference, hinted at the possibility of reconciliation.

He told the paper last week: "We're going to hear from Gretta and her congregation and it's possible that they could say something that could cause us to go in a totally different or a slightly different direction."
Britain must do more to help refugees, say Christian and other faith leaders

A former Archbishop of Canterbury heads a list of more than 200 religious leaders who call for more refugees to be admitted into the UK.

In a letter to Prime Minister Theresa May, Christian leaders join Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Zoroastrian leaders to call on the UK Government "urgently to revise its policy towards refugees" in the face of human catastrophe.

Headed by former Archbishop Rowan Williams, now in the House of Lords, the leaders include Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Baroness Neuberger, senior rabbi of the West London Synagogue, and Harun Rashid Khan, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain.

In the letter they say that the best of Britain is represented by the "generosity, kindness, solidarity and decency" shown to those fleeing persecution.

They cite an Amnesty International survey which earlier this year showed more than eight in ten Britons would welcome refugees into their neighbourhoods and households.

In particular, they call for safe, legal routes of travel to allow refugees who have made it to Britain to be reunited here with their families.

Under the present immigration rules, a British doctor of Syrian origin could not bring her parents from a refugee camp in Lebanon, even though they were refugees and she could support and house them.

A Syrian child who arrived alone in the UK could not bring his parents from a refugee camp in Jordan, even if the child were recognised a refugee and his parents were themselves refugees.

"Families in these situations can currently be reunited only by resorting to desperately unsafe irregular journeys, sometimes ending in avoidable tragedies," the religious leaders say.

The UK should take a "fair and proportionate share of refugees, both those already within Europe and those still outside it," they add.

The call for "safe and legal routes to the UK" to be set up.

"All our faiths teach us to alleviate suffering and share with those in need; many of our members and congregants are already active in helping refugees. We call on the Government to do more."

The UK looks likely to meet its target to take 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020, Home Secretary Amber Rudd said last week. The UK has also pledged to take 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees.
China: Gay student files lawsuit against Government over textbooks describing homosexuality as 'disorder'

A gay Chinese student activist today filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Education over school textbooks describing homosexuality as a mental disorder, in the latest step by China's small but growing gay rights movement.

It is not illegal to be gay in China and these days many large Chinese cities have thriving gay scenes, though there is still a lot of family pressure to get married and have children, even for gay men and women.

Homosexuality was listed as a mental disorder until 2001.

However, Chinese universities continue to use textbooks that contain terms such as "disorder" and "impediment" to refer to homosexuality, according to research carried out by the Gay and Lesbian Campus Association of China in 2014.

Qiu Bai, a 21-year-old media studies student at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, told Reuters she came across similar materials when she turned to the books in her university library after beginning to question her own sexual orientation.

"Since 2001 when homosexuality was declassified as an illness in mainland China, 40 per cent of the psychology and mental health teaching materials published on the mainland say homosexuality is an illness," Qiu said.

She first raised the issue and lodged legal cases with the Ministry of Education in 2015, as well as with publishers of the textbooks. But her complaints were ignored and her applications were rejected.

A promise by the Ministry of Education to deal with her case through their internal mediation process in return for dropping one of the lawsuits also failed to materialise, Qiu said.

The Ministry of Education did not send a lawyer to Monday's hearing, and representatives declined to answer reporters' questions. The ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

While the fact that the case has finally come to court is seen by many as a victory in itself, Qiu, who wants the ministry to recall the textbooks, said she was disappointed by the ministry's attitude.

"As someone studying within the education system, when the Ministry of Education tells me that the education materials have no connection with us and we won't deal with it, it's really disappointing," she said.

Other gay rights cases have also hit roadblocks. In April, a Chinese court rejected a landmark case by two men who had sought permission to get legally married.

Qiu's case has received relatively sympathetic coverage in state media and online, though only a handful of supporters turned up outside the court house.

Qiu's lawyer, Wang Zhenyu, said he was not optimistic.

"But I hope that the judge can fulfil their responsibility in line with the law and give us a ruling that we can accept," Wang said.

Additional reporting by Reuters.
Chinese officials prevent bishop, aide from leading faithful in 'China's Jerusalem'

The persecution of Christians in China continues to escalate, and not even high-ranking Roman Catholic officials sent by the Vatican have been spared from harassment.

Coadjutor Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin was arrested last week by Chinese officials to prevent him from taking over the growing Roman Catholic diocese in Wenzhou, according to a report from The Catholic Herald, citing Rome-based missionary news agency AsiaNews.

Shao was supposed to lead the diocese after the death of its bishop, Vincent Zhu Weifang, last Sept. 8. However, before he can meet his new flock, local Chinese police reportedly took him "on a trip" to northwest China. The coadjutor bishop was appointed by the Vatican to Wenzhou, but China refuses to recognise his appointment.

Shao's secretary, Fr. Paul Jiang Sunian, was also snatched by Chinese authorities, and was reportedly taken to Yunnan. Another priest who came with Shao and his aide was also reportedly detained in a hotel in the provincial capital of Hangzhou.

A separate report from Herald Malaysia cited unnamed sources as saying that "the bishop and the priests were taken away from the city to thwart a peaceful succession of Msgr. Shao's episcopate of Wenzhou."

Chinese officials have also limited the number of people who can attend Bishop Zhu's funeral to 400, all of whom were required to get permits from authorities.

There are about 120,000 Roman Catholics living in Wenzhou, according to AsiaNews. Some of them could not openly practice their faith due to fear of persecution and harassment from the Chinese government. Still, others are brave enough to register themselves as Roman Catholics.

Because of the thriving Catholic population and the presence of different places of worship in the area, Wenzhou has been called "China's Jerusalem." In the past years, the local government of Wenzhou has tried to demolish churches and remove crosses from the area.
Germany's Christian Social Union seeks to prioritise Christian migrants over Muslims

Christian refugees from war-torn areas in the Middle East may soon get prioritised for entry in Germany if German Chancellor Angela Merkel heeds the suggestion of her conservative allies from the Christian Social Union (CSU).

In a five-page position paper, the CSU said while Germany should not close its doors to migrants from the Middle East, it must implement tougher immigration rules, and require the refugees to learn the German language.

The CSU, which works with Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, also called on the German leader to lower the upper limit of refugees to be welcomed in the country to 200,000way below the original plan of 1 million.

The conservative political party also declared that the influx of tens and thousands of refugees in a single day from the Middle East to Germany through Bavaria last year "must under no circumstances be repeated."

"Germany must stay Germany... We are against our welcoming country being changed through migration and waves of refugees," the CSU said in its paper, as quoted by The Independent.

Members of the political party also urged Merkel's government to prioritise refugees "from our Christian-occidental cultural sphere" over Muslim migrants.

"A state must decide by itself whom it accepts  it's not the migrants who decide," the CSU stated on its paper.

The political party also proposed a ban on the burqa, the traditional clothing of Muslim women covering their faces. The CSU described the burqa as "a uniform of Islamism, a huge barrier to integration and a symbol of the repression of women that is unacceptable in our culture."

"Those who don't want to live without the burqa and niqab should find another country," the members of the conservative political party said.

Furthermore, the CSU also expressed opposition to Turkey's inclusion in the European Union  a move seen to relax visa conditions for accepting more refugees to Europe.
Muslims around the world celebrate Eid al-Adha as May and Welby issue warm messages

Muslims around the world today celebrated the Eid al-Adha holiday, one of the two most important festivals of the Islamic calendar.

Marking the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son on God's command, Muslims mark the holiday by slaughtering animals such as sheep and goats. The meat is shared among family and friends and also donated to the poor.

The Muslim faithful across continents marked the festival which comes as the annual Haj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia draws to a close.

In Jerusalem's Old City, Palestinians flocked to the al-Aqsa mosque for prayers.

In Iraq, authorities adopted tough security measures during the festival, searching worshippers as they entered Abdul-Qadir al-Gilani mosque in Baghdad.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad prayed at a mosque in the Damascus suburb of Daraya, which was evacuated by rebels and surrendered to government control last month, state media reported.

In Asia, tens of thousands of people left Bangladesh's capital Dhaka on crowded trains and ferries for their home-towns to celebrate the holiday with family and friends, while in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, Muslims attended morning prayers.

The festival was also celebrated across Africa, with the faithful in countries such as Somalia and Kenya attending mass prayers.

In Russia, thousands of Muslims gathered for prayers in Moscow.

In the UK, Prime Minister Theresa May released a video message to the country's Muslim community. "I am proud of the contribution British Muslims make to this country and proud that Britain is home to people from vibrant and diverse backgrounds," she said.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby tweeted his good wishes:

Prayerful thoughts and greetings for all our Muslim brothers and sisters who are celebrating Eid al Adha. Eid Mubarak!  Justin Welby  (@JustinWelby) September 12, 2016

Additional reporting by Reuters.
New Catholic schools allowed to be opened in the U.K.

More Roman Catholic schools may soon open in the United Kingdom after Prime Minister Theresa May's new government decided to lift a ban that prevented churches from opening new educational institutions.

Quoting an unnamed government source, The Catholic Herald reported that May's administration is of the position that the prohibition on new Church-run schools did not succeed in its objective of making faith schools more diverse.

"It has prevented new Catholic schools from opening, which are more successful, more popular and more ethnically diverse than other types of state school," the source said.

The source added that the U.K. government thinks allowing more Catholic schools in the European nation will help children integrate with society.

"We're going to change the rule, so we can allow new Catholic schools to open, while making faith schools of all kinds do more to make sure their pupils integrate with children of other backgrounds," the source said.

The Catholic Education Service welcomed the U.K./ government's move to relax restrictions on Catholic educational institutions.

"This will enable the Catholic Church to meet the current parental demand for thousands of new Catholic school places across the country," the group said, as quoted by The Catholic Herald.

Paul Goodman, executive editor of ConservativeHome, said the British prime minister's decision corrected a "burning injustice" against Catholic schools.

He said the restrictions were imposed because officials were "terrified of the electoral consequences of allowing more or larger Muslim schools."

But he said the policy had failed to make Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Hindu schools more diverse because these schools were unlikely to appeal to parents of other faiths.

He said the rule was "effectively discriminatory" for Catholics.

Last week, May told members of Parliament who are members of her Conservative Party that she wanted "an element of selection" in the education system.

The ruling party's manifesto last year promised to "allow all good schools to expand, whether they are maintained schools, academies, faith schools or grammar schools."
Poland's president asks U.K. church leaders to help protect Polish communities

A number of Polish citizens are experiencing attacks in the United Kingdom, prompting the president of Poland, Andrzej Duda, to call for the help of Church officials in the European nation.

Duda sent letters to the heads of the Church of England and the Catholic Church in Britain last week, asking them to help ensure the protection of Polish residents in the U.K., and to combat what he described as climate of "aversion and animosity."

According to The Guardian, the Polish president also appealed to church communities and local parishes for a "constructive effort" to "alleviate the adverse consequences of intolerance and xenophobia, including what appears to be a clear instance of aversion and animosity toward Poles."

Duda reached out to British Church officials after a 40-year-old Polish citizen, Arkadiusz Jozwik, was beaten to death by teenagers in Harlow, about 30 miles north of London. Polish and British police officials are still investigating the incident. Both are exploring ways to protect the hundreds of people from Poland residing or visiting the U.K.

Aside from this incident, three other Poles have been reported to have suffered similar attacks in the same area, and there is growing concern among Polish citizens in the U.K. that these kinds of attacks will continue to escalate.

Polish foreign minister Witold Waszczykowski for his part reminded British officials that his countrymen are law-abinding and peace-loving, which means that physical attacks towards them are completely unwarranted and undeserved.

"We reminded the authorities in the United Kingdom that Poles are a group that integrates well with British society, works hard, pays taxes and deserves protection and care," Waszczykowski said, as quoted by The Guardian.

"Over the decades, the significant Polish population in the U.K. had experienced no problems, no harm. A few months ago, on the sidelines of the campaign leading up to the Brexit decision and after the referendum, incidents against Poles have begun to occur," he added.
Pope Francis: True evangelising is not debating or winning arguments

Pope Francis has said that evangelising is not to knock on doors declaring that 'Christ is risen' but instead to live out the faith through actions and to talk "with meekness, with love, with no desire to win an argument".

In his homily on Friday during Mass at his residence, the Casa Santa Marta, the Pope referred to a question he was asked during the recent World Youth Day festival in Poland: "What should I say to my friend who is an atheist?"

Pope Francis answered that "the last thing you need to do is say something! Begin to do, and he will see what you are doing and ask you about it; and when he asks you, then tell him."

He referred to the example of the quite form of evangelism offered by Saint Peter Claver, whose feast day was on Friday. The Pope said: "This man did not stroll along saying he evangelised: he did not reduce evangelism to a rote task, and even to a proselytising; he proclaimed Jesus Christ with his actions, speaking to the slaves, living with them, living like them  and there are many like him in the Church  many people who annihilate themselves to proclaim Jesus Christ. All of us, brothers and sisters, have an obligation to evangelise  and that does not mean a knock on the neighbor's door to say: 'Christ is risen!'  it is living the faith, talking about it with meekness, with love, with no desire to win an argument, but [to give it away] for free: giving away freely that, which God has given to me  that is what it means to evangelise."

According to Vatican Radio, Pope Francis dismissed the notion of winning people over to the faith in order to "boast". He added that proselytising is a source of pride and drew a contrast between that and true evangelising.

"This is the boast: I am proud of myself. This reduces the Gospel to a function or even a source of pride: I go to preach the gospel and I've brought many people into the Church," he said. "To proselytise: that too is a source of pride. To evangelise is not to proselytise. That is, neither coast along, nor reduce the Gospel to rote work, nor to proselytise: none of these is really to evangelise. This is what Paul says here [in the 1st Letter to the Corinthians (9:16-19, 22b-27)]: 'For me it is not a boast. For me it is a necessity', adding, 'one that is laid on me.' A Christian has an obligation, the force of which is such as to make it like a heartfelt necessity to carry the name of Jesus."
South African evangelicals reject hate preacher Steven Anderson's anti-gay message

Church leaders in South Africa have distanced themselves from anti-gay pastor Rev Steven Anderson, who is to visit later this month.

Anderson, Pastor of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona, shot to prominence when he said he was praying for the death of President Barack Obama. He has also called for the death penalty for homosexuals and regretted the fact that there were survivors of from the Orlando nightclub shooting. He said there were now "50 less pedophiles in this world" after the murders at the club, frequented by gay people.

Attempts by rights groups to prevent him coming have failed.

In a statement, The Evangelical Alliance of South Africa said it regretted his "hatred for LGBTs may be spread here". General secretary Moss Ntlha said:

"The constitution lays the basis on which South Africa's many cultures agreed to live together. White-black, religious and secular, LGBT and straight, rich and poor, we all stand as one rainbow nation."

He continued: "As South Africans we accept that people with LGBT orientations have rights to dignity and freedom, as indeed all other South Africans."

Ntlha said: "The Jesus Anderson claims he comes to South Africa to preach, taught, 'For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life'."

Referring to Anderson's response to criticisms from Home Affairs minister Malusi Gigaba, TEASA said it a tweet it could not "wait to see Anderson leave" and that South Africa had "enough bigotry" already.

Cant wait to see Anderson leave! RSA has enough bigotry without him expanding his influence here! https://t.co/7ycjpu7ocL  TEASA (@TEASA5) September 9, 2016

The Baptist Union of Southern Africa also distanced itself from Anderson and Faithful Word Baptist Church, saying it was an "independent fundamentalist church".

Spokesman Mark Penrith said Anderson's church was not a member church of the Baptist Union of Southern Africa nor was the Baptist Union of Southern Africa in any way associated with it.

In a statement, Penrith said neither the Faithful Word Baptist Church, nor Anderson, were in South Africa by invitation of any of the member churches of the Baptist Union of Southern Africa.

"They are an independent church, not affiliated with any denomination. They have achieved notoriety for strong protests and hate speech against homosexuals," he said.
Trump well received by Values Voter Summit as evangelical leader attacks 'namby pamby' voters who reject him

Donald Trump was well received by an evangelical conference on Friday, emphasising his promise to repeal the Johnson Amendment which bars churches and other religious institutions from engaging in political advocacy.

Addressing the Values Voter Summit, hosted by Tony Perkins, the head of the right-wing Family Research Council, Trump gained the most applause when he said: "Hillary Clinton is unfit to be president."

Last year at the same conference, Trump was booed for calling his then rival Republican candidate Marco Rubio "a clown". That speech, in which he focused on the importance of saying "Merry Christmas" instead of "happy holidays" was widely considered to be a failure.

But this time the Republican nominee cut a more statesmanlike figure as he spoke from teleprompters and railed against the Obama administration and the state of education in the US in particular.

His main focus, however, was the Johnson amendment. "The Johnson Amendment has blocked our pastors and ministers and others from speaking their minds from their own pulpits," he said. "If they want to talk about Christianity, if they want to preach, if they want to talk about politics, they're unable to do so. If they want to do it, they take a tremendous risk that they lose their tax-exempt status.All religious leaders should be able to freely express their thoughts and feelings on religious matters. And I will repeal the Johnson Amendment if I am elected your president, I promise. So important."

The speech came as Hillary Clinton, Trump's Democratic rival candidate for president, fell ill with pneumonia at a memorial for the victims of the attacks of September 11, 2001.

In an episode that has renewed interest in the question of Clinton's health, she cancelled a trip that she was scheduled to take to California on Monday for fundraising and other campaign events, an aide said, declining to provide further details about her schedule for the week.

Clinton, 68, was diagnosed on Friday but her condition only came to light several hours after a video on social media appeared to show her swaying and her knees buckling before being helped into a motorcade as she left the memorial early Sunday.

The race to become president in November has tightened in recent weeks, with the RealClearPolitics.com polls average showing Clinton now ahead by only three percentage points.

However, a Washington Post poll released on Sunday shows Clinton leading Trump by 45-to-35 per cent among registered voters.

Meanwhile, leading evangelical Robert Jeffress, host of radio show Pathway to Victory and pastor of the 12,000 member First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, issued a strongly worded attack on Clinton during a debate on Fox News. "I am getting sick and tired of these namby pamby panty-waisted weak-kneed Christians who say they're gonna stay home in November out of moral principle," Jeffress said. "Will you please tell me what great moral principle there is in the universe that will allow a prohibition, anti-religious liberty candidate like Hillary Clinton to become the president? I believe any conservative Christian who refuses to vote or throws away his vote in November is nothing but a hypocrite and a fool."
Xiaomi Mi Note 2 release date, specs rumors: New flagship launching this week?

It is already expected that Xiaomi is close to launching a new flagship, though a specific debut date for the rumored Mi Note 2 has yet to be confirmed. Speculations suggest that the launch is earlier than expected, as the new flagship may launch as early as next week.

TechnoBuffalo reports that the rumored Xiaomi flagship has already cleared some China-based certification agencies. The Mi Note 2 has just reportedly received clearance and a China Compulsory Certificate, which means that the device is only waiting for TENAA certification before launch. Although Xiaomi has yet to provide specific details on the launch, it is said that the Mi Note 2 will launch before this month ends. Supposed leaks have mentioned that the flagship iteration may launch as early as Sept. 14, while other purported teasers place the debut in a Xiaomi-sponsored event on Sept. 24.

The new Mi Note 2 will be Xiaomi's premiere flagship after the Mi 5. The upcoming iteration is said to come out in two variants, with the base model having a Snapdragon 820 processor paired with 4GB of RAM. Meanwhile, a top-tier version, which may come out as a Mi Note 2 Pro, will have a step-up Snapdragon 821 chipset paired with 6GB of RAM. There may also be two display variants for the lineup, with the base version featuring a QHD display, while the more premium device will have a pressure-sensitive screen. Should this come true, then one version of the Mi Note 2 is expected to have 3D Touch-like features.

Prior to the launch though, there are rumors that instead of a Mi Note follow-up, Xiaomi may choose to come out with a new lineup and rebrand it as the Mi Pro. This is certainly plausible, given that another Xiaomi lineup, the Redmi series, has launched a Redmi Pro variant.
Dubuffets Les Grandes Arteres unveiled as a highlight of November sales in New York

The 1961 canvas, a masterful work from Jean Dubuffets celebrated Paris Circus series, depicts a Paris revitalised after years of suffering during the Second World War

Across the bold and vibrant surface of Les Grandes Arteres Dubuffet convenes a cast of characters that capture the sense of liberation enjoyed by Paris as it emerged from the darkness of the Second World War. Using his signature naive style, he lays out the vitality of the French capital, filled with shops, cars and people. Dubuffets breakthrough came in February 1961 with the Paris Circus series. Having returned to the city after a six-year self-imposed hiatus in the countryside of southern France, these paintings signalled the artists vivacious rediscovery of urban life.

Throughout the 1960s an intoxicating energy swept the globe, in which everyday phenomena were seen anew
Steve Gonzales

The 14th Court of Appeals of Houston unanimously upheld a lower court ruling affirming the constitutionality of the City of Houston's firefighters' pension fund.

The City of Houston had challenged the Texas statute that established the $4 billion fund that provides pension and disability benefits for more than 6,000 active and retired firefighters.
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NOTE: This story was originally published in 2016.

Howard E. Butt Jr., the brother of H-E-B Chairman and CEO Charles Butt and the oldest son of the grocery chains namesake founder Howard E. Butt Sr., died Sunday at his home in San Antonio due to complications from Parkinsons disease. He was 89.

We are deeply saddened by the loss of my brother, Howard, Charles Butt said in a statement. His decades of inspired leadership, philanthropy and humanitarian efforts will forever be missed by our family and those he impacted across the U.S.

Howard Butt Jr. is best known to the public as the evangelistic member of Butt family and as the folksy, comforting voice of one-minute radio spots titled, The High Calling of Our Daily Work.

He operated the H.E. Butt Foundation, established in 1933 as one of the states earliest and largest philanthropic foundations. He also ran Laity Lodge, an ecumenical Christian retreat center in the Hill Country.

Born in Kerrville, Texas, on Sept. 8, 1927, Butt grew up in the grocery business founded by his grandmother, Florence, in 1905. He attended Baylor University in Waco, Texas, graduated in 1947 with a degree in business, and soon afterward married his longtime sweetheart, Barbara Dan Gerber.

Howard Butt Jr. was one of five family members who owns the family fortune, an estate estimated at $11 billion in value by Forbes magazine, similar in size with New Yorks Rockefeller family.

In addition to his brother Charles, Howard Butt Jr. is survived by his sister, Eleanor Butt Crook, a former schoolteacher who became a public education advocate and a world hunger activist; his wife Barbara Dan; his daughter Deborah Dan Rogers, who runs the H.E. Butt Foundation with her husband David Rogers; his sons, Howard Butt III, who heads the grocery chains Mexico division, and his wife Pamela and Stephen Butt, who runs Central Market, and his wife Susan.

He is also survived by eight grandchildren, Howard IV and wife Kristen, Hillary and husband Tom, and Jeffery (Alexandra) Butt; Sarah and Shelby Butt; and Katherine, Alexandra, and Jackson Rogers; and one great-granddaughter, Charley Butt.

Howard Butt Jr. was initially groomed to run the grocery chain, having worked in stores since age 7. He delivered groceries, became a checker at 12 and then a relief store manager. By 1948, he managed his own store.

He was drawn, however, to the Christian youth movement in the 1940s while attending Baylor University and combined his business career with a second calling as a lay minister preaching at revivals and speaking nationally. The burden was excessive, he has previously said, and differences with his parents over his career path plunged Howard Butt Jr. into a decade-long depression.

I had been living my whole life with Dad wanting me to be part of the company, he said in a 1996 interview. Howard Butt Jr. was candid about his depression and eventually sought help, which he said was very suspect in the whole Texas culture and even more so in the Baptist culture. There were family members that didnt even know.

Howard Butt Jr. wrote about his bout with depression in a 1996 book titled, Renewing Americas Soul: A Spiritual Psychology for Home, Work and Nation.

A conversation with his younger brother, Charles, resolved the problem.

In a sudden exhibition of grace in my life, Howard Butt Jr. said in a 2007 interview, my brother, Charles, and I talked about our dreams. I dreamed of doing something long-term in lay renewal. Charles dreamed of doing great things in the grocery business.

Howard Butt Jr. left the day-to-day operation of the grocery company and stepped into the vice chairmanship of H-E-B and chaired the H.E. Butt Foundation. Charles Butt eventually succeeded his father as H-E-B president in 1971 and chairman of the company in 1984.

Charles has an enormous gift for business, and he wanted to exercise that, and Im so proud of the way hes made H-E-B such a wonderful corporate citizen, Howard Butt Jr. said in 1996.

The H.E. Butt Foundation was first operated by Howard Butt Jr.s mother, Mary Holdsworth Butt. It is a separate entity from the H-E-B grocery chain. It operates programs ranging from free camps for disadvantaged children at a ranch along the Frio River to faith-based retreats for groups of people at Laity Lodge near Leakey, which opened in 1961. The foundation has helped build several hospitals, libraries and other philanthropic projects throughout South Texas.

Howard Butt Jr. became foundation president in 1982. In 2013, the foundation built Headwaters, a family camping facility.

The foundation expanded along with Howard Butt Jr.s ministry. He spoke at an early National Prayer Breakfast during the Eisenhower Administration. He was a board member of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and a founding board member of Christianity Today magazine. President John F. Kennedy appointed Howard Butt Jr. to the first Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity.

Howards success in lay renewal has been worldwide. Hes been a catalyst for lay involvement in all denominations, the late Rev. Buckner Fanning said in 2007. Fanning, the longtime minister at Trinity Baptist Church, and Howard Butt Jr. were friends for nearly seven decades.

In 2000, Howard Butt Jr. started The High Calling of Our Daily Life, a series of one-minute radio-spot homilies that were written weekly and often cited extraordinary successes of ordinary individuals who kept their faith involved in their careers, relationships and daily lives.

Howard Butt Jr. won several awards. In 2000, the National Conference for Community and Justice honored him for leadership in serving the San Antonio community. In 2004, he received the first Newport Foundation Leadership Award for his work on bridging the secular and religious worlds.

In 2005, he was presented the Outstanding Citizenship Award by the San Antonio Community of Churches.

Remembrances may be sent to the Friends of The H.E. Butt Foundation, P. O. Box 290670, Kerrville, Texas 78029-0670. A memorial service celebrating the life and witness of Howard E. Butt, Jr., will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2016, at Trinity Baptist Church, 319 E. Mulberry Ave., San Antonio, Texas 78212. The Porter Loring Mortuary is assisting the family with arrangements.

For full coverage of Howard Butts death and community impact, go to ExpressNews.com later today or read tomorrows paper.
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A Florida man's test of a protective jacket had tragic consequences.

Joaquin Mendez, 23, died Saturday after he reportedly tried on what he believed was a bulletproof vest and his cousin shot him.

According to news station WESH in Tampa, Mendez put on the vest about 10 p.m. and "wondered aloud whether it still worked."

READ MORE: Texas man who shot 2 teens, killing 1, says he talked to the devil

WESH reports a witness told police that Mendez's cousin Alexandro Garibaldi, 24, pulled out a gun and said, "Let's see."

When police arrived minutes later to the Tampa home, they found Mendez outside and wounded in the chest, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Garibaldi told officers he heard a gunshot and found his cousin outside, the newspaper reports.

READ MORE: Sentencing for 2nd Florida man in $4.8 million gold truck heist

Mendez was transported to a hospital, where he later died, the Times reports.

Garibaldi was arrested and is charged with manslaughter with a weapon and possession of a firearm by a felon. He's held without bond in Hillsborough County Jail, according to the Times.

Police told the Times on Monday that Mendez was wearing a flak jacket and not a bulletproof vest. Flak jackets are designed to stop fragments from explosives but not bullets, according to police. WESH and the Times did not report if Mendez agreed to be shot or if it was purely Garibaldi's decision.
Houston fried chicken fans may want to make their way to 3919 Scott soon if they want to eat at Frenchy's original location.

Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church is expanding and it seems the first Frenchy's near the University of Houston is going to be a casualty.
A man was attacked with a machete during a confrontation late Sunday night outside a flea market in north Houston, officials said.

The incident happened about 11:30 p.m. at 8705 Airline near West Gulf Bank, said Sgt. M. Alvarado of the Harris County Sheriff's Office.
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Authorities are still searching for a man who used a bogus identification to withdraw about $60,000 from a person's bank account in Houston and Dallas.

One of the withdrawals was made Nov. 20 at a bank in the 9400 block of North Sam Houston Parkway East in Humble, according to the Harris County District Attorney's Office.
Listicle-loving website Thrillist has released yet another spot-on look at suburban America.

This time it's "The Most Obnoxiously Rich Suburb of America's 35 Biggest Cities," and, at least for Texas, it's pretty accurate.

So where in this state are the metro outskirts where residents have access to pricey, often exclusive amenities?

In Houston the chosen community is The Woodlands, about 30 miles north of the city center. It's home to the second full-line Nordstrom in the entire greater Houston area, as well as to America's most famous closet. It also has a country club that ranges in annual membership fees from $10,000 to $100,000. The median home price here, according to Zillow, is $449,000. (Story continues below.)

SEE ALSO: The richest town in Texas

The least snobby aspect of this suburb might be the not-so-glamorous commute that can range anywhere from 45 minutes to nearly two hours.

In Austin it's West Lake Hills, which, of course, sits atop West Austin's hills. The better to look down upon Austinites. Thrillist calls children of West Lake Hills residents "insanely privileged spawn who terrorize the area around Westlake High School in their Range Rovers."

One might argue that several Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs could've made this roster, but Thrillist decided upon Frisco. The community just saw the addition of the $1.5 billion Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters at The Star. This suburb, which extends between Denton and Collin counties, is also home to several multimillion-dollar homes which puts the median home price here at a whopping $370,000.

RELATED: Where San Antonio's rich live and play

For the San Antonio area, it's The Dominion master-planned community, where, Thrillist claims, "literally every single famous person you can think of that might reside in San Antonio lives here." The wevbsite even quotes a source who says: "The Dominion is actually in Northwest San Antonio proper, I think, so this might be technically wrong, but if you pick anything else, everyone here will judge you, and you won't get a chance to talk about the fact that Stone Cold Steve Austin lives here, and that would be a mistake that could ruin your life."
Last year's Houston PetSet soiree was always going to be a tough act to follow. Bretagne, the last 9/11 Ground Zero search dog who passed away in June, was the 2015 fete's guest of honor.

For the 12th annual shindig, chairs Tena Lundquist Faust and Tama Lundquist  both returning for their fourth consecutive year on hostess duty  elected for reality television royalty to follow-up who some might consider the ultimate celebrity canine.
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Vivienne Tam seems to be smitten with Houston.

The New York fashion designer turned the city for inspiration for her spring collection, which is being shown today at New York Fashion Week.

According to Women's Wear Daily, Houston city officials helped her to obtain certain licenses from NASA, Rice University, the Houston Ballet and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo to use their logos in her designs. NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson will start the show with a prerecorded broadcast from the International Space Station's Mission Control in Houston.

The original plan was to have an astronaut who is actually in orbit at the ISS address the 1,000-person show live, but that changed after last week's SpaceX launch pad explosion, a Vivienne Tam spokeswoman told WWD.

Drawing inspiration from the Houston rodeo, Tam has created Eastern Cowboy and Panda Cowboy concepts as well as patterns comprised of rodeo logos. Tam will donate a percentage of sales from these looks to benefit the Houston Livestock and Rodeo Scholarship Fund.

Tam may take her show to Houston before February's 2017 Super Bowl at NRG Stadium and then Mexico and Asia, WWD reported.
Michael Ciaglo/Staff

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner continues to press on the Houston pension issue as an attorney general's opinion this past week put the ball firmly in Turner's court.The opinion, at the request of Rep. Jim Murphy, R-Houston, affirms that the responsibility for municipal pension systems, formed under Title 109 of the Texas Civil Statutes, belongs to the city.

Murphy said the opinion clarifies responsibility for solutions.
The now insolvent South Korean ocean carrier released a status update Monday on the 97 vessels it operates, which illustrated that 59 of these vessels are still waiting in open sea.



Hanjin Shipping, the now insolvent South Korean ocean carrier, posted an update Monday on the status of the vessels it operates, with only one ship, the Hanjin Greece, listed as berthed and working to discharge cargo.

According to a chart posted on its website Monday, illustrating the status of the 97 vessels, 59 ships are waiting in open sea, 19 ships are underway, 10 ships are under embargo, five ships are arrested, two ships are listed as owner withdrawal, and one ship as redelivered. It was not clear from the chart what the term embargo meant, but a source told American Shipper it meant vessel owners are working with Hanjin to discharge the cargo and put the ship back out to anchor under arrest.

CargoSmart has also created a webpage showing the location of Hanjin ships.

The 10,100-TEU Hanjin Greece arrived at the Total Terminals

International (TTI) facility in Long Beach Saturday morning at 6:50 a.m.

and began to discharge cargo, according to J. Kip Louttit, executive

director of the Marine Exchange of Southern California.

The company is not taking exports as Hanjin stopped taking bookings about two weeks ago and the companys goal seems to be to discharge cargo and get ships back to safe harbors or return vessels to owners.

In a memorandum, Keith Heard of the law firm Burke & Parsons noted that at a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Newark, N.J., Hanjins lawyer Ilana Volkov advised that $10 million has been received by Hanjins office in the United States to dock and unload vessels, and the court in Korea has authorized that the funds be spent for that purpose. In addition to the Hanjin Greece, the other vessels to be worked are the Hanjin Boston, Hanjin Gdynia and Hanjin Jungil.

She also said the Korean court will not reach a decision until the end of November as to whether Hanjin will be allowed to reorganize or must liquidate. Burke & Parsons attorney Chris Dillon has participated in the hearing.

Meanwhile, the board of directors of Korean Air Lines Co., Hanjin Shippings biggest shareholder, approved a proposed 60 billion won (U.S. $54 million) in assistance for its affiliate earlier in the day on the condition that the loan be extended in exchange for collateral, Koreas Yonhap News Agency said Saturday.

On Monday, Yonhap reported that Choi Eun-young, the former chairwoman of Hanjin Shipping, had offered 10 billion won (U.S. $9 million) in personal assets to aid Hanjin, which is currently under court receivership in Korea.

Before docking, Louttit said the Hanjin Greece, owned by Danaos, had been drifting off the West Coast of Mexico where it did not have to use low-sulfur fuel because Mexico is not part of the designation by the International Maritime Organizations Emissions Control Area agreement requiring use of low sulfur fuel within 200 miles of the U.S. coast.

In an email, Louttit also said the 7,471-TEU Hanjin Boston, which had also been close to running out of low sulfur fuel, had taken on bunkers. The Hanjin Boston safely anchored inside the Long Beach breakwater at approximately 3:00 p.m. on Friday, refueled, and then moved back to her anchorage outside the Long Beach breakwater at 11:00 p.m. Friday.

A third ship, the 4,250-TEU Hanjin Montevideo, which had been arrested before Hanjin filed for protection from creditors, remains anchored inside the Long Beach breakwater.

Meanwhile, Hyundai Merchant Marine was scheduled to put an extra ship into service to move Korean cargo to the U.S. The vessel was scheduled to leave Busan Saturday with 1,300 containers, mostly filled with products from Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics bound for Los Angeles, according to an earlier story by Yonhap.

Several labor leaders held a press conference Saturday to bring attention to the impact the Hanjin bankruptcy is having on workers, including the crews of ships stranded offshore.

There has been a lot of focus this week on the customers and companies like Samsung and Target and Walmart whose goods are on these ships, said Barbara Maynard, a spokeswoman for the Teamsters. We are here to say we are concerned about the workers.

Maynard said unions were also concerned about the well-being of crew members on the Hanjin vessels that have been delayed in unloading, but said the International Transport Workers Federation had reported that the crew members of the Hanjin Greece when it docked were fine.

There was a tremendous impact on workers in the supply chain who were not getting work because the Hanjin ships were idled, including port truck drivers, Maynard said. Few port truck drivers are union members and the Teamsters said most are misclassified as independent contractors and must continue to pay expenses regardless of whether they have an opportunity to work. She vowed the Teamsters would continue to work to get those drayage drivers employee rights such as unemployment insurance and disability insurance.

Maynard also noted that tugboat operators, pilots, longshoremen and warehouse men have also lost work.

Patrick D. Kelly, secretary treasurer of Teamsters Local 952, used the event to draw attention to the impact of globalization. I think that Clinton and Trump need to be held accountable and state exactly what they are going to do about the maritime industry and what is going to happen to the consumers who are going to be subjected to a heck of a lot of price increases, Kelly said.

A component of the bellwether Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) showed shipping rates from Shanghai to the U.S. West Coast jumped 51 percent between Aug. 26 and Sept. 2, following Hanjin Shippings protection in Korean bankruptcy court. However, in the past week, rates on the Shanghai to U.S. West Coast trade were nearly unchanged, up only 0.2 percent to $1,749 per 40-foot container. The overall SCFI is well below where it was in late 2014 and early 2015.

If TPP happens, it becomes even more problematic for the workers because they lose the traditional avenues to fight for their wages in a situation like a bankruptcy, Maynard said. Id say it was the Wild West, but it is the Wild Globe at this point. We dont know where to go with this. What happens when a foreign owned shipping company in South Korea goes bankrupt with ripple effects throughout the entire economy? And it is not just the U.S. They have ships all over the globe in this situation.

In a statement sent to American Shipper Friday, the Commerce Department said, The Administration is aware of the Hanjin bankruptcy and its impact on the movement of U.S. cargo around the world. We are in close touch with the South Korean government as they work to provide needed financing that will allow U.S. goods to reach their destinations. Additionally, we are maintaining strong coordination across the Federal government and will continue to closely track this situation. We encourage all parties to work together to continue moving these goods through the shipping network and to their intended destinations as quickly as possible while bankruptcy proceedings continue.
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A committee of Texas educators and historians recently released a 54-page report examining a proposed social studies textbook that has come under fire for "dripping with racism." The report details 68 factual errors along with 73 interpretive and omission errors within the text.

Trinidad Gonzales, a committee member, says the errors can have a problematic and lasting impact on Hispanic students who read them.

"If a Latino student reads and accepts these errors as fact, they may reject their heritage and community," says Gonzales, a professor at South Texas College in the Rio Grande Valley and a member of the American Historical Association. "It will make them question their sense of belonging."

READ MORE: Mexican American textbook incites controversy

One of the most flagged areas in the material is the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, a peaceful social movement that addressed racism against Latinos in the 1960s.

The textbook, however, said Chicanos"... adopted a revolutionary narrative that opposed Western civilization and wanted to destroy this society."

In reality, the movement used boycotts, school walkouts and protests to spread their message.

Gonzales says that when this information is used by Texas schools, it validates a racist curriculum.

READ MORE: Mexican-American textbook moves Texas SBOE member to tears

He says a lot of the "us vs. them" mentality seen throughout the book comes from citing Samuel P. Huntington's "Who Are We," a book that Gonzales says is discredited and was "destroyed by academics."

"What you're doing is creating pathological damage to Latino children by having them view themselves as inferior," says Gonzales. "Texas should not be in the business of hate and racism."

Click through above to see some examples of factual errors found within the textbook.
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Police have found a pickup used to run over over a woman several times Sunday at an apartment complex in southeast Houston, leaving the victim critically injured.

Although the truck has been found, police are still searching for the driver who, at this time, is considered a "person of interest" in the case.

The incident happened about 11 p.m. in the 6700 block of Long near Chaffin, said Sgt. Joshua Horn, a homicide investigator with the Houston Police Department.

Police said witnesses told investigators the woman, identified as San Juanita Herrera, was standing near the complex entrance when the driver of a gray Nissan Frontier pickup truck ran over her. The suspect drove to another part of the parking lot, revved his engine, and ran over her again. He then reversed his truck and ran over Herrera a third time. Then he sped out of the parking lot, running over Herrera for a fourth time.

Herrera, in her late 30s, was rushed to a nearby hospital. Details of her injuries were not released, but police said she was in critical condition.

Herrera told witnesses who rushed to help her that a former co-worker was the driver, Horn said. The driver was described only as being in his 50s or 60s. He was last seen in a gray 2000 Nissan Frontier pickup with a camper.

Police said investigators later found the truck, though no information was released about where or when the pickup was located.

No information was released about what led to the incident.

Anyone with information about the case is urged to contact the HPD Homicide Division at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
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On Sunday, Hillary Clinton's diagnosis of pneumonia ignited a national debate about the presidential candidate's health. While some argue that the diagnosis should not concern voters, experts say its fair game.

Brandon Rottinghaus is a political science professor at the University of Houston. He said that history has shown that a candidate's health can play a major part of a campaign.

READ MORE: Clinton cancels California trip because of health concerns

"Temporary sickness is one thing, but a long-term illness is another," Rottinghaus said. "A candidates' suitability for office and durability while president clearly feeds into the public perception of readiness to serve."

It is no surprise that Donald Trump, Hilary Clinton, Jeb Bush and Bernie Sanders all released some form of a doctor's note confirming their good health.

"The candidate's health is an issue, as it pertains to credibility and stability of the office," said Rottinghaus. "The more forthright a candidate is about their health, the more voters will trust that they can serve as president."

READ MORE: Pneumonia diagnosis fuels questions about Clinton's health

As a result, a candidate's health is not a new obsession for American voters, especially for aging candidates.

Bob Dole, John McCain, Joe Biden, Ronald Reagan and Bernie Sander all received criticism during their bid for the White House due to their age.

When asked whether he was too old to be president, Ronald Reagan famously responded with "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience."

Click through above to see a short history of health and campaign trail issues.
As'ad's Bio

As'ad AbuKhalil, born March 16, 1960. From Tyre, Lebanon, grew up in Beirut. Received his BA and MA from American University of Beirut in pol sc. Came to US in 1983 and received his PhD in comparative government from Georgetown University. Taught at Tufts University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Colorado College, and Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Served as a Scholar-in-Residence at Middle East Institute in Washington DC. He served as free-lance Middle East consultant for NBC News and ABC News, an experience that only served to increase his disdain for maintream US media. He is now professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. His favorite food is fried eggplants.
By Bobby Blanchard, The Texas Tribune

A series of late-night tweets in which a Texas lawmaker promised to support tightened legislation on vaccines and referenced "playboy bunnies" has drawn the ire of a political action committee that supports loosening vaccine laws.

Texans For Vaccine Choice, whose website says it promotes "preservation of personal liberties," issued a statement Friday afternoon following the tweets by Rep. Jason Villalba, R-Dallas. In the tweets, Villalba promised to support new vaccine legislation and said he was tired of "playboy bunnies and [Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford] acting as doctors when our children's lives are at stake."

The "playboy bunnies" apparently refers to Jenny McCarthy, an actress and former Playboy model who has supported the idea that vaccines cause autism, a claim that has been repeatedly debunked. Stickland has supported leaving "medical decisions to parents instead of the government."

RELATED GALLERY: Vaccination exemptions across the state of Texas

Jackie Schlegel, director of Texans for Vaccine Choice, called Villalba's tweets "sexist and derogatory."

"Mr. Villalba's name calling is beneath the dignity and decency serious issues like this deserve," Schlegel said. "Rest assured we are not swayed in our dedication to fighting for the rights of all parents in Texas."

Villalba did not immediately return a call requesting comment.

Villalba proposed legislation in the last legislative session that would have narrowed exemptions in the state's vaccine requirements. Nearly one percent, or 38,000 Texas students, received non-medical exemptions from vaccines during the 2013-2014 school year. In 2004, just 3,000 Texas students received exemptions.

Villalba's bill drew the attention of Texans for Vaccine Choice, which largely helped kill it, and he drew a primary challenger this year who built his campaign largely on the vaccine issue.

Shortly after winning his primary, Villalba said he will not refile his vaccine legislation.

"I'm not interested in a suicide mission on this issue," Villalba told the Tribune in April. "I sense  and this is unfortunate  the only way a bill like this gets any traction is an even worse large-scale outbreak, between now and session. Short of that, I just don't think there is going to be the appetite to do this bill."

But his tweets Thursday night indicated something different.

"I have no choice but to support new vaccine legislation," Villalba tweeted. "Science shall prevail. The anti-vaxers' rights do not supersede the rights of Texas parents."

Read more about Texas and vaccines:

--

The Texas Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans  and engages with them  about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
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Despite polls showing a close presidential race in Texas, neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump is popping up in ads on Texas airwaves.

One candidate is, though, and even he is going small scale in a big state.

Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson purchased 37 spots on KVIA-TV, the ABC affiliate in El Paso, this month. The price tag: $12,000.

READ MORE: Third parties don't always get attention, but sometimes pick up votes

The spots were aimed at appearing on "Good Morning El Paso" and "Good Morning America" and were purchased through Evan Twede Advertising, a small Sandy, Utah-based agency.

Trump has been almost flagrantly off the paid airways during the campaign, relying on no shortage of news coverage to get on television almost daily. Clinton has bought ads on TV, but mainly in swing states, such as Colorado, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.

That, despite at least one poll showing Clinton within two points of Trump in Texas.

READ MORE: A thumbnail guide to third parties in Texas

While Democrats nationally are spending in an attempt to win over U.S. Senate seats in North Carolina - where they've made a $2.5 million investment - and Missouri - site of a $1.5 million outlay - Texas doesn't have any hot down-ticket races this fall.

There are smaller races scattered about the state - court of appeals, district attorney and other local contests, but no senator, governor or even many seriously contested congressional races to speak of for Texas voters this year. Thus, no big spending by the major parties in Texas.
The summers final Live on the Waterfront concert was held Wednesday evening at Prince Arthurs Landing. The popular series in Thunder Bay has completed nine weekly shows that began on July 13. Wednesdays concert was unique as it was held one hour later in the evening to mesh with the 10 p.
In August Adam Baru, the man behind downtown siblings Mani Osteria and Isalita, opened Mikette in the Courtyard Shops on Plymouth Rd. A French bistro decorated with an eclectic mix of early twentieth-century French paintings, posters, and bric-a-brac, it feels like a sophisticated neighborhood joint.

And balancing sophistication and neighborly congeniality is the challenge for Mikette. Baru says he wants a cross-section of patronsdiners looking for a slow-paced meal of traditionally inspired entrees like beef bourguignon and trout almondine and others who just want a quick sandwich or Mikettes signature Burger Le Mec at the bar.

Baru is particularly proud of Le Mec, which he calls chef driven and totally unique  I wanted something that said Mikette as much as a Reuben says delicatessen. The meat is specially ground and blended, and the burger is served on Mikettes own brioche rolls with house-made pickles and special sauce.

But Mikette derives its primary culinary inspiration from Barus experiences as a teen in southern France. Barus father was teaching there, and he brought his family over for a visit. Adam became very close with his host family, who had a son his age. They got along so well that the two ended up doing regular summertime exchanges in which Baru would travel to France for a month, and the other boy would visit the U.S.

During these summers, Adam says he fell in love with the cuisine of the region, which he likens to that of Marseille. It felt raw, and right in your face with these clean flavors. It was very much like the town, with influences coming in from Spain, Italy, North Africa, and other places around the Mediterranean. He was also inspired by the cooking of his host family, who had immigrated to France from Algeria and Tunisia. The family matriarch, in particular, made a lasting impression: he named the restaurant Mikette in her memory.

Baru wants the restaurant to reflect the cuisine he learned to love during those summers: classically French in technique, with flavor profiles drawn from all around the Mediterranean basin. If pressed, he says, he might describe it as a sort of rock n roll French. Serious, but playful. Traditionally, for instance, the roast chicken Provencal might be served with fingerling potatoes and a bit of tapenade. Instead, the quartered chicken arrives on a generous bed of pommes frites with ketchup and truffle mayo. It just worked better, Baru says. More fun. The Moroccan meatballs appetizer, like Isabels meatballs at Mani Osteria, starts with a custom meat grind blended with spices and hand rolled. At Mikette, the technique remains, but the spicy aromatic seasonings and cumin yogurt sauce evoke North Africa.

Mani and Isalita chef Brendan McCall helped set up the kitchen and create the menu, working with Artie Cavaliere, who also helped develop the menus at Mani and Isalita. But with his two veterans already involved in the day-to-day operations of the other restaurants, Baru needed a third chef to help run Mikette and round out the kitchen.

Fortuitously, Adam had met Don Hammond one night as the chef dined at Isalita. Originally from Michigan, Hammond, whose cooking experience in Ann Arbor includes the Chop House and Grange, was working in New York at the time for Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The two hit it off, and Baru says he tried every six months to lure Hammond back to Michigan. Ultimately, it was Mikette that did it.

The restaurant has a raw bar, and several fresh seafood dishes. Theres an array of salads, including an elaborate Lyonnaise made of crispy potatoes, frisee, spicy greens, and sausage; its topped with a lightly poached egg that serves as the dressing. Starters include the Gougere, a very light Parmesan popover seasoned with black pepper and thyme; crab cakes with frisee and Old Bay remoulade; and a foie parfait served with cornichons, blueberry Concord jam, and brioche toast. Along with beef bourguignon, entrees include steak frites (with an optional au poivre sauce), a French dip, and a simple, well-made omelet with Michigan goat cheese and herbs.

With two successful restaurants downtown and a promising third on the north side, Baru continues to look to the future. I have a few ideas, he says.

I love figuring out whats next, sharing concepts with the team and seeing what works. The folks around me grow, and they challenge methey tell me when my ideas stink! And thats important. Thats family, thats teamwork.

Its been a really cool ride so far.

Mikette, 1759 Plymouth Rd. 436-4363. Tentative hours: Tues.-Sat. 4 p.m.-10 p.m., Sun. 4 p.m.-9 p.m., closed Mon. mikettea2.com
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Presidential debate moderators often go into hiding as they prepare to carry out their thankless jobs. But Fox News Chris Wallace caused a stir last week when he said in an interview that its not my job to fact-check candidates when he hosts the final 2016 presidential debate. The comments have drawn near-universal condemnation from journalists, and the backlash only crescendoed when NBCs Matt Lauer allowed Donald Trump to lie about his opposition to interventions in Iraq and Libya with no follow-ups during a candidate forum last week.

Lauer was conducting a one-on-one interview, so theres no obvious explanation for his failure. But Wallaces comments resurrected a major philosophical question that has dogged the debate process since moderators took center stage as questioners beginning in 1996. Hands-off moderators such as Jim Lehrer have largely played the role of traffic cop in past elections, though the trend line points toward incrementally more direct confrontation with nominees. The candidacy of Trump has led many in the industry to call for additional involvement from the only non-candidates on stage.

Theres certainly a need for more probing questions and follow-ups by moderators, particularly with a candidate as inexperienced and unprepared as Trump. But on the narrower task of fact-checking, asking moderators to make the myriad instantaneous editorial decisions about when and how to jump in is an incredibly heavy burden, and they might not be best suited for it.

Trumps Iraq War assertion is the easiest example of a disprovable statementin a debate, Hillary Clinton can and should bat it down. But he has few other stated policy positions that can be fact-checked in the traditional sense. His more reprehensible traits, including racism, sexism, and penchant for conspiracy theories, often come in the form of innuendo thats by nature more difficult to refute. And this is to say nothing of the real-time task of weighing fact-checks between Clintona candidate whos traditional in both her policies and her relationship to the truthand Trump, who many argue poses a potential danger to democratic institutions.

There is a journalistic component to what the moderator does. But theres so little timethats the problemand that time really belongs to the candidates, says Alan Schroeder, a Northeastern University journalism professor and presidential debate historian. Id rather trust PolitiFact or The Washington Post, which have done their homework and written [fact-checks] in a nuanced way, than rely on a moderator making a decision in real-time.

Indeed, the pros at PolitiFact will have about 10 staff on hand during debates, says Editor Angie Drobnic Holan. The fact-checking organization has analyzed many of the campaigns most familiar claims already, so it will largely be reframing and resharing those on social media when the candidates take the stage.

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Fact-checking in real-time is incredibly hardyou really need to know the material, Holan says, adding that PolitiFacts traffic has skyrocketed this year. I think the fastest weve ever gotten a full fact-check up is 20 minutes, and thats when we already know the material beforehand. One or two hours would be pretty fast.

The growth of such efforts at many news organizations does change the debate-night experience, particularly given the increase in multiscreen viewing. But there are also downsides. For one, the audience for live fact-checks isnt necessarily the same one that watches a TV debate. And as I wrote in 2014, even political reporters watching from afar have a difficult time of correcting misinformation as fast as politicians can spew it.

Its no surprise that the controversy over this topic has exploded at the tail end of the 2016 campaign. Critics have for years argued that asymmetric political polarizationthat Republicans are on balance more extreme than Democratsshort-circuits journalists need for the appearance of objectivity. Its a compelling argument that Trump has essentially proven with both extremist beliefs and a blatant disregard for the truth. He seems to have rendered journalists impotent, which no doubt helped fuel the outrage over Wallaces remarks.

But whether debates are the most effective forum to shift this paradigm remains an open question. Stuart Stevens, Romneys former campaign manager and an outspoken Trump critic, argues that theres a clear difference between the role of moderator, like Wallace on Oct. 26, and that of interviewer, like Wallace on Fox News Sunday.

It should be up to candidates to correct other candidates, Stevens tells me in an interview. Thats the whole point of this. Its not a Sunday show.

The journalist in me doth protest at this in the age of Trump. Im with you, brother, Stevens replies. I think Donald Trump is a disaster. But its up to Hillary Clinton to point that out in that moment. Theres no way to [fact-check] consistently and fairly.

Neither option is fully satisfying, unfortunately. In 2012, for example, Mitt Romney was taking Stevenss advice and attempting his own fact-check of President Barack Obamas early description of the attack on a US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, as an act of terror. Obama had indeed called it thatalbeit in a roundabout waybut the administrations full public response was wishy washy at best.

When CNNs Candy Crowley jumped in, she said that the president was technically right but awkwardly added that Romney was correct on the broader point. The interjection only added confusion to the exchange, making the moderator the story. Republicans like Stevens still groan at the episode.

When the moderator starts playing that kind of role, its not a debate, says Anita Dunn, former communications director for the Obama White House, speaking generally. Its a joint news appearance. And then the moderator in the debate opens himself or herself to looking like they are partisan.

Of course, major news organizations have already bombarded Trump with more openly antagonistic coverage than any other candidate in recent memoryto no avail. Its unclear whether radically altering debate norms will help or hurt the medias broader credibility in holding Trump accountable.

In a series of focus groups conducted for a bipartisan working group on debates Dunn co-chaired at the Annenberg Public Policy Center last year, the main complaint from respondents across age groups was that moderators tend to take sides, giving one of the candidates the edge. Trump, an outlier, poses a particular quandary in this regard in 2016. But theres no good answer to it. The Commission on Presidential Debates could choose an outsider to moderate the contests who will challenge Trump more directly; Trump could back out. Which is better for the public?

The penalty for someone to walk away from the debates is not going to be that high unless the debates become more relevant, Dunn says, citing a proportional decline in viewership among the voting-age population over the years. And this is intertwined irrevocably to the moderator.

If the highly-rated primary debates are any indication, the general election contests will likely reverse that long-term trend. Moderators for the two other presidential debates include NBCs Lester Holt, on Sept. 26, and CNNs Anderson Cooper and ABCs Martha Raddatz, on Oct. 9. Raddatzs performance in a debate between vice presidential candidates in 2012 was rated highly by journalists and political operatives alike. It meanwhile seems dubious that Wallace will go as easy on Trump as many liberals fear. He grilled the eventual GOP nominee during the primary debates, using on-screen graphics to great effect.

There might something of a lesson there. Schroeder, author of Presidential Debates: Risky Business on the Campaign Trail, advocates for moderators to facilitate fact-checking in a more indirect way. If Trump claims, for example, that he didnt propose a deportation task force to forcibly remove unauthorized immigrants, the moderator could alert the audience that the issue has been thoroughly fact-checked at a news site listed at the bottom of the screen.

It wouldnt take that much time, the moderator is not seen as taking sides, and yet theyre acknowledging that theres a different reality [than what the candidate is suggesting], Schroeder says. The truth is that all of this fact-checking at a very thorough level by journalists is going to be better than what a live moderator can do off the top of his head.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

David Uberti is a writer in New York. He was previously a media reporter for Gizmodo Media Group and a staff writer for CJR. Follow him on Twitter @DavidUberti.
With network security top of mind, businesses are nearly two times more concerned with losing private data (47 percent ) than hackers disrupting their systems (26 percent), according to the 2016 Network Security and Data Privacy Study, released by San Francisco-based Wells Fargo Insurance, part of Wells Fargo & Company. Misuse of technology among employees also emerged as a new, growing threat (seven percent), while network viruses and disruption of operations fell slightly to less than 10 percent from 2015.

The study also found that there is a growing need for companies to improve employee education and training on data security. Two in 10 companies do not have an employee awareness training program, while 15 percent dont require any training for employees.

Its surprising that businesses are not more concerned with employee misuse of technology what I like to call the human factor, said Dena Cusick, national practice leader with Wells Fargo Insurances Technology, Privacy and Network Risk National Practice (PDF). Cyber risk management is first and foremost about education. Informing and regularly training employees on security protocols and incident response plans is critical for businesses today.

The study revealed the top eight network security and data privacy concerns among businesses this year:

1. Loss of data  47% (45% in 2015) 2. Hackers  26% (25% in 2015) 3. Security breaches  26% (20% in 2015) 4. Maintaining reputation  9% (4% in 2015) 5. Viruses  7% (10% in 2015) 6. Software vulnerabilities  7% (7% in 2015) 7. Employee misuse of technology  7% (0% in 2015) 8. Other  7% (13% in 2015)

In addition to network and data breaches, companies face another imminent threat  imposter fraud, a new twist on phishing scams where a fraudster gains access to the email account of a companys senior executive and then requests that a payment be made to a specific bank account. One in five large companies surveyed has been a target, and the incidence is even higher for companies with more than 2,000 employees or $500 million or more in revenue. Of those victimized, many of the businesses suffered a financial loss, which was often more than $500k.

Every organization, regardless of size, needs to make cybersecurity a priority within their business, added Meredith Schnur, senior vice president of the professional risk practice at Wells Fargo Insurance. I handle five-to-10 incidents each week from clients who are not well-known brands. No organization is immune.

The second-annual Network Security and Data Privacy Study analyzed trends of network security and data privacy issues among 100 decision makers at companies with $100 million or more in annual revenue.

Source: Wells Fargo
The 37 wastewater disposal wells to be shut down in north-central Oklahoma, where a 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck this weekend, are just a fraction of the states total number.

There are about 4,200 total wells across the state and about 700 in a 15,000-square-mile Area of Interest created by the commission to address earthquakes in the area that includes the epicenter of Saturdays temblor near Pawnee.

The earthquake tied a November 2011 quake as the strongest in recorded state history and was felt as far away as Nebraska, but no major damage was reported.

Not all of the states wells operate simultaneously, Oklahoma Corporation Commission spokesman Matt Skinner said.

We estimate that at any one time, there are about 3,200 active disposal wells, Skinner said.

An increase in magnitude 3.0 or greater earthquakes in Oklahoma has been linked to underground disposal of wastewater from oil and natural gas production, and since 2013, the commission has asked wastewater-well owners to reduce disposal volumes in parts of the state where the temblors have been most frequent.

The area of interest includes another 211 adjacent square miles thats under the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Skinner said the commission doesnt know how many wells may be involved there.

Gov. Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency in Pawnee County because of the earthquake. State and local emergency management officials and officials from the U.S. Geological Survey assessed damage Sunday, according to Pawnee County Emergency Management Director Mark Randell.

Were just trying to determine just how widespread the damage is, Randell said. He described it as minor to moderate, with some collapsed chimneys and fallen sandstone facing off buildings; no buildings collapsed.

None of the utilities, pipelines or fuel infrastructure in the area had major damage, either, the commission said. The Oklahoma Department of Transportation inspected 180 state bridges within a 30-mile radius of the epicenter and reported minor cosmetic damage to two structures, but all are open and safe for travel.

ODOT said the inspections across six counties took about six hours to complete.

We are pleased with the speed and efficiency of our crews in their response to this event and dedication to ensuring public safety, ODOT executive director Mike Patterson said.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is inspecting all dams within a 50-mile radius of the epicenter, including the Birch, Cleveland Levee, Heyburn, Kaw, Keystone, and Skiatook dams.

Key energy-producing areas in both Oklahoma and Kansas saw an uptick in quakes in the first half of this decade, but took different approaches. Kansas moved quickly to limit volume in wastewater disposal wells, while Oklahoma concentrated on the depth of the disposal. Kansas saw a 60 percent drop while the frequency of quakes in Oklahoma continued to climb.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The annual filing most insurance carriers will use to develop rates for workers compensation insurance shows a decrease for the fourth year in a row. The National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) plans to file an overall loss cost decrease of 10.2 percent. NCCI credits Oklahomas loss cost decrease to declines in market experience and market trend, as well as the recent reforms.

Im extremely encouraged to see this positive trend continue for another year, Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner John D. Doak said. When Oklahoma business owners can pay less for workers compensation insurance, they can spend more on their employees and on creating jobs. It is a win-win for everyone.

With this years drop, the total impact of NCCI filings since 2013 is a 44 percent decrease. The new loss costs will go through a review process and are expected to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2017.

The NCCI is an advisory organization that studies workplace injuries, collects workers compensation claim data, analyzes industry trends and develops loss costs to be used in the ratemaking process. Most workers compensation carriers use the NCCI loss cost values when determining the rates charged to Oklahoma employers.

Source: OID
A GPS tracker placed a California arson suspects vehicle at the scene of a destructive wildfire north of San Francisco last month about a minute before it started, according to an investigation of the suspect in the blaze that destroyed 189 homes.

Investigators first placed a tracker on Damin Pashilks vehicle in August 2015 after a series of small arson fires over the previous weeks that Pashilk is also accused of starting. Videotaped surveillance had placed a car Pashilk drove near at least some of those fires, according to a summary of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protections investigation of Pashilk that was obtained by The Associated Press.

Pashilk pleaded not guilty in a Lake County courtroom on Wednesday to 18 counts of arson related to 16 fires, including the August 13 blaze that damaged the town of Lower Lake. His attorney, J. David Markham, declined to comment, saying he wanted to first finish reviewing hundreds of pages of documents that had been turned over to him by authorities.

The investigation summary shows authorities tracked Pashilks whereabouts using a GPS device and direct surveillance by investigators. Pashilk was observed taking photos of one fire he is accused of starting in August 2015, according to the summary.

On August 7, 2016, an investigator tracking Pashilk noticed he had stopped along a state highway. The investigator found a fire burning in the brush minutes after Pashilk left, according to the summary.

Two days later, an investigator spotted another fire near where Pashilks vehicle had also stopped minutes before.

The GPS tracker showed Pashilk had slowed down to 11 miles per hour at the site of the August 13 fire about a minute before it started, according to the summary. He was arrested two days later.

State fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said investigators didnt have enough evidence against Pashilk to present a solid case to prosecutors until after the Aug. 13 fire.

He declined to say whether that blaze yielded additional evidence against Pashilk beyond the GPS tracking and surveillance in the investigation summary.

The arrest was made as soon as we had enough evidence that we believed provided a solid case that we could turn over to the DAs office, he said.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Washington regularly bills people who are deemed to have negligently started wildfires, but the state isnt always successful at collecting.

The state Department of Natural Resources spent about $45 million fighting 44 of the most recent fires caused by negligence, some dating back to the mid-2000s, but has only recovered about $10 million  or about 22 percent of the amount it originally sought, The News Tribune reported.

Sometimes people cant afford to pay. Other times, parties dispute their role in the fires or that anything could have been done to prevent them.

State law entitles the agency to recover firefighting costs from fires caused by negligence.

In a 2010 fire involving Klickitat Public Utility District, for example, DNR held the utility liable for $27 million in firefighting costs after a tree fell on one of its power lines. That case is in litigation.

My opinion is the wind broke a tree and blew half of it over (onto a power line). How are we negligent for that? asked Jim Smith, general manager of the Klickitat PUD. All we are doing is spending public money fighting over which public agency should pay for it.

Public Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark, whose agency fights fires on more than 13 million acres of private and state-owned forest lands, said its important to keep pursuing the full costs even if the agency never gets paid or has to fight it in court.

It is about getting the money back, but also sending a message that people are held accountable, said Goldmark, who leaves office at the end of the year.

At least nine of the 44 cases of negligence are still ongoing or in litigation. Many of those legal fights involve public utility districts.

DNR has billed public utilities and power companies $20.6 million for nine recent fires. As of July, the agency had collected only $2.8 million in those cases.

In the 2010 fire involving Klickitat PUD, Smith said the tree that fell down was healthy and outside the utilitys right of way, limiting the districts ability to cut it down.

A DNR forest pathologist, however, said the tree had a split trunk and other defects that made it a hazard, which should have required some action.

In 2011, Andy Knutson, a public school teacher in Okanogan County, got a bill from the state for $1.8 million.

He was working on a summer remodeling project when a red-hot piece of metal sparked a fire that eventually scorched nearly 2,000 acres near Omak over three days. The 60-year-old said he wasnt able to put out the blaze that melted his shoes and singed the hair on his arms.

After a yearlong battle, the state agency settled with Knutsons insurance company for $300,000, the maximum amount his homeowners policy would pay.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Metro Campus of Cuyahoga Community College is about to undergo a much-needed heart transplant, architecturally speaking.

On Tuesday, Sept. 27, Tri-C plans to break ground for a radical, $38 million redo of the three-story Campus Center that will strip the building back to its structural frame and turn it from a brick and concrete bunker into a light, welcoming and transparent campus centerpiece.

In addition, Tri-C is already underway with an estimated $28 million landscaping project scheduled for completion by 2020 that will soften the edges of the Metro campus, plus add greenery and social and outdoor recreational space.

Big deal

The changes are a big deal for one of the toughest and meanest-looking campuses in Northeast Ohio.

They also bode well for Cleveland's poor, majority black Central neighborhood, where well-intentioned utopian visions of midcentury modernist architecture created harsh-looking public housing and other environments that cry out for change.

The nearly 50-acre Tri-C Metro campus at East 30th Street and Community College Avenue was largely built between 1966 and 1970 and was originally designed by the Cleveland architecture firm of Outcault, Guenther, Rode and Bonebrake.

The design is a legacy from the heyday of Brutalist architecture, which became popular in the 1960s after unrest including the 1966 Hough Riots in Cleveland.

The thinking back then was that in order to save the cities, urban planners and architects had to harden them up with built-in barricades and rugged buildings that looked capable of withstanding onslaughts by raging mobs.

The cover of a recent book on Le Corbusier, famous for his heavy-rimmed black glasses and for laying the groundwork for Brutalist architecture.

Architects took inspiration from the designs of the Swiss-born French architect Le Corbusier, who advocated rough-textured buildings in molded concrete and cities with super-blocks that erased traditional and walkable street grids.

Local examples include the Cuyahoga County Justice Center - now under analysis about whether it should be renovated or replaced - plus large portions of the Cleveland State University campus, and Marcel Breuer's Ameritrust Tower on East Ninth Street south of Euclid Avenue, which has been turned into a hotel and apartments.

The city's Erieview Urban Renewal District abounds in the mixed legacy of Brutalism.

Le Corbusier's own buildings are full of majesty, poetry and mystery; works by his followers and imitators, not so much.

Podium, anyone?

The 30-acre core of Tri-C Metro campus is set atop a large concrete deck, or "podium,'' flanked by areas of grass set about one story below the chunky concrete parapets around the edge. The effect is that of creating a moat between the college and the surrounding community.

Riding atop the platform, which serves as the roof of a giant underground garage, are a dozen clunky buildings designed with dark, deeply recessed windows or blank walls of brick, concrete or shiny black slate.

The place looks more like an industrial plant than a place of learning, joy and discovery.

The Tri-C buildings are interspersed among austere concrete plazas and are linked by concrete-frame covered walkways laid out in a robotic grid of right-angled turns that treat students like machine cogs without free will.

The upshot is that Tri-C Metro, where students prepare for careers in health care, hospitality management, electrical engineering, or recording arts and technology, exudes a punitive air.

Leveraging change

Metro's big upcoming projects embody the recognition that it would be impossible to change the entire campus. They are instead a practical, pragmatic effort to make a few big retrofits to the midcentury modern campus that will produce a big payoff.

The Campus Center, which houses student organization offices, a cafeteria and other central services, will undergo a sweeping makeover designed by the Cleveland-based architecture firm of Bialosky, which is also designing the Van Aken redevelopment in Shaker Heights.

The project will surgically remove everything from the building's underlying concrete skeleton.

Around the remaining framework, the architects will build what amounts to an entirely new building and wrap it in a curving, metal and glass shell. At night, it should light up like a lantern.

The design will eliminate lower-level outdoor pathways that cut around the building on its north, east and south sides by covering them with new plaza areas, thereby removing the impression that the structure is a castle edged by a moat.

Neighborhood connections

This will have an especially big impact on the East 30th Street side of the campus, which will look and feel accessible and completely opened up to the surrounding Central neighborhood.

A Starbucks and a Barnes & Noble, visible from the street, could turn the building into a welcoming local hub instead of an aloof, fortress-like enigma, which is what it is today.

In the renderings, the arrangement of glass and metal panels designed for the new skin of the Campus Center looks slightly busy, as if it is trying too hard to generate visual interest amid bleak surroundings.

Project Details

What:

The Tri-C Metro makeover.

Components:

Radical redo of the Campus Center building plus new landscaping across the 30-acre core campus.

Designers:

Campus Center: Bialosky, Cleveland; landscaping: City Architecture, Cleveland.

Total cost:

$66 million.

Funding for landscaping and garage roof redesign:

Higher Education Funding Commission. $7 million received so far; another $10 million allocated. Tri-C will seek an estimated additional $11 million from the commission.

Funding for Campus Center:

$2.5 million from Higher Education Funding Commission; remainder from Tri-C funds.

But in general, the new architecture proposed for the Campus Center has the potential to transform perceptions of the Metro campus, and perhaps even to make the remaining buildings look halfway decent.

That's also very true of the second big project at Metro, already underway, which will soften the harsh, hard-edged concrete plazas that now surround most buildings on campus by introducing new areas of grass and trees inside the facility and around its edges.

Designed by City Architecture, the project is divided into four phases, the most important of which is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2018, along with the new Campus Center.

This part of the project will replace the elevated platform at the northeast corner of the campus with landscaping that will slope gently down to the intersection of East 30th Street and Community College Avenue.

Softer and more welcoming

The landscaping will provide multiple curved pathways directly from surrounding sidewalks into the campus, in dramatic contrast to the current design, which channels all visitors and students up and down a handful of staircases or across bridges that traverse the virtual moat that surrounds the campus.

"Making the campus more outward-facing and more accessible to the public was one of our biggest goals," Michael Schoop, president of the Metro campus, said in a recent interview.

It looks like he'll get his wish.

A Cuyahoga County Metropolitan Housing Authority rendering of a redevelopment on the north side of Community College Avenue at East 30th Street, opposite a separate revamp of the Tri-C Metro campus that will soon get underway.

Tri-C Metro's projects should also dovetail very nicely with a big project on the north side of Community College Avenue at East 30th Street, where the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority is replacing stalag-style Olde Cedar Estates and Cedar Extension Estates with street-friendly mixed-income apartments and townhouses.

The upshot is that CMHA and Tri-C together are revising the legacy of midcentury modernism by drawing on a half-century's worth of new design wisdom about how to make cities better places to live, work and learn. That's good news for Central, and for the entire city.
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Gasoline prices resumed a slow decline today, reflecting the change in seasons and in consumer driving.

(Plain Dealer file)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Gasoline prices have begun falling again this Monday morning after a brief increase at the end of last week when oil prices quickly increased following reports that U.S. oil stockpiles were down.

The average price of a gallon of gas in Cleveland this morning is $2.04, according to the AAA's Fuel Gauge and to GasBuddy.com.

That's about 6 cents lower than the week-ago Labor Day price.

But not all stations are posting average prices.

There are many Greater Cleveland stations posting prices between $1.80 and $1.85 a gallon, GasBuddy's consumer members are reporting.

And there are stations still posting prices between $2.19 and $2.29 a gallon, according to GasBuddy, some so high that they do not even reflect week-ago wholesale prices.

The average state-wide price today is between $2.06 and $2.07 a gallon, which is nearly 8 cents lower than Labor Day average prices.

The highest average prices are in Cincinnati, and range between $2.22 and $2.24 a gallon.

The lowest average price in the state today is Canton's average price of $1.95, the AAA reports.

The national average price is $2.18 a gallon.

Gasoline prices typically begin falling after Labor Day as demand diminishes and refineries begin switching to cheaper winter-grade fuels as fall arrives. Disruptions in the supply of oil or gasoline can disrupt that trend.

Both the oil industry's American Petroleum Institute and the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a significant drop in U.S. oil reserves last week, reflecting the impact of Hurricane Hermine on Gulf of Mexico oil rigs and oil tankers.

The downturn kicked off a day and a half of speculation in oil markets that briefly drove up prices of the best grades of U.S. oil to about $48 a barrel on Thursday. That in turn prompted some wholesalers to push gasoline prices up about a nickle a gallon.

Oil prices this morning have been moving between a low of $44.72 and a high of $46.26, according to Market Watch. The late morning price was $46.24 a barrel.

Analysts expect oil prices to be "choppy" in the coming weeks as traders wait for the outcome of informal talks among OPEC nations to curb production in order to drive up global prices. The current thinking is that OPEC will not be able to agree on a deal.

Meanwhile, the count of U.S. rigs drilling for oil rose last week by 7 to a total of 414, according Baker Hughes, an oil field service company. Six of the 7 rigs were reported as drilling horizontal wells in shale. It was the second consecutive week of increases.
Port OKs sediment removal Disposal plan solves dredging standoff with Army Engineers

A federal judge on Monday denied a request by the Port of Cleveland and the state of Ohio to force the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dredge the Cleveland Harbor and Cuyahoga River shipping channel.

(Plain Dealer file photo)

U.S. District Judge Donald Nugent

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A federal judge on Monday said he will not yet force the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dredge the Cleveland Harbor and Cuyahoga River shipping channel this year.

U.S. District Judge Donald Nugent denied the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Port of Cleveland's request for a preliminary injunction on technical grounds.

His decision continues a standoff where Ohio EPA and port officials, who think the channel must soon be dredged, and the Army Corps, which says it has the ability to decide whether the channel requires dredging. Thus far, the Army Corps has said dredging might not be necessary.

Nugent wrote in the three-page order that since the request pertains to claims and events not included in the Ohio EPA and port's original 2015 lawsuit, an injunction request would need to be filed along with a separate lawsuit.

He also denied an attempt by the Ohio EPA and port to tweak its lawsuit to include the events that happened in the 2016 battle to dredge the shipping channel.

(You can read the order here or at the bottom of this story.)

The Army Corps would have dredged in May during a typical year, though low rainfall and high lake levels have not made it an absolute necessity. The agency is demanding a "non-federal sponsor" pay to dump the dredged sediment into a disposal facility. It contends the sediment is safe to be dumped into Lake Erie. The Ohio EPA says dumping in the sediment in the lake would be harmful to the lake's ecosystem.

Jade Davis, the Port of Cleveland's vice president of external affairs, said the port will likely file another lawsuit but that plan is not set in stone. He said "we have to figure out what our response is going to be and get it done expeditiously."

Kate Hanson, a spokesman for Attorney General Mike DeWine's office, said state lawyers are reviewing the decision to determine its next steps.

This is the second year in a row the state asked Nugent to force the Army Corps to dredge the harbor and dump the sediment into a disposal facility. Nugent in May 2015 issued a scathing opinion that forced the Army Corps to dredge.

Even though the shipping channel is largely navigable, some freight carriers have reported difficulty passing through parts of the channel. Port officials have said rain storms could push more sediment into the channel land render it unnavigable.

Davis said surveyors are assessing whether this weekend's storms pushed in more sediment, and should know more in a day or two.

Army Corps spokesman Andrew Kornacki said he could not comment on pending litigation.
graduationcap

When it comes to educating students on financial literacy to reduce student debt, it may not come down to just one level of education.

(Karen Farkas, cleveland.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- At 18 years old, students can sign up for tens of thousands of dollars in student loans.

Often, students haven't yet taken out a loan for a car or even began using a credit card. They can't fathom the ramifications of their debt and so, may borrow too much or put off paying it back.

That's a mistake, say experts. Student debt has become a national crisis, stressing families, altering career goals and keeping a new crop of graduates from moving forward in their financial future.

Experts say teaching students about financial aid could be a key in reducing student debt. Financial literacy lessons could stop students from over borrowing, educate them on making wise investments and ensure that they know the easiest form of repayment.

This week, cleveland.com is breaking down college loans, to let students and parents prepare for a major financial decision, as another year of school rolls out.

Students doing research and taking advantage of all the resources available, before, during and after college, can lead to a much smarter investment, said Julie Szeltner, director of adult programs and services for College Now. The organization, which also works with students before they go into college, offers community programs to educate people on options for refinancing and repayment.

"It's better to face it," she said.

But who's supposed to provide this education?

At an August Cuyahoga County Community College event addressing student debt, Secretary of Education John King Jr. said financial literacy should be addressed throughout education, starting with fundamental math skills and understanding interest. Then, higher education institutions should provide support for their students.

"It's a shared responsibility," he said.

Here's who's sharing that responsibility now:

Parents

In a recent study, about 85 percent of students said they relied on their parents for financial aid information. More than half of students in a study by Experian said they felt they were going it alone when it comes to student debt.

High school

In Ohio, there is no statewide graduation assessment test for financial literacy.

However, it is required for financial literacy to be integrated into one or more social studies classes. A new model financial literacy curriculum, approved in February 2016, addresses student loans and debt.

More than 50 percent of young adults surveyed between the ages of 18 to 24 by the National Financial Educator's Council felt like a high school money management course would have benefited their life the most, over other options like science or social studies.

Cleveland Metropolitan School District incorporates financial literacy into a government class, but also advises students through an online college and workplace readiness program, Naviance, guidance counselors, and partnerships like the one the district has with College Now.

"(Making borrowing decisions) is very nuanced," said Anthony Battaglia, director of career and college readiness for CMSD. "It's also is an experience that many students have never gone though."

Battaglia said how a student approaches borrowing for college is highly varied based on personal experiences, and the district's goal is to make sure students and their families are educated on their options and hear information from multiple sources.

Community college

There's a focus on financial literacy in Tri-C's first-year experience program, said Alex Johnson, president of the college.

Venus Puliafico, director of University Financial Aid at Case Western Reserve University, said that the university offers support through college counseling, including one-on-one attention if the university sees that a student is on a trajectory that could land them in serious debt. Case's tuition is about $45,000 a year.

"Finance and education can be partners," she said. "Families do not always understand that loans are financial aid."

Should there be more opportunities for financial education? A freshman seminar at a four-year college? Or a required high school class? What about workshops at local libraries? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.
ECOT and Ohio Department of Education court hearing over funding.JPG

Lawyers for the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) question Rick Teeters, the school's superintendent, about enrollment at today's hearing in Franklin County Common Pleas Courtt.

(Patrick O'Donnell/The Plain Dealer)

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The state's fight over whether the giant ECOT online school deserves the $106 million in state money it receives hit the courtroom today, with ECOT lawyers saying the state is using rules that are "unenforceable" and the state saying the school's objections are "absurd."

The school and Ohio Department of Education are expected to be before Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jennifer French for the next three days to present their differing views on a crucial issue: Whether online schools have to show that students actually participate in their online classes, or just that the schools provide classes.

In opening arguments this morning, lawyer Marion Little said state rules and a 2003 contract with ODE only require the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow to prove that students are enrolled, not that they are engaged in their lessons.

Little said that e-school funding is set by enrollment but the state this year has tried to "merge" the "distinct" and separate ideas of participation with enrollment to audit the school and put its funding at risk.

"They tried to rewrite the law," Little said.

He said that having to prove that students are participating is a much higher standard than traditional schools have to follow. Those schools receive state aid, he noted, even if students skip class.

He also told the court of a 2003 agreement between the state and ECOT outlining what documentation the state would look at to determine funding for the school. It does not list any required documents showing time logged on to the school's system or other records of participation.

Little said that contract did not have a time limit and was never officially changed, so expecting more documentation now is unfair.

"We have an enforceable agreement that has not been complied with," he said.

See below for a copy of that contract, attached to an earlier filing by ECOT in the case.

Douglas Cole, the lawyer representing ODE, countered by saying ECOT's position that "participation is irrelevant to receiving $106 million dollars" is absurd.

"Taxpayers deserve to know that their hard-earned dollars are actually going toward an education," Cole said. "Students actually deserve to an education, not merely offered the possibility of one."

Cole also argued that the "contract" with ECOT resolved a dispute at that time but is not binding now.

We'll have more here soon.

As we have reported previously, the state is seeking proof that students are spending more than one hour a day online, as early reviews showed,

Because the school in the past has not had to provide documentation of the work that its students do, school leaders have said it's unfair to expect the documentation retroactively for the just-finished 2015-16 school year.

If the state makes ECOT show evidence of how much time its students spend learning or else lose some of its state funding, ECOT Superintendent Rich Teeters told supporters this summer that the school's future is in danger.

In the 2014-15 school year, 38,500 students took their classes on computers from home through an online school. Ohio, along with California and Pennsylvania, is one of the top states in the country for the number of kids in online schools, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS).

For the 2015-16 school year, Ohio paid online schools $267 million to educate those students -- more than a quarter of what it paid all charter schools in the state.

ECOT and Ohio Virtual Academy, with 15,000 and 11,000 students, are the largest online schools in Ohio.

The contract in question makes up pages 18-20 of the file below.
Gazebo.jpg

The gazebo where 12-year-old Tamir Rice was fatally shot in 2014 will be deconstructed on Wednesday.

(Lynn Ischay, The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Deconstruction of the gazebo where 12-year-old Tamir Rice was fatally shot by Cleveland police will begin Wednesday, sources have confirmed.

Former City Councilman Jay Westbrook, who was instrumental in lining up the donated services involved in the effort, said in an interview Monday that workers from Ozanne Construction Company and Independence Construction will carefully disassemble the structure at the Cudell Recreation Center and prepare it for shipment to the Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago. The deconstruction likely will take several days, he said.

The museum is expected to display the gazebo in memory of Tamir and others who have died during altercations with police, Westbrook said.

A stone memorial eventually will take the place of the gazebo in the park outside the recreation center. Those plans, however, are still in their infancy.

Tamir was shot Nov. 22, 2014, as police officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback responded to a 911 call about a "guy" with a gun in the park. Tamir turned out to have been in possession of a pellet gun.

A grand jury declined to indict the officers in December in connection to the shooting. The family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city, which resulted in a $6 million settlement in April. An internal review of the events surrounding Tamir's death is ongoing.
Looking for a unique way to soak up what's left of summer? Ohio is home to dozens of waterfalls you don't have to trek far to see. Scope out your must-sees in the gallery above.

Pro tip: Try to visit to the falls after a hard rain to see them at their best.

Photo credits: Hayden Falls photo by Mike King, licensed under CC BY 2.0. Big Lyons Falls photo by Tom Hart licensed under CC BY 2.0. Cedar Falls photo by Matt Chan licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0. Greenville Falls photo by Chris M. Morris licensed under CC BY 2.0. Upper Falls of Old Man's Cave photo by See1,Do1,Teach1 licensed under CC BY 2.0. Fallsville Falls photo by Forest Wander licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. Lanterman's Falls photo by Jack Pearce licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. Paine Falls photo by Nicholas A. Tonelli licensed under CC BY 2.0. Great Falls at Tinker's Creek photo by Peter Ciro licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0. Berea Falls photo by Erik Drost licensed under CC BY 2.0. Indian Run Falls by Scallop Holden licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.


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Belinda Hunter, 61, has been pronounced dead at MetroHealth after police say she was shot in the head on Norwood Road in Cleveland.

(File photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland grandmother shot Sunday while sitting on her front porch has died.

Belinda Hunter, 61, died Monday at MetroHealth, Cleveland police said. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner has yet to release an official cause of her death.

Hunter and a 27-year-old man were shot about 6:30 p.m. outside her home on Norwood Road between St. Clair and Superior avenues, police said.

A large, blue, newer-model van drove by the house, and someone stuck a gun out of the window and started shooting, police said.

A bullet struck Hunter in the head. The man was shot in the back and shoulder, police said. Someone drove him to St. Vincent Charity Hospital.

A man flagged down a Cleveland police car on Superior Avenue and told them about the shooting on Norwood Avenue. Officers went to the scene and found Hunter. They gave her emergency first aid until paramedics came and rushed her to MetroHealth.

Police have not identified a suspect.

Hunter's death brings the city's unofficial homicide tally this year to 80.

On September 11th,2016 on Norwood street and Superior located in Cleveland,Ohio Belinda Hunter Sat on the porch as a... Posted by The Cleveland, Ohio Remembrance Page on Sunday, September 11, 2016

To comment on this story, please visit Monday's comments section.
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SAN FRANCISCO  An effort at damage control has snowballed into a public relations disaster for a Swiss bank seeking to crack down on a renegade Web site for posting classified information about some of its wealthy clients.

Documents from Bank Julius Baer containing information about several clients, including San Diego venture capitalist Jonathan Lampitt, were posted last month on Wikileaks.org. The site purports to discourage unethical behavior by corporations and governments by putting leaked documents online. The site claimed that documents showed tax evasion and money laundering schemes at the bank's Cayman Islands branch.

Attorney Jim Ellis says Lampitt was interviewed and cleared of any wrongdoing by the FBI in 2005 after a former bank employee allegedly circulated the same documents that appeared on Wikileaks. Ellis said he initially received a call from a bank executive alerting him to the Wikileaks posting and saying the leak was the work of the same disgruntled former employee.

In federal court in San Francisco, the bank asked a judge to take down the site, and the judge did. But instead of the information disappearing, it rocketed through cyberspace, landing on other Web sites and Wikileaks' "mirror" sites outside the U.S.
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. While on a working visit to Argentina, the Armenian delegation led by Deputy Speaker of Armenian Parliament, head of Armenia-Argentina parliamentary friendship group Eduard Sharmazanov, including also National Assembly MPs Sukias Avetisyan and Mikayel Manukyan, held a meeting with Argentine State Secretary for Human Rights Claudio Avruj on September 5, press service of the Parliament informed Armenpress.

The sides attached importance to the establishment of strong ties in the bilateral relations. They emphasized that it is necessary to utilize the entire potential for reaching notable results.

Eduard Sharmazanov introduced Claudio Avruj the situation in the South Caucasus stating that Armenia is an advocate of stability and peace in the region.

The Armenian Deputy Parliament Speaker said Turkey not only continues its denial policy on the Armenian Genocide, but it also keeps Armenia in illegal blockade for over two decades.

Only our united fight against the Turkish denial policy can prevent the future genocides. The international recognition of the Armenian Genocide is nothing more than a struggle for the protection of the universal values, he said.

Eduard Sharmazanov also touched upon the topic of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict stating that the NKRs independence is an established fact. He highlighted that compared to khanate Azerbaijan a democratic state is being established in Nagorno Karabakh.

He said Turkey and Azerbaijan are the major threats for regional security.

At the end of the meeting Eduard Sharmazanov spoke about the Azerbaijani anti-Armenian policy stating that there are many anti-Armenian manifestations in that country. The Deputy Speaker of the Parliament also condemned Azerbaijans policy of cultural genocide.
The funds flowing to listing Hanjin Shipping were likely to fall far short of what was needed to get its stalled cargo moving, said Daniel Yoo, head of global wealth management at Kiwoom Securities.

"Hanjin Group is now going to raise $90 million to fund the cargo ship unloading around the world. Estimated amount is about $543 million," Yoo told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Monday.

"It's still short of the overall, but nevertheless, it is the beginning point," he said. "The Korean government as well as the company is acting quite fast in terms of trying to solve this problem."

Hanjin filed for court receivership on August 31, leaving its ships stalled around the world while carrying an estimated $14 billion worth of stranded cargo, much of it Christmas goodies headed for retailers' shelves.

The shipping line was no minor industry player; industry data provider Alphaliner placed Hanjin at the seventh largest globally, with 98 ships and a 2.9 percent market share. That compared with the largest, APM-Maersk, with around 622 ships and a 15.4 percent market share.

Hanjin's parent company, Hanjin Group, planned to raise around $90 million to help cover the cost of unloading cargo, but the court said the amount was inadequate and that it wasn't clear when that plan would be executed, Reuters reported last week. Media reports over the weekend said that shareholder Korean Air Lines agreed to provide around $54 million of that amount, in exchange for collateral in the form of Hanjin's stake in a terminal at Port of Long Beach.

One ship, Hanjin Greece, managed to dock in Long Beach, California, over the weekend, and had its cargo unloaded, but it there was no timeline for other vessels at ports globally, Reuters reported Monday.

The stalled cargo has dogged retailers.

Nate Herman, senior vice president of supply chain for the American Apparel and Footwear Association told Citigroup in a conference call last week that his organization's members, as the cargo owners, were paying fees directly to terminals, stevedores and truckers to get their products unloaded from Hanjin ships.
North Korea has reportedly geared up for another nuclear test, remaining defiant in the face of global censure after conducting its fifth and largest-yet test.



South Korea's Defense Ministry spokesman said on Monday that the rogue nation was ready to undertake a sixth test at any time, after claiming to have successfully tested a miniaturized nuclear warhead on Friday.

"Assessment by South Korean and U.S. intelligence is that the North is always ready for an additional nuclear test in thePunggye-ri area," South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun told a press conference. Punggye-ri, near the northeastern coast, is the site of the North's five nuclear explosions.

"North Korea has a tunnel where it can conduct an additional nuclear test," Moon said.

Meanwhile, a U.S. Forces official in South Korea told Reuters that the flight of a B-1B bomber to the Korean Peninsula, postponed on Monday due to bad weather, would go ahead on Tuesday.

Friday's test sparked criticism from the U.S. as well as neighbors China, South Korea and Japan and other countries. The U.N. Security Council said it would begin work immediately on a resolution, as the U.S., Britain and France pushed for the 15-member body to impose new sanctions, while a U.S. special envoy said the country may launch unilateral sanctions against North Korea.



Separately, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Monday that 35,500 homes had been damaged by massive flooding in North Korea, with 133 dead in the North East of the country, according to Reuters. The U.N. agency said that 107,000 people had been displaced by the floods and 395 people were missing, according to Reuters.

On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that the country's nuclear tests were "absolutely unacceptable." while Japan's Defense Minister called North Korea a serious threat to international security.

But Pyongyang has so far shrugged off the fury caused by its nuclear test, which was conducted in violation of existing U.N. sanctions, as it has previous attempts to contain its nuclear weapons program.

North Korea said on Sunday that it was pushing ahead with a program to increase the quality and quantity of its "nuclear force," despite the threat of increased sanctions, describing how it was improving its nuclear-attack capabilities "moment by moment."

Any attempt by U.S. President Barack Obama to prevent North Korea from becoming a nuclear power was "as foolish an act as trying to eclipse the sun with a palm," according to a statement by the North Korea's foreign ministry on the state-run KCNA news site.
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President Xi obviously recognizes the U.S.-China relationship as his number one relationship, but he's not overly desirous of trying to please the U.S. and he wants to be treated as an equal. Christopher Johnson senior adviser at Center for Strategic and International Studies

China will be able to use the failure to pass to deal to say "look the US is about military and stirring up trouble in the region. We are about trade and growth and the failure of the TPP would demonstrate that," added Johnson who was previously a China analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency. This would help the East Asian giant's international push, he added. "For many years post-(former leader) Deng Xiaoping, the notion was keep a low profile internationally and focus on domestic development and growth. Since President Xi (Jinping) came into power, this idea of a more active Chinese foreign policy has come to the fore and we see that in the U.S.-China relationship as well," said Johnson. Today's China however is unwilling to play second fiddle to the U.S. and Xi does not seem not "as solicitous of the U.S. relationship as his predecessors who put a lot of their energy or foreign policy bandwidth into managing that relationship," he added. Regional countries have also leaned towards keeping peace with the world's second-largest economy, which has made significant investments in much of developing Asia.

Protesters state their position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, during the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Monday, July 25, 2016 Toni L. Sandys | The Washington Post | Getty Images
Marcus Lemonis has some tough-love advice. The star of "The Profit," who has invested $35 million into failing businesses in an attempt to turn them around, has seen just about everything. And it isn't pretty. "The one piece of advice that I would give every entrepreneur in America: that owning a business isn't for everybody," Lemonis told CNBC. "It takes a different kind of person," he said. "It takes somebody with a thick skin and a tough stomach. It's not a glamorous job."

Marcus Lemonis on "The Profit." CNBC

While many dream of starting the next Facebook or being their own "girl boss," Lemonis said there is real value in entering the workforce and working for someone else first.

"Understand what it feels like to work for a great boss  or a terrible one," he said. "Understand what's entailed in owning a business. It's not just showing up and telling people you're the boss."

For this investor, experience is important, especially when business gets rough.
Over the next eight days, both nations will carry out rescue and anti-submarine operations as well as live-fire drills, island defense and landing operations, Reuters reported, citing a statement by the Chinese navy. The drills, first announced in July, are supposedly the largest naval project ever taken together by the two countries.

China and Russia begin naval drills in the South China Sea on Monday in what Beijing calls a "routine exercise," but the move could revive tensions in the long-running territorial conflict.

On surface, the drills aren't surprising. Both countries boast a close relationship, reflected by years of technology transfers, arm sales and a common aim of preventing U.S. hegemony in Asia-Pacific.



Beijing has publicly stated that the bilateral drills are not aimed at any other country but the timing of the operation could lead the international community to think otherwise, said Jingdong Yuan, associate professor at University of Sydney.

Following The Hague's South China Sea decision in July, the drills may be interpreted as yet another sign of Chinese-led aggression, he told CNBC's 'Street Signs.'

The Hague rejected Beijing's declaration of sovereignty in the resource-rich South China Sea, paving a victory for the countries which also hold claims there, including the Philippines, Vietnam and Brunei. China has dismissed the international court's decision, resulting in tangible tensions during recent meetings of Asian leaders in Laos and Hangzhou.

The drills are significant for China as not only do they demonstrate the extent of Russia's support, they also suggest Moscow isn't concerned about other claimant states, said Yuan.

That could have implications for Russian foreign policy. Like Washington, Moscow has also embarked on an 'Asia pivot.' Since 2010, Moscow has fostered close economic and defense partnerships with various Southeast Asian nations and initially adopted a neutral stance on the South China Sea issue.

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YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS. On September 11 President of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Bako Sahakyan visited the Alashan site of the Martakert region and met Talish residents who had left their houses and settled there in the aftermath of the war unleashed by Azerbaijan from 2 to 5 April 2016, pres service of the NKR Presidential administration informed Armenpress.

Issues related to the course of programs directed to improving social and living conditions of the Talish residents were discussed during the meeting.

The NKR President gave corresponding instructions to the heads of the concerned bodies for proper realization of the activities.

Primate of the NKR Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan, NKR National Assembly Chairman Ashot Ghoulyan and other officials accompanied the President.
It also shows the loyalty that Bridgewater continues to command from many of its clients, in spite of suffering unusually large losses in a flagship fund this year and facing questions about its corporate culture.

The inflows mark a striking contrast to the pattern seen in many other parts of the hedge fund industry, where many funds have experienced redemptions as a result of market losses.

The move, which was prompted by the launch of a new strategy and a decline in assets due to market losses, gives existing clients a significant increase in their stakes in the fund.

Bridgewater, the world's largest hedge fund, has attracted $22.5bn after taking the unexpected step of opening its active funds to new money for the first time in seven years.

"I know they've had a rough patch with Pure Alpha," said Robin Diamonte, chief investment officer at United Technologies and a longtime Bridgewater client who added money in recent months. "But it's unprecedented times, and things are not going to work. With managers like this, you just hold on."

This development is likely to be closely watched across the industry  not least because it highlights the degree to which unusual market conditions and losses are forcing even the most successful hedge funds to shift their strategies.



Bridgewater, founded in 1975, operates three main funds: its actively-managed Pure Alpha fund, the $62bn All Weather "risk parity" fund, and Optimal Portfolio, a fusion of the two which launched in February 2015.



The passively-managed All Weather fund has risen 13.5 per cent in value this year, while Optimal Portfolio has remained flat. But the $69bn Pure Alpha fund has fallen 9.4 per cent.



At $154bn, the Westport, Connecticut-based company is already the world's largest hedge fund. Even so, clients rushed into its Optimal Portfolio fund offering as it opened last year.



However, what is unusual is that in the past six months, after Pure Alpha had lost money, it has pulled in new money. Bridgewater wanted to keep its asset size broadly stable, according to people familiar with management's thinking.



"Every investor's going to have up years and down years. What we look at is whether the investor is sticking with their strategy, whether their process continues to have integrity, whether their strategy seems to be appropriate," said Bruce Zimmerman, chief investment officer at the University of Texas Investment Management Company.



Pure Alpha has generated about 12 per cent a year since 1991, and has not had a losing year in the last 15.



"When someone's going through a down period, sometimes that presents opportunities, like this one did," Mr Zimmerman said. "It presented the opportunity for us to be able to deploy more capital with a very long-term trusted partner that has been able to deliver for us, so we were pleased to take advantage."

This year clients have added more than $11bn to the company's funds. The total new money over the past two years is just $2bn shy of the total assets managed by Ken Griffin's Citadel, or just $3bn more than Brevan Howard.



Bridgewater told clients in its most recent investor letter that no one source from the more than 100 markets in which Pure Alpha trades was a disproportionate contributor, but the fund lost money in global bonds, Japanese equities, and European equities. The fund was caught wrongfooted with forces of deflation "overwhelming" those of expansion, according to the letter.



The company has faced scrutiny this year amid media reports of a leadership scuffle, and for its unique culture of "radical transparency". Bridgewater is in the midst of a 10-year transition period from its founder Ray Dalio, and in May brought in former Apple executive Jon Rubenstein to take over from Greg Jensen as co-chief executive officer, alongside Eileen Murray.



Additional reporting by Gillian Tett in New York



Ray Dalio is a speaker at the Sept. 13, 2016 Delivering Alpha conference, sponsored by CNBC and Institutional Investor.
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U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is being treated for pneumonia, her doctor said on Sunday, after the politician was taken ill at a ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. Clinton abruptly left the ceremony in New York on Sunday after becoming "overheated," one of her campaign spokesperson said following reports that she had "fainted." There was a further update later in the evening when her doctor released a statement saying Clinton had pneumonia. "Secretary Clinton has been experiencing a cough related to allergies. On Friday, during follow-up evaluation of her prolonged cough, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. She was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule. While at this morning's event, she became overheated and dehydrated. I have just examined her and she is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely," Dr Lisa R. Bardack said in a statement. Clinton was due to travel to California on Monday for a two-day fundraising and campaign trip, her spokesman Nick Merrill said, but continues to rest at home in Chappaqua, near New York. There have been questions over why Clinton didn't disclose her health condition earlier but her aides said the former Secretary of State didn't disclose her pneumonia because she thought she could power through and wasn't coughing Saturday. Now aides realize that was a mistake, NBC News reported.



Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton sips water during a Labor Day rally September 5, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio. Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images

It's unclear whether Clinton will make scheduled trips to Las Vegas on Wednesday and Washington DC on Thursday. With the U.S. presidential election just two months away, there are concerns that the condition is a late setback for Clinton at a crucial campaigning time. Clinton is scheduled to face her Republican rival, Donald Trump, in a presidential debate on September 26.

Her Republican rivals have already questioned Clinton's physical fitness and last month, Trump said she lacked "mental and physical stamina" to serve as president.Here's a quick Q & A on pneumonia and how long it could put Clinton out of action:

Q. What is pneumonia?

A. Pneumonia is inflammation of the tissue in one or both lungs which is usually caused by a bacterial infection. The alveoli (air sacs at the end of the breathing tubes in your lungs) can become inflamed and fill with fluid.

Q. What are the symptoms?

A. Symptoms of pneumonia include a dry cough, difficulty breathing, a rapid heartbeat, fever, chest pain, loss of appetite and generally feeling unwell  all symptoms that can be easily mistaken for other conditions such as the common cold, making diagnosing pneumonia sometimes difficult.

Q. What causes pneumonia?

A. Pneumonia can be caused by viruses, bacteria and funghi, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states. "In the U.S., common causes of viral pneumonia are influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and a common cause of bacterial pneumonia is Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus). Pneumonia can also be caused as a result of being on a ventilator, known as ventilator-associated pneumonia," according to the CDC's website.

Q. Who's at risk?

A. Pneumonia can strike healthy people of all ages but there are certain groups of people at increased risk of developing the infection. These include babies and very young children, elderly people, those that smoke and people with other health conditions, such as asthma or a heart, kidney or liver condition or those with a weakened immune system, the U.K.'s National Health Service (NHS) website states.

Most cases of pneumonia are bacterial and aren't passed from one person to another but good hygiene is essential to stop viral strains of the condition. In the U.S., over 53,000 people died from pneumonia in 2013, according to the latest available data from the CDC. In the U.S. in 2014, 61.3 percent of adults 65 years of age or older were estimated to have received a pneumococcal vaccination, however.

Q. How bad is it?
Following are excerpts from a CNBC interview at the Ambrosetti Forum in Italy, with Julia Chatterley and Mario Centeno, Portugal's Finance Minister.



JC: So we have spoken in the past about how you're redirecting policy more towards consumers and trying to support them, but you know the message I get from the business community is they are concerned about growth, they are concerned about investment, they are concerned about your focus on reform -- respond to their concern.



MC: Thank you very much for having me. It's only partially true the idea that we are focusing more on consumption, we have a substantial focus on recovering income, especially for families; we are also, of course, directing our policy towards firms, towards investment. We have a very ambitious program that is meant to help firms capitalise; we are doing lots of effort in terms of stabilising our financial sector which is crucial for investment and for the economy to grow; we are also promoting very ambitious program of reforms on qualifications, on skills, so that we can retain our best skills at home and of course allow firms to invest. This is very crucial to the overall picture and so I think it is a more mixed policy that we are implementing that, of course, puts growth and exports at a higher level. Actually one of the most interesting figures in the second quarter growth, which was still low, but it is very important to notice that exports increased 1.3 percent quarter on quarter, which is a very strong figure for the situation we face in the overall trade development.



JC: So why do you think people are so concerned about your commitment to reform? Do you think it was because, initially when you came to power, you repealed a number of the former government's measures and so there is this perception now that perhaps, you know, this is a government that is not going in the direction that Europe wants it too?



MC: It was the perception but it really was a mis-perception, because the focus again was on recovering income and lowering taxes that were actually meant to be lower, faded away, because of their temporary nature. We are putting more of an emphasis on reforms that go to the potential growth of Portugal, like the skills that I mentioned before, the reform of public administration -- we have a very ambitious plan on the simplification of public administration, actually we launched already dozens of measures that are, most of them, minor in the sense of the way we can spell them out, but they really go towards the bottle necks in terms of bureaucracy.



JC: One thing that would have an immediate impact would be a corporate tax cut and this was something the former government promised and it seems to have been dropped?



MC: We are focusing and we are going to put that in this Budget, of specific incentives to investment in terms of lowering corporate tax.



JC: So you are going to lower corporate tax?



MC: With incentives to investment.



JC: So if you invest you can earn a lower tax rate?



MC: Exactly.



JC: You also mentioned what is going on with the banks. You've found a very important solution, a private sector solution, for CGD, which involves them raising a billion euros in the market. Are you fearful they may not be able to do that?



MC: Well that is a major achievement, the agreement with the European Commission, considering that the no state aid process we put a very ambitious business plan, a very professional team was appointed to the management of CGD. We also changed the incentives so it was these three pillars: the business plan, the governance and the incentives. And I think the market will perceive this very easily as a very ambitious and market-orientated operation so we are confident on raising the 500 million on subordinated debt that we have to raise from the market and the effort from the government side is meant to be an investment. We are investing in the bank -- a major Portuguese bank -- it is very important to stabilise the financial system and I think now all pieces are finally sticking together with CGD and of course the solutions that are in the pipeline to the private banks in Portugal.

JC: I think investors remember what happened with Novo Banco though and I think they look at this situation and perhaps go: 'I am not sure we want to touch this,' because there is a trust issue. How do you overcome that?



MC: The only thing that we can do to change the perception again from the developments you mention is focusing on market operations, on talking the market and saying we are committed to stabilising the system, to put it together, to make the financial system to work and of course protect investors.



JC: And some kind of guarantee they won't be bailed in if they invest in this?



MC: Exactly.



JC: And you are saying this at this moment?



MC: Definitely.



JC: So the other concern out there is that the money you are investing here will lead to a higher deficit and that's going to be a problem for your investment grade rating. What are Eurostat saying to you, do you think they are going to be kind to you on this issue?



MC: We are preparing the operation to be considered first of all no state aid, and then after that to be considered as an investment and a capital injection instead of an expenditure that will count for the deficit. Of course there is still a lot of work to do with the European Commission and Eurostat on that front, but I think the basic steps for that decision to be taken are stabilised so we are confident on that.



JC: So the other concern is obviously have only one ratings agency now that gives you an investment grade rating, and that gives you access to QE. But even they are concerned about growth, so what kind of conversations are you having with them? Can you make them more comfortable and confident that you are focused on supporting growth?



MC: That is the message, we are in close connection with them, through the regular mechanisms, we are meeting them frequently. It is very important that is the message -- we are working with European institutions in a constructive way, we are setting out a set of reforms that really go towards the bottle necks our economy, the financial system, the skills that I mentioned before. The modernisation and a very sustainable reduction on public expenditure -- these are the measures, the reforms that we need to implement to promote growth, in our opinion. We are not actually reverting any structural reforms that were taken during the adjustment program, not in the labour market, not in the judicial system, not in social security system We are really sticking to them and allowing them to have an effect on our economy. Employment is growing very strongly, social security records show an increase of close to 3 percent year on year on employment, this is a very strong figure. Unemployment is reducing steadily; we have very good indicators for specific groups in the labour market. People with age between 35-44 years old, the unemployment rate actually fell to 7.9 percent, which is less than half of the peak of the crisis; compared to the previous year it is a reduction of more 20 percent This is a very important signal to the recovery of the economy and I think we are confident that stronger growth will show in the following quarters.



JC: I just want to wrap up. There have been concerns, even with all the measures you talk about, that Portugal is going to find itself on a path ultimately where it has to request a second bailout, it is related to the Investment grade rating, to still a relatively high deficit, high debt levels. Will you do whatever it takes to prevent Portugal having a second bailout?



MC: That's my main job, what we are putting together -- a commitment on the fiscal front and a reduction in public expenditure in precisely that way.



JC: So if the Commission say it's not working, adjust, you will adjust?



MC: We do that from the beginning, we did that from the beginning, the 2016 budget was already a very strong statement in this respect. So we are



JC: Committed?



MC: Committed.






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Greece's left-wing-led government has laid into its international lenders once again, saying that their bailout methods and disagreements among them is damaging the country's inability to recover. On Sunday, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that a rift within the so-called troika of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European bodies the Commission and European Central Bank over how to deal with Greece's debt burden was damaging the country's recovery. "I would say that what is creating conditions of delay in regaining trust of markets and investors ... is the constant clash and disagreement between the IMF and European institutions," Tsipras told a news conference in Thessaloniki, Reuters reported. On the one hand, the IMF has said it would not participate in Greece's third 86 billion euro ($96.8 billion) bailout until the issue of debt sustainability is sorted. Meanwhile, European lenders want Greece to meet numerous conditions of its bailout package before it implements measures to help Greece repay its debts. This assistance could include extending the maturities on Greek loans or even debt forgiveness. Marica Frangakis, political secretariat and economist for Syriza, which governs in an awkward coalition with the right-wing Independent Greeks party, told CNBC that Greece's lenders had "failed miserably" in their policies aimed at rescuing the Greek economy.



Andrew Burton | Getty Images

"These (troika) policies have been emphasizing austerity, that is internal devaluation  that is, reducing the cost of labor as a way of increasing competitiveness and reducing the size of the public sector as a way of reducing fiscal debt and the deficit  now this is a recipe that has been tried many times before by the IMF and failed. They were tried in Latin America and Africa in the 1980s and failed then and even the IMF admits that," she told CNBC Europe's "Squawk Box" Monday. "But one doesn't learn from one's mistakes so they will repeat it in the case of Greece and they have failed dismally because not only has the Greek economy been in a deep recession since 2010 but also the public debt has been increasing  in other words, you're refinancing your debt and to do that you're getting an even larger amount of loans and in the end you can't repay them and we've ended up in a slump in the last six years." Aside from the impasse between Europe and the IMF, Greece's bailout has been beleaguered by other delays too with Greece's struggling to implement a host of reforms to its pension, labor and taxation systems as well as spending cuts in order to meet an ambitious primary budget surplus target by 2018, as demanded by international lenders.

'Summer is over'

Tsipras' and Frangakis' comments came after euro zone finance ministers met on Friday to discuss Greece's bailout progress, concluding that the "pressure is back on" and that the country had to "get back to work" on reforms, the head of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said.

"Summer is over. We really need to restart and pick up on the time lost. And the Greek minister, our Greek colleague, was I think convinced there was a joint interest for all of us to keep this on track. It has very much to do with trust, trust of course between us, trust in the IMF but also trust from the outside world in Greece and the Greek economy," Dijsselbloem said during a press conference after the meeting.
"I can't think of a worse situation," Sreenivasan said. "And I think what the company has to do is be up front about it and be very clear about how it will fix the problem, what happened and how it will work. Because they were hoping this was the best phone that's ever been released, and in fact, it's going to go down as one of the worst... it's going to be very scary for Samsung."

The reports of exploding batteries on Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 are "the biggest nightmare that anybody can think of in terms of phones," Sree Sreenivasan, New York City's new chief digital officer, told CNBC's " Squawk Alley " on Monday.

Samsung Electronics shares fell nearly 7 percent to hit their lowest level in two months on Monday. The company, along with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, has warned urged Galaxy Note 7 users to switch off and return their devices following reports batteries in the handsets were catching fire.

"This is not the time to be thinking that everything will work out," said Sreenivasan, known for his "always be charging" mobile phone mantra. "In the long run, maybe. But the least you expect from your phone is that it doesn't blow up  doesn't catch fire."

While the issue is serious, Vivek Wadhwa, professor at Carnegie Mellon University's College of Engineering, said he's still optimistic Samsung will overcome it.

"The way Samsung handled it is excellent because they admitted fault, they're doing a full replacement, correcting the problem," said Wadhwa. "I have no doubt that a few weeks from now, they will have replaced most of the telephones and the fans will continue buying the phone, because it is a beautiful phone. It's the best phone ever made."

Samsung has launched a replacement program, where some carriers and retailers will provide loaner phones until new Note 7 devices are available. Consumers can also exchange a current Note 7 for a Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 Edge and replacement of any Note 7-specific accessories with a refund of the price difference. Participants in the exchange program can also get a $25 gift card or bill credit.

Wadhwa said that's still enough to keep up with the competition, Apple , which just released the new iPhone 7. CNBC reached out to both companies for comment.



"These things happen in technology," Wadhwa told "Squawk Alley." "What Samsung is doing is they are rapidly innovating, they're rapidly getting technology out, while Apple is constipated. You're not seeing any new features out of Apple, other than maybe a better camera ... They're copying everyone else."
Hillary Clinton gets in a car while leaving her daughter's apartment building on September 11, 2016, in New York.

A daily morning look at the financial stories you need to know to start the day

STOCKS/ECONOMY

-Stock futures are sharply lower after Friday's 300-plus point loss for the Dow. The headline is that investors are worried about a Fed rate hike later this month, but the sudden new level of uncertainty in the presidential election is likely contributing too.

-Investors are also worried about a last minute speech by the Fed's most dovish voting member scheduled for today.



OIL/ENERGY

-Crude prices are down almost 2 percent with WTI barely holding on to the $45/barrel level.

ELECTION

-Hillary Clinton suffered a "medical episode" of some kind while attending a 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York yesterday. First her campaign said she succumbed to the heat, then it issued a statement from a doctor that she has pneumonia. Video of Clinton Sunday being dragged into a car made the rounds online. Clinton has now canceled a planned campaign trip to California today.
President Barack Obama is meeting with the top four leaders of Congress ahead of a month's end deadline to fund the government or face a shutdown.

Lawmakers and the White House also are maneuvering toward a deal to fund the fight against the Zika virus amid warnings from government scientists that the money has essentially run out.

Obama's priorities for a lame-duck session of Congress may also be on the table at the White House Monday afternoon. These include a 12-nation Asia free-trade deal that is languishing on Capitol Hill.

Obama invited the GOP leaders, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and their Democratic counterparts, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid.
A woman sits with an insurance agent to pick an insurance health plan under the Affordable Care Act. Getty Images

Don't worry if you don't exist, you can still get Obamacare. Two new government audits reveal that the nation's Obamacare marketplaces remain "vulnerable to fraud," after investigators successfully applied for coverage for multiple people who don't actually exist. In several cases this year, fake people who hadn't filed tax returns for 2014 were still able to get Obamacare tax credits to help pay their monthly premiums for 2016 coverage. This year is the first in which applicants for those subsidies had to have filed their federal tax returns from prior coverage years to obtain such assistance. The audits, which looked at the 2015 and 2016 Obamacare coverage years, echo previous findings about the potential for fraud, and the failure to detect it, on the government-run exchanges that sell individual health plans. The audits come less than two months before Obamacare's fourth open enrollment season, for 2017 coverage, is scheduled to begin.



Congressional critics of Obamacare seized on the audits as further proof that the health-care reform law is not working as promised, and that the Obama administration was being lax in securing the insurance marketplaces against fraud. "It's deja vu all over again as it seems the situation only continues to get worse, and we all are paying the price," said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich.

The investigations, conducted by the Government Accountability Office, looked at how well those exchanges did at verifying whether an applicant was eligible for Obamacare coverage. They also looked at whether people with dubious documentation could actually enroll in coverage, particularly for coverage that was subsidized by the federal government by virtue of applicants having low or moderate incomes.

For the 2015 coverage year, the federal exchange HealthCare.gov, which serves residents of 38 states, or the state-run exchanges of California and Kentucky, "approved each of 10 fictitious applications GAO made for subsidized health plans," the GAO said. "Although 8 of these 10 fictitious applications failed the initial online identity-checking process, all 10 were subsequently approved," the agency said. Four of the fictitious applications used Social Security numbers that had never been issued, according to the audit. "Other applications obtained duplicate enrollment or obtained coverage by claiming their employer did not provide insurance that met minimum essential coverage," the GAO said. The agency's investigators also submitted another eight fictitious applications for coverage from Medicaid, the jointly run federal-state program that covers poor people. For those applications, HealthCare.gov and the state-run exchanges approved three for Medicaid coverage, but did not approve Medicaid coverage for four of the applications. However, those other four applications were subsequently approved for subsidized Obamacare coverage. The eighth application was declined by California's exchange because the application did not provide a Social Security number as required. GAO said that for both sets of testing for 2015, it "submitted fictitious documentation as part of the application and enrollment process." "According to officials from the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS), California, Kentucky, and North Dakota, the marketplace or Medicaid office only inspect for supporting documentation that has obviously been altered," GAO said. "Thus, if the documentation submitted does not show such signs, it would not be questioned for authenticity."

For the 2016 coverage year, HealthCare.gov or the California exchange "initially approved coverage and subsidies for GAO's 15 fictitious applications."

Three applications, however, were unable to put their policies into effect because their first month's premium payments were not successfully processed. GAO noted that four of the applications used fictitious identities that had been used to get subsidized coverage in 2014. "Although none of the fictitious applications filed a 2014 tax return, all were approved for 2016 subsidies," GAO said. Federal officials told GAO that "they allowed applicants to attest to filing taxes if information from the Internal Revenue Service ... indicated that the applicant did not file tax returns," according to the audit. For eight other applications, GAO used new phony identities to test verification for identity or citizenship and immigration status. "In each case," GAO said, the fake applicants "successfully obtained subsidized coverage."
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS. Through the assistance of Armenia Development Fund 19 Armenian companies are taking part in WorldFood Moscow 2016 25th international exhibition in Moscow on September 12-15, press service of Development Foundation of Armenia informed Armenpress.

It is one of the prominent events in the field of food industry, the main visitors of which are commercial distributors, importers, medium and large buyers of the field.

In the exhibition the Armenian companies present their own production, the main products of the Armenian food industry.

Highly competitive Armenian products are presented in the exhibition, among which visitor wholesale buyer companies and representatives of commercial networks can find high-quality products starting or expanding cooperation with the Armenian companies, Executive Director of Development Foundation of Armenia Karen Mkrtichyan said.

This year over 1600 companies from more than 60 countries are taking part in the exhibition, and it is expected the number of visitors will be more than 30.000.
"That's my main job, what we are putting together a commitment on the fiscal front and a reduction in public expenditure in precisely that way," he said.

Speaking to CNBC over the weekend in Bratislava on the sidelines of a meeting of the euro zone's finance ministers, Mario Centeno said his main focus was to fix the country's economy so that it wouldn't be forced into asking for further assistance from its fellow euro zone countries, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Portugal is committed to doing whatever it takes to avoid requesting a second international bailout, the country's finance minister told CNBC.

In 2011, Portugal was rescued by a 78 billion euro ($85 billion) bailout from the European Union and IMF, a process that involved swingeing spending cuts and reforms. The country successfully exited the process in 2014 and, at the time, did not need any further financing.

Nonetheless, concerns remain about Portugal's economic health and its commitment to stimulating its businesses over boosting income levels.

In July, Barclays warned in a note to analysts that Portugal was "struggling with a systemic banking crisis, the lack of a convincing medium-term fiscal plan and excessive public and private sector leverage."

Portugal's budget deficit ran to 4.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015, far above the 2.7 percent target agreed with the European Commission. The Commission opted against fining Portugal  or Spain, which missed its own target  but the country must still aim to get its deficit below a threshold of 3 percent of GDP.

However, Centeno told CNBC that was "only partially true to say we are focusing more on consumption."

"We have a substantial focus on recovering income, especially for families. We are also, of course, directing our policy towards firms, towards investment, we have a very ambitious program that is meant to help firms capitalize, we are doing lots of effort in terms of stabilizing our financial sector which is crucial for investment and economy to grow."

Last month, the Portuguese government secured an agreement with the European Union to pump nearly 5 billion euros into its biggest bank by assets, the state-owned Caixa Geral de Depositos. Part of the deal was to win private sector financial backing for the bank to the tune of 500 million euros in subordinated debt.

"We put a very ambitious business plan, a very professional team was appointed to the management of CGD, we also changed the incentives which were the three pillars: The business plan, the corporate governance and the incentives," Centeno told CNBC.

"I think the market will perceive this very easily as a very ambitious and market orientated operation so we are confident on raising the 500 million subordinated debt that we have to raise from the market."





Justina Crabtree and Katy Barnato contributed to this report.
2016 has been a banner year for boutique banks, but they all got shut out of Monday morning's mega-merger.

President and CEO Chuck Magro of Agrium addresses shareholders during the company's annual general meeting in Calgary, Alberta, May 6, 2015.

The Potash -Agrium deal, worth $36 billion with $20.6 billion in revenue, went to bigger Wall Street institutions instead. The combination is expected to produce the world's biggest crop nutrient company.

Barclays Capital and CIBC Capital Markets advised Agrium, while Bank of America Merrill Lynch and RBC Capital Markets worked for Potash on the merger. Morgan Stanley also pitched in, serving as a "joint financial advisor" to both parties, which is a bit of a rarity on Wall Street. Morgan Stanley did not respond to a request for comment about its role in the M&A deal.

Overall, the banks will earn between $80 million and $90 million for their efforts, said Jeffrey Nassof, director at mergers and acquisitions consulting firm Freeman & Co. Because both Potash and Agrium are Canadian companies, the presence of Canada banks RBC and CIBC on the deal shouldn't be much of a surprise.



So far in 2016, boutique banks have grown market share more than they did last year, which was a record year for dealmakers.

And boutiques' share of M&A has risen substantially since the global financial crisis, which saw many Wall Street rainmakers decamp from bigger institutions to work at smaller firms, where their pay can be substantially higher.

Boutiques like Ducera Partners, Guggenheim Partners and Qatalyst Partners have elbowed aside Wall Street stalwarts to earn the business of LinkedIn , which earlier this year reached a deal to sell itself to Microsoft , and roles in the ongoing tango between Bayer and Monsanto, as well. The flurry of activity for smaller banks is a bigger headache for Wall Street in 2016, in part because regulators are busting up big deals as never before.
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS. The Russian leadership has received a note from the leadership of Ukraine over the impossibility of holding State Duma elections for Russian citizens in the territory of Ukraine, RIA Novosti reports citing its source in the Russian Foreign Ministry.

We have received a note, we are analyzing it now and will make relevant conclusions, the source said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry will make an announcement after analyzing the note.
Singapore got its first taste of the global Ultra music festival phenomenon at the weekend, and producers Alex Chew, 31, and Raj Datwani, 34, believe they've only just started to tap local interest in electronic dance music (EDM). A 45,000-strong crowd turned up for Ultra Music Festival Singapore, held at Bayfront Avenue on Saturday and Sunday, to hear DJs including Kygo, DJ Snake, Alesso, Axwell and Ingrosso, and Zhu. Chew and Datwani, who cut their teeth with a smaller, one-day festival called Road to Ultra during Singapore's Grand Prix Season last year, told CNBC they had seen a growing appetite in the city-state for a full Ultra event. "We thought the market here was ready for Ultra, with the production quality, the type of talent Ultra attracts," Chew, Ultra Singapore's co-founder and executive producer, said. "We thought this was just the right time to bring the festival here."

watch now

The event is an offshoot of the Ultra Miami Electronic Music Festival, which was first held by U.S. concert promoter Russell Faibisch in Miami Beach in 1999. EDM, an umbrella term for house, techno and other genres of electronic dance music, has steadily gained global traction since Faibisch threw his first party. Now, there are Ultra festivals held annually in 19 countries across five continents, and the International Music Summit (IMS) estimates the EDM industry was worth almost $7.1 billion in 2015 - a 60 percent increase on 2012's value. Sunita Kaur, managing director for Asia at music streaming service Spotify, told CNBC that she saw EDM as one of the fastest-growing musical genres, both in Asia and more broadly. "In Asia we see EDM as one of the top most-streamed genre amongst Spotify users," Kaur said. "Globally, EDM is one of the top ten most-streamed genres on Spotify." Datwani, the co-founder and executive producer of Ultra Singapore, is already thinking about how to capitalize on this interest going forward. "We're already starting to think about next year," he said. "We have a lot of plans for years to come to grow significantly larger."

Kygo (R) performs at the Ultra Music Festival 2016 in Miami, Florida. Arik MacArthur | FilmMagic | Getty Images
How much are you paying for financial advice? It might seem like a straightforward question, but a majority of Americans who have a financial advisor don't know the answer. A survey of 10,000 households that use financial advisors found that more than half of advisor clients (51 percent) thought the advice they received was either free or they didn't know how much they paid for it.

Camerique | Getty Images

The survey was conducted by Cerulli Associates and Phoenix Marketing International at the end of last year. The good news is that the number of survey respondents in the dark about their advisor's compensation has been dropping since 2011, when it was a staggering 65 percent. "The proportion has fallen from the highs we saw in 2011, but there is still a very large number of investors who don't know the dynamics or the details of their advisory relationship," said Shaun Quirk, a senior analyst at Cerulli. It's not consumers' fault. The wealth management industry, as a whole, does everything it can to hide the pounds of flesh it exacts for providing financial advice. Some advisors make their money through fees on assets under management, others through commissions on transactions, and some employ a mix of both. Still others receive indirect compensation from mutual fund companies, insurance providers and other investment product manufacturers that investors could only see if they combed through the fine print of very complicated disclosures. Although investor advocates have for decades been calling for a clear and simple expression of the cost of investing, the information very often remains obscure.

People are generally not financially sophisticated, and one great way to make things easier for them would be to give them clear cost information. Barbara Roper director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America

"There's been a huge failure of regulation," said Michael Kitces, a fee-based certified financial planner. "A large swath of investors aren't aware of what or how their advisors are compensated, because it's not transparent." Those advisors who are transparent about their compensation often suffer because of it. It seems that if costs are out of sight, they are out of mind for investors. "The advisors who are most transparent about their fees are probably among the lowest-cost providers, but they are viewed as the most expensive," Kitces said. "Ironically, the more transparent advisors are, the more difficulty they can have getting new clients." Along with the difficulty in determining what the costs of advice are, there are also some powerful psychological obstacles for people to overcome. Investing and financial planning is difficult for most people to understand, and they aren't willing to admit their discomfort with it. In cases where people have been taken advantage of by an advisor, they are embarrassed and often in denial. Many refuse to take legal action even if they have a strong case.

"It's like a rape victim," said Sheryl Garrett, founder of the Garrett Planning Network. "They don't want to go through it again." Garrett started her career as a commission-based advisor in 1987 but quickly realized she wasn't comfortable with the model. She then worked for a couple of wealth managers with "convoluted" fee-based models based on a client's assets under management, their net worth and their earned income. They generally served only wealthy clients. "It took a worksheet to come up with a quote for prospective clients," said Garrett, who no longer serves individual clients. She then decided to start her own firm and charge people for her time on an hourly basis. "I wanted to be an outlet for people who needed advice but couldn't pay for it," she said. "I felt that an hourly model was the most fair and most transparent framework where people could see exactly what they were paying me." Garrett and other fiduciary financial advisors see the recently issued fiduciary rule passed by the Department of Labor as a major step in the right direction of controlling the costs of advice to investors. It applies only to retirement accounts such as 401(k) plans and individual retirement accounts, but advisors to those accounts will now have to act in their clients' best interests. "People don't have to know a thing about it to benefit from it," said Barbara Roper, director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America. "It won't matter as much that people don't understand much about investing or the cost of it. "If advisors have to act in their clients' best interests, there won't be as high a cost of ignorance."
Donald Trump told CNBC on Monday the United States has "tremendous power" over China because the world's second-largest economy depends on American prosperity, and because of Beijing's ownership of a staggering amount of U.S. debt.

"They suck the blood out of us and we owe them money," Trump said on "Squawk Box."

"I call them great magicians," he added in the phone interview in which he also accused the Fed of being politically motivated, blasted President Barack Obama for increasing the national debt, and reacted to the health problems of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

The Republican presidential nominee was quick to say: "You're not going to default on that debt."

"Although," he said, "you could make the case ... China has defaulted with us" by stealing U.S. intellectual property. IP theft, principally by China, costs the American economy $300 billion a year, according to a 2013 bipartisan commission report.

Despite all that, Trump argued: "We have a lot of power," alluding to the old saying that debtors have the problem if they owe a bank $100, but the bank has the problem if a debtor owes $100 million.

Under this analogy, China would be the bank, and America would be the debtor that owes China $1.2 trillion. That's dollar value of U.S. sovereign debt owned by China, according to June data from the Treasury Department.

Trump said also he sees the U.S. having leverage over China because its economy derives strength from manufacturing and exporting many of the goods that Americans buy everyday.

"We should get China to fix that problem. We should use our economic power. Because without us, China would be in serious trouble," he said, echoing a theme he's raised throughout his campaign that China is getting the best of the U.S. on the trade front.

As a tough negotiator in the business world as a billionaire real estate mogul, Trump has argued he's the candidate to craft better trade deals with world powers, such as China.
In the fiercely competitive smartphone market, Apple could not have scripted better timing for Samsung 's phone recall, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told CNBC's "Power Lunch" on Monday.

Samsung's 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 phone recall comes amid an otherwise muted iPhone 7 launch and a key launch window other handset franchises, Munster said.

Prior to the recent news, Samsung had been the leading worldwide smartphone vendor in the second quarter, according to research from IDC. The firm estimates that Samsung shipped 77 million smartphones in the second quarter, ahead of Apple's 40.4 million.



It's still unclear how Samsung and Apple will fare amid recent news. But if Samsung loses 10 percent of its Galaxy sales during the recall, it could push Apple's iPhone numbers up a couple of percent, Munster estimates.

"Might not sound like much, but in this hyper-scrutinized investor concern on the health of the iPhone franchise, every percent counts," Munster said.
The gender gap is old news. This is the year of the education gap.

Education is now a key political marker. It defines the line between the Old America (less well educated) and the New America (voters who have college degrees).



What divides them? Donald Trump. The Republican presidential nominee is the whole populist package. He's conservative on social issues (immigration). Liberal on economic issues (trade). And isolationist on foreign policy (military intervention).



Differences by education are not new in American politics. We've seen a pattern developing since the 1960s. The higher your income, the more likely you are to vote Republican. The best educated, though, tend to vote Democratic.



It's a war between interests and values. The wealthy are defending their (conservative) economic interests. The well-educated are defending their (liberal) cultural values.



What happens to high-income voters who are well-educated? Sociologists call them "cross-pressured," meaning pulled in different directions. If they vote their interests, they vote Republican. If they vote their values, they vote Democratic.



More commentary from Reuters contributors:

The timing of North Korea's latest nuclear test is smarter than it looks

What the West got wrong after 9/11

How do you solve a problem like Duterte?



In 2012, GOP nominee Mitt Romney was the prince of wealth and President Barack Obama was the prince of education. They represented two intensely competitive elites that have been at war for decades. Both attended Harvard University, which is in the business of producing elites.



Democrats have been worrying about their party's weakness with working-class whites. But working-class whites are not nearly as dominant as they used to be. Non-college whites were 65 percent of all voters in 1980, 54 percent in 1988 and 36 percent in 2012. This year, it's Republicans who have the far bigger problem.



Democrats are now making serious gains among the well-educated. Trump drives away college-educated whites who used to be reliably Republican. This year, for the first time, they are going for the Democrat.



It's changing the nation's electoral map. Republican losses among educated voters are tipping many states from red to blue.



States that used to be reliably Republican  Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina  are becoming competitive. Former swing states such as Colorado and Virginia, now look like sure bets for Hillary Clinton.



Two things are happening. First, we're seeing a flight from Trump among well-educated suburban white voters in major metropolitan areas like Denver, Philadelphia and Atlanta. The well-educated northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., have pulled that state into the Democratic column. Virginia today can be described as two-thirds Southern and one-third New Jersey.



Many of those states are also seeing increasing numbers of minority voters, particularly Latinos, who are certain to vote solidly against Trump.



Trump, meanwhile, is competitive in states with a lot of blue-collar whites, rural voters and relatively small minority populations, like Ohio and Iowa. The Washington Post just polled all 50 states. Trump is getting an absolute majority of the vote in six states: Alabama, Kentucky, North Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming.



Where does Trump do best? Appalachia, where there are a lot of low-education white voters. Take West Virginia, one of the poorest (and whitest) states in the country. It's a coal mining state and it used to vote solid New Deal Democrat. It even voted for Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis in 1988!



But Democrats' hostility to the coal industry has alienated West Virginians. In the last four presidential elections, West Virginia has gone Republican by increasing margins (52 percent in 2000, 56 percent in 2004 and 2008, 62 percent in 2012). This year, West Virginia looks safe for Trump.



Now look at Virginia. Virginia voted Republican in 13 out of 14 presidential elections from 1952 to 2004 (all but 1964). Yet Virginia voted for Obama twice, and this year it looks safe for Clinton. Virginia voters are one-quarter minority, and a majority has college degrees.



What explains the widening of the education gap? You might argue that Trump is notoriously ill-informed and that turns off educated voters. He is skeptical of climate change, for example, as are a lot of poorly educated Americans.



But the diversity factor may be more important. What defines Democrats today is a commitment to diversity and inclusion  the first African-American president, possibly the first female president.



Trump, meanwhile, has been called the candidate of white identity politics. He leads the resistance movement against diversity and inclusion, which he contemptuously labels "political correctness."



Younger, better-educated Americans tend to live in major metropolitan areas that are increasingly diverse. White, working-class Americans have been fleeing those areas. Some because they can't afford to live there, others because they want a different lifestyle.



In 2014, Andrew Levison wrote in the New Republic, "Today, two-thirds of white workers live in small towns, the urban fringes around metropolitan areas or rural areas; only a third remain in central cities or suburbs."



Way back in 1896, Democrats nominated the whole populist package: William Jennings Bryan, an economic radical, religious fundamentalist and foreign policy isolationist. Bryan's candidacy turned off cosmopolitan America. He did well in rural America and the South, but lost the fast-growing, urbanizing and industrializing states that were attracting immigrants. Democrats nominated Bryan three times (1896, 1900 and 1908). Each time he did worse. Democrats became the nation's minority party for 36 years.



With Trump as their standard-bearer, Republicans may be inviting a similar fate. They are becoming the party of declining America. Democrats are becoming the educated cosmopolitan party.



Clinton's health problems could become a new source of division. A lot of poorly educated voters are receptive to conspiracy theories, like the view that the Clinton campaign is hiding crucial information about the candidate's real state of health. They saw something dire in her abrupt exit on Sunday from the 9/11 anniversary ceremony in New York City, although her campaign announced that the former secretary of state had been diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday.



Clinton spoke for educated cosmopolitans this week when she put "half of Donald Trump's supporters" into a "basket of deplorables" calling them "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic." The Trump campaign denounced her "contempt for everyday Americans."



Trump's message: She's a snob. Out of touch with  and disdainful of  ordinary Americans.



This commentary originally ran on Reuters.com. Bill Schneider is a visiting professor in the Communication Studies Department at the University of California  Los Angeles.
ROME, N.Y.  The U.S. Air Force has awarded PAR Government Systems Corp. a $3 million contract award for research and development.

PAR Government is a wholly-owned subsidiary of PAR Technology Corp.

PAR Technology (NYSE: PAR), based in New Hartford, is a provider of restaurant/retail management technology systems and government-contract services.

The company will service Rome Lab, the information directorate of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) under the three-and-a-half-year deal, PAR said in a news release.

Rome Lab, which operates at the Griffiss Business and Technology Park, focuses on communications and cyber technology.

We are pleased that AFRL has selected PAR Government to support the iMARC program, Matt Cicchinelli, president of PAR Government, said in the release. Under this effort, we will develop innovative information transmission and reception technologies that can enhance warfighting utility, survivability and mission assurance.

The contract, which involves Innovative Multi-Mission Agile Radio Frequency Capability (iMARC), has PAR Government providing technologies for multi-mission waveforms, assured wireless-communications systems, network connectivity, and wireless cyber-security.

PAR Governments intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) sector will perform the contract work.

The PAR subsidiary on July 12 also announced a five-year, $5.1 million deal with Rome Lab, which focuses on Newport radio frequency communications research and development (NewRAD).

Under that deal, PAR Government will perform research development test and evaluation (RDT&E) activities to meet radio frequency technical-program requirements for operational airframes, aircraft, vehicles, and weapon-systems tests in response to Air Force needs and other components of the U.S. Department of Defense.

PAR Government, which is headquartered in Rome, provides ISR services to the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. government agencies, and private industry.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com


If it's not broken, fix it until it is



Kevin Marois wrote: There has to be a way to prevent a file from being touched by the user. Not in Windows.



The user is the owner of the PC. Whatever code you can come up with, I can attach a debugger, halt and jump.



If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^] Bastard Programmer from Hell





If it's not broken, fix it until it is



Kevin Marois wrote: This app isn't targeted to programmers. You are effectively asking how to keep something private on a machine that ain't yours. You could 'hijack' the data, encrypt everything and keep your encryptionkey on a server. Not a good way to formulate it, but the question here is ownership. If you don't want them to access a file, then don't have it on the local machine.



If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^] Bastard Programmer from Hell



FileShare.None when opening the file. Of course, when you close your app, Windows will close the file, and now the user can access it.





"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."

- Benjamin Disraeli



Suppose I have the following strings

Sample1[Model:M1; Year:1990] Sample2[Model:M3; Year:1997]



I can get the index of the string Sample1 but how do I get the indexes of the first occurrence of the delimiters [ and ] after Sample1?



modified 12-Sep-16 0:30am.







If you are sure that there is only one ] in the search string, you can just use 'IndexOf on the string.



If there could be multiple [ : C# int lastindexof = searchString.ToList().FindLastIndex( ' ]' );

 There is a spectrum, from "clearly desirable behaviour," to "possibly dodgy behavior that still makes some sense," to "clearly undesirable behavior." We try to make the latter into warnings or, better, errors. But stuff that is in the middle category you dont want to restrict unless there is a clear way to work around it.  Eric Lippert, May 14, 2008







But, there's a relatively easy way to confine your search to the first ] character after the first [ character found: C# private string test = @" Sample1[Model:M1; Year:1990]Sample2[Model:M3; Year:1997];" List<Point> bracketIndexes = new List<Point>(); char rBrack = ' [' ; char lBrack = ' ]' ; int loc = 0 ; int limit = test.Length; int brackStart, brackEnd; while (loc < limit) { brackStart = test.IndexOf(rBrack, loc); if (brackStart == -1) break ; brackEnd = test.IndexOf(lBrack, brackStart + 1 ); if (brackEnd == -1) break ; loc += brackEnd; bracketIndexes.Add( new Point(brackStart, brackEnd)); loc++; } foreach (Point pt in bracketIndexes) { Console.WriteLine( " {0} at {1} : {2} at {3}" , test[pt.X], pt.X, test[pt.Y], pt.Y); }; Notes:



1. I used a 'Point structure here to hold the discovered indexes for convenience ... as an alternative to using a Struct or a Tuple.



2. I'm allergic to writing a 'while loop without an exit condition, but, in this case, the loop is going to be exited the first time either of the two calls to 'IndexOf return -1.



3. Somebody could come along and show a much shorter way of doing this with RegEx (?), but since i am "RegEx challenged," that's a guess. Similarly, you could use Linq here, perhaps some form of 'GroupBy, but, my experience is that this type of operation is best done with loops: better performance. That opinion is one I have formed more from reading opinions of people I regard as at a level of technical depth much deeper than mine ... than from personal experimentation.

 There is a spectrum, from "clearly desirable behaviour," to "possibly dodgy behavior that still makes some sense," to "clearly undesirable behavior." We try to make the latter into warnings or, better, errors. But stuff that is in the middle category you dont want to restrict unless there is a clear way to work around it.  Eric Lippert, May 14, 2008





C# Regex findEm = new Regex( @" (?<=Sample)(?<SampleNo>\d+)(?<Start>\[)(?<Data>.*?)(?<End>\])" ); string input = " Sample1[Model:M1; Year:1990]" ; Match m = findEm.Match(input); if (m.Success) { Console.WriteLine( " Sample {0}: {1}{2}{3}

{4}, {5}" , m.Groups[ " SampleNo" ].Value, m.Groups[ " Start" ].Value, m.Groups[ " Data" ].Value, m.Groups[ " End" ].Value, m.Groups[ " Start" ].Index, m.Groups[ " End" ].Index); } Result:

Sample 1: [Model:M1; Year:1990] 7, 27

Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...





 There is a spectrum, from "clearly desirable behaviour," to "possibly dodgy behavior that still makes some sense," to "clearly undesirable behavior." We try to make the latter into warnings or, better, errors. But stuff that is in the middle category you dont want to restrict unless there is a clear way to work around it.  Eric Lippert, May 14, 2008





Have a look at this: Expresso[^] - it's free, and it examines, explains, and generates Regular expressions. It even creates the C# or VB code for you to use them.

Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...





C# public static string BetweenChars( this string text, char left, char right) { string result = string .Empty; int leftPos = text.IndexOf(left, 0 )+1; int rightPos = text.LastIndexOf(right); if (leftPos >= 0 && rightPos > leftPos) { result = text.Substring(leftPos, rightPos - leftPos); } return result; }

Or one to just get the delimiter positions

C# public static void DelimiterPos( this string text, char left, char right, out int leftPos, out int rightPos) { string result = string .Empty; leftPos = text.IndexOf(left, 0 ); rightPos = text.LastIndexOf(right); } ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010

-

You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010

-

When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013





Hi, I need help. Is it possible to compare two textboxes first then display if they are the same or not in another textbox. this is what I have so far:



if (textBox1.TextLength == 3)

{

textBox2.Focus();

}

if (textBox2.TextLength == 3)

{

textBox1.Focus();

}



if (textBox1.Text == textBox2.Text)

{

textBox3.Text = "PASSED";

textBox1.Clear();

textBox2.Clear();

textBox1.Focus();

}

if (textBox1.Text != textBox2.Text)

{

textBox3.Text = "FAILED";



}



My issue here is that the moment I input something in textbox1, textbox3 will show FAILED already.



Thanks in advance.



BTW, I cant use btnclick event.





I don't really know either, because you don't say how it should work, but maybe it's meant to work like this:



state 0 [entry]: textbox 1 is focused (refocus if it loses focus?). If the text length reaches 3, go to state 1. Maybe do something about length > 3 too, such as cut off the extra and then go to state 1.

state 1: textbox 2 is focused (refocus as needed). If the text length reaches 3, compare text. If passed, clear boxes, put PASSED in box 3, and go to state 0. If failed, go to state 2.

state 2: put FAILED in box 3 and just die or something, not clear from your code what should happen here. Maybe allow box 2 to be edited until pass? Who knows.







I assume you're using the TextChanged event to determine when to compare the two fields (if you're not, you should be).



When the text in one text box or the other changes, it should be immediately compared against the text box, and the SECOND textbox should be highlighted as invalid if the contents don't match (because any sane person would assume the first text box is the determining factor).



Further, I'm not sure why you're clearing the contents on the text boxes when in a "PASS" condition, but whatever.



Lastly, you shouldn't be programmatically changing focus between controls unless it makes sense to do so (form initialization, or process-specific control selection by the user).

".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010

-

You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010

-

When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013









I think you want something like this: C# if (textBox1.TextLength == 3 ) { textBox2.Focus(); } if (textBox2.TextLength == 3 ) { textBox1.Focus(); } if (textbox1.TextLength == 3 && textbox2.TextLength == 3 ){ if (textBox1.Text == textBox2.Text) { textBox3.Text = " PASSED" ; textBox1.Clear(); textBox2.Clear(); textBox1.Focus(); } if (textBox1.Text != textBox2.Text) { textBox3.Text = " FAILED" ; } }

Quote: BTW, I cant use btnclick event.



I have no idea what you want this statement...



hope this helps.

V. (MQOTD rules and previous solutions)



2 assume their respective control dateEdit: dEditForm and dEditTo want to check the date of this control has the form 2: date from: "__ / __ / ____" and date to: 11/09/2016, which from day null and days to 1 day, must be valid as examples here dates are September 11 years his 2016 writing test code with the error message:

[CODE]

if (dEditFrom.DateTime == null && dEditTo.DateTime != null) // warning error here dEditTo.DateTime != null

{ do something ... }

[/CODE]

I using devexpress. can you help me ?







Remember that we can't see your screen, access your HDD, or read your mind - we only get exactly what you type to work from.

So explain in more detail exactly where it's a problem, and if there is an error message then tell us exactly what it says - copy and paste it from VS.

Show us the code that gives a problem (again, copy and paste here) and explain what it does that you didn't expect, or doesn't do that you did.



At the moment I have no idea, especially as the DateTime property of a devexpress DateEdit control is a .NET DateTime value - which is a struct, and this can't be null.

Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...







Generally speaking, you can validate a date entry field by using DateTime.TryParse() . If TryParse returns false, the text does not represent a valid DateTime object.

".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010

-

You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010

-

When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013





I have been working on finding case numbers in strings based on user inputted pattern. The pattern is build up by using the Characters D=Decimal , A=Aplha ,- = seperator.

This can be anywhere from DDDAAAA or DDDD-AAAA-DA-AD, most common case would be DDDD-DDDD or DDAA-DDDD , Note that a separator is not mandatory.

I have written an old-school void that creates a list of strings that represent the sequences in the pattern. For the pattern DDAA-DDD i would return this.

new List {DD,AA,-,DDD}

And then use the list to find my matches (different story)



Q: I have been trying to figure out how to do this using linq queries.



What I have so far is sort of on point, but only partialy.

C# var pattern = " DDDD-AA-DD" ; var patternlist = pattern.GroupBy(x => x) .Where(g => g.Count() > 1 ) .Select(y => new { Element = y, Counter = y.Count() });

This will not create a separate group for all the patterns or sequences. This will only tell me that I have 6 instances of D , 2 instances of A and 2 instances of -.



I wanted to find an elegant solution to this, where I could return something like a group per sequence of a char. Note I would not want to use the values of the chars or reference the known values.

Im not looking for something like this.

C# if (pattern.StartsWith( " A" )) { var tst = pattern.TakeWhile(p => p == ' C' ); }



Any takers 


YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS. Armenias membership to the CSTO is not an obstacle for the cooperation with NATO, head of the NATO Liaison Office in the South Caucasus, Ambassador William Lahue said at the conference entitled Challenges Ahead: NATO from Wales to Warsaw and Beyond.

We understand very well that Armenia is a sovereign state and chooses itself its foreign allies. We understand that Armenias membership to the CSTO cannot impede that countrys cooperation with NATO, Lahue said, Armenpress reported.

Referring to NATO-Armenia cooperation prospects, the Ambassador said there are a number of projects which aim to deepen that cooperation. He added that in November 2016 military exercises are going to be held in Georgia, and the Armenian side is also invited.

We hope our Armenian partners will accept the invitation and will take part in those military exercises. In the near future we also plan to hold military exercises in Georgia, and Armenia can participate as well, he said.
This sheet of Polish 2,000-zloty bank notes were printed for use in occupied NATO nations in case of a Soviet invasion. The notes were given the code name E-17.

A stunning story of a highly classified Cold War currency intended for use should that war become hot was broken by The Guardian on Aug. 19.

The top-secret notes were given the code name E-17 and were printed by the Warsaw Pact for use in captured NATO countries potentially including Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. Their existence was top-secret until 2015, 24 years after the alliance of the Soviet Union and six of its puppet states dissolved. Their existence was disclosed in August by Narodowy Bank Polski (National Bank of Poland).

The notes were printed during the 1970s in from 1-zloty to 2,000-zloty denominations and featured the skylines of various Polish cities. According to the story, they remained locked in chests deep in the bowels of the central bank.

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Piotr Woyciechowski, head of Polands national mint, said, This is most likely the only series of its kind in Europe  now shown to the world for the first time. He also said that the notes will be on display at the Polish Mint in Warsaw next year.

Examples of wartime contingency currencies are plentiful. To American collectors, the brown seal notes issued for use in Hawaii during World War II are most familiar. The difference was that the Hawaiian notes were placed into circulation exclusively in the islands while all other U.S. paper currency on the islands was withdrawn from circulation. Then, in the event of a Japanese occupation, all the brown seal notes would have been demonetized and rendered worthless to the captors.
An 1820 gold 5 pattern of King George III highlights St. Jamess Auctions Sept. 30 sale in London. The pattern, never adopted, is extremely rare.

An artifact from an effort to issue a gold 5 coin in Industrial Age Britain highlights St. Jamess Auctions Sept. 30 sale in London, in conjunction with the Coinex show.

The 1820 5 pattern created by famed engraver Benedetto Pistrucci was never issued, and according to the auction house the piece is one of the truly rare 19th century English gold coins.

The appearance of one at auction, in any state of preservation, is a collecting opportunity, the firm noted.

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The major appeal of this pattern is the presentation of the largest and sharpest image of the engravers motif of Saint George slaying the mythical dragon ever seen on a coin.

The pattern is exceedingly rare, with very few in private hands, according to the auction house, explaining its 275,000 ($365,819 U.S.) estimate.

The obverse features the laureate head of King George III, for whom it was issued at the very end of his lengthy reign.

Both sides are boldly signed with Pistruccis last name.

Assisting Pistrucci in the difficult and time-consuming engraving process was William Wellesley Pole, whose tiny initials appear on the ground-line of the reverse, just at the end of the dragons tail.

In 1820, it was near a century since a gold piece of this size and value had been minted for commerce and almost 50 years since production of the most recent pattern for a 5-guinea coin.

Demand for high denominations was tempered by increased use of paper money, and only Proof versions of the 5 coin were issued until the Victoria Jubilee issues of 1887. Those 5 coins were struck for circulation in just three years  1887, 1893 and 1902  and even then, relatively few known examples of the three dates show much real wear, highlighting the impracticality of the denomination for most of the empires subjects.

The gold pattern is presented in a contemporary fitted case.

The coin has hairlines across the fields and a short scuff on the kings cheek, but is otherwise brilliant with reflective fields, the portrait and St. George motifs in cameo contrast, practically as struck.

To see all lots in the sale, visit the firms website.
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS. The leadership of Luxembourg proposed to hold the first Israeli-Palestinian summit of the recent years, but that opportunity is unacceptable for Israel, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu said, RIA Novosti reported.

The leaders of the two conflicting states announced that they support the Russian diplomats initiative to hold their meeting in Moscow.

Prime Minister Bettel has invited me to Luxembourg, and he said the Palestinians might also come there. Thus either Moscow or Luxembourg. We will see, either one or any other place, Netanyahu said at a meeting with his counterpart from Luxembourg Xavier Bettel in Jerusalem.

The Israeli PM said they are always ready for direct negotiations without preconditions.
People at Wilkes Boulevard Methodist Church say K2 overdoses are all too common among the homeless population they're trying to serve. Once a legal synthetic cannabinoid, K2  and similar designer drugs  have become far more potent and unpredictable in their effects.
Missouri football's Brady Cook 'deserves to be praised' after upset win

Missouri quarterback Brady Cook has taken criticism all season. On Saturday night, he led the Tigers to an upset road win at South Carolina.
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS. Armenia must continue implementing various programs with NATO, Chairman of the Analytical Center on Globalization and Regional Cooperation, political scientist Stepan Grigoryan said at a conference entitled Challenges Ahead: NATO from Wales to Warsaw and Beyond.

NATO is supporting us to strengthen our army management, to develop communication capabilities, implements other projects. We must continue those projects since the time shows the challenges are increasing, and if you work with only one country and only in one system, it is impossible to respond to those challenges, he said, Armenpress reported.

Grigoryan said the April four-day war must be a lesson for the Armenian side. Despite that we gave strong counter attack to the Azerbaijani side, we were not somehow ready to that war. Thats why diversification is needed both in the security and economy fields. We have worked with NATO, have cooperated, we always support Armenia to actively cooperate with the European Union. We must work to sign the new cooperation agreement with the EU as soon as possible, he said.

He said there is a danger Azerbaijan will take new steps against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh, thus, it is necessary to diversify the security system working with the CSTO, NATO and the EU.
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Reception desk and primary waiting area. (Renderings courtesy: Southern College of Optometry)

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By Thomas Bailey Jr. of The Commercial Appeal

To see the future of healthcare, consider the eye clinic that is about to be built inside Crosstown Concourse.

The Southern College of Optometry has applied for a construction permit to build out an 8,000-square-foot clinic on the second floor near where Church Health will operate.

The building document values the work at more than $1.1 million.

"We hope this clinic will be our first truly inter-professional clinic where our optometric physicians and interns will provide care in conjunction with, and alongside, family practice physicians, residents, physician assistants, family nurse practitioners, social workers, pharmacists, nutritionists...,'' said Dr. James Venable, the college's vice president for clinical programs and a faculty member.

The optometry college now operates two clinics, a 48,000-square-foot facility on its campus at 1245 Madison, and a 2,000-square-foot clinic on the University of Memphis campus.

Attending to more than 50,000 patients a year, the school has outgrown the existing clinics. The Concourse clinic will have 15 exam rooms and serve up to 14,000 more patients a year.

The school has not decided on a name for its future clinic, but has long decided it will be part of the new movement in health care that breaks down silos between disciplines, and practices "narrative medicine.''

For example, instead of asking typical questions the optometrist may say to the patient, "Tell me more about what you do with your eyes on daily basis,'' Venable said.

"Our approach will get back to being patient-centered, not bound by technology,'' he said.

Not that the new clinic won't exploit the latest technology. The facility will have a goal to be 100 percent paperless. Every patient will be greeted individually at the door and handed an electronic tablet he or she will use for the visit.

In addition to filling out electronic forms, patients can virtually try on eye products or place an order online. "It will be a much more interactive and customer-service based approach to eye and vision care,'' Venable said.

Some mistakenly believe the college's clinics provide discounted eye care. "We keep the prices competitive with every other provider in the area,'' he said.

"You're not being cared for by a student; every patient sees their optometric physician, a licensed doctor,'' Venable said. Student interns are there to assist and to learn.

Like Crosstown Concourse as a whole, the eye clinic is scheduled to open early next year.

The concourse aspires to be an "urban village,'' where the thousands of people who enter daily will be encouraged to interact with each other as they engage with health care, the arts, and education.

"They want to bring together the arts, health care and education in such a way that it really defines the art of living well,'' Venable said. "So our concept is, to live well one must see well and be healthy.''

The optometry school and Church Health will join forces. Church Health optometrists, who serve working patients who have no insurance, will use about 1,500 square feet of the clinic, leaving about 6,400 square feet for the school's optometrists.

But there won't be separate signs for each. "You won't know where one begins or the other ends,'' Venable said.

LRK is the architectural firm for the construction project and Grinder, Taber & Grinder will build the clinic.
SHARE The Tennessee General Assembly meets for a special session Monday. (Joel Ebert, The Tennessean)

By Joel Ebert and Dave Boucher, USA TODAY NETWORK  Tennessee

NASHVILLE  The first day of Tennessee's 59th special legislative session included formally beginning the process to correct a DUI law that ran afoul of federal rules, but that motion was largely overshadowed by initial efforts to expel beleaguered Rep. Jeremy Durham.

During Monday's afternoon floor session in the House, Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Mt. Juliet, informed her colleagues that she planned to move forward with an expulsion of Durham, who is accused of improper sexual conduct with at least 22 women.

"I want to give notice to the House that I intend to make a motion to expel Representative Jeremy Durham of the 65th representative district from his seat as a member of the House of Representatives of the 109th General Assembly of the state of Tennessee for disorderly behavior," she said.

Durham has been the subject of investigations by The Tennessean, state attorney general, campaign finance officials and more recently the U.S. attorney in connection with allegations of widespread sexual misconduct and using campaign funds for personal purposes.

Durham, 32, has denied the sexual allegations included in a scathing report from the Tennessee attorney general, but acknowledged some interactions in the report were true when he announced his decision to suspend his re-election campaign in July.

During the floor discussion, Lynn said she wanted to provide adequate notice to allow Durham an opportunity to offer a response to the House.

On Monday, Durham sent an eight-page letter to his House colleagues in which he defended himself, attacked the women who alleged sexual misconduct and blasted House leadership for its handling of the investigation. In the letter, Durham said he was not planning to attend the ouster proceedings but reserved the right to change his mind if he believes House leadership plans to conduct what will, in his view, amount to a fair process.

Lynn later told The Tennessean that she wanted to be the one to make the motion to expel Durham because having a woman make the motion is a "nod to the women of this state that this body understands about the victims and any woman that has been insulted in that same way."

When the House was discussing the possible expulsion, Rep. Rick Womick, R-Rockvale, repeatedly questioned the constitutionality of moving forwarding with the proceedings, saying the ouster falls outside Gov. Bill Haslam's initial call for the special session. Although Womick said Tuesday's proceeding probably would resemble a "banana republic," House Clerk Joe McCord said the constitution allows lawmakers to take procedural actions during a special session and expulsion proceedings are allowed based on precedent.

Several Democrats, including Reps. G.A. Hardaway and Larry Miller, both of Memphis, and Mike Stewart, D-Nashville, raised questions during the proceeding.

Hardaway raised queries about due process, while Miller wanted to know if the House planned to hold a hearing where it would listen to witnesses who would offer testimony about Durham. Stewart wanted to know if the legislators interviewed by Attorney General Herbert Slatery for his Durham investigation would be allowed to vote and also asked if there would be questions raised as a result of the report. McCord said the AG's report would be evidence and Durham would have a chance to speak if he wanted.

After more than 30 minutes of back and forth between Democrats and Republicans on the expulsion effort, members of both parties lined up to express disdain over the issue.

"To the extent Jeremy Durham thinks this is going to be a medieval beheading, I want to make sure it's a clean swing," said Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, invoking how Durham has described the expulsion process. "I don't want to see a circus proceeding up here. I want to make sure that the women identified in this report  due to the attorney general's sloppy work  are protected  from further harm."

Beyond the Durham-related action, the House and Senate also introduced bills in their respective chamber to correct the DUI law they passed earlier this year. Federal authorities said the state's DUI law change needed to be fixed before October or the state would lose $60 million in federal highway funds.

The DUI legislation is expected to be discussed in several committee meetings Tuesday, with lawmakers anticipating wrapping up their work no later than Thursday.

Lynn's motion to expel Durham is expected to occur Tuesday morning when the House convenes at 9:30.
SHARE Jeremy Durham

By Erik Schelzig, Associated Press

NASHVILLE  The last time Tennessee lawmakers took a vote to expel a sitting member of the General Assembly, the ousted representative issued a stern warning to his colleagues: "I won't be the last."

But for the next 36 years no other lawmaker has been booted under the Legislature's constitutional power to discipline or oust members deemed to have engaged in "disorderly behavior."

House Speaker Beth Harwell says that's likely to change during this week's special legislative session. The Nashville Republican said an effort to remove state Rep. Jeremy Durham has enough support to meet the two-thirds vote requirement to expel him.

The Franklin Republican lost to a primary challenger in August following the release of a scathing attorney general's investigation that detailed allegations of inappropriate sexual contact with more than 20 women during Durham's four years in office.

If the move succeeds, Durham will become the first to be removed by his colleagues since then-Rep. Robert Fisher, who was ousted on a 92-1 vote in 1980. The Elizabethton Republican had been convicted of asking for a bribe to kill a bill.

Democratic State Sen. Ophelia Ford of Memphis was removed from the Legislature in 2006 after the upper chamber determined that her 13-vote election win had been tainted by ballots cast in the names of felons and dead voters. But that decision to void Ford's election didn't stop her for long: She was re-elected to the Senate later that year.

Ford's brother Emmitt was nearly expelled from the state House in 1981 after he was convicted of faking a traffic accident to defraud insurance companies. But he ultimately agreed to resign under heavy pressure before an expulsion vote came to the floor.
September 11, 2016 - Firefighter Eddie Warren helps fold a massive flag after Memphis police and fire officials gathered to remember the fallen during the annual September 11th service at the Fire Museum of Memphis. The ceremony began as local first responders marched from St. Peters Church to the Museum to honor those who lost their lives 15 years ago in the terrorist attacks on New York. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal)

SHARE September 11, 2016  Kristen Russell and her sons Lucas (right) and William wait for their father, Lt. John Russell, to pass by during a parade of local first responders as they march from St. Peters Church during the annual September 11th service at the Fire Museum of Memphis. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal) September 11, 2016  Memphis police and fire officials gather outside St. Peters Church before marching to the Memphis Fire Museum during the annual September 11th service to honor those who lost their lives 15 years ago in the terrorist attacks on New York. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal) Related Photos Memphis 9/11 Service Gallery

By Jody Callahan of The Commercial Appeal

At exactly 7:44 a.m. Sunday, a hush fell over Memphis International Airport.

No announcements were blared over the loudspeakers. At the request of the Transportation Security Administration, everyone in the security screening lines stopped shuffling about. For a few moments, the airport came to a stop.

That was the exact moment the first plane hit the World Trade Center 15 years earlier.

"TSA was the lead on this. At the exact time, they asked all the passengers that were in the screening checkpoints to please stop. They said they're going to interrupt screening to take a moment of silence to remember what occurred 15 years ago today," Airport President Scott Brockman said Sunday. "We stopped all announcements and that stuff in our systems so that it would truly be a moment of silence."

That was just one of numerous ways, small and large, public and private, that Memphians commemorated Sunday's 15th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on this country. While some gathered at events or small memorials, like the event held in Millington Sunday afternoon, others took to social media to offer their thoughts and condolences.

"You remember that day. We were all in shock, wondering what would happen next," said Gail Duron, one of about 40 people who gathered outside the Shelby County Courthouse for a small religious service Sunday.

More than 3,000 people died in the attacks on New York, Washington and Pennsylvania that day, including one Memphian. Gary Lasko, 49, was corporate director of global technology services for Marsh & McLennan. Lasko lived with his wife, Kim, and daughter Elise in Memphis on the weekends, but left on Sunday evenings to work in New York.

Lasko was in WTC Tower One, as was former Memphian Tony Karnes, 37, when the planes struck. Neither made it out alive, and Lasko left behind a 10-year-old daughter. Lasko's wife, who still lives in Memphis, declined to comment through friends Sunday.

Early Sunday morning, Memphians joined firefighters, police officers and other first responders at the Fire Museum Downtown for the city's annual ceremony recognizing those lost in the attacks.

Former Memphis police officer Melinda Reed and her husband, Joe, who was left disabled after a stroke two years ago, were among those who came.

"For me, it was very emotional," said Reed, who retired from the department in 1983 with a medical disability. "To be there standing for the people of New York, for the families of New York, for the heroes."

Kristen Russell and her husband, John, who is a lieutenant with the Memphis Fire Department, brought their twin 6-year-old sons to the ceremony. But they didn't tell Lucas and William exactly why they were there.

"We haven't really talked about the details, trying to protect them from the act. I don't know if they'd be able to understand that there's evil in the world. They view everybody as good," Kristen said. "I'd like to keep it that way for as long as possible."
In the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process there cant be a return to the past and the mediators should accept the reality in this context.

September 12, 2016, 08:58 In the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process there cant be a return to the past: Ambassador Hans Jochen Schmidt

STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 12, ARTSAKHPRESS: The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Germany in Armenia Hans Jochen Schmidt told the aforementioned in an interview with Artsakhpress. On the 25th anniversary of the Artsakh Republic Proclamation, Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan awarded Hans Jochen Schmidt with the "Gratitude" medal.

The ambassador said that the conflict settlement is possible only when mediators focus on the new reality and the negotiations will be conducted with vision of the future. He also expressed his displeasure with the fact that Azerbaijan creates artificial obstacles for European diplomats to visit Nagorno Karabakh, threatening to include them in the "black list.





Referring to his close and friendly relations with Artsakh, Hans Jochen Schmidt said that it is impossible to have a right opinion about a country without visiting and establishing relations with the country on the spot. "Being ambassador in Armenia, I have been asked to make comments on political developments in Nagorno Karabakh. However, I always thought that it is impossible to be informed about Karabakh without visiting it. Therefore, when I have retired, I decided to visit Nagorno Karabakh and to be familiarized with the situation on the spot immediately, "said Schmidt.

Hans Jochen Schmidt said that during meetings with the Artsakh politicians and representatives of society he has been convinced that it is high time for his European partners to establish direct links with Karabakh.

"If we are interested in the development of the Nagorno-Karabakh society in the EU, we should carry out works in Artsakh, he said.

"We should have direct relations with the local authorities and civil society representatives, to follow political developments, to establish relations with universities, as well as enable Artsakh students to study at Western universities and to get various scholarships, "said the German diplomat, adding that instead of putting black dots in some places of the world map, they should try to assist them.

Schmidt said that his mission in Artsakh is to support and bring to life his proposed projects.
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By Andrew Demillo, Associated Press

LITTLE ROCK  Hundreds of people have reached out to Arkansas officials about proposals to erect Ten Commandments and Satan monuments at the state Capitol, with many objecting to the idea of a demon deity near the building and others arguing that neither religious statue belongs on public property.

Arkansas Secretary of State Mark Martin's office last week released more than 200 voicemails it received through a hotline set up to receive public comments about the proposed monuments. The voicemails, along with a handful of emails and letters, were released to The Associated Press in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

The messages show people have strong feelings for and against the statues, which the state Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission will begin discussing at a hearing Tuesday.

Lawmakers passed legislation last year requiring the state to allow a privately funded Ten Commandments monument to be erected at the Capitol, and the Satanic Temple has submitted its own proposal. Another group, the Saline Atheist and Skeptic Society, last week proposed a third monument: a brick "Wall of Separation" that would be erected between the two displays.

"Are you guys crazy?" Rick Pace, a truck driver from Garfield, said in one message. "You do not let these bunch of phonies place a monument to Satan. This country is built on the principles of the Lord."

Katherine Goodwin, a retired teacher in Little Rock, urged the 10-member panel to reject any religious monument on the Capitol grounds, saying: "We do not live in a theocracy. We live in a democracy."

Martin's office said it received at least 231 phone calls about the monuments. Of those, 111 were against the Satanic monument and 36 were for the Ten Commandments display. Thirty-five were opposed to allowing any religious monument, 26 were opposed to the Ten Commandments monument and 12 supported the Satanic display. The numbers may overlap if callers voiced an opinion on both monuments. The callers weren't required to leave their names, but the AP reached out to some of those who left messages.

The Ten Commandments monument would weigh 6,000 pounds and stand more than 6 feet tall, according to an application filed with Martin's office last month. The American History and Heritage Foundation said it raised more than $25,000 for the granite monument and its installation.

The Satanic Temple has asked the commission to approve its proposed statue of Baphomet, a goat-headed, angel-winged androgynous creature accompanied by two children smiling at it. It has asked that it be placed next to or directly in front of the Ten Commandments monument.

"I wouldn't even want to live in a state where we have a Satanic image or statue on our Capitol grounds," Debbie Scantling, a retiree from Greenwood, said in one message.

Another caller backed the Ten Commandments display and urged Martin to fight the Satan monument because "he's the one causing all the trouble in the world."

The hotline also fielded plenty of calls from people who urged the state to either reject or accept both monuments, arguing that accepting only one would open the door to lawsuits over religious discrimination.

"If you do put that travesty up there, I hope you also put the statue of Baphomet up there," said John Eberhard, a retired real estate broker from Mountain Home.
September 8, 2016 - Shelby County Chief Public Defender Stephen Bush (center) talks with Dr. Altha Stewart (left) and Bernard Williams during a luncheon at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys Law School celebrating the launch of the school's new Children's Defense Clinic which begins this fall semester. (Brandon Dill/Special to The Commercial Appeal)

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It will require a lot of effort on the part of the community and Shelby County Juvenile Court to clear the cloud that descended four years ago when a U.S. Department of Justice report alleged discrimination against African-American children.

Among those contributing to that effort are the University of Memphis, whose Children's Defense Clinic since Aug. 11 has been providing law students to represent juveniles facing charges ranging from vandalism to theft to aggravated assault.

That students have had to step in and help fill a void in legal representation for these kids offers a sad commentary on the situation at this vitally important institution. But the clinic represents another example of the U of M's emerging role in the Memphis community.

Clinic director Lisa Geis said last week that the students, who have been undergoing intensive preparation for the job, were handling 10 cases at the court. The law school also plans to begin providing monthly training in this specialized field of the law to practicing juvenile defenders.

The clinic is driving "positive system reform by dedicating resources to the litigation of complex issues and by focusing services on specific vulnerable populations that may be beyond the capacity of the public defender and private bar," Shelby County Public Defender Stephen Bush said in an email.

The DOJ report accused the court of discriminating against African-American defendants by providing unsafe conditions and failing to provide due process to youth during court proceedings.

A report written in June by David Roush, the consultant conducting court-ordered monitoring of the detention facility, included allegations  denied by detention chief Kirk Fields  that youths were being locked in rooms for 23 hours with handcuffing and shackling during the out-of-room hour.

The court has taken a number of steps to correct problems, including the appointment of Bridgette Bowman as disproportionate minority contact coordinator.

Last week, Bowman and other court officials took the opportunity in a forum at Hickory Ridge Mall to plea for more help from the public in the form of volunteer work on disproportionate minority contact issues, mentoring neighborhood children, tutoring children who need academic help and helping to keep children in school.

"Juvenile Court has existed in this city for over 100 years," Bowman told a small crowd at the mall. "We need the community. It's a system, but it's a system made up of human beings who try to make the best decisions they can with the information they're given."

The plea should not go unheeded. Citizens might not have the legal training to stand up for children in Shelby County's juvenile justice system. But many have the time and the concern for these children's future to lend a hand.

One doesn't get many opportunities to save a life.
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By Clarence Page

"Hey, more than 500 people have been murdered in Chicago this year," says one of my conservative friends. "I can't wait to see what you write about that."

Why? You didn't listen to me the last time. Are you really listening or just waiting for your turn to complain?

"Jeez, why are you so touchy?"

I'm just tired of hearing your usual one-note analysis and solution: Black people are having too many babies out of wedlock. Hey, do you ever ask what happened to the jobs that used to enable workers to support a family? Do you ever notice how the poverty, crime, opiate addiction and out-of-wedlock birth rates are growing among poor whites, too? When are you people going to pull yourselves up by your bootstraps?

"Hey, you don't think fathers are important?"

Of course, we're important. But where are you going to find all the marriageable black men to fulfill your dream?

"Hey, OK, I'm listening. Tell me what you would do about the killers roaring out of control in Obama's adopted hometown."

Hey, that's President Barack Obama, pal. Respect. Look, 500 murders and it's only September? There's a horrible thing. But it's not a first. Violent crime is like a Zika virus. You don't know when or where it's going to surge, but you have to deal with it when it does.

We've been through this before. I was covering Chicago cops as a young reporter in 1974 when murders in Chicago peaked at 970, or about 29 per 100,000, after rising for more than 10 years. And I remember when murders peaked again in 1992, this time at 943, or 34 per 100,000.

You could almost hear the rejoicing in December 2004, when the Chicago Tribune headlined: "City murder toll lowest in decades." For the first time in almost four decades, there were fewer than 500 murders in Chicago. Break out the champagne.

"So what's that got to do with this year?"

First, it tells you that we've dealt with crime waves before. One reason murders look so high is because violent crime overall, including murder, has dropped since the 1990s. Second, everybody talks about how Chicago homicides this year outnumber those in New York and Los Angeles combined. But a number of smaller cities like Milwaukee and Houston have had big increases this year, too. So far, it's not a national trend, but it's not a uniquely Chicago problem either. There is no single, one-stop, one-size-fits-all diagnosis or prescription.

"Yeah, but you're not talking about Black Lives Matter and kids with cellphone cameras waging war on the police. The cops are afraid to get out of their patrol cars for fear of winding up on YouTube."

Frankly, some of them should fear winding up on YouTube, considering what we've seen on YouTube already.

But I notice you're not talking about how New York's Mayor Bill de Blasio pulled back on the city's aggressive stop-and-frisk profiling policy on the streets last year. Conservatives howled, but so far homicides have continued to decline.

"So you want to coddle the criminals and wage war on police?"

No, quite the opposite. I want to see more cops on the street, working in cooperation with local residents and community leaders. Community policing works, if you do it right.

Unfortunately, Chicago police are undermanned and pulling lots of overtime. The city and state are deep in debt, and, as much as Mayor Rahm Emanuel talks about hiring more cops, nobody knows where he's going to get the money except from taxpayers who are feeling pretty tapped out already.

"Ah, so, once again Democrats are screwing up our cities."

I know you'd like to make this a partisan issue, but it's not that simple either.

"Hey, Donald Trump recently said Chicago police could solve the city's crime problem 'in a week.'"

Oh, yeah? How? Is he going to give gangbangers scholarships to Trump University?

"No. He says the police only have to be 'very much tougher' than they are now."

Give me a break. This is a guy who claims he knows "more about ISIS than the generals." Now he thinks he knows more than Chicago's police?

"He says one of Chicago's 'very top police' told him and Trump says he believed the guy '100 percent.'"

Right. That would make Trump as gullible as he hopes voters will be in November.

Contact Clarence Page at cpage@tribune.com.
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By Kathleen Parker

WASHINGTON  America has had better weeks than the one just past.

Only days away from the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates convened for what was dubbed the "Commander-in-Chief Forum," sponsored by NBC News and hosted by "Where in the world is Matt Lauer?"

Indeed.

And then there was the Libertarian candidate, Gary Johnson, whose spaceship apparently had just landed in the middle of Earth's 2016. Appearing Thursday on "Morning Joe," he responded to Mike Barnicle's question about Aleppo with, "And what is Aleppo?"

Barnicle might as well have said it was an Italian coffeemaker and moved on.

At the forum, we learned that Lauer apparently just got wind that Clinton used a private email server when she was secretary of state because he devoted fully one-third of her allotted time to questions about the server, which has been investigated exhaustively, including by the FBI, for about two years.

Otherwise, we learned that Clinton's top counterterrorism goal is to defeat the Islamic State, which failed to awaken any of the thousands of people who requested an induced coma until after Nov. 8.

From Trump we learned that he built a great company, which was news to us, and that he has a plan for defeating the Islamic State but he's not about to tell anyone because he might win the election and then the terrorists would know that he intends to ask his top generals for a plan.

We also learned, because we've never heard this before, that the U.S.-led Iraq invasion was a mistake that Clinton once favored and that Trump did not, except that he did.

But who, pray tell, ever cared what Trump the New York real estate developer thought about our military plans for Iraq? Why not just ask Joe the doorman at 30 E. 76th Street? Or the cashier at Madison Avenue's 3 Guys Restaurant?

Today, let's face it, everybody's against it after they were for it.

Clinton seems to have abandoned even her qualifying trope for voting for the Iraq invasion  based on the intelligence we had at the time. At the forum, rising from her seat, she simply and solemnly intoned that it "was a mistake."

This was a noteworthy moment, obviously premeditated in anticipation of the question, and seems to have been choreographed to convey statesmanlike buck-stops-here gravitas.

A curious choice when speaking to the military audience gathered and an unqualified obscenity to the ears of families whose loved ones perished. Why not use the opportunity to say that as commander in chief, her first order of business would be to ensure no such intelligence failure ever happens again?

Similarly curious was Trump's response outlining his qualifications to command the military: "I've built a great company."

For real? He missed an obvious opening to say something thoughtful and original that highlights what he has over his opponent  a record of dealmaking and negotiation. He had a chance to create a new narrative: If war is a failure of diplomacy, then Trump could say he is uniquely qualified to use his talents to end all wars.

This isn't necessarily so, but it sure beats his usual campaign Big Talk about nuclear weapons and nationalistic jingoism. Instead, he essentially finessed the forum by saying so little of substance that no one is the wiser and his supporters can continue to invent whatever fantasy narrative gets them through the night.

Including, it would seem, that it's OK for the Republican nominee to blow kisses at Vladimir Putin, whom Mitt Romney long ago, and to much eye-rolling, identified as our greatest geopolitical foe.

Not to Trump, who declared Wednesday that Putin is a far better leader for Russia than Barack Obama has been for the U.S. Never mind that Putin  former KGB officer, aggressor, oppressor, autocrat and, yes, dictator  leads in part by ensuring that his opponents cease breathing. Is this really Trump's idea of leadership? What could go wrong?

To distill the week: Clinton proved herself knowledgeable, if foggy, and experienced in public affairs, as well as in artifice and deceit. Trump is a substance-free figment of his own imagination, whose stated reason for running for president is that he thinks he can win. Finally, Johnson is a former governor who stopped smoking pot to run for commander in chief because a crow landed on his shoulder in the New Mexico desert and whispered in his ear that he should.

Missing Romney yet?

Kathleen Parker's email address is kathleenparker@washpost.com.
When CPL Online opened for business in 2010, it offered 20,000 interactive online courses on food safety, health and safety, fire awareness and call centers. That number grew to 35,000 courses in 2011 and exploded to 160,000 by 2012.

When its SQL platform couldn't keep up anymore, CPL seized the opportunity to transform its business and deployed the HPCC Systems platform, a high-performance big data analytics system from LexisNexis Risk Solutions.

CPL's HPCC deployment uses data to track user trends, spot suspicious activity (to help root out cheaters) and identify the best-performing employees. Heat mapping shows how users work their way through every mouse-click of a course and helps CPL Online improve engagement and content. "They know which areas are more or less relevant or are attracting most of the focus from the users," says Flavio Villanustre, vice president of technology at LexisNexis Risk Solutions.

[ Download this story and lots more in Computerworld's September digital magazine! ]

Since going live with HPCC in 2014, CPL Online has delivered 4.5 million training sessions and expects 6 million sessions this year. Staff productivity has reportedly doubled.

The technology "is more than the sum of its parts," says David Dasher, managing director of CPL Online. "We're exceeding clients' expectations because we're doing things they never thought were possible. We're almost reforming ourselves as a data engineering company."
A few years ago, Arkansas state officials had to find a way to improve the quality of medical care while cutting costs. They faced an 8% annual increase in Medicaid costs coupled with a potential budget shortfall of $140 million for the Division of Medical Services.

Hoping to fulfill both goals, the state launched the Arkansas Health Care Payment Improvement Initiative, which set up a value-based reward system. Providers that demonstrated value while delivering high-quality care would share 50% of the savings.

[ Download this story and lots more in Computerworld's September digital magazine! ]

General Dynamics Health Solutions developed a data analytics application to measure each provider's success and then compare them to one another. "They constructed the risk-adjusted cost curve for each provider  with each provider having their own profile  an enormous process," says Dr. William Golden, medical director for Arkansas Medicaid.

The application taps multiple sources to collect client data, information about eligibility and enrollment status, provider demographics and tax files. It identifies incidents of care from claims data and then calculates quality scores based on claims and clinical data.

Providers receive detailed report cards showing how patients are spending healthcare dollars at their facilities. "We help the providers to distinguish where they may have high areas in cost of care that are different from their peers and that they need to work on," says Nena Sanchez, director of General Dynamics Health Solutions.

Launched in 2012, the program has helped save $720 million in Medicaid costs. Data quality is critical, says Golden, adding, "If we rewarded based on bad data, then the program would collapse."
Since most folks walk around with their mobile phones, and many have done away with their landline phone service at home, a good portion of calls made to 911 come from smartphones. Researchers from Ben Gurion University were the first to study what would happen if a mobile phone botnet were to launch a DDoS attack on 911 services. What they found, basically, is that such a telephony denial of service (TDoS) attack would cripple the 911 emergency system.

In the research paper 9-1-1 DDoS: Threat, Analysis and Mitigation (pdf), the researchers said that it would take less than 6,000 bots (or $100K hardware) for attackers to block emergency services in an entire state (e.g., North Carolina) for days.

The bots would be the result of infected mobile phones. Phone owners would not realize their phones were infected, part of the botnet, and making 911 calls. Researchers said 50,000 infected smartphones could prevent 90% of all North Carolina wireless 911 callers from reaching an emergency call taker. If 200,000 smartphones were infected by attackers, then the resulting TDoS attack could jeopardize 911 services across America.

The team simulated a cellular network modeled after the 911 network in North Carolina and then showed how attackers could exploit it. For starters, the team described an anonymized DDoS attack on 911 that cannot be blocked though conventional means.

Attackers could exploit cellular network protocols by placing a rootkit within the baseband firmware of a mobile phone; the rootkit could mask and randomize all cellular identifiers. They explained that a bot placed within the baseband firmware of a mobile phone can alter the internal protocol stack and render the device to have no genuine identification within the 2G, 3G, and 4G cellular networks. Such a bot can issue repeated emergency calls that cannot be blocked, technically or legally, by the network or the emergency call centers.

A big part of the research included how many unanswered call attempts it would take for 911 callers to give up trying to reach the service. They determined that at the country-level, as little as 200,000 bots distributed across the population of the US, is enough to significantly disrupt 911 services across the US. This means that an attacker only needs to infect ~0.0006% of the countrys population in order to successfully DDoS emergency services.  Under these circumstances, an attacker can cause 33% of the nations legitimate callers to give up in reaching 911.

The report, which also proposed various prevention and mitigation measures, was handed over to DHS before being released to the public.

Past TDoS attacks resulted in DHS alert warning

Past examples of TDoS attacks include one done to a hospitals intensive care unit phone system after an ICU nurse refused to pay payday loan scammers; another was crowd-sourced and launched against a financial firm after it gave a negative rating to a popular company. It happened enough that by 2013, Homeland Security issued an alert about TDoS attacks being used as part of an extortion scheme. At the time, there had been 600 such attacks against various victims with 200 of those aimed at public safety systems.

How realistic is the 911 mobile botnet hacking threat?

How realistic is the hacking threat? First, thousands of phones would have to be infected to pull this off.

It is true that people would only call 911 so many times during an emergency, hearing a busy signal as opposed to talking to 911 operators, before giving up and trying to give aid during life-threatening crises. Clearly the 911 system has security issues which should be resolved, especially since it is considered to be part of US critical infrastructure, however the same outcome could occur during or after a natural disaster.

A DDoS attack can knock a site offline, but the same thing can happen when the traffic is not malicious. Sometimes if a post goes popular on social networks, a site simply cannot stay up under the flood of legitimate traffic.

In much the same way, if a natural or other massive disaster were to occur, then 911 could go down during the emergency under the flood of legitimate, not TDoS, calls.

Nevertheless, the researchers told The Washington Post, Authorities need to act soon since it will only be a matter of time before attackers target 911 systems  if they haven't already.

Even if the hacking threat was eliminated, there are glitches which could take down 911. For example, an equipment failure was cited as the cause of knocking out DCs 911 service for over 90 minutes in August.
Apple has refocused its smartwatch on the fitness market, a move analysts believe was prompted by the company's recognition that the broader definition it has used was simply not making the grade.

"They're responding to what's working, what's resonating with customers," said Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research.

Dawson and others were reacting to the shift in Apple's portrayal of the upgraded Watch, dubbed "Series 2," during last week's launch event that also included the iPhone 7. Virtually all of the stage time about the new Watch, and many of the new features the Series 2 model sports, related in some way to fitness, from its water resistance, which an executive touted as "swim-proof," and GPS tracking to a new Nike-branded model.

That was significantly different than the opening salvos of the Watch two years ago when the Cupertino, Calif. company introduced the wearable. Then, Apple dipped into the iPhone playbook to trumpet a trio of primary use cases: For notifications forwarded from an iPhone, for telling time, and as a fitness accessory.

"It's still a timepiece, but communications have totally faded into the background," said Dawson, who added that Apple has also played down the original narrative around the potential of the device's app ecosystem.

Instead, Apple trumpeted fitness, health and more fitness.

It's not unusual for consumer technology, or any product, to morph from its original vision to something less inclusive. And the route from introduction to success, if the latter is a made milestone, is almost never straight. But the change from something that was to appeal to multiple audiences -- including fashion insurgents -- to a less-ambitious one-play pony makes one wonder if the retrenchment hints at defeat as much as flexibility.

The origin of the former stems from estimates of slumping smartwatch sales, those guesstimates necessary because Apple refuses to reveal numbers. In July, researcher IDC pegged second quarter Apple Watch sales at 55% below the same period in 2015, for instance. Analysts at the firm, however, put a bullish spin on their 2017 forecast, predicting a 46% increase in smartwatch sales next year.

Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates, viewed the fling with fitness as a necessary turn, pointing to those estimates to argue that sales did not exactly boom under the original concepts. "From a marketing positioning perspective, it makes more sense to have a purpose-built solution than a general-purpose device," said Gold. "[The general-purpose device] certainly didn't sell as Apple hoped."

Apple hasn't been the only smartwatch maker to scramble and struggle, Gold contended. "I think the whole market is still searching for what a smartwatch is going to be," he said. "What does it become? I'm not sure that any of us know."

Some pundits believe the inevitable destination of the smartwatch, Apple's in particular, is as the replacement for the smartphone, reached when the wrist worn device gets its own cellular modem and a battery long-lived enough to power the device for a day.

Maybe. Paths to various futures are regularly paved with the corpses of predictions that died unremembered.

In the meantime, if that meantime becomes the spelled-out future, Apple must do something to keep the Watch tickin' and kickin'.

Apple Watch Nike.

For Gold, the move toward fitness was smart, and not simply because that application was the one that seemed to ring loudest with customers. It also let Apple edge the Watch, or the perception of the Watch, from the original image as an iPhone accessory to one of unattended competence.

"They're playing up the stand-alone idea," Gold said, ticking off the Series 2's new features. "GPS tracking, walking, jogging and swimming ... it's no longer an iPhone peripheral only. It's now more."

And the fitness pivot, while perhaps a retreat from the bigger dreams of 2014, doesn't mean that Apple's lost the war, argued Dawson. He imagined the device's trajectory as an hourglass shape.

"The original idea of the Watch was very broad," Dawson said. "It has the potential to broaden out again, to become another small computer. On paper, it still is that."
Ambassador James Warlick, US Co-Chair of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group, spoke to Interfax news agency, NEWs.am reports.

September 12, 2016, 09:18 Warlick: US supplies limited amount of defensive weapons to Armenia and Azerbaijan

STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 12, ARTSAKHPRESS: He noted that Russia has long-standing relations and friendly ties with both Armenia and Azerbaijan, and that the US likewise wishes to establish close relations with these two countries; but in another axis.

Warlick stated that even though the US supplies no weapons to any of the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, it supplies a limited amount of defensive weapons to both Armenia and Azerbaijan. He added, however, that the US Congress has a mandate with respect to Azerbaijan, and this mandate does not permit the US to supply weapons that can be used in the Karabakh conflict, for offensive purposes.

The OSCE Minsk Group US co-chair noted that his country assumes that it has strategic relations with both Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Ambassador Warlick also said the US discusses all matters with its OSCE Minsk Group partners, Russia and France. The American diplomat added that they discuss all topics relating to the Karabakh conflict. As per James Warlick, these are matters on which both the US and Russia have full agreement, and they seek a pacific settlement with joint efforts.
The European Commission's proposal to make mobile-phone roaming across the European Union free for just 90 days a year lasted less than a week. It's been withdrawn while a new policy is drafted.

The 90-day limit, and another setting the maximum continuous period of free roaming at 30 days, attracted criticism -- particularly from students hoping to use mobiles from their home countries while spending a year studying abroad.

Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker was in China when Brussels officials published the draft regulation for consultation on Sept. 5, but on his return told officials to start over.

"The president heard and saw the feedback that we received from consumer organizations, from parliamentarians, from stakeholders, from others. ... This proposal was in his view not adequate," said Commission Deputy Chief Spokesperson Alexander Winterstein.

"We have been listening, and now we are going back to the drawing board, and we will come up with a better proposal," he said.

The change of heart pleased some members of the European Parliament.

"Free roaming should be free roaming all year round. By limiting it to 90 days, it felt like the Commission was backtracking on its promises," said Guy Verhofstadt of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe.

The 90-day limit had been selected so that 99 percent of EU travelers would pay no roaming surcharge, the Commission said when unveiling its proposal. The average trip lasts 12 days, Winterstein said.

He declined to comment on what the new proposal might be, but suggested that this week would be a good time to announce it. Juncker is scheduled to give the annual state of the European Union address on Tuesday.

However long it takes to agree on a new proposal, it will be in place in time to abolish roaming charges next year, Winterstein said.

He took exception to accusations that the Commission was "flip-flopping" on the policy, one of the centerpieces of its action on digital markets.

"What you call a flipflop, I call taking into account the feedback that we receive. Now, if that's flip-flopping, then yes, we will continue flip-flopping whenever stakeholders come forward with objections, whenever people respond to the public consultations that we offer."
It's nighttime at the Herbal Cure, a south Denver marijuana shop and grow house tucked into a parking lot beside the highway. Inside is a marijuana bounty: thousands of dollars' worth of cannabis plants, boxes of marijuana-infused chocolate, jars of $360-an-ounce weed with names like Frankenberry, Lemon Skunk and Purple Cheddar.

Chris Bowyer, a lanky combat veteran turned cannabis security guard, is outside. He has a .40-caliber pistol on his hip and a few extra magazines stored away, and he is talking about his work on the battlefield. Not the one in Iraq -- the one in Colorado, where criminals seeking to breach marijuana businesses face veterans trying to stop them.

"This is my therapy," Mr. Bowyer said, heading for a place where burglars broke in recently. He checked a fence for signs of a new incursion, then headed to an office to note the night's activities in a rigorously organized logbook. "This is what we did in the military."

Numerous veterans are working in security for Denver's marijuana industry, reported The New York Times Excerpt:Read the rest here
John Bald is a former Ofsted inspector who has written two books on the teaching of reading and spelling.

The Prime Ministers grammar school proposals have, for the moment, blown the rest of the education debate out of the water. This may be no bad thing: the issue of academic excellence, and how best to foster it, is behind most day to day discussion, and it needed to be brought into the open.

Justine Greenings handling of Labours urgent question on the topic was the best parliamentary performance Ive seen from a Conservative Secretary of State, seeing off rants and handwringing with well-prepared equanimity. The Guardian is trying to organise the opposition, while lamenting the fact that too many schools do not have an ethos of academic excellence. The point, of course, is that these schools do not want such an ethos.

They believe that academic excellence is the main source of inequality in the developed world, and fight it through mixed-ability teaching and tolerance of anti-educational attitudes, for example, by not using their power of same-day detention. They detest Michael Wilshaw, the Chief Inspector of Schools, even more than they do the Conservatives, because the success he achieved at Mossbourne destroyed the ideas on which the whole of their work is based.

Back on the ground, Im having to teach a 15 year old his two times table because successive schools have taken the shortcut of having him count in multiples instead, which meant that he couldnt locate the items in the tables that he needed for multiplication and division, and so had no chance of understanding basic issues such as percentages and fractions. After two sessions, we are making good progress on the full range of tables, but the schools lack of attention to basic skills is a scandal, and it could not care less. When he told a teacher last term that he didnt understand something, the teacher replied, Im not surprised,  and walked on.

This attitude and approach are behind the catastrophic 70 per cent failure rate among FE students resitting English and maths at GCSE. This affects roughly 150,000 young people each year, and fixing it is a good deal more urgent than Labours grandstanding. I led a training day in an FE college earlier this year, during which it was clear that most of the students had left school with such limited command of basic literacy and numeracy skills that they had no chance whatsoever of getting up to grade C in the time allocated. It was not their fault, or that of their lecturers, but the result of systematic mis-teaching for almost the whole of their school career.

During the coalition, the Liberal Democrats, and particularly Nick Clegg, prevented Michael Gove from introducing a parallel exam to GCSE that would have given these lower-attaining students some reasonable chance of success. Cleggs insistence on GCSE or nothing was an act of gross incompetence that has left far too many students with the latter. This must change. The first section of next years examinations in English and maths should be a test of basic calculation and literacy skills that would give conscientious students a genuine certificate of competence, independently of the GCSE grade. We must not allow the Lib Dems dogma to leave hundreds of thousands of young people with no hope.
David Cameron has announced this afternoon that he is to quit the Commons  not at the next election, but forthwith, triggering a by-election.

Perhaps the best response (and certainly the most consistent) is to reproduce what we wrote in March earlier this year, after he had said that it was very much my intention to stand for election in 2020.

A contributor to the low standing of politicians is a sense that they enter the Commons to grab high office, use it to polish their CVs, and then push off to line their pockets. Tony Blair walked out of Parliament on the day he departed Downing Street and has not gone back  thats to say, to the Lords, membership of which would require him to disclose his interests. Gordon Brown hasnt gone to the upper house either and nor, we have to add, has John Major.

A suspicion that David Cameron and George Osborne might abandon the battlefield to make their millions, leaving the poor bloody infantry on IPSA-overseen expenses and with curtailed outside interests, hasnt helped their joint leadership of government since 2010. (Yes, yes: I know that MPs are very well paid and in the top three per cent of so of earners. Im just telling you how some of them feel.)

The Prime Ministers words yesterday were not exactly clear-cut  saying that it is very much [my] intention to stay on in the Commons is not definitive, and he was, after all, speaking to Radio Oxford: some of his Witney constituents will have been listening in. But what he said was a signal in the right direction. For the faster turnover is in the Commons, the more continuity rises in value.

It needs former Ministers who can say, as governments rush their plans out: hang on a moment: we tried that, and it didnt work. Or, even better: we tried that and it didnt work  but heres how it might have done, and how this idea could do, if adapted. Endurance isnt everything, but it counts for something. So lets give Cameron a cheer this morning (while prudently saving the other two up for an announcement, if it comes).

As Iain Dale suggests on this site today, his presence would be a real plus for the post-2020 Parliament. ConservativeHome hasnt always agreed with him (to put it mildly), but he has headed a government that has carried out more public service reform in a single term than Margaret Thatcher managed until her third: indeed, the Coalition arguably saw through even more. He deserves great credit for that and for much else too.

Oscar Wilde wrote that experience is the name that men give to their mistakes: maybe so. But whether this is true or not, the Prime Minister should stay on to share his. As a not-so-much-elder statesman, he could give it the benefit of his finest hours, worst moments, close shaves, cock-ups, might-have-beens and, yes, wisdom. He could share what he has learned. He is very much part of the furniture, and should grace the Chamber for many years yet.
Andrew Kennedy is the Group Agent & Campaign Director in West Kent. He blogs at www.votingandboating.blogspot.com.

Put number 17 down as Conservative said an enthusiastic canvasser during a recent by-election. I looked at him sceptically, and said: But nobody came to the door! Yes, but they had a Jaguar on the drive, so they must be Conservative. Having reminded the canvasser that John Prescott had two Jags, I left the VI box blank, and moved on to the next house.

How we engage with voters on the doorstep, the questions we ask and how that data is used during an election must change to reflect the society within which we now campaign.

For most of us, canvassing has traditionally been a simple process of asking a voter, May we count on your support?, and recording their intention by a simple code on a canvass card  and then reminding our people to vote on Polling Day. For a system developed in an era when politics was a binary choice, this worked well. For the eight or so elections after the war, the two main parties shared around 90 per cent of the votes between them: if you werent for us, you were agin us.

But times have changed. The modern campaigner must address two fundamental changes in the political landscape.

There is now more choice  with more parties competing across the UK, often with regional variations, and the emergence of single-issue and independent candidates. Increasingly voters are willing to trade their support, often identifying with one party nationally, whilst happily voting differently at European, mayoral and devolved elections.

Even in my small corner of Kent, there is clear evidence of vote-splitting due to local circumstances. For example, in the last general election, in one local constituency the Conservative local government vote share was higher than the Parliamentary vote share, while in the other four constituencies it was the other way around. And, in one borough, our local share was a full 20 per cent behind the parliamentary percentage. Until we know why one in five Conservatives failed to support their borough council candidate, we will never make the progress we need to make in the borough  but before we can rectify, we need the tools and the skills to identify.

Canvassing over the years has evolved, but too slowly, as has the training we give to our canvassers. Too many people we send to the doorstep still believe they are embarking on an evangelistic mission, to find or make new converts  whilst, in reality, we are simply gathering raw data. And just as voters political allegiances have become more complex, so our methods of gathering data must evolve too.

I first encountered the new CCHQ canvass script during the Clacton by-election. And hated it. It seemed over-complicated and under-explained. A simple 30-second conversation on a doorstep had morphed into a five-minute double-page script with show-cards, and we were expected to interview each member of the household separately. In the heat of a by-election  particularly that one  no-one had the time to explain to the canvassers why we were doing this, or how it worked, or why it was important. Not being told the reasons led to a lack of confidence and even a degree of resentment and hostility, which clearly came across on the doorsteps. This negativity became self-fulfilling, with even the most enthusiastic volunteers translating their antagonism to the respondent. This in turn provided the canvasser with all the evidence they needed that the system was unworkable.

For those who have not used the new script, the simple May we count on your support? question, was replaced with, On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to vote for each of these parties at the forthcoming by-election?. The score for each party was then recorded on a survey form, along with the answers to a number of other questions on the local and national issues likely to affect their vote.

I made it my business to find out the thinking behind this new script, and exactly how the data could be used to our advantage. Having done so, I immediately understood both the need to change  but also the need to explain that change to our volunteers if we were going to make it a success.

So how does it work, and why?

First, we should not be asking voters a binary question when most want to give a multiple-choice answer. According to some polls, only around 35 per cent of voters are now totally committed to a political party (i.e. will always vote for that party at every election). This explains the significant increase in Dont knows or Wont says  something we seldom heard on the doorstep in the old days.

Second, asking people to rate their likelihood of voting for a specific party on a scale of 1 to 10 is far less intrusive than asking them for which party they are going to vote, particularly if the voter is not fully committed, or is unprepared to self-identify.

Having developed a script which produces a more accurate reflection of voters intentions, we also need to understand how to use this nuanced data as a campaign tool. For me, the ability to identify the second preferences of other parties supporters is increasingly important in closely-fought elections. Below are two examples of how I have used the data in West Kent.

Last year, we fought a local government by-election which was a four-way contest between Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green, with UKIP and an independent candidate muddying the waters too. By knowing which UKIP and independent voters would choose Conservative as a second preference, we were able to target our Get Out The Vote material to specific voters  whilst ignoring other UKIP voters who would have preferred a Labour councillor. And by recording the issues which motivate those voters, we were able to produce voter-specific pledge letters, often resulting in two or three different letters being sent to voters within the same household.

The second way this new system helped was to identify Conservative pledges who were seriously considering voting for another party. These voters also received targeted mail, dealing with the issues important to them, just as it provided our candidate the opportunity to spend his time talking to the swing-voters who would decide the outcome of the election. Our vote share was only 27% per cent, but we won with a majority of 53 votes. Without the data provided by this new canvassing method, and the ability to target specific voters, we would not have won.

As too often happens, changes are handed down without the training and support needed, nor any explanation as to why these changes have been made. Like most Conservatives, I am resistant to change for changes sake, but once I am convinced of the reasons why, I become the most enthusiastic convert.

You can, it turns out, teach an old dog new tricks  but he needs a reward. For the dog it is a tasty titbit; for us, it is victory.
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STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 12, ARTSAKHPRESS: Issues related to the course of programs directed to improving social and living conditions of the Talish residents were discussed during the meeting.

The NKR President gave corresponding instructions to the heads of the concerned bodies for proper realization of the activities.

Primate of the NKR Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan, NKR National Assembly Chairman Ashot Ghoulyan and other officials accompanied the President.
The Armenia Expo of Armenian products and services will be held from October 5 to 8 in Tehran, the capital city of Iran.

September 12, 2016, 12:11 Armenia Expo to be held in Iran

STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 12, ARTSAKHPRESS: The event is organized by the Ministry of Economy of Armenia, Armenia Development Fund, and Embassy of Armenia in Tehran, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia informed.

The exhibition will contribute to development of trade and economic relations, promotion of mutual investments, growth of tourism, and facilitation of commercial transactions between Armenia and Iran.
A status cannot be the guarantee for the security of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, noted Davit Babayan, the NKR Presidential Spokesperson, speaking to NEWS.am.

September 12, 2016, 12:19 Status cannot be Karabakh security guarantee: David Babayan

STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 12, ARTSAKHPRESS: Babayan said this commenting on the statement by Ambassador James Warlick, US Co-Chair of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group, who had noted that the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict supposes the return of some territories to Azerbaijan, in exchange for the status of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Davit Babayan stressed that Azerbaijan constantly emphasizes the matter of territories, and therefore the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are forced to include it on the agenda because they cannot disregard the demands by a party to this conflict.

But this doesnt mean at all that such an approach is acceptable to us, said the Artsakh presidential spokesperson. The main [thing] for the NKR is the security guarantees. No status can be a security guarantee, if the opposing party [i.e. Azerbaijan] has not abandoned fascist rhetoric, threatens to liberate territories, including [Armenias] Zangezur and [capital city] Yerevan.

He recalled that there are many examples in the world when recognized states have become the target of aggression.

Furthermore, as per Babayan, it is unacceptable to exchange territories with a status also because the term status may imply autonomy within Azerbaijan.

When discussing the issue of territories, we need to [also] bear in mind the [Armenian] territories under Azerbaijani control: Getashen, Shahumyan, northern Artsakh, etc., noted Davit Babayan. The correct [conflict] settlement option is Azerbaijans recognition of the independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Only then will it be possible to sit at the negotiating table, and discuss the matter of the borders."
Armenia appreciates NATOs restrained stance on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

September 12, 2016, 16:15 Armenia MP: Pulling NATO into Karabakh conflict resolution is unacceptable to us

STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 12, ARTSAKHPRESS: Artak Zakaryan, Chairman of the National Assembly of Armenia Standing Committee on Foreign Relations, stated the abovementioned speaking at the international conference, entitled Upcoming Challenges: NATO, from Wales to Warsaw and Beyond, which is held Monday in capital city Yerevan, NEWS.am reports.

In his words, Azerbaijans artificially turning NATO declarations into a platform to discuss the Karabakh conflict, or pulling NATO into the resolution of this conflict, is unacceptable to Armenia. As per Zakaryan, the format of Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group co-chairs exists to this end.

In international relations, cooperation with a variety of international organizations in the security domain is not a display of goodwill, but rather a necessity, which is in everyones interest, he stressed. Armenia underscores the further development of partnership relations with NATO, and is hopeful of more productive future cooperation."
That's true even if it's an objectively bad place -- Gotham City looks like a shithole, but who wouldn't trade their current life with a chance to go there and fight supercriminals with Batman? Of course, that's part of the frustration, too -- we'll never actually see the Shire or Mordor firsthand. But you can come pretty close, because it turns out a lot of these fantasy settings were based on real places. For instance ...

Part of what makes fantasy and sci-fi appealing is that it's not just a bunch of characters -- it's a whole world. One you want to live in.

6 Middle Earth from The Lord of the Rings

The Fictional Setting:

Of course, Middle Earth from The Lord of the Rings isn't just one setting. There are storybook forests and blackened volcanoes and menacing towers. All of it is pretty fantastic, like Isengard, with its tower and surrounding circular stronghold:



From the air it looks exactly like some dude got hit in the eye with a dart.

The Real Thing:



Actually, it's more like a dude in a skirt with a hard-on.

As it turns out, Middle Earth - that is, the Shire, the forests, Isengard, even freaking Mordor -- all came from author J.R.R. Tolkien's surroundings growing up in and around the city of Birmingham, England. Seriously. The above image is what the University of Birmingham looked like back when Tolkien was in town.

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OK, so what about Mordor? That charred, ruined country is pure fantasy, right?



Or Illinois.

Well, just northwest of Birmingham was an area called the Black Country, so called because it had been marred with pollution from all the coal mines, iron foundries and steel mills dotting its landscape thanks to the Industrial Revolution. The air was so dense with smog and dust and ore that the whole place looked like Godzilla's shithouse, all the time:
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Canandaigua Supervisor Pam Helming is celebrating a major endorsement in the race for the Republican nomination in the 54th Senate District.

Helming announced over the weekend that she's been endorsed by the National Rifle Association, the nation's leading gun rights group. She received the highest score  an "AQ"  based on her responses to a questionnaire provided by the NRA's Political Victory Fund.

Floyd Rayburn, a Canandaigua businessman and Helming's biggest rival in the race, received an A-minus grade. Lyons Supervisor Brian Manktelow earned a B-plus.

Former Assemblyman Sean Hanna and retired police officer Jon Ritter, the remaining candidates in the GOP primary contest, didn't receive grades from the NRA.

Helming said the NRA's support shows her pro-Second Amendment record is "unmatched" in the GOP primary.

"As a state senator, I will work day and night to dismantle the SAFE Act so the rights of honest, law-abiding gun owners are no longer infringed upon," she said in a statement.

The SAFE Act has been one of the top issues in the Republican primary. The five candidates all oppose the law, which is a controversial gun control measure that was signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, in 2013.

Shortly after the law was signed, Helming pushed for passage of a town of Canandaigua resolution calling for the SAFE Act's repeal. She's advocated for a similar measure as a member of the Ontario County Board of Supervisors.

"As a resident of upstate New York, I recognize the importance of hunting, sport shooting and also defending yourself or your family in the event it should ever become necessary," Helming said. "For too long, Governor Cuomo and the New York City Democrats have put the rights of criminals ahead of the rights of upstate gun owners.

"The day I am sworn into the New York State Senate is the day I start fighting for legislation to repeal this misguided act."

Helming is considered the front-runner to win the GOP primary. She has already received the party's endorsement and is supported by the Conservative, Independence and Reform parties.

The primary election is Tuesday.
Lyons Supervisor Brian Manktelow, one of five candidates seeking the Republican nomination in the 54th Senate District race, has signed a pledge that calls for the dismantling of the federal Department of Education.

Manktelow added his name to the "Stop Fed Ed" pledge, which is being circulated by New York Parents Involved in Education. The focal point of the group's position is that the U.S. Department of Education should be dissolved.

Candidates, such as Manktelow, who sign the pledge agree to "reject all federal mandates tied to federal funding." They also commit to fighting "federally mandated curriculum, standardized tests and all illegal and unconstitutional mandates from the federal Department of Education."

New York Parents Involved in Education, along with the national group U.S. Parents Involved in Education, have railed against Common Core. They claim the policy is a "federally-based, one-size-fits-all curriculum."

Common Core was actually adopted by states. It wasn't a mandate imposed on states by the U.S. Department of Education. The federal agency did make funds available for states that participated in the program, but the initiative itself was organized by two organizations: the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.

Manktelow's support of the "Stop Fed Ed" pledge was announced in the days leading up to Tuesday's primary.

The race for the GOP nomination has been tight, with Canandaigua Supervisor Pam Helming  the party's endorsed candidate  and Canandaigua businessman Floyd Rayburn gaining some separation from the rest of the pack.

Manktelow, though, is capable of pulling off the victory. He narrowly lost the GOP designation to Helming at a meeting in May. And as the only candidate from one of the district's largest counties, Wayne, he could pull off the upset.

Along with Helming, Manktelow and Rayburn, former Assemblyman Sean Hanna and retired police officer Jon Ritter are running for the GOP nomination.
The Onondaga County District Attorney's Office said no boating while intoxicated charges will be filed against a Homer woman who was operating a boat when she struck her husband and step-daughter on Skaneateles Lake earlier this summer.

The accident, which occurred in July, has been under investigation for the last two months and the case is not yet closed. But Chris Bednarski, chief assistant district attorney, said his office is now assisting the Onondaga County Sheriff's Office with the investigation.

Sgt. Jon Seeber of the Onondaga County Sheriff's Office could not be reached for comment Monday.

The accident occurred when 32-year-old Jamie Wheeler circled back a 17-foot Bayliner boat to retrieve Christopher and Kaelynne Driscoll after they had been ejected from their tubes following the boat. Wheeler hit the father and daughter with the boat's propeller, and 8-year-old Kaelynne lost her left arm and leg as a result of her injuries.

While deputies were seen administering a sobriety test to an individual at the scene of the accident, Bednarski confirmed to The Citizen Monday that no BWI charges will be filed. He would not say whether any more charges were pending, stating that the "matter is still under investigation."

Kaelynne is recovering at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston, and is expected to attend a homecoming party Saturday, Sept. 17.
A Cortland woman has been charged with several felonies for using a stolen credit card at a supermarket, according to state police.

State troopers in Auburn arrested 36-year-old Carrie A. Wayman on Saturday, charging her with multiple counts of identity theft, falsifying business records and grand larceny. Troopers said Wayman was arraigned in the City of Cortland Court and was remanded to the Cortland County Jail.

The arrest follows an investigation started July 30 when a Cayuga County resident reported the stolen credit card, troopers said.

State police in Auburn retained the case, obtaining video footage with images of Wayman using the card at Tops Friendly Markets in Cortland the same day the report was filed, authorities said. Wayman is accused of using the card to make two purchases, each for $54.95, at Tops.

It was not immediately clear what the purchases were for, troopers said.

State police investigators believe the owner of the stolen credit card is a relative of Wayman. The Cortland woman was located by authorities at her residence, 19 Cannone Ave., on Saturday and was later arrested.

Wayman was charged with fourth-degree grand larceny, two counts of first-degree falsifying business records and two counts of third-degree identity theft, all felonies.
A Queens woman was arrested Saturday after attempting to bring quantities of heroin and other drugs into the Cayuga Correctional Facility in Moravia, state police said.

Cassie L. Rodrigues, of 17519 137th Ave., stands accused of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and attempted first-degree promoting prison contraband, all felonies.

Troopers said the 27-year-old was at Cayuga Correctional Facility on Saturday morning to visit an inmate.

As Rodrigues was being processed into the facility, however, corrections staff found 10 bags of heroin and 56 strips of suboxone  a prescription medication used to treat opiate addiction  concealed inside a bag she was carrying.

Investigators are still determining the exact quantities of the substances. Troopers said they believe Rodrigues was trying to provide the substances to an inmate.

Rodrigues was arraigned and remanded to Cayuga County Jail at $10,000 cash bail, $20,000 bond, troopers said.
AUBURN  Two happy and grateful young women, surrounded by family and volunteer members of the Cayuga County Habitat for Humanity, celebrated their new homes Sunday.

The ceremonial ribbon cutting and house blessing on Cottage Street in Auburn involved two homes. Habitat for Humanity was able to purchase two houses across the street from each other, and one now belongs to proud owner Kimberly Cespedes and her family while the other is owned by Elizabeth Smith and her family.

Both women were eager to thank the many volunteers who helped make their American dream come true.

Before the ribbon cutting, Kip Coerper, co-president of the Cayuga County Habitat chapter with Mike Luska, explained how Cayuga Countys Habitat works. People wanting a home put in an application, are interviewed, and must be willing to commit to a minimum of 200 hours of sweat equity.

To Cespedes, the labor was well worth it.

Working on my own home did not seem like work at all," she said. "There were so many people volunteering and helping me that I couldnt help but want to make my dream come true.

Coerper read Habitats mission statement before the blessing: Seeking to put Gods love into action, Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, community, and hope.

As part of the blessing, each homeowner led the Litany of Dedication, asking for blessings on all who worked and for those who will dwell in the home. Just before the ceremonial ribbon cutting, the Rev. Dr. Becky Coerper from St. James Episcopal Church in Skaneateles presented each family with a Bible, which is a tradition each Habitat organization has after completing a build.

Elizabeth Smith said, One of the most impressive parts of working with this group was that we started each day with prayer. Mike and Kip made all of us feel more like family, and in fact, that is what all of the volunteers are to me now; my family. I just never thought I would be able to have a home, and now I do.

Those words were echoed by Cespedes, and when her son, 4-year-old James, was asked what his favorite part of the house was, he quickly replied, My Ninja Turtle bedroom.

Smiths son, Ayden, also 4, said, I love my big, green backyard.

Both families were previously living in apartments. Habitat gives every family an interest free mortgage, and the money collected enables the all-volunteer organization to purchase more homes to renovate.

Habitat for Humanity started in 1976 and exists in 80 countries helping to provide one million homes to people just like Smith and Cespedes.

One of the attendees at Sunday's Auburn ceremony was Kalee David, who will be the next new homeowner on Adams Street.

All I can think about 24/7 is how excited I am to be part of Habitat and know I will have my own home by Easter, she said. She is following the same home ownership path as her mother, who has a Habitat home on Mattie Street.

Both Coerper and Luska continually reminded the group of how much they depend on volunteers, and no one needs to be a professional as long as they are willing to help in any way.
City

 Allyssa M. Hamilton, 24, 123 Elmhurst Ave., Syracuse, was picked up Sept. 9 on a bench warrant.

 Jessica M. Overstreet, 32, 12 James St. Apt. 1, Auburn, was picked up Sept. 11 on a bench warrant.

 Shiela L. Marks, 36, 101 Quill Ave. Apt. N81, Auburn, was picked up on a warrant Sept. 9 and charged with second-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

 Victor S. Houston, 27, 2709 Erie Drive Apt. 218, Weedsport, was picked up on a warrant Sept. 11 and charged with second-degree criminal contempt and fourth-degree criminal mischief.

 Timothy P. Martin, 29, 139 Van Anden St., Auburn, was charged Sept. 1 with petit larceny and fourth-degree criminal mischief.

 Ronald A. Smith, 36, 1207 Cogswell Ave., Solvay, was charged Sept. 9 with second-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

 Shana M. Bennett, 34, 25 Mann St., Auburn, was picked up Sept. 11 on a bench warrant.

 Jerry L. Morgan Jr., 40, 61 Belmont Ave., Auburn, was charged Sept. 11 with fourth-degree criminal mischief and resisting arrest.

State

 Harold J. Chism, 19, Port Byron, was charged Sept. 9 with fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, two counts of third-degree burglary.

 Jaysen A. Covert, 20, Cayuga, was charged Sept. 9 with fifth-degree conspiracy.

 Brendan L. Cobb, 19, Cayuga, was charged Sept. 9 with fifth-degree conspiracy.

 Carrie A. Wayman, 36, Cortland, was charged Sept. 10 with fourth-degree larceny, two counts of first-degree falsifying business records and two counts of third-degree identity theft.

 Amber E. Tripp, 19, Cayuga, was charged Sept. 10 with fourth-degree grand larceny.

 Cassie L. Rodrigues, 27, Queens, was charged Sept. 10 with first-degree introducing dangerous prison contraband, fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.

 Shawn W. McCormick, 54, Throop, was charged Sept. 11 with producing a false written statement.

 Louis M. Williams, 33, White Lake, was charged Sept. 9 with third-degree grand larceny and first-degree falsifying business records.

 Jeffery M. Green, 35, Memphis, was charged Sept. 12 with obstruction of breath.
Anthony Yezer, a professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., said such studies fail to account for what's called the "plea-bargain effect." The term refers to the role the death penalty plays in potentially saving trial costs by convincing some accused killers to plead guilty to their crimes rather than risk execution.



Death penalty opponents frequently argue that the death penalty has no deterrence effect. But Yezer disagrees. And he said Goss made no attempt to factor in how much the fear of execution could save the criminal justice system by potentially preventing a murder.



"What's the cost of the murders that would have happened if Nebraska hadn't had capital punishment?" asked Yezer, author of a textbook titled "Economics of Crime and Enforcement."



I previously noted the false quote misattributed to me in a controversial study of cost of the death penalty by Creighton University economist Ernest Goss. I followed up with a post on the completely inadequate "correction" that continued to indirectly cite my study for the exact opposite of what it actually found.Criticisms of this badly flawed study continue to flow in. Joe Duggan has this article for the Omaha World-Herald:
Channel programs News

'Best Of Both Worlds': HPE, Aruba Unveil First-Ever Joint Partner Program

Mark Haranas

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Partners are cheering as Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Aruba Networks unveil their first-ever joint partner program, combining the best elements of the Aruba Partner Edge and HPE Partner Ready programs.

It really feels like were now getting the best of both worlds, said John Barker, CEO and co-founder of Versatile Communications, a Marlborough, Mass.-based solution provider and longtime HPE and top Aruba partner. HP partner programs have been heavily favored toward the back-end rebates. Aruba has been more upfront in terms of certification and corresponding discount level. So you had one program very favored much on the back end, and another very favored on the front end  when you bring those together, thats definitely a great change for partners.

At HPEs 2016 Global Partner Conference in Boston on Monday, the company unveiled its Partner Ready for Networking Program, which will be HPE-Arubas new networking channel go-to-market strategy, according to Chris Kozup, vice president of marketing for Aruba.

[Related: HPE-Aruba Launch 'Compelling' Mobile Platform And Consumption Models To Drive Recurring Revenues ]

You are now seeing the fruition of the acquisition of Aruba by HPEand youre not only seeing new innovations, but a consolidated go-to-market strategy now across the entire organization, said Kozup.

The new program comes nearly 16 months after HPE acquired Aruba for $3 billion in May of 2015. Aruba said the new channel program combines the best elements of the Aruba Partner Edge and HPE Partner Ready programs, allowing partners to capitalize on the growing enterprise mobility market opportunity.

In the new program, channel partners are rewarded for cross-selling and up-selling wireless and switching solutions which includes enhanced back-end margins and the ability to sell managed services, such as Aruba Centralthe companys cloud-based networking management solutionas well as Aruba ClearPass software.

The biggest opportunity for partners is the services, said Jim Harold, vice president of channels for Aruba. We see partners being able to build out key services around our management platforms.

Solution providers can make additional up-front discounts based on their certifications and specializations. The program also delivers predictable profitability via deal protection with low deal-size minimums and simple tools that calculate profitability at the front end and back end.

In addition, under the program, Aruba partners can now join HPEs Partner Ready for Services program and work alongside HPEs team to offer services.

The new program, set to launch Nov. 1, has three tiers: Silver, Gold and Platinum. All partners are grandfathered into the program and retain their highest level of membership. So if a partner is at the Gold level certification for networking inside HPEs Partner Ready program, but only Silver level on the Aruba side, they would come into the program at Gold, said Harold. So Gold discounts across all products.

Harold said the program also offers a dedicated partner portal, streamlined one-page deal registration with simplified approval process, easy to understand program requirements with a single point of contact, and planned MDF and lead generation tools and services.

Longtime HPE and Aruba partner Chad Williams, vice president of research and education at Matrix Integration, a Jasper Ind.-based solution provider ranked No. 294 on CRNs SP500, said the program will allow solution providers to better leverage their HPE-Aruba businesses.

Bringing these partner programs together should absolutely enhance the consistency and efficiency we get in working with each of them  by offering a single, streamlined approach to certification requirements, deal registration processes, and encompassing growth and rebate attainment goals, said Williams.

*Embargoed until next week at HPE partner summit
SKANEATELES  Before the year 2000, if anyone had told Vietnam War veterans from the 538th Landclearing Company and 35th Landclearing Team that one day they would get their chance to ride in a parade at home, they wouldnt have believed them.

But, that is exactly what happened in the 2003 reunion in Kansas and again on Sept. 4 during the annual Skaneateles Firemans Field Days parade.

In the parade, the veterans rode in the back of a 10-ton truck from Jack Gregory's collection of Army vehicles driven by one of their own, Jerry Vile, who hails from Skaneateles. This truck is very similar to the one Vile drove in Vietnam.

Vile and Pat Briggs, who relocated to Skaneateles and works at CVS, hosted a reunion for the 538th and 35th on Shamrock Road in a couple of makeshift Quonset huts on Viles acreage complete with a mess hall, main office and dining rooms.

Briggs and her late husband, Roger, a member of the 538th, began the search to find his brothers in arms in 2000 and held the first reunion in Benton, Kentucky in 2001. A year later, Roger died from stage 4 lung cancer, which his family later found is directly related to Agent Orange.

"They never officially stated that in his medical records or the many other ailments that he had that have since been attributed to Agent Orange," Briggs said.

This made her even more determined to carry on  as the connection to all the guys and their wives was so profound.

"This story is about those that are still here, that have wives and families that depend on them, that need to get to the VA, need to get the help they need, and more than that  need to realize that they are no longer alone," Briggs said.

'Leading the charge'

These guys werent in starched fatigues. They were at the forefront of the kill zone in bulldozers and other land moving equipment, making way for the forces to move forward and leveling jungle down to dirt. David Emsley said they hopscotched down the road and lived like gypsies.

Our company was one of the most close knit over there," said Larry Dohe, of Kansas.

During the reunion, each veteran wore a name tag with dates they were in the service and each gentlemen had a different story.

Craig Ryerson and Ivory Currier went to high school together in Bethel, Maine, where they didnt like each other  until they found themselves in the same company in Vietnam. There were 16 guys from their backwoods area that went  two didnt make it back.

It agreed with Ryerson, who decided to stay in the service and spent 20 years moving all over  including Germany, Missouri, Syracuse and Auburn, where he was a recruiter and went to Jordan-Elbridge, West Genesee, Marcellus and Skaneateles.

Not so much for Currier, who said he was up to his waist in mud at times.

It was hotter than the hubs of hell, Dohe said.

Parts of Vietnam were beautiful, but there were a lot of dirty villages the guys convoyed through that smelled horrible  although Blackduck, Montana's Gus Fenzel said in one particular village the smell of the hogs reminded him so much of home that he slowed down and took his time breathing in the foul air.

"We are really talking about a bunch of guys, each pulling a different function from running different plows and trucks to welders, mechanics and electricians, and the infantry," Dohe said. They all did a dang good job. They were leading the charge, following orders."

'Permission to move on'

Once home, these guys encountered a quiet enemy  post-traumatic stress disorder.

After their deployments, they often traveled back to the states alone and were told not to wear their uniforms.

You served your country  then you couldnt get your uniform off fast enough, Bob Mueller said.

They told us to get our uniforms off and not to wear them, Ryerson said.

I was killing people  and 48 hours later eating dinner at the supper table back home, Dohe said.

When he came home, nobody knew the ordeal he had gone through or even appeared to care.

You didnt get a 'thank you for your service,' he said. I didnt do drugs or alcohol, so what do you think I did? I worked 20 hour days, trying to exhaust myself. As I got older, thats when the trouble really started.

Dohe said he never went to any of his kids events because for 35 years he couldnt stand crowds.

Then, I started seeing a psychiatrist, so now I dont back up, he said. Forgive yourself, and give yourself permission to move on.

Currier agreed that the mental gymnastics of coping with PTSD was getting harder as he aged.

Ever since the 538th and 35th started having reunions in 2000, a huge weight was lifted off the shoulders of many of the units' members, easing their rubbed-raw emotional states.

The singular ability of spending time with people who have been to hell and back by their side  people who understand their ordeal overseas and at home  has made all the difference in the world.

This (reunion) is a blessing, Mueller said. This is my third. I wish I had found out sooner.

So tickled," Jim Golden agreed. "I wouldnt miss a reunion now.

'Operating in the jungle'

The soldiers of the 538th and 35th were on the front lines. They had more than PTSD to deal with, as they carried home an additional enemy within  the residual effects of Agent Orange swirling around in their bodies.

The defoliant was specifically used to aid the units clear the land. So, while they were digging, pushing, scraping the earth clear, planes were flying overhead raining Agent Orange down on the landscape.

Do you know how we bathed? Dohe said. "We pumped the water from the river into a truck and used it to wash up, even brush our teeth. That river was filled with Agent Orange. They took my health away from me.

Veteran Affairs now knows that several forms of cancers, diabetes, respiratory ailments and coronary heart disease are side effects from exposure to Agent Orange.

But, this was not common knowledge when these veterans came home. It took veterans getting sick and then getting together again and fighting for decades with the VA to get diagnosed and benefits.

We were operating in the jungle that they were spraying, Larry McCain said.

It took Golden 44 years to get the proper medical attention.

Danny Bass said the VA had a practice of accepting the veterans when they were dying, like the World War II veterans, but it would fight them when thy are alive seeking help.

Gus Fenzel just had open heart surgery and is still fighting for his benefits, Dohe said. He has coronary heart disease, which is a symptom of Agent Orange poisoning.

Fenzel, a big, blue-eyed man with a thick Minnesota accent, said he "won the lottery.

This translated to being drafted at the age of 19. He was running Caterpillars clearing land in civilian life, so when he ended up in the 538th it was a great fit.

There was a real sense of accomplishment in our work, Fenzel said. As long as you did your job, they didnt mess with you in country.

Bass fought for 15 years to get 100 percent disability. He now drags around an oxygen tank.

He was drafted after high school, eight months after marrying his high school sweetheart, Elaine. He was gone for two years. Elaine traveled to see him and encountered a sergeant who said the Army hadnt issued an invitation and wouldnt let her see him.

He went because he knew it was his responsibility, Elaine said. When Danny came home, he was a changed man. This getting together is what helped him feel better.

Emsley said he finally got a lawyer, so it only took him seven years to get disability.

Discouraged with the VA, he said. "They didnt want us coming back.

'Made it possible'

The men agreed that over the years the VA has gotten better at responding to their needs because of outrage from the American people. Thats partially why they are willing to speak up now.

And, the reunions have made all the difference in the world, as they are not alone in this fight.

This gal made this possible, Dohe said of Briggs.

You guys made it possible when you answered the phone, she said.
The Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, has introduced a private members bill into the House of Representatives to legaliste same-sex marriage.

The Greens member, Adam Bandt, also introduced a bill to achieve the same change.

Each man made a brief speech to introduce the bill. The debate was then adjourned. Video, audio and text of the speeches appears below.

Hansard transcript of House of Representatives proceedings regarding the same-sex marriage private members bill.

Bill and explanatory memorandum presented by Mr Shorten.

Bill read a first time.

Mr SHORTEN (MaribyrnongLeader of the Opposition) (10:03): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Today is a chance for our parliament to prove its worth and fulfil its purpose. Today we can bring a new measure of hope and happiness to the lives of tens of thousands of Australians whose love has been denied equality under the law for too long. Together we can vote to make marriage equality a reality.

I stand here today to echo the sentiments of so many of our fellow Australians, who cannot comprehend why their children, their brothers and sisters, their friends and neighbours are considered equal in every right but one: the right to marry the person they love. I speak on behalf of Australians like Wilma Lorne. Wilma is 89; she has 14 grandchildren. Three of her grandsons are gay. After her husband of 62 years marriage passed away, Wilma wrote to me about her grandsons and their partners, saying: I see the same love and commitment that my husband and I shared, just as much as all my other grandchildren, who are happily married. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to attend their weddings.

I speak for Tony Rogers and Ken Armstrong from the Blue Mountains, who have shared each others lives for 23 years. When Ken needed a kidney transplant, Tony was the donor. Both men are proud Australiansthey love our country. They can trace their ancestry back to the First Fleet. And there is nowhere else in the world they want to get married.

Today I speak for Sophie Meredith and Alison Gerrard, who have been together for eight years. They wear rings. They have two children, whom they adore. They fulfil all the obligations of marriage: care, respect, love and family. Yet they are excluded. Their relationship is, in the eyes of our laws, somehow differentsomehow less.

Go down any street in Australia and you can hear these stories: hardworking people, raising children, building communities and serving the country made to feel like second-class citizens through one last, lingering relic of legal prejudice. It is in our power in this place to change that once and for all. That is why Labor promised to deliver marriage equality within our first 100 days. Today we seek to honour that promise.

I live in a blended family. I have step-children, who I love as my own children. Part of the reason Chloe and I chose to remarry is because we wanted a sense of formal equality between our other children and their baby sister. And, of course, from time to time you still hear people talking about the superior moral value of a traditional family. It is a narrowness I have learned to live with. But for LGBTI Australians and their families those criticisms are far more common, far more cruel and they are backed by actual legal discrimination. Why should the children of LGBTI Australians be denied the formal recognition of their parents relationship?

Some might say that marriage equality is a second-order issue: identity politicsmere symbolism. But what they need to understand is that if you already enjoy a legal right it is easy to take it for granted. For me it is as simple as this: in delaying marriage equality we are not just falling behind the rest of the world21 countries who we consider our legal, cultural and social peers have already moved ahead of uswe are falling short of our own national sense of self: the country we want to see in the mirror, the Australia we tell our children to believe in. How can we call ourselves the land of the fair go if we discriminate against our citizens on the basis of who they are and who they love?

And we who sit in the parliament, trusted with the great privilege of representing all the Australian peoplenot just some of the Australian people: how can we call ourselves leaders if instead of acting to correct this unfairness we put the responsibility back on to the people who sent us here, with an opinion poll which will cost at least $160 million? The Prime Minister and the member for Warringah are both fond of quoting 18th-century Conservative Edmund Burke. They would know what he told the people of Bristol about the job of a parliamentarian:

Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.

A plebiscite would represent a fundamental failure of this parliament to do its job.

In 115 years of our democracy 44 parliaments before us have declared war, negotiated peace, signed trade deals, broken down the White Australia policy, opened our economy, floated our dollar, built universal superannuation, passed world-leading gun control and legislated several changes to the Marriage Act without recourse to plebiscite. And, of course, they have done all of this with no recourse to a non-binding public vote. How can we look Australians in the eye and say that a piece of legislation three pages longa straightforward change, which a majority of members in both houses supportis too much for us to handle?

How do we say that every question of human rights can be decided by the parliament but a special exemptiona new hurdlemust be imposed upon LGBTI Australians? As Justice Michael Kirby has said, the plebiscite in itself is a discriminatory step driven by hostility. And how can anyone justify spending at least $160 million on a compulsory vote when members of the government will not be compelled to respect the result?

The plebiscite is not a real voteit is a straw pollbut it will cause real harm and real waste. The true cost of a plebiscite is far greater than $160 million. Putting the question of marriage equality to a national vote risks providing a platform for prejudice and a megaphone for hate speech comparing homosexuality to bestiality, bigamy and paedophilia. And on Sunday we learned the Prime Minister has already promised the no case millions of taxpayer dollars.

Now, I respect that there are people of faith, Australians of good conscience, who do not support changing the Marriage Act, but it is not their voices that will be loudest in advocating a no vote. Instead, there is a very real risk that LGBTI Australians will be subjected to a well-organised, well-funded campaign of vitriol and prejudice, denigrating their relationships and attacking their identity.

And nor should we forget the Australians who will not even get a vote in the plebiscite: the children of same-sex couples watching TV ads saying their parents love is not real and the relationship that they have is second-class, and hearing the hurtful words from those ads thrown back at them in the schoolyard and on Facebook. And then there are the teenagers who are gay. Growing up is hard for everyone, but, for young Australians who are grappling with their sexual identity, it can be so much more difficult. Every piece of expert advice tells us young Australians who are gay are more likely to contemplate suicide and more likely to take their own lives. The idea of young people, perhaps yet to come out, seeing the legitimacy of their identity debated on the national stagethat is not an ordeal which we should inflict on any citizen when we have a better path. Let me be as blunt as possible. A no campaign would be an emotional torment for gay teenagers, and, if one child commits suicide over the plebiscite, then that is one too many.

Achieving marriage equality should be an occasion for joy, a unifying moment of celebration. That is why the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and I have brought this proposed legislation forward today. I say to the Prime Minister: this is an issue you said you cared about. You have been Prime Minister for a year now. You can get this done and, instead of a private members bill introduced by the opposition, let marriage equality be a truly cooperative achievement. Join with us and sponsor this legislation, or bring in your own and we will second it. We are prepared to work with the crossbench as well. We do not mind who gets the credit. A year, even a week, from now no-one will care whose name was on this bit of paper, but what will stand for all time, to the credit of the 45th Parliament, will be extending equality under the law to all Australians. What will stand for all time is this parliaments statement that marriage is about love, not about gender.

It is up to us to summon the courage and to show the decency to make this happen. It is up to us to prove the parliament can lead and keep faith with the people. It is up to us to make marriage equality a reality.

The SPEAKER: Is the motion seconded?

Ms Plibersek: I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

The SPEAKER: The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.

Bill and explanatory memorandum presented by Mr Bandt.

Bill read a first time.

Mr BANDT (Melbourne) (10:14): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This cross-parliamentary bill will remove discrimination from our marriage laws and finally achieve marriage equality in this country. It is time that our laws recognise this equality. It is time that our parliament finally says to every Australian, to every LGBTIQ Australian, that they and their love are equal. It is time that we end discrimination and promote acceptance, love and equality for all.

I say today that we worked together for marriage equality in the last parliament and now we can do it again. We find ourselves in the fortunate situation where, probably for the first time ever, if a free vote on marriage equality were held in this room now, a bill would pass. We have the prospect of making marriage equality a reality without the need for taxpayer-funded hate speech, which will be an inevitable consequence of the plebiscite. Funding a referendum that is not binding on this place is the equivalent of funding the schoolyard bully to go and insult other students. It is not only unnecessary, but it is hateful and hurtful.

That is why I am proud to join with the Independent member for Denison, Andrew Wilkie, and the Independent Member for Indi, Cathy McGowan, to co-sponsor this important bill. In the last parliament, seven members of this place from across the political spectrum co-sponsored this very same bill. Along with myself and these two Independents, we had two Liberal backbenchers, the member for Leichhardt and the then member for Brisbane; the Labor member for Griffith and the then member for Werriwa. The fact that we worked together, across the divide, to progress marriage equality, shows that love is love is love is lovethat the love, bond and depth of a partnership between two people is equal, regardless of their genders.

We now have to ask ourselves, as a chamber and as a parliament, what is the best way to progress this reform, given that a majority of us want it? So I invite Liberal and Labor MPs again to join as co-sponsors of this bill to achieve marriage equality. If we all work together, we have a real chance to pass marriage equality through parliament sooner rather than later, without a divisive and wasteful plebiscite. If we all work together, wedding bells could be sounding before Christmas this year.

At the end of the day, what matters is that marriage equality is passed. The Leader of the Opposition is right: ultimately, no-one will care whose name appeared in what position on this bill. What they will care about is that the reform happens. Around Australia, people are looking to this parliament, where they know there is now a majority in favour of reform, to work together to make that reform happen.

I am worried that now that the issue of equality is firmly on the national agenda, if one person or one party tries to own it, it will fail. If we bowl a bill up only to have it voted down, we may find ourselves set back further. But the best path to reform will be a bill that has cross-parliamentary support, and ideally a Liberal backbench co-sponsor, that can be progressed through parliament.

I am pleased that the Leader of Opposition has indicated a willingness to work with the crossbench. I hope that there is now a willingness from either the Prime Minister or members of his backbench to work together as well. Instead of two bills proceeding, if we can all unify as co-sponsors of one cross-parliamentary bill or even get behind a government bill, it can become law.

We, the crossbench, believe that a bill that is not owned by one political party will have the best chance of attracting a Liberal co-sponsor. That is especially the case if legislation enabling a plebiscite is not passed by this parliament. It looks at the moment like this governments plan to establish a non-binding, hateful opinion poll will not have the support of this place. If that is right, but the Prime Minister is serious about achieving marriage equality, then we will need a plan B. The best plan B is a bill that comes from the backbench and across the chamber from this parliament.

We must work together because, on this fundamental issue of equality, Australia is lagging behind the rest of the world. We are now the only developed, English-speaking country to not have equal marriage laws. Our laws continue to send the message to people who are same-sex attracted and in same-sex couples that their love is not equal. Our homophobic marriage laws are part of a system that for years has told young people who are coming to grips with their sexuality and identity that if you are not straight, you are not equal. They have been part of a system that has allowed the tragedy of young people who are same-sex attracted or gender diverse to suicide at rates many times greater than their heterosexual peers.

This bill is a chance to take another important step away from this discrimination and pain and towards creating a world where all people know and feel that they are equal regardless of who they love. This bill is a chance to say love is love. It knows no gender, it is beautiful and it is equal.

As a country, we are faced with a perverse situation where the leaders of the three largest political parties all support marriage equality, yet this parliament is being prevented from making marriage equality a reality. My party, the Greens, as a whole stand ready to support this bill. We have long stood up for the rights of same-sex attracted and gender diverse peoples and couples. I am proud to have introduced the first ever bill to achieve marriage equality into the House of Representatives, in 2012. Sadly, that was not passed because it did not get the unanimous support of either of the old parties.

Australians know they can trust us as a party to vote for equality. We always have and we always will. But the delays that are being forced on loving people across the country have reached a point where the situation is no longer tolerable. The Prime Minister says he supports marriage equality, but for various reasons we have a continuation of the previous Prime Ministers policy of delay by insisting on a plebiscite. This pandering to the conservative rump of his own party is not good enough. His shotgun wedding with the right wing of the backbench cannot be allowed to stand in the way of equality. Australians are ready for equalitythey have been ready for yearsand there are loving couples who are running out of time and can no longer be forced to wait to celebrate their love. To have their love recognised as equal under our law is something that will mean the world to many people in this country. Instead of insisting on a wasteful and divisive plebiscite, the Prime Minister should stand up to his party and let this parliament do what the country wants and vote for equal love.

In the end, love will win. The question is how long we force loving couples to waithow long we force LGBTIQ people to be less equal and have fewer rights than everyone else. So let us use this place for what it is meant for. Let us take a stand for equality and do something that matters to so many Australians. Let us open up our arms and our hearts to love.

The SPEAKER: Is the motion seconded?

Mr Wilkie: I am immensely proud to second this co-sponsored bill, and I reserve my right to speak.

The SPEAKER: The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.
A strong lineup of speakers and panel discussions are set for the 11th China Cruise Shipping conference and trade show, scheduled for Sept. 23-25 in Tianjin, China, and organized by the China Cruise and Yacht Industry Association (CCYIA).

The opening ceremony on Sept. 23 will feature industry leaders Arnold Donald, president and CEO, Carnival Corporation; and Adam Goldstein, president and COO, Royal Caribbean Cruises.

They will be joined by a host of high-ranking government officials, including Jiahua Zhang, vice secretary general, The People's Government of Tianjin; Li Shihong, vice minister, China National Tourism Administration; Zhao Haishan, vice mayor, The People's Government of Tianjin; Qian Yongchang, president, China Communications and Transportation Association; Xin Guobin, vice minister, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology; and Wenming Hu, chairman, China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation.

Each speaker is expected to deliver an address on the Chinese cruise industry.

Moving forward, a presidents discussion will again feature Goldstein, who will also be joined by Alan Buckelew, COO, Carnival Corporation; Colin Au, advisor and founding president, Genting Hong Kong; Frank J. Del Rio, president and CEO, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings; Gianni Onorato, CEO, MSC Cruises; Fan Min, president and CEO, SkySea Cruise Line; Li Xiao Peng, president, China Merchants Group; and Wu Qiang, president, China State Shipbuilding Corporation.

In what has become standard practice, there is also an important closed-door session between cruise line officials and government leaders.

Another panel on Sept. 23 brings together brand leadership in Asia and includes Zinan Liu, president, Royal Caribbean China; Buhdy Bok, president, Costa Group Asia; Anthony H. Kaufman, senior vice president Asia, Princess Cruises; Ang Moo Lim, president, Star Cruises; Thatcher Brown, president, Dream Cruises; David Herrera, president Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings China; Helen Huang, president China, MSC Cruises; Wei Yu, chief strategy officer and executive vice president, SkySea Cruise Line; and Wei Tao, chairman, Diamond Cruises.

The destinations will have their own time to speak on Saturday morning, September 24, to discuss cruise port development and shore excursion offerings.

The session will be led by He Zhineng, chairman of the Tianjin Tourism Board, and also including Wang Hong, district party committee secretary, Shanghai Baoshan People's Government; Matthew Wu, chairman, International Cruise Council Taiwan; Younong Wang, chairman, Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal; Zhang Zhendong, general manager, Tianjin International Cruise Center Home Port; Jeff Bent, managing director, Worldwide Cruise Terminals; Zeng Xianyun, chairman, Sanya Phoenix Island International Cruise Center; Tianping Yang, general manager, China Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone; and Zhang Tie, general manager, Dalian Port. More speakers are expected to be added to this line-up.

As cruise lines move to implement supply chains in China, not only purchasing locally but looking to buy for their fleets, a worldwide supply-chain forum will be moderated by Li Peisheng, chairman of Tianjin Cruise and Yacht Association. Speakers expected included Anderson Liao, , purchasing director  China operations, Royal Caribbean Cruises; and Eugene Marino, vice president supply chain, Princess Cruises, in addition to expected participants from MSC, Star and SkySea.

The shipbuilding panel has also developed considerably year-over-year, with representatives set to present from a number of Chinese shipyards, as well as European builders including Fincantieri and STX France, in addition to a number of consulting companies.

The final Saturday panel discussion will circle in on recruitment, with moderator Xiao Baojia from Shanghai Maritime University.

--

The 11th edition of the China Cruise Shipping and International Expo is the Asia/Pacific's No. 1 cruise event, learn more at http://www.ccyia.com/. The show takes place Sept. 23-26 in Tianjin.

Read a detailed analysis of the Chinese cruise market Cruise Industry News Fall/October 2016 Quarterly Magazine, due out Sept. 23.

Visit Cruise Industry News, the official event media sponsor and partner, at CCS in Tianjin
Bow hunting season for both turkeys and deer opens on Thursday, a state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection spokeswoman said Monday.

The annual fall archery hunting season runs from Sept. 15 to Dec. 31 each year on private land and on state land managed as Deer Management Zones 1-10, and will continue until Jan. 31, 2017 on Deer Management Zone 11, in Fairfield County and Zone 12, which includes the shoreline towns, spokeswoman Cyndy Chanaca said.

The archery season for deer and turkey on state land is open from September 15 to November 15 and again from December 21-31, she said.

The outlook for the 2016 hunting season is good as hunting conditions this fall are expected to be better than 2015, said Rick Jacobson, director of the DEEP wildlife division. The best opportunities are in the southwest corner of the state and many of the shoreline towns, especially for bowhunters.

Many landowners use the archery deer hunting season as a safe and effective method of reducing deer populations, especially in the more developed areas of the state where firearms hunting may not be feasible.

The new Resident Game Bird Conservation Stamp, which replaces turkey permits and the Pheasant Stamp is required to hunt any resident  non-migratory  game birds, including wild turkey, pheasant, ruffed grouse, partridge, and quail.

The cost of the Resident Game Bird Conservation Stamp is $28 for adults and non-residents and $14 for Connecticut hunters ages 12 through 17. All revenues from the sale of Resident Game Bird Conservation Stamps will be deposited into a separate, non-lapsing account to use exclusively for the purchase and management of game birds and their habitat, DEEP officials said.

Wild turkey hunters who purchased a Fall Turkey Permit or a Pheasant Stamp before June 30 may use that instead of the Resident Game Bird Conservation Stamp required by a state law that took effect July 1, state officials said.

Deer hunting is permitted on Sundays in Fairfield County and in the shoreline towns, Chanaca said, but wild turkeys may not be taken on Sunday anywhere in the state.

The Connecticut Deer Management Zone map can be found on the DEEP website, along with Harvest Tags. When hunters harvest a deer or turkey, they are required to fill out a tag, sign it, and keep with the animal until it is processed for consumption, More information and deer hunting regulations are here.
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Connecticuts largest city is about as welcoming for Republicans as Siberia.

But thats not scaring away 4th Congressional District challenger John Shaban from trying to plant the GOP flag in Bridgeport.

Shaban chose the city of 147,000 for his campaign headquarters, which opened Thursday in a Black Rock storefront next door to a gym named Rough House CrossFit. Its a new tack for Republicans, who make up less than 10 percent of the citys electorate.

I think our messaging has always been poor, said Shaban, who is running against Democrat Jim Himes.

The three-term state representative from Redding seemed eager to try to shed the carpetbagger label that has often been applied to Republicans by skeptical locals. Shaban pointed out that his wifes family owned the Bullard Machine Tool Co. in Bridgeport and that his sister lives in the citys North End.

Internal heat

Just when Themis Klarides figured to be uncontested  she is and she isnt.

The first woman elected as House GOP leader in the Legislature is facing an emerging challenge. But its not from Democrats, who arent fielding a candidate against the Derby lawmaker in the 114th District.

Tim Ackert, a fellow Republican from Coventry in his third term in the House, is trying to wrest the leadership post away from Klarides. A vote by the GOP caucus, which is trying to cut into the Democrats 87 to 64 majority, could come as soon as the day after the Nov. 8 election.

The internal competition coincides with rumblings that GOP hardliners are less than thrilled with Klarides closeness to her Democratic counterparts, including Majority Leader Joe Aresimowicz, the front-runner to be the next house speaker.

That doesnt play into my decision making, Ackert said. I dont think we used our members in the best manner and essentially we werent as productive as we could have been. Theres things that I would do quite differently than Themis.

Klarides, who is in her ninth term in the House, said the GOP is building momentum under her leadership.

We have the Democrats on their heels, she said.

Picking Cotton

When Dan Carter stepped forward in the spring to run against Democrat Richard Blumenthal for the U.S. Senate, some in the GOP privately offered that the Bethel legislator was taking one for the team.

Now the team is reciprocating.

Republicans have lined up a Sept. 18 fundraiser with Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton for Carter against Blumenthal, a household name who has raised more than $6.3 million for his re-election.

The reception is being organized and hosted by Leora Levy, a prolific GOP fundraiser from Greenwich and member of the Republican National Committee. Tickets start at $500 and go up to $2,700, the maximum contribution allowed for the general election, according to a copy of the invitation obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media.

Cotton, 39, the youngest member of the Senate, went to Harvard and was a U.S. Army platoon leader in Iraq and Afghanistan. Carter, who is in his third term in the state House, is an Air Force veteran.

neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy
Images show a 63-year-old retired postal worker shoving the barrel of a pellet rifle into a cage before killing federally protected hawks on his mothers Cove Island Park property in Stamford.

The U.S. Attorneys Office released the photos last week that were taken from surveillance cameras outside the Weed Avenue home of Thomas Kapustas mother.

Kapusta, of Westbury, N.Y., faces 30 months in jail when hes sentenced Monday in Hartford federal court for capturing five federally protected hawks and killing them in a trap he set up at the edge of Holly Pond.

Federal authorities said Kapusta set up the trap to protect his flock of racing pigeons, which he used as bait to capture the hawks.

Kapusta pleaded guilty in February to capturing and killing four red-tailed hawks and Coopers hawks, and one count of conspiracy to capture and kill another red-tailed or Coopers hawk.

Kapusta, who worked with the U.S. Postal Service for 34 years, faces up to six months in jail for each offense.

Deidre Daly, the U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut, and Harold Chen, the assistant U.S. attorney, wrote in a sentencing memorandum that evidence shows Kapusta and his friend, Adam Boguski, killed 11 protected hawks between December 2014 and October 2015. Kapusta captured and killed at least six of the hawks by himself, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Boguski, 43, of Stamford, pleaded guilty in August to capturing and killing two hawks and conspiracy to capture and kill another. He faces more than a year in prison.

when he is sentenced in October.

Daly said while Kapusta has no criminal record, his actions with the hawks were willful, deliberate and cruel.

Without any reasonable justification, he trapped federally protected birds of prey ... and shot them at point-blank range, the memorandum reads.

According to federal authorities, Kapusta, who grew up and went to school in Stamford and is a lifetime racing-pigeon enthusiast, kept about 100 of the birds in the coop at his mothers Weed Avenue home, near Cove Island Park. He regularly let them fly outside for exercise.

During certain seasons, Kapusta and Boguski set up their Swedish goshawk trap and placed live pigeons, which they watered and fed, in the bait compartment of the trap to attract the hawks, federal authorities said.

Federal authorities said Kapusta told Boguski they should call the trap a breeding cage if other people, including law enforcement, asked about it.

Daly and Chen requested a judiciously tailored punishment that includes a meaningful jail sentence and a fine to deter Kapusta and others from engaging in similar violations of the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Kapusta faces a fine up to $75,000.

Kapustas Southport attorney, Nathan Buchok, has requested his client be sentenced to probation. Buchok requested leniency from Judge Robert Chatigny since the offenses his client pleaded guilty to were misdemeanors and could be punishable without jail sentences.

Buchok said Kapustas actions were completely out of character and inconsistent with his exemplary record as a caring, selfless man who has been a hardworking and upstanding member of society his entire life.

Buchok said the offenses were driven by a misguided desire to protect other animals and represented a marked deviation from his otherwise commendable and law-abiding life.

A probation sentence would allow Kapusta to continue caring for his elderly mother and aunt, who rely on him daily, according to Buchok.

Kapusta became interested in racing pigeons because of his father, a machinist, who after returning from World War II began raising them with his son, Buchok said.

While it may be difficult for those unfamiliar with the sport to understand, Mr. Kapusta cares for and treats his pigeons the way many people care for a family pet such as a dog or cat, Buchok said.

Buchok said Kapusta became desperate after repeatedly witnessing his beloved pigeons be torn apart and eaten by hawks.
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HARTFORD  African American children are twice as likely as whites to contract lead poisoning, state health officials told lawmakers on Monday.

Latino kids are 1.5 times more likely to have unacceptable levels of the heavy metal in their bodies. Long-term health detriments include abdominal pain, fatigue, muscle soreness and learning disabilities.

Sweet-tasting paint chips or lead dust in older houses cause the poisoning more often than tainted drinking water does, health officials said.

About 10 percent of the 370 juveniles referred to the Department of Children and Families for criminal activity in 2014 had levels of lead in their bodies.

A forum of state Department of Public Health officials gave lawmakers a two-hour update Monday on the states lead-monitoring and prevention programs. While the state is doing a good job testing children before they turn 2 years of age, a desired second test before children turn 3 is attracting only around 50 percent participation, said Krista M. Veneziano, a DPH epidemiologist who said the agency wants to increase participation.

Children are being poisoned in housing thats deteriorated, and it costs money to maintain a house, Veneziano said. I dont think any property owner goes out and say ah, I dont care. I think 100 percent, they all care, but if they dont have the funding to maintain the housing, its difficult for them.

Lawmakers led by Rep. Diana Urban, D-North Stonington, co-chairman of the legislative Committee on Children, and Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, co-chairman of the Public Health Committee, said they expect to make improvements in the screening and prevention programs a focus in the next session of the General Assembly.

Theres federal dollars, but its never enough, Urban said.

In 2006, a young boy ate a lead-based charm from a sneaker and later died after he mother thought he had the flu.

The health experts said that while 2,596 children under 6 years of age had confirmed lead tests in 2014, 2,284 had the lowest measurable levels. By the time children with lead poisoning are in fourth grade, they are 40 points behind classmates in reading and math tests.

This is very profound, especially in black children, said Tracy Hung, an epidemiologist and surveillance coordinator in the DPHs Healthy Homes Program.

A separate study of 111 dwellings indicated that nearly 84 percent had lead-based paint hazards  44 percent had lead dust hazards, 23.4 percent had a soil hazards and one home with a private water well had a lead fixture.

Suzanne Blancaflor, chief of the environmental health section of the DPH, said that while there have been many successes in reducing lead exposure, lead paint in houses built before 1978 remain the largest source.

We know that there is no amount of lead that is safe in the body, she said. Studies have found that even slightly elevated blood-lead levels can result in learning disabilities, diminished IQ, disruptive behavior, inattentiveness and aggression.

Since 1999, elevated blood levels of lead in Connecticut kids have dropped from 6.1 percent, to .7 percent.

Clearly were at a plateau and were not getting 100 percent, said Rep. Pamela Staneski, R-Milford, one of a handful of lawmakers who attended Mondays event.

Bridgeport is the only municipality in the state that has a local ordinance requiring a certificate of apartment occupancy after lead inspections of vacant units.

Hung told the joint committee meeting that special education costs linked to lead poisoning cost Connecticut about $721,000 a year, while lead-poisoning victims lifetime earnings are reduced by $12 million, resulting in another million dollars in lost tax revenue to the state.

kdixon@ctpost.com
It was just a month ago that Donald Trump crowed to his supporters here, Were making a big move for the state of Connecticut.

Now, Trumps push in New England looks and sounds a lot different  more like the bumper sticker: This Car Climbed Mount Washington.

In what some Trump diehards and political analysts see as a reset of expectations, Trumps state campaign director, Ben Proto, sent out an email to supporters Monday seeking volunteers to help knock on doors  but not in Connecticut.

As you know, New Hampshire is a battleground state and is critical to ensuring victory, Proto wrote. You can either volunteer for the day or for the weekend. This is a great way to help Donald Trump and Mike Pence win this very important election.

Some say diverting resources to the Granite State  where an NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist College poll showed Hillary Clinton leading Trump by a single percentage point Sunday  could send a mixed message to Trumps Connecticut supporters.

Many of them were energized when Trump declared the state in play during an Aug. 13 rally at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, a rare appearance by a Republican presidential nominee this late on the calendar in the true blue state.

Trumps detour here confounded many pundits, who questioned whether Connecticuts seven electoral votes were worth the time away from the bellwethers of Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Florida.

Theyre probably drawing the conclusion that Connecticut is a lost cause, said Gary Rose, chairman of the Department of Government and Politics at Sacred Heart University. Its almost as if Trump is suggesting that (New Hampshire) is the only state in New England that seems to matter.

Proto, who is from Stratford and was a delegate for Trump to the Republican National Convention in July, referred questions on the matter to Trumps national campaign.

Mr. Trump has tremendous support in both Connecticut and New Hampshire and is grateful for the support of hundreds of volunteers who are dedicated to his campaign and making our country better than ever before, said Hope Hicks, a Trump spokeswoman from Greenwich.

Joe Visconti, an organizer for Trump and 2014 gubernatorial candidate, said the campaigns appeal for New Hampshire door-knockers was discouraging to some of Trumps grassroots supporters in the state.

Theres a backlash already, Visconti said. People are asking, Well what about Connecticut? 

Before the New Hampshires February primary, the first in the nation, Visconti traveled there to volunteer for Trump.

Ill go up to New Hampshire for one weekend, but Im more concerned about Connecticut because I believe were still in play, Visconti said. Can we afford to have resources go, which is people out of state, and have we put up the white flag? I dont believe we have.

Connecticut hasnt broken the way of a GOP presidential candidate since 1988, when Greenwich-raised George H.W. Bush carried the state over Michael Dukakis. It hasnt elected a Republican to Congress or statewide office in a decade, giving Democrats a power monopoly that includes the governors office and both chambers of the Legislature.

Clintons campaign headquarters for Connecticut is housed in the same building as the state Democratic Party in Hartford. Trumps campaign is working on a similar arrangement with the state GOP.

Jim Campbell, a former Greenwich Republican Town Committee chairman and Trump convention delegate, said its not a Connecticut-versus-New Hampshire proposition.

The Trump campaign can do two things at once, Campbell said. The job of the Trump campaign is to focus like a laser beam on battleground states while pursuing clear opportunities in other states. The map is going to be a little bit different this time. Resources have to go where the battle lines are.

neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy
Homestead National Monument of America is honored to host a United States Citizenship and Naturalization Ceremony on Friday, Sept. 16, 2016.

New citizens will take their Oath of Allegiance to the United States at the ceremony, which will take place at 2 p.m. in the Homestead Education Centers courtyard. The public is encouraged to attend.

Naturalization is the process by which U.S. Citizenship is conferred upon foreign citizens or nationals after fulfilling the requirements established by Congress. After naturalization, foreign-born citizens enjoy nearly all the same benefits, rights and responsibilities that the Constitution gives to native-born U.S. Citizens, including the right to vote.

The Homestead Act encouraged both immigration to the United States and migration within the country. The Naturalization ceremonies we hold today reflect the basic homesteading principle of welcoming new citizens to build our country, stated Superintendent Mark Engler.
BRIDGEPORT  Police report that two men were shot late Sunday during an apparent drug deal.

Witnesses told police that Brandon Thompson, 20, of Kennedy Drive, went with his friends to Iranistan Avenue to meet Immanuel White, 22, of Federal Street, to purchase marijuana.

After they met, an altercation ensued and both men were shot  Thompson in the chest, White in the arm  police said. The incident was called in at about 11:30 p.m. Sunday.

Thompson was taken to St Vincents Hospital by private vehicle where he was rushed into surgery. He was in critical but stable condition Monday. White was admitted to St Vincents with what was described as a non-life-threatening wound.

The case remains under investigation.
As Gage County continues to dig itself out from recent snow storms, officials are evaluating how a similar situation could be handled more efficiently in the future.
We are all influenced by our experiences and law enforcement officers are no different. The methods we used in the past have sometimes proven to be not only ineffective, but in some cases harmful.

For example how we respond to active shooters today is far different than we did before we saw the rash of school shootings across the country. We now know a wait and negotiate approach can and does cost lives, so our methods have changed.

Another area that has changed is our response to missing children.

You may have read recently about the case of Jacob Wetterling, the young boy who was abducted and killed in Minnesota many years ago. His killer finally confessed and the case is being adjudicated as I write this. Back when this case happened police across the country took the approach that missing children were probably just runaways and if given the chance they would come home.

This created a very slow almost resistant response from officers when they received a missing child report because the fact is most runaway children do return home within 24 hours, unless of course they dont. I was born and raised in southwest Iowa and remember the Johnny Gosh abduction in Des Moines. He was the paper boy taken in the early morning hours never to be seen again. The police response in that case was slow and ineffective.

I also was a police officer in La Vista, Nebraska when child killer John Joubert abducted two boys and killed them, one about a mile from my home. Law enforcement response then was better, it was quick and thorough but still a little disjointed. By the time the case concluded and Joubert was arrested, we all had a greater urgency to missing children cases.

A few years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Patty Wetterling at the Center for Missing and Exploited Children. She spoke to our group of police chiefs about how we could improve our response to missing children cases. The lessons learned from the mistakes made in her sons case, served us all very well. I can tell you first hand that she had everyones attention from the beginning and it was one of the most powerful presentations I have ever heard.

I came away with a new understanding of not only what needs to be done, but also how to treat the family. Today we have the AMBER Alert system, officers are trained to respond quickly and resources are activated in minutes not hours. I hope we never have one of these cases here in Gage County, or anywhere for that matter, but if we do our response will be much better than it was years ago. I have seen the face of an abducted childs mother and heard her story. It forever changed me.
UK publisher and crowdfunding advocate Scott Pack in conversation with Radio NZ's Lynn Freeman: listen here.



RNZ Saturday Morning host Kim Hill's interview with novelist and digital fiction pioneer Kate Pullinger: listen here .



Programme manager Claire Mabey has just returned from the Port Eliot Festival in Cornwall and Edinburgh Book Festival, you can read her blog here.



The National Writers Forum thanks the generous supporters who have made the Forum possible: Creative New Zealand, Copyright Licensing New Zealand Cultural Fund, University of Auckland, South Pacific Pictures, Lowndes Jordan, Kobo Writing Life and New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc). Time Out Books is the NWF official bookseller.



For more information, or to request an interview with one of our speakers contact Claire Mabey programmenwf@gmail.com . All other queries contact Jackie Dennis director@nzauthors.org
These real PA creatures could become cryptids if we don't save them
Check it out: Fun things to do this weekend in Lake County

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Each year on September 11, many police officers and security managers remember the contributions of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Counterterrorism Chief, the late John P. O'Neill. While President Bill Clinton and his Administration slept during the Muslim terrorists' war against the United States, O'Neill did all he could to fight the radical Islamists who wished to place the American people in harm's way.During an exclusive interview in 2006 , President Bill Clinton told Fox News Channel's Chris Wallace that no one knew about Al-Qaeda in 1993?My first thought when I heard Clinton was: What about the FBI's chief of counterterrorism John O'Neill ? Not only did he know about Al-Qaeda, but he warned the Clinton Administration, the FBI, the CIA and anyone else who would listen that the terrorist group was a danger to the security of the United States. So once again, President Clinton played fast and loose with the truth on national television ().I knew O'Neill and respected his work up to and including his service as Director of Security for the World Trade Center, where he died on 9-11. I believed him more than that pathological liar named Clinton. O'Neill continues to be praised by the membership of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and other police organizations. No man trained more police chiefs, commanders and officers in counterterrorism than the FBI's John O'Neill.While the Clinton Administration slept during the terrorists' war against the United States, O'Neill did all he could to fight the radical Islamists who wished to place the American people in harm's way. After the first attack on the World Trade Center, O'Neill investigated the link between the Islamists who perpetrated the bombing and the terrorist group in the Middle East and North Africa know as Al-Qaeda.The first WTC bombing was treated and prosecuted as a crime, while O'Neill wanted to follow-up with an extensive investigation of international terrorism. It didn't happen.O'Neill served in a number of critical positions in the FBI prior to his retirement in August, 2001 when he went to work as the director of security for the enormous World Trade Center. Little did he know he would only serve less two months before facing the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil in American history.O'Neill became an FBI agent in July, 1976. His first office was in Baltimore, where his investigative assignments included Foreign Counterintelligence, World-Trade-Center-3Organized Crime, and White-Collar crimes.From 1987-1991, he served in several positions within the Criminal Investigative Division and Inspection Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. In 1991, he was the Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI's Chicago Field Office. In 1994, Mr. O'Neill was designated Inspector in Charge of a multi-agency task force investigating domestic violence in the United States.O'Neill was eventually appointed Chief of the FBI's Counterterrorism Section at FBI Headquarters where he was responsible for the direction and support of all of the FBI's international and domestic counterterrorism investigations.Of particular note during this time, was the capture and extradition of bombing suspect Ramzi Yousef for his role in the first attack on the World Trade Center, the investigation of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and the investigations of the bombings of U.S. facilities in Saudi Arabia. He also supervised investigations of numerous other terrorist incidents involving Americans and American interests around the world.SAC O'Neill served as the FBI representative on the Interagency Counterterrorism Committee of the National Security Council. He was also a member of the Terrorism Committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Terrorism Subcommittee of the American Society of Industrial Security.O'Neill faced political opposition from members of the Clinton Administration, who ignored his reports and warnings. On many occasions he was denied funding for his frequent trips to the Middle East to investigate leads on terrorist groups. On several trips, he paid for his own expenses - plane fare, hotel accommodations, etc. - in order to wage his one man war against terrorism.Turf wars and dislike of O'Neill by members of the Clinton Administration in Washington meant that the FBI's New York office was left out of the investigation, and later that O'Neill was left behind when other New York-based agents were sent to the region to pick up leads. O'Neill decided to continue fighting terrorism in the private sector.After claiming ignorance of Al-Qaeda in 1993, Clinton takes a giant leap and says he came closest to capturing Osama bin Laden. Yes, close, but no cigar. Unless it was the famous cigar he shared with his intern Monica. Mr. Clinton should remember that the road to perdition is paved with "almosts."
Dressed head to toe in red, white and blue, most of these music lovers had been waiting in the rain for hours.

Aside from Big Ben or the Queen, there can be few sights more British than an orderly queue in a downpour outside the Royal Albert Hall. Many waiting to get into this weekends Last Night of the Proms had matching Union flag umbrellas, too.

Here, no doubt, were precisely the sort of triumphalist, gloating, Brexit-voting Little Englanders who would try to hijack the Last Night of the Proms, as we had been warned by musical grandees, Guardian commentators and others.

Union Jack and EU flags are waved at the Proms performed in Hyde Park, London

Hence the campaign by a group of diehard Remainers to rescue the greatest event in the British musical calendar from these xenophobes and jingoists, and rebrand it by getting everyone to wave the EU flag.

Just one problem, though: It simply wasnt that sort of audience.

These were music lovers who had come for an evening of orchestral brilliance followed by a traditional sing-song. They certainly hadnt come to score political points. And a lot of them werent even British anyway.

Having arrived the night before, the first three people in the queue, in fetching red, white and blue kimonos, were from Japan. And they had come armed with Union flags. They certainly werent worried about being hijacked. As Minoru Uemura, 36, explained: This is the most exciting thing in the world.

A few places behind were two men in matching Union flag suits. Both had repeatedly been offered a free EU flag but had turned them down. They would be waving the usual red, white and blue, thanks all the same.

The Last Night of the Proms is wonderful. It should not be politicised by anyone, whether they are for or against the EU, said Thilo Kohn, 30. Its about the music.

Flags were sold by sellers, including this trader, outside the venue

Mr Kohn, a project manager, turned out to be German. So did his friend, Moritz Blauth, 30, a lawyer. Both were sorry when the UK chose to wave goodbye to the EU earlier this year. But it had not altered their affection for Britain, nor for its most boisterous, barmy musical ritual, one jot. Which is why they had come all the way from Frankfurt to be part of Saturday nights fun.

As much as it may pain some of the Little Europeans, the Last Night of the Proms has never been about Europe. Its much bigger than that. It is, rather, a global celebration in a British setting, captured beautifully by the BBC and transmitted around the world.

Even the sourest critic would have struggled to pin the jingoism tag on this years explosion of Rule Britannia, led by a Peruvian tenor (Juan Diego Florez) dressed as the King of the Aztecs and conducted by a Finn (Sakari Oramo).

And as the stupendous encore of Land of Hope and Glory echoed forth, the grand old hall was one great, rolling sea of multinational embroidery.

I noted the flags of Denmark, Poland, Russia, New Zealand, Holland, Australia, Tibet, China (standing well away from Tibet), Canada, Norway (waved by a Norwegian MP sporting a Union flag bow tie), Finland, Japan, Germany, Brazil, the US and Cornwall.

And that was just in the arena section, the engine room of the Proms. It was the same story up in the stalls, boxes and upper circles.

Throughout it all, there were many standards from the Home Nations (plus several inflatable Welsh leeks). And there were, indeed, a large number of EU flags  more than you will have seen on the telly, in fact. But by far the largest presence among the 5,000 partygoers in the Albert Hall was, unsurprisingly, the Union flag.

Because the Last Night of the Proms is nothing to do with imperialism or xenophobia. Its the climax of an eight-week celebration of our love of music, the greatest classical musical festival in the world. And then 45 minutes of grand old British favourites are bolted on to the end.

It is why tens of thousands flocked to simultaneous BBC Proms in the Park events in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland this weekend  plus a huge overflow gathering of nearly 40,000 in Hyde Park. In every case, the Union flag was everywhere, flying happily alongside those of every nation under the sun (with the possible exception of North Korea).

Its part of the populist appeal of the Promenade Concerts that has made them an enduring fixture since 1895. The difference is that, until this year, we had never been asked to take sides. The 2016 Proms became a childish flag-waving competition only when a group of grieving Remainers decided to paint this as a post-referendum homage to the EU.

Arron Banks, the Brexit-backing millionaire who bankrolled the Leave EU campaign, announced that he would spend 5,000 on a UK flag for every Prommer

They raised 1,200 in an online appeal to produce a free EU flag for every Prommer. We are doing this to celebrate the EU and music within the EU, said the flyer accompanying the flags. Leaving the EU will do serious damage to UK music.

The campaign received instant backing from the Musicians Union. The former director of the Proms Sir Nicholas Kenyon wrote in The Guardian of a sense of foreboding that this most British of occasions might be hijacked to celebrate the triumph of Little England.

Nicholas Daniel  conductor, oboist and, clearly, a very delicate flower  was inconsolable. He informed the same paper he could not even bear to tune in: I wont watch it. Ill feel just a bit conflicted, quite honestly.

The clear message was that the Last Night of the Proms was going to be overrun and defiled by nationalistic philistines. As if to prove their point, Arron Banks, the Brexit-backing millionaire who bankrolled the Leave EU campaign, suddenly rose to the bait and announced that he would spend 5,000 on a UK flag for every Prommer.

It all produced some entertaining scenes on the concourse around the Albert Hall on Saturday evening as the rival camps presented their offerings. Many were happy to accept both, though Mr Bankss flag did turn out to be a rather small and weedy specimen compared with the EU freebie.

Were not protesting, were celebrating, said Paulo, 50, an accordion player from Harrow in a Thank EU for the Music shirt. As we spoke, a passing pick-up truck wound down its window and its driver shouted something unpleasant.

Most of the abuse, however, was directed at both camps by a third combatant  the hawkers who came to flog Union flags at 3 a go. For them, it was a disastrous evening.

Sakari Oramo conducting the BBC Proms Youth Ensemble in Tom Haroldis Raze at the Last Night of the Proms 2016

Inside, though, the EU flag stunt seemed utterly pointless. This was never going to be a Little Englander event. For a start, many had come from overseas, with a particularly enthusiastic German contingent.

Whats more, there seemed little doubt that, among the Brits in the crowd, most leaned towards the Remain camp anyway. London was strongly pro-Remain in the referendum, as were the arts in general.

One or two like Luke, a student, had turned up with a full-size European flag because I feel more European than anything else. But most I talked to said they had not come to make a political statement. They were happy waving a Union flag because they were proud of it.

Down at the very front of the arena, I met the true believers, the ultra-Prommers who come to nearly all the 70-odd concerts each summer. They are the ones who dress up, who wear carnations in homage to the great Proms conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent, who know all the little in-jokes, and who raise a six-figure sum for musical charities each year.

For us, this is an end-of-term party. Were not very bothered about who waves what, said Callum Morton-Huseyin, 22, a musician who happened to be holding an EU flag because hed lost his Union flag.

Music fans sing 'Rule Brittania' at BBC Proms in the Park in Hyde Park, London

I did find one or two ardent Brexiters. John Thompson, 55, a painter and decorator from St Helens, Lancashire, had never been to the Proms before and had paid 500 to a ticket agency the previous day. I found out about this EU flag business on Sky News and decided it would be patriotic to come with my Union Jack, he said. The referendums over and its time this lot moved on and accepted it.

Next to him was Lyn Justins, originally from Australia, who has attended more than 50 Last Nights since her first in 1961. Brandishing an Australian flag, she believed the EU flag stunt was simply inappropriate: There is a time and a place for everything and this just isnt it.

After three hours of superb music  from Russia, Italy, the US and South America  the evening reached its crescendo without a single mention of the EU.

In the traditional closing speech from the rostrum, Mr Oramo avoided any of the tedious point-scoring to which some of his predecessors might have been prone. Noting simply that music fosters dialogue and unity, the genial maestro concluded: Tonight we celebrate our shared global, cultural heritage.
The New Testament records how a man called Pontius, put in the position of a judge, 'washed his hands' rather than do what he thought was right.

Last week a real judge called Pontius  His Honour Judge Tim Pontius, to be precise  did the exact opposite.

In an interview which has attracted surprisingly little attention, Pontius expressed great concern at the rise in the number of defendants from Eastern Europe in the Old Bailey, where in a remarkable career he had presided over more than 50 murder trials.

Pontius told the Daily Telegraph: 'It is commonplace in the court list to see more Polish names, Romanian names, Albanian names, Russian names, reflecting all sorts of crimes from murder downwards.

Judge Tim Pontius expressed great concern at the rise in the number of defendants from Eastern Europe in the Old Bailey (pictured)

'It is an extra financial burden, not least because where you have foreign defendants that means foreign witnesses as well and you need interpreters, too, and they don't come cheap. That has been a significant increase in expenditure for the Ministry of Justice. It also means the trials take longer, not least because suddenly everything must be translated verbatim.'

Pontius is the first judge to speak out publicly about this. I suspect he felt able to do so only because the interview marked his retirement after 20 years as a Crown Court judge.

But those of us who have spent time in the company of his colleagues know they have become increasingly agitated about the effect on their courtrooms of the ineluctable increase in crimes of migrants from parts of Eastern Europe.

Criminal

One such judge almost exploded to me: 'Our budget no longer provides for free coffee and biscuits for jurors  so I pay for them myself out of my own pocket. This is one of the side-effects of having to fund the ever-increasing costs of interpreters out of an overall budget which is being cut.'

Another judge, whose attention I drew to Pontius's interview, told me: 'He is absolutely right and I am glad he said it, although others will interpret it as anti-foreigner and it isn't. If people could see how many are here with substantial criminal records, some EU, some pretending to be Latvian when they are Russian and getting in that way, then they may feel differently.'

Actually, the figures are all publicly available: in that respect our justice system is admirably transparent. So, for example, we know that British courts are dealing with more than 700 notifications involving EU migrants every week  a rise of nearly 40 per cent over the past five years. (Under an EU information-sharing system, British police forces notify counterparts in other member states if one of their citizens is convicted of a crime here, or involved in an appeal or a breach of a court order.)

And we also know that 12 per cent of our prison population are foreign nationals. Almost 10 per cent of that foreign element are Poles, 7 per cent Romanian, and 4.5 per cent Lithuanian.

This in fact suggests that Poles are not especially likely to commit serious offences  their large number within the offending population is just a reflection of the overall scale of Polish immigration: as Pontius himself pointed out, 'the huge majority are law-abiding'.

But there do seem to be national differences reflected in these figures: Romanian and Albanian immigrants seem to be on average more inclined to engage in criminality, whereas Estonians are much less predisposed. These figures, I am sure, are a reflection of the societies from which they come.

Michael Baranowski was convicted of breaking into the home of his neighbours and stealing mementoes, including jewellery

It is equally clear that the Government has failed in its attempt to reduce the cost to our prison system by returning the offenders to serve time in their country of origin. Eight years ago an EU directive on prisoner transfers was introduced. So far, a mere 102 EU nationals have been transferred from our jails, out of a total of more than 4,000 living in prison as guests of Her Majesty.

Obviously, this should change after Britain leaves the EU. The ending of free movement from the other 27 member states into the UK should at least enable us to introduce such controls as would prevent people with criminal records from coming here as a matter of right.

People such as Michael Baranowski, who last week was sentenced to three years' imprisonment following his trial at Mold Crown Court. He had been convicted of breaking into the home of his neighbours and stealing mementoes, including jewellery, that had belonged to their daughter, who had some years ago died at the age of 11.

Yet Baranowski had been a career burglar in his native Poland, with ten convictions for fraud and theft, before he came here six years ago.

Of course, Polish immigrants have been tremendously productive members of British society, and employers praise them as harder-working than the average British labourer.

The madness has been an immigration system  or rather non-system  which totally fails to discriminate between an Eastern European with an unblemished record and one who has already been a menace in his own country.

Intolerable

Recently, wanting to see for myself the effect of this phenomenon, I spent a day at Snaresbrook Crown Court, the largest court complex in Europe, set up in the Sixties to deal with crimes in North-East London.

I have in front of me the official list of names of defendants on the day I visited. It is fair to say that Middle Eastern-sounding names are much more evident on it than East European ones. But the latter are there in force, too: Sugaipov, Smirnov, Dovnarovic, Koclamazasvili, Noreikaite.

I went to the courtroom in which two of these men were being tried (for an allegedly racially motivated assault on a British Asian, involving a chainsaw). Sure enough, they had interpreters, so the whole process was drawn-out in the way Judge Pontius described.

Afterwards, one of the court officials took me to one side and said crossly: 'A lot of these people can understand English very well. But the interpreting process means that they can think much longer before answering the prosecuting lawyer's questions. And once I caught one of the interpreters actually advising the defendant how to answer.'

Despite all this, I came away from Snaresbrook with my faith in British justice enhanced. The judges, lawyers and ushers were all so clearly dedicated to doing their best. But their courts are being put under almost intolerable pressure in exactly the way Judge Pontius detailed.

The ray of light is that the Government now has the full authority of the British people to do something about it.

Why doesn't NHS want costly equipment back?

On the Andrew Marr Show yesterday, the chief executive of NHS Providers, Chris Hopson, gave a dire account of financial crisis in our state-owned hospitals (whose managers he represents). He said that 'draconian rationing of access to care' might be required.

Before that, however, perhaps Mr Hopson might care to suggest to his colleagues they consider the sort of inventory management which is standard in the private sector.

As The Mail on Sunday reported yesterday, NHS managers seem to have not the slightest interest in the fact that vast quantities of expensive equipment are used once and then thrown away.

Piles of crutches, zimmer frames and even wheelchairs are mounting in dumps across the country  and almost all of these are re-usable. The story quotes a number of patients who tried to return the items and were told not to bother.

Piles of crutches, zimmer frames and even wheelchairs are mounting in dumps across the country

One, a Mrs White, of Doncaster, said: 'I had a knee replacement and came home with a zimmer frame, two crutches and a walking stick.

'After I'd been home a month, I contacted the local hospital to have the equipment returned. I was surprised to learn they did not re-use it and disposal was down to me!'

Those items are not cheap, but they are much less expensive than wheelchairs: we had great difficulty in getting the NHS to take delivery of one which my younger daughter had been given after she broke her leg badly. It was a wonderful, brand-new red one, amazingly easy to lift and fold, which I suspect had cost thousands.

Yet, after my daughter had (to her great relief) no further use for it, it was impossible to find anyone at the local NHS hospital to take an interest in its return.

Nevertheless, we put it in the back of our car and delivered it ourselves.

No one at the hospital had any record of its existence  forget about stock control  and no one wanted to take responsibility for its return to the orthopaedic department.

So we just left it in a corridor and drove home.
"U.S. Sen. Richard Burr's latest campaign TV ad in North Carolina touts his work on taxpayer-friendly legislation aimed at helping people with disabilities and their families save money for long-term healthcare costs, education and housing."

"The campaign for the two-term Republican senator released the ad Tuesday morning. The spot will run statewide as part of a nearly $6 million TV ad-buy strategy."

"The opening of the ad features a family with two children with autism from Charlotte, N.C. The parents say Burr's backing of the ABLE Act, which was signed into law in 2014 by President Barack Obama, has helped them save for their future."

"Government has a tendency to bog down manufacturers with onerous regulations and high corporate tax rates. Senator Burr understands it's a necessity for business owners to have a stable regulatory climate and lower tax rates in order to do what we do best, create jobs. Senator Burr's commitment to providing job creators with the tools we need to be successful gives me great confidence and it's one of the main reasons why I'm enthusiastically supporting him this fall."

Contact: Jesse Hunt

Jesse Hunt jhunt@burrforsenate.com

Raleigh, NC This week saw the Burr campaign release its latest TV ad that focuses on Senator Burr's legislative work to help people with disabilities receive the support that allows them to achieve their goals in life. The campaign also unveiled its "Manufacturers for Burr" leadership team, the third leadership team in as many weeks and one that is comprised on talented business leaders from all over North Carolina. Deborah Ross spent another week silent on the Iran ransom payment despite new revelations the Obama administration made additional cash payments to Iran totaling $1.3 billion. Time and time again, Ross fails to weigh in on critical national security issues facing our country and it has now been 38 days with no response from Ross on the Iran ransom payment.On Tuesday, the Burr campaign announced its newest statewide TV ad, "ABLE Act," that featured the D'Amelios family praising Senator Burr's work to pass the ABLE Act and describing how it benefits their two children with Autism. In the ad, the D'Amelios pointed out how helpful Senator Burr's work has been for their family, and for other parents who have children with disabilities and want to save for their future.On Wednesday, the campaign announced the "Manufacturers for Burr" leadership team and co-chair Frank Dowd IV, had this to say about Senator Burr:In light of Wednesday's Wall Street Journal story, which detailed the additional $1.3 billion cash payment the Obama administration made to Iran, the campaign noted Deborah Ross' repeated silence after more and more details surrounding the payment were reported over a 35 day period of time.Following up on the earlier announcement of the "Manufacturers for Burr" leadership team, the Burr campaign on Thursday highlighted a Medium post penned by one of its members, Allen Gant, the Chairman & CEO of Glen Raven. In the post, Gant discusses some of the key reasons why he's supporting Senator Burr. Medium : The health of our economy has been at the forefront of the political discussion for some time now. Under President Obama, manufacturers, the building block of the American economy, have been stretched thin by government red tape and an antiquated tax code that makes it harder to create jobs. I've seen firsthand how Senator Burr has worked to improve the economic climate for North Carolina manufacturers and job creators. The Obama administration just completed its 600th major regulation, and it's critical that we have a senator who will help alleviate the pain caused by these burdensome mandates. North Carolina families deserve good paying jobs, and Senator Burr has been a leader every step of the way to help create those jobs.
Selecting the right tipple to drink with a dish can be confusing for many.

With such variety of wine available from all over the world, choosing the most appropriate bottle to pair with food can be tricky.

However, here at Femail we have gathered some top tips from wine experts to enable you to select tasty New World wines that are sure to impress even the pickiest of dinner party guests.

Cheers! Femail have spoken to wine experts on what wine to pair with what dish

OLD WORLD VS NEW WORLD WINE

Firstly, it is important to understand the different between Old and New World wines.

Old World wines originate from countries considered to be the 'birthplaces' of wine, generally Europe but also some of the Middle East, typically where wine has been made a certain way for centuries. Wines from France, Spain, Italy, Germany and Austria all fall under this category.

New World wines are those produced outside of these areas and are often from former European colonies. Wines from the United States, Australia and New Zealand, South Africa and also Argentina and Chile are all New World.

Old World winemakers are held to traditional techniques, and generally have to adhere to stricter rules that have been in place for a considerable time when it comes to producing wines.

New World winemakers however can be more entrepreneurial and more experimental, using modern and more innovative techniques. New World wines can often display bolder flavours, they can be fuller bodied and often are more alcoholic because of the warmer climate in which the grapes are grown.

Here we ask three wine experts their take on which New World wines to try when.

Making a dinner party: Pairing the right wine with the correct dish can leave many people stumped

BEST FOR RICH FISH AND CHICKEN: AUSTRALIAN CHARDONNAY

Why not try: Australian Chardonnay 2015 3.89, at Lidl

Originating from the Burgundy region in Eastern France, Chardonnay is now grown all over the world. It's a wine produced from green grapes and it tends to be medium to light bodied. Chardonnay grown in Australia, where the climate is warmer, tends to boast peach, citrus and melon flavours and most often oaked.

Wine expert Will Trotner of TheVintner.com said: 'Australian Chardonnay often consists of broad, stone fruit flavours of peach and nectarine. There are usually some refreshing citrus too. The wines are often matured in oak which can bring complexity through nuttiness, toast and vanilla notes. Pairs well with rich fish dishes and white meats. Think Turbot & Veal.'

Why not try: Australian Chardonnay 2015 3.89 from Lidl - Ideal for those who like the big, old-fashioned style of oaky Aussie Chardonnay with an update.

Pairing: Chilean Merlot works well with steak dishes, according to experts

BEST FOR STEAK: CHILEAN MERLOT

Why not try: Chilean Merlot 3.89, at Lidl

Merlot is often considered an easy to drink wine for those new to red. The grape is often used for blending with other varieties and is one of the most popular grapes used in Bordeaux wine. Characteristically Merlot has easy tannins, that is, naturally occurring compounds in the grape skins, or polyphenols, that are soaked into the grape juice after the grapes have been pressed. This gives a characteristic dryness or astringency and New World Merlot is known for having velvety tannins and so is a smooth wine, full of body and often has tastes of plum and blackberry.

Will said: 'Merlot is known for its softness. Its abundant in plum fruit with medium tannin. The Chilean examples are often robust in flavour so will stand up to rich meat dishes like steak.'

Why not try: Chilean Merlot 3.89 from Lidl  A fruity red that is juicy plummy and well rounded.

BEST FOR DRINKING ON ITS OWN OR WITH CHEESE: SOUTH AFRICAN SAUVIGNON BLANC

Why not try: South African Sauvingon Blanc 2015 3.79, at Lidl

Sauvignon Blanc originates from the Bordeaux region of France and is often described as fresh, elegant and crisp. Unlike Chardonnay, the smell can be piercing, can often remind drinkers of blackcurrants, gooseberries and nettles. Although New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is perhaps the most widely known of the New World wines, the South African vineyards make some of the most delicious. In coastal areas the resulting wines offer a happy medium alternative between that found in the traditional Loire and that of New Zealand.

Christopher Burr, Master of Wine at Wotwine.com said: The range of quality is so vast, from tart thin acidic wine that has little varietal character, to typical grassy, nettlely, green gooseberry or citrus typical Sauvignon Blanc. Most of these wines see little or no oak and they feature the bright fresh fruit character rather than try to be too complex. Food wise, they are great with salads and grilled fish, and can make a fresh crisp aperitif. One rather off piste idea, but really to be recommended is to drink this with cheese, particularly goats cheese. The dryness of goats cheese brings out the zingy bright fruit, whilst the wine enhances the richness and flavours in the cheese.

Why not try: South African Sauvingon Blanc 2015 3.79 from Lidl  this is a light, gently scented and easy drinking Sauvingon but not too light.

What wine when? Australian Chardonnay goes well with chicken, Chilean Merlot is good for steak, South African Sauvingon Blanc is fine on its own while Aussie Shiraz is perfect for a BBQ

BEST FOR A BBQ: AUSTRALIAN SHIRAZ

Why not try: Australian Shiraz: 3.89, at Lidl

Syrah grapes, known as Shiraz in Australia, produce full-bodied, fruity wines and they've been used in wine since Roman and Greek times. The flavours often found present include peppers, berries and chocolate. Syrah is usually bottled alone as it tend to have some of the strongest flavours of any red wine. It's perhaps no surprise that it's the perfect tipple to go with an Aussie style summer BBQ. Raniero Lomartire, Head Sommelier at Buddha Bar London, said: 'This is one of my favourite wines and it's perhaps not by chance that it means princess in Arabic. Australia's most popular grape varietal, produces more Shiraz than any other New World country. Shiraz is full-bodied with high alcohol, and vibrant berry and plum flavours for both the nose and palate. Australia's hot summers and cooler winters impart a complexity and structure that collects well and is a worldwide favourite. Shiraz is described as robust and spicy with a slightly sweet finish. This wine can overpower more light dishes so is good with stronger flavoured food and anything barbecued. It also pairs well with Wagyu beef, crispy black cod and spicy seafood.'
Having the groom see your dress before the big day is a usually a huge no-no for any bride.

But one very courageous wife-to-be took her fiance dress shopping with her - only to find that he absolutely detested her dream gown.

Virginia Shaw, 41, from London, was looking forward to gliding down the aisle towards her partner of 13 years, former professional rugby league player Martin Offiah.

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Virginia Shaw, right, took her fiance Martin Offiah wedding dress shopping but they didn't agree on style

Former rugby league player Martin said he wanted to see his bride in a dress that showed off her hourglass figure

When she picked out her dream dress at Essex boutique Confetti and Lace - a sophisticated ruffled number with a huge tulle skirt - she expected Martin to fall in love with it too.

Unfortunately, the rugby ace had other ideas.

He said he hated the one shoulder design Virginia loved and wanted to see her in a dress that would showcase her curvaceous figure.

He told his dismayed fiancee - with whom he has two children: 'I just dont see it as you? Ive seen that one shoulder dress in too many romcoms.

'I think something that shows off her hourglass figure would suit her well,' he said after.

After browsing the rails of the shop and giving his opinion, he then left the boutique after admitting he did still want to conform to tradition and not see see Virginia actually wearing a dress until their wedding day.

Virginia loved this 2,500 Ian Stuart dress but Martin didn't agree

Martin told Virginia of the gown: 'I just dont see it as you? I've seen that dress in too many romcoms

'I definitely don't want to see Virginia in her dress before she walks down the aisle, I think it would take away from that moment,' he said.

But his input before she tried on dresses left the mother-of-two confused about what style to go for.

Despite Martin's reservations, she tried on the 2,500 Ian Stuart dress he disliked - and found that she loved it, leaving her in a massive dilemma.

The rugby player picked out some dresses he liked before leaving so he didn't see Virginia in one before their big day

When Virginia tried on the dress Martin disliked she loved it, leaving her with a dilemma

The scenes were shown on TLC's Say Yes To The Dress UK on Friday as she sought the advice from royal wedding dress designer David Emanuel on what to do.

Virginia said: 'I really love this dress - Martin doesn't like it. I love it - I think it's amazing. But I'm worried as he said he doesn't like it.'

Her best friend Javine Hylton, of Popstars: The Rivals fame, agreed the dress looked amazing, saying: 'Stunning. This dress is a showstopper.'

She suggested the dress could work if the one shoulder ruffles were removed to make it strapless.

Virginia said she didn't feel she could get the dress knowing what Martin thought of it

Virgina's friends including Javine Hylton, of Popstars: The Rivals fame, fourth from left, also loved it

Virginia tried on two more dresses - but neither quite hit the spot in the way her first dress did.

In the end she decided to leave the decision for another day.

'I do love the dress but with Martin not liking it, I just can't,' she said admitting with reluctance that she wouldn't be saying yes to the dress.

'I am a little disheartened that I hadn't found my dress but I know what I want, something similar to the first dress. And I know Martin will love whatever dress I choose,' she said.

David said her confusion illustrates why it isn't a good idea to take your husband-to-be dress shopping.

He said: 'Bringing a fiance to the appointment is a bridal no-no, why? Because traditionally the guy shouldn't see the dress before the wedding.

'But also, not sticking to the rules can have unforeseen circumstances.'
The circus elephants are said to weigh four tonnes each

It's hard to tell who had the bigger smile on their face.

Crown Princess Mary beamed as she came face-to-face with a circus elephant at a charity event for the Kidney Foundation.

And it seemed the mother-of-four wasn't the only one smiling - the elephant appeared to giving her a big grin back.

Look out! Crown Princess Mary has come face-to-face with an elephant at a charity event for the Kidney Foundation

Easy does it: The mother-of-four reached out to pat the elephant's trunk alongside a little girl

Stylish: Mary wore a cut-out white top, simple grey trousers and navy blue suede wedges for the event

The Australian-born royal attended the Circus Danneborg on Thursday, September 8.

The circus was held at Bellahj, near Copenhagen, in Denmark in honour of the Kidney Foundation.

Mary, who is known for her charity work, is a patron of the foundation.

Dinner time: Mary watched on as a circus worker fed the elephants pieces of bread

Hand in trunk: Mary hesitantly reached out to touch the elephant's trunk

While she had a smile on her face, the 44-year-old princess appeared a bit hesitant around the elephants that are said to weigh four tonnes each.

Although she extended a hand to reach out and touch one of their trunks, she kept her body learning back.

At one point Mary appeared to duck down to keep out of the way of the elephant's trunk.

She was joined at the elephant enclosure by children who had kidney disease.

Sweet gesture: A smiling Mary received a delicate bunch of flowers from a young girl at the charity event

Animal antics: Together she and the children reached out to pat a circus elephant that stood behind a make-shift rope fence

Eye-to-eye: At one point the elephant raised its trunk while Mary watched on

The Crown Princess wore a three-quarter sleeve cut-out blouse and simple grey pants for the occasion.

She paired the ensemble with navy blue suede wedges, and wore her brunette hair loose around her shoulders.

Mary wore an array of gold bangles around her wrists as well as gold hoop earrings.

All smiles: Mary smiled for the camera outside the front of the circus
When it comes to tear-jerking weddings, James and Kylie Wiggins' big day must be one of the most emotional.

The couple were married on August 20, in the neonatal intensive care unit at Canberra Hospital, with their premature son by their side.

Mrs Wiggins had given birth to their newborn baby, Dolton, on June 25 at only 25 weeks, with the tiny child weighing only 790 grams.

Kylie and James Wiggins (above) were married in the neontal intensive care unit at Canberra Hospital on August 20

The couple didn't want to have their wedding without premature son Dolton (above), who was born on June 25

The couple, who have known each other for 13 years and been together for two, were engaged but had originally planned to get married in 2019.

They were saving up for their fairytale wedding, but when doctors told them that they wanted to look at palliative care options for Dolton, they decided they didn't want to wait.

'The doctor called the family for a meeting and said they wanted to look at palliative care,' Mrs Wiggins, 34, told Daily Mail Australia. 'We just thought, at what point is it too mean to continue this?'

'James said to me, "He might not be there for the wedding in 2019, it seems silly that were waiting when he may not be here."'

They were going to marry in 2019, but pushed it forward when doctors said they wanted to look at palliative care options for Dolton

The reception was held at the couple's favourite restaurant with Kylie's sons Kodi, Ethan and Owen (above)

They applied for a marriage licence and then spent the next month and a day frantically preparing for their wedding - all whilst spending time at the hospital with little Dolton.

Only a couple of people were able to be in the neonatal unit for the wedding, so Mr and Mrs Wiggins organised for the ceremony to be streamed into their favourite restaurant, where the rest of the family was watching.

Everyone rallied around the couple, from the restaurant owner who organised the reception to Mrs Wiggins' friend who did her hair and make up.

Mr and Mrs Wiggins only had a month to pull together the wedding after getting a marriage licence

The day was very emotional, but Mrs Wiggins said she 'held it together' for the ceremony

With all the preparations done, it was still a very emotional day.

'I was determined to hold it together but it was really hard,' Mrs Wiggins said. 'I thought if I see James cry I'm done.

'The hairdressers apprentice was crying when we told her the story. At the reception the photographer had left an envelope and said she wasnt going to charge us. It was after that we all had a cry.'

Among the guests at the reception was Mrs Wiggins' sons from a previous marriage, Kodi, 12, Ethan, nine, and Owen, four.

The photographer even left the couple a note to say she wouldn't be charging them, because she was so touched with their story

Dolton (above) is now doing much better, and they hope to bring him home in five weeks

Thankfully, the wedding went off without a hitch and despite the tears, the newlyweds are very excited to start their lives together.

In even better news, Dolton has improved and now no longer needs a machine to breathe for him. They couple hope to be able to bring him home in around five weeks.
Ms Barber said she is sick of the 'Instaquote advice' often doled out

She has attained more than a million followers who love her satirical take

The Australian comedian has made a name for parodying celebrity photos

She said: I'm working on the wobbly pear shape... and am quite happy'

Celeste Barber has penned a new piece on the obsession with body image

She's made a name for herself for taking the perfectly-posed celebrity photos Instagram is flooded with on a daily basis and parodying them, to hilarious effect.

But that's not to say that Australian comedian, Celeste Barber, doesn't find the fixation around women's bodies a pain.

'I have been asked in a number of interviews how I'm going to get my body into shape for summer,' the comedian and actress wrote for Sydney Morning Herald.

Hilarious parody: Australian comedian, Celeste Barber, has made a name for herself for parodying the outrageous, airbrushed photos celebrities post on social media

Damaging: According to the 34-year-old comedian, the fixation around women's bodies is a pain - she said she is sick of being asked in interviews how she is getting 'in shape' for summer

'To which I respond, "What shape are you referring to? I'm working on the wobbly pear shape at the moment and am quite happy with my progress."'

In her latest piece, Ms Barber says she's sick of the obsession with women's bodies, and takes aim at celebrities and people on Instagram who purport a certain image that can be damaging to women.

This is something that is backed up by her now world-famous Instagram profile.

From replicating Kim Kardashian's famous nude selfie, to posing like Rihanna in the shower, the 34-year-old takes pride in depicting women's bodies as they are.

Famous: In the past, Ms Barber has poked fun at all sorts of celebrity photos - from Rihanna in the shower (pictured) to Kim Kardashian's favourite nude selfie

She does this by juxtaposing glossy magazine shoots and filtered social media posts with her own normal body.

'When you've been clean eating for 5 minutes and are sure you can go down a size,' Ms Barber captioned a recent imitation shot on Instagram of Kendall Jenner in a tiny, black leotard.

'When you get 5 seconds alone in the bathroom for the first time in 5 years,' she posts next to a split shot of herself and Rihanna.

Reality: She aims to show that real photos often don't look like what people see on social media (pictured split with Lindsay Lohan)

Poking fun: In recent weeks, Ms Barber has spoofed all sorts of celebrities - including Kim Kardashian (pictured) and more

In recent weeks, the Sydney-based woman has spoofed others for their habits, including Victoria's Secret model Doutzen Kroes's healthy lifestyle:

'Morning green juice privilege V's life without a nanny [sic],' are the words accompanying a split photo of Doutzen sipping on a green juice and Ms Barber sitting with a glass of wine.

Through these posts, Ms Barber explains, she means to parody the sort of 'Instaquote advice' that social media is currently filled with:

'There is a massive industry of model-turned-bloggers,' she writes in her new opinion piece.

Different lives: 'Morning green juice privilege V's life without a nanny [sic],' are the words accompanying a split photo of Doutzen sipping on a green juice and Ms Barber with wine

No experts: Through these posts, Ms Barber explains, she means to parody the sort of 'Instaquote advice' that social media is currently filled with

Think hard: She says that celebrities are no more qualified to dole out advice than she is - and adds it is damaging to believe them

Hilarious: One recent upload by Ms Barber shows herself split with Justin Bieber (pictured)

'People, gorgeous people, genetically blessed people, privileged and, at times, unhealthy people, who are all of a sudden "experts".'

According to the 34-year-old, these celebrity 'experts' are no more qualified specialists than she, you or anyone else - and she believes it's damaging to trust and follow them.

So the next time you see a celebrity who posts a #ijustwokeuplikethis snap?
Viewers tuning into ITV period drama Victoria hoping for passionate encounters have so far been disappointed...until last night's episode, that is.

Finally, the introduction of Prince Albert (Tom Hughes) into proceedings saw the intensity ramped up a notch or two, as the smitten Prince made the young monarch (Jenna Coleman) the object of his affection.

A dramatic ballroom scene, in which Albert cut open his shirt to ensure Victoria's gift of her corsage was 'close to his heart' saw viewers particularly stirred.

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Well, Tom Hughes does look good with a moustache! Last night's episode of Victoria on ITV saw the young monarch (Jenna Coleman) finally have her head turned by Prince Albert (Hughes)

Viewers loved the dramatic moment that Albert reached for a knife in his boot. The prince then slashed his shirt before tucking in Victoria's corsage so it would be 'close to his chest'

The moving scene which was almost thwarted after Lord Melbourne initally asked for Victoria's hand is the first time fans of the show have seen anything more than longing looks - and, according to Twitter, they certainly liked it:

@Charlotte_L2 swooned: 'I want someone to look at me the way Albert looks at Victoria' about the powerful dance-led embrace.

@AnjaliMandalia was equally impressed, tweeting: '"I have to kiss you." He said yes! Such a beautiful scene.'

@Creativeyoke added: 'Oh my goodness! My heart is pounding! The romance!He ripped his shirt to hold her corsage!'

In a dramatic ballroom scene, Albert made his move, ushering Lord Melbourne to the edge of the dancefloor to take the hand of Victoria

Fans on Twitter said the sight of the pair whirling around the dancefloor left them breathless

Who needs Poldark? Albert stares at Victoria, who's beginning to fall for the princes' charms

Move over Lord M: Until now, viewers have been enjoying chemistry between Victoria and Lord Melbourne. However, the arrival of Prince Albert has ratcheted up the passion stakes

Television presenter Philip Schofield was moved to tweet, saying: 'Cutting the shirt was a very good move Albert! You've got her heart.'

The moment Albert took a knife from his boot and and cut open a section of his billowing white shirt to place the flower prompted a sea of tweets, although some found the gesture a little unnerving.

@danneilson29 'That whole cutting open the shirt thing. Creepy.' @TheEricaJames agreed, saying: 'Oo-er, Prince Albert brandishing a knife during a dance and slitting his shirt open, that's not at all creepy, is it?'

Last night's development's saw Victoria's unwavering affection for 'Lord M' aka Prime Minister Lord Melbourne (Rufus Sewell) under question for the first time, as the mustachioed Prince Albert waltzes into her life.

In a setting of candelabras and classical music, love finally blossomed

Although some viewers have commented that Jenna Coleman is 'too pretty' to play the 19th century monarch, the actress has won plaudits from critics for her portrayal of the monarch

Earlier episodes of the show had seen viewers wishing the arrival of Albert wouldn't happen such was there affection for actor Rufus Sewell, who's been widely praised for his role as Lord Melbourne.

Sewell, 48, played the dashing but brooding Prime Minister to perfection and early reaction indicates he could join the ranks of Colin Firth as Mr Darcy and Richard Armitage as John Thornton in the period drama Hall of Fame.

Tweeter Tamsin posted: 'Lord M is fantastic and I almost wish there wasn't an Albert.'

Sheila Beard said: 'Rufus Sewell stole the show as Lord M, shame she fell for Albert.'
and mentor for the brand

He's also been named an

Australian surfing legend Mick Fanning is adding another feather to his cap by swapping his wetsuit for designer threads.

The 35-year-old has been announced as a new ambassador for men's clothing brand Van Heusen, alongside AFL star Jarrad McVeigh and 'influencer' Jimmy Niggles.

He's appeared in a slick photoshoot alongside the two dressed in fashionable suits and accessories.

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Mick Fanning (above) has featured in a new campaign for Van Heusen

He swaps his wetsuit for designer threads in what could be a possible career move

The 35-year-old kept his surfer cool and went barefoot in some of the shots

Despite the business attire, Fanning stood true to his surfer roots, going barefoot in a number of shots.

In other photos he sat on a leather chair and looked seriously at the camera, perhaps channeling his inner Zoolander.

Some of the most striking photos show Fanning standing with his hands together, dark lighting giving the pictures a moody look.

Fanning has also been named an ambassador for the men's fashion brand

Behind the scenes shots revealed glimpses of the campaign process

Despite being a professional surfer, Fanning seemed to be a natural at modelling

The brand has released behind the scenes photos too, giving a glimpse into the shoot day and how Fanning took to being a model.

He seemed to be a natural, smiling for the camera and posing when needed.

It also showed how well Fanning seemed to get along with the other ambassadors, with shots of all three chatting and laughing together.

He appeared alongside others in the campaign like AFL star Jarrad McVeigh and 'influencer' Jimmy Niggles

All the ambassadors have also been named mentors for Van Heusen

The mentors are men who have excelled in their field

Not only are Fanning, McVeigh and Niggles ambassadors for Van Heusen, they've been named 'mentors' of the brand's new campaign.

The mentors are men who have excelled in their field, and include some lesser known-names like bionic fusion surgeon Dr Munjed Al Muderis, chef Ryan Squires and artist Mitch Revs.

The aim is to use the mentors throughout the campaign to interact with consumers via social media and special events.

The campagn looks so good that maybe once Fanning retires from surfing he'll take up modelling permanently.

Other mentors include bionic fusion surgeon Dr Munjed Al Muderis and chef Ryan Squires

The mentors will be used throughout the campaign for special events
The leading cosmetic doctor answers your questions on dealing with ageing...

Q I am 72, a size 14 and quite active. But I hate my ugly bingo wings that swing a lot and would love to have them operated on.

I know there will be a scar but surely a good surgeon won't leave much of a mark?

Dr Tracy Mountford says bingo wings can be one of the hardest problems to fix cosmetically

A Bingo wings are a big cause of concern for many women and they can be one of the hardest problems to sort out cosmetically.

If you are happy to have a surgical procedure, you will meet a surgeon to evaluate the problem. They will assess the benefits versus the risks and ensure you are medically healthy to undergo a procedure as it requires a general anaesthetic.

For significant bingo wings, surgery is an option. The main downside is the scar that it leaves  often this extends from the armpit to the elbow.

Some women decide not to proceed because of the scar, while for others, it is a small price to pay for the reduction in arm size.

There are non-surgical options.

Dr Tracy recommends a fat-freezing procedure called CoolSculpting - which is popular at her practice - to help get rid of bingo wings

If there is a significant amount of fat contributing to the bingo wings, then CoolSculpting (a fat-freezing procedure with permanent results) is worth considering. This is popular at my practice.

Where there is mild to moderate skin laxity, CoolSculpting would be enough to treat the area, as it stimulates skin retraction and tightening.

If you decide to seek out a surgeon, the best way is by personal recommendation or your GP should know a local plastic surgeon.
A woman whose dream is to be 'the fattest mother in the world' has enraged This Morning viewers with her lifestyle choices.

Monica Riley, 27, from Fort Worth, Texas, and her boyfriend Sid, 25, appeared on today's show via video link to explain why she is consuming 8,000 calories a day in her bid to become so fat she will be immobile.

Sid is fully supportive of her plan to become 1,000lb (71st) and aids her by feeding her fat-laden shakes though a funnel - while they are also trying for a baby.

Monica Riley and her boyfriend Sid appeared on today's This Morning via video link from their Texas home to reveal how she is consuming 8,000 calories a day in her bid to become the fattest woman in the world

Presenters Holly Willougby and Phillip Schofield grilled the couple on why Monica dreams of being immobile

The presenters were confused about how the pair think they could care for a baby if Monica achieves her dream of becoming 1,000lb (71st)

Despite her plans to become a mother, Monica told presenters Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield she would be 'happy' if she 'became immobile and totally dependent on Sid'.

He said he loves her 700lb (50 stone) figure as it is 'like hugging a giant pillow' and can't see any reason why they shouldn't become parents.

After Holly ran through the contents of the 3,500 calorie shake - which includes double cream and milk - that Sid regularly feeds to Monica through a funnel, a baffled Phillip asked: 'Is it a sexual thing?'

Monica agreed it was saying: 'Umm, yeah for me it is. I like the rush of it, it is like an eating competition.'

Monica displays the funnel they use so she can consume fat-laden shakes. She said she gets a rush from Sid feeding her this way

Holly and Phillip said they were concerned about what the future holds for the couple, and any children they may have

Phillip expressed his concern over Sid feeding Monica so much fat given the health implications saying: 'You are actually killing her aren't you?'

But Sid disagreed saying you can't go through life fearing death as 'every time you get in a car, you could die in car crash. You might as well wrap yourself up in bubble wrap.'

However Phillip told him: 'It is more like getting into a car and driving fast with your eyes shut.'

Meanwhile, mother-of-three Holly was also perplexed by the couple's decision to start trying for a baby.

She questioned how they would care for child if Monica was immobile and whether it was 'irresponsible to be that big and have a baby?'

The couple said it wasn't as they could hire a nanny to help them.

However, Monica said she would lose weight if necessary in order to conceive as she has already had two miscarriages.

This Morning viewers took to Twitter to express their anger about Monica and Sid's plans

Following the interview, Holly and Phillip expressed their concerns over what the future holds for Monica and Sid - and any children they have - but agreed it was down to them how they chose to live their lives.

Viewers were less understanding and took to Twitter in their droves to express their angry and disgust at the couple's lifestyle.

Anne Iarchy @Barnettrainer tweeted: '@thismorning makes me angry to watch. She has no idea what she's doing to herself. And wanting to have a baby like that is madness. Sorry!'

Helen @helenhth_helen agreed writing: '@thismorning disgusting! She won't live past 35! Why would anyone do this on purpose?! Whilst other people are struggling to lose weight!'

Monica Riley consumes 8,000 calories a day in her quest to become the world's fattest woman

The 27-year-old is helped in her goal by boyfriend Sid, who spends his days cooking for her

Cherrelle Morgan @CherrelleUk tweeted: '@thismorning I feel really sick don't mean to be rude but it's disgusting,' and Naomi @acquiesceh20 tweeted: '@thismorning why would anyone want to do that to themselves. She's heading for a slow death. Very selfish.'

Ruth Hughes @gwennosaunty said: '@thismorning this makes me mad.I am physically disabled through no fault of my own and she is deliberately endangering her own life!'

As previously reported by FEMAIL, Monica's 'goal' in life is 'to reach 1000 lbs and become immobile.'

She said: 'I would feel like a queen because Sid would be waiting on me hand and foot and he's excited about it too.

'It's a sexual fantasy for us and we talk about it a lot. He already has to help me get off the sofa and get me out of bed.

'If I lay down after a big dinner he has to help me roll over because my belly is too full for me to roll - it's a big turn-on for both of us.'

Sid will feed Monica a weight gain shake lavished with double cream and milk which totals 3,500 calories alone

Monica already struggles to get around but dreams of being completely immobile one day

One of the things Monica says she is looking forward to is getting a bed with a built in toilet which Sid will have to empty

Monica makes a living by modeling for websites showing larger women and gets paid by 'feeder men' to eat for them

Monica already weighs 700 lbs but is striving to be 1,000 lbs to be the world's fattest woman

The model, pictured here on her 17th birthday, has always been larger but decided to embrace her figure two years ago after opting out of weight loss surgery

Monica had been overweight all of her life and just two years ago she was preparing for bariatric surgery after an ex-boyfriend urged her to shed the pounds.

But at the last minute she pulled out of the operation and decided to embrace her figure instead.

Monica (far right) is pictured here with her family when she was a child struggling with weight

Her mother Terri is gravely concerned about the health implications of Monica's quest

And since meeting average-built Sid online four months ago, Monica has gained almost 55 lbs (four stone) by gorging on 8,000 calories every day.

Monica said: 'The bigger I get the sexier I feel. I love my big soft belly and stuffing myself with food really turns me on.

'Sid loves to cook for me and hand-feed me and Ive achieved so much since we got together. He feeds me around the clock and I never have to get up to do anything.'

Monica gets paid by men online to send photos and videos of her eating, with boyfriend Sid photographing her

She has thousands of followers on her online accounts, which are filled with photos of her showing off her size 38 figure

Before Monica met Sid, her step brother (left) photographed her for her online audience

On an average day, Monica will eat six biscuits, six sausages in a bread roll, a big bowl of sugary cereal, two weight gain shakes, four McChicken sandwiches, four double cheeseburgers, a large portion of French fries, 30 chicken nuggets, macaroni cheese, Taco Bell treats and a gallon of ice cream.

Monica hopes to get to a size where she will be unable to do anything for herself  requiring Sid to clean her, feed her and change her  by the time she is 32.

The couple have run into criticism for their intentions, especially from Monicas mother Terri, but they wont be deterred in their efforts.

Monica often wears racy lingerie in the photos she posts online

On an average day, Monica will eat six biscuits, six sausages in a bread roll, a big bowl of cereal, two weight gain shakes, four McChicken sandwiches, four double cheeseburgers, French fries, 30 chicken nuggets, macaroni cheese, Taco Bell treats and a gallon of ice cream

A previous boyfriend had encouraged her to lose weight and she was booked in for surgery before deciding to embrace her figure

Monica said: 'My mom doesnt understand it at all and she says Im killing myself.

'I understand her concerns but its my life and gaining weight makes me happy.

'I do worry a little bit about losing my independence but I know Sid loves taking care of me and would never let me suffer.'

Sid, who is 6ft 2in and 220 lbs, is also defensive against any criticism and insists he is simply helping Monica achieve her dreams.

Since then she has been working hard to pile on the pounds to achieve her dream weight

Her mother Terri is concerned but said she will support her daughter if 'it makes her happy'

Regardless of the health risks of being morbidly obese, Monica and Sid are charging full steam ahead with their mammoth quest

Sid said: 'There is a misconception that feederism and immobility is about control but thats not the case.

'If Monica wanted to stop I would accept her decision without question.

'I wouldnt see caring for Monica as a chore at all.

'I love her and I love doing things for her  caring for her would be a dream come true.'

To assist Monica with her weight-gain, Sid prepares a special shake for her to drink through a funnel.

Monica (bottom left) is pictured here in her early teens with her family, including mother Terri who is worried about her daughter's size

Sid often has to roll Monica over when her tummy is full and is looking forward to her being totally reliant on him when she is bed bound

Monica spends her days sitting on the sofa and eating to achieve her weight gain goal

The shake consists of ten Pop Tarts, heavy-duty cream, ice cream, milk and weight-gain power, totalling 3,500 calories.

Monica said: 'The funnel feeding is what I really look forward to. I find it to be a very sexual experience and I know Sid likes it too.

'I have 20,000 online fans and they love to watch the funnel feeding  its a big hit.'

And regardless of the health risks of being morbidly obese, Monica and Sid are charging full steam ahead with their mammoth quest.
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The Swedish royal family have released official photographs from the christening of their youngest prince.

Prince Alexander, who was born in April, was officially welcomed into the world by his parents, Princess Sofia and Prince Carl Philip, at a ceremony in Drottningholm last week.

In the new images, released on Monday, the family are seen posing proudly with their newest addition, who is fifth in line to the throne.

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Princess Sofia and Prince Carl Philip are pictured with the young prince and his godparents (back row left to right): Lina Frejd, Victor Magnuson, Crown Princess Victoria, Jan-ake Hansson, and Wendy Larsson

The young royal looks adorable as he sits on his mother's lap dressed in a gown which is more than 100 years old, while his proud father sits alongside them. In one image, the couple are joined by Carl Philip's parents, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden, as well as Sofia's parents, Marie and Erik Hellqvist.

In another newly-released image, taken by photographer Mattias Edwall at Drottningholm Palace, the young family pose alongside Alexander's aunts Sara Hellqvist, Lina Frejd, Princess Madeleine, and Crown Princess Victoria.

They are also pictured with the young prince and his godparents - Crown Princess Victoria, Lina Frejd, Wendy Larsson, Jan-ake Hansson and Victor Magnuson.

The two Swedish princesses dressed in their best for the occasion, with Victoria opting for a 3,736 Elie Saab dress and Madeleine stunning in a $890 (670) floral number.

The young couple couple are joined by Carl Philip's parents, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia (right) as well as Sofia's parents, Marie and Erik Hellqvist

The young family are joined by (back row, left to right): Their sisters Sara Hellqvist, Lina Frejd (who is also a godmother to the young prince), Princess Madeleine of Sweden, and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden

Swedish royals, politicians and glamorous guests arrived in their droves to celebrate the christening of Prince Alexander last week for a in a ceremony steeped in tradition.

Guests gathered at Drottningholm Palace Church where Prince Alexander, wearing the same christening gown worn by Prince Gustaf Adolf in 1906, arrived carried by his glamorous mother, Princess Sofia, and his father, Carl Philip.

Resplendent in a white lace custom made Ida Sjostedt suit, pearl headband and cream satin heels, Princess Sofia, 31, beamed as she watched her firstborn christened by Archbishop Antje Jackelen, flanked by her dapper husband, 37-year-old Prince Carl Philip.

The Prince, who was appointed kapten in the Swedish Navy and achieved the rank of major in 2014, looked handsome in his full uniform.

The service, which is being aired for the nation by SVT, was followed by a reception and lunch for VIPs at Drottningholm Palace.

Guests gathered at Drottningholm Palace Church where Prince Alexander, wearing the same christening gown worn by Prince Gustaf Adolf in 1906, arrived carried by his glamorous mother, Princess Sofia, and his father, Carl Philip

The cherubic Prince, who was born in April and is fifth in line to the throne, wore a cotton and lace gown, which has been worn by generations of royal babies before him. Most recently, his cousins, Princesses Estelle and Leonore, and Princes Nicolas and Oscar, wore the smock.

His father and aunties, Crown Princess Victoria and Princess Madeleine, have also worn the family heirloom.

The young royal's new godparents were also last week announced and were, of course, on hand at the christening.

Carl Philip's older sister and the future queen of Sweden, Crown Princess Victoria, wearing an Elie Saab cotton-blend lace dress, as well as Sofia's sister, Lina Frejd, and her childhood friend, Wendy Larsson, are godmothers. The godfathers are Carl Philip's friend and best man, Jan-Ake Hansson, and the prince's cousin, Victor Magnuson.

At one point, Princess Sofia was seen holding her son, while Archbishop Antje Jackelen, Prince Carl Philip, god parents Jan-Ake Hansson, and Lina Frejd, and Rev. Michael Bjerkhagen gave their blessings during the christening ceremony in the Palace Chapel.

Resplendent in a white lace dress, pearl headband and cream satin heels, Princess Sofia, 31, beamed flanked by her dapper husband, 37-year-old Prince Carl Philip

The Prince gave his little son a tender squeeze as they greeted fans and wellwishers waiting outside the church

Prince Alexander was born on Tuesday, April 19 at 6:25 p.m weighing at 7lbs 9oz and measuring 19.3 inches long

Swedish Princess Sofia (C) holds her son Prince Alexander, while Archbishop Antje Jackelen (L), Prince Carl Philip (2-L), god parents Jan-Ake Hansson, (3-R) and Lina Frejd (2-R) and Rev. Michael Bjerkhagen (R) give their blessings during the christening ceremony in the Palace Chapel of Drottningholm Palace in Stockholm

Prince Carl Philip looked lovingly at Princess Sofia, who held their son, Prince Alexander, during the ceremony

Princess Sofia holds her baby son, Prince Alexander next to King Carl XVI Gustaf, during the christening ceremony in the Palace Chapel of Drottningholm Palace in Stockholm

Crown Princess Victoria (2-L) and Princess Sofia (2-R) hold their sons Princes Oscar (C-L) and Prince Alexander (C-R) during the christening ceremony in the Palace Chapel of Drottningholm Palace

Arch Bishop Antje Jackelen holds up Sweden's five month-old Prince Alexander at Palace Chapel in Drottningholm Palace during his christening

Arch Bishop Antje Jackelen, second right, holds up Sweden's Prince Alexander as Bishop Johan Dalman, second left, and Princess Sofia watch

The doting parents looked delighted to be christening their firstborn in a ceremony steeped with tradition

Hours after the birth, Carl Philip held a press conference at the hospital to announce the new arrival. 'When asked if he had cried during the birth, the prince replied, according to People magazine: 'Yes, actually. Of course. Couldn't stop'

Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and Prince Daniel of Sweden, with their children Prince Oscar and Princess Estelle of Sweden, attended the christening of Prince Alexander of Sweden

Carl Philip's older sister and the future queen of Sweden, Crown Princess Victoria, wearing an Elie Saab cotton-blend lace dress, which cost an eye-watering 3,736, arrived with her family

The birth of the couple's baby came at an exciting time for the Swedish royal family, who have recently welcomed a new baby, Prince Oscar Carl Olof. Sofia's sister-in-law, Crown Princess Victoria, sister of Prince Carl Philip, gave birth to her second child in March

Other guests included Kjell Stefan Lofven, the Prime Minister of Sweden, and his wife, as well as Annie Marie Therese Loof, the Leader of the Centre Party.

Alexander Erik Hubertus Bertil, also known as the Duke of Sodermanland, is Carl Philip and Sofia's first child.

The world first caught a glimpse of Prince Alexander when he left hospital with his parents Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sophia in April, the day after his birth.

Less than a week later, the royal family released their son's first official portrait.

Following in the footsteps of the Duchess of Cambridge, who has got behind the camera to take official portraits of her own children in the past, the image of the sleeping Prince was taken by the proud father Prince Carl Philip himself.

It shows Prince Alexander, who was five days old at the time, dressed in a white romper suit, covered with a delicate cable knit blanket - his tiny hands clasped alongside his ears.

The new Duke of Sodermanland's title was officially announced on April 22 at a cabinet meeting by his grandfather, King Carl XVI Gustaf .

In a statement following his birth, King Carl and Queen Queen Silvia said: 'We are extremely happy for Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia, and are delighted to have become grandparents again'

Princess Sofia of Sweden was seen doting on her cherubic son, Prince Alexander

Queen Silvia and King Carl Gustav arrived at the christening of their grandson

The Prince, who was appointed kapten in the Swedish Navy and achieved the rank of major in 2014, looked handsome in his full uniform

Other guests included Urban Ahlin and Jennie Ahlin, left, and Kjell Stefan Lofven, the Prime Minister of Sweden, and his wife, right

First, an official document announcing the baby's name was signed at Drottningholm Palace, which traditionally takes place at a royal birth.

Speaker Urban Ahlin, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, Marshal of the Realm Svante Lindqvist, stateswoman Anna Hamilton, Chief Sophia Brismar Wendel and midwife Anna Stahl were witnesses.

Prince Alexander was born on Tuesday, April 19 at 6:25 p.m weighing at 7lbs 9oz and measuring 19.3 inches long.

Hours after the birth, Carl Philip held a press conference at the hospital to announce the new arrival.

'When asked if he had cried during the birth, the prince replied, according to People magazine: 'Yes, actually. Of course. Couldn't stop.

'For me and my wife, this is obviously a great day with a lot of emotion. Words cannot describe.'

At the time, members of the royal family offered official messages of congratulations to the couple on the birth of their first child.

In a statement, King Carl and Queen Queen Silvia said: 'We are extremely happy for Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia, and are delighted to have become grandparents again.

'We hope the new parents enjoy a time of peace and quiet together with their son.'

Crown Princess Victoria and her husband Prince Daniel added: 'We hope Carl Philip and Sofia enjoy these wonderful first few days with their new-born son, and we share the new parents' joy.'

A message from Princess Madeleine and her husband Christopher O'Neill said they were 'delighted to welcome a new member of the family'.

Annie Marie Therese Loof, the Leader of the Centre Party, was also in attendance, as was Ebba Busch Thor, right

Other guests include Oscar Kylberg and Maria Nilsson, left, and Bertil Bernadotte and Countess of Wisborg, Jill Bernadotte, right

A WHO'S WHO OF THE SWEDISH ROYAL FAMILY King Carl XVI Gustaf (born in 1946) and Queen Silvia (born in 1943) are the head of the royal family. Crown Princess Victoria, Duchess of Vastergotland (born in 1977), is their eldest daughter and heir to the throne. She is married to Prince Daniel, Duke of Vastergotland, and they have Princess Estelle, Duchess of Ostergotland, born 2012, and Prince Oscar, Duke of Skane, born 2016 Their eldest son is Prince Carl Philip, Duke of Varmland (born 1979). He is married to Princess Sofia, Duchess of Varmland, and they have Prince Alexander, Duke of Sodermanland, born 2016. Their youngest daughter is Princess Madeleine, Duchess of Halsingland and Gastrikland, born 1982, who is married to Christopher O'Neill. They have Princess Leonore, Duchess of Gotland, and Prince Nicolas, Duke of Angermanland, born 2015. Princess Birgitta is also a member of the Royal House. She is the King's second sister and the widow of Prince Johann Georg of Hohenzollern. Princess Margaretha, Mrs. Ambler, the King's first sister, and his third sister, Princess Desiree, Baroness Silfverschiold, who is married to Baron Niclas Silfverschiold, and Princess Christina, Mrs. Magnuson, who is the King's fourth sister and married to Consul General Tord Magnuson, are also members of the Royal Family. The King's aunts, Marianne Bernadotte, Countess of Wisborg, and Gunnila Bernadotte, Countess of Wisborg, are also listed. A family tree of the royals (please note the dates for Sibylla are 1908-1972) Advertisement

Sofia's parents Marie and Erik Hellqvist also sent a special message to the royal couple.

'We are so pleased that Prince Carl Philip and our daughter Sofia have had their first child.

'We have longed for a grandchild for a long time, and we are both extremely proud and happy.

'We wish them great happiness together with the new member of the family, and we will provide help and support as grandparents.'

And of course the Prince's proud aunts Lina Hellqvist and Sara Hellqvist, Princess Sofia's sisters, were keen to offer their congratulations.

'We welcome this tiny new member of the family with great joy and love,' they said. 'We have been looking forward to becoming aunts, and we will enjoy getting to know our nephew.

'We wish the new family the very best of luck!'

Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia shared the happy news of the pregnancy last year via an official statement released on Facebook.

'We are so happy and excited to announce that we are expecting our first child. We are very much looking forward to it,' it read.

The birth of the couple's baby came at an exciting time for the Swedish royal family, who have recently welcomed a new baby, Prince Oscar Carl Olof.

Sofia's sister-in-law, Crown Princess Victoria, sister of Prince Carl Philip, gave birth to her second child in March.

A view inside the Palace Chapel of Drottningholm Palace during the christening of Swedish Prince Alexander in Stockholm, Sweden

Princess Sofia of Sweden (R) and son Prince Alexander of Sweden arrive ahead of the christening at Drottningholm Palace Chapel

Former glamour model Sofia Hellqvist married the prince last June. The elegant brunette is known for her infectious gap-toothed smile and easygoing ways.

They dated for five years before walking down the aisle and now live together in the upmarket Djurgarden district of Stockholm.

They married in the royal palace's chapel, with the bride wearing a lace wedding dress created by local designer Ida Sjostedt.

But thanks to Princess Sofia's reality TV and glamour modeling past, Carl Philip's choice of wife initially proved controversial.

The now Duchess of Varmland's first shoot aged 20 saw her posing topless in a pair of camouflage print bikini bottoms and clutching a snake to preserve her modesty.

Unsurprisingly, when news of Carl Philip's new relationship emerged in 2010, the Swedish Royal Family were initially put 'on the defensive' as sources revealed at the time.

Since then, however, Sofia has gone out of her way to tone down her image.

Meanwhile Carl Philip has hit the headlines for antics of his own - not least his infamous 'wild summer' of 2012, during which he hit the Swedish party scene wearing an alien mask, and hitchhiked to a motoring competition after losing his Gucci wallet, going on to crash his car in the first race.
In light of continued developments, primarily since 2008, there exists in these United States a Legal System which operates on a proved Two Tiered approach to justice rendered, which primarily benefits Democratic Elites and Woke Ideological Virtue Signalers, representing their co-dependent wards, to the expressed exclusion of normal hardworking American citizens: What is your suggestion in remedying this widespread injustice and, if not corrected, its existential outcome for our Constitutional Republic?

Complete overhaul of the Department of Justice and their enforcers - the FBI - to reflect a far more honest justice system to keep patriots remaining calm.

Disband the FBI, and request that congress investigate all unethical and non patriotic practices to partially right the wrongs of a distrusted and politically weaponized "Department of Justice."
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If you've got it, flaunt it goes the expression, and in the case of the Rich Kids of London, there's no holding back when it comes to displaying their wealth.

Hot on the heels of the Rich Kids of Instagram, the London-centric social media account has been documenting the end of the summer - showing schoolkids heading back to the classroom via private jet.

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How the other half live: While most children might brave the bus to get to school, the Rich Kids of London return to their education via private jet. Right: One super-rich student posts an image from a recent shopping trip

That's one way to learn to drive: one lucky learner puts L plates on his 87,000 Mercedes G-wagon

You CAN have too many expensive watches it seems, right, a well-heeled solution to a door-stop problem; champagne

Summer's over dude, time to board the private jet and head for the London mansion

The latest images also reveal some of the things that the Rich Kids are just too rich too entertain. There are snaps of champagne bottles being used as doorstops, iPads being used as breakfast trays and even a Rolex being flushed down the loo.

In these straitened times, the sight of the capital's wealthiest using such designer goods as household items is more than a little irritating...but with 152,000 followers, it seems we can't get enough of watching other people live the good life.

The man behind the page defended the lavish lifestyles of those who post on the page, telling Sun Online: 'I think it's pretty normal for teenagers to be arriving at school in private jets and driving fancy cars.

'I would say to people who think the group are spoilt to be stop jealous and go out to earn your money  then you can be living the life like them. '

Forget flat beds - how does a whole bed...on a private jet...sound? Two Rich Kids posted these shots of themselves travelling in style

How Rich Kids entertain themselves, using iPhones for Jenga blocks; 24K something! One spoilt kid bemoans his very expensive iPhone casing

Brat take's the biscuit: Another Rich Kid uses his iPad as a breakfast tray

Wonder what they'll get for their 21st! A lucky Rich Kid posts a picture of his very luxurious supercar

First class problems: A Range Rover you're too young to drive, and feeling the weight of some seriously expensive bolly

99 problems but money isn't one of them: This Rich Kid documents a typical night out

Incentive: Wine and a Rolex...if you pass those exams

The account follows in the footsteps of the Rich Kids of Instagram, which has spent the last three months documenting how the well-heeled splash their cash in the hottest months of the year.

There was Kyle Parsons, a 21-year-old student who decided he'd had too much alcohol this summer. He posted a snap showing him and a female friend 'saying goodbye' to some Dom Perignon, Cristal and a little Belvedere by pouring it into the sea.

Nicky Kaufman also showed off his love of expensive Champagne with a picture of a bikini-clad woman pouring the contents of a 15l bottle Veuve Clicquot into his mouth in Sin City, captioned: 'Greed at its finest.'

Meanwhile, model/actor Danny Agha showed off his wealth with a snap of a Louis Vuitton bag stuffed with cash and made sure to include the Cartier Love bracelets on his wrists in the picture, captioned with a boastful: 'I'm only 23.'

What happens in Vegas! Nicky Kaufman showed off his love of expensive Champagne with a picture of a bikini-clad woman pouring the contents of a 15l bottle Veuve Clicquot into his mouth in Sin City, captioned: 'Greed at its finest'

Photo opp: Lyla Dumont poses for a picture on a yacht on Fisher Island, an exclusive island off the coast of Miami, Florida

Living large! Oversized bottles seem to be a trend for many Instagrammers, including Michael Barnouin (left) and Lily Fortescue (right)

Wasteful? Kyle Parsons posted a snap showing him and a female friend 'saying goodbye' to some Dom Perignon, Cristal and a little Belvedere by pouring it into the sea

'Cannes you handle it?' Paris Hilton's brother Barron shows off his luxury pad while visiting Cannes in Frances recently

Always time for a picture! Julia Adasheva strikes a pose in front of a helicopter while on vacation in Waipio Valley, Hawaii

Strike a pose: Wes Holland posed in front of a luxurious mansion in The Hamptions for this picture, captioned: 'It's good to be home'

Showing off! Danny Agha showed off his wealth with a snap of a Louis Vuitton bag stuffed with cash and made sure to include the Cartier Love bracelets on his wrists in the picture, captioned with a boastful: 'I'm only 23'

Exotic: Marcus B showed off his vacation to The Bahamas, posting this snap of a yacht. 'This one is just too good not to upload,' he wrote

Happy go lucky: Reya Benitez posted this picture of herself and a couple of bikini-clad friends enjoying themselves by the pool

Wild nights! For the Rich Kids of Instagram, nights out mean bottle service at the trendy Java Club in Geneva, Switzerland

'Toys for boys': One smug Instagrammer showed off his helicopter from his summer vacation
We're often told that childbirth will be long and painful.

Robbie Williams once described watching his wife Ayda Field give birth was like 'watching his favourite pub burn down'.

But as this viral video also proves, it can be quick and appear somewhat effortless too.

Births are often thought to be long and painful but this mother proved viewers wrong in a birthing video that has gone viral

It is Audra's second home birth and it took place in a birthing tub with her partner by her side

Midwife Lisa Marie Sanchez Oxenham, from Anaheim, California, has shared a video on Facebook of new mother Audra in the final few seconds of pushing out her son.

She posted the video with the accompanying caption: 'My client Audra's beautiful second home birth.

'A midwife's role is fluid, providing whatever is necessary for each individual birthing experience, although almost always that role is simply to offer the gift of quiet.'

The birth took place in a birthing tub with her partner by her side and already the magical moment has been viewed over 15million times on Facebook.

It has also received 40,000 likes, 22,000 comments and has been shared on the social media platform 104,000 times.

Oxenham said that in the video clip the head was already born and they were all waiting for her next contraction.

Audra manages to stay calm and breathe deeply in the video and then with one last push, the baby is born.

The magical moment has already been viewed over 15million times and received 40,000 likes

After he is born, she pulls him gently from the water and cradles him to her chest.

Both her and her partner are in tears and the man looks in disbelief at his new son in his partner's arms.

An apparent benefit of water births is that it speeds up labor and that appears to be the case in the video.

According to Barbara Harper, founder of Waterbirth International who spoke to ScaryMommy: 'One thing that happens in a water birth, you as the attending physician pretty much have to stand there with your hands in your pockets and let it happen without your participation.

'That is pretty scary to a physician-oriented institution.'

Lots of comments on Facebook said the video was 'beautiful' and 'brought tears to my eyes'

People on Facebook were quick to comment below the video to share how the home birth had made them feel.

Rachel Miles commented on the video saying: 'Wow... What a beautiful moment! Brought tears to my eyes!! Beautiful!'

Carol Stemple jokingly said: 'See it's not so bad ;)' while Megan Williamson said simply: 'She made that look so easy.'

Others joined in and Facebook user Lauren Goddard said: 'I've made more noise when stubbing my little toe.'

Christy agreed with the others and said that it was 'absolutely beautiful' and thanked the midwife for sharing the video.

It all got a little too much for Season Newman and they said: 'I'm crying real tears. That is just amazing.'

Interestingly, a lot of Facebook users used the comments section to be able to ask questions about the water birth.

The Facebook video also gave people the opportunity to be able to ask others questions that they were unsure of about birth and pregnancy

Audra pictured above cradling her newborn son for the first time as her partner emotionally looks on

John Bradshaw saw the video and asked: 'Why are they crying? And why did she leave the babies head under water for so long... And where's the umbilical cord??? And why isn't the water bloody. What's up with the acting??'

Gabriel Quinones agreed, asking: 'Where's the blood? Any why both of the guys hand is behind the woman like he holding something?'

Ash McLendon replied to his question, saying: 'No blood because she didn't tear like some women do and she hasn't passed the placenta yet. His hand were there to help catch the baby if needed...'
She may be an author and party planner but Pippa Middleton proved she could cut it on the trading floor as she joined stockbrokers to negotiate deals on Monday.

The 33-year-old, representing the British Heart Foundation, was taking part in the 12th BGC Annual Charity Day at Canary Wharf in London, in commemoration of the 658 employees lost in the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11.

The Duchess of Cambridge's sister showcased her incredible gym honed figure in a fitted grey jumpsuit, which she accessorised with grey court shoes and her dazzling engagement ring - much to the dismay of the men on the trading floor, no doubt.

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Pippa Middleton looked chic in grey as she arrived to take part in the 12th BGC Annual Charity Day at Canary Wharf in London, in commemoration of the 658 employees lost in the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11

Pippa was in high spirits as she joined the brokers to negotiate deals with traders around the world. She was seen chatting enthusiastically on the phones as she was assisted by experienced brokers.

Every year on September 11th, in conjunction with the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund, the company remembers its 658 friends and colleagues and the 61 Eurobrokers employees who were tragically killed by distributing 100 per cent of their global revenues to the Relief Fund and many other charities around the world.

Since its inception, Charity Day has raised approximately $125m (93.88m) globally. The company say: 'Each anniversary is a poignant occasion for us. Charity Day is our way of turning a tragic day into one that is positive and uplifting by helping others.'

Last year, the annual day raised around $12m (9m).

Over in New York, Princess Beatrice joined her mother, the Duchess of York, at the same event.

Pippa was in high spirits as she joined the brokers to negotiate deals with traders around the world. She was seen chatting enthusiastically on the phones as she was assisted by experienced brokers

Hello, Pippa speaking! Every year on September 11th, in conjunction with the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund, the company remembers its 658 friends and colleagues and the 61 Eurobrokers employees who were tragically killed

Last year, the event saw Fergie and her daughters pose for an unlikely photograph with American rapper 50 Cent - however Eugenie, 27, was nowhere to be seen this year.

Other prominent guests this year included the current Miss Universe Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, Lily Aldridge, Michael J Fox and Allan Houston.

Pippa's attendance at the charity day comes after she celebrated her 33rd birthday with a decidedly low-key affair as she stepped out with her mother Carole on Tuesday.

The stylish duo were seen leaving their car before taking a stroll down a leafy street in central London.

The birthday girl opted for neutral colours with a pair of grey slacks and a pussybow blouse, covering up with a cream linen blazer.

Princess Beatrice of York and her mother, Sarah Ferguson, attended the Annual Charity Day hosted by Cantor Fitzgerald, BGC and GFI at Cantor Fitzgerald but in New York rather than London where Pippa was

Last year, the event saw Fergie and her daughters pose for an unlikely photograph with American rapper 50 Cent - however Eugenie, 27, was nowhere to be seen this year

Princess Beatrice of York left a note for the company as she helped raised vital charity funds

She accessorised with a chic pair of tortoiseshell shades and some 255 Tory Burch croc-effect wedges as temperatures in the capital were a balmy 25 degrees despite being a week into September.

Pippa's 200,000 engagement ring was clearly on show, two months after she became betrothed to hedge fund manager James Matthews, who is the older brother of Made In Chelsea's Spencer.

The Duchess of Cambridge's sister is already installed in Jamess magnificent, stucco-fronted house, where her betrothed has reportedly installed his-and-hers dressing rooms.

In July, a spokesman for the Cambridges said: 'The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are absolutely delighted with the news.'

Pippa's father, Mr Middleton, added in a statement given to the Press Association: 'Carole and I are absolutely thrilled with the news. They make a wonderful couple and we wish them every happiness together.'

Pippa is getting set to wed after she became betrothed to hedge fund manager James Matthews, who is the older brother of Made In Chelsea's Spencer

The Duchess of Cambridge's sister is already installed in Jamess magnificent, stucco-fronted house, right, where her betrothed has reportedly installed his-and-hers dressing rooms

While Prince William may have popped the question to Kate with his mother's 12-carat Ceylon sapphire ring in 2010, but James got down on one knee for her sister it was a much blingier affair.

Commenting on the dazzler, David Allen, Creative Director of 77 Diamonds, said: 'Pippa is not one to be outdone by her sister, we know that after 'that' dress she wore at the Royal Wedding in 2011.

'Her centre diamond appears to be a 4 carat asscher cut diamond.

'Given the nature of these step cut stones, the quality is paramount so the stone requires the highest of clarity gradings. A flawless asscher diamond set in an octagonal halo ring such as this would fetch upwards of 200,000.'

James reportedly asked Pippa's father for permission for his daughter's hand before popping the question.
Nicky Hilton may have only given birth two months ago, but the new mother didn't let that stop her from putting on a very fashionable display as she sat front row for Carolina Herrera's star-studded New York Fashion Week show.

The 32-year-old heiress and mother-of-one put her pins on show in a red and blue House of Herrera mini dress, which also allowed her to flaunt her incredibly trim post-baby body to full effect.

Pairing her flattering frock with a pair of elegant navy blue heels, the new mother looked every inch the fashionista as she posed for the cameras ahead of the show's start.

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One hot mama! Nicky Hilton showed off her trim post-baby body in a red mini dress at the Carolina Herrera show during New York Fashion Week on Monday morning

Slim and trim: The 32-year-old heiress wore a red and navy House of Herrera design to the show, which she paired with some elegant navy heels

Flashback: Nicky, who is pictured in the final days of her pregnancy, gave birth to daughter Lily on July 8

The heiress finished off her look with a sleek ponytail, a slick of pink lipstick and natural-looking eye make-up, while keeping her accessories to a bare minimum - just a pair of simple diamond studs in her ears.

And while many new moms might have balked at the idea of being on their feet for so long - particularly while wearing heels - Nicky, who gave birth to daughter Lily on July 8, seemed more than happy to stand and pose for the cameras at The Frick Collection, where the fashion show was held.

Nicky was joined on the front row at the star-studded New York Fashion Week event by model and Carolina Herrera campaign star Karlie Kloss, who, like Nicky, wore an outfit from the designer's latest collection - a short-sleeved navy sweater with fuzzy floral detailing on the front, and a pair of wide-legged trousers in a matching navy shade.

The 24-year-old finished off her look with a slick of red lipstick - matching the same bold shade worn by the models on the catwalk - while her hair was pulled back into a messy up-do.

Fellow front row favorite: Model Karlie Kloss, 24, joined Nicky on the front row

Blondes have more fun! Actress Malin Akerman and Mad Men star Kiernan Shipka also made an appearance at the fashionable event

So chic: Style star Olivia Palermo also made an appearance at the show, which took place at The Frick Collection on the Upper East Side

Stylish: Many of the front row attendees wore Carolina's own designs

Spring success: The catwalk included a variety of beautiful gowns that will no doubt be worn by many an A-lister on the red carpet in the months to come

Rounding out the fashionable front row line-up were Mad Men star Kiernan Shipka, 16, actress Malin Akerman, 38 - both of whom wore outfits by Carolina Herrera - and style star Olivia Palermo, 30.

After Carolina's show wrapped up, new mother Nicky wasted no time in moving on to her next fashionable function, heading straight over to designer Jeremy Scott's show, where she met up with her older sister Paris.

Donning a chic pair of large black sunglasses to match her sibling, Nicky otherwise stuck to the same ensemble she wore at the Carolina Herrera show - a total contrast to her sister's very somber black mini dress and thick black tights.

Paris' outfit was brightened up a bit however by the addition of a quirky Powerpuff Girls-inspired handbag by Jeremy Scott for Moschino, which she wore across her body throughout the show.

Working mom! Despite giving birth to baby Lily just two months ago, Nicky has shown no signs of slowing down her schedule

Sister, sister: As soon as the Carolina Herrera show ended, Nicky went to meet up with her older sister Paris at the Jeremy Scott show

Quality time: The two sisters looked thrilled to be seated next to one another at the event

Sister act: The glam pair sizzled on the FROW

Angelic: The sisters showed off their equally sensational figures at the show

Ear to ear: Dropping their fashionable stony gazes, the sister flashed beaming grins

The siblings, who are known to be incredibly close, looked thrilled to be seated next to one another at the fashion event, with both women happily posing for the cameras while they caught up on the front row before the catwalk kicked off.

Paris has likely been relishing the time she gets to spend with her sister, who has no doubt been incredibly busy caring for her newborn daughter in recent weeks.

Although it doesn't look as though Nicky, who married her banker husband James Rothschild in London in July 2015, has let motherhood slow her down at all.
It comes days after she attended the Just Drew presentation with her mother Marla Marples on Thursday

Tiffany Trump made her second appearance of New York Fashion Week on the front row of Taoray Wang's show.

Wearing a figure-hugging dress with monochrome geometric patterns, the 22-year-old daughter of presidential candidate Donald looked on approvingly as she admired the elegant tailoring of the Chinese designer on Monday.

The show, in Manhattan, featured off the shoulder and one-sleeve shirts and plunging necklines paired with high-slit pleated skirts, high-waisted pinstripe tailored trousers and flowing A-line white dresses.

Hooked: Tiffany Trump, 22, pictured, made her second appearance of New York Fashion Week on Monday

Glamorous: The college grad happily posed for the cameras in a flattering figure-hugging dress, which she paired with some simple nude heels

Study break: Tiffany is currently preparing to take her law school admissions exam

Fashion fan: The youngest daughter of Donald Trump looked admiringly at the tailored designs by the Chinese designer

Tiffany sat alongside legal intern Karsten McVay and Fox broadcast journalist Cheryl Casone at the show at The Shows at The Dock, Skylight at Moynihan Station.

Tiffany's first appearance of fashion week was on Thursday when she attended the Just Drew presentation with her mother Marla Marples.

The University of Pennsylvania graduate appears to be interspersing legal study with fashion as she prepares for her LSAT.

Tiffany, who is Donald Trump's only child with his second wife Marla, recently revealed that she would be taking the law school admissions exam.

Black and white: Tiffany, pictured with fellow front row attendee Karsten McVay, wore a figure-hugging dress with a monochrome geometric design

Smiles: She sat alongside legal intern Karsten McVay, pictured center, and Fox broadcast journalist Cheryl Casone, pictured far left, at the show in Manhattan

Designs: The catwalk event took place at The Shows at The Dock, Skylight at Moynihan Station

After Tiffany graduated from from UPenn in May, many wondered if The Donald's youngest daughter would follow in her half-siblings footsteps and join the family business.

However, it looks like Tiffany is eager to forge her own way with her plans to attend law school.

Tiffany took to Instagram last week to share a photo of her LSAT study books and practice tests.

While shooting Dancing With the Stars in April, Tiffany's mother Marla, 52, revealed that Tiffany had 'had her first job interview' in New York, however, she wouldn't reveal the job she was pursuing.

Mother-and-daughter duo: Tiffany Trump and Marla Maples attended the Just Drew show during New York Fashion Week at Metropolitan Pavilion together on Thursday night

The next step: Tiffany recently shared pictures on Instagram of her LSAT study books as she revealed she is applying to law school

Close bond: Tiffany, who is pictured with her father Donald and her half-siblings Ivanka and Barron, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in May

But it looks like Tiffany now has other plans for herself.

During her time at the University of Pennsylvania, Tiffany majored in sociology and urban studies, so it's unsurprising that she is now considering law school.

Tiffany certainly hasn't let her studies get in the way of an enjoyable summer however; during any breaks she has been able to fit in, Tiffany has been spending plenty of quality time with her mother and her boyfriend Ross Mechanic.

Just last Saturday, Marla took to Instagram to share a photo of her and Tiffany posed with her younger half-sister Danielle Maples at a family bridal shower in Georgia.

'#MomsandDaughters celebrating #love w/a bridal shower 4 my lil sis @daniellenmaples w/ her momma Deena and @tiffanytrump [sic],' she captioned the image.
Robots have been used to carry out kidney transplants for the first time in the UK.

The machines are controlled by surgeons but computers and precision motors allow greater accuracy, meaning much less painful damage to muscle.

As a result, the man and woman who had the operations at Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust in London were able to recover using only paracetamol rather than morphine.

Robots have been used to carry out kidney transplants for the first time in the UK (file photo)

Siobhan Morris, 42, who underwent the operation a week ago, had previously had a kidney transplant by traditional open surgery, but found the pain with the robotic method was probably 80 per cent less.

I was amazed, the mother-of-two from Kent told The Sunday Times. They cut through all the muscles before and they didnt do any of that this time, she added. It is so much easier.

Andy Brooks, 58, who had his transplant the day before Mrs Morris, said: The post-operative recovery was much shorter than under the conventional transplant.

A City worker from Sussex, he was given a kidney donated by his wife Tracy, 48, a dance teacher.

He said the day after his operation he was hopping out of bed and walking about, adding: It was an amazing experience.

The rapid improvement in robots means they are being trialled in more and more NHS procedures. Just last week a team in Oxford announced they had used a robot to operate on a human eye for the first time.

Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust in London was one of the hospitals to trial the revolutionary robots

Until now donated kidneys have been implanted using open surgery.

But using robot arms allows the procedure to be carried out through small slits, or keyholes, which means less painful cutting and removes human factors such as the surgeons pulse that can affect the operation.

Nizam Mamode, consultant transplant surgeon at Guys and St Thomas, told the newspaper: We have been incredibly impressed with the difference in recovery.

He said the technology could revolutionise transplantation.
Deemed too young to survive, doctors wanted nature take its course

Cadence weighed just 1lb 1oz while her brother Jaxson was 5oz heavier

The twins from Portland were delivered after just 23 weeks in the womb

Premature twins born after just 23 weeks have defied doctor's expectations and will celebrate their first birthdays next week.

Deemed too young to survive, Cadence Moore weighed less than a bag of flour at just 1lb 1oz, while her brother Jaxson was just 5oz heavier.

The pair were delivered by an emergency Caesarean section on September 23 last year.

Unable to conceive naturally, their parents Jourdan, 32, and Matt Moore, 33, adopted them as embryos after a friend had suggested a donation.

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Deemed too young to survive, at just 1lb 1oz Cadence Moore weighed less than a bag of flour, while her brother Jaxson was the same size as an Iced Coffee from Starbucks

The pair were delivered by emergency Caesarean section after just 23 weeks of pregnancy on September 23 last year (Jaxson pictured holding his mother's hand at seven days old)

There are an estimated 650,000 fertilised eggs left over at any one time from couples who have used IVF in the US.

The couple, from Portland, married in 2005 and immediately wanted to start a family.

But Mrs Moore suffered from severe Crohn's disease, a chronic inflammatory condition of the intestines, meaning she was in and out of surgery and on a range of medication.

The only treatment she responded to was methotrexate, a drug used for cancer patients and autoimmune diseases.

It is also used to induce abortions, meaning she could not carry a baby to full term while she was taking it.

As a result, the couple set their hearts on adoption, but waited for 10 years without any luck.

Their best friend had then volunteered to be their surrogate as they adopted seven embryos from an anonymous donor family.

Two were then transferred into Hollie Mentesana's womb in April last year.

The pregnancy continued as normal and in May the couple found out they would soon be parents to non-biological twins.

But after 23 weeks of a healthy pregnancy, Ms Mentesana complained of pressure in her lower region.

Mrs Moore, who suspected her friend had a bladder infection, immediately took her to hospital as a precaution.

There she was given the shock news that she was 10cm dilated, so the babies would have to be delivered via emergency Caesarean.

The legal limit for abortion varies in the US, from anywhere between 6 to 28 weeks old - while in the UK it's set at 24 weeks.

Doctors revealed they would have little chance of survival outside the womb.

Unable to conceive naturally, their parents Jourdan, 32, and Matt Moore, 33, from Portland, adopted them as embryos after a friend had suggested donation. Their best friend then carried the pair as a surrogate mother

Mrs Moore said: 'Families who are complete are faced with a choice: to pay a storage fee to keep the embryos frozen, have them discarded or donate to science or embryo adoption.

'We'd really had it in our hearts to adopt a child, to bring a child into our home, who wouldn't have a home without us.'

'The doctor looked at me and said the babies are coming right now and at 23 weeks they will not make it.

'I didn't want to believe it, as we'd come through so much to reach that stage. Still, we had no choice but to prepare ourselves for their deaths.'

They were given the option to resuscitate and give life support, or opt for palliative care  with doctors advising them to choose the latter option.

They also suffered from retinopathy of prematurity, an eye disease that occurs in premature babies. Both of their conditions cleared up but Jaxson was discovered to be short-sighted and needs glasses

Mrs Moore said: 'The doctor looked at me and said the babies are coming right now and at 23 weeks they will not make it' (Cadence pictured at 32 days old)

Mrs Moore added: 'The survival rate for resuscitation was 21 per cent.

'The doctors wanted to let nature take its course, but we couldn't give up on our miracle children.

'Thankfully, we didn't and now we have two gorgeous one-year-olds. It's amazing.'

Five days after Ms Mentesana was admitted to hospital, Jaxson and Cadence were born.

PREMATURE BIRTHS About one baby in every 13 (8 out of 100) will be born prematurely  in other words, before the 37th week of pregnancy. In most cases labour starts by itself, and the signs will usually be the same as labour that starts at full term. These signs could be: Contractions

Sudden breaking of the waters

A show (when the plug of mucus that has sealed the cervix during pregnancy comes away and out of the vagina) Advertisement

Their organs were severely underdeveloped and their eyes were fused shut and wouldn't open until two weeks later.

Placed in separate incubators in the neonatal intensive care unit, they remained there for more than three months.

The proud parents were able to hold Jaxson at five days and Cadence at eight days.

Neither of their hearts had properly closed but with medication they developed normally.

They also suffered from retinopathy of prematurity, an eye disease that occurs in premature babies.

Abnormal blood vessels grow in the retina, causing it to detach from the back of the eye, leading to blindness.

Both of their conditions cleared up but Jaxson was discovered to be short-sighted and needs glasses.

Best friend Hollie Mentesana had two embryos transferred into her womb. After just 23 weeks of a healthy pregnancy, she had pressure in her lower region and was rushed to hospital

Mrs Moore stayed in hospital with the twins while they were in intensive care for 98 days - leaving their side just once for two hours during the entire time

Mrs Moore remained by their side day and night, returning home just once in three months for two hours.

She said: 'As an adoptive mother, I never had a chance to feel the babies kick inside the womb.

'I did five hours of skin-to-skin contact every day with each baby, so I was able to bond with them at such a young age.'

Finally on December 31 they left hospital. Now the babies have regular physical and occupational therapy to help their development.

And Cadence, who was diagnosed with chronic lung disease, remains on oxygen at night, due to underdeveloped lungs.

Despite remarkable progress, the babies remain small for their age, with Jaxson now weighing 16lbs and Cadence 17lbs.

Mrs Moore said: 'It wasn't until two thirds of the way through our hospital stay that we were sure they would be fine.

'I was in every day and saw babies that didn't make it, despite being born bigger and stronger than mine.
A mother who lived with a life-threatening facial mass has been given a new chance at life after doctors rebuilt part of her face.

Jennifer Hiles suffered from AVM or arterial venous malformation, which leads to abnormal connections between the arteries and veins in her face.

The rare condition causes haemorrhaging - which could have killed her at any time, but Mrs Hiles is hoping that her latest surgery has removed it forever.

She spent eight weeks with saline-filled tissue expanders under the skin of her forehead and cheek - which were inflated every week to allow new skin to grow.

Now Mrs Hiles has had the balloons and the AVM removed during a complicated procedure which involved removing her nose and rebuilding it from her jaw.

Jennifer Hiles, 29, who suffers from arterial venous malformations, where blood vessels form into tangles beneath her skin, has now had surgery

Mrs Hiles pictured with her two daughters Marlina and Kiah at home in Huron, South Dakota, had balloons fitted to stretch her skin in preparation for the operation

Surgeons used her new skin to patch it over - and Mrs Hiles said she couldn't be happier with her new face.

'When I first woke up from surgery and I was in the recovery room I actually felt so good that I didn't feel like I'd had the surgery at all and I had to ask a doctor by me what happened.

'I asked him to take a picture of my face and I was so happy because my entire face was just white and it looked AVM-free and I just couldn't believe it was me.'

When she was born her family initially believed her facial deformity was the result of a birthmark - but it quickly worsened.

She was around 12-years-old when she was diagnosed with the AVM and has had numerous unsuccessful surgeries throughout her life to remove it.

Mrs Hiles had saline balloons inserted under her skin to stretch it, so the excess can be used to cover the scars

She travelled to New York for the life-saving surgery, where she is pictured with husband Dustin VanOverschelde

Surgeons carry out the complex surgery on Mrs Hiles during a procedure which involved removing the abnormal connections between the arteries and veins in her face

The saline filled balloons, which had been fitted to stretch her face, were removed during the operation in May

The condition meant that she has faced a lifetime of bullying and unwanted stares.

But now the 29-year-old is hopeful that the recent surgery will give her a better quality of life.

'The tissue expanders were just like breast implants but in my face - like a big balloon with saline inside.

'I don't know if I'm ever going to look normal; I don't want to look perfect, just normal.'

She travelled with her husband, Dustin VanOverschelde, 27, and their two children, Marlina, seven, and Kiah, five, from her home in South Dakota to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York for the surgery.

Mrs Hiles, pictured here as a child, has nearly died from the painful condition, which has got worse over time. She says she has faced a lifetime of bullying and unwanted stares

The illness, which causes abnormal bleeding, has nearly killed her on multiple occasions (left, in hospital). She says at school (right) boys used to date her in secret because they were embarrassed to see her in public

The tissue expanders were removed during major surgery on May 18 and she spent the following four months under close supervision of doctors, undergoing a total of six smaller surgeries over that time.

AVM - WHAT IS IT AND HOW DOES IT CAUSE SUCH DAMAGE? An arteriovenous malformation (AVM) is a specific term used to describe a tangle of blood vessels with abnormal connections between arteries and veins. High pressure arteries containing fast flowing blood are directly connected to low pressure veins, which normally only contain slow flowing blood. This means that blood from the arteries drains directly into the veins - without stopping to supply the normal tissues in that part of the body with essential substances like oxygen and nutrition. Over time this can lead to the normal tissues becoming painful or fragile. It also means that the AVM gets progressively larger over time as the amount of blood flowing through it increases, and it can cause problems due to its size. Finally, it may also mean that the heart has to work harder to keep up with the extra blood flow. Some doctors describe an AVM as 'a ring road that bypasses the high street of a town'. Traffic (or blood) will use the bypass rather than the high street which suffers as a result. AVMs are thought to affect approximately 1.4 in every 100,000 people. Source: Great Ormond Street Hospital Advertisement

Dr Milton Waner, one of the surgeons, said: 'The surgery went exceptionally well. I'm very happy, so when she's healed up she's going to look very good.

'She faced a life of huge problems - she has a husband she has two beautiful children and we've now been able to give her a chance to live a normal life.'

Despite the successful surgery, the healing process did not go as smoothly.

The skin on her right cheek began to die, leaving more scarring than expected, and the AVM began to grow back between her nostrils and under her nose.

'When your skin is literally dying on your face it's really scary. I would look in my mirror 100 times a day just to see what's changing and then just kind of pray, just hoping that it would get better.'

She will need many more cosmetic procedures in the future to thin her nose and repair the scarring.

Doctors predict the AVM will grow back - but they should be able to manage the regrowth and she is no longer in danger of dying from a haemorrhage.

She said: 'I'm happy with where I'm at right now with all the progress, just to see how far I've come makes me so hopeful for the future.

'I just hope that all my next surgeries go as planned and the scars all fade and one day I can just walk into a room and have people see me for me and not my condition all the time.'

Mr VanOverschelde said he was pleased with how the surgery had gone and his only hope was for a healthy and happy wife.

'I just hope that she's happy with all of the surgeries and how she looks in the end - I just want to have a healthy wife.'

The family is currently raising funds to help pay for further surgeries.
A cancer patient told he had only a year left to live has been told he is now cancer free after pioneering treatment in America.

Kye Eastwood, 24, from Hull, was diagnosed in 2012 with Hodgkin's lymphoma - a cancer which begins in the network of vessels and glands known as the lymphatic system.

But when a huge mass in his chest failed to respond to treatment, doctors discovered he also had a second type of cancer - a rare and aggressive tumour.

Despite more rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, he was given the devastating news that he had just a year to live.

But Mr Eastwood and his fiancee, Chanelle Urquhart, 21, were determined to do anything they could to prolong his life and began researching other treatments.

They discovered a clinic in America offering clinical trials and managed to raise 30,000 to take part.

Now he has been told his tumour has disappeared following the treatment- which included a new combination of drugs and a stem cell transplant from from his sister.

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Kye Eastwood, 24, was flown to America for pioneering treatment after his family and friends raised 30,000 to save his life after doctors said there was nothing they could do

Mr Eastwood said deciding to go to America was a risk, given that if treatment didn't work he would be spending the last months of his life in a foreign hospital.

But there he underwent the transplant after receiving stem cells from his sister, Rebecca Featherstone, 28.

Doctors were amazed when scans revealed the treatment had made his tumour shrink dramatically within months.

And last week he and his mother Amanda went for an appointment and received the news they had been waiting for.

Mr Eastwood received an email from his doctor Monalisa Gosh, who revealed he had beaten cancer.

'Kye and I were in a mall and I went to the restroom. When I came out, Kye kept saying ''Let's go,'' his mother said.

'He didn't want to tell me in the middle of the mall in case I screamed or started to cry.

'When we got back into the car, he said he had something to tell me and not to get upset and I instantly thought the worst as he'd been a while having his scan done.

After raising 30, 000 and flying to America for treatment, Mr Eastwood's tumour shrank by 70 per cent. Within six months of beginning treatment, he was allowed home for Christmas

After chemotherapy and radiotherapy failed to shrink Mr Eastwood's cancer, he found a clinical trial at the MD Anderson Centre, Texas. Pictured, his tumour when he arrived (left) and during treatment (right)

Almost in remission: Now allowed home, doctors say Mr Eastwood's tumour can barely be measured. From left to right, first picture shows his tumour when he began treatment. Next picture shows the tumour on 21st December 2015 before he went home for Christmas

The tumour scan (left) was taken on 21st January 2015 when Mr Eastwood returned to the US. The fourth scan on the right was taken on 11th Feb 2016 and shows the tumour shrinking without the help of any drugs, proving the stem cell transplant was working

'I started to cry and just couldn't stop. Even now, I get tearful when I think about it as I just can't believe it.

'Kye was full of smiles and said he felt elated and we FaceTimed his dad, brothers and sisters and grandparents.'

KYLE'S TREATMENT Kyle Eastwood was first diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma and underwent chemotherapy but also had a tumour in his chest. This was actually a primary mediastinal diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma (PMBL), a rare and aggressive tumour. This can cause problems by pressing on the lungs, on the oesophagus, or on the large vein that takes blood back from the body to the heart. Mr Eastwood endured more chemotherapy, as well as an autologous stem cell transplant in a bid to save his life. This is where his own stem cells, collected before he began chemotherapy, were injected back into his body to reboot his immune system and give him a chance at survival. In December 2014, doctors at Castle Hill Hospital, in Hull, broke the devastating news that Mr Eastwood was terminally ill at the age of 23. Mr Eastwood began researching alternative treatments and was told about clinical trials at the MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Texas. After flying to the US, the centre referred him for free treatment at a research hospital in Maryland, where he trialled a new combination of drugs. In November, he underwent an allogeneic stem cell transplant, in which his sister Rebecca's stem cells were transferred into his body, giving him a 'new' immune system fit to beat the disease. For this procedure to be carried out in the UK, the patient must be in remission. However, this requirement does not apply in the US. Within six months, his tumour had shrunk by 70 per cent but there was a worry the drugs might make the cancer spread. It meant he had to stop taking the medication and was left hoping the allogeneic stem cell transplant would work to shrink his tumour. Miraculously, the new stem cells began to shrink Mr Eastwood's cancer. Advertisement

'I am the happiest mother in the world right now.'

Mr Eastwood's ordeal began in December 2012, when he found multiple lumps in his neck and scans revealed a mass in his chest.

Writing on his GoFundMe page, his family said he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma and had multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

But while this shrank the lumps in his neck, the treatment 'barely touched' the mass in his chest.

After a biopsy, it was discovered the tumour in his chest was not Hodgkin's lymphoma but actually a primary mediastinal diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma (PMBL), a rare and aggressive tumour.

These are large masses which develop in the mediastinum, which is the area in the middle of the chest, behind the breastbone.

Diffuse non-Hodgkins's lymphoma is the most common form of the disease, and is named in this way because when it is examined under a microscope the cancerous calls are abnormally large and spread diffusely.

Only around 1 in 20 people with a diffuse non-Hodgkin's lymphoma will develop a PMBL, which can cause problems by pressing on the lungs, on the oesophagus, or on the large vein that takes blood back from the body to the heart.

It can also lead to dangerous collections of fluid around the heart or the lungs.

Mr Eastwood endured more chemotherapy, as well as an autologous stem cell transplant in a bid to save his life.

This is where his own stem cells, collected before he began chemotherapy, were injected back into his body to reboot his immune system and give him a chance at survival.

But in December 2014, doctors at Castle Hill Hospital, in Hull, broke the devastating news that Mr Eastwood was terminally ill at the age of 23.

To the family's horror, they said there was nothing more they could do to treat him - and he had just a year to live.

Desperate for anything that would prolong his life, Mr Eastwood began researching alternative treatments.

He was accepted on to a clinical trial in Oxford, but after two rounds of treatment was told the cancer may have spread and he could not continue.

Devastated, but determined not to give up, he became re-energised when a family member told him about the MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Texas and said it was providing clinical trials that may help him.

Mr Eastwood, pictured during treatment, was given a lifeline after friends and family raised 30,000 so he could go to the US for treatment

Pictured, from left, mother Amanda Eastwood, Kye, girlfiriend Chanelle Urquhart and his sister Rebecca Featherstone

Speaking earlier this year, Mr Eastwood said: 'I was told not to bother looking for anything in America because UK doctors thought there was nothing that could save me.

'But when I was told about the US treatment I was given a lifeline, a chance of surviving.

'I knew I had to give it a go so my family helped me raise 30,000 for the consultation.'

After flying to the US, the centre referred him for free treatment at a research hospital in Maryland, where he trialled a new combination of drugs.

In November, he underwent an allogeneic stem cell transplant, in which his sister Rebecca's stem cells were transferred into his body, giving him a 'new' immune system fit to beat the disease.

For this procedure to be carried out in the UK, the patient must be in remission. However, this requirement does not apply in the US.

Within six months, his tumour had shrunk by 70 per cent and he was allowed home to spend Christmas with his family.

But when he returned, doctors were worried that the combination of drugs could be causing the cancer to spread.

It meant he had to stop taking the medication and was left hoping the allogeneic stem cell transplant would work to shrink his tumour.

Miraculously, the new stem cells began to shrink Mr Eastwood's cancer, which is now so small that doctors struggle to measure it.

Mr Eastwood is now home after spending nearly a year in and out of hospital.

He will continue to fly back to the US over the next five years for regular check-ups but doctors are thrilled with his response to treatment.

Mrs Eastwood said his recovery was miraculous - and thanked everyone who has supported the family.

She said: 'None of this would have been possible without everyone out there who supported Kye and the whole family with donations, organising events, being there for us when needed and just for best wishes as well.

'I cannot thank them all enough and will always be grateful.'
Police vehicles aren't 'equipped to be used a substitute for ambulances'

Experts say police officers don't have the same set of skills as paramedics

More than 2,000 sick people were transported to hospital in a police car

Thousands of patients were taken to hospital in police cars last year because of a lack of ambulances, new statistics have revealed.

A Freedom of Information request found a total of 2,012 sick and injured people were transported in the back of police vehicles.

But only nine of the 43 police forces in England and Wales responded, suggesting the actual figure could be nearer 10,000.

The findings show many patients in need of urgent care aren't being given immediate and potentially life-saving treatment by paramedics in the back of an ambulance.

A Freedom of Information request found a total of 2,012 sick and injured people were transported in the back of police vehicles between April 2015 and March this year

An average of 223 patients each were taken to hospital by forces from the Met, South Wales, Cleveland, Durham, South Yorkshire, Norfolk, Bedfordshire, Northumbria and North Wales.

However, if the average figure was to be concluded across each force then it would equate to an estimated 9,600 trips up and down the country.

The most trips were made in Northumbria Police, where there were 491 people taken to accident and emergency departments by police officers last year, with the Met in second spot with 433 trips to hospital.

South Wales Police confirmed that 336 trips were made, with 264 journeys made by Cleveland Police officers, 197 by those in Durham, 163 in South Yorkshire Police, 54 in Norfolk and 37 in Bedfordshire and 37 in North Wales.

One police officer, who has worked for the Met for 15 years, said the number of times officers were using their patrol cars as ambulances had 'rocketed' in the past decade.

The findings show many patients in need of urgent care aren't being given immediate and potentially life-saving treatment by paramedics in the back of an ambulance

He said: 'Ten years ago it was very rare for a police officer to take someone to hospital in the back of their patrol car.

'It wasn't unheard of, but it was certainly not routine - there was almost always an ambulance to hand.'

While our officers are highly trained at their jobs, they do not have the same skill set as a paramedic or doctor, and police vehicles are not a suitable substitute for ambulances Calum Macleod, vice-chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales

He added: 'In the last 10 years it has become a creeping problem as resources are cut in all the emergency services.

'If there is no ambulance now we have to make a split-second decision if somebody's life is on the line - and then of course we face major problems if someone dies in the back of a police car.

'We're being put into a position where we cannot win, and that is not a good place to be starting from when you've got someone lying hurt in front of you with no ambulance on the way.'

The request asked specifically 'how many times officers took members of the public to hospital due to ambulances being unavailable'.

Thirty-two forces did not provide figures to the request because they had 'no figures available' to respond the request.

CRUNCH TIME FOR THE NHS The NHS faces a continuing and agonising battle over whether it can continue to offer a full range of services amid spiralling debts and a shortage of doctors. Bosses previously warned many hospital trusts are in financial crisis and cannot recruit enough medics to provide safe healthcare. With a growing and ageing population and after years of efficiency savings, the NHS now faces its biggest deficit in history - and cracks are beginning to show. One NHS body in Merseyside said it would pause 'non urgent referrals' over winter to make ends meet. Another said it would be forced to close an A&E at night because it couldn't recruit enough emergency doctors to run it. Experts said these were the tip of the iceberg - with similar examples across the country - and warned the problem needs to be addressed urgently on a national level. Advertisement

Devon and Cornwall, Greater Manchester Police, Kent, Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire forces failed to reply.

Calum Macleod, vice-chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said it was an issue that needs to be addressed.

He said: 'Our members across England and Wales will always, where they can, work to help ensure those who need hospital care can get it in time.

'While our officers are highly trained at their jobs, they do not have the same skill set as a paramedic or doctor, and police vehicles are not a suitable substitute for ambulances.

'Time taken fulfilling these roles can also take away our ability to assist others in need.

'The resourcing issues for the ambulance service need to be addressed, but the police service is also stretched for resources and acting as a substitute puts further strain on our members.'

The Home Office added it was clear 'police officers should not be doing the job of trained healthcare professionals'.
Efforts to curb the spread of a sexually transmitted superbug arent working, new figures have revealed.

Super-gonorrhoea may have become untreatable after more cases have been reported this year, experts fear.

Initial cases of the outbreak  with the first reported patient in Leeds before it was found to have spread to the West Midlands, South of England and London  were among heterosexuals.

But in a report issued by Public Health England, it revealed the infection is also spreading between men who have sex with men.

Super-gonorrhoea is spreading between men who have sex with men and not just heterosexuals like previously thought, a new report by Public Health England has revealed

So far there have been 17 cases of HL-AziR gonorrhoea reported in 2016, compared to 15 instances in the previous year.

The report also stated there have been 48 confirmed cases of the bug since November 2014.

Patients are treated with a jab, known as ceftriaxone, then by a pill called azithromycin.

But the super-resistant form of the bug is believed to have developed a resistance to the second drug.

With no other medication in reserve, health officials have previously urged the public to limit casual sex and wear condoms with a new partner.

The report stated: 'The outbreak of HL-AziR gonorrhoea in England persists.

'Gonorrhoea can develop resistance rapidly, therefore dual therapy is recommended because simultaneous development of resistance to both drug classes is unlikely, and first-line treatment will remain effective.

'If azithromycin becomes ineffective against gonorrhoea, there is no second lock to prevent or delay the emergence of ceftriaxone resistance, and gonorrhoea may become untreatable.'

With no other treatments available, health officials have previously urged the public to limit casual sex and wear condoms with a new partner

Sexual health charity FPAs chief executive, Natika Halil, said the report 'highlights the importance of testing so that cases can be diagnosed early'.

She added: 'Condoms remain the best way to help prevent STIs being passed on so its important to find the right condoms for you, which might mean trying a few different shapes and sizes.

'We also want to banish this stubborn idea that women shouldnt be carrying condoms and its a mans role.

'Carrying them also means youll be more prepared in the moment, and less likely to take a risk and have unprotected sex.

'We also need to ensure people know how to access sexual health information so they are informed about what STIs are, how they are passed on, what signs and symptoms there may be  or may not be  and how to get help when you need it.

WHAT IS GONORRHOEA? Gonorrhoea is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) caused by bacteria called Neisseria gonorrhoeae or gonococcus. It is the second most common STD after chlamydia and annual cases have risen by a fifth, and some experts link this to a rise in casual sex. The bacteria are mainly found in discharge from the penis and in vaginal fluid. Gonorrhoea is easily passed between people through: unprotected vaginal, oral or anal sex

sharing vibrators or other sex toys that haven't been washed or covered with a new condom each time they're used Typical symptoms of gonorrhoea include a thick green or yellow discharge from the vagina or penis or pain when urinating. Previous successful treatment for gonorrhoea doesn't make you immune to catching the infection again. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement

'Of course, backing all this up should be statutory sex and relationships education, which the government has still not implemented, and easy access to sexual health services.

'With ever-shrinking public health budgets and increasing pressure on local authorities to meet peoples varied health needs, this is no longer a given and is a cause of real concern.'

The first documented case in the world of treatment failure to both ceftriaxone and azithromycin was reported in July this year.

A British man who had just returned from Japan showed signs of the bug in his throat despite no signs of the infection in his urine more than two weeks after he began treatment.

It was only after doctors doubled the dose, the unidentified man finally became clear of the infection - three months later.

Officials warn many people may have the virus without realising as more than half of women and one in ten men never see symptoms so may pass on the infection unaware.

But they are at risk of serious complications and if left untreated, the disease can cause infertility or inflammation of the womb.

It is also particularly dangerous for pregnant women and may lead to miscarriage, premature labour or sight problems in the baby.

There were 34,958 confirmed infections in England during 2014, most commonly in the under-25s, up from 29,419 the previous year.

But the spread of this super sexually transmitted disease is further evidence of the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant bugs.

For decades, antibiotics have been so overused by GPs and hospital staff that the bacteria have evolved to become resistant.

Doctors report medicines including penicillin no longer work on sore throats, skin infections and more seriously, pneumonia.

Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies claimed earlier this year that the threat is as severe as terrorism  with patients dying from minor cuts after succumbing to drug-resistant bugs.
A teacher's life was saved after a pupil noticed her eyes were a 'funny colour' - leading her to discover she had liver failure.

Primary school teacher Emma Gregson said she was used to hearing her pupils come out with bizarre comments so didn't take the nine-year-old too seriously.

But when she later looked in the mirror she realised he was right.

Ms Gregson, 36, visited her GP who initially thought it was a problem with her gall bladder.

But when her symptoms worsened, she was referred to hospital where scans revealed her liver had failed.

She was told she had just a week to live without a transplant.

Primary school teacher Emma Gregson hadn't thought much of it at the time but was told by doctors she needed a liver transplant or would die within days

'It was very frightening to be told you only have seven days to live, I cried' she said.

'It is a strange situation to be in as everything is out of your control and you can't do anything.

'All I could do is put my trust into the medical staff and try and be cheerful and positive about it all.'

Ms Gregson of Chorley, Lancashire, said she noticed the whites of her eyes had turned yellow and her skin had a yellowish tinge after her pupil made the comment.

She booked an appointment with her GP who told her she might have a problem with her gall bladder, which can lead to signs of jaundice.

'I had always been fine and healthy before then so I was not unduly worried,' she said.

'This was in the middle of September 2012 and I had also been feeling quite tired.

'However, I had just started my new job so I put the tiredness down to this.'

But she started to go downhill rapidly with her symptoms becoming more pronounced.

Her stomach became sore and her legs were itchy - both signs of liver failure.

She returned to her GP, who sent her straight to hospital.

She had two false alarms where doctors thought they had a liver for her before she received a successful transplant in 2012

Scans revealed her liver was shrunken, hard and not working properly.

She was transferred to St James Hospital in Leeds, West Yorkshire, which has a specialist liver transplant centre and she was there for three weeks.

During her stay there specialists tried her on different medications and monitored her.

But despite their efforts, she continued to deteriorate and doctors gave her just seven days to live without a liver transplant.

Ms Gregson was twice told a donor organ had been found but was left disappointed when tests revealed they were not a suitable match.

So when doctors said they had another liver for her, she tried not to get her hopes up.

This time the liver transplant went ahead during surgery which took about six hours.

She managed to get out of bed and walk within a day of the surgery and was at home just nine days after the transplant.

Doctors believe Ms Gregson actually had auto immune hepatitis, where cells called lymphocytes think cells in the liver are foreign, so attack and destroy them.

Ms Gregson was given just a week to live without a transplant but has gone back to work after receiving a donor liver

Following her transplant, she returned to work part-time six months later.

'The school, staff and pupils were very good and supportive,' she said.

'I talked about what happened to me and the transplant quite openly at school and explained it to people.

'It was a bit of a shock for the pupils but they have been really good and are always very careful with germs and use hand gel as they know my immune system is lowered because of the anti-rejection medication I am on.

'The school has also raised money for St James Hospital as recognition for my transplant and treatment.'

All she knows about her donated liver is that it came from a young man who had an accident.

She has written to his family to express how thankful she is for the gift of life.

Ms Gregson has shared her story to encourage others to sign the organ donor register.
Julia Styles felt the normal motherly pang of concern when she received a call from her daughter Emily saying she had a migraine, but wasnt overly worried.

Emily, 19, Julias elder daughter, often suffered the debilitating headaches, and a couple of painkillers plus a good nights sleep were usually enough to make her feel better.

She sounded pretty upbeat when we spoke on the phone, and when she texted later, she even typed: Ill live!, which was a bit of a family joke whenever one of us was ill, recalls Julia, 49, a teacher from Buckingham.

Emily was staying with her boyfriend, Ben, and his family in Padbury, the next village to ours.

Emily Styles was preparing to go to university to follow her dream of becoming a special needs primary school teacher when she was struck down with Meningitis B on New Year's Eve 2013

'I knew theyd look after her as well as she would have been if she were at home. I just told her to get some rest and Id see her the following day.

But when Julia saw her daughter the next morning, on December 31, 2013, she was unconscious and being treated by a team of paramedics frantically trying to tackle her deadly meningitis B infection.

Emily had gone to bed feeling a bit poorly but by the time she woke up, she was delirious and incoherent, explains Julia, who lives with her husband Peter, 52, a senior project manager for a marketing database company, and their other daughter Sophie, now 19.

When Emily tried to get out of bed, she fell unconscious and collapsed. Peter and I raced over to be with her, but there was nothing we or anyone else could do.

Emily was airlifted to John Radcliffe Hospital, in Oxford, but never regained consciousness.

Her family made the heartbreaking decision to switch off her life support machine the next day, New Years Day, 2014.

When most families were celebrating the New Year, we were mourning the loss of our beautiful daughter, says Julia.

It all happened so quickly, and her symptoms of a headache and nausea were so innocuous we had no reason to suspect meningitis. She never developed the rash so many people associate with the disease.

After her daughter died of meningitis B, her mother is campaigning for greater awareness of all strains of meningitis, particularly among teenagers and young adults, who are the second most at-risk group (after children under five).

On New Year's eve 2013, Emily collapsed and never regained consciousness, and her parents Julia and Peter took the heartbreaking decision to turn off her life support machine

There is particular concern that this older group is failing to take up the offer of a free vaccine introduced to combat the spread of meningitis.

The jab protects against four strains of meningitis A, C, Y and W.

The W strain is particularly aggressive, killing one in ten people who contract it, and is on the rise. The number of cases has inceased by 809 per cent since 2009.

So while meningitis W cases accounted for fewer than 2 per cent of all meningitis cases between 2009 to 2010, it now accounts for a quarter.

The number of deaths has risen, too, from four between 2009 and 2012, to 24 in 2013-14, the last year that figures are available.

And those who survived can be left with life-changing disabilities.

Young people are more likely to carry the bacteria that cause meningitis  one in four 15- to 19-year-olds carry the bacteria in the back of their throats, compared with one in ten of the general UK population.

And while most people carry the bacteria without falling ill, when they pass it on to someone who is susceptible, by coughing, sneezing or intimate kissing, that person becomes ill very quickly.

Emily often suffered the debilitating headaches, and a couple of painkillers plus a good nights sleep were usually enough to make her feel better

We didnt only lose the most wonderful daughter and sister to this dreadful disease, the wider community missed out on everything she had to offer, Julia says

Young people are particularly vulnerable  especially if theyre going to university  because they mix with many more new people and increased social interaction means the bacteria can be passed on more easily.

More than 12 per cent of all cases occur in the 14 to 24 age group, with first-year students being at particular risk, explains Liz Brown, chief executive of charity Meningitis Now.

A spike in the infection prompted the Government to introduce an emergency immunisation programme in 2015.

The vaccine was first offered to 17- and 18-year-olds in their final year of school as well as to those aged 19 to 25 heading to university for the first time, before being rolled out to include 14- to 16-year-olds (replacing the meningitis C vaccine in the spring).

Last month Public Health England urged students to have the vaccine.

This follows concerns about disappointing uptake. Figures published in June in GP magazine showed that just 35 per cent of those eligible in England for the vaccine had taken it.

Julia Styles (left) with her two daughters Sophie (middle) and Emily (right). Emily's sister Sophie is now 19 years old

Peter and Julia Styles (top) with their daughters Emily (bottom left) and Sophie (bottom right)

With uptake expected to be similar across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, up to 250,000 of this years intake of half a million university students could be putting their lives at risk.

Its vital that students are not complacent about the threat of meningitis  we urge them to take up this lifesaving vaccine, says Liz Brown.

Shamez Ladhani, a paediatric infectious diseases consultant at St Georges Hospital, London, and consultant epidemiologist at Public Health England, says that older teenagers are traditionally a very difficult group to vaccinate.

At school, they line up with their friends and are vaccinated one by one, which is very effective, but in this case, they have to make an appointment and visit the doctors surgery of their own accord.

Emily Styles (left) with her mother Julia (right), just three weeks before she died of meningitis

Students are usually away from home for the first time. Previously, their mum or dad would have taken responsibility for making doctors appointments, so theyre simply not used to looking after their own health. They dont consider it a priority.

When she died, Emily was looking forward to taking up her place at Winchester Un iversity that September to follow her dream of becoming a special needs teacher.

When most people her age were going off on their first holiday without their parents, Emily was at home working as a teaching assistant in a local special school, gaining experience and saving money for university, says Julia.

She loved working with the children and desperately wanted to feel like she was making a difference to their lives.

We didnt only lose the most wonderful daughter and sister to this dreadful disease, the wider community missed out on everything she had to offer, she adds.

As a teacher, I see all sorts of children, but I often used to say how lucky I was to have such a perfect family.

After her daughter died of meningitis B, her mother is campaigning for greater awareness of all strains of meningitis, particularly among teenagers and young adults

Emily was a very special, loving girl, who even at 19 would climb onto my lap for a hug.

'If there was a room full of people and someone was feeling sad or left out, Emily would seek them out and try to make them feel better.

Were utterly heartbroken by her loss and hope that by sharing her story more students will take up the offer of this new vaccine.
Fourteen-year-old Sundar (name changed), took up drugs at a tender age.

To keep up with his cravings, Sundar resorted to stealing.

Today he suffers from deteriorated digestive system that makes it difficult for him to eat; he has swollen eyes and rashes cover his body.

Hospitals in Delhi are failing children addicted to drugs after it was revealed that the government facilities are not complying with a 2015 committee order to provide dedicated staff and extra beds. (Picture for representation only)

At present, Sundar is homed in a rehabilitation centre in Delhi Gate, however he is without the proper medication and care needed to treat the young addicts earmarked by the Juvenile Justice Committee.

The Department of Health held a committee in December 2015 ordering a dedicated staff for child addicts including attendants, counselors and nurses along with five beds each in the five government hospitals - GB Pant, Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital, Lal bahadur Shastri hospital, Madan Mohan Malviya hospital and Baba Ambedkar hospital.

The deadline for complying with the order was May 2016.

Approximately 3,000 to 4,000 children are still waiting for the detoxification process (Picture for representation only)

However, in a recent inspection conducted by DLSAs Member Secretary, Dharmesh Sharma and Dr Rajesh Kumar from SPYM, a non-profit organisation working with child drug abusers, it was found that none of the hospitals have complied with the order.

While the detoxification ward for children in Pt Madan Mohan Malviya hospital has been functional since February, SPYM had provided it with the support staff.

Due to lack of finances, the other four hospitals could not be provided with round-the-clock support staff rendering them nonfunctional.

Insisting on the need of a separate staff, Dr Rajesh Kumar told Mail Today: There is need to have a separate staff for these wards as children, during the detoxification process, are kept in confinement for seven to eight days.

"Most of them try to run away during the process.

"Also, it was found out during withdrawal symptoms, children began showing signs of diseases like Hepatitis B.

The Department of Health held a committee in December 2015 ordering a dedicated staff for child addicts including attendants, counselors and nurses along with five beds each in the five government hospitals. (Picture for representation only)

During times like these, the staff need to ensure that the children are kept engaged.

Due to unavailability of functioning wards, approximately 3,000 to 4,000 children are waiting for the detoxification process, said Dr Rajesh Kumar.

During the power tussle between the Lieutenant Governor and the state government, the recruitment process in every department had slowed down.

While Baba Ambedkar Hospital has a dedicated space, the report says that it could not be considered functional.

Dr Punita Mahajan, Medical Superintendent, Baba Baba Ambedkar Hospital said: We have initiated the process. However, we are not refusing the patients and are somehow managing with the available staff at hand.

On the other hand, Dr Rajiv Chawla, Medical Superintendent, GB Pant refused to comment on the matter.
The Delhi government is yet to set a price cap of Rs 1,500 on real-time PCR laboratory test for the chikungunya virus

season has brought about a staggering increase in cases of chikungunya and dengue in Delhi

With the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government yet to set a price cap of Rs 1,500 on real-time PCR laboratory test for the chikungunya virus, private hospitals in the city are cashing-in on the delay by charging up to Rs 4,000 per patient.

A reality check by Mail Today team also found that confusion prevails among patients over the test price ceiling after a section of the media reported that the city government had fixed a price cap of Rs 1500 for PCR chikungunya test, leading to heated arguments between patients and staff at several hospitals.

Dr SM Raheja, additional director general of health services, Delhi government told Mail Today: The capping on real-time PCR chikungunya test has not been approved by the government. We have made a draft of the proposal in which we have suggested to cap the price at Rs 1,500 but nothing has been approved from the governments end.

With the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government yet to set a price cap of Rs 1,500 on real-time PCR laboratory test for the chikungunya virus, private hospitals in the city are cashing-in on the delay

There are two tests to detect chikungunya: IgM serology and real-time PCR, (polymerase chain reaction).

Chikungunya and Dengue Chikungunya is an infection with symptoms that include the sudden onset of fever two to four days after exposure. The fever usually lasts two to seven days, while accompanying joint pains typically last weeks or months but sometimes years. The risk of death is a little less than 1 in 1,000; the elderly or those with underlying chronic medical problems are most likely to have severe complications. Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease. Symptoms typically begin three to fourteen days after infection and may include a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash. Recovery generally takes less than two to seven days. In a small proportion of cases, the disease develops into the life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever, resulting in bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage, or into dengue shock syndrome, where dangerously low blood pressure occurs. The best means of prevention for both Dengue and Chikungunya is mosquito control and the avoidance of bites by mosquitoes in areas where the disease is common. Advertisement

The Delhi government announced a cap of Rs 600 only on IgM serology while the order on PCR test price cap is yet to come.

The PCR test, which detects chikungunya at an early stage, is not yet available at any government hospital and private laboratories have been charging much in excess of the proposed cap of Rs 1,500, Mail Today team found.

Delhi has so far reported 560 cases of the vector-borne disease. The figure was restricted to 64 in the year 2015.

This unprecedented outbreak has caused panic and people have crowded private labs for tests.

While a private lab in Green Park was charging Rs 1500 for the test, another in Ansari Nagar demanded Rs 4,000 for the same and SRL diagnostics units were charging Rs 2,500.

Max and Indraprastha Apollo hospital chains did not respond to the queries on test rates.

The patients that Mail Today spoke to were angry about the lack of transparency in test charges.

There should be some guidelines on the test rates by the government. We have been paying whatever the hospitals are asking, said Sudhakar Jain, a resident of Malviya Nagar.

An order on PCR pricing is expected on Monday. The order for capping on the PCR test will come on Monday. Till now, we only capped the price of IgM serology test for chikungunya, said Dr Tarun Seem, director general of health services (DGHS), Delhi government.

Dengue and chikungunya are both mosquito-borne tropical diseases (pictured - man fumigating areas where mosquitoes breed)

Health officials requesting anonymity said Delhi government was squarely to be blamed for the confusion that prevailed over the price cap.

In an order on August 30, the government announced a cap on the prices of IgM serology at Rs 600.

However, there was no mention about the capping on PCR test which can confirm chikungunya at an early stage.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is yet to set a price cap for the chikungunya virus test

When reports in the media appeared that there is a price cap of Rs 600 on chikungunya tests, it was received well. These reports also mentioned the capping on PCR test. But the government made no attempts to clarify it since the report presented it in favourable light, said a health official about the confusion over the price cap.

Meanwhile, the hospitals are hard put to deal with the growing panic. RML hospital spokesman Dr VK Sinha said the hospital was witnessing more than 300-350 new fever patients in the department on a regular basis.

According to the data provided by the hospital administration, 42 beds are occupied out of the 110 beds.

There has been a massive increase in mosquito-borne diseases after heavy rainfall in Delhi

We allocated separate wards for the fever patients - one for dengue and chikungunya and another for fever patients. A total of 110 beds have been added to the existing strength, said Dr Sinha.

Chikungunya is a viral illness and its symptoms are similar to those of dengue, which include high-grade fever, severe joint pain, muscle pain and headache and joint swelling.

It also causes rashes in patients but is not a threat like dengue in which there is a risk of bleeding due to abrupt fall in platelet count

Private hospitals in the city are cashing-in on the delay by charging up to Rs 4,000 per patient

Dengue is transmitted by several species of mosquito within the genus Aedes.

Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles.
Amanatullah Khan tendered his resignation after sexual harassment charges were levelled against him

It was yet another day of high-drama for the Aam Adami Party in Delhi on Sunday.

An FIR was filed against controversial AAP legislator Somnath Bharti for the breaking open of an entry-gate at AIIMS with the help of a bulldozer.

While Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia blamed PM Narendra Modi for a criminal complaint against its legislator Amanatullah Khan which was lodged by the wife of the MLAs brother-in-law.

Entering into fresh trouble, the party strongly defended MLA Khan and later rejected his resignation which he had tendered after sexual harassment charges were levelled against him, saying the controversy surrounding him is a family dispute which is being given political colour.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia blamed PM Narendra Modi for a criminal complaint against its legislator Amanatullah Khan

Sisodia claimed that the partys internal probe had found no wrong-doing on the part of the legislator and said the latter was being targeted as he was unearthing land scams in the Waqf board involving influential people.

We checked facts in the Amanatullah Khan matter. It is his familys internal matter. The dispute is within his brother-in-laws family. It is being said that Khans brother-in-law and the latters wife had divorced.

"Amanatullah Khan is not even communicating with them, Sisodia said while addressing a press conference on Sunday.

Khan on Saturday tendered his resignation from the post of Delhi Waqf Board chairman and Haj Committee claiming he was being framed in false cases.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has had a week to forget after his party was engulfed in controversy on a number of fronts

He had also offered to resign as MLA and Political Affairs Committee member of the party.

A case of sexual harassment has been registered against Khan in south-east Delhis Jamia Nagar Police station.

The complainant has also accused her husband of demanding dowry and of pressurising her to get intimate with the AAP legislator.

Women protest the arrival of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal after an AAP legislator was engulfed in a sex-tape controversy

Bulldozer

Meanwhile, AAP MLA Somnath Bharti was booked for allegedly inciting a crowd to damage the AIIMS fence and to misbehave with the hospitals security personnel.

The chief security officer of AIIMS submitted a written complaint on September 9 at Gautam Nagar Nallah road stating that Bharti provoked the mob to damage the fence of the hospital with a JCB so as to give access to unauthorised people inside AIIMS premises.

"They also misbehaved with security personnel. This happened around 9.45 am, said a police officer.

AAP MLA Somnath Bharti was booked for allegedly rioting inciting a crowd to damage the AIIMS fence and to misbehave with the hospitals security personnel

The medical examination of six security personnel was done and a case under Sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of his public functions), 353 (assault or use of criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of his duty) and 3/4 Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act under IPC has been registered at Hauz Khas police station.

However, Bharti has tweeted in response to the allegations. AIIMS is lying. They have been denying legitimate access to Gautam Nagar residents. AIIMS even refused to PWD meetings. Wherever common man will be troubled I will go. The allegation that residents dismantled the wall is a blatant lie. I will fight in court.

A JCB construction vehicle was allegedly used to damage the fence at a Delhi hospital

Bharti, who represents Malviya Nagar seat, has been involved in a number of high-profile controversies.

Bharti was booked for obstructing public servants from carrying out duties during his purported midnight-raid when some African women were allegedly molested in 2014.

Bharti was also arrested last year after his wife accused him of violence.

A number of legislators of Kejriwal-led ruling Aam Aadmi Party party have been booked by Delhi Police on various charges, prompting the AAP to allege that they were being targeted under as part of a political vendetta.

AAP Kisan Manifesto: Farmers debt-free by 2018

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal

The AAP Party has unveiled its 31-point Kisan Manifesto with an action plan to prevent farmer and farm labourers suicides and make them debt free and prosperous by December 2018.

The Manifesto was released by Manifesto committee chairman Kanwar Sandhu at a party rally which was later addressed by AAP national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Sandhu said that the party will reenact Sir Chhotu Ram Act of 1934 (Moneylenders Debt) in which under no circumstances will the sum of interest payable exceed the principal amount.

All debts where a farmer has paid a sum twice the amount of the principal shall be deemed to be wholly discharged, he said addressing the gathering on the occasion.

Every property mortgaged by a debtor whose debt is deemed to be discharged shall stand released, Sandhu said adding that no in-debted farmer shall be dispossessed of his land holdings and house.

He said that loans of poor farmers and farm labourers will be waived off, and loans of SCs and BCs will also be waived off.

Interest on loans of other farmers will be waived off. Punjab farmers to be debt free by December 2018, he said.

No coercive recovery proceedings against farmers will be launched till December 2018 when they will be debt free.
BJP MLA T Raja Singh from Goshamahal, Hyderabad issued an open warning on the slaughtering of ox during Eid

Ahead of the Bakr-Eid festival, the Bhartiya Janta Party legislators of Telangana have warned against the slaughtering of cows, calves and ox in the state.

The controversial BJP MLA T Raja Singh from Goshamahal, Hyderabad issued an open warning to the government and police against the alleged slaughtering of ox during the Bakri Eid festival.

In a video message posted on his Facebook page, the BJP MLA alleged that the Telangana government and the police is defying the Supreme Court guidance by allowing the slaughter of healthy cattle.

"I am asking Telangana government and the Police that why they are not respecting the Supreme Court," asked BJP MLA in his video message referring to the Prohibition of Cow Slaughter and Animal Preservation Act, 1977.

He further added, "slaughtering of cow, calf and ox are prohibited but ignoring this various parts of the old city area is going to witness the violation on Bakr-Eid.

Ahead of the Bakr-Eid festival, the Bhartiya Janta Party legislators of Telangana have warned against the slaughtering of cows, calves and ox in the state (Pictured - Muslims gathered together to celebrate the Feast of the Sacrifice)

"Governments should immediately rescue all these healthy cattle brought for slaughtering on Bakr-Eid. They should be examined by veterinary doctors and send to the cattle pond or Gau shalaa," demanded the legislator T. Raja Singh.

He further warned the government that if they fail to act it might spoil the peaceful atmosphere of the state as well as the city.

"If you will play with our sentiments or try to disrespect our religious beliefs, we will not keep calm and may lead to an unpleasant situation in Hyderabad," Singh added.
From the moment Prime Minister Narendra Modi picked up a shovel to clean the Assi Ghat at Varanasi, his flagship Swachh Bharat Mission, has been the topic of much debate.

It has been criticised on counts of lack of education and orientation of villagers who still prefer to relieve under the open sky, one-size-fits-all kind of toilets and much more.

However, away from the media glare, a silent revolution brews in Odisha. The coastal state, which along with Jharkhand, once had the highest number of households with no toilets, is now pioneering the movement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat Mission has taken off in Odisha with over 9 per cent of the 80 lakh households targeted choosing to adopt the programme to stop open defecation

As per the 2012 Baseline Data issued by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS), only 22 per cent of households had access to sanitation (14 per cent in rural and 65 per cent in urban areas), leaving out a stagerring 79.8 lakh households.

But since the start of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) in 2014, the Odisha government has been making steady strides.

Of the 80 lakh households that it targeted, almost nine per cent has already been achieved between January and December 2015.

Despite being a leader with international appeal, Modi's flagship home policy has been about toilets and the problem of open defecation

As many as 13.29 lakh toilets have been constructed and 20 districts including Angul, Balasore, Bargarh and Bhadrak, have hit the '100 per cent' target.

Also, since 2015, 325 villages and 12 Gram Panchayats have been declared ODF (Open Defecation-Free).

Incidentally, in most villages, the movement was driven by the villagers themselves.

Manmath Pal, a 25-year-old from Khandigaon village in Ganjam District, told Mail Today, I was working as a waiter in Mumbai when I first heard Modi make a nationwide call for Swachh Bharat on television.

As many as 13.29 lakh toilets have been constructed and 20 districts including Angul, Balasore, Bargarh and Bhadrak, have hit the '100 per cent' target

"Inspired, I spoke to some fellow Odias and my relatives in Mumbai and decided to return home.

Along with Pal, at least five more youths from Khandigaon pledged to rid their village of open defecation.

Rabindra Naik, president of the village, said, The main approach road to our village, on one end of which was the High School as well, was lined with faeces every morning. It was very embarrassing.

"First, we spoke at gram sabhas on the importance of constructing toilets at homes. After three months, we began penalising people.

UNICEF has been instrumental in bringing about this change in collaboration with state and local authorities

Mittu Swain, another member of the Khandigaon watchand- ward committee, held up a register to inform that Rs. 9,060 have been collected in fines so far.

He said, We are now spreading the movement to nine other villages in Ganjam district. After all, fishes from their ponds also make it to our village.

UNICEF has been instrumental in bringing about this change in collaboration with state and local authorities.
In an effort to diffuse the ongoing situation in Jammu and Kashmir, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh presided over yet another security review in the wake of fresh clashes

In an effort to diffuse the ongoing situation in Jammu and Kashmir, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh presided over yet another security review in the wake of fresh clashes.

Before getting into the meeting, Singh tweeted a photograph with Nabeel Ahmad Wani of Udhampur, who topped this years BSF entrance examination.

Happy to meet Nabeel Ahmad, a young man from Udhampur in J&K, who topped the BSF entrance exams this year. The success story of Nabeel shows that J&K youth have a lot of potential. His success will inspire many boys and girls in J&K, Singh said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his senior cabinet colleagues handling the situation have been making appeals to youngsters to stop stone pelting and carry laptops to pursue their professional dreams.

Home ministry officials said that Sunday's review was a routine exercise.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his senior cabinet colleagues handling the situation have been making appeals to youngsters to stop stone pelting and carry laptops to pursue their professional dreams (file pic)

The Army is now playing a bigger role and for the first time in two years, and increased its presence in South Kashmir.

Sources said re-deployment in the counter-insurgency grid of the security forces is a constant process.

Happy to meet Nabeel Ahmad Wani, a young man from Udhampur in J&K, who topped the BSF entrance exams this year. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/EC3HM7yDa9  Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) 11 September 2016

These readjustments are part of the grid system which has been effective in controlling insurgency.

Sources said that the militants have been lying-low ever since street protests erupted, as they are re-grouping and do not want a diversion from the ongoing cycle of violence.

A Kashmiri woman joins protesters in throwing stones at police in Srinagar

It has been an effective tool to handle cross-border infiltration and deal with terrorists who manage to make their way to the hinterland.

The grid readjustment meant deployment of more troops for complete domination of the area.

The Army can help in creating an environment where the political process can take over and move forward, said officials.

The Army had stayed away from deep deployments in the city where the density of troops had been thin compared to other areas.
Nearly 150 people were injured on Sunday after security forces fired tear gas shells, pellets and bullets at protesters during clashes at Kareemabad in Pulwama.

A senior police official said that the Army, alongside a special operation group of Jammu and Kashmir and CRPF personnel, rushed to the area after receiving credible information about the presence of militants.

He said that the Army cordoned-off the area while police and paramilitary forces carried out raids.

Nearly 150 people were injured on Sunday after security forces fired tear gas shells, pellets and bullets at protesters during clashes at Kareemabad in Pulwama (file pic)

However, a large number of people blocked the road and threw stones at the policemen.

Clashes also broke out in Budgam and Kulgam, following which Army vehicles were deployed to maintain calm.

According to police sources, the government has given discretion to deputy commissioners and district police chiefs to seek assistance from the Army in case they apprehend large gatherings on Eid.

A senior police official said that the government had information that Eid marches on Tuesday could pose serious security challenges.

In a separate incident, one more youth succumbed to injury at Sheri Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Srinagar on Sunday morning.

Clashes also broke out in Budgam and Kulgam, following which Army vehicles were deployed to maintain calm (file pic)

The youth, identified as 16-year-old Javid Ahmad Dar, sustained injuries on August 05 during clashes.

Dr. Farooq Jan, medical superintendent of SKIMS, said, A bullet had torn apart his popliteal artery, which runs in close proximity to the joint capsule of the knee.

"We tried to repair it, but he landed into acute renal failure.

With this, the death toll in the Valley since July 8 has touched 80.

The death toll is approaching 100 as violence shows no sign of abating

Expressing grief over the deaths, the National Conference said on Sunday that brutality has become the official policy of the government.
BISMARCK  A deputy court clerk in Minot has been reprimanded for a Facebook post that sparked a social media firestorm over her suggestion that American Indians protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline be allowed to keep their sacred land and that the government should then stop all the subsidies and hand outs.

State Court Administrator Sally Holewa said the North Central Judicial District office in Ward County was inundated with phone calls about the comments posted Sept. 5 by Deputy Court Clerk Kolette Ostlund while she was on vacation.

We were all just appalled also, Holewa said. It definitely does not represent the views of the court.

Many callers wanted Ostlund fired, and she received at least one death threat and a threatening fax message, both of which were forwarded to the Ward County Sheriffs Office, Holewa said.

In keeping with the state court systems internal disciplinary policy, a written letter of reprimand  essentially a warning  was placed in Ostlunds personnel record when she returned from vacation Thursday, and she was put on a corrective action plan, Holewa said.

The court system plans to work with United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck on a training program to educate all system employees on facts and stereotypes about Native Americans, Holewa said. Ostlund has worked for the court for about 10 years.

This is absolutely the first instance of any kind of bias from her, said Holewa, who offered the court systems sincere apology in a Facebook reply to a user who complained about the post.

Ward County District Court Clerk Susan Hoffer said Monday that Ostlund could not speak about personal issues while at work and referred questions to Carolyn Probst, court administrator for the North Central and Northwest judicial districts. Probst said Ostlund declined an interview request from Forum News Service.

Shes been extremely remorseful, but shes hesitant to make any statements just because of the sensitive nature of the situation, Probst said.

Human Resources Director Amy Klein sent an email to all state court employees on Thursday requiring them to review employee code-of-conduct and harassment policies and reply to her email by Sept. 16 to verify they had done so.

Conduct exhibiting prejudice or bias, even if it occurs outside of business hours, falls within the scope of the policies and may lead to corrective action, Klein noted.

People who come into the Court System expect, and deserve, to be treated with dignity and to have their case handled in a fair and impartial manner, she wrote. In order for litigants and the public to respect court decisions they must trust that court employees and judges are carrying out their duties without prejudice.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is suing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the permit it granted allowing the four-state, $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline to cross the Missouri River less than a mile north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Tribal leaders say the pipeline will destroy sacred sites and threatens their water supply and that they werent properly consulted about the project.

A federal judge Friday denied the tribes request for an emergency injunction to halt construction, but the Corps, Department of Justice and Department of Interior issued a statement minutes later that they wont authorize construction of the pipeline on Corps land bordering or under the river until further review is completed. The tribe has appealed the judges ruling and is seeking an injunction while the appeal is pending.

Ostlunds Sept. 5 post about the pipeline issue began, Solution: let them keep their sacred land. Go around their water and burial grounds. It obviously means a lot to them and they should have it Then Stop the monthly checks and ALL the government payouts! Stop all the subsidies and hand outs. Done!

She added, The government has paid out enough over the last few hundred years. Enough is enough!

The post was quoted numerous times on Facebook and blogs, with many calling it racist or ignorant. Ostlunds Facebook page appears to have been deleted, as a search Monday yielded no results  though it showed nearly 36,000 people were talking about her.

In an undated follow-up post, Ostlund wrote that she had deleted hundreds, if not thousand (sic), of horrible messages and threats.

Again, seriously, So sorry if I offended anyone. I truly thought I had an answer to the problem! she posted.

Probst said there have been quite a few inquiries about the post, which she called just appalling, with many calls going directly to the court clerks who were already busy with their regular duties.
The AAP has suspended its MLA Devinder Sehrawat from the primary membership, after he accused the Punjab members of exploiting women in return for poll tickets.

A source from AAP confirmed that Bijaswan MLA Devinder Sehrawat has been suspended and the action came after the partys leader Arvind Kejriwal returned to Delhi following a four-day visit to poll-bound Punjab.

The decision to suspend the MLA was taken by the disciplinary committee of the party's Delhi unit.

Suspended MLA Devinder Sehrawat with Anna Hazare. The decision to suspend the MLA was taken by the disciplinary committee of the partys Delhi unit.

Last week, Sehrawat had written to Kejriwal over alleged exploitation of women by a few party members in Punjab.

In the letter, Sehrawat had also criticised party leader Ashutosh who had sought to defend Sandeep Kumar, sacked as a Delhi minister after the release of an objectionable CD, and had alleged that a coterie was damaging the AAP.

Responding to the party's decision to suspend him, Sehrawat tweeted: Repeated reports of molestation of women and sexual abuse, ring master, Arvind Kejriwal obliging his lecherous cotrie (sic) & adding more such candidates.

Earlier in the day, he had taken to twitter and dared the AAP to expel him.

The action came after the partys leader Arvind Kejriwal returned to Delhi wrapping up his four-day visit to poll-bound Punjab

If you have the courage, severe the ties and expel. With 67 MLAs you could not perform, you don't have it in you- So Get out of the Way, he had said.

Earlier, Punjab AAP's women's wing had filed a complaint with the State Women Commission against Sehrawat alleging he was defaming the women in the state.

BJP will not want to contest with a demoralised cadre given that its performance in 2014 general elections (71 out of 80 seats) was impeccable.

Bharti clarifies

Meanwhile, AAP MLA Somnath Bharti, who has been booked for allegedly inciting a crowd to damage AIIMS' fence, on Monday said the structure blocked the passage of vehicles and was razed with the help of PWD officials after the hospital authorities did not attend PWD meetings in this regard.

The bone of contention is a wall that blocks the passage of vehicular traffic from Gautam Nagar and nearby areas to the Ring Road and AIIMS. It forces the residents to take a detour which, sometimes, takes around 40 minutes... This inhumane Berlin wall has to go, he said.

The fence is not on AIIMS' property. There is a 100 metre-long road between the hospital and the structure, the MLA said.
Tamara Mellon is suing her former employer Jimmy Choo amid claims the company set out to sabotage her new venture.

The shoe designer, who was awarded an OBE for her services to fashion, co-founded the multi-million-pound luxury brand in the 1990s.

But after writing a reveal-all biography In My Shoes, in which she branded Jimmy Choos new private equity owners as vultures, she claims her ex-employer set out to punish her.

Court action: Shoe designer Tamara Mellon was awarded an OBE for her services to fashion

She told of how the company, which she left in 2011, had thrown a wrench in her plans by allegedly trying to boycott factories from producing creations by her brand Tamara Mellon.

The designer is now trying to claim millions in damages after her business declared bankruptcy. Mellon was left feeling spurned in 2011 when Swiss luxury goods group Labelux bought Jimmy Choo from private equity firm TowerBrook Capital for 500m, and she claims she was excluded from negotiations.

Jimmy Choo has said the case is without merit adding that the allegations will be vigorously contested.
More than 878m was wiped off Primark shares after it warned sales would fall for the first time in its history.

The High Street stores owner Associated British Foods finished the day down nearly 11 per cent or 341p at 2815p after a series of dire updates.

On top of a fall in trade, ABF also revealed how the pension scheme had a 200m black hole, when previously it had a surplus.

Blow: The discount retailer blamed the unseasonal weather on the weak sales

The discount retailer, which has transformed low-cost shopping with affordable, fashionable designs, blamed the unseasonal weather on the weak sales. In a pre-close trading update the firm said sales from stores that had been open for a year are expected to be 2 per cent lower for the year.

ABF finance director John Bason explained the figures were caused by warm weather in the pre-Christmas period and a very cold March and April.

Primark, along with rival chains had leftover stock that shoppers did not want and it was forced to slash prices in order to clear the shelves.

Bason said the clothing market had shrunk but Primark had increased its share. It has been a tough market but Primark has performed well, he said.

When you compare it with what happened to the market, we are happy with Primarks performance.

Big sellers during the year have been womens padded bomber jackets at 16, and cold shoulder ribbed tops at 6 where the shoulders are left exposed.

Men have been snapping up skinny jeans at 10 and printed shirts at 7.

ABF, which also has an ingredients business and makes tea brand Twinings, malt drink Ovaltine and crispbread Ryvita, said that if current sterling exchange rates continue it will have both positive and negative effects.

Elsewhere at the firm, it said sales and profit in its sugar business will be ahead of forecasts.

The company also announced it is selling its sugar cane business in China to local rival Nanning Sugar as the industry consolidates.
After a relatively quiet summer, the stock market continued on the downward trajectory it has been on since the City returned from its holiday.

Last week was the FTSE 100s worst week since April and yesterday it was in the red once more, finishing down 1.12 per cent, or 76.05 points, at 6700.90.

Associated British Foods was the surprise biggest faller. The Primark owner lost 10.8 per cent, or 341p, to 2815p in the day despite reporting a better-than-expected second half of the year.

At the top of the pile was private equity firm SVG Capital, which surged forward after a 1bn takeover offer by Boston-based private equity firm HarbourVest Partners. The bid was equivalent to a 14.7 per cent premium on Fridays share price close. Shares in SVG soared 14.7 per cent, or 83.5p, to 650p.

Life sciences firm Abcam surged after reporting that revenues had risen 19 per cent to 171.7m in the year to June 30. Thats despite the companys gross margin slipping 0.3 percentage points to 70.2 per cent.

Among the drivers of the strong results, Abcam said revenues of two of its antibodies rose around 30 per cent in the year and it has introduced its direct service in Singapore to provide technical support and customer services in the Asia Pacific region.

The business announced plans to increase its full-year dividend 8.5 per cent to 8.91p a share. Shares advanced 8.1 per cent, or 59.5p, to 791p.

Real Good Foods AGM statement had all the ingredients for a share price rally. Executive chairman Pieter Tott told shareholders orders had been strong.

The cake decorating part of the business also has a good number of orders going into the busy autumn and Christmas seasons.

Tott said the balance sheet was strong and the firm would be looking to invest in people, technology, marketing and its manufacturing facilities as well as growing through acquisitions. The business said it will also start to pursue a progressive dividend policy and will likely be announcing an interim payment in the new year. Shares sweetened 4.4 per cent, or 1.5p, to 35.5p.

Premium hostel owner Safestay is scoring with guest satisfaction but isnt quite making the grade with investors. Safestay said revenues had more than doubled to 3.29m in the first half of the year compared with the same period a year ago. Pre-tax earnings tripled from 260,000 to 780,000 in that time.

It said the newly introduced direct booking channel is performing ahead of expectations. But chairman Larry Lipman said there had been headwinds in the London market and full-year earnings are likely to be at the lower end of the forecast. Shares stumbled 5.8 per cent, or 3p, to 49p.

IPPlus leapt as it proposed the disposal of two parts of its business for a total of 6.7m. The firm, which is focused on telephony and secure payment solutions, wants to offload its Ansaback call centre and CallScripter businesses to Direct Response Contact Centre Group. IPPlus said it is proposing a special dividend of 1m to shareholders on completion of the deal. The company will also change its name to PCI-PAL. Shares rocketed 22.2 per cent, or 5p, to 27.5p.

Xcite Energy sent shares spiralling as it refuted market rumours concerning the restructuring of its bond debt.

The North Sea oil firm revealed in March it is in talks to restructure 101.5m of senior secured bonds. In June Xcite said it had negotiated a maturity extension until September 30. But it also warned the bondholders could take control of some of the firms equity, which would cut the value of shareholders stake.

Investors pushed shares up 20 per cent in a single day last week amid speculation an agreement may have been reached which would seen some return for shareholders.
Life on the edge: Inside the world's largest STONE forest, where tropical rain has eroded rocks into 300ft razor-sharp spikes



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Isolated and inhospitable, this huge collection of razor-sharp vertical rocks looks like the last place where wildlife would thrive.

The colossal 'Grand Tsingy' landscape in western Madagascar is the world's largest stone forest, where high spiked towers of eroded limestone tower over the greenery.

But despite its cold, dangerous appearance, the labyrinth of 300ft stones is home to a number of animal species, including 11 types of lemur.

Head for heights: White-legged lemurs cling to the top of a sharp limestone peak in the 'Grand Tsingy' stone forest in Madagascar

Between a rock and a high place: The white-legged lemurs are among 11 species of lemur to be found in the stone forest of the Tsingy de Bemaraha national park

Perilous: An explorer climbs among the razor-sharp peaks of the stone forest, where the eroded limestone rocks extend for 230-square miles Inhospitable: The Grand Tsingy may look uninhabitable, but there are thought to be 11 species of lemur, 100 types of bird and 45 kinds of reptile living there

Its name, 'Tsingy' translates as 'where one cannot walk', due to the hazardous formations of razor-sharp pinnacles made from limestone which have been eroded by tropical rain.

Explorer and photographer Stephen Alvarez captured the beauty of the Grand Tsingy when he went there as part of an expedition for National Geographic.

As well as the dramatic backdrop of the 230-square mile limestone landscape, he also photographed lemurs leaping from rock to rock as part of their natural home in the Tsingy de Bemaraha national park.

Stephen, 47, said: 'There's forest within those rocks and animals including families of lemurs live within it.

Intrepid: Climbers Luke Padgett and John Benson scale another dangerous-looking peak in the Grand Tsingy, thought to be the world's largest stone forest

Our home: A Deckens Sifaka peers out from behind a sharp rock within the stone forest

Hanging loose: Lemurs in the Grand Tsingy stone forest are often spotted leaping from rock to rock, having made themselves at home in the dangerous environment

On the edge: A Deckens Sifaka clings to a single razor-sharp shard of limestone within the enormous 600-square km forest

'It's an unbelievable experience to watch them, they forage in the forest in the day and jump like acrobats from the sharp pinnacles where they sit at night.

I'd never seen a landscape like it. 'My first impression was thank god, it was more tremendous than I had ever imagined and I knew straight away I would be able to get some fantastic photos.

Stephen said the Tsingy was so remote it took him five days to reach it from Madagascar's capital and it was so difficult to explore it took a whole day to walk just half a mile.

Flying solo: A lemur leaps through the air from one rock to another, making light of its hazardous surroundings in Madagascar

Forest of life: Various forms of greenery can be spotted within the Grand Tsingy stone forest, despite the apparently inhospitable environmental conditions

Cavernous: The Grand Tsingy is a test for even the most intrepid explorer or climber, but is still a home to many forms of natural life

'It's like a cave without a roof, it gets a tremendous amount of tropical rain that has eroded the rock into these sharp rock pinnacles.

'The rocks themselves are really sharp, they stick up like giant steak knives. It is one of the most difficult places I've ever explored.'

As well as lemurs, the Tsingy de Bemaraha national park is also home to the small carnivorous falanouc, the ring-tailed mongoose, and several bats.
Three Europeans burned to death by mob of vigilantes in Madagascar after they were accused of murdering a young boy

Horrific killings happened on the idyllic island Nosy Be on Wednesday

Locals went on the rampage after hearing reports two European men had kidnapped and murdered an eight-year-old boy



A Frenchman named Sebastian and an Italian called Roberto were tortured before being burned to death



A third European man was later lynched and his body set ablaze

Two Europeans accused of murdering a young boy in the most popular tourist resort in Madagascar have been burnt to death by a mob of vigilantes, it emerged today.

A third European man who was quizzed over the alleged killing of the eight-year-old b o y was lynched hours later and his body set ablaze in a separate attack.

The horrific killings took place on Nosy Be, an idyllic Indian Ocean island located off the northwest coast of Madagascar, which attracts holidaymakers from all over the world including Britain.



Fire: Locals on the Madagascan island of Nosy Be are allegedly pictured watching one of two European men accused of murdering an eight-year-old boy being burnt to death on Wednesday night

Locals went on the rampage on Wednesday following reports that a Frenchman called Sebastian and an Italian called Roberto had kidnapped an eight-year-old child.



There were claims that the men, whose surnames have not been revealed, had not only killed the boy, but cut off his tongue and genitals.



Police commander Guy Bobin Randriamaro said: The rioters launched a manhunt and killed the Europeans.

Both men were not only suspected of murdering the boys, but were also said to be trafficking human organs.

The rampaging mob originally stormed a police statio n i n Hell-Ville, capital of Nosy Be, where it thought the pair of murder suspects were being held.

Police fired shots in the air, but it was not enough to disperse the increasingly angry crowd.

Mr Randriamaro said the men were finally chased and cornered on the palm-fringed Ambatoloaka beach on Nosy Be, where they were attacked.

They were kept alive long enough to be tortured, and are said to have confessed to killing the boy, and to trafficking organs, before both were set on fire. Both died from their burns.



Manhunt: Locals on the island reportedly hunted down the two men after hearing they had kidnapped an eight-year-old boy, cut off his tongue and genitals before killing him

Up to 4000 Madagascans witnessed the lynching of the two men, said a Frenchman living on Nosy Be.



He claimed that both were made scapegoats for a murder they had nothing to do with.

The mob went on to torch around eight houses, and to start attacking police, who are thought to have wounded at least two members of the crowd.

A third man was later lynched and his body set ablaze, police in Madagascar reported later.



Witnesses saw him being dragged from a car and thrown on to the flames at Ambatoloaka beach.



He is said to have been questioned by detectives on Wednesday along with the other two men. His name and nationality were not known, but he was known to be a European.



The boys horribly mutilated body was found this morning, said the spokesman.



Frances consulate in Madagascar has immediately warned all of its nationals to stay away from Nosy Be island  the biggest resort in Madagascar - until order is restored.'

Crime scene: The horrific killings took place on Nosy Be, pictured, which is said to be one of Madagascar's most popular tourist destinations

A spokesman added: We are working with the authorities on the island to try and work out the exact circumstances of these killings.



Nosy Be is a very popular tourist destination but we are asking people to be especially careful.



Despite its upmarket tourist resorts, Madagascar is an extremely poor place, with some 90 per cent of its population of 22 million people living on less than two dollars a day.



Demonstrators involved in the killings claim they found human organs in a fridge in the building where the men were staying.

Many Madagascar residents believe human organs are stolen for use by cults, or in witchcraft ceremonies.



It is common for them to blame outsiders for this practice, and incidents of mob justice are commonplace.



However, the triple killing will have a devastating effect on the tourist industry in the economically troubled country.



Tiny island: Nosy Be is an idyllic Indian Ocean island located off the northwest coast of Madagascar












With a personal fortune of nearly 4 billion, Sir Philip Green was never likely to settle for two weeks on the Costa Del Sol for his summer holiday.

But even by the disgraced tycoons lavish standards, this years break has been staggeringly extravagant.

The 64-year-old has just returned from an eight-week trip around the Mediterranean on his 100 million yacht, accompanied by his wife, Tina, the nominal owner of his Arcadia retail group.

Sir Philip Green, pictured with his wife Tina, on his way to La Fontanella restaurant in Capri, as the tycoon and his family enjoy their luxury break around the Mediterranean

The 100 million Lionheart costs 250,000 to staff

In his two months on the Lionheart, Sir and Lady Shifty took in various sun-soaked parts of the Med, from Greece to the millionaires paradises of Capri and Sardinia.

The billionaires holiday lasted from July to September  months which saw the final remaining BHS shops close their doors and 11,000 staff made redundant. Sir Philip sold the department store chain to former bankrupt Dominic Chappell for 1, after the Green family had taken out millions from the firm in the preceding years.

While Green cruised around the glitziest ports, two Commons select committees published a report into his actions surrounding BHS, which accused him of fantastically enriching his family by weakening BHS until it was on life support.

The store was left with a massive hole in its pension fund  that could be as much as 770 million  which the pensions regulator is now investigating.

But perhaps the most mind-boggling thing about the holiday was not the unfortunate timing, but the cost . . .

ALISON BOSHOFF investigates the story of Sir Shiftys Summer.

WHAT AN ITINERARY!

The massive jolly began on July 9 in Livorno, Italy, when Greens new superyacht  built to his familys exact specifications  left port.

His wife Lady Green, who likes to dabble in design, took care of the boats interiors, which, as you might expect, are very expensive, and very flashy. The yacht sailed first to Malta, where the vessel is registered, and after its arrival on July 10, spent more than a week in port, being prepared for the holiday under the watchful eye of Lady Shifty. It also did several day trips around the island.

The Greens then set off to Kalamata, on the Peloponnesian peninsula, arriving in the beautiful Greek coastal resort on July 21.

Continuing their cruise around the rugged southern peninsula, they sailed on to the relatively undiscovered and affluent island of Spetses, popular with high-society Athenians, on the 24th.

Sailing past the tiny coastal town of Karystos on the Greek island of Euboea, the Greens arrived in the popular tourist island of Skiathos on July 30.

Perhaps feeling out of place, Lord and Lady Shifty soon turned around, sailing back down past the island of Euboea days later.

The catalogue of classical haunts continued as July became August, with visits to Mykonos and Athens, before Sir Philips yacht finally cruised through the Corinth Canal. Sailing up the coast past Delphi  where futures were told in ancient times  it reached Albania on August 26, where the Lionheart refuelled.

Of course, no Grand Tour would be complete without Italy, too, so the couple set sail again to the southern tip of the country the next day, past Sicily and up to Capri  the spectacular Italian island dotted with Roman ruins and designer boutiques.

Next stop for the Green machine was Corsica  fashionable, mountainous and French  then on to the billionaires playground of Sardinia before they finally dropped anchor back in Monaco on September 4. All in all, the Shiftys notched up 5,377 nautical miles and spent at least 1,224 hours sailing.

HUGE DIESEL BILLS

WHY do billionaires have such bad tempers? Maybe theyve realised their mega yachts really do drink diesel.

A boat measuring more than 71m (Lionheart is 78.5m) consumes 500 litres of diesel an hour  when the engine is on but the boat isnt moving. Based on cruising speeds of between 15 and 22 knots, a yacht of Lionhearts size will consume 1,690 worth of fuel per hour. Since Sir Philip spent 1,224 hours at sea, the cost of filling Lionhearts tankIS VAST.

250,000 ON STAFF

Another major expense is staff. A yacht the size of Lionheart could expect to have about 40 crew. That includes those who man the interiors (stewardesses and stewards), the exteriors (deckhands, first mate, bosun) and the engine room (engineers).

Then there is the galley crew (chef and sous chefs), plus the captain and chiefs of each section reporting back to him.

Staff on the luxury yacht are paid from 2,500 a month tax free for deckhands with 6,700 for the more senior crew such as the chef and chief engineer with the captain on even more

The entire crew is on tax-free wages starting at 2,500 per month for deckhands, including board/food. The salary goes up to 6,700 per month for more senior crew such as the chef and chief engineer. The captain is on even more.

The full cost of staff on a yacht this size, including medical costs and insurance, could amount to 1.5 million a year, meaning Sir Philip could have shelled out 250,000 on wages for his two-month jaunt.

THE COSTLY ESSENTIALS

The spending does not end there. Yachting experts estimate that docking costs reaching a staggering 250,000 will have been paid over Greens summer jaunt. Green visited the most exclusive marinas in the world where even billionaires jostle to get a spot.

Prices are worked out with the port manager and are usually charged on a per night basis depending on the yachts length.

Spaces at these super-yacht hotels are in such high demand many billionaires drop anchor at sea as close to the port as they can without an allocated space.

Other costs include around 18,000 a month on insurance, to cover any eventuality  including calling in a crack team to rescue them if the vessel was captured by pirates, stolen or destroyed.

According to yachting experts, owners can expect to pay 10 per cent of the purchase value in running costs each year meaning Sir Philip will hand over 10m a year to operate Lionheart

Maintenance and repairs typically cost 750,000 per year. It might be a new yacht, but its still a work in progress with a team of engineers and electricians working around the clock to ensure no malfunctions. That means Sir Philip would have needed to set aside 125,000 for any holiday hitches.

Sir Philip can expect to pay 10 million or so a year to own Lionheart

Hed also have to shell out 11,000 for a satellite data link (66,000 per annum), which operates the yachts navigation system, 121,000 on food (up to 50 people eating three good meals a day for two months soon adds up) and 21,000 on entertaining.

And thats not counting the requisite billionaire boys toys to maintain, such as jet skis and high-powered inflatables.

So aside from the 250,000 on wages and huge fuel costs, these added extras over eight weeks run to more than half a million pounds.

Sounds steep? According to yachting experts, the cost of operating a yacht of this size are approximately 10 per cent of the initial value of the boat every year.

That means Sir Philip can expect to pay 10 million or so a year to own Lionheart.

FLIGHTS IN HIS 50m PRIVATE JET

Sir Philip, 64, owns a Gulfstream G650ER worth 50.5 million. There are only 181 in the world.

This jet was picked up in the spring and is an upgrade from his old Gulfstream G550. It can carry up to eight passengers at a time.

Its reputed to be the best private jet money can buy  faster and more comfortable than any other.

Over the summer, Sir Shifty has used the jet to dip in and out of his long hot summer cruise, at a cost of at least 88,000 in fuel.

Sir Philip recently upgraded his old Gulfstream G550, pictured, to the G650ER in the spring

This is calculated according to a pilots rule of thumb based on the five, four, three formula (5,000 for the first hour, 4,000 for the second and 3,000 thereafter) and the fact that jet fuel costs 6.79 per gallon.

The jet flew from Nice to Malta, then back to London, on July 11, which apparently dropped Tina off on the Lionheart.

It then went from London to Malta and back again on July 15 to drop Sir Philip on the island to board the yacht.

Not that he stayed onboard for long. The jet then flew back from London to Malta and back with Sir Philip and, on August 8, a round trip from London to Athens and back with Sir Philip again.

On August 19 the jet flew from London to Nice, and on August 20 it went from Nice to Athens, then on to London.

It is thought that these trips may have been to bring Sir Philips daughter Chloe out to see him.

In all, the fuel costs would rack up to 88,520. Add in the fixed costs of owning a jet, which are estimated to amount to 333,000 a year.

These include pilot fees of 172,000 a year, crew fees of 52,000 a year, and hangar charges of 60,000 a year  it is kept mostly at Farnborough airport in the UK.

Sir Philip and Lady Green also have the use of a helicopter for short hops if needed.

...AND A MODEST PARTY (for once)

At least Sir Shifty didnt have to splurge much of his 3.7 billion fortune on a birthday party this year. Due to the bad publicity following the BHS debacle, he didnt mark his 64th birthday with his customary lavish bash.

(Unlike a year ago when he was happy to splash the champagne at a party in Mykonos  as our pictures on the previous page show).

It is said he had a small party on-board the yacht in August while the family were in Greece. But aside from the Greens Monaco friends, few of his big-name pals seem to have attended.

Interestingly, his old friend Kate Moss was in Greece at the same time, but chose to stay with restaurateur Sir David Tang on his yacht instead, as did Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York.
Germany has at least 520 Islamic militants living in the country who are capable of lone-wolf attacks or 'hit team' strikes at any time, the country's interior minister has warned.

Thomas de Maiziere said there were hundreds of 'potential attackers' in the country, which has been on edge since two ISIS-inspired attacks in July.

Speaking in an interview with Bild newspaper, he said another 360 'relevant' people were known to police because of their close proximity to the potential attackers.

Germany has at least 520 Islamic militants living in the country who are capable of lone-wolf attacks or 'hit team' strikes at any time, the country's interior minister has warned (file picture)

Many Germans fear that fighters belonging to the ISIS jihadist group could have slipped into Germany with the roughly one million of refugees from Syria, North Africa and Asia who arrived last year.

'The terror threat now stems from foreign hit teams as well as fanatical lone wolves in Germany,' de Maiziere said in the interview ahead of the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the United States, which were partly coordinated from Germany.

'The hit teams are secretly smuggled into Europe and prepare their actions withoug being noticed, as we saw with the attacks in Paris and Brussels,' he added. 'But it's even more difficult to uncover the fanatical lone wolves. Unfortunately, there is a real and present danger from both threats.'

Thomas de Maiziere (pictured) said there were hundreds of 'potential attackers' in the country, which has been on edge since two ISIS-inspired attacks in July

He said security authorities were doing everything possible to monitor 'the potential terrorists' and noted that there have been more investigations and arrests this year.

Despite their efforts, he said, 'the authorities are assuming there are undiscovered lone wolf terrorists out there.'

Germany had until July been spared the kind of militant attacks suffered by neighbouring France and Belgium. But in late July, ISIS claimed two attacks - on a train near Wuerzburg and at a music festival in Ansbach - in which asylum-seekers wounded 20 people in total.
Eddie Antar, who turned the Crazy Eddie electronics stores into a retail giant before it collapsed amid federal fraud charges, has died at age 68.

The Bloomfield-Cooper funeral home in Ocean Township, New Jersey, confirmed Sunday that Antar died Saturday.

A cause of death wasn't disclosed.

Antar had five children - four daughters and a son.

Antar was born on December 18, 1947 and lived in Brooklyn where he first established his Crazy Eddie chain, founded in 1969.

Eddie Antar (pictured, center), who owned retail chain Crazy Eddie electronics and served seven years in federal prison for fraud, has died in his New Jersey home. He was 68 years old

Crazy Eddie was known for its commercials featuring a manic sales man and eventually grew to have 43 locations from Boston to Philadelphia

It became the largest consumer electronics chain in the New York City region as the rise of the VCR began.

The chain eventually grew to have 43 locations from Boston to Philadelphia.

One of the reasons the chain became so popular was its memorable advertisments that featured a maniacal pitchman who touted 'Our prices are insane!'

Many people falsely believed the man in the commercials was Antar himself, according to the New York Times.

The ads were later lampooned on a variety of TV shows including 'Saturday Night Live' and 'Futurama'.

In the early 1980s the company went public at $8 a share and two years later had skyrocketed to $79 a share.

The company reported annual sales of more than $350 million.

However, this was not true and in 1987 stockholders staged a takeover of the company, the Times reported.

After two weeks they discovered $45 million worth of products were missing and federal prosecutors began to build a case against Antar.

They asserted that he had defrauded his shareholders by manipulating his stock.

In 1990, Antar fled to Israel after being indicted on securities fraud and insider trading charges

He and two of his brothers were eventually charged with inflating the value of his company.

In 1990, Antar fled to Israel after being indicted on securities fraud and insider trading charges.

Antar was extradited to the United States in 1993.

The company's chief financial officer Sam E. Antar, who was Antar's cousin, testified against Antar after pleading guilty to fraud charges, according to the Times.

Antar (right) was extradited to the United States in 1993 and took a plea bargain, which caused him to serve seven years in federal prison

Sam E. Antar explained how the company inflated its sales figures. His involvement in the case led to him becoming a government consultant on accounting fraud, the Times reported.

Antar took a plea bargain and pleaded guilty to one charge of racketeering conspiracy. He served seven years in federal prison.

In 2001, Antar attempted to re-launch Crazy Eddie as an internet company but the efforts proved fruitless.

A collaborator in the Crazy Eddie commercials, Larry Weiss, remembered Antar as a man with many sides.

'He was a character. He was very charming, charismatic, very powerful, very decisive. He was an incredible leader.
The notion of girl power is little more than an illusion for many of them, a report claims today.

Young women are being routinely 'failed', it says  but those in the North and Midlands are particularly vulnerable.

Sexual harassment, cyber bullying and pressure to have the perfect body are among the biggest concerns of girls, researchers found.

They looked at child poverty, life expectancy, teenage pregnancy rates and exam grades to assess the experiences of girls aged between ten and 24 in every local authority in England and Wales.

They found a stark geographical divide  with those in Middlesbrough the least likely to do well, compared to Waverley, in Surrey, which was the best place for a young woman to be brought up.

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Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire (pictured) is the worst place for young women to grow up

Of the top ten worst places for girls' prospects, nine were in large conurbations in the North or Midlands, including Blackpool, Manchester, Nottingham and Liverpool. All but two of the best ten places to live were in the South or South East, such as Chiltern in Buckinghamshire, Wokingham, in Berkshire and Mole Valley, Elmbridge, Epsom and Ewell, all also in Surrey.

Lucy Russell, co-author of the research for charity Plan International UK, said the findings were 'worrying' and urged the Government to take action to address the inequalities.

She warned that the UK is failing to meet its obligations to girls, as set out in the United Nation's sustainable development goals, which were vital for ensuring they are able to 'learn, lead, and thrive in life'.

'Our overall conclusion is the UK is failing girls and urgent action [is needed] to address this,' she said, adding: 'We heard very strongly from girls that they were facing harassment every day  harassment in schools, name-calling, unwanted sexual touching, groping. They also told us they don't feel safe online and they are scared when they walk to and from school.

'Girls feel very, very concerned about their body image and about the messages they are getting from social media and magazines, translating to a very serious extent into mental health issues.' The report is the first time Plan International, a global charity which champions the rights of girls in Latin America, Africa and Asia, has turned its attention to the plight of young women in the UK.

As well as analysing data, the authors of the report also interviewed 103 girls, of diverse backgrounds. One in five said they had experienced some type of inappropriate touching, flashing, sexual assault or rape while at school.

Waverley in Surrey (pictured, Godalming) is the best place for young women to be brought up

Middlesbrough, Blackpool and Manchester were seen to be the worst places for young women to be brought up

One girl, aged 14, told interviewers: 'In my school, there's loads of boys who sexually harass girls. Teachers are completely oblivious, and we don't say anything because, honestly, we're scared.'

The report also found that sexual offences on school premises have doubled in recent years, to an average of ten each day. Of all alleged victims nearly two-thirds were girls.

And while girls outperform boys at school, the report found they are still expected to live up to gender stereotypes and are pushed towards traditionally female-orientated careers, while apprenticeship opportunities for them remain few and far between.

Miss Russell said the charity wanted the Government to appoint girls' rights champions at both local and national levels.
BISMARCK  A former presidential candidate has joined the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., proposed an amendment Thursday to the Water Resources Development Act to prevent the secretary of the Army from granting an easement for the Lake Oahe crossing for the crude oil pipeline until the completion of an environmental impact statement. The Senate is scheduled to resume consideration of the bill Monday afternoon, according to its floor schedule.

The beginning of the crossing is at the edge of Lake Oahe, east of the North Dakota Highway 1806, Sanders spokesman Josh Miller-Lewis said in an email.

A day after Sanders proposed his amendment and soon after a federal judge denied the Standing Rock Sioux Tribes request for a preliminary injunction Friday, federal agencies announced the Army would not authorize construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline on Army Corps of Engineers land bordering or under Lake Oahe until it can determine whether it will need to reconsider any of its previous decisions regarding the site.

Therefore, construction of the pipeline on Army Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe will not go forward at this time, the Department of Justice, Department of the Army and the Department of the Interior said in a Friday afternoon statement.

Miller-Lewis said the announcement accomplishes the same goal as Sanders amendment -- to stop pipeline construction -- but the senators proposal goes further than the federal agencies decision by requiring an environmental review.

Sanders, who challenged former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Partys presidential nomination, already spoke out against the pipeline last month. He said the U.S. must break its addiction to fossil fuels, and said he supports the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and others fighting the pipeline.

Its time to listen to our Native American brothers and sisters, Sanders said in a Friday afternoon statement. We must stop the Dakota Access Pipeline, once and for all.

The pipeline, which would carry oil from western North Dakota to Illinois, would cross under the Missouri River at Lake Oahe a half-mile upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, according to information posted on the tribes website. The tribe worries about the potential for an oil spill and the pipelines effect on cultural sites.

More than exhaustive

Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said he consulted with the Army Corps of Engineers pretty regularly  to make sure that they were doing everything they needed to do as per the law.

And in my view, in the last few months anyway, they were more than exhaustive in their environmental assessment of this route, he said before the federal judge handed down his ruling Friday. I dont see what advantage an EIS would provide at this point.

Cramer, a former state utility regulator, added the EIS may only end up adding costs and delay the Dakota Access project.

We need pipelines to move oil in the safest and most environmentally friendly and efficient way possible, he said.

Cramers Democratic challenger, Chase Iron Eyes, will be at a Washington, D.C., rally alongside Sanders Tuesday. Iron Eyes, a Standing Rock Sioux member who said he was an early supporter of Sanders, said he was happy the Vermont senator was stepping up in the pipeline dispute.
10billion but experts say its not enough

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, says the NHS will reach breaking point without more money, sparking a bitter row with health ministers who say they have already pledged enough

A bitter row broke out last night after hospital bosses claimed the NHS will no longer be able to provide the services patients expect without more cash.

The head of the NHS Providers organisation, which represents hospital trusts, warned that the NHS was under the greatest pressure in a generation  and will reach breaking point without more money.

But ministers hit back  saying they have already agreed to provide the billions of extra pounds demanded by NHS England and accusing health managers of exaggerating the problem.

Some 4billion in additional funding has been given to the NHS this year, and by 2020, it will be getting an extra 10billion a year.

But in a growing political row about the future of the NHS, hospital leaders said the funding was insufficient  and if more is not provided, they will be forced to start cutting jobs, merging units and closing services.

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said: We can no longer provide the quality of service (or) meet the standards on the money we have available.

And he said Health Secretary Jeremy Hunts vision for a seven-day NHS would be impossible to deliver on the current level of funding.

Junior Doctors handing their petition against the new contracts to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt

Mr Hopson said 'Health Secretary Jeremy Hunts vision for a seven-day NHS would be "impossible" to deliver on the current level of funding'

Despite the incredibly hard work of NHS staff we are under the greatest pressure that we have been for a generation, Mr Hopson told the BBCs Andrew Marr Show.

We have now got hospital trusts having to close services, we have also got trusts who are saying that the only way to make the money add up is to cut the workforce. Something has to give.

NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens last year drew up a five-year financial plan, in which he predicted the health service would be 30billion in deficit by 2020. But he said that if the Government provided an extra 10billion a year by then, the NHS could fill the remaining gap by being more efficient.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said the Government had provided the money requested.

She said: The Health Secretary and the Government consulted with Simon Stevens and asked him about what scale of money was necessary  weve delivered on that money.

Labour MP Margaret Hodge, former chairman of the public accounts committee, today warns that the NHS is wasting billions through botched IT projects and paying too much for basic supplies.

Andrew Marr (left) and Home Secretary Amber Rudd appearing on the BBC One current affairs programme after she argues they have provided the money NHS England requested

Writing for the Daily Mail, she said her committees investigations had revealed that civil servants simply did not care.

A Government spokesman said last night: We are giving the NHS the 10 billion it asked for to fund its own plan for the future  including almost 4billion this year to transform services and improve standards of care.
Tiarni Butters, 19, became addicted to the drug ice and quit her job as a dental nurse to live with dealers in the streets of Melbourne

The parents of a teenage girl who quit her job and moved in with her ice dealer have revealed that they paid $15,000 in a last-ditch attempt to get her off the toxic drug.

Tiarni Butters, 19, left her full-time job as a dental nurse and spent the next eight months living in filthy drug dens desperate to get her next hit of crystal meth.

In a report by ABC's Four Corners, parents Wayne and Renee revealed how their 'vivacious' and 'bubbly' little girl ended up living alongside addicts in Melbourne.

Mr Butters believes his daughter was first introduced to crystal methamphetamine - known in Australia as 'ice' - during a friend's birthday party.

After getting a taste for the drug she was instantly hooked, spending the next eight months in a 'hellish' cycle of addiction that saw her leave home for weeks at a time to live with dealers.

Many of the derelict drug houses where Tiarni would stay had up to a dozen people living there, with some as young as 14, and all of them completely dependent on drugs.

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The teenager spent eight months living in filthy drug dens, desperate to get her next hit of the toxic drug. Her father also quit his job, and started searching the streets to bring her home

Mr Butters described the extreme lengths he would go to rescue his daughter from the destructive lifestyle hidden behind the doors of the squalid drug homes.

'They have got steel doors. They don't have to answer them if they don't want to. I just put my hoodie over my head, knocked on the door they must have thought it was just a drug deal, so the door opened,' he said.

Eventually, the dealers wisened up and refused to open the door when they spotted Wayne's bulky frame.

'So I went back downstairs in a fit of rage and grabbed an axe from the car, and I axed the door down,' he said.

But Tiarni, poisoned by the haze of ice, would rarely want to come home, often choosing to hide underneath a bed or refuse to leave.

When Tiarni did come home it would be late at night and often as she was coming down after an ice binge, Four Corners journalist Ben Knight said.

'She would come home from time to time, it would be late at night, she'd have the hoodie on, and she'd tell her parents to turn the lights down because it was too bright,' Mr Knight told Daily Mail Australia.

'Not knowing how long she'd be there or when they'd see her again, they'd sit up with her until the early hours of the morning.'

Tiarni's parents Wayne and Renee (pictured) went to desperate measures to save their 'vivacious' and 'bubbly' little girl from her hellish addiction to ice

Crystal methamphetamine, known as ice, is a highly-addictive stimulant which creates feelings of intense euphoria, pleasure and alertness initially. Frequent use can result in ice psychosis, characterised by paranoid illusions and aggressive behaviour

After living in a drug home that was shot at in a drive-by shooting, Tiarni decided to go home and is now four weeks into a three-month rehabilitation stay

It wasn't until she was stuck in the middle of a drive-by shooting that Tiarni decided it was time to go home to her parents and try to kick the habit.

'Why now? Five bullets through the front window and I've sh** myself and that was when I straight away rang mum to say I'm coming home,' she told Four Corners.

But the cost of private, long-term rehabilitation is excessive and vastly out of reach for most regular Australian families, costing upwards of $30,000 for a three month stint.

Five bullets through the front window and I've sh** myself and that was when I rang mum to say I'm coming home

After landing a hugely discounted price of $15,000, on the condition that Tiarni arrive the next day, the Butters were able to send their daughter to a clinic.

The family have just $139 left in their bank account, emptying their savings and borrowing from a friend to make the up-front payment of $5,000.

Tiarni has spent the past four weeks there and the family have noticed an enormous change already.

Mr Knight said they were feeling positive about the future and enjoying having glimpses of their little girl back.

'The family get to visit every Sunday ... after 30 days they can take her out for a few hours, they're really looking forward to that,' he said.

'She's beautiful, your typical vivacious, bubbly teenager, full of life - you would not have known that four weeks before she'd been in the grip of methamphetamine.'

Watch Rehab Inc on Four Corners tonight at 8:30pm on ABC 1.
Police allege he was attacked because 'he embodied Australian culture'

Mr Greenhalgh has lost several fingers and remains in a serious condition

Alleged he was inspired by ISIS and looked up to Curtis Cheng's killer

A grandfather repeatedly stabbed by an extremist while walking his dog at a park lost several fingers as a result of the ISIS-inspired terror attack.

Ihsas Khan, 22, allegedly stabbed Wayne Greenhalgh, 59, with a hunting knife in a frenzied attack as he walked through a park in Minto, south-west of Sydney, about 4pm on Saturday.

Mr Greenhalgh managed to run into Minto Hair Salon with bones protruding from his hands and multiple fingers missing.

'He was covered in blood  there was blood everywhere and we were trying to get him to sit down and relax but he kept saying he was all right,' witness Maribel Brooks told the Daily Telegraph.

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Ihsas Khan, 22, allegedly stabbed Wayne Greenhalgh (pictured) with a hunting knife in a frenzied attack as he walked through a park in Minto

Police believed Khan may have been trying to lure police to the scene to attack them. The knife used to allegedly attack the grandfather is pictured on the grass

After the salon locked the doors, Khan allegedly beating on the glass shouting in Arabic he was 'here to die'.

Police allege the Islamic extremist chose to attack Mr Greenhalgh because he 'embodied Australian culture'.

Khan wanted to make a 'martyr of himself' and had even told police after his arrest his role model was Farhad Jabar, who in 2015 killed police accountant Curtis Cheng, The Australian reported.

The attack came only a week after ISIS called for 'lone wolf' attacks in places such as Bondi, the MCG, SCG and the Sydney Opera House.

On Sunday, Khan was charged with committing a terrorist act and attempted murder.

'We will be alleging before court that this was an act that was inspired by ISIS, it was a deliberate act yesterday, it resulted in a person receiving extremely serious injuries,' NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn said on the same day.

'We will allege that he set out to do something yesterday, how long he had been planning this, we don't know.'

Ms Burn called the attack the 'new face' of terrorism.

Khan was charged for attempted murder and committing a Terrorist Act in Minto, Sydney. It is alleged he stabbed a 59-year-old man in a park before the victim escaped and ran to a nearby property (pictured)

Wayne Greenhalgh, 59 was the victim of the attack and remained in Liverpool Hospital after undergoing surgery

Police pointing tasers at the alleged attacker after the attack in Minto, south west Sydney

Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn said the attack was 'the new face of terrorism'

Materials seen inside Mr Khan's vehicle after the attack on Saturday afternoon

Police arresting Ihsas Khan, 22, on Saturday. On Sunday he was charged with committing a Terrorist Act and attempted murder

Khan was a known 'religious fanatic', The Australian reported.

Police believed Khan may have been trying to lure police to the scene to attack them.

He had no known ties to the victim, but he was known to police.

Witnesses reported Khan was waiting in the reserve for up to 10 minutes before Mr Greenhalgh arrived and said they heard him shouting 'Allah Akbar' and other Arabic words during and after the attack, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

In the weeks leading up to the attack, his behaviour had become increasingly erratic and bizarre, residents in the area of the incident said.

He would also allegedly preach in the street, wearing white robes and shouting verses from the Koran, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Then, on Saturday, Khan allegedly approached Mr Greenhalgh and began stabbing.

After receiving multiple wounds to his hands and body, Mr Greenhalgh escaped to a nearby property trailing blood.

The victim escaped to a nearby hairdressing salon where he sought help after he was stabbed on Ohlfsen Road, Minto

The bloodied victim was taken into the hairdressing salon (pictured) alongside the house by the owners of the property

The occupant, Duyen Phan, locked them inside the hairdressing salon she ran from the garage.

A local resident said she watched in horror as Ms Phan barricaded the entrance as Mr Khan, 22, allegedly attempted to smash his way inside before local heroes intervened.

Sivei Ah Chong, 43, confronted Mr Khan and repeatedly bashed him over the head with a plank of wood, stopping him from getting to Mr Greenhalgh.

'A Muslim guy ran behind me with a knife and then I said to him: 'Mate, what are you doing?',' Mr Ah Chong said.

'And he said: 'These people are killing my brothers and sisters in Iraq.'

'I said: 'Mate, put your knife down.'

'And then that's where I walked up to him and bashed him with a fence paling.'

When the police arrived Mr Khan attempted to allegedly stab an officer through a car window before he was subdued and taken into custody.

Residents in Minto watch on at the scene of the attack after police and ambulance services arrived

Paramedics treated Mr Greenhalgh at the scene before airlifting him to Liverpool Hospital in a serious condition.

About 5.30pm on Sunday, a spokesman for the hospital told Daily Mail Australia Mr Greenhalgh's condition was stable.

He had undergone six hours of surgery for his injuries, which included a punctured lung and deep lacerations and lost several fingers, according to reports.

The large 'hunting' knife used during the attack was under forensic examination.

The Joint Counter Terrorism Team is currently investigating the incident.

Mr Khan chose not to appear in Parramatta Bail Court on Sunday and was charged with committing a terrorist act and attempted murder.

He was refused bail.

He's expected to appear in Sydney's Central Court on Wednesday morning.

The attack occurred at Ohlfsen Road, in Minto, Sydney's south west on Saturday afternoon

Police taped off much of the area along Ohlfsen Road following the incident
Children who are heavy users of social media are unhappier with their appearance than those who never use such sites, according to a Government study.

A survey of ten to 15-year-olds found that of those who used sites such as Facebook and Twitter for more than three hours a night, only 53 per cent were happy with their looks  compared to 82 per cent among non-users.

Heavy users of social media are also more likely to argue with their parents. Some 44 per cent who are online for more than three hours said that they quarrelled with their mother more than once a week. The figure was nearly half that for light and non-users of social networks.

A survey of ten to 15-year-olds found that of those who used sites such as Facebook and Twitter for more than three hours a night, only 53 per cent were happy with their looks  compared to 82 per cent among non-users. Stock image

Heavy users were also twice as likely to say that they misbehaved in class.

Girls were twice as likely as boys to say they used social networks for such long periods, said the Office for National Statistics.

The survey of 3,500 children, carried out by Essex University over several years, also found that heavy social media users were less happy with their friends and families, with 17 per cent saying they are bullied a lot or quite a lot  compared with just 11 per cent of light users. Five per cent said they did not feel supported by their family, compared to just 1 per cent of youngsters who said that they were seldom on social sites.

Truancy rates are higher for heavy users (14 per cent) than light users (6 per cent).

Heavy users of social media are also more likely to argue with their parents. Some 44 per cent who are online for more than three hours said that they quarrelled with their mother more than once a week. Stock image

The survey, entitled Understanding Society, involves 40,000 households across the UK and covers all ethnic groups. Respondents are asked to complete repeated questionnaires to track changing circumstances and attitudes. Alongside the adult surveys are questionnaires for children, aged 10 to 15, looking specifically at their well-being.

The one positive finding to emerge from the survey concerned childrens educational aspirations after they reach 16.
More than 2,300 children were reported to the authorities under counter-terrorism laws last year for showing signs of extremism.

The groups included 352 youngsters aged nine or under and almost 1,000 who were between ten and 14.

Overall, there were 4,611 people reported last year as being potentially on a path that could lead to violence or a terrorist atrocity  an increase of 75 per cent.

A 15-year-old from Blackburn sent thousands of online messages to Sevdet Besim, an 18-year-old Australian jihadi he had befriended online, and was planning a massacre

Experts said it was another worrying sign of the deadly threat posed by Islamic State, which has been trying to radicalise young Britons online.

Last year, a 15-year-old boy from Blackburn was caught plotting a beheading  the youngest person convicted of a terrorism offence in the UK.

The figures related to referrals to the Governments Channel project, which is part of the controversial Prevent strategy.

Since last July, teachers and social workers have been under a statutory duty to report any youngster who is showing signs of extremist views.

In the year to June 2016 there were 2,311 referrals relating to under-18s  an increase of 83 per cent on the previous year. Referrals from schools climbed to 1,121, more than double the 537 in the previous 12 months, according to the National Police Chiefs Council.

Schools were ordered to begin taking action to spot extremist behaviour by David Cameron and Theresa May, then the Home Secretary, amid fears not enough was being done to root out potential fanatics.

Under Channel, public bodies provide support and mentoring to suspected extremists in a bid to change their views. It is aimed at all forms of potential extremism, but in 2015, about 70 per cent of referrals were linked to Islamist-related extremism.

Jonathan Russell, head of policy at counter-extremism think-tank Quilliam, said factors behind the rise in referrals could include the increased visibility of IS leading to more radicalisation.

He added that, as a result of the new Prevent Duty, teachers and others were more able to spot the signs.

Russell Hobby, general secretary of school leaders union NAHT, said: Prevent has raised awareness of the dangers of radicalisation of young people, and this has naturally led to an increase in the number of those referred to the Channel programme.

Grace Dare, originally from Lewisham , and husband, IS gunman Abu Bakr, who is dead. Grace 'Khadija' Dare is believed to be the mother of Isa Dare, a child featured in a terrorist video

We need to ensure that training for teachers and school leaders is provided to make sure that they are able to fulfil their duties and to ensure that referrals are appropriate.

Engagement with Channel is voluntary and it is not a criminal sanction. Not all referrals are ultimately deemed to require intervention.

In the most shocking case to date, a 15-year-old British boy who plotted to behead police officers at an Anzac Day parade in Australia was sentenced to life imprisonment last year.

The Blackburn teenager  who cannot be named for legal reasons  was given at least five years behind bars for inciting terrorism.

The young fanatic sent thousands of online messages to Sevdet Besim, an 18-year-old Australian jihadi he had befriended online, and was planning a massacre.

Police said the plan hatched by the boy  who was just 14 at the time  was shocking in its brutality and scope.

The Home Office said more than 1,000 people had been successfully provided with support through Channel since 2012.

A spokesman said: We have a duty to challenge, at every turn, the twisted narrative that has exploited some of our vulnerable young people.

Many referrals to the programme require no further action, some are referred to other services for support, while for others receiving support through Channel is the right option.

'We will continue to work in partnership with communities of all backgrounds to challenge those who spread hatred and intolerance.

- French police arrested a 16-year-old at his Paris home on Saturday to abort what they feared was a planned attack, as Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned that 15,000 people in the country could be in the process of being radicalised.
Some riot offenders believed to be members of the notorious Apex Gang

Report revealed assaults on detention staff members were up 20 per cent

The Melbourne Youth Justice Centre descended into chaos on Saturday night after 11 inmates ran riot and attacked guards forcing staff to barricade themselves in their offices fearing for their lives.

The Parkville facility erupted into a scene of bedlam for two hours around 7.20pm in Melbourne when 11 youth offenders, armed with makeshift weapons, attacked four inmates before turning on the three intervening staff members.

The offenders, some believed to be members of the Melbourne Apex Gang, chased staff into an office area where they fortified the door with a couch and a desk to prevent the gang from getting in.

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The Parkville Westgate Unit will undergo an extensive clean up after a terrifying two hour riot

Young armed offenders took over the Melbourne Youth Justice Centre in Parkville, Melbourne

Sources say the offenders then kicked in staff doors and potentially accessed their personal information from the administration office, according to the Herald Sun.

Back-up staff were able to control the situation and police were advised after the incident.

The youth offenders who sparked the riot are believed to be involved in the notorious Apex Gang, made up of predominantly African or Sudanese ethnicities with children as young as 13 having recently been connected with the street gang.

The clean up bill is not pretty with smashed windows, damaged doors and broken locks all up for repair in the Westgate Unit and Spokesman for the Community and Public Sector Union Julian Kennelly said the situation could have been fatal.

The Herald Sun was recently told assaults on secure welfare workers were up 20 per cent (Stock image)

'The offenders kicked in doors and gained access to a number of staff areas. It's not clear if staff personal belongings were accessed,' he told the Age.

'A number of staff had to barricade themselves into a unit co-ordinator's room, where they had to use a couch and desk to secure against the door to deny the threatening clients access to this room.

'It would have also been a potentially fatal situation if a fire was lit as staff had no escape access from the room.'

Fleeing staff members were forced to barricade themselves in an office fearing for their lives

This incident has tipped secure welfare union members over the edge just days after a WorkSafe report had uncovered alarming risks to staff.

The Herald Sun was also told inmate vandalism had caused millions of dollars of damage over the last year, serious crimes committed by detainees were not being reported to police and that assaults on secure welfare workers were up 20 per cent.

The report on Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre, in central Victoria, said employees' health and safety was at risk of serious or fatal injuries due to the growing number of attacks on staff at this location.

The riot started when 11 youths attacked four other juvenile members, before turning on staff (Stock Image)

Mr Kennelly said it is time to shift back the balance of power in the system.

'It's a debacle,' he said. 'This needs a full inquiry. The gangs are running the place.'

'God help the new kids going in there. Clients are under threat. It's ridiculous.'



Parkville centre staff said on Friday night hooligans in black balaclavas were outside letting off firecrackers and flares shouting, 'Free da boys,' The Herald Sun reported.

Parkville has been embroiled in riots this year with six teenage inmates armed with metal bars climbing onto the roof of the centre in March.

Heavy armed riot police were able to negotiate with the armed teenagers to step down off the roof without incident.

Six teenage inmates took to the roof after armed with metal bars earlier this year at Parkville

The juvenile inmates were armed with metal bars and proceeded to smash the windows

A report in July into Victoria's juvenile detention centres led Children's Commissioner Liana Buchanan to spearhead a review into the use of excessive lockdowns, isolation and separation tactics to make sure these methods are not abused.
Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott has refused to confirm if he thinks Malcolm Turnbull is doing a good job, saying it's up to the public, not him or other politicians to score the performance of the government.

Mr Abbott appeared on the Today Show on Monday from Parliament House in Canberra and told co-host Karl Stefanovic that as Mr Turnbull had said, the next three years would be a 'term of delivery'.

'There was a good two years followed by a good 12 months, an election win, and now we have got three years to get on with governing,' Mr Abbott said.

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Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott (pictured) has refused to confirm if he thinks Malcolm Turnbull is doing a good job, saying it's up to the public, not him or other politicians to score the performance of the government

Mr Abbott told the Today Show co-host Karl Stefanovic that as Mr Turnbull (pictured) had said, the next three years would be a 'term of delivery'

He wouldn't comment on how he felt a year on from being dumped as prime minister, but said the best thing for people to do was to get behind the Turnbull government.

'It is up to the public to score us politicians ... but this is a good government, it's got a strong mandate and we're getting on with it.'

Mr Abbott's former of chief of staff Peta Credlin, who also lost her job a year ago, was more forthcoming.

'For a guy with so much promise to start with, the reality of Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister has been a bitter disappointment,' she wrote in The Australian.

'Once so loved in the seats that don't determine elections, he's now reviled in those that do.'

Asked whether losing the leadership still hurt, Mr Abbott insisted it was not about him.

'It never has been about me. It's got to be about our country,' he said.

'The best thing for our country right now is to get behind the Turnbull government and help a good government to succeed.'

The now-backbencher said he had 12 months to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of his government.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said the coalition had delivered good government during the past three years.

Mr Abbott (left) also wouldn't comment on how he felt a year on from being dumped as prime minister, but said the best thing for people to do was to get behind the Turnbull government

The Turnbull government had 'built on the progress' of the Abbott government in the past 12 months.

Senator Cormann played down Mr Abbott's recent media appearances and vocalness on policy matters.

Cabinet colleague Simon Birmingham said the economy was always the number one issue on which a coalition government should focus.
Pauline Hanson has again called for Muslims to be banned from entering Australia and slammed the idea that 'lone wolf' terror attacks are carried out by people who are mentally ill.

The One Nation leader appeared on Sunrise along with fellow Senator Derryn Hinch on Monday, where they gave support to new anti-terror bills set to be introduced into Parliament this week.

'We've seen that these refugees we've brought in are actually terrorists themselves, so let's take a hard stance on this. We don't know who these people are,' she said.

'There's no sign saying I'm a good Muslim of I'm a bad Muslim. We have to start protecting ourselves and our country.'

Senator Hanson then reacted angrily when Sunrise presenter Natalie Barr pointed out that some recent attackers were mentally ill.

'I don't believe that. They are saying they have been radicalised, and that is the case. Have a look at what they're teaching in the mosques.

'That concerns me as well. Get tough in this country. I don't want to see another Australian killed. What a load of rubbish.'

Pauline Hanson appeared on Sunrise and again called for Muslims to be banned from entering Australia

Hanson (right) appeared along with fellow senator Derryn Hinch (left) and Sunrise presenter Natalie Barr (centre)

Senator Hanson reinforced her election pledge that banning Muslim people from migrating to Australia was the only thing that should be done.

Despite acknowledging that 'a lot of Muslims are not terrorists', she repeatedly made it clear that the Australian government must take a 'hard line stance' on the matter.

She called for the complete ban 'because of the mess Australia is in'. The two anti-terror bills are set to be passed by the government in Parliament later this week.

On Sunday Ihsas Khan, 22, was charged at Parramatta local court with committing a terrorist attack and attempted murder after 59-year-old Wayne Greenhalg was stabbed multiple times in Minto, Sydney.

Wayne Greenhalg (pictured) was stabbed multiple times in Minto, Sydney

She called for the complete ban 'because of the mess Australia is in'
Independent Senator Derryn Hinch, 72, has vowed to name and shame convicted sex offenders under parliamentary privilege in his first speech to the Senate.

The radio personality turned Senator is due to deliver his first parliamentary speech at 5pm today at Parliament House in Canberra.

'Names will be named. That's all I'll say,' Senator Hinch told the Seven Network.

Hinch has long campaigned for a public Australian National Sex Offender's register that names anyone convicted of a sex-related crime.

Derryn Hinch (right) with his partner Natasha Chadwick (left)

Derryn Hinch warned 'names will be named' in his first parliamentary speech which is due to be delivered at 5pm today

Known for his public campaign to name and shame pedophiles, Senator Hinch was jailed in 2014, spending 50 days behind bars, including two weeks in solitary confinement for publishing private information.

The Senator was jailed for contempt of court after he published the criminal history of Melbourne woman Jill Meagher's murderer, Adrian Bayley, on his blog.

Mr Hinch went to jail for publishing the criminal history of Adrian Bayley who was convicted of murdering Melbourne woman Jill Meagher (pictured)

Adrian Bayley (pictured) was convicted of murdering Jill Meagher in 2012, Mr Hinch later published his criminal history on his blog

He also spent five months under house arrest in 2011 and was banned from public communication for breaching court suppression orders and naming sex offenders.

But the radio and TV personality refused to give up his fight.

The newly elected Senator has been outspoken in his desire for a national public register of convicted sex offenders.

Derryn Hinch (pictured) spent five months under house arrest in 2011 and was banned from public communication for breaching court suppression orders

Derryn Hinch poses for a photo session in Melbourne in 1985

Since elected to the Senate this year, Mr Hinch continued his campaign for an Australian register similar to the register accessible in the USA.

Mr Hinch's Justice Party called for an Australian register to be made public online which showed the offender's photo, name, aliases, and details of their crime.

Derryn Hinch, for the Justice Party, was elected to the Senate this year

A protestor shows his support at a public protest rally organised by Derryn Hinch in 2008

Mr Hinch also called for the register to make public the offender's address and the year in which they committed their crime.

'We want a public register because sexual predators rely on anonymity. It is one of their most powerful weapons - especially against children,' the Justice Party said on its website.

Protestors look on at the 'Name Them and Shame Them' public protest rally at Parliament House on June 1, 2008.

'Anyone could be a sexual predator, which makes it extremely hard to protect yourself and your family.'
Firefighters in Cleveland are angry over a decision by their superiors denying them permission to wear specially decaled polo shirts in honor of fallen colleagues who died in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

With the entire country uniting in solemn remembrance of the victims of the attacks 15 years ago to the day, the head of Cleveland's firefighters union has been engaged in a verbal tussle with the head of the fire department after he was told that firemen would not be permitted to break protocol by wearing an article of clothing that was unauthorized.

'It was pretty straight forward,' Local 93 president Tim Corcoran told Fox 8.

'One of the assistant chiefs was asking for a notice to go out for us to wear our commemorative 9/11 shirts which we've done for the past 14 years, this year being the 15th.'

The polo shirt with a specially designed decal honoring the fallen firefighters of September 11 has been declared banned by the top officials at the Cleveland Fire Department

'It was flatly denied by the Chief [Angelo Calvillo],' Corcoran said.

'The guys felt it was unconscionable. We lost 343 brothers that day.'

Top fire officials, however, dispute Corcoran, saying that the polo shirts have never been worn by firemen on duty.

'First and foremost, they have not worn polos for 15 years,' said Lt. Larry Gray of the Division of Fire. 'We do not have any documentation that there was an order approved for them to wear polos.'

Lt. Larry Gray (left) says that the polo shirts would violate protocol, but union chief Tim Corcoran says that firefighters have commemorated 9/11 for the past 14 years with T-shirts

Corcoran sent an email to Cleveland's fire chief, Angelo Calvillo, who gave one-word reply to their request to allow firemen to wear the polo shirts

'There are two types of uniforms. Class A: dress uniform, Class B: fatigue uniform,' Gray said.

'If you were going to a funeral, you would not want to go to the funeral of a fallen brother in a polo shirt. You want to go in your best attire, your uniform, a Class A uniform.'

Gray said that the department has issued a directive to all of its firemen to wear dress uniforms at all official 9/11 commemorations.
The peak of the elk rut will again be visible to those who participate in a bus tour of the Slippery Ann elk viewing area, located north of Lewistown in the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.

Registration is being accepted for two evening tour dates: Sept. 29 and Oct. 4.

Participants will leave the Fergus High School parking lot at 4 p.m. and return to Lewistown around 9 p.m. Those who choose to take part must preregister and pay one week before each trip date at the Central Montana Education Center by stopping at 773 Airport Road, or by calling 406-535-9022 to reserve a space. A fee will be assessed at registration. The cost is $12.

Participants can either pack a picnic lunch or purchase a box lunch and beverage for $6. Elk viewers are also asked to bring their own lawn chair and any other things for their comfort such as blankets, binoculars, etc.

The tour is offered by the Central Montana Education Center in Lewistown in partnership with the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.
On our wedding night in Paris, Colin had a tantrum that left him exhausted, so that was a non-starter, and the consummation, when it happened, was awkward, painful and not particularly enjoyable or romantic. Apparently this was my fault. When he took me to a brothel a night or two later to watch a private sex show, I felt he was saying: 'You're hopeless at it, but you'll get some good tips from watching this.' It was so humiliating. He'd had numerous affairs before we met but that didn't mean he regarded it as his role to teach me how to explore this side of life with gentleness or generosity. As long as Colin and I were sleeping together, our sex life was marked by criticism and disappointment. He used to get very cross with me, which of course made things worse and I used to dread going to bed with him. I tried to be enthusiastic but it never worked between us. For a very long time, I felt I must be to blame. The one time he seemed pleased with me was years later in the Grenadines. I think he arranged for my drink to be spiked and, from what I know now, I suspect it was LSD. I had the most terrifying experience, with visions and hallucinations, but we ended up making passionate love despite my feeling so scared. It was extremely energetic and uninhibited. The next day, Colin said: 'That was amazing and that's the way I want you to behave all the time.' 'Well, I felt awful and I still do,' I replied. He didn't lace my drink again but how strange and somehow typical of Colin that, rather than being tender, he decided he could just drug me into doing what he liked.
An elderly farmer has spoken of his devastation after his house was ransacked and burnt to the ground by heartless thieves, destroying prized possessions of his wife who recently passed away from cancer.

Kelvin Turner from Millmerran, Queensland, saw the two-storey brick home he built with his wife in 1983 reduced to rubble in a deliberately lit inferno last Monday.

The 80-year-old was left with just one suit, a bag of clothes and a damaged caravan.

But by far the most devastating loss for the semi-retired farmer was the wedding photos of he and wife Colleen, who died in 2013.

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A house belonging to an elderly man in Millmerran, Queensland was completely ransacked and then burnt to the ground by heartless thieves last week

Kelvin Turner, 80, lost almost all his possessions in the inferno, including rare collections belonging to his wife Colleen who died of cancer in 2013

'I have lost all my wife's stuff and every personal thing I've got,' Mr Turner told the Toowoomba Chronicle.

'Everything I own was in that house. There's not a thing that is salvageable.'

But somehow, despite his heartbreak, Mr Turner has remained resilient.

He says things 'could be worse' and it's that attitude that has led to an outburst of support for him from both friends and strangers.

A Go Fund Me page set up last week has already raised more than $7,600.

While the most generous donation of all came from a commercial construction giant, who have pledged to rebuild Mr Turner's home.

The two-storey brick home and a shed were completely destroyed in the blaze, while thousands of dollars worth of machinery and prized possessions were stolen

Kristin Haken Thave, 25, co-manager of Fast-Tracked Construction, said when she and partner Jon Agostinelli, 28, heard about his situation they just had to help.

'We just heard about Kelvin on the news and we were both immediately touched by it and we just saw it as an opportunity to use our powers for good,' Ms Haken told Daily Mail Australia.

'His house was insured but his contents weren't and they literally went through everything on the property and took whatever they wanted.

'And then when they were finished they burnt it to the ground.'

Brisbane-based construction company Fast-tracked construction has pledged to help Mr Turner rebuild his home. Jon Agostinelli (left) and Kristin Haken Thave (right) say they were heartbroken after hearing his story and will use donated materials to build the house

But the Brisbane construction unit aren't the only business to get involved, with local shops donating furniture and the Toowoomba council waving building fees.

And according to Ms Haken, it's all as a result of the elderly man's positive attitude.

'He's such an amazing gentleman - throughout the situation he's said he just doesn't want it to happen to anyone else which is such an amazing thing,' she said.

'He didn't care that they stole from him, he cared that they burnt it down.'
The Department of Defence has sparked fury by awarding a $9million contract to a firm who will make military uniforms in China.

Crossbench senator Nick Xenophon branded the decision to allow Australian Defence Apparel to make the dress uniforms overseas a 'disgrace'.

Defence officials claimed the multi-million dollar deal on non-combat clothing represented 'best value for money', but Xenophon said they had missed an opportunity to create jobs for Australians.

The Department of Defence has sparked fury by awarding a $9million contract to a firm who will make military uniforms in China. Pictured, Australian troops in Paris ahead of the annual Bastille Day military parade

'What's really on parade here is a failure to support Australian jobs by people that seem to know the price of everything and the value of nothing,' the South Australian senator said.

Xenophon warned that the new contract, which was signed in April and will last for two years, 'fails the pub test'.

'If something is a little more expensive on the surface here in Australia but it means we're going to get all sorts of flow on benefits in terms of jobs, in terms of economic activity and tax and other benefits then it's a no-brainer,' he told ABC.

'Surely something as iconic as the uniforms our serving men and women of the Defence Force wear ought to be made in Australia. The fact that it's not is nothing short of a disgrace,' he added.

The Department of Defence said Australian Defence Apparel was chosen 'as the preferred tenderer, following an open competitive process'.

Xenophon said he would seek further explanation from Defence Minister Marise Payne.

Senator Nick Xenophon branded the decision to allow Australian Defence Apparel to make the dress uniforms overseas a 'disgrace'

The outrage comes days after Labor senator Sam Dastyari was forced to resign after a Chinese business paid a legal fee for him

The outrage over the new deal comes just days after Labor senator Sam Dastyari was forced to resign from the shadow frontbench after having a $40,000 legal fee paid for by a business linked to the Chinese Communist Party.

Yuhu Group, which has offices in Australia and Shenzhen in China, paid the bill for Dastyari.

The company's billionaire chairman, Huang Xiangmo, is behind several pro-Beijing organisation's in Australia and the group donated $435,000 to the Liberal Party and $100,000 to federal Labor between 2013 to 2015.

'I freely admitted that I made a mistake ... Im here to make it clear I accept the consequences,' Dastyari, 33, said as he quit as manager of opposition business in the Senate and spokesman for consumer affairs.

'It's clear to me now that this has become a distraction,' he said on Wednesday.

'The last thing a Government as bad and divided as this one deserves is a free pass. I refuse to be the reason they escape proper scrutiny.'
The son of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi (pictured) is coming back to Scotland to clear his fathers name

The son of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi is coming back to Scotland to clear his fathers name.

Khalid Al Megrahi, 31, insists a fresh appeal is imminent, despite previous failed attempts on behalf of the only man to be convicted of the 1988 atrocity, which killed 270 people.

He plans to move to Scotland from his home in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, together with his family. Libya is like a jungle, he said. I want to return to Scotland for justice.

An appeal launched by campaigners collapsed last November. At the time, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) said it could not proceed without input from Megrahis family.

It would have been the third appeal against Megrahis 2001 conviction. He dropped the second appeal in 2009, while he was suffering from terminal prostate cancer.

Months later, he was allowed to return to Libya on compassionate grounds, where he lived for a further three years.

IT consultant Khalid, pictured, said: I want to return to Scotland for the appeal. I love Scotland. I still keep in touch with some of the Scottish families.

We are fighting because we believe Scotland will give us justice. The people of the country have always been very friendly towards us.

We want justice, not just for our family, but also for the families of the victims. My family have been victims too.

Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, in Scotland, in 1988 killing 270 people (pictured, wreckage of the plane after the atrocity)

Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter Flora in the bombing, said: There is not a scrap of doubt in my mind that, if this appeal goes ahead, his conviction will be overturned.

But other relatives of victims disagree. Speaking from her home in New Jersey, Susan Cohen, whose daughter Theodora, 20, died on Pan Am Flight 103, said: For the Megrahis to call themselves victims, well, that is despicable. He was a mass murderer. To defend him is disgusting.
An unregistered nanny has been charged after two newborn twins she was caring for ended up in a coma for 20 hours.

The twins were rushed to Brisbane's Lady Cilento Hospital last week after their mother and paramedics were unable to rouse them for a night-time feed.

The incident has served as a warning to parents who have been asked to be extra vigilant when hiring nannies.

Police have charged the 41-year-old nanny with being unregistered without a blue card, which is required in the state of Queensland when working with children, and are investigating the incident.

An unregistered nanny has been charged after two newborn twins she was caring for ended up in a coma for more than 20 hours

She is due to appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court on September 26.

It is understood the couple hired the nanny through a Facebook parenting group with about 3,000 members and wrongly believing she held a blue card.

They had sought a nanny after the twins' grandmother got sick and the mother required an extra hand looking after the newborns as her husband was a shift worker.

Australian Nannies Association president Annemarie Sansom, who had been in contact with the newborns' parents, said the nanny had been promoting herself on the Brisbane-based Facebook parenting group.

'The family engaged with [the nanny] and another friend of the family actually vouched for her because they had used her themselves,' Ms Sansom told Daily Mail Australia.

The babies were handed over to the nanny's care one night last week by their mother who wanted to have a rest and remained at home.

'They were fine, healthy and then found later in the evening, when they had missed their feeding time, unable to wake up. So mum then went to find out what was going on,' Ms Sansom told Daily Mail Australia.

'They [the parents] tried for two hours to wake them and they got concerned and called an ambulance.'

The parents of the babies hired the nanny through a Facebook parenting group with about 3,000 members and wrongly believing she held a blue card. Pictured is a stock image

Ms Sansom said paramedics were also unable to rouse the babies even though their vitals were okay.

They were put into the nanny's care at 8pm and did not wake up until 20 hours later at 4pm the next day.

'[The parents] are very distressed about the situation. They are first-time parents with two little babies,' Ms Sansom said.

'The mother is on maternity leave... she did not leave the premises.'

The newborns have returned home to their parents.

Ms Sansom said there were steps parents should take to ensure the welfare of their children.

'I don't want parents to be discourage from using nannies but do the right checks and engage service providers who provide those checks,' she said.

'Do your research on what the requirements are before you engage so you can minimise any risks.'

Ms Sansom said parents should sight a blue card, get a national police check, first aid certificates, CPR certificates, and go through multiple references.
'Moobs' and 'gender-fluid' are among more than 1,000 new words and phrases in the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary - along with 'Westminster bubble.'

Gender-fluid, an adjective first recorded in 1987, now refers to a person who doesn't identify with a single fixed gender.

Moobs is the chiefly British colloquialism, first recorded in 2001, used to describe unusually prominent breasts on a man, typically as a result of excess pectoral fat.

'Moobs' and 'gender-fluid' are among more than 1,000 new words and phrases in the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary - along with 'Westminster bubble'

First used in 1998, 'Westminster bubble' describes an insular community of politicians, journalists, and civil servants, who appear to be out of touch with the experiences of the wider British public.

A feast of food-related terms have also made the latest update, which includes cheese eater and cheese-eating, chef de partie and chef de cabinet, as well as

chefdom - a noun meaning the overall fact, state, or positioning of becoming a chef.

Cheeseball has also been added, to describe someone or something lacking taste, style, or originality; or the breaded and deep fried cheese appetizer.

Another new addition is Bocconcini, which can denote any small items of food, also means balls of mozzarella.

And fans of Greek food will be pleased to see the inclusion of the spinach and cheese stuffed filo pastry pie, spanakopita.

Foodie words from South East Asia have also made their way into the update, with the addition of the Malaysian or Indonesian dish, rendang

Foodie words from South East Asia have also made their way into the update, with the addition of the Malaysian or Indonesian dish, rendang; the flat rice noodle dish stir-fried in soy sauce and shrimp paste, char kway teow; and the Filipino oxtail stew with a peanut-based sauce, kare-kare.

Other interesting additions include 'fuhgeddaboudit' - a US colloquialism, associated especially with New York and New Jersey, reflecting an attempted regional pronunciation of the phrase 'forget about it' - used to indicate a suggested scenario is unlikely or undesirable.

Yogalates - what when Pilates exercises and combined with the postures and breathing techniques of yoga - is also included along with YOLO, a popular acronym used on social media, meaning 'you only live once.'

Michael Proffitt, chief Editor of the OED, said the latest update includes more than 1,000 revised and updated entries and around 1,200 new senses.

He added: 'This confirms the OED as one of the largest and longest-running language research projects in the world.'
The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture will open without any major artifacts from civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

For this, some cast the blame on King's surviving children - Dexter Scott King, Bernice King, Martin Luther King III - who have a reputation for allegedly being difficult and litigious when it comes to items of memorabilia.

The siblings for years have blocked historians, filmmakers and media outlets from using Dr King's words and image without paying what some have called 'exorbitant licensing fees,' according to The Washington Post.

And now the new museum, sharing the rich cultural history of African-Americans, will open on September 24 without a single item given or loaned by the King family.

The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture will open without any major artifacts from civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King Jr (pictured in 1963)

For this, some cast the blame on King's surviving children - Dexter Scott King (left), Bernice King (center), Martin Luther King III (right) - who have a reputation for allegedly being difficult and litigious when it comes to items of memorabilia. Their late sister Yolanda King, far right

The new museum, sharing the rich cultural history of African-Americans, will open on September 24 without a single item given or loaned by the King family

'It's outrageous,' Clarence Jones, the former King attorney who filed the copyright for Dr King's I Have a Dream speech in 1963, told The Washington Post.

'This is the Smithsonian. This is not just another party. This is one of the most important institutions now in the 21st century.

'And this is probably the greatest Civil Rights leader in the 20th century. I find it shameful and I'm sad.'

The siblings have repeatedly taken one another to court, and a string of legal disputes have divided the slain civil rights icon's children in recent years.

The oldest of the four King children, Yolanda, died in 2007 age 51.

Cambridge University historian David Garrow said he is not surprised the museum will be without any major Dr King artifacts when it opens on September 24.

'Given the family's behavior this last 20 years, they're unlikely to have any interest in sharing without a large upfront payment,' he told The Washington Post.

In January, museum curators were invited to Atlanta by the children for a meeting in which King's Bible and the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to him in 1964, were brought out from a bank vault.

Rex Ellis, the museum's associate director of curatorial affairs, carefully observed the Bible, which was last seen publicly during President Barack Obama's inauguration.

The museum has not asked to borrow any items from the family, and noted it prefers to collect works that will not have to be returned, Lonnie Bunch, the museum's director, said.

Curators at the meeting were also aware of the recently settled legal dispute among the siblings over Dr King's traveling Bible and the Nobel Peace Prize.

That suit was considered by many to be the ugliest of the disputes among the siblings.

In the lawsuit King's estate, controlled by his sons, had asked a judge in 2014 to order Bernice King to surrender the items.

Former President Jimmy Carter was eventually brought in to help mediate an agreement, but the brothers were ultimately given the authority by a judge to sell the two key items.

American Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr pictured as he delivers his iconic 'I Have a Dream' speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington

While it is not clear what the siblings will now do with the items, the museum said even if they were for up for purchase, it does not have the type of funds on hand to buy them, The Washington Post reported.

Previously, it was reported the family charged $800,000 for the foundation building a monument to Dr King on the National Mall to use of his words and image.

The memorial was paid for almost entirely with private money in a fundraising campaign led by the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation.

The foundation paid the King family for the use of his words and image in its fundraising materials, but was not charged to use his likeness in the monument.

At the time, Garrow said he did not know of any other descendants that had been paid such a fee.

'One would think any family would be so thrilled to have their forefather celebrated and memorialized in D.C. that it would never dawn on them to ask for a penny,' Garrow said, adding that Dr King would have been 'absolutely scandalized by the profiteering behavior of his children.'

Last year, after a lawsuit was dismissed focusing on a licensing agreement between the estate and the King Center over the use of Dr King's name, likeness, works and memorabilia, Dexter Scott King said it was a show of good faith as he and his siblings worked to resolve the issues dividing them.

King's late wife Coretta Scotta King pictured with the four King children as they sing freedom songs

Yolanda King, Martin Luther King III, and Dexter Scott King pictured as they listen to speeches during a rally following the memorial march in tribute for their father, the slain Dr King

'None of us want to see the legacy of my parents, or our dysfunction, out on public display,' he said in an emailed statement at the time.

However, their reputation for being challenging and often times litigious is the reason some say museum leaders are not expectant in gaining King materials.

'They've made it clear that they're not going to just give away his legacy, so I just think realistically you have to move on,' Stanford University professor Clayborne Carson told The Washington Post.

'Yes, it would be nice if they simply donated what they had inherited from their father but I'm not sure how many people put in the same situation would,' the professor said.

Phillip Jones, the general manager of the King estate, told The Washington Post the family would be open to the artifacts ending up in the museum.

However, he noted there had not been any discussions about how this would take place, adding the children have been focused on healing following the latest suit.

'It's an extraordinary museum and the family believes that certainly,' Jones said.

'And we think it would be wonderful if these items were there. We just haven't been able to focus on it.'

Portrait of Civil Rights activist Coretta Scott King (center) as she poses with her children, Martin Luther King III (rear, left), Dexter Scott King (rear, right), Yolanda King (who died in 2007), and Bernice King

Jones also made a point to say that it is 'extraordinary' for critics to claim the family has been difficult when it comes to borrowing items of memorabilia.

He said the majority of memorabilia has been on loan and also pointed an exhibit at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

The exhibit includes the suit Dr King wore when he met with president Lyndon B Johnson.

Former Mayor of Atlanta Andrew Young, who was also a King confidant, said he hopes critics will consider the struggles the King children have gone through, including losing their father at a young age.

'It was not only losing their father, but their grandmother was shot at the organ playing the Lord's Prayer, in church,' Young, who was with Dr King when he died, told The Washington Post.

However, Young - who was involved in a legal dispute with the King estate in 2013 that was later dismissed - noted the family legacy was not meant to be monetized.

The museum, designed to take visitors through African-American history in the United States from slavery, to a reproduction of Oprah Winfrey's television set upstairs and artifacts from Obama's first presidential campaign

Back in 2006, Young had helped with the fundraising of $32 million to buy King's papers when the four King children announced they planned to sell them.

At the time, the then-Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin raised the funds to buy the papers to place at Morehouse College, Dr King's alma mater.

'I would have thought that would have been more than enough for four people to live on,' Young told The Washington Post.

'But they spent their money suing each other about I don't know what.'

While there might not be any major artifacts from King at the museum, Ellis believes the works on display tell the narrative of the Civil Rights Movement.

Currently, the 165 items listed under King at the museum include vinyl records, buttons and photographs.

Ellis said there are artifacts they wish they had from his personal collection, but said what they have on display 'represents a missed opportunity.'

The museum, designed to take visitors through African-American history in the United States from slavery, to a reproduction of Oprah Winfrey's television set upstairs and artifacts from Obama's first presidential campaign.
Rape victim Marie Reynolds claims PC Steven Walters said he would only investigate her crime if she performed oral sex on him

A police officer told a rape victim that he would investigate her attack if she performed oral sex on him, a court heard.

Mother-of-two Marie Reynolds, from Erdington in Birmingham, claims that PC Steven Walters told her he would look at CCTV footage that might support her allegation, but only if she performed the act.

She spoke out after the shamed Sutton Coldfield officer admitted two sex attacks on women while he was on duty during a hearing at Stafford Crown Court.

Hairdresser Marie, 40, has waived her anonymity because she wants to warn the public about Walters, who is due to be sentenced on September 29 and has been warned by a judge that a prison sentence is 'almost inevitable'.

The shamed officer was charged with misconduct in public office after Marie reported him, but the charge was left to lie on the file after he admitted attacks on two other women.

She claims her ordeal unfolded when Walters, 47, and another officer attended the home of her mother.

Marie was stopping there after complaining she had been sexually assaulted at the tower block where she lived.

While one PC stayed with her parents, she says Walters followed her into a bedroom.

The other officer had no idea what was going on, Marie stresses.

She said: 'He was coming across like he didn't believe me. I was so low and vulnerable. I was promised he would sort it all out, that he'd look at the CCTV.

'But first he made me perform a sex act. I was just getting nowhere and needed help.

'I wasn't thinking straight. I felt disgusted, but for him it was as if nothing had happened.

'He walked into the room where my mum was, looking completely normal.

Sutton Coldfield officer Steven Walters admitted two sex attacks on women while he was on duty

'He acted as if nothing had happened,' she says, 'but I felt dirty. I told my mum as soon as he left.

'I wanted their help,' sobbed Marie. 'I just wasn't thinking straight. He's disgusting.

'He made me feel worse, not better. Of course he deserves jail. Of course he deserves being placed on the sex offenders' register.'

Marie says she has suffered blackouts, anxiety and has been unable to continue work as a mobile hairdresser. Her faith in the police has been crushed.

She said: 'I can't phone them up if anything happens. I have no faith. I'm so paranoid.'

In a written statement, Marie explained: 'I felt extremely vulnerable and distressed at this point.

'I agreed [to what he wanted] because I was desperate to get the CCTV evidence to prove to people that I was not lying and making up these allegations.

'I was desperate for someone to look into the case and investigate it.'

Marie has struggled since the incident and just months ago was taken to Good Hope Hospital after slashing her wrist. It was not her first suicide attempt. The hairdresser, now under the care of a mental health team, still has the scars on her wrist as testament to the dark place in which she found herself.

Marie was at Stafford Crown Court on Monday to hear Walters enter his guilty pleas.

No details of the offences were given during the brief appearance.

The Crown Prosecution Service accepted both pleas but did not proceed with the third allegation of misconduct in public office because they said it was not in the public interest.

She said: 'The thought of giving evidence was terrible. People say I'll get better, but I'm not. The medication I'm on zonks [sic] me out.'

West Midland Police Force has apologised for the conduct of its rogue officer.

Deputy Chief Constable Louisa Rolfe, said: 'PC Steven Walters worked as part of our 24/7 response unit - officers the public rely upon in their hour of need.

'He has admitted abusing his position by sexually assaulting two women he encountered while on duty.

During his trial at Stafford Crown Court (pictured) PC Walters was told that a custodial sentence was almost 'inevitable'

'I am sorry that an officer working for West Midlands Police has exploited the trust placed in him by two women when they deserved respect and support.

'PC Walters is currently suspended from duty and he will now face aninternal misconduct hearing.

'We expect the highest standards of professionalism from all officers and police staff.

'Serving and protecting the public is paramount and it is vital that our communities have trust and confidence in everything that we do. To breach this trust in such an abhorrent way is totally unacceptable.

'Any officer or staff members who fails to uphold our force values and falls below the high standards we expect will be dealt with accordingly.'

Those words have cut little ice with Marie.

'Because of him, I've got to start from scratch again,' she says. 'I went to the police to make things better and they made things worse.'
A North Carolina man has been arrested after he allegedly murdered his six-year-old daughter amid a bitter custody battle with his estranged wife.

Seth Willis Pickering, 36, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Lila Pickering.

Pickering was taken into custody around 7pm on Friday after authorities discovered his car parked on the side of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Police said they found Lila's body inside the vehicle.

Seth Willis Pickering, 36, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of his daughter Lila Pickering (pictured together)

Authorities have not yet released how Lila was killed.

Lila was placed in a home by child protective services as Pickering and his estranged wife Ashley, who lives in Florida, battled for custody.

Ashley Pickering said she had talked to a CPS worker just hours before Lila was killed and was told the little girl was 'happy and healthy and in a great home'.

Pickering was taken into custody around 7pm on Friday after authorities discovered his car parked on the side of the Blue Ridge Parkway

'They were going to work on getting her back down (to Florida)', Ashley told the Asheville Citizen-Times.

But just hours later Ashley received a phone call at 2am from a police officer, informing her that Lila was dead.

'What they said to me just keeps playing in my head like a broken record,' the devastated mother said.

Lila was abducted from her foster home some time after she was picked up from school on Friday, Ashley told Fox Carolina.

The Buncombe County Sheriff's Office was about to issue an AMBER Alert for Lila when they were notified by the National Park Service of a homicide on the Parkway.

Two rangers found Pickering and his daughter after they saw his car outside of a designated parking space and decided to investigate.

The FBI is leading the homicide investigation because Blue Ridge Parkway is part of the National Park System.

Named 'America's favorite drive', the Blue Ridge Parkway connects the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina to the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

It is dotted with numerous campgrounds, picnic areas and trails.

Video courtesy WLOS

Lila's body was found inside Pickering's car. Authorities said Pickering abducted his daughter from her foster home on Friday before murdering her

Lila was placed in a home by child protective services as Pickering and his estranged wife Ashley Pickering, who lives in Florida, battled for custody

Authorities closed a portion of the Parkway until 1am on Saturday morning as investigators gathered evidence at the scene of the murder.

The National Parks Service and Buncombe County Sheriff's Office are also involved in the investigation.

Ashley said she separated from Pickering in May 2015 because he was abusive. She said the custody battle to bring Lila to Florida had been going on for 15 months.

Lila was placed in another home after Pickering was involved in a violent dispute with another person.

But Ashley said he had never hurt Lila in the past and she never thought he was a danger to their daughter.

'Lila worshipped the ground he walked on,' she told the Asheville-Citizen Times.

'She would jump in his lap and smile and laugh and be so happy when he was holding her.'

Ashley Pickering (pictured) said she separated from Pickering in May 2015 because he was abusive. She said the custody battle to bring Lila to Florida had been going on for 15 months

Pickering's occupation on Facebook is 'Daddy' and his profile is full of pictures of the curly-haired girl.

Lila was just a month shy of turning seven-years-old. Ashley's mother said they had planned to pick her up in just a week to take her back to Florida.

The girl's grandmother also revealed that Pickering was mentally ill and had recently been released from a psychiatric hospital.

Ashley revealed Lila was a miracle baby, as the mother suffers from a connective tissues disorder that makes it dangerous to carry a child to full term.

'I had her and she was perfect,' Ashley said. 'She was happy and healthy.

'She had no medical problems. She was absolutely beautiful. She is absolutely beautiful.'
The US academic Amy Chua came up with the name 'tiger mums' in 2011

Mothers who push their children through an exhausting regime of extra homework, known as 'tiger mums', are the unhappiest.

Research has poured doubt on whether being a pushy parent really pays off in the long term.

Parents who believe in a strict timetable of additional reading and maths sessions are exhausted and overwhelmed, academics found.

The research, by Queen Mary University of London, is the first ever to be published on demanding parents.

The US academic Amy Chua came up with the name 'tiger mums' in 2011 to describe the type of parent.

Her book on how she guided her two young daughters through extra homework, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, became a global bestseller.

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London said that children could suffer is their household is dominated by stress and unhappiness.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother became a global bestseller

Almudena Sevilla, professor of economics at the university, told The Times: 'Our results suggest that there may be a link between what are regarded as the best parenting practices and more miserable motherhood.

'The findings raise questions about whether this accompanying maternal unhappiness may be harmful to children, given what we already know, for example, about the detrimental impact of postnatal depression.'

The study went through a large set of US data on the wellbeing and happiness of mothers.

The work may answer why parenting classes struggle to help poorly educated mothers to push their children to do improve standards, Professor Sevilla added.

Chua's book explained how she parents. Her rules include: only accept exam grades of A or higher and never take part in an activity which isn't education focused.
After seeing 11 bullet holes in a sign on the Yellowstone Wildlife Management Area last week, Tony Brilz was prepared to make a stand.

Right over the hill is Annies house, he said. Thats the one that hurt my heart.

I was ready to go up there, put a chain across the road and get arrested.

Brilz, 70, and his 79-year-old neighbor, Annie Rowe, have lost their patience with members of the public who visit the neighboring wildlife management area and shoot signs, litter and build fires  all of which are illegal activities.

They shoot up everything, Rowe said. After my husband died about five years ago I started sleeping on the couch and got a dog for protection. Im scared at night, and people are coming and going all day and night.

Public land

The Yellowstone Wildlife Management area is located about 30 miles east of Billings on the north side of its namesake river. Access to the area is via Bundy Road that passes just west of Pompeys Pillar.

Purchased in 2008 by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks for $5.3 million, the former Circle R River Ranch is almost 4,000 acres and adjoins state and Bureau of Land Management property to provide access to another 5,400 acres of once-isolated public lands.

Pheasants Forever grows crops along the irrigated river bottom to provide habitat and food for wildlife. Although a campground was once considered for the river bottom, the idea was shelved.

According to FWPs Teri Walters, traffic counters at the WMA average about 200 vehicles a month, which she termed pretty low.

Enforcement issues

FWPs warden captain, supervisor and parks staff are familiar with Brilzs and Rowes complaints. The two have protested the WMA since before it was created.

Weve met them, actually Annie and Bill (Rowes deceased husband) have been heavily involved since before the department first started to look at buying the land, said Harold Guse, FWPs Region 5 warden captain.

Guse acknowledged there has been vandalism at the WMA, but thats the case at many rural public sites  everything from destroyed outhouses to picnic tables chopped up for firewood. In one case, the Fish and Wildlife Commission took the extreme measure of shutting down a fishing access site along the Missouri River near Great Falls over the summer after continued reports of vandalism, underage drinking and violence.

Vandalism is pretty widespread, Guse said, usually perpetrated by locals. People dont drive miles and miles to vandalize stuff.

Guse called it a crime of opportunity  one committed when no one else is around to report the criminal act.

More patrols

A larger enforcement presence would seem to be the easy answer. Yet there are only 14 wardens to cover FWPs entire Region 5, an area that stretches from the Sweet Grass County line in the west to the Treasure County line to the east and from the Wyoming border north to Petroleum County. So wardens are spread thin. Since the site is open 24 hours a day, disturbances can occur at any time.

Brilz said closing the WMA at night would help ease his concerns  hed even offer to man the gate. But Guse said such a closure is difficult on a WMA where hunters may arrive before first light and leave after dark.

FWP wildlife technician Jay Watson said he spends more time than most FWP employees at the WMA and said use is fairly low  four to five people a day  except for the opening of deer and pheasant seasons when traffic swells.

Watson also said that most of the signs that have been shot up at the Yellowstone WMA havent been replaced, so damage that is visible has occurred over eight years and not just recently.

Its not cost-effective to replace them after they get bullet holes in them, he said. Its not a huge problem in my book.

Changed neighborhood

Rowe grew up on her familys ranch that was first settled by her Czechoslovakian grandfather in 1906. The ranch borders the WMA. The road to the site passes close to her home. Since the property has opened to the public she said gas has been siphoned from her trucks, cattle have been hit by vehicles and shots have whizzed overhead while she was outside.

Its like Wal-Mart  open 24 hours  but without the checkers, Brilz said. People come and go as they want.

But neighbors also reported having their mailboxes shot up before the WMA was formed, according to comments submitted to FWP in 2008 when the wildlife management area was first proposed. Anyone who has driven down a county road in Montana has seen signs riddled with bullet holes and shotgun pellets, as if it were a common state pastime.

Thats why Guse said its up to the public to denounce such activity and come forward when they witness others performing such illegal acts.

People know whats going on, he said. They need to speak up to law enforcement or speak out against the activity.

Rowe, for one, is afraid to turn in troublemakers for fear of retaliation. She said a friend who reported a poacher had his garage shot up.

Public land

On Friday Billings bird hunters Chaz Tafolla and his friend Ryan Benton drove to the WMA. Tafolla said hes been visiting the area for about a year to hunt birds and prairie dogs. He usually only sees one or two other people, although that increases in the fall, and hes never seen anyone shooting up signs or vandalizing the site.

We continue to try and work with the situation, said Barb Beck, Region 5 supervisor. Weve told them well be patrolling to the best of our ability and if they feel threatened to call 911 so someone responds.

But she added that the wildlife management area is a public resource.

And along with that comes people who may not act responsibly, Beck said.

Such comments do little to salve Brilz and Rowes concerns.

This is getting too close and too much, Brilz said. There are too many people living out here now.

This is one of the reasons ranchers have closed off their land to public hunters, said Brilz, a hunter, angler and trapper himself. In fact, thats how he first met the Rowes, while looking for a place to hunt 35 years ago.

Now that he has a little piece of paradise overlooking the Yellowstone River and the wildlife management area, he cant rest as easy as he once hoped. Neither can Rowe.

My husband and I came out here for a peaceful retirement, Rowe said.

Brilz said he doesnt want the WMA closed, but our lives matter, too, he said.
The son of former loyalist leader Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair has been found dead at the age of 32.

The body of Jonathan Adair junior, who was nicknamed 'Mad Pup' after his father, was found at a house in Troon, Ayrshire, on Saturday afternoon.

Adair jnr, 32, had only recently been released from prison in Kilmarnock, where he had been serving time for driving offences.

Jonathan Adair junior (left), the son of former loyalist leader Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair (right) has been found dead at the age of 32

Jonathan Adair (left), Gina Adair, Chloe Adair, Johnny Adair and Natalie Adair in the late 1990's in their Shankill Road home

The body of Jonathan Adair junior (right), who was nicknamed 'Mad Pup' after his father (left), was found at a house in Troon, Ayrshire, on Saturday afternoon

He was also set to face drugs charges in January, according to Belfast Live.

Police Scotland said the death of the father-of-two was currently being treated as unexplained.

The force said a post-mortem will be carried out and a report is to be sent to the procurator fiscal.

A spokeswoman said: 'At around 5.15pm on Saturday police received a report of a body of a man having been found within a property in Templehill in Troon.

'A postmortem will be carried out in due course to establish the exact cause of death.

'Officers are treating it as unexplained at this time.'

A number of tributes appeared online following the news of Adair jnr's death (right, aged 17). Pictured (left) is Adair snr

Terror boss Johnny Adair pictured with wife Geena and kids Jonathan, Natilie and Chloe (youngest).

A number of tributes appeared online following the news of Adair jnr's death.

Jim Holmes wrote: 'Gutted to hear da (sic) sad loss of my cousin Jonathan adair will b missed truly.'

Angela Robertson said: 'Jonathan Adair you where the funniest guy iv ever met such sad news another young life took just like that R.I.P big man.'

Natalia Gracey wrote: 'R.I.P Jonathan Adair , thinking of the laughs we used to have chum, my heart breaks for your family and kids.'

Two years ago Adair was jailed a smashing a window and threatening a woman after she refused to sell him cannabis.

He later admitted that he was high on 'street valium' when he went on the rampage.

The year before, he was on remand for attempting to headbutt a man.

He was put in prison again for breaking a ban on driving imposed against him after he was stopped by police.

Quick checks determined that he had no licence or insurance to drive the vehicle.

Adair snr was a leading figure in the Ulster Defence Association during the Troubles in Northern Ireland

He was due to go on trial in January next year accused of being in possession of cannabis at HMP Bowhouse in Kilmarnock in May.

The case against him called at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court on Friday, the day before he was found dead. His lawyers lodged a not guilty plea.

Adair snr was a leading figure in the Ulster Defence Association during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

He moved to Scotland with his partner and five children after being released from prison as part of the Good Friday Agreement and has lived in Ayrshire for a number of years.

The 52-year-old's group was linked to around 30 sectarian murders and has Adair has himself survived many attempts to kill him.

Last year, three men were found guilty of planning to murder him and ex-UDA leader Sam McCrory.
Renowned filmmaker Oliver Stone wants US President Barack Obama to pardon Edward Snowden.

During an appearance at the Toronto film festival to promote the opening of his new movie, Stone, the conspiracy-loving director, spoke on behalf of the former NSA analyst who in 2013 revealed details of classified U.S. government surveillance programs.

Since leaking the information, Snowden has been living in Russia, which granted him temporary asylum.

After the revelations, Snowden fled to Hong Kong and eluded authorities by hiding among Sri Lankan refugees living in cramped tenements.

Director Oliver Stone (left) criticized US President Barack Obama (right) for creating 'the most extensive invasive surveillance state that ever existed'

He is wanted in the U.S. for espionage and stealing state secrets. If convicted, he could get up to 30 years in prison.

'Mr. Obama could pardon him and we hope so,' Stone was quoted by the AFP news agency as telling reporters.

'We hope that Mr. Obama has a stroke of lightning and he sees the way, despite the fact that he's prosecuted vigorously eight whistleblowers under the Espionage Act, which is an all-time record in American history, [and he's created] the most extensive invasive surveillance state that ever existed.'

After the Snowden revelations became public, he was hailed by some as a whistleblower who brought welcome public attention to the issue of government's role in monitoring civilians. Others, however, have denounced him as a traitor.

When asked about Snowden in 2013, Obama said: 'No, I don't think Mr. Snowden was a patriot.'

Edward Snowden (right), the former NSA contractor who is living in asylum in Russia, is played in the movie by actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt

'The fact is, Mr. Snowden has been charged with three felonies.'

At the Toronto film festival, the actor who plays Snowden in Stone's movie, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, says that he is sympathetic to the former CIA employee.

'He would like to come home,' Gordon-Levitt said. 'He really was doing what he did out of a sincere love for his country and the principles that the country was founded on.'

Snowden told an audience of supporters in New Hampshire earlier this year that he is willing to be extradited to the U.S. if the federal government would guarantee he would get a fair trial.

'I've told the government I would return if they would guarantee a fair trial where I can make a public interest defense of why this was done and allow a jury to decide,' Snowden told his audience.

Snowden has previously spoken of making offers to the government to return home and his willingness to discuss a plea deal and even go to jail.

Last year, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said a plea deal with Snowden was a possibility, but Snowden told the BBC in an interview in October that he and his lawyers were still waiting to hear from the government.

Stone is set to talk about the film Monday evening with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Ron Suskind.
to glorify and praise God together as a group

A Muslim leader said the gathering allowed for

A street outside Lakemba Mosque was closed for hours to

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Tens of thousands of Muslims have gathered at Lakemba Mosque in Sydney to honour a man's willingness to sacrifice his only son in God's name.

Muslim residents caused road closures outside Lakemba Mosque, in Sydney's south-west, as they participated in the Eid Al Adha prayer, which marks the end of the annual pilgrimage or Hajj to the Saudi holy city of Mecca.

Between 20,000 and 30,000 men and women were pictured standing stoically on prayer mats laid across Wangee Road, which was closed between 5am and 9am, with sounds of prayers echoing through the streets as an Imam lead the service from inside the mosque.

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Thousands of devoted Muslims have gathered in the streets of Western Sydney to honour a man's willingness to sacrifice his only son in God's name

Muslim residents caused road closures outside Lakemba mosque as they participated in the Eid Al Adha prayer, which marks the end of the annual pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca

A police spokespersons said the single road was closed for around four hours, with extra police deployed to direct traffic around Punchbowl Road during the service.

Men and women mingled outside the mosque before and after prayer time, however they were segregated as they offered their Eid Al Adha prayer.

Muslim community spokesperson Keysar Trad, who led prayers in Zetland, south of Sydney's CBD, said the celebrations were one of the biggest events in the Islamic calendar and marked the breaking of a nine day fast.

'The Eid Al Adha prayer has an additional prayer and a sermon - the rest of the time you are supposed to glorify and praise God together,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

Men and women mingled outside the mosque before and after prayer time, however they were segregated as they offered their Eid Al Adha prayer

Some gathered in a nearby rugby ground (pictured) to offer their Eid Al Adha prayer

The men stood in neat rows and bowed their heads as an Imam lead the sermon

They knelt on prayer mats during the service which is one of the biggest in the Islamic calendar

'Many people would have been fasting for the last nine days between the break of dawn and sunset,' he added.

He said his sermon touched on examples about the prophet Ibrahim who was willing to sacrifice his only son at God's request.

The celebration is observed internationally, with pictures of Filipino Muslims at Luneta Park in Manila emerging that show women offering their prayers to commemorate Ibrahim's faith.

The women were seen in head scarves bowing on prayer mats behind a barbed wire fence outside the Blue Mosque, some with young children laying or praying beside them.

Animals were slaughtered and split into three parts during the 'Feast of the Sacrifice', with worshippers honouring tradition by offering one portion to their family, one to friends and another for the poor or needy.

The celebration, also known as the 'Feast of the Sacrifice', is observed internationally (Pictured: Women in Manila)

Thousands gathered at the Blue Mosque in Taguig city, east of Manila, in the Philippines, on Monday morning

A young child suckles on a bottle of milk as his mother kneels beside worshippers at Eid al-Adha in the Philippines

The women were seen in head scarves bowing on prayer mats behind a barbed wire fence, some with young children laying or praying beside them

Many children were seen participating in the service which makes the holies of the two Muslim annual holidays

A woman uses her smart phone to take a 'selfie' after attending the morning prayers near Manila

A Muslim spokesperson said his sermon touched on examples about the prophet Abraham who was willing to sacrifice his only son at God's request

The service was projected on to a large screen so the Imam's instructions were visible to worshippers outside the mosque

Mr Trad said between 20 and 30 thousand worshippers travelled to Lakemba Mosque (pictured) for the event

Volunteers offered to help clean the space on Sunday before the sacred prayers took place

The sun shone down on worshippers who gathered early Monday morning

Police stand watch as thousands of Chinese worshippers line the streets in preparation for the Eid Al-Adha prayer

A woman in Shanghai with a lace veil over her head holds her phone to her ear before the sacred annual prayer commences

Chinese Muslims sit in neat rows as a police dog circles worshippers on a street outside a mosque in Shanghai

Three Indonesian Muslims use their prayer mats to shelter from the rain as they arrive for morning prayers to mark Eid al-Adha on the sand-dunes of Parangkusumo beach, in Yogyakarta, on the island of Java

Many women in Yogyakarta wore crisp white veils for the occasion which is one of two Islamic holidays celebrated worldwide

Worshippers are required to place their hands over their ears during the Eid al-Adha prayer, which differs from the daily routine

Men and women on the sand dunes of Parangkusumo are separated as they offer their prayer during Eid al-Adha

Acehnese men stand beside a reflective pool of water as they lay out their mats in preparation for prayers at Blang Padang Park, Banda Aceh, Indonesia

Thousands gathered at Malang, the second largest city in East Java, Indonesia for Eid al-Adha or 'the feast of sacrifice'

Indonesian Muslims bow their heads during prayer in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, as a balloon floats in the crowd

The women are dressed in modest veils, many choosing to wear white, during the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha

Technology and tradition meet in Blang Padang Park, Indonesia, as women take 'selfies' to commemorate the occasion

A mosque in Jakarta is inundated with devoted worshippers who have risen early to pray for the end of fasting

A child peeks through the railings from an upper level of Istiqlal Mosque, the largest mosque in Southeast Asia

The sheer volume of worshippers could not be contained and some must line up on adjoining road to take part in the prayer

Women and men are divided as they take the time to glorify God as a group on the holiday of Eid Al-Adha

Worshippers observing the holiday also sacrifice animals and distribute meat to the poor during the sacred day

A cat bolts past the line of people as they sit on mats during the Eid al-Adha holiday at Jakarta's Senen Market in Indonesia

Muslims can be seen crossing their arms across their navel - which is a part of the practice during Eid al-Adha

Controversial figure Salim Mehajer posted a pictured outside Lakemba Mosque on Monday morning, offering his followers wishes of 'Eid mubarak' - which is a traditional Muslim greeting that means 'blessed celebration' in Arabic.

He posted an image reading from the Quran to his Instagram account on Sunday.

'Whist the pilgrims go to Arafat from Mina, for the most important part of the Hajj; we sit back and try to redeem the importance of this day,' he wrote.

Controversial figure Salim Mehajer posted a pictured outside Lakemba mosque (pictured) on Monday morning, offering his followers wishes of 'Eid mubarak' - a traditional Muslim greeting that means 'blessed celebration' in Arabic
Australia's property market is on the brink of collapse, according to a U.S. defence group.

International Strategic Studies Association (ISSA), who is based in U.S. capital Washington D.C., warns Australia has just six weeks to stop this collapse from happening.

ISSA says 'changes in local banking policies' could trigger foreign investment to 'decline markedly' in the housing market, news.com.au reported.

The think tank makes this prediction in an article, 'Australia Risks Strategic Setback From a Significant Foreign Direct Investment Drop Due to Changes in Bank Policies', in one of its newsletters.

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Australia's property market is six weeks away from a major collapse, according to a U.S. defence group International Strategic Studies Association

ISSA's Australian-born president Gregory Copley AM, said the banks were acting on the belief housing prices would plummet and were taking steps to mitigate risk by taking cues from the U.S. financial crisis that ended in a 'no-win scenario' where volume was high and the market was slow.

'We estimate that Australia has about six weeks or so to turn this situation around, otherwise there would be a massive hit on property valuations and the building trades,' Mr Copley told news.com.au.

'The urgency is, I believe, based on the fact that this is about how long it will take for the banks' policies to start switching off a lot of existing and planned contracts for Australian properties.'

But CoreLogic head of Australian research Cameron Kusher said the article was no more than a 'sensational headline' and said a crackdown on foreign investor lending by banks was 'unlikely to become a problem'.

'More broadly we know the banks have toned up lending to foreigners, particularly those earning an income outside of Australia,' Mr Kusher told Daily Mail Australia.

'That may lead to some not being able to settle on properties they have put a deposit down on... [but] there would be locals to buy if foreigners could not buy on those properties.'

ISSA's Australian-born president Gregory Copley AM, said the banks were acting on the belief housing prices would plummet and were taking steps to mitigate risk

Domain senior economist Andrew Wilson agrees.

'The Australian housing market is more stable now than it has been for a number of years,' Dr Wilson told Daily Mail Australia.

'The really only under-performing markets are Perth and Darwin. Other housing markets are travelling quite nicely.

'We'e obviously seeing some strengthening activity in Sydney and Melbourne.'

The latest housing figures from CoreLogic showed a 1.1 per cent rise in housing prices across capital cities in the month of August.

In Sydney and Melbourne, dwelling values increased at more than 1 per cent month-on-month.

The cumulative growth over the cycle from June 2012 to August has reached 64 per cent in Sydney and 44 per cent in Melbourne.
North Korea is ready to conduct another nuclear test at any time, South Korea's defence ministry has claimed - just days after Pyongyang sparked worldwide condemnation with its fifth and most powerful test.

Officials in Seoul say South Korea's military has been placed on full combat readiness to respond to 'further nuclear tests, ballistic missile launches or land provocation' by the North.

It comes as it emerged that the South is planning to 'annoy' its neighbour by blasting loud K-pop girl band music over the border.

North Korea is ready to conduct another nuclear test at any time, South Korea's defence ministry has claimed - just days after Pyongyang sparked worldwide condemnation with its fifth and most powerful test. North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un is pictured

The army wants to set up a huge block of speakers and a giant screen at the frontier and play the music along with South Korean and international news bulletins in a bid to infuriate Pyongyang, the Korea Times newspaper reports.

Meanwhile, South Korean defence ministry spokesman Moon Sang-Gyun told of his fears of another nuclear test in the North.

He said: 'An additional test could be conducted in a tunnel that branches off from the second tunnel or in the third tunnel, where preparations have been completed.'

All five nuclear tests have been conducted at the Punggye-ri site in the country's northeast. The initial one in October 2006 was in the first tunnel and the last four in the second tunnel, according to Seoul's defence ministry.

In a statement hailing the 'success' of its test on Friday, the North vowed to take 'further measures' to increase its nuclear strike force 'in quality and in quantity'.

Officials in Seoul say South Korea's military has been placed on full combat readiness to respond to 'further nuclear tests, ballistic missile launches or land provocation' by the North

The yield from Friday's test was estimated at 10 kilotons, almost twice as much as the one Pyongyang conducted only eight months earlier.

The North also boasted that the test was conducted on a nuclear warhead that could be mounted on a missile.

The nuclear programme's 'miraculous successes' mean that the North has not only US bases in the Asia-Pacific but also the US mainland 'in its clutches', ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said Monday.

Should Washington again launch a war against it, Pyongyang would 'blow up the land of America and thus finally root out the source of war on the earth'.

The UN Security Council agreed Friday to start work on new punitive measures, even though five sets of UN sanctions since the first test have failed to halt the North's nuclear drive.

A man watches a television screen reporting news of North Korea's latest submarine-launched ballistic missile test at a railway station in Seoul on August 25, 2016 Jung Yeon-Je (AFP/File)

Sung Kim, the US State Department's special representative for North Korea policy, said Sunday during a visit to Japan that Washington and Tokyo would work closely to come up with the strongest possible measures.

He also suggested that the US may launch its own sanctions.

The envoy will arrive in Seoul later Monday and hold talks with his South Korean counterpart Kim Hong-Kyun on Tuesday morning.

Washington also plans to stage an overflight of South Korea by two B-1B Lancer supersonic bombers as a show of strength, Yonhap news agency said.

US Forces Korea (USFK) said the flight had been delayed a day because of bad weather and would arrive tomorrow, identifying the planes only as 'strategic aircraft'.

'The mission is aimed at reinforcing the US commitment to its key ally following North Korea's nuclear test,' a USFK spokesman told AFP.

Officials in Seoul say South Korea's military has been placed on full combat readiness to respond to 'further nuclear tests, ballistic missile launches or land provocation' by the North

Washington has taken similar military actions following previous atomic tests.

The US also plans to send a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier -- the USS Ronald Reagan -- and five destroyers to South Korean waters next month for a joint naval exercise, according to Yonhap.

The USFK spokesman declined to confirm the report. A similar exercise was held last year.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has introduced a same-sex marriage bill to Parliament and issued a challenge to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on the issue: Get this done.

As Parliamentary sittings resumed on Monday, the Labor leader reminded Mr Turnbull it was his first anniversary as prime minister and urged him to take action on the bill.

I say to the prime minister  this is an issue you said you cared about, Mr Shorten told parliament.

Labor Leader Bill Shorten (pictured) arguing against a plebiscite today in Parliament

Greens MP Adam Bandt told parliament the proposed plebiscite was unnecessary, hateful and hurtful for the gay population

You have been prime minister for a year now  you can get this done.

Mr Shorten said a move to legalise same-sex marriage would show Australians parliament can lead and keep faith with the people.

Greens MP Adam Bandt introduced a separate bill to legalise same-sex marriage on behalf of crossbenchers, but told parliament the government's proposed plebiscite was unnecessary, hateful and hurtful.

Greens MP Adam Bandt (pictured) said the proposed plebiscite was 'unnecessary, hateful and hurtful'

Bill Shorten said a plebiscite would provide a platform for prejudice and a mega phone for hate speech

The plebiscite is expected to be discussed by cabinet on Monday.

Funding a referendum that is not binding on this place is the equivalent of funding the schoolyard bully to go and insult other students, Mr Bandt said.

Mr Shorten also spoke against the plebiscite, saying it would represent a fundamental failure of this Parliament to do its job.

Speaking in Parliament today, Bill Shorten urged the prime minister to legalise same-sex marriage, but not go ahead with a non-binding plebiscite

'A No campaign would be an emotional torment for gay teenagers' Bill Shorten said

A No campaign would be an emotional torment for gay teenagers and if one child commits suicide over the plebiscite, then that is one too many. Bill Shorten

How can anyone justify spending at least $160 million on a compulsory vote when members of the government wont be compelled to respect the result?

Mr Shorten said the true cost of a plebiscite was far greater than $160 million and it provided a platform for prejudice and a mega phone for hate speech.

Federal Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten (right) in parliament today with Deputy Leader of the Opposition Tanya Plibersek (left)

How can anyone justify spending at least $160 million on a compulsory vote when members of the Government wont be compelled to respect the result? Mr Shorten said

There is a real risk that LGBTI Australians will be subjected to a well-organised, well-funded campaign of vitriol and prejudice, he said.

A No campaign would be an emotional torment for gay teenagers and if one child commits suicide over the plebiscite, then that is one too many.

Details of the proposed plebiscite are expected to go to a coalition joint party room meeting on Tuesday, where the issue of public funding will also be on the table.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and The Coalition are still divided over whether public funding should be provided for both sides of the campaign

The Coalition remains divided over whether public funding should be provided for both sides of the campaign.

While the prime minister has remained tight lipped about funding for the proposed plebiscite, former Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters at Parliament House there was a need for proper funding.

"If it is going to be decided by the people, as it should obviously, there needs to be proper campaigns,' former Prime Minister Tony Abbott said

"If it is going to be decided by the people, as it should obviously, there needs to be proper campaigns,' he said.
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Two enterprising brothers have transformed a dilapidated 'hoarder house' that was filled with rubbish into a stunning four-bedroom family home worth more than $2 million in just eight months.

Rob and Andrew Gray snapped up the squalid dump in Brisbane for $750,000 earlier this year and have already sold it after giving the property a remarkable makeover.

The grubby property, in the leafy suburb of Paddington, was strewn with a vast haul of computer parts and the brothers had to hire a digger to scrape all of the rubbish away.

But they told Daily Mail Australia that their hard graft was worth it after making their money back - and then some - after selling the stunning three-storey home for $2.05million.

Before: Andrew and Rob Gray found the house strewn with rubbish, but decided to buy it for $750,000 eight months ago

After: The modern, three-storey home in Paddington, Brisbane, is now worth more than $2million and looks stunning

Squalid: The grubby property was strewn with a vast haul of computer parts and the brothers had to hire a digger to scrape all of the rubbish away

Staggering: The Gray's hard graft was worth it, with the stunning property recently sold for a cool $2.05million

Rob Gray, who runs Graya Construction with his brother Andrew, said the house was practically falling apart when they arrived and that some rooms were so crammed with waste that they could not even open the doors.

'The upper level it really smelt, it was full of c**p,' Mr Gray said.

'The bathrooms you couldn't even walk in. There were pots and pans everywhere that hadn't been cleaned.'

Mr Gray added that the previous owner of the property, which had laid in state of disrepair for months before the brothers arrived, was littered with electronics that needed clearing out.

'The lower level was really weird,' he said. 'The old owner seemed to be a collector of old printer cartridges and there were lots of old computer parts too.'

Despite the huge job on their hands, the Grays bought the 525sqm home for $750,000 home and quickly set about transforming it into a water tower-style home.

Landfill: Rob and Andrew Gray snapped up the squalid dump in Brisbane for $750,000 earlier this year and have already sold it after giving the property a quite remarkable makeover

Trash: Rob Gray, who runs Graya Construction with Andrew, said the house was practically falling apart when they bought it

Disgusting: Some rooms were so crammed with waste that they could not even open the doors, Mr Gray said

Cardboard boxes filled to the brim with old electronics including printers, keyboards and even a toaster filled the lower floors

Rubbish spilled out of the home in Paddington, a suburb of Brisbane, but the Gray brothers still took the property on

Despite the huge amount of work needed to fix the home, the Grays completed the job just eight months after taking it on

The Gray brothers, who work for Graya Constructions, had to call in excavators to rid the property of the piles of trash

The house resembled a shack when the brother took it on but after a few months of work, it was in good enough shape to sell

The brothers bought the home for $750,000 at the start of the year and sold it for $2.05million after a huge construction job

'It was an off-market sale through a real estate agent called Ben Wakeley,' Rob Gray said. 'They only deal to people who want to buy regularly in the area and are willing to do substantial renovation to properties.'

Mr Gray told Daily Mail Australia that they spent in the region of $1million renovating the five-tiered home, which has three bathrooms, two living rooms and a swimming pool.

About halfway through the restoration, the property was spotted by Channel 9 news presenter Alison Ariotti and her anaesthetist husband Gerry.

Despite the huge job on their hands, the Grays bought the 525sqm home for $750,000 home and quickly set about transforming it into a water tower-style home

Expensive job: Mr Gray told Daily Mail Australia that they spent in the region of $1million renovating the five-tiered home

Modern: The Grays have transformed the 525sqm property into an expansive family home and have already sold it

About halfway through the restoration, the property was spotted by Channel 9 news presenter Alison Ariotti and her anaesthetist husband Gerry

Mr Gray said Mrs Ariotti was 'delighted' with the build and that they were looking forward to raising their young family there

'She had a bit of a faith and bit of vision, which paid off for her and her husband Gerry, who got a pretty good deal,' Mr Gray said.

Mr Gray said Mrs Ariotti was 'delighted' with the build and that they were looking forward to raising their young family there.

The Gray brothers turned another hoarder house into a multi-million dollar home last year, with Andrew now living in it.

The other property, which is also in Paddington, Brisbane, was worth $838,000 when they bought it and have since added at least $2million to its value.

The Gray brothers turned another hoarder house into a multi-million dollar home last year, with Andrew (right) now living in it

The long swimming pool extends out from the rear of the house and into the garden, which backs onto another street

Rob Gray told Daily Mail Australia that they have plans to renovate another home in the area after such a success with this one

The property has three bathrooms and the full makeover was finished just eight months after the renovation began

Rob Gray told Daily Mail Australia that they have plans to renovate another home in the area soon.

'We've got another one in the pipeline now - in the same suburb again. We're going bigger and better again. It's not in quite as bad a shape to being with this time,' he said.

Mr Gray said it was 'an amazing feeling' to take a decrepit property and turn it into a family home.
Police said Joaquin Mendez was shot by his cousin Alexandro Garibaldi (pictured) after asking if a bulletproof vest 'still worked'

A Florida man who was asking if a bulletproof vest 'still worked' was fatally shot by his cousin, police said.

Joaquin Mendez, 23, put on the vest late Saturday and 'wondered aloud whether it still worked,' according to a Tampa Police report.

Police say his cousin, 24-year-old Alexandro Garibaldi, pulled out a gun and responded, 'Let's see.'

Officers found Mendez outside the house with a gunshot wound in his chest.

Mendez died at a hospital.

According to the report, Garibaldi initially told officers he found his wounded cousin after hearing a gunshot.

However, police say a witness described Garibaldi shooting Mendez.

Police say the vest was found inside the house with a gunshot.

Garibaldi was held Sunday without bond on a manslaughter charge.

Hillsborough County jail records didn't show whether he had an attorney.
The attack took place during the most important day of the Hajj

A Muslim leader has questioned an alleged terrorist's faith after he launched a bloody attack on an innocent grandfather during a sacred Islamic celebration.

Muslim spokesman Keysar Trad condemned the actions of accused terrorist Ihsas Khan, 22, who allegedly shouted 'Allahu Akbar, this is a good day to die' as he stabbed Wayne Greenhalgh, 59, with a hunting knife in Minto, in Sydney's south-west, on Saturday.

Mr Trad, who heads the Islamic Friendship Association, said the alleged attack was not only a crime against an 'innocent man', but also against Islam.

He said the day of the attack was one when the faithful re-enact the actions of the Prophet Muhammad which is one of the most important rituals of the Hajj, an annual pilgrimage to Mecca, in Saudi Arabia.

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A knife-wielding man has been captured on CCTV footage terrorising shop owners just after he allegedly stabbed a grandfather in an ISIS-inspired terror attack

But Muslim spokesperson Keysar Trad (pictured) questioned the alleged terrorist's faith as he chose to launch the bloody attack on a day where the faithful re-enact the actions of the Prophet Muhammad, one of the most important rituals of an annual pilgrimage to Mecca

'Instead of being devoted to God and fasting, he committed an act of violence on a very sacred day as worshippers complete a pilgrimage to Arafat Mountain - the Mount of Mercy,' he told Daily Mail Australia after performing a sermon at Zetland Mosque, in Sydney's south, for the Eid Al Adha prayer.

He called for Khan to be 'prosecuted to the full extent of the law' and said the Hajj is a time when devoted Muslim worshippers should be 'peacefully engaging with others'.

'It is a compounded crime under Islam, especially in these sacred days,' Mr Trad said.

He said the community sympathises with Mr Greenhalgh, who lost several fingers during the frenzied day-time attack.

'We have sympathies for the victim and hope he heals and can return to his family,' Mr Trad said.

Thousands of Muslims have gathered to participate in the Eid Al Adha prayer, which marks the end of the annual pilgrimage or Hajj to the Saudi holy city of Mecca

Mr Trad questioned Khan's religious beliefs after he committed an act of violence during the sacred holiday where the faithful practice tolerance, mercy and peace

He said the community sympathises with Mr Greenhalgh (pictured) who lost several fingers during the frenzied day-time attack

The 59-year-old grandfather sustained multiple stab wounds to his body, hands and neck before he escaped to an adjoining property and took refuge in a hair salon.

According to witnesses, bones were sticking from his body and a trail of blood was left behind which Mr Khan allegedly followed before attempting to smash his way inside the salon.

'He was covered in blood  there was blood everywhere and we were trying to get him to sit down and relax but he kept saying he was all right,' witness Maribel Brooks told the Daily Telegraph.

The 59-year-old grandfather (pictured) sustained multiple stab wounds to his body, hands and neck before he escaped to an adjoining property and took refuge in a hair salon

Witnesses said bones were protruding from Mr Greenhalgh's body and a a trail of blood was left behind

Khan allegedly followed the trail of blood before trying to smash his way into the salon where a woman can be seen hiding from view as others desperately try to help Mr Greenhalgh

His wife, Bronwen Greenhalgh, told the ABC her husband was recovering at Liverpool Hospital after an eight hour surgery.

'He's had a punctured lung, he's had bad injuries on his hands, he's got a laceration on his face and just a couple of other stab wounds,' she said.

NSW Deputy Police Commissioner Catherine Burn said Mr Khan had no links with the terrorist group ISIS but had been inspired by the extremists.

'We will be alleging before court that this was an act inspired by ISIS, it was a deliberate act, it resulted in a person receiving extremely serious injuries,' Deputy Commissioner Burn said.

NSW Deputy Police Commissioner Catherine Burn (pictured) said Khan had no links with the terrorist group ISIS but had been inspired by the extremists

Shocked witnesses watched on as Khan was loaded into the police paddy wagon

Deputy Commissioner Burn said he was seen allegedly acting erratically in the days leading up to the attack and had approached Mr Greenhalgh and his wife on Friday, according to the Daily Telegraph.

His neighbours reportedly saw him pacing in white robes recently as he preached verses from the Quran, the ABC reported.

'We know that this person has strong extremist beliefs inspired by ISIS, but what made him act yesterday we don't know.'

When the police arrived Mr Khan attempted to allegedly stab an officer through a car window before he was subdued and taken into custody

Khan chose not to appear in Parramatta Bail Court on Sunday and was charged with committing a terrorist act and attempted murder

'We know that this person has strong extremist beliefs inspired by ISIS, but what made him act yesterday we don't know,' Deputy Commission Burn said

'It was violent, his behaviour could have turned worse as well,' she said, adding that he also allegedly tried to stab an arresting officer as he was detained on Saturday.

Khan chose not to appear in Parramatta Bail Court on Sunday and was charged with committing a terrorist act and attempted murder.
A teenage boy has been expelled from his high school after being arrested over drug offences while at school.

The 16-year-old student from Girton Grammar in Bendigo, Victoria, was arrested by police at the private school's senior campus on Friday afternoon.

The Headmaster at Bendigo's Girton Grammar school Matthew Maruff (pictured) says the school is 'shocked' over the arrest of a student over drug offences and revelations that a 'drug dealing syndicate' had been running at the school

He is facing offences over dealing drugs to minors, the Bendigo Advertiser reports.

Police and the school worked together on the arrest, with the student being taken into a teacher's office before he was taken into custody.

A spokesman for Victoria police told Daily Mail Australia that the student had been interviewed over the drugs offences, but 'had been allowed to leave pending further inquiries'.

The arrest comes as details emerge of a 'sophisticated drug dealing syndicate' that was being run within the school.

Girton Grammar has been left reeling over the incident and the revelation that five other students were also questioned by staff over off-campus drug use.

The Herald Sun reports the syndicate had been running among Year 10 students for an extended period of time.

Parents have come forward to air their concerns about the school, saying they had feared students were dealing and using drugs at the school.

'Parent groups are expressing concern at the shocking knowledge that drugs have been easily obtainable on school grounds and at school events and are tremendously concerned,' an anonymous parent told the Herald Sun.

In a statement posted to the school's website, Girton Grammar's headmaster Matthew Maruff said the school was 'shocked'.

'Sadly, I can confirm that police arrested a student on Friday for a drug related offence,' Mr Maruff said.

'The school was aware that this event was going to take place and co-operated fully with police.

A 16-year-old boy was arrested on Friday over drugs offences while at Girton Grammar school in Bendigo, Victoria. The girl is set to be expelled from the school as a result of the offences

'What I can say is that we are shocked by this incident and that Girton Grammar School takes a zero tolerance stance when it comes to anything to do with illegal drugs.'

'This matter now is squarely in the hands of the Police so detail about the actual offence or the student involved cannot be divulged by the School,' he said.
Americans observed the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 2001, terrorist attacks Sunday at ceremonies across the country. In Billings a small crowd gathered around the only memorial in Montana featuring a piece of the twin towers.

The twisted and frayed I-beam on the City College campus was one of nearly 2,000 pieces of wreckage from ground zero that the New York and New Jersey Port Authority distributed for the 10th anniversary of the attacks. The memorial serves as a place of reflection not just for students but the community as a whole, said Elizabeth Fullon, a City College instructor who helped bring the memorial to Billings.

Fullon spoke at Sundays ceremony and posed a question she asks on the first day of every course she teaches. What do City College and the planet Mars have in common? She said the answer is Spirit and Opportunity. Parts of the Mars rovers were built with aluminum salvaged from the wreckage at ground zero. Theyre the most distant tribute to the lives lost in the terrorist attacks.

Fullon said she worked with Gary Edwards, fire science program director, to bring City Colleges memorial to Billings. It was a project she had a personal connection to.

At the time of the attacks Fullon was living in Massachusetts and serving in the Air National Guard. She was sent to ground zero to assist in the aftermath. Her experiences and the memorial relate the event to students in new ways.

When theyre really ready to give up I tell them to go out and think about the firefighters climbing one more step, one more floor to save one more life, she said.

Many college students were just a few years old when the towers fell, and some kids entering high school werent even alive yet.

Jonny Day was born on Sept. 11, 2001, and recently started his freshman year. He read a poem at City Colleges 10th anniversary observance five years ago and spoke at Sundays ceremony.

Lisa Day, Jonnys mother, said he was overdue by a few days on the morning of the attacks. Lisa turned her TV just as the planes were hitting the towers. The shock immediately sent her into labor. But Jonny is her fourth of five children and she didnt panic. The onetime New York resident stayed home until 5 p.m. watching news updates.

The birthing pain was just a distraction for me trying to find out what was happening in New York, she said.

Jonny Day said it can be hard to find happiness on such a solemn day, but like many other children born on 9/11 he dedicates his birthdays to serving his community. He chose Alzheimers awareness this year and encouraged people at the ceremony to participate in the Walk to End Alzheimers events taking place across Montana in September and October. The Billings walk takes place at ZooMontana on Sept. 25.
A burnt piece of wreckage believed to have come from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 could be proof that the plane was brought down by an internal fire.

The debris was found in Madagascar and given to MH370 sleuth Blaine Gibson, an American who has dedicated the last 18 months to investigating the mystery crash.

'The top layer of paint has been singed, scorched black,' Mr Gibson told 7 News.

'(It's significant) because it appears to be from the interior of the plane but not the main cabin, perhaps the cargo hold, perhaps the avionics bay.'

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A burnt piece of wreckage believed to have come from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 could be the first piece of evidence that the plane crashed as a result of an internal fire

The burnt debris was found on the shores of Madagascar and given to American MH370 sleuth Blaine Gibson, who has spent the last 18 months searching for the wreckage

The Beijing-bound flight disappeared with 239 passengers and crew on board shortly after taking off en route from Kuala Lumpur in March 2014 and is considered one of the greatest aviation mysteries of all time.

Up until now investigators have attributed suicidal pilots and a sudden loss of electricity to the crash, but the latest evidence could prove that the plane went down as a result of an internal flash fire instead.

Mr Gibson believes the burn marks on the debris could be a result of the heavy impact with the Indian Ocean when the plane crashed.

'The sea is slowly giving up her secrets,' he told Airline Ratings.

'I believe these pieces are extremely important.'

Up until now investigators have attributed suicidal pilots and a sudden loss of electricity to the crash. Extensive land and water searches have not resulted in the discovery of the wreckage

The Beijing-bound flight disappeared with 239 passengers and crew on board shortly after taking off en route from Kuala Lumpur in March 2014

Since beginning his search last year, Mr Gibson has found 13 pieces of confirmed or suspected debris from the missing plane, of the 27 recovered in total.

The vast search for the main wreckage has focused on an area of the Indian Ocean off Western Australia, which is due to end in August.

Satellite data indicated that MH370 continued to fly for over six hours after losing contact with air traffic control early on in the flight.

The debris will be given to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) in Canberra on Monday.

The ATSB took over the lead in the search and recovery operation from the Malaysian Government last year.
Police allege he was attacked because 'he embodied Australian culture'

Mr Greenhalgh has lost several fingers and remains in a serious condition

Alleged he was inspired by ISIS and looked up to Curtis Cheng's killer

A knife-wielding man has been captured on CCTV footage terrorising shop owners just after he allegedly stabbed a grandfather in an ISIS-inspired terror attack.

Ihsas Khan, 22, allegedly attacked Wayne Greenhalgh, 59, with a hunting knife in a frenzied attack as he walked his dog through a park in Minto, south-west of Sydney, about 4pm on Saturday.

Security camera footage, obtained by A Current Affair, shows a man waving a large knife and poking at the glass outside Minto Hair Salon where Mr Greenhalgh fled after being attacked.

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A knife-wielding man has been captured on CCTV footage terrorising shop owners just after he stabbed a grandfather in an ISIS-inspired terror attack

Ihsas Khan, 22, allegedly stabbed Wayne Greenhalgh (pictured) with a hunting knife in a frenzied attack as he walked through a park in Minto

The man is seen brandishing the knife before trying to pull open the locked sliding door as a woman inside hides out of view

The man is seen brandishing the knife before trying to pull open the locked sliding door as a woman inside hides out of view.

He then walks outside where resident Sivei Ah Chong, 43, smashes him across the head with a wooden plank.

Just moments earlier, Mr Greenhalgh ran into the business covered in blood and with bones protruding from his hand.

'He was covered in blood  there was blood everywhere and we were trying to get him to sit down and relax but he kept saying he was all right,' witness Maribel Brooks, who was inside the salon, told the Daily Telegraph.

After the salon locked the doors, Khan allegedly pounded on the glass and shouted in Arabic he was 'here to die'.

Police allege the Islamic extremist chose to attack Mr Greenhalgh because he 'embodied Australian culture'.

It is believed Mr Greenhalgh lost several fingers in the attack.

Khan wanted to make a 'martyr of himself' and had even told police after his arrest his role model was Farhad Jabar, who in 2015 killed police accountant Curtis Cheng, The Australian reported.

The attack came only a week after ISIS called for 'lone wolf' attacks in places such as Bondi, the MCG, SCG and the Sydney Opera House.

On Sunday, Khan was charged with committing a terrorist act and attempted murder.

'We will be alleging before court that this was an act that was inspired by ISIS, it was a deliberate act yesterday, it resulted in a person receiving extremely serious injuries,' NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn said on the same day.

The man is seen brandishing an enormous knife and stabbing at the glass of Minto Hair Salon

Police believed Khan may have been trying to lure police to the scene to attack them. The knife used to allegedly attack the grandfather is pictured on the grass

Khan was charged for attempted murder and committing a Terrorist Act in Minto, Sydney. It is alleged he stabbed a 59-year-old man in a park before the victim escaped and ran to a nearby property (pictured)

Wayne Greenhalgh, 59 was the victim of the attack and remained in Liverpool Hospital after undergoing surgery

Police pointing tasers at the alleged attacker after the attack in Minto, south west Sydney

Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn said the attack was 'the new face of terrorism'

Materials seen inside Mr Khan's vehicle after the attack on Saturday afternoon

Police arresting Ihsas Khan, 22, on Saturday. On Sunday he was charged with committing a Terrorist Act and attempted murder

'We will allege that he set out to do something yesterday, how long he had been planning this, we don't know.'

Ms Burn called the attack the 'new face' of terrorism.

Khan was a known 'religious fanatic', The Australian reported.

Police believed Khan may have been trying to lure police to the scene to attack them.

He had no known ties to the victim, but he was known to police.

Witnesses reported Khan was waiting in the reserve for up to 10 minutes before Mr Greenhalgh arrived and said they heard him shouting 'Allah Akbar' and other Arabic words during and after the attack, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

In the weeks leading up to the attack, his behaviour had become increasingly erratic and bizarre, residents in the area of the incident said.

He would also allegedly preach in the street, wearing white robes and shouting verses from the Koran, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The victim escaped to a nearby hairdressing salon where he sought help after he was stabbed on Ohlfsen Road, Minto

The bloodied victim was taken into the hairdressing salon (pictured) alongside the house by the owners of the property

Sivei Ah Chong, 43, confronted Mr Khan and repeatedly bashed him over the head with a plank of wood, stopping him from getting to Mr Greenhalgh.

'A Muslim guy ran behind me with a knife and then I said to him: 'Mate, what are you doing?',' Mr Ah Chong said.

'And he said: 'These people are killing my brothers and sisters in Iraq.'

'I said: 'Mate, put your knife down.'

'And then that's where I walked up to him and bashed him with a fence paling.'

When the police arrived Mr Khan attempted to allegedly stab an officer through a car window before he was subdued and taken into custody.

Residents in Minto watch on at the scene of the attack after police and ambulance services arrived

Paramedics treated Mr Greenhalgh at the scene before airlifting him to Liverpool Hospital in a serious condition.

About 5.30pm on Sunday, a spokesman for the hospital told Daily Mail Australia Mr Greenhalgh's condition was stable.

He had undergone six hours of surgery for his injuries, which included a punctured lung and deep lacerations and lost several fingers, according to reports.

The large 'hunting' knife used during the attack was under forensic examination.

The Joint Counter Terrorism Team is currently investigating the incident.

Mr Khan chose not to appear in Parramatta Bail Court on Sunday and was charged with committing a terrorist act and attempted murder.

He was refused bail.

He's expected to appear in Sydney's Central Court on Wednesday morning.

The attack occurred at Ohlfsen Road, in Minto, Sydney's south west on Saturday afternoon

Police taped off much of the area along Ohlfsen Road following the incident
Troy Whitaker, a 41-year-old firefighter from Palm Harbor, Florida, is being charged with aggravated manslaughter

A firefighter from the Tampa Bay area who is respected in the community made a tragic mistake that cost his son his life, authorities say.

Even though it appears there was no intent to do harm to the toddler, the father still faces criminal charges that has locals riled up.

Troy Whitaker, a 41-year-old firefighter from Hillsborough County, was charged Friday with aggravated manslaughter in the death of his 23-month-old son, Lawson, whom he inadvertently left in a sweltering pickup truck for eight hours.

According to Pinellas County sheriff's deputies, Whitaker left his home in Palm Harbor, Florida, to drop off his 5-year-old daughter at the local Ozona Elementary School.

After he dropped her off, he was then supposed to drive Lawson  who was strapped into the back seat on the driver's side of his Chevy Silverado pickup truck - to a nearby daycare center.

Fox 13 reported that Whitaker apparently failed to realize that he did not drop off his son as planned, instead driving home and arriving at 8:30 a.m.

Lawson Whitaker died one month shy of his second birthday. The local sheriff said that his body temperature was 108 degrees when he was found dead on Friday

Mistakenly thinking that both of his children had been dropped off, Whitaker began studying for a fireman's exam.

It was only hours later that he discovered Lawson lifeless in the back seat.

When he was rushed to hospital, Lawson's body temperature was 108 degrees, according to Fox 13.

A neighbor heard an inconsolable Whitaker yell, 'I can't believe I did this' after making the horrific discovery, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

According to the Times, Whitaker's arrest was met with shock from friends and neighbors who say the incident was the case of a loving, doting father who made a mistake.

Supporters of Whitaker set up a Facebook page calling on authorities to drop criminal charges against him. A GoFundMe campaign was started before it mysteriously was deleted

The local sheriff in Pinellas County, however, believes that Whitaker was criminally negligent and that his behavior should be judged before a court of law.

'This is one of the toughest of all circumstances because of what it involves,' Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told the Tampa Bay Times. 'It involves a father who left his kid in the car for eight hours with no explanation.'

The sheriff said that while he does not believe Whitaker left his son in the truck deliberately, the courts must decide whether there was criminal neglect.

'I assume he didn't see the child, or he would have done something,' Gualtieri said.

'We're trying to figure out if this something more than straight gross negligence. We're looking at video cameras along his routes, all that.'

Depite the sheriff's decision to go ahead with criminal charges, the Pasco-Pinellas state attorney's office will ultimately make the decision as to whether to prosecute after it conducts its own investigation, spokesman Bruce Bartlett told the Associated Press.

Whitaker's career as a fireman has earned him considerable credibility and good will in the eyes of locals, some of whom have launched a GoFundMe campaign aimed at soliciting funds to help his legal efforts.

'Despite the credibility of being a public servant who gladly risks his life every time the tones go off, the Sheriff ... felt it appropriate to have Troy taken into custody and criminally charged,' an introduction on the page said. 'Nothing could be a greater reach.'

The Associated Press and WTSP reported on Sunday, however, that the GoFundMe page was mysteriously taken down without explanation from the web site or from the page's initiators.

A Facebook page calling on authorities to drop charges was set up by supporters.

A family friend and neighbor, retired sheriff's deputy Joe Lumpkin, said she spoke to Whitaker's wife, Kristin, and offered his support.

'I told her, 'You know the kind of man you married and you know the kind of dedicated father that he is. You know that.' She looked at me in pain and she said, 'I know. I know it was just an accident.' '
A woman who participated in a 'mutual housing commission swap' has returned home to find her home destroyed by the temporary residents.

Last month, Lalanda Shipo agreed to trade her St Mary's unit in Sydney's west with another family's home in Kingswood, about 15 minutes away.

On returning home with her two children, Ms Shipo was shocked to find her kitchen covered in dirt, cigarette butts, toilet paper and food.

A woman who participated in a 'mutual housing commission swap' has returned home to find her home destroyed by the temporary residents

Ms Shipo foumd her kitchen covered in dirt, cigarette butts, toilet paper and food

There were similar scenes outside, with filled garbage bags and broken belongings including children's toys covering the patio

Filled garbage bags were placed in the corner of the kitchen, but coke cans, milk cartons and baby formula tins were left on the counter.

It appears the refrigerator had been moved from the wall and was covered in brown scuff marks.

Ms Shipo took photographs of the damage, including a white powdery substance staining the carpet on the stairs.

There were similar scenes outside, with filled garbage bags and broken belongings including children's toys covering the patio.

While the state of the property before the swap is unknown, Ms Shipo said her property was left in a horrific state.

Filled garbage bags had been thrown on the ground outside, while broken bicycles and toys lay next to the fence

It appears the refrigerator had been moved from the wall and was covered in brown scuff marks

While the state of the property before the swap is unknown, Ms Shipo said her property was left in a horrific state

After uploading photos of the damage to her Facebook page on Sunday night, numerous friends of Ms Shipo offered to assist with a clean-up on Monday

Ms Shipo said the offender returned to clean the kitchen and has offered to pay to steam clean the carpet

She said the family who moved into her housing commission unit had three children.

After uploading photos of the damage to her Facebook page on Sunday night, numerous friends of Ms Shipo offered to assist with a clean-up on Monday.

Ms Shipo said the offender returned to clean the kitchen and has offered to pay to steam clean the carpet.

According to Housing NSW, a mutual housing exchange program occurs when tenants exchange their homes for a period of time.

Housing NSW will only approve the exchanges if rent is up to date or there are no complaints against the tenancy.

She said the family who moved into her housing commission unit had three children

Kitchen utensils were thrown outside and garbage bags and boxes had burst open

Dirt, food and discarded cans were left on the counter top

Ms Shipo took photographs of the damage, including a white powdery substance staining the carpet on the stairs
An eager captain may have miss judged low tide on Monday when his boat ran-aground unable to make its right hand turn on Old Northern Road in Dural.

Grinding traffic to a slow march in Sydney's Hills district on Monday, the 19-foot boat worth up to $100,000 appeared to have snapped the winch cable and anchored itself at the traffic lights intersection of New Line Road and Old Northern Road.

This boat caught the attention of locals who took plenty of snaps of the empty vessel.

Boat appears to have run-aground making its right hand turn on Old Northern Road in Dural

Boat, believed to be worth between $50-$60K, was anchored perfectly for a right hand turn

NSW Police arrived and stayed for more than two hours before the vessel was moved

The boat owner was left adrift when he called and discovered the NRMA were primarily a break-down service and they could not help him move the boat.

Stranded and nowhere to go without his vessel the police were called in at around 12.30pm to help haul the boat off the road, with highway patrol leaving after 2.00pm.

A large crane was used to lift the boat during the two hour ordeal and to get it back in chartered waters.

The anchored boat toook more than two hours to haul off the road as police waited for a crane

A large crane was used to haul the boat off Old Northern Road in Dural on Monday afternoon

The captain of the vessel was fined $433 for not adequately securing his load and docked three demerit points, but the worst damage could be the repairs to the boat.

Next time the captain will think twice before launching his boat during low tide.
The body of a 13-year-old girl who went missing last week has been found near a Pennsylvania river.

Members of a volunteer fire department found the body of Shevy McGiffin on Sunday near the Clarion River, about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

Police say they had been searching for the girl since she left her Clarion home to go to a store Friday night.

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The body of 13-year-old Shevy McGiffin (pictured) who went missing last week has been found near a Pennsylvania river

Police say they had been searching for the girl since she left her Clarion home to go to a store Friday night. The child's father, Andrew Schneider (pictured), said that he believed his daughter was abducted

Shevy (pictured) turned 13 on Monday, September 5. She was in the seventh grade at Clarion-Limestone High School. An autopsy is scheduled for Monday

The child's father, Andrew Schneider told ExploreClarion.com that he believed his daughter was abducted.

'She's a very lovable girl. She would never run away,' Schneider said as he broke down in tears.

'My feelings are, I don't want to say this, but my feelings are she was taken.'

Shevy had walked a few minutes from her home to the Comet Food Warehouse on South Fifth Avenue near a Dollar General to buy a coloring book.

It was around 7pm and it was raining as well as getting dark.

Her father told local media that a cashier said Shevy bought the book and left the store.

Her mother, Tina Schneider (pictured), told local media that her husband had 'seen her talking to an older gentleman in a gray or brown Buick'

Shevy had walked to the Comet Food Warehouse (pictured) to buy a coloring book

The child had traveled from her Fraternity Drive home (pictured) Friday night. It was around 7pm and it was raining as well as getting dark. Police said the investigation is ongoing

And that was the last time anyone saw her.

'He seen her talking to an older gentleman in a gray or brown Buick,' Tina Schneider, McGiffins mother told WPXI.

On Sunday, family and friends organized a community gathering to draw attention to her disappearance with the hope she would be found safe.

Shevy turned 13 on Monday, September 5. She was in the seventh grade at Clarion-Limestone High School.

An autopsy is scheduled for Monday.
A woman was raped in alley early on Monday morning after a 'well spoken and very tanned' man forced her off a street.

The 43-year-old was walking along Kittyhawk Crescent in Kirwan, Queensland, about 2am on Monday when a man approached her before sexually assaulting.

Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Miles said the man left the scene when she screamed during the attack, according to the Townsville Bulletin.

An aerial view of the area of Kirwan, Queensland, where the attack took place

The woman was forced into an alley (centre) between two streets where she was attacked

'Regardless of the time of day, one would expect that you could walk around and feel safe in your surrounding,' he said.

Police wanted to speak to a woman the victim came across after the attack.

'She has gone on to Hudson St and along that street she has come into contact with a female, who she has told she had just been attacked, but that female person has said she was going to Mundingburra and continued walking,' Det Snr Sgt Miles said.

They also wanted to talk to anyone else who may have heard the attack.

Police spent Monday at the scene looking for evidence.

Theya re appealing for information from anyone who witnessed a man acting suspiciously around the Kirwan area at the time of the attack or other details.
Girl X died after accidentally overdosing on heroin but could have been saved, an inquest has found

Girl X died after accidentally overdosing on heroin but could have been saved if her junkie friend had called an ambulance sooner, an inquest has found.

The 15-year-old foster girl, who was allegedly repeatedly raped by two supposed carers at a care home in Sydney, took a lethal cocktail of meth and heroin with a 25-year-old friend the night before her death.

The friend, who she was in a 'casual relationship' with, slipped into her room at the Gordon House foster home on the evening of April 20, an inquest heard.

The pair shared a few rocks of heroin as well as taking meth - a dangerous drug-taking method called speedballing' - before falling asleep.

The friend awoke hours later to find Girl X asleep and thought something was wrong, but he and another resident at the home thought she was just 'in one of her deep sleeps', the inquest was told.

The friend checked that Girl X was still breathing and smoked cannabis before going back to sleep, but when he awoke he found that she was making a 'weird breathing noise' that sounded like 'bubbly air', coroner Derek Lee was told.

Paramedics tried to revive Girl X but she died in hospital the next day.

Associate Professor Anna Holdgate, director of the Emergency Medicine Research Unit at Liverpool Hospital in Sydney, told the inquest that earlier medical intervention could have saved Girl X's life.

The 15-year-old foster girl took a lethal cocktail of meth and heroin with a 25-year-old junkie the night before her death

Professor Holdgate said the combination of meth and heroin had caused Girl X's lungs to compress, which led to less oxygen reaching her brain and her eventual cardiac arrest.

But the professor said Girl X's friend's description of her breathing deeply when they first woke up suggests that oxygen was still reaching her brain at this stage, and that urgent treatment could have saved her.

However, Girl X's inquest report added that it was possible, albeit unlikely, that she could still have suffered cardiac arrest because of the amount of meth she took.

New South Wales coroner Mr Lee said Girl X wanted a good job and hoped to lead a normal life by the time she was 18 as he handed down his findings today.

He said the vulnerable teenager was let down by the state care system and left open to abuse at the hands of predatory adults.

No specific recommendations were made as Department of Family and Community Services had changed the way in which it manages high needs children, Mr Lee said.

'More could have been done,' he said.

A video shown to the inquest showed men creeping into Girl X's room through her window

Girl X was allegedly raped by two carers when she was just 14 and had been dragged into the world of drugs and crime

A video shown to the inquest showed men creeping into Girl X's room through her window.

The girl was allegedly raped by two carers when she was just 14 and had been dragged into the world of drugs and crime.

A male case worker, with 26 years' experience, earlier told the inquest that Girl X had suffered some of the worst treatment of a child he had ever seen.

'She was the child who had the least reason to trust adults,' he said on Wednesday.

'If a young person had the right to tell an adult to f*** off, it was [her].

'If you could write a text book on how to traumatise a child, it would be [the girl].'

Girl X was remembered as a charming character with a bright smile who could light up a room.

Her family, including younger twin brothers with whom she was close, and several carers have attended the week-long hearing.

'The courage, dignity and grace (the girl's) family showed was an example to all,' Mr Lee said.
Sally Jones (pictured) is reportedly training foreign fighters to execute attacks in English-speaking countries

Sally Jones, the British woman who fled to ISIS-held territory with her young son, is training foreign fighters to execute attacks in English-speaking countries, it was claimed last night.

Jones, a former punk rocker, has become one of the world's most wanted female terrorists after leaving Kent in 2013 to marry late ISIS fighter Junaid Hussain.

In a new development, she has been entrusted with leading the secretive female wing of the Anwar al-Awlaki battalion which is composed of English speaking fighters, sources told the Daily Telegraph.

The unit is tasked with planning and carrying out attacks in English-speaking countries and teaches women how to use weapons, fight and carry out suicide missions.

A Syrian ISIS defector, living near Gaziantep, said: 'ISIS respects her because she is the widow of Junaid, who was very important to the group.

'They want to send a message to their important fighters that they will respect their families and guarantee a good life for them after their death.

'Umm Hussain is also influential in her own right. She was the reason ISIS was able to recruit a lot of Western girls to Raqqa: it's not easy to convince a Christian, rock girl to become an extremist.'

The unit Jones is managing is tasked with planning and carrying out attacks in English-speaking countries and teaches women how to use weapons, fight and carry out suicide missions, it has been reported

She has reportedly been entrusted with leading the secretive female wing of the Anwar al-Awlaki battalion which is composed of English speaking fighters

It is believed that Jones, 47, recruited dozens of women to ISIS via social media before her accounts were shut down.

She routinely encouraged followers to carry out attacks against the West while defending the group's beheadings and vowing to the do the same.

There has been widespread concern that her 11-year-old son Joe, known as Jo-Jo, has been desensitised to violence amid several reports that he has appeared in propaganda videos.

An activist also claimed that Joe was being lined up to replace British born executioner Mohammed Emwazi, known as 'Jihadi John'.

It is believed that the former punk rocker, 47, recruited dozens of women to ISIS via social media before her accounts were shut down

Jones, a former punk rocker, has become one of the world's most wanted female terrorists after leaving Kent in 2013 to marry late ISIS fighter Junaid Hussain (pictured)

The activist added that Miss Jones has already enrolled Joe at a camp for boys which teach children ISIS's interpretation of sharia as well as how to use weapons so they can one day join fighters on the battlefield.

Jones' husband was killed by an American drone in 2015 and it is thought she receives a monthly salary from ISIS of 520, plus a bonus of more than 200 every couple of months for being the widow of a 'shahid' or martyr.

According to one activist she is yet to remarry because 'she is considered old and ISIS fighters prefer young girls.'

Last week French police foiled an attack in central Paris, which they claimed was planned by Europe's first all-female ISIS cell.

Led by 19-year-old Ines Madani three women were arrested after a car filled with gas cylinders was found near the Nortre Dame cathedral.

Miss Madani had been stopped by intelligence services on various occasion from trying to travel to Syria.
Ministers are set to carry forward new legislation that would make company boards criminally liable for a number of offences committed by their staff members.

The changes to corporate criminal law could see directors and bosses facing prosecution if they have failed to prevent employees from committing fraud, corruption and money laundering.

The proposals, which were first put forward by David Cameron, will mirror the tough stance on 'white-collar crime' in the U.S. and aims to tackle 'boardroom excess'.

Ministers are set to carry forward new legislation that would make company boards criminally liable for a number of offences committed by their staff members (file photo)

Currently, companies are only liable if they fail to stop bribery within their firms.

Prime Minister Theresa May said a key part of her legislative agenda in the UK will be to address corporate behaviour.

A government source told The Times: 'This is the main thrust of the bill and it is in line with our priorities to improve corporate governance more generally.'

At a conference in Cambridge last week attorney general Jeremy Wright QC said: 'When considering the question "where does the buck stop?" and who is responsible for economic crime, it is clear that the answer is to be found at every level, from the boardroom down.'

A fraud lawyer at McGuireWoods, said it would be hard to prosecute even if the changes are made (file photo)

However, a fraud lawyer at McGuireWoods, said it would be hard to prosecute even if the changes are made.
GREAT FALLS  The Cascade County Attorney's Office has voided approval by the Cascade County Zoning Board of Adjustment of two solar farm projects south of Great Falls because not enough members were present for the votes.

County Attorney John Parker said bylaws for the Cascade County Zoning Board of Adjustment require that four members of the board be present for a quorum. Because of a vacancy on the five-member board and a board member who recused himself, only three members voted on applications by Cypress Creek Renewables.

The Fox Solar project is planned less than a mile from Great Falls. The Portage Solar project is also planned nearby. The two 30-acre projects would each generate 3 megawatts of energy, which Cypress plans to sell to NorthWestern Energy.

Residents argued the projects would reduce property values.

The board got written reports from the company and much public comment before taking action.

Cypress Creek Renewables spokeswoman Amy Berg Pickett said the company is still committed to the project and is exploring its options.

Board member Tim Wilkinson, who recused himself from voting on the solar farm projects, was a leading opponent of the Fox Solar project.

Wilkinson said he was surprised at the county attorney's ruling because the Zoning Board of Adjustment has been operating with a three-person quorum for the past five or six years.

The board took substantive action on many occasions with only three members attending, he said.
The newly released five dollar note is being rejected at some supermarket self-serve checkouts and vending machines.

Around Australia, consumers have not been able to pay for items using the new note because of the new anti-fraud and vision impaired features.

Nick Aronis from the National Vending Association, told Nine News that vending manufacturers had a limited time to come up with new firmware and upgrades to release to the industry.

Supermarket self-serve checkouts and vending machines around Australia are unable to accept the new $5 note

National Vending Association said, that companies did not have enough time to design new firmware and upgrades to release to the industry

'Anything that's really older than six or seven years old may have to have the note readers completely replaced because they are non-upgradable, so the cost of the industry is absolutely horrendous,' he said.

However, in a statement the Reserve Bank of Australia said they started a consultation process on the notes years ago.

'The Bank started this process seven years ago, and made sample banknotes available to all equipment manufacturers in October 2014 and the actual banknotes for testing in December 2015.'

The new note has anti-fraud and braille features which can't be read by some note readers

Nick Aronis from the National Vending Association said that the vending machine companies will have to buy new note readers for machines around the country

With changes for the $10 and $20 planned over the next few years, the vending machine industry could face millions of dollars worth of upgrades.

Mr Aronis said that companies will have to buy new programmers for the 70,000 vending machines around Australia, which could cost around $330 each.
An 1,800-pupil academy gave parents just three days' notice it was closing to allow staff to celebrate a religious festival.

Chobham Academy in Newham, east London, is partially closed today due to a 'high number of staff requesting leave for religious observance' for the Muslim festival Eid-al-Adha.

But families were given just days to find alternative childcare arrangements - with one saying working parents were being 'penalised'.

Chobham Academy in Newham, east London, is closed for the Muslim festival Eid-al-Adha

Primary principal at the school Mark Elms, a former 'super head' at his old school with a staggering 276,000 salary, offered parents his 'sincere apologies'

Pupils aged 3-18 attend the independent mixed academy from primary through to sixth form, which has closed nursery, reception, Y1 and Y2 pupils.

Primary principal Mark Elms offered parents his 'sincere apologies' for the closure.

Mr Elms was a 'super head' at his old school where he was thought to be Britain's highest paid headteacher with a staggering 276,000 salary.

Pedro Martin's two sons, aged six and four, attend the academy and he told MailOnline he was forced to take time off work to look after them.

Mr Martin, who works as a Spanish teacher and tutor in London, said: 'My two children go to Chobham.

'I'm Spanish tutor freelance and I had to cancel my lessons today, giving my students three days notice - but we have just started one week ago, after the summer holidays.

'It's not only the money, it's my reputation. It is unacceptable short notice. Working parents are being penalised again.'

Pedro Martin's children attend the academy and he told MailOnline he was forced to take time off work to look after his sons, aged six and four

Some were angry that the 1,800-pupil academy gave parents just three days' notice it was closing (pictured, pupils sitting the entrance exam for the school)

THE SUPER HEAD: BRITAIN'S HIGHEST PAID HEADTEACHER ON A 276,000 SALARY Primary principal Mark Elms Primary principal at Chobham Academy, Mark Elms, hit the headlines in 2010 when it emerged he earned around276,000 in one year while head of Tidemill Academy in Lewisham, south-east London. It put his earnings on more than any other state or private school head. On top of his basic salary of 82,700, Mr Elms received 26,400 in a 'recruitment and retention' payment designed to keep him at the school, and 103,000 for work over two years on the City Challenge programme. Governors said he worked tirelessly to turn the 420-pupil school from 'failing' to 'outstanding' in less than a decade. His salary was due in part to his work on the London Challenge programme, was described as 'extraordinary' and 'exorbitant'at the time. Advertisement

Eid al-Adha falls on the 10th day of Dhu al-Hijjah, the twelfth and final month in the Islamic calendar.

As the exact day is based on lunar sightings, the date can between countries and religious leaders only announced the date of this year's festival ten days ago.

The Eid Al Adha prayer marks the end of the annual pilgrimage or Hajj to the holy city of Mecca.

Muslim residents outside Lakemba mosque in Australia, participating in the Eid Al Adha prayer, which marks the end of the annual pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca

NEWHAM DEMOGRAPHIC The school is in the borough of Newham, where Black Lives Matter activists last week stormed City Airport, bringing flights to a standstill as the held a protest over the UK's 'racist climate crisis'. According to the 2011 census, the population of Newham was 307,984, 48 per cent women, 52 per cent men. Some 45.4 per cent of people living in Newham were born in England. Other top answers for country of birth were: India 8.7 per cent, Bangladesh 6.8 per cent, Pakistan 5.3 per cent, Nigeria 2.4 per cent, Sri Lanka 1.6 per cent, Ghana 1.5 per cent, Philippines 1.4 per cent, Somalia 1.3 per cent, South America 1.1 per cent. Advertisement

Another mother, who did not wish to be named, told The Sun the lack of notice given was 'outrageous'.

She added: 'I got a text out of the blue at about 11am on Friday saying the school would be closed on Monday but it didn't explain why.

'Then they sent the kids home with a letter from the head saying it was because a lot of teachers had suddenly asked for the day off.

'I wouldn't be able to do that in my job. It's very disruptive.'

Primary principal Mark Elms told parents: 'Please accept my sincere apologies for the short notice which could not be helped and for the disruption to the beginning of the new academic year.'

Meanwhile The Harris Federation, which runs the academy, said parents who were unhappy should contact them.

RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS: GUIDELINES ISSUED TO SCHOOLS Thousands gathered at the Blue Mosque in Taguig city, east of Manila, in the Philippines, this morning According to guidelines issued by the Department for Education, schools must treat absence as authorised when it is for religious observance. There is no definitive guidance on standard school closures for religious festivals in the UK - it is for individual governing bodies to apply for permission to the Local Education Authority (LEA). Newham Council has authorised holidays for: Eid-ul-Adha: 11 to 14 September Diwali: October 30 Guru Nanak's birthday: November 14 Christmas: December 21 - January 3 Advertisement

SCHOOL CONTROVERSY: ISLAMIST EXTREMISTS 'TRIED TO USE FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT TO COVER UP MEETING'

It was revealed by the Daily Mail in January this year that the advocacy group CAGE tried to use Cobham Academy to host an event involving extremist speakers.

Police alerted the school about the planned event two days before it was due to go ahead. Staff had no idea that its hall had been booked by CAGE or that it was to be used to showcase some of Britain's most notorious Islamists.

One of the planned speakers was a cleric who has defended stoning and female genital mutilation. Another was the head of Hizb ut-Tahrir  the organisation that wants to create an Islamic Caliphate with Sharia Law.

CAGE director Moazzam Begg said pressure was put on the initial place booked 'from the outside, so this is another evidence of ... Prevent being unduly forced upon organisations'

The talk was due to be held on the evening of November 5 last year and the school is understood to have believed the event was connected to a local community football team.

CAGE denied misleading the school or an event booking company over the nature of the talks.

But a source close to the academy said the event would never have been approved had staff known CAGE was involved. The source told the Mail the event was stopped only after intervention by the police, who are understood to have been monitoring CAGE's activities.

'He was just a guy making football bookings and he'd booked the hall for an event,' the source said. 'He wasn't a name that came up on Google.

'No booking was made for CAGE. No mention was made of a political event of any kind. The school and the booking company found out it was CAGE two days before it was due to happen.

'Someone in the local police contacted the school to say, were they aware of this thing that was being advertised on websites? They were shocked.'

The CAGE member who booked the event was thought to regularly play football at the school  which is set in the heart of the Olympic Village and regularly hires out its sports pitches and event spaces to the community.

The source added: 'The main thing for the school is that it was cancelled. The school is trying to educate young people in London and particularly in a sensitive part of London. All the stuff they are educating them about would have been undermined.'

CAGE then moved the talk to a commercial event space in East London. There, men and women sat separately and clerics, including some with extreme views, spoke at length.

The Metropolitan Police said an officer had spoken with the venue prior to the cancellation.

A Government source said the Home Office had also been aware of the event.
Convicted felon Mitchell Oakes was detained after a short manhunt on Sunday

Federal agents have arrested a man who allegedly tried to kill a woman by attaching a bomb to her car outside a senior care home in Tennessee.

Officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms apprehended Mitchell Oakes, 41, at his home in Bledsoe County on Sunday.

Agents say he was detained under charges of attempted first degree murder, unlawful possession of an explosive device, and being a convicted felon in possession of a weapon, as well as a felony warrant for an 'unrelated matter' in Virginia.

Police in the city of Franklin, near Nashville, identified Oakes as the primary suspect of an attempted murder on Saturday after the victim found a 'sophisticated' device that 'would have caused extreme injury or death if it had detonated as intended' attached to her car.

'We are extremely grateful the bomb did not detonate when she opened that car door. If it had, the results would have been tragic - for her and possibly residents inside this facility,' said. Lt. Charles Warner.

The woman, an employee of NHC Cool Springs care home, is said to have had a prior relationship with Oakes, according to WRKN, but her identity has yet to be released by authorities.

She called police after she noted the device on her vehicle on Saturday morning as she tried to leave work.

NHC Cool Springs care home is home to some 200 residents. Around 60 of them had to be relocated to other parts of the building while police safely detonated the bomb

Around 60 people in the home had to be moved to another part of the building while police and the FBI conducted a controlled detonation of the bomb which authorities said created a 'large crater.'

'The explosive device that was involved in this incident has been removed and safely detonated leaving a large crater,' Tennessee Highway Patrol confirmed.

Components of the bomb are set to be analyzed by at the ATF's lab in Atlanta, police said.
Three people died when a small plane crashed at Reno-Tahoe International Airport in Nevada shortly after take off on Sunday evening, officials said.

The single-engine plane was headed to California around 6.15pm when it plummeted from the air and crashed into several cars in the airport's parking lot.

No one was injured on the ground, and at least 15 cars were damaged, CNN reported.

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Three people died when a small plane crashed at Reno-Tahoe International Airport in Nevada shortly after it took off on Sunday evening, officials said

The single-engine plane was headed to California around 6.15pm when it plummeted from the air and crashed into several cars in the airport's parking lot

Images from the outdoor parking lot show the wreckage with one wheel in the air, and crumpled metal strewn across several cars

All three passengers on board the Piper Cherokee plane heading to San Carlos Airport in the Bay Area were killed shortly after take off from the airport's runway 25.

The victims' names have not yet been released by the Washoe County Coroner's Office, Airport spokesman Brian Kulpin said.

Images from the outdoor parking lot show the wreckage with one wheel in the air, and crumpled metal strewn across several cars.

Kulpin estimated there were about 75 to 100 cars in the parking lot, which was sealed off by investigators on Sunday night.

Kulpin estimated there were about 75 to 100 cars in the parking lot, which was sealed off by investigators on Sunday night. Owners were allowed to remove their cars by Monday morning

By Monday morning, the airport announced the parking garage and rental car return were reopened.

Vehicles were barred from entering the surface lot where the crash occurred although people were allowed to remove their cars.

The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating.
Theresa May's plans for a new generation of grammar schools are an education policy driven by 'segregation, segregation, segregation', Labour has claimed.

Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner launched the fierce assault on the Government plans which she said had no political mandate.

The attack came as Education Secretary Justine Greening outlined controversial school reforms to MPs for the first time.

Mrs May's plans, unveiled by the Prime Minister in her first major speech on Friday, include the first new grammars in almost 20 years, changes to allow 100 per cent faith schools and support for state schools from universities and private schools.

Education Secretary Justine Greening (left in the Commons today) detailed the plans to MPs for the first time today but her Labour shadow Angela Rayner (right) branded the policy 'segregation, segregation, segregation'

Former education secretary Michael Gove gave cautious support to the plans but avoided any mention of selective education in the Commons

His successor Nicky Morgan - who was sacked by Mrs May in July - blasted the plans as 'wrong' on Friday and today demanded more evidence for an increase in selection.

Mr Blair famously declared 'education, education, education' were his priorities for Government and Ms Rayner echoed the phrase today and she condemned the plans.

Denouncing Ms Greening's statement, the Labour MP said: 'If I may I would like to start by offering some advice to the Government - stop your silly class war.'

Her words were met with loud jeers from Conservative MPs, but Ms Rayner revealed she was quoting David Cameron who had used the phrase while speaking out against expanding grammars.

Ms Rayner added: 'He was the future once, but this Prime Minister wants to hark back to the past.

'Where once under Labour we had 'education, education, education' this Government's mantra is segregation, segregation, segregation.'

Former education secretary Michael Gove is expected to welcome grammar school expansion

Ms Rayner said the Government has no mandate to expand grammars and that the move has been roundly criticised by education experts.

She said: 'The Prime Minister's plans seem to be that we need grammars, secondary moderns and technical schools.

'This is a line taken directly from the Conservative 1955 manifesto, hardly an education policy for the 21st Century.'

Education Secretary Justine Greening is making a statement to MPs later

In her statement, Ms Greening said the Government would 'look again at selective schools' but vowed there would be no return to a 'binary' education system.

The major statement saw numerous Conservative backbenchers, including former cabinet heavyweights, speak of their concerns in a sign that the Prime Minister could face a difficult task in pushing the proposals through Parliament.

Keith Simpson, Tory MP for Broadland, said: 'I have to say that I have severe reservations about introducing more grammar schools.

'I was at a grammar school 50 years ago and I have often wondered if I had failed the 11 Plus where I would be. I certainly wouldn't be here today.'

Alec Shelbrooke, Tory MP for Elmet and Rothwell, and Michelle Donelan, Tory MP for Chippenham, said they were worried that the plans could lead to children who do not get in to grammar schools being 'stigmatised'

Theresa Villiers, former Northern Ireland secretary, expressed 'anxiety' as she asked how new grammar schools would help the areas in which they are built.

She asked: 'How can we guarantee that new selective schools will actually benefit the communities in which they are situated?'

Ms Greening said the Government planned to introduce a range of conditions which new grammars would have to meet in order to open and that would likely include 'demonstrating local demand' for places.

Former business minister Anna Soubry told Ms Greening that her constituency had 'no desire' for selective education.

Theresa May used a major speech on Friday to unveil her grammar school plans

Former education secretary Michael Gove did outline his support for selective education at the age of 16 but failed to directly reference the Government's new grammar school plans.

He did, however, call on the Education Secretary to reassure the House that she would be 'driven entirely by data and what works'.

'THINK AGAIN': GRANDEE KEN CLARKE WARNS MAY TO TREAD CAREFULLY ON FAITH SCHOOL EXPANSION Ken Clarke has urged Theresa May to reconsider plans to scrap a cap placed on faith schools which requires them to recruit at least half of their pupils from a different or non-faith background. The Government wants to lift restrictions requiring oversubscribed faith schools to make 50 per cent of places available to children from other religious communities. But Tory former chancellor and influential backbencher Mr Clarke has urged the Prime Minister to think again. Addressing Education Secretary Justine Greening during her Commons statement on the Government's education plans, Mr Clarke said: 'Can I ask you to reconsider pretty fundamentally the announcement you have made about faith schools because we need to live in a society where we actually reduce barriers and improve contacts and integration between people of all faiths? 'If it has been imperfect we do need to know why it has not worked and it may be right to modify it but isn't just removing this cap altogether going to lead us into very considerable danger?' The Government wants to replace the rule with a new set of safeguards designed to promote inclusivity. Ms Greening explained: 'The existing 50 per cent rule was put in place with the best of intentions. It kicks in when new faith schools are oversubscribed. 'The issue is that that very rarely happens, so in spite of the best of motives, in fact the rule doesn't operate effectively. 'What we see are some new faith schools that are overwhelmingly comprised of children with one faith because the school did not have to go and seek more children of other faiths and no faith. 'Therefore the consultation document sets out a number of different proposals that for example start with new faith schools that are proposing to set up to more clearly demonstrate that there is a broader community desire for places at that new school, not just from parents of that faith but also from parents of no faith and other faiths.' Advertisement

The changes will encounter fierce resistance from Tory backbenchers as well as Labour and Liberal Democrats.

Neil Carmichael, the Conservative chair of the Education Select Committee has also spoken out against them, as has David Cameron's former parliamentary aide Sir Desmond Swayne.

The reforms will also have a rough ride in the House of Lords, where there is no Tory majority. Peers will feel less restricted in attacking the proposals because they did not feature in the Conservative Party's general election manifesto.

The former education secretary, who has not ruled out sending her son private, said the plan was 'weird', despite the promise of support for poor children and a greater choice of good schools.

Mr Gove told the House of Commons later that he believes the reforms are a step in the right direction.

As education secretary he allowed more selection in sixth forms, but ruled out creating more grammar schools.

Mrs Morgan  who was head girl at 16,000-a-year selective Surbiton High School  is expected to say new grammars will make the education system 'more unequal'.

But Tory backbenchers have pointed out that last year she trumpeted the fact she was allowing an existing grammar in Sevenoaks, Kent, to expand to a new site.

One MP said: 'She went to a selective private school, talked about sending her children to private school, and when she thought it might help her become PM she supported a grammar in Kent. She used to be Ms U-turn. Now we call her Ms Hypocrite.'

Mrs Morgan said: 'An increase in pupil segregation on the basis of academic selection would be at best a distraction from crucial reforms to raise standards and narrow the attainment gap and at worse risk actively undermining six years of progressive education reform.'

The government plans would see new grammars open in England for the first time since 1998.

There will be a 50million annual fund for helping existing grammars to expand.

And comprehensives and academies will be able to convert, provided there is local demand and they agree to strict criteria, including either taking a fixed proportion of poor pupils or opening a non-selective school to run alongside the new grammar.

Controversially, the proposals will also force private schools to open or sponsor a local state school or risk losing charity tax breaks worth 140million a year and to let new faith schools select solely on the basis of religion.
Fresh probe: Police are considering new allegations of potential abuse of office and misconduct against Labour MP Keith Vaz

Police are considering new allegations of potential abuse of office and misconduct against Labour MP Keith Vaz.

Detectives have interviewed witnesses about claims surrounding his attempted intervention over a council eviction in Leicester 25 years ago.

Leicestershire police refused to comment on whether the MP was under investigation.

Meanwhile, Scotland Yard has confirmed it is considering whether he committed any offences in his involvement with two male prostitutes in London.

He is not under formal investigation but police said they would 'assess and identify what criminal offences  if any  may have been committed'.

The Leicester East MP quit as chairman of the influential Home Affairs Select Committee last week after undercover footage showed him with two gay escorts at a flat he owns in Edgware, north-west London.

The footage, revealed in the Sunday Mirror, showed him telling one of the Romanian men he would pay for cocaine, although he said he did not want to take the drug himself.

Inquiries about his conduct in Leicester pre-date those revelations and involve claims he may have abused his public office when he attempted to overturn the 1991 eviction of a council tenant for unpaid rent.

The tenant, Nigel Philpot-Jones, was suspected of running a brothel and providing 'the services of young men for other men', according to a witness statement seen by the Sunday Times.

History: Mr Vaz has been accused in a police statement of helping with the case of Nigel Philpot-Jones, was suspected of running a brothel and providing 'the services of young men for other men', according to a witness statement seen by the Sunday Times

A former Leicester city councillor, Paul Gosling, said he was interviewed by police and gave a detailed statement in March this year. He questioned whether Mr Vaz's intervention over the eviction was an abuse of public office.

Mr Gosling also claimed the MP was believed to have been a regular visitor to the Philpot-Jones council block address.

It is not known if the MP was aware of suspicions that Mr Philpot-Jones was involved with procuring male prostitutes when he attempted to intervene on his behalf.

Mr Gosling, now a journalist in Northern Ireland, said Mr Vaz acted in a bullying and inappropriate way when he tried to get the eviction decision reversed.

He told The Sun: 'Vaz was bullying and intimidating council staff and that was completely improper, not only in my view but also that of the district auditor.

'He was doing favours for people. I don't want to draw inference as to why, but it was not a responsible or appropriate thing for an MP to be doing.

'Clearly some of the people he was doing favours for were in the wrong, and it's baffling as to why he would step in on their behalf.'

Another witness, a Leicester city councillor, told police last year that there had been repeated claims that Mr Vaz had procured male prostitutes in the city. It is not known if there is any evidence to support that allegation.

Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire Andrew Bridgen said he had contacted Leicestershire police about allegations he had heard about Mr Vaz in July 2015.

He then handed a letter to Mr Vaz in December, saying his position on the Home Affairs committee was untenable because he was the subject of police inquiries in Leicestershire.
She has puncture wounds to her face and head and

A nine-year-old girl was viciously mauled by two dogs while playing at a Perth park, receiving serious lacerations to her face, head and right leg.

The girl was at Success Hill Park in Bassendean on Friday afternoon with her three brothers when the dogs pinned her to the ground and began to bite her face and leg as their female owner watched on, according to WA Today.

Her 16-year-old brother rushed over to fight off the dogs, which have been described as short, stocky and brindle in colour, but the dogs continued to jump and bite her legs.

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A nine-year-old girl was left with puncture wounds to her face, head (pictured) and exposed tendons on her right leg after two dogs attacked her at a Perth park on Friday afternoon

The female dog owner, who did not intervene and left the park without offering any help or information, is now being asked to come forward

The teenager lifted his sister above his head to keep them away and carried her home.

It comes less than a week after an 81-year-old woman was attacked by two American Staffie dogs as she walked down her west Sydney street.

A plumber was also attacked by three Staffies in Sydney over the weekend, leaving him with serious injuries to his back, chest and legs.

The nine-year-old girl was rushed to Princess Margaret hospital where she has undergone surgery to injuries on her leg that exposed her muscles and tendons and has been treated for multiple puncture wounds to her skull.

'If my son had not put his own safety at risk and fearlessly intervened, it is likely that the dogs would have killed her,' the girl's father told Nine News.

The girl was playing with her three brothers at Success Hill Park in Bassendean (pictured) when the dogs, who have been described as short, stocky and brindle in colour, pinned her to the ground

Her traumatised family is now asking for the owner of the dogs to come forward.

The woman, who is described as being between 40 and 50 years old with shoulder-length blonde hair, did not have the two dogs on leashes and is said to have told the group of children: 'If you see my dogs coming make sure you stand up.'

During the attack the woman did not intervene and left the park without leaving any details.

Her 16-year-fought off the dogs and lifted her above his head so he could carry her to safety after the dogs continued to attack when he intervened

The incident was reported to police by the young girl's family but officers have referred the investigation to the City of Bassendean.

'There is no offence police can charge the person on. Local Rangers have powers to charge people in regarding to dog attacks,' a WA police spokeswoman said.

The girl's father is insisting he wants the matter handled by police.
A teenage swimmer has died from a deadly brain-eating amoeba after taking a dip in a stream while on a family holiday.

Kerry Stoutenburgh died from the rare brain parasite after swimming in Octoraro Creek and North East Creek in Maryland during her summer vacation.

Dr Carol Smith said the state Department of Health's Wadsworth Center confirmed the amoeba was present in Miss Stoutenburgh's system.

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Kerry Stoutenburgh died from rare brain parasite after swimming in a creek on holiday

She had dreamed of becoming a film director and attended CUNY Brooklyn College, where she majored in film

'It is a catastrophic type of infection,' Smith told the Daily Freeman. 'It really progresses to fatality quite quickly.'

The amoeba can be contracted through the nose when swimming in freshwater lakes or rivers.

It then travels to the brain and the infection is usually fatal, causing death within five days after symptoms first appear.

Her father, Donald, said the amoeba probably entered his daughter's system on August 20 when she jumped off a bridge into a warm body of water in Cecil County, Maryland.

The 19-year-old from New York had been on holiday with her older sister Katie, mother Wendy and her boyfriend, Cody Phillips.

She was first hospitalized a week later with symptoms including vomiting and persistent headaches.

Her boyfriend Cody Phillips said: 'My heart is aching so much. Kerry, I love you so much I can't even comprehend'

BRAIN EATING AMOEBA Naegleria fowleri (commonly referred to as the 'brain eating amoeba') is a single-celled living organism. It can cause a rare and devastating infection of the brain called primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). The amoeba is commonly found in warm freshwater (e.g. lakes, rivers, and hot springs). It usually infects people when contaminated water enters the body through the nose. Once the ameba enters the nose, it travels to the brain where it causes PAM, which is usually fatal. Symptoms first include vomiting and headaches, but progresses to cause a stiff neck, seizures and hallucinations. Advertisement

She was treated and sent home but her condition deteriorated and she returned to hospital.

Doctors initially thought she had meningitis but further tests proved that to be incorrect.

The organism causes the disease 'primary amebic meningoencephalitis,' a brain infection that leads to the destruction of brain tissue, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It added that people cannot be infected from swallowing the contaminated water - and it can only enter the body through the nose.

Miss Stoutenburgh died on August 31.

She is thought to be the first person in either New York or Maryland to die from the extremely rare parasite.

Ulster County health commissioner Dr Carol Smith said: 'It is a catastrophic type of infection. It really progresses to fatality quite quickly.'

The mortality rate from primary amebic meningoencephalitis is more than 97 per cent, according to the CDC.

The agency said only three out of 138 known infected individuals in the US from 1962 to 2015 have survived.

Kerry Stoutenburgh died from the rare brain parasite after swimming in Octoraro Creek (file picture) and North East Creek during her summer vacation

Paying tribute to Kerry, her family wrote on her Go Fund Me page: 'Kerry was a beautiful soul both inside and out. She was taken from this world way too soon, but her memories will stay with us forever.'

They added that she was a varsity swimmer at Kingston High School, a Girl Scout, a talented musician and a huge film fan.

She had dreamed of becoming a film director and attended CUNY Brooklyn College, where she majored in film.
A young family was swindled out of $1,400 by scammers who pretended to offer a house for rent on Gumtree and made off with the bond.

Heath Ewart, 43, and Sarah Kirkland, 20, moved from Melbourne to the Gold Coast eight weeks ago for a new life and struggled to find a place to rent.

The couple and their two daughters Allakirra, three, and Angelle-Lee, 16 months, had been paying $500 a week for a run-down motel room and now have no idea where they will live.

A young family (pictured) was swindled out of $1,400 by scammers who pretended to offer a house for rent on Gumtree and made off with the bond

After being repeatedly knocked back in the beach city's cutthroat rental market, the family put a $20 ad on the online classifieds site asking for help.

'Its so hard, we just wanted someone to give us a go,' Ms Kirkland, a fitness model, said.

They were soon contacted on Facebook by a woman from Bangladesh calling herself Mahdia Islam, who offered a flat in Melbourne.

Realising they were on the Gold Coast, she put them in touch with a 'friend' using the name Mary Black who claimed to have a house in Southport they could rent.

Heath Ewart, 43, and Sarah Kirkland, 20, moved to the Gold Coast with their two daughters Allakirra, three, and Angelle-Lee, 16 months eight weeks ago and struggled to find a home

After being repeatedly knocked back in the beach city's cutthroat rental market, the family put a $20 ad on the online classifieds site asking for help, Ms Kirkland, a fitness model, said

Mary told the couple via email they could not view the property because she was away in Perth, but the key could be expressed couriered to them once the bond was paid.

'Mary' gave them the name and bank details of her 'lawyer' and said once he had verified the $1,400 payment the keys and access code would be sent and arrive the next day.

Ms Kirkland said they questioned the arrangement but were desperate to get out of the motel she described as 'hell' before they had to pay for another week there.

'We were so excited to get a home we just wanted a home for our girls... we was trying to get the key before we paid rent at the hotel again,' she said.

'We just wanted our kids to have a nice warm bath and a bed, we were suffering.'

Ms Kirkland said they questioned the arrangement but were desperate to get out of the motel she described as 'hell' before they had to pay for another week there

They were soon contacted on Facebook by a woman from Bangladesh named Mahdia Islam who offered a flat in Melbourne

The couple asked for proof of identity and were sent a photo of her supposed driver's licence and a matching photo of a blonde woman, likely from a stolen identity.

The name on the licence was that of a 61-year-old Sydney woman whose first two names were Lynne Maree, with the scammer claiming Mary Black was her 'pet name'.

'I would never rip anyone off their hard-earned money, I have a good job and a good family name to protect,' she insisted.

Ms Kirkland said the ID convinced them and they sent over the money immediately.

'When they sent the drivers licence we were just keen. We thought we were going to move in our home 24 hours later as promised,' she said.

She put them in touch with a 'friend' using the name Mary Black who claimed to have a house in Southport they could rent

She told the couple via email they could not view the property because she was away in Perth, but the key could be expressed couriered to them once the bond was paid

A reverse image search of the photos of the property they were sent had been lifted from a two-bedroom flat in St Kilda advertised on realestate.com.au by McGrath

Photos of the apartment in Melbourne Ms Islam offered were similar taken from a student accommodation site

After saying she was having trouble getting hold of the lawyer because he was in a meeting, Mary vanished and has not replied to messages for four days.

'We are heart broken, it torn me apart that the money could have gone towards my children, let alone $1,900 between bond and another week at the motel we could have used for rent,' Ms Kirkland said.

'I've been crying for days.'

The couple appeared to have been caught up in a well-organised real estate scam that preyed on their desperate circumstances.

A reverse image search of the photos of the property they were sent had been lifted from a two-bedroom flat in St Kilda advertised on realestate.com.au by McGrath.

'We are heart broken, it torn me apart that the money could have gone towards my children,' Ms Kirkland said

The couple appeared to have been caught up in a well-organised real estate scam that preyed on their desperate circumstances

Photos of the apartment in Melbourne Ms Islam offered were similar taken from a student accommodation site.

The lawyer Mary provided is also not registered on any Australian legal database.

Ms Kirkland said the couple were almost out of money and had applied for emergency assistance from Centrelink, but needed to provide a police report.

She said this was proving difficult because Gold Coast cops had palmed her off to the Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network.
Jeremy Corbyn (pictured leaving his north London home today) faced a furious backlash after referring to 'wars and terror' in a tweet sympathising with the families of 9/11 victims

Jeremy Corbyn faced a furious backlash after referring to 'wars and terror' in a tweet sympathising with the families of 9/11 victims.

To mark the 15th anniversary of the tragedy, he said his thoughts were with those whose lives were 'shattered' on 9/11, but controversially added: 'And in the wars and terror unleashed across the glob in its aftermath'.

Dan Kaszeta, a security expert, condemned the Labour leader, writing on Twitter: 'Damn you Corbyn. I cheated death that day'.

Other members of the public said his comments were 'shameful' while Labour MPs lashed out at him for making insensitive comments to promote his political agenda.

One Twitter user said of Mr Corbyn: 'Can't just remember the victims of 9/11 on 9/11. Is incapable of it.'

Robbie Travers, who described himself as an arch-Blairite, said: 'Is anyone surprised that Jeremy Corbyn is using 9/11 to advance his anti-Western ideology?'

And Jonny Will Chambers wrote: 'The real terror was unleashed on New York on that very day. 'Something you seem to have forgotten. Shameful.'

Mr Corbyn played a leading role in the Stop the War Coalition that opposed military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and famously described Osama Bin Laden's death as a 'tragedy' because he should have been put on trial rather than killed.

He has caused widespread anger when talking about national security ever since becoming Labour leader last year. He was condemned for saying he could not envisage a situation where he would authorise the deployment of British troops as Prime Minister.

To mark the 15th anniversary of the tragedy, he said his thoughts were with those whose lives were 'shattered' on 9/11, but controversially added: 'And in the wars and terror unleashed across the glob in its aftermath'. Dan Kaszeta, a security expert, condemned the Labour leader, writing on Twitter: 'Damn you Corbyn. I cheated death that day'

And in the aftermath of the Paris attacks in November last year, when 130 people were killed by ISIS terrorists, he caused fury for saying he was 'not happy' with UK police or security services operating a 'shoot-to-kill' policy.

London mayor Sadiq Khan posted his own message to mark the anniversary of the terror attack, writing on Facebook: 'Today marks 15 years since the 9/11 terror attacks which claimed the lives of 2,977 victims, injured thousands more and tore a hole in the lives of countless friends, families and loved ones. 67 British citizens died on 9/11, and many more victims had close ties to London.

'This was an atrocity that touched all of us who lived through it.

To mark the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks Jeremy Corbyn (pictured campaigning in Yorkshire on Saturday) said his thoughts were with those whose lives were 'shattered' on 9/11, but controversially added: 'And in the wars and terror unleashed across the glob in its aftermath'

'Today our city stands shoulder to shoulder with our American friends as we mourn all those who died 15 years ago. I look forward to paying my respects in person when I visit New York next week.'

Labour former home office minister and ex-MP Tony McNulty made a coded attack on Mr Corbyn as he referred to Mr Khan's message and said: 'Good solid unequivocal statement in memoriam of 9/11 - free from any weasel words about other events.'

Labour MP John Woodcock accused Mr Corbyn of using the 9/11 anniversary to promote his own political agenda on the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions.

He said: 'The suspicion that Jeremy Corbyn is using the anniversary of these terrible deaths to stir further controversy is deeply upsetting in what has already been a bitter and divisive leadership contest. This is a day for sombre reflection.'
A judge halted an effort to recall the Meagher County attorney after finding that the petition was insufficient.

County Attorney Kimberly Deschene challenged the recall petition in August and asked for a court hearing to debate its merits.

After hearing oral arguments, District Judge Blair Jones issued an order on Sept. 6 that bars White Sulphur Springs resident Katherine Walter from pursuing the recall petition.

"The Court has concluded that the revised petition at issue in the cause is not legally sufficient," Jones wrote in the order. "Therefore, Defendant Katherine Saeman Walter should be enjoined from proceeding on the revised petition."

The order is permanent, according to the document.

Walter first filed a recall petition in June, alleging general misconduct violations by Deschene. She rescinded that petition and filed a second one in August. Another judge ruled that the petition would be pending until a court hearing.

Walter's second recall petition contained narrowed allegations about the way Deschene handled an assault case in which her husband, Michael Walter, was the victim. The defendant, Joe Davis, was initially charged with felony assault but ultimately took a plea agreement for a misdemeanor.

At the petition court hearing before Jones, Walter's attorney, Alex Rate, went over the assault case. Katherine and Michael Walter claimed that Deschene failed to get enough medical information, which could have pointed to a felony conviction.

Deschene's attorney, Terry Schaplow, brought evidence that Deschene had been in communication throughout the case and that Michael Walter wrote in an email that he didn't have lasting injuries.

In a statement, Walter said that she is "evaluating my options, including a potential appeal to the Montana Supreme Court."

Jones noted in his order that state law provides narrow grounds for a successful recall petition, and that many of Walter's allegations were't specific enough.

Deschene said Monday that the recall effort was a "vendetta" for Walter's displeasure about the assault case.

"I'm grateful that the court saw through the recall petition for what it was," she said.

In addition to her duties as county attorney, Deschene owns Bar 47 in While Sulphur Springs and is a partner at a private law practice.
A British tourist has been killed in Thailand after his scooter slammed into a pickup truck that is believed to have turned into his path.

The 44-year-old, named locally as Michael Fraser Macpherson, from Gloucester, was killed instantly in the collision on the holiday island of Phuket.

Police say he was driving a black Honda scooter along Khwang Road in Phukets Wichit sub district when he collided with the left side of a truck driven by Nipan Karnprakorb, 39.

A British tourist named locally as Michael Fraser Macpherson has been killed in Thailand after his motorbike slammed into a pickup truck that turned into his path, it has emerged

Patcharee Wongboon of Wichit Police said: 'Mr Nipan said he was driving from Chao Fa West Road to Chao Fa East Road.

'While he was turning into the housing complex, Mr Macpherson, who was in the oncoming lane, lost control of his motorbike and hit Mr Nipans pickup truck. The impact killed (Mr Macpherson) instantly.'

Mr Nipan, who was in a vehicle with his wife and daughter, allegedly turned into the path of the British tourist on Saturday night at about 8.40pm.

Police say he was driving a black Honda scooter along Khwang Road in Wichit (file picture) when he collided with the left side of a truck driven by Nipan Karnprakorb, 39

Rescue workers took the body to Vachira Phuket Hospital where a post-mortem examination is due to take place as part of investigations into the death.

According to Phuket News, police said no helmet could be found at the scene of the crash.

Mr Niphon was taken to Wichit Police Station for further questioning and is said to have been charged with reckless driving causing death.
Mike Hassini arrives at court this morning to face charges of drink-driving, possessing cocaine and assaulting a policewoman

TOWIE star Michael Hassini has admitted drink-driving and faces a trial over claims he assaulted a female police officer.

The 21-year-old reality TV star was charged with three offences after he crashed his Mercedes in central London in the early hours of 15 August.

Hassini is said to have crashed into another Mercedes at a traffic light on Oxford Street, causing it to lurch forward and hit a bus.

The new star of the ITVBe series was more than twice the legal drink-drive limit when police arrested him nearby on Euston Road at 3.30am.

Officers are also said to have found a wrap of cocaine before they took Hassini to Charing Cross Police Station.

He is also charged with assaulted a female officer while in custody, a charge he denies.

At Westminster Magistrates' Court today, he pleaded guilty to one count of drink-driving but denied assaulting a female officer.

His lawyer, Colin Nott said of the alleged attack: 'It's said to have happened when he was asleep in the cell and they roused him and there was a kick, no injury.

'And as I have said he wasn't challenged about it at all when interviewed the next day.'

Mr Nott asked for the charge for possessing cocaine to be dropped because it was a 'very small amount'.

'It's a very very small amount,' he said. 'It wouldn't be in the public interest to prosecute.'

Prosecutors will review the charge and decide whether to proceed before Hassini stands trial for assault on 14 December.

Mr Nott said: 'If the prosecution have decided they wish to proceed it will be a very simple plea of guilty on the day.'

Hassini was arrested after crashing his Mercedes into another expensive car in central London

Pictures from the scene show the damage done to one of the vehicles in the incident

Prosecutor Julian Becker said: 'If I had to take a view at this point I would say it's probably in the public interest to proceed.'

District Judge Karim Ezzat adjourned the case until 14 December at Hammersmith Magistrates' Court and handed Hassini an interim driving ban.

'You have pleaded guilty in relation to one matter, I'm not going to sentence you today.

'On the face of it it's going to be a community order in relation to the drink-driving charge.'

He added: 'I'm subjecting you to an interim disqualification from driving that starts from this moment.'
Residents of a normally quiet suburban street have revealed their fears after an alleged terror attack resulted in one neighbour being repeatedly stabbed and another arrested.

The shocking, violent and unexpected attack, allegedly inspired by ISIS has left those who live in Minto, south-west Sydney, rattled, fearing for their safety and concerned trying to discuss terrorism will result in them being labelled 'racists'.

On Saturday afternoon, grandfather Wayne Greenhalgh, 59, was walking his dog when he was attacked by a knifeman, allegedly Ihsas Khan, 22, who severed his fingers, slit throat, punctured his lung and caused deep lacerations.

Brave neighbours came to Mr Greenhalgh's aid and held off the attacker while he hid in a hairdressing salon on Ohlfsen Road until police arrived, shown in footage obtained by A Current Affair.

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This is the moment Mr Greenhalgh sought refuge inside a hairdressing salon. He can be seen holding his injured hands aloft

Wayne Greenhalgh, 59 (in black), flees his attacker (clad in white), who chases him wielding a knife

Brave neighbours hold the knifeman at bay while occupants inside the hair salon care for Mr Greenhalgh

Wayne Greenhalgh, 59, was the victim of the attack and remained in Liverpool Hospital after undergoing surgery

Andrew Houghten and his wife, Duyen, whose hair dressing salon Mr Greenhalgh hid inside. She say's she is now living in fear

Khan was alleged yelling 'Allah Akbar' and inspired by ISIS, and has since been charged with committing a terrorist act and attempted murder.

But the residents say it's too close to home and feel like their privacy has been violated.

Ray Brooks watched the dramatic arrest, unaware his wife Maribel was in the hairdressing salon where Mr Greenhalgh sought refuge.

He wasn't able to comfort her until two hours after the drama began.

Mr Brooks said Australia had to find a way to deal with terror attacks.

'We need to start having a conversation instead of everybody being shut down as soon as they start to speak on the subject, called some sort of racist just because we want to discuss our safety.'

Mrs Brooks said: 'If it comes to somewhere like Minto, where are we safe? Where to you go?

'A little salon in Minto with a man that was just going for his daily walk.

'I still can't make sense of it. It's closer to home than I ever imagine. It can happen anywhere anytime to anyone.'

Ray Brooks, whose wife was in the hairdressing salon during the ordeal, said people needed to be able to talk about terrorism without being called racists

Speaking about the ordeal to A Current Affair, Andrew Houghten, whose wife runs the salon where Mr Greenhalgh hid, said:

'Everyone in Australia will give you a fair go. Come over here and enjoy a fair go. Set up your family, have a good life. Too easy.

He and his wife, Duyen, have been physically shaken by the ordeal, which occurred in their home, where Ms Phen runs her hair dressing salon, ACA reported.

The home will never be the same for them again.

'His face [is] still just in my mind. Just how he was last time... so, so scary,' Ms Phen said.

She couldn't accept what had occurred, she said

'I can't live here. And I can't live in the fear every single night. I can't. I don't know when the fear get[s] out of my system. I don't know when.

Mr Houghten said his wife was 'very brave'.

Ihsas Khan, 22, allegedly stabbed Wayne Greenhalgh (pictured) with a hunting knife in a frenzied attack as he walked through a park in Minto

Mark Anthony (pictured) said he'd talked to Khan earlier on Saturday, concerned about his behaviour

These unnamed neighhours said the attack was frightening and too close to home

'She's not going to let that sort of event, bad as it is, stop her. She's going to live her life. It's put a scar across her soul, that's for sure.'

Another neighbour, Mark Anthony, told ACA he'd talked to Khan earlier on Saturday, concerned about his behaviour while he'd walked about Minto.

'I said "What's up mate, something wrong?".

'He said to me "Nah mate everything all cool" and he kept walking, never stopped, just kept walking.

People had seen people going in and out of Khan's house in the weeks leading up to the attack - weeks during which the accused's behaviour had become increasingly erratic and bizarre.

Mr Houghten said: 'they were dressed in their Islamic wear. What do you say?

He considered calling police and discussed it with neighbours, but they thought the fact they were all aware was enough.

Asked if he wished he'd told police earlier, he said: 'I wish I had, course I do'.

Mr Houghten said he wished he'd told police about Khan's behaviour before the attack

Materials seen inside Mr Khan's vehicle after the attack on Saturday afternoon

Police believed Khan may have been trying to lure police to the scene to attack them. The knife used to allegedly attack the grandfather is pictured on the grass

Khan was known to police and had previously been charged with two counts of larceny and two counts of maliciously damaging property after cutting up Australian flags with scissors in 2013, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

At the time, he told police he 'hated' the country for its participation in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

He's believed to have schizophrenia and the larceny charges were dropped on mental health grounds provided he take psychiatric medication and attend medical appointments.

Police allege Khan chose to attack Mr Greenhalgh because he 'embodied Australian culture'.

Khan wanted to make a 'martyr of himself' and had even told police after his arrest his role model was Farhad Jabar, who in 2015 killed police accountant Curtis Cheng, The Australian reported.

He's due to appear in court on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Mr Greenhalgh is recovering in hospital.

The man is seen brandishing the knife before trying to pull open the locked sliding door as a woman inside hides out of view

Khan was charged for attempted murder and committing a Terrorist Act in Minto, Sydney. It is alleged he stabbed a 59-year-old man in a park before the victim escaped and ran to a nearby property (pictured)
Tragedy: Mary Shipstone was murdered on her doorstep by her estranged father, whose address was accidentally sent to him by her mother's solicitor

An estranged father who shot dead his daughter was barred from seeing the seven-year-old but was accidentally sent her address by her mother's divorce lawyers, it was revealed today.

Mary Shipstone, was gunned down as she stood next to her mother Lyndsey on the doorstep of her home in Northiam, near Rye, East Sussex, after she returned from school.

Mother and daughter had fled Yasser Alromisse and were given new identities because he was violent and he had been stopped from seeing the child.

Mrs Shipstone had converted to Islam when they married in 2005 - a year after Alromisse entered the UK illegally before claiming asylum - but she later rejected the faith and left her husband, prompting a bitter custody dispute over Mary.

The seven-year-old had just returned from school and was clutching her new violin when Mr Alromisse killed her.

Alromisse, 46, was hiding in the rear of a silver Toyota on the drive at the 300,000 house when he fired the shots on September 11 2014.

The schoolgirl, who was just days away from celebrating her eighth birthday, was taken to King's College Hospital in London but later died of her injuries.

Her father had concealed himself in the car by creating a blind from bin bags and was later found in a pool of blood in the rear of the vehicle, where he had shot himself in the head.

Today a serious case review into her death revealed that five months earlier, the girl's mother, Lyndsey Shipstone, reported to police that her solicitor had inadvertently revealed her new address to Alromisse in legal papers.

Evidence also emerged that details of her previous addresses or identity were given to 46-year-old Alromisse by other bodies, including a bank and the Child Support Agency.

Lyndsey Shipstone has said she feels 'let down and disappointed' by the police taking no action on her new address being disclosed.

She also criticised some of the support she had received during her five-year court battle with Mr Alromisse over custody of their daughter.

She added: 'Because it took so long, people underestimated the seriousness.

'Actually there is a lot of danger - we had the briefest window and then Mary was killed and really nothing was OK.'

Mary Shipstone, was gunned down by her father Yasser Alromisse, right, as she stood next to her mother Lyndsey, together left, outside her home near Rye, East Sussex, after she returned from school.

The serious case review claims that no-one could have predicted or prevented the killing in Northiam, near Rye, East Sussex, on September 11 2014 (pictured)

Despite the disclosures, the serious case review concluded that no-one could have predicted or prevented the killing in Northiam, near Rye, East Sussex, on September 11 2014.

The couple, who met in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, had married in Liverpool in 2005 after Mrs Shipstone converted to Islam, friends said. She had been a practising Catholic but converted to Islam and quickly became devout.

The couple had a daughter named Yasmin Miriam in September 2001, but she died eight months later.

Mary was later born in 2006 but according to former neighbours, social services had to intervene, with orders barring Alromisse from being alone with his child.

They reconciled briefly in 2010 as Ms Shipstone feared isolation from their mosque if they did not, but the violence worsened and he once locked her and her daughter in the toilet.

She said: 'When I last saw him at court I thought he might try to take her. But it never occurred to me that he would try to murder her.'

The murder has been labelled a 'spite killing' - intended to deprive Ms Shipstone of her daughter as he was losing the custody battle.

The last words Lyndsey said to her daughter as she put the key into her front door were: 'You'll like what I've done to your room.'

She had been living there with her daughter for a year and Mary had settled into her school.

A heartbroken Ms Shipstone, speaking recently said: 'She was the happiest she had been for a long time.

'She was learning the violin and learning to dance and doing all the normal things.

'She was a happy girl and she was developing as a person in her own right, which is what every child deserves.'

Bereft: Lyndsey Shipstone arrives at Hastings Law Courts for the inquest into the death of her daughter last year

Today's report said there was no evidence Alromisse located his daughter and estranged wife through the inadvertent disclosures of the girl's address and her mother's circumstances.

The criminal investigation into Mary's shooting found Alromisse had used 'a variety of covert and illicit means' to try to trace the address and the routine of his daughter, referred to as Child P.

The 73-page serious case review report noted: 'It has not been possible to establish exactly when and how he found out where Child P was living.

'There is no evidence that any professional was aware of this activity, nor did he make any threat to harm Child P or give any indication that he might do so.

'The review has concluded that no professional working with the family could have prevented him acting as he did.'

Mary's death 'was calculated to deprive the mother of her child while at the same time leaving her with a permanent memory of her death', the report said.

And it added that Ms Shipstone believed Alromisse killed their daughter because he feared the outcome of a new round of court hearings would end in him being denied contact.

At an inquest in September last year, East Sussex coroner Alan Craze said the 'thoroughly despicable act of violence' had been 'pre-meditated over a long period of time'.

The inquest heard Ms Shipstone carried Mary to a neighbour's home, where they tried to revive her while waiting for emergency services to arrive.

She was taken to King's College Hospital, London, but later died of her injuries.

A series of recommendations were made in the review, including seeking assurances from agencies that systems were in place surrounding information about vulnerable people that should not be revealed.

A spokesman for the East Sussex Local Safeguarding Children Board said: 'After a thorough independent review, the LSCB concluded, as did the investigating police officers, that the father planned and carried out the killing in a secretive way, using the internet and a range of covert methods to trace the family and obtain the means to carry out the murder.

'There is no evidence that any professional involved with the family prior to these tragic events was aware of this activity. Based on the review, the LSCB concludes that no professional could have prevented him doing what he did.

'The LSCB has also found that professionals did respond diligently to reports of domestic violence, which were all taken seriously and responded to appropriately.
Images of a man have been released following the sexual assault of a teenager on a crowded peak hour train.

The female victim boarded a city-bound train from Narre Warren, southeast of Melbourne, at 7.35am last Thursday.

The offender also boarded the same train as the woman.

Victoria police are hoping to speak to the man pictured in relation to the disturbing sexual assault incident

The attacker repeatedly thrust his groin against her back and groped her buttocks.

As the woman made attempts to move away from the man in the crowded carriage, the attacker continued to follow her.

Detectives from Transit Crime Investigation Unit have released pictures of a man they want to question in relation to the incident.

Anyone with any information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Mandy Leacock, above, hit a woman she kept as a slave with a frying pan and poured bleach on her, a court heard

A woman enjoyed a life of luxury at five-star hotels as she kept a woman with learning difficulties as her slave, a court heard.

Mandy Leacock, 36, admitted hitting the woman with a frying pan and forcing her to sit in a bathtub as she poured bleach over her during a 14 month ordeal.

The victim was found covered in scabs and with clumps of hair burnt away by the chemicals.

She suffered a 14 month ordeal when she was staying at Leacocks home in Maida Vale, west London.

Leacock had posted Facebook pictures from a champagne-session at the five-star Langdon Hotel in Marylebone, central London, at the time when her 'slave' was locked away at home.

Leacock, 36, kept the woman at her home in Maida Vale and assaulted her. Pictures on social media showed her enjoying a champagne lifestyle in top hotels

She also revealed her addiction to Rihanna, sharing an iTunes link for the R&B superstars ANTI album.

Leacock admitted three counts of assault causing actual bodily harm.

She denied two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent at Southwark Crown Court and the prosecution offered no evidence.

Earlier prosecutor Edward Aydin told the court: She was threatened and she [Mandy] didnt give her any food.

She made her sleep on the floor, she beat her and used her as a slave.

She hit her over the head with a frying pan and threw her outside naked into the cold.

Leacock pleaded guilty to the assaults at Southwark Crown Court, above, and will be sentenced on a date to be fixed

He added: This victim is vulnerable, she has vulnerabilities, learning difficulties, medical conditions.

Leacock was arrested at her home on May 3 after her victim was taken to hospital to be treated for multiple injuries.

Mr Aydin said: She had burns and scabs over her face, neck, back, breasts and hands, as well as bald patches where her hair had been damaged by bleach and pulled out.
Shooter: Omar Mateen killed 49 people in June - America's worst mass shooting

Authorities in Florida say arson was the reason behind the fire at a mosque attended by the gunman in the deadly Orlando nightclub shooting.

Maj. David Thompson of the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office told a news conference officials received a report around 12:30 a.m. on Monday about a fire at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce.

Firefighters extinguished the fire after battling the blaze for four hours.

According to authorities, surveillance video captured a person approaching the east side of the building moments before a flash was seen and flames began shooting through the building.

Thompson said that the footage would be made available to the public so that the public could help identify the arsonist.

'Evidence has revealed that this fire was set intentionally,' said Major David Thompson to reporters.

'Right now I don't want to speculate on a motive.

Intentional: Police believe that the fire was intentionally set at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, Florida, the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office said

Authorities believe the evidence suggests arson and the sheriff is investigating the incident as such

'We all know the implications of the date and the time of year, this is the 9/11 anniversary. Is that related? I would not want to speculate but it is in the back of our minds.'

'This is a horrible tragedy,' added Major Thompson, 'not only for the Islamic Center, but also for our community.'

The mosque was attended by Omar Mateen, who opened fire at the Pulse nightclub on June 12 in a rampage that left 49 victims dead and 53 wounded.

Maj. David Thompson (middle) of the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office told a news conference footage showed a man approaching the mosque moments before fire started

The police department released a statement confirming investigators believed the fire was deliberately lit

It was the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

After declining to speculate on whether the Sunday anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks played a role in the fire Thompson said there is a possible person of interest.

Moner Mohammad Abu Salha, the infamous 'American Taliban' who traveled to Syria to become a suicide bomber also went attended the same mosque.
A husband and wife were found dead along with their three-year-old child at their home in rural Texas over the weekend.

Leroy Roger Friedel Jr, 41, his wife Jennifer Rutherford Friedel, 32, and their son Leroy Rutherford Friedel, 3, were found dead at their $300,000 home.

Deputies from Bastrop County Sheriff's office, attended the home near Camp Swift following reports of a disturbance on Saturday afternoon.

Leroy Roger Friedel Jr, 41, his wife Jennifer Rutherford Friedel, 32, and their son Leroy Rutherford Friedel, 3, were found dead at their $300,000 home in Bastrop County, pictured

The three victims have been taken away from the home which sits on ten acres on Oak Hill Cemetery Road.

According to KXAN.com Travis County Medical Examiner's office will be conducting autopsies on the three family members to help determine a cause of death.

However, Bastrop County Sheriff's Office said there was no wider danger to the public.

It is understood the couple married around 2002.
Opposing sides in the Syrian civil war have ceased hostilities for a 48-hour truce.

The internationally brokered deal between Russia and the US was billed as the best chance yet to halt the bloodshed in the five-year conflict but several opposition groups are yet to sign up.

Monitoring groups and state media reported clashes up until the final minutes before the truce.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said there has been a reduction in violence following the ceasefire which came into force at 7pm local time.

It comes as the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad vowed to retake his country from 'terrorists' and said his forces were determined.

A 48-hour ceasefire of the Syrian civil war is set to begin at sundown after an agreement between Russia and the US. Pictured is the Syrian town of Kobane

The ceasefire began at 7pm local time and will see a halt to fighting in areas not held by jihadists such as ISIS.

As well as bringing an end to the fighting, the temporary truce also aims to provide crucial aid to desperate civilians, who are starving and have suffered a bloody weekend of air strikes.

Deliveries to the country's many besieged and 'hard-to-reach' areas are set to simultaneously begin, with government and rebel forces ensuring unimpeded humanitarian access in particular to the divided and devastated city of Aleppo.

If the ceasefire then holds for a week, Moscow and Washington are to begin unprecedented joint targeting of jihadist forces including ISIS and the former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front.

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, pictured today at prayers for Eid Al-Adha, has vowed to retake his country from 'terrorists'

After years of stalled peace efforts and the failure of a landmark truce agreed in February, world powers are anxious to bring an end to a conflict that has left more than 290,000 dead and forced millions from their homes.

But Syria's opposition is deeply skeptical that President Bashar al-Assad's regime will abide by the agreement and on Monday demanded further guarantees before endorsing the deal.

Salem al-Muslet, a spokesman from Syria's main opposition umbrella group told AFP: 'We want to know what the guarantees are.

'We are asking for guarantees especially from the United States, which is a party to the agreement.'

He said key questions included how the deal would define 'terrorist' groups that can continue to be targeted and what the response would be to violations of the truce.

World powers are anxious to bring an end to a conflict that has left more than 290,000 dead and forced millions from their homes. Pictured is the city of Aleppo

At least 74 people were killed in air strikes on the key opposition-held cities of Aleppo and Idlib over the weekend

A Syrian man carries his bicycle over rubble following an airstrike in the city of Aleppo on Sunday

He added: 'We fear that Russia will classify all the Free Syrian Army (rebel factions) as terrorists.'

Washington has long supported moderate rebel groups fighting Assad, who in turn is backed by Russia and Iran.

Questions also remain about how the ceasefire will apply in several parts of the country where the Fateh al-Sham Front, previously known as Al-Nusra Front, is present.

The group co-operates closely with many of Syria's rebel forces, including moderate rebels and the powerful Ahrar al-Sham faction, which on Sunday issued a scathing condemnation of the Russian-US deal.

Ahrar al-Sham's deputy leader Ali al-Omar said the agreement would 'only serve to reinforce the regime and surround the revolution militarily.'

'The people cannot accept half-solutions,' he said in the message to mark the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha on Monday.

His remarks at first appeared a rejection of the deal but hours later Ahrar al-Sham's spokesman Ahmed Qara Ali told AFP that the message was merely meant to note the deal's 'drawbacks'.

Rebel fighters drive through the deserted streets of Jubata al-Khashab in Quneitra. Several opposition groups are yet to sign up to the ceasefire

Questions also remain about how the ceasefire will apply in several parts of the country due to strong opposition

'The movement has not taken a position on the deal and will announce its position in a clear statement in consultation with other factions,' he said.

Ahrar al-Sham is Syria's most powerful non-jihadist rebel group, with a commanding presence in Idlib and Aleppo provinces.

It espouses a hardline Islamist ideology, and is a key partner of the Fateh al-Sham Front, participating in the Army of Conquest alliance with the group in ruling Idlib province.

However, the build-up to the truce deadline saw a significant rise in violence, with at least 74 people killed in air strikes on the key opposition-held cities of Aleppo and Idlib over the weekend.

In Aleppo city on Monday, an AFP correspondent said regime aircraft were carrying out further strikes and barrel bomb attacks on the rebel-held east.
A Christian youth worker who attempted to groom children online was caught by an undercover police officer posing as a 12-year-old girl.

A court heard how Sam Rourke led 'two lives' - one as a respectable churchgoer working with children with learning difficulties and another 'fantasy life, indulging in talking to young girls'.

The 23-year-old of Feltham, Middlesex, sobbed as he was given a 16 month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

Sam Rourke,23, from Feltham, Middlesex, was given a 16 month prison sentence, suspended for two years at Preston Crown Court (pictured)

The support worker, who said he worked with children with learning difficulties, had previously admitted inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

Speaking at Preston Crown Court, Lancashire, prosecutor Francis McEntee said: 'The defendant had been engaging in chat online, clearly in the belief he was dealing with either a 12 or 13-year-old, when in fact he was engaged in sexualised talk with an undercover police officer.

'The undertaking when entering is that the user condition requires you to specify you are aged between 12 and 19. He signed himself as being 19.

'There's a facility for private chat. It's by that means that he was contacting the undercover officer - who had a a principle name of 'Kayla and Lozzer'.

'On January 19 at 1.10pm, the defendant first made contact with 'Kayla' who is described as being 12.

'It started with questions of, 'How are you?' and quickly, 'How old are you?'

'The defendant asked whether she minded his age and very quickly told her he was 22. The girl said she lived in Cadley area of Preston.'

The court heard the pair continued chatting using Skype, on which he gave his real name and mobile number and told her about his work.

Rourke then asked for a picture and told her she was 'super cute'.

He suggested he come round to her house after she said she was home alone, but she said her 'mother was coming home'.

On February 8, the defendant said he often worked in Preston and suggested they could 'hang out, go to a park and get some food'.

He went on to ask if she had ever had a boyfriend.

Mr McEntee said: 'He used it as a premise for suggesting he could give her lessons in kissing and could show her how to be better.

'He suggested she engage in a sexual act on herself, giving her instructions.

'When arrested he said: "I need help - I've been really stupid."

Rourke, who is understood to have been involved with St John's Church in Leyland, Lancashire, and the global Elevation Church movement, was accompanied to court by relatives and a church minister.

Sentencing, Judge Woolman told him: 'Fortunately it wasn't a real person at the end. If it had been I would have no option but to imprison you immediately.

'You were someone who ran two lives, you come from a good family, you are clearly a devout and God-fearing person, but behind that other side of that wall you indulge in this fantasy life, indulging in talking to young girls.

'You were not the scheming, manipulative person one might come across.

'Nonethless what you have done is unlawful and reprehensible.'

Defending Rourke, Benjamin Narian said: 'There is a genuine expression of remorse.

'He had been using chatrooms since he was a child and had been on the other side - it would appear adult males have encouraged him to engage in acts himself.

'As a teenager he lived in an environment with certain pressures to do with his faith and his views on sex, which he has struggled with.

'He struggled with aspects to his sexuality.'
HELENA  Lewis and Clark County Coroner M.E. "Mickey" Nelson died Sunday night following a cancer diagnosis, his son said.

"He went the way he would have wanted to go under the circumstances," said his son, Sgt. Jay Nelson of the Montana Highway Patrol.

Lewis and Clark County Commission Chairman Mike Murray acknowledged Nelson's 42 years as coroner Monday morning.

"His family has requested privacy from the county. We intend to honor that," Murray added.

Nelson, 71, was elected to a four-year term in 2014.

Nelson and other county officials were involved in a dispute for more than a year prior to his death.

Following allegations by staff members that he made comments that created a hostile work environment, the county removed an administrative assistant from the coroner's office in July 2015 and the administrative assistant and deputy county coroner from his control in July. At the request of the county commission, the state removed the duties of registrar from Nelson in August and reassigned them to a member of the Clerk and Recorder's Office staff.

In mid-July, Nelson met a state-mandated deadline to complete 51 pending death certificates dating back to 2011. The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services had previously threatened to take the matter to court if the deadline was not met.

Nelson recently demanded that the county commission provide additional staffing and stop interfering with the operation of his office. He also accused the commission of attempting to force him into retirement.
A 9/11 memorial at the California college President Obama attended for two years was destroyed over the weekend by vandals critical of the Iraqi War.

The Republican club at Occidental College planted 2,997 American flags on the school's quad on Saturday in tribute to all of those who died in the terrorist attacks 15 years ago.

But just hours later, the club says that vandals 'crushed, snapped and threw in the garbage every single flag'.

Vandals at Occidental College destroyed a display of 2,997 American flags planted on the school's quad in tribute to those who died on 9/11

The college's Republican club set up the display on Saturday and found every flag pulled out of the ground the next morning

Signs were also set up near the site critical of the Iraqi War. The signs quoted an oft-criticized estimate of Iraqis killed in the U.S. invasion

President Obama attended Occidental from 1979 to 1981, before transferring to Columbia to finish his bachelor's degree

Posters were also taped near the former display, drawing attention to the '1,455,590 innocent Iraqis who died during the U.S. invasion for something they didn't do'.

The estimate of Iraqi deaths is based on an Opinion Research Business survey that has been widely criticized for its methodology. Most other surveys estimate that the death total is between 100,000 to 200,000, with a few estimating as high as 600,000.

The group banded together overnight to put the display back up, but they say they caught people trying to destroy the display yet again Sunday morning as a few students stood guard.

The Republican club put the flags back out after they were twice taken down. The school says they are investigating

'Most of Occidental was asleep at 1 A.M. but not fifteen of us. Students rallied together to get those flags out of the garbage and up in the quad. This is beyond politics, this is about those lives that were so tragically taken.

'Later that morning, a few of us stood guard at the memorial. Four Occidental students came up and snapped a few flags right in our faces. When we confronted them, those cowards got away as fast as they possibly could,' a statement on the group's Facebook page reads.

The Eagle Rock, California college released a statement saying they are investigating the incident and 'will take disciplinary action'.

The College Republicans have asked that students 'respect the memorial for the remainder of its time in the quad'.
Theresa May must use her party conference speech to spell out what she wants from Brexit, one of Britain's top union leaders demanded today.

TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady said trade unions would not get away with declaring a 'strike means a strike' and said the new Prime Minister must do better than declaring 'Brexit means Brexit'.

Addressing the TUC Annual Congress, Ms O'Grady slammed the Vote Leave campaign for tactics that were not 'clean' or 'honest' but said a national effort was now needed to make the best of the referendum result.

TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady told Congress in Brighton trade unions would not get away with declaring a 'strike means a strike'

Ms O'Grady slammed the Vote Leave campaign for tactics that were not 'clean' or 'honest' but said a national effort was now needed to make the best of the referendum result

She said: 'In this movement, we're democrats. We accept what the British people have said.

'So I say this: Whether you voted Remain or Leave our job now is to get the best deal possible for working people.

'And to build a Britain that is successful, prosperous, fair. A Britain of great jobs for everyone.'

Turning to Mrs May, Ms O'Grady added: 'Woman to woman, Im going to take the liberty of giving some advice about what she should say.

'After all, on the steps of Downing Street, the new Prime Minister admitted that life is much harder for working people than many in Westminster realise.

'She promised us social justice. She vowed to govern for the many, not the privileged few.

'So my advice to the new Prime Minister is this: prove it.'

The TUC chief said before triggering Article 50 to officially begin the two-year process of Brexit, the Government should guarantee the rights of EU citizens already living in Britain to stay.

The TUC chief said before triggering Article 50 to officially begin the two-year process of Brexit, the Government should guarantee the rights of EU citizens already living in Britain

The TUC Congress in Brighton was this week focused on securing 'good jobs for everyone' as activists gathered to mark the beginning of the autumn conference season

She said it was 'plain immoral and inhuman' to keep the three million EU citizens living in the UK in limbo.

Further guarantees should be given to British workers that rights won in Brussels - such as holiday pay and and rights for temporary workers - during past treaty negotiations should be honoured in post-Brexit Britain.

And Ms O'Grady said once they begin the negotiations on the terms of Brexit 'can't be left to the Tories'.

Theresa May makes her first party conference speech as PM in three weeks and was urged to spell out the detail of Brexit

Ms O'Grady said: 'This shouldnt be about managing the internal politics of the Conservative Party.

'It's about shaping the future of our country. We need a cross-party negotiating team, including the nations, London and the North.

'And it can't be a case of cosy chats with the City and the CBI either. As the voice of working people, trade unions must be at the table too.'

She said: 'Of course, we keep being told that Brexit means Brexit.

'I'm not sure many union leaders would get away with saying a walk-out means a walk-out.

'A strike means a strike. And thats that. At some point we'd have to spell out what we want. What we think we can get.

'And win a mandate from our members to negotiate. The same goes for the Prime Minister.

'How can her government know what to negotiate for if it doesn't know what the country thinks? Or what the rest of the EU would accept?'

Ms O'Grady, pidtured far right at the final referendum debate at Wembley, was a prominent Remain campaigner but today said the TUC would accept the result and work for the best outcome from Brexit for workers

Ms O'Grady was a leading Remain campaigner in the Referendum and took to the stage against Mr Johnson in the final TV clash at Wembley.

She said: 'For me personally, facing Boris and Andrea Leadsom in the BBC debate was quite an experience and not one I'd be in a hurry to repeat.

'But, as someone told me, at least now I can say I've played Wembley.

'The campaign wasn't clean, or even honest. Fake promises of more money for the NHS. Dog whistle appeals to anti-immigrant sentiment.

'And the bizarre spectacle of a self-styled vanguard against the Establishment: Led by a former stockbroker, a serial back-stabber and a member of the Bullingdon Club.
Ameen Jogee, who was cleared of murder in a landmark Supreme Court ruling, has now been jailed for manslaughter

A killer who was controversially awarded a retrial in a landmark British case has been jailed for the manslaughter of a former policeman he was previously convicted of murdering.

Ameen Jogee initially been found guilty, along with his friend Mohammed Hirsi, of murdering Paul Fyfe in 2011 and the pair were both handed life sentences.

However, he was granted a retrial after the Supreme Court ruled the law on so-called 'joint enterprise' had been misinterpreted for more than 30 years.

A jury at Nottingham Crown Court cleared Jogee of murder earlier this month, but convicted him of manslaughter.

Today he was jailed for 12 years.

Jogee was 22 when Mr Fyfe was stabbed to death in Leicester in June 2011.

The prosecution said he 'egged on' Hirsi to strike the fatal blow against Mr Fyfe, a father of three.

Jailing him, Judge Gregory Dickinson said: 'Paul Fyfe was attacked in his own home. It was unprovoked and totally without justification.

'The consequences for his family were and remain devastating. This was not a spur of the moment event.

'You and Hirsi went to the home ... late at night intending to attack Paul Fyfe and to cause him some harm. You intended to encourage Hirsi to attack Mr Fyfe.'

Jogee has already served more than five years in custody and this will count towards his sentence. It means he will soon he eligible for automatic release after serving half of his 12-year term.

He had initially been found guilty, along with his friend Mohammed Hirsi, of murdering Paul Fyfe (pictured with his wife Tracey) in 2011 and the pair were both handed life sentences.

The ruling which forced the retrial to overturn sent shockwaves through the legal world, with more than 500 killers predicted to have grounds to seek to have their sentences quashed.

It was condemned by Mr Fyfe's family, among others, who said they were 'absolutely disgusted.'

Speaking at the time, his wife, Tracey, said criminals like Jogee would 'literally be getting away with murder'.

Joint enterprise was used to convict the killers of Stephen Lawrence and Garry Newlove and 500 others in the past decade alone.

The case of Shauna Hoare, convicted with her boyfriend Nathan Matthews of killing Bristol teenager Becky Watts, is one that could be affected by the ruling.

She claims she knew Matthews wanted to kidnap Becky to have sex with her but was not with him when he throttled her, although she was in the house.

Tracey Fyfe, the widow of the former police officer, with her daughter Jess earlier this year after the retrial was granted
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Millions of Muslims are joining together around the world to celebrate the first day of the Islamic holiday Eid-al Adha.

The celebration, also known as the 'feast of sacrifice' commemorates the willingness of the Prophet Ibrahim - also known as Abraham to Christians and Jews - to sacrifice his son before God stayed his hand.

During the three-day holiday - which begins today - Muslims slaughter livestock, distributing part of the meat to the poor.

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Muslims walk along roads in Saudi Arabia as they head towards the holy city of Mecca to celebrate the first day of Eid al-Adha

A goat is tied to a pole in the Gaza Strip as children wait for it to be slaughtered as part of the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha

A Palestinian man holds up his hands covered in blood as he celebrates Eid al-Adha - also known as the 'feast of sacrifice'

Palestinian men bring a cow into the street in Khan Younis on the Gaza Strip ready for it to be sacrificed for Eid al Adha

Eid al-Adha always begins on the 10th day of the Islamic lunar month of Dhul-Hijja, during the annual hajj pilgrimage

Eid al-Adha always begins on the 10th day of the Islamic lunar month of Dhul-Hijja, during the annual hajj pilgrimage.

In Saudi Arabia, more than two million Muslims descended on Mecca to celebrate the festival in one of the final rites of the hajj.

It seems them throw stones at pillars in what is viewed as symbolically stoning the devil.

In the Gaza Strip, cattle could be seen being dragged along the street before being slaughter and their meat cut up.

There were also similar scenes in Indonesia and Malaysia, as Muslim men slaughtered cows.

Indonesian Muslims carry a cow after it was slaughtered during celebrations for Eid al-Adha at the Jogokaryan mosque

Acehnese men prepare a cow for slaughter to celebrate the annual festival of Eid al-Adha in Banda Aceh, Indonesia today

A cat walks past by as Muslim women wait for the start of a morning prayer marking the Eid al-Adha holiday at Senen Market in Jakarta, Indonesia

Muslims pile on to a road and pray on a street during a morning prayer marking the Eid al-Adha holiday in Jakarta, Indonesia

Also celebrating were people in Afghanistan, where the violence between government forces and Islamist militants has intensifies.

But despite the fighting, Muslims still made it out on to the streets for the slaughter rituals after prayers.

In Beijing, hundreds of Muslims turned out at a mosque for prayers on the Islamic holiday while Filipino women snapped selfies before prayers in Manila.

Afghans offer Eid al-Adha prayers in Jalalabad east of Kabul, Afghanistan, which is marking the holiday under a wave of violence

An Afghan girl rides on swings during the first day of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha in Kabul one of the holiest days in Islam

Afghan Muslims slaughter a sheep for sacrifice during the Islamic holiday which is also known as the 'festival of sacrifice'

Butchers cut up the cow's body and split the meat into three parts, with one of the parts being donated to the poor

Muslims in Iraq also celebrated the festival with one Iraqi shephard bringing a sheep to be slaughtered at a ceremony in Baghdad

Also marking Eid al-Adha was Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who made a rare public appearance at prayers in the town of Daraya, recently surrended by rebels.

State media showed the embattled leader attending the prayers at the Saad Bin Moaz mosque in the town outside Damascus, which was previously a rebel stronghold.

During the festival, families are encouraged to choose their best animals for the ritual, which harks back to the days of the Koran's prophets .

A small child stands among Muslim men as they attend prayers for Eid al-Adha festival at Niujie mosque in Beijing, China

Muslims pray outside a mosque during celebrations of Eid al-Adha, a feast celebrated by Muslims worldwide, which Muslims in Russia call Kurban-Bairamin

A Muslim family takes a selfie picture in front of the sea after the morning prayer to celebrate Eid al-Adha in Colombo, Sri Lanka

A man holds a child in the air as others pray the dawn Eid al-Adha prayers at Mustafa Mahmoud Square in Cairo, Egypt,

The Islamic holy book tells how Allah demanded that Ibrahim sacrifice his first son, Ishmael, in an act of subservience to his god.

According to the Koran, Ibrahim was wrought with indecision, but resolved to do Allah's bidding - and even put the dilemma to Ishmael himself, who said the right thing to do was slaughter him.

However, as Ibrahim slashed the throat of his son, he found that an angel had replaced Ishmael with a goat. The animal sacrifices still carried out today are meant to symbolise and celebrate Allah's act of mercy.

Filipinio Muslims attend morning prayers to celebrate Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) at Luneta Park in Manila, Philippines

One woman snaps a selfie after morning prayers in Manila before the traditional slaughter rituals begin in the country

epa05535878 Filipino Muslims attend morning prayers to celebrate Eid al-Adha on a street in Taguig City, south of Manila,

Cows, sheep and goats are the most usual animals which are taken to slaughter, but other livestock - including camels - also feature depending on the region. In Britain the ritual killings have to take place in a slaughterhouse.

Families are expected to sacrifice good-quality animals. There are no binding rules on what to do with the remains, but one tradition sees families divide the usable meat into three. One part they consume themselves, another goes to friends, and the final third is given to the poor.

The exact date of Eid al-Adha on the Western calendar changes every year - as the festivities coincide with the Hajj pilgrimage - which sees Muslims flock to the holy city of Mecca.

Kuwaiti security forces check Shiite Muslim men as they arrive to perform the morning prayer of the Eid al-Adha holiday at the al-Sadeq mosque in Kuwait city
An artist who created a bizarre sculpture of Robert Mugabe as a Simpsons-inspired superhero has launched a bold defence of his gigantic effigy after it triggered an outpouring of jokes online.

Sculptor Dominic Benhura, whose work sells for hundreds of thousands of dollars to A-lister collectors, looked openly anxious as he flanked Mugabe for the unveiling of his leaning likeness of the 92 year- old Zimbabwean president.

As the feared despot  who is presiding over the worst economic crisis in the history of his country  declared the curious three-tonne figure a kind of wonder, a kind of love, a spontaneous outpouring on social media mocked the work as a parody in stone.

Sculptor Dominic Benhura, far right, whose work sells for hundreds of thousands of dollars to A-lister collectors , looked openly anxious as he flanked Robert Mugabe, left, for the unveiling of his leaning likeness of the 92 year- old Zimbabwean president. Mugabe's wife Grace was smiling at the launch

As #MugabeStatue trended throughout southern Africa, the talented Mr Benhura, who lives in the capital Harare, attempted to explain the motivation behind the piece, which bears an accurate, but unflattering likeness to the bespectacled ruler

As #MugabeStatue trended throughout southern Africa, the talented Mr Benhura, who lives in the capital Harare, attempted to explain the motivation behind the piece, which bears an accurate, but unflattering likeness to the bespectacled ruler.

I think most people do not understand my art and they do not understand the difference in art styles, the 48 year-old told the pro-Mugabe Herald newspaper.

That sculpture was never meant to look exactly as the Presidents image. I do not do exact figures. Some artists do exact figures, but I do something that makes my work different.

The statue provoked unflattering comparisons with South African former leader Nelson Mandela, right

Social media users in southern Africa flooded Twitter with jokes about the statue, which they said looked like a superhero

This image was said to show the reaction of people in Zimbabwe when they saw the 'superhero' statue

Perhaps aware that #MugabeStatue commentators had begun speculating that it was only a matter of time before he would be punished over his comedic portrayal of the worlds oldest leader, Mr Benhura made a strenuous effort to clarify his artistic approach towards his national leader.

He went on, If a number of artistes are commissioned to do a piece on a certain subject, there is need for a difference. If all the pieces have striking resemblance of the subject, they will look the same and nothing will differentiate the artists. This is the style I have mastered.

As far as users of twitter and facebook were concerned, however, the shy artist had looked no further than the TV hit cartoon show, The Simpsons, for his inspiration

As far as users of twitter and Facebook were concerned, however, the shy artist had looked no further than the TV hit cartoon show, The Simpsons, for his inspiration for the Spring Stone Mugabes pronounced upper lip and the Superman series for his raised-fist take off stance.

There were streams of comparisons between Mr Benhuras interpretation and the gravitas of other world leader statues, such as the one of Nelson Mandela.
A scholar of Islam has warned of civil war across Europe as more young Muslims facing poor job prospects turn to radical groups, it has been reported.

Professor Gilles Kepel, from the Sciences Po in Paris, France, said a growing 'Jihad Generation' is likely to continue to carry out terror acts in European cities.

The aim of their terror activity is to both incite hatred towards Muslims and, in doing so, cause further radicalisation among young people, the professor of political science said.

A scholar of Islam has predicted civil war across Europe as more young Muslims facing poor job prospects turn to radical groups, it has been reported (file picture)

He told the German newspaper Die Welt that this in turn could lead to the point where Europe enters into civil war.

Kepel said the recent terror attacks across the continent were part of a war within Islam rather than between Islam and Western civilization.

The extremists, he said, also want to crush more moderate Islamic opposition.

After civil war had ruined Europe, he said, the long term goal of the terrorists would then be to build a caliphate 'on the ruins of the old continent'.

Kepel said that while most Muslims were not involved in any terror-related activity, a lack of job prospects and their feeling of hopelessness in French suburbs could boost the likelihood of young Muslims becoming radicalised.

He warned against retaliation from far-right groups and urged authorities to eliminate fractures in European societies 'not with war but with policing and education'.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said that 'every day attacks are foiled ... (including) as we speak' (file picture of French anti-terror police)

His comments come with Europe still on edge following a wave of terror attacks in recent months.

Last night, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said that 'every day attacks are foiled ... (including) as we speak.'

Valls said nearly 15,000 people in France are being tracked because they are suspected of being in the process of radicalization, while 1,350 are under investigation - 293 of them for alleged links with a terrorism network.

'Today the threat is at a maximum, and we are a target,' Valls said on Europe 1 radio. 'Every day intelligence services, police foil attacks, dismantle networks, track terrorists.'
Hillary Clinton embraced a young child after leaving her daughter's apartment - despite suffering from pneumonia.

The Democratic presidential candidate was diagnosed with the illness after she collapsed at an 'incredibly stifling' 9/11 ceremony in New York.

Pneumonia is a contagious illness that is spread from person-to-person when small droplets of water that contain the bacteria get into the air and people breathe them in.

Those infected usually spread the disease by sneezing while in close contact with others, who then breathe in the bacteria, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University, said: 'Candidates are constantly out in enclosed spaces, face to face with myriads of people. It's an ideal opportunity for the transmission of a respiratory virus.'

Hillary Clinton was spotted bending down and speaking to the child after leaving her daughter's apartment yesterday

Clinton has cancelled a trip to California to attend fundraising events after it emerged the Democratic presidential nominee has pneumonia and been advised to rest by her doctor

Clinton left her daughter's apartment at about 11.45am, smiling and waving to a scrum of cameras and posing for a picture with a young girl before stepping into a campaign vehicle

Clinton said 'I'm feeling great. It's a beautiful day in New York', before heading for her home in Chappaqua, in New York state

Clinton was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday and given antibiotics but had become dehydrated at the event in New York.

A dramatic video recorded by a bystander showed the Democratic candidate's knees buckling as she stepped off a kerb into a waiting van.

She had to be helped up by two Secret Service guards as her team rushed to help her and stopped her hitting the ground.

Clinton left after just 90 minutes of the ceremony at Ground Zero to mark the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Her spokesman Nick Merrill said she felt 'overheated' and she was taken to her daughter Chelsea's apartment in the city in what was described as a 'medical episode'.

Another picture taken moments earlier showed the 68-year-old holding her chest with her right hand and looking uncomfortable.

Representative Joe Crowley, a New York Democrat, described the memorial as being 'incredibly stifling'.

Video surfaced of Clinton appearing to stumble as she was led into a van after suffering a 'medical episode' during the 9/11 memorial service

Her aides then rushed to her side and then helped her into the van before she was rushed off to Chelsea's Manhattan home

An hour after arriving at her daughter's apartment, she emerged looking relaxed.

Asked if she was feeling better, Mrs Clinton said: 'Yes thank you, very much'.

She smiled and posed for pictures with the young girl before leaving for her home in Chappaqua, just northeast of Manhattan.

'I'm feeling great, it's a beautiful day in New York,' Clinton said.

Following her collapse she was forced to cancel a California fundraising trip on Monday and Tuesday.

Her campaign team also faced questions as to why it took them two days to reveal the illness.

Clinton emerged from her daughter Chelsea's apartment after she was rushed from the 9/11 memorial service because of a 'medical episode'

The diagnosis puts the health of Clinton back into the spotlight with two months left in the US presidential election.

She has suffered numerous coughing fits on live TV, joking how 'every time I think of Trump I get allergic'.

Her critics have seized on photos of her which they claim show she has suffered seizures.

Should Mrs Clinton win the presidency she will be 69 when she takes office, making her the second oldest person to assume the title after Ronald Reagan.
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For the second time in a week visitors on board Brighton's new 46million 'vertical cable car' were left stranded in mid-air - but this time they were able to answer the call of nature after staff set up a pop up portaloo.

On Thursday the i360 tourist attraction on the resort's seafront experienced a 'slight technical hitch' that 'caused the pod to halt' just 25ft into its journey, operators British Airways i360 said, leaving passengers stranded in the air for more than two hours.

The company says it sent engineers to resolve the issue. But yesterday the ride once again became stuck for almost an hour and a half, prompting staff to erect a small green portaloo tent so some of the 200 people on board could use the toilet.

Staff at the seafront tower said the i360 has now shut for the day following yesterday's technical problems, which saw the door sensors not working properly.

For the second time in a week visitors on board Brighton's new 'vertical cable car' were left stranded in mid-air - but this time they were able to answer the call of nature after staff set up a pop up portaloo (pictured) in the middle of the atraction

The company says it sent engineers to resolve the issue following the initial break down but yesterday the ride once again became stuck for almost an hour and a half, prompting staff to erect a small green portaloo tent so people could use the toilet

The i360 tourist attraction on Brighton's seafront experienced a 'slight technical hitch' that 'caused the pod to halt' just nine metres into its journey, operators British Airways i360 said (Pictured: Firefighters next to the stranded pod on Thursday)

Passengers on board the stranded i360 retained their sense of humour as they held scraps of paper which said 'help!'

The i360 pod was carrying a private party, including a heavily pregnant woman, who all boarded the pod at around 5pm

A British Airways i360 spokesperson said: 'British Airways i360 is closed today while specialist technicians conduct further checks on site.

'We apologise for any inconvenience caused. Customers who have booked tickets for flights today will be offered alternative visits or refunds.'

On Thursday when it broke down the i360 pod was carrying a private party, including a heavily pregnant woman, who all boarded the pod at around 5pm.

The tourist attraction, which opened last month, claims to be the world's first viewing platform of its kind, lifting guests 450 feet into the air for a 360-degree view of the Brighton coastline.

They had planned a reception at the nearby restaurant half an hour later, but their plans were scuppered when the ride ground to a halt.

Restaurant owner Alex, who declined to give a surname, said: 'They were stuck up there for more than two hours before they were brought back down. It was an hour and 50 minutes before the fire crew turned up, and they left about 10 minutes later.

'Members of the party told us that they were given no information from BA and were only offered water while they were stuck - but nobody wanted to drink it as there are no toilets on board the pod.'

The tourist attraction, which opened last month, claims to be the world's first viewing platform of its kind, lifting guests 450 feet into the air for a 360-degree view of the Brighton coastline

One of the party organisers, said it was an 'ironic' turn for the evening, which was planned to celebrate the i360's opening

The i360 tourist attraction on the resort's seafront experienced a 'slight technical hitch' that 'caused the pod to halt' just nine metres into its journey, operators British Airways i360 said - they sent engineers to assess the problem

Afterwards, passenger Richard Adams tweeted 'Huge cheer as the doors open' while Kathy Taylor, another ticketholder, added: 'Now enjoying the view from solid ground.'

Tim Jones, one of the party organisers, said it was an 'ironic' turn for the evening, which had been planned to celebrate the i360's opening.

The financial advisor, 45, said: 'We weren't very high up when we juddered to a halt and we were told by staff to move to one side of the pod to 'recalibrate the weight' - which made some people a bit nervous.

'It was an interesting experience, and quite ironic as the party was organised by four local businesses who wanted to come together to celebrate the tower's opening.'

Afterwards, passenger Richard Adams tweeted 'Huge cheer as the doors open' while Kathy Taylor, another ticketholder, added: 'Now enjoying the view from solid ground'

Ordinarily the ride takes between 20-30 minutes - large queues built up on the ground by the time the pod was brought down

Ordinarily the ride from top to bottom takes between 20-30 minutes and Mr Jones said a 'massive' queue had built up on the ground by the time the pod was brought down.

He said that, while there were no injuries and all passengers were eventually brought down safely, he hoped the problem would be a learning curve for BA.

'BA have learnt a hard lesson about interacting with customers this evening,' he said.

'Only two interactions were made over the two hours and they kept pretty quiet about the free bar and the emergency toilet until we were nearly on the ground.

'We fully support the i360 and think it is a great venture for the city, so we hope they can find out what went wrong and take it from there. It's certainly given us something to talk about for the rest of the evening.'

A spokesperson for British Airways i360 said: 'British Airways i360 experienced a technical fault last night which resulted in the pod stopping for a short time.

'Our engineers worked to resolve the issue and bring the pod back down. We would like to apologise to all customers affected; we will be refunding the flights and offering them complimentary tickets to return another time. Flights are operating normally today.'
Police expect to arrest up to three more people for the 2004 murders of Brisbane siblings April and Ian Bailey after a tip off from an anonymous caller.

Detective Inspector Damien Hansen said the mystery caller had detailed knowledge of the crime and gave them specific information.

He said the anonymous caller was not believed to have been involved in the murder, which police now believed was a premeditated attack by a group, but knew them well.

Police expect to arrest up to three more people for the 2004 murders of Brisbane siblings April and Ian Bailey (both pictured) after a tip off from an anonymous caller

The brother and sister, aged 29 and 31, were believed to be murdered in their Brisbane home before accelerant was used to set the house on fire.

'The information (they gave) is the events in the lead up, the planning that went into this, the reasons why and also who were involved,' Inspector Hansen said.

'It is obvious from the detail that this persons gone into that theyre a close associate of the persons involved.

'They have detailed knowledge there that would lead to the successful prosecution of offenders.'

Inspector Hansen urged the caller to contact police again, and reminded the public that a $250,000 reward and immunity from prosecution were on offer.

He said like other witnesses to cold cases, the caller appeared to have had a 'change of heart' and may have become a different person in the 12 years since the murder.

The mystery caller had detailed knowledge of the crime and gave police specific information

'There are certainly people who have changed their lifestyle  they're no longer in that scene,' he said.

'They have now provided us information that was not available to the original investigators.'

Inspector Hansen said the tip on Saturday night was one of 15 calls prompted by coverage of the arrest of Danielle Lee Fels earlier that day.

The 34-year-old was charged with two counts of murder and one count each of arson and possessing a dangerous drug.

Fels cried in the dock during her brief appearance at the Redcliffe Magistrates Court on Monday morning.

Outside court, one of Fels' family members told reporters 'we love her' and that police 'do not have the full story'.

April's daughter, Violet (L), joined Detective Inspector Damien Hansen (R) in making the fresh appeal for information on Monday

Fels was remanded in custody and her case adjourned to December 20.

April's daughter, Violet, joined Inspector Hansen in making the fresh appeal for information on Monday.

Now aged 17, the teenager was just four years old at the time and found uninjured at fire-ravaged home at Deception Bay where Ian and April were found dead on May 28, 2004.

Violet said she wanted justice for her family and pleaded with anyone with information to come forward.

'Its been quite a struggle but thank you to all the people who have been giving information, it does mean a lot to my family and I that something has been happening and things are changing for us,' she said.

Now aged 17, the teenager was just four years old at the time and found uninjured at fire-ravaged home at Deception Bay where Ian and April were found dead on May 28, 2004

'I would appreciate so much for you to come forward, I would be very thankful for you to do it,'

'I do want to move on... I do hope that justice does get served for them.'

'I hope the other people work out that their life of freedom isn't going to happen for them and things are going to change.'

Violet said she hoped the community would support the family and children of Fels and others who may be arrested, and not blame them for their relative's crime.

She said she had to 'grow up very fast' and frequently explain the loss of her mother and uncle to people.

'It's quite scary at times, but also amusing to see their expressions when they don't know how to respond,' she said.

Violet said she wanted justice for her family and pleaded with anyone with information to come forward

Violet previously made a public plea for information in December, leading investigators to interview a number of people again, as well as Fels' arrest.

She said the process had helped her relieve a lot of anger and sadness about the murders, but that she was unhappy people had kept information to themselves for 12 years.

Fels was was identified after police used new technology to analyse triple-zero calls made before the house fire.

Police said the arrested woman was an associate of the siblings and part of the alleged motive in their killing was drug-related.
A jilted boyfriend stabbed his partner to death in a frenzied attack after he found out she planned to leave him by a Post Office redirection notice, a court heard.

Pawel Sroka, 34, allegedly stabbed Joanna Trojniak six times with a kitchen knife, including in the face and through the hand, on March 23 this year.

Miss Trojniak, 29, was planning to leave him after becoming close to a colleague in Nando's, the Old Bailey was told.

She had contacted the Post Office to redirect her mail to a colleague's address where she was planning to stay after leaving, it was said.

But Sroka found a letter confirming the redirection, which was sent to the home they shared in Croydon, south London, sparking a row, jurors were told.

Pawel Sroka and Joanna Trojniak, who he stabbed to death after she tried to leave him

He stabbed her six times and slashed at her once, before turning the knife on himself then calling 999 to tell them his girlfriend had been stabbed, the court heard.

Sroka then made a getaway from the scene, driving away in his car, and was later found crying for help, the jury was told.

David Jeremy QC, prosecuting, told the court: 'After Miss Trojniak returned home from work, the defendant attacked her and stabbed her to death with a kitchen knife in the living room of the home that they shared.

Miss Trojniak was secretly planning to leave her abusive partner but he found out due to a postal redirection note

'He then, it appears, called 999 and drove off in his car, but not before he had stabbed himself a couple of times in the chest, leaving Miss Trojniak to be found dying by the emergency services.'

Mr Jeremy added: 'The build up to that day of Wednesday, March 23 was this: The relationship between this defendant and Miss Trojniak was coming to an end.

'And she had become close to someone with whom she worked, at Nando's in Colliers Wood.

'Miss Trojniak told her friends and her work colleagues that she was fearful of his reaction. She thought that it would be an aggressive reaction.

'She worried that he would not accept it. She worried that he would track her down, and make life difficult for her.

'She was scared of him, and what he might be capable of doing. And you may think, as the woman who lived with him, as his partner, she was the best person of all to know what he might be capable of.'

Miss Trojniak told her manager she had tried to break up with Sroka before, but he had locked her in a room and become aggressive, jurors were told.

When her manager asked her why she did not just walk out and leave, her response was 'are you crazy, he will kill me', Mr Jeremy said.

Miss Trojniak has expressed fears about trying to leave Sroka, who was violent

The prosecutor told the court: 'She had wanted to make sure that when she left he wouldn't be able to find out where she had gone.

'So she arranged with the Post Office that her post would be redirected to the address of some of her colleagues from work.

'Unfortunately, the Post Office's confirmation of this arrangement was posted to her address.'

After finding the letter, Sroka sent texts and Whatsapp messages to Miss Trojniak and before leaving work she told a friend: 'No other choice. Don't know what going to happen and how it's going to finish today', jurors were told.

She arrived home about 7.30pm that evening and, just over an hour later, she was dead, Mr Jeremy said.
James Walker and Stephan Bearchum, both of Lame Deer, were identified Sunday as the two 14-year-olds killed Saturday when the car they were riding in was struck by another vehicle in Busby, said Terry Bullis, Big Horn County coroner.

At about 1:10 p.m. a 23-year-old Billings woman driving a Buick Regal failed to negotiate a right hand curve on U.S. Highway 212 near mile marker 25. The Buick struck the passenger side of a Pontiac Grand Prix parked in a private driveway, according to Montana Highway Patrol Dispatch.

The Pontiac had four occupants from Busby including a 12-year-old girl who was driving, the two 14-year-old boys pronounced dead on scene, and a 12-year-old boy who was extricated by rescue crews and taken to a Billings hospital by helicopter. The boys who died were not wearing seat belts and were ejected. The two drivers were also injured in the wreck and taken to Indian Health Services in Crow Agency.

Sgt. Tony Beehler, of Montana Highway Patrol, said all the people involved in the wreck were tribal members. MHP is assisting the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Federal Bureau of Investigations in the investigation.

The crash occurred in a 25 mph speed zone and speed, alcohol and drugs are being investigated as possible factors in the wreck. No arrests have been made related to the crash and any future charges will be handled by BIA, Beehler said.
Michael Gove (pictured attending a separate dinner) has been criticised after reports he joked about the Ku Klux Klan and the Black Lives Matter group

Michael Gove has been told he should 'hang his head in shame and apologise' after he joked about the Ku Klux Klan and the Black Lives Matter group.

Speaking at the annual conference dinner of the Society of Legal Scholars (SLS) last week, the former Justice Secretary and Brexit campaigner acknowledged that he was probably not the most popular figure with the pro-EU audience.

'I feel rather like the grand wizard of the KKK giving an address to the AGM of Black Lives Matter,' he reportedly joked.

The group of legal academics have since issued a strongly-worded statement saying it 'wishes to distance itself clearly and unequivocally from this comment and sincerely regrets that it was made and caused offence'.

Clive Lewis, the Shadow Defence Secretary, condemned Mr Gove's 'sickening' comments and demanded he apologise.

He told MailOnline: 'These comments are quite frankly repulsive. The KKK is a racist organisation that has been responsible for the brutal murder, torture and repression of African Americans for more than a century.

'To make such a comment, given the fact black people are to this day twice as likely to be killed by US police officers as their fellow white citizens, is quite frankly sickening. He should hang his head in shame and apologise.'

Mr Gove's office has yet to respond to a request for comment. His joke was reported on Twitter by those present at the dinner, held last Wednesday.

Black Lives Matter is a growing international movement campaigning against violence and systematic racism towards black people, set up in 2012 after a police officer was acquitted in the shooting of African-American youngster Trayvon Martin in Florida.

Shadow Defence Secretary Clive Lewis (pictured) told MailOnline that he found Michael Gove's joke 'repulsive' and demanded an apology

Michael Gove's joke was reported on Twitter by those present at the dinner, which was held last Wednesday

Mr Gove was invited to speak at the SLS dinner when he was Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor and before he joined the Vote Leave campaign.

He was sacked from the Cabinet by Theresa May after she became Prime Minister in July and has returned to the backbenches.

In a statement published yesterday, the Society of legal academics said: 'The speaker at the annual conference dinner of the Society of Legal Scholars (SLS) in Oxford on Wednesday September 7 was the Right Honourable Michael Gove MP.

'The invitation on behalf of the SLS was made and accepted when he was Minister of Justice and Lord Chancellor (and months before the EU referendum campaigns had begun).

'In the course of his speech, aware that his academic audience might be largely hostile given his position on Brexit, Mr Gove drew an analogy, the gist of which has since been tweeted.
New DNA evidence suggests a convicted serial killer did not commit one of the three murders that put him behind bars.

Michael Darnell Harris, 53, is currently serving life sentences in Michigan after being found guilty of slaying four women between 1981 and 1983.

But new DNA testing points to a different suspect in the 1981 killing of 77-year-old Ula Curdy of Lansing - the earliest of the four murders attributed to Harris.

Michigan State Police is now investigating how its crime lab handled all of the Harris cases.

Michael Darnell Harris (pictured), 53, is serving life sentences after being found guilty of slaying four women in Michigan. But new DNA evidence could overturn his earliest conviction

Harris has long declared his innocence. He was convicted of the 1981 Lansing killings of Curdy and 81-year-old Denise Swanson in Ingham County in 1983.

The other two other killings, of 85-year-old Marjorie Upson of Ypsilanti and 84-year-old Louise Koebnick of Ann Arbor, happened 1982, but Harris wasn't convicted until 1993.

'I am 100 percent innocent,' he told the Detroit Free Press in an email from Muskegon Correctional Facility. 'I had nothing to do with these crimes. The prosecutions were not about truth.'

Harris is unlikely to walk free anytime soon, according to interim Ingham Prosecutor Gretchen Whitmer (pictured)

But Harris is unlikely to walk free anytime soon given his record, according to interim Ingham Prosecutor Gretchen Whitmer.

'If there was only one conviction for which he was serving time, his situation would change dramatically,' she told the newspaper.

But Harris' court-appointed lawyer Edwar Zeineh believes other convictions in what was then considered the work of a serial killer and rapist could fall.

Curdy's death was the first killing Harris was convicted in and, according to Zeineh, that conviction affected later trials.

The prejudicial impact of a wrongful murder conviction  particularly one involving a sex crime  could be far-reaching, University of Michigan law professor David Moran said.

'You do get a domino effect with a wrongful conviction, particularly if you have a serial rapist,' Moran said.

Ingham County Circuit Court will hold a hearing on September 23 to consider the new evidence that could overturn Harris' conviction.
A mother who buried her nine-week-old son in remote woods after her husband allegedly murdered the child has killed herself in prison.

Kristen Bury, 33, committed suicide behind bars at the Sarasota County Jail in Florida, less than a year into a 25-year-sentence for killing Chance Walsh.

She pleaded no contest to aggravated manslaughter in January after the youngster's remains were found in a shallow grave in October, a month after he was reported missing. He had been buried just wearing his diaper.

Her husband, Joseph Walsh, is yet to face trial in Chance's death. Bury was expected to testify as part of a deal with prosecutors.

The sheriff's office says deputies found Bury unresponsive in her cell on Saturday morning.

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Kristen Bury, 33, (left) committed suicide behind bars at the Sarasota County Jail in Florida, less than a year into a 25-year-sentence for killing nine-week-old Chance Walsh (right)

They performed CPR, but she was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

In a statement, Lt. Joe Giasone said the initial investigation 'indicates a suicide.' An autopsy is planned.

Walsh and Bury were arrested in South Carolina after getting into a car crash.

Chance wasn't in the car, but his grandmother Sally Susino called police saying she feared for the boy's well-being.

Police say Walsh suffocated the boy by stuffing a baby wipe in his mouth before the pair hid the body in nearby woods.

The youngster was beaten to death and found buried in a shallow grave last October

Fort Myers criminal trial attorney Joe Viacava told NBC2 justice for baby Chance will be more difficult now his mother has died.

'This could turn into a dismissal of the case for all we know,' he said.

'Having the one person that was there with no other real significant evidence, other than some minor forensic evidence, and as well as no eye witnesses testimony - she was critical to the case.

'If she becomes the lynchpin to their case and she's no longer there to testify, that could be the difference between a conviction and an acquittal.'

After her daughter was sentenced, Susino said she wasn't happy with the deal.

She told local media at the time: 'I can't say that I'm pleased with today's outcome.

'Understand I will always love my daughter. She was my flesh and blood, as Chance was to her.

'And fortunately I do have the mother instinct, so this is extremely difficult, but justice needs to be done and we don't feel the sentence was strong enough.

'Mothers are supposed to protect their child at all cost and that wasn't done.'

She wouldn't comment after hearing news of Bury's death.

Her husband, Joseph Walsh (left), is yet to face trial in Chance's death. Bury (right) was expected to testify as part of a deal with prosecutors
A Missouri man has been arrested in connection to the disappearance last week of a 21-year-old woman, accused of burning her vehicle that was found dumped in south Kansas City.

Jessica Runions, from the Kansas City suburb of Raymore, was last seen leaving a party at around 9.30pm Thursday. Her mother reported her missing Friday evening. Police are treating her disappearance as a suspicious missing person case.

Kylr Yust, 27, was taken into custody at around 8.30am Sunday, on charges of 'knowingly burning' Runions' vehicle, Kansas City Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kari Thompson said in a statement.

Suspect: Kylr Yust (left) has been arrested for allegedly burning the car of Jessica Runions, 21 (right), who has been missing since last Thursday

Relatives first reported Runions missing on Friday when she didn't return a series of phone calls, which the family says is unusual for her

Runions' car was found empty and burned up in near this remote overpass in Kansas City

KSHB-TV reported Yust, who currently faces no other charge in Runions' disappearance, was being held on a $50,000 cash-only bond.

Runions' car, a black 2012 Chevy Equinox, was found burned and empty about 2am Saturday morning near an underpass on 95th Street an Blue River Road in Kansas City.

Runions' family say she was last seen at a house party with her boyfriend and a childhood friend of his, Kylr Yust

'We are very concerned for her safety,' said Captain Stacey Graves, of Kansas police, to KCTV.

'It's suspicious circumstances  her vehicle unoccupied, burned in a remote area... just asking anyone who has had contact with her to call the police.'

Runions' family say she was last seen at a house party with her boyfriend and Yust, a childhood friend of his.

Yust was a person of interest in the disappearance of his girlfriend Kara Kopetsky, a 17-year-old high school student who vanished in 2007  just a week after filing a protection order against Yust when their relationship soured.

He's also been linked to a number of other crimes: assaulting a girlfriend, killing a kitten and drug trafficking, for which he spent the last three years behind bars.

He was never charged with Kopetsky's disappearance.

Police reports say that Yust claimed in 2013 that he had killed former girlfriends and could dispose of bodies by feeding them to pigs at a family farm, WDAF-TV reported.

On Thursday, Yust apparently stayed at the party with Runions when her boyfriend left, her family said.

'We just know that they left the party together,' aunt Michele Runions told KSHB.

Yusts grandfather told the station KSHB he has not seen Yust since Friday morning.

Police say the disappearance of Runions is 'suspicious' after they found her vehicle unoccupied and burned in this remote part of Kansas City

Runions' mother, Jamie, said she is doing all she can to get the word out about her daughter on social media and plans to put up posters across the Kansas City area.

'I'm numb. I can't think,' Runions told The Kansas City Star Sunday afternoon. 'But right now I have positive news that my daughter wasn't in the car when they found it. And that's what's going to keep me going right now. There's hope.'

Runions received a text from her daughter Wednesday evening that read 'Sweet Dreams.' She responded by sharing a selfie depicting herself and Jessica's younger sister Thursday afternoon.

Jessica then sent her mother a photo of herself with her cat, Tig. The family have heard nothing since then, Runions said, and calls to her phone went straight to voicemail, as if the device was switched off.

'This girl can never be without her phone on,' Runions told the paper. 'Her phone will be on silent, but its never turned off.'

Jamie Runions (right), Jessica's mother, says the two agreed to meet at her doctor's office Friday for a post-appendectomy appointment, but her daughter never showed

Final text: Jessica sent her mother a selfie with her cat, Tig, Thursday. She has not been heard from since

On Friday, Runions went to the doctors office to meet Jessica there. She never showed. But her mother knew how important the appointment was. Jessica needed clearance after her surgery to go back to work. Runions reported her daughter missing Friday night.

The two were scheduled to meet at a doctor's office Friday afternoon because Jessica has been recovering since her appendix ruptured two weeks ago.

'That wasn't like her,' Runions said. 'She needed that doctor's appointment to go back to work. She loves her job.'

Jessica works in the restaurant at Foxwood Springs senior living community in Raymore.

Family members say Runions was last seen with Kylr Yust (left), who was a person of interest in the disappearance of his then-girlfriend Kara Kopetsky (right), 17, who vanished in 2007

Detectives spent Saturday night interviewing people who may have seen Jessica Runions in the past few days.

'We're all praying every single minute,' said Jessica's grandmother, Linda Runions. 'Just to hear that she's OK.'

On Sunday, the family of Kara Kopesty spoke out about Runions' disappearance and Yust's suspected connection to it.

Kopetsky had filed a restraining order against Yust a week before she went missing. She has not been seen or heard from since

'Unfortunately, it was our feeling that as long as he was out that he was going to continue to do what he has always done victimize young innocent girls,' said Kara's mother, Rhonda Beckford.

Kara Kopetsky was last seen on surveillance video leaving Belton High School on the morning of May 4, 2007. She was reported missing that evening after failing to come home and skipping work.

About 10 days earlier, the 17-year-old posted a message on her MySpace account that read: 'So life hasnt been the greatest for me lately, over the last 9 months of my life iv dedicated my life to kylr ... I made no other time for any of my friends nor my family. over those 9 months i forgot the person that I was. im trying to find that person again.'

With Yust now in police custody in connection to Jessica Runions' disappearance, Kara's family are hoping to learn new information about what happened to their daughter.
Other rumoured changes include the abolition of George Osborne's Tatton

The Boundary Review is deleting 50 Commons constituencies including five in London to make all seats roughly the same size

The seat will be split between those held by Corbyn's allies Diane Abbott and Emily Thornberry - both of whom have the right to stay on

Leaked details revealed the Islington North constituency is to be broken up

Jeremy Corbyn today slammed a boundary review that abolishes his tiny Islington North constituency because a new one would be 'too big'.

The Labour leader represents the smallest patch of land in the Commons and the seat is due to be carved up and redistributed among neighbouring seats as part of a major shake up that cuts the number of MPs.

While Mr Corbyn is likely to be able to stand in one of the new constituencies near his current seat he has protested he is 'very unhappy about the size of the new constituency'.

Mr Corbyn's concern is based on the number of very poor people on his inner-city patch because they have more complex needs than people in better off areas.

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Jeremy Corbyn today slammed a boundary review that abolishes his tiny Islington North constituency because a new one would be 'too big'

Mr Corbyn's current Islington North constituency is one of many to be abolished in the draft Boundary Review - including the Tatton seat held by George Osborne and Sheffield Hallam held by Nick Clegg.

The review is cutting the number of MPs from 650 to 600 and attempting to broadly equalize the number of constituents in each seat to around 75,000.

Mr Corbyn's current Islington North constituency currently has just 68,000 people living in it. He has represented the seat since 1983.

After the proposals emerged last night, the Labour leader said: 'I'm very unhappy about the size of the new constituency that has been put forward.

'Multiple-needs areas, such as I represent, don't need to be too big.

'They need to be places where MPs can represent them properly, just like anywhere else in the country.'

Worryingly for the Labour leader, who has been accused of doing too little to stamp out anti-semitism in his party, he could be left fighting for a seat containing one of the country's largest Jewish populations.

A string of well-known politicians face having their constituencies disappear under the review of Commons boundaries

Data on the current constituency rises reveals the huge size disparity between the smallest and largest seats in England. Labour (marked red) holds more small seats than the Tories (marked in blue). The changes aim to make all seats roughly 75,000 people

Labour has complained more generally that the review has been based on an out-of-date 2015 electoral register that ignores two million people who registered to vote ahead of June's EU referendum.

'WE CAN GET MPs WHO AGREE WITH CORBYN!' SHAKE UP OF THE COMMONS MEANS RE-SELECTIONS, ACTIVIST CLAIMS A member of Labour's ruling National Executive Committee has suggested the party may use a massive shake-up of constituency boundaries to force out MPs who have been disloyal to leader Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn-backing Darren Williams, who joined the NEC earlier this year, said that the process of choosing candidates to fight new or altered seats in the 2020 general election would provided an opportunity to select individuals who are 'in tune with the views of ordinary party members'. Mr Williams told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I think where MPs have consistently demonstrated a disloyalty to the party leader and to the views on which he was elected then I think party members are within their rights to ask whether those MPs should continue to represent them. 'I do think the redrawing of boundaries does present an opportunity for the selection of some new candidates who may be more in tune with the views of ordinary party members.' But shadow cabinet member Jon Ashworth insisted the process was 'not about deselecting MPs'. Mr Williams' comments did not represent 'the position of Jeremy or his people', he told Today. Advertisement

Ministers Boris Johnson, Priti Patel and David Davis, along with Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson, could also see their constituencies erased or radically altered.

The changes come as part of proposals to cut the number of Westminster constituencies from 650 to 600 and to make them roughly equal in population for the first time.

The process will benefit the Tories because they will lose far fewer seats than Labour, whose seats tend to have smaller populations.

Mr Osborne's Tatton constituency also faces being wiped out, putting his political future under threat.

He is said to be considering challenging the proposals in the hope he will still be able to stand in the Cheshire seat in 2020.

Labour would lose around 30 of its constituencies under proposals by the Boundary Commission for England.

The Tories would only lose about 15.

Elections expert Lord Hayward said that, using voting figures from 2015, the redrawing of the electoral map would give Theresa May a majority of at least 44 in the 2020 election rather than the current 12.

'This is largely because the areas where the population rose most rapidly are in Conservative-leaning counties,' he said.

'Conversely, the areas of decline are in traditional Labour areas.'

Mr Osborne's Tatton constituency also faces being wiped out, putting his political future under threat. He is said to be considering challenging the proposals

John Ashworth, Labour spokesman on constitutional affairs, has described the reforms as an 'affront to democracy'. But the Conservatives say it will make the electoral system fairer.

The aim is for all the new seats, apart from a handful of exceptions, to contain around 75,000 voters. They currently range from 55,000 to 95,000.

The commission says Mr Corbyn's Islington North seat should be scrapped, with some of it added to shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry's seat in Islington South. The rest will go to a new seat called Finsbury Park and Stoke Newington, which takes in half of the seat occupied by shadow health secretary Diane Abbott and contains a very high Jewish population.

Katie Ghose, Chief Executive of the Electoral Reform Society, said: 'The fact that this boundary review is being conducted on the basis of registered electors, rather than the actual population, risks skewing our democracy.

'Areas with the lowest levels of registration are often those that already have the least voice in politics. Young people, some ethnic minority groups and those in the private rented sector are all less likely to register to vote than others. That makes many of them effectively cut out of the new political map.

'What's more, the review is being undertaken on the basis of a register that's nearly a year out of date, excluding over two million people who signed up between December and June. That means some regions are two seats short of what they are owed.

'It would be much fairer to draw boundaries based on eligible population rather than an incomplete electoral register.'

The division of the Witham seat held by Priti Patel, left, could lead her to a contest with former Culture Secretary John Whittingdale, right, the long-serving MP for neighbouring Maldon

Mr Osborne's Tatton seat is split between two newly-drawn constituencies of Macclesfield and Altrincham & Tatton Park.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip has also been significantly redrawn and involves a new constituency of Hillingdon and Uxbridge.

The division of the Witham seat held by Priti Patel, the International Development Secretary, could lead her to a contest with former Culture Secretary John Whittingdale the long-serving MP for neighbouring Maldon.

And David Davis, the Secretary of State for Exiting the EU, faces a similar battle after his constituency of Haltemprice and Howden was earmarked to be carved up.

There will be consultations on the proposed changes before they are put to a Commons vote.
A British Airways jet flying from Las Vegas to London Heathrow has declared an emergency over Scotland.

The Boeing 747 put out a call for help as it flew over Scotland just before 1pm.

It is not yet known how many passengers are on board the aircraft but the airline confirmed it will be continuing with its journey to Heathrow.

The British Airways flight - BA274 - declared an emergency over Scotland at 1pm due to a medical issue with a passenger on board. The plane, from Las Vegas, will continue to London

The flight - BA274 - left Las Vegas Airport, U.S., at 9.40pm local time and was due to arrive into London Heathrow at 3.30pm (BST).

A British Airways spokesman confirmed that a priority landing had been requested.

They said a passenger had fallen ill on the flight and medics would meet the plane when it lands at Heathrow.

A spokesman told MailOnline: 'The pilot requested a priority landing due to an individual on board feeling unwell.

'The aircraft landed as normal and medical services met the flight to provide assistance.'

There is no further update at this time on the condition of the passenger.
A woman, 79, has died on a cruise ship sparking concerns from her family she was suffering from a possible gastro outbreak.

Vanessa D'Souza claims her mother, Margaret Carlson, began showing signs of gastro after boarding the P&O Pacific Jewel Cruise ship in Sydney last Tuesday, the daughter told Sydney Morning Herald.

The 79-year-old from Terrigal on the NSW Central Coast was found dead in her room when the cruise ship docked at Yorkeys Knob in Cairns on Saturday afternoon.

Vanessa D'Souza (pictured with her two children and a picture of her mother) claims her mother began showing signs of gastro before she was found dead on a cruise ship

Margaret Carlson, 79, was found dead on the P&O Pacific Jewel cruise ship in Cairns on Saturday (stock image of Pacific Jewel at Moreton Island, Queensland)

Mrs Carlson had gone on the 10-day cruise with her other daughter and teenage grandson, who also claim to have fallen ill.

She had seen medical staff, but was told she had probably brought a bug onto the ship with her, the daughter said.

Ms D'Souza also claimed other cruise passengers had been locked out of their rooms on Monday without explanation.

The family believes the rooms were being disinfected.

'We'd like some answers,' Ms D'Souza told Sydney Morning Herald.

Mrs Carlson's family believes she had been struck ill by a gastro outbreak, however P&O denies there was an outbreak (stock image)

P&O have denied there was a gastro outbreak, and Queensland Police told Daily Mail Australia Mrs Carlson's cause of death is not being treated as suspicious.

'There is no reported gastro outbreak onboard,' a P&O spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.

'An elderly female passenger sadly passed away on Saturday on the Pacific Jewel cruise. Our thoughts are with her family.'

Queensland Police determined the 79-year-old died of natural causes and are not treating her death as suspicious.
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Hillary Clinton has said she kept her pneumonia diagnosis a secret because she didn't 'think it was going to be that big a deal' as she insists she simply suffered a dizzy spell at the 9/11 memorial yesterday.

The Democratic candidate told CNN's Anderson Cooper she is 'feeling so much better' after overheating on Sunday morning at the ceremony in New York City.

Clinton regrets trying to 'power through' her pneumonia rather than take time off to recover, as she has now been forced to withdraw from her planned speech in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

'Obviously I should have gotten some rest sooner,' she told Cooper, after calling in to his show. 'I probably would have been better off if I'd just pulled down my schedule on Friday, but like a lot of people, I just thought I could keep going forward and power through it and obviously that didn't work out so well.'

The candidate says she's now 'feeling fine and getting better' and is anxious to get back out on the trail, as her campaign promised to release more information on her health soon.

Clinton explained that she had felt herself becoming overheated yesterday but had not wanted to leave the 9/11 memorial.

Hillary Clinton called in to Anderson Cooper to say she kept her pneumonia diagnosis secret because she didn't 'think it was going to be that big a deal.

Hillary Clinton (left, on Sunday) says she's 'feeling fine and getting better' after overheating on Sunday morning at a 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York City. She will not attend an event in Las Vegas on Wednesday, however, her campaign said Monday evening. Bill Clinton (right) will go in her stead

'What happened yesterday was that I just was incredibly committed to being at the memorial, as a senator on 9/11, this is incredibly personal to me, and I could, you know, feel how hot and humid it was.

'I felt overheated. I decided that I did need to leave, and as soon as I got into the air-conditioned van, I cooled off, I got some water and very quickly I felt better. So I felt fine, but I'm now taking my doctor's advice which was given to me on Friday that I ignored to just take some time to get over pneumonia completely.'

Clinton says she didn't faint while getting into the van but had felt dizzy and stumbled as she got in. But after sitting in the air conditioning and drinking a glass of water she says she 'immediately' began feeling better.

'No, I didn't (pass out or lose consciousness). I felt dizzy and I did lose my balance for a minute, but once I got in, once I could sit down, once I could cool off, once I had some water, I immediately started feeling better

She said she felt well enough to take a detour to visit her daughter Chelsea Clinton and her grandchildren.



When asked why she didn't share her diagnosis earlier, Clinton replied: 'I just didn't think it was going to be that big a deal. It's just the kind of thing that if it happens to you and you're a busy, active person, you keep moving forward.

Clinton told Cooper she initially assumed that a cough she had been struggling with earlier in the week was just allergies. She had even joked at one point that she must be allergic to Donald Trump.

However, after the cough showed no signs of going away, she said she went to visit her doctor on Friday where she was diagnosed with pneumonia.

Clinton famously suffered a concussion in 2012 after she passed out expectantly and hit her head. But the 68-year-old said she could not recall any other occasion in the past five years where she had become faint or dizzy.

Bill Clinton is taking over for his wife at several upcoming events as she recovers, and will now headline the Hillary Victory Fund events in California. He will also be campaigning in Nevada on the Secretary's behalf on Wednesday, an aide said.

He told CBS News' Charlie Rose on Monday that his wife had suffered the same symptoms in the past when she's become exhausted.

'Rarely, on more than one occasion, over the last many, many years, the same sort of thing's happened to her when she got severely dehydrated, and she's worked like a demon, as you know, as secretary of state, as a senator, and in the years since,' he told the journalist.

'She'd had two and a half hard days before the day when she got dizzy,' he added.

Supporting his wife, he said: 'Today she made a decision which I think was correct to cancel her campaign day to take one more day to rest.'

Asked if it's possible Clinton will be away for weeks from the campaign trail, the former President said: 'No, not a shot.'

Hillary Clinton says she now hopes to 'get this over and done with and get back on the trail as soon as possible.'

'Given the recent changes in the Secretary's schedule, President Clinton will now headline the Hillary Victory Fund events in California. He will also be campaigning in Nevada on the Secretary's behalf on Wednesday,' an aide said.

The update came several minutes after Hillary Clinton made her first public comments of the day.

'Thanks to everyone who's reached out with well wishes! I'm feeling fine and getting better,' said a tweet marked with an 'H' for Hillary. She said in a follow-up message, 'Like anyone who's ever been home sick from work, I'm just anxious to get back out there. See you on the trail soon.'

Clinton made her first public comments of the day early Monday evening on Twitter. The 'H' at the end of the tweet stands for Hillary and it means the candidate wrote the message, not her staff

Clinton called off plans to visit the West Coast on Monday and Tuesday after she admitted to having pneumonia. Her campaign indicated tonight that she would sit out a speech on Wednesday in Las Vegas, as well

Press stake out Hillary Clinton's home in Chappaqua, New York, on Monday. Clinton is holed up there with pneumonia

Barricades and police block the former first lady and her husband's home from the public. Clinton has not been seen today. She continues to rest up after nearly collapsing on Sunday morning outside a 9/11 memorial service

Clinton called off plans to visit the West Coast on Monday and Tuesday after she admitted to having pneumonia.

She still plans to participate in a fundraiser there for her campaign today - she'll phone into the San Francisco event this evening, an aide said. Her husband will headline events on Tuesday benefiting her joint fundraising committee that she shares with the national and state Democratic Party committees.

This afternoon Clinton's spokesman said the Democratic White House candidate would be back on the campaign trail later this week but did not specify when. He promised additional medical information this week, as well, and attested that the candidate is not suffering from a serious, long-term illness.

'There's no other undisclosed condition. The pneumonia is the extent of it,' press secretary Brian Fallon said on MSNBC.

Batting down speculation that Clinton's concussion nearly four years ago and subsequent blood clot were related to the episode on Sunday, Fallon told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell that the Democratic presidential candidate's 'doctor has stated that there is nothing here in terms of anything that was caused by what happened in 2012.'

Spokesman Nick Merrill said she 'continues to feel better, but intends to remain at home today, following her doctor's recommendation to rest.

'In the evening, she will phone in briefly to the event in San Francisco, which is proceeding as scheduled in her absence.'

According to a YouGov poll in The Times, less than half of American voters believe Clinton's explanation about her illness.

Out of 1,910 responders, 46 per cent of voters did not believe that Clinton 'overheated' while suffering from a mild form of pneumonia as well as allergies.

Nine per cent were uncertain about what to believe and 45 per cent said they thought her campaign was telling the truth.

An email to attendees of the California event obtained by CNN said, 'As you may have heard today, Secretary Clinton was diagnosed with pneumonia and her doctor has advised her to rest.'

'As a result, she won't be able to join us in person, but she will be participating via teleconference.'

STAY BACK: A police officer stands guard near Clinton's Chappaqua, New York, home

Clinton's doctor revealed Sunday that the 68-year-old has pneumonia - hours after a video showed her collapsing into the arms of her Secret Service agents after being rushed from the memorial service at the World Trade Center.

Dr. Lisa R Bardack said Sunday evening that Clinton had become overheated and dehydrated at the event in lower Manhattan.

Bardack said Clinton is now 'recovering nicely' at her home in Chappaqua, New York.

The Democratic nominee was scheduled to attend fundraisers on Monday and Tuesday, deliver a speech in California, and tape an episode of Ellen DeGeneres' talk show. She's due back on the trail on Wednesday in Las Vegas. Her campaign has not said whether that event will proceed as planned.

Fallon said he expected that 'by the middle of this week or later this week Hillary Clinton will be back out on the trail.'

Clinton is holed up in her upstate New York home after a bystander recorded her losing her balance, slumping at the knees and being held up by her aides while waiting to get in a minivan Sunday morning.

Her campaign said she 'overheated' during the episode that saw her rushed away from the ceremony at Ground Zero and back to daughter Chelsea's Manhattan apartment.

Her press pool was not informed for 90 minutes of her whereabouts or given an explanation for the abrupt departure. At the time, the temperature was around 80 degrees and the humidity was low.

Bardack said in a statement that Clinton 'has been experiencing a cough related to allergies.' On Friday, during follow up evaluation of her prolonged cough, she was diagnosed with pneumonia, the doctor said.

Clinton was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule, Bardack said in the statement.

'While at this morning's event, she became overheated and dehydrated. I have just examined her and she is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely.'

Video has surfaced of Hillary Clinton appearing to stumble as she was led into a van after suffering a 'medical episode' during the 9/11 memorial service on Sunday. Her doctor later revealed that she has been diagnosed with pneumonia

Obama campaign guru David Axelrod came out swinging against Clinton Monday morning for keeping her illness a secret. 'Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia. What's the cure for an unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?' he tweeted.

Clinton Communications Director Jen Palmieri admitted in a response tweet that 'we could have done better yesterday.' Fallon said, 'I think in retrospect we could have handled it better. In terms of providing more information more quickly...in those 90 minutes we were putting a priority on making sure she was OK.'

Senior campaign hands to Clinton have reportedly been battling upper respiratory infections since the end of August. An aide told People that one senior staffer was taken to the ER after collapsing due to dehydration. Another was put on antibiotics by a doctor at an urgent care facility in Brooklyn, New York, near the campaign's headquarters.

The Democratic candidate may have caught a bug making its way through her staff and developed pneumonia.

Fallon confirmed to Mitchell that he was 'sick for a couple days' and believes he had 'the mild form of it.' He said campaign manager Robby Mook and other senior staffers have also been 'afflicted with some form of something or other for the last few days.'

'That is not to be unexpected on a presidential campaign. People work long hours,' he stated.

The presidential candidate is seen standing on a curb near the World Trade Center when she appeared to lose her balance

Clinton's struggle to stay standing on Sunday added to fears that she's not as healthy as her physician said she was a year and a half ago when she jumped in the presidential race.

She broke out in a coughing fit during a speech in Ohio on Labor Day that she said was brought on by seasonal allergies. Clinton told reporters Tuesday that she upped her antihistamine dosage and would be fine in a few days.

Her spokesman said today, 'She does get allergies this time of year. I do think at an earlier point when she's had some of these moments on the trail where she's had coughing happen, it's been attributable to allergies...this time of year those allergies flare up, and she's taking allergy medication for that.

'It turned out to be the case that she also came down with pneumonia, which was diagnosed on Friday.'

Katie Packer, a GOP strategist who is part of the Never Trump movement Super PAC, told the Los Angeles Times that Sunday's incident will increase attention on the health of both Clinton and Trump, 70.

'This is the kind of thing that voters have a right to understand before they cast a vote,' she said.

'But Trump and Hillary are elderly. They are obligated to release full medical records and full tax returns to the American people. And the media, party leaders and American people should settle for nothing less.'

Several party leaders and Clinton backers told POLITICO that she needed to offer a fuller accounting of her health.

'There will have to be some kind of accounting for this,' said one former Clinton adviser.

Clinton's national spokesman was unable to say what type of pneumonia she has. He cited his lack of expertise in the medical field and said more information would be released soon.

'If it was up to her, she'd be out there today,' he said of Clinton. 'And the reality is that she's already released more than is appropriate. We're going to go even further, and in the next couple days, to the extent that people have questions even after that additional information is released, we want to answer those, too.'

The concerning footage shows her knees appearing to buckle, causing her to fall towards two of her handlers. They then steady her on the sidewalk

In the footage that came out on Sunday, Clinton is seen standing on a curb near the site of the Twin Towers when she suddenly appears unable to stand.

She seems to nearly fall to the ground before she is caught by her aides, who hold her up. Her security detail then had to help her into the van by grabbing each of her arms.

The former secretary of state then appears to fall forward towards the door of the van before being bundled inside.

Law enforcement sources told the Daily Beast she was thrown into the back seat like a 'side of beef'.

She appeared to lose a shoe under the vehicle in the struggle before being driven to daughter Chelsea's apartment in Manhattan.

Despite the concerning footage, she emerged from the home just over two hours later at 11:45 am on Sunday and said she was fine. She told a waiting crowd and reporters: 'I'm feeling great, it's a beautiful day in New York.'

A smiling Clinton was then greeted by a young girl on the street to pose for a picture. She waved at customers at a nearby restaurant before getting into a van.

Clinton then traveled to her home in Chappaqua, New York, according to her campaign.

Nick Merrill, her traveling press secretary, said Clinton 'overheated' during the ceremony, but quickly recovered when she returned to Chelsea's apartment.

Her aides then rushed to her side and then helped her into the van before she was rushed off to Chelsea's Manhattan home

Clinton emerged from her daughter Chelsea's apartment after she was rushed from the 9/11 memorial service because of a 'medical episode'

Despite the concerning footage, she emerged from the home at 11.45am on Sunday saying she was fine. She is pictured speaking with a little girl in front of her daughter's apartment building

Clinton was seen smiling and waving at customers at a nearby restaurant before getting into a van. She then traveled to her home in Chappaqua, New York, according to her campaign

Dailymail.com had asked Clinton about her health Thursday, pointing to notes released by the FBI as part of the bureau's email investigation that suggested Clinton may have suffered memory loss from the concussion she sustained in 2012.

'Can you clarify what you told the FBI about your concussion?' Dailymail.com asked the candidate, to which Clinton replied curtly, 'Read the reports.' She offered no additional explanation.

There are also questions over whether the Secret Service had to adapt to the situation on Sunday and shied away from standard procedure when they whisked Hillary away from the scene. The Secret Service later denied they had broken protocol.

A source told the Washington Post that agents are supposed to wait for a car before they take a protected individual away.

In the video, Hillary is seen leaning against a bollard before the motorcade draws up.

They appeared to have rushed her departure, which meant lead agent Todd Madison had to leave her side to open the van door, which the source said is also against protocol.

The Secret Service defended its agents Sunday evening on Twitter. 'At no time did @SecretService personnel violate security protocols during the early departure of one of our protectees,' it said.

'The @SecretService is confident in the actions taken by its Protective Detail earlier today.'

Nick Merrill, her traveling press secretary, said Clinton 'overheated' during the ceremony, but quickly recovered when she returned to Chelsea's apartment

The 68-year-old greeted people with a smile as she walked down the street. She recently said she had been suffering from allergy attacks since Labor Day and had upped her antihistamine dosage

The Clinton campaign has been tarred and feathered for taking off from Sunday's evening without the candidate's press pool and keeping reporters - and the public - in the dark for nearly 90 minutes about Clinton's whereabouts.

Campaign manager Robby Mook told MSNBC Monday, 'We released the information as soon as we could when this happened...I wish it had happened quicker than 90 minutes, again we were busy attending to her health, so that's on us. But we look forward to Donald Trump releasing his medical information.

'Let's just make sure everybody is meeting the same bar here,' he added.

Fallon also contended that the campaign was most concerned about whether or not Clinton was OK and blamed that for the information gap.

Yet he said in the same interview that Clinton appeared to be fine as soon as she entered her vehicle.

'I think that as she was getting into the vehicle she got a bit dizzy and she was helped into the vehicle, but immediately upon being seated there she was talking to staff and like I said making calls and running around at her daughter's apartment chasing her grandkids around,' he stated.

Clinton 'was alert the whole time,' he said, and 'making calls to aides from the car.'

'I do think that in those 90 minutes we could have gotten more information out more quickly and that's on the staff, that's on us. We regret that,' he said.

The campaign immediately contacted her physician, the senior aide said, and Bardack came to her home in Chappaqua later in the day.

Shortly after 9:30 am on Sunday the pool reporter covering Clinton at the World Trade Center notified the rest of the press that the Democrat had disappeared from the event with no notice from the campaign.

She had spent about 90 minutes at the memorial.

Her disappearance for more than an hour had reporters who were supposed to be in her motorcade scrambling.

It wasn't until 11 am that they were told where Clinton went and what had happened, even though Fox News had already reported that Clinton had suffered from a 'medical episode.'

Trump said he had 'no idea' what happened when asked about his rival's health after the ceremony and wished her well.

His campaign did not respond to a request for additional comment from Dailymail.com.

Some attendees at the ceremony told the New York Times that Clinton had not appeared ill when she first arrived.

Representative Peter Kin of New York, who said he spoke briefly with Clinton around 8.30am, told the Times that Clinton 'seemed fine'.

Merrill said in a statement: 'Secretary Clinton attended the September 11th Commemoration Ceremony for just an hour and thirty minutes this morning to pay her respects and greet some of the families of the fallen.

She told waiting reporters: 'I'm feeling great, it's a beautiful day in New York'

Clinton was taken from the 9/11 memorial site at 9.30am on Sunday, just 90 minutes after arriving to remember the 2,977 people who lost their lives

The Democratic presidential candidate was standing alongside rival Donald Trump and other politicians when she apparently fainted, according to reports

One of Clinton's handlers is seen with his arm across her shoulders. She is seen with her arm resting on his back as she leaves the ceremony

Her campaign team said she 'overheated' during the ceremony. It was around 80 degrees at Ground Zero during the service

Onlookers have also said her symptoms seemed far worse than her aides have suggested

Witnesses said her departure from the service was 'unexpected', but they said it was 'clear' that she had a medical episode

'During the ceremony, she felt overheated so departed to go to her daughter's apartment, and is feeling much better.'

Clinton's press team later updated the statement to remove the word 'just,' stating it was a 'typo.'

Eyewitnesses said that Clinton had to wait a couple of minutes for her motorcade as it wasn't waiting for her when she exited the event.

Fox News reporter Rick Levanthal, who broke the initial story, quoted one person who was standing 15 feet away from Clinton who saw her stumble off the curb.

Her 'knees buckled', Levanthal tweeted, as she lost a shoe during this 'unexpected early departure'.

Her detail retrieved a shoe from underneath the van and helped the former secretary of state inside, according to reports.

Clinton was standing in the middle of a crowd of politicians packed together in a small space during the event.

The print reporter assigned to cover her that day on behalf of all the print news outlets in her traveling press corps wrote that she could not see whether the Democratic White House hopeful was standing in direct sunlight yet noted that there was not very much shade in the area where the politicians were gathered.

Hillary was joined by politicians, including Bill de Blasio, as mourners remembered the 15th anniversary of the attacks

WHY HILLARY WAS ABLE TO DITCH THE PRESS Around 9.30am today Hillary Clinton left the 9/11 ceremony in New York City and it wasn't until 11 a.m. that reporters were told why she had left and where she headed, with her campaign saying she felt 'overheated' and was recovering at daughter Chelsea's Manhattan apartment. While a 'pool' of reporters accompanied Clinton to the service, the Clinton campaign has so far refused to agree to what is called a 'protective pool,' which is how President Barack Obama's movements are covered. The White House and the White House Correspondents Association have agreed to a set of rules that include having reporters travel with the president in motorcades and cover his arrivals and departures from the White House and events. Those rules would have required that the Clinton campaign allow reporters to accompany Clinton to Chelsea's house today while she recovered, though the campaign may have still kept reporters at an arm's distance from the candidate, as she wobbled into her black van. Donald Trump's campaign has also not allowed a protective pool to cover the Republican hopeful. Twice recently the billionaire has ditched his traveling press in another city, while heading elsewhere. The first time, Trump and his running mate Mike Pence headed to Louisiana to survey flood damage. The Trump campaign also sent the press plane ahead to Phoenix, Arizona, while the candidate headed to Mexico to meet with the country's president. Reporters covering Clinton have pressed again and again for a protective pool but had let up in recent days as the candidate started answering more questions from journalists on the campaign trail. No doubt today's events will renew this discussion. Advertisement

She suspended her campaign on Sunday as a mark of respect for those who died

Earlier on Sunday, she was seen wearing sunglasses as she arrived in New York

The fainting spell could lend proof to conspiracy theories that Trump's allies have pushed and the candidate's claim that Clinton doesn't have the 'stamina' to hold the Oval Office.

Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, that brought the health theories into the mainstream by saying on Fox News Sunday last month that voters should 'go online and put down 'Hillary Clinton's illness.' Take a look at the videos for yourself,' the Republican instructed.

This came a week after Trump himself had told a crowd that Clinton lacked the 'mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS'.

Clinton speaks to outgoing NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton (behind her) and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (right facing towards her)

Clinton's campaign interpreted Trump's words to mean that he was peddling some of the right-wing conspiracy theories going around the internet including that Clinton had suffered a seizure on camera and that she was showing signs of dementia.

Trump's comment prompted the Clinton campaign to address her health and fitness for the first time since releasing a doctor's note a year before.

'While it is dismaying to see the Republican nominee for president push deranged conspiracy theories in a foreign policy speech, it's no longer surprising,' Clinton's communications director Jennifer Palmieri said in a statement.

'Donald Trump is simply parroting lies based on fabricated documents promoted by Roger Stone and his right wing allies,' Palmieri continued.

CAN CLINTON'S PNEUMONIA WORSEN AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR HER PRESIDENT RUN: It hasn't been specified as to what type of pneumonia Clinton has, but whether she has walking pneumonia or bacterial pneumonia, if the illness isn't treated properly it could worsen. Causes: In most cases pneumonia is caused by a bacteria or virus, such as the flu. Some people get pneumonia after breathing infected air particles into their lungs. It can also occur during or after a viral upper respiratory infection, such as a cold or flu. Doctors have said that allergies could lead to pneumonia because seasonal allergies can sometimes cause upper respiratory problems. Symptoms may include: Cough, often producing mucus, Fever, shaking, 'teeth-chattering' chills. Fast, often shallow, breathing and the feeling of being short of breath, as well as feeling very tired or weak. What happens when you have pneumonia: Depending on your age and health, older, sicker people usually have more severe cases. And their cases of pneumonia are more likely to cause complications, such as bacteria in the bloodstream or throughout the body. Pneumonia is more serious in the age group of 65 or older, because they often have and may develop other medical problems. Can it get worse? Without the proper treatment, it may get worse. A person may have breathing problems, or the infection can spread to other areas of your body. Pus or extra fluid may collect in the space around your lungs, or your lungs may get damaged. You may not be able to get enough oxygen if your lungs are inflamed or damaged. Low oxygen can cause damage to other body organs, such as your kidneys, heart, and brain. People can die from bacterial pneumonia if they don't receive the proper treatment, or if a person's body doesn't respond well to treatment, the infection will worsen. How can Clinton's health scare affect her run for president? Dr Lisa R Bardack (pictured) released a statement through her campaign team after the incident saying that she advised Clinton to modify her schedule and put her on antibiotics When Clinton abruptly left the 9/11 anniversary ceremony Sunday after feeling 'overheated', the incident opened up an even bigger can of worms. By Sunday afternoon, hours after video showed her collapsing into the arms of her Secret Service agents, the Democratic candidate was bombarded with calls for her to release her full medical records. GOP candidate Donald Trump, for months now, has been calling for Clinton to release the records and the nominee now has a powerful, visceral counter-argument  that she is physically unfit to serve, reinforced by video that raises new, and unanswered, concerns about her health. The video will only amplify the questions, in part because of the lack of details from her campaign about what occurred. Dr Lisa R Bardack released a statement through her campaign team after she performed a check-up on the presidential candidate at her home after the 'medical episode'. She said: 'Secretary Clinton has been experiencing a cough related to allergies. On Friday, during a follow up evaluation of her prolonged cough, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. Clinton's doctor put her antibiotics and advised her to rest and modify her schedule. Source: WEBMD Advertisement

She then pivoted for a moment to blast Trump for not releasing any of his tax returns to the American public.

'Hillary Clinton has released a detailed medical record showing her to be in excellent health plus her personal tax returns since 1977, while Trump has failed to provide the public with the most basic financial information disclosed by every major candidate in the last 40 years,' she acknowledged.

'It's time for him to stop using shameful distractions to hide his own record,' Palmieri added.

Clinton's people included a new statement from her physician, Dr Bardack, who had signed off on the Democrat's health in the beginning months of her campaign last year.

'As Secretary Clinton's long time physician, I released a medical statement during the campaign indicating that she is in excellent health,' Bardack wrote last month.

'I have recently been made aware of allegedly 'leaked' medical documents regarding Secretary Clinton with my name on them. These documents are false, were not written by me and are not based on any medical facts,' she continued.

'To reiterate what I said in my previous statement, Secretary Clinton is in excellent health and fit to serve as President of the United States,' Bardack said.

Clinton, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (right) and U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (left) attend ceremonies to mark the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks

In December 2012, Clinton fainted and suffered a concussion after contracting a stomach virus. She later developed a blood clot.

She's been taking the anticoagulation drug, Coumadin, ever since.

In 2005, she fainted before a scheduled speech in Buffalo, New York, after suffering a similar stomach virus.

Beyond Giuliani and Trump, Clinton's health came front-and-center when Dr Drew Pinsky said he was 'gravely concerned not just about her health, but her health care'.

'It just seems like she's getting care from somebody that she met in Arkansas when she was a kid, and you've got to wonder. You've got to wonder,' Pinsky had said.
Disgraced ex-congressman Anthony Weiner was spotted on an outing with his four-year-old son on Monday, despite child authorities opening an investigation over his latest 'sexting' controversy.

Weiner was sighted returning to the New York apartment he shares with his now-estranged wife, top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. He ran into trouble after explicit photos he had sent to a mystery woman leaked to the press two weeks ago.

One showed his crotch and also featured the couple's young son Jordan lying on the bed next to him, with Weiner telling his latest online squeeze that his son was a 'chick magnet'.

Weiner is now at the center of a child services probe over the involvement of Jordan in the photos.

Abedin said she would divorce him just hours after the photos emerged. But two weeks later, the couple appear to be still living under the same roof while they iron out the terms of their separation.

Weiner was seen later on Monday with his son returning to the New York apartment, which he apparently still shares with his estranged wife

At one point the former congressman picked up his son as he examined a store window

The youngster looked care-free as he walked beside his father

Huma Abedin left the $1.4 million Manhattan home which she apparently still shares with her disgraced husband on Monday morning

Abedin left the couple's $1.4 million Manhattan apartment on Monday morning.

Huma's mother Saleha Abedin has also been staying at the property to keep the peace and take care of Jordan.

She was seen kissing her daughter goodbye in the morning, before Huma emerged from the building and headed off in a taxi. She wore a floral dress and was clutching a Hillary campaign bag.

Weiner was seen later in the day returning to the apartment, hand-in-hand with his son.

The serial 'sexter' has confirmed that he has received notice from the New York City Administration for Children's Services that an investigation has been launched into the treatment of his little boy.

Family members have rallied round to shield the youngster from his father's latest sexting shame. On Sunday, Jordan joined his grandmother and aunt, Huma's sister Heba Abedin, for an afternoon at a local park.

The two women looked on as Jordan, wearing blue shorts, a bright orange t-shirt and clutching a toy truck, had fun on the swings and slide.

Neither Huma, 41, nor Weiner, 52, joined their son for the family trip, with relations between the two said to be at an all-time low. Weiner has kept a low profile of late.

Clinton was in New York yesterday attending a 9/11 memorial event but Huma was nowhere in sight.

Saleha Abedin took Huma's four-year-old son Jordan out on the weekend, just two weeks after the Clinton aide said she would be divorcing from her sexting husband

Huma's sister Heba Abedin pushes Jordan in the swing

The duo were joined by Heba, right. Weiner, an ex-congressman, has come under fire for sending a picture of his crotch with Jordan lying in bed beside him

Now it appears Abedin's mother has been drafted in to supervise care of Jordan.

The photo which Weiner sent, which showed his son Jordan lying beside him, has attracted the attention of the authorities who have launched a probe into the matter

'Saleha is a typically doting grandmother and she's doing everything she can to shield Jordan from the fallout of his father's latest digression,' said a source.

'They had a fun trip to the park and Jordan had a huge smile on his face. Whatever is going on between Anthony and Huma, she's determined that it doesn't have an impact on him.'

Weiner quit Congress over a sexting scandal in 2011. But he was back in his wife's bad books just two years later when he sent a woman a snap of his privates while using the pseudonym Carlos Danger.

The Post published fresh photos a fortnight ago that it said Weiner had sent last year to a woman identified only as a '40-something divorcee' who lives in the West and supports Republican candidate Donald Trump.

The photos included two close-ups of Weiner's bulging underpants, with Jordan lying feet away in one.

The tabloid also ran sexually suggestive messages that it said the two exchanged.

Anthony Weiner was spotted at his New York apartment on Saturday. The disgraced former congressman's relations with his wife are said to be at an all-time low

Huma was seen getting into a taxi after leaving her apartment. She was nowhere in sight yesterday when Hillary collapsed at the 9/11 memorial event

He allegedly spoke about being 'horny as f***' and sent a variety of emojis that were sexual in nature.

Huma announced their split on August 29 but decided to head back on the campaign trail days later with Clinton, who is said to be so protective of her long-serving aide that she treats her like a second daughter.

'After long and painful consideration and work on my marriage, I have made the decision to separate from my husband,' Huma said in a statement.

'Anthony and I remain devoted to doing what is best for our son, who is the light of our life. During this difficult time, I ask for respect for our privacy'.

Weiner confirmed on Thursday that officials from New York's Children's Services agency had informed him about their probe in a letter sent to his mother's house.

'Crazy if you ask me,' he told the New York Times, adding that he had called the agency to learn more.

Several public figures have called for an investigation, among them State Senator Ruben Diaz Sr. (D-Bronx), who claims the toddler was being 'used for sex.'

Human's mother and sister watch other four-year-old Jordan at the park

DailyMail.com contacted the agency for comment but our calls were not returned.

However an inquiry can only be prompted by someone with direct knowledge of the apparent mistreatment and so far no details have been released about the complaint.

Saleha Abedin is herself no stranger to controversy. She is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Minority Muslim Affairs, where Huma spent 12 years as an assistant editor. Heba also help edit the publication.

In the wake of 9/11, Saleha wrote an editorial suggesting that the U.S. bore responsibility for al-Qaeda's attack.

During Huma's tenure another article accused Jews of 'working the American political system' and being aided by the 'memory of the Holocaust'.

The publication has also been accused of espousing the views of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Etienne St Claire, above, is alleged to have floored Daniel Dinneys with a single punch after the mathematician asked him to stop pestering his female friends

A man kicked and punched a mathematician in a cocktail bar after he told him to stop pestering his attractive female friends, a court heard today.

Etienne St Claire, 31, allegedly floored Daniel Dinneys with a single punch before stamping on his head outside the Dirty Martini cocktail bar in the City of London.

Mr Dinneys, a highly educated mathematician, who had been working on high level bank security, suffered a broken jaw and a brain hemorrhage.

Part of his skull had to be surgically removed following the attack in June 2015. His injuries mean he has no recollection and will not give evidence at the trial, taking place at the Old Bailey.

Doctors said there was a 90 per cent chance Mr Dinneys would die but he is now recovering.

Timothy Forster, prosecuting, said: This is about a man who was kicked, punched and stamped on outside a bar in the City of London.

The defendant admits that he threw a punch, he says in reasonable self-defence.

He also admits that he used his foot but this again was self-defence.

It was Friday June 5 of last year and Mr Dinneys was out with his friends and girlfriend.

They were at a rooftop bar called Madison.

They had left at about 1:30 in the morning to get a minibus.

There was Mr Dinneys with his girlfriend who was resting her head on his shoulder, as well as three female friends who were dressed in smart evening wear, heels and sequins.

You may have thought they looked attractive.

The incident is alleged to have happened outside this London cocktail bar. St Etienne said he was acting in self-defence

Mr Forster told the court St Claire had been out with three male friends at Dirty Martinis, and bumped into the group as they waited for a minibus.

He said: Mr St Claire began to pester the women, and was told repeatedly they were not interested.

It may be he became frustrated and possibly became jealous of the fact that Mr Dinneys was with these women.

He asked: Are they with you them?, and when Mr Dinneys replied to the affirmative, he shouted You the big man then?

Mr Dinneys asked him to leave the women alone, and Mr St Claire pushed him forcing him to stagger.

Mr St Claire then punched him had in the face with a closed fist.

That caused Mr Dinneys to fall straight to the ground without attempting to break his fall.

He had been knocked out, and soon the blood began to flow.

The prosecutor said St Claire began to stamp on Dinneys head and body as he lay unconscious.

He also had a fractured jaw, and it is agreed that this fall caused really serious brain injuries from which Mr Dinneys has not recovered.'

Mr Dinneys was in intensive care, and had an emergency operation to deal with a blood clot to the brain.

St Claire is standing trial at Central Criminal Court, above, as he pleaded not guilty to the charges, claiming self-defence

Mr Forster added: Another person who saw Mr St Claire stamp on his head was a member of doorstaff at Dirty Martinis.

He recalls Mr Dinneys pushed him, Mr St Claire pushed back and then Mr St Claire punched him.

The court heard St Claire left in a taxi but was identified through a booking he made at the nearby restaurant.

St Claire, of Worcester Park, southwest London, denies causing grievous bodily harm with intent and a lesser alternative charge.
BISMARCK  The North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board is investigating the use of dogs last week by private security guards at the Dakota Access Pipeline construction site.

The board also is investigating whether the security personnel were properly licensed or registered to operate in North Dakota, said Monte Rogneby, the boards attorney.

The boards primary responsibility is to protect the public, Rogneby told Forum News Service Friday, Sept. 9. The board takes that responsibility very, very seriously.

The board, which licenses and regulates the private security industry, has received complaints about the guard dogs used on Sept. 3 at a pipeline construction site in Morton County, Rogneby said.

Pipeline opponents rushed a construction area west of Highway 1806 where crews were bulldozing land the tribe had identified as containing burial grounds and other sacred sites. Some reported being bit by guard dogs used by the security officers, and video captured by Democracy Now! shows a dog with blood on its mouth. Dakota Access, which says no sacred sites were destroyed, has declined to answer questions about its security personnel.

The complaints to the board include a petition signed by more than 100,000 people on MoveOn.org calling for the board to investigate.

Matt Hildreth, a Brookings, S.D., native with friends and family along the Dakota Access route, launched the petition Monday after watching videos on social media of the guard dogs, including instances where he said the handlers appeared to direct the dogs to attack.

By turning their dogs loose on protesters, the security guards hired by Dakota Access LLC acted in a reckless and inhumane manner, the petition states. The guards had no uniforms, drove vehicles with out-of-state plates, and appeared to have little or no training.

Hildreth said the initial people to sign were his friends and family, but soon it went viral, hitting 116,000 on Friday afternoon.

There are so many people watching whats going on in North Dakota, said Hildreth, 31, who has a background in social media marketing and recently moved to Ohio.

The Private Investigation and Security Board has two staff members and a governor-appointed board of volunteers with expertise in the security industry.

The board requires that private security be licensed or registered as independent contractors of a licensed agency. Providing security services without being properly licensed or registered is a criminal offense, Rogneby said.

At this time, the board has not confirmed who the security personnel working on Sept. 3 were or whether they were properly licensed and registered, he said.

The board does not have any specific rules related to the use of dogs. However, the board will use in its investigation the legal standard in North Dakotas criminal code that outlines when force can be used to protect individuals or property, Rogneby said.
A woman has been found guilty of starving her pet chihuahua to death before throwing it in the bin.

The Christies Beach Magistrates Court found Vicki Brown, from Hackham West south of Adelaide, guilty of ill treating an animal and ill treating an animal to cause death, as reported by The Advertiser.

Ronan O'Brien, representing the RSPCA, said that inspectors had been at the 59-year-old's home in May last year where they found the dog's 1.89kg body in the rubbish bin.

Vicki Brown was found guilty of starving her pet chihuahua to death and throwing it in the bin

Photos tendered to the court show the filthy and poor conditions of Ms Brown's home.

A pathology exam on the dog's condition found there was no food in its stomach or intestines, leading to the conclusion that the dog was starved to death.

'This would have to be one of the most horrible ways I can think of for a living creature to die,' he said.

Adding that the dog's death was worse than shooting or stabbing.

Ronan O'Brien, representing the RSPCA, said the dog's death was worse than shooting or stabbing

Brown told the court that she was not aware of her guilty verdict because she failed to attend an earlier hearing.

Outside of the court Brown denied causing the dog any suffering, saying that it 'just died'.

Magistrate Elizabeth Sheppard said the evidence against her was compelling and that she must attend the sentence hearing.
A transgender woman serving time in an all-male prison hanged herself from her prison cell window when make-up brushes she had ordered were not delivered to her on time.

Joanne Latham, who was serving three life terms for attempted murder, barricaded herself into her prison cell.

The 38-year-old, who changed her name from Eddie while at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, was found dead in her cell on November 27, an inquest was told.

The former convert of Islam, who later switched back to Christianity, had begun living life as a woman three months before her death and was described as 'the most difficult prisoner' by an operations manager at the prison.

She was found dead in her cell while at HMP Woodhill, in Milton Keynes, and was a 'difficult prisoner'

In November 2015 she had ordered some make-up brushes, but became upset when there was a delay in getting permission to receive them.

She was observed by suicide prevention and later that month was discharged from the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork Unit, the coroner heard.

After being told there would be a further delay in receiving the brushes, she became aggressive and threatened violence against herself and members of staff.

Coroner Tom Osbourne, opening the inquest into Miss Latham's death, referred to her as Eddie throughout.

He told jurors: 'Eddie Latham had been sentenced to life imprisonment in May 2001 and had a long history of self-harm and a borderline personality disorder.

'He had two further terms of life imprisonment for attempted murder on two other prisoners.

'He changed his name, converted to Islam, converted back to Christianity and was asked to be considered as transgender and changed his name to Joanne.

'Eddie was referred to a clinic in London and started to live life as a woman at Woodhill.

'He was subject to a four-man unlock because of the risk of violence, and associated himself very little with other prisoners by choice.'

Originally from Manchester, Miss Latham suffered from mental health problems and had a history of violence and self harm including two attempts to kill fellow prisoners.

She had been on half-hourly observations before the alarm was raised last year at around 4am.

She was observed by suicide prevention and on the later that month he was discharged from the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork Unit - the prison's suicide watch

Mr Osbourne, Senior Coroner for Milton Keynes, continued: 'Observations increased to two each hour and no attempt was made to remove the barricade.

'In addition he had covered up the observation window to his cell.

'At 4.30am on November 27 there was no response from Eddie and staff were called but there was no attempt to go in until 5.26am when staff got in over the barricade and he was found hanging.'

Miss Latham was declared dead just under an hour later.

Melinda Riley, from the coroner's officer, said: 'Mr Latham was in a locked single cell and had in place, initially, hourly observations which were increased to half-hourly when he became more agitated.

'During the night Mr Latham covered his cell observation window.'

The inquest into her death continues.
But he was later hit with a huge fine because he had paid 10p too little

80-year-old thought he had paid the correct amount at city car park

A grieving widower has been slapped with a 160 parking fine after a mix-up meant he accidentally paid 10p too little.

George Taylor thought he had paid the correct amount at the Kinnoull Street multi-storey in Perth after heading out for the first time since his wife Sybil died.

But the 80-year-old has since been chased for rapidly-increasing amounts by a private parking firm after being told he didn't pay enough.

George Taylor was ordered to pay a 160 fine after failing to pay the correct parking fee

A machine at the car park - whose owners have previously received angry complaints - printed a ticket for Mr Taylor after he paid 5.20 having stayed there for four hours and 15 minutes.

He says the ticket timestamped his exit for three hours later and so he assumed he had paid enough.

But the pensioner has since been sent a letter telling him he should have paid 5.30 and demanding first 60 and then 160 in fines.

Mr Taylor said: 'My friends had been in there before and knew you paid when you leave. We had overstayed the four hours by 14 minutes so we were due to pay 5.30.

'After we'd paid 5.20 the machine issued a ticket, which said we could stay till 1.52am the following morning. If we hadn't paid the right money I maintain we shouldn't have got a ticket. Who is going to bother about 10p at 10pm on a Sunday night?

'I've now got a debt recovery notice asking for 160. I have no idea why they are pursuing me like they are for 10p - if they are so desperate I'll pay them 20p but I'm got giving them more than that.'

The incident happened after Mr Taylor parked his car at this car park in Perth, Scotland

The controversial car park has also sparked anger from Mr Taylor's MSP, Murdo Fraser.

He said: 'Smart Parking's relentless pursuit of an 80-year-old widowed pensioner for the loss of, essentially, 10p is nothing short of shameless. Incidents like this do little to improve Smart Parking's reputation in Perth and I would encourage constituents to be very careful when parking there.

'I had hoped the negative publicity surrounding Smart Parking in Perth would have encouraged them to smarten up their act but it would appear as though they are back to the same old tricks.

'According to Citizens Advice Scotland, penalties should be proportionate to the loss incurred and this penalty seems neither fair nor proportionate.'

A spokesman for Smart Parking said: 'Mr Taylor paid for four hours of parking, but stayed in the car park for four hours and 14 minutes. The ticket lists 01:52 because he bought the ticket on his way out, rather than on arrival.

'There are more than 200 signs in the car park which clearly state, "You must pay for the full period of time your vehicle is in the car park".'
from the bank was announced in July

The Wells Fargo executive who oversaw a department responsible for opening more than two million unauthorized accounts will walk away with $125million when she retires at the end of the year.

Carrie Tolstedt served as the company's head of Community Banking for eight years, during which employees met sales quotas and racked up fees by opening 1.5million bank accounts and 565,000 credit cards for customers without their consent.

On Thursday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined Wells Fargo a record $185million, and 5,300 employees were fired over the course of five years as a result of the scandal.

But Tolstedt has received praise and a $7million dollar bonus in recent years for 'strong cross-sell ratios' that were partly generated by the fraudulent practice employees commonly referred to as 'sandbagging'.

When her impending retirement was announced in July, Tolstedt was hailed as 'a standard-bearer of our culture' by Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf, with no mentions of her department's shocking misconduct.

Instead, she will receive $124.6million in stock, options and shares when she leaves the company at the end of the year - a 'personal decision' that saves her at least $45million had she been fired, Fortune reported.

It does not appear as if Tolstedt will be penalized by Well Fargo's 'claw back' policies, which were broadened after the financial crisis to force executives to pay back a portion, if not all of their bonus, in an attempt to curb risky behavior.

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Carrie Tolstedt (pictured), who was the company's head of Community Banking since 2008, will receive $124.6million in stock, options and shares when she retires at the end of the year

A customer fraud probe into Wells Fargo's practices led to a record $185million fine. About 5,300 employees lost their jobs but the bank's executives were largely spared

Under Wells Fargo's policies, the bank states it will revoke bonuses if an executive causes 'reputational harm' to the bank or fails to 'identify or monitor' risks.

A spokesperson did not comment on clawing back any of Tolstedt's pay, which included a $7.3million stock and cash bonus in 2015 on top of her $1.7million base salary, according to the company's proxy statement.

The 2015 document praised Tolstedt's performance, stating: 'Under her leadership, Community Banking achieved a number of strategic objectives, including continued strong cross-sell ratios, record deposit levels, and continued success of mobile banking initiatives.'

But 'strong cross-sell ratios' - the very thing Tolstedt was rewarded for - was partially generated by employees who engaged in fraudulent behavior because they were both incentivized and pressured to hit sales targets without adequate oversight.

A trusted colleague and dear friend, Carrie Tolstedt has been one of our most valuable Wells Fargo leaders, a standard-bearer of our culture, a champion for our customers, and a role model for responsible, principled and inclusive leadership. Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf in a statement announcing Tolstedt's retirement

In the 2016 proxy statement, the phrase 'strong cross-sell ratios', used to measure the company's ability to hawk additional products to existing customers, was notably absent from an assessment of Tolstedt's performance.

Richard Cordray, of the CFPB, said the practices utilized by employees under Tolstedt were 'unfair and abusive practices under federal law'.

It remains unclear whether Tolstedt was aware of the 'widespread illegal practice' going on within her department.

But a May 2015 lawsuit filed in California by Los Angeles County City Attorney Mike Feuer alleged the 'unlawful and fraudulent conduct' was not only known within the bank, but encouraged, CNN reported.

'The result is that Wells Fargo has engineered a virtual fee-generating machine, through which its customers are harmed, its employees take the blame, and Wells Fargo reaps the profits,' the lawsuit states.

Tolstedt was succeeded by Mary Mack on July 31, and when she leaves the company at the end of the year, she'll be sitting on $124.6million in stocks, options and restricted shares, although some of them have not been vested.

According to Fortune, Tolstedt would have lost out on at least $45million of her retirement package if she had been fired.

CEO John Stumpf, (left) praised Tolstedt for being a 'standard bearer' of the company

Tolstedt, who is retiring at age 56, is married to Brad Tolstedt, who also worked at Wells Fargo before he retired in 2005.

The couple lived in a stately 6,000-square-foot Alamo, California, home, complete with an outdoor pool, four parking spaces, and a 750-bottle wine cellar, before it was sold in June 2016 to the tune of $3.45million, according to property website Coldwell Banker.

In a statement announcing her retirement, Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf called her 'a standard-bearer of our culture, a champion for our customers, and a role model for responsible, principled and inclusive leadership.'

As the world's most valuable bank in the world, Wells Fargo was known for its ability to 'cross-sell' or get customers to sign up for more and more accounts.

According to a criminal complaint filed in California, the bank largely targeted checking account customers, pushing them into taking savings, online or credit accounts which would charge fees.

Wells Fargo has engineered a virtual fee-generating machine, through which its customers are harmed, its employees take the blame, and Wells Fargo reaps the profits May 2015 lawsuit filed against Wells Fargo by Los Angeles County City Attorney Mike Feuer

In some cases, employees used fake email addresses and pin numbers to create more accounts, and customers were charged for overdraft fees after their money was moved without their consent.

Bank employees were told that the average customer tapped six financial tools but that they should push households to use eight products, according to the complaint.

According to public records, Tolstedt lived at this lavish 6,000-square-foot, five-bedroom home with her husband, who was also a former Wells Fargo employee

Property websites state the Alamo, California estate was sold in late June for $3.45million

Wells Fargo will pay a $100 million fine to the CFPBs Civil Penalty Fund, $35 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and another $50 million to the City and County of Los Angeles.

The bank has also agreed to pay more than $5million in restitution to customers.

The customer fraud probe, which pointed to illegal practices stretching back to 2011, cost 5,300 Wells Fargo employees their jobs.

But regulators stopped short of pointing any fingers at the bank's executives, despite acknowledging systemic problems like the lack of oversight.
A lorry driver who killed a police officer when he ploughed his HGV into oncoming traffic, has been jailed.

Danny Warby, 28, was handed a six-year sentence at Peterborough Crown Court after being found guilty of causing the death of Cambridgeshire Police officer Detective Constable Sharon Garrett on June 6, 2014.

Warby looked at a text message seconds before his 13.6-tonne vehicle veered into oncoming traffic on the A141 in Cambridgeshire, his trial heard.

He clipped an oncoming lorry and showered two more cars with debris before crashing into a Renault Clio driven by 48-year-old Ms Garrett, a married mother-of-two.

Danny Warby, 28, (left) killed Cambridgeshire Police officer Detective Constable Sharon Garrett when his HGV ploughed into her car as she sat in traffic

Ms Garrett, 48, was described as a 'fantastic mother' and a 'dedicated police officer' whose loss had 'left a void' and devastated her family

Witnesses saw Warby's white lorry 'drifting' more than a metre into oncoming traffic on the A141 near RAF Wyton in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire.

The HGV, which was carrying a crane, was travelling at 53mph on the single carriageway which had a 40mph restriction for large vehicles.

Delivering his sentence, Judge Stuart Bridge described Warby's driving as 'cavalier, reckless, unprofessional and deplorable'.

The court also heard how Warby, of Kings Lynn Norfolk, had a string of previous convictions relating to driving offences dating back to 2009.

He has previous speeding convictions, driving without insurance, driving while not wearing a seatbelt, driving while using a mobile phone and careless driving.

He was also disqualified for a year after drink-driving 2011.

Passing a sentence of six years in custody, to serve half and half on licence, Warby was also disqualified from driving for 10 years.

The scene of the crash shows the devastation caused when Warby's 13.6-tonne light goods vehicle veered into oncoming traffic on the A141 in Cambridgeshire

Warby (pictured) has been jailed for six years after he was found guilty by a jury of causing death by dangerous driving

Judge Stuart Bridge described this as a 'hugely tragic case' adding Mrs Garrett was sorely missed by her colleagues, community and family.

'THERE IS A MASSIVE VOID IN OUR LIVES' Peter Bimson, collision investigator for Cambridgeshire Police, released a statement on behalf of Mrs Garrett's family. The touching tribute described the 'massive void' left in their lives after she was killed. It read: 'The loss of Sharon has been the most devastating event in the life of our family. 'It has had an impact on so many people, and for so many reasons. 'As a mother, Sharon was inspirational to our two young children. 'She would always help them with their studies, setting aside time to make sure homework was completed. 'She was a very intelligent woman, and extremely knowledgeable about a lot of things. 'Sharon was full of energy. Working full time, she always made sure our children had quality family time wherever possible. 'Sharon was a truly remarkable woman, warm, friendly, kind, generous, intelligent, strong and hard working. 'We have been left devastated, and our hearts left completely broken. 'There is a massive void in our lives which can never be filled. 'No sentencing can ever bring back Sharon but it is our hope that the sentence passed today will remind others of the simple act of using a mobile phone whilst driving can have such devastating consequences.' Advertisement

He added: 'As her husband puts it, "The loss of Sharon has been the most devastating event in the life of our family".

'And in a statement which was no doubt painful to compose he goes on to explain in clear and simple terms the massive impact of her death on those affected at the time, in the intervening period, and into the future.'

Defending Warby, Mark Balysz said his client was 'particularly sorry for the death of Sharon Garrett and he wishes to extend that apology to the family who have sat through these hearings.'

Mr Balysz added: 'He lost his father at the age of 18 by a road traffic accident.

'His father was a lorry driver and was involved in a head on collision. He was not the party at fault.

'His father always wanted him to follow in his footsteps.

Warby stood silently as he was given the sentence.

Judge Bridge said: 'While your driving was dangerous by any standards, it was particularly so for a professional driver in charge of a large goods vehicle.

'You had not learned anything from your previous court appearances for poor driving. Your general attitude to driving was cavalier, it was reckless, and it was wholly unprofessional.

'Your driving on the day in question was deplorable, and Mrs Garrett and her family have paid the ultimate price of your actions.'

Warby first collided with a yellow Renault LGV, hitting the offside wheel and rear offside wheel, before he hit the brakes and the lorry travelled for 61 metres in an 'arc movement'.

Prosecutor Helen Guest said: 'Sharon Garrett in the short time available to her had started to take evasive action towards the grass verge as the lorry headed towards her but she was unable to prevent a collision.'

Ms Garrett, pictured, was described as a 'fantastic mother' and a 'dedicated police officer'

Warby's defence argued there was a lack of evidence to prove he was distracted by the text message but witnesses had seen him swerve over the centre line twice before the third swerve proved fatal.

The court heard how morbidly obese Warby had been bullied during his time on remand due to his size and weight, while his mother has received hate mail.

Warby, who has 'appalling health', is at risk of heart failure and other life threatening issues such as type two diabetes.

Warby must take an extended driving test before he can obtain a full driving licence.

PC Pete Bimson, who investigated the collision, said: 'This was a tragic incident which claimed the life of a police officer.

'But the evidence heard in court showed it could have been avoided and emphasises the message that using a mobile phone at the wheel can have fatal consequences.

'Driving while using a phone is one of the 'fatal four' driving offences, along with speeding, not wearing a seatbelt and drink or drug driving, for a very good reason; it can devastate lives.

'Use of a mobile phone will be picked up by officers investigating the causes behind any collision and it's an offence taken very seriously by police and the courts.'
A 16-year-old girl whose mother signed over custody to the state because of her behaviour died from a drug overdose after accusing a group home employee of sexually assaulting her, an inquest has heard.

Maria Liordos was living in a residential care unit in Melbourne in September 2013 when staff members saw the 'severely drug affected' teenager having trouble walking and slurring her speech but didn't call an ambulance, a Victorian Coroner's Court inquest has heard.

Her mother, Sue, now says the employees of the Salvation Army's Westcare agency, which the Department of Health and Human Services contracts, were not doing their job, according to ABC.

Maria Liordos (pictured), 16, was living in a residential care unit in September 2013 when she died of a drug overdose after several employees failed to call an ambulance for help, an inquest heard on Monday

Her mother, Sue (right), now says the employees of the Salvation Army's Westcare agency, which the Department of Health and Human Services contracts, were not doing their job

It comes as an inquest also heard about a 14-year-old girl, named Girl X, was raped repeatedly in the group home she lived in before also dying of a drug overdose.

Ms Liordos said she made the difficult decision to hand over custody of her daughter after years of sexual abuse left the teenager struggling with mental health issues and substance abuse.

'The department thought it best that she does go into residential care, because then you've got people in that house monitoring her constantly,' Ms Liordos said, adding that it was difficult to contain her daughter.

'So for me, I was in two minds. On the one hand I didn't want my child to go into care. I wanted to be able to look after her like I'd looked after her before, and it's hard to admit to yourself that you can't do that anymore.'

A Barwon Prison (pictured) inmate was also accused of sending letters to Maria while she lived in the unit before meeting up with her after he was released and infecting her with hepatitis C

The units Maria was placed didn't prevent the teenager from leaving at night.

On the night before she died employees said they suspected Maria had been taking drugs in the bathroom before her and her partner left the housing unit to meet a 25-year-old friend, the inquest heard.

During her time at the unit, Maria claimed she had been assaulted by a male employee but said she was ostracised after she spoke up about her claims.

A Barwon Prison inmate was also accused of sending letters to Maria while she was at the unit before meeting up with her after he was released and infecting her with hepatitis C deliberately using a dirty needle.

Westcare manager responsible for residential care units, Major Jenny Begent, told ABC she couldn't comment on Maria's case.
Girls, some as young as 12, are joining female only gangs including one affiliated with the violent Apex gang.

Known as the 'Aces', or the 'As', the Apex-related gang is operating in the Dandenong area of Melbourne.

It's feared by police that the groups are escalating their crimes - random attacks on victims in popular nightlife areas are getting more audacious and vicious, the Herald Sun reported.

Girls as young as 12 are joining all-female gangs, including one associated with Melbourne's Apex gang (stock image)

Young girls have joined the 'Aces' who are affiliated with the male Apex gang

Girl gangs have hit record numbers and their teenage members are being charged with crimes such as robberies, assaults and weapons offences, youth workers were reported as saying.

Other girl gangs in the city included the Laverton-based 'Lavs' and the the 'Dum-Bees', from Sunshine.

Females made up a 'significant' portion of youth offenders, a source told the Herald Sun.

Often they operated in an unorganised manner.

One example of a female gang member, a 13-year-old, has been banned from certain inner-city parts of Melbourne.

In the Victorian Supreme Court, police said she'd been involved in a 'three-month crime spree', refused to attend school, took drugs and consumed alcohol.

Police said one gang-related girl had been involved in a 'three-month crime spree',

Appearing in court, she was in breaching bail, it was reported.

She also faced weapons charges and had allegedly been involved in two assaults against women.

Youth worker Les Twentyman said the number of girl gangs had hit an all time high and pointed to housing estates as a source of trouble.

Those associated with male gangs were at times forced to sleep with members as part of an initiation, according to the Herald Sun.

Mr Twentyman said girls in gangs often had traumatic experiences or abuse.

It comes as Apex gang members continue to make news, after inmates at the Melbourne Youth Justice Centre, which were believed to include Apex members, ran riot on Saturday evening.

A member of the notorious Melbourne Apex gang disguises his face while talking to Daily Mail Australia
An Indian woman claims she hand her 14-year-old cousin were gang-raped while two of her relatives were murdered after being accused of eating beef.

The 20-year-old woman, who is a Muslim, claims the gang of men beat her uncle and aunt to death before attacking her and her cousin.

The incident happened in Mewat in the northern sate of Haryana two weeks ago.

The 20-year-old woman claimed she and her 14-year-old cousin were gang-raped by four men who also beat her aunt and uncle to death in the Indian town of Mewat in Haryana province

Cows are revered in India and in many states killing the animals is against the law

Cows are considered sacred by India's Hindu majority and the slaughter and consumption of beef is banned in several states.

Speaking to BBC Urdu, the woman said: 'They [the accused men] said that we ate cow meat and that is why we were being disgraced [raped]. They even threatened to kill me and my family if we ever told anybody what happened to us.'

Mewat, which is only 60 miles from Delhi, is a majority Muslim area and the source of significant conflict.

The victim denied eating beef, which is illegal in Haryana.

Local police denied the attack was carried out by cow protection groups.

However, in recent years there has been significant controversy over the number of gang-rapes targeting innocent woman..

Officials in Mewat district have even been testing mutton biryani to ensure that the meal hadn't been bulked up with elicit beef.
ISIS has filmed eight civilians being drowned inside a cage after accusing them of helping the Iraqi government.

The prisoners were forced into a metal cage before being lowered into a pool in the centre of the ISIS-held city of Mosul in Iraq.

They had been accused of 'collaborating with the Iraqi government and Peshmerga forces before the sentence was carried out.

ISIS has filmed eight civilians being drowned inside a cage after accusing them of helping the Iraqi government (file picture)

According to Iraqi News, jihadists are said to have filmed the brutal execution.

It is not the first time the extremists have used the technique to murder their prisoners.

In 2015, a sickening video emerged of five prisoners being locked in a cage in the same city before being drowned in a swimming pool.

In 2015, a sickening video emerged of five prisoners being locked in a cage in the same city before being drowned in a swimming pool (pictured)

The seven-minute film, also captured in Mosul, even featured footage from expensive underwater cameras as the terrified men were thrashing around below the surface.

The latest video comes as Iraqi ground forces continue to move into position around Mosul ahead of a planned operation to retake the militant-held city from ISIS.
Fire chief said blaze likely intentional as there was no other possible cause

It was built in 1865 and is home to an endangered brown bat species

The Station Covered Bridge in Salisbury was damaged in fire Saturday

A century-old covered bridge in Vermont has been ravaged by a suspicious fire that was most likely the result of arson.

Firefighters tried to salvage the 136-foot-long Station Covered Bridge in Salisbury on Saturday.

But by the time they got at the scene, the historic structure, which dates back to 1865, was already engulfed in flames.

All that is left now is a fragile structure of charred wood. The roof of the bridge is gone.

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The Station Covered Bridge in Salisbury, Vermont, went up in flames during a suspicious fire on Saturday. It is pictured before the blaze

All that is left of the century-old bridge is a bare-boned structure of charred wood (pictured). Firefighters tried to salvage the site Saturday

The blaze engulfed the historical bridge in just a minute, according to a woman who called the fire department after seeing smoke rising from the structure

A pier was added in 1970 to support the bridge, according to Coveredbridgesite, a website that celebrates covered bridges.

A plaque indicates that it is listed in the national register of historic places, kept by the National Park Service.

The fire started Saturday around 2:50 pm, WMUR reported. Within just a minute, the blaze had spread to the whole bridge.

It was home to a population of little brown bats, an endangered species in Vermont, according to Isabel Lower, who called the fire department after seeing smoke coming from the bridge.

She worries that all of the bats that lived in the bridge have been killed because she didn't see any of them escape.

The fire was most likely arson as there were no other possible causes, such as electricity lines or lightning strikes, fire chief Dennis Rheaume told the Associated Press. Authorities were investigating the cause of the fire.

The flames ravaged the historical bridge (pictured). The roof of the bridge is now gone and the bridge itself is unrecognizable

A pier was added in 1970 to support the bridge (pictured during the blaze Saturday). The bridge has stood for more than a century

Firefighters extinguished the blaze, which started around 2:50 pm on Saturday. However the bridge sustained substantial damage

The bridge (pictured during the fire) is home to little brown bats, according to the woman who called the fire department. The bats are an endangered species in Vermont

Officials believe the blaze was the result of arson, as there were no electrical lines running near the bridge and no lightning strikes
GILLETTE  A 53-year-old woman will spend at least three years in prison for shooting her husband in their Antelope Valley home.

The Gillette News Record reports that Lorna Abell was sentenced to three to eight years in prison after previously pleading no contest to aggravated assault and battery in June. She will be given credit for almost a year she spent in jail since the shooting.

Abell shot her husband Robin Abell in the stomach twice on Sept. 18.

According to court documents, Lorna Abell told investigators her husband attacked her after she threatened to turn him in for Social Security fraud.
The woman who live streamed her boyfriend's death after he was shot dead by police has revealed how she has left her crime-ridden neighborhood because 'it's trauma or drama every day'.

School cafeteria worker Philando Castile was fatally shot during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, on July 6.

His girlfriend Diamond Reynolds recorded the gruesome aftermath which was watched by millions on Facebook Live.

Warning: graphic content

Diamond Reynolds, left, has spoken of her struggles in the wake of her boyfriend Philando Castile being killed by police

The shooting led to weeks of protests across the US, sparked outrage and calls for police officer Jeronimo Yanez to be charged.

Since the life-changing incident Reynolds has revealed how she had to move out of the apartment she shared with Castile in East St Paul as she longer felt safe.

With all his belongings still inside the flat, she was also finding it hard to move on from the tragedy.

She explained how her life was becoming ever more frantic, and her composure was giving way to insomnia and panic attacks.

But even after moving out for a fresh start, she was confronted with problems as her new flat was not ready, meaning she had to couch surf, the Washington Post reported.

During the Facebook Live, Reynolds said her boyfriend was shot several times while reaching for his ID after telling the officer he had a gun permit and was armed.

Diamond Reynolds streamed the shooting's gruesome aftermath live on Facebook (above)

He was days shy of his 33rd birthday when he was shot.

Court records show he had been stopped or ticketed more than 50 times.

In the article she also revealed how her four-year-old daughter, Dae'Anna, had kept quiet in the back of the car as she had taught her to act that way.

During the video she had said: 'It's OK, Mommy. I'm right here with you'.

After the incident, she said she had heard her daughter muttering something about police officers shooting to kill while playing with the many toys she had been sent by strangers in the wake of the tragedy.

A memorial including a photo of Philando Castile adorns the gate to the governor's residence where protesters continue to demonstrate in St. Paul, Minnesota

Castile's death set off weeks of protests and calls for Yanez to be charged.

The officer briefly returned to duty but was put back on leave last month by senior cops 'after reviewing concerns and other feedback from the community'.

St. Anthony Police Chief Jon Mangseth said the 28-year-old Yanez, who is Latino, has had a good reputation since joining the city's police force in late 2011.

The chief described Yanez as energetic and intelligent.

The incident stoked the outcry following the death of another black man, Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at the hands of white police officers the day before.
A hilarious video has been released of the moment three cats who are mesmerised by a bird jump out of their skin when a dog creeps up behind them.

The footage was filmed by Connie Michaud in Lakeside, California, last Monday.

The funny clip has been viewed more than 32 million times on social media and has received more than 175,000 times.

In the video the three moggies appear completely entranced by a bird jumping around outside a door.

A little white pooch creeps up behind them to see what all the fuss is about sending the felines flying through the air.

Viewers on social media were quick to praise the hilarious clip.

Julie Teuton, from Fallbrook, California, simply wrote: 'Awesome!'

A hilarious video has been released of the moment three cats who are mesmerised by a bird jump out of their skin when a dog creeps up behind them

Kassie Eide said: 'That's hysterical! That black cat shot so high!'

Reggie Michaud, from San Diego, said: 'You think the cats got scared, imagine the bird!'

Last week another hilarious video was released showing a cat taking relaxation to the next level as it lounged around on a Roomba while the automated vacuum cleaned the floors.

In video capturing the hilarious ordeal, the cat is seen snuggled inside a plastic box fitted with a blanket and cushion, and adorned with a sticker that read 'cat in a car.'

It is not clear where the video was filmed, which was uploaded to YouTube where it has garnered nearly 19,000 views.
Online retailer ASOS has become embroiled in a race scandal after using a black model's arm to swatch a range of much paler liquid foundations.

The beauty and clothes giant has come under fire from Twitter users for reducing the black model to a 'prop' by showing six colour swatches far lighter than her skin.

The offending images show six Maybelline Fit Me! foundation cream colours, aimed at white people and in shades from ivory to buff, dotted on the model's arm.

The beauty and clothes giant has come under fire from Twitter users for reducing the black model to being merely a 'prop' for showing six colour swatches far lighter than her skin

Twitter user peatreebojangles, who posted the image first, said: 'Hey! black ppl! u don't need to wear this foundation, but we will use u as a measure of others lightness!'

Another Twitter user, Maria, who tweets under the moniker BeLikeAudrey, said: 'Don't make darker shades but use darker skin tones to prove how light the foundation is. Not ok!'

Varaidzo wrote: 'Wowww this is the worst. Don't sell brown foundation just use brown skin as a prop ok @Asos @Maybelline do better.'

And Twitter user RiRi added: '@Asos you cannot wear this foundation, but we'll allow you to model it for us, so we can really see the colour of beige and ivory POP.'

Asos have since removed the foundation and the images from their website.

Twitter user peatreebojangles, who posted the image first, said: 'Hey! black ppl! u don't need to wear this foundation, but we will use u as a measure of others lightness!'

However, while an Asos spokesman told MailOnline this afternoon that they did not mean to cause offence - the company did not explicitly apologise either.

He said: 'We are always trying out different ways to showcase products on our site and the colour swatches on models is a new trial in our beauty range.

'We would never want to cause any offense and this feedback will help us get it right.'

Manufacturers Maybelline distanced themselves from the furore and claimed the images were nothing to do with them, despite the swatches being their foundation.

On Twitter a Maybelline spokesman said: 'This image was not produced by Maybelline. We have foundations for darker skin tones and would never swatch like this.'

This is not the first time ASOS has found itself at the centre of controversy.

Just two months ago the company angered women on Instagram by labelling a model 'plus size', rather than just stating that she was a model.

And in February, they were forced to pull a t-shirt with the word 'Slave' emblazoned across the front which was worn by a black male model.
A Muslim man accused of plotting a terrorist attack with his flatmate has admitted to supporting ISIS.

Mohammad Kiad, 27, originally from Kuwait, admitted his support for the terrorist organisation, a court heard.

Michael Pickin, the barrister representing Kiad, said 'there was no dispute' in a report by The Daily Telegraph.

A court heard Mohammad Kiad, 27, (pictured) admit his support for terrorist group ISIS

'My client was a supporter of Islamic State and was hoping... to travel overseas, there is no dispute about that,' Mr Pickin said.

Kiad and his flatmate Omar Al-Kutobi, an Iraqi refugee, pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiring to commit an act of terrorism in Australia.

They were allegedly planning to target a police station using a bomb or bladed weapons.

Police arrested them arrested in their Fairfield flat in February last year after a tip-off from a member of the public.
An alleged Hells Angels bikie claims he was given $5,000 in cash by rugby league player Jarryd Hayne before the pair partied until the early hours on the Gold Coast.

A Snapchat video of Hayne and former league under-20 player Chris Bloomfield emerged on Monday showing the pair at a house party before rapping along with Eminem in a car - reportedly after his loss to Brisbane on Friday, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Bloomfield is seen holding up a large stack of $50 notes to the camera as he said: 'Haynsey just gave me five grand.'

Jarryd Hayne (left) pictured in a Snapchat video with alleged bikie Chris Bloomfield (left image, right and right image)

Alleged Hells Angels bikie Chris Bloomfield has posted a video of rugby league player Jarryd Hayne handing him $5,000 in cash while partying on the Gold Coast on Friday

'Cash money fam, cash money. Give me a f***ing cigarette,' Hayne says as he shrugs and dances in his seat.

Hayne, who recently signed a two-season multimillion dollar deal with the Titans, is then seen singing in the backseat of a car, which looks like it is being driven by Bloomfield.

'Tear this mother f***ing roof off like two dogs caged,' Hayne yells to the camera.

Bloomfield records him again later on in the night dancing at another home with the caption: 'Hayne plane in full flight.'

All of the short videos were taken between 10.30pm on Friday and 4am on Saturday.

Bloomfield is seen holding up a large stack of $50 notes to the camera as he said: 'Haynsey just gave me five grand'

A Gold Coast Titans spokesman said the club was looking into the matter.

'The Gold Coast Titans and the NRL Integrity Unit have been made aware of a video that is circulating which features Titans player Jarryd Hayne and briefly Nene Macdonald,' he said.

'We are liaising with the Integrity Unit and the players over the matter and have no further comment until those discussions are completed.'

The NRL has warned its players multiple times this year to stop cavorting with alleged bikies and anyone else accused of a crime after a series of bad behaviour.

Rugby league players Corey Norman, Junior Paulo and James Segeyaro were seen dining with an alleged bikie at Sydney's Star casino in May.

Norman was ultimately suspended for the rest of the 2016 season after being convicted of drug possession and participating in a Snapchat sex tape.

Bloomfield is on trial for allegedly assaulting a man after he could not pay a drug debt.

He has pleaded not guilty to charges of extortion, stealing and assault occasioning bodily harm while armed.
An Italian town devastated by an earthquake which claimed almost 300 lives is set to sue Charlie Hebdo after the satirical magazine published several cartoons mocking the disaster.

The magazine compared some of the victims to types of pasta, while others suggested that the mafia were responsible for the destruction.

One cartoon, entitled 'Earthquake Italian Style', captioned drawings of a bloodied and bandaged man 'Penne in tomato sauce', a scratched and swollen woman 'Penne au gratin', and a collapsed building with blood and feet emerging from it 'Lasagne'.

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An Italian town is considering suing satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo over coverage of a recent earthquake which described its victims as new types of pasta and lasagne

Amatrice in central Italy, pictured, was devastated as a result of the earthquake on August 24

The magazine defended the controversial cartoons claiming it wasn't Charlie Hebdo who built the homes which collapsed in the devastating earthquake which killed almost 300 people

After Italians responded angrily, the magazine, famed for its provocative, taboo-busting cartoons, published a second one, showing a person half-buried under rubble saying: 'Italians ... it's not Charlie Hebdo who built your homes, it's the mafia!'

Amatrice, the home of 'amatriciana' pasta sauce, was flattened by the quake on August 24.

Amatrice City Hall lawyer Mario Cicchetti, described the cartoons as 'a macabre, senseless and absurd insult to the victims.

It has asked a local prosecutor to investigate Charlie Hebdo for 'aggravated defamation', a crime for which the town would seek civil damages.

Even though the cartoons were published in France, Cicchetti said the legal case could be brought in Italy because they had been widely seen and shared there.

Twelve people were shot dead at Charlie Hebdo's offices in Paris in 2015 by Islamist militants who accused the magazine of blasphemy for printing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

The construction sector in Italy has long been plagued by inattention to regulations, and both regular building work and post-disaster reconstruction has at times been infiltrated by organised crime.

It is now up to the magistrates in Rieti, near Amatrice, to decide whether to take up the investigation against the cartoonists and the magazine's director, Cicchetti said.
A businessman who has shot in the chest by armed raiders during a robbery in South Africa was saved when the gunman's bullet deflect off his mobile phone.

Siraaj Abrahams, 41, was ambushed as he pulled up outside his house in Cape Town by two masked men who tried to pull him out of his vehicle.

During the fracas, a 9mm bullet was fired at close range towards Mr Abraham's chest.

Siraaj Abrahams shows off the hole in his jacket where the bullet struck him but deflected off his mobile phone

However, it miraculous hit off his Huawei P8 Lite smartphone, which he had stowed away in his jacket pocket.

Eventually the raiders ran off with just 15 in cash and even though Mr Abrahams was shaken - he was unhurt thanks to his mobile phone.

Now all he has to show for his 'near death experience' is a tiny mark on his chest and a hole in his jacket where the bullet struck.

The drama unfolded as the father-of-five was returning home from a birthday party in his Hyundai pick-up truck.

As he waited for his electric fence to open, the two men pounced on him, trying to pull him out of his vehicle.

But Mr Abrahams decided to fight back, and that is when the weapon was discharged.

The bullet miraculously hit off his Huawei P8 Lite smartphone, pictured, which he had stowed away in his jacket pocket

Despite the phone saving Mr Abrahams' life, an ECG report revealed that his heart had stopped for a few seconds after the shot was fired

He told the Daily Voice: 'I didn't even see it coming; the first one just pulled open the door. He pulled me out of the bakkie (truck) and we began to struggle.

'During the struggle, he second was, who was two metres away, fired a shot at me.'

Mr Abrahams 16-year-old daughter, who was returning home from a friend's house, found her father lying on the driveway outside his car.

He added: 'When I woke, I just felt this burning feeling over my chest and felt to see where it was and if there was blood.'

The 41-year-old was then rushed to hospital where an ECG report estimated Mr Abrahams' heart had stopped for a few seconds after the shot was fired.

And his stunned wife Shamiela, 41, says her husband had been saved by an act of 'divine intervention'.

Police are now investigating the attack and say that the two suspects are still at large. Pictured is his damaged phone

She said: 'We said Allah is great, because this is all God's work, everything had to happen the way it did.

'We received an ECG report that showed he had flatlined for a few seconds.'

Police are now investigating the attack and say that the two suspects are still at large.

Meanwhile phone manufacturer Huawei has sent Mr Abrahams a brand new P9 Lite to replace his damaged phoe.

Huawei sub-Saharan Africa marketing director Hawa Hyath said: 'We had a similar story in Africa a few years ago where a media pad received a bullet wheile a researcher was conducting his field work.
Twenty-four people suffered heroin overdoses in a single night in Ohio as the state battles a drug epidemic.

Authorities in Akron reported the heroin overdoses on Friday night and it came a day after four people died in the city on Thursday.

The conditions of those who overdosed on Friday are unclear.

That brought the total number of overdose deaths in Akron this year to 112.

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Police in East Liverpool, Ohio, shared on Facebook this shocking image showing Rhonda Pasek and James Acord slumped in their car with the woman's child in the backseat

Officials said they decided to make the photos of the unconscious man and woman public to raise awareness of the heroin epidemic in the state

Addiction to opioids such as heroin, fentanyl, codeine and morphine has reached crisis point in many states in the US.

Across Ohio - which has been among the hardest hit by the opioid scourge - there were 3,000 unintentional drug overdoses last year. This equated to eight every day.

Fentanyl was to blame for nearly 40 per cent of overdose deaths in Ohio last year, state data revealed.

America's Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) said the drug was being used to cut heroin on the streets to stretch dealers' supply.

Couple arrested: James Acord, 47 (left), was charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated, endangering children. Rhonda Pasek, 50 (right), was charged with endangering children, public intoxication and not wearing a seatbelt

It comes as one Ohio city, East Liverpool, shared shocking images of a couple overdosing on heroin with a four-year-old boy in the back seat of a car.

The couple - James Acord, 47, and Rhonda Pasek, 50 - were detained on Wednesday afternoon after a policeman spotted their Ford Explorer being driven erratically.

Officer Kevin Thompson followed the car as it weaved along the road before it stopped suddenly behind a school bus that was dropping off children.

He said he found Acord with 'pin point pupils', his 'head bobbing back and forth his speech was almost unintelligible'.

He revealed how Acord then tried to speed off, but he reached into the car and yanked the keys out of the ignition.

It was then he noticed Pasek's four-year-old boy strapped in the back seat. He was taken into custody by county children's services.

The couple were taken to hospital and appeared in court the following day.

Acord was sentenced to 180 days in jail after pleading no contest to charges of driving under the influence and endangering children.

Pasek pleaded not guilty and was ordered held on $150,000 bond pending her next court appearance scheduled for September 15.

Pasek, pictured in this Facebook photo from 2012, has pleaded not guilty and was ordered held on $150,000 bond

The decision to upload the graphic image to the East Liverpool Facebook page sparked controversy, but the city's police chief defended the move.

John Lane said: 'We're drowning down here. We need help here completely and totally.

'This picture is graphic, it's disturbing. I need people to get upset and help us take back the streets. I need the presidential candidates to look at this and tell me what they will do to fix it.'
A 44-year-old woman in North Carolina has been arrested for having sex with her married 25-year-old son.

Melissa 'Missy' Kitchens and her son, Shaun Thomas Pfeiffer, each face a felony charge of incest.

Kitchens was arrested on September 7 and her son, from Weaverville, north of Asheville, was arrested a day later.

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Melissa Nell Kitchens, 44, and her son Shaun Thomas Pfeiffer, 25, were arrested on incest charges last week

According to arrest documents, the mother and son had sex in August.

Pfeiffer, who is self-employed, also faces charges of indecent liberties with a child, communicating threats and being intoxicated and disruptive.

His Facebook page shows that that he is the father of a toddler son.

Pfeiffer appears to live with both his mother and his wife Shannon Roman in Asheville.

He appears to have posted a picture of his mother online as recently as last month. It is unclear what Kitchens' marital status is.

It is also unclear how the allegations came to light.

Busted! According to arresting documents, Kitchens and her son had sex in August; pictured right is Kitchens posing for a snap taking last month by her son

'Can't get over how handsome you are,' Kitchens commented on this picture of her son and grandson on Facebook

Married: Shaun is married and has a young toddler son with Shannon Roman (pictured together left and right Shannon with Melissa); Shannon appeared to allude to the incident with a Facebook post last month

Heartbreak: Shannon's Facebook post from last month appeared to suggest she may have forgiven her husband

Pfeiffer appears to live with both his mother and his wife Shannon Roman in Weaverville, north of Asheville

In one comment of a picture with Pfeiffer and his son, his mother wrote: 'Can't get over how handsome you are'.

She also hinted to family drama in the long comment.

'Just trying To Brighten The Mood---- Things are Very Stressful and I Love You and I Respect Any Decision--- As Long as your Happy and Safe.......... I miss you& wish I had more time w you...... Your Very Valuable and Hopefully The Stresses---- Will get better,' she wrote.

Shannon Roman, Pfeiffer's wife, also took to Facebook last month, sharing a post that said: 'When you truly care for someone, their mistakes never change your feelings because it's the mind that gets angry but the heart still cares.'

According to the Buncombe County Jail's website, Pfeiffer is being held on $70,500 bail and Kitchens is being held on $30,000.

Pfeiffer's next court date is scheduled for September 30. Kitchens' court date is September 29.
Houston police are searching for a driver who they say deliberately ran over a former co-worker four times with his truck after the pair got into a heated argument.

The victim, identified as San Juanita Herrera, suffered serious head trauma and multiple cuts to her face in the wake of the incident that took place outside 6767 Long Drive in Houston Sunday night.

Investigators say the driver of the vehicle that struck Herrera, a gray 2000 Nissan Frontier pickup truck with a camper, is a Hispanic man between 50-60 years of age.

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Vehicular assault: San Juanita Herrera was run over four times by a middle-aged believed who was said to be her former co-worker outside a Houston apartment complex

Heated dispute: Herrera, who is in her 30s, got out of the driver's pickup truck crying after he dropped her off

Witnesses told police the middle-aged man was dropping off Herrera at the Long Drive Townhomes at around 11pm when the two apparently got into an argument and the woman, who is said to be in her 30s, got out of the mans vehicle crying, reported the station KPRC.

Herrera was standing in the parking lot when witnesses say the man ran her over for the first time.

The driver, who at this time is considered a 'person of interest,' then drove to another part of the parking lot, gunned his engine and slammed into Herrera a second time, according to the Houston Chronicle.

According to the witness accounts, the man then drove in reverse and hit her a third time before speeding out of the parking lot and running the woman over for a fourth time in the process.

Witnesses say the drive revved his engine and hit the woman, then struck her again while driving in reverse

Herrera was rushed to a hospital in critical condition.

Sgt Joshua Horn, of the Houston Police Department, says that Herrera told bystanders who came to her aid that the man who ran her over was a former colleague.
POWELL, Wyo.  As a boy, Sam Mihara lived with his family in a three-story home in San Franciscos Japantown neighborhood.

One day when he was 9, plainclothes policemen and military officers removed the family. The government sent them to Heart Mountain Relocation Center in northern Wyoming, where they were confined by a barbed-wire fence. Armed soldiers patrolled the perimeter and watched internees from guard towers.

In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, forcing immigrants and American citizens of Japanese descent to move from the Pacific Coast, where they were considered too close to Japan and U.S. military installations, to one of 10 inland camps, including Heart Mountain, for the duration of the war.

It was really traumatic, Mihara says. I had never been imprisoned.

In total, 14,000 people lived at Heart Mountain. Now, its a place of learning, of history.

Fifty former internees, now in their 70s and older, and another 200 family members and friends recently made a pilgrimage to the former camp to remember the past.

But for many of the internees, the present is concerning.

People like Mihara see a troubling parallel between the hostility and mistrust toward Japanese-Americans in World War II and the political rhetoric now directed at Muslims, who are painted by some leaders and pundits as the enemy, or at least as something other than fully American.

A recent Pew Research Center poll, for example, found that 63 percent of Republicans and 41 percent of Democrats agreed that about half or some Muslims in the U.S. were anti-American.

I really feel sad history might be repeated, Mihara said.

Uncomfortably close

Some of those who made the pilgrimage to Heart Mountain  people such as Takashi Hoshizaki and Dorothy Kittaka  said Republican presidential nominee Donald Trumps words and proposals come uncomfortably close to what was said about Japanese-Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Trump called for a ban on Muslim immigration but later revised his proposal to a ban on foreigners who live in countries he described as compromised by terrorism.

In December, Time magazine asked Trump whether he would have supported Japanese internment camps.

"I would have had to be there at the time to tell you, to give you a proper answer," the billionaire said. "I certainly hate the concept of it. But I would have had to be there at the time to give you a proper answer."

Such words worry Hoshizaki.

The man doesnt know history, he said of Trump. Hes a businessman. Everything is right (at the speed of) now. I think he shoots first and asks questions later.

The Star-Tribune contacted Trumps Wyoming campaign director, who said she couldnt speak for the real estate mogul but left a message with campaign officials. The newspaper did not hear back from them.

Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks also did not respond to emailed questions for this story.

Unaware children

Heart Mountain was built in the summer of 1942 on prairie about 13 miles north of Cody near the Shoshone River.

The stories of the people who lived there contain a complicated mix of emotions. Despite being held against their will, many of the former child internees described finding hundreds of new playmates after arriving at the camp. They went to school, joined scouting, tromped around the Wyoming sagebrush and discovered new plants and wildlife.

Many said the injustice didnt hit them until later in life  how their families had to leave their homes and the possessions that they had worked so hard to earn, because their countrymen didnt trust them.

Here are four of their stories.

Takashi Hoshizaki

He arrived at Heart Mountain from Los Angeles by train when he was 16 with thousands of other Japanese-Americans. The journey took four days, and no one knew exactly where they were going. One day, Takashi Hoshizaki remembers a man poking his head out the window and surmising they were in Pocatello, Idaho. Hours later, they were in Wyoming.

My first impression was this was a great place, said Hoshizaki, who is known as Tak. On the contrary, my sister saw all the dust blowing and said, This is a terrible place. 

Tak settled into life at the camp  he was a junior assistant scoutmaster for Boy Scouts for Heart Mountains Troop 313  but as time wore on, he wondered about the outside world. People could not leave the camp unless they had official business, such as printing the camps newspaper in Cody.

Soon enough, however, he left Heart Mountain  though, again, not by choice.

When he turned 18, he received draft papers. But with his loved ones robbed of their civil rights and living like prisoners, Tak said his conscience wouldnt let him serve in the military. He was among a group of 63 Heart Mountain internees who resisted the draft. U.S. marshals took him to Cody, then to jail in Casper. His trial was held in Cheyenne, and he was sentenced to two years in federal prison.

Taks decision to fight the draft was a moral one, a way to stand up to a government he felt was racist that had upended peoples lives, he said. Before he arrived in Wyoming, he and thousands of Japanese-Americans were rounded up and sent to the L.A. County Fairgrounds in Pomona, Calif., awaiting transport to the camps.

When I went to Pomona, I heard the older (people) say, We should have contested this. 

When Tak was released, World War II had ended and his family was allowed to leave Heart Mountain. He joined them in Los Angeles. Ten years after his first draft notice, he was called to serve again when the U.S. entered the conflict in Korea. That time, he proudly answered the call, he said.

In time, Americans have forgotten the history of the Japanese internment. The trouble is, history could repeat itself, Tak said.

Shigeru Yabu

He knows its controversial to say it, but Shigeru Yabu had a great time at Heart Mountain, though he does remember his parents being overwhelmed by the conditions.

Shig arrived with his family when he was 10 and ran around with a gang of boys his age, mostly having fun and getting into a little trouble, too.

The day after he arrived, there was a knock on the door. A friend from San Francisco had come to play.

He and I wanted to go to a guard tower, he said. We wanted to see their guns. We thought they were going to talk to us. They never paid attention.

Shig and his friends played marbles and rock-paper-scissors. They traced circles in the dirt with pocket knives and roamed the sagebrush, seeing their first scorpion. Another internee somehow had a car and they paid him $10 for an all-day trip around the Big Horn Basin. They heard there was a river nearby, the Shoshone, and often pushed down the barbed wires of the fence to sneak out of the camp. They fished and swam in the river, he said.

One day, the gang fired a slingshot and knocked down a birds nest. Inside was a baby magpie they named Maggie. They found a cage for Maggie. Adults and children fed her bugs and food from the mess hall and taught her to speak, whistle and laugh, he said.

That bird was an internee, he said.

At Heart Mountain School, Shig once forgot the list of words for a spelling test. He didnt want to tell his mother, knowing shed be cross. So he feigned sickness and ended up in the camps hospital, which had ice water, white sheets on the beds and pretty nurses.

The doctor said he needed to perform exploratory surgery to figure out what was wrong with Shig, who became anxious because he didnt want an operation. The doctor figured out he was faking and sent him back to the barracks his family lived in.

I had a great time, he said, because of my age, maybe.

Shig is now 84 and lives in California. At the remembrance event, he wore a T-shirt that said, I survived Heart Mountain!

The way he sees it, Trump has the right to speak his mind. People dont have to believe him. And the best way to fight rhetoric is with more speech, he said.

I guess I believe in the freedom of speech, he said.

Dorothy Kittaka

Dorothy Kittakas family lived in Auburn, Wash., before they passed through a series of camps. In 1943, they landed at Heart Mountain, one of the last groups to arrive.

Delays kept the family in limbo, living in camps and not knowing where they would end up, she said. Her older brother had chicken pox, and the family was quarantined for a year. Then the government presented her parents a loyalty oath and pressured them to sign it. Her parents hesitated. After all, this was the country that was imprisoning them, she said.

Kittaka, who now lives in Fort Wayne, Ind., had relatives who refused to sign it. They were American citizens but decided to return to Japan. They were disheartened by their country, she said.

Her parents reviewed the oath and made a different choice.

My parents decided to sign it and move on with their lives, she said.

Kittakas passion for music  she became a music educator as an adult  was sparked at Heart Mountain, where she saw a musician play a trumpet on the playground. It was the same tune nearly every day.

That melody stayed with me, she said.

Though the conditions at Heart Mountain were less than desirable, her parents fought to bring up their children with manners. When coal shipments arrived, internees often got mean and competitive, trying to pick up the best pieces for their furnaces. Kittakas father made his children hold back.

He said, Dont act like animals, no matter the situation,  she said.

As a result, the family often took home the dusty, dirty pieces of coal.

The family lost everything theyd left in Washington. They moved to Illinois after being released from Heart Mountain.

The 77-year-old said Trumps words are a chilling reminder.

I think he needs to stop, she said of Trump. His rhetoric at this point is the same as we had heard and read about at the time of the internment.

Sam Mihara

At Heart Mountain, Sam Miharas family settled into a 20-by-20-foot room with wall-to-wall cots and a coal stove furnace. Temperatures that first year dropped to 28 degrees below, sending the camps residents  most of whom were accustomed to the moderate climes of California  scrambling for warm clothing.

Mihara, a city boy, had to adjust to Wyoming.

We thought we had gone to the end of the world  sagebrush country, he said. No civilization, except a two-lane highway and train tracks.

After he was released, he was bitter.

I didnt fully appreciate what racial hatred could do, he said.

Japanese-Americans were depicted as the enemy in mass media, with propaganda highlighting the Japanese attack on the United States. Paranoia took hold in the government, with one report even suggesting that folks living in America could spy for the Japanese government, scrolling secret messages with invisible ink on products sent across the Pacific.

Over time, Miharas bitterness dissipated. The now 83-year-old now gives talks on his experience at Heart Mountain. He wants to teach people what happened.

This camp is a good example of what can happen to other people  to Middle Easterners, to others, he said.
Disgraced health blogger Belle Gibson has again failed to appear in court over allegations she misled consumers by falsely claiming she healed her terminal cancer naturally.

Gibson and her company, Inkerman Road Nominees Pty, were scheduled to appear before the Federal Court in Melbourne on Tuesday for a hearing with Consumer Affairs Victoria.

The consumer watchdog has accused Gibson of 'unconscionable conduct' while she was promoting her Whole Pantry app and book by stating she healed herself naturally, after being diagnosed with brain cancer in 2009 and given four months to live.

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A judge has been urged to 'throw the book' at cancer faker Belle Gibson (pictured) as the Federal Court prepares to try her case despite her refusing to show up

Consumer Affairs has alleged Gibson made false and misleading claims and engaged in unconscionable conduct

This came as the judge was urged to 'throw the book' at Gibson as court prepared to try her case despite her refusing to show up.

Consumer Affairs Victoria will push ahead with the civil case in her absence, aiming to see her severely fined for duping thousands of followers.

Friends of Gibson have reportedly said she is 'hoping [the case] will all go away' if she ignores the court warnings.

Barrister Catherine Button told the court on Tuesday there was 'no reasonable bias' and 'no evidence' for Gibson to believe she had terminal cancer, The Age reported.

Penguin Australia, who published Gibson's book The Whole Pantry, gave the court footage from a media training interview before her book was released in 2014.

When the publisher asked if Gibson had a spokesperson who could confirm her extensive charity work, she said none of them spoke English.

The 24-year-old admitted she falsely claimed she had terminal brain cancer and cured it with natural remedies - making $578,005 in the process.

She could be fined up to $1.1 million and the watchdog also wants her to apologise with public notices in major newspapers.

The 24-year-old admitted she falsely claimed she had terminal brain cancer and cured it with natural remedies - making $578,005 in the process

The consumer watchdog has accused Gibson of 'unconscionable conduct' while she was promoting her Whole Pantry app and book

Cancer sufferer Ashley, who did not give her last name, urged the judge to 'throw the book at her'.

'This thief needs to be brought to justice  I really hope she doesn't get off scot-free,' she told the Herald Sun.

'She needs to pay for her crimes. Pretending to have cancer and ripping all of those charities off and duping all of those people is disgusting.'

Gibson has not filed a defence and friends told the newspaper she was 'hoping it would all go away' if she didn't respond.

The disgraced wellness blogger's The Whole Pantry app, which includes recipes she said claimed healed her cancer, was downloaded more than 115,000 times at $2.99 a pop.

She also secured a $263,947 by publisher Penguin for her cookbook of the same name, which was pulled from shelves after five months last year when her deception came to light.

She admitted to making the whole thing up in a 60 Minutes interview last year (pictured)

Barrister Catherine Button told the court on Tuesday there was 'no reasonable bias' and 'no evidence' for Gibson (pictured) to believe she had terminal cancer

Consumer Affairs has alleged Gibson made false and misleading claims and engaged in unconscionable conduct

She also failed to honour a promise to donate up to $300,000 to charities.

Gibson failed to attend three court dates, most recently on July 10 when Justice Debbie Mortimer said there would be 'tough consequences', if she failed to appear.

She was so confident the case would ultimately amount to nothing she replied 'of course not' in March when asked if she had been charged.

Then when questioned on whether she thought she'd ever face charges, Gibson said: 'No, I don't think I will.'

Her company Inkerman Road Nominees Pty Ltd (formerly known as Belle Gibson Pty Ltd) is in liquidation owing almost $140,000.

In footage provided to the court, a Penguin Australia publisher asked if Gibson had a spokesperson who could confirm her extensive charity work, but she said none of them spoke English

The disgraced wellness blogger's The Whole Pantry app, which includes recipes she said claimed healed her cancer, was downloaded more than 115,000 times at $2.99 a pop
The shocking moment a thief stole an 85-year-old woman's purse and ran away taunting her has been captured on camera.

Surveillance footage shows elderly woman Bernice Starnes in her wheelchair in the Bronx, New York, when the heartless criminal approached her shortly after 2pm on Sunday.

The purse-snatcher was standing behind the 85-year-old, before she slowly walked around in front of her.

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A woman (right, running away) has been caught on camera stealing a purse from an 85-year-old woman in a wheelchair

Then, in the blink of an eye, the thief grabbed Starnes' purse and sprinted off down the street.

The callous crook is about 5 feet 6 inches, 240 pounds and was wearing an orange shirt, police said.

A witness heard the thief shout, 'why dont you run after me and get it', to the Starnes as she fled the scene, according to the New York Post.

Police also said the 85-year-old had her bank card and $100 cash inside the purse.

The purse-snatcher (left) approached her victim slowly from behind before she carried out the despicable act

The woman has not yet been arrested for the brazen act.

It comes just days after a 93-year-old great-grandmother had $600 stolen out of her bra while she was shopping.

Maria Vasquez, who now uses a wheelchair after suffering three strokes, was looking for a pair of sandals at Regines department store in New York last Wednesday.

Similarly to the most recent incident, Vasquez's thief was also caught on camera as he shockingly snatched her cash and made a break for it.

The thief walked around to be standing in front of her victim, before she reached down and grabbed the bag

The robber was later seen tossing what appeared to be a handbag in a bin nearby

The footage shows 26-year-old Broyoan Lopez looking at some clothes when the thief, clad in chinos and a T-shirt with his hair in a bun, approached.

After looking over his shoulder to check if anyone was around, the thief suddenly thrust his hand down her bra and grabbed an envelope containing the cash.

The money was Vasquez's social security check, which she had cashed at the bank mere moments before the robbery.

Lopez was arrested near his home last Friday and charged with robbery, grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.

26-year-old Broyoan Lopez was caught on camera last week stealing from a 93-yer-old great-grandmother
More and more factories in China are using robots on the assembly lines to replace workers who demand high salaries.

Factories have struggled to keep up with overseas orders due to the rising labour cost and instead opted for machines, according to a report by China Central Television Station (CCTV).

One boss, from Guangdong Province, said his factory started using robots after they realised the labour cost in China was twice as much as that of Mexico and four times as that of India.

Footage from CCTV shows how two Chinese factories have used robots to replace workers

More and more Chinese factories have opted for machines in order to cut labour cost

One factory, which produces lenses for German brand Carl Zeiss in Guangzhou, replaced 70 workers with robots between 2012 and 2015 and managed to increase the output

A reporter from CCTV visited two robot-equipped factories, both situated in Guangdong Province.

The region, located in southern China, is well-known for its large number of factories handling overseas orders for famous brands including Disney.

One factory, which produces lenses for German brand Carl Zeiss in Guangzhou, started using robots four years ago in a bid to improve productivity and to cut costs.

Its manager Zeng Zhiyong told the reporter that they were informed in 2012 that China's labour cost is twice more expensive than Mexico's and four times more expensive than India's.

Zeng told CCTV: 'We were very surprised at this huge gap and started to think of how to improve productivity.'

Between 2012 and 2015, Zeng cut down the number of workers by 70 people - from 440 to 370 - but managed to increased the output from four million to five million lenses per year.

Rongxin Packaging Corporation produces 1.8 million cans per day.

Impressively, the entire production process does not involve any workers, its general manager Ji Yonghong told CCTV.

However, Ji said the factory has employed younger, more skilled and better-educated workers to maintain the machines and control the quality.

Automated machine, tools and robotics have been marked by Chinese authority as one of the 10 priority sectors of China in the next nine years

Many factories in China have started replacing the workforce with modern technologies

China became the world's largest market for industrial robots in 2013. According to People's Daily Online, more than 20 per cent of the world's industrial robots are purchased by China.

Last year, the Chinese authorities named automated machine, tools and robotics as one of the 10 priority sectors in the 'Made in China 2025' plan, a 10-year plan unveiled by China's State Council in a bid to transform China 'from a manufacturing giant into a world manufacturing power'.

This has prompted many factories in China to start replacing the workforce with modern machines.

Foxconn, the Taiwanese company which assembles iPhones and iPads, has also brought in machines to replace its 60,000 workers in one of its branches in southern China.

The robots took over repetitive tasks and took the place of more than half of the factory's 110,000-strong workforce.

FIVE JOBS AT RISK FROM ROBOTS According to recent studies, certain jobs are already at risk of being replaced by automated workers. Accountants are 99 per cent likely to lose their jobs to machines. Umpires and referees have a 98.3 per cent chance of being automated. Waiters and waitress are 93.7 per cent likely to be replaced by machines. Legal assistants and paralegals have a 94.5 per cent chance of being automated. Fashion models are 97.6 per cent likely to lose the lime light because of robots. Advertisement

While a growing number of Chinese factories are upgrading its production with high technology, the working conditions of some of them remain worrying.

Previous MailOnline investigations discovered that impoverished men and women from rural areas work 12-hour shifts for 250 a month in Pegatron, a factory in suburban Shanghai which produces Apple products.
A research psychologist has detailed the results of an investigation which he says shows how Google is manipulating its results to favor Hillary Clinton.

Robert Epstein estimated that biased suggestions could shift up to three million votes in the upcoming November election in an article explaining his findings for Sputnik News.

Epstein said his research followed up claims in a viral video released by Sourcefed in June, which alleged the tech giant was tinkering with its search suggestions to cast Clinton in a positive light.

The video, narrated by Matt Lieberman, used numerous examples to demonstrate that various searches related to Clinton appeared to yield only positive suggestions  despite Google Trends showing negative searches were common.

This occurred despite other search engines, including Bing and Yahoo, giving both positive and negative searches.

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A research psychologist has detailed the results of an investigation which he says shows how Google is manipulating its results to favor Hillary Clinton (above)

Google responded by insisting that the company favors no candidate or cause  but admitted searches are censored.

In a blog post in June, the company said: The autocomplete algorithm is designed to avoid completing a search for a persons name with terms that are offensive or disparaging.

This filter operates according to the same rules no matter who the person is.

But notably, Lieberman found that Google showed autocomplete did produce negative results for Bernie Sanders - Clintons opponent for the Democratic nomination  and Donald Trump.

Since then, Epstein and his colleagues at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology  which he explained is a non-profit and non-partisan organization  investigated Lierbermans claims and found their results supported his, but clarified that the research is ongoing.

Robert Epstein found that Google only gave positive results such as 'winning' and 'awesome' compared to Yahoo and Bing which yielded both positive and negative suggestions

This is despite 'Hillary Clinton is a liar' proving to be a much more popular search term on Google Trends

Google explained that it removes negative search suggestions, but searching for 'Donald Trump is' gave one bizarre option suggesting the GOP candidate is dead

Epstein said he and his colleagues tested hundreds of election-related search terms.

To ensure that searches were not customized to their personal search history by using proxy servers and the Tor network and clearing cache and cookies fairly obsessively.

But for Clinton, they appear to be withheld even when those same terms are proven to be extremely popular in Google Trends  thus disproving the companys claim that autocomplete shows the most popular terms people are searching for.

He also refuted Googles explanation that this is because negative searches are universally withheld because his research found that they appear to be suppressed selectively.

For example, Epstein showed screenshots of the results when he searched the term Hillary Clinton is leaving a space after is on August 3.

Bing and Yahoo offered numerous negative suggestions to finish the phrase including liar, criminal and evil.

But Google only gave two: Hillary Clinton is winning and Hillary Clinton is awesome.

He also showed a Google Trends screenshot which showed that Hillary Clinton is a liar was a far more popular search that either of the other two choices Google provided with autocomplete.

However, as Google claims this is because it roots out negative results, then Epstein conducted the same search using Trumps name  and found it gave two choices again.

After Donald Trump dubbed Clinton 'Crooked Hillary,' searches for the term soared

But typing crooked into Google resulted in no suggestions for Clinton, whereas on Yahoo and Bing, 'Crooked Hillary' was in the top two results

One was Donald Trump is awesome but the other result was Donald Trump is dead, which he suggests should have been filtered.

Epstein showed how Googles bias appears to extend to her running mate Tim Kaine.

After Trump dubbed the Virginia senator Corrupt Kaine  the term saw a massive surge in popularity on Google, proven by a screenshot from Google Trends on June 27 that Epstein provided.

Despite this, when Epstein tried to conduct an autocomplete search for Corrupt Ka  there were no results at all about Kaine.

Epstein showed Googles bias appears to extend to running mate Tim Kaine. Above, Google Trends showed searches for 'Corrupt Kaine' soared after Trump gave him the nickname

Searching 'Corrupt Ka' on Google gives nothing about Kaine, but on Yahoo, just typing corrupt leads to a result about the Virginia senator

A search on Yahoo, meanwhile, for simply the world corrupt gave Corrupt Kaine as the second suggested search.

Similarly, Epstein says that the word crooked generated no suggestions for Clinton in numerous searches in June and July even though the term Crooked Hillary was popular due to Trumps nickname for his rival.

He said had to type Crooked H-I-L-L-A before Google suggested to get a result for Clinton and even then, the suggested term was Crooked Hillary Bernie.

Both Bing and Yahoo, however, listed Crooked Hilalry near the top of their suggestions lists.

Epstein said that he found that Google searches were not always pro-Clinton and anti-Trump.

SEARCHES RELATED TO HILLARY CLINTON'S HEALTH Searching for Hillary Clinton hea on Google gives no indication that the candidates health issues are frequently searched Only typing 'h' after Clinton's name gives 'health' and 'health issues' as the top suggestions on Bing On Yahoo, only typing 'hill' is sufficient to give a number of searches about Clinton's health Advertisement

Google Trends shows that searches for 'Hillary Clinton health' have risen drastically since May

But what he discovered was that Google allegedly mask their bias by suppressing only the most popular of the negative search terms.

For instance, a search on August 2 generated no suggestions for anti Hillary but did for anti Clinton and anti Hillary Clinton did.

GOOGLE AND THE WHITE HOUSE The Obama administration has maintained a close relationship with Google over the years. In fact, numerous executives left the tech giant to land jobs in the White House. They include Megan Smith, is now the countrys chief technology officer, while Andrew McLaughlin, formerly Googles head of global public policy, spent two years as the administrations deputy chief technology officer. Other former employees who have spent time working for the government include Nicole Wong, who worked as deputy chief technology officer after leaving her role as vice president and deputy general counsel at Google. Meanwhile, former CEO Eric Schmidt who is now the chairman of Alphabet Inc, reportedly advised Obamas 2008 campaign and acted as an informal adviser in 2012. And data released earlier this year showed the tech giants employees and affiliates have attended meetings at the White House more than once a week on average since President Barack Obama took office. The figures  based from Obamas first week in office until October 2015 - showed 169 of the tech giants employees have met with 182 government officials in the White House. Advertisement

Anti Trump however gave four results, including anti Trump cartoon and anti Trump song.

Anti Hillary consisted generated no results, he said, and found that the term was drawing much more traffic according to Google Trends than the others.

Google, it seems, is playing this game both consistently and slyly, Epstein writes.

It is saving its bias for the most valuable real estate  trending, high-value terms  and eliminating signs of bias for terms that have lost their value.

Epstein also used a very recent example to demonstrate Googles apparent bias.

Questions surrounding Clintons health have dominated the news cycle recently  but Google autocomplete choices would suggest otherwise.

Searching for Hillary Clinton hea gives no indication that the candidates health is a frequently searched term  instead offering searches for health care, headquarters, hearing and headquarters chicago.

Bing, on the other hand, gives health as a result even after only typing the letter h after Clintons name as well as the term health issues.

Yahoo shows how dominant the issue is by giving the options Hillary Clinton illness and Hillary Clinton health issues after just typing hill.

A search conducted by DailyMail.com on Google today for the term Hillary Clinton h yields nothing related to health  giving the choices height, headquarters, hamilton and house instead.

And for the record, Epstein notes that he supports Hillary Clinton for president.

But he added: I do not believe, however, that it would be right for her to win the presidency because of the invisible, large-scale manipulations of a private company.
Hillary Clinton's medical history  and her tendency to keep personal and medical information far from view  is coming in for new scrutiny following revelations that the candidate got diagnosed with pneumonia Friday in advance of her stumble in New York.

Clinton's stumble, caught on camera Sunday after she had to leave Sept. 11th anniversary memorial services after about an hour and a half, was the latest in a line of health spats that have made it into the news during her career.

'Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia. What's the cure for an unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?' asked President Obama's former message guru David Axelrod in a tweet Monday  a message promptly retweeted by Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway.

In one serious incident, in 2012, Clinton got a bad stomach bug and fainted at her home in Washington  and got a concussion in the process. But information about what exactly had happened, and how it affected Clinton's job, emerged only slowly over time.

She wasn't seen in public between Dec. 7th and when she left the hospital in New York January 2, 2013.

Hillary Clinton's stumble in New York on Sunday and pneumonia diagnosis is prompting new examination of her health  as well as how her aides have closely guarded information

She experienced 'double vision for a period of time and benefitted from wearing glasses with a Fresnel prism,' her doctor, Lisa Bardack, wrote in a letter voluntarily released to the media in 2015 as part of her presidential campaign.

Her concussion 'resolved within two months,' Bardack wrote.

It was only in 2014 that Bill Clinton revealed that the injury 'required six months of very serious work to get over,' and called it a 'terrible concussion'

She was diagnosed with a blood clot in the brain, transverse sinus venous thrombosis.

Clinton had to work from home and postpone planned testimony before a House Benghazi committee.

When she did appear, she wore specialized glasses with prism lenses, which are prescribed to counter the effects of double vision.

Clinton, a frequent flier whose staff catalogued her persuit of the overall mileage record as secretary of state, twice suffered blood clots in the leg.

Clinton leaves New York Presbyterian Hospital with husband Bill and daughter Chelsea on January 2, 2013. The secretary of state, had not been seen in public since Dec. 7

HARD KNOCKS: Clinton got a fractured elbow in 2009, but still managed to negotiate with Hondouran leaders, and, according to her spokesman, text with one hand

Clinton had to shake with her left hand following her 2009 injury. She is pictured here with Palestinian Authority Salam Fayyad

Frequent jet travel can exacerbate blood clots, which is why some people make sure to walk around the cabin on long flights

The first occurred in 1998, while she was still first lady. Clinton experienced symptoms while attending a fundraiser for Sen. Charles Schumer of New York. Clinton got quietly taken to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda for treatment at the time. She was found to have a blood clot behind her knee, Clinton wrote in her memoir, 'Living History.'

She called it 'the most significant health scare I've ever had,' the Washington Post noted.

She had a second incident in 2009, as revealed by her doctor.

She takes a daily blood thinning medication for her deep vein thrombosis.

Also back in 2009, Clinton had to work from home for a while after she fractured her elbow during a fall, CNN recounted. She fell at the State Department on the way to the White House, and went to George Washington University hospital for treatment.

'She is working from home. She is already taking some calls, and I'm sure starting to learn the limits of movement - how well you can text with one arm in a sling,' quipped then spokesman P.J. Crowley at the time, in an early reference to Clinton's communications habits.

Clinton is 68 and would be 69 when she assumed office, second to Ronald Reagan in age taking office. Donald Trump is 70, and has released few details about his medical background.

Clinton campaigned in New York in June along with aide Huma Abedin. She was diagnosed with pneumonia Friday, according to her office

According to a letter Clinton released from her doctor in 2015, Clinton's 'current medical conditions include hypothyroidism and seasonal pollen allergies. Her past medical history is notable for a deep vein thrombosis in 1998 and in 2009, an elbow fracture in 2009 and a concussion in 2012.'

Hypothyroidism refers to an under-active thyroid gland.

'She participates in a healthy lifestyle and has had a full medical evaluation, which reveals no evidence of additional medical issues or cardiovascular disease. Her cancer screening evaluations are all negative. She is in excellent physical condition and fit to serve as President of the United States,' she wrote.

The letter released by Clinton's physician details her 2012 concussion and double vision

Clinton was a 'healthy-appearing female' during her last examination, according to Dr. Lisa Bardack

Hours after Clinton was taken away from the Sept. 11th ceremony, her office released a doctor's statement. 'Secretary Clinton has been experiencing a cough related to allergies. On Friday, during follow-up evaluation of her prolonged cough, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. She was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule. While at this morning's event, she became overheated and dehydrated. I have just examined her and she is now rehydrated and recovering nicely,' Clinton's doctor, Lisa Bardack, said in a written statement Sunday.'

'There's no other undisclosed condition. The pneumonia is the extent of it,' Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon told MSNBC.

Fallon also acknowledged: 'I think in retrospect we could have handled it better in terms of providing more information more quickly.'
David Cameron used a cheat sheet of high street prices to help him in interviews

David Cameron kept an up to date cheat sheet on everyday household goods during his six-year spell as Prime Minister it was revealed today.

The list helped him stay in touch with the lives of voters so he avoided tricky questions from journalists on the price of everything from a pint of milk to a loaf of bread.

The prices were updated regularly by civil servants in a helpful document, which was published by the Guardian today.

But it didn't stop Mr Cameron embarrassing himself when asked the price of a cheap loaf of white bread.

He told LBC's Nick Ferrari in 2013 that the cost was 'well north of a pound' but was quickly corrected by the presenter, who informed the PM that the price of a value white loaf was 47p.

The error is believed to be the fault of his cheat sheet authors, who made the mistake of using average prices and not the cost the poorest families would pay.

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The document kept him up to date with the latest price of milk, coffee, draught lager, cigarettes, diesel, petrol and even the cost of a single tube journey.

It also briefed him on the different minimum wage rates for each age group and the latest economic data.

Mr Cameron's cheat sheet included details of the different minimum wage rates, prices of every day goods and key points of economic data

Mr Cameron's cheat sheet emerged the day after Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry failed to give the names of prominent foreign leaders.

The Labour MP did not know the name of the French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and couldn't even answer what gender South Korean President Park Geun-hye is in an interview with Sky News presenter Dermot Murnaghan.

Remarkably she accused him of 'sexism' for asking her 'pub quiz' questions, claiming he did not ask similar questions of male politicians.
Adam Penny, 25, masterminded the computer hack on the gold bullion firm

A computer hacker launched a cyber attack on a gold bullion trading company in an audacious heist to steal almost 90,000.

Adam Penny, 25, masterminded the hack which allowed his accomplices to intercept delivery lorries carrying the precious metal.

He stole the addresses of customers and parcel identity numbers so his three-strong gang could lurk outside properties ready to force delivery drivers to handover the gold.

The defendants stole, or attempted to steal, six packages with an estimated value of more than 88,000 - and later blackmailed the company for a further 50,000.

The stolen gold was then sold to an unsuspecting jeweller in London.

On one occasion they went from London to an address in Newcastle, where they failed to intercept the delivery because the postman knew the victim and refused to hand over the parcel.

When the cash wasn't enough to fund Penny's lavish lifestyle and his penthouse flat in Canary Wharf he blackmailed the company for a further 50,000.

Following Penny's arrest six iPhones and two MacBooks - one which was found in a toilet cistern - were seized. They were found to contain evidence of Penny's blackmail demands to the company and instructions for his interceptors.

Nour Mansouri (left), 24, from north London and Joshua Wilkins, 25, of Harleston, north-west London were sentenced for conspiracy to steal, for their part in intercepting deliveries of gold

The investigation was led by detectives from the Met's Cyber Crime Unit, who arrested Penny at his home address on 26, June 2015.

Penny was convicted of conspiracy to steal, unauthorised access to a computer and blackmail at Kingston Crown Court. He was sentenced to five years and four months in prison.

Daniel William Rabbitte, 25, of Hornchurch, Essex, was given a 18 month prison term, suspended for two years

He previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal and computer misuse with intent on 1 April at the same court.

Joshua Wilkins, 25, of Harleston, north-west London; Nour Mansouri, 24, of Crouch End, north London and Daniel William Rabbitte, 25, of Hornchurch, Essex, were sentenced for conspiracy to steal, for their part in intercepting deliveries of gold.

Wilkins was sentenced to 22 months' imprisonment; the judge punished Mansouri with 200 hours community service and ordered her to pay 1,000 in costs; Rabbitte, was given a 18 month prison term, suspended for two years.

Detective Inspector Sanjiv Gohil, of the Cyber Crime Unit, said: 'This case highlights the importance of robust cyber security systems for businesses and particularly those with an on-line presence.

'In this case the breach was reported to the police and we were able to investigate and bring Penny to justice, without further compromise to the company and their customers.'
She pleaded not guilty to charges against her, which have statute of limitations of 20 years and carry a sentence of up to five years each

Siracuse was removed from classroom in March after allegations against her sparked a criminal

A high school teacher from Ohio has pleaded not guilty to repeatedly having sex with her female student nearly two decades ago.

Kimberly Siracuse, 48, was arrested Sunday on three counts of sexual battery stemming from alleged incidents dating back to 1997.

Siracuse, who works as a social studies teacher at Ashland High School but has been on paid leave since March, was released from jail on a personal recognizance bond Monday after pleading not guilty to the charges against her.

Teacher jailed: Ohio social studies teacher Kimberly Siracuse (pictured left in her mugshot), 48, has been charged with three counts of sexual battery dating back to 1997

Educator: Siracuse is suspected to have had sex on multiple occasions with a female student at Ashland High School (pictured) nearly 20 years ago

As a condition of her release, Siracuse was barred from having any contact with the alleged victim or any Ashland High School student or staffer, unless required for her work, reported Ashland Source.

According to the Ashland County Prosecutors Office, a grand jury indicted the teacher last week on the trio of sexual battery counts following a lengthy investigation.

Each count carries a possible sentence of up to five years in prison. Under state law, the statute of limitations on these charges is 20 years. Siracuse is scheduled to go to trial next March.

The Ashland City School District contacted the Ohio Department of Education's Office of Professional Conduct about Siracuse on March 2, alleging 'conduct unbecoming to the teaching profession,' reported the station WKYC.

Arrest: Siracuse was taken into custody at this Buffalo Wild Wings eatery in Ashland on Sunday

The social studies and government teacher was removed from the classroom two days later. During the six-month investigation that ensued, Siracuse was working from home on assignments and continued getting paid but had no contact with students.

The social studies and government teacher was removed from the classroom in March

Police turned over the results of their probe into Siracuse to the prosecutors office in June. She was taken into custody shortly after 9pm Sunday at Buffalo Wild Wings in Ashland and lodged in the Ashland County Jail.

Her LinkedIn page indicates that Siracuse, who has a Master's degree in teaching from Georgetown University and a doctorate in education from Ashland University, has been employed by Ashland City School for more than 24 years.

According to a website that tracks the salaries of state employees in Ohio, Siracuse has been earning around $60,000 a year.
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These remarkable photos of birds, beasts and beaches have captured Britain's beautiful wildlife roaming the landscape in their natural habitats.

The stunning images of pine martens and puffins, gulls and grouse, deer and dolphins were all contenders in this year's Scottish Nature Photography Festival contest.

Two black rooks courting in Northumberland and two rapid mountain hares chasing through the snow at twilight in the Cairngorms were picked as the winning photos in the annual competition.

Competition judge Mark Hamblin, a director of The Wild Media Foundation which runs the festival, said: 'This year's entries gave us a bit of a headache, such was the quality of images it was difficult to select the short-list let alone the top three photographs.

'But after a good deal of deliberation we settled on Jonathan Guant's picture of a pair of rooks displaying in the snow as the winner on Saturday. An image that oozed quality with beautiful feather detail and an example of what can be achieved with a common subject.

'Sunday's winner of two mountain hares chasing by Catherine Clark was captured in stunning winter light, the white fur of the animals contrasting wonderfully with the cool blue shadowy snow.

'Brain Clark also deserves special mention for his two atmospheric landscape images that were judged in 2nd and 3rd place.'

Looking up: Sandra Price, from Argyll, took this photo of a European pine marten, with its stunning red hair, looking up above the wild lilac flowers in the bright sun. The animal is part of the mustelid family, which also includes mink, otter, badger, wolverine and weasel

Opening up: A close-up of a cheeky-looking puffin with an open beak in Lunga in the Treshnish Isles. The islands provide a breeding habitat for nationally important concentrations of seabirds, with around 47 different species, including razorbills, guillemots, fulmars, storm petrels, kittiwakes, herring gulls, and shags - as well of course the large population of puffins

Boxing match: Two mountain hares boxing in Strathdearn in a photo by Raymond Leinster. The area is home to a wide variety of plant and wildlife, including golden eagles, osprey and red kites as well as red, sika and roe deer, feral goats, red squirrels, otters and both brown and blue (mountain) hares

Majestic: Picture by Shelley Knight shows a deer in a snow storm in the Cairngorms. The National Park is a hotspot for British wildlife, home to 25 per cent of the nation's threatened species. The high mountains are a habitat for wildcats, capercaillie, squirrels and pine martens in the woods, ospreys fishing the lochs and deer, badgers and golden eagles to be seen too

Pecking order: This picture shows Black grouse fighting in the Cairngorms by Rosamund Macfarlane. The courting ritual involves dawn displays of the males in clearings in the heather moorland, known as a Lek. The grey hens (females) arrive to pick a dominant male, and they posture and do battle in order to attract her

Resting: Barry Forbes, from Fife, took a picture of a gold-ringed dragonfly in Ardnamurchan. The female is the UK's largest dragonfly and they are voracious predators, feeding on large insects such as damselflies, other dragonflies, wasps, beetles and bumblebees. They are fast, agile and powerful flyers, on wing from May to September

Cuddling up: European Pine Martens snuggled on a branch in Argyll by Sandra Price, which won third place. They usually make their own dens in hollow trees or scrub-covered fields and have powerful, retractable claws that allow them to climb and run along trees. They generally have litters of around five young in April and have numerous dens that they go to and from

See me rolling: Ian Hastie, from Aberdeenshire, took a photo of a Comb-footed spider at Stonehaven. The tiny 6mm-long arachnid is also known as the tangle-web spider because it produces a scrappy web consisting of a loose network of criss-cross threads. They can be seen throughout Britain between May and October

Match: This was the winning picture of two black rooks courting in Northumberland by Jonathan Gaunt, from Roxburghshire. During courtship, the male struts around, bowing, posturing and cawing to the female before offering her a gift to win her hand. He will empty the contents of his food pouch into the female's mouth before mating takes place

Hare today: Two hares chasing through the snow at twilight in the Cairngorms in one of the winning picture, by Catherine Clark from Inverness. The animals rely on their speed and keen eyesight to avoid predators and are incredibly difficult to photograph when they run, reaching speeds of up to 40mph uphill

Flying high: A bottlenose dolphin jumping out the water in Moray Firth in a picture by Catherine Clark, from Inverness. They are the most northerly resident bottlenose dolphins in the world and are much fatter than their relations in warmer climates such as the Caribbean, Indian or Pacific oceans, as they need the blubber to keep them warm

Bill-iant: Jonathan Gaunt took a picture of a Goldeneye displaying in Northumberland. They can be seen mainly in Highlands of Scotland in the summer but in winter, are spotted on lakes, large rivers and sheltered coasts, particularly in north and west Britain. They rarely gather in large numbers like other duck species

Mountainside: Sandra Price, from Argyll, took a photo of the red deer herd at Lochaber in the Scottish Highlands. The animal is the largest land-mammal in the UK. They breed in harsh conditions, which means infant mortality can be high among the species that survive the cold highlands of Scotland

Up top: Picture by Raymond Leinster, from Perth, took a photo of Ptarmigan in the Cairngorms. The plump gamebird, slightly larger than a grey partridge, is a mixture of grey, brown and black above with white bellies and wings in the summer. But in winter, it becomes totally white except for its tail and eye-patch, which remain black

Cold feet: Stephanie Wilkie, from Dundee, took a picture of Sanderling on East Haven Beach in Angus. The small, plump bird does not breed in the UK, but is a winter visitor, journeying to and from their high Arctic breeding grounds in the spring and autumn. They can also be found on long, sandy beaches, quite a contrast from their colder habitats

Leap of faith: This picture shows the famous scene of salmon leaping in Stirlingshire by Neil MacGregor, from Dunbartonshire. The incredible sight is one of natures greatest spectacles, happening in October and November as Atlantic salmon leap up river to their breeding grounds. They have been known to leap up to 12ft and up waterfalls

Coastline: Stephen Whitehorne, from Berwickshire, snapped The Cuillin from Elgol on the Isle of Skye. The powerful sea smashes at the jagged rocks with the red sky and high mountains as a backdrop for the dramatic coast

Gliding: A gull flying through a glittering sky on the Moray Coast by David Devonport. The area is one of the most important places on the British coast for observing dolphins and whales. The most common species are the Bottlenose Dolphin and the Harbour Porpoise, but there are also occasional sightings of Common dolphin and Minke Whale

Walking on water: John MacFarlane, from Cumbria, took a picture of a swan in a hurry in Cumbria. There are 44 nature reserves across the county, 38 of which are open to visitors. These include bogs, meadows, ancient woodlands, beaches, and grasslands, where you can see flowering plants, butterflies and dragonflies, birds and lots more wildlife

Dinner together: Jackie Walker won second place for her photo of Artic Terns feeding, gifting each other eels on the Farne Islands. The birds travel thousands of miles to Britain to breed and depend on a healthy habitat here. Recently, numbers have been affected by fish shortages
The Navy says a sailor who never reported being pregnant has given birth to a baby girl aboard an aircraft carrier sailing the Persian Gulf.

U.S. Naval Forces Central Command spokesman Cmdr. Bill Urban told the Virginian-Pilot the 7-pound infant was recently born on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Persian Gulf.

Both mother and daughter are doing well and were airlifted to a shore-based hospital in Bahrain.

A sailor gave birth to a seven-pound baby girl aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (pictured) after complaining about abdominal pains, the Navy announced

'The family practitioner aboard Ike, who delivered the baby, is certified in child birth and has experience delivering babies. A number of personnel assigned to Ike medical department have received training to deliver and care for a newborn,' Urban said.

Urban says the command chain wasn't aware of the pregnancy. The Navy requires expectant mothers to self-report a pregnancy within two weeks of a doctor's confirmation. Expectant mothers are allowed to remain on ship up to the 20th week of pregnancy, as long as a medical center is less than six hours away.

It wasn't clear Monday whether the sailor, who had complained of abdominal pains before giving birth, knew she was pregnant. Her name has not been released.

'While it would have been preferred to send her to her homeport earlier, per policy, we are now focused on caring for the health and welfare of our Sailor and the newest member of our Navy family,' Urban added.

Navy officials say that the sailor is attached to the Carrier Air Wing Three, which has been flying missions over Iraq and Syria as part of Operation Inherent Resolve.
LARAMIE  A former Laramie-area law enforcement officer has pleaded not guilty to charges that allege he killed a University of Wyoming student and set fire to her apartment in 1985.

Attorney Vaughn Neubauer entered the pleas on behalf of 67-year-old Fredrick James Lamb, who is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree arson in the October 1985 death of 22-year-old Shelli R. Wiley. An autopsy found her neck was cut through to the bone and she had been stabbed in the lung.

An investigation determined a body had been dragged from the apartment where Lamb had been staying to Wiley's apartment.

District Judge Jeffrey Donnell scheduled Lamb's trial for March 20-31.

Lamb had served as an Albany County deputy and a Laramie police officer, but wasn't working at either job when Wiley was killed. He remains free on a $200,000 cash bond.
Dr Donald Cline (pictured) is accused of using his own sperm to impregnate at least eight mothers decades ago

A retired Indianapolis fertility doctor used his own sperm to impregnate at least eight mothers decades ago and admitted to six now-adult children to doing so, court documents say.

Dr. Donald Cline faces two felony obstruction of justice charges for misleading authorities who were investigating two of the children's complaints against him.

He surrendered in court on Monday.

The 77-year-old suburban Zionsville man told the six adults that he had donated his own sperm about 50 times, a probable cause affidavit says.

His patients were told they were receiving sperm from medical residents or students.

Cline is accused of being the biological father of at least eight people. The youngest would be about 30.

Cline (above, in court) faces two felony obstruction of justice charges for misleading authorities who were investigating two of the children's complaints against him

The six adults conceived through Cline's clinic in the 1970s and 1980s discovered they were siblings born to the same biological father through online DNA tests, Fox59 reported.

The siblings met with Cline in the spring of this year and he told them that he had used his own sperm when a donor was not available, according to court documents.

He also told them that he had kept records of which patients received his sperm but all of those have since been destroyed since Indiana only required medical records be kept for seven years.

He didn't consider himself to be fathering children, but helping families unable to conceive, Cline said in an interview with Fox.

Cline (above) said didn't consider himself to be fathering children, but helping families unable to conceive

The six adults conceived through Cline's clinic (above, file photo) in the 1970s and 1980s discovered they were siblings born to the same biological father through online DNA tests

His attorney is expected to release a statement on Monday afternoon.

He was released on his own recognizance and a hearing is scheduled for next month.
Zakieya Avery (pictured) says she killed two of her children during what she believed was an exorcism in 2014

A Maryland mother says she killed two of her children and badly injured her other two during what she believed was an exorcism in 2014.

Zakieya Avery, 31, pleaded guilty Monday in a Montgomery County courtroom to killing Norell Harris, one, and his two-year-old sister Zyana.

Avery and her roommate, Monifa Sanford, stabbed the four children because they believed killing them was the only way to rid them of demons.

The two told investigators at the time they needed to drive evil spirits out of the children, and that the demons were spreading and moving between them.

The both claimed to have seen the children's eyes 'blackening', according to WTOP.

Prosecutors said Norell, Avery's youngest child, was stabbed more than 20 times.

Her two-year-old, Zyana, was choked and stabbed in the chest and back.

Two older children, ages five and eight, survived the attacks.

Avery's lawyers are expected to make the case she was not criminally responsible for her actions, which is the Maryland equivalent of pleading insanity.

Avery pleaded guilty Monday in a Montgomery County courtroom to killing Norell Harris (right), one, and his two-year-old sister Zyana (left)

Avery's (right) lawyers are attempting to argue the mother cannot be held criminally responsible, which is Maryland equivalent of pleading insanity

If a judge agrees she could be sent to a psychiatric hospital. However, if the judge does rule Avery is criminally responsible, she could face four consecutive life sentences.

Sanford pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and two of attempted murder in January 2015.

She was found not to be criminally responsible, and was sent to a mental facility for an undetermined amount of time instead of being jailed.

The 31-year-old mother appeared in a Montgomery County courtroom (pictured) on Monday in Maryland
Democratic White House nominee did not go out in public today; she stayed at her home in Chappaqua, New York, and rested

Clinton's communications director offered a half-hearted apology - while noting that her candidate has been more transparent than Trump

Hillary Clinton's campaign offered a half-hearted apology on Monday for keeping the public in the dark during the Democratic presidential candidate's health scare a day before.

'We could have done better yesterday, but it is a fact that public knows more about HRC than any nominee in history,' said Clinton's Communications Director Jen Palmieri.

The senior aide finally addressed the controversy after an ex-adviser to President Barack Obama came down on the campaign on Twitter.

'Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia. What's the cure for an unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?' said David Axelrod.

Hillary Clinton was last seen yesterday in New York City at her daughter Chelsea's house. She's pictured above at a 9/11 memorial, before she became dizzy and nearly fainted

Hillary Clinton's campaign offered a half-hearted apology on Monday for keeping the public in the dark during the Democratic presidential candidate's health scare a day before

A senior aide finally addressed the controversy after an ex-adviser to President Barack Obama came down on the campaign on Twitter

Palmieri retweeted him and defended the campaign's openness, particularly in comparison to Republican White House nominee Donald Trump.

'In contrast to HRC, Trump has been less transparent than any nominee in modern history,' she wrote.

Ex-adviser to President Obama David Axelrod came down on the campaign on Twitter

The campaign has badgered Trump to release his tax returns, like all other modern presidential candidates have done. Neither candidates have produced full health assessments, and Trump's is especially thin.

He said this morning that he would share the results of a recent physical in the coming days, however. Clinton's campaign said this afternoon that it was preparing a document with more details on the 68-year-old's pneumonia.

Trump, age 70, was uncharacteristically restrained on Monday as he was asked to comment on Clinton's quick exit from a 9/11 memorial over the weekend and her campaign's announcement afterward that she was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday and had continued to campaign anyway.

'I hope she gets well soon. I don't know what's going on,' he said during an interview with Fox.

At roughly the same time as Palmieri was responding to Axelrod, Trump's campaign manager threw a grenade of her own at the Clinton campaign.

'Lack of transparency is an overarching theme,' Kellyanne Conway said on Twitter.

Axelrod gave the Trump camp the same treatment he'd given Clinton's team earlier and retorted, 'Transparency works BOTH ways, @KellyannePolls! Where r @realDonaldTrump tax returns? Health records? Secret plans?'

As of Monday afternoon, Clinton remained at her home in Chappaqua, New York, resting her campaign said. Press are pictured above waiting outside her home

Clinton made no public appearances after canceling a two-day trip to California. She's calling into a fundraiser in San Francisco tonight instead

Press were only allowed to get so close to Clinton's home. A police officer is pictured above, keeping the media at bay

The Democratic strategist was an architect of Obama's 2008 victories, first, in the primary against Clinton, and then in the general election. He left the White House in Obama's first term.

Before Palmieri joined the Clinton campaign, she was the White House communications director, but her stint at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue did not overlap with Axelrod's.

As of Monday afternoon, Clinton remained at her home in Chappaqua, New York, resting her campaign said. She made no public appearances after canceling a two-day trip to California. She's calling into a fundraiser in San Francisco tonight instead.

Her national press indicated that she could resume campaigning as early as Wednesday and said she has 'no other undisclosed condition' in addition to pneumonia.

He also copped to dropping the ball on Sunday, when Clinton's whereabouts were unknown for close to 90 minutes after the motorcade left her press pool behind.

'I think in retrospect we could have handled it better,' said spokesman Brian Fallon. 'In terms of providing more information more quickly...in those 90 minutes we were putting a priority on making sure she was OK.'

Fallon said moments later, 'I do think that in those 90 minutes we could have gotten more information out more quickly and that's on the staff, that's on us. We regret that.'
A Russian policeman who was held at gun point by militants told his colleagues to 'keep working' in a defiant message filmed moments before he was shot dead on camera.

Police lieutenant Magomed Nurbagandov, 31, and his cousin were ambushed by four armed attackers in a forest in the southern region of Dagestan, a hotbed for Islamic insurgency.

The militants killed Nurbagandov's cousin before finding his police papers during a body search. They forced him to his knees, tying his hands behind his back.

The attackers asked him to confirm his identity and ordered him to tell his colleagues to 'quit their jobs'.

Instead Nurbagandov turned to the camera and said calmly: 'Keep working brothers, what else can I say?' He was shot in the head moments later.

The gruesome footage was later uploaded on Islamist websites but cut out Nurbagandov's final words, according to Russia Today.

Some of the attackers were killed in two separate police operations last week. It was only when police searched the casualties' mobile phones that the full video of the July 10 incident - and Nurbagandov's last act of bravery - was uncovered.

The Nurbagandov cousins' killer was identified as Magomed Khalimbekov, 31, the leader of a militant group, police said.

Police lieutenant Magomed Nurbagandov, 31, and his cousin were ambushed by four armed attackers in a forest in the southern region of Dagestan, a hotbed for Islamic insurgency

The militants found Nurbagandov's police papers and asked him to confirm his identity

He was killed but two of his suspected accomplices were arrested.

The Russian Interior Ministry intends to award Nurbagandov's bravery posthumously.

A spokeswoman said: 'In days to come, the leadership of the ministry will meet with Magomed Nurbagandovs family to personally thank his parents for bringing up such a decent son.'

The captive was ordered to tell his police colleagues to 'quit their jobs' on camera
Boone's lawyer claims that Baldwin knew he was not getting the original but a '

Alec Baldwin is suing a New York City gallery owner he claims knowingly gave him a fake painting but tricked him into believing it was an original by one of his favorite artists.

In court papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court the actor accuses Mary Boone of agreeing to sell him the Ross Bleckner painting Sea and Mirror for $175,000 and a commission of $15,000, and then giving him a newly commissioned copy of the piece by the same artist.

Boone's lawyer Ted Poretz told the New York Times in an interview last month: 'Hes wrong that the painting is a copy; its an original and very fine work of art by Ross Bleckner.'

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Off to court: Alec Baldwin (above in June) is suing a gallery owner he claims defrauded him by selling him a copy of a painting instead of the original

The work: Baldwin paid $175,000 plus a $15,000 commission for what he believed was the 1996 work Sea and Mirror by Ross Bleckner (Bleckner above with paintings from the series)

Defendant: Baldwin has now filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court against Mary Boone (above)

Baldwin claims in court papers to have been a lifelong fan of Bleckner's, who lives and works out of New York City and the Hamptons, and first wanting to purchase Sea and Mirror when he saw it on display in 2006 at Boone's gallery.

Bonne has represented Bleckner for years, and in 2010 told Baldwin she had a buyer willing to sell to the Oscar-nominated actor.

Baldwin claims he became concerned after he received the painting because it 'smelled different than he would have expected,' but Boone told him she had the work cleaned because of the former owner's smoking.

He hung it in his apartment and it was not until May that he came to have serious doubts after meeting with an art expert from Sotheby's according to his filing.

Baldwin now insists he was intentionally defrauded by Boone, something that Poretz contests.

Response: Boone's lawyer claims that Baldwin knew he was not getting the original but a ' original and very fine work by Ross Bleckner' (Bleckner and Boone above in 2009)

Poretz claims Baldwin was always aware he was getting a copy, which could be why the Manhattan district attorneys office told him over the summer that he could not file a criminal case.

This civil case came after Baldwin was told that the gallery would not be able t0o obtain the original work for him to replace the one he received six years ago from Boone.

Bleckner has not commented on the matter.

'The gallery never likes to have unhappy clients, and it has turned cartwheels to try to satisfy Alec Baldwin. It has repeatedly offered Alec Baldwin a full refund, among other things,' said Poretz last month.
Marks & Spencer today confirmed that their high-flying executive Laura Wade-Gery will not return to work after having a baby at 50

High-flying M&S executive Laura Wade-Gery will not return to work after taking a year of maternity cover to have her first child at 50.

Ms Wade-Gery - who was once tipped to take the helm at M&S - will step down from the board immediately and leave her role as multi-channel executive director by the end of September.

She will get 540,000 of cash and benefits as she leaves the company, equivalent to eight months of salary, provided she does not get another job that pays more.

Ms Wade-Gery will also be entitled to rewards of up to 2million based on the performance of M&S shares, but after a poor year, it is expected to instead be in the tens of thousands.

The company share price today closed 5.5 per cent down after the shock announcement, which will surprise many who had tipped her to one day take the helm at the high street giant.

However, after taking maternity leave last summer and extending it to a year in December, she nor M&S have made any announcement about the baby such as a name or even if it is a boy or a girl.

A number of competitors for the top job left the company, including former clothing boss John Nixon, who abruptly quit. But then boss Marc Bolland left in January - just weeks after she announced she would extend her maternity leave - and Steve Rowe was announced as his successor.

She said today: 'I've been away from the business for a year now, and that time has seen some significant changes in both my personal life and in the business.

'I concluded that the time was right to move on from M&S. I wish Steve and all my colleagues and friends every success.'

Credited with taking the company into the digital age, Ms Wade-Gery was handed a 4million golden handshake from the high street giant when she joined from Tesco in 2011.

After four years, in which she relaunched the company's website, the former Cheltenham Lady's College girl and Oxford graduate was given control of the 800 stores.

Her departure comes as newly-appointed chief executive Steve Rowe (pictured) embarks on a major turnaround programme in a bid to shore up lacklustre sales at the company's beleaguered clothing division

Ms Wade-Gery, who earned 771,000 in her final full year of work with M&S, took a break last summer to have a child with her second husband, business consultant and farmer Simon Roberts, 67.

Neither the couple or M&S have revealed anything about the child, announcing only that she is enjoying time with her family. Nor was it revealed whether she became pregnant or used a surrogate. However, those who her saw her at the M&S AGM earlier this year reported no sign of a baby bump.

Ms Wade-Gery, who has not yet revealed if her child is a boy or a girl, will get a 380,000 pay-out from M&S over the next eight months

Her departure comes as newly-appointed chief executive Steve Rowe embarks on a major turnaround programme in a bid to shore up lacklustre sales at the company's beleaguered clothing division.

Less than two months into the role, Mr Rowe branded the performance of its clothing and home arm 'unacceptable' after like-for-like sales plummeted 8.9 per cent in the first quarter to July 2.

Last week he moved to cut costs, slashing 525 jobs from M&S head office.

The company said 400 permanent staff from its central London office will be relocated, with a number of IT and logistic roles moved to operations in Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, and Middlesex.

The retailer said it plans to make the cuts through redundancies, reducing the number of contractors it works with, and 'natural attrition' - not filling vacancies.

Speaking about Ms Wade-Gery's exit from the business, Mr Rowe said: 'Laura has been a great colleague and has achieved much in her role heading our multi-channel business.
A brave Iraqi woman who survived life as an ISIS sex slave today took on a UN position to highlight the atrocities and met her human rights lawyer Amal Clooney.

Nadia Murad was captured and sold into slavery aged just 19 after jihadis stormed her town in the northern Iraq and killed her entire family, as well as 300 others in the Yazidi genocide of August 2014.

But the brave Iraqi escaped and told her story and today, met Mrs Clooney, who will represent her and thousands of other woman victimised by ISIS as they take their human rights case to the International Criminal Court.

Brave Iraqi woman Nadia Murad who survived life as an ISIS sex slave today took on a UN position to highlight the atrocities and met her human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and regional Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann

Amal Clooney, human rights lawyer and wife of actor George Clooney, is an advocate for the thousands of women raped and enslaved by ISIS terrorists in Iraq and Kurdistan

She is representing thousands of Yazidi women and children kidnapped, raped, tortured and enslaved by ISIS, including Nadia

Mrs Clooney, an advocate for the thousands of women raped and enslaved by ISIS terrorists in Iraq and Kurdistan, wants to see jihadis in the dock in The Hague on trial for crimes against humanity.

Nadia met Mrs Clooney and regional Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Green) in Stuttgart, as she takes on a new role as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations on human traffickers.

Her campaign has already won her a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, and she will now go on to tell her story all over the world to highlight the plight of the thousands of sex slaves who have been abused by ISIS.

Nadia was part of the non-Muslim Yazidi community which was stormed by jihadis.

Six of her eight brothers were murdered in front of her alongside 300 other men from her village, before she was snatched and repeatedly raped by 'countless' men several times a day.

Her mother was killed while Nadia and her two sisters and teenage female cousins and nieces, were transported to the ISIS stronghold of Mosul with more than 150 other girls before being subjected to horrific sexual abuse.

Six of Nadia's eight brothers were murdered in front of her alongside 300 other men from her village, before she was snatched and repeatedly raped by 'countless' men several times a day

Nadia told her shocking story to the United Nations Security Council in December (pictured)

Mrs Clooney demands that ISIS are prosecuted by the ICC for crimes against humanity against the Yazidi, saying 'it is time that we see ISIS commanders in the dock in The Hague'

Mrs Clooney, a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers specializing in international law and human rights law, is offering her counsel and representation for free

She said she had to 'take herself off to another world' as she was brutally raped.

Nadia was eventually able to escape some three months later, fleeing to the safety of a refugee camp before finding asylum in Germany.

Nadia (pictured), who was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, will go all over the world telling her story in her new role

The UN has branded ISISs treatment of the Yazidi people a possible genocide, after the terror group launched a campaign of murder, rape, abuse and torture against the population.

Her father had died before the harrowing atrocity.

The young girls were even raped as they were transported to Mosul. Nadia told the United Nations Security Council in December: Along the way, they humiliated us. They touched us and violated us.

They took us to Mosul with more than 150 other Yazidi families. In a building, there were thousands of Yazidi families and children who were exchanged as gifts.

One of these people came up to me. He wanted to take me. I looked down at the floor. I was absolutely petrified. When I looked up, I saw a huge man. He looked like a monster.

Nadia's two sisters also survived their ordeal - one is with her in Germany while her other sister is in a refugee camp in Iraq with her two surviving brothers.

In May, the brave survivor issued a chilling warning to the United States Senate, claiming ISIS would continue to be a threat to America unless the terror group was wiped out.

The Oxford graduate completed her Masters of Law at New York University and worked in the city at the firm Sullivan & Cromwell

She returned to London in 2010, joining Doughty Street Chambers as a barrister, where she has worked on several high-profile cases and has since lectured on international law

Speaking to the Senate Homeland Security Committee in June, she said the United States could expect further atrocities such as the attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando while the ISIS ideology continues to exist.

Addressing the United Nations Security Council last December, Nadia described the persecution the Yazidi people face under ISIS, which trades women and children from the minority population as war booty.

Rape was used to destroy women and girls and to guarantee that these women could never lead a normal life again, she said as she recounted her harrowing story.'
James Stunt, 34, claims he is the victim of a substantial theft from his international gold bullion firm Stunt and Co. (Pictured, the businessman with wife Petra Ecclestone)

The company offices of Bernie Ecclestones son-in-law have been raided by police investigating a multi-million pound fraud.

James Stunt, 34, claims he is the victim of a substantial theft from his international gold bullion firm Stunt and Co.

The wealthy businessman, who married Petra Ecclestone in a lavish ceremony five years ago, is preparing to return from Los Angeles to deal with the crisis.

He suspects he has been betrayed by people who took advantage of his hands off approach. The police operation began on Thursday afternoon when officers raided historic jewellery wholesaler Fowler Oldfield.

Neighbours described dozens of officers streaming inside its nondescript headquarters in an industrial area of Bradford, West Yorkshire.

A total of 12 people, including two women, aged between 23 and 56 were arrested for money laundering offences.

At the same time, police also entered the luxury offices of Stunt and Co in Curzon Street, Mayfair. The building was once the headquarters of MI5.

Officers from West Yorkshire Police led the searches, supported by the National Crime Agency, often dubbed Britains answer to the FBI. Fowler Oldfield, which claims to have an annual turnover of more than 100million, and the Stunt family of businesses are intricately linked.

Its owner Gregory Frankel, 38, the great-grandson of its founder, is also vice-president of Stunt and Co, where Mr Stunt remains chairman. The two firms also have a joint venture, Fort Bullion, which sells gold and silver bullion on the UK and international markets.

Speaking last night, a spokesman for Mr Stunt said he has been left reeling by the scale of the suspected theft from his business.

Mr Stunt is in his Los Angeles home and was shocked to learn of the raid on Fowler Oldfield and the accompanying arrests, he said.

Police raided Fowler Oldfields offices in Bradford and the offices of Stunt and Co in Mayfair

He was also shocked by the simultaneous exercise of a search warrant at the companys London offices...The company was already conducting an internal investigation into the disappearance of very significant sums of money... which appear to have been misappropriated.

Although no assistance has been sought from Mr Stunt, he intends to cooperate fully with the authorities if requested. He is due to return to London in the next few days.

Mr Stunts flamboyant business empire has interests in fine art, financial investments and gold.

Mr Stunt's brother Lee was found dead at his parents home in Surrey

The entrepreneur wed 27-year-old Petra in a lavish 12million wedding in 2011. He is best known for his gleaming motorcade of prestige cars with personal number plates.

It also comes at an extremely traumatic time for the Stunt family as they mourn the sudden death of his 37-year-old brother Lee.

Mr Stunt, the chief operating officer of Stunt and Co, was found dead at their parents 3.5million Surrey mansion on Wednesday afternoon. His brother has furiously denied claims he committed suicide, saying he was taking medication for anxiety and died in his sleep.

Lee Stunts wife Elizabeth, 34, an equestrian eventer, is being comforted by friends at the couples 1million home in Binfield, Berkshire. Friends said Mr Stunt had been suffering from depression but his brother furiously denied this in a video message posted online.

I will never get over losing him. My brother was not depressed, my brother did not commit suicide, he said.

My brother died in his sleep. He took a prescription drug sometimes for occasional anxiety attacks. He did not take illegal drugs. We just dont know what caused his death.

Mr Stunt is best known for his gleaming motorcade of prestige cars - including Lamborghinis - with personal number plates

Surrey Police are treating the death as unexplained. A spokesman said: Formal identification and a post-mortem examination will take place in due course.

Mr Ecclestone, 85, sold Formula One for 3.3billion last week.

A few weeks earlier his mother-in-law Aparecida Schunck was kidnapped in Brazil for a 28million ransom and was later rescued in a dramatic police operation. In May, Petra, who has three children, hired more bodyguards for their 70million Chelsea mansion after a petrol bomb attack.
Scores of suspected war criminals seeking to live in Britain escaped deportation thanks to a series of blunders.

Officials failed to throw out 135 individuals accused of appalling crimes in the some of the worlds poorest countries despite blocking their bids for citizenship.

And the suspects escaped police investigation after officials also failed to refer any of them to Scotland Yards specialist war crimes unit.

Last night, the Home Office said it has closed the apparent loophole in its procedures so that suspected war criminals will face further investigation

Campaigners slammed the Government as they warned the country risks becoming a safe haven for war criminals.

They said it was hard to understand how officials could block attempts to remain in the country but not try to deport them or refer their cases to police.

Last night, the Home Office said it has closed the apparent loophole in its procedures so that suspected war criminals will face further investigation.

A spokesman said police will be informed about every case where a negative immigration decision is taken due allegations of war crimes, genocide or torture.

The figures highlight concerns that war criminals from around the world are turning to Britain as their retirement home.

Hundreds of people involved in bloody conflicts in Rwanda, Afghanistan, Libya, Serbia and Sri Lanka, have been able to settle here.

In many cases human rights laws have meant that the worse their crimes, the more difficult it is to send them home.

After confessing what they have done, war criminals claim they face inevitable death or torture if they were to be returned home.

Suspects escaped police investigation after Home Office officials also failed to refer any of them to Scotland Yards specialist war crimes unit

Figures revealed under Freedom of Information laws showed 40 applications for citizenship were refused last year due to fears that the individuals were involved in war crimes.

A further 50 applications were refused in 2014 and 45 in 2013.

The Home Office refused to disclose which countries the applicants were originally from.

But officials confirmed none of the cases were referred to the Met, which deals with war crimes investigations as part of its counter terrorism unit.

They also confirmed none of the cases were referred to colleagues for potential deportation from our shores.

The figures raise questions about how the applicants were able to enter the country in the first place as citizenship bids can only be made after they have been resident for five years.

The Home Office said it would now tell police if a war crimes suspect had applied for UK citizenship (Home Secretary Amber Rudd pictured)

Allan Hogarth, of Amnesty International, branded the figures as extremely worrying.

On the face of it, its hard to understand how all these individuals could have raised such serious concerns during a citizenship process yet apparently nothing at all be done over potentially putting these people on trial, he said.

If there are reasonable grounds to suspect that a person here has been involved in acts of torture, war crimes or even genocide in a foreign country then surely the Home Office must be alerting the police and prosecution authorities who have a duty to act.

We absolutely mustnt let Britain become some kind of bolthole for war criminals. Officials need to explain whats happened here and what their policy is on referring such cases for further investigation and potential prosecution.

Kevin Laue, of Redress, which campaigns for justice on behalf of torture victims, called on police to investigate all cases where suspicions of war crimes exist.

He said: People refused citizenship because they are suspected of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide or torture should always be investigated by the Met so that they can be prosecuted here, if there is sufficient evidence to do so.

These are the most serious crimes imaginable and the police should have sufficient resources to investigate all suspects properly, which they cannot do if the Home Office doesnt refer them to the Met.

The Government has said the UK should not be a safe haven, but it appears to be just that.

Campaigners are unhappy that Britain opted out of a network created to help prosecutors across Europe pursue war crimes.

The Government has said there was no compelling evidence it delivered any practical benefit to the UK.

The Home Office said: We take allegations of involvement in war crimes extremely seriously and apply a robust approach to dealing with any immigration cases linked to war crimes. This includes refusing naturalisation or asylum where appropriate.
SO WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LAWRENCE MURDER SUSPECTS?

GARY DOBSON

Gary Dobson was one of two men to be convicted of Stephen's murder in 2012

Gary Dobson was one of two men to be convicted of Stephen's murder in 2012 - 19 years after the teenager was stabbed to death in a racially motivated attack.

Dobson was first arrested 15 days after Stephen was chased down and stabbed to death in the street in Eltham, south-east London.

He was one of five white youths, all alleged to be members of the same street gang, who were charged with Stephen's murder, but the charges were then subsequently dropped by the CPS.

When Stephen's parents Doreen and Neville Lawrence launched their own private prosecution in 1994, Dobson was among the three acquitted of murder at the Old Bailey.

On 14 February 1997, on a famous front page, the Daily Mail labelled Dobson, Norris and three other suspects 'murderers'.

The headline read, 'Murderers: The Mail accuses these men of killing. If we are wrong, let them sue us.' Beneath it appeared pictures of Dobson, Norris, Neil and Jamie Acourt, and Luke Knight.

None of the men ever sued for defamation and strong public opinions rose against the accused and the police who handled the case.

In 1999 the McPherson report into the Metropolitan Police's handling of the case found a litany of failures and accused the force of 'institutional racism'.

Dobson worked as a bricklayer and labourer at building sites across London, but at the time of his re-arrest for Stephen's murder he was serving a five-year sentence for drug dealing.

He was finally convicted in 2007, after a cold case review found 'new and substantial evidence' and his original acquittal was quashed in the court of appeal.

He is now serving a minimum of 15 years behind bars.

Two years ago, he split from his partner of 10 years and mother of his two sons, Michelle Lines.

She is said to have left him for a new man but he confirmed the pair had broken up 'amicably'.

'She has since met somebody,' he said on Facebook at the time. 'A fellow who I kind of knew and got on well with. As for names and details they are to remain private. Thank you, Gary.'

DAVID NORRIS

David Norris, the son of a gangster, was also convicted of Stephen's murder in 2012

David Norris, a gangster's son, was the other man to be convicted over Stephen's murder in 2012.

He was named as a suspect within 48 hours of the murder in April 1993 but dodged justice for years.

He was the one member of the gang who wasn't based or near the estate where Stephen was killed, and instead lived with his mother in Chislehurst, south-east London.

Norris was 16 and had left school when Stephen was murdered.

After avoiding justice for years, he was eventually arrested over the murder in September 2010 after an expert review of forensic evidence. Fibres and hairs linked him and Dobson to their victim.

Norris, who has five children from various relationships, is now serving a minimum of 14 years in prison, for what the judge described as a 'terrible and evil crime'.

He has tried to appeal his sentence on several occasions, claiming that the use in evidence of a surveillance video showing him to be racist was unfair. However, his applications for permission to appeal by both men were rejected by a single judge who considered the papers from the case.

JAMIE ACOURT

Brothers Jamie and Neil Acourt are two of the five thugs named as 18-year-old Stephens killers by the Daily Mail in 1997.

Police issued a wanted appeal for Jamie in March over a 4million cannabis smuggling ring. He is suspected of being in a gang that couriered 100kg of the drug between London and Newcastle.

Scotland Yard detained a number of people following a surveillance operation that lasted for two years  but Acourt fled before the arrests.

Suspect Jamie Acourt, pictured in a 1999 TV interview, is believed to be on the run

His brother Neil, 40, and two others admitted being members of the drugs gang at Kingston Crown Court.

Jamie is now thought to be in southern Spain, where he is known to spend a large amount of time.

Since the Lawrence case, he has had only one conviction, when he and Norris stole empty soda siphons from a warehouse in 1999. He was fined 250.

Before going on the run, Acourt lived in a smart terraced home with his partner and two children in Sidcup. Neighbours said he often disappeared for days at a time and drank heavily.

NEIL ACOURT

Neil Acourt, who also goes by the name of Neil Stuart, was 16 when Stephen was murdered and at the time was under suspicion for stabbing a man at a nightclub in Greenwich.

Although the smallest of the gang, Acourt was regarded by murder squad detectives as the leader.

At his family home a few minutes from the murder scene, officers found weapons including a knife, a Gurkha-type dagger and a sword.

Since the Lawrence killing, he has been repeatedly in trouble with the police.

In 2001 he was convicted of possessing an offensive weapon, a baton, which he claimed he needed for protection from revenge attacks.

The next year, he and Norris were each jailed for 18 months for a racist attack on an off-duty black detective.

In February Neil pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply 4million worth of cannabis at Kingston Crown Court.

LUKE KNIGHT

More than any other member of the Lawrence gang, Luke Knight has struggled to cope with his notoriety.

Several years ago he failed to persuade Greenwich Council that he should be rehoused because of intimidation. He claimed to be suffering from psychological problems after threats from anti-racist groups.

The son of a market trader, Knight was born in Southwark, south London, in November 1976. He has spoken publicly about the Lawrence murder twice, in a joint ITV interview with the other suspects in 1998 and at the public inquiry later that year.

But several years ago, he broke his silence to declare: 'I'm an innocent man. I've done nothing wrong. I'm totally innocent  I wasn't even there [at the murder scene].

'I have two little girls now. I have not told them about all of this. One day I will, I'll tell them that I am totally innocent.
LARAMIE  Students at the University of Wyoming will have to go without free legal advice for the time being while administrators try to fill the position.

Legal services counselors offer a variety of advice and consulting to students about anything from credit card problems to collection issues, landlord disputes or run-ins with the law.

School officials say they have not filled the position since student Legal Service Attorney Betsy Goudey died this summer after three decades with the university. "It's a tough position to fill because she was such an advocate for students," said Michael Rotellini, president of the Associated Students of the University of Wyoming.

Dean of Students Sean Blackburn said the program is only designed to provide criminal and civil consultation, not court representation.

Funding for the job comes from student fees.

The state has appointed a lawyer to handle any student cases already underway, the Laramie Boomerang reported.

In the meantime, the university is recommending other options, including clinics at UW's College of Law.

"We have six clinics that not only students but the general public can use," he said. "They're run by students and overseen by a faculty member of the College of Law. They are limited, depending on the subject of the clinic."
Victims left being turned down for mortgages and face

The Prime Minister has pledged to investigate the abuse of county court judgements

Theresa May has pledged to root out abuse of county court judgments following a Daily Mail investigation.

Our reporters discovered that families are being financially crippled by rulings they knew nothing about. Some lost their homes and even their businesses.

The Prime Ministers intervention came as more Mail readers told of devastating judgments against them that they had no chance to contest.

Banks, utility companies and parking cowboys are obtaining hundreds of thousands of CCJs every year at an office building in Northampton over alleged debts of as little as 1p.

More than eight in ten are uncontested, with victims saying warnings are often sent to old addresses, which means they cannot challenge them.

Heartbreaking stories include a family left homeless over a strangers parking ticket and newlyweds who missed out on a dream home because a water bill went to the grooms old university house.

The Prime Ministers spokesman said: There is an investigation now under way. We have a strong legal system and it is important that it cannot be abused. That is why the Ministry of Justice is now taking work to look into the specific issue around CCJs.

Today we also reveal how:

A 50million compensation case is being launched by families who had their finances wrecked by CCJs they knew nothing about;

Baroness Altmann has lodged an urgent question in the House of Lords urging reform;

The DVLA is accused of colluding with parking cowboys by selling drivers details for almost 10million a year;

An NHS hospitals parking wardens took out a 2,000 CCJ against a therapists husband.

Ministers, campaigners and victims spoke out yesterday after the Mail exposed the scandal.

Dozens of readers said that CCJs had made it virtually impossible for them to get mortgages or even phone contracts because of the damage to their credit rating.

Over the past three years, the number of CCJs has risen by more than a third, with almost 900,000 issued last year. More than 2,000 are issued a day without any defence being heard in court.

Baroness Altmann, political campaigner and former pensions minister, said: It is an absolute outrage people can have court cases against them which they know nothing about.

One of the most prolific firms that pursue people for CCJs is ParkingEye, which runs private car parks at hospitals, supermarkets and hotels.

Figures uncovered by the Mail show ParkingEye made 60,291 county court claims in the past three years. In one uncontested case, the firm was awarded 1p.

Motorists who have had CCJs from ParkingEye without any chance to defend themselves are now lodging a compensation claim against the firm. The case is being put together by CaseHub, a legal site run by Cambridge law graduate Michael Green.

He believes as many as 10,000 people will join the case and hopes each could receive 5,000.

We already have hundreds of people coming forward who found out they have CCJs but never received letters, said Mr Green.

Baroness Altmann said the CCJ scandal was an 'absolute outrage'

A lot of the people coming forward, often in tears, are disabled pensioners, single mothers surviving on a day-to-day basis, or NHS staff  nurses, doctors and surgeons.

Andrew Crisp, partner at Mason Bullock Solicitors, specialises in setting aside CCJs. He said: Most people who contact us are good natured people who have not deliberately run up debt and have never been in debt before.

Marc Gander, of the Consumer Action Group, said: The CCJ system is dreadful and needs to be rethought.

Once firms have obtained a CCJ, it makes it much easier to force payment from a customer in a dispute. If you do not pay, an order can be made for the money to be deducted from your wages.

ParkingEye said it would never make a CCJ claim for 1p but that when drivers do not pay their debt in full a court can issue a judgment on any sum outstanding.

A spokesman added: ParkingEye would be happy to cooperate with any proposed government review. ParkingEye does everything it can to ensure we use the correct details when contacting motorists. Every case is carefully reviewed before we decide to pursue legal action.

Parking touts pay DVLA 10m a year

The DVLA stands accused of colluding with parking cowboys by selling them drivers details for almost 10million a year.

Private firms pay the quango for information on more than 9,000 motorists a day.

Accessing the names and addresses allows them to hound drivers to pay fines for staying too long outside NHS hospitals, supermarkets and hotels.

They can have county court judgments passed against the motorists, crippling their finances for six years.

Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency figures show that in the past three years it has doubled its income from private parking firms, rising from 4.7million a year to 9.3million.

The DVLA stands accused of colluding with parking cowboys by selling them drivers details for almost 10million a year

Last year it received more than three and a half million applications for drivers details from 93 private parking companies, with the applications costing 2.50 at a time. ParkingEye  a firm that makes tens of thousands of CCJ claims against motorists  paid 3million last year for 1,200,284 requests.

In 2006/7, there were only 272,215 electronic requests from all firms.

The increase follows a ban on clamping that came into force in October 2012 following a Daily Mail campaign.

Philip Gomm, spokesman for the RAC Foundation, said: We thought private parking problems would be solved after the ban on clamping and yet four years later arguably even more people are being affected. This has become a multi-million pound industry.

Has the problem really increased so much that the DVLA needs to be selling so many more records? Or are private parking companies seeing a good way of making money that is skewed in their favour? This surely demands investigation by ministers.

The DVLA, which holds details of all registered vehicle keepers, claims the costs involved with providing driver data are in line with its charges. It made a profit of 200,000 selling driver data to private parking firms in 2014/15 and a loss of 300,000 doing so the previous year.

A DVLA spokesman said: The relevant legislation allows for a fee to be charged to cover the cost of processing requests, to ensure that the cost is borne by the requestor and not passed on to the taxpayer.

We are very open about which companies and organisations request data from us and how many requests they make.
A woman dressed in traditional Muslim clothing had her sleeve set on fire outside a designer boutique in Manhattan on Saturday.

The 35-year-old woman had been walking along Fifth Avenue and was outside the Valentino store at 9pm when the attack occurred.

She quickly patted the small flame out herself and noticed the suspect  a man with a lighter in his hand.

The woman, who was visiting New York City from Scotland, flagged down a police officer to report the crime but the suspect had already fled down 54th Street, an NYPD spokesman told Daily Mail Online.

A woman dressed in traditional Muslim clothing had her sleeve set on fire outside a designer boutique in Manhattan on Saturday. File photo

The police departments Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating to determine if the incident was motivated by bias towards Muslims, the New York Daily News reports.

It comes less than a week after a woman allegedly attacked two Muslim mothers in Brooklyn.

Emirjeta Zhelili reportedly punched the women in the face and attempted to rip their hijabs from their heads on Thursday.

Ibraham Hooper, a spokesman for the Council of American-Islamic Relations, said he urges police to thoroughly investigate a possible bias motive.

The woman, who was visiting the city from Scotland, had been walking along Fifth Avenue and was outside the Valentino store (above) at 9pm on Saturday when the attack occurred

Its almost impossible to keep up with the number of incidents in recent days and months since the mainstreaming of Islamophobia by people like Donald Trump, he told Daily Mail Online.

He added that in the past week, the organization has seen numerous complaints of incidents apparently fueled by anti-Muslim sentiment, including an tractor-trailer that crashed into a Maryland mosque.
A tearful Harriet Wran says she is 'still very much in recovery' as she walked free from prison three days after she was granted parole on the condition she would not touch alcohol or drugs.

The 28-year-old daughter of former NSW premier Neville Wran left Silverwater Correctional Facility, in Sydney's west, on Tuesday.

Wran's mother, Jill, arrived to pick her up just before 7am in a silver Audi A4 driven by her brother, Hugo.

At 7.05am, Wran left the prison complex with her family and tearfully addressed the media.

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A tearful Harriet Wran says she is 'still very much in recovery' as she walked free from prison three days after she was granted parole

She was supported by her mother, Jill, as she address media outside Silverwater prison, in Sydney's west

'I thought I'd come over and say "hello" because I know it's been a bit of wait for you too,' Wran said as her mother placed her hands on her shoulders in a sign of support.

'I've really just come to implore you to understand that I'm very much in recovery.

'It's going to be a long process and it's going to be hard.

'I ask you to understand, please, to let me do what I have to do in privacy.'

Wran cried as she made her way to the car after addressing the media and was comforted by her mother who gave her a kiss on the forehead.

It is believed the family were headed to their Woollahra home in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

Wran's mother, Jill, arrived to pick her up just before 7am in a silver Audi A4 driven by her brother, Hugo

At 7.05am, Wran left the prison complex with her family and tearfully addressed the media

The 28-year-old was granted parole on the condition she stayed away from drugs and alcohol

Wran spent two years behind bars over her role in the murder of a Sydney drug dealer in 2014.

She has been eligible for early release since August 12, but a decision by the State Parole Authority was postponed last month for more documents to be prepared.

Under conditions of her parole, Wran cannot touch alcohol or drugs and must not contact the victim's family or her co-offenders.

She was granted parole on Friday and is subject to parole supervision until August 2018.

In addition to the list of parole requirements Wran must 'participate in psychological and psychiatric treatment as directed'.

The former Sydney socialite has been behind bars for nearly two years after being arrested over the fatal stabbing of Daniel McNulty, 48, in a Redfern housing commission unit in 2014.

Wran was sentenced in July to four years in jail for being an accessory to the murder.

The former drug addict has admitted helping then-boyfriend Michael Lee and his friend Lloyd Edward Haines gain entry to the flat

She was granted parole on Friday and is subject to parole supervision until August 2018

The former drug addict has admitted helping then-boyfriend Michael Lee and his friend Lloyd Edward Haines gain entry to the flat, but says she did not know Lee had a knife and did not see Mr McNulty being stabbed.

She pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact of murder, robbery in company, and harbouring, maintaining and assisting Lee, after prosecutors dropped a murder charge.

Wran must also participate in psychological or psychiatric treatment as directed, and is forbidden from contacting McNulty's family or her co-offenders.
A Missouri woman has described her horror at discovering the grave of her late veteran husband had washed away in a storm, just one day after she had buried him.

Whendy Moore, 66, buried her husband, Tom, also 66, a decorated Army veteran, at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis County on Friday. He died last Tuesday following a battle with cancer.

However, after returning for a visit on Saturday, Moore was shocked at what she found - the ground had washed away and the casket was completely exposed.

'We thought we'd see mud, you know we knew it had rained the night before' Moore told Fox 2 Now.

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Washed up: This is the sight that Whendy Moore was faced with after visiting her husband's grave at the weekend, just one day after his funeral

Still grieving: Whendy Moore buried her husband, Tom, at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery on Friday, after he died last Tuesday following a battle with cancer

Tom Moore, a decorated Army veteran, died last Tuesday after a five-year battle with cancer

'But to see the casket and the vault floating on water in this little spot- it was well shown- and we assumed the casket was wet too. We just didn't know.'

Moore says officials at the cemetery told her the rain had caused the ground around the grave to wash away.

'We thought we had closure the other day and then we viewed him again' Moore told Fox.

'It was a little eerie I suppose and it was very emotional.

'We went through all the same emotions that we did the last time we seen him.'

Moore said the cemetery is now assigning a new plot, and that her husband's body will be moved and re-buried.

Moore is now working with the cemetery to re-bury her husband this week in a new plot

However for Moore and her family, the re-burial is basically a second funeral.

'I don't think that anyone should have to go through that twice' Moore said.

'We all said it was nice to see him one last time but it shouldn't have ever happened.'
Hillary Clintons collapse was sudden and dramatic  but so hard to spot the world almost missed it.

As her Secret Service bodyguards rushed in to surround her, it was difficult to tell whether they were protecting their boss from danger or from the watching media.

However, video footage shot by a bystander as Mrs Clinton, dressed in a dark suit and dark glasses, made an abrupt exit from Sundays 9/11 memorial service in New York showed the Democratic presidential contenders legs buckling as she struggled to get into her waiting van.

Hillary Clinton is supported by aides and bodyguards as she collapses as a 9/11 memorial service in New York

A Secret Serviceman held on to her as she detached herself from the supporting arm of a female aide, stepped uncertainly off the kerb and got into the vehicle.

She wasnt just leaning on them for support  close-up images revealed her feet were dragging along the ground as she was lifted into the van. Her head appeared to be wobbling around loosely as if she was losing consciousness.

Every politician trips up during an election campaign, but this may be one stumble from which Mrs Clinton, 68, may never recover in her run for the White House.

Amid reports yesterday that worried senior Democrats are discussing replacing her with an alternative candidate, America faces the prospect of not only a surprise Donald Trump victory, but the election of someone whose identity they may not even know yet.

Vice-President Joe Biden  a sprightly 73  leads a field of candidates to step into the Democrat breach that would surely make a mockery of the months of hard-fought electioneering.

Even Democrats fear Mrs Clinton may be doomed, not just because longstanding claims about her ill-health  smugly dismissed by her supporters and mainstream media as Right-wing conspiracy theory  suddenly seem to be well founded. But also because, once again, Mrs Clinton has proved to have been supremely untrustworthy and shifty, ready to obfuscate even about the state of her health.

Clinton emerged from her daughter Chelsea's apartment after she was rushed from the 9/11 memorial service because of a 'medical episode'

Her doctor eventually said she was suffering from pneumonia  for which she had been diagnosed two days earlier  and had been dehydrated. However, that was after the Clinton camp initially claimed she was simply overheated  although at 82F (28C), it certainly hadnt been hot by New York standards  and kept the media waiting several hours for answers.

After collapsing, Mrs Clinton was taken to the Manhattan flat of her daughter, Chelsea, and reappeared 90 minutes later, waving to onlookers and smiling for photographs with a girl on the pavement.

Pneumonia can be contagious  passed on by sneezing or coughing  so one hopes Mrs Clinton had the non-contagious variety before she roped in the small child for the cynical photo opportunity.

The famous Clinton secretiveness made itself felt again as the official press corps car that always follows her in public was unexpectedly barred from following the motorcade.

Her spokesmen said Mrs Clinton had returned home to Chappaqua, outside New York, where she was examined by her doctor, Lisa Bardack.

Dr Bardack later said Mrs Clinton was rehydrated and recovering nicely, adding that she had been experiencing an allergies-related cough. This appeared to be a belated explanation of a coughing fit that interrupted Mrs Clintons speech in Cleveland, Ohio, a week ago.

Clinton was seen smiling and posing with a young girl at a nearby restaurant after emerging from her daughter's apartment

Far from resting after her pneumonia diagnosis, the workaholic Mrs Clinton appeared at two fundraisers, ran a national security meeting and held a press conference.

What her doctor insists is her nice recovery has not, however, been swift enough to allow her to travel to California yesterday for an important two-day campaign fundraising trip. Whether she will have to cancel further election events remains to be seen.

Mrs Clintons health scare couldnt have come at a worse time as she has lost her lead over Mr Trump in the polls. She has been particularly bruised by an unwise comment she made at an election event in New York on Friday in which she damned half of Trumps supporters as a basket of deplorables who were irredeemable.

The airwaves of liberal radio station phone-ins were chock-a-block yesterday with pro-Democrat-sounding doctors saying that after a day or two on antibiotics and a rest from her unrelenting schedule of 18-hour working days, Mrs C would be fine.

Pneumonia may kill 50,000 people a year in the US but it really isnt anything to worry about, they stressed, in a woman of Mrs Clintons age who is otherwise healthy.

Now determined to prove she is otherwise healthy, the Clinton campaign promised yesterday to release more information from her medical records this week. The same sudden transparency goes for Mr Trump, who at 70 is two years older than Mrs Clinton, and has a penchant for fast food. Keen to accentuate his opponents health woes, the Manhattan property tycoon vowed yesterday to release very, very specific results of a recent physical examination he took by the end of this week.

Nick Merrill, her traveling press secretary, said Clinton 'overheated' during the ceremony, but quickly recovered when she returned to her daughter's apartment

Republican presidential contender Donald Trump wished his rival well and said 'I hope she gets well soon'

I hope she gets well soon, the Republican presidential contender said yesterday. I really dont know whats going on. Like you, I say what I see. He acknowledged that her coughing fit a week ago was pneumonia also, so somethings going on. He added: I hope she gets well and gets back on the trail and well be seeing her at the debate.

Mr Trumps crocodile tears for Mrs Clintons health problems will fool no-one, although hes surely not lying in saying hes looking forward to their televised debates now he has another issue on which to bash her.

Mrs Clinton first set off health warning bells in December 2012 when, after cancelling a trip as Secretary of State because of a reported stomach virus, she became very dehydrated and fainted at home. Falling, she suffered a serious concussion.

She was admitted to hospital for several weeks and doctors later discovered a blood clot had developed behind her right ear.

Her aides played down her injuries, denying she had suffered a stroke or brain damage  as some conservatives claimed  and her doctor has said that tests show a complete resolution of the effects of the concussion.

She returned to work running Americas foreign policy less than a month after the accident. However, Bill Clinton later revealed that his wifes injury was far more serious than her aides alleged and required six months of very serious work to get over.

Pictured, Clinton is forced to sip from a glass of water during a coughing fit while giving a speech in January, and right, she stumbled during a visit to a home for ex-offenders in February

Pictured: Clinton is forced to pause during a speech on September 5 (left) and then suffers a coughing fit the following day (right)

Claims have persisted  fanned by conservative websites  that Mrs Clinton is suffering from post-concussion syndrome, possibly severely damaging her cognitive abilities. In January, police insiders responsible for Mrs Clintons protection reportedly insisted she was still suffering the lingering effects of the concussion. They alleged she sometimes had trouble walking to the car after delivering a speech, and would have to sit and rest after events because she was so fatigued, dizzy and disoriented.

One anonymous security official described her as very pale, almost sweaty and looking like she was about to faint.

In February, a photo of Mrs Clintons visit to a halfway house in South Carolina showed her being helped up some stairs.

Predictably, Mr Trump has exploited the claims and repeatedly questioned whether his opponent has the strength and stamina to be leader of the Free World. After a ten-minute, staged and rehearsed media appearance, she goes away for five or six days... to sleep, he has said.

Such a claim would have sounded far-fetched just a week ago, but having witnessed Mrs Clintons spectacular New York collapse, voters might justifiably wonder if nothing is out of the question with a politician who even camouflages the fact she has a bout of pneumonia.

Leaving aside the issue of her trustworthiness, some question whether it matters if prospective presidents are fighting fit. Nowadays, they tend to be in the minority.

A sympathetic media has colluded in hiding presidential ill-health from voters who might be unnecessarily alarmed. The press agreed not to publish photos of Franklyn D Roosevelt  crippled by polio  being hoisted out of a wheelchair and carried around like a baby by his bodyguards.

Anxiety over electing a president who isnt mentally or physically up to the job has grown since the presidency of Ronald Reagan

His adoring public never knew the supposedly young and vibrant John F Kennedy was actually a walking pharmacy because of the battery of steroids and other drugs he took daily for various ailments. Only after he was elected  at 43, the youngest president ever  did it emerge JFK suffered from Addisons disease, a rare autoimmune condition whose symptoms included fatigue, dizziness, and mood and personality swings.

However, anxiety over electing a president who isnt mentally or physically up to the job has grown since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose mental degeneration leading to Alzheimers is believed by some to have started while he was still in charge at the White House.

At 69, Mr Reagan was the oldest president in US history but  unlike Mrs Clinton  it was only after hed been in office three years that health fears surfaced.

The Clinton campaign is having nothing of speculation that she might pull out of the election, saying she will be back on the warpath this week. If she manages to get back on her feet within a couple of days, the health fears may be put to rest. But the possibly more serious issue of trust will remain and could yet be the one that propels Donald Trump to the White House.

Many Democrats cannot hide their anger. After controversies over her emails and favours done to donors to the familys charitable foundation, they ask whether Mrs Clinton couldnt at least show a little transparency over a bout of pneumonia  if that really is all it is.

The obvious candidates to replace Clinton include her running mate and Virgina Senator Tim Kaine, 58

If her health problems are more serious, who could replace her at the 11th hour?

The obvious candidates are Mr Biden and Mrs Clintons running mate, Tim Kaine. At just 58, Mr Kaine, the Virginia senator, would be the spring chicken contender. Bernie Sanders, 75, the socialist who challenged Mrs Clinton for the Democratic nomination, would replace her only in the dreams of his wide-eyed, idealistic young supporters.

Many conservatives would love nothing better than to see Mrs Clinton  after all these decades of Machiavellian Washington manoeuvering  defeated now and not even have the satisfaction of fighting a general election.

However, its easy to see how a Clinton fall in the final furlong could just as easily spell disaster for the Republicans. Pundits love to say that the two are both so hugely unpopular that any other candidate but Trump and Clinton would sweep home to victory.
Hillary Clinton's medical history  and her tendency to keep personal and medical information far from view  is coming in for new scrutiny following revelations that the candidate got diagnosed with pneumonia Friday in advance of her stumble in New York.

Clinton's stumble, caught on camera Sunday after she had to leave Sept. 11th anniversary memorial services after about an hour and a half, was the latest in a line of health spats that have made it into the news during her career.

'Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia. What's the cure for an unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?' asked President Obama's former message guru David Axelrod in a tweet Monday  a message promptly retweeted by Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway.

Below is a compilation of Clinton's ailments and health incidents that have entered the public record:

Clinton's medical history  and her tendency to keep personal and medical information far from view  is coming in for new scrutiny following revelations that the candidate got diagnosed with pneumonia Friday

Hillary's dramatic collapse in New York on Sunday is prompting new examination of her health  as well as how her aides have closely guarded information

1998 Blood Clot

Clinton's first known blood clot occurred in 1998, while she was still first lady.

Clinton experienced symptoms while attending a fundraiser for Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, who would soon become her Senate home-state colleague. Her right foot swelled up to the point where she couldn't put on her shoe.

Clinton got quietly taken to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda for treatment at the time. She was found to have 'a big clot' blood clot behind her knee, Clinton wrote in her memoir, 'Living History.'

She called it 'the most significant health scare I've ever had,' the Washington Post noted.

According to her physician, Mt. Kisco physician, Lisa Bardack, Clinton was advised at the time to take Lovenox, described as a short-acting blood thinner, when she took flights. The meds were discontinued when she went on Coumadin.

2009 Blood Clot

Clinton had a second blood clot incident in 2009. The episode was described by her doctor in a 2015 letter.

The doctor didn't provide a detailed description of the event. Rather, she wrote that Clinton's 'past medical history is notable for a deep vein thrombosis in 1998, 2009 and a concussion in 2012.

Clinton takes a daily blood thinning medication for her deep vein thrombosis.

Clinton, a frequent flier whose staff catalogued her pursuit of the overall mileage record as secretary of state, may have exacerbated the problem through her extensive air travel.

Frequent jet travel can exacerbate blood clots, which is why some people make sure to walk around the cabin on long flights

2009 Elbow Fracture

Clinton had to work from home for a while after she fractured her elbow during a fall in 2009, CNN recounted. She fell at the State Department on the way to the White House, and went to George Washington University hospital for treatment.

She underwent a two-hour surgical procedure.

'She is working from home. She is already taking some calls, and I'm sure starting to learn the limits of movement - how well you can text with one arm in a sling,' quipped then spokesman P.J. Crowley at the time, in an early reference to Clinton's communications habits.

Clinton was pictured wearing a sling emblazoned with the seal of the State Department when she returned to work. She also was photographed providing left-handed hand shake with a visiting Palestinian dignitary owing to her condition. She has showed no visible signs of lingering problems related to the injury.

HARD KNOCKS: Clinton got a fractured elbow in 2009, but still managed to negotiate with Hondouran leaders, and, according to her spokesman, text with one hand

2012 Blood Clot and Concussion

Clinton got a bad stomach bug and fainted at her home in Washington in 2012, an event that led her to get a concussion. Information about what exactly had happened emerged only slowly over time.

As her doctor put it, 'In December 2012, Mrs. Clinton suffered a stomach virus after traveling, became dehydrated, fainted and sustained a concussion.'

The then-secretary of state wasn't seen in public between Dec. 7th and when she left the hospital in New York January 2, 2013.

Clinton experienced 'double vision for a period of time and benefited from wearing glasses with a Fresnel Prism,' a special corrective lens, her doctor wrote in a letter voluntarily released to the media in 2015 as part of Clinton's presidential campaign. Her concussion 'resolved within two months,' Bardack wrote.

In 2014, Bill Clinton revealed that the injury 'required six months of very serious work to get over.' The former president called it a 'terrible concussion'

Clinton was diagnosed with a blood clot in the brain, transverse sinus venous thrombosis, and began anticoagulation therapy, her doctor wrote.

Clinton had to work from home and postpone planned testimony before a House Benghazi committee.

Clinton leaves New York Presbyterian Hospital with husband Bill and daughter Chelsea on January 2, 2013. The secretary of state, had not been seen in public since Dec. 7

Hypothyroidism

Clinton also suffers from Hypothyroidismrefers to an under-active thyroid gland, resulting in a lack of important hormones.

Clinton's doctor identified the condition in her 2015 letter, but did not state for how long Clinton has suffered from the condition. She takes a medication called Armour Thyroid.

Allergies

Clinton suffers from 'seasonal allergies,' according to her physician. It isn't known for how long she has suffered from allergies, although Clinton herself has cited her allergies when she has developed a cough  including on-stage during public events.

Her doctor states that Clinton is taking antihistamines, which treat the effects of allergies.

2016 Collapse and Pneumonia Diagnosis

Clinton had to leave a Sept. 11th service in New York early after spending 90 minutes at the ceremony. Her staff first cited heat and exhaustion, then ultimately revealed that Clinton had been diagnosed in pneumonia on Friday.

Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon did not reveal what type of pneumonia Clinton has during a Monday interview on MSNBC, but said Clinton would be putting out more medical information.

'She was put on antibiotics and advised to rest and modify her schedule,' said Bardack in a statement released at the end of the day. While attending the event, 'she became overheated and dehydrated. I have just examined her and she is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely.'

Hours after Clinton was taken away from the Sept. 11th ceremony, her office released a doctor's statement. 'Secretary Clinton has been experiencing a cough related to allergies. On Friday, during follow-up evaluation of her prolonged cough, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. She was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule. While at this morning's event, she became overheated and dehydrated. I have just examined her and she is now rehydrated and recovering nicely,' Clinton's doctor, Lisa Bardack, said in a written statement Sunday.'

'There's no other undisclosed condition. The pneumonia is the extent of it,' Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon told MSNBC.

Fallon also acknowledged: 'I think in retrospect we could have handled it better in terms of providing more information more quickly.'

Campaign manager Robby Mook, speaking of the 90 minute delay before the press was told Clinton's status after she left the New York event, said Monday: 'We wish that that had been a lot shorter and that's on us.'

Clinton herself tweeted Monday: 'Thanks to everyone whos reached out with well wishes! Im feeling fine and getting better,' signing the missive with the letter 'H.'

Clinton had to shake with her left hand following her 2009 injury. She is pictured here with Palestinian Authority Salam Fayyad

Clinton campaigned in New York in June along with aide Huma Abedin. She was diagnosed with pneumonia Friday, according to her office

Clinton is 68 and would be 69 when she assumed office, second to Ronald Reagan in age taking office. Donald Trump is 70, and has released few details about his medical background.

'She participates in a healthy lifestyle and has had a full medical evaluation, which reveals no evidence of additional medical issues or cardiovascular disease. Her cancer screening evaluations are all negative. She is in excellent physical condition and fit to serve as President of the United States,' her doctor wrote.

The letter released by Clinton's physician details her 2012 concussion and double vision
A gang of youths are terrorising a neighbourhood by drowning rabbits in oil, throwing bricks through windows and stripping one man in the street.

Children aged as young as 14 have been involved in the attacks in Clayton, Manchester, which began in April.

Residents are now begging for help as the gang of up to 40 teenagers continue to terrorise the community, despite more than 50 complaints to police.

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A gang of youths are terrorising a neighbourhood by drowning rabbits in oil, throwing bricks through windows and attacking one man in the street

Children aged as young as 14 have been involved in the attacks in Clayton, Manchester, which began in April

They say the abusive behaviour, which is often fuelled by alcohol, has included the killing of rabbits, fireworks being hurled at cats, and goslings being bricked to death.

Those living in the area say the youths, believed to be from outside the area, are also drinking alcohol on the street, shouting and swearing until 3am, and puncturing tyres.

Newsagent Khawaja Ahmad says the children have been fighting each other in his shop. CCTV footage shows the children trying to sneak into the back of his shop.

He said: 'It's terrible, they fight in our shop, they smash our windows, they try to break in all the time.

'It's taking over my life, every day. I fear to go on holiday because I know that something will happen, I feel like I have to be here all the time. I'm losing business and I have no life.'

Those living in the area say the youths, believed to be from outside the area, are also shouting and swearing, drinking on the street, and fighting each other

Sande Saghabas, 56, said all the residents are living constantly on edge.

She said the gang were armed with a machete on Friday and chasing people down the street.

The retired store detective, who has had six tyre punctures in one month, has called the police 40 times since April.

She said: 'We can't put up with this any more. I understand these youths have nothing much to do but it doesn't condone that local residents are living on pins.

'They drink openly in our street in the daytime. They think they own Clayton. We have to lock all our windows and doors in the heat of summer.'

Residents are now begging for help as the gang of up to 40 teenagers continue to terrorise the community, despite more than 50 complaints to police

She said the gang had chased a man down the street, taking his jacket and shoes before pushing him to the floor.

Ms Saghabas said they have also set fire to the mats at the Chinese takeaway

She said: 'I complained to the police, we all have, they sent two special constables who didn't know the area - but nothing has been done. They say they can't prove who it is.

'We are living on our nerves - it won't be long before someone is seriously hurt.

'We can't just sit back and let his happen. We fret for our animals - we are scared for our children and grandchildren.'

The youths have also thrown bricks through windows and punctured car tyres

Pauline Garfield, 73, says the youths are panicking her severely ill husband.

She said: 'They shout at us, call us all kinds of names then run. It panics my husband, he can't relax.

'They are intimidating people. I've never seen anything like this in my life. We need help - it needs to stop.'

Fazal Khan, who works at the Pizza Factory takeaway, said: 'They are harassing elderly people, they throw eggs at our shop, they drink alcohol in the road, every day all day.

'They have smashed our window.'

One resident said the gang had chased a man down the street, taking his jacket and shoes before pushing him to the floor

Fabien Gordon, a manager at Yo Thai, said they have complained to the police 'at least 10 times'.

He added: 'They open the doors of our delivery drivers while they are moving, they play loud music. On Saturdays there can be over 30 of them.

'It's badly affecting our lives.'

MP Lucy Powell said: 'This sort of behaviour is an absolute blight on the community. It's totally unacceptable and I have got in touch with the chief constable of GMP so that we can get a quick crackdown and will also raise with the council to see what more can be done.

One woman reported having six tyre punctures in one month. Pictured is a nail put through a car tyre

'A message to these young people - you'll get caught and you will pay the price so stop doing it.'

A Manchester City Council spokesman said: 'Anti-social behaviour can make residents' lives a misery and we work closely with the police to investigate complaints and resolve them whenever possible.

'We would ask anyone who witnesses or is suffering from anti-social behaviour to contact us so we can take action.'

'Officers from North Manchester and Tameside are currently in a joint operation to deal with the ongoing issues.

'More officers are now in the area on patrol and we are working with the local councils and our transport colleagues to ensure the safety of the people who live in the area and to manage the problems on the streets.
Speculation he will follow example of Blair, who made 100m since 2007

David Cameron is now set to reap millions of pounds outside politics despite never having had a real job.

He is poised to follow the lead of Tony Blair who has made an estimated 100million since leaving Downing Street in 2007.

At 49, Mr Cameron is five years younger than Mr Blair was when he quit as an MP.

Last show: Mr Cameron carries his own bag last week for his final appearance at the Commons as a humble MP

Friends say he intends to start by writing his memoirs  which could attract an advance higher than the 4.6million paid to Mr Blair for his autobiography, A Journey, published in 2010. The former Labour PM donated the advance and all royalties to the Royal British Legion. Friends say Mr Cameron will quickly join the elite speaking circuit where Mr Blair made up to 250,000 a time giving talks.

Mr Cameron yesterday hinted he will seek a big job in public life  with an announcement due within weeks.

He said: Ill want to continue campaigning on a local, national and international level issues that were part of my prime ministership where I think we made some good progress.

This triggered speculation he was looking to run an international organisation dealing with issues such as aid.

Outside politics, the former Tory PM has never had a conventional job, aside from a three-year stint in PR at television company Carlton Communications.

Final farewell: David Cameron leaving Downing Street with his wife Samantha and children Alwin, Nancy and Florence, after he resigned as Prime Minister in June

His life has been consumed by politics and even after losing the Brexit vote, he dismissed an interviewers suggestion he could do a Blair and make some money. He insisted on July 8: Its my intention to continue serving as an MP and helping represent the interests of the people of West Oxfordshire and anything else I do will come a bit later.

But the lure of earning millions, it seems, has proved a stronger draw. Mr Cameron is likely to take it slowly, having witnessed the public criticism directed at Mr Blair.

Smooth talker: Tony Blair is believed to have made 100million since he left office in 2007, earning up to 250,000 a time giving talks

But his wide network of contacts, experience on the world stage and relative youth mean he will surely not hold back for long. One of his former ministers told the Mail last night: Of course he will get rich  or richer, as he is already independently wealthy. Hell write his memoirs, and this will put his currency up.

He can make a fortune on the speaking circuit, especially in America where they are puzzled by Brexit and will warm to him, as he is very personable. He will also probably collect a handful of directorships worth 50,000 to 100,000 each, and he could start building up a property portfolio like the Blairs.

The Blairs own 38 homes worth around 32million, with Cherie Blair and eldest son Euan presiding over an ever-expanding buy-to-let empire.

Mr Camerons friends insisted he would not follow Mr Blairs lead. One said: Dont expect to see him popping up on the board at Morgan Stanley.

Another said last night: He is going to stay away from the banks  but hes also going to have a life. Hell set out his plans soon enough.

FROM ELECTION HERO TO OBLIVION IN JUST 16 MONTHS May 7, 2015: Cameron becomes the first Tory leader since 1992 to win a Commons majority. May 27: The centrepiece of the Queens Speech is legislation to hold the historic referendum on EU membership. July 8: Camerons government pulls off a political coup after George Osborne announces plans for a national living wage. Sept 13: His political future seems assured after Labour elects Jeremy Corbyn as leader and its poll ratings start to fall. Sept 26: Cameron faces embarrassing allegations in a political biography that he once inserted a part of his anatomy into a dead pig. Nov 10: Cameron fires the starting gun on renegotiation with Brussels. Feb 19: Cameron gets an EU renegotiation deal  but it is derided by critics. Feb 20: He sets the date of the referendum: June 23 Feb 21: London mayor Boris Johnson announces that he will join Michael Gove in backing Leave. London mayor Boris Johnson announces that he will join Michael Gove in backing Leave. Mar 19: Iain Duncan Smith, then work and pensions secretary, quits over benefit cuts and attacks Osborne. April 7: Following days of evasion after his father was named in the Panama Papers, Cameron admits he profited from an offshore trust he set up. April 11: He is accused of an affront to democracy after an official government document, costing 9.3million, was sent to every household outlining the case for Remain. April 15: Official campaign begins with Johnson touring the country in a red bus whose slogan promises to spend EU money on the NHS. May 5: A boost for Cameron after Labour has a disastrous night in local elections. May 13: He is accused by Eurosceptics of being frit for ducking a TV debate with Johnson. June 19: A BBC audience mocks Cameron over his failure to curb immigration from the EU. June 23: EU vote results in a shock defeat for Remain. June 24: Cameron resigns, saying: The will of the British people is an instruction that must be delivered. June 30: Johnson steps down from the leadership contest after being stabbed in the back by Gove. July 13: Theresa May enters Downing Street and sacks Osborne. Johnson becomes new Foreign Secretary. Aug 4: Camerons widely-criticised honours list is published, handing out peerages, knighthoods and CBEs to donors and ex-staff. Sep 9: In a major speech, Mrs May signals a return to school selection in England  a decade after Cameron said the Tories would not support such a move. Sep 12: He resigns as MP for Witney in Oxfordshire sparking a by-election. Advertisement

After reneging on his pledge to serve his constituents yesterday, Mr Cameron is now freed from the burden of having to declare his earnings and donations.

His recent declarations to the Commons register of members interests include a 500 hamper from Fortnum & Mason and fitness sessions with a personal trainer.

The Camerons are currently staying in a 4million house in Chelsea belonging to financier and old friend Dominic Johnson, a freebie worth 2,650 a week. They plan to stay until the end of October, when the tenants at their family home in Notting Hill move out.

They have been pocketing up to 7,000 a month from the lodgers, but are keen to regain the 2million Edwardian four-bedroom home. It has great sentimental value to them, because it was where they were living with their eldest son Ivan, who died suddenly in 2009 aged six.

The family also own a 1.3million stone cottage in Oxfordshire, near Chipping Norton.

Mr Camerons predecessor, Gordon Brown, has taken unpaid roles at the World Economic Forum and as a UN special envoy on global education, plus a paid role that helps fund his charitable foundation.

SamCam plans a lucrative career in fashion after Dave's shock exit from politics

Style icon: SamCam could set up her own fashion label after she was named the world's best-dressed woman

Ever the stylish first lady of British politics, Samantha Cameron is now expected to launch a lucrative career as a fashion designer.

As well as her own label, SamCam could also return as an adviser to the luxury stationers Smythson.

With Mr Camerons political life over, she can devote herself to rekindling her well-paid retail career.

She is said to be planning a clothing line with former aide and stylist Isabel Spearman, who received an OBE in Mr Camerons resignation honours list.

There is also talk of her resuming her career with Smythson, where she worked her way up to become the firms creative director and build a 2.7 per cent stake in the firm before the couple entered Downing Street.

When it was bought out for 15.8million in 2005, she received 437,000 for her shares, and received a second payout in 2009, estimated to be 40,000.

Her salary as creative director was said to be 400,000 in 2010, but when her husband became PM that year, she opted to go part time as creative consultant on a reported 100,000 a year.

Smythsons own tax arrangements have come under scrutiny, with the Mail revealing it was owned by Greenwill SA, a secretive Luxembourg firm that was itself was controlled by the Barracuda Trust in Guernsey.

SamCam, 45, is a Marlborough College schoolfriend of Mr Camerons sister Clare, and she met the man who would become her husband at a party at the Camerons house when she was 16.

If anything, as the elder daughter of Sir Reginald Sheffield she may be wealthier than her husband. Mr Cameron once joked: Samantha owns a field in Scunthorpe.

But in fact her father owns property and land estimated at more than 20million, has more than 3,000 acres of arable land, the Grade I-listed stately home Sutton Park, an 18th-century Georgian house north of York, a home in London and a hall near Scunthorpe.

Mrs Camerons career took a back seat while her husband pursued his political dreams, but friends say she has been itching to get back to work, especially now that their youngest daughter, Florence, six, is of school age.

SamCam was named the best-dressed woman in the world by Vanity Fair magazine last year. Her first collection could be out as early as next year.

Her husbands decision to quit politics also means the family will no longer feel the need to justify expensive holidays. This summer, they have holidayed in Ibiza, Portugal, Polzeath in Cornwall and the Scottish island of Jura.
The plan was clear enough in David Camerons mind. He would stand down as an MP  and Prime Minister  in 2018.

Not only would he leave Downing Street with his reputation intact, he would buck the political trend by quitting (a little earlier than he had promised) but still as a winner, not a loser.

Or so he believed when he was chatting to friends at a fireside supper at Chequers earlier this year  long before the Brexit vote that detonated his career  where guests included a British writer recently returned from a stint in New York.

Pictured: David Cameron waves to photographers as he leaves Downing Street with his family after resigning as Prime Minister in July

Camerons wife Samantha was grilling the writers companion about life in Manhattan and where the best districts were to live. The message from that evening was that after years of putting himself first, when the time arrived for him to leave power the Prime Minister was going to let Sam call the shots, says a friend.

The idea seemed to be that when that time finally came in 2018, Cameron would exit Downing Street in a blaze of glory, leaving the path clear for his Tory successor to fight the 2020 election.

Only then would he concentrate on his memoirs while his wife, free from the scrutiny that had accompanied her throughout his years in office, could fulfil her dream of setting up her own fashion label.

And yes, that might mean basing themselves for a stint in the US. How different and how unedifying the reality!

Only a few months after that cosy supper, and less than nine weeks after leaving No 10, Cameron yesterday completed his flight from public office by abruptly quitting politics altogether.

Political allies were quick to defend him, insisting that he was left with little choice. By remaining, he risked being accused either of becoming a backseat driver, or doing too little. Thus, they argued, he was doing the decent thing.

But after extensive inquiries among Camerons closest cronies and friends, another story has emerged: They suggest that the former prime minister has been crushed by the loss of power, and has simply not come to terms with his dramatic reversal of fortune.

One close friend who has known Cameron for years says: I had the strong impression before the EU vote, which he was convinced he would win, that he would go much sooner than people thought, mainly for Sams sake.

David Cameron waves as he leaves Number 10 after resigning as Prime Minister after losing the EU Referendum

Hubristically, he wanted to be able to say he had walked away after winning three referendums (Brexit, Scottish independence and the AV vote) and two general elections, while setting things up for George Osborne as his preferred successor. So he wanted to go unexpectedly like Harold Wilson did, with people wanting more, while at the same time tearing up the rule book that says all political careers end in failure.

This was the patrician Cameron, educated at Eton and Oxford, to whom everything had come so easily. Yet Brexit changed everything utterly. Quitting now as MP is like the little boy who says, If I cant be captain I am taking the ball home, says the friend. It is going to strike many as an act of selfishness.

Pictures of a haunted-looking Cameron on holiday in Cornwall last month suggested a man shattered by the turn of events. They showed him sitting alongside two women whose faces displayed indifference at the barefoot man distractedly eating chips between them. Some even wondered if he was broken.

Other pictures of him paddling in the sea over the summer showed he had begun to put on weight.

Shock at the loss of the EU referendum in June, followed by being swiftly turfed out of Downing Street along with his family when the Tories decided on a coronation not an election for a successor, is said by friends to have hit him hard.

David Cameron cut a forlorn figure as he enjoyed fish and chips on a summer holiday in August

Cameron, pictured, with his wife Samantha, appeared as if he had put on some weight when he was paddling in the sea on trip to Corsica with his family

The transition from all-powerful PM to lowly MP has not gone well, says one. He enjoyed the trappings of power, the chauffeur-driven cars, the staff and the country retreat at Chequers. Its all very corrupting.

In fact, it has already caused a grave social complication. For Cameron had expected to spend the summer drawing up the guest list for his 50th birthday party next month. This is not as straightforward as it would once have been. For he has purged from the list those former close friends who backed Leave, and whom he blames for destroying his premiership.

Anyone who backed Michael Gove for leader in July has been removed, I am told. That includes people who were once key members of the Notting Hill set who helped get Dave the leadership himself in 2005. Indeed, he has been taking particular pleasure in ridiculing those people who backed Michael for running what he calls the worst leadership campaign ever!

The birthday party would have been at Chequers, where Cameron would have been host. Instead he is having to rely on the generosity of friends to step in.

We understand that multi- millionaire Midlands property developer Tony Gallagher, who lives in Camerons Witney constituency, has stepped in and offered to hold the bash.

David Cameron was spotted on the school run this morning a day after bringing his political career to an abrupt halt

(Brexit has poisoned more than just Camerons personal relationships  it has affected his wider social set, too. One London hostess had to scrap plans to invite a woman friend to a tea party because she was married to a prominent Leave supporter, and Samantha Cameron was due to attend.)

Even when Cameron made a rare appearance in the House of Commons last week, carrying his own bag, he looked out of sorts.

It hasnt helped that his family have been unable to settle domestically since leaving Downing Street.

For their first five days, he and Sam and their three children lodged in PR guru Sir Alan Parkers 17million Holland Park mansion. Since July 18, they have had the use of a 4million Chelsea townhouse owned by Old Etonian investment tycoon Dominic Johnson, a business partner of Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg.

They are staying there rent-free until the end of October, by which time they will either move back into their pre-Downing Street home in north Kensington, which has been rented out at 72,000 a year, or find a new house of their own to buy.

Happily, Cameron also has his 1.3million Oxfordshire constituency home, which he is now planning to do up.

Of course all these property plans will need money. Certainly there is no reason why a former prime minister shouldnt profit from his experience and knowledge.

However, I understand that Cameron has been disappointed that offers to join the boards of banks and other blue-chip firms have not come flooding in.

George Osborne has frankly had more offers, says an insider. But the former chancellor wants to remain in frontline politics. David Cameron does not.

There is still time. Tony Blair, that most avaricious of former premiers, acquired the first of his lucrative deals some six months after exiting No 10, when he joined bankers JP Morgan on 500,000 to provide strategic advice.

Prime-ministerial memoirs have become a lucrative way of filling the post-Downing Street years, of course, and Cameron is already understood to have secured a deal with the publisher Harper- Collins. Even if he only receives half of Blairs reputed 4.6million advance, he will have done well. His friend, the Times columnist Lord (Danny) Finkelstein, has been offering help in writing the book.

I get the impression he wants to write a version of events of his 11 years as leader of the Conservatives, as well as of his time as PM that allows him to sleep well at night, says one who knows Cameron well.

One figure in Cameron's cross-hairs is his former policy chief Steve Hilton, who came out for Brexit - a move that made him an enemy of the former PM

He will spend a year doing it but, yes, there will be some settling of scores.

One figure in his cross-hairs is his former policy chief Steve Hilton. A one-time close friend who was at the heart of the Cameron project, Hilton came out for Brexit, and that has made him an enemy.

Hes baffled by Steves behaviour and he is tempted to punish him by writing Hilton out of the book altogether, says a Tory MP.

He is, however, loyal to other old friends, among them the childrens author Giles Andreae, with whom he holidayed in Cornwall recently, and comedian Harry Enfield and his designer wife Lucy.

She received priceless free publicity when Samantha dressed her daughters in Lucys clothes for the choreographed departure from Downing Street in July.

As well as writing his book, Cameron has also been approached by the specialist Washington Speakers Bureau to join their roster of international statesmen.

But will all this be enough for a proud  some even say arrogant  man whose long-term political legacy will be failing to secure a Remain vote, and leaving a toxic honours list that rewarded cronies and friends?

David Cameron is still said to be completely stunned by the way the country voted during the EU referendum

He is still completely stunned that the country voted the way it did on June 23, but he is outraged by the way  as he sees it  Theresa May is undoing his achievements, says a Tory friend. He was furious at her sacking of George Osborne, and he knew she didnt like Eton boys.

But he thinks the grammar schools decision is a complete disaster. He saw grammars as Eton writ small, and that stopping them helped ordinary people. Now, she is doing the opposite.

There is one other thing on David Camerons to-do list.

Nothing enraged him more as prime minister than what he saw as personal attacks on the integrity of his late father Ian, after he was named in the leaked Panama Papers over an offshore fund.

His father was a very straight, upright Home Counties type and he was really very upset by suggestions that damaged his reputation, says a friend. He sees restoring it as unfinished family business. If there was to be a clean-up of the City over all the claims of money laundering, he would like a role in that.
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Donald Trump made trades for investment banking and brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald on their charity day to honor the company's 658 employees who died on September 11.

The annual event on Monday also drew big names such as Princess Beatrice and her mother Sarah Ferguson, along with Pamela Anderson, Steve Buscemi, Peyton Manning and Tony Danza.

The celebrities took to the company phones, posing for photos while striking up deals alongside employees, who donate their day's salary, along with any commission.

Cantor Fitzgerald, which raised $12million on last year's charity day, will donate 100per cent of the company's global revenues on Monday to support more than 100 charities.

Donald Trump made trades for investment banking and brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald on their charity day to honor the company's 658 employees who died on September 11

Donald Trump appeared at Ground Zero on Sunday to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. On Monday, he posed with Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick (second from left) at their Charity Day event

Princess Beatrice (left, with her mother Sarah Ferguson, right) mingled with Trump's daughter Ivanka the night before at the Arthur Ashe stadium as Swiss player Stan Wawrinka beat world number one Novak Djokovic in the US Open men's final

Celebrities posed for photographs and took to their phones to strike up deals, raising money for more than 100 charities. Pictured left, Beatrice in a flared miniskirt and burgundy heels, and right, Fergie in a light blue jacket with piped detailing

Actor Robert De Niro, a longtime New Yorker, is on the board of directors at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum

Pamela Anderson (pictured shaking hands with Lutnick) heads her own foundation, one of the organizations supported by Charity Day. Proceeds on Monday will go to the National Domestic Violence Hotline

Anderson appeared at the event in a metallic, flower print dress with a demure bow at the neckline. 100 per cent of the company's global revenue on Monday will be donated

Cantor Fitzgerald had 960 employees in New York City when hijacked commercial airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center on the fateful morning of September 11, 2001.

The company was devastated, losing 658 employees in the terrorist attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives.

CEO Howard Lutnick was dropping off his son at school when the first plane hit, but his brother Gary died in the offices.

Their sister Edie also worked on the 101st floor of the twin towers, but escaped death when a meeting was canceled.

'I got a phone call from Gary saying that he was in the building and saying that he loved Howard and I and saying goodbye,' she told Town and Country.

Just three days after 9/11, Edie and Howard, who helped family members of employees track down their loved ones, established the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund.

Fifteen years later, Charity Day has raised more than $125million in an effort to 'turn a tragic day into one that is positive and uplifting by helping others,' the event website states.

Lutnick promised to give loved ones of the Cantor Fitzgerald victims 25 perc ent of the firm's profits for five years, with guarantees of at least $100,000 for each family. Pictured, Gayle King at Charity DAy

Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund's mission is 'to support victims of terrorism, emergencies and natural disasters' (pictured, Zachary Quinto)

The fund has also helped victims of natural disasters like Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Katrina and the Haiti earthquake. Both Malin Akerman (left) and Mary-Louise Parker (right) kept to monochrome outfits

Actor Steve Buscemi (pictured) once worked as a firefighter in New York City, and after 9/11, he worked 12-hour shifts looking to rescue people from the rubble

The company raised $12million last year, and employees also donate their day's salary, along with any commission. Pictured, Mad Men actor John Slattery (left) and actress Rosie Perez (right)

Brendan Fraser (left) and Kyle MacLachlan (right) both looked dapper at the event. The relief fund helped family members of Cantor Fitzgerald employees who died on 9/11, in addition to the loved ones of victims from 14 other companies

Cantor Fitzgerald lost 658 employees when hijacked commercial airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center on the fateful morning of September 11, 2001. Pictured, comedian Louis CK

CEO Howard Lutnick was dropping off his son at school when the first plane hit, but his brother Gary died in the offices. Howard and his sister Edie established the fund three days after 9/11. Pictured, model Lily Aldridge

Actress Bridget Moynahan (left) and Tony Danza (right) were also in attendance. Danza recalled his shock on the morning on 9/11, and said he was struck by the debris and the smell that hung in the air when he visited the city days after the attack

Peyton Manning (left, posing with a fan), made it a family affair with brother Eli Manning (right), a quarterback for the New York Giants

Lutnick told his sister Edie (left with NFL player Terrell Owens) to run the relief fund. She said: 'I started thinking about all the people that I felt were more qualified to do this than I was and I realized that they were all gone. So I said: "Okay."'
The library often is a place where readers gather, students study and imaginations run wild. For generations, such a place has been a haven for students and an escape for readers, a place to indulge in a world of knowledge or adventure. With a lively place for kids to let their creativity run wild and a quiet place for adults to focus, the library is now reaching the often overlooked generation of teenagers.

Weve been thinking about doing something based on where our current teen area is for the last few years. We got serious about it when we started working on our strategic plan that needed to be updated, library director Christine Kujawa said. As part of that process, we conducted a teen survey.

The survey went out to the students of Bismarck middle and high schools during the fall of 2014 and the winter of 2015. It included questions that would give the library board insight on what kind of programs, technology, furniture and materials the teenagers wanted.

We received over 600 responses, Kujawa said. The decisions that we made to formulate our plan for the new center were directly from the feedback that we got from teens in the local school systems as well as our teen volunteer group.

Goals were moved forward to create a spacious area with natural lighting, updated technology where teenagers could simply hangout.

We really want for them to have a place where they can socialize, do homework and try new technology," said Traci Juhala, who is in charge of youth services.

Construction, furnishing, technology and other costs were added up and eventually raised through multiple donations, fundraisers and grants. The grand total of $350,000 was raised in a matter of weeks.

We worked through the Bismarck Library Foundation; they help with fundraising for capital projects like this for us. So they were a big help in us being able to obtain the money that we need to work on this project, Kujawa said. We made a lot of contacts with a lot of businesses in the community, and the community was very favorable for our project.

Construction, which began in early summer, is expected to be completed in November or December. New windows have been added, along with a fireplace and sink. New furniture, including booths, desks and lounge chairs, will be added later, along with student displays of art on the walls and showcases.

It seems like its going faster than we anticipated. Things are coming together really quickly, and its exciting to watch, Kujawa said. Our plan once we get to a particular point in the construction is to reach out to local high school teachers and see if we can work with the art students. Were hoping that the teens create the art space because we really want it to be their space and create what it is.

Once completed, the community and donors will be invited to attend an open house.

The space will be solely for teens once its established, but, during the grand opening time, well make sure the whole community gets to see it, Juhala said. After that, it will be just for teens because that was one of their largest concerns and requests  to have a space just for them.

Space for homework and studying will be available, along with opportunities to partake in the many programs offered for teenagers. New materials and events, such as video-game tournaments, Pinterest nights and some of the newest technology will be offered as well.

We have some ACT and SAT prep kits that were putting together that students will be able to check out so they can prepare, but we also want to be a place that they go to have fun and hang out," said Laura Rysavy, teen programming coordinator.

Im always open to suggestions for what teens want, Rysavy said. We want to provide what they want, not what we think they want.
Officer Tim Brackeen, of Shelby police, was shot while serving outstanding arrest warrants to a suspect who failed to show up to court in August

Authorities in North Carolina are hunting a 23-year-old man who fatally shot a veteran police officer while he served a warrant on Saturday.

Officer Tim Brackeen, of the Shelby Police Department, was shot while searching for 23-year-old Irving Lucien Fenner, after he failed to show up to court in August.

Brackeen confronted Fenner about two outstanding arrests warrants, on each for carrying a concealed weapon and marijuana possession.

The two struggled outside the suspect's house  and Brackeen, who was wearing his bulletproof best, was shot in the chest, the Charlotte Observer reported.

The officer was rushed to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte about 12:20am on Saturday.

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Brackeen, 38, was a 12-year department veteran assigned to Shelby police's K9 unit with partner Ciko (pictured)

Police are searching Irving Lucien Fenner, 23, (pictured) on charges of attempted murder in connection with the officer's shooting

The officer was rushed to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte about 12:20am on Saturday, but succumbed to his injuries two days later

After the shooting on Saturday, the officer's mother, Phyllis Brackeen, wrote on Facebook that 'the doctor said his brain shows no activity.'

'If he pulls thru this, it will only be because God steps in and does the impossible,' she wrote. 'But God can. This is a deep valley for us, but even in the valley, God is good.'

The officer succumbed to his injuries Monday morning at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.

Fenner was charged with attempted murder in connection with Brackeen's shooting. His charges were expected to be upgraded after the officer's death.

There is a $10,000 reward for any information leading to Fenner's capture.

Brackeen, 38, was a 12-year department veteran currently assigned to Shelby police's K9 unit.

He is remembered in Shelby, some 45 miles west of Charlotte, for community classes and demonstrations alongside canine partner Ciko, the Shelby Star reported.

Brackeen is remembered in Shelby, some 45 miles west of Charlotte, for community classes and demonstrations alongside canine partner Ciko

Authorities say there is a $10,000 reward for any information leading to the capture of Irving Lucien Fenner, 23, (pictured)

'He was such an outstanding person and loved by everybody,' said Mayor Stan Anthony, who presented Brackeen with an award for officer of the year in 2012, to the Shelby Star.

'He was one of these guys who everybody admired and respected,' the mayor continued. 'This is such a huge loss to community. We're all heart-broken for the family, and I know the community will rally around them and show them love.

'We're all going to miss him.'

The officer leaves behind wife Mikel, 39, and daughter Daphne.

'At this time, our department asks for everyone to keep Officer Brackeen, his family and the entire department in their thoughts and prayers,' Shelby Police Chief Jeff Ledford told the Charlotte Observer.
Former CIA Director James Woolsey, a vocal advocate of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq who promoted allegations that Saddam Hussein harbored illegal weapons, will serve as a senior national security adviser to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, the campaign announced on Monday.

Woolsey's hiring contrasted with Trump's repeated assertions that he was a stalwart opponent of the invasion, although he initially supported it.

In the announcement, Woolsey said he supports Trump's plan to expand the U.S. military, which calls for ending Pentagon budget caps and spending billions of dollars for additional troops, ships and aircraft.

'Mr. Trump's commitment to reversing the harmful defense budget cuts signed into law by the current administration, while acknowledging the need for debt reduction, is an essential step toward reinstating the United States' primacy in the conventional and digital battlespace,' Woolsey said.

Woolsey, who served for two years as CIA chief under then-President Bill Clinton, also criticized the presence of classified information in emails stored on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's private server.

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Donald Trump is adding former CIA chief James Woolsey (pictured) to his campaign. Woolsey served under President Bill Clinton for two years

James Woolsey was also a proponent of the Iraq War, which Republican hopeful Donald Trump says he was always against

In an appearance on CNN, however, he called Trump's plan to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States 'a bad decision.'

He also has warned about the threats posed by climate change, something Trump has called a hoax that benefits China.

Woolsey was an outspoken proponent of the Iraq invasion, suggesting that Saddam was hiding nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs from U.N. inspectors.

He also promoted the erroneous allegation that the Iraqi dictator backed al Qaida's Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Shortly after former President George W. Bush took office in 2001, Woolsey visited Britain on a Defense Department trip in a fruitless hunt for evidence that Saddam masterminded the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center in New York.

He made a second visit to Britain for the same purpose shortly after Sept. 11, and again came up empty.

At the time of his second trip, Woolsey was a member of the Defense Policy Board, a panel of outside advisers to the Defense Department that advocated Saddam's overthrow even in the absence of any evidence of his complicity in 9/11.

The following year, he arranged for the Defense Intelligence Agency to debrief an Iraqi defector who claimed that Iraq had mobile biological-warfare laboratories disguised as yogurt and milk trucks.

The man was later determined to be a fabricator.

In 2000, Woolsey briefly served as a corporate officer of a foundation that managed U.S. funding for the Iraqi National Congress, the exile group that produced a series of defectors who peddled false information to bolster the allegations that Saddam was hiding illicit weapons programs.
Americas swimming sensation Rebecca Meyers has bagged her third gold medal of the Paralympics breaking her own world record tonight.

She said the word that would best sum up her triple golden success was unbelievable.

The Baltimore athlete, 21, who suffers hearing and visual impediments, brushed her opponents aside with a scintillating performance inside the Olympic Aquatics Center.

She made it a hat trick of straight golds in the 400m freestyle S13, spurred on by her parents Mark and Marie who were cheering from the stands.

Rebecca Meyers took gold in a time of 4.19.59, shaving two seconds of the world record she set last year

Meyers is seen above celebrating victory in the Women's 400m Freestyle S13

They had exclusively told Daily Mail.com of their pride and amazement at their daughters achievements and her determination not to let her deafness and poor sight hamper her.

Rebecca took gold in a time of 4.19.59, shaving two seconds of the world record she set last year and nine seconds of the Paralympic record which had been set in 2008 by Canadian Valarie Grand-Mason.

Ukrainian Anna Stensenko, who was five seconds behind the American, took silver and bronze went to Ariadna Edo Beltran of Spain.

Rebecca was cheered on by members of the US swimming team in the spectator seats.

Rebecca was cheered on by members of the US swimming team in the spectator seats and her parents Mark and Marie

Rebecca said: Unbelievable is the word to describe all of this', after she secured the third win

Meyers was born with hearing and vision impediments, due to Usher Syndrone

Rebecca said: Unbelievable is the word to describe all of this.

It was amazing tonight. I mean look at it (the crowd). Everyone is up on their feet.

I could feel the energy when I dove in and it kept me going through the entire race.

'The (US) team has been incredible here. I couldn't ask for a better team."

She secured gold on Thursday in the 100m Butterfly - S13 and followed that up on Saturday with the 200m Individual Medley gold medal.

She has two more events to complete and few in her team would bet against her leaving Rio with five gold medals.

Her hero is US Olympic swimming legend Michael Phelps and she told Daily Mail Online that she follows her training partner on Twitter and her wish is that he will one day follow her back.

Rebecca, 21, who has met President Obama and Prince Harry, joked her next target was to become the British royals princess although she had to compete with her sister Lisa for his hand in marriage.

She was born with hearing and vision impediments, due to Usher Syndrone with the major symptoms being hearing loss and an eye disorder called retinitis pigmentosa.

US Paralympian and triple gold medalist Rebecca Meyers, left, with Michael Phelps, right. She says he's her inspiration

She could lose her sight totally by the time she reaches her forties and said her vision is like looking through two straws.

But she achieved her dream of picking up gold in Rio, exactly as she had wished for in a poem she wrote at the age of 13.

When she was in seventh grade she wrote about how she was going to make it to the 2012 and 2016 paralympics and her parents raised their eyebrows.

The poem was called Why me? Why Not

Talking of Phelps she said: Michael just says things like keep going forward, put your head down and get the job done.

He is an inspiration to me and it is all so incredible. I have swam with himbut I never raced him.

 It is difficult to put it into words, but it is a dream come true.

It was my goal to walk away with a gold medalmy target is to get five, but we will see.

Bradley Snyder won his second gold medal of the Paralympics for Team USA in the 50m freestyle S11 event

Meanwhile the USs Bradley Snyder won his second gold medal of the Paralympics in the pool.

Snyder, who like Meyers hails from Baltimore, secured gold with a time of 25.57 seconds in the 50m freestyle S11 event.

Keiichi Kimura of Japan took silver and Chinas Bozun Yang, the world record holder, won the bronze

Snyder had won gold and silver in the 400m freestyle S11 and 100m backstroke S11 events.

Snyder is seen Saturday listening to the sound of his medal on the podium at the medal ceremony for the Men's 400m Freestyle - S11 on day 3 of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games at the Olympic Aquatic Stadium in Rio

Snyder, who like Meyers hails from Baltimore, secured gold with a time of 25.57 seconds. he is seen above preparing for the start of the race

The 32-year-old motivational speaker was blinded in Sptember 2011 after stepping on an improvised explosive device [IED] while serving in the US Navy in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

The bomb did not affect his arms or legs, but his eyes had to be removed and replaced with prosthetics.

'I've been successful because I don't blame anyone and I haven't victimized myself he said.

'I was within inches of death, but this is a new go at life and I try to enjoy it to the fullest.

Michelle Konkoly celebrates winning the Women's 100m Freestyle - S9 at the games in Rio

Michelle Konkoly has bagged her third gold medal of the Paralympics. She is seen collecting her medal today

Michelle Konkoly won the third gold medal of the evening in the swimming pool for America.

She took gold in the 100m Freestyle S9 Final. Spains Sarai Gascon got silver and bronze went to Ellie Cole of Australia.

Konkoly said after winning her first gold medal: It's not a dream any more. That's the moment that I've been dreaming about for the past year-and-a-half.

That's what's gotten me out of bed every morning and now it's real.

"I swam really well at trials. I knew if I could just repeat those performances here, it would put me in a really good spot.

I was able to do that on the biggest stage, so that was the goal.

It went through my mind, You can do this. You can actually do this, and I just went for the wall with everything I had.

To look up and see that one red light(denoting the gold medalist)it's amazing.

Konkoly said after winning her first gold medal: It's not a dream any more. That's the moment that I've been dreaming about for the past year-and-a-half.' She is seen above during the race

The former Georgetown University student, who lives in Naples, Florida, is making her first appearance at the Paralympics.

She suffered a severe back injury while at university in Washington DC in January 2011 while attempting to open a window of her dormitory room.

The 24-year-old plunged five stories to the ground, landing on her feet.

She sustained an injury to her spine, a broken foot and a punctured lung and has permanent rods and pins in her spine.
Former chairman of the Commons Public Accounts committee, Dame Margaret Hodge

As former chairman of the Commons Public Accounts committee, Dame Margaret Hodge has spent years investigating how public money is spent. Yesterday, in our serialisation of her new book, she revealed how millions are wasted by the NHS and Ministry of Defence. Today, she skewers the BBC . . .

BBC director-general George Entwistle had been in his job for just 54 days when he resigned. Few people shed any tears at his departure. He was not only an ineffective leader, but hed just given a lamentable interview to John Humphrys on the Radio 4 Today programme.

Still, after 20 years of moving through the corporation ranks, Entwistle was clearly due something.

His pay-off, however, was astounding. As the BBC told the Public Accounts Committee, there had been 450,000 for starters, which was double Entwistles contractual entitlement. On top of that, he got the legal costs involved in negotiating his pay-off.

Plus a further 107,000 to pay costs hed incurred while appearing as a witness at the Jimmy Savile sex-abuse inquiry  which was investigating dozens of allegations of rape, sex abuse and paedophilia by the BBC star. Plus 12 months of medical insurance. Plus 6,000 to cover PR costs  because his reputation was being trashed by the media. All funded by licence-fee payers.

I was appalled. Yet there was another shocking revelation to come: the BBC, it turned out, had failed to tell us the whole truth. As we learned later, Entwistle had also been given 25,000 for 20 days work between the date his resignation was announced and his day of departure. There was just one problem: he hadnt actually worked during those 20 days.

One of our committee members, MP Stewart Jackson, put it well. Turning to Lord [Chris] Patten  then chairman of the BBC Trust  he said: Entwistle was paid more or less the equivalent of what one of my constituents earns as an average annual salary. What did he actually do in those 20 days?

Very little, Patten replied.

So Entwistle, a failed DG, had been paid 25,000 of public money to sit on his backside  a grossly inappropriate use of licence-payers funds. But this BBC oversight turned out to be par for the course.

Caroline Thomson, who had once hoped to became director-general, left with 680,000 when she was made redundant. This included 14,000 for lawyers to negotiate her pay-off

During the ensuing months, we uncovered a great deal more evidence of the BBCs cavalier attitude to licence-fee payers money. One highly-paid executive after another, it turned out, had left with far more than he or she was entitled to claim.

Believe me, we tried very hard to establish who was responsible. But senior BBC executives blamed each other, changed their stories, suddenly found documents theyd said didnt exist and remembered conversations theyd originally claimed had never taken place.

By the time wed finished, the self-inflicted damage on a much-loved British institution was nothing less than tragic. And it had happened largely because the people at the top had lost sight of their responsibility to act as guardians of the public purse.

Entwistle was just one of many who had gone for everything he could get. Hed pursued unbridled self-interest, instead of reflecting on the impact his actions would have on the BBCs reputation.

After all, he could easily have accepted less  or he could have returned some of the money when the public reacted with fury to his vast settlement. He did neither.

Yet during his short-lived reign, the BBC had plunged into one of the worst crises it had ever faced, when Newsnight abruptly dropped legitimate investigations into the sexual abuse of children by the late Jimmy Savile.

A bruised Newsnight team, keen to restore its damaged reputation, had then decided to show a film alleging that a senior Conservative  later revealed to be Lord McAlpine  had sexually abused children in a care home in Wales.

Pat Loughrey, director of nations and regions, received 866,000. This included 300,000 pay in lieu of 12 months notice, even though hed already worked his notice and been paid for it. Before leaving the BBC, he secured a 200,000-a-year job as warden of Goldsmiths, University of London

No sooner had the programme been shown than the alleged victim, on whose evidence the report was based, recanted. The person he had previously identified as Lord McAlpine was not the man whod abused him, he said.

All hell broke loose. It emerged that the journalist involved had not shown the victim a picture of Lord McAlpine; he hadnt corroborated the story by finding other victims; he hadnt even put the allegations to Lord McAlpine.

Entwistle completely failed to get a grip on this crisis. On Today, he admitted he had found out about the Newsnight programme after it went out because he was out. A tweet about the content was not brought to [his] attention; nor was a newspaper article revealing the victims retraction the following morning.

He even claimed he hadnt read the paper because hed been busy preparing a speech. When something is referred to me and brought to my attention, I engage with it, he pleaded in justification.

If such a terrible performance could reap such rich rewards, we knew that his pay-off had to be the tip of the iceberg. So we started asking more questions.

Examining only three years to December 2012, we found that 150 senior BBC managers had received severance payments  the total cost of which was 25 million. The average payout was 164,200.

Of these managers, 22 had been paid more in lieu of their notice than they were contractually entitled to. The same amount of money could have funded Radio 4 for four months or Radio 1 for eight.

Here was the clearest example of just how irresponsible people in the public sector can be with other peoples money  our money.

At our second hearing, in July 2013, we looked at all the recent senior management severance and redundancy deals. I got so fed up with inconsistent and conflicting stories I decided the only way to establish the truth was to call all the key people to give evidence together.

Sharon Baylay, the former director of marketing, ecommunications and audience, was made redundant after only 17 months and walked away with nearly 400,000. This included a years pay in lieu of notice and 1,763 to pay for BUPA health cover

So on September 9, 2013, they sat together in front of the committee, seven senior figures: Lord Patten; Mark Thompson, the former director-general; Marcus Agius, former chairman of the BBC remuneration committee; Anthony Fry, BBC trustee; Sir Michael Lyons, former BBC Trust chairman; Lucy Adams, director of human resources; and Nicholas Kroll, the Trusts administrative director. It was a most unedifying spectacle.

By then, we were deeply concerned about a number of cases:

Sharon Baylay, the former director of marketing, ecommunications and audience, was made redundant after only 17 months and walked away with nearly 400,000. This included a years pay in lieu of notice and 1,763 to pay for BUPA health cover.

Caroline Thomson, who had once hoped to became director-general, left with 680,000 when she was made redundant. This included 14,000 for lawyers to negotiate her pay-off.

John Smith left his post as chief executive of BBC Worldwide at the age of 55, and immediately started drawing a pension of 212,000 a year. He had negotiated a staggering 2 million pension top-up and 1.6 million in severance pay. All this five weeks before he signed a contract with Burberry to join them as their chief operating officer. (After adverse publicity, he later paid back 200,000.)

Pat Loughrey, director of nations and regions, received 866,000. This included 300,000 pay in lieu of 12 months notice, even though hed already worked his notice and been paid for it. Before leaving the BBC, he secured a 200,000-a-year job as warden of Goldsmiths, University of London.

Roly Keating, director of archive content at the BBC, had applied to become chief executive of the British Library. Once his new job was in the bag, he negotiated a severance pay package worth 376,000. (Following a public outcry, he later returned the money to the BBC.)

In many of the cases, extra money had also been paid out as long-service awards and for private health insurance and legal fees. One senior manager received 49,000 for IT equipment and training on how to use it. In another case, an agreement was reached to buy at least 60,000 of consultancy services from the departing manager over the following two years  at a rate of 1,000 a day.

As Stewart Jackson remarked: If this was any other organisation, that would be called corporate fraud and cronyism.

But then there was the most jaw-dropping case of all:

Mark Byford, the former deputy director-general. Although the decision to scrap his post was taken in October 2010, he didnt leave until the following June  with 1 million in his pocket.

Hed received a years salary as a redundancy payment. Plus 73,000 for leave accumulated before 2004. Plus another years salary in lieu of notice, even though the decision to axe his job had been taken nine months before he left.

Mark Byford, the former deputy director-general. Although the decision to scrap his post was taken in October 2010, he didnt leave until the following June  with 1 million in his pocket.

Yet there had been no contractual obligation to pay him money in lieu of notice. That had been fabricated in order to reward him with half a million pounds over and above an already very generous redundancy package.

As I remarked: An ordinary worker on average earnings would have to work for 40 years to earn the 1 million that Mr Byford got in redundancy pay.

The size of this settlement astonished us, but Mark Thompson  who was DG at the time  thought it was justified. The BBC, he told us, had been in the midst of some gigantic projects, such as preparations for the broadcasting of the Royal Wedding and the Olympics.

We wanted Mark Byford, through this difficult transition, fully focused on the enormous task that we had. We did not want him worrying about his future or taking calls from head-hunters; we wanted him fully focused.

Was Thompson serious? It seemed utterly grotesque to me that an extra half a million pounds of public money should be given to an employee to keep him fully focused.

I was also aware that Thompson and Byford had known each other for 30 years and were friends outside the workplace. This type of camaraderie at the top was not unique, and may well have influenced the approach taken to pay-offs for senior staff.

John Smith left his post as chief executive of BBC Worldwide at the age of 55, and immediately started drawing a pension of 212,000 a year. He had negotiated a staggering 2 million pension top-up and 1.6 million in severance pay

As the pay-offs crisis deepened, everybody started scuttling for cover. The BBC Trust  a body that provides strategic oversight and represents the interests of licence-fee payers  claimed it hadnt known the pay-offs went well beyond contractual commitments.

As trustee Anthony Fry maintained: We were assured they were within contractual terms. We were told that they had been signed off in the proper fashion.

But Mark Thompson was clearly furious that the Trust was feigning ignorance and piling the blame on him. He sent me a 25-page memo, along with documentary evidence, claiming that Byfords and Baylays pay-offs were made with the full prior knowledge and extensive involvement of the BBC Trust . . .

The claim they were kept in the dark about these cases and the wider policy and practice is untrue.

Who was telling the truth? It was extraordinary to find these Establishment figures squabbling like children over differing versions of the facts.

As committee member Chris Heaton-Harris wryly remarked: It is the most bizarre game of Whac-A-Mole Ive ever seen in my life. You hit one fact down and out pops another bunch of questions.

Trustee Anthony Fry hit back, telling us hed argued vociferously against enormous pay-offs. A series of particularly unpleasant discussions had taken place, and he thought BBC executives were completely out to lunch. All to no avail: People like me were asked in not particularly pleasant terms to get back in our box.

This infuriated Mark Thompson, who denied hed never used such words. Furthermore, he had complied with everything the BBC Trust had wanted him to do.

I dont accept that, protested Fry. The records will show that there were months and months of arguments between the Trust and the executive . . . As a committee, we may have found it difficult to establish the facts; we did, however, uncover an utterly dysfunctional set of relationships.

Similar tensions emerged when we questioned Lucy Adams, the BBC director of human resources, who earned 320,000 a year. She came before us parading designer glasses and eye-catching jewellery.

George Entwistle got 450,000 for starters, which was double his contractual entitlement. On top of that, he got the legal costs involved in negotiating his pay-off. Plus a further 107,000 to pay costs hed incurred while appearing as a witness at the Jimmy Savile sex-abuse inquiry

Her first appearance was marked by her attempts to distance herself from controversial pay-off decisions, particularly the one to give Byford 1 million.

I dont think . . . that it was acceptable for him to get such a large payment in lieu of notice, she said, blaming Mark Thompson.

But it was difficult to believe that on such a major HR issue, the BBCs exceedingly well-paid HR director had nothing to do with it.

We asked her about a memo, sent by the director-general to the BBC Trust, which spelled out the cost of making Mark Byford and Sharon Baylay redundant. Surely the head of human resources would have helped to draft such a note?

Adams denied all knowledge: I am not aware of the letter that went to the Trust. I did not actually write that letter, she declared.

I didnt believe her. Two months later, Adams sent me an apologetic letter in which she confirmed that she had, after all, been involved in drafting the memo.

In fact, we discovered she had written it herself. We also obtained copies of various emails shed sent which provided clear evidence of her role in negotiating Byfords outrageous 1 million package. Far from being an innocent bystander, she had been a central player in the pay-off deals all along.

Lucy Adams left the BBC in April 2014. She did not receive any severance pay and was asked to work her notice period.

Back at the Public Accounts Committee, executives continued to clash furiously over who knew what. Marcus Agius  a non-executive director who chaired the BBCs remuneration committee was quite open. Hed approved the pay-offs, and he insisted that the BBC Trust was aware of them.

Lord Patten was having none of this. The fault lay with Agius and the director-general, according to him. His predecessor as chairman, Sir Michael Lyons, agreed, claiming he had no memory of approving the pay-offs personally.

But Sir Michael Lyons, it seemed, was horribly forgetful. We later obtained a note from the DGs office to the chairmans which clearly set out the options for dealing with Mark Byfords redundancy. There was a further trail of emails between the BBC Trust and the BBC management.

So what did we make of all this dreadful evidence? Well, it told us that these highly-paid individuals and respected members of the Establishment were either guilty of gross inefficiency, collective amnesia or deliberate obfuscation.

And it told us that, without any doubt, there had been grotesque squandering of public money by a public corporation.

Had this happened in a private company, it might well have been regarded as a breach of the directors duty to their shareholders.

Similar stories abound across the public sector. In my view, regulatory bodies do not provide sufficient oversight and protection for the taxpayer or licence-fee payer.

It may well be time to consider placing a similar duty on public-sector leaders that private-sector directors have imposed on them by law: a duty to act in the best interest of their shareholders (taxpayers) in good faith and honestly at all times.

One final reflection. Had George Entwistle agreed to a reasonable pay-off, this BBC scandal might never have come to light.
Child No 5: Jamie and Jools Oliver with their son River Rocket last month

Jamie Oliver has been criticised for accusing Theresa May of letting every child in Britain down by acting like a politician instead of a parent.

The celebrity chef said the Prime Minister, who has no children, had done a terrible job by watering down the Governments childhood obesity strategy.

Critics said he was guilty of 'unconscious bias' for failing to separate her policies from her 'reproductive status' and asked him: 'Can you imagine any male PM being told to govern as a father?'

Oliver, 41, was attacking Mrs May's axing of plans to curb junk-food advertising, and said replacement proposals were a travesty.

He also described her decision to reverse a ban on placing sweets at supermarket checkouts as unforgiveable.

In a scathing interview with Radio Times, Oliver said her climbdown on hard-hitting proposals from former Prime Minister David Cameron would hurt future generations.

He added: Shes completely let every child in Britain down, let parents down, everyone has been let down.

The stuff on the shelf with her predecessor was going to be much more robust.

Dont get me wrong, Im not slagging her off for the sake of it. I wanted her to act not like a politician, but a parent.

However, when he was told that Mrs May was not a parent, Oliver replied: I didnt know that. The subject of motherhood flared during Mrs Mays Tory leadership bid this summer, when rival Andrea Leadsom suggested that being a mother would make her a better Prime Minister.

In a controversial interview in July, Mrs Leadsom said: Genuinely, I feel that being a mum means you have a very real stake in the future of our country, a tangible stake.

She [Mrs May] possibly has nieces, nephews, lots of people, but I have children who are going to have children who will directly be a part of what happens next.

Mrs May, 59, has been married to investment banker Philip may since 1980. She has said little publicly about their childlessness, but has indicated that it was not a choice.

Scathing: The celebrity chef said the Prime Minister, pictured, who has no children, had done a terrible job by watering down the Governments childhood obesity strategy

Mrs Leadsom later apologised for her comments, saying it was wrong to suggest that not having children gave Mrs May less of a stake in the future.

TV presenter Cathy Newman hit out at Oliver today, telling him: 'Perhaps this is news to Mr Oliver, but the PM isnt paid to be "Mummy May".

'Her job is not to wipe the nation's bottom, but to lead,' adding: 'Isnt there an unconscious bias in his apparent reluctance to divorce her policies from her reproductive status?'

Tory MP Philip Davies also lashed out at Mr Oliver, telling him to forget about the sugar tax and instead focus on promoting responsible parenting.

He told MailOnline: 'Jamie Oliver may believe in the nanny state rather than parental responsibility but I certainly don't.

'There is no evidence that a sugar tax will have any benefits to public health - indeed sales of sugary drinks have gone down as levels of obesity have gone up and surprisingly the evidence shows that those kids most likely to have those drinks are actually the least likely to be obese.

'Jamie Oliver may be satisfying his crave for publicity but he should look at the evidence before making his criticism.

Oliver, a father of five, said he wanted to meet the Prime Minister to strengthen the latest proposals. Pictured, Jamie and Jools Oliver with their five children

Mr Davies added: 'He should be encouraging kids to do more sport and more exercise which would make much more of a difference to obesity levels than just higher taxes which rich people like Jamie Oliver can afford but many others can't.'

Oliver, a father of five, said he wanted to meet the Prime Minister to strengthen the latest proposals.

However, he admitted: I dont know if shes going to want to talk to me because Ive nothing nice to say  nothing.

But I do think British parents dont want to just hear bad news all the time. People just want stuff to be fixed.

Tory MP Philip Davies (pictured) lashed out at Mr Oliver, telling MailOnline he should forget about the sugar tax and instead focus on promoting responsible parenting

Oliver and his wife Jools have just had their second boy, after their son River Rocket was born this month.

He said he was concerned that ministers had been lobbied by the junk food industry and were relying on a modest tax on sugary soft drinks to satisfy anti-obesity campaigners.

They have dropped plans to ban advertisements for unhealthy foods before the 9pm watershed and abandoned a promise to ban junk food from supermarket checkouts.

Food manufacturers will instead be challenged to reduce the level of sugar in products such as cereals, yoghurts, sweets and desserts by a fifth by 2020.

However, this is a voluntary scheme, and companies will not be compelled to reduce the sugar levels.

In January, the wording of the obesity strategy said: The food and drinks industry will be given six months to come up with plans to reduce sugar in products consumed by children by around 20 per cent in five years.

But a new version suggests firms will now merely be challenged to reduce sugar in products which contribute to childrens overall sugar intake.
Pentagon health officials are currently in the process of rewriting

Military obesity rates have skyrocketed for the first time in 15 years as new data raises questions about the health and fitness of today's force.

The Pentagon recently disclosed data that shows about 7.8 per cent of the military, roughly one in every 13 troops, is clinically overweight, based on a body mass-index (BMI) greater than 25, according to Defense Department data obtained by the Military Times.

In 2001, the rate was just 1.6 per cent, or one in 60.

The data shows that obesity is highest among women, blacks, Hispanics and older service members.

The Pentagon recently disclosed data that shows about 7.8 per cent of the military, roughly one in every 13 troops, is clinically overweight (file photo)

The data shows that obesity is highest among women, blacks, Hispanics and older service members (file photo)

Some military officials have said that obesity can be life-threatening, especially on the battlefield.

'If I have to climb up to the top of a mountain in Nuristan, in Afghanistan, and if I have someone who is classified as clinically obese, they are potentially going to be a liability for me on that patrol,' Army Command Sgt Maj John Troxell, told the Times.

Troxell, who is the military's top non-commissioned officer, said he believes today's force is combat ready but at the same time feels that the obesity trends are troubling.

'I don't think it's a clear readiness concern right now. But I think it's something that needs our attention,' he said.

But others believe there is nothing to worry about.

Dr Terry Adirim, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for health services policy and oversight, suggested there may be no real increase in obesity.

She told the Times that data may just reflect the fact that military doctors are more aware of obesity and for that reason are flagging it more in official health records.

'You can't tell from these numbers exactly what it is that is accounting for these apparent increases,' Adirim said.

Adirim went on to say that she's not 'concerned about these numbers reflecting problems with fitness or readiness'.

She said she feels 'good that our military service members are well below the general population when it comes to BMI measurement that are overweight and obese'.

About 70 per cent of the adult American population who are over 20 years of age are clinically overweight or obese, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control.

Military health officials caution against placing too much emphasis on body mass-index scores, which simply evaluate an individual's height and weight to flag those who might have unhealthy levels of body fat.

Women in the military are more likely to be overweight compared to military men.

About 10.3 per cent of military woman were flagged as overweight, compared to 7.3 per cent of men in 2015, the Times reported.

However, it has been determined that the gender gap is shrinking as more men have become overweight.

Women in the military are more likely to be overweight compared to military men. About 10.3 per cent of military woman were flagged as overweight, compared to 7.3 per cent of men in 2015. But the latest data shows one in 14 men are overweight, compared to one in 10 women

The latest data shows one in 14 men are overweight, compared to one in 10 women.

Those assigned to combat units are not as likely to be overweight as the force at large, but they too have been gaining a few pounds.

In 2001, only about one in every 100 service members assigned to combat arms career fields was flagged for being overweight.

Today,it's close to one in 15.

Troxell told the Times that in the 90s 'we were a running culture'.

But after '9/11 happened and we started doing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan' he said, he believes the military started slowing down and 'started doing more walking'.

Troxell said that he believes the urgent demands created by combat may have led some unit-level leaders to prioritize missions over traditional physical training.

Plus, he said, wartime eating habits in Iraq and Afghanistan 'was really four or five times a day'.

'And all of the sudden it led to some overeating and pretty soon we had people whose body mass was going up to what doctors would say is clinically obese,' Troxell said.

He also said that some of the military's current fitness challenges reflect the new generation of young people joining the services.

Army Command Sgt Maj John Troxell said that in the 90s 'we were a running culture', but after '9/11 happened and we started doing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan' he said, he believes the military started slowing down and 'started doing more walking' (file photo)

He said that more men and women are doing more sedentary things 'like playing video games', among other less physical indoor activities.

Pentagon health officials are currently in the process of rewriting force-wide guidelines for body composition standards, the Times reported.

Obesity can affect a career or lead to involuntary separation for individual troops, so these policies are central to military life.

The BMI metric, which is a took used to determine if the height and weight of a person aligns, is a key issue for the Pentagon's current review of its body composition policy.

If individual troops show a good BMI, they pass the body composition test. If they fail, they must undergo a more complete 'tape test' to estimate actual body fat percentage.

The current policy requires service members to maintain body fat levels below a key threshold 28 per cent for men and 36 per cent for women.
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Chinese engineers have completed an impressive mountain overpass branded as the highest bridge in the world.

The enormous Beipanjiang Bridge, which is built at over 1,850 feet high, links two of China most remote provinces, Yunnan and Guizhou, according to People's Daily Online.

Engineers joined the last set of decks on September 10, marking the completion of the structure which has cost three years and 780 million RMB (88 million) to build.

Now that's a highway: Chinese engineers have completed a mountain overpass at a whopping 1,854 feet high

We've made it: The last set of decks were joined on September 10, marking the completion of the bridge in southern China

Beipanjiang Bridge stands at a whopping 565 metres above the ground (1,854 feet), which is nearly twice the height of the 95-storey skyscraper, The Shard in London.

Named after Beipan River, the waterway it crosses, the incredible structure has a 720-metre-wide span (2,363 feet) and is a part of the Hangrui Highway, a 3,405-kilometre-long (2,115 miles) national motorway linking Hangzhou city in southern China with Ruili city on the China-Myanmar border.

The newly finished project is not to be confused with another Beipanjiang Bridge on Guanxing Highway, which stands at 363 metres high (1,200 feet) and opened in 2003.

Sky-high ambition: The 88 million structure, built at over 1,850 feet high, links two of China most remote provinces

Nearly done: The Beipanjiang Bridge took the Chinese bridge experts three years to build and was completed on Saturday

Remote location: The breath-taking structure is located on the border of Guizhou Province and Yunnan Province

The completion of the ambitious project means that eight of the world's 10 highest completed bridges are now located in China - almost all are situated in remote mountainous provinces.

The Beipanjiang Bridge is expected to open by the end of 2016. It overtook the previous record holder, Sidu River Bridge, situated in central China's Hubei Province.

The vertigo-inducing Sidu River Bridge, completed in 2009, is built between two mountains over a 1,627-foot-deep valley - though some media claim it's 1,830 feet high.

Besides Beipanjiang Bridge, Chinese engineers are also building what's set to be the world's second highest bridge, Jinshajiang Bridge.

The massive traffic link stands at an impressive 512 metres high (1,680 feet) and spans across the raging Jinsha River in southen China's Yunnan Province. Ground was broken last year and the bridge is expected to be completed in 2021.

THE WORLD'S TOP 10 HIGHEST BRIDGES (IN FEET) 1. Beipanjiang Bridge Duge, China 1,854 feet (2016) 2. Jinshajiang Bridge, China, 1,680 feet (2021) 3. Sidu River Bridge, China, 1,627 feet (2009) 4. Puli Bridge, China, 1,591 feet (2015) 5. Yachi Bridge, China, 1,444 feet (2016) 6. Qingshuihe Bridge, China, 1,332 feet (2016) 7. Hegigio Gorge Pipeline Bridge, Papua New Guinea, 1,542 feet (2005) 8. Baluarte Bridge, Mexico, 1,280 feet (2013) 9. Balinghe Bridge, China, 1,214 feet (2009) 10. Beipanjiang Bridge Guanxing, China, 1,200 feet (2003) Source: Highest bridges Advertisement

World's highest bridge: Named after Beipan River, the incredible bridge has a 2,363ft span and is a part of Hangrui Highway
It's an announcement that every commuter dreads: 'Your train has been delayed due to leaves on the line.'

But those delays could soon be a thing of the past, with a new invention that zaps the leaves from the line.

The device is a new type of train wheel that uses microwaves to blast 120-kilowatt rays with the aim of leaving tracks clear.

The system has been created by the Imagination Factory, and involves fitting small 30 millimetre cables to the front of train wheels. These produce powerful 120-kilowatt rays when the train brakes, which instantly 'dissipate water from the rail surface' (stock image)

HOW DOES IT WORK? The system has been created by the Imagination Factory, and involves fitting small 30 millimetre cables to the front of train wheels. These produce powerful 120-kilowatt rays when the train brakes, which instantly 'dissipate water from the rail surface', according to the company. The small devices are at least 100 times more powerful than kitchen microwave ovens. Advertisement

The small system is at least 100 times more powerful than a kitchen microwave oven, and could be introduced to trains in the UK within two years.

As autumn is around the corner, train operators, including Southeastern, Northern and TransPennine Express are preparing to impose 'leaf fall timetables' which could lead to less frequent trains, and delayed services.

To combat this issue, the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) are investigating a range of solutions.

Other ideas include a magnetic braking system, and using dry ice to remove moisture from tracks.

Neil Webster, innovation programme director at the RSSB, told The Times: 'We are supporting the industry in the research, development and innovation of various technologies including microwave energy and dry-ice blasting.'

A mature tree has between 10,000 and 50,000 leaves and each autumn thousands of tonnes of leaves fall onto railway lines across the UK.

The problem is a global one. According to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in the US, high pressure rail washers and scrubbers are used to remove crushed leaf residue from the tracks.

'On-board "sanders" on our diesel trains automatically drop sand on our tracks to help improve traction and reduce wheel slippage when it begins to occur,' the MTA added.

The system involves fitting small 30 millimetre cables to the front of train wheels. These produce powerful 120-kilowatt rays when the train brakes, which instantly 'dissipate water from the rail surface', according to the company

Compressed by passing trains, the leaves create a slippery layer on the rails, so train drivers have to brake earlier when approaching stations and signals to avoid overshooting and accelerate more gently to avoid wheel spin.

Leaf mulch can also insulate trains from the rails with the result that the signalling system, which uses electric currents in the track to locate trains, becomes less accurate.

To maintain safety, longer gaps must be left between trains, leading to delays.

In 2015, leaves were blamed for creating more than 5,800 hours of delays in the UK.

The Rail Safety and Standards Boards hope that the microwave technology could reduce this problem.

To maintain safety when there are leaves are on the line, longer gaps must be left between trains, leading to delays (stock image)

The system has been created by the Imagination Factory, and involves fitting small 30 millimetre cables to the front of train wheels.

These produce powerful 120-kilowatt rays when the train brakes, which instantly 'dissipate water from the rail surface', according to the company.

The technology will first be trialled on test tracks in the West Midlands in the next few months, before the Rail Safety and Standards Board decide whether to introduce it nationwide.
From throwing a paper aeroplane to doing a Karate Kid-style high kick, the list of tasks Google's Atlas robot can do is ever-growing.

Now the latest movement mastered by the machine involves delicately balancing itself on a 0.7 inch (2 cm) wide strip of plywood.

But the most remarkable part is the way the robot eventually loses its balance and steps off the plank, in an almost human-like display of balance and recovery.

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From throwing a paper aeroplane to doing a Karate Kid-style high kick, the list of tasks the Atlas robot can do is ever-growing. The latest movement mastered by the Boston Dynamics machine involves delicately balancing itself on a 0.7 inch-wide strip of plywood (shown)

THE ATLAS ROBOT According to Boston Dynamics, Atlas is a 'high mobility, humanoid robot designed to negotiate outdoor, rough terrain. 'Atlas can walk bipedally leaving the upper limbs free to lift, carry, and manipulate the environment. 'In extremely challenging terrain, Atlas is strong and coordinated enough to climb using hands and feet, to pick its way through congested spaces.' Advertisement

The new video shows Atlas balancing for around 20 seconds, before wobbling and falling off the small beam.

The Atlas robot, created by Google-owned firm Boston Dynamics, is a formidable figure at 6ft 2in (1.8 metres) tall and weighing in at 330lbs (150 kg).

The robot boasts 28 hydraulically-operated joints and stereo vision, making it one of the most advanced robots ever created.

On its website, Boston Dynamics said: 'Atlas can walk bipedally leaving the upper limbs free to lift, carry, and manipulate the environment.

MOVEMENTS MASTERED BY ATLAS Atlas can now do a range of movements including: - Standing up after falling over - Running - Balancing on a narrow beam - Cleaning, including vacuuming and sweeping - Karate kick - Throwing a paper aeroplane Advertisement

'In extremely challenging terrain, Atlas is strong and coordinated enough to climb using hands and feet, to pick its way through congested spaces.

'Articulated, sensate hands will enable Atlas to use tools designed for human use. Atlas includes 28 hydraulically-actuated degrees of freedom, two hands, arms, legs, feet and a torso.

'An articulated sensor head includes stereo cameras and a laser range finder.'

Atlas is powered by an off-board, electric power supply through a flexible tether - although a new version promises to remove this.

The Atlas robot, created by Google-owned firm Boston Dynamics, is a formidable figure at 6ft 2in tall and weighing in at 330lb

The robot is controlled by a human, but it is not simply a matter of using a joystick to control the robot.

Speaking about a previous video, John Carff, an Atlas robot operator at Boston Dynamics, told IEEE Spectrum: ' Most of the stuff in this video is controlled by me, but in a co-active way.

'I tell the robot through the UI (user interface) that I want to grab a bottle off the table by clicking the bottle and making sure that the resulting hand is in the correct place.

'Then, the robot tells me how it's going to move its entire body to reach that location, through a preview in the UI.

'If I'm okay with the plan the robot has come up with, I tell it to execute that motion.

'In the future, I can see a lot of what was done in this video moving more to the autonomous side, but I always see there being a human in the loop.'

The robot boasts 28 hydraulically-operated joints and stereo vision, and is one of the most advanced robots ever created. It can perform a range of tasks, including hoovering

The team has previously recreated the 'crane kick' from the Karate Kid movie, teaching the robot to stand on one leg (pictured).

The team has previously recreated the 'crane kick' from the Karate Kid movie, teaching the robot to stand on one leg.

Researchers from the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Interaction, who created the algorithm to allow Atlas to balance, say they are inspired by nature.
The days of dozing off at the back of a classroom may soon be coming to an end.

A Chinese university lecturer is using facial-recognition technology on his students to check if they're bored  and he says it could be used in wider education.

Professor Wei Xiaoyong, who lectures in computer science at Sichuan University in China, developed the 'face reader' to identify the emotions of his students.

A Chinese university lecturer is using facial-recognition technology on his students to check if they're bored. The reader produces a 'curve' for each student, showing whether they are happy or not, and giving indications of whether they are bored.

A SIGN OF BOREDOM Micro-movements are unnecessary movements we all make continuously - like turning our head or moving our thigh rhythmically while we are sitting. A recent study found the more we find what we are doing engaging, the fewer micro-movements we show. The research's lead author Dr Harry Witchel at Brighton and Sussex Medical School calls this phenomenon 'rapt engagement.' 'Our study showed that when someone is really highly engaged in what they're doing, they suppress these tiny involuntary movements. 'It's the same as when a small child, who is normally constantly on the go, stares gaping at cartoons on the television without moving a muscle,' he said in a statement. Advertisement

The reader produces a 'curve' for each student, showing whether they are happy or not, and giving indications of whether they are bored.

Professor Xiaoyong told The Telegraph: 'When we correlate that kind of information to the way we teach, and we use a timeline, then you will know where you are actually attracting the students' attention.

'Then you can ask whether this is a good way to teach that content? Or if this content is OK for the students in that class?'

The lecturer first started using face-tracking technology five years ago to take the daily register of attendance, in the hopes of creating a less 'boring or time-consuming' method.

Several other lecturers now use the same technique to check who is in their class, and Professor Xiaoyong hopes they will start using his 'emotion-analysing' tracker too.

He said: 'It can be used for a range of social sciences, psychological work and by educational researchers.'

Professor Wei Xiaoyong, who lectures in computer science at Sichuan University in China, developed the 'face reader' to identify the emotions of his students

This is not the first time that technology has been used to check boredom levels.

Body language experts have found that a person's level of interest can be gauged by 'micro-movements', such as fidgeting or moving legs, and the more a user is absorbed by what is on a computer screen, the less they move.

Researchers used cameras and an algorithm to detect users' boredom and claim that one day computers themselves could monitor our interest levels to keep us engaged.

POLICE ARE USING FACIAL RECOGNITION TO BEAT CRIME London's Metropolitan Police recently tested a facial recognition system at the Notting Hill Carnival, scanning party goers against a 2.9 million image database of criminals. The Face Examiner system automatically scans faces in the crowd of up to one million people. Those faces were compared against a database of custody and arrest photographs as well as a list of people banned from attending the event. In advance of the weekend, the Met launched a number of raids against suspected criminals who were believed to have been targeting the massive event. Advertisement
North Dakotas college and university campuses may have nearly 500 fewer full-time equivalent staff if plans submitted to address budget cuts for the current biennium and the next are approved.

Cuts will directly affect employees in one way or another, said Tammy Dolan, chief financial officer for the North Dakota University System, adding that salaries comprise a large percentage of agency budgets, so the impact on staffing was inevitable.

Dolan outlined general information on budget cuts for 2015-17 as well as those submitted for the 2017-19 biennium Monday to members of the State Board of Higher Educations Budget and Finance Committee.

Dolan said meeting the 6.55 percent budget cuts ordered this year would impact about 300 full-time equivalent positions spread across the states 11 colleges and universities.

But the governors guidelines for the 2017-19 biennium include having budget levels at 90 percent of ongoing spending approved for the current biennium, which would increase that impact.

These changes, based on our best estimates, would impact an additional 190 FTEs, Dolan said.

The 490 total positions affected amounts to about 7 percent of the nearly 6,600 staff employed at the 11 institutions.

Dolan said in meeting the 6.55 percent mark, the state colleges and universities identified $31 million in savings to ongoing expenses as well as $23 million in one-time savings. The 300 full-time positions amounted to about $35 million in salaries and benefits.

Theyre trying to generate savings that carry forward into the next biennium, Dolan said.

Of the 490 full-time positions to be cut, 190 would be addressed through vacancies. Retirements and voluntary exits would account for 125, and 105 would be cut through reductions to staff. The final 70 would involve reductions in areas including one-time funded staff and part-time staff.

With the current environment we have to recognize exactly what is taking place, said committee member Greg Stemen, adding that all generally funded agencies are going through the same process.

He said the cuts submitted by the colleges and universities also will help minimize the rate of growth in higher education costs in the future.
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In just ten years, a plane that flies using a radical hybrid wing shaped body could become a reality.

A scale version of the 'Blended Wing Body' (BWB) aircraft is currently being tested at a Nasa facility.

The triangle-shaped plane, that could one day be used by the US military, is reminiscent of spy planes and designed to cut through the air more efficiently.

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A scale version of the 'Blended Wing Body' (BWB) aircraft (pictured) is currently being tested at a Nasa facility. The triangle-shaped plane, that could one day be used by the US military, is reminiscent of spy planes and designed to cut through the air more efficiently

THE BLENDED WING BODY Many of Boeing's advanced vehicle concepts centre around a blended wing body design. A blended wing body does not look like a conventional airplane. Instead of the usual tube and wing design, it's shaped more like a triangle where the wings are, in essence, merged into the body. Another difference is that it does not have a tail. Researchers still face several challenges in developing a full production model of a BWB aircraft. The main drawback to the blended wing body concept is that it lacks control surfaces and conventional stabilising surfaces such as a tail making it unstable and difficult to control. Advertisement

Boeing is developing the plane alongside Nasa, and testing at the Nasa Langley Research Center in Virginia, in a 14- by 22-foot (4.2 by 6.7 metre) subsonic tunnel, and will continue testing until the end of September.

In the BWB design, the wing blends seamlessly into the body of the aircraft, which makes it extremely aerodynamic and creates dramatic cuts in fuel consumption, noise and emissions.

Boeing and Nasa researchers are using a 6 per cent scale, 13-foot-wingspan model to test their designs.

The researchers will be mapping the flow of air over the aircraft using lasers and smoke with a technique known as particle imagery velocimetry (PIV).

'We're happy to have the model back in our wind tunnel,' said Dan Vicroy, principal investigator at Nasa Langley.

'It gives us a couple of opportunities - to add to our knowledge about this configuration as well as how to improve our testing methods.'

The same model was put through its paces in the Langley 14-by 22-Foot tunnel in 2014 and in the 40-by 80-foot wind tunnel at Nasa's Ames Research Center in California in 2015.

But for this test it looks slightly different. The top of it has been painted in non-reflective matte black to accommodate laser lights that will sweep across the model in sheets.

'Testing the same model in two very different tunnels gives us data to make our test methods better,' he added. 'Plus these tests will let us do PIV  something we didn't do before.'

Boeing is developing the plane alongside Nasa, and testing at the Nasa Langley Research Center in Virginia, in a 14- by 22-foot (4.2 by 6.7 metre) subsonic tunnel, will continue until the end of September. Boeing and Nasa researchers are using a 6 per cent scale, 13-foot-wingspan model to test their designs (pictured)

This idea for a possible future aircraft is called a 'hybrid wing body' or sometimes a blended wing body. In this design, the wing blends seamlessly into the body of the aircraft, which makes it extremely aerodynamic and holds great promise for dramatic reductions in fuel consumption, noise and emissions

This same model was put through its paces in the Langley 14-by 22-Foot tunnel in 2014 and in the 40-by 80-foot wind tunnel at Nasa's Ames Research Center in California in 2015. But for this test it looks a different - the top of it has been painted in non-reflective matte black to accommodate laser lights that will sweep across the model in sheets

The testing builds on years of research into the BWB aircraft shape.

For example in 2012, Nasa successfully tested the X-48C - another 'hybrid wing-body' plane with a greater internal volume for passengers and cargo.

With a 21 ft (6.54 metre) wingspan, the aircraft was an 8.5 per cent scale model of a heavy-lift, subsonic airplane with a 240-foot wingspan.

'Our tests are a continuation of more than two decades of successful research and development of this concept, which is unparalleled in industry,' said John Bonet, Boeing's test director for the BWB.

'What we learn from this round of testing will be used to complete the definition of our aerodynamic, stability and control low-speed databases  a major milestone in the technology development of the concept.'

The BWB concept is unique in that it gets rid of the conventional tube and wing shape of today's airplanes, in favour of a triangular tailless aircraft that effectively merges the vehicle's wing and body.

The researchers will be mapping the flow of air over the aircraft using lasers and smoke with a technique known as particle imagery velocimetry (PIV). 'We're happy to have the model back in our wind tunnel,' said Dan Vicroy, principal investigator at Nasa Langley

The BWB concept is unique in that it gets rid of the conventional tube and wing shape of today's airplanes, in favour of a triangular tailless aircraft that effectively merges the vehicle's wing and body. But it might not stay a concept for much longer. Boeing thinks a BWB-type aircraft could be developed in the next 10 years

But it might not stay a concept for much longer.

Boeing thinks a BWB-type aircraft could be developed in the next 10 years as a subsonic transport.

It could begin in the military as transport variants for airlift and aerial refuelling, according to John Dorris III, who works in Phantom Works Fixed Wing Assembly for Boeing.

'By transferring technology and features from current Boeing programs like the C-17 and KC-46  we're able to address the US Air Force's vision for 2030 and beyond,' he said.

'Boeing's Blended Wing Body concept can be scaled, with variants that will allow us to meet our customer's mission requirements and fleet demands.'

Other company leaders agree. 'We believe our body of work, both in design, test and engineering, is technically superior when compared to other designs in the marketplace,' Naveed Hussain, vice president of Aeromechanics Technology at Boeing said.

'The BWB is showing great potential to offer structural, aerodynamic and operating efficiencies as well as the capability to be more fuel efficient and quieter over more traditional aircraft designs.'

Boeing's advanced vehicle concept centers around the familiar blended wing body design like the X-48. What makes this design different is the placement of its Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engines on the top of the plane's back end, flanked by two vertical tails to shield people on the ground from engine noise
After years of secrecy, Blue Origin and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has unveiled a new rocket that will one day launch payloads and people into Earth's orbit.

Named after the first US astronaut to orbit Earth, the 'New Glenn' launcher is larger than SpaceX's future Heavy rocket and is set to visit the final frontier by the end of the decade.

The spacecraft come in two stages that are designed with half the power of Nasa's Saturn V launcher, and will bring Blue Origin one-step closer to its goal of 'millions of people living and working in space'.

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It's been years in the making and now, Blue Origin and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has unveiled a new rocket that will launch payloads and people into orbit. The 'New Glenn' rockets are larger than SpaceX's future Heavy rockets and will fly by the end of the decade

BEZOS' NEW ROCKETS Blue Origin and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has unveiled a new rocket that will launch payloads and people into orbit. Called 'New Glenn', this launcher comes in two stages that makes it larger than SpaceX's future Heavy rocket. 'New Glenn 3-stage' is 23-feet in diameter and stands 313 feet tall. And 'New Glenn 2-stage' is also 23-feet in diameter, but measures 270 feet tall. Each stage lifts off with 3.85 million pounds of thrust from seven BE-4 engines. A single vacuum-optimized BE-3 engine, burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, will power New Glenn's third stage. However,the booster and the second stage are identical in both variants. Blue Origin plans to fly New Glen by the end of the decade from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Advertisement

Blue Origin's announcement comes at a crucial time for the commercial space industry, The Washington Post reports.

Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic performed the first test flight for its latest spacecraft last week, SpaceShipTwo, which will conduct public trips into space and charge customers a fee.

However, in the same week, the world watched in horror when SpaceX's Falcon 9 burst into flames on the Cape Canaveral launch pad during a routine check for its long awaited trip.

But Bezos appears to be hopeful in today's announcement - 'our vision is millions of people living and working in space, and New Glenn is a very important step,' he wrote in an email to the Washington Post.

Blue Origin has always aimed at moving its vehicles into the space tourism market and the New Glenn, named in honor of astronaut John Glenn, are key players for this plan.

Both stages are 23-feet in diameter, but the 'New Glenn 3-stage' is 313 feet tall, whereas 'New Glenn 2-stage measures 270-feet.

And each stage lifts off with 3.85 million pounds of thrust from seven BE-4 engines.

A single vacuum-optimized BE-3 engine, burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, will power New Glenn's third stage, according to Bezos.

However,the booster and the second stage are identical in both variants.

'New Glenn is designed to launch commercial satellites and to fly humans into space,' Bezos wrote.

Blue Origin's announcement comes at a crucial time for the commercial space industry. Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic performed the first test flight for its latest spacecraft last week, SpaceShipTwo 9pictured), which will conduct public trips into space

THE RACE TO BUILD REUSABLE ROCKETS Reusable rockets would cut costs and waste in the space industry, which currently loses millions of dollars in jettisoned machinery after each launch. Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency are also developing similar technology and are in testing stages. Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com and owner of The Washington Post newspaper, said last month that Blue Origin expects to begin crewed test flights of the New Shepard, the company's flagship rocket, next year and begin flying paying passengers as early as 2018. SpaceX has managed to land four rockets from space back on Earth, three on sea and one on land, while Blue Origin's New Shepard successfully completed a third launch and vertical landing in April this year. The Indian space agency also hopes to develop its own frugal shuttle, as it seeks to cash in on a huge and lucrative demand from other countries to send up their satellites, after a successful test launch last month. The New Glenn rockets will also be designed similar to Blue Origin's New Shepard (pictured) in that it will also be reusable, which Bezos says will cut costs for space travel Advertisement

'The three-stage variantwith its high specific impulse hydrogen upper stageis capable of flying demanding beyond-LEO missions.'

Just like Blue Origin's smaller BE-3 engine and New Shepard Propulsion module, both of the new rockets and their engines are reusable.

Bezos sees this method as a way to lower the costs of space travel.

And he hopes to make space travel as routine as airplane flights.

Both variants are 23-feet in diameter, but the 'New Glenn 3-stage' is 313 feet tall, whereas 'New Glenn 2-stage measures 270-feet, Jeff Bezos (pictured) explained in the announcement. The duo will liftoff with 3.85 million pounds of thrust from seven BE-4 engines, which will burn liquefied natural gas and liquefied oxygen

Blue Origin plans to fly New Glenn by the end of the decade from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

And will use these rockets solely to launch commercial satellites and fly humans into space, Bezos writes.

'Our vision is millions of people living and working in space, and New Glenn is a very important step,' he shares.

'It won't be the last of course. Up next on our drawing board: New Armstrong. But that's a story for the future.'
Scientist says more time must be spent trying to reduce risks of threats

Sixty-five million years ago, disaster struck the Earth. An asteroid or comet around 10km in diameter slammed into what is now the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.

While the idea was ridiculed at first, this event is now widely believed to be the reason the dinosaurs became extinct.

This realisation led to a rallying of scientists and engineers around the world to detect and monitor the asteroids in the heavens, and if need be, to be prepared to deflect one from hitting us.

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Sixty-five million years ago, disaster struck the Earth. An asteroid or comet around 10km in diameter slammed into what is now the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Now, scientists around the world are working to detect and monitor the asteroids. A stock image is pictured

PREVENTING EXTINCTION According to the researcher, there are numerous potential disasters that scientists must prepare for. This includes an impact from an 'extinction class asteroid.' And, 'nuclear warfare, biological terrorism and artificial intelligence all have the potential to destroy us,' the researcher writes. Advertisement

Today, we have a Planetary Defense Coordination Office under NASA whose sole mission is to prepare us for this unlikely but devastating possibility.

It is believed that we have found all of the asteroids the size of that which killed the dinosaurs (at least those near Earth).

But there are many smaller asteroids that can still do a lot of damage which are undetected. In 1908, the Tunguska event flattened about 2,000 square kilometres of forest in Siberia.

This asteroid was only about 50 metres across, but we have only found about 1% of the near Earth objects (NEOs) of this size.

Despite being so rare, if a large asteroid did hit Earth, it would cause extraordinary damage. In fact, youre more likely to be killed by an asteroid than die in a shark attack.

We know about a number of recent asteroid impacts, but were still discovering more in the geological record. Currently its estimated that NEOs which can cause global ecological effects occur around once every 500,000 years.

Right now, despite being able to detect and track large asteroids (you can look at current known asteroid positions yourself using online databases), we know very little about their interior.

Much of what we do know is based on meteorite samples which have fallen to Earth. But it is difficult to extrapolate small samples to understanding what asteroids look like as a whole.

Asteroids have several types based on mineral composition, but their internal structure can also potentially take several forms.

Some think the dinosaurs' 160 million-year reign ended when a six-mile (9.6km) wide asteroid or comet smashed into the Earth off the coast of Mexico 66 million years ago, changing the climate around the world (artist's illustration pictured)

WHAT KILLED THE DINOSAURS? While there have been many theories for what killed off the dinosaurs - from an asteroid strike to massive volcanic eruptions - recent research suggests it may have been a combination of disasters. Their 180 million year long reign is thought to have been ended by a double-whammy when the shockwave from the meteor impact caused a storm of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes around the world. Much of the planet would also have been blanketed in dust, meaning plant life could have struggled for years, having a widespread impact on the food chain. Researchers recently announced they had found evidence that a string of volcanoes in a region of India known as the Deccan Traps doubled their activity around 50,000 years after the Chicxulub impact. They blanketing the Earth with sulphurous gas and dust. Together, the impact and volcanism caused a dramatic change in climate as the sun's rays were blanketed out in a version of the 'nuclear winter' predicted to follow a global nuclear war. Advertisement

Some might be rubble piles, weakly held together by gravity and electrostatic forces, while others might be solid bodies of rock. Different structural types would require different methods of deflection.

For example, a rubble pile might break up if we hit it with an object, with each smaller piece still posing a threat. This might dictate a more finessed approach, such as hitting it with a smart cloud of smaller particles released by a space craft.

The use of explosive devices to move an asteroid is expected to be about 100 times less efficient on porous asteroids compared to more solid bodies.

My research involves repurposing geophysical techniques used for more than a century on Earth to determine the strength and structure of asteroids. To test whether these techniques will work requires simulating asteroid conditions in a lab.

Asteroid impacts arent the only event that might wipe us out. Nuclear warfare, biological terrorism and artificial intelligence all have the potential to destroy us, the expert warns. A scene from Terminator Genisys is pictured

This means we have to recreate the gravity, atmospheric and temperature conditions. We also have to find a material that matches the properties of an asteroid surface to test our equipment on.

NASA performs experiments in low gravity using a parabolic jet, which is temporarily in free fall. Atmospheric conditions can be modified in a vacuum chamber.

Researchers have developed simulant materials that are similar in chemical composition to various classes of asteroids. As well as being useful for testing mining equipment that might be used on asteroids, they can also be used to test geophysical equipment might be able to determine useful properties, such as structure.

Once this technology is proven, it can potentially be used to land on an asteroid and peer into its interior. By understanding its structure, porosity and strength, we can then start to plan deflection strategies for individual asteroids, and for asteroids in general.

The dinosaurs went extinct because they didnt have a space program. Luckily, we are more prepared (although Australia is still one of just two OECD nations without a space program, the other is Iceland).

SAVING EARTH FROM DISASTER WITH THE ASTEROID REDIRECT MISSION Various techniques for deflecting a potentially hazardous asteroid could be tested on Arm to enable planetary defense capabilities. These techniques include Ion Beam Deflection, Enhanced Gravity Tractor, and kinetic impactors. In Ion Beam Deflection, the plumes from the thrusters would be directed towards the asteroid to gently push on its surface over a wide area. A thruster firing in the opposite direction would be needed to keep the spacecraft at a constant distance from the asteroid. The Ion Beam Deflection approach is independent of the size of the asteroid, and it could be demonstrated on either mission option. In the Enhanced Gravity Tractor approach, the spacecraft would first pick up a boulder from the asteroid's surface as in mission Option B. The spacecraft with the collected boulder would then orbit in a circular halo around the asteroid's velocity vector. The mass of the boulder coupled with the mass of the spacecraft would increase the gravitational attraction between the spacecraft and the asteroid. By flying the spacecraft in close formation with the asteroid for several months the very small gravitational forces would produce a measurable change in the asteroid's trajectory. A kinetic impactor could also be launched as a secondary payload with the spacecraft or on a separate launch vehicle, and it would collide with the target asteroid at high velocity while the spacecraft observed the impact. Advertisement

If we were to detect an inbound asteroid with warning of at least several years, we can send a mission to find out what its made of. Then we can plan the optimal strategy complete with backup plans.

In 1995, a workshop with ex-Cold War US and Russian weapons designers was held to propose a way of deflecting an asteroid if it was detected at the last minute. They came up with (though never built) a nuclear weapon capable of instantly vaporising a 1km asteroid.

It would also have the potential to move an extinction class asteroid out of our path given at least a few months notice, or a comet given two years notice. Given any less time, we may have to be content with evacuating as many people as possible from the predicted landing site.

Asteroid impacts arent the only event that might wipe us out. Nuclear warfare, biological terrorism and artificial intelligence all have the potential to destroy us. Some researchers have even suggested that the probability of humanity surviving until 2100 is just one in two.
The danger bird strikes pose to aircraft has been dramatically highlighted by this shocking image, which shows a bird - described as an 'eagle' - lodged in the nose cone of a passenger plane.

The bird crashed into the plane at El Fasher airport in Sudan.

The Boeing 737, belonging to Tarco Air, had just flown in from the Sundanese capital of Khartoum when the incident took place.

Usamah Mohamed, who posted this image on Twitter, said: 'Sudanese aircraft with 108 passengers on board makes emergency landing after being hit by this... eagle!'

The aircraft was travelling from the Sudanese capital of Khartoum to El Fasher (pictured)

Fortunately none of the people on board were injured and the aircraft was able to land safely.

According to Aviation Herald, the bird struck flight 3T-400 as it was approaching El Fasher on September 10.

The large bird, which could be seen protruding from the nose of the aircraft after it had landed, made a hole in the nose cone during the impact and became lodged.

Usamah Mohamed, who posted the image on Twitter, said: 'Sudanese aircraft with 108 passengers on board makes emergency landing after being hit by this... eagle!'

However, the Sudan-based airline had to send a replacement aircraft for the return journey.

Bird strikes are not uncommon and many airports have ways of deterring the animals from the flight path.

The Boeing 737 belonging to Tarco Air had just flown in from the Sundanese capital of Khartoum when the incident took place (file photo)

Just last month, MailOnline reported that a Thomson flight bound for Paphos was forced to return to Birmingham Airport following a bird strike midair.

There were reports from passengers of hearing two loud bangs, followed by smoke.

The aircraft was able to land safely after it returned to Birmingham Airport and no one on board was injured.

In the same month, a Qatar Airways flight was forced to make an emergency landing at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport just moments after taking off due to a bird strike.

All 312 passengers and crew on board had to be evacuated, the bird strike having caused a fire in one of the engines.

MailOnline Travel has contacted Tarco Air for comment.
The popular Indonesian resort of Bali may face a draconian alcohol ban that could carry a jail sentence of up to ten years for enjoying cold beers on the beach.

A proposed bill to outlaw the production, sale, consumption and possession of alcohol has been tabled in the parliament, 700 miles away in the capital, Jakarta. If passed, it would decimate the tourism sector across the country, industry chiefs have warned.

'The tourists drink alcohol all the time. It will be very inconvenient for them if they can't find alcohol,' said Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association head, Hariyadi Sukamdani.

The popular Indonesian resort of Bali may face a draconian alcohol ban that could carry a jail sentence of up to ten years for enjoying cold beers on the beach. This file image shows a lounge bar in Seminyak

'No matter how beautiful the country is, if they can't find alcohol, they [tourists] won't want to come here.'

A ban would be felt particularly harshly in Bali, one of Indonesia's 34 provinces, and a popular holiday destination for four million foreign tourists a year, including over 100,000 Brits.

The island's economy is dependent on these tourists, many of them young backpackers, flocking to the multiple bars and clubs to drink and party in the lively tourist towns of Kuta and Seminyak.

Australians, the largest group of holidaymakers, have already expressed disbelief that the local delicacy, Bintang beer, may soon be outlawed. Several have warned that if the new law is enforced they will simply travel elsewhere.

Bali's economy is dependent on tourists, many of them young backpackers

Kenny Baker, from Nelson Bay, New South Wales, said he had been going to Bali every year for the past 22 years but that he would not come back under an alcohol ban.

'It would not be Bali without a beer. It wouldn't be the same,' Baker told News Corp Australia. 'It is why I come to Bali, to have a beer and enjoy the beach and have a drink.'

Balinese musician Rudolf Dethu, who leads two groups opposing the legislation, one of them to promote the culinary aspects of beer, said that the law would 'kill' tourism in Bali.

Even if the island managed to secure an exemption, a ban in the rest of Indonesia would push the price of alcohol way beyond the reach of most holidaymakers, he said.

'For me this is not as simple as banning alcohol. There is a hidden agenda behind it. It's a radicalisation Balinese musician Rudolf Dethu

But Dethu also fears that the proposed ban is a sign that Indonesia is facing a creeping Islamisation that threatens to impose extreme forms of Sharia law on more liberal provinces like Bali.

The country of 260million is the world's most populous Muslim nation but it is also home to several strong religious minorities. The island of Bali is predominantly Hindu.

The secular government of President Joko Widodo is coming under increasing pressure from influential Muslim political parties to impose a strict morality code across the entire country.

'My concern has always been about pluralism and civil rights,' Dethu said.

'For me this is not as simple as banning alcohol. There is a hidden agenda behind it. It's a radicalisation,' he said.

'It's about assaulting civil rights. Don't let the parliament dictate to you what you can drink or the next time they will dictate what time your girlfriend can come to your house, and then what you can wear.'

The country of 260million is the world's most populous Muslim nation

The current bill is being driven by two influential Muslim parties, the Prosperous Justice Party and the United Development Party, who were previously successful in pushing through an anti-pornography law.

After an earlier failed attempt at pushing through an alcohol ban for religious reasons, they have now opted to argue for it on health grounds. Political analysts say their shift in tactics has increased their chances of success.

Party leaders argue that alcohol directly causes the death of dozens of people every year and that the public must be protected.

Experts point out, however, that these deaths were caused by illegally distilled or counterfeit alcohol, which can contain potentially lethal substances like methanol or even battery fluid.

According to the Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS), there have been 453 deaths from tainted alcohol since 2012.

Many were caused by illegally distilled moonshine, known as oplosan, which can often contain poisonous substances like battery fluid, mixed with headache pills to avoid a hangover.

Indonesia has also been blighted by several incidences of foreign tourists being killed by unknowingly drinking counterfeit alcohol laced with a lethal dose of methanol.

In 2013, British backpacker Cheznye Emmons, 23, first went blind, then died of organ failure after drinking poisonous methanol that had falsely been labelled as gin at a popular resort in Sumatra.

She and her boyfriend, Joe Cook, had purchased the gin in a local shop in the popular tourist site of Bukit Lawang, after they had visited an orangutan sanctuary in the jungle.

Her devastated family launched an awareness campaign to warn other unsuspecting travellers, and the British consulate in Bali has also issued public warnings.

CIPS director, Rainer Heufers, said research showed that more deaths occurred in conservative Muslim provinces that had already imposed their own state alcohol ban.

A countrywide curb would only increase the dangers by forcing alcohol production onto the black market, where it would not be regulated, and would be controlled by criminal mafia, he warned.
Heathrow and Gatwick airports both recorded their busiest ever August as they continued to promote their expansion proposals.

Some 7.3million passengers travelled through Heathrow last month, up 0.1 percent on August 2015.

Growth at the west London hub was driven by a 9.7 percent rise in travellers heading to or from the Middle East, while the Latin America market was up 5.8 percent.

Planes on the tarmac at Gatwick airport, which saw a 5.7 percent increase in passenger travel between August 2015 and August 2016

The airport welcomed Great Britain's Olympic team on their return from Rio last month.

At Heathrow passenger numbers in the UK sector were down 10.7 percent, while Africa flights saw a fall in passengers of 4.8%.

Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye reiterated his call for the building of a third runway to be given the go-ahead by the Government.

He said: 'We were delighted to welcome the golden heroes of Team GB back from Rio. They have shown that Britain can be successful against tough international competition by backing our winners.'

Inside Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport. The hub welcomed 7.3million passengers in August

He continued: 'Britain should not accept bronze, when we could so easily win gold. So now is the time to back the winners in our economy and expand Britain's biggest and most successful port, Heathrow.

'We can get exporters, large and small, from all across Britain connected to the growing markets of the world, and it is urgent that we get on with it.

'That is why we are looking at options to connect Britain to growth quicker and cheaper.'

Gatwick also recorded its busiest ever August, with 4.8million passengers travelling through the airport, a 5.7 percent increase on last year.

A 51 percent boost in passengers using North Atlantic routes fuelled the growth. The Ireland market was up 12.8 percent, while the UK sector increased by 9.1 percent.

Passengers throng the busy check-in counters in the Departures area at Heathrow airport

Gatwick chief executive, Stewart Wingate claimed the figures demonstrate errors made by the Davies Commission, which recommended in July 2015 that Heathrow should be expanded rather than Gatwick.

He said: 'Gatwick is delivering for Britain today and, with a second runway, will continue to deliver the crucial growth we need now more than ever.

'The Airports Commission said that Gatwick could not deliver long-haul routes, yet we have added 20 this year alone, putting us in the premier league of airports in Europe that serve 50 or more long-haul links.

'The Airports Commission also said that we would not serve 42 million annual passengers until 2030, yet we passed this mark just days ago.

'Our growth and success illustrates that Britain needs to put the failed plans of the past behind it and back the plan that can actually deliver, and deliver cheaper, faster, simpler and with absolutely no taxpayer subsidy. It's time for growth and certainty, it's time for Gatwick.'

Passengers shop and bustle around the Departure lounge in the South Terminal at Gatwick airport

Some 2.9million passengers travelled through Manchester Airport last month, up 9.1 percent on last year.

The airport's chief executive, Ken O'Toole, said: 'August is always the busiest month of the year for the airport as families get away during the school holidays and it was no different this year.

'Spain has certainly proved popular, which reflected the increase in capacity we saw from airlines to the likes of the Balearics and the Costas.

'New long-haul services that have launched this summer to destinations like Boston, Los Angeles and Beijing have all contributed to a record summer for Manchester Airport.
A train enthusiast has captured the shocking moment a bullet train driver had his feet up on the dashboard - while the locomotive was in motion.

The photograph was captured in the Shizuoka Prefecture of Japan and has since been shared thousands of times on Twitter.

According to reports, the driver of the train, which can travel up to speeds of 177mph, has since been suspended.

A bullet train driver was snapped with his feet up on the dashboard while the service was still moving (above)

Twitter user @yamamoto1go2 posted the image online on September 6. It's had over seven thousand retweets since.

The photograph of the Shinkansen bullet train had been taken between Kakegawa and Hamamatsu Stations.

Since the image emerged, Central Japan Railway, who operate the service, said the 29-year-old driver acknowledged that he operated the high speed train in that position for 10 seconds.

A spokesman for the operator told AFP: 'He told the company that he had tired feet.'

The spokesman also said that there was never any danger to the 320 passengers aboard the Tokyo-to-Osaka train.

He said: 'Shinkansen are equipped with an automatic control system that manages speed and the distance between trains.'

Some Shinkansen bullet trains can travel up to 200mph (file photo)

Central Japan Railway called the behaviour 'extremely inappropriate' in a statement and vowed a 'strict' response, suggesting the driver would be punished.

According to Japan Today, the driver was suspended from his duty on Friday.

Responses on Twitter were mixed. 'I wonder if it was necessary to expose the photo on the internet,' one Twitter user said, while others criticised him, with one saying he 'should know he's responsible for passengers' lives'.

Japan's ultra-efficient shinkansen network was inaugurated in 1964 as Tokyo readied to host the Olympic Games and has become a symbol of the country's technological prowess and efficiency.

It has an unparalleled safety record, with no crashes or fatalities due to mechanical reasons in its half-century of service.
David Bowie's son Duncan Jones has denied reports that his father's ashes were scattered at the Burning Man festival.

The 45-year-old took to Twitter on Monday and wrote: 'That Burning Man thing? What people will do & say for attention never ceases to amaze me. Not true.'

He also posted a picture of seaside resort Skegness, writing: '...We all know if dad DID want his ashes scattered in front of strangers, it would be at the Skegness Butlins. ;)'

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Correcting reports: David Bowie's son Duncan Jones has denied reports that his father's ashes were scattered at the Burning Man festival - pictured together in 2009

Such a tragedy: Bowie passed away in January following a secret cancer battle aged 69

69-year-old Bowie passed away in January following a secret cancer battle.

A source had previously told E! News: 'David's godchild and David had long talks about Burning Man and what it stands for, and David loved the message behind it.'

The site said the ceremony had taken place at the Temple, a huge structure for attendees to pay tribute to their departed loved ones, but this wasn't the case.

Setting the record straight: Duncan took to Twitter on Monday to deny the recent reports

Burning Man is an annual festival that takes place at Black Rock City - a temporary community erected in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada - and has been described as an experiment in community and art.

Meanwhile, Iman, 61 - who also lost her mother Marian Abdulmajid in April - made her first public appearance since her double loss at Tom Ford's Fall 2016 collection show at New York Fashion Week last week.

She revealed she is slowly coming to terms with her grief.

Sad: David's widow Iman recently spoke of her grief and the model told Joe Zee for Good Morning America: 'It's just been a tough year, but I'm holding up' - pictured in 2010

The model told Joe Zee for Good Morning America: 'It's just been a tough year, but I'm holding up.'

When Joe praised her as a 'survivor', she replied: 'Not as much as you think.'

The Somalian beauty also revealed she has a special necklace in tribute to her husband, which was made by designer Hedi Slimane.

She said: 'I'm wearing this until my death. Hedi Slimane made it for me. It just says "David".'
Danny Dyer finally tied the knot with his childhood sweetheart Joanne Mas last weekend and said he would be 'nothing' without her.

Joanne, 39, proposed to EastEnders star Dyer on Valentine's Day last year. They got married on September 3 at an intimate ceremony in Hampshire.

The soap actor, 39, told Hello! magazine: 'To be standing here with the girl I grew up with - looking so beautiful in her wedding dress - that is a lovely thing.

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Long-time love: Danny Dyer finally tied the knot with his childhood sweetheart Joanne Mas last weekend and said he would be 'nothing' without her

'Jo is my best girl - the love of my life. Without her, I would be nothing.'

The pretty blonde wore a flamenco-inspired gown alongside a cathedral-length veil stretching down to the floor.

As a nod to her father's Spanish roots, she carried a bouquet fashioned like a fan.

'I have dreamed about this day my whole life and I just wanted it to be perfect,' she said.

Sweet: The couple pictured together in March 2016 at Dynamo Live at London's o2 arena

National treasure: The star is well-known for playing Queen Vic landlord Mick Carter in EastEnders (pictured)

Mick Carter actor Dyer's co-star Kellie Bright, who plays his on-screen wife Linda, said she was honoured to be involved in the wedding.

'I am very, very happy to be part of their day,' she said. 'I couldn't be more honoured.'

The couple's children were given key roles in the wedding, with daughter Dani, 19, serving as her mother's maid-of-honour.

Nine-year-old Sunnie was chosen as a bridesmaid while two-year-old Arty was picked as the page boy.

Dyer's sister Kayleigh also stepped in as 'best woman' when Dyer's original best man - his brother Tony - was forced to drop out of the wedding, as his own wife was giving birth.

Read the full article in Hello!, out now
His on-air altercations with guests are becoming more and more frequent.

And shock jock Kyle Sandilands lost his cool once again during his KIIS FM radio show on Monday, throwing resident psychic Georgina Walker out of the studio when she refused to tell him when he would die.

The 45-year-old was previously told he would die at the age of 89, and when Georgina told him that was incorrect and she wouldn't divulge her prediction, Kyle kicked her out, yelling: 'What sort of an a***hole friend are you?'

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He wants an answer! Shock jock Kyle Sandilands (seen with his radio co-host Jackie O) threw psychic Georgina Walker out of the KIIS studio when she refused to say what age he'll die

Georgina attempted to defend herself, explaining she wouldn't reveal to anyone their death age because of 'ethics.'

Kyle continued to press, saying: 'That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard anyone say in my life,' before adding: 'Give me a number.'

Georgina refused once more and said she'd walk out if he continued, before Kyle exploded.

'I would like to live a bit longer': Kyle showed off his fuller figure on The Morning Show last year

'Well you walk out and you walk out unassisted': Despite being in LA and broadcasting from his home there, Kyle blew up at Georgina

'Well you walk out and you walk out unassisted. No one's even gonna help you off the chair,' he said.

He added he had the 's**ts' with Georgina and no one had to be a 'psychic' to know that.

After his co-host Jackie O said he should get some medical checks, Kyle said he was perfectly healthy aside from his blood pressure.

'I've got high blood pressure, that's it. Everyone wants me to be on death's door, I'm not. Guess what? I'm not on death's door,' he said.

Standing up for what she believes in: Georgina Walker (pictured) attempted to defend herself, explaining she wouldn't reveal to anyone their death age because of 'ethics'

Defending himself: After his co-host Jackie O said he should get some medical checks after Georgina always warns him, he said he was perfectly healthy besides from having blood pressure (seen here in October)

Struggles: Last year he made headlines amid growing concerns for his health after missing a number of radio shows and even failing to show up as a guest co-host on The Project

Before he kicked Georgia out of the radio station, Kyle said he was once told he'd die at age 89, as a rich and lonely man.

During the segment, Georgina revealed that Jackie would outlive Kyle, but also refused to disclose her death age.

Kyle - who is dating 25-year-old model Imogen Anthony - has previously been told to shed some weight to improve his health.

'I'm going to have to do something': On The Morning Show in August last year Kyle revealed he had become acutely aware that something desperately needed to be done to improve his health and figure

Last year he made headlines after missing a number of radio shows and even failing to show up as a guest co-host on The Project due to his ill-health.

And during an appearance on The Morning Show in August, Kyle revealed he had become acutely aware that something desperately needed to be done.
Their smouldering chemistry in Victoria is helping the ITV series beat rival costume drama Poldark in the Sunday night ratings battle, and Jenna Coleman's romance with Tom Hughes appears to have continued when the cameras stopped rolling.

This weekend, former Doctor Who star Jenna, 30, met up for a two-and-a-half-hour lunch in London's Soho with Tom, also 30, who plays Prince Albert to her queen. They were spotted (left and below) arriving  and leaving  separately.

It was their second rendezvous in two days. Previously they were at a party together at the Victoria and Albert Museum (where else?).

'My chemistry with Tom is very natural because we've been friends for years and get on so well in real life,' Gemma told me at the bash.

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Jenna Coleman and Tom Hughes were spotted arriving separately to Townhouse in Soho

Tom Hughes, 30, (pictured) had lunch with Jenna Coleman, also 30, for two-and-a-half hours

The Cameron effect: No one wants to be a Buller boy!

Does your idea of a good night out involve trashing a country pub dressed in a 3,500 tailcoat while chanting 'Buller, Buller, Buller?'

Then David Cameron's Oxford drinking society, the Bullingdon Club, is desperate to hear from you.

The Buller is understood to be launching a recruitment drive among freshers to save it from extinction.

Ambitious undergraduates have shunned the club, satirised by Evelyn Waugh in Decline And Fall as The Bollinger Club, because of its 'toxic' reputation. In the final nail in the coffin for Cameron's 'chumocracy', the Bullingdon's membership is down from 30 to just two.

Unless some of Oxford's around 6,000 male undergrads sign up for the society's unsavoury brand of posh hooliganism, depicted in the 2014 film The Riot Club, the Bullingdon will be disbanded after more than two centuries of debauchery.

One Oxford undergraduate tells me: 'Most Bullingdon members graduated this year, and with likely no new members, this looks like it might be its last year in existence.'

Do get in touch if you know who the last two members are.

... and the bride wore - the groom

Model turned caterer Jemima Jones is married to financier Ben Goldsmith, but she was keen to display her admiration of another man this weekend.

Jemima, 29, who gave birth to her first child two months ago, was on her sister Quentin's hen do in Andalusia, Spain, where they and their pal Joyce Sitterly wore swimsuits printed with photos of the husband-to-be, tech entrepreneur George Northcott.

Ben, meanwhile, was at George's stag do in Ibiza, where he opted for a slightly less flattering ensemble: an Angry Bird costume. Hopefully Ben, above, didn't revel too outrageously on the Spanish party island, lest he have to face his own angry bird on returning home.

From left to right: Joyce Sitterly, Quentin Jones and Jemima Jones were on Quentin's stag do in Spain
Teresa Giudice was ambushed by her estranged cousins Kathy Wakile and Rosie Pierri at a book signing on Sunday's episode of The Real Housewives Of New Jersey.

The pair awkwardly showed up at the event uninvited to confront Teresa about ignoring them following her prison release and to try and heal the rift.

But Teresa was having none of it and rejected their offer of a peacemaking lunch while telling the cameras she did not have time for 'family member that stabbed me in the back.'

Book signing: Teresa Giudice was ambushed by her estranged cousins during a book signing on Sunday's episode of The Real Housewives Of New Jersey

The drama unfolded as Teresa signed copies of her new book Turning the Tables: From Housewife To Inmate And Back Again at a shopping mall and the pair walked up with copies for her to sign.

Kathy confronted Teresa about not answering her text messages and Teresa unconvincingly told them she had changed phones.

'I think she got the text, the excuse is bull***t. But whatever, I am there because we want to show her that we do care for her,' Rosie told the cameras.

'I care and I want her to succeed,' she added.

Estranged cousins: Rosie Pierrie and Kathy Wakile confonted Teresa after being ignored by her since she was freed from prison

Police car: Jacqueline Laurita's husband Chris joked that police were at the book signing in case things got out of hand

Rosie invited Teresa for lunch with she and Kathy, but Teresa was having none of it.

'My time is very precious now and I am putting my husband and kids as priorities,' she said coldly as the cousins begged her for one hour.

'My cousins never reached out to me when I was away and have said nasty things about me. I am sorry if I am not dying to go out to lunch with family members that stabbed me in the back,' Teresa told the cameras.

Nice try: Teresa flat out rejected Rosie's offer to have lunch

Rosie admitted she was disappointed at the snub.

'I am not going to cause any problems, I want all good things for my cousin Teresa,' said Rosie as she apologized to Joe for things she had said about him.

'Oh my God, people have got to get a life,' Teresa told him as he explained what happened.

Good things: Rosie insisted that she only wanted 'good things' for Teresa

Before the drama Teresa admitted that while in jail she had prayed that her fans would still love her when she was released and admitted she was relieved to get big crowds at her signings.

'I was scared, I didn't know if my fans were going to abandon me after all this but seeing all these people here shows me that they haven't. That makes me so grateful,' she said.

Joe Gorga then asked Joe Giudice how he was getting ready for jail.

Candid conversation: Joe Giudice told Teresa's brother Joe Gorga about how he was approaching his upcoming prison stint

'I am looking at it as going into the military,' he said.

'You know what one day at a time brother. Do what you have got to do and get the f*** out,' he said.

Siggy meanwhile sent away her daughter Sophie, 13, for a Jewish cultural weekend as part of her promise to her parents.

Her son Josh then passed his driving test and demanded his mother buy him a car to celebrate.

He passed: Josh told his mom Siggy that he passed his driving test and wanted her to buy him a car

Dolores urged her ex-husband to set an example to her 17-year-old son, Frankie, amid her fears that he is no longer present in her life.

'You are hurting my feelings that you do not check up on me,' she told him.

Teresa and Joe met with her attorney, James Leonard, and he took little time asking Joe how he was coping with his impending imprisonment.

Prison looming: Joe and Teresa sat down and talked to their lawyer James Leonard about Joe's pending imprisonment

'You know, I am getting to the point where I just want to go away and get it over with as fast as possible, mind my business and that's it,' said Joe.

Leonard talked him through prison situations and warned him against being 'too nice' to people around him, bringing up the book party incident.

'He does sometimes pick the wrong kind of friends, you have to be street smart in there,' Teresa told the cameras.

Street smart: Teresa said Joe had to be street smart in prison

The lawyer then reminded Teresa that she needed to be sure she was doing everything exactly according to the terms of her release.

'I know how to follow the rules,' she complained as Leonard told Joe that time concentrating on himself 'could be good' for him.

'It'll definitely be good for my liver, put it that way,' joked Joe as he said he was going to drink all his wine before going away.

Silver lining: Joe said that prison would be good for his liver

Joe Gorga sat wife Melissa to tell her that he had missed out on a big deal because he was at home looking after the kids, while she was at her boutique.

'I wasn't brought up to do this, I have to go to work. I need my life,' he told an unimpressed Melissa.

'Do you know how ignorant you sound? Welcome to the new millennium,' she fired back angrily.

Old school: Joe complained to Melissa about losing a deal while taking care of the kids

'You are so old school, you want me to stay at home,' she told him.

Joe riled Melissa up when he reminded her that he 'had put her in a beautiful home.'

'Do not speak to me like that, there is something a little off with you, I think your mother dropped you on your head when you were little,' she said.

Beautiful home: Joe angered Melissa when he said he 'put her' in a beautiful home

Joe then pushed Melissa too far when he called her business 'a joke.'

'What you do, you bring in the crumbs, I bring in the cake. I don't want what you bring in,' he said arrogantly.

'That is so rude,' his stunned wife told him.

So rude: Melissa was angered by Joe mocking her boutique

'Is he f***ing kidding me right now? I will throw the cake right in his face, I will break the cake if he ever says this to me again,' a furious Melissa told the cameras.

But Joe was not backing down.

'I don't need your money, I need my wife,' he told her coldly as she told him that it was 'not about the money.'

Not backing down: Joe refused to back down and said he didn't need her money

'I also want to feel successful the way you do with the business,' she told him as she warned him not to give her a guilt trip over a store he had built her.

And when she asked if they could get some help at home, Joe turned it down saying he wanted Melissa to raise their children.

Teresa took her children to Jacqueline Laurita's home to spend time with her autistic son Nicholas.

Friendly visit: Jacqueline welcomed Teresa over to her house

Getting along: Nicholas enjoyed playing with Teresa's daughter

'I want them to be comfortable in my house again,' Jacqueline told the cameras as Melania connected with Nicholas.

Jacqueline told Teresa that it was hard getting other people to understand her family's 'new normal' as the friends reconnected over their children.

Teresa joked that a month earlier she had been storming out of the house after the dinner party fight.

Big hug: Teresa and Jacqueline hugged it out as their friendship was back on track

'It's so silly when you look at the other things we go through in life and then you fight over stupid s***,' said Jacqueline wiping away tears.

Siggy Flicker visited Melissa and gave her some relationship therapy, warning her that there would always be some bumps in the road.

'I feel like Joe is very traditional, he wants me here at all times, he does not want to help out, he knows what makes a house a home. We really did have that fairytale, but now I want it while I am working,' she told her friend.

Relationship expert: Melissa talked to Siggy about her struggles with Joe

Melissa told the cameras that she had to prove to Joe that she could have everything she wanted.

Dolores then spent time with Kathy Wakile and Rosie Pierri and learned that neither of them had been invited to Teresa's book launch.

Kathy told her that she wanted Teresa to make peace with them all following her release and Rosie suggested they just show up at Teresa's next book signing.

New information: Dolores just learned that Kathie and Rosie were being ignored by Teresa

Feelings hurt: Kathie and Rosie were hurt they weren't invited to the book signing

Joe and Teresa then spent time together at a yoga studio to try and help him cope with the stress of his prison sentence.

'I want to help him relax, he needs it,' said Teresa as the pair got Thai yoga massage before asking Joe if he had spoken to the girls about his sentence.

'They pretty much know babe, I mean they went through a year with you. They pretty much know what is going on it is not like they are stupid,' he said.

Stress relief: Teresa took Joe for a massage to help him deal with his stress

'They don't want me to go but what are you going to do?'

Theresa told Joe that she had always told the girls she 'was going away to work' and he had to break the news that their daughters knew exactly where she had been.

'They knew where you were. Even Audriana knew where you were,' said Joe to his wife's shock and surprise.

Prison book: Joe told Teresa their daughters knew she was in prison and not working on a book in prison camp

'I told my girls that mommy was going to be writing a book and I was going to be working at a prison camp,' she explained to the cameras.

'I was not going to tell them that mommy was going to prison because they are little, they don't understand that. They are going to think that bad people go to prison and I know I am not a bad person.'

But Joe had some cold reality for his wife, even as she insisted that she had written a book there.

Straight shooter: Joe had some cold reality for his wife

'They know everything, they have got computers today. They know that you were not there just to write a book. They know that you werewhat are you going to do?'

'Oh my God,' complained Teresa.

Dolores had a run in with her business partner, Maz, over the time she was spending at their gym, and she asked if they could start afresh.

Gym owner: Dolores was scolded for neglecting her business duties with the gym

She told the cameras she was having a hard time letting go of the part of her that wanted to be reliant on a man, which was part of her family culture.

'I have not pulled my weight. The only thing holding me back is my fear of coming out of my comfort zone,' Dolores admitted after being told the gym was way short of its membership totals.

Melissa then organized a big Italian family dinner to impress Joe.

Big dinner: Melissa made an effort to please Joe by cooking a big family dinner

'Pasta and kids running around, I think that is what Joe is dying for,' she said.

'Thank you Jesus, there is a home cooked meal, there hasn't been a home cooked meal in months,' said a happy Joe.

'This nice dinner is exactly what we needed to get us back on track,' said Melissa as her family demanded he be supportive.

Good times: Joe was in a good mood as the family gathered for Italian food

Siggy went out for her son's birthday dinner with ex-husband Mark, and his new wife - who she introduced him to after they split.

She grew emotional and wiped away tears as she said she knew she had to let her son have more space, before they stunned him with a car of his own.

Josh said it was the best birthday ever as he climbed into his new ride.
He was hoping for reassurance from listeners who called in.

But Rove McManus' on-air confession was met with shock and disgust, after the 42-year-old revealed that he shares a TOOTHBRUSH with his wife Tasma Walton on Monday.

Speaking on his 2DayFM radio show, the funnyman insisted 'it's very normal to share a toothbrush' with your partner, while his co-host Sam Frost said she thinks 'it's gross'.

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Sharing is caring? Rove McManus made a shocking on-air confession on Monday as he revealed he shares a toothbrush with his wife Tasma Walton

Before opening up the discussion to their listeners, Rove justified: 'You've been married for many years. You share a toothbrush. What difference does it make? You kiss each other anyway.'

His colleague Sam, 27, completely disagreed and explained that although she kisses her boyfriend Sasha Mielczarek all the time, she would never share the same toothbrush as him.

'It's like me picking out all the food in Sasha's teeth and putting it in my mouth. That's what you're basically doing,' the former Bachelorette told Rove.

Shocked: Rove's admission left his co-host Sam Frost as well as most of their listeners in awe, with the 27-year-old telling her colleague it's 'gross'

Difference of opinion: Sam told Rove she would never share a toothbrush with her boyfriend Sasha Mielczarek

Listeners who called in also disagreed with the father-of-one, with one man saying it's an 'unusual' arrangement.

Another fan, who works as a dental assistant, was appalled by Rove's admission.

She told the Gold Logie winner sharing a toothbrush could put both himself and Tasma at risk of serious side effects such as 'periodontal gum disease'.

'What difference does it make?' The 42-year-old comedian told listeners it's 'very normal' to share a toothbrush with your partner as you 'kiss each other anyway'

Blonde beauty Sam then went on to say that a toothbrush costs around $2, and her co-host should think about forking out the small amount on individual devices rather than sharing.

Rove and Tasma recently moved into a $6.4 million home in Sydney's affluent beachside suburb of Bronte with their three-year-old daughter Ruby, according to Property Observer.

The sprawling five-bedroom home overlooks the ocean and features a custom-fitted home office and library as well as a temperature-controlled wine cellar.
Without the aid of stylists in the comfort of the Bachelor mansion, contestants Olena Khamula and Georgia Tripos made a slight fashion faux pas on Saturday night when they both arrived at an event in near-identical outfits.

Stepping out at the Fashion Aid event in Melbourne, makeup artist Olena stunned in a white backless gown, as did Georgia.

Olena, who is one of the final three girls vying for Richie Strahan's heart, posed in the racy gown with a bare back, which also featured a thigh-high split.

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Double trouble: The Bachelor Australia contestants Olena Khamula and Georgia Tripos made a slight fashion faux pas on Saturday night, when they both arrived at the Fashion Aid event in Melbourne in near-identical outfits

The back of the ensemble was so low that it came dangerously close to revealing a serious eyeful of the reality star's spectacular derriere.

The stunning blonde showcased her signature quiet confidence by offering a sly smirk to the camera whilst gingerly lifting up her garment to reveal even more of her delectable thigh.

Olena worked the camera from every angle, flashing her bare back for onlookers to see.

Stylish: Olena, who is one of the final three girls vying for Richie Strahan's heart, posed in the racy gown with a bare back, which also featured a thigh-high split

Working it: The stunning blonde showcased her confidence whilst gingerly lifting up her garment to reveal even more of her delectable thigh

The model completed her stylish look with a pair of strappy cream coloured stilettos.

Meanwhile Georgia dared to bare in a similar plunging backless gown with spaghetti straps.

Leaving her dark mane to hang in loose curls past her shoulders, Georgia completed her look with a pair of large gold hoop earrings.

Elegant: Olena accessorised with a nude coloured clutch and jewelled necklace

She drew attention to her full pout with a slick of maroon lipstick, while outlining her blue eyes with a winged eyeliner.

While posing on the red carpet, Georgia made sure to reveal bizarre ruching details that featured on the garment's derriere.

Joining the beauties on the red carpet were fellow Bachelor contestants Steph Dixon, Amber Gelina, Laura Williams, Aimee Psellos, Sasha Zhuravlyova and Tolyna Baan.
She's usually dolled up to the nines when she appears on television and a while attending red carpet events.

But on Sunday, Today Show star Sylvia Jeffreys went for a more natural look going makeup free shopping at Sydney's Bondi.

The engaged 30-year-old showed off her naturally flawless and glowing complexion as she sauntered around the stores, looking stylish in a floral maxi dress and leather jacket.

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Au naturel: On Sunday, Today Show star Sylvia Jeffreys went makeup free shopping at Sydney's Bondi

The statuesque blonde frock featured a slightly plunging neckline.

She carried a brown leather shoulder bag over her shoulder and wore black sandals that matched her jacket.

The beauty had her short blonde locks out neatly straightened.

In bloom: The statuesque blonde wore a green floral frock for the day that featured a slightly plunging neckline

Picture perfect: The engaged 30-year-old showed off her naturally flawless and glowing complexion as she walked about

She could be seen at one point carrying a hot beverage in a takeaway cup and picked up something in a store, holding onto a shopping bag in her spare hand.

At another point, she talked on her mobile phone as she walked around Zimmerman boutique.

Missing from the outing was her new fiance and fellow Channel Nine star Peter Stefanovic, who proposed to her while the pair were holidaying in Europe recently.

They announced the happy news on Instagram just over two months ago, with Sylvia writing online at the time: 'How's this for a framer?! A couple of weeks ago Pete popped the question, and I said yes, OF COURSE!!! We've had the most wonderful time celebrating with great mates. We couldn't be happier (check the grins ) and so excited to share the news with everyone.'

Checking out the goods: At another point, she talked on her mobile phone as she walked around a store, appearing to be a Zimmerman boutique

Flying solo! Missing from the outing was her new fiance and fellow Channel Nine star Peter Stefanovic, who proposed to her while the pair were holidaying in Europe recently

Sweet! They announced the happy news on Instagram just over two months ago, with Sylvia writing online at the time: 'How's this for a framer?!

Peter also wrote online underneath a happy snap of the pair: 'Asked my missus to be my wife and she said yes @sylviajeffreys.'

Today's Lisa Wilkinson recently gushed about co-star Sylvia and Peter as a couple.

'When we said come and join the family we didn't mean take it literally as she has taken it,' Lisa said, who co-hosts Today with Peter's brother Karl Stefanovic.

'She is going to be the most beautiful and exquisite bride marrying the most exquisite man. I mean they are as fabulous as you would expect them to be.

'So suited to each other.'

Getting married: Sylvia is seen here with Peter Stefanovic (seen in March last year)

'They are so suited to each other': Today's Lisa Wilkinson recently gushed about her co-star Sylvia and Sylvia and Peter as a couple
She previously said motherhood has given her 'so much purpose'.

And Asher Keddie is reportedly ready to expand her family once more, with Woman's Day claiming the 42-year-old actress is 'determined to have another baby' with her artist husband Vincent Fantauzzo, 39.

'Because of her age, she knows time is running out,' a close friend of the star told the mag.

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Family plans: Asher Keddie and her husband Vincent Fantauzzo are trying to have another baby 18 months after welcoming their first child Valentino, Woman's Day reports

The source added that Asher 'feels her body is in the best shape it could be to conceive naturally right now' but is also not 'ruling out IVF' treatment.

Daily Mail Australia was told the actress was not available for comment when asked about the reports.

The news comes 18 months after the blonde starlet welcomed her first child, Valentino.

Trying: The 42-year-old actress is said to be 'determined to have another baby' and has not ruled out IVF treatment

Keen for more: Vincent, 39, previously said he's 'working on Asher having more children' (pictured here with their 18-month-old son Valentino)

On board with the idea of Asher falling pregnant again is her Archibald prize-winning artist husband, who previously said: 'I'm working on Asher having more children so I can paint them every year.'

Already a step-mother to her Vincent's seven-year-old son Luca, the Offspring star recently revealed the past year has been an emotional and physical 'rollercoaster'.

'It was challenging, but it was also the most full of love any time has ever felt for me  I wasn't expecting it to give me so much purpose,' she told InStyle in July.

And despite staying tight-lipped about their family plans, the Melbourne-born actress did reveal to the publication: 'I like surprises and Valentino was a surprise. I don't close doors very often so we'll just see.

Rewarding: The Offspring star told InStyle in July that the past year after Valentino's birth has been challenging, but admits motherhood gave her 'so much purpose'

Busy mum: Asher is also step-mother to Vincent's seven-year-old son Luca

Asher and Vincent began dating in 2012 after the actress split from her husband of five years, Jay Bowen.

The couple met through good mutual friend Matt Moran and married in a secret ceremony in Fiji in 2014.

Gushing about their chemistry, the Paper Giants actress said: 'Probably for the first time in my life, if Im truthful about it, I felt like I could be myself with him. I didnt feel like I needed to be a certain way.'
She's the TV presenter who quit her high-flying job to find love on The Bachelorette.

And Georgia Love has revealed to TV Week her mother's battle with cancer inspired her to star on the show.

'She's going through chemo at the moment to make sure everything's gone, but it's still very touch-and-go,' the 27-year-old revealed.

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Inspiration: Georgia Love has revealed her mother's battle with cancer motivated her to star on The Bachelorette

Her mother, Belinda, went to the doctor suffering abdominal pain and a 'massive tumour' was discovered.

She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the same time Georgia was approached to be the next Bachelorette.

'The fact it was all happening at the same time made me decide "yes, I want to do this"... It puts it into perspective how important family and love are.

'Yes, I want to do this': Georgia's mum was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the same time she was approached to be the next Bachelorette

Back in the day: Georgia shared this picture of her as a child with her mother on Instagram

'Seeing how dad has been with mum through all of this, it made me think, "I want someone who will be my rock like that".'

Meanwhile, the former TV presenter looks set to permanently end her media career as she embarks on reality stardom.

The 27-year-old graduated from a journalism degree at RMIT in Melbourne in 2009.

Coming soon: Season two of The Bachelorette starts on September 21 on Network Ten

She worked as a WIN television journalist in Launceston before moving to Melbourne in 2014 to take up a producer role with the network.

A Nine spokesperson confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that her employment in 2014 ended once her three-month probation period was up.

Season two of The Bachelorette starts on September 21 on Network Ten.
She's always a vision on the red carpet.

And pregnant Natalie Portman kept up with appearances on Sunday night as she attended the Jackie screening at Toronto Film Festival.

Natalie, 35, who is reportedly expecting her second child with French husband, Benjamin Millepied but is yet to comment publicly on the news, hid her growing baby bump beneath a billowy dress.

Maternity in style! Natalie Portman kept up with appearances on Sunday night as she attended the Jackie screening at Toronto Film Festival

The frock featured a sheer fabric over a cute white slip as she styled her hair in gentle curls.

The day before, Natalie and Lily-Rose attended the movie premiere in Canada for during the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.

The feminine cream colored frock featured a simple floral pattern and a loose silhouette.

Natalie, 35, who is reportedly expecting her second child with French husband, Benjamin Millepied but is yet to comment publicly on the news, hid her growing baby bump beneath a billowy dress

The frock featured a sheer fabric over a cute white slip as she styled her hair in gentle curls

Producer Darren Aronofsky and director Pablo LarraIn posed with the gorgeous actress

Instead of highlighting her pregnant belly, the Black Swan star opted to show off her trim legs in the long-sleeved number which fell above her knees.

She teamed the pretty look with a pair of black suede pointy toed pumps and added a silver clutch.

The Israeli born star but Los Angeles native showed off her natural beauty with a simple make-up look and exuded effortless elegance with a slicked back ponytail and diamonds dangling in her ears.

Stylist Sophie Lopez (L) and actress Kate Hudson at the Jackie TIFF party hosted by GREY GOOSE Vodka

Stylist Sophie Lopez (L) and actress Kate Hudson at the Jackie TIFF party hosted by GREY GOOSE Vodka were also on the scene

She appeared in high spirits as she posed for snaps alongside Lily-Rose whilst radiating with a healthy glow.

Natalie is already the proud mother to son Aleph, who she welcomed in 2011 with husband Benjamin, whom she met while filming Black Swan in 2009.
She shares an adopted son and daughter with ex-husband Tom Cruise.

So it's no surprise Nicole Kidman found it easy to relate to her character in the upcoming feature film, Lion.

The drama tells the real-life story of five-year-old Saroo Brierley, who was adopted by an Australian couple after being separated from his family in India.

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Proud mum: Nicole Kidman found it easy to relate to her character in the upcoming feature film, Lion. She plays the mother of an adopted child

Nicole, who plays Saroo's mother, said she wanted to appear in the film because the story was 'so powerful and true'.

'Obviously I have adopted children. It takes a village to raise children,' the 49-year-old said.

'The power of good love, there's nothing like it, and where it comes from and how you get it. But the nurturing quality of good love is extraordinary.

Happy family: Nicole and her adopted children Connor, left, and Isabella, right, in 2004

Starlet: Nicole arrives for the premiere of the film Lion at TIFF the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto

'The power of somebody wanting to find home, I think, is just a wonderful, cinematic story.'

The Australian actress, who also has two biological daughters with husband Keith Urban, joined her co-stars at the movie's world premiere in Toronto.

Slumdog Millionaire actor Dev Patel and A Nightmare on Elm Street starlet Rooney Mara graced the red carpet alongside the Moulin Rouge actress.

All-star cast: Slumdog Millionaire actor Dev Patel and A Nightmare on Elm Street starlet Rooney Mara graced the red carpet alongside the Moulin Rouge actress

Rooney praised the performance of Dev, who portrays Saroo in the film.

'He went through such a transformation during this whole process,' she said. 'It was really cool to get to watch that.

'It was such a beautiful story. I couldn't believe it was a true story when I read it. I just wanted to be a part of it.

'It's such an uplifting film about the human spirit and about love and I just wanted to be part of something like that.'

The feature will premiere in the US this November and in Australia in January 2017.
Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna made a pact not to tell anyone the sex of their baby on Sunday's premiere of their new reality show Rob & Chyna.

But it did not take long for momager Kris Jenner, 60, to show up with a pink gift basket.

'Everybody had their feathers ruffled a little over this engagement. Rob was completely shutting us out, but Angela AKA Blac Chyna makes Rob so happy and to see how in love they are and how far Rob has come is amazing,' said Kris.

Secret revealed: Blac Chyna was irritated on Sunday's premiere of Rob & Chyna after fiance Rob Kardashian broke their pact to keep the sex of their baby a secret

'This will be my sixth grandchild and I can't think of any more important reason to embrace the relationship,' she added.

China was irritated that Rob had already told his mom they were expecting a girl.

'I guess that is just the Kardashian family, talk, talk, talk,' she said before turning on Rob for letting it slip.

'I mean that's my mom, it just came out,' he said.

Pink present: Kris Jenner brought a pink gift basket after Rob spilled the beans

Baby girl: Rob and Chyna revealed on the series premiere that they were expecting a girl

Hugged it out: Kris and Chyna hugged as the momager brought a pink gift basket

Sixth grandchild: The momager noted that Rob and Chyna were expecting her sixth grandchild

Rob, 29, and Chyna, 28, earlier in the episode went to a doctor's appointment to learn the sex of their baby.

He told the cameras that 'I really want a boy' before Dr. Katherine Bradley told them they were having a girl.

'Rob, it's a girl!' said Chyna with huge excitement.

Famous family: Chyna was learning about the Kardashian family quickly

Baby preference: Rob said that he was praying for a boy

'Oh that's crazy,' Rob replied.

The doctor then referred to the couple having a boy at home already in reference to Chyna and Tyga's three-year-old son King Cairo.

'Yeah but I don't,' said Rob glumly.

It's a girl: A doctor told Rob and Chyna they were having a girl

Mixed reaction: Chyna was excited to have a girl while Rob looked somewhat glum about it

'That's OK, this is your first,' the doctor told him.

'It's an emotional moment. Me wanting to have a boy stems from my relationship with my dad but I'm sure I'll have the same relationship that I had with my father with my daughter,' Rob said.

'I'm just happy that the baby's healthy and I'm super happy I'm gonna be having a girl,' he added.

Super happy: Rob later said he was 'super happy' to be having a girl

The doctor then told the couple that their baby had a 'nice, normal heartbeat.'

The show started with Rob telling the cameras he had chased Chyna for a year before she had fallen for him.

'The hardest thing for me being in a relationship with Robert is people thinking Im a gold digging ho,' Chyna told the cameras as she acted surprised when Rob told her he did not actually have $100 million.

New show: The couple talked about their relationship during the season premiere

Rob admitted that his family had given him a lot of 's*** for talking to Chyna.'

'They just don't know her and they don't know how hopeful she is. My life went from being in the dark in my room for three years gaining a grip of weight to getting it together and on top of that she has got a really good butt,' he said.

Chyna and her friends then spent a car ride making fun of Rob's close relationship with Kris.

Momma's boy: Chyna and her friends joked about Rob being such a momma's boy

'Rob has been babied by his mom and his sisters and it is just a little bit different for me as I was not raised like that,' she told the cameras.

China then explained how close she and Kim had been but when her ex-boyfriend Tyga began dating Kylie she had 'distanced' herself from the family.

'It has been a long process trying to get on with the Kardashians,' she admitted.

Long process: The mother of one also talked about her complicated relationship with the Kardashian family

Rob then told Scott Disick how he did not like going out anymore as he hated seeing the pictures of himself.

He also admitted he was not taking any insulin to deal with his diabetes much to Scott's annoyance.

Rob told Scott that he wanted a boy in order to keep on the family name.

Guy talk: Scott Disick was shocked to learn that Rob was not taking any insulin for his diabetes

'I am definitely hoping for a boy. I want to have the same relationship that I had with my father with my son and that is what I am praying for,' he told the cameras.

Rob also was shown taking a blow when he weighed himself and measured in at 263lbs, which he felt was 'so depressing.'

The couple then got into a fight when Rob started checking up on Chyna's phone and messages.

She's sneaky: Rob was dismayed to learn he weighed 263lbs after Chyna tricked him into thinking he weighed more by stepping on the scale

Trust issues: Chyna was upset when Rob started checking up on her phone and messages

'I don't understand why Rob would think I am doing anything wrong, I am four months pregnant, I am running two businesses and I am with King and I literally don't leave the house, what could I possibly be doing?' she said.

Rob admitted that he had insecurities because his previous girlfriend 'burned me in 100 different ways.'

Chyna then got into a huge fight with Rob over the phone after turning the tables on him and asking him if he was texting other girls.

Major fight: Rob got an earful from Chyna when she decided to turn the tables on him

'My fight with Rob last night really got me thinking that maybe he is the one that is like up to something,' she said before telling the cameras Rob had accused her of cheating, even with Tyga.

The pair then got into a huge on cameras fight with an irate Chyna screaming 'Who the f*** are you texting? Why are you still texting b****es?'

Rob tried to make peace with a bouquet of flowers before making a jokey apology.

Chyna then grabbed the flowers and threw them into the swimming pool and kicked him out of her house.

Pool time: Chyna tossed Rob's bouquet of apology roses in the pool and him out of the house

'It doesn't feel great, this is the mother of my child kicking me out of her house,' Rob said sadly as Chyna told the cameras she needed him to be a man and not a baby.

Chyna was then reduced to tears as King's nanny told her that she needed to act differently with Rob and not kick him out of the house but deal with their issues.

Rob then told Scott that he would now not sell his own house and was moving back in there.

On his own: Rob found himself on his own after Chyna kicked him out

'It's not a good feeling when you get kicked out,' he told him as Scott told him he had to 'roll with the punches.'

After not hearing from Rob for 24-hours Chyna went over to Rob's house to try and resolve the situation.

But when he did not answer Chyna and her friend found a key and let themselves into the house, with Chyna keen to make sure no girls had been staying over.

On the hunt: Chyna went looking for Rob at his house and checked the place over

Chyna then went over to Kris Jenner's house to find her man but there was no sign of him.

Kris confronted Chyna over kicking Rob out and she told Kris her son was not 'taking things seriously.'

'I think he is learning how to be in a long-term relationship and I think it is great he has thrown himself into this relationship with you King, and the baby. It is cute,' said Kris.

Candid conversation: Kris confronted Chyna about kicking Rob out of the house

'I think he is going to be a really responsible parent. He had a really good example as a dad. He knows what he is supposed to be doing but he is never going to change until he feels good about himself,' Kris said.

Chyna then told the cameras she 'could not fix' him on her own and hoped Rob would figure things out.

Kris then spoke to Rob and urged him to learn to compromise as her son told the cameras he needed some time to concentrate on himself.

Mother and son: Rob got a meal from Kris before she urged him to compromise with Chyna

'Honestly with me and Chyna I don't know what is going to happen,' he said.

In a preview of future episodes Chyna appears to take a paternity test and seriously question if she wants to stay in a relationship with Rob.

Rob & Chyna will return on Sunday on the E! network.
The head of the state newspaper association says charges filed against a reporter who documented a pipeline protest "at least raises a red flag," though law enforcement says she was targeted because she could be identified from video footage -- not because she is a journalist.

"Its apparent that the protest was on private property, but its regrettable that authorities chose to charge a reporter who was just doing her job," Steve Andrist, executive director of the North Dakota Newspaper Association, said via email about the misdemeanor trespass charge filed against Amy Goodman, a New York-based reporter who documented the use of guard dogs at a Dakota Access Pipeline protest.

"There were a lot of people at the protest site, and only two of them were charged. One was a reporter, and that certainly creates the impression that the authorities were attempting to silence a journalist and prevent her from telling an important story," Andrist wrote after reviewing the complaint against her.

Goodman was charged Thursday in Morton County with one count of trespassing, based on video footage of her at a protest site on private property during Labor Day weekend, according to court documents. A warrant was issued for her arrest.

Goodman reported on a clash between protesters and private security at an active construction site south of Mandan that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe said contained historic artifacts. Three guards were reportedly injured, and several protesters said they were pepper-sprayed and bitten by dogs handled by the security personnel. The North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board has since opened an investigation into the use of dogs at the site.

Footage of the protest was featured on "Democracy Now," a TV news show hosted by Goodman. It went viral on social media and may have been used as evidence against her.

"Amy Goodman can be seen on video identifying herself and interviewing protesters about their involvement in the protest," according to a police affidavit filed in the case.

Jack McDonald, attorney for the newspaper association and the Bismarck Tribune, who has worked in media law for 40 years, said he could not recall a reporter facing trespassing charges while covering a story in the state.

"They have been threatened many times with arrest for trespass or interfering with police officers/fire personnel/emergency responders, but no actual arrest," McDonald said via email.

Cody Hall, spokesman for the Red Warrior Camp, also was charged with trespassing in the same incident. He spent the weekend in jail after he was picked up with expired tabs. He pleaded not guilty on Monday afternoon.

Morton County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Donnell Preskey said the two were charged "because those two our investigators were able to identify."

No one was arrested on the day of the incident, since the protesters dispersed when law enforcement arrived, according to Preskey.

She would not say whether law enforcement had identified other individuals who have not been charged. The case remains under investigation.

Goodman declined to be interviewed for this article. According to a statement on her show's website, she is working with lawyers from North Dakota and the Center for Constitutional Rights, a civil rights advocacy organization.

"This is clearly a violation of the First Amendment  an attempt to repress this important political movement by silencing media coverage," Baher Azmy, CCR's legal director, said in that statement.

Goodman was arrested at least once before on the job: at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., according to news reports. Goodman sued law enforcement and settled for $100,000.

Lucy Dalglish, dean of the journalism school at the University of Maryland and former executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said Goodman's case will revolve around whether she was singled out for charges.

"When it comes to laws of general applicability, like robbing a bank or trespass, journalists do not have a greater right to do it than anyone else," said Dalglish, who once worked for the Grand Forks Herald. "However, if they treated her differently or in a more negative way because she was reporting, then there is a First Amendment issue."

Dalglish said it is fairly common for reporters, and especially photographers, to face trespass charges. However, it is less common for them to face arrest after the fact.

Of Goodman's work potentially being used against her, Dalglish commented: "That's kind of slimy."
She is best known for donning the drab beige prison jumpsuit on Orange Is The New Black.

And Dascha Polanco looked a far cry from Dayanara Diaz on her latest outing.

The 33-year-old actress upped the sex appeal as she headed to The Blonds runway show as part of a MADE Fashion Week event on Sunday night.

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Curvaceous: Dascha Polanco upped the sex appeal as she headed to The Blonds runway show as part of a MADE Fashion Week event on Sunday night

She proudly put her curves on display in a clinging bodysuit as she attended the star-studded runway show held at Milk Studios in the Big Apple.

Her racy one-piece featured a white-lined patterned on it as she also showed off her cleavage as it featured a low-cut neckline.

Dascha did cover up with a long pink patterned coat along with strappy black stilettos.

Ooh la la: The 33-year-old actress proudly put her curves on display in a clinging bodysuit as she attended the star-studded runway show held at Milk Studios in the Big Apple

She accessorised with a silver and gold metallic clutch, gold rings and a pair of dangling earrings for the occasion.

Her raven-coloured tresses were worn down flowing over her shoulders as her natural, complimentary make-up was topped off with a swipe of shiny dark red lip.

The runway show - which was also attended by Kelly Osbourne, Teyana Taylor and Amanda Lepore - featured statuesque models wearing big, curly blonde wigs and shimmering silver outfits.

Dynamic duo: Kelly Osbourne was joined at the event by Amanda Lepore

Tremendous trio: They were joined by another woman as they posed for pictures before the show

Golden girl: Teyana Taylor looked fabulous as always

Despite rising to fame in her Netflix series, Dascha recently opened up about how fashion designers still refuse to collaborate with her because of her size.

In an interview with Vogue Magazine last month, she spoke out about her experiences with being turned away.

'I understand that its business, but still, its like, really?' the Orange Is The New Black star told the fashion magazine.

Capturing the moment: Kelly, Christina Milian, Dascha and June Ambrose - pictured from left to right - all held up their phones to document the runway show

Some of the high-end brands that rejected Dascha are companies that she is a loyal customer of.

She told the outlet, 'I love what they do, so I had my publicist reach out to their PR team. Their response was, Oh, youre not the sizes we have, not right now, maybe in the future."'

Dascha added: 'Its disappointing, but I try to work with up-and-coming designers who will make things for me and who will collaborate with me. People who love my curves and embrace them as much as I do.'

Racy: All the models on the show rocked large platinum blonde curly wigs
She was said to have flown over to the UK to settle her son into school.

But new reports claim that Madonna, 58, made an emergency dash to be with her 16-year-old son in London after learning that his father Guy Ritchie, 47, had gone on holiday.

The Sun writes: 'Their fragile peace deal is in tatters. She was deeply worried to find out he was without a parent when he was beginning an important new school year and made an emergency dash to the UK.

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'She dropped everything in her packed diary and immediately left New York on Sunday to be with Rocco.'

'Part of the reason for her agreeing the custody deal was the knowledge that his next school year is crucial for his future. He has important exams coming up.'

Three days ago, Jacqui posted some pictures of herself and Guy in Los Angeles together around Malibu beach.

She also shared a loved-up picture of them both at Soho House, where photography is not permitted, writing: 'The Soho House police tried to stop us...'

Since arriving in the UK, Madonna has been pictured meeting Rocco's headmistress at his school.

On Tuesday night, both she and Rocco were pictured laughing and joking as they sat in Farmacy restaurant together in Notting Hill.

Reps for both Guy and Madonna have declined to comment to The Sun. MailOnline has also reached out for further information.

On Thursday night, the singer was pictured attending the Beatles movie premiere in London's Leicester Square.

The latest comes after Madonna and Guy Ritchie recently settled their custody battle over son Rocco following nine months of dispute.

They agreed that he must continue his education in England while still spending regular time with his mother in America.

Case settled: Madonna and Guy recently settled their custody battle over son Rocco following months of dispute, agreeing that he must continue his education in England while still spending regular time with his mother in America

A source close to Madonna said: 'It's the start of a new school year and if his father, who lives in London, can't be there, then his mother is going to have to be.'

Arriving at Terminal 5, the blonde star covered up in all-black and even sported some chunky shades as she arrived at Heathrow airport.

On Sunday evening the songstress was spotted jetting out of JFK airport in the same ensemble.

Incognito: The blonde star covered up in all-black and was still sporting chunky shades as she arrived at Terminal 5

Casual: Despite the seven hour flight Madonna looked fresh as a daisy on her arrival

The Material Girl managed to stun her 19-year-old daughter Lourdes as she joined her famous mum at the Alexander Wang's Spring 2017 collection in New York on Saturday.

The Like A Prayer star suffered a wardrobe malfunction as she nuzzled into the 19-year-old model's neck on the front row.

Madonna smiled as she cosied up close to her daughter while clad in a very eye-catching outfit - yet seemed unaware of her unfortunate slip up.

Undercover mother: She suffered an embarrassing nip slip the day before at a NYFW show; And on Sunday night Madonna made sure to cover up while catching a flight out of New York's JFK airport

True star power: The blonde star covered up in all-black and even sported some chunky shades for her flight out of town

Blazer her trail: The star also wore a sharp and trendy coat as she arrived at JFK

She donned a belted corset with a sheer neckline, sporty black trousers, and a jacket to match - looking stunning in the process, although her wardrobe malfunction drew attention away from her look.

The popstrel styled her hair in loose ringlets while bringing out her green eyes with a winged slick of eyeliner.

Lourdes, meanwhile, sported a fluffy white turtleneck, black shorts, fishnet stockings, and a pair of ankle boots.

Mum!! Madonna's daughter Lourdes looked stunned as she joined her famous mum at the Alexander Wang's Spring 2017 collection in New York on Saturday

Put it away! The Like A Prayer hitmaker suffered a wardrobe malfunction as she nuzzled into the 19-year-old model's neck on the front row

What a show! Eyes glued to the catwalk, Madonna and Lourdes were clearly riveted to the show

Star-studded! Madonna and Lourdes enjoyed prime views beside the likes of Zoe Kravitz, Nicki Minaj, Tyga, and Kylie Jenner

Eyes glued to the catwalk, Madonna and Lourdes were clearly riveted to the show.

The popstrel grinned widely as her daughter gazed towards the runway, looking in awe of the show, which included the likes of Kendall Jenner as models.

Alexander Wang's Spring 2017 collection included flowery and flowing crop tops, lace hem shorts, and a sequin maxi skirt of which Kendall wore down the runway.

Sporty and sexy: The Material Girl singer donned a belted corset with a sheer neckline, sporty black trousers, and a jacket to match

Hitting her stride: Madonna hit her stride in a pair of black heels, which were barely visible beneath her slouchy trousers

Attention to detail: The popstrel styled her hair in loose ringlets while bringing out her green eyes with a winged slick of eyeliner

Charmed! The hit-maker received a warm welcome by Nicki Minaj

Mwah! The ladies kissed each other on the cheek

Days earlier Guy and Madonna reached the custody settlement hours before they were due in court in New York on Wednesday.

Speaking outside the court Guy's lawyer, Peter Bronstein, said that the 16-year-old-year-old would continue to live with his father in London.

According to Page Six, Bronstein said: 'The case is settled and everyone agrees that Rocco's needs changed and he's going to be living with dad.

'Everyone's agreed to that and there's no further need for any kind of a court case.'

Though court documents obtained by TMZ claimed the exes were scheduled to attend another hearing on Wednesday but did indeed resolve their differences 'hours before' the hearing.

Come here! The chart-topper slung her arm around the fashion designer
Hundreds of zombies met a watery end as they were lead off a pier in a stunning survival move by Madison's group on Sunday's episode of Fear The Walking Dead.

The group came up with the ingenious idea to eliminate all of the infected zombies at the Mexican waterfront hotel so they could turn it into their new home base.

They started off going room to room in the huge resort to kill off the zombies one by one before settling on the mass killing approach.

Follow the leader: Madison lead a horde of zombies off a pier on Sunday's episode of Fear The Walking Dead

It seemed to go according to plan as Madison jumped into the rough sea with the walkers hurling themselves after her.

Madison's daughter Alicia was waiting to rescue her in an inflatable while the walkers were left floundering and about to be swept out to sea by rip tides.

The episode titled Pablo &Jessica started off by revealing that Madison and Strand managed to escape the hotel zombies by using Nick's trick of smearing themselves in blood to mask themselves.

The pair then discovered that the truck was missing but Madison refused to believe that her daughter Alicia would have taken it.

Good point: Alicia came up with the bright idea during a talk with her mother Madison

Smart move: The group decided to use the riptide to wash the zombies out to sea

When Strand reminded her how 'self-reliant' Alicia was Madison replied: 'Yeah. I made her that.'

The pair were soon reunited with Alicia and introduced to Elena and found out that the surviving wedding guests controlled months worth of food supplies.

'I'm tired of running Victor,' said Madison as she got Oscar to let them into the hotel to talk about helping each other out.

Time to talk: Victor and Madison talked to Oscar about staying at the hotel

Wedding party: Oscar's bride became a zombie during their wedding party

Madison told them that the hotel presented an opportunity to survive but they needed to clear out the dead.

'We can make this place a home,' she urged them as she warned about the next group who may come along.

Oscar and his mother-in-law refused to help them out as Madison told them they were going to fortify the hotel with or without their assistance.

With or without you: Madison was resolved to make the hotel situation work

In the end Oscar handed over the keys as Strand reminded Madison that the hotel would never be their home.

Alicia lead a group through the hotel eliminating the dead one by one.

'We gotta clean-sweep this,' she explained forcefully.

Zombie hotel: The group was determined to rid the hotel of zombies

During a break from the eradication Madison and Alica sat on the beach and talked, and Madison apologized to her daughter for having to raise herself after her dad's death.

'That is on me,' said Maddie.

'You didn't do anything wrong,' Alicia told her mom.

Nothing wrong: Alicia assured her mother that she did nothing wrong raising her

Alicia then saw signs warning of dangerous riptides in the water and hatched the deadly plan.

She then played music on her phone and shouted to attract the zombies from the hotel as they lead them onto the pier and towards a watery grave.

With Madison getting the dangerous job of leading them over the edge the rest of her gang took to the water in an inflatable boat to rescue her.

Following her: A group of zombies followed Madison onto the pier

Leap of faith: Madison jumped off the pier as teh zombies approached her

Jumping off: The zombies fell of the pier after Madison

Fished out: Alicia helped pull her mother out of the water as the zombies followed her

At the last minute Madison jumped off the pier into the fierce waters below with the walkers diving after her to perish.

With the walkers all gone the survivors all sat together in the hotel for dinner, but Strand decided to leave and walk up to the honeymoon suite.

There he spoke with Oscar to try and convince him to put an end to his infected wife, Jessica.

Dinner time: Victor guessed that Oscar was in the honeymoon suite instead of dinner

Tough talk: Oscar talked about losing his bride who became a zombie

'Death parted you,' Strand told him as Oscar finally allowed him to kill the zombie bride who was turned by her own father after he succumbed to a heart attack at the wedding.

In Colonia, Nick tried to make-up for his Marco mistake by cutting drugs that Alejandro traded for to make it stretch further.

Alejandro was not keen fearing Marco would work out what they had done but Nick insisted: 'You're a pharmacist, I'm a junkie OK, trust me.'

Drug expert: Nick took control of cutting the drugs

He then told Nick he had been bitten trying to save a drug addict who had been mistaken for a zombie and attacked by a mob.

Alejandro tried to save the boy from the mob when he was bitten only to be eventually pulled out of trouble by Luciana.

He told him that he waited for death to come but it never arrived for him.

Bitten but survived: Alejandro told Nick how he was bitten but still survived

Later in the show Luciana discovered that her brother Pablo had been found dead and 'in pieces.'

Nick and Luciana then went out of the colony and as she explained about her brother he hugged her and the pair almost kissed before she walked away from him.

In the evening Luciana paid a visit to Nick's new trailer, given to him by Alejandro for buying Colonia time with his drug cutting.

Brother gone: Luciana learned that her brother Pablo was killed and 'in pieces'

As she left for the evening Nick asked Luciana if she had been testing him, as Alejandro had suggested.

She did not answer but walked back and rewarded him with a passionate kiss.

Fear The Walking Dead will return on Sunday on AMC.
She is the star of a new art film directed by designer Tom Ford titled Nocturnal Animals.

And Amy Adams proved she is the brightest creature of the night at the premiere for the film at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday evening.

The 42-year-old actress - rocking David Webb jewelry - looked positively gorgeous in a figure hugging white dress that showed plenty of cleavage.

Nocturnal Animal: Amy Adams proved she is the brightest creature of the night at the premiere for the film at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday evening

The fiery headed star smiled confidently on the carpet while wearing her red tresses in bombshell waves over her shoulders.

She stars in the film with Jake Gyllenhaal and Isla Fisher.

The flick follows Amy as an art gallery owner who is haunted by her ex-husband's novel, a violent tale which she interprets as a veiled threat.

Plenty of front! The 42-year-old actress - rocking David Webb jewelry - looked positively gorgeous in a figure hugging white dress that showed plenty of cleavage

Always time: The star posed with fans on the red carpet

Nail-biting: It has been quite the week for the star who just won the coveted silver medallion at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, on Saturday

Selfies! The fiery headed star smiled confidently on the carpet while wearing her red tresses in bombshell waves over her shoulders

Glam: Ellie Bamber put on a leggy display in a thigh-skimming silver dress as Elizabeth Chambers turned up the glamour in a one-sleeved navy dress

Smart: Bryce Dallas Howard looked chic in an asymmetric blazer dress

All that glitters! Ellie turned heads in her metallic dress and shoes ensemble

Dapper: Tom Ford and Aaron Taylor-Johnson looked suave in their suits

Handsome duo: Armie Hammer and Elizabeth Chambers posed together on the red carpet

Meanwhile it has been quite the week for the star who just won the coveted silver medallion at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, on Saturday.

It has been won in the past by director Danny Boyle, Robert Redford, Penelope Cruz and Daniel Day Lewis.

However Amy also appears at the festival to promote two highly-anticipated upcoming movies that she stars in.

First is sci-fi drama Arrival, which sees Amy join forces with Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker to investigate a mysterious spacecraft that has touched down on Earth.

The film hits theatres December 9 in the US.

Meanwhile Amy was also spotted wearing a cobalt blue ensemble at the W Magazine bash.

Pairing a semi-sheer plunging chiffon blouse with a coordinating pencil skirt featuring statement button, the actress put on a glamorous appearance.

And paying attention to detail she completed the ensemble with matching pumps and a splash of coral lipstick.

The flick follows Amy as an art gallery owner who is haunted by her ex-husband's novel, a violent tale which she interprets as a veiled threat

Social butterfly: Meanwhile Amy was also spotted wearing a cobalt blue ensemble at the W Magazine bash
They play an interracial couple fighting for the right to be together in Loving, a film set in Virginia during 1958.

And it seems filming has fostered a wonderful friendship between co-stars Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga.

The pair were photographed smiling and holding hands on the red carpet at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday.

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Close friends: Ruth Negga (left) and Joel Edgerton (right) appeared to have developed a close bond on the set of Loving as they took to the red carpet hand in hand

The AACTA award winner cut an elegant figure in a plum three-piece suit by Thom Sweeney.

He teamed the suit with a pale purple shirt and a slightly darker tie.

Joel finished off the look with a pair of dark suede dress shoes, and let his light brown locks curl naturally at along his hairline.

Alternative outfits: Both Joel and Ruth appeared to have taken risks with their outfits, the actor appearing in a plum suit and the actress donning an unusual maxi dress

In the name of love: Joel and Ruth play an interracial couple in 1958 Virginia, fighting for the right to marry

Ruth, 33, rocked a chic look in an unusual black leather-look maxi dress.

The gown appeared to be connected to a grey blouse with beaded detail embroidered on the sleeves.

She wore her short black hair in glamorous waves and accentuated her full lips with a dark colour.

All smiles: The pair posed happily for the cameras on Sunday and appeared very at ease together

The boss is here! Joel's arm remained wrapped around Ruth's small waist even when Loving director Jeff Nichols came to join the pair for photos

The Ethiopian-Irish actress accessorised with a thin gold necklace and a black leather-look clutch with a furry handle.

She added height to her small stature with a pair of bright red and black chunky platform heels.

The film, which follows Richard Loving, played by Joel, who is sentenced to prison in Virginia in 1958 for entering into an interracial marriage with partner Mildred, played by Ruth.

It has received almost unanimous praise from critics.
She recently celebrated her birthday in Mykonos, Greece with friends and family posting pictures of her gorgeous and glamorous adventures in the Mediterranean.

And it appears that Sam Armytage has extended her Greece vacation exploring restaurants hidden in caves and drinking prosecco with her 'favourite Greek family'.

The curious photograph sees Sam walking on a thin walkway built into the side of a rock face leading to straw huts on the beach.

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Secret restaurant: Breakfast show host Sam Armytage poses on a thin bridge built into a rock face leading to a hidden restaurant in a cave in Mykonos

The picture is captioned: 'My favourite kind of restaurant.. One in a cave, that's REALLY hard to get to...'

While another snap posted just hours earlier sees Sam posed in front of a beautiful sunset with two people.

She wrote: 'A paper cup of prosecco, a Cycladic sunset and my favourite Greek family... Perfecto.'

Happy hour! Sam posted a picture earlier looking relaxed with friends who sipped prosecco from a paper cup in front of a 'cycladic sunset'

The posts come just days after a stunning holiday snap which has the breakfast show host posed in a turquoise blue pool back dropped with the Mediterranean sea.

In the snap, Sam captioned the photo: 'My Oh My......konos.'

Sam, who was celebrating her birthday at the time couldn't wait to show flashbacks of her incredible 40th posting a follow up picture just hours after the poolside snap.

Thank you! Sam Armytage posts goodbye snap to Instagram after an exotic holiday in Mykonos. She is seen in a magnificent blue pool with the view of the ocean behind her

Seen with her sister and friends the follow up picture was captioned: ' #fbf My sistas from another mista @ my b'day [sic] (oh, & my sista from the SAME mista in the middle..).'

Sam's 149,000 fans followed her decadent birthday with shots posted regularly including a glamorous shot alongside two of her elegantly dressed friends.

Sam had her blonde locks combed back revealing her natural beauty and a pair of leopard print sunglasses appearing to be in happy spirits.

Flashback: She followed the snap with a flashback of her 40th birthday celebrations in a picture with her sister (centre) and friends just hours later

'Birthday shenanigans': In other birthday photos the luxurious pool made an earlier appearance on the breakfast host's Instagram showing someone diving into it

She wore gold hoop earrings with a pearl detail and carried her phone in the photo alongside her friends.

She captioned the happy snap: 'That's what friends are for. Helping you turn 40.

'Love you two to the other side of the world... and back!'

Birthday bonanza: Sam has been travelling to tropical locations to celebrate her 40th birthday and recently posted a glamorous photo from Mykonos

Exotic: Her Instagram account has been canvased with pictures of exotic pools, local hanging baskets, icy cold mojitos and fresh fish to mark her adventures

In other birthday photos the luxurious pool made an earlier appearance on the breakfast host's Instagram marking her 'birthday shenanigans'.

A person diving into the dimly lit pool can be seen causing a tidal wave of water to erupt from the luxurious pool while a person sits floating beside it.

Starting on September 4 the birthday celebrations have extended over a week and began with a three tier cake in the Channel Seven office.

Birthday beginnings: Sam began to celebrate her birthday a few days before the actual date with a giant cake brought in by her colleagues on Sunrise (pictured)

Double trouble: Sam was spoilt by friends after receiving two cakes on her birthday on September 4

Sam then headed out to lunch in Rose Bay with her colleagues, before taking a few weeks off for her holiday.

Her Instagram account has been canvased with pictures of exotic pools, local hanging baskets, icy cold mojitos and fresh fish to mark her adventures.

She started her trip in Mexico and continued to Greece before returning back to sunny Sydney.
The Toronto International Film Festival is one of the movie world's most important calendar dates.

So Rachel Weisz ensured she looked her very best for the glamorous event as she wowed on the red carpet at the Princess of Wales Theatre for the Denial premiere on Sunday.

The 46-year-old movie star looked sensational in a billowing gown with sheer bell sleeves and floral appliques adorned over the corseted waist.

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True stunner: Rachel Weisz ensured she looked her very best for the glamorous event as she wowed on the red carpet at the Princess of Wales Theatre for the Denial premiere on Sunday

Rachel plays historian Deborah Lipstadt in the movie, the author of 2005 book Denial: Holocaust History on Trial, on which the film is based.

For the premiere of the hard-hitting flick, she sported the stunning gown which stole the show due to its billowing nature both in the sleeves and length.

While the dress initially appeared demure, a corseted waist visible through the sheer material added a racy touch particularly when paired with a nude underlay.

The huge bell sleeves gave a Seventies feel to the look, while the dress was given splashes of colour with the crimson, lilac and mint green appliques.

Floral fancy: The 46-year-old movie star looked sensational in a billowing gown with sheer bell sleeves and floral appliques adorned over the corseted waist

Ring the bell (sleeve): The huge bell sleeves gave a Seventies feel to the look, while the dress was given splashes of colour with the crimson, lilac and mint green appliques

Starring role: Rachel plays historian Deborah Lipstadt in the movie, the author of 2005 book History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier, on which the film is based

Looking preened to perfection, Rachel wore her glossy brown locks in a bouncy blow-dry while her make-up was dewy and stunning.

She held a silvery clutch bag with a metallic sheen although opted to forego jewellery save for her sparkling engagement ring gifted to her by husband Daniel Craig, who she married in 2011.

Joining Rachel on the red carpet was screenwriter David Hare, Deborah Lipstadt and her co-stars Tom Wilkinson, Andrew Scott and Timothy Spall. She was also seen alongside producer Gary Foster.

Hair-raising style: Looking preened to perfection, Rachel wore her glossy brown locks in a bouncy blow-dry while her make-up was dewy and stunning

Clutching on: She held a silvery clutch bag with a metallic sheen although opted to forego jewellery save for her sparkling engagement ring gifted to her by husband Daniel Craig, who she married in 2011

A bit of all white: New Zealand actress Caren Pistorius, who plays Laura Tyler in the film, posed alongside Rachel on the red carpet

The movie is about a 1996 British libel suit brought against Lipstadt and the publisher of her tome, Penguin Books, by Timothy Spall's character, David Irving, the British historian who Lipstadt accused of being a Holocaust denier.

While the hard-hitting subject matter is garnering interest, the reviews of the movie are proving to be mixed.

Dorkshelf.com commented: '(Director) Mick Jacksons souped up TV movie is too dull to respect, even with a few strong performances...

Hard hitting work: The movie is about a 1996 British libel suit brought against Lipstadt and the publisher of her tome, Penguin Books, by Timothy Spall's character, David Irving, the British historian who Lipstadt accused of being a Holocaust denier

All the stars: Joining Rachel on the red carpet was screenwriter David Hare, Deborah Lipstadt and her co-stars Tom Wilkinson, Andrew Scott and Timothy Spall. She was also seen alongside producer Gary Foster

'Unfortunately, theres really nothing here to get particularly excited or enraged about. Its a decidedly average affair all around. Ho-hum. Ah well.'

Meanwhile TheWrap.com writes: 'Jackson treats the subject with dignity and restraint, which robs his film of some energy but also keeps it from ever feeling exploitative.

'This is a courtroom drama with enormous sadness at its center, which helps compensate for the feeling that weve seen this kind of movie before.

Mixing it up: While the hard-hitting subject matter is garnering interest the reviews of the movie are proving to be mixed

The group: The stars of Denial were also at the Variety chat alongside author Deborah Lipstadt, Rachel Weisz, Andrew Scott and Timothy Spall
They spent a week partying at the annual Burning Man festival in Nevada, U.S earlier in the month.

And on Sunday, Imogen Anthony looked worse for wear as she finally took some down time in Los Angeles, California with her radio host beau, Kyle Sandilands.

As she sat across from her partner, the 25-year-old's faded pink locks appeared to be knotted as they fell roughly over her shoulders.

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Too much partying? Imogen Anthony looked worse for wear on Sunday as she took some down time in Los Angeles, California after parting at the Burning Man Festival

She kept her makeup to a minimal with a thin layer of foundation and a clear lip gloss.

For the casual outing, Imogen dressed in an oversized black printed T-shirt, which acted as a dress and featured randomly placed holes.

While flashing her long legs in the ensemble, she opted for leather over-the-knee thigh-high boots.

Catching up on down time: While going makeup free, the 25-year-old's faded pink locks appeared to be knotted as they fell roughly over her shoulders

Out there: For the casual outing, Imogen dressed in an oversized black printed T-shirt, which acted as a dress and leather thigh-high boots

Down cast: Her partner, Kyle Sandilands dressed in a blue flannelette shirt, which he rolled up the sleeves, navy T-shirt and cream shorts that dropped loosely below the knees

She accessorised with black studded wrist bands, a matching handbag and a pair of pilot-styled sunglasses.

Kyle, who is co-host of the Kyle & Jackie O breakfast show, dressed in a blue flannelette shirt, which he rolled up the sleeves, navy T-shirt and cream shorts that dropped loosely below the knees.

The 44-year-old covered his grey hair with a black cap and hid his eyes under a pair of dark shaded sunglasses.

Days earlier, the loved-up duo partied at the Burning Man festival and documented their experience on social media.

Unlikely of friends: The duo were later joined for lunch by Australian models Kris Smith and Maddy King

Loving life: Days earlier, Kyle and Imogen partied at the Burning Man festival and documented their experience on social media

During their time at the gathering, Imogen made a habit of stripping down for the popular festival.

In one of the clips shared to Instagram, the model concealed her modesty with her hands placed across her chest, while wearing a pair of skimpy black briefs, layered with a shredded skirt.

'TOPS OFF - LIBERTYYYY!! You can walk around nude if you want too, I love it! (sic),' Imogen captioned the snap.

In the video she smiled for the camera, saying: 'Where else can you do this? Nowhere. Burning Man, Burning Man'.

Later on, she dressed in a skimpy black bikini with an elaborate beaded skirt detail.
He is the star of new historical drama The Promise directed by Terry George about the Armenian Genocide.

And Christian Bale led the star-studded film premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada on Sunday.

Appearing on the red carpet with his wife Sibi Blazic, the pair put on a chic display in coordinating black ensembles.

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Chic: Christian Bale led the star-studded film premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada on Sunday

Christian, 42, looked suave in a black suit and coordinating black shirt.

Showing off a heavy beard, he smiled proudly as he posed with his wife.

Sibi looked pretty in a knee-length lace dress with semi sheer sleeves and a matching clutch bag.

Dapper: Appearing on the red carpet with his wife Sibi Blazic, the pair put on a chic display in coordinating black ensembles

For the frills! Sibi looked pretty in a knee-length lace dress with semi sheer sleeves and a matching clutch bag

Charlotte Le Bon turned up the glamour in a satin red dress featuring a full skirt.

The vibrant gown was cinched in at the waist, showing off her tiny midriff and she made it sparkle with some stunning white gold and diamond pieces from Forevermark Diamonds.

Putting on a doll-like appearance she wore her glossy chestnut hair off her face, showing off her stunning bone structure.

Accentuating her large eyes with lashings of mascara, the actress completed the outfit with black pumps decorated with colourful hardware detail.

Lady in red! Charlotte Le Bon turned up the glamour in a satin red dress featuring a full skirt

Hot stuff! The vibrant gown was cinched in at the waist, showing off her tiny midriff

Larking around: Oscar Isaac signed Charlotte's leg and no doubt marveled at her bejeweled shoes which sparkled alongside her Forevermark Diamond jewellery

Angelic: Angela Sarafyan also upped the ante in a floor-length champagne gown with chiffon overlay

Looking al-white! The semi cheer number featured a stunning multi-layered skirt and a strappy corset style top flashing a hint of cleavage

Elegant! Wearing her hair in a centre-parted chignon, she added pretty drop earrings to her get-up

And Angela Sarafyan also upped the ante in a floor-length champagne gown with chiffon overlay.

The semi cheer number featured a stunning multi-layered skirt and a strappy corset style top flashing a hint of cleavage.

Wearing her hair in a centre-parted chignon, she added pretty drop earrings to her get-up.

Colourful cast: The film's actors put on a splendid display at the event

Driving them green with envy! Also in a attendance was Shohreh Aghdashloo, who wore a metallic green A-line dress

Also in a attendance was Shohreh Aghdashloo, who wore a metallic green A-line dress.

Rocking a bold red lip she accessorised with nude patent heels and a bronze clutch.

Later the glamorous group attended the after party, posing together for a star-studded shot.

Group shot! (L-R) Actors Angela Sarafyan, Charlotte Le Bon, Christian Bale, Oscar Isaac and Marwin Kenzari at the The Promise TIFF party
Her latest movie, American Honey, has already garnered praise from critics, winning the Prix du Jury at May's Cannes Film Festival.

And Riley Keough looked ready for another round of applause as she stepped out to promote the anticipated project at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday.

The 27-year-old granddaughter of Elvis Presley wowed as she arrived at the Ryerson Theatre in a semi-sheer black dress, which featured embellishments and cut-outs.

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Big night out: Riley Keough attended the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival premiere of her new movie merican Honey premiere held at Ryerson Theatre on Sunday

The full-length gown featured a bejewelled high Bardot neckline, while small sections of her slender arms and toned midriff were exposed via glittering cut-outs.

She teamed her eye-catching number with a pair of black heels, which added extra height to her enviably lithe frame.

Riley's wavy chestnut brown tresses were tied into a loose bun, while her dramatic make-up featured heavy eyeliner, applied to give her the popular cat eye look.

Co-stars: The 27-year-old actress was joined by her American Honey co-star Sasha Lane

Sheer delight: Screen beauty Riley wowed as she stepped out in a semi-sheer black dress

As the beauty arrived at the event, she was joined by her stunning co-star Sasha Lane, who lit up the red carpet in a simple golden camisole dress.

Their movie, which also stars Shia LaBeouf, tells the story of a teenage girl who joins a travelling magazine sales crew and gets caught up in a whirlwind of mischief.

Riley has seen a jolt in her career since starring on the series The Girlfriend Experience. She is best known for her work in Magic Mike and Mad Max: Fury Road.

Strike a pose: As she walked the red carpet, Riley posed for a range of selfies with fans

Eye eye: Her dramatic make-up featured heavy eyeliner, giving her the popular cat eye look

The actress met her husband Ben Smith-Petersen while starring in the film, in which she starred as Capable alongside big names Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy.

Riley and Ben tied the knot in the romantic setting of Napa Valley's vineyards in California last year.

Speaking with Hello! magazine about the nuptials, Riley said, 'It was the most beautiful, amazing, fun day and night.

'It was every single person I love in one place. I didn't want it to end.'

Squad: The actresses were joined by (l-r) Raymond Coalson, Isaiah Stone, Mccaul Lombardi

Bust a move: Sasha showed off some slick dance moves, much to the delight of onlookers
They have been together for almost ten years.

But Salma Hayek and her husband Francois-Henri Pinault looked more loved-up than ever when the Frenchman surprised his actress wife at Heathrow Airport on Sunday.

The 50-year-old brunette adoringly kissed and cuddled her beloved hubby in delight, after he made a surprise appearance at the arrivals hall after she touched down from LA.

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Surprise! Salma Hayek, 50, could not contain her excitement on Sunday as her husband Francois-Henri Pinault, 54, surprised her outside Heathrow Airport

The Frida actress evidently could not contain her excitement, as she passionately threw her arms around her husband, 54, after arriving in the UK.

She planted a smacker on his cheek which resulted in a huge grin from the Kering CEO in response, before she turned him towards her for a romantic smooch.

Gripping on to each other tightly with Salma perching on tip-toes to lock lips with her beau, the couple looked the picture of love as they reunited after her time away.

Pucker up! She planted a smacker on his cheek which resulted in a huge grin from the Kering CEO in response, before she turned him towards her for a romantic smooch

The pair then headed off from the terminal hand-in-hand, chatting animatedly as they made their way to the car.

Despite having endured a long-haul flight, Salma looked her effortlessly glamorous self in a black shirt dress and smart matching dress coat.

Adding a splash of colour, the Sausage Party star jazzed the black ensemble up with a green floral brooch, which matched her favourite pair of green floral lace-up heels.

More in love than ever: The pair then headed off from the terminal hand-in-hand, chatting animatedly as they made their way to the car

Salma and Francois-Henri looked happier than ever during the outing, after confirming both their engagement and pregnancy back in March 2007.

Their daughter Valentina Paloma, now nine, was born in September of that year.

In July 2008 the pair briefly split but they reconciled soon after and married on Valentine's Day in Paris in 2009, before hosting a second ceremony in Venice two months later.

Still going strong: The happy couple have been together for ten years, becoming engaged in March 2007

Despite being adored by her French hunk and respected as one of the industry's top actresses, Salma recently admitted that she still suffers insecurities.

In a recent interview with InStyle UK, the mother-of-one spoke candidly about her confidence with body image and how it's 'up and down all the time.'

'Well I am entering my fifties, so your body confidence isnt that good,' admitted the brunette beauty.

Happy ending: In July 2008 the pair split but reconciled and married on Valentine's Day in Paris in 2009

'You have to get up and become your own work of art; from the moment you put yourself together,' she said.

'Not that I do it! I am quite lazy in the queen department. But celebrate who you are and celebrate life and know that this is your experience.'

Salma has recently released animated adult comedy Sausage Party alongside Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and Kristen Wiig - which she admits was the 'naughtiest thing she's ever done'.

Recalling to Collider the moment she saw the trailer for the first time, she explained: 'My husband said, Oh, my god, this is hardcore! I said, No, baby, thats the kindergarten version. Brace yourself!

'Its the naughtiest thing Ive ever done. I never thought Id ever say some of those things out loud. But, I had a lot of fun working with Seth.'

The actress is now currently filming new indie flick Beatriz at Dinner alongside Chloe Sevigny.

The new film tells the story of a holistic medicine practitioner, who ends up attending a wealthy family's dinner party after her car breaks down.
Last week, he declared that Mel B had 'saved my life' after she heroically dropped her pants to urinate on him during an episode of his survival show Running Wild.

But during an appearance on ITV's This Morning on Monday, the adventurer admitted that he embellished the effect that her gallant act had on his pain.

He said: '[It didn't make] a huge difference, but I didn't wanna be rude. It helped a little bit. But it wasn't the miracle cure I'd been hoping for. I was like, "Oh great, that's such a relief!"'

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P(ee)retend: Bear Grylls has admitted that he pretended Mel B's efforts to urinate on him after he sustained a painful jellyfish sting 'saved his life' on his survival show Running Wild

Bear, 42, went on to explain that the act of urinating on a jellyfish bite only stops the attached tentacles from stinging more, but doesn't nothing to neutralise the pain.

However, he remained grateful for the former Spice Girl's efforts, telling Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield: 'It's amazing how all male members of the crew went very coy.'

When asked by the co-hosts if he'd ever want controversial presidential candidate Donald Trump on his show, Bear said 'That would be interesting', before adding of the budding politician's hair: 'Let's hope the wind doesn't pick it up.'

Telling all: Bear made the confession during an appearance on This Morning on Monday

Girl power: Bear revealed that the male members of his crew were coy about urinating on him

In the wild: Mel B had quite the adventure on Wednesday's episode of Running Wild With Bear Grylls when she was forced to urinate on the survival expert following his jellyfish injury

Jellyfish sting: Bear was stung by a jellyfish and accepted Mel's offer to pee on his finger

On Wednesday's episode of his NBC show Running Wild With Bear Grylls, Mel B's survival instincts had to be called into action after he was unexpectedly stung.

Bear sustained the injury when he dropped the jellyfish as he tried to show the former Spice Girl how it can be boiled up for a protein-rich meal.

Mel immediately recalled what she'd so-far only seen in movies and asked the injured adventurer: 'Do you need me to pee on you?'

Medical aid: Mel guided Bear's hand as she helped him with his sting

That was weird: The British adventurer took Mel up on the offer as his hand started to swell

The musician refused to let Bear pee in front of her and instead offered 'two or three times' to provide some urine.

A reluctant Bear was forced to take Mel up on the offer since he had relieved himself on the rocks, just 10 minutes before.

Joking that it was 'so inappropriate,' Mel's modesty was blurred out as she pulled down her trousers with Bear looking away and advising her: 'Take my hand and guide it.'

That's gross: The former Spice Girls star said the jellyfish tasted like 'biting into skin'

Big ring: Bear was also worried about Mel's huge diamond wedding ring

She was shown smiling awkwardly as she struggled with her task, saying she had 'stage fright' and crying at first: 'I can't do it - it's not coming!'

Later, she told the camera: 'To pee on demand, when someone's in pain, is very difficult.'

Their faces finally showed that she managed, with Mel smiling at Bear: 'There you go. Don't say I don't do anything for you.'

She's game: Mel was put through several tough challenges

Then the fun-loving popstar added: 'Don't tell your wife' before agreeing to 'keep that one between the two of us' - despite the irony of the public broadcast.

'Mel B, she saved my life,' Bear smiled, insisting: 'It still stings, but it's better'. He then admitted: 'I must say, that is a first. All in the name of survival.'

'I have no words for it, I have no words for the day,' Mel said later, finally pulling her face in disgust when she had to eat the offending jellyfish, saying it tasted like 'biting into skin.'

Sheer wall: The singer climbed up a sheer rock face with Bear's help

Mel's part in the celebrity-based reality show was revealed at the end of August and she confessed that it was not all her idea.

'It was all my daughter Phoenix's idea that I do the show,' she told E! news. 'She convinced me it would be good for me to challenge myself inside and out.

'Phoenix knows I don't even like going on roller coasters, I'm not an adrenaline rush kind of girl and most things I do I'm totally in control So to do this show was a big leap of faith in my daughter, and of course in Bear!

Opening up: The singer talked about seeing her mother for the first time in years

'Giving your trust, control and life to someone else is daunting but it was truly a life changing experience. I did things I never thought were possible.'

Others stars who have their own, dedicated episode of the show include Zac Efron, Ben Stiller, Channing Tatum and Today anchor Tamron Hall.

Predictably, Mel screamed throughout much of the show as she was put through terrifying survival skills, including twice repelling down sheer rock faces that left her repeatedly crying 'Oh my God!' and swimming in the Irish sea after Bear admitted there might be sharks.

Nice fire: Bear and Mel talked around a roaring fire

'I haven't been abused verbally for a long time,' Bear teased her, before they finished their adventure by swimming out to a jetski that was carried in under a helicopter.

Bear, however, insisted his biggest fear was her destroying her huge diamond wedding ring, saying: 'I just see disaster written all over it, and if she loses that I think the bill's going to get sent to me.'

When she failed to get the ring off, Bear told her: 'Normally the mission is to keep the guest safe. With this one, it's keep the guest safe and also with the million dollar diamond ring still intact.'

She cheated: Mel was tasked with starting the fire but she brought a torch to help

Despite her screams, Mel called it an 'exhilarating' experience, adding: 'Words can't even really describe. The best part of this experience is it's real.'

As well as wild adventures, Bear once again managed to get his celebrity guest to really open up to him, with Mel revealing that the previous day she saw her mother for the first time in years while back home in the UK for the show.

'Me and my mom have a difficult relationship,' she told him.

'Moms know how to pinpoint those buttons in their daughters and I just, I'm the kind of girl that's a bit of a fighter. And it was just that one argument that went a little bit too far over the edge.

That was easy: Bear didn't think Mel could start the fire but she certainly did

'It's a shame really, because if my kids didn't speak to me for years I would be devastated.'

Saying she 'just thought it was the right time' to finally reconnect, she said: 'It was weird seeing her because I haven't seen her for so long. And I used to have a very close relationship with my mom, talked to her every single day

'So it's been a strange one, but it was nice to say hi. I didn't really have very much else to say apart from hi. I just gave her a big hug and we had about three or four hours together, which was lovely.'

She told him that she 'came from nothing,' explaining: 'My mom worked three jobs, my dad worked 12-hour shifts. I'm from a regular, normal, working class background.'

Dinner time: Mel and Bear settled down to eat their jellyfish

As for finding fame, she said: 'I think for my parents it was probably a bit of a relief, ''Oh she's finally off our hands! Go off and do something, do your thing.''

She described the Spice Girls as 'four girls who we all had the same drive, the same passion, the same ambition.'

'We were all kind of rejects. We didn't really get much work individually but together we were so powerful,' she said proudly, adding: 'We had no idea what we would become - we kind of hoped.'

Looking back: Mel reflected on her early days with the Spice Girls while out with Bear

At one point, Bear tried to get her to recall her nerves getting onstage the first time with her band to help her cope with his adventures with her, but she insisted: 'I had four people beside me and I knew what I was getting into and it was exciting. This was not exciting.'

She recalled their early days begging record companies to sign them - including a run-in with Simon Cowell, now her fellow judge on America's Got Talent.

'We ended up in a carpark with Simon Cowell auditioning for him,' she smiled.

Good times: Bear and Mel joked as they settled down to sleep

'He said, ''You girls are great but not for right now.''

'We used to wait outside record companies' front doors and just sing. And then finally Simon Fuller said, ''You know what, you're that persistent I guess I'll give it a go with you, I'll manage you.''

As for judging on America's Got Talent, she admitted it was hard at first 'because I've always been on the other side of it' as the act looking for help.

Hit show: Mel talked about judging entertainers on America's Got Talent

'I learned to like being in that position,' she said. 'It took me a minute to kind of get used to it.'

She also talked about the biggest challenge in raising three daughters being 'balancing being a mom and working and making sure they get enough of your individual time.'

When Bear brought up that all three had different dads, she joked about how proud she was that her first husband was a dancer for the Spice Girls, saying she started the trend.

Family life: Bear asked Mel about raising three daughters

'J-Lo then did it, Britney did it - but I was first,' she laughed.

She also said her time with Eddie Murphy - father to her middle daughter Angel - was an 'interesting relationship to say the least.'

'He's a comedian, a very interesting guy,' she said, adding he was older, too.

Fan favourite: Mel showed her outgoing personality throughout the show

Extraction point: Bear and Mel successfully made it to their extraction point

'I didn't really know him as The Eddie Murphy that everyone knows - he was just a nice, interesting guy.'

Bear ended the day clearly impressed with his guest, saying: 'She's had to fight for everything in her life. Really that's where her punchiness comes from.'

Saying she also had 'a big heart and persistence to never to give up,' he added: 'And those are two of the best weapons a girl can have.'

Cool: Bear looked casually cool as he made an appearance on ITV's This Morning on Monday

Wild style: The TV personality wore a white button-down shirt with blue jeans and blue trainers
Walking international runways is second nature for Victoria's Secret supermodel Lily Aldridge who is known for her ability to represent adventure, luxury and glamour all in one.

And stunning readers of Gritty Pretty Magazine in a gold sequined dress, Lily proved exactly why.

The 30-year-old revealed that she thinks nothing of jumping on a plane at moment's notice admitting that her career as a supermodel is made that much easier with the perks of travel.

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Golden goddess: Victoria Secret's supermodel Lily Aldridge casts a joyful gaze at photographers in a gold sequinned dress during a recent Caribbean photo shoot

'My world revolved around travelling  it's one of the things I love about my job. I love a good adventure. It's the most fun when you decide to pick up and go without a lot of planning.'

Wearing her chocolate brown locks waved for that fresh-out-of-the-ocean texture, Lily applied a texturizing sea salt spray to achieve the effortless beach look.

She appeared all smiles during the Caribbean shoot wearing a natural makeup with a tinted moisturiser, concealer and dark brow filler to accentuate her naturally dramatic eyebrows.

Seen jumping into a boat with a companion, Lily posed with the peace sign in the middle of the sparkling tropical ocean set.

Playful! Seen jumping into a boat with a companion, Lily posed with the peace sign in the middle of the sparkling tropical ocean set

All aboard: She is joined by fellow model, Wouter Peelen, who looked every bit as dashing, with messy brown locks and sculpted facial hair while wearing a laid back suit

Her slim physique was showcased in a body hugging sequined gold dress and styled by Michael Kors and Mario Testino.

Her companion, Wouter Peelen, looked every bit as dashing, with messy brown locks and sculpted facial hair to define his prominent jawline.

Wouter is seen wearing a suit and undone bow-tie while posing alongside Lily in a luxurious boat in the middle of the tropics.

Jumping from the boat the pair playfully pose in the water smiling and soaking up the warm sunshine beating down on them.

Beach babes: Jumping from the boat the pair playfully pose in the water smiling and soaking up the warm sunshine beating down on them in the Caribbean setting

As seen by Lily's Instagram account, she is no stranger to a day at the beach relishing her moments with daughter Dixie Pearl and often seen with rock star husband Caleb Followill from Kings of Leon.

Her love for dressing up paired with her desire for adventure are two reasons the brown haired beauty was chosen to represent Michael Kors latest fragrance, Wonderlust.

Michael revealed in a tell-all interview with Hamptons Magazine that his decision was fairly obvious if people understood who he represented as a designer.

'Everything I do is glamorous but laid back...To me, nothing is better than you're at a cocktail party in an extravagant pair of trousers, but you're barefoot and you're wearing your husband's t-shirt.

Doting mother: Lily appears to be no stranger to a day at the beach relishing the moments with daughter Dixie Pearl as seen on the supermodel's Instagram account

Successful match: Lily is married to Kings of Leon rock star Caleb Followill - the pair tied the knot in 2011

Shot in the Caribbean over a weekend Lily and her campaign co-star Wouter Peelen were living the dream according to the model.

'I never know where tomorrow will take me. I would love to visit japan and explore Egypt one day. To me Wonderlust is all about living life with a sense of adventure.

'We had so much fun! Between Michael and Mario, we were just laughing the whole time. It was so spontaneous. I will always remember it,' she says of the campaign shoot.

Michael Kors new fragrance is set to hit counter November 6 with the full interview with Lily Aldridge can be read in Gritty Pretty Magazine.
The shocking and unexplained sudden death of former Disney actor Michael Galeota has reportedly been confirmed as heart disease.

According to a death certificate obtained by TMZ , the former child star suffered from a history of high blood pressure, leading to his untimely passing.

The documents determine Michael was suffering from atherosclerosis heart disease, a build-up of plaque that clogs the artery wall, and hypertension is also listed as a significant factor.

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Child star:The shocking and unexplained sudden death of former Disney actor Michael Galeota who died in February aged 31 has reportedly been confirmed as heart disease

The Jersey actor died suddenly at his home in Glendale, California on January 10 at the age of 31, days after leaving hospital with stomach pains.

His death in February was described as a mystery at the time- even to his family.

Discovered lying unconscious in his living room, he was said to be battling high cholesterol and diverticulitis- an inflammation of the digestive tract.

'We don't know exactly what happened. It's a lot of confusion,' his brother Jimmy Galeota told People at the time.

Long-awaited conclusion: According to the death certificate obtained by TMZ the former child star suffered from a history of high blood pressure, leading to his untimely passing

Michael's death was declared to be of natural causes by the coroner, but the family still doesn't have any information beyond that, his brother said then.

'The police immediately were looking for suicides notes but there was no indication of anything like that,' Jimmy told People. 'They went through the apartment, they looked for suicide notes, they looked for pills, but there was nothing.

'They couldn't find anything. Which is why we've all got a big question mark. We don't know what to think.'

However, Jimmy said his brother seemed fine while in touch with friends the night before his death.

Michael also made plans, and had goals for the future, including children and marriage, Jimmy told People.

The family began delving into Michael's medical history, although they say he gave no hint anything was wrong.

'My family and I are concerned that he was not getting diagnosed properly,' he said.

'He never said anything like, 'I've got this problem', he never spoke of anything like that. So that's why we're all just... we're all still puzzled,' continued Jimmy.

The Los Angeles County Coroner's office told E! News that the actor suffered health problems including hypertension, and high cholesterol.

Writing about Michael on a GoFundMe page that raised more than $25,000 for his funeral, the family wrote. 'He was a precious gift - loving, giving, compassionate, joyful and intelligent.'

'His humble nature hid a great compassionate and loving human being, with a huge heart. He cared profoundly for his family and friends. Mike was a great giver, always ready and able to care for others.'
She's the five-year-old Instagram star who is always ready to pose for a picture for her 112,000 followers.

But on Sunday Pixie Curtis appeared to be captivated by the music, belting out the lyrics to The Chainsmokers - Don't Let Me Down ft. Daya in the back of her family car.

Singing, 'don't let me down', the five-year-old struggled to remember the lyrics but made up for her adorable dance moves as the song continued to play.

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'Military is a thing this season you know': Five-year-old Instagram star Pixie Curtis poses in a red blazer, white sneakers and red bow before going out for dinner on Sunday night

Earlier that day her mother Roxy Jacenko uploaded a family snap of her and her brother Hunter before heading out for a meal.

The snap read 'Sunday night calls for Chinese food' and the family unit appeared to be in happy spirits before taking off.

The mood appeared to change when a follow up picture showed Roxy carrying her son Hunter who seemed unhappy with the decision.

Superstar: Pixie traded in her perfect smile for song when she appeared to be captivated by The Chainsmokers - Don't Let Me Down (Audio) ft. Daya which she belted in the back of her family car

Family dinner: Earlier that day her mother Roxy Jacenko uploaded a family snap of her and her brother Hunter before heading out for a meal

The snap was captioned, 'Trying to reason with you know who, it's not working.'

The mother-of-two appears to have stepped up her game as a parent after an eventful year, with husband, Oliver Curtis being imprisoned and a breast cancer diagnosis.

But 60 Minutes reporter Allison Langdon told The Daily Telegraph Roxy Jacenko's young daughter Pixie Curtis is 'really struggling' since her father was jailed for insider trading.

'Trying to reason with you know who': The mood appeared to change when a follow up picture showed Roxy carrying her son Hunter who seemed unhappy with the decision

Roxy Jacenko's five-year-old daughter Pixie Curtis is reported to be 'really struggling' with her father Oliver Curtis' imprisonment, according to 60 Minutes reporter Allison Langdon

Oliver was sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison in June - and even his wife Roxy predicted his absence would take a toll on their children.

In a character reference presented to the court during Oliver's trial, the PR maven claimed children Pixie and Hunter, 2, were dependent on their father.

'Pixie and Hunter adore their dad. He's fun, tolerant, uncomplaining and loving,' she wrote.

All smiles? Oliver's imprisonment is apparently taking its toll on Pixie - as Roxy confirmed neither Hunter (R) or Pixie will be allowed to see their father behind bars

'She's quite defiant': 60 Minutes reporter Allison Langdon (pictured) says Roxy is also aware of the impact her children's Instagram accounts have on the family's public image

'They screech with excitement as soon as they see him and no one else matters to them  not even me.'

Roxy told friends last month that she will never take her young children to see their father while he remains in prison, reported the Daily Telegraph.

Both Hunter and Pixie feature in commercial Instagram accounts ran by their mother. Pixie's is often used to market her accessory business.

Back in business: Despite her father's incarceration and her mother's breast cancer scare, five-year-old is still 'promoting' her bow business through Instagram

And while Roxy has considered the link between their high profile and the criticism the family has received, she does not regret her actions.

'She's certainly happy to investigate that and talk about what she thinks her role in it all is,' Allison said.

'But I walked away from (the interview) with the feeling that she's quite defiant.'
She's been enjoying a romantic getaway with husband Buck Palmer traipsing around tropical Bali.

And Ashley Hart has lived up to the expectations of her 70,000 followers posting yet another stunning bikini-clad snap in front of the sandy shores of the Indonesian destination.

Ashley is seen smiling as she stretches her arm straight into the air in the picture which she captioned: '#Peace #Love and #Bali #Beaches'.

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Beach babe! Ashley Hart strikes a playful pose while flaunting her trim pins and flat stomach on the sandy shores of Indonesia, Bali

The 28-year-old appeared to be in happy spirits as she stood bikini clad on the shore of the picturesque beach.

The ocean backdropped the blonde beauty who was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses to compliment her black and white triangle bikini.

She didn't appear to be wearing any accessories at the time and was barefoot as she flaunted her flat stomach and trim pins.

The image comes just hours after another shot of Ashley wearing a full piece pink bikini drinking a fruity beverage while soaking up the sun.

Pert derriere: Ashley earlier posted a picture wearing a full piece pink bikini drinking a fruity beverage while soaking up the sun on the beach

'I see you': She has been enjoying her time in Bali with beau Buck Palmer and in another snap she and her husband are seen sitting in an intimate setting gazing deep into one another's eyes

She opted for a large broad rimmed white hat and flaunted her pert derriere as she lay on the sand on her towel while appearing to be reading a book.

She has been enjoying her time in Bali with husband Buck, and canvassing romantic snaps across Instagram since arriving there shortly before Father's Day.

Another snap sees the couple sitting in an intimate setting gazing deep into one another's eyes, with the caption: 'I see you...'

Looking good: Ashley wasn't the only one to throw on the bathers, with Buck donning a pair of board shorts while posing among large rocks resting on the beach

Sunsets and surfboards: Another snap sees Buck walking on the beach at dusk with a surfboard with the sun setting in the distance and silhouetting palms

Ashley wasn't the only one to throw on the bathers, with Buck donning a pair of board shorts while posing among large rocks resting on the beach.

He flaunted his washboard abs and strong biceps in the shot and wore a pair of dark sunglasses to shade from the sun.

Among the envy-inducing pictures from their romantic getaway was another post just days before showing the pair holding hands in the middle of a picturesque rice paddy in the Indonesian countryside.

The pair look smitten as ever as they walked along a dirt track between rice fields and palm trees smiling, while Ashley gazed at beau Buck.

Smitten! Ashley Hart has posted a loved up snap with hubby Buck Palmer holding hands in the middle of a picturesque rice paddy in the Indonesian countryside

Family unit: The pair appeared to have celebrated Father's Day with the Palmer family while in Bali and shared coconuts while sitting in what appeared to be a resort

Ashley cut a casual look wearing short denim cut offs and a white T-shirt paired with pink and purple sandals.

Her hair lay swept behind her shoulders as she gazed at her husband while walking along the footpath.

Sunglasses hang from the collar of her shirt and she appeared to be toting a shoulder bag.

Her long slender legs were in full display and flaunted her sun kissed skin from her week long Bali adventure.

Relaxed: Ashley cut a casual look wearing short denim cut offs and a white T-shirt paired with pink and purple sandals during her trip to the rice paddies

Buck appeared to be in happy spirits as he walked beside his wife matching her white T-shirt with his own over dark jeans.

He wore sandals and dark shades over his eyes while grasping tightly to his partner's hand.

Taking a page out of the Victor Flemming classic The Wizard of Oz, Ashley captioned the snap: 'We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of... Bali.'

'I am Mrs Palmer!' Model Ashley Hart got hitched to her fiance Buck Palmer in wedding ceremony in Los Angeles in May 2015

Mais, oui! The genetically-blessed pa ir got engaged in July 2014, when Buck proposed during a holiday to the South of France

The pair appeared to have celebrated Father's Day with the Palmer family while in Bali and shared coconuts while sitting in what appeared to be a resort.

They also spent a few days in silence at a yoga retreat where they indulged in Vedic rounding (gentle yoga, pranayama breathing, meditation and rest) throughout the day.

The pair were married early last year and revealed that part of their reason to elope had to do with astrology.

Speaking to Kyle and Jackie O show Ashley said: ''(We were) looking up when it would work astrology wise, cause we're both a bunch of hippies trying to work it out with the stars.

Spiritual: They also spent a few days in silence at a yoga retreat where they indulged in Vedic rounding

Happy! Ashley posted a picture of herself doing yoga as the sun rose one morning in the retreat

Then, during a quick trip back 'home' to Los Angeles, the Australian-born model and her fiance woke up one morning and decided to elope, which Ashley says was a huge relief.

'Buck and I had been planning the wedding for a long time and honestly not agreeing on a lot of things, trying to please people.

'We had been engaged for a year and we woke up and thought: 'you know what, let's just get married'.'

The pair later celebrated their nuptials with a party with friends and family.
She is due to jet out of the Gold Coast to Bali in two days time.

And on Monday, ex-Big Brother star, Skye Wheatley celebrated the countdown to her holiday with a typical bikini image.

The 22-year-old took to Instagram to share the news about her getaway while posting an image of herself showing off her pert derriere in tiny black bikini.

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Revealing: Ex-Big Brother star Skye Wheatley showed off her pert derriere in tiny black bikini on social media on Monday

That's one way to celebrate: The 22-year-old shared the eye-catching image as she counted down the days until her Bali holiday with boyfriend Cameron McCristal

In the captured frame, the reality turned her back to the camera and arched her toned behind outwards as she walked through the blue sea waters.

With her blonde hair out and styled straight, Skye rested her right hand on the top of her head.

The busty blonde captioned the image: 'Cant wait to fly this dimple butt to Bali woohooo two more sleeps #bail #backinbali #bali2016'.

No stopping them: Days earlier, she posted a steamy image of herself and her partner Cameron McCristal as they shared a kiss on a beach

Days earlier, she posted a steamy image of herself and her partner Cameron McCristal as they shared a kiss on a beach.

In the post, the TV star flaunted her ample assets while embracing her beau as they stood pashing in front of a picturesque beach.

The post comes as a call out to the bombshells 270,000 followers in search for 'cute boutiques' to help buy some 'nice summer outfits' for an upcoming trip to Bali.

Body confident blonde: The post comes just a day after the body confident 22-year-old showcased her half-dressed figure in scant lace lingerie on Instagram

The sizzling selfie was captioned: 'Myself and Cam are off to Bali on the 14th September and I'm looking for some cute boutiques that have some nice summer outfits already in stock ready to go for summer.'

Days earlier, she showcased her half-dressed figure in scant lace lingerie on Instagram.

While fans of the reality star showered Skye with compliments in the comments section, Cameron was less than impressed asking her to 'put some clothes on'.
She has indulged in numerous idyllic getaways to Monaco, Cannes and Sardinia this summer.

And it seems Victoria Silvstedt has no intention to change her globe-trotting lifestyle, after jetting off to Florence, Italy for Celebrity Fight Night on Sunday.

The former model, 41, put on a very busty display at the Palazzo Vecchio charity gala, almost threatening to spill out of her lavish silver sequin gown as she posed up a storm.

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Vision in Silver-stedt: Victoria Silvstedt, 41, put on a very busty display at the Celebrity Fight Night charity gala in Florence on Sunday

The Swedish beauty looked incredible for her 41 years in the youthful silver frock, which was covered with shimmering sequins from bust to hem.

With a sweetheart neckline, the bodice of the outfit pushed tightly against her breasts to enhance her impressively plentiful cleavage.

Featuring two dainty spaghetti straps, the dress then clung at Victoria's petite waist before flowing out into soft grey chiffon.

Quite an eyeful! With a sweetheart neckline, the bodice of the outfit pushed tightly against her breasts to enhance her impressively plentiful cleavage

Featuring an eye-wateringly high split, the dress flashed a large amount of leg despite its maxi length, showing off a bronze tan picked up from multiple summer holidays.

Co-ordinating with silver heeled sandals and glistening diamante drop earrings, the TV personality achieved an impeccably refined look, reflecting her naturally chic style.

The model left her famous blonde tresses in her signature curls as she attended the charity dinner, looking just as glamorous as the height of her modelling prime.

Strike a pose: Featuring an eye-wateringly high split, the dress flashed a large amount of leg despite its maxi length, showing off her bronze tan

Victoria attended the event at the Palazzo Vecchio, alongside a whole host of other fashion stars, to raise money for The Andrea Bocelli Foundation and The Muhammed Ali Parkinson Center.

37-year-old supermodel Petra Nemcova was also present, cuddling up to Victoria for the cameras in an equally as glitzy one-shoulder scarlet gown.

The evening marks Victoria's return to her lavish celebrity lifestyle, having spent most of the summer holidaying in a number of picturesque coastal hot spots.

Model behaviour: 37-year-old supermodel Petra Nemcova was also present, cuddling up to Victoria for the cameras in an equally as glitzy one-shoulder scarlet gown

Despite exuding confidence in both her bikini and more glamorous attire, Victoria previously revealed her discomfort with the modelling catwalk and the industry as a whole.

Speaking to Female First, she said: I started very young to model in Paris when I was 18.

'I remember like starving myself to fit into the clothes and it was an amazing experience but you know I did shows for Valentino, Chanel, so it was really prestigious.

But it never felt like it was my thing, I'm not like a runway skinny model, I'm more curvy. It was torture, I put myself through starvation, you know torturing myself.'
She announced her departure from Made In Chelsea only a matter of days ago.

But it seems Lucy Watson, 25, may already be thinking of her next career move as she was spotted campaigning outside the House of Parliament in Westminster on Monday.

The reality babe posed with her pup Digby alongside fellow protesters who sported canine face masks as they urged MP's to act against South Korea's cruel factory farming of dogs.

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Protester: Lucy Watson, 25, may be thinking of her next career move as she was spotted campaigning outside the House of Parliament in Westminster on Monday

The star posed for cameras with a solemn expression as she held her precious pup in one arm and a sign which read: 'South Korea #EndDogMeatTrade' in the other.

The brunette beauty, who opted for a casual look in a camouflage jacket and cropped jeans, is an advocate against cruelty against dogs.

Lucy recently threw her support behind RSPCA's Big Walkies event in Hyde Park, which hosted a charity dog walk to help fund the well being of pets across the country.

It comes after the news that the jewellery designer will be leaving Made In Chelsea following four years on the hit reality show.

On a mission: The brunette beauty, who opted for a casual look in a camouflage jacket and cropped jeans, is an advocate against cruelty against dogs

Not happy: The star posed for cameras with a solemn expression as she held her precious pup in one arm and a sign which read: 'South Korea #EndDogMeatTrade' in the other

Dog lover: Lucy posed with her pup Digby alongside fellow protesters who sported canine face masks as they urged MP's to act against South Korea's cruel factory farming of dogs

The 25-year-old beauty was noticeably absent from the E4 reality show's spin-off in the south of France this summer and has now confirmed she has quit the programme for good.

A spokesperson said: 'After four amazing years on Made in Chelsea, Lucy feels that now is the right time to explore some other exciting opportunities and projects that she is passionate about.

'Being part of such a successful show has been an incredible experience for her, and she wishes everyone involved all the very best for the future'

She's a goner: The reality babe announced she has left E4's Made In Chelsea

Still going strong: Lucy instead plans to focus her time on her relationship with fellow MIC star James Dunmore, who she has been dating since 2015

Lucy instead plans to focus her time on her relationship with fellow MIC star James Dunmore, who she has been dating since 2015.

The announcement came shortly after Lucy's friend and reality star Frankie Gaff told BANG Showbiz: 'Lucy's not going to be in the next series. At the moment she's decided not to because she's loved up.'

The genetically gifted couple looked more loved up than ever as they returned from a blissful sunshine break to Crete.
It was reported on Monday that Alex Nation 'dumped her disabled ex-boyfriend and made a deal' with The Bachelor producers to guarantee her a spot in the final five.

Now, Alex Nation has broken her silence and denied the allegations.

In a statement provided to Daily Mail Australia, the 24-year-old single mother labelled the reports 'hurtful' and 'completely false'.

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Speaking out: Alex Nation has broken her silence and denied the allegations she 'dumped her disabled ex-boyfriend and made a deal' with The Bachelor producers to guarantee her a spot in the final five

The statement explained she and her ex Tom Barbour ended their relationship amicably in September 2015 after they both agreed it was 'best for them to part ways'.

'Our relationship ended amicably with us both agreeing it was best to part ways,' insisted the Bachelor beauty.

'We are on good terms. Tom is now overseas on a scholarship to study,' Alex said, slamming New Ideas suggestion her former lover of 15-months fled to escape her.

Disgusted: In a statement provided to Daily Mail Australia, the 24-year-old single mother labelled the reports 'hurtful' and 'completely false'

Good terms: The statement explained she and her ex Tom Barbour ended their relationship amicably in September 2015 after they both agreed it was 'best for them to part ways'

Friends: Alex explained: 'Our relationship ended amicably with us both agreeing it was best to part ways. We are on good terms'

A spokesperson later told Scoopla: 'The claims made by an insider in New Idea on Monday, September 12 regarding Alex Nation and her past relationship with Tom Barbour are defamatory, completely false and misleading.

'Claims suggesting anything else are incredibly hurtful to both Alex and Tom, who remain on good terms.'

The statement comes after New Idea reported, Alex had negotiated a guaranteed spot in the top five with the show's producers 'because she would be away from her son' Elijah.

It was also claimed Tom began to question the timing of their break-up after he discovered she would be a contestant on this year's Bachelor.

Shocking: The statement comes after New Idea reported, Alex had negotiated a guaranteed spot in the top five with the show's producers 'because she would be away from her son' Elijah

Setting out her future: It was also claimed Tom began to question the timing of their break-up after he discovered she would be a contestant on this year's Bachelor

The truth: Alex told Daily Mail Australia Tom was overseas studying, while his Instagram account shows the blonde attended his going away party six weeks ago (pictured)

According to close friends, Tom was 'blindsided when Alex said she wanted it all to end' following a 15-month romance that was seemingly going well.

'She had told some friends that because she would be away from her son, she insisted the producers make it worth her while, and made a deal that she would make the final five,' the source told the glossy magazine.

'So even if she didn't win, it would help her profile and acting aspirations.'

Meanwhile, the weekly tabloid has also revealed Tom escaped on a European trip to avoid watching his former love fall for someone else on TV.

Difficult: Friends of the pair have claimed Tom was 'blindsided when Alex said she wanted it all to end' despite it seemingly going well

Over: The part-time model broke up with the university student - who was left a paraplegic after he fell 9m from a construction site - last year after a 15-month romance

Currently in Sweden, the student began his six-month holiday and exchange trip back in July - the same month the reality dating show began to air on Australian TVs.

'He had so many unanswered questions from Alex it was making him crazy because he knew she had moved on, so he decided to do the same,' the insider told the publication.

Alex and Tom were friends for 10 years before dating, and the Victorian beauty previously said: 'I thought he was the one I'd marry and settle down with.'

The past: Alex and Tom were friends for 10 years before dating, and the Victorian beauty previously said: 'I thought he was the one I'd marry and settle down with'

Loving: The single mother previously revealed Tom is 'probably the first person (she) ever loved,' despite the fact she was previously married

But the part-time model broke up with the university student - who was left a paraplegic after he fell 9m from a construction site - last year after a 15-month romance.

Speaking to OK! Magazine, Alex claimed Tom is 'probably the first person (she) ever loved,' despite the fact she was previously married.

Speaking of Tom's accident, she explained: 'He'd fallen nine metres and severed his spinal cord, but we fell madly in love and I renovated my house so he could move in with me.'
Gaz Beadle posted a very racy picture of a couple cosying up nearly naked on Instagram as things heat up between him and Emma McVey.

The 28-year-old Ex On The Beach star shared an Instagram picture of a lady who looked just like Emma from behind, who sat in between his legs while wearing nothing but a thong.

The pair sat in front of a Netflix branded screen on the television, a reference to 'Netflix and chill,' which is slang for getting intimate, a thinly veiled reference to how well his own relationship is going.

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Nothing is private: Gaz Beadle shared this very racy picture of a nearly naked couple watching Netflix on Instagram as things heat up between him and Emma McVey

Keeping his captioning to a minimum, he simply posted the 'OK' emoji.

Gaz has previously claimed he has slept with over 1000 women and said that he really went wild when he was in Australia last year.

He told KIIS1065 Radio at the time: 'This is how bad Aussie girls are, right? On one of my tours I was here for 10 days. I had eight threesomes and two foursomes.'

Going well then: Gaz and Emma regularly post loved up pictures of themselves on social media

No doubt the latest social media snap will displease his exes Charlotte Crosby and Lillie Lexie Gregg.

They had an 18-month relationship, which ended in tears.

And when the tablet of terror finally gives Lillie Lexie Gregg the chance to confront Gaz about their break up she grabs the opportunity with both hands.

A late night game of spin the bottle is responsible for bringing her feelings to a head, after Bear dares Gaz to snog his ex girlfriend in Ex On The Beach.

Getting answers: When the tablet of terror finally gives Lillie Lexie Gregg the chance to confront Gaz about their break up she grabs the opportunity with both hands

Kicking off innocently enough, Holly Rickwood dares Lillie to snog Bear, leading to a passionate kiss between the pair.

Bear is only to happy to comply, saying 'Tonight's the night I think, I'm excited.'

Known for his stirring ways, Bear then turns his attention to Gaz, saying, 'I dare you to snog Lillie for three seconds.'

Spin the bottle: Holly Rickwood dares Lillie to snog Bear, leading to a passionate kiss between the two

In luck: Bear is only to happy to comply, saying 'Tonight's the night I think, I'm excited'

Getting close: Lillie and Bear lock lips in front of Gaz and the others

Gaz is shocked, replying, 'Weird you would do that Bear', but taking him up on his challenge and kissing Lillie for rather longer than the allotted three seconds.

A visibly ruffled Gaz refers to Bear's challenge directly to camera, saying, 'Mate, you will never, ever get a bit out of me. I wouldn't give you the satisfaction'.

Equally effected by the dare, Lillie explains, 'Bear's purposely hitting on the real side of things with me and Gary. A game isn't a game if you're touching on the real emotions.'

Dangerous game: Known for his stirring ways, Bear then turns his attention to Gaz, saying, 'I dare you to snog Lillie for three seconds'

Like old times: Gaz is shocked, replying, 'Weird you would do that Bear', but taking him up on his challenge

It's been a while: Gaz ends up kissing Lillie for rather longer than the allotted three seconds

Moving on: When Gaz is later dared to kiss Olivia during the same game, Lillie is far from happy

Pain: A tearful Lillie admits, 'That's really uncomfortable, that's the person I did love... I'm really being pushed to my limit now'

When Gaz is later dared to kiss Olivia, a tearful Lillie admits, 'That's really uncomfortable, that's the person I did love... I'm really being pushed to my limit now.'

The following day, alone on the beach Lillie confronts Gaz and asks him why they really broke up.

'We had an amazing relationship. There was nothing bad about our relationship. We went from that to breaking up at an airport and never spoke again since.'

Time for the truth: The following day, alone on the beach Lillie confronts Gaz and asks him why they really broke up

Abrupt: 'We had an amazing relationship. There was nothing bad about our relationship. We went from that to breaking up at an airport and never spoke again since'

Never easy: An emotional looking Gary replies, 'That was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make Lil'

The Birmingham-based fashion designer explained separately to the camera, 'I want him to really take on board what an idiot and what a nasty person he's been. I want him to feel bad for what he's done.'

'Hand on heart I thought Gary was the one. I've never loved any one like I loved him.'

An emotional looking Gary replies, 'That was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make Lil'.

He explains to the camera: 'She's the only girl in my hectic life over the last five or six years I've made my girlfriend - she knows me and that's why it's so hard.'

Meant so much: He explains to the camera: 'She's the only girl in my hectic life over the last five or six years I've made my girlfriend - she knows me and that's why it's so hard'

Making it clear: Lillie explains to the camera 'I want him to really take on board what an idiot and what a nasty person he's been. I want him to feel bad for what he's done'

Let it all out: He then apologises to her for not being in contact with her or her family since the split, and credits her with helping him to mature during the course of their relationship

He then apologises to her for not being in contact with her or her family since the split, and credits her with helping him to mature during the course of their relationship.

Lillie then goes on to explain, 'The best memories in my life are with you'.

'I didn't want to have to justify why we broke up to the whole world, because it was no one else's business, but you made it everyone's business. You Tweeted the day after we broke up without even saying to me.

'You tell me how you would have dealt with me doing all those things?'

Episode five of Ex on the Beach is on MTV, Tuesday at 10pm.

In the past: Lillie then goes on to explain, 'The best memories in my life are with you'
Maksim Chmerkovskiy used to be friends with Kirstie Alley, his 2011 partner on Dancing With The Stars.

But the two are no longer close.

When asked by UsWeekly what happened, the 36-year-old Ukrainian professional dancer shot back: 'Scientology happened.'

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No longer pals: Maksim Chmerkovskiy used to be friends with Kirstie Alley, his 2011 partner on Dancing With The Stars. But the two are no longer close, he told UsWeekly

The outspoken ABC star added: 'You can thank [my friendship with 2013 contestant and former Scientologist] Leah Remini for that.'

Remini, 46, left the church in 2013 and two years later she released the tell-all book Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood And Scientology.

Maks, who is expecting a child with fellow pro Peta Murgatroyd, said: 'A note was sent to a friend telling me I was "disconnected," as in, I am no longer allowed to be Kirsties friend.'

Alley doesn't like this lady? The outspoken ABC star added: 'You can thank [my friendship with 2013 contestant and former Scientologist] Leah Remini for that'

But Maks never even danced with Leah: Remini's DWTS partner was Tony Dolovani; here they are pictured with host Tom Bergeron

In the past there have been claims that Scientologists cut off people who are not supporters of the church.

When Katie Holmes divorced Tom Cruise in 2012 after six years of marriage, it was alleged by Life & Style Weekly he wanted nothing to do with her, and he subsequently distanced himself from daughter Suri Cruise, because they were no longer supporters of Scientology.

Cruise has refuted that claim and even tried to sue the publication for $50 million.

Ex files: In the past there have been claims Scientologists cut off people who are not supporters of the church. When Katie Holmes divorced Tom Cruise in 2012, it was alleged by Life & Style Weekly he wanted nothing to do with her any longer; here Katie and Tom are seen in 2012

Chmerkovskiy added: 'I find it ridiculous for an adult human being to disconnect from someone. But everyone is entitled to their own insanity.'

In the same interview Maks talked about his unfiltered ways.

'Im the person who will say something and just move on,' he said.

'Its like the Trump effect. This guy says some s***, and then everybody is like, Oh, my God, what did he say? And he just goes on with his life.'

His pretty lady: The star is expecting his first child with fellow dancer Peta Murgatroyd

The salsa pro then said, 'But Ive benefited tremendously from speaking my mind. Ive also turned off a lot of people.

'I have a new understanding that there is more than one way of getting things done. Well see if I can exercise that. If not, Ill go back to saying crazy s***. [Laughs.]'

And he admitted: 'I may turn off a bigger percentage of people than I keep around. But over a period of, lets say, 10 years, people all come back in some way, saying, "Hey, we havent spoken in a decade, but I understand where youre coming from, and I want us to continue being friends." I have a 100 percent return rate.'

Maks took a four-season break from the ABC hit, but is back for season 23 (premiering Monday, September 12, at 8 p.m. ET). His new partner is model Amber Rose.
With her perfect figure and Oscar-winning acting credentials, it's hard to think of a more perfect cover girl than Halle Berry.

And the Monster star didn't disappoint as she joined ten other top stars in covering W magazine.

Looking her very best in a plunging black Versace dress, the mother-of-two proved that 50 really can be fabulous - having celebrated her landmark birthday just last month.

Fabulous at 50! Halle Berry displays her perfect figure in plunging dress on the October cover of W magazine

Joining her on the October edition of the magazine was another cover girl in her sixth decade - Jodie Foster.

The double Oscar winner, 53, smouldered as she posed in a Giorgio Armani dress.

Irina Shayk, Priyanka Chopra, Elle Fanning, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Chris Evans, Kanye West, Kit Harington, Ethan Hawke, and Rami Malek all also posed.

Here's Jodie: The double Oscar winner, 53, smouldered as she posed in a Giorgio Armani dress

Young and fabulous: Elle Fanning and Irina Shayk were among the 11 cover stars

The magazine is a 'his-and-hers' fashion issue with the double issue boasting a female cover subject on one side, and a male cover subject on the other.

Captain America star Chris Evans told the magazine: 'In the 6th grade, I played the supporting lead in a play called Crazy Camp. I ended up dating one of the more popular girls as a result.

'The second the play was over, she dumped me. So, at a young age, I learned the power of getting a good role.'

Aye Aye! Captain America star Chris Evans talked about how acting made him a sex symbol

Strike a pose: Rami Malek and Ethan Hawke look mean and moody

And Indian-born actress Priyanka Chopra talked about her body image.

'When I was a teenager, I was a tomboy and had scars on my legs. But then I taught myself to take care of my body and my hair.

'It takes time, but if I can do it, anybody can. Today, my legs sell 12 or 15 products in my part of the world.'
He recently cancelled a show in Dubai after announcing his battle with anxiety.

But it seems Zayn Malik is still able to play at home, as girlfriend Gigi Hadid proved with this snapchat.

The supermodel, 21, pictured the former One Direction star, 23, serenading her as he accompanied himself with a guitar.

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Morning handsome: It seems Zayn Malik is still able to play at home, as girlfriend Gigi Hadid proved with this snapchat

The Pillow Talk hitmaker showed of his tattoos by bearing his chest for the picture while he focussed on his guitar.

With his hair ruffled and beard unshaven, Zayn completed his relaxed look with a pair of black tracksuit bottoms.

Gigi captioned the cute snap with the words 'morning handsome' followed by an in-love emoji.

Zayn has been forced to pull out of a gig in Dubai next month due to his ongoing anxiety surrounding solo performances, it was revealed last week.

Loved-up: Gigi captioned the cute snap with the words 'morning handsome' followed by an in-love emoji

Bailed: Back in June, the pop star pulled out of playing the Capital Summertime Ball in London just 90 minutes before the show was due to kick off

Back in June, the pop star pulled out of playing the Capital Summertime Ball in London just 90 minutes before the show was due to kick off, as he was suffering the same issue - which he now explained is persisting.

Zayn was due to perform at the Autism Rocks Arena on 7 October, however he revealed his crippling anxiety has forced him to withdraw from the performance as he is not prepared.

On Saturday night, it seemed Gigi was acting as a support for her boyfriend as he held her extremely close during an outing in New York.
She's frequently seen cavorting about with her elder sister Gigi Hadid.

But Bella Hadid reminded fans she can be quite as enrapturing as a solo act when she covered Flare. The 19-year-old bared her showstopping legs on the front of the Toronto-based magazine, wrapping a black leather jacket about her torso and wearing only Calvin Klein underwear for bottoms.

She also posed topless, something she did earlier this summer for Vogue.

Topless teen: Bella Hadid, 19, went without a shirt for the October issue of the Toronto-based Flare magazine

Legs for days: The model wore nothing for bottoms but Calvin Klein underwear for her cover

Like the cover, a string of photos of her inside the magazine were snapped by Nino Munoz and styled by Isabel Dupre.

Her photographer has shot covers for such magazines as British Vogue, German Glamour, Elle Brazil and Harper's Bazaar Australia.

Though Calvin Klein dominated her wardrobe choices throughout the shoot, a particularly striking photo showed her topless.

A Feathered Souls bracelet and rings were all she wore as she held her arms over her bosom, her drenched hair falling across her face.

Brand loyalty: Apart from her jewelry, all her clothing choices throughout the photo shoot were from Calvin Klein

In another photo, she sat on a stool in a light, fluffy Calvin Klein jumper that fell off one shoulder and flowed down between her spread legs, which straddled the stool in black leather CK boots.

The same designer was her go-to again, when she flashed her impossibly flat midriff from behind an open white jacket that served as her only top.

Her leather pencil skirt was slightly unzipped at the waist, and a simple solitaire choker wound its way about her neck.

The woman behind the magic: She was styled for the photos by Isabel Dupre

Wearing nothing but leather shorts in another picture, she lay down facing away from the camera.

As she folded her arms at her front, she turned to glance mysteriously at something overhead.

Yet another snapshot saw her curled up in the crook of a white sofa. Her wet white Calvin Klein For Urban Outfitters T-shirt hinted at her bust, and she brushed her hair away from her face.

The artist in charge: The snapshots were taken by Nino Munoz

Folding her legs, she came close to flashing a bit of derriere in her skimpy Seductive Comfort underwear, which once again was from the 73-year-old New Yorker's fashion brand.

Even when she wore his dress shirt and slacks, she infused the outfit with a casual sensuality, opening the shirt completely and exposing much of her cleavage and stomach.

A final topless photo saw her body turned away from the camera but her head twisting toward it. Her sculpted jeans seemed superglued to her pencil thin legs.

The shoulders of giants: Her photographer shot covers for such magazines as British Vogue, German Glamour, Elle Brazil and Harper's Bazaar Australia

Dynasty: The model is the younger sister of modelling star Gigi Hadid and the daughter of former Real Housewife Of Beverly Hills Yolanda Hadid

Glittering company: She is currently dating Canadian musician The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Makkonen Tesfaye

The girlfriend of The Weeknd - whose real name is Abel Makkonen Tesfaye - has had something of a red letter year as far as being a cover girl is concerned.

Recently, she and Victoria's Secret Angel Taylor Hill covered the September issue of Vogue Paris.

Therein, the daughter of Yolanda Hadid posed nude and showed nipple in an elegant black and white photograph by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.

For Vogue Paris alone, the legendary fashion photography team have photographed such figures as Marion Cotillard, Kate Moss, Vanessa Paradis and Carla Bruni.

'#Freeingthenipple': Within Vogue Paris, she appeared nude in a photo (a censored version of which she posted to Instagram) taken by the legendary fashion photography duo Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott)
Even when off duty, Emily Ratajkowski can't help but look catwalk ready.

And the British-born beauty showed off her model frame on Monday, as she headed out to lunch in New York with a friend.

Clad in denim hotpants and a white off-the-shoulder top and booties, Emily was looking her best for the causal meal at Sant Ambroeus in Soho.

Always posing! Emily Ratajkowski goes braless in a white shirt as she shows off her model frame over lunch witha friend in New York

Lunch post: An Instagram addict, Emily shared not one but two selfies from her lunch with her 8million followers

Oh her face was the Mona Lisa-ish bored expression which so captivated her fans in Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines video.

An Instagram addict, Emily shared not one but two selfies from her lunch with her 8million followers.

They images revealed that she was dining on a rather un-indulgent meal of black coffee and water.

Pure Emily: Oh her face was the Mona Lisa-ish bored expression which so captivated her fans in Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines video

About those lines: Emily chatted to a friend as they sat outside in Soho together

The also high-lighted her slender waist, and the fact that the curvy model was braless beneath her white top.

That was surely deliberate - Emily makes no apology for embracing her sexuality.

In a thought-provoking essay for U.S. Glamour magazine, she tackled the way society shames women for being sexual.

Chit chat: Emily shot to stardom after being cast in the Blurred Lines video

'Ive been called an attention whore so often that I had almost gotten used to it,' she wrote.

'And as women we are accused of seeking attention more than men are, whether for speaking out politically, as I did, for dressing a certain way, or for even posting a selfie.

'Our culture has a double standard that runs so deep, many women have actually built up an automatic defenseattempting to be a step ahead of potential critics by making sure we have real reasons for anything we say or do.'

Double denim: Clad in denim hotpants and a white off-the-shoulder top and booties, Emily was looking her best for the causal meal

And she said it wasn't just men with this attitude.

'Women discount one another too: Think about how many times youve heard a woman say about another woman, Oh, shes just doing that for attention.

'Our society tells women we cant be, say, sexy and confident and opinionated about politics. This would allow us too much power.'
Cold Feet on ITV

Rating:

British Sitcom: 60 Years of Laughing at Ourselves

Rating:

After the full-force spectacular return of Cold Feet (ITV) last week, a soapy tsunami of weddings, hauntings and super-rich girlfriends, the big question was whether the series could sustain this excitement.

With the pent-up energy of 13 years away from our screens, it blew its cork with a champagne explosion of froth and bubbles. But the fizz already shows disappointing signs of turning out to be flat and vinegary.

As Adam (James Nesbitt) fled to hide in the bathroom moments after taking his wedding vows, the sparkle began to ebb.

After last weeks explosive episode of excitement it seems Cold Feet has disappointingly showed signs of turning flat

Every TV drama has to have at least one scene a week set in a public loo  its probably an EU regulation  but Adam seemed to step out of the church and into a five-star hotel.

This ecclesiastical mens room had marble tiles and expensive, muted underlighting. It couldnt have been posher if one of the 12 disciples had been standing by the door, handing out warm towels and aftershave.

Cold Feet always took a dotty pleasure in its surreal segues, the scenes with a hint of the dream sequence. But its hard to understand why Adam was cowering in a cubicle, desperate to back out of his marriage after just five minutes  or why his chums Karen and Jenny (Hermione Norris and Fay Ripley) were standing by the soap dispensers, urging him to break it off.

Were supposed to accept that Adam must reject the love of his life out of duty to his teenage son, Matthew

There was some drama in this week's episode

Were supposed to accept that Adam must reject the love of his life out of duty to his teenage son, Matthew. But hes been happy enough to gallivant around the Far East for the past decade, leaving the boy at boarding school.

CAREER MOVE OF THE DAY: Rip Off Britain (BBC1) returned with the cautionary tale of Mia, a middle-aged lady who shelled out 300 for a dodgy internet course on how to be a private eye. She didnt suspect it was a scam because, she said, I trust everyone. Oh dear. Advertisement

Why the stabs of conscience now, when hes landed a girl whose dad owns half of Singapore?

And on that matter, about Eddie the billionaire: Im starting to suspect Art Maliks character is a scam artist in a borrowed kurta tunic. What evidence do we have that hes super-rich, apart from the fact he uses two mobile phones?

Hes about to entrust his tax affairs to David (Robert Bathurst), a middle management financial adviser, because he fancies Karen, Davids ex. And when he swoops for a first date, Eddie talks about whisking her to Paris on his private jet, but then brings her a takeaway balti. Would you be impressed?

Im also struggling to work out why John Thomsons miserable minicab driver Pete is moonlighting as a home careworker. He takes time off from his taxi work to drop in on James Bolam and give him foot massages at 7 an hour.

A scene from Cold Feet's episode tonight

The bloke is hard-up, thats obvious, but Pete must be paying for the car lease and the cabbys licence  why not use them? Perhaps Im being too po-faced about it all. Champagne isnt a serious drink: were meant to float away on the bubbles and ignore the lingering aftertaste.

The Beeb has been clinking glasses for weeks, to celebrate its long history of classic comedies.

But it was taking the fun much too seriously on British Sitcom: 60 Years Of Laughing At Ourselves (BBC4). Rebecca Fronts voiceover was a smug recital of political correctness, as she looked back at everything from Hancocks Half Hour to Gavin And Stacey from a superior height. The clips were fine, though brief. The commentary was awful.

British Sitcom: 60 Years of Laughing At Ourselves with James Corden

Till Death Us Do Part was summed up as a clash of wills between Conservative Alf Garnett and socially liberal, progressive daughter Rita. Thats a Leftie interpretation so humourless it sounds like its been copied from a Soviet textbook.

And Rebecca was primly disapproving of Spike Milligans dodgy Curry And Chips, without ever hinting at his other brilliant comedies. Well, the BBC never did appreciate Spike.

The guests were no better. James Corden, former sitcom writer and now a U.S. chat show host, stuck his oar in  has there been one documentary this year that hasnt featured him as a talking head?
Jenna Dewan Tatum is known for her dancing prowess.

So it's no wonder the 35-year-old actress was seen leaving a yoga class in Studio City on Monday.

The Step Up actress, who is married to Channing Tatum, was seen wearing a casual grey T-shirt from Sub_Urban Riot with the words Good Egg written across her chest.

Looking toned! Jenna Dewan Tatum was seen leaving a yoga class in Studio City on Monday

She accessorized her top with a pair of dark grey leggings, showing off her lithe and toned legs.

The petite brunette also wore a black cap with white stripes across the front and a pair of stylish blue trainers.

Jenna kept herself hydrated with a bottle of water as she was seen leaving the studio with her Mum, who was decked out in an all black ensemble.

Casual chic: The Step Up actress, who is married to Channing Tatum, was seen wearing a casual grey T-shirt with the words Good Egg written across her chest

Dancer body: She accessorized her top with a pair of dark grey leggings, showing off her lithe and toned legs

The pair were seen smiling and laughing as they strolled along the street.

Meanwhile, Jenna posted a stunning scenic photo in remembrance of the September 11 attacks, which took place in 2001, with her 3.2m followers.

She captioned the photo: 'Love and light... #NeverForget.'

In good company: The pair were seen smiling and laughing as they strolled along the street

Several of her dedicated followers commented with words of support including:

'This is a hauntingly gorgeous photo! #NeverForget #ProudToBeAnAmerican #TodayAndEveryday Thank you for posting!'

Another fan simply wrote: 'Beautiful image. I love it!', whilst another wrote: 'Never Forget.'
Despite forging a TV career on T4's Popworld in 2006, Alexa Chung originally cut her teeth modelling on the runway.

Proving that she still has her fashion moves down, the undisputed queen of the FROW posed up a storm at the Proenza Spring/Summer 2017 show on Monday.

The 32-year-old wowed in a figure-flattering vibrant red sleeveless dress that boasted a sultry front slit that displayed her slender pins as she attended the New York Fashion Week show.

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Picture perfect: Alexa Chung displayed that she's still got her model moves as she posed up a storm backstage at the Proenza Spring/Summer 2017 show on Monday

Working the fashion forward number, the It girl layered her stylish number over a chic white tee as she donned a pair of Jackie-O inspired oversized sunglasses and carried her black mini-bag.

Displaying her svelte waist with a fabric belt that boasted silver buckle detail, the British beauty paid tribute to the Eighties with her stylish white ankle boots that clung onto her slender ankles.

Adding to her natural beauty, Alexa kept her complexion youthful with little make-up as she made her eyebrows the firm feature of her beauty look.

Styling her warm hazelnut tresses loose, the fashionista tamed her shoulder-length mane in a centre parting - gently brushing a section of her hair behind her ear.

Fashion forward: The It girl layered her stylish number over a chic white tee as she donned a pair of Jackie-O inspired oversized sunglasses and carried her black mini-bag

Hair-raisingly good: Styling her warm hazelnut tresses loose, the fashionista tamed her shoulder-length mane in a centre parting - gently brushing a section of her hair behind her ear

Always ahead of the style game, Alexa has channelled her flair for fashion into designing, creating ranges for for M&S, AG jeans and Madewell.

The presenter is preparing to launch her own clothing range called Alexa Chung, which is set to hit shops in May 2017.

The collection, which she is working on with a team of six designers, is the result of years of tried-and-tested trend setting.

Natural beauty: Adding to her natural beauty, Alexa kept her complexion youthful with little make-up as she made her eyebrows the firm feature of her beauty look

New direction: Always ahead of the style game, Alexa has channelled her flair for fashion into designing, creating ranges for for M&S, AG jeans and Madewell

Fashion collective: The presenter is preparing to launch her own clothing range called Alexa Chung, which is set to hit shops in May 2017

She told Business of Fashion: 'I want to make sure it's something that is speaking to just everyone on the street.

'I see this being the culmination of a lot of hard work for a decade and this being the resting place for all of those ideas and to continue kind of developing and growing that, just in this one home base space'

'Also I feel like I need to get it up and running whilst Im still young enough to have the energy and still be in touch with pop culture enough to make something that is actually relevant to the audience today.'

Poised: Alexa displayed her tiny waist with a fabric belt that boasted silver buckle detail

Vintage: The British beauty paid tribute to the eighties with her stylish white ankle boots that clung onto her slender ankles

Also hitting the FROW for the coveted fashion event was American Vogue's Editor-In-Chief Anna Wintour - who looked less than impressed as she sat with her arms crossed.

The British tastemaker, famed for being notoriously hard to please, pursed her lips as she donned her trademark oversized sunglasses as her signature glossy chin-length bob framed her features.

Poised as she attentively watched the presentation, the 66-year-old worked a tweed inspired ensemble as she paired a warm nude strappy mule to complete her look.

Lees than impressed? American Vogue Editor-In-Chief Anna Wintour didn't look too excited as she sat in the FROW
She's the model who rarely has a fashion faux pas.

And on Monday, while heading to the Carolina Herrera show at New York Fashion Week, Jessica Hart proved why she's one to watch both on and off the catwalk, rocking a bold leopard print number.

The 30-year-old turned heads as she strutted into the coveted show, held at the Frick Collection - a Fifth Avenue museum, opposite Central Park.

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Animal instinct: Australian model Jessica Hart, 30, grinned as she strutted down NYC on her way to the Carolina Herrera New York Fashion Week show at the Frick Collection on Monday

Jessica channelled the '90s for her ensemble, donning a short-sleeved leopard print dress that fell just above her knees, perfect for the sunny autumn day.

The dress hugged her slender model frame and showed off her sun-kissed trim pins.

The Australian accessorised her look with a thin black choker, heeled lace-up boots, black bucket bag, gold watch and bracelet, as well as small, simple earrings.

Jessica wore her long blonde locks half up and in a loose top knot, with the rest falling down well past her shoulders.

Her day-time make-up was kept to a minimum with soft pink lips and cheeks.

Tanned and toned: Jessica showed off her sun-kissed skin and toned legs in her '90s-inspired outfit for New York Fashion Week

Throughout New York Fashion Week, the former Victoria's Secret model has made heads turn for her fashion choices.

On Sunday, the former Victoria's Secret again opted for the on-trend '90s vibe.

The double denim ensemble, paired her pale blue ripped jeans and jacket with a white crew neck shirt and chunky heeled black suede boots.

Last Thursday, the stunning blonde swapped '90s for gothic, rocking a long-sleeved black woollen mini-dress on the red carpet for The Daily Front Row's 4th Annual Fashion Media Awards on Thursday.

What's in the bucket bag: The former Victoria's Secret model rummaged through her designer bag while on her way to the coveted fashion week show

She complemented the dress with black combat boots and a cat-shaped clutch.

Jessica continued her all-black-everything attire last Saturday at fellow Australian Dion Lee's NYFW show.

The model donned a black semi-sheer lace number, paired with knee-high black boots.

Once again, she kept her make-up to a minimum, and left her straight long blonde locks out.
A former government official of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation accused of accepting bribes and kickbacks from a construction contractor has pleaded guilty to federal charges in North Dakota. Randall Phelan was an elected representative of the governing body of the Three Affiliated Tribes from the end of 2012 to the middle of 2020. Investigators say Phelan used his official position to help the contractors business by awarding contracts, fabricating bids and managing fraudulent invoices. His trial had been scheduled to begin Tuesday. Phelan and two others were originally charged with receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from the bribery scheme on the oil-rich Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. The contractor has pleaded guilty to bribery.
The disabled ex-boyfriend of The Bachelor star Alex Nation has denied reports she dumped him for a guaranteed spot in the final five.

During an interview with Kyle and Jackie O on Tuesday morning, Tom Barbour said the reports were 'completely fabricated' and claimed that he actually dumped her.

'No, these stories are not true at all ... It was me that made that decision,' he insisted.

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Speaking out: During an interview with Kyle and Jackie O on Tuesday morning, Tom Barbour dismissed reports that Alex Nation dumped him for the show as 'completely fabricated' and revealed that he actually dumped her

He added: 'We did break up in September (2015) but she had not yet applied to the Bachelor in any case at all. It was a peaceful split. We were just on different paths, different stages in life.'

The engineering student, who is currently in Sweden, explained that he ended the relationship due to his disability and his plans to study abroad.

He said he could not give both single mum Alex, 24, and her five-year-old son Elijah the time and attention that they deserved.

Setting the record straight: 'No, these stories are not true at all ... It was me that made that decision,' he said

'Obviously me being in a wheelchair and her having a young child, brought a lot of complexities into the relationship,' he explained.

He added: 'Me going through a uni degree, I didnt have time for both her and Elijah. I also didnt know if I could provide because I was a student.'

It was reported on Monday that Alex 'dumped her disabled ex-boyfriend and made a deal' with The Bachelor producers to guarantee her a spot in the final five.

Different stages in life: The engineering student, who is currently in Sweden, explained that he ended the relationship in September due to his disability and his plans to study abroad

Candid: He said he could not give both single mum Alex, 24, and her five-year-old son Elijah the time and attention that they deserve

While denying the reports, Tom also hailed Alex as a 'great person' and said they're still friends.

'Thats the issue with media, they can say what they want,' he said.

'Alex is such a great person, kind in nature, true to herself and everyone. For them to say such things that she would leave just to get famous is completely absurd.'

No hard feelings: Tom hailed Alex as a 'great person' and insisted that the split was 'peaceful'

He continued: 'To try and highlight my disadvantage to [sell the story] is awful. We're still great friends, weve spoken since.'

Alex has also denied the claims.

In a statement provided to Daily Mail Australia, the reality TV star dismissed the reports as 'hurtful' and 'completely false.'

Still in contact: The pair have spoken since their split last year

The statement explained that she and Tom ended their relationship amicably in September after they both agreed it was 'best for them to part ways.'

'Our relationship ended amicably with us both agreeing it was best to part ways,' insisted the Bachelor beauty.

'We are on good terms. Tom is now overseas on a scholarship to study,' Alex said, slamming New Ideas suggestion her former lover of 15-months fled to escape her.

Defending herself: In a statement to Daily Mail Australia on Monday, Alex also denied the claims

The denials come after New Idea reported, Alex had negotiated a guaranteed spot in the top five with the show's producers 'because she would be away from her son' Elijah.

It was also claimed Tom began to question the timing of their break-up after he discovered she would be a contestant on this year's Bachelor.

According to close friends, Tom was 'blindsided when Alex said she wanted it all to end' following a 15-month romance that was seemingly going well.

'She had told some friends that because she would be away from her son, she insisted the producers make it worth her while, and made a deal that she would make the final five,' the source told the glossy magazine.

Disgusted: In a statement provided to Daily Mail Australia, the 24-year-old single mother labelled the reports 'hurtful' and 'completely false'

The truth: Alex told Daily Mail Australia Tom was overseas studying, while his Instagram account shows the blonde attended his going away party six weeks ago (pictured)

'So even if she didn't win, it would help her profile and acting aspirations.'

Meanwhile, the weekly tabloid has also revealed Tom escaped on a European trip to avoid watching his former love fall for someone else on TV.

Currently in Sweden, the student began his six-month holiday and exchange trip back in July - the same month the reality dating show began to air on Australian TVs.

Moving on: Both Alex and Tom have moved on following their split

'He had so many unanswered questions from Alex it was making him crazy because he knew she had moved on, so he decided to do the same,' the insider told the publication.

Alex and Tom were friends for 10 years before dating, and the Victorian beauty previously said: 'I thought he was the one I'd marry and settle down with.'

But the part-time model broke up with the university student - who was left a paraplegic after he fell 9m from a construction site - last year after a 15-month romance.

Over: The part-time model broke up with the university student - who was left a paraplegic after he fell 9m from a construction site - last year after a 15-month romance

Speaking to OK! Magazine, Alex claimed Tom is 'probably the first person (she) ever loved,' despite the fact she was previously married.

Speaking of Tom's accident, she explained: 'He'd fallen nine metres and severed his spinal cord, but we fell madly in love and I renovated my house so he could move in with me.'
With Clinton grounded, Trump under harsh spotlight

With Hillary Clinton out of action, her White House rival Donald Trump was squarely in the spotlight Wednesday -- but for the wrong reasons, facing scrutiny over his foundation and branded a "disgrace" by the former top diplomat Colin Powell.

The Democratic nominee is expected back on the campaign trail on Thursday after a weekend health scare that grounded her for three days, right as her showdown with Republican Trump enters its final two-month stretch.

But while Clinton's troubles initially provided Team Trump with a golden chance to undermine her, their champion was facing some sharp attacks of his own.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was forced to leave a 9/11 memorial event in New York Brendan Smialowski (AFP)

In leaked emails posted on website DC Leaks, Powell blasted Trump as "a national disgrace and an international pariah," a stinging attack on the brash billionaire from a cabinet member in the last Republican administration.

"He appeals to the worst angels of the GOP nature and poor white folks," the retired four-star general, who twice endorsed the Democrat Barack Obama for president, wrote in a separate email.

Powell, who was US secretary of state from 2001 to 2005, confirmed to NBC the hacked messages were authentic.

At the same time, New York state's top law enforcement official said he has opened an investigation into the Donald J Trump Foundation, citing worries the charity has been involved in "impropriety."

The Trump Foundation has faced a series of damaging stories, including reports that it made an illegal $25,000 donation to a campaign group supporting Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi in 2013, just as she was considering joining a fraud case against the Trump University real estate program.

"We have been concerned that the Trump Foundation has engaged in impropriety from that point of view," Attorney General Eric Schneiderman told CNN Tuesday.

Schneiderman has been at loggerheads with Manhattan mogul for years over Trump University, which he calls "straight up fraud."

Trump's campaign pushed back, with spokesman Jason Miller branding Schneiderman "a partisan hack" whose probe "is nothing more than a left-wing hit job designed to distract from Crooked Hillary Clinton's disastrous week."

Trump has weathered waves of attacks over the excesses of his 15-month campaign for the White House. It is unclear how the latest criticism and investigation will impact the race.

But the presidential battle is in the home stretch, with just 12 days until the first Clinton-Trump debate, expected to be the most watched moment of the bruising campaign to date.

- Test results on air? -

Clinton meanwhile was at home in Chappaqua, New York for a third straight day, recovering from pneumonia in a health scare that rocked her bid to become America's first woman president.

She was forced to leave a 9/11 memorial event in New York on Sunday and was seen stumbling limp-legged into a Secret Service vehicle. Clinton's campaign initially said she had been suffering the ill effects of dehydration and "overheating."

Clinton's personal physician later disclosed she had been diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday, two days before the 9/11 event, raising broader questions about her campaign's transparency.

Trump, meanwhile, was reportedly due to disclose details of a recent medical exam in an appearance on medical talk show Dr. Oz set to air on Thursday.

According to the New York Times, Trump handed the celebrity doctor a summary of test results to read out air, during taping of the show on Wednesday.

Clinton will be under renewed pressure to disclose more health information as she returns to the trail Thursday with appearances in Greensboro, North Carolina and then Washington.

Next week she dons her diplomatic cap, holding several bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly including with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, her campaign said.

Clinton has been under fire for provocative comments she made Friday when she described half of Trump's supporters as being in "a basket of deplorables" because of their racism, misogyny and xenophobia.

Supporters -- including Obama -- have complained that she is being held to a higher standard than her Republican rival, whose campaign has been punctuated by outrageous outbursts.

Nate Silver, a respected election analyst at FiveThirtyEight.com, weighed in on Wednesday, arguing that while both candidates face similar, substantial media scrutiny, Trump's "scandalousness" was 10 times that of rival Clinton.

"There's everything: corruption, racism, lying, fitness for office. Like nothing we've ever seen before," Silver tweeted.

"Trump gets harsh coverage. But it can't, or doesn't, fully scale up to his candidacy."

After an extremely rough few days for Hillary Clinton, US President Barack Obama used a fiery appearance before a crowd in Philadelphia to try to turn the tables on Donald Trump Saul Loeb (AFP)

A sign along a road near the home of US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wishes her well after she fell ill at a 9/11 memorial ceremony and her doctor later revealed she was diagnosed with pneumonia Don Emmert (AFP)

Donald Trump, known for his relentless and personal attacks, brushed off questions from reporters about Hillary Clinton's health on Sunday

US presidential vote Philippe Mouche, Francois D'Astier (AFP)
China, Russia set to stage military drills in S. China Sea

China and Russia were to start war games in the South China Sea on Monday, Beijing's defence ministry said, in a show of force after an international tribunal invalidated the Asian giant's extensive claims in the area.

The eight-day joint drills will include exercises on "seizing and controlling" islands and shoals, Chinese navy spokesman Liang Yang said in a statement.

They will involve surface ships, submarines, fixed-wing aircraft, ship-borne helicopters, marine corps and amphibious armoured equipment from both navies, he said.

China claims almost all of the South China Sea and has sought to bolster its case by building a series of artificial islands capable of supporting military facilities

"Compared with previous joint drills, these exercises are deeper and more extensive in terms of organisation, tasks and command" he said in the statement, released Sunday.

China claims almost all of the South China Sea and has sought to bolster its case by building a series of artificial islands capable of supporting military facilities.

But a UN-backed tribunal ruled in July -- in a case brought by the Philippines -- that any extensive claims to the sea had no legal basis and that China's construction of artificial islands in disputed waters was illegal.

Beijing reacted furiously, with foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang threatening a "decisive response" if anyone took "any provocative action against China's security interests based on the award".

Beijing's land reclamations have prompted criticism from other claimant countries and the US, and Washington has regularly sent warships into the strategically vital area to assert the right to freedom of navigation.

This week's drills will be carried out off the coast of Zhanjiang city in the southern province of Guangdong.

Their precise location was not announced, but they do not appear to be taking place in disputed parts of the sea.

They were aimed at "strengthening the capabilities of the Chinese and Russian Navies in jointly handling security threats on the sea", navy spokesman Liang said.

- 'Ill-informed' -

China and Russia have close military and diplomatic ties, often in opposition to the West, particularly the United States, and their leaders Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin enjoy a tight relationship.

Last August, the two powers held military exercises in the waters and airspace of the Peter the Great Gulf, south of the Russian Pacific city of Vladivostok, involving 22 vessels, up to 20 aircraft and more than 500 marines.

In May last year, they conducted their first joint naval exercises in European waters in the Black Sea and Mediterranean, China's farthest-ever drills from its home waters.

Chinese military officials have said this week's exercises were "routine" and the official Xinhua news agency said Monday that Western media reports on them had sought to deliver a "sensational impression".

Suggestions that they were meant as a "sabre-rattling" warning to other countries were "ill-informed" and driven by "prejudice about China and Russia", it said.

"It may be true that growing military ties between Russia and China have irritated someone's sensitive nerves," Xinhua added. "The defensive nature of these manoeuvres is in line with China's defence policy, which makes it clear that China will not be the first to strike."

Apart from the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have partial claims to the sea, through which over $5 trillion in annual trade passes.

UN-backed ruling on the South China Sea Gal ROMA, Adrian LEUNG (AFP)
Polygamy and divorce on the rise in war-torn Syria

Six months after Maha's husband was killed in Syria's bloody civil war, the mother-of-two took a decision that has become increasingly common -- she became a second wife.

"After my husband died, I was alone with my children and it was very difficult," the 31-year-old told AFP by phone from an area near Damascus that has seen heavy combat between government and rebel forces.

"My cousin suggested we get married, and now I live with his wife and children. It was a difficult decision because his wife was a friend of mine," she said.

Syrians queue up in the office of Judge Mahmoud Al-Maarawi (R) to get legal papers for divorce or for second marriages in Damascus Louai Beshara (AFP/File)

With thousands of Syrian men dying on the front lines of the conflict that began in March 2011, and others forced into exile or simply disappearing, the rates of divorce and polygamy in Syria are on the rise.

According to official figures, polygamous relationships accounted for 30 percent of marriages registered in Damascus in 2015, up from just five percent in 2010.

"We have more women than men here. Four friends and I decided to take widowed women as second wives to protect their reputations," explained Mohammed, Maha's new husband.

More than 290,000 people have been killed in Syria and millions have fled their homes to neighbouring countries.

For those who have stayed, fighting has torn apart families and put an enormous strain on couples struggling to survive amid poverty, unemployment and violence.

- 'More women than men' -

In Syria, the personal status law for Muslims, which is applied for issues such as marriage, divorce and inheritance, is derived from religious law.

Other religious groups, like the Christians and Druze, are regulated by their own religious tribunals.

Polygamy pre-dates Islam in the Middle East but was incorporated into the religion. Sunni Muslim men are permitted to take four wives on the condition that they treat them equally.

Nowadays, the practice is fairly uncommon in much of the Muslim world, with many countries placing restrictions on multiple marriages.

In Syria, these include limits on the age difference between spouses and guarantees that the husband can pay for separate homes for each wife.

But the imbalances created by war have prompted religious authorities to be more lax.

"Many men are dead, missing or have gone abroad," said judge Mahmud al-Maarawi, who heads the religious court that oversees personal status issues for Syria's Sunni Muslims.

"So there are more women than men, and the solution from a legal and religious point of view is polygamy," he told AFP.

"The tribunals bypass the restrictions put in place by law to allow a man to take a second wife... It has solved many problems."

For many women, the decision to wed an already married man is born of economic hardship.

"Women who in ordinary circumstances would have refused are now agreeing to marry a man who is already married who can provide for them and give them a sense of protection," said psychologist Leila al-Sherif.

- Marrying a tenant -

Abu Adnan's second wife was a tenant at his large house in the Old City in Damascus.

"She couldn't pay her rent, so I decided to marry her. It was better than putting her on the street," the 46-year-old said.

"My first wife accepted because we haven't been able to have children. She hopes I'll be able to have a son."

A mother of five, Sabah al-Halabi's "first husband abandoned me and my children after losing his job" early on during the conflict.

To provide for her two unmarried children, Sabah found a husband 24 years her senior who already has one wife.

"I married Mamduh, who is 68, because I wanted a better life for my children," she said, as she waited to register her marriage in Damascus.

The war has also led to an increasing number of divorces, with authorities recording 7,000 cases in 2015, a 25 percent increase from 5,318 in 2010.

"Many couples are forced to live with their families for economic reasons," creating pressure on marriages, said Maarawi.

"There are also disputes between couples when one wants to emigrate and the other is afraid of the journey or being far from their family," he added.

In some cases, husbands have demanded divorces after meeting women overseas, or wives have divorced husbands who have left them behind.

Syrian law allows a wife to divorce if she can prove her husband has been absent for at least a year, but 43-year-old Fawziyeh waited three years before beginning proceedings against her husband.

He left for Sweden as a refugee, where he was meant to complete the paperwork for the family to reunite.

But after waiting three years, living with their three children at her parents' home, she'd had enough.

"I divorced him. The wait was difficult and now I'm free to marry whoever I want."

Damascus divorce court - with thousands of Syrian men dying in the conflict and others forced into exile or simply disappearing, the rates of divorce and polygamy are on the rise Louai Beshara (AFP/File)
China's cargo carriers crumble in courier cavalry contest

When Li Ming left the Chinese countryside and moved to the city to look for work more than 30 years ago, gruelling manual jobs were plentiful.

Three decades later, the 56-year-old is still hauling goods up and down the steep hills of Chongqing as one of the southwestern city's "bang-bang army", men and women equipped with nothing more than bamboo poles or carts, and muscle power.

Chinas economic boom was largely built on the backs of people like Li, with little or no education who earned low wages but were able to provide a marginally better life for their children.

A "bang-bang" porter carries goods on his back in down some steps in Chongqing Nicolas Asfouri (AFP)

They are among the last remaining vestiges of the start of Chinas rise, and have been largely replaced with trucks and electric scooters, where delivery men are employees of corporate logistics companies, not guns for hire.

These days most "bang-bang" are over 50.

"I dont have enough education to change jobs, this is the only work Ive known since I came to the city," Li told AFP as he waited outside a wholesale market for customers. "No young people want to do this work, it's too hard, so all the 'bang-bang' are very old."

A study by Chongqing University in 2010 put the number of "bang-bang" at between 300,000 and 400,000, but locals dispute the claim. Most bang-bang interviewed by AFP said there were no more than 10,000 still working, with sharp declines in recent years as logistics companies have expanded.

As a heat wave gripped Chongqing in late August, many streets were empty as residents headed indoors in an attempt to keep cool. But despite the temperature reaching 42 degrees celsius (107 degrees fahrenheit), the army of mostly men, chests bare, lugged wares up and down hills, with most trips costing just 15 yuan ($2.25).

When business is good Li can make as much as 80 yuan a day, he said, but recently he has only managed to earn about 30 yuan a day.

Their competition is ever present in the streets of Chongqing. Boxes for household appliances, bedsheets, shoes and electronics are piled high on the pavement, waiting to be transported by electric tricycles or delivery vans.

"The young people that work for the courier companies are lazy," Li said. "A 'bang-bang' is always there when you need him, but a courier will deliver things only when its convenient for him."

-- This story accompanies a photo essay by Nicolas Asfouri --

Most bang-bang interviewed by AFP said there were no more than 10,000 still working, with sharp declines in recent years as logistics companies have expanded Nicolas Asfouri (AFP)

A "bang-bang" porter, also known as "stick-man" due to the bamboo sticks they use for carrying goods, walks up a street with a delivery receipt in his hand in Chongqing Nicolas Asfouri (AFP)

One of the "bang-bang army", who hauls goods up and down the steep hills of Chongqing Nicolas Asfouri (AFP)
Pneumonia: Five things to know

US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has cancelled campaign engagements after being diagnosed with pneumonia.

The 68-year-old fell ill at a ceremony to mark the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, and appeared to lose her footing as she was helped into her vehicle.

Here are five things to know about the disease.

Protesters from Doctors without Borders rally in April 2016 in front of Pfizers New York headquarters calling for cheaper lifesaving pneumonia vaccines Don Emmert (AFP/File)

What is pneumonia?

Pneumonia is an acute respiratory infection caused by bacteria, viruses or fungi that target the lungs.

When it strikes, the tiny air sacs inside the lungs fill up with pus and fluid, limiting oxygen intake and making it painful for the patient to breathe.

All types of pneumonia share similar symptoms including cough and fever, with wheezing being more common in viral cases.

Doctors usually diagnose pneumonia by conducting a physical exam, checking symptoms and carrying out a chest X-ray to ensure that the patient is not suffering from bronchitis or other respiratory infections.

Fungal pneumonia tends to be relatively rare, affecting people with weakened immune systems, such as AIDS patients, who become sick either when they inhale wind-borne spores or when a fungus already present in their bodies triggers symptoms.

Who is at risk?

Pneumonia can affect people of all ages but it can be particularly serious, even life-threatening, for the very old or the very young.

Smokers, as well as people with underlying medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes and heart disease, are particularly vulnerable, according to the US Centers for Disease and Control Prevention (CDC).

The infection is spread via air-borne droplets from coughs or sneezes.

Doctors say hand-washing is an effective way to reduce the risk of picking up pneumonia.

How dangerous is it?

When an otherwise healthy adult under 65 years of age gets pneumonia, his or her body can usually fight off the infection.

But patients with a weak immune system -- those who are very young or old, or those who have a pre-existing condition -- can struggle to cope and will sometimes develop complications.

As the infection sets in, it can cause oxygen levels in the body to fall. In extreme cases, this can lead to organ failure and death.

The World Health Organization calls pneumonia the single biggest killer of children under five worldwide, responsible for 15 percent of deaths in this age group every year.

What is the recommended treatment?

It depends on what kind of pneumonia it is.

Doctors advise patients to take rest and consume plenty of fluids.

The normal treatment includes antibiotics for bacterial cases, while viral pneumonia is treated with antiviral drugs and the occasional prescription of corticosteroid medicines.

Fungal pneumonia is usually treated with antibiotics or antifungal medication.

Hospitalisation is recommended in high-risk cases.

What is the usual recovery time?
Murree with a curry: Pakistan alcohol booms

At Murree Brewery, home of Pakistan's national lager, vintage copper boilers belch odorous fumes as they churn out 10 million litres of beer each year.

Hundreds of tons of gin and whisky are stored in climate-conditioned cellars, shielded from the pummelling sun.

Whether it's beer produced by the crateful in Murree's venerable red brick brewery -- opposite the powerful army's headquarters in Rawalpindi -- or wine discreetly fermented in a bedroom, alcohol sales are booming in "teetotalitarian" Pakistan.

A worker monitors production line of canned beer at the Muree Brewery Company in Rawalpindi Aamir Qureshi (AFP)

Strangers to the Islamic Republic may be surprised that the country industriously -- and at Murree openly -- produces such quantities of booze, despite it being forbidden to 97 percent of the population.

But although Pakistani Muslims are banned from drinking alcohol, topers take advantage of the fact that the country's minorities, mainly Hindus and Christians, face no such prohibition, and often snaffle up their quota.

And so although officially only three million adults can buy alcohol, the country's three breweries must work hard to please the nation's enthusiastic tipplers.

Murree produces two cask-aged whiskies and a gin dyed an electric blue -- not coincidentally exactly the shade of bottles containing its more internationally renowned counterpart, Bombay Sapphire.

Founded by the British in 1860 and now Parsee-owned, Murree brewery has been burnt down by Muslim protesters, temporarily shut down in an Islamist purge and and continues to survive prohibition, which was imposed in the 1970s.

Far from bowed, it flourishes as one of Pakistan's most successful companies, with an annual growth of between 15 to 20 percent, a rarity in a country regularly wracked by Islamist violence.

"There is no risk as such, because we are a very very legal entity -- one of the biggest taxpayers in this country," said Major Sabih-ur-Rehman, a brewery executive.

"It is in the interest of everybody that the Murree brewery as a legal business should flourish and continue."

- An elite pursuit -

With cans priced at 300 rupees ($3) on the legal market in a country where the average salary is 13,000 ($130), the brewery caters mainly to a Muslim elite willing to break the rules.

Tahir Ahmed, a therapist specialising in addiction, who is worried about the rise in alcoholism, says that off licence stores "sell the booze to the people who can afford it, and only Muslims can".

"The middle class is steeped in Islamic morality, but the upper class are getting richer, and it is a new norm that if you invite someone for dinner you will be serving alcohol. It is socially expected."

Well stocked bars at birthday parties, dinners awash with Italian wines and discreet "car-bars" in the parking lots of wedding halls are supplied by a thriving blackmarket that also relies on vast foreign imports.

"The main source of smuggling is through Dubai on launches crossing the sea," a customs official who did not wish to be named told AFP.

Smugglers are able to bring in entire containers by paying off officials, while sometimes unscrupulous diplomats sell a part of their legal quota to bootleggers.

An Asian embassy in Islamabad once ran its own wine shop, according to former customers.

- Soaring spirits -

Buying on the blackmarket raises prices -- a bottle of Murree gin can cost $20 even (more than double its official cost), even when bootleggers dilute the spirit. An ordinary bottle of table wine starts at $40.

Cheap and dangerous moonshine is also available, often drunk with fatal consequences by the poor during festivals.

But wealthier amateurs, fed up with the variable quality of bootlegged alcohol, have taken to making their own wines at home.

With no grape harvest or cave, Hassan makes do with buying litres of grape juice, sugar and enzymes, which he mixes in huge glass cylinders.

For his white wine, he presses kilos of oranges and white grapes, which he brightens with raisins. All done discreetly in his guest bedroom.

"It is a fairly simple process, but you have to make sure everything is kept very clean, sanitise everything," explains the thirty-something connoisseur.

"It's a nice hobby, it's fun to make and drink what you made with friends", he adds.

Although a hobby that's punishable by 80 lashes, this viticulturist is undeterred. The penalty has never been applied.

Strangers to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan may be surprised that the country industriously produces large quantities of booze, despite it being forbidden to 97 percent of the population Aamir Qureshi (AFP)
Backlash over Marcos 'revisionism' in Philippines

The Philippine government faced a backlash Monday over claims it was trying to whitewash the history of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Critics said a series of edits to the Facebook page of the country's official government record were an attempt to put a positive gloss on years of authoritarian rule.

Among changes that sparked fury over the weekend was the claim that Marcos imposed martial law in 1972 to deal with Muslim secessionists and a communist insurgency.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is a close ally of the Marcos family and credits them for his election as president in May Ted Aljibe (AFP/File)

Opponents charge Marcos declared martial law to keep himself in power. They also say he threw opposition figures in jail and plundered state coffers.

The gazette also said he gave up his role in 1986 to "avoid bloodshed"; historians agree he reluctantly fled in the face of massive popular opposition.

"The caption should have been "Ferdinand Marcos stole $10 billion dollars worth from Filipinos, had 34,000 Filipinos tortured, had 3,240 Filipinos murdered, and was so hungry for power he tried to stay dictator for life," one angry commentator posted on Facebook.

The furore is the latest chapter in a struggle over the national narrative in a fiercely partisan country, where power has traditionally been passed among a small number of elite families.

Controversial President Rodrigo Duterte -- a Marcos ally -- has reignited squabbles over Marcos' legacy with a plan to bury his embalmed body in the "Cemetery of Heroes".

Mainstream historians agree that Marcos's 21-year rule was a dark period for the Philippines; a time when extra-judicial killings, disappearances and corruption were the norm.

Most Filipinos lived in grinding poverty, even as the president and his family grew wealthy -- a gulf symbolised by the discovery of thousands of pairs of luxury shoes in the first lady's living quarters.

"We are not in the business of revising history," assistant press secretary Ramon Cualoping insisted Monday in response to the outcry.

"The Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines is devoid of any political colour and affiliations," he added.

The government later revised the entry to say only that Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and went into exile in the United States in 1986.

Marcos died in 1989 and his family was later allowed to return to the Philippines where they have made a remarkable political comeback, with several members getting elected to major positions.

Duterte, who styles himself as an anti-corruption crusader, is a close ally of the Marcos family and credits them for his election as president in May.

Mainstream historians agree that Ferdinand Marcos's 21-year rule was a dark period for the Philippines Romeo Gacad (AFP/File)
Afghans mark Eid with prayers for peace

Millions of war-weary Afghans on Monday marked the Islamic festival of Eid-ul-Adha with prayers and feasting, hopeful of a brief respite from fighting that has seen record-breaking losses this year.

Fellow Muslims across Asia spent the day slaughtering livestock, giving charity to the poor and visiting relatives on Islam's second-holiest holiday.

Afghanistan has seen fighting between government forces and Islamist militants -- mainly Taliban insurgents but also Islamic State fighters -- reach record levels this year following the 2014 withdrawal of US-led foreign combat troops.

Afghans offer Eid-ul-Adha prayers in Jalalabad on September 12, 2016 Noorullah Shirzada (AFP)

"Our country has been at war for nearly four decades, but the three days of Eid are the happiest days of our life because this an occasion where families come together and enjoy and celebrate this festival," Kabul resident Nasratullah Wafa told AFP:

The roads of the capital were mostly empty and many were blocked by military to safeguard against possible attacks, while police stood guard over mosques during the morning Eid prayers.

US Brigadier General Charles Cleveland in August said Afghan security forces were on track for their bloodiest year to date, surpassing the roughly 5,000 deaths of local police and troops and around 15,000 wounded in 2015.

He did not offer figures but said there was an increase of about 20 percent over the corresponding period last year.

Afghan forces backed by US air strikes have mounted a new offensive to flush out Taliban insurgents encircling the capital of southern Uruzgan province, officials said Sunday, days after militants stormed into the city.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani meanwhile offered Eid greetings to the nation and said that a peace deal with Hezb-e-Islami, the country's second-biggest Islamist group that has been dormant for a number of years, was imminent.

"Peace is the desire of Afghan nation, and the Afghan nation has consensus for peace. The peace agreement will be finalised very soon," he said.

In Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country, citizens gathered at mosques across the nation to witness the traditional sacrifice of animals, that honours the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son for God.

At a large mosque in central Jakarta dozens of goats, sheep and cows were tethered in makeshift pens in the parking lot before being led to a tiled clearing for slaughter.

Farra, an Indonesian woman in her 40s, said she would take the cuts home where her mother would prepare "sate", a dish of spiced meat grilled over hot coals, for her extended family.

"We do it every year, and the great thing is we can see our lamb when it's cut, and can remember it's our gift to Allah," she told AFP, as a butcher handed her a freshly carved leg of lamb in a plastic bag.

Pakistan, the world's second most populous Muslim nation, will celebrate Eid on Tuesday because of differences in interpretation of the lunar date.
A deputy court clerk in Minot has been reprimanded for a Facebook post that sparked a social media firestorm over her suggestion that American Indians protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline be allowed to keep their sacred land and that the government should then stop all the subsidies and hand outs.

State Court Administrator Sally Holewa said the North Central Judicial District office in Ward County was inundated with phone calls about the comments posted Sept. 5 by Deputy Court Clerk Kolette Ostlund while she was on vacation.

We were all just appalled also, Holewa said. It definitely does not represent the views of the court.

Many callers wanted Ostlund fired, and she received at least one death threat and a threatening fax message, both of which were forwarded to the Ward County Sheriffs Office, Holewa said.

In keeping with the state court systems internal disciplinary policy, a written letter of reprimand  essentially a warning  was placed in Ostlunds personnel record when she returned from vacation Thursday, and she was put on a corrective action plan, Holewa said.

The court system plans to work with United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck on a training program to educate all system employees on facts and stereotypes about Native Americans, Holewa said. Ostlund has worked for the court for about 10 years.

This is absolutely the first instance of any kind of bias from her, said Holewa, who offered the court systems sincere apology in a Facebook reply to a user who complained about the post.

Ward County District Court Clerk Susan Hoffer said Monday that Ostlund could not speak about personal issues while at work and referred questions to Carolyn Probst, court administrator for the North Central and Northwest judicial districts. Probst said Ostlund declined an interview request from Forum News Service.

Shes been extremely remorseful, but shes hesitant to make any statements just because of the sensitive nature of the situation, Probst said.

Human Resources Director Amy Klein sent an email to all state court employees on Thursday requiring them to review employee code-of-conduct and harassment policies and reply to her email by Sept. 16 to verify they had done so.

Conduct exhibiting prejudice or bias, even if it occurs outside business hours, falls within the scope of the policies and may lead to corrective action, Klein noted.

People who come into the Court System expect, and deserve, to be treated with dignity and to have their case handled in a fair and impartial manner, she wrote. In order for litigants and the public to respect court decisions they must trust that court employees and judges are carrying out their duties without prejudice.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is suing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the permit it granted allowing the four-state, $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline to cross the Missouri River less than a mile north of the tribe's reservation. Tribal leaders say the pipeline will destroy sacred sites and threatens their water supply, and that they werent properly consulted about the project.

A federal judge Friday denied the tribes request for an emergency injunction to halt construction; but the Corps of Engineers, Department of Justice and Department of Interior issued a statement minutes later that they wont authorize construction of the pipeline on corps land bordering or under the river until further review is completed. The tribe has appealed the judges ruling and is seeking an injunction while the appeal is pending.

Ostlunds Sept. 5 post about the pipeline issue began, Solution: let them keep their sacred land. Go around their water and burial grounds. It obviously means a lot to them and they should have it Then Stop the monthly checks and ALL the government payouts! Stop all the subsidies and hand outs. Done!

She added, The government has paid out enough over the last few hundred years. Enough is enough!

The post was quoted numerous times on Facebook and blogs, with many calling it racist or ignorant. Ostlunds Facebook page appears to have been deleted, as a search Monday yielded no results -- though it showed nearly 36,000 people were talking about her.

In an undated follow-up post, Ostlund wrote that she had deleted hundreds, if not thousand (sic), of horrible messages and threats.

Again, seriously, So sorry if I offended anyone. I truly thought I had an answer to the problem! she posted.

Probst said there have been quite a few inquiries about the post, which she called just appalling. Many calls have gone directly to the court clerks, who were busy with their regular duties.

Its very unfortunate, and its a poor reflection not only for our unit, our district, but for our state, she said.
Families allege murder as Bangladesh fire toll rises

Relatives of workers killed in a fire at a packaging factory in Bangladesh have filed a murder case against the owner, police said Monday, as the death toll from the disaster rose to 31.

Another 12 people are missing after the disaster on Saturday, the worst since the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment complex in 2013 that killed more than 1,100 people.

The government has launched an investigation into what caused the fire, but police in the industrial town of Tongi, where the Tampaco Foils Limited factory was located, said bereaved relatives had already filed a private lawsuit.

A mourner cries next to the bodies of factory workers after an explosion in a factory in Tongi, Bangladesh, on September 10, 2016 Rajib Dhar (AFP/File)

"A murder case was filed by relatives of a dead worker against eight people, including the owner and his wife," Tongi police chief Firoz Talukdar told AFP.

Police said they would launch a separate investigation into the murder allegation made by the family. Any decision on whether to bring charges would have to be taken by a court.

Talukdar said firefighters and soldiers engaged in search and rescue efforts had dug out two more bodies, but there was little hope of finding any survivors.

Around 70 people were also injured, some critically, in the fire at the factory, which packages food and cigarette products for local and foreign brands.

The blaze is the latest in a series of deadly accidents to hit impoverished Bangladesh, whose $27-billion garment industry is the world's second largest behind China's.

The Rana Plaza tragedy triggered international outrage and successfully put pressure on US and European clothing brands to improve deplorable safety conditions at the factories which supply them.

The Tampaco factory supplies multinational and domestic brands including British-American Tobacco Bangladesh Limited and Nestle Bangladesh Limited, according to a company website.
N. Korea ready to conduct another nuclear test: Seoul

North Korea is ready to conduct another nuclear test at any time, South Korea's defence ministry said Monday, just days after Pyongyang sparked worldwide condemnation with its fifth and most powerful test.

The North has said the test has realised its goal of being able to fit a miniaturised warhead on a rocket, prompting urgent talks at the UN Security Council and calls for new sanctions.

"An additional test could be conducted in a tunnel that branches off from the second tunnel or in the third tunnel, where preparations have been completed," said ministry spokesman Moon Sang-Gyun.

A man watches a television screen reporting news of North Korea's latest submarine-launched ballistic missile test at a railway station in Seoul on August 25, 2016 Jung Yeon-Je (AFP/File)

He said the South's military is on full combat-readiness to respond to "further nuclear tests, ballistic missile launches or land provocation".

All five nuclear tests have been conducted at the Punggye-ri site in the country's northeast. The initial one in October 2006 was in the first tunnel and the last four in the second tunnel, according to Seoul's defence ministry.

In a statement hailing the "success" of its test on Friday, the North vowed to take further measures to increase its nuclear strike force "in quality and in quantity".

The yield from Friday's test was estimated at 10 kilotons, almost twice as much as the one Pyongyang conducted only eight months earlier, and analyst say it signals its nuclear capability has grown significantly.

However, opinion is split over whether Pyongyang really has made nuclear warheads small enough to arm its missile units, and even if so what the range of such a nuclear-tipped missile would be.

The ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun nevertheless declared Monday that the nuclear programme's "miraculous successes" mean the North has not only US bases in the Asia-Pacific but also the US mainland "in its clutches".

Should Washington launch a war against it, Pyongyang would "blow up the land of America and thus finally root out the source of war on the earth", it said.

The United Nations Security Council has agreed to start work on new punitive measures, even though five sets of UN sanctions since the first test have failed to halt the North's nuclear drive.

At a meeting with ruling and opposition party leaders Monday, South Korean President Park Geun-Hye called for political unity in the face of the mounting threat.

"I believe it is important to show the people that we are moving forward as one mind," she said.

And Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told military officials that Tokyo was confronting an "extremely harsh reality" with both Pyongyang and Beijing posing serious security challenges to Japan.

He said Pyongyang's decision to conduct two nuclear tests in a span of nine months was "absolutely unacceptable".

-- Strong measures --

Sung Kim, the US State Department's special representative for North Korea policy, said Sunday during a visit to Japan that Washington and Tokyo would work closely to come up with the strongest possible measures.

He also suggested the US may launch its own sanctions.

The envoy will arrive in Seoul later Monday and hold talks with his South Korean counterpart Kim Hong-Kyun the following day.

Washington also plans to stage an overflight of South Korea by two B-1B Lancer supersonic bombers as a show of strength, Yonhap news agency said.

US Forces Korea (USFK) said the flight had been delayed a day because of bad weather and would arrive tomorrow, identifying the planes only as "strategic aircraft".

"The mission is aimed at reinforcing the US commitment to its key ally following North Korea's nuclear test," a USFK spokesman told AFP.

Washington took similar military actions following previous atomic tests.

US troops have been based in South Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War ended only in an armistice and not a full peace treaty. They currently number 28,500.
Trump hopes Clinton 'gets well,' will release health record

Donald Trump said Monday he hopes his Democratic White House rival Hillary Clinton recovers from pneumonia and announced he would be releasing details of his own health soon.

The Republican presidential nominee was unusually subdued in his first public comments on the news that Clinton has pneumonia, a diagnosis revealed by her campaign after she fell sick at a 9/11 memorial ceremony Sunday and had to leave abruptly.

"Something is going on but I just hope she gets well and gets back on the trail, and we'll be seeing her at the debate," he said in a phone interview with Fox News.

Hillary Clinton (left) and Donald Trump are battling for the US presidency

The 70-year-old real estate magnate said he had a physical last week and will release the details once test results are back.

"I think they are going to be good. I feel great but when the numbers come in, I'll be releasing very, very specific numbers," he said.

So far, Trump has only released a brief letter from his physician that was light on details but said if elected, he would be "the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency."

Two US media outlets reported early Monday that Trump's campaign staffers had been ordered to be respectful about Clinton's illness and not post anything on the topic on social media.

Any violation of the order could result in termination, CNN said, citing unnamed Trump campaign sources.

Bloomberg reported a similar story, quoting "people familiar with the planning."

Trump, known for his relentless and personal attacks, had promoted the idea in recent weeks that his 68-year-old Democratic opponent has serious health problems affecting her fitness to lead.

The internet is awash with unsubstantiated claims that Clinton may have a brain tumor, Parkinson's or dementia.

Clinton was forced to cancel a California fundraising trip on Monday and Tuesday, barely eight weeks from Election Day.
World's highest bridge nears completion in China

Chinese engineers have completed the structure of what is expected to become the world's highest bridge, local authorities said.

The Beipanjiang Bridge, in mountainous southwestern China, soars 565 metres (1,854 feet) above a river, the Guizhou provincial transport department said in a statement.

As such it overtakes the Si Du River Bridge in the central province of Hubei to become the world's highest bridge, said the statement posted on Sunday.

The Beipanjiang Bridge, in mountainous southwestern China, soars 565 metres (1,854 feet) above a river STR (AFP)

The two ends of the bridge were linked on Saturday, it added.

The 1,341-metre span is expected to open to traffic at the end of this year and will cut road trips from Liupanshui in Guizhou to Xuanwei in neighbouring Yunnan province from around five hours to less than two, state broadcaster China Central Television reported Monday.

Several of the world's highest bridges are in China, although the world's tallest bridge -- measured in terms of the height of its own structure, rather than the distance to the ground -- remains France's Millau viaduct at 343 metres tall.
MH370 'debris' handed to Australian agency by amateur investigator

An American amateur investigator handed possible debris from missing flight MH370 to Australian officials Monday and said several pieces were blackened by flames, raising the prospect of a flash fire onboard.

Mystery has surrounded the fate of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 since it disappeared on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 passengers and crew on a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The Boeing 777 is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean after inexplicably veering off course, but its final resting place has not been found despite an intense underwater search off Australia's far west coast.

US amateur investigator Blaine Gibson speaks to the media after a meeting with the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau and the Joint Agency Coordination Centre in Canberra on September 12, 2016 Mark Graham (AFP)

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), which is coordinating the search, said Blaine Gibson had handed over unspecified debris on Monday.

"We are seeking advice from the Malaysian authorities regarding how they would like to proceed," an ATSB spokesman told AFP.

Gibson, a lawyer from Seattle who has travelled the world trying to solve the MH370 mystery, told local reporters the debris which had washed up in Madagascar included what appeared to be an internal panel.

He has handed his findings to authorities in the past and said he had brought the recently found pieces to Australia for forensic investigation.

- 'Signs of melting' -

"The top layer of paint has been singed, scorched black," he told Channel 7 of one piece. "It also shows some signs of melting... as you see when something is exposed to fire.

"It appears to be from the interior of the plane but not the main cabin, perhaps the cargo hold, perhaps the avionics bay."

Gibson told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the pieces could be a "real game changer" if they were found to belong to MH370.

"One of the theories is that there was a fire on the plane," he said, adding that there was as yet no evidence to support this theory.

Gibson has said he is paying his own travel costs and searching for the missing aircraft "just out of personal interest".

The debris was handed over as eight relatives of those onboard the flight had a private visit with ATSB officials.

The relatives from China, Malaysia and Indonesia had earlier been shown around one of the search vessels in Western Australia.

Canberra has been leading the massive search for MH370 within the 120,000-square-kilometre (46,000-square-mile) search zone set to be fully scoured by December.

But the underwater hunt has so far failed to find a single piece of debris from the plane, fuelling speculation that the crash site may be outside the current search zone.

The zone was defined under the "most likely" scenario that no one was at the controls as the plane ran out of fuel.

The first piece of debris found from MH370 -- a two-metre wing part known as a flaperon -- washed up on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion in July 2015.

Since then a range of debris linked to the flight has been found along western Indian Ocean shorelines.
Assad vows to retake all of Syria, hours before truce

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad vowed to retake all of Syria from "terrorists," hours before a truce brokered by Russia and the United States was due to take hold on Monday.

Speaking in Daraya, a former rebel stronghold recently surrendered to the government, Assad said "the Syrian state is determined to recover every area from the terrorists," state media reported.

"The armed forces are continuing their work, relentlessly and without hesitation, regardless of internal or external circumstances," he said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said "the Syrian state is determined to recover every area from the terrorists," state media reported

Assad made a rare public appearance to celebrate the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday in Daraya, where state media showed him attending prayers at the Saad Bin Moaz mosque.

After years of government siege and fighting, its remaining residents and rebel fighters evacuated the town in late August under a deal with the regime, which has since retaken control.

"After five years, some people still haven't woken up from their fantasies," Assad said, referring to the anti-government protests that erupted in Syria in 2011.

"Some were betting on promises from foreign powers, which will result in nothing," he added.

Assad was joined at the prayers by a number of members of his ruling Baath party, as well as several ministers and members of parliament.

The mufti, or Muslim cleric, presiding over the prayers, hailed Daraya as an example for Syria, which has been ravaged by conflict since 2011.

"Daraya is living proof for all Syrians that the only option available to you is reconciliation and abandoning fighting," said Adnan al-Afiyuni, mufti for Damascus province.

Rebel fighters said they had been forced to agree the deal with the government after the siege created a humanitarian crisis for Daraya's remaining residents.

But the government has touted the deal, and other similar agreements, as the best way to achieve local ceasefires and end the violence.

More than 290,000 people have been killed and over half the population displaced since the conflict began.
Taiwan protests over slump in China tourist visits

Thousands of tourism industry workers took to the streets in Taiwan Monday, demanding the government address a slump in visitors from China as cross-strait ties deteriorate.

Operators who had previously benefited from a boom in mainland tourists under former President Ma Ying-jeou's Beijing-friendly government are now only getting a fraction of the business as relations with China grow increasingly frosty under new president Tsai Ing-wen.

The number of visitors from China has dropped almost 24 percent in the months since Beijing-sceptic Tsai took office in May, compared with the same period last year, according to Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council.

Thousands of tourism industry workers on the streets in Taipei on September 12, 2016 calling on the government to address a slump in visitors from China as cross-strait ties deteriorate Sam Yeh (AFP)

While Beijing has not publicly said it is seeking to limit tourists to the island, observers say it is a stealth pressure tactic on Tsai.

Those working in the tourism sector say anti-China rhetoric from the Taiwanese public is also turning away visitors who feel they are not welcome.

"In the beginning it may have been Beijing interfering," said Ma Ching-chung, who heads an association of tour bus operators in New Taipei City.

"But later on it became the mainland tourists themselves who didn't want to come," he told AFP at Monday's protest in the capital Taipei.

As many as 10,000 people, from tour guides to bus drivers and restaurant workers, gathered in front of the Presidential Office demanding Tsai take action.

They waved placards with slogans such as "No job, no life" and "Cross-strait is one family" while chanting "We need to survive."

"Tsai Ing-wen should proactively reach out to China to negotiate," said 43-year-old tour guide Carol Ku, who says she has not worked for a month.

"Going forward, tourism won't be the only sector to be affected," she said.

Chinese visitors accounted for about 40 percent of the total 10 million tourists to Taiwan last year, according to government figures.

The biggest slump in visitors from mainland China is those arriving with tour groups -- a plunge of 40.6 percent.

That has hit the tea shop where Maggie Huang works in Alishan in central Taiwan, well known for its mountainous views and tea farms.

Huang, who is in her forties, says her shop used to be visited by as many as 30 mainland tour groups a day. Yesterday, they had none.

"We don't care about politics. We are just normal citizens trying to make a living," she said.

Tsai's government has said it is seeking to attract more tourists from Southeast Asia to make up the shortfall, but Huang is not optimistic.

"To have to learn totally new languages, it's very difficult," she said.

The cabinet last week approved a Tw$30 billion ($948 million) bailout for the tourism sector that includes loan extensions and assistance for the unemployed.

Taiwan is self-ruling but China still sees it as part of its territory to be reunited.

Beijing is highly sceptical of Tsai's traditionally pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party and has cut all official communications with Taiwan in recent months.
Afghanistan close to peace deal with notorious warlord

Afghanistan is close to signing a peace agreement with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, President Ashraf Ghani said Monday, in a landmark accord that could pave the way for the notorious warlord's political return after years in hiding.

Hekmatyar, who heads the now largely dormant Hezb-i-Islami militant group, is the latest among a series of warlords whom Kabul has sought to reintegrate into Afghan politics in the post-Taliban era.

If inked, the deal with Afghanistan's second-biggest militant group would mark a symbolic victory for Ghani, who has struggled to revive peace talks with the much more powerful Taliban.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani pictured in Kabul in July Shah Marai (AFP/File)

"The peace agreement will be finalised very soon," Ghani said in his address on the occasion of the Islamic festival of Eid-ul-Adha.

"We hope for peace in Afghanistan and to end the war in the country."

Ghani's statement comes after months of negotiations with Hizb-i-Islami, which has progressed in fits and starts over differences within the government over the final draft agreement.

On Sunday, Hekmatyar's son said on Facebook the agreement had been reached but the High Peace Council, the government body responsible for negotiations, said talks were still underway.

Hekmatyar was a prominent anti-Soviet commander in the 1980s and stands accused of killing thousands of people in Kabul during the 1992-1996 civil war.

He is widely believed to be living in hiding in Pakistan, but his group claims he is inside Afghanistan.

The potential deal, which is unlikely to have an immediate impact on the security situation in Afghanistan, has sparked revulsion from human rights groups.

According to a draft agreement seen by AFP, the government will offer Hekmatyar legal immunity in "all past political and military proceedings" as well as release Hezb-i-Islami prisoners.
Crystal Palace defender Souare hospitalised after car crash

Crystal Palace's Senegalese defender Pape Souare was taken to hospital on Sunday following a car accident, the Premier League club announced Monday.

The 26-year-old sustained thigh and jaw injuries during the crash and will remain in hospital to receive treatment, the south London side said.

"The club are liaising closely with the hospital on his progress and we obviously wish him a speedy recovery," said a Palace statement.

Senegal defender Pape Souare sustained thigh and jaw injuries during the car crash and will remain in hospital to receive treatment, his club Crystal Palace said Adrian Dennis (AFP/File)

"Our thoughts are with Pape and his family at this time."

Souare was airlifted in a helicopter from the crash site, on the M4 motorway west of London, to hospital.

A Metropolitan Police statement read: "Officers were called shortly before 12:10hrs (1110 GMT) on Sunday, 11 September to reports of two cars in collision between junctions four and three.

"London Ambulance Service attended and the driver of one of the cars -- a man aged in his 20s -- was taken to an east London hospital for treatment. His injuries are not life threatening.

"The driver of the other car involved did not require hospital treatment. There have been no arrests."
Gulf states voice concern over US 9/11 bill

Gulf Arab states expressed concern on Monday over a bill passed by the US Congress that would allow relatives of victims of the 9/11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia for compensation.

The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, of which Saudi Arabia is the most powerful member, expressed "profound worry," the bloc's secretary general, Abdullatif al-Zayani, said in a statement.

He said the law "contravenes the foundations and principles of relations between states, notably sovereign immunity."

People look over the north memorial pool during the 15th anniversary of September 11 at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, on September 11, 2016 in New York Bryan R. Smith (AFP)

The US House of Representatives passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act by a unanimous voice vote on Friday.

The Senate already approved the bill four months ago and it now goes before President Barack Obama.

The White House has signalled that he is likely to veto the bill but his veto can be overridden by a two-thirds majority of both houses.

Zayani expressed hope that the US administration "will not endorse this law... which will create a grave precedent".

Saudi Arabia is a longstanding US ally but it was also home to 15 of the 19 Al-Qaeda hijackers who carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States which killed nearly 3,000 people.

The draft law would allow attack survivors and relatives of terrorism victims to pursue cases in US federal court against foreign governments and demand compensation if such governments are proven to bear some responsibility for attacks on US soil.
The Department of Mineral Resources has been on lockdown for two weeks out of concern that it could become a protest site for opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline. During the same time, it was hit by an unrelated ransom-ware attack to its computer server, data files and website.

Department spokeswoman Alison Ritter said the lockdown was recommended by the Bismarck Police Department, and employees at the offices in north Bismarck were cautioned to be aware of their surroundings if a protest did occur. She said visitor traffic is normally light anyway, but people can use doorbells to gain entrance.

The ransom-ware attack occurred Sept. 1, when an employee opened a personal Gmail account at work and allowed malignant software into the departments servers. The software encrypted the departments data and demanded a ransom payment of around $300 per file to have it restored.

Ritter said the department has all of its data backed up and was able to restore computer-based information without too much interruption. She said the departments website was brought back online Sept. 2 and about 100 employee computers were cleared and brought back into the system throughout the Labor Day weekend.

Ritter said the ransom-ware attack was noticed by another employee who was seeing computer files change right before her eyes, and the departments servers were shut down within 15 minutes. The department, along with the Public Service Commission, State Water Commission and Attorney Generals office all have waivers to operate computer server systems separate from the states system.

Dan Sipes, deputy of the State Information Technology Department, said the ransom-ware is run of the mill variety and can be introduced into a computer through email attachments or by opening a link in a website browser.

Theres no evidence that the ransom-ware copied any of the departments files, according to Sipes, who said the only other previous occurrence of this sort was in 2013 at the Department of Transportation.

He said the incident may cause the departments security architecture team to recommend a tweak in user policy, whereby personal email can no longer be accessed from state computers.

The biggest thing is user education; an educated user is the first line of defense, he said.

Ritter said the current policy allows reasonable use and that employees use break time to check personal emails.
Abbas hits back after Netanyahu 'ethnic cleansing' claim

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing," days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a similar allegation.

The remarks follow Netanyahu's claim during an address rejecting criticism of Israeli settlement building that the Palestinians were seeking a state with "no Jews".

Netanyahu called that "ethnic cleansing," drawing a strong rebuke from the United States.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, pictured in April Thomas Coex (AFP/File)

Speaking on Sunday night before the Eid al-Adha Muslim festival, Abbas said the Israelis "don't want to progress one iota towards peace, in spite of their deceptive allegations."

"On the contrary, they go deeper with their settlements, infringement of holy places, ethnic cleansing and deliberate killing," he said, according to official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

In a video address on Friday, Netanyahu said that the Palestinian leadership wanted a state on the basis of "no Jews."

"There's a phrase for that, it is called ethnic cleansing," he said.

The US State Department called the video "unhelpful" and "inappropriate".

"We obviously strongly disagree with the characterisation that those who oppose settlement activity or view it as an obstacle to peace are somehow calling for ethnic cleansing of Jews from the West Bank," spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said.

The Palestinian leader has made the allegation against Israel before.

Palestinians accuse Israel of ethnic cleansing during the war surrounding the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, a claim Israel denies.

In his Eid address, Abbas also reiterated he was in favour of meeting Netanyahu in Russia, with President Vladimir Putin looking to mediate between the two sides.

Netanyahu has said he is ready to meet Abbas anywhere and at any time, but without preconditions.

Abbas did not say whether he had preconditions, but in the past the Palestinians have demanded a freeze in Israeli settlement building, a deadline for the end of the occupation of the West Bank and the release of prisoners.

"In recent days, we have agreed to a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the kind invitation of the Russian president," Abbas said.

Netanyahu again spoke of such a meeting as he met Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel in Jerusalem on Monday.

"Prime Minister Bettel invited me to Luxembourg but he also said maybe the Palestinians will come there," Netanyahu said.

"Well, it's either Moscow or Luxembourg. We'll see, one of them or anywhere else. We're always prepared to have direct negotiations without preconditions."

The last substantial public meeting between Abbas and Netanyahu is thought to have been in 2010, though there have been unconfirmed reports of secret meetings since then.

Peace efforts have been at a standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014.
Duterte orders US advisers out of southern Philippines

President Rodrigo Duterte ratcheted up his feud with the United States on Monday, ordering all American special forces out of the southern Philippines where they have been advising local troops battling Muslim extremists.

Duterte's order came a week after he called US President Barack Obama "a son of a whore", causing Obama to cancel their scheduled bilateral meeting at a summit in Laos.

The Filipino leader, the first to hail from the south and who claims Muslim ancestry, has been stepping up efforts to bring peace to the southern Philippines, where decades-long insurgencies with Muslim and communist rebels have claimed more than 150,000 lives.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte cites accounts of US troops who killed Muslims during the US's occupation of the Philippines in the early-1900s Ted Aljibe (AFP)

Last month he restarted peace talks with the largest separatist group, the 12,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which like others has been fighting since the 1970s for an independent Islamic state or autonomous rule.

US advisors in the area help train Filipino troops but are barred from engaging in combat except in self-defence.

Previously, about 500-600 US personnel rotated through the Mindanao region but in 2014, then-defence secretary Voltaire Gazmin said this would be cut back to 200.

Duterte did not specify when or how many Americans would be expelled but said the Philippines alignment with the West was at the root of the persistent Muslim insurgency.

"These US special forces, they have to go in Mindanao," he told a gathering of government employees.

"The (Muslim) people will become more agitated. If they see an American, they will really kill him."

The Pentagon said it was aware of Duterte's statements but had not been contacted by authorities on the issue.

"We will continue to consult closely with our Filipino partners to appropriately tailor our assistance to whatever approach the new Administration adopts," Pentagon spokesman Gary Ross said.

The United States is Manila's main military ally and the Philippines' colonial ruler until 1946. In his speech, Duterte showed photographs and cited accounts of how US troops killed Muslims during America's occupation of the Philippines in the early-1900s to explain his decision.

Duterte's spokesman Ernesto Abella said that "the statement reflects (President Duterte's) new direction towards coursing an independent foreign policy".

The Filipino leader also hit out at Obama and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for criticising his bloody crackdown on crime that has claimed 3,000 lives in a little over two months.

"This Obama, when you accuse me of killing... let he who is without sin, cast the first stone," he said.
Thai junta to end trial of civilians by military courts

Civilians accused of royal defamation and other security offences will no longer be tried in military courts, the junta said Monday, rolling back a heavily-criticised practice introduced after their 2014 coup.

Since the coup, breaches of a tough royal defamation law and other national security crimes have been punishable in military courts, presided over by a bench of officers.

Those courts have imposed severe sentences including record jail terms for civilians of up to 30 years for alleged lese majeste.

Thai soldiers march past the Military Court in Bangkok in August Lillian Suwanrumpha (AFP/File)

But on Monday the junta said an August referendum vote endorsing their new constitution has allowed them to ease their grip on the legal system -- in a sign of the junta's increasing confidence that it has its political opponents under control.

"For the past two years, the country has been in peace. People have co-operated in ... the steps to reform which saw the peaceful referendum," according to the order signed by junta leader Prayut Chan-O-Cha and published in the Royal Gazette.

With the new charter to soon come into effect, the junta is repealing three orders allowing for the trial of civilians in military court, the statement added.

Among other crimes, those orders covered allegations of lese majeste, sedition and possession of war weapons.

The changes come into effect immediately, but do not apply to civilians currently being processed by martial courts or offences committed before Monday's edict.

That means dozens of people still face military justice.

For two years the junta had parried all calls by rights groups to end the trial of civilians in military courts, using them as a tool to control a restive country.

But Thailand's junta has been pepped up by the referendum vote in favour of a charter they say will curb corruption and limit the power of greedy politicians.

Critics of the constitution say it hands the military long-term powers and will lead to greater division.

Thailand has been roiled by decades of political instability.

The latest chapter has unfolded since another coup in 2006 brought down billionaire ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

His family and their parties have won all Thai general elections since 2001, angering the royalist military and their establishment allies who refuse to accept defeat at the polls.

The kingdom is beset by fears for the health of the ailing 88-year-old king Bhumibol Adulyadej, who is seen by many Thais as the only binding figure across a deeply divided country.
Vietnam to extradite Indonesian 'pirates' to Malaysia: reports

A Vietnamese court on Monday agreed to hand over to Malaysia eight Indonesians who were arrested last year on suspicion of hijacking a Malaysian-flagged oil tanker, according to reports.

The men washed up on Vietnam's southwestern Tho Chu island on a lifeboat claiming to have encountered an accident at sea in June 2015.

They were taken into custody after officials discovered they were carrying large sums of cash, and were accused of hijacking the MT Orkim Harmony oil tanker.

The men were accused by Vietnamese oficials of hijacking the Malaysia MT Orkim Harmony oil tanker Le Quang Nhat (AFP/File)

The group spoke Indonesian, officials said, and both Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur requested to have the men extradited.

"The Hanoi people's court has ruled out a request by the Indonesian embassy to bring back the suspects to its country for a trial," state-run VNExpress news site said.

"The court accepted Malaysia's proposal to extradite the men to Malaysia" based on Vietnam's mutual legal support laws with Malaysia, the report added.

Court officials did not respond for a request to comment Monday, though the report said the suspects have 15 days to appeal the ruling.

MT Orkim Harmony was carrying around 6,000 tonnes of petrol worth an estimated $5.6 million when it was commandeered on June 11 last year en route from Malaysia's western coast to the port of Kuantan on the east coast.

The eight suspected pirates eluded search crews by escaping in a lifeboat under cover of darkness, Malaysian authorities said at that time.

The tanker's 22 crew members were mostly unscathed except for a slightly injured Indonesian sailor who was treated for a gunshot wound to the thigh.
5.4-magnitude quake hits southern S. Korea: USGS

A powerful 5.4-magnitude earthquake hit the southern region of South Korea Monday evening, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, following an earlier quake of 4.9-magnitude.

The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) put the second tremor higher than USGS, at 5.8-magnitude, describing it as the "biggest ever".

"It was the biggest quake ever to hit the country," Yoo Yong-Gyu, a KMA official, told reporters, adding the tremor was "felt all across the country".

Monday's second quake in South Korea hit at around 8:30 pm (1130 GMT), with the epicentre near the southeastern city of Gyeongju, the KMA said Olivier Morin (AFP/File)

Two people have been reported injured, he said, citing data from emergency rescue authorities.

The previous record in the South was a 5.2-magnitude quake that hit the sea off the southeastern port of Uljin in 2004 and a quake of equal magnitude in the eastern mountainous region of Sokri in 1978.

Monday's second quake hit at around 8:30 pm (1130 GMT), with the epicentre near the southeastern city of Gyeongju, the KMA said.

On Friday USGS reported a 5.3-magnitude "artificial earthquake" in North Korea, that was in fact a nuclear test.

Emergency centres across the South were flooded by tens of thousands of calls seeking information, Yonhap news agency said, adding train services in some regions were temporarily delayed.

Local nuclear reactors were operating without disruption, it said, citing officials at Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power.

The country's largest mobile app used by 40 million -- KakaoTalk -- partially went down with many unable to access the service, the company said, apparently due to heavy traffic.

The country's social media was also flooded with images of shattered storefront windows and people rushing out of buildings and apartments in panic, some with children in arms.
S. Africa's Zuma pays $500,000 bill over house scandal

South African President Jacob Zuma has paid back $542,000 of public money spent refurbishing his private home, his office said Monday, in a controversy that has dominated his second term in office.

The country's highest court found earlier this year that Zuma had violated the constitution by defying an order to repay some of the funds used to renovate Nkandla, his traditional homestead.

It ordered him to pay back funds spent on non-security upgrades -- including a chicken coop, swimming pool and amphitheatre -- valued by the treasury at 7,814,155 million rand ($542,000).

The Nkandla scandal has dogged President Jacob Zuma's presidency, becoming a symbol of alleged corruption and greed within the ruling African National Congress party Mujahid Safodien (AFP/File)

"President Zuma has paid over the amount... to the South African Reserve Bank as ordered by the Constitutional Court of South Africa," the presidency said in a statement.

It added that the president raised the money through a home loan.

The treasury confirmed separately that the payment had been received.

The Nkandla scandal has dogged Zuma's presidency, becoming a symbol of alleged corruption and greed within the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party and triggering several unsuccessful impeachment bids by the opposition.

A 2014 report by the public ombudswoman, Thuli Madonsela, found that Zuma and his family had "unduly benefited" from the upgrade work -- valued in 2014 at 216 million rand (then $24 million) -- and ordered him to pay back some of the money.

The president reacted by ordering two government investigations that cleared his name, including a report by the police minister which concluded that the swimming pool was a fire-fighting precaution.

In March, the Constitutional Court ruled Zuma had "failed to uphold, defend and respect the constitution as the supreme law of the land".
Activists demand international probe into Gabon unrest

African and European activist groups called Monday for an international inquiry into alleged "massacres" by troops and police after Gabon's presidential election, narrowly won by incumbent Ali Bongo.

The "Tournons La Page" (Let's Turn The Page) collective of civil society groups said in a statement that "many victims" had been killed in a military crackdown on the "popular uprising that followed the electoral coup".

Opposition leader Jean Ping last week took his challenge of the result to Gabon's top court, with Bongo blaming him for encouraging days of rioting that followed the August 31 announcement that the incumbent had won by fewer than 6,000 votes.

Days of riots in Gabon's capital of Libreville followed the August 31 announcement handing incumbent Ali Bongo a narrow victory Marco Longari (AFP/File)

"Many families are still looking for members who have disappeared since August 31," Tournons La Page said in its statement.

"Civil society demands an international inquiry into the massacres of populations by... the forces of repression in the service of a man, a clan and a family."

Bongo, whose family has ruled the central African nation since 1967, on Friday told AFP that he had "not employed or triggered the violence" since the provisional results were announced.

He blamed the killings, arson and looting on the climate created by Ping's "violent campaign of lies and denigration".

Ping's supporters say that 17 people were killed at his party headquarters alone, but the interior ministry says that three people died in the wave of post-electoral violence.

Tournons La Page said Gabonese people should be watchful and mobilised "until Ali Bongo accepts the outcome of the ballot" and admits defeat, ahead of the proposed inquiry to identify those behind the violence and have them "answer to international jurisdictions".

Ping has declared himself "president elect" and on Thursday appealed to the Constitutional Court to challenge the results.

He asked for a recount in the ruling family's stronghold of Haut-Ogooue province, where Bongo won more than 95 percent of votes on a reported turnout of more than 99 percent.

Ali Bongo, the incumbent, won by fewer than 6,000 votes in Gabon's presidential elections
Protests over water supplies hit India's tech hub of Bangalore

Violent protests have broken out in the southern technology hub of Bangalore over a Supreme Court order to divert water from reservoirs to a neighbouring state.

The protests have forced shops, businesses and schools to close in Bangalore, capital of Karnataka state, which has been ordered to release water into a river to ease a shortage in neighbouring Tamil Nadu.

Vehicles with Tamil Nadu registration plates have been attacked and protesters have blocked roads by burning tyres and effigies of politicians.

Protesters shout slogans and burn an effigy of Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa in Bangalore on September 12, 2016

Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwar said police reinforcements had been deployed, particularly in areas inhabited by ethnic Tamils who could be a target.

"We have intensified security and stepped up vigil in Bangalore to ensure peace and maintain law and order," Parameshwar told reporters.

"I appeal to the people, especially the protesters, not to attack anyone or damage public property, including buses, cars and transport vehicles."

The move followed a state-wide strike on Friday that forced hundreds of offices to close in Bangalore, home to many of India's top technology companies.

India suffers severe water shortages that cause frequent tensions between states.
Who's who in Syria's ceasefire

A new ceasefire brokered by Russia and the United States is due to begin at sundown on Monday in Syria.

It aims to halt fighting between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and the opposition, but does not apply to jihadists like the Islamic State group.

The regime and its allies have backed the truce but with only a few hours to go on Monday the opposition had not yet signed on.

A fighter from the Jaish al-Islam (Islam Army) battles with government forces in Tal al-Siwan, a village in the rebel-held stronghold of Douma on September 5, 2016 Sameer Al-Doumy (AFP/File)

Here is a breakdown of the forces involved:

- Regime and allies -

The Syrian army's 300,000-strong pre-war force has been halved by deaths, defections and draft-dodging but is continuing to battle myriad rebel groups and jihadists.

The army is bolstered by 200,000 irregular fighters, notably from the National Defence Forces. It also battles alongside 5,000-8,000 men from Lebanon's powerful Shiite militia Hezbollah, as well as Iranian, Iraqi and Afghan fighters.

Russia, a key regime backer, began an aerial campaign in support of Assad's government in September last year and has helped Damascus recapture areas in several provinces.

Iran is another key ally, providing financial and military support.

- Rebels and backers -

The truce is to apply to a wide range of opposition forces, including moderate rebel fighters and Islamist factions.

The total number of rebel fighters is unclear, though in 2013 US Secretary of State John Kerry said there were 70,000 to 100,000 "oppositionists" fighting in Syria.

The Free Syrian Army (FSA) was a key opposition faction in the early days of the conflict but has since splintered into a range of groups, though the term is still often used to describe moderate rebels.

Ahrar al-Sham is Syria's most powerful non-jihadist rebel group, with a commanding presence in Idlib and Aleppo provinces.

It espouses a hardline Islamist ideology, and is a key partner of the jihadist Fateh al-Sham Front, participating in the Army of Conquest alliance with the group in ruling Idlib province.

Opposition factions deemed "moderate" are backed by the West, particularly the United States, France and Britain. Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar also back the opposition, and have lent support to Islamist factions.

Another key opposition group is the Saudi-backed Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) linked to Mohammed Alloush, a leading rebel figure who briefly acted as the chief negotiator for the main opposition umbrella group, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC).

- Jihadists -

The Islamic State group and the Fateh al-Sham Front are excluded from the ceasefire agreement.

IS emerged from the chaos of the civil war to seize control of large parts of Syria and Iraq in mid-2014, declaring an Islamic "caliphate", committing widespread atrocities and carrying out or inspiring deadly attacks abroad.

Under pressure from a US-led air war launched two years ago and fighting on multiple fronts, IS has since suffered major losses but remains in control of significant territory in northern Syria, including its de facto capital Raqa.

The Fateh al-Sham Front is the former Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria and was previously known as Al-Nusra Front. It split in July from the global jihadist network founded by Osama bin Laden, in a move analysts said was aimed at easing pressure from both Moscow and Washington.

Questions remain about how the ceasefire will apply in several parts of the country where the Fateh al-Sham Front cooperates closely with rebel forces, including moderates and Ahrar al-Sham.

If the ceasefire holds for a week, Moscow and Washington are to begin unprecedented joint targeting of jihadist forces including IS and the Fateh al-Sham Front.

- The Kurds -

Syria's Kurds have largely stayed out of the conflict between the government and armed opposition, carving out a semi-autonomous region in north and northeastern Syria.

Their People's Protection Units (YPG) have become a key partner of the US-led coalition fighting IS as part of the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces.

Both the YPG and the SDF said on Monday that they would respect the ceasefire.

Turkey launched an offensive into Syria last month against IS and the YPG, which Ankara regards as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that has waged a 32-year insurrection inside Turkey.

Ankara welcomed the ceasefire agreement but has said it will press on with its operations inside Syria.

Syria and Iraq: zones of control Sabrina BLANCHARD, Thomas SAINT-CRICQ, Simon MALFATTO, Jean Michel CORNU (AFP)
German retailer ups payout for Pakistan factory fire victims

German discount clothes retailer KiK has agreed to pay another $5.15 million in compensation to victims of one of Pakistan's worst-ever industrial accidents, the company said in a statement.

The sum will come on top of the $1 million (890,000 euros) KiK paid out in late 2012 in the wake of the devastating fire at the Ali Enterprises factory in Karachi that killed at least 255 people, the company said.

"KiK has voluntarily taken on responsibility for those affected, because this aid was a real concern for us," chief executive Patrick Zahn said in a statement published on the firm's website on Friday.

Pakistani mourners perform funeral prayers for garment factory fire victims in Karachi on February 24, 2013 Asif Hassan (AFP/File)

KiK said the final compensation figure was agreed after months of talks with victims' representatives, the International Labour Organization, the German development ministry and the Clean Clothes Campaign -- which fights for improved working conditions in the garment industry.

In its own statement, the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) labelled the agreement a "landmark compensation arrangement".

"It is a day of respite for the victims' families as their cries have been heard," said Saeeda Khatoon, vice president of the Ali Enterprise Factory Fire Affectees Association, in the CCC statement.

"We know that our nearest and dearest will never come back, but we hope that this kind of tragedy will never ever happen again".

The Ali Enterprises fire was one of a series of industrial accidents in recent years that have prompted Pakistan to review its industrial safety arrangements.

After the Karachi fire, the European Parliament told big brands to re-examine their supply chains in Pakistan and demanded the creation of a new effective and independent system to monitor factories.

A judicial review into the blaze found that a lack of emergency exits, poor safety training, closely-packed machinery and the failure of government inspectors to spot the faults all contributed to the heavy death toll.
MANDAN -- A reporter from Democracy Now! who documented security personnel with guard dogs working for Dakota Access Pipeline is facing criminal trespassing charges in Morton County.

Authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Amy Goodman of New York for a Class B misdemeanor, according to court documents.

Goodman, a reporter for the independent news program, can be seen on news footage from Sept. 3 documenting the clash between protesters and private security personnel with guard dogs and pepper spray at a Dakota Access construction site, including footage showing people with bite injuries, a dog with blood on its mouth and a dog attacking a horse.

The video footage has been widely cited by people who have since criticized the use of dogs by the security personnel, including the American Civil Liberties Union of North Dakota. The report also went viral online and was re-broadcast on many outlets.

This is unacceptable violation of freedom of the press," said Goodman in a statement. "I was doing my job by covering pipeline guards unleashing dogs and pepper spray on Native American protesters.

Morton County authorities also have charged Cody Charles Hall, 39, Eagle Butte, S.D., with trespassing after identifying him from video and photos viewed by investigators, said Donnell Preskey, spokeswoman for the Morton County Sheriffs Office.

Hall, a protest organizer with the Red Warrior Camp, was arrested Friday afternoon after police stopped him in a vehicle with expired tabs. Hall is charged with two counts of trespassing, one a Class B misdemeanor in connection with the Sept. 3 protest. He also is charged with a Class A misdemeanor count of criminal trespass in connection with the Sept. 6 protest involving people who vandalized equipment or bound themselves to construction equipment.

Hall is expected to be in the Morton County Jail until he can see a judge on Monday, Preskey said.

A total of 38 arrests have been made in connection with the Dakota Access protests.

Morton County authorities also issued arrest warrants last week for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and running mate Ajamu Baraka for criminal trespass and criminal mischief. Authorities filed charges after they were alerted to video that showed Stein painting I approve this message on the front of a bulldozer and Baraka painting the last word in the message We need decolonization.

The North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board is investigating the use of dogs by security and whether the personnel were properly licensed or registered to work in the state.
No place for Watson in US Ryder Cup picks

Two-time major winner Bubba Watson missed out as United States captain Davis Love III named three of his four captain's picks for the Ryder Cup on Monday.

World number seven Watson, the 2012 and 2014 Masters champion, was overlooked in favor of Rickie Fowler, Matt Kuchar and J.B. Holmes.

Love, who has one more pick remaining, is aiming to mastermind a US victory at Hazeltine in Minnesota from September 30 to October 2 after three straight wins for Europe in the biennial battle.

Bubba Watson is one of the most polarizing figures on the USPGA Tour Andy Lyons (Getty/AFP/File)

All three players named by Love on Monday have an inferior world ranking to Watson -- Fowler is ranked ninth, Kuchar 17th and Holmes 21st.

Love told a news conference he had focused on finding the right blend of players rather than relying on rankings or form.

And he warned that even if the unpopular Watson were to enjoy a stellar finish to the season's Tour Championship it might not be enough to force his way onto the team.

"We've looked at a lot of guys in the Tour Championship and guys that aren't," Love said.

"We've got a long two weeks ahead of us. I'm going announce our last pick based on what fits best for our team, not who shoots the lowest score in the last tournament."

Watson is one of the most polarizing figures on the USPGA Tour. In an ESPN poll last year, Watson came out on top when 103 players were asked which fellow professional they would be least likeliest to help out if they saw them in a parking lot brawl.

Love meanwhile said he and his vice captains had agonised until late on Sunday before deciding on the three picks announced Monday.

"We went through a lot of scenarios and talked about a lot of great players," he said.

"It was a very tough decision. But we kept coming back to these three for now. We were really close two weeks ago but it took us to last night to finish it off."

Love said the USA team were intent on learning from past mistakes, and believed the experience of his squad would stand them in good stead.

"We looked at adding to our team to build the best 11 that we could," Love said. "Experience is good. We know what to expect. We know how to handle it. We've been there, we're going to learn from our mistakes in the past and build on it.

"We've had a plan for a year and a half and that's part of it. We know what happened in the past, we're looking to the future now."

Love meanwhile revealed that former world number one Tiger Woods, who is hoping to come back from a more than one-year injury lay-off next month, had provided crucial input as one of the four vice-captains.

"Tiger looks at things from maybe a higher viewpoint than us sometimes," Love said.

"He's helping us prepare and to think about the golf course. A lot of people would look at the scorecard and say 'It's a long course, we need big hitters'. Tiger looks at it a lot differently.

"Tiger over the last two to three weeks has made us think really hard not only about pairings but about other things that we need to look for in our players.
S. Africa suspends search for trapped illegal gold miners

South Africa's mines minister said Monday a search for illegal miners trapped in the country's oldest gold mine would be suspended until conditions underground improved.

A fire broke out on Sunday inside a shaft at the disused Langlaagte mine in Johannesburg, where a group of unauthorised diggers have been stuck for five days.

"The fire has to be stopped, and after that we will get a briefing whether it is safe to commence," said Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane.

The Langlaagte mine is where gold was first discovered in Johannesburg in 1886 John Wessels (AFP/File)

It was unclear how many diggers were trapped underground. Survivors who have come out have told rescuers there were about 16 still there. Others are believed to have died.

"We are assessing the conditions, and should they get better, we would resume and bring those bodies up to the surface," Zwane told journalists.

The Langlaagte mine is where gold was first discovered in Johannesburg in 1886.

Mining operation at the site ceased many years ago, and the pit was declared a national monument in 1989.

Like many old mines around the Johannesburg gold reef, the pit has been a target for illegal mining, where impoverished men dig for nuggets which they sell on the black market.

Zwane said his department had sealed off 200 holes in disused mines around Johannesburg in a bid to curb illegal mining.

"One of our biggest tasks is to get to the syndicates behind these operations, as well as the markets they're supplying," Zwane said.

Police said seven miners have surfaced from the Langlaagte pit since Sunday.

"Those who come up get arrested. This is an illegal activity," said police spokesman Kay Makhubela.
Arsonist attacks mosque where Orlando shooter worshipped

The Florida mosque where Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen worshipped was targeted in an arson attack early, authorities said Monday, without ruling out the possibility of a hate crime.

Fire crews responded to a 911 call at 12:31 am (0431 GMT) reporting that flames were coming out of the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, Major David Thompson of the St Lucie County Sheriff's Office said.

"We are not sure exactly whether this is a hate crime or just an arson, we do know that a crime has occurred and that it is arson," he said.

In this image from the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office, firefighters put out a blaze at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce in Florida

"We do not have evidence right now that says it's a hate crime. Of course, because this is a place of worship and of course because this incident occurred after the anniversary of 9/11, we're going to explore that."

Security video showed an individual approaching the northeast side of the building on a motorcycle around 11:38 pm, a flash of light appearing and the individual then fleeing, the sheriff's office said, identifying the suspect as a white or Hispanic male.

"In the video, it appears he is carrying paper and a bottle of some type of liquid," it said in a statement.

No injuries were reported and the extent of the damage was not immediately clear.

Photographs posted on the sheriff department's Facebook page showed fire engines parked in front of the building, which is a former church, with the facade appearing undamaged.

Authorities were working on enhancing the security video to help identify the perpetrator.

The FBI and other federal agencies are collaborating with the local sheriff's office in the investigation.

On Facebook, the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce said that "it is with a very heavy heart that we have to announce that last night around midnight, there was an arson attack on our mosque."

It urged the faithful to attend another mosque in the city to participate in prayers on Eid al-Adha, a Muslim holiday marking the end of the annual Hajj pilgrimage and which commemorates Prophet Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son.

The Fort Pierce mosque's gathering on Monday was moved "to another area and they're going to allow us to conduct our investigation so we can hopefully determine who set it," Thompson said.

Forty-nine people were killed and another 53 injured on June 12 when Mateen, a 29-year-old US citizen of Afghan origin, opened fire on the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando. Mateen was killed by police.
Europe's Apple tax grab to spur US reforms: Lew

Europe's order for Apple to pay 13 billion euros ($14.6 billion) in back taxes could provoke US tax reforms and a significant break for firms repatriating offshore earnings, US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Monday.

Lew said high US corporate tax rates drive companies to seek tax havens like Ireland, which offered Apple what the European Commission ruled was an illegally low rate to encourage it to invest there.

While he said that the EC move essentially raided potential US government tax receipts, Lew said the episode should give a boost to efforts to reform the US system.

Protestors demonstrate outside the parliament buildings in Dublin in support of the EU ruling to take 13 billion euros ($15 billion) in taxes from Apple Paul Faith (AFP/File)

"I would hope that the idea that a European Commission action will reach into our tax base and take US tax revenues and make them European tax revenues will help trigger this debate about tax reform," Lew said in a talk at the Council on Foreign Relations.

"If losing billions of dollars of our tax base to another authority isn't going to get people's attention, I don't know what will."

Lew has strongly criticized the European action as applying retroactive taxes on a company that had abided by the rules of Ireland, where the US tech giant enjoyed a special effective rate of just 0.005 percent, the European Commission said.

But he has also repeatedly insisted that the Apple profits retained in Ireland are subject to US taxation.

"Retroactively reaching into our tax base is something we find deeply troubling," he said.

"Which doesn't justify the behavior of seeking to avoid taxation," he added.

"I am not going to defend companies that seek either a zero or very low tax rate by taking advantage of tax havens and tax loopholes."

US companies have stockpiled some $2.4 trillion in untaxed foreign-earned profits offshore, arguing that Washington needs to lower the statutory 35 percent tax rate for them to repatriate the funds to the Untied States.

Lew said he expects Washington to craft a one-off discount for the repatriation of offshore profits in the next year in order to bolster government revenues. The same was done in 2004.
Philippines says US ties strong despite Duterte tirades

The Philippines assured the United States Tuesday it will honour its obligations as a military ally following volleys of profane tirades by unpredictable President Rodrigo Duterte.

After calling US leader Barack Obama a "son of a whore" last week, Duterte said he was "not a fan" of Washington and on Monday called for the small number of US military advisers to leave the southern Philippines.

On Tuesday Duterte also said Filipino forces would not participate in future joint patrols with the US in the South China Sea, where Manila claims waters that China insists are part of its territory.

On September 12, 2016, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte holds up a photo, citing accounts of US troops who killed Muslims during the US occupation of the Philippines Ted Aljibe (AFP/File)

But top officials moved to stem the damage, saying that it was business as usual between the Philippines and its powerful ally, whose backing is essential as it jousts with China over the maritime dispute.

"There is no shift in so far as our policy is concerned with respect to our close friendship with the Americans," Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said Tuesday.

The president's spokesman also insisted that Duterte's comments were providing context to the conflict in the south, not a reversal of policy.

"These were not directives to leave, OK? But this was a context on why we have a conflict (in Mindanao). In other words, he's giving a broad historical, cultural landscape," Duterte's spokesman Ernesto Abella said.

Yasay, who was flying to Washington later in the day for talks, added the Duterte administration would honour existing defence agreements including a 2014 accord giving the US military access to at least five Philippine bases.

One of the bases is located in the southern region of Mindanao, where the government is battling Islamic militants who have offered allegiance to Islamic State gunmen in the Middle East.

The Pentagon in June also deployed warplanes and about 120 personnel in the northern Philippines for short-term training missions aimed at ensuring the allies' access to the South China Sea.

Duterte's predecessor Benigno Aquino had pursued closer military ties with the United States as part of plans to improve the deterrence capability of his militarily weak nation.

In April, the Philippine Navy began joint South China Sea naval patrols with the US as the Pentagon responded to muscular Chinese actions in the sea, including building artificial islands over disputed reefs.

- Umbilical cord -

On Tuesday Duterte said the country would refrain from joining similar excerises to avoid ramping up tensions.

"We will not join any expedition of patrolling the seas. I will not allow it because I do not want my country to be involved in a hostile act," said the president.

Washington said on Monday that Manila had not officially communicated Duterte's demand to pull US military advisers, deployed in Mindanao for short periods to train troops battling Muslim extremists.

Yasay attempted to downplay Duterte's comments, saying Tuesday they were "in the context of wanting to save the lives of these Americans who might be exposing themselves to unnecessary risk" from militant attacks.

Duterte, 71, has said the row was triggered by State Department criticism of his controversial war on drug crime, which has left about 3,000 people dead since he began his six-year term on June 30.

Obama has said Duterte must conduct his crime war "the right way", protecting human rights.

Zachary Abuza, a Southeast Asian security expert at the National War College in the United States, said Duterte's actions towards the US were worrying in light of militant activity in Mindanao.

"It is going to take a lot of work to get this relationship back on track," Abuza told AFP.

US President Barack Obama (L) met briefly with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (R) in Laos on September 7, 2016 Saul Loeb, Manman Dejeto (AFP/File)

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte holds the gavel during the closing ceremony of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Vientiane Ye Aung Thu (AFP/File)
Amazon's chief Jeff Bezos unveils new rocket design

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos unveiled plans Monday for a massive rocket called New Glenn designed to launch people to space and propel satellites into orbit, raising the ante in the US commercial space industry.

Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post, said the rocket has been in the works for the past four years, and will be launched by decade's end.

At 270 feet (82 meters) high for the two-stage New Glenn and 313 feet tall for the three-stage version, the rocket will be taller than any on the market today, including SpaceX's Falcon 9 (224 feet).

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said the New Glenn rocket has been in the works for the past four years, and will be launched by decade's end Alex Wong (Getty/AFP/File)

The New Glenn is dwarfed only by the Saturn V rocket (363 feet tall) that propelled Apollo era astronauts to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s.

NASA is currently at work on a rocket called the Space Launch System (SLS) that will be the tallest ever (384 feet) and aims to ferry people to an asteroid and perhaps one day, even to Mars.

Bezos said his company, Blue Origin, has learned a lot from flying its New Shepard rocket, a 65-foot-tall suborbital vehicle designed to eventually carry space tourists to the edge of space and back.

"Building, flying, landing, and re-flying New Shepard has taught us so much about how to design for practical, operable reusability. And New Glenn incorporates all of those learnings," Bezos said in an emailed statement.

The rocket is "named in honor of John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth," he added.

It lifts off with 3.85 million pounds of thrust from seven BE-4 engines -- the same engines that are being developed by Blue Origin to power United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan rocket.

The booster portion is re-usable, and could be returned to Earth after launching its payload to space and separating from the rocket's other components.

Both SpaceX and Blue Origin have successfully launched and returned the first stages of their rockets to upright landings on Earth, a key capability in the effort to make rockets as reusable as airplanes.

"We plan to fly New Glenn for the first time before the end of this decade from historic Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral, Florida," said Bezos.

Blue Origin's entry into the commercial spaceflight and satellite launch market brings it more squarely in competition with SpaceX, headed by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Musk surged ahead of Bezos with his Falcon 9 rocket and $1.6 billion contract with NASA to ferry supplies to the International Space Station and back using SpaceX's Dragon cargoship.

But SpaceX has suffered two rocket explosions since June 2015. Musk admitted Friday that the latest blast, just two weeks ago during a launch pad test in Florida, has stumped investigators and appealed for help from the public and government agencies.

While Bezos did not comment directly on SpaceX's woes, he touted Blue Origin's company mascot, the tortoise, and said "we paint one on our vehicles after each successful flight."
Clooney's S. Sudan corruption report is 'rubbish': government

A report commissioned by actor-activist George Clooney alleging massive corruption and war profiteering by leaders of South Sudan, the world's newest nation, is "completely rubbish", the government said Tuesday.

A spokesman for President Salva Kiir said the report released in Washington at a high-profile press conference headed by Clooney was "misleading" and ill-intentioned.

The result of a two-year inquiry, the report details how Kiir and his former deputy turned rebel leader Riek Machar -- who is currently in Khartoum receiving medical treatment -- profited largely from a three-year conflict that has driven 2.5 million people from their homes and left half the population dependent on food aid to survive.

A brutal war -- which broke out in December 2013 when South Sudan President Salva Kiir (R) accused his former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup -- has claimed tens of thousands of lives and forced many times that number to flee their homes Albert Gonzalez Farran (AFP/File)

The "key catalyst" of the war was "competition for the grand prize -- control over state assets and the country's abundant natural resources," notably its oil, it said.

The report itself is completely rubbish," said Wek. "Yes, there is corruption in South Sudan but this report has fallen short of detailing the corruption."

- 'Politically motivated' -

He said its real aim was to undermine the regime. "The report is misleading, it is politically motivated to tarnish the personality of President Kiir."

The government may decide to make a legal challenge, hiring a legal firm in the US, he added.

Clooney charged that South Sudan's warring leaders and their cronies have amassed fortunes, including foreign properties and stakes in international firms, while prosecuting a murderous conflict.

Top officials' families "often live in multi-million-dollar mansions outside the country, stay in five-star hotels, reap the benefits of what appears to be a system of nepotism and shady corporate deals, and drive around in luxury cars," the report said.

A spokesman for Machar denied the allegations, saying "the house he's staying in is being paid using the money contributed by the members of the movement."

The report "is a baseless lie," said Dickson Gatluak.

The inquiry was carried out by The Sentry, a watchdog group founded by Clooney and rights activist John Prendergast.

After presenting its results, Clooney and actor Don Cheadle stopped by at the White House to discuss South Sudan with President Barack Obama.

The United Nations is currently seeking to beef up its peace-keeping effort to protect civilians and aid workers due to a new flare-up in fighting.

After decades of fighting, South Sudan became independent in 2011. The latest bout of bloodshed erupted in December 2013 when Kiir accused former deputy Machar of plotting a coup. UN experts have blamed both camps for reigniting the fighting.
Haftar, the strongman who seems himself as Libya's saviour

General Khalifa Haftar, whose forces have seized three vital Libyan oil terminals, is a controversial military strongman who has refused to bow to a UN-backed unity government.

Haftar, 73, presents himself as Libya's saviour in the face of a growing jihadist threat, but is himself a hugely divisive figure.

He enjoys the support of lawmakers in the internationally recognised parliament in the country's far east, but is opposed by the UN-backed and Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) and has refused to recognise its legitimacy.

In March 2015, Khalifa Haftar was named head of the Libyan army loyal to the internationally recognised parliament which has steadfastly refused to recognise the GNA's legitimacy Abdullah Doma (AFP/File)

Haftar's relations with the authorities in Libya have always been complex.

In 1969, he took part in a coup that overthrew the monarchy and brought dictator Moamer Kadhafi to power.

Haftar served under Kadhafi but later fell from grace when he was captured by Chadian troops during Libya's fruitless 1978-1987 conflict with its neighbour.

Tripoli denied Haftar was part of the Libyan army, and he languished in jail until the United States managed to secure his release and offer him political asylum.

In 2011, he returned home after more than two decades living in the United States where it was rumoured that he worked for the CIA, to take part in the NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed Kadhafi.

Three years after the revolution, Haftar declared war on jihadists in second city Benghazi, prompting Libya's then-government to accuse him of trying to stage a coup.

But after Islamists seized Tripoli soon afterwards, forcing parliament to flee to the country's far east, the recognised authorities gradually allied themselves with a figure previously seen as a power-hungry renegade.

In March 2015, Haftar was named head of the Libyan army loyal to the internationally recognised parliament which has steadfastly refused to recognise the GNA's legitimacy.

- Self-styled commander -

The appointment aimed to "legitimise" Haftar, a year after the general and self-styled commander of the Libyan National Army waged "Operation Dignity" against Islamists in Benghazi.

Since the campaign was launched in May 2014, forces of the white-haired general with contrasting black moustache have pushed most of the jihadists from the city.

They also announced plans to fight the Islamic State group in Sirte, but kept aside as forces loyal to the GNA in May this year began an offensive against the Muslim extremists in Kadhafi's home town.

With the loyalists weakened by a more than three-month offensive against IS, Haftar's forces at the weekend fought pro-GNA oil guards for control of oil terminals west of Benghazi.

By Monday they were in control of Al-Sidra, Ras Lanuf and Zuwaytina terminals.

The unity government called on all forces loyal to it to "protect and defend" the ports against what it called "flagrant aggression" against Libyan sovereignty.

Oil is Libya's main natural resource with reserves estimated at 48 billion barrels, the largest in Africa.

The GNA was hoping to use revenues from oil exports to rebuild the country's economy which has been devastated by five years of conflict.

It was the first time that Haftar's forces and fighters loyal to the GNA have clashed directly since the unity government started working in the capital in March.

Analysts warned that it may not be the last and the two could clash again.

In a 2015 interview with AFP, Haftar insisted the military had no interest in meddling in politics, describing it as the "protector against anyone trying to disrupt the democratic process by force".
Odds of mega-quake rise at high tide: study

The same gravitational force that creates high tides when the Moon and Sun align may also play a role in triggering major earthquakes, according to a study released Monday.

Better understanding of this mechanism could help predict when known faults are more likely to produce killer quakes, researchers said.

"Large earthquakes are more probable during periods of high tidal stress," the scientists concluded in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Geoscience.

Many of the largest earthquakes, including the December 26, 2004 quake in Sumatra, occurred during periods when the pull of the Moon and Sun were particularly forceful Bay Ismoyo (AFP/File)

When the tug of gravity is strongest, they added, "the probability of a tiny rock failure expanding to a gigantic rupture increases."

For centuries after the discovery that solar and lunar forces affect the ocean tides, scientists speculated whether they also cause Earth's crust to buckle and fracture.

But only recently has statistical research started to establish a firm link between planetary alignments and tremblors.

Satoshi Ide, a professor at the University of Tokyo, and colleagues zeroed in on large earthquakes -- magnitude 5.5 or greater -- around the world over the last two decades.

His team reconstructed the size of gravitational pull, known as "tidal stress", in the two weeks prior to each tremor.

They found no clear correlation with smaller quakes.

Many of the largest earthquakes, however, occurred during periods when the pull of the Moon and Sun were particularly forceful.

These included the December 26, 2004 quake in Sumatra, which ravaged a large swath of the island and delivered a deadly tsunami towards south and southeast Asia. Some 220,000 people died.

- Spring tide danger -

The same link held for two other mega-quakes, the 2010 tremblor near Maule, Chile, and the 9.0 magnitude quake off the coast of Japan's Honshu Island that claimed about 19,000 lives and crippled the Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2011.

Exactly how large earthquakes start and evolve is still poorly understood.

One theory suggests that all quakes begin with a tiny fracture and grow, in a cascading process, into large-scale ruptures.

If this is true, then the new study suggests that the likelihood of this happening increases during the Spring tide, the period just after a new or full Moon.

The findings "can be used to improve probabilistic earthquake forecasting, especially for extremely large earthquakes," Ide and colleagues concluded.

Every day, there are numerous small earthquakes worldwide.

But only a tiny fraction of these events grows into the kind of giant tremor that can topple buildings and launch devastating tsunamis.

The new results, Ide told AFP -- derived from a statistical analysis of a large number of tremblors -- cannot explain why some small quakes turn into mega ones at Spring tide, while others do not.
South Africa's Du Plessis out for three months

Montpellier's South African hooker Bismarck Du Plessis has been ruled out for up to three months after tearing a muscle in his chest, sources in the club confirmed on Monday.

Du Plessis, 32, will have to undergo surgery a scan on Monday revealed, and will be out for between two to three months.

Capped 79 times for the Springboks, Du Plessis picked up the injury in Saturday's 41-13 home win against Pau.

Montpellier's South African hooker Bismarck Du Plessis will have to undergo surgery for a torn muscle in his chest Bertrand Langlois (AFP/File)

He will miss several big games for the club including their European Cup opener on October 15 at Northampton.
DR Congo opposition walks out of key national talks

An opposition delegation walked out of key talks Monday aimed at averting a political crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, calling them a "dead end."

"We have understood that we are being led down a dead end street and so we have decided to suspend our participation" in the national dialogue, Vital Kamerhe, who represents those elements of the opposition that had decided to take part in the talks, told journalists.

The African Union-facilitated national dialogue began on September 1 to try to prevent a crisis when President Joseph Kabila's term expires later this year, as fears grow that he will seek to stay in power for a third term despite a consitutional limit of two mandates.

Vital Kamerhe, pictured on September 1, 2016 Junior D. Kannah (AFP/File)

"The crisis today is the non-holding of the presidential election," said Kamerhe.

While the election process is meant to be set in motion three months before Kabila's term expires on December 20 -- that is by September 19 -- there is little sign of this happening and the electoral commission has said registering voters across the vast central African country cannot be completed until next year.

The country's highest court earlier this year ruled that Kabila could stay in office beyond December if no election were held.

"This situation was knowingly created by the government," added Kamerhe, who heads the Union for the Congolese Nation, the third largest opposition party in parliament.

But "we have our red lines: hold the presidential election as a priority."

"Our friends in the majority have just suggested we start with local elections," but our position on the presidential vote is "non-negotiable," he said.
Clinton health scare not first on White House trail

Ronald Reagan endured questions about his age and mental state and John McCain was pressured into releasing 1,000 pages of medical records. Hillary Clinton, diagnosed with pneumonia, is hardly the first White House candidate whose health is under the spotlight.

The announcement that Clinton scrapped a fundraising trip to California Monday and Tuesday in the heat of a tightening presidential race dealt the Democrat a blow as she seeks to fend off the Republican Donald Trump -- and douse swirling conspiracy theories that insist she is suffering from something far worse than treatable pneumonia.

In an election season that has often strayed from the facts, critics have used Clinton's illness to propel theories that she may be suffering from something far worse, such as a brain tumor, Parkinson's or dementia.

Critics have used Hillary Clinton's illness to propel theories that she may be suffering from something far worse, such as a brain tumor, Parkinson's or dementia Win McNamee (Getty/AFP/File)

Some on Monday began fuelling suggestions the former secretary of state, who turns 69 next month, has even used a "body double."

Two US presidents have died in office shortly after coming down with pneumonia -- both before the advent of reliable antibiotics: William Henry Harrison, in April 1841, and Warren Harding, who died in August 1923 of a cerebral hemorrhage.

But while the severity of Clinton's pneumonia is not yet clear, the vast majority of Americans who develop the respiratory infection enjoy a full recovery.

Over the past century numerous candidates have battled far worse as they ran for the world's most powerful office.

John F. Kennedy campaigned in 1960 while suffering from Addison's disease, in which the adrenal glands do not produce enough steroid hormones.

His campaign scrambled to keep that, and other Kennedy medical afflictions, secret from the public.

Franklin Roosevelt was diagnosed with polio in 1921, 12 years before he won the White House. While his illness was public knowledge, his team took great pains to prevent the press from photographing Roosevelt in a wheelchair.

Roosevelt was gravely ill during his campaign for a fourth term. The popular president won reelection, only to collapse and die five months into his new term.

Later it was revealed that surgeon Frank Lahey wrote a secret memorandum before the election stating Roosevelt was likely not healthy enough to survive through a fourth term.

- Presidential ailments -

More recently, during his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination in 1992, Paul Tsongas assured the American people that he was cancer-free after undergoing a bone marrow transplant in 1986 for lymphoma.

That turned out to be incorrect, and Tsongas conceded he did not provide full disclosure about his cancer.

He died from pneumonia and liver problems related to treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma on January 18, 1997, just two days shy of what would have been a full presidential term if he had been elected.

Operatives for George W. Bush reportedly disseminated the theory during the 2000 Republican primaries that John McCain's time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam had left him mentally unbalanced.

Eight years later during his second presidential bid, and amid concern over his battle with skin cancer, McCain released more than 1,000 pages of medical records, raising the bar for candidates revealing health details.

Health scares have afflicted several presidents in office, as well.

In January 1992 George H.W. Bush vomited on Japan's prime minister and then fainted during a banquet, but the incident was treated more as a source of comedic material than as a broader health worry.

His son, President George W. Bush, choked on a pretzel and briefly fainted in 2002 as he watched television.

President Reagan had polyps removed from his colon in 1985, than underwent surgery for prostate cancer in 1987.

Amid mounting concern about his health and age, Reagan, then 73, turned the issue to his advantage during his 1984 reelection campaign when asked about it during his debate with 56-year-old Democrat Walter Mondale.

"I will not make age an issue of this campaign," a steely Reagan vowed. "I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience."

Reagan won reelection in a landslide.

Ronald Reagan, pictured in 1984, famously responded to a question about his age by saying, "I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience" Don Rypka (AFP/File)
What happens if a US presidential candidate drops out?

What happens if a candidate for the White House is forced to quit the race? Who steps up to fill their shoes?

It's a question suddenly in the spotlight Monday as Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton battles a case of pneumonia that left her feeling so poorly she abruptly left a high-profile 9/11 memorial ceremony a day earlier.

The former secretary of state, 68, was resting at home in Chappaqua, New York and cancelled appearances at events scheduled for Monday and Tuesday in California.

The US Constitution gives no guidance on instances when a candidate is unable to finish a political race Jim Watson (AFP/File)

"(Clinton) continues to feel better, but intends to remain at home today, following her doctor's recommendation to rest," campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said.

The US Constitution gives no guidance on instances when a candidate is unable to finish a political race.

The procedures are found by delving into the internal regulations of the political parties.

Article two, section seven of the Democratic Party bylaws states that "a special meeting to fill a vacancy on the National ticket shall be held on the call of the Chairperson."

Republican Party regulations describe a similar procedure.

At the Democratic Party gathering, the decision would be based on a majority vote by those present.

But there's little precedent to guide their choices.

Although Clinton is expected to make a full recovery from what appears to be a routine illness, analysts have floated names of those who could take on the party mantle should she be forced to drop out.

They are: Clinton running mate Tim Kaine, grassroots darling and Clinton's primary challenger Bernie Sanders, and current Vice President Joe Biden.

- Uncharted territory -

David Lublin, a professor of government at American University, said Democratic party officials could choose anyone who meets the criteria to serve in the nation's highest office.

"It would certainly would be uncharted territory," he said, adding that in his opinion, the most logical choice would be Kaine, followed by Sanders and the popular Biden.

Jeanne Zaino, a professor of political science at Iona College in New York, said the parties have kept the process "purposely vague because it gives them the opportunity to make the best decision, rather than tie their hands with some kind of process that would give them a nominee they will not be comfortable with."

Both experts were doubtful that Clinton would exit the race over health concerns.

"I don't expect Clinton to step down. She has an illness that is treatable," Lublin said.

Added Zaino: "This has been such a crazy election season, I wouldn't been surprised if anything happened, but that is something I am not expecting at all unless her health is far worse than we have been led to believe."

Clinton's departure from the 9/11 ceremony at New York's Ground Zero on Sunday, captured on amateur video, showed her wobbling and being held up by members of her entourage as she got into a vehicle.

The episode has fueled fresh speculation and conspiracy theories on the internet, already awash with unsubstantiated rumors Clinton may have a brain tumor, Parkinson's or dementia.

The root of the persistent claims about Clinton's health lies in 2012, towards the end of her tenure as secretary of state.

A stomach virus and dehydration prompted her to faint, causing what her doctor said was a concussion. Doctors said they found a blood clot on the brain.

Clinton later received the all-clear.

In recent US presidential history, there's been only one case of a candidate dropping out.

Senator Thomas Eagleton, who was the running mate of Democratic nominee George McGovern in the 1972 race, was forced to quit after it was revealed that he suffered from depression.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her running mate Tim Kaine Brendan Smialowski (AFP/File)

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and US Vice President Joe Biden campaign in August 2016 Mark Makela (Getty/AFP/File)
ISIS's 'chief propagandist', who played a key role in terror attacks in Paris, Brussels and Istanbul, has been killed in an air strike, the Pentagon has confirmed.

Abu Mohamed al-Adnani died in northern Syria after a US drone fired a Hellfire missile at the car he was traveling in.

Adnani was the main ISIS spokesman, officials have stated, and played a major role in some of the group's most high-profile attacks over the past year, including in Paris, at airports in Brussels and Istanbul, at a cafe in Bangladesh, as well as the downing of a Russian airliner in the Sinai and suicide bombings in Ankara.

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ISIS propaganda chief Abu Mohamed al-Adnani was killed in an airstrike last month in northern Syria

It is one in a series of successful strikes against ISIL leaders, including those responsible for finances and military planning, that make it harder for the group to operate. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook

'The strike near Al Bab, Syria, removes from the battlefield ISIL's chief propagandist, recruiter and architect of external terrorist operations,' Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.

'It is one in a series of successful strikes against ISIL leaders, including those responsible for finances and military planning, that make it harder for the group to operate.'

The August 30 air strike was conducted by a Predator drone, which fired a Hellfire missile at the car Adnani was traveling in.

An undated picture taken from an online edition of the Islamic State's weekly magazine al-Nabaa, allegedly showing Abu Mohamed Al-Adnani

Cook has previously said Adnani had coordinated the movement of IS fighters, encouraged lone-wolf attacks on civilians and members of the military and actively recruited new IS members.

Soon after the strike against Adnani, Russia said it was responsible for his death, a claim Pentagon officials dismissed as a 'joke.'
Obama to veto bill allowing 9/11 victims to sue Saudi

The White House confirmed Monday that President Barack Obama will veto a bill that would allow relatives of victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia for compensation.

"That's not an effective, forceful way for us to respond to terrorism," spokesman Josh Earnest said, adding that the text, which has raised major concerns among Washington's Gulf allies, has yet to reach the president's desk.

The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act was approved in the House by unanimous voice vote on Friday, some four months after its Senate passage -- and only two days before the 15th anniversary of 9/11.

The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act was approved in the House by unanimous voice vote, but the government of Saudi Arabia has worked hard to see the bill defeated Drew Angerer (Getty/AFP/File)

The government of Saudi Arabia, a US ally but also home nation to 15 of the 19 hijackers, has worked hard to see the bill defeated.

Obama's concerns with the law include that it essentially waives the doctrine of sovereign immunity that protects nation states from civil suits or criminal prosecution -- and could thus expose the United States to lawsuits in various countries around the world.

"There's no denying the political potency of this issue. But the president believes that it's important to look out for our country, to look out for our service members and look out for our diplomats," Earnest said.

"And allowing this bill to come into law would increase the risk that they face."

However, the legislation's easy passage raises the prospect of a veto override, which requires a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate. It would be the first time Obama would be dealt such a blow during his presidency.
Defense Department: Washington soldier killed in Kuwait

The U.S. Defense Department says a soldier from Mill Creek, Washington, died from a noncombat-related injury in Kuwait.

The department says 1st Lt. Jeffrey D. Cooper, 25, died Saturday.

The WDRB TV station in Louisville, Kentucky, says Cooper was killed in a rollover vehicle accident while traveling from Camp Buehring in Kuwait to the Ali Al Salem Airfield. The department says Cooper was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Artemis Racing wins America's Cup World Series stop

TOULON, France (AP)  Artemis Racing of Sweden won the America's Cup World Series stop in France with finishes of first, third and fifth in Sunday's races.

Softbank Team Japan went from last on Saturday to finishing second overall, and Land Rover BAR of Britain finished third.

Land Rover BAR, led by Sir Ben Ainslie, extended its lead in the overall series to 14 points over two-time defending America's Cup champion Oracle Team USA. Emirates Team New Zealand, the hard-luck loser to Oracle in the 2013 America's Cup, is right behind in third place.

Rounding out the overall standings are SoftBank Team Japan, Artemis Racing and Groupama Team France.

Groupama Team France finished fourth in its home regatta, Emirates Team New Zealand fifth and Oracle was last.
Six people were shot, one fatally, after gunfire erupted following a peace rally at a public housing community in Alabama, police said.

A number of gunmen opened fire on the peaceful rally, killing one man who was named locally as Bobby Clayton.

Police sergeant Bryan Shelton said all six people who were shot were innocent bystanders.

Six people were shot, one fatally, after gunfire erupted following a peace rally at a public housing community in Alabama on Sunday night, police said. Scene pictured above

The victim has been named locally as Bobby Clayton from Birmingham, Alabama, pictured

Police confirmed that all of the six people shot, including Clayton, pictured, were innocent

The attack happened at City Gate in Birmingham, Alabama shortly after 8.25pm according to AL.com.

The condition of the other five victims was not immediately available, but Shelton said none are critical.

The shootings took place about an after a 'Stop the Violence Gate City Peace Day' event ended in the community's Lewis Park, police said.

The peace rally was about two blocks from the scene of the shooting.

After shots rang out, residents who were outside following the event dispersed as the chaotic scene unfolded leaving the victims scattered along the block.

One resident had just finished his son's one-year-old birthday party and attendees were grilling and walking down the moonwalk when the gunfire erupted.

'I ran and tried to grab all the kids and get them inside,' 23-year-old resident Xavier Story told AL.com.

'I'm getting as low as I can and trying to get my family in the house.'

After he was able to get loved ones to safety, he went back outside where one of the victims who was in his early 20s collapsed, according to AL.com.

The shootings took place about an after a 'Stop the Violence Gate City Peace Day' event ended in the community's Lewis Park (pictured), police said

The victim, Story's friend, was reportedly hit on the upper left side and fell face down.

As they waited for emergency responders to arrive, Story said his friend still had a pulse and that they applied towels to his wounds.

'I'm just shook up right now,' Story told AL.com. 'It's the scariest thing ever in my life.'

Police are investigating the incident while details about suspects and a motive were not immediately available.
China's demand for pricey international schools 'insatiable'

TIANJIN, China (AP)  The school year at Haileybury College's campus outside Beijing began with three People's Liberation Army soldiers marching on a running track as the Chinese national anthem played over loudspeakers. Seven hundred students stood silently in single-file lines, their hands crossed, the international prep school's crest emblazoned on many of their coats and T-shirts.

Then they sang the school song in English before heading off to class in brick-facade buildings modeled on a British prep school.

For most Chinese students, attending a school like this remains unthinkable. But international schools from abroad are booming here thanks to growing demand from parents who are seeking different pathways for their children to attend college overseas, and who can increasingly afford more options. Top prep schools from around the world are opening campuses in the country, often charging higher fees than their flagships and catering to students who want to go to university in the West.

In this Aug. 31, 2016 photo, Chinese paramilitary policemen carrying national flag march on the running track for a flag raising ceremony during the opening of the Haileybury College's Chinese campus in northern China's Tianjin Municipality. International schools from outside China are booming thanks to growing demand from Chinese parents seeking different pathways for their children to college abroad. Top prep schools are opening campuses in China and catering to students who want to go to university in the West. Getting into Chinas best public high schools can be monumentally difficult and many parents are opting to pay for what they see as a less stressful and more enriching experience at an international school. (AP Photo/Nomaan Merchant)

Attending Haileybury costs up to $28,000 a year. But Haileybury, which opened the Chinese version of its century-old Australian prep school three years ago, nearly doubled its enrollment this year and is considering opening a second campus in China.

Getting into China's best public high schools can be monumentally difficult, but regardless of whether their child has the academic chops, many parents are opting to pay for what they see as a less stressful and more enriching experience at an international school.

"What they really care about is the happiness of their children," said Wang Dan, an education professor at the University of Hong Kong. "Their future return on the student's education is one concern, but equally important is the concern for the learning process."

The International School Consultancy, which monitors school trends worldwide, says the demand among Chinese for English-language schools like Haileybury is "insatiable." More than 150,000 Chinese students are currently enrolled in international schools, according to the consultancy, which says the number of Chinese who can afford to pay seemingly stratospheric fees for those schools  even if it's just a small percentage of the country's population  will continue to grow, absent a dramatic downturn in China's economy.

China's top public high schools are intensely competitive and often criticized as excessively test-driven. Before their teenage years, children study long hours for entrance exams, often with high-priced private tutors. And at the end of high school, students take the notoriously difficult Chinese college entrance exam, the Gaokao, where a bad score can relegate a good student to a lesser university.

A massive government-ordered expansion of higher education over the last decade has produced many marginal colleges whose degrees count for little. That makes an overseas education even more attractive.

Western prep schools in China advertise a smoother pathway to university overseas, with teaching that emphasizes critical thinking over memorization and classes based on the International Baccalaureate program or others recognized abroad.

Once limited mainly to foreign children, international schools have been allowed during the last two decades to open campuses for Chinese students jointly with local companies. And while the Chinese government has sought to tighten its ideological control over textbooks and limit perceived Western influences, the international schools offer a valuable infusion of new teaching methods and options for China's middle class.

That opening has brought in some of the world's biggest brand names, joining long-established international schools in Beijing and Shanghai. Britain's Dulwich College now runs schools for Chinese students in the eastern city of Suzhou and the southern city of Zhuhai; Britain's Hurtwood House operates in association with a school in eastern Ningbo.

William Vanbergen, managing director of the Shanghai school consulting firm BE Education, predicts many more Western schools will enter China in the coming years. Some schools are already struggling to maintain their enrollment, but for most, China presents a "fantastic opportunity" to build a global profile, he said.

"Chinese parents are very smart," Vanbergen said. "They demand the very best, and it's going to become quite clear which operations are good and which are not."

Haileybury established its first program in China in 2001. Nick Dwyer, the school CEO, said the school's executives had long been seeking a local company with which to partner on its own campus.

"It's a tough ask for any student to go as a foreign student to another country," Dwyer said. "Here, we are offering the Australian product tailored in such a way that the Chinese students are at the center of the project, not off to one side."

Eventually, the school reached a deal with a state-owned development company to build a tree-lined campus between Beijing and the port city of Tianjin, featuring a towering administration building with two turrets that's a replica of London's Eton College prep school.

The campus anchors a development of high-rise residential towers and single-family homes. Haileybury leases the campus and charges higher tuition in China than in Australia.

Dwyer described the school as Australian in its traditions, presented "in Chinese dress." Teachers give lessons in both English and Chinese, and events like its opening ceremony are adaptations of Australian assemblies. Hallways are marked as "English-speaking zones." The school offers a modified version of the standard Chinese curriculum until high school levels, and then classes based on Australia's Victoria Certificate of Education.

Haileybury's first class of about 25 students graduates this fall. Their success will be a huge test for the school, Dwyer said. For the school to be successful, he said, every graduate must be admitted into college or a prep school en route to college.

"Most of them must get a pathway into university, and the rest of them must get a pathway that they will transition into university," Dwyer said.

But already, Haileybury is successfully recruiting new families and moving toward profitability. Dwyer said he expects to break even this year.

Cheng Rui, a marketing consultant in Beijing, was touring Haileybury last month with his 9-year-old son. Cheng had enrolled his son previously in a bilingual program sponsored by a top Chinese university. But he saw his son feeling constant pressure and not being able to communicate with foreigners on a family vacation to the United States and Canada, despite having taken English classes in school.

"It will be more enriching and distinctive for him in terms of developing his interests, and he will be under less pressure than students at traditional Chinese schools," Cheng said.

"I wish to see him develop at his own pace," he added.

While China's economic boom has allowed millions of families to afford options like Haileybury, international schools remain out of reach for the vast majority of Chinese.

Zeng Xiaodong, a professor at Beijing Normal University, said she understood that parents who could afford those schools were seeking a pathway for their children "to understand the future and be a member of the international world." But those options remain closed to rural families and don't solve the inequity of the overall system, she said.

Wang, the University of Hong Kong professor, said China's overall system may eventually benefit from the introduction of new teaching methods by international schools. But for now, particularly in rural areas, poor and even many middle-class children don't have access to better teaching, while upper-middle-class children are increasingly learning in a separate system.

"The inequality of China right now is really dividing the population, and each group is playing a different game," she said.

___

Associated Press videojournalist Thomas Suen and researcher Yu Bing contributed to this report.

In this Aug. 31, 2016 photo, Chinese student gather on a field as they attend the opening ceremony of the Haileybury College's Chinese campus in northern China's Tianjin Municipality. International schools from outside China are booming thanks to growing demand from Chinese parents seeking different pathways for their children to college abroad. Top prep schools are opening campuses in China and catering to students who want to go to university in the West. Getting into Chinas best public high schools can be monumentally difficult and many parents are opting to pay for what they see as a less stressful and more enriching experience at an international school. (AP Photo/Nomaan Merchant)

In this Aug. 31, 2016 photo, Chinese students walk in line to attend the opening ceremony of the Haileybury College's Chinese campus in northern China's Tianjin Municipality. International schools from outside China are booming thanks to growing demand from Chinese parents seeking different pathways for their children to college abroad. Top prep schools are opening campuses in China and catering to students who want to go to university in the West. Getting into Chinas best public high schools can be monumentally difficult and many parents are opting to pay for what they see as a less stressful and more enriching experience at an international school. (AP Photo/Nomaan Merchant)

In this Aug. 31, 2016 photo, a lecturer gestures as Chinese students sing a school song during the opening ceremony of the Haileybury College's Chinese campus in northern China's Tianjin Municipality. International schools from outside China are booming thanks to growing demand from Chinese parents seeking different pathways for their children to college abroad. Top prep schools are opening campuses in China and catering to students who want to go to university in the West. Getting into Chinas best public high schools can be monumentally difficult and many parents are opting to pay for what they see as a less stressful and more enriching experience at an international school. (AP Photo/Nomaan Merchant)

In this Aug. 31, 2016 photo, Chinese student gather on a field as they attend the opening ceremony of the Haileybury College's Chinese campus in northern China's Tianjin Municipality. International schools from outside China are booming thanks to growing demand from Chinese parents seeking different pathways for their children to college abroad. Top prep schools are opening campuses in China and catering to students who want to go to university in the West. Getting into Chinas best public high schools can be monumentally difficult and many parents are opting to pay for what they see as a less stressful and more enriching experience at an international school. (AP Photo/Nomaan Merchant)

In this Aug. 31, 2016 photo, Chinese students walk near the Haileybury College's Chinese campus after attending the opening ceremony in northern China's Tianjin Municipality. International schools from outside China are booming thanks to growing demand from Chinese parents seeking different pathways for their children to college abroad. Top prep schools are opening campuses in China and catering to students who want to go to university in the West. Getting into Chinas best public high schools can be monumentally difficult and many parents are opting to pay for what they see as a less stressful and more enriching experience at an international school. (AP Photo/Nomaan Merchant)

In this Aug. 31, 2016 photo, Chinese students prepare for the opening ceremony of the Haileybury College's Chinese campus in northern China's Tianjin Municipality. International schools from outside China are booming thanks to growing demand from Chinese parents seeking different pathways for their children to college abroad. Top prep schools are opening campuses in China and catering to students who want to go to university in the West. Getting into Chinas best public high schools can be monumentally difficult and many parents are opting to pay for what they see as a less stressful and more enriching experience at an international school. (AP Photo/Nomaan Merchant)
US nuclear plant up for sale at fraction of cost

HOLLYWOOD, Ala. (AP)  After spending more than 40 years and $5 billion on an unfinished nuclear power plant in northeastern Alabama, the nation's largest federal utility is preparing to sell the property at a fraction of its cost.

The Tennessee Valley Authority has set a minimum bid of $36.4 million for its Bellefonte Nuclear Plant and the 1,600 surrounding acres of waterfront property on the Tennessee River. The buyer gets two unfinished nuclear reactors, transmission lines, office and warehouse buildings, eight miles of roads, a 1,000-space parking lot and more.

Initial bids are due Monday, and at least one company has publicly expressed interest in the site with plans to use it for alternative energy production. But TVA says it isn't particular about what the purchaser does  using the site for power production, industrial manufacturing, recreation or even residences would all be fine with the agency, said spokesman Scott Fiedler.

In this Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016 photo, sit manager, Jim Chardos, lowers his head as he talks about Tennessee Valley Authority selling the unfinished Bellefonte Nuclear Plant, in Hollywood, Ala. After spending more than 40 years and $5 billion on an unfinished nuclear power plant in northeastern Alabama, the nation's largest federal utility is preparing to sell the property at a fraction of its cost. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

"It's all about jobs and investment, and that's our primary goal for selling this property," said Fielder. TVA hopes to close the deal in October.

The sale is bittersweet for site manager Jim Chardos, who went to work at Bellefonte in 1994 expecting it to be finished as a nuclear power plant. All these years later, he commutes 90 minutes each way to work to oversee a plant that has never been stocked with radioactive fuel or used either of its reactors to generate a single watt of electricity.

Work began at Bellefonte in the mid-'70s on the backside of the nuclear energy boom in the United States, Chardos said. The utility initially planned to construct four reactors at the site, but demand for power in the region never met those early expectations and work halted in 1988. A series of starts and stops preceded TVA's decision earlier this year to sell Bellefonte.

"If you're going to make 1,200 megawatts you need to sell it to somebody, and if there's no need for it you're not going to finish," he said. "And that's really what's happened."

Sales of U.S. nuclear plants aren't all that unusual; the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry group, says at least 30 units have been sold in part or whole since 1999. The potential sale of Bellefonte is creating hope in a region where residents gave up long ago on the promise of thousands of good-paying, permanent jobs that were once expected at the plant.

"It was a great thing but then they just pulled the plug and left out, you know," said Hollywood Mayor Frank "Buster" Duke, who worked at Bellefonte about a decade before moving on.

Today, he said, the 1,000 or so residents of his town need a place to work whether TVA or some other entity owns the property.

"It would help the area as far as land values go. Population would improve, businesses would come in," he said.

The Nevada-based Phoenix Energy has said it will offer $38 million for Bellefonte in hopes of using it for a new, non-nuclear technology to generate power. The company says its system uses electromagnetic induction energy fields to heat water indirectly and produce steam that would turn turbines and generate electricity at Bellefonte.

Chardos said he would still like to see the site used to generate electricity by nuclear power, but he can't be too picky.

"It's all about the jobs," he said.

In this Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016 photo, sit manager, Jim Chardos, gives a tour to the media as he walks through the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant, in Hollywood, Ala. The sale of the unfinished plant is bittersweet for site manager Chardos, who went to work at Bellefonte in 1994 expecting it to be finished as a nuclear power plant. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

In this Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016 photo, a detailed photograph shows a monitor in the control room at the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant, in Hollywood, Ala. After spending more than 40 years and $5 billion on an unfinished nuclear power plant in northeastern Alabama, the nation's largest federal utility is preparing to sell the property at a fraction of its cost. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
China-Russia launch South China Sea naval wargames

BEIJING (AP)  China's military says the Chinese and Russian navies are launching eight days of war games in the South China Sea, in a sign of growing cooperation between their armed forces.

The Defense Ministry says the "Joint Sea-2016" exercises beginning Monday will include surface ships, submarines, ship-borne helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, along with marines and amphibious armored vehicles.

Tasks will include defensive and rescue drills, anti-submarine exercises and the simulated seizure of an enemy island.

The ministry didn't say exactly where the drills would be held in the South China Sea, home to heated territorial disputes between China and its Southeast Asian neighbors.
PICTURED: In Colombia jungle, rebels prepare for peace

JUNGLES OF PUTUMAYO, Colombia (AP)  Traveling deep inside the jungle after a daylong boat journey, I arrived with trepidation and mistrust at the secret camp of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

As a Colombian photojournalist, I was raised in a modest farming family to despise the rebels my relatives characterized as killers. But watching the guerrillas of the FARC's southern bloc go about their daily routine as they prepared for peace I began to see them as regular people like myself and I decided to photograph them both in their uniforms and then in their civilian attire to show their more human side.

Under an accord reached last month by the government and FARC leaders, a cease-fire has taken effect and a national referendum will be held Oct. 2 to give voters the chance to approve the deal for ending a half-century of political violence that has killed more than 220,000 people and driven more than 5 million from their homes.

This Aug. 16, 2016 photo shows two portraits of Yuri Renteria, one of her holding a weapon while in her uniform for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) 32nd front, and in civilian clothing at a guerrilla camp in the southern jungle of Putumayo, Colombia. Renteria, 18, said she's been with the FARC for four years and would like to study engineering after demobilizing as part of a peace deal with Colombia's government. An Oct. 2 national referendum will give voters the chance to approve the deal for ending a half-century of political violence that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and driven millions from their homes. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

During a visit to their secret camp, I photographed rebels of both genders from the FARC's 48th Front and several other rebel units. I asked each one their age, number of years in the FARC and aspirations for the future.

Setting aside heavy assault rifles and camouflaged uniforms to put on street clothes, the men looked virtually the same. But the women were transformed.

Many said they were 18 but some looked younger. Many also confided that they joined the FARC years before. That meant many were recruited as minors, a human rights violation that is sadly among many that the long conflict has produced.

If the conversations seemed scripted  the male commanders chose which women I could photograph  the pictures were anything but. The women laughed, smiled and grabbed nervously at the edges of unfamiliar street clothes. Many had never been photographed in any formal way and the experience recalled my own youth as a studio photographer in Bogota taking portraits for high school graduations and ID cards.

After spending their youth fighting a futile war, the rebels are now eager to make up for the lost time. One young woman hadn't even finished elementary school.

It was very different than the last time I entered a guerrilla camp more than a decade ago. The rebels then were guarded, more dogmatic.

Today, Colombians still say overwhelmingly in polls that they dislike the rebels. FARC members have responded by trying to project a softer image during their transition into a political movement.

On my recent visit, the guerrillas were focused on their future lives under the peace deal reached last month after four years of negotiations. One rebel was even learning how to play guitar with instruction from the internet.

When I left after a week, I told the rebels I'd see them soon. It was a throwaway phrase, the sort of thing you say when you're at a loss for words.

The next time, one said, you may not recognize us because we'll be dressed just like you.

This Aug. 15, 2016 photo shows two portraits of Derly, one holding a weapon while in her uniform for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) 49th front, and in civilian clothing at a guerrilla camp in the southern jungle of Putumayo, Colombia. Derly, 24, said she's been with the FARC for nine years and would like to study medicine after demobilizing as part of a peace deal with Colombia's government. An Oct. 2 national referendum will give voters the chance to approve the deal for ending a half-century of political violence that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and driven millions from their homes. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

This Aug. 16, 2016 photo shows two portraits of Mayerli, one of her holding a weapon while in her uniform for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) 32nd front, and in civilian clothing at a guerrilla camp in the southern jungle of Putumayo, Colombia. Mayerli, 18, said she has spent four years with the FARC and would like to study nursing after demobilizing as part of a peace deal with Colombia's government. An Oct. 2 national referendum will give voters the chance to approve the deal for ending a half-century of political violence that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and driven millions from their homes. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

This Aug. 15, 2016 photo shows two portraits Carolina, one of her holding a weapon while in her uniform for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) 49th front, and in civilian clothing at a guerrilla camp in the southern jungle of Putumayo, Colombia. Carolina, 18, said she has spent three years in the FARC and would like to study engineering after demobilizing as part of a peace deal with Colombia's government. An Oct. 2 national referendum will give voters the chance to approve the deal for ending a half-century of political violence that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and driven millions from their homes. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

This Aug. 15, 2016 photo shows two portraits of Rubiela, one of her holding a weapon while in uniform for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) 49th front, and in civilian clothing at a guerrilla camp in the southern jungles of Putumayo, Colombia. Rubiela, 32, said she has spent 10 years in the FARC and would like to study dentistry after demobilizing as part of a peace deal with Colombia's government. An Oct. 2 national referendum will give voters the chance to approve the deal for ending a half-century of political violence that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and driven millions from their homes. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

This Aug. 13, 2016 photo shows two portraits of Yeimi, one of her holding a weapon in uniform for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) 48th front, and in civilian clothing at a guerrilla camp in the southern jungle of Putumayo, Colombia. Yeimi, 23, said she has spent 10 years with the FARC and would like to study systems after demobilizing as part of a peace deal with Colombia's government. An Oct. 2 national referendum will give voters the chance to approve the deal for ending a half-century of political violence that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and driven millions from their homes. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

This Aug. 13, 2016 photo shows two portraits of Yiceth, one of her holding a weapon while in uniform for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and in civilian clothing at a guerrilla camp in the southern jungle of Putumayo, Colombia. Yiceth, 18, said she's spent four years with the FARC and wants to finish high school and go on to study nursing after demobilizing as part of a peace deal with Colombia's government. An Oct. 2 national referendum will give voters the chance to approve the deal for ending a half-century of political violence that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and driven millions from their homes. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

This Aug. 13, 2016 photo shows two portraits of Diana Marcela, one of her holding a weapon while in uniform for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) 48th front, and in civilian clothing at a guerrilla camp in the southern jungle of Putumayo, Colombia. Marcela, 28, said she's spent 13 years in the FARC and would like to finish high school and study photography after demobilizing as part of a peace deal with Colombia's government. An Oct. 2 national referendum will give voters the chance to approve the deal for ending a half-century of political violence that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and driven millions from their homes. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

This Aug. 16, 2016 photo shows two portraits of Johana, one of her holding a weapon while in uniform for the 32nd front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and in civilian clothing at a guerrilla camp in the southern jungle of Putumayo, Colombia. Johana, 19, said she's spent six years in the FARC and would like to study nursing after demobilizing as part of a peace deal with Colombia's government. An Oct. 2 national referendum will give voters the chance to approve the deal for ending a half-century of political violence that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and driven millions from their homes. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
PICTURED: Editor selections from the past week in Asia

North Korea said it conducted a "higher level" nuclear test last week that will allow it to build an array of stronger, smaller and lighter nuclear weapons. The U.N. Security Council strongly condemned the nuclear test  the North's fifth and its second of the year  and promised new measures against Pyongyang. South Korea's president said the detonation, which Seoul estimated was the North's biggest-ever in explosive yield, was an act of "fanatic recklessness" and a sign that leader Kim Jong Un "is spiraling out of control." President Barack Obama said the U.S. would never accept North Korea as a nuclear power.

In other images from the Asia-Pacific region last week, Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping and the leaders of Britain, Japan, Russia and other Group of 20 nations pledged to boost sluggish global growth by promoting innovation as they met in the Chinese city of Hangzhou.

Obama became the first U.S. president to make an official visit to Laos, paying tribute to survivors maimed by some 80 million unexploded bombs America dropped on the Southeast Asian country decades ago and pledging U.S. help to finally clean them up.

In this Friday, Sept. 9, 2016, file photo, South Korean and U.S. Marines stand in smoke during the 66th Incheon Landing Operations Commemoration ceremony in Incheon, South Korea. Incheon is the coastal city where the United Nations Forces led by U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur landed in September, 1950 just months after North Korea invaded the South. North Korea said Friday it conducted a "higher level" nuclear warhead test explosion, which it trumpeted as finally allowing it to build "at will" an array of stronger, smaller and lighter nuclear weapons. It is Pyongyang's fifth atomic test and the second in eight months. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

A boiler exploded and triggered a fire at a packaging factory near Bangladesh's capital, killing at least 31 workers and injuring dozens. Factory safety is a major concern in Bangladesh, which has thousands of garment and packaging factories that supply products to global chains like Wal-Mart and H&M.

Muslims around the world prepared to celebrate Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice, by sacrificing animals to commemorate the prophet Ibrahim's faith in being willing to sacrifice his son.

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This gallery was curated by Associated Press photo editor Hiroshi Otabe in Tokyo.

In this Friday, Sept. 9, 2016, file photo, an official of the Earthquake and Volcano of the Korea Monitoring Division points at the epicenter of seismic waves in North Korea, in Seoul, South Korea. South Korea's Yonhap news agency says Seoul believes North Korea has conducted its fifth nuclear test explosion. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

In this Friday, Sept. 9, 2016 file photo, North Koreans watch a news report regarding a nuclear test on a large screen outside the Pyongyang Station in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea said Friday it conducted a "higher level" nuclear warhead test explosion, which it trumpeted as finally allowing it to build "at will" an array of stronger, smaller and lighter nuclear weapons. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin, File)

In this Friday, Sept. 9, 2016 file photo, TV screens show a North Korean newscaster reading a statement from the North's Nuclear Weapons Institute during a news program at the Yongsan Electronic Market in Seoul, South Korea. North Korea said Friday it conducted a "higher level" nuclear warhead test explosion that will allow it to finally build "at will" an array of stronger, smaller and lighter nuclear weapons. It is Pyongyang's fifth atomic test and the second in eight months. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

In this Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016, file photo, U.S. President Barack Obama drinks from a fresh coconut along the banks of the Mekong River in the Luang Prabang, Laos. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

In this Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2016 file, photo, Laotian President Bounnhang Vorachit, left, and U.S. President Barack Obama, right, watch a performance during an official state luncheon at the Presidential Palace in Vientiane, Laos. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

In this Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2016, file photo, Southeast Asian leaders link arms at the opening of the 28th and 29th ASEAN Summits and other related summits in the National Convention Center in Vientiane, Laos. Leaders are, from left; Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak, Myanmar's State Counsellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, Vietnam's President Tran Dai Quang, Laos' President Bounnhang Vorachith, Laos' Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen and Indonesia's President Joko Widodo. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez, File)

In this Sunday, Sept. 4, 2016, file photo, a Missionaries of Charity nun casts a shadow on the wall ahead of a mass of thanksgiving upon the sainthood on Mother Teresa at Nirmal Hriday, a destitute home run by them in New Delhi, India. Pope Francis declared Mother Teresa a saint on Sunday, praising the tiny nun for having taken in society's most unwanted and for having shamed world leaders for the "crimes of poverty they themselves created. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal, File)

In this Monday, Sept. 5, 2016, file photo, radical activist candidate Eddie Chu Hoi-dick cries as he reacts after winning a seat at the legislative council elections in Hong Kong. A new wave of anti-China activists appeared headed for victory in Hong Kong's most pivotal elections since the handover from Britain in 1997, which could set the stage for a fresh round of political confrontations over Beijing's control of the city. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

In this Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016, file photo, firefighters on a ladder work to put out the fire at a packaging factory in Tongi industrial area outside Dhaka, Bangladesh. A boiler exploded and triggered a fire at the five-story Tampaco Foils Ltd. factory. (AP Photo/A. M. Ahad, File)

In this Friday, Sept. 9, 2016, file photo, a salesperson sits near posters of the late communist leader Mao Zedong on display for sale at a shop near Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Friday marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Mao Zedong, who founded the People's Republic of China in 1949 and ran it virtually uncontested until his death on Sept. 9, 1976. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

In this Friday, Sept. 9, 2016, file photo, a horse makes its way through a cloud of smoke rising from fumigation being done to prevent mosquito-borne diseases in Allahabad, India. Despite efforts, including spraying vast areas with clouds of diesel smoke and insecticide, several Indian cities battle dengue fever and other mosquito-borne diseases every year during the rainy season. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh, File)

In this Friday, Sept. 9, 2016, file photo, Abdullah, a young vendor, caresses a goat as he awaits customers at a market ahead of the Muslim festival Eid al-Adha, in New Delhi, India. Muslims around the world celebrate Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice, by sacrificing animals to commemorate the prophet Ibrahim's faith in being willing to sacrifice his son. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File)
Death toll in Bangladesh factory fire rises to 31

NEW DELHI (AP)  The death toll from a boiler explosion and subsequent fire at a packaging factory in Bangladesh over the weekend has risen to 31 after more bodies were found in the debris, an official said Monday.

The huge blast early Saturday at the Tampaco Foils Ltd. factory outside the capital, Dhaka, triggered a massive blaze that spread quickly at the plant, where flammable chemicals were stored.

Twenty-three workers died immediately. Six more bodies were recovered Sunday evening, and two others were found overnight as firefighters cleared the debris, said local chief administrator S.A. Alam.

A Bangladeshi man walks out of Tampaco Foils Ltd. factory that caught fire Saturday, in Tongi industrial area outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016. A boiler exploded and triggered a fire at the packaging factory. (AP Photo/A. M. Ahad)

At least eight workers were still missing Monday, Alam said, adding that the search for bodies would continue while authorities try to determine what caused the explosion.

Saturday was the last working day at the factory before the workers were to go on leave for a weeklong holiday for the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha, which falls on Tuesday. The workers who died were nearing the end of their overnight shift when the explosion took place at around 6 a.m.

Thirteen people are being treated for burn injuries at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, including six in critical condition, Mohammed Bacchu Mia, a police officer at the hospital, said Monday.

Anxious relatives crowded the hospital Monday looking for their family members.

Rajesh Babu, who worked as a cleaner at the factory, has not been seen since Saturday, said his mother, Mina Rani Dey.

"He came to work early in the morning on Saturday. He has not returned," Dey said, sobbing as she held a photograph of her son. "His father has become sick because our son has not returned."

Factory safety is a major concern in Bangladesh, which has thousands of garment and packaging factories that supply products to global chains like Wal-Mart and H&M. A fire at a garment factory in a Dhaka suburb killed 112 workers in 2012. In 2013, a commercial complex near Dhaka housing five garment factories collapsed, killing 1,135 people, Bangladesh's worst industrial disaster.

Those two disasters prompted Bangladesh's government, global brands and the United Nations to work together to try to improve safety standards in the South Asian country's factories.

A factory employee is comforted as he cries near a packaging factory which was burnt down by a fire in Tongi industrial area outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016. A boiler exploded and triggered a fire Saturday at Tampaco Foils Ltd. factory. (AP Photo/A. M. Ahad)

Local people walk past Tampaco Foils Ltd. factory that caught fire Saturday, as firefighters work to put out a fire in Tongi industrial area outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016. A boiler exploded and triggered a fire at the packaging factory. (AP Photo/A. M. Ahad)

Local people gather to watch firefighters put out a fire at Tampaco Foils Ltd. factory in Tongi industrial area outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016. A boiler exploded and triggered a fire on Saturday at the packaging factory. (AP Photo/A. M. Ahad)

Firefighters work to put out a fire at Tampaco Foils Ltd. factory in Tongi industrial area outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016. A boiler exploded and triggered a fire at the packaging factory on Saturdayl. (AP Photo/A. M. Ahad)

Firefighters on a ladder work to put out a fire at a packaging factory in Tongi industrial area outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016. A boiler exploded and triggered a fire Saturday at Tampaco Foils Ltd. factory. (AP Photo/A. M. Ahad)
Recent developments surrounding the South China Sea

BEIJING (AP)  A look at recent developments in the South China Sea, where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons in waters crucial for global commerce and rich in fish and potential gas and oil reserves:

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EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a weekly look at the latest key developments in the South China Sea, home to several territorial conflicts that have raised tensions in the region.

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CHINESE-RUSSIAN NAVIES HOLD JOINT WAR GAMES

The Chinese and Russian navies launched eight days of war games in the South China Sea on Monday, in a sign of growing cooperation between their armed forces against the backdrop of regional territorial disputes.

The "Joint Sea-2016" maneuvers include surface ships, submarines, ship-borne helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, along with marines and amphibious armored vehicles who will conduct live-firing exercises, according to a Defense Ministry statement issued Sunday.

Tasks will include defensive and rescue drills, anti-submarine exercises and the simulated seizure of an enemy island by marines from both sides.

The ministry didn't say exactly where the drills would be held in the South China Sea, home to heated territorial disputes between China and its Southeast Asian neighbors.

Joint Chinese-Russian drills have grown increasingly common in recent years  this week's exercises are the fifth between the two navies since 2012  with the countries joined in their mutual suspicion of the U.S. and its allies.

Russia has been the only major country to speak out on China's behalf in its demand that the U.S. and other countries stay out of such arguments. That came as an arbitration panel in the Hague, Netherlands, issued a ruling invalidating China's claims to virtually the entire South China Sea, a result that Beijing angrily rejected as null and void.

While China says the drills do not envision specific enemies or target any third parties, their location in the tense South China Sea has drawn criticism.

During a visit to China last month, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet Adm. Scott Swift said: "There are other places those exercises could have been conducted." He described them as part of a series of actions "that are not increasing the stability within the region."

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OBAMA RAISES SOUTH CHINA SEA DISPUTE AT ASEAN MEETING IN LAOS

President Barack Obama raised the South China Sea dispute at last week's regional summit of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Laos.

"We will continue to work to ensure that disputes are resolved peacefully, including in the South China Sea," Obama said at the summit. He said the July 12 ruling by the panel in the Hague was binding and "helped to clarify maritime rights in the region."

China shot back with comments aimed at the United States.

"A couple of extra-regional countries still wanted to use the occasion of the East Asia Summit to talk about the South China Sea, particularly to press on the regional countries to abide by the arbitration, which is untimely and inappropriate," Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin told reporters.

In a victory for Beijing's diplomatic, economic and military clout, ASEAN couldn't even get all of its 10 members to agree that China was responsible for building islands in the disputed and resource-rich sea.

A statement issued at the end of the summit said: "We remain seriously concerned over recent and ongoing developments" in the South China Sea, without elaborating. It did not mention China by name and made only a passing reference to Beijing's program of building man-made islands in the area by piling sand atop coral reefs.

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MARINE EXPERT WARNS ON DAMAGE TO SOUTH CHINA SEA FISHERIES

An oceanologist has warned that China's creation of artificial islands and overfishing by all countries are severely threatening the South China Seas rich fish stocks.

John McManus of the University of Miami told the Philippine newspaper the Inquirer that Manila and Beijing should set aside their territorial dispute over Scarborough Shoal and declare it a "peace park" to preserve the marine environment.

If China were to create yet another man-made island on Scarborough, it would result in the irreplaceable loss of one of the world's most beautiful and productive coral reefs, said McManus, a professor of marine biology and fisheries and director of the National Center for Coral Reef Research at Miami's Rosenstiel School.

"Scarborough reef is in a critical stage. If China builds (an island) there, it's going to be a horrible waste. This is probably the most beautiful reef in the world," McManus was quoted as saying.

China seized the shoal in 2012 after a two-month standoff with the Philippine Navy and the Philippine Coast Guard and has prevented Filipino fishermen from reaching their traditional fishery inside the shoal's lagoon, despite the Hague tribunal's ruling that the shoal should be a shared fishing ground

The Philippine coast guard has sighted Chinese barges at Scarborough which could presage the transformation of the Chinese-held reef into another man-made island. One of the Chinese vessels had what appeared to be a crane, according to a Philippine official who did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to discuss classified intelligence.
Snow leopards' return brings hope to remote Afghan region

WAKHAN, Afghanistan (AP)  In a picturesque corner of Afghanistan, a unique conservation effort has helped bring the elusive snow leopard back from the brink and given hope to one of the poorest and most isolated communities on earth.

The leopards range across the snowy mountains of a dozen countries in Central and South Asia, but their numbers had declined in recent decades as hunters sought their spotted pelts and farmers killed them to protect livestock. Now they appear to be thriving, thanks to a seven-year program and a newly declared national park.

Scientists who have been tracking the shy leopards estimate there are up to 140 cats in the Wakhan National Park, established two years ago across 1 million square hectares (4,200 square miles). Stephane Ostrowski, a specialist with the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, says that's a healthy and sustainable number, and indicates that other species like the Siberian ibex and golden marmot  the leopards' main prey  are also doing well.

In this June 8, 2012 camera trap photo provided by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), a snow leopard walks on Pamir mountains in Sarkand valley, Wakhan district of Badakhshan province, far northeastern Afghanistan. In this picturesque corner of Afghanistan, a unique conservation effort has helped bring the elusive snow leopard back from the brink and given hope to one of the poorest and most isolated communities on earth. (H. Ali WCS via AP)

The WCS believes global leopard numbers could be much higher than a previous upper estimate of 7,500, after data gathered by Ostrowski and others showed there could be more than 8,000 in just 44 percent of the animal's known range. The World Wildlife Fund lists the species as "endangered."

His findings are the result of research carried out in one of the most hard-to-reach places on earth. The Wakhan corridor is nestled high in the Hindu Kush mountain range and cut off by snow for most of the year. The 15-year-old war with the Taliban rages 30 kilometers (18 miles) to the south, and the nearby borders with Tajikistan, Pakistan and China are usually closed.

The United Nations Development Program funds and oversees all the WCS activities in the Wakhan, and will provide $3 million for the snow leopard project over the next two years.

Ostrowski and the other foreign and Afghan scientists camp in yellow tents in the Sarkand Valley for months on end, monitoring and maintaining a far-flung network of cameras and traps. In just one year, they collected around 5,000 images of 38 individual cats. They managed to capture four leopards  one of them twice  and were able to fit them with collars and track them with GPS. They hope to catch another two by the end of the year.

They've learned that snow leopards range widely. Like house cats, they mark their territory by spraying and scratching the ground, but unlike their distant relatives, they don't mind getting wet.

"These cats can cross big rivers and swim in extremely cold water," Ostrowski said. One female crossed the Amu Darya river into Tajikistan, stayed a couple of weeks and then returned.

The snow leopards have benefited from conservation programs going back to 2009, when the WCS began building enclosed corrals with mesh roofs to protect the sheep, goats and cows that are the backbone of the local economy.

It was the first step toward bringing modern conservation techniques to Wakhan, where the population of around 17,000 lives off of subsistence farming. In one of the poorest regions of one of the world's poorest countries, the leopards had long been seen as a menace.

Hassan Beg says he lost 22 sheep and goats in one night a few years ago when a snow leopard got into his uncovered corral, and his cousin Saeed said he was attacked by one late at night. Hassan has since built his own roof over the enclosure using tree branches. "We can't kill them," he said, "so I just make sure it won't happen again."

A presidential decree banning all hunting countrywide was issued in 2005, but the scientists recently found a carcass with a bullet in its head. Some 400 kilometers (250 miles) to the southwest, at a crowded market in the capital, Kabul, a shopkeeper discreetly produced a snow leopard pelt with a long cylindrical tail and a face distorted by crude taxidermy. He wanted $1,800 for it.

"We receive reports from all of the provinces where hunting is going on illegally, whether it is because of poverty, whether it is for hobby, whether it is for selling it at a higher price in the market," said Mostapha Zaher, director general of the National Environment Protection Agency.

But back in Wakhan, the conservation efforts appear to be catching on.

At Qala-i-Panja High School, where students say they've never heard of the internet, they've embraced modern notions of wildlife preservation. A snow leopard cub stares down from a poster affixed to the otherwise bare walls.

"Since the ban on hunting was introduced, the numbers of wild animals are increasing here and that is attracting foreign tourists," said Simah, a 17-year-old who like many Afghans has no surname. "That can be good for the economy of Afghanistan."

The snow leopard is the national park's star attraction, even if most visitors are unlikely to see one. But the region also boasts wolves, brown bears, red foxes, and the long-horned Marco Polo sheep  named for the 13th century Italian explorer who spotted one on his journey to the Far East.

Only around 100 visitors reach Wakhan every year, most entering from Tajikistan during the summer months. Wakhan's poverty and isolation has insulated it from decades of war, but has also deterred all but the most adventurous travelers.

Frenchman Jocelyn Guitton, an EU diplomat, arrived in August with plans to trek to the corridor's northeast and visit Kyrgyz nomads. He allows that it's "off the beaten track," but says he hopes tourism can bring "visibility and good practices" to the region.

Since declaring the national park two years ago, the government has been holding public meetings known as shuras throughout Wakhan to cultivate local support for the idea and to reassure residents who initially feared they might lose their land.

"It's a new concept for these people and it's a new concept for Afghanistan, so it takes time," said Ashley Vosper, a landscape expert at WCS who has taken part in the meetings.

Vosper says the park actually provides "brilliant protection" to residents by ensuring that no one else can use their land while bringing economic development to the region. "It can be a nice two-way balance," he said.

Zaher hopes that Wakhan can one day rival Afghanistan's only other national park, in the central Bamiyan province, which attracts thousands of tourists each year to the crystal blue lakes of Band-i-Amir.

"When peace returns to Afghanistan  and it will, as no war lasts forever  Wakhan has great potential for ecotourism, for people who are interested in archaeology, anthropology, researchers interested in Afghanistan, people interested in glacial melt, mountaineering, the environment."

In this Aug. 18, 2016 photo, employees of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society prepare to check network of cameras and traps to know if any snow leopards have been captured, in Sarkand village, Wakhan district of Badakhshan province, far northeastern Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, a unique conservation effort has helped bring the elusive snow leopard back from the brink and given hope to one of the poorest and most isolated communities on earth. Their numbers declined in recent decades as hunters sought their spotted pelts and farmers killed them to protect livestock. (AP Photos/Massoud Hossaini)

In this Aug. 17, 2016 photo, an employee of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society looks for snow leopard in the Wakhan district of Badakhshan province, far northeastern Afghanistan. In this picturesque corner of Afghanistan, a unique conservation effort has helped bring the elusive snow leopard back from the brink and given hope to one of the poorest and most isolated communities on earth. Their numbers declined in recent decades as hunters sought their spotted pelts and farmers killed them to protect livestock. (AP Photos/Massoud Hossaini)

In this Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016, photo, Mostapha Zaher, director general of the National Environment Protection Agency speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Kabul, Afghanistan. In a picturesque corner of Afghanistan, a unique conservation effort has helped bring the elusive snow leopard back from the brink and given hope to one of the poorest and most isolated communities on earth. Their numbers declined in recent decades as hunters sought their spotted pelts and farmers killed them to protect livestock. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

In this Aug. 18, 2016 photo, Afghan farmer Hassan Beg poses at his corral, in Sarkand village, Wakhan district of Badakhshan province, northeastern Afghanistan. In this picturesque corner of Afghanistan, a unique conservation effort has helped bring the elusive snow leopard back from the brink and given hope to one of the poorest and most isolated communities on earth. Beg says he lost 22 sheep and goats in one night a few years ago when a snow leopard got into his uncovered corral, but he has since built his own roof over the enclosure using tree branches. (AP Photos/Massoud Hossaini)

In this Aug. 17, 2016 photo, employees of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society install a trap to capture snow leopards, in Sarkand village, Wakhan district of Badakhshan province, far northeastern Afghanistan. In a picturesque corner of Afghanistan, a unique conservation effort has helped bring the elusive snow leopard back from the brink and given hope to one of the poorest and most isolated communities on earth. Their numbers declined in recent decades as hunters sought their spotted pelts and farmers killed them to protect livestock. (AP Photos/Massoud Hossaini)

In this July 2, 2012 camera trap photo provided by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), a snow leopard walks on Pamir mountains in Sarkand valley, Wakhan district of Badakhshan province, far northeastern Afghanistan. In this picturesque corner of Afghanistan, a unique conservation effort has helped bring the elusive snow leopard back from the brink and given hope to one of the poorest and most isolated communities on earth. (WCS via AP)

In this Aug. 23, 2016 photo, the skins of snow leopards are displayed at a market in Kabul, Afghanistan. In a picturesque corner of Afghanistan, a unique conservation effort has helped bring the elusive snow leopard back from the brink and given hope to one of the poorest and most isolated communities on earth. The leopards range across the snowy mountains of a dozen countries in Central and South Asia, but their numbers had declined in recent decades as hunters sought their spotted pelts and farmers killed them to protect livestock. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini)

In this Aug. 18, 2016 photo, employees of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society check equipment to see if any snow leopards have been captured, in Sarkand village, Wakhan district of Badakhshan province, far northeastern Afghanistan. A unique conservation effort has helped bring the elusive snow leopard back from the brink and given hope to one of the poorest and most isolated communities on earth. Their numbers declined in recent decades as hunters sought their spotted pelts and farmers killed them to protect livestock. (AP Photos/Massoud Hossaini)

This Aug. 15, 2016 photo, shows an ariel view of the snow-capped Pamir mountains in the Wakhan district of Badakhshan province, far northeastern Afghanistan. In this picturesque corner of Afghanistan, a unique conservation effort has helped bring the elusive snow leopard back from the brink and given hope to one of the poorest and most isolated communities on earth. Their numbers declined in recent decades as hunters sought their spotted pelts and farmers killed them to protect livestock. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini)

In this Aug. 17, 2016 photo, Afghan student Simah talks to her classmates in Qala-i-Panja village, Wakhan district of Badakhshan province, northeastern Afghanistan. In this remote and picturesque corner of Afghanistan, a unique conservation effort has helped bring the elusive snow leopard back from the brink. At Qala-i-Panja High School, where students say theyve never heard of the internet, theyve embraced modern notions of wildlife preservation. A snow leopard cub stares down from a poster affixed to the otherwise bare walls. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini)

This this Aug. 18, 2016 photo shows a protected corral in Wakhan district of Badakhshan province, far northeastern Afghanistan. A unique conservation effort has helped bring the elusive snow leopard back from the brink and given hope to one of the poorest and most isolated communities on earth. Snow leopards have benefited from conservation programs going back to 2009, when the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, began building enclosed corrals with mesh roofs to protect the sheep, goats and cows that are the backbone of the local economy. (AP Photos/Massoud Hossaini)

In this Aug. 17, 2016 photo, employees of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society look for snow leopards, in Sarkand village, Wakhan district of Badakhshan province, far northeastern Afghanistan. In this picturesque corner of Afghanistan, a unique conservation effort has helped bring the elusive snow leopard back from the brink and given hope to one of the poorest and most isolated communities on earth. Their numbers declined in recent decades as hunters sought their spotted pelts and farmers killed them to protect livestock. (AP Photos/Massoud Hossaini)
Guilty: Dereck James 'DJ' Harrison, 23, pictured in court Monday, pleaded guilty to five counts of aggravated kidnapping for beating up five women in a Utah basement

A Utah man accused of tying up a mother and her four daughters in a basement took a plea deal Monday morning but still faces a murder case in Wyoming in the beating and stabbing death of a train worker while on the run from police with his father.

Dereck James 'DJ' Harrison, 23, pleaded guilty to five counts of aggravated kidnapping, and the rest of his 16 charges in Utah were dropped as part of the deal.

He faces at least 15 years and up to life in prison on each count when he is sentenced on October 24, but prosecutors agreed to recommend the first four sentences run at the same time.

Harrison and his father, Flint Harrison, were accused of luring a woman and her four teenage daughters to their house with an invitation to a barbecue in May, then restraining and beating them up with a baseball bat before they managed to escape.

The men were using methamphetamine heavily and thought the mother had reported them to police, authorities said.

The father-and-son duo fled to Salt Lake City, where they grabbed 63-year-old train worker Kay Ricks during his shift and forced him into his truck, according to charging documents.

Prosecutors allege that they beat Ricks to death, slit his throat and left his body in the Wyoming countryside on their way to a remote hideout.

Father-son duo: Harrison (left) and his father, Flint Harrison, 52 (right), were in the run from police in May when they allegedly kidnapped and killed a rail worker

The Harrisons stole Ricks' truck, pictured, before driving from Utah to Wyoming and killing the transit worker, police said

The two men were arrested after a five-day manhunt. Flint Harrison, 52, killed himself in jail in July.

DJ Harrison is expected to face murder and kidnapping charges that could carry the death penalty after the Utah case is complete. On Monday, he said he will not fight extradition to Wyoming.

According to an indictment, the Harrisons had been on the run for two days on May 12 when Kay Ricks started his shift in Salt Lake City.

He picked up his Ford F150 pickup truck around 3pm. At 5pm the radio dispatcher heard a commotion on the radio followed by silence.

Victim: Ricks, 63, was struck repeatedly, had his throat slit and was left to die

Prosecutors claim the Harrisons took Ricks and his truck and drove into Wyoming at around 6.24pm.

About 45 minutes later, they turned down a dirt road leads to Cumberland Bridge, spanning the North Fork of Little Muddy Creek.

Authorities say the Harrisons beat Ricks with a blunt object for 18 minutes and dragged his body under sagebrush.

That night, both UTA and Ricks' wife reported him missing.

His body was found five days later. Investigators also found a bloody utility knife under Ricks' left foot and an autopsy found he suffered cuts to his neck and defensive wounds to his forearms and hand.

The Harrisons were caught after Flint Harrison turned himself him.

He told authorities his son, 23, was hiding at a campsite nearby and warned that he would shoot it out with officers.

Dereck Harrison was arrested near a roadblock several hours later.

After their arrest on May 14, they were returned from Wyoming to Utah to face the earlier kidnap charges and to give authorities the opportunity to investigate Ricks' murder.

Shortly after midnight on July 25, the elder Mr Harrison was found hanging in his cell at the Davis County Jail in in Farmington.

Death by suicide: On July 25, the elder Mr Harrison was found hanging in his cell at the Davis County Jail in in Farmington

His son, who is at the same jail, was notified of his father's death and placed on a suicide watch.

Ricks' family said in a statement they were disappointed Flint Harrison won't have to answer for a 'brutal and senseless' crime.

'The Ricks Family knows full well that nothing will bring Kay back,' the statement read. 'However, we hoped that Flint and DJ Harrison would both answer for their crimes. Now, DJ is left to explain.'
UN says airstrikes on Yemen water well reportedly kill 30

SANAA, Yemen (AP)  Saudi-led airstrikes on a water well in northern Yemen have reportedly killed 30 people and wounded 17, a U.N. official said Monday, making it one of the deadliest attacks since peace talks collapsed a month ago.

The U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, said in a statement that the casualties in the village of Beit Saadan included first responders and children. The strikes took place on Saturday, on the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

McGoldrick said he is "deeply disturbed by the unrelenting attacks on civilians and on civilian infrastructure," and urges rival parties to resume a cease-fire declared by the U.N. in April.

Yemen's official news agency SABA, which is controlled by Houthi rebels, has reported that 100 people were killed or wounded in the airstrikes. Witnesses said an initial airstrike killed 13 people, but then a number of rescuers were killed in subsequent airstrikes. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

The U.N. statement said it based its findings on its own sources and media reports. The Associated Press was unable to independently verify the death toll. The Saudi-led coalition made no statement regarding the airstrikes, but its spokesman, Brig. Gen. Ahmed al-Asiri, has said before that relief and rights groups are biased and give misleading reports.

Yemen's conflict pits the internationally recognized government, which is allied with a Saudi-led military coalition, against Shiite Houthi rebels and forces loyal to a former president.

The Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis and their allies since March 2015.

McGoldrick says the fighting has killed or wounded 10,000 people.

The Houthis, along with allied forces loyal to ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh, have also waged cross-border attacks against Saudi Arabia. The coalition said Saudi air defense forces shot down a ballistic missile fired from Yemen before dawn on Monday. It says the coalition air force struck the area of the missile's launching pad. No damage or casualties were reported.
Obama, McConnell strike hopeful tone on budget, Zika

WASHINGTON (AP)  Striking a conciliatory tone after an Oval Office sitdown, President Barack Obama and the top Senate Republican declared themselves hopeful Monday that an agreement can be reached to keep the government running and to provide money to take care of the worsening Zika crisis.

"I was encouraged by some of the constructive work that's being done right now," Obama said after his meeting with the top four congressional leaders, two from each party.

Long-sought provisions to provide money to deal with Zika look likely to be added to a must-pass spending bill to fund the government through Dec. 9.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wis., left front, listens next to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as President Barack Obama speaks next to Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, of Nevada, and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, of Calif., in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Entering the Capitol after the meeting, Senate Majority Leader McConnell told reporters that the group "talked about wrapping up the funding issue and I think we're all in a very good place to do that on a bipartisan basis pretty quickly."

Obama, for his part, said his "hope is that by the time Congress adjourns, before the election, that we will have an agreement in place to fund the government and that Zika funding will be taken care of."

His remarks in the Oval Office, with congressional leaders looking on, represented a marked shift in tone from a preview of the meeting provided by his spokesman just hours earlier.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest had said reasonable people could probably figure out a solution to the issues "in a couple of hours," but added that "unfortunately, they're stuck with Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan being responsible for this," referring to the Republican leaders in the Senate and House.

Conservative opposition to the emerging deal remains, but negotiators worked through the weekend on the details. The Zika money has stalled since Obama first requested $1.9 billion in February, but congressional Republican leaders seem likely to jettison provisions opposed by Democrats restricting any of the money from going to affiliates of Planned Parenthood in Puerto Rico.

Speaking on the Senate floor in advance of the White House meeting, McConnell confirmed that he expected action by week's end on a funding bill including Zika money.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said his staff was working "diligently" toward a solution, and he called on Republicans to "get away from their vendetta against Planned Parenthood ... Planned Parenthood should not be part of Zika funding."

It comes as government scientists step up their warnings about the spread of the virus, which can cause devastating birth defects. More than 670 pregnant women in the states and Washington, D.C., have the virus, leading to the birth of at least 17 babies with microcephaly so far.

On Friday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Thomas Frieden said that "we are now essentially out of money" and warned that the country is "about to see a bunch of kids born with microcephaly" in the coming months.

Obama, just back from a trip to Asia, invited the GOP leaders, Ryan and McConnell, and their counterparts, Reid and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi.

The lawmakers have been back from a seven-week summer recess for only a week but already are eager to depart again so that vulnerable lawmakers of both parties can campaign for re-election. The government funding bill is the only must-pass piece of legislation ahead of the election and thus has become the vehicle for the Zika provisions.

Also on the agenda for the president and legislators: a request from Louisiana's governor for $2.8 billion in federal assistance to help the state recover from devastating flooding. Gov. John Bel Edwards last week had requested $2 billion, but upped the amount on Monday. Louisiana's GOP-dominated congressional delegation sent Obama a letter Monday urging him to submit a disaster aid request so that Congress can act on it this year, though it fell short of indicating that the funding should be added to the stopgap spending bill.

Obama said they discussed the need for disaster relief in Louisiana and elsewhere, but gave no specifics on the conversation.

Obama's priorities for a lame-duck postelection session of Congress also were on the table, including Obama's one major remaining foreign policy priority, the 12-nation Asia free-trade Trans-Pacific Partnership. During his recent trip to Asia, Obama repeatedly called on Congress to pass what the White House considers a legacy-burnishing deal.

The president said he was hopeful about being able to "get things done" with Congress on issues including criminal justice reform when legislators meet again after the elections.
Conservative effort to impeach IRS chief won't succeed

WASHINGTON (AP)  A campaign-season drive by conservative House Republicans to impeach the IRS commissioner won't succeed. With solid Democratic opposition and resistance from many in the GOP, there simply aren't enough votes to oust John Koskinen from his post.

Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus are pushing it anyway, and it's on track to come to a head this week. A look at the effort:

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FILE - In this Feb. 10, 2016 file photo, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner John Koskinen testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. A campaign-season effort by conservatives to impeach the IRS commissioner has no chance of succeeding and is being resisted by other Republicans who think it could hurt them with swing voters. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

Q: Why do conservatives want to impeach Koskinen?

A: They accuse him of lying to Congress, not answering subpoenas and overseeing an agency that destroyed documents. They say those actions hindered the House GOP's long-running investigation of how the Internal Revenue Service unfairly treated tea party groups that sought tax exemptions several years ago, before Koskinen was with the agency.

Two months to the election, going after Koskinen and the IRS is popular with many conservative voters, for whom the IRS has long been a dirty word. They've not forgiven its handling of tea party organizations. And Koskinen was appointed by President Barack Obama, another favorite conservative target.

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Q: What do Koskinen and Democrats say?

A: They say the accusations are unfounded.

"There is no evidence that Commissioner Koskinen ever in any way sought to impede Congress' oversight of the IRS," Koskinen's personal lawyers wrote in documents they provided Sunday.

While the IRS acknowledged it subjected tea party groups to unfairly harsh treatment, the Justice Department and the IRS inspector general found no evidence the agency was motivated by political bias, and it's not been proved that documents were purposely destroyed.

Democrats say the impeachment effort is aimed at stirring up conservative votes and campaign donations.

Koskinen's term runs until Nov. 12, 2017. He's said publicly he serves at the pleasure of the president  which suggests he'd leave if a president asked.

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Q: How does impeachment work?

A: Under the Constitution, Congress can remove officials for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." That last phrase is generally considered to reserve impeachment for the most serious offenses.

The House needs a majority vote to impeach, or formally charge, an official. The Senate then holds a trial on whether to convict and remove the person from office, which requires a two-thirds majority.

___

Q: What do other Republicans think of impeaching Koskinen?

A: Not much. Congressional GOP leaders have shown little passion for it and noted it divides their own party. House Republicans meet this Thursday to discuss it.

The reason for GOP discomfort: support impeachment and we could lose moderate voters who view impeachment as partisan and excessive and don't care much about Koskinen; oppose it and we could alienate conservatives. Why force that choice on ourselves two months before elections?

"That sort of action would not be helpful at this point in the campaign," said Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who heads Senate GOP campaign efforts.

Some prefer to send the effort to the House Judiciary Committee  punting it until after the elections.

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Q: Why don't House GOP leaders simply block the vote?

A: The proposal's sponsors introduced it under a procedure that requires a House vote within two days of calling it up on the House floor. Besides, Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who's taken a neutral public stance, doesn't want to anger conservatives whose support he'll need to be re-elected to the speakership next January should the GOP retain House control.

Rep. John Fleming, R-La., who sponsored the resolution with Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., said Monday they plan to formally offer the resolution Tuesday, with a vote likely Thursday after Republicans meet. Motions could be made to kill, postpone, or sidetrack the measure to a House committee.

Fleming, who is running for the GOP nomination for Senate, said he couldn't predict the outcome but said, "Any votes to go any direction other than impeachment will be perceived by the American public as a 'no' vote on impeachment."

If Democrats solidly oppose the conservatives' effort as expected, an effort to kill it or send it to committee would pass with support from 31 Republicans if all lawmakers vote a number that seems achievable.

But should it pass the House and clear other procedural votes, Senate GOP leaders could face their own decisions about handling a proposal that ultimately is going nowhere.

One possibility  the Senate could adjourn for the elections before receiving the measure from the House, leaving it in limbo.

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 Biased Reuters, AFP Captions on Disputed Gaza Death | Main | Threat from Terrorist Groups is the 'Most Serious since 9/11 Attacks' 

September 12, 2016

Rarely Highlighted in the Mainstream Media are Genuine Palestinian Peace-Seekers

Sheikh Abdullah Tamimi

One topic that is rarely covered in the mainstream media are attempts by genuine Palestinian peace-seekers to find a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Unlike PA leader Mahmoud Abbas, who is usually the one the media touts as a peaceful, moderate Palestinian leader, these Palestinians do not believe in nurturing a culture of grievance and victimology, do not believe in boycotting Israel, and do not believe that incitement against Israel and Jews is the answer.

Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh highlights Sheikh Abdullah Tamimi, one such Palestinian peace-seeker, in an article for the Gatestone Institute. He points out that:

Tamimi and his colleagues do not believe in boycotts and divestment. They are convinced that real peace can be achieved through dialogue between Palestinians and all Israelis -- not just those who are affiliated with the left-wing. The Israeli left-wing, they contend, does not have a monopoly over peace-making. For Tamimi, real peace begins between the people and through economic cooperation and improving the living conditions of the Palestinians. This, he explains, is more important than the talk about the establishment of a Palestinian state, which he believes, under the current circumstances, is not a realistic option.

Unfortunately, Tamimi -- "who hails from an influential clan in Hebron"-- has been disowned by his clan. Still, according to Abu Toameh:

Tamimi's is not a lone voice in the desert. He represents an increasing number of Palestinians who have lost confidence in their leaders' ability to improve their living conditions and achieve peace and stability in the region. These Palestinians support the idea of "economic peace" between the two peoples -- a notion that goes against the ideas of the advocates of "anti-normalization" and others in the West obviously acting against the true interests of the Palestinians by promoting boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.

Read about the honest and courageous cleric here.

Posted by RH at September 12, 2016 01:24 PM

It is so amazing, and refreshing to read about people like Sheikh Abdullah Tamimi. I hope more will make themselves known and be counted. God knows, we need more of such voices. I pray the Lord protects him as he boldly declares his stand.

Shalom!

Posted by: R.Hadassah at September 13, 2016 01:24 PM

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Clinton's and Trump's plans to help education differ sharply

WASHINGTON (AP)  Hillary Clinton has spent decades talking about the needs of children and touting the benefits of early education. It's a new subject for Donald Trump.

The Republican presidential nominee added plans for education to his still relatively thin roster of policy proposals this past week, unveiling an effort to spend $20 billion during his first year in office to help states expand school choice programs. Trump wasn't shy about his intentions, debuting his ideas at an inner-city charter school in Cleveland as part of his new outreach to minority voters.

"There's no failed policy more in need of urgent change than our government-run education monopoly," Trump said at the school, blaming the Democratic Party for having "trapped millions of African-American and Hispanic youth in failing government schools that deny them the opportunity to join the ladder of American success."

FILE - In this Sept. 9, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks in Washington. Hillary Clinton has spent decades talking about the needs of children and touting the benefits of early education. Its a new subject for Donald Trump. The Republican presidential nominee added plans for education to his still relatively thin roster of policy proposals this past week, unveiling an effort to spend $20 billion during his firstw year in office to help states expand school choice programs. Trump wasnt shy about his intentions, debuting his ideas at an inner-city charter school in Cleveland as part of his new outreach to minority voters. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

"It's time to break up that monopoly," he said.

But like many of his policy plans, this was one was vague, with few specifics.

Trump argued his approach would create "a massive education market," one that produces better outcomes than the nation's existing public education system. Beyond his $20 billion in federal money, he wants states to divert another $110 billion of their own education budgets to support school choice efforts, providing $12,000 to every elementary school student living in poverty to attend the school of their choice.

Clinton's much more detailed education plans, meanwhile, are firmly rooted in improving the country's public schools. The Democratic nominee has called for new spending to improve classrooms, improve teacher salaries and add computer science programs.

"We're going to invest in education and skills, from early childhood education to giving our teachers the tools and flexibility they need to succeed in the classroom, without a lot of top-down strings all over them from Washington," she said on Monday.

On education, the two candidates are as far apart as they are on any issue at stake in the 2016 election. A summary of their proposals:

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SCHOOL CHOICE

TRUMP: The billionaire businessman has embraced the concept popular among conservatives, which calls for students and their parents to be able to select the school they wish to attend  public, private, charter or magnet. To support that effort, Trump proposed reallocating an unspecified $20 billion in his first budget as president into block grants to states, and directing them to use the money to help millions of elementary school students living in poverty attend the school of their choice. That money "should follow the students," a concept known in education policy as portability. Critics of school choice argue that approach would deprive public schools of money, and Congress rejected the idea in the education law it passed last year to replace the No Child Left Behind Act.

CLINTON: Clinton has voiced support for charter schools, which operate with public money but are governed by an independent "charter" rather than a community's established public education system. But Clinton does not back the broader concept of school choice. "I want parents to be able to exercise choice within the public school system  not outside of it  but within it, because I am still a firm believer that the public school system is one of the real pillars of our democracy and it is a path for opportunity," she said in November 2015.

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STUDENT LOANS AND DEBT

TRUMP: He has decried the impact of debt from loans on college students, but beyond his often-stated promise to create jobs as president, he has not offered a concrete proposal to address what he called "one of the biggest questions I get is from people in college." Trump has criticized the federal government's student loan program for making a profit, telling The Hill newspaper in July 2015 "that's probably one of the only things the government shouldn't make money off. I think it's terrible that one of the only profit centers we have is student loans."

CLINTON: She has proposed that students from families making less than $125,000 a year be able to attend a public college or university in their home state without having to pay tuition, and that all community colleges be tuition-free. Under her plan, students with existing student loan debt would be able to refinance, and Clinton promises a three-month moratorium on payments to allow those in debt to take steps to reduce their monthly payments. Those deemed "entrepreneurs" will get a three-year deferment on their loans "so that student debt and the lack of family wealth is not a barrier to innovation in our country."

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COMMON CORE

TRUMP: The academic standards adopted in more than 40 states are a frequent target of Trump's ire. "We spend more by far, and we're doing very poorly. So, obviously, Common Core does not work," he said this past week. Trump has pledged to do away with the standards if elected, which could prove a challenge: they were created and adopted by states, not the federal government. Trump has also pledged that ripping up the state-developed standards and bringing education "to the local level" would immediately boost student performance.

CLINTON: The standards are not mentioned in Clinton's education plans, although her campaign does note that as the first lady of Arkansas, she chaired the state's education standards commission. Speaking in Iowa during the primary season, Clinton lamented what she called the "really unfortunate argument" about the standards. "It wasn't politicized," she said. "It was to try to come up with a core of learning that we might expect students to achieve across our country, no matter what kind of school district they were in, no matter how poor their family was, that there wouldn't be two tiers of education."

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CHILD CARE

TRUMP: Trump said in August he would "reduce the cost of child care by allowing parents to fully deduct the average cost of child-care spending from their taxes." He has not provided more details, which he said would come after he refined his plan with his daughter, Ivanka. As a tax deduction, rather than a tax credit, Trump's plan would primarily help more affluent households. More than 40 percent of U.S. taxpayers don't make enough money to owe taxes to the federal government, meaning they would not benefit from a deduction.

CLINTON: She proposes that no family should spend more than 10 percent of its income on child care. To achieve this goal, Clinton would seek to boost federal spending on child care subsidies and provide "tax relief for the cost of child care to working families." Those benefits would be offered on a "sliding scale" based on need. Since announcing the plan in May, Clinton has offered few details on the specifics, including how it would be funded beyond raising taxes on wealthy Americans.

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EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

TRUMP: Trump has not discussed early childhood education.

CLINTON: She would seek to make preschool universal for all 4-year-old children within 10 years of her election by providing new federal dollars to states. Clinton also seeks to double the number of children enrolled in Early Head Start, a government program that provides early education services to low-income families. Clinton has not detailed in depth on how she would pay for these expanded efforts.

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What political news is the world searching for on Google and talking about on Twitter? Find out via AP's Election Buzz interactive. http://elections.ap.org/buzz
Israel's top court upholds contentious force-feeding law

JERUSALEM (AP)  Israel's Supreme Court has upheld a contentious force-feeding law, deeming it constitutional.

Court documents obtained Monday say the law found a "delicate balance" between the value of human life, public interest, right to dignity and freedom of expression. In its ruling Sunday, the court said the law ensures medical and legal oversight.

The law allows Israel to force-feed a hunger striker if his life is in danger, even if the prisoner refuses.

Israel passed the law last year following a spate of hunger strikes by Palestinian prisoners over their detentions without charge. Israeli authorities worry that a prisoner's death could spark unrest.
The Onion's bid to create more fake campaign news

PHILADELPHIA (AP)  Even satire has a shelf life.

In a presidential campaign with fast-changing headlines that sometimes defy belief, The Onion has managed to maintain its niche by becoming more agile, just like real news organizations.

The 28-year-old satirical media outlet, famous for creating fake news, has evolved with technology a bit like everyone else, including the news industry it parodies. For the first time, The Onion this summer sent staffers to the Democratic and Republican conventions.

In this photo provided by The Onion, Onion, taken Sept. 2, 2016, editor-in chief Cole Bolton, second left, meets with staffers at the outlet's Chicago headquarters. For the first time this summer, The Onion, the satirical outlet known for creating fake news, sent staffers to the Democratic and Republican conventions. (Leonardo Adrian Garcia/The Onion via AP)

"Although technology requires media to be much quicker, it also allows us to be a bit faster, and we've started training ourselves and developing ways that we can be a little more reactive, too," said Matt Klinman, The Onion's head writer for video.

Klinman was part of a team of staffers sent to the conventions in Philadelphia and Cleveland with a goal of mocking the news in something close to real time. Its video team quickly posted full-length clips of high-profile convention speeches on Facebook, complete with cable news-style graphics that included jokes and commentary.

"We've been sort of wanting to crack a way of doing live coverage as The Onion for a long time," Klinman said.

The Onion's sarcastic take on political gatherings apparently struck a chord on Facebook, where its convention videos outpaced those from major news outlets such as The New York Times, ABC, NBC and CNN for much of the two-week period when the meetings were held. The data come from Tubular Labs, an analytics firm The Onion uses to track video views.

The Chicago-based Onion is planning similar coverage for the upcoming presidential debates.

Jokes, especially ones about current events, can become dated quickly in today's media environment. The Onion's move to ramp up the speed of satire came during the last presidential cycle, said Editor-in-Chief Cole Bolton.

Before 2012, Onion writers would work two weeks ahead of time on its send-ups of candidates and issues and "sort of just hope, fingers crossed, that they would be a really good comment by the time they came out," Bolton said.

It has moved to a faster model since, whittling down as many as 1,500 headlines pitched by its writers and contributors weekly to the 30 or so it actually uses as the basis to create satirical articles. In this campaign, the process has produced headlines that at first glance could blur the line between reality and satire.

"Trump Campaign Ponders Going Negative," says one. "'Secretary Clinton Is A Different Person Than Donald Trump,' Says Bernie Sanders In Ringing Endorsement," says another.

With the mock headlines easily shared on social media, The Onion is on track to see a 38 percent increase in traffic to its main website over the 2012 election cycle, spokeswoman Lauren Pulte said.

A healthy public appetite for satire is reflected both in the online statistics and Univision's purchase of a sizable stake in The Onion this year.

"Comedy is playing an expanding role in our culture as a vehicle for audiences to explore, debate, and understand the important ideas of our time," Univision news chief Issac Lee said in announcing the deal in January.

Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst at The Poynter Institute, said The Onion was at the forefront of a politically and socially conscious niche of satire that extended to "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" and now includes John Oliver's HBO show and others.

"The field that The Onion was fairly early entered in continues to grow," he said.

Whoever ends up as the next occupant of the White House, The Onion is excited about the comedic possibilities.

With Hillary Clinton, The Onion has turned to a tried-and-true tactic of satire  playing up one aspect of a character  by portraying the Democrat as a hyperaggressive, over-the-top version of herself, Bolton said.

That technique doesn't work for the bombastic Trump, who Bolton believes can top any exaggeration on his own.

"Instead of playing up the craziness with him, playing up just how sad and terribly alone he feels on the inside is just a funnier way to go," Bolton said.

Bolton expects The Onion's political coverage to gain even more popularity as the campaign enters its closing stretch because, he said, "it's still dawning on people ... the consequences are pretty real." He sees The Onion's role as saying out loud what journalists can't.

"Whatever we think is stupid in the world, we're indicting it and putting it on trial and putting it on display."

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What political news is the world searching for on Google and talking about on Twitter? Find out via AP's Election Buzz interactive. http://elections.ap.org/buzz
Turkey's president: replacing elected mayors 'overdue'

ISTANBUL (AP)  Turkey's president says the dismissal of 28 elected municipal and district mayors in several predominantly Kurdish towns in the country's east and southeast was overdue.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after prayers at the start of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday Monday that it should have been done earlier in line with his own wishes.

The removed officials, replaced by government-appointed deputy and district governors, are suspected of colluding with groups the Turkish government considers terrorist organizations.
Syria cease-fire enters into effect, but rebels don't commit

BEIRUT (AP)  A cease-fire came into effect in Syria at sunset Monday in the latest attempt led by the United States and Russia to bring some quiet in the 5 1/2-year civil war.

Residents and observers reported quiet in most of the country hours after the truce came into effect, though activists said airstrikes took place on contested areas around the northern city of Aleppo.

But the most powerful rebel groups have shown deep misgivings over the cease-fire deal, which was crafted without their input last weekend in Geneva between the top U.S. and Russian diplomats. Hours after it came into force, a coalition of rebel factions put out a statement that stopped short of committing to the cease-fire, a reflection of their distrust of the government.

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, center, walks on a street with officials after performing the morning Eid al-Adha prayers in Daraya, a blockaded Damascus suburb, Syria, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Syrian President Bashar Assad says his government is determined to "reclaim every area from the terrorists, and to rebuild" the country. His remarks came just hours ahead of the start of a cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia. (SANA via AP)

The first week of the truce will be crucial. During that time, all fighting between the military of President Bashar Assad and rebels is to stop. But, Assad's forces can continue air strikes against the Islamic State group and al-Qaida-linked insurgents from the group once known as the Nusra Front.

However, the al-Qaida linked insurgents are closely allied to many rebel factions and are a powerful force in the defense of Aleppo in particular. That raises the danger that continued airstrikes will draw rebels into retaliation, eventually leading to the cease-fire's collapse, much as previous attempts earlier this year fell apart.

Compounding the situation, a group of 21 rebel factions issued a statement Friday in which they warned against targeting al-Qaida-linked militants. The statement was non-committal about whether the groups would abide by the cease-fire.

After a week, however, the conflict would potentially enter a dramatically different stage. A new U.S.-Russia coalition will step in to target former Nusra Front militants, and Assad's forces will no longer be permitted to. That will effectively remove Assad's pretext for war on opposition areas, which he calls a war on terror. Government forces will be allowed to fight defensively, target the Islamic State group and, in some designated areas, go after Nusra forces.

The deal's architects hope that would pave the way for an extended period of restraint that can serve as the foundation for peace talks between the war's many sides.

As the cease-fire came into effect, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that rebel factions must distance themselves from the al-Qaida-linked militants, whose group recently changed its name from Nusra to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, or Levant Conquest Front.

He also said the Syrian government must allow deliveries of humanitarian aid into besieged areas, including the rebel-held districts of Aleppo.

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said peace talks between opposition groups and the government could resume as early as next month.

Multiple rounds earlier this year in Geneva failed to make progress. Ultimately, talks have run into the question that neither side is willing to budge on  the fate of Assad and his government. As a result, the war has continued the grinding violence that has so far killed more than 250,000 people and driven some 11 million people, half of Syria's population, from their homes since 2011.

That same roadblock makes prospects for a peace dim even if the cease-fire does hold, said Syria analyst Aron Lund.

Opposition groups have demanded Assad's departure as a condition to lasting peace, which has so far been a non-starter for government negotiations.

"It's an existential question for the regime as it currently stands. It's about the regime or not," said Lund.

In a letter to rebels disseminated last weekend, U.S. Special Envoy for Syria Michael Ratney promised them that, "our priority remains calming the situation to allow the launch of a credible political operation that leads to a true political transition that Syrians want most determinedly, a new Syria without Bashar Assad." A copy of the letter was given to The Associated Press by an opposition official.

Earlier Monday, a main opposition group linked to several small, moderate rebel factions said they will deal "positively" with the truce brokered by the U.S. and Russia. The Syrian National Coalition said that any effort that aims to end the suffering of the people "is a step in the right direction and we will deal with it positively."

Still, other rebel factions showed deep uncertainty. Some have complained that the cease-fire deal does not mention Assad's future and keeps in place the government siege of rebel-held parts of Aleppo.

"There is no balance in the agreement," said Col. Ahmad Hamada, an army defector who is now with the rebel group known as the Northern Division.

When the cease-fire went into effect at 7 p.m. (1600 GMT), the Syrian army issued a statement saying it would abide by a cease-fire until Sunday at midnight, while maintaining its right to defend itself against any violations.

Hours before the cease-fire went into effect, Assad vowed that his government would take back land from "terrorists" and rebuild the country. Assad spoke during a rare public appearance that included attending prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha in the Damascus suburb of Daraya, where rebels surrendered last month after a four-year siege.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists around Syria to monitor the conflict, said "calm is prevailing on most of Syria's territories."

Still, residents in Aleppo reported some airstrikes and shelling, including a barrel bomb attack by government helicopters. It was not immediately known if the targets where Fatah al-Sham or other factions.

One of the more immediate goals of the U.S.-Russian agreement is to allow the U.N. to establish aid corridors into Aleppo, the contested northern Syrian city. Over 2,000 people have been killed in fighting over the past 40 days in the city, including 700 civilians and 160 children, according to a Syrian human rights group.

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Associated Press writer Bradley Klapper in Washington and Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this report.

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, center, walks on a street with officials after performing the morning Eid al-Adha prayers in Daraya, a blockaded Damascus suburb, Syria, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Syrian President Bashar Assad says his government is determined to "reclaim every area from the terrorists, and to rebuild" the country. His remarks came just hours ahead of the start of a cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia. (SANA via AP)

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, center, walks on a street with officials after performing the morning Eid al-Adha prayers in Daraya, a blockaded Damascus suburb, Syria, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Syrian President Bashar Assad says his government is determined to "reclaim every area from the terrorists, and to rebuild" the country. His remarks came just hours ahead of the start of a cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia. (SANA via AP)

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, center, walks on a street with officials after performing the morning Eid al-Adha prayers in Daraya, a blockaded Damascus suburb, Syria, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Syrian President Bashar Assad says his government is determined to "reclaim every area from the terrorists, and to rebuild" the country. His remarks came just hours ahead of the start of a cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia. (SANA via AP)

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, center, walks on a street with officials after performing the morning Eid al-Adha prayers in Daraya, a blockaded Damascus suburb, Syria, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Syrian President Bashar Assad says his government is determined to "reclaim every area from the terrorists, and to rebuild" the country. His remarks came just hours ahead of the start of a cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia. (SANA via AP)

Lt.-Gen. Sergei Rudskoi, center, of the Russian Military General Staff listens to Russian and Syrian officers during a video call, as a Syrian army facility is displayed on screen, at a Russian Defense Ministry building in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Rudskoi said that the Russian military will continue strikes against the Islamic State group and the al-Qaida's branch in Syria in coordination with the United States even as a cease-fire brokered by Moscow and Washington goes into effect Monday. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shakes hands with people after the prayer of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha in Istanbul, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Erdogan says the country will send food, clothing and children's toys to Aleppo, Syria after a U.S.-Russia brokered ceasefire takes effect. Erdogan said that aid will be delivered along specific routes at sundown Monday when the ceasefire is set to come into force. (Murat Cetinmuhurdar/ Presidential Press Service via AP)

In this photo released on the official Facebook page of the Syrian Presidency, Syrian President Bashar Assad, fourth right, prays at the dawn Eid al-Adha prayers at the Saad ibn Muaaz Mosque in Daraya, a blockaded Damascus suburb, Syria, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (Syrian Presidency via Facebook)

In this photo released on the official Facebook page of the Syrian Presidency, Syrian President Bashar Assad, fifth left, prays at the dawn Eid al-Adha prayers at the Saad ibn Muaaz Mosque in Daraya, a blockaded Damascus suburb, Syria, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (Syrian Presidency via Facebook)

In this photo released on the official Facebook page of the Syrian Presidency, Syrian President Bashar Assad, prays the dawn Eid al-Adha prayers at the Saad ibn Muaaz Mosque in Daraya, a blockaded Damascus suburb, Syria, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (Syrian Presidency via Facebook)
2 opposition candidates make it to Belarusian parliament

MINSK, Belarus (AP)  Two opposition candidates have won seats in the Belarusian parliament for the first time in 20 years, reflecting its longtime authoritarian president's efforts to improve ties with the West.

Figures released Monday showed Anna Konopatskaya of the United Civic Party and Yelena Anisim, deputy head of the opposition-friendly Society of the Belarusian Language, had won seats in the 110-seat parliament. Although all ballots were counted by Monday morning, the official result will not be announced later in the week.

"The country needs to take a breather," Konopatskaya, who won a spot from a district in the capital Minsk, said. "We need more freedom for small- and medium-sized businesses as the economy is going down."

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko poses for photographers as he casts his ballot during parliamentary elections in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016. Belarusians are casting ballots for a new parliament in the authoritarian former Soviet republic that has been making steps toward rapprochement with the West. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

The remaining seats in Sunday's election, which had a 75 percent turnout, went to former government officials and managers from state-owned companies.

Western election monitors have not judged a single election in this country of 9.5 million to be free and fair in 20 years.

Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in a statement released on Monday afternoon lauded the government's "visible efforts" to make the vote more transparent but pointed to "systemic shortcomings."

"It remains clear that Belarus still has some way to go to fulfill its democratic commitments," Kent Harstedt, leader of the short-term OSCE observer mission in Belarus, said in the statement. "In the run-up to the elections, the authorities made a number of promises regarding the transparency of the process, on which they delivered partially, but insufficiently."

The absence of scathing criticism in the OSCE assessment, typical for previous elections, could help President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron hand since 1994 and was re-elected last year, in his efforts toward rapprochement with the West as the country's Soviet-style command economy has staggered in recent years.

Lukashenko is eager to shore up the economy with Western investment, and the country is seeking a $3 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.

In contrast with the past, when opposition demonstrations were frequently dispersed by police, about 200 opposition activists were allowed to march across downtown Minsk with placards calling for new elections and urging Lukashenko to step down.

"These weren't elections, just a farce," Nikolai Statkevich, an opposition leader who spent five years in prison, said at the rally. "We must fight for real elections."

Belarus released all political prisoners last year, spurring the European Union to lift sanctions. The U.S. also suspended sanctions against some Belarusian enterprises, saying the issue of fully lifting them would be considered after a review of the elections to the lower house.

Critics say tight restrictions on campaigning and state control of the news media inhibit genuinely free elections in Belarus. There are also concerns that the state could manipulate the results through early balloting, since ballot boxes were left unguarded during the five days of early voting.

The country's fragmented opposition has lambasted the election, saying the government did not let it set up a proper election-monitoring program.

"Authorities have built a democratic facade for the West without changing the essence of the system, which still aims to get a rubber-stamp parliament," said opposition leader Yuras Gubarevich, who unsuccessfully ran for a seat.

The vote, however, did show that Lukashenko was somewhat relaxing his grip on Belarusian political life.

"There were no open repressions during this campaign," Minsk-based analyst Alexander Klaskovsky said. "Opposition (figures) were not thrown in prison. This could be enough for rapprochement between Lukashenko and the West."

A woman reads official leaflets with competing parliamentary candidates' info displayed, and election posters of contenders, at a polling station during parliamentary elections in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016. Belorussians are casting ballots for a new parliament in the authoritarian former Soviet republic that has been making steps toward rapprochement with the West. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Kent Harstedt, OSCE Special Co-ordinator responsible for leading the short-term OSCE observer mission for parliamentary election in Belarus, attends a news conference in Minsk, Belarus, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Observers from the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe in a statement released on Monday afternoon lauded the government's "visible efforts" to make the vote more transparent but pointed to "systematic shortcoming." (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Belarusian opposition activists rally in the city center after parliamentary election in Minsk, Belarus, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. The sign reads "Lukashenko, go away!" About 150 Belarusian opposition activists gathered for an unauthorized rally under the slogan: "We demand real elections" in the downtown Minsk on Monday evening, the Interfax news agency reported. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Belarusian opposition activists rally in the city center after parliamentary election in Minsk, Belarus, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. About 150 Belarusian opposition activists gathered for an unauthorized rally under the slogan: "We demand real elections" in the downtown Minsk on Monday evening, the Interfax news agency reported. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Belarusian opposition activist Dmitry Dashkevich, right, scuffles with a plain-clothes policeman during a rally in Minsk, Belarus, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. About 150 Belarusian opposition activists gathered for an unauthorized rally under the slogan: "We demand real elections" in the downtown Minsk on Monday evening, the Interfax news agency reported. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Belarusian opposition activists rally in the city center after parliamentary elections in Minsk, Belarus, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. The sign reads "Lukashenko, go away!" About 150 Belarusian opposition activists gathered for an unauthorized rally under the slogan: "We demand real elections" in the downtown Minsk on Monday evening, the Interfax news agency reported. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
North Korea mobilizes after floods kill at least 133

TOKYO (AP)  North Korea is mobilizing to deal with a disastrous flood that killed more than 130 people, destroyed tens of thousands of homes and crippled infrastructure in its northern-most province.

Brigades of soldiers from around the country have been enlisted to help victims of the flooding, which began Aug. 29 and was caused by Typhoon Lionrock.

According to a U.N. report issued by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the floods displaced tens of thousands of people and destroyed homes, buildings and critical infrastructure. North Korean media said it was the worst single case of downpours and high winds since 1945, though that claim couldn't be verified.

In this undated image from video distributed on Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, by North Korean broadcaster KRT, North Korean workers build levees along a river bank. North Korea is mobilizing to deal with a disastrous flood that killed more than 130 people, destroyed tens of thousands of homes and crippled infrastructure in its northern-most province. (KRT via AP)

The report said the government has confirmed 133 people were killed and another 395 missing. It said more than 35,500 houses, schools and public buildings were damaged, with 69 percent completely destroyed. It reported widespread inundation of farmland and at least 140,000 people in urgent need of assistance.

The hardest-hit areas, parts of which remain inaccessible, are Musan and Yonsa counties near the Chinese border in the northern tip of the country.

North Korea's state media reported Sunday that high winds and heavy rainfall swept over several cities and counties, causing buildings to collapse and leaving railways, roads, parts of the electric power system, factories and farmlands destroyed or submerged.

It said a mass recovery effort has been launched.

On Monday, North Korea reported construction units were arriving in the flood-hit areas from all over the country, including the capital, Pyongyang.

"The country's manpower and material and technical potentials are now concentrated on the flood damage rehabilitation," the Korean Central News Agency said. It said the ruling party has urged citizens to "achieve the miraculous victory of converting misfortune into favorable conditions ... with the tremendous might of single-minded unity!"

The North Korean media also said the focus of a 200-day "loyalty campaign" already underway to mobilize the nation behind leader Kim Jong Un in a mandatory show of devotion has been switched to a call for all citizens to support the recovery effort.

The U.N. agency said humanitarian agencies have released relief materials from their stockpiles inside North Korea, including food, shelter and kitchen kits, water purification and sanitation supplies and emergency health supplies.

The U.N. report said the government is "urgently working" to reopen roads, distributing relief goods and preparing to rebuild 20,000 houses by early October, before the onset of North Korea's bitterly cold winter.

It added that the government had allowed U.N. agencies, the North Korean Red Cross and International Federation of the Red Crescent, along with private international aid groups to conduct a joint assessment of needs in the affected areas last week, but they were unable to access Musan and Yonsa.

The flooding occurred around the Tumen River, which runs between North Korea and China.

North Korea experiences frequent natural disasters which are more devastating because of its often problematic infrastructure and lack of civil engineering projects designed to mitigate damage.

In August last year, major downpours followed by flash floods killed at least 40 people and devastated parts of the Rason area, near the Russian and Chinese borders where a key special economic zone is located.
American man arrested in Nepal on charges of child sex abuse

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP)  An American who has been a frequent visitor to Nepal has been arrested in the capital's tourist district on charges of sexually abusing children.

The Central Bureau of Investigations said in a statement Monday that Kenneth Joseph Coombs and a local man arrested with him were being held for further investigation.

Five boys were rescued after police raided Coombs's hotel room in Kathmandu over the weekend. The raid was initiated after police got information from boys who had been abused there.

Police said Coombs, 48, was from Illinois and had last entered Nepal on Aug. 23.
50 injured by PKK car bomb in east Turkey

ISTANBUL (AP)  Turkish authorities are accusing Kurdish militants of detonating a car bomb that wounded 50 people in front of the ruling party's municipal headquarters Monday in the eastern city of Van.

Van Governor Ibrahim Tasyapan told state-run Anadolu news agency that 46 civilians and four police officers were wounded in the attack at a police check point outside the party offices.

Tasyapan said two of the wounded were in serious condition, but he did not specify if they are officers or civilians.

Security members stand as firefighters work to extinguish a fire after a car bomb attack in the city center of Van, eastern Turkey, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency says an explosion near the ruling party headquarters and the governor's office in the eastern province of Van has left several wounded. The explosion occurred Monday morning on the first day of Eid al-Adha, an Islamic holiday.(DHA via AP)

An earlier statement by the governor's office alleged the bombers were affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

Hundreds of people have been killed and injured in Turkey in recent months in attacks the government says were carried out by Kurdish militants or the Islamic State group.

The governor's office said security forces are working to apprehend the perpetrators of the car-bombing.

The attack came a day after Ankara replaced 28 elected mayors with appointees, mostly in the Kurdish dominated east of the country.

Turkey's pro-Kurdish party, the country's main opposition party and the United States all have criticized the move.

Zahir Soganda, chairman of the ruling party's Van office, told the Anadolu agency he was aware that threats of such an attack had been made after the mayors were replaced.

The explosion occurred Monday around 10:50 a.m. local time on the first day of Eid al-Adha, an Islamic holiday. Governor Tasyapan said more people could have been hurt had nearby businesses not been closed..

Development Minister Lutfi Elvan condemned the attack, saying the car-bombers had disrespected Islam's most important holiday.

"Of course the necessary response is being given to these traitors and will continue being given," Anadolu quoted Elvan as saying. "Our nation and our state are strong..We are easily overcoming them and, God willing, we will root out this divisive terrorist organization as well as Daesh."

Daesh is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told Anadolu agency that security forces had taken precautions to prevent violent attacks during the nine-day Eid al-Adha festival.

Turkey's broadcasting authority, RTUK, imposed a temporary ban on coverage of the attack.

Firefighters work to extinguish a fire after a car bomb attack in the city center of Van, eastern Turkey, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency says an explosion near the ruling party headquarters and the governor's office in the eastern province of Van has left several wounded. The explosion occurred Monday morning on the first day of Eid al-Adha, an Islamic holiday.(DHA via AP)

A security member stands after a car bomb attack in the city center of Van, eastern Turkey, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency says an explosion near the ruling party headquarters and the governor's office in the eastern province of Van has left several wounded. The explosion occurred Monday morning on the first day of Eid al-Adha, an Islamic holiday.(DHA via AP)

People carry a wounded person after a car bomb attack in the city center of Van, eastern Turkey, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency says an explosion near the ruling party headquarters and the governor's office in the eastern province of Van has left several wounded. The explosion occurred Monday morning on the first day of Eid al-Adha, an Islamic holiday.(DHA via AP)
Vietnam to extradite 8 Indonesian suspects to Malaysia

HANOI, Vietnam (AP)  A Vietnamese court on Monday approved a Malaysian request for the extradition of eight Indonesians suspected of hijacking a Malaysian oil tanker more than a year ago, and rejected a similar request from Indonesia, state media reported.

The online newspaper VnExpress said the People's Court in Hanoi agreed to send the suspects to Malaysia based on laws on mutual legal assistance and criminal procedure. It said the suspects have 15 days to appeal the ruling.

Court officials were not immediately available for comment.

The eight were arrested in June last year when they arrived on Tho Chu island off Vietnam's southern coast and admitted that they had hijacked the oil tanker MT Orkim Harmony.

Vietnamese officials said at the time that the Indonesians, aged 19 to 61, initially said they encountered an accident at sea while fishing, but after questioning with information provided by Malaysian authorities, they confessed that they were responsible for the hijacking.

The ship was carrying 7.5 million liters (2 million gallons) of gasoline worth 21 million ringgit ($5.7 million) and was on its way to Kuantan in Malaysia when communication with it was lost.

In the hijacking, 13 Indonesian pirates armed with pistols and machetes took control of the tanker. Eight remained on board while the five others returned to Indonesia on their own boat, possibly to look for buyers of the gasoline.

The remaining pirates then abandoned the tanker and fled to Tho Chu island on a life raft.
 Rarely Highlighted in the Mainstream Media are Genuine Palestinian Peace-Seekers | Main | The Washington Post and Baltimore Sun Highlight U.S. Trade Mission to Israel 

September 12, 2016

Threat from Terrorist Groups is the 'Most Serious since 9/11 Attacks'



The United States and Europe are confronted with a terrorist threat which is greater than at any point since the Sept. 11 attacks 15 years ago,? according to a Sept. 9, 2016 Washington Times report by Carlo Munoz (Terrorist threat at its most serious since 9/11 attacks?).

Munoz cited a Sept. 7, 2016 review of global threats by the United States National Counterterrorism Center chief Nick Rasmussen. Rasmussen warned that both the United States and Europe faced a bigger, wider and deeper? risk from terrorist groups. The rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, presents a menace which is considerably less predictable? than those posed by al-Qaeda, the group responsible for, among other acts, the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the Pentagon, the World Trade Center in New York City and the downing of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.

The more decentralized nature of ISISwhich also seeks to inspire attacks via social mediahas enabled the group to carry out attacks much more quickly and with much less warning? than other terror groups, Rasmussen noted.

Additionally, both ISISs structure and a wider variety of recruits has made it harder for U.S. intelligence officials to monitor the group and target the group. Quoting Rasmussen, The Times highlighted:

The lack of such linkages, especially by lone wolf attackers who were inspired by Islamic States impressive online propaganda operation has opened up a size and scale of the [U.S.] population susceptible to radicalization.?

The Times article cited Michael Leiter, a former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, who noted the differences between how al-Qaeda selects targets vs. how ISIS does. Leiter pointed out that massive attacks like September 11th, take immense amounts of planning, communication, financing and coordination.? Accordingly, they come with a high risk of failure. By contrast, ISIS has pursued more basic tactics, such as last years mass shooting as an office party in San Bernardino, California or the July attack in Nice, France, where an Islamic State operative used a truck to run down revelers at the seaside resort town.?

Yet, some terror analysts believe that al-Qaeda is far from down and out.

A recent report for the Hudson Institute by Daveed Gartenstein Ross, a senior fellow at the Washington D.C.-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and Nathaniel Barr, a research manager with Valens Global, argued that al-Qaeda is both underestimated by many analysts and a greater long-term threat than ISIS (How al-Qaeda Survived the Islamic State Challenge,? Aug. 30, 2016). Gartenstein-Ross and Barr said that, al Qaeda has turned ISs emergence into a strategic opportunity, pivoting off of ISs brutality and doubling down on a more low-profile and sustainable approach to growth. Al-Qaeda has quietly, and yet relatively rapidly, gained ground in conflict zones across the Middle East and North Africa, including Syria and Yemen, where the group has seized territory and embedded itself within local communities.?

As Rasmussen noted in his July 14, 2016 testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, it is fair to say that we face more threats originating in more places and involving more individuals than we have at any time in past 15 years.?

Posted by SD at September 12, 2016 03:19 PM

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Relatives of MH370 victims want more possible debris studied

CANBERRA, Australia (AP)  Relatives of some of the 239 passengers and crew on missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 called Monday for more of its possible debris to be examined to define a new search area.

Malaysia, China and Australia agreed in July that the search in the southern Indian Ocean would be suspended after the current 120,000-square kilometer (46,000-square mile) expanse has been thoroughly examined with deep sea sonar equipment in the absence of credible new evidence that identified the plane's location.

Eight relatives of lost passengers who met with Australian officials coordinating the search on behalf of Malaysia expressed frustration that they were not given a definition of what constituted credible new evidence that would result in a continuation of the search.

American wreckage hunter Blaine Gibson talks to the media Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, in Canberra, Australia, after handing over to Australian searchers five pieces of debris that he suspects could be from the missing Malaysian airliner. Relatives of some of the 239 passengers and crew on missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 called Monday for more of its possible debris to be examined to define a new search area. (AP Photo/Rod McGuirk)

American wreckage hunter Blaine Gibson attended the meeting at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau headquarters with the relatives from Malaysia, China, Australia and Indonesia and handed over to investigators five pieces of potential debris that he found on beaches in Madagascar. Two of the pieces were burnt, which could indicate a disastrous fire on board, he said.

Gibson previously found a panel from Flight 370 in Mozambique. Malaysia has yet to collect other potential debris that Blaine has found washed up on Madagascar since June and handed to authorities there.

"I hope that the search will go on and in my amateur opinion this constitutes new, credible evidence that justifies continuing the search," Gibson told reporters of his unconfirmed debris find.

Some confirmed pieces of debris have washed ashore in the western Indian Ocean, and the families believe other items yet to be examined may be clues to the plane's location.

Grace Nathan, a Malaysian whose mother was on the Boeing 777 that vanished during a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing on March 8, 2014, said governments should be coordinating a search for debris and using drift modeling to define a new area to search after the current search is to be completed in December.

"We want to call on the three nations  Australia, China and Malaysia  to make a concerted effort to go out and look for this credible new information," Nathan said.

"It's very impressive that one private individual citizen, Blaine Alan Gibson, has managed to find up to 15 pieces of aircraft debris and we hope that these three nations do more than just hope by fluke people find more debris," she added.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau confirmed in a statement that it had received debris from Gibson and was seeking advice from Malaysia on how Australia should proceed.

Jennifer Chong, a Melbourne-based Malaysian-Australian dual citizen whose husband was aboard Flight 370, wondered why Malaysia had not sent diplomats to the five-hour meeting with Australian search officials. China and Indonesia both sent diplomats to support their citizens.

Oceanographers are analyzing the first piece of wreckage found, a wing flap known as a flaperon that washed up on Reunion Island off the African coast in July last year  16 months after the plane went missing  in the hope of narrowing a possible next area adjoining the current search boundary through drift modeling.

A wing flap found on Tanzania is also being examined at Australian Transport Safety Bureau headquarters for clues. Search officials expect more Flight 370 wreckage to wash up in the months ahead.

Sheryl Keen, chairwoman of Air Crash Support Group, which is supporting the relatives during their week in Australia, called on Malaysia to collect the debris found by Gibson on Madagascar and to consider handing responsibility for the search to Australia.

Jennifer Chong, a Malaysian-Australian dual citizen who lost her husband in the missing Malaysian airliner, addresses the media on Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, in Canberra, Australia, after meeting Australian officials coordinating the search for the plane. Relatives of some of the 239 passengers and crew on missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 called Monday for more of its possible debris to be examined to define a new search area. (AP Photo/Rod McGuirk)
China says it can't end North Korea nuke program on its own

BEIJING (AP)  China responded Monday to calls that it needs to do more to rein in North Korea's nuclear program by saying that American officials were truly to blame for inciting conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

The detection Friday of North Korea's fifth nuclear test brought new pressure on China, Pyongyang's economic lifeline and the closest thing it has to a political ally. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said China had an "important responsibility" in North Korea.

But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters Monday that Carter was "being too modest." She cited a Chinese saying  "Whoever started the trouble should end it"  in calling on the U.S. to "take on its due responsibility."

FILE - In this file photo taken on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016, a South Korean protester shouts slogans during a rally denouncing North Korea's latest nuclear test in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016. On Monday, China said the United States has inflamed the conflict on the Korean Peninsula and must carry the burden of ending it in the wake of North Koreas fifth nuclear test. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

"I think the U.S. should go over the process of the development of the nuclear issue and earnestly work on a tangible and effective resolution," Hua said.

China has agreed to allow sanctions at the U.N. Security Council after previous tests by Pyongyang, and says it has restricted shipments of jet fuel and imports of certain minerals from North Korea, which otherwise remains in almost total isolation from the world. Critics, however, say China hasn't done enough to tighten economic pressure on North Korea as punishment for its nuclear tests, which the Chinese government has publicly opposed.

Since Friday, Chinese state media have repeatedly linked North Korea's latest nuclear test to the American deployment of a high-altitude missile defense system in South Korea, which China has long opposed.

Hua did not mention the missile defense system, known as THAAD, on Monday. But she said all sides needed to resolve their concerns in a "balanced way."

Even if China wanted to rein in North Korea, analysts say it's not clear that it could.

North Korea has repeatedly rejected China's entreaties not to test nuclear warheads, and Pyongyang officials appear to be exploiting tensions between China and South Korea over THAAD, said Tong Zhao, an associate at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center think tank.

"Beijing apparently has very little real leverage," Zhao said in an email.

One possibility is that China could try to broker a deal to freeze North Korea's development of new missiles and warheads as part of the U.S. and South Korea suspending joint military exercises, Tong said.

But Adam Mount, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for American Progress, said China has more leverage, and more reason to act, than its officials sometimes make it seem publicly.

"More and more, China treats North Korea as a threat to its national security and regional stability," Mount said. "Encouraging this transition should be at the top of the next (American) president's agenda with China."

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Croatia opposition leader stepping down after election loss

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP)  Zoran Milanovic, leader of Croatia's opposition Social Democrats and a former prime minister, said Monday he will step down after a poor result of his coalition in weekend's snap national election.

Milanovic, who led the government for four years from 2011, said he will not take part in the party's upcoming internal elections. He became the left-leaning party's leader in 2007 after the death of previous leader Ivica Racan.

"I don't plan to run for the president of SDP," Milanovic told reporters.

Andrej Plenkovic, center, leader of center-right HDZ party celebrates elections results at the party's headquarters in Zagreb, Croatia, early Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Initial results of Croatia's early elections have shown that the conservatives were leading the vote, but won't be able to rule on their own, paving the way for another coalition government in the European Union's newest member state. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

The ruling conservative Croatian Democratic Union, or HDZ, scored a victory in the early parliamentary vote on Sunday and now faces a tough task of forming a coalition government after disillusioned voters again failed to produce a clear winner.

Complete results reported Monday by Croatia's state electoral commission showed that HDZ won 61 seats in the 151-member parliament, while Milanovic's left-leaning Peoples' Coalition won 54.

The third-placed Most, or Bridge, party is a likely kingmaker in the future coalition government with 13 seats. The biggest surprise was Zivi Zid, or Human Shield populist group, which has emerged from anti-government protests. It won eight seats but has ruled out joining a coalition government.

The vote results represented a huge blow for Milanovic whose Social Democrats  the main party in the Peoples' Coalition  had been considered clear favorites. There were signs of discontent within party ranks with Milanovic's pre-election tactics.

Milanovic, 49, campaigned on ultra-nationalist rhetoric, trying to lure conservative voters to his side. But, his populist tone has only scared away minorities and pro-left voters in Croatia and has brought the country's relations with neighboring Serbia to the lowest point since they fought the war in the 1990s.

Milanovic urged the party to hold the internal vote as soon as possible.

"We have witnessed low turnout, that's not the citizens' fault, it's ours," he said, blaming the election loss on the poor turnout on Sunday.

The snap vote was called after the previous conservative-led coalition government collapsed in June, triggering the biggest political turmoil in the nation of 4.2 million people since it joined the European Union in 2013. With no party winning a majority in the weekend vote, the deadlock that has stalled much-needed social and economic reforms in is likely to continue.

Political analyst Zarko Puhovski said there was no doubt that HDZ will form the new government with Most  just as the two right-wing parties did after the previous election in November.

"That government will be formed, but it is not clear for how long it will last," Puhovski said.

In a sign of voter disillusionment, turnout was 53 percent, down nearly 10 percentage points from the previous vote. Also, many voters apparently turned away from HDZ and Social Democrats who intermittently ruled the country since it split from former Yugoslavia in 1991, triggering a civil war that killed some 10,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

Andrej Plenkovic, a European parliamentarian who has assumed HDZ leadership only months before the vote and shifted it toward the center, said Monday that talks with potential coalition partners will start in the coming days.

"It is now up to us to bring stability into the Croatian state and institutions," Plenkovic said.

Like many other central European states, Croatia had tilted to the right under the previous HDZ-led government.

"This is not a new trend, the right-wingers winning," said Ljerka Kavoci, a Zagreb resident. "It is a trend that is hanging over Croatia since the war. It was calm for some years, but now it's out there again."

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AP Writer Dusan Stojanovic contributed from Belgrade, Serbia.

Andrej Plenkovic, center, leader of center-right HDZ party addresses the media and supporters at his party's headquarters in Zagreb, Croatia, early Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Initial results of Croatia's early elections have shown that the conservatives were leading the vote, but won't be able to rule on their own, paving the way for another coalition government in the European Union's newest member state. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Andrej Plenkovic, left, leader of center-right HDZ party addresses the media and supporters at his party's headquarters in Zagreb, Croatia, early Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Initial results of Croatia's early elections have shown that the conservatives were leading the vote, but won't be able to rule on their own, paving the way for another coalition government in the European Union's newest member state. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

A supporter of center-right HDZ party holds a banner reading "We, Croats" at the party's headquarters in Zagreb, Croatia, late Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016. Initial results of Croatia's early elections have shown that the conservatives were leading the vote, but won't be able to rule on their own, paving the way for another coalition government in the European Union's newest member state. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Andrej Plenkovic, front left, leader of center-right HDZ party celebrates elections results at the party's headquarters in Zagreb, Croatia, early Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Initial results of Croatia's early elections have shown that the conservatives were leading the vote, but won't be able to rule on their own, paving the way for another coalition government in the European Union's newest member state. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
PICTURED: Muslims mark start of Eid al-Adha holiday

CAIRO (AP)  Muslims worldwide are celebrating the first day of Eid al-Adha, or "Feast of Sacrifice," the most important Islamic holiday that commemorates the willingness of the Prophet Ibrahim  also known as Abraham to Christians and Jews  to sacrifice his son before God stayed his hand.

During the holiday, which ends Thursday, Muslims slaughter livestock, distributing part of the meat to the poor. The holiday begins on the 10th day of the Islamic lunar month of Dhul-Hijja, during the hajj pilgrimage.

In Saudi Arabia, close to 2 million pilgrims performed Monday one of the final rites of the hajj by symbolically stoning the devil.

Egyptians take part in Eid Al-Adha prayers at the al-Seddik Mosque in Cairo, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Muslims around the world will celebrate Eid al-Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice, to mark the end of the hajj pilgrimage by slaughtering sheep, goats, cows and camels to commemorate Prophet Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son Ismail on God's command. (AP Photo/Roger Anis)

Here is a series of images by Associated Press photojournalists of the celebrations of Eid al-Adha.

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Kosovar children pray during Eid al-Adha prayers outside Sultan Mehmet Fatih mosque in capital Pristina, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Muslims around the world will celebrate Eid al-Adha in local language, the Festival of Sacrifice, to mark the end of the hajj pilgrimage by slaughtering sheep, goats, cows to commemorate Prophet Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son on God's command. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

Kosovars are reflected in water during Eid al-Adha prayers outside Sultan Mehmet Fatih mosque in capital Pristina, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Muslims around the world will celebrate Eid al-Adha in local language, the Festival of Sacrifice, to mark the end of the hajj pilgrimage by slaughtering sheep, goats, cows to commemorate Prophet Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son on God's command. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

A Nigeria Muslim wpman and friends takes a selfie photo after Eid al-Adha, or Feast of Sacrifice, that commemorates the Prophet Ibrahim's faith, at the prayer ground in Lagos, Nigeria, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Eid al-Adha marks the end of hajj. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Egyptians try to catch balloons distributed for free after Eid Al-Adha prayers outside al-Seddik mosque in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Muslims around the world will celebrate Eid al-Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice, to mark the end of the hajj pilgrimage by slaughtering sheep, goats, cows and camels to commemorate Prophet Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son Ismail on God's command. (AP Photo/Roger Anis)

A Muslim man lifts a sheep to be slaughtered during Eid al-Adha holiday in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Eid al-Adha, or the festival of sacrifice is celebrated by Muslims around the world to commemorate Prophet Ibrahim's test of faith. During the Eid, Muslims slaughter livestock and distribute the meat to the poor. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)

Nigeria Muslims offer prayers to celebrate Eid al-Adha, or Feast of Sacrifice, that commemorates the Prophet Ibrahim's faith, at the prayer ground in Lagos, Nigeria, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Eid al-Adha marks the end of hajj. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Nigeria Muslims listen to sermon by Imam Bashir Umar Imam as they gather for prayers to celebrate Eid al-Adha, or Feast of Sacrifice, that commemorates the Prophet Ibrahim's faith, at the prayer ground in Lagos, Nigeria, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Eid al-Adha marks the end of hajj. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Kosovars line up outside Sultan Mehmet Fatih mosque to offer Eid al-Adha prayers in capital Pristina, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Muslims around the world will celebrate Eid al-Adha in local language, the Festival of Sacrifice, to mark the end of the hajj pilgrimage by slaughtering sheep, goats, cows to commemorate Prophet Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son on God's command. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

Imam Bashiru Umar Imam, centre, slaughters a sheep after Eid al-Adha, or Feast of Sacrifice, prayers in Lagos, Nigeria, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Eid al-Adha marks the end of hajj. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shakes hands with people after the prayer of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha in Istanbul, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Erdogan says the country will send food, clothing and children's toys to Aleppo, Syria after a U.S.-Russia brokered ceasefire takes effect. Erdogan said that aid will be delivered along specific routes at sundown Monday when the ceasefire is set to come into force. (Murat Cetinmuhurdar/ Presidential Press Service via AP)

Nigeria Muslims offer prayers to celebrate Eid al-Adha, or Feast of Sacrifice, that commemorates the Prophet Ibrahim's faith, at the prayer ground in Lagos, Nigeria, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Eid al-Adha marks the end of hajj. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Kosovars are reflected in water during Eid al-Adha prayers outside Sultan Mehmet Fatih mosque in capital Pristina, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Muslims around the world will celebrate Eid al-Adha in local language, the Festival of Sacrifice, to mark the end of the hajj pilgrimage by slaughtering sheep, goats, cows to commemorate Prophet Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son on God's command. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

Chechen Muslims choose a sheep for sacrifice during the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha in Chechen regional capital of Grozny, Russia, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Muslims around the world will celebrate Eid al-Adha in local language, the Festival of Sacrifice, to mark the end of the hajj pilgrimage by slaughtering sheep, goats, cows and camels to commemorate Prophet Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son Ismail on God's command. (AP Photo/Musa Sadulayev)

Iraqi Shia Muslims attend prayers on the first day of Eid al-Adha at the mosque in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Muslims around the world celebrated Eid al-Adha Monday to commemorate the willingness of the Prophet Ibrahim - or Abraham as he is known in the Bible - to sacrifice his son in accordance with God's will, though in the end God provides him a sheep to sacrifice instead. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

Muslims exchange greetings after Eid prayers on the first day of Eid al-Adha at the mosque in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Muslims around the world celebrated Eid al-Adha Monday to commemorate the willingness of the Prophet Ibrahim - or Abraham as he is known in the Bible - to sacrifice his son in accordance with God's will, though in the end God provides him a sheep to sacrifice instead. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

Iraqi Shia Muslims attend prayers on the first day of Eid al-Adha at the mosque in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Muslims around the world celebrated Eid al-Adha Monday to commemorate the willingness of the Prophet Ibrahim - or Abraham as he is known in the Bible - to sacrifice his son in accordance with God's will, though in the end God provides him a sheep to sacrifice instead. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

Iraqi Shia Muslims attend prayers on the first day of Eid al-Adha at the mosque in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Muslims around the world celebrated Eid al-Adha Monday to commemorate the willingness of the Prophet Ibrahim - or Abraham as he is known in the Bible - to sacrifice his son in accordance with God's will, though in the end God provides him a sheep to sacrifice instead. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

Iraqi Shia Muslims attend prayers on the first day of Eid al-Adha at the mosque in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Muslims around the world celebrated Eid al-Adha Monday to commemorate the willingness of the Prophet Ibrahim - or Abraham as he is known in the Bible - to sacrifice his son in accordance with God's will, though in the end God provides him a sheep to sacrifice instead. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

Muslims offer Eid al-Adha prayers in a convention center in Marseille, southern France, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Muslims around the world will celebrate Eid al-Adha in local language, the Festival of Sacrifice, to mark the end of the hajj pilgrimage by slaughtering sheep, goats, cows and camels to commemorate Prophet Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son Ismail on God's command. (AP Photo/Claude Paris)

Muslims offer Eid al-Adha prayers in a convention center in Marseille, southern France, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Muslims around the world will celebrate Eid al-Adha in local language, the Festival of Sacrifice, to mark the end of the hajj pilgrimage by slaughtering sheep, goats, cows and camels to commemorate Prophet Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son Ismail on God's command. (AP Photo/Claude Paris)

Muslims offer Eid al-Adha prayers in a convention center in Marseille, southern France, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Muslims around the world will celebrate Eid al-Adha in local language, the Festival of Sacrifice, to mark the end of the hajj pilgrimage by slaughtering sheep, goats, cows and camels to commemorate Prophet Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son Ismail on God's command. (AP Photo/Claude Paris)

A livestock seller waits for customers at a market ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha in Hyderabad, India, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Eid al-Adha, or the festival of sacrifice, is celebrated by Muslims around the world to commemorate Prophet Ibrahim's test of faith. During the Eid, Muslims slaughter livestock and distribute the meat to the poor. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

Chechen Muslims pray in a mosque during the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha in Chechen regional capital of Grozny, Russia, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Muslims around the world will celebrate Eid al-Adha in local language, the Festival of Sacrifice, to mark the end of the hajj pilgrimage by slaughtering sheep, goats, cows and camels to commemorate Prophet Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son Ismail on God's command. (AP Photo/Musa Sadulayev)

Kosovar children pray during Eid al-Adha prayers outside Sultan Mehmet Fatih mosque in capital Pristina, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Muslims around the world will celebrate Eid al-Adha in local language, the Festival of Sacrifice, to mark the end of the hajj pilgrimage by slaughtering sheep, goats, cows to commemorate Prophet Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son on God's command. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

Livestock sellers wait for customers at a market ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha in Hyderabad, India, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Eid al-Adha, or the festival of sacrifice, is celebrated by Muslims around the world to commemorate Prophet Ibrahim's test of faith. During the Eid, Muslims slaughter livestock and distribute the meat to the poor. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A. )

In this picture provided by the office of the Egyptian Presidency, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, center, leads Eid al-Adha prayers at a mosque in Cairo, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Muslims around the world are celebrating the first day of Eid al-Adha, or Feast of Sacrifice, the most important Islamic holiday that commemorates the willingness of the Prophet Ibrahim _ also known as Abraham to Christians and Jews _ to sacrifice his son. (Egyptian Presidency via AP)
European rights body returns to Poland to review rule of law

WARSAW, Poland (AP)  Members of a European law and human rights commission are for the second time this year considering the state of democracy in Poland after the conservative government rejected the body's previous advice.

The European Union is checking whether Poland is observing the bloc's "rule of law," or common constitutional standards and traditions. Poland's government, which took office in November and is critical of some EU policies, says the monitoring amounts to interference in internal affairs.

Envoys from the Venice Commission, a watchdog body of constitutional law experts, met Monday with the head of Poland's Supreme Court, Judge Malgorzata Gersdorf. Commissioners also were to meet with the head of the Constitutional Tribunal  another top court that is at the heart of a recent political conflict in Poland and of the EU's scrutiny.

The Venice Commission vice-president Kaarlo Tuori speaks during a press conference after a meeting at the Polish Senate in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Commission representatives are focusing their inquiry on rulings by the tribunal that for a time were blocked by the government.

European Union leaders also have criticized Poland's government for reforms it has introduced into the legislative system, the media and police. The European Parliament is expected to issue a resolution on the subject on Wednesday.

Supreme Court spokesman Dariusz Swiecicki said Monday the commissioners have very good knowledge of the situation and Poland's legal system.

In March, the commission said that steps taken by the government to influence and weaken the Constitutional Tribunal threatened democracy. The actions included placing judges of its choice in the tribunal, which at the time was dominated by opposition party members. The tribunal has the power to block government-proposed laws.

The government disregarded the Venice Commission's recommendations for resolving the court's resulting paralysis, saying it was a non-binding opinion.

The defiant head of Poland's ruling party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, a lawyer, has said the latest visit is of "no importance."

"Such lack of objectivism, refusing to take Polish law into consideration ... leads us to treat the commission with great distance," Kaczynski told a meeting of his Law and Justice party on Sunday.

The party enjoys majority support on policy that addresses poverty and Poland's traditional Catholic values and boosts national pride, while saying the EU has too much control over member states.

Venice Commission vice-president Kaarlo Tuori ,left, Head of Constitutional Justice Division in Venice Commision Schnutz Rudolf Duerr ,center, and US rapporteur Sarah Cleveland ,right, leave after a meeting at the Polish Senate in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Venice Commission vice-president Kaarlo Tuori ,center, Head of Constitutional Justice Division in Venice Commision Schnutz Rudolf Duerr , left, and US rapporteur Sarah Cleveland , right, leave after a meeting at the Polish Senate in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
PICTURED: Pilgrims perform final hajj rites in Saudi Arabia

MINA, Saudi Arabia (AP)  In Saudi Arabia, close to 2 million pilgrims performed on Monday one of the final rites of the Islamic hajj pilgrimage, the symbolic stoning of the devil, as Muslims worldwide marked the start of the Eid al-Adha holiday.

The rite takes place in the Saudi valley area of Mina, where a crush of crowds and stampede killed more than 2,400 people during last year's hajj, according to an Associated Press count.

On Monday, younger pilgrims helped their parents, some in wheelchairs, make their way toward the massive multi-story Jamarat Complex in Mina where pilgrims cast pebbles at three large columns. It is here where Muslims believe the devil tried to talk the Prophet Ibrahim out of submitting to God's will.

Afghan Muslim pilgrims make their way to cast stones at a pillar symbolizing the stoning of Satan, in a ritual called "Jamarat," the last rite of the annual hajj, on the first day of Eid al-Adha, in Mina near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Most pilgrims will remain in Mina until Wednesday, performing the stoning ritual for three days and sleeping in tents at night before completing the hajj.

The five-day-long hajj is a series of rituals meant to cleanse the soul of sins and instill a sense of equality and brotherhood among Muslims. All able-bodied Muslims are required to perform the hajj once in their lives.

While following a route the Prophet Muhammad once walked, the rites are believed to ultimately trace the footsteps of the prophets Ibrahim and Ismail  Abraham and Ishmael in the Bible.

Over the years, the Saudi government has spent billions of dollars to improve the safety of the pilgrimage, particularly in Mina where some of the deadliest incidents have occurred, including last year's tragedy.

Since then, Saudi authorities have widened narrow streets in Mina that lead to the large pedestrian paths around the Jamarat Complex. Banners in the street advised the massive crowds to "avoid overcrowding and pushing."

Muslims believe Ibrahim's faith was tested when God commanded him to sacrifice his only son Ismail. Ibrahim was prepared to submit to the command, but then God stayed his hand, sparing his son. In the Christian and Jewish version of the story, Abraham is ordered to kill his other son, Isaac.

The final days of hajj coincide with Eid al-Adha, or "Feast of Sacrifice," to commemorate Ibrahim's test of faith. For the holiday, which ends on Thursday, Muslims slaughter livestock and distribute the meat to the poor.

During the last three days of hajj, male pilgrims shave their heads and remove the terrycloth white garments worn during the hajj. Women cut off a small lock of hair in a sign of spiritual rebirth and renewal.

Pilgrims also circle the cube-shaped Kaaba in Mecca, Islam's most sacred site. The Kaaba represents the metaphorical house of God and the oneness of God in Islam. Observant Muslims around the world face toward the Kaaba during the five daily prayers.

"You realize the mercy of Allah, that we are here to seek his forgiveness and that this hajj, God willing, will make a change in my life where I can change and become a better Muslim," said Canadian pilgrim Assad Yakoub.

Here is a selection of images by Associated Press photographer Nariman El-Mofty showing the faithful on the first day of Eid in Mina.

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Follow Nariman El-Mofty on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NMofty and on Instagram at www.instagram.com/narimanelmofty

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Follow AP photographers and photo editors on Twitter: http://apne.ws/15Oo6jo

Muslim pilgrims watch sunrise before they make their way to cast stones at a pillar symbolizing the stoning of Satan, in a ritual called "Jamarat," the last rite of the annual hajj, on the first day of Eid al-Adha, in Mina near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Pakistani women cast stones at a pillar symbolizing the stoning of Satan, in a ritual called "Jamarat," the last rite of the annual hajj, on the first day of Eid al-Adha, in Mina near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

An Egyptian man kisses his mother's forehead of she cast stones at a pillar symbolizing the stoning of Satan, in a ritual called "Jamarat," the last rite of the annual hajj, on the first day of Eid al-Adha, in Mina near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Pilgrims take 'selfies' after they cast stones at a pillar symbolizing the stoning of Satan, in a ritual called "Jamarat," the last rite of the annual hajj, on the first day of Eid al-Adha, in Mina near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

An Indian man pushes a woman a wheelchair as they make their way to cast stones at a pillar symbolizing the stoning of Satan, in a ritual called "Jamarat," the last rite of the annual hajj, on the first day of Eid al-Adha, in Mina near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Muslim pilgrims cast stones at a pillar symbolizing the stoning of Satan, in a ritual called "Jamarat," the last rite of the annual hajj, on the first day of Eid al-Adha, in Mina near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

A mother and father give their children stones to throw towards a pillar symbolizing the stoning of Satan, in a ritual called "Jamarat," the last rite of the annual hajj, on the first day of Eid al-Adha, in Mina near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Saudi Muslim pilgrims cast stones at a pillar symbolizing the stoning of Satan, in a ritual called "Jamarat," the last rite of the annual hajj, on the first day of Eid al-Adha, in Mina near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Saudi Muslim pilgrims make their way to cast stones at a pillar symbolizing the stoning of Satan, in a ritual called "Jamarat," the last rite of the annual hajj, on the first day of Eid al-Adha, in Mina near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Indian women cast stones at a pillar symbolizing the stoning of Satan, in a ritual called "Jamarat," the last rite of the annual hajj, on the first day of Eid al-Adha, in Mina near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Muslim pilgrims arrive to cast stones at a pillar symbolizing the stoning of Satan, in a ritual called "Jamarat," the last rite of the annual hajj, on the first day of Eid al-Adha, in Mina near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)
Gunmen kill anti-polio physician in northwestern Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP)  Pakistani police say gunmen have killed a physician who was instrumental in an anti-polio drive in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Police said Monday that Dr. Zaka Ullah was gunned down over the weekend, when he was returning home after evening prayers. It is unclear whether the physician was targeted for his role in the country's anti-polio campaign.

Islamic militants have attacked vaccination centers and health workers taking part in anti-polio campaigns, which they view as part of a Western conspiracy to sterilize children or collect intelligence.
Quintana extends contract with Movistar through 2019

MADRID (AP)  Spanish Vuelta champion Nairo Quintana has agreed to renew his contract with his Movistar team through the 2019 season.

Movistar announced Quintana's new contract on Monday, a day after the Colombian climber won the Vuelta for his second Grand Tour title.

The Spanish team says it is close to agreeing to a new contract with veteran Alejandro Valverde.
Jutta Limbach, ex-head of German supreme court, dies at 82

BERLIN (AP)  Germany's highest court says former chief justice Jutta Limbach, who later headed a commission that examines disputes over claims for the restitution of art looted under the Nazis, has died. She was 82.

The Federal Constitutional Court said Monday that Limbach died in Berlin on Saturday. She led the Karlsruhe-based court from 1994 to 2002, and was previously Berlin's state justice minister.

Limbach was the first woman to head the constitutional court. After her term ended in 2002, she spent six years as president of the Goethe Institute, which promotes the German language and culture worldwide.

FILE In this March 22, 2007 file picture Jutta Limbach, then president of the Goethe-Institut, attends the 2007 Goethe Medals awards presentation in Weimar, eastern Germany. Germanys highest court says former chief justice Jutta Limbach, who later headed a commission that examines disputes over claims for the restitution of art looted under the Nazis, has died. She was 82. The Federal Constitutional Court said Monday Sept.12, 2016 that Limbach died in Berlin on Saturday. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer,file)

She also headed the Limbach Commission, created to mediate disputes over the ownership of art that was looted or otherwise removed from its owners under Nazi rule. It issues non-binding, though influential, recommendations.
Israel meets Facebook officials over incitement complaints

JERUSALEM (AP)  The Israeli government and Facebook agreed to work together to determine how to tackle incitement on the social media network, a senior Israeli Cabinet minister said Monday.

The announcement came after two government ministers met top Facebook officials to discuss the matter. The Facebook delegation is in Israel as the government pushes ahead with legislative steps meant to force social networks to rein in content that Israel says incites violence.

Israel has argued that a wave of violence with the Palestinians over the past year has been fueled by incitement, much of it spread on social media sites. It has repeatedly said that Facebook should do more to monitor and control the content, raising a host of legal and ethical issues over whether the company is responsible for material posted by its users.

Both Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, two key figures in Israel's battle against the alleged online provocations, participated in Monday's meeting.

Erdan's office said they agreed with Facebook representatives to create teams that would figure out how best to monitor and remove inflammatory content, but did not elaborate further.

Erdan and Shaked have proposed legislation that seeks to force social networks to remove content that Israel considers to be incitement. An opposition lawmaker has also proposed a bill seeking to force social networks to self-monitor or face a fine. It was not clear whether Monday's agreement would lead the lawmakers to shelve their bills.

In a statement, Facebook said "online extremism can only be tackled with a strong partnership between policymakers, civil society, academia and companies, and this is true in Israel and around the world."

The social media company also said its community standards "make it clear there is no place for terrorists or content that promotes terrorism on Facebook." It called the meeting "constructive," but offered no details about its conclusions.

Israeli security authorities currently monitor for incitement, and then complain to Facebook. The company determines whether the material in question violates its community standards, removing some items but allowing others to stay.

Shaked said Monday that over the past four months Israel submitted 158 requests to Facebook to remove inciting content and another 13 requests to YouTube. She said Facebook granted some 95 percent of the requests and YouTube granted 80 percent.

"We know that the amount of inciting online is even greater so we have to continue and increase our efforts, and we will," she said at a security conference. "An inciting page is a perpetual growth engine for terror if it is not removed."

The Palestinians dismiss the Israeli allegations that the violence is caused by incitement. They say it is the result of nearly 50 years of Israeli military occupation and a lack of hope for gaining independence.
Quake-hit Italian town files complaint over cartoon satire

ROME (AP)  The Italian town hardest hit by last month's earthquake on Monday filed a criminal defamation complaint denouncing French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo for a cartoon depicting victims in layers of lasagna.

Mario Cicchetti, a lawyer who represents Amatrice, told The Associated Press by telephone that he lodged the complaint about the "macabre" cartoons at the prosecutors' office in Rieti, the provincial capital.

Charlie Hebdo published two cartoons with obvious reference to Amatrice, a hill town where most of the 295 people killed in the Aug. 24 quake lived and which is famed for a tomato sauce, "amatriciana," made from the cheeks of locally raised pigs and pecorino cheese. One cartoon showed arms and legs protruding from between layers of lasagna, and sauce-splattered survivors. The other, depicting rubble, was captioned: "It's not Charlie Hebdo that built your homes. It's the Mafia."

FILE - In this Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016 file photo, an aerial photo shows the damaged buildings in the town of Amatrice, central Italy, after an earthquake. The Italian town of Amatrice, hardest hit by an earthquake last month, has filed Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, a criminal complaint denouncing French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo for a cartoon depicting victims in layers of lasagna. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

Prosecutors will decide whether the defamation complaint has merit.

They're already investigating why so many buildings collapsed, to see if seismic-safety rules in the quake-prone central Apennine mountains area were followed or if corruption or other wrongdoing might have been involved in awarding construction contracts or building inspection certificates.

"The cartoons are macabre, senseless and incomprehensible," Cicchetti said, contending that they express "contempt for victims of a natural disaster."

Those defamed by the cartoons, the lawyer contended, are "the dead, the survivors. They each lost three, four people -- relatives, children, fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, friends," Cicchetti said.

A lawyer for Charlie Hebdo, Richard Malka, said Monday he would not comment until he has been formally notified about the complaint

The complaint alleges aggravated defamation. To determine if the allegations hold merit, prosecutors would order an investigation. Based on those findings they can either seek trial indictments or dismiss the complaint. If they seek trial, a judge will hold hearings to see if indictment is warranted.

If the case does turn into a trial, in the case of conviction, injured parties can seek monetary awards if they have attached a civil lawsuit to the proceedings.

"Any damages awarded to the town will be entirely turned over to the quake victims," Cicchetti said.

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Catherine Gaschka in Paris contributed to this report.

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South African president pays costs in home spending scandal

JOHANNESBURG (AP)  South African President Jacob Zuma has paid the state more than $500,000 after being instructed to do so in a scandal over upgrades to his private home, his office said Monday.

The country's ruling party lost control of some major metropolitan areas last month in its worst-ever election showing amid voter dissatisfaction over corruption allegations against the president.

The Constitutional Court had said Zuma should pay back an amount compiled by the national treasury, which described the sum of 7.8 million South African rand as a "reasonable percentage" of costs for improvements to Zuma's Nkandla home that were unrelated to security. Some of that money was spent on a visitors' center, a swimming pool and a chicken run.

FILE - This Sept. 28, 2012 file photo shows the private compound homestead of South African President Jacob Zuma in Nkandla, in the northern KwaZulu Natal province, South Africa. South African President Jacob Zuma has paid the state more than $500,000 after being instructed to do so in a scandal over upgrades to his private home, his office said Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (AP Photo, File)

Zuma raised the money through a home loan and paid it to the South African Reserve Bank, his office said.

The money is just over 3 percent of the total amount of state funds that were spent on the president's rural home.

The Democratic Alliance, South Africa's main opposition party, welcomed the news that Zuma had paid back some money.

However, the party said in a statement that Zuma should provide proof in parliament that he personally paid back the state, saying he "has a history of tapping into his circle of cronies for funds."

Zuma is scheduled to answer questions in parliament on Tuesday, an occasion likely to feature harsh criticism from opposition parties. During the spending scandal, some lawmakers from another opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, disrupted sessions with chants of "Pay back the money" and were forcibly removed by security guards.

The president has also been accused of allowing an Indian immigrant family of wealthy businessmen to select some Cabinet ministers, though Zuma has denied those allegations.

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The Latest: Hungarian leader: migration will change Europe

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP)  The Latest on the flow of migrants into Europe (all times local):

4:25 p.m.

Hungary's prime minister has repeated his strong criticism of the European Union's migration policies, saying massive African migration flows will reach Europe in the coming decades.

Viktor Orban said Monday in Parliament that if many migrants are allowed in the EU, higher birth rates among Muslims will mean that "Europe will no longer be recognizable."

Orban said that the fences built by Hungary on its southern borders with Serbia and Croatia to stop the migrant flow were the proof of the "impotence of Brussels" regarding EU migration issues, and called for them to be be regulated at the national level.

Orban said Hungary's opposition to any future EU quotas to resettle migrants would be reinforced by the expected success of the Oct. 2 government referendum on the issue.

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3:55 p.m.

Romanian border police have questioned 30 migrants who are suspected of illegally entering Romania from Serbia.

Police used heat-detecting equipment to spot the migrants, 29 Afghans and a Pakistani man, who were hiding in fields early Monday on the border between Serbia and southwestern Romania.

Border police and local police rounded up the men and drove them to the local border police headquarters for questioning.

A statement said none of migrants was carrying documents. They told Romanian authorities they wanted to reach western Europe.
EU leaders to hold new future summit in early 2017

BRUSSELS (AP)  European Union leaders will meet in Malta early next year to discuss Europe's future once Britain leaves, as the 60th anniversary of the EU's founding Treaty of Rome approaches.

Malta's EU office tweeted Monday that the informal talks without Britain are planned "to spur momentum for the new idea of Europe." Malta takes over the EU's rotating presidency in the first half of 2017.

The meeting could take place in early February to leave time to prepare the anniversary of the treaty, signed in the Italian capital on March 25, 1957.

EU leaders are meeting without Britain in Slovakia on Friday. All 28 leaders are scheduled to meet in Brussels on October 20-21 and December 15-16.
Opening Ceremony tackles issues in star-studded pageant

NEW YORK (AP)  Opening Ceremony, always game for something different at New York Fashion Week, threw a "Pageant of the People" hosted by Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein with a star-studded panel that took on tough issues ranging from personal identity to prison reform.

Staged on Sunday night at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, named for the left-leaning Republican senator from New York, the pageant had the two "Portlandia" creators trying to crack the grim runway demeanors of runway models as they emceed, quizzing Whoopi Goldberg, Rashida Jones, Aidy Bryant, comic Ali Wong, Natasha Lyonne, transgender activist Sarah McBride and others who strutted the runway in looks from the brand.

This came after a parade of flags from 50 countries that provided some of the first immigrants to the U.S. And all with a clear message from Opening Ceremony designers Carol Lim and Humberto Leon: In this unpredictable election cycle, DO get out and vote!

Andrew Garfield, from left, Aziz Ansari, Miranda July, and Abbi Jacobson attend the Opening Ceremony fashion show during NYFW Spring/Summer 2017 at the Javits Center on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)

It was equal parts fashion show and amusing town hall, held on the 15th anniversary of the World Trade Center terror attacks downtown. Lim and Leon dedicated the evening to the victims of Sept. 11.

As for the clothes, the two  both first-generation Americans, Lim from Korea and Leon who is Peruvian and Chinese  settled on a celebration of immigrants. They referenced natural frontiers with wildflower motifs evoking such places as the Blue Ridge Mountains. Urban skylines played out in colorful yarns. Graphic stripes in knits symbolized harvest colors, and varsity jackets worn by flag-bearers matched each country's theme colors and symbols.

Jones, formerly of TV's "Parks and Recreation" and more recently the comedy series "Angie Tribeca," deftly fielded a refugee question from Brownstein. Asked why we should care about the world's refugees when we have enough problems here in America, she referenced the millions of refugees from Syria and offered:

"I would venture to say a lot of us here are descendants of immigrants and refugees and slaves, and look where we are. We're so lucky. We're so privileged."

Others also got down to serious business.

McBride, the first openly trans person to speak at a national political convention  the Democratic one in Philadelphia  responded to the question, "What does it mean to be an American?" this way: "Being an American is an action. It's an ideal to strive for. ... We must never be a country that says there's only one way to love, only one way to look and only one way to live."

Not your usual fashion week fare, to be sure. Nor was Bryant's response when all were asked why it's important to vote.

"You should vote because, ladies, less than 100 years ago we still couldn't," Bryant responded.

Wong answered this way: "If you're not going to vote for yourself, vote for your mom, your daughter, your cousin, your aunt who deserves equal pay and better maternity leave."

Jessica Williams, famous as a faux news correspondent on "The Daily Show," suggested voting was a reminder: "We should vote to be a part of something bigger than ourselves, so we can forget who we are for a second and take care of others."

Said Rowan Blanchard, 14, of the Disney Channel series "Girl Meets World": "You should vote for my future."

Andrew Garfield, left, and Aziz Ansari, right, attend the Opening Ceremony fashion show during NYFW Spring/Summer 2017 at the Javits Center on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)
Thai junta returns nat'l security cases to civilian courts

BANGKOK (AP)  Thailand's ruling military junta ordered Monday that national security cases be judged in civilian courts, two years after placing such matters in military courts.

More than 1,800 civilians had been brought before military tribunals through May this year, according to the legal aid group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights. Civilian jurisdiction will only apply to new cases; those already being processed will stay in the military courts.

Rights groups had strongly criticized holding military trials of civilians.

The junta had decreed soon after its May 2014 takeover from an elected government that military courts would judge national security cases, which included defamation of the monarchy, sedition, possession of explosives and war weapons and violations of the junta's orders.

The return of such cases to civilian courts became effective Monday when a decree issued by junta chief and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha was published in the Royal Gazette. The junta can enact such decrees on its own under the temporary constitution implemented after the 2014 coup.
Former British leader David Cameron to leave Parliament

LONDON (AP)  Former Prime Minister David Cameron, who has stayed out of the public eye since leaving Downing Street in July, has decided to step down from his position in Parliament and put an end to his political career.

Cameron's surprise announcement Monday will trigger a by-election in the county of Witney in Oxfordshire, which has been a safe seat for his Conservative Party for several decades.

Cameron, 49, won a general election in 2015, but his political fortunes shifted overnight in June when British voters rejected his pleas and decided to leave the European Union.

FILE - This is a Wednesday, July 13, 2016 file photo of Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron speaks to the media as he leaves 10 Downing Street, in London, after formally resigning as prime minister . Cameron announced Monday Sept. 12, 2016 that he will step down from his position as a Member of Parliament. Camerons unexpected announcement Monday will trigger a by-election for his seat in Oxfordshire England . (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

He announced the next morning he would step down as prime minister but planned to stay on in Parliament. On Monday, he said he had concluded that it made more sense for him to leave public office altogether.

"In my view, the circumstances of my resignation as prime minister and the realities of modern politics make it very difficult to continue on the backbenches without the risk of becoming a diversion to the important decisions that lie ahead for my successor in Downing Street and the Government," Cameron said.

The former prime minister said he fully supports successor Theresa May, now charged with carrying out the voters' mandate to extricate Britain from the 28-nation EU bloc.

May said in a statement she had been proud to serve in Cameron's government, where she held the important role of home secretary, and said the government had accomplished great things under his leadership.

Cameron did not announce his future plans. He became party leader in 2005 and prime minister in 2010, when he led a coalition government that included the Liberal Democrats.

His Conservatives won an outright majority in 2015, strengthening his hand considerably, but he was brought down by voters' unhappiness with the EU, in part because of unchecked immigration from other EU countries into Britain.

The date for the by-election has not yet been set.
Swedish appeals court to rule on Assange detention Friday

STOCKHOLM (AP)  A Swedish appeals court said Monday that it would rule at week's end on whether to rescind the detention order against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Later in the day, the prosecutor's office in Ecuador said Assange would be questioned next month at his country's embassy in London, where Assange sought shelter four years ago.

Assange is wanted by Swedish prosecutors in a rape investigation that stems from his visit to the country in 2010. He denies the allegations and has asked Swedish courts to repeal the detention order with which prosecutors sought his extradition from Britain.

A lower court dismissed his request in May. The Svea Appeals court said it will issue its ruling on Assange's appeal on Friday.

In Ecuador's capital, the prosecutor's office issued a statement saying Ecuadorean prosecutor Wilson Toainga would question Assange at the embassy on Oct. 17 on behalf of Swedish prosecutors. He will interrogate Assange based on questions submitted by Swedish prosecutors and will seek to take "body fluid samples," which under Ecuadorean law can only take place with Assange's consent.
William, Kate to bring young prince, princess on Canada trip

LONDON (AP)  Kensington Palace has announced that Prince William and his wife Kate will bring their two young children on an official visit to Canada later this month.

The trip announced Monday will mark the first official overseas jaunt for 1-year-old Princess Charlotte.

Her older brother Prince George, 3, is an old hand at royal travel, having already visited Australia and New Zealand on an official tour.

FILE - In this Saturday, June 11, 2016 file photo, Britain's Prince William holding Prince George, right and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge holding Princess Charlotte, left, on the balcony during the Trooping The Colour parade at Buckingham Palace, in London. Kensington Palace has announced that Prince William and his wife Kate will bring their two young children on an official visit to Canada later this month. The trip announced Monday, Sept. 12, 2016 will mark the first official overseas jaunt for 1-year-old Princess Charlotte. (AP Photo/Tim Ireland, File)

The public will have few chances to see Prince George and Princess Charlotte. Canadian officials said they will be with their parents for the arrival and departure in Victoria and possibly at one other event.

The palace said the royals will visit British Columbia and the Yukon from Sept. 24 until Oct. 1 after accepting an invitation from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
After warm welcome, Syrian family struggles in Connecticut

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP)  As they waited as refugees in Jordan to come to America, Syrian couple Abdullah and Fatema were assured that the United States welcomes all people and that being Muslim would not be a problem.

Those expectations were first dashed when, upon arrival in the U.S. in November, Indiana Republican Gov. Mike Pence blocked their entry into his state and they were diverted to Connecticut.

In their new home state, they have been received warmly by many, including Connecticut's Democratic governor, but they say they also have faced difficulties with finding work and with discrimination. On balance, it has been a year of struggle for the family, who were among the first of the 10,000 Syrians resettled in the United States over the last year.

In this Friday, Sept. 2, 2016 photo, Syrian refugee Fatema, left, sits beside her sleeping 5-year-old son Ayham at the Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services in New Haven, Conn. The family was diverted to Connecticut last year after Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said they were not welcome in that state. In their new home state, they have been received warmly by many, including Connecticuts Democratic governor, but they say they also have faced difficulties with finding work and with discrimination. (AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb)

"There are people who are really good to us and try to help us every day," Fatema said through an interpreter at the Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services office in New Haven as her 5-year-old son, Ayham, napped beside her. "But there are other people. We hear them and we feel unsafe. I feel bad for my child. Is something bad going to happen to us? We don't know."

The couple gave only their first names out of security concerns.

Abdullah owned a clothing store in Homs before it was destroyed in Syria's civil war. He would like to work at a store or dry cleaning business in Connecticut, but he has struggled to learn English. He works two days a week as a dishwasher as he continues looking for a full-time job.

"This is the hardest thing," he said. "If I have the language, things would be better."

Ayham is currently repeating kindergarten. His teachers feel he also needs to improve his English before moving on to first grade, his mother said.

IRIS, the resettlement agency, found housing for the family in New Haven and helped pay their rent. They also have assisted with the paperwork needed to apply for state benefits and provided translators, transportation, food, cultural support, English classes and other necessities. But most of the financial support ended after about four months.

"The philosophy of refugee resettlement is the agencies like IRIS are responsible to get them off to a good start," said Chris George, the agency's executive director. "Don't help them with rides or rent subsidies any longer than they need that. It's a tough, demanding self-help, pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps kind of program."

Fatema said the family was surprised and confused when they landed in the U.S., after learning about Indiana and making contacts there, to find out that Pence wanted to block Muslims from entering his state after Islamic extremists killed 130 in Paris.

"It broke our hearts," she said. "If you are in a group and one person did a bad thing, it doesn't mean the whole group is bad."

A federal judge overturned attempts by Pence, the GOP's vice presidential nominee, to block resettlement efforts in Indiana.

"That was the only family that was moved, in spite of the number of governors that protested the placement of Syrians in their state," said Barbara Day, the U.S. State Department's domestic resettlement section chief.

The family said they have become friendly with other refugees at IRIS. They help each other, sharing tips on cultural differences, or the best markets for shopping.

"When I feel bad about something, I come to IRIS," said Abdullah. "When I feel happy about something, I come to IRIS. They have helped me a lot."

The couple, who fled Syria in 2011 and underwent a lengthy vetting process while living in Jordan, said Americans should have no reason to fear them. They said they are hopeful about their future in this country, but after several years of fleeing violence and living in chaos, they have learned not to look too far ahead.

"We don't know what is going to happen," Fatema said. "What we care about is just make us safe today."

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This story has been corrected to reflect that the couple were not living at a refugee camp during their time in Jordan.

In this Friday, Sept. 2, 2016 photo, Syrian refugees Abdullah, left, Fatema, second from right, and their son Ayham, speak with Liese Klein, right, development and communications manager for Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services outside the agency's office in New Haven, Conn. The family was diverted to Connecticut last year after Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said they were not welcome in that state. In their new home state, they have been received warmly by many, including Connecticuts Democratic governor, but they say they also have faced difficulties with finding work and with discrimination. (AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb)

In this Friday, Sept. 2, 2016 photo, Syrian refugees Abdullah, left, Fatema, right, and their son Ayham, 5, pose for a photo outside the Refugee & Immigrant Services office in New Haven, Conn. The family was diverted to Connecticut last year after Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said they were not welcome in that state. In their new home state, they have been received warmly by many, including Connecticuts Democratic governor, but they say they also have faced difficulties with finding work and with discrimination. (AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb)
Germany, France plan last-minute talks ahead of EU summit

BERLIN (AP)  German Chancellor Angela Merkel is traveling to Paris for talks with her French counterpart ahead of a key European Union meeting to discuss Britain's decision to leave the bloc.

Merkel's office said she will meet Thursday with French President Francois Hollande for last-minute talks before the Bratislava summit.

The leaders of the remaining 27 EU member states will gather in the Slovakian capital Friday.
Latest: Ex tried to avoid man arrested in missing woman case

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)  The Latest on the disappearance of a Missouri woman whose burned car was found abandoned. (all times local):

10:20 a.m.

Court records show a Missouri man arrested in the destruction of a missing woman's car was the subject of a 2007 restraining order to protect his ex-girlfriend who subsequently disappeared.

Twenty-seven-year-old Kylr Yust was arrested Sunday on charges that he burned Jessica Runions' car, which was found abandoned in south Kansas City, Missouri. Runions was last seen leaving a party on Thursday night, and her mother reported her missing Friday evening.

Yust has not been charged in the 21-year-old woman's disappearance, and it's unclear if he has an attorney.

Court records show that after filing for a protection order against Yust in 2007, 17-year-old Kara Kopetsky disappeared and remains missing. Yust wasn't charged in her case, and investigators didn't return telephone messages Monday.

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6:30 a.m.

Authorities say a man is in custody accused of burning the vehicle of a suburban Kansas City woman who hasn't been seen since last week.

Kansas City Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kari Thompson says 27-year-old Kylr Yust was taken into custody around 8:30 Sunday morning in Edwards, Missouri. Thompson says Yust was arrested on charges of "knowingly burning" Jessica Runions' vehicle, which was found abandoned by a road in southern Kansas City Saturday.

Police say Runions' disappearance is considered a suspicious missing persons case.

KSHB-TV reports Yust is being held on a $50,000 cash only bond. It wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
The Latest: Man to face murder charges after Utah sentencing

FARMINGTON, Utah (AP)  The Latest on a man accused of kidnapping five people and then killing a train worker during a manhunt (all times local):

12 p.m.

Wyoming prosecutors say a man will face murder charges in a train worker's death after he's sentenced in a separate kidnapping case in Utah.

Dereck James Harrison enters the courtroom during a hearing Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, in Farmington, Utah. Harrison pleaded guilty to multiple counts of aggravated kidnapping, and the rest of his charges in Utah were dropped. He still faces a murder case in Wyoming, where he is charged with kidnapping and killing a train worker while on the run from police. (Scott G Winterton/Deseret News via AP, Pool)

Lincoln County Attorney Spencer Allred said Monday that 23-year-old Dereck James "DJ" Harrison could be extradited to Wyoming by mid-November. He's charged with murder and kidnapping in 63-year-old Kay Ricks' slaying.

Prosecutors are expected to decide whether to seek the death penalty after Harrison arrives.

He and his father are accused of tying up a woman and her four teenage daughters in a Utah basement and then snatching Ricks while on the run from police. Prosecutors say the Harrisons killed Ricks on the way to a Wyoming hideout.

Harrison took a plea deal in the Utah case Monday and agreed not to fight extradition.

His father killed himself in jail.

___

11:05 a.m.

A spokesman for the family of a slain Utah train worker says they're grateful a man will soon face charges in the death.

Richard Massey said Monday that while the family is relieved 23-year-old Dereck James "DJ" Harrison pleaded guilty to separate kidnapping charges, nothing can make them feel better about the death.

Prosecutors say Harrison and his father snatched 63-year-old Kay Ricks during his shift in Salt Lake City and beat him to death on their way to a remote Wyoming hideout.

Authorities say the pair were on the run after luring a woman and her four daughters to a Utah basement and tying them up.

The men were arrested after a five-day manhunt. Harrison agreed not to fight extradition to Wyoming to face murder charges after he's sentenced in Utah next month.

His father, Flint Harrison, killed himself in jail.

___

9:40 a.m.

A man accused of tying up five people in a basement is taking a plea deal in Utah but still faces a murder case in Wyoming, where he's charged with kidnapping and killing a train worker while on the run from police.

Dereck James "DJ" Harrison pleaded guilty to five counts of aggravated kidnapping Monday. The rest of his 16 charges in Utah were dropped.

Prosecutors say the 23-year-old and his father lured a woman and her four teenage daughters to their house in May, tied them up and beat them before they managed to escape.

Police say the men used drugs heavily and thought the mother had reported them to authorities.

While fleeing that crime, the Harrisons are accused of snatching the rail worker and killing him as they drove to a Wyoming hideout.

The father, Flint Harrison, killed himself in jail in July.

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1:20 a.m.

A man accused of tying up five people in a Utah basement and then killing a train worker in Wyoming while on the run from police is set to appear in court amid talk of a possible plea deal.

Prosecutors have said they planned to make a plea offer to Dereck James "DJ" Harrison before a court appearance set for Monday. Harrison is facing 16 drug and kidnapping charges.

The 23-year-old and his father were accused of tying up a woman and her four teenage daughters in May and beating them before they escaped. Police say the men thought the mother had reported their drug use to police.

Authorities say they grabbed a train worker while on the run from police and killed him in Wyoming. Harrison is facing murder and kidnapping charges there. Flint Harrison, 52, killed himself in jail in July.
Man pleads guilty in Utah kidnap, faces Wyoming murder case

FARMINGTON, Utah (AP)  A man accused of tying up five women in a basement took a plea deal in Utah on Monday but still faces a murder case in Wyoming, where he is charged with killing a train worker while on the run from police.

Dereck James "DJ" Harrison, 23, pleaded guilty to five counts of aggravated kidnapping for restraining and beating a woman and her four teenage daughters in May. He and his father then went on the run, snatching the rail employee and beating him to death on their way to a remote Wyoming hideout, prosecutors say.

The rest of Harrison's 16 charges in Utah were dropped. He faces at least 15 years and up to life in prison on each count, but prosecutors agreed to recommend the first four sentences run at the same time.

Dereck James Harrison enters the courtroom during a hearing Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, in Farmington, Utah. Harrison pleaded guilty to multiple counts of aggravated kidnapping, and the rest of his charges in Utah were dropped. He still faces a murder case in Wyoming, where he is charged with kidnapping and killing a train worker while on the run from police. (Scott G Winterton/Deseret News via AP, Pool)

He also won't fight extradition to Wyoming after his sentencing, set for Oct. 24. He faces murder and kidnapping charges there that carry the possibility of the death penalty. Wyoming prosecutors will decide whether to pursue capital punishment after Harrison arrives.

Lincoln County Attorney Spencer Allred said he's ready to move forward, having "done a thorough investigation."

"We still are receiving evidence back on a daily basis," Allred said.

Harrison appeared in court outside Salt Lake City in a striped jail jumpsuit, his hands shackled in front of him and shoulders rounded. He quietly answered a judge's questions about whether he understood the charges and his guilty pleas. His lawyer declined to comment after the hearing.

His father, Flint Harrison, also was charged in both cases but killed himself in jail in July.

The Harrisons were accused of luring the five women to a house with an invitation to a barbecue, then tying them up and beating them before they managed to escape. The men had been using drugs heavily and thought the mother had reported them to police, authorities said.

The pair got away and laid low in Salt Lake City, encountering Kay Ricks, 63, during his shift maintaining rail lines, police said. They are accused of forcing the man into his work truck and taking off for a hideout near Flint Harrison's Wyoming home.

They stopped in the southwestern Wyoming countryside along the way and killed Ricks, beating him so severely that he was unrecognizable when his body was found, prosecutors said.

Flint Harrison surrendered following a five-day manhunt, and he and his son were arrested.

Ricks' family is relieved that Dereck Harrison will be sent to Wyoming to face murder charges, spokesman Richard Massey said.

"There is no way that anything he says or does, cooperatively or not, will make us feel any better about the loss of Kay," he said. "We only hope that he never sees the light of day again."

The family plans to attend his sentencing in Utah. They also plan to sue Dereck Harrison and his father's estate to get additional information about Ricks' death, he said.

Dereck James Harrison enters the courtroom during a hearing Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, in Farmington, Utah. Harrison pleaded guilty to multiple counts of aggravated kidnapping, and the rest of his charges in Utah were dropped. He still faces a murder case in Wyoming, where he is charged with kidnapping and killing a train worker while on the run from police. (Scott G Winterton/Deseret News via AP, Pool)

Dereck James Harrison stands in the courtroom during a hearing Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, in Farmington, Utah. Harrison pleaded guilty to multiple counts of aggravated kidnapping, and the rest of his charges in Utah were dropped. He still faces a murder case in Wyoming, where he is charged with kidnapping and killing a train worker while on the run from police. (Scott G Winterton/Deseret News via AP, Pool)
Final veto showdown for Missouri's most-overridden governor

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP)  Missouri lawmakers are set to expand Gov. Jay Nixon's already historic status as the state's most overridden governor, a record the Democrat earned after years of clashing with a Legislature under virtually unchecked Republican control.

Since Nixon took office in 2009, lawmakers have overridden 83 of his vetoes of bills and budget expenditures  nearly four times the combined total of all other governors' overrides dating back to Missouri's territorial days in the early 1800s.

It's unknown where Nixon ranks on the charts of most overridden governors during the nation's 240-year history, but he certainly appears unusual among contemporaries. And Nixon's override tally is nearly certain to expand Wednesday when lawmakers consider more than 20 bills he vetoed this year, his last in office.

FILE - In this May 13, 2016, file photo, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon speaks during a news conference at the conclusion of the legislative session at the Capitol in Jefferson City, Mo. Missouri lawmakers are set to expand Nixon's already historic status as the state's most overridden governor, a record the Democrat earned after years of clashing with a Legislature under virtually unchecked Republican control. Since Nixon took office in 2009, lawmakers have overridden 83 of his vetoes of bills and budget expenditures _ nearly four times the combined total of all other governors' overrides dating back to Missouri's territorial days in the early 1800s. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

"I think it's going to be a successful veto session," predicted Republican House Majority Leader Mike Cierpiot.

Nixon's distinction as Missouri's most overridden governor is due partly to the rarity of Missouri's politically divided government. He's the only Missouri Democrat to govern opposite a Republican legislative supermajority at least since Reconstruction. Democrats held legislative supermajorities for part of Republican Gov. Christopher Bond's tenure but overrode just one veto  a bill related to nursing regulations, in 1976.

Nixon bristled when asked recently about his frequently overridden vetoes, accusing Republicans of enacting "bad policy."

"They ought to at least have to answer to the public as to why is the record of having more times that they've overridden me more important than their philosophy of small government," Nixon said.

Eleven other states also have politically divided governments, including Alaska, which is led by an independent governor and a Republican Legislature.

Yet not every executive leader of those states has faced the same level of pushback as Nixon. New Jersey's Democratic Legislature, for example, has never overridden any of Republican Gov. Chris Christie's hundreds of vetoes made during his more than six years in office.

But Democratic lawmakers in New Jersey need help from GOP members to overturn Christie. The override binge in Missouri began after Republicans obtained a supermajority in the House and Senate in 2013  giving them enough votes to reach the two-thirds majority benchmark without needing any help from Democrats.

In 2014 alone, the Legislature overrode Nixon on 11 bills and 47 line-item budget vetoes  shattering Missouri's previous single-year record of 12 veto overrides set in 1833, when a different constitution required only a simple majority vote. All of those overrides were on bills granting divorces to specific couples, something that is no longer a legislative matter.

Lawmakers of one party hold veto-proof majorities in just four other states with governors of the opposite party: Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and West Virginia, where only a simple majority is needed to override.

Even in those states, veto showdowns are less frequent.

In Maryland, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan vetoed 12 bills and been overridden on six by the Democratic-led Legislature since he took office last year. Massachusetts' Republican Gov. Charlie Baker tends to negotiate with Democratic lawmakers, and has primarily vetoed budget line-items during his two years in office.

Democrats who dominate the Illinois Legislature have overridden just one of 74 bills vetoed by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner since he took office last year. However, the divided government has caused that state to go more than a year without a budget agreement  the first time that's happened anywhere since World War II.

In Missouri, Republican lawmakers are capitalizing on their numbers to steamroll Nixon.

In recent years, Missouri's Republican-led Legislature has overridden him to enact the state's first income tax rate cut in almost a century, impose a 72-hour waiting period for abortions and ban college scholarships for immigrants living illegally in the U.S. It's also overridden Nixon on numerous lower-profile bills simply because it has the numbers to do so.

Bills on this year's veto session agenda include a wide-ranging gun rights measure and a proposed requirement that voters present photo identification at the polls, as well as less-attention grabbing bills dealing with license fees and loose cows.

"Primarily it's a conflict of policy ideas and philosophies, but more importantly I think it's based on the numbers," Cierpiot said. "The governor happens to be a governor during a time when Republicans are at the biggest majority we've ever been."

____
Authorities: Man killed during 9/11 memorial motorcycle ride

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP)  Authorities say an Alabama man was killed during a 9/11 memorial motorcycle ride.

AL.com (http://bit.ly/2cmhbZD ) reports that according to the coroner's office the crash happened Sunday at 11:53 p.m. on Interstate 22 in Jefferson County.

The victim has been identified as 45-year-old Tommy Ray Oliver of Birmingham.

Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates says Oliver was driving his 2001 Harley Davidson in the ride that included several motorcycle clubs and a police escort.

Yates says they were traveling westbound when Oliver veered onto the shoulder of the roadway and lost control of his motorcycle.
UN: More than 600 South Sudanese evacuated from Congo park

KINSHASA, Congo (AP)  The U.N. mission in Congo says it has now evacuated more than 600 South Sudanese who fled with opposition leader Riek Machar into Garamba National Park in northeastern Congo last month.

A statement issued Monday said the latest group of 152 South Sudanese were evacuated and disarmed on Sunday, bringing the total to 634. The mission said 134 more South Sudanese remain in the park and warned that the situation risked becoming "a threat to peace in Congo and the sub-region."
Possible Chicago police cover-up case to go to grand jury

CHICAGO (AP)  A grand jury will consider if Chicago police lied in connection with the fatal shooting of a black teenager by a white officer.

Special prosecutor Patricia Brown Holmes said Monday that the grand jury is the fairest way to handle the case instead of making charging decisions on her own. She was appointed in July to investigate whether there was a possible Chicago police cover-up in the October 2014 shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Holmes is a former Cook County judge.

Cook County Judge LeRoy Martin Jr. said he would convene the special grand jury to hear evidence.
Police: Boy, 2, dies after accidently shooting self in chest

QUAKERTOWN, Pa. (AP)  State police say a 2-year-old boy accidentally shot himself to death in his grandparents' Pennsylvania home.

Authorities say Benjamin Smith was pronounced dead Monday at the hospital shortly after suffering a single gunshot wound to the chest. Emergency medical personnel responded to the shooting around 11 a.m. at the home in Milford Township, Bucks County, north of Philadelphia.

Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting, including whether anyone was home at the time, how the child got the weapon and who owned the weapon.
'Wolf Boys' follows American teens employed by drug cartels

"Wolf Boys: Two American Teenagers and Mexico's Most Dangerous Drug Cartel" (Simon & Schuster), by Dan Slater

Dan Slater's "Wolf Boys" follows the story of Gabriel Cardona from his birth in Laredo, Texas, in 1986 to his eventual career as a hit man with the Los Zetas drug cartel.

After pursuing a criminal career in high school, the teen catches the eye of a Mexican drug cartel and is lured into working south of the border. The job brings a steady income, respect from his friends and enemies, and a sense of belonging.

Meanwhile in Texas, Robert Garcia, a Mexican-born detective, fights a drug war with which he's quickly becoming disillusioned. But when Gabriel's work with the drug trade brings him back to the United States, Robert's involvement suddenly gets more personal.

Slater's work depicts the day-to-day horrors of drug cartel operations. From brainwashing at boot camp orientation where children and men learn the practicalities of murder to company hierarchies, parties and rules of conduct, gritty details unfold in grueling fashion.

The author also explores the complicated relationship between cartel members and their families. Mothers, girlfriends and wives beg their loved ones to turn away and pursue legal employment yet eagerly accept the perks of drug trade  wads of cash, new cars and name brand clothes. In one scene, a teen shoots an enemy who sits in the driver's seat of a Lexus with his family. In the next, the mother of the victim sells plates of chicken and rice on the side of the road to pay for the funeral.
Twin Metals Minnesota sues feds over minerals lease renewals

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  A mining company that hopes to build an underground copper-nickel mine near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness sued the federal government Monday to try to keep the mineral rights leases it needs for the $2.8 billion project to go forward.

Twin Metals Minnesota's lawsuit seeks to invalidate a recent opinion by the solicitor of the U.S. Department of the Interior that the company doesn't have an automatic right to renew its two leases, which were first issued in 1966 and last renewed in 2004. The lawsuit said earlier renewals were routinely granted.

The solicitor's opinion, sent to the federal Bureau of Land Management, has "cast a cloud of uncertainty" over the project, blocking the company from engaging in long-term planning, investment, development and operational decisions, Twin Metals' Chief Operating Officer Ian Duckworth said in a statement.

FILE - In this Oct. 4, 2011, file photo, a core sample drilled from underground rock near Ely, Minn., shows a band of shiny minerals containing copper, nickel and precious metals, center, that Twin Metals Minnesota LLC, hopes to mine near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeastern Minnesota. The mining company sued the federal government Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, to try to keep the mineral rights leases it needs for the project to go forward. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski, File)

The lawsuit decried the solicitor's opinion as an "unlawful evisceration" of the company's property rights, because nobody would incur the risks of making the necessary investments in a mine without the right to renew. The complaint alleged the government changed the rules amid "increased political pressure and intense opposition from environmental groups."

The mine near Ely would lie within a watershed that flows into the pristine Boundary Waters. While there are vast untapped reserves of copper, nickel and precious metals under northeastern Minnesota, the metals are tied up in sulfide-bearing minerals, which can leach sulfuric acid and heavy metals when exposed to air and water.

Gov. Mark Dayton denied Twin Metals access to state-owned lands in March, and the Interior Department issued its opinion the next day.

The U.S. Forest Service said in June that it was "deeply concerned" about potential acid mine drainage, launching a scientific review to help it decide whether to consent to the renewals, and opened up the issue for public comment. The agency has not set a deadline for completing that review.

The Bureau of Land Management has "absolutely clear" authority to renew or deny the leases, according to Becky Rom, national chair of the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters.

"Scientific evidence shows that a sulfide-ore copper mine next to the Boundary Waters creates an unacceptable risk of harm to our priceless Wilderness," Rom said in a statement. "Federal mining leases that pose significant risks to the Boundary Waters should be denied."

Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness said Twin Metals is trying to prevent "a diligent and comprehensive review."

"Over 65,000 public comments were submitted this summer opposing renewal of these leases near the Boundary Waters," executive director Paul Danicic said in a statement. "The BLM and U.S. Forest Service have heard from thousands of people that sulfide mining on the edge of the wilderness is an unacceptable risk. Twin Metals' lawsuit seeks to silence them."

Twin Metals, which has invested more than $400 million, hasn't yet submitted a formal proposal for the mine, which it said would be subject to a thorough environmental review by multiple federal and state agencies. The company contends it can mine in an environmentally responsible way while creating hundreds of jobs.
Judge drops charge against former DC delegate to Congress

WASHINGTON (AP)  A Maryland judge has dropped a bad-check charge against the District of Columbia's former delegate to Congress.

Online court records show the case against 83-year-old Walter Fauntroy was dropped on Monday after he paid $20,000 in restitution.

The charge stemmed from a $55,000 check that Fauntroy wrote to cover the costs of a 2009 inaugural ball. Fauntroy and his attorney said previously that he had paid back some of the money.

Fauntroy left the country while facing a warrant for his arrest. He spent four years living abroad. He was arrested in June upon his arrival at Dulles International Airport.
Confusion over cease-fire as US walks back Kerry comments

WASHINGTON (AP)  Confusion reigned Monday over Syria's new cease-fire as Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States and Russia could permit President Bashar Assad's government to launch new airstrikes against al-Qaida-linked militants. The State Department quickly reversed itself.

Spokesman John Kirby said later there were no provisions under the nationwide truce for U.S.-Russian authorization of bombing missions by Assad's forces. "This is not something we could ever envision doing," he said.

Kerry's comments at a news conference were the closest any American official had come to suggesting indirect U.S. cooperation with Assad since the civil war started in 2011. President Barack Obama called on Assad to leave power more than five years ago; the U.S. blames the Syrian leader for a war that has killed perhaps a half-million people.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are about to shake hands at the conclusion of a joint press conference following their meeting to discuss the crisis in Syria, in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, Sept. 9, 2016. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool Photo via AP)

While Kirby called his boss' remarks "incorrect," Kerry's statement reflected the general murkiness of an agreement that hasn't been presented publicly in written form. The deal came after a marathon negotiation between Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last Friday; descriptions by the two diplomats represent the only public explanation of what was agreed to.

Under the truce that went into effect at sundown Monday, Assad's forces are no longer supposed to bomb Syria's opposition, Kerry said.

If calm holds for seven days, the U.S. and Russia would then cooperate on how to jointly combat the al-Qaida-linked group formerly called the Nusra Front and now known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham. But the two powers also could approve Syrian combat missions against the group, he said.

"Assad is not supposed to be bombing the opposition, because there is a cease-fire," Kerry told journalists at the State Department. "Now he is allowed ... to target Nusra. But that will be on strikes that are agreed upon with Russia and the United States in order to go after them."

The U.S. had never previously spoken of approving military operations by Assad.

Later, Kerry's spokesman said a "primary purpose of this agreement, from our perspective, is to prevent the Syrian regime air force from flying or striking in any areas in which the opposition or Nusra are present."

Once U.S.-Russian military cooperation is established, Kirby said, the focus would be to "coordinate military action between the U.S. and Russia, not for any other party."

Kerry implored all of Syria's warring sides to adhere to the cease-fire. He said there has been a reduction in violence in its first hours and said it offers an opportunity for peace.

But in Aleppo, the northern city that has emerged as the epicenter of the fighting, opposition media activist Mahmoud Raslan said government helicopters dropped crude barrel bombs on a contested neighborhood. A doctor reported heavy shelling along the Castello road where supplies are expected to go through to reach rebel-held parts of Aleppo. The doctor spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

Various militants backed by the U.S. and its Arab allies coordinate and even sometimes fight alongside al-Qaida-linked militants. Many Syrian and Russian operations have struck what U.S. officials describe as "moderate" forces that are "marbled" with the militants.

The new cease-fire is supposed to end such ambiguities, and Washington has been urging rebel groups to break ranks with extremists.

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Prosecutors: Man used dating services to get cash from women

CAMDEN, N.J. (AP)  A man used telephone dating services to lure and defraud women out of thousands of dollars while on probation for a similar scheme, federal prosecutors said Monday.

Patrick Giblin, formerly of Ventnor, New Jersey, faces a wire fraud charge. He made his initial court appearance Monday, when a judge ordered that he be detained. Giblin could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if he's convicted.

Prosecutors claim that from December 2012 to December 2014, Giblin sought to lure women in the U.S. and Canada into relationships and then ask them for loans that he did not intend to repay. Giblin would falsely claim, among other things, that he was moving to a victim's location, that he owned oceanfront property in Atlantic City and that he worked in the casino business, prosecutors said.

Giblin was sentenced in April 2007 to nearly 10 years in federal prison on wire fraud charges related to a similar scheme in which he defrauded more than 50 women out of more than $200,000. Prosecutors say that while he was on supervised release in that case, he fled to Colonie, New York, and continued to get money from victims until he was arrested in December 2014.

Giblin received a two-year sentence last October for violating the terms of his supervised release. He was taken into custody Monday after he completed that sentence.

The federal public defender's office represents Gibbs. As a matter of policy, the agency does not comment on pending cases.

The complaint filed in the case included only a sample of the victims involved in the scheme, prosecutors said. It discusses eight victims in five states and Canada, who lost more than $7,000 overall to Giblin.
Attorneys: Christie allies to take stand at bridge trial

NEWARK, N.J. (AP)  Attorneys for two former allies of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie who face criminal charges over the 2013 George Washington Bridge lane closures say their clients will testify at trial.

Attorneys for Bridget Kelly and Bill Baroni said Monday their clients will take the stand in their defense.

Kelly is Christie's former deputy chief of staff. Baroni was deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the bridge.

Christie hasn't been charged. But he could be subpoenaed to testify about the alleged plot in which prosecutors say lanes near the bridge were closed for political revenge against a local Democratic mayor who didn't endorse the Republican governor.
Court rejects challenge to Michigan's emergency manager law

DETROIT (AP)  An appeals court on Monday rejected a challenge to Michigan's emergency manager law, saying Gov. Rick Snyder's remedy for distressed communities doesn't violate the constitutional rights of residents.

Emergency managers have exceptional power to run city halls and school districts, while elected officials typically are pushed aside for 18 months or more while finances are fixed. The most significant use of emergency management occurred in Detroit, where Snyder appointed bankruptcy expert Kevyn Orr in 2013.

Another use was in Flint, where emergency managers presided during the disastrous switch to Flint River water, which wasn't treated to reduce corrosion and caused lead to leach into the water supply.

Critics who sued argued that the law violated a variety of rights  free speech, voting, even protections against slavery  especially in cities with large black populations.

The law might not be the "perfect remedy" but it's "rationally related" to turning around local governments, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 3-0 decision.

"The emergency manager's powers may be vast, but so are the problems in financially distressed localities, and the elected officials of those localities are most often the ones who ... led the localities into their difficult situations," the court said in upholding a decision by U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh.

Michigan voters in 2012 overturned Snyder's first emergency manager law. But he and fellow Republicans in the Legislature came back with another version just weeks later.

"I'm extremely disappointed" by the court's decision, said Herb Sanders, an attorney who represented people in cities affected by the law. "I think it's a very important issue that has national implications."

Snyder spokeswoman Anna Heaton said the court affirmed that state government has a "legitimate purpose in intervening to improve financially stressed municipalities."

In 2014, Steeh said only one part of the lawsuit could go forward, a claim that the law has an illegal, disproportionate impact on minority communities. It was not part of the appeal. Sanders said he likely will continue to pursue it after talking to his legal team.

Schools in Detroit, Highland Park and Muskegon Heights have emergency managers while a dozen other districts or local governments are under a different type of oversight under the law, known as Public Act 436, according to the Treasury Department's website.

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Stealthy, futuristic Zumwalt destroyer leaves Rhode Island

NEWPORT, R.I. (AP)  The stealthy and futuristic Zumwalt destroyer has left Rhode Island.

The 610-foot (186 meters) warship made its first port stop at Naval Station Newport in Rhode Island after leaving the shipyard to join the fleet. It arrived on Thursday and left Monday.

It's headed to Baltimore, where it will be commissioned in October before going to its home port in San Diego. It was built at Bath Iron Works in Maine.

The USS Zumwalt sits at dock at the naval station in Newport, R.I., Friday, Sept. 9, 2016. The 610-foot-long warship has an angular shape to minimize its radar signature and cost more than $4.4 billion. It's the most expensive destroyer built for the Navy. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

The Zumwalt is stopping in various ports, and the crew will train en route to San Diego.

The ship features an angular shape to minimize its radar signature, a powerful new gun system and a composite deckhouse that hides its radar and sensors.

The crew of 147 officers and sailors is the smallest crew of any destroyer built since the 1930s, thanks to extensive automation.
Massive mural donated to Vermont Historical Society

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP)  A massive painting showing 350 years of state history has been donated to the Vermont Historical Society, where it will be preserved and protected.

The mural, "Tribute to Vermont," by late New England artist Paul Sample, has been hanging in the lobby of insurance company National Life Group's headquarters in Montpelier since 1961.

The 50-foot-by-8-foot (15.2-meter-by-2.4-meter) painting shows scenes from Samuel de Champlain's arrival in the Champlain Valley in 1609 to the development of the ski industry in the 1950s.

This photo provided by National Life Group shows a section of a massive mural that has been donated to the Vermont Historical Society, where it will be preserved and protected. The mural called A Tribute to Vermont by Paul Sample has been hanging in the lobby of insurance company National Life Groups headquarters in Montpelier, Vt. (Ross Sneyd/National Life Group via AP)

The insurance company said the painting, installed in a busy office building lobby, has begun to show signs of stress. It said conservation experts have found dirt and grime on the painting's surface, some paint loss and spots where the painting apparently was bumped into and damaged.

National Life said it wants to have the painting removed for long-term conservation. It said the painting will be displayed by the Historical Society in a climate-controlled environment overseen by curators.

"We're honored that the Historical Society shares our appreciation for this major piece of art," company president Mehran Assadi said.

The Historical Society plans to install the painting in a permanent exhibit at its Vermont History Museum in Montpelier. Thousands of people, including most Vermont schoolchildren, visit the museum each year.

Historical Society executive director Stephen Perkins said he's excited to use the painting "as a jumping-off point for conversation about Vermont's past, present and future."

"This beautiful painting tells Vermont's story in a wonderful way," Perkins said in a statement issued by National Life.

Sample, a 1920s graduate of Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire, was the college's artist-in-residence when he was commissioned to paint "Tribute to Vermont." He created it on two canvases and joined them, using a maple tree in the middle to hide the edges. He depicted more than 50 scenes in the painting, including Vermont's politics, its agricultural heritage, its formerly dominant machine tool industry and its outdoor activities.
Russian defense minister lashes back at his US counterpart

MOSCOW (AP)  Russia's defense minister has lashed out at his U.S. counterpart, who has accused Moscow of sowing seeds of global instability.

In last week's speech at Oxford University, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said "Russia has clear ambition to erode the principled international order," a statement that came days before the top U.S. and Russian diplomats struck a new cease-fire deal for Syria.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu fired back Monday, saying "that the international order mustn't be mistaken with the American order" and that "maintaining the international order is the prerogative of the entire international community, not only the Pentagon."
Affidavit: Fertility doctor used own sperm for impregnations

INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  A retired Indianapolis fertility doctor said he used his own sperm around 50 times instead of donated sperm that his patients were expecting, impregnating several women decades ago, but later denied it, according to court documents.

Dr. Donald Cline, 77, pleaded not guilty Monday to two felony obstruction of justice charges for misleading authorities who were investigating complaints from two of the now-adult children against him.

Cline is accused of being the biological father of at least eight people, the youngest of which would be about 30. The accusations were first reported by WXIN-TV in May.

FILE - In this March 29, 2007 file photo, Dr. Donald Cline, a reproductive endocrinologist and fertility specialist, speaks at a new conference in Indianapolis. Cline, 77, is charged with obstruction of justice as prosecutors allege he deceived them about using his own sperm to inseminate multiple women decades ago. The children of several of the women initiated the case when they found out through DNA testing that they were related. (Kelly Wilkinson,/The Indianapolis Star via AP)

Cline, who now lives in the suburb of Zionsville, told six adults who believed they were his children that he had donated his own sperm about 50 times starting in the 1970s, a probable cause affidavit said. He had told his patients they were receiving sperm from medical or dental residents or medical students and that no single donor's sperm was used more than three times.

One of the adult children took a saliva-based DNA test through a private personal genomics company and found that she was related to at least eight other people in its database, the affidavit said. Meanwhile, two others also investigated their ancestry through DNA tests and learned their mothers both were patients of Cline and that they were related to 70 relatives of Cline, it said.

Cline "said he used his own sperm whenever he didn't have a donor sample available," the affidavit said he told them.

"Dr. Cline admitted to doing wrong by inseminating the women with his own sperm, but felt that he was helping women because they really wanted a baby," the affidavit said. "Also, he felt pressured to use his own sperm because he didn't always have access to fresh sperm."

Cline marked the files of the women receiving his sperm with asterisks so that if a patient came back and wanted another baby, "he would use his sperm again to produce full siblings," the affidavit said. WXIN reported the eight known siblings were born to five different women.

It was not immediately clear whether state guidelines or medical profession guidelines at the time applied to fertility doctors using their own sperm to impregnate patients. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine did not have any such guidelines then, spokesman Sean Tipton said.

When the state began investigating complaints, Cline denied having used his own sperm.

"I can emphatically say that at no time did I ever use my own sample for insemination," he said in a letter to the Indiana Attorney General's Office. Cline retired from his practice at Reproductive Endocrinology Associates in Indianapolis in 2009.

Paternity tests last month showed a 99.9 percent probability that Cline was the father of the two women who filed complaints, the affidavit said. Since Indiana law requires doctors to keep patients' records for seven years after last treating them, records were destroyed after that time lapsed, Cline told the Attorney General's Office.

Cline's attorney, Tracy Betz, released a statement saying he is not accused of hiding documents, influencing witnesses or otherwise not cooperating with the attorney general's investigation. Cline was released on his own recognizance.

No other charges are pending against Cline, Marion County Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman Peg McLeish said.

The most notorious fertility doctor to secretly use his own sperm was Cecil Jacobson, who may have fathered as many as 70 children from 1976 to 1998 in Vienna, Virginia. And in 2009, Dr. Ben. D. Ramaley of Greenwich, Connecticut, quickly settled a 2005 lawsuit for using his own sperm.

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AP News Guide: The Dakota Access pipeline, what now?

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP)  A federal judge kept in place Monday a previous work-stoppage order on a small portion of the nearly 1,200-mile (1931 km) Dakota Access oil pipeline while federal agencies review construction permits for the site, which the Standing Rock Sioux tribe says is sacred ground.

But much has yet to be settled when it comes to the pipeline that'll run from North Dakota to Illinois, including whether the company will respond to the federal agencies' request for a voluntary, broader work stoppage in that area.

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People rally against the Dakota Access Pipeline on the grounds of the North Dakota state capitol Friday, Sept. 9, 2016 in Bismarck, N.D. The federal government stepped into the fight over the Dakota Access oil pipeline Friday, ordering work to stop on one segment of the project in North Dakota and asking the Texas-based company building it to "voluntarily pause" action on a wider span that an American Indian tribe says holds sacred artifacts. (Tom Stromme/The Bismarck Tribune via AP)

HOW WE GOT HERE

Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners obtained federal permits for the $3.8 billion pipeline in July, two years after it was first announced.

The project would carry a half-million barrels of crude oil daily from western North Dakota's oil fields through South Dakota and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Illinois, where shippers can access Midwest and Gulf Coast markets.

Supporters say the pipeline would create more markets and reduce truck and oil train traffic.

But the Standing Rock Sioux, other tribes and environmental groups say that the pipeline could threaten water supplies for millions, since it will cross the Missouri River, as well as harm sacred sites and artifacts.

Since April, there's been a tribal protest at the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri rivers and it has grown considerably  thousands gathered last week. Nearly 40 have been arrested as the protest has grown in size, including Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman David Archambault II.

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KEY CLAIMS

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe sued federal regulators for approving the oil pipeline, challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' decision to grant permits at more than 200 water crossings and arguing that the pipeline would be placed less than a mile upstream of the reservation, potentially impacting drinking water for more than 8,000 tribal members and millions of people who rely on it further downstream.

The lawsuit said the project violates several federal laws, including the National Historic Preservation Act. The tribe also worries the project will disturb ancient sacred sites outside of the 2.3-million acre reservation.

Energy Transfer Partners disputes those claims, saying the pipeline would include safeguards such as leak detection equipment and that workers monitoring the pipeline remotely in Texas could close valves within three minutes if a breach is detected.

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THE LEGAL PROCESS

The Standing Rock Sioux's effort to temporarily block construction near its reservation on the North Dakota-South Dakota border was denied by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Friday.

But minutes later, federal officials ordered a temporary halt to construction of the pipeline on Army Corps land around and underneath Lake Oahe  one of six reservoirs on the Missouri River. It also asked for a "voluntary pause" of work by Energy Transfer Partners for 20 miles (32 km) on either side of Lake Oahe, to which ETP has not indicated its position, though it noted in an email that work was ongoing elsewhere in the other four states.

Boasberg declined Monday to grant the tribe's request to "formalize" the government's desired work stoppage, but kept in place an earlier order to halt construction from State Highway 1806 to 20 miles (32 km) east of Lake Oahe.

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WHAT'S THE TIMETABLE?

No one  neither the company, nor the tribe, nor federal agencies  has said.

The Departments of Justice, the Army and the Interior said Friday that it won't authorize construction on corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe until it re-examines its permitting decision-making process.

A Dakota Access lawyer said in federal court last week that the portion of the pipeline in North Dakota that's the subject of the legal wrangling would be finished shortly if not for the delays. ETP has said it expects to complete the full pipeline by the end of the year.

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STILL PROTESTING

The temporary policy victory hasn't dulled the number of people coming to the protest site, according to Standing Rock tribal historian LaDonna Brave Bull Allard. She and others have said is largest gathering of American Indian tribes in a century.

Supporters of the Sacred Stone Camp in North Dakota protest in Court Square on Friday, Sept. 9, 2016 in Harrisonburg, Va.(Austin Bachand/Daily News-Record via AP)

Phil Little Thunder, of Rosebud, S.D. shows his support during the protest on the grounds of the North Dakota state capitol in his pow wow regalia, Friday, Sept. 9, 2016 in Bismarck, N.D. The federal government stepped into the fight over the Dakota Access oil pipeline Friday, ordering work to stop on one segment of the project in North Dakota and asking the Texas-based company building it to "voluntarily pause" action on a wider span that an American Indian tribe says holds sacred artifacts. (Tom Stromme/The Bismarck Tribune via AP)

Standing Rock Sioux tribal chairman Dave Archambault II, right, greets Wayland Gray, of Muskogee Creek Hickory Ground, Okla. at the organized protest on the North Dakota state capitol grounds on Friday, Sept. 9, 2016 in Bismarck, N.D. The federal government stepped into the fight over the Dakota Access oil pipeline Friday, ordering work to stop on one segment of the project in North Dakota and asking the Texas-based company building it to "voluntarily pause" action on a wider span that an American Indian tribe says holds sacred artifacts. (Tom Stromme/The Bismarck Tribune via AP)
The Latest: Resolution seeks lawmaker's ouster

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  The Latest on a special legislative session in Tennessee (all times local):

2:45 p.m.

A lawmaker says she's preparing to introduce a resolution to expel a fellow Tennessee House representative who is facing sexual harassment allegations.

House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, consults with colleagues during a House Republican Caucus meeting at the state Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)

State Rep. Susan Lynn announced the plan Tuesday to seek the expulsion of fellow Republican Rep. Jeremy Durham. A recently released report from the state attorney general's office detailed allegations that Durham had improper sexual contact with at least 22 women over his four years in office.

Lynn said giving notice of the resolution would allow Durham a chance to attend the chamber's debate before it takes a vote. In a letter to colleagues, Durham denied the allegations and said he would not attend because he wasn't being granted due process.

The last time the Legislature expelled a sitting member was 36 years ago.

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2:15 p.m.

A special legislative session is underway to take up a repeal of a drunken driving law that threatens to cost Tennessee $60 million in federal road money.

The House is also expected to take up an effort to oust Republican Rep. Jeremy Durham following an attorney general's report that detailed allegations of improper sexual contact with at least 22 women over the course of his four years in office.

Durham did not attend the floor session on Monday, saying in a letter to colleagues that he does not believe he will be granted due process to defend against the allegations that he says are untrue.

A new law that went into effect in July ran afoul of federal zero-tolerance standards for underage drivers by raising the maximum allowable blood alcohol content from 0.02 percent to 0.08 percent.

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1 p.m.

State Rep. Jeremy Durham says in a letter to colleagues that he won't attend a special legislative session that is expected to include a bid to oust the Franklin Republican.

Durham in an eight-page letter on Monday criticizes House Republican leadership for supporting an investigation into sexual harassment allegations against him that he says are untrue.

Durham says he doesn't believe he will receive "due process" during an ouster proceeding but urges members to contact him to hear his explanations.

If the ouster effort succeeds, Durham will become the first sitting member of the General Assembly to be expelled in 36 years.

The special session was called by Republican Gov. Bill Haslam to repeal a drunken driving law that threatens to cost the state $60 million in federal road money.
In the luminous 'La La Land,' a shot in the arm for movies

TORONTO (AP)  Movies aren't what they were. I'll wait for it on Netflix. Television is so much better right now.

Those kinds of sentiments can feel ubiquitous to anyone who cares deeply about movies, as well as for those whose love has waned. Writer-director Damien Chazelle has heard them all and he has one glorious, singing-and-dancing answer to them.

Chazelle's luminous "La La Land," the sensation of the fall film festival circuit, has audiences swooning for his modern-day musical starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. The film, itself, is an unapologetically romantic argument for the movies, in all their splendor.

"You're a part of so many of those conversations. Theaters are dying. Movies are dying, etcetera, etcetera," Chazelle, 31, said in an interview ahead of the film's Monday evening premiere in Toronto. "It's the kind of thing where I'm either hoping they're wrong or having to reflect: 'Man, I must have been born 30 years too late.' Because all I've only ever wanted to do is make movies for the big screen since I can remember."

The film, which will hit theaters Dec. 2, stars Stone as an aspiring actress in Los Angeles who, in between soul-crushing auditions, meets a jazz pianist (Gosling) trying to stay true to the music he's devoted himself to. They are both strivers in an unforgiving Hollywood, their technicolor dreams a faraway fantasy compared to their daily reality.

Since premiering at the Venice Film Festival, "La La Land" has taken on the aura of a revival movement, a shot in the arm for a sometimes beleaguered movie landscape. There, Stone won best actress (likely a sign of things to come in Hollywood's coming awards season) and Tom Hanks, who has nothing to do with the movie, gushed about it.

"When you see something that is brand new, that you can't imagine, and you think, 'Well thank God this landed,' because I think a movie like 'La La Land' would be anathema to studios. Number one, it is a musical and no one knows the songs,'" Hanks said at a festival event. He concluded ominously: "If the audience doesn't go and embrace something as wonderful as this, then we are all doomed."

Chazelle wrote the script to "La La Land" about six years ago, but his pleas to make the film went unanswered until his 2014 breakthrough, the Oscar-winning "Whiplash," about an aspiring jazz drummer. While the film is awash in nostalgia, it has connected not for the way it resurrects the past but for how it seeks to unite it with today, like an MGM musical let loose.

"The movie is about reconciling that with the present and realizing you have to live now  and also that that's not necessarily a bad thing," said Chazelle. "I know I have it in me to be a nostalgist. Certainly the musical lover in me, specifically. For whatever reason, the musicals I love the most are the ones of the '30s, '40s, '50s and '60s. There are musicals since then that I love but not ones that speak to me directly. And I grew up playing jazz. So there's a lot of old-timey stuff in my tastes or background."

While the film's song and dance routines resemble the breezy grace of "Singin' in the Rain" or "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg," they aren't set on sound stages but in a modern Los Angeles. The barn-burning opening number takes place in a freeway traffic jam. A memorable tap-dancing scene hovers over golden-hour LA. All of it was filmed in Cinemascope.

"Part of the whole idea of this movie from the beginning was to very resolutely set it in today's Los Angeles and even start off with the things we think of as the most annoying parts of existence in modern LA: the traffic jams, the shallow parties, the celebrity culture, the one-note industry talk of the city," said Chazelle. "But from that, build to a love letter that's hopefully, as a result, a more fully-fleshed love letter, not just a sugar-coated portrait of the city."

By going back to the soul of Los Angeles, the Hollywood dream factory might just be churning again.

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San Diego man pleads guilty to lying about jihadist brother

SAN DIEGO (AP)  A San Diego man pleaded guilty Monday to lying during a terrorism investigation of his brother, who was killed while fighting for the Islamic State in Syria.

Marchello McCain, 34, acknowledged in a plea agreement that he supplied the FBI with false information about his brother's plans to be a jihadist in Syria and the financing for his brother's overseas trip, federal prosecutors said.

McCain faces up to eight years in federal prison when he is sentenced in December.

"Lying during a terrorism investigation is a very serious crime because the security of our nation and citizens is at stake," U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy said in a statement. "This case is particularly important because it involves ... a brutal foreign terrorist organization that threatens to induce our youth into committing violence against foreigners and U.S. citizens alike."

McCain's brother, Douglas McCain, 33, was reportedly killed in 2014 while fighting with the Islamic State, the extremist group trying to overthrow the government of President Bashar Assad. He was believed to be the first American jihadist with the group to die there.

The San Diego man traveled to Syria to follow his basketball buddy from Minneapolis into the terrorism fight.

Marchello McCain pleaded guilty to making false statements involving international terrorism. He had denied knowing that his brother planned to fight for the terrorist group and told the FBI that he thought his brother was going to Turkey to play music and teach English.

In his plea agreement, McCain acknowledged that he allowed his brother to use a debit/credit card belonging to McCain's wife to buy airline tickets to Turkey and put money to cover the purchase into his wife's account.

McCain's brother left the United States in March 2014 and five months later was reported killed fighting against the Free Syrian Army.

In 2005, Marchello McCain was convicted of shooting at two people in Minnesota. This January, he pleaded guilty to six counts of being a felon in possession of guns, ammunition and body armor.
White House says Obama intends to veto Sept. 11 bill

WASHINGTON (AP)  The White House says President Barack Obama is intent on vetoing legislation that would allow families of Sept. 11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia.

The legislation gives victims' families the right to sue in U.S. court for any role that elements of the Saudi government may have played in the 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest says other countries could use the legislation as an excuse to haul U.S. diplomats or U.S. service members into court.
Clinton scrambles to head off fallout from brutal weekend

WASHINGTON (AP)  Hillary Clinton and her campaign scrambled Monday to head off any lasting damage from a brutal weekend, promising to release more of her medical records following her bout of pneumonia and conceding they were too slow in providing information about her condition.

"I just didn't think it was going to be that big a deal," the Democratic nominee said late Monday in an interview with CNN when asked why she didn't immediately tell voters about her recent diagnosis of pneumonia.

Democrats said Clinton's health incident alone is unlikely to fundamentally alter the presidential race, but some also said it adds to a growing sense of uncertainty less than two months from Election Day. For many supporters, Clinton's battle with Republican Donald Trump is worryingly close, raising concerns not only about holding the White House but also retaking control of the Senate.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton walks from from her daughter's apartment building Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016, in New York. Clinton unexpectedly left Sunday's 9/11 anniversary ceremony in New York after feeling "overheated," according to her campaign. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

"If you look at the way the last couple months have gone, it feels like the race should be further apart," said Greg Haas, an Ohio-based Democratic strategist and former county party chairman.

Aaron Regunberg, a Democratic state representative from Rhode Island, said he was "surprised and concerned" that the race is so tight.

"I still think that we are likely to win, but I think anyone who's not concerned about a bigoted, KKK-endorsed sociopath being this close right now in the polls is not living in reality," Regunberg said of Trump.

Clinton abruptly left a 9/11 anniversary event Sunday in New York and was seen on video stumbling and being held up by aides. Clinton said Monday night she did not faint, but did feel "dizzy and I did lose my balance for a minute."

"What happened yesterday was that I just was incredibly committed to being at the memorial," Clinton told CNN. "I could feel how hot and humid it was. I felt overheated. I decided that I did need to leave. As soon as I got into the air-conditioned van, I cooled off, I got some water and very quickly I felt better."

At the time, roughly 90 minutes passed before aides said Clinton left because she was overheated. Several hours later, her doctor acknowledged she had been diagnosed with pneumonia two days earlier.

"In retrospect, we could have handled it better," Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said Monday. He pledged to release "additional medical information" about Clinton in the next few days.

Clinton spent Monday at her home in Chappaqua, New York, after canceling a fundraising trip in California. It was unclear when she planned to return to the campaign trail.

Trump, who is also promising to release new medical records this week, showed surprising restraint regarding Clinton's health. He wished her well and did not repeat questions he has previously raised about whether the former secretary of state has the strength and stamina to be president.

He did hammer Clinton for her assertion Friday night that half of his supporters belong in a "basket of deplorables" and are racist, sexist, homophobic or xenophobic. Clinton later said she regretted applying that description to "half" of Trump's backers, but stuck by her assertion that the GOP nominee has given a platform to "hateful views and voices."

Speaking in Maryland Monday, Trump said he was shocked to hear Clinton "attack, slander, smear and demean these wonderful, amazing people who are supporting our campaign."

After a staff shake-up in August, Trump has largely abandoned the freewheeling style of campaigning that energized his supporters but also led to an endless string of controversial comments about women, minorities and others. The Republican nominee's newfound ability to stay on script has coincided with tightening in national polls and surveys in some key swing states.

Democrats are also warily watching a Senate landscape that looked to be favorable for the party if Trump proved to be a drag on GOP candidates. But Rob Portman in Ohio has distanced himself from Trump and appears headed for re-election, and Republicans are feeling more confident in Florida since Marco Rubio reversed course and decided to run for re-election.

"The last few days feed into a sense of uncertainty," said Chris Kofinis, a Democratic strategist. He said Clinton's rough weekend raises the stakes for the first presidential debate on Sept. 26, which "will either finish Trump or, if he does well, it will create a race."

Privately, some Republicans say Trump would likely be losing more convincingly to another Democratic nominee. But Clinton's unpopularity rivals that of her opponent, and she's been unable to do much to change the minds of Americans who believe she is dishonest and secretive.

Indeed, some Democrats said it wasn't Clinton's pneumonia diagnosis or even the jarring video of her stumbling into a van that leaves them nervous. It was her campaign's unwillingness to quickly level with the public about the situation.

"Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia," David Axelrod, a longtime adviser to President Barack Obama, wrote on Twitter. "What's the cure for an unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?"

Clinton pushed back against that idea Monday night, telling CNN that "people know more about me than almost anyone in public life."

"We're going to be releasing more information," she said. "I think it's fair to say we've already met the disclosure of past presidential candidates."

To be sure, Clinton continues to have numerous advantages over Trump as the race presses into its final weeks.

Polls show Trump struggling mightily with big swaths of the electorate, including women, blacks, Hispanics and young people. His path to the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win in November is also narrow  he likely needs to carry Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina  while Clinton has numerous routes. Clinton's campaign is also running a sophisticated voter targeting and turnout operation, led by several people involved in Obama's winning campaigns, while Trump is banking on the Republican National Committee for his field operations.

Given those built-in advantages and Trump's weaknesses, some Democrats say their biggest fear is complacency  making the tightening of the race not such a bad development.

"It really says to me and other supporters of Hillary that we have to be invested, and we're going to have to get out and work," said Missouri state Rep. Margo McNeil of suburban St. Louis, who was a Clinton delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

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AP writers Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, Michelle R. Smith in Providence, Rhode Island, David Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri, Lisa Lerer in White Plains, New York, and Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton waves after leaving an apartment building Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016, in New York. Clinton's campaign said the Democratic presidential nominee left the 9/11 anniversary ceremony in New York early after feeling "overheated." (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump meets with patrons during a visit to the Boulevard Diner, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, in Dundalk, Md. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to the National Guard Association of the United States, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton waves after leaving an apartment building Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016, in New York. Clinton's campaign said the Democratic presidential nominee left the 9/11 anniversary ceremony in New York early after feeling "overheated." (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton walks from her daughter's apartment building Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016, in New York. Clinton unexpectedly left Sunday's 9/11 anniversary ceremony in New York after feeling "overheated," according to her campaign. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
Congressman's wife calls prostitution claims 'false attacks'

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP)  The wife of Republican U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany is defending him against prostitution allegations raised in a new book, describing "false attacks" that she says are aimed at disrupting his bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Louisiana.

In an email sent to supporters Monday, Bridget Boustany suggests her husband's opponents are spreading the information, which she called "lies." Bridget Boustany doesn't use the word prostitution in the email, but she talks of people who have "called his character into question."

"He's a good man, a loving husband, and an incredible father to our two children," Bridget Boustany says in the email.

FILE - In this July 21, 2011 file photo, Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Bridget Boustany, the wife of Charles Boustany is defending him against prostitution allegations raised in a new book, describing false attacks that she says are aimed at disrupting his bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Louisiana. In an email sent to supporters Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, Bridget Boustany suggests her husbands opponents are spreading the information, which she called lies.(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Boustany's campaign confirmed the email was spurred by the book "Murder In The Bayou."

The book by Ethan Brown  which has been circulated to reporters and others ahead of its release Tuesday  includes a chapter that claims Charles Boustany was involved with prostitutes who were killed in Jefferson Davis Parish. Brown cites multiple anonymous sources. He does not allege the congressman is involved in the slayings.

The Associated Press hasn't been able to independently confirm the allegations. Brown said in a statement Monday: "I stand by what I reported in my book."

The book also says a former Boustany employee was involved in the operations of a hotel allegedly frequented by the prostitutes.

Several news outlets reported the claims late last week, citing the book. Boustany's campaign says the employee hid the hotel information from the congressman's office and ended his job with Boustany's office last week, and it denies that the congressman was a client of prostitutes.

"These allegations are completely false and don't even deserve a response. Dr. Boustany has a professional and personal reputation of honor and integrity. We are confident the people of Louisiana will see these lies for the political tabloid fodder they are," campaign spokesman Jack Pandol said in a statement.

Boustany is one of 24 contenders on the Nov. 8 ballot in the U.S. Senate race, a seat that is open because Republican David Vitter  who found his bid for governor derailed in part by a prostitution scandal  isn't running for re-election. The race has already gotten national attention in part because white supremacist David Duke is among the candidates. Several polls have shown Boustany as one of the top competitors in the race, which is expected to be decided in a Dec. 10 runoff.

In her email, Bridget Boustany talked of "false attacks aimed at bringing down a candidate who threatens to take the lead and win the race for U.S. Senate." She also said: "Charles' opponents have resorted to lies about him."

Treasurer John Kennedy, the Republican front-runner in the Senate race, objected to that suggestion. Until Monday's email from Boustany's wife, nearly all his opponents had publicly kept quiet about the book's claims.

"I want to be very clear that my campaign played absolutely no role in creating this story alleging Congressman Boustany's sexual relationships with prostitutes that were later murdered, his staff's alleged involvement in running the bar and hotel where this illicit behavior took place, or publishing the book," Kennedy said in a statement that said the treasurer and his wife were keeping Boustany and his family "in our prayers as they deal with this."

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Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte

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Teen at center of police sex scandal faces reduced charge

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  The teenager at the center of a California police sex scandal is now facing a reduced assault charge in Florida, where she has been jailed since her arrest late last month.

Martin County, Florida, prosecutors reduced a charge of biting a security guard at drug treatment center where she was living from a felony to a misdemeanor, according to court papers filed Monday. She no longer faces a lengthy prison term that could have derailed the criminal prosecution of at least seven current and former police officers in northern California.

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley said Friday that she is awaiting the teen's return from Florida before charging the seven men with a range of crimes. O'Malley said the teen is a victim of sex crimes.

The Associated Press doesn't generally identify sex crime victims.

The teen, who turned 19 on Aug. 25, is the daughter of an Oakland Police Department dispatcher who says she has worked as prostitute for the last two years. She says she has had sexual encounters with about 30 officers, four of them when she was younger than 18.

O'Malley said she plans to charge two officers with felony oral copulation with a minor, which she says is equivalent to a statutory rape charge. Two other officers will be charged with prostitution, while three others will be charged with unauthorized accessing of a confidential criminal record database and failure to report a sex crime.

O'Malley said investigators uncovered evidence that the teen had sex with police officers in three other San Francisco Bay Area counties outside her jurisdiction. The teen has told The Associated Press that she told authorities she had sexual encounters with six Richmond police officers and other officers in other departments.

The prosecution of the officers can't begin until the teen returns from Florida, where she had gone to receive in-patient drug counseling on Aug. 26, O'Malley said. She was arrested three days later and originally charged with a felony. She remained in jail Monday, and her public defender Matthew Vasko in Florida declined comment.

O'Malley said she is unhappy the Richmond Police Department helped in enrolling the teen in an in-patient drug treatment center across the country. She demanded the department pay for her return to California as soon as she allowed to leave Florida. Richmond police helped the teen obtain money from a state crime victim fund to pay for the trip.
White House to hold official visit, state dinner for Italy

WASHINGTON (AP)  Italian Primary Minister Matteo Renzi will pay an official visit to the White House next month and be feted at a state dinner.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday the Oct. 18 meeting would be a chance for Renzi and President Barack Obama to discuss issues such as the global refugee crisis, climate change and economic growth.
The gazebo where 12-year-old Tamir Rice was fatally shot by a white Cleveland police officer is set to be dismantled this week and shipped to a Chicago museum for display.

The structure became a makeshift memorial to Tamir, who was playing with a pellet gun when he was killed on November 22, 2014.

An attorney says Tamir's mother Samaria wanted the gazebo, located in the park at the Cudell Recreation Center, to become a symbol for what happened to him.

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The gazebo (pictured in December) where 12-year-old Tamir Rice was fatally shot by a white Cleveland police officer is set to be dismantled this week

Tamir's mother Samaria (right) wanted the gazebo to become a symbol for what happened to her son (left)

On Monday, ex-city councilman Jay Westbrook he's been coordinating the deconstruction with officials at Chicago's Stony Island Arts Bank.

He says a museum official will supervise the deconstruction, scheduled to begin on Wednesday.

Two local companies will be handling removal of the structure, which was piled with stuffed animals and flowers after Tamir's death.

Family attorney Subodh Chandra has said Tamir's mother originally wanted the gazebo demolished as seeing it in her neighborhood was too painful.

But she changed her mind as she came to understand its historic importance.

A witness had called 911 reporting a guy with a pistol  but told operators that it was probably fake. Above, Tamir is seen playing with the pellet gun

Tamir was killed by patrol officer Timothy Loehmann within two seconds of a cruiser skidding to a stop near him outside a recreation center where the gazebo is located

The Rice family now hope to elevate the gazebo into a symbol of the civil rights movement, their attorney Bill Joe Mills told CNN.

A misunderstanding was blamed for initial incorrect reports earlier this year that the Smithsonian Institution wanted the gazebo for its black history museum in Washington.

Cleveland City Councilman Matt Zone said that removing the gazebo made sense as the city also planned to demolish and rebuild the neighboring elementary school, which Tamir had attended.

Residents can attend community meeting to help determine how the recreational space will be used once the school is rebuilt, he said.

Zone said a tree and a stone plaque will be placed there in Tamirs memory.

Weve got to move on, Zone told CNN. Were turning the chapter here but were not trying to whitewash anything or walk away from this.

The Rice family now hope to elevate the gazebo into a symbol of the civil rights movement

The structure became a makeshift memorial to Tamir, who was playing with a pellet gun when he was killed. Above, tributes left at the gazebo shortly after his death

Tamir was killed by patrol officer Timothy Loehmann within two seconds of a cruiser skidding to a stop near him outside a recreation center where the gazebo is located.

His death was among those that fueled the national Black Lives Matter movement, along with those of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York City.

A witness had called 911 reporting a guy with a pistol  but told operators that it was probably fake.

But Lohemann said he thought the gun was real and that the boy seemed older.

In December last year, a grand jury chose not to indict the two responding police officers involved in Tamirs shooting.
Special session kicks off with squabble over Durham ouster

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  A special legislative session to fix a costly drunken driving law kicked off Monday with a squabble about how or whether Tennessee lawmakers should go about trying to expel one of their own.

Republican Gov. Bill Haslam hastily called the special session because Tennessee stands to lose $60 million in federal road money because of a new state law that increased the maximum allowable blood alcohol content for drivers below the drinking age.

While quickly fixing that to bring it back into line with federal zero-tolerance standards appears to be headed for easy approval, an unrelated ouster effort against a lawmaker who was the subject of an extensive sexual harassment investigation led to heated exchanges on the House floor.

House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, consults with colleagues during a House Republican Caucus meeting at the state Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)

The probe detailed allegations that Republican Rep. Jeremy Durham of Franklin had improper sexual contact with at least 22 women over the course of his four years in office.

Durham sent an eight-page letter to colleagues before the start of the special session denying any wrongdoing and saying that he won't attend the session because of a lack of "due process."

"The investigation was a fishing expedition designed to collect as many allegations as possible  no matter how bogus they were," Durham said in the letter. "Zero of the 22 Jane Does remotely fit any definition of sexual harassment."

Allegations in the report included that Durham plied a 20-year-old college student with a cooler full of beer and had sex with her in his office in 2014. Another woman interviewed was a lobbyist who nicknamed Durham "Pants Candy" after she said he rummaged in his pocket before suggestively offering her a dirty, unwrapped mint.

Several of the women discussed feeling as though they could not say no to Durham because he held a position of power over them. None of the women ever filed a formal complaint against him, and many told investigators they felt that doing so would hurt their careers.

Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Mount Juliet, said she plans to introduce the resolution to expel Durham on Tuesday. A vote requiring approval from 66 of 99 House members could come later in the day.

"You can't have a member embarrassing the body like this," Lynn said. "Those victims deserve justice. I think every time he spoke about the victims, he further victimized them."

Durham did find a defender in Rep. Rick Womick of Murfreesboro, a longtime critic of fellow Republican leaders in the chamber.

"For one member to be able to stand up and make a motion to expel somebody, we're a banana republic if that happens," said Womick.

Several Democrats questioned the process for expelling Durham, with leaders implying that Republican House Speaker Beth Harwell of Nashville was trying to avoid criticism of her own handling of sexual harassment allegations.

Republicans hit back that Democrats were seeking to gain political points by obstructing the resolution to oust Durham.

"There are some things that ought to be past politics, and one of them is getting rid of a guy who's a sexual predator," said House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga. "Apparently that's not important to them."

Harwell said she was "shocked and appalled" that Democrats would "play games" with the ouster process.

"They're the obstructionists, from their leader on to their membership," she said.

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Stewart of Nashville denied that Democrats are trying to score political points at Harwell's expense.

"Gamesmanship is knowing about the allegations about Jeremy Durham for months and months and using every procedural trick in the book to avoid sanctioning him," Stewart said.

"Republicans have dragged their feet in every way, and they've finally been forced by political pressure to expel him," he said.
Ex-lawmaker gets 1 year for hiding senator-sibling bribe

LOS ANGELES (AP)  A former California lawmaker was sentenced Monday to a year in federal prison for helping his brother, a state senator, hide bribe payments he got for supporting legislation.

Ex-Assemblyman Thomas Calderon laundered money Sen. Ron Calderon accepted from an undercover FBI agent in exchange for supporting tax credits for the film industry  legislation that never passed.

The brothers are part of a family political dynasty that still wields power in the state capital and is now tainted with a pair of corruption convictions since their guilty pleas this year.

"I'm truly remorseful and regret my mistakes," Calderon said in court just before sentencing. "I just want to be able to survive this."

Judge Christina Snyder said the crime was serious and the sentence should serve as a deterrent for others. But she was concerned about his health because of recent triple-bypass surgery and diabetes, so she split the term between federal prison and home confinement.

Under a plea deal, prosecutors were seeking a year in prison and the defense asked for probation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mack Jenkins said Calderon was a self-made man who served his community and the state well before leaving the Legislature in 2002 and then capitalizing on his connections as a political consultant.

Jenkins said the path to "the dark side" that Calderon took is not unheard of for those who leave public office and need a source of income. He pointed out that Calderon's largest sources of income were a water district and hospital "mired in corruption."

Defense attorney Shepard Kopp said outside court that the prosecutor's remarks sounded like hyperbole because Calderon was not charged with any crimes connected with those clients. However, one of those clients, Pacific Hospital, was connected with his brother's corruption case, and the hospital owner was prosecuted separately.

Ron Calderon, 59, pleaded guilty to mail fraud and he faces up to six years in prison. He acknowledged accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from the undercover FBI agents in the film tax scheme and from Pacific Hospital's owner to support legislation to help maintain a long-running and massive health care fraud scheme. The law was repealed in 2013.

Ron Calderon was one of three Democratic state senators whose indictments around the same time shook up the Capitol and led voters to give legislators the power to suspend the pay of colleagues accused of wrongdoing while in office.
Cuban dissident Coco Farinas ends hunger strike

HAVANA (AP)  A Cuban dissident says fellow activist Guillermo Farinas has ended a nearly two-month hunger strike in response to an apparently false report about the European Parliament taking up his case.

Dissident Jorge Luis Artiles told The Associated Press on Monday that Farinas ended his protest because the European Parliament had taken action to condition ties with Cuba on the country granting dissidents more rights.

European Union officials said they had no information about the supposed "Farinas Amendment," and a Miami-based Cuban-American group said the report had originated on a blog that was taken down by Monday evening.
'Child Houses' to offer support to young sex abuse victims

Child victims of sexual abuse will be able to receive support and protection under one roof as part of a pilot project brought forward by Amber Rudd and Sadiq Khan.

The Home Secretary and Mayor of London will this week set out plans for two "Child Houses" where children will be able to receive medical care, therapeutic support and give evidence.

The 7.2 million Home Office-funded initiative led by the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) and NHS England will help an estimated 400 children and young people a year.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan is proposing the pilot project 'Child Houses'

The facilities are due to open in London next year and they will be the first of their kind in the UK.

They are based on similar facilities used in Iceland which act as a single location for victims of child sexual abuse to receive help.

Ms Rudd said: "Child sexual abuse is a horrendous crime that this Government is taking action to tackle, both by protecting children from abuse and ensuring that offenders are swiftly brought to justice.

"As we investigate and prosecute these crimes it is vital that victims, who have already suffered in ways most of us could never imagine, are supported and protected throughout the process.

"The Home Office is providing police forces with funding that rewards and incentivises new approaches to police work and drives forward positive change. The Child Houses, by improving evidence gathering while putting the needs of the victim front and centre, demonstrate exactly the kind of innovative thinking that we are encouraging."

The use of recorded interviews with clinical child psychologists and police officers will mean victims will not have to recount their experiences to multiple agencies.

Meanwhile, video links will allow for the giving of evidence during legal proceedings in a more child-friendly environment.

The Government is also set to launch its Child Sexual Exploitation Response Unit this week, a 1.24 million initiative to provide specialist support to people working in safeguarding across the country.

An NSPCC spokesman said: "We have long called for the need for children to be at the heart of services that help them recover.

"We have been strong advocates of Child Houses as a way to achieve this and are working with government to make them happen.

"The new Home Secretary's support is a welcome step in building a system that helps minimise a traumatised child's suffering."

Anne Longfield, Children's Commissioner for England, said: "This is very welcome. I want Police and Crime Commissioners in other areas to explore the possibility of setting up similar pilots and improve the support victims get.
Refugee response very slow, says ex-archbishop amid plea to reunite families

The Government has been "very slow" in its response to the refugee crisis and has "little to show" after pledging to reunite families separated by conflict, the former archbishop of Canterbury has said.

Lord Dr Rowan Williams joined a host of religious leaders at an event in London to call on Prime Minister Theresa May to assist refugees fleeing war-ravaged nations such as Syria and Iraq.

Speaking at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, he said that together, the faith communities were proposing an "opening up of our (the UK's) current conventions and protocols" to accelerate the reunion of families separated by war.

Lord Dr Rowan Williams said turning people away does not solve the problem

This would mean that visa processes would be "relaxed" so that refugee families currently living in the UK can be joined by relatives stranded abroad, he added.

His intervention comes as more than 200 Christian, Muslim and Jewish clerics, alongside lead representatives of other faiths, signed an open letter urging Mrs May to unblock rules preventing refugee families being reunited in the UK.

He said: "We make (the proposal) because the pace seems very slow at the moment in responding to this crisis.

"We have had several months of discussion about the reuniting of children with parents. We have, as yet, very little to show for it."

He added: "The refugee issue is not going to go away, however much we put our fingers in our ears and screw our eyes tight shut - that is not going to change.

"Turning people away does not solve the problem, it shifts the burden very often in the world we currently live in on to those less able to bear it than we are.

"The issue is not going to disappear, and so it's futile and foolish to pretend that it will if we ignore it for long enough."

The letter from religious leaders criticised the Government's handling of the crisis as "too slow, too low and too narrow", creating "avoidable tragedies" as refugees attempt to make dangerous journeys to be reunited with loved ones.

Their letter follows similar calls from around 300 top former judges and lawyers, approximately 120 of the world's senior economists, and 27 charities and NGOs.

Mrs May's official spokeswoman said: "The current system does already allow for reunification. So if the UNHCR recognises an individual somewhere else in the world as a refugee and they have family ties to the UK, then their asylum claim will be processed and they can be resettled here."

More than 120 unaccompanied children have come to the UK from Europe since the start of the year, and more than 30 since the Immigration Act was passed in May, said the spokeswoman.

The UK had already committed to resettle 20,000 vulnerable refugees from camps near to Syria over a five-year period and to take 3,000 children and their families from the region under the Children at Risk scheme.

The Immigration Act set out measures to take in unaccompanied refugee children who were already in Europe before March 20 this year, "where it is in their best interests", but set no figure on the numbers who might be allowed into the UK.

Last week, the Government announced it had secured local authority places to meet its pledge to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees over the next four years.

And in a major U-turn earlier this year, former PM David Cameron committed to accepting 3,000 unaccompanied children registered in France, Italy and Greece.

But the letter, which has signatories including bishops and members of the House of Lords such a Baroness Rabbi Julia Neuberger and secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain Harun Rashid Khan, said current legislation left families resorting to desperate measures in a bid to be reunited.

It said: "Under the present immigration rules, a British doctor of Syrian origin could not bring her parents from a refugee camp in Lebanon - even though they were refugees and she could support and house them.

"A Syrian child who arrived alone in the UK could not bring his parents from a refugee camp in Jordan - even if the child were recognised a refugee and even though his parents were themselves refugees.

"Families in these situations can currently be reunited only by resorting to desperately unsafe irregular journeys, sometimes ending in avoidable tragedies."

Lord Dr Williams added on Monday that they hoped the Government would realise accepting the measures being proposed by faith leaders would not "kill us".

He said: "We have an enormous responsibility to persuade the Government that this is a risk worth taking."

Religious communities would stand at the side of the Government to provide "support and practical assistance" in delivering their proposals, he added.

Sharing a stage with the former archbishop were religious representatives including the former director of the Islamic Society of Great Britain Julie Siddiqi.

Also talking at the event was Dr Bashar Alkawaret, a Syrian refugee who lives and works in the UK, but whose pregnant wife has been refused asylum.

He said: "I have refugee status but they refused my wife. I never came for benefits or money, I came because my life was in danger. I am working and supporting myself."

He added: "I miss my wife and I want to be with her. To see my wife I had to go and meet her in Sudan, it was the first time in four-and-a-half years that I had seen her, we spent two-and-a-half months there, then she became pregnant.

"I had to come back to the UK and she had to go back to the war in Syria."

A Home Office spokesman said: " The UK has been at the forefront of the international response to the humanitarian crisis in Syria. We have committed to resettling 20,000 Syrian refugees through our vulnerable persons resettlement scheme over the course of this Parliament - we are on track to achieve that and have already provided refuge to more than 2,800 under this route.

"In addition, over the same period we will bring up to 3,000 individuals to the UK under the new vulnerable children's resettlement scheme. This scheme will bring children at risk, with their families where appropriate, to the UK from the Middle East and North Africa region.
Firms 'must not use Brexit as smokescreen to disinvest from UK'

Firms have been warned not to use Brexit as an excuse to cut jobs and workers' rights amid warnings that a "shadow" was hanging over workplaces in the aftermath of the EU vote.

Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, said productive factories like Ford's engine plant in Bridgend, south Wales, have had their future thrown into doubt following the referendum result.

"We are ready to work with employers to overcome any genuine problems that may exist, but we are not prepared to see Brexit used as a smokescreen for further disinvestment from Britain. Out of the EU must not mean out of work," he said at the TUC Congress in Brighton.

Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, delivers a speech at the annual TUC Congress in Brighton

Mr McCluskey also called for an end to the "shameful racist backlash" on migrant workers in recent months.

"We need to say loud and clear - migrant workers in Britain are our brothers and sisters and we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them against the racists. It is greedy bosses who are to blame for driving down wages, not migrant workers."
Address of girl killed by father was sent to him in error by mother's solicitor

The address of a girl murdered on her doorstep by her estranged father was accidentally sent to him by her mother's solicitor, it has emerged in a serious case review.

Seven-year-old Mary Shipstone was returning to the safe house from school with her mother when Yasser Alromisse shot his daughter in the head - then turned the gun on himself.

Five months earlier, the girl's mother, Lyndsey Shipstone, reported to police that her solicitor had inadvertently revealed her new address to Alromisse in legal papers, the review revealed.

Mary Shipstone was shot in the head on the doorstep of her home by her estranged father (Sussex Police/PA)

Evidence or strong suspicion also emerged that details of her previous addresses or identity were given to 46-year-old Alromisse by other bodies, including a bank and the Child Support Agency.

Despite the disclosures, the serious case review concluded that no-one could have predicted or prevented the killing in Northiam, near Rye, East Sussex, on September 11 2014.

It said there was no evidence Alromisse located his daughter and estranged wife through the inadvertent disclosures of the girl's address and her mother's circumstances.

The criminal investigation into Mary's shooting found Alromisse had used "a variety of covert and illicit means" to try to trace the address and the routine of his daughter, referred to as Child P.

The 73-page serious case review report noted: "It has not been possible to establish exactly when and how he found out where Child P was living.

"There is no evidence that any professional was aware of this activity, nor did he make any threat to harm Child P or give any indication that he might do so.

"The review has concluded that no professional working with the family could have prevented him acting as he did."

Mary's death "was calculated to deprive the mother of her child while at the same time leaving her with a permanent memory of her death", the report said.

And it added that Ms Shipstone believed Alromisse killed their daughter because he feared the outcome of a new round of court hearings would end in him being denied contact.

At an inquest in September last year, East Sussex coroner Alan Craze said the "thoroughly despicable act of violence" had been "pre-meditated over a long period of time".

The inquest heard Ms Shipstone carried Mary to a neighbour's home, where they tried to revive her while waiting for emergency services to arrive. She was taken to King's College Hospital, London, but later died of her injuries.

A series of recommendations were made in the review, including seeking assurances from agencies that systems were in place surrounding information about vulnerable people that should not be revealed.

A spokesman for the East Sussex Local Safeguarding Children Board said: "After a thorough independent review, the LSCB concluded, as did the investigating police officers, that the father planned and carried out the killing in a secretive way, using the internet and a range of covert methods to trace the family and obtain the means to carry out the murder.

"There is no evidence that any professional involved with the family prior to these tragic events was aware of this activity. Based on the review, the LSCB concludes that no professional could have prevented him doing what he did.

"The LSCB has also found that professionals did respond diligently to reports of domestic violence, which were all taken seriously and responded to appropriately.
Crystal Palace defender Pape Souare recovering in hospital after car accident

Crystal Palace defender Pape Souare was airlifted to hospital on Sunday after suffering thigh and jaw injuries in a car accident.

The club announced that the 26-year-old full-back would remain in hospital to receive treatment following the crash which occurred on the M4 motorway.

A statement on the club's website read: "The club are liaising closely with the hospital on his progress and we obviously wish him a speedy recovery. Our thoughts are with Pape and his family at this time."

Senegal international Pape Souare was involved in a car accident on Sunday

London's Air Ambulance confirmed that Souare, who did not feature in Palace's 2-1 win at Middlesbrough on Saturday, was airlifted by the service after the road traffic collision on the eastbound carriageway of the M4 motorway.

A Metropolitan Police statement read: " Officers were called shortly before 12:10hrs on Sunday, 11 September to reports of two cars in collision between junctions four and three .

"London Ambulance Service attended and the driver of one of the cars - a man aged in his 20s - was taken to an east London hospital for treatment. His injuries are not life threatening.

"The driver of the other car involved did not require hospital treatment. There have been no arrests."

The Senegal international joined the Eagles from French side Lille in January last year and has featured in three Premier League matches this campaign.

Palace manager Alan Pardew admitted that Souare could have broken his leg and could be out for a long period of time.

"He's not in a good way in terms of football, I think he's broken his leg so maybe not so good, but thankfully he looks sound other than that, just a bit bashed up," he told Sky Sports.

"We'll have to look after him and get him back as quick as we can because he's a great lad and it's a big loss.
Heathrow and Gatwick both record busiest August amid airport expansion battle

Heathrow and Gatwick airports both recorded their busiest ever August as they continued to promote their expansion proposals.

Some 7.3 million passengers travelled through Heathrow last month, up 0.1% on August 2015.

Growth at the west London hub was driven by a 9.7% rise in travellers heading to or from the Middle East, while the Latin America market was up 5.8%.

Heathrow and Gatwick both posted strong figures

Passenger numbers in the UK sector were down 10.7%, while Africa flights saw a fall in passengers of 4.8%.

The airport welcomed Great Britain's Olympic team on their return from Rio last month.

Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye reiterated his call for the building of a third runway to be given the go-ahead by the Government.

He said : " We were delighted to welcome the golden heroes of Team GB back from Rio. They have shown that Britain can be successful against tough international competition by backing our winners.

"Britain should not accept bronze, when we could so easily win gold. So now is the time to back the winners in our economy and expand Britain's biggest and most successful port, Heathrow.

"We can get exporters, large and small, from all across Britain connected to the growing markets of the world, and it is urgent that we get on with it.

"That is why we are looking at options to connect Britain to growth quicker and cheaper."

Gatwick also recorded its busiest ever August, with 4.8 million passengers travelling through the airport, a 5.7% increase on last year.

A 51% boost in passengers using North Atlantic routes fuelled the growth. The Ireland market was up 12.8%, while the UK sector increased by 9.1%.

Gatwick chief executive Stewart Wingate claimed the figures demonstrate errors made by the Davies Commission, which recommended in July 2015 that Heathrow should be expanded rather than Gatwick.

He said: " Gatwick is delivering for Britain today and, with a second runway, will continue to deliver the crucial growth we need now more than ever.

"The Airports Commission said that Gatwick could not deliver long-haul routes, yet we have added 20 this year alone, putting us in the premier league of airports in Europe that serve 50 or more long-haul links.

"The Airports Commission also said that we would not serve 42 million annual passengers until 2030, yet we passed this mark just days ago.

"Our growth and success illustrates that Britain needs to put the failed plans of the past behind it and back the plan that can actually deliver, and deliver cheaper, faster, simpler and with absolutely no taxpayer subsidy. It's time for growth and certainty, it's time for Gatwick."

Some 2.9 million passengers travelled through Manchester Airport last month, up 9.1% on last year.

The airport's chief executive, Ken O'Toole, said: "August is always the busiest month of the year for the airport as families get away during the school holidays and it was no different this year.

"Spain has certainly proved popular, which reflected the increase in capacity we saw from airlines to the likes of the Balearics and the Costas.

"New long-haul services that have launched this summer to destinations like Boston, Los Angeles and Beijing have all contributed to a record summer for Manchester Airport.
David Cameron quits as MP to avoid becoming 'distraction' for Government

David Cameron has quit as an MP because he fears becoming a "distraction" for the Government and pointed out he holds his "own views" on certain issues.

The former prime minister denied his decision was linked to Theresa May's plan to introduce a new wave of grammar schools, insisting the timing was "coincidental".

He had previously said he planned to fight the 2020 general election but said today it "isn't really possible" to sit on the backbenches after being in No 10.

Former prime minister David Cameron is standing down as MP for Witney, Oxfordshire

His resignation came as several Tory MPs expressed reservations about the current Prime Minister's plans for more selective schools during a House of Commons statement.

While Tory leader, Mr Cameron resisted backbench pressure to overturn Tony Blair's ban on new grammars.

His announcement comes two months after he quit as prime minister on July 13 in the wake of defeat in the EU referendum.

The former PM said at the time that he was "very keen to continue" as MP for Witney, which he has represented in the Commons since 2001, and said it was "very much my intention" to seek re-election in 2020.

But after considering his position over the summer he came to the conclusion he must quit politics.

He said Mrs May had "got off to a cracking start" and she had been "very understanding" about his decision.

"Obviously I'm going to have my own views about different issues," Mr Cameron told ITV News. "People would know that and that's really the point.

"As a former prime minister it is very difficult, I think, to sit as a backbencher and not be an enormous diversion and distraction from what the Government is doing."

Asked if Mrs May's grammar plans were linked to his decision, he replied: "This decision has got nothing to do with any one individual issue. The timing in that way, I promise, is coincidental."

Mr Cameron said there were "many good things" in the policy but refused to endorse the proposals.

"My announcement today is not about grammar schools, there's no connection with grammar schools, it's purely one of timing."

Mrs May said she was "proud to have served" in Mr Cameron's government and under his leadership "we achieved great things not just stabilising the economy but also making great strides on delivering serious social reform".

"His commitment to lead a one nation government is one I will continue to follow," the PM said. "I thank him for everything he has done for the Conservative Party and the country and I wish him and his family well for the future."

Former chancellor and close ally George Osborne said it was a "sad day", tweeting: "We came into Parliament together, had a great partnership + I will miss him alongside me on the green benches over the coming years. Sad day."

Mr Cameron said he would not be moving away from the constituency, where he has made his home with wife Samantha and their children.

He said he was yet to make any "firm decisions" about his future but will be looking at a "new life".

"I'm sure I will be remembered for keeping that pledge to hold a referendum when many people thought that promise would never be kept," he said.

"I hope people will also look back at the 11 years I was leader of the Conservative Party and six years as prime minister of our country as a time when we did create a stronger economy, a thousand people (in work) for every day I was prime minister.

"And we did make some important social reform. The Conservative Party went from being in the doldrums and getting beaten to being a modernising winning force in British politics. The historians will have to work that out. I will now be looking at a new life. I'm only 49. I hope I can still contribute in terms of public service and to the country."

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he wished Mr Cameron "all the best for the future", adding he got on well with him on a "human level."

Mr Corbyn thanked the former PM for the "courtesy" he showed him.

Speaking as he arrived for a private dinner with the TUC general council in Brighton, Mr Corbyn also joked about the "advice" Mr Cameron said his mother would give him about what to wear.

The Treasury confirmed that Mr Cameron had been appointed to the office of Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead, the arcane method by which MPs resign from the House of Commons.

The post carries no salary or responsibilities, but as a Crown appointment renders the holder ineligible to sit as an MP.

Cameron started his political career as a special advisor to then-chancellor Norman Lamont, right, in 1992.

In 1994 Mr Cameron left politics to take up the role of director of corporate affairs at Carlton Communications

Mr Cameron became a Member of Parliament for his Witney seat after the 2001 general election.

He served on the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee before becoming shadow education secretary.

After Michael Howard announced his resignation as Conservative Party leader in 2005, Mr Cameron announced he would stand to replace him.

Mr Cameron's acclaimed speech to the Conservative Party conference in 2005 was considered a turning point in the leadership contest.

Mr Cameron went head to head with David Davis for the Conservative leadership.

He beat Mr Davis by 134,446 votes to 64,398 - more than two to one - and promised a new style of politics to woo back disillusioned voters.

Mr Cameron went up against then-Labour leader Tony Blair in his first Prime Minister's Questions as leader of the opposition.

Mr Cameron and his wife, Samantha, welcomed their new son, Arthur Elwen, in 2006.

He famously hugged a husky in his bid to shed the Conservatives' hard image.

Mr Cameron also attempted to soften the Tories' stance on crime with his "hug a hoodie" speech.

Mr Cameron was regularly photographed out jogging during his time as opposition leader.

He was criticised for cycling with a car driving behind him carrying his shoes.

He took part in the first ever televised leader debates alongside Nick Clegg and Gordon Brown ahead of the 2010 general election.

Mr Cameron became Prime Minister in 2010 after the Conservative were the largest party after the general election.

The Conservative formed a coalition government with the Lib Dems in 2010 and Mr Cameron famously stood alongside the new deputy prime minister Nick Clegg during their rose garden speech at 10 Downing Street.

Mr Cameron built a steady relationship with US President Barack Obama during his time in office.

As Prime Minister, David Cameron supported and oversaw the introduction of gay marriage into UK law.

He was also prime minister during the Scottish independence referendum and successfully campaigned to keep the union together.

He campaigned hard for the Conservatives in the 2015 general election.

A surprise general election result saw the Conservatives form a majority government in 2015.

Mr Cameron led the Remain campaign in the EU referendum, which was promised in the Conservative Party's 2015 general election manifesto.
Woman in foiled Paris attacks "betrothed" to killers of police, priest

PARIS, Sept 9 (Reuters) - One of three women arrested over a failed Islamist attack in Paris had been "promised as a bride" to two men behind attacks on police officers and a priest earlier this year, the Paris prosecutor said on Friday.

The revelations highlight the close links between members of radical Islamist circles in France, even though they might live in different parts of the country.

Sarah H, a 23-year-old Frenchwoman, was taken into custody on Thursday along with the other two women after police launched a manhunt to find them, believing they were planning an imminent attack on the Gare de Lyon train station in Paris.

The three women were being tracked after a car loaded with gas cylinders was found near Notre Dame cathedral at the weekend. Sarah H allegedly stabbed a police officer when she was arrested; another of the women was shot and wounded . Neither the police officer nor the woman shot was seriously injured.

Sarah H "is known to intelligence services as being particularly linked to Islamist movements," the prosecutor, Francois Molins, said. "She was previously betrothed to Larossi Abballa, the man responsible for the attack in Magnanville, and Adel Kermiche, who was behind the attack in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray."

Abballa was killed by security services after murdering a police commander and his partner in June in Magnanville, an attack claimed by Islamic State. Kermiche and Abdel-Malik Nabir Petitjean were killed in July after slitting the throat of a French priest in a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in the name of the group.

The three women were determined to carry out Islamic State's "deadly ideology", Molins said, and had been given direction by members of the militant group in Syria.
Belarus opposition wins parliamentary seat for first time in 20 years -electoral commission

MINSK, Sept 12 (Reuters) - At least one Belarussian opposition candidate was elected to parliament on Sunday, the central election commission said - the first time a politician opposed to hardline President Alexander Lukashenko has won representation in 20 years.

The result will not change the political landscape in the former Soviet republic, once termed Europe's last dictatorship by the United States, but it signals the authorities are making some concessions to Western demands for democratic change.
Global ad spend strengthens on U.S. demand-Zenith

LONDON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Spending on global advertising will grow by a better-than-expected 4.4 percent this year, led by the United States, a leading forecaster said on Monday.

Zenith, owned by France's Publicis, raised its global growth forecast for this year from the 4.1 percent it predicted in June, despite the uncertainty sparked by Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

The advertising agency also raised its global forecasts for 2017 and 2018, to 4.5 percent and 4.6 percent respectively, from earlier forecasts of 4.3 percent and 4.4 percent. Increased spend on advertising reflects increased confidence levels by companies.

"This upgrade is mainly the result of stronger-than-expected growth in the U.S., where a strong labour market has encouraged consumers to increase their expenditure, and advertisers have fought harder for their share of the expanding market," it said.

Zenith expects strong spending by pharmaceutical and consumer packaged goods to help U.S. network TV spending to return to growth this year, after it fell 5 percent last year.

It also raised its guidance slightly for Asia Pacific and Western Europe.

The group said that advertisers had so far reacted calmly to Britain's June 23 vote to leave the EU. Zenith trimmed its 2016 growth forecast for Britain to 5.4 percent from the 5.6 percent figure it predicted before the vote.

"As we have argued before, most of the impact that Brexit will have on the UK ad market will come in the long term," it said.
Hungry for power, Myanmar bets on hydro in new energy plan

By Shwe Yee Saw Myint and Antoni Slodkowski

YANGON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Electricity-starved Myanmar is looking to overhaul its long-term power strategy, aiming to hike the planned share of hydropower in its energy mix at the cost of polluting coal as it tries to attract foreign investment.

The new democratically-elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi has made job creation one of its top priorities in what is Asia's sixth-poorest country. However, with half of its people without access to electricity and major cities experiencing blackouts, finding investors is tough. Even tougher is getting them to back coal-fired plants given environmental concerns.

Myanmar's initial plan was to boost coal's share to a third by the end of the next decade from just 3 percent now and to slash the contribution of hydro to 38 percent from 63 percent, according to the plan shown to Reuters by officials at the Ministry of Electricity and Energy.

But most people are "reluctant to implement coal-fired power plants, that's why we won't be able to implement the planned coal power plant projects," said Aung Ko Ko, director of hydro and renewable energy planning branch at the ministry.

"Hopefully hydropower will be the majority in the new plan," he said, estimating its share at 50-55 percent by 2030-31. Imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) could make up for some of the drop in coal use, Aung Ko Ko added.

Nine key ministries, including energy, industry and mining, have met in the capital of Naypyitaw to coordinate their energy strategy with the aim to have a draft master plan ready by the end of the month, and under scrutiny are 49 hydropower projects approved by the previous government.

Myanmar is reviewing these to see how quickly - if at all -they can be completed, how many more would be needed and how to secure funds, as it seeks to boost its power capacity to make the most of an unprecedented economic revival after 49 years of military rule that ended in 2011 and to sustain an economic growth rate of about 8 percent - one of the world's fastest.

"The new government realizes these projects should be prioritised. She (Suu Kyi) allowed us to talk with potential international lending facilities like the ADB," a senior official at the department of hydropower implementation of the Ministry of Electricity and Energy said, referring to the Japan and U.S.-led Asia Development Bank.

Several dams and power plants in Myanmar have until 2011 been financed by China and, while the West has since shown eagerness to provide financing for electricity projects in the country in a bid to increase its influence there, experts say shifting away from Beijing will not be easy.

LIST OF 49

Of the projects under review, some 31 include Chinese investment and involve 11 Chinese companies. It lists names such as Beijing-based conglomerate Hanergy Holding Group Ltd and state-owned CPI Yunnan International Power Investment Co that is behind the controversial $3.6-billion Myitsone megadam project.

The 2011 cancellation of the Myitsone remains a sore point between the two countries. Myanmar suspended the project citing environmental worries, but the decision was also seen as an attempt to distance itself from Beijing, an uncertainty that has stymied subsequent investment decisions.

China has been asking to restart Myitsone, and finding a solution is crucial for Suu Kyi as she needs China's help in talks with ethnic minority armed groups, many of whom operate on the border between the two countries. A resolution could also help unlock more Chinese funds.

"In my opinion, the developers of these projects (on the list) cannot get loans from Chinese banks because of the problems with Myitsone," said the energy ministry official at the department of hydropower implementation.

Five projects on the list that are sponsored from Myanmar's budget have faced delays because the country does not have enough money to finance them, the official said. Seven others are being built by local firms. The rest will need to be financed by cooperation with foreign investors.

For some of the long-stalled hydropower projects, Myanmar may open fresh tenders and seek loans from international lending facilities, the official said, adding that the World Bank and ADB, among others, were interested in supporting electricity and energy projects in the country.

The private-sector lending arm of the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), is reluctant to finance coal projects because of environmental concerns, said Vikram Kumar, who heads the IFC's operation in Myanmar.

As of now, power consumption in Myanmar is one of the lowest in the world. Its per capita use averaged 164 kilowatt hour in 2013, according to the World Bank, the 11th lowest in the world and roughly on par with Sudan and Togo.

"We need investment from abroad ... so many factors, so many risks, so many transactional challenges faced by the foreign investor - JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency), IFC, World Bank and ADB have asked the government how to optimize and overcome these challenges," said Aung Ko Ko.

"But the government is very new and they need time to optimize the power sector development."
Ethnic tensions, Taliban attacks pose traps for Afghan leader

By James Mackenzie

KABUL, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Taliban advances and a shootout between gunmen from rival ethnic groups in Kabul that carried echoes of Afghanistan's 1990s civil war have underlined the threats facing President Ashraf Ghani two years after he came to power.

The skirmish earlier this month in the capital, sparked by a row over plans to re-bury a former Tajik king, was relatively minor by Afghan standards, but also a rare open display of hostility between ethnic groups that often simmers under the surface yet defines decades of conflict.

At the same time, the Taliban have stepped up operations only weeks before a major conference of international donors to Afghanistan in Brussels.

Last Thursday, the militant movement's fighters appeared to walk right into the centre of Tarin Kot, capital of the central province of Uruzgan, and though the insurgents were pushed back, residents say it is now a ghost town of empty roads and shuttered shops.

The fighting in Uruzgan and other provinces including Helmand in the south and Kunduz in the north, plus a string of attacks in Kabul in the last few months, provide stark evidence of the Western-backed government's inability to guarantee security, 15 years after the fall of the Taliban.

NATO and Afghan security officials are on alert for more attacks after the Eid holiday this week.

So far, opposition groups have avoided calling openly for Ghani to go, wary of creating a power vacuum at a time when the Taliban insurgency is gaining in intensity.

But this month is the deadline by which the government was to have introduced a new structure following the disputed election of 2014, which forced Ghani to divide power with his rival, Abdullah Abdullah, in an awkward "unity" administration.

The deadline is set to expire with none of those changes in place, which experts say undermines Ghani's legitimacy at a time when the Afghan public is far from happy with his performance.

"It's a manageable situation, but the risk of it getting out of hand becomes acute around September," said Scott Worden, director of Afghanistan and Central Asia Programs at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington.

Ghani has the support of the United States, Afghanistan's key ally; Secretary of State John Kerry said in April that Washington does not consider the deadline binding and expects the government to serve a full five-year term.

Whether it lasts that long may depend on how Ghani gets on with his chief executive Abdullah, who recently accused the president of being unwilling to listen to his ministers and unfit to hold office.

Senior aides say they have ironed out their differences after a series of meetings, and government unity is undamaged.

"There's an environment of better understanding and agreement," said government spokesman Shahhussain Murtazawi. "What you see in the media doesn't reflect reality."

BEWARE "ACCIDENTS"

While security and a lack of jobs remain top priorities, the two must also keep a lid on ethnic tensions that flared up during the dispute over the reburial of Habibullah Kalakani, a Tajik bandit who briefly reigned as king in 1929.

Although eventually resolved, the dispute saw Tajik supporters exchanging fire with those backing Vice President Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek with his own large militia, who objected that the proposed burial site had connections with their own history.

With the opposition unwilling to be seen destabilizing the government, the threat of an immediate political crisis appears to have waned, though risks remain.

"Barring accidents, I don't think anything decisive will happen by the end of September," said Umer Daudzai, former interior minister and leader of the opposition Afghanistan Protection and Stability Council.

But he added: "Accidents have always influenced things in Afghanistan a lot."

The Kabul attack in July on a demonstration by members of the mainly Shia Hazara community, which killed more than 80 people, had already raised fears of ethnic bloodshed, beyond the militant violence that Ghani and the Americans hope to contain.

And the latest dispute has fuelled bitter exchanges not only between Tajiks and Uzbeks, but also Tajiks and Pashtuns, the country's largest ethnic group, as well as Hazaras, who have faced a long history of discrimination.

Shrill rhetoric from different ethnic groups in the wake of the clash has fed into social media and local television stations, which have been awash with angry comment.

How this will be judged by foreign donors who meet in Brussels in October to approve support for Afghanistan remains unclear, although they have said they would continue to provide the billions of dollars needed over the coming years.

"We have achieved most of the goals set for us and we have time to reach the remaining goals," Murtazawi said.

Seen by critics and some ministers as a remote technocrat given to micromanaging, Ghani lacks a clear power base.

While he may be able to count on U.S. and international backing, his own people doubt his ability to provide adequate security and enough jobs.

Renewal of ethnic rivalries risks boosting the power of regional and ethnic strongmen like Dostum, who scorn efforts to impose central control on their local power bases and regularly complain of being shut out by Ghani.
North Korea ready for another nuclear test any time-S.Korea

By Ju-min Park and Jack Kim

SEOUL, Sept 12 (Reuters) - North Korea is ready to conduct an additional nuclear test at any time, South Korea's Defence Ministry said on Monday, three days after Pyongyang's fifth test drew widespread condemnation.

North Korea set off its most powerful nuclear blast to date on Friday, saying it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile and ratcheting up a threat that its rivals and the United Nations have been powerless to contain.

"Assessment by South Korean and U.S. intelligence is that the North is always ready for an additional nuclear test in the Punggye-ri area," the site of all five nuclear explosions, South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun told a news briefing.

"North Korea has a tunnel where it can conduct an additional nuclear test," Moon said.

On Monday, Siegfried Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States and a leading expert on North Korea's nuclear program, said Pyongyang's claims that it had standardized a nuclear warhead for mounting on ballistic missiles and could produce as many bombs as it wanted had to be taken seriously.

Writing on the 38 North website which monitors North Korea, Hecker estimated the country had stockpiled sufficient plutonium and highly enriched uranium for approximately 20 bombs by the end of the year and had the capacity to add about seven more a year.

"Its ability to field an ICBM fitted with a nuclear warhead capable of reaching the United States is still a long way off - perhaps 5 to 10 years - but likely doable if the program is unconstrained," Hecker added.

The United States and South Korea are pushing for more sanctions against Pyongyang to close loopholes left in a United Nations Security Council resolution adopted in March.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Monday the United States would do all it could to oppose North Korea's nuclear weapons policy with financial tools as coordinated economic sanctions had been shown to work.

"North Korea is an enormous challenge and we will do everything we can to keep the pressure on them. We will continue to sharpen financial tools as we can," he said, while adding that China's participation was very important.

Both China and Russia backed sanctions imposed in March following North Korea's January nuclear test, but their apparent ambivalence about fresh sanctions has cast doubt on the Security Council's ability to quickly form a consensus.

"We expect that China, as one of the Security Council member states, should take this issue seriously and play a very constructive role to come up with a very effective and strong sanctions resolution," a South Korean foreign ministry official said.

NEW SANCTIONS?

The Security Council has denounced the latest test and said it would begin work immediately on a resolution. The United States, Britain and France - three of the five veto-wielding permanent members - have pushed for the 15-member body to impose new sanctions.

However, China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said sanctions alone could not solve the North Korean nuclear issue. The crux of the issue lay with the United States, not China, she added, in an apparent reference to Washington's refusal to resume negotiations with North Korea until it commits to de-nuclearisation.

On Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said a "creative" response was needed.

Speaking to Lavrov on Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China "strongly urged North Korea and other relevant parties to remain calm and exercise restraint, and not take any new steps to intensify tensions", China's Foreign Ministry said.

Russia said Lavrov and Wang condemned North Korea's latest nuclear test in a phone conversation on Monday. Russia and China are the other veto powers on the Security Council.

South Korea's President Park Geun-hye said North Korea's nuclear weapons and missiles posed an "imminent threat."

"As North Korea has publicly said nuclear warheads have been standardized and customised to mount on ballistic missiles, we should keep in mind that North Korea's nuclear missiles are a realistic, imminent threat targeting us, not a simple threat for negotiations," Park told a meeting with major political party leaders.

Pyongyang's assertions that it is able to miniaturise a nuclear warhead have never been independently verified.

BOMBER FLIGHT DELAYED

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, formerly the country's chief nuclear negotiator, arrived in Beijing on Monday and was seen entering the country's embassy, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.

Ri left Pyongyang on Monday to attend a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement countries in Venezuela and later the U.N. General Assembly, North Korea's official KCNA news agency said.

A U.S. special envoy for North Korea, Sung Kim, met Japanese officials on Sunday and said the United States may launch unilateral sanctions against North Korea, echoing comments by U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday in the wake of the test.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that bad weather had delayed the flight of a U.S. B-1B bomber to the Korean peninsula, a show of strength and solidarity with ally Seoul, scheduled for Monday.

The flight from the U.S. base in Guam would now take place on Tuesday, a U.S. Forces in Korea official told Reuters, declining to identify the type of aircraft involved.

A group of 31 conservative lawmakers in South Korea said the country should have nuclear weapons, either by acquiring its own arms, or asking the United States to redeploy tactical nuclear weapons withdrawn under a 1991 pact for denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

"We should discuss every plan including an independent nuclear armament programme at the level of self-defence to safeguard peace," Won Yoo-chul, a senior lawmaker for the ruling Saenuri Party, said in a statement.

South Korea's Defence Ministry said there was no change in its policy barring nuclear weapons.
Search begins after Bangladesh factory fire, death toll rises

By Serajul Quadir and Ruma Paul

DHAKA, Sept 11 (Reuters) - The death toll from a fire at a food and cigarette packaging factory in Bangladesh rose to 29 on Sunday as fire crews began digging through debris, and the number of fatalities could rise with over half a dozen people still missing.

Thick plumes of smoke, pockets of fire and a partially collapsed building stalled search efforts, after a blaze that began early on Saturday swept through a factory making packaging material for local and international companies.

"There are still flames here and there as there are a lot of chemicals in the factory," senior fire service official Masudur Rahman told Reuters.

Saturday's blaze was the country's worst industrial accident since the Rana Plaza building collapse of 2013 that killed 1,135 garment workers, and raises further questions about Bangladesh's safety record.

"We do not know when the search will be completed as it is a huge task," said Ajit Kumar Bhoumik, a senior fire department official. "We need more excavators and trucks to clear debris. We also need more manpower and other resources."

The cause of the fire in the Tongi industrial zone about 20 km (12 miles) north of the capital, Dhaka, was not immediately known, but officials said a gas line leak and a boiler explosion probably triggered it.

The blaze at Tampaco Foils plant broke out just as workers prepared to swap shifts in the early hours of Saturday morning.

PLANT "CONGESTED"

One former customer of the factory said Tampaco had been expanding production capacity to meet rising orders, but it "had not taken up more space, so the plant was congested."

The factory is owned by Syed Mokbul Hossain, a former member of parliament. He told Reuters on Saturday that Tampaco was "fully compliant". He could not be reached by telephone to answer further questions on Sunday.

Mikail Shipar, government secretary with the ministry of labour and employment, told Reuters the government was going to investigate safety at all of the hundreds of factories in the Tongi industrial zone.

"We checked the design of this factory and initially it is our understanding that it was a one floor building and later the floor had been raised, similar to (the) case of Rana Plaza," he said.

Shipar added that an investigation would be carried out and if anyone was found guilty of negligence, action would be taken.

"I have already been asked to formulate a project to inspect all the factories in all four industrial zones in the country," he said. The location of the boiler in the building was also being scrutinized.

"Stern action will be taken against those responsible for the fire," Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu told reporters on Sunday, after visiting the scene. "No one will be spared."

RENEWED SCRUTINY

The fire is the latest in a series of industrial accidents in the South Asian country, which is the world's second biggest garment exporter behind China.

The Rana Plaza disaster sparked demands for greater safety in the country and put the onus on foreign companies sourcing clothing from Bangladesh to act.

Two international coalitions have been formed to help fund improvements to building and fire safety at thousands of garment factories across Bangladesh.

One official on Saturday said that the government's focus so far had been mainly on garment factories, and less on other industries, but that was now likely to change.

Tampaco Foils makes packaging for food and cigarettes for a number of local players and global brands like British American Tobacco, Nestle and Nabisco Biscuit & Bread - a unit of food giant Mondelez International.

The three multinationals were not immediately reachable for comment.

A spokesman for Bangladeshi food giant Pran, also a customer of Tampaco's, said the factory used to supply it with flexible packaging materials for snacks and confectioneries, but that it did not package finished products for them.
For one Zika patient, lingering symptoms and few answers

By Nick Brown

SAN JUAN, Sept 12 (Reuters) - It began with what felt like a punch in the throat.

I assumed it was irritation from the cigar I'd smoked on my deck that afternoon in mid-June. But the sensation hung on. Within three days, I had a 102-degree Fahrenheit (38.9 degrees Celsius) fever, chills and bed-drenching night sweats.

For two weeks, symptoms came in waves. A skin rash. Joint pain. Then a dull throbbing behind my eyes. There was pain and redness too, in a certain exclusively male region, which ibuprofen didn't relieve.

Then, I felt better. But a week later, the symptoms staged a comeback, with more eye pain and something new - small welts on my eyelids and temples. I had sporadic headaches, was so exhausted I slept 10 hours a night and even failed to wake up for a flight.

My mother was the first to suspect I was infected with the virus that arrived in Puerto Rico in December 2015, four months after I'd begun an assignment as Reuters' San Juan bureau chief.

Initially, I laughed off her internet diagnosis as the overwrought worries of a long-distance mom. But I agreed to see my long-time physician during a visit home in late June.

After listening to my symptoms and learning I'd been working in San Juan, Dr. Kevin Wallace of Murray Hill Medical Group called the New York City Health Department and arranged to have my blood sent for screening. Eight days later, I got the news.

Mom was right. I had Zika.

EVOLVING KNOWLEDGE

Hundreds of thousands of people are estimated to have been infected with Zika in the Americas since the virus was detected in Brazil early last year. Most have no symptoms or experience only a mild illness.

But it can penetrate the womb in pregnant women, causing a rare but crippling birth defect known as microcephaly. In adults, it has been linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome, a temporary paralysis. And it can be passed on through sex, a unique characteristic among mosquito-borne viruses. There is no vaccine or treatment.

Last month, the U.S. government declared a public health emergency in Puerto Rico, the hardest hit among states and territories. More than 17,800 infections have been reported on the island, including more than 1,500 among pregnant women, and one case of microcephaly in an aborted fetus.

As a journalist and a patient, I've had access to some of the brightest minds studying Zika. But the virus has confounded experts at the highest levels and launched a global race to understand its risks.

Each month, new findings have led to changes in how the public is advised to stay safe. Compared to what we know about other diseases, such as flu and even Ebola, we are in new territory.

In my case, doctors were hard-pressed to explain why my symptoms returned about three weeks after the initial infection. Nor could they tell me how long I could be at risk for Guillain-Barre. Another mystery: were condoms enough to protect against sexual transmission?

In the weeks since I've recovered, that is proving to be one of the toughest questions to live with.

Both men and women can infect their sexual partners. In one case, scientists identified Zika virus in semen six months after the man's symptoms appeared, though it's not clear how long it can cause new infections.

Public health officials have warned couples not to conceive for at least six months after either a man or woman returns from a Zika outbreak area, even if they show no symptoms.

My wife and I, both in our early 30s, have had to consider how dangerous my bout with Zika could be to our plans to have children some day.

Our most intimate decisions now are affected by the uncertainty surrounding Zika: how long can I infect my partner? How likely is it that my baby would become sick if I do? Given how rapidly the expertise about Zika has evolved so far, how much faith should we put in the current thinking?

SHRUGGING IT OFF

When I took the one-year post in Puerto Rico, I figured my biggest health risk would be sunburn.

Even when Zika began circulating on the island, I didn't worry. My wife Julie, a lawyer and publishing industry pro, had decided to stay at home in Brooklyn during my assignment, and we weren't planning to have kids for at least a couple of years. So we gave Zika little more than a shoulder shrug.

I'm not sure when I was infected. I picked up more mosquito bites in San Juan than Twitter followers. I didn't always use bug spray. I worked from home, an apartment in a colonial building without window screens, and kept the deck doors open to save money on air conditioning.

Locals are used to mosquito-borne illnesses, including dengue and chikungunya. Some, more concerned about pesticides than Zika, successfully fought aerial spraying with Naled. Many also are concerned about Zika's threat to tourism, which could compound the island's vast economic challenges.

One friend grew indignant when I mentioned writing this piece. "You're a journalist," she said. "You have a responsibility not to perpetuate hysteria."

When I got sick, I didn't consider going to a doctor in Puerto Rico. The economic crisis has made medical care unpredictable, and the waits are long. When I sought treatment for allergic reactions earlier in my stay, doctors refused my corporate health insurance and demanded cash.

Instead, I waited a few days to see Dr. Wallace during my visit to New York. I was his second potential Zika patient, though the first ultimately tested negative for the virus.

Eight days after my blood sample was submitted, a woman from the city health department called.

Have you heard from your doctor? she asked.

"No."

"Oh?" she said. "You haven't spoken to your doctor at all?"

I broke a long pause, saying, "Feel free to let the cat out of the bag."

"Well," she said, "you tested positive for Zika."

The way it is supposed to work, the results are sent to the patient's doctor in time to break the news before the city "interviewer" calls to address public health concerns. But Dr. Jay Varma, deputy commissioner of the New York City Health Department, acknowledged that doesn't always happen.

MIXED REACTIONS

Some friends in Puerto Rico teased me when they learned I had Zika. Many of them had experienced chikungunya or dengue, and had stories about months of muscle pain or weeks in bed. Friends from the states, on the other hand, showed grave concern, offering thoughts, prayers and condolences. Some kept their distance for weeks. A few questioned whether it was safe for me to be around babies.

The evidence shows Zika clears the bloodstream quickly, and the virus doesn't spread through casual interactions.

Julie and I weren't quite sure how to react. We didn't take it too seriously at first. I posted a glamour-shot selfie on Facebook with the caption: "This is the face of a man with Zika."

As the weeks passed, it became clear that Julie and I were also a little rattled - and not fully on the same page. She canceled a planned long weekend visit to Puerto Rico. She wanted to minimize her exposure to Zika and arranged instead for us to meet in Florida.

This disappointed me. I had hoped to show her my new favorite places on the island. I clung stubbornly to the view that Zika fears were largely overblown. She reminded me that, given the unknowns about Zika's impact on pregnancy, I was in no position to call the shots.

"Try to see it from a woman's perspective," she said.

We have heard a lot of different things about Zika, even from doctors, and she doesn't totally trust the idea that the virus is manageable with the current medical advice.

What if Zika poses a threat for months or years after infection? If so, could that jeopardize our future plans to start a family? What if we got pregnant before we planned to?

We've had to manage our different anxieties over the "what ifs" of Zika.

FOR SCIENCE

There's plenty the experts are still figuring out, and that has been reflected in the shifting opinions about my case.

Ingrid Rabe, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told me Zika generally lasts a few days. While she couldn't address my specific case, she speculated that a return of symptoms like mine could indicate the presence of a second virus.

A few weeks later, Dr. Varma told me it was possible, in severe cases, for symptoms to last longer or recur.

Of three acquaintances in Puerto Rico who developed Zika, all have complained, like me, of lingering health problems, in one case for longer than a month.

Two weeks into my infection, Dr. Wallace couldn't tell me whether I remained at risk for Guillain-Barre. The city health interviewer, after consulting with doctors, told me the paralyzing condition would most likely have set in within days of Zika infection, so I was probably out of the woods.

Again, the information shifted over time. The CDC's Rabe later told me it could take "a few weeks" for Guillain-Barre to appear. So far, I haven't had any symptoms consistent with Guillain-Barre, and here's hoping it stays that way.

Guidance on sex lacked precision as well. The city health interviewer recommended we "use condoms every time" for six months, reflecting CDC guidelines.

When I asked whether Zika can spread via saliva or oral sex, the city health interviewer didn't answer directly. She said it can spread via "sexual activity," and that saliva is "currently not being tested." Rabe later told me "there's been no evidence" that saliva can spread Zika.

The city health interviewer asked if I would join a CDC study gauging how long Zika can be spread through semen and urine. I'm one of 140 participants, though protocol calls for up to 250.

The study is a bit awkward. But, as a writer always looking for a good story, I could not pass it up.

Every two weeks, a study test kit arrives by FedEx in a box with dauntingly detailed instructions on how to produce and package my samples, then overnight them back to the center's Colorado lab. I also answer a somewhat blush-inducing questionnaire about my recent sexual activity.

The CDC staffer assigned to my case sends cheery emails to let me know she has received my samples and sex report, an interaction that feels slightly too intimate. But I endure it in exchange for a $50 Visa gift card for each sample, and, more importantly, for the chance to learn and to contribute to science.

The downside: I don't learn my results until the study ends in December.
Who wouldnt be disgusted to know that most hens used for eggs are confined in cages too small to even extend their wings? Photo by The HSUS

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Its been more than a year since I first wrote here about a proposed farm animal protection ballot measure in Massachusetts that would prohibit the sale of eggs, pork, and veal from animals raised in extreme, inhumane confinement. Since that blog, thousands of Massachusetts residents have circulated and signed petitions  about 170,000 in all  to qualify the measure for the November ballot as Question 3. After a failed attempt in recent months by the agribusiness lobby to knock us off the ballot through litigation, our coalition has swelled, and weve made remarkable strides toward ensuring a victory for chickens, pigs, and cows. But much work remains, and we hope youll support Question 3 in whatever way makes sense for you.

HSUS staff, along with allies from the MSPCA, ASPCA, and The Humane League, have been reporting great turnout and enormous enthusiasm at grassroots organizing events throughout the state this past week. Theyve met volunteers brand new to animal activism, as well as veterans of past ballot measures in Massachusetts to ban greyhound racing or cruel traps and other regressive wildlife killing practices.

Complementing the hard work of these advocates, volunteers outside the state are helping out by making calls to Massachusetts voters. Veteran advocates might remember the old days of phone banking, when youd have to dial hundreds of numbers by hand. New technology makes our system easy to use, automatically dialing numbers for you and maximizing the benefits of every volunteer hour. You dont have to be an expert to make calls; all you need is a phone, a computer, and a passion for animal protection, and you can do it from anywhere, in any state. Its easy, just sign up here to start.

Weve seen time and time again that once voters learn the truth about factory farming, theyre ready to embrace a new vision for agriculture. After all, who wouldnt be disgusted to know that veal calves and breeding pigs are often locked for months in crates too narrow to turn around, and that most hens used for eggs are confined in cages too small to even extend their wings? Massachusetts voters typically come away from these conversations indignant about this kind of animal treatment and vow to vote YES on Question 3. But in every election, some voters dont take the time to evaluate or to vote on ballot questions, while others could be fooled by misinformation from agribusiness interests who stoke fear and provide false assurances about their treatment of animals. Thats why its critical that we reach as many voters as possible before they step into the voting booth to remind them that voting YES! on Question 3 will prevent animal cruelty.

While having one-on-one conversations with voters is crucial in turning out the YES! vote, were planning on running a multi-faceted campaign to persuade voters. Donations, big and small, are needed to ensure that that the campaign will be able to run television advertising, exposing voters to the horrors of cage confinement. Weve garnered more than 1,000 endorsements from family farmers, veterinarians, businesses, and non-profits. Campaign staff and coalition partners are communicating with reporters and editors at newspapers from Boston to the Berkshires about the benefits this measure would have for food safety, the environment, and animals. And theres much, much more.

Before we launched our campaign, there were just a handful of food retailers that pledged to stop purchasing eggs from hens confined in cages. Since we filed the measure, the trickle has turned into a gusher. Walmart, Costco, McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, and about 200 other big brand names have now pledged to phase in cage-free eggs exclusively. This movement of 90 percent of the food retail sectors in our direction  most of those same companies have made the same pledge on pigs and gestation crate confinement  demonstrates that our ideas are solidly in the mainstream and practical from a food procurement and sale perspective. In short, Question 3 is an affirmation of what many of the biggest low-cost food sellers have already decided to do.

Yet, like laws against dogfighting or animal cruelty, we need a law to bring around the outliers and to set a bright-line standard in the law that certain conduct toward animals is not a choice or a preference, but a core human responsibility. Even if 10 percent of eggs or pork sold come from cage-confinement operations, that means millions of animals are enduring endless privation. Massachusetts voters have the opportunity to make clear that animal products produced and sold within the state must meet a minimum standard. No animal should be kept in a cage for her whole life and essentially immobilized. Thats cruel, and the enactment of Question 3 will remind every retailer that doing business in Massachusetts requires them to refrain from participating in such cruelty.

Question 3 not only prevents the cruelest confinement of veal calves, breeding sows, and laying hens, but it also prevents food retailers from selling animal products within the state that come from factory farms anywhere that lock their animals in cages. By passing it, Massachusetts voters will put an exclamation point on our campaign against a system that was never acceptable and that should never have become routine.
Poland - Factors to Watch Sept 12

Following are news stories, press reports and events to watch that may affect Poland's financial markets on Monday. ALL TIMES GMT (Poland: GMT + 2 hours):

MOODY'S

Poland sees a decision by Moody's Investor's Services not to update its credit rating as confirmation of the country's positive long-term economic growth prospects, Deputy Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was quoted as saying.

CPI DATA

Poland's statistics office releases August CPI data at 1200 GMT.

KGHM

Poland's treasury minister told Wprost weekly magazine, that his government will introduce a serious tax relief for copper producer KGHM before the end of the current parliamentary term, which ends in 2019.

PGNIG

Poland needs a gas link with Norway, PGNiG's deputy chief executive officer told Gazeta Polska Codziennie daily.

****Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.****
Fiji opposition MPs freed after what Amnesty calls "brazen crackdown" on rights

By Tom Westbrook

SYDNEY, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Fijian police have released three opposition lawmakers detained over the weekend for criticising the constitution in what Amnesty International described as a "brazen crackdown" on freedom of expression.

Police on Saturday and Sunday detained leaders of three opposition parties and three other organisers and participants involved in a forum on constitutional reform in the Pacific island's capital of Suva last week.

All have since been freed without charge, but the case has been referred to the public prosecutor, police said in a statement issued on Sunday evening.

Police said the detentions were carried out in response to "issues that could affect the safety and security of all Fijians".

There is widespread concern among Fiji's opposition parties that the constitution gives too much power to a government originally installed in 2006 through a bloodless military coup.

"I think it's politically motivated," Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry told Reuters by phone shortly after he was released on Monday.

"The regime here is very sensitive to criticism. They have seen all three political parties in opposition coming together in one forum and I think they feel a bit jittery about it."

Opposition MPs wore black ribbons at Monday's opening of parliament and some boycotted the ceremonial session in protest over the detentions.

A spokeswoman for Fiji's Director of Public Prosecutions declined to comment. A spokesman for Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

After seizing power in 2006, Bainimarama stood down from the military to run as a civilian in the country's 2014 elections, winning by a landslide.

His opponents say the constitution, drawn up in 2013, concentrates too much power in the prime minister's office.

Jone Dakuvulua, who organised the reform forum and chairs non-government organisation Pacific Dialogue, said his arrest highlighted some of these problems.

"It's an indication that even though we have a so-called parliament, we do not have democracy," Dakuvulua told Reuters by phone.
Bullets trump rehab as Asia quickens "failing" war on drugs

By Andrew R.C. Marshall and Antoni Slodkowski

BANGKOK/YANGON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The Philippines has launched a bloody "war on drugs" that has killed at least 2,400 people in just two months, while neighbouring Indonesia has declared a "narcotics emergency" and resumed executing drug convicts after a long hiatus.

In Thailand and Myanmar, petty drug users are being sentenced to long jail terms in prisons already bursting at the seams.

The soaring popularity of methamphetamine - a cheap and highly addictive drug also known as meth - is driving countries across Asia to adopt hardline anti-narcotics policies. Experts say they are likely to only make things worse.

Geoff Monaghan has seen it all before. He investigated narco-trafficking gangs during his 30-year career as a detective with London's Metropolitan Police, then witnessed the impact of draconian anti-drug policies as an HIV/AIDS expert in Russia.

"We have plenty of data but often we forget the history," said Monaghan. "That's the problem."

He believes President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-drugs campaign in the Philippines will fuel more violence and entrench rather than uproot trafficking networks. "I'm very fearful about the situation," he said.

Reflecting the regional explosion in use, the amount of meth seized in East and Southeast Asia almost quadrupled from about 11 tons in 2009 to 42 tons in 2013, said the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The only region seizing more meth was North America, where the booming trade inspired the popular television series "Breaking Bad".

Meth was the "primary drug of concern" in nine Asian countries, the UNODC said, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Japan and South Korea.

PLAYING CATCH-UP

A rising chorus of experts blame this surge in production and use of meth in Asia on ineffective and even counterproductive government responses.

They say national drug-control policies are skewed towards harsh measures that criminalise users but have failed to staunch the deluge of drugs or catch the kingpins behind it.

They also want a greater emphasis on reducing demand through more and better quality drug rehabilitation.

"There is so much scaremongering and hysteria surrounding the issue of drugs," says Gloria Lai of the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), a global network of 154 non-governmental groups. "That's a disincentive for challenging old ways of thinking."

Meth is a transnational business, worth around $15 billion in mainland Southeast Asia alone in 2013, the UNODC says.

Much of the production takes place in laboratories in lawless western Myanmar. Ingredients such as pseudoephedrine and caffeine are smuggled across porous borders from India, China and Vietnam.

Laos and Thailand are major trafficking routes, with the finished product travelling by road or along the Mekong River for distribution throughout Southeast Asia and China.

Meth is sold in cheap pills called "ya ba", a Thai name meaning "crazy medicine", or in a more potent, crystalline form known as "crystal meth", "ice" or "shabu".

Contraband is effectively hidden amid rising volumes of regional trade, leaving law enforcement to play catch-up, said Jeremy Douglas, the UNODC's Asia Pacific chief.

"We need to start thinking about big-time regional engagement, up to the highest level. It's impossible to deal with the problem on a country-by-country basis," he said.

"I can't recall the last time a major trafficking kingpin was caught."

SOCIAL COST

The meth explosion carries huge social consequences: overburdened health services, overcrowded prisons, families and communities torn apart.

Small-time users and dealers bear the brunt of unsparing law enforcement that is popular in crime-weary communities. In mid-July, as drug war killings escalated in the Philippines, one survey put President Duterte's approval rating at 91 percent.

Thailand launched an equally popular "war on drugs" in 2003 that rights activists said killed about 2,800 people in three months, a death toll later halved by a government-appointed inquiry. Figures show it had no lasting impact on meth supply or demand in Thailand.

"The world has lost the war on drugs, not only Thailand," the country's justice minister Paiboon Koomchaya told Reuters in July.

Paiboon hinted at a radical shift in policy, saying he wanted to reclassify meth to reduce sentences for possessing and dealing the drug.

For now though, Thailand continues to jail thousands of petty drug users, with about 70 percent of its 300,000 or so prisoners jailed on drugs offences, according to government data.

TOUGH TO TREAT

Meth addiction is tough to treat, ideally requiring costly and time-consuming counselling. Long-term use can cause changes in brain structure and function.

In March, U.S. President Barack Obama said drug dependency should be seen as "a public health problem and not a criminal problem", part of a bid to roll back a "war on drugs" begun in the 1970s and now widely seen as a failure.

Policy in Asia is largely moving in the opposite direction, with drug rehabilitation underfunded and inadequate.

Less than 1 percent of dependent drug users in Indonesia got treatment in 2014, said the UNODC. Lacking alternatives, desperate Indonesians resort to herbal baths, Islamic prayer and other remedies of unproven efficacy.

"Rehab" in many countries often means detention at a state facility. In Thailand, thousands of users are held at army camps for four months. Relapse rates at drug detention centres range from 60-90 percent, says the World Health Organisation.

"Often, the government response causes more harm to an individual than the drug itself," said the IDPC's Lai.

Evidence shows that the most effective treatment is voluntary and community-based. A 2015 study in Malaysia found that half the people at compulsory centres relapsed within 32 days of release, compared with 429 days for those who had volunteered for treatment.

Tackling demand is complicated by meth's broad appeal across different ages, professions and social classes.

In Myanmar, manual labourers claim that smoking ya ba boosts their stamina, while students say it boosts their grades.

A Yangon student who asked to be identified by the nickname "Nick" told Reuters at a grim state-run rehab clinic that he smoked ya ba to help him concentrate on his studies.
Syrian leader Assad prays at Daraya mosque for Eid - state media

BEIRUT, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad prayed on Monday at a mosque in a Damascus suburb that was evacuated by rebels and surrendered to government control last month, state media reported.

Assad visited the city of Daraya, southwest of Damascus, on the occasion of Eid al-Adha. Daraya had been a major symbol of the uprising against Assad, and its surrender to government forces after years of siege marked a big blow to the rebellion.

Many of the fighters left with their families to the rebel-controlled province of Idlib in northwestern Syria under a locally brokered agreement between the warring sides. Civilians were also evacuated to another government-held area near Damascus.

Assad was pictured kneeling at prayer in a bare hall alongside other worshippers, including the state's grand mufti, in a photo published by state news agency SANA.
Slovakia - Factors To Watch on Sept 12

BRATISLAVA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Slovak financial markets on Monday. ALL TIMES GMT (Slovak Republic: GMT + 2 hours) =========================ECONOMIC DATA======================== Real-time economic data releases.................. Summary of economic data and forecasts......... Recently released economic data................ Previous stories on Slovak data.......... **For a schedule of corporate and economic events: http://emea1.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/Apps/CountryWeb/#/1C/events-overview =======================NEWS=================================== INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT: Slovakia's industrial output dropped by 14.3 percent year-on-year in July, while analysts expected a 2.3 percent increase, statistics office data showed on Friday. Story: Related stories: UNITED NATIONS: Former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres still leads the race to become the next United Nations Secretary-General after a fourth U.N. Security Council secret ballot on Friday, diplomats said. Slovakia's Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak hung on to second spot. Story: Related stories: IMMIGRATION: European Council President Donald Tusk will next week ask EU leaders to approve sending guards and equipment to Bulgaria to help protect its border against flows of illegal migrants from Turkey, following complaints from Sofia. Story: Related stories: EUROZONE BUDGET DEFICIT: Spain and Portugal must take effective action to reduce their excessive budget deficits by October 15 after they escaped being fined in July despite breaking European Union budget rules, Slovak Finance Minister Peter Kazimir said on Friday. Story: Related stories: ====================PRESS DIGEST================================ AUTOMOTIVE: The U.S. producer of mechanical power transmission components Altra Industrial Motion will invest 18 million euros ($20.24 million) in a western Slovak town Zlate Moravce to build a factory to supply a nearby Jaguar Land Rover automotive plant, a Slovak developer Ardis that will build the factory said. Hospodarske Noviny, page 1 (Reuters has not verified the stories, nor does it vouch for their accuracy.) For real-time stock market index quotes click in brackets: Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX Main currency report TOP NEWS -- Emerging markets News editor of the day: Jan Lopatka on +420 224 190 474 E-mail: prague.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com ($1 = 0.8891 euros) (Reporting by Prague Newsroom)
Turkey has evidence that removed mayors supported Kurdish militants -Erdogan

ISTANBUL, Sept 12 (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday Turkey has evidence that mayors removed from two dozen Kurdish-run municipalities had sent support to Kurdish militants, and said they should have been stripped of office sooner.

Turkey appointed new administrators in the 24 Kurdish-run municipalities on Sunday, triggering pockets of protest in parts of the largely-Kurdish southeast. The main pro-Kurdish opposition party called it an "administrative coup".

"It is a step taken too late in my opinion. It should have been taken sooner, and it was my advice to do so earlier," Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul after attending prayers to mark the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.

"They sent the support they received to the mountains, but this has all been discovered," Erdogan said, referring to Kurdish militant bases in the mountains of southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. "Our government took this decision based on all of this evidence."

Erdogan said last week that the campaign against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy, was now Turkey's largest ever and that the removal of civil servants linked to them was a key part of the fight.

The 24 municipalities had been run by the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), the third largest in parliament, which denies direct links to the militants. It said it did not recognise the legitimacy of the mayors' removal.

The U.S. embassy said on Sunday that while it supported Turkey's right to combat terrorism, it hoped the appointment of government administrators would be temporary and that local citizens could soon choose new representatives.
Germany's anti-immigrant AfD party suffers election setback in west

BERLIN, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party finished a distant fourth with just 7.8 percent of the vote in local elections on Sunday in Lower Saxony state - a week after beating Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives in an eastern region.

The AfD had shocked Merkel last Sunday by winning 20.8 percent in a state election in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern with her Christian Democrats (CDU) falling to third with 19 percent. That rout had sparked renewed criticism of her pro-refugee course.

But in the local elections in the neighbouring western state of Lower Saxony, the CDU was top with 34.4 percent, according to preliminary results published on Monday. The centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) were second with 31.2, the Greens third with 10.9 percent, the AfD at 7.8 percent.

In local elections in the western state of Hesse in March the AfD had won 11.9 percent.

The AfD is stronger in the former communist east. In Lower Saxony, it was below 10 percent in most towns and cities but it did win 10.1 percent in the state capital of Hanover - behind the SPD (31.2 percent), CDU (29 percent), Greens (13.6 percent).

Last Sunday's election in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was the first time the CDU lost to a far-right party in a state election.

The AfD played on the public's angst that refugees, some 70 percent of whom are Muslims, are overrunning Germany, siphoning away housing, resources and jobs from Germans. Merkel rejected that argument, saying no funds were taken away for refugees.
South Korea says new UN resolution on North should close loopholes

SEOUL, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council should adopt a new resolution on North Korea after its fifth nuclear test that closes loopholes left in the last resolution adopted in March, a South Korean foreign ministry official said on Monday.

The resolution should also expand the scope of North Korean entities and individuals targeted, the senior official told a group of reporters on condition of anonymity. He did not elaborate on what loopholes he was referring to.
Occupation: Migrant. One African's 12-year quest for Europe

By Edward McAllister

AGADEZ, Niger, Sept 12 (Reuters) - On Mayango Jallah's second attempt to reach Europe, he recalls, the dinghy he was in came within sight of southern Spain.

"We saw the light, bright," said the Liberian political science graduate. "It was like we were reaching heaven."

But the coastguard caught him and he spent a month in a Moroccan jail.

That was in 2006. The experience was no deterrent.

European politicians worry about the influx of what they call "economic migrants" from Africa, saying more must be done to improve living standards there to stem the flow. But for all those who reach Europe, many are thwarted along the way. Jallah's story shows why even those with relatively high education and strong prospects at home don't give up.

"I am not prepared to go home - I can't go back empty-handed," said the 39-year-old between sips of pineapple juice in an outdoor bar in Agadez, Niger, the major crossroads for thousands of travellers from West Africa each week. "I want to go to school, earn a Masters... If I have a European degree I can work anywhere."

In all, Jallah reckons, he has spent about $14,500 on five attempts over a dozen years to reach what he calls "normal society." He made the money teaching, doing odd jobs in construction and bricklaying, and forging refugee documents.

War in Syria has driven millions from home and is the short-term focus of Europe's migration crisis. Longer term, senior officials in Brussels say, Africa is what really worries them.

When the European bloc was founded 60 years ago, they say, Africa's population was about half that of the countries now in the EU. Today, Africa has double the population. And by 2050, the United Nations' median forecast is that Africa's 2.5 billion people will be four times that of the EU. This suggests migratory pressures from Africa will increase.

In the near term, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) expects migration through the Agadez region this year to reach 300,000. That's more than double the 120,000 it estimates went through in 2015.

History shows it is not the poorest who leave. For example, 19th-century immigrants to the United States came mostly from Britain and other North Sea countries. Eastern Europe was poorer and followed much later.

Migration increases as a nation develops, said Giulia Sinatti, a lecturer at the University of Amsterdam who studied migration in West Africa for over a decade. It only starts to wane when the economy reaches a point where people have no economic interest in leaving. In much of West Africa, she said, that point is a long way off.

Remittances to Liberia make up $570 million or 28 percent of its GDP, according to an African Development Bank report released in May - a bigger percentage than any other African country. For Africa as a whole the total was $64 billion in 2015, more than 30 percent of all financial flows into the continent, according to the ADB.

"The more that a country develops, the more people have the means to leave," said Sinatti. "It is utopian to think we can end this. I think it will not stop."

RUN, RUN, RUN

Jallah is tall and skinny, his jeans pleated at the waist by a tight belt. Unlike other migrants in Agadez, he wears a suit jacket and shirt. He says he grew up with 10 other children in a bustling household in Liberia's capital Monrovia. They slept in two small bedrooms. There was often not enough food for everyone, but his parents were teachers, so they all attended school.

He remembers listening to the BBC World Service on his father's battery-powered radio.

"I knew from a young age about Europe and the development and the government," Jallah said. "I thought, when you get into that society you have more opportunity."

Like nearly all Liberians, Jallah's family was torn apart by conflict. Liberia's devastating civil war, which broke out in 1989, lasted 14 years. He fled Monrovia with his father in 1994 to seek refuge in Ivory Coast - it was a month-long, 400-km (249-mile) slog on foot. They kept off the main roads and slept in forests. When they arrived in Ivory Coast, Jallah's feet were badly swollen and he was sick.

"It was always run, run, run, that was how I was brought up," he said. Liberian exiles were classed as refugees by the United Nations until 2012.

When Jallah eventually graduated from the University of Monrovia in 2001, he dreamed of studying conflict resolution at the United Nations' Institute for Environment and Security in Bonn. That year he applied for student visas for Germany, Norway and Canada, and was rejected.

Meanwhile, he spoke over the phone to friends who had made it to Europe. "They were working or made it to school," he said. "I started to think: where would be the best place to get back the wasted years?"

ROBBED AND ROBBED AGAIN

Jallah paid for his first trip, in early 2004, with $2,000 that he had managed to save from teaching in Ivory Coast, and small donations from friends. His younger half-brother Mitchel, a 33-year-old mobile-phone salesman in Monrovia and Abidjan, said he had encouraged his brother, believing it was Mayango's role as the eldest to help the family.

"I wanted him to go, it will be good for everyone," he said.

Jallah packed light: clothes, food, a photo of his parents, and a letter of recommendation from his university that he hoped would help at European customs.

The route was already established - by bus through Mali and Burkina Faso to Agadez, where migrants bought passage from people-smugglers towards Algeria or across the Sahara to Libya. From there, they took their chances with smugglers across the Mediterranean.

Jallah had almost reached Algeria when the open-backed truck he was sharing was hijacked by bandits in the desert. They beat him and stole most of his money.

He found work painting buildings and making bricks and cement in southern Algeria for about $4.50 per day, then moved east to Sabha in Libya, where there was more work. A childhood friend who had made it to Germany sent him hundreds of euros via Western Union. That helped Jallah reach the coastal city of Tripoli, where he paid $1,200 for a boat to Italy.

He bought bread and sardines and was shown into a crammed building where hundreds of other migrants were waiting for a boat.

"The waiting hall was close to the beach," Jallah said. "There were 200-300 people just waiting and watching the ocean every day."

On the sixth day, a band of militia entered the hall, opened fire and demanded cash.

"Everyone scattered," he said. Traumatised and with his money near gone, he headed back to Ivory Coast.

His second trip, the journey to Spain in 2006, was relatively cheap, he said. But that was the journey that ended in a Moroccan jail. When he got out, he found work in Ivory Coast, teaching English to refugees and aid workers for hundreds of dollars a week. He loved the job. But "even if you love teaching, you know you will not have a good life."

By winter 2008, he had saved $6,750, he says. "I thought it would be easier to just to go to Libya."

In Tripoli, the price of a boat ride to Italy had risen to $1,500. Again, bandits raided the house where he was waiting. "They took everything," he said. "It was normal - everyone knows it was a setup."

This time, none of his friends could send cash.

DOCUMENT FORGER

By 2012, Liberia and much of West Africa experienced rapid economic growth as commodities boomed. The United Nations stopped considering exiles like Jallah as refugees.

He turned, briefly, to crime.

"It was becoming an obsession," he said. "You travel once to Libya or Morocco and you see it was just one single mistake that stopped you from getting there. You just want to go and try again."

Eight months after the Arab Spring uprisings toppled leaders including Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, Jallah set off again. By now, Libya was in chaos. No-one was willing to take him to Tripoli.

Stranded in Algeria, he started forging refugee documents for money. It was a small operation with only three customers, but it attracted official attention.

Police arrested him in an Internet cafe and dumped him in a packed cell. He was eventually sentenced to six months.

"LACK OF IMAGINATION"

In total, Jallah estimates, he has spent nearly $5,000 on boats across the Mediterranean. He has given thousands to police and army checkpoints along migrant routes in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. The smugglers who ferried him across the Sahara took up to $500 a time.

"I am the kind of person that doesn't retreat," he said.

Today, Libya, still lawless, remains the only viable route to Europe after Algeria, Morocco and the Canary Islands successfully blocked the way. Europe is searching for new ways to close the route.

"The European Union does not have a valid set of policies except exclusion," said George Joffe, professorial fellow at the Global Policy Institute in London Metropolitan University. "There is a lack of economic imagination and a lack of understanding about the limitations that exist."

Europe needs to try new methods, Joffe said. He advocates a policy of microfinance where the EU could donate small amounts of money to projects with quick returns. Others say short-term, targeted visas for certain workers could reduce the desire to migrate illegally.

For now Jallah, who is approaching middle age, says he plans to apply for a Cuban visa, something his friends have done successfully. From there, he will try to get a boat to Florida. His friends have connections in Miami, he said. His eventual goal is Canada. It will cost about $4,000.

He still reminisces about what might have been.

On that second attempt in 2006, Jallah recalls, he had urged the captain to leave before 7 p.m. so fishing boats on the water would offer camouflage. But they did not get going until 11 p.m.

"If our captain had listened," he said, "we would have made it."
Bangladesh factory owner, others being probed as toll from fire rises

By Serajul Quadir and Ruma Paul

DHAKA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - A police case has been filed against the owner of Tampaco Foils and several others working at the food and cigarette packaging plant near Dhaka as the death toll from a fire at the factory over the weekend rose to 31 on Monday.

The blaze erupted early on Saturday resulting in Bangladesh's worst industrial accident since the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in 2013 that killed 1,135 garment workers. It also raised renewed questions about industrial safety in Bangladesh, one of the world's top garment exporters.

"Police have filed a case in relation to the fire in which 31 people have so far died," said Farid Ahmed, deputy inspector general of the country's factory inspection department.

A police official said the case had been filed by the family of one of the victims. Officials expect more cases to be filed against the owner, whom police are still trying to locate, and others when courts re-open after the week-long Eid holiday.

Jahirul Islam, a director with the fire service department, told Reuters on Monday the Bangladeshi army had joined search efforts. "We need to move a huge amount of debris otherwise searching is not possible," he said.

Many fear the death toll could rise further as close to half a dozen people are still missing after the blaze caused a partial collapse of the factory building.
In Jogjakarta, Jalan Malioboro's street shopping is probably Indonesia's answer to Bangkok's street shopping scene where you can find traders of all sorts in every possible corner of the main street in the city center. Every tourist visiting Jogja would or should at least make a visit here due to the high popularity of the area. Personally for me, this was my second time here in one year too.

The location of Jalan Malioboro Street is smack center of Jogjakarta where the length of the street is around 1.3 kilometers long, so walking along this street is pretty easy. Along this street, you will come across many shops, restaurants, some malls and loads of roadside vendors or traders. In the side alleys of Malioboro Street, you will find many hotels, restaurants, more shops, tour agencies and massage places.Walking along the main street is an experience by itself as there are a number of items that will catch your eyes, usually it is the price factor as the items sold here are relatively cheap. Most of the regular items seen sold here are apparels, jewelry and tons of souvenirs and great for those wanting to get some. Again, use your bargaining power for the street vendors as there is always room for a discount.

Locals shopping at Jl. Malioboro

Street vendors along Jalan Malioboro at night

Typical daily scene at Jalan Malioboro

Horse art sculptures along the main road here

The side roads of Jalan Malioboro

Some of the accessories being sold by the street vendors

Mal Malioboro, where you can get fast food and other items

Inside the Mal Malioboro, very new and modern

A 'Becak' rider takes a moment to relax by the main road

What some of the shops look like along Jalan Malioboro

Ramai Mall, a popular place for gadgets,smartphones and IT stuff

Rianty and Janoko Batik shops along the main street

A toy vendor pushing his cart along the main streets

International Village in Jogjakarta

Street food in Malioboro

Lesehan, a very popular style of local dining

Terang Bulan Malioboro, a famous food dish here

Malioboro Inn, located at one of the side roads
Gunmen attack hospital in southern Afghanistan

KABUL, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Two gunmen entered a hospital in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Monday, setting off a gunbattle with security forces in which one of the attackers was killed, officials said.

It was not immediately clear who the gunmen were or whether they were affiliated with any insurgent group.

Samim Khpalwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor of Kandahar, said security forces were at the Mirwais Hospital, a large regional facility that provides health services to war victims, including members of the army and police.

He said one of the gunmen had been killed but security forces were moving carefully to avoid casualties and damage to the hospital.
Afghan president expresses hope for peace deal with notorious warlord

KABUL, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said on Monday a peace agreement with one of the country's most notorious Islamist warlords is close to being concluded, offering hope of progress towards ending decades of conflict.

Negotiations with Hizb-i-Islami, a militant group of several hundred fighters led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a veteran of almost 40 years of fighting in Afghanistan, have been going on since May, when a draft accord was signed.

But a final agreement has been held up with many on the government side suspicious of bringing the prominent Pashtun warlord into the political fold and civil rights activists concerned about longstanding accusations of human rights abuses against him.

Hekmatyar has been allied at various times with Pakistan, the Washington-backed anti-Soviet mujahideen in the 1980s and the Taliban, who are seeking to force the NATO-led coalition out of Afghanistan and bring in Islamic law.

"Some issues are left and those are issues that would be very important for implementing peace," Ghani said at the start of the three-day Eid holiday. "These issues should be solved within a limited period of time."

He thanked both Hizb-i-Islami and the High Peace Council for their efforts to negotiate a deal. "There is hope that, God willing, the agreement will be finalised soon and we will witness a major step toward the creation of peace environment and end of fighting," he said.

Hekmatyar, who was included on the U.S. State Department's Specially Designated Global Terrorist list in 2003, has played relatively little direct part in the insurgency in recent years.

But an accord would offer some encouragement that the Kabul government can persuade militant groups to move away from the battlefield and into the political process after failed efforts to start peace talks with the Taliban.

During the bloody civil war of the 1990s, Hekmatyar's forces were accused of killing thousands of civilians in heavy bombardments of the Afghan capital and more recently, they were linked with several al Qaeda and Taliban attacks on international forces in Afghanistan and the Kabul government.

Peace talks with the Taliban, the largest insurgent group in Afghanistan, have yet to get off the ground, but both sides have said they are open to the idea.
Austria's interior minister says presidential election re-run postponed

VIENNA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - A re-run of Austria's presidential election due to take place on Oct. 2 has been postponed, Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said on Monday.

Addressing a news conference, he said the vote might be rescheduled for either Nov 27 or Dec 4. The postponement came after some postal voters complained of faulty seals on ballot papers.

The Constitutional Court ordered the re-run after a challenge from the losing candidate. Judges cited irregularities in the way some postal ballots were processed in the original election in May.
Car bomb targets government buildings in eastern Turkish city

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Suspected Kurdish militants detonated a car bomb near local government offices in Turkey's southeastern city of Van on Monday, wounding scores of people, a day after two dozen mayors from Kurdish-run municipalities were stripped of their office.

The blast hit some 200 metres from the Van provincial governor's office, security sources said, ripping through the city's central district and setting buildings and cars aflame.

Governor Ibrahim Tasyapan said 50 people had been wounded, including four police officers and four Iranian citizens thought to have been visiting during the Muslim Eid holiday. Van sits about 100 km (60 miles) from the border with Iran.

"According to our findings, (the driver) went away after parking his vehicle behind barriers at a police checkpoint and 10 seconds later, probably with a remote control, he detonated the bomb," Tasyapan told reporters at the scene.

Southeastern Turkey has suffered numerous bombings since the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in the region, abandoned a ceasefire in 2015.

Security sources said they suspected the PKK was behind the bombing in Van and that an operation had been launched to catch the suspects. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The blast tore the front off a four-storey building. Footage from the Dogan news agency showed water cannon trying to douse flames. The district, normally busy, was more empty of traffic on Monday, the first day of the Eid al-Adha holiday.

Burhan Kayaturk, a ruling AK Party lawmaker from Van, told CNN Turk the blast had targeted his party's offices but they were well-secured and had not been badly damaged. Opposition party offices, including those of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), were damaged, CNN Turk said.

"ADMINISTRATIVE COUP"

Turkey appointed new administrators in 24 Kurdish-run municipalities mostly in the southeast on Sunday after removing their mayors over suspected PKK links, triggering protests. Four towns in Van province were affected by the removals.

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Turkey had evidence the mayors had sent support to Kurdish militants and that they should have been stripped of their roles sooner.

"Our government took this decision based on all this evidence," he told reporters in Istanbul.

The municipalities were run by the HDP's local associates. The HDP, the third-largest party in parliament, decried what it said was an "administrative coup" and declared the move illegal.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag chided the U.S. ambassador after his embassy issued a statement on Sunday saying it hoped the appointment of the administrators would be temporary. Bozdag said on Twitter the ambassador should know Turkey "does not allow the intervention of other countries" in its decisions.

Jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan believes a settlement of the three-decade war would be possible in six months if the state agreed to revive peace talks, his brother said on Monday after meeting him for the first time in two years.
Austrian election re-run comes unstuck in postal ballot setback

By Kirsti Knolle

VIENNA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Austria on Monday delayed a re-run of a presidential election as faulty glue on postal ballots scuppered its second attempt to organise a ballot that could give the European Union its first far-right head of state.

The result of the first election in May, which Norbert Hofer of the anti-migrant Freedom Party (FPO) came within 31,000 votes of winning, had already been scrapped due to irregularities in counting the postal ballots - heightening the embarrassment.

The postal votes, which accounted for around 16 percent of the total votes, were the crucial factor for Alexander Van der Bellen, an independent, to win in May.

The postponement, to Dec. 4, drew swift criticism, with the FPO calling the government incapable of holding a vote and a commentator saying it had made Austria a subject of mockery.

In delaying the election from Oct. 2, Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said on Monday there was a risk votes could be tampered with due to the faulty glue on a "defective envelope".

The FPO's secretary, Herbert Kickl, said it showed the government was "incapable of ensuring a proper election".

The delay also put attention back on an election that has polarised opinion at home and across a continent where the impact of mass immigration driven by war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa is starting to dominate the debate.

Hofer's near-victory in a country at the sharp end of the immigration crisis reflected a rising tide of populism in Europe that spread to Britain with June's vote to quit the European Union - an outcome some believe will buoy support for him.

"LAUGHING STOCK"

Opinion polls have given him the edge in the ballot for a role that is largely ceremonial.

A win for the FPO would be of huge symbolic significance in an anti-establishment political climate and with parliamentary elections due in 2018.

Asked at a news conference if the double setback might damage Austria's reputation, Sobotka said: "The laugh is always on the loser."

Van der Bellen, a former Green Party leader, won May's vote by less than 1 percentage point from Hofer.

The FPO then successfully challenged the result in the constitutional court, citing procedural irregularities, forcing the re-run.

The delay was "unfortunate but correct", van der Bellen told a news conference, urging supporters to "move on and win together on Dec. 4".

For some, however, the prospect of another delay or contested result was too much.

"It's terrible. I really wonder if it's worth bothering to vote again, if we even need a president," 50-year-old office worker Margit Freudenthaler said.

Independent political consultant Thomas Hofer said: "A democracy that had been portrayed as stable and a bulwark against crisis now shows itself not even able to organise elections properly.

"Once again, Austria is a laughing stock."

However, political analyst Peter Filzmaier said that, while the postponement was an embarrassment, discovery of the faulty ballot forms had left the government with no other option.
French port workers to join strike against labour reform - union

PARIS, Sept 12 (Reuters) - French CGT trade union port workers will join a nationwide strike against French labour reforms on Sept. 15, the union said on Monday, a move that could disrupt oil, grains and other commodities shipment at French ports.

The hardline CGT union led rolling nationwide strikes against the labour reform between April and June against the reform which they said will curb workers rights and make it easier for companies fire workers.

The union has demanded that the law be withdrawn.

The rolling strikes had disrupted fuel and other supplies at French ports, provoking panic buying and fuel shortages across the country.
Duterte says he wants U.S. special forces out of southern Philippines

By Manuel Mogato

MANILA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday called for the withdrawal of U.S. military from a restive southern island, fearing an American troop presence could complicate offensives against Islamist militants notorious for beheading Westerners.

Duterte, who was in the spotlight last week over his televised tirade against the United States and President Barack Obama, said special forces now training Filipino troops were high-value targets for the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf as counter-insurgency operations intensify.

"These special forces, they have to go," Duterte said in a speech during an oath-taking ceremony for new officials.

"I do not want a rift with America. But they have to go."

He added: "Americans, they will really kill them, they will try to kidnap them to get ransom."

The comment by Duterte, a former southern mayor known for his terse words and volatile temperament, adds to uncertainty about what impact his rise to the presidency will have on one of Washington's best alliances in Asia.

Duterte wants an independent foreign policy and says close ties with the United States are crucial, but he has frequently accused the former colonial power of hypocrisy when criticised for his deadly drugs war. He denied on Friday calling Obama a "son of a bitch".

Some U.S. special forces have been killed in the southern Philippines since 2002, when Washington deployed soldiers to train and advise local units fighting Abu Sayyaf in Operation Enduring Freedom, part of its global anti-terror strategy.

At the height of that, some 1,200 Americans were in Zamboanga City and on Jolo and Basilan islands, both strongholds of Abu Sayyaf, which is known for its brutality and for earning huge sums of money from hostage-taking.

The U.S. programme was discontinued in the Philippines in 2015 but a small troop presence has remained for logistics and technical support. Washington has shifted much of its security focus in the Philippines towards the South China Sea.
Seychelles opposition wins first vote in decades

By George Thande

VICTORIA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Opposition parties have swept to victory in Seychelles parliamentary elections, shaking up the political landscape after decades of control by President James Michel's party.

The win by the Linyon Demokratik (LDS) coalition, which was announced on Sunday, follows growing public frustration over economic inequality, analysts said.

It has not triggered an immediate change in the government appointed by the president, but lawmakers will be able to use their powers to challenge new ministerial appointments and block legislation, including budgets that the opposition has objected to in the past.

Analysts said Michel might soon decide to reshuffle the cabinet to reflect changes in the Indian Ocean archipelago.

"It's historic because it's the first time that we have a transition of power in one of the branches of government - the legislature," said Roger Mancienne, leader of LDS.

Michel conceded defeat. "The people have spoken, the people have decided and the people's decision is supreme and my party respects the people's opinion," he said.

In the vote for a 33-seat parliament, the Electoral Commission said LDS secured 19 seats and Michel's Parti Lepep won 14. The result followed three days of voting that ended on Saturday.

Parti Lepep has been in power since 1977 and this is the first time since the return of multi-party democracy in 1993 that it has lost its parliamentary majority.

The islands' main opposition parties formed their coalition in December 2015 after Michel was forced into a run-off vote in the presidential election for the first time, where he secured a narrow victory.

After years of domination by a single party, public frustration has grown in the nation of about 93,000 people about what many see as a growing divide between rich and poor.

In a report in January, the International Monetary Policy noted policies aimed at tackling inequality, such as efforts to support small and medium-sized businesses.
Italy to open hospital, deploy 300 soldiers and doctors to Libya - source

ROME, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Italy will set up a military hospital and deploy 300 doctors, nurses and soldiers in Libya at the request of the United Nations-recognised government in Tripoli, a government source said on Monday.

The hospital near the Misrata airport will be staffed by about 100 doctors and nurses and guarded by some 200 soldiers.

It "should be a safe location, but not too far from the battle zone," the source said.

Libyan forces aligned with the U.N.-backed government have been fighting to drive Islamic State militants out of their former stronghold of Sirte for months, but they have faced stiff resistance and suffered numerous casualties.

Italy has already flown dozens of Libyan fighters to Rome for medical treatment, but the hospital will be a faster and more efficient channel for assistance, the source said.

No further details were provided, including the exact timing of the deployment.

While France, Britain, the United States and Italy have acknowledged having special military units in Libya, this will be the first overt troop deployment by a Western nation, albeit for a humanitarian mission.

Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti and Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni may provide further details when they address parliament on Tuesday about "the situation in Libya".

Italy has historic ties to Libya, which it colonised during the first half of the 20th century. Libya lies directly south of Italy, less than 500 km (310 miles) from the Sicilian coast.
Ukraine state fund to recommend reserve price for Odessa plant at below $200 mln

By Natalia Zinets

KIEV, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The head of Ukraine's State Property Fund said on Monday he will recommend more than halving the reserve price for the flagship privatisation of the Odessa Portside Plant (OPP) to below $200 million.

The auction of the state-run fertiliser group is the first major privatisation since a 2014 uprising brought in a pro-Western leadership in Ukraine.

It is seen by the country's allies as a test of its ability to attract vital foreign investment and improve transparency in line with a $17.5 billion aid-for-reforms programme from the International Monetary Fund.

A previous attempt to sell the plant in July attracted no bidders and the State Property Fund announced it might lower the reserve price, which was originally set at $521 million, without specifying by how much.

The IMF and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development had written to the government in May, saying the high price for the Odessa plant would deter credible investors and would harm Ukraine's image.

Ihor Bilous, the head of the State Property Fund, said it would be difficult to attract investors if the reserve price went above $200 million.

He said he hopes that if the government approves a viable price based on the State Property Fund's recommendations, a new auction date could be announced later in September.

Ukraine's finance minister last week said the failure to privatise OPP had sent a bad signal, but added he was confident the process would succeed at the next attempt.

"I want to put the price at lower than $200 million. I think this needs to be done, although it's hard to accept politically," Bilous told Reuters.

"I don't know if everyone is ready for such a hard decision, but the market is the market," he said.

Bilous said the Fund had sought advice from UBS on the current value of the plant, which the bank put at between $50-180 million.

"There are investors who are willing to come and buy. I think the signal that investors are willing to invest in Ukraine today is significantly more important than the starting price," he said.

Ukraine's State Property Fund oversees the privatisation of state assets. Its recommendation needs to be approved by a privatisation commission, on which Bilous also sits, and then the government.
IMF weighs lifting freeze on Guinea-Bissau funding

By Joe Bavier

ABIDJAN, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund could lift a suspension on payments aimed at helping Guinea-Bissau emerge from years of political turmoil following an evaluation mission this week, the institution's country representative said on Monday.

The IMF agreed a programme with Guinea-Bissau last year after 2014 elections drew a line under a coup two years earlier - one of a succession that have spawned chronic instability and helped make the West African country a haven for South American cocaine traffickers.

Disbursements were suspended in June, however, after the government took on 34 billion CFA francs ($58.3 million) in bad loans from two private banks. Donors followed suit and suspended budget support for 2016 equal to around 2.1 percent of GDP.

IMF representative Oscar Melhado told Reuters by email that the Fund welcomed a government decision to cancel the bailouts, whose value amounted to around 5.5 percent of GDP.

"The only remaining obstacle is the refusal of the banks to accept the bad portfolio back into their books," he said.

The IMF had argued the bailouts benefited the wealthiest citizens and foreign investors. Authorities had said they were needed to shield the private sector from bankruptcy.

Monday was a public holiday and the banks, Banco da Africa Ocidental and Banco da Uniao, were not available for comment.

Melhado said the government should also commit to implementing prudent macroeconomic policies and key structural reforms during the visit due to begin on Tuesday, which constitutes the first and second reviews of the IMF programme.

Disbursements worth 4.1 billion CFA could still be made this year if the reviews are approved by the IMF's board in December.

Total donor contributions, including direct budget support and financing for targeted sectors and projects, typically make up around 80 percent of Guinea-Bissau's budget. After the IMF freeze, Finance Minister Henrique Horta described the economic situation, including a budget deficit amounting to about 3.5 percent of GDP, as "catastrophic".

The government of Guinea, which is helping to mediate in its smaller Portuguese-speaking neighbour, said earlier this month that Guinea-Bissau would not be able to pay the salaries of civil servants and the security forces from October.

"We hope that donors will resume support following the IMF. It would depend on each donor's policy," Melhado said.

The IMF visit comes days after an agreement to form a new government, ending a year-long political crisis that has paralysed state institutions.
Russia says to oppose new IMF aid tranche to Ukraine

By Darya Korsunskaya

MOSCOW, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Russia will vote against a new tranche of financial aid from the International Monetary Fund to Ukraine but is willing to discuss an out-of-court settlement over Kiev's debt to Moscow, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Monday.

The IMF, which last year changed its rules to keep lending to countries such as Ukraine that are in arrears to official creditors, will decide on Sept. 14 whether to release a loan tranche to Kiev which could amount to as much as $1.7 billion.

Russia has filed a lawsuit against Ukraine at London's High Court in February demanding repayment of a $3 billion Eurobond, which matured in December last year, after Kiev insisted that Moscow must accept restructuring terms agreed with other foreign creditors.

Siluanov, speaking to journalists at a briefing, said Ukraine had never met the condition needed for the new IMF policy to work, of negotiating in good faith, so the IMF should pull its aid to Ukraine.

"It's possible that the Fund does not have full information about the scope of the (Russia-Ukraine) negotiations, although that would be strange," Siluanov said, adding that Russia would send a letter to the IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde explaining its position.

"We will vote against this (approving loan tranche) as we believe it is not compliant with the rules."

Ukraine argues that the original loan agreement was invalid because Russia applied economic and political pressure on it in 2013 to accept it.

"I doubt Russia can block the next IMF disbursement, as (it is) likely Western countries supporting Ukraine have a majority and would be willing to force this through, but it makes life uncomfortable for the IMF board and we might see an attempt to stall, (to) further review the decision," Timothy Ash, chief emerging markets strategist at Nomura in London, said in a note.

The first court hearing is scheduled for Jan. 17, but Siluanov said Russia was ready to talk about an out-of-court settlement if Ukraine changed its proposals on how to restructure the debt.
Death toll in Tanzania quake reaches 16, smaller tremor strikes

DAR ES SALAAM, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The death toll from an earthquake that struck northwest Tanzania at the weekend has risen to 16, the government said on Monday as a smaller aftershock hit the same area.

There were no immediate reports of damage from the second tremor. The first shock, in the Kagera region on Saturday, measured 5.7 and injured 253 people in addition to those killed. Initial reports had put the death toll at about 10 people.

"Thousands of people have been left homeless as a result of this disaster," the prime minister's office said in Monday's statement, saying 840 houses were destroyed and 1,264 were damaged by cracks.

The Information Ministry said a second "smaller earthquake" hit Kagera late on Monday, without giving the magnitude. "But there are no reports of any serious damage," it said.

President John Magufuli has postponed a visit to neighbouring Zambia to take charge of the government's relief efforts, the presidency said in a statement.
Hedge funds temper bullishness on oil: Kemp

By John Kemp

LONDON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Hedge funds tempered their bullishness towards the entire petroleum complex during the first week of September, according to positioning data from regulators and exchanges.

Hedge funds and other money managers cut their combined net long position in the three major Brent and WTI futures and options contracts by 80 million barrels in the week ending Sept. 6 (http://tmsnrt.rs/2clxshx).

The decline was led by a big increase in short positions, which rose by 56 million barrels, especially in the WTI contracts, where short positions increased by 39 million barrels.

There was a more modest reduction in long positions, which fell 23 million barrels, with almost all the long liquidation in Brent, where long positions were down 20 million barrels.

Overall, the hedge funds' net long position in crude has fallen by nearly 100 million barrels over the two most recent weeks, partially reversing a build of 287 million barrels over the three weeks before that (http://tmsnrt.rs/2cyquZ5).

The partial reversal reflects profit taking after Brent prices surged by almost $10 per barrel, more than 23 percent, in the first part of August as some of the previous record short position was covered.

It also seems to reflect fresh short-selling in anticipation that long liquidation would trigger a new round of price falls.

The more cautious hedge fund position on crude was echoed in positions on U.S. gasoline blendstock and heating oil.

Hedge funds cut their net long position in gasoline by 5 million barrels and heating oil by 12 million barrels in the week ending on Sept. 6 (http://tmsnrt.rs/2cyq6K7 and http://tmsnrt.rs/2cyqcBp).

Even after the recent adjustments, hedge fund positions across the entire complex of crude, gasoline and heating oil are still much more bullish than they were at the start of August.

Recent long liquidation and short sales may be just a minor correction after the unprecedented short-covering rally last month ("Oil prices surge as hedge funds reduce short positions", Reuters, Aug. 22).

But with long positions still relatively high and short positions relatively low there is potentially scope for the correction to continue.

Since the start of 2015, hedge funds have accumulated and then liquidated short positions in four distinct cycles that have closely mirrored the fall and then rise of oil prices (http://tmsnrt.rs/2cly8na).
Syria ceasefire approaches with Assad emboldened, opposition wary

By Tom Perry

BEIRUT, Sept 12 (Reuters) - An emboldened President Bashar al-Assad vowed on Monday to take back all of Syria, hours before the start of a ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia, which Assad's opponents described as stacked in his favour.

In a gesture loaded with symbolism, state television showed Assad visiting Daraya, a Damascus suburb long held by rebels but recaptured last month after fighters there surrendered in the face of a crushing siege. The Syrian leader performed Muslim holiday prayers alongside other officials in a bare hall in a Daraya mosque.

"The Syrian state is determined to recover every area from the terrorists," Assad said in an interview broadcast by state media, flanked by his delegation at an otherwise deserted road junction.

He made no mention of the ceasefire agreement, but said the army would continue its work "without hesitation, regardless of any internal or external circumstances".

The ceasefire is due to take effect at sundown, and includes improved humanitarian aid access and joint U.S. and Russian targeting of hardline Islamists. But it faces big challenges, including how to separate nationalist rebels from the jihadists.

The rebels say the deal benefits Assad, who appears stronger than at any point since the early days of the war, with military support from Russia and Iran.

The capture of Daraya, a few kilometres (miles) from Damascus, followed years of siege and bombardment and has helped the government secure important areas to the southwest of the capital near an air base.

Backed by Russian air power and Iranian-backed militias, the army has also completely encircled the rebel-held half of Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the war, which has been divided into government and opposition-held zones for years.

In the footage of his visit to Daraya, Assad, 51, appeared to be driving his own vehicle, a silver SUV, as he arrived at the mosque. He smiled and waved as he entered.

FIGHTING CONTINUES

Daraya was evacuated following a local agreement between the army and rebels that let fighters escape to a rebel stronghold while civilians were sent to another government-held area. The U.N.'s aid chief, Stephen O'Brien, voiced "extreme concern", emphasising the harsh conditions that led to the surrender. The government has sought similar deals in other besieged areas.

Russia's intervention in the Syrian war a year ago has tilted it in Assad's favour, after rebel advances had posed a growing threat to his rule. It has also given Russia decisive leverage over international diplomacy that has thus far failed to make any progress towards a political settlement.

The Russia-U.S. deal is the second attempt to bring about a ceasefire this year, after an agreement concluded in February collapsed as each side blamed the other for violations.

Washington, which supports some rebel factions, has been seeking to refocus the fighting in Syria on the Islamic State group, which still controls swathes of the country and has not been included in any ceasefires.

Fighting raged on several key frontlines on Monday, including Aleppo and the southern province of Quneitra.

"There are no signs we are going to a truce so far," said Rami Abdulrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict.

The Syrian war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced 11 million people from their homes in the world's worst refugee crisis. The new truce has official support from countries on both sides, including both Iran, Assad's ally, and Turkey, a major sponsor of the insurgency against him.

TRICKY

Under the agreement, Russian-backed government forces and opposition groups, which are supported by the United States and Gulf States, would halt fighting for a while as a confidence building measure.

During this time, opposition fighters will have the chance to separate from militant groups in areas such as Aleppo.

But distinguishing rebels protected by the ceasefire from jihadists who are excluded from it is tricky, particularly with regards to a group formerly called the Nusra Front, which was al Qaeda's Syria branch until it changed its name in July.

The group, which now calls itself Jabhet Fateh al-Sham, is playing a vital role in the battle for Aleppo allied with other rebel factions, but is still outside the ceasefire.

The United States has said the deal includes agreement that the government will not fly combat missions in an agreed area on the pretext of hunting fighters from the former Nusra Front. However, the opposition says a loophole would allow the government to continue air strikes for up to nine days after the ceasefire takes effect.

Nationalist rebel groups, including factions backed by Assad's foreign enemies, wrote to Washington on Sunday to express deep concerns over the truce. The letter, seen by Reuters, said the opposition groups would "cooperate positively" with a ceasefire but believed the terms favoured Assad.

It said the ceasefire shared the flaw that allowed the government to scupper the previous truce: a lack of guarantees, monitoring mechanisms or sanctions against violators.

It also said Jabhet Fateh al-Sham should be included in the truce, as the group had not carried out attacks outside Syria despite its previous ties to al Qaeda. Jabhet Fatah al-Sham said the deal aimed to weaken the "effective" anti-Assad forces, and to "bury" the revolution.

The government has made no comment on the agreement, but Syrian state media quoted what it called private sources as saying the government had given its approval.

The previous cessation of hostilities agreement resulted in a U.N.-led attempt to launch peace talks in Geneva. But these broke down before getting started in earnest.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said a new round of talks between the Syrian government and opposition may be held in early October, the RIA news agency said.
Italian quake town may sue Charlie Hebdo over "lasagne" cartoon

By Isla Binnie

ROME, Sept 12 (Reuters) - An Italian town is pursuing legal action against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for a cartoon showing victims of an earthquake there as types of pasta, and another suggesting the mafia was to blame for the death toll of almost 300.

One cartoon, entitled "Earthquake Italian Style", captioned drawings of a bloodied and bandaged man "Penne in tomato sauce", a scratched and swollen woman "Penne au gratin", and a collapsed building with blood and feet emerging from it "Lasagne".

After Italians responded angrily, the magazine, famed for its provocative, taboo-busting cartoons, published a second one, showing a person half-buried under rubble saying: "Italians ... it's not Charlie Hebdo who built your homes, it's the mafia!"

Amatrice, the home of "amatriciana" pasta sauce, was flattened by the quake on Aug. 24.

The local government called the cartoons "a macabre, senseless and absurd insult to the victims," Mario Cicchetti, a lawyer for Amatrice city hall, told Reuters.

It has asked a local prosecutor to investigate Charlie Hebdo for "aggravated defamation", a crime for which the town would seek civil damages.

Even though the cartoons were published in France, Cicchetti said the legal case could be brought in Italy because they had been widely seen and shared there.

Twelve people were shot dead at Charlie Hebdo's offices in Paris in 2015 by Islamist militants who accused the magazine of blasphemy for printing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

The construction sector in Italy has long been plagued by inattention to regulations, and both regular building work and post-disaster reconstruction has at times been infiltrated by organised crime.

It is now up to the magistrates in Rieti, near Amatrice, to decide whether to take up the investigation against the cartoonists and the magazine's director, Cicchetti said.
WIDER IMAGE-In Yemen's remote mountains, war - and progress - remain distant

By Abduljabbar Zeyad

JAFARIYA, Yemen, Sept 12 (Reuters) - In villages perched high on a mountain in western Yemen, residents are a safe distance from a conflict raging through most of the country, but they endure a hardscrabble existence little changed from hundreds of years ago.

Long used to a livelihood without electricity or running water, they have felt little impact from the 18 months of civil war which have cut those essential services to many of Yemen's 28 million people.

Dinner is still cooked as usual on an open fire, and dawn light heralds the start of work in the fields.

But far from a country idyll, the sunny days in the crisp green hills are a medieval struggle for survival.

People in the Jafariya district of the western Raymah province haul basic goods uphill by foot, donkeyback and even a pulley-powered cable car soaring between peaks. (http://reut.rs/2cGAn2O)

Majid Abdullah al-Ayashi, 14, regularly plies this misty 1,200-metre span in the rusty metal box along with produce and other basic goods which he then carries further uphill to his village on the Dhalamlam mountain.

"It really hurts my back. I wish there was another solution to move the goods because the elevator isn't safe and could lead to a fall," the child lamented.

Agriculture remains the mainstay of most villagers and the area is known for beekeeping and its distinctive honey is sold around the country.

Mohammad Yahya Haidar, 65, takes the sweet with the bitter.

"Despite the difficulty of life, we're still living here, just as our fathers and our ancestors did. We grow coffee and grain like they did, and we've grown accustomed to this life with all its cruelty and extreme hardship."

Most of Yemen's population lives in the countryside, a disparate patchwork of deserts, mountains and scrubland where even in peacetime the writ of the government and the benefit of its services barely runs.

That isolation has girded villagers well for the trials of rural life, and even the architecture is purpose-built for adversity.

Traditional cisterns cut into the rock capture rainwater and many of the stone buildings in the area have withstood the elements for hundreds of years.

If calamity strikes, however, the villages' remoteness can become a curse when residents need medical attention in faraway clinics.

Pregnant women suffering complications and immobile patients are lucky to survive the eight-hour journey carried on men's shoulders in makeshift stretchers.
South Africa's Zuma used home loan to repay Nkandla costs - presidency

JOHANNESBURG, Sept 12 (Reuters) - South Africa's President Jacob Zuma used the proceeds from a home loan from VBS Mutual Bank to pay back 7.8 million rand ($538,000) for non-security upgrades to his private Nkandla home, the presidency said on Monday.

In a statement, the presidency said VBS Mutual Bank is one of the few financial institutions which offer home loans in respect of land owned by traditional authorities.

The unlisted bank says on its website that it is a wholly black-owned specialist corporate finance and retail bank.
South Africa's Zuma repays some state money in home improvement scandal

By Mfuneko Toyana and James Macharia

JOHANNESBURG, Sept 12 (Reuters) - South Africa's President Jacob Zuma has taken out a home loan to repay state money spent on non-security upgrades to his private residence, his office said on Monday, after a scandal over lavish improvements including a swimming pool and amphitheatre.

In a stinging rebuke that hit Zuma financially and politically, the Constitutional Court ordered him in March to return some of the $16 million spent on enhancing his residence at Nkandla in the KwaZulu-Natal province.

Near record unemployment and a stagnant economy have exacerbated discontent with Zuma's leadership. He survived an impeachment vote in April over the Nkandla costs with backing from the ruling African National Congress (ANC), which has been in power since the end of white-minority rule in 1994.

In August, the ruling party suffered its worst losses in municipal elections and lost its grip in key cities including the capital Pretoria and the economic hub of Johannesburg.

The president's office said Zuma had taken out a home loan on standard terms from private black-owned VBS Mutual Bank to repay 7.8 million rand ($538,000) - the sum determined by the Treasury in June as the "reasonable cost" he should bear.

A Treasury spokeswoman said the payment had been received.

In 2014, a national anti-corruption watchdog identified a cattle enclosure, chicken run and visitor centre as non-security items that Zuma must pay for, as well as the theatre and pool.

Zuma denied he had acted dishonestly over the upgrade.

The main opposition party Democratic Alliance said in a statement it welcomed the repayment by Zuma but said "this is only the tip of the iceberg in this corruption-plagued saga."

The party urged Zuma to show proof to parliament that he had received a home loan and that VBS Mutual was not "a front".

The presidency's spokesman Bongani Ngqulunga said Zuma had not considered taking money from his supporters to pay the amount as he had been ordered by the court to pay it personally.

Ngqulunga said: "There was no special dispensation for the president, he received the loan on standard terms, the same terms as anybody else."

VBS Mutual says on its website that its loans policy covers upgrades to homes.

South Africa's Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which manages South African government employee retirement funds and has more than 1.8 trillion rand under management, is listed as a shareholder of VBS Mutual on the bank's website.

ZUMA'S IMAGE

Analysts said the repayment would not help Zuma's image.

"The South African electorate have already judged Zuma, and they are not about to change their opinion," said Daniel Silke, a director at Political Futures Consultancy.

"It will not end the broader discussion of the leadership deficiencies of Zuma."

Zuma has survived several political and personal scandals, fending off accusations of corruption, influence peddling and rape before he took office in 2009.

His government has been rocked by a police investigation of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan. Some analysts say Zuma's allies are behind the investigation in a bid to remove Gordhan.

Zuma has backed the finance minister and his office said in May he is not warring with Gordhan.

Zuma was widely criticized in December when he changed finance ministers twice in a week, sending the rand plummeting and alarming investors.

In late March, the ANC backed Zuma after a party summit following allegations of political interference by his business friends, the Gupta family. Zuma has insisted his ties with the Guptas are above board and the Guptas say they are pawns in a plot to oust Zuma.
Jailed Kurdish militant says conflict with Turkey could be settled in six months - brother

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Sept 12 (Reuters) - A three-decade conflict between the Turkish state and Kurdish militants could be resolved within six months if talks were to be revived, the jailed rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan said, according to remarks by his brother on Monday.

They were the first public comments from Ocalan in more than a year, after the government suspended visits to his island prison in April 2015, and they come at a time of violence and political upheaval.

"He said that if the state is ready for this project, we can finish it in six months and that the previous (peace) process has not been completely wiped out," Mehmet Ocalan quoted his brother as saying, at a news conference in Diyarbakir on Monday.

"'This is not a war that one side can win. It's time for the bloodshed and tears to end,' he said."

Thousands have died since July 2015, when a ceasefire with the armed PKK, which Ocalan founded, collapsed. Ocalan had negotiated that truce from his prison cell, where he's been kept since 1999 on a treason conviction.

In the latest violence, suspected Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants set off a car bomb on Monday near government offices in the city of Van, wounding scores of people. The attack came a day after the mayors of 24 Kurdish-run municipalities who were suspected of PKK links were stripped of office.

So far, the Turkish government has shown little sign it will seek a negotiated solution to the latest spasm of violence. The crackdown has coincided with a purge of journalists, politicians, government workers, soldiers, teachers and others after a failed coup attempt in July.

President Tayyip Erdogan, who backed two-year peace talks with Ocalan before the fighting re-ignited, has said the campaign against the PKK - called a terrorist group by the United States and European Union - was now Turkey's largest ever.

Mehmet Ocalan, who is the first family member to see his brother in two years, said that the 68-year-old was in good health. The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture saw Ocalan in April 2016.

The government allowed the family visit before the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and after about 50 Kurdish activists began a hunger strike, demanding an end to Ocalan's isolation. The group said at the news conference they would abandon their eight-day action after the visit took place.

Ocalan's last contact with the outside world was in April 2015, with parliamentarians from the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), who were acting as mediators in the peace process. Weeks later, the pro-Kurdish HDP saw significant gains in a general election, depriving the ruling AK Party of single-party rule for the first time in 13 years.

The HDP accuses the government of reviving the conflict to regain control, which it did in a Nov. 1 re-run election. Erdogan and the AKP reject any such claim.
Austria to hold a meeting on migration on Sept 24

LJUBLJANA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Austria will hold a meeting on migration in Vienna on September 24 which will be attended by the German leader Angela Merkel along with heads of some other states burdened by migration crisis, Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said on Monday.

"We need to reach a new agreement on how to guard borders in Europe," Kern told a news conference in Ljubljana during his one-day visit to Slovenia, saying Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar was also invited to the Vienna conference.

Kern and Cerar urged more cooperation between European Union states that should lead to better border control on the outer EU borders and limit the number of illegal immigrants arriving in the EU.

"We need to ... give a clear signal that there is simply no room for illegal migration." Cerar told the news conference.

Before the Balkan migrant route was shut in March amost 500,000 migrants crossed Slovenia on their way to Austria and other wealthier European states.
Korea's KEPCO in talks to buy into UK nuclear project NuGen - source

By Geert De Clercq and Karolin Schaps

PARIS/LONDON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - South Korean power utility KEPCO is in talks with Japan's Toshiba and France's Engie about buying a stake in the Toshiba-Engie British nuclear joint venture NuGen, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Monday.

The source did not specify whether Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) would buy a part or all of the stakes of Toshiba or Engie. Both firms are looking for partners to reduce their share in the capital-intensive project.

The source said it is not certain that KEPCO would buy into NuGen and that it was one of several options under review.

The Financial Times on Monday reported KEPCO had resumed talks about joining the 10 billion-pound ($13 billion) NuGen project after negotiations stalled three years ago and is mulling taking an equity stake and a role in constructing the nuclear plant near Sellafield, northwest England.

"We are looking for investors and are talking to a wide range of people," said a spokesman for NuGen when contacted by Reuters, declining to comment on whether talks were taking place with KEPCO.

Engie declined to comment.

NuGen, a joint venture between Toshiba and French utility company Engie, plans to build three Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at the Moorside site on the coast of Cumbria and expects electricity generation to start in 2025.

NuGen is expected to have a generating capacity of up to 3.8 gigawatts when all three reactors are completed, accounting for around 7 percent of Britain's total electricity demand.

The NuGen consortium is competing to build Britain's first new nuclear plant in a generation with French power utility EDF .

The French utility is planning the 18 billion pound ($24 billion) Hinkley Point C project in Somerset, southwest England, which is no longer certain to go ahead since the government of new British prime minister Theresa May has raised security issues over China's involvement in the project.

Hitachi's Horizon is another consortium which has proposed two new nuclear projects. Its Wylfa plant in Wales is expected to start up in the first half of the next decade.

Engie operates several nuclear plants in Belgium and is part of a consortium to build a nuclear plant in Turkey, but new Engie chief executive, Isabelle Kocher, wants to focus on renewable energy, energy efficiency and power networks.
U.N. warns of stability risk from S. Sudan fighters fleeing to Congo

By Aaron Ross

KINSHASA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo's U.N. mission on Monday warned that a failure to properly manage the influx of more than 750 supporters of South Sudan's main opposition leader, who fled across the border last month, would threaten regional stability.

The mission, known as MONUSCO, said in a statement that it rescued another 268 people from Garamba National Park in northeastern Congo over the weekend. They had all fled South Sudan with the country's former vice-president Riek Machar, following fierce fighting in the capital, Juba.

"MONUSCO and the United Nations headquarters continue their discussions with the DRC government (and) regional organisations in order to find a favorable resolution to this situation, which could become a threat to peace in Congo and the region," the statement said.

Machar, who was picked up by MONUSCO with a leg injury on Aug. 17 and later transferred to Sudan for medical treatment, is the only one of the group known to have left Congo.

The most recent transfers bring the total number evacuated by U.N. helicopters to 634. Another 134 in the park are believed to still require assistance, the statement said.

The transferred fighters are required firstly to hand over their weapons, MONUSCO added.

Influxes of rebel fighters from volatile neighbours is a sensitive theme in Congo, where the flow of Hutu militiamen from neighbouring Rwanda after its 1994 genocide helped trigger years of regional conflict in eastern Congo that killed millions.

MONUSCO said in a statement on Sunday that, as of Sept. 8, 117 individuals had been handed over to Congolese authorities while another 183 were being held at two MONUSCO-run facilities.

Congo's government said that it was in talks with South Sudanese authorities over what will happen to the fighters.

Hundreds have been killed in battles that broke out in the world's youngest nation in July between troops loyal to Machar and President Salva Kiir, his long-time political foe. Over 20,000 South Sudanese refugees have crossed into Congo this year, according to the UN Refugee Agency.
Lack of Ukraine rain threatens winter grain sowing

KIEV, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Dry soil could hit the sowing of winter grain in Ukraine, analyst UkrAgroConsult said on Monday.

Winter wheat accounts for 95 percent of Ukraine's overall wheat output, and the winter crop is also a significant part of the barley harvest.

The consultancy said in a statement the average daily temperature was up to 6 degrees Celsius higher than the norm, and that had created poor conditions for preparing the soil for winter sowing.

Sufficient moisture in the upper layer of the soil was observed only in parts of Ukraine's northern, western and central regions, it said.

Ukraine's winter wheat harvest is highly dependent on moisture content in the soil during the autumn sowing, air temperatures in winter and favourable weather in spring.

A senior Ukrainian agriculture official said last month that farmers were likely to increase the area sown for winter grains for 2016/2017 to 7.3 million hectares from 7 million last year.

Poor weather last autumn forced farmers to reduce the area under winter grains. The area under winter wheat could be up to 6.5 million hectares for the 2016/17 season, he added.

UkrAgroConsult said that although the optimum sowing time for winter grains only began on Sept. 10, farmers had already started winter grain sowing, which could lead to a too rapid development of the crops in the case of a warm autumn.

More than a half of Ukrainian regions have already started winter grain sowing, according to Ukraine's agriculture ministry, seeding 284,000 hectares of winter wheat or around 5 percent of the expected area.

Farms sowed 591,000 hectares of winter grains at the same date in 2015.

Farmers also sowed 625,000 hectares of winter rape or 86 percent of the planned area.
Syria ceasefire takes effect with Assad emboldened, opposition wary

By Tom Perry

BEIRUT, Sept 12 (Reuters) - A nationwide ceasefire in Syria brokered by the United States and Russia went into effect on Monday evening, the second attempt this year by Washington and Moscow to halt the five-year-old civil war.

The Syrian army announced the truce at 7 p.m. (1600 GMT), the moment it took effect, saying the seven-day "regime of calm" would be applied across Syria. It reserved the right to respond with all forms of firepower to any violation by "armed groups".

Rebel groups fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad issued a joint statement listing deep reservations with the agreement they described as unjust, echoing concerns outlined in a letter to the United States on Sunday. While the statement did not explicitly back the ceasefire, rebel sources said the groups were abiding by it.

"Regarding a truce, a ceasefire, the delivery of aid, this is a moral question and there is no debate around this, we absolutely welcome this, but there are other articles around which there are reservations," Zakaria Malahifji of an Aleppo-based rebel faction told Reuters.

Combatant sources on both sides said calm prevailed in the first hours of the ceasefire but reported violations increased later in the night.

Russia is a major backer of Assad, while the United States supports some of the rebel groups fighting to topple him.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said early reports suggested there had been some reduction in violence.

He told reporters at the State Department it was too early to draw a definitive conclusion about how effective the truce will be and that there would no doubt be some reports of violations "here and there".

The agreement's initial aims include allowing humanitarian access and joint U.S.-Russian targeting of jihadist groups, which are not covered by the agreement.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that aid to the besieged city of Aleppo would start immediately.

Besher Hawi, a resident of the opposition-held city, said it had been calm since the ceasefire came into force, after a heavy day of bombardment.

"It's excellent but I certainly have no confidence in the regime. It could bomb at any moment," he told Reuters from Aleppo, speaking via a web-based messaging system.

Residents of government-held western Aleppo, frequently hit by rebel shelling, also expressed doubt over whether the truce would last. "Every time there's a truce the militants ... hit us," said an Aleppo resident who gave his name as Khaled. "We hope things will improve. May the army be victorious."

As the night went on, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, reported government air strikes and bombardment in Hama and Aleppo provinces, and shelling of rebel-held areas near Damascus, though it said the violations were not serious. A rebel in the Aleppo area said warplanes had opened fire with machine guns north of the city.

A Syrian military source meanwhile said armed groups in Aleppo had sniped on residential buildings, and fired three mortar bombs at a government-held area on the city outskirts.

The ceasefire comes at a time when Assad's position on the battlefield is stronger than it has been since the earliest months of the war, thanks to Russian and Iranian military support. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed in the conflict and 11 million made homeless in the world's worst refugee crisis.

ASSAD EMBOLDENED

Hours before the truce took effect, an emboldened Assad vowed to take back all of Syria. In a gesture loaded with symbolism, state television showed him visiting Daraya, a Damascus suburb long held by rebels but recaptured last month after fighters surrendered in the face of a crushing siege.

"The Syrian state is determined to recover every area from the terrorists," Assad said in an interview broadcast by state media. Earlier he performed Muslim holiday prayers alongside other officials in a bare hall in a Daraya mosque.

He made no mention of the ceasefire agreement, but said the army would continue its work "without hesitation, regardless of any internal or external circumstances".

The ceasefire is the boldest expression yet of hope by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama that it can work with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war. All previous diplomatic initiatives have collapsed in failure.

The Obama administration opposes Assad but wants to shift the focus of fighting from the multi-sided civil war between Assad and his many foes to a campaign against Islamic State, an ultra-hardline jihadist group that controls swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

The ceasefire deal is backed by countries ranging from Assad's ally Iran to Turkey, one of the main supporters of groups fighting to overthrow him.

Maintaining the ceasefire means overcoming big challenges, including separating nationalist rebels who would be protected under it from jihadist fighters who are excluded.

The rebels say the deal benefits Assad, whose military position has improved since the last truce brokered by Washington and Moscow collapsed earlier this year.

The capture of Daraya, a few kilometres from Damascus, has helped the government secure important areas to the southwest of the capital near an air base. The army has also completely encircled the rebel-held half of Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the war, which has been divided into government and opposition-held zones for years.

RUSSIA CONCERNED

In the hours before the ceasefire took effect, fighting raged on several key frontlines, including Aleppo and the southern province of Quneitra. The Observatory said an air strike in rebel-held Idlib province killed at least 13 people.

Under the agreement, Russian-backed government forces and opposition groups are expected to halt fighting for a while as a confidence-building measure. Opposition fighters are expected to separate from jihadist groups in areas such as Aleppo.

But distinguishing protected rebels from jihadists is difficult, particularly with regards to a group formerly called the Nusra Front, which was al Qaeda's Syria branch until it changed its name in July.

The group, which now calls itself Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, has been playing a vital role in the battle for Aleppo allied with other rebel factions. It remains excluded from the ceasefire, and other rebel groups say government forces or their allies can use its presence as an excuse to hit other targets.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said it was concerned that some opposition groups including the powerful Ahrar al-Sham, which fights in close coordination with Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, had refused to respect the ceasefire. However, a source in the opposition told Reuters that Ahrar al-Sham would back the cessation of hostilities in an announcement later on Monday.

Washington has said the ceasefire includes agreement that the government will not fly combat missions in an agreed area on the pretext of hunting fighters from the former Nusra Front. However, the opposition says a loophole would allow the government to continue air strikes for up to nine days.

Nationalist rebel groups, including factions backed by Assad's foreign enemies, wrote to Washington on Sunday to express deep concerns.
Zambia court rejects opposition bid to block Lungu's inauguration

LUSAKA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Zambia's Supreme Court has rejected an application by the main opposition party to stop President Edgar Lungu's inauguration, set for Tuesday after last month's contested election, a lawyer for the opposition leader said on Monday.

The election row - which followed violence between rival campaign supporters in what is otherwise considered one of Africa's most stable democracies - could damage Zambia's ability to attract investment critical to reviving the economy.

"The court has declined to grant the application on grounds that as a single judge he has no jurisdiction," Keith Mweemba, a lawyer for opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema told journalists.

Lungu's inauguration after the Aug. 11 election was postponed because Hichilema challenged the result in court, saying the vote was rigged. A law introduced in January says the winner of a presidential vote cannot be sworn in if their victory is contested in court.

On Friday the Lusaka High Court threw out an attempt by Opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) leader Hichilema to overturn a Constitutional Court decision not to give him more time to legally challenge Lungu's re-election.

Mweemba said his clients planned to file another application before the full bench of the Supreme Court.

Zambia will press on with swearing in its president for another five-year-term on Tuesday after Lungu won 50.35 percent of the vote according to the official results.

Prospects for resuming critical budget support talks with the International Monetary Fund have been dimmed by delays in swearing in a new head of state.

Lungu has been the head of the ruling Patriotic Front since its leader, Michael Sata, died in 2014. He won the presidency the following year, defeating Hichilema in their first electoral confrontation.

In a separate ruling, the broadcasting regulator lifted the suspension of Muvi TV, the nation's largest private television station after the station admitted to producing "unfair and unbalanced content" during the election period.
Vattenfall wins Danish wind farm tender, but project still in doubt

By Nikolaj Skydsgaard

COPENHAGEN, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Swedish utility Vattenfall won a tender on Monday to build two offshore wind farms for Denmark, but could yet have the project pulled by a government worried about the cost of renewable energy subsidies.

The winning bid was to produce power from two wind farms off the west coast of Denmark, called Vesterhav Nord and Vesterhav Syd, for 0.475 Danish crowns ($0.0716) per kilowatt-hour (kWh).

But with wholesale power prices currently well below that level - around 0.22 crowns per kWh - that would mean taxpayers making up the difference in subsidies.

Denmark, which produced more than 40 percent of its electricity from wind power last year, has seen subsidy costs to the industry soar due to a sharp drop in power prices since 2012, leading the government to cut back on renewable projects.

Energy Minister Lars Lilleholt showed little enthusiasm on Monday for the new wind farms.

"By not erecting the mills, we can cut the large bill from the green transition," he said.

The future of the project will be debated in broader budget talks this autumn. Despite opposition from the minority government, the project still has the support of a majority in parliament.

Vattenfall, which will become the largest offshore wind operator in Denmark if the project goes ahead, called for a quick decision.

"It is a very confusing message to send and it creates a completely unnecessary uncertainty about what Denmark wants. Nobody understands what is happening in Denmark right now," Ole Bigum Nielsen, Vattenfall's country manager for Denmark, told Reuters.

"Now we have to discuss the risk of investing in Denmark, and we have never discussed that before," he added.

Vattenfall expects the project to generate 5,000 jobs over three years and 50-100 permanent jobs in operations and maintenance.
EU may keep own aviation emissions rules to meet targets

BRUSSELS, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The European Union wants its own measures to reduce airline pollution from 2018 to 2020 ahead of when a proposed global deal is due to come into force and may extend its own system if it sees fit, European officials said on Monday.

Some EU lawmakers argue the global accord falls short of EU ambitions to cut back greenhouse gases and does not justify extending an exemption for flights from the EU's own aviation emissions trading scheme beyond 2016.

Aviation was excluded from December's climate accord in Paris when countries agreed to limit the global average rise in temperatures to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

China, the United States, the EU and 16 surrounding nations support a pact to cap emissions of all international flights at 2020 levels that is due to be finalised when the United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) meets in Montreal later this month.

However, the new global deal would be voluntary between 2021 and 2026 and only become mandatory from 2027 for the world's largest carbon dioxide emitters.

The EU must decide by the end of the year whether to keep exempting international flights from its own Emissions Trading System (ETS). It had agreed to give ICAO until 2016 to find a global deal on curbing emissions from international aviation.

Despite a global pact, EU officials said the bloc may keep elements of its own trading scheme in place.

"The resolution does not prevent us from maintaining what we have in place should we choose to do so," an EU official said. "It's very much possible to make sure that the two systems coexist and can be made complementary but that's a discussion we will of course be having after Montreal."
Ex-Auschwitz paramedic accused of accessory to mass murder

BERLIN, Sept 12 (Reuters) - A 95-year-old former paramedic at the Nazi death camp Auschwitz was charged in a German court on Monday with being an accessory to the murder of at least 3,681 people in a trial that is likely to be one of Germany's last linked to the Holocaust.

Hubert Zafke worked as a paramedic in Auschwitz from Aug. 15 to Sept. 14 in 1944. During this month, at least 14 deportation trains arrived at the extermination camp from places as far away as Lyon, Vienna and Westerbork in the Netherlands.

Although the former paramedic is not accused of having been directly involved in any killings, the prosecution's office says that he was aware of the camp's function as a facility for mass murder.

By joining its organisational structure, he consciously participated and even accelerated the deaths of thousands of people, the prosecutors say.

The trial, at a regional court in the northeastern town of Neubrandenburg, was adjourned until next Monday after the state prosecutor and joint plaintiffs, including Auschwitz survivors, challenged the impartiality of the presiding judge.

Germany has been holding trials of suspects of Nazi crimes, using accessory to murder charges to convict Sobibor death camp guard John Demjanjuk in 2011 and 94-year-old former Auschwitz guard Reinhold Hanning earlier this year.

A German court in June branded Hanning a "willing and efficient henchman" in the Holocaust, convicting him of being an accessory to the murder of at least 170,000 people and sentencing him to five years in prison.

Last year, 94-year-old Oskar Groening, known as the "bookkeeper of Auschwitz", was sentenced to four years in prison after he was convicted of being an accessory to the murder of 300,000 people in Auschwitz.

The trials are likely to be Germany's last linked to the Holocaust, when the Nazis killed more than 6 million people, mostly Jews, in a deliberate plan of extermination.

Last week, a 92-year-old woman who worked as a radio operator at Auschwitz was ruled as unfit to stand trial on charges that she was an accessory to the murder of 260,000 at the Nazi death camp.
EU soft touch on Portugal deficit risks credibility - Finnish FinMin

By Jussi Rosendahl and Tuomas Forsell

HELSINKI, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Portugal has got off too easy for not reducing its budget deficit, and the European Union's soft line poses a risk to its credibility, Finland's new finance minister Petteri Orpo said in an interview.

With signs of euro scepticism growing in the bloc, Spain and Portugal in July escaped being fined by the European Union for not reducing their budget gaps to below 3 percent of their gross domestic product.

"Spain does not have a government in place, so action against Spain with no responsible administration would not perhaps be very wise," Orpo, who replaced Alexander Stubb as the finance minister in June, told Reuters in his office.

"But regarding Portugal, they do have a government, so I think it would be necessary, according to the growth and stability pact, to demand measures that will balance public finances."

He said a suitable sanction could be to withhold money from the EU's structural funds until sufficient reforms are under way.

"If there is no sanction at all, we will lose the credibility of the monetary union."

Finland itself is struggling to get back to economic growth after a long period of stagnation, and the EU last year warned Helsinki about its rising debt and budget deficits.

"There must be some principles to hold on to, regardless of the fact that we are on the same path ourselves," Orpo noted.

He said the Nordic country, known for its stiff opposition to bailouts during the euro zone debt crisis, must practice as it preaches and curb public debt growth along with the government's 10 billion euro long-term savings plan.

Orpo, returning from his first European finance ministers' meeting in Bratislava, also said he opposed proposed new fiscal stabilization tools for the monetary union.
How exactly will testing work under the new Every Student Succeeds Act? Earlier this summer, the U.S. Department of Education released its proposed regulations for both testing in general and the innovative assessment pilot under the new law .

The official comment period ended Friday, and more than 100 educators, parents, and advocates took the opportunity to offer comments or thoughts. The department is supposed to take these comments into consideration and respond to them before releasing its final regulations this fall, likely in November.

In all, there were more than 30 comments on the laws innovative assessments pilot , and more than 70 on assessments . That might sound like a lot, but its a drop in the bucket compared to the 20,000 comments on the proposed accountability regulations .

Were digging through the testing comments so that you dont have to. Heres a sampling of what weve read so far:

Assessments:

Background: These draft regulations deal with a host of testing issues, such as computer-adaptive testing, testing for English-language learners and students in special education, and subbing out a nationally recognized test, like the SAT or ACT, for the state test at the high school level. (Your cheat sheet here. )

The proposed regulations were written by a group of advocates through a process known as negotiated rulemaking. That means groups like the Council of Chief State School Officers, the National Education Association, and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights have already had their say, since, you know, they helped write these.

Sample comments:

Virginia Department of Education : One of the biggest sticking points in negotiating these rules was on how alternative tests for students with the most severe cognitive disabilities should work. ESSA says that states can only offer these tests to 1 percent of their students, but the law also allows for states to get a waiver from this provision. The proposed regulations put a lot of really strict parameters around these waivers, making it tough for a state to get one.

Steven Staples, Virginias state chief, clearly thinks that the draft regulations go overboard. He thinks states should be granted waivers for more than a year or two and that the timeline for applying for one is problematic. And he wants language calling for states to make substantial progress in cutting down on the number of students who take alternative tests removed, because it is not tightly defined in the draft and could be interpreted a bunch of different ways.

School Social Work Association of America : The group called the draft regulations generally solid, but offered a couple of new twists, including making it clear that all school staff should get training on how to help students in special education and English langauge learners deal with testing. The SSWAA also would like to see test results broken down by gender, in addition to the traditional set of subgroups.

National PTA: The group wrote in saying it was largely supportive of the recommendations, but suggested a few tweaks, such as requiring information about tests to be translated into the second-most-popular language in the state, other than English. That shouldnt be a huge burden for states, the PTA argues because it mirrors a requirement in the proposed regulations saying that there should be alternative tests available for recently arrived ELLs in whatever is the second-most-popular language in the state.

National Down Syndrome Congress : Overall, the group is a fan of the recommendations. It wrote in to ask the department to hold onto certain provisions, including the requirement that any nationally recognized test thats used with high school students in place of a state exam be made accessible for students in special education. The advocacy group also wants to see the department put out much-more specific guidance on how states should define severe cognitive disabilities and what tests for children who have them should look like. A number of parents whose children have Down syndrome seconded the recommendations.

ACT : The testing company wrote in with a recommendation on how the proposed regulations handle tests for accommodations for students in special education and English-language learners in cases where districts decide to use a nationally recognized college entrance or placement test instead of the state exam. ACT is worried that these accommodations might make the tests harder to use for college entrance. So it wants to make sure any accommodations preserve the validity, predictability, and reliability of the tests.

AASA, the School Superintendents Association : The organization is worried that it will be too difficult for states and districts to get a waiver from the 1 percent cap on tests for students with the most severe cognitive disabilities. And AASA is concerned that accommodations for students in special education will wind up on districts plates.

Innovative testing pilot

Background: These draft regulations, which were not part of the negotiated rulemaking, deal with a part of the law that allows up to seven statesand

potentially, eventually, all statesto try out a new form of testing in a small group of districts with the goal of eventually taking it statewide. (New Hampshire got the chance to try something like this under the previous version of the law, No Child Left Behind.) Cheat sheet on the program here , and on the proposed regulations here.

Sample comments:

Council of Chief State School Officers : CCSSO said it liked the regulations overall, but had some suggestions. For one thing, the organization would like to give states more time to develop their new testing systems before they have to be used for accountability purposes. It suggested a two-step approval process, where states can be given a conditional green light to go ahead and build their systems, with final approval when they are ready to use them for accountability. CCSSO also suggested the department give states some flexibility when it comes to proving that these new local assessments are comparable to the state test.

American Federation of Teachers : The union started with a long preamble on the merits of a system of local assessments currently used in New York state, the New York Performance Standards Consortium. It says that, in general, the regulations should make it possible to support systems like this. (AFT doesnt mention this specifically, but some assessment experts have said it might be tough for a state as populous as New York to have a system of local tests that could go statewide because of all the potential technical challenges.) AFT is also worried that the departments criteria for proving tests are comparable across the state is too restrictive. And it worries that the requirement for scaling an assessment statewide might make it hard for states to put a system of locally designed tests in place.

Foundation for Excellence in Education : Overall, this organization, which was started by former GOP Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, was supportive of the proposal. It did suggest a few additional tweaks, including one related to when a state can get extra time to use the innovative assessments in just a few districts rather than statewide. It wants the department to make sure districts that arent prepared to try out the new tests yet are getting ready to do so before the department grants the whole state more time with the pilot.
Russia calls on Free Syrian Army to stop fighting Kurds

MOSCOW, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The Russian Defence Ministry called on the Free Syrian Army to stop fighting Kurdish units to help support an impending cessation of hostilities on Monday and said it would continue air strikes against Islamic State and the former Nusra Front.
Hungary's far right says PM should quit if migrant referendum invalid

By Marton Dunai

BUDAPEST, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Hungary's radical nationalist Jobbik party told Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday he should resign if voters fail to turn out in sufficient numbers in a referendum next month to reject EU quotas for resettling refugees.

Jobbik leader Gabor Vona is trying to increase pressure on Orban in the run-up to the vote, which will be invalid unless at least 50 percent of the electorate, or around 4 million voters, take part.

"You hope to score political points with this game of hazard which could end up hurting the entire country," Vona told Orban in parliament. "If the October 2 referendum is invalid, you have to resign because you led Hungary into a battle you lost."

He said the referendum would backfire on Hungary if it failed: "We will give Brussels a trump card as our weapon backfires: Hungarians will not have legally rejected the quotas."

Orban has irked his European Union partners with his tough rhetoric on migrants and by building a razor wire fence along Hungary's southern border to keep them out. He has mounted a vigorous campaign for Hungarians to reject future EU quotas stipulating how many refugees each country should take.

He ignored the resignation demand, saying the vote was necessary to win political support in Hungary's battles against the EU.

"We need a common basis... to challenge Brussels in conflicts that will indeed have grave legal ramifications," he said. "Without the people, that battle cannot be won. We need them, we need to involve them, and in a democracy a referendum is the only way to do that."

Orban faces elections in 2018 and Jobbik will be his number one challenger, based on current poll standings. But his Fidesz party enjoys a commanding lead, which has widened in the course of the migration crisis.
EU Commission faces credibility test over Barroso job - watchdogs

By Philip Blenkinsop

BRUSSELS, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The European Commission faces a serious test of its credibility as it seeks to determine whether former president Jose Manuel Barroso was right to take on a job at Goldman Sachs, two transparency watchdogs said.

Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has launched an unprecedented ethics investigation into his predecessor who plans to help the U.S. investment bank deal with Brexit. Juncker will ask an independent panel to review Barroso's contract.

European Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly and Transparency International both welcomed what they described as a positive first step, but said public trust in the EU executive was at stake in its handling of the affair.

"In a case that will have a huge impact on the Commission's integrity and reputation, the process needs to be swift and transparent," Transparency International EU director Carl Dolan said in a statement on Monday, adding that the panel's minutes, advice and reasoning should be published as soon as possible.

EU Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly, who asked Juncker last week to explain what measures he was taking over Barroso, said she was pleased that the Commission president had responded to "widespread concerns".

"There is much at stake in terms of public trust," O'Reilly wrote. "This matter must be thoroughly and adequately dealt with. It is important also that such an assessment is completed as soon as is reasonably possible, within weeks and not months."

"GIFT HORSE"

Nearly 140,000 people have signed an online petition started by EU staff calling for "strong exemplary measures" against Barroso, whose decision to work for Goldman Sachs they described as a "gift horse" for europhobes.

His decision comes at a time when the EU is struggling in the aftermath of Britain's vote in June to quit the bloc to dispel public perceptions that it is a bureaucratic pawn of global capital.

Some Europeans also hold Goldman Sachs partly responsible for the financial crisis that nearly wrecked the euro.

Goldman Sachs said there had been no breach of ethics.

"Goldman Sachs and Mr. Barroso have adhered to all applicable legal rules and the highest ethical standards in his appointment," it said in a statement.

Barroso, a former Portuguese prime minister who headed the EU executive for a decade until Oct. 2014, has not commented publicly on his new job.

A Commission spokesman, asked why Juncker had only acted two months after Goldman hired Barroso, told a news conference the president had been reflecting on the issue.

"He took time to think about the best thing to do. He doesn't just base his opinions on what was in the newspapers ... What counts is that an opinion is based on facts and that is exactly what is going to happen," he said.
Russia calls on Free Syrian Army to stop fighting Kurds ahead of ceasefire

MOSCOW, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The Russian Defence Ministry called on the Free Syrian Army to stop fighting Kurdish units in the run-up to a cessation of hostilities in Syria and said it was considering a Syrian military request to supply ceasefire monitoring gear.

The ministry made its comments in a Moscow news conference after an emboldened President Bashar al-Assad vowed to take back all of Syria, hours before the start of a Russian and American-backed ceasefire, which Assad's opponents described as stacked in his favour.

The Russian Defence Ministry said the ceasefire, which it said would start at 1600 GMT, would be monitored using drones and that the Syrian army had said it was ready to diligently do its bit to uphold the agreement.

Lieutenant-General Sergei Rudskoi, a senior Russian Defence Ministry official, said Moscow was considering a Syrian military request to supply equipment that would allow Damascus to monitor artillery fire in and around Aleppo.

The ministry said Moscow would continue its own air strikes against Islamic State and the militant group formerly known as Nusra Front.
U.S. funds and Iceland square up over bond freeze

By Marc Jones and Ragnhildur Sigurdardottir

LONDON/REYKJAVIK , Sept 12 (Reuters) - A group of U.S. funds battling with Iceland after it froze $1.4 billion of the government's bonds they own are limbering up for a legal fight if Reykjavik continues to stonewall efforts at a deal.

While the players and amounts of money involved mean the situation is unlikely to develop into an years-long Argentina-style standoff, it is overshadowing Iceland's comeback from one of the world's most extreme banking crises.

A few weeks ago it took a big step in dismantling its 8-year old capital controls and the smooth progress so far has earned the country a double-notch credit rating upgrade and has been driving up its currency.

One headache, however, is that it remains deadlocked with funds Autonomy Capital, Eaton Vance, Loomis Sayles and Discovery Capital Management -- whose frozen bonds are worth roughly 10 percent of Iceland's annual economic output -- after they spurned what they saw as low-ball government offer to unlock them back in June.

Two of the funds, Autonomy and Eaton Vance, have filed a complaint to the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) in Brussels which is ongoing, saying that the quarantining of their bonds amounts to a discrimination against foreign investors. Autonomy has made a separate approach to a court in Iceland.

Iceland rejects the claims saying that some domestic investors are also affected and that the moves are necessary to allow a smooth lifting of capital controls, so barring any sudden change of tack the situation looks set to escalate.

"Offshore investors (the U.S funds) have made a concerted effort dating back to 2015 to provide multiple solutions (to the deadlock)," one of the funds' leading lawyers in EFTA case, Morrison & Foerster's Gary Lee told Reuters.

"The Icelandic government has refused to engage, and has instead chosen a discriminatory path that will in the short and long-term only harm the Icelandic economy and the Icelandic people."

An EFTA spokesperson said the funds' deadline to clarify the next stage of the complaint was Sept. 20 but a spokesman for Iceland's central bank played down the threat from any formal legal action that followed.

"The Icelandic authorities have made a careful analysis of the legal implications of the strategy for lifting capital controls and are confident that the strategy is fully consistent with both domestic law and Icelands international obligations," the central bank spokesman said.

The finance ministry added: "Particular attention has been given to ensuring that this bill of legislation does not conflict with the EEA (European economic area) Agreement."

PRE-ELECTION LIMBO

But the central bank is also keeping the hopes of some kind of deal just about alive. The head of central bank said when the lifting of capital controls was announced last month that the 'offshore Krona' issue could be revisited next year.

"The lifting of controls on these off-shore investments is a matter of sequencing," the spokesman added.

However, "As these (bonds) are fairly liquid assets and the total claims amount to roughly 10 percent of Icelands GDP it would be too risky to lift restrictions on the offshore investments at the same time as the focus turns... towards lifting controls on local households and corporates."

For now it leaves the funds in limbo. Not only is ending years of capital controls a delicate process, but Iceland is holding elections next month which is dominating the government's attention.

Boston-based Eaton Vance told Reuters that they remain open negotiations though attempts at contact continue to be rebuffed.

"We are very willing and ready to work towards a solution," the company said in a statement. But "we have made a number of different proposals and have received minimal feedback from the other side."

Autonomy declined to comment, Discovery Capital Management said its policy was not to discuss specific market positions while Loomis Sayles did not respond to requests for comment.

One of the world's top sovereign debt lawyers, Cleary Gottlieb's Lee Buchheit, who represented Iceland's government in cases over its failed banks but says he is not involved in the current squabble, is sceptical of the funds' legal chances.

"I don't want to predict the outcome but it is going to be a challenge I think for these people to mount an effective legal complaint before EFTA here," he said, adding that it would also be difficult to pursue the case in another country's courts.

"Anyone challenging what they have done is going to have to say that it was unnecessary or disproportionate."

"And if you have got the IMF saying: no, what they are doing is perfectly necessary and perfectly proportional to protect their balance of payments and exchange rate, it is going to be a tough argument to make."
Facebook says will learn from mistake over Vietnam photo

By Joachim Dagenborg

OSLO, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Facebook Inc will learn from a mistake it made by deleting a historic Vietnam War photo of a naked girl fleeing a napalm attack, the company's chief operating officer said.

The photograph was removed from several accounts on Friday, including that of Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, on the grounds it violated Facebook's restrictions on nudity. It was reinstated after Solberg accused Facebook of censorship and of editing history.

"These are difficult decisions and we don't always get it right," Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg wrote in a letter to the prime minister, obtained by Reuters on Monday under Norway's freedom of information rules.

"Even with clear standards, screening millions of posts on a case-by-case basis every week is challenging," Sandberg wrote.

"Nonetheless, we intend to do better. We are committed to listening to our community and evolving. Thank you for helping us get this right," she wrote. She said the letter was a sign of "how seriously we take this matter and how we are handling it".

The 1972 photograph, by Pulitzer Prize-winner Nick Ut of the Associated Press, shows screaming children running from a napalm attack. A naked nine-year-old girl, Phan Th Kim Phuc, is at its centre.

Sandberg wrote that "sometimes ... the global and historical importance of a photo like 'Terror of War' outweighs the importance of keeping nudity off Facebook."

Facebook bars nudity with some exemptions, such as photographs of nudes in art. It is unclear exactly how disputes over its "Community Standards" reach top management.

Solberg posted the photograph on her Facebook page after the company had deleted it from the sites of Norwegian authors and the newspaper Aftenposten, which mounted a front-page campaign on Friday urging Facebook to permit publication.

Solberg welcomed Facebook's about-turn. "It shows that it helps to use your voice to say 'we want a change'. I'm very pleased with that," she told NRK public broadcasting on Friday.

Sandberg suggested that Solberg's staff could meet two Facebook officials visiting Norway on Friday. "I hope to see you soon - and am always available if you have further concerns," she wrote.

Norway is a big investor in Facebook. Its $891 billion sovereign wealth fund, the world's biggest, had a stake of 0.52 percent in Facebook, worth $1.54 billion at the start of 2016.
Indian girls attacked with acid days after landmark death sentence verdict

By Nita Bhalla

NEW DELHI, Sept 12 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Three girls in eastern India are being treated in hospital after acid was thrown on them, said police on Monday, just days after a court handed down a landmark death sentence verdict to a man found guilty of murdering a nurse in an acid attack.

The teenage girls were attacked late on Sunday in West Bengal's Bankura district as they were returning home from tuition classes and were waiting near a bus stand.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Satyabrata Bhoi said they were taken by three men in a car where they were attacked and acid thrown on them. The three men have been arrested, he said, adding that the victims were now recovering in hospital.

"A Bolero vehicle and three persons have been arrested -- a driver and two other persons -- and cases have been registered against them," Bhoi told Asian News International (ANI).

Acid attacks - meant to maim, disfigure or blind - occur in many countries. They are most common in Cambodia, as well as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. Most victims are women, injured and disfigured by jilted partners or relatives.

Previously classified under grievous harm, acid attacks became a specific offence in India in 2013 after public pressure forced the government to improve laws to protest women following the fatal gang-rape of a young woman on a New Delhi bus in 2012.

According to India's home ministry, there were 222 cases reported in 2015 compared to 309 the previous year. Activists say the number is under-reported as many do not report cases for fear the perpetrators will seek revenge.

On Thursday, a man in the city of Mumbai was sentenced to death for a fatal acid attack on a nurse at a busy railway station three years ago in what is seen as a legal landmark.

Preeti Rathi, who was 23 when she was murdered, had just arrived from Delhi to join the Indian navy as a nurse. Her neighbour Ankur Panwar attacked her after she rejected a marriage proposal.

It is the first such sentence for an acid attack in India. While certainty of justice and punishment is crucial, regulating the sale of acid is also essential, say campaigners.

"It is shocking that despite the Supreme Court guidelines, acid is so easily available to people like those who did this to these girls," lawyer and women's rights activist Abha Singh told reporters.

"The Supreme Court has given very clear guidelines that you cannot easily sell acid over the counter and is it the responsibility of local authorities to do surprise checks to see if acid is being sold illegally."

India's top court in 2013 ordered the government to curb the sale of acid to control attacks on women.
Bangladesh factory owner, others flee as toll from fire rises

By Serajul Quadir and Ruma Paul

DHAKA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - A police case has been filed against the owner of Tampaco Foils and seven other top managers of the food and cigarette packaging plant near Dhaka who have gone into hiding, as the death toll from a fire at the factory over the weekend rose to 33 late on Monday.

The blaze erupted early on Saturday morning and became Bangladesh's worst industrial accident since the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in 2013 that killed 1,135 garment workers. It has raised renewed questions about industrial safety in the country, which is one of the world's top garment exporters.

"A murder case has been filed against eight people including the owner of the factory. All of them have gone into hiding. We are doing our best to arrest them," said Aminul Islam, who is an inspector at the local police station. He said the case had been filed by the family of one of the victims.

The deputy inspector general of factory inspection said that authorities also plan to file cases against the company and its owner for violating building and safety codes.

The factory is owned by Syed Mokbul Hossain, a former member of parliament. Hossain told Reuters on Saturday that Tampaco was "fully compliant." But he could not be reached by telephone to answer further questions on Monday.

Jahirul Islam, a director with the fire service department, said on Monday the Bangladeshi army had joined search efforts at the site of the fire.

"We need to move a huge amount of debris otherwise searching is not possible," he said.

Many fear the death toll could rise further as the search continues and a few people remain missing after the blaze caused a partial collapse of the factory building.

The cause of the fire in the Tongi industrial zone about 20 km (12 miles) north of the capital, Dhaka, was not immediately known, but officials said a gas line leak and a boiler explosion probably triggered it.

"It may take two months to remove the debris of the factory. The debris is more than that of Rana Plaza," said Brigadier General Mahmud Hasan, commander of the army unit working on the search effort.

The fire is the latest in a series of industrial accidents in the South Asian country. It comes just weeks after over 100 people fell ill after inhaling gas that leaked from a fertilizer plant in Chittagong in southern Bangladesh.

Tampaco Foils makes packaging for food and cigarettes for a number of local companies and global brands like British American Tobacco and Nestle.

A spokeswoman for Nestle said the plant produced packaging for products like its Maggi Noodles in Bangladesh. She said the factory had passed a fire safety and prevention audit run by a third-party inspection firm in late 2012. Nestle had been in the process of organizing a new audit of the company just before the accident occurred.
Paris mayor tours planned male migrant camp

PARIS, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Paris' Mayor Anne Hidalgo on Monday toured with her Madrid counterpart the construction site of a camp built to house hundreds of male migrants aimed at getting them off the streets and safely into shelter.

The camp is one of two planned in the capital and comes as the French government faces pressure to dismantle a swollen shanty town dubbed the 'jungle' near the port of Calais.

"The alternative to the street for refugees, migrants is in places like this to be able to welcome them, for them to stay, to be able to have some rest and to think about the next steps in their lives, by knowing the rights they have," Hidalgo told reporters during a news conference at the site.
Brazil's former speaker faces ouster from Congress over Swiss accounts

By Anthony Boadle

BRASILIA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Two weeks after the removal of Dilma Rousseff as Brazil's president, the lower house of Congress will meet Monday to vote on whether to expel the lawmaker who engineered her impeachment and who faces corruption charges in the Supreme court.

Former speaker Eduardo Cunha has been charged by the court for allegedly taking a $5 million bribe on a drill ship contract for state-run oil company Petrobras and for having secret bank accounts in Switzerland.

Cunha's fate has many politicians worried because he has threatened to bring down others by revealing cases of corruption that could endanger members of the government of Brazil's new President Michel Temer and derail his fiscal reform agenda.

Cunha has warned he could tell all in a plea bargain that could compromise many in a discredited political establishment, where 50 politicians are already under investigation for taking kickbacks in the Petrobras scandal.

In all, about 60 percent of the 513 lawmakers in Brazil's lower house are under investigation for various allegations, according to watchdog group Transparency Brazil.

Cunha's peers are expected to strip him of his seat for lying to them about his Swiss accounts, but his allies are proposing he keep his political rights and not be barred from politics for eight years, as would be normal under Brazilian law, which could see him run again in 2018.

Cunha commands loyalty from lawmakers he helped elect, using what his critics say were illegally obtained funds. His supporters have sought to delay the ethics case, which has lasted 10 months, for as long as possible.

Cunha is the only sitting Brazilian lawmaker to face trial in a massive bribery investigation focused on state oil company Petrobras and if he loses his seat and partial immunity as a lawmaker he faces imminent arrest.

The office of Brazil's top prosecutor, which has asked for his arrest, says Cunha faces nine other corruption accusations.

If Cunha survives with his political career intact, analysts say that will bolster Rousseff's argument she was ousted on trumped-up charges of manipulating government accounts in a conspiracy by Cunha and other lawmakers from the ruling Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) seeking to stop the sprawling Petrobras kickback investigation. The PMDB is the largest political party in Brazil.

To let Cunha off the hook after impeaching Rousseff would be "total cynicism" and an "outrage" for Brazilians, the country's largest circulation newspaper, the Folha de S.Paulo, wrote in an editorial on Monday.
From major anniversaries to civil rights groups calling for moratoriums on new charter schools, the summer of 2016 was a busy one for school choice.

And because its easy for a story or two to slip under the radar while on summer vacation, Ive compiled a list of some of the most notable events from the last three months. Consider this a cheat sheet to start the school year informed on all things school choice.

Milestones

June marked 25 years since the nations first charter school law was signed into existence in Minnesota.

Today, 43 states plus the District of Columbia have charter schools enrolling over 2.5 million studentsor about 5 percent of the total K-12 public student population.

As part of Education Weeks special report on the anniversary, we highlighted two charter schools, one led by teachers in St. Paul, Minn., and the other part of a large network in Los Angeles, to show how much the charter movement has changed over 25 years.

The Big Talkers and Water Cooler Must-Knows

Comedian John Oliver made charter school fraud the focus of his show, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on Aug. 21. Reaction to the episode was fairly predictable from the anti- and pro-charter camps. If you havent seen the segment, yet, you can watch it here , and read some of the reaction to it.

Although the John Oliver segment generated a lot of conversation on social media, arguably the biggest story of the summer was the NAACP and the Movement for Black Lives (a coalition of groups that includes Black Lives Matter) calling for a moratorium on new charter schools . The announcements exposed rifts in support among African Americans for charter schoolsand its unclear what the long-term impact will be for charters.

U.S. Education Secretary John B. King Jr. spoke to the National Charter Schools Conference in Nashville in June about discipline in charter schools. He called on charter leaders to use innovative approaches to rethink school discipline and cut down on student suspensions.

Finally, in mid-July, Turkeys president survived an attempted military coup. And what, exactly, does this have to do with school choice? Well, it turns out theres a bizarre link between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the man hes accused of orchestrating the coup attempt, and a number of U.S.-based charter schools. Youll have to read it to believe it .

Charter Schools and School Choice Research

Two separate studiesone on Florida charter school students and the other on Texas students found very different results on how attending a charter school affects a students future income. The Florida study found that attending a charter school had a positive effect on students future salaries. The Texas study found the opposite.

Students using vouchers to attend private schools in Ohio performed significantly worse on state tests than their peers who remained in public schools, according to a study commissioned by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

Three prominent charter school advocacy organizations, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, and 50Can, came together to release a report calling for more regulation of full-time virtual charter schools .

Meanwhile, another study on virtual charter schools in Ohio, also by Fordham , found fast growth but spotty performance in the sector.

The American Federation for Children, a pro-school choice advocacy organization, released its first ever state report cards on school choice. School choice programs in Florida, Nevada, and North Carolina came in first, second, and third, respectively. You can find the full rankings here .

The Finer Details: Policies and Politics

Theres another lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Washington states charter schools . And the initial lawsuit in Washington has inspired another one in Mississippi .

Nevadas supreme court heard both lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of its expansiveand unprecedentedschool choice program at the end of July, but it has yet to issue a decision.

The group behind the landmark Vergara teacher tenure lawsuit in California is now backing a legal challenge to limitations on charter and magnet schools in Connecticut.

The latest Education Next poll found that support for charter schools has remained steady, but it has dropped for school vouchers .

A Philanthropic Update

In June, the Walton Family Foundation, one of the biggest financial backers of the charter school sector, pledged to spend $250 million to help charter schools buy or renovate school buildings.

And last but not least, the Texas-based IDEA Public Schools charter network won this years Broad Prize . Funded by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, another prominent funder of charter schools, the award recognizes high-performing charter school networks with a $250,000 prize to spend on college readiness efforts for students.

Did I miss anything important? If you think so, share the story in the comments section below or tweet it to @ChartersNChoice .

Photo: Students arrive for classes at Alliance Collins Family College-Ready High School, a public charter school in Huntington Park, Calif. Patrick T. Fallon for Education Week
Flight of South Sudan fighters to Congo poses security threat - UN

By Aaron Ross

KINSHASA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The flight of South Sudan's main opposition leader and more than 750 of his supporters across the border into Democratic Republic of Congo will threaten regional stability if not properly handled, the DRC's United Nations mission said on Monday.

The mission, known as MONUSCO, said it had rescued another 268 people from Garamba National Park in northeastern Congo over the weekend. They had all fled South Sudan with the country's former vice-president Riek Machar, following fierce fighting in the capital, Juba.

The Kinshasa government has limited control of Congo's eastern border regions, which have bristled with militias for decades, and relies on MONUSCO, the world's largest U.N. peacekeeping mission, for significant security assistance.

"MONUSCO and the United Nations headquarters continue their discussions with the DRC government (and) regional organisations in order to find a favourable resolution to this situation, which could become a threat to peace in Congo and the region," the organisation said in a statement.

But South Sudan accused MONUSCO of taking Machar's side in the conflict.

Machar, who was picked up by MONUSCO with a leg injury on Aug. 17 and later transferred to Sudan for medical treatment, is the only one of the group known to have left Congo so far.

The most recent transfers bring the total number evacuated by U.N. helicopters to 634. A further 134 people in the park are believed to still require assistance, the statement said.

The transferred fighters are required firstly to hand over their weapons, MONUSCO added.

SOUTH SUDAN IRKED

South Sudanese authorities condemned MONUSCO's actions.

"The United Nations in Congo has clearly shown that it has taken sides in the conflict by extracting and transporting Machar's fighters from inside South Sudan to Congo," South Sudanese presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told Reuters.

MONUSCO has said it only transported Machar's supporters from the Congolese side of the border to other Congolese locations for treatment.

The influx of rebel fighters from volatile neighbours is a sensitive theme in Congo, where the flow of Hutu militiamen from neighbouring Rwanda after its 1994 genocide helped trigger years of regional conflict in eastern Congo that killed millions.

MONUSCO said in a statement on Sunday that, as of Sept. 8, 117 individuals had been handed over to Congolese authorities while another 183 were being held at two MONUSCO-run facilities.

Congo's government said it was in talks with South Sudanese authorities over what would happen to the fighters.

Hundreds have been killed in battles that broke out in the world's youngest nation in July between troops loyal to Machar and President Salva Kiir, his long-time political foe. More than 20,000 South Sudanese refugees have crossed into Congo this year, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency.
Fantasy meets tragedy in surreal drama 'A Monster Calls'

TORONTO, Sept 12 (Reuters) - A teenage boy's struggle with his mother's terminal illness takes a surreal turn when he finds comfort in a giant talking tree monster, in the emotional fantasy drama "A Monster Calls."

The film, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, follows the story of Connor, a quiet, artistic teenage boy who becomes a target for the school bully.

As his mother, played by Felicity Jones, gets sicker from cancer, Conner goes to live with his cold, reserved grandmother, played by Sigourney Weaver. In the midst of his life crumbling around him, Connor is visited at night by a giant talking yew tree monster.

The film is adapted from the children's book of the same name, and Bayona incorporated watercolor animations to illustrate the stories of good and evil that the tree monster, voiced by Liam Neeson, tells Connor.

"I had never read anything quite like it," said Jones, who plays Connor's ailing mother.

"The elements of fantasy, animation, and a giant, talking tree, and dealing with something that everyone goes through, dealing with loss, I thought was very special."

Newcomer British actor Lewis MacDougall, who plays Connor, said the best part about working on the film was being among the all-star cast and shooting the film in Barcelona.

The film will be rolling out across Europe in October and in limited U.S. theaters in December.

Weaver said she was touched by the story and "delighted" to play an English woman.
Spain's Repsol and Criteria sell combined 20 pct of Gas Natural

MADRID, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Spain's Repsol and Criteria Caixa have agreed a 3.8 billion euro ($4.27 billion) sale of a combined 20 percent stake in Gas Natural to U.S. fund Global Insfrastructure Partners (GIP).

The New York-based infrastructure fund will pay 19 euros a share for the stake, the companies said, above Monday's closing price of 18.51 euros.

Criteria, the industrial holding company that owns Spanish lender Caixabank, and oil group Repsol will sell 10 percent each while retaining stakes of 24 percent and 20 percent respectively.

Repsol, which is under scrutiny from ratings agencies over its 11.7 billion euros of debt at a time of weak oil prices, said it stands to make a 246 million euro capital gain from the deal.

Criteria and its banking unit, meanwhile, have been under pressure to boost their solvency ratios amid a regulatory crackdown, and both were among the weakest links in Europe-wide stress tests in July.

Criteria said it would make a gain of 218 million euros from its Gas Natural stake sale and that its core capital ratio would be boosted by 1.65 percentage points.

The sale is expected to close by the end of September and the stakes retained by Repsol and Criteria will allow them continue to benefit from Gas Natural's hefty dividend payouts.

NEW AGREEMENTS

The deal with GIP, which is already present in Spain through a 24 percent holding in renewable energy group Saeta Yield , brings an end to a shareholder pact between Repsol and Criteria Caixa from 2000.

But the deal is still conditional on a series of new agreements over corporate governance between the three Gas Natural investors, including the make-up of the 17-strong board.

Criteria will have four board members, with three each for Repsol and GIP. Their representation gives the trio of companies close to the two thirds of votes needed to approve dividend policy.

Gas Natural said in May that it would ensure 70 percent of its profits were destined for dividends over the next four years.
Take back CTRL: EU aims to show Brexit lesson learned

By Alastair Macdonald

BRUSSELS, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The Devil has the best tunes, they say; leaders of the European Union are taking the adage to heart by borrowing a slogan they think won the Brexit vote for the forces of eurosceptic darkness: "Take back control".

This being Europe, of course, the problem remains to agree to "take control" of what? From whom, for whom and by whom?

But in a week when EU leaders gather to assess the damage from Britain's referendum, the idea is appealingly punchy, hard to argue against and suggests they have heard voters' fears - even if, as is becoming clear of the Brexiteers who coined the phrase, they can't yet actually agree on quite how to do it.

Friday's summit in Bratislava will, in the words of the man who will chair it, European Council President Donald Tusk, not be about "Brexit per se" but about the lessons from it; it will aim to "bring back the political control of our common future".

Given deep policy disagreements, however, on problems such as creating jobs, shoring up the euro currency or sharing out the care of refugees, the focus will be showing consensus on a lowest common denominator of shared headaches.

Expect bogeymen like migrants and terrorists to get a verbal battering from the 27 leaders - British Prime Minister Theresa May will be absent. Listen, too, for talk of war on abuses in a digital global economy that Europeans find ever more frightening after centuries of setting the world's rules to suit themselves.

"The Brexiteers were on to something with their 'take back control'," one EU official told Reuters. "Their prescription was totally wrong but they correctly diagnosed what worries people."

'EUROPE FIGHTS BACK'

When European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker makes his annual State of the Union policy address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, two days before the Bratislava gathering, he is likely to lay out proposals the EU executive thinks can persuade voters of the value of "Europe".

Already lately, Brussels has hit Apple Inc with a record tax demand, spared Portugal and Spain from fines for breaking budget rules and launched a new push to cut mobile roaming bills - all presented, at least in part, as standing up for the little guy.

"This is Europe fights back," another senior EU official said. Juncker's proposals, based on existing priorities, would "mean something for the real people" and challenge the "cheap, populist discourse" of anti-EU movements beyond Britain.

After a Dutch election due by March in which an anti-Islam party leads polls, French President Francois Hollande faces defeat in April to the National Front's Marine Le Pen; German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has defined Europe for a decade, is losing support ahead of an election a year from now to insurgents trading on her decision to let in a million refugees last year.

REBUILDING ROME

If the Bratislava focus will not be divorce from Britain - May's government has yet to agree on what it will ask for - it is billed as a starting point for the remaining 27 to agree policies around three broad themes of regaining control over:

Irregular migration; violent militants; and of a global economy of footloose capital that has left Europeans fearful and turning to the political sirens of xenophobia and protectionism.

Leaders hope to come up with more concrete policies by March, when they meet in the Italian capital to celebrate 60 years of the Union's founding Treaty of Rome.

Of course, it was from the EU itself that Britain's Leavers wanted to "take back control" - and that tension remains for the rest as the 27 deal with an ambitious Commission in Brussels.

For Juncker, officials say, meetings in the past weeks among national leaders in various formats have confirmed their disarray and a need for Commission initiatives.

On major issues like the economy, north-south, left-right, or even Berlin-Paris splits can be discerned on how far to let euro zone governments spend more to promote growth.

As with Spain and Portugal, the Commission is tending toward flexibility and this week may also see it extending its "Juncker Plan" loan programme to encourage investment.

The migrant crisis exposed not just divisions between the welcoming Merkel on the one hand and easterners like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban or this week's summit host, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who sought to close the door.

It opened a rift between states and the Commission when it tried to enforce mandatory national quotas for taking refugees. That argument rumbles on. But the heat has subsided since a controversial, and still shaky, deal with Turkey and a tightening of border controls that have slowed the flow.

Leaders can chorus in Bratislava on their determination to beef up a new European Border and Coast Guard. Merkel has even won Orban and Fico's backing for some notion of a "European army" that would have been shot down in London pre-Brexit.

BALANCE, AND IMAGE

Tusk's third agenda item [http://bit.ly/2cqKKuw], after migration and security, is restoring "balance" in globalisation.

There will be talk of standing up to protectionist voices opposed to U.S. and Canadian free trade deals. Juncker may trumpet his pursuit of corporate tax dodging.

But balance, let alone consensus, is elusive in Europe. If Brussels presents its pursuit of Apple as taking control for the public, the Irish government is fighting what it calls a bid to remove control of its people's right to set their own tax laws.

EU leaders are well aware that once they get into specifics, the arguments begin. The watchwords at Bratislava will be keep it simple, keep it vague. All agree on a priority to shore up the Union - even outspoken nationalists in the east, who are well aware their voters like the subsidies flowing via Brussels.

Avoiding argument will also reduce the scope of what can be agreed. But for now, as popular scorn at Juncker's predecessor taking a plum job advising Goldman Sachs on Brexit shows , the first worry is simply to burnish their image.
Obama to host Italy's Renzi for state visit Oct. 18

WASHINGTON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will host Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi for an official visit on Oct. 18, the White House said on Monday.

Obama and Renzi, whose countries are NATO allies, have discussed security and economic issues in the past including the fight against Islamic State in Libya, the conflict in Ukraine, and the European economy.

"Italy is one of our closest and strongest allies and we cooperate across a range of shared interests from addressing climate change and the global refugee crisis, to promoting global security and inclusive economic growth," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters during a daily briefing.

Renzi and his wife, Agnese Landini, will be guests at a state dinner on the evening of the visit, Earnest said.
"Last British commissioner" pledges to work for Europe

By Alastair Macdonald

STRASBOURG, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The diplomat nominated to take Britain's vacant seat on the EU executive pledged on Monday to serve "only the European general interest" if EU lawmakers accept him as, probably, the last ever British commissioner.

Julian King conceded he was in a "particular situation" that he "would probably not have believed" before the June 23 Brexit referendum when Britons voted to quit the European Union.

However, nominated by London after predecessor Jonathan Hill resigned from the Commission following the vote, King told a confirmation hearing in the European Parliament for the new post of EU security commissioner that he would respect the Brexit verdict but also be loyal to the EU if he takes up the post.

"I strongly advocated the position of the British government during the UK referendum campaign," he said, noting he was the ambassador to France at the time, when then prime minister David Cameron was campaigning to keep Britain in the EU.

"I have always been proud to be British and proud to be European and see no contradiction between the two. But on 23 June a majority of my compatriots decided they wanted to leave the EU. We must respect that decision."

Speaking in French, King added: "For the avoidance of doubt ... I will fulfil my tasks to the best of my ability serving the European general interest, and only the European general interest"

Britain is expected to leave the Union in the next few years when King, 52, would then have to leave the Commission. He was nominated by Cameron before he resigned as premier and lawmakers said he was likely to be approved by parliament later this week.

Pressed by Gerard Batten of the UK Independence Party on how long he expected to have the job, King declined to speculate on how long Brexit negotiations would last and insisted he would be entirely independent of the British government if confirmed.

In an intimation of independence from a nominee who unlike most commissioners has not been an elected politician, he said Prime Minister Theresa May faces a "problem" if she opts out of new EU legislation next year on its Europol police agency.

Pro-Brexit figures argue it is illogical to sign Britain up to closer police cooperation while it is already negotiating to leave the bloc. But King, who described Europol as a "fantastic organisation", said failure to opt in would create a possible "gap" in Britain's security arrangements until it is able to strike a new agreement with the EU once it has left the Union.

SECURITY ROLE

Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has offered King, who has also been a senior official at the Commission in the past, the post of security commissioner, responsible for promoting closer coordination against militant violence.

As he noted in remarks to lawmakers on the civil liberties committee, he has considerable personal experience, including as a civil servant responsible for Northern Ireland and as ambassador to Dublin. The choice of portfolio is also one that Juncker sees as an area in which London will continue to work closely with Brussels even after Britain has left the EU.

King said that while security remains primarily a responsibility of member states, the EU had a clear role in promoting coordination as threats from groups such as Islamic State were ranging across borders and posing common risks.

"Neither terrorism nor organised crime respects national borders," he said. "Indeed their business models thrive on the lack of coordination between states."

Even after Brexit, he noted, London would still be two hours by train from Paris or Brussels, both struck by Islamic State in the past year. "We would still have a shared interest in trying to tackle these threats," King said.
Duterte says he wants U.S. special forces out of southern Philippines

By Manuel Mogato

MANILA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday called for the withdrawal of U.S. special forces troops from a group of islands in the southern Philippines, saying their presence could complicate offensives against Islamist militants notorious for beheading Westerners.

Duterte, who was in the spotlight last week over a televised tirade against the United States and President Barack Obama, said the Americans still in Mindanao were high-value targets for the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf militants as counter-insurgency operations intensify.

"They have to go," Duterte said in a speech during an oath-taking ceremony for new officials. "I do not want a rift with America. But they have to go."

He added: "Americans, they will really kill them, they will try to kidnap them to get ransom."

The comments by Duterte, a former southern mayor known for his terse words and volatile temperament, add to uncertainty about what impact his rise to the presidency this year will have on one of Washington's most important alliances in Asia.

A spokesman for the U.S. State Department, John Kirby, said it was not aware of any official communication by Manila calling for a withdrawal. He said Washington remained committed to the alliance.

Another U.S. official said there were only a "handful" of special forces in the Mindanao acting in limited liaison roles.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest emphasised shared concerns and interests with the Philippines, before taking a thinly veiled swipe at Duterte, appearing to compare him to Donald Trump, the outspoken Republican candidate in the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election.

"I think it's an indication of how important elections are," Earnest told a regular news briefing."Elections have consequences. Elections do say a lot about what kind of person is going to represent your country on the international stage.

"And it's why you are going to prize qualities like decorum and temperament and judgment in casting votes in elections, because you know that person is going to represent you on the international stage. That's certainly something that the Filipino people are well aware of."

Obama cancelled a planned meeting with Duterte at last week's ASEAN summit after Duterte appeared to call him a "son of a bitch". The two did eventually meet briefly and on Friday Duterte said he told Obama the remark was not directed against him.

Washington deployed special forces soldiers to Mindanao in 2002 to train and advise Philippine units fighting Abu Sayyaf militants in a program that once involved 1,200 Americans.

It was discontinued in 2015 but a small presence has remained for logistics and technical support.

Washington has since shifted much of its security focus in the Philippines towards the South China Sea, where the two countries have shared concerns about China's territorial claims.

As a counter to China, shortly before Duterte came to office, Washington and Manila enacted the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement giving the United States rotational access to five bases in the Philippines.
Lack of funding, crumbling infrastructures, reduced faculties and administration, low salaries, corruption and poverty are all contributing factors to school failures. Now, the rise in the number of competing charter schools is either another causal factor for failures or the long sought solution. Just as it is not unusual for teachers to think of their sphere of influence as their classroom or school, we, as leaders, may limit our thinking to our local buildings or districts. But, policy makers and the media see public schools as one entity, and, to understand what has happened to us and what might happen, so should we.

What Hurts One of Us, Hurts Us All

The Detroit Public Schools holds an extreme example of what can happen in cities where industry leaves and poverty rises, where population nosedives and funding evaporates, and children remain in those schools. In no uncertain terms, regardless of the fraud and arrests (Leadership360 ), there are educators in Detroit who are giving their best every day. They find themselves handicapped working within a broken system. Their efforts are making a difference with graduation rates increasing but beneath that is a fundamental problem. Data released for the 103-2014 school year indicate 58% of students were chronically absent, meaning absent 15 days a year or more. The national average is 13% (Detroit Free Press ).

Detroit is an extreme case, but many districts across the country face some level or aspect of what is more exaggerated in Detroit. Especially with a national election in play, the business of education will be tossed about with solutions from afar, which will, for the most part, have little or no feeling for the local issues we each face.

The Detroit Public Schools are hurting. You may recall last January that Detroit Public Schools made the news when teachers held sick-outs to call attention to the horrific conditions in the schools. Ninety-four of the citys 97 schools had to be closed because of the absences. The physical state of the buildings was unimaginable. This fall, Time.com reported that 92% of the schools are now in full compliance with the citys public health and safety codes. We are unsure of what the experience is for children and adults in the other 8%.

In June, Michigans Governor Rick Snyder signed legislation bailing out the Detroit Public Schools. The legislation actually created a new school system, The Detroit Public School Community District, as a debt free new entity to educate the 47,000 students of Detroit. The old district remains to collect tax revenue and pay off previous debt. There is an ongoing debate about when the lowest performing schools might actually be closed. At the same time, the new legislation gave school boards the option of hiring non-certified teachers and allowed for penalties for the teachers who stage sick-outs. A fraud hotline number is found on posters in schools as they open for the new year. The Time.com article quotes parent, Arlyssa Heard, a member of 482Forward, a group of local parents who raise awareness about the state of the schools.

My dream is that there is some way to take this decision out of the hands of politicians and put it in the hands of educators and parents. Those are the two groups that have the most vested in the school system.

How can a system get this bad? What were the issues left unattended for years that led to this unacceptable state of facilities? Where were the voices? Was anyone listening or did all feel the loss of power as conditions slipped downward? These are the questions, not just for them, but for leaders everywhere.

Funding Sources

Children are unwitting victims of their zip code. Cant we create a public school funding system that responds to the nations commitment to an educated populace? How can we make a difference? Wouldnt that be a meritorious goal for America in the 21st century? According to 247wallstreet.com here is a comparison between one of the wealthiest and one of the poorest school districts in our country.

San Perlita Independent School District, Texas







Median household income: $16,384 Student enrollment: 291 State per pupil spending: $8,299 District per pupil spending: $11,124



Cold Spring Harbor Central School District, New York







Median household income: $182,153 Student enrollment: 1,977 State per pupil spending: $19,818 District per pupil spending: $27,203



Data glimpses rarely allow a complete examination of an issue but this data indicate that those who have more, receive more. Is this not the inequity that permeates our society and demands attention now? And for those who think charter schools or money following the child are THE answers, consider the implications of developing a whole new alternative system across the country. Is that easier than resolving the issues with funding the current system equitably?

Voice

All of us have heard the voices of colleagues in urban areas and poor schools calling out for attention to these funding inequities. Some of them are weary and hoarse. But, if we are truly educators for all children, our voices should be raised as strongly and as loudly as theirs. Yes, it seems the sick out call by educators in Detroit broke the problem open. But look at the conditions they and their students endured along the way.

For the rest of the nation, those who are not in such dire conditions, take a lesson from Detroit. Detroits problem ultimately is our problem. It can teach a lesson about patience and acceptance gone too far. It can teach a lesson about funding and use of funds. And it can serve as a reminder that all decisions, all of them, affect the children we serve. Whether it is about hiring uncertified teachers, or fixing crumbling infrastructures, the children are there. It might not be politically welcome, but we have right on our side. It is our job to speak up for the children and to join our voices with others who want to put the children above the politics.

Connect with Ann and Jill on Twitter or Email .

Photo by Wavebreak Media, Ltd. courtesy of 123rf
The Modi governments Pakistan policy remains intriguing.

We have seen the flip-flops of 2014 and 2015, ranging from border bombardments to hearty embraces and cold vibes.

But the direction it is taking now is baffling. In international meeting after meeting, the prime minister has attacked Pakistans support of terrorism and the need to sanction Islamabad.

Rhetoric

Take the past week for instance.

On September 4, in Hangzhou, addressing fellow BRICS leaders, Modi said that there was need to intensify joint action against terrorism which had become the primary source of instability and biggest threat to the world.

Alluding to Pakistan he said, Clearly someone funds and arms them.

On September 5, Modi intensified the attack saying that one single nation in South Asia was spreading terror and that there was need for that nation to be sanctioned.

Why has Modi taken the mantle of the leader of the global crusade against terrorism? (Photo credit: PTI)

On September 7, addressing the ASEAN summit in Vientiane, Modi declared one country has only one competitive advantage: exporting terror. And again reiterated the need to isolate and sanction the country which was a threat to everyone.

Two days later on September 9, foreign secretary S Jaishankar followed it up in a speech to a US think tank in New Delhi where he said that the fight against terrorism could not be segmented and that no country could escape responsibility by ascribing terrorist actions to non-state actors.

These are only the most recent broadsides, in the past six months, whether addressing the nation on Independence Day, the diaspora in Kenya or Belgium, or the US Congress, Modi has not hesitated to raise the primacy of terrorism as an issue.

Its not clear whether there is some other strategy behind this relentless assault on Pakistan. Accompanying his attack has been his criticism of the UN for its inability to come up with appropriate responses.

Addressing the G-20 in Istanbul in the wake of the Paris attack in November 2015, Modi had called for an international convention on terrorism, an old idea that New Delhi has pushed to little avail since the 1990s.

Timing

What we do know as of now is that the Modi governments assaults on Pakistan are only verbal.

There are no reports of any Balochistan liberation organisations or Taliban-ambushing Pakistani forces, or any unexplained bomb blasts which could suggest that India was hitting at Pakistan in other ways.

The obvious question is: does the Modi government believe that a verbal bombardment in world capitals will force Islamabad to surrender?

Pakistan has played a cynical game for so long and has done so many bad things ranging from training and arming terrorists to killing innocent people to exporting nuclear weapons technology, that to think that they can be shamed into giving up the use of the terror weapon appears naive, to say the least.

Had India been reeling with the kind of terrorist attacks the French are witnessing, or the ones that hit Kabul or Baghdad every day, Modis zeal could have been understandable.

Fortunately, since November 2008, India has been spared a mass-casualty terrorist strike.

Then why has Modi taken the mantle of the leader of the global crusade against terrorism? The only conclusion we can come to is that the goals are domestic.

Attacking Pakistan plays well with north Indian voters and keeps the other parties off-balance and unable to focus on the fact that his governments achievements have been meagre, compared to the extravagant promises that had been made in 2014.

Diplomacy

Perhaps, Modis economic plan will bear fruit in the future, but Modi cannot afford to allow the political support he got in 2014 to slacken, at least not before the UP elections next year, and hence, the terrorism plank.

There is no surprise element here, or across the world; terrorism has proved to be a good plank for politicians.

Of course, throughout this period, Modi is being extended help by the hawks in Islamabad, who find it difficult to get off the tiger they mounted in the 1990s.

It is not that the Pakistani deep state is afraid of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.

They probably have them, to use the famous words of General Aziz Khan, by their tooti (collar). It is that they cannot contemplate giving up what they consider their most useful instruments of policy.

In part, dealing with them does, require them to do what Modi and his men are doing. But instead of verbal barrages, there is need for deft diplomacy to isolate Islamabad.

Here, of all the tasks, the most difficult is to persuade Beijing to join in. And this is where we find that the Modi plan lacks stamina because, as the foreign secretarys Friday statement on China revealed: the government has the ability to state the problem, but not the wherewithal to do something about it, expect complain.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his recent visit to the BRICS summit in Hangzhou, had a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. As reported by the media, according to a briefing by the ministry of external affairs, Modi, at the meeting, said: "Our response to terrorism must not be motivated by political considerations.

He stressed that to ensure durable bilateral ties and their steady development, it is of paramount importance that we respect each others aspirations, concerns and strategic interests".

In his address to BRICS leaders, the PM strongly intervened on the issue of terrorism and urged that the BRICS nations must intensify coordinated efforts to isolate the supporters and sponsors of terrorism.

The message was loud and clear to Pakistan for its active support to terrorism (against India), and to Beijing for its consistent assistance to Pakistan on varied fronts, which has psychologically strengthened Pakistans will to conduct its policy of supporting terrorism against India.

The China-Pakistan alliance is said to be higher than the mountains and deeper than the seas. Pakistans relationship with China, which was formalised with a major step by the two countires in 1963 with the signing of the Shakasgam Valley agreement, has continued to grow, given Beijings strategic interests in the region and its stong desire to neutralise Indias growth.

For Pakistan, Beijing served the purpose of not only fullfiling its defence requirements but also providing Islamabad diplomatic support against India and the US on various occasions.

Pakistan turned towards China for support after the 1965 India-Pakistan War, when the US suspended defence supplies to Pakistan. A need to diversify its sources of weapon supply was felt strongly and Beijing came in as a willing exporter for Pakistan.

Over the last five decades, China has provided all out military assistance to Pakistan on three critical fronts: export of defence equipment, assistance in building Pakistans indigenous defence capability and its nuclear arsenal.

Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Pakistani Army chief General Raheel Sharif. (Photo credit: India Today)

Starting in the mid-1960s, China supplied a large variety of defence equipment to Pakistan, including the F-6s, the MiG-19 fighters, slaughter-class attack FPBs, Haisin-class attack craft, T-59s and T-60s.

The Chinese equipment, although not as superior as western equipment, was much cleaper and affordable for Pakistan and the defence deals were facilitated by China with easy repayment loans and relaxed terms and conditions.

In the 1990s, Sino-Pakistan collaboration further flourished under US sanctions and the two nations entered into deals of production of the Karakoram-8 jet trainer and for the co-development of a fourth generation aircraft, the JF-17.

The JF-17 is co-developed by Pakistan and China and is being built by Chinas Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation (CAC) amd the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC), Kamra. Islamabad intends to acquire up to 250 JF-17s, which represents a quantum jump in Pakistan's aircraft industry.

Over the last four decades, China has adopted an extremely supportive posture in the development of Pakistans nuclear programme and supplied it with a variety of technology and services, including ballistic missiles and power reactors. China continues to be perceived as the most reliable ally of Pakistan.

Pakistans military modernisation and evolving military and nuclear muscle owes a lot to Chinese assistance. With the announcement of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and Beijings proposed investment of $46 billion in it, Islamabad is expected to reap significant economic and strategic dividends from this in the future.

Beijings diplomatic support to Pakistan has been witnessed in the past, during times of India-Pakistan crisis. China, along with Pakistan, strongly opposed Indias bid for Nuclear Suppliers Group membership.

Although Beijing has been focused on Pakistans defence capabilities, it has never questioned Pakistan strategic calculus against India.

On the contrary, China has opposed any Indian move that demands action against Pakistan on account of terrorism. Last year, it blocked Indias move at the UN to seek action against Pakistan for releasing Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi, the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. China also blocked Indias attempt at the UN to ban Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar.

Beijing needs to understand that though Pakistan can become strong with military and economic assistance, its tacit affirmation of the policy of supporting terrorism will not allow it to be a strong nation.

Pakistans threat perceptions would strengthen with increasing instability within the nation. The intensity and level of terrorism in Pakistan today clearly indicates the blowback of its own policies. China itself is facing violence and unrest in its Xinjiang province and it has been concerned about extremists in the province being trained in Pakistan.

For regional peace and stability, China should adopt a supportive posture towards India in combating terrorism in the region, even though terrorism might not be affecting Beijing directly at this point of time.
We all know 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas', but what most of us missed out on, thanks to a pro-establishment media, overly self-conscious civil society and lazy, opportunistic political class was 'How the BJP and Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana stole Bakra Eid' or Eid-ul-Adha, which will be celebrated on September 13 this year.

While Eid-ul-Fitr marks the end of the holy month of Ramzaan, during which Muslims fast, and is a "feast of breaking the fast" , Eid-ul-Adha, which commemorates the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his only son in obedience to a command from Allah, marks the end of the annual Hajj pilgrimage and is considered the holier of the two.

Each year, crores of Muslims in India and across the globe look forward to this festival, much like Hindus look forward to Diwali or Christians look forward to Christmas.

But this year, the BJP-run Haryana government decided - contrary to its empty slogan of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas and in contravention of the various impotent guarantees of equality before law and freedom of religion within the Constitution, bestowed upon every citizen of this country - that it would steal away this little moment of joy and income from its minority Muslim populace, which continues to be subjected to religious-based violence, discrimination and second-class treatment in their own homeland.

It succeeded in sending out a loud and clear message to all minorities in general and Indian Muslims in particular, that there is no space for them in its narrow Idea of India, that they have no rights - economic, legal or political - and that there is no recourse against the majoritarian bullying they will indulge in, often in connivance with the various institutions of democracy, including the self-serving media, barring a few exceptions of journalists such as Ravish Kumar or Rajdeep Sardesai.

First, there was the shocking case of a double murder and gangrape of two women in Muslim-majority Mewat during the end of August, just days before Eid. One of the victims claimed that the attackers told her they were being punished for eating beef.

Where was the national outrage which TV channels and the political class exhibited when a rape in Bulandshahr or Delhi took place? Is every one silent because one of the accused allegedly happens to be associated with the Sangh Parivar and another one is a Muslim-hating Bhakt, as some news reports say?

Are rapes of Muslim women okay and not that big a deal? Are rapes by those allegedly affiliated with the ideology of the Sangh to be treated as Nationalist Rapes?

Where are those Bhakts who keep shouting Bharat Mata Ki Jai, when a Bharat ki Mata and Beti were getting raped, allegedly by those who utter such impotent slogans for mere lip service?

Is it justified, like Mohammad Akhlaq's killing was, because there was a mere rumour that beef was consumed? Manav Hatya (or rape) is legitimate if there is a rumour about Gau Hatya?

And the Haryana Police, it is reported, is busy trying to distance cow vigilante groups/Gau Raksha Dals from the alleged attackers. Is their loyalty and duty towards the rape survivor or towards the ideological benefactors of their political masters?

If that was not enough to create a sense of fear, we find a new tactic being employed by the BJP to show Muslims in Haryana their place. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi was virtually forced to condemn gau rakshaks in the wake of the Una attack on Dalits and its visible political fall-out, the Haryana government decided to outsource cow vigilantism (from the men in khaki shorts) to the men in khaki uniforms!

Eid-ul-Adha c ommemorates the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his only son in obedience to a command from Allah.

The Haryana Police, equipped with its dismal record in tackling crime against women, Dalits and minorities and preventing riots during the Jat quota stir, was tasked with the all important job of sniffing beef from biryani cooked for Eid in small street stalls!

I understand that cow slaughter, sale and storage of beef is a punishable offence in Haryana due to its latest legislations, according to which molesting a woman is a lesser offence than being in possession of beef!

But is this biryani policing just before Eid not aimed at targeting one community? Isn't it incompatible with the concept of equality before law under Article 14? Have such raids been conducted on other establishments, especially big five-star hotels across Haryana and not just Mewat before other festivals throughout the year?

Why have Biryani, Eid and small stalls been singled out? Can five-star hotels not violate the law? Can the law not be violated at any point of time and not just before Eid? What about this BJP policy on beef being implemented in Goa where they are in power?

In Goa, the BJP chief minister openly opposes the beef ban - but he is a nationalist by virtue of being from the BJP and Muslims are anti-national on the basis of a suspicion. Is the animal not sacred for the BJP in Goa like it is in Haryana? And what about the rising exports of beef from India by the big exporters who are the ones driving Modi's "pink revolution"?

Why not target them too? Vested interests? If there are illegal cattle-traders in Mewat or any part of Haryana, use extra police force to bust those gangs; why harass innocent, poor folks just trying to earn a basic living before Eid?

Then to add to the tension, news reports are planted that some of the samples picked up by the Haryana Police did contain beef and while nobody knows the authenticity of these reports, it is enough to force the poor Muslim vendors to shut shop just before Eid.

After all, between being lynched by cow vigilantes and being raided and extorted of money by state-sponsored cow vigilantes aka the Haryana Police, the Muslim vendors would much rather sacrifice their only source of earning a meagre Rs 200-300 than be jailed for ten years!

A few days ago, I used this platform to write about the blatant violation of constitutional rights of Muslims in Haryana and appealed to the National Minorities Commission, the media and Union home minister Rajnath Singh to intervene and defend those rights.

After all it is their statutory, constitutional and moral responsibility to do so. But they have chosen not to. None of the major political parties have taken a stand. I was the only one to move a legal petition but I was unsuccessful in getting anybody in the government to take notice.

Eid-ul-Adha is known as the festival of sacrifice. In solidarity with my brothers and sisters in Haryana who are being forced by the BJP to sacrifice their income and celebrations, I too will be sacrificing my Eid. I have no reason to celebrate this festival anymore.

Not until my fellow citizens in Haryana can enjoy their full constitutional rights as envisaged by the Constitution.
Justin Minkels recent EdWeek contribution - Accountability': Reclaiming the Worst Word in Education - touched on a vitally important problem in the education policy landscape, where concepts that most educators readily embrace - like reform and accountability - are co-opted by policy makers and turned against us. Few of us go into teaching with any antipathy towards the general idea of reform; we teach to make the future better, and know firsthand the need to re-form elements of our school systems. And our daily experience of accountability is in the interactions we have with students, families, colleagues, and school leaders. If there are teachers who dont feel accountable to these nearest stakeholders, theres little chance of remote bureacrats changing those dynamics. As Minkel writes: You cant force teachers to feel true accountability to arbitrary cutoff scores on tests that seem to have been written by machines.

The problem with accountability in the past two decades is not just the punishing use of testing, but also the narrowness of our focus. For all the talk of multiple measures, too few policy initiatives really embraced the challenge of identifying and using a wide variety of meaningful indicators of whats happening in a school. The general public wants better schools, and easily digested answers about whether a school is improving or not. Too few public leaders are willing to lead on this issue, which might involve a steep learning curve for them, and a willingness to tell voters that you cant always get what you want. The binary of making adequate yearly progress vs. program improvement became a farce, with schools serving mostly poor, non-white students and English language learners inevitably dominating the lists of supposed failures, even as they might have been doing the best they could under circumstances well beyond their control. School grades seemed to add a little more information compared to a binary designation, but even then, a lack of sophistication in generating the grades results in similarly distorted outcomes; the problem is well illustrated by the Florida high school that was graded a D while arguably outperforming a school with an A - a difference that became clear when additional data was added to the picture. And even then, might the A school not argue that by some measures, its better than the D school?

On September 8, Californias State Board of Education moved past decades of indefensibly rigid and narrow versions of state accountability efforts, unanimously adopting a plan that State Superintendent for Public Instruction Tom Torlakson called a new system for a new era . Where test scores once reigned supreme, the new system utilizes a combination of six state-determined accountability measures and at least four locally determined measures. Standardized test scores will still be included, but now balanced with information regarding: graduation rates, suspension rates, chronic absenteeism, progress of English langauge learners, college and career readiness, school conditions, school climate, staffing, and family engagement. Its encouraging that the new system doesnt offer any arbitrary formula to further reduce that information to overly simplified ratings or rankings. Schools that show persistent struggles will find additional resources and guidance directed their way, rather than threats of reconstitution or closure. Local school boards and communities will retain greater control over their schools.

Critics worry that the new system will be too complicated to allow interested stakeholders to reach any clear conclusions regarding school quality. The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board, rarely interested in balance or complexity when it opines regarding education policy, concedes that the old system was too narrow, but earlier this summer called on the state to scrap this baffling new approach - and start over . Writing earlier this summer, they captured concerns Ive heard elsewhere as well: If youre a parent trying to figure out whether one school in your district is better than another, well, theres no clear way to do it. If youre a voter who wants to determine how much the local schools have improved over time, good luck.

Well, heres the thing. Theres often no clear cut answer about which school in the district is better. Offering a simple rating or ranking or grade gave people the impression of an answer, one that was possibly useless; Floridas lesson comes to mind again, where D was actually better than A. And as for the voter who wants to know how much schools have improved, it all depends on whom you ask and what criteria interest you. The Times says good luck as if the problem is the new system, when we should be saying good luck because theres just no way to answer simplistic questions.

The Times editorial points out that if some indicators - suspension rates, for example - seem to improve, while academic performance doesnt improve, then the suspension rate improvement is a hollow achievement. Ive written about suspension rates in the past, specifically in Los Angeles , and argued that even with an easily defined category of this nature, its a mistake to simply look at the number and leap to conclusions. Its fairly simple to move those rates downwards by deciding not to suspend students; the benefits to the student body depend on what else is happening in conjunction with a shift in suspensions. Once again, we find that evaluating schools defies simplistic external measures.

When this information goes online, the user interface graphical representations provided to the community may be confusing to some people at first, and the California Department of Education might take some heat for the inevitable bumps in the road as they build a new system and communicate with stakeholders regarding its use. Theyve already been through multiple drafts of their dashboard and will continue revising. Board President Kirst recently wrote that, Change is hard, especially when it involves 6.2 million students, 300,000 teachers, 10,000 schools, 1,100 districts, and an entirely new approach to accountability. We ask for your patience, persistence, and participation in implementing, refining and continually updating this system.

And now? While the critics of the system raise legitimate concerns about having clear information and ensuring attention to persistent gaps among student populations, they would do well to support the state and local efforts to build and improve on this new program. With an open mind, they might discover that what they thought they knew about schools under the old accountability program was actually far from being as useful or accurate as they imagined. I applaud our states education leaders who had the determination to take a more difficult and more complicated approach, and endure some misguided criticism along the way, to much needed reform to what we call accountability.
Papa Didn't Preach: Madonna's Child Custody Battle Settled

Madonna and her ex-husband, Guy Ritchie, settled their bitter, nine-month-long child custody battle over their 16-year-old son Rocco. According to TMZ, the former celebrity couple was due in court on Wednesday to argue over custody. Rather than battle it out in court, the former couple worked out a settlement agreement that will allow Rocco to stay in London with his father.

Rocco left Madonna's custody on his own during her world tour. While the tour was in Europe, Rocco traveled to London to stay with his father. When Madonna returned home to New York, Rocco refused to come home and Ritchie's attorney explained that Rocco expressed his preference to live with his father in London.

From Material Girl to Mad Mama

When Madonna learned that her son did not want to return to Manhattan to live with her, nor did he want to celebrate Christmas with her, she became understandably angry. Despite getting a court order requiring Richie to return their son to New York, Richie did not comply.

Based on TMZ's report, it appears that after the couple reached a settlement before the hearing Wednesday, the material girl became a mad mama. Next to photos posted on social media, she writes "Sometimes moms need to be a b****."

All's Well that Ends After a Bunch of Drama

Families fight, get in disagreements, and then make up. When the family includes the world famous pop star and cultural icon, Madonna, and renowned director, Guy Ritchie, the larger than life personalities end up creating a whole lot of public drama.

Madonna was justifiably upset that her son left while they were on a world tour together, refused to return home for Christmas, and even refused to come home for school in January. Finding out that your child, especially during their teenage years, wants to stay with an ex-spouse is not only infuriating, it also hurts emotionally.

Fortunately, it has been reported that Madonna and Rocco have repaired their relationship, despite the fact that Rocco will be remaining in London with his father. This is a lesson for all parents in a custody battle: working together to resolve a dispute is always best.

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Apple and Google Help Microsoft Fight the Government

The American people have the right to be free from unreasonable searches. It's a constitutional right that stems from the Fourth Amendment that is meant to protect the people from the government. Microsoft has been fighting since April to stop the government from searching users' cloud storage without providing notice to the searched user. In the most recent filing, Microsoft has found unusual allies in not only Google and Apple, but also Amazon, BP, Fox News, Delta, the EFF, and even the US Chamber of Commerce.

Basically, the issue focuses on the government's ability to obtain not just a search warrant to search through a user's files stored on the cloud, but also a gag order which prevents the company providing the cloud storage from notifying the user that the search will occur or has occurred.

Government Logic Defies Common Sense

The government contends that users could delete their files, hence the need for so-called "sneak-and-peak" searches. While this may seem like a simple reason, it actually flies in the face of common sense. Nothing is gained by secretly searching the actual files without notifying the user. In fact, according to the FBI, doing so actually puts the data at risk. Even the TSA leaves a note in your bag if they search it outside of your presence.

When the warrant is issued, it goes to the company storing the files. The company can then copy the raw, encrypted data over to the FBI, police, or whoever sought the warrant. At that point, the evidence is preserved and any concern over users' deleting files should be moot. When the police serve a warrant on a person, the person is not allowed to manipulate evidence while the search is happening. The person usually stands outside, in handcuffs or in the presence of an officer, waiting for the search to finish.

How to Protect Your Cloud From Unannounced Searches

Encryption is your best friend. Make sure that any cloud storage you utilize encrypts your data. When your data is encrypted, your password is required to decrypt the data. Without your password, encrypted data will look like gobbledygook, if it is even accessible at all.

Long, complex passwords are just as important as encryption. You cannot be compelled to give up your passcode or pin because of the wonderful Fifth Amendment right to silence. But beware of using your fingerprint to lock your device. You can be ordered by the court to place your finger on the sensor to unlock a device that is fingerprint protected.

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The meeting was held at Yar Phoo Village in the Yar Phoo Village Group of Yebyu Township, Tanintharyi Region following a skirmish between the KNU and the NMSP near The Chaung Phyar Village of Kalain Aung sub-township in Yebyu Township on 8 September.

The KNU delegation to the meeting was led by the KNU Central Committee member Pado Mann Nyein Maung and the Myeik-Dawei District KNU chairman Pado Saw Sar Pi Tu.

The Dawei District NMSP chairman, Nai A Ka, led the NMSP delegation.

Pado Saw Sar Pi Tu said to KIC News: During the meeting we reached an agreement to prevent such kinds of skirmishes from happening again between the two sides. We are currently stopping the issues from escalating.

A liaison team made up of three representatives from each side was formed during the one-hour meeting. The team will be responsible for keeping both armed groups informed of the others troop movements and will take charge of any future issues that may arise.

The NMSP Home Affairs Department chief, Nai Win Hla, said to KIC: It is a good sign that we have been able to form a liaison team to prevent the issues from growing after the accidents happened.

Territorial disputes between the KNU and NMSP were not discussed at the meeting. Any such disputes will be submitted to the groups central branches so that they can have further discussions about them.

Reporting by SPhan Shaung for KIC News

Translated by Thida Linn

Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
Genpact Limited provides business process outsourcing and information technology (IT) services in India, rest of Asia, North and Latin America, and Europe. It operates through three segments: Banking, Capital Markets and Insurance; Consumer Goods, Retail, Life Sciences and Healthcare; and High Tech, Manufacturing and Services. The company offers CFO advisory services; and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) services, such as data management, carbon accounting, human rights assessment, sustainability diligence, and ESG reporting. It also provides finance and accounting services, which include accounts payable, such as document management, invoice processing, approval and resolution management, and travel and expense processing; invoice-to-cash services, including customer master data management, credit and contract management, fulfillment, billing, collections, and dispute management services; record to report services comprising accounting, treasury, tax, product cost accounting, and closing and reporting services; financial planning and analysis consisting of budgeting, forecasting, and business performance reporting; and enterprise risk and compliance services, including operational risks and controls. In addition, the company provides supply chain advisory services, and after-sales services; sourcing and procurement services comprising direct and indirect strategic sourcing, category management, spend analytics, procurement operation, and master data management; and sales and commercial services, including campaign, order, and dispute management, lead generation, pricing, and promotion optimization. Further, it offers IT services, which comprise end-user computing support, infrastructure management, application production support, and database management services; and transformation services that include digital solutions, consulting services, and analytics services and solutions. The company was founded in 1997 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.
According to local sources who wished to remain anonymous, Sai Toi was shot around 9pm while visiting residents in Wanparng village, the groups headquarters.

An unknown individual opened fire on him, said one of the sources. He died immediately at the scene.

A cremation service was held for Maj. Sai Toi the following day in Wanparng, attended by representatives of the Burmese military and other peoples militias in the area, including the Mahasarng and Pang Leng Sai groups.

Wanparng Peoples Militia used to be Brigade 758, a unit under the control of the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA). It was led at the time by Col. Murngzuen who surrendered to the Burmese armed forces in 2005, after which it was transformed into a peoples militia force.

In 2010, Col. Murngzuen was killed; Maj. Sai Toi then stepped up to take over as leader of the group.

Some sources have hinted that Sai Tois killing may be linked to an affair or sexual liaison, while others speculated that it was business related.

By Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN)
Enbridge Inc. operates as an energy infrastructure company. The company operates through five segments: Liquids Pipelines, Gas Transmission and Midstream, Gas Distribution and Storage, Renewable Power Generation, and Energy Services. The Liquids Pipelines segment operates pipelines and related terminals to transport various grades of crude oil and other liquid hydrocarbons in Canada and the United States. The Gas Transmission and Midstream segment invests in natural gas pipelines, and gathering and processing facilities in Canada and the United States. The Gas Distribution and Storage segment is involved in natural gas utility operations serving residential, commercial, and industrial customers in Ontario, as well as natural gas distribution and energy transportation activities in Quebec. The Renewable Power Generation segment operates power generating assets, such as wind, solar, geothermal, and waste heat recovery facilities; and transmission assets in North America and Europe. The Energy Services segment provides energy marketing services to refiners, producers, and other customers; and physical commodity marketing and logistical services in Canada and the United States. The company was formerly known as IPL Energy Inc. and changed its name to Enbridge Inc. in October 1998. Enbridge Inc. was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.
AmerisourceBergen Corporation sources and distributes pharmaceutical products in the United States and internationally. Its Pharmaceutical Distribution segment distributes brand-name and generic pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter healthcare products, home healthcare supplies and equipment, and related services to various healthcare providers, including acute care hospitals and health systems, independent and chain retail pharmacies, mail order pharmacies, medical clinics, long-term care and alternate site pharmacies, and other customers. It also provides pharmacy management, staffing, and other consulting services; supply management software to retail and institutional healthcare providers; and packaging solutions to various institutional and retail healthcare providers. In addition, this segment distributes plasma and other blood products, injectable pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and other specialty products; provides other services primarily to physicians who specialize in various disease states, primarily oncology, as well as to other healthcare providers, including hospitals and dialysis clinics; and offers data analytics, outcomes research, and additional services for biotechnology and pharmaceutical manufacturers. The company's Other segment provides integrated manufacturer services, such as clinical trial support, product post-approval, and commercialization support; specialty transportation and logistics services for the biopharmaceutical industry; and sells pharmaceuticals, vaccines, parasiticides, diagnostics, micro feed ingredients, and various other products to customers in the companion animal and production animal markets, as well as demand-creating sales force services to manufacturers. AmerisourceBergen Corporation was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.
Bank of Hawaii Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Bank of Hawaii that provides various financial products and services in Hawaii, Guam, and other Pacific Islands. It operates in three segments: Consumer Banking, Commercial Banking, and Treasury and Other. The Consumer Banking segment offers checking, savings, and time deposit accounts; residential mortgage loans, home equity lines of credit, automobile loans and leases, personal lines of credit, installment loans, small business loans and leases, and credit cards; private and international client banking, investment, credit, and trust services to individuals and families, and high-net-worth individuals; investment management; institutional investment advisory services to corporations, government entities, and foundations; and brokerage offerings, including equities, mutual funds, life insurance, and annuity products. This segment operates 54 branch locations and 307 ATMs throughout Hawaii and the Pacific Islands, and a customer service center, as well as through online and mobile banking. The Commercial Banking segment provides corporate banking, commercial real estate loans, commercial lease financing, auto dealer financing, and deposit products. It offers commercial lending and deposit products to middle-market and large companies, and government entities; commercial real estate mortgages to investors, developers, and builders; and international banking and merchant services. The Treasury and Other segment offers corporate asset and liability management services, including interest rate risk management and foreign exchange services. Bank of Hawaii Corporation was founded in 1897 and is headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation provides a range of financial products and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Securities Services, Market and Wealth Services, Investment and Wealth Management, and Other segments. The Securities Services segment offers custody, trust and depositary, accounting, exchange-traded funds, middle-office solutions, transfer agency, services for private equity and real estate funds, foreign exchange, securities lending, liquidity/lending services, prime brokerage, and data analytics. This segment also provides trustee, paying agency, fiduciary, escrow and other financial, issuer, and support services for brokers and investors. The Market and Wealth Services segment offers clearing and custody, investment, wealth and retirement solutions, technology and enterprise data management, trading, and prime brokerage services; and clearance and collateral management services. This segment also provides integrated cash management solutions, including payments, foreign exchange, liquidity management, receivables processing and payables management, and trade finance and processing services. The Investment and Wealth Management segment offers investment management strategies and distribution of investment products, investment management, custody, wealth and estate planning, private banking, investment, and information management services. The Other segment engages in the provision of leasing, corporate treasury, derivative and other trading, corporate and bank-owned life insurance, renewable energy investment, and business exit services. It serves central banks and sovereigns, financial institutions, asset managers, insurance companies, corporations, local authorities and high net-worth individuals, and family offices. The company was founded in 1784 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
In the New Yorker, Ariel Levy explores the buzz around Ayahuasca, the ultimate artisanal psychedelic drug.

"I came home reeking of vomit and sage and looking like I'd come from hell," Vaughn Bergen, a twenty-seven-year-old who works at an art gallery in Chelsea, said of one ayahuasca trip. "Everyone was trying to talk me out of doing it again. My girlfriend at the time was, like, 'Is this some kind of sick game?' I was, like, 'No. I'm growing.' " His next experience was blissful: "I got transported to a higher dimension, where I lived the whole ceremony as my higher self. Anything I thought came to be." Bergen allows that, of the nine ceremonies he's attended, eight have been "unpleasant experiences." But he intends to continue using ayahuasca for the rest of his life. He believes that it will heal not only him but civilization at large.





The process of making ayahuasca is beyond artisanal: it is nearly Druidical. "We pick the chacruna leaf at sunrise in this very specific way: you say a prayer and just pick the lower ones from each tree," a lithe ayahuasquera in her early fortiesBritish accent, long blond hair, a background in Reikitold me about her harvests, in Hawaii. "You clean the vine with wooden spoons, meticulously, all the mulch away from the rootsthey look so beautiful, like a human heartand you pound these beautiful pieces of vine with wooden mallets until it's fibre," she said. "Then it's this amazing, sophisticated process of one pot here and one pot there, and you're stirring and you're singing songs."





She and her boyfriend serve the ayahuasca"divine consciousness in liquid form"at ceremonies in New York, Cape Town, Las Vegas, Bali. They showed me pictures of themselves harvesting plants in a verdant Hawaiian jungle, looking radiantly happy. I asked if they made a living this way. "We manifest abundance wherever we go," she told me. Her boyfriend added, "Consciousness is its own economy."
Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. provides investor communications and technology-driven solutions for the financial services industry. The company's Investor Communication Solutions segment processes and distributes proxy materials to investors in equity securities and mutual funds, as well as facilitates related vote processing services; and distributes regulatory reports, class action, and corporate action/reorganization event information, as well as tax reporting solutions. It also offers ProxyEdge, an electronic proxy delivery and voting solution; data-driven solutions and an end-to-end platform for content management, composition, and omni-channel distribution of regulatory, marketing, and transactional information, as well as mutual fund trade processing services; data and analytics solutions; solutions for public corporations and mutual funds; SEC filing and capital markets transaction services; registrar, stock transfer, and record-keeping services; and omni-channel customer communications solutions, as well as operates Broadridge Communications Cloud platform that creates, delivers, and manages communications and customer engagement activities. The company's Global Technology and Operations segment provides solutions that automate the front-to-back transaction lifecycle of equity, mutual fund, fixed income, foreign exchange and exchange-traded derivatives, order capture and execution, trade confirmation, margin, cash management, clearance and settlement, reference data management, reconciliations, securities financing and collateral management, asset servicing, compliance and regulatory reporting, portfolio accounting, and custody-related services. This segment also offers business process outsourcing services; technology solutions, such portfolio management, compliance, fee billing, and operational support solutions; and capital market and wealth management solutions. The company was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in Lake Success, New York.
The following companies are subsidiares of Eli Lilly and: 1096401 B.C. Unlimited Liability Company, ARMO BioSciences Inc, ARMO Bioscience, Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Alnara Pharmaceuticals, Alnara Pharmaceuticals Inc., Andean Technical Operations Center, Applied Molecular Evolution Inc., AurKa Pharma, Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, Avid Radiopharmaceuticals Inc., ChemGen, CoLucid Pharmaceuticals, CoLucid Pharmaceuticals Inc., Dermira, Devices for Vascular Intervention(DVI), Disarm Therapeutics, Dista Ilac Ticaret Ltd. Sti., Dista S.A., Dista-Produtos Quimicos & Farmaceuticos LDA, ELCO Dominicana SRL, ELCO Insurance Company Limited, ELCO Management Inc., ELCO for Trade and Marketing S.A.E., ELGO Insurance Company Limited, Elanco Animal Health Ireland Limited, Elanco Switzerland Holding Sarl, Eli Lilly (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Eli Lilly (Philippines) Incorporated, Eli Lilly (S.A.) (Proprietary) Limited, Eli Lilly (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Eli Lilly (Suisse) S.A., Eli Lilly Asia Inc., Eli Lilly Asia Pacific SSC Sdn Bhd, Eli Lilly Australia Pty. Limited, Eli Lilly B-H d.o.o., Eli Lilly Benelux S.A., Eli Lilly Bienes y Servicios S de RL de CV, Eli Lilly CR s.r.o., Eli Lilly Canada Inc., Eli Lilly Cork Limited, Eli Lilly Danmark A/S, Eli Lilly Egypt for Trading, Eli Lilly European Clinical Trial Services SA, Eli Lilly Export S.A., Eli Lilly Finance S.A., Eli Lilly Ges.m.b.H., Eli Lilly Group Limited, Eli Lilly Holdings Ltd., Eli Lilly Hrvatska d.o.o., Eli Lilly Interamerica Inc., Eli Lilly Interamerica Inc. y Compania Limitada, Eli Lilly International Corporation, Eli Lilly Ireland Holdings Limited, Eli Lilly Israel Ltd., Eli Lilly Italia S.p.A., Eli Lilly Japan K.K., Eli Lilly Kinsale Limited, Eli Lilly Nederland B.V., Eli Lilly Nigeria Ltd., Eli Lilly Norge A.S., Eli Lilly Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd., Eli Lilly Polska Sp.z.o.o. (Ltd.), Eli Lilly Regional Operations GmbH, Eli Lilly Romania SRL, Eli Lilly S.A., Eli Lilly Saudi Arabia Limited, Eli Lilly Services Inc, Eli Lilly Services India Private Limited, Eli Lilly Slovakia s.r.o., Eli Lilly Sweden AB, Eli Lilly Vostok S.A. Geneva, Eli Lilly and Company, Eli Lilly and Company (India) Pvt. Ltd., Eli Lilly and Company (Ireland) Limited, Eli Lilly and Company (N.Z.) Limited, Eli Lilly and Company (Taiwan) Inc., Eli Lilly and Company Limited, Eli Lilly de Centro America S.A., Eli Lilly do Brasil Limitada, Eli Lilly farmacevtska druzba d.o.o., Eli Lilly y Compania de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Eli Lilly y Compania de Venezuela S.A., Glycostasis Inc, Greenfield-Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Heart Rhythm Technologies Inc, Hybritech, Hypnion, ICOS Corporation, ImClone GmbH, ImClone LLC, ImClone Systems Holdings Inc., ImClone Systems LLC, Imclone Systems, Irisfarma S.A., Ivy Animal Health, Kinsale Financial Services Unlimited Company, Lilly (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd, Lilly Asia Ventures Fund I L.P., Lilly Asia Ventures Fund II L.P., Lilly Asian Ventures Fund III L.P., Lilly Cayman Holdings, Lilly China Research and Development Co. Ltd., Lilly Deutschland GmbH, Lilly France S.A.S., Lilly Global Nederland Holdings B.V., Lilly Global Services Inc., Lilly Holding GmbH, Lilly Holdings B.V., Lilly Hungaria KFT, Lilly Japan Financing G.K., Lilly Korea Ltd., Lilly Nederland Finance B.V., Lilly Nederland Finance B.V. - GCC, Lilly Nederland Holding B.V., Lilly Pharma Ltd., Lilly Portugal - Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Lilly S.A., Lilly Suzhou Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Lilly Trading Co. LTD, Lilly USA LLC, Lilly Ventures Fund I LLC, Lilly del Caribe Inc., Lilly ilac ticaret limited sirketi, Lohmann Animal Health, Loxo Oncology, Lylly Centre for Clinical Pharmacology PTE. LTD., Novartis Animal Health, OY Eli Lilly Finland AB, Origin Medsystems, PT. Eli Lilly Indonesia, Pacific Biotech, Pharmaserve-Lilly S.A.C.I., Physio-Control, SGX Pharmaceuticals, SGX Pharmaceuticals Inc, Spaly Bioquimica S.A., UAB Eli Lilly Lietuva, Valquifarma S.A., and Vital Pharma Productos Farmaceuticos.

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The following companies are subsidiares of Thermo Fisher Scientific: 236 Perinton Parkway LLC, 27 Forge Parkway LLC, ABR--Affinity BioReagents, ACI Holdings Inc., ARG Services LLC, ASPEX Corporation, Abgene Inc., Abgene Limited, Acoustic Cytometry Systems Inc., AcroMetrix LLC, Acros Organics B.V.B.A., Advanced Biotechnologies Limited, Advanced Scientifics (ASI), Advanced Scientifics Inc., Advanced Scientifics International Inc., Affymetrix Biotech Participacoes Ltda., Affymetrix Biotech Shanghai Ltd, Affymetrix Inc, Affymetrix Japan K.K., Affymetrix Pte Ltd, Affymetrix UK Ltd, Afora S.A.U., Ahura Scientific, Alchematrix Inc., Alchematrix LLC, Alfa Aesar, Alfa Aesar (China) Chemical Co. Ltd., Alfa Aesar (Hong Kong) Limited, Allergon AB, Alphine Mountain Limited, Ambion Inc., Apogent Denmark ApS, Apogent Finance Company, Apogent Holding Company, Apogent Technologies Inc., Apogent Transition Corp., Apogent U.K. Limited, App-Tek International Pty Ltd, Applied Biosystems B.V., Applied Biosystems Finance B.V., Applied Biosystems International Inc., Applied Biosystems LLC, Applied Biosystems Taiwan LLC, Applied Biosystems Trading (Shanghai) Company Ltd., Applied Biosystems de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Applied Scientific Corporation, Avances Cientificos de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Avocado Research Chemicals Limited, B.R.A.H.M.S. Biotech GmbH, B.R.A.H.M.S. GmbH, B.R.A.H.M.S. UK Ltd, BAC BV, BAC IP BV, Barnstead Thermolyne LLC, Beijing Phadia Diagnostics Co Ltd, Bender MedSystems GmbH, BioTrove Corporation, BioTrove International Inc., Bioanalysis Labsystems S.A., Biochemical Sciences LLC, Biolab, BmT GmbH Laborprodukte, Bonsai Tecnologies - Sistemas para Biotecnologia e Industria Unipessoal Lda, Brammer Bio, Bumi-Sans Sendirian Berhad, CAC Limited, CB Diagnostics AB, CB Diagnostics Holding AB, CEPH International Corporation, CHK Holdings Inc., CRS Robotics, CTPS LLC, Capitol Scientific Products Inc., Capitol Vial Inc., Cellomics Inc., CellzDirect Inc., Cenduit GmbH, Cenduit LLC, Cezanne S.A.S., Chase Scientific Glass Inc., Chromacol Limited, Clintrak, Clintrak Clinical Labeling Services LLC, Clintrak Pharmaceutical Services LLC, Cohesive Technologies (UK) Limited, Cohesive Technologies Inc., Columbia Diagnostics Inc., Compendia Bioscience Inc., Comtest Limited, Consolidated Technologies Inc., Consultores Fisher Scientific Chile Ltd, Core Informatics, Core Informatics LLC, Core Informatics UK Ltd., D-finitive Technologies Inc., DCG Systems B.V., DCG Systems C.V., DCG Systems G.K., DCG Systems GmbH, DCG Systems Korea Ltd., DCG Systems LLC, DPI Newco LLC, DSM Pharmaceutical Products Inc., Dharmacon, Diagnostix Ltd., Dionex (China) Analytical Ltd, Dionex (Switzerland) AG, Dionex (UK) Limited, Dionex Austria GmbH, Dionex Benelux B.V., Dionex Brasil Instrumentos Cientificos Ltda, Dionex Canada Ltd., Dionex China Limited, Dionex Corporation, Dionex Denmark A/S, Dionex Holding GmbH, Dionex I LLC, Dionex Pty Ltd., Dionex S.A., Dionex S.p.A., Dionex Singapore Pte Ltd., Dionex Softron GmbH, Dionex Sweden AB, Distribution Solutions International Inc., Doe & Ingalls Investors Inc., Doe & Ingalls Limited, Doe & Ingalls Management LLC, Doe & Ingalls Properties II LLC, Doe & Ingalls Properties LLC, Doe & Ingalls of California Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Florida Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Maryland Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Massachusetts Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of North Carolina Operating LLC, Doublecape Holding Limited, Doublecape Limited, Drakeside Real Estate Holding Company LLC, Duke Scientific Corporation, Dynal Biotech Beijing Limited, EGS Gauging Ltd., EGS Gauging Technical Services Company, EP Scientific Products LLC, Ecochem N.V., EnviroEquip Pty Ltd, Epsom Glass Industries Limited, Equibio Limited, Erie Electroverre S.A., Erie Finance Limited, Erie LP Holding LLC, Erie Scientific Company of Puerto Rico, Erie Scientific Hungary Kft, Erie Scientific LLC, Erie U.K. Limited, Erie UK 1 Limited, Erie UK 2 Limited, Erie UK Holding Company, Erie UK Senior Holding Limited, European Laboratory Holdings Limited, Eutech Instruments Europe B.V., Eutech Instruments Pte Ltd., Eutech Instruments Sdn Bhd, Ever Ready Thermometer Co. Inc., FEI Asia Pacific Co. Ltd., FEI Australia Pty Ltd, FEI CPD B.V., FEI Company, FEI Company Japan Ltd., FEI Company of USA (S.E.A.) Pte Ltd., FEI Czech Republic s.r.o., FEI Deutschland GmbH, FEI EFA Inc., FEI EFA International Pte. Ltd., FEI Electron Optics B.V., FEI Electron Optics International B.V., FEI Europe B.V., FEI France SAS, FEI Global Holdings C.V., FEI Hong Kong Company Limited, FEI Houston Inc., FEI Italia Srl, FEI Korea Ltd., FEI Melbourne Pty Ltd., FEI Microscopy Solutions Ltd, FEI Munich GmbH, FEI Norway Holding AS, FEI SAS, FEI Saudi Arabia LLC, FEI Servicos de Nanotecnologia Ltda., FEI Technologies Inc., FEI Technology de Mexico S.A. de C.V., FEI Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., FEI Trondheim AS, FEI UK Ltd., FHP LLC, FRC Holding Inc. V, FS (Barbados) Capital Holdings Ltd., FS Casa Rocas Holdings LLC, FS Mexicana Holdings LLC, FSI Receivables Company LLC, FSII Sweden Holdings AB, FSII Sweden Holdings I AB, FSIR Holdings (UK) Limited, FSIR Holdings (US) Inc., FSUK Holdings Limited, FSWH Company LLC, FSWH II C.V., FSWH International Holdings LLC, Fermentas China Co. Ltd, Fermentas Inc., Fermentas International, Fermentas Sweden AB, Fermentas UK Limited, Fiberlite Centrifuge LLC, Finesse Scientific Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Finesse Solutions AG, Finesse Solutions Inc., Finnzymes Oy, Fisher Alder S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Asia Manufacturing Ventures Inc., Fisher Bermuda Holdings Limited, Fisher BioImage ApS, Fisher BioPharma Services (India) Private Limited, Fisher BioSciences Japan G.K., Fisher BioServices Inc., Fisher Bioblock Holding II SNC, Fisher CLP Holding Limited Partnership, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 1, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 2, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 3, Fisher Canada Limited Partnership, Fisher Chimica BVBA, Fisher Clinical Logistics LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services (Bristol) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Colombia) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Korea) Co. Ltd, Fisher Clinical Services (Mexico) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Peru) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services Colombia S.A.S., Fisher Clinical Services GmbH, Fisher Clinical Services Inc., Fisher Clinical Services Japan K.K., Fisher Clinical Services Latin America S.R.L., Fisher Clinical Services Limited Liability Company, Fisher Clinical Services Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Clinical Services Peru S.R.L, Fisher Clinical Services Pte Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services U.K. Limited, Fisher Emergo B.V., Fisher Germany Holdings GmbH, Fisher Hamilton China Inc., Fisher Hamilton Mexico LLC, Fisher Holdings ApS, Fisher Internet Minority Holdings L.L.C., Fisher Laboratory Products Manufacturing (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Fisher Luxembourg Danish Holdings SARL, Fisher Manufacturing (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Maybridge Holdings Limited, Fisher Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Scientific (Austria) GmbH, Fisher Scientific (Hong Kong) Limited, Fisher Scientific (M) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Scientific (SEA) Pte. Ltd., Fisher Scientific A/S, Fisher Scientific AG, Fisher Scientific Australia Pty Limited, Fisher Scientific Biotech Line ApS, Fisher Scientific Brazil Inc., Fisher Scientific Central America Inc., Fisher Scientific Chile Inc., Fisher Scientific Colombia Inc., Fisher Scientific Company, Fisher Scientific Company L.L.C., Fisher Scientific Costa Rica Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada, Fisher Scientific Europe Holdings B.V., Fisher Scientific GTF AB, Fisher Scientific Germany Beteiligungs GmbH, Fisher Scientific GmbH, Fisher Scientific Holding Company LLC, Fisher Scientific Holding HK Limited, Fisher Scientific Holding U.K. Limited, Fisher Scientific Holdings (M) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Scientific Holdings (S) Pte Ltd, Fisher Scientific International LLC, Fisher Scientific Investments (Cayman) Ltd., Fisher Scientific Ireland Investments Unlimited, Fisher Scientific Ireland Limited, Fisher Scientific Japan Ltd., Fisher Scientific Jersey Island Limited, Fisher Scientific Korea Ltd, Fisher Scientific Latin America Inc., Fisher Scientific Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Fisher Scientific Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Scientific Mexico Inc., Fisher Scientific Middle East and Africa Inc., Fisher Scientific Norway AS, Fisher Scientific Operating Company, Fisher Scientific Oxoid Holdings Ltd., Fisher Scientific Oy, Fisher Scientific Pte. Ltd., Fisher Scientific S.A.S., Fisher Scientific S.L., Fisher Scientific SPRL, Fisher Scientific The Hague I B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague II B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague III B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague IV B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague V B.V., Fisher Scientific U.K. Limited, Fisher Scientific UK Holding Company 2, Fisher Scientific UK Holding Company Limited, Fisher Scientific Unipessoal Lda., Fisher Scientific Venezuela Inc., Fisher Scientific Worldwide (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Fisher Scientific Worldwide Holdings I C.V., Fisher Scientific Worldwide Inc., Fisher Scientific de Mexico S.A., Fisher Scientific of the Netherlands B.V., Fisher Scientific spol. S.r.o, Fisher Servicios Clinicos (Chile) LLC, Fisher Servicios Clinicos Chile Ltda, Fisher WWD Holding L.L.C., Fisher Worldwide Distribution SPV, Fisher Worldwide Gene Distribution SPV, Flux Instruments, Fuji Partnership, G & M Procter Limited, G V Instruments Limited, GV Instruments Canada Ltd., GV Instruments Inc, Gatan Inc, General Scientific Company Sdn Bhd (M), Genomed molekularbiologische und diagnostische Produkte GmbH, Gerhard Menzel B.V. & Co. KG, Gold Cattle Standard Testing Labs Inc., Golden West Indemnity Company Limited, Goring Kerr Detection Limited, Greenville Service Company Inc., HENO GmbH i.L., Hangar 215 Inc., Helmet Securities Limited, Henogen, HighChem, HyClone International Trade (Tianjin) Co. Ltd, Hybaid Limited, I.Q. (BIO) Limited, IDnostics AG, ILS Laboratories Scandinavia AB, Inel Inc., Inel SAS, InnaPhase Inc., InnaPhase Limited, IntegenX, Intrinsic BioProbes Inc., Intrinsic Bioprobes Inc., Invitrogen (Shanghai) Investment Co. Ltd., Invitrogen Argentina SA, Invitrogen BioServices India Private Limited, Invitrogen Europe Limited, Invitrogen Finance Corp., Invitrogen Holdings LLC, Invitrogen Holdings Ltd., Invitrogen Hong Kong Limited, Invitrogen IP Holdings Inc., Invitrogen Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Ion Torrent Systems Inc., Ionalytics Corporation, JSC Thermo Fisher Scientific, Jouan LLC, Jouan Limited, Jouan SA, Kendro Containment & Services Limited, Kendro Laboratory Products Ltd, Kettlebrook Insurance Co. ltd., Keystone Scientific, KonTEM GmbH, Kyle Jordan Investments LLC, LIFE TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION, LTC Tech South Africa PTY Ltd., La-Pha-Pack GmbH, Lab Vision (UK) Limited, Lab Vision Corporation, Lab-Chrom-Pack LLC, Lab-Line Instruments Inc., Labomex MBP S. de R. L. De C.V., Laboratoire Service International - L.S.I, Laboratory Management Systems Inc., Laboratory Specialties Proprietary Ltd., LambTrack Limited, Laser Analytical Systems Inc., Liberty Lane Investment LLC, Liberty Lane Real Estate Holding Company LLC, Life Sciences International (Poland) SP z O.O, Life Sciences International Holdings BV, Life Sciences International LLC, Life Sciences International Limited, Life Technologies AS, Life Technologies Australia PTY Ltd., Life Technologies BPD AB, Life Technologies BPD UK Limited, Life Technologies Brasil Comercio e Industria de Produtos para Biotecnologia Ltda, Life Technologies Chile SpA, Life Technologies Clinical Services Lab Inc., Life Technologies Co. Ltd., Life Technologies Czech Republic s.r.o., Life Technologies DaAn Diagnostic (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd., Life Technologies Europe B.V., Life Technologies Finance Ltd., Life Technologies Finland Oy, Life Technologies GmbH, Life Technologies Holdings PTE Ltd., Life Technologies Inc., Life Technologies International B.V., Life Technologies Japan Ltd., Life Technologies Korea LLC, Life Technologies Limited, Life Technologies Magyarorszag Kft, Life Technologies New Zealand Ltd., Life Technologies Norway Investments US LLC, Life Technologies Polska Sp z.o.o., Life Technologies SA, Life Technologies SAS, Life Technologies s.r.o, Linkage Biosciences Inc., Linkage Biosciences S.a.r.l., Loftus Furnace Company, Lomb Scientific, Lomb Scientific (Aust) Pty Limited, MTI-GlobalStem, Marketbase International Limited, Matrix MicroScience Inc., Matrix MicroScience Ltd., Matrix Technologies Corporation Limited, Matrix Technologies LLC, Maybridge Chemical Company Limited, Maybridge Chemical Holdings Limited, Maybridge Limited, Medical Analysis Systems Inc., Medical Analysis Systems International Inc., Medical Diagnostics Systems Inc., Metavac LLC, Microgenics Corporation, Microgenics Diagnostics Pty Limited, Microgenics GmbH, Microm International GmbH, Microm Laborgerate S.L.U, Molecular BioProducts Inc., Molecular Probes Inc., Molecular Transfer Inc., NAPCO Inc., NERL Diagnostics LLC, NOVODIRECT GmbH Labor- und Industrie- Megerate, Nalge (Europe) Limited, Nalge Nunc International (Monterrey) LLC, Nalge Nunc International Corporation, Nanjing WeiKangLe Trading Industrial Co Ltd, NanoDrop Technologies LLC, National Scientific Company, Navaho Acquisition Corp., Neomarkers Inc., New FS Holdings Inc., NewcoGen PE LLC, Nihon Dynal K.K., Niton Asia Limited, NovaWave Technologies Inc., Nunc A/S, ONIX Systems Inc., OXOID CZ s.r.o., Odyssey Holdings Corporation, Odyssey Luxembourg Holdings S.a r.l., Odyssey Luxembourg IP Holdings 1 S.a r.l., Odyssey Luxembourg IP Holdings 2 S.a r.l., Odyssey Venture Corporation, Omega Data Systems, One Lambda Inc, Onix Holdings Limited, Orme Scientific Limited, Owl Separation Systems LLC, Oxoid (ELY) Limited, Oxoid 2000 Limited, Oxoid AS, Oxoid Australia Pty. Limited, Oxoid Company, Oxoid Deutschland GmbH, Oxoid Holding SAS, Oxoid Holdings Limited, Oxoid Inc., Oxoid International Limited, Oxoid Investments GmbH, Oxoid Limited, Oxoid N.V., Oxoid New Zealand Limited, Oxoid Pension Trustees Limited, Oxoid Senior Holdings Limited, Oxoid UKH LLC, PAX - DSI Acquisition LLC, PE AG, Pacific Rim Far East Industries LLC, Pacific Rim Investment LLC, Panomics L.L.C., Panomics S.R.L., Patheon, Patheon API Inc., Patheon API Manufacturing Inc., Patheon API Services Inc., Patheon Austria GmbH & Co KG, Patheon B.V., Patheon Banner U.S. Holdings Inc., Patheon Biologics (NJ) LLC, Patheon Biologics Australia Pty Ltd, Patheon Biologics B.V., Patheon Biologics LLC, Patheon Calculus Merger LLC, Patheon Cooperatief U.A., Patheon Development Services Inc., Patheon Finance LLC, Patheon France SAS, Patheon Holdings B.V., Patheon Holdings I B.V., Patheon Holdings II B.V., Patheon Holdings SAS, Patheon I B.V., Patheon I Holding GmbH, Patheon Inc., Patheon International AG, Patheon Italia S.p.A., Patheon KK, Patheon Life Science Products International GmbH, Patheon Manufacturing Services LLC, Patheon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Patheon Pharmaceuticals Services Inc., Patheon Puerto Rico Acquisitions Corporation, Patheon Puerto Rico Inc., Patheon Regensburg GmbH, Patheon Softgels B.V., Patheon Softgels Inc., Patheon U.S. Holdings Inc., Patheon U.S. Holdings LLC, Patheon UK Limited, Patheon UK Pension Trustees Limited, Pelican Acquisition Corporation, Perbio Science (Canada) Company, Perbio Science AB, Perbio Science BVBA, Perbio Science France SAS, Perbio Science Inc., Perbio Science International Netherlands B.V., Perbio Science Invest AB, Perbio Science Nederland B.V., Perbio Science Projekt AB, Perbio Science Sweden Holdings AB, Perbio Science Switzerland SA, Perbio Science UK Limited, Phadia AB, Phadia Diagnosticos Ltda, Phadia GmbH, Phadia Holding AB, Phadia International Holdings C.V., Phadia Korea Co. Ltd, Phadia Luxembourg Holdings S.a.r.l., Phadia Malta Holdings Limited, Phadia Oy, Phadia Real Property AB, Phadia Sweden AB, Phadia Taiwan Inc., Phadia US Inc., Phadia s.r.o., Pharmacaps Mexicana SA de CV, Phenom-World B.V., Phenom-World Holding B.V, Phenom-World Innovations B.V., Phinotex, Pierce Biotechnology Inc., Pierce Milwaukee Holding Corp., Pierce Milwaukee Inc., Polychromix, Power Sweden Holdings I AB, Power Sweden Holdings II AB, Power Sweden Holdings III Aktiebolag, Princeton Gamma-Tech Instruments LLC, Princeton Security Technologies, Prionics AG, Prionics Asia Ltd., Prionics Deutschland GmbH, Prionics France SAS, Prionics Italia S.r.l., Prionics Lelystad B.V., Prionics USA Inc., Priority Air Express LLC, Priority Air Express Pte. Ltd., Priority Air Express UK Limited, Priority Air Holdings Corp, Priority Solutions International, Promedica Pty Limited, Proxeon, Proxeon Biosystems ApS, Qiagen, REP GBP I-B Blocker Inc., Raymond A Lamb Limited, Remel Europe Limited, Remel Inc., Richard-Allan Scientific Company, Robbins Scientific LLC, Robocon Labor- und Industrieroboter Gesellschaft m.b.H, Rupprecht and Patashnick, Rupprecht and Patashnick (R&P), Russell pH Limited, S.C.I. du 10 rue Dugay Trouin, SCI Inno 92, STC Bio Manufacturing Inc., Samco Scientific (Monterrey) LLC, Samco Scientific LLC, Saroph Sweden AB, Schantz Road LLC, Seradyn Inc., Shanghai Life Technologies Biotechnology Co. Limited, Shanghai Thermo Fisher (C-I) Trading Co. Ltd, Shanghai Thermo Fisher (S) Trading Co. Ltd, Southern Trials (Pty) Ltd., Specialty (SMI) Inc., Spectra-Physics AB, Spectra-Physics Holdings Limited, Spectra-Physics Holdings USA LLC, Spectronex, Staten Island Cogeneration Corporation, Sterilin Limited, Stokes Bio Ltd., Sweden DIA (Sweden) AB, SwissAnalytic Group GmbH, Systems Manufacturing Corporation, TFLP LLC, TFS Breda B.V., TFS LLC, TFS Singapore HK Limited, TFSL Financing GP LLC, TFSL Senior GP Holdings 2 LLC, TK Partnership, TKA Wasseraufbereitungssysteme, TMOI Inc., TPI Real Estate Holdings LLC, TSP Holdings I LLC, TWX LLC, Technology Design Solutions Pty Ltd, Thermedics Detection de Argentina S.R.L, Thermo Allen Coding Limited, Thermo Asset Management Services Inc., Thermo BioAnalysis LLC, Thermo BioAnalysis Limited, Thermo BioSciences Holdings LLC, Thermo CIDTEC, Thermo CRS Holdings Ltd., Thermo CRS Ltd., Thermo Cambridge Limited, Thermo Cayman Holdings Ltd., Thermo Corporation, Thermo DMA Inc., Thermo Detection de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Thermo Dutch Holdings Limited Partnership, Thermo EGS Gauging LLC, Thermo Eberline Holdings I LLC, Thermo Eberline Holdings II LLC, Thermo Eberline LLC, Thermo Electron (Calgary) Limited, Thermo Electron (Chile) S.p.A., Thermo Electron (Karlsruhe) GmbH, Thermo Electron (Management Services) Limited, Thermo Electron (Proprietary) Limited, Thermo Electron A/S, Thermo Electron Australia Pty Limited, Thermo Electron Export Inc., Thermo Electron Holdings SAS, Thermo Electron Industries, Thermo Electron LED GmbH, Thermo Electron LED S.A.S., Thermo Electron Limited, Thermo Electron Manufacturing Limited, Thermo Electron Metallurgical Services Inc., Thermo Electron North America LLC, Thermo Electron Pension Trust GmbH, Thermo Electron Puerto Rico Inc., Thermo Electron SAS, Thermo Electron Scientific Instruments LLC, Thermo Electron Sweden AB, Thermo Electron Sweden Forvaltning AB, Thermo Electron Weighing & Inspection Limited, Thermo Elemental Limited, Thermo Environmental Instruments LLC, Thermo Fast U.K. Limited, Thermo Finland Holdings LLC, Thermo Finland Holdings MT1 B.V., Thermo Finland Holdings MT2 B.V., Thermo Finnigan LLC, Thermo Finnigan Limited, Thermo Fisher (CN) Luxembourg Holding S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher (CN) Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher (CN) Malta Holdings Limited, Thermo Fisher (CN-I) Luxembourg LLC, Thermo Fisher (CN-II) Luxembourg LLC, Thermo Fisher (Cayman) Holdings I Ltd., Thermo Fisher (Cayman) Holdings II Ltd., Thermo Fisher (Finland Holdings 2) LLC, Thermo Fisher (Finland Holdings) Limited Partnership, Thermo Fisher (Gibraltar) II Limited, Thermo Fisher (Gibraltar) Limited, Thermo Fisher (Heysham) Limited, Thermo Fisher (Kandel) GmbH, Thermo Fisher CHK Holding LLC, Thermo Fisher China Business Trust, Thermo Fisher China Business Trust II, Thermo Fisher Costa Rica Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada, Thermo Fisher Cyprus Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Detection Mexico LLC, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics (Ireland) Limited, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics AB, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics AG, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics AS, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Aps, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Austria GmbH, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics B.V., Thermo Fisher Diagnostics GmbH, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics K.K., Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Limited, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics NV, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics S.L.U., Thermo Fisher Diagnostics S.p.A. , Thermo Fisher Diagnostics SAS, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Thermo Fisher Eurobonds Ltd., Thermo Fisher Financial Services Inc., Thermo Fisher GP LLC, Thermo Fisher German Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Germany B.V., Thermo Fisher India Divestco Private Limited, Thermo Fisher India Holding B.V., Thermo Fisher Insurance Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Insurance Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Investments (Cayman) Ltd., Thermo Fisher Israel Ltd., Thermo Fisher Production et Services SAS, Thermo Fisher Project Cyprus LLC, Thermo Fisher Re Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Asheville) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Australia) C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Barbados) Holdings Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Breda) Holding BV, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Bremen) GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific (CN) Limited Partnership, Thermo Fisher Scientific (China) Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (China) Holding Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (China-HK) Holding Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (DE) Holding S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Ecublens) SARL, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance I) B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance I) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance II) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance III) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance III) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Fuji) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Holding II) B.V. & Co. KG, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Hong Kong) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (IVGN) B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (IVGN) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Johannesburg) (Proprietary) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Mexico City) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Milwaukee) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Mississauga) Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Monterrey) S. De R.L. De C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (NK) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN) Austria Holding GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN) UK LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN) UK Limited Partnership, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN-I) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN-II) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN1) UK Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Panama) B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Panama) Dutch LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Praha) s.r.o., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Real Estate 1) GmbH & Co. KG, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Real Estate 1) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Schweiz) AG, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Shanghai) Instruments Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Suzhou) Instruments Co. Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific AL-1 LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific AU C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific AU II Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific AU LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific AU Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Africa Proprietary Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Aquasensors LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Australia Pty Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific B.V.B.A., Thermo Fisher Scientific BHK (I) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific BHK (II) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics UAB, Thermo Fisher Scientific Beteiligungsverwaltungs GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Biosciences Corp., Thermo Fisher Scientific Brahms LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Brasil Instrumentos de Processo Ltda., Thermo Fisher Scientific Brasil Servicos de Logistica Ltda, Thermo Fisher Scientific C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cayman Investments LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Chemicals Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific China (C-I) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific China (S) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings I B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings II B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings III B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings IV B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Chromatography Holdings Aps, Thermo Fisher Scientific Chromatography Holdings S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus I C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus I Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus II C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus II Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus III C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus III Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus IV C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus V C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Denmark Senior Holdings ApS, Thermo Fisher Scientific Erie 1 Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Erie Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Erie Financing S.a r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific Europe GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC Finance C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC II B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific FSIR Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific FSIR Financing S.a.r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific FSUKHCO Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Falcon Senior Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Finance Company BV, Thermo Fisher Scientific GENEART GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Germany BV & Co. KG, Thermo Fisher Scientific GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific HR Services Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Holdings (Cayman) I, Thermo Fisher Scientific Holdings (Cayman) II , Thermo Fisher Scientific Holdings Europe Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific IT Services GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific India Holding LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific India Pvt Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments (Malta) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments (Sweden) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments (Sweden) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments Malta (Sweden Financing) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Invitrogen Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Japan Holdings I B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Japan Holdings II B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Japan Holdings III B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific K.K., Thermo Fisher Scientific Korea Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific LSI Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life CV GP Holdings II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life CV GP Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Enterprises C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Enterprises GP LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Financing (Cayman), Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Financing C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Financing Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Holdings I C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Holdings II C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Holdings III C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Holdings Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life International GP Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life International Holdings I C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life International Holdings II C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments GP LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments I S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments II S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments III S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments IV S.a.r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments Malta Holding I LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments Malta Holding II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments Malta I Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments Malta II Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments US Financing I LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments US Financing II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life NL Holdings GP LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Netherlands Holding C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior GP Holdings II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior GP Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior Holdings C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior Holdings II C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Switzerland Holdings GP LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Tech Korea Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Enterprise Holding Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investment I LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investment II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investment UK I Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investment UK II Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investments Holding LP, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Israel Investment I Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Israel Investment II Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Luxembourg Holding LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Enterprise Holdings S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg German Holdings S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Life Technologies UK Holding S.a r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Sweden Holdings I S.a r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Sweden Holdings II S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Venture Holdings I S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Venture Holdings II S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Thermo Fisher Scientific Malta Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Messtechnik GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Mexico City S. de R.L. de C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Middle East Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Milano Srl, Thermo Fisher Scientific NHK Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific New Zealand Holdings, Thermo Fisher Scientific New Zealand Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Norway Holdings AS, Thermo Fisher Scientific Norway US Investments LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Odyssey Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Odyssey Holdings Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Operating Company LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Oy, Thermo Fisher Scientific PN2 C.V, Thermo Fisher Scientific PN2 LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific PRB LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific PRB Malta Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific PRB S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Panama I Cayman Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Peru S.R.L., Thermo Fisher Scientific Pte. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific Re Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific SL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Senior Financing LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Senior Holdings Australia LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific South Africa Proprietary Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific SpA, Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra Malta Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra-Physics Holdings Luxembourg I S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra-Physics Holdings Luxembourg II S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra-Physics Investments Malta Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Switzerland Holdings C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific TR Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Taiwan Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific West Palm Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Wissenschaftliche Gerate GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Worldwide Investments (Cayman), Thermo Fisher Scientific eCommerce Solutions LLC , Thermo Fisher Senior Canada Holdings LLC, Thermo Foundation Inc., Thermo Gamma-Metrics Holdings Pty Ltd., Thermo Gamma-Metrics LLC, Thermo Gamma-Metrics Pty Ltd, Thermo Holding European Operations LLC, Thermo Hypersil Ltd, Thermo Hypersil-Keystone LLC, Thermo Informatics Asia Pacific Pty Ltd., Thermo Instrument Controls de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Thermo Kevex X-Ray LLC, Thermo Keytek LLC, Thermo LabSystems Inc., Thermo LabSystems S.A., Thermo Life Science International Trading (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Thermo Life Sciences AB, Thermo Luxembourg Holding S.a.r.l., Thermo Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Thermo MF Physics LLC, Thermo Measurement Ltd, Thermo Measuretech Canada Inc., Thermo Neslab LLC, Thermo Nicolet Limited, Thermo Onix Limited, Thermo Optek (Australia) Pty Ltd., Thermo Optek Limited, Thermo Optek S.A., Thermo Orion Inc., Thermo Portable Holdings LLC, Thermo Power Corporation, Thermo Process Instruments GP LLC, Thermo Process Instruments L.P., Thermo Projects Limited, Thermo Quest S.A., Thermo Radiometrie Limited, Thermo Ramsey Italia S.r.l., Thermo Ramsey LLC, Thermo Ramsey S.A., Thermo Re Ltd., Thermo Scientific Microbiology Pte Ltd., Thermo Scientific Microbiology Sdn Bhd, Thermo Scientific Portable Analytical Instruments Inc., Thermo Scientific Services Inc., Thermo Securities Corporation, Thermo Sentron Canada Inc., Thermo Sentron Limited, Thermo Shandon Inc., Thermo Shandon Limited, Thermo Suomi Holding B.V., Thermo TLH (UK) Limited, Thermo TLH L.P., Thermo Trace Pty Ltd., Thermo-Fisher Biochemical Product (Beijing) Co. Ltd., ThermoLase LLC, ThermoSpectra Limited, Trek Diagnostic Systems LLC, Trek Diagnostic Systems Ltd., Trek Holding Company II Ltd., Trek Holding Company Ltd., Trex Medical Corporation, USB Corporation, Union Lab Supplies Limited, United Diagnostics Inc., VG Systems Limited, Westover Scientific Inc., ZAO PE Biosystems, eBioscience GmbH, eBioscience Ltd, eBioscience SAS, and picoSpin LLC.

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Healthcare Trust of America, Inc. (NYSE: HTA) is the largest dedicated owner and operator of MOBs in the United States, comprising approximately 25.1 million square feet of GLA, with $7.4 billion invested primarily in MOBs. HTA provides real estate infrastructure for the integrated delivery of healthcare services in highly-desirable locations. Investments are targeted to build critical mass in 20 to 25 leading gateway markets that generally have leading university and medical institutions, which translates to superior demographics, high-quality graduates, intellectual talent and job growth. The strategic markets HTA invests in support a strong, long-term demand for quality medical office space. HTA utilizes an integrated asset management platform consisting of on-site leasing, property management, engineering and building services, and development capabilities to create complete, state of the art facilities in each market. This drives efficiencies, strong tenant and health system relationships, and strategic partnerships that result in high levels of tenant retention, rental growth and long-term value creation. Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, HTA has developed a national brand with dedicated relationships at the local level. Founded in 2006 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2012, HTA has produced attractive returns for its stockholders that have outperformed the US REIT index.
The discussion of last weeks post about American Cheese led me to this article on NPR.

Cheese was once colored bright orange to falsely imply it had lots of yellow/orange pigmented cream in it, a sign of quality several centuries ago. The cream had been skimmed, for sale elsewhere, so the cheese mongers colored the cheese.

Greed is all natural, right?

Via NPR:
The following companies are subsidiares of SAP: Abakus, Abakus Europe Limited, Abakus Ukraine Limited Liability Company, Adatfeldolgozasban Informatikai Kft., Altiscale, Ambin Properties Proprietary Limited, AppGyver, Ariba, Ariba Czech s.r.o., Ariba Inc. Palo Alto, Ariba India Private Limited, Ariba International, Ariba International Holdings, Ariba International Singapore Pte Ltd, Ariba Slovak Republic s.r.o., Ariba Software Technology Services (Shanghai) Co., Ariba Technologies India Private Limited, Ariba Technologies Netherlands B.V., Beijing Zhang Zhong Hu Dong Information Technology, Business Objects, Business Objects Holding B.V., Business Objects Option LLC, Business Objects Software Limited, CNQR Operations Mexico S. de. R.L. de. C.V., Callidus Software, CallidusCloud, Christie Partners Holding C.V., Clear Standards, ClearTrip Inc., ClearTrip Inc. (Mauritius), Cleartrip MEA FZ LLC, Cleartrip Private Limited, Coghead, ConTgo Consulting Limited, ConTgo Pty. Ltd., Concur (Austria) GmbH, Concur (Canada), Concur (France) SAS, Concur (Germany) GmbH, Concur (Japan) Ltd., Concur (New Zealand) Limited, Concur (Philippines) Inc., Concur (Switzerland) GmbH, Concur Czech (s.r.o.), Concur Holdings (France) SAS, Concur Holdings (Netherlands) B.V., Concur Technologies (Australia) Pty. Limited, Concur Technologies (Hong Kong) Limited, Concur Technologies (India) Private Limited, Concur Technologies (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Concur Technologies (UK) Limited, Concur Technologies Inc. Bellevue, Contextor, Coresystems, Crystal Decisions (Ireland) Limited, Crystal Decisions Holdings Limited, Crystal Decisions UK Limited, Emarsys, EssCubed Procurement Pty. Ltd., Extended Systems, Factory Logic, Fedem Technology AS, Fieldglass Europe Limited, Financial Fusion, FreeMarkets Ltda., Frictionless Commerce, Gigya, Gigya Australia Pty Ltd, Gigya Ltd., Gigya UK Ltd, GlobalExpense Limited, Highdeal, Hipmunk, Hybris (US) Corp., Hybris GmbH, Inxight Federal Systems Group, KXEN, Khimetrics, LLC "SAP Labs", LLC "SAP Ukraine", LLC SAP CIS, MaXware, Merlin Systems Oy, Multiposting Sp.z o.o., Nihon Ariba K.K., OpTier, OutlookSoft, OutlookSoft Deutschland GmbH, PLAT.ONE, PT SAP Indonesia, PT Sybase 365 Indonesia, Pilot Software Inc., Plat.One Inc., Plat.One Lab Srl, Plateau Systems LLC, Quadrem Africa Pty. 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Xylem Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and servicing of engineered products and solutions for the water and wastewater applications in the United States, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Water Infrastructure, Applied Water, and Measurement & Control Solutions. The Water Infrastructure segment offers various products, including water, storm water, and wastewater pumps; controls and systems; filtration, disinfection, and biological treatment equipment; and mobile dewatering equipment under the Flygt, Godwin, Wedeco, Sanitaire, Leopold, Wedeco, and Xylem Vue brand names for the transportation and treatment of water. The Applied Water segment provides pumps, valves, heat exchangers, controls, and dispensing equipment systems under the Goulds Water Technology, Bell & Gossett, A-C Fire Pump, Standard Xchange, Lowara, Jabsco, Xylem Vue and Flojet brand names for residential and commercial building services, and industrial water applications. The Measurement & Control Solutions segment provides smart meters, networked communication devices, and measurement and control technologies, as well as critical infrastructure technologies. It also offers software and services, including cloud-based analytics, remote monitoring and data management, leak detection, condition assessment, asset management, and pressure monitoring solutions, as well as testing equipment and managed services. This segment sells its products under the Pure, Sensus, Smith Blair, WTW, Xylem Vue, and YSI brand names. The company markets and sells its products through a network of direct sales force, resellers, distributors, and value-added solution providers. Xylem Inc. was formerly known as ITT WCO, Inc. and changed its name to Xylem Inc. in May 2011. The company. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Rye Brook, New York.
47 grackles fell from the heavens on the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston this weekend, with at least 32 dead. Two cats who ate the remains also ran out of lives.

City officials have sent the dead grackles, which are a type of songbird that travels in flocks, to Tufts University to help determine the cause of death. It is currently unclear whether the birds perished due to a virus, some sort of environmental pollution or intentional poisoning. Test results are expected next week.

"We don't know what is going on," John Meaney of the city of Boston's Inspectional Services told NECN. "So we are investigating all avenues."

Local resident Willien Pugh told the Boston Herald that his cat Sally B was found dying on the back porch as deceased birds fell from the sky.

"We took the cat from outside and we thought it was a girl so we named it Sally  then when we took it to the vet, we found out it was a boy, so we started calling her Sally B," Pugh said. "Real good cat."


Sean Sullivan was fired from his police job in Oregon in 2004 for sexual contact with a 10 year old girl; in 2005, Cedar Vale, KS hired him to be their police chief, where he was accused of having sexual contact with another young girl, and eventually convicted of burglary and criminal conspiracy  he's currently doing time in a Washington state prison for meth possession and identity theft.



Small town police departments routinely hire dirty cops because they don't bother doing background checks (they don't even run potential officers' fingerprints!), nor do they check applicants' references. Repeat-offender cops who've wandered from town to town, getting fired and hired, are a recurring theme in police corruption in towns like Ferguson, MO.

For example, Eddie Boyd III was fired from the St Louis cops for pistol-whipping a 12-year-old girl, falsifying a report and striking another child in the face "with his gun or handcuffs," before getting new police jobs, first in St Ann, MO, and then in Ferguson. He's currently being sued by a Ferguson woman who says he arrested her when she asked his name during a traffic stop.

Other professions track bad actors with national databases of sanctioned practitioners: health care professionals who've got into trouble are registered with the National Practitioner Data Bank, which can be easily consulted during the hiring process.

But police unions have resisted any attempt to create a comparable database of bad cops. The International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training maintains a partial list, but claim to lack the funds to create a comprehensive list that could weed out sociopaths and criminals who want a badge (the DoJ once gave the database $200K, but withdrew funding and will not comment on why).

Meanwhile, big city police departments squander money doing effective background checks that could be rationalized and improved with a bad cops database (these big cities also throw money away with unscientific polygraph tests for potential applicants).



Mr. Sullivan, who became the police chief in Cedar Vale, Kan., after being convicted on a harassment charge for kissing a 10-year-old girl, had been the second-highest-ranking officer in Coquille, Ore., before he was forced to resign in November 2004. While prosecutors suggested that he had been "grooming" the girl for a sexual relationship, he avoided a jail sentence. But in August 2005, not long after an Oregon judge barred Mr. Sullivan from working as a police officer, the Cedar Vale Police Department hired him. Mr. Sullivan had not told anyone about his past, local officials said. City officials involved in his hiring no longer work for Cedar Vale.

Cast-Out Police Officers Are Often Hired in Other Cities

[Timothy Williams/NYT]





(via Naked Capitalism)


Donald Trump did not slam the International Paralympic Committee's decision to bar Russian athletes from the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, and the BBC never quoted him as saying, "The decision to bar Russian Paralympics athletes was made by complete retards. These people are the real cripples." But virtually every news outlet in Russia ran a story saying both things were true, after Oppps.ru (The Optimist) ran a completely false story to that effect.



This is par for the course. Oppps.ru routinely invents fake news stories which are then routinely picked up by mainstream Russian online media, like Interfax, TASS, or RIA, and then vaulted to the top of Yandex's news aggregator. Because "a lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on," these fake stories go uncorrected, or are corrected late and in small, unnoticeable ways. By the time the story has been debunked, Oppps.ru has usually deleted it, erasing it from the historic record.

Alexey Kovalev's interview with Oppps.ru's owner doesn't shed much light on the motivation here, apart from generalized sociopathy.



: I think each individual should learn independently to think and analyze for themselves, and not believe everything they read on the internets [sic]. Alexey: Here I agree with you 100 percent. I'm giving you two thumbs up. : That's why you need to check and read two sides [to every story], and read in-between. That's basically it. :) :) We think fake news is necessary precisely so that people don't forget how to think for themselves. Alexey: I agree completely with you about goals, but I'm not sure I can support the means. All the garbage in today's information sphere is more than enough. : The world's leading mass media outlets are divisive. Nowhere in the world will you find a newspaper or a magazine where they write the truth 100% of the time.



How Fake Stories Reported in Russia's News Media Regularly Fool Everyone

[Alexey Kovalev/Global Voices]
 Central Library hosts the first part of a two-part lecture series with the screening of the film Birth of a Nation, a film about Nat Turner, at 6 p.m. Thursday at 201 E. Market St. (434) 979-7151.

 Fralin Museum of Art hosts Rebecca Schoenthal presenting Andy Warhol: Icons from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday. Kristie Couser presents The Great War: Printmakers of World War 1 from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts from 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday. 155 Rugby Road. (434) 924-3592.

 Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy observes UVa Constitution Day by hosting William H. Webster, chair of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, speaking about the balancing of individual rights and public safety at noon Friday at Garrett Hall on UVa Grounds. (434) 924-0812.

 James Madison Museum of Orange County Heritage presents Ben Franklin & James Madisons Constitution from 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday. 129 Caroline St. in Orange. thejamesmadisonmuseum.net. (540) 672-1776.

 Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Museum hosts Henry F. Skerritt presenting Making Contact: Historical Critique in Gabriel Maralngurras Contact Paintings at 6 p.m. Thursday in Brooks Hall Commons on UVa Grounds (434) 244-0234.

 Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center hosts Jane Sale Henley, a descendent of the Lewis family, presenting Meriwether Lewiss Tracks in Albemarle County from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday. Darden Towe Park. (434) 979-2425.

 The Lodge at Old Trail Third Thursday lecture series hosts Paul Cantrell, chair of the Albemarle Blue Ridge Heritage Project, presenting Honoring Albemarle Residents Displaced to Create Shenandoah National Park at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at 330 Claremont Lane in Crozet. Reservations are encouraged at (434) 823-9100.

 Miller Center offers the American Forum with Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter Onuf presenting Thomas Jefferson  Man of Profound Contradictions at 11 a.m. Wednesday at 2201 Old Ivy Road. (434) 924-7236.

 Senior Statesmen of Virginia hosts Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor at Slate magazine, presenting The Supreme Court: What happened last term; whats likely to happen this term from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Senior Center at 1180 Pepsi Place. (434) 974-7756.

 Sierra Club hosts climate scientist Michael Mann speaking about his new book, The Madhouse Effect, at 6 p.m. Thursday in Charlottesville City Council Chambers. Barak Brashear will present Enjoying & Protecting Our Natural Areas, an introduction to the skills and ethics of Leave No Trace, at 7 p.m. Sept. 21 in the downstairs meeting room of St. Mark Lutheran Church at 100 Alderman Road. (434) 973-0373.

 Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello holds the Capstone Public Summit on Race and the Legacy of Slavery, as part of the National Endowment for the Humanities 50th Anniversary Celebration, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday on the West Lawn of Monticello. Details and list of speakers are available at monticello.org/NEH. (434) 984-9800.

 United Nations Association  Blue Ridge Chapter hosts Robert Toplin speaking on the connection between possible solutions for current world refugees and Herbert Hoovers solutions as director of food relief before and after World War I at 3 p.m. Sunday at Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church at 717 Rugby Road. Free. (434) 409-0264.

 Virginia Foundation for the Humanities hosts panel discussions: The Humanities in the Public Square, featuring William Bro Adams, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in Room 101 of Nau Hall on UVa Grounds; and Farming the Earth, Cultivating Humanity with Alice Waters, Joel Salatin, Davie Nelson and Nikki Silva from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Friday at the Paramount Theater. Both events are part of the Human/Ties 50th anniversary celebration of the National Endowment for the Humanities. A complete list of events and lectures is available at humanities2016.com. (434) 924-3296.
The best way to understand people different from you is to get to know them and sharing lunch is a good place to start.

Some members of the Charlottesville Police Department will sit down for lunch today with students at Burnley Moran, Clark and Johnson elementary schools in Charlottesville as a way to get to know the students and for the students to get to know them.

The Lunch with a Cop program was presented to police officials by a Burnley Moran teacher, police said.

[Its] one that we thought was a great idea to continue our efforts in reaching out to area youth, said Lt. Steve Upman.

Police will join students for lunch at other elementary schools in the city in October and November and start the program all over after the winter break, Upman said.

It is our hope that these events will help our department continue our efforts with relational policing by building relationships with youth who live in our community, he said.
Emma Goldman was dubbed "one of the most dangerous women in America" by J. Edgar Hoover. But that's just the beginning of a legendary life of keen insight, uncompromising anarchism, and burned bridges.

She was horrified by the tragic story of several labor activists who were executed in Chicago, and found herself drawn to the labor movement and eventually to anarchism. Contrary to what the word might suggest, Goldman's philosophy was not about disorder and chaos. It was about personal freedom and rejecting institutions she believed were repressive: government, religion, war, business interests, and even marriage.

Although she did end up marrying several times out of convenience or for citizenship, Goldman rejected traditional notions of marriage, and chose never to have to children.

Goldman quickly became one of the most famous radical figures in America, whose power with words was sometimes referred to as a "sledgehammer." She traveled across the country speaking so passionately that the famed reporter Nellie Bly would dub her a "little Joan of Arc."
Piedmont Greens to protest in Washington for inclusive debates

Local residents associated with the Culpeper-based Piedmont Green Party are traveling to Washington, D.C. Wednesday to join the Campaign for Open Debates to protest for open presidential debates, according to a news release.

Piedmont Green Party co-chairwoman Elizabeth Melson will lead a delegation comprised mostly of members from Culpeper, Fauquier and Spotsylvania counties to the Commission on Presidential Debates headquarters at M Street and New Hampshire Ave. The protest is slated to begin at 4:30 p.m.

Protestors are asking that debates be opened up to all candidates who will be on enough state ballots to secure the electoral votes to win.

"Democracy is about people participation. Everyone deserves to know the opinions and platforms of the choices we have on Election Day, Melson said. "We are heading to DC to stand up for open debates, to make our voices heard that we deserve to hear from all electable candidates."

Candidate meet-and-greet

The Culpeper County Democratic Committee hosts a barbeque and opportunity to meet 7th District Congressional Candidate Eileen Bedell from 5 to 8 p.m. Sept. 18 at 11373 Fox Hill Road in Culpeper. Admission of $25 per person includes BBQ meats, sides, desserts and beverages. Purchase tickets at http://tiny.cc/CulpeperBBQ. For information or to RSVP, email leonore@bedellforvirginia.com or call 703/599-4878. Culpeperdemocrats.org.

Back to Church Celebration

Hopewell United Methodist Church in Lignum hosts a Back To Church celebration at 11:15 a.m. Sept. 18 to celebrate the age-old tradition of Christians gathering for worship. Participating congregations are making an extra effort to invite friends and neighbors to come back to church, even if theyve never been to church before at all. Following the service there will be an afternoon of food, fellowship, and fun featuring a fried chicken picnic, hay rides and games for kids and grown-ups. Casual dress is welcome for the service, come as you are.

The Rev. Stan Mulford, pastor of the East Culpeper Charge, which includes Hopewell United Methodist, and the whole congregation invites the community to gather for worship and for an afternoon of activities following the service that are open to all. The church is located off of Route 3, half-mile from the Lignum Post Office, at 23557 Lignum Road. For information, call 540/399-1853.

Culpeper County Parks & Recreation

Fall Activities are still open for registration. First Aid & CPR classes, Cooking Classes, Arts & Crafts, Zumba Toning, Tai Chi, Karate, and many more are now available for registration by calling 540/727-3412 or online at CulpeperRecreation.com.

The department is also offering a free Recreation Gym for fourth through ninth graders on Saturdays 10 a.m. to noon beginning Sept. 24 through Oct. 15. Pre-registration is required, no drop-ins will be accepted. Register in person or by phone at 540/727-3412 or 155 W. Davis Street Suite 100.

Human Services Board retreat

The Culpeper County Human Services Board, Culpeper Social Services Board and Head Start Board will hold their annual board retreat from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 21 &22 in the conference room at Virginia Regional Transit, 1099 Brandy Knoll Ct.

The meeting is being held at a facility believed to be accessible to persons with disabilities. Any person with questions on the accessibility should contact Doris Clatterbuck, Secretary to DSS Board, at 540/ 727-0372 ext 360. Persons needing interpreter services for the hearing impaired and / or vision impairments must notify Ms. Clatterbuck no later than September 15. The public is invited to attend.

Culpeper Young Lives volunteers, mentors needed

Serving area pregnant teens and young moms, Culpeper Young Lives is seeking mentors, committee members and childcare volunteers. The Christian organization is seeking women who love God to share their lives with member teens each week, encouraging them and leading them.

Culpeper Young Lives will be hosting an Infant CPR/First Aid class in the fall for childcare volunteers and a banquet at 4 p.m. Sept. 25 at the Daniel Technology Center in Culpeper. The nonprofit organization is currently praying for 24 teens who are pregnant or parenting in the area. To volunteer or for information, contact ylives.culpeper@gmail.com or 540/219-6768.

Shakespeare on stage in Little Washington

The Little Washington Theatre in Rappahannock County and the Cambridge American Stage Tour present Shakespeares As You Like It at 8 p.m. on Sept. 17 and 3 p.m. on Sept. 18. Director Marthe De Ferrer leads a cast of players with the international student touring company established in 2000 under the patronage of Dame Judi Dench. Adults $25, 17 and younger $10. The theater is located at 291 Gay Steet in the picturesque town of Little Washington. info@littlewashingtontheatre.com or 540/675-1253.

Free movie and popcorn

The Marshall Community Center screens Lilo & Stitch at 7:30 p.m. Friday at its facility at 4133-A Rectortown Rd. in Marshall. A huge screen and big sound make this animated family friendly movie sure to delight the entire family. Free popped-on-premises popcorn and soft drinks too. Donations for the Marshall Community Center are welcome. 540/422-8580.

Andy and Judy at the Culpeper Library

The Culpeper County is hosting a free concert featuring Andy and Judy at 7 p.m. Sept. 24. Music in the Library?? Yes!! Singing together since 2009, the two performers are native New Englanders who tour throughout the Midwest and East coast states. Often they ask the audience to participate in sing-a-longs as they perform old favorites from John Prine, Bob Dylan, and Peter, Paul, and Mary, but they also introduce their own compelling music and lyrics. Their songwriting style has emerged from old-time traditional and folk music and includes country, gospel, and pop music influences.

Free training to enter the job market

Getting ready to earn some money during the Christmas holidays? Getting ready to go into the workplace? Need some help crafting a resume? How about some interview skills? Learn how to position yourself for the job market at the Culpeper County Library at 4 p.m. Sept. 21 and Sept. 28.

Ann Smoot, previous educator and human resources officer will offer tips, tricks and practice to get yourself ready for your first job. Sign-up at the Library today by calling 540-825-8691 and ask for the Youth Services desk.

Stone Soup Jobs Skills Training Program

The Stone Soup Job Skills Training Program is designed to help individuals develop skills that can help them gain entry into the foodservice workforce. The program consists of six, two-hour sessions at the Culpeper Baptist Church. The dates are September 21, 28, October 5, 12, 19 and 26. The training sessions are free and open for residents 18 years and older.

For more information or to register, call the Culpeper Extension Office at 540/727-3435.

NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet

The Culpeper Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is now generating support and selling tickets for the 35th Annual Freedom Fund Banquet to be held on Oct. 1 at noon at Peppers Grill in Culpeper.

Support of the banquet provides funding for four $500 college scholarships given to high school seniors in the Culpeper, Madison and Rapahannock areas. Various levels of support are available by advertising in the banquet journal. Tickets to the banquet are $50. NaacpCulpeper.com.
Mike Pence, the Republican vice presidential nominee, returned to Virginia on Saturday and rebuked Hillary Clinton for saying that you could put half of Donald Trump's supporters into "a basket of deplorables."

The Democratic presidential nominee made the comment on Friday night at a fundraiser in New York City. On Saturday Clinton issued a statement in which she tempered the remark. "Last night I was 'grossly generalistic' and that's never a good idea," Clinton said. "I regret saying 'half' - that was wrong."

Pence pounced on Clinton's comment during his appearance Saturday at the Liberty Farm Festival in Fauquier County.

"Hillary, I've got news for you," the Indiana governor said, noting that that he has met with the GOP presidential nominee's supporters in big cities and small towns across the country.

"They're good, hard-working Americans," Pence said. "They're factory workers and coal miners. They're farmers and business owners. They're law enforcement officers and veterans. They're students and they're seniors. They're moms and they're dads.

"They're people who believe in freedom and in the God-given liberties enshrined in our constitution," he added.

"Hillary, they aren't a basket of anything," Pence said. "They are Americans and they all deserve your support."

Pence also responded to Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine's criticism on Friday at Old Dominion University in Norfolk. The senator from Virginia had blasted Trump for asserting that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a strong leader with high approval in his country. Kaine also criticized Pence for saying that Putin is arguably a better leader for his country than President Barack Obama is for the United States.

"Tim, when Donald Trump and I said that the small and bullying president of Russia was a strong leader on the world stage, that wasn't an endorsement of Vladimir Putin," Pence said. He said it was an indictment of "weak and feckless" U.S. leadership on the world stage.

A number of 2017 GOP hopefuls for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general also spoke at the Fauquier event, hosted by Martha Boneta, a farmer and property rights advocate.

State Senator Bryce Reeves, R-Spotsylvania, and Rep. Dave Brat, R-Richmond, were both in attendance.
A group of students was standing in front of the Mark Rothko painting taking notes as the museum guide talked about the artists life and his inspirations. I would have walked past the crowd had the curator not suddenly dropped one phrase, As we all know, minimalism in art was invented in the West. I was admiring Rothkos use of vermilion red, an intense hue that made me think of Indian kumkum (the crimson powder Hindu women use to draw a mark on their foreheads) and Russian lacquers, when the West claimed Minimalism.

Leaving aside the absurdity of referring to Rothko as a minimalista label he would have rejected outright, its senseless to separate artistic achievements by arbitrary parameters. To see why, one should leave the halls devoted to 20th century art and walk through, say, the expositions usually housed in the Eastern wings. If the museum in question is the Met in New York, then the Department of Islamic Art is where I would take you.

We will walk with nary a glance at the lacy Mughal stone screens and the gilded albums decorated by Ottomans calligrapherswe can return to admire them laterand stop in front of one of my favorite objects in the museum. Its a white bowl with a black border. The glaze is translucent and the few cracks on its smooth surface only enhance the whiteness of the earthenware. The decoration is as simple as it can beletters, forming into words.

The bowl comes from Nishapur, a city in northeastern Iran. In the 10th century when a craftsman decorated it, Nishapur was one of the largest cities in the world, numbering around 1.7 million people. Elsewhere, the Chinese were inventing playing cards. The Umayyads at Cordoba Spain declared themselves emirs and set about creating a splendid court to make their archrivals, the Abbasids, envious. In Baghdad, Ibn al-Nadim compiled Kitab al-Fihrist, an index of the books of all nations, Arabs and non-Arabs alike, which are extant in the Arabic language and script, on every branch of knowledge. Kyivan Prince Vladimir brought Christianity to his land and ordered the old Slavic gods to be thrown into the Dnieper. The Europeans switched to Arabic numerals. Meanwhile, the artisan in Nishapur threw a lump of clay on the potters wheel.

We admire the way the letters frame the edge of the bowl and the striking combination of white and black. It is, I dare say, quite minimalist in its bold shape and design. I wont proceed to argue that minimalism is an Eastern concept, mostly because I dont find such divisions interesting, especially when it comes to abstract concepts. People devise artistic solutions in a variety of ways, from the visually complexthe Belgian medieval tapestriesto the strikingly simplethe austere beauty of the wooden sculptures from the same era.

Moreover, people traveled and ideas spread. The East vs West division might be useful to the political propagandists and their epigones, but life, fortunately, is much less neatly ordered. Hokusai, the master behind one of the most renowned images in art, the Great Wave off Kanagawa, was inspired by the European paintings that reached Japan with the opening of the Tokugawa shogunate in the 19th century. In turn, his Great Wave swept over European Art Nouveau and sent ripples through Impressionism and Cubism. Its flotsam continues to surface as the Great Wave decorates mugs and mousepads. Who invented what in that case?

Instead of looking for simple answers, let us once again turn to the white Nishapuri bowl. The reason why the popularity of Nishapurs wares didnt last beyond the Middle Ages is that in the 13th century Genghis Han ordered the slaughter of the whole city as a punishment for the murder of his daughters husband. The pottery and poetrythe famous Sufi poet, Farid ud-Din known as the Attar (Perfumer) of Nishapur wrote his best work in this cosmopolitan citywere no more. But when the artisan was making our bowl, Nishapur was in its golden age and concerns were more pragmatic. The description on the rim reads,Planning before work protects you from regret. It then goes on to wish good luck and well-being.

Photography by Bois de Jasmin. The white Nishapuri bowl, an example of the Samanid pottery style, is on view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 450
*M*ake what you will of this. In the modern era of partisan polarization, which can be dated back to the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, only the presid...
A new Hub for nuclear energy that will become a leading centre in the South West for academic research, education and innovation will be officially opened at the University of Bristol today, Monday 12 September.

Building on the success of the Bristol-Oxford Nuclear Research Centre (NRC), the South West Nuclear Hub will be open to both the UK and international nuclear energy community and offer a research network that supports the safe operation of current and future generation nuclear systems in the UK and around the world.

Professor Tom Scott, co-director of the South West Nuclear Hub at the University of Bristol, said: Our objective is for the Hub to become an internationally recognised centre for nuclear research and education. It will bring academic and industrial expertise together in an exciting multidisciplinary environment to address some of the major engineering, scientific and societal challenges related to civil nuclear power generation.

Through a Masters teaching programme, the Hub will deliver the skills required by the next generation of the UKs nuclear plant operators, regulators and supply chain.

The Hubs building has been named after the late Professor David Smith, who was instrumental in establishing the NRC and the Bristol nuclear research community.

Evolving from the NRC, which was formed in partnership with the University of Oxford in 2011, the Hub project will strengthen nuclear energy related research and teaching in the region and support the delivery of the Governments strategy on low-carbon, secure energy. Whilst the Hub has been founded by the NRC, its membership has expanded to include other regional universities and industrial partners, acting as a link for co-ordination and consolidation of activities and investment.

The Hub will build partnerships between academia, industry and government, both nationally and internationally, to develop research and education for the UKs nuclear future.

It will provide innovative underpinning science, engineering solutions and technologies that have a positive impact on the economy and society by contributing to energy safety and security, particularly in the areas of next generation nuclear technologies as well as decommissioning and waste management.

Strong support has been received from leading industrial stakeholders including: EDF Energy, the EDF Group, Areva, Sellafield Ltd and Horizon Nuclear Power. Governmental organisations and agencies such as the National Nuclear Laboratory, Culham Centre for Fusion Energy and the Local Enterprise Partnerships and Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) have also provided support.
Entertainment / Music

by Mkhululi Ncube/Bongani Ndlovu

It's not easy for sons of prominent musicians to divorce themselves from their parents' illustrious careers when they try to venture into the field, but Ndux Junior, son of the late legendary musician Ndux Malax has mastered the art and grown to be his own man.When Ndux Junior (real name Witness Malaba) took over his father's (Nduna Malaba) rich musical legacy, many would have dismissed him as a novice who had no future, one who would not be able to follow what his father had achieved.After his father's death on March 6, 1996, the band went into a hiatus with some members such as Morgan "Moki" Ncube, Khumbula Mhlanga, and Sidney Dube (both late) forming Mokis Connection.When Ndux Junior came of age in 2006, together with his late father's lead bass guitarist Fredrick Ndlovu, they rebranded Ndux Malax's band Tahangana to Batshele Brothers.Ndux Junior has over the years managed to carve out his own career and have his distinct sound as he has stepped out of his father's shadow to become a musician in his own right."The generation that I play for and the generation that my father played for are different and unique in terms of what they want. That's the only change that I've done to my music," said Ndux Junior.The former Air Force of Zimbabwe member said he mastered the art of playing the lead guitar over the years."Teaching myself to play the lead guitar has made it easy for me to adjust my music to the sound that I want without being controlled by anyone. I started changing my sound on my fifth album after I'd a talk with university lecturers who were critiquing my music."When Ndux Junior started his career in 2007 with the album Sengikhona, announcing his arrival in the industry, he had more of his father's fast paced beat characterised by a distinct 'talking' lead guitar with the trade mark Batshele! chant which he sometimes overused in his songs.But listening to his recent album 'Uthando Luyingozi', one can not dispute that Ndux Junior has found his mark as he no more relies much on the talking guitar and even coming up with his own chant Shakie! One has to listen to the album to appreciate the good things that he has done with the guitar."On this album I took my time to perfect it and this was helped by the fact that I've been with my band members for more than five years. I give them the platform to give me their views because we're working for one company," said Ndux Junior.The Kezi-born musician said fans loved the new sound and encouraged them to produce more."Fans have greatly appreciated the hard work we put on the album which addresses various issues that affect them daily. They're urging us to continue in this rich vein of churning out good music that has a social message," said the pint-sized musician. The growth has however not detached him from his father's social commentary and humour which seems to be the mainstay of the Malabas brand of music."The arts are a Malaba family talent. It's not confined to one person as my father learnt it from my grandfather and so on. We've other Malaba family members who're good at playing the Kalanga traditional music and are very popular in Kezi. They are called the Pamanis," said Ndux Junior.The song Satanism off the album Uthando Luyingozi castigates modern day prophets who are in the news for raping and swindling congregates of their money. Using humour, Ndux Junior mocks some churches' names and he throws his own such as Madlabuzane Ministries International, Financial Power Ministries, Jesus is Great Financial Ministries Ambassadors and Murambatsvina International Ambassadors."An idea comes to mind and after that I do a lot of research on the idea to come up with lyrics for the songs. I observe everything in society like on the song Satanism I see people flocking to churches hoping for positive things. But, when they get there pastors and prophets con them," said Ndux Junior.Looking at the amount of bands that sing Rhumba music in the Matabeleland region which are well over 100, Ndux Junior had to reinvent himself in order to remain relevant in the industry, because of the stiff competition.
The next-gen KTM 390 Duke will be launched in the Indian market sometime next year. However, a fully camouflaged test mule has been spied testing in the country. KTM will officially showcase the bike at the upcoming EICMA show in Milan. The spotted test mule suggests that the company is conducting its final test runs.

You can see in the pictures and the video of the spied motorcycle that the 2017 KTM 390 Duke will look completely different from the existing model. Moreover, the new version will also get a side-slung exhaust muffler similar to the European-spec 2016 KTM RC 390 instead of the existing Duke's underbelly unit.

Powering the 2017 Duke 390 will be the same single-cylinder, liquid-cooled, 373cc engine that powers the existing model. However, the company will upgrade the motor to meet Euro-4 norms and stricter noise standards. As per the speculations, the bike could also get ride-by-wire technology and riding modes.

Coming back to the styling and design of the upcoming 2017 Duke 390, it looks sleeker and sharper as compared to the current generation. The instrument cluster is relocated and mounted directly on the handlebar instead of on the headlamp unit. The new LED headlight also ditches the minor fairing. Along with the fuel tank and tank cowls, the seat has also been redesigned and it looks more comfortable now, especially on the pillion side. The new radiator shrouds are also sharper, complementing the new tank flaps. The new tail lamp looks bigger and the rear mudguard also looks redesigned.

We know that BMW is going to launch the G 310 R in India soon and Yamaha is also ready to bring in the MT-03. So, we can say that the Austrian bike maker is preparing its most successful player to compete in the upcoming challenge.

Source: BikeDekho.com
Of these state banks are the most at risk, given their poor capital buffers and weak prospects for raising capital through market channels says Fitch India Ratings.

Mumbai: Indian banks would require around $90 billion (Rs 6 lakh crore) in new capital (using FYE16 financials) by 2019 to meet Basel III standards and this is likely to put almost half of Indian banks in danger of breaching capital triggers.

Of these state banks are the most at risk, given their poor capital buffers and weak prospects for raising capital through market channels says Fitch India Ratings.

The state banks account for about 80 per cent of the total requirement largely by 2018 and the rest by 2019. The government has already earmarked Rs 70,000 crore ($10.4bn) for capital injections into state banks through to FYE19, and it announced in July that `22,900 crore bn ($3.4bn) was being front-loaded. But the capital injections may not be sufficient to address their ongoing capital needs to meet required provisioning and to support balance sheet growth.

The minimum total capital adequacy ratio (CAR) is a prerequisite for payment of coupons on both legacy and Basel III perpetual debt capital instruments.

Therefore, the risk that capital triggers at some state banks could be breached will rise as minimum capital requirements progressively increase.

To improve market access for funds, Fitch believes more capital will be needed from the government. Fitch Ratings analysis of 27 Indian banks with outstanding hybrid capital instruments indicates that at end-June 2016, the total CAR for 11 banks was at or lower than the minimum of 11.5 per cent required by FY19. Of these, six did not have enough capital to meet the minimum required by FYE17.
However, in a contrasting signal, the governments net indirect tax collections in the April-August period grew by 27.5 per cent hinting at improving financial health of the corporate sector.

New Delhi: Indias industrial production contracted by 2.4 per cent in July due to poor show by manufacturing sector and capital goods. This is the worst performance in industrial production in last eight months. However, in a contrasting signal, the governments net indirect tax collections in the April-August period grew by 27.5 per cent hinting at improving financial health of the corporate sector. The indirect tax collection stands at Rs 3.36 lakh crore on the back of a surge in excise collections.

While for a layman two macroeconomic indicators showing completely different pictures may be a little puzzling, experts blame IIPs constituent sectors for giving wrong analysis. Whats happening is that a large number of activities which are new to the economy and are growing rapidly are not tracked by IIP, said Sunil Kumar Sinha, principal economist, India Ratings and Research, explaining the reason for such variance.

For example, smartphones are not tracked by IIP. This also came up in the GDP data where manufacturing for the first quarter (April-June) grew by 9.1 per cent but at the same point IIP came at just 0.6 per cent. This problem has again shown up now as the indirect tax collection has grown by 27 per cent between April to August but IIP has not captured it, added Mr Sinha.

Reacting to the industrial growth, economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das said: It (contraction in industrial production) is certainly a matter of concern, but let us also remember that the IIP data are a sample of 400 companies. So, they are not truly reflective of the state of affairs.
News / National

by Noah Pito

National Assembly members in Mashonaland West Province have hailed the coming of a regional court to Karoi saying the move will expedite justice delivery particularly to people in Hurungwe and Kariba, who currently endure travelling long distances to the Chinhoyi Regional Court. A regional court is the highest level court presided over by a magistrate and deals with serious criminal cases including rape, robbery and attempted murder.Construction of the court  now almost complete  is being funded by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA). Chief Magistrate Mr Mishrod Guvamombe said the decentralisation will help shorten distances travelled by people in Karoi, Hurungwe and Kariba thereby improving access to justice by court users.Hurungwe East Member of Parliament Sarah Mahoka said the coming of the court to Karoi was welcome since the trial of cases like rape would be done using fresh evidence. "The coming of this court means that the honeymoon is over for rapists. Trials will be done when evidence would still be fresh. This is what we have been calling for all along," she said.Hurungwe North MP Reuben Marumahoko hailed the development saying because of the long distance between places like Kariba and Chinhoyi some witnesses ended up defaulting court hearings because of lack of cash thereby weakening some cases against offenders.He also added that because of the slow pace at which new cases were dealt with at the Chinhoyi Regional Court, some cases ended up causing a lot of stress and even death on the accused persons."When someone is accused of a crime and there is no quick finalisation of the matter it is like you are punishing that person mentally and emotionally. Remember no one is guilty until proven guilty."Because one would be troubled over their fate for a long time, they may end up developing stress which may lead to deterioration of health and even death. Justice delayed is always justice denied," he said. Hurungwe Central MP Godfrey Beremauro hailed the coming of the court to Karoi saying the move was long overdue.He said when a person has a pending case in court  depending on the gravity of the matter  it was very difficult for them to come up with meaningful developmental plans as they would not know what their fate would hold for them."On behalf of the people of my constituency  Hurungwe Central  I join the rest of the people in Kariba and Hurungwe in welcoming the decentralisation which I believe will greatly improve justice delivery in the area," he said.Beremauro said because of the backlog pressure at Chinhoyi Regional Court, one of his farm workers is still appearing at the court for a rape case he was accused of seven years ago. Mr Guvamombe said Karoi Regional Court is set to open as soon as it is complete and a regional magistrate will be recruited if Treasury gives the go-ahead."Karoi Regional Court will open as soon as it is complete. In the fullness of time, once we are allowed by treasury to recruit, we will deploy a regional magistrate at the court," he said.
Mumbai: Karan Johar got candid at the 41st Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), where he talked about Bollywood and his upcoming film 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil'.

"It is imperative to give screenwriters their due if Hindi cinema is to move to the next level," Bollywood powerhouse Karan Johar said at the 41st Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

In a lively onstage conversation at the Glenn Gould Studio, a part of the festival's official programme, he said, "The industry is trying out new genres and approaches all right, but we do not empower writers enough. The writer is the soul of a film. The director isn't everything they should contribute to that soul."

With that goal in mind, his Dharma Productions, he said, has set up a new writing division to encourage the creation of original content for films. "The movie star is no longer King, content is. The writer is the backbone of a film," Johar, 44, asserted.

Speaking about his life and times as a film producer, director and entertainer, Johar was in scintillating form and brought the house down in Toronto on a wet and gloomy Saturday evening.

The nearly 90-minute In Conversation was laced with self-deprecating wit and punchy one-liners that had the expatriate audience asking for more. It was a rousing performance calibrated like one of his glitzy, star-studded films for maximum mass impact.

While the filmmaker lost no opportunity to underscore the increasing global relevance of Bollywood as a marker of India's global soft power identity, he also acknowledged the chinks in the armour of one of the world's most dynamic film industries.

"The success of a film like Kapoor & Sons is proof that the audience is evolving faster than the filmmakers. Many of us in the industry, including me, are caught in a time warp."

Kapoor & Sons, bankrolled by Johar's Dharma Productions, had a gay protagonist. "Six actors rejected the role because they were scared to play a homosexual character. Fawad Khan, who took the part and owned it, is not only a great actor but also a brave one," he said.

Johar was asked about the autobiography that is due for release next fall. "It is titled An Unsuitable Boy. It has got everything in there the good and the bad," he said.

About his upcoming film, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Johar said, "The film is an ode to myself without being self-indulgent. It is about the angst of falling in love without reciprocation. I am the brand ambassador of that emotion."

"Every tear that you shed (when you watch a film of mine) is a dollar in my account. You weep and I laugh all the way to the bank," Karan said on a lighter not.

Among the other projects that Dharma Productions, which is currently gearing up for the Diwali release of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, is a Dhyan Chand biopic. "We will make that film when we get the casting and the time right," he said.

All through the conversation, Johar touched upon aspects of the Mumbai movie industry that make it such a unique beast. Talking about his love for film music, he quipped, "Why do you a need a therapist when you have Hindi film songs?"

About his shot at acting in Anurag Kashyap's Bombay Velvet, Johar said, "There were too many gap days and too much hanging around doing nothing. I was bored with the process. That is probably why nobody has offered me another role, not even a bad one that I can refuse," he concluded.
In the 6 hour long concert is being organised by the Global Citizen Festival.

Mumbai: British rock band Coldplay is performing in India and everybody knows that. After weeks of speculations and rumours, the Global Citizen, a non-profit organisation itself confirmed the news.

While so far we have heard many big names of our Indian celebrities who'll join the stage with Coldplay and other international artist, the official line-up is out.

Well known American rapper, entrepreneur and investor, Jay Z will be joining Coldplay on the stage at the concert. Apart from the international artists, Bollywood stars such as Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Farhan Akhtar and others will also join Coldplay and Jay Z on stage.

Ranveer, who will be the opening act for Coldplay, will perform to a medley of chartbuster songs from his own films.

Here's the complete line-up:

In the 6 hour long concert, which is organised by the Global Citizen Festival and will take place in November 19th, well witness many artists performing live. The concert will be held in Mumbai and will mark Coldplays debut. Global Citizen Campaign brings a series of concerts around the world to address the issue of poverty.

The British band was in India last year where they did a secret gig inside a Delhi pub. So the minute the reports about Coldplay doing a concert in India broke out, people were thrilled and on their toes for more details.

The excitement turned to agitated dismay soon enough when news started trickling that the tickets were priced at a ludicrous minimum of Rs. 25,000. This led to a cluster of memes cropping up and the internet had been broken. However, the Global Citizen Festival put all the rumours to rest by announcing that one can attend the concert for free.

Global Citizen Festivals official statement reads, "Were so excited to be announcing that on World Toilet Day  November 19th  were hosting the first-ever Global Citizen Festival in India, with an incredible lineup of international and Indian headliners including  Coldplay! Just like our annual festival in Central Park, tickets to the Indian Festival will be FREE. Fans will earn them through taking actions in support of education, equality, and sanitation campaigns."
The actress was last seen in the critically acclaimed 'Udta Punjab'.

Mumbai: Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt have been shooting for 'Badrinath Ki Dulhania' relentlessly in Kota, Rajasthan.

The film, the second instalment in the 'Dulhania,' is being helmed by Shashank Khaitan.

Shashank had also directed the first instalment, 'Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania,' which starred the same lead pair.

Alia and Varun had debuted together alongside Sidharth Malhotra in the Karan Johar directorial 'Student of the Year'.

Varun and Alia, rumoured ex-couples, have been extremely professional through the shoot and also through the course of the extensive Dream Tour in the U.S.

Alia, rumoured to be named Vaidehi in the film, has been spotted in elegant, ethnic attires, at every location of the film. The actress' body language and traditional clothes are reminiscent of her 'Humpty Sharma' days.

Alia and Varun are at the peak of their careers, with commercial and critical successes in their kitties.

'Badrinath Ki Dulhania,' produced by Karan Johar, is scheduled to release on March 10, 2017.
After making a promising debut with Ivan Vera Mathiri and a couple of cameos, Surabhi got busy with several Telugu projects. Now, the actress has been roped in to play a crucial role in Shanmugam Muthuswamys Adangaathey, starring GV Prakash, Sarath Kumar, and Mandira Bedi.

Sharing her excitement with DC, Surabhi says, I am really excited to have signed this project. I play a semi-urban character and will be sporting a particular look in the film. My character wont be glamorous or modern, but will be elegant. I will be seen in half-sarees and churidars. I want to state that Adangaathey wont be a village script.

The svelte actor believes that this role will bring out her acting talent  My character is somewhat close to my original self. I have a lot of scope to perform. I am eager to share the screen with Sarath Kumar and Mandira Bedi.

When asked about her career in Tamil industry so far, she asserts, After a couple of films in Tamil, I got busy in Telugu. However, I missed doing films here. I am trying to balance my career in both the languages, she signs off.

Meanwhile, Bollywood actor Mandira Bedi, the multi-talented TV presenter, has been roped in to play an upright police officer in Adangaathey. In addition, she returns to Tamil cinema after a gap of 12 years  her last being Simbus Manmadhan in 2004.
Kriti Kharbandas brush with glitz and glamour began early. The actress, who grew up in Bangalore, recalls, One day, a photographer living in our building came up to my mom and asked her if I would like to model. After a few days, I was offered a Kannada film, Chiru, which was a lot of fun. But I had to complete my studies, so I went back to college.

She will soon be making her debut in Tamil films with Bruce Lee, directed by GV Prakash. Describing him, Kriti says, When we first met, he was very quiet. But now that we are great friends, it is a different equation. Working with GV for Bruce Lee was great fun. Kriti also reveals, GV Prakash is all set to do a Tamil film with AR Rahman, although I do not know the title yet. Together, they will set the music on fire.

Kriti is looking forward to her Bollywood debut, Raaz Reboot, opposite Emraan Hashmi. My agency had sent my photographs to the Bhatts and I was called for an audition. To my surprise, they offered me the role in Raaz Reboot.

With so much on her plate, the actress is very sure about her priorities. I will not leave my South films for a Hindi film. I want to be sincere to my South film makers and commitments. Only if my dates are not clashing with any of my South films, will I do Hindi films, she concludes.
The injured were sent to five area hospitals (Photo: AP)

A pair of crowded decks collapsed during a party at an off-campus house near Trinity College in Connecticut, injuring about 30 people, Hartford police said today.

Deputy Chief Brian Foley of the Hartford police said no major injuries were reported.

Foley said authorities received numerous calls shortly after 11 pm Saturday of multiple people hurt at an off-campus house. He said a third-floor deck of a house collapsed onto a second-floor deck, which subsequently fell onto a first-floor deck. He said each deck was crowded with partiers.

The injured were sent to five area hospitals, Foley said, with the most serious reported injuries being a broken arm and a head injury. He described those hurt as "walking wounded" and said most were students.

"That's some pretty weighty decks that fell down," Foley said. "We're very lucky there weren't worse injuries."

Foley said the third-floor deck that fell showed signs of deterioration.

"At this point, the third floor, you look and see the wood was very rotted and very old and structurally not very sound," he said. "Then you get 50 or 60 kids partying out there and it's obviously a dangerous situation."

Foley posted a picture from the scene of the collapse on his Twitter feed that he identified as white tubing from a "3 story beer bong."

He says the building, located about two-tenths of a mile from the Trinity campus, was owned, but not managed, by the college.

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said in a statement that it was lucky there were no fatalities.

"There are dozens of injuries, but we are very lucky that there were no fatalities and no known critical injuries from what could have been a truly tragic incident," Bronin said.

The mayor said police and firefighters were on the scene within minutes of the accident and that first responders worked quickly to get the injured transported to hospitals.

Trinity College is a liberal arts school in Hartford with about 2,200 students. It's the second-oldest college in Connecticut after Yale.

Click here to watch the video
New Delhi: Sister-in-law of AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan, who has accused him of sexual harassment, recorded her statement in Saket court, police said on Sunday.

The victim stood by the charges she has levelled against Khan in the statement recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC in Saket court, a senior police officer said.

According to a report, she also submitted a CD and a pen drive which has a recording of her conversation with the MLA. In her statement before the court, the woman said she was molested at least five times in the last one-and-a-half years.

The woman claimed that Khan approached her several times in presence of her husband but when she complained to her husband, he told her to as Khan says because he was helping him in his businesses.

On Saturday, the complainant had approached the Jamia Nagar police station alleging that Khan had put pressure on her to get into a sexual relationship with him, added the officer.

She had also accused her husband of demanding dowry and building pressure on her to get intimate with Khan, added the officer.

A case under IPC sections 354(A) (sexual harassment), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 498A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) was registered against Khan and the woman's husband.
The minor boy, a native of Wadrafnagar, had recently come to his maternal aunt's place in Darripara for a visit. (Photo: Representational Image)

Korba: A 14-year-old boy was thrashed, tonsured and paraded half-naked allegedly by four men in Chhattisgarh's Sarguja district on suspicion of theft, police said in Korba on Monday.

The assaulters also allegedly wrote 'thief' on the boy's abdomen, they said.

"The incident, which came to light on Sunday, took place on September 10 at Darripara village under Manipur police outpost area, close to Ambikapur district headquarters," Sarguja Additional Superintendent of Police Ramkrishna Sahu said.

While one of the accused, identified as Babua Singh (28), was taken into custody based on a complaint about the incident, the three others - Deepak Sahu, Amit Sahu and Sandeep Sahu - are absconding, he said.

As per the complaint, the minor boy, a native of Wadrafnagar, had recently come to his maternal aunt's place in Darripara for a visit.

On Saturday morning, the accused Deepak, who runs a grocery shop in the same area, along with three others stormed into the house of the boy's aunt and dragged him to his shop.

Accusing him of stealing something, they brutally assaulted him with sticks and kicked him, the ASP said.

The boy kept pleading with them to stop, but the men continued with the thrashing. After some time, they tonsured him and cut his moustache.

They did not stop there and even wrote 'thief' on his abdomen. They then forced him to sit on their motorcycle following which they paraded him half-naked in the locality, he said further quoting the complaint.

They held him captive at Deepak's shop till late evening before asking his cousin brother to take him home. The accused also threatened the victim?not to complain about the incident to anyone, the ASP said.

However, when the boy's condition deteriorated, his cousin brother narrated the incident to the family and the victim was admitted to Ambikapur district hospital, he said.

Later, the boy's mother lodged the police complaint.

The accused have been booked under IPC sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention), he said.

Efforts are on to trace three other accused, the ASP said, adding that further investigation was on.
The victim was rushed to the hospitals where she was brought dead. (Representational image)

New Delhi: A 36-year-old woman, resident of Vikas Vihar in southwest Delhi was stabbed by her husband on the suspicion of an extra-marital on Sunday.

Prem Singh, an e-rickshaw driver, had planned the murder of his wife, Suman, a day before as he dropped their two children at a relatives place.

The neighbours heard Suman screams and rushed to their house.

"The neighbours told the police that Singh stabbed Suman with a kitchen knife. They tried to break open the door, but by that time they got in, the woman was on the floor in a pool of blood and the husband was sitting in a corner with both his hands bleeding profusely," said a senior police officer.

The victim was rushed to the hospitals where she was brought dead.

Singh was admitted to the hospital in a critical state.

"Initial probe reveals that Singh was drunk when he attacked his wife," said the officer.

Neighbours informed the police that the couple often fought over the issue.

DCP Surender Kumar said Singh would be arrested under the charges of murder and attempt to suicide and his statement taken after his condition stabilises.
New Delhi: A 40-year-old piano teacher has been arrested in southeast Delhi's Kalkaji area for sexually assaulting his seven-year-old student over a period of two months, police said on Sunday.

The victim, who is a resident of Govindpuri Extension, had been learning to play piano from the accused, Ravi Kumar, for the last two years, a senior police officer said.

The assault began over two months back and the girl was bearing it silently till yesterday when she confided in her father about the incident, who filed a case against Kumar, added the officer.

The girl told her father that she didn't want to go to the piano class but he couldn't understand the reason for her refusal, police said.

A case under section 376 IPC (rape) and relevant sections of the POCSO Act was registered and the accused was arrested from his Kalkaji home, police said.

Kumar is married and used to teach many other children as well, police said.
News / National

by Mashudu Netsianda

THE South African government has announced that foreign students graduating from its universities in critical skills areas now qualify for permanent and long term work permits so that their talents can be retained.Several Zimbabwean students including those under the Presidential Scholarship are studying at various universities in the neighbouring country.Home Affairs Minister Mr Malusi Gigaba made the remarks during an address at the International Students Conference in Cape Town recently."International students are particularly important to countries because, having obtained your qualifications here or at least your most recent qualification, this brain waste can be avoided. It is for these reasons that the National Development Plan recommended a long term work visa be offered to international students upon graduation. Accordingly, I directed officials in the Department of Home Affairs to recommend options to make it easier for international students in critical skills areas to remain in South Africa after graduating," he said.Mr Gigaba said the move was not aimed at encouraging graduates to abandon their countries."It is important to note that we are in no way encouraging you to abandon your home countries, particularly those of you with bursaries from your governments or other organisations. We are merely acknowledging that it is natural for international students to want to remain in their destination countries for a period of time, to follow their academic studies with other experience," he said."We are aware that many of you naturally want to work for a few years in South Africa, before returning home. Some of you will want to start businesses, some of you will want to study further, conduct research and produce knowledge, and some of you will want to stay in South Africa long term. Some of you will not, and will want to return home immediately after graduation."The Minister said the exemption was important for international students as well as South Africa as a country."We have therefore created a special exemption such that graduates of South African universities in critical skills areas are eligible for permanent residence immediately upon graduation.He said South Africa has a long and proud history of educating leaders from throughout Southern Africa among them President Mugabe who studied at the University of Fort Hare."I think it is important we consider the wider importance of international students in South Africa. The University of Fort Hare counts as its alumni eminent Africans such as President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Seretse Khama, Botswana's first leader, Julius Nyerere, former President of Tanzania, and Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia among many others," said Mr Gigaba.He challenged students to contribute to Pan-Africanist and internationalist culture, spirit and outlook as the African continent."You must help both to change and deepen the discourse about Africa in an environment where in this world in which we live only negative narratives are being churned out."The diversity of knowledge, experience and perspective that you bring, enhances the richness of our universities as centres of thought, discourse and cross-pollination," he said.South Africa, in August 2014 introduced the Zimbabwe Special Permit (ZSP) allowing Zimbabwean holders of the special permit to work, to conduct business or study in South Africa for three years.The programme replaced Dispensation for Zimbabwe Project (DZP) which ran from May 2009 to December 31, 2010.The special permits are valid until December 31, 2017, after which all Zimbabweans who intend to extend their stay in the neighbouring country would be required to apply for visas using the normal route in terms of that country's Immigration Act.
Police said Md Musheer Ahmed went to Kuwait two years ago to work as a domestic help in the residence of Saqer Al Baidar, a police officer in Kuwait. (Representational image)

Hyderabad: A 37-year-old man working in Kuwait was caught carrying a live bullet at the RGI Airport on Sunday. Musheer Ahmed, a native of Talabkatta, was returning to work after vacation.

Police said Md Musheer Ahmed went to Kuwait two years ago to work as a domestic help in the residence of Saqer Al Baidar, a police officer in Kuwait. Two months ago, he came home on vacation and after holidays, he was returning to Kuwait on Sunday.

Musheer Ahmed was scheduled to leave by an early morning flight of Oman Airlines, when he was intercepted by airport security personnel, who found a live bullet of a .38 SPL rifle concealed in his baggage.

He was detained and handed over to airport police for further inquiry. Police found that before flying to India he took an old used bag of his owner police officer Saqer Al Baidar and did not see the bullet lying in it.

The bullet was not detected when he landed at the Hyderabad airport two months ago. He was booked under the Arms Act and remanded to custody, RGIA sub inspector V. Srinivas said. Police is investigating.
It was a tough task for Ulrike Reinhard when she was trying to persuade Ashas parents to allow her to study in the UK. (Photo: Representational Image/ Pixabay)

Bhopal: A 16-year-old tribal girl from Madhya Pradesh is set to travel to the United Kingdom to study English in an Oxford school.

According to a report in Hindustan Times, Asha Gond, who hails from Janwaar village in the states Panna district, was introduced to English language recently and she soon developed a penchant for this language.

After getting support and encouragement from a German woman, Ulrike Reinhard, who has created a skatepark in Janwaar and trains school-going tribal children in skating and English language, Gond decided to travel to UK to learn English.

But her parents were unwilling to let her go and it took 8 months for Reinhard to convince them, said the report.

I am very excited. I dont know what UK is like but I will definitely make the most of it. I am not at all scared and will give my best, Asha was quoted as saying.

Reinhard said that Asha had just completed class 10 from Manohar Kanya High School in Janwaar, and did very well in the English course at a summer camp in June 2015.

It was a tough task for Ulrike Reinhard when she was trying to persuade Ashas parents. She even had to bring in Lokendra Pratap Singh, MLA of Panna constituency, and her school teacher Awadh Bihari to convince her parents that Asha would be safe in London.

Reinhard said she told Ashas parents that the girl can be an example for her village.

I thought it would never happen. But Asha never gave up and kept telling her parents that she wanted to go, Reinhard was quoted as saying.

Asha for her part wants to try to make other children read when she returns from the UK. Her parents have promised Ulrike that they wont marry her off when she comes back, said the report.

Now, the only hurdle in Asha Gonds path are passport formalities, which will enable her to fly towards her dreams.
According to 16-year-old Madhu, she had come to India with her mother, siblings, her uncle and cousins 2 years ago after they fled religious persecution in Pakistan. (Photo: Sushma Swaraj Twitter)

New Delhi: The Delhi government on Monday decided to "relax" its rules and grant admission in its school to Madhu, a Pakistani migrant girl, who has been struggling to secure admission due to lack of required documents.

The decision comes after Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj took note of the reports of Madhu's struggle to secure admission and raised the issue with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

According to 16-year-old Madhu, she had come to India with her mother, siblings, her uncle and cousins two years ago after they fled religious persecution in Pakistan's Punjab province.

After making rounds of Delhi government, co-ed senior secondary school in Sanjay Colony where authorities refused to enrol her in ninth standard as she does not have the necessary documents required to complete the formalities. The migrant girl also wrote to Kejriwal seeking intervention.

Approving the request for her admission, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said, "due to peculiar circumstances, the girl is not in possession of any school leaving certificate or date of birth certificate. She wants to study and on humanitarian grounds it is my considered opinion that we need to walk extra mile to accommodate her".

"To accommodate Madhu's request, the government can consider relaxing whatever rules and regulations, if they come in way of her joining our school," Sisodia, who is also the education minister, said in an official order. "Accordingly admission to Madhu may immediately be provided at any of our government schools located in Sanjay Colony, Bhati Mines, Fatehpur Beri, New Delhi.

She would also be given necessary books and uniform and we may facilitate whatever is required for the girl to study in our school," the order further added.
Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu once again expressed displeasure with the banks over poor disbursal of loans to farmers and said "the banking sector will be good only if the farmers are good."

Addressing the State-Level Bankers' Committee meeting in Vijaywada on Monday, the chief minister pointed out that there were no complaints over availability of seeds, fertilisers, water or power but farmers have been complaining against non-disbursement of loans to the agriculture sector.

"You have to understand the anguish of farmers and help them out," Naidu told the bankers.

Along with digital literacy, the state government would now launch a 'financial literacy' campaign to educate the farmers about the benefits of prompt repayment of loans.

On the suggestion of the bankers, Naidu agreed to constitute a committee to offer necessary counsel to farmers on financial discipline and repayment of loans.

The CM also asked bankers to stop disbursing crop loans through mortgage of gold.

"Take the likely crop production into account while issuing loans and do not mortgage gold or other properties," he said.

Andhra Bank CEO and Chairman of SLBC Suresh N Patel said banks in the state disbursed Rs 23,990 crore as short-term and crop loans till June 30 this season, as against a target of Rs 83,003 crore for the fiscal.

"We have covered an additional 18.95 per cent of farmers under the loan scheme this year and we will achieve 100 per cent crop loan target by the end of the fiscal," he said. State Agriculture Minister P Pulla Rao, Chief Secretary

Satya Prakash Tucker, senior bankers and top bureaucrats attended the meeting.
New Delhi: Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa, who refused to quit even after being nudged by the Centre, was on Monday sacked as Governor of Arunachal Pradesh.

A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said Rajkhowa "shall cease to hold the office of the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh".

President Pranab Mukherjee has asked Meghalaya Governor V Shanmuganathan to discharge the functions in addition to his own duties, until regular arrangements are made, it said.

Rajkhowa, who was appointed the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh on May 12, 2015, was the first gubernatorial appointee of the Modi government and has also been sacked by it after informing the President that it has "lost trust" in him.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had called on the President last week and conveyed to him that Rajkhowa's continuance in the post has become untenable after the Supreme Court's observations against him over dismissal of the Congress government in the state.

The Home Minister's meeting with the President came after Rajkhowa refused to step down despite a nudge by the Centre to put in his papers after the Supreme Court passed serious strictures against him over the dismissal of the Congress government last year.

A defiant Rajkhowa had said he would not step down but was ready to be sacked.

"I want the President to dismiss me. I will not resign. Let the President express his displeasure. Let the government use provisions of Article 156 of the Constitution," the Governor had told a Guwahati-based TV news channel on Monday.

Rajkhowa said he had been asked to resign "on health grounds" weeks after the Supreme Court had restored the Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh and censured him.

Rajkhowa had also written to the President explaining his position and the letter was forwarded to the Home Ministry by Mukherjee.

However, when the Home Ministry submitted a detailed report on the Governor to the President, he sacked Rajkhowa on Monday.

Rajkhowa, a 1968 batch IAS officer, had retired as Chief Secretary of Assam before being appointed as Governor.
Patna: In order to put the Nitish Kumar government under pressure on the issue of Md Shahabuddin's release from jail, the NDA on Monday submitted a memorandum to Bihar Governor Ramnath Kovind demanding slapping the Crime Control Act (CCA) against the RJD strongman.

"We have sought the Governor's direction to the state government for invoking the CCA against the dreaded RJD strongman to put him behind the bars again as an atmosphere of fear has gripped Bihar, particularly Siwan district," senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said after meeting the Governor.

Shahabuddin, an ex-RJD MP, hails from Siwan. "The Governor gave us a patient hearing and said he will look into the matter as under the Constitutional framework," Modi, a member of the NDA delegation that met Kovind at the Raj Bhavan in Patna, said.

The Patna High Court on September 7 granted bail to controversial RJD leader Mohammad Shahabuddin in a case of murder of a witness in the killing of two brothers in Siwan by bathing them in acid.

Despite the bail, Modi said, the government should put Shahabuddin behind bars by invoking provisions of the CCA to restore the faith of the people in the government as had been done in the case of expelled JD(U) MLA Anant Singh.

Modi also lashed out at the Nitish Kumar government for 'stage managing' the release of Shahabuddin on bail from Bhagalpur jail last week alleging the state government deliberately delayed trial in one of the cases against him.

Even if it was not possible to invoke CCA against Shahabuddin due to procedural reasons, the man should be expelled from Bihar and brought back only to stand trial in the cases against him, Modi said.

The leader of Opposition in the state Legislative Council said the state government should set up a cell in the police department under an IG rank officer to monitor trial of the cases against Shahabuddin in a time-bound manner.

A panel of best lawyers in the country should be hired for bringing the 'dreaded' RJD strongman to justice for his crimes over the years, including those that he had arranged from inside jail while being incarcerated, Modi said.

Modi also sought action against the officers who are responsible for not serving High Court notices to Shahabuddin in the cases in which trial was scheduled to begin in 2013, but could not be initiated leading to his bail recently.

The former deputy chief minister sought security for family members of slain persons in whose murder cases Shahabuddin was allegedly involved.

RLSP MP Ram Kumar Sharma, HAM (Secular) leader Danish Rizwan and the BJP leaders Nandkishore Yadav and Prem Kumar were also present at the press conference.
New Delhi: BJP on Monday pitched for a debate on observance of Bakri Eid (the feast of sacrifice), which will be celebrated on Tuesday, in an "eco-friendly" way, saying the intelligentsia in the country should mull over it.

"The way we are becoming more eco-friendly, the way a campaign in this regard is going on in the country and the world... it is a matter of debate and there should be a debate over it. It will be good if the intelligentsia in the country discusses it. It will be good," BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma told a press conference.

He was responding to a question as to whether the Bakr-Eid or Eid al-Adha, during which Muslims across the world sacrifice animals as part of their holy tradition, should be observed in an "eco-friendly" way as is the case with some other festivals.

Many activists have been campaigning against slaughter of animals with a section of them arguing that not killing animals is good for environment.

Sharma made it clear that whether eco-friendly Eid should be observed or not is a matter of debate.

"There can be a discussion on whether there should be eco-friendly Eid or not. There is freedom of expression in our country and people have a right to express their different opinions... But, yes, there should be a debate over it."
The restructuring will lead to the creation of a maximum of 370 posts in the ranks of Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Commandant and Second-in-Command followed by 330 in Deputy Commandant rank, 19 in Inspector General, 14 in Assistant Commandant and one post will be created in the Additional DG rank. (Photo: Representational Image)

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Monday approved the much-delayed cadre restructuring for the officers of the Border Security Force (BSF) leading to creation of 74 posts, an exercise aimed at enhancing operational and administrative capabilities of the force.

A government statement said the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has "approved the cadre review of group 'A' Executive officers of BSF with net creation of 74 posts of various ranks from Assistant Commandant to Additional Director General ranks to enhance the operational and administrative capabilities of BSF."

The last time such an exercise was carried out was in 1990 and after it got delayed for a number of years, a group of officers of the country's largest border guarding force last year moved the Delhi High Court, which directed the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) to complete the activity within a month's time.

The restructuring will lead to the creation of a maximum of 370 posts in the ranks of Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Commandant and Second-in-Command followed by 330 in Deputy Commandant rank, 19 in Inspector General, 14 in Assistant Commandant and one post will be created in the Additional DG rank.

Cadre restructuring is conducted in an organisation to better place the workforce in keeping with the changing scenario over a period of time and is aimed at enhancing the morale of the men and women employees.

It also helps in getting better work productivity from them in the interest of the department. However, officials said the latest policy decision will not fully ease the issue of stagnation as few posts under the restructuring will be reserved for officers of the Indian Police Service (IPS), who come on deputation to the over 2.57-lakh personnel strong border guarding force with 186 battalions at present.
Bengaluru/Mysuru: Monday could prove to be a crucial day for Karnataka in the battle with Tamil Nadu over Cauvery water with the Cauvery Supervisory Committee scheduled to meet in New Delhi to decide on the quantum of water to be released to Tamil Nadu. The level in the KRS dam has alarmingly dipped below 90 feet after release of water to Tamil Nadu.

Chief Secretaries of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry besides officials of Central Water Commission will attend the meeting. According to sources, Karnataka is expected to contend that the demand by Tamil Nadu for 61 tmcft water holds good only when normal rainfall occurs. With Karnataka reeling under the impact of a rain deficit, the poor inflow of water into Cauvery basin reservoirs has left the state struggling to meet even drinking water requirements.

Meanwhile, a modification petition filed by Karnataka before the Supreme Court on Saturday evening seeking immediate hearing of its plea to restrict the release of Cauvery water to 10,000 cusecs per day for six days only, is expected to come up for hearing on Monday. The state was ordered to release 15,000 cusecs water to Tamil Nadu for 10 days by the apex court on September 5. Sources told Deccan Chronicle that the SC may hold a special hearing on the modification petition in the morning hours.

Alarms bells have already started ringing in the Cauvery basin with the water level in the 124-feet-high KRS dam, the lifeline of districts like Bengaluru, Mysuru and Mandya, dipping below 90 feet. The water level stood at 89.40 feet on Sunday while at Kabini dam, the level was 2273.13 feet as against its capacity of 2,284 feet. On Monday, the outflow to Tamil Nadu from KRS was as high as 20,023 cusecs. Hemavathi and Harangi reservoirs released 10,500 cusecs into the river leading to KRS dam from where water will be released to TN. Considering the gravity of the situation, former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda made an aerial visit of KRS, Kabini, Hemavathi and Harangi dams in a chopper and said, The states advocates should not fail to convey the ground reality in the Cauvery basin in Karnataka when the modification petition comes up for hearing in the Supreme Court.
Pro-Kannada activists burn the tyres to block the road during the Karnataka Bandh against the Supreme Court verdict on Cauvery water, in Bengaluru. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Cauvery Supervisory Committee on Monday failed to arrive at a decision on quantum of water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states pursuant to the Supreme Court order and decided to meet again on September 19.

Union Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekhar, who chaired the meeting, said the Committee could not arrived at a decision for the want of "adequate" information.

He said the states concerned could not produce adequate information relating to withdrawal of water, its utilisation, allegations of withdrawal when it was not permitted, variation in rainfall and its impact on the actual run-off over a period spanning 29 years.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court had asked Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs Cauvery water per day, down from previous 15,000 cusecs, to Tamil Nadu till September 20.

"...since the time given by the honourable (Supreme) Court was so limited...they could not bring all information. The Committee did not want to pass any order which is not backed by supportive data.

"So, the Committee has fixed another date, that is on September 19, because the Supreme Court has today given a date for next hearing on September 20," Shekhar told reporters after the meeting.

He added that the Committee, which met in Delhi after Supreme Court asked Tamil Nadu to approach the panel in its order on September 5, has asked the states involved to give information sought by September 15.

He further said Chief Secretaries of both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka did not agree over figures relating to release of water during the meeting.

"As we were discussing and trying to reach a figure which would be acceptable to both the states, which were also based on scientific facts, we found that the Supreme Court had given another interim order today. So, we will meet again," he said.

Meanwhile, the Committee, has decided to set up a network for data collection which will send real-time online data to the four states involved- Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Puducherry and Kerala.

"We have decided today as to what should be the protocol, methodology of the data collection. How can we make it completely online so that the data can seamlessly move to all the four states on real-time basis and there is no dispute on data collection," he said.

Noting the Cauvery tribunal has not discussed the water distribution for distress situation until now, Shekhar said the Committee should "hold discussion on it sometime".

"All the four states will need to discuss what should be the distress situation. If we arrive at a consensus on that, we will make that a basis for discussion when there is less rainfall and how we can achieve proportionate share then. This (distress) situation is arising regularly," he said.

P Rama Mohana Rao, Arvind Jadhav, and Manoj Parida, Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Puducherry respectively attended the meeting along with senior officials from Kerala, Central Water Commission and Union Water Resources Ministry.

Tension prevailed in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on Monday as protests turned violent on Monday with agitators attacking shops and setting vehicles afire. 20 buses were set on fire in a Bengaluru depot, and incidents of arson and stone-pelting were reported from several places in Karnataka.

Schools have been shut and no Karnataka buses are plying to Tamil Nadu. Section 144 has been imposed in Bengaluru and an emergency meeting has been called by CM Siddaramaiah on Tuesday morning, who has appealed to protestors to be peaceful.
News / National

by Nqobile Tshili/Mashudu Netsianda

OPPOSITION parties under the banner, National Electoral Reform Agenda (NERA) yesterday confirmed their western sponsorship, which the Government has said is aimed at illegal regime change.This emerged when People's Democratic Party president Mr Tendai Biti was addressing party supporters during a rally at White City Stadium in Bulawayo.Mr Biti boasted about his party's cordial relationship with United States presidential democratic candidate Mrs Hillary Clinton.He said he had a meeting with Mrs Clinton last month during the Democrats National Convention which nominated her as the presidential candidate for the Democrats in the November polls.The PDP rally which also marked the party's first anniversary celebrations was attended by Zapu leader Dr Dumiso Dabengwa and Zimbabwe People First president Dr Joice Mujuru's representative."We've friends that you don't know we have. We enter some offices that will make you wonder how we entered them. These days we're meeting some grannies and you should at least shake my hand because it was shaking some granny running for the US presidency on 8 November. If she wins we will know that we're in," he said.Although Mr Biti did not mention Mrs Clinton by name it became clear that he was referring to her as he labelled her strongest rival, Mr Donald Trump, a lunatic.Mr Biti's sentiments confirm Zanu-PF's assertions that opposition parties are working with America and other Western countries to sponsor movements bent on illegal regime change.Mr Biti said Zimbabwe needs financially strong friends who can rescue the country from its economic problems.However, Zanu-PF has been advocating for home grown solutions to the country's problems.Opposition party leaders vowed that they would continue with violent protests to unconstitutionally remove President Mugabe from power.Dr Dabengwa in his solidarity message urged youths to flood the streets and engage in public violence against the Government."As youths, we took up arms against the Rhodesian government and succeeded in dislodging the repressive Ian Smith regime. It is now up to you as youths to go to the streets and continue with protest. We have reached the twilight age and we need you to be at the forefront and we will closely follow behind," he said.PDP vice president Dr Samuel Sipepa Nkomo weighed in by saying people power was the only tool at their disposal to unseat President Mugabe."It is my firm belief that God's heart is broken because of the plight of the people of Zimbabwe. Since 1980 Mugabe has been destroying the country," he said.Dr Sipepa Nkomo tried to use the Matabeleland political disturbances of the 1980s to drum up support for his party.He said Dr Mujuru was supposed to be at the event but fell ill and could not attend.She was represented by Ms Buyalani Dube the ZimPF's provincial chairperson for Bulawayo.PDP secretary general Mr Gorden Moyo blamed President Mugabe for social ills and health problems affecting people.
Pro-Kannada activists burn the tyres during Karnataka Bandh called in against the Supreme Court verdict on Cauvery water in Bengaluru on Friday. (Photo: PTI)

Bengaluru: Voicing concern over attacks on state vehicles and a hotel run by a native of Karnataka in Tamil Nadu amid the ongoing Cauvery row, the state government on Monday asked its counterpart to take steps for the safety of Kannadigas living there and to protect their property.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said he would write to his Tamil Nadu counterpart Jayalalithaa to help cooperate in maintaining cordiality between the states, which are now locked in a bitter row over release of Cauvery water.

Siddaramaiah said he would also speak to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, if necessary, on the incidents targeting Kannadigas.

The state Chief Secretary and Director General of Police had spoken to their Tamil Nadu counterparts and asked them to ensure stern action against the culprits and that such incidents did not recur, Siddaramaiah told reporters here.

Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah's letter to Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa.

While seeking measures to protect the interests of Kannadigas in Tamil Nadu, it had been assured to Tamil Nadu that similarly, steps would be taken for the safety of Tamils in the state and also their property, he said.

Siddaramaiah also advised the media "not to glorify" certain incidents relating to "sensitive" issues and be restrained in reporting them.

Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara said police forces had been deployed in areas where Tamils live in large numbers in Bengaluru and elsewhere in Karnataka. He appealed to people of both states not to resort to violence.

The state DGP had conveyed to his Tamil Nadu counterpart that safety of Kannadigas be ensured while "equally, we will also ensure that Tamils are safe in Karnataka," he said.

Asked about a Tamil engineering student being beaten up allegedly by a group of people here for posting 'derogatory' remarks against some Kannada actors and against the Cauvery agitation, with a video capturing the incident going viral, he said it was a "small incident".

Parameshwara said the police tried to contact the student but he was not available, adding, "Small incidents should not be blown out of proportion."

Suspected pro-Tamil protesters today attacked and damaged a hotel run by a native of Karnataka in Chennai, damaging its window panes using iron rods and wooden logs.

Seven tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration parked at a temple in Rameswaram were damaged allegedly by activists of various outfits including Naam Tamizhar Iyakkam.

Meanwhile, Bangalore Tamil Sangam on Monday asked Siddaramaiah to direct the police to maintain law and order and provide security to all Tamils living in the state.

"We request you to kindly instruct the police to maintain law and order and provide security to all Tamilians living in the state," Sangam President Damodaran told PTI in Bengaluru.

He also urged the media, especially visual, not to "incite" people of both the states by sensationalising the news of violence. He urged the central government to intervene to solve the vexed problem.
Chennai: In an apparent fallout of the ongoing Cauvery crisis, seven tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration that were parked at a temple in Rameswaram were damaged when agitated members of various outfits including Naam Tamizhar Iyakkam allegedly indulged in vandalism early today, police said.

The group entered the parking lot of a temple near Agni Theertham in the town and damaged the vehicles bearing Karnataka registration with clubs and stones, they said.

Cases have been registered against seven persons including one Manmathan, belonging to Tamizhar Desiya Front and are searching the suspects, they added.

#WATCH: Bus from Karnataka vandalised by Naam Tamilar Katchi party workers in Rameswaram, driver threatened #Cauvery pic.twitter.com/3til65O5jU  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Meanwhile, suspected pro-Tamil protesters attacked and damaged a hotel run by a native of Karnataka here.

The incident occurred during the wee hours on Monday when the group of protesters gathered around the hotel situated in Mylapore and damaged its window panes using iron rods and wooden logs, police said adding that no one was injured.

So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack and a probe is on, police said.

The incident comes a day after a video purportedly showing a 22-year-old Tamil youth being beaten by a group of men in Bengaluru for allegedly posting "derogatory" remarks on social media against Kannada film actors went viral.

It was also alleged that the youth had made comments, which were later deleted, against the ongoing Cauvery water agitation in Karnataka on the social media.

Protests by farmers and pro-Kannada outfits have been reported from several parts of the neighbouring state over the Supreme Court order asking Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile, Tamilaga Valvurimai Katchi founder T Velmurugan here said his party workers will stage "democratic protests" outside Kannada establishments including their government offices in the state.
5-10 more companies of BSF and Indo-Tibetan Border Police are also on standby and can be sent in if the any of the two state governments require. (Photo: AP)

New Delhi: The Centre on Monday rushed ten companies comprising 1,000 personnel of the special anti-riot paramilitary force RAF to Karnataka to tackle the violent situation arising out of the raging Cauvery water sharing dispute.

Officials said the personnel have been sent to the violence-prone areas of Karnataka and if need arises, some of the contingents will also be deployed in Tamil Nadu.

These additional contingents will assist the state police even as three such RAF units and an all-women CRPF company have already been deployed in Karnataka in view of the violent protests.

They said 5-10 more companies of BSF and Indo-Tibetan Border Police are also on standby and can be sent in if the any of the two state governments require. One company comprises 100 personnel.

Sporadic violence broke out in Bangalore, where several buses were set ablaze, and in some other parts of Karnataka even as Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote to his Tamil Nadu counterpart J Jayalalithaa to ensure adequate safety and protection for Kannada-speaking people in the state.

Protests by fringe Tamil outfits erupted in parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry with some commercial and government establishments of Karnataka being targeted.
Two trucks that came from Tamil Nadu go up in flames during violence in Karnataka capital Bengaluru. (Photo: AP)

Bengaluru: Tension escalated in Karnataka over the release of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu, as protests turned violent on Monday with agitators attacking shops and vehicles.

More than 30 buses were set on fire by protesters in Bengaluru's KPN bus depot on Monday evening.

Violence intensified in Bengaluru and Mysuru on Monday as agitators stopped vehicles with Tamil Nadu registration, asking occupants to get down and set the vehicles on fire. Vehicles with Tamil Nadu registration have been barred from entering Karnataka.

As precautionary measure, schools in Bengaluru were closed and children were sent home. Metro services were also suspended in the city. Section 144 has been imposed in the city from 5 pm onwards on Monday.

Section 144 of CrPC has also been imposed in Pandavapura area, Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara said.

The state Home Minister added that around 200 people had been detained for violent protests. Apart from this, 20,000 homeguards and 185 KSRP platoons have also been deployed, he said.

CM Siddaramaiah has called for an emergency meeting on the situation on Tuesday, G Parameshwara said.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah and Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa following the violence.

Read: Cauvery row: 30 Tamil Nadu buses set on fire in Bengaluru

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court modified its September 5 order, asking Karnataka to release a reduced amount of 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery River water per day to Tamil Nadu till September 20 from the earlier 15,000 cusecs a day to ameliorate the plight of farmers of the neighbouring state.

Read: Cauvery row: Woman TV journalist beaten up in Bengaluru

Around 500 police personnel have been deployed near KRS Dam following violence in both the states.

In Tamil Nadu, suspected pro-Tamil protesters attacked and damaged a hotel run by a native of Karnataka.

The incident occurred during the wee hours on Monday when the group of protesters gathered around the hotel situated in Mylapore and damaged its window panes using iron rods and wooden logs, police said adding that no one was injured.

So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack and a probe is on, police said.

The incident comes a day after a video purportedly showing a 22-year-old Tamil youth being beaten by a group of men in Bengaluru for allegedly posting "derogatory" remarks on social media against Kannada film actors went viral. It was also alleged that the youth had made comments, which were later deleted, against the ongoing Cauvery water agitation in Karnataka on the social media.

Meanwhile, seven tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration that were parked at a temple in Rameswaram were damaged when agitated members of various outfits including Naam Tamizhar Iyakkam allegedly indulged in vandalism early today, police said.

The group entered the parking lot of a temple near Agni Theertham in the town and damaged the vehicles bearing Karnataka registration with clubs and stones, they said.

On the other hand, pro-Kannada protesters vandalised lorries bearing Tamil Nadu registration numbers near Hubli bypass in Karnataka.

Cases have been registered against seven persons including one Manmathan, belonging to Tamizhar Desiya Front and are searching the suspects, they added.

But Janata Dal (Secular) chief HD Dewe Gowda seemed to back the protests. "Farmers of Karnataka will totally suffer this year. Affected people will express their feelings with agitations. The government is strong enough to control any protest," he said.
Poonch: A day after three terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces, one more terrorist was killed as firing resumed in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Monday.

"One more militant has been eliminated. With this, the number of total militants killed in the encounter since yesterday has gone up to four", a Defence spokesman said.

Three militants and a policeman were yesterday killed and six others, including a police officer, were injured in twin encounters between security forces and four terrorists in Poonch town.The cop was cremated today in Poonch town.

IG Johny Willian, who is in-charge of Rajouri-Poonch range, said one more body of a militant has been recovered from a house where one ultra was killed yesterday.

Firing is going on in the under-construction Mini Secretariat and the operation is on, he said.

Security forces were engaged in day-long twin encounters with four terrorists holed up at two places near the under-construction Mini Secretariat in Poonch town since yesterday morning.

The fire fight broke out near the Mini Secretariat building close to Army's 93 Brigade headquarters, Poonch district and a house in Allahpir Mohalla in the town around

7.30 am yesterday.

"Four militants are involved in the two encounters at two different locations", Director General of Police Rajendra Kumar had said.

A civilian couple were safely evacuated from the house in which militants had taken shelter last evening, police said.

The authorities had used drones to track down militants in the Mini Secretariat complex and other places.
The move follows complaints of the accused trying to influence or threaten victims of sexual harassment in a few cases. (Photo: Representational Image)

New Delhi: Employees accused of sexual harassment can be transferred to another office to prevent them from influencing victims and to ensure fair inquiry.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) also said a junior officer can probe charges against seniors accused of sexual harassment.

The move follows complaints of the accused trying to influence or threaten victims of sexual harassment in a few cases.

"To ensure fair inquiry, ministries or departments may also consider transferring the suspect officer or charged officer to another office to obviate any risk of that officer using the authority of his office to influence the proceedings of the complaints committee," an order issued recently by DoPT to all central government departments said.

All complaints committees set up to inquire into charges of sexual harassment should be headed by a woman and at least half of its members should also be women.

In case a woman officer of sufficiently senior level is not available in a particular office, an officer from another office may be so appointed, as per existing norms.

It has been directed that to prevent the possibility of any undue pressure, the complaints committee should also involved a third party either Non-Government Organisation (NGO) or some other body which is familiar with the issue of sexual harassment.

"The issue of legality of a committee conducting inquiry against an officer against whom there are allegations of sexual harassment but where the chairperson happens to be junior in rank to the suspect officer has been examined.

"It is clarified that there is no bar either in the Central Civil Service (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules or under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace

(Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 to the chairperson of the complaints committee being junior to the suspect officer or the charged officer," the DoPT said, adding that "this also does not in any way cause any prejudice to the charged officer".

Sexual harassment includes physical contact and advances, demand or request for sexual favours, sexually coloured remarks, showing any pornography and any other unwelcome physical, verbal and non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature.

Besides this, implied or explicit promise of preferential or detrimental treatment in employment; implied or explicit threat about her present or future employment status; interference with her work, creating an intimidating, offensive or hostile work environment for her; and humiliating treatment likely to affect her health or safety may also amount to sexual harassment.
New Delhi: An agreement between India and Switzerland on the return of "irregular migrants" was approved on Monday.

The Union Cabinet gave its approval for signing of the Technical Arrangement between India and Switzerland on the identification and return of Swiss and Indian nationals and its implementation.

Conclusion of the Bilateral Technical Arrangement (BTA) has been linked to the Visa Free Agreement for holders of Diplomatic passports as a package deal.

The BTA essentially aims to formalise the existing procedure for cooperation on the return of irregular migrants between the two countries without introducing any additional obligations or exacting timeframes.

The estimated number of irregular migrants in Switzerland who are thought to be from India is less than 100. If the BTA with Switzerland is approved as proposed, it would offer an opportunity to use the same as a model template for negotiations on the subject with other EU countries, which have been raising the issue regularly with New Delhi.

"It would also help to leverage the Readmission Agreement to liberalise visa and work permit regimes for legitimate Indian travellers. This has been envisaged as a key goal in the recently concluded India-EU Common Agenda on Migration and Mobility (CAMM)," an official statement after the meeting of the Cabinet said.
The counsel for the accused claimed that his client was falsely implicated and there was an unexplained delay in lodging the FIR, a contention rejected by the court. (Photo: Representational Image)

New Delhi: A Delhi court has sentenced a man to 18 months in jail for molesting a girl child after trespassing into her house in the absence of her parents, saying he did not deserve benefit of probation as the victim was a minor.

Metropolitan Magistrate Shivani Chauhan handed down the jail term to Hari Om, a resident of south Delhi's Badarpur in New Delhi, while relying on the testimony of the victim and her mother, who lodged the complaint.

"On the basis of evidence, I am of the considered opinion that prosecution has established its case against the accused beyond the pales of reasonable doubt. Accused is convicted for the offence under section 354 (molestation) as well as 451(house-trespass) of the IPC.

"The convict has not been previously convicted for similar offence. However, keeping the manner in which the offence was committed and the victim being minor, it is not deemed appropriate to give benefit of probation to the convict," the magistrate said while sentencing him.

According to prosecution, on the night of April 1, 2012, when the victim was sleeping with her siblings in her house, the accused broke into the house, gagged her mouth and took her to his house where he molested her.

When the girl screamed, the neighbours gathered and later informed her mother who then gave a written complaint to the police after three days. However, an FIR was lodged in the case on May 15, 2012.

The counsel for the accused claimed that his client was falsely implicated and there was an unexplained delay in lodging the FIR, a contention rejected by the court.
Pratapgarh: An FIR was lodged against 158 people on Monday for allegedly misbehaving with Union Minister and Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel during a road show in Pratapgarh.

"An FIR was registered against local leader Vinod Dubey and over 157 others last night for allegedly misbehaving with Patel and Apna Dal workers during their party's roadshow," a senior police office said.

The FIR has been lodged at Raniganj police station.

The incident had occurred Sunday afternoon when Apna Dal workers were on a roadshow with the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare and party MLA RK Verma.

Police said the procession came face to face with the supporters of Dubey, who is planning to contest the state Assembly polls as an Independent candidate, leading to an argument.

The Union minister had said the incident was a "conspiracy" to disturb her party's procession.

"I think it was a conspiracy (of ruling SP). I was not provided with security and even after complaining, the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police did not reach the spot immediately," she had said.

She said if such was the response of the law enforcement agencies to a request by the minister, then "one could easily understand the plight of common people regarding law and order matters".

Alleging misbehaviour with their leaders, Apna Dal workers had blocked traffic on Raebareli-Varanasi highway and later, when the Union Minister left, they sat on a dharna.
Tirupati: Union human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar objected to Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan terming the special assistance measure as rotten laddus. Mr Javadekar said the NDA government at the Centre was treating AP as a VIP state.

Speaking to newspersons at IIT-Tirupati, he said the Centre has grabted special package for AP despite objections from other states. We respect Pawan Kalyan. He campaigned for us during the elections. But his comments on Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu are not in good taste.

Mr Venkaiah Naidu is striving hard to help in the development of the state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given more funds than what he promised to the state, Mr Javadekar said.

While referring to the YSRC demand on special status and its allegations against the NDA government, he said the party has no moral right to comment on the Centre.

The Union government had given Rs 2,500 crore for the construction of the capital Amaravati and the remaining Rs 1,000 crore would be sanctioned as per the requirement, he said.

Referring to the demand of the Opposition parties for special status, the minister said the Centre had already granted more funds than the benefits which would come through special status, he said.

No state has got these many Central educational institutions. AP got 11 such institutions and nine have started functioning. A coastal research university will come up in Nellore district. Similarly, a tribal university in Vizianagaram district and Central University in Anantapur district will be established in near future for which about Rs 10,000 crore is needed. We will construct all the buildings at the earliest, Mr Javadekar said. He stated that an action plan was being prepared to complete the Polavaram project by 2018.

Mr Javadekar held a special meeting with professors of IIT-Tirupati, IISER, Padmavathi Mahila Viswavidyalayam, SV University and IIT-Madras on the IIT premises.

He said that on the advise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the HRD ministry was bringing reforms in the education sector to develop the country as Digital India and Make in India.

He asked the professors to conduct elaborate research in technology and assured that the ministry providing infrastructure to the institutions. He stated that professors vacancies would be filled in universities.

IIT, Madras director Bhaskar Ramamurthy, former incharge IIT-Tirupati Prof K.N. Satyanarayana, IISER director Prof V. Suryaprakash Rao, SV University rector Prof M. Bhaskar, Padmavathi Mahila Viswavidyalayam vice-chancellor Prof. V. Durgabhavani, registrar Prof. P. Vijayalakshmi and others participated.
News / National

by Tanaka Mrewa

A BULAWAYO man allegedly assaulted his wife with a bicycle chain until she fainted after discovering she had joined a group on WhatsApp.A court heard that Tyron Ndebele (27) assaulted his wife, Mejury Zvigere (32) until she fainted.Ndebele pleaded guilty to a domestic violence charge.Bulawayo magistrate Mrs Adelaide Mbeure remanded Ndebele in custody to Friday.Prosecuting, Mr Nkathazo Dlodlo told the court that Ndebele took his wife's cell phone and an argument erupted after he saw that she was on a group chat."Accused person asked complainant why she had joined the group. Complainant explained to him that the group had been created by her neighbour. He then took a bicycle chain and assaulted her all over the body and only stopped when she fainted. She reported the matter to HillsidePolice Station. She was later treated at United Bulawayo Hospitals," said Mr Dlodlo.Zvigere told the court that her husband took her phone pretending that he wanted to make a phone call."He said he wanted to make a phone call. Then he asked me why I was part of a WhatsApp group. I explained to him that my neighbour is the one who had created it and added me. He hit me with a bicycle chain all over my body. He repeatedly stomped on me. I sustained a deep cut on my middle finger and bruises on my left leg. I fell unconscious during the assault," she said.
An aerial view of the KRS dam during former PM H.D. Deve Gowdas inspection of the Cauvery basin on Sunday. (Photo: KPN)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday modified its September 5 order, asking Karnataka to release a reduced amount of 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery River water per day to Tamil Nadu till September 20 from the earlier 15,000 cusecs a day to ameliorate the plight of farmers of the neighbouring state.

A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and U U Lalit, which sat on a holiday to consider the urgent plea of Karnataka, however, expressed deep anguish over the "tone and tenor" of the fresh plea and said the law and order situation cannot be taken as a ground for non-compliance of the order of the court.

It rejected one of the prayers of Karnataka that the apex court direction asking it to release 15,000 cusecs water per day to Tamil Nadu be kept in abeyance till next date of hearing on the ground that there has been a fault in the Cauvery Water Tribunal award, which does not deal with the issue of deficient water in the reservoir in a particular month.

Referring to the content of Karnataka's fresh plea, the bench said, "If we are allowed to say then we must say that the tone and tenor of the application is absolutely disturbing and to say the least, totally depricable...that apart the application for modification contain certain averment which follow the tenor or similar language which cannot be conceived of in a court of law seeking modification of an order."

"Agitation, spontaneity or galvanised riot or any kind of catalytic component can never form the foundation for seeking modification of an order.

"An order of this court has to be complied by all the concerned and it is the obligation of the executive to ensure that the orders are complied in letter and spirit.

Protests by farmers have been reported from several parts of Karnataka over the Supreme Court order asking it to release water to Tamil Nadu.

During the hearing, the bench noted the stiff claim and counter-claims of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and said that it would apply the concept of fair compensation in the matter and fixed it for further hearing on September 20.

The apex court was hearing the application filed by Karnataka seeking a direction to reduce the quantum of water to be released from Cauvery River to Tamil Nadu from 15,000 cusecs to 1,000 cusecs.

The apex court's decision to hear the plea, filed late Saturday evening, came after it was mentioned before the court's registry, which consulted Chief Justice T S Thakur.

In its plea, Karnataka has sought modification of the apex court's September 5 order for release of 15,000 cusecs of water for 10 days as immediate relief to Tamil Nadu farmers.

The Cauvery Supervisory Committee is meeting here today to decide on the quantum of the river's water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states. The application has sought that instead of 10 days, the apex court should restrict the release of water to only 6 as the state itself was facing a distress situation due to a massive agitation which was causing a loss of Rs 500 crore per day to Karnataka.

In the plea, Karnataka has said there was "huge public pressure" and the state police, with great difficulty, has been able to prevent attempts to damage public property.

"Even the minimum arrangement mentioned by your lordships has caused distress and havoc in the entire southern part of Karnataka, paralysing civil life. The agitation of farmers has been that their dry crop is equalled with that of the farmers in Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu's need for the rice crop consumes more than twice the water which is needed for light crops in Karnataka," the application said.

The application says that people, particularly farmers in the districts of Mysuru, Hassan, Mandya and Bengaluru, have been squatting on the roads and streets, affecting the IT industry in the state capital which earns huge revenue by way of income tax, service tax, and foreign exchange of USD 60 billion for the country.

The application also referred to inputs from security agencies that said if the flow of water is allowed to continue further, the situation "may go out of hand".

In an interim order on September 5, the court had directed Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu for the next 10 days to ameliorate the plight of the farmers there.

The apex court had also directed Tamil Nadu to approach Supervisory Committee, set up to implement the award of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, within three days for release of water as per the final order of the CWDT.

Reacting to the verdict, Union Minister Sadananda Gowda expressed disappointment, saying 'the people of Karnataka never expected it'. "We thought SC will send a team to see situations of reservoirs,collect data and then come to a conclusion, but nothing as such happened," he lamented. However, Gowda asked people in the state to maintain law and order.
Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday held a discussion on finer points to be included in BJP's Garib Kalyan Agenda with his Maharashtra and Jharkhand counterparts.

Besides Chouhan, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das, BJP vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe was also present at the meeting at the chief minister's residence in Bhopal.

"Talks of 'garibi hatao aur garib kalyan' (eradicate poverty and welfare of the poor) have been going on in this country for years. Congress had come up with the slogan but it has remained a slogan and nothing has happened," Chouhan told reporters after the meeting.

"Several states are running various schemes for poverty alleviation and we were given the task of studying them and bringing parity among them so that the development of the poor happens in its real sense," he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the chief ministers of BJP-ruled states to work in a "mission mode" to make their respective states models for the execution of the Centre's schemes, following which a committee comprising Chouhan, Fadnavis, Das and Sahasrabuddhe was formed to prepare the agenda.

"We will submit our report to the BJP president and to the Prime Minister on the issue after which the party will finalise the agenda," Chouhan said.

"The country will be celebrating the (birth) centenary of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (founder of Jan Sangh) on September 25 and the report will be submitted before it. The party's national council, scheduled to be held at Calicut in Kerala will then deliberate on it that day," he added.

"The basic aim of the agenda is to ensure that the poor gets food, cloth and house and their earnings increase and they become self-dependent. We have deliberated on all the aspects of these issues and would submit our report soon," Chouhan said.
New Delhi: Seeking to mend their frail ties, India and Nepal on Monday held wide-ranging talks and decided to step up cooperation in key areas of security, energy and water resources ahead of Nepal Prime Minister Prachanda's visit, which is being seen as an opportunity by Indian side to discuss issues of mutual interest and concern.

During the talks between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Nepalese counterpart Prakash Sharan Mahat, the two sides also discussed the upcoming visit of Prachanda from September 15. This will be his first foreign trip after assuming office last month.

"Both the Ministers held wide ranging talks on issues of mutual interest, and covering the entire gamut of bilateral relations, including the upcoming high-level exchanges between the two countries.

"Both sides reiterated their commitment to further strengthen and deepen age-old, close and friendly ties in diverse sectors such as trade and mutual investments, defence and security, economic and development partnership, infrastructure development, energy and water resources, and forging connectivities to facilitate movement of goods and services, people and ideas," External Affairs Ministry said after the meeting.

The Ministry also said that the "visit of the Prime Minister of Nepal will provide an opportunity for both sides to discuss issues of mutual interest and concern, as well as seek ways to strengthen the age old, close and friendly ties between the two countries in diverse sectors."

During his four-day visit, Prachanda will hold talks with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on important bilateral and regional issues.

Nepal-India ties had soured after months-long border blockade last year by ethnic minority protesters over the new Constitution which they claimed marginalised them.

Kathmandu had then accused India of imposing an "unofficial blockade" on the landlocked nation in support of the Madhesis, who share close cultural, linguistic and family links with Indians across the border.

Even after the normalisation of supply of goods from India, the bilateral ties continued to reel under strain after former Nepal Prime Minister K P Oli accused India of toppling his government and creating political instability in his country, a charge that was categorically denied by India.
Three unexploded crude petrol bombs were reportedly found at a divisional functionary's house in Vellore on Sunday. (Photo: Representational Image)

Coimbatore: A petrol bomb was hurled at the house of a Hindu Munnani leader by some miscreants in the wee hours on Monday in neighbouring Tirupur, causing damage to the building, police said.

The attack was carried out on the house of Hindu Munnani's Tirupur treasurer, Shanmugam at around 2 am. The portico of house suffered some damage in the incident, they said. Protesting the attack, the outfit has called for a bandh in Tirupur on Tuesday.

The Hindu Munnani along with Tirupur Industrial Protection Committee, of which Shanugham is a member, appealed to the traders and establishments to support to shutdown.

The attack comes a day after a similar incident on the house of a Hindu Munnani leader in Vellore district.

Three unexploded crude petrol bombs were reportedly found at a divisional functionary's house in Vellore on Sunday.
Hyderabad: Union minister and senior BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya on Monday said the Telangana government should officially celebrate 'Hyderabad Liberation Day' on September 17, even as the Telangana Joint Action Committee (T-JAC) insisted it be celebrated as 'Integration Day'.

"Our (BJP) stand is clear that Telangana government should officially celebrate September 17 as Hyderabad Liberation Day," Dattatreya said on the sidelines of a round-table conference for 'Official Celebration of September 17 by Telangana government' in Hyderabad.

The ruling TRS in Telangana, however, has rejected the suggestion and said it's a merger, and not a liberation day. T-JAC chairman M Kodandaram said a significant event in Hyderabad's history - September 17 - was forgotten.

"September 17, 1948, was the day when the Hyderabad state, which was under the Nizam's rule, was integrated into the Indian Union. That has lot of significance. Nizam rule came to an end and it became part of republic," he said.

"Some people call that we were liberated that day while the others say we began to suffer after September 17. But, after the Telangana agitation (separate statehood movement) arose, there emerged a consensus that September 17 was an Integration Day," Kodandaram explained.

He said, "Let us atleast recognise the historical fact that it got integrated into the Indian Union and atleast it allows us to take note of the local history and have a discussion about the specificity of the region."

"There was a consensus that let the Integration Day be celebrated. Let us not call it as a Liberation Day or let us not even call it as some kind of a Betrayal Day, but let us at least recognise this as a Integration Day," he suggested.

He said the Telangana government should celebrate the day as Integration Day and urged the government to convene an all party meet and hold discussions on the issue.

"Through negotiations we should try to resolve it rather than entering into confrontation. It is always better to have a dialogue and evolve a consensus," he said.

BJP Telangana chief K Laxman recently said the party's national president Amit Shah would address a public meeting in Warangal district of the state on September 17 as part of the 'Hyderabad Liberation Day' being celebrated by the state unit.
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday sacked state Mining Minister Gayatri Prajapati over allegations of corruption, days after the High Court rejected the SP government's plea to withdraw an order for a CBI probe into alleged illegal mining in the state.



"The Chief Minister has sacked Gayatri Prajapati and a letter for the same has been sent to Raj Bhavan," a senior officer said.



Yadav was said to be unhappy with the minister who was mired in controversy over allegations of promoting illegal mining.



The opposition, however, alleged that the sacking of the minister was just an eyewash to hide the corruption in mining sector.



Taking a grim view of illegal mining in Uttar Pradesh, the Allahabad High Court on July 28 directed the CBI to investigate the matter across the state, including the role of government officials in facilitating the same, and submit a report within six weeks.



The HC on September 9 rejected an application by the state government for withdrawal of its order.



"Illegal mining is rampant in the state and it is an open secret that he was promoting it. Now when the HC has taken serious view of the matter and ordered CBI probe, the CM's decision is mere an eyewash. It will not help as people know the reality," Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi said.



BJP state general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak said it was good that CM has taken the decision to sack the minister.



"Our party has been raising the matter of illegal mining in the state. The decision should have been taken earlier," Pathak said.



Prajapati began as Minister of State for Irrigation in February 2013 and was moved to the lucrative berth of mining, directly under Yadav who handled that portfolio.



In July 2013, Yadav elevated Prajapati to MoS (Independent Charge) and in January 2014, he was made a Cabinet Minister.
Kolkata: In a stern warning to the cow vigilantes, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said law would take its course if anyone was found violating it.

The chief minister said while replying to a question if any action would be taken against cow vigilantes.

"A vegetarian will eat vegetarian food while non-vegetarians will eat non-vegetarian food. Who are these people to ask me what I am eating?" she said.

"I request everyone not to play dirty games. Everyone has the right to practice religion and they are counting cows. People in Europe eat cows. Tribals also eat cows," Banerjee pointed out to reporters at the state secretariat.

Warning that she would not spare if anyone plays with religion, Banerjee said these days, even if there was an accident, people tended to ask what the religion of the driver and the killed was.

She said, in the next Assembly session, the government will bring a bill making it mandatory for the culprits of any riot to give compensation (to the victims).

"We will bring it with retrospective effect from the last five years," the CM said, adding that there were some parties which aim to divide the people and incite violence.

In politics the fight is based on ideology, not on the basis of religion or people, she said. The Chief Minister said her government had promised to make the land arable once again for the benefit of farmers of Singur.

"The agriculture department will soon come up with a package for the Singur farmers to help them grow crops," she said.

She said the administrative review meeting, scheduled for Wednesday at Singur, has been postponed to September 29.

Asked to comment on the railways fare hike, the Trinamool leader said she had been shocked to see the rates going up so many times.

"During my tenure, there was no hike and they are doing it every time. In the last two years there has been no new project or no new train, so they have saved a lot of money," she said.
Kolkata: Stating that her government would follow the Supreme Court order cancelling the Singur land acquisition "line by line", the West Bengal government on Monday asserted land 'parcha' would be distributed among 9,117 farmers on September 14.

'Parcha' is a document which establishes the ownership of a farmer over a piece of land in revenue records. The Supreme Court had on August 31 ruled that the land acquisition process in Singur was faulty and not for public purpose and had directed to return it to the farmers within 12 weeks.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the land 'parcha' would be distributed among 9,117 farmers of Singur on September 14.

She also said 800 cheques would be distributed among the farmers who had not taken them earlier during the erstwhile Left front government when compensation was paid for acquiring the land.

"Of the total 997 acres of land in Singur, the district administration has completed the survey and demarcation work for 620 acres, and 800 cheques are ready for distribution among land-owners," Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat.

She said, "Altogether 9,117 parchas are ready for handing over to the farmers on September 14 when 'Singur Diwas' would be observed."

"We will follow the Supreme Court ruling line by line," she said, adding the land would be turned cultivable. Referring to the factory sheds on the land, she said, "There are some temporary structures on the land. We hope they (the Tatas) will remove them within the next 2-3 days. I told (finance minister) Amit Mitra to request them (Tatas) to remove them".

"If they remove them it is good, otherwise we will remove them," she said as she stressed the government was acting as per the apex court's landmark verdict.

On whether the government was facing non-cooperation from the Tatas, she replied in the negative.

"They have taken it sportingly and we have also taken it sportingly. The Tatas are also working in Bengal. There is no problem," she said.

The government would also send a CD to the court to apprise them of the "hard work" being done to honour the order, she said.
Holding placards and shouting slogans, the members of Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM) gathered outside the office of Congress' youth wing at Raisina Road. (Photo: Twitter/ANI)

New Delhi: Activists of BJP's youth wing on Monday protested outside the office of Indian Youth Congress in New Delhi, demanding answer from the latter over controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik's NGO donating Rs 50 lakh to an allied entity of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.

Holding placards and shouting slogans, the members of Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM) gathered outside the office of Congress' youth wing at Raisina Road.

The Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), founded by Naik, had donated Rs 50 lakh to Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT), an associate entity of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, in 2011 but the amount was returned to IRF by RGCT in July this year.

The IRF is embroiled in a controversy because of allegations that Naik was inciting youths for terror.

BJP has earlier alleged that the donation to RGF, headed by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, by Naik's NGO was a "bribe" to "shelter" his "anti-national" activities.

Congress had accused the government of hatching a "venal conspiracy of muckraking" to "slander, malign and defame" the party over Rs 50 lakh donation.
Lucknow: UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, on Monday, dismissed two ministers from his cabinet, allegedly on charges of corruption. The ministers who have been dismissed are Gayatri Prajapati, minister for mining and Raj Kishore Singh, minister for Panchayati Raj.

Letters in this regard have been sent to Raj Bhawan, a senior official said. The dismissal of Gayatri Prajapati, said to be close to Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav and his younger son Prateek Yadav, comes days after the Allahabad High Court rejected the state governments plea to withdraw an order for CBI inquiry into allegations of illegal mining in the state.

Mr Gayatri Prajapati , who belongs to Amethi, was said to be mired in controversy over illegal mining in the state which is reported to be to the tune of Rs 4,000 crores per month.

The Allahabad High Court, on July 28, had directed the CBI to investigate the matter across the state, including the role of government officials in facilitating the same, and submit a report within six weeks.

The HC on September 9 had also rejected an application by the state government for withdrawal of its order. The dismissal of the minister is a move by the government to save itself from the inquiry and let the sacked minister face the music.

Mr Akhilesh Yadav, a source said, was upset with Mr Prajapati but could not act against him due to his proximity with the SP president. The dismissal of the minister is also likely to cause a strain on the Yadav clan too. Illegal mining in the state has been rampant ever since the Akhilesh government came to power. IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal was also suspended when she tried to stop illegal mining in Greater Noida and the issue led to national outrage.
News / National

by Tanaka Mrewa

A BULAWAYO woman who was sent more than $16 000 by her Australia-based sister, squandered the money and tried to suffocate the sister with a sofa cushion when she asked for the money upon her return.Ms Getrude Ndlovu (55) a nurse based in Australia sent the money to her sister Sithabile Ndlovu (50) intending to use it later to fund the construction of a house in Romney Park.Sithabile of Nkulumane suburb told the court that she blew the money in one month to spite her sister."Your Worship I had no premeditated intention of spending that money. Ngakwenza nje ngomoya omubi (I did it out of a cold/evil heart)," she said.Sithabile pleaded guilty to a charge of theft and another of assault.Western Commonage magistrate Mr Stephen Ndlovu sentenced her to five years in prison for theft and six months for assault.In passing sentence, Mr Ndlovu said he was taken aback by Sithabile's lack of remorse and hatred for her sister."I have never seen a woman so callous like you. You even had the guts to tell this court that your actions were out of a cold heart. Do you have any idea how hard people who go to the Diaspora to improve themselves work? They even work double shifts. It's unbelievable that you treated someone you shared a womb and breast with in the manner you did. Such hatred and heartlessness is ill-fitting for a woman," he said.Mr Ndlovu suspended one and a half years on condition that Ndlovu restitutes her sister an amount of $16 820 before December 31 this year."A further six months will be suspended on condition that you don't commit a similar offence in the next five years. For assault you shall serve an effective six months in prison. These sentences do not run concurrently," said Mr Ndlovu.Prosecuting, Mr Keneth Shava told the court that between June 23 and July 28 Sithabile received $16 820 from her sister for safekeeping."When the complainant returned home, she asked for the money and as she waited in the lounge, accused charged at the complainant holding a sofa cushion. She then covered complainant's face as she attempted to suffocate her," said Mr Shava.
A security jawan stands guard on a deserted street near Jamia Masjid during the 66th day of restrictions and strike in Srinagar on Monday. (Photo: PTI)

Jammu: Security forces gunned down one more militant in Poonch district, taking the total number of ultras killed in the operation, which is still underway, to four. One more militant has been eliminated. With this, the number of total militants killed in the encounter since Sunday has gone up to four, a Defence spokesman said today.

Three militants and a policeman were on SUnday killed and six others, including a police officer, were injured in twin encounters between security forces and four terrorists in Poonch town. The cop was cremated on Monday in Poonch town.

Meanwhile, Kashmir is staring at a subdued Id-ul Azha festival on Tuesday in view of the ongoing shutdown sponsored by the separatists, which has been paralysing normal life in the Valley since July 9.

Our Eid would be on the day Kashmir becomes free, said Adnan, one of the dozens young Kashmiris lying in beds at the Ophthalmology ward of Srinagars Sri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital.

For the first time in many years, all 10 districts of the Kashmir Valley will be under curfew on Id to prevent any outbreak of violence. The Army, which has been asked to be on standby, will step in if there is fresh outbreak of violence in the Valley, which has been witnessing widespread unrest for over two months leading to death of over 78 people so far, official sources said.

The fresh protest calendar issued by the separatists alliance has also asked people to continue to hold aazadi rallies, marches and sit-ins ahead, during and after the Id festival. One of the planned marches would be on the summer headquarters of the UN Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan in Srinagars posh Sonawar area.
BENGALURU: In a move which could bring the violent agitation to an abrupt end for now, the Congress government seems to be contemplating defying the Supreme Courts order on release of water of the Cauvery to Tamil Nadu on Tuesday.

The move would be discussed at a meeting of the cabinet on Tuesday morning and during a breakfast meeting of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah with veteran leaders of Congress.

The leaders are likely to appeal to the government not to release water to the neighbouring state with the cabinet expected to adopted a defiant stand in view of the fact that the state would end up releasing about three TMC feet water more than that stipulated by the apex court on September 5 owing to the order pronounced by a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and U.U. Lalit on Monday.

Though the bench reduced the quantum of water from 15,000 cusecs to 12,000 a day to flow to Tamil Nadu, it would result in release of an additional 63,000 cusecs by September 20.

Sources in the ruling party said the leaders are aware of the likely political fallout of adopting such a bold stand: Once the government decides not to release water, Prime Minister Narendra Modi could intervene and ask the state to release water, a decree which would be adhered to by the government. The move would give the Congress government an opportunity to blame the Prime Minister. It would also help the party wriggle out of the mess, sources added.

Second, the decision would help soothe tempers and bring the agitation in the city and other parts of the state to a halt. The government would have sufficient time to take control of the situation before taking a relook at the Supreme Court order.

In its application for modification of the order of September 5, the state government said it was necessitated because of spontaneous agitations in Bengaluru, Mandya, Mysuru and Hassan in the Cauvery basis which has paralysed normal life besides destroying public and private properties worth several hundreds of crores of rupees.
Bengaluru: The protests over the Cauvery issue led to a bandh like situation in the city with all commercial establishments rolling down their shutters.

As soon as violence was reported at Byatarayanapura, pro Kannada activists went on bikes and forcefully shut shops across the city. Commercial activity in the Central Business District (CBD) was hit due to this with establishments on MG Road, Brigade Road and surrounding areas shutting down.

The activists also forced shopkeepers at Indiranagar, Koramanagala, Domlur, Rajarajeshwarninagar, Vijayanagar, Chandra Layout, Halasur, Commercial Street and other localities to close their shops. Even shops in localities like Chikpet, Upparpet, Avenue Road, Cottonpet, Majestic, KR Market and others in the heart of the city downed shutters.

Buses lined up at Satellite bus stand in Bengaluru on Monday

Malls too sensing trouble closed shop. In Malleshwaram, activists of a pro-Kannada group barged inside Mantri Mall and shouted slogans threatening to vandalise the mall if it was not closed.

The situation was no different in other reputed malls. There was no screening of movies, including Kannada films after multiplexes and single screen cinemas stopped operations after the violence.

IT companies stopped functioning and advised their employees to work from home. Speaking to DC, Mr Suraj Singh Negi, CEO, Product Innovation Academy located in Koramangala said, "At around 2 pm we got information about the protest taking a violent turn. We immediately informed our employees to stop working and leave office. As BMTC buses were cancelled, we had to arrange cabs for our employees to reach their homes safely.

Pro-Kannada outfits were seen targeting techies working in ITPL demanding that they close shop. Most IT companies located in Electronic City, Mahadevapura, CV Raman Nagar, KR Puram and Whitefield fearing attacks, closed their offices. A techie working for a leading MNC said, All the employees received a mail from the HR wing saying we could work from home till further intimation.

Even BMTC buses were targeted at Sumanahalli bus depot in the city. The buses were parked inside the depot. According to the officials there is no clue on who attacked these buses.
Bengaluru: Mondays sudden violence, which brought the city to a standstill, created panic among school children and their parents, as several schools refused to operate their buses, making it difficult for many to get home.

One parent, a Central government employee from Malleswaram received an SMS at around 1.30 pm from his daughters school informing him that the school bus would would not operate due to the Cauvery protest and he had to pick her up before 4 pm.

Schoolchildren find their way home after miscreants took to the streets after the Supreme Courts verdict on release of water to Tamil Nadu.

When I got the SMS I was at work in Electronic City and as my wife was in Delhi, I begged the school management to wait till 5pm. She was alone in school when I reached there. I want the city police to ensure that this sort of a situation does not arise again, said the upset father.

Recounted another agitated parent, Rukmini Sukumarmma of Manjunathnagar, My husband and I work in a garment factory. Although we pleaded with the management to let us go and pick up our child from school, they did not allow us. My child was forced to wait in school without food till 6 pm.

But school principals said they had no choice in the matter and were forced to announce a holiday as a precaution. We were afraid to send the children in our school vans because of the violence and so requested the parents to come and pick them up, said a principal of a school near Residency Road.

A school bus carrying schoolchildren had a narrow escape after miscreants ruled the streets

Six students were forced to remain till 7 pm at the New Blossoms Education Society School near Peenya as their parents could not come and pick them up sooner. Principal D Shashikumar, said the school announced a holiday at around 1 pm and requested parents to come and pick up their children due to the violence.

But as some of the parents were working and could not come on time, they requested us to keep children till late evening, he added. One school had to lock the children inside as protestors roamed the streets outside, pelting stones and setting fire to things.
The HRD Ministrys proposal to this effect was cleared at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.

New Delhi: In a bid to boost innovation at premier institutions, an agency will soon be set by the government to provide funds up to Rs 20,000 crore for building research-oriented infrastructure at IITs, IIMs and other centres of higher education.

The HRD Ministrys proposal to this effect was cleared at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.

Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said a Higher Education Financing Agency would be promoted by an identified promoter and his ministry with an authorised capital of Rs 2,000 crore. The HEFA would be formed as a Special Project Vehicle and it would leverage the equity to raise up to Rs 20,000 crore for funding infrastructure projects, Mr Javadekar said.
A TN registered lorry which was set fire to by a mob near a timber yard in Bengaluru on Monday. (Photo: DC)

Bengaluru: Lawlessness ruled the streets of Bengaluru on Monday, as the police failed to contain the situation throughout the day and angry mobs continued torching scores of vehicles till late evening.

The police had to resort to firing, which led to the death of a 25-year-old man and left two others injured, while curfew was clamped in the jurisdiction of 16 police stations in West and North Bengaluru, to bring the situation under control.

Protests out by Kannada activists against attacks on Kannadigas in Tamil Nadu and the Supreme Court order to release Cauvery water to the neighbouring state took a violent turn with hundreds of people pouring out onto the streets and protesting. Scores of vehicles were torched and damaged, as the police stood mute spectators in most cases.

Mocking the elaborate security arrangements made by the police, the mob went on the rampage and torched vehicles, burnt tyres on roads and forced shops shut.

The situation went out of control near Mohan theatre at Hegganahalli in Rajagopalanagar when a mob torched two Hoysala vehicles and a KSRP van. Despite police resorting to a lathi-charge and lobbing tear shells to disperse the mob, the situation did not come under control. The mob also attacked the police and indulged in stone throwing, in which DCP (North) T. R. Suresh sustained minor injuries.

At this juncture, the CAR police opened fire at the mob and three men were injured and the mob dispersed. The police immediately rushed the injured men to various hospitals. Of the three, Umesh, 25, who hailed from Kunigal in Tumakaru district working in a petrol pump in the city, succumbed to injuries at a hospital. The bullet had hit him in the back and exited from his chest.

In the night, Home Minister Dr. G. Parameshwara held a high-level meeting with senior police officials. Later, the police announced curfew in the jurisdiction of 16 police station limits.
The Telangana government has nominated Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma and Advocate General A. Ramakrishna Reddy as its representatives in the committee.

Hyderabad: The stage is set for the division of 107 common institutions listed under Schedule X of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, between Telangana and AP, under the supervision of the Centre.

The Telangana government which has so far contended that these institutions should be allotted to a state based on their geographical location is now willing to share the assets and liabilities with AP following the SC ruling in the AP State Council of Higher Education case. The Centre has already constituted a committee with officials from both the states to resolve the dispute.

The Telangana government has nominated Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma and Advocate General A. Ramakrishna Reddy as its representatives in the committee.

The AP government on the other hand has appointed its Planning Board deputy chairman, C. Kutumba Rao and retired IAS officer, S. Balasubramanyam. The first meeting of the committee was supposed to be held on Monday but it was postponed to September 20.

The Telangana government has been waging a legal battle against the Supreme Court ruling in the APSCHE case, which directed the government to share the assets and liabilities of Schedule X institutions with AP in the ratio of population of 58:42 between AP and Telangana.

Though Telangana filed three review petitions over the last one year, all three were struck down by the apex court which directed the Centre to set up a committee to resolve the bifurcation of these institutions.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Rajnath Singh to come to the rescue of the Telangana government by filing an affidavit in support of Telangana government in the apex court, but in vain. Left with no option, Telangana has decided to resolve the issue with AP under the supervision of the Centre which will be represented by a Union home ministry official in the committee.
Hyderabad: The ongoing protests in Bengaluru over the Supreme Court order to release Cauvery waters to Tamil Nadu has affected the plans of Malayalees in Hyderabad, who intended to take buses to go to Kerala for Onam on Wednesday.

All buses from the city to Kerala pass through Bengaluru, where violence has broken out. Several private bus services from Hyderabad to Bengaluru and Mysuru were cancelled on Monday. Both these cities are major points for changing buses towards Kerala for those travelling from Hyderabad. Direct buses to Kerala from Hyderabad also go through Bengaluru.

Kallada Travels, which operates seven buses from Hyderabad to Kozhikode, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram, cancelled all its services on Monday to ensure passenger safety. Two buses of the company which had already left Hyderabad were called back midway.

An official of Kallada Travels in Hyderabad said, We did not want to risk the safety of passengers. We got reports of some buses belonging to private operators being damaged and burnt in Bengaluru. Even buses which had Karnataka registration were damaged. We are getting regular updates from our offices in Bengaluru and Mysuru and are monitoring the situation. We will operate once situation becomes normal in Bengaluru.

Even Hyderabad based Malayalees, working at IT companies in Benguluru had to cancel their plans of travelling home for Onam. Mr K.N.S. Nair from Hyderabad said, My daughter and her family were supposed to come to Hyderabad for Onam but they had to cancel their plans. Due to circumstances prevailing in Bengaluru she could not take the risk of travelling to Hyderabad.

Libby Benjamin, president of Confederation of Telugu Region Malayalee Association, said, Onam is celebrated in Kerala regardless of which caste, religion or community a person belongs to and celebrating it in the home state has a different charm. Working professionals and businessmen who could not get long leave and had decided they would travel a day before Onam will miss this once in a year celebration of oneness.
Bengaluru: A modification petition filed before the Supreme Court on Saturday evening seeking immediate hearing of its plea to restrict the release of Cauvery water to 10,000 cusecs per day for six days only, is expected to come up for hearing on Monday.

Sources told Deccan Chronicle that the SC will be holding a special hearing of the modification petition in the morning. We are going to present all facts and figures before the apex court and the circumstances under which Karnataka is not in a position to release the water sought by Tamil Nadu. We are hopeful that our prayer will be considered by the court.

A decision to file the modification petition in the apex court was taken after an all-party meeting held here last week which felt the state could not release 15,000 cusecs to Tamil Nadu in view of low storage in four reservoirs in the Cauvery basin.

Meanwhile, a meeting of Cauvery Supervisory Committee, headed by Union Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekhar, will meet on Monday in Delhi, to decide on the quantum of Cauvery water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states.The court had directed Tamil Nadu to approach the Supervisory Committee, set up to implement the award of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal (CWDT), within three days for the release of Cauvery water as per the final order of the Tribunal. Chief Secretaries of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry besides officials of Central Water Commission will attend the meeting of the Committee.

According to sources, Karnataka is expected to contend that the demand by TN for 61 tmcft water holds good only when normal rainfall occurs. However, Karnataka has received deficit rainfall this time resulting in poor inflow into the Cavery basin reservoirs. The demand of TN was 'unjustified' as it was dependent on predictions of the IMD. The rain in Hassan, Chikmagalur and Kodagu was much less. "We are not in a position to release water for one crop of our farmers whereas the Mettur Dam has a storage of 30 plus tmcft water and even has good underground water There is no hope of flow into our dams as South West Monsoon has almost come to an end whereas TN is expecting good rains from the North West Monsoon.

The sources said during good rains, Karnataka had to release 94 tmcft from June to August out of the total 192 tmcft to be released to TN in a year. But, with no sufficient water in dams of Karnataka, some districts are going to face severe drinking water crisis in the coming days. The water situation is grave and the dams would become empty if Karnataka releases 61 tmcft water as sought by TN, sources said.
The meeting of the CSC, which comes on a direction from the Supreme Court, is expected to be stormy with Tamil Nadu and Karnataka sticking to their known stands.

Chennai: Tamil Nadu will go to the Cauvery Supervisory Committee meeting on Monday in New Delhi with greater hope of getting water from the river Cauvery that is its rightful due as the panel is reported to have made up its mind to strictly adhere to the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT).

The meeting of the CSC, which comes on a direction from the Supreme Court, is expected to be stormy with Tamil Nadu and Karnataka sticking to their known stands. The Tamil Nadu Government delegation, led by Chief Secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao, will make a case passionately for the release of 64.78 tmcft of water pending to be released to the state by Karnataka as on September 5.

The TN Government wants the Karnataka Government to stick to the monthly schedule of release of water as mandated (though temporarily) by the order published in the Gazette of India based on the award by the CWDT.

Much stress would be laid on this point since the water is needed for beginning the cultivation of several crops by farmers in the Cauvery Delta region, a senior official said.

On the eve of the meeting, a senior official of the CSC said the panel headed by Union Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekhar would strictly adhere to the final order of the CWDT while deciding on the quantum of the river water to be released to TN and other states as directed by the SC.

The official also seemed to suggest that the demand by Karnataka government for an inspection by experts to assess the realities in the area was impractical since the CSC was bound by orders of the Supreme Court.

We would adhere strictly to the final orders of the CWDT and what the SC says. The order of the Supreme Court will be implemented in letter and spirit, he said.

The Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal had in a unanimous decision in 2007 allotted 419 tmcft to Tamil Nadu in the entire Cauvery basin, 270 tmcft to Karnataka, 30 tmcft to Kerala and 7 tmcft to Puducherry. Though the award was given in 2007, the Union government notified it in the gazette only in 2013.

While notifying the order in the gazette, it was said that Karnataka would release 192 tmcft of water to Tamil Nadu every year by specifying a monthly schedule.

It said the Karnataka government should release 10 tmcft in June, followed by 34 tmcft in July, 50 tmcft in August, 40 tmcft in September, 22 tmcft in October, 15 tmcft in November and 8 tmcft in December. The rest 13 tmcft would be released between January and May.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Government has received a $7,6 million loan from the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), for on-lending to co-operatives and other income generating projects, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa has said.OFID is an intergovernmental development finance institution established in 1976 by member states of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).Minister Chinamasa said the funds would be utilised in poverty alleviation projects including livestock development, drilling of community boreholes and value addition of local endowments such as fruits and honey.He said Masvingo, Manicaland and Matabeleland North Provinces would benefit from the funding which will be distributed through the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperatives Development."I am also pleased to announce that on August 17 2016 I signed in Vienna the $7,6 million line of credit from the OPEC Fund for on-lending to cooperatives and other community income generating projects," he said in his recent mid-term budget."On its part, Government will contribute $700 000 as co-financing, bringing total financing of the project to $8,3 million."Minister Chinamasa said the funding would also target fish farming, small scale mining, strengthening of entrepreneurial training Institutes and on-lending to Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (SACCOs)."The beneficiaries to this facility will be identified rural communities, households, entrepreneurs, training institutions and SACCOs."Zimbabwe has over the years benefited from various loans from OFID.In October last year, OFID extended to Zimbabwe a $20 million loan facility for the construction of schools in the country's rural areas and the provision of relevant school equipment.Zimbabwe and OFID's cooperation began in 1981 and since then, over $74 million in public sector loans and grants have been approved in support of the country's agriculture, education, energy, health and transport sectors.OFID works in cooperation with developing country partners and the international donor community to stimulate economic growth and alleviate poverty in all disadvantaged regions of the world.It does this by providing financing to build essential infrastructure, strengthen social services delivery and promote productivity, competitiveness and trade.
Chennai: A young painter, stunningly beautiful and brilliant in her work, killed herself Friday night at her house in Porur saying in her suicide note she had had enough of her hurtful feminism. She left behind a grieving husband, who was her batchmate at the Government College of Fine Arts here and their 2-year-old daughter, besides her devastated mother and a brother.

I have had enough of my feminism, which hurt those close to me. They gave me their love but I was rude to them, assuming it was a way of demonstrating my feminine strength, penn sakthi, wrote Lavanya in her suicide note recovered by the police from the house soon after being called by the devastated family. Her husband Potrarasan Suban was away at Dakshin Chitra, where he taches ceramics, when Lavanya took the extreme step.

According to the police, Lavanya and family lived in the first floor of the house where her parents and a brother stayed on the ground floor. As her husband was away, she had gone down along with the child to spend the night with her mother.

The two were talking till about 1 am when Lavanya told her mother she was going back upstairs to sleep. She left the daughter behind as she was already fast asleep.

When she did not come down till late Saturday morning, Lavanyas mother went up to check. Finding the door locked and getting no response to her repeated knocking, she called her son up to help. They broke open the door only to find Lavanya hanging by her sari from the ceiling. They rushed her to the nearby Sri Ramachandra Medical College Hospital (SRMC) where the doctors declared she was brought dead. The body was handed over to the family after post mortem on Sunday and the last rites were completed.

She left us all alone and she is gone, said Lavanyas distraught mother after the funeral. Why did she have to do this, we do not know, she told Deccan Chronicle.

She was one of my best students. She was very ambitious and her painting was just brilliant, said Prof K. Pugazhenthi, who had taught her during her post-graduation at the famous College of Arts. He said the space of artists doesnt see many women excelling but her work distinctly stood out.

Her paintings used to be a reflection of herself and her thoughts on the liberation of women. Her paintings and her writings  she was a writer too  were vocal of the need for unshackling the woman, he reminisced. He also said Lavanya had wanted to pursue fellowship in fine arts and aimed at being an internationally known painter.

We are all shattered. She was brilliant, calm, with a spirited thirst for the liberation of women. She has left a huge void in her family, among us, said a close friend wishing anonymity. She could have been a great artist, she went on, adding, Why do such well-endowed successful people resort to suicide? There must be better awareness.
Only close relatives are allowed to donate kidneys by law, but for kidney swaps this is not the case. (Photo: Representational Image)

Jaipur: In a unique example of friendship across religious lines, a Hindu and a Muslim man donated their kidneys to the others wife.

According to a report, in a private hospital in Jaipur, Rajasthan, two kidney transplants reportedly took place. A Hindu man donated his kidney for a Muslim woman, whose husband, in turn, donated his kidney to the formers wife.

Doctors at the hospital claim that this is first instance in the state where people from different religions have donated kidneys to each other.

Hasanpur resident Anita Mehra was suffering from glomerular disease for the past few years leading to kidney failure, while Tasleem Jahans kidney had failed due to excessive use of pain killers. Mehras blood group was B positive while the Jahans was A positive. Also, Mehras husband had A positive blood while Jahans husband was B positive.

Only close relatives are allowed to donate kidneys by law, but for kidney swaps this is not the case. The doctors at the hospital decided to convince the husbands to do a kidney swap.

After a counseling session, both families agreed to the arrangement. The surgery was conducted on September 2 and was a success.

I will celebrate this Eid-ul-Adha with more fervour this year, all thanks to Vinod. He has given his kidney to my wife, Tasleems husband Ahmed was quoted as saying. Mehra reportedly said, If it is Eid-Ul-Azha for Ahmed, it is no less than Diwali for me.
Chennai: Twenty years ago, Sridhar Dhanapal, now a proclaimed offender, was just an arrack seller. His growth from a bootlegger to a don based on Dubai has surpassed the expectations of his rivals too. Police say he can even now make a call from Dubai and arm twist landowners to make them sell their property at a price he dictates.

In the last two decades the 44-year-old don eliminated many of his rivals and made sure police officers turned a blind eye towards his illegal activities besides acquiring more than 125 properties worth over Rs. 150 crore in his name and in the name of his family members. By the time senior police officials noticed him again, he was sitting in the Gulf and running a real estate mafia in Kancheepuram.

Even in the last week of July he managed to arm twist a trader and forced him to sell his property worth Rs.30 crore at a price of Rs.5 crore in Kancheepuram by making a phone call from Dubai.

Many call him the Dawood Ibhrahim of Tamil Nadu, drawing parallels between him and the dreaded terror-funding underworld don. That is bit too much. Of course, he can execute deals sitting in Dubai through his associates. He is currently most wanted man in TN, that is all, a senior police officer said. He faces 43 cases including 7 murders in TN.

The Enforcement Directorate attached 124 properties belonging to him and his family members last week in connection with a money laundering case.

Kancheepuram police are taking steps to attach four more properties, worth over Rs.5 crore, belonging to him. Though he comes from Thiruparuthikundram, his given address is in Elappan Nagar in Sevilimedu in Kancheepuram.

A class X dropout in the early 90s he came in contact with arrack seller Chakravarthy and started collaborating in his business. Chakravarthy was so impressed that he was happy to see his daughter marry Sridhar. From then there was no looking back for Sridhar in the illicit business.

Over a period of time he became an influential smuggler of spirit from Karnataka and starting lording over the illicit arrack business in Vellore and Thiruvannamalai besides Kancheepuram, police disclosed.

It was in 2002 that he was first arrested for a murder attempt. After coming out of jail he eliminated his rivals. At that time certain police officials posted in Kancheepuram had helped him by arresting his rivals to establish his undisputed supremacy in illicit arrack business.

His contact with one Gabriel during one off his stint in jail had helped him to expand his activities in the real estate business through land grabbing and arm twisting owners of properties, said an officer.

Not that he had managed to purchase all the police officials. In the year 2006, a police team followed him in a car and he entered the Chennai airport without required documents and got arrested by paramilitary force deployed there. This was to escape from the police team which was following him.

He went to Dubai in 2013 after he coming out of jail and he has never returned. Kancheepuram police and Enforcement Directorate had tried putting pressure on him by detaining and questioning his daughter, who is a BBA student in England, when she visited her hometown. After all those pressure tactics failed, the law enforcers are now hoping to pin him down by attaching his properties one by one.
Thousands of people from various parts of the city thronged the Pattinapakkam beach on Sunday to immerse Ganesha idols after the annual Vinayaka Chathurthi festival. (Photo: N. Vajiravelu)

Chennai: Amid tight security, as many as 2,145 Vinayaga idols kept in various streets across the city were taken out in a procession by devotees and immersed in the sea peacefully on Sunday, police said. On Saturday, around 200 idols were immersed.

In certain areas where the idols were immersed, there were mild clashes between the police and the public who tried to jump over barricades and enter restricted seaside areas.

Around 15,000 police personnel were deployed and intensified security arrangements were made for the immersion at specific places on the Marina Beach and other areas including Srinivasapuram in Foreshore Estate, Palkalai Nagar in Neelankarai, fishing harbour in Kasimedu, Tiruvottiyur and Ennore.

Hindu Munnani, Hindu Makkal Katchi and other Hindu outfits took out idol processions.

Police had also roped in fishermen to immerse the idols and ensure there were no cases of drowning. Senior police officials visited the spot and watchtowers were set up to ensure the public were not getting too far into the water.

Coast Guard boats were also deployed for security. Surveillance cameras were set up at important places to watch the procession, police revealed. Later in the day, 30 members of the Hindu Makkal Katchi and 50 men from Hindu Munnani were arrested by the police for entering restricted areas in Triplicane and Ice House.
Haringhata: Two men kept their mother's body in their house at Simhat in West Bengals Nadia district for almost nine months and the skeleton was recovered on Sunday, police said.

Arun Saha (65) and Ajit Saha (55), both unmarried, told police that their mother Nani Bala Saha died on January 16 at the age of 85, and they could not take the body for cremation as it was very cold then.

"We thought of taking the body to the crematorium a few days later. But later, maggots formed in the body and it was not taken for cremation," the elder brother said.

Locals said the brothers did not interact much with the neighbours. Enquired about the woman's health, they would say she was ill and sleeping. But, no one was allowed to go inside their house.

A few days back, Rupak Adhikari, a local, went to the house for a survey on behalf of Haringhata Municipality. He had to measure the house and look into some documents but was not allowed inside.

Adhikari said he became suspicious and discussed this with other people and chalked out a plan.

"We formed a group of six people and sought to visit their mother this morning. When they did not allow us, a large number of people entered the house forcibly and found the skeleton on the bed. The room was shabby, dark and dirty," he said, adding the police were informed then.

The house is situated on large land and far from the main road. Apparently, that is reason why the stench from the body did not attract attention, locals said.

The brothers did not do anything for a living and led a frugal life. The younger brother was a private tutor some years ago, they said.

Police said the two brothers have been detained and are being interrogated. They seemed to have psychological problems.

In June last year, police had found a man living with the skeletons of his sister and two dogs in his house at posh Robinson Street in Kolkata.
Mumbai: In a dramatic turn of events, a man, who recently performed Ganesh puja at Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' official residence 'Varsha' here, was arrested in connection with a criminal case filed against him three years ago.

A police official from Kudal in Konkan said that the accused, Parmanand Hewalekar, was arrested on Saturday and produced before a local court. He was released on bail.

"Hewalekar was arrested in connection with the FIR filed in 2013 under IPC Section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty)," the police official said.

Hewalekar and his wife were recently invited by Fadnavis to perform Ganesh puja at 'Varsha' after he came to know about the "social boycott" faced by the couple in their native village.

The duo had created commotion in front of the Mantralaya as they turned up with an Ganesh idol and alleged that residents of their village have barred them from celebrating Ganesh puja.
Protesting the attack, the outfit has called for a bandh in Tirupur on Tuesday. (Photo: Representational Image/ Pixabay)

Coimbatore: A petrol bomb was hurled at the house of a Hindu Munnani leader by some miscreants in the wee hours on Monday in neighbouring Tirupur, causing damage to the building, police said.

The attack was carried out on the house of Hindu Munnani's Tirupur treasurer, Shanmugam at around 2 am. The portico of house suffered some damage in the incident, they said.

Protesting the attack, the outfit has called for a bandh in Tirupur on Tuesday.

The Hindu Munnani along with Tirupur Industrial Protection Committee, of which Shanugham is a member, appealed to the traders and establishments to support to shutdown.

The attack comes a day after a similar incident on the house of a Hindu Munnani leader in Vellore district.

Three unexploded crude petrol bombs were reportedly found at a divisional functionary's house in Vellore on Sunday.
Chennai: The state government is getting geared up to operate special buses for Deepavali, which falls on Oct. 30, to enable the people to visit their native places and return to the place of work.

In all likelihood, the government would operate over 11,000 special buses for this festive season. Last year, the government had operated 11,959 specials from Chennai to various destinations and in 2014 about 9,088 special buses were operated. The number of specials being operated during the Festival of Lights has been increasing year on year basis.

Reviewing the arrangements being made by the state transport corporation to run the specials, following instruction from Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, State Transport Minister M. R. Vijayabaskar, directed the officials to make sure that the public did not face any hardship in reaching their destinations. The buses would be operated for the benefit of those visiting their native places during the festival season. Principle secretary, transport department, Chandrakant B Kamble, CEO Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority M. Mathivanan and other officials participated.
The researchers with one of the Chinese jars in the Museum; (right) the Star and Crescent motif on one of the swords used for rituals.

KOZHIKODE: The Zamorins Educational Agency will collaborate with the History department of Calicut University to preserve the rare documents, photos and articles from PKS Raja Centenary Hall Museum, Guruvayurappan College and Zamorins Higher Secondary School. A team from the department recently visited the three places and examined the records which throw light on the medieval kingdom of Kozhikode where the Hindu Eradi rulers reigned for over six centuries with the hereditary title Zamorin (Samoothiri).

The artefacts and documents will be exhibited by the Calicut University during the International Kerala History Conference it is hosting in November. The articles in the museum give us a fresh look into the history of Zamorins. We have found evidence for the unity among various religions during the rule of Zamorins. One of the swords used for rituals bears Islamic symbols. We have also found coins, rare images of previous Zamorins, thaaliyolas etc, said history department head Dr P. Sivadasan. He added that many rare and old books were also found in the libraries of Guruvayurappan College and Zamorins HSS.

To preserve these invaluable documents, we need to digitise them and we hope to collaborate with the Zamorin agency in this regard, added Dr Sivadasan. Mr Govind Chandrasekhar, legal advisor of Zamorins Educational Agency and Zamorins Central Devaswom said that they were looking forward to collaborating with the university to preserve the documents which were grossly neglected.

We are interested in maintaining the artifacts and history of the Zamorin and we are happy that Calicut University is interested to help us in doing so, he said. They are planning to shift PKS Raja Centenary Hall Museum to Guruvayurappan College so that those who are interested to learn the history and do research on Zamorins realm can make use of it, he said.
Kakinada: Two leaders who are playing important roles in Andhra politics currently are Kapunadu leader Mudragada Padmanabham and Jana Sena chief and cine actor Pawan Kalyan.

Though the two leaders belong to the same community, they have never met each other and the ongoing debate within the community is whether they will in the future as Pawan Kalyan wants to emerge, untouched by the caste or religion stamp on him, while Mudragada is fighting only for the community.

Though Mudragada is a tough leader and does not work out compromises with anyone else if he leaves them, in recent times, he has met all the leaders, keeping his pride aside for the sake of the community. Mudragada met and held discussions with cine actors Dasari Narayana Rao, Chiran-jeevi, political leaders MM Pallam Raju, PV Rangaiah Naidu, many IAS and IPS officers and other leaders in the community from various parties.

But he did not meet Pawan. Rumour has it that Mudragada had tried to meet him, but Pawan had not made time for him.

Many youth, who are the followers of Mudragada, attended Pawan's meeting on Saturday.

The two leaders are two different characters. Paw-an goes without any caste or religion. He wants to change the system and bring accountability in politics. Mudragada wants to develop the community and regroup them on a united platform, said Kapunadu adviser D.N. Ramesh.

Meanwhile, the Kapu Joint Action Committees of 13 districts in Andhra Pradesh will hold a meeting on Sunday at Morumpudi in Rajahmundry from 10 am to 5 pm.

Nearly 1,000 delegates will participate in the meeting, which will be helmed by Kapu leader Mudragada Padmana-bham. The Kapu JAC convener V.Y. Das said that the time given by the state government for including Kapus in BC Reservations had ended. But Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had not fulfilled his promise nor had he even brought up the issue. The JAC leaders and members of the Kapu community spoke about taking up agitations, such as rasta rokos, rail rokos, padayatras, bike yatras and others to achieve their cause. The meeting will decide an action plan for their struggle.
Opinion / Columnist

ON Thursday September 8, 2016 the Director of the Africa Programme of the UK-based Think Tank Chatham House Mr Alex Vines was hosted by the US Institute of Peace (USIP) in Washington DC, for the purpose of releasing the recently completed research paper entitled The Domestic and External Implications of Zimbabwe's Economic Reform and Re-engagement Agenda, the co-authors are Knox Chitiyo and Christopher Vandome.Mr Vines was on a panel alongside Mr Witney SchneidmanThe Africa Director for Covington and Burlington LLP and Mrs Nicole Wilett-Jensen the Vice President of the Albright Stonebridge Group.The paper is 45 pages and begins with a Summary and Recommendations leading into four areas of concentration, which are as follows Economic Competitiveness and Accelerated Decline, Zanu-PF's Reform Agenda: Ideological Repositioning and Policy Pragmatism, and finally Political Threats.Before Zimbabweans in general and Africans in particular have any meaningful and frank discussion around Chatham House's paper, the first question that must be raised is surrounding a peculiar comment made by the SR Advisor to USIP Ambassador Johnnie Carson who served as the moderator of the forum. Ambassador Carson revealed that Chatham House received the paper exactly one month before the forum took place, this dynamic leads to two more fundamental questions, was this the established criteria in order for Chatham House to present their paper before USIP? And lastly did Mr Schneidman and Mrs Wilett-Jensen need to peruse the paper prior to the forum because they lacked initial confidence in their position and arguments?Some of the key points in the Summary and Recommendation segment of the paper in the humble opinion of Mr. Vines and his co-authors are Zimbabwe is at a watershed, faced with its most serious economic crisis since 2008.The gravity of the economic situation has forced the Zimbabwean Government into a process of re-engagement with the West. The Government must now commit to a long term strategy that includes political reform to buttress economic advances. Confidence will be built on delivery, not on rhetoric.Successful reform requires unified and sustained commitment on the part of Government. The severity of the crisis means that 'muddling through' is not a long term option, particularly as international partners could walk away if they sense that Zanu-PF is just seeking short term financial relief.International partners must also show a commitment by bringing fresh thinking to Zimbabwe's current crisis evolving transition to a post Mugabe era. Beyond the potential of a major humanitarian and economic emergency within Zimbabwe, the wider region is less resilient than was the case in 2008, and an unstable Zimbabwe will have significant regional impact.Although the EU and Australia have reviewed their Zimbabwe strategies, including responding to Harare's re-engagement strategy by revising and in some cases easing their sanctions, the US and Canada have lagged behind with outdated sanctions lists.At a time when the US administration is reviewing its strategy towards Sudan and its head of state, Omar al-Bashir US policymakers should do so too with regard to Zimbabwe.The paper begins with the following introduction "The government of Zimbabwe has adopted a programme of economic reforms in an attempt to curtail accelerating economic deterioration and a humanitarian crisis. The pressure on citizens struggling to survive is increasing, and the government is faced with a race against time to bring about meaningful change to livelihoods. What is required is the assistance of the international community and investors, but their support will depend on the government enacting a far-reaching economic and political reform programme."The paper quotes former Minister of Finance and opposition leader Tendai Biti's paper Rebuilding Zimbabwe lessons from a coalition government:Weakened by decades of poor governance and economic mismanagement, Zimbabwe has little resilience.The story of decline has been widely told. Poorly implemented, populist and politically motivated land reform and indigenisation programs hollowed out the rural economy and pushed it into a decade of implosion."Both Mr. Vines and Ambassador Carson openly admitted that President Mugabe and Zanu-PF have won the propaganda war against Western Imperialism on the question of US-EU sanctions on Zimbabwe, Mr Vines who made mention of the fact that he has previous experience as a UN sanctions observer, found it quite intriguing that Zimbabweans whom he considers extremely intelligent blame sanctions for the country's economic woes and not woeful economic policies.Mr. Vines also said the US government assumed that the opposition would win the 2013 Presidential elections and many western diplomats did not have any serious players in Zanu-PF in their list of contacts when it came time to depart from Harare.Mr Vines also discussed in a surprisingly sarcastic tone how the US and Canada sanctions lists were outdated, this was a follow up to Mr Schneidman raising the question why former Zimbabwean Vice President Joice Mujruu was still on the US government's sanctions list.While the thrust of Mr. Vines remarks were focused primarily on re-engagement perhaps he did not realise that the best way to describe US Imperialism's think tank apparatus/community is a game he more than likely played as a child called musical chairs.We can look at the careers of Ambassador Carson, Mr Schneidman and Mrs Wilett-Jensen to bring this point home. Mr Schneidman was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from 1997-2001, Special Adviser to the Vice President for Africa at the World Bank, Co-Chair of Africa Experts Group for the Obama Campaign for the Presidency and member of the Presidential Transition Team.Mr Schneidman is also the current non- resident fellow for the African growth initiative for the Brookings institute. Mrs Willett-Jensen ran National Security Council African Affairs desk from 2010 to 2012 and 2013, the SR Advisor Chief of Staff to the US Ambassador to South Africa and lastly a Sr professional staff member to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.These credentials help the African world digest and contextualise Mr Schneidman's and Mrs Wilett Jensen's remarks, when Mr Schneidman stated the Zimbabwe issue has been locked in the US-Africa policy draw.This was rather shrewd rhetoric on Mr Schneidman's part because not only has he been at the forefront of isolating Zimbabwe, based on his resume he could have pleaded with the administration to not exclude Zimbabwe from the US-Africa business summit, especially when Zimbabwe was on the verge of chairing SADC and the AU.Mrs. Willet-Jensen was the most verbose and openly stated she lacks optimism about re-engaging Zimbabwe, she was rather smitten when discussing the This Flag movement in connection to International donor community allocating resources if President Mugabe and Zanu-PF have not made political and economic reforms that meet the satisfaction of the west. This explains why around the time when Zimbabwe's Minister of Finance Patrick Chinamasa was spearheading the efforts to re-engage the west, Pastor Evan Mawarire popped out of nowhere resembling a political version of a Jack in the box.Mr Vines made an error when he did not challenge the racist angle of Mrs. Jensen's decision to refer to the land reclamation program as a farm grabbing scheme.Neither Mr. Schneidman and Mrs. Wilett-Jensen commented on why both the US Senate and Congress refused to vote on a bill submitted by Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma to repeal the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001.When Mrs. Wilett Jensen went on a tangent opposing International Financial Institutions allocating resources that President Mugabe and Zanu-PF can use to help establish economic stability, due to a lack of democracy and human rights, she apparently was functioning from the understanding that we are ignorant of the mandate of ZDERA which clearly states,''The Secretary of the Treasury instructs the US Executive Directors of each international financial institution to oppose and vote against the following1. Any extension by the respective instruction of any loan credits or guarantee to the Government of Zimbabwe.2. Any cancellation or reduction or indebtness owed by the Government of Zimbabwe to the US or any financial institution.The workshop was concluded by Ambassador Carson stating that in 2013 he made an ultimatum to President Mugabe that if they allowed the Carter Center, National Democratic Institute, and International Republican Institute to observe the elections, in return he would do everything in his power to life US-EU sanctions on Zimbabwe. One of the basic tenets of genuine diplomacy is to present an overture that lets the other side feel you are objective and flexible, this overture was the equivalent of Ambassador Carson spitting in President Mugabe and ZANU-PF's face.We are happy that Mr. Vines learned how hell bent and invested the US Imperialist think tank apparatus has become in making a regime change agenda in Zimbabwe a reality.Obi Egbuna Jr is the US Correspondent to the Herald and External Relations Officer to ZICUFA(Zimbabwe-Cuba Friendship Association)his email is obiegbuna15@gmail.com
Mohammad Shahabuddin being greeted by supporters after being released on bail after 12 years of imprisonment. (Photo: PTI)

Patna: Ruling JD(U) is mulling action against party MLA Giridhari Yadav for mingling with RJD strongman Md Shahabuddin, who made caustic remarks against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar soon after his release from jail.

"The JD(U) leadership has taken note of our own MLA Girdhari Yadav being seen in the company of Shahabuddin at the time of the latter's release from jail," party spokesman Sanjay Kumar Singh told reporters.

"We cannot accept Yadav's conduct in being seen with the RJD strongman when he spewed venom on our Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The JD(U) is mulling against against him," he said.

Yadav represents Belhar Assembly seat in Banka district. Soon after being released from jail on September 10 after 11 years, the controversial RJD leader had described Nitish Kumar as the 'chief minister of circumstances' and that RJD supremo Lalu Prasad was his only leader.

Not stopping at questioning Kumar's credentials for the chief minister's post, Shahabuddin had reportedly said yesterday that he was not a mass leader.

The outbursts by Shahabuddin and another RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, who claimed that he was opposed to the chief minister's mantle being given to Nitish Kumar, has caused rift within the ruling Grand Secular Alliance.

Stung by Shahabuddin's acerbic remarks, another JD(U) spokesman Niraj Kumar had hit back yesterday and threatened strong action against the RJD leader but did not elaborate.

Meanwhile, opposition BJP has demanded that the RJD strongman be booked under Crime Control Act as has been done in the case of Anant Singh, the independent MLA from Mokama.
The people of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu may realise soon enough that theres no simple solution to the sharing of Cauvery river waters, and violence over it only begets more violence. Relations between upper riparain entities, be they nations or states, and those lower down, who depend on fair sharing of precious water resources, has historically been difficult. An absolute priority in the wake of the intensifying Cauvery row violence on Monday is to tampen down the emotive responses of protesters, and then tackle the rising chauvinism in the long term. The row over the river is over a century old and sporadic incidents of violence only lead to vitiating the atmosphere in both states. The blame game over where the chain of violence began is irrelevant compared to the damage to normal life that is wrought, particularly in Karnataka, whose capital Bengaluru is now an globally-branded IT city that must work smoothly 24x7 to be the worlds efficient back office.

The rise of chauvinism isnt a new story either. While there has been a worrying rightist element to the phenomenon in Karnataka in the past few decades, Tamil Nadu has suffered in the last five decades from the pull of regional Dravidian forces. The point is lumpen elements of fringe political outfits like Vatal Nagarajs Kannada Chalavali Vatal Paksha and Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazagam can flourish only by stoking the kind of trouble we now see in both states, where symbols of the people of a particular state are being targeted. Such groups from the political fringes cant be allowed to hijack the rule of law. The rulers must step up and take responsibility for reining in troublemakers. It is up to the highest law officers of each government to first restore normalcy as leaders try to tackle long-standing issues like chauvinism and its effect on harmony between the states.

The apportioning of river waters has been made over to a Centrally-founded authority after various significant Supreme Court rulings over the past decade. As the court order pointed out, while amending its earlier ruling on the quantum of water release, Karnataka cannot orchestrate a we were robbed campaign to obfuscate straightforward legal issues. The tone and tenor of its application for relief and the tendency to postulate the law and order situation as a factor in the obeying of court diktats has been deprecated by the judges, and quite rightly so. That Karnataka has ongoing as well as incipient water sharing problems with all its neighbours also point to the huge difficulties of managing finite resources. It is best that the compendium of issues is left to a Central authority to deal with, lest people are permanently scarred by the tensions over water.
There is likely to be a determined effort on Tuesday, Id-ul Zuha, by pro-Pakistan elements in Kashmir to exploit religious sentiments. Particularly in the rural parts of South Kashmir, where Jamaat-e-Islami and allied bodies have a sizable presence, the administration has become virtually non-functional. It will be up to the police and the CRPF to ensure that ordinary folks are not steam-rolled into protest marches. If a day for piety is sought to be misused by politicians to fuel their separatist agenda, ordinary people may be put in harms way. In the past, violent elements used protest gatherings to hurl bombs or pull out assault rifles to cause mayhem. The security grid should factor this in and take necessary preventive measures.

In the recent past, the security sector has been neglectful. The mini-secretariat in Anantnag was burned down by a violent mob of thousands recently. This was done under a well broadcast action plan, but the government took no steps to prevent a motivated mob from gathering. People are being pushed into participation in these mobs and adequate preventive measures are lacking. Srinagars trouble zone, the old city (downtown in local parlance), must be kept free of trouble makers on this sensitive day. Prayers can be offered in local mosques. Defence minister Manohar Parrikar has clarified there wont be any Army deployments for now. That is a positive sign.
Uttar Pradesh is a state with an 80 per cent rural populace, where about 68 per cent of households depend on farming and related activities as their main source of livelihood. So ideally farmers should hold the key to who forms the next government in the state. But sadly, in spite of their large numbers, they arent the decision-makers as they arent mobilised on occupational lines. Since they dont vote en bloc as farmers; their vote is divided as others vote mainly on caste lines.

There are good reasons why they should now unite: there is a shared feeling among people in UP, more so among farmers, that their economic condition has worsened in the past five years. The findings of a new survey by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies indicate 52 per cent of people in UP believe that in the last five years, the state of UPs farmers has deteriorated, while only 17 per cent feel it has improved.

There is another 21 per cent who believe it has remained the same, while 10 per cent didnt express their opinion. In this backdrop, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhis plan to embark on a month-long Kisan Yatra from Deoria to Delhi, six months before the Assembly polls, should help the Congress reach out to rural voters, specially farmers, establishing a reconnect with rural voters. This might help the Congress in at least moving on its path of revival, but can it bring the Congress anywhere closer to being a serious contender for power in the state? The answer seems simple: while it may help in the partys long-term revival, it wont be enough to bring it anywhere close to even seriously being in the 2017 Assembly race. The Congress voteshare is at an all-time low with 7.5 per cent votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, it managed to perform well when it polled 18.3 per cent votes, as a result of which it won 21 seats. However, except in 2009, the partys electoral support has remained very low for nearly three decades.

It is important to recollect that the Congress won the last Assembly polls in UP in 1985, when it got 252 Assembly seats and polled 38.6 per cent of the vote. The problems dont stop here. Not only has its voteshare declined, the party is standing on its head in UP. While nationally, the Congress draws more support among rural voters, in UP its voteshare is much higher in urban seats compared to rural constituencies. Except for the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, when the Congress managed to get a sizeable number of votes in rural areas as well (18 per cent in rural and 22 per cent in urban seats), in most Assembly and Lok Sabha elections since 1999, the Congress voteshare in rural constituencies is three or four times less compared to urban constituencies. During the 2002 Assembly elections, the party polled six per cent votes in rural constituencies while its voteshare in urban constituencies was 22 per cent.

Similarly, in the 2007 Assembly elections, it got eight per cent votes in rural constituencies while in urban seats it got 16 per cent votes. The 2012 Assembly election was hardly different as the party polled 10 per cent votes in rural constituencies while in urban constituencies it polled 18 per cent votes. With more than 300 Assembly constituencies having 75 per cent or more rural voters, and only 30 Assembly seats with more than 75 per cent urban voters (the rest is in between), the party is hardly in a serious electoral contest in 300 constituencies. The Congress appears to have realised that in order to revive itself in the state, it must focus on rural voters. If seen in this respect, the Congress seems to have made at least a good beginning. The strategy of launching 1,600 kits with publicity material like Kisan Maangpatra, and holding khaat panchayats for one-to-one interactions seems to be a good strategy. The newly-coined slogans like Karz maaf, bijli half, samarthan mulya ka karo hisaab, not only to woo farmers but also questioning the BJP about the promises it had made in the 2014 Lok Sabha poll campaign could work.

Other slogans like Hum Hai Congress will help remind people about the Congress presence in the state, while slogans like 27 saal UP behaal will help remind voters about the misgovernance of the state by successive parties that have been in power in UP in the past three decades. This could help mobilise farmers to some extent. This new Congress campaign strategy may, however, not be enough to bring it anywhere close to power. With only 12.1 per cent votes in the 2012 Assembly elections, the party needs a huge swing in its favour to be anywhere close to the majority mark. A roughly five per cent swing in favour of the Congress (with a uniform negative swing against all other parties) can only help the party win close to 60 Assembly seats, while a 10 per cent positive swing can help the Congress win close to 100 Assembly seats. The Congress needs an 18 per cent positive swing in its favour to come close to the majority mark  which is a Herculean task. Though the khaats may have been stolen, taken away by those who came to attend the rally, this strategy may help the party move ahead on the path to revival, but only in the long run.
Scientists estimate there is a one-in-800 chance that Bennu might actually hit Earth 166 years from now.

A US space probe was cleared for launch on September 8 to collect and return samples from an asteroid in hopes of learning more about the origins of life on Earth and perhaps elsewhere in the solar system, NASA said on Tuesday.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket was scheduled to blast off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to dispatch the robot explorer Osiris-Rex on a seven-year mission.

United Launch Alliance is a partnership of Lockheed-Martin and Boeing.

Osiris-Rex is headed to a 1,640-foot (500-meter) wide asteroid named Bennu, which circles the sun in roughly the same orbit as Earth. Scientists estimate there is a one-in-800 chance that Bennu might actually hit Earth 166 years from now.

Heating from the sun gently pushes the asteroid, and charting its path is among the goals of the $1 billion mission. The US space agency also hopes Osiris-Rex will demonstrate the advanced imaging and mapping techniques needed for future science missions and for upcoming commercial asteroid-mining expeditions.

Osiris-Rex is expected to reach Bennu in August 2018 and begin a two-year study of its physical features and chemical composition. The solar-powered spacecraft will then fly to Bennu's surface and extend a robot arm to collect at least 2 ounces (60 grams) of what scientists hope will be carbon-rich material.

"We're going to asteroid Bennu because it's a time capsule from the earliest stages of solar system formation, back when our planetary system was spread across as dust grains in a swirling cloud around our growing protostar," lead researcher Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona told a prelaunch news conference on Tuesday.

Inside the developing solar system, small rocky bodies were beginning to form, many of them studded with water ice and organic materials, which are key compounds that may have made Earth habitable or even given life its start, Lauretta said.

If all goes as planned, the capsule containing samples from Bennu will be jettisoned from the returning Osiris-Rex spacecraft on Sept. 24, 2023, for a parachute descent and landing at the US Air Force Utah Test and Training Range.

Osiris-Rex is the latest in a series of missions to asteroids that began with the 1991 flyby of asteroid Gaspra by NASA's Jupiter-bound Galileo spacecraft. Japan's Hayabusa 1 probe managed to return a few tiny grains of asteroid Itokawa to Earth in 2010, the first asteroid sample return mission. A follow-on mission, Hayabusa 2, is underway.

The Osiris-Rex launch was set for between 7:05 p.m. and 9:05 p.m. on Thursday (2305 to 0105 GMT on Friday).

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Companies like SAP, IBM, HP and Oracle have been ruling the enterprise software business worldwide. But India is sending them back to school to learn how to do business in a country where they tail wags the dog -- where the opportunity lies with thousands of small and medium businesses (SMBs), rather than with a handful of big-name marquee clients. The late management guru, C.K. Prahlad called it 'the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid' -- and at least one software biggie -- SAP-- has had to adjust its India strategy, to come up with models where small businesses can work through its channel of partners rather than with the German parent.

These partners, relate better to local needs (and smaller budgets!). They encourage clients to 'do it yourself': mix-in-match in-house computers with cloud based services.

If you are an SMB, you can buy compute power as you go along. If business shrinks and you need to reduce your IT resources, you can pay less from the following month. Earlier, companies sold you take-it-or-leave-it solutions and you paid for services you might never use. Now, the same companies are creating products exclusively for your sort of business -- at dramatically lower costs.

At its annual summit, Delhi, last week, SAP announced that its Indian partners will now build their own desi applications on SAP's cloud platform. It is these partners who are closest to smaller customers. By empowering such partners, SAP is ensuring that clusters of similar business can share the same cloud.

This can be seen, if you go to a place like Tirupur in Tamil Nadu. The town's garment manufacturing hub has dozens of small companies that serve many big supermarket brands in the West. No single factory can afford SAP's services. But SAP partners help to build a bespoke solution for clusters of factories, at affordable cost, helping them unleash the power of the cloud computing.

Says Avinash Kumar Purwar, Vice President, Global Partner Operations, SAP Indian Subcontinent, said, "Over 83% of our Indian customers are small and medium enterprises, and we believe our partners can go to the grassroots and understand their unique business needs. Our cloud computing platform -- SAP HANA -- can be customized to their needs so that they access world-class technology at affordable prices."

As SAP has learnt, savvy Indian businesses may have their head (and their data) in the clouds. But they have their feet firmly on the ground. But then "We are like that only!"

-IndiaTechOnline

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The USB Killer is not a toy. Created by a manufacturer based in Hong Kong, USB Kill, it is thumb drive that destroys the physical components of any modern device that it is plugged into.

The thumb drive named USB Kill 2.0 is a testing device created to test USB ports against power surge attacks. How it works? It simply collects power from the USB power lines until it reaches a certain voltage (240V). Following which it discharges the stored voltage into the USB data lines. This cycle is rapid and repeated till the device can no longer discharge or in other words, the circuit of the machine is broken or destroyed.

This device may come across as something that a villain from perhaps, a James Bond movie may use. However, the device is not created for evil purposes. According to the tests conducted by USB Kill, over 95 per cent of the devices are affected by a USB power surge attack. In fact, majority of these consumer-level hardware have failed when tested against the USB Kill. Hence, in order to protect the devices against malicious attacks, something like the USB Kill 2.0 is required that can quickly detect how exposed the USB ports are and ensure that the systems are well protected against electrical attacks.

Unfortunately, despite the increasing prominence USB Kill 2.0 has gained in the recent past, not many companies have taken that much interest in the same.

To this day, according to our testing, the only company that releases hardware protected against a USB power-surge attack is Apple, on their Laptop and Desktop ranges. This means - despite adequate warning, and time to respond - the majority of consumer-level hardware manufacturers choose not to protect their customer's devices. We are disheartened by this lack of respect for customers, said the organization.

The device is available on the companys official website at 49,95  (approximately 3,759 rupees).

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, Samsung announced to recall about 2.5 million units of Galaxy Note 7, just two weeks after the phone was launched.

Samsung has been sued after a Galaxy S7 Edge unit exploded in the owners pocket, causing him second and third degree burns.

The lawsuit was filed by a website, called ClassAction.com, attorneys on behalf of Daniel Ramirez, who was working in a bookstore in Ohio when his Samsung Galaxy S7 phone exploded in his pocket.

The incident took place on May 30, this year, three months prior to recent incidents where Samsungs Galaxy Note 7 units are being witnessed exploding during battery charging.

Earlier this month, Samsung announced to recall about 2.5 million units of Galaxy Note 7, just two weeks after the phone was launched. Reportedly, Samsung has confirmed 35 cases of the Note 7 catching fire as of September 1, while the handsets were put on charge. Samsungs investigation in the reports of fires found that rechargeable lithium batteries manufactured by one of its supplier were at fault, and responsible for battery explosions.

Later to this, Samsung announced an exchange programme, offering customers to swap their Galaxy Note 7 handset with a Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge unit. However, after coming across Ramirez injuries due to S7 Edge explosion, ClassAction.com has raised questions on S7 Edge reliability. As a result, the website has demanded Samsung to issue an expanded Galaxy recall in order to prevent further consumer harm.

Ramirez left leg after surgery. (Photo: ClassAction.com)

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Washington: Donald Trump on Monday said that rival Hillary Clinton's comment calling half of his supporters "deplorables" was the "single biggest mistake" of this political season.

"Personally, when I heard it, I thought that it was not something that was within the realm of possibility that she would have said it. I said to my people, I don't believe she said it, I think you have to check it because there's no way that she said this," Trump told Fox News.

"She actually did, and she even really doubled up because it was said with such anger and such unbelievable anger, and I think this is the biggest mistake of the political season," the Republican presidential candidate said.

"When I saw this in its full form and I saw the anger with which she said it, I mean, the way she spoke. I think it's the single biggest mistake of the political season," he said. Democrat Clinton and Trump face each other in the November 8 general elections that would elect the 45th US president.

According to several polls, Clinton currently leads Trump, but the gap is tightening rapidly.

The 68-year-old Clinton had sparked an uproar on Friday at a fundraiser when she described Trump's supporters as "deplorables" who were driven by "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic" sentiments. On Sunday, she expressed regret.

Trump also raked up similar remarks made by Mitt Romney, Republican nominee in the 2012 presidential election.

"Remember this, you're going to be president, you're president of all the people. You're not president of 50 per cent or 75 per cent, you're president of all people - you're president of everybody," Trump said coming back on Clinton.

"And somehow it has to get out there that it's not a certain group of people that's going to be left behind. Or they've already been left behind with jobs and lots of other things. You have to be president of everybody," he asserted.

"My base is blue collar but my base is everything else also. I'm really proud of the blue collar because the job they do is incredible, and the fact is they haven't been taken care of properly by this country," he said.

"People know it's very interesting - people 18 years ago were making more in real wages, many people. But on average, people 18 years ago were making more than they're making today and they're working harder today. And in many cases they  and to a large extent because of this horrible Obamacare - in many cases they're working two jobs," he said.
CIA Director John Brennan on Sunday said the US needs to be alert about Russian President Vladimir Putin as he is very assertive, aggressive and manipulative. He (Putin) is somebody who is very aggressive, very assertive, the CIA Director John Brennan said.

I think his intelligence background gives him a certain perspective. A lot of the senior Russian officials are also former KGB (Russian security agency). And so hes somebody that we need to, I think, be very wary of in terms of his ability to manipulate environments for Russias advantage, he said while responding to a question.

He also said that Russians might be collecting information in cyber-realm, CBS News reported.

I think that we have to be very, very wary of what the Russians might be trying to do in terms of collecting, as well collecting information in that cyber-realm, as well as what they might want to do with it, the CIA chief said.

In certain areas, they are adversaries, yes. But also, in areas, we need to find ways to cooperate with them, because they do also have a vested interest in trying to bring stability and trying to dismantle these terrorist organisations, he added.

Russia, he said, is a world power. They are involved in many different parts of the world, military capability. Theyre involved in the Middle East right now, obviously in Ukraine, Central Asia. So, Russia is a formidable adversary in a number of areas. Also, there are areas that we need to be able to work with Russia, specifically in Syria, he asserted.

Russia has exceptionally capable and sophisticated cyber-capabilities, in terms of collection, as well as whatever else it might want to do in that cyber-sphere, he said.

So we have known this for quite a while. Their intelligence services are quite active around the world. This is something that we have to make sure that were on guard for, not just for our national security purposes, but also for making sure that our system of government here is going to be preserved, he said.

He said that hacking of the server of the Democratic National Committee was a criminal activity.
Opinion / Columnist

Africa prides in respect of the elderly subject to the elderly taking a deserving respectful role on people, listening to people and taking their views into account. Mr. Mugabe has neither been to an African squatter camp or market place where poverty exhibits itself with a view to learning except when he last sought people support against Zapu in the 1980s. The question hard to answer is if Mr Mugabe and his surrogates cabinet have ever had an official visit to squatter camps apart from destroying the camps even without alternatives for the poor citizens?Planning has been haphazard, driven mainly by political consideration than by the passion of people safety or security. Haphazard decision to give people land on areas none designated for some other needs would be done for political expediency. A few months and/or one year later people investments in housing are put at risk and they are accused of being intransigence taking unlawful settlements on forbidden lands. This, apart from the force of violence, has led ordinary people to loose respect let alone love for Zanu and its leader Mr. Mugabe.People, the common man in Zimbabwe had they elsewhere to go, no doubt Zimbabwe would be not only a failing state but a state of Zanu cronies and surrogates only and all other peace loving Zimbabweans having relocated. International politics is unfair and turns a blind eye to many suffering and innocent people simply because states have a monopoly on what reaches the ears of the international community.This has enabled Mr. Robert Mugabe to rubbish any claim of people abuse by even the Zimbabwe Human Rights Lawyers Association. He has crushed masses demonstrations and committed crimes over humanity by accentuating people mysterious disappearances that have beset Zimbabwe since independence. He has caused politics of decay and corruption and patronage to eclipse culture of politics now solely, it would largely apply, related to power mongering and self-aggrandizement.No doubt innocent citizens who are supposed to hold views on politics to themselves and express them at ballot boxes have experienced duress from both government authority and from her auxiliary agents such as the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) and secret police force. The duress has taken forms of physical beatings in the middle of the nights for families suspected to support other political organizations, denying food supplies to suspects who do not carry Zanu atrocities upon neighbours who do not attend political rallies and many other demeaning exercises.When Mr. Robert Mugabe denies people abuse by state securities, he is either denied full information assuming he demands for such facts by his officials, or he is a liar who tells lies with a straight face. He has of late referred as rubbish to human rights Lawyers' association findings with evidence through many social media networks showing people who are seated unarmed yet are subjected to inhumane interrogations and beatings so they can never volunteer to condemn Mugabe's police brutality publicly. We are witness to public assault on ordinary grouping of any areny persons without ever raise their voice or arms to retaliate.Zimbabwe is now ready to challenge Mr. Mugabe to produce evidence that his surrogates army including secret intelligence and police force do not abuse the public. We of the Diaspora together with those suffering abuse at home will respond with evidence on the ground of individuals who may never access the media freely without government punishment, mental and physical abuse. The life conditions in Zimbabwe bears much resemblance prison camps for the youth who have no opportunities and individuals who are politically articulate. Political fatigue has taken over and many Zimbabweans prefer to remain silent and anonymous than throwing oneself to a gang of murderers who care little about human and people rights.Even though government has strict laws against peaceful demonstrations, and judges lately have picked moral courage to follow law than follow Mr. Mugabe e personal edicts, there is too much literature and pictures on human abuse in Zimbabwe for the last thirty-six years with worst horrific images sufficient for a case on Zanu leadership to be summoned at the International Criminal Court and face world justice. The trauma levels caused among many Zimbabweans will have long term effects of post stress syndrome on yet many more once some significant orderliness is restored. The poor treatment of citizens permitted under the watch of Mr. Mugabe and his Zanu surrogates pauses a question of whether indeed Mr.Mugabe is a Zimbabwean and why he callously has ignored the suffering of ordinary people to this extent.It is debatable if Mr. Mugabe stay in power is a voluntary desire or he is an extension of a system that has bound him in circumstances beneficial to only a few by strengthening poor governance and corruption practices. Perceptively the beneficiaries in Zimbabwe political rot are people like Mugabe new and younger wife Grace, army commanders, Air force Commanders, police and secret intelligence bosses are a special sectors of beneficiaries who have exploited the country resources or were used to enable certain relatives of Mr. Mugabe make personal moneys.The state is bankrupt and cannot take it any longer yet neither Mr. Mugabe nor his party would give a clear plan to salvage a bleeding economy or are they willing to call an early election. The idea of scaling down staff in civil service, having already killed the private sector, is a sure sign of a government that is failing to think in the national interest except for those in the helm of power to make themselves richer and richer from plundering state resources.The initiatives by Zimbabweans of various backgrounds without singling any one group to bring pressure for dialogue and open an honestly free and fair elections can be accepted as the only none violent and best democratic option the world should consider expeditiously. Unless there are secret hands intending to mess in Zimbabwean affairs like was done in Libya, common sense would dictate common sense that Zimbabweans out of their maturity need guidance and accountable financial aide to formulate Transitional Instrument to see revenge of a hateful Zanu government melted into an accountable governance.The aim of this write-up is to engage Zimbabweans in a conversation that exposes greedy and selfishness for the pain it has caused our country for such a long time. It is the time we separate the chaff from grain in order that minds can be invested in building accountability, transparency, and Politics of development than patronage and aggrandizement. That our lack of resolve to build open governance and the desire to ingratiate with the evil of Corruption in order to become personally rich, a crime that has destroyed Africa-lack of accountability- must craftily be put to rest by a group of honesty persons of high integrity and who love mingling with people and having empathy with masses.One fact true is that many of us have succeeded in growing Zanu into huge ugly none accountable octopus. We have sought to exploit the obvious weakness of big-mindedness of single handily dealing government as a personal item of Mr. Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace. Many of us fed from Zanu's spoils and argued in support of Zanu by virtue of benefits we received than by employing professionalism and best practices in governance. By failing to be objective and to view different angles of in putting a difference in perspectives of growth and development, we abrogated authority to abuse without questioning to Mr. Robert Mugabe.Subsequently, Mr. Mugabe has never blamed himself for any misjudgment on governance except pick on others and condemn them. He has condemned colonialism, the western nations and aligned any opposition to being puppets of the West nations. Only Mr. Mugabe is right in Zimbabwe which leads to a strong supposing that Mr Robert Mugabe and his government are liars or smart criminals who deliberately are running down the country by in part driving as many citizens out of the country reducing opposition in the countryMr. Mugabe has blamed judges and put many under threat till they run out of the country. Mr. Mugabe has used every trick in the textbook and got away with it. The African Union (AU) have not had moral courage to question Zanu government except reward Mr. Mugabe for his absolute canning power politics game he has played on masses of Zimbabwe by denying them freedom to information and employment of political patronage over her surrogates. The craftiness of Zanu cannot be attributed to intelligence but violence and brutality. Without these two tribute neither Mr. Mugabe nor Zanu would be in power or existing today.Truth be told Mr.Mugabe has not only misrepresented the country but underdeveloped people killed industrial and commercial infrastructure and robbed our children of their future putting many through traumatic tress diseases. Genuinely Zimbabweans had a strangely weird and stressful three decades when a commander in chief has constantly used soldiers to work tasks ordinarily assigned to law and order police force world over. We conclude that Mr. Mugabe has much to answer to people of Zimbabwe more so why he would insist on running the government when the government keeps failing to meet paying salaries for services already offered.------------Andrew Manyevere
Brigades of soldiers from around the country have been enlisted to help victims of the flooding, which began August 29 and was caused by Typhoon Lionrock. (Photo: AFP)

Tokyo: North Korea is mobilising to deal with a disastrous flood that killed more than 130 people, destroyed tens of thousands of homes and crippled infrastructure in its northern-most province.

Brigades of soldiers from around the country have been enlisted to help victims of the flooding, which began Aug. 29 and was caused by Typhoon Lionrock.

According to a UN report issued by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the floods displaced tens of thousands of people and destroyed homes, buildings and critical infrastructure. North Korean media said it was the worst single case of downpours and high winds since 1945, though that claim couldn't be verified.

The report said the government has confirmed 133 people were killed and another 395 missing. It said more than 35,500 houses, schools and public buildings were damaged, with 69 percent completely destroyed. It reported widespread inundation of farmland and at least 140,000 people in urgent need of assistance.

The hardest-hit areas, parts of which remain inaccessible, are Musan and Yonsa counties near the Chinese border in the northern tip of the country.

North Korea's state media reported Sunday that high winds and heavy rainfall swept over several cities and counties, causing buildings to collapse and leaving railways, roads, parts of the electric power system, factories and farmlands destroyed or submerged. It said a mass recovery effort has been launched.

On Monday, North Korea reported construction units were arriving in the flood-hit areas from all over the country, including the capital, Pyongyang.

"The country's manpower and material and technical potentials are now concentrated on the flood damage rehabilitation," the Korean Central News Agency said. It said the ruling party has urged citizens to "achieve the miraculous victory of converting misfortune into favourable conditions with the tremendous might of single-minded unity!"

The North Korean media also said the focus of a 200-day "loyalty campaign" already underway to mobilize the nation behind leader Kim Jong Un in a mandatory show of devotion has been switched to a call for all citizens to support the recovery effort.

The U.N. agency said humanitarian agencies have released relief materials from their stockpiles inside North Korea, including food, shelter and kitchen kits, water purification and sanitation supplies and emergency health supplies.

The U.N. report said the government is "urgently working" to reopen roads, distributing relief goods and preparing to rebuild 20,000 houses by early October, before the onset of North Korea's bitterly cold winter.

It added that the government had allowed U.N. agencies, the North Korean Red Cross and International Federation of the Red Crescent, along with private international aid groups to conduct a joint assessment of needs in the affected areas last week, but they were unable to access Musan and Yonsa.

The flooding occurred around the Tumen River, which runs between North Korea and China.

North Korea experiences frequent natural disasters which are more devastating because of its often problematic infrastructure and lack of civil engineering projects designed to mitigate damage.

In August last year, major downpours followed by flash floods killed at least 40 people and devastated parts of the Rason area, near the Russian and Chinese borders where a key special economic zone is located.

A series of floods and droughts were a contributing factor in the disastrous famine years of the 1990s called the "arduous march" in North Korea - that nearly brought the country to economic ruin.
Vietnamese officials said at the time that the Indonesians, aged 19 to 61, initially said they encountered an accident at sea while fishing. (Photo: Representational Image)

Hanoi: A Vietnamese court on Monday approved a Malaysian request for the extradition of eight Indonesians suspected of hijacking a Malaysian oil tanker more than a year ago, and rejected a similar request from Indonesia, state media reported.

The online newspaper VnExpress said the People's Court in Hanoi agreed to send the suspects to Malaysia based on laws on mutual legal assistance and criminal procedure. It said the suspects have 15 days to appeal the ruling. Court officials were not immediately available for comment.

The eight were arrested in June last year when they arrived on Tho Chu island off Vietnam's southern coast and admitted that they had hijacked the oil tanker MT Orkim Harmony.

Vietnamese officials said at the time that the Indonesians, aged 19 to 61, initially said they encountered an accident at sea while fishing, but after questioning with information provided by Malaysian authorities, they confessed that they were responsible for the hijacking.

The ship was carrying 7.5 million liters (2 million gallons) of gasoline worth 21 million ringgit ($5.7 million) and was on its way to Kuantan in Malaysia when communication with it was lost.

In the hijacking, 13 Indonesian pirates armed with pistols and machetes took control of the tanker. Eight remained on board while the five others returned to Indonesia on their own boat, possibly to look for buyers of the gasoline.

The remaining pirates then abandoned the tanker and fled to Tho Chu island on a life raft. The International Maritime Bureau said last year that attacks on small tankers off Southeast Asia's coasts have been rising since 2014.
London: British police arrested 55 people and seized blades at a Sikh temple on Sunday, following a protest against a mixed marriage.

Armed officers were deployed to the Gurdwara Temple in Leamington Spa, central England, at around early on Sunday after a group of men entered the building.

A total of 55 people were arrested for aggravated trespass in what police chief David Gardner described as "an escalation of a local dispute".



"A significant number of bladed weapons were seized from the scene," he said adding that no-one was injured in the incident.



Gurmel Singh, secretary general of Sikh Council UK, said protesters walked freely into the temple and did not break into the building. He said the group then held prayers and a sit-in to oppose a wedding due to take place between a Sikh and a non-Sikh.



"Marriage is a sacred institution and in our culture we have no problem with people of difference races getting married, but the religious doctrine says this particular ceremony is reserved for two Sikhs," Singh told AFP.



One eyewitness, Perry Phillips, said the protest appeared to be peaceful. "I could see at the entrance to the Gurdwara a lot of people were outside but it was peaceful, there was no shouting or anything," he told the Press Association.

"There's a big Sikh community in Leamington Spa and a lot of people were turning up," he added.



The Sikh 2 Inspire group said those arrested were carrying the kirpan, a ceremonial Sikh dagger, and criticised the response to the Gurdwara Temple incident.



"The media and police have victimised the Sikh appearance and defamed the Sikh community in the UK," the group said on Facebook, calling on their supporters to take their kirpan to their local police station and explain its significance to officers.



There are more than 420,000 Sikhs in England and Wales, according to 2011 census data, accounting for 0.8 percent of the population.



Christians make up the largest religious group, accounting for 59.3 percent of the population, followed by Muslims (4.8 percent) and Hindus (1.5 percent).
Sally Jones, dubbed 'Mrs Terror' by the British media, has been using social media to make a series of threats against the West using a variety of aliases such as Sakinah Hussain and Umm Hussain al-Britani (Photo: Twitter)

London: ISIS recruiter Sally Jones, dubbed 'Mrs Terror' by the British media, has been training female recruits unit of foreign jihadis to carry out terror attacks in Western countries, it has emerged.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, Jones, a former punk rocker who has been designated as the world's most wanted terrorist by the UN, has been declared as the in charge of the women's wing of Anwar al-Awlaki battalion that comprises English-speaking jihadis.

This unit has been assigned with carrying out terror attacks in the West and also teaches women to use weapons for carrying out lone suicide attacks.

It has emerged that Jones had been involved in recruiting dozens of women for ISIS through the social media.

Jones has been placed on a Pentagon 'kill list' after being named as a "specially designated global terrorist".

She was recently in the news for rumours that claimed a boy featured in the recent ISIS propaganda video was her son. In response to the claims, a woman claiming to be Jones, said that the child in the video was not her son. She also added that she would have been very proud to see her son in one of the execution videos.

Jones had fled to Syria in 2013 with her son Jo Jo when he was just 10 years old. She remarried an ISIS jihadist in Syria and started living with him thereafter. Her jihadi husband, a computer hacker, was killed in a drone strike in al-Raqqah last year.
London: Disgraced UK Labour MP Keith Vaz is in for more trouble as the police are probing his link to a man who allegedly ran a brothel that offered sex services of men for other men.

One of the official police documents, a five-page witness statement seen by 'The Sunday Times', accuses the MP of intervening in the eviction of a council tenant in Leicester in 1991, who was suspected of providing "the services of young men for other men".

59-year-old Vaz is suspected of having misused his office to overturn the eviction and local police of the Leicester constituency are looking into claims of misconduct dating back to 1991. The politician has said that he is not aware of any new probe against him.

According to a 'Sunday Times' report, four witnesses, including a former lord mayor of Leicester, last week confirmed they had been interviewed by Leicestershire detectives.

The inquiries have been going on for at least a year.

Leicestershire police refused to comment last week on whether Vaz was under investigation or whether the witnesses were being interviewed as part of a wider inquiry.

His wife had on Sunday come out in his defence saying though she felt "betrayed" she would forgive him as he was "not a bad person" after he was embroiled in a sex scandal involving male prostitutes.

Maria Fernandez said she felt "betrayed" after the 'Sunday Mirror' claimed in a report that Vaz paid for two male prostitutes and made references to drugs, but has decided to give him a second chance.

"The shock was also the whole scenario of allegedly using sex workers because it is so unlike him," the 'Sun on Sunday' quoted her as saying.

The 57-year-old former barrister, who has two children with Vaz, said: "Keith is not a bad person."
Merete Hodne, the hairdresser initially refused to pay a fine of 8,000 kroner for religious discrimination. (Photo: Facebook)

Oslo: Norway hit a hairdresser with a roughly 1,000-euro fine on Monday after she was convicted of discrimination for turning away a Muslim client wearing a headscarf.

Merete Hodne had risked up to six months in prison for religious discrimination for turning Malika Bayan away from her hair salon in Bryne, a small town in southwestern Norway, in October last year.

"The court... has no doubt that the defendant acted intentionally, that she deliberately discriminated against Bayan by expelling her from the salon because she is Muslim," the court ruled.

It imposed a fine of 10,000 kroner (1,075 euros/$1,200) and also ordered her to pay 5,000 kroner in court costs.

Hodne intends to appeal the decision, her lawyer told news agency NTB.

The 47-year-old hairdresser had told the court she saw the headscarf as a political symbol representing an ideology that frightens her, rather than as a religious symbol.

"I see it as a totalitarian symbol. When I see a hijab, I don't think of religion, but of totalitarian ideologies and regimes," she told the judges, cited by daily Verdens Gang.

According to the charge sheet, Hodne told Bayan "she would have to find someplace else because she didn't accept (clients) like her."

The hairdresser initially refused to pay a fine of 8,000 kroner for religious discrimination, and the case therefore went before the Jaeren district court on Thursday.

While Hodne acknowledged that she could have turned Bayan, 24, away more courteously, she denied the charge of religious discrimination.
The accused cop was suspended from his duty and is also facing a court case for sexaully assaulting women. (Photo: YouTube)

Birmingham: A police officer in UK, who has admitted to sexually assaulting women while on duty, allegedly told a rape victim that he would only investigate the crime if she agreed to perform oral sex on him.

According to a report in Daily Mail, Marie Reynolds, who is from Erdington in Birmingham, has accused 47-year-old Steven Walters of demanding sexual favours. Marie claims that the police officer told he would examine a crucial CCTV footage that could have helped her nail the culprit in the rape case, only if she performed oral sex on him.

40-year-old Marie, who is a hairdresser by profession, says she did not want to be anonymous so that she could warn the public against Walters. She went public with her story after the police officer admitted to two sex attacks on women during a trial at Stafford Crown Court.

According to Marie, the incident occurred when two officers had paid a visit at her mothers home after she had complained about her sexual assault. While one officer was with her parents, Walters followed her into the bedroom she claims.

'He was coming across like he didn't believe me. I was so low and vulnerable. I was promised he would sort it all out, that he'd look at the CCTV. But first he made me perform a sex act. I was just getting nowhere and needed help, she was quoted in the report.

Marie insisted that the other police officer had no idea what had transpired between the other two and that Walters behaved as if nothing had happened.

He acted as if nothing had happened, but I felt dirty. I told my mum as soon as he left. I wanted their help,' Marie said, breaking into tears.

'I agreed [to what he wanted] because I was desperate to get the CCTV evidence to prove to people that I was not lying and making up these allegations. I was desperate for someone to look into the case and investigate it.'

Marie says she has lost her faith in the police and wants Walters to be jailed for what he did.

Walters has been suspended from duty and is facing an internal inquiry to allegations against him. A court case is also on against him and the judge had warned that he would most likely go to jail for his offence.
Beirut: Syrias main opposition umbrella group and several rebel factions called for guarantees on the implementation of a landmark truce deal before endorsing it, hours before it was to begin on Monday.

The Russian-US brokered ceasefire is due to start at sundown, but it has yet to win support from Syrias political or military opposition.

We want to know what the guarantees are, said Salem al-Muslet, spokesman for the High Negotiations Committee, which groups political and military opposition factions.

What is the definition that has been chosen for terrorism, and what will the response be in case of violations? We are asking for guarantees especially from the United States, which is a party to the agreement, Muslet said.

Rebel groups on Sunday sent a letter to the US outlining a list of concerns over the deal, which calls for a 48-hour ceasefire anywhere where the opposition is present, which is then renewable. In the letter, rebels wrote they would deal positively with the idea of the ceasefire, but did not explicitly back it. The clauses...that have been shared with us do not include any clear guarantees or monitoring mechanisms.
Arafat: Saudi authorities deployed drones to watch over nearly 2 million pilgrims as they ascended Mount Arafat at the climax of the haj pilgrimage on Sunday, part of stepped up efforts to avoid a repeat of last year's crush.



In one of the deadliest disasters to befall the annual Muslim rite in decades, the crush killed nearly 800 pilgrims, according to Riyadh, though counts by countries of repatriated bodies showed over 2,000 people may have died, more than 400 of them Iranians.



Chanting "here I am at thy service, O Lord," the faithful climbed the craggy hills outside Mecca where Islam holds that God tested Abraham's faith by commanding him to sacrifice his son Ismail and the Prophet Mohammed gave his last sermon.



"I have prayed to God to have mercy on us, give us relief and resolve Syria's crisis," said Um Fadi, wearing a traditional long black embroidered dress and head scarf native to her home in southern Syria.



"From the bottom of my heart, I pray that God will lift this agony from Syria and its people," she added.



Saudi Arabia has said that 1.85 million pilgrims, most of them from outside Saudi Arabia, have arrived for the annual pilgrimage, a religious duty for every able-bodied Muslim who can afford the journey.



Saudi Arabia stakes its reputation on its guardianship of Islam's holiest sites and organising haj, a role that Iranian authorities have challenged this week as part of an escalating war of words over the handling of last year's disaster.



The Grand Mufti, the kingdom's top religious authority, warned Iran on Sunday that to disrupt the haj would be unacceptable, in comments reported by local daily al-Okaz.



"Any policy that aims to divert the haj from its proper course is un-Islamic and is a criminal policy," he was quoted as saying.



Earlier in the week, Iran's supreme leader accused Saudi authorities of murdering pilgrims during last year's crush. In response, Saudi Arabia's mufti said Iran's leaders were not Muslims.



Pilgrims from Iran are not attending haj this year, after talks between the two Middle East powers over haj arrangements broke down in May.



The 2015 crush, in which two large groups of pilgrims arrived together at a crossroads in Mina, a few kilometers east of Mecca, on their way to performing the "stoning of the devil" ritual at Jamarat, was the worst disaster to strike the annual pilgrimage for at least 25 years.



The Saudi authorities redesigned the Jamarat area after two stampedes, one in 2004 and one in 2006, killed hundreds of pilgrims, and the frequency of such disasters has greatly reduced as the government spent billions of dollars upgrading and expanding haj infrastructure and crowd control technology.



The haj ministry has said it had prepared a strict timetable for pilgrims from various countries to follow when leaving and returning to their accommodation.



Authorities have also deployed drones to reinforce a network of electronic surveillance of the crowds that would alert authorities to intervene quickly if necessary.



Saudi state news agency SPA said that Crown Prince Mohammed Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz, who is also the interior minister, supervised oversight as pilgrims used buses, trains and private cars to move from their encampments in Mena to Mount Arafat.



So far, things have proceeded smoothly, SPA added.



The pilgrims will spend the day on the mountain and move by sunset to the rocky plain of Muzdalifa, where they will gather pebbles to stone columns symbolizing the devil at another location called Jamarat on Monday, which marks the first day of Eid al-Adha (feast of sacrifice).
A New England Patriots fan holds up a sign to honour the victims of the 9/11 attacks during a game at the University of Phoenix Stadium on Sunday. (Photo: AFP)

Riyadh: Gulf Arab states expressed concern on Monday over a bill passed by the US Congress that would allow relatives of victims of the 9/11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia for compensation.

The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), of which Saudi Arabia is the most powerful member, expressed profound worry, the blocs secretary general, Abdullatif al-Zayani, said in a statement.

He said the law 'contravenes the foundations and principles of relations between states, notably sovereign immunity'.

The US House of Representatives passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act by a unanimous voice vote on Friday. The Senate had approved the bill four months ago and it now goes before President Barack Obama.

The White House has signalled that he is likely to veto the bill but his veto can be overridden by a two-thirds majority of both houses.

Zayani expressed hope the US administration will not endorse this law...which will create a grave precedent.

Saudi Arabia is a longstanding US ally but it was also home to 15 of the 19 al-Qaeda hijackers who carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US which killed nearly 3,000 people.

The draft law would allow attack survivors and relatives of terrorism victims to pursue cases in US federal court against foreign governments and demand compensation if such governments are proven to bear some responsibility for attacks on US soil.

Two GCC members  Qatar and the United Arab Emirates  also issued their own separate statements on Monday criticising the bill.
When European officials ordered Ireland to collect a record $14.5 billion in back taxes from Apple, Kieran OConnell drew up a wish list for spending the money.



A public social worker who deals with at-risk youth, Mr. OConnell has faced drastic cuts since the Irish government imposed austerity measures six years ago during a financial crisis. His salary was frozen and his pension taxed. With his agencys budget shrunk 30 percent, he hasnt been able to replace staff, keep up with the demand for addiction and retraining programs or accommodate all the homeless teenagers looking for shelter.



You could invest it in treatment centers, detox beds and community care, said Mr. OConnell, 50, who works in this southern Irish city, where Apple has had its European headquarters for more than 35 years.



But Ireland doesnt want Apples billions. Instead, the Irish government is appealing Europes tax ruling, a move that is exposing a rift in a country still feeling the aftershocks from years of harsh cutbacks.



The Irish governments defense is a mixture of financial realpolitik, national pride and damage limitation. The European Unions decision takes direct aim at some of the countrys generous tax policies, calling them illegal incentives in Apples case.



Local lawmakers, in part, worry that taking the tech giants billions could scare off other multinationals from investing in Ireland just as other countries vie to entice them. Many people across the country are also upset that European officials are meddling with the countrys tax policies. Apple, which is also appealing, is taking the same stand, calling the case politically motivated.



But it is a big payday to forgo, prompting criticism from left-wing lawmakers, government workers and even some local fans of Apple. European officials calculate that Apples tax bill may rise to $21.3 billion when interest is included.

People have said Ireland is many things , but nobody ever accused their government of being crazy, until now. A recent EU ruling has said Ireland is owed $14.5 Billion in back taxes. After years of cruel austerity, in the face of this windfall the Irish government says it does not want the money.Telling your own people to suck on a potato so you can kiss some corporate ass. That's crazy!
For many women, the decision to wed an already married man is born of economic hardship. (Representational Image: AP)

Damascus: Six months after Maha's husband was killed in Syria's bloody civil war, the mother-of-two took a decision that has become increasingly common -- she became a second wife.

"After my husband died, I was alone with my children and it was very difficult," the 31-year-old told AFP by phone from an area near Damascus that has seen heavy combat between government and rebel forces.

"My cousin suggested we get married, and now I live with his wife and children. It was a difficult decision because his wife was a friend of mine," she said.

With thousands of Syrian men dying on the front lines of the conflict that began in March 2011, and others forced into exile or simply disappearing, the rates of divorce and polygamy in Syria are on the rise.

According to official figures, polygamous relationships accounted for 30 percent of marriages registered in Damascus in 2015, up from just five percent in 2010.

"We have more women than men here. Four friends and I decided to take widowed women as second wives to protect their reputations," explained Mohammed, Maha's new husband.

More than 290,000 people have been killed in Syria and millions have fled their homes to neighbouring countries.

For those who have stayed, fighting has torn apart families and put an enormous strain on couples struggling to survive amid poverty, unemployment and violence.

'More women than men'

In Syria, the personal status law for Muslims, which is applied for issues such as marriage, divorce and inheritance, is derived from religious law.

Other religious groups, like the Christians and Druze, are regulated by their own religious tribunals.

Polygamy pre-dates Islam in the Middle East but was incorporated into the religion. Sunni Muslim men are permitted to take four wives on the condition that they treat them equally.

Nowadays, the practice is fairly uncommon in much of the Muslim world, with many countries placing restrictions on multiple marriages.

In Syria, these include limits on the age difference between spouses and guarantees that the husband can pay for separate homes for each wife.

But the imbalances created by war have prompted religious authorities to be more lax.

"Many men are dead, missing or have gone abroad," said judge Mahmud al-Maarawi, who heads the religious court that oversees personal status issues for Syria's Sunni Muslims.

"So there are more women than men, and the solution from a legal and religious point of view is polygamy," he told AFP.

"The tribunals bypass the restrictions put in place by law to allow a man to take a second wife... It has solved many problems."

For many women, the decision to wed an already married man is born of economic hardship.

"Women who in ordinary circumstances would have refused are now agreeing to marry a man who is already married who can provide for them and give them a sense of protection," said psychologist Leila al-Sherif.

Marrying a tenant

Abu Adnan's second wife was a tenant at his large house in the Old City in Damascus.

"She couldn't pay her rent, so I decided to marry her. It was better than putting her on the street," the 46-year-old said.

"My first wife accepted because we haven't been able to have children. She hopes I'll be able to have a son."

A mother of five, Sabah al-Halabi's said her, "first husband abandoned me and my children after losing his job" early on during the conflict.

To provide for her two unmarried children, Sabah found a husband 24 years her senior who already has one wife.

"I married Mamduh, who is 68, because I wanted a better life for my children," she said, as she waited to register her marriage in Damascus.

The war has also led to an increasing number of divorces, with authorities recording 7,000 cases in 2015, a 25 percent increase from 5,318 in 2010.

"Many couples are forced to live with their families for economic reasons," creating pressure on marriages, said Maarawi.

"There are also disputes between couples when one wants to emigrate and the other is afraid of the journey or being far from their family," he added.

In some cases, husbands have demanded divorces after meeting women overseas, or wives have divorced husbands who have left them behind.

Syrian law allows a wife to divorce if she can prove her husband has been absent for at least a year, but 43-year-old Fawziyeh waited three years before beginning proceedings against her husband.

He left for Sweden as a refugee, where he was meant to complete the paperwork for the family to reunite.

But after waiting three years, living with their three children at her parents' home, she'd had enough.

"I divorced him. The wait was difficult and now I'm free to marry whoever I want."
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shakes hands at the conclusion of a joint press conference following their meeting to discuss the crisis in Syria, in Geneva, Switzerland. (Photo: AP)

Beirut: A new ceasefire brokered by Russia and the United States is due to begin at sundown on Monday in Syria.

It aims to halt fighting between President Bashar al-Assads forces and the opposition, but does not apply to jihadists like the Islamic State group. The regime and its allies have backed the truce but with only a few hours to go on Monday the opposition had not yet signed on.

Here is a breakdown of the forces involved:

Regime and allies

The Syrian Armys 300,000-strong pre-war force has been halved by deaths, defections and draft-dodging but is continuing to battle myriad rebel groups and jihadists.

The army is bolstered by 200,000 irregular fighters, notably from the National Defence Forces. It also battles alongside 5,000 to 8,000 men from Lebanons powerful Shia militia Hezbollah, as well as Iranian, Iraqi and Afghan fighters.

Russia, a key regime backer, began an aerial campaign in support of Assads government in September last year and has helped Damascus recapture areas in several provinces.

Iran is another key ally, providing financial and military support.

Rebels and backers

The truce is to apply to a wide range of opposition forces, including moderate rebel fighters and Islamist factions. The total number of rebel fighters is unclear, though in 2013 US secretary of state John Kerry said there were 70,000 to 100,000 oppositionists fighting in Syria.

The Free Syrian Army (FSA) was a key opposition faction in the early days of the conflict but has since splintered into a range of groups, though the term is still often used to describe moderate rebels.

Ahrar al-Sham is Syrias most powerful non-jihadist rebel group, with a commanding presence in Idlib and Aleppo provinces. It espouses a hardline Islamist ideology, and is a key partner of the jihadist Fateh al-Sham Front, participating in the Army of Conquest alliance with the group in ruling Idlib province.

Opposition factions deemed moderate are backed by the West, particularly the US, France and Britain. Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar also back the opposition, and have lent support to Islamist factions.

Another key opposition group is the Saudi-backed Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) linked to Mohammed Alloush, a leading rebel figure who briefly acted as the chief negotiator for the main opposition umbrella group, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC).

Jihadists

The Islamic State group and the Fateh al-Sham Front are excluded from the ceasefire agreement. IS emerged from the chaos of the civil war to seize control of large parts of Syria and Iraq in mid-2014, declaring an Islamic caliphate, committing widespread atrocities and carrying out or inspiring deadly attacks abroad.

Under pressure from a US-led air war launched two years ago and fighting on multiple fronts, IS has since suffered major losses but remains in control of significant territory in northern Syria, including its de facto capital Raqa.

The Fateh al-Sham Front is the former al Qaeda affiliate in Syria and was previously known as Al Nusra Front. It split in July from the global jihadist network founded by Osama bin Laden, in a move analysts said was aimed at easing pressure from both Moscow and Washington.

Questions remain about how the ceasefire will apply in several parts of the country where the Fateh al-Sham Front cooperates closely with rebel forces, including moderates and Ahrar al-Sham.

If the ceasefire holds for a week, Moscow and Washington are to begin unprecedented joint targeting of jihadist forces including IS and the Fateh al-Sham Front.

The Kurds

Syrias Kurds have largely stayed out of the conflict between the government and armed opposition, carving out a semi-autonomous region in north and northeastern Syria.

Their Peoples Protection Units (YPG) have become a key partner of the US-led coalition fighting IS as part of the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces. Both the YPG and the SDF said on Monday that they would respect the ceasefire.

Turkey launched an offensive into Syria last month against IS and the YPG, which Ankara regards as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that has waged a 32-year insurrection inside Turkey. Ankara welcomed the ceasefire agreement but has said it will press on with its operations inside Syria.
The ministry didn't say exactly where the drills would be held in the South China Sea, home to heated territorial disputes between China and its Southeast Asian neighbors. (Photo: AFP)

Beijing: China's military says the Chinese and Russian navies are launching eight days of war games in the South China Sea, in a sign of growing cooperation between their armed forces.

The Defense Ministry says the "Joint Sea-2016" exercises beginning Monday will include surface ships, submarines, ship-borne helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, along with marines and amphibious armored vehicles.

Tasks will include defensive and rescue drills, anti-submarine exercises and the simulated seizure of an enemy island.

The ministry didn't say exactly where the drills would be held in the South China Sea, home to heated territorial disputes between China and its Southeast Asian neighbors.

Russia has been the only major country to speak out on China's behalf in its demand that the US and other countries stay out of such arguments.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif, during the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) summit in Ufa, Russia. (Photo: AP)

Islamabad: Pakistan and Russia are set tohold their first-ever joint military exercises later this year, media reported on Monday, reflecting increased military cooperation between the two former Cold War rivals.

Around 200 military personnel from the two sides would take part in the joint military exercises, The Express Tribune quoted a senior Pakistani official as saying.

The move comes amidst increasing defence ties between Moscow and Islamabad as the latter was also thinking to buy advanced Russian warplanes.

Pakistan's Ambassador to Moscow Qazi Khalilullah told the newspaper that this is the first time that military personnel from the two countries would be taking part in joint military drills called 'Friendship-2016'.

He, however, did not divulge further details about the nature of the exercises or dates.

The development, Khalilullah said, reflected increased cooperation between the two countries.

"This obviously indicates a desire on both sides to broaden defence and military-technical cooperation," he told a Russian news agency last week.

The joint military drill is seen as another step in growing military-to-military cooperation, indicating a steady growth in bilateral relationship between the two countries, whose ties had been marred by Cold War rivalry for decades, the paper said.

Islamabad decided to broaden its foreign policy options after its relations with the US deteriorated after secret CIA raid in Abbottabad killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in May 2011.

Pakistan's relations with the US were soured recently when US lawmakers blocked funds for the sale of eight Lockheed Martin Corporations F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan.

Pakistan decided to look at alternative sources to purchase the aircraft including from Jordan. Over the last 15 months, the chiefs of Pakistans Army, Navy and Air Force travelled to Russia. The flurry of high-level exchanges between the two nations resulted in the signing of a deal for the sale of four MI-35 attack helicopters to Islamabad.

The formal agreement, which was signed in Moscow in August 2015, was considered a major policy shift on part of Russia in the wake of growing strategic partnership between the US and India.

Islamabad is eager to improve its ties with Moscow to diversify its options in the event of any stalemate in ties with Washington, The Express Tribune said.

After securing a deal of MI-35 helicopters, Pakistan is also exploring options to buy Su-35 fighter jets from Russia, it said.

For this purpose, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman visited Moscow in July.

The Pakistani ambassador said the PAF chief held 'fruitful' discussions with Russian authorities but would not provide further details of new military purchases, including the multirole, air superiority fighter Sukhoi Su-35.
The duo were seen walking on the streets as stunned on-lookers watched in horror. (Representational Image/ YouTube Screengrab)

Fuzhou, China: In a shocking incident, a woman was spotted on the streets in Chinese city of Fuzhou with a male companion who was tied to a dog leash.

The duo were seen walking on the streets as stunned on-lookers watched in horror.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, the man was tied to a dog leash and was crawling on the floor as the woman led him.

Witnesses to the incident said that the man was attached to the leash like a dog. At one point, the woman was also seen patting the man on the head.

Police were informed about the woman and her companion after the duo caused a major traffic jam.

The authorities somehow managed to convince the woman to untie the rope and let the man walk free. Images of the incident went viral on social media and soon received a lot of comments.

While some users expressed concern about the dignity of men, others just pitied the condition of the man in the picture and wondered what must have happened.

Police have not registered any case against the woman.
Beijing: Amid reports that a miffed Chinese President Xi Jinping cancelled his maiden visit to Nepal, Beijing said both countries are in "close communication" on the issue and China attaches importance to the new Nepalese government. "You said the visit was cancelled. This not appropriate to say it", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing here responding to reports of cancellation of Xi's visit.

"China and Nepal are in close communication on high-level exchanges. China attaches importance to the new Nepalese government and we would like to promote new development of bilateral relations with Nepal", Hua said. Pressed further for details she said "I don't think it was appropriate way to say it is cancelled because two sides have high-level exchanges", she said. "The two sides are always in communication on high-level exchanges so we cannot say it is cancelled or not as it is not defined yet", she said.

"All we can tell you we are in close communication with Nepal on the relevant issue and we will release information in due course", she added. Xi was due to visit Nepal next month. But reports from Kathmandu said the visit has been cancelled as China is unhappy with the new government led Prachanda who is set to visit India this week to mend ties between the two countries after his predecessor, K P Shama Oli followed pro-China policy.

Reports said China was displeased with the lack preparations for Xi's visit as well as commitment to implement China's Silk Road plan (officially called One Belt and One Road) as well as agreements reached by Oli government to step up road and rail links connecting Nepal with Tibet to reduce landlocked Nepal's dependence on India. Nepal government had dismissed the reports saying there was no truth report about the cancellation of Xi's visit.

Nepal's Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat had said "We are expecting the visit of the Chinese President, though the date of the visit has not yet been fixed". During his visit, Oli had signed the Transit Transport Agreement to improve the connectivity between Nepal and Tibet in a bid to end decades-old dependency on India for daily supplies. The deal was widely regarded as an attempt by Oli to open trade links with China in a bid to reduce dependence Nepal's imports through Indian ports.

China also agreed to Oli's request to build railway link connecting the two countries through Tibet.
In an apparent fallout of the ongoing Cauvery crisis, suspected pro-Tamil protesters today attacked and damaged a hotel run by a native of Karnataka here.



The incident occurred during the wee hours today when the group of protesters gathered around the hotel situated in Mylapore and damaged its window panes using iron rods and wooden logs, police said adding that no one was injured.



So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack and a probe is on, police said. The incident comes a day after a video purportedly showing a 22-year-old Tamil youth being beaten by a group of men in Bengalur for allegedly posting "derogatory" remarks on social media against Kannada film actors went viral.



It was also alleged that the youth had made comments, which were later deleted, against the ongoing Cauvery water agitation in Karnataka on the social media.



Protests by farmers and pro-Kannada outfits have been reported from several parts of the neighbouring state over the Supreme Court order asking Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu.



Meanwhile, Tamilaga Valvurimai Katchi founder T Velmurugan here said his party workers will stage "democratic protests" outside Kannada establishments including their government offices in the state.



Meanwhile, seven tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration that were parked at a temple in Rameswaram were damaged when agitated members of various outfits including Naam Tamizhar Iyakkam allegedly indulged in vandalism early today, police said.



The group entered the parking lot of a temple near Agni Theertham in the town and damaged the vehicles bearing Karnataka registration with clubs and stones, they said.



Cases have been registered against seven prsons including one Manmathan, belonging to Tamizhar Desiya Front and are seacrching the suspects, they added.


Pakistan and Russia are set to hold their first-ever joint military exercises later this year, media reported today, reflecting increased military cooperation between the two former Cold War rivals.



Around 200 military personnel from the two sides would take part in the joint military exercises, The Express Tribune quoted a senior Pakistani official as saying.



The move comes amidst increasing defence ties between Moscow and Islamabad as the latter was also thinking to buy advanced Russian warplanes.



Pakistan's Ambassador to Moscow Qazi Khalilullah told the newspaper that this is the first time that military personnel from the two countries would be taking part in joint military drills called 'Friendship-2016'.



He, however, did not divulge further details about the nature of the exercises or dates.

The development, Khalilullah said, reflected increased cooperation between the two countries.



"This obviously indicates a desire on both sides to broaden defence and military-technical cooperation," he told a Russian news agency last week.



The joint military drill is seen as another step in growing military-to-military cooperation, indicating a steady growth in bilateral relationship between the two countries, whose ties had been marred by Cold War rivalry for decades, the paper said.



Islamabad decided to broaden its foreign policy options after its relations with the US deteriorated after secret CIA raid in Abbottabad killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in May 2011.



Pakistan's relations with the US were soured recently when US lawmakers blocked funds for the sale of eight Lockheed Martin Corporations F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan. Pakistan decided to look at alternative sources to purchase the aircraft including from Jordan.



Over the last 15 months, the chiefs of Pakistans Army, Navy and Air Force travelled to Russia. The flurry of high-level exchanges between the two nations resulted in the signing of a deal for the sale of four MI-35 attack helicopters to Islamabad.



The formal agreement, which was signed in Moscow in August 2015, was considered a major policy shift on part of Russia in the wake of growing strategic partnership between the US and India.



Islamabad is eager to improve its ties with Moscow to diversify its options in the event of any stalemate in ties with Washington, The Express Tribune said. After securing a deal of MI-35 helicopters, Pakistan is also exploring options to buy Su-35 fighter jets from Russia, it said.



For this purpose, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman visited Moscow in July.

The Pakistani ambassador said the PAF chief held 'fruitful' discussions with Russian authorities but would not provide further details of new military purchases, including the multirole, air superiority fighter Sukhoi Su-35.


Mining minister Gayatri Prajapati and Panchayti Raj minister Rajkishore Singh were dropped within a span of an hour, just days after Akhilesh spoke of "zero tolerance" on the issue of corruption and allegations of land-grabbing against some ministers.



The Opposition, however, termed it as a "poll-oriented eyewash". Prajapati was first to be axed today over the allegations of corruption. The action came three days after the Allahabad High Court rejected the SP government's plea to withdraw an order for a CBI probe into alleged illegal mining in the state.



Taking grim view of illegal mining in Uttar Pradesh, the HC on July 28 directed the CBI to probe the matter across the state, including the role of government officials in facilitating the same, and submit a report within six weeks. Akhilesh was said to be unhappy with the minister who was mired in controversy over allegations of promoting illegal mining. The chief minister then showed the door to Singh, who too was facing allegations of corruption.



Governor Ram Naik accepted the chief minister's recommendation to sack them, a Raj Bhawan communique said. Social Welfare Minister Ramgovind Chowdhury was given the charge of Panchyati Raj department while Food Processing minister Moolchandra Chauhan of Mining department, it said.



SP insiders said a few more heads could roll in the coming days. The action comes close on the heels of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav sounding a warning to party leaders, saying action needed to be taken against those involved in land grabbing and other corrupt activities if the party wanted to return to power in the 2017 Assembly polls.



The Opposition, however, alleged that the sacking of ministers was just an eyewash to hide the corruption charges faced by certain ministers. "Illegal mining is rampant in UP and it is an open secret that she (Prajapati) was promoting it. Now when the HC has taken serious view of the matter and ordered CBI probe, the CM's decision is a mere eyewash. It will not help as people know the reality," Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi said.



BJP said it was good that the chief minister has taken the decision but it should have been taken earlier. "Our party has been raising the issue of illegal mining in the state. The decision should have been taken earlier," BJP state general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak said.



Mulayam had also minced no words in openly condemning those involved in land grabbing and had directed all party leaders to shun "money-making activities". Senior Cabinet minister Shivpal Yadav had spoken in the same refrain and criticised those indulging in land grabbing and bringing a bad name to the party in the poll-bound state. He had even threatened to resign alleging rampant corruption in the Uttar Pradesh government headed by Mulayam's son.



Prajapati was made Minister of State for Irrigation in February 2013, and later given the lucrative berth of mining, directly under Akhilesh who held the portfolio. In July 2013, the CM elevated Prajapati to MoS (Independent) and in January 2014, she was promoted as Cabinet Minister.



With Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections inching closer, Akhilesh has been concentrating on sprucing up the image of his government and recently overturned the decision of his father and party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on the merger of the Quami Ekta Dal (QED). The QED, an eastern UP-based political party is headed by ex-SP MP Afzal Ansari, who is elder brother of mafia-turned- politician Mukhtar Ansari, currently jailed in connection with the murder of a BJP MLA.



Akhilesh was adamant that the merger be called off because he wanted to maintain his clean image, once he had sought to establish by opposing criminal DP Yadav in the party before the 2012 Assembly polls. His stand had won the party political mileage after it had lost power in 2007 on the issue of poor law and order. Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh are due early next year and law and order situation in the state has become a major poll issue.



In an image-refurbishing exercise ahead of Assembly elections, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today sacked two ministers facing corruption charges while more heads could roll.
The Cauvery river water dispute sparked off sporadic incidents of violence in parts Karnataka on Monday.





Following Supreme Courts refusal to suspend its earlier order on sharing Cauvery waters on Monday, Kannada activists blocked roads in several areas of Bengaluru raising slogans against Tamil Nadu.



Bengaluru Metro services have been suspended.



Miscreants attacking vehicles and shops in different parts of the city. A few vehicles with Tamil Nadu registration number have been reportedly set on fire at Nayandahalli.



Police had lathi charged agitators twice at Satellite bus stand on the Mysore road.

TV reports said schools and colleges are shutting down voluntarily, sending students home.



Massive traffic jams are being reported from different parts of the city.



There have been sporadic incidents of violence in other areas of Cauvery basin.

Miscreants stoned a truck bearing Tamil Nadu registration number was pelted with stones in Chamarajanagar.



Tamil residents of Pandavapura have been reportedly attacked.






Security forces gunned down one more militant in Poonch district, taking the total number of ultras killed in the operation, which is still underway, to four.





"One more militant has been eliminated. With this, the number of total militants killed in the encounter since yesterday has gone up to four", a Defence spokesman said today.



Three militants and a policeman were yesterday killed and six others, including a police officer, were injured in twin encounters between security forces and four terrorists in Poonch town.The cop was cremated today in Poonch town.



IG Johny Willian, who is in-charge of Rajouri-Poonch range, said one more body of a militant has been recovered from a house where one ultra was killed yesterday.



Firing is going on in the under-construction Mini Secretariat and the operation is on, he said.



Security forces were engaged in day-long twin encounters with four terrorists holed up at two places near the under-construction Mini Secretariat in Poonch town since yesterday morning.



The fire fight broke out near the Mini Secretariat building close to Army's 93 Brigade headquarters, Poonch district and a house in Allahpir Mohalla in the town around 7.30 AM yesterday.



"Four militants are involved in the two encounters at two different locations", Director General of Police Rajendra Kumar had said.



A civilian couple were safely evacuated from the house in which militants had taken shelter last evening, police said. The authorities had used drones to track down militants in the Mini Secretariat complex and other places.
Sparkling white high mast lights like the ones on the Chaurasi Ghat in Varanasi may soon become a reality at some of Delhis busy crossways and parks if the South Corporation accepts a proposal given by a public sector company.





Nearly 23,000 parks and 8,000 crossings have been identified across the 104 wards of the civic agency where high mast sodium vapour lamps can be replaced with energy-efficient LED lights, said Venkatesh Dwivedi, general manager (technical) company Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL).



The company has just completed a project for the civic agency in which it changed nearly 1.85 lakh sodium vapour lamps and replaced them with power-saving LED street lights over one year.



He said his team submitted last month a proposal to the civic agency for a changing the high mast lights and park luminaries, as a next phase that could begin before year-end.



EESL has submitted a proposal to SDMC for carrying out Phase II of installing the energy efficient lights. This requires an additional installation of 62,000 lights and ensure all dark patches are covered, said Dwivedi.



Sources said the proposal is likely to be discussed in the South Corporations house and Standing Committee before a green signal is given for introduction of Varanasi-type high mast LED lights.



Earlier, the project to replace the power guzzling street lights with sodium lamps in 104 wards of the South Corporation was fraught with complaints of faults in the newly installed LED light.



Following some councillors complaints of lax complaint redressal for faulty street lights, the South Corporation has pressed upon EESL to launch a new toll free number.



The new toll free number for taking complaints on faulty street lights will be launched this month. Residents can also use our App to give a complaint, said Dwivedi.

Satender Prakash, chairman of South Zones Ward Committee, said nearly 1,000 complaints of faulty street lights were coming daily across the South Corporation.



We have asked EESL to attend to all complaints within a period of 48-72 hours, said Prakash. Dwivedi claimed the new toll free number would improve the system for complaint management of LED street lights.



Prakash said there are about eight wards in the SDMC where the work on replacement of sodium lamps with LED bulbs has not been completed. The focus now is on stabilising the facility and attending to complaints following which these 8 wards , said Prakash.


The Bengaluru City Police has already filed a case in the Santosh incident and investigation is under progress, he added. Siddaramaiah also assured Jayalalithaa that his government is "firmly" committed to maintaining law and order in the State.



"We have taken utmost precaution to ensure the safety and security of all citizens, particularly Tamil speaking people, in the State," he said. "You would agree that the incidents of violence against Kannada speaking people that are being reported from Tamil Nadu would incite passions threatening peace in our State, which all of us should prevent," he added.

Voicing concern over "incidents of violence" against Kannada speaking people, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today asked his Tamil Nadu counterpart Jayalalithaa to ensure their safety and protection while assuring her that interests of Tamils in the state would be safeguarded."While we are taking all necessary precautions to ensure maintenance of law and order in our State, I would urge you to direct authorities in Tamil Nadu to ensure that perpetrators of violence are immediately brought to book," Siddaramaiah said in his letter, released to the media."Further, you may also like to advice your authorities to ensure adequate safety and protection for Kannada speaking people in the State of Tamil Nadu," he said. The missive came following reports that suspected pro-Tamil protesters attacked and damaged a hotel run by a native of Karnataka in Chennai, using iron rods and wooden logs.Seven tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration parked at a temple in Rameswaram were damaged allegedly by activists of various outfits including Naam Tamizhar Iyakkam.On the incident wherein a 22-year-old Tamil engineering student was allegedly beaten by a group of people here for posting "derogatory" remarks on social media against Kannada film actors, he said the case is under investigation.He said "It has also come to my notice that an incident involving a youth by name Santosh in Bengaluru, has been blown out of proportion by media channels in Tamil Nadu and this is likely inciting passions and violence against Kannada speaking people."
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah urged people of Karnataka to maintain peace and not take law into their hands. Speaking at the sidelines of the laying of the foundation stone of creating a biodiversity park at Madiwala lake on Monday, Siddaramaiah urged people to maintain peace and not to fall prey to rumours.



He said he had directed the DG and Chief Secretary of Karnataka to communicate with their counterparts in Tamil Nadu to ensure that Karnataka registration vehicles and Kannadaigas residing were not attacked in that state.



The CM said he had written a letter to Chief Minister Jayalalitha and the central government to ensure safety of Kannadigas in Tamil Nadu.



Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy, who was present on the occasion, said if the situation worsens, vehicles plying to Tamil Nadu would be stopped till the situation gets back to normalcy.




Amid reports that a miffed Chinese President Xi Jinping cancelled his maiden visit to Nepal, Beijing today said both countries are in "close communication" on the issue and China attaches importance to the new Nepalese government.



"You said the visit was cancelled. This not appropriate to say it", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing here responding to reports of cancellation of Xi's visit.



"China and Nepal are in close communication on high-level exchanges. China attaches importance to the new Nepalese government and we would like to promote new development of bilateral relations with Nepal", Hua said.



Pressed further for details she said "I don't think it was appropriate way to say it is cancelled because two sides have high-level exchanges", she said. "The two sides are always in communication on high-level exchanges so we cannot say it is cancelled or not as it is not defined yet", she said.



"All we can tell you we are in close communication with Nepal on the relevant issue and we will release information in due course", she added. Xi was due to visit Nepal next month.



But reports from Kathmandu said the visit has been cancelled as China is unhappy with the new government led Prachanda who is set to visit India this week to mend ties between the two countries after his predecessor, K P Shama Oli followed pro-China policy.



Reports said China was displeased with the lack preparations for Xi's visit as well as commitment to implement China's Silk Road plan (officially called One Belt and One Road) as well as agreements reached by Oli government to step up road and rail links connecting Nepal with Tibet to reduce landlocked Nepal's dependence on India.



Nepal government had dismissed the reports saying there was no truth report about the cancellation of Xi's visit. Nepal's Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat had said "We are expecting the visit of the Chinese President, though the date of the visit has not yet been fixed".



During his visit, Oli had signed the Transit Transport Agreement to improve the connectivity between Nepal and Tibet in a bid to end decades-old dependency on India for daily supplies.



The deal was widely regarded as an attempt by Oli to open trade links with China in a bid to reduce dependence Nepal's imports through Indian ports. China also agreed to Oli's request to build railway link connecting the two countries through Tibet.


Amid escalating tension in Karnataka over the Cauvery water dispute, the Centre today assured all assistance to the state to maintain law and order and ensure peace.





"I am in touch with the Chief Secretary of Karnataka and whatever help is required will be provided," Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi told reporters here.



Violence erupted in parts of Karnataka, including Bengaluru, Mysore and Mandya, after the Supreme Court ordered the state to release 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery water every day to Tamil Nadu till September 20, modifying its previous order that directed it to release 15,000 cusecs till September 16.




One person was killed and another injured in police firing in Karnataka as the Cauvery water sharing row with Tamil Nadu turned violent today, escalating tensions between the two states.



Widespread violence erupted today in Bengaluru and some other parts of Karnataka, while sporadic trouble was witnessed in Tamil Nadu following Supreme Court's modified order on sharing Cauvery water by the two riparian states.



Police opened fire when a mob tried to attack a patrol vehicle at Hegganahalli in Rajagopal Nagar police limits as violence flared up in Bengaluru city with rampaging mobs setting fire to buses and trucks with Tamil Nadu registration plates.



"Two were brought with bullet injuries. One with bullet injury near the heart has died. The other is being operated for injury on right thigh," Dr. Giridhar, Managing Director of Lakshmi Multi-Speciality Hospital, where they were taken told PTI tonight.



Soon after the apex court gave its amended order, directing Karnataka to release 12000 cusecs of water daily to Tamil Nadu till September 20, violence and arson flared up in Bengaluru, with rampaging mobs setting afire at least 30 vehicles bearing Tamil Nadu number plates.



As violence broke out sending a wave of panic across Bengaluru, the city was brought under prohibitory orders till September 14.



A prominent transport company depot in the city bore the brunt with at least 30 buses going up in flames.



Managing Director of Salem headquartered KPN Tours and Travels Limited Rajesh Natarajan claimed in Chennai 40 of his buses were set on fire.



Incidents of arson came even as police said they have made elaborate security arrangements with 15,000 policemen being deployed, bolstered by Karnataka State Reserve Police, City Armed Reserve Police, Rapid Action Force, Quick Reaction Teams, special forces, Central Industrial Security Force and Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force.



In view of the deteriorating situation, the Centre rushed 10 companies (about 1,000 personnel) of the special anti-riot paramilitary force RAF to Karnataka.



Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh also called up Chief Ministers of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu tonight and assured them all central assistance in handling the law and order situation.



After Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah spoke to Singh, an official statement issued in Bengaluru described the situation as "fully under control".



The Union Home Minister responded "positively" to the request for aditional central forces, it said.



Describing the violence in Karnataka as alarming, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa wrote to Siddaramaiah, seeking protection for Tamil speaking people and their property, hours after he had made a similar plea to her.



Jayalalithaa assured Siddaramaiah that safety of people from Karnataka will be ensured in Tamil Nadu.



Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara said government did not expect the protest to go to this extent.



"We expected that if the decision goes against us, there will be some protest, but definitely not to this extent."



He said 200 people been detained in connection with the violence.



He said forces have been deployed at sensitive points, particularly where Tamil population and establishments are located.



Trucks with Tamil Nadu registration number plate were either stoned or set on fire also in Mandya, Mysuru, Chitradurga and Dharwad districts as Kannada activists gave vent to their anger over attacks on state vehicles and property of Kannadigas in the neighbouring state and also against the apex court'S modified order.



The Supreme Court, modifying its September 5 order, today asked Karnataka to release a reduced amount of 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery River water to Tamil Nadu till September 20.



In its September five order, the apex court had directed release of 15,000 cusecs for 10 days to ameliorate the plight of farmers of the neighbouring state, which had triggered strong protests from farmers and pro-Kannada outfits with Karnataka observing a bandh against it on September nine.



Parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry too saw protests by fringe outfits, with some commercial and government establishments of Karnataka coming under attack, in an apparent retaliation for happenings in Karnataka.



As the Centre rushed 10 companies (about 1,000 personnel) of the special anti-riot paramilitary force RAF to Karnataka, officials said, if need arises, some of these personnel will also be deployed in Tamil Nadu.



In Delhi, the Cauvery Supervisory Committee also met but failed to arrive at a decision on quantum of water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states pursuant to the Supreme Court order and decided to meet again on September 19.



Earlier, voicing concern over violence against Kannada speaking people and their properties in Tamil Nadu over the past two days, Siddaramaiah wrote to Jayalalithaa to ensure adequate safety and protection to Kannada speaking people in Tamil Nadu.



"You would agree that the incidents of violence against Kannada speaking people that are being reported from Tamil Nadu would incite passions threatening peace in our state, which all of us should prevent," Siddaramiah said.



Siddaramaiah said his government was firmly committed to maintaining law and order in the state and had taken "utmost" precaution to ensure the safety and security of all citizens, particularly Tamil speaking people, in the state.



Meanwhile, Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan expressed concern over the "attacks on Tamils" in Karnataka and put the onus of ensuring their safety on the ruling Congress.



In Bengaluru, as reports of arson and vandalism spread, office goers rushed back home, with many companies calling off work as a precautionary step and schools and colleges declaring holiday. The sudden rush caused traffic gridlocks in several parts.



The Metro, on which lakhs of commuters depend, also temporarily suspended its services.

Activists of disparate pro-Kannada outfits took control of streets in several areas and engaged in stone throwing and arson, targeting buses and trucks.



Two Chennai-based hotels and mobile shops were attacked and vandalised in Bengaluru.

Schools and Colleges in Mandya, the epicentre of Cauvery protests schools and colleges have declared holiday till 14 September as a precautionary measure.



In Mandya district, two trucks were set ablaze and the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway was blocked.



Police made a lathicharge to disperse a violent mob, which tried to loot some shops. Several vehicles with Tamil Nadu registration number plates were damaged on the highway, police said.



In parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, protests by fringe Tamil outfits erupted with some commercial and government establishments of Karnataka coming under attack.



The protests came a day after a video purportedly showing a 22-year-old Tamil youth being beaten up by a group of men in Bengaluru for alleged "derogatory" remarks on social media against Kannada film actors went viral.



Outfits such as Naam Tamizhar Katchi and Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi hit the streets protesting the ongoing agitations in Karnataka opposing release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, police said.



A popular restaurant in Chennai and tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration plates in Rameswaram were vandalised, while protesters created a ruckus at a Karnataka Bank branch in neighbouring Union Territory of Puducherry, police said.




Protests by fringe Tamil outfits erupted in parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry today with some commercial and government establishments of Karnataka coming under attack, in an apparent fallout of the ongoing agitation in the neighbouring state against release of Cauvery water.





The protests came a day after a video purportedly showing a 22-year-old Tamil youth being beaten up by a group of men in Bengaluru for alleged "derogatory" remarks on social media against Kannada film actors went viral.



Outfits such as Naam Tamizhar Katchi and Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi hit the streets protesting the ongoing agitations in Karnataka opposing release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, police said.



A popular restaurant here and tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration in Rameswaram were vandalised while protesters created a ruckus at a Karnataka Bank branch in neighbouring Union Territory of Puducherry, police said.



Four persons have been detained in connection with the restaurant attack while around 25 taken into custody in Puducherry, they said.



Police protection was provided to the Karnataka Bank branches in Tamil Nadu.

In an early morning incident here, protesters owing allegiance to Thanthai Periyar Dravida Kazhagam (TPDK) allegedly vandalised a popular restaurant owned by a native of Karnataka.



They smashed the window panes using iron rods and wooden logs and four persons belonging to the outfit had been detained in connection with the incident, a police official said.



At Rameswaram, seven tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration that were parked at a temple were damaged when agitated members of various outfits including Naam Tamizhar Katchi allegedly indulged in vandalism.



The group entered the parking lot of the temple near Agni Theertham sea in the town and damaged the vehicles with clubs and stones, police said.



Cases have been registered against seven persons in connection with the episode, they said.



Protests were held outside the branches of Karnataka Bank in Erode even as protestors barged into the bank's branch at Puducherry and created a ruckus.



Around 25 workers of Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi entered the branch on Misson Street in the Union Territory wielding broomsticks, banged them on the tables and asked the bank staff to vacate the premises.



The staff ran helter skelter while the panic-stricken customers rushed out.

Policemen, who were deployed in the vicinity, rushed there and took the protesters into custody.



The bank was closed for a few hours after the incident and later reopened. However, it was again shut following advice from police.



At Vellore in Tamil Nadu, students of Government Law College boycotted classes over the issue.



For the eight consecutive day, buses to Mysuru, Chamrajnagar and other places in Karnataka from Erode, Tirupur and Coimbatore in western Tamil Nadu were not operated.



Movement of commercial and non-commercial vehicles including two-wheelers to Karnataka from Erode was restricted while inter-state road transport through Hosur was also affected on account of escalating protests in Karnataka.



Meanwhile, Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan expressed concern over the "attacks on Tamils" in Karnataka, and put the onus of ensuring their safety on the ruling Congress.

"If the Congress government in Karnataka is not prepared to stop this (attacks), there are chances of bad consequences and the Karnataka government has to take responsibility for that," he said.



Tamil Maanila Congress leader and former Union Minister GK Vasan said that the failure by police to prevent the attack on the Tamil youth for his post against Kannada actors amounted to them remaining "spectators" to the incident, which he said was "reflective" of state government's "ignorant attitude."



He urged the Karnataka government to ensure safety of Tamils while urging the Centre to be non-partisan.



In Thanjavur, a Cauvery delta district, President of the Coordination Committee of Tamil Nadu All Farmers Associations P R Pandian welcomed the Supreme Court's order that water should be released to Tamil Nadu till September 20.



He said the Mettur Dam water level should be 90-feet (maximum 120 feet) for cultivation of a single crop and asked the state government to pressurise the Centre and make Karnataka release more water.



Meanwhile, actor M Nasser-headed Nadigar Sangam (South Indian Artistes' Association) has lauded Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa for securing Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu by approaching the Supreme Court.



In a statement, the Association also took exception to the criticism of Jayalalithaa by some of the Kannada actors during a protest on Cauvery last week, saying it had "crossed boundaries".



"Nadigar Sangam has never hesitated to express its voice whenever there had been problems for Tamils...we thank Chief Minister Amma (Jayalalithaa) for achieveing success (in this matter) by approaching the Supreme Court and establishing our rights in the present situation," it said.
Stating that her government would follow the Supreme Court order cancelling the Singur land acquisition "line by line", the West Bengal government today asserted land 'parcha' would be distributed among 9,117 farmers on September 14.





'Parcha' is a document which establishes the ownership of a farmer over a piece of land in revenue records.



The Supreme Court had on August 31 ruled that the land acquisition process in Singur was faulty and not for public purpose and had directed to return it to the farmers within 12 weeks.



Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the land 'parcha' would be distributed among 9,117 farmers of Singur on September 14.



She also said 800 cheques would be distributed among the farmers who had not taken them earlier during the erstwhile Left front government when compensation was paid for acquiring the land.



"Of the total 997 acres of land in Singur, the district administration has completed the survey and demarcation work for 620 acres, and 800 cheques are ready for distribution among land-owners," Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat.



She said, "Altogether 9,117 parchas are ready for handing over to the farmers on September 14 when 'Singur Diwas' would be observed."



"We will follow the Supreme Court ruling line by line," she said, adding the land would be turned cultivable.



Referring to the factory sheds on the land, she said, "There are some temporary structures on the land. We hope they (the Tatas) will remove them within the next 2-3 days. I told (finance minister) Amit Mitra to request them (Tatas) to remove them".



"If they remove them it is good, otherwise we will remove them," she said as she stressed the government was acting as per the apex court's landmark verdict.



On whether the government was facing non-cooperation from the Tatas, she replied in the negative.



"They have taken it sportingly and we have also taken it sportingly. The Tatas are also working in Bengal. There is no problem," she said.



The government would also send a CD to the court to apprise them of the "hard work" being done to honour the order, she said.



The Chief Minister said her government had promised to make the land arable once again for the benefit of farmers of Singur.



"The agriculture department will soon come up with a package for the Singur farmers to help them grow crops," she said.



She said the administrative review meeting, scheduled for Wednesday at Singur, has been postponed to September 29.



Asked to comment on the railways fare hike, the Trinamool leader said she had been shocked to see the rates going up so many times.



"During my tenure, there was no hike and they are doing it everytime. In the last two years there has been no new project or no new train, so they have saved a lot of money," she said.


Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa, who refused to quit even after being nudged by the Centre, was today sacked as Governor of Arunachal Pradesh. A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said Rajkhowa "shall cease to hold the office of the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh".



President Pranab Mukherjee has asked Meghalaya Governor V Shanmuganathan to discharge the functions in addition to his own duties, until regular arrangements are made, it said. Rajkhowa, who was appointed the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh on May 12, 2015, was the first gubernatorial appointee of the Modi government and has also been sacked by it after informing the President that it has "lost trust" in him.



Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had called on the President last week and conveyed to him that Rajkhowa's continuance in the post has become untenable after the Supreme Court's observations against him over dismissal of the Congress government in the state.



The Home Minister's meeting with the President came after Rajkhowa refused to step down despite a nudge by the Centre to put in his papers after the Supreme Court passed serious strictures against him over the dismissal of the Congress government last year. A defiant Rajkhowa had said he would not step down but was ready to be sacked.



"I want the President to dismiss me. I will not resign. Let the President express his displeasure. Let the government use provisions of Article 156 of the Constitution," the Governor had told a Guwahati-based TV news channel on Monday.



Rajkhowa said he had been asked to resign "on health grounds" weeks after the Supreme Court had restored the Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh and censured him. Rajkhowa had also written to the President explaining his position and the letter was forwarded to the Home Ministry by Mukherjee.



However, when the Home Ministry submitted a detailed report on the Governor to the President, he finally sacked Rajkhowa today. Rajkhowa, a 1968 batch IAS officer, had retired as Chief Secretary of Assam before being appointed as Governor.


The Cauvery Supervisory Committee today failed to arrive at a decision on quantum of water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states pursuant to the Supreme Court order and decided to meet again on September 19.





Union Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekhar, who chaired the meeting, said the Committee could not arrived at a decision for the want of "adequate" information.



He said the states concerned could not produce adequate information relating to withdrawal of water, its utilisation, allegations of withdrawal when it was not permitted, variation in rainfall and its impact on the actual run-off over a period spanning 29 years.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court had asked Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs Cauvery water per day, down from previous 15,000 cusecs, to Tamil Nadu till September 20.



"...since the time given by the honourable (Supreme) Court was so limited...they could not bring all information. The Committee did not want to pass any order which is not backed by supportive data.



"So, the Committee has fixed another date, that is on September 19, because the Supreme Court has today given a date for next hearing on September 20," Shekhar told reporters after the meeting.



He added that the Committee, which met here after Supreme Court asked Tamil Nadu to approach the panel in its order on September 5, has asked the states involved to give information sought by September 15.



He further said Chief Secretaries of both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka did not agree over figures relating to release of water during the meeting.



"As we were discussing and trying to reach a figure which would be acceptable to both the states, which were also based on scientific facts, we found that the Supreme Court had given another interim order today. So, we will meet again," he said.



Meanwhile, the Committee, has decided to set up a network for data collection which will send real-time online data to the four states involved- Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Puducherry and Kerala.



"We have decided today as to what should be the protocol, methodology of the data collection. How can we make it completely online so that the data can seamlessly move to all the four states on real-time basis and there is no dispute on data collection," he said.



Noting the Cauvery tribunal has not discussed the water distribution for distress situation until now, Shekhar said the Committee should "hold discussion on it sometime".

"All the four states will need to discuss what should be the distress situation. If we arrive at a consensus on that, we will make that a basis for discussion when there is less rainfall and how we can achieve proportionate share then. This (distress) situation is arising regularly," he said.



P Rama Mohana Rao, Arvind Jadhav, and Manoj Parida, Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Puducherry respectively attended the meeting along with senior officials from Kerala, Central Water Commission and Union Water Resources Ministry.



During the meeting, the Committee's sixth over the issue, the Tamil Nadu officials are learnt to have pitched for quantum of water released to be in line with Cauvery water tribunal's order and also expressed concern over the "unauthorised" withdrawal of water.



"...but the rainfall data provided by the meteorology department don't entirely support their (Tamil Nadu's) claim. It will also have to substantiate its allegations with data," Shekhar said.



On its parts, Karnataka is learnt to have raised the issue of depleting levels of its reservoirs due to the release of water and asked the Centre to send a team to assess "ground realities".



"Karnataka did mention about experts' committee, but as Chairman of the Committee, I will have to go by entirely what the Supreme Court has ordered. The Supreme Court has asked the Committee to follow the language of tribunal order," he added.



The setting up of network to collect data, protocol for which will be drawn by the Central Water Commission, will also help in ensuring no state makes unauthorised withdrawal of water, Shekhar said.



"The network will help establish the inflow. The order of the tribunal is based on inflow," he said.



The meeting took place after the apex court on September 5 asked Tamil Nadu to approach the committee over the issue.



Protests have been reported from several parts of Karnataka after the interim SC order on September 5 asked the state to release 15,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu per day for 10 days.






A woman television journalist and her cameraman were assaulted during violence that broke out in various parts of the city after the Supreme Court's modified order directing Karnataka to release reduced quantum of 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu.



"My colleague, Rohini Swamy, and myself - we both were roughed up and beaten by those protesting against Supreme Court direction to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu," India Today Cameraman Y Madhu told PTI here.



Rohini and Madhu, who were covering Cauvery violence in the city, were attacked by protesters after they objected to the media coverage given to violence and protests staged by pro-Kannada outfits, Madhu said.



"I was punched and later, Rohini also was punched in her stomach, and it was painful - that prompted us to rush her to a nearby hospital," Madhu said. "As we were shooting the violent incidents near Gopalan Mall at Nagarbhavi, some protesters came up to us and threatened us to stop shooting the violence, and join them in their protests if they were Kannadigas," Madhu said.



"As we shut our camera, a separate group of people came to us and started to rough us up and in the melee they snatched and smashed our camera and mike," Madhu said. The condition of Rohini, however, was fine after she was given treatment at a private hospital, Madhu said.
The Centre today rushed ten companies comprising 1,000 personnel of the special anti-riot paramilitary force RAF to Karnataka to tackle the violent situation arising out of the raging Cauvery water sharing dispute.





Officials said the personnel have been sent to the violence-prone areas of Karnataka and if need arises, some of the contingents will also be deployed in Tamil Nadu.



These additional contingents will assist the state police even as three such RAF units and an all-women CRPF company have already been deployed in Karnataka in view of the violent protests.



They said 5-10 more companies of BSF and Indo-Tibetan Border Police are also on standby and can be sent in if the any of the two state governments require. One company comprises 100 personnel.



Sporadic violence broke out in Bangalore, where several buses were set ablaze, and in some other parts of Karnataka even as Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote to his Tamil Nadu counterpart J Jayalalithaa to ensure adequate safety and protection for Kannada-speaking people in the state.



Protests by fringe Tamil outfits erupted in parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry with some commercial and government establishments of Karnataka being targeted.
Official choreographers of rapper Yo Yo Honey Singh, Atul Jindal and Karan Kumar have choreographed his popular dance numbers like Chaar Bottle Vodka, Blue Eyes, Love Dose and Party with the Bhoothnath.

The dancing duo, who are also the founding members of Big Dance Centre, talk to Shweta Sharma about their passion for dance, the challenges of being a choreographer, and the experience of making megastar Amitabh Bachchan dance to their steps.



Excerpts:



When did you discover your love for dance?



Atul: I started dancing in school, and soon built a small team to compete in the only reality show then  Boogie Woogie, which to our surprise, we won! That ignited the initial spark, I guess. After that I never realised how deeply I got inclined towards it.



Karan: As a kid, I always admired Bollywood actors dancing, and had a secret passion towards dance. But Id never thought of pursuing it professionally. The hope to fulfil and live my dream was realised in college where I accidentally joined the dance society and met Atul. Since then there has been no looking back.



How has your journey been?



Atul: After college we decided to get professional training from Broadway Dance Centre, New York and learn from some of the biggest names in the dance world. I always wanted to start something similar, with world class training and state-of-the-art facilities, in India, so we went on to open Big Dance in Delhi. Its been a roller coaster ride ever since. From the first live show ever, to the many corporate and musical events, every single milestone has been deeply satisfying and rewarding.



Karan: The journey has been thoroughly fulfilling. We started learning Indian contemporary dance professionally in Delhi, after which we decided to learn western dance styles and went to New York and learnt techniques and details of contemporary, jazz, and ballet. After returning, we set up Big Dance where we have been giving authentic western dance training.



You are Honey Singhs official choreographers, and have also taught steps to Amitabh Bachchan. How has the experience been?



Atul: Its been an unreal experience. We had never thought we would be lucky enough to work alongside stars we have grown up watching. Its been a wonderful journey with YoYo, and we have only grown stronger together. I think working with Mr Bachchan has been one of our biggest accomplishments which also gave us an absolutely different perspective about working with celebrities. He is the most humble, hardworking and professional artist. We got to learn so much from him.



Karan: It has been magical and extremely gratifying. Working with them has taught me work ethics, made me believe in my skills, and taught me to be honest.



What is the most challenging part of being a choreographer?



Atul: To keep yourself updated with new movements and trends, as music and dance are ever evolving. Hence, we make sure that we train ourselves every few months, as it gives us the exposure and inspiration to create new and exciting work.



What is unique about your choreography?



Atul: We are one of the only few in the industry who are trained in Indian contemporary, lyrical jazz, and also have a strong base in classical ballet. As a result, our understanding of music and movement is very different and acts as our strong point.



Karan: We believe in creating and maintaining a balance between art and commercial aspect. For example, for a corporate event we brainstorm and try to understand the requirements of the clients. And in case of a music video, we like to research and understand the artist we are choreographing for.



Are dance-based reality shows a stepping stone for dancers?



Atul: Yes. Reality shows in India have given dancers a platform to showcase their work. But it comes with an equal amount of responsibility to create and produce good quality and original art as we are the custod ians of the art for the millions of people who watch these shows.



Karan: I agree to some extent, but also feel that reality shows are just one part of the bigger picture. There is a lot more that we choreographers need to explore to make it bigger. But definitely reality shows have given choreographers a big platform to showcase their creativity.



Which actor would you like to choreograph?



Atul: I would love to work with Ranveer Singh! His infectious spark, style and energy complements our style of dance and choreography.



Karan: Deepika Padukone and Shah Rukh Khan.
When dinosaurs roamed the Earth, pterosaurs ruled the skies. The largest of these ancient reptiles had wingspans of 10 metres or more. But fossil fragments unearthed in western Canada suggest that these giant flying reptiles coexisted with a more diminutive form  closer to the size of an albatross. The finding is preliminary, but if it holds, it could upend scientists view of pterosaurs evolution, and their eventual extinction 66 million years ago.



The fossils  an upper arm bone and vertebrae discovered on Hornby Island in British Columbia  came from a nearly full-grown pterosaur that had a wingspan of just 1.5 metres and was about as tall as a house cat, scientists reported recently in Royal Society Open Science. They suggest the existence of a species about 77 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous Period, that was much smaller than the giant pterosaurs thought to dominate then. Its quite different from other animals weve studied. There hasnt really been evidence before of small pterosaurs at this time period, says Elizabeth Martin-Silverstone, the studys lead author and a paleobiologist at Britains University of Southampton.



She and her colleagues examined a thin slice of the arm bone  a humerus  and analysed it on a microscopic level, looking at how the bone had maintained and reworked itself to get an idea of the animals growth stage. They also found that the vertebrae were beginning to fuse together. Together, these demonstrated that it was nearly a full-grown adult when it died.



Pterosaurs bones were hollow, with thin walls, so relatively few have survived as fossils. And small pterosaurs are particularly tough to identify, which means that the fossils that have been found give a limited picture of the original diversity of the animals. But in recent years, scientists have discovered specimens that suggest pterosaurs grew larger as they evolved. The biggest yet known was the size of a small plane  and lived during the late Cretaceous Period; the smallest thought to be living then had wingspans of roughly 2.5 metres.



The latest study relies on only a few bones, so it does not provide definitive proof that small pterosaur species existed alongside the larger ones, says Alexander Kellner, a paleontologist at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. I praise the authors for their efforts, but the specimen is not very complete, he says. If they had a skull, jaw or neck bones, that would help. The classification? I dont know. It could be anything.



Identity crisis



Study co-author Mark Witton, a paleontologist at Britains University of Portsmouth, acknowledges the works limitations. Weve only got one data point, so dont rewrite the textbooks yet, he says. But he and his colleagues say that they carefully ruled out alternative explanations for the small size of the fossilised bones.



The fused backbone means that the bones did not come from a bird. And it could not be a nyctosaur, a previously known small marine pterosaur, because the arm bone lacked that creatures distinctive hatchet-shaped crest, where the flight muscles attach, Elizabeth says.



The Cretaceous Period ended 66 million years ago with a mass extinction that saw pterosaurs vanish alongside the dinosaurs. In general, the extinction wiped out bigger species, while smaller animals like many birds managed to muddle through and survive. If the latest finding is confirmed, it will turn out that birds were not the only small-winged vertebrates living then, although the tiny pterosaurs unfortunate fate would imply that being little was no guarantee of survival.



They have plenty of new material to determine that this is a new species of pterosaur, says Michael Habib, a paleontologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. If theres one, there were probably others. Then wed need to rethink what we previously thought about survivability of these little ones.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday wrote to his Tamil Nadu counterpart J Jayalalithaa requesting her to ensure protection to Kannada-speaking people living in the neighbouring state.





Siddaramaiahs one-page letter comes in the wake of chaos reigning in both the states over the Cauvery dispute.



In his letter to Jayalalithaa, copies of which were released to the media here, Siddaramaiah said, You would agree that incidents of violence against Kannada speaking people that are being reported from Tamil Nadu would incite passions threatening peace in our state, which all of us should prevent.



Siddaramaiah stated that the Karnataka government was firmly committed to maintaining law and order in the state and ensure the safety and protection of all citizens, particularly those from Tamil Nadu.



He said that an incident of an engineering student Santosh from Tamil Nadu being roughed up in Bengaluru has been blown out of proportion by Tamil media channels.



This incident is likely to incite passions and violence against Kannada-speaking people in Tamil Nadu, he stated.



Siddaramaiah said the Bengaluru City police have already filed a case in the Santosh incident and investigations were under progress.



He also urged Jayalalithaa to direct authorities in Tamil Nadu to ensure perpetrators of violence against Kannada-speaking people are brought to book.



Earlier, in a press statement, Siddaramaiah stated that he had directed Chief Secretary Aravind Jadhav and DG&IGP Om Prakash to keep in touch with their counterparts in Tamil Nadu till normalcy is restored.



Siddaramaiah stated that he will speak to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and keep him informed about law and order situation in Karnataka.



Siddaramaiah appealed to the people of the state to maintain peace and not take law into their hands.


- T. S. Eliot

Thoughts After Lambeth

"The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the World from suicide."
Protests being staged in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have come as a blow to the Cauvery Kutumba (family), which has been striving to resolve the Cauvery river water sharing issue peacefully.





The Kutumba was set up in 2003 to amicably resolve the river water sharing issue. The family comprises representatives from both the sides, including progressive farmers and intellectuals. But mischief-makers on both the sides are against this initiative, Kutumba member V Ganapathi told DH.



Farmers on both the sides are in distress. The south-west monsoon has failed in Karnataka. The Cauvery catchment area has not received good rains. Similarly, farmers in Tamil Nadu delta region are keeping their fingers crossed. They are pinning their hopes on the northeast monsoon, he added.



Another member of the family, who refused to be quoted, said politicians in Tamil Nadu are trying to politicise the issue.



A section of the farmers in Karnataka are issuing provocative statements, the member said and suggested that both the states should follow the live and let live policy on the issue.


Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has convened a special meeting of the Council of Ministers on Tuesday to discuss the fallout of the modified order of the Supreme Court.





Mondays order not only extends the number of days for which the state has to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, but also the quantum. The order has resulted in widespread protests marred by arson in many districts.



The meeting of the Council of Ministers is scheduled to be held at 11 am in the Vidhana Soudha. It will take stock of the law and order situation in the state and the safety of

Kannada-speaking people in Tamil Nadu, officials sources said.



Sources in the chief ministers secretariat said Siddaramaiah has invited a few senior leaders in the party including Mallikarjuna Kharge and Dharam Singh among others for breakfast on Tuesday to seek their advice on how the government should handle the present crisis.



A senior officer in the secretariat has been told to compile information on how previous governments had handled the situation when the Supreme Court had directed the state to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.


The people affected following a stay order on sand mining activities in the district have condemned the lackadaisical approach of the district administration in representing the stance at National Green Tribunal (NGT), Chennai, and have decided to stage a protest rally.





Raising the issue at a meeting held to discuss the probable actions if the stay order continues following the third hearing on September 13, Kattada Samagrigala Sagata Lorry Malakara Sangha District General Secretary M G Nagendra charged that the district administration has utterly failed to address the grievances of the construction workers, labourers and other people involved in the industry.



Nagendra said the laborers are jobless in the past three months. The DC has not responded to the issue. An appeal has been made to NGT on the stay order on the illegal sand mining in Kukkadi area in Baikadi, wherein nearly 200 boats were involved in illegal sand mining.



He charged that the labourers in the district are mainly from North Karnataka region and they are returning to their places as they are jobless. They are the worst sufferers, he said.



He said the district administration in Dakshina Kannada is proactive when compared to that of Udupi. The construction activities have come to a standstill. The peoples representatives are least bothered about the hindrance for the development activities in the district, he criticised.



Karnataka Rakshana Vedike District General Secretary Sandesh Bannanje said the price of the sand bags vary in both Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts. He said a sand bag in Dakshina Kannada costs Rs 700, while it costs Rs 1,500 in Udupi.



Karnataka Karmika Vedike District President Ravi Shetty said the frequent ban on sand mining activities in the district has affected the construction process. The people who are dependent on the business are struggling. The district administration has failed to do any preparations to appear before the NGT on Tuesday. Even in two hearings held earlier, the case was not represented by the experienced advocates. Instead, the case was handled by an inexperienced lawyer who failed to convince the tribunal, he criticised.



He said there is a need for continuous fight against the district administration and Mines and Geology Department.



Builders Jerry Vincent Dias and Manohar Shetty raised objections about giving way the sand collected in the district to other districts.



They said the sand can be transported to other districts only after the requirement of the district is met. Increasing corruption in the business and the black market has created vacuum in the trade, the stated.



The builders also demanded a be separate sand policy for coastal districts.

Zilla Raitha Sangha President Vijay Kumar Hegde said the environment is polluted as the increasing sand accumulation in the areas has its worst affect on CRZ and non-CRZ area. Sand should be excavated to certain level to maintain the balance. Udupi has become an experimental district for all ventures of the government, he said.



The participants also decided to stage a huge protest rally against the district administration if the stay order is not withdrawn in the third hearing to be held on Tuesday.



They would also call a district bandh and march to the DCs office in Manipal.

All people connected to the construction business would assemble and take part in the protest. Nearly 3,000 to 4,000 people would join the protest.




Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Monday she will return land to over 9,000 farmers in Singur by September 14.





After a high-powered meeting at the state secretariat, Mamata announced she will also distribute compensation cheques to around 800 farmers, who did not accept money in 2006.



Mamata, who hailed the Supreme Court verdict on Singur as a personal victory, will address a mega rally at the agricultural hamlet in Hooghly district on Wednesday, where she will return land deeds to 9,117 farmers and give away cheques. A Supreme Court division bench on August 31 had ordered the return of land to the original owners from Tata Motors.



The industry giant received 997 acres in 2006 from the erstwhile Left government to set up its proposed factory for Nano cars, but had to shift to Gujarats Sanand after a long-drawn protest movement by a section of local farmers, and later by Mamata.



Talking to reporters on Monday, she expressed hope that Tata Motors would cooperate with the government and shift out everything before the administration razes the factory. Weve taken the Supreme Court verdict sportingly and waited for 11 days for them to pull down the structure. I hope they too will accept the order, she said.



Incidentally, Tata Motors was part of a recent delegation led by Mamata to the German auto hub of Munich, seeking foreign investment.



The chief minister said the administrative review meeting, scheduled for September 14, will now be held on September 29.



Following the meeting, Mamata said the land survey was almost completed and the BDOs office had collected application forms for compensation from those whose land was acquired in 2006. Records are also being updated as per the 2006 survey of the land and land reforms department. The chief minister discussed the present condition of the land, which her government has pledged to return in a cultivable condition. Tata Motors had filled up the low-lying land with garbage and sand to build its factory.



Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress-run Kolkata Municipal Corporation ran into trouble over hoardings advertising the partys Singur victory in the apex court. The Left and Congress accused the civic body of wasting much-needed funds on political grandstanding.


The High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad on Monday stayed the Swiss Challenge model adopted by Andhra Pradesh to select a developer for its proposed new capital city of Amaravati.





The court, which admitted a petition by Aditya Constructions and Chennai-based NVN Engineers Private Limited, directed the state government to file a counter petition and adjourned the hearing to October 31.



The state government, through the Capital Region Development Authority, had on July 17 called for international competitive bidding for the development of 6.84 sqkm of seed start-up area of Amaravati through the Swiss Challenge model under the APIDE (Andhra Pradesh Infrastructure Development Enabling) Act, 2001. The state Cabinet also ratified the model.



Under the Swiss Challenge model, a developer will be asked to place a bid, which can be challenged by other prospective bidders. The main bidder will be asked to make another offer if the counter bids are lower. The tender will then be awarded to the lowest bidding developer.



The two construction companies questioned the efficacy of the Swiss Challenge model and demanded an open bidding system for the transparent award of the tender. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, arguing on behalf the Andhra Pradesh government, said the model was adopted to build a world-class capital city for the cash-strapped state.



Meanwhile, Opposition YSRCP, which is against the new model, welcomed the high courts direction. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has been discouraging Indian companies right from the start, saying they can only build slums. He did not allow Indian firms to participate in the bidding process, charged YSRCP MLA Rajendranath Reddy. The Andhra Pradesh government had offered 58% stake in the Amaravati development project to the Singapore consortium Ascendas-Singbridge and SembCorp Development Limited.


Arunachal Pradesh Governor J P Rajkhowa was sacked on Monday, two months after the Supreme Courts sharp rebuke for his decision that led to Presidents Rule in the state, which subsequently led to the formation of an alternate government.





President Pranab Mukherjees decision caps days of speculation over Rajkhowas continuation after the government nudged him to resign on health grounds late last month.



Rajkhowa, a former chief secretary of Assam, is the first NDA-appointed governor to be sacked. The sacking comes 15 months and 13 days into his tenure.



The President has asked Meghalaya Governor V Shanmuganathan to hold additional charge of the state until regular arrangement is made.



Rajkhowa, who is credited for coining the word Seven Sisters to refer to the Northeastern states, was sent to Arunachal as the Centre felt that his experience in the region would be helpful in dealing with the situation there.



But the July 13 Supreme Court verdict reinstating the Congress government after revoking his decisions virtually put his future at stake.



Sources said his ouster was imminent, but the government wanted him to resign. His relations with the Central government nosedived after a private person and a junior minister sought his resignation on health grounds.



Rajkhowa was in hospital for 47 days and had rejoined work only in the middle of August. The Centre wanted him to resign using this as a pretext.



In an interview to a TV channel, he was stubborn and refused to resign, saying: I want the President to dismiss me. I will not resign. Let the President express his displeasure. Let the government use provisions of Article 156 of the Constitution.



This upset the Centre and Home Minister Rajnath Singh briefed Mukherjee last week about the governments displeasure.



The adverse remarks by the Supreme Court also played a role in the Centres decision.

The apex court had observed, ...governor must keep clear of political horse trading and unsavoury political manipulations.




The ruling Congress in Manipur suffered a major blow on Monday when veteran Congress legislator and former minister Yumkham Erabot Singh (77) joined the BJP along with all his constituency supporters in Imphal.





Erabot had quit the party last Saturday. Erabot has tendered his resignation from the state legislative Assembly as well.



The Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee on Monday expelled him from the general membership of the party for six years. Ever since Erabot quit the Congress, there were speculations of him joining the BJP which wants to throw out the 15-year-old Congress government in Manipur in the Assembly polls next year.



Erabot is a known adversary of Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh and it was between 2010 and 2012 when Erabot almost snatched the chief ministers chair from

Ibobi.



After winning the previous Assembly polls in 2012, Ibobi was able to isolate Erabot in the party.


Despite efforts by the state government to clamp down on illegal rhino poaching, the species in Assam is continuing to face the threat of extinction, an international report has warned.





In its report, international watchdog for illegal wildlife trade CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) has warned India that the one-horned rhino is facing increasing threat from poaching in Assams Kaziranga National Park and death due to translocation of the species in Manas National Park. The report said Assam lost 40 rhinos to poaching between 2010 to 2012, besides this seven rhinos died while they were being translocated to Manas from Kaziranga under the ambitious Indian Rhino Vision 2020.



Another eight translocated rhinos died in Manas in 2013 when the state lost 41 animals in total, the report noted. Though death due to poaching reduced to 30 in 2014 and 20 in 2015, the rhinos continue to face the threat with nine incidents being reported this year.



The report states that the porous Indo-Myanmar boarder along Nagaland and Manipur has become the transit route for rhino horns. It first moves to the Kachin state in Myanmar and then to Yunan province in China, where it reaches the hands of the international traders.


Senior Congress leader B Janardhana Poojary on Monday dared KPCC president G Parameshwara to remove him from the party.





Reacting to media queries over Chief Minister Siddaramaiah complaining to AICC Karnataka incharge Digivijay Singh against him (Poojary) and former Mysuru-Kodagu MP A H Vishwanath, for issuing statements against him (CM), Poojary said, Poojary will answer (to the notice). High command is not stupid and will understand after going through my answer, whether I have committed anything wrong or not. Let them serve notice, I am also eager to answer and will give a fitting reply.



He said, I will not keep mum, come what may. I am ready to face any action.



When sought to know whether Parameshwara spoke to him after the recent developments, Poojary said, There is no question of speaking to him. If he does not understand the feelings of six crore people of Karnataka, he is also unfit to be in the chair. Let him sack me.



Reiterating that he always raised his voice in the interests of the party, Poojary claimed that it was only a handful of leaders like himself, Rajya Sabha member Oscar Fernandes, A H Vishwanath, Bidar MP N Dharam Singh, Chikkaballapur MP M Veerappa Moily and the workers who built the party in the state.



When questioned about the contribution of Mallikarjuna Kharge, leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, in building the party, Poojary said, Kharge had gone with Urs (former chief minister D Devaraj Urs), referring to the fact that Kharge had followed Urs, who quit the party to form his own Congress party (Urs) in 1980, following differences of opinion with former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Nu Muses Creates Global Social Search For New Calendar Models

Trending News: A Photographer Is Creating "The Pirelli Calendar For Millennials"

Why Is This Important?

Because this is crowdsourcing at its finest.

Long Story Short

A project called Nu Muses has started a global, socially-moderated search for 12 calendar models which will be photographed by the same guy who snaps all the Victoria's Secrets models, David Bellemere. And they want your help.

Long Story

A hunt for 12 calendar models has begun and you get to decide who gets in front of the lens. The project is called "Nu Muses" and is an "industry curated, socially moderated global search for 12 models to star in an elegant calendar shoot by David Bellemere." The winning dozen also get $10,000 each.

You've probably never heard of photographer David Bellemere but you've most certainly seen some of the his work. He's the man behind many of the Victoria's Secrets shoots and, if you've ever gone lingerie shopping for your partner or simply stumbled across some of the models online, this is the guy who creates the images under your nose.

Together with treats! magazine founder Steve Shaw (the mag that celebrates artfully shot nudes), he's making a calendar and, instead of simply hand-picking the final 12 himself, is asking the internet to choose them for him. All of the models have obviously been carefully curated already but it's up to you to bump your favourite up the pecking order and give them the modelling break of a lifetime.

Each model has her own profile made up of a model shot, no-makeup pic and a full body shot, alongside a short interview about beauty and nudity. As the votes increase, the rankings of each model will shift up or down until the 17th September when the top 20 will be picked for a final casting.

The social search aims to shift the fashion industry's focus onto natural beauty and how nudity can be an art form. Speaking to PR Rocket, Steve Shaw explains, "We are launching NU MUSES at a time when things are highly censored, and restricted: we have pop culture celebrities flashing body parts to get attention and music lyrics that are overly sexualised, but we need to bring back the female form as classic fine art that is highly celebrated verses gratuitous."

You can see the models and submit your vote here.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question

Is a nude calendar old-fashioned or should we be less hung up about nudity?

Disrupt Your Feed

I'm available if they need any assistants on set.

Drop This Fact

Next year's Pirelli Calendar will be more diverse, including beautiful older women like Charlotte Rampling and Helen Mirren.
India and Afghanistan will finally sign an extradition treaty this week, almost 16 months after they had agreed to ink the pact.





The treaty is likely to be inked during Afghan President M Ashraf Ghanis two-day visit to India, commencing on Wednesday.



A Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday approved the signing and ratification of the treaty, according to a press release issued by the government. The treaty would provide a legal framework for seeking extradition of terrorists, economic offenders and other criminals to and from Afghanistan, it said.



It was during Ghanis visit to New Delhi on April 28, 2015, that he and Modi had agreed to ink the extradition treaty and five other pacts  Agreement on Transfer of Sentenced Persons Between India and Afghanistan, two Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties in Criminal, Civil and Commercial Matters, a Motor Vehicles Agreement for Regulation of Passenger, Personal and Cargo Vehicular Traffic and the MoU on Visa Free Entry for Holders of Diplomatic Passports.



Though Ghani and Modi had agreed to ink all the pacts by the end of July 2015, only one of them could be inked in the past 16 months. The pact for the visa-free entry for diplomatic passport holders was signed on February 1. The past 16 months, however, saw two visits by Modi to Afghanistan, first in December 2015 to inaugurate the new Afghan parliament complex built by India in Kabul and then in June 2016 to inaugurate the Salma Dam in Herat province of the war-torn country. The prime minister met the Afghan president on both the occasions, but the procedure for signing most of the pacts agreed upon in April 2015 could not be finalised.
To stabilise prices of pulses and encourage farmers, the government on Monday decided to increase the buffer stock of pulses from 8 lakh tonnes to 20 lakh tonnes.



The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to import 10 lakh tonnes of pulses and procure the remaining from the local market. If need be, the government will sell pulses to the poor from the buffer stock at a cheaper rate.



We will sell pulses from the buffer stock in case of a price rise in retail markets, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan told reporters after the cabinet meeting.



He said the stock limit on pulses will not be lifted while export ban and zero import duty regime will continue.



We will provide pulses to the poor at cheaper rates. We will not allow prices of essential commodities to rise, he said, adding that the government was keeping a close watch on rates of pulses, wheat and sugar.



Paswan said the prices of pulses have started declining and would fall further in the next two months.



Asked about funds for creating the buffer stock, Paswan said: We have created 3 lakh tonnes of buffer stock so far at an average cost of Rs 92 per kg. So, it will be Rs 18,500 crore for the 20 lakh tonnes.



The minister said there will not be any shortage of funds for creating the buffer stock of pulses. The requisite funds for this operation will be provided through the Price Stabilisation Fund. Funds could be raised from financial institutions as well. For creating the buffer stock, the domestic procurement operations will be undertaken by the central agencies.


Prodded by the European Union (EU), India has made the first move to put in place a legal framework to bring back its citizens, who illegally migrated to the western countries.





A meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday approved a pact to set up a bilateral technical arrangement between India and Switzerland for identification of illegal Indian and Swiss immigrants in each others countries and their repatriation.



The proposed pact between the two countries is likely to be the precursor to a series of similar agreements New Delhi is contemplating to ink with other countries, particularly the ones in Europe.



Techical arrangement

The bilateral technical arrangement between India and Switzerland is essentially aimed at formalising the existing procedure for cooperation on the return of irregular migrants between the two countries without introducing any additional obligations or exacting time frames, according to a press release issued by the government after the meeting.



Officials said that New Delhi had chosen to put in place such an arrangement with the Swiss government first, as the estimated number of people, who had illegally migrated from India to Switzerland, would not exceed 100.



If India-Switzerland arrangement works well, New Delhi would use it as a template for negotiating similar pacts with other nations in Europe, said the officials.



Not only the EU but also some of the 28 nations, which are members of the bloc, have been nudging New Delhi to have an arrangement in place to bring back the Indians, who had illegally migrated to Europe.



The number of illegal immigrants from India to EU member countries was estimated to be close to 12,000 in 2012.



The EU already has similar arrangements with China and Russia and is keen to have one with India.



The issue of illegal migration from India to Europe prominently figured in Prime Minister Narendra Modis discussions with president of the European Council Donald Tusk and president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, in Brussels on March 31.



The India-EU Common Agenda on Migration and Mobility, adopted during the summit, provided for cooperation on facilitation of return of illegal migrants, including on the establishment of the nationality by the competent authority and timely issuance of travel documents required for return, while seeking to make the process swifter and more efficient.


Reviewing the situation arising out of violent Cauvery protests, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday spoke to the chief ministers of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on the phone and assured them all assistance in maintaining peace.





The Centre has rushed 10 companies (around 1,000 personnel) of Rapid Action Force to violence-prone localities in Karnataka, while it is reviewing the situation constantly to take a decision on a request by the state to send another 10 companies.



Singh's telephonic conversation with Siddaramaiah and Jayalalithaa came after violent protests raged in both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.



Sources said Singh assured both the chief ministers that the Centre would go the extra mile in helping them normalise the situation.



The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is monitoring the situation in the state, which has witnessed heightened tension after the Supreme Court order, asking Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu from Cauvery river.



Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said he was in touch with Karnataka Chief Secretary Arvind Jadhav and assured him that "whatever help is required will be provided."



Official sources said they are also monitoring social media to pre-empt any possible violence after reports that some criminal elements were using such mode for inciting violence.



A senior official said that no stone will be left unturned to ensure peace in the two states.



Sources said the 10 companies rushed to the state will assist the police. Already, three RAF companies and an all-women Central Reserve Police Force company have been deployed in Karnataka after the protests erupted.



Also, 5-10 more companies of the Border Security Force and Indo-Tibetan Border Police are on standby and can be sent if any of the two states require them.


Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahals forthcoming visit to India will not see signing of any new agreement.





Although, the two countries will seek to expedite several development projects New Delhi has committed to fund in the neighbouring country.



Dahal, who is better known as Prachanda, is likely to visit India from Thursday to Sunday. This will be the first foreign visit of Dahal after taking over as prime minister of Nepal for the second term on August 4.



Prachanda, who leads the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre), will be accompanied by his wife Sita Dahal and a high-level official delegation, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in a press release stated.



He will hold a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday. The visit of prime minister of Nepal will provide an opportunity for both sides to discuss issues of mutual interest and concern, as well as seek ways to strengthen the age old, close and friendly ties between the two countries in diverse sectors, said the MEA.



India was upset when Prachanda, who led a Maoist insurgency in Nepal from 1996 to 2006, chose to visit China first after becoming the prime minister of Nepal in 2008. Almost all of his predecessors in the past half-a-century had come to India first on official visits as premiers.


Just as normalcy was returning to the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border areas, fresh violence erupted across Tamil Nadu on Monday morning over the Cauvery row.





Unidentified miscreants hurled petrol bombs at New Woodlands Hotel at Mylapore area in Chennai, owned by Kannadigas early Monday morning. Police said the group also entered the hotel and broke glass doors and windows. However, no one was injured.



The attack is believed to be in retaliation to a video of a youth, suspected to be a Tamil, being beaten up by a gang in Karnataka, which went viral on social media on Sunday.



The attackers in Mylapore also left a hand-written pamphlet at the entrance of the hotel that stated, If attacks continue on Tamilians there, our violence will continue against all Karnataka-based organisations in Tamil Nadu.



"The attack on the hotel occurred at around 3.45 am. A gang of more than 10 persons came in autos and threw a petrol bomb at the ice cream shop inside the hotel complex. Within a few hours, we arrested four suspects in connection with the incident," a senior police official said.



A hotel staffer, seeking anonymity, told DH that there were about 10 security persons when the attack occurred. Out of fear, our security people could not prevent it, the staffer said.



Violence was also reported from Rameshwaram, Vellore, Thanjavur, Erode, Salem and Trichy. Six vehicles, including two tourist buses bearing Karnataka registration, were attacked in Rameshwaram by a pro-Tamil outfit. They also caught hold of a driver hailing from Karnataka and beat him and forced him to shout Cauvery is for Tamil Nadu.



Rameshwaram police rushed to the spot and rescued the driver before arresting the attackers. Cadres of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) also attacked a Bengaluru-bound bus in Ambur at Vellore district. In Salem district, more than 20 protesters were arrested when they tried to burn the effigy of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.



Karnataka registered vehicles were damaged in Thanjavur district. Demanding that the Centre solve the Cauvery issue, delta farmers staged a protest in Trichy and shouted slogans against the Karnataka government.



Tamizhaga Vazhvu Uremai Katchi, a political outfit in the state, also threatened to stage a "democratic" protest demonstration in front of all Karnataka-based organisations, including banks, across the state for the release of Cauvery water. Activists of another pro-Tamil group smashed the glass door of Karnataka Bank in Anna Nagar, Chennai.

Protests were also held in Puducherry where farmers joined agitators.



Meanwhile, most state-owned bus services from Chennai to Karnataka were suspended on Monday morning, putting people to hardship. Some buses were stopped at the borders. Private buses were also stopped on the borders at Hosur in Krishnagiri district and Sathyamangalam in Erode district.
With the Supreme Court revising the amount of water to be released by Karnataka to Tamil Nadu, delta farmers in the state on Monday reiterated that the water will not be enough to cultivate the Samba crop.





Farmers in Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Trichy and Nagapattinam districts said that they accepted the courts order, but the water would not be adequate for samba crops. The Consortium of Cauvery Delta Farmers general secretary V Sathyanarayanan told DH that the situation was bad since the present water release from Cauvery was not enough. Karnataka has to release 18,000 cusecs. Then only the water level in Mettur dam reaches the 90-feet mark, which is technically enough for the state government here to release it to farmers, he said.
The Cauvery Supervisory Committee has sought detailed data from basin states by Thursday after Tamil Nadu complained that Karnataka artificially created low storages in its reservoirs by diverting water to crops and posted the matter to September 19.



At its over four-hour-long meeting on Monday, the committee said all the states should submit details of inflow and outflow in reservoirs, withdrawal and crops grown in command area, by September 15. The meeting, chaired by Union Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekar, decided that the Central Water Commission will study the data and prepare a report for discussion at the next meeting, sources said.



The committee could not arrive at a decision for want of adequate information relating to withdrawal and utilisation of water and charges of withdrawal when not permitted, variation in rainfall and its impact on the actual run-off over a period of 29 years, Shekar said after the meeting.



Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court had asked Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs Cauvery water every day to Tamil Nadu till September 20.



Since the time given by the honourable (Supreme) Court was so limited...they could not bring all information. The committee did not want to pass any order which is not backed by supportive data. The panel will hold another meeting on September 19, a day before the next hearing in the Supreme Court, on September 20, the committee said. The committee met here after the Supreme Court asked Tamil Nadu to approach the panel, in its order on September 5. The chief secretaries of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka did not agree over figures relating to release of water.



The panel decided to set up a network for data collection of water storage, inflow and outflow and release of water to canals, which will send real-time online data to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Puducherry and Kerala.



Tamil Nadu said that Karnataka had an inflow of about 4 tmcft in its four major reservoirs from September 1 to 10. The flow realised at Biligundlu due to the release from Karnataka's reservoirs up to September 11 is about 4.8 tmcft. This shows that Karnataka has released to Tamil Nadu only the inflows received by it and the depletion in storage is due to its own drawal and not on account of release to Tamil Nadu as claimed by Karnataka. However, Karnataka vehemently denied the charges and said low storage of water was mainly due to failure of monsoon.



Karnataka explained the drinking water requirement of cities and towns, including Bengaluru and Mysuru.



On Tamil Nadus charges, Shekar said the state will also have to substantiate them with data. Chief secretaries Arvind Jadhav (Karnataka), P Rama Mohana Rao (Tamil Nadu), Manoj Parida (Puducherry) and senior officials from Kerala, the Central Water Commission and the Union Water Resources Ministry attended the meeting.



Committee to discuss distress formula



With the Cauvery water sharing dispute becoming a regular affair, Union Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekhar on Monday said that Cauvery Supervisory Committee along with all the four riparian states will sit together and prepare a distress sharing formula.



Shekhar, who chaired the Supervisory Committee meeting told reporters that the panel did discuss the distress sharing as it was not mentioned in the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal final award. However, he said, the Committee should "hold discussion on it sometime". "All the four states will need to discuss what should be the distress situation. If we arrive at a consensus on that, we will make that a basis for discussion when there is less rainfall and, how we can achieve proportionate share then. This (distress) situation is arising regularly," he said.
Violence erupted in Mandya district after a clipping of a Kannadiga being attacked in Rameshwaram, Tamil Nadu, went viral on television channels and social media. Youths, in groups, attacked the vehicles bearing Tamil Nadu registration numbers at various places in the district and vent their ire, on Monday.





The agitators ransacked several shops, bakeries in Pandavapura town, owned by Tamils. Police intervened and rescued a driver, who was driving a Tamil Nadu vehicle from being attacked by a mob and admitted him to the hospital.



However, the police could not prevent the mob from torching a lorry as they outnumbered the police force. They had to use tear gas to disperse the mob and bring the situation under control. Though the Fire and Emergency Services personnel doused the flames, it was 75 per cent burnt.



Miscreants threw stones at the house of retired High Court judge C Shivappa at Pattasomanahalli, near Pandavapura, alleging that he had given a verdict favouring TN Chief Minister Jayalalithaa during his tenure as the High Court judge. However, the judge was not at home when the incident occured. SP Sudhir Kumar Reddy visited the spot.



The vehicular traffic on Bengaluru-Mysuru highway came to a grinding halt on Monday. KSRTC buses plying to rural areas too suspended services. All shops in Mandya voluntarily downed the shutters.



The Bengaluru-Kanakapura-Kollegal-Dindigul road was closed by agitators who had set used tyres on fire.



Bus service suspended

The KSRTC buses went off roads, after violenece broke out, affecting school and college students.



Those living in rural areas were seen waiting for buses. Some parents were seen rushing to schools to pick their wards as soon as violence broke out.



Police upped the security to the Tamil Colony as a precautionary measure. BJP leader Shivakumar Aaradhya, who wanted to have lunch with the residents of the colony to instil confidence among them, was stopped by the police.



Protests to continue

Meanwhile, Cauvery Raitha Hitharakshana Samiti president G Madegowda said, the protests will continue till the water is released to Tamil Nadu.



Speaking to media persons here, Madegowda said, the Supreme Court order was on expected lines. The Supreme Courts order is based on the verdict of Cauvery Tribunal, which has decided the quantum of water to be released every month. This is injustice to the state. It has become inevitable to stage a protest against the tribunals decision, he opined.


Karnataka, as per the modified order of the Supreme Court, has to release an additional 18,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.





In an interaction with DH, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T B Jayachandra (in pic) said that as per the September 5 order of the apex court, Karnataka was supposed to release 1.5 lakh cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu.



As per the modified order issued on Monday, another 18,000 cusecs have to be released. Nearly 11,000 cusecs make one tmcft.



In all, we would have to release 1.68 lakh cusecs of water, he added.



The minister said that so far nearly 1 lakh cusecs of water has been released. With Mondays order, 12,000 cusecs of water a day for eight days (up to September 20) have to be released.



Earlier it was at the rate of 15,000 cusecs till September 16. Karnataka had submitted to the court that the quantum should be reduced to 10,000 cusecs of water, the minister pointed out.
There appears to be no takers for the green fuel at the first compressed natural gas (CNG) refill station set up by the GAIL Gas Ltd near Laggere, off Magadi Road.





While private vehicles are yet to adopt the CNG kit (also called CNG retro-fitment), the state-run transport corporation, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), is still dragging its feet as far as procuring CNG buses is concerned. The state government, too, is not showing eagerness to promote the use of CNG.



The BMTC has been reluctant to buy CNG buses, despite the fact that CNG is cheaper compared to diesel. A kg of CNG costs Rs 44. I agree that CNG is eco-friendly and it is good for vehicle engine. But CNG buses are expensive compared to diesel ones. The corporation has financial constraints. It cannot afford to buy CNG buses on its own, Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy told DH.



He also said the government is yet to respond to a request by the BMTC seeking financial assistance to buy CNG buses. The corporation will try to hold negotiations with the manufacturers of CNG buses on reducing the price. Steps should be taken to promote the use of CNG by private vehicles in order to bring down pollution levels. Bengaluru has about 54 lakh private vehicles whereas, the BMTC has only about 5,000 vehicles, Reddy added.



Workshop to fit CNG kit

Care Cylinders, a Thane-based CNG-kit supplier, is scheduled to open its workshop to fit CNG kits for private vehicles at Laggere on September 15. We are waiting for the final approval from the road transport authority to run the workshop. We hope to get it by Thursday. CNG kits will be available for all kinds of vehicles, excluding two-wheelers, Chandrashekar Naik of Care Cylinders said.



After buying a CNG kit, owners of three-wheelers and four-wheelers have to obtain a separate certificate from the road transport authority. People in Bengaluru are eagerly waiting to switch to CNG. We are getting a lot of enquiries from people. Private transporters, including taxi aggregators such as Ola and Uber want to use CNG. We will expand and open many workshops across Bengaluru in the coming days, he added.



The Gail Gas Ltd is planning to commission three additional CNG refill stations at Sumanahalli, Peenya and Hennur BMTC depots by this month end. The company is planning to set up a total of 60 CNG stations across the city.



The company, which is also implementing the Piped Natural Gas (PNG) project, has so far provided PNG to 900 households in the city. It has laid 350-km long pipeline. Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Intel and Bosch are among the industrial customers for GAIL Gas.




Anticipating shortage in the coming days, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) is asking its bulk customers to use the water judiciously. The board is also drawing up a contingency plan to tide over the ensuing crisis before formally announcing measures .





Sources in the BWSSB said that they have begun orally communicating to large institutions in the city like the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Indian Institute of Management Bengaluru (IIMB) among others to use water judiciously.



The board will also make a similar appeal to Bengalureans to save as much water as possible. The decision comes in the wake of low storage levels in reservoirs in the Cauvery basin due to deficit monsoon rains besides the ongoing agitation against the apex court verdict to release water to Tamil Nadu.



Kemparamaiah, engineer-in-chief, BWSSB, told DH that there is a need to create awareness among people to prepare for a water crisis. He, however, said there was no immediate threat. On a request by the BWSSB, IISc has issued a circular to all departments to save water. The circular asks all departments to save as much water as possible in the next 10 days, an IISc source said.



Kemparamaiah said that there was a need to maintain a minimum level in reservoirs. The BWSSB pumps 1,400 MLD to Bengaluru. To ensure continuous supply to the city, reservoirs must maintain at least 600 cubic feet of water as there is no separate facility to store and supply water to Bengaluru.



The Cauvery Jala Nigama has been directed to ensure minimum levels are maintained to release water every day.


Arson and vandalism in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the Cauvery water dispute also resulted in disruption of services of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) to the two states.





Services from Bengaluru to Kerala via Salem in Tamil Nadu were reportedly cancelled on Monday, affecting plans for thousands of Keralites residing in Bengaluru planning to head home for the Onam festival season. Keralites celebrate Thiruvonam on Wednesday.



Many Keralites who had reserved bus tickets for home were left stranded in the wake of cancellation of the services. Services of private bus operators were also affected. Meanwhile, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told reporters that the Karnataka government promised security to bus services operating from Karnataka to destinations in Kerala.



Special train

Instructions are being issued to run a special train from Bengaluru to Thirivananthapuram on Tuesday on the request of the Karnataka, according to a release.


Following violence in city, the US Consulate General office in Chennai has advised its citizens to avoid areas of demonstrations, and exercise caution if in the vicinity of any large gatherings, protests or demonstrations.





While detailing the situation, the advisory states: Review your personal security plans; remain aware of your surroundings, including local events; and monitor local news stations for updates. Maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to enhance your personal security.



The advisory said, Tensions in Karnataka, including the city of Bengaluru, continue to run high following a Supreme Court order that Karnataka release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.



Sections of the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway are closed due to protests. There have been reports of Tamil Nadu-plated trucks being stoned and burnt. Section 144 of the CrPC which prohibits the gatherings of ten or more people, has been imposed in Bengaluru. As a result, many businesses and companies throughout Bengaluru are closed. Local law enforcement has advised that they are tracking the situation and are prepared to respond appropriately.



The consulate reminded the US citizens that even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence. Hence, they should avoid areas of demonstrations, and exercise caution if in the vicinity of any large gatherings, protests, or demonstrations. It has asked them to review their personal security plans, remain aware of their surroundings, including local events, and monitor local news stations for updates.


Several unidentified people on Monday evening set ablaze as many as 36 buses belonging to KPN Travels India Ltd at Hosakerehalli, D'Souza Nagar in the city. The buses are owned by one K P Nataraj, resident of Salem in Tamil Nadu.





The buses were gutted in just 20 minutes, even before the Fire and Emergency services could reach the spot.



An eyewitness told DH that more than 100 people barged into the KPN garage at 5.15 pm identifying themselves as pro-Kannada activists. They even assaulted the drivers and conductors without any provocation. Their plea for mercy fell on deaf ears," he said.



"The bus, which was stationed in front of the garage, had a number plate with Tamil Nadu registration. The protesters, who spotted this bus, turned violent and barged into the garage in large numbers. They used diesel in the buses to set the buses on fire. We could see buses being torched but were helpless," another woman said.



There were 40 buses in the garage. Of them, four buses, including two mini buses, were spared. Besides, the mob also chased drivers and conductors, who started running for their lives. A few, however, managed to hide in an under-construction building nearby," the eyewitness recalled.



KPN Travels, which has 400 buses, plies to Kerala, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Of them, 68 buses ply towards Tamil Nadu. The company, which has several depots in the city, purchased a 2.5-acre plot in D'Souza Nagar a month back, where these buses were set ablaze. The depot accommodates 52 buses and has a rest room for about 25 conductors and drivers. Each bus costs around Rs 40 lakh and is insured," manager Ansar said.



The group had tried to vandalise the garage on two different occasions on Monday. Later in the evening, as their numbers grew, it was a mob-like situation and spiralled out of control.



Deputy director, Fire and Emergency Services, S R Markandey said they could not reach the spot on time as the protesters had blocked their way. We were informed by the garage officials. As many as 40 buses, including those owned by SRS Travels, were also damaged.


The flash bandh triggered by the violence over the Cauvery issue in Bengaluru on Monday turned fever pitch in the cyber world.





On the popular social networking site Twitter, CauveryIssue, Bengaluru and KarnatakaHomeMinister were the top trending topics. On Facebook, tamil nadu karnataka trended throughout the later half of the day.



While violent protests erupted in several parts on Bengaluru, netizens vented their ire against the media, especially the television channels blaming them for fanning the flame of violence.



A clip of a Kannadiga being beaten up was repeatedly played on loop on various channels. Taking objection to this, many concerned citizens tweeted their disappointment.



One such post was circulated on Facebook talking about channels pre-announcing the imposition of the Section 144 even before the police clamped it: While the BENGALURU CITY POLICE has confirmed that Section 144 has not been imposed in Karnataka, the so called Indian Media has created havoc and panic in the state by showing that Section 144 has been imposed on Cauvery issue. This is pathetic about media.



Others took note of the volatile situation in the city. One post on Twitter by one @Sricalifornia read: My nephew. Comes out of his hostel, sees a mob chasing a truck ,another one on fire. We all have friends and family in Bangalore. Stay safe



The issue also turned into a Kannadiga vs Tamilian issue with several netizens engaging in virtual fisticuffs. Some tried to provide help on the ground by creating a virtual map of several areas affected by violence. This message was then circulated via SMS and other messaging services.



Many others appealed for calm at the situation. @smile_rams tweeted: A Kannadian safely dropped a Tamilian(me) in his home at Bangalore during the tense situation. Hope this kind of #love spreads #CauveryIssue



Home Minister G Parameshwara requested television channels and netizens not to circulate videos that may intensify the violence. We have limited resources to control the spread of updates on social networking websites, he said.


One person was killed and several others, including 10 policemen, were injured on Monday when police fired at a mob in Rajagopalnagar near Peenya, as violence broke out in the city amid the raging Cauvery water-sharing row.





Shoot-at-sight orders were issued and curfew was imposed in 16 police station areas where large-scale arson and violence were witnessed, City Police Commissioner N S Megharikh told DH, adding that they will review the orders after 10 am on Tuesday.



These orders have been issued in Rajagopalnagar, Kamakshipalya, Vijayanagar, Byatarayanapura (Mysuru Road), Kengeri, Magadi Road, Rajajinagar, Rajarajeshwari Nagar, K P Agrahara, Chandra Layout, Yeshwanthpur, Mahalakshmi Layout, Peenya, RMC Yard, Nandini Layout and Jnanabharathi. There could be an increase in the number of areas where curfew will be declared, Megharikh said.



Umesh (28), a petrol bunk employee, died in the firing by Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel. The force was travelling in a BMTC bus along Hegganahalli main road in Rajagopalnagar when a mob surrounded the vehicle and set it ablaze, forcing the personnel to open fire.



Doctors at Victoria Hospital said a bullet pierced his back and heart.



They declared Umesh, a native of Singhanahalli of Huliyurdurga in Tumakuru, brought dead.



The injured are Chandramohan Singh, Rajesh and Pradeep, who are being treated in different hospitals in the city.



The police have clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144 till Wednesday in Bengaluru.



Prohibitory orders have also been clamped in Pandavapura, Mandya and Mysuru, and at the four reservoirs in the Cauvery basin.



Home Minister G Parameshwara said a video showing a Kannadiga being purportedly beaten up by Tamil youths was broadcast by a few local news channels and went viral on social media, and this triggered the violence in Bengaluru, Mysuru and Mandya. The Supreme Court order directing Karnataka to release more Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu also had a cascading effect.



Bus services between the two states were suspended from noon after goons set ablaze several vehicles bearing Tamil Nadu registration, while many theatres stopped screening Tamil movies.



Salem-based KPN Travels was one of the worst hit, with as many as 50 of its buses being gutted at their Mysuru Road depot near Nayandahalli. In a related incident, at least 25 trucks parked inside the Gokulraj Company in New Timber Layout in Avalahalli were torched. More than 100 vehicles were damaged, an official said.



With rumours spreading thick and fast, thousands were stranded all over the city as Namma Metro suspended operations, followed by the BMTC withdrawing services in troubled areas like Mysuru Road, Peenya and K R Puram, among others. A few activists with yellow-red shawls were seen forcibly shutting shops all over Bengaluru. Some offices asked their staff to go home, and many helpless employees were seen struggling to get back.



Students worst hit

Students were the worst affected as educational institutions declared a holiday and asked parents to pick up their wards. Some college students had to walk for a few kilometres as they were very few buses plying.



The police have intensified security in volatile areas across the city and parts of the state. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, in a letter to his counterpart in Tamil Nadu, has ensured the safety of Tamilians in the state and expected the same for Kannadigas in Tamil Nadu.



A few tourists from the state were stuck at Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu on Monday. DG&IGP Om Prakash spoke to the tourists as well as senior police officials in Tamil Nadu, who assured him that the tourists would be sent back safely, Parameshwara said.

The home minister instructed Om Prakash and other senior officials to ensure peaceful celebration of Bakrid.



The jurisdictional police will take a final call on allowing Bakrid and Ganesha immersion processions in sensitive areas. We had received 10 companies of Central security forces for the past five days. After todays protests, we have asked Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh for an additional 10 companies, including ITBP, Rapid Action Force (RAF) and Central Reserve Police Force, Parameshwara said.



Anticipating a shutdown, people rushed to a petrol pump opposite the BSNL telephone exchange on Outer Ring Road in Hosakerehalli.



However, a rally of protesters forced the staff to stop operations.


China, Russia Ready for Joint Navy Drill In South China Sea



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By Natalia Girao Rodrigues de Mello

8 September 2016 (mongabay.com)  From the speeding boat, the jungle was a single block of green, its shades recycled across the riverbank and reflected on the thick, black water. The steam rolling from the trees was as foamy as the tracks we were leaving. Birds cut the clouds with their multicolored feathers. The forest around us was dense, hot, all humming and watching. The hard light confused our senses. Daniel was silent, scratching his head and reinforcing my suspicion that we were lost. But he is at home in the jungle. He works in the Brazilian Amazon as an environmental educator with sharp humor and a furry voice. We met in Manaus, a city nestled in the Amazon rainforest. He proposed we talk on a small motor boat, so we could go deeper into the heart of the forest. And so we did. He was the pilot and lecturer; he likes speed  fast boat and short words. He is the voice of all beings who inhabit the Amazon. They want to be heard. For three months, from September to December 2015, Manaus was engulfed in smoke, resembling Beijing. That was an unusual scene, and an undeniable sign that predatory exploration in the Brazilian Amazon has not yet been properly tackled. The sharp decrease in the annual rates of forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon is celebrated worldwide. The trend started in 2005 after a peak in deforestation the year before; 27,772 square kilometers were deforested in 2004 (about 6.9 million acres). In 2012, the forest loss rate reached its lowest level since records began in 1977, having dropped to 4,571 square kilometers (about 1.1 million acres). However, the figures are not so bright when it comes to forest fires, and few people are talking about that. The number of fires in the Brazilian Amazon is alarming, and that was especially true in 2015, when a sharp increase in forest fires occurred, as illustrated in the graph. Natural factors alone fail to explain this recent increase, as similar climatic conditions in the past were not associated with the same amount of forest fires. Forest fires and precipitation are strongly correlated in the Brazilian Amazon; in dry years, more forest fires occur. 2015 was a dry year, but not as dry as 2010 or 2005 were  years when the region faced anomalous droughts. Nevertheless, in 2015, forest fires increased 115.6 percent and 105.5 percent compared to 2005 and 2010, respectively. Hence it is safe to say that the peak observed last year was strongly associated with unregulated anthropogenic activities in the forest. In the region, using fire in order to clear large areas is a common practice. The expansion of roads, settlements, croplands and cattle ranches has been leading fires to reach ever-wider areas of the forest. [more]
Update: Synopsys Expands DesignWare IP Portfolio with Acquisition of Sidense Corporation (Oct. 17, 2017)

Ottawa, Canada and Santa Clara, Calif. -- September 12, 2016

What

Sidense exhibiting at the TSMC OIP Ecosystem Forum

Where

San Jose Convention Center

150 W. San Carlos St.

San Jose, CA 95113

Booth #301

When

Thursday, September 22

8:00AM to 6:30PM

What

In Booth #301, Sidense will discuss how its 1T-OTP non-volatile memory (NVM) IP is well suited for many Smart Connected Universe applications, focusing on the fast-growing automotive and mobile communication markets. The Smart Connected Universe describes a collection of market segments that are both Smart (have computational capability) and are Connected (usually in a wireless network). These segments share a common set of requirements in cost, power, performance and security. Meet with our knowledgeable and friendly people to learn how your Mobile Computing, Automotive, IoT, Wearables, Medical and Industrial designs can benefit from Sidense 1T-OTP.

About Sidense

Sidense Corp. provides very dense, highly reliable and secure non-volatile one-time programmable (OTP) Logic Non-Volatile Memory (LNVM) IP for use in standard-logic CMOS processes. The Company, with over 120 patents granted or pending, licenses OTP memory IP based on its innovative one-transistor 1T-Fuse bit cell, which does not require extra masks or process steps to manufacture. Sidense 1T-OTP macros provide a better field-programmable, reliable and cost-effective solution than flash, mask ROM, eFuse and other embedded and off-chip NVM technologies for many code storage, encryption key, analog trimming and device configuration uses.

Over 150 companies, including many of the top fabless semiconductor manufacturers and IDMs, have adopted Sidense 1T-OTP as their NVM solution for more than 500 designs. Customers are realizing outstanding savings in solution cost and power consumption along with better security and reliability for applications ranging from mobile and consumer devices to high-temperature, high-reliability automotive and industrial electronics. The IP is offered at and supported by all top-tier semiconductor foundries and selected IDMs. Sidense is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada with sales offices worldwide. For more information, please visit www.sidense.com.

About the TSMC OIP Ecosystem Forum

The TSMC OIP Ecosystem Forum brings together TSMC's design ecosystem companies and our customers to share practical, tested solutions to today's design challenges. Success stories that illustrate TSMC's design ecosystem best practices highlight the event.

At this years Forum you will hear directly from TSMC OIP companies about how to apply their technologies to address your design challenges. This year, the Forum is a day-long conference kicking-off with trend-setting addresses and announcements from TSMC and leading IC design company executives. The Ecosystem Pavilion features up to 60 member companies showcasing their products and services.






The government of Russia has suggested that 85% of equipment deployed by Russian operators should be locally made by 2020.

Arguing that overreliance on foreign manufacturers could represent a threat to Russian security, the government is reportedly considering charging less VAT, income tax and social insurance tax for Russian equipment manufacturers.

In addition, customs duties on imports of components for telecoms equipment are being lowered, and there have been proposals to limit the amount of foreign equipment that operators can use by changing licensing requirements.

The government push is in line with broader policy, with Russian authorities last year meeting with Sailfish as part of an effort to reduce the market dominance of Googles Android OS. However, critics of the move claim it could push up the price of telecom services while reducing their overall quality.

The big three Russian operators  MegaFon, MTS and VimpelCom  have already spoken out against a new law which grants the government broad surveillance powers, claiming it could cost the industry as much as $34 billion as well as infringing civil liberties.
Researchers at the Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen (HZM) have found that exposure to local air pollution increases the risk of developing insulin resistance for people with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes.

Along with colleagues from the German Centre for Diabetes Research (DZD), the scientists studied the link between increased air pollution in the Augsburg area and the risk prevalence ratio of type 2 diabetes.

Earlier this month, scientists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst suggested that early pollutants exposure could predispose people to diabetes but havent been able to demonstrate that the relationship is real.

This current epidemiology study, published in the journal Diabetes, provides evidence that the development of type 2 diabetes is not only due to lifestyle or genetic factors, but also due to traffic-related air pollution.

Professor Annette Peters from HZM and her colleagues analysed data from a two-year population based study (KORA) of nearly 3,000 participants who live in the city of Augsburg and two adjacent rural counties in Southern Germany.

In people with pre-existing type 2 diabetes, the researchers took fasting blood samples, in which they assessed various biomarkers for insulin resistance and inflammation.

These include beta cell function and insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), insulin secretio, HbA1c levels, and the appetite regulating hormone, leptin.

Non-diabetic individuals underwent an oral glucose tolerance test to detect whether their glucose metabolism was impaired.

The researchers then compared the data collected with the concentrations of air pollutants at the place of residence of each participant. They estimated the latter by taking particle measurements at 20 different sites and nitrogen dioxide readings in 40 sites.

At the time, air pollution levels in Augsburg were in the EU range but still above the proposed guidelines of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The results revealed that those classified as having prediabetes are particularly vulnerable to the effects of air pollution.

The research team noted a 15.6 per cent increase in markers of abnormal beta cell function and insulin resistance, as well as 14.5 per cent higher insulin levels for every 7.9g/m3 increment in air particle matter.

Similarly, elevations in nitrogen dioxide load correlated to higher HOMA-IR, blood glucose, insulin and leptin levels. However, no changes were seen for HbA1c.

The effect was found to be much more statistically significant for prediabetic individuals than with type 2 diabetes patients.

Commenting on the results, the researchers urged to consider outdoor air pollution as a more serious environmental factor causing diabetes and called for new government policies on acceptable air pollution threshold globally.
A James Dyson award-winning team has designed smart contact lenses that monitor the blood sugar levels of diabetes patients and transmits data to their phone in real time.

The inventio, developed by engineers from the University of Waterloo, could be a game-changer in the field of blood sugar monitoring, particularly for individuals with variable blood glucose levels.

The lens is minimally invasive and works by analysing tear fluid in diabetic users. It is linked to a clip wearable on the collar or behind the ear which is connected to a small device that transmits the data to the persons smartphone.

Users put it on in the morning, take it off at night, and clean it just like a normal contact lens. It doesnt affect a persons vision in any way and isnt contraindicated by other diabetes prescriptions.

The prototype is made of an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chip, an antenna and a sensor, which is embedded between the layers of lens material.

A pinhole in the lens allows tear fluid to seep into the sensor where physiologic pH values are used to measure blood sugar levels.

The antenna then acts as a controller to communicate information to a small device wired to the phone where detailed readings are available at a tap on the users phone.

Although the product holds promise, it wont be adapted for every diabetes patient. The technology could prove highly unreliable for people with dry eyes syndrome who lack adequate tears, for example.

The technology is still at an experimental stage as it has yet to go through human testing, which wont happen until April 2017.

With this contact lens, the engineering team led by Harry Gandhi hopes to drastically ease life for patients with diabetes by making finger pricking, and other glucose testing methods, a thing of the past.
Team of scientists from MIT have successfully tested imaging technique that can read a closed book

Judging a book by its cover might not be a wrong thing to do pretty soon, if a technology recently designed by a group of researchers from MIT becomes common. Barmak Heshmat, a research scientist at MIT Media Lab and his team have recently tested this prototype technology with a stack of papers, each having a letter printed on its surface. The machine was able to correctly identify up to 9 layers of letters.

The Metropolitan Museum in New York showed a lot of interest in this, because they want to, for example, look into some antique books that they dont even want to touch, says Barmak. He also adds that this technique can be used to analyze any kind of material that is arranged in multiple thin layers.

The team of researchers includes Ramesh Raskar, an Indian origin associate professor of media arts and sciences at MIT. Raskar is a former student of College of Engineering, Pune. Also part of the group is Albert Redo Sanchez, a research specialist in the Camera Culture group at the Media Lab.

The method uses two algorithms - one that retrieves the images from the individual layers, and another that tries to decipher those images as readable text. While excited about their progress, Heshmat also states concern about the method being used to defeat captchas on websites.

The core technology behind this method is terahertz radiation, which has multiple advantages over other surface-penetrating waves like X-Ray and sound waves. Since different material absorbs different frequencies of terahertz radiation up to different degrees, this makes it an ideal choice for differentiating between blank paper and ink printed onto it. It uses the refractive property of air trapped in between the pages of the book (about 20 micrometer thick) by shooting short bursts of terahertz radiations into the book, and reading the time it took for it to be reflected back to the sensor.

While distance information is available upto 20 pages, the weakness of the signal after 9 pages and the noise that creeps in makes it unreadable. The researchers have said that terahertz technology is still in its early days, and with increased sensor accuracy and stronger radiation, better results are definitely achievable.

"So much work has gone into terahertz technology to get the sources and detectors working, with big promises for imaging new and exciting things, says Laura Waller, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California at Berkeley. This work is one of the first to use these new tools along with advances in computational imaging to get at pictures of things we could never see with optical technologies. Now we can judge a book through its cover!".

Read the detailed explanation of the method here.
Aura Energy advised on Monday that it has successfully gained admission to the London Stock Exchange AIM market.

The ASX and now AIM-traded firm is a uranium development company with gold, soda ash and lithium exploration projects in Africa and Europe.

As part of the AIM listing the company has raised 2.24m before expenses by way of a placing of 196,883,849 new ordinary shares at 0.0114 per share giving it a market capitalisation of 7.45m on admission.

In conjunction with the AIM placement, Aura confirmed it has executed subscription agreements with sophisticated Australian investors, to raise a further 0.467m at 0.012 per share.

It said it anticipated the Australian subscriptions will be completed on or around 16 September, with the company confident of this completion although it could not be guaranteed.

This is an outstanding outcome for Aura Energy and we have always believed that, given our European and African focus, dual listing on AIM was both an attractive option for Aura and a natural marketplace for us, said executive chairman Peter Reeve.

This is a transformational period for Aura, and as only the second quoted uranium company on AIM, we believe the company will generate significant traction for our shareholders as we progress our strategy of phased development and low capital cost projects to allow early cash flow generation particularly from the Tiris Uranium Project.

Reeve said the success of the dual listing process is a vindication of Auras uranium assets in Mauritania and Sweden and its gold, soda ash and lithium tenements in Mauritania.

This package of development and exploration assets has gained broad market appeal with investors and has been the subject of a full technical review by an independent competent person.

In addition Aura received exceptionally strong support from existing and new shareholders for its recent Mauritanian gold transaction where it has secured a vast underexplored tract of greenstone belt just south of the 21 million ounce Tasiast Gold Mine owned by Kinross Gold Corporation.

Reeve commented that the separate application for lithium and soda ash permits in Mauritania was also well received.

We believe this now well-funded phase positions Aura ideally over the coming years as we build ourselves into a leading uranium developer, advancing our projects towards high-margin, profitable production in the near to medium term.

We believe there is a substantial uranium market opportunity ahead of us as there has been little new investment into the uranium sector, despite the worlds energy needs growing exponentially, he explained.

We believe the resultant supply deficit in nuclear energy will be significant. Nuclear power is a growing industry as it is low-carbon, reliable and long-lasting energy supply and acts as base load capacity.

There are currently an increasing number of nuclear reactors being built and coming back on line globally, China, for example, is expected to double its nuclear generation capability by 2020.

Reeve said the company expects substantial increases in pricing by the end of the decade to coincide with the first production from Tiris.
These were the movements in some of the most widely-followed 10-year sovereign bond yields:

US: 1.67% (-1bp)

UK: 0.87% (+1bp)

Germany: 0.04% (+3bp)

France: 0.33% (+3bp)

Italy: 1.28% (+3bp)

Spain: 1.08% (+0bp)

Portugal: 3.19% (+3bp)

Greece: 8.36% (+7bp)

Japan: -0.002% (+1bp)

Gilts slipped a tad but outperformed most of their developed world peers as traders waited on a speech from a key US rate-setter at the Federal Reserve Governor, Lael Brainard, scheduled for after the close of trading in London.

In the event, Brainard told her audience in Chicago that the risks to the economy of "significant unexpected weakness" in demand were likely higher than those from greater than expected strength.

"In today's new normal, the costs to the economy of greater-than-expected strength in demand are likely to be lower than the costs of significant unexpected weakness. In the case of unexpected strength, we have well-tried and tested tools and ample policy space in which to react," she told The Chicago Council.

Just a few hours before the president of the Atlanta Fed, Dennis Lockhart, had said that data released over the past few weeks, "warrant...serious discussion of a policy rate increase.

However, when pressed for further indications as to the possible timing of the Fed's next hike he refused to be drawn, reportedly answering: "Financial markets seem to be very sensitive to remarks of Fed speakers at the moment.

The Bank of England's reverse auction of Gilts maturing in between three and seven years' time was well bid, drawing a cover ratio of 3.16 versus the 2.82 it garnered the last time around.

To take note of, the issuance calendar was very heavy on Monday, with the US Treasury having sold $76bn in three and six-year bills and a combined $44bn in three and 10-year sales.

By way of reference, in remarks to Bloomberg TV on 9 September HSBC's Stephen Major reiterated his forecast - made at the start of the year - for the yield on the benchmark 10-year Gilt to see 2016 out from the 1.0% level.

"A fair value for Gilts is closer to 1.0% than to half a percent", he said.

In his opinion, Brexit was the reason why yields on the 10-year US Treasury had overshot HSBC's target to the downside, falling towards 1.3% at one point.
Exane BNP Paribas upgraded Wood Group to outperform from neutral and raised the price target to 815p from 695p.

It noted the shares have lagged more operationally-geared peers year-to-date.

Wood offers relatively low-risk exposure to a number of areas of early-cycle spending growth, with a differentiated outlook in upstream engineering, and screens attractively versus the sector on free cash flow yield and embedded value-based metrics.

Given the compression in relative dividend yield between AMEC and Wood Group, we think the latter should be particularly attractive for income hunters in the sector.

The bank said that when it downgraded the stock last Autumn, one of its concerns was the potential for structural impacts to its revenue line to continue to impede the overall revenue recovery in the business. It estimated that the structural impact could be around 30% of the upstream/subsea engineering business.

Although Exane still thinks this holds, it said that in several business lines, the cyclical slowdown has overwhelmed the revenue recovery impact, with around 50% of the business now at or around the trough.

Upstream Engineering is down around 45% from the peak and Exane reckons this would be more than 50% were it not for Woods entry into Saudi Arabia.

It said Subsea engineering will likely be down about 50% from the peak in 2017, while North Sea revenues are already down about 60% from the peak.

The bank said Wood Groups first-half results revealed a promising pipeline in Upstream engineering, for the first time in at least three years, thanks to secured contracts for projects such as Tengiz and Leviathan.

In fact, we think the outlook is perhaps even more promising when looking out around 12 months.

Wood Group shares closed flat on Friday at 701.94p.
The UK music industry contributed $4.1bn to the economy last year, according to a report by industry body UK Music.

The majority of the total revenue came from music exports, which rose 3.4% to 2.2bn in 2015. One in six albums sold worldwide were by UK artists including Adele, Ed Sheeran, One Direction, Coldplay and Sam Smith. Five of the top 10 artists in the world last year were from the UK, taking up 17% of the global market.

Live music has however taken a dive, contracting by 2% to 3.7bn. This was despite 27.7m attending music events in the UK during the period. The report attributed this to the closure of smaller "grass roots" venues such as the Marquee Club and the Astoria in London.

Another trend that the report found was that growth in streaming services such as Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music is the key to renewed and continued growth for British music and its artists globally.

Music streaming revenues rose by 49% to 251m last year compared to 168m in the previous year.

The report comes as UK policy makers prepare for the second reading of the Digital Economy Bill in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

The rise in streaming over ownership has led to a call for policies that provide fair remuneration for artists and rights holders.

Minister of State for Digital and Culture Matthew Hancock said last week that enforcement and fair treatment of rights owners is critical to healthy creative industries.

The amount of revenue YouTube paid to music labels relative to the number of streams of their content halved last year according to research from Midia. This implies a potential loss of revenue of $755m for the industry.

The You Tube model, despite its reach, is yet to deliver fair financial returns for rights owners and creators," claimed Jo Dipple, chief executive of UK Music.

YouTube argues that because its business model is based on advertising revenues, its streaming rates for musicians cannot be compared with the payments from other platforms such as Spotify which gives more than 80% of subscription revenues to artists.

The report also voiced concerns over the music industrys post EU referendum prospects and called for policies that would maintain its export power.
US oil giant Exxonmobil has been lobbying the UK government against the idea of implementing renewable and alternative fuels, according to documents obtained by climate change blog DeSmog UK.

The documents reveal that ExxonMobil delivered three presentations to the Department for Transport in the months following the Paris climate agreement last year, warning that "switching transportation from petroleum to renewable or alternative fuels is not the most cost-effective way to reduce GHG emissions".

Targets for increases in electric vehicles are struggling to be met by the government, despite a marked effort to introduce more environment-friendly transport measures.

Correspondence between Exxon chairman Peter Clarke and department secretary Patrick McLoughlin also appears to show the oil company putting pressure on the government to change its policy on biofuels, transport and carbon reduction.

A presentation in January 2016 told the Department of Transport that "liquid petroleum fuels will remain the primary transportation fuels".

"In the near term other sectors are likely to provide more direct cost effective CO2 abatement solutions than the transport sector," it added.

Oil companies are feeling the strain as the push for electric vehicles from governments becomes more focused. The UK has pledged to maintain a 60% level of new cars powered by electric by 2030.
Shares in Samsung Electronics plummeted on Monday after the technology giant recalled its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone following issues with the device's battery.

In early Asian trading, Samsung fell 7.2% to Won1,462,000, knocking off around $14bn from the company's market value.

Over the weekend, the South Korean firm told customers to stop using its flagship phone as complaints of the model catching fire and exploding led to a recall on September 2.

The recall came in untimely fashion for Samsung as main market rival Apple had just released the latest version of its smartphone, the iPhone 7.

The company said that it is going to replace all of the devices handed in by consumers, only a month after its release.

Samsung's share price is now at a two-month low, whereas the Note 7 was expected to maintain momentum for the company in the latter stages of 2016.

Apple have received an unexpected boost from the news as its rival appeared to be opening up a market share lead that would be difficult to claw back.
United States presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has cancelled a scheduled trip to California after she was revealed to have been diagnosed with pneumonia.

After Clinton appeared to be suffering health issues as she left early from a public ceremony on Sunday to commemorate those who died in the 9/11 attacks, it later emerged that she had been diagnosed with the bacterial lung condition by her doctor towards the end of last week.

Clinton was scheduled to attend events on Monday and Tuesday, as well as filming for an episode of the Ellen Degeneres show. The Democrat nominee's doctor confirmed the news but also said that she was "recovering nicely".

"Secretary Clinton has been experiencing a cough related to allergies," Dr Lisa R Bardack said in a statement. "On Friday, during follow up evaluation of her prolonged cough, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. She was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule."

"While at this mornings event, she became overheated and dehydrated. I have just examined her and she is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely."

Footage surfaced on social media site Twitter following the event to mark the 15th anniversary of the 2001 terror attacks.

It appears to show the Clinton stumbling and being helped by her aides as she was about to enter her vehicle.

Just a terrible video for Clinton. Can't stand up by herself at 9/11 memorial two months before the election.pic.twitter.com/JQwwZ2qxPW  Matthew Bennett (@matthewbennett) September 11, 2016

The news comes at a critical time for Clinton as Republican rival Donald Trump appears to be taking the lead in certain polls ahead of the November election.

Analyst Mike van Dulken at Accendo Markets in London told clients on Monday that the Clinton news was adding to the market's anxiety.

Equities indices are down sharply this morning as investors react to heightened fears about, firstly, a Fed rate hike next week and what it means for diverging global monetary policy, and, secondly, a new layer of political event risk as questions are asked about the health of Hillary Clinton and what that means for an already 'interesting' US presidential race set to conclude in just months," he said.
New laws could mean company bosses will be prosecuted for not stopping their staff from committing fraud amongst other white collar crimes.

A new criminal finance bill will extend legislation and make employers responsible for preventing money-laundering, false accounting and fraud according to The Times.

Prime Minister Theresa May has vowed to end boardroom excess and focus on tackling corporate crime.

It comes after attorney general Jeremy Wright suggested the government would consult on extending the planned law on tax evasion announced earlier this year.

"When considering the question 'where does the buck stop?' and who is responsible for economic crime, it is clear the answer is to be found at every level, from the boardroom down" said Wright.

He went on to say that companies facing prosecution would be more likely to "take the actions necessary to discourage such offending in the first place".

Despite individuals being convicted over the Libor rigging scandal the UK authorities lack the power to act against institutions.

Director of serious fraud office David Green mentioned how Banker Tom Hayes was the first to be convicted for Libor fixing. His employers on the other hand were only held to account in a US court as laws in the US make prosecution easier.

Six former city money brokers who were cleared of helping to rig the lending rate claimed they had been made scapegoats for the scandal and any questions about the affair should have been put to senior bosses, according to the BBC.

Writing in The Guardian in May, ahead of the London summit, Mr Cameron said the new laws would mean firms are properly held to account for criminal activity that takes place within them.

The proposed new legislation also comes after former prime minister David Cameron announced in May a consultation on plans for a new law as he held an anti-corruption summit in London.

Partner in fraud and white-collar crime at law firm Pinsent Masons Barry Vitou told The Times: In practice the evidence trail usually dries much lower down the corporate tree. There is no responsibility for the damage caused by failing to prevent economic crime nor incentives offered which motivate people to do the wrong thing.

According to Downing Street the government will announce the bill in due course.
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Bottom line: How did the Buckeyes grade vs. Penn State?

Grading Ryan Day and the rest of the Buckeyes after Ohio State's win over Penn State.
Washington State Fair Agriplex and Arena

Photos from Pease Construction [enlarge]

The Washington State Fair is celebrating the opening of Agriplex and Arena, two new buildings at the fairgrounds in Puyallup.

Construction cost about $7.4 million for the 12,000-square-foot Arena and 22,000-square-foot Agriplex.

The Agriplex has an eight-station milking parlor, exhibitor area and offices. The Arena will show animals during the fair. Both buildings can be rented when the fair is closed.

The buildings replace Evergreen Hall, which was one of the oldest buildings at the fair until it burned down in 2014.

Owner: Washington State Fair

General contractor: Pease Construction

Architect: TCF Architecture





Do you have photos of recent projects? Share them with DJC readers. Send high-resolution images and information to lisa.lannigan@djc.com.





Previous columns:
After Zakir Naik NGO-RGF deal political parties demand transparency in donations

A Rs50-lakh donation allegedly made by Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), an NGO outfit run by controversial Islamic speaker Zakir Naik, has raised eyebrows everywhere with the Janata Dal (United) calling for transparency and urging all political parties to stay away from such people.

"There must be transparency if a party receives fund by any organisation. There must be transparency for all parties...not for any one party. There must be a proper scrutiny of the funds given to like-minded people for a special reason," ANI quoted JD(U) leader Ali Anwar as saying.

"Political parties should keep themselves away from people like Zakir Naik and his organisation. If the Congress returns the amount, then this matter should be considered as closed," another JD(U) leader KC Tyagi said.

JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav called for a probe into the matter. "If he has broken the law then there should be a probe. Playing `political kabaddi` is not right," he said.

Union minister of law and justice Ravi Shankar Prasad had on Friday questioned the Congress's decision to accept donation from Naik`s NGO and asked how the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation received a sum of Rs50 lakh from the Islamic preacher in 2011.

Prasad said several Congress leaders, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, P Chidambaram, Rahul Gandhi, Suman Dubey, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Ashok Ganguly were associated with the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation back in 2011.

The Congress initially tried to wriggle out of the controversy saying it had accepted a donation, but that the money did not come to the RGF but to an allied entity called the RGCT and that the amount was returned to the IRF.

However, IRF denied that the money was returned to it and asserted that the money had gone to the RGF and not to the charitable trust and that this amount was yet to be refunded.

Eanwhile the ministry of home affairs had suspended four officials, including a joint secretary of the ministry of home affairs (MHA), a few days ago for renewing the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration of Naik's NGO despite an ongoing investigation against him.

Naik is banned in the UK and Canada for his alleged hate speeches aimed against other religions and is a wanted offender in neighbouring Bangladesh.

He is among the 16 banned Islamic scholars in Malaysia. He is also accused of radicalising and attracting youth for terror acts and has come under the scanner of the security agencies.


The walls of St. Crones National school are adorned with paintings of heroic mythological creatures but the true heroes glide on a daily basis through the corridors of this school.

On Tuesday last, Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) carried out their everyday duties with their students. Some SNAs have cared for students who are profoundly and severely disabled since they were junior infants and the close relationship between them and their students is clearly apparent, almost tangible.

A fundaraising event is being run in Dungloe to raise monies for much needed equiment at this school on September 17th.

The acclaimed Pete Storm brings his Elvis Tribute Show to the Stepping Stone in aid of this worthy cause.

Vital Equipment

The room from which the SNAs work is facilitated with a hoist, special chairs, areas of rest and recreation and other vital equipment.

The school which has 273 students cares for four students who are severely and profoundly disabled.

Teacher Mary Frances Murray works full-time with the four students. She smiles as she says that she and her SNAs reap great rewards from the work they do.

This work is totally different. You feel like youre making a difference, she said.

She adds that more resources are critical to help the students progression.

We work on developing communication skills, sensory awareness, cognitive skills and gross motor skills, she said.

Ms. Murray wants to facilitate some of her students with a dark room to help them with Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI).

She said: Each child has their own individual needs prioritised. For example, some children have a diagnosis of Cortical Visual Impairment so we need to work with them in a dark room as they respond better to colour presented in a darkened room or simplified environment.

The children also enjoy massage, body brushing and tac-pac programmes. These are communication and sensory programmes.

These children need lots of sensory input and are given opportunities for sensory play with water, foam, tactile toys throughout the day, she said.

The walls of the room are covered with creative work and pictures of smiling children, these raise the spirits of all who are offered an opportunity to witness the wonderful work that is being carried out in this room.

Summer months

During the summer holidays, the children go to school and enjoy fun activities. This summer they went glamping in the assembly hall. The children got inside sleeping bags and inside a tent a teacher could be heard reading them stories in hushed tones.

In another room, a student was being fed his lunch by his SNA - it was evident they were both enjoying the activity.

Meanwhile, a young student lay on a flat surface in a room, the room was dark and she was watching lit dolphins swim across the ceiling.

Her hands were working through a series of lights which comforted her as she listened to soothing music from the CD player on the wall.

Headmaster, Michael ODonnell was in the school. Walking through the corridor, he smiles as he describes the great work that is being carried out at the school.

He is very proud of all those affiliated with the school and especially proud of the relationship between all the students in the school.

HSE

Ms. Murray said that the Health Service Executive (HSE) are very supportive to those who work in the school, especially in terms of occupational therapy and physiotherapy.

They call to the class regularly and recommend appropriate equipment and resources.

Due to the lack of the funding within the HSE itself, they are not always in a position to purchase equipment but they are exceptionally supportive, Ms. Murray said.

Wish List

Well known charity worker, Beatrice Farrelly has visited the school on a number of occasions. The Elvis lover often runs charity events through her Elvis club which has raised over eleven thousand euros for local charities.

On September 17th, she has invited the incredible Elvis tribute artist, Pete Storm to come and entertain the masses to raise funds for what the children at the Dungloe based school critically need.

We would like to buy a ballroom for the sensory room which is also used by children with autism, and more special lights would be a great help.

She added that she was told adapted ipads would greatly benefit the children, she said.

The fundraising event takes place in the Stepping Stone in Dungloe on September 17th, doors open at 9pm and admission is 10.
October is National Bullying Prevention month. We have all heard the phrase bullying, but what does it actually mean? Bullying is defined as unwanted aggressive behavior; observed or perceived power imbalance; repetition of behaviors or high likelihood of repetition.

Bullying is unfortunately a reality for far too many in our communities both young and old. Much like any other form of violence, bullying is not isolated to any particular age group, gender or demography. Just about everyone of us can look back in our lives and recall a time where either we were personally bullied or witnessed one of our friends or schoolmates being bullied. Its hard to believe that with all of the advancements and awareness, this type of behavior still exists, but it does and with the advent of social media, it had actually gotten much worse. This is because unlike in the past, the bully not only impacts your life on the playground or classroom; they now are able to follow you into your personal life due to the constant presence of social media.

There is good news in that we have learned a great deal about what creates these bullies and how to neutralize their ability to isolate and intimidate. The key is for those in authority to respond to reports of bullying immediately to show without question that bullying will not be acceptable. That message needs to follow to our homes with the messages we send our children not only by what we say but by our own actions in how we treat fellow adults. Bullying is without question a learned behavior. It is learned on the playground, in the classroom and follows through to the workplace and social interactions as adults. We need to send a strong message to our own children, a message of empathy and compassion not of ridicule and rumor.

Who are at risk of bullying the most? Typically those who are bullied have one or more of the following risks:

Are perceived as different from their peers, such as being overweight or underweight, wearing glasses or different clothing, being new to a school, or being unable to afford what kids consider cool

Are perceived as weak or unable to defend themselves

Are depressed, anxious, or have low self esteem

Are less popular than others and have few friends

Do not get along well with others, seen as annoying or provoking, or antagonize others for attention

However, even if a child has these risk factors, it doesnt mean that they will be bullied. The important lesson is that we as adults set the tone for how the next generation will interact with each other. Chances are if we show acceptance of others, our children will show acceptance of others. If we engage in demeaning others or spreading rumors, our children will follow suit. So often we as adults underestimate the influence, we have not only on our own children but even those who dont know us but witness our behavior.

While school or workplace policies are an important component, the only way to truly decrease bullying is by denying the bully their victim. We do this by raising strong, confident, resilient children, and speaking out and supporting those who find themselves on the receiving end of this type of behavior. We are all teachers in life lessons and we teach by our actions. Lets all be aware of what we teach.
BMW will unveil a range of new vehicles at the 2016 Paris motor show including the new i3 electric city and 3-Series GT hatch.

The updated i3 is highlighted by a new 33kWh lithium-ion battery that can extend travel by up to 50 per cent to 300km on a single charge.

The German brand is also set to use the Paris motor show to debut the new 3-Series Gran Turismo. A range of new petrol and diesel engines will make its debut in the GT including the 325d.

An upgraded infotainment system with better smartphone compatibility is also expected to be shown off in the 3-Series GT.

BMW will also reveal a limited edition i8, the BMW i8 Protonic Dark Silver. BMW recently revealed the i8 Protonic Red edition which is limited to just five examples locally.

More details will be revealed during the Paris motor show on October 1.
Yaskawa unveils its first collaborative robot outside Japan

The robot-maker Yaskawa has unveiled its first collaborative robot to be sold outside of Japan. The Motoman HC10 can handle loads up to 10kg and has a reach of 1.2m.

The robot uses a sophisticated force/torque sensor in each axis to help avoid dangerous collisions with operators. It does not need any other protective measures  such as casings  thus saving space and costs. If the robot touches someone and stops, it can be reactivated directly on the arm.

The robot has been certified to ISO/TS 15066:2016, which specifies safety requirements for collaborative industrial robot systems and the work environment.

Yaskawas HC10 collaborative robot

As well operating safely, the HC10 is said to be particularly easy to program and operate.
The World Bank has assigned Dutch-based consultancy firm Antea to assist India and Benin with two water-related projects. The project in India is on an integrated river basin plan, in Benin on an integrated coastal plan.

Water is one of the key topics on the World Banks global development agenda.

Strategic plan for Brahmaputra river basin

The water-related project in India concerns the strategic basin assessment of the Brahmaputra river basin (on top photo). Antea Group has been asked to develop knowledge base and modelling tools.

These tools are to be used to examine the potential development in the basin, and support an information-based dialogue within and between riparian basin entities.

The assignment involves developing, documenting and disseminating various scenarios for improving the state of the river and maintaining an acceptable level of economic productivity.

The assignment is carried out in collaboration with International Water Management Institute and Unesco-IHE.

Benin's coast suffers from severe erosion.

Coastal climate adaptation

The assignment in Benin concerns an integrated multi-sectoral investment plan for coastal climate change adaptation. The plan will be based on information collected through literature review, site visits, interviews, and two stakeholder workshops.

Antea is to carry out a multi-sectoral investment plan for adaptation to the hazards generated by climate change on the Beninese coastal zones, particularly coastal erosion.

The plan will be based on information collected through literature review, site visits, interviews, and two stakeholder workshops.

This news item was originally published on the website of Antea Group.

Read also on this website

 Antea Group assigned for commercial development plan Panama Canal, 19 August 2015

 Oranjewoud takes over Geo-Hyd in France, 5 February 2013

 Countries: India

 Countries: Benin



More information

Antea Group Netherlands

Heerenveen, the Netherlands

+31 513 63 45 67

www.anteagroup.com/en
Apple introduces iPhone 7 & iPhone 7 Plus

Apple has introduced iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, the best, most advanced iPhone ever, packed with unique innovations that improve all the ways iPhone is used every day. The new iPhone features new advanced camera systems that take pictures like never before, more power and performance with the best battery life ever in an iPhone, immersive stereo speakers, wide color system from camera to display, two new beautiful finishes, and is the first water and dust resistant iPhone. iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will be available in more than 25 countries beginning Friday, September 16.

iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus dramatically improve every aspect of the iPhone experience, reaching a new level of innovation and precision to make this the best iPhone we have ever made, said Philip Schiller, Apples senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. The completely redesigned cameras shoot incredible photos and videos day or night, the A10 Fusion chip is the most powerful chip on any smartphone while delivering the best battery life ever in an iPhone, and an entirely new stereo speaker system provides twice the sound, all within the first water and dust resistant iPhone.

New Advanced Camera Systems

iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus take the worlds most popular camera and make it even better with entirely new camera systems. The 12-megapixel camera includes optical image stabilization on both iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, and a larger /1.8 aperture and 6-element lens enable brighter, more detailed photos and videos, and a wide color capture allows for more vibrant colors with more detail. iPhone 7 Plus features the same 12-megapixel wide angle camera as iPhone 7 and adds a 12-megapixel telephoto camera that together offer optical zoom at two times and up to 10 times digital zoom for photos.

Coming later this year, the dual 12-megapixel cameras also enable a new depth-of-field effect, using both cameras on iPhone 7 Plus to capture images, while sophisticated technology including Machine Learning separates the background from the foreground to achieve amazing portraits once possible only with DSLR cameras.

Additional Camera Advancements Include:

New Apple-designed Image Signal Processor, which processes over 100 billion operations on a single photo in as little as 25 milliseconds, resulting in incredible photos and videos;

New 7-megapixel FaceTime HD camera with wide color capture, advanced pixel technology and auto image stabilization for even better selfies; and

New Quad-LED True Tone flash that is 50 percent brighter than iPhone 6s including an innovative sensor that detects the flickering in lights and compensates for it in videos and photos.

More Performance & Battery Life

The new custom-designed Apple A10 Fusion chip features a new architecture that powers these innovations, making it the most powerful chip ever in a smartphone, while also getting more time between charges with the longest battery life ever in an iPhone. The A10 Fusions CPU now has four cores, seamlessly integrating two high-performance cores that run up to two times faster than iPhone 6, and two high-efficiency cores that are capable of running at just one-fifth the power of the high-performance cores. Graphics performance is also more powerful, running up to three times faster than iPhone 6 at as little as half the power, enabling a new level of gaming and professional apps.

Both phones include support for up to 25 LTE bands, for the best worldwide roaming in the industry, and LTE Advanced for three times faster data rates than iPhone 6 at up to 450 Mbps. For customers in Japan, iPhone will now support the leading FeliCa contactless technology, bringing the ability to use credit and prepaid cards, including on iD and QuicPay domestic networks, and Suica, Japans dominant transit card issued by JR East, the worlds largest transit operator.

An Amazing Audio Experience

New stereo speakers offer amazing and immersive sound that is two times louder than iPhone 6s, offering increased dynamic range of sound and a higher quality speakerphone. The new iPhone comes with EarPods with Lightning connector to deliver incredible sound, as well as a 3.5 mm headphone jack adapter that allows customers to use old headphones and accessories.

New AirPods, Apples innovative new wireless headphones, weave simplicity and technology together to reinvent the wireless experience making headphones easy to use. Featuring the new Apple W1 chip, AirPods have extremely efficient wireless communication for a better connection, improved sound and industry-leading battery life. AirPods harness the power of Siri, allowing you to access your favorite personal assistant with just a double tap.

Design That Makes a Splash

The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus come in a gorgeous design in silver, gold and rose gold finishes and introduce two all-new black finishes, a beautiful black finish that has an anodized matte appearance, and an innovative jet black finish that has a deep, high-gloss look. The new jet black finish is accomplished through an innovative nine-step process of anodization and polish for a uniform, glossy finish. An entirely reengineered enclosure results in a water resistant iPhone offering protection like never before against spills, splashes and dust.

The new iPhone features the brightest, most colorful Retina HD display ever in an iPhone, now with a wide color gamut for cinema-standard colors, greater color saturation and the best color management in the smartphone industry. An all-new, advanced, solid-state Home button on iPhone 7 is designed to be durable and responsive, and working in tandem with the new Taptic Engine, provides more precise and customizable tactile feedback.

Featuring iOS 10, the Biggest iOS Release Ever

iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus come with iOS 10, the biggest release ever of the worlds most advanced mobile operating system. iOS 10 introduces a huge update to Messages that delivers more expressive and animated ways to message friends and family, the ability for Siri to do more by working with apps, new ways to interact with apps and even more places to use 3D Touch, beautifully redesigned Maps, Photos, Apple Music and News apps, and the Home app, delivering a simple and secure way to manage home automation products in one place. iOS 10 also opens up incredible opportunities for developers with Siri, Maps, Phone and Messages APIs, allowing customers to do more than ever with the apps they love to use.
Tourisms flying in Alicante as highest number of international passengers recorded

Alicante-Elche Airport has surpassed its own records this summer. The number of passengers handled by the airport on international flights rose by 16.1% during H1 2016 to a record high.

Known as the gateway to the Costa Blanca and a hub for all those travelling to the east and south east of Spain, the airports increase in passenger numbers is no surprise. The area has proved a highly popular destination this summer and not only by holiday makers but also holiday home buyers.

According to the School of Property Registrars, in Q2 2016 a total of 7,901 homes were purchased in the province of Alicante. This is a 20.7% increase from the same period last year with half of the sales consisting of foreign investors buying a holiday home.

Marc Pritchard, Sales and Marketing Director for leading Spanish homebuilder Taylor Wimpey Espana, which has operated successfully in Spain since 1958, has observed firsthand the rising demand for property in the Alicante region as tourists look for a more permanent holiday setting.

He comments, The Costa Blanca has been popular with tourists for over half a century however we have noticed a surge of interest in recent months. The area has much to offer from the stunning Mediterranean coastline to the charming interior but now also boasts new leisure activities such as caving, climbing, hiking and diving, which is broadening its appeal. Indeed the sight of the large Boeing-787 Dreamliners carrying 320+ passengers now arriving at Alicante-Elche Airport just goes to show what a popular destination the Costa Blanca has become.

With ever more tourists arriving on the sandy shores of the White Coast, pressure on existing accommodation options is building. In response to this, Taylor Wimpey Espana has launched a number of new second home developments in the area.

The newest offering is Taylor Wimpey Espanas frontline development, Panorama Mar, situated on Punta Prima beach in Torrevieja, just 45 minutes from Alicante-Elche airport. This private residential complex offers an array of 2 and 3 bedroom apartments, all designed for both comfort and convenience, with 2 bathrooms and an underground parking space. Each apartment in the first phase is south facing and therefore blessed with spacious terraces and stunning views over the Mediterranean Sea.

With prices starting from just 234,000 +VAT, residents will be able to use the three communal swimming pools and Jacuzzi facility, as well as being granted direct access to the beach promenade.

For more information, visit taylorwimpeyspain.com.
DCFTA offers new opportunities to businesses in all three countries

The prospect of free trade with the European Union offers many new opportunities to businesses in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

The EBRD and EU are providing support to help businesses there take full advantage of unrestricted access to the worlds largest market: they help enterprises improve production and processes, adapt to EU standards and become more competitive in new export markets.

The three countries signed Association Agreements with the EU that foresee the establishment of a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) between each country and the EU.

Together with the European Union, we are helping business in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine take full advantage of unrestricted access to the worlds largest market. More videos

This development is expected to provide businesses and the economy - from farming to the IT sector - with a vital boost. The EBRD is providing finance to small and medium-sized enterprises in all three countries, supported by the EU with a risk-sharing model.

The DCFTA creates unique opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises in Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova to export to the EU, with stable and predictable preferential access to the largest market in the world, said Johannes Hahn, EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations.

At the same time, the new framework requires firms to make the necessary investments and to set up the right conditions to comply with higher technical standards involved and to encourage new business relationships.

These are game-changing investments for local businesses in the three countries, added Alain Pilloux, the EBRDs Vice-President Policy and Partnerships.

They bring long-term benefits to companies and, more widely, to economies  modern production processes, better services, more competitive businesses. The EBRD supports these vital steps towards economic integration.

Boosting trade with the EU: Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova

Agricultural production plays a vital role for Ukraines economy, explained Kees Huizinga, CEO of Kischenzi. For us, a fair share of our income is driven by export sales. Free access to the EU market offers us a great prospect for continuing to grow our business.

Kischenzis main business derives from growing grain, oilseeds and vegetables, which it sells on to international traders.

There is a lot of competition in the agribusiness sector, Mr Huizinga added. We have to use innovative farming techniques to obtain the best possible results and ensure that our activities are sustainable for many harvesting seasons to come.

Such methods include precision agriculture which uses soil sampling and other techniques to help farmers manage variations between or within fields and achieves the best possible returns while preserving precious resources.

Furthermore, controlled traffic farming reduces damage to the soil by avoiding heavy or repeated machinery passes.

The EBRD provided Kischenzi with a loan of US$ 5 million (equivalent to around 4.5 million) to help the company purchase modern equipment, such as cultivators and new combine harvesters, to meet its ambitions.

The company exports large share of its production outside Ukraine, with increasing off-take by the EU. The potential for growth is large. The transaction is supported by the EU with a risk-sharing guarantee on a first loss basis as part of the EU4Business initiative.

This has a huge impact on the local economy as it helps to create new job opportunities. Kischenzi is the only sizable income provider for local women in the rural Mankiya Rayon, with almost half of their staff being female. There is good reason for this: the company undertakes various activities to support schools and nurseries that provide child care facilities to its employees.

Some 1,300 km south-west in Georgias capital Tbilisi, the EBRDs and EUs support to local broadcast operator Stereo Plus Ltd provides another example of how a company  and the population as a whole  benefits from the two organisations cooperation to boost economic development.

Stereo+ obtained an EBRD loan which supported the switch from analogue to digital broadcasting in Georgia. The EU backed this transaction again through a risk-sharing facility.

The digital switchover was critical in modernising Georgias information technology and communications sector and helped the country meet EU standards.

This helps to open up new market opportunities, as the move to digital broadcasting freed up frequencies. The freed up frequencies can be re-allocated for other uses, which can include more advanced communication services, the so-called digital dividend, leading to a more competitive market.

We would not have been able to take part in the switch-over project without the EBRDs loan, said Professor David Zilpimiani, Founder of Stereo Plus. Many businesses find it tough to access finance to further expand their activities, especially in the communications sector.

Innovative services are vital to make companies more competitive, support their trade ambitions and boost sustainable growth.

In Moldova, leasing services are still in their infancy but provide more and more businesses with a viable financing option.

The EBRD and EU help small firms build up their export chances by supporting Total Leasing & Finance. To help the company expand its portfolio for small and medium-sized enterprises, the EBRD provided an EU-backed risk participation in a loan granted by local partner bank Mobiasbanca, to enable the company receiving a larger loan and for a longer term to invest in industrial and agricultural equipment.

This, in turn, made their business clients more competitive in the local economy and for export markets.

Most of their clients would not have been able to acquire necessary equipment other than by leasing it. Many companies are small producers and the new equipment helps them to manufacture higher-quality goods which they can then export to France, Germany and other countries.

EBRD and EU4Business support

These projects are part of a wide range of activities to support the private sector to make the most of the free trade area with the EU. They include providing local entrepreneurs with the necessary know-how to grow their business, training local partner banks and improving the business environment through policy dialogue with relevant government authorities.

Furthermore, the EBRD started in May 2016 to provide 380 million in loans and trade guarantees to local partner banks and other financial institutions for on-lending to businesses, while the EU is making available 19 million for technical assistance, investment incentives and risk-sharing.

The EU funds are part of the EU4Business initiative, which provides a comprehensive package of support to attract new investments and improve services and products to the benefits of all citizens and consumers across the Eastern partnership region.

With its local presence and 25 years of experience of working to develop the private sector in the three countries, the EBRD is strongly positioned to successfully promote this project. The Bank is the largest institutional investor in the three countries and has invested 2.7 billion in Georgia, 1.1 billion in Moldova and 11.7 billion in Ukraine.
GENEVA  The work of the German Partnership for Sustainable Textiles has seen its most tangible results this week as German clothing retailer KiK agreed to pay US$ 5.15 million to provide compensation to the victims of one of the worst industrial accidents in Pakistan. The fire at the Ali Enterprises garment factory in Baldia, Karachi, in September 2012, is reported to have taken the lives of more than 255 workers and left 57 workers injured. The recent intervention of the German Partnership helped facilitate the compensation agreement after four years of disputes between the respective parties. KiK, which at the time of the fire was purchasing around 75 per cent of goods manufactured by Ali Enterprises, initially paid US$1m up front in compensation but further payments had not been forthcoming.
By Andy Rowell

There is good news and bad news for those fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).

First the bad news. A week ago I wrote about the outrageous attacks by security personnel on those protesting against the pipeline by using dogs and pepper spray.

Some of the most powerful footage of the incident was fronted by veteran Democracy Now! journalist, Amy Goodman, who had been on site to witness the despicable attacks.

Goodman opened her report by stating:

On Saturday in Dakota, security guards working for the Dakota Access Pipeline company attacked Native Americans with dogs and pepper spray as they resisted the $3.8 billion pipelines construction.

The footage went viral and lead to outrage from across the world including on CBS, NBC, NPR, CNN, MSNBC and Huffington Post. A colleague who has watched Goodmans reporting for decades said it was the most passionate they had ever seen her broadcasting live.

Well now in a travesty of American justice, Democracy Now! announced over the weekend that an arrest warrant had been issued in North Dakota for Goodman. She has been charged with criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor offense.

It is totally outrageous that the U.S. authorities are trying to silence such a journalist as Goodman.

This is an unacceptable violation of freedom of the press, Goodman said in a statement. I was doing my job by covering pipeline guards unleashing dogs and pepper spray on Native American protesters.

Meanwhile, the day before, after an injunction by the Standing Rock Sioux was denied, the federal government stepped in immediately afterwards to halt construction of the pipeline.

For now at least.

Federal Agencies Step in After Judge Denies Tribe's Request to Stop Dakota Access Pipeline https://t.co/lPgJEriHb6 @NoTarSands @ukycc  EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) September 12, 2016

The Department of Justice, the Department of the Army and the Department of the Interior issued the following statement:

In recent days, we have seen thousands of demonstrators come together peacefully, with support from scores of sovereign tribal governments, to exercise their First Amendment rights and to voice heartfelt concerns about the environment and historic, sacred sites. It is now incumbent on all of us to develop a path forward that serves the broadest public interest.

It continued:

The Army will not authorize constructing the Dakota Access Pipeline on Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe until it can determine whether it will need to reconsider any of its previous decisions regarding the Lake Oahe site under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or other federal laws.

Therefore, construction of the pipeline on Army Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe will not go forward at this time  This case has highlighted the need for a serious discussion on whether there should be nationwide reform with respect to considering tribes views on these types of infrastructure projects.

Reaction was mixed on the ground as people poured over the fine print behind the headline news. Indeed, as usual, the devil is on the detail.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe replied that the announcement sets the stage for a nationwide reform, establishing consultation with tribes regarding the need for meaningful tribal input for all pipeline projects in the future. This federal statement is a game changer for the tribe and we are acting immediately on our legal options, including filing an appeal and a temporary injunction to force DAPL to stop construction.

The feeling on the ground is one of mixed emotion. People are very upset that the tribes injunction motion was denied, said one of the leading female activists, Kandi Mossett, who pointed out that the request to stop construction near the contentious site, was just that: a request.

Indeed, as DesmogBlog pointed out, even though the government has requested that the pipeline be stopped: The federal government cant stop Energy Transfer from proceeding to construct the Dakota Access Pipeline on private land, which is why it asked DAPL to voluntarily halt construction there.

The Red Warrior Camp was more dismissive and posted online: Nothing has changed for the thousands of people who came from thousands of miles on prayers and fumes to stop this pipeline. Stay peaceful without backing down.

One blogger Kelly Hayes noted:

Lets reflect on that for a moment: A company that recently sicced dogs on Water Protectors, including families, who stepped onto a sacred site to prevent its destruction, is being asked to voluntarily do the right thing  Right now, all thats being asked is that they play their part in a short term political performance aimed at letting the air out of a movements tires.

She added:

So what did the federal government do? Probably the smartest thing they could have: They gave us the illusion of victory  But if you raise a glass to Obama and declare this battle won, you are erasing a battle that isnt over yet. And by erasing an ongoing struggle, youre helping to build a pipeline.

So for now the struggle continues, and the protests are going global. There will be demonstrations across the U.S. Tuesday and solidarity ones across the globe, including in London at 6 p.m. For more details go here.
Its a small simple chart which has a huge significance for Canada and the climate.

According to a Bloomberg analysis of recent industry data, two decades of expansion in the dirty tar sands of Alberta is set to come to an end in 2018.

They conclude no projects currently under construction are set to be completed that year or beyond.

Due to the collapse in the oil price, the tar sands producers are seriously struggling. There is too large a gap between the high cost of production of the tar sands and the current price of oil for many to invest over the long term.

It is worth remembering that the crisis in the tar sands comes at a time when there is growing public pressure to build a clean energy future that does not hitch Canadas economy to the destructive boom and bust cycle of oil.

This concern can be seen in the growing opposition by front line communities across the country to new tar sands infrastructure such as pipelines and for support for building a safer, renewable energy economy.

For the industry, these concerns would be easier to dismiss if it sat on a cushion of high oil prices.

But the cushion has burst.

Because of the oil price plunge, some half a million barrels a day of planned production capacity has been cancelled or put on hold over the last eighteen months.

Aerial view of Syncrude Aurora tar sands mine in the Boreal Forest north of Fort McMurray. Photo credit: Greenpeace / Jiri Rezac

Around this time last year, Oil Change International (OCI) identified some 39 tar sands projects delayed or on hold.

The pain continues. In recent days, two Calgary-based smaller tar sands producers have announced multimillion-dollar fourth-quarter losses. Sunshine Oil sands reported a $326 million net loss; whilst Connacher Oil and Gas reported a loss of $56 million.

Indeed, last month CBC reported how increased competition, low prices and climate change policy have put the future growth of Albertas oil sands in doubtand that has the federal government concerned.

They also reported that there was concern about investment in the sector, post-2020. Quoting a report by the Federal Department of Finance, it suggested that further tar sands expansion could be vulnerable.

The government report outlined how As the marginal supplier of world oil, because of its high costs and climate change footprint, Canadian oil sands would face the brunt of the post-2020 reduction in oil demand (despite the price approaching $80.

Allan Dwyer, a finance professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary told CBC news: The report confirmed my main concernwhich is, long term, the oil sands are not viable.

The tar sands are not viable on price and they also fail the climate test.

As any regular reader of this blog or any reports from OCI will know that as the third largest reserves in the world, with projects that lock in a half a century of pollution once built, the dirty tar sands are incompatible with keeping global warming to internationally acceptable limits.

It is a conundrum that the government has long failed to address: At the end of last month, for example, the Canadian Press reported how the Federal Environment Minister wont say if Canada can develop oil sands and meet climate targets.

Increasingly, civil society organizations such as OCI have been calling for a climate test to be undertaken as a key part of meeting those targets.

As Hannah McKinnon from OCI explains: The crux of the climate test is using our actual climate goals (limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees C) to define the types of infrastructure that are going to be economically viable, necessary and appropriate over the coming decades in the safe climate future we are committed to.

The bad news for the Canada is that the tar sands sector fails the test badly.
The Days Inn in downtown Chattanooga has sold for $5,800,001.

The sale was to Kamalaamrut Hospitality Corp. from Divine Investments Inc.

The hotel, which includes the City Cafe Restaurant, was built about 1965.

It sold for $1.7 million in 1995.

The Days Inn is at the corner of Carter Street and MLK Boulevard.


Leonardo DiCaprio has been threatened with deportation by officials from the Indonesian government after the actors recent visit to the Leuser Ecosystem and his vocal stance against the areas industrial development for palm oil, according to several Indonesian publications.

DiCaprio has been reportedly accused of running a black campaign to discredit the countrys palm oil industry, as local English websites Coconuts Jakarta and Tempo reported via Indonesian news outlets.

If there are statements that discredit the government and the interests of Indonesia, he could be deported, Director General of Immigration Ronny F. Sompie is quoted as saying in Jakarta today.

Since DiCaprio is on a tourist visa, if it can be proven that hes creating public disturbances and harming the states interest, the Immigration is ready to deport him, Ronny warned, adding that his department will be monitoring DiCaprios activities in Indonesia.

According to Ronny, the department has the authority to deport foreigners that violate their visa terms as stipulated in Law No. 6/2011 on Immigration.

Incidentally, DiCaprios team confirmed to EcoWatch that he has already left the country, meaning any deportation threats would not apply.

DiCaprio and fellow actors Adrien Brody and Fisher Stevens toured Mount Leuser National Park on Sunday where they stopped by the parks research facility. The Oscar winner and prominent environmental activist posted photos of his visit on social media and warned in his posts that the expansion of palm oil plantations in Leuser are a major threat to Sumatras iconic wildlife species. As DiCaprio noted, the rainforest is the last place on Earth where Sumatran orangutans, tigers, rhinos and elephants coexist in the wild.

Today, he posted a new Instagram photo of himself with a critically endangered Sumatran orangutan.

If we dont stop this rampant destruction, the Leuser Ecosystem and the Sumatran orangutans that call it home could be lost forever, the caption says.

[instagram https://instagram.com/p/BDnqlfsqxCs expand=1]

On his Twitter account, The Revenant star voiced his support of the Forest, Nature and Environment of Aceh (HAkA), a Sumatra-based NGO that works to protect and restore the priceless ecosystem as well as a link to a Change.org petition that urges Indonesian President Joko Widodo to cancel the Aceh provincial governments Spatial Land Use Plan, which would open Leusers forests up to clearing for logs, mining and oil palm, Mongabay reported.

According to Tempo, Asmar Arsyad, an Aceh-based palm oil businessman, has responded to DiCaprios messages.

He should be campaigning for environmental conservation in the Amazon jungle that is being depleted by soy oil plantations, Asmar said.

Firman Subagyo, House of Representatives (DPR) Energy Commission, also reportedly accused DiCaprio of scrutinizing the industry.

His goal is clear. He will definitely take a shot at oil palm plantations, and wrap it with environmental issues, he said, adding that DiCaprios visit was facilitated by environmental NGOs.

Im urging the BIN [State Intelligence Agency] chief and the Police chief to take firm action against those groups. Im also asking the Immigration to deport Leonardo if he is proven to be black-campaigning out oil palm industry, he added.

As EcoWatch mentioned previously, DiCaprios support of Leuser coincides with his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, where he announced his philanthropic foundations $15 million commitment to environmental projects, including one that protects the Leuser Ecosystem from what DiCaprio described as the invasive and destructive practices of the palm oil industry.

The iconic Leuser Ecosystem, located in the provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra, consists of 6.5 million acres of tropical lowland rainforests, mountains and peatlands.

Leuser is not only a biodiversity hotspot, it provides more than 4 million people with water, clean air and disaster mitigation. The ecosystem is also critical in helping to regulate the Earths climate by absorbing and storing carbon in its lowland rainforests and peatlands.

Local Aceh citizens have filed a class action lawsuit to protect the Leuser Ecosystem. Learn more about the movement to protect Leuser here:

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(Photo: WCC Marianne / Ejdersten)Representatives of the World Council of Churches visited Greece in October 2015 to strengthen efforts in support of refugees in Europe and the Middle East. The WCC solidarity visit was hosted by the The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the [Orthodox] Church of Greece.

The United States has exceeded its Syrian refugee admission target for 2016 by 15 percent, with 11,491 resettled in the country as of Sept 12 with only a minute percentage of them being Christians.

Since President Barack Obama's goal of 10,000 Syrian refugee admissions in the 2016 financial year was achieved on Aug. 29, the number continues to pick up steadily, CNSnews reports.

The news service reported that the total was 15 percent over the target for the United States, but that just 0.46 percent of the refuges being Christians, but most churches say all refugees should be welcome.

Under pressure from Europe and other countries confronting the global migration crisis last fall, Obama had raised the number of Syrian refugees who would be offered legal status to at least 10,000 in the 2016 fiscal year, The New York Times reported.

August ended with a new monthly record of 3,189 Syrian refugee arrivals, and a further 751 have been ushered in so far in September: 749 Sunni Muslims; two Catholic Christians.

They comprise 14 Catholics, six Orthodox, four Protestants, one Greek Orthodox, plus 29 refugees identifying themselves simply as "Christian" rather than by denomination or sect.

The remaining 137 are made of up of 20 Shi'a Muslims, 90 refugees described simply as Muslims, 17 Yazidis, four Jehovah's Witnesses, five refugees identified as "other religion," and one as having "no religion."

The number are likely to fuel the fodder for Donald Trump's anti-immigration and Muslim election campaign, but the U.S. numbers of refugees from a war that is related to American activities in the region are minuscule.

State Department Refugee Processing Center data show that of the now total 11,491 arrivals this fiscal year, the vast majority  11,300, or 98.33 percent  are Sunnis.

ONLY 54 CHRISTIANS

Just 54 of the 11,491 are Christians. They comprise 14 Catholics, six Orthodox, four Protestants, one Greek Orthodox, plus 29 refugees identifying themselves simply as "Christian" rather than by denomination or sect.

The remaining 137 are made of up of 20 Shi'a Muslims, 90 refugees described simply as Muslims, 17 Yazidis, four Jehovah's Witnesses, five refugees identified as "other religion," and one as having "no religion."

Millions of Syrians of all religious persuasions have fled the civil war ravaging their country since mid-2011. At the start of the conflict an estimated 74 percent of Syrians were Sunni Muslims and an estimated 10 percent were Christians.

The refugees who have arrived from Syria since 2012 have been placed in 231 towns and cities, the Times report said.

Some of them have gone to large cities like Chicago and Houston, but most have been sent to more affordable, medium-size cities.

Boise, Idaho, has accepted more refugees than New York and Los Angeles combined; Worcester, Mass., has taken in more than Boston.

With the 10,000 admitted this fiscal year, the United States has now accepted nearly 12,000 Syrian refugees since the civil war began five years ago.

Since the civil war began, the U.S. has admitted a total of 13,364 Syrian refugees, of whom 13,019 (97.4 percent) are Sunnis and 102 (0.7 percent) are Christians.

The remainder include Shi'a Muslims (33), other Muslims (150), Yazidis (18), Jehovah's Witnesses (12), Zoroastrians (6), refugees self-reported as having "no religion" (8), refugees identifying themselves as "other religion" (11), atheists (3) and Baha'i (2).

150,000 SYRIANS IN THE US

More than 150,000 Syrians already live in the United States, census figures indicate, and refugees who have relatives in the country are likely to be resettled with or near them.

In the UK more than 200 religious leaders have urged the government to relax immigration rules so refugees from Syria and other areas can be reunited with their families, the BBC reports.

In a letter to UK Prime Minister Theresa May, they say close relatives of Britons and refugees already in the country are living abroad in "desperate conditions" and should be given a legal route in.

People are now making "unsafe" journeys with "avoidable tragedies", they say.

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is among representatives from the Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh faiths to have signed the letter to the prime minister.

The signatories, who are acting in a personal capacity, also include Baroness Rabbi Julia Neuberger and Muslim Council of Britain secretary general Harun Rashid Khan.

Currently the U.N. refugee agency has 4.79 million Syrians registered as refugees, with the largest numbers in Turkey (2.7 million), Lebanon (1.03 million), Jordan (656,000) and Iraq (239,000).

In the past, the United States admitted far larger numbers of refugees. In 1979, it provided sanctuary to 111,000 Vietnamese refugees, and in 1980, it added another 207,000.

Around the same time, the country took in more than 120,000 Cuban refugees during the Mariel boatlift, including around 80,000 in one month alone.
Considered to be the Ten Best UFO Photos Ever Taken I am sure that we could add more pictures to this list but these are considered ten o...
What are the recent changes you have introduced at the school?

There are several developments at the school. This year, we launched a campus in the Washington DC area, not far from our main campus, for our MBA for executives programme. We have expanded our global offerings via global consulting projects and immersion courses to enable our students to have opportunities in nearly 28 countries.

Second, we have increased scholarship support and now provide full financial aid (including tuition, room and board) for international students. Many Indian scholars from the IITs win full or partial tuition scholarships. Our class composition is diverse, with almost 40% women and one-third international students.

We have also made several enhancements to our residential MBA programme. They include the introduction of a required experiential course, courses taught in Silicon Valley and additional opportunities to enrich and customise learning.

In response to the changing landscape of skills required to be a successful leaders, we introduced a live field project called Innovation, Design and Entrepreneurship in Action or IDEA. The course enables students to work on real-world, global projects of consequence, which have a high degree of ambiguity and uncertainty. Students are organised in teams to tackle live field projects over seven weeks. The challenges are sponsored by corporations, government agencies or nonprofit organisations.

We also introduced the Darden Academy to the first year experience, which began last fall. This is a cross-curricular programme scheduled every Tuesday to enrich the learning experience for first year students. It provides opportunities for students to strengthen core skills, explore the connections between classroom topics and current global challenges, reflect on their goals as leaders, connect class learning to practise, engage in meaningful discussions that strengthen our community and build confidence so they can engage more effectively in class.

What brings you to India?

India is an important part of the global economy and the business landscape. Our school has many partners and alumni in India, which is an important market for us to recruit future business leaders. We have faculty from India and our students study here during one of the four global residencies, which our Global MBA for executives take. Specifically, over the course of my visit, we held three alumni and prospective student events, which I attended, in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai.

What are the key trends in business education ?

The need for business education and credibility-building is rising, but the delivery mechanisms are increasingly fragmented. We are seeing increased interest in experiential learning, an emphasis on entrepreneurship and innovation, and a surge in technology as a platform for learning, among other trends. The business education space is becoming more global. Customised executive education is trending now. Students today want active learning that prepares them to meet real-world challenges. They also want to customise their programme.

More students are pursuing entrepreneurial careers, whether they start their venture or spearhead innovation within a company. Students can incubate, launch or accelerate their company at Darden while doing their MBA. A new option in our EMBA programme allows students to build their company full-time while studying.

Over the last 10 years, we have seen a gradual increase in the number of our residential MBA students listing entrepreneurship as their career after completing their MBA. Technology is changing at a rapid clip and creating educational opportunities. Not only do many students pursue jobs in technology, more than 1.5 million people have taken courses online, the majority from abroad.

Additionally, among the top schools, the trend is to become even more global. Not only are strong, competitive MBA programmes emerging all over the world, at the top business schools, the focus is on developing managers ready to operate in a more complex, global and interconnected world. Companies are also demanding more customised executive education programmes. This translates into a global war for talent at the student, faculty and administration level.

What are your views on the future of business education?

The business model for MBA education (like most education, services and even products) is being unbundled. There is a proliferation of certificates, competencies, credentialling and alternative degree programmes. If you want a specific skill, you can get that. If you want a transformational experience, you can get that. However, the importance of a business education, an MBA, remains significant. Millennials have 40- or even 45-year careers ahead of them and they are going to need to have a changing skill set across that time. The generation needs to know how to learn. Traits such as generating trust and ethical leadership are at the core, but the need be able to work in teams and virtually is essential. Many aspects of our functional knowledge are going to need to be refreshed throughout our careers in a rapidly changing world. What is becoming commoditised is generic functional knowledge, but how to apply that across functions is becoming more valuable. To do that, student need to learn how to learn and retool themselves, and know how to get things done in an increasingly complex world across boundaries. Universities must focus on creating the skills needed to be a CEO. The companies that we talk to state that they need people who know how to collaborate and work as a team. That advice is what we teach students.
Following two full days of intensive startup development, four teams of local entrepreneurs have emerged as the winners of 48Hour Launch: Internet of Things Edition, an annual business launching competition hosted by The Company Lab (CO.LAB) and Mozilla. This year, the program challenged participants to start companies involving internet-connected devices.

The first place prize went to Forrest Pruitt, founder of Viator VR a virtual reality platform that submerges users in interactive language learning experiences. Cristol Kapp came in second place for launching Inclusive I/O, a space that provides engaging activities for students of all abilities to explore and create. Two individuals, Matthew Nassar with Chatties and Ashlanett Harris with Digital Windows, earned free trips to MozFest in London this October.



More than 75 people turned out to support 48Hour Launch: Internet of Things Edition, which ran continuously from 6 p.m. on Sept. 9 to 6 p.m. today. The competition supported seven startup teams and culminated with a public Pitch Night, where the entrepreneurs presented their work to a local audience and took questions from a panel of judges. At the end of the experience, the two highest scoring teams walked away with cash prizes  $1,200 for first place and $800 for second place. Both winners also received packages of free business services, including 10 hours of free legal advising, 10 hours of free accounting advising, two free sessions of business insurance consultation, a three-month membership at Society of Work and an automatic spot in CO.LABs GIGTANK 365 Accelerator.



All seven teams received a free box of Internet of Things support devices, including an Arduino kit, a Raspberry Pi kit, a Raspberry Pi camera board, a project box and a pack of jumpers. Mozilla sponsored the boxes and also flew 10 expert mentors to Chattanooga from all over the world to advise this years teams.



Katie Hendrix, portfolio manager of Mozilla, congratulated this years teams and contributors for making the Internet of Things Edition a shared success for everyone involved.



While the winners of 48Hour Launch do come away with a cash prize, its exciting beyond that because each participant has experienced a significant and far bigger win in the collaboration process that has played out over the last 48 hours, she said. Congratulations to everyone who has participated and brought their innovative minds to this event.



About the winners



First Place: Viator VR // Led by Forrest Pruitt



ViatoR utilizes virtual reality to submerge users in interactive language learning experiences. While immersive experiences are typically key to learning a foreign language, not everyone has the ability to study abroad. With ViatoR, students get the opportunity to immerse themselves in foreign language environments that are critical to improving fluency.

Second Place: Inclusive I/O // Led by Cristol Kapp



Inclusive I/O is a space that provides engaging activities for students of all abilities to explore and create. Developed in partnership with the Red Bank Elementary School Library, this program utilizes the web to help students with disabilities access the resources and tools necessary to explore their own creativity in an inclusive setting.

MozFest Winners: Chatties // Led by Matthew Nassar and Digital Windows // Led by Ashlanett Harris



Chatties is a line of Wi-Fi enabled smart plush toys that allows kids to send and receive voice messages from friends and family members. Built on a verticalized hardware and software platform, Chatties is part of a new generation of social toys that are changing the way children connect through learning-based play.



Digital Windows is a platform for live streaming real-world activity that students wouldn't normally be able to access. Through partnerships with a variety of organizations, students will have the opportunity to explore the worlds of medical research, policing, travel and more.



About the finalists



Aerial Maintenance // Mustapha Coulibaly



CO.STARTERS Youth is a program that helps teens explore their passions through generating, testing and launching ideas. The program is arranged as a flexible, modular toolkit adaptable to a variety of settings, both inside and outside the classroom. Using a simple, clear and intuitive process, CO.STARTERS Youth allows teens to dream big, but start small with life-appropriate ventures.

Schoolife // Led by James Tellman



Schoolife is a desk module built for the classroom that allows students to engage in digital learning experiences. This touch-screen system is designed to mimic a physical desk while providing students with access to files such as textbooks and assignments. In addition, the system enables students to engage in real-time communication with teachers during lessons and has the ability to connect with supporting devices like smart phones.

Stage Genies // Led by Kate Warren



Stage Genies is a multimedia system designed to sense and respond to dancers and other performers movements. This project engages 12- to 17-year-old student programmers in writing software for both the camera, which senses motion, and the responses that follow, which could include music, lighting effects and projection.
The stakes for K-12 policy in this years state-level elections couldnt be clearer: Whoever voters pick in the legislative and gubernatorial races will have significant new leverage in shaping states education agendas in the years ahead.

The reason is the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act, which gives state governments sweeping authority to design, among other things, teacher evaluations and school accountability systems, topics that political observers expect to dominate policymakers 2017 legislative seasons.

Observers wouldnt necessarily know that, however, by hanging out on the campaign trails this year.

Aside from school finance, teacher pay, and transgender students access to bathrooms, education policy has mostly stayed out of the fray of this years topsy-turvy election cycle.

But, among education scholars, advocates, and lobbyists, its no secret that state elections this year matter greatly.

It all looks huge for those of us who spend all of our time on it, said Frederick M. Hess, the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and an opinion blogger for Education Week. But when candidates are trying to convince people that they have a better idea on how to incorporate [student] growth rather than proficiency in states accountability systems, you make peoples eyes glaze over. Thats not something that could affect elections. At least it wont yet.

The Coming Wave

There are telltale signs that the volatility of education politics could crest in the coming years.

Legislators not running for office have in recent months bombarded the National Conference of State Legislatures with technical, in-the-weeds questions about ESSA, assessments, and accountability systems and have requested NCSLs handful of education experts to fly out to state capitals to testify during off-season committee hearings.

This is the most engaged weve ever seen legislators in education policy, said Michelle Exstrom, the organizations education program director. Legislators are becoming a lot more aware of the importance of the decisions that are about to be made.

And in some states, incumbents are experiencing backlash from parents and teachers alike over previous policy moves.

 When budget cuts to districts in Kansas and Oklahoma took a deep toll, dozens of teachers, inspired by a scrappy social-media campaign, filed to run for legislative office.

 Teachers unions have bankrolled ballot initiatives in Maine and Oklahoma to tax wealthier corporations and individuals to benefit school funding, and they have placed boots on the ground in Massachusetts to fight a ballot initiative that could dramatically expand that states charter school sector.

 In Indiana, education has gotten its front-row attention in the races for governor, state schools superintendent, and state Senate and House seats after botched test scores earlier this year led the legislature to scrap the states test and hit the reset button on teacher evaluations and the states rigid school accountability system.

Education is such a politically volatile issue because parents and teachers historically are so intense in their attitudes toward education that it can be, for those groups, almost a single issue for them, said Jeffrey Henig, a political scientist at Teachers College, Columbia University.

The regulations putting ESSA into full effect in the 2017-18 school year are being written, and state officials are still wrangling to make sure the final federal rules give them all the authority theyre seeking.

Consultation Under ESSA

But ESSA, unlike its predecessor, the No Child Left Behind Act, requires that in developing their accountability plans, state education agencies have timely and meaningful consultation with their legislatures and governors before submitting their plans to the U.S. Department of Education by next summer.

Some states, such as Michigan and South Carolina, have pushed to have plans completed before the opening of next years legislative sessions so that the states lawmakers and governors have enough time to vet and sign off on those plans.

While state plans in past decades were scrutinized during sparsely attended state board of education meetings, politicians anticipate the nitty-gritty policy debates to be thrust into the public forum next spring.

State agencies are bracing for their plans to be examined by legislators for unintended consequences.

After they received so much blowback from the public over the common-core debate, legislators are realizing that they need to be much more aware of their policy options and the details of these sorts of things, NCSLs Exstrom said.

By the Numbers 2016 State Elections Up for Grabs

12 Governorships

44 State Legislatures

5,916 Individual State Lawmakers

5 State Schools Chiefs Current Partisan Control

Democrats:

18 Governorships

12 Legislatures

3 State Schools Chiefs Republicans:

31 Governorships

30 Legislatures

6 State Schools Chiefs Independent:

1 Legislature (Unicameral/Non-Partisan)

1 Governorship Sources: National Conference of State Legislatures; National Governors Association; Ballotpedia

The average voter may not have heard much about ESSA or know the difference between a dashboard accountability system and an A-F systembut that could change quickly.

These decisions right now feel very technical and abstract, said Hess of the AEI. But once theyre in place, and schools start getting labeled, and educators start worrying about how they perform under set targets, then, rest assured, youre going to have much more visceral reactions.

Shifting Responsibilities

ESSA goes a long way toward meeting state legislators and governors hunger for more control over education policy.

President Barack Obamas Race to the Top program, which provided a series of financial incentives for states to tie test scores to teacher evaluations, adopt the Common Core State Standards, and institute sweeping and prescriptive school turnaround strategies, had sparked a roiling debate over states versus federal rights.

Over the past two years, legislators have introduced a battery of bills to dismantle accountability systems, slash away at standardized testing, and repeal what some opponents have tagged as Obamacore.

No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top kept [legislators] from having to be too explicit in their positions, and it gave them the opportunity, that some of them appreciated, to blame Washington, D.C., Henig said. But now they have to confront what they couldnt so easily duck in the past: the need to take their own position. Its one thing to say, We dont like these test-based accountability dictums coming from Washington, but many of them will findand are findingthat they have to articulate an alternative vision of what accountability means. And that opens them up to having to take riskier positions than theyve been forced to do over the last 16 years.

That could mean some state legislatures will punt more difficult decisions like state control either to voters through ballot measures or to state boards of education and state superintendents, many of whom are eager to take back influence theyve lost to career politicians far removed from the classroom.

Partisan Split

The majority of states legislatures and governors offices this year are dominated by Republicans, and though the numbers could change some with this years unpredictable election, experts warn against predicting where politicians will stand on education policy based on their party.

As the education debate has moved to Washington in the last 15 years, its been easier for people to be on my side or your side, Hess said. In communities, youre dealing with people you know, and you tend to cut deals.

Strange and unlikely alliances abound: Moderately conservative governors and civil rights advocates have faced off against teachers unions and tea-party legislators over standardized testing, for example. And even in states with super-majorities, its not uncommon to see a governor veto a state legislatures education plans.

In North Carolina, the states GOP-controlled legislature and governor have, for a variety of reasons, diverged sharply in recent years on long-standing education policies. This years combative debate between incumbent Gov. Pat McCrory and his Democratic rival Roy Cooper over teacher pay is a proxy for a variety of other issues, said Ferrel Guillory, the director of the Program on Public Life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Voters also have deep anxieties about a shifting economy, the resegregation of schools, and a widening achievement gap between the states growing minority population and its wealthier, white students, all policies the state will have to confront in its ESSA plans next year, he said.

While important, this debate over teacher pay is more symbolic than substantive, Guillory said. Its time for us to have the wider debate over these much-more-difficult decisions over the future of a public education system that is...a public asset thats important to the vitality of our communities.
To build the largest and most complete Amateur Radio community site on the Internet - a "portal" that hams think of as the first place to go for information, to exchange ideas, and be part of whats happening with ham radio on the Internet. eHam.net provides recognition and enjoyment to the people who use, contribute, and build the site. This project involves a management team of volunteers who each take a topic of interest and manage it with passion. The site will stand above all other ham radio sites by employing the latest technology and professional design/programming standards, developed by a team of community programmers who contribute their skills to the effort. The site will be something of which everyone involved can be proud to say they were a part. We welcome your comments. The eHam.net Team, Revision 07/2020.
Missionary Man is the title of a new book written by Chattanoogan Trista Plantholt and her father, Billy Gray, who lives in Destin, Fla.

Ms. Plantholt attends Woodland Park Baptist Church and works part time at Hilger Higher Learning.

Rev. Gray is a pastor at The Gathering in Sandestin and a missionary.

This, his fourth book, consists of short stories detailing some of his more memorable mission trips.

Rev. Gray, who is 82, has traveled to six continents and over 35 countries sharing the love of Christ for the past 30 years.

This book "shows how no one is too old, young, weak, or poor to share the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ around the world."

Missionary Man should be available for purchase next month.


Bridge Christian Church will conclude its fifth annual family movie series, Movies in the Park at Dark, at Heritage Park on Friday, Sept. 30. Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be shown on a large inflatable screen.

The event starts at 7:30, is free and open to the public.

Heritage Park is located at 1428 Jenkins Road in Chattanooga. The 22-acre park has a walking track, playground, picnic tables, bocce ball court, public art and an off-leash dog park.

Bridge Christian Church is a non-denominational, independent Christian Church that was founded in 2010. Gatherings are held at 10:30 a.m. every Sunday at Westview Elementary School in the East Brainerd community of Chattanooga. For more information about Bridge Christian Church, call the church at (423) 463-0202
The annual Blessing of the Pets outdoor service at the Hospice of Chattanooga campus on Highway 58 is this Saturday, Sept. 17 at 10:30 a.m. Animals and people of all age s are welcome according to spokesman Garry Mac. There will be a blessing for the animals and a time of remembrance for beloved pets who have died.

The service will be led by Christy Bonner of the chaplaincy program at hospice. Weve had all kinds of pets from horses to pigs and, of course cats and dogs said Mac, who says the blessing ceremony is open to everyone and all are asked to make sure their pets are controlled in some fashion such as a leash or in a carrier.
Ely, Cambridgeshire is best known for its majestic cathedral dubbed the 'Ship of the Fens' because it dominates the flat landscape. The city, which is the second smallest in England, is about 14 miles north-northeast of Cambridge and about 80 miles by road from London.

14:55, 28 OCT 2022
When you drop your money into the boots held by Whitfield County firefighters this weekend, youll be helping them help kids who have suffered burn injuries, just like always. But there are a couple of new twists this year.

For the first time, the firefighters have a new partner in their boot drive - the Dalton Shriners - and both organizations will be collecting donations together at the usual five locations around the county on Saturday, Sept. 17 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Firefighters and Shriners will be accepting donations at the following intersections:

Station 1  Cleveland Highway and the North Bypass

Stations 2 and 10  Cleveland Highway and Ga. Highway 2

Stations 3 and 8  Airport Road and Chatsworth Highway

Stations 4 and 5  Highway 41 and Connector 3

Stations 6, 7, and 9  Highway 201 and Highway 41

For the past six years, weve teamed up with the Georgia Firefighters Burn Foundation, Lt. Chris West said, but weve been approached by the Shriners several times in the past about the possibility of working together. We felt like this year, we would take a break from the Burn Foundation and team up with the Shriners and follow the same process we always have.

Appropriately enough, the name of the drive will be Whitfield Firefighters and Dalton Shriners Team Up for Kids.

In the past, the firefighters have collected anywhere from $14,000 to $17,000, West said, and hes hopeful they can match or beat that amount this year.

We found out that 100 percent of the money collected by the Shriners goes straight to their hospitals to pay for the treatment of kids, West said, and that impressed us.

Seventy-five percent of the money collected here will go towards treating young burn victims at Shriners

hospitals, including one in Cincinnati supported by the Dalton Shriners, and the other 25 percent will go toward a new program for the Whitfield firefighters called Santa in Uniform.

West said the firefighters hope to have enough money to buy $100 worth of Christmas presents for 25 underprivileged children to be selected by local school counselors and the Department of Family and Children Services.

These kids will meet at one location, and well bus them to a fire station and then take them to the mall to have their picture made with Santa, West said. Then well take them to Wal-Mart, and each one of them will be teamed with a firefighter from the Whitfield County Fire Department. Theyll shop and get to purchase $100 worth of toys each.

The kids will then be carried back to the fire station, where theyll enjoy pizza and cake and receive their toys before heading home with their families.

Weve seen this program done at other departments, West said, and it seemed like it really worked. Our guys are really on board with it.

West emphasized the firefighters want the public to know all the money they give on Sept. 17 will be used to help children.

Were not collecting money for the Whitfield County Fire Department, he said. We want people to know that were not out there in those intersections collecting money to buy equipment for us. Were there for a cause, and that cause is to help kids.

While the Shriners help children with various ailments, the fire department has requested that donations collected on Sept. 17go to take care of young burn victims.

Nothing against traumatic injury, West said. Were all for helping them, too, but since were the fire department, we just decided we want all that money to go towards helping kids that get burned.
The Chattanooga Police Department volunteer chaplain corps will host a prayer vigil this evening at 6 p.m. The chaplains along with others in our community are working to bring together those affected by violent crime and to pay tribute to victims who lost their lives to violent crime this year in Chattanooga. The vigil is open to anyone who would like to attend and will take place at the Southside Youth & Family Development Center, 1151 West 40th Street.
Clinton the "Congenital Liar"

By Mark Alexander



In 2001, ABC News obtained a recording between Hillary Clinton and a disgruntled former campaign donor, in which she insists she would never use email because of the trail of evidence it creates. "As much as I've been investigated and all of that, you know, why would I ever want to do email? Can you imagine?"

Well, can you?

Fast forward to last week and take a guess which presidential contender accused the other of hiding critical information, declaring, "I'm going to continue to raise this because I think it is a fundamental issue in this campaign that we're going to talk about for the next 62 days because [...] clearly has something to hide. We don't know exactly what it is, but we're getting better guesses about what it probably is."

Now, you're probably thinking it was Donald Trump, given Hillary Clinton's endless lies about concealing incriminating communications while she was secretary of state. Laughably, though, that was actually Clinton accusing Trump of hiding his tax returns.

Without missing a beat, Trump responded, "Let her release her emails and I'll release my tax returns immediately."

Clinton's attempted pivot to class warfare was an effort to divert attention from the Labor Day holiday weekend FBI news dump of investigative notes taken by agents during their Independence Day holiday weekend interview with Clinton.

Despite heavy redaction, the Clinton interview provided a much better understanding of the extent of her corruption and lies. And additional information about her communications released by the State Department bolsters that understanding.

Trying to throw the media off her crooked trail, Clinton answered some handpicked reporters' questions on her campaign plane last Tuesday  the first time she has taken questions in 275 days.

Asked about her criminal handling of classified data, Clinton asserted, "I went into the State Department understanding classification. I had been on the Senate Armed Services Committee four years before I was secretary of state. I take classification seriously."

Seriously, she said that.

Reporters continued that line of questioning, so in another diversionary attempt, Clinton suggested that Donald Trump is working with Russian hackers to undermine the 2016 election and other American institutions.

"The fact that our intelligence services are now viewing Russian activity as a potential threat against our electoral system, uh, raises further questions about Trump, and, uh, I think those are questions the American people should be asking. ... The kinds of behavior that, uh, Russian intelligence has engaged in and that, uh, my opponent has, uh, applauded, he has made it clear that he does not care whether Putin or his intelligence services attack American institutions. ... This is like Watergate."

Seriously, she said that.

Maybe it is time to enact voter ID requirements nationwide...

Again came questions about the FBI report and Clinton, now agitated, responded, "The FBI resolved all of this. The report answered all the questions. The findings included debunking [Trump's] conspiracy theory. I believe I have created so many jobs in the conspiracy theory machine factory because, honestly, they never quit, they keep coming back. And here's another one. It's been debunked."

Seriously, she said that.

When it became clear that reporters were not taking the bait, Clinton then started another of her chronic coughing bouts and returned to the first class section of her plane.

Since Clinton refused to provide direct answers to questions, at the risk of "Clinton email burnout," allow me to highlight the most significant facts in the FBI report and other findings released last weekend.

By way of context, recall that Clinton, in her Benghazi cover-up testimony before Congress, declared, "What difference, at this point, does it make?"

If by "it" she meant her "web of lies" about leaving Americans to die in an al-Qa'ida attack in order to provide political cover for Barack Obama's 2012 re-election bid, it makes the difference between serving time in the White House or the Big House. Of course, the Clinton Crime Syndicate is very adept at the art of BIG lies  and "getting away with murder," in the figurative and perhaps literal sense.

I have written in detail about the motives for her Benghazi cover up. Just weeks after the 9/11 attack in 2012, I personally pleaded with Mitt Romney's communication director to have him challenge Obama in their final debate about the cover up, writing in a memo to Romney, "You must make the case that the reason Obama is obfuscating the facts on who attacked and killed our ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi, is to maintain his campaign theme charade that 'al-Qa'ida is on the run.'"

But to no avail.

Romney, thinking he had the election in the bag, soft-pitched his remarks in the last debate and virtually handed the election to Obama, who then provided Clinton plenty of cover. Cover, that is, until a former federal prosecutor (appointed by Bill Clinton), Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), took on the Clinton case. As chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, he launched an investigation into Clinton's role in the cover up, and her web of lies began to unravel.

It was clear after the 2015 discovery of Clinton's illegal "private" email server that she and her handlers were keeping all her communications during her tenure as secretary of state "off the grid"  in order to protect her planned 2016 presidential bid. Once discovered, Team Clinton ordered their lawyers and staff to destroy more than 30,000 "personal emails" before turning the rest over to the State Department for security evaluation.

So what did we learn?

From the sketchy FBI report, which was the result of a referral from the U.S. intelligence community inspector general, it's notable that Clinton claimed she "could not recall," "did not recall," "did not remember" and "had no recollection" 41 times during the interview.

It's also apparent that Clinton ordered her emails erased after the first reports became public that she'd been conducting State Department business via an illegal and unsecure email server. "[Redacted] indicated he believed he had an 'oh st' moment and sometime between March 25-31, 2015 deleted the Clinton archive mailbox from the [Platte River Networks] server and used BleachBit to delete the exported .PST files he had created on the server system containing Clinton's emails."

Her obfuscating attorneys, Cheryl Mills, David Kendall and Heather Samuelson, claimed they had no knowledge of Clinton's private email server until after she left the State Department, but Clinton insisted in the FBI interview that it was "common knowledge" and that she "could not recall anyone raising concerns with her regarding the sensitivity of the information she received at her email address."

When asked what criteria they used to determine which communications they would destroy, Mills, Kendall and Samuelson exercised "assertion of privilege" and declined to give investigators the email addresses and keywords on which they searched.

And is anyone surprised that one of Clinton's Justice Department interviewers, David H. Laufman, contributed $850 to Obama's presidential campaigns?

Clinton used at least 13 mobile devices to transmit what we now know were classified messages and pay-to-play communications regarding the Clinton Foundation  often in non-secure areas. "On [redacted] occasions while OCONUS (Outside Continental U.S.), Clinton had direct email contact with an email address for President Barack Obama," the report reads. "Of the [redacted] emails between Clinton and President Obama, [redacted] were sent and received [redacted]."

Her chief adviser (co-conspirator and cutout), Huma Mahmood Abedin (a Muslim who grew up in Saudi Arabia), recommended the use of off-grid servers and "indicated the whereabouts of Clinton's devices would frequently become unknown once she transitioned to a new device." At one point, her staff used hammers to destroy some of those devices, which explains why the FBI couldn't recover them for forensic evaluation.

Clinton claimed a laptop and portable drive with a log of all her communications was "lost in the mail," which seemed only slightly more plausible than "the dog ate it."

Clinton claimed to have "provided all my emails that could possibly be work-related" (cough, cough).

However, among the 17,488 she thought had been erased but which the FBI managed to recover from Clinton and State Department servers, it is now clear that many of those were "work related," including at least 30 emails about Benghazi and more about other classified national security matters. (That's in addition to the 110 classified emails FBI Director James Comey indicated Clinton had sent.)

The FBI also confirmed that there were hacking attempts on Clinton's servers. To that end, recall that Clinton sent an email to all State Department employees during her tenure, brazenly warning them not use private email accounts because of "information security concerns"  all while she was using private email accounts.

Regarding the classification markings on some of the communications, the report noted, "Clinton stated she did not know what the "C" meant at the beginning of the paragraphs and speculated it was referencing paragraphs marked in alphabetical order." Clinton said maybe the "C" meant "paragraph C" in sequence, even though there were no paragraphs "A" or "B" preceding it. An agent noted, "Email was marked as classified at the Confidential level by the FBI based on a determination by the Original Classification Authority."

Clinton claimed she couldn't remember State Department briefings after sustaining a serious head injury and concussion in 2012. She claimed never having received any instruction on the handling of classified information, although she signed a Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement noting, "I hereby acknowledge that I have received a security indoctrination concerning the nature and protection of classified information."

Perhaps the "C" meant "concussion" or "corrupt" or "contemptible" or just "confusion." Indeed, Huma Abedin said that Clinton "is often confused."

Clinton appeared to play implausibly dumb throughout the interview ... and it would appear that, although he was inexplicably absent from the actual interview, Director Comey has determined that she is too dumb to prosecute.

Yet to come, however, are dozens of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits already underway, primarily led by the intrepid folks at Judicial Watch, and many more disclosures that await the State Department's completion of review and redaction of classified information.

Most notably, a federal judge ordered Clinton to answer  finally under oath  25 questions prepared by Judicial Watch lawyers regarding her corruption. The answers to those questions are due on 29 September, but expect some legal maneuver to delay her responses.

In 1996, the fourth year of Bill Clinton's first term, esteemed former New York Times' syndicated columnist William Safire, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, penned a prescient indictment of Hillary Clinton's "Blizzard of Lies." Safire wrote, "Americans of all political persuasions are coming to the sad realization that our First Lady ... is a congenital liar. Drip by drip, like Whitewater torture, the case is being made that she is compelled to mislead, and to ensnare her subordinates and friends in a web of deceit."

He concluded, "[Hillary Clinton] is in the longtime habit of lying; and she has never been called to account for lying herself or in suborning lying in her aides and friends."

That was 20 years ago. The only thing that's changed in the last two decades is that Hillary Clinton has become much more proficient at lying.

Do any of her hardcore Socialist Democratic Party constituents care? No. But shedding light on her unmitigated corruption will keep young and moderate voters away from the polls.

Mark Alexander is the executive editor of the Patriot Post.
Fiction, fairy tales, and fiat



By Guy Christopher

Do young Americans today know anything about economics? No, they don't, according to a study during the 2016 presidential primary season, which says lots of other Americans don't either. The survey found 58% of millennials favor government-run socialism (statistically 6 out of 10), while a nearly identical number (64%) don't want government interference in free markets. The incompatible findings make no sense, unless... Americans aged 18-24 simply don't understand the real meanings of either concept. Sadly, the study says that's true of one-third of all Americans. Not a clue. The evidence was the large following behind avowed socialist Bernie Sanders during his presidential campaign. This lack of understanding is concerning, as the implications for individual lives and the nation's future are significant. Witness the latest failure of socialism in Venezuela, where millions are rebelling against the government-controlled economy driving their lives into the dirt. We know one answer. The thrust of government influenced, politically correct education for many decades has been to rewrite history and literature, aimed at growing government power while diminishing individual liberties. It starts with childhood. The first global macro-economics lesson ever taught to children was The Legend of Robin Hood Ask anyone, and you'll hear Robin Hood was the guy who robbed the rich to give to the poor. The ingrained implication is clear  sharing the wealth through class conflict is the way to go. Balladeers passed along this folk tale beginning 600 years ago. Since silent movie days, Robin Hood has been played as champion of the oppressed by every major entertainer from Errol Flynn to Kermit The Frog. Even Bill Clinton marketed the popular view in recent days. "I was sorta Robin Hood," he said, defending the millions he's raked in selling influence around the globe. We're sorry to bring this up now, but we've all been living a lie. The "rich" in Robin Hood's days were primarily government bureaucratic officials, bestowed with royal titles, and beholden to the king. Robin's constant nemesis was the Sheriff of Nottingham, the onerous, tyrannical tax collector. The Merry Men of Sherwood Forest were in reality anti-government, anti-tax activists! Robin Hood was busy hijacking the IRS! But that's certainly not a plot line government's compliant educators wanted planted in young, inquiring minds. Over the years they pushed a wholly incorrect socialist view of Robin Hood, burying the anti-tax storyline. A few weeks after you elect a new president, win or lose, you'll want time to enjoy the holidays. MGM's The Wizard of Oz will air often between Thanksgiving and Christmas, a screen classic now for 77 years. What you're getting is another rewrite. You'll see Judy Garland as Dorothy, ripped from her home by a tornado, off to discover the truth of courage, intelligence, and heartfelt compassion. That 1939 film became instantly, universally loved. In 1941, two brigades of burly Australian troops marched across North Africa against Nazi tanks singing "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." Then, in 1963, a New York high school teacher was preparing a lesson plan on the history of sound money. Before he knew it, Henry Littlefield had written a scholarly study, the first to recognize author Lyman Frank Baum's fantasy classic as historical satire of the bimetallism political fight of the 1890's. In short, silver mining interests wanted government to put more silver into circulation, while officially recognizing both a gold and a silver standard. The argument became one of choosing the meaning of money for yourself. Bimetallism was a major populist issue in the 1896 presidential election, with "silverites" opposing bankers and industrialists, who preferred gold as the sole, standard accounting unit. Baum had strong political sentiments. Years before he wrote his classic, he marched in demonstrations with the "silverites." His many books satirized other social issues, including feminism and suffrage. Littlefield concluded Baum's Wizard of Oz was a satire about the value and future of sound money. That would not be what Franklin Roosevelt wanted to hear in 1939, when MGM cast Hollywood's first "girl next door" in her iconic role as Dorothy. FDR had just grabbed America's gold six years earlier in 1933. Gold as currency was out the door, moving ever so farther away from America's consciousness. There was no political appetite to explore the economic politics of sound money evident in Baum's allegory. Why bring it all up again in a star studded mega-hit destined for the ages? Left on the cutting room floor was the "magic power of silver" that would show Dorothy the way home. Her original "silver shoes" following a road of yellow bricks (allegorical gold ingots) were changed to red rubies. Problem solved. With merry bands of tax reformers successfully morphed into free-stuff socialists, with sound money hidden behind still another curtain, government was encouraged to write its own financial fictions, performed on the world stage by compliant educators and media. Today's best-selling government fairy tale is that debt is actually wealth, that countless trillions in paper and digital currency can be spread around the world without catastrophic societal upheaval. The fantasy ignores sound money and belittles those who separate fact from fiction. This fable teaches the more unpayable the debt, the merrier. This month, the national debt reached $19.5 trillion, up a half trillion in seven months. That's deceptive. Add $12 trillion in America's household debt, hundreds of trillions more in future, unfunded government promises, and what you've got is a very scary movie. A trillion is written as a 1 with 12 zeroes. We looked for fanciful yet mathematically recognized numbers, and stopped at a millinillion, equal to 1,000 quingentillion. A millinillion is a 1 with 3,003 zeros. Join us in hoping some fairy tales never come true. Money Metalscolumnist Guy Christopher is a veteran writer living on the Gulf Coast. A retired investigative journalist, published author, and former stockbroker, Christopher has taught college as an adjunct professor and is a veteran of the 101st Airborne in Vietnam. This was originally published on Money Metals Exchange. Home
The New World Order hens By Michael Moriarty

There was not a cliched moment in the film, Pride and Glory. The acting was too naked, too honest and too powerfully disciplined for any corner of a corrupt American press, artistic or otherwise, to respect it.

Performances Too Real For The Critics To Appreciate Yes. Corrupt! The Fourth Estate of the United States has been selling out the United States ever since the Kennedy Assassination. Selling the Warren Commission Report as truth and leaving one of America's greatest tragedies, the cold-blooded murder of an American President, leaving that moment which began a long period of increasing corruption within American Law and Order, leaving a nightmare like that basically unchallenged for over three decades?! That successful conspiracy made all the lies about 9/11 saleable! No wonder Pride and Glory, a story of corruption in the New York City Police Department, as brilliantly conceived and perfectly performed as it is, created by a combination of intensely researched writing, extraordinary acting and flawless direction, and yet was only given, according to Rotten Tomatoes, a 35% approval rating by the country's critics?!

Voight, Norton and Farrell

Three Perfect Performances An unrelentingly investigative film about corruption. Offered to a record-breaking legion of corrupt American know-it-alls and coconspirators in the press. For the most part, those critics are male versions of what is offered us now as the supposedly shoo-in candidate for President of the United States, Hillary Clinton. Following two terms of The Obama Nation, the most shamelessly corrupt and criminal Presidency in the entire history of the United States. From November 22nd of 1964 to this day of September 2, 2016, 52 years of a growing nightmare that now culminates in the possible election to the Presidency of a highly suspect and known liar and, yes, possible criminal. A woman that The Establishment refuses to arrest and try for an undeniably repetitive record of suspicious behavior while in office and a family history of close connections to the victims of a growing number of cold-blooded homicides not to mention The White Water Scandal. Why am I beginning to feel sorry for, of all people, Hillary Clinton? It was she, I am certain, that picked Janet Reno to be Bill Clinton's Attorney General. Why? It prepares America for women in increasingly higher and higher office! Until, of course, Hillary Clinton is picked for The Presidency!! Bill and Hillary? The indisputable Bonnie and Clyde of American Politics. Those two as a perfect reflection of, yes, those 52 years of increasingly brazen corruption in America. The other prime examples of a diseased America: President Barack Hussein Obama and the Dr. Jeckyl of this Mr. Obama Nation Hyde?! George Soros. Bonnie and Clyde

Join with

Dr. Jekll and Mr. Hyde

To create

THE NEW WORLD ORDER Oh, there is an all-important THIRD contingent: THE ENTIRE BUSH FAMILY! Here is a glimpse of George H. W. Bush as the most foolish of the New World Order Messengers! Why foolish? The proclamation linked above, the President Bush announcement of a New World Order? An indictment of pure treason could be made against George H. W. Bush for that infamously treasonous proclamation. A ten-year-old legal prodigy could prosecute this charge of treason the entire New World Order and win. "We are to hand

the entire sovereignty of the United States

over to the United Nations!" I beg your pardon? The New World Order's reply: "It is the only possible way!" The only possible way for what? "To avoid World War III!!" Oh It is also, given what has happened to America in the last 52 years with the God-sent exception of President Ronald Reagan The New World Order is also a certain way to create America's Second Civil War! "Well, we are ready for that.

We are actually trying to make

The Second American Civil War

happen actually.

The clever little American Patriots

Are trying not to

take the bait'!" Thanks for the compliment. "Don't mention it!

We guess that President Obama,

To make this Civil War happen,

May be

Simply

Obliged

To declare

Martial Law!" I've been hearing that rumor. Do you really think that Vladimir Putin of Russia is going to let that happen? "With Red China

and the entire United Nations behind us?!

Putin,

No matter how much he hates Obama,

Will be obliged

To let The New World Order happen!" I wouldn't be too sure about that. Russia, Soviet or otherwise, and Red China have had a history of never really getting along. A war between them has seemed inevitable for quite some time. "They wouldn't dare!" I wouldn't count such chickens before you, New World Order Hens, lay your eggs. As for the film and theme of Pride and Glory? If the New York Police Department can't succeed with corruption for long? Why do these geniuses of The New World Order think they can get away with treason? "Can you possibly think

that a man like Donald Trump

and his following

can get away with battling

the entire United States Government?" The word "entire" is what will be most up to question. "We've got the bomb!" And we have the heart of what's left of the American people. "That heart won't survive the bomb!" And you won't survive the fallout. "We have secret shelters to hide in." And you think Donald Trump and his friends in the American Military don't already know about every one of those shelters?! They will own those shelters before you even drop the bomb. What can you do then? Still drop the bomb on the American people?! I suggest that you and the Clintons and the Bushes and the Obamas and George Soros go back to the drawing board. Committing treason without God on your side?!?! It's not anything that I would advise. "We have Allah and Karl Marx on our side!" And that's it? Allah, Karl Marx, Red China and the United Nations on your side? "What's wrong with that?" You forgot North Korea. "Correct! North Korea as well." Good luck. With that collection of friends?!





You'll need all of them and more to take on and defeat Jehovah, The Holy Trinity and their tens of millions of friends all over the Earth. You're obviously a sentimentalist! While you and your New World Order, like Hitler's Third Reich, are inevitably going to hell. I wish you God's speed. Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series Law and Order from 1990 to 1994. His recent film and TV credits include The Yellow Wallpaper, 12 Hours to Live, Santa Baby and Deadly Skies. Contact Michael at rainbowfamily2008@yahoo.com. He can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/@MGMoriarty. Home
The next sector to recover from the oil price crash



By Zainab Calcuttawala

Oilfield services, shipbuilders and other industries that rose with the pre-2014 oil price boom have had it hard. Since barrel rates fell, their previous patrons have become uninterested in doling out major purchase orders, leaving oil and gas equipment manufacturers without revenues.



A recent report by Arkansas Online says the energy industry's support sector could feel the effects of low oil prices for up to two years after the current bear market recovers.



"When oil gets good again we will be the last to get back to work" because half the fleet available is not currently in use, Vance Breaux Jr., a boat manufacturer from Louisiana, said.



Louisiana's rig count has shrunk to 35 active sites as of last week  down 40 from the same time last year, according to Baker Hughes latest report on the matter.



Currently, Breaux and his industry compatriots lack diversification in their client profile. Production sites with easy-to-reach oil and gas deposits are running out in Louisiana, but the weak investment climate prevents energy firms from starting new projects, making it difficult for equipment manufacturers to generate revenues.



In other parts of the country, bargain hunters are snagging expensive oil and gas equipment at auctions for a fraction of their original cost.



"Everyone says we're crazy, but we're hoping to capitalize on the downstroke," Shawn Kluver, a buyer in the market for a hydro excavator truck, told USA Today last year.



Kluver flew to Colorado from North Dakota to compete with more than 3,000 bidders for a rock-bottom price on backhoes, bulldozers, trucks and other heavy equipment.



As hundreds of oil and gas rigs shut down across the United States, falling bottom lines force oil and gas majors to abandon future exploration projects and reduce the scope of ongoing ventures, causing thousands of drilling workers to lose their jobs and the equipment they once used to sit idle.



If a company begins liquidating its assets, some of the idle equipment may find itself in the hands of industry resellers, such as the Vancouver-based Ritchie Bros, which claims to be the world's largest auctioneer of heavy equipment.



The company says it has seen a peak interest in its events this year, driven in large part by contractors looking to repurpose drilling equipment for construction projects.



Oil and gas firms have been hemorrhaging workers and physical assets essential to drilling operations, which means bringing oil and gas companies back into peak production will not happen overnight when prices do recover.



In June, The Wall Street Journal, used data from HIS Energy to estimate that roughly 70 percent of the fracking equipment across the shale industry had been idled due to financial constraints. Also, about 60 percent of U.S. field workers needed to frack shale wells have been handed pink slips since the pricing crisis began two years ago. Many of those workers have moved on to jobs in other industries over the past two years, clearing the job market of experienced hires.



"It's scary to think what a drag and what a headwind finding experienced labor is going to be this time around," Roe Patterson, CEO of Basic Energy Services, a Texas-based well completion company, told the WSJ.



Patterson also emphasized that the state of equipment deteriorates due to wear and tear over time, even when its not in use.



"Pop the hood on your car and let it sit for a year," he suggested. "I guarantee the car won't be in the same condition."



As Hordes of heavy drilling equipment exit the energy industry to be repurposed, the woes of oil and gas equipment manufacturers will continue as the industry finds its footing in a recovered market. Once profits from existing drilling projects begin to show in oil and gas companies' books, new sites will be brought into production, spurring further equipment purchases.



Though the energy equipment industry may see a delayed boom as idled equipment stored in warehouses slowly returns to duty, firms will have to turn to their old sources to replace their now-sold assets. Better late than never.



Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com where this originally appeared. Home
Mayor Andy Berke was joined Monday morning by members of the Chattanooga City Council as well as Mayors Council for Women Justice Committee and community members to launch a new Restore My Rights website. During a press conference at Chattanooga Urban League, Mayor Berke talked about the importance of providing resources to citizens with a criminal history.

In Tennessee, 97% of offenders currently incarcerated will return home one day, said Mayor Berke. Sadly, within three years of their release, 46% will be rearrested and return to prison.

Mayor Berke and attendees pointed to reasons for recidivism, including lack of employment opportunities available for those with a criminal history, and announced ways that City government, partner organizations, and community members have come together to help keep ex-offenders productive and out of prison.

Today, Im proud to announce a new website to help those with a criminal history understand how to restore their voting rights and file for record expungement, he said.

Local attorney Chantelle Roberson, also spoke about the importance of empowering citizens who have a criminal record and providing them with the tools, such as RestoreMyRights.com, to move their lives forward.

In addition, once someone understands if they are eligible for their rights to be restored or for an expungement of their record, many are not able to afford the $450 to finalize their expungement.

There are people in Chattanooga who have filled out the paperwork but dont have the money to finalize their expungement, said Mayor Berke. Over the next few weeks, my office will bring together partners throughout the community to determine ways we can identify the individuals who need financial assistance for an expungement and then raise funds to help them clear that last hurdle.

If you or someone you know would like more information on how to restore voting rights or have a criminal record expunged, visit RestoryMyRights.com.
Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise (CNE), with support from the Lyndhurst and Benwood Foundations, has engaged the Incremental Development Alliance to help design Missing Middle housing, multi-family housing with the look and feel of single-family homes, for Chattanoogas neighborhoods.

Missing Middle housing types include duplexes, fourplexes, bungalow courts, and live-work units, among others. This project will explore pathways to creating Missing Middle Housing in Chattanooga.



We believe the proliferation of these building types are an affordable strategy to increase neighborhood walkability, diversify neighborhood building types, provide more affordable and mixed-income housing, grow and diversify our community of multi-family builders, and provide CNE with an expanded toolkit for neighborhood redevelopment that includes a small portfolio of multi-family plans that we can use with our partners, said Martina Guilfoil, president and CEO of CNE.



Together, CNE and IncDevA are conducting a series of development implementation charrettes, capacity-building trainings and educational lectures to create a fully vetted package of information specific to the Chattanooga region that would prototype up to three to four building types.



An on-site charrette took place at the beginning of August and consisted of three days of intensive drawing exercises and meeting with local experts to vet specific components of the building type package. CNE organized local general contractors, specific trade contractors, real estate agents/brokers, property managers, city planning staff, fire marshals, building code officials, architects, community bankers and key neighborhood stakeholders to take part in the refinement of the building type deliverables.



CNE invites the public to attend a lecture from Dan Parolek, a nationally recognized thought leader in architecture, design, and urban planning and creator of the Missing Middle Housing concept, on Wednesday, Sept. 21, from 6-8 p.m. at green|spaces Chattanooga, at 63 E. Main Street.



The team will then return to Chattanooga to conduct a Developer Bootcamp in October to help train local developers, contractors, real estate agents, investors and other key neighborhood stakeholders in building and developing this type of housing.



Chattanooga is primed for the evolution of its neighborhood fabric through small residential and mixed use buildings. However, many regulatory, financial and procedural barriers are restraining the marketplace from seeing a clear path forward into designing, constructing and managing building types inhabiting this Missing Middle strata between a single family house and mid-rise 3-6 story buildings, said Bob McNutt, real estate development manager at CNE.



The buildings will be of local architectural character and take into consideration appropriate climate and energy-related elements. This approach will set the stage for future development of prototypes into fully executed buildings where first-time versus operating costs can be weighed based on end use and property management strategies by the owner. For the purposes of this project, there will be an emphasis on residential buildings, with mixed-use options included where appropriate to allow for the greatest range of potential types that would fit from neighborhood center to edge. The project will pull from the vast experience and design plan archive of the team members to pair historic precedent with floor plans that meet modern building code requirements. The buildings must each work in a range of urban contexts, cost equal or less to conventional housing types and be flexible and adaptable to changing conditions over time.



For more information on Missing Middle housing types, visit www.missingmiddlehousing.com. For more information on the Missing Middle lecture, visit www.cneinc.org/missingmiddle.


A new study on euthanasia trends in Belgium, which shows an increase in reported cases since legislation was introduced, provides lessons for countries that have legalized assisted dying. The research is published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

In 2002, Belgium legalized the intentional ending of life by a physician at the patient's explicit request. The government introduced safeguards to protect patients, including a multidisciplinary review panel -- the Belgian Federal Control and Evaluation Committee for Euthanasia -- to ensure that each procedure was performed according to legal guidelines.

The Belgian researchers found that the number of officially reported euthanasia cases in Belgium increased from 235 in 2003 to 1807 in 2013 across all age groups and in all settings (home or care facility). They also noted an increase among people with conditions other than cancer and in people over age 80, a finding that was rare in the first few years after legalization. The highest incidence was consistently found among people dying with cancer, those younger than 80 years of age and those dying at home. There were also increases in euthanasia among people without terminal disease and those with psychiatric disorders, but their numbers remain relatively small.

"These findings might suggest an increase in the number of requests from these groups as they increasingly became aware of the legal possibility to request euthanasia. These findings might also reflect a decrease in reluctance to provide euthanasia within these groups as physicians became more experienced and the wider society became more familiar with these types of cases," writes Prof. Kenneth Chambaere, End-of-Life Care Research Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Ghent University, Brussels, Belgium, with coauthors.

Palliative care specialists were also consulted increasingly in the euthanasia procedure, though this is not a legal requirement.

"The increase in euthanasia among cases with noncancer diagnoses and nonterminal diseases emphasizes the importance of thorough evaluation and monitoring of the practice, since these situations are often more complex and may include psychiatric disorders and 'tiredness of life'."

"Given differences in developments between jurisdictions and even within Belgium, it is clear that societal and cultural contexts play a key role in how euthanasia practice has been adopted after legalization," the authors conclude.

###
DURHAM, N.C. -- Microcephaly is a rare disorder that stunts brain development in utero, resulting in an abnormally small head. The Zika virus is one environmental cause of this devastating condition, but genetic defects can cause microcephaly, too. A new Duke University study examining three genetic causes of microcephaly in mice suggests one common mechanism through which the disorder could arise.

Scheduled to appear Sept. 12 in PLOS Genetics, the study offers a new window into early, critical stages of brain development, and may improve understanding of the diverse causes of microcephaly and other neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism.

"We're excited about this study because, by stepping back and looking at the basic mechanistic routes to microcephaly, we hope to understand how Zika infection causes microcephaly," said the study's senior investigator Debra Silver, an assistant professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at the Duke University School of Medicine.

In the new study, Hanqian Mao, a graduate student in Silver's lab, created three mouse models of microcephaly by cutting the levels of each of three genes -- Magoh, Rbm8a and Eif4a3 -- by half during a critical time in brain development. All three types of mice developed a smaller cerebral cortex, the part of the brain responsible for memory and thought.

Then, Mao screened for any changes in mRNA and protein levels that could also contribute to the underdeveloped brains. One change that stood out involved a protein called p53, which accumulated in each of the mutant brains. The group hypothesized that too much p53 could cause developing cells to die.

To test the involvement of p53 in microcephaly, Duke postdoctoral fellow John McMahon suppressed it in each of the three types of mice. By blocking p53 at a crucial point in development, the team was able to trigger the brains to partially or fully recover to normal size, suggesting that p53 or its signaling partners might be considered as new therapeutic targets for microcephaly.

"What we don't know yet is exactly how our microcephaly-causing genes are regulating p53 and other changes in the brain, and that's going to be the next big question," Silver said.

The genes Magoh, Rbm8a and Eif4a3 are related to one another in that they bind together on specific spots on RNA and affect its processing to become protein. Although the triad is expressed in every cell of the body, it is more abundant in brain tissue.

"Our results suggest that the molecular complex is a master regulator of cortical development, because it's regulating critical genes in stem cells, which must divide and then start making neurons," said Silver, who is also a member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences.

"If you have problems at this early stage, you don't get enough stem cells. And then the stem cells themselves can't go on to make neurons. That's where you get microcephaly," Silver added.

Importantly, disruptions in the genes Rbm8a and Eif43 have already been linked to human cases of intellectual disability, and Rbm8a has been associated with microcephaly and autism in people.

"That's another reason that identifying the downstream molecules of these genes is really important," Silver said, adding that her team has some of the only mouse models in which it is possible explore those questions.

Next the group is interested in exploring whether microcephaly caused by Zika shares mechanisms with genetic cases of the disorder. They are now conducting preliminary studies in a developing Zika mouse model. "We're well set up in the lab to ask how the Zika virus can shape brain development relevant to microcephaly," Silver said.

###

Other authors on the study are Yi-Hsuan Tsai and Zefeng Wang of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R01NS083897), the Ruth K. Broad Foundation, a Holland-Trice Scholars Award, a Whitehead Scholar Award and the Duke Translational Research Institute.

CITATION: "Haploinsufficiency for Core Exon Junction Complex Components Disrupts Embryonic Neurogenesis and Causes p53-Mediated Microcephaly," Hanqian Mao, John J. McMahon, Yi-Hsuan Tsai, Zefeng Wang and Debra L. Silver. PLOS Genetics, September 12, 2016. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1006282
The Tennessee Department of Tourist Development partners with Tennessee Craft once again for the 2016 Tennessee Craft Week Oct. 7-16, at all 14 Tennessee Welcome Centers throughout the state.

Craft demonstrations in fiber, painting, metal and wood take place with talented craft artists who share their creative process and skills with Welcome Center visitors. More than 13 million people visit the Tennessee Welcome Centers annually.

Tennessee Craft Week is a collection of craft events and happenings designed to connect and celebrate craft artists, the work they create and the businesses that support them.

The event shines a spotlight on the collective impact craft has on the states culture, community and economy. Tennessee Craft Week aligns with American Craft Week, which promotes the recognition of craft annually in October across the United States.

This partnership with Tennessee Craft benefits guests and artisans alike, said Commissioner Kevin Triplett, Tennessee Department of Tourist Development. Our Made In Tennessee brand focuses on the authenticity of Americana that traces its roots to the Volunteer state. What better way to showcase to our guests these original, authentic Tennessee crafts than with the makers themselves? We are proud not only of the products but the skilled workers who produce these genuine articles, many times in the exact same fashion and on the same equipment as 120 or 150 years ago.

In 2015, Tennessee Craft gained national attention, earning the American Craft Week 2015 Star Award. Hundreds of artists showcased handmade crafts in this one-week event. The successful debut of Tennessee Craft Week included craft demonstrations in the 14 Tennessee Welcome Centers, the Nashville International Airport, regional Signature Events, and more than 40 community events.

Tennessee Craft Week provides authentic cultural experiences for residents and visitors each October, creating a stimulating environment for buyers of craft to connect on a deeper level with artists. It connects Tennessee artists to each other and their communities while expanding the reputation of artistry in the state. The economic and creative impact artists create in both urban and rural areas is also celebrated.

Partners of Tennessee Craft Week include Tennessee Craft Chapters, Tennessee Department of Tourist Development, Arts at the Airport, Nashville International Airport, Nashville Convention and Visitors Corporation, and Memphis Convention & Visitors Center.

For more information, visit www.tennesseecraft.org.

Celebrating 50 years, Tennessee Craft, formerly The Tennessee Association of Craft Artists, works to continue and create Tennessees fine craft tradition. With more than 500 members throughout the state, Tennessee Craft serves as the premier connecting point for local, independent makers and their audiences through Craft Fairs, exhibitions, professional development, networking, mentorship and other educational programs. Visit www.tennesseecraft.org or email info@tennesseecraft.org to learn more.
For decades, failures by the WHO to respond to global health crises have drawn criticism and calls for reform by policy experts, governments and independent financial donors from across the world that contribute three-quarters of its $4 billion annual budget.

Serious recent failures that have drawn fire include shortcomings in its response to the Ebola pandemic, health crises in Sri Lanka in 2009, Haiti in 2010, South Sudan in 2013 and its current response to drug-resistant Tuberculosis in Papua New Guinea.

"An outsourcing approach would allow WHO to maintain global leadership and oversight but would utilise external expertise more appropriately," say authors Associate Professor Joel Negin at the University of Sydney and Dr Ranu Dhillon from Harvard University.

"This would allow the WHO to be leaner and more focused, and would increase the contribution of other actors. We believe such reform is essential to the future of the WHO and of global health action."

Most current proposals to reform the WHO focus on ways it could be made more effective and attract more funding. But Negin and Dhillon say more financial muscle and incremental reforms will no longer meet the challenges of preventing, predicting and responding to today's globalising health crises.

"When the WHO was established, there were few global health actors," says Professor Negin, who heads the university's School of Public Health.

"Its unique positon meant it could bring the world's best minds and skills to bear on global health issues. Today, global health issues occur in a complex, multi-actor arena where rival multilateral organisations have taken control over much of the global health action and agenda.

"Given the emergence of new global stakeholders and the realisation that the WHO is struggling to meet its mandate, we need solutions that focuses not only on what the WHO should do to strengthen itself but one that leverages the expertise that exists in the sector."

Negin's co-author, Ranu Dhillon says the WHO should "outsource a number of its functions to other global agencies that are already leading the way. This would allow it to focus on a small number of core activities where it has comparative advantage and to coordinate or orchestrate the broader array of global health actors to take on other activities."

Negin and Dhillon say current WHO-functions that should be outsourced include technical matters such as research and surveillance, and on-the-ground responses to health issues and crises.

"The WHO never was and never intended to be an implementer of global health activities," says Negin.

"In fact, its Constitution emphasises that its principal functions are co-ordination, collaboration with specialised agencies, providing assistance, and promoting co-operation - all of which resonate with the idea of WHO providing leadership but outsourcing key activities.

"Re-positioning it as a regulator, orchestrator and clearing house of expertise would dovetail with its global reach and mandate but acknowledges its limitations."

Indeed, the WHO itself states on its website that subcontracting is a good model in complex environments: "In addition, as new independent or autonomous actors come on stage, it becomes less easy to rely on hierarchical authority. This compels health actors to reconsider their relations. It is increasingly common for such relations to be based on contractual arrangements, which formalize agreements between actors, who accept mutually-binding commitments."

Though evidence is limited, the authors say outsourcing has been shown to be a successful model in health systems that are in transition, especially in post-conflict or fragile states.

###
At its August meeting, the Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission (TFWC) voted unanimously to approve a proposal that will impact Tennesseans who plan to hunt deer out of state for the 2016-17 seasons.

The approved proposal, effective immediately, extends the restrictions on importation of deer, moose, and elk carcasses to the entirety of any state not bordering Tennessee that has found a positive case of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). It also includes states bordering Tennessee if that state has a CWD-positive county within 150 miles of Tennessees border. Beginning May 1, 2017, the restrictions will apply statewide to all CWD-positive states including those that border Tennessee.

The restrictions prohibit deer carcasses being brought into Tennessee from the CWD-positive areas where the restrictions are applied unless it is deboned meat, antlers, antlers attached to a clean skull, a clean skull (no meat or tissue), cleaned teeth, finished taxidermy products, or hides and tanned products.

Previously, 11 of the 24 CWD-positive states had carcass importation restrictions applied to only the CWD-positive counties, while the other 13 already had statewide restrictions. As of now, 23 of the 24 CWD-positive states have the restrictions applied statewide. Three of Tennessees bordering states, Arkansas, Virginia, and Missouri, have found CWD in their state, but only Arkansas and Missouri have CWD-positive counties within 150 miles of Tennessees border. Consequently, Virginia is the only CWD-positive state that has county-specific carcass importation restrictions for the current hunting season.

The carcass importation restrictions also apply to the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan in their entirety just as they did prior to the August Commission meeting.

The intent of the action taken by TFWC is to minimize the risk of CWD being introduced to Tennessees deer herd while also affording taxidermists and processors in Tennessee some time to make necessary preparations to minimize impacts to their business.

Chronic Wasting Disease is a contagious, incurable, and always fatal neurological disease affecting deer, elk and moose. It causes a characteristic spongy degeneration of the brains of infected animals resulting in emaciation, abnormal behavior, loss of bodily functions and eventually death. The misfolded proteins, or prions, that are responsible for the disease accumulate in brain tissue, eyes, tonsil, spleen, lymph nodes, intestinal tracts, and spinal cord of infected animals. Live deer can also shed the prion through saliva, urine, and feces. Once introduced into the environment, the infectious prions can persist for up to 18 years so prevention truly is the only medicine.

To date, 80 free-ranging elk and 9,394 free-ranging deer have been tested for the disease in the state with all the results coming back negative.
For the first time, abnormal brain development following a Zika infection during pregnancy has been documented experimentally in the offspring of a non-human primate.

The researchers' observations of how Zika virus arrested fetal brain formation in a pigtail macaque could provide a model for testing therapeutic interventions.

The findings are reported Sept. 12 in the advanced online publication of Nature Medicine.

"Our results remove any lingering doubt that the Zika virus is incredibly dangerous to the developing fetus and provides details as to how the brain injury develops," noted Dr. Kristina Adams Waldorf, the lead author of the study. She is a UW Medicine physician and researcher, and a University of Washington professor of obstetrics and gynecology who specializes in maternal and fetal infections.

"This study brings us closer to determining if a Zika vaccine or therapy will prevent fetal brain injury, but also be safe to take in pregnancy," she added.

"This is the only direct evidence that shows that the Zika virus can cross the placenta late in pregnancy and affect the fetal brain by shutting down certain aspects of brain development," said one of the study's senior authors, Dr. Michael Gale, Jr., UW professor of immunology. An expert on how the body responds to viruses, he directs the UW Medicine Center for Innate Immunity and Immune Disease.

Gale explained that the study results met Koch's Postulate, which establishes the criteria for determining if a microorganism is a causative agent for a disease or disorder.

Adams Waldorf, Gale and Dr. Lakshmi Rajagopal, UW associate professor of pediatrics, led the project. Rajagopal studies pregnancy and newborn infectious diseases at Seattle Children's Research Institute and UW Medicine.

"We were shocked when we saw the first MRI [magnetic resonance image] of the fetal brain 10 days after viral inoculation. We had not predicted that such a large area of the fetal brain would be damaged so quickly," Rajagopal noted. "Our results suggest that a therapy to prevent fetal brain injury must either be a vaccine or a prophylactic medicine taken at the time of the mosquito bite to neutralize the virus."

She added, "By the time a pregnant woman develops symptoms, the fetal brain may already be affected and damaged."

"Our entire team is deeply committed to developing an animal model in which we can rapidly test a vaccine or therapy to determine if we can prevent fetal brain injury caused by the Zika virus," said Adams Waldorf.

Primates, including people, are an order of mammals that share many features of brain development. Non-human and human primates' gestations also have key similarities. These include the structure of the placenta, the timing of nerve and brain development, and the resulting proportions of gray and white matter in the brain.

Previously, no experimental animal model closely emulated the effects of Zika virus infection during human pregnancy. While the virus can cause fetal demise in mice, mouse models have not enabled medical researchers to delve into the causal relationships between Zika virus infection and fetal brain injury.

The Zika virus is transmitted by certain types of mosquitoes, including the Aedes egypti mosquito.

It is a flavivirus, part of a group of insect-carried viruses that cause illness throughout the world. Other mosquito-borne flaviviruses are West Nile virus, Dengue virus, Yellow Fever virus, and the Japanese encephalitis virus. In some cases, those infections can become complicated by severe nervous system inflammation.

In contrast, the symptoms of a Zika virus infection are often milder. Some people have no symptoms and others develop fever, muscle aches, rash, and sore, swollen eyes. However, contracting the Zika virus during pregnancy is a serious concern, because the fetal brain may be destroyed or quit developing.

The Zika prenatal study took place during the equivalent of the third trimester of a human gestation. The amount of virus inoculated in this study approximated what a person might contract from the probing and biting of an infected, feeding mosquito. The pregnant animal did not show any significant symptoms of infection, such as fever or rash.

The white matter of the fetal brain, which is important for coordinating communication between different parts of the brain, stopped growing about three weeks after viral inoculation. If the study continued one additional month with the same trajectory of brain growth, microcephaly, a condition where the brain is abnormally small, would have occurred.

The study brought together scientists and physicians from the fields of obstetrics, virology, molecular microbiology, immunology, pediatrics, pathology, radiology, neurology, medicine, bioengineering bioinformatics, neurological surgery, primatology and other fields.

The researchers on the Nature Medicine study listed some brain development problems that could affect some infants whose mothers had a Zika virus infection during pregnancy.

These might include a loss of brain cells and brain cell connections, enlargement of the fluid-containing brain cavities, a smaller-than-normal hindbrain (a part of the brain that controls movement and other functions), and vision problems from disruptions in the optic nerve. In addition, they found that the Zika viral genome was also present in other fetal tissues including, eye, liver, and kidney.

This research revealed conclusively that the Zika virus had crossed from the mother through the placenta and into the fetal brain. In fact, Gale pointed out, the virus level in the fetus's brain was higher than that in the mother.

A big question, Gale said, was how long the virus stays in the system during pregnancy and fetal development. He explained that the presence of the Zika virus in some way perturbs the normal balance of brain development by pushing the brain to build up too much supportive structure and not enough nerve cell structure. This alters the brain shape, size and function. The Zika virus used in the study was a 2010 Cambodian strain that is nearly genetically identical to the strain now found in Brazil.

UW Medicine was ready and able to launch the study about six months ago because of the resources and expertise it had in place: a well-established team to study infections and fetal injury in pregnancy, the Center for Innate Immunity and Immune Diseases, the Washington National Primate Research Center, the Seattle Children's Research Institute Center for Integrative Brain Research and the Center for Global Infectious Disease Research, and other units.

Gale also credited the assistance of the Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Programs at Washington University in St. Louis.

###

The work was supported with funds from the UW Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Washington National Primate Research Center (P51OD010425), and National Institute of Health grants R01AI100989, AI104002, AI083019, AI104002, R01EB017133, R01NS055064, and R01NS061057.
Internacional

Al menos 151 muertos por la estampida humana en una fiesta de Halloween en Seul, 19 son extranjeros
Pick a visa





There are basically NINE ways that you can get a visa to live and work in the US:



(1) Marriage (or engagement in anticipation of marriage) to a US citizen.



(2) You have skills that are in short supply in the US e.g. scientific or medical training. A degree is normally a must. Or you have superior specialist skills with at least 12 years experience. (H visas)applications next received on 1st April in this current year



(3) You have an Employer who is willing to transfer you - but even the employer has to make a good case for you - so you have to be a manager unless you fall under category (2) above.(L visas)



(4) You may get a Green card in the diversity lottery (UK citizens, except N.Ireland, are not generally eligible unless you, your spouse or parents were born abroad or held a different citizenship.



(5)You own or buy business (does not get you permanent resident status i.e. no green card)You must be a national of a qualifying Treaty countries. The business must have a minimum value of around $150k (more the better) bearing in mind you will need somewhere to live and with any startup business you will need at least 2 years living money as back up. So a figure of $350k would be a nearer minimum (E-2 visas)



(6)You are an "investor" i.e. you have at least US $1m in assets to bring with you. half of that in a few areas. And your background will be investigated to the hilt. (EB-5 visas)



(7)You have a close relative (mother, father, brother, sister and no further) who is an US citizen who would sponsor you, approx time this take 2-25 years?



(8.The R1 visa is available to foreign members of religious denominations, having bona fide non-profit religious organizations in the U.S., for entering the U.S. to carry on the activities of a minister or religious worker as a profession, occupation or vocation



(9)THE UNUSUAL You are in a position to claim refugee status/political asylum. or You get a member of Congress to sponsor a private bill with legislation that applies just to you.

The S visa issued to persons who assist US law enforcement to investigate and prosecute crimes and terrorist activities such as money laundering and organized crime





Recruitment agent will not take you seriously if you are not already in the US. Writing for jobs is really a waste of time; likewise US employers have no idea what foreign qualification are or mean (except Degrees) it may pay you to get your qualification translated into a US equivalent, there are Companies that do this (World Education Services - International Credential Evaluation Expertise) ..

But if you are getting a visa under (2) above then you need a job offer before you can get the visa. Your Employer will be your sponsor this will cost them upward of $5k. So you can see you have to be offering something really special to get considered They may also have to prove to the Dept of labor that there is no American who can do the job if the position is to be permanent 

DO NOT USE VISA CONSULTANTS



The regulations define a "specialty occupation" as requiring theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge in a field of human endeavor including but not limited to biotechnology, chemistry, architecture, engineering, mathematics, physical sciences, social sciences, medicine and health, education, law, accounting, business specialties, theology, and the arts, and requiring the attainment of a bachelors degree or its equivalent as a minimum
Tiz said: Sign a pre-nup.



Then you know exactly how the split will be handled. Click to expand...

Do Prenuptial's actually work? I thought about this long and hard, lots of research led me to believe they are not worth the paper they are written on though some one more astute could advise otherwise I'm sure.When I divorced some 11 years ago after 22 years of marriage the settlement was 60/40 in my ex wives favour, a million odd bucks and 20 grand a year child support, all good, we parted amicably and are still great friends and have 2 beautiful children, adults these days.I did not begrudge the settlement as we built our wealth together over that 22 years.But, and here is the but. My new Filipino partner of nearly 5 years had nothing when we met, I like most westerners, I had plenty. As said I talked about and looked at prenups, discussed this and the reasons why with my better half and it was not a problem for us to have counselling and seperate lawyers. We never did it, I hear you say fool or whatever but for me it was a no brainer, love and trust my partner and it is reciprocal, we are both adults and if ever we do part ways then I have had happiness and contentment with a decent human being.Simply put I accept and can live with the consequences of employing trust in our relationship. I didn't and don't want to sabotage a great time in our lives.In a few years when I retire (superannuation, no pension as too many assets, I think that's a 401 in the states) my better half will still be working as he does now in Australia. when we move there he will find a job and contribute to our home.Talk to me in 10 years and see if it's still working.Cheers, Steve.
The Scenic City Womens Network September Marketplace Luncheon will be held on Thursday, Sept. 22. Networking will be from 11:30-noon, and lunch from noon-1 p.m. at Mountain City Club, 729 Chestnut St."SCWN invites you to join us for our September luncheon. It will be featuring Dr. Marva Lee, speaking on the topic Yes to Your Will Lord.Dr. Lee is the president and founder of Marvelous Works Ministries. She is a licensed and ordained minister of the gospel.The ministry's primary focus is to "preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted and to set the captives free." As part of that outreach, she formerly hosted Power of Deliverance Ministries on WNOO Radio Broadcast for three years.She holds a doctor of ministry in ethnic studies from Covington Theological Seminary and a masters in public administration from the University of Tennessee. She is a past graduate of the 2001 Class of Leadership Chattanooga sponsored by the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce. She is member of the Servant Leadership Christian Fellowship, serves on the board of the Relative Caregiver Program, and also serves on the Steering Committee for the Southeastern Region of the Tennessee Conference on Social Welfare and formerly a nominating committee chair for the State TCSW. Dr. Lee is a former adjunct instructor at Miller-Motte Technical College.RSVP deadline is Tuesday, Sept. 20 at noon. Cost is $20 and $15 for non-profit organizations. You may RSVP at admin@scwn.org , or by calling 423-698-6262.
Hi guys



So I'm going to try and do an application for my wife's (foreign with Temporary Residency) business endorsement without going through a company.



We registered a business with her as director as she is looking to start her own, sole proprietor, business. In addition to submitting the business' papers and all the normal application papers (as per a normal visa application) does anyone know of any other requirements?



Also do you think we will have to submit radiological reports and police clearance again as her TR is still valid?



I'd appreciate any help form anyone who's been through this and/or has the info. We'd like to get her business up and running as soon as possible.



Thanks
Thirty-One Gifts announces applications are being accepted now for the Cindy Monroe Values and Vision Scholarship for college-bound high-school girls of Hamilton County.



The annual scholarship was established in 2013 by the companys philanthropic fund, Thirty-One Gives, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the company that was founded by Cindy Monroe in Chattanooga. The scholarship honors a girl in Hamilton County who embodies Ms. Monroes core values of building relationships, leadership and community involvement.



The scholarship is a $12,400 award, available to one girl each year. It is allocated in $3,100 increments over the course of four years. An application is available here, under the Our Partnerships section.



Applications will be accepted through Nov. 5.



Applications will be reviewed by a selection committee made up of five individuals with ties to the Chattanooga community. A final selection will be made Dec. 5.



The scholarship will be awarded based on the following criteria:



The applicant must be a girl who is a high school junior or senior from any public or private school located in Hamilton County;



The applicant must maintain a GPA of 3.0 or better (based on a 4.0 scale) or its equivalent while in high school; and



The applicant must plan to attend an accredited two- or four-year U.S. college or university as a full-time student beginning in the summer or fall immediately following high school graduation.



Thirty-One Gifts founder, president and CEO Cindy Monroe is a native of Chattanooga and graduate of Hixson High School and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. In 2014, she was inducted into the Hixson High School Alumni Hall of Fame.





Thirty-One Gifts was headquartered in the Chattanooga area from 2003 to 2008, when the business was moved to Columbus, Oh. The scholarship is one way Ms. Monroe says she is giving back and thanking the community where her success began, and its a way to provide opportunities for girls in Hamilton County to reach their full potential.



The 2016 scholarship was awarded to Katherine Turner of Signal Mountain. She is a senior at Signal Mountain High School this year. She plans to study nursing with a minor in Spanish in college next year.




Welcome to the News Release Wire Selection Control Panel.

Instant News Wire
Sunday, September 11, 2016

Once the New York Times embraced the rationalization Ethics is a luxury we cant afford and announced that journalists had a duty to bias their reporting to block Donald Trumps election, this result was foretold. It was really foretold in 2008, when the news media first abandoned even the pretense of fairness and objectivity to ensure the election of our first black President.

Matt Lauer, of all people, became the object of furious invective after he hosted a live prime-time forum with Trump and Hillary. He was accused of unfairness, gullibility and even sexism in his handling of the event. His main offenses: not fact-checking Trump, as when he said, not for the first time, that he opposed the Iraq invasion from the beginning (he didnt), and grilling Hillary about her e-mail machinations.

The only way the transcript supports the latter contention is if one is Bernie Sanders and believes Hillarys stupid e-mail is irrelevant. Lauer didnt spend an inappropriate time on this issue, given what a perfect example it is of Clintons Arrogance, deviousness, lack of transparency, and, apparently, incompetence and recklessness. Id say he was easy on Hillary: he didnt mention her sleazy conflicts with Clinton Foundation donors at all, and she is much less adept at spinning that slam-dunk conflict of interest and ethical violation than with her e-mail, which she has been lying about for more than a year. Pro-Clinton news media, which is to say, news media, howled about Lauer not challenging Trumps thoroughly disproven claim about opposing the Iraq War, but Clinton already had done this, saying, Now, my opponent was for the war in Iraq. He says he wasnt. You can go back and look at the record. He supported it. He told Howard Stern he supported it. Maybe Lauer thought that was enough; it should have been: Trumps lie on this score has been well-publicized, including here, on Ethics Alarms.

Meanwhile, he did not challenge Clinton on her obviously false claim that emails cannot be considered classified if they do not contain formal classification markings, and worst of all, he did not challenge her unconstitutional call to ban citizens who are placed on a no-fly list from exercising their Second Amendment rights. This is especially important, because this fact isnt understood by most Americans, and a Presidential candidate advocating defiance of the Constitution is, or should be, a big deal. Never mind, though: Lauer wasnt supposed to be tough on Hillary. He was only supposed to be hard on Trump, and because he wasnt hard enough, a.k.a., harder, a.k.a. biased like the rest of the mainstream coverage, then it means that he was incompetent.

This is especially ironic for Lauer, who allowed First Lady Hillary Clinton, then with complete knowledge that the allegations about Monica Lewinsky and her husband were true (meaning that he had lied under oath in court, to the press and to the American people), to claim that the entire scandal was the fantasy of a vast right wing conspiracy, as Matt nodded like a bobble-head. Given what we know to be his political leanings as he has displayed them on hundreds of interviews,Lauers performance last week was remarkably fair. He challenged both candidates. Lauer called Trump on his dumb claim that he knew more about the Islamic State than the generals. He challenged Trump regarding his secret plan to defeat the Islamic State, and his assertion that we should have seized Iraqi oil.

Thats not good enough, though. The mainstream media strategy to save Hillary now is for the journalists to be united in criticizing Trump on everything he says, even the things he says that any idiot can tell he doesnt mean literally (no, Trump does not really think that Obama and Hillary were the founders of ISIS), while simultaneously ignoring Clintons dishonesty, corruption, incompetence, lack of trustworthiness, and the apparent cover-up regarding her state of health. This means demonizing any journalist who dares to try to maintain those old-fashioned ethical values like neutrality and fairness, and attacking them so mercilessly that other journalists understand that not shilling for Hillary Clinton is a potential career-ender.

UPDATE: Speaking of her health , I am reading right now that Clinton had to leave a 9-11 ceremony due to some kind of medical episode. At first, none of the mainstream media (except Fox) reported it: huh, I wonder why? Then a few reported the Clinton campaign spin: No problem, Hillary just got a little over-heated, thats all. No, of course she didnt faint (though on-the-scene tweeters said she looked like she was close to it.) Then the videos came out, and now everyone is reporting it. Look:

[embedded content]

Here is Chris Cillizzawho recently, furiously, demanded that everyone stop talking about Hillarys health:

Hillary Clinton falling ill Sunday morning at a memorial service on the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks will catapult questions about her health from the ranks of conservative conspiracy theory to perhaps the central debate in the presidential race over the coming days.Coughing, I wrote, is simply not evidence enough of any sort of major illness that Clinton is assumed to be hiding. Neither, of course, is feeling overheated. But those two things happening within six days of each other to a candidate who is 68 years old makes talk of Clintons health no longer just the stuff of conspiracy theorists.

What an ass. So although events now support those who saw enough clues to believe Clinton and her campaign were not being candid or transparent about her health, those concerns still constituted a conspiracy theory. Can you say I was dead wrong, Chris? Sure you can.

Right up to today, any reporter who suggested that Hillary wasnt as healthy as a horsedid you see her open that pickle jar on Jimmy Kimmels show?has been condemned as a biased hack.

Example: Daily Mail U.S. Political Editor David Martosko opined in a series of tweets that Hillary Clinton seemed tired and listless at her press conference about national security last week. Nick Merrill, Clintons traveling press secretary, and Adam Parkhomenko, who was a state coordinator for the Clinton campaign and is now National Field Director for the Democratic Party, attacked him for it.

Is it just me or does Hillary Clinton sound absolutely exhausted and quiet? Seems like an illustration of Trumps whole tired critique tweeted Martosko, who was watching the press conference on TV. She sounds bored / half-awake / disinterested  not the kind of performance that inspires fear in our enemies. Wheres the caffeine?I half expect her to slump over and collapse any second now. if she were doing a parody of low energy Jeb!, it couldnt be more spot-on.

Ginger Gibson, pro-Hillary Politico reporter, was shocked, tweeting back, This isnt a serious tweet, right? You are trying to mock people who talk about her tone, right? Merrill replied to Martosko, who has been tough on both Trump and Hillary, with a more aggressive delete your account.

Next, Parkhomenko threatened You shouldnt have a job in the morning.

The news media and Democrats are clearly determined to bully what few objective journalists there are left into either helping them make Hillary President, or keeping quiet.

And the truth has no effect on them whatsoever.
Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences announces parents of Hamilton County students interested in CSAS for Kindergarten 2017-2018 must attend a parent meeting this Thursday, or on Tuesday, Sept. 20 at 6 p.m. at the CSAS auditorium.
Midwest spinach production explained in detail

Learn how spinach performs in the Midwest and seasonal considerations in a new publication from ISU.
Dairy producers are being encouraged to assess their business needs before applying for 150 million EU volume reduction scheme.

The European Commission revealed details of the package in July, allocating 150 million as an incentive to dairy producers across the European Union to reduce production and 350 million in national envelopes to member states.

Applicants can apply for the volume reduction scheme from 11 September, with the application deadline for the first reduction period being 21 September.

To apply for volume reduction, producers must plan to reduce their cows milk deliveries by at least 1,457 litres in the relevant reduction period.

The maximum that can be applied for is a 50 per cent reduction of the cows milk produced in the reference period.

Producers will be paid 14.00/11.87 per 100 kg (14.42/12.23 per 100 litres) for the amount of cows milk eligible for payment.

The exchange rate is that set by the European Central Bank on 31 August 2016.

'Lose out on vital money'

Graeme Kilpatrick, NFU Scotlands Dairy Committee Chairman said the package is a "positive move" for dairy farmers across the country who have been "struggling for some time to survive."

"However, this funding in itself wont solve the industrys problems and we continue to liaise with various stakeholders to assess ways in which practices can be improved to the benefit of the industry," Mr Kilpatrick said.

"Dairy producers must assess, on an individual basis, whether the scheme is of value to their business.

"With the application window opening on Sunday 11 September for the volume reduction scheme and closing on 21 September, producers are urged to make sure their applications are filled out correctly, are submitted on time and have the relevant documents attached. Otherwise, they could lose out on vital money.

"As far as NFU Scotland understands, neither Scottish Government or the Rural Payments Agency are sending anything direct to farmers about this scheme.

"This is very disappointing given milk producers have been facing the longest period of low prices that can be remembered and which has been devastating to the industry.

"With a scheme designed to help they should be doing more and speaking to dairy farmers directly," Mr Kilpatrick concluded.
Farmers and crofters are being urged to take precautions to protect their property as the number of fires in rural areas reached its peak last year.

There were 343 fires on agricultural land in 2015/16.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) earlier this year launched the rural risk survey to encourage farmers to inform SFRS of what they have on their properties, and map out any dangers.

By having a rural risk form completed, fire crews can work to prevent extensive damage in the event of a fire, but also prevent injury to the farmer, crofter, their family, workers and the fire crews.

NFU Scotlands President Allan Bowie said the fire statistics is 'worrying'

Last year alone there were 343 fires on agricultural land, with Aberdeenshire (47), Highlands (44) and Dumfries and Galloway (25), topping the table for fires on farms between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2016.

The rural risk survey has now been rolled out to three areas of Scotland  South Lanarkshire, Dumfries and Galloway, and Highlands. It is hoped that resources will permit further expansion.

However, even if farmers and crofters are out with these areas, they are encouraged to contact their local fire station to inform them of what they hold on their farms and crofts in particular those who have silos.

Through the survey, farmers and crofters provide basic details, and are then contacted by SFRS who will come out to farm and map out a plan of the farm to pinpoint hazards including slurry, but also where livestock are kept, old buildings and the nearest water supply.

'Incidents are at their peak since 2010'

NFU Scotlands President Allan Bowie commented a fire on a farm or croft can be "devastating".

"It is worrying to see that incidents are at their peak since 2010," Mr Bowie said.

"With farms and crofts often in remote areas, and can on occasion be hard to find, this rural risk survey will assist in helping fire crews to reach the fire quicker and more easily and prevent wider damage.

"We encourage farmers and crofters to take the time to contact the fire service to inform them of what you hold on your property, and to map out where the dangers are.

"By doing this, it could save your farm or croft if a fire was to ever occur.

"Any precaution we can take to make our properties safer can only be a good thing.

"We are aware of how quickly a fire can spread, please take time to fill out the survey, and contact your local station."

'Safety message'

Scott Kennedy of Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, said the service has carried out 60 visits to local farms in South Lanarkshire and Dumfries and Galloway to complete the rural risk information.

"Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has now identified an opportunity to engage with the farming communities to effectively communicate a valuable safety message," Mr Kennedy said.

"Not only for the benefit of farming communities themselves, but also for the protection of fire crews from the associated dangers within farm premises.

"We have a duty to serve and protect everyone within our community and we want to ensure that farms and crofts are given similar attention."

"By gathering information from farmers and crofters of what they have on their property, we can provide more detailed fire safety advice.

"When responding to an incident, a more tactical response can also be delivered to bring incidents to positive outcomes with a significant reduction in the level of damage or loss sustained," Mr Kennedy concluded.
The NFU has produced two-page summary document explaining the farming sector's principal asks to government on future flood management.

The sector has responded to the National Flood Resilience Review, published today.

It is estimated that the costs of the 2007 and 2013/14 floods on agricultural businesses were 50m and 19m respectively.

"The final costs of the 2015 floods are still unknown," the document says.

"However, it is crucial that these costs reflect both the direct financial impacts on individual agricultural businesses as well as the wider economic impacts on local employment, infrastructure and utilities.

The NFU would prefer a "long-term, strategic plan" to flooding in rural areas

The document goes on to say that agriculture is often at the mercy of extreme and changeable weather.

"Whilst current funding prioritises concentrations of people and property, farmers experience a lack of maintenance of watercourses and coastal channels and reduced maintenance of banks and flood defence assets.

"The result is more frequent, more extensive and longer duration flooding.

"This is an unsustainable and inequitable outcome, which causes damage to farming businesses and rural communities."

The NFUs preferred approach is for government to establish a "long-term, strategic plan" for flood and coastal risk management.

"This plan must be designed to cope with extreme events, take a whole catchment approach to management decisions and intervention," the document says.

"Consideration should also be given to the impacts of infrastructure and development on agricultural land."

The government review, led by the cabinet office, was established to assess how the country can be better protected from future flooding and increasingly extreme weather events.

Improved rain and flood modelling, a significant increase in new temporary flood defences and greater protection to infrastructure were all outlined in the governments Review today.

The new NFU Flood Manifesto will be released in December 2016.
Farmers are seeking an early commitment from the Home Secretary in enabling rural businesses to keep employing workers from the EU and beyond after Brexit.

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) said uncertainty surrounding changes to employment rights for migrant workers from the EU may affect investment and job creation.

The organisation is calling for the Government to allay concerns by confirming the status of EU migrants already resident in the UK and committing to establishing sector specific schemes for seasonal and skilled workers.

CLA President Ross Murray said workers from the EU and beyond play a "crucial role" in the rural economy.

"In agriculture alone more than 30,000 permanent workers and an estimated 67,000 seasonal workers overseas help keep our shops and market stalls stocked with UK produce," Mr Murray said.

"Farms and other rural businesses need to know that after Brexit there will still be a flexible, skilled and secure workforce so they can plan for the future, invest in their businesses and secure or create jobs.

"We are asking the Home Secretary to commit to establishing sector based schemes that will ensure opportunities for seasonal and skilled workers from both the UK and overseas if free movement of labour is removed.

"This includes the introduction of a seasonal agricultural workers scheme post-Brexit enabling people to enter the UK for a specific job, for a set period of time without the right to remain afterwards.

"Similar schemes have worked well in the past in agriculture and will help farmers to keep producing the food we eat, to run viable businesses, and to continue creating job opportunities year in and year out.

"Similar schemes will be needed in other rural sectors such as tourism," Mr Murray concluded.

'Invest and grow'

The UKs previous seasonal agricultural workers scheme (SAWS) began in 1945 and evolved until it was closed in 2013, following the removal of restrictions on freedom of movement on workers from Romania and Bulgaria.

Ross Murray added: "There are also many important and skilled permanent overseas workers across the rural economy who should be able to remain employed in the UK.

"Government policy should ensure the UK continues to attract skilled and experienced people from across the world to farming and to the research and development sector, and encourages the brightest minds to come and learn at our world-class rural colleges and universities."

The CLA, along with Scottish Land & Estates, has published a new briefing paper asking the government to make the following early commitments on labour arrangements:

 Confirm the status of EU migrant workers already resident in the UK

 Establish appropriate sector specific schemes that ensure availability of seasonal and skilled labour

 Ensure the UKs position as a destination for the best to participate in research and development is maintained

 Develop an immigration policy that ensures that the supply of workers across the rural economy is sufficient to ensure businesses can invest and grow.
Winter barley still has a place for black-grass control but good establishment is essential to keep the crop competitive and the black-grass out.

Harvest 2016 was disappointing for winter barley with ADAS reporting yields 9-12% below average and relatively poor quality to boot, says agronomy company Agrii.

But 2017 will be a different harvest, so it is still worth investing in the crop to achieve good weed control and good yields.

Barley can help spread workload and is more competitive than wheat, as Colin Lloyd of Agrii explains.

"On black-grass land thats not horrendous, if you want to start drilling early opt for barley.

"With wheat, you cant go in and drill at the end of September on bad black-grass land, you have to drill later."

"But there is the option to use winter barley for the earlier drilling slot, particularly if it is a conventional or hybrid 6-row," says Mr Lloyd.

"In trials drilled on 1st October, there was a five-tonne difference between hybrid barley and wheat because the barley could compete with the black-grass and the wheat couldnt.

"But on the same land drilled three weeks later the wheat yield was much better because of less black-grass but the barley dropped because it couldnt cope with the late drilling date."

Barley is more competitive than wheat but growers need to make sure it gets the chance to show off its advantages, asserts Darren Adkins of Bayer.

In black-grass situations post-emergence weed control is limited to the ACCase group (Fops, Dims and Dens) which suffers from very widespread resistance.

Because of this everything needs to come from a competitive crop paired up with a strong residual programme.

Give barley 'the crucial time'

Do everything you can to make a good, fine seedbed so the barley establishes well so the crop can move faster in the autumn and early spring and out-compete black-grass  a high seed rate will help here as well," says Mr Adkins.

There are several options for varieties but whichever barley you grow it needs to get up and away well.

Apart from a competitive crop, controlling problem grass weeds pretty much depends on the pre-em as there arent any reliable post-emergence contact herbicides for black-grass.

A full rate application of Liberator (flufenacet + diflufenican) is the backbone of the programme with the option to add pendimethalin or more diflufenican boosting performance.

With winter barley its really important to apply at the true pre-em timing for better control and crop safety, continues Mr Adkins.

Give barley the crucial time to get far enough ahead of any weeds that it remains clean and has the best chance of yielding well next summer.
McDonalds has unveiled the results of the second phase of its project examining the impact and causes of smothering in free range laying hens.

The project was funded by McDonalds UK as part of its 'Farm Forward' programme and undertaken by FAI Farms, together with its suppliers Noble Foods Ltd and The Lakes Free Range Egg Company who form part of the Sustainable Egg Supply Group.

The first phase of the project published in 2014, revealed that more than half of commercial free range laying hen flocks are affected by smothering and that it is an unpredictable and difficult issue for farm managers to address.

Smothering can occur in the nest box, panic from stressful events outside of the next boxes or other reasons not easily identifiable.

Tom Willings, Noble Foods Ltd, added: "This project is a fantastic example of cross-functional constructive work between customers and suppliers."

It occurs when birds mass together, often on top of each other, which can result in death from suffocation.

This second phase explored the relationships between frequency of smothering and bird health, as well as housing design and management practices.

The researchers found no relationship between health and incidences of smothering.

However, a relationship was established between the frequency of smothering and particular management techniques and system designs.

'Serious problem'

Speaking of the project, Annie Rayner, Research Scientist at FAI, said the research has raised the industrys understanding of the welfare and economic implications of smothering.

"We are beginning to learn what actions are needed to address the underlying causes of this serious problem," Miss Rayner said.

Smothering in the nest boxes was found to be affected by both the breed of bird and the type of nest box design.

Nest box design was also found to affect smothering occurring outside of the nestboxes, perhaps reflecting different layouts of housing.

Further research is required to understand the specific details of these affects.

McDonalds' research believes that the impact of this issue should be taken into consideration by nest box manufacturers when designing housing systems and by genetics companies in their future breed development.

Feeding grit or grain on the litter was found specifically to reduce smothering that occur away from the nestbox.

Additional findings also suggest that the provision of tree canopy cover on ranges may also be important to ensure optimal bird welfare in terms of reduced smothering.

Connor McVeigh, Supply Chain Director, McDonalds UK added: We have now invested in two studies on hen smothering which remains a welfare issue we still know little about.

"While there are some on farm measures farmers can take to reduce the chance of smothering occurring, its clear that the industry needs a joined up approach to tackle this problem.
Time is running out to enter this years NFU Cymru / NFU Mutual Dairy Stockperson Award, which recognises dedicated, committed and enthusiastic dairy stock managers.

The Welsh Dairy Stockperson of the Year Award, now in its fifth year, is seeking applications from those involved in the management of dairy cattle who are working within the dairy industry in Wales.

The winner will receive 300 and Welsh slate engraved cheese board.

Aled Jones, Chairman of NFU Cymrus Milk Board said: The Welsh Dairy Stockperson of the Year Award aims to recognise the pivotal role a good dairy stockperson can make to a dairy enterprise and to the Welsh dairy industry as a whole."

"As part of the award criteria, potential award winners will be judged on their care and management of the herd, the breeding programme, their handling skills, their involvement in the dairy enterprise and their knowledge of the dairy industry in Wales.

As a dairy farmer myself, I think its important that we champion those individuals who are leading the way in the Welsh dairy industry.

"If you know someone whose work deserves to be recognised with this award please get in touch with us and nominate them.

Quality of stockmanship

The closing date for entries is Monday, 26 September 2016 and the winner will be announced at this years Welsh Dairy Show at the United Counties Showground, Carmarthen, on Tuesday, 25 October 2016.

Dai Davies OBE, Chairman of NFU Mutuals Advisory Board for Wales said: The quality of the stockmanship is a major factor in determining the success of any dairy enterprise.

We have some superb stockpeople involved in the dairy industry in Wales and I am confident that this will be a keenly contested competition and one which NFU Mutual is pleased to support as the leading rural insurer in Wales.

Mair James, Welsh Dairy Show Secretary said: We are delighted to be able to recognise and honour a champion with this Award. We are pleased to be associated with NFU Cymru and NFU Mutual in this Award.
An 18-Year-Old Woman Was Fatally Shot At Vigil For Another Shooting Victim

By Stephen Gossett in News on Sep 12, 2016 3:05PM

An 18-year-old woman was fatally shot and two teenaged boys were hit by gunfire on Sunday night in Brainerd on the South Side, according to police. The shooting reportedly occurred at a vigil that was being held for a man who was shot and killed at the same location on Saturday night.

Two people exited a grey minivan near West 89th Street and South Justine Street at around 8:15 p.m. and opened fire on a group of people that had gathered outside, police told Chicagoist. The shooters then got back into the van and fled westbound on West 90th Street. An 18-year-old woman suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head; she was taken to Little Company of Mary Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to police. A 17-year-old boy was shot in the right arm and taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition. And a 16-year-old boy was struck in the buttocks; he was also taken to Advocate Christ and is in stable condition, police said.

The Tribune reports that the victims had gathered for a vigil for 23-year-old Nahmar T. Holmes, who was fatally shot in the same block the prior evening.

This isn't the first time this summer that someone was shot in Chicago while attending a vigil for an earlier shooting. Last month, a seven-year-old girl was struck while attending a vigil for a 14-year-old boy who had been fatally shot earlier that day.
The pig industry has called on the Government to ensure the sector gets a fair deal as negotiations on a post-Brexit Britain are stepped up.

The National Pig Association chairman Richard Lister took part in an industry discussion on Brexit with Defra Ministers, including Secretary of State Andrea Leadsom, in London on Thursday.

The Defra Secretary is hosting a series of roundtable meetings to introduce Defras work on EU exit, with the NPA among those invited to participate.

One of the key discussion points was trade.

Mr Lister stressed that, while export access was important, the biggest concern for the pig sector was the domestic market.

He said: "We are well used to being an unsubsidised sector operating in the free market of the EU.

"But we have been protected from cheaper, lower standard third country imports by EU tariffs.

"We would be very worried about the impact on producers and consumers of tariff-free trade with the big pigmeat exporters like Brazil and the US.

"I made this point strongly and stressed our points of difference, notably on Red Tractor and welfare - these must be used as barrier to imported pigmeat," Mr Lister said.

Exotic disease from outside EU

Richard also raised the NPAs concerns over the ability of the UK to protect itself from exotic disease outside the EU.

"We need to ensure we have strict import protocols and that the Government takes its responsibility on protecting our borders seriously," he said.

Discussions also covered the question of what replaces the CAP, including possible use of funding under future domestic farm support policies for investment in buildings and equipment.

"That would be a win for everybody," Richard said, "the pig industry needs to invest to improve animal health and welfare and address issues like antibiotic resistance (AMR), all of which would represent good use of public funding."

Constructive meeting

"Overall it was a very constructive meeting. We appreciated the opportunity to hear more of the Governments views on Brexit and to express our own," Mr Lister said.

Brexit concerns were raised at the start of this week during a pig industry summit in London organised by NPA.

Producers and representatives from retailers, processors and Government agreed the industry needed to speak with one voice on the big issues of concern, led by trade.

On Wednesday, the NPAs Lizzie Wilson attended the second in a series of meetings by the UK Livestock Industry Brexit Stakeholder Group.

Miss Wilson said: "These are proving to be invaluable meetings when it comes to sharing information and trying to forge common positions.

"Trade was one of the big talking points. There is a feeling the cheap food agenda is a threat  politicians need a lot of convincing on the question of self-sufficiency."
Farming leaders have raised concerns about the threat of low standard, cheap imports of egg products in any potential post-Brexit trade deals.

The fears were raised during a meeting called by the National Farmers Union (NFU) to discuss the possible impact of Brexit on the poultry sector.

People from both the egg industry and the poultry meat industry voiced concerns that their industry could be sacrificed by politicians in future trade negotiations.

Mark Williams, chief executive of the British Egg Industry Council (BEIC), said the UK would be unable to compete with cheaper, lower standard egg products from other parts of the world if they were give free access to the British market.

NFU director general Terry Jones said it was important that the industry continued to have access to foreign labour.

EU migrants account for 40 per cent of total farm labour in the egg sector and 60 per cent of total labour in packing centres.

Poultry producers are reliant on non-UK staff throughout their businesses, whether it is in the office, hands on work, or to helping getting turkeys ready for Christmas.

They also say they are concerned of the knock-on effects with processing plants  which also use many non-UK workers.

FarmingUK was at the NFU meeting at Stoneleigh.
The UK farming industry is uniting to support Red Tractor Week today as an autumn campaign dedicated to promoting Great British food gets underway.

Now in its fifth year, Red Tractor Week (12 to 18 September) includes a huge programme of activity designed to promote the provenance of Red Tractor food to shoppers and remind them of the stringent standards that are used to produce them.

Farmers will be taking part in events at major supermarkets up and down the country to talk to the public about how British food is produced, backed up by a huge on-pack sticker promotion.

This year the event kick starts the Celebrate Great British Food campaign which runs throughout the autumn.

Announced in April  and backed by UK Government  the programme of activity sees a whole range of farming organisations coming together with a clear message to consumers to look for the Red Tractor logo when they buy their food.

Events include the NFUs Back British Farming Day on Wednesday 14 September, and British Food Fortnight, which starts on 17 September.

British food - world renowned

The campaign sees the farming industry uniting in a concerted effort to educate consumers

Defra Secretary of State, Andrea Leadsom MP, said: "Whether its beef from the hills and pastures of the West Country or Yorkshires famed Wensleydale cheese, British food is renowned around the globe for its quality, innovation and tradition.

"The Red Tractor logo is an iconic symbol of this  assuring shoppers that their food is traceable, safe to eat and produced responsibly.

"It is wonderful to see our world-leading food and farming industry joining forces to encourage everyone to shop smart and support British farmers."

The campaign sees the farming industry uniting in a concerted effort to educate consumers and raise the profile of British food.

Minette Batters, Deputy President of the NFU added: "With the help of our members well be flying the flag for the British farmers and growers.

"They produce the raw ingredients that are the bedrock of the food and drink industry  the UKs largest manufacturing sector  worth 108 billion and employing 1 in 8 people across the country, in cities and villages alike.

"Well be inviting MPs to show their support by signing our post-EU referendum pledge and wearing a special edition Back British Farming pin when they take part in that days Prime Ministers Questions (PMQs)."

Mobilisation of farming organisations

The NFU and Ladies in Pigs have mobilised their members to ensure a strong presence at in-store retailer events up and down the country during Red Tractor Week.

While the AHDB will feature the on-pack sticker promotion in television advertising during its four-week beef and lamb mini-roast campaign, starting in mid-October.

Further support is being provided by the National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs, National Pig Association, Ladies in Beef and the National Sheep Association.

Andrew Blenkiron, Suffolk farmer and vice-chairman of Assured Food Standards, said: "Everyone has played their part to make sure that the farming industry is united behind a single, simple message to consumer which is to support Red Tractor food.

"This autumns coordinated campaign of consumer activity gives the farming and food industry a huge opportunity to communicate the values of British food.

"People will be able to get an even better understanding of the great standards that British farming adheres to, further increasing consumer loyalty and purchasing of Red Tractor labelled products."

Farmers are encouraged to get involved in events running throughout the week at major supermarket stores across the UK, where farmers will be talking to shoppers about Red Tractor and what it means.
A new report has been released that suggests 'rewilding' the UK's natural landscape is the best option for coping with flooding.

Rewilding Britain, the organisation behind the report, says a growing body of evidence suggests that managing flood risk naturally, by restoring natural processes, can be cheaper and more sustainable.

Flooding costs the UK economy more than 1 billion annually, a figure which can rise to nearer 5 billion in a bad year.

Traditional approaches to flood defence have focused on managing flood risk using hard defences such as flood walls and river revetments.

The organisation said that while traditional methods mitigate some of the worst consequences of flooding, these solutions do "little to challenge underlying causes and when they fail, the consequences can be devastating."

The report comes as MPs on the Environmental Audit Committee gather to find better ways to manage the UKs environment post-EU referendum, with many calling for an approach which places nature centre stage.

'Vibrant' natural landscapes

Rewilding Britain says rewilding can be cost effective, and has 'additional benefit'.

Some farming organisations are against the idea, calling it 'idealtistic'

"It can create vibrant natural landscapes which stimulate tourism and ecological awareness, while also soaking up greater quantities of CO2, helping bring the economy towards carbon neutrality," Helen Meech, director at Rewilding Britain said.

"With one in six properties in the UK currently at risk of flooding, a situation likely to be exacerbated by climate change over coming decades, it is time to rethink our approach to managing flood risk.

"Flooding is a natural part of a rivers annual cycle but problems occur when land is overgrazed, rivers are straightened and trees and wildlife removed.

"Such measures reduce the capacity of the landscape to absorb excess water and slow floodwater flows.

"Our report highlights the ways in which rewilding can substantially reduce flood risk downstream, protecting communities at a fraction of the cost of traditional flood defences.

"Rewilding also has benefit of improving water quality and stimulating the revival of vibrant ecosystems rich in wildlife.

"With MPs currently consulting on new approaches to management of Britains natural environment post-Brexit, we feel it is high-time we allowed landscapes the space they need to rewild, creating natural wetlands and bringing back the wildlife that was once common to Britain," Miss Meech said.

'Idealistic' thinking

However, many rural organisations disagree with this approach, with the NFU saying it is "idealistic", and that rewilding and farming need to work together in order for it to work.

"You have to go back hundreds, if not thousands, of years to find a Welsh hillside or Lake District uplands where sheep werent present and integral to the communities that live there," said Phil Bicknell, writing on the National Farmers' Union website.

"More importantly in my view, they ignore the economic impact. Without our uplands, we wouldnt have a UK sheep industry.

"The raw materials that leave the farmgate are the source material for the largest manufacturing sector in the UK - our food processors - and that equates to jobs and economic growth," Mr Bicknell concluded.
Six sheep were killed when they were forced into a river by a dog on the Earth Trust Farm in Little Wittenham, Oxfordshire.

The animals were pulled from the River Thames on Thursday the 8th of September.

Five had already drowned and a sixth succumbed to shock and water inhalation overnight.

Earth Trust's tweet following the incident

Shepherd Emma Blomfield said she was "devastated to have lost so many animals in one day".

The Earth Trust has urged people passing through the field at the foot of the Wittenham Clumps to keep their dogs on a lead. About 200 sheep and 25 cows graze there.

Earth Trust Farm manager Chris Parker said: "Its very distressing to see animals killed in this way, especially when the accident was completely avoidable.

"There are signs at every entrance to the meadow asking dog owners to keep their dogs on a lead whilst sheep are in this field.

"This is the second time in a week that sheep have been pulled from the river after being chased by dogs and, sadly, this time there were tragic consequences."
Wheat: Net sales of 661,100 metric tons for 2016/2017 were up noticeably from the previous week and 51 percent from the prior 4-week average. Increases were reported for the Philippines (178,100 MT, including 51,000 MT switched from unknown destinations), Brazil (152,900 MT, including 85,600 MT switched from unknown destinations), China (120,800 MT, including 118,000 MT switched from unknown destinations), Vietnam (62,200 MT, including 60,000 MT switched from unknown destinations), and Mexico (59,600 MT). Reductions were reported for unknown destinations (119,300 MT), Costa Rica (8,000 MT), and Panama (2,700 MT). For 2017/2018, net sales of 1,000 MT were reported for Mexico. Exports of 630,900 MT were up 6 percent from the previous week and 11 percent from the prior 4-week average. The primary destinations were China (120,800 MT), Brazil (91,600 MT), Thailand (58,000 MT), the Philippines (56,100 MT), and Italy (49,200 MT).

Exports for Own Account: The current exports for own account outstanding balance is 24,900 MT, all Canada.

Corn: Net sales for the 2016/2017 marketing year, which began September 1, totaled 1,093,300 MT. Increases were reported for Mexico (467,800 MT), unknown destinations (306,300 MT), Japan (91,300 MT, including 33,000 MT switched from unknown destinations and decreases of 1,800 MT), Colombia (64,400 MT), the Dominican Republic (50,000 MT), Nigeria (34,500 MT, switched from unknown destinations), and Morocco (26,700 MT). Net sales of 30,500 MT for 2017/2018 were for Mexico. A total of 3,430,100 MT in sales were carried over from the 2015/2016 marketing year, which ended August 31. Exports for the period ending August 31 of 1,112,800 MT brought accumulated exports to 46,677,000 MT, up 2 percent from the prior years total of 45,845,500 MT. The primary destinations were Japan (273,800 MT), South Korea (268,700 MT), Mexico (199,700 MT), Egypt (91,600 MT), and Colombia (57,200 MT). Exports for September 1 totaled 299,000 MT, with Mexico (79,500 MT), Egypt (64,700 MT), Nigeria (34,500 MT), and Japan (31,300 MT) being the primary destinations.

Optional Origin Sales: For 2015/2016, the current optional origin outstanding balance is 276,000 MT, all unknown destinations, and was carried over to 2016/2017. For 2016/2017, the current outstanding balance is 341,000 MT, including carry-over, and is for unknown destinations (276,000 MT), and Taiwan (65,000 MT).

Barley: There were no sales reported during the week. Export of 400 MT were reported primarily to Taiwan (200 MT).

Sorghum: Net sales for the 2016/2017 marketing year, which began September 1, totaling 1,000 MT were reported for Indonesia. Exports for September 1 totaled 1,000 MT, with Mexico being the destination. A total of 398,400 MT in sales were carried over from the 2015/2016 marketing year, which ended August 31. Exports for the period ending August 31 of 35,200 MT brought accumulated exports to 7,817,300 MT, down 6 percent from the prior years total of 8,321,700 MT. The destinations were China (33,300 MT, switched from unknown destinations) and Mexico (1,900 MT).

Rice: Net sales of 69,500 MT for 2016/2017 were reported for Mexico (28,600 MT), Japan (26,000 MT), Honduras (4,900 MT), Canada (4,600 MT), and Guatemala (3,000 MT, including 3,100 MT switched from unknown destinations and decreases of 100 MT). Reductions were reported for unknown destinations (3,100 MT). Exports of 58,500 MT were reported to South Korea (26,800 MT), Honduras (14,600 MT), Saudi Arabia (3,700 MT), Guatemala (3,000 MT), and Canada (2,200 MT).

Exports for Own Account: New exports for own account totaling 100 MT were reported to Canada. The current outstanding balance is 200 MT, all Canada.

Soybeans: Net sales for the 2016/2017 marketing year, which began September 1, totaled 1,776,800 MT. Increases were reported for China (843,300 MT, including 129,000 MT switched from unknown destinations and decreases of 12,200 MT), unknown destinations (746,500 MT), Bangladesh (60,000 MT), and Canada (54,100 MT). Net sales of 8,000 MT for 2017/2018 were for Costa Rica. A total of 1,989,800 MT in sales were carried over from the 2015/2016 marketing year, which ended August 31. Exports for the period ending August 31 of 1,017,900 MT brought accumulated exports to 50,839,200 MT, up 2 percent from the prior years total of 49,801,300 MT. The primary destinations were China (362,200 MT, including 181,500 MT switched from unknown destinations and decreases of 5,600 MT), the Netherlands (228,900 MT, including 210,000 MT switched from unknown destinations), Saudi Arabia (72,200 MT), Indonesia (70,400 MT, including 49,100 MT switched from unknown destinations and decreases of 100 MT), and Portugal (67,400 MT). Exports for September 1 totaled 228,300 MT, with China (222,500 MT), Indonesia (3,500 MT), Japan (1,100 MT), and Malaysia (400 MT) being the primary destinations.

Optional Origin Sales: For 2015/2016, the current optional origin outstanding balance is 120,000 MT, all China, and was carried over to 2016/2017. For 2016/2017, the current outstanding balance is 120,000 MT, all China, including carry-over.

Exports for Own Account: The current exports for own account outstanding balance is 500 MT, all Canada.

Soybean Cake and Meal: Net sales of 63,000 MT for 2015/2016 were up noticeably from the previous week and 3 percent from the prior 4-week average. Increases were reported for Venezuela (17,000 MT), the Dominican Republic (14,300 MT), Japan (12,700 MT), Mexico (10,300 MT), and Guatemala (6,000 MT, switched from unknown destinations). Reductions were reported for unknown destinations (17,100 MT), Colombia (600 MT), and Jamaica (200 MT). For 2016/2017, net sales of 54,400 MT reported primarily for Thailand (17,000 MT), the Dominican Republic (16,100 MT), Mexico (7,400 MT), and Colombia (4,900 MT), were partially offset by reductions for Japan (1,600 MT). Exports of 104,300 MT were down 41 percent from the previous week and 20 percent from the prior 4-week average. The primary destinations were Venezuela (25,900 MT), Mexico (22,200 MT), Nicaragua (9,800 MT), Jamaica (9,800 MT), and Guatemala (9,100 MT).

Optional Origin Sales: For 2015/2016, the current optional origin outstanding sales balance is 36,000 MT, all unknown destinations.

Soybean Oil: Net sales of 3,500 MT for 2015/2016 were up noticeably from the previous week, but down 29 percent from the prior 4-week average. Increases were reported for Mexico (3,200 MT), and Canada (100 MT). For 2016/2017, net sales of 900 MT were reported for Mexico. Exports of 8,400 MT were down 33 percent from the previous week and 32 percent from the prior 4-week average. The primary destinations were Mexico (8,000 MT), Canada (100 MT), and Trinidad (100 MT).

Cotton: Net upland sales of 344,500 RB for 2016/2017 reported for Turkey (59,100 RB), Indonesia (46,900 RB), Pakistan (44,500 RB), Vietnam (38,100 RB, including 300 RB switched from Japan), China (29,300 RB), and Bangladesh (28,400 RB), were partially offset by reductions for India (10,300 RB). For 2017/2018, net sales of 18,900 RB were reported primarily for Guatemala (8,800 RB), El Salvador (4,400 RB), and Mexico (3,600 RB). Exports of 224,300 RB were reported to Vietnam (68,500 RB), China (23,100 RB), Indonesia (21,800 RB), Mexico (18,100 RB), and Turkey (17,800 RB). Net sales of Pima totaling 20,100 RB for 2016/2017 were reported for India (8,100 RB), Peru (4,000 RB), China (3,500 RB), and Pakistan (2,100 RB). Exports of 6,500 RB were reported to India (3,300 RB), China (1,500 RB), Pakistan (800 RB), and Egypt (400 RB).

Exports for Own Account: New exports for own account totaling 7,900 RB were reported to Vietnam (2,800 RB), China (2,200 RB), Indonesia (2,200 RB), Pakistan (400 RB), and Thailand (300 RB). Exports to Indonesia (1,900 RB), Vietnam (1,600 RB), China (400 RB), and Thailand (300 RB) were applied to new or outstanding sales. Decreases were reported to China (1,300 RB) and Vietnam (300 RB). The current outstanding balance of 27,400 RB is for Indonesia (14,600 RB), India (8,800 RB), Vietnam (2,700 RB), Pakistan (900 RB), and China (400 RB).

Hides and Skins: Net sales of 312,700 pieces for 2016 were down 27 percent from the previous week and 23 percent from the prior-4 week average. Whole cattle hide sales of 313,500 pieces were for China (240,200 pieces), South Korea (35,900 pieces), Mexico (20,100 pieces), Indonesia (6,400 pieces), and Brazil (4,900 pieces). Reductions were reported for Vietnam (100 pieces), Hong Kong (100 pieces), and India (100 pieces). Exports of 363,200 pieces were down 6 percent from the previous week and 11 percent from the prior 4-week average. Whole cattle hide exports of 359,900 pieces were primarily to China (253,800 pieces), South Korea (43,500 pieces), Mexico (22,800 pieces), Taiwan (13,500 pieces), and Thailand (7,500 pieces).

Net sales of 24,900 wet blues for 2016 were down 83 percent from the previous week and 69 percent from the prior 4-week average. Increases were reported for Thailand (10,900 unsplit), Mexico (7,800 grain splits and 800 unsplit), China (6,700 grain splits), and Brazil (800 unsplit). Reductions were reported for Japan (700 grain splits), South Korea (600 grain splits), Italy (600 unsplit), and Hong Kong (100 grain splits). Exports of 113,800 wet blues were up 37 percent from the previous week and 2 percent from the prior 4-week average. Exports were primarily to Italy (23,100 unsplit and 20,000 grain splits), China (15,200 unsplit and 12,600 grain splits), and Mexico (9,000 grain splits and 6,900 unsplit). Net sales of splits totaling 482,700 pounds for 2016 were reported for China (520,700 pounds), Italy (6,500 pounds), Hong Kong (3,700 pounds), and South Korea (1,900 pounds). Reductions were reported for Vietnam (50,100 pounds). Exports of 639,800 pounds were up 98 percent from the previous week and 26 percent from the prior 4-week average. The destinations were China (348,100 pounds), Vietnam (245,200 pounds), Hong Kong (41,400 pounds), and South Korea (5,000 pounds).

Beef: Net sales of 9,200 MT for 2016 were down 20 percent from the previous week and 36 percent from the prior 4-week average. Increases were reported for Japan (3,100 MT), South Korea (3,100 MT), Canada (900 MT), Mexico (900 MT), and Hong Kong (600 MT). Exports of 8,100 MT--a marketing-year low--were down 41 percent from the previous week and 43 percent from the prior 4-week average. The primary destinations were Japan (2,700 MT), South Korea (1,700 MT), Hong Kong (1,200 MT), Mexico (900 MT), and Taiwan (800 MT).

Pork: Net sales of 24,300 MT for 2016 were up 1 percent from the previous week and 16 percent from the prior 4-week average. Increases were reported for South Korea (7,700 MT), Mexico (6,100 MT), Japan (4,000 MT), Canada (1,700 MT), and Hong Kong (1,400 MT). Exports of 19,500 MT were up 4 percent from the previous week and 8 percent from the prior 4-week average. The primary destinations were Mexico (7,500 MT), Japan (4,100 MT), Canada (1,400 MT), China (1,300 MT), Hong Kong (1,300 MT).

Source : USDA
Grand Jury To Hear Evidence Against Officers Involved In Laquan McDonald Shooting

By Stephen Gossett in News on Sep 12, 2016 4:48PM



A still from the Laquan McDonald dashcam video.

A grand jury will be convened to hear evidence against Chicago police officers whose testimony of the Laquan McDonald fatal shooting differs sharply from dashcam video evidence. Cook County Jude LeRoy Martin Jr. on Monday granted the request, which was made by special prosecutor Patricia Brown Holmes.

According to the Tribune, Holmes, a veteran lawyer and former Cook County judge, told reporters that a grand-jury inquiry represented the fairest option and that her ongoing investigation could yet spread beyond officers who were on the scene to include higher-ranking police brass. Judge Martin appointed Brown special prosecutor in July to investigate a possible police cover up of the McDonald shooting.

Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times in October 2014, but video was not released until over a year later, just hours after murder charges were filed against officer Jason Van Dyke. Release of the video led to widespread protest and an ongoing investigation by the Justice Department. The incidentand the long lag time between it and the video releaseratcheted up tension between Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago Police Department and many local communities.

While Van Dyke faces murder charges, other officers who were present at the scene have not yet been charged with criminal wrongdoing. Late last month, Police Supt. Eddie Johnson filed administrative papers to fire five officers who were involved. Some officers reported that McDonald approached police while waving a knife, while video evidence appears to show McDonald backing away. The Inspector General in August recommended that 10 officers be disciplined or fired, three of whom have since retired or resigned.
Warrenton, VA (20186)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun in the morning followed by cloudy skies during the afternoon. High 62F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Low 43F. Winds light and variable.
What was it like to be an Oath Keeper? John Zimmerman can tell you

John Zimmerman said he was active with the Oath Keepers from September to November 2020, then left after a falling out with founder Stewart Rhodes.
You Might Be Able To Score 'Hamilton' Tickets In Chicago Online After All

By Stephen Gossett in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 12, 2016 7:39PM



A still from the New York musical, from David Korins Design

When tickets for Hamilton in Chicago went on sale in June, many ran the exhausting ticket-search gauntlet only to find themselves empty-handed or (worse) victimized by scammers. If you were one of the unlucky many who didnt score a ticket, there may yet be a glimmer of hope: Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller told Tribune theatre critic Chris Jones that more tickets were being made available on Monday and the next couple of following days.

Apparently, Hamilton pulled a Chance the Rapper and went after those obstreperous little scalper bots. Seller said that ticket buyers who exceeded the allowed quantity were refunded and the tickets would be made available again. "It is not thousands of tickets but it is a significant number, he said, according to Jones.

Obviously, keep checking the site and hope you get lucky isnt the most reassuring plan of action, but with Hamilton mania having reached fever pitch, thats probably the best we could have hoped for, at least for now. As the Trib mentions, another large block of tickets for 2017 shows is expected to be released sometime before mid-October.

We reached out to Broadway in Chicago for details about ticket quantities and dates, but they did not return requests for comment.

On the bright side, if you fail again to score tickets this time aroundand didnt score access to Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Mirandas upcoming (sold-out, natch) appearance at Chicago Humanities Festivaltheres always Alexander Camelton, the adorable young camel that was born in May at Lincoln Park Zoo. Camelton released a statement on Monday reminding the public that a zoo visit remains cost-effective and refreshingly hype-averse.
I never take it for granted that people are going to take an interest in me and what I think. I'm not saying that disingenuously, out of false modesty. Nor do I believe it comes from a lack of self-esteem. I suppose it's more that I know life's short, people have their own lives to lead and there's a limit to the time they have to engage and take on board details about others.

Tanya Ravenswater

So saying, relationships are very important to me. I thrive on good conversation, exchanging ideas, listening and being listened to. I do my best to take people as I find them and not impose negative judgements. I'm less interested in accumulating information, more eager to understand how it is to be in another person's shoes, what really matters to them. Also, I'm quite a private person and respect privacy, the importance of looking after things people tell me.

While I won't pretend I'm not intrigued by the modern cult of celebrity, it's not something I feel pressure to fall in with. Being famous for some means that they've 'arrived', once and for all. They're apparently happy to literally open their doors to public view and bare their souls. Any kind of artist, painter, writer, musician, as they become more well known, equally may be called upon to satisfy public curiosity and answer just about every question asked. It can often be assumed that they're natural performers, publicists, fluent off-the-cuff public speakers. Some are more comfortable with that than others. One of the reasons I've come to be a writer is that expressing my creativity in the form of writing feels most compatible with who I am . I'm the sort of person who likes to have time to reflect. The act of recording helps me get closer to what I really think and want to say. I aim to present a reader with something that I've given consideration and care to. I don't intend wasting their time. So, while I welcome the chance to be able to talk about my writing and am very grateful for supportive discussion and comment, really my fiction and poems are my main offering and contain what I think it's most relevant for my readers to know about me. My work speaks of my persistent interests - people, their differences and how they cope with crises, Nature and how our environment affects us, the importance of love, exploring what truly matters in life.

Finally, for what it's worth, a few things further that I'd like to share. I'm glad about my Northern Irish roots; a sense of belonging and family matter a lot. Having people who accept and love me, quirks and all, gives me confidence to be creative and myself. I'm proud to be a wife and mother.
Amber Heard lost money in her divorce from Johnny Depp, her friend iO Tillett Wright has claimed.

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard

The 30-year-old actress' legal split and settlement from the 53-year-old actor was finalised in August and the $7 million she requested to be donated to the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The split was particularly acrimonious with Heard making accusations of domestic abuse against Depp - both physical and verbal - and Wright himself got involved and reported some of the actor's alleged behaviour to police.

In the wake of the couple's separation in May, the gender fluid author-and-photographer wrote an article about the domestic abuse claims for website Refinery 29, however, the piece has since been removed.

Wright has now come out to back Heard and reveal she paid all her own legal fees and accepted a settlement that was much lower than she could have got.

Discussing the fact she could have got more than the $7 million, he said: "And she paid her own legal fees. That situation was so public. I'm not ever going to be one of them - I'm not ever going to be an A-list celebrity. But I chose to get involved in that situation because it was imperative to say what I thought was right."

Wright lived with the couple for a year before they got married in February 2015 and despite everything that has now gone on between all the parties he admits they swooped in and saved him when he felt suicidal after a break-up.

He said: "They saved my life. One hundred percent."

Wright has remained "best friends" with Heard but has cut Depp out of his life because he has been unapologetic about his apparent behaviour both publicly and privately.

But Wright does have sympathy for the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' star who was served divorce papers in the wake of his mother Betty Sue Palmer's death.

In an interview with Sunday Times magazine, he spilled: "It's a tough thing. My attitude about that is the same as the attitude I have about my parents. People are very rarely bad people. People have things that happen to them and people have pain they are trying to get around."

Wright added: "Everyone is trying to dance with their pain and sometimes it's who do you stab in the process? It's what you do about having stabbed them that's the delineation between people you can have in your life and people you can't."
14 Of Our Favorite Events In Chicago This Week



solarise will hold a special closing concert this week. Image courtesy of Garfield Park Conservatory.

The temperature may be beginning to drop, but that doesn't mean we don't have a number of hot events for you to check out this week in Chicago.

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 12

WINEMAKER DINNER: Join wine director Andrew Algren at Cherry Circle Room for a Riesling Seminar Dinner at 7 p.m. Winemaker Morten Hallgren (Ravines Wine Cellars) and writer John Haeger (Riesling Rediscovered: Bold, Bright, and Dry) will lead the seminar showcasing wines from Ravines over a 4-course dinner. Tickets are $90.

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 13

SLURRING BEE: Spelling bees are way more fun when the participants have imbibed a few. The monthly event at Quenchers has invited past winners back for the Slurring Bee Tournament of Champions at 7 p.m. The rules are simple: Take a shot. Spell a word. Do it again. There will also be signups for the Wild Card.

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 14



Buddy Guy. Photo courtesy of DCASE.

FIFTH STAR AWARDS: Cindy Crawford, Fred Willard and Shemekia Copeland are among the hometown celebrities presenting at the 3rd Annual Fifth Star Awards at 7 p.m. in Millennium Park. The nod to the Chicago flags four stars honors legendary local artists and Cultural Institutions and this years honorees are Buddy Guy, Victor Skrebneski, Jackie Taylor, Carlos Tortolero and The Second City. The evening will include performances and video tributes, and all for free.

SCARY MOVIE: The Associate Board of Cinema/Chicagothe team behind the Chicago International Film Festivalhosts another edition of their Screening Series at PUBLIC Chicago Hotel benefiting their year-round Education Program. Revisit the now-classic meta horror flick Scream at 7 p.m. Admission is $15 and includes popcorn and two Stella Artois. UPDATE: This screening has been moved to next week

SOLARISE CLOSING PERFORMANCE: Garfield Park Conservatorys year-long light show solarise comes to an end on Sept. 22, but this Wednesday theyll hold a special closing concert at 6:30 p.m. Long-time collaborator and friend of the conservatory, Owen Clayton Condon will perform soundscapes using plant materials. The conservatory will have special extended hours through the closing. Free.

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 15

COCKTAIL CHALLENGE: The Chicago Reader hosts their annual Fall Cocktail Challenge at Salvage One from 7 to 10 p.m. Mixologists from Punch House, Atwood and The Kitchen will be among those competing to create the favorite cocktail of the evening. Judges will choose a winner and attendees will also get to indulge and vote for their own favorite. Tickets are $50.

POWER OF PARTYING TOUR: The leader of the Party Party, Andrew W.K. brings The Power of Partying Speaking 50 State Tour to the Revolution Brewing Tap Room at 7 p.m. In true party fashion, there will be free beer and pizza for the motivational speech. Also see the positive punk rocker perform at Riot Fest this weekend. Tickets are $20.

FASHIONS FRONT ROW: Shop the runway at Macys Fashions Front Row fashion show at the Macys on State Street at 5:30 p.m. Fashion expert Giuliana Rancic will host the charity fashion show that will air on E! later this week. The first 100 people in line will get a photo with Rancic and refreshments and free gifts with qualifying purchases.



ACTIVATE image courtesy of K&N Media.

ACTIVATE ALLEY: Cow Path Alley on Monroe between LaSalle and Clark transforms for the sensory art installation ACTIVATE from 5 to 10 p.m. TASTE is the theme for the evening as AIRE Rooftop Bar | Hyatt Centric The Loop and Boleo at The Gray Hotel provide bites and sips among art and music in the alley. Free. RSVP in advance for a complimentary drink ticket.

LIT FEST: The Wicker Park & West Town Lit Fest spans events and venues across the neighborhoods, including an anniversary celebration at Quimbys. The bookstore celebrates 25 yearsand kicks off the festwith founder Steven Svymbersky at 7 p.m. Lit Fest continues through September 18. See their website for more info.

CIDER BASH: Head to Jake's for a Cider Bash from 6 to 8:30 p.m. The party in the keg room will feature all things apple from Smoked Apple BBQ Wings to House Baked Apple Pie. Tickets are $40.



FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 16



Photo via Riot Fest's website.

RIOT FEST: Punk rock thrives at Riot Fest, which returns to Douglas Park for the weekend. The three-day music festival has been rocking the city for more than a decade, making the move from clubs to the outdoor festival setup they have now just a few years ago. The Flaming Lips, Ween, Morrissey and the reunion of the original Misfits are headlining (and yes, Gwar and Andrew W. K. both play again this year as well). Three-day VIP passes are still available for $329.98 and one-day passes are $159.98.

EATALY SEPTEMBERFEST: Its the ultimate Eataly experience at Septemberfest beginning at 5 p.m. with and all-you-can-eat party of sorts at the Italian eatery. Pastas, pizzas, wine, beers, you name it all for the taking. Tickets are $45 in advance.

ELECTRONIC PSYCH DANCE-POP: Beaty Heart is a U.K. trio that plays slightly hazy, light psych dance jams that should keep a room swaying back and forth in a mild state of bliss. Their new album Till The Tomb mixes lovely vocals with sunny beats to build a collection that feels optimistic even as it slips into slightly hallucinatory moments here and there. The band plays Beat Kitchen on Friday and tickets are $12-14.
We have already seen big critical and commercial success of Marvel this year and this autumn we are going to see Doctor Strange introduced to audiences for the first time.

Doctor Strange

Yes, another Marvel movie is on the horizon and Doctor Strange is one of a string of new franchises that will be heading our way over the next few years.

This is one of the autumn movies that I am looking forward to the most and Doctor Strange looks set to mix elements of fantasy, sci-fi, and action and adventure and we will see Benedict Cumberbatch step into the superhero genre for the first time.

Cumberbatch will take on the central role of Dr. Stephen Strange and it looks like it is going to be a perfect piece of casting. Cumberbatch is no stranger to the blockbuster genre with Star Trek Into Darkness and The Hobbit trilogy under his belt, but this is one of the biggest film roles of his career.

The movie sees Cumberbatch team up with filmmaker Scott Derrickson for the first time as he takes up the director's chair for a Marvel film for the first time.

Derrickson has brought us movies such as Deliver Us From Evil and Sinister in recent years and I am exciting to see him take on a much bigger movie project.

Doctor Strange is based on the comic books by Steve Ditko and has been adapted for the big screen by Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill.

The director has brought together an impressive cast as Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Mad Mikkelsen, Tilda Swinton, and Chiwetel Ejiofor will all star alongside Cumberbatch. It really is another great cast in a Marvel film.

When Dr. Stephen Strange's medical career is left in tatters, he is taken under the wing of a sorcerer and trains him to defend the world against evil.

Doctor Strange is the second of two Marvel films to be released this year and comes after the huge success of Captain America: Civil War.

We are going to be treated to some great blockbuster movies this autumn and Doctor Strange is one that really is not to be missed. It looks like it is going to be a visually stunning film and I cannot wait to see what Derrickson and co deliver.

Doctor Strange is released 28th October.

by Helen Earnshaw for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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Prince Charles made a string of sheep puns as he addressed the Dumfries House Wool Conference.

Prince Charles

The 67-year-old royal attend the event, which was organised by The Campaign for Wool, alongside a number of big players in the fashion and interiors industry including British designer Sir Paul Smith, Alan Folwell, the chairman of Adam Carpets and model David Gandy.

Speaking to the audience, the Prince said: "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the one occasion on which I really do want to pull the wool over your eyes but I won't ram the point home as it would be a very non-ewe thing to do!

"It is very good of you all to come here today representing, as you do, every part of the wool chain and from all the major wool-growing countries. I do hope you have all had a chance to contribute to the day's discussions and to pick up ideas from each other. Needless to say, I am enormously grateful to Marks and Spencer for their dedicated support for this conference and further interest in the reassuring of some of the manufacturers."

The Prince of Wales - who is next in line to the British throne - spoke of his passion for supporting those who rely on the land for their livelihoods.

He concluded: "As someone who minds deeply about the prospects for farmers and rural livelihoods and worries about the desperate environmental consequences for our children and grandchildren of relying on products made from fossil fuels, this is a cause that means a lot to me. I can only hope it does to you too.

"So, I have just agreed to continue as Patron of the Campaign for Wool for a further five years and I am very proud indeed to endorse the Dumfries House Wool Declaration. With your help, I am going to do everything I possibly can to build on the success we have achieved, thus ensuring that wool receives proper recognition for all its wonderful, natural attributes."
Queen Elizabeth drove Duchess Catherine around the Balmoral estate over the weekend.

Queen Elizabeth

The 90-year-old monarch was spotted giving the 34-year-old royal - who is married to the Queen's grandson Prince William - a lift to a family picnic just above Loch Muick on their Scottish retreat.

Both looked relaxed as they took in the beautiful landscape.

The Queen was later seen ferrying the Duchess of Cambridge's mother Carole Middleton around.

A source told The Sun newspaper: "It's very unusual for in-laws to be welcomed so warmly into the Royal Family.

"This personal invitation shows how much regard Her Majesty has for the Duchess' family. I can't recall them staying at Balmoral before, so this is a real sign of affection."

Meanwhile, it was previously revealed the monarch is "most relaxed" when at Balmoral.

Sir Kenneth Scott, who worked as the Queen's personal secretaries until 1996, said: "Balmoral is where she can be at her most relaxed. She stays there until the beginning of October, when she returns to London. She rides in the mornings, drives round the estate to visit tenants, and even goes into the neighboring town, Ballater, from time to time to do some shopping. Once, in a Ballater shop, she met another customer, who said, 'You look just like the Queen!,' to which Her Majesty replied, 'How very reassuring!'

"At Balmoral and at Sandringham she likes to take her guests, including bemused prime ministers, for picnic suppers in a log cabin on the estate. The Duke of Edinburgh cooks the barbecue, and the Queen lays the table and helps clean up afterward."
Post President's approval of the Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2016, for introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) last week, the Union Cabinet has today approved setting up of GST Council and its Secretariat. The GST Council would be headed by Union finance minister and its first meeting will take place on September 22-23, in New Delhi.

Post President's approval of the Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2016, for introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) last week, the Union Cabinet has today approved setting up of GST Council and its Secretariat. The GST Council would be headed by Union finance minister and its first meeting will take place on September 22-23, in New Delhi.#

The GST Council would be created as per Article 279A of the amended Constitution. Its office will be in New Delhi.

Post President's approval of the Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2016, for introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) last week, the Union Cabinet has today approved setting up of GST Council and its Secretariat. The GST Council would be headed by Union finance minister and its first meeting will take place on September 22-23, in New Delhi.#

The Cabinet decided to appoint secretary (revenue) as the ex-officio secretary to the GST Council. It also decided to include chairperson, Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), as a permanent invitee (non-voting) to all proceedings of the GST Council.

Post President's approval of the Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2016, for introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) last week, the Union Cabinet has today approved setting up of GST Council and its Secretariat. The GST Council would be headed by Union finance minister and its first meeting will take place on September 22-23, in New Delhi.#

One post of additional secretary to the GST Council in the GST Council Secretariat (at the level of additional secretary to the Government of India), and four posts of commissioner in the GST Council Secretariat (at the level of joint secretary to the Government of India) would be created.

Post President's approval of the Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2016, for introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) last week, the Union Cabinet has today approved setting up of GST Council and its Secretariat. The GST Council would be headed by Union finance minister and its first meeting will take place on September 22-23, in New Delhi.#

The Cabinet also decided to provide for adequate funds for meeting the recurring and non-recurring expenses of the GST Council Secretariat, the entire cost for which shall be borne by the Central Government. The GST Council Secretariat shall be manned by officers taken on deputation from both the Central and state governments.

Post President's approval of the Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2016, for introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) last week, the Union Cabinet has today approved setting up of GST Council and its Secretariat. The GST Council would be headed by Union finance minister and its first meeting will take place on September 22-23, in New Delhi.#

As per Article 279A of the amended Constitution, the GST Council which will be a joint forum of the Centre and the states, shall consist of the Union finance minister as its chairperson, the Union minister of state, in-charge of revenue of finance as its member, and the minister in-charge of finance or taxation or any other minister nominated by each state government as its members.

Post President's approval of the Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2016, for introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) last week, the Union Cabinet has today approved setting up of GST Council and its Secretariat. The GST Council would be headed by Union finance minister and its first meeting will take place on September 22-23, in New Delhi.#

As per Article 279A (4), the Council will make recommendations to the Union and the states on important issues related to GST, like the goods and services that may be subjected or exempted from GST, model GST Laws, principles that govern Place of Supply, threshold limits, GST rates including the floor rates with bands, special rates for raising additional resources during natural calamities/disasters, special provisions for certain states, etc. (RKS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Exhibitors at the second edition of the Yarn, Fabric & Accessories Trade Show (YFA) 2016, scheduled for November 23-26, 2016, are now eligible to avail subsidies offered by the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC). Participating MSME units can claim 60-95 per cent subsidy under various categories of Marketing Assistance Scheme (MAS) of NSIC.

Exhibitors at the second edition of the Yarn, Fabric & Accessories Trade Show (YFA) 2016, scheduled for November 23-26, 2016, are now eligible to avail subsidies offered by the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC). Participating MSME units can claim 60-95 per cent subsidy under various categories of Marketing Assistance Scheme (MAS) of NSIC.#

YFA 2016 aims to redefine the way fibres, yarns, fabrics and apparel accessories are sourced and bring renowned suppliers from the these four segments closer to buyers and also offer buyers a one-stop place to source all their requirements.

Exhibitors at the second edition of the Yarn, Fabric & Accessories Trade Show (YFA) 2016, scheduled for November 23-26, 2016, are now eligible to avail subsidies offered by the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC). Participating MSME units can claim 60-95 per cent subsidy under various categories of Marketing Assistance Scheme (MAS) of NSIC.#

YFA 2016 will see exhibition space doubling from one hall to two halls in the 2016 edition. Additionally, WGSN, the global authority on fashion trends will be the Trend Partner.

Exhibitors at the second edition of the Yarn, Fabric & Accessories Trade Show (YFA) 2016, scheduled for November 23-26, 2016, are now eligible to avail subsidies offered by the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC). Participating MSME units can claim 60-95 per cent subsidy under various categories of Marketing Assistance Scheme (MAS) of NSIC.#

There will be a special Chinese Pavilion, where around 40 Chinese exhibitors will showcase yarns, fabrics and garment accessories. A special highlight of YFA 2016 is the Denim Zone, which will see 20 top Indian denim fabric makers exhibiting their denim innovations.

Exhibitors at the second edition of the Yarn, Fabric & Accessories Trade Show (YFA) 2016, scheduled for November 23-26, 2016, are now eligible to avail subsidies offered by the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC). Participating MSME units can claim 60-95 per cent subsidy under various categories of Marketing Assistance Scheme (MAS) of NSIC.#

To add an icing to the cake, the organisers have also arranged a conference in association with TIT-Bhiwani and the Textile Association of India (TAI). One more initiative is 'Titoba', an alumni meet with a gathering of more than 800 top industry professionals in association with TIT Bhiwani and again the Textile Association of India (TAI).

Exhibitors at the second edition of the Yarn, Fabric & Accessories Trade Show (YFA) 2016, scheduled for November 23-26, 2016, are now eligible to avail subsidies offered by the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC). Participating MSME units can claim 60-95 per cent subsidy under various categories of Marketing Assistance Scheme (MAS) of NSIC.#

Vision Communications, the organizer, has also planned fashion shows during the days of the show and additionally there will be a high-level conference which will see ministers, top government officials and industry leaders offering their views at the conference.

Exhibitors at the second edition of the Yarn, Fabric & Accessories Trade Show (YFA) 2016, scheduled for November 23-26, 2016, are now eligible to avail subsidies offered by the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC). Participating MSME units can claim 60-95 per cent subsidy under various categories of Marketing Assistance Scheme (MAS) of NSIC.#

The fair is organised by Vision Communications, supported by the Northern India Textile Mills Association (NITMA) with AEPC (Apparel Export Promotion Council), TA(I) (Textile Association of India), PDEXCIL (Power loom Development Export Promotion Council), CMAI (Clothing Manufacturers Association of India), FOHMA (Federation of Hosiery Manufacturers Association), NAEC (Noida Apparel Export Cluster), NITRA (Northern India Textile Research Institute), U.P. Apparel Exporters Association and PTA Users Association as supporting associations.

Exhibitors at the second edition of the Yarn, Fabric & Accessories Trade Show (YFA) 2016, scheduled for November 23-26, 2016, are now eligible to avail subsidies offered by the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC). Participating MSME units can claim 60-95 per cent subsidy under various categories of Marketing Assistance Scheme (MAS) of NSIC.#

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
It is disappointing that elements of the international community, without any objectivity, have issued statements of concern about the detention and questioning of Fijians who have allegedly contravened our laws.

The Public Order Act amongst other provisions, requires any group wanting to hold a public meeting to apply for a permit from the Police before the proposed event. In this case, no application was made so the Police are entirely within their rights to question those who have allegedly contravened these provisions.Those who attended this gathering were lawfully detained for questioning and there have been no allegations of any of their human rights being breached while in detention. These included the right to legal counsel. They were released within the 48 hours that the law prescribes as the limit at which they can be detained without appearing in court.A notable double standard is being adopted by certain countries in relation to this matter. They either suspend certain rights themselves when incarcerating their citizens or other nationals and in some instances, even on the mere suspicion of a remote threat to their national security. They have adopted practices and laws that are abhorrent to internationally accepted human rights values and principles. Other nations turn a blind eye to or are mute on similar behaviour on the part of their friends and allies.Fiji has a sovereign right to make its own laws and in the case of the Public Order Act, it exists because of our colonial past and an unfortunate history of civil unrest in post independent Fiji which cannot be repeated. The statute in question is to ensure law and order, protect our people and maintain the health of our economy on which the welfare of every Fijian depends.Apart from having a plethora of human rights provisions, the Fijian Constitution goes further to state that the interpretation of these human rights shall be referred to international human rights law and standards.His Excellency the President has today announced a review of a number of laws in his speech opening the 2016 session of the Fijian Parliament. These include the Public Order Act. But until that review takes place, the current provisions of the Act remain and must be like all other laws enforced. The Police are carrying out their independent duty and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions will similarly carry out its own independent assessment as to whether these individuals should be prosecuted or not.Any objective assessment of what is happening on the ground in Fiji in respect of this matter requires an understanding and appreciation of the separation of powers between the independent institutions of the State. The Fijian Government respects the independence of all these institutions, which are essential for maintaining the rule of law.J.V BainimaramaPrime Minister.
Katrina At Fatehpur Sikri

Katrina Kaif at the Tomb of Salim Chishti in Fatehpur Sikri to offer prayers for her professional as well as personal life! Recently, the actress had confessed that the last two years had been really tough for her.

Katrinas Tough Time

The actress was going through tough time owing to her break-up with Ranbir Kapoor. The duo has been in a serious relationship from a long time but recently, they decided to part their ways.

Katrinas Broken Relationship

Their broken relationship instantly became talk of the town and everywhere, the actress was quizzed about her personal life. However, the reason behind her break up is yet unknown to everyone!

Katrina, On Her Tough Life

"It was a difficult time for me but my movies are not the reason it was difficult. It was difficult for me for other reasons. That's what life does. It puts you through these times and you have to see where it takes you," had said Katrina.

Katrina Solely Focusing On Her Career

Currently, the actress is solely concentrating on her professional life and she had mentioned that at this point of her life, the success of Baar Baar Dekho is extremely important for her.

BBDs BO Collection

A few hours ago, Taran Adarsh shared the collection of Baar Baar Dekho till date and wrote, "#BaarBaarDekho Fri 6.81 cr, Sat 7.65 cr, Sun 6.70 cr. Total:  21.16 cr. India biz."
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 is going to be one of the greatest movies ever to be made in Hollywood ?, well according to the actor, it is. Chris Pratt believes the upcoming sequel to the original Guardians of the Galaxy will be exceptional.

"They've instructed us not to say anything. The film finished and it's going to be terrific. I'm already so proud of it. We worked really hard on it and it's a joy to be part of. It's a fabulous script."

"I think it's going to be - I'm not using hyperbole, here - I think it's going to be the biggest spectacle movie of all time." said the actor.

Chris Pratt, who will be seen reprising the role of the 'Star-Lord' in the upcoming sequel, also reveals that the movie will be the greatest movies ever to be made in Hollywood and the audience will experience something totally new.

"It's new and exciting and unlike anything, people had seen before. There are a lot of superheroes out there, but I think we do something a little different."

"The genesis of these characters was in the Marvel Universe but we do something a little different, more cosmic, with 'Guardians of the Galaxy'," Chris added.

The film is all set to release in May 2017, in theatres, across the United States.
Telugu superstar Mahesh Babu, who is currently busy shooting for AR Murugadoss directed yet-untitled Tamil-Telugu bilingual project, will be seen playing an intelligence officer in the film.

"It's not a regular cop's role. He plays an intelligence officer and contrary to reports, he won't get to don the khaki. It's going to be a very stylish film and it will portray Mahesh in a very different avatar," a source from the film's unit told IANS.

Also starring Rakul Preet Singh and SJ Suryah in important roles, the project is currently being shot in EVP world here in Chennai.

The film, which is being made as a bonafide bilingual, marks the first time collaboration of Mahesh and Murugadoss and also marks Mahesh's debut in Tamil.

Though the actor is making his debut, he is well-versed in Tamil and hence is expected to dub for himself. The film is expected to hit the screen early next year.

Also Read: Controversial: Film-maker Cheran Says Sri Lankan Tamilians Are Responsible For Piracy!
CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Japan will on Monday release July figures for core machine orders, highlighting a light day fir Asia-Pacific economic activity. Core machine orders were up 8.3 percent on month in June and down 0.9 percent on year. Japan also will see August numbers for producer prices and machine tool orders. In July, producer prices were flat on month and down 3.9 percent on year, while tool orders slumped an annual 19.7 percent. Australia will see July results for credit card purchases; in June, purchases were worth A$25.5 billion and balances were at A$52.2 billion. Finally, the markets in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia are closed on Monday in observance or Eid-ul-Adha; they will re-open on Tuesday. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
The sluice gates of the Three Gorges Dam. [Photo/Xinhua]

Two Chinese companies are bidding for a major stake in Brazil's fourth largest energy generator Santo Antonio Energia SA, amongst other suitors such as a Canadian asset management company, according to sources quoted by Bloomberg.

The two companies, China Three Gorges Corp and State Grid Corp of China, are competing with Canada's Brookfield Asset Management Inc for 28.6 percent of shares in the Brazilian company, the report said.

The Santo Antonio hydropower plant has 3,150 megawatts of generating capacity, which is sufficient for 40 million people, according to its website.

The Santo Antonio Hydroelectric Plant is being constructed on the river Madeira in Brazil. When fully operational, the Santo Antonio plant will be the third largest power plant in Brazil in terms of electricity generation and the sixth-largest hydroelectric plant in terms of installed capacity.

Whether the Chinese companies are able to win the first-round tender remains unknown until the end of this week, but the move signals that more mergers and acquisitions are likely in the pipeline in the biggest economy in South America as the two countries are seeking deeper cooperation, especially in the new energy sector.

Hydropower is currently the largest source of power in Brazil, accounting for over 80 percent in the total energy mix, but the country also has very rich wind power resource, Lin Chuxue, the executive vice president of CTG, told media earlier in Beijing.

Both local and international investors are looking into opportunities in Brazil's northeast and southern regions for wind power development, he said.

"We will consider other possibilities of wind and solar power projects if the right time comes," he said.

Liu Zhenya, former chairman of the Beijing-based State Grid, said that South America has become a major target for the company's foreign takeovers because the foreign assets generally have higher returns with double-digit growth every year.

Liu Ximei, an assistant professor at North China Electric Power University, said that Brazil has the largest electricity market in South America with an open competition environment for investors.

"Currently, the US is a major foreign investor in the Latin American country, but China has competitive edges in terms of financing capability and project management," he said. "Chinese companies should work together in Brazil and form a united alliance, especially in the aspects of electricity development, infrastructure construction and heavy equipment manufacturing."
SYDNEY, NEW YORK and LONDON, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Continued stellar growth necessitates first office in Asia Pacific

Metamako, the leading specialist in deterministic network devices for the world's financial institutions, announced today the appointment of Denis Sweeney as Business Development Director for Asia Pacific. Sweeney will be heading operations in the region from Metamako's newly-opened Tokyo office.

On his appointment, Sweeney says: "I've been watching Metamako make waves in the financial markets for the last two years and I'm very excited by their commitment to bringing truly disruptive technology to the market; I'm impressed with their rate of growth and the instant benefits they're bringing to clients. I've worked in Asia for more than 20 years, representing some of the biggest names in the FinTech sector and thought I'd seen some fast-track companies, but Metamako's growth and success are impressive; I'm really looking forward to being a part of the Metamako team."

Kevin Covington, CEO of Metamako, says: "We're very happy to welcome Denis to our team and I know he will be an asset in our expansion strategy, both in Tokyo and across Asia. He has an excellent track record in the region, having represented major service providers at the highest level. I'm sure our clients will be quick to appreciate not only his financial knowledge and technical capabilities, but also his commitment to operational and service management."

With two decades of specialist fintech experience in Tokyo and across Asia Pacific, and having worked for NYSE Technologies, Sungard, Misys and Credit Suisse in Tokyo, Sweeney brings strong local and regional connections, which will quickly benefit Metamako.

Named one of KPMG's top 50 Emerging Stars, Metamako has continued its whirlwind growth; in 2015 it relocated its HQ and development centre to Stone & Chalk's tech-hub in Sydney, becoming a key participant in the FinTech ecosystem.

About Metamako

Metamako, founded in 2013, develops the world's fastest network devices, with the goal of simplifying networks, reducing latency, improving determinism and increasing flexibility.

To date Metamako has brought the following high-performance devices to market: MetaConnect 16, MetaConnect 48, MetaMux 32, MetaApp 32 and MetaMux 48. In addition, Metamako has released the MetaMux and MetaWatch applications to run on the Metamako platform.

In 2014 KPMG named Metamako in its first Global Top 50 FinTech Innovators report, and in 2015 Metamako was listed as an emerging star in KPMG's global Fintech 100.

The founders, Scott Newham, Dave Snowdon and Charles Thomas, have extensive experience engineering high-performance hardware and software for financial markets as well as other verticals, where keeping latency to a minimum and having a high degree of determinism are vitally important. Metamako's solutions have built-in intelligence and are rich in features, using state-of-art technology.

For more information visit http://www.metamako.com

Editorial contacts

Anne-Charlotte Duhaut / Alla Lapidus

Moonlight Media

Email: annecharlotte@moonlightmedia.co.uk / alla@moonlightmedia.co.uk

Tel: +44(0)20-7250-4770


Inflazome (inflazome.com) has successfully closed a Series A financing round for up to US$17/15 million. Two leading life sciences venture capital firms, Novartis Venture Funds and Fountain Healthcare Partners, co-led the financing.

Inflazome is developing inhibitors of the inflammasome, a compelling biological target that regulates our innate immune response, now associated with a wide variety of diseases. Following the closure of the financing round, Florent Gros (Managing Director of Novartis Venture Fund), and Dr. Manus Rogan (Co-Founder and Managing Director at Fountain Healthcare Partners) joined the Board of Directors.

Commenting on the launch of Inflazome, Dr. Matt Cooper, Co-Founder and CEO of Inflazome, stated "Inflammasome activation is now implicated in many diseases driven by chronic inflammation, from Parkinson's to Asthma. These conditions are often inadequately treated by current therapies. We want to help people with debilitating diseases facing limited or no treatment options."

Prof. Luke O'Neill Co-Founder and CSO added, "Animal models and clinical data suggests there is tremendous opportunity to stop the cycle of chronic inflammation in a range of diseases. We believe that targeting the inflammasome has tremendous potential for a wide range of inflammatory diseases where current treatments are ineffective."

Dr. Manus Rogan, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Fountain Healthcare Partners said "Considering the breadth and depth of possible applications, the commercial potential for a successful small molecule inhibitor of this key target is clearly in the billions of dollars range."

Florent Gros, Managing Director at Novartis Venture Fund said, "We have searched extensively for inhibitors of the inflammasome. We are very excited by Inflazome's prospects; the company has outstanding assets, expertise and capabilities."

Inflazome

Utilizing the scientific expertise of our founders and advisors, Inflazome is leading the way in developing orally available drugs to address clinical unmet needs in inflammatory diseases by targeting the inflammasome, which is now thought to drive many chronic inflammatory conditions.

Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, Inflazome was founded by leading academics Prof. Matt Cooper, The University of Queensland (Australia) and Prof. Luke O'Neill Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), following a highly productive joint collaboration. Joining the founding management team as VP of Business Development is experienced industry executive, Dr. Jeremy Skillington, formally of Genentech. inflazome.com

Founding investors are Fountain Healthcare Partners (Dublin, Ireland) and Novartis Venture Fund (Basel, Switzerland).

Fountain Healthcare Partners

Fountain Healthcare Partners is a life science focused venture capital fund with 176 million ($200 million) under management. Within the life science sector, specific areas of interest to Fountain include specialty pharma, medical devices, biotechnology and diagnostics. The firm deploys the majority of its capital in Europe, with the balance in the United States. Fountain's main office is in Dublin, Ireland, with a second office in New York. fh-partners.com

The Novartis Venture Fund

The Novartis Venture Fund (NVF) manages over $700 million in committed capital. NVF invests in companies that have the potential to change a core therapeutic field or explore new business areas that will be critical to patient care. NVF's primary interest is in the development of novel therapeutics and platforms as well as medical devices, diagnostics, and delivery systems. The Funds invest for financial objectives at all stages, but prefers to invest in the early-stages of company development. With investment professionals located in Basel, Switzerland and Cambridge, MA the team has extensive experience in pharmaceutical R&D and venture capital. nvfund.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160911005008/en/

Contacts:

FTI Consulting for Inflazome

Jonathan Neilan

jonathan.neilan@fticonsulting.com

+353 1 6633686

or

Patrick Berkery

patrick.berkery@fticonsulting.com

+353 1 6633684
TORONTO, 2016-09-12 02:39 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mandalay Resources Corporation ("Mandalay" or the "Company") (TSX:MND) regretfully announces the fatality of a contractor in an incident that occurred yesterday at its Cerro Bayo operation in Aysen, Chile.The incident occurred underground and was reported to the Chilean authorities; an investigation into the incident has been initiated. Mining operations at Cerro Bayo are temporarily suspended and the Company is now working closely with the contractor, authorities, and our employees to respond effectively.Dr. Mark Sander, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mandalay, commented: "We deeply regret this incident and are working closely with the contractor and the authorities to understand the cause of the fatality. We are focused on the providing support for our employees on site and extend our sincerest condolences to the family of the deceased."About Mandalay Resources Corporation:Mandalay Resources is a Canadian-based natural resource company with producing assets in Australia, Chile, and Sweden, and a development project in Chile. The Company is focused on executing a roll-up strategy, creating critical mass by aggregating advanced or in-production gold, copper, silver and antimony projects in Australia, the Americas, and Europe to generate near-term cash flow and shareholder value.For Further Information:Mark Sander President and Chief Executive OfficerGreg DiTomaso Director of Investor RelationsContact: +1.647.260.1566

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
DARMSTADT, Germany, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The presentation of the grants coincides with the 55th European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology (ESPE) Meeting

The awards support innovative projects for the advancement of science and medical research in the field of growth

Merck, a leading science and technology company, today announced the recipients of the Grant for Growth Innovation (GGI) for 2016. The awards were announced yesterday evening at an award presentation meeting organized by Merck during the 55th European Society for Pediatric Endocrinology (ESPE) Meeting in Paris, France.

Merck is providing grants to pioneers of new research in growth through the Grant for Growth Innovation award. Identifying and supporting forward thinking researchers in the field of growth follows Merck's scientific strategy of providing a platform that makes innovation possible.

"It is inspiring to see the high quality and aspiration of the researchers to whom these grants have been awarded. We recognise that despite advances in treatment and management of growth disorders, we still require a better understanding of these diseases to address the high unmet medical need. We look forward to seeing the results of these projects," said Dr Steven Hildemann, Global Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Medical and Safety at Merck's Biopharma business.

38 applications were received from 20 countries and reviewed by an independent Scientific Steering Committee composed of five internationally renowned endocrinologists and researchers. Following a rigorous selection process, three awards were offered to innovative projects which seek to advance understanding in the field of growth. The winning projects are based in Australia, Italy and Brazil, and are as follows:

Andrew J. Brooks

University of Queensland Diamantina Institute, Brisbane, Australia

Project: Targeting the transmembrane domain of the growth hormone receptor to develop new drug classes addressing unmet needs in treatment of growth hormone disorders

Antonio Cittadini, MD, PhD

Federico II University, Naples, Italy

Project: Treatment of growth hormone deficiency associated with chronic heart failure: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study

Alexander Augusto de Lima Jorge, MD, PhD

University of Sao Paulo Medical School, Brazil

Project: Growth hormone and estrogen pharmacogenetics in patients with Turner syndrome

About the Grant for Growth Innovation (GGI)

Merck initiated the GGI program to support the advancement of understanding of the field of growth. A total grant of up to 400,000 per year, divided between up to three research proposals, will be awarded to the selected projects. Each application is blinded and evaluated by an independent Scientific Steering Committee composed of internationally renowned endocrinologists and researchers, according to five criteria: innovation; scientific rationale; clarity; feasibility; and impact of research.

For further information about the GGI and how to apply for next year's grants, please visit http://www.grantforgrowthinnovation.org

All Merck Press Releases are distributed by e-mail at the same time they become available on the Merck Website. Please go to http://www.merckgroup.com/subscribe to register online, change your selection or discontinue this service.

About Merck

Merck is a leading science and technology company in healthcare, life science and performance materials. Around 50,000 employees work to further develop technologies that improve and enhance life - from biopharmaceutical therapies to treat cancer or multiple sclerosis, cutting-edge systems for scientific research and production, to liquid crystals for smartphones and LCD televisions. In 2015, Merck generated sales of  12.85 billion in 66 countries.

Founded in 1668, Merck is the world's oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company. The founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed corporate group. Merck, Darmstadt, Germany holds the global rights to the Merck name and brand. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the company operates as EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma and EMD Performance Materials.

Contact: Bettina Frank: +49-6151-72-4660

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MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA -- (Marketwired) -- 09/12/16 -- Opthea Limited (ASX: OPT) (OTCQX: CKDXY), a developer of novel biologic therapies for the treatment of eye diseases, today announced that data from its Phase 1 clinical trial of OPT-302 was presented at the European Society of Retina Specialists (EURETINA) Congress on Saturday, 10th September 2016, in Copenhagen, Denmark. OPT-302 is Opthea's lead program, a novel VEGF-C/D 'Trap' therapy for wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD).

The presentation titled "A first-in-human Phase 1/2a study of the novel VEGF-C/D inhibitor OPT-302 alone and in combination with ranibizumab in patients with wet AMD" was presented by Dr. Pravin Dugel, Managing Partner of Retinal Consultants of Arizona, Clinical Professor at the University of Southern California Eye Institute, Keck School of Medicine, and member of Opthea's Clinical Advisory Board and Clinical Investigator.

The presentation was part of the "Novelties and Late-Breaking Developments in Retina and Technology" session and provided an overview of the scientific rationale for targeting VEGF-C/-D for the treatment of wet AMD and the recently announced positive data from Opthea's ongoing first-in-human clinical trial of OPT-302 (ClinTrials.gov ID#: NCT02543229). The encouraging results from the study demonstrate safety and tolerability of OPT-302 administered as a monotherapy and in combination with standard of care Lucentis and suggest that combined administration of OPT-302 + Lucentis may lead to improved clinical outcomes over Lucentis alone.

The EURETINA Congress, held September 8-11th 2016, was attended by over 4500 professionals from the investor, pharmaceutical and clinical ophthalmology community and is the largest gathering of specialist retinal ophthalmologists and associated healthcare professionals in Europe.

A copy of Dr. Dugel's presentation is available in the "presentations" section of Opthea's website, www.opthea.com.

About Opthea Limited

Opthea (ASX: OPT) is a biologics drug developer focusing on ophthalmic disease therapies. It controls exclusive worldwide rights to a significant intellectual property portfolio around Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF)-C, VEGF-D and VEGFR-3. The applications for the VEGF technology, which functions in regulating blood and lymphatic vessel growth, are substantial and broad. Opthea's product development programs are focused on developing OPT-302 (formerly VGX-300, soluble VEGFR-3) for 'back of the eye' disease such as wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD).

About Wet AMD

Wet (neovascular) age-related macular degeneration, or wet AMD, is a disease characterised by the loss of vision of the middle of the visual field caused by degeneration of the central portion of the retina (the macula). Abnormal growth of blood vessels below the retina, and the leakage of fluid and protein from the vessels, causes retinal degeneration and leads to severe and rapid loss of vision.

Wet AMD is the leading cause of blindness in the developed world in individuals aged 50 years or older. The prevalence of AMD is increasing annually as the population ages. Without treatment, wet AMD patients often experience a chronic, rapid decline in visual acuity and increase in retinal fluid. Sales of the drug Lucentis (Roche/Novartis), which targets VEGF-A but not VEGF-C or VEGF-D, were over $US4.5BN in 2015. Sales of EYLEA (Regeneron/Bayer), which also targets VEGF-A but not VEGF-C/-D first marketed in November 2011 for the treatment of wet AMD, were over $US2.6BN in 2015. Approximately half of the people receiving Lucentis/EYLEA are classified as non-responders or 'poor' responders and do not experience a significant gain in vision and/or have persistent retinal vascular leakage. There is great opportunity to improve patient responses by targeting more than one factor involved in disease progression. Existing therapies, such as Lucentis and EYLEA, target VEGF-A that promotes blood vessel growth and leakage through its receptor VEGFR-2. VEGF-C can also induce angiogenesis and vessel leakage through the same receptor as well as through an independent pathway. Combined inhibition of VEGF-A and VEGF-C/-D, has the potential to improve patient response by more effective inhibition of the pathways involved in disease progression.

About OPT-302

OPT-302 is a soluble form of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 3 (VEGFR-3) or 'Trap' molecule that blocks the activity of two proteins (VEGF-C and VEGF-D) that cause blood vessels to grow and leak. OPT-302 is currently being investigated in a Phase 1/2A clinical trial in wet AMD patients as a monotherapy and in combination with ranibizumab (Lucentis). The trial is actively recruiting patients under an FDA approved IND at several US clinical sites. The purpose of the trial is to evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics of OPT-302 administered as monthly intravitreal injections for 3 months with and without Lucentis in patients with wet age related macular degeneration (AMD). The study is being conducted in two parts: Part 1 (Phase 1) comprises an open label, sequential dose escalation that recruited 20 patients and Part 2 (Phase 2A) a randomized dose expansion that will recruit an additional ~30 patients and is aimed at further characterising the safety, pharmacokinetic profile and relationship between dose/PK and clinical activity of OPT-302 (+/- ranibizumab). Further details on the Phase 1/2A trial can be found at: www.clinicaltrials.gov, Clinical trial identifier: NCT02543229.

Inherent risks of Investment in Biotechnology Companies

There are a number of inherent risks associated with the development of pharmaceutical products to a marketable stage. The lengthy clinical trial process is designed to assess the safety and efficacy of a drug prior to commercialisation and a significant proportion of drugs fail one or both of these criteria. Other risks include uncertainty of patent protection and proprietary rights, whether patent applications and issued patents will offer adequate protection to enable product development, the obtaining of necessary drug regulatory authority approvals and difficulties caused by the rapid advancements in technology. Companies such as Opthea are dependent on the success of their research and development projects and on the ability to attract funding to support these activities. Investment in research and development projects cannot be assessed on the same fundamentals as trading and manufacturing enterprises. Thus investment in companies specialising in drug development must be regarded as highly speculative. Opthea strongly recommends that professional investment advice be sought prior to such investments.

Forward-looking statements

Certain statements in this ASX announcement may contain forward-looking statements regarding Company business and the therapeutic and commercial potential of its technologies and products in development. Any statement describing Company goals, expectations, intentions or beliefs is a forward-looking statement and should be considered an at-risk statement. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, particularly those risks or uncertainties inherent in the process of developing technology and in the process of discovering, developing and commercialising drugs that can be proven to be safe and effective for use as human therapeutics, and in the endeavour of building a business around such products and services. Opthea undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Actual results could differ materially from those discussed in this ASX announcement.

Company & Media Enquiries:



Megan Baldwin, PhD

CEO & Managing Director

Opthea Limited

Tel: +61 (0) 447 788 674

Email Contact



Australia:

Rudi Michelson

Monsoon Communications

Tel: +61 (0) 3 9620 3333



U.S.A. & International:

Candice Knoll

Blueprint Life Science Group

Tel: +1 415 375 3340, Ext 4



Join our email database to receive program updates:

Tel: +61 (0) 3 9826 0399

Email Contact

www.opthea.com




LONDON, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Chubb today announced that Jamie Keaney, formerly European Personal Risk Services Underwriting Manager, has been promoted to the new role of Vice President and Chief Underwriting Officer, International Personal Risk Services, as the company continues to expand its international High Net Worth insurance capabilities.

In his new role, Jamie will work on driving the profitable growth of Chubb's global High Net Worth business outside North America, with a focus on the European and Australian markets. He will continue to be based in London, reporting to John B. Thompson, Chief Underwriting Officer, International Personal Lines for Chubb. His appointment is effective immediately.

Jamie has over 20 years of experience in High Net Worth insurance. He joined Chubb in 2001 from Jardine Lloyd Thompson, where he worked as a Lloyd's commercial art broker, to manage the company's European Signature team which provides solutions for the Ultra High Net Worth market segment. In 2010, he became European Personal Lines Underwriting Manager.

Darryl Page, Vice President, Chubb and Division President, International Personal Lines, said:

"I am excited to welcome Jamie to this new role. With his deep experience in High Net Worth insurance and his strong track record at Chubb, I am confident that he will continue to contribute significantly to our objectives of providing exceptional service to our partners and customers, while profitably expanding our business internationally."

Jalil Rehman, Executive Vice President and Chief Business Operations Officer, Europe, said:

"I have known Jamie for many years and I have always been impressed by his professionalism and personal commitment. Underwriting excellence and taking a tailored approach to each individual's needs are at the heart of our high net worth proposition and Jamie's well-deserved promotion will help ensure that we continue to meet the evolving needs of our valued brokers and clients in Europe."

About Chubb

Chubb is the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company. With operations in 54 countries, Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. As an underwriting company, we assess, assume and manage risk with insight and discipline. We service and pay our claims fairly and promptly. The company is also defined by its extensive product and service offerings, broad distribution capabilities, exceptional financial strength and local operations globally. Parent company Chubb Limited is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CB) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Chubb maintains executive offices in Zurich, New York, London and other locations, and employs approximately 31,000 people worldwide. Additional information can be found at: new.chubb.com.

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WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The South African Rand drifted lower against the U.S. dollar in early European deals on Monday, as allure of emerging currencies diminished on fears over an early rate by the Federal Reserve. The South African Rand fell to a 10-day low of 14.57 against the greenback, compared to Friday's closing value of 14.40. The next possible support for the South African Rand may be found around the 15.5 mark. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Finance for the Non-financial Manager" conference to their offering.

Finance is called the language of business, this is because many of the measures of success and failure in business are expressed in financial terms. As a result having a working knowledge of this language allows you to make solid and effective business decisions.

Managers must be conversant with the terminology and statements that accountants use. Technical expertise in projects, service delivery, production or other areas can only really be harnessed if you understand the accounting and reporting that drives your business.

This programme delivers a deeper understanding through applied training techniques. It will provide you with the practical financial skills and techniques to ensure business success and profitability for you, your department and your business.

Programme Objectives

Understand the language, terminology and structure of accounts

Learn to measure and manage cash flow to ensure financial success

Grasp the key elements to successful planning, evaluating and controlling your budget

Get-to-grips with the different ways to measure your operational performance in financial terms

Understand what financial information you need to help you in decision-making and how to use it

Develop the skills to maximise pricing your goods and services accurately

Be able to make a positive impact on the financial efficiency and profitability of the business

Boost your confidence when discussing financial objectives with your colleagues

Agenda

Day one

What do accountants do?

The basic financial statements

The accounting process

Why be in business from a financial perspective

Accounting rules accounting standards

Cash

Day two

Budgeting

Costing

Reading financial statements

Performance measurement analytical reviews and ratio analysis

Action planning and close of course

For more information about this conference visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/fn8r2p/finance_for_the

Related Topics: Management

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912005631/en/

Contacts:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com

For E.S.T. Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716






TSX:ORV

TORONTO, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --Orvana Minerals Corp. (TSX:ORV) (the "Company" or "Orvana") is pleased to announce thatMr. James Gilbert, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Mr. Jeffrey Hillis, Chief Financial Officerwill beattending the Precious Metals Summit at Beaver Creek, Colorado from September 14-16, 2016.

Mr. Gilbert will be presenting on Friday, September 16, 2016 at 11:30 am (MT). A webcast of the presentation will be available on Orvana's website.

About Orvana

Orvana is a multi-mine gold and copper producer. Orvana's operating assets consist of the producing gold-copper-silver El Valle mine in northern Spain and the producing gold-copper-silver Don Mario mine in Bolivia. Additional information is available at Orvana's website (www.orvana.com).

Cautionary Statements - Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements in this information constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, potentials, future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "believes", "expects", "plans", "estimates" or "intends" or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will" or "are projected to" be taken or achieved) are not statements of historical fact, but are forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements herein relate to, among other things, Orvana's ability to achieve improvement in free cash flow; the potential to extend the mine life of El Valle and Don Mario beyond their current life-of-mine estimates; Orvana's ability to optimize its assets to deliver shareholder value; the Company's ability to optimize productivity at Don Mario and El Valle; estimates of future production, operating costs and capital expenditures; mineral resource and reserve estimates; statements and information regarding future feasibility studies and their results; future transactions; future metal prices; the ability to achieve additional growth and geographic diversification; future financial performance, including the ability to increase cash flow and profits; future financing requirements; and mine development plans.

Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the date of such statements, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. The estimates and assumptions of the Company contained or incorporated by reference in this information, which may prove to be incorrect, include, but are not limited to, the various assumptions set forth herein and in Orvana's most recently filed Management's Discussion & Analysis and Annual Information Form in respect of the Company's most recently completed fiscal year (the "Company Disclosures") or as otherwise expressly incorporated herein by reference as well as: there being no significant disruptions affecting operations, whether due to labour disruptions, supply disruptions, power disruptions, damage to equipment or otherwise; permitting, development, operations, expansion and acquisitions at El Valle and Don Mario being consistent with the Company's current expectations; political developments in any jurisdiction in which the Company operates being consistent with its current expectations; certain price assumptions for gold, copper and silver; prices for key supplies being approximately consistent with current levels; production and cost of sales forecasts meeting expectations; the accuracy of the Company's current mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates; and labour and materials costs increasing on a basis consistent with Orvana's current expectations.

A variety of inherent risks, uncertainties and factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control, affect the operations, performance and results of the Company and its business, and could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results expressed or implied by forward looking statements. Some of these risks, uncertainties and factors include fluctuations in the price of gold, silver and copper; the need to recalculate estimates of resources based on actual production experience; the failure to achieve production estimates; variations in the grade of ore mined; variations in the cost of operations; the availability of qualified personnel; the Company's ability to obtain and maintain all necessary regulatory approvals and licenses; the Company's ability to use cyanide in its mining operations; risks generally associated with mineral exploration and development, including the Company's ability to continue to operate the El Valle and/or Don Mario and/or ability to resume operations at the Carles Mine; the Company's ability to acquire and develop mineral properties and to successfully integrate such acquisitions; the Company's ability to execute on its strategy; the Company's ability to obtain financing when required on terms that are acceptable to the Company; challenges to the Company's interests in its property and mineral rights; current, pending and proposed legislative or regulatory developments or changes in political, social or economic conditions in the countries in which the Company operates; general economic conditions worldwide; and the risks identified in the Company's Disclosures under the heading "Risks and Uncertainties". This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of the Company's forward-looking statements and reference should also be made to the Company's Disclosures for a description of additional risk factors.

Any forward-looking statements made in this information with respect to the anticipated development and exploration of the Company's mineral projects are intended to provide an overview of management's expectations with respect to certain future activities of the Company and may not be appropriate for other purposes.

Forward-looking statements are based on management's current plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions and, except as required by law, the Company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements should assumptions related to these plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions change. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements made in this information are intended to provide an overview of management's expectations with respect to certain future operating activities of the Company and may not be appropriate for other purposes.







For further information: Jeff Hillis, Chief Financial Officer, T (416) 369-6275, E jhillis@orvana.com; Joanne Jobin, Investor Relations Officer, T (416) 369-6275, E jjobin@orvana.com




MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 09/12/16 -- Genius Properties Ltd. (CSE: GNI) ("Genius" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Frank Guillemette as President and Jimmy Gravel as CEO of Genius, effective immediately, in replacement of Mr. Stephane Leblanc who has acted as President and CEO since the inception of Genius. This decision was made with a view to enable Mr. Leblanc to mainly concentrate his time and efforts on Canadian Metals Inc., a rapidly expanding corporation that recently filed a preliminary economic assessment. Mr. Leblanc will continue to be actively involved in the growth of Genius as Chairman and will continue to provide insight and assistance in the pursuit of the company's goal of becoming a junior miner and producer in the coming years.

Mr. Guillemette is an entrepreneur specializing in business finance and venture capital with over 20 years experience. Mr. Guillemette launched his career as an employee of Fonds Regional de Solidarite Nord-du-Quebec where he was responsible for managing the company's mining portfolio and was accountable for the associated financial duties. In 2004, he founded the private company known as Multi-Ressources Boreal where he remains active in the management of exploration and mining land brokerage. Among other successfully executed gold property transactions are the Souart Project that was sold to Osisko Mining in February of 2016 ($1.5 million after escrower period ended) and an option deal in 2008 on the Monster Lake Project where TomaGold & IAMGOLD have since invested $10 million in exploration. He has also held the responsibility of managing multi-million dollars of exploration fieldwork on gold, base metals, rare earth and other commodities including phosphorus, iron and titanium projects. Mr. Guillemette also works as a registered representative of Montreal-based exempt market dealer, EMD Financial Inc.

"I am excited and honoured to take on this role and look forward to partnering with Jimmy Gravel and the senior leadership team in delivering on our sole objective of creating shareholder value," commented Mr. Guillemette.

"We are very pleased to welcome Mr. Guillemette as our President. He comes with considerable experience in the mining industry, which I believe will better position us for our future growth", said Mr. Leblanc, Chairman.

Mr. Gravel has a proven track record in building and managing teams in the manufacturing industry worldwide. As the former President and CEO of an elevator manufacturer; bilingual International Business Development Manager in the marine industry and a successful Land Developer, Mr. Gravel is now establishing important relationships building a solid reputation in the Mining Industry in Nova Scotia through the mineral properties acquired and optioned in the last few years, including the Blockhouse Property.

Mr. Gravel stated, "I am excited to accept this leadership position at Genius, and look forward to advancing the Company's current projects in Nova Scotia and Quebec and building on what Mr. Leblanc has created. I also look forward to identifying new opportunities while continuing to focus on growing shareholder value."

"I am confident in Jimmy Gravel as he leads the company forward, leaning on his diverse experiences to guide the company in meeting its corporate objectives," commented Mr. Leblanc, Chairman. "We are entering a new and important phase for Genius, moving towards a development decision on the Blockhouse Gold Project and setting the strategy for the next chapter of our Company's growth."

Grant of Options

The Company announces that the Board of Directors have approved the granting of a total of 2,500,000 stock options to Directors, Officers and Consultants of the company under the stock option plan of the Company, with each option being exercisable at a price of $0.05 per share for a period of five years.

About Genius Properties

Genius is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on developing projects with some of the world's most critical metals and minerals. Genius is the ideal partner for exploration companies and capital pool companies looking for a qualifying transaction and projects of merit.

Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Stephane Leblanc

Chairman of the Board

slconcept@hotmail.com




View of the headquarters of China Vanke Co Ltd in Shenzhen city, south China's Guangdong Province. [File photo]

China Vanke, the country's largest developer when measured by sales, denied on Monday having promised a 2 billion yuan (about US$299.4 million) annual dividend in its asset-swap deal with subway operator Shenzhen Metro.

Vanke's announcement came after comments by Shenzhen Metro's chairman Lin Maode that have caused concerns among China's market regulators.

"Many people know we are making a deal with a publicly listed company right now, and many have asked me why we got into this," said Lin a at seminar last Thursday. "It's because we were promised a 2-billion yuan (about US$299.4 million) annual dividend from the company, which would provide us with strong cash flow."

Lin did not identify the listed company, but it was generally accepted among the attendees that he was taking about Vanke.

In response to an inquiry from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Vanke said it did not promise to pay the multi-billion yuan dividend to Shenzhen Metro. Also, Lin's comments "were based on previous outstanding performances by Vanke and its dividend payment policies, confidence in the 'subway plus property' development model and forecast of the investment," said Vanke, citing a reply from Shenzhen Metro.

In June, Vanke announced that it would acquire a unit of the Shenzhen Metro for 45.6 billion yuan (about US$6.8 billion) via a new share issue, making the subway operator its biggest shareholder. The move was aimed at warding off a takeover from property and insurance company Baoneng Group. Baoneng currently holds a 25-percent stake in Vanke through two subsidiaries.

Vanke's deal with Shenzhen Metro was later rejected by Baoneng and China Resources (Holdings) Co., Baoneng's second-largest shareholder.
OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 09/12/16 -- Their Royal Highness The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will tour Canada from September 24 to October 1, 2016. They will make seven official stops, including one in Bella Bella, British Columbia (September 26) and one in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia (September 30).

Since flight access to both Bella Bella and Haida Gwaii is limited, we have organized chartered flights at cost recovery for an extended group of media to travel return on the same day. This group will be selected by a draw based on media type (print media, radio or television).

All Canadian media representatives who wish to apply for the draw must be accredited and must express their interest by email to pch.media-media.pch@canada.ca no later than 8:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday, September 15, 2016.

The application for accreditation can be accessed online at https://www.accreditationcanada.gc.ca/RT-TR2016/.

The following details must be included in the application:

-- Name and outlet; -- Type of media (for example, print, radio or television); and -- Preferred destination (Bella Bella or Haida Gwaii).

Applicants will be informed on September 16, 2016, if they have been selected from the random draw.

Please note that all details are subject to change.

Stay Connected

Follow us on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Flickr.

Contacts:

Media Relations / Accreditation

Canadian Heritage

819-994-9101

1-866-569-6155

pch.media-media.pch@canada.ca




EVANSTON, IL--(Marketwired - September 12, 2016) - Manufacturing employment in Pennsylvania declined slightly over the past year, reports the 2017 Pennsylvania Manufacturers Register  , an industrial database and directory published by Manufacturers' News, Inc. (MNI) Evanston, IL. According to MNI's industrial database, manufacturers in Pennsylvania shed 5,594 jobs, or nearly one percent, between July 2015 and July 2016.

Pennsylvania's 16,054 manufacturers employ 787,259 in the state, reports MNI, compared to 19,246 industrial companies and 924,019 workers recorded a decade ago.

For the full report, including a regional analysis, click here or visit http://www.mni.net/news/

"High business costs and aging infrastructure, combined with a drop in oil prices, have put Pennsylvania industrial growth on hold," says Tom Dubin, President of the Evanston, IL-based publishing company, which has been surveying industry since 1912. "However, losses over the past few years have not been nearly as severe as during the recession, and the state's focus on manufacturing innovation continues to foster a variety of cutting-edge enterprises."

MNI reports industrial machinery accounts for the most manufacturing jobs in the state, employing 91,597, down 1.3% over the year. Second-ranked food processing added jobs, up 1% to 85,209, while third-ranked fabricated metals declined 1% to 84,575 jobs.

Industrial job losses in Pennsylvania were spread out across most other sectors, reports MNI, and included petroleum products, down 12.5%; furniture/fixtures, down 4.2%; electronics, down 4.1%; printing/publishing, down 4%; textiles/apparel, down 2.9%; chemicals, down 2%; and stone/clay/glass, down 1.4%.

The oil and gas extraction sector has accounted for much of Pennsylvania's post-recession job gains, with employment skyrocketing 154% between 2010 and 2015. Jobs in that industry declined for the first time since the boom took hold, reports MNI, falling 12% over the past twelve months.

City data collected by MNI shows Philadelphia ranks first in the state for number of manufacturing jobs, with 38,255 workers, down 5.2%. Pittsburgh is now a close second, with 34,886 jobs, down 2.2% over the year, while third-ranked York is home to 20,310 workers, down 2.5%. Erie ranks fourth with 17,588 jobs, down 3.9%, and fifth-ranked Lancaster accounts for 16,371 industrial jobs, down 6.7%.

Established in 1912, MNI is the nation's oldest and largest compiler of industrial information, offering tailored solutions to help customers connect with 430,000 manufacturers and suppliers. MNI's industrial marketplace IndustryNet: http://www.industrynet.com is a one-stop resource that connects buyers with suppliers of 10,000 + products and services, and allows users to obtain competitive quotes, create and view company profiles, post company news releases, photos, videos, job openings, and more. MNI's subscription service EZ Select: http://www.ezselect.com provides access to MNI's live interactive database of manufacturers. For more information, contact MNI at 847-864-7000 or visit http://www.mni.net

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/9/12/11G113714/Images/PA_2017-b18e0a9e3a41b2dda60674e1613caaff.jpg

Contact:

Jennifer Ratcliff

Manufacturers' News, Inc.

(847) 864-9440 ext. 241

jratcliff@mni.net
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 09/12/16 -- K92 Mining Inc. (the "Company" or "K92") (TSX VENTURE: KNT) (OTCQB: KNTNF) is pleased to provide an update regarding onsite progress at its Kainantu Gold Mine.

With the production re-start process at the high grade Irumafimpa Deposit well advanced, on schedule and on budget, the Company has commenced an exploration drilling program targeting an expansion of the resources.

The Company was fully funded to restart production at the Irumafimpa Deposit when it began trading publicly on the TSXV on May 25th, 2016. Since that time, the Company has received approximately $18.5 million in additional capital through private placements and the exercise of previously granted warrants.

The additional capital provides the Company with increased financial flexibility to accelerate the completion of the underground incline drive from the Irumafimpa Deposit to the Kora Deposit (with drill testing along the way) and expansion drilling in the Irumafimpa area. The first phase of drilling has now commenced, in the Irumafimpa area.

To guide the resource expansion and exploration mandate, K92 is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Chris Muller, PhD, as Exploration Manager of K92.

Mr Muller has extensive international mining experience, including a decade of experience in Papua New Guinea ("PNG"). His ten years of experience in PNG includes four years with the Morobe Mining Joint Venture (Newcrest Mining/Harmony Gold) as Geology Manager/Principal Geologist working on the Wafi - Golpu Project, where he led the Nambonga Porphyry and Golpu West/Golpu Deeps discovery team. Mr. Muller has also worked in Mongolia, Indonesia, Ghana and Australia.

Mr. Muller has a PhD in Tectonics/Biogeography of the Indo-Pacific using Rhopaloceran genetics and a High First Class honours degree from the Centre of Ore Deposit Research, University of Tasmania and a Bachelor of Science degree from Macquarie University.

Drilling Onsite Commences

K92 has commenced diamond drilling underground at the Irumafimpa Gold Deposit and has engaged Quest Exploration Drilling ("QED") to undertake this work. K92 selected QED as the drilling contractor due to their extensive experience in the Asia Pacific region, including in PNG where QED has a regional office and workshop located in the port city of Lae near the Kainantu Mine Site. The combination of being locally established, which provides excellent support for site, and their specialized expertise in underground drilling makes QED an ideal supplier to K92.

QED has provided two rigs, one which is focused on drilling out the Irumafimpa orebody for grade control and mine planning purposes and the second unit for drilling of the Judd Vein System targeting expansion.

The initial resource estimate for the Kora and Irumafimpa deposits, situated within Company's ML 150, is 1.84 M inferred oz. at 11.6 g/t Au eq. and 240,000 indicated oz. at 13.3 g/t Au eq (based on the Independent Technical Report, Resource Estimate and Summary of Mining Facilities, Kainantu Project, Papua New Guinea, Nolidan Mineral Consultants, Author Anthony Woodward, BSc Hons., M.Sc., MAIG, April 15, 2016 (the "Technical Report") - a copy of which is available for review and has been filed on SEDAR under the Company's profile and contains a full description of all underlying assumptions)). This mineral resource estimate is based on 78,935 metres of drilling from 767 holes and 18,312 metres of assayed intervals across all lodes. Kora remains open in all directions and strongly mineralized at the extent of drilling.

Judd was identified from earlier drilling by Barrick Gold Corporation, and exploration work, as having a strike length of at least 2,500 meters running parallel to and to the East of the Irumafimpa and Kora Deposits, only 50 to 100 metres from the main incline (for a more detail description of Judd, please refer to the Technical Report).

John Lewins, K92 Chief Operating Officer and Director, states, "The technical team onsite has done an excellent job with the production re-start and we are on schedule and on budget. With that focus on track, and with the enhanced financial flexibility resulting from our recent financings, we are now looking to target a resource expansion that we believe exists."

Brian Lueck, BSc, Geo, a qualified person under the meaning of Canadian National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and is responsible for the technical content of this news release.

On behalf of the Company,

Ian Stalker

Chief Executive Officer and Director

The TSXV has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION: This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements that address future plans, activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur are forward-looking information, including statements regarding the potential expansion of resources which may or may not occur and the generation of further drilling results which may or may not occur. Forward-looking statements and information contained herein are based on certain factors and assumptions regarding, among other things, the market price of the Company's securities, metal prices, taxation, the estimation, timing and amount of future exploration and development, capital and operating costs, the availability of financing, the receipt of regulatory approvals, environmental risks, title disputes, failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated, accidents, labour disputes, claims and limitations on insurance coverage and other risks of the mining industry, changes in national and local government regulation of mining operations, and regulations and other matters.. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Contacts:

K92 Mining Inc.

(604) 687-7130

(604) 608-9110 (FAX)




PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --EpiVax, Inc., "immune engineering" pioneer, has won a new $600,000 National Institutes of Health grant under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to improve a vaccine for the problematic H7N9 avian influenza virus. The vaccine development program will be directed by Annie De Groot, M.D., EpiVax CEO/CSO, and Lenny Moise, Ph.D., EpiVax Director of Vaccine Research, and carried out in collaboration with Ted Ross, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Infectious Diseases, and Director, Center for Vaccines and Immunology, University of Georgia.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121116/NE15175LOGO

H7N9 influenza has earned the moniker "stealth virus" for the ability to evade the human immune response, both in natural infection1 and in vaccine formulations2. H7N9 vaccines developed using conventional methods have significantly underperformed in the clinic3,4,5. EpiVax's SBIR-funded avian influenza research program aims to re-engineer H7N9 viral proteins to be more easily detected by the immune system, resulting in a more potent vaccine product. The first version of the optimized influenza vaccine designed by EpiVax will soon enter a Phase I trial in Australia, in collaboration with Vaxine and Protein Sciences Corporation.

Dr. Manon Cox, Protein Sciences CEO, said, "We are pleased to work with EpiVax in exploring the potential to immune engineer better, safer, and more effective vaccines."

This SBIR-funded avian influenza program will explore "camouflage" sequences in the virus and further validate the discovery of regulatory T cell epitopes (Tregitopes) in human pathogens, a novel means of immune escape now known as "immune camouflage."6

EpiVax is one of the founding members of Rhode Island's expanding biotechnology community. "We are fortunate to have Dr. Annie De Groot and her team conducting innovative biotech research here in Rhode Island," said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. "This federal funding is a boost for EpiVax's work to engineer new vaccines and is an investment in Providence's life sciences industry."

About EpiVax

EpiVax, Inc., is a privately held biotechnology company focused on the development of vaccines and immunotherapies for infectious diseases, autoimmunity and cancer. Led by Dr. Anne S. De Groot, M.D., and Bill Martin, thought leaders in the new field of vaccine design, the immunoinformatics team at EpiVax has developed the cloud-based ISPRI and iVAX toolkits, used by a global roster of companies to design and optimize therapeutic proteins and vaccines. More at www.epivax.com.

Side-stepping Immune Camouflage and Stealth Pathogens to make Better Vaccines

Scientific studies validating the "stealth virus" and "immune camouflage" concepts are described in greater detail in publications by De Groot and Moise that are freely accessible on PubMed.

NIH funding statement

Research reported in this release is supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under grant number R43AI118189. The content of this press release is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Media Contact:

Steven Vessella

BDA svessella@epivax.com

Dr. Annie De Groot

CEO/CSO annied@epivax.com

______________________________

1 doi:10.4161/hv.36134

2 http://bit.ly/2cFct8a

3 doi:10.4161/hv.24939

4 doi:10.4161/hv.28135

5 doi:10.1056/nejmc1313186

6 doi:10.1586/14760584.2016.1123098
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 09/12/16 -- I am very pleased that the Government of Canada has signed a new audiovisual coproduction treaty with New Zealand. This treaty will further position Canada as a partner of choice in audiovisual coproduction and strengthen our cultural and economic ties with New Zealand.

Daniel Mellsop, High Commissioner of New Zealand to Canada, and I signed the agreement yesterday at the Toronto International Film Festival. It will replace the existing treaty from 1987.

An audiovisual coproduction treaty allows producers to combine creative and financial resources to develop coproductions that increase cultural exchanges between partner countries, let creators share expertise and contribute to economic growth.

In order for the new treaty to come into effect, each country will have to complete domestic procedures to ratify it. Once in force, the treaty will open the door to opportunities for producers from both countries by offering more creative flexibility and will better respond to new practices and technologies.

Projects coproduced under a treaty are given national status in both Canada and the partner country. This makes producers eligible for national benefits in their own countries, such as funding programs or tax incentives.

In the past 50 years, Canada has signed audiovisual coproduction treaties with 54 countries. Over the past 10 years alone, our country has produced 654 audiovisual treaty coproductions, whose production budgets total $4.8 billion.

Stay Connected

Follow us on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Flickr.

Contacts:

Pierre-Olivier Herbert

Press Secretary

Office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage

819-997-7788




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 09/12/16 -- Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

In a period of low economic growth, Canada needs to invest in developing the talent and skills of its people. Canada should also focus on scaling up start-up companies and using the government's purchasing power to drive innovation. That's the kind of leadership that Canadians expect from their government.

The Government of Canada's Innovation Agenda will put in place the conditions to create good-paying jobs for the middle class as well as those working hard to join it.

This is the message that the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, delivered today to an audience of business and public-sector leaders at the Toronto Global Forum.

In his remarks, Minister Bains emphasized the need for both government and the private sector to make smart investments in three key areas:

-- Talent: Expand work-integrated learning programs, such as internships, apprenticeships and continuous learning opportunities, for Canadians at every stage of their careers-from new graduates right up to the highest- ranking executives. -- Research: Set big-horizon goals and create broad-based partnerships to fund ambitious research projects that solve complex, large-scale problems and spark commercial opportunities for the private sector. -- Scale-up: Leverage the buying power of government, as the single-largest purchaser of goods and services, to support the growth of small and medium-sized companies that have the most innovative solutions.

Minister Bains concluded by issuing a challenge to the business community to spend more on research and development as well as talent development.

Quote

"Low growth does not have to be Canada's fate. We can seize the future and position Canada to outperform the rest of the world. An innovation economy that creates good-paying jobs for the middle class is within our grasp. Our government stands ready to be a meaningful partner in nurturing homegrown talent while attracting the best and brightest from around the world. We are investing in people, infrastructure and research excellence, which are the cornerstones of an innovation economy. But I also challenge our business leaders to make similar investments, which will power our country to a bright and prosperous future."

- The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development

Quick facts

-- Canadians have participated enthusiastically during a summer of public engagement on the Innovation Agenda. More than 28 round-table discussions have been held across the country, and a web portal has received more than 90,000 hits and 1,300 ideas. -- The Toronto Global Forum is an international conference fostering dialogue on national and global issues. It is held under the auspices of the International Economic Forum of the Americas (IEFA), which organizes annual summits bringing together heads of state, central bank governors, ministers and global economic decision makers. -- The Innovation Agenda focuses on six areas of action: -- Entrepreneurial and Creative Society - Developing the skills needed to create and compete, attract talent, and multiply social enterprises that address both social and economic needs -- Global Science Excellence - Translating basic research into new products, services and technologies and facilitating the interconnections between science and economic opportunities -- World-Leading Clusters of Innovation - Supporting the growth of world-leading clusters in Canada that will serve as the magnet for cutting-edge research, investment, talent and commercialization -- Growing Companies to Scale and Accelerating Clean Growth - Supporting the start-up and scale-up of SMEs so that they become leading global players through well-developed value chains. It also means developing clean-tech solutions and promoting their adoption across the entire economy -- Competing in a Digital World - Capitalizing on digital technologies, such as cloud computing, big data analytics and additive manufacturing, to give Canada a competitive edge on the new wave of disruption -- Ease of Doing Business - Creating a regulatory environment that is conducive to innovation and smart risk taking where new players can easily grow by having access to finance, talent and markets

Associated links

Toronto Global Forum

Canada's Innovation Agenda

Follow Minister Bains on social media.

Twitter: @MinisterISED

Contacts:

Philip Proulx

Press Secretary

Office of the Minister of Innovation,

Science and Economic Development

343-291-2500



Media Relations

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

343-291-1777

ic.mediarelations-mediasrelations.ic@canada.ca




NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - September 12, 2016) - Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a leading independent global infrastructure investor, announced today that its fund, Global Infrastructure Partners III (GIP III), and a group of its Limited Partner Co-Investors have agreed to acquire a 20% interest in Gas Natural SDG, S.A. (Gas Natural) from Criteria Caixa, S.A. (Criteria) and Repsol, S.A. (Repsol) at an acquisition price of EUR19.00 per share, for a total consideration of EUR3.8 billion.

Each of Criteria and Repsol will sell a 10% interest to GIP and as result of the transaction, Criteria and Repsol have agreed to terminate the shareholders' agreement between la Caixa and Repsol regarding Gas Natural.

Gas Natural (the Company) is one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in the world with operations in more than 30 countries and over 23 million customers. The Company operates across the gas value chain from procurement to liquefaction, storage, regasification, transportation, distribution and marketing. The Company owns the largest gas distribution network and has a leading market share in the retailing of gas in Spain. Gas Natural also owns and operates gas distribution networks in Latin America with leading market shares in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico. Additionally, Gas Natural is the third largest electricity distribution company in the Spanish market and has leading electricity distribution market shares in Chile and Panama. Gas Natural owns approximately 15GW of electricity generation assets in Spain and internationally. Gas Natural is listed on the Spanish stock exchanges and forms part of the IBEX 35.

The closing of the transaction is conditional upon approval of certain corporate governance changes by the Board of Directors of Gas Natural, including GIP representation on the Board and its Committees and an amendment to the Regulations of the Board of Directors to require approval of certain matters by a two-thirds majority. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of September 2016.

Adebayo Ogunlesi, Chairman and Managing Partner of GIP said: "We are delighted to be entering into this long term strategic partnership with Gas Natural, one of the world's leading energy companies and a recognized leader in the energy sector in Spain. Gas Natural has an outstanding portfolio of gas and electricity assets that generate strong, stable cash flows. This transaction is in line with GIP's strategy of investing in high quality, industry leading companies and assets. We look forward to working with Gas Natural's management and leveraging our considerable experience in the energy sector to support them in delivering on their strategic plan."

About Global Infrastructure Partners

Global Infrastructure Partners ("GIP") is an independent infrastructure fund manager that invests worldwide in infrastructure assets and businesses in both OECD and select emerging market countries. GIP targets long term investments in single assets and portfolios of assets and companies in power and utilities, natural resources infrastructure, air transport infrastructure, seaports, freight railroad, water distribution and treatment and waste management. GIP has offices in New York and London, with an affiliate in Sydney and portfolio company operations headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. For more information, visit www.global-infra.com.

Media contact:

Jack Cowell

jack.cowell@global-infra.com

+1 212 315-8133
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 12, 2016) - RT Minerals Corp. (TSXV: RTM) (the "Company") announces that the proposed drill program announced on July 18, 2016 at the Company's Ballard Lake property near Wawa, Ontario will now commence the week of September 19, 2016.

Pursuant to the Company's press release of July 18, 2016, whereby sampling of six trenches returned gold values ranging between anomalous gold to up to 7.48 g/t Au from chip sampling, the Company has established initial drill targets in the area of three of the six trenches sampled in June 2016.

The drill program will consist of at least three holes of up to 150 metres in core length each in the area of where higher grade gold mineralization was demonstrated from the June 2016 trenching program.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Paul Antoniazzi

President and Chief Executive Officer

RT Minerals Corp.

Telephone: 604-681-3170

Fax: 604-681-3552

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as the term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of accuracy of this news release.

Forward-looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release relating to the Company's exploration activities, project expenditures and business plans are approximate and are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of securities legislation. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements. These forward looking statements represent management's best judgment based on current facts and assumptions that management considers reasonable, including that operating and capital plans will not be disrupted by issues such as adverse market conditions, mechanical failure, unavailability of parts, labor disturbances, interruption in transportation or utilities, or adverse weather conditions, that there are no material unanticipated variations in budgeted costs, that contractors will complete projects according to schedule, and that actual mineralization on properties may not achieve any category of resource(s). The Company makes no representation that reasonable business people in possession of the same information would reach the same conclusions. Forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. In particular, fluctuations in the price of gold, equity markets or in currency markets could prevent the Company from achieving its targets. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. There is no guarantee that drill results reported in this news release or future releases will lead to the identification of a deposit that can be mined economically, and further work is required to identify resources and reserves. We seek safe harbour.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 09/12/16 -- Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food, highlighted today he will be leading a trade mission to China in the fall. The mission would be part of the Government's efforts to expand Canada's bilateral relationship with China.

Minister MacAulay will be joined by a group of industry representatives from the Canadian Agricultural, Agri-food and Fish and Seafood sectors to work with Chinese officials and businesses to promote Canadian food products in key Chinese markets and strengthen relationships between the two countries.

In late August, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went on his first official visit to China where 56 deals worth more than $1.2 billion were signed between Chinese and Canadian firms. The two countries also reached an agreement on the continuation of the canola trade.

As part of the trade mission, Minister MacAulay is expected to attend the China Fisheries and Seafood Expo in Qingdao and the Food and Hospitality China event in Shanghai. One hundred and twenty Canadian exhibitors will be participating in the two trade shows this year.

Minister MacAulay announced his upcoming China visit in a speech he delivered earlier today at a meeting held with the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade. He also highlighted the importance of trade, innovation and the Government's commitment to a sustainable economic future.

Quick Facts

-- Canada exported over $6.2 billion in agricultural, agri-food and fish and seafood exports to China in 2015. -- China is Canada's second-largest trading partner for agriculture, agri- food and fish and seafood products.

Quotes

"The Government of Canada continues to work with our global partners to expand market access across the globe. Expanding these markets will help put more money in the pockets of Canadian farmers while helping to grow the middle class. We are pleased to work with the Chinese government in an effort to grow our Agricultural, Agri-Food and Fish and Seafood sectors through bilateral trade."

- Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, Canada's Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food

Additional links

- Prime Minister concludes successful first official visit to China

- Minister MacAulay attends G20 Agricultural Ministers' Meeting in China

- China - At a Glance

Follow us on Twitter: @AAFC_Canada

Like us on Facebook: AgricultureCanada

Contacts:

Guy Gallant

Director of Communications

Office of the Honourable Lawrence MacAulay

613-773-1059



Media Relations

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Ottawa, Ontario

613-773-7972

1-866-345-7972




EDMONTON, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 09/12/16 -- What:

The North West Redwater Partnership (NWR) and Women Building Futures (WBF), Alberta's premier trades training organization for women, along with the Alberta Carpenters Training Fund, will be holding a press conference on Monday, September 19, 2016 to celebrate the integration of their newest carpenter/scaffolder apprentices into the construction workforce at the Sturgeon Refinery. The presentation will take place at the Sturgeon Refinery and the Government of Alberta will be present to mark the occasion, with remarks from the Minister of Labour. Dedicated media tours of the refinery will commence following the formal program, including a photo opportunity of the women at their worksite.

(i)Note, limited opportunities for site tours are also available for media prior to the official event program starting at 11:30 a.m. If you are interested in participating in a site tour, please contact emorgan@brooklinepr.com no later than Sept. 16 to confirm.

Who: The Honourable Christina Gray, Alberta's Minister of Labour

JudyLynn Archer, President & CEO, Women Building Futures

Ian MacGregor, President & Chairman, North West Refining, a 50 per cent owner of the North West Redwater Partnership

Colin Belliveau, Director of Training and Apprenticeship, Alberta Carpenters Training Centre

Graduates from the program will also be available for media interviews.

When:

Monday, September 19, 2016

12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. MT

Please arrive no later than 12:45 p.m. Formal program to begin sharply at 1 p.m.

(ii)For security purposes, please ensure you bring media credentials and personal identification (i.e. Driver's license) AND RSVP to emorgan@brooklinepr.com so that your name can be added to the security list at the Refinery site.(ii)

Event Program:

(i)Note, if you are interested in participating in a media site tour prior to the event program, please contact emorgan@brooklinepr.com no later than Sept. 16.

-- Remarks by The Honourable Christina Gray, Minister of Labour -- Remarks by Ian MacGregor, President & Chairman, North West Refining, a 50 per cent owner of the North West Redwater Partnership -- Remarks by JudyLynn Archer, CEO, Women Building Futures -- Remarks by Colin Belliveau, Director of Training and Apprenticeship, Alberta Carpenters Training Centre -- Photo op on refinery site -- Questions/media scrum -- Media site tours

Where:

NWR Sturgeon Refinery

56216 RR20, AB-643

Sturgeon County, Alberta

T0A 1N0

DIRECTIONS (Please read carefully):

To ensure ease of access through security, please RSVP to emorgan@brooklinepr.com and bring your media credentials with you.

Please meet for media registration in the Central Administration Building (CAB). You will be greeted at the security desk once you have parked, per the directions below, and entered the building.

Identification is required for orientation (Driver's License or similar), otherwise no special instructions, dress or safety equipment/training will be required. We do recommend some form of sturdy footwear as the site does not have paved roads, and depending on weather conditions, may be a bit muddy.

Click here for Directions to Sturgeon Refinery.

(ii)NOTE OF CAUTION: This link will take you to the GATE 2 entrance across from Agrium, which is NOT the correct Gate for this event. Instead, you want to watch for GATE 4. If you follow the above directions, once on Highway 643, watch for white signs with the NWR logo. These signs will lead you to the proper gate entrance. Slow down as you approach the rail crossing and prepare to turn left immediately after you cross the tracks onto Range Road 220 (it is after Evonik but before the Access Pipeline Terminal). This is the GATE 4 Entrance.

You will come to a security box at the gate entrance where you will need to state that you are a member of the media there to attend the press conference at the Central Administration Building (CAB). It is important that you RSVP to emorgan@brooklinepr.com so that your name can be added to the security list.

Security will let you through and direct you to visitor/event parking at the CAB Building, which will be on your left once you go through Gate 4.

Contacts:

Erica Morgan

Brookline Public Relations

Tel: 403-538-5641 x 106

Cell: 403-478-1357

Email: emorgan@brooklinepr.com




You are here: Home

A joint drill of the Tiangong-2 space lab and the carrier rocket Long March II or CZ-2F was held on Sunday at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.

Tiangong-2, China's second space lab, aboard the CZ-2F rocket carrier, is transferred to the launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province on Friday. (Photo/China Daily)

The drill is designed to simulate situations three hours before the actual launch, which are regarded as the most critical moment to the launch.

According to the engineers, the testing process went smoothly.

A 600-second testing on the components and parts of the Tiangong-2 and its carrier rocket Long March II was carried out during the drill, and they were in good condition.

Tiangong-2, scheduled to be launched in mid-September, enables two astronauts to live in space for 30 days, and is capable of receiving manned and cargo spaceships.

It will act as a testing area for mid-length stays and refueling in space.
CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - China will release a raft of data on Tuesday, setting the pace for a busy day in Asia-Pacific economic activity. On tap are August figures for industrial production, retail sales and fixed asset investment. Industrial production is expected to rise 6.2 percent on year after gaining 6.0 percent in July. Retail sales are expected to be steady at 10.2 percent, and FAI is expected to slow to 7.9 percent from 8.1 percent in the previous month. Australia will see August results for the business confidence and conditions indexes from NAB; in July, their scores were +4 and +8, respectively. Hong Kong will provide Q2 data for industrial production and producer prices. In the previous three months, industrial production gained 2.8 percent on quarter and slipped 0.4 percent on year, while producer prices sank an annual 2.8 percent. New Zealand will release August numbers for food prices; in July, prices were down 0.3 percent on month and 1.3 percent on year. Japan will see Q3 results for the large manufacturing and all industry indexes from BSI; in Q2, their scores were -11.1 and -7.9, respectively. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Datorama, a NYC-based global marketing analytics provider, closed $32m in Series C funding.

The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from Marker LLC and Eric Schmidts Innovation Endeavors.

The company, which has raised $50m in total funding, will use the funds to accelerate research and development in the artificial intelligence field, which will further elevate its machine learning capabilities, to expand its global presence, and hire talent to further support its customer adoption and growth.

Led by Ran Sarig, co-founder and CEO, Datorama provides enterprises, agencies and publishers with a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) marketing analytics platform that gives marketers the ability to connect all of their data sources together to form a single source for more efficient reporting, decision making and control over their performance.

The solution combines data management, machine learning (AI) technology, and high-performance architecture to enable marketers of all experience levels to connect, unify, analyze and act on all of their marketing data.

The company currently serves thousands of brands, hundreds of agencies, publishers and technology companies including LOreal, Foursquare, Yahoo! JAPAN, GoDaddy, etc.

FinSMEs

12/09/2016
Shraddha Kapoor may be playing the lead opposite Arjun Kapoor in Half Girlfriend.

But in Chetan Bhagat's next film adaptation, it is Kangana Ranaut who could be cast in the lead role.

One Indian Girl, Bhagat's new novel, is the first of his works to be written from the point of view of a female protagonist. It is being termed the bestselling writer's first attempt at writing feminist fiction.

It is therefore understandable that Kangana  who, as recent reports have said, is only taking on strong, author-backed roles, and projects where she has equal screen time as her male counterparts  has expressed interest in the project.

Mumbai Mirror reported on Monday, 12 September, that Kangana called up Chetan Bhagat after reading One Indian Girl and told him that she wanted to play the lead whenever the book was made into a film.

Chetan Bhagat on writing in a female voice, and his new book One Indian Girl

Bhagat was quoted by the tabloid as saying, "Kangana is an icon, one of the finest actresses today. Stories and scripts mean a lot to her. She is known for her take on feminism and honest opinions, and for her to praise my book and want to do the film is a huge compliment. I am really thankful to her for joining me."

Incidentally, Kangana will also be launching One Indian Girl alongside Bhagat, when it is formally released on 1 October.

Kangana's next film is Vishal Bhardwaj's Rangoon, after which she will take off for the US to shoot for Hansal Mehta's Simran.

As per reports, Kangana will start working on One Indian Girl's film adaptation by the end of 2017.

Read a chapter from One Indian Girl.
Bengaluru - An Indian mechanic-turned-businessman owns an incredible 22 apartments in the world's tallest tower, Dubai's Burj Khalifa, a media report said on Sunday.

The Kerala-born George V Nereaparambil is believed to be one of the largest private owners within Burj Khalifa. His flat-buying spree began when a relative teased him about the 828m-high building.

"A relative of mine jokingly told me: See this Burj Khalifa, you cannot enter it," he said. Seeing an advertisement about an apartment for rent in the Burj Khalifa in 2010, Nereaparambil rented it the same day and moved in the very next day .

Now, six years on, with 22 of the 900 apartments at perhaps the Gulf's poshest address under his belt, he said five were rented, and, the rest "waiting for the right tenant". He has no plans of stopping at 22. "If I get a good deal, I'll buy more. I am a dreamer and I never stop dreaming," he told Khaleej Times.

Nereaparambil's rags-to riches story is quite incredible. He realised there was great scope for an air-conditioning business in the hot desert climate after he first touched down in Sharjah in 1976.

Nereaparambil then began setting up what is now a mini-empire, the GEO Group of Companies.

Nereaparambil showed a good head for business when he was just 11 and helping his father trade cash crops.

"People in my hometown used to trade cotton, but they'd throw away the cotton seeds. Not many knew you could make gum from those seeds," he said, adding that he would sift through the dirt for the seeds and often make a "90% profit selling them on".

"I'd do the same with tamarind seeds. I'd sell the empty shells on as cattle feed," he added.
Union Minister for Road Transport, Nitin Gadkari, on Sunday said a new access control highway would be constructed between Delhi and Jaipur which would reduce the travel time between the cities to just two hours. The 270-km distance takes over six hours by road now.

The Minister also said an intelligent transport system  with CCTV cameras installed to monitor the traffic rule violators  would be put in place on NH-8.

Speaking after laying the foundation stone for improvement work on three junctions on NH-8, at an estimated cost of Rs 1,005 crore, Gadkari said the work would be completed in 15 months instead of the originally planned 30.

Referring to the new Delhi-Jaipur access control highway, Gadkari said the project would cost Rs 16,000 crore and work on it will be started in January, 2017. The land acquisition process for the new highway would be started soon.

On plans to ensure seamless traffic flow on NH-8, he said work on the flyover at IMT Manesar Chowk would be completed soon. He said four underpasses and as many flyovers would be constructed to make the traffic movement seamless.

Gadkari said work on the Dwarka Expressway had commenced and it would be completed soon.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar urged him to get the 1.75-km stretch of this expressway, which falls in Delhi area, done quickly.

Gadkari said the junction near Ambience Mall would also be improved. In addition, he assured to start construction work on the Manesar-Gurgaon bye-pass in near future. The pilot project of Metrino System between Dhaula Kuan in Delhi and Manesar had been cleared and work would be started soon, he said.

Gurgaon MP and Union Planning, Urban Development, Housing and Poverty Alleviation Minister, Rao Inderjeet Singh demanded waiving of the toll charges for the residents of Gurgaon at Kherki Daula Toll Plaza on the pattern of Gujarat.
They might share the last name but they definitely don't share each other's ideas and ideology.

Nabeel Ahmed Wani is proud to don Khakhi and fight the very cause which militant commander Burhan Wani espoused. Separated by geographic barriers, the politics of identity and difference and often contrarian aspiration, reflects the greater division even within the majority Muslim community scattered all over Jammu and Kashmir.

Nabeel had made his region Jammu proud by topping the All India Examination for BSF Assistant Commandant (Works). He lost his father Rafiq Ahamd Wani, a teacher by profession, two years ago and had to take up a job to support his mother and sister. But despite facing hardships, his goal was clear  he wanted to "serve his nation by joining forces".

Nabeel, 26, is presently working as a junior engineer in the state government and is posted in his home district. A resident of Udhampur district, 70 kilometers from Jammu, Nabeel received a minority scholarship in his college that paved way for him to complete his engineering. He was the topper in his college. He completed his BTech in 2012 after a senior secondary education from NITL Higher Secondary School in Udhampur. Nabeel said he had given the examination in 2013, but lagged behind by some marks; however, he worked hard and bagged the all-India first rank.

Speaking to reporters a few days ago at single-storeyed home in Udhampur, Nabel said that he wanted to do something for his country and his motherland. Taking a wrong path is easier, but it's difficult to follow a right path. But, at the end, only those people are successful who take the right path."

"My aim behind joining the force is to do well, and qualify for the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and become an important part of the NIA and to play an important role in our country's security," Nabeel was quoted as saying to ANI.

Ajay Gupta, principle of the NITL Higher Secondary School, said Nabeel always wanted to serve his nation and despite facing finical difficulties he never left the dream of joining the forces.

An optimistic boy, Nabeel did not let himself divert from the path of his dream despite his father's demise or the fact that he was financially very weak, Gupta said. "He has not only made his parents proud, but also the Jammu region and the entire state proud," Gupta added.

Nabeel's mother Hanifa Begum said it was her son's dream to join the forces since Class 10 and he worked hard to achieve it. "My happiness has no limits today. He has worked hard to achieve this success. I wish every mother has a son like mine. He is obedient and took risks for us but never left his dream of joining the forces," Begum said.

"He used to give tuition while studying for engineering in Punjab. I never thought he would top the exams through out the country and people will talk about him, Begum told Firstpost over the phone.

"I saw him on TV with the Home Minister (Rajnath Singh). My eyes were filled with tears, I wish his father was alive today. It was his dream, which has been fulfilled today. Every child in the state and country should work hard like Nabeel, they should follow their dreams and make this nation proud," she added.

In an hour-long meeting with top security officials, including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Rajnath Singh on Sunday directed the security forces to go after those instigating youths to indulge in violence in Kashmir and try to bring back normalcy in the state within a week.

Singh said that normalcy should be brought back within a week and school and other educational institutions should function as students are worst sufferers during the prolonged turmoil, sources said. Attempts should also be made to reopen shops and other commercial establishments which were shut completely, the Home Minister told the officials.

With inputs from agencies
Chinese President Xi Jinping presides over the opening ceremony of the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, Sept. 4, 2016. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

President Xi Jinping delivered two important speeches at the recent Hangzhou G20 summit laying out China's vision on global economic and social development.

Although in his speeches to the B20 (business summit) and then at the opening ceremony of the G20 he especially addressed economic issues, he also touched on some general principles reflecting China's outlook in other areas, such as human rights. Indeed, some of the economic ideas put forward also form source of inspiration for the development of human rights.

In his B20 speech, President Xi discussed the need for the international community to work together to address challenges the world is facing. He stressed that seeking harmony and coexistence had been in the genes of the Chinese nation throughout history. Therefore, he called on all countries to settle disagreements and disputes through dialogue and consultation, seeking consensus and removing tensions.

This strong preference for harmonious cooperation is the pillar of China's actions in international human rights in consistently seeking to promote dialogue and exchanges of good practices between different cultures instead of confrontation and exclusion.

According to former Vice Premier and Foreign Minister Huang Hua, it is normal that countries have different approaches to human rights based on different historical developments, social systems, cultural traditions and religious beliefs. Sincere and honest talks on the basis of equality promote mutual understanding and help to establish common ground.

As Tang Jiaxuan, foreign minister from 1998 to 2003, has rightly pointed out, the atmosphere of constructive harmony promoted by China stands in stark contrast to the confrontation espoused by other participants in the human rights discourse. Many international NGOs in particular engage in the "naming and shaming" of states they believe fail to live up to their human rights obligations. In so doing, however, they lose sight of the fact that many countries are willing to resolve differences in the human rights area, as long as they are treated with respect as part of a genuine effort to find common ground.

Choosing dialogue instead of confrontation does not only lead to a different tone and format; when actors engage in confrontation they try to portray their own position on human rights as the sole truth but when they engage in dialogue they seek to learn from each other and to combine good ideas to develop innovative solutions.

This need for mutual learning was also emphasized by President Xi in his B20 address, while the necessity for innovation was central to both addresses. According to President Xi, in the economic area today, sticking to convention will get us nowhere. Fear to advance will only result in losing opportunities.

In his G20 address, the President also stressed the need to seriously consider the views of developing countries, and this certainly applies in human rights. "Old school" solutions such as cumbersome reporting procedures maintained by international treaty bodies are rapidly losing their legitimacy. Underreporting, and even complete absence, are on the rise, because states no longer believe in the value of such exercises. The time has therefore come to inject new ideas and formats into the human rights system to secure broad support.

In China many interesting ideas and theories have been developed in regard to human rights, and the same is true for other countries in the Global South. To bring these ideas to northern audiences, the Cross-Cultural Human Rights Network was established in Beijing in 2014. A growing number of universities and academics from the Global South have become members. The Network expects to be able to establish a northern presence at the Free University of Amsterdam in 2017.

In his B20 speech President Xi also underscored the need to eradicate hunger and to advance inclusive and sustainable development. China has always considered the right to subsistence and the right to development as key human rights. Some Northern commentators have been critical of China's position, because they believe that, under human rights theory, all human rights are equal status, thus precluding a hierarchy of rights.

An important part of human rights theory is that human rights are an interconnected whole, and so indivisible. This means that one human right may not be used to justify abridging or neglecting another. However, this does not rule out a particular society deeming some rights as more important than others; the U.S., for example, gives preference to freedom of expression.

President Xi rightly reminded his audience that China has lifted over 700 million people out of poverty. This represented 70 percent of the global population living in poverty, so China has been making a significant global contribution. To achieve this, China has pursued its own path of development, in which small changes and hard work performed by millions of ordinary Chinese families have been converted into a powerful force which acts as the engine of China's progress.

On numerous occasions President Xi has demonstrated he has a very international outlook. This is exemplified by his "Belt and Road" initiative, which was also discussed in the B20 address. In that speech the President drew attention to the fact that China's interaction with the outside world has deepened, and that it will continue to open up profoundly and comprehensively.

China will further integrate itself into the world and open itself wider to it. A similar trend has been noticeable for quite some time in the area of human rights. For almost 10 years the China Society for Human Rights Studies has been organizing its Beijing Forum on Human Rights, a highlight in the annual calendar during which Chinese and foreign scholars discuss human rights issues in an atmosphere of mutual respect and friendship.

Human rights centers at Chinese universities have entered into cooperative agreements with many counterparts at foreign universities. And they have become active members of the Cross-Cultural Human Rights Network.

According to President Xi's B20 address, we need to enable people of different countries, cultures and historic backgrounds to deepen exchanges, enhance mutual understanding and jointly build a community of shared future for mankind. His speeches are an important contribution to that process.

Tom Zwart is professor of human rights and cross-cultural law at Utrecht University.
Bengaluru: Voicing concern over attacks on state vehicles and a hotel run by a native of Karnataka in Tamil Nadu amid the ongoing Cauvery row, the state government on Monday asked its counterpart to take steps for the safety of Kannadigas living there and to protect their property.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said he would write to his Tamil Nadu counterpart J Jayalalithaa to help cooperate in maintaining cordiality between the states, which are now locked in a bitter row over release of Cauvery water.

Siddaramaiah said he would also speak to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, if necessary, on the incidents targetting Kannadigas.

The state Chief Secretary and Director General of Police had spoken to their Tamil Nadu counterparts and asked them to ensure stern action against the culprits and that such incidents did not recur, Siddaramaiah told reporters here.

While seeking measures to protect the interests of Kannadigas in Tamil Nadu, it had been assured to Tamil Nadu that similarly, steps would be taken for the safety of Tamils in the state and also their property, he said.

Siddaramaiah also advised the media "not to glorify" certain incidents relating to "sensitive" issues and be restrained in reporting them.

Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara said police forces had been deployed in areas where Tamils live in large numbers in Bengaluru and elsewhere in Karnataka. "We have taken precautions." He appealed to people of both states not to resort to violence.

The state DGP had conveyed to his Tamil Nadu counterpart that safety of Kannadigas be ensured while "equally, we will also ensure that Tamils are safe in Karnataka," he said.

Asked about a Tamil engineering student being beaten up allegedly by a group of people for posting "derogatory" remarks against some Kannada actors and against the Cauvery agitation, with a video capturing the incident going viral, he said it was a "small incident".

Parameshwara said the police tried to contact the student but he was not available, adding, "small incidents should not be blown out of proportion."

Suspected pro-Tamil protesters attacked and damaged a hotel run by a native of Karnataka in Chennai, damaging its window panes using iron rods and wooden logs.

Seven tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration parked at a temple in Rameswaram were damaged allegedly by activists of various outfits including Naam Tamizhar Iyakkam.

Meanwhile, Bangalore Tamil Sangam asked Siddaramaiah to direct the police to maintain law and order and provide security to all Tamils living in the state.

"We request you to kindly instruct the police to maintain law and order and provide security to all Tamilians living in the state," Sangam President Damodaran told PTI here. He also urged the media, especially visual, not to "incite" people of both the states by sensationalising the news of violence. He urged the central government to intervene to solve the vexed problem.
A group of unidentified assailants attacked the New Woodlands Hotel in Mylapore in Chennai over the ongoing Cauvery row between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, police said on Monday.

Chennai: Unknown people hurled a petrol bomb at New Woodlands Hotel in Mylapore in early morning hours. pic.twitter.com/8WF2vLASpz  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

"Around 3.15 am, a group came to the hotel and damaged glass panels. It seems the group attacked the hotel in protest against Karnataka's attitude in the release of Cauvery river water," a police official told IANS.

A hotel employee confirmed the incident, adding that no person was injured in the attack.

In a one-page letter, the attackers warned of more attacks on Karnataka establishments claiming that if more Tamil's were attacked in the state, such incidents of hurling petrol bombs will continue, reported CNN News18.

So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack and a probe is on, police said.

The incident comes a day after a video purportedly showing a 22-year-old Tamil youth being beaten by a group of men in Bengaluru for allegedly posting "derogatory" remarks on social media against Kannada film actors went viral.

It was also alleged that the youth had made comments, which were later deleted, against the ongoing Cauvery water agitation in Karnataka on the social media.

In a separate incident, seven tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration that were parked at a temple in Rameswaram were damaged when agitated members of various outfits including Naam Tamizhar Iyakkam allegedly indulged in vandalism early on Monday, police said.

The group entered the parking lot of a temple near Agni Theertham in the town and damaged the vehicles bearing Karnataka registration with clubs and stones, they said.

Cases have been registered against seven persons, including one Manmathan, belonging to Tamizhar Desiya Front and are seacrching the suspects, they added.

#WATCH: Bus from Karnataka vandalised by Naam Tamilar Katchi party workers in Rameswaram, driver threatened #Cauvery pic.twitter.com/3til65O5jU  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

The Karnataka government on Monday asked the apex court to suspend its 5 September order to release water to Tamil Nadu. The SC has, however, expressed displeasure over the non-implementation of the order by the Karnataka government, reported ANI.

There have been scattered protests in both the states since the release of Cauvery river water. On Friday, there was a shut down in Karnataka protesting the release of Cauvery water. On Sunday, members of a Tamil outfit disrupted a meeting of a Kannada literary organisation in Coimbatore, to protest the alleged beating of a 22-year-old Tamil youth in Bengaluru over his Facebook post on Cauvery issue, police said.

Members of the Thanthai Periyar Dravida Kazhakam reached the hall where a meeting of the Samakalina Kannada Ilakiyam was scheduled and raised slogans stating that they will not

allow the meeting to be conducted as a Tamil youth was allegedly beaten by Kannada activists in Bengaluru recently over a Facebook post on Cauvery issue.

They tore the banner of Ilakiyam put up in front of the hall. They dispersed after police reached the spot. The meeting was also cancelled after the incident, police said.

The Supreme Court agreed to conduct an early hearing on Monday on the application filed by Karnataka seeking a direction to reduce the quantum of water to be released from Cauvery river to Tamil Nadu from 15,000 cusecs to 1,000 cusecs.

With inputs from agencies
New Delhi: The finance ministry will shortly circulate a Cabinet note to merge the railway budget with the Union Budget, advance presentation by a month and doing away with Plan and non-Plan expenditure head in the Budget.

The draft note will be floated for inter-ministerial discussion before it is tabled before the Cabinet, which is likely to take up these issues towards the end of this month, sources said.

If the Cabinet agrees to the finance ministry's proposal, the Budget will be presented in January instead of the last working day of February.

The ministry also seeks to end distinction between Plan and non-Plan expenditure and replace it with capital and revenue expenditure.

The finance ministry is seeking approval for these three proposals with an intention to get them implemented in the Budget for 2017-18, the sources said.

There is no specific date mentioned in the Constitution for presenting the Union Budget. The Narendra Modi government is planning to present it in the last week of January so that the entire process can be wrapped up by March. The new financial year starts from 1 April.

Besides, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has favoured scrapping the practice of having a separate railway budget.

He wants it to be merged with the general Budget like it happens in all other ministries, including the all-crucial

Defence.

Considered a British legacy, India follows accounting period from April to March, in line with the Gregorian

calendar of accounting.

The government has constituted a committee headed by former chief economic advisor Shankar Acharya to study the feasibility of adopting a new financial year. The panel is slated to submit its report by 31 December, 2016.

Previously, the L K Jha Committee, appointed in May 1984 to look into the matter, had recommended switching over to the calendar year, but the government did not accept the recommendation, saying it would cause large-scale problems as most Indian companies follow the April-March cycle.

As the financial year begins on 1 April, the government in March takes Parliament's approval for Vote-on-Account for a sum of money sufficient to meet expenditure on various items for the next 2-3 months till the full Budget is passed. The Demands and Appropriation Bill entailing full-year expenditure as well as tax changes is then passed in April-May.
A team of students from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) have designed a microsatellite Pratham which will be launched into space by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), at the end of this month, reported The Indian Express.

The group of students involved in the project will visit Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh to test the satellite which will later be launched from there.

The 10 kg satellite will be launched by Isro's four-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in September. It will piggyback on Isro's main satellite ScatSat and in the four-month mission period, the main role of the satellite will be to measure the 'electron count' in Ionosphere.

The data from the satellite will help in scientific studies, to correct communication errors and give tsunami warnings, said Pratham's project manager Ratnesh Mishra, a final year IIT-B aerospace student. The total cost of the project is Rs 1.5 crore.

According to a report by Hindustan Times, in 2008, a few IITians came up with the idea for the satellite and presented the project plan to Isro. The plan was reviewed by Isro and later a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between IIT-B and Isro.

In 2010, the project was almost completed but got stalled because of project members graduating from the institute. In 2012, however, the institute formed a fresh team and a new MoU was signed with Isro.
Bengaluru: Protests by fringe Tamil outfits erupted in parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on Monday with some commercial and government establishments of Karnataka coming under attack, in an apparent fallout of the ongoing agitation in the neighbouring state against release of Cauvery water.

The protests came a day after a video purportedly showing a 22-year-old Tamil youth being beaten up by a group of men in Bengaluru for alleged "derogatory" remarks on social media against Kannada film actors went viral.

Outfits such as Naam Tamizhar Katchi and Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi hit the streets protesting the ongoing agitations in Karnataka opposing release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, police said. A popular restaurant in Chennai and tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration in Rameswaram were vandalised while protesters created a ruckus at a Karnataka Bank branch in neighbouring Union Territory of Puducherry, police said.

Four persons have been detained in connection with the restaurant attack while around 25 taken into custody in Puducherry, they said.

Police protection was provided to the Karnataka Bank branches in Tamil Nadu. In an early morning incident in Chennai, protesters owing allegiance to Thanthai Periyar Dravida Kazhagam (TPDK) allegedly vandalised a popular restaurant owned by a native of Karnataka. They smashed the window panes using iron rods and wooden logs and four persons belonging to the outfit had been detained in connection with the incident, a police official said.

At Rameswaram, seven tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration that were parked at a temple were damaged when agitated members of various outfits including Naam Tamizhar Katchi allegedly indulged in vandalism.

The group entered the parking lot of the temple near Agni Theertham sea in the town and damaged the vehicles with clubs and stones, police said.

Cases have been registered against seven persons in connection with the episode, they said.

Protests were held outside the branches of Karnataka Bank in Erode even as protestors barged into the bank's branch at Puducherry and created a ruckus.

Around 25 workers of Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi entered the branch on Misson Street in the Union Territory wielding broomsticks, banged them on the tables and asked the bank staff to vacate the premises.

The staff ran helter skelter while the panic-stricken customers rushed out. Policemen, who were deployed in the vicinity, rushed there and took the protesters into custody. The bank was closed for a few hours after the incident and later reopened. However, it was again shut following advice from police.

At Vellore in Tamil Nadu, students of Government Law College boycotted classes over the issue. For the eight consecutive day, buses to Mysuru, Chamrajnagar and other places in Karnataka from Erode, Tirupur and Coimbatore in western Tamil Nadu were not operated.

Movement of commercial and non-commercial vehicles including two-wheelers to Karnataka from Erode was restricted while inter-state road transport through Hosur was also affected on account of escalating protests in Karnataka.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan expressed concern over the "attacks on Tamils" in Karnataka, and put the onus of ensuring their safety on the ruling Congress.

"If the Congress government in Karnataka is not prepared to stop this (attacks), there are chances of bad consequences and the Karnataka government has to take responsibility for that," he said.

Tamil Maanila Congress leader and former Union Minister GK Vasan said that the failure by police to prevent the attack on the Tamil youth for his post against Kannada actors amounted to them remaining "spectators" to the incident, which he said was "reflective" of state government's "ignorant attitude."

He urged the Karnataka government to ensure safety of Tamils while urging the Centre to be non-partisan.

In Thanjavur, a Cauvery delta district, President of the Coordination Committee of Tamil Nadu All Farmers Associations P R Pandian welcomed the Supreme Court's order that water should be released to Tamil Nadu till September 20.

He said the Mettur Dam water level should be 90-feet (maximum 120 feet) for cultivation of a single crop and asked the state government to pressurise the Centre and make Karnataka release more water.

Meanwhile, actor M Nasser-headed Nadigar Sangam (South Indian Artistes' Association) has lauded Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa for securing Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu by approaching the Supreme Court.

In a statement, the Association also took exception to the criticism of Jayalalithaa by some of the Kannada actors during a protest on Cauvery last week, saying it had "crossed boundaries".

"Nadigar Sangam has never hesitated to express its voice whenever there had been problems for Tamils...we thank Chief Minister Amma (Jayalalithaa) for achieveing success (in this matter) by approaching the Supreme Court and establishing our rights in the present situation," it said.
Lets talk about why I love Tamil and Tamil Nadu for a bit.

As a Kannadiga in Bangalore, it may seem like a risky thing to do today, given all the protests over sharing Cauvery with Tamil Nadu. But hear me out. Every Tamilian has a strong sense of identity. There is a love for the language and their culture, but this is not coming at the cost of having to hate some other language. Yes, they protest when the central government tries to shove Hindi down their throats, but those protests are driven more by a need to keep Tamil Nadu, Tamil and not out of any hate for Hindi.

Just see how in the past few years, it has become very common among young people there to jokingly add "ji" to various names. Their movies have better production values, the popularity of their stars is genuine, and heck, they even make better memes out there on the Internet than any other language group. Chennai is a lot like Bangalore (except the weather, of course), in that it has always been cosmopolitan with large groups of people whose primary language is something else. Yet, Tamil has primacy there, and in a manner that is unobtrusive. And if there is one set of politicians, who have consistently and correctly reminded the central government that they cannot make one-size-fits-all rules for the country, it is all the Tamil Nadu leaders.

If one thinks of Tamil activism, one thinks of various causes  social, cultural, linguistic, and one thinks of various leaders with well-pronounced stances on their pet cause. There isnt any single figurehead, except may be Rajinikanth. (My tongue is firmly in my cheek.)

On the other hand, when you think of Kannada activism, it is very likely that the first image that gets summoned is that of Vatal Nagaraj. With his hat that looks like someone upended a pot on him, cooling glasses, and a toothy smile, he is a caricaturists dream. And his actions, or protests, usually are a newsroom producers dream. From taking buffaloes to the bus stand, to urinating on the Raj Bhavans wall, Vatal definitely knows how to make himself newsworthy.

Vatal Nagaraj has been at the forefront of Kannada activism for over three decades now. But unfortunately, his lasting legacy seems to be some sort of a joke. To quote Rakshith Ponnathpur, someone who is quite vocal about the Kannada cause on social media, "If you are someone who is outspoken about saving Karnataka's interests, your friends and family often taunt you with 'next Vatal Nagaraj neene, haha' in a condescending tone. People have a perception that Kannada activism involves zero seriousness and is a joke which jobless people undertake."

The other big problem is his choice of issues to protest against. Take for instance his protest against Kabalis release where he went around burning Rajinikanth posters. Outside of the fact that it is sure to attract media attention, there is nothing useful that could have come out of the protest. Given that Kabali in Bangalore was distributed by his friends in the movie industry, it may even have been a PR move for the movie itself, calling attention to its wide release in Bangalore.

Instead, a worthier cause would have been to protest against the cartel that has for years banned dubbing into Kannada, giving specious reasons about how it hurts the Kannada film industry. It is not like there is a shortage of Kannada-interest causes that need attention drawn to it. The use of only English and Hindi in ATMs, for example. Or how a lot of TV channels, like Discovery and National Geographic, have offerings in Tamil and Hindi but not in Kannada. Cartoons even. Vatal Nagarajs choice of things to protest against consistently smacks of the trivial and the absurd.

The Cauvery issue is not a trivial or absurd one, of course. However, the bent of activism instead of being about the farmers affected, or the citys water supply getting affected, is instead centered on the easier straw man of hating Tamilians. Throw stones at businesses run by Tamilians, set fire to vehicles with a TN registration and so on. Where nuance was necessary, all we got from the Vatal camp was nuisance. The Kalasa-Banduri protests on the other hand were messaged much better, going purely by the placards people protesting were holding.

Also, claims of Vatal Nagaraj being a "mass leader" ring a little hollow. Unlike the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike led by Narayana Gowda, or Jaya Karnataka led by former gangster Muttappa Rai, Vatal does not command any cadre. What he does command is a ragtag bunch of "aatakkunTu lekkakilla" (loosely translates to "they exist but they do not count") organisations, some hundreds of them, which muster a crowd of around 2,000 (the current going rate is apparently Rs 500 plus a packet of chicken biryani) when needed.

Vatals modus operandi has become predictable. Call for a bandh, get media coverage, devise an appropriate gimmick on the day of the protest (on Friday, it was wearing all-black by the looks of it), get even more media coverage, and call it a day. I listened to his speech on Friday, given that Udaya News was covering it live. It was long, yet he said nothing. It was a bunch of punch dialogues strung together  cut me open, and it is Cauvery water and not blood that flows in me, and so on. It had absolutely no substance. Yet, it got media coverage, possibly at the cost of other more meaningful protests happening elsewhere.

So what is the alternative to Vatal Nagaraj. Karnataka Rakshana Vedike seems like the obvious choice, but outside of their core base, they seem to have an unfortunate image problem. There is Jaya Karnataka, but they have a Muttappa Rai problem. Not too many people will be inclined to believe that the party would serve anything more than Rais own commercial interests. Bengaluru underworld is essentially a real estate business, and it will be hard for Rai to shake off his past, both with the gun and with the land deals.

I got talking to Vasanth Shetty, someone who has been involved with various pro-Kannada causes for many years now, and the author of the book Karnatakavonde, primarily to get some perspective on what the history of Kannada activism was, what has worked and what has not. One thing is clear, the only protests that have worked are the ones where the activists have had a clear long-term view of what they wanted to achieve, and targeted their efforts towards those in a position to bring about the necessary changes. This was true of the railway board exams, where all of Karnatakas recruitment was dominated by people from Bihar. This was true of getting the courts to declare that dubbing into Kannada was perfectly legal.

And Vatals bandh-a-day model does not work. Shetty believes that the best way forward would be for a Kannada activist group to enter mainstream politics. "Karnataka Rakshana Vedike is best poised for this, but it does not have to be them. What we need is someone who can understand and represent the cause of Kannada beyond tokenism." He talked of Belgaum where once Kannada newspapers had to be smuggled hidden inside Marathi ones, how people worked towards the goal of getting a Kannada mayor elected. As a move to make a real impact, this probably has gone a longer way than having a Vidhana Soudha replica there.

Rakshith too agrees. "What we need are activists who are constructive, and have enough insight to identify what is causing the problem, and able enough to come up with solutions for those. I doubt if Vatal has ever done anything constructive."

A quick check on Twitter too shows that this is the general zeitgeist among Kannadigas. Yes, we have issues important to us. Yes, Cauvery river sharing too is one of them. But no, we have had enough of Vatal.

I think it is time for the man to finally lay down his hat, remove those glasses, and let someone else take charge.
 Flash

Air China, the nation's flag-carrier, has removed in-flight magazines that made an inappropriate safety suggestion to travelers after a London MP complained to the Chinese ambassador to the UK.

The airline has called on the publishers of the Wings of China magazine, to "reflect upon their negligence" and told them to improve their editing and language to ensure that the mistake is not repeated. The publishers have issued an apology in an open letter.

"Air China has resolutely upheld respect for different cultures and customs in the global community," the airline said in a statement. "Air China stands fully committed to providing premium air services and serving as a bridge that connects people of different ethnic groups and promotes equal exchanges between them."

A safety suggestion to visitors to the UK in one article reads: "London is generally a safe place to travel, however precautions are needed when entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people."

The comments immediately caused a stir in the UK and prompted Virendra Sharma, MP for Ealing Southall, to write to Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming complaining about the comments.

At a regular news conference in Beijing on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the Chinese government has consistently advocated for and supported the equality of all ethnicities without exception and opposed all forms of racial discrimination. "Our position in this regard is clear and definite," she said.

Hua also said that China has always encouraged people-to-people exchanges between China and the UK.

"We hope that the people of the two countries can better understand each other through close contact and enhance mutual understanding and have more cooperation," she added.

Sharma said he was pleased with how things were settled by the airline.

"I'm quite pleased that the airline has responded responsibly to the request made by me and many other people that these offensive comments should be taken out. If there are any other ways they want to advise their future visitors, I'm quite happy, along with others, to assist in that matter," he said.
Bengaluru: Karnataka government on Saturday welcomed the reported statement of Union Minister Uma Bharti about intervening in the Cauvery river water dispute, if necessary, but demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi initiate the process to solve the long-pending issue.

"If she has given the gesture that she will intervene (to resolve the vexed Cauvery dispute), we welcome it. It (steps) will be towards solving the problem," Karnataka Law Minister T B Jayachandra told reporters here.

His response was to a question about reports quoting Uma Bharti as saying that the Centre would intervene in the Cauvery matter if necessary.

Asked about Tamil Nadu not even looking at a compromise solution, he said "Let's suppose it is initiated by the Prime Minister. We are in the first stage, let the Prime Minister initiate that.... then let us see the response of Tamil Nadu."

Jayachandra also appealed to the BJP MPs from the state to take up the issue with the Prime Minister.

To a question that the consistent demand for the Prime Minister's intervention was politicising the issue further, he recalled that the PM had earlier on one occasion intervened on Supreme Court advice. It has to be done now also to solve the vexed issue, which needs to be resolved through an out-of-court settlement, he said.

"When the Supreme Court advised the then Prime Minister to intervene, it happened then. Now to resolve this, these are all to be settled out of court," he said.

"However, whether they are coming (intervening) or not again is the question. Injustice has been done to the state from Britishers' period. It is a long-pending and almost 200 year old dispute," Jayachandra said.

Asked about changing Fali Nariman as the state's counsel, he said he wouldn't like to react as the matter was coming up for final hearing on October 16 before the Court.

"I don't want to react to that because the matter is coming up for the final hearing on 16 October. The Supreme Court has specifically said it will be listed on that day. So let us hope for the best," he said.

To a query, Jayachandra said the state must have filed the plea to counter Tamil Nadu's submission before the Cauvery Supervisory Committee, asking for release of more water.

"Our legal and technical team, they are in Delhi. They must have filed a response to the Tamil Nadu government before the Supervisory Committee also, and it is likely to come up on Monday (12 September) when the meeting takes place," he said.

Tamil Nadu government had approached the Committee on 7 September with its demand for more water.

Karnataka had also written to the panel to send an expert inspection team headed by an officer of the rank of a chief engineer as done by the Cauvery Monitoring Committee in October 2012, to study ground realities in the Cauvery basin. Jayachandra said a plea has been filed before the Apex Court for modification of the order on the basis of Karnataka going through the times of distress.

The Supreme Court on 5 September had directed Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu for the next 10 days to meet the demands of the summer crop in the state.
If Keralas Gods own country epithet owes its origins to the states natural beauty, then a more notorious one is just round the corner. The states financial capital, Kochi may soon be christened narcotics own city if the latest figures released by the state government are anything to go by.

In the last three months alone, 300 kilograms of marijuana (ganja) was seized from Kochi, making it one of the richest hauls ever in this part of the country in such a short period.

But this could only be the tip of the iceberg. The states Excise and Prohibition Department, the nodal agency engaged in fighting the drug menace, says that around 50,000 kilograms of narcotic and tobacco related material of various kinds have been caught from Kochi and other cities during the same period.

The state is certainly on a new high and Kochi is leading from the front. Ganja, Brown Sugar, Heroin are available more freely in the city.

The enforcement agencies are putting the blame on an ever growing migrant labour population in the state, calling them primary carriers and in most case, the users too of the substance in the state.

Over the last few months, more than 100 migrant labourers in Kochi alone have been booked for possession and use of ganja, one of the favourites among all the substances that is finding its way here.

Hardly four months have passed since Kerala woke up to the gruesome rape and murder of a law student by a migrant worker from Assam, but the scanner once again seems to be back on the migrant labour community.

Since 15 August, more than 10 migrant labourers have been booked under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance (NDPS) Act from across 25 labour camps in Kochi.

This certainly would be a matter of concern because Kochi has the maximum concentration of migrant labourers in the state. Perumbavoor, a satellite town of Kochi alone has three lakh migrant workers out of a total population of nine lakhs.

C Ranjith, an Assistant Commissioner at the State Excise Department, who is spearheading the operations in Kochi, says that his department does not want to profile the entire migrant labour force as perpetual wrongdoers. But the community would not get any benefit of the doubt as figures are clearly putting them in the dock.

We have been conducting raids across labour camps in Kochi. You go to any one of them. While ten out of ten use tobacco in one form or the other, at least 5 are into drugs which is now pushing the drug cartel in the city. Not surprisingly the crime rate among them too has gone up, says Ranjith.

Even in the Jisha rape and murder case, the state police had clearly evidence that Amirul Islam, the accused had not only been a regular drug user but also a peddler.

At least a section of the migrant community seems to be walking hand-in-hand with drugs and crime in the city, even as the LDF government in the state is preparing a separate social security scheme for them.

The Modus Operandi

From Bangladesh to Murshidabad in West Bengal to small towns in Bihar and Orissa, and then to Kochi, the journey of those bringing the substance is today a well-established pan-India network.

Sources inside the state intelligence department have told this reporter that atleast a section of those coming in as migrant labourers in Kerala originate from neighbouring Bangladesh, a well known secret that has been conveniently overlooked by security agencies here over the years.

Security agencies do agree that all migrant labourers do not originate from such a source and most of them eye the chances in Kerala as the only option to get out of their acute poverty. But on the other side and perhaps more alarming is that a large number of those who end up as carriers of drugs have similar origins.

Officers at the State Excise Department and Police are now making attempts to re-draw that route through which the drugs hit the state by careful interrogation of those in their custody.

While Murshidabad in West Bengal becomes the first stop for most of these illegal migrants crossing over from Bangladesh, credibility to most of them are earned from Bihar or Orissa. Fake election identity cards or driving licenses are made to ensure they can work at par with others in any part of the country including Kochi.

These hordes then board the umpteen numbers of daily trains that originate from these northern states in the country and pass through various stations in Ernakualm district (Kochi) like Aluva, Angamaly and Perumbavoor.

Dugs picked up in a few kilograms and carefully packed as part of their luggage are usually transported into the state through these long distance trains. Most of them go unchecked due to the sheer numbers of these workers travelling per train and absence of scanners or sniffer dogs in small stations en-route. If detected, they have their own ways to wriggle out.

Most of them who carry such drugs in trains keep their luggage far away from where they are sitting to evade arrest if it gets detected. As they travel in large groups, the entire compartment would be packed with them. Hence it becomes very difficult to identify the culprit even when we confiscate the baggage, says an officer who requested anonymity.

Once they reach their destinations, the packets are divided and usually stored at more than one labour camp in the same town. A well oiled network then takes over. While shops selling provisions, small time eateries close to educational institutions become the selling points for packets as small as 100 grams, the bigger deals are often done after meeting customers at specific spots in the city.

27 year old Bilal comes from Murshidabad and had landed up in the city as a labourer for the ongoing Kochi Metro Rail Project. But Bilal had more plans than just digging at the track laying site of the Metro. After having successfully brought in a few kilograms of ganja by train, Bilal was looking for prospective customers in city when he walked in to a well laid trap by an excise team a couple of weeks ago.

After being taken into custody Bilal was then taken to three separate labour camps from where not just ganja but huge quantities of tobacco were also recovered. Excise department officials say that such raids based on tip offs are becoming such a regular affair now, so much so that the agency whose primary task is to catch spurious liquor is now running after the bigger evil.

Kochis Love For The Substance

Kochi is perhaps South Indias most vibrant city in terms of its changing hues. Like Pune or Chandigarh, Kochi now has a section of crowd that is highly cosmopolitan in nature. Unlike other cities in Kerala, Kochi had discovered its taste for late night parties quite a few years ago and drugs ranging from the desi ganja to heroin to LSD have been finding their way into these high profile parties.

The booming real estate business and easy cash flow had contributed to a parallel economy running in the city where crime and drugs had been playing a huge part. What was perhaps missing was a steady flow of drugs from distant places through cheap carriers. The influx of the migrant community in large numbers might have only contributed to filling that requirement.

But civil liberty activists now say that rather than holding the migrants responsible, the enforcement agencies should aim at getting to the root of the problem. CR Neelakadan, a civil rights activists based out of Kochi asks, Drug menace isnt a new thing in Kochi. The police and the excise are just passing the buck here. Putting the blame on migrant workers is just an easy way out for many things now. The carriers are easy to nab. Why are they shying away from catching the big fish?

It was only when a budding film actor Shine Tom Chacko and his associates from Mollywood were caught with drugs a year ago in the midst of a private party in Kochi that the authorities claim to have realised the deep nexus the drug cartel had established with the whos who of the city. Though reluctant to admit openly, the police are also worried about this home grown and ever growing demand of drugs in the city which is keeping the supply chain running.

Alcohol Prohibition Also Not Helping The Cause

The lesser availability of liquor in the state after the government imposed a phased Prohibition has not helped the fight against drugs either. In 2014 when the crackdown on alcohol actually took effect on the ground, the drug abuse cases in the state hit the roof, swelling by 100 percent. In 2015 the figures were a mindboggling 4,105 which was four times more than in 2013.

Migrant working population in Kerala range from anywhere between 35 to 40 lakhs with the maximum concentration in and around Kochi. Construction, hospitality or agriculture  almost every sector needs the migrant labourers hands to run.

Any animosity towards the community would mean a complete breakdown of a number of vital services in the state and seriously cripple the states economy. It is perhaps keeping in line with this delicate situation that the state government had decided to bring in social security schemes which would make migrant workers stand at par with native workers here.

Now that we have already put in a social security scheme, we will also build hostels for these workers so that their movements and activities can be monitored by concerned agencies. This, I am sure, will help in curbing the problem of drug abuse and other crimes, says TP Ramakrishnan, Kerala Minister for Labour.

The Excise and police department can only hope that such steps would curb the menace in the long run. Till then it would be days of raids and arrests in Gods own country.
New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee greeted the nation on the eve of Eid with a message of universal brotherhood, peace and harmony.

"On the occasion of Eid, I extend warm greetings and good wishes to all Muslim brothers and sisters in India and abroad," Mukherjee said on Monday.

He called upon fellow citizens to live peacefully and instil a sense of self-sacrifice, adding, "This festival epitomises trust, compassion, sacrifice and forgiveness."

He said: "On this day, let us recall the selfless sacrifice made by Hazrat Ibrahim and engage in the service of humanity. Let us strive to lessen the pain and suffering of the needy."

Eid will be celebrated on 13 September.
The Muslim festival of Eid-al-Adha will be celebrated across the country on Tuesday, but in the Kashmir Valley it will remain a low-key affair with authorities mulling to impose Section 144 amid fears of widespread protests.

The markets would usually be decked up in the valley before Eid. The rush of shoppers would peak in the last three days, but this time there is no such thing visible on the ground. Also, the loss of business due to separatist strike has dulled the spirit of the people.

Jan Mohammad, the owner of the Hollywood Bakery in the heart of Srinagar city, Lal Chowk, used to sell at least five hundred kilos of bakery items for three days leading to Eid-al-Adha. Bakery products, which are traditionally consumed in plenty during the festival, have no takers this year.

On average we have sold less than hundred kilos during relaxation time, the famous bakery shops like 'Gee Enn Bakery,' 'Maghul Darbar' and 'Ahdoos', who sell 20 times more than us have not even opened the shutters of their shops, Mohammad told Firstpost.

Separatist groups have urged people to celebrate the festival with "simplicity and austerity," and people in Srinagar and other districts have reconciled to keeping the biggest festival of the year as a low-key affair. This appeal has to a greater extent found resonance among people in Kashmir. Similar appeals were made on social media networks.

Before you go out to shop this Eid, remember there are around 400 boys who can't see, 10,000 who are still nursing injuries in different hospitals. Their bones are broken but not courage. Please let them feel cared, loved, respected, wanted, by our resilience and austerity. Let's share and feel each other's pain, Shams Irfan, a journalist wrote on his Facebook page.

The markets, which used to be thronged by people buying various essentials for Eid, wear a deserted look. Although, people descend on markets for quick shopping during relaxation time (6 pm), but there is no guarantee when this three-hour deal would be cut short.

On Saturday, two people were killed in south Kashmir and when the markets were about to open a group of protesters appeared in Lal Chowk and forced the shopkeepers to keep the shutters down.

Mohammad Yaseen Khan, president of the Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation (KTMF) says the business activity had plunged 90 percent and traders prefer to keep their businesses shut. The markets are open only for three hours, that too on particular days when the shutdown is allowed a relaxation.

Business is very slow. People seem to have made up their mind that there will be no shopping, no new clothes for children, no mutton and chicken and most of the people I know have decided to not to perform the religious ritual of Qurbani  sacrificing an animal  mostly sheep, Khan said.

The nomads, who descend to the valley ahead of Eid to sell cattle, have also made an exception this time. Only a few can be seen roaming around the city. These days, the makeshift market for selling and buying of sacrificial lamb, wears a deserted look, bereft of the usual buzz.

It is pertinent to mention here that 84 percent of the states 12.55 million population (as per 2011 census) is predominantly non-vegetarian  with majority residing in the valley.

Instead of Qurbani, it is better to help the needy because people have not worked in the last two months, Khan added.

Tauseef Ahmad Malik, a readymade garment shopowner, said most of the people associated with the industry had decided not to import children's clothes due to the prevailing situation in the valley.

Children's clothes are in high demand on Eid, but we knew there would be no takers this time around, Malik told Firstpost.

Even toys, which sell like hotcakes, on the eve of Eid, have not been imported from Gujarat and Delhi, the two Indian cities which supply most of the children's toys to the valley. Majority of these toys are sold in Saribal area of Srinagar, but shoppers here say they have not even displayed the old stock, fearing reprisal from people.

This is part 1 of a two-part series. Part 2 will appear tomorrow.
Give it to Arvind Kejriwal. The chattering may have reduced him to a subject of ridicule, but his name still resonates well among the masses. Forget the negative news headlines and all the controversies his party members land almost on a daily basis, he is still considered the man to look up to by people disillusioned with run-of-the mill politicians. That explains the massive attendance in his rallies in poll-bound Punjab. That also perhaps explains why the ruling party would issue an order keeping thousands of buses off the roads on the day of his scheduled farmers rally in Moga.

The writing on the wall is clear for the ruling Akali Dal. Its chances of returning to power are bleak if it does not handle the challenge from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) effectively. The latter is still an unknown quantity in the states politics in terms of its potential to challenge established parties, but the surge in popular support for Kejriwal makes it look like a positive threat. The Akali Dal would have found it much easier if the Congress were the main rival in February 2017.

The AAP has been in a minor crisis of late after it showed partys convenor Sucha Singh Chhotepur the door and it failed to reach an arrangement with Navjot Singh Sidhu after long negotiation. While Naresh Yadav, partys MLA from Delhi has been arrested by the Punjab police for allegedly desecrating the Quran, the partys popular local MP Bhagwant Mann has been in trouble for video shooting his travel to Parliament and allegedly showing up drunk at rallies. All rivals, small or big, some in alliance and some independent, now consider the AAP the enemy number one in the state.

Its a curious all vs AAP situation in Punjab. Considering the party is a newbie in the Assembly elections, it is an enviable situation to be in. Kejriwal, aware of his unique situation, is leaving nothing to chance. After the Delhi results, he is aware that he would be the central figure in the elections. The elections would be a referendum of sorts on him, the person, as it was the case with Narendra Modi in the 2014 general elections. People would vote for him, others dont matter. The likes of Sidhu maybe popular in small pockets and high profile on television but they lack the pan-Punjab appeal, which Kejriwal despite being an outsider does not.

In a way, as the popular response suggests, all the political attacks on Kejriwal are going in his favour. He is good at wearing victimhood on his sleeves, he can do it in Punjab easily. Thus when he tweets, Badals scared. Trying every dirty trick in connection with grounding of private buses for inspection, it is likely to make the halo of victimhood bigger.

Badals scared. Trying every dirty trick https://t.co/wVYzPD7puo  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) September 10, 2016

Given the political situation in the state, the farmers at the rally are more likely to believe him than the Badals.

However, all this does not mean to assert that the AAP is headed for a cakewalk in Punjab. In one of his rallies a few months back, Kejriwal claimed his party would win 110 of the 117 seats in the state. The ground situation, particularly on the organisational front, does not reflect that sense of optimism. Yet the chances of the party emerging as the first among equals look bright. Some seats, even many seats less would still mean that Kejriwals party has arrived as a political force. And the man himself might have lost some of his lustre but he is no pushover yet.
Hyderabad: Controversial BJP MLA from Hyderabad T Raja Singh on Sunday threatened to cause "an unpleasant situation" in the city if "you do not respect our religious beliefs".

He was referring to alleged slaughtering of oxen for food on Bakri Eid, according to a report.

T Raja Singh, who had earlier justified attacks on those who consume beef, issued an open warning to the government and police against the alleged slaughtering of oxen during the Bakri Eid festival.

In a video message posted on his Facebook page, the BJP MLA alleged that the Telangana government and the police is defying the Supreme Court guidance by allowing slaughtering of healthy cattle.

He added "slaughtering of cow, calf and ox are prohibited but ignoring this various parts of the old city area are going to witness the violation on Bakr-Eid."

Government should immediately rescue all these healthy cattle brought for slaughtering on Bakri Eid, he said. He recommended examination of these cattle by veterinary doctors.

Issuing a veiled threat, T Raja Singh warned the government that if they fail to act, it might "vitiate the peaceful atmosphere of the state as well as the city."
Editor's note: This piece was originally published on 7 September.

On Monday, the Supreme Court modified its earlier order asking for the release of 15,000 cusecs Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu and directed the Karnataka government to release 12,000 cusecs on a daily basis till 20 September. Here's a look at the history of the dispute.

The Cauvery dispute started in the year 1892, between the Madras Presidency (under the British Raj) and the Princely state of Mysore when they had to come to terms with dividing the river water between the two states.

Since that day, Cauvery water has been a bone of contention between the two states. In the year 1910, both states started planning the construction of dams on the river. The issue was presided upon by the British who also decided which state would receive what share of the water. In 1924, an agreement was signed between the two states where the rules of regulation of the Krishnarajsagar dam were pointed out. In a report published by The Times of India, senior counsel AK Ganguly pointed out that the clause 11 of the agreement provided " for such modifications and additions as may be mutually agreed upon as the result of reconsideration'' after a passage of five decades, this revision clause was only applicable to projects other than KRS. The core of the agreement was the conditions governing the construction and operation of KRS and that could not be subject to any review. Hence the 1924 agreement gave both  the Madras presidency and the Mysore state  rights to use the surplus waters of the Cauvery.

Madras had objected to the construction of the Krishnasagar dam and hence the agreement gave them the liberty to build the Mettur dam. However the agreement also put restrictions on the extent of area irrigated by Madras and Mysore using the river water.



Geographical location



If you look at the map of India, you will notice that the 765-km-long river cuts across two Indian states, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It originates at Talacauvery in Kodagu district in Karnataka. While it flows mainly through Karanataka and Tamil Nadu, a lot of its basin area is covered by Kerala and the Karaikal area of Puducherry.

According to the 1892 and the 1924 agreements the river water is distributed as follows:

75 percent with Tamil Nadu and Puducherry

23 percent to Karnataka

remaining to go to Kerala

The real problem started after the re-organisation of states post Indian independence. Before that, most matters were settled through arbitration and agreements. Through the late 20th century, Tamil Nadu opposed the construction of dams on the river by Karnataka, and the state in turn wanted to discontinue the water supply to Tamil Nadu. They argued that the 1924 agreement had lapsed when its 50 years were up in 1974 and considering that the river originated in Karnataka, they had better claim over the river. They argued that they were not bound by the agreement struck between the British empire and the Maharaja of Mysore.

Tamil Nadu too had become heavily dependent on the river after they developed millions of agricultural land around the river. They argued that the livelihood of farmers would be affected if there was a change in the distribution of water. In 1972, the Centre agreed to appoint a committee who would collect statistics from each of the states that had the river basin  Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

The fact-finding committee found that Tamil Nadu used 566 tmcft (thousand milli cubic feet), Karanataka used 177 tmcft.

In 1976, the states arrived at an understanding that each state would continue using the water according to their previous usage, only now an additional 125 tmcft water would also be saved and shared.

Karnataka argued heavily that the river water should be divided according to international rules, i.e. in equal portions. They suggested that 94 percent could be divided equally between them and the rest could be distributed to Kerala and Puducherry. However Tamil Nadu wanted to stick to the original distribution, according to the 1924 agreement.

Political gains, protests and dharnas

The river dispute has attracted some of the most extreme protests and dharnas. In 1986, a farmer's association from Tanjavur, Tamil Nadu moved the Supreme Court (SC) and demanded that a tribunal be formed for the adjudication for the Cauvery water dispute.

In 1990, the SC heard the petitions by the two states and asked them to complete negotiations. However the two failed to do so, following which the SC directed the Centre to constitute a tribunal and distribute the water between states.

In 1991, the tribunal gave its award after calculating the average inflows into Tamil Nadu over 10 years  between 1980 and 1990. They directed Karnataka to ensure that 205 tmcft reach Tamil Nadu every year. They also directed Karnataka not to increase irrigated land area from the existing measure.

However this decision was not well received by the people of the two states which simultaneously erupted into riots. The Karnataka government rejected the tribunal award and sought to get it annulled. However the SC struck down the ordinance and asked for the tribunal award to be upheld. Karnataka refused to oblige.

Following this, the interim award was published in the Government of India gazette.

The next few years saw enough rain for the states to not create an uproar. In 1993, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa went on a sudden fast at the MGR memorial in Chennai. She demanded Tamil Nadu's share of water as stipulated by the interim order.

In 1995, Karnataka received very little rainfall and hence could not obey the interim order. Tamil Nadu, on the other hand, approached the SC demanding release of 30 tmcft of water. The SC and Karnataka did not entertain these demands. After a lot of to and fro, the SC asked the then prime minister PV Narsimha Rao, to intervene in the matter. Rao met with the chiefs of the two states and recommended a solution which was complied by the two states.

In 1998, the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) was formed with the prime minister presiding as the chairperson and the chief ministers of the four states as members.

In 2007, after 16 years, the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) gave out their final award. The tribunal held valid the agreements of 1892 and 1924 executed between the government of Madras and Mysore. Karnataka protested the tribunal award and observed a state-wide bandh. The award was as follows:

Tamil Nadu: 419 TMC (which had demanded 512 TMC),

Karnataka: 270 TMC (which had demanded 465 TMC),

Kerala: 30 TMC, and

Pondicherry: 7 TMC

In 2013, the Centre notified the final award of the CWDT. The government was mandated to constitute the Cauvery Management Board (CMB) with the gazette notification of the final award of the Tribunal.

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa approached the Supreme Court for the formation of the Cauvery Management Board and Cauvery Water Authority, however this has proved to be a futile exercise. Recently the issue was again brought into the limelight when the Supreme Court directed the release of the Cauvery water into Tamil Nadu. This decision was widely protested by the people of Karnataka, especially farmers.

On Monday the Supreme Court directed the Karnataka government to release 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery river water every day to Tamil Nadu for next 10 days to meet the demands of the summer crop in the state.

A bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit asked the Cauvery Supervisory Committee to look into Tamil Nadu's plea seeking direction to Karnataka to release 35 tmcft of water to make good for that much shortfall in the release of water for three months starting with 1 June to 30 August.

While directing the release of 15,000 tmcft of water every day, the bench took note of the impact of non-availability of required water on the summer crops and the plight of farmers.

The bench also said that Tamil Nadu in turn would proportionately give water to Puducherry and gave Tamil Nadu three days time to approach the Supervisory Committee with its claim of 35 tmcft of water from Karnataka.

The court gave three days' time to Karnataka to respond to the plea by Tamil Nadu, while asking the Cauvery Supervisory Committee to examine the matter in four days and pass appropriate directions.

Tamil Nadu contended that even if it was to accept the Karnataka stand that due to deficient rainfall in the current year, the inflow of water into four major reservoirs in the State is less, the same (shortfall in inflow of water into the reservoirs) could not have been more than 28 per cent.

It also contended that applying the pro rate formula as per the final order of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal, the state was entitled to 68 tmcft of water at Billigundulu from 1 June to 31 August.

The court has directed listing of the matter for further hearing on 16 September.

Hundreds of people, especially farmers staged protest demonstrations in the Mysuru region against the Supreme Court order.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah convened an all-party meeting on Tuesday to discuss the apex court order.

However the farmers in Tamil Nadu expressed happiness over the order. They hope this will be an interim order and the final order will give sufficient water for their crops, said a leader of farmer's association.

With inputs from agencies
 Flash

Visitors view pictures at Charming Beijing Photo Exhibition at the main hall of Union Station in Washington DC on Tuesday. The exhibition is to celebrate "China-U.S. Tourism Year" and to introduce Beijing's tourist attractions to local people. (Photo/Xinhua)

Travel agencies and administrations find ways to put total trip above the 5 million benchmark

China and the United States hope to notch 5 million tourist trips as soon as possible.

Last year, the number of trips between the nations surpassed 4.75 million, "which makes us confident to promote further cooperation with U.S. partners in tourism insurance, tourism rescue, and tourism talent exchanges and cultivation," said Li Jinzao, chairman of the China National Tourism Administration.

"We will protect the rights and interests of tourists from both sides by improving supervision in the tourism market," Li said on Friday at the China-U.S. Tourism Leadership Summit in Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region.

The better way to increase tourists and trips between the nations is to diversify channels of cooperation, according to Li.

He said that the 10-year visa policy, which came into effect in November, has triggered a boom in travel to the U.S., while trips from the U.S. to China between January and June reached 1.12 million, up 8.4 percent year-on-year.

Kelly Craighead, executive director of the National Travel and Tourism Office under the U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration, spoke highly of the policy, saying that visa procedures for China are expected to be more convenient.

She said that they also plan to attract more Chinese visitors by diversifying U.S. travel routes, sharing tour experiences with Chinese enterprises and providing more information online.

At the moment, Chinese visitors with a 10-year U.S. visa have to renew their information, including home address, every two years, "which in some people's view is a kind of a hassle, but I don't think so," said Ge Mu, assistant president of Caissa Travel Management.

"The 10-year visa is still attractive for Chinese tourists and contributes to travel between the nations," Ge said.

Updating the visa online is easier and will cost about 100 yuan ($14), "and we'll remind our members with visas to renew them via social media," she said, adding that platforms such as WeChat are popular choices to promote Sino-U.S. tourism.

Liz Bittner, president and CEO of Travel South U.S.A, said that they have highlighted the use of social media to share their tour projects, "as they are important in China."

The Chinese-language website is also updated every day to help Chinese tourists understand food, music and people in the southern U.S., Bittner said.

Travel agent Denise Harrell-McMillon prefers to post pictures in China first via social media after getting home. "It's a good way for more people to understand China and then come here," she added.
Beijing: In a bid to address criticism over labour camps and poor conditions in jails, China announced on Monday that the prison reforms and other measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of detainees

An official White Paper tiled "New Progress in the Judicial Protection of Human Rights in China", said the country will enhance scrutiny of supervisory activities and the execution of punishment, standardise commutation, parole, and execution of sentence outside prison.

The country will stipulate that criminal defendants and appellants no longer need to wear clothing bearing the name of the detention house, so as to safeguard the detainees' personal dignity, safety, legal property, and legitimate rights including the rights to defence, to appeal, to complain, and to report violations of law, the white paper said.

By the end of 2015, psychological counseling rooms had been built in 2,169 detention houses in China, and 2,207 detention houses had provided two-way video via the internet for those who serve their term of imprisonment in the detention houses, the white paper said.

It added that medical services and life management in prisons and detention houses will be standardised in a bid to safeguard detainees' right to health, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The country will also standardise commutation, parole and execution of sentence outside prison and safeguard detainees' rights to implementation of penalty change, the white paper said.

Officials say over the years Chinese prison system is undergoing reforms.

Since, last year China has banned the harvesting of organs from executed prisoners for organ transplants and ordered all hospitals stop using organs from death- row prisoners.

The ban came amid criticism over the high rate of executions to cater to the heavy demand for organs.

Ahead of the ban China also removed a number of economic offences from the category of death sentence as part of its judicial reforms which brought down the number of executions.
Concurrent to the breaking news about kickbacks in the $208 million jet deal with Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer, comes media report that Embraer has set aside $200 million to pay for any fines following an investigation by US authorities. According to media reports in Sao Paulo, Embraer is being probed by prosecutors in Brazil and the US Justice Department over commissions allegedly paid to a UK-based defence agent for clinching the 2008 deal.

This is quite a circuitous probe considering that the Embraer jets were purchased by India. The deal in question was signed between Embraer and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in 2008 for three aircraft equipped with indigenous radars for airborne early warning and control systems (AEW&C). But the probe by US Justice Department is not because of the deal between Embraer and India, because Embraer has done similar deals with other countries including Saudi Arabia, and the Dominican Republic in the Americas.

The mere fact that Embraer has set aside $200 million to pay for any fine is proof enough that bribes have been paid.

While American prosecutors have been told that a former sales director of Embraer who worked in Europe admitted to American investigators that a payment of commissions to facilitate the sale of aircraft to the Saudis had been made, in case of India, the plea bargainer has said that Embraer had contracted a representative to assist in the sale of a surveillance system to the Indian government. But what happens beyond the tumult of excitement between now and say the elections next year in UP, Punjab, Uttrakhand, Himachal and Goa?

Plenty of political mudslinging earning brownie points and blunt denials  till the next scam takes over? Take the revelation that Zakir Naik paid Rs 50 lakh to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, to which the response is that money was never used and returned in 2016  end of story. After all Rs 50 lakh is pocket change that perhaps wouldnt cover a month or two worth of expenditure on Hurriyat separatists.

In the Embraer case, the usual narrative is unfolding, perhaps with slight variance.

This time it is the DRDO that has asked Embraer to forward details of bribes paid within 15 days. The 15-day bit couldnt have scared Embraer, but the simple question is why the DRDO and not the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has asked Embraer for these details. No such deal would have been possible without the express sanction of the MoD and consequentially the higher cut of the alleged bribes would have been secured by MoD incumbents, aside from the PMO and the political head of the then ruling party.

It is a well-established fact the joint secretaries of MoD are on the boards of all DRDO-DPSUs and Ordnance Factory Board and not a rat can sigh without the sanction of the bosses. The well-knit mafia handles kickbacks in defence deals whether indigenous or imports. Then there is also the grapevine of monthly pay packets and sponsored tours at home and abroad that even include holy places like Tirupati for the pious, much before the present government thought about religious circuits by Indian Railways.

So, where do we go from here? The so-called UK-based defence agent may in all probability be part of the same clique that channelises western funds to all major political parties in India for subsidising massive election expenditure year-by-year in a major way. To what extent the clique contributes to Club 160 is unknown, but its power can be gauged from the fact it has had effective say in the appointments in the cabinet even to the extent of allotment of portfolios of Union ministers  which has been the nukkad talk by common man past few years. This is besides exerting power through perception-management and manipulating events in India through NGOs.

For that matter Hillary Clinton too admits in her book Hard Choices that she prefers to operate through NGOs. I wonder who prepared the Indian invitee list for the recent canonisation of Mother Teresa at the Vatican anyway. Apparently, the present government has scanned in detail all defence deals in past years, which is a good beginning. But when it comes to translating the findings on ground, anything worthwhile against the kingpins has yet to be seen. Take the hullabaloo created in the AugustaWestland VVIP helicopters case, where it has even emerged that considerable amount of bribes was paid to the media, nothing much has come out aside from pointing fingers at the Tyagi brothers.

Which bureaucrat or government official has been prosecuted and punished despite the scores of defence scams that India has suffered? The only case that comes to mind is the Sudipta Ghosh case in 2009, wherein Sudipto Ghosh, director-general, Ordnance Factory Board was arrested by the CBI for allegedly taking bribes from two Indian and four foreign companies that had been blacklisted. He probably took the foolish step of pocketing the bribe individually without sharing the booty. But this is unlikely to be the case in the Embraer kickbacks.

The mere fact that Embraer has set aside $200 million to pay for any fine is proof enough that bribes have been paid.

To top this, the recent orders that no government official can be investigated by intelligence agencies without the sanction of the government automatically works to the advantage of the mafia, especially when the intelligence and investigative agencies are not even under parliamentary oversight. Obviously any findings would be first weighed politically before being made public and follow up action taken accordingly. That is why the Tatra truck scam spanning many decades and governments is not talked about at all.

So in all probability, the Embraer kickback scam will follow the same pattern as AugustaWestland; there will be lots of media activity, TV channels will earn TRPs, teams may fly to Brazil and London as part of investigative tourism, probes may be on for some period of time, names of one or few smaller fish may be splashed all over the media and all before the dust settles to set the stage for more sensational news: Like who is pumping crores worth of marijuana through Tripura  China, Myanmar, Southeast Asian narcotics mafia and who is facilitating it from within India. And dont tell me you believe the Purulai drop arms were for Anand Margis!

The author is a veteran Lieutenant-General of the Indian Army
 Flash

India approved the signing of an extradition treaty with Afghanistan on Monday, just two days ahead of a scheduled state visit by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

"The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the signing and ratification of the Extradition Treaty between India and Afghanistan," an official statement said.

"The treaty would provide a legal framework for seeking extradition of terrorists, economic offenders and other criminals from and to Afghanistan," it added.

President Ghani will be in India on Wednesday for a two-day visit, during which he will hold talks with Modi on a wide range of "matters of mutual interest" and likely to seek more military aid.

"The visit will provide an opportunity to continue the close and frequent consultations between the two friendly neighbors, including at the highest level," the Indian External Affairs Ministry said.

"Such interaction is the hallmark of their strategic partnership and has guided the strengthening of all-round cooperation between the two countries," the ministry added.
The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, has said that Nigeria spends about $22bn a year on importation of food.

Lokpobiri made this known on Saturday at a town hall meeting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.



He said the development had led to the astronomical rise in price of rice and other commodities, stressing that if Nigerians failed to produce some of the items being imported, before December the price of rice would skyrocket to N40,000 a bag.

He said there was a projection that by 2050, Nigerias population would be 450 million, wondering what would happen then if the people could not feed themselves now.

Lokpobiri said, For your information, we spend about $22bn a year importing food into Nigeria. We know how many more dollars  and that is why you see the price of rice going up.

Price of rice was N12,000 some months ago, but it is now about N26,000 and if we dont start producing, by December it could be N40,000.

Rice matures in three months. So, this is a wake up call for Bayelsa people to take the four farms we have seriously. The federal government has four farms in the state in our records. The average land you see in Bayelsa can grow rice, so the colonial masters were not wrong in their assessment when they said Niger Delta could feed not only Nigeria but the entire West Africa sub-region.

Unfortunately, agriculture till today, is not a priority of the Niger Delta as far as the state governments are concerned because of oil.

He said the states in the Niger Delta had yet to give priority to agriculture the way the North-West states such as Kebbi, Jigawa, Kano as well as other states like Lagos, Ebonyi, Anambra, have prioritised it.

He said Anambra State for instance, was not owing salaries despite the fact that it does not have oil but raking in money by exporting vegetables.
Dr Islamiyat Oluwatoyin Abdulkadir, who had been orphaned since age six, has emerged the overall best graduating medical student at the International University of Africa, Khartoum, Sudan.

Abdulkadir, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in a telephone interview from Sudan, said her academic achievements so far, seemed like a miracle.



My academic achievement so far till today, seems like a miracle to me. Not only that, my life as a whole, is a pack of miracles, she said.

Abdulkadir said that her late mother, having lost her husband when she was barely three, enrolled her at the Ad-din International Group of schools to start her primary education.

She said her mother later died when she was six years old.

She was then in primary school and was left in the care of her grandmother, with no hope of furthering her education again.

Thinking that was the end of schooling for me, my grandmother withdrew me from the school but the founder, Alhaja Sekinat Adekola, gave me scholarship for my primary and secondary education.

I emerged best student in my primary and secondary schools and even in my WASC and had a high score of 274 in my JAMB examinations.

I have always had passion to be a medical doctor, but because I was not sure of my chances. I filled Bio-Chemistry in my JAMB form and came out with a high score of 274.

This score was high enough to get me into the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan and with the hope of changing to medicine later.

I had to jettison this dream because of the financial commitment involved in studying medicine.

It was at this time that an admission team from International University of Africa, Sudan came to recruit Nigerian students into their school of Nursing.

I presented myself for the written and oral interview and luck once again smiled on me as I emerged the best student and a scholarship was awarded me for my admission in their school of nursing.

After the end of the first semester examination, I emerged the best student, and the opportunity I had been waiting for presented itself.

I approached the Schools Faculty of Medicine for a cross over from Nursing Faculty to Medicine, and the request was granted.

So through thick and thin of financial difficulties, culture shock, hunger and loneliness, I braved it through and emerged the best graduating student of the medical school on September 2, 2016.

For me to clinch the overall best student, I had a CGPA of 3.37/4.00, making a ground breaking record in the history of the faculty by scoring above 3.24, the last highest grade, she said.

Abdulkadir said her graduation speech was full of emotions and gratitude to Almighty Allah, who brought her from nothing to something.

She added that her dead parents would be happy in their graves with her achievements.

One certain thing I know about myself which can not be disputed, is that I am a living miracle of Allah.

If you have searched for a proof of miracle but to no avail, look no further as I am here to testify to the miracles of God.

I want to seize this opportunity to thank my God-sent angels, Alhaja Sekinat Adekola, founder, Proprietress of AD-din International Group of Schools for the good background I got in the school.

I also wish to thank my academic mentor, Dr Adefemi Afolabi, Senior Lecturer and Consultant General Surgeon, Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, UI and UCH, Ibadan, Nigeria, she said.

Abdulkadir said one of her aims, was to give back to the society where she came from; Oyo state, Nigeria as a whole and most especially, the children.

I believe that the definition of success is incomplete without giving back to the society, she added.

Dr Adefemi Afolabi, a Consultant General Surgeon and also the Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee, (CMAC), University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, said he met the young doctor on Face book.

Mark Zuckerberg provided the medium Facebook, through which I accepted to be her mentor at a critical stage in her education career.

I am proud to describe her as as my princess, daughter, mentee; I know she is meant for the top of her medical career.

She told me she is highly motivated to give back to children who are growing up in difficult circumstances through her social entrepreneurial skills in the future.

I enjoin all well meaning Nigerians and philanthropists to reach out to many of the indigent students who are still struggling to accomplish their dreams of a better future, he said.

In a similar reaction, Alhaja Sekinat Adekola, the Founder of the Ad-din group of schools and also the Iya Adinni of Yoruba land said all glory should go back to Allah.

I am happy to be part of her success story through the grace of Allah. I charge other less fortunate children to always accept their lot with Allah.

They should be focused and determined in achieving their aims and purpose in life; Islamiyah was very determined to make it in life and she is making it.

International women join the Nigerian women in congratulating Islamiyah Abdulkadir in achieving this feat.

Also your alma mater, all Addinians and Addinites, join me in felicitating with you in this land mark of yours.

My gratitude goes to Dr Afolabi, the CMAC of UCH, for his fatherly role throughout her stay in the medical school.

I hope she will be lucky to be absolved in the UCH as a doctor after passing all required examinations necessary for her to practice as a medical doctor in Nigeria, she said.
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Samsung had announced the Galaxy A8 smartphone last year and specs of the 2016 version of the A8 had leaked few months back. Now, renders of the phone in the A series have surfaced.

Popular tipster @Onleaks has shared a bunch of renders of the Galaxy A8 (2016) that offer a detailed look at the design of the phone from all angles. The phone was spotted on GFXBench that suggested it will feature a 5.1 inch display. As per the render, it looks like the phone will have aluminium finish all along the outer rim. At the front it has the Samsung branding along with earpiece and usual set of proximity and ambient light sensors. The left side houses separate volume rockers and SIM card slot.

The physical home button is present below the display with two capacitive touch buttons on either sides. Two antenna cut outs are also seen at the bottom that has a USB port and 3.5mm audio headphone jack. There is glossy glass back finish on the phone along with Samsung branding at the center. As per previous report, the Galaxy A8 (2016) will have a 16MP rear camera with LED flash and 5MP front facing camera.

The power button is present on the right side. There is a groove on top the the power button which according to @Onleaks could be a speaker. Samsung Galaxy A8 (2016) is said to be powered by an Exynos 7420 processor with an octa-core 2.1GHz CPU and the Mali-T760 MP8 GPU. It is tipped to come with a 3GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage. Its unclear when Samsung will make the A8 (2016) official.

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Our last Cobaya dinner, back in July , was with Paul Qui at his restaurant Pao in the Faena Hotel on Miami Beach. We had an unexpected visitor during that dinner: Francis Mallmann, the most celebrated chef in Argentina, and also Pao's neighbor at the Faena, where his restaurant Los Fuegos also resides. We spent some time explaining what we do, and I saw a twinkle in his eye. A couple months later, and we were back at the Faena, this time for a dinner with Chef Mallmann and his crew on the veranda behind the hotel.Mallmann is a master of live fire cooking, but I suspect that the hotel folks were a bit reluctant to have one of his more elaborate pyres assembled on the grounds of their billion dollar project . These fires were somewhat more modest, but were used to good effect.(See all the pictures in this Cobaya Fuego with Francis Mallman flickr set ).With Damien Hirst's gold-plated mammoth as a backdrop, our guinea pigs assembled on the veranda, and servers circulated with a couple snacks before we were seated. I remain forever loyal to any sweetbread preparation Michelle Bernstein does, but Mallmann's mollejas will run a close second. Sliced fairly thin and aggressively seared on the grill until the edges were charred to almost black, these sweetbreads were served over toasted bread daubed with a creamy pepper puree and topped with a sliver of pickled onion.A crudo of fresh scallop matched the shellfish's sweetness with an assertive dose of salt and citrus, tucked into crisp, refreshingly bitter endive leaves.We then settled our fifty guinea pigs into seats at one long communal table for fifty stretching along the covered patio which runs between the restaurant and the hotel pool  surely the biggest group we've ever been able to assemble at one table.First, a rich, creamy parsnip soup topped with lobster, crispy bread crumbs and herbs.Next, my favorite course of the dinner  massive head-on Madagascar prawns, grilled on la plancha and served simply with burnt lemon halves. The best thing about these is sucking the juices out of the heads, and I happily gathered a couple extras from diners more couth than myself.A family-style presentation of several more meats followed: flaky grouper, which we'd seen cooking over the fire, wrapped in banana leaves, as we had arrived; tender lechon, the pork's skin crisp and bronzed, with a sweet and tangy pineapple chutney to accompany it; and my favorite, sliced leg of lamb, burnished and browned from the fire on the exterior, but still pink and tender underneath, brushed with some sort of paste of sweet dates and fresh mint to complement the rosy meat.These were accompanied by an assortment of vegetables, also served family style: a panzanella style salad of chunky tomatoes and cubed bread toasted in olive oil; a fluffy quinoa salad (not pictured); hearty roasted potatoes with purple onions and fresh herbs.I sometimes have mixed feelings about family style service for these kinds of events, but Mallmann's cooking does not lend itself to pristinely arranged plates. This felt more like a dinner party than a tasting menu, with folks passing around dishes and serving each other, and with his robust, unfussy cooking, it made a lot more sense.Then Los Fuegos' chef Vitor Perim set about slicing the whole pineapples which had also been cooking over the fire as we arrived. In fact, they'd been cooking for the past seven hours. Still juicy and sweet, and silky soft (the core was as tender as the flesh), the pineapple was also entirely suffused with the smoky perfume of the fire. It was a pretty magical combination. The rounds of pineapple were served simply with macerated strawberries and a mascarpone cream; the fewer distractions, the better.And that's really the essence of Mallmann's cooking:it is elemental and pure and simple and beautiful. Things taste of themselves, and of the fire in which they were cooked. If you don't know from Chef Mallmann, I highly encourage you to watch this episode of Chef's Table as an introduction, and to seek out his book " Seven Fires ," which I think has played a huge role in inspiring the recent trend of live-fire restaurant cooking. And, even better, go to Los Fuegos, where you can taste it yourself.A warm and heartfelt thank you to Chef Mallmann and all of his team at Los Fuegos, including wine director and Cobaya veteran Zach Gossard, for a great dinner; and as always most of all, thank you to the guinea pigs whose interest and support makes these kinds of events possible.Faena Hotel, 3201 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida786.655.5600
The term volatile may be a bit of an understatement for shares of Cheniere Energy (LNG 0.20%). For the past several years, Wall Street sentiment has changed on a dime as investor optimism for the U.S.' first LNG export facility has gone from a harebrained idea to a debt-laden speculative bet to an actual operating company. Toss in a few high-profile activist investors and short-sellers and we have a pretty tumultuous stock.

Much of this, though, has to do with speculation. For those interested in investing for the longer term, you need to ignore much of this stuff. Instead, here are three things investors should watch for because they would help Cheniere Energy's stock to rise.

Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi facilities get completed ahead of time

Right now, all of Cheniere Energy's earnings power comes from one liquefaction train from its Sabine Pass facility in Louisiana up and running. This represents a relatively small fraction of the seven liquefaction trains that are under construction at both Sabine Pass and its other facility in Corpus Christi, Texas. It's important for the company's long-term future that it proves the company can be a reliable operator of these facilities, but right now, the biggest priority remains getting all of these liquefaction trains in operation on time and on budget.

The faster these facilities get up and running, the quicker the company can start generating cash and start paying back all of those loans the company took out to complete the facility. In fact, Cheniere Energy itself won't see much of the cash from the facility until its subsidiary Cheniere Energy Partners (CQP 0.78%) pays back some of its debt.

There always have been lingering questions about Cheniere Energy's ability to execute on its strategy since it has been forced to pivot so many times before. If it could get these facilities functioning ahead of time and give it some extra time to pay down those debts before they come due, it would help to put some of these fears to bed.

Management picks up expansion options on Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi

Cheniere Energy's current development plan has a total of seven liquefaction trains, but there are options for another four trains that would significantly boost the company's total export capacity. Today, two of those expansion proposals are fully permitted and are awaiting final investment decision, and there are another two under review. If the company were to give the green light for these projects, then it would likely lead to much higher earnings.

Before getting too excited about these expansion plans, there are two things to consider. The first is that management may pump the brakes on these expansion plans for a while. One of the reasons for former CEO and founder Charif Souki's ouster as the head of Cheniere was his aggressive growth plan. Newly minted CEO Jack Fusco was specifically brought in to manage the company somewhat under the premise that he would focus more on getting its current facilities running and profitable before pursuing too much growth too quickly.

The other thing to consider is that even if the company gives these projects the green light, then it will take years before they are online and it will take an immense amount of patience from investors to realize the benefits. Then again, Cheniere Energy investors have already been a pretty patient bunch as they have waited years for the company to be in its current state.

Simplified corporate structure

This seems like it might not have that much of an impact on Cheniere's stock price, but those who have taken a deeper look at Cheniere's finances and corporate structure have probably come away scratching their heads. When that happens, it can make many potential investors apprehensive.

Fortunately for investors, this is something that management has said it plans to address in the near future. Part of that will be debt reduction in general because debt is held at several different entities and subsidiaries. Another will likely involve the ownership structure in general. Cheniere Energy Partners owns the Sabine Pass facility, and it pays Cheniere Energy in the form of quarterly distributions and management fees known as incentive distribution rights. Then there is the other entity, Cheniere Energy Partners Holdings (NYSEMKT: CQH), and its sole purpose is to own shares of Cheniere Energy Partners. Then, there is the fact that the Corpus Christi facility is owned by parent Cheniere Energy.

For the sake of investors, it would be much easier to understand if all assets of the company were held by a single entity, and if the company could somehow buy out the remaining stake of Cheniere Energy Partners Holdings such that the company follows a more traditional limited partner/general partner corporate structure that is so common among master limited partnerships.

Removing layers of complexity would make it easier for investors to understand this company, and would likely give them more confidence in determining whether this stock is right for them.

What a Fool believes

Much of Cheniere Energy's business is sheltered from commodity prices because most of its revenue comes from fixed fees, but there is a little variability that will make some on Wall Street trade this stock with commodity prices. For longer-term investors, though, the larger focus needs to be on getting the rest of its liquefaction capacity up and running smoothly, expanding its current offering even more, and removing some of the complexity that makes it hard to understand the company's finances. If Cheniere Energy were to do these things, then don't be surprised if the stock rises considerably.
At the wheel of a four-year-old Ferrari F2012, Vettel performed a simulated Grand Prix start, before the Italian teams pit crew carried out a few lightning-quick stops for the spectators in the stands.

Vettel then indulged in the obligatory burnouts and donuts, immersing his scarlet car in clouds of tyre smoke, much to the delight of those watching. After an adrenaline-loaded half hour, the German driver returned to the paddock where he signed autographs and shared pictures with fans.

The F2012 wasnt the only Formula One car on show. Thanks to Ferraris F1 Clienti fleet, the red machines of the Scuderias Michael Schumacher era were also very much in evidence. Among the winning single-seaters racing at over 300 km/h were the F2002 and F2003-GA, plus the 248 F1 with which the great German came very close to winning an eighth world crown.

Schumacher was beaten to the title on that occasion by Fernando Alonso, who would also later race for Ferrari - and the Spaniard's F10 from 2010 and F150 Italia from 2011 also put on a great show at Hockenheim.

Vettel and Ferrari will next be on track for this weekends 2016 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
Every year, 40,000 Americans die in car accidents, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. And 12% of accidents stem from teens or inexperienced drivers.

Thats why Pete Selleck, chairman and president of tire manufacturer Michelin North America, teamed up with state driving departments to launch the campaign Beyond the Driving Test in 2014. The campaign is directed at teens and parents, encouraging them to check their tire pressure and tread monthly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, automobile crashes are the number one killer of teens.

Safety is a big issue for our industry and tires are the only part that touch the ground Selleck tells FOXBusiness.com.

According to a survey from the Rubber Manufacturers Association, only 9% of vehicles have properly inflated tires, while 18% of vehicles have at least one very underinflated tire. An underinflated tire can blow out and cause a dangerous accident. Selleck notes that as tire quality has improved over time, tire maintenance has fallen to the wayside. The recommendation is for car owners to check their tires once a month.

The campaign works with road safety organizations and state administrators to provide adequate information for tire safety both in person and in drivers manuals. So far, theyre more than halfway to their goal of having compliance in all 50 states by 2020; 32 states are currently committed to implementing tire maintenance information in their future driving materials, according to Selleck.

To date, Michelin has reached about 200,000 drivers through 700 driving instructors that the tire manufacturer has trained.

The biggest barrier in adopting new guidelines, Selleck says, is making them understandable and simple. We provide the precise wording, make it as easy for the administrators to simply cut and paste.

To appeal to the younger demographic, Selleck asserts that tire safety has to be cool and fun. The brand has teamed up with YouTube (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stars like Brent Rivera and Vine stars Jack and Jack, to make entertaining videos on tire safety.

And Selleck stresses that Michelins commitment to this campaign has nothing to do with selling tires, as weaker tires would help Michelins business.

Anything we can do to reduce the number of accidents is a contribution we can make to society says Selleck.
Every quarter, 45 days after the end of the quarter, big institutional money managers are required to disclose the stocks they bought or sold during the quarter.

This is the so-called smart money laying out their cards.

We can peek over the shoulders of some of the greatest investors in history to see what the smart money is buying.

Just dont follow these picks blindly.

Caveats

The 13-F reports provided to the SEC are a snapshot in time. There is no guarantee that the manager still owns the stock by the time we read the report.

We also have no information about short positions or futures positions. So, in reading the raw reports, we have no way of knowing if a manager is truly bullish on a particular stock  or if that stock is simply a piece of larger hedge or pair trade.

But if youre familiar with the trading styles of the managers you follow (and I am), you can get a pretty good idea of what their intentions are.

Apple (AAPL)

Buying: Warren Buffett

Selling: David Einhorn, Steve Cohen, Leon Cooperman, Jim Chanos

Ill start with iPhone maker Apple Inc., which has become something of a punching bag for hedge fund titans.

As Apple has struggled to grow in recent years, several big money investors have lost patience and moved on. Greenlight Capitals David Einhorn sold 1.3 million shares last quarter, reducing his total by nearly 17%.

Apple remains his largest single holding, however, at 12% of his portfolio. Steve Cohen, Leon Cooperman and Jim Chanos also reduced their positions in Apple.

But interestingly, one very high-profile investor  Mr. Warren Buffett himself  made a large Apple purchase. Buffett raised his stake in AAPL by more than 50%.

Apple still remains a small position for Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/B) at about 1% of the portfolio. But Buffett clearly likes what he sees, and his stake is growing.

I, for one, agree with Buffett here. Apples slow growth is mostly a result of impossible-to-top comps due to the unprecedented success of the iPhone 6. But as Apples sales cycle gets back to normal, you should see very steady growth in the years ahead.

And as I wrote recently, yes, Apples cash hoard really is a sight to behold.

General Motors (GM)

Buying: David Einhorn

Staying: Mohnish Pabrai

Selling: David Tepper

Speaking of David Einhorn, Greenlight Capital also poured a lot more money into General Motors Company. Einhorn picked up an additional 1.9 million shares, which boosts his total by about 13%.

General Motors is his second-largest holding after Apple and makes up about 9% of his long portfolio.

Interestingly, Einhorn is mostly alone in this trade.

David Tepper has been unloading his formerly large position for the past year, and there arent too many large managers that have meaningful positions in the stock.

But it is worth noting that Mohnish Pabrai  a well-respected value manager known for making concentrated bets  has 21% of his portfolio invested in GM warrants.

My bet is that Einhorn and Pabrai are rewarded for their independence here. General Motors is a steal at under $32 per share. At that price, the stock trades for an almost insulting 5 times earnings.

Yes, GMs earnings are highly cyclical, so you have to take the price-to-earnings ratio with a grain of salt. But I expect demand to be above average for several years to come, as sales were exceptionally low for years after the 2008 meltdown and have only recently started to recover.

AerCap Holdings (AER)

Buying: David Einhorn, Mohnish Pabrai

Whenever I see a stock appear in the portfolios of multiple investors I respect, I get excited  particularly if it is a smaller company Id never previously heard of.

Thats exactly what we have today in AerCap Holdings NV, an Irish aircraft leasing company. AerCap engages in the leasing, financing, sale and management of commercial aircraft and engines principally in China, the Netherlands and the United States.

Think of AerCap as a middleman for commercial aircraft.

Two investors Ive already mentioned  David Einhorn and Mohnish Pabrai  recently took large positions in the company.

Pabrai initiated a new position in the company that, as of quarter end, already made up 7% of his portfolio. Einhorn has been slowly building a position since 2014, but he upped it by a substantial 26% last quarter. AerCap also makes up about 7% of Einhorns portfolio.

AerCap stock hasnt done a lot of late. Its stock price has bounced around in a range of about $25 to about $50 since 2014. But AER does trade at a modest 7.6 times earnings and 0.9 times book value.

Facebook (FB)

Buying: Daniel Loeb

No CEO ever wants to get a letter from Third Points Daniel Loeb. Loeb is known for writing scathing letters to management teams that he sees as being in need of improvement  and then publicly posting the letters in an act of shaming.

Loeb is the quintessential activist investor. He likes to shake up companies to unlock value. So once youre in his crosshairs, look out. You might not have that sweet C-suite gig much longer.

Interestingly, Loebs biggest recent addition  social media leader Facebook is about as close to immune from shareholder activism as you can get.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg holds a majority interest in the company via his Class B super-voting shares, and his control of the company is so complete, he reserves the right to appoint his own successor upon his death.

Facebook makes up about 4% of Loebs long portfolio, making it his fourth-largest pick. Given that he realistically has no ability to shape Facebook as an activist, were left to conclude that he simply likes the stock and considers it a good value.

Allergan (AGN)

Buying: Carl Icahn, Seth Klarman

Selling: David Einhorn, John Paulson, Jeremy Grantham, Steve Mandel, Andreas Halvorsen

No smart money list is complete without the obligatory mention of veteran Carl Icahn. And Mr. Icahn didnt disappoint last quarter, adding a large new position in pharma giant Allergan plc.

Icahn Capital Management bought 3.4 million shares last quarter, making Allergan its 10th largest holding at just shy of 4% of the portfolio.

He joins value investing demigod Seth Klarman, who added to his large position last quarter. After picking up another 280,000 shares, Allergan makes up about 6% of Klarmans portfolio.

Interestingly, not all of the masters of the universe share Icahns enthusiasm.

David Einhorn completely sold out of his position, as did Jeremy Grantham and Steve Mandel. And John Paulson and Andreas Halvorsen made significant reductions. So Allergan, like Apple, has become something of a battleground stock among hedge fund investors.

Only time will tell whether the bulls or bears are ultimately correct, in my opinion. Allergan isnt exceptionally cheap, trading at 25 times earnings and 6 times sales. But I would be reluctant to bet against Icahn and Klarman.

Citigroup (C)

Buying: Seth Klarman

And speaking of Seth Klarman, Allergan wasnt his only new addition last quarter. Klarman also started a new position in Citigroup Inc. Klarmans Baupost Group picked up 5.2 million shares, making Citi its eighth largest holding.

Klarman is known for having a nose for value  and for his almost superhuman ability to suppress his emotions and buy stocks that no one else is buying. So I take his portfolio moves very seriously.

Hes moving into a major U.S. banking stock at a time when most investors are reluctant to touch them. The conventional wisdom is that, because the Federal Reserve will not be raising rates as aggressively as previously thought, banks will have to slog along for longer in a low-interest-rate environment that crimps profitability.

While that is likely to be the case, in my view there is a price at which all the bad news is already priced in. And given that Citi trades at just 0.62 times book value, it looks like Klarman believes weve hit that point, in my opinion.

Energy Transfer Equity (ETE)

Buying: David Dreman

David Dreman has had a fantastic career as a small-cap value manager. Unlike a lot of the other gurus Ive highlighted, he tends to take more modest-sized positions.

That makes sense, as hes a traditional mutual fund manager and not a gun-slinging hedgie.

I was delighted to see that Dreman added one of my very favorite stocks last quarter, Energy Transfer Equity LP.

I liked Energy Transfer enough to make it my pick in InvestorPlaces Best Stocks for 2016 contest, and as of this writing, Im in second place with a year-to-date return of nearly 40%.

Energy Transfer Equity was beaten, battered and left for dead earlier this year  at one point down more than 70% on the year. So its no surprise to me that contrarian value investor like Dreman would be picking up shares.

While ETE took some reputation risk in its botched attempt to acquire rival Williams Companies Inc (WMB), the company sits at the top of a profitable pipeline empire.

And while I expect dividend growth to be modest for a couple years as ETE reduces its debt load, its worth noting that Energy Transfer Equity has raised its dividend at a rate of more than 50% annually over the past three years.

Charles Sizemore is the principal of Sizemore Capital Management, a registered investment adviser in Dallas, Texas. As of this writing, he was long AAPL, ETE and GM.

This article first appeared on InvestorPlace.com

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Weight Watchers is starting a search for a new chief executive because CEO James Chambers is leaving.

The New York company said Monday that Chambers, who has led the New York company since 2013, is resigning at the end the month. He will also leave the company's board of directors.

Weight Watchers International Inc. says it has created an interim Office of the Chief Executive Officer, which will include Chief Financial Officer Nicholas Hotchkin, and director Christopher Sobecki and Thilo Semmelbauer, the companys former chief operating officer and a new director.

Shares of the weight loss program operator fell 4.4 percent in after-hours trading. The stock has lost more than half its value this year.
Alec Baldwin was duped into paying $190,000 for a counterfeit version of a painting hed long coveted  and he is now suing the Manhattan gallery owner who pulled off the alleged scheme for three times the value of the artwork.

Mary Boone, owner of the Mary Boone galleries in midtown Manhattan and Chelsea, sold Baldwin what the 30 Rock actor believed to be a 1996 painting titled Sea and Mirror by contemporary artist Ross Bleckner in 2010.

Baldwin had his eye on the piece since 2006 when he attended a show of Bleckners works at the Mary Boone Gallery.

But it wasnt for sale.

Ms. Boone told Mr. Baldwin she would look into obtaining the work from the collector who currently owned it, the Manhattan civil suit says.

Four years after the show Boone wrote to Baldwin with detailed information about the paintings provenance and said she could obtain it for him in exchange for a $15,000 fee.

Baldwin  who touts his multiple Emmy Awards, Golden Globe Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards in the suit  readily agreed.

He noted his concern to Boone that the artwork appeared brighter and smelled different than he would have expected when he received it. The gallerist claimed that she had Sea and Mirror cleaned before delivering it to Baldwin because the prior owner was a heavy smoker, the suit says.

He proudly hung the painting in his office and bragged about the acquisition during a speech at a 2012 Kennedy Center event honoring Paul McCartney.

I love this thing so much, he said in his remarks.

Then in May during a chance encounter with several art experts, Baldwin became concerned about the authenticity of the work Ms. Boone had delivered, the suit says.

The experts told Baldwin that it was highly uncommon for a gallerist to clean a painting before delivering it to a purchaser, because the process could damage the work.

Baldwin then emailed the painter about his worries, who in turn looped in Boone. At first the gallery owner ignored Baldwins queries, so he had the piece appraised by a Sothebys expert. The examination revealed the actors worst fears  that hed been defrauded, the suit says.

Thats when the gallerist finally admitted that she sold Baldwin a copy, and not the original piece that she had promised to deliver to him in 2010, the suit says.

Baldwin sued after Boone failed to get him the original painting, according to court papers.

A lawyer for the gallery did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the attorney, Ted Poretz, told The New York Times in an August article about the dispute that the painting is not a copy; its an original and very fine work of art by Ross Bleckner.

Baldwin is suing for damages equal to three times the value of the painting, plus other costs.

This article originally appeared in the New York Post's Page Six.
Eleven countries in South and East Asia on Friday agreed to establish an emergency fund to strengthen their health services to better respond to outbreaks of diseases, including emerging viruses such as Zika, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday.

Made up of India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, South Korea, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste, the South East Asia region is highly susceptible to disasters such as floods which can result in disease outbreaks.

The region is also threatened by a range of emerging diseases such as SARS, MERS CoV, pandemic influenza and Zika, say experts, adding that countries remain ill-prepared to effectively contain an outbreak should it occur.

The WHO said while nations already contributed to a fund to tackle health emergencies such as outbreaks of cholera or diarrhea in the aftermath of disasters, it was crucial to have finance available to help countries prepare beforehand.

"To date, post-disaster funding through South-East Asia Regional Health Emergency Fund has done an excellent job of helping countries respond to health emergencies once they've occurred, as we saw most recently in Nepal and Sri Lanka," said Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO's South East Asia director.

"The new funding stream will allow countries to invest in infrastructure and human resources that will enhance preparedness," she added in a statement.

In a resolution passed by the 11 countries at a WHO meeting in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, governments also agreed to increase the number of health workers, provide them with training and better conditions in order to retain them.

The ratio of health care providers in the region currently stands at 12.5 workers for every 10,000 people, just a quarter of the WHO recommended minimum of 44.5.

Aid workers welcomed the move, citing the Ebola crisis in West Africa in 2013-15, as an example of why it was necessary to build local capacity and prevent an outbreak becoming a crisis.

"To deal with an outbreak, we need to work before, during and after. A strong public health system is the best shock absorber in such settings," said Unni Krishnan, Save the Children's emergency health director in Asia and Pacific.

"This initiative should aim to prepare local medical colleges and local health systems for such scenarios - a collaborative approach between governments, U.N. systems and non-governmental organizations is key."
When Kris Boesens car fishtailed on a wet road, hitting a tree and slamming into a telephone poll, the 21-year-old never thought he would walk again. But results from an early-stage clinical trial using stem cells to restore movement have given the 21-year-old promise that his spinal cord injury may one day be reversed, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.

Boesen, of Bakersfield, California, qualified for the study at the Keck Medical Center of the University of Southern California (USC).

He was extremely excited about having an opportunity to try to do somethingto get better than he was at that point, Boesens father, Rodney Boesen, told the news station.

Doctors told the young man that hed likely never have movement or sensation below his neck, but the trial aimed to improve those functions.

In early April within two weeks to 30 day of Boesens injury neurosurgeon Charles Liu and his team injected 10 million stem cells, called AST-OPC1 cells, directly into his cervical spinal cord, Fox 5 Atlanta reported. Within two weeks, the effects of his accident began to improve.

"Patients who suffer these disabilities want more than anything else to do something for themselves, says Dr. Liu, director of the USC Neurorestoration Center, told the news station. They want to be more independent, less dependent. It makes all of us appreciate how important it is that we can do these things."

Today, three months after receiving the therapy, Boesen can feed himself, use his cellphone and operate his motorized wheelchair, according to Fox 5 Atlanta. He also can write his name, and hug family and friends.

"If I was there and I was able to thank them, he told the news station. I would just tell them, Thank you for giving (me) my life back. Thank you for allowing me to live my life again."

Since the procedure, Boesen has been evaluated four times, and he will be monitored every four months.
After Hillary Clinton appeared to collapse at the 9/11 anniversary ceremony on Sunday, her doctor confirmed she had been diagnosed with pneumonia prior to the event. Now, critics are questioning the Democratic presidential nominees health, her actions following the memorial, and the threat she may have posed to public health.

Clinton, 68, reportedly retreated to her daughter Chelseas Manhattan apartment, where she rested before emerging around noon and telling reporters, Im feeling great. She greeted a young girl and put her hand on her shoulders to take a photo.

The former Secretary of State was diagnosed with pneumonia and put on antibiotics on Friday, her physician, Dr. Lisa R. Bardack, said in a statement.

Despite the criticism, several experts who have not treated Clinton said her reported symptoms and actions at the event suggest she had common bacterial pneumonia and did not threaten the health of those around her during the public appearance.

Its not too surprising that she has a pneumonia, Dr. Frank Esper, pediatric infectious disease specialists at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, one of those experts, told FoxNews.com. Shes under a lot of stress, and the rigors of the campaign can lead you to be more susceptible to getting sickness.

According to the National Institutes of Health, millions of Americans are diagnosed with pneumonia each year.

Pneumonia is a very common infection if you go around to the people you work with, youll have a hard time finding someone who hasnt had it in the last 10 years, Esper said. Almost everybody has it several times through their life.

Bardack neither revealed what type of pneumonia Clinton has, nor did she clarify whether it was a bacterial or viral infection of the lungs. Bacterial infections are not contagious, while viral infections are.

Viral respiratory infections are most common in late fall and early spring, so her illness is likely bacterial, Dr. Robert Kotloff, chairman of pulmonary medicine at Cleveland Clinic, told FoxNews.com. Bacterial pneumonia can be treated on an outpatient basis, and patients are advised to take it easy without further restrictions.

There are more serious diagnoses that require hospitalization and, in some cases, care in an intensive care unit, but it doesnt sound like this particular situation fits those criteria, Kotloff said.

While some critics claim Clinton fainted while leaving the 9/11 event, its unlikely she actually lost consciousness, Dr. Amesh Adalja, infectious disease specialist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, told FoxNews.com. Adalja said she may have been felt dizzy or felt faint, and, if that was the case, going to her daughters home rather than a medical facility was appropriate.

Its not uncommon for someone thats being treated for pneumonia to have symptoms of fatigue and [feeling faint], said Adalja, a member of the Infectious Disease Society of America's (IDSA) public health committee. Sometimes those episodes are transient and will pass with a little bit of rest, laying down, drinking fluids, and theres no need for further concern.

Adalja added that Clintons physicians likely counseled her on which pneumonia symptoms to expect.

She was not looking too short of breath, not wearing an oxygen tank, so she probably has a mild case of community acquired bacterial pneumonia, said Adalja, adding that with antibiotics, patients usually have a very robust recovery.

However, it usually takes five to 10 days for an individuals immune system to eradicate most viruses, after which point they are no longer infectious, Esper said. The immune system also wanes with age, which may make a patient Clintons age contagious for a slightly longer illness.

Depending on the specific virus that caused the pneumonia, a patient may be rundown for weeks and have a cough for months, Esper added.

The lungs are extremely sensitive to infection, and it takes a lot to get well, he said. [Patients are] not coughing up infectious particles their lungs have been scarred a little, and theres an inflammatory response. Theyre coughing up basically sterile material.

While campaigning in Cleveland last week, Clinton had a coughing fit, which the campaign attributed to allergies. It's possible Clinton may have assumed that symptoms from an earlier viral infection were due to allergies, Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University, told the Associated Press.

Clinton has stayed in the public eye since her diagnosis, but that doesnt mean there should be concern that shes spreading disease, experts like Adalja and Kotloff agree.

For the overwhelming majority of bacterial organisms that cause pneumonia in adults, theyre not communicable from one individual to another, Kotloff said. In that way, I dont think the child was put into jeopardy.

Its possible Clinton has whats known as walking pneumonia, the common moniker applied to patients who do not need to be hospitalized, experts said.

The majority of patients will just have a bad cough and need to go home, need chicken soup, need rest to give their immune system time to eradicate this germ, Esper said, noting that, according to the ISDA , more than 1 million people over age 65 get pneumonia each year, which does not mean there are 65 million people hospitalized.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the pneumococcal vaccine for all adults age 65 and older and its unknown whether Clinton received it. However, even if Clinton had been vaccinated, the formula protects only against the most common bacterial form of pneumonia, pneumococcal disease.

There are a multitude of other organisms that cause pneumonia. More than 50 percent are caused by organisms other than pneumococcus, Kotloff said. Getting the vaccine does not dramatically reduce the likelihood of getting pneumococcal disease, it significantly reduces the likelihood of getting life-threatening complications from pneumococcus.

The vaccination is also recommended for all children younger than 5 years old. Pneumonia is the leading cause of death among children under age 5, accounting for 15 percent of all child deaths in 2015, according to the World Health Organization.

An individuals current health and health history do not make them more susceptible to pneumonia, Kotloff said.

It can affect an otherwise perfectly healthy individual, whether they are elderly or even young adults. In general, stress and a heavy schedule that lead to exhaustion can certainly have an effect on the immune system, Kotloff said. Someone acquiring pneumonia does not in any way imply that they have an underlying health condition.
Imagine getting the bill for an ordinary dinner and noticing, in tiny print, that the restaurant charged you $40 for coffee. Surely you'd be upset.

It turns out that hospitals inflate specific prices all the time in ways that aren't transparent to the patient, according to a new study that appeared Sept. 7 in the journal Health Affairs.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found that many hospitals charged more than 20 times the cost of some services, particularly for certain services like CT scans and anesthesiology. The researchers said that the pattern of charging suggests that hospitals strategically look for surreptitious ways to boost revenue.

"Hospitals apparently mark up higher in the departments with more complex services, because it is more difficult for patients to compare prices in these departments," Ge Bai, who led the study and is an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, said in a statement.

Other high-tech services with exorbitant markups include MRI, electrocardiology (tests of the heart's electrical patterns) and electroencephalography (tests of the brain's impulse patterns), according to the findings. The services that had fees that were more in line with their actual costs to hospitals included "old-school" physical therapy and nursing, the researchers found.

The markups occurred in all types of hospitals, both private and nonprofit, the researchers said. Yet hospitals with the highest markups, on average, tended to be for-profit hospitals with strong power within their markets, because of either their system affiliations or their dominance of regional markets. In other words, those hospitals that can mark up prices, do mark up prices, according to the researchers.

The pricing can have serious consequences for the payer, the researchers said. For example, hospitals whose costs for a CT scan run at about $100 may charge a patient $2,850 for a CT scan, the study found.

"[The markups] affect uninsured and out-of-network patients, auto insurers and casualty and workers' compensation insurers," said Gerard Anderson, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a co-author on the study. "The high charges have led to personal bankruptcy, avoidance of needed medical services and much higher insurance premiums."

In their study, based on 2013 Medicare and other data from nearly 2,500 U.S. hospitals, the researchers compared a hospital's overall charge-to-cost ratio, which is the ratio of what the hospital charged compared to the hospital's actual medical expense. The charge is recorded on a document called a chargemaster, which is an exhaustive list of the prices for all hospital procedures and supplies.

In 2013, the average hospital with more than 50 beds had an overall charge-to-cost ratio of 4.32 ? that is, the hospital charged $4.32 for every $1 of its own costs. However, at most hospitals that they examined, the researchers found that the charge-to-cost ratio was far higher in departments that were technologically advanced. The highest was in the CT department, with an average ratio of 28.5.

While understanding that hospitals need to generate revenue, the researchers recommend a cap on markups and consistency from department to department. They also suggest more transparency, by requiring hospitals to provide patients with examples in clear language of rates from area hospitals or what Medicare would pay.

"There is no regulation that prohibits hospitals from increasing revenues," Bai told Live Science. "The problem is when they raise rates on people that have no ability to say no because they have an emergency and cannot compare prices." This includes uninsured and out-of-network patients, "because they dont have bargaining power against hospitals," Bai added.

"We realize that any policy proposal to limit hospital markups would face a very strong challenge from the hospital lobby," Anderson said. "But we believe the markup should be held to a point that's fair to all concerned ? hospitals, insurers and patients alike."

The researchers noted that Johns Hopkins Hospital has a charge-to-cost ratio of 1.3, among the lowest 1 percent of the sample studied. Maryland, the state in which the hospital is located, in general has the lowest ratios of any other state, they said.

Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Two schoolchildren in California are suspected of having leprosy, but where might they have caught the disease?

This week, officials in Riverside Country (which is near Los Angeles) said they are investigating the suspected cases of leprosy, now usually called Hansen's disease, at an elementary school in the area. Nursing staff at the school first notified officials about the possible infections on Sept. 2, but it will take several weeks to confirm them, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Cases of Hansen's disease in the United States are rare, but they do occur, with about 100 to 200 cases typically reported each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2014, there were 175 new cases of Hansen's disease diagnosed in the United States, and nearly three-quarters of these cases were reported in seven states: Arkansas, California, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, New York and Texas, according to the U.S. National Hansen's Disease (Leprosy) Program.

"There's a lot of stigma and a lot of misunderstanding about leprosy," said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious-disease specialist and a senior associate at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Center for Health Security. "In the United States, there are thousands of people" who have the disease, Adalja told Live Science. It's estimated that, overall, about 6,500 people in the United States have Hansen's disease, and about half of these require active medical treatment, according to the National Hansen's Disease Program.

There's currently not enough information provided about these two suspected case to know where they might have originated, Adalja said. But armadillos in the United States are known to harbor the bacteria that cause the disease, and it's possible for people to become infected through contact with the animals, Adalja said, although the risk of this is low.

People can also become infected with leprosy through prolonged close contact with patients who have leprosy, Adalja said. Because the disease is not very contagious, people are unlikely to become infected through casual contact, he added.

In addition, a sizable number of the people who have Hansen's disease in the United States (about 60 percent) were born in another country, Adalja said, and so it's possible they contracted the disease in another country, but this is not certain. Countries with more widespread leprosy transmission include Angola, Brazil, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Federated States of Micronesia, India, Kiribati, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nepal, Republic of Marshall Islands and the United Republic of Tanzania, according to the CDC.

The disease is caused by a bacterium known as Mycobacterium leprae. It mainly affects the skin, peripheral nerves, upper respiratory tract, eyes and lining of the nose, according to the National Institutes of Health. The bacteria multiply very slowly, so it may take two to 10 years before a person who is infected with the bacteria has any symptoms, the CDC says. Left untreated, the bacteria can cause permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs and eyes (including paralysis and blindness), according to the World Health Organization.

But the disease is easily treatable with antibiotics, according to the CDC. And patients are unable to transmit the disease to other people after taking just a few doses of antibiotics.

Hansen's disease is not easily spread between people, and it's unlikely that people would catch the disease in a school or work environment, Barbara Cole, of the Riverside County Department of Public Health, told the Los Angeles Times. One reason that the disease doesn't appear to be very contagious is that most people are naturally immune to the disease  it's estimated that about 95 percent of people are not able to contract leprosy, Adalja said.

The school with the suspected cases said it has disinfected a few classrooms as a response to the news, according to the Los Angeles Times. But Adalja said that this action was probably overdoing it relative to the risk that the cases pose. "Almost all of it will be overkill because this disease is not that contagious," Adalja said.

Original article on Live Science.

Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
More and more Americans are admitting they use marijuana, and a new study suggests this may be due at least in part to the growing number of people who don't think it's dangerous.

Researchers surveyed almost 600,000 U.S. adults from 2002 to 2014 about their drug use and health. Marijuana use increased from 10.4 percent of adults to 13.3 percent during the study period, researchers report in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Over the same period, the proportion of adults who thought there was a great risk of harm associated with smoking pot once or twice a week declined from about 50 percent to 33 percent.

"Despite scientific evidence of potential harms, adults are much less convinced about dangers associated with using marijuana," said lead study author Dr. Wilson Compton, deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

"These reductions in perceived harm were strongly associated with the increases in use," Compton added by email.

Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the U.S., according to NIDA.

Short-term effects of using this drug can include mood changes, impaired body movements and difficulty with thinking, problem solving and memory. Over time, the drug can also lead to breathing challenges, increased heart rate and a range of mood disorders.

Overall, marijuana use by U.S. adults increased more than 30 percent in the past dozen years, the study found, with 10 million more people using pot in 2014 than in 2012.

Use of marijuana on a daily or near-daily basis increased even more markedly.

In 2002, 3.9 million adults in the U.S. reported using marijuana daily or nearly every day. By 2014, that number had more than doubled to 8.4 million.

"Physicians need to be aware of these changing patterns of marijuana use to guide health care, and additional research needs to be conducted to study the consequences - both acute and long-term - that may be associated with frequent, heavy use," Compton said.

Both the prevalence and frequency of marijuana use increased starting around 2007 and showed significantly larger spikes after 2011, the study found.

During the study period, a growing number of U.S. states adopted legislation legalizing marijuana for medical purposes and, in some instances, for recreational use.

As of 2015, 24 states and the District of Columbia had passed medical marijuana legislation, the study authors note.

Meanwhile, many countries outside the U.S. including Canada, India, Mexico, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands have decriminalized possession of small quantities of marijuana, the authors also point out.

"The message that adults are not getting is that marijuana is a drug and, like all drugs, can harm some users when it is used in certain ways," said Wayne Hall, director of the Center for Youth Substance Abuse Research at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.

"Like alcohol, it can when used daily over substantial periods of time produce dependence and seriously interfere with some adults' health and well-being," Hall, author of an editorial accompanying the study, said by email.
New York will allow late-term abortions for women whose pregnancies endanger their health, a move that brings the state into federal compliance and ends decades of confusion faced by patients and providers of the procedure, state officials said.

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman issued an opinion publicly on Thursday to clarify that New Yorkers have all the protections afforded to women in the United States under the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade and are not beholden to the state's more-restrictive abortion law.

"Today's opinion eliminates any ambiguity about the consistency of our state's law with these federal constitutional rights and, as a result, removes an obstacle some New York women may encounter when trying to make their own reproductive health choices," Schneiderman said in a statement.

The state will officially allow late-term abortions if the pregnant woman's health is at risk or if the fetus is "nonviable," according to the opinion.

Existing New York law says abortion is a crime unless performed "under a reasonable belief that such is necessary to preserve (the pregnant woman's) life," or within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.

The new opinion also assures reproductive health care providers operating in New York, such as Planned Parenthood, that "they may provide constitutionally protected reproductive health care services to women without fear of being complicit in a criminal act."

The opinion does not change the state's penal code. It clarifies the state's interpretation of federal law and that the law overrides state rule.

New York, which was of the first states to legalize access to abortions, last modified its laws on the procedure in 1970, about three years before the Roe v. Wade decision.

Civil rights and reproductive health care advocates applauded Schneiderman's move.

"New York's abortion law, once ahead of its time, for too long has been woefully out of date, causing confusion for providers and leaving women without the full extent of their constitutionally-protected right to access abortion," said Andrea Miller, President of the National Institute for Reproductive Health.

"Today's opinion by the attorney general is critical confirmation that women have a right to adequate medical care and reproductive choice in New York state," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The organization said it plans to release a report next year that includes a collection of stories by women who were affected by New York's unconstitutional abortion restriction.
A sailor who complained of a stomachache recently gave birth to a healthy, 7-pound baby girl aboard the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Navy told The Virginian-Pilot. The sailor, who was on the ship while it operated in the Persian Gulf, did not report she was pregnant because she said she did not know she was.

As the baby was born at sea aboard an operational unit, the main focus for the U.S. Navy, the ship and its crew is the safety and wellbeing of the baby and the mother, Cmdr. Bill Urban, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command spokesman, told The Virginian-Pilot. The baby and mother have arrived in Bahrain via helicopter with a medical escort and have been taken to a shore-based hospital for follow on care.

An incubator, diapers and formula were flown out to the carrier following the babys birth, which was not immediately clear, reports said. The incubator was used to transport the baby during the medical evacuation.

The family practitioner aboard Ike, who delivered the baby, is certified in childbirth and has experience delivering babies, Urban told the website. A number of personnel assigned to Ike medical department have received training to deliver and care for a newborn.

While Urban told the news outlet that the sailors superiors were not aware of the pregnancy, it could not be confirmed if she herself was aware either. Navy policy allows for expectant mothers to stay on ship up until the 20th week of pregnancy if a medical treatment facility is less than six hours away, and requires expectant mothers to self-report pregnancy within two weeks of confirmation from a medical care provider.

While it would have been preferred to send her to her homeport earlier, per policy, we are now focused on caring for the health and welfare of our Sailor and the newest member of our Navy family, Urban said.

Pentagon officials confirmed the birth on Monday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The triggers for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can appear in unexpected places. For James, 24, who asked that we withhold his last name for his family's privacy, fireworks make him visualize grizzly images of mangled bodies. James served as a combat medic in Afghanistan from March 2011-2012 with the 710th Combat Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division.

James said that during his deployment he had to sever the connection between his heart and head in order to be able to process images of soldiers and childrens bodies blown mangled by explosions.

When I came back, I couldnt reestablish that connection, James told FoxNews.com. He described himself as emotionally numb. He knew that he loved his wife and his parents but he couldnt feel it anymore. He became unpredictable and was unable to control his emotions.

My wife said she was walking on eggshells. Any word that would come out of her mouth would set me off, he said, adding, the anger didnt build up. It was like a switch from calm to -- forgive my language -- f-----g rage.

James and his wife thought caring for a pet dog would help him adjust to life as a civilian, but in fits of rage and anger he would choke and kick the dog. Instead of the dog serving as a therapy pet, it shined a light on an inevitable truth; James needed extensive help to overcome his severe PTSD.

James tried both traditional and non-traditional forms of therapy offered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). He tried medications, psychotherapy and an intensive form of group therapy that lasted for seven hours per day, five days per week for three months. He also tried hypnosis, electrotherapy and prolonged exposure therapy but nothing alleviated his symptoms. It wasnt until he moved to Colorado for school did he learn about an experimental study using MDMA, commonly known as Ecstasy or Molly, as a psychotherapy tool.

The well-known club drug had been used in psychotherapy before it was deemed a Class 1 drug in 1985. Class 1 drugs are illegal because they have high abuse potential, no medical use and severe safety concerns. Also listed as Class 1 drugs are Heroin, cocaine and marijuana.

Some of the effects MDMA can have on a person include euphoria and a feeling of overwhelming love. Dr. Elizabeth Drew, a board-certified family physician who specializes in addiction medicine and is the medical director of Summit Behavior Health, told FoxNews.com that if a trained therapist can harness these emotions correctly, they can help the patient navigate through the trauma that causes their PTSD.

Working with a therapist that they feel close to and feels that they have concern about them, you can disconnect that fear and trauma from the actual event and you can process it and it looks like people are cured, she said.

James compared MDMA to a light in a dark cave when fighting PTSD.

It gives you euphoria and love. You can go into the darkness and not be afraid, he said, referring to addressing the trauma of war. James said that the drug made it possible for him to confront the demons that were in the recesses of his brain. His relationships with his family and their dog evolved and improved.

However, MDMA is a controversial approach in treating PTSD, as it does have the potential to be deadly. In February, a Los Angeles County coroner determined that an Ecstasy overdose caused the death of an 18-year-old UCLA student at a rave. The teen, identified as Tracy Nguyen by the Los Angeles Times, isnt the first overdose victim and likely wont be the last.

The way they are used in clubs is not safe, Lewis Nelson, a toxicology specialist at NYU Langone, told FoxNews.com. He said that the dangers posed from MDMA are twofold; one is the harm caused from chronic use of the drug, and the other is the immediate threats to your health.

If used chronically, Nelson said that studies have shown that it can lead to neurotoxicity in animals. The National Institute on Drug Abuse said that studies on monkeys show that long-term use of Ecstasy can alter brain chemistry, specifically serotonin levels and its metabolites are diminished.

The immediate danger of MDMA, according to Dr. Nelson, is that the sudden increase of serotonin levels can raise the body temperature and cause muscle rigidity. When people use the drug in a club setting, they can overheat and potentially die from hyperthermia.

But what about taking it on the couch of a medical professional? Nelson said the health risks are low, but there should be trials to see if the benefits of the drug outweigh the risks.

James said that he wants to help take the stigma out of the drug so that is can be explored as a useful psychotherapy tool. If officials are able to find that MDMA does have health benefits, it could become a Class 2 drug like methadone and Percocet.
Heres what happens when you lie all the time: people stop believing anything you say. That is the problem today for Hillary Clinton. Her staff says she has pneumonia. Maybe. Some are doubtful. After all, hours before that announcement, her campaign told us that her sudden exit from an important event was because she was overheated. That apparently was a lie. Or was the pneumonia report a lie? Who knows?

Theres a reason that, according to a recent NBC poll, only 11 percent of Americans think Hillary is trustworthy and honest. Decades of not telling the truth  about big items like Bills infidelity or how a video caused the death of four Americans in Benghazi and small items like coming under sniper fire in Bosnia  have piled up around Hillary Clinton like the scales around an armadillo. The lies are thick and impenetrable; it is hard to know where one starts and another begins.

After Hillary nearly collapsed at the 9/11 remembrance Sunday in downtown Manhattan, her doctor released a statement saying that Mrs. Clinton has been suffering from a cough related to allergies; in a check-up on that condition Friday the former first lady was found to have contracted pneumonia. Her doctor had prescribed antibiotics and advised a less arduous schedule.

The skepticism that greeted this explanation was profound, as revealed on social media. Some speculated that it was a body double of Hillary that emerged from Chelsea Clintons apartment and waved at the press. Some are even hinting that she actually has Parkinsons disease, and that the pneumonia is related; some thought shed had a seizure on Sunday. What we DO know is that the campaign has been less than truthful.

There are some unanswered questions. If her doctor advised rest, why did the candidate not dial back some of her appearances? Also of interest  what type of pneumonia does she have? Many who have been in close proximity for Mrs. Clinton wondered if she might have the kind that is communicable; that information was not available.

The initial reports that she had overheated were not credible, as temperatures in the city were a comfortable high 70s; it was clear that something else was going on.

No reporters were allowed to accompany the candidate after she departed the former World Trade Center site and no information was released as to her whereabouts; for an hour this extraordinarily public person was entirely off the grid. When she showed up, more than two hours later, emerging from her daughters apartment, she waved to reporters but refused to take questions about the episode before getting into her car and purportedly heading to her Chappaqua home.

For weeks the Clinton camp warned that they would not tolerate media questions about the former first ladys coughing fits and apparent unsteadiness.

After reporting on a recent coughing episode, NBCs Andrew Rafferty was chastised by Hillary spokesman Nick Merrill, who posted on Twitter that the writer should get a life. Others in the Clinton camp piled on, delivering a clear message: Hillarys health is off limits.

Mrs. Clinton, they assured us, was fit as a fiddle. Yesterdays medical emergency demolished that smokescreen. Her disappearance, the lack of communications and initial stonewalling were classic Clinton behavior. Yes, there is a problem, but it is the secrecy and paranoia that gets Clinton into trouble.

A clearly irate Chris Cillizza, writing in the Washington Post, issued a mea culpa about his recent dismissal of the health rumors under the heading Hillary Clintons Health Just Became a Real Issue in the Presidential Campaign. Like others, he had accepted the assurances of Clintons doctors that she was fully recovered from her fainting fit in 2012, when she sustained a concussion and was later discovered to have a blood clot. Like others, he believed the campaign when they laughed off the former first ladys cough, apparent stumbles and other signs of distress.

No one is laughing now. Far from being the product of an over-active right-wing imagination, Hillarys health issues are verified by the footage showing her unable to walk and being virtually lifted into her car by bodyguards.

More than her actions, more than the email scandal or the seeming pay-to-play with the Clinton Foundation, it is Hillarys inability to tell the truth that is hurting her. Yes, she has experience on her side, but more and more Americans have concluded that Hillary cant be trusted.

Her favorability ratings have slid steadily downward, actually falling below Trumps, according to a New York Times poll conducted in mid-July. She has only herself to blame. Her lies about how using a personal server was more convenient (it wasnt), how she didnt send classified information (she did), how she turned over all work-related material to the FBI (she didnt), how she cooperated with the authorities (she did not)  all have torched the enthusiasm for her candidacy. Her dogged pursuit of the presidency has become a joyless trek among the minefields of her own making.

And now there is another. She should immediately come clean about what her health problems are, open up her health records and go on TV to talk about how grueling the race can be. Many would sympathize; she could do herself some good.

Instead, she will likely fall back on age-old Clinton feints and dodges, daring us to find out the truth. All of which will remind us that not guilty is not the same as innocent  and especially where the Clintons are concerned.
Every week, Fox News contributor Karl Rove wraps up the last week in politics and offers an inside look at the week ahead.

Donald Trump won last week, mostly because Hillary Clinton had such a lousy one, but also because a raft of new polls awakened some journalists to the fact that the race has tightened significantly over the last month. On Aug. 7, Clinton peaked with a 7.9-point lead in the RealClearPolitics average. By late last week, her margin was down to 2.7 points.

Here are last weeks five big takeaways.

1. Hillarys health: She started the week coughing uncontrollably in Ohio and blamed it on an allergic reaction to Trump. She ended the week having to leave a 9/11 memorial service because she wasnt feeling well. Americans later found out it was because she was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday.

Presidential campaigns are an expression of the candidates attitudes, and Clinton sometimes borders on being mildly paranoid. She set up a private server because she didnt want people to see her emails. She misled Americans about her concussion and blood clot in 2012 because she didnt want people to know how serious it was. And now, she didnt alert voters that shed come down with a minor case of pneumonia that could be treated with antibiotics and without hospitalization because, well, she didnt want to tell us.

Not immediately telling people she had pneumonia simply heightened the sense that Clinton is hiding something. Trump has been smart to have a low-key response. If he now makes his complete medical history available for review by physicians, shell be in a pickle.

2. Clintons email and foundation problems: These issues arent going away. She finally talked to the press Monday when they piled onto her new, larger campaign plane. Reporters asked about her email and charges that Clinton Foundation donors got favors and special treatment when she was secretary of state. Then Matt Lauer pressed her about the emails Wednesday at NBCs Commander-in-Chief Forum. She did herself no favors by telling a naval aviator who asked about her emails, I did exactly what I should have done and I take it very seriously, always have, always will. Obviously, she didnt do what she should have done and didn't take security concerns seriously.

3. Commander-in-Chief Forum: While Clinton suffered some damage at the Commander-in-Chief Forum, so did Trump, who again offered over-the-top praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He compounded this by appearing on RT, the Russian governments U.S. cable propaganda channel. The Republican nominees embrace of the Russian strongman grates on national security conservatives, an important bloc Trump needs. They rightly view Putin as anti-American and a dangerous adversary, hostile to Americas interests and allies. Trumps Putin comments largely obscured his speech earlier Wednesday in Philadelphia in which he laid out the case for rebuilding American military might.

The forums moderator, Matt Lauer, came in for criticism after the event, as left-wing pundits and Clintons cheering squad criticized him for his persistent questioning of the Democratic nominee over her private email server.

Lauer can take some small comfort that he wasnt the real target; his appropriate conduct merely gave Team Clinton a chance to work the refs, to send a message to the moderators of the three upcoming presidential debates that if they ask tough questions of Hillary, they will be criticized by people they see at Manhattan cocktail parties and Georgetown soirees. Not certain if the debate moderators feel a need to win David Brocks approval, however.

4. Hillarys broad brush: At a Friday night fundraiser in Manhattan, Clinton called half of Trumps backers a basket of deplorables. They are racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic  you name it, she said, before declaring, they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America.

Even Team Clinton recognized this was deeply offensive, and on Saturday Clinton offered what she thought was an apology, saying, Last night I was grossly generalistic, and thats never a good idea. I regret saying half  that was wrong. That wasnt an apology, but a further insult. Just how many of Trumps supporters does the Democratic nominee think are irredeemable and not America, if not half?

While it is true that anyone can find offensive individuals backing any candidate of any party, Clintons broad brush simply deepened the antagonism both candidates supporters have toward the other contender. Already, 80 percent of Clinton supporters and 83 percent of Trump supporters believe the opposing candidate will do real damage to America, according to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll.

5. Events will intrude: It may not have been obvious, but events beyond the candidates control last week will affect voter attitudes in the campaigns remaining 57 days. North Korea conducted an underground test of a nuclear device. Documents surfaced showing Department of Defense officials planned a hardball campaign against House GOP efforts to increase defense spending. And after blocking consideration of the 13 annual appropriations bills, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is pushing Congress to fund the government with a giant, long-term continuing resolution, raising the likelihood of a congressional spending fight this fall.

How Clinton and Trump react to these events and how these events affect the thinking of voters about what they want in their next president are both likely to influence the presidential election in ways that are not easy to calculate.
Churches in the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts have grave concerns about a new anti-discrimination law that could force congregations to accommodate the transgender community  under the threat of fines and jail time.

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The law, which goes into effect in October, does not specifically mention churches or other houses of worship. However, the attorney general, along with the government commission assigned to enforce the law, have a different point of view.

Attorney General Maura Healey wrote that places of public accommodation include: auditoriums, convention centers, lecture halls, houses of worship, and other places of public gathering.

The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, the commission responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination law, reinforced that interpretation in a document titled, Gender Identity Guidance.

Even a church could be seen as a place of public accommodation if it holds a secular event, such as a spaghetti supper, that is open to the general public, the document states. All persons, regardless of gender identity, shall have the right to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities and privileges of any place of public accommodation.

The Massachusetts Family Institute has launched a petition drive to repeal the law  warning that pastors and parishioners could find themselves in serious legal trouble.

The law bootstraps the idea of gender identity onto existing Civil Rights laws, MFI president Andrew Beckwith tells me. Even having a sign in your church that says This Bathroom is for Biological Women Only could subject the pastor of the church to up to 30 days in jail.

Beckwith said under the law, the sign would be treated the same as if it had said, Whites Only.

He said the MFI reached out to the attorney generals office for clarification on the law and they were instructed to get an attorney.

Churches are left not knowing whether it applies to them or not, he said.

So who is going to be deciding what is and what is not a secular event?

It shows a religious tone deafness on the part of whoever is writing these regulations, Beckwith said. Any pastor talk to is going to say their services and ministries and programs are open to the general public. Thats the whole point  to spread the Gospel and minister to the whole community.

Thats a fact.

Ive seen revival break out over the potato salad - during a dinner-on-the-grounds at a Baptist church in Mississippi.

Beckwith said he hopes churches will join their campaign to repeal the law  warning that its going to have very real consequences on religious liberty.

If the church doesnt defend itself from these attacks on religious liberty, they are going to cease having the ability to make the pastoral decisions they need to be able to make, he said.

I reached out to the Mass. Commission Against Discrimination and they told me Commissioner Sunila Thomas George said theres really no need for alarm.

By and large, places of worship are not held to the Massachusetts Anti-Discrimination statutes that deal with places of public accommodation, she said. We are not by any means saying that the anti-discrimination laws absolutely apply to them.

But, they could.

There are circumstances where places of worship hold activities at their facilities or in their buildings that are purely secular events, she said.

Among the activities that the state considers secular are soup kitchens, day care, housing, and polling places.

In those circumstances, places of worship could be seen as open to the public, Ms. George told me. The operative word is could.

So lets use MCADs example of a church spaghetti supper. Under the states guidelines, that supper could fall under the anti-discrimination law.

I asked MCAD what the church would need to do to comply with the law.

You would want to make sure that people are treated with regard to their gender identity and treated fairly and equitably, Ms. George told me.

So what, specifically, does that mean?

As long as people who are transitioning or who have transitioned are able to use a restroom they identity with, I think you are complying with the law, she said. You would want to make sure they are accommodated.

In other words, churches that hold spaghetti suppers would have to let men who identify as women use the same bathrooms as the little Sunday school girls.

The Baptist Convention of New England is among the religious groups in the region opposing the law  warning that its an attack on the First Amendment.

Any attempt by a small vocal activist group to strip churches of that right should be vehemently opposed by all people, executive director Terry Dorsett told Baptist Press. If they can take a churchs right to practice their faith away, imagine what else they can do.

For starters, they can tell good churchgoing folks what they can do with their spaghetti and meatballs.
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James Brady, the former White House press secretary who was badly wounded in the assassination attempt against President Ronald Reagan and later became an advocate for gun control, has died. He was 73.

His family announced Brady's death in a statement released Monday afternoon, saying he "passed away after a series of health issues."

"Jim touched the lives of so many and has been a wonderful husband, father, friend and role model," his family said. "We are enormously proud of Jim's remarkable accomplishments -- before he was shot on the fateful day in 1981 while serving at the side of President Ronald Reagan and in the days, months and years that followed.

"Jim Brady's zest for life was apparent to all who knew him, and despite his injuries and the pain he endured every day, he used his humor, wit and charm to bring smiles to others and make the world a better place. Over the years, Jim inspired so many people as he turned adversity into accomplishment."

Brady was left permanently disabled after being shot in the head on March 30, 1981, by John Hinckley, Jr., outside the Washington Hilton Hotel.

He afterward undertook a personal crusade for gun control, and lobbied for stricter handgun and assault-weapon laws. A federal law requiring a background check on handgun buyers bears Brady's name, and The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence is named in his honor.

"Since 1993, the law that bears Jim's name has kept guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals. An untold number of people are alive today who otherwise wouldn't be, thanks to Jim," President Obama said in a statement on Monday.

Although Brady returned to the White House only briefly, he was allowed to keep the title of presidential press secretary and his White House salary until Reagan left office in January 1989.

Brady, who spent much of the rest of his life in a wheelchair, died at a retirement community in Alexandria, Va., where he lived with his wife, Sarah.

"Jim was the personification of courage and perseverance. He and Sarah never gave up, and never stopped caring about the causes in which they believed," former first lady Nancy Reagan said in a statement.

Current White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, who was asked about Brady's legacy during Monday's briefing as reports of his death first crossed, said Brady "really revolutionized the job." He said even after he was wounded, he "showed his patriotism and commitment to the country" by being outspoken on an issue important to him.

The White House briefing room is also named after Brady.

Brady "leaves the kind of legacy ... that certainly this press secretary and all future press secretaries will aspire to live up to," Earnest said.

Of the four people stuck by gunfire on March 30, 1981, Brady was the most seriously wounded. A news clip of the shooting, replayed often on television, showed Brady sprawled on the ground as Secret Service agents hustled the wounded president into his limousine. Reagan was shot in one lung while a policeman and a Secret Service agent suffered lesser wounds.

Brady never regained full health. The shooting caused brain damage, partial paralysis, short-term memory impairment, slurred speech and constant pain.

The TV replays of the shooting did take a toll on Brady, however. He told The Associated Press years later that he relived the moment each time he saw it: "I want to take every bit of (that) film ... and put them in a cement incinerator, slosh them with gasoline and throw a lighted cigarette in." With remarkable courage, he endured a series of brain operations in the years after the shooting.

On Nov. 28, 1995, while he was in an oral surgeon's office, Brady's heart stopped beating and he was taken to a hospital. His wife, Sarah, credited the oral surgeon and his staff with saving Brady's life.

Brady was a strong Republican from an early age -- as a boy of 12 in Centralia, Ill., where he was born on Aug. 29, 1940, he distributed election literature for Dwight D. Eisenhower. In a long string of political jobs, Brady worked for some well-known bosses: Sen. Everett M. Dirksen of Illinois, Sen. William V. Roth Jr. of Delaware, and John Connally, the former Texas governor who was running for president in 1979. When Connally dropped out, Brady joined Reagan's campaign as director of public affairs and research. He later joined the Reagan White House.

Previously, he had worked in the administrations of presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford: as special assistant to the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, as special assistant to the director of the Office of Management and Budget, and as an assistant to the defense secretary.

He was divorced from the former Sue Beh when, in 1973, he courted Sarah Jane Kemp, the daughter of an FBI agent who was working with him in a congressional office. Sarah Brady became involved in gun-control efforts in 1985, and later chaired Handgun Control Inc., but Brady took a few more years to join her, and Reagan did not endorse their efforts until 10 years after he was shot. Reagan's surprise endorsement -- he was a longtime National Rifle Association member and opponent of gun control laws -- began to turn the tide in Congress.

"They're not going to accuse him of being some bed-wetting liberal, no way can they do that," said Brady, who had become an active lobbyist for the bill.

The Brady law required a five-day wait and background check before a handgun could be sold. In November 1993, as President Bill Clinton signed the bill into law, Brady said: "Every once in a while you need to wake up and smell the propane. I needed to be hit in the head before I started hitting the bricks."

Clinton awarded Brady the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. In 2000, the press briefing room at the White House was renamed in Brady's honor. The following year, Handgun Control Inc., was renamed the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence as a tribute to Brady and his wife.

Survivors include his wife, Sarah; a son, Scott; and a daughter, Melissa.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Hillary Clinton canceled plans to visit California on Monday and Tuesday and instead will rest at her home in Chappaqua, N.Y. following a medical episode that caused her to stagger and faint Sunday at a 9/11 commemoration ceremony, her campaign said.

The Democratic presidential nominee fell on her way into her van and had to be helped by her security, according to witnesses and video of her leaving. A law enforcement source told Fox News that she clearly (was) having some type of medical episode. Clintons doctor revealed later that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday.

Clinton had planned two days of fundraising and made plans to appear on Ellen DeGeneres' talk show while in Southern California.

Clintons campaign released a statement more than an hour after the incident saying the former Secretary of State felt overheated, and later Sunday issued another release blaming the episode on pneumonia and dehydration.

"Secretary Clinton has been experiencing a cough related to allergies," Dr. Lisa R. Bardack said in the statement. "On Friday, during follow up evaluation of her prolonged cough, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. She was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule. While at this morning's event, she became overheated and dehydrated. I have just examined her and she is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely."

But a witness told Fox News that Clinton stumbled off the curb, her "knees buckled" and she lost a shoe as she was helped into a van during her "unexpected early departure." The NYPD was sent to retrieve Clinton's shoe, according to NBC.

The New Jersey resident who took the video, Zdenek Gazda, told Foxnews.com he had been a fireman in the Czech Republic and came to the 9/11 ceremony to pay his respects.

"Everything was fine, everything was good before," said Gazda, who snapped several shots of Clinton before taking the video. "I take a lot of pictures of her. She looked very nice and everything, and I dont know what happened to her."

After Clinton left the ceremony, the reporters following her on the campaign trail were prevented from leaving the media area for a period of time.

Clinton emerged from Chelsea Clinton's apartment just before noon and said she was "feeling great."

"It's a beautiful day in New York," Clinton yelled to press waiting across the street.

She bent down to take a photo with a young girl and said "thanks everybody" to a nearby crowd cheering her. Asked again about her health, Clinton said she was "great, feeling great" and then got into her van. A spokesperson said she was headed to her house in Chappaqua, where former President Bill Clinton, who did not attend the 9/11 ceremony, was waiting. She was examined by her doctor after arriving in Chappaqua.

"I am glad to learn that Secretary Clinton is already feeling better and I wish her a speedy recovery," said DNC Interim Chair Donna Brazile in a statement. "I look forward to seeing her back out on the campaign trail and continuing on the path to victory."

Asked about Clinton's early exit, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said he didn't know anything about it. But Rep. Peter King told The Washington Post that during the ceremony it was Trump who informed King of Clinton's health issue.

It was actually Trump who told me what was going on," King told a Washington Post reporter. "He leaned over and told me that 'Hillary wasnt feeling well.' I said, 'Really?'"

Clinton was in New York for Sundays ceremony commemorating 15 years since the 9/11 terror attacks.

Clinton and Trump earlier greeted supporters as they entered the downtown Manhattan 9/11 memorial. Both had promised to suspend campaign activities to mark the 15th anniversary of the attacks.

Questions surrounding Clinton's health have emerged in recent weeks, and calls for the candidate to release her full medical records may intensify after Sunday's incident.

Clinton previously sustained a concussion in December 2012 after fainting, an episode her doctor attributed to a stomach virus and dehydration.

Clinton's doctor reported she is fully recovered from the concussion, which led to temporary double vision and discovery of a blood clot in a vein in the space between her brain and skull. Clinton also has experienced deep vein thrombosis, a clot usually in the leg, and takes the blood thinner Coumadin to prevent new clots.

Fox News Rick Leventhal and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Donald Trump has spent a good part of his campaign ripping the dishonest media as treating him unfairly.

In fact, he was at it again the other day, tweeting: @CNN is unwatchable. Their news on me is fiction. They are a disgrace to the broadcasting industry and an arm of the Clinton campaign. He also took a swipe at the CNN president he worked with while doing The Apprentice: Jeff Zucker failed @NBC and he is now failing @CNN.

But now Hillary Clintons campaign is stepping up its complaints about media bias.

Its not that shes had a cozy relationship with the press, given the fact that she went nine months without a news conference. But Clinton has started using the media to raise money. Perhaps thats for purely tactical reasons, but it also leaves the press corpsI know, dont shed any tears for usin the position of being hammered by both presidential campaigns.

The Clinton camps fundraising appeal comes in the wake of that commander-in-chief forum moderated by Matt Lauer. And it quotes a piece by liberal Jonathan Chait in New York magazine about Lauers pathetic interview, which ends with a denunciation of Trump as an ignorant, bigoted, pathologically dishonest authoritarian."

Heres the Clinton money pitch: Most voters aren't like us. Most people are picking up on politics when it finds them on Facebook, on the radio in the car, or when they flip through a magazine in line at the grocery store.

Their information is filtered through the press. And right now, a lot of journalists are failing to hold Trump accountable and grading him on a curve, while forcing Hillary to meet an entirely different standard.

So if you send money now, the Hillary camp can use it to hold Trumps feet to the fire.

A similar line of argument is being offered by New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who says he knew his piece would tick off journalists. He writes of Trump:

Its hard to escape the impression that hes being graded on a curve. If he manages to read from a TelePrompter without going off script, hes being presidential. If he seems to suggest that he wouldnt round up all 11 million undocumented immigrants right away, hes moving into the mainstream

Meanwhile, we have the presumption that anything Hillary Clinton does must be corrupt, most spectacularly illustrated by the increasingly bizarre coverage of the Clinton Foundation.

Then there is the Washington Post editorial headlined The Hillary Clinton Email Story is Out of Control. The paper argues that Ms. Clintons emails have endured much more scrutiny than an ordinary persons would have. Perhaps, but she is, after all, running for president.

Heres a harsh verdict from Glenn Greenwald, the liberal journalist who published the NSA leaks and has repeatedly denounced Trump:

Aggressive investigative journalism against Trump is not enough for Democratic partisans whose voice is dominant in U.S. media discourse. They also want a cessation of any news coverage that reflects negatively on Hillary Clinton. Most, of course, wont say this explicitly (though some do), but  as the wildly adored Krugman columnreflects  they will just reflexively dismiss any such coverage as illegitimate and invalid

It would be journalistic malpractice of the highest order if the billions of dollars received by the Clintons  both personally and though their various entities  were not rigorously scrutinized and exposed in detail by reporters, Greenwald said. Thats exactly what they ought to be doing. The fact that quid pro quos cannot be definitively proven does not remotely negate the urgency of this journalism.

My take: There are instances of media bias against Hillary Clinton, even though Trump gets unfairly pounded on a far more regular basis. At the same time, her utter lack of transparency  disputing conspiracy theories about some grave illness while failing to disclose her diagnosis of pneumonia  continues to hurt her.

But for liberal journalists to complain about excessive coverage of the email and foundation controversies sounds more like cheerleading for the Democratic nominee than grave concern for journalistic excess. Its usually good politics for a candidate to bash the press, but that doesnt mean the digging into Clintons tangled record isnt legitimate.
Just when Hillary Clinton was stepping up her complaints about media bias, it turns out her bigger problem is media aversion.

The way in which the Democratic nominee and her team utterly botched the belated disclosure of her pneumonia took a modest problem and made it a thousand times worse. It reinforced the image of excessive secrecy and calculated non-disclosure that has dogged Clinton throughout this campaign. It made a mockery of the campaigns criticism of conservative critics who were speculating that she was really sick.

And it was all totally unnecessary.

I cant say it any better than former Obama aide David Axelrod, who tweeted: Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia. What's the cure for an unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?

Imagine an alternative universe in which Clinton had told the public she was under the weather when she had the series of coughing fitsrather than blaming it on seasonal allergiesand announced Friday that shed just been diagnosed with pneumonia. Not an ideal situation two months before the election, but she could have taken a few days off the trail and the public would have been sympathetic.

Asked by Anderson Cooper last night why she didn't simply disclose the pneumonia on Friday, Clinton said: "I just didn't think it was going to be that big a deal." She then tried to pivot to why Donald Trump hasn't released his tax returns.

I was on the air at 5 eastern Sunday when the Clinton camp issued the pneumonia statement. Suddenly, this became the central issue in the presidential race, precisely because she had released so little information as speculationsome of it unfair and purely partisanraged about the state of her health.

In effect, Clinton was forced to acknowledge she was sick when the signs could no longer be hidden.

When Clinton was forced to leave a 9/11 anniversary ceremony early, her aides said she had merely gotten overheated on a morning when the temperature in Manhattan was in the low 80s. But that was highly misleading at best. The campaign already knew that the candidate was suffering from pneumonia.

Clinton ditched her protective press pool, which follows her for just this reason, in case an emergency developed. The reporters remained in a penned-in area and the campaign remained silent for 90 minutes, during which time no one knew where Hillary was. And then came the overheated explanation.

When NBC posted a five-paragraph online story last week, headlined Hillary Clinton Fights Back Coughing Attack, her team hit back hard, with traveling press secretary Nick Merrill tweeting that the reporter should get a life.

What this whole episode has done is reinforced Clintons reputation for secrecy and dissembling. Its reminiscent of the email debacle, but a whole lot easier for people to understand. No classification markings to decipher; she is sick and didnt own up to it.

We could have done better yesterday, but it is a fact that the public knows more about HRC than any nominee in history, communications director Jennifer Palmieri tweeted. Except she hasnt released her medical records. Neither, for that matter, has Donald Trump (who now says he took a physical last week and plans to release very, very specific information).

The Washington Post has a good piece on Clintons history of withholding health information.

When she was first lady, in 1998, Clinton was quietly treated for a blood clot as an outpatient at Bethesda Naval, without disclosing what she later described as the most significant health scare Ive ever had.

Clinton was diagnosed with a second clot in 2009, which wasnt widely known until her doctor released a letter about her generally good health last year.

Her third blood clot, in her skull, was too serious to hide in 2012, given that she was secretary of State, and she spent days in the hospital.

In the overall scheme of things, a 68-year-old woman coming down with pneumonia is not that big a deal, given that millions of people get the disease each year. She is, after all, running against a 70-year-old man. Based on what we know, it doesnt mean she lacks the capacity to serve as president, though her detractors will be emboldened when it comes to insinuating that.

But Clintons flat-out mishandling of the media has created a situation where even some of her liberal allies are finding it hard to defend her.
Once was apparently not enough for Pasco Parker.

Prosecutors say the 63-year-old Tennessee man voted in the 2012 presidential election, not once ... not twice ... but three times, in three different states.

"It's too easy to vote twice, it comes down to your honor," said Jay DeLancy, executive director of North Carolina volunteer voting watchdog group The Voting Integrity Project, which caught Parker.

DeLancy cited the case as an example of the kind of voter fraud that some have dismissed as overblown. "It's a lot more widespread than what people think, because the general public thinks there is no voter fraud. As proof they look at prosecutions, but we have learned how difficult it is to get prosecutions," he said.

It was DeLancy's group that brought Parker's case to the attention of election officials and law enforcement  and Parker is not alone. His was one of 149 cases of suspected double-voting DeLancy says his group has turned over.

In Parkers case, he was charged with voter fraud for votes in the Nov. 6, 2012, presidential election. He voted in person at his polling place in Spring Hill, Tenn. Authorities say that was after previously mailing in another vote by absentee ballot in Florida on Oct. 28, and yet another absentee ballot vote in North Carolina the following day. He pleaded guilty to felony voter registration and felony voting fraud in Rutherford County, N.C., last November, and was spared jail time under the law.

In Wisconsin, 52-year-old Robert Monroe also was sentenced to jail earlier this year after he was charged with 13 counts of election fraud, including multiple voting and voting twice in the 2012 presidential race. Prosecutors say Monroe voted by absentee ballot, where he lives in Shorewood, Wis., on Nov. 1, 2012. Then on election day five days later, authorities say he drove four hours south to Lebanon, Ind., to vote in person, using his Indiana drivers license to sign in.

Even a 2012 Democratic congressional candidate was caught and had to drop out of the race.

Party officials said candidate Wendy Rosen, who was running in Maryland's 1st Congressional District, had voted twice in Maryland and Florida in two separate elections. She pleaded guilty to voting illegally in two elections.

And in Cincinnati, veteran poll worker Melowese Richardson was accused of voting twice in the 2012 presidential election, after Hamilton County prosecutors charged her in 2013 with eight counts of illegal voting over several elections. She pleaded guilty to four counts, and prosecutors said she had even voted in the presidential election for her sister, who had been in a coma for almost a decade. Richardson was sentenced to five years in prison but was released early.

In Kansas, Lincoln Wilson also was charged with voting in both that state and in Colorado, where records show he is a registered Republican. He was accused of multiple counts stemming from the 2010, 2012, and 2014 elections.

And this past June, it turned out that the California presidential primary was not immune to the double-voting phenomenon. The East Bay Times reported that "in just three counties, Contra Costa, Alameda and Santa Clara, 194 people voted twice, suggesting the abuse statewide might run into the thousands."

Some suggest the number of potential double voters could be much higher than that.

A 2012 Pew Center on The States study said "approximately 2.75 million people have registrations in more than one state." Pew said 68,000 people were registered in three states, and 1,807 were even registered in three states.

Others contend the matches of voters' names in two or multiple states are merely coincidences and clerical errors, and that the potential for people voting more than once is overblown.

The Brennan Center for Justice, considered the nation's leading election system monitoring group, issued a 2007 report on the problem. It said "these cases are extremely rare, in part because the penalty (criminal prosecution) is so severe, and the payoff (one incremental vote) is so minimal. It is far more common, however, to see allegations of epidemic double-voting that are unfounded. Such claims are usually premised on matching lists of voters from one place to another, but upon closer inspection, the match process shows error.

While elections officials insist that there are sufficient safeguards to prevent double-voting, DeLancy fears the possibility is very real, as evidenced by the cases his group has seen. He says prosecutors need to do more.

"Election fraud is a crime against the entire American public. It is a crime against the Constitution and a crime against the foundations of our nation," he said.

Follow Eric Shawn on Twitter: @EricShawnTV

Ben Evansky contributed to this report.
Former British Prime Minister David Cameron announced Monday that he is stepping down as a member of Parliament, just months after leaving 10 Downing Street.

Cameron, a member of the Conservative Party, stepped down as prime minister in July after the United Kingdom voted in a June referendum to leave the European Union, saying the country needed new leadership. Cameron opposed the so-called "Brexit," and campaigned for Britain to remain in the E.U.

However, Cameron remained a member of Parliament for his constituency of Witney in Oxfordshire. He told The Daily Telegraph that he informed current Prime Minister Theresa May of his decision Monday afternoon. The resignation is effective immediately.

Cameron said he had thought "long and hard" about his decision over the summer.

"In my view, the circumstances of my resignation as prime minister and the realities of modern politics make it very difficult to continue on the backbenches without the risk of becoming a diversion to the important decisions that lie ahead for my successor in Downing Street and the government," Cameron said in a statement, according to the Telegraph.

"I fully support Theresa May and have every confidence that Britain will thrive under her strong leadership," he said.

Cameron had served as leader of the Conservative Party since 2005, and as prime minister since 2010. He has held the parliamentary seat in Witney since 2001, which is considered a safe seat for the Conservative Party.

Camerons announcement Monday will trigger a by-election for the seat, and the Conservatives will expect to retain the seat by a comfortable margin.

Former Conservative Party leader William Hague praised Cameron's decision as "the right decision."

"Right decision by David Cameron to leave Commons -- former prime ministers are either accused of doing too little or being a distraction," Hague tweeted.

The resignation marks a sharp turnaround for Cameron, who in July had said he planned to remain a member of Parliament until 2020.
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio is accusing the Obama administration of trying to "deceive" Congress and the American people about roughly $1.7 billion in payments to Iran -- suggesting at least some of the money was a "ransom" for American hostages and demanding official documents for the related transactions.

Each day brings new revelations about your administrations efforts to deceive Congress and the American people regarding payments of billions of dollars to the worlds foremost state sponsor of terrorism, Rubio wrote Saturday in a letter to President Obama. The America people do not believe the story that your administration did not provide Iran an illicit and potentially illegal ransom payment.

The administration in January announced an agreement between the U.S. and Iran to settle a failed, decades-old arms deal that included Washington returning to Tehran $400 million and an additional $1.3 billion in interest.

However, reports in early August revealed the initial $400 million was delivered on Jan. 17 -- the same day Tehran agreed to release four American prisoners. And Republicans are calling it a ransom.

At least some of the money was in foreign currency, and a video originating on Iranian TV purports to show bundles of the cash on pallets.

The letter from Rubio -- a failed 2016 presidential candidate now in a tough race for a second Senate term -- came two days after administration officials told House Republicans that Iran wanted "immediate access" to the $1.7 billion paid by the United States in cash.

Rubio submitted a list of nine demands in the letter, including a request for a copy of a waiver allowing the use of cash, instead of complying with a U.S. code that states all federal payments made by an agency shall be made by electronic transfer.

Rubio also wants to know why the administration didnt issue a check, which he says is the required method when a transfer is inappropriate, according to another U.S. code.

Iran has pocketed this money and continued to hold and take more American hostages, Rubio also wrote. It has likely used this foreign currency to fund its military including its ballistic missile programs and to support Iran's terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East.

Though the administration has claimed the payment and the prisoner release were separate incidents, it recently acknowledged the cash was used as leverage until the Americans were allowed to leave Iran.

State and Justice officials at the hearing Thursday defended the payment and its cash delivery.

Christopher Backemeyer, a deputy assistant secretary of state, said Iran wanted immediate access to the money, but he said he wasn't aware whether Iran had asked for cash. He said it was his understanding that the money was going to "critical economic needs" in Iran.



The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Donald Trump is closer than ever, literally, to the White House, as his luxury hotel unofficially opened Monday along Pennsylvania Avenue  a project he pointed to as an example of the kind of on-budget and ahead-of-schedule results hed deliver as president.

Its really going to be a great tribute to our country, the Republican presidential nominee told Fox & Friends.

The Trump International Hotel, Washington, D.C., had whats known as a soft opening on Monday, with a grand opening expected next month. The project transformed the iconic Old Post Office building, five blocks from the White House, into part of Trumps empire of luxury accommodations.

The hotel is magnificent. There has never been a hotel like this or even close in Washington, Trump said.

A small band of protesters who gathered outside the building Monday thought otherwise.

Code Pinks Medea Benjamin said she and others oppose the roughly $200 million project for multiple reasons -- including that the public will now have more limited access to the Old Post Office Tower, part of the National Park Service.

Its appalling that this beautiful post office used to be a place of public domain and is now in the hands of Donald Trump and the one percent, Benjamin said. In a city full of immigrants, $700 a night for a room?

Rooms at the hotel are starting at $895 a night.

The Trump Organization, which owns and operates luxury hotels and resorts around the world, won a 60-year lease from the federal government to put the hotel in the 117-year-old building.

But the project has faced some turmoil since the billionaire businessman launched his presidential campaign.

After breaking ground, two highly regarded chefs backed out of plans to open restaurants in the hotel because of Trump's comments about Mexican immigrants, resulting in lawsuits.

Its his right to do it, but I dont support it. Trump is always in it for the money, no matter who gets hurt, said Ralph Ornelas, a visitor from Selma, Calif., observing the scene outside the hotel on Monday.

Trump won praise from others.

What Trump has done with this hotel is beautiful. Hes left the facade exactly as it was, said Jim McDonald, of the group New Yorkers for Immigration Control and Enforcement, who expected to be joined by about a half-dozen other group members later in the day.

Trump tweeted a photo of himself with the hotel staff but did not make a public appearance.

Stopped by @TrumpDC to thank all of the tremendous men & women for their hard work! pic.twitter.com/oGcJL4N454  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 12, 2016

Speaking with Fox News, he touted his daughter Ivankas role in the project  and pointed to the hotel as a model.

Id like the country to go ahead of schedule and on budget or under budget, he told Fox News.

FoxNews.com's Joseph Weber and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Bill Clinton will step in to fundraising and headline campaign events while wife and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton recovers from pneumonia.

The former president will host two fundraising events Tuesday in Los Angeles and a campaign rally Wednesday in Las Vegas, Fox News has learned.

Still, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, will call into a fundraiser event Monday night in San Francisco, after having to abruptly leave a 9/11 memorial ceremony Sunday morning in New York City.

Thanks to everyone whos reached out with well wishes!, Clinton tweeted Monday afternoon. Im feeling fine and getting better.

The incident Sunday -- in which Clinton appeared unsteady and needing assistance from aides -- has resulted in her and Republican rival Donald Trump each planning to release more personal health information.

The 70-year-old Trump said Monday that candidate health is now an issue in the White House race.

Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said on MSNBC that the campaign will release more information in the next couple days.

Trump told Fox News Fox & Friends earlier Monday morning that hell be releasing very, very specific details from a recent physical.

I think theyre going to be good. I feel great, he said. Fox News has learned Trump plans to release those details during his appearance Thursday on The Dr. Oz Show.

As for Clintons health, Trump said: Somethings going on, but I just hope she gets well and gets back on the trail.

Clinton, 68, on Sunday night canceled plans to visit California and is resting at her home in Chappaqua, N.Y.

Her doctor revealed she had been diagnosed Friday with pneumonia, following after the episode at the 9/11 memorial, in which Clinton was also seen stumbling on her way to her van when leaving.

Clintons doctor also said she had become overheated and dehydrated at Sundays ceremony, but is recovering nicely.

The incident fueled questions about Clintons health. Trump on Monday brushed aside any speculation that Clinton might be replaced as the Democratic nominee, but said of the candidates health: I think its an issue.

Trump, meanwhile, continued to criticize Clinton for saying -- before her health episode -- that half of his supporters fall into a basket of deplorables. Clinton has expressed regret for the remarks, but Trump said, I think this is the biggest mistake of the political season.

Even before Mondays comments, Trump already had said both candidates should release detailed medical records.

Clintons campaign earlier released a July 2015 letter from Dr. Lisa Bardack describing Clinton as a healthy 67-year-old female whose current medical conditions include hypothyroidism and seasonal pollen allergies. The letter noted her elbow fracture in 2009 and concussion in 2012. Bardack detailed how Clinton, now 68, had to undergo anticoagulation therapy to dissolve a clot, and experienced double vision for a period of time, after the concussion.

But the campaign has not released detailed records beyond that.

Former President Obama adviser David Axelrod rapped Clinton Monday on her "penchant for privacy."

Fox News Jennifer Griffin and John Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A remarkable mosaic unearthed during the excavation of an ancient synagogue in northern Israel may portray Alexander the Great.

Experts are thrilled to reveal the mosaic that was discovered on the floor of the fifth-century synagogue in Huqoq. The quality of the mosaic is extraordinary, the fact that it may depict a meeting between Alexander the Great and the Jewish high priest is also amazing, Excavation Director and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Professor Jodi Magness told Fox News Monday.

The purported Alexander the Great mosaic is the first non-biblical story ever found decorating an ancient synagogue.

Magness explained that the mosaic is divided into three horizontal strips, known as registers, which are read from bottom to top. The top register, which is the largest, shows a meeting between two male figures that are bigger than the other figures portrayed, highlighting their importance.

One figure, an elderly bearded man dressed all in white, is believed to be a Jewish high priest. Magness explained that the other figure, who is younger, but also bearded, is dressed in an elaborate military outfit and has the trappings of a king, such as a diadem, or headband that indicates sovereignty, and a purple cloak.

He is accompanied by all sorts of figures that indicate that he is a Greek king  theres a Greek military formation next to him, there are battle elephants, Magness said. These are all things that are associated with the Greek kings from the time of Alexander the Great on.

However, the professor notes that the meeting between Alexander the Great and the high priest depicted in the mosaic probably never occurred. This was a story that was circulated a lot in antiquity, she said. In the centuries following Alexander the Greats death when he became so famous that he became the Great, the Jews sought to associate themselves with Alexander and stories began to circulate about a meeting like this having taken place.

Not everyone is convinced the mosaic shows the famous Macedonian king. Art historian Karen Britt of Western Carolina University, who is the excavations mosaics specialist, believes that Seleucid King Antiochus VII is depicted, according to National Geographic. Antiochus VII led a Seleucid attack on Jerusalem in 132 B.C. and Britt believes the mosaic shows him negotiating a truce with Jewish high priest and Judean leader John Hyrcanus I.

"We came to the conclusion that the story being depicted in the mosaic simply does not correspond to the Alexander traditions," added Raanan Boustan, an associate history professor at UCLA, in an email to FoxNews.com.

Boustan, who worked on the project with Britt, explained that the defeated army depicted in part of the mosaic does not fit the history of Alexander the Great's early conquests in the Middle East. Instead, Boustan saw evidence of the later Hellenistic kings, who maintained Greek traditions.

"Right there in an impressive range of ancient sources, both Jewish and non-Jewish, we found a story about the siege of Jerusalem by a later Seleucid king named Antiochus VII Sidetes, who battled with and ultimately made peace with one of the most famous and admired Jewish leaders of the Hellenistic period, the high priest John Hyrcanus," he wrote. "Not only did the story told in the sources match the details of the mosaic, but text and art both seemed to capture the spirit of the encounter between Jew and Greek, which was characterized by tension as well as mutual respect."

The Huqoq Excavation Project involves the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Baylor University, Brigham Young University and the University of Toronto.

The Huqoq site offers a fascinating glimpse into the life of an ancient Jewish village in Israels lower Galilee.

Excavations at Huqoq began in 2011, and the first mosaic was discovered the following year. Notable mosaics unearthed at the site include Samson carrying the gate of Gaza on his shoulders, which was discovered in 2013.

This summer the excavation team also unearthed stunning mosaics depicting Noahs Ark and the parting of the Red Sea. Further excavations at the site will continue next summer.

The mosaic allegedly depicting Alexander the Great was excavated in stages between 2013 and 2015. Only a portion of it had been released to the public previously, Magness told FoxNews.com. This is the first time that an image of the entire mosaic has been released.

The mosaics have been removed from the site for conservation and all the excavated areas have been backfilled, Magness said. We hope that the site will be developed for tourism after the excavations end, she added.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers
More than 350 years ago, thousands of Scottish soldiers were captured during the English Civil War by the controversial British leader Oliver Cromwell. Many were kept as prisoners and were buried in mass graves when they died of disease and starvation.

Now, some of those soldiers will finally receive a more respectful resting place near Durham University, in northeast England, where the mass graves were found. Once research on the remains is complete, the soldiers will be reburied in a nearby cemetery in Durham, university officials announced in late August.

"The decision follows extensive consultation with a range of interested parties, including in the USA, where some of the surviving soldiers from the Battle of Dunbar were transported," the university said in a statement. [Photos: Mass Graves Hold 17th-Century Prisoners of War]

Archaeologists found the soldiers' remains in 2013, during an excavation at Durham University to clear the area for a library expansion. However, once archaeologists uncovered the skeletons, they halted work immediately.

The researchers unearthed human remains from two mass graves that were directly affected by the construction project. The graves hold an estimated 1,700 individuals, likely Scottish soldiers who were taken prisoner following the Battle of Dunbar in 1650, archaeologists told Live Science in May.

The mass graves are located on the city's World Heritage Site, as designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Though the recovered remains will no longer be buried at the UNESCO site, a plaque commemorating them will be placed nearby, and a commemorative event will be held later this year, university officials said.

The final burials will take place after archaeologists have finished studying the soldiers' remains in late 2017. However, Durham University plans to keep a few teeth so that researchers can study them down the line, when new techniques and opportunities become available, according to university officials.

Ethical dilemmas

The decision to retain the teeth was not made lightly, and was approved by the universitys Executive Committee and the University Ethics Advisory Committee, according to a statement from the school. It was also a difficult decision to determine where to bury the bodies, especially because they were likely Scottish, not English, the university said. [8 Grisly Archaeological Discoveries]

But it was considered to be "morally appropriate" to keep the individuals as close to their comrades as possible, according to the university. Moreover, the United Kingdoms Ministry of Justice asks that reburials be near to original burial sites.

"The decision on where to rebury the soldiers was very complex," David Cowling, pro-vice-chancellor of arts and humanities at Durham University, said in the statement. "We were acutely aware of the strength and depth of interest amongst many about the fate of these soldiers, whilst at the same time recognizing our ethical, moral and legal obligations."

In the end, they felt that "the case for reburying the remains in Durham was strongest," Cowling said.

The team even consulted with people in the United States, some of whom are descendants of surviving soldiers from the Battle of Dunbar. After the battle, thousands of soldiers were marched more than 100 miles from southeast Scotland to Durham, university officials said. About 3,000 of the soldiers were held at Durham Cathedral and Castle. Those who survived imprisonment were shipped around the world, including to Virginia and New England, where they worked as indentured servants, the officials said.

"It has been hugely rewarding to see the level of interest in the Scottish Soldiers Archaeology Project both in the U.K. and the USA," said Chris Gerrard, head of the project team and a professor at Durham University.

Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Scientists have tapped the power of Flickr to find out more about visits to conservation land in Vermont, and have even been able to put a price tag on all those visits.

Researchers from the University of Vermont used data from over 7,000 Flickr photographs that were taken in parts of the Green Mountain State that are protected, like a state park or a national forest.

Because Flickr lets users list their hometown, the researchers could figure out (in some cases) whether a visitor came from out of state, or was a Vermont resident.

Ultimately, they calculated that people paid 29.1 million visits to conserved land in Vermont between 2007 and 2014, according to Laura Sonter, the first author on the new study and a postdoctoral researcher at the university. They were even able to figure out the financial value of the visits, estimating an influx of $1.8 billion to Vermonts economy during those years.

Historically, its been difficult to assess the value of protected lands, Sonter said in a statement. Many parks only staff entrance booths in the summer. Some areas gather no data, or rely on surveys, which are time-consuming and expensive to collect.

The method-- utilizing the data behind a photo-sharing website-- represents an inexpensive way for institutions to track when people visit protected natural areas, according to Sonter.

The study was published recently in the journal PLOS ONE.

Follow Rob Verger on Twitter: @robverger
The Galaxy Note 7's battery issue is pretty serious, and more devices seem to blow up every day. Samsung has recalled the handset worldwide, but that doesn't mean all owners have turned in the smartphone. In the past days alone, the Galaxy Note 7 has been responsible for setting on fire a house and a car and exploded in the hands of someone while he was using it. These are all Galaxy Note 7 incidents in the US, and a new report details a similar mishap: A Galaxy Note 7 exploded in the hands of a 6-year-old boy in Brooklyn, New York, as he was watching video on the handset.

"The child was watching videos on the phone when the battery exploded," Linda Lewis told the New York Post. "It set off alarms in my house."

The boy's grandmother also says that he's too scared to go near any other device after suffering burns from the Galaxy Note 7's explosion. The family called 911 after the incident, and he was rushed to the Downstate Medical Center.

"He is home now," Lewis said. "He doesn't want to see or go near any phones. He's been crying to his mother."

The Post learned the family has been in contact with Samsung about the incident but declined to detail the matter any further.

The US government via its Consumer Product Safety Commission asked Galaxy Note 7 owners on Friday to "power them down and stop charging or using." Samsung then confirmed that it's working with the CPSC on the recall. Samsung was previously criticized for not going through the CPSC with the US recall.

Samsung on Saturday urged Galaxy Note 7 owners to turn off the devices and take them in for an exchange. The company is offering free replacements for faulty Galaxy Note 7 units, with Australia set to receive safe units next week.
Delta made headlines last week, and not in a good way.

The airline grounded, canceled and delayed more than 4,000 flights within three days, leaving customers stranded, fuming and frustrated. Still, Delta did a good job scrambling to fix the system failures responsible and the company combined this with proactive communication via social media and its website newsroom to mend relationships with customers they unintentionally hung out to dry.

While many believe Delta will walk away from the incident unscathed no matter how the company handles the situation, the truth of the matter is that customer loyalty is at stake. And Delta knows it. Thats why the airline is working around the clock to communicate with customers; offer alternative solutions; and build trust in the face of uncertainty.

Delta isnt the first company to fail its customers in a massive way, and it wont be the last. Ultimately, these instances unearth opportunity - a chance to be transparent and win customer loyalty for the long haul. Mistakes happen, and thats okay. Brands can come away from failure stronger than ever as long as its handled the right way.

From small customer service hiccups to massive debacles, here are four tips to help you come out of any crisis stronger than ever before.

1. Communication is key.

Before you communicate with customers, make sure youve communicated internally. Its important to come together as an organization to figure out what happened, what needs to be done and what should be said externally. That way, when it comes time to communicate with customers, everyone is on the same page, the message is well thought out and delivered seamlessly.

Once youve worked out a communication strategy, cut off any unnecessary advertising and marketing campaigns. Doing so gets rid of any extra noise, allowing you and your team to focus on delivering the information that is most important. It also ensures that customers can easily find news and updates without distraction.

When it comes time to bring customers into the conversation, be transparent. Explain what the issue is, why it happened and whats being done to resolve it. This information should be shared on every channel - from the company website and newsletters to Internet forums, social channels and everything inbetween. Leave no stone unturned. And be sure to keep information and updates consistent across channels to avoid confusion.

Take Delta, for example.

The moment delays and cancellations began to accumulate, Delta dedicated its website and social channels to communicating updates. Whats more, Delta CEO Ed Bastian, openly and honestly explained the situation and recovery process to customers, apologizing for the mishap and promising it wont happen again.

Related: The 'When' and 'How' of Using PR Correctly

2. Show compassion. Dont make excuses.

As you engage with customers, make sure to maintain a consistent tone of voice, and show empathy from start to finish.

Dont say or publish anything that feels impersonal or cold. And, as you explain what went wrong, be prepared to take full responsibility even if some circumstances are unavoidable.

Finally, its important to go beyond the obvious "Im sorry." Show customers you know what theyre going through and that you understand their frustration. If this is done well, customers will be more forgiving. If its done poorly, youre in for a social media storm that could very well spill over into traditional media. The result? A series of unflattering headlines that will stick with you longer than youd like.

Following the disappearance of Malaysia flight MH370, the airline sent an insensitive text to inform relatives of the deceased that the plane had crashed in the southern Indian Ocean. As you can imagine, the company received widespread criticism, as angry customers took to Twitter and the media. Although this case called for extreme care and caution, its an important reminder that all situations should be addressed with appropriate compassion.

Related: How to Gracefully Handle an Online PR Crisis

3. Keep employees informed.

Every department plays a role in crisis management.

Make sure all employees are aware of whats going on and that they understand their role in resolving the issue. At the end of the day, your employees will be left to handle the brunt of customer frustration. Thats why every team member should be kept up-to-date with the latest information.

During Black Friday last November, we watched customers become frustrated with some retailers for lack of proper information on inventory location. What made it worse was clerks were telling people to shop online, and online sites were telling customers the asset sat in the store. Its important to ensure everyone sees the same information.

Whats more, youll need to empower your employees to comfort upset customers and offer solutions to make the situation better. For example, a hotel chain that is experiencing power outages should empower employees to assist guests in booking alternative accommodations, compensating those displaced by the incident.

Related: Starbucks Couldn't Buy Better PR Than the Red Cups Coverage. Here's What We Can Learn From It.

4. Make things right.

While you work out the kinks and resolve whatever has gone wrong, be sure to offer a solution.

For example, Delta is allowing delayed customers to reschedule their flights free of charge. On top of that, the company is giving out $200 vouchers for delayed customers - a move that will encourage customers to continue flying Delta down the road.

In some situations, youll want to work with each customer on a case-by-case basis, prioritizing the most urgent cases first. This ensures that each unique situation is handled with care. Forexample, Delta brought in its private jet fleet to help transport some stranded passengers more quickly.

Outages happen. Weather gets in the way. Systems go down, and products break. Its all part of being in business.

In an ideal world, wed be able to avoid these disasters that cause both customers and companies a whole lot of heartache. But sometimes failure is unavoidable. At that point, its all about how your brand handles the situation. With each hiccup, there comes opportunity. If you treat customers with care and respect, youre likely to walk away with stronger, long-lasting relationships.
A Southern California college was investigating reports of vandalism to a 9/11 memorial on its campus, school officials said Sunday.

The Los Angeles Daily News reported that the memorial at Occidental College consisted of 2,997 American flags, one for every person who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. The colleges Republican club placed the flags in the quad at the Eagle Rock campus Saturday night.

However, the club reported Sunday morning that the memorial had been vandalized. The club wrote on its Facebook page that the vandals had crushed, snapped, and threw in the garbage every single flag. Not one was left on the ground.

The club also said that posters and flyers on campus had allegedly shamed the victims of the terror attacks.

Occidental College said they are investigating the incident and will take disciplinary action.

Click for more from the Los Angeles Daily News.
Four Americans died in the 2012 terror attack in Benghazi, and those who survived saw their stories of heroism told in a Hollywood movie, but the filmmaker whose work was wrongly blamed for touching off the event lives in obscurity, poverty and fear, FoxNews.com has learned.

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the Coptic Christian whose short video The Innocence of Muslims was initially faulted for sparking the Sept. 11, 2012 terror attack at U.S. diplomatic compounds in Libya, is now living in a homeless shelter run by First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif. He has served time in prison, been shamed publicly by the White House and threatened with death.

I dont believe in democracy anymore, Nakoula told FoxNews.com. I dont think there is such a thing as freedom of speech.

In the aftermath of the Benghazi attack, President Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seized on the anti-Islamist film as the cause of a spontaneous protest that turned violent. U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith and CIA contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed when armed terrorists laid siege to the compound and set it ablaze.

The story was told in the Michael Bay-directed film "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi," which starred John Krasinski.

Nakoulas video trailer, posted online and credited to Sam Bacile, mocked the Islamic prophet Mohammad  depicting him as everything from a bozo and womanizer to predator and homosexual. Although Obama and Clinton were later forced to acknowledge that the attack was an organized assault by Al Qaeda-linked terrorists, Nakoula was soon charged with eight counts of probation violation, jailed without bail and deemed a danger to the community.

Nakoula had previously been convicted of charges relating to bank and credit fraud, and federal prosecutors found his use of the Internet to post the video violated his terms of probation.

Nakoula, who is in his late fifties and has been in the U.S since 1984, declined to elaborate on his post-jail experiences, but said he plans to write a book about his ordeal.

For now, he deferred queries to the Rev. Wiley S. Drake, pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church. In August 2013, Nakoula was relocated from prison to a halfway house  a kind of house arrest although its a government facility  to serve out the remainder of his time, and a year later was released into Drakes custody. For the past three years, Nakoula has been living at the homeless shelter on church grounds.

Drake, an Arkansas native who ran as an independent for the Presidential nomination in 2008 and again for 2016, said he sought out the controversial filmmaker in 2013 because he had grave concerns for the future of democracy in the United States.

I wanted to find out what was really going on, Drake told FoxNews.com. They accused Nakoula of causing Benghazi, but it could not have been further from the truth.

According to Drake, the federal government was concerned about the potential threats at the halfway house due to Nakoulas presence, and agreed to release him to the church. Amid the hoopla sparked by his film and the finger-pointing, Nakoula indeed became a hot target for Islamic fatwas. In 2012, an Egyptian court sentenced him  in absentia  to death for defaming the religion and a Pakistani minister issued a $100,000 reward to have him killed.

Drake said that they have received a few anonymous phone threats  the last being about a year ago  but he refuses to back down.

I have purposely not hidden that Nakoula is here, he continued. Im not afraid of anything.

Steven Davis, director of security management at the church, stressed that they take Nakoulas precarious position as a high value target very seriously and said the church has well-trained personnel should any external threats arise.

I talk to him on a regular basis, check he isnt being followed, Davis said. It is hard to know how far the enemy  radical Islam  will push things.

Nakoula remains under the supervision of the federal government, so he will likely be at the Church for at least another year. The average stay at the shelter is a few months, enough time for most to get back on their feet, said Drake.

Kenneth Timmerman, author of Deception: The Making of the YouTube Video Hillary and Obama Blamed For Benghazi, asserts that Nakoula was ultimately the first victim of Islamic Sharia blasphemy laws in the United States.

He was collateral damage, as were the actors and actresses who became subject to death threats and fatwas, Timmerman said. Nakoula takes the fatwas seriously because he understands they are still active and cannot be rescinded.

Drake also noted that from time to time he receives phone calls from different people at the State Department checking in on how Nakoula is faring, and while Drake typically gives a vanilla answer, he is concerned for his future. Nakoula has worked various part-time jobs at a pizza parlor and more recently driving for Uber, but as soon as people make the connection between him and Benghazi, work dries up.

So we have put him to work here, Drake said. And he has transportation now so he can go and visit his family nearby, but he wants to keep them safe and out of the spotlight.

It was revealed in last years House Select Committee hearings on Benghazi that, despite public proclamations otherwise, Clinton was well aware that the attacks were well-crafted and not spurred by The Innocence of Muslims.

According to Kris Tanto Paronto, one of the CIA security contractors and survivors of the Benghazi mayhem, the first he heard of the infamous movie or even protests was about 36 hours after the attack.

I was in Germany recovering and had just woken up and I saw [U.S. Ambassador to the UN] Susan Rice mention it as the cause. Honestly, my first thoughts were that this was typical for this administration  spinning the truth, he told FoxNews.com. Even then we knew that it was Al Qaeda, and this incident would crush the narrative that we had terrorism under control.

Paronto stressed that Innocence of Muslims played no part in Benghazi, and that the attack was well planned in advance.

They knew when the ambassador was going to be there and they knew there would be no response when they attacked, he continued. He was a high-value target that was vulnerable and they exploited this opportunity to attack the consulate.

Sources close to Nakoula say he was indeed proud of the films content, and has no reservations in continuing his outspoken stance against the Islamic religion when the timing is right. Drake however, noted that Nakoula has expressed some regret  not for the films controversial content  but for the trouble and stress it ultimately caused.

If I could go back, I would do it again, he told FoxNews.com three years ago from prison. Everybody gets hurt in this culture. We need the world free of this culture. We have to fight it.

The U.S State Department declined a request for further comment.
Twenty years after the unsolved murder of JonBenet Ramsey, the brother of the 6-year-old beauty queen is breaking his silence in a series of interviews that will provide "great clarity" about the girl's mysterious death.

Ramsey's brother, Burke -- who was 9 years old at the time of the murder -- is speaking publicly for the first time in a series of interviews with "Dr. Phil." The interviews are set to air on Sept. 12, 13 and 19.

Dr. Phil told Fox News on Monday that he uncovered three tapes -- previously reported as lost -- that show Burke speaking with a psychologist and two interrogators in the days after his sister's murder inside the family's Colorado mansion on Dec. 25 or 26, 1996.

Dr. Phil referred to Burke, now 29, as the "missing link" in the case because he's never before spoken publicly about his sister's death.

"This thing has been examined from every angle you can possibly imagine and it has never gotten cold. All over the Internet, there's these three factions: the intruder did it, the Ramseys did it or Burke did it," he said.

"You're going to hear some things from the only other person known to be in the house the night of the murder and he speaks very openly," Dr. Phil said, though he declined to elaborate further.

"I ask him straight up, 'Did you murder your sister JonBenet Ramsey? I watch him watch those tapes and it was interesting to see his reaction to himself," he said. "Whatever your opinion is, it will be different after you watch these shows. I promise you, when this over, there will be great clarity about this very mysterious death."

Promotional clips of the interviews show Ramsey at times smiling when speaking about the morning his sister was discovered dead in the basement of the family home about eight hours after she was reported missing. She had been struck on the head and strangled.

When asked about the smiling, Dr. Phil noted, "There is unusual affect when he's talking about otherwise very deep and dark content but he is socially uncomfortable.

"He works remotely as a computer anaylyst. He doesnt go into the office. He's not around people a lot. He's very intelligent," he told Fox News.

In an excerpt from the interviews, Burke Ramsey admits, I know people think I did it; that my parents did it." He then reveals for the first time what he believes happened to his sister.

"The first thing I remember is my mom bursting into my room really frantic saying, Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, running around my room, now, I know, looking for JonBenet," he said.

JonBenet Ramsey was found by her father beaten and strangled in the basement after her mother called 911 hours earlier. A garrote made from a length of cord and the broken handle of a paintbrush had been used to strangle the girl. The autopsy also revealed that JonBenet had eaten pineapple only a few hours before the murder.

A two-and-a-half-page ransom letter was also found on the kitchen staircase demanding $118,000 for the girl's safe return. The figure was almost the exact value of a bonus her father, John, had received earlier that year.

Images of the blonde girl competing in child beauty pageants helped propel the case into one of the highest-profile mysteries in the country.

DNA was found beneath JonBenet's fingernails and inside her underwear, but family attorney Lin Wood said detectives were unable to match it to anyone in an FBI database.

Investigators said at one point that JonBenet's parents were under an "umbrella of suspicion" in the slaying, and some news accounts cast suspicion on JonBenet's older brother, Burke.

But the Ramseys insisted an intruder killed their daughter, and no one was ever charged.

Over the years, some experts suggested that investigators had botched the case so thoroughly that it might never be solved.
New DNA testing may free a 53-year-old convicted serial killer as Michigan authorities investigate how a crime lab tested evidence in the decades-old murders.

Michael Darnell Harris is serving life sentences for four homicides and has been behind bars for more than 30 years, first sent to prison in 1983 at the age of 20 for the rape and murder of 77-year-old Ula Curdy. But DNA testing that wasnt available at the time of his trial now shows semen found on Curdys girdle is not a match for Harris, the Detroit Free Press reported. The Ingham County Circuit Court will hold a hearing on the new evidence Sept. 23.

I am 100 percent innocent, Harris told the Free Press in an email from Muskegon Correctional Facility. I had nothing to do with these crimes. The prosecutions were not about truth. They were about hate, racism and revenge.

Harris was convicted of the 1981 Lansing killings of Curdy and 81-year-old Denise Swanson in Ingham County in 1983. The other two killings, of 85-year-old Marjorie Upson of Ypsilanti and 84-year-old Louise Koebnick of Ann Arbor, happened in 1982, but Harris wasn't convicted of those murders until 1993.

The new DNA test in the Curdy case proved a match for another man who already was listed on an FBI database of convicted offenders, officials told the Free Press. No new arrests have been made in the case.

While the DNA evidence could prove Harris didnt rape Curdy and overturn that conviction, it may not immediately set him free. After the Curdy trial, Harris also was convicted in the deaths of three other women.

But Harris' court-appointed lawyer, Edwar Zeineh, said other convictions in what was then considered the work of a serial killer and rapist could fall. And University of Michigan law professor David Moran said the prejudicial impact of a wrongful murder conviction -- particularly one involving a sex crime -- is potentially far-reaching.

"You do get a domino effect with a wrongful conviction, particularly if you have a serial ... rapist," Moran said.

Interim Ingham Prosecutor Gretchen Whitmer said it seems unlikely that Harris could be freed anytime soon, however.

"If there was only one conviction for which he was serving time ... his situation would change dramatically," she told the Free Press.

DNA evidence aside, there were other indications of Harris guilt during the original trial. Harris palm print matched one lifted from a dining room chair at the scene and the prosecutor who originally tried Harris still believes he put the right man away. Peter Houk, whos now in private practice, told the Free Press that Harris may have committed the murder with another man, thereby explaining why the DNA matched someone else.

The Michigan State Police is now investigating how its crime lab handled all the Harris cases, the agency said.

The crime lab supervisor who testified against Harris in several cases was forced to retire in 2004 after authorities said he had a subordinate take his DNA proficiency test for him.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


A grand jury is set to probe how Chicago cops handled the aftermath of a black teen's 2014 shooting death at the hands of a white police officer, and whether a cover-up occurred, The Chicago Tribune reported.

Patricia Brown Holmes, the special prosecutor appointed to look into the episode, said Monday she had enough evidence to present the case to a grand jury. Holmes told reporters it would be more fair to let a grand jury decide whether to charge any officers rather than make the call herself.

Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke is charged with murder in 17-year-old Laquan McDonalds October 2014 death. Hes accused of shooting the teen 16 times. Van Dyke has pleaded not guilty.

Holmes is looking into whether Van Dykes fellow officers lied in their accounts of the shooting, and the investigation could also ensnare police supervisors, The Tribune reported.

Several officers wrote that McDonald had lunged at cops with a knife before Van Dyke opened fire. However, subsequently released dashcam footage showed McDonald walking away from police with the knife.

The city inspector generals office is also investigating the incident, The Tribune reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A man who draped himself in the American flag and jumped over the White House fence on Thanksgiving Day last year has taken a plea deal in the case.

Joseph Caputo of Stamford, Connecticut, appeared in federal court in the District of Columbia on Monday. He agreed to plead guilty to knowingly entering a restricted building or grounds. Sentencing is set for Dec. 6.

Caputo was carrying a binder with "a rewritten Constitution" when he scaled the fence. His lawyer argued Caputo's actions were intended to call attention to deficiencies in the Constitution and protected by the First Amendment. A judge disagreed, saying Caputo's arguments "border on frivolous" because there's "no First Amendment right to express one's self in a nonpublic area like the White House."
A North Carolina cop who had been named Officer of the Year died Monday morning from wounds suffered during a Saturday shooting, and investigators continued to hunt the man accused of gunning him down.

Shelby officer Tim Brackeen, 38, was shot in the chest around 12:20 a.m. on Saturday as he was searching for 23-year-old Irving Lucien Fenner, who had failed to show up to an August court date for misdemeanor charges of carrying a concealed weapon and marijuana possession, The Charlotte Observer reported. Authorities have since charged Fenner with attempted murder in Brackeens shooting. Charges were likely to be upgraded after Brackeens death.

Gov. Pat McCrory's office announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to Fenner's arrest.

The doctor said his brain shows no activity, etc.," Brackeen's mom, Phyllis Mitchell Brackeen, wrote in a Saturday post on Facebook. "If he pulls thru this, it will only be because God steps in and does the impossible."

Brackeen, a 12-year department veteran, was wearing a bulletproof vest when he was shot, officials said. He had served as a K9 officer and was married with one daughter. Brackeen was named Officer of the Year in 2012.

"He is such a good guy and so thoughtful. He is everything you'd want in a police officer, Shelby Mayor Stan Anthony told The Shelby Star. It's so hard to see something like this happen to him."

The State Bureau of Investigation is assisting local police with their investigation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Authorities in Tennessee arrested a man Sunday accused of placing an improvised explosive device inside an employees car outside a suburban Nashville nursing home.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokesman Josh DeVine said on Twitter that Mitchell Hunter Oakes, 41, was arrested in the alleged bombing attempt. TBI said that Oakes was facing an attempted first-degree murder charge.

According to The Tennessean, state and federal bomb investigators safely detonated the device that was found outside the NHC Cool Springs in Franklin. Authorities described the device as sophisticated.

"The device was sophisticated and designed to do maximum harm to the intended victim, and would have hurt several others if it had detonated as intended, Franklin police Lt. Charles Warner said Friday.

The Tennessean reported that Franklin police responded to a report of a suspicious device inside a vehicle outside the NHC Cool Springs facility at around 7:15 a.m. The building forced about 220 patients out of the building and into different care facilities.

Franklin police said at around 2 p.m. that a small, but safe, explosion occurred to stabilize the device. The Tennessee Highway Patrol said the controlled explosion left behind a small crater.

Police said the person whose vehicle had the explosive device in it has a connection to Oakes, but they failed to specify what the connection was.

Oakes had been wanted on a felony warrant out of Virginia and is a convicted felon with a violent history and extensive knowledge about bombing and weapon making, the paper reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from The Tennessean.
North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho departed Pyongyang on Monday for a pair of international meetings, including the U.N. General Assembly in New York, just days after North Korea's latest nuclear test.

Ri plans to attend the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Venezuela and then go on to the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

It will be Ri's first time to attend the General Assembly as foreign minister. He was named to the post at a major ruling party congress held in May.

Previous North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong went twice, in 2014 and 2015. That marked a change after many years when North Korea did not send its foreign minister to the New York gathering.

North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test last Friday.
The Chinese and Russian navies launched eight days of war games in the South China Sea on Monday, in a sign of growing cooperation between their armed forces against the backdrop of regional territorial disputes.

The "Joint Sea-2016" maneuvers include ships, submarines, ship-borne helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, along with marines and amphibious armored vehicles who will conduct live-firing exercises, according to a Defense Ministry statement Sunday.

Tasks will include defensive and rescue drills, anti-submarine exercises and the simulated seizure of an enemy island by marines from both sides.

The exercise is part of an annual program which "aims to consolidate and advance the Sino-Russian comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, and deepen friendly and practical cooperation between the two militaries," Chinese navy spokesman Liang Yang was quoted as saying.

"It will also improve coordination between the two navies on joint defense operations at sea," Liang said.

China's South Sea Fleet will make up the bulk of the forces, along with some elements from the North and East Sea fleets, Liang said.

The ministry didn't say exactly where the drills would be held in the South China Sea, the site of heated territorial disputes between China and its Southeast Asian neighbors. However, the official Xinhua News Agency said the Russian ships arrived early Monday in the Guangdong province port of Zhanjiang and the exercises would be held off the Guangdong coast, apparently in waters that are not in dispute.

Joint Chinese-Russian drills have become increasingly common in recent years  this week's exercises are the fifth between the two navies since 2012  with the countries joined in their mutual suspicion of the U.S. and its allies.

Russia has been the only major country to speak out on China's behalf in its demand that the U.S. and other countries stay out of such arguments. That came as an arbitration panel in The Hague, Netherlands, issued a ruling invalidating China's claims to virtually the entire South China Sea, a result that Beijing angrily rejected as null and void.

Following the ruling, China vowed to continue developing man-made islands in the disputed Spratly island group and said it would conduct regular aerial patrols over the strategically vital sea through which passes an estimated $5 trillion in trade each year.

While China says the drills do not envision specific enemies or target any third parties, their location in the South China Sea has drawn criticism.

During a visit to China last month, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Adm. Scott Swift, said "There are other places those exercises could have been conducted." He described them as part of a series of actions "that are not increasing the stability within the region."

Xinhua rejected such sentiments in a commentary Monday, saying those viewing the exercises as threatening were "either ill-informed ... or misled by their prejudice about China and Russia."

"A logical guess is that, for those who have bought the sensational claim regarding the drill, they probably only see words like 'island seizing' and 'South Sea Fleet' and start to imagine a war in the South China Sea," Xinhua said, blaming sensationalistic Western media reports that it did not further identify.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said Monday that the U.S. did not view the exercises as a threat. He told reporters that as long as the exercises were not threatening or provocative and were conducted in accordance with international law, "there's nothing that precludes them from doing that."

Russian news outlets said 18 ships, 21 aircraft and more than 250 marines from both sides would take part in the drills. The ships include destroyers, cruisers, a Russian battleship, amphibious warfare ships and supply vessels.

However, Xinhua said the Russian component would include three surface ships, two supply ships, two helicopters, 96 marines, and amphibious armored equipment.

China's navy would contribute 10 ships, including destroyers, frigates, amphibious ships, supply vessels and submarines, along with 11 fixed-wing aircraft, eight helicopters, 160 marines and amphibious armor, it said.
European Union leaders will meet in Malta early next year to discuss Europe's future once Britain leaves, as the 60th anniversary of the EU's founding Treaty of Rome approaches.

Malta's EU office tweeted Monday that the informal talks without Britain are planned "to spur momentum for the new idea of Europe." Malta takes over the EU's rotating presidency in the first half of 2017.

The meeting could take place in early February to leave time to prepare the anniversary of the treaty, signed in the Italian capital on March 25, 1957.

EU leaders are meeting without Britain in Slovakia on Friday. All 28 leaders are scheduled to meet in Brussels on October 20-21 and December 15-16.

Britain's decision to leave has plunged the EU into an unprecedented situation.
U.S. claims about Iranian vessels veering dangerously close to American warships were exaggerated and stemmed from fear of Irans power, a spokesman for Irans armed forces said Sunday.

The Islamic Republics vessels always act in full awareness of international rules and regulations and based on defined norms, Brig. Gen. Masoud Jazayeri said, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency. Therefore the [American] claims are not only untrue, but stem from their fear of the power of the Islamic Republics soldiers.

Gen. Jazayeri was responding to concerns voiced by U.S. officials about near-confrontations between U.S. ships and Iranian vessels in and around the Persian Gulf.

In one such incident last month, a U.S. Navy spokesman said four vessels from Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps approached an American destroyer at high speed, ignoring radio communications and other warnings. Iranian boats also made a close approach to an American ship in the Strait of Hormuz in July.

While interactions between Iranian and U.S. ships are common, American officials have raised growing alarm recently about the risk of an escalation at sea between the two rivals.

Gen. Jazayeri, however, said American claims of close approaches werent accurate.

When Iranian vessels pass the Americans a few kilometers from them, they claim that the Iranian boats have come within one kilometer, he said.

U.S. officials couldnt immediately be reached for comment.

Click for more from The Wall Street Journal.
One of the world's largest shipping companies is sinking in a sea of red ink, leaving sailors and cargo stranded in vessels anchored offshore and merchants worrying they won't get goods in time for holiday shopping.

South Korea's Hanjin Shipping, the world's No. 7 shipping company, is in bankruptcy and has more than 40 massive container ships stranded at sea. It's estimated they're carrying $14 billion worth of goods -- everything from Samsung electronics and Nike sneakers to furniture and food.

Our ships can become ghost ships, Kim Ho Kyung, a manager at Hanjin Shippings labor union, told Bloomberg News. Food and water are running down in those ships floating in international waters.

The ships are barred from entering many ports where Hanjin hasn't paid the workers who unload cargo and the truckers and railroads which bring the goods to markets.

Merchandise is in limbo at the moment and retailers are working hard to make sure it ends up on store shelves in time for the holidays, National Retail Federation Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said, according to the shipping blog gCaptain.com.

In the U.S., unpaid fuel companies had one ship seized, near the port of Long Beach, Calif.

Last week, a federal bankruptcy judge in Newark ruled no additional Hanjin ships could be seized by creditors in the U.S.

Hanjin now says it has $18 million set aside to unload four ships in the U.S., and the judge told the company to make whatever deals it can to get the cargo into stores on time. Korean Airlines (KAL), Hanjin's biggest shareholder, is giving $54 million to get ships docked and unloaded. One ship unloaded in Long Beach over the weekend. But about a dozen other ships are waiting to enter American ports.

The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) said, at least for now, it believes all marooned ships, worldwide, have enough fuel, and enough food and water for their crews, but Hanjin is asking crews to conserve. Hanjin's union leaders say they're working with the South Korean government to guarantee the delivery of supplies for ships running low.

Mike Radak, chief operating officer for Hanjin Shipping America, headquartered in Paramus, New Jersey, says the company needs a lot of money to solve the global problem. Under normal circumstances, he said he could easily spend "100, 200 million in a few hours."

Hanjin has too many ships and not enough cargo to make them profitable.

Radak say the whole industry is overcrowded.

"You don't need 20 or more different ocean carriers," said Radak.

"This had to happen to one of us."

He said container shipping was a good business until the great recession of 2008. World trade slumped, then recovered more slowly than shippers expected. Container ships take six years to build, and vessels which were under construction before the recession are now underutilized.

Older ships are getting scrapped earlier.

The situation is "unprecedented," in the opinion of Richard Salz, a veteran maritime lawyer who's been following the Hanjin case for Mitsui Sumitomo, the Japanese insurer.

Salz says bankruptcy laws in some countries allow governments to auction the ships they seize, to pay local creditors.
Scooters Coffee Heats Up in Arizona

National Franchise Signs New Franchise Agreement for Chandler, Gilbert and Scottsdale Areas

September 12, 2016 // Franchising.com // Omaha, NE  Scooters Coffee, the Midwest-based coffee franchise that is on track for another record-breaking year of growth, announced it will continue to expand its presence in the state of Arizona with a Multi-Store Development Agreement for 10 locations in the Chandler, Gilbert and Scottsdale areas.

As we approach the grand opening of our first-ever location in (2635 W. Glendale Ave) Phoenix, its thrilling to see Scooters Coffee already garnering brand recognition in the area, said Rob Streett, President and COO of Scooters. Weve taken great strides in 2016 to bolster our national presence from coast-to-coast, and this agreement is testament to that effort.

Scooters signed the agreement with Scott and Pam Gass, who currently live in Elkhorn, NE. Scott and Pam join Scooters with several years of franchise experience with another brand. Their daughter, who currently lives in the Phoenix area, will be the operator for their first location of many.

With more than 150 stores open in 12 states, Scooters Coffee has signed agreements in three additional states throughout the country and will open more than 40 locations from coast to coast in 2016. Over the next few months, the company boasts a robust grand opening pipeline, which includes its first-ever location in the state of Arizona. This summer, the company opened its first of many locations in Florida and added a second location to the Atlanta, GA metro area. It will also add several locations this year to expanding markets, such as Iowa, Kansas, Texas and Nebraska.

Scooters, which is based out of Omaha, Nebraska, handcrafts its pastries and roasts its own 100% shade-grown coffee, sourced through Arbor Day Foundation. In 2016, the company also added depth to its product profile, releasing a new line of Organic Hot and Iced Teas earlier this summer. In addition to its nearly-100% gluten-free beverage menu, Scooter's will soon add gluten-free food items to its extensive menu.

About Scooters Coffee

Founded in 1998 by Don and Linda Eckles in Bellevue, Nebraska, Scooters Coffee roasts only the finest coffee beans in the world at its headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. Scooter's success over 18 years of history is simple: stay committed to the original business principles and company core values. The Scooter's mantra, often recited to franchisees, customers and employees is: "Amazing People, Amazing Drinks...Amazingly Fast! It represents the company's business origins from 1998 and reflects a steady commitment to providing an unforgettable experience to loyal customers.

For more information, visit scooterscoffee.com, facebook.com/scooterscoffee, or ownascooters.com

SOURCE Scooters Coffee

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After telling listeners about the story behind the story, beloved radio personality Paul Harvey often ended his program with the tagline, And now you know the rest of the story. Unfortunately, when it comes to politics, the background stories usually arent quite as entertaining as the ones told by Paul Harvey, but they are still important.

Today, our story is about state spending on K-12 education and begins around the time of the 2008 financial crisis.

In response to falling tax revenues, most states across the country cut funding for schools. At the same time, as part of the federal stimulus plan, millions of one-time federal dollars were earmarked for state education spending. In Wisconsin, this temporarily allowed our state to avoid K-12 cuts, but when the stimulus funding expired, federal education aid to Wisconsin went down by nearly $100 million between 2010 and the next school year.

Federal aid continued dropping, until last year it ended up being $205 million less than in 2010. That boils down to $240 less in federal aid per student statewide.

Additionally, after years of steady K-12 enrollment growth through the mid-1980s and 90s, children of the baby boomers graduated and statewide enrollment dropped. That trend has continued since 2003, and today Wisconsin has 3,000 fewer students than in 2010. Because most state aid is awarded per student, districts with fewer students faced new funding challenges.

In light of these challenges, state Republicans enacted reforms to save districts money and supplement state and local funding for schools. These reforms included things like requiring state employees to contribute to their health insurance and pensions for the first time and freeing school districts to purchase health insurance from more than one provider.

When you add it all up, its estimated that our reforms have saved Wisconsin a total of $5.24 billion  much of those savings went to education.

In addition to our cost-saving reforms, funding from state aid and property tax revenues have gone up every year since 2011. After initial cuts in federal and state aid were offset by the cost-saving reforms we passed in 2011, state aid to schools has actually increased by $407 per student. Property tax revenues have also increased an average of $132 per student since the 2011-2012 school year.

On top of all that, our most recent state budget included $296 million in new K-12 funding, including an increase of $150 per student last year and $250 per student this year.

Some politicians have ignored all this information and cherry-picked facts and figures to claim the Legislature has turned its back on public schools in Wisconsin since one category of school aid is less now than it was in 2010. But as we have seen, this isnt the full story, and not only do these claims leave out the critical roles of declining enrollment, local and federal spending and our 2011 reforms, but they also entirely ignore another type of school aid from the state: categorical aid.

Categorical aids are targeted funds that schools use to pay for specific items like special education and transporting students. In fact, the most recent audited data shows that state and local K-12 education funding is up almost $21 million since 2010, to $10.3 billion.

As the next state budget approaches, there are still challenges facing education in Wisconsin. Whether its closing the achievement gap or adopting innovations that allow our kids to compete internationally, my colleagues and I in the Legislature will continue to support public education while maintaining the cost-saving reforms that ensure that every dollar spent on K-12 makes a direct impact on our childrens education.

And now you know the rest of the story.
Spotsylvania, Stafford and King George counties are set to receive a total of nearly $4 million in federal grants to hire additional firefighters.

The Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to accept a $1.35 million SAFER grant that would add nine firefighters to the payroll. The grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency would cover the salaries and benefits of those positions for two years starting in late November.

Stafford and King George supervisors recently voted to accept SAFER grants of about $2.3 million and $326,000, respectively. King Georges grant will fund one additional firefighter for four years while Staffords grant covers the salaries and benefits of 16 new firefighters for two years.

But the counties will have to pay for training, equipment and other costs.

And once the grant expires, local tax dollars must cover the firefighters salaries and benefitsthough the counties have the option of cutting the positions.

In Spotsylvania, the grant amounts to about a penny on the real-estate tax rate. Supervisor Paul Trampe said he supports the grant because we need the firefighters, not because its just money thats available.

The additional firefighters would reduce overtime by filling staff shortages countywide, said Spotsylvania Deputy Chief of Support Services Jay Cullinan.

Earlier this year, volunteer firefighters with Chancellor Volunteer Fire and Rescue stopped staffing a station on Gordon Road. Volunteers had previously worked overnight shifts, and career firefighters manned the station during the day.

If supervisors accept the grant, the county could also staff a second ambulance during weekdays at its station off Salem Church Road, Cullinan said. Spotsylvania firefighters are cross-trained as medics.

Lastly, the additional firefighters would enable the county to promote existing firefighters/medics to three EMS supervisor positions, which assist advanced life support providers and respond to emergencies such as cardiac arrests and fires.

Spotsylvania currently has three EMS supervisors who must respond to incidents countywide. With the added positions, the supervisors could be assigned to different parts of the 413-square-mile county, fire and rescue officials wrote in a county report.

Spotsylvania would pay an estimated $249,228 over the two-year grant period to train the new firefighters, pay them overtime and buy equipment, among other costs. This year, the county budget also includes $545,000 for nine firefighters who were previously funded through a grant.

The county has added dozens of firefighters in recent years, and recently opened two new fire and rescue stations.

In Stafford, the 16 additional firefighters will be placed at stations on Sebring Drive, Shelton Shop Road, Washington Drive and Kellogg Mill Road, according to a county report. They would start recruit school in January.

Stafford supervisors approved a public safety staffing plan last year that calls for more than 50 additional positions in the Fire and Rescue Department. The county has made a lot of progress toward that goal.

This fiscal years budget includes eighteen new firefighter and EMT positions, allowing Stafford to have a career firefighter at every station for the first time. Those positions do not include the grant-funded firefighters.
GOV. TERRY McAULIFFES recent announcement that the state faces a $1.5 billion projected shortfall should shape the conversation in next years governors race and set a course for state policy beyond that.

With a presidential campaign going on, Republicans in the Virginia legislature could have used that bad news to blame President Obamas handling of the economy. They did not. Instead, they talked about how the revenue numbers underscore the need for Virginia to build a new economywhich is exactly the point the Democratic governor has been making. This was a moment of rare bipartisan agreement.

Oh, there was certainly some partisan bluster going on after the Aug. 29 report to the General Assembly money committees. Consider the comment from House Majority Leader Kirk Cox, RColonial Heights: The governor is overly optimistic. He talked about all the businesses hes brought. Breweries are great, but you cant balance the budget with beer.

But lets turn to what House Appropriations Committee Chairman Chris Jones, RSuffolk, said: We will begin rolling up our sleeves to find a solution. I think we are in a better position structurally, but Im very concerned about the economy. We have done the best things possible to set us in a good position. But we need to see more progress in those higher-paying jobs.

That brings us to the core of the conversation that needs to happenand has already begun. What were seeing here is not just the normal cycle of up and down, but a fundamental reordering of the economy on a scale we havent seen since the Agricultural Age gave way to the Industrial Revolution. Thats the big picture nationally, even globally.

In Virginia, what that means is this: Slow growth, at best, in the parts of the state most tied to traditional industries such as Southwest and Southside Virginia. For a long time, Virginia could get by because economic growth in its two biggest metro areas, Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, effectively covered up problems elsewhere. Now, though, even that growth is slowing, due in part to federal budget cuts known as sequestration.

The combined effect: Virginia now has the third slowest economic growth in the country. This is a situation that pre-dated McAuliffes administration, and will continue after he has left office. It is, therefore, not a partisan problem, but a fundamental fact that policymakers from both parties must grapple with.

For his part, McAuliffe has been warning throughout his governorship that the states economy is too dependent on federal spendingand must be diversified with more private-sector investment.

Thats why the $2.2 billion bond issue that the governor proposedand the Republican General Assembly approved earlier this yearwas focused on science-heavy research projects intended to create a new economy in the state.

There are some other useful big-picture points to keep in mind here:

McAuliffe said one reason that revenues are falling short is that many of the states new jobs are lower-paying ones. Republicans blamed Obamas Affordable Health Care Act for discouraging employers from creating full-time jobs and hiring only part-time workers instead. That may be true, but this is certainly true: Virginias population is also aging. As higher-paid Baby Boomers retire, companies are using that as an opportunity to hire lower-paid replacements.

The next president, and the next Congress, will have to deal with Obamacare, but whatever they do wont change the fact that Virginias outmigration has outpaced its in-migration since 2013. Virginia is still gaining population, because births still exceed deaths. But our population growth rate has slowed, and beneath the surface, the structure of that population is changing because more people are moving out than moving inmostly those Baby Boomer retirees, moving further South. That also has the effect of slowing the states economy. Demographically, we are starting to look more like a Mid-Atlantic state and less like a Sunbelt state.

McAuliffe called forand the Republican leaders in the General Assembly immediately rejectedan expansion of Medicaid. Thats a good political debate to have. But heres another one we need to have: How can we fundamentally change the states economy (and reverse some of these demographic trends)?

That will be the top priority facing the next governor (just as its the top priority facing the current one). The danger is that the upcoming governors race will both simplify and exaggerate the solutions. Republicans will say we need to cut taxes. Democrats will say we need to spend more on education and infrastructure. Both are likely true; both are also insufficient to the task.

Some say Virginia should focus on trying to attract Fortune 500 companies. Actually, thats not where the job growth is. Big companies are generally trying to shed jobs. A study by the Kaufman Foundation found that most job growth is with start-ups. Start-ups depend on venture capital. Yet Virginia ranks only 16th in the country for venture capital. But thats not something government can solve. Or is it? Let the conversation commence.
Medellin SEO Agency for Business Owners and Companies Starts 11 September 2016

Medellin SEO announced the availability of their new SEO Service beginning 10 September 2016. More information can be found at http://www.medellinseo.com/.

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Medellin SEO Customers and Clients looking for the latest SEO Services will soon be able to get involved with a new Innovative Medellin SEO Agency. Today Rocco Gagiano,CEO at Medellin SEO releases details of the their new SEO Agency in Medellin , Antioquia Colombia.

Their SEO Service Agency is designed to appeal specifically to Business Owners and includes:

SEO - This feature was included because it Makes all Clients More Visible Online. This is great news for the Customers as they receive more clients and phone calls.

Online Reputation Management - This is made part of their service, since It is important to have a good online reputation. Customers who invest in the service should enjoy this feature because Clients wants a company with a good reputation.

Social Media Marketing - Medellin SEO made sure to make this part of their SEO Service's development as To generate more sales and customers. Customers of the new Innovative SEO Agency will likely appreciate this because without social media marketing a business is lacking transformation.

Rocco Gagiano, when asked about the SEO Service said:

""Medellin SEO Agency provide everything businesses need to establish and maintain an excellent online presence.""

This is the latest offering from Medellin SEO and Rocco Gagiano is particularly excited about this launch because Mr. Rocco Gagiano declares that his Medellin SEO company will be providing web design to assist businesses in creating their online presence, as well as a number of SEO services to ensure that they are seen by their targeted customers. Gagiano explains, "SEO is a major part of any business today. You have to be found on those coveted top spots in search engine results or you aren't likely to be seen at all by potential customers.".

Those interested in Contacting , Medellin SEO and their SEO Services Agency can do so on the website at http://www.medellinseo.com/

For more information, please visit http://www.medellinseo.com

Contact Info:

Name: Rocco Gagiano

Email: roccogagiano@icloud.com

Organization: Medellin SEO

Address: Carrera 35 , No.8a 87,Medellin, Antioquia

Phone: 3105392636

Release ID: 131819

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Intelligent Hearing Protection Device Market (10.05% CAGR) Grow to 2020

RnRMarketResearch.com adds Global Intelligent Hearing Protection Device Market 2016-2020 latest research report, the analysts forecast global intelligent hearing protection device market to grow at a CAGR of 10.05% during the period 2016-2020.

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The global intelligent hearing protection device market analyst says one of the key trends for market growth will be the increasing demand from energy industry. Offshore oil platforms produce high levels of noise, and workers in these environments are exposed to extended periods of noise, which increases the risk of hearing loss. Moreover, these workers find it difficult to communicate effectively and maintain situational awareness, which is indispensable to worker safety. This has increased the adoption of intelligent hearing protection products by oil companies to ensure worker safety. So, the unit consumption of intelligent hearing protection products by the energy industry will increase from 20% in 2015 to 27% in 2020.

Complete report on intelligent hearing protection device market spread across 69 pages, analyzing 3 major companies and providing 48 data exhibits are now available at http://www.rnrmarketresearch.com/global-intelligent-hearing-protection-devices-market-2016-2020-market-report.html

According to the global intelligent hearing protection device market report, technological advances and product improvement will be a key driver for market growth. The global intelligent hearing protection market is characterized by continuous innovations. The focus of product innovation is shifting toward more efficient and lighter technologies that enhance user comfort. For instance, the majority of electronic intelligent hearing protection products offered by vendors in the market are considered heavy by wearers. SensGard, an emerging vendor in the market, offers intelligent hearing protection products that use Zwislocki Ear Muffler (ZEM) technology, a patented, non-electronic technology, which provides sound attenuation through a simple manipulation of the design of the product.

The analyst predicts that North America will dominate the global intelligent hearing protection device market and will post an impressive CAGR of about 11% by 2020. The growing demand from industrial end-users and consumers and leading vendors that introduce new products for a varied range of applications will be the key drivers for market growth during the forecast period. Furthermore, worker safety regulations and the high cost of employee compensation in case of injuries will compel many major employers in the region to invest in products with a wide selection of custom-contoured intelligent hearing protection products. Order a copy of Global Intelligent Hearing Protection Device Market 2016-2020 report @ http://www.rnrmarketresearch.com/contacts/purchase?rname=678298

The following companies are the key players in the global global intelligent hearing protection device market: Honeywell, 3M, and Phonak. Other prominent vendors in the market are: Etymotic Research, Hellberg Safety, Hunter Electronic, NoNoise, Sensear, SensGard, Silenta, and Starkey Hearing Technologies.

One of the primary factors driving the global intelligent hearing protection device market will be the rising demand for intelligent hearing protection products across the defense industry. Continuous exposure of members of the army, navy, and air force to incessant noise from aircraft engines and impulse noise such as firing and blasts that cause hearing disabilities will result in the growth of the market.

Global Intelligent Hearing Protection Device Market 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global intelligent hearing protection device market for 2016-2020. For the purpose of arriving at the market size, the study considers the revenue generated from the sales of intelligent hearing protection products by manufacturers.

About Us:

RnRMarketResearch.com is your single source for all market research needs. Our database includes 500,000+ market research reports from over 100+ leading global publishers & in-depth market research studies of over 5000 micro markets. With comprehensive information about the publishers and the industries for which they publish market research reports, we help you in your purchase decision by mapping your information needs with our huge collection of reports.

For more information, please visit http://www.rnrmarketresearch.com/global-intelligent-hearing-protection-devices-market-2016-2020-market-report.html

Contact Info:

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Email: sales@rnrmarketresearch.com

Organization: RnRMarketResearch

Phone: + 1 888 391 5441

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/intelligent-hearing-protection-device-market-10-05-cagr-grow-to-2020/131952

Release ID: 131952

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Johannesburg SEO Celebrates Its Third Anniversary

Johannesburg SEO is celebrating its 3 year anniversary and reveals some of its big wins and challenges it faced getting this far. More information on the business can be found at http://www.johannesburgseo.net/

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Johannesburg SEO is celebrating their third Anniversary, which commemorates 3 wonderful years in business. This is a huge milestone for the JOHANNESBURG based SEO Agency, which has provided SEO services to Medium to large Businesses and Owners since 2013.

Johannesburg SEO got it's start in 2013 when founder Rocco Gagiano decided that in today's digital world, having a website so that customers can find businesses online is crucial in keeping up with competition. He states that Johannesburg SEO Agency offers everything that a business will need from the initial site design to maintaining the site and ensuring that it ranks high on search engines for relevant keywords so that customers can easily find them.

One of the earliest challenges Johannesburg SEO faced was include a number of strategies to assist companies in gaining spots on the first few pages of search engine results.

While every business of course faces challenges, some like Johannesburg SEO are fortunate enough to enjoy real successes, wins and victories too. Once such victory came when providing social media marketing services, which helps businesses to build more personal relationships with customers through popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Rocco Gagiano, CEO at Johannesburg SEO was also quoted when discussing another big win. "One of the high points of Johannesburg SEO's history so far was "SEO is a major part of any business today. You have to be found on those coveted top spots in search engine results or you aren't likely to be seen at all by potential customers."

Johannesburg SEO's Founder, Rocco Gagiano says "The Agency is delighted to be celebrating our 3 Year Anniversary. I believe the secret to getting this far in business today is offers everything that a business will need from the initial site design to maintaining the site and ensuring that it ranks high on search engines for relevant keywords so that customers can easily find them."

Johannesburg SEO currently consists of 10 employees and has big plans for the upcoming year. One of their core objectives is Make Clients More Visible Online.

Johannesburg SEO would also like to thank friends, customers and all its partners for their well wishes on this happy occasion.

More information on the business can be found at http://www.johannesburgseo.net

For more information, please visit http://www.johannesburgseo.net

Contact Info:

Name: Rocco Gagiano

Email: rocco@johannesburgseo.net

Organization: Johannesburg SEO

Address: 396 Jan Smuts Avenue, Valley Centre, Suite 205, Craighall

Phone: 0833778812

Release ID: 131844

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Garrett Cassells, Choir Expo, Set To Raise Thousands For Local Churches

Garrett Cassells the brain child behind Choir Expo plan on featuring local choirs to compete for $25,000. This event is co-sponsored by SEO by Nerds and several other local companies.

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Garrett Cassells, the brainchild behind Choir Expo, plans to raise thousands for local churches and community organization.

The Title sponsor, SEO by Nerds, along with several local businesses, will award the winner of Choir Expo $25,000. Instead of focusing on traditional markets, Choir Expo 2016/2017 will feature 25+ member choirs in smaller, less publicized markets as well as bigger markets. Participating choirs come from the following cities: Atlanta, GA; Macon, GA; Savannah, GA; Augusta, GA; Columbus, GA; Charlotte, NC; Raleigh, NC; Greenville, NC; Florence, SC; Charleston, SC; Summerton, SC; Columbia, SC; Columbus, OH; Cleveland, OH; Cincinnati, OH; and Huntsville, AL.

There events are looking to highlight the best church choirs throughout the country. Just submit a video no more than three minutes long with the church choir singing a church/gospel genre song in a public or private performance.

Eight finalist choirs will be chosen based on general audience appeal and offered the chance to compete in the live Grand Finale competition in Atlanta, Georgia.

All church choir members must be at least 18 years. Choir size 20+

Each choir must select a choir representative to complete the entry information and submit the video for judging.

Last, Garrett Cassells is known for planning and organizing community events and producing stage-plays, Like his newest hit stage play, Victoria's 7 Secrets. He has earned professional nick name such as Atlanta's #1 SEO Guy, #1 SEO Guy for Dentist and Lawyers and SEO #1 National Guy. In addition to helping many local businesses increase revenues by ranking higher on Google, Yahoo and Bing but his company, SEO by Nerds are cosponsors for Arts for America and Choir Expo. These groups through a variety of local events plans to raise thousands for local churches and community groups as a way to give back. Interested churches, choirs and singing groups can register at http://choirexpo.com/

For more information, please visit http://www.choirexpo.com

Contact Info:

Name: Melony Richard

Organization: Arts for America



Release ID: 132030

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Land Bank of the Philippines Snaps Up an International Banker Banking Award

Land Bank of the Philippines Is the Winner of a Prestigious International Banker Award: Best Customer Service Provider of the Year Asia 2016.

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International Banker recently held its annual Banking Awards to acknowledge the top Asian and Australasian banking institutions and individuals. The Land Bank of the Philippines (LANDBANK) received the award for Best Customer Service Provider of the Year Asia 2016.

International Banker offers a global view of banking and finance. Each year through the Banking Awards, it recognises the leading banking institutions and individuals that have set the bar for industry excellence. The 2016 Banking Awards acknowledge the organisations and individuals within the banking and financial industries in Asia and Australasia that drive global economic commerce, create capital and opportunities for economic growth within their regions, set the benchmarks for technological advancement and customer service, while maintaining high levels of regulatory compliance and corporate governance. The standout institutions working within retail, commercial, investment and private banking are recognized with these awards. In addition, special awards are given to outstanding CEOs in each region.

Honoured with an award to acknowledge and celebrate its innovation and leadership in the area of banking customer service in Asia, LANDBANK has achieved a prominent position on the 2016 International Banker Asia and Australasian Banking Awards list.

LANDBANK, as its name implies, specializes in countryside development. Established by the Philippine government in 1963 to provide financial support to purchase agricultural estates and redistribute land amongst smaller landholders, the bank has expanded to become the fourth-largest bank in the Philippines in terms of total assets, loans and deposits, and the fifth largest in terms of total capital as of June 2016. It has expanded its credit outreach to its priority sectors--such as farmers and fishers, microenterprises as well as small and medium-sized enterprises, rural banks and agri- and aqua-businesses --while also establishing strategic partnerships that have crucially assisted the Philippine government's comprehensive development programmes and platforms for inclusive growth. The bank has been successful in penetrating all of the 81 provinces in the country through its branch network and has established Other Banking Offices in areas where it has no branch to reach out to unserved sectors in other cities and municipalities. Through these efforts, LANDBANK has become the Philippines' largest lender to small farmers, fishers, SMEs and microenterprises, countryside financial institutions, and local government units.

Congruent with its goal of meeting its development mandate is the bank's commitment to provide excellent customer service. It remains aggressive in enhancing and accelerating the development of new products and channels, while building and maintaining strategic alliances and partnerships in the delivery of services and programs.

LANDBANK's dedication to achieving the highest standards of customer service has set it apart from its peers. The bank recognizes the importance of not only listening to its customers' needs but also anticipating them. This is accomplished through the consistent maintenance and improvement of multi-customer touchpoints, which include the presence of a client-assistance desk in every branch, as well as a customer-care service that operates 24/7 to address customer concerns and complaints. LANDBANK customers can also express their concerns through various customer-care platforms and channels such as telephone, email, the LANDBANK website, and its social media accounts.

Relationship management is likewise deemed as one of the key components of LANDBANK's overall customer service, with the development of long-term business relationships as the underlying goal. Relationship officers are assigned to manage specific customer segments to ensure that each customer receives tailored service. This in turn allows LANDBANK to ascertain trends and gaps between customer needs and what is being offered, and ultimately to continue to meet client requirements. In essence, therefore, LANDBANK strives to be a customer-centric and service-oriented financial institution, and instils a culture within its branches and its employees to achieve this.

By 2018, LANDBANK aims to be the country's top universal bank that promotes inclusive growth and improves quality of life, especially in the countryside through the delivery of innovative financial and other services. Financial inclusion will also continue to be a primary objective as it seeks to extend banking services to underserved provinces, cities and municipalities in the Philippines.

In June this year, LANDBANK conducted a nationwide financial inclusion caravan in nine fourth- and fifth-class municipalities with little or no access to banking services. The caravan was designed to raise awareness and bring unbanked Filipinos into the fold of formal financial services by bringing the bank's services closer to them. Roughly 4,000 unbanked individuals participated in the caravan, many of whom were encouraged to avail of formal banking services and opened savings accounts on the spot. More than half of the 800 individuals who opened savings accounts during the event are now active transactors with topped-up accounts. The financial inclusion caravan is just the first of a series that LANDBANK aims to conduct, as it intends to cover more municipalities moving forward to bring more Filipinos in unbanked areas under the umbrella of formal financial services.

The bank's customer service will be crucial in the eventual achievement of such aspirations, and it is expected to undergo further, significant evolutionary steps over the next year or so. The emphasis is now firmly on the development of pioneering products designed to anticipate client needs, as well as the improvement and acceleration of processes required for new product and channel development. In remaining at the forefront of global banking-industry standards, moreover, the bank will continue to invest in technology and employee training to further bolster customer-service standards.

For more information, please visit http://internationalbanker.com/banking/land-bank-philippines-empowering-countryside/

About International Banker: International Banker is the flagship brand of Finance Publishing. Finance Publishing is one of the world's leading sources of authoritative analysis on finance, international banking and world affairs. It delivers information with excellence through a wide range of accessible formats, from websites, newsletters and magazines, to conferences.

For more information, please visit http://internationalbanker.com

Contact Info:

Name: Phillip Mann

Email: phillip.mann@internationalbanker.com

Organization: Finance Publishing

Phone: +44 (0) 20 7887 2533

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/land-bank-of-the-philippines-snaps-up-an-international-banker-banking-award/132013

Release ID: 132013

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Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad Takes Two International Banker Banking Awards; Managing Director Dato' Sri Zukri Samat Also Wins an Award

Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad Is the Winner of Two Prestigious International Banker Awards: Best Innovation in Retail Banking Malaysia 2016 and Best Islamic Bank Malaysia 2016. Dato' Sri Zukri Samat Is the Winner of the Banking CEO of the Year Asia 2016 award.

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International Banker recently held its annual Banking Awards to acknowledge the top Asian and Australasian banking institutions and individuals. Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad received awards in two categories: Best Innovation in Retail Banking Malaysia 2016 and Best Islamic Bank Malaysia 2016. The bank's managing director, Dato' Sri Zukri Samat, received the coveted Banking CEO of the Year Asia 2016 award.

International Banker offers a global view of banking and finance. Each year through the Banking Awards, it recognises the leading banking institutions and individuals that have set the bar for industry excellence. The 2016 Banking Awards acknowledge the organisations and individuals within the banking and financial industries in Asia and Australasia that drive global economic commerce, create capital and opportunities for economic growth within their regions, set the benchmarks for technological advancement and customer service, while maintaining high levels of regulatory compliance and corporate governance. The standout institutions working within retail, commercial, investment and private banking are recognized with these awards. In addition, special awards are given to outstanding CEOs in each region.

Honoured with three awards to acknowledge and celebrate its innovation and leadership in the areas of retail and Islamic banking in Malaysia, Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad and its managing director have achieved a prominent position on the 2016 International Banker Asia and Australasian Banking Awards list.

Bank Islam is recognized as the first Islamic bank in Malaysia. It has been on a steep upward climb during the past 10 years, recovering from a period of heavy losses--due principally to nonperforming loans--to profitable performance. After revamping its risk-management framework, it endeavoured to reach a broader customer base. Islamic banking was initially perceived to be only for Muslims and was not regarded by many potential customers to be on par with conventional counterparts in terms of service quality and pricing. When the bank's current managing director, Dato' Sri Zukri Samat, joined in 2006, he led the transformation strategy of the bank by restructuring and refocusing of the business. He strived to reinvent the bank's brand perception by changing its logo and revamping the appearance of branches to give them a more modern look and feel. A concerted effort through marketing campaigns was made to stress that Islamic banking was not confined to Muslims but was for all Malaysians.

Bank Islam today is one of the leading Islamic banks in the country. It is predominantly a retail bank with more than 75 percent of its financing driven by consumer banking. It currently offers a comprehensive range of Shariah-compliant banking and financial solutions, with more than 70 innovative and sophisticated Islamic-banking products and services to its more than five million customers. Its innovative offerings have been one of its main contributions to the industry. For example, Bank Islam was the first to market the award-winning Transaction-at-Palm Mobile Banking-i (TAP-i) and the first to launch University Debit Card-i (UniDebit), a multipurpose debit card that provides university and library access. Recently Bank Islam, in a collaborative initiative with VISA, launched its e-donation terminal, a platform through which donations can be made through contactless electronic methods using any VISA debit/credit card with the payWave feature. Another example of improving customer convenience is its Visa cash-out service, a recent collaboration with PETRONAS in which Bank Islam Visa Debit Card-i holders can withdraw cash with zero fees at PETRONAS petrol station counters.The objective is to expand the accessibility for cash withdrawals to customers in rural areas. The bank was also one of the four founding Islamic banks to form a consortium that launched the Investment Account Platform (IAP), a centralized, multi-bank platform, which is envisaged to become a cross-border, multicurrency channel linking into regional and global economies. Similar to many financial-technology platforms, such as crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending, IAP facilitates direct investment by investors into viable ventures of their choice.

Although Bank Islam is regarded as a "true blue" Islamic bank, thus attracting customers who do not compromise on Shariah principles, it is continuously striving to attract new customers with its variety of products and value propositions. It is actively searching for opportunities to strengthen its position in the domestic market bystaying in touch with customers' needs and market developments.

For further information, please visit: http://internationalbanker.com/banking/interview-mr-khairul-kamarudin-deputy-ceo-bank-islam/

About International Banker: International Banker is the flagship brand of Finance Publishing. Finance Publishing is one of the world's leading sources of authoritative analysis on finance, international banking and world affairs. It delivers information with excellence through a wide range of accessible formats, from websites, newsletters and magazines, to conferences.

For more information, please visit http://internationalbanker.com

Contact Info:

Name: Phillip Mann

Email: phillip.mann@internationalbanker.com

Organization: Finance Publishing

Phone: +44 (0) 20 7887 2533

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/bank-islam-malaysia-berhad-takes-two-international-banker-banking-awards-managing-director-dato-sri-zukri-samat-also-wins-an-award/132059

Release ID: 132059

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Over One Thousand Leaders Gather to Make Martin Luther King a Saint

Contact: Archbishop David J. Billings, III, Holy Christian Orthodox Church, 800-459-0991 ext. 1010

SPRINGFIELD, Mass., Sept. 12, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- Christian leaders from around the world gathered in The Christian Cathedral on Friday September 9th to participate in the glorification of Saint Martin Luther King of Georgia.

Archbishop Timothy Paul of The Holy Christian Orthodox Church proclaimed the sainthood after years of preparation. The Holy Christian Orthodox has 4.4 million members around the world.

The Eastern Orthodox Church tradition is canonization to glorification. There are over 600 million orthodox Christians around the world. The glorification by the Holy Christian Orthodox Church will encourage acceptance by Christians around the world.

Archbishop Timothy Stated "If people remember Martin with devotion, it is clearly a different kind of devotion than traditional saints have so often received. People do not honor him because he was perfect. They remember him with love, in spite of his messy life. They do not expect him to intervene in their lives to relieve their suffering. Rather, they look to his example for inspiration. Aware of his failings, they also recognize that his dedication to Christ's gospel motivated all the major decisions in his life. That dedication led him ultimately to his death, a death he might have avoided if he had been willing to turn his back on the gospel of Jesus and its demands."

Saint Martin Luther king was not a great ascetic. His enemies relentlessly probed his affairs while he was alive and found that he had a weakness for the affection of women other than his wife. His life was as messy as most of ours. He was hardly an exemplar of the kind of virtue that endorses our religious institutions. Instead, he challenged attitudes bishops and laity had held for centuries. He didn't perform miracles while he was alive and hasn't performed any since his death. Yet millions of people remember and honor him as a holy man.

The glorification ceremony on Friday, included the unveiling of the Saint Martin Luther King, Jr. icon and the inclusion of the sainted martyr in the All Saints Day observance and the date of his repose April 4th, in Christian calendars around the world.
SPD Lasers Release New Generation of Laser Welding Machines For Cutting Edge Applications

SPD Lasers has introduced a new breed of industrial laser welding machines, for use across the automotive, medical, aerospace and robotics industries.

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Lasers have captured people's imaginations since the early 20th century. After being a prominent part of science fiction, they are now used in everyday life, for everything from pointers to engravings to industrial applications. The latest innovation in laser technology is laser welding, which allows for a precision finish that is essential in advanced engineering applications. SPD Lasers is a company that has specialized in laser cutter development, and has released a new range of laser welders for use in advanced mechanical, technological and manufacturing applications.

The new generation of laser welding machines utilize a fully integrated control system that enables individuals to control all machine functions from a single interface. The machines have a system hard drive that can store all part programs, while maintaining compatibility with in-house factory automation computers.

The Energy Shaping(TM) hardware and software included allows complete energy shaping of the laser power, with a resolution of only 2 sec. Pulse on Demand(TM) technology also enables the Laser welding machine to offer programmable weld spot spacing on up to 5 axes of simultaneous, coordinated motion. This makes them equipped to handle the most advanced possible applications.

The work done to develop this new generation of equipment is part of continual innovation, research and development at SPD Lasers across all their product categories, to ensure they stay at the forefront of the industry.

A spokesperson for SPD Lasers explained, "We are thrilled to be able to introduce this new generation of advanced laser welding machines. These machines provide essential capabilities for the aerospace, medical and robotics industries, as well as being used in car manufacturing. With advanced proprietary features, these machines are positioned to offer greater capability, precision and consistency than ever before. As such, we are confident we can help companies continue to improve output through processes that improve speed and efficiency, and the quality of the finished products. We are looking forward to being able introduce these laser welders to manufacturers throughout the world."

About SPD Lasers: SPD Lasers is a company that specializes in cutting edge laser products for modern applications. Their team of expert applications engineers, have over 40 years of combined experience, and are able to guide clients to the right solution for their particular requirements. The product line includes top quality solutions for laser marking, engraving, welding, cutting, drilling, annealing, ablation and more.

For more information, please visit http://www.spdlasers.com/

Contact Info:

Name: Ron Kilgore

Email: support@spdlasers.com

Organization: SPDLasers

Phone: (817) 755-0319

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/spd-lasers-release-new-generation-of-laser-welding-machines-for-cutting-edge-applications/132096

Release ID: 132096

For more information visit r



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Aroga Worldwide Announces Joint Venture With Global Travel Wholesaler, Offering Discounts On Hotels To Members

Aroga Worldwide has partnered with Travel Industry Pros (TIP) offering discounted Hotel accommodations to Aroga's Customers and Sales Associates around the Globe.

--

Aroga Worldwide, based in Ontario, Canada, announced today that Aroga has signed an agreement with Florida based, Travel Industry Pros (TIP), to form a Joint Venture. The framework of this agreement provides for TIP to offer discounted Hotel accommodations to Aroga's Customers and gives Aroga's Global Sales Force an additional product offering. For a low monthly membership of around $20, members can take advantage of up to 50%, or more, in savings when booking stay at 4-Star Resorts, all over the world, with access to to 350,000 Hotels.

Aroga Worldwide has been enjoying an impressive growth curve after entering the Direct Sales Industry, little more than 1-year ago. Since then, Aroga has expanded its Acu-Point Hologram distribution into 138 Countries, opened new offices in South Africa, acquired a new Global Payment System, and signed several major agreements, all of which provide for acquiring large groups of customers for Aroga's products and services.

Although Aoga Worldwide is a relatively new entity, the Aroga Group of Companies, six companies in all, have an impressive and lengthy history. Aroga Technologies being the oldest, is a 28 year old company that provides products and services for low-vision and blind individuals, all around the world. There are five other divisions, all under the umbrella of Aroga Holdings Corp (publicly listed and soon to be publicly traded), including Aroga Worldwide, Aroga Media, Aroga Academy, Aroga Starnix, and Aroga MLSS.

In August, Aroga CEO, Grove Bennett, traveled to South Africa to complete an Agreement with South African Based, Twelve Apostles Church in Christ (TACC). The SLA (Service Level Agreement) between Aroga and TACC, provides for TACC to acquire 250,000 Acu-Point Hologram customers within the first six months of the agreement. The plan includes beginning distribution in South Africa, but will also include expanding distribution into other African countries, and ramping up distribution to over 1 million customers within the first twelve months, with expected annual gross revenues to exceed $40 Million USD from sales in Africa, alone. Mr. Bennett is planning an additional trip to Africa on September 15th, to oversee expansion of Aroga Africa into the countries of Nigeria and Zimbabwe. During this expansion trip, Mr. Bennett is scheduled to attend a special Thanksgiving Service with Chief Apostle, Professor Caesar Nongqunga and TACC Members.

Aroga's Joint Venture with Travel Industry Pros will give Aroga's current customers the opportunity to try out TIP's travel portal for free for the first 30 days. During that time, free members can book an unlimited amount of discounted Hotel accommodations. After the 30 day free trial, if a member decides to continue using the portal, there will be a monthly membership charge of $20. The agreement also provides for Arogas' Sales Force to earn ongoing residual commissions from global membership sales.

According to TIP, CEO, Fernando Laguda,TIP fulfills for its distributors and customers through Airline Promotions, Inc. (API). API, is a full-service accredited independent travel agency. At its Fort Lauderdale, Florida, headquarters it maintains its Sabre equipped reservations and in-house customer service. The TIP Executive Team has the international leadership and management experience and API infrastructure and customer service platform to support and add over one million affiliates to Aroga by the end of 2017.

The recent agreements with Africa's TACC, and TIP, are just two more key pieces in Mr. Bennetts Global vision for the Aroga Group of companies, which includes creating a more synergistic relationship between all of the Aroga companies. For example, Aroga Worldwide also recently made an agreement with its Sister Division, Aroga Media, to market the Google Docs for Business Platform and make it available to Aroga's Global Distribution Force. Aroga Media is an authorized reseller of the robust Google platform.

"I envision Aroga Worldwide, as a new-breed of Direct Sales company. Our partners and customers around the world need relevant products, and powerful business and communication tools. With the support and synergy between our Aroga Family along with our joint-venture partners, we plan to grow Aroga Worldwide into a Global entity that provides unique opportunities for our Partners and Customers. We want to establish the Aroga Group as the "Go To" opportunity for Health, Wealth and Lifestyle."

~ Grove Bennett

Previous Aroga Press Releases:

Aroga Worldwide, Announces Signing Of Agreement With TACC, Of South Africa, And Opens Its Newest Division, Aroga Africa, In Durban

Aroga Worldwde, CEO, Grove Bennett, Takes His Vison For Aroga Worldwide To Durban, South Africa, Thousands Were In Attendance.

Aroga Worldwide, CEO, Grove Bennett, Traveling To South Africa To Meet With Customers And Distributors

For more information, please visit https://arogaworldwide.com/base/home

Contact Info:

Name: Eric Grant

Email: egrantonline@gmail.com

Organization: Aroga Worldwide

Phone: +1 206.227.7821

Video URL: https://youtu.be/Ho6FZmd8Btc

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/aroga-worldwide-announces-joint-venture-with-global-travel-wholesaler-offering-discounts-on-hotels-to-members/132164

Release ID: 132164

For more information visit r



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BlackRock is intending to launch more Chinese equity products, including an unconstrained strategy, as it bids to take advantage of plans to increase access to the countrys stock exchanges.

The Shenzhen Stock Exchange will be opened up to foreign investors later this year, allowing international investors further access to China A-shares following the launch of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect scheme in 2014.

Though foreign investors have been slow to participate in the latter scheme, BlackRock head of Chinese equities Helen Zhu said the firm was looking at launching at least two new funds, and incorporating more A-shares into existing China and global equity strategies.

Ms Zhu said the firm is developing an unconstrained fund for Chinese equities, subject to regulatory approval.

She also said BlackRock could pursue another absolute return fund for the region, though this is a long-term goal rather than an imminent launch.

On the unconstrained equity fund, she added: It will be a flexible concept. It means whether its Hong Kong listed or A-shares, we can put the money wherever we see the opportunity, versus a more benchmark-aware fund.

Jean-Marc Routier, a product strategist at BlackRock, said: We dont want to restrict ourselves to A-shares. The new fund [will tap] the new way of investing in China  giving yourself the most tools available with access to all markets.
Columbia Threadneedle has lifted the trading suspension on its 1.3bn UK Property fund after making 167m of disposals since July.

The property fund was one of five to gate in the aftermath of the UKs decision to leave the EU after sentiment on the UK property market plummeted.

However, the fund will now re-open on a bid-price basis with no other pricing adjustments. It will also return to monthly valuations after becoming weekly during the suspended period.

Don Jordison, managing director of property at the firm, said commentary after the vote now appeared irrational with more informed reflection settling the market.

In the short period following the referendum we saw animal spirits drive unprecedented levels of redemptions from daily dealt open-ended property funds.

We are pleased to open the fund again and believe this is in the best interest of our customers. We will continue to closely monitor conditions to ensure the interests of our investors in the fund are paramount at all times.

Columbia Threadneedle said it had agreed to sell or exchange 25 properties totalling 167m since July, with no forced sales. It added that selling prices were less than 1 per cent down on valuations before the vote on June 23.

The sales came due to the fund having lined up around 100m of potential sales in preperation for events such as those that transpired, the firm added.

Columbia Threadneedle now becomes the second firm to re-open its property fund after Canada Life Invesrtments. However, the insurance-owned asset manager continued to apply a 7 per cent fair value adjustment on its vehicle.

Aberdeen and Legal & General Investment Management  two firms which did not suspend trading indefinitely  have also reduced or removed price dilutions and fair value adjustments made on their vehicles in recent week.

However, for other asset managers, immediate re-openings do seem unlikly. Aviva Investors recently told unit holders it may not re-open its 1.8bn fund until March 2017.

Likewise, Fiona Rowley, manager of the 4.4bn M&G Property Portolio, said it would not re-open its fund until cash levels reached at least 12.5 per cent of the fund. At July 31 this stood at 5.1 per cent. Henderson chief executive Andrew Formica also implied his funds suspension would not be lifted until late 2016.
Certainly in the lead-up to the EU referendum investors piled into multi-asset, according to the Barings IFA Barometer of 120 advisers. It reveals 51 per cent of advisers are encouraging clients to consider greater diversification of assets, while 27 per cent are encouraging investment in multi-asset products to combat current volatility.

The survey also shows 13 per cent of respondents expect their clients to increase exposure to multi-asset funds by more than 20 per cent over the next 12 months, while 19 per cent say clients will increase multi-asset exposure to between 10 and 19 per cent.

Marino Valensise, head of multi-asset and income at Baring Asset Management, explains: Before the referendum, a vote for Brexit was perceived by UK advisers as the biggest threat, and we are now in that volatile landscape. Advisers and their clients are asking what they can do to mitigate risks.

With the Brexit vote now cast, the feared uncertainty and volatility has certainly played out, as much on the political stage as in markets, and looks set to continue as the Brexit decoupling gets under way.

Within multi-asset, youve got to start to see some consolidation. We have seen a lot of launches over the past few years. Justin Onuekwusi, LGIM

Justin Onuekwusi, manager of LGIMs Multi-Index range, believes there is a chase to find more diversified asset classes  a trend the multi-asset space is capitalising on.

The main thing driving that is were in an environment where yields are grinding lower and lower, he says. At some point people expect the Federal Reserve to start increasing rates again. If that happens, then you get a dilemma where the structural relationship between equities and bonds will not hold.

I think many multi-asset fund managers are aware of that and theyre looking to find new sources of diversification to provide real protection if the equity markets do fall.

The shift to multi-asset is being driven not only by the macro backdrop but also by other general industry trends. Advisers perhaps dont see model portfolios as the only solution for clients anymore.

Steve Kenny, director of wholesale at Kames Capital, observes: I think the broader market is looking at multi-asset and some advisers are seeing it as the core around which they can build other holdings  so theyre buying two or three multi-asset vehicles and putting them into portfolios as a bedrock.

He adds: I think multi-asset is gaining [in] popularity because the general consumer is looking for [investments] that are more outcome-based, rather than relative performance.

When it comes to performance, Mr Kenny believes the Investment Association sectors make it difficult for advisers to compare multi-asset funds. Thats why I think the only true way to compare them is to look at what they are aiming to deliver to me and my client, and assessing how successful they have been at that delivery.

A number of multi-asset and multi-asset income products have appeared on the market in the past few years, but is there a risk the space is nearing saturation?

Mr Onuekwusi notes: Within multi-asset, youve got to start to see some consolidation. We have seen a lot of launches over the past few years. There are a number of multi-asset funds that simply havent raised enough assets to be sustainable, so we will start seeing fewer launches.

Ellie Duncan is deputy features editor at Investment Adviser
During her first official visit to the Duchy of Cornwall earlier this month, the Duchess of Cambridge revealed she would secretly like to be a young farmer and has been teaching her young children George and Charlotte about the farm at the Sandringham Estate.

The duchess is known for immersing herself in whatever engagements she undertakes, and the trip to the Duchy was no exception, with Kate pulling a pint of Cornish Rattler cider for William to try, and even sampling a shot of 60% proof whiskey.

It seems that she is already well qualified to make an excellent Young Farmer!

With no less than twelve Young Farmers Clubs in her home county of Norfolk, the Duchess would have no shortage of options, but unfortunately at 34 years old she is eight years too late to become a member.

If she is still keen for a taste of working farm life, she would be welcome to spend a day on my farm. Heres a tongue-in-cheek idea of how her diary might read afterwards

5.00am  Arrived in the pitch dark and couldnt find anywhere to park the Range Rover. Hopefully it will be out of the way in the barn.

9.00am  Finished milking. Dubarry boots and Barbour jacket now covered in cow muck  seems a trip to Countrywide will be in order.

9.30am  Went to fetch a jug of milk, tanker had already been! Nearest Waitrose 20 miles. Looks like black coffee and toast for breakfast

11am  Nanny brought George and Charlotte to help feed the calves. George wanted to drive the tractor, but unfortunately the HSE says under-13s are not allowed.

3pm  Time for milking again. Wearing overalls this time.

5pm  Gamekeeper caught Lupo chasing his pheasants. Time to leave, I think!

Liz Haines and her husband Nick milk 320 spring-calving cows in a contract-farming arrangement. and her husband Nick milk 320 spring-calving cows in a contract-farming arrangement.

On a more serious note, William and Kate are set to inherit 130,000 acres of land when the Prince of Wales becomes King and the Duchy of Cornwall passes to them.

The Duchy currently provides Prince Charles with a private income of about 19m/year, so farming will one day literally become the couples bread and butter.

See also: Lets beat animal rights activists at their own game

The princes stated aim for the Duchy is a long-term stewardship approach [proving] that environmental and agricultural best practice are compatible with a sound financial return.

These are surely sensible objectives for any modern farmer, and if William and Kate can continue to achieve them they will be in a strong position to pass the Duchy on to Prince George in good health for another generation, while setting a great example for the rest of us.

Whether you love or loathe the Prince of Wales, no one can deny that he has been a prominent ambassador for British agriculture, in particular the organic sector and the conservation agenda.

His Countryside Fund donated 40,000 to support farmers and rural communities affected by Storm Desmond and has also commissioned research to help small family farms increase their viability in the modern marketplace.

It will fall to Kate and William to take up this mantle. Just as they are ambassadors for the UK as a whole, reviving public support for the monarchy and bringing in millions of pounds to the economy, it would be wonderful to see them acting as figureheads for British agriculture.

If they are truly passionate about farming and choose to meaningfully engage with the Duchy of Cornwall, the benefits could be far-reaching, from the individual tenancies and jobs secured in Cornwall (and the other counties the Duchy extends to), through to the national and even international perception of our industry.
Six sheep drowned after they were chased into a river by a loose dog in Oxfordshire.

The animals were pulled from the River Thames on the Earth Trust Farm, in Church Meadow, Little Wittenham, Abingdon, on Thursday (8 September).

Five sheep were lifeless and a sixth died from shock and water inhalation overnight Thursday.

Two hundred sheep and 25 cows currently graze the field, at the foot of the Wittenham Clumps.

See also: Your legal rights on shooting dogs on your land

Shepherd Emma Blomfield, a tenant farmer who owns the flock, said she was devastated to have lost so many animals in the one day.

Absolutely gutted

She added: Im absolutely gutted. The sheep have been so happy grazing in Church Meadow over the last week  Ive often found them hiding in the bushes and exploring the scrub.

Its not the dogs fault, I like dogs, but owners need to be more vigilant when walking through livestock as situations with even the most well-behaved dog can escalate quickly.

The sheep are moved around the farm to graze on different wildflower meadows throughout the year, providing vital habitat management along with a viable lamb business.

Sad news: 6 sheep have drowned after being chased into the river by a dog. Read the full story: https://t.co/bG86fRvbsk #dogsonleads  Earth Trust (@earth_trust) September 9, 2016

Chris Parker, farm manager at the Earth Trust, appealed to dog owners to keep their animals on a lead around sheep and other animals.

Its very distressing to see animals killed in this way, especially when the accident was completely avoidable, he said.

There are signs at every entrance to the meadow asking dog owners to keep their dogs on a lead whilst sheep are in this field.

This is the second time in a week that sheep have been pulled from the river after being chased by dogs and, sadly, this time there were tragic consequences.
home Tech MacBook Air 2016 release date, specs news update: Much-awaited laptop to arrive in next few weeks?

Many tech fans were disappointed when Apple failed to launch a new laptop at the recently concluded company event on Sept. 7. While everyone's focus is on the newly unveiled Apple's flagship smartphone, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, some fans are hoping for solid details with regard to the upcoming MacBook Air 2016. Several reports have already emerged online suggesting that Apple will soon release an upgraded version of the highly popular portable computer.

Although the Cupertino-based company has yet to provide a single detail about the development and release date of MacBook Air 2016, several fans and critics have already shared their own prediction regarding the laptop's specs and features.

In a report by Tech Plz, Apple is rumored to release an upgraded version of both MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. Despite the company's silence with regard to the two much-awaited laptops, people are still expecting for the MacBook Pro 2016 and MacBook Air 2016 to come out in the next few weeks. However, previous rumors suggested that Apple may scrap the MacBook Air lineup and concentrate on the new MacBook Pro 2016. There have been speculations saying that Apple will replace the MacBook Air series with the new MacBook Pro 2016 as the company's flagship laptop.

Nonetheless, Mobile and Apps reported that MacBook Air 2016 will most likely surprise consumers as it will come out with much-improved specs under the hood. According to the publication, the new laptop will arrive with a USB Type-C connector, which is a norm in smartphones and tablets nowadays.

There are also reports saying that MacBook Air 2016 might feature the service of Apple favorite digital assistant, Siri. There are also rumors that the device will come out on the market with a thinner and lighter design.

Despite the heavy rumor about the upcoming laptop, fans must take these reports with a grain of salt until Apple decides to make an official announcement.
The Originals Season 4 Cancellation News & Update: 'The Vampire Diaries' Spinoff To End With Klaus Death?

Despite the assuring words of The CW executive, cancellations rumors continue to swamp "The Originals" season 4. Latest rumors suggest that "The Vampire Diaries" spinoff series will end with Klaus's death.

'The Originals' Season 5 Canceled?

As previously reported by GamenGuide, The CW ordered to reduce the number of episodes of "The Originals" season 4. This sparked the cancellation rumors once more. Just like "The Vampire Diaries" season 8, The CW decided to reduce the number of episodes before announcing that the series will see its final season. The networks often reduce the number of episodes when the show is not gaining a lot of viewers.

During the San Diego Comc-Con, Pheobe Tonkin (Hayley) also discussed briefly about the shortened episodes of "The Originals" season 4. "It's kind of fast this year; storylines are a little more condensed which just changes the show," ShowbizJunkies quoted Tonkins. She added that there will be new characters that will be introduced in the upcoming season. Currently, she will be the only original female character left in "The Vampire Diaries" spinoff series.

Season 3 of #TheOriginals is coming soon to The CW. pic.twitter.com/4muCjqR86t  The Originals (@cworiginals) September 9, 2016

Klaus' Death To Mark The End Of Series?

"The Originals" season 4 spoilers hinted that Marcel Gerard (Charles Michael Davis) will wake up Klaus Mikaelson (Joseph Morgan) to face a very powerful villain. GamenGuide previously reported that an old arch enemy will come after Klaus to settle an old grudge. Since he was in a coma for five years, spoilers suggest that his powers and abilities are weakened. There's a high chance that Klaus may end up dead in "The Originals" season 4, which will also mark the series' finale.

There have been other rumors that "The Originals" season 4 will see Nina Dobrev as the unlikely villain that will hunt Klaus down. Do you think Katherine Pierce will beat Klause down? Do you believe the spinoff series will not be renewed for the fifth season? Don't forget to leave your comments below!
'Batman' Solo Film Latest Rumors, News & Update: After Deathstroke, Is Robin Next to be Cast?

The "Batman" solo movie with Ben Affleck is surely gaining a lot of attention as it inches forward to its release. That being said, fans could be looking at the next big thing to enter the blockbuster movie.

It was confirmed recently that Ben Affleck's antagonist will be Deathstroke, which the actor first teased via social media. Things became more interesting when the reveal of Joe Manganiello portraying the said character surfaced.

But all of that might be tipped aside, after a viral video of an audition for the role of Robin in "Batman" started to make waves. According to Cinema Blend, "Big Hero 6" actor Ryan Potter created quite the noise when he uploaded a minute-long staged fight video of him taking on goons in Robin-esque fashion.

As per I Digital Times, the actor implied in the footage that he could pretty much handle some fight scenes for the "Batman" standalone film-even showing minute details of Robin along the way. With the colors of Robin and a staff that signifies his Tim Drake persona, Potter ended the clip with the classic line saying that Batman needs a Robin.

Greatly as it may seem, there is no confirmation yet as to whether the "Batman" lead and director Ben Affleck will accept the proposal of Potter to portray Tim Drake. The participation of any of the Robin characters in the movie is still questionable for now.

Will the DCEU consider the work of Potter as Tim Drake for Ben Affleck's "Batman?" Or is it still too early to call?
Microsoft Surface Phone 2016 Release Date, News & Update: Three Different Surface Phones Arriving in 2017? Impressive Specs & Features Revealed

There were no announcements that are made for the upcoming Microsoft Surface Phone 2016 at the recently held IFA 2016 event in Berlin. Because of this, fans continue to spread rumors and speculations to the upcoming smartphone of Microsoft. There are reports that say the Microsoft Surface Phone 2016 might be released in to 2017 and one of the main reasons of the delay is the Microsoft's plan to put the latest Intel's Kaby Lake chipset as its new processor.

Because Microsoft is already using the "Surface" brand in their devices like laptops and tablets, it's no surprise that the company will extended the brand to their smartphones. But, does the Microsoft Surface Phone 2016 release date depend on the processor the company will use?

According to a report from Mobile & Apps, the latest Intel's Kaby Lake processor is expected to be released by the end of 2016,. These reports made fans think that the Microsoft Surface Phone 2016 might be released next year. The smartphone is hinted to be launched in March 2017 together with Microsoft's latest devices like Surface Pro 5 and the Surface Book 2. But, there's still no official announcements that was made by the tech giant Microsoft.

There are also speculations that Microsoft is still working on three Microsoft Surface Phone 2016 variants that will come with different specs and prices. According to a report from Tech Times, the company might have an event this coming October and the Microsoft Surface devices might also be unveiled, but not the Surface phone.

Microsoft has been planning to launch the Surface Phone since 2014 but, due to some issues to its components, the company trashed their plans. There are also reports says that the upcoming Microsoft Surface Phone 2016 will be released in fall 2017.

The Microsoft Surface Phone 2016 is rumored to have three different models the first is expected to have a 3 GB RAM with storage of 32GB; the second will have a 6 GB RAM with a 128 GB and the third will have a 8 GB RAM with a 500 GB storage. It is also rumored to have a 5.7-inch screen with an AMOLED display panel. It will be using a USB Type-C to make faster charging and data transfers.
'Teen Wolf' Season 6 Air Date And Spoilers; This Is The Finale Season; The Ghost Riders As Dangerous Foes

"Teen Wolf' Season 6 is set to return in a few months and fans are eager to know what the characters are in store. It seems that Stiles (Dylan O'Brien) and Lydia (Holland Roden) are going to be more than just friends.

According to Hollywood Life, the Ghost Riders are coming to Beacon Hills with a power that the pack has never seen before. Stiles is going to take a big part in "Teen Wolf" Season 6 even after Dylan O'Brien was injured while filming "The Maze Runner: The Death Cure. "

The Ghost Riders are capable of erasing people from existence. Once these enemies set foot in beacon hills, they set their attention to Stiles. "Teen Wolf" Season 6 will have Stiles abducted by the Ghost Riders. Lydia is the only being that lasts in the memory of Stiles.

In a report from Parent Herald, it is likely that Tyler Hoechlin will return for his role as Derek Hale. It is timely for him to return in "Teen Wolf" Season 6 especially that Scott (Tyler Posey) is going to hand over the leadership to Liam (Dylan Sprayberry). However, at this time Hoechlin's return still is a mystery and no confirmation has been made yet.

Liam is also a possibility to rule the pack in "Teen Wolf" Season 6. Scott will train Liam in this season to handle the pack. It seems that the new leader is going to be a younger one in this season.

Meanwhile, there are speculations of a "Teen Wolf" spin-off series. It is likely that the spin-off will cast the young members of the pack to be led by Liam. Again, as of the moment the spin-off plan is still a speculation and nothing has been officially confirmed.

Fans and followers can expect "Teen Wolf" Season 6 to return on November 15, 2016.
home Tech MacBook Pro 2016 release date rumors and news: Apple to launch new laptop next month?

Apple fans are still talking about the newly launched iPhone 7. Many people were expecting other devices to be unveiled during the company's Sept. 7 event; however, fans were left disappointed as Apple skipped some of the rumored devices including the MacBook Pro 2016. Fans are still expecting the new Apple laptop this year; however, the Cupertino-based company has yet to provide a single detail about its development and release date.

According to the latest report from Heavy, consumers were holding out on getting a new portable computer because rumors of Apple releasing the new MacBook Pro 2016 were rife leading up to the iPhone 7 announcement. However, that did not happen and fans are quite disappointed about it. Nonetheless, interested buyers are hopeful that the device will arrive anytime soon as new rumors have emerged suggesting that the laptop will be announced next month.

However, the reports have yet to be confirmed by the company and should be taken with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, fans believe that it is only a matter of time before Apple decides to launch the all new MacBook Pro 2016.

MacWorld also backs the rumor of an October launching as the publication pointed out that the new laptop will arrive with new iPad iteration. Although no one from Apple could confirm the speculation right now, the same publication said that they are almost certain that MacBook Pro 2016 will come out before the year 2016 end.

Nevertheless, tech observers have yet to rule out a 2017 release of the new MacBook Pro laptop.

Meanwhile, fans and critics have continued to share their predictions on what the new MacBook Pro 2016 will be all about once it hits the market. Rumors have continued to spread regarding the new laptop's OLED touch panel. The new design of the upcoming laptop is said to replace the traditional function keys.

Stay tuned for more news and updates about MacBook Pro 2016.
Health officials said the local coronavirus outlook remained stable this week, though they continued to warn against a potential winter surge.
Denis Brian Jarvis, 79, of died Sept. 8 at his home. A celebration-of-life gathering will be at 2 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, in Dennis Hall, 114 S.W. Eighth St., Corvallis, attached to the First Presbyterian Church. Please share your thoughts and memories for the family at www.demossdurdan.com.
home Tech Samsung Galaxy S8 release date, specs rumors update: Next gen flagship smartphone to arrive with Exynos 8895?

Now that Samsung has finally released the new Galaxy Note 7, fans are excited about the next generation flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S8. The device is expected to come out early next year packed with impressive specs and features. Although the South Korean company has yet to provide concrete details about the upcoming smartphone, it has already become a favorite subject of rumors and speculations all over the internet. According to the latest reports, the highly anticipated handset will arrive with a curved display technology.

According to reports, Samsung will no longer manufacture a flat-screen Galaxy S8. There are rumors suggesting that the company will only release Galaxy S8 models with curved display set up. Apparently, the company has decided to ditch the flat screen model starting on the S8.

When Samsung released the first ever Galaxy S smartphone with a curved display earlier this year, fans and critics have nothing but positive reviews about it. The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge sales had skyrocketed the moment it hit the market. The success of the Galaxy S7 Edge may have influenced the decision of the company to no longer produce a flat screen Galaxy S8 smartphone.

Meanwhile, in a report by SamMobile, the device may also come out with a dual boot feature, Android and Windows operating system. The idea came out after a patent filed in May 2015 in South Korea that showed a handset with two operating systems. However, this has yet to be confirmed by Samsung. As far as it specs under the hood, the device is expected to come with a Snapdragon 830 processor from Qualcomm. However, there are rumors circulating suggesting that Samsung may go with their own Exynos 8895 for the new Galaxy S8. The powerful processor will be paired with either 4 GB or 6 GB of RAM.

Stay tuned for more news and updates about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S8.
Putzchens Markt 2016 : All the fun of the fair amidst tightened security

Beuel 900,000 young and old alike revelled in the sun and fun at the 649th Putzchens Markt this weekend.

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Nearly 900,000 people have so far braved the hot summer weather and visited the stalls and filled the coffers of the fairground families. Harald Borchert, who organises and oversees the fair for the city of Bonn said, It is the best Putzchens Markt of all time.

Beuels mayor, Guido Deus, was also full of praise saying that thanks to the efforts of the police and the Ordnungsamt, visitors to the fair could wander around with a clear feeling of security. The terrorist attacks in Germany and neighbouring countries in recent weeks and months mean the police and law enforcement agencies have adapted security measures to the current situation. The increased security measures include random searches of backpacks and bags and an explosives search of the Bayern tent by a team of dogs prior to visitors to Sundays festival mass being allowed in. Beuels police chief, Gerd Mainzer, said, People should recognise us, but our presence should engender a feeling of security and not fear.

There is something magical about the ambience of the big wheel and the Bayern tent, particularly in the evening. But what really draws people under the spell of the annual funfair? Is it the fast-paced fairground rides, the smell of toasted almonds or the stroll for two through the stalls? All of these for sure, but it is also the relaxed atmosphere created by the hustle and bustle of the fair. What really makes the Putchens Markt is the ability to simply switch off for a few hours, meet nice people and to have a relaxed conversation while enjoying one or two cold beers.

A film team from the Rhineland Landschaftsverband (a regional association involved in culture, among other things) has been underway at the fairground for several days capturing what is special about the fair. The film will be a tribute to the Putchens Markt and will be shown at next years 650th anniversary.

Certain keywords symbolise the Putchens Markt for the people of Bonn and the region, such as tradition, bumper cars and gingerbread hearts. Some fairground families are also linked to the fair: names such as Barth, Kipp and Markmann.

The festival mass is also something special. Many of the more than 2000 in the congregation are regulars. Those in the Bayern tent on Sunday morning left with a lasting impression. After the final blessing, the whole tent, old and young, local or foreign, joined together to sing the Rhineland anthem Stammbaum by the Black Fooss at the tops of their voices.

Those wanting to visit the fair should think about how best to get there. The number of parking places has been reduced, making busses and trains the transport of choice for many. The number of cyclists has also increased and the city is providing bike parking racks in several places. However, the number of bike thefts has also increased, with Bonns First Mayor, Reinhard Limbach, a victim on Saturday night.
Traffic control in Bonn : Police stop veiled woman driver

Bonn Germany has no general ban on women driving in burkas, leading to problems for the police.

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What happens when a woman drivers identity cannot be confirmed during a driving licence check because she is wearing a burka or niqab both behind the wheel and on her driving licence photo?

This happened recently in Bonn. A woman driving with her face covered was stopped by a police patrol. She did not want to show an identity card on which her face could be seen. Police said she also did not want to lift her veil because she had been stopped by two male officers. To solve the problem, police called in a female colleague. When our female colleague arrived, the woman went with her to a house entrance and showed her face, said police.

The woman cannot have had a German driving licence as this generally requires a photo showing a front view of the applicant without anything covering the head or the eyes. Officials can make exceptions, particularly for religious reasons. In such cases, the rule is that the face must be shown from the chin to the forehead with no shadows on the face. A photo with a veil is not permissible in Germany on a driving licence or a passport, even on religious grounds.

Photos with head coverings that do not comply with these requirements, as for example with a burka, will be rejected in Bonn because of these rules, says Marc Hoffmann, deputy city spokesman. However, there are no known cases of applications being submitted with such photos.

Police spokesman Robert Scholten said road traffic rules required neither sight nor hearing to be impaired while driving. However, there is no general burka or niqab ban while driving. If a woman completely covers her face while driving, she will be stopped. Until now, there have been no such problems in Bonn. There are intermediate stages, such as when a scarf not only covers the hair, but also parts of the face. Then what is allowed is decided on a case by case basis, said Scholten.

In this case, the police had the right to identify the woman driver and the woman did not have the right to refuse to show her face to police. In practice, however, we take religion into account and call on a female colleague to come and carry out the identification, said Scholten. This has happened before. One should always think about what the issue is and what is reasonable and appropriate.
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Protecting the worlds oceans  an important goal of Germanys climate diplomacy

The worlds oceans are vital to our survival. They regulate the global climate and are a source of food and income for billions of people. Only a very small part of the seas enjoys legal protection, however. Our diplomats are working in New York right now to change this state of affairs.
9 Ways To Deal With A High Electricity Bill Features oi -GizBot Bureau

Of all the diseases the mankind has been infected with, do you know which one has been the most brutally fatal? It's the one that pushes an average human into a state of temporary verbal coma and gives him financial diarrhoea.

That's right, the merciless disease is known by the name 'electricity bill'!

Here's how you can gain immunity against it - 9 ways to survive a high electricity bill:

1. Put the electricity bill down, raise your hands and beat your chest.

First things first. Mourn. Wail. Collapse to the ground.

2. Run into a wall everytime you remember leaving a switch on even when you didn't need it. Just like you invite cancer into your body by smoking n number of cigarette sticks, YOU are the reason for this high electricity bill. And obviously, now that you're needed to slash all your other expenses, you know its worth better!

3. Raise hands, ask Lord to forgive your unpardonable sin. Start doing righteous deeds: Switch every unused appliance off everytime you come across one

Be it your house, your college, your office or neighbour's house! Just go save and save power everywhere on earth. From being a corruption/pollution causing monster, regress to your roots - bring about a change (even if people starts calling you yeda).

4. Think of all the restaurants you could've ate at, all the online shopping you could've done, all paid apps you could've downloaded with the excess bill amount

Cry. It'll purge you of all your sins. Maybe go dry for a month and realise what it's like to lose a good meal to a silly, flickering light bulb in the bathroom that remained on all night because you let it!

5. Embrace the saintly life - give up luxury for a week. Bathe with cold water, forget geyser(uses up maximum amount of electricity)

Feel the pain. Feel the chills of excess spending, a tad literally.

6. Quit charging your phone night-long. Close every app after use, every day. Dare to leave home with 27% battery. Keep phone on power-saving mode!

Challenge your existence! Pass the harder tests and the easier ones will get cleared on their own.

7. Shut down your laptop after every use

Shut down, yes. Not flapping it close. Go through the laborious procedure of shutting a laptop down and switching it on after 15 minutes, basically everytime you need to use it.

8. Read about the pains Nikola Tesla took to make power free for mankind

Enlighten yourself. Get to know the pains, which that kind human went through to make electricity accessible to you, so you can freely use it (in your case, waste! Waste! Waste! it!)

9. Get up, go out, install RR Kabels everywhere in the house

At least, now do the #AkalmandThing

Lessons learnt? Go save the world and your pocket!

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HERES How to Find Out which Area in Bangalore is Facing Unrest Right Now Features oi -Vigneshwar

Over the Cauvery water dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, sporadic violence has been broken out into both states. Following the incidences of violence, Section 144 has been imposed in Bangalore, Karnataka.

Moreover, there were reports that the bus being attacked in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile, bus services to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka has also been suspended for time being.

SEE ALSO: How to Fix Reliance Jio Calling Issues [All Possible Ways]

For the uninitiated, Supreme Court has ordered Karnataka government to release 12,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu till September 20. So in order to prevent further chaos, Google has come up with 'Bangalore Help', where you can check which area in BLR is facing unrest.

If you have any information about the fight, you can check in here:

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Samsung Galaxy Note 7 banned on Indian Airlines News oi -Sneha

After nearly 35 battery explosions incidents worldwide, several airlines have issued ban orders of the usage of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 on board and have imposed strict security check.

Considering the numerous battery explode events, the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has issued a statement for the passengers to not carry Galaxy Note 7 along with their check-in luggage. Eventually, the Indian airlines has also banned the use of Note 7 in the flights. They are also requested to also avoid putting the mobile in the check-in luggage, charging, or keeping their devices switched on.

SEE ALSO: Bakrid 2016 Offers: Grab up to 50% Discount on Best-Selling Smartphones

The initiative has been taken into consideration with regard to the reports of device catching fire due to a major manufacturing error. Samsung officials as well as the aviation industry believes that the battery heating by using the mobile device on board may lead a very serious accident.

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Why are the Note 7 batteries exploding? Galaxy Note 7 battery explode had gone viral soon after its launch. In support of this mishap, the South Korean mobile manufacturer recently revealed the reason behind why it is extremely risky to fly with the 'fire-phone'. Samsung finally spoke about the battery heating issue and revealed that the likewise two electrodes together make a battery work they can similarly set the battery on fire. SDI battery to be blamed The mobile manufacturer further asserted that for Note 7, what went wrong was that the two electrodes that's supposed should stay far apart, somehow anode-to-cathode came into contact, leading to massive explosion and fire. These faulty batteries are reported to have come from Samsung's own subsidiary SDI, due to which Samsung has temporarily stopped using SDI's battery for Galaxy Note 7 only. An initiative by the Aviation Industry These incidents led the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to ban the usage of the Samsung Note 7 on board and aware the passengers to switch off and avoid charging their mobile device. Starting from Singapore Airlines, three Australian airlines and Indian Airlines, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 has been banned across every airline worldwide. The discussion: Airlines and Samsung After revealing the replacement program for Note 7, the aviation regulator has started working with the foreign aviation safety regulators to ensure safety while the recall process in on. The aviation industry is gearing towards ensuring that the new devices are handled and transported in a way keeping in mind the safety of the passengers on board. It's for everyone's good The airlines are expected to check and re-check on the passenger charging their mobile phones and using them to avoid any further fire breakout leading to emergency landing and human risk like a few incidents that have occurred years ago.

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COAI kept out of Trai meeting on RJio request: Mathews News oi -GizBot Bureau

Representatives of industry body COAI were kept out of the meeting of telecom operators with Trai over the controversial issue of network interconnection at the insistence of Reliance Jio, a top official of the association claimed today.

The hour-long meeting saw participation from RJio, Airtel, Vodafone and Idea representatives, but COAI officials were reportedly kept out.

SEE ALSO: Bakrid 2016 Offers: Grab up to 50% Discount on Best-Selling Smartphones

COAI Director General Rajan S Mathews in a statement said the body was "kept out of the Trai meeting at the insistence of Reliance Jio and Trai acquiesced to their demand, in an unprecedented manner."

A Reliance Jio Infocomm board member, who was present in the meeting, refuted the allegation, saying they did not make any such request, adding, whosoever is invited should attend.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had called a meeting with telecom operators to resolve the ongoing dispute involving Reliance Jio and incumbent telecom operators, like Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, over interconnecting points.

SEE ALSO: Is Reliance Really Issuing Jio SIM Cards for Everyone?

The Cellular Operators Association of India yesterday, wrote to Trai that the meeting scheduled for Friday, where in Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, have been called for discussing the issue, pertains to all members and not just the three telcos.

"Therefore we request Trai to invite all members of COAI for the said meeting," COAI letter to Trai said. COAI in August accused Trai of biasness, but later apologised for levelling such allegations.

SEE ALSO: Reliance Jio Effect: Airtel Delivers 135 Mbps 4G Speed in Bengaluru

Reliance Jio, which commercially launched its services on September 5, had earlier accused incumbent players for not releasing sufficient interconnection ports and had sought legal action against them.

COAI has been confronting Reliance Jio representing views of incumbent telecom operators, saying that is the view of majority in the association. Reliance Jio is also member of COAI, but has been sidelined by leading telecom operators in the association.

PTI

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As the name indicates, the Estrada 1st Edition is the first cigar from Casa de Estrada Cigar Company. Casa de Estrada was founded by Chaz Kline. Kline operated a tobacco store in Omaha, Nebraska, but in 2013 Kline took the jump that many of the retail side have done  moving over to brand owner. In order to produce his cigar, Kline partnered with the Casa Fernandez (TABSA) factory in Nicaragua. Over the years, Casa Fernandez has had an excellent reputation for helping new cigar brands get off the ground by handling production and giving them access to many of its tobaccos. Today we take a closer look at the Estrada 1st Edition in the Corona size. Overall I found this to be an excellent product and definitely one of those under the radar cigars.

The Estrada 1st Edition project traces back to 2013 when the blend was finalized with Kline and the members of Casa Fernandez. Later that year, the cigar appeared at its first retail shop. The company has steadily grown since then. The following year, it made its first IPCPR Trade Show appearance, and later in 2015 the company began to expand its distribution This year, a second blend  Entrada Libertas is being launched.

As for the Estrada 1st Edition, the line is a San Andres wrapped Maduro box-pressed offering. The use of San Andres Maduro is a staple of Casa Fernandez made cigars. As for the name of the cigar and the brand, Entrada translates to entry  appropriate for this being a new cigar companys first cigar.

Without further ado, lets break down the Estrada 1st Edition Corona and see what this cigar brings to the table.

Blend Profile

In addition to the San Andres wrapper, the rest of the blend is all Nicaraguan.

Wrapper: San Andres Mexican

Binder: Nicaraguan

Filler: Nicaraguan

Country of Origin: Nicaragua (TABSA)

Vitolas Available

The Estrada 1st Edition is available in five sizes. Each of the five sizes are available in 20 count boxes with the exception of the lancero which is sold in ten count boxes.

Robusto: 5 x 52

Corona: 5 1/2 x 44

Toro: 6 x 54

Gordo: 6 x 60

Lancero: 7 1/2 x 40

Appearance

The San Andres Maduro of the Entrada 1st Edition Corona had a chocolate brown color. Upon closer examination, there is some darker marbling that can be seen on the surface on the wrapper. I found wrapper itself had a light coating of oil. The wrapper had some thin visible veins and thin visible wrapper seams making for a smooth surface. The box-press of the cigar was firm with no soft spots.

The front of the band has the design of a postage stamp. Most of the font is in red on a white background. The front of the band features various designs including two hands, leaves, and a volcano. Across the top of the band is the text HECHO CON EL AMOR DE TESCIENTAS MANOS which translates to Made with the love of 300 hands. Toward the lower part of the band is a white ribbon design with the text ENTRADA on it. Just below that is the text CIGARCIA 2013 in white font.

There is a red colored secondary band on the footer with the text 1ST EDITION in white font.

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

As I typically do, I commenced my cigar experience of the Entrada 1st Edition Corona with a straight cut. Once the cap was removed, I moved on to the pre-light draw stage. The dry draw produced notes of coffee. At times the coffee had a mocha (i.e. some additional chocolate notes) taste to it. I also picked up a slight cedar note. Overall I considered the pre-light draw of this cigar to be excellent. At this time I was ready to light top my Entrada 1st Edition Corona and awaited what the smoking phase would have in store.

Flavor Profile

The Entrada 1st Edition Corona started with a mix of coffee, earth, and white pepper. The coffee notes became primary early on with the earth and pepper notes moving into the background. As the 1st Edition Corona moved through he first third, I picked up some dark chocolate notes mixed in with the coffee notes. Meanwhile there was a combination of black and white pepper on the retro-hale. The smoke produced on the retro-hale had a nice lingering effect.

As the Entrada 1st Edition Corona entered the second third, the coffee and dark chocolate notes remained primary. During the second third, there was a decrease in the chocolate notes and an increase in the pepper notes. The earth notes remained in the background.

By the last third, the coffee notes were still grounded in the forefront, but were now joined by the pepper notes. The chocolate and earth notes were more distant. While there was some spice as a primary note, it never got overpowering. This is the way the cigar experience of the Entrada 1st Edition Corona came to a close. The resulting nub was cool and in temperature and firm to the touch.

Burn and Draw

In terms of its burn, the Entrada 1st Edition Corona maintained a straight burn path and pretty much had a straight burn line. This was not a cigar that required frequent touch-ups. The resulting ash was gray in color. While there was some minor flaking, I found the ash of the 1st Edition Corona to be on the firm side. As for the burn rate and burn temperature, both were ideal.

The draw to the Entrada 1st Edition Corona performed quite well. I found the draw not to be too loose, nor too tight  and it seemed tailor-fit for a box-press. At the same time, while this wasnt a loose draw, this was a cigar that produced an ample amount of smoke along the way.

Strength and Body

From both a strength and body perspective, I assessed the Entrada 1st Edition Corona to be in the medium to full-range. Along the way, I found there was a slight increase in intensity for both attributes. However, the cigar still remained in the medium to full range of the spectrum throughout the smoking experience. Both the strength and body balanced each other very nicely along the way. At the same time, I found the strength and body level to work quite well with the flavors produced from this cigar.

Final Thoughts

Over the years, I have said that when it comes to working with San Andres maduro wrappers, the Casa Fernandez family has done some of the best. They seem to develop blends where the wrapper doesnt overpower the blend. While the Entrada 1st Edition Corona isnt the most complex of cigars, this wrapper did not smother the overall flavor profile. One final note about the 1st Edition Corona. This is going to be a cigar that is best enjoyed with a retro-hale. The lingering effect of the spices of the retro-hale will definitely enhance this smoking experience. The 1st Edition Corona is a cigar that I would recommend toward an experienced cigar enthusiast. As for myself, its one I can easily see myself smoking again on a rotation basis. Its certainly worthy of a box split in my book.

Summary

Burn: Excellent

Draw: Excellent

Complexity: Low Medium

Strength: Medium to Full

Body: Medium to Full

Finish: Excellent

Assessment: 3.5-Box Split

Score: 90

References

News: n/a

Price: $8.20

Source: Cigars Provided by Manufacturer (Prior to 8/8/16)

Stogie Geeks Podcast: Episode 200

Stogie Feed: Entrada 1st Edition Corona

Brand Reference: Entrada
'Feels Like Home Season 2' offers something real and tangible to think about; takes home a pertinent point - if your intentions are good, there is nothing in life that isn't achievable.
Arab League's unwise stance will deepen gaps in Mideast: Iran

Iran Press TV

Sun Sep 11, 2016 3:36PM

Iran has vehemently dismissed a statement issued by the Ministerial Council of the Arab League about three Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf, saying such injudicious approaches would deepen divisions in the Middle East.

"Such injudicious stances will lead to even more gaps among regional countries and a delay in purposeful regional cooperation," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Bahram Qassemi, said on Sunday.

He added that the statement stemmed from the Arab League's political motives and its failure to understand historical realities and was a blatant example of interference in Iran's internal affairs.

"The principled policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran regarding the Persian Gulf littoral states is the observance of good neighborliness, mutual respect and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries as well as heeding historical and legal realities and the current sensitive situation in the region," Qassemi pointed out.

At the end of its 146th session in the Egyptian capital of Cairo on Friday, the Arab League's Ministerial Council issued a statement in which it claimed that the three islands of the Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa belong to the United Arab Emirates and expressed its support for the UAE's measures to regain its sovereignty over the islands.

The islands of the Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa have always been part of Iran historically, the proof of which can be found in and corroborated by countless historical, legal, and geographical documents in Iran and other parts of the world. However, the United Arab Emirates has repeatedly laid baseless claims to the islands.

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Bomb kills nearly a dozen Hadi loyalists in Yemen's Abyan

Iran Press TV

Sun Sep 11, 2016 3:11PM

Nearly a dozen soldiers loyal to Yemen's Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, the president who has resigned and fled the capital Sana'a, have been killed in a car bomb explosion targeting a police station in the southern province of Abyan.

A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said an attacker drove his explosives-laden car into the station building in al-Wade'a district of the province, located more than 270 kilometers (167 miles) south of the capital on Sunday afternoon. Ten soldiers were killed and 14 others were injured.

No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the blast, but al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Daesh Takfiri terrorist groups have occasionally carried out acts of terror in the region.

The development came on the same day that Saudi Arabia pressed ahead with its deadly campaign against Yemen and Saudi warplanes targeted several areas across the impoverished conflict-ridden country.

Earlier on Sunday, Saudi aircraft struck Karsh district in Yemen's southwestern province of Lahij. There were no reports of casualties and damage.

Saudi jets bombarded al-Dhaher and Shada'a districts in the mountainous northwestern province of Sa'ada. The warplanes also bombed al-Arqoub military base in eastern Sana'a.

Yemen has been under airstrikes by Saudi Arabia since March 26, 2015. The Saudi campaign was launched in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and restore power to Hadi.

Ansarullah fighters took over state matters after Hadi's resignation and his escape from the capital.

The United Nations puts the death toll from the 18-month conflict in Yemen at about 10,000. UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen Jamie McGoldrick said last month that the toll could rise even further as some areas had no medical facilities, and that people were often buried without any official record being made.

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Chinese vessels sail near disputed islands in East China Sea: Japan

Iran Press TV

Sun Sep 11, 2016 12:42PM

Four Chinese ships have sailed near islands in the East China Sea that are administered by Japan but also claimed by Beijing, Tokyo says.

The Japan Coast Guard said Sunday that the four Chinese-operated vessels entered territorial waters surrounding the islands at around 10:30 a.m. (0130 GMT) and left about 90 minutes later.

The move could further stoke the long-running tensions between Japan and China over the islets. Japan administers uninhabited islands and calls them Senkaku while China refers to them as Diaoyu.

The dispatch of the vessels was the first since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met Chinese President Xi Jinping last week at the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China. The two leaders had insisted during their meeting that restraint should be exercised and Japan and China should "put aside disruptions."

The new alleged move by Beijing also comes as Japan was trying to press China over a recent nuclear test by North Korea, which has sparked global condemnation. The powerful test on Friday, which was the fifth Pyongyang has ever conducted, prompted Japan, South Korea and the United States to ask China, as North Korea's biggest economic partner, to pile more pressure on Pyongyang to comply with UN resolutions.

Hundreds of Chinese fishing boats sailed into waters surrounding the disputed islands just weeks ago. Tokyo reacted angrily, saying the escort of boats by government ships showed it was a provocation.

In a bid to counter rising Chinese activity around the islands, Japan has increased its security and defense cooperation with countries that have disputes with Beijing in the South China Sea, including the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations.

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China, Russia to begin joint drills in South China Sea on Monday

Iran Press TV

Sun Sep 11, 2016 8:42AM

China and Russia will commence eight-day naval drills in the disputed South China Sea on Monday, Beijing has announced.

In a statement released on Sunday, the Chinese navy said the "Joint Sea-2016" exercises, which are to be conducted in an area off China's southeastern province of Guangdong, will feature ships, submarines, fixed-wing aircraft and ship-borne helicopters.

The two countries will carry out defense, rescue, and anti-submarine operations, as well as "island seizing" and other activities, the statement added.

Describing the exercises as "the largest operation ever" conducted jointly by the two countries, the Chinese Navy further stressed that the forces will participate in live-fire drills, island defense and landing operations.

The South China Sea is the subject of a territorial dispute between China and several regional countries.

In July, a Hague-based court of arbitration ruled that China's claim of sovereignty over disputed areas in the sea or its resources had no legal basis. The case was filed by the Philippines, whose economic and sovereign rights, the court said, had been violated by Beijing.

China has dismissed the ruling, saying it does not recognize the tribunal's arbitration in the dispute.

Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, which is also claimed in part by Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. The contested waters are rich in oil and gas.

China and Russia have increased their military training cooperation in recent years. The two countries have been holding naval drills in the Pacific waters since 2012.

The United States, too, has moved to step up its military cooperation with its allies in the region, who are China's rival claimants in the territorial dispute.

The presence of the US in the region has upset regional powers China and Russia, which say such extra-regional presence serves to inflame tensions among countries.

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China, Russia to Begin Massive Eight Day Naval War Games in South China Sea

Sputnik News

21:42 11.09.2016(updated 03:20 12.09.2016)

The military exercise proceeds as tensions continue to mount over the contested waters with the Obama administration demanding that China submit to the ruling of The Hague international tribunal invalidating Beijing's historical claim.

China and Russia will hold an eight day series of war games in the South China Sea near Guangdong province starting on Monday according to a statement by the People's Liberation Army Navy.

The massive military exercise code-named "Joint Sea-2016" will feature destroyers, submarines, fighter jets, shipborne helicopters and marines according to the Chinese Navy's official website. The countries will join forces in practicing defense, rescue and anti-submarine operations in addition to "island seizing" demonstrations.

Additionally marines will participate in live-fire exercises, defense and landing maneuvers in what is billed to be the single largest joint military operation between the two countries' naval forces. The plan comes after China announced in July, before the situation in the South China Sea had fully escalated, that Beijing and Moscow planned to join forces in a "routine" naval exercise.

Joint Sea-2016 follows in the wake of increased pressure by the United States demanding that China adhere to the ruling of The Hague international tribunal invalidating Beijing's longstanding claim to the South China Sea through which some $5 trillion of shipborne trade passes through each year and under which lies some of the world's largest deep water oil and natural gas deposits.

China immediately denounced the ruling and vowed not to act in accordance citing both legal and procedural flaws in the administration of the case. The ruling was made after the Philippines entered unilaterally into arbitration, at the behest of the United States, with The Hague looking to the island country's claim to the Scarborough Shoal  a few rocks in the middle of the disputed territory  in making their determination.

In recent weeks, China has signaled that they plan to reclaim the Scarborough Shoal and recommence island building operations to which Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte warned that his country was willing to engage in "bloody conflict" if Beijing didn't back off while also signaling that he hoped to work to China to come to some sort of diplomatic agreement.

Leading American think tanks, including the notorious RAND Corporation have also begun laying out the template for a war with China even taking to the pages of major publications to openly lobby for preemptive military action against Beijing substantially raising the stakes over the disputed waters.

 Sputnik

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Chinese Coastguard Vessels Patrol Waters Near Disputed Islands in East China Sea

Sputnik News

14:57 11.09.2016(updated 17:43 11.09.2016)

Several Chinese coastguard vessels are patrolling the waters near a disputed group of islands in the East China Sea, a local broadcaster reported Sunday.

BEIJING (Sputnik)  According to the CCTV channel, the vessels are sailing near the islands known as the Diaoyutai Islands in China and the Senkaku Islands in Japan.

Earlier in the day, the Japan Coast Guard said that four Chinese ships entered Japanese territorial waters near the Senkaku Islands. The Coast Guard said that trespassing Chinese vessels stayed in Japanese waters for one-and-a-half hours despite being asked to leave.

The uninhabited Senkaku islands have soured relations between Tokyo and Beijing for decades. They are currently controlled by Japan.

China says that the contiguous islands have been part of its territory since ancient times. Japan argues it has been in control since 1895. The islands were briefly held by the United States and handed over to Japan in 1972.

 Sputnik

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Hillary Dragged Into Van After Fainting: Can Bernie or Biden Replace Her? Yes

Sputnik News

21:37 11.09.2016(updated 03:20 12.09.2016)

The Democratic nominee dogged by rumors of her deteriorating health after footage emerged of her coughing and gasping for air for nearly five minutes and suffering what seems like a seizure had another 'medical episode' on Sunday.

Hillary Clinton nearly collapsed on Sunday morning abruptly being swept away from a Ground Zero ceremony to commemorate the 15th anniversary of 9/11 with a half dozen staffers holding her up to prevent her from slamming head first into the pavement as she was dragged into a black van.

The video, posted on Twitter, shows the former Secretary of State wobbling back and forth almost uncontrollably reminiscent of the notorious seizure footage in which Hillary Clinton suffered uncontrolled spasms for 30 seconds in front of a pool of press reporters, leading to a horrified look on one AP journalist's face, before regaining her wits and being shuffled off by staffers  an incident that has gone viral, but went unreported at the time.

Failing to stay on two feet at the 9/11 memorial service will be hard for the Clinton campaign to downplay coming at a time when Democrats are already clamoring for Bernie Sanders to come back into the fold after Hillary's statements to wealthy donors discarding millions of Americans as irredeemable and what she calls a "basket of deplorables" highlighting what her opponents say is her elitist views.

It now raises the question whether Democrats have a Plan B should Clinton be unable to fulfill her campaign duties with Hillary's running mate Tim Kaine likely lacking the star power necessary to fend off the insurgent bid of bombastic billionaire Donald Trump. Many Americans are also left to ask whether a vote for Hillary Clinton may ultimately be a decision to make the relatively unknown Kaine the nation's Commander-in-Chief.

Highlighting the chaos in Democratic Party circles is a statement by Bakari Sellers, a Hillary Clinton surrogate and CNN political contributor who openly said "Does she need to prove more [medical records]? That is a legitimate question to ask."

Political reporter for Time Magazine reports that the former Secretary of State will be temporarily removing herself from the campaign trail in light of the most recent incident and returning home to Chappaqua after being rushed to her daughter Chelsea's apartment following the incident.

Although Clinton emerged saying that she "feels great" and her campaign has gone into damage control mode suggesting that the incident was merely a bout of dehydration, Hillary may soon be fending off calls by her own party to drop out of the race leaving the door wide open for either Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden to replace her.

Democratic Party bylaws stipulate that in the event that a presidential nominee drops out due to health related or other reasons, a special meeting would be called by the chairperson to find a proper replacement. It is also possible that Congress could move to delay Election Day in the event that the decision occurs too close to November 8.

To date, a nominee for a major party has never withdrawn or died prior to an American election with the closest historical corollary being Vice President James Sherman who died of kidney disease six days before the 1912 election  his name remained on the ballot and the election proceeded. Watching the video below, it is hard to know whether or not the Democratic nominee may be the first to bow out in history.

 Sputnik

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DRC: UN mission extracts hundreds from national park on humanitarian grounds

11 September 2016  Acting on humanitarian grounds and at the request of the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations mission in the country has extracted hundreds of individuals, including the former Vice-President of South Sudan, Riek Machar, members of his family and aides, as well as a number civilians from a national park in the DRC.

In a news release issued yesterday, UN Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) said that many of those extracted were wounded, acutely malnourished or in other life-threatening conditions.

Detailing the extractions undertaken at the Garamba National Park, located in the Haut Uele province in north-eastern DRC, the Mission noted that Mr. Machar along with his wife, son and 10 aides were extracted on 17 August; 291 individuals extracted between 24 August and 1 September; 62 individuals in critical medical condition on 9 September; and an additional 116 in similar conditions on 10 September.

In total, MONUSCO said that it has handed over 117 individuals, including Mr. Machar, his wife and son to the DRC authorities and that weapons were removed from all those who were transported by the mission.

It added that as of 8 September, some 183 individuals are in MONUSCO-run facilities in two locations, where security arrangements are in place. It further added that those injured or in need of medial care are receiving treatment or are recovering at UN facilities.

According the Mission, Mr. Machar had crossed into the DRC from South Sudan, accompanied by wife and son, and by several hundred others, including armed elements and civilians.

In the news release, the Mission also said that it is keeping the DRC authorities fully informed and UN Headquarters is engaging with both the DRC and South Sudan authorities, as well as regional actors, to encourage them to find a solution to the presence of South Sudanese armed elements in the territory of the DRC.

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Roadside Taliban Bomb Kills Afghan Provincial Police Chief

By Ayaz Gul September 11, 2016

Authorities in Afghanistan say a roadside bomb attack Sunday killed a provincial police chief and wounded at least three security guards.

Officials in eastern Nangarhar province say slain General Zorawar Zahid was leading a counter insurgency operation in the troubled Hasarak district when his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device.

A Taliban spokesman says the group planted the bomb and claimed the explosion also killed several security guards with Zahid.

In addition to Taliban insurgents, extremists linked to the Islamic State terrorist group are also active in at least two districts of Nangarhar, which borders Pakistan.

Meanwhile, a fugitive former Afghan warlord on Sunday alleged that internal differences prevented President Ashraf Ghani's government from announcing a peace deal his insurgent group has signed with Kabul to quit violence.

Afghan authorities were not available immediately to comment on Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's assertions. The Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) faction he leads has held months of negotiations with Ghani's representatives and both sides admitted the process had led to a draft peace agreement.

In his Sunday statement sent to reporters, Hekmatyar asserted he has agreed and signed the document, and the government was scheduled to announce the final peace agreement on Saturday.

"But once again internal disputes within the government have prevented it from announcing the deal," said the former warlord.

Peace process

A presidential palace spokesman on Saturday also spoke of "considerable progress" in the peace process and promised more "positive developments" by the end of day. But officials have since not offered any comments nor have they given any reaction to Hekmatyar's assertions.

A peace deal with Hekmatyar's group, which has fought alongside the Taliban against the U.S.-backed Afghan government, could put pressure on the Taliban to come to the table for peace talks.

Unlike the Islamist insurgency, the Hekmatyar group's influence is limited to very few provinces in Afghanistan.

Hekmatyar is a longtime guerrilla commander whose forces fought against the Soviet Union in the 1980s, using equipment supplied by the CIA. Later, his militias battled the Taliban for control of Afghanistan during the brutal civil war of the 1990s and human rights groups accused Hekmatyar of committing massive rights abuses among other atrocities.

He was designated a "global terrorist" by the United States in 2003 for allegedly participating in and supporting attacks by al Qaida and Taliban forces against American forces in the country.

Hekmatyar and his commanders are allegedly sheltering in neighboring Pakistan, where Taliban leaders also have their sanctuaries, charges Islamabad rejects.

President Ghani and his governing partner Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah have recently gone public with the simmering disputes between them over governance issues. Abdullah accused Ghani of not implementing a political deal the United States mediated between them two years ago that paved the way for establishing the unity government.

The political tensions have worried Afghans and the country's international backers, led by the United States, at a time if intensified battlefield and other attacks by the Taliban.

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Counter-ISIL Strikes Target Terrorists in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Sept. 12, 2016  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of yesterday's strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

Attack, bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 16 strikes in Syria:

-- Near Shadadi, nine strikes engaged eight ISIL tactical units and destroyed 14 fighting positions, two bulldozers, a command-and-control node, a vehicle bomb, a vehicle and a vehicle bomb facility.

-- Near Raqqah, six strikes destroyed 10 ISIL supply routes, three oil pumpjacks and other oil drilling equipment.

-- Near Dayz Az Zawr, a strike destroyed two ISIL oil tractor trailers.

Strikes in Iraq

Attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted seven strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government:

-- Near Baghdadi, a strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle.

-- Near Mosul, a strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed four fighting positions.

-- Near Qayyarah, two strikes engaged an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed six rocket rails, a mortar system, two vehicles, 11 assembly areas, a tunnel entrance, a vehicle bomb, a vehicle bomb factory and a command-and-control node.

-- Near Ramadi, a strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed a tunnel entrance and a checkpoint.

-- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike destroyed an ISIL vehicle bomb factory.

-- Near Tal Afar, a strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat it poses to Iraq, Syria, the region and the wider international community. The destruction of targets in Syria and Iraq further limits ISIL's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said.

Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Syria include the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

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Deputy Secretary General Vershbow reaffirms the Alliance's commitment to KFOR

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

12 Sep. 2016

Deputy Secretary General Vershbow met with Mr. Enver Hoxhaj at NATO Headquarters on Monday (12. September 2016) and stressed the Alliance's commitment to long-term stability in Kosovo and to the Alliance-led KFOR operation. He said that KFOR will continue to contribute to a safe and secure environment and freedom of movement in Kosovo, working in close cooperation with the Kosovo authorities and with the EU.

Mr. Vershbow said that NATO will continue to support the development of the security organisations in Kosovo and welcomed the increased professionalism shown by the Kosovo Police. He stressed that the Alliance welcomes Kosovo's aspirations to improve its ability to ensure safety and security for all its inhabitants, as well as to contribute to security in the Western Balkans.

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China, Russia launch South China Sea naval wargames

Iran Press TV

Mon Sep 12, 2016 6:26AM

China and Russia have launched eight-day joint naval wargames in the disputed South China Sea amid tensions with the US which is expanding its military presence in the region.

The "Joint Sea-2016" maneuvers kicked off on Monday with the participation of 21 aircraft and 18 ships from both sides including destroyers, cruisers, amphibious warfare ships and supply vessels.

In a statement, the Chinese navy said the exercises will be conducted in an area off China's southeastern province of Guangdong.

Participating units will be carrying out defense, rescue, and anti-submarine operations, as well as "island seizing" and other activities, it said.

The maneuvers have been described as "the largest operation ever" conducted jointly by the two countries.

Joint Chinese-Russian drills have grown increasingly common in recent years and this week's exercises are the fifth between the two navies since 2012.

The South China Sea is the subject of a territorial dispute between China and its regional neighbors including Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines, with the US having waded into the row against Beijing.

The oil and gas rich South China Sea is an important international waterway, where China has been expanding its presence.

In July, a Hague-based court of arbitration ruled that China's claim of sovereignty over disputed areas in the sea or its resources had no legal basis. China dismissed the ruling, saying it did not recognize the tribunal's authority to resolve the dispute.

The presence of the US in the region has upset regional powers, which say such extra-regional presence causes tensions. Also, US plans to deploy the so-called Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea have raised alarms.

China and Russia say the system would threaten security, stability, and peace on the Korean Peninsula and do nothing to help denuclearize the volatile region.

Moscow and Beijing view the planned move as an attempt to put their military facilities within the range of US radars.

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US to Remain 'Responsive' to Outcome of Russia-China South China Sea Drills

Sputnik News

18:18 12.09.2016

The United States will carefully monitor the developments around the latest Russian and Chinese joint naval drills in the South China Sea, US Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said at a Center for American Progress forum on Monday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Russia and China began their annual Joint-Sea naval exercises on Monday, taking place in the South China Sea. A total of 18 ships and supply vessels, 21 aircraft and over 250 service personnel from China's People's Liberation Army Navy and the Russia's Pacific Fleet are taking part in the naval drills from September 12-19.

"It is a regional security dynamic and so we will just have to be responsive to what emerges," Richardson said of unfolding trends in the South China Sea.

Richardson noted that some of the developments that emerge out of the security dynamic in the South China Sea "will be more concerning than others," but the US Navy will continue to watch and be prepared for "what may come."

Top US defense officials have accused Beijing of engaging in provocative actions in the South China Sea, where China and a number of US allies have competing territorial claims.

The United States has responded to China's growing naval power by increasing the number of US freedom of navigation operations in international waters in the region.

 Sputnik

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Philippine President Wants US Special Forces to Leave South of Country

Sputnik News

16:35 12.09.2016(updated 16:38 12.09.2016)

The United States special forces must leave southern parts of the Philippines as they hinder country's counter-terrorist efforts, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Since 2002, the US military has been deployed on the southern Jolo and Basilan islands to fight Abu Sayyaf, an al-Qaeda-backed terrorist organization that emerged in the early 1990s. It consists of loosely affiliated gangs that often kidnap foreigners to collect ransom. In 2015 only a small special force unit providing training remained.

"The special forces, they have to go. They have to go in Mindanao. If they see an American, they would kill him. They would demand ransom then kill him I could not speak then out of respect and I do not want a rift with America. But they have to go," Duterte said as quoted in The Philippine Star newspaper.

US-Philippines relationships are currently at a low point as Washington has condemned alleged extrajuridical killings of people suspected of being involved with drug-related activities in the Philippines.

 Sputnik

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Latvia to Boost Special Forces Numbers 3 Times

Sputnik News

02:06 12.09.2016

The Latvian army's special forces will increase threefold over the next few years, Special Tasks Unit (SUV) Commander Juris Usackis said.

RIGA (Sputnik)  "The unit has become on of the Latvian army's chief priorities, its numbers are planned to increase three times in the coming years," Usackis said, as quoted by the Baltic countries' Delfi news website.

Latvia is using other countries' experience in carrying out special operations and is ready to repel any kind of attack, including hybrid warfare, he added.

"We are ready to repel 'little green men." Latvia is facing a range of different threats, including unconventional, hybrid type and asymmetric. SUV is preparing and is ready to counter these threats," Usackis said.

The term "little green men" was introduced in 2014 after the events that preceded Crimea's reunification with Russia. The term applied to members of the Russian armed forces which ensured security on the peninsula during the Crimean referendum and wore unmarked green uniforms.

Crimea reunified with Russia after the referendum, with over 96 percent of the local population supporting the move in the wake of the coup in Kiev that toppled former President Viktor Yanukovych. Ukraine did not recognize the move and considers the peninsula as an occupied territory, while Russia stresses the legitimacy of the referendum.

Latvia has been a member of NATO since 2004. In May, the country's government adopted the "national defense concept," which stipulates allocating 1.7 percent of the Latvian GDP to the defense budget by 2017. The following year, Riga hopes to comply with the NATO demand of spend 2 percent of its GDP on defense.

The government argued that the concept was significantly influenced by changes in the regional security environment which posed an increased threat to Latvia.

 Sputnik

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Afghan Forces Kill Suicide Bombers, End Hospital Siege

By Ayaz Gul September 12, 2016

Afghan security forces Monday killed two armed suicide bombers to end a two-hour siege of a main hospital in the southern city of Kandahar, officials said.

The firefight also left dead an officer of Afghanistan's intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS).

The siege began after two assailants wearing suicide vests stormed the Mirwais Hospital compound in Kandahar and opened fire on security guards there, witnesses and officials said.

The assault took place shortly before the provincial governor was due to arrive to inquire about the well-being of patients in connection with Eid festivities, his spokesman, Sameem Khapalwak, told VOA.

He said patients, their attendants and hospital staff were all not harmed.

No claims of responsibility

There were no immediate claims of responsibility, though suspicions fell on the Taliban because Kandahar is known as the birthplace of the Islamist insurgency.

The rebel group has lately intensified activity on battlefields and attacks on Afghan officials. On Sunday, a roadside bomb killed the anti-Taliban police chief of eastern Nangarhar province.

Peace deal

Meanwhile, speaking in Kabul to mark the beginning of the three-day Muslim Eid festival, President Ashraf Ghani promised a long-awaited peace deal with an Afghan insurgent group is close to being finalized.

"There are some problems that would be very important for implementing peace," said Ghani, vowing the issues would be resolved very soon. He did not elaborate.

Months of reconciliation talks with the Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) faction, led by controversial warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, enabled the two sides to agree on a draft peace accord weeks ago.

Ghani praised efforts that have been made by the government-appointed High Peace Council and representatives of Hekmatyar in order to negotiate a peace deal.

"There is hope that, God willing, the agreement will be finalized soon and we will witness a major step towards establishing a peaceful environment and ending the conflict," said the Afghan president.

The landmark truce was due to be announced last week, but political rivalries within the government forced the delay, claimed Hekmatyar in his Eid message delivered to media late Sunday.

Government blamed for delay

He asserted he signed the document Friday because all issues between his group and the government stand settled.

"But once again problems within the (Afghan) ruling system have prevented it from announcing the deal," Hekmatyar said.

The notorious commander went on to say he believed continuation of war in Afghanistan "would only serve the interests of internal and external enemies, and not of the Afghan nation."

Without directly commenting on Hekmatyar's assertions, President Ghani in his Monday statement suggested there are no problems from the government side.

"I don't accept any unreasonable hurdle in this sacred process. If there are obstacles in the way of peace, it is my duty as president to share it with the people and urge them to stand united for peace," said Ghani.

'Global terrorist'

Hekmatyar is a longtime guerrilla commander whose forces fought against the Soviet Union in the 1980s, using equipment supplied by the CIA.

Later, his militias battled the Taliban for control of Afghanistan during the brutal civil war of the 1990s. Human rights groups accused Hekmatyar of committing massive rights abuses among other atrocities.

The ethnic Pashtun warlord was designated a "global terrorist" by the United States in 2003 for allegedly participating in and supporting attacks by al-Qaida and Taliban forces against American forces in the country.

Hekmatyar and his commanders are allegedly sheltering in neighboring Pakistan where Taliban leaders also have their sanctuaries; charges Islamabad rejects.

Critics say a peace deal with Hekmatyar's group, which has fought alongside the Taliban against the U.S.-backed Afghan government, could weaken the Taliban insurgency in parts of Afghanistan and encourage it to come to the table for talks with Kabul.

Unlike the Taliban, influence of Hekmatyar's group is limited to a very few Afghan provinces.

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Rights Group Accuses South Sudan Leaders of War Profiteering

By Ayen Bior September 12, 2016

A human rights group says it has found evidence of huge war profiteering by some of South Sudan's top political leaders, including the heads of the two sides in the country's civil war.

The rights group's co-founders, Hollywood star George Clooney and activist John Prendergast, shared the findings Monday at a news conference at Washington's National Press Club.

The report from their group, called The Sentry, accused South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, former first vice president Riek Machar and South Sudanese generals of stealing millions of dollars from state coffers since 2005, when a peace agreement that paved the way for the south's independence from Sudan was signed.

The 65-page report, entitled "War Crimes Shouldn't Pay," says South Sudan's nearly three-year-old conflict has been fueled by battles over control of state assets and the country's natural resources.

President Kiir earns about $60,000 per year, according to The Sentry's investigation. But the president and his family are accused of spending millions of dollars on real estate outside of South Sudan, including a two-story, 460-square meter villa in the gated community of Lavington, an upscale neighborhood in Nairobi.

The Sentry also reports that former first vice president Riek Machar has a home in the same neighborhood.

It says four of President Kiir's children attend a private school outside Nairobi where tuition is about $10,000 per year.

The Sentry says General Reuben Riak who oversees logistics and weapons procurement in the army, has moved over $3 million through his personal bank account at Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) since 2012.

Documents also reveal that General Jok Riak, who is under a U.N.-backed travel ban and asset freeze, had more than $360,000 deposited in his personal bank account at KGB during 2014. The Sentry says money was transferred to the account from Dalbit International, which deals with the trade, transport and management of petroleum products in Africa.

Army chief of staff General Paul Malong, who the Sentry calls the "architect of immense human suffering in South Sudan" reportedly has a government salary of $45,000 per year but somehow owns two homes in Uganda, along with a $2 million mansion in Nairobi, according to the report.

The Sentry describes itself as a collaborative effort between three other rights groups, including the Enough Project. It says its goal is to dismantle the financing of Africa's deadliest conflicts.

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Belarus - Politics

Voting in Belarus was held 11 September 2016, with turnout surpassing the threshold for the parliamentary election to be valid. Although the authoritarian government had introduced some reforms, doubts existed over the vote's credibility. Polling stations closed with officials declaring that the level of voter participation exceeded the 50-percent threshold for the election to be valid. Most of the 110 lower house seats up for grabs were expected to go to pro-government candidates, with 484 candidates vying for a place in the assembly. This time, critics allege, Lukashenka has allowed two candidates with opposition sympathies to be proclaimed winners because of pressure from the West.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which put in place some 400 monitors to observe the elections, said it would report on 12 September 2016 as to how the election had been conducted. After the last election in 2012, the OSCE called for measures such as including increasing transparency of the vote count and improvement of the right to free expression.

Belarus implemented a number of reforms in recent years in an effort to seek rapprochement with the West. The country was seeking a possible $3 billion (2.7 billion-euro) loan from the International Monetary Fund. Political prisoners were released in 2015r, prompting the EU to lift nearly all of its sanctions and the US to partially scrap its trade restrictions imposed over a perceived lack of democracy.

The former Soviet republic has been labeled Europe's last dictatorship,. Belarus has a strong presidential system, governed by the president who has extensive powers, including the authority to dissolve the lower and upper houses of parliament, to issue presidential decrees which have the force of law when the legislature is in recess, to declare a state of emergency or to impose martial law. The president appoints the prime minister and the government, as well half of the judges of the Constitutional Court, and has the power to dismiss any of them. Furthermore, the president is empowered to appoint and dismiss the judges of all other courts, including the Supreme Court.

The Belarusian state controls all media outlets, meaning that only officially approved views are heard by most of society. At least eight new non-state newspapers were refused registration in 2010. Independent publications still have no possibility of being distributed through the state press distribution system. Independent journalists are frequently harassed. Following the presidential election of 19 December 2010, the independent media was specifically targeted, with premises raided, equipment seized, journalists interrogated and in some cases beaten up. Foreign media outlets have faced problems getting their correspondents accredited.

Arrest and violence are often used to impede assembly, often by individuals in civilian clothes who present no law enforcement identification to the individual being arrested. Pressure against families of those involved in opposition politics can include restricting their right to free movement, threatening removal from jobs, and, in one notable example, threatening to seize the child of Andrei Sannikau, an imprisoned opposition presidential candidate and his wife, Irina Khalip, also a political prisoner.

The media landscape includes a wide range of national and local television and radio broadcasters, as well as a number of print media outlets. State owned media dominate the media landscape and the state controls the distribution networks. Official media -- including the main newspaper, Sovietskaya Belorussia, which belongs to the presidential administration -- invariably portray Lukashenka in a positive light. Nevertheless, there are some media that constitute alternative sources of information, including the Internet. The overall media environment has deteriorated in the recent years due to intimidation, detentions, defamation lawsuits and administrative sanctions imposed on journalists and media outlets.

The party system in Belarus is weak, notwithstanding the number of parties registered. The majority of the 15 registered parties support the President and the political opposition to the incumbent is not represented in the parliament. The 2012 parliamentary elections resulted in only five representatives being elected from political parties. Amendments to several laws related to activities of political parties and public associations as introduced in February 2014 were, according to interlocutors in state institutions, intended to simplify the procedure for registration of public associations. In particular, the requirement of securing regional representation in order to be registered was lifted and public associations were allowed to become political parties, provided they did not receive state or foreign financial support up to six months prior to the transformation.

The most significant human rights problems continued to be: citizens were unable to change their government through elections; in a system bereft of checks and balances, authorities committed abuses; and former political prisoners political rights remained restricted while the government failed to account for longstanding cases of politically motivated disappearances. Other human rights problems included abuses by the security forces, which reportedly mistreated suspects during investigations and in prisons. Prison conditions remained poor. Authorities arbitrarily arrested, detained, and imprisoned citizens for criticizing officials, participating in demonstrations, and other political reasons. The judiciary experienced political interference and a lack of independence; trial outcomes often appeared predetermined, and trials occurred behind closed doors or in the absence of the accused. Authorities infringed on the right of privacy. The government restricted civil liberties, including freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, and religion.

The government seized printed materials from civil society activists and prevented independent media from disseminating information and materials. The government continued to hinder or prevent the activities of some religious groups, at times fining them or restricting their services. Official corruption in all branches of government remained a problem. Authorities harassed human rights groups, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and political parties, refusing to register many and then threatening them with criminal prosecution for operating without registration.

State-owned media dominated the information field and maintained the highest circulation through generous subsidies and preferences. There was no countrywide private television. The state-owned postal system, Belposhta, and the state distributor of printed publications, Belsayuzdruk, allowed the distribution of at least nine independent newspapers and magazines that covered politics, including Novy Chas, Borisovskie Novosti, and Intexpress, which have been banned from distribution for 11 years.

The exclusion of independent print media from the state distribution system and the requirement that private stores secure registration to sell newspapers and magazines effectively limited the ability of the independent press to distribute their publications.

International media continued to operate in the country but not without interference and prior censorship. Euronews and the Russian channels First Channel, NTV, and RTR were generally available, although only through paid cable services in many parts of the country and with a time lag that allowed the removal of news deemed undesirable.

The government exerted pressure on the vast majority of independent publications to exercise self-censorship, warning them not to report on certain topics or criticize the government. The government tightly and directly controlled the content of state broadcast and print media. Television channels are required to air at least 30 percent local content. Local independent television stations operated in some areas and reported local news, although most were under government pressure to forgo reporting on national and sensitive issues or risk censorship.

Violence and discrimination against women were problems, as was violence against children. Trafficking in persons remained a problem, although prosecution and victim identification slightly improved. There was discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) persons; those with disabilities; Roma and other ethnic minorities; persons with HIV/AIDS; and those who sought to use the Belarusian language. Authorities harassed and at times dismissed from their jobs members of independent unions in state-owned enterprises, severely limiting the ability of workers to form and join independent trade unions and to organize and bargain collectively. Authorities also employed various means of forced labor.

A crackdown on free speech is the latest worrying development amid the deteriorating, wholescale oppression of human rights in Belarus, an independent expert told the UN General Assembly 25 October 2018. The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, Miklos Haraszti, referred to the sad fate of freedom of expression specifically pointing to legal amendments ending anonymity of publications in online media and forcing state registration of all online platforms.

Haraszti, who was concluding his six-year tenure, said human rights abuses that had prompted international scrutiny when he took up his role were worsening in important areas. The online restrictions close down the last public space where free speech was relatively possible, given the practically total control over speech in the mostly state-owned offline media. The amendments introduce chilling financial liabilities, blocking, or de-licensing without any judicial oversight, Haraszti said.

The permission-based regime remains unchanged, with a legal system and a State apparatus organized to suppress any expression of opinions other than those of the Government. For more than 20 years, the Belarusian governance system has remained based on an all-powerful State, driven by presidential decrees and controlling more than 80 per cent of the economy and the totality of the judicial and information systems.

For the bulk of Belarusians, Lukashenka represented stability. During his two decades in power, Lukashenka has systemically quashed opposition parties, independent media, and civil society groups. Outbursts of political protests have been met with violence.







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Spain - Politics

Spanish politicians  at all levels  have a large mouth but NO ears. They simply will not listen, but continue to say what they want even when listeners try to explain to them that they simply cant get what they want. The second thing is that no Spanish politician will ever compromise  either someone does what he says, or out they go. The third thing is that if a Spanish politician or businessman has to choose between power and money, he nearly always chooses power, even if it loses him money in the short run. He knows that in the long run, power will always get more money, whereas more money doesnt necessarily buy power.

The political system established in 1939 by Francisco Franco was characterized by limited and non-responsible political pluralism, political demobilization, a leader who exercised power within formally undefined but clearly recognizable limits, and the absence of an elaborated ideology. A transition to democracy began in 1975, and in a very short period of time Spain was able to establish a stable, consolidated parliamentary monarchy indistinguishable in many ways from many other West European democracies.

Since the reintroduction of democracy in 1977, one of the major parties has always been able to either win an absolute majority or coalition with smaller parties to win a majority and select their President. The D'Hondt Method's proportional-representational formula tends to over-represent the party that wins the highest percent of the vote, and under-represents the smallest parties. It also benefits parties who agree to unite and run a combined candidate list, providing more seats than if the parties agreed to coalition after the election. The Socialists (PSOE) and the far-left party (Izquierda Unida) have not run combined lists since the reintroduction of democracy. Socialists and "communists" uniting (which is still remembered as being the constituents of the Popular Front coalition of the mid-1930s) would likely drive some voters away, negating any benefit of the union. In October 1982, the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), led by Felipe Gonzalez, swept both the Congress of Deputies and Senate, winning an absolute majority. Gonzalez and the PSOE ruled for the next 13 years. During that period, Spain joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Community.

In March 1996, Jose Maria Aznar's Popular Party (PP - Partido Popular ) won a plurality of votes. Aznar moved to decentralize powers to the regions and liberalize the economy, with a program of privatization, labor market reform, and measures designed to increase competition in selected markets. During Aznar's first term, Spain fully integrated into European institutions, qualifying for the European Monetary Union, and participated, along with the United States and other NATO allies, in military operations in the former Yugoslavia. President Aznar and the PP won reelection in March 2000, obtaining absolute majorities in both houses of parliament.

After the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001, President Aznar became a key ally in the fight against terrorism. Spain backed the military action against the Taliban in Afghanistan and took a leadership role within the European Union (EU) in pushing for increased international cooperation on terrorism. The Aznar government, with a rotating seat on the UN Security Council, supported the intervention in Iraq.

Movimiento 15-M, sometimes also called the movement of the indignated, began on May 15, 2011. Through various protests and demonstrations across the country, the movements platform calls for radical changes in the Spanish political system, which they claim has failed the Spanish at the expense of protecting Spanish elites. Although the movement reached high levels of popularity amongst Spanish youth (understandably so considering the economic climate theyve inherited), we learned that the movement was (is?) noteworthy because it has crossed traditional social and partisan lines and resonated with people across all age groups, income level, gender, employment status, and level of urbanization. The successful protests allowed an entirely new political party to be formed in the country called PODEMOS (meaning we can). Spanish MPs rejected acting PM Mariano Rajoy's bid to form a government on 31 August 2016. Rajoy, leader of the center-right People's Party (PP), secured the backing of only 170 representatives in the 350-strong assembly, six seats short of the majority he needed.

Liberal parliamentary newcomer Ciudadanos voted in favor of Rajoy, as did a small party from the Canary Islands, but he failed to make inroads with the Socialists (PSOE), the anti-austerity alliance Unidos Podemos and regional parties from the Basque Country and Catalonia. "They are incapable of leading the country," Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez said. Leader the leftist party Podemos (We Can), Pablo Iglesias, said that Rajoy's PP "embodies corruption."

Rajoy took the oath as leader of Spain's new government, ending a 10-month impasse. After two inconclusive elections, Rajoy won a parliamentary confidence vote on 31 October 2016. PSOE agreed to abstain in a parliamentary confidence vote, which allowed the conservative leader to win enough support to form a government. But the 61-year-old still headed a minority administration that could have difficulty passing laws in parliament.

Spanish regions followed distinctive political paths. These regionally distinctive political paths end with the unification process. This fact is of fundamental importance, since it integrates all the regions in the same formal political institutional framework. On 01 October 2017, the regional government of Catalonia attempted to hold a referendum on independence from Spain that the national court previously declared unconstitutional. The Catalan Supreme Court ordered police units to close several polling sites and to seize illegal election material, resulting in injuries to both civilians and police officers. The Catalan regional government claimed that 42 percent of the eligible voting population in Catalonia participated. The national government and courts maintained that the referendum and any subsequent attempt to declare Catalan independence are illegal.

By May 2018 Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy faced a no-confidence vote after his party was found guilty of benefiting from illegal funds in a massive graft trial. All major opposition parties are calling for Rajoy to step down after Spain's National Court last week ruled the Popular Party (PP) profited from funds obtained illegally through "an authentic and efficient system of institutional corruption" including a slush fund. The court ordered the PP to pay back 245,000 ($290,000) and sentenced 29 people, including former top party members, to jail. But the main opposition Socialist party which filed the no-confidence motion has yet to secure the 176 or more votes needed in Spain's fragmented parliament to oust Rajoy, who survived a no-confidence vote in June 2017 called by anti-establishment party Podemos.

Rajoy's PP lost its absolute majority in parliament in the election in June 2016, and relied on centrist party Ciudadanos, with had 32 seats in parliament, to pass legislation. Ciudadanos did not back the Socialists' no-confidence motion, it said it would put forward its own no-confidence motion to trigger an election if Rajoy did not call an early vote -- an option the prime minister had already ruled out.

Socialist Pedro Sanchez took over as Spains prime minister on 01 June 2018, after outgoing leader Mariano Rajoy lost a parliamentary confidence vote triggered by a long-running corruption trial involving members of his center-right party. Socialist party head Sanchez becomes Spains seventh Prime Minister since its return to democracy in the late 1970s following the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. But Rajoys departure after six years in office casts one of the European Unions top four economies into an uncertain political landscape, just as another - Italy - pulled back from early elections.

The motion was passed with 180 votes in favor, 169 against and 1 abstention. The vote was carried by Sanchez' own PSOE party, which filed the motion and has 84 seats in the parliament, with the help of the leftist alliance Unidos Podemos, which holds 67 seats, and of several regional parties. Rajoy's defeat marked the first time a Spanish premier had lost a no-confidence vote since the transition to democracy in Spain after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

Although Rajoy was largely considered to have helped bring Spain out of its recession crisis since he took power in 2011, critics say that the austerity measures he imposed exacerbated inequalities and that he failed to curb the country's high unemployment. His party has also faced continued allegations of corruption over the past years, culminating in the recent scandal.

Leftist Podemos, which would offer parliamentary support to Sanchezs government, is also unlikely to gain big influence over the new prime minister, who is keen to differentiate his Socialist party from its anti-austerity ally and win back centrist voters.







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Croatia - Politics

Nationalist rhetoric and overtly neofascist symbols are everywhere. During World War II, the Ustasha regime collaborated with Nazi Germany to abuse Serbs, Jews and communists and even erected concentration camps; now, that government is portrayed as the "patriotic defender of Croatian interests in difficult times." Every year, on August 4 and 5, the country celebrates the anniversary of the 1995 Oluja (Storm) military operation and Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian Defenders. During the Oluja, the Croatian army captured Serb-controlled areas within a matter of days. A large number of Serb civilians were murdered during the operation, which also forced an estimated 200,000 Serbs out of Croatia. Each year, the event, which is seen as the official symbol of Croatian liberation.

Since its declaration of independence in 1991, Croatia faced the dual challenge of creating an independent state and establishing a democratic system of government. Dubbed the "father of the Republic" for having led the country to independence from Yugoslavia, Franjo Tudjman was elected President in 1992 and quickly established a firm grip on state institutions, the economy, the military, and civic institutions, including the media. The war in Croatia and BosniaHercegovina, which dominated the political landscape through 1996, fostered the formation of a single-party state run by Tudjman's Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and guided by fervent nationalism. In parliamentary elections in 1993, opposition parties managed to gain some seats in the legislature, demonstrating that diversity of political opinion had begun to take root. Following Operations Flash and Storm in 1995, during which Croatia ousted renegade Krajina Serbs, President Tudjman called new parliamentary elections in an effort to regain the HDZ's firm control of the more powerful house of the country's bicameral legislature. Despite the military successes, the HDZ failed to capture the two-thirds majority necessary to pass amendments to the constitution.

In June 1997, Tudjman was easily re-elected President of the Republic with 56 percent of the vote, twice that of his nearest rival. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) issued a statement declaring that "the process leading up to the elections was fundamentally flawed and did not meet the minimum standards for a meaningful and democratic election." The HDZ had monopolized access to the national media, unilaterally made changes to the election law without adequately informing voters, restricted access to voters lists and denied accreditation to nonpartisan election monitors despite an aggressive NGO advocacy campaign. In early 1998, the Interior Ministry deployed heavily armed special forces to disperse a series of labor protests against the HDZ's economic policies. The spectacle of military hardware and a massive police presence opposing unarmed citizens as they exercised their political rights led to serious criticism of the governing regime from both Croatians and the international community. The death of President Tudjman in December 1999, followed by the election of a coalition government and president in early 2000, brought significant changes to Croatia.

Right-wing extremist iconography is part of everyday life in Croatia. President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic [elected January 2015], for instance, publicly appears with known right-wing leaders and even accused war criminals, and she occasionally goes off on hate-filled tirades in TV interviews. Even 20 years after the war, Croatia is living in an atmosphere dominated by wartime rhetori. Independent Croatia grew out of a right-wing political movement. And patriotic rhetoric is still the measure of all things here.

Independent media are active and expressed without restraint a wide variety of views. Restrictions on material deemed hate speech applied to print media as well. While many private newspapers and magazines were published without government interference, observers cited lack of transparency in media ownership as a challenge to media and government accountability. Publicly available information frequently did not clearly indicate who actually owned several local media outlets. A number of journalists reported that publishers and media owners frequently practiced self-censorship to avoid reporting negatively on advertisers or those politically linked to key advertisers. According to Josip Juratovic, a German Social Democrat MP with Croatian roots, instead of implementing the necessary reforms, the country's political elite is focused on itself. This does not come as a surprise. Local political structures were organized in a way that favors power, maintenance of power and redistribution of power as opposed to dealing with the country's future. Intraparty democracy simply doesn't work in Croatia. Therefore, the same players keep shaping the same policies, only with a different entourage. If they had had any ideas, they would already have realized them.











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Duma Election - 18 September 2016

Official results in Russia's parliamentary, regional and municipal elections showed the ruling United Russia party headed the polls with 54.3 percent after 93 percent of votes counted. It was the first time the mixed principle was applied in elections to the lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, since 2003. In 2007 and 2011, Russians elected MPs from federal party lists only. United Russia polled 54.2 percent of the party-list vote -- about 28,272,000 votes - which gave the party 140 of the 225 party-list seats available in the Duma. United Russia candidates won 203 of the 225 contests in single-mandate districts, giving the party an expected total of 343 deputies in the 450-seat house. That would be its biggest ever majority, with three quarters of the seats in parliament. This super-majority is enough to allow United Russia to unilaterally change the constitution, though Putin can run again for the presidency under the existing one because he was prime minister between his second and third terms.

Other parties slammed the record-low turnout as shameful and the results as untrustworthy. According to the Russian Central Election Committee (CEC), United Russia party dominated the polls, followed by the Russian Communist Party with 13.5 percent, the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) with 13.3 percent, and A Just Russia [aka Fair Russia] coming in fourth with 6.2 percent. LDPR, the Communist Party and Fair Russia have also made it into parliament, having passed the required 5 percent threshold. United Russia would now have 343 seats in the 450-member lower house. The Communist Party will have 42 seats, LDPR will have 39, and A Just Russia just 23. The other 10 non-parliamentary parties that took part in the elections did not receive enough votes to make it into parliament as they were unable to pass the 5 percent barrier. Some of their candidates, however, could still enter parliament as a result of constituency races. The leader of the CP, Sergey Mironov noted that 15% of the votes was "eaten" dwarf parties that received less than 3%.

Overall turnout fell to 48 percent from 60 percent, exposing growing apathy about a political system and elite which critics say tolerates no genuine opposition. The voter turnout in Moscow and St. Petersburg was a record-low in comparison to previous elections. The Russian capital saw a 20 percent turnout, while St. Petersburg saw 16.1 percent. The overall turnout stood at 47.8 percent of Russia's 111.6 million eligible voters, Interfax reported, citing CEC data. Low voter turnout in Russia is not the same as comparable numbers in democratic countries. In Russia, military personnel and state employees are more or less compelled to vote. It is difficult to escape the pressure, especially outside major cities. Russians who are somewhat more financially independent of the state can better avoid voting. They live almost entirely in large cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Sergey Mironov, leader of Fair Russia, claimed the low turnout was Russians' way of showing they dont believe in the election transparency. Im afraid many voters chose not to take part in the election, unable to trust the fair counting of the votes, he said, as cited by Interfax. Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, whose party has been neck-and-neck with LDPR, also slammed the results, saying that his hopes that this campaign would be fairer, more responsible and dignified given the crisis within the country have floundered.

A poll by Russian public opinion researcher VTsIOM predicted that United Russia would secure 44.5 percent of votes, down from 49.32 percent in 2011. The pollster projected that three other parties had made it into Russia's new State Duma. The Liberal Democrats look set to grab 15.3 percent of votes, trailed by the Communist Party with 14.9 percent and center-left A Just Russia with 8.1 percent. The liberal Yabloko party appeared to not have cleared the needed votes after getting just over 3 percent according to both exit polls. Preliminary Election Commission data gave the party 1.4 percent. With the given amount of support the party would not enter the Russian parliament but would be eligible to receive state funding if the 3 percent barrier is cleared. Other parties, such as the Communists of Russia, Rodina, the Party of Growth, the People's Freedom Party and the Greens all received less than 3 percent of the vote, according exit polls.

Russia practices what Kremlin calls managed democracy, a system that simulates democratic institutions, to some extent. This tradition is likely to continue. The Kremlins first goal in the 2016 election was to maintain status quo of a dominant United Russia (currently 53 percent) and a loyal opposition of shopworn Communists (20 percent), clownish Liberal Democrats (13 percent), and Just Russia (14 percent). And electoral fraud should not be obvious, since it was rampant cheating that brought protesters to the streets in 2011. The Kremlin replaced the controversial chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC), Vladimir Churov, whom Kremlin critics accused of manipulating the 2011 election. Instead, Putin handed the job over to Ella Pamfilova, a respected human rights activist.

In the last session, the lower legislative chamber, the Duma, and the upper chamber, the Federation Council, passed nearly 2,000 laws, including a record 160 pieces of legislation by the upper house in one day last June. Despite the presence of three blocs in nominal opposition to Putin's ruling United Russia party, most of the measures passed nearly unanimously.

There is no sign that there will be any kind of protest vote. Crackdowns on the opposition over several years have driven Putin critics out of the country or into political inaction. Two Kremlin-critical parties - Yabloko and People's Freedom Party [PARNAS] - were also allowed to participate. Mikhail Kasyanov, a onetime prime minister under Putin who has since joined the opposition, will led the liberal PARNAS party. Prties that manage to win 3 percent or more of the vote they will be eligible to receive state funding to help finance their campaigns. And if they gain 5 percent or more, they would actually win seats in the Duma. In all, 14 parties were allowed to participate in the election campaign - twice as many as in 2011. Despite looser rules, a number of opposition parties were not allowed to run. For instance, the Progress Party, headed by the popular young opposition politician Alexei Navalny, was not registered.

One thing was clear before voting began: When Russian polling stations closed, politics in the country would remain unchanged. The Duma, Russia's parliament, does not dictate policy - the Kremlin does. President Vladimir Putin and his powerful presidential administration call the shots. The Russian constitution, which gives far-reaching powers to the executive, guarantees that the situation remained so. And since being elected to office some 16 years ago, Vladimir Putin continuously stripped the Duma of its independence.

The introduction of a mixed system in the 2016 elections, where half of the lawmakers (225 out of 450) are elected in single-seat constituencies also plays into the hands of United Russia, as it allows candidates who are loyal to the government to stand in the elections not for the party, but allegedly for themselves. Putin can use single-seat constituencies to bring candidates who are loyal to the government and only technically call themselves independent into the State Duma, without causing severe irritation. United Russia may experience difficulties in the constituencies with strong candidates from other parties, who are supported by local elites. A fierce struggle is possible in about 50-60 out of 225 constituencies.

In August 2016, a survey by the independent pollster Levada Center showed showed a reduction in United Russias rating  only 31 percent of respondents expressed willingness to vote for the party in the parliamentary elections if they were to be held the next weekend. This was the lowest result since the beginning of 2016. Analysts attribute the decline in United Russias popularity to the socio-economic crisis in Russia. The crisis was a difficult issue for the ruling party, since it is the authorities that people blame for the deterioration in standards of living. The publics actual attitude to United Russia has deteriorated even in comparison with 2011, when the party's victory in parliamentary elections was followed by mass protests and accusations of fraud. In some regions, the social situation is tense, and it is United Russia that is blamed for this.

Russia's sole independent polling organization, Levada was labeled a "foreign agent" by authorities under a law that bans foreign funding of Russian nongovernmental organizations involved in loosely defined political activities. Levada representatives say their troubles began only after opinion polls showed support for Putin's United Russia party ebbing. The foreign agent" label prevents it from conducting research into yhe September vote.

The authorities tried to raise United Russias rating by getting rid of problematic and unpopular officials associated with the government. One example was the dismissal of Education Minister Dmitry Livanov (Aug. 19) and children's ombudsman Pavel Astakhov (Sept. 9). Livanov was remembered for his reform of the Academy of Sciences, which was unpopular in the scientific community, and Astakhov for his scandalous and tactless statements. In the run-up to the election, the Kremlin decided to get rid of ballast that could pull down the ratings of the government and United Russia, which is associated with it.

Russia's embattled opposition political parties hoped to win a voice in the Kremlin-dominated parliament in the upcoming September 18 elections. Allegations of fraud during the 2011 parliamentary elections sparked mass protests against President Vladimir Putin's rule. But the crackdown that followed was bolstered by nationalist fervor over Russia's annexation of Crimea, further marginalizing dissenting voices.

The Russian political landscape underwent a major change after the Kremlin rolled back its draconian party legislation in a concession to mass protests against United Russias narrow victory in the 2011 Duma elections, which critics said were rigged. The number of political parties in Russia went from seven to 54 over 2012 thanks to the rollback, but next to none of them had any legislative representation, and many are considered Kremlin spoilers.

In December 2012 President Vladimir Putin ordered a bill on election reform drafted by March 2013. The Duma entry threshold at the next Duma vote in 2016 was currently set at 5 percent, but some political consultants advised the bills authors to set it at 3 to 5 percent for single parties and 7 percent for blocs.

Russias ruling party said it would support a Kremlin proposal to lift a ban on electoral blocs, imposed during the partys heyday in the mid-2000s. Sergei Neverov, a Duma Deputy Speaker with United Russia, said 10 January 2013 that the party is ready to support the proposal. But the Duma entry threshold should be higher for blocs than for single parties, and bloc members should be required by law to stick to their election programs, Neverov said.

The reform was championed as benefitting the small non-parliamentary parties, but the flagging party of power, United Russia, would in fact be the main beneficiary. The reintroduction of electoral blocs could allow United Russia to maintain a grip of power by aligning with such spoilers, boosting constituency and presenting a new face to the voters. United Russias support rating is declining in the long term, down from 55 percent in 2009 to 41 percent in December 2012, according to state-run Public Opinion Foundation. The party is struggling with an identity crisis aggravated by the vote-rigging accusations. But the opposition  which criticized the ban on blocs for years  would find it harder to capitalize on its lifting because ideological differences would prevent it from forming a unified bloc.

In April 2013, a new law entered into force in Russia to simplify registration of political parties. By August 2013 more than 70 parties were registered in the country. Most Russians are against having a wide variety of parties, the head of the Public Opinion Foundation told RIA Novosti on 05 August 2013. Some 24 percent showed interest in having multiple parties. They said they liked that because it would probably be better  more ideas, more people, Alexander Oslon said. They were mainly educated Muscovites. Oslon said his remarks were based on surveys conducted in January, April and July. The latest poll on the matter was conducted on July 15-23 in Moscow and involved 1,500 respondents. He added that 57 percent of respondents were against having multiple parties. These people believe that that would mean chaos, two much politicking, he said.

More parties were banned from regional elections in Russia in 2012 than in 2012, despite the Kremlins attempted liberalization of political legislation, a new study reported 14 August 2013. In total, 9.2 percent of the candidate lists submitted by parties for the September 8 elections have been banned, compared with 2.4 percent last year, according to a report by the Civil Initiatives Committee think tank, founded by longtime Kremlin insider-turned-critic Alexei Kudrin, a former finance minister. At least some of the bans were politically motivated, especially those targeting the liberal Republican Party of Russia  Parnas, which had allied with leading anti-Kremlin basher Alexei Navalny for the upcoming mayoral election in Moscow, and billionaire Mikhail Prokhorovs Civil Platform, the report said.

Russian lawmakers approved a bill 14 February 2014 to create a mixed electoral system that will reintroduce single-mandate elections in the next parliamentary vote. The bill submitted to parliament by President Vladimir Putin last year reintroduces voting for individual candidates for half the seats in the 450-member parliament, scrapping the fully closed-list proportional system used in the last two elections. Candidates running for direct election to the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, rather than through party lists, would be required to present signatures in support of their bid from 3 percent of potential voters in their electoral district.

While the rules could open the way for opposition candidates to win in single constituencies, opponents of the law argue its real aim is to ensure the ruling United Russia wins as many seats as possible. In one detail of the legislation that will serve as a blow to smaller parties lacking the resources to ensure nationwide representation at votes, electoral blocs are to be banned. All registered candidates will be entitled to free air time for electoral campaigning. The maximum elections budget is set at 700 million rubles ($3.3 million) for a political party and 15 million rubles ($500,000) for an independent candidate.

Putin reached his highest approval rating since he returned to the Kremlin in 2012, a poll reported 26 February 2014. The survey by the state-run pollster VTsIOM found that 67.7 percent of Russians approved of Putins work as head of state. The survey center said that the peak in popularity was related to the results of the Olympic Games in Sochi, as well as the effect of comparison to the political unrest and specter of civil war in Ukraine.

Putins approval rating rose 5 percent amid the crisis over the Crimean parliament's plan to secede from Ukraine and join Russia, according to a survey published 12 March 2014 by a state-run pollster. According to the Public Opinion Foundation, 53 percent of respondents said they would vote for Putin if presidential elections were held this week, as opposed to 48 percent a week earlier. In regular polls during the past year, respondents said they would vote for Putin about 45 to 47 percent of the time.

Polling data provided by the state-owned All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion, or VTsIOM showed a spike in the Russian president's popularity. According to VTsIOM, Putins approval rating, thanks largely to his handling of Ukraine, hit 71 percent 13 March 2014 -- its highest level since the 68 percent approval rating registered during his May 2012 inauguration.

A poll conducted by All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion on March 20, showed that more than 75 percent of Russians approved of President Putin's work, while in the beginning of March his rating was about 71 percent. Sociologists noted that high approval rating of Putins work was attributed to a good handling of the Ukrainian political crisis and Crimeas referendum held on March 16. The victories of the Russian Olympic and Paralympic teams have also played an important role in growth of the Presidents rating.

If presidential elections were held 30 March 2014 Putin would gain 85-87% of votes, according to Dmitry Abzalov, president of Centre of Strategic Communications. The level of Russian electoral support to incumbent Russian President Vladimir Putin had reached the figures of the country's presidential elections in 2004 for the first time, the presidential rating peak is caused by his responsible actions in view of current crisis in Ukraine, political experts reported in comments on the Public Opinion Fund (FOM) survey results made public on 26 March 2014.

Putin moved the election date from December to September 18 and scheduled debates during August when, according to protesting Communist Party leaders, most of the nation is on vacation or harvesting crops. September 18 falls before the start of the school term, meaning that most students will be at home rather than on the streets of major Russian cities.





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Obama commemorates 9/11, warns of 'evolved' threats

Iran Press TV

Sun Sep 11, 2016 5:28PM

US President Barack Obama has memorialized the September 11, 2001 attacks by warning that America is faced with an "evolved threat" of terrorism.

Speaking at the Pentagon on Sunday, Obama said that terror groups like al-Qaeda and Daesh (ISIL) pose a direct threat against American people, despite sustaining "devastating blows."

"Fifteen years into this fight, the threat has evolved," he said. "Hateful ideologies urge people in their own country to commit unspeakable violence."

"Groups like al Qaeda, like ISIL, know that we will never be able -- they will never be able to defeat a nation as great and as strong as America. So, instead, they've tried to terrorize in the hopes that they can stoke enough fear that we turn on each other and that we change who we are or how we live," he added.

The American head of state then pointed to the "unspeakable violence" that has hit the US as a series of terror attacks in Boston, San Bernardino and Orlando over the past years.

Obama urged Americans to stay true to their "ideals" and "reaffirm our character as a nation," saying that was the best way to honor the victims of the attack.

"We know that our diversity, our patchwork heritage, is not a weakness," he said. "This is the America that was attacked that September morning. This is the America that we must remain true to."

Obama spoke as ceremonies were being held on Sunday across the country to remember the 2,983 people who were killed during the attacks.

This year's ceremonies have been overshadowed by a controversial bill by Congress that allows relatives of the victims to sue Saudi Arabia for compensation.

US officials assert that the attacks were carried out by al-Qaeda terrorists but many experts have raised questions about the official account.

They believe that rogue elements within the US government orchestrated or at least encouraged the 9/11 attacks in coordination with Israeli and Saudi Arabian officials to accelerate the US war machine and advance the Zionist agenda.

Ties between Saudi officials and terrorists behind the 9/11 attacks were exposed when US lawmakers released 28 secret pages of a congressional investigation.

Several suspicious connections were outlined in the report between the 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi citizens, and the monarchy's officials, though no definitive comment were made about the Saudi involvement.

Saudi Arabia has strongly opposed the legislation. It has threatened to sell off $750 billion in American assets if it becomes law.

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Three women killed in attack on police station in Kenya's Mombasa

Iran Press TV

Sun Sep 11, 2016 5:4PM

Three women have been killed while attempting to carry out a knife and firebomb attack on the main police station in the Kenyan city of Mombasa.

According to Mombasa County police chief, Peterson Maelo, the women entered the city's busiest police station on Sunday morning, saying they wanted to report a stolen phone.

One of the women pulled a knife and another threw a petrol bomb, starting a fire.

Two police officers were rushed to hospital with injuries following the attack.

The attackers, believed to have been wearing explosive belts, were gunned down as police fought back.

"[At] 1030 a.m. three women in Buibui attire went to central police station to report about a stolen phone. While the officers were questioning them about the particulars of place where the phones were stolen, one of them immediately drew a knife whereas the other one threw a petrol bomb to the report office personnel. The station caught fire and police reaction lead to the three being shot. Three officers, I mean two officers, were injured. They are in hospital. One had a broken limb, the other one got injured on his arm," Maelo told reporters.

The police chief also termed the deadly assault "an apparent terror attack," while an unnamed police officer noted that "this is terrorism, they were definitely on a mission."

The fire was put out and the station sealed off by heavily armed police officers.

Kenyan law enforcement agencies have launched a probe into the latest assault.

Al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militants, based in Somalia, have claimed responsibility for past attacks in Mombasa and other parts of Kenya, saying they were in retaliation for the country sending its troops to Somalia.

On September 21, 2013, militants killed at least 67 people at Westgate Mall in Kenya's capital, Nairobi.

The Takfiri militants also launched several attacks in 2014 that left more than 100 dead in Lamu County region.

Kenya has been regularly targeted by al-Shabab militants, who are fighting to overthrow the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu, protected by 22,000 African Union soldiers, including Kenyan troops.

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Al-Qaeda leader threatens US with more attacks on 9/11 anniversary

Iran Press TV

Sun Sep 11, 2016 5:35AM

The al-Qaeda terrorist group has released a new video on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, threatening the United States with more such strikes.

"We mark in these days the passage of nearly 15 years since the blessed invasions in Washington, New York, and Pennsylvania," the group's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri said in the video, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group.

Al-Zawahiri also promised that "as long as your crimes continue," then similar events "will be repeated a thousand times."

Experts said the message was an attempt to remind the world that al-Qaeda still exists at a time when it is being overshadowed by the Daesh terror organization.

"All of this is very much, 'Look what we were able to pull off. No one else can do anything like this,'" Nada Bakos, a former CIA officer who tracked al-Qaeda, told ABC News.

Richard Clarke, a former White House counterterrorism adviser, echoed similar views about al-Zawahiri.

"The fact that he is communicating on the anniversary is an attempt by him to remind everybody that he exists and is the nominal head of [al-Qaeda]," Clarke said.

In the video, al-Zawahiri also appeared to be taking a jab at Daesh, saying "real soldiers do not impose themselves on you as rulers without your acceptance and consultation."

Clarke said the al-Qaeda leader is probably hiding somewhere in Pakistan and frequently changing his location to avoid being tracked.

The US is marking the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people and caused about $10 billion in property and infrastructure damage.

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CIA chief warns of Russia's sophisticated hacking capabilities

Iran Press TV

Mon Sep 12, 2016 8:48AM

CIA Director John Brennan warns that the US must be on guard in the face of Russia's "exceptionally capable and sophisticated'' cyber capabilities.

"I think that we have to be very, very wary of what the Russians might be trying to do in terms of collecting information in that cyber realm as well as what they might want to do with it," Brennan said Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation.

The CIA chief refused to give a clear answer when asked whether Russia was trying to influence the US presidential election.

However, he added that the FBI was investigating the recent hack of Democratic National Committee emails.

"We've known this for quite a while. Their intelligence services are quite active around the world," Brennan said.

"And this is something that we have to make sure that we're on guard for, not just for our national security purposes, but also for making sure that our system of government here is going to be preserved," he added.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has been tasked with investigating what officials have described as a "broad covert operation" by Russia to disrupt the November election in the US.

"The Russians hack our systems all the time, not just government but also corporate and personal systems," Clapper said earlier this month at an intelligence and security summit in Washington.

However, the FBI and other counter-intelligence agencies involved in the probe of the DNC hacking have not yet officially attributed the cyber attack to Russian government hackers.

The disclosures, which included a number of embarrassing internal emails, forced DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz to step down.

The campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has blamed Russia for the cyber intrusion, saying the publication of the stolen emails was aimed at helping Republican nominee Donald Trump win the election.

The Kremlin has rejected the hacking accusations, saying it would work with any US administration if they wanted to.

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Politicians, Experts Suspect Russia of Hacking US Political System

By Carolyn Presutti September 12, 2016

The controversy still rages over Russia's possible hacking into computer systems used by American political entities. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has warned Russia not to try to interfere with the U.S. general election in November. Yet Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says he doubts that Russia is involved.

The election -- the heart of U.S. democracy -- is at the center of the debate. But before we tell you how ... a little background.

The system is decentralized. Votes are collected where people live, and then each state sets up its own security, in its own electoral system, to tabulate its votes. This method is intended to reduce fraud.

So imagine the shock when the FBI told Arizona election officials that Russians had hacked into their system. Experts also blame Russia for hacking into Democratic party emails.

A former U.S. ambassador to Georgia and Kazakhstan, William Courtney, writes that Russia will be seen as a "rogue elephant" if it continues its disruptions.

"Great powers have to work with each other to accomplish objectives. So the United States and China are working together on the global warming issue. A great power can't exist in isolation," said Courtney.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump told an interviewer on a Russian TV network that he doubts Russia was involved, and Russian President Vladimir Putin denies any connection to the cyberattacks.

Democratic Senator Ben Cardin believes any attacks would have to have been approved by key leaders.

"You have to believe that at the highest levels, that these strategies have been agreed to," said Cardin.

The worry now for Republican Senator Bob Corker is of any Russian tampering in the general election, which will choose the next U.S. president.

"If they can demonstrate that ... maybe they affected it, obviously that creates distrust in the outcome, [and] instability, so that's a big win for them," said Corker.

Remember the separate state electoral systems? Courtney suggests the Department of Homeland Security should protect election systems as part of the nation's "critical infrastructures."

"That would mean that the U.S. government will be actively involved to encourage those organizations that have good cyber hygiene, to have good anti-virus protections and other things," said Courtney.

But that may be too late to do that for the presidential election, now less than 60 days away.

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China, Russia navies to hold navy drill in South China Sea

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 14:16, September 11, 2016

BEIJING, Sept. 11 -- China and Russia will stage an eight-day Navy drill in the South China Sea off southern China's Guangdong Province starting Monday, a Chinese Navy spokesperson said Sunday.

The drill, "Joint Sea-2016," will feature Navy surface ships, submarines, fixed-wing aircraft, ship-borne helicopters marine corps and amphibious armored equipment from both navies, according to spokesperson Liang Yang. Most of the Chinese participants will come from the Nanhai Fleet under the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).

Together, Chinese and Russian participants will undertake defense, rescue, and anti-submarine operations, in addition to joint-island seizing missions and other activities, Liang said.

The marine corps, in particular, will carry out live-fire drills, sea crossing and island landing operations, and island defense and offense exercises among others, he said.

Liang said the drill, from Sept. 12-19, is part of an annual program, which aims to consolidate and advance the Sino-Russian comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, and deepen friendly and practical cooperation between the two militaries.

It will also improve coordination between the two navies on joint defense operations at sea, he said.

Earlier reports in July quoted a Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson as saying that the drill "does not target any third party."

The annual China-Russia joint naval exercise is the fifth of its kind between the two countries since 2012. The drills were held in 2012 in the Yellow Sea; off the coast of Russia's Far East in 2013; and in the East China Sea in 2014.

In 2015, the drill was conducted in two phases: in the Mediterranean in May and then in the Peter the Great Gulf, the waters off the Clerk Cape, and the Sea of Japan in late August.

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Security Council strongly condemns DPRK nuclear test

10 September 2016  The United Nations Security Council has strongly condemned the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) nuclear test on 9 September and said it is a clear violation of repeated calls on the country to halt such activity.

In a press statement issued late yesterday evening, after the Council held urgent consultations on the situation, the 15-member body underlined that the test is a clear violation and "in flagrant disregard" of Security Council resolutions 1718 (2006), 1874 (2009), 2087 (2013), 2094 (2013) and 2270 (2016), as well as of the non-proliferation regime.

"Therefore a clear threat to international peace and security continues to exist," the statement said.

Furthermore, members the Council also recalled that they had previously expressed their determination to take further significant measures in the event of another DPRK nuclear test.

"In line with this commitment and the gravity of this violation, the members of the Security Council will begin to work immediately on appropriate measures under Article 41 in a Security Council resolution," said the statement.

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DPRK Foreign Ministry Spokesman Refutes Obama's "Statement" against Nuclear Warheads Explosive Test

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK via Korea News Service (KNS)

Pyongyang, September 11 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK issued the following statement on Sunday:

Scientists and technicians of the Nuclear Weapons Institute of the DPRK successfully conducted a nuclear explosive test for judging the power of nuclear warheads. Much upset by this, the Obama group has gone foolish in its moves to incite an atmosphere of putting pressure and stifling the DPRK and to cover up its failed DPRK policy by branding the DPRK as the "harasser of peace".

On Friday Obama personally made public a "statement" in which he branded the DPRK's nuclear warheads explosive test as a "threat" and "provocation" to peace and security and "ignorance" of the international norms of practices, adding that he will never acknowledge the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state but will cooperate with the international community to take additional crucial measures.

The nuclear warheads explosive test was a demonstration of the toughest will of the DPRK that showed it is ready to counterattack the enemies if they make a provocation as it was part of the substantial countermeasures to the threat of a nuclear war and sanctions racket kicked up by the hostile forces including the U.S.

We are holding fast to the line of simultaneously developing the two fronts to safeguard the sovereignty, right to existence and peace from the ever-increasing nuclear threat and blackmail of the U.S., and the recent test was just part of the whole course of implementing the line.

With the end of its tenure nearing the Obama group has faced a flurry of censures from the public at home and abroad for its totally bankrupt DPRK policy which only resulted in compelling the DPRK to increase its nuclear attack capabilities moment by moment.

Obama's recent publication of the "statement" is aimed to shift the blame for pushing the DPRK to have access to nukes and save even a bit his face that was completely lost before the world.

The U.S. is the very one which compelled the DPRK to develop nuclear warheads, and its nuclear threat and blackmail that have constantly been posed to the DPRK almost every day for the past decades have been an engine which pushed the DPRK to reach this point.

Obama is trying hard to deny the DPRK's strategic position as a legitimate nuclear weapons state but it is as foolish an act as trying to eclipse the sun with a palm.

It is foolhardy for the Obama group to get itself busy while crying out for the senseless sanctions ballad even today when its "strategic patience" policy became totally bankrupt and it is nearing the end of its tenure.

As was already clarified, we will continue to take measures for increasing the nuclear force of the country in quality and in quantity to safeguard the dignity and the right to existence of the DPRK and ensure genuine peace from the U.S. increasing threat of a nuclear war. -0-

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US must recognize N Korea as nuclear-weapon state: Pyongyang

Iran Press TV

Sun Sep 11, 2016 12:57PM

North Korea has stated its demand for being recognized as a "legitimate" nuclear-weapon country in the wake of Pyongyang's recent nuclear test.

A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman in Pyongyang was quoted by the official KCNA news agency on Sunday as mocking US President Barack Obama's "totally bankrupt" policy toward North Korea.

"Obama is trying hard to deny the DPRK (North Korea)'s strategic position as a legitimate nuclear-weapon state, but it is as foolish an act as trying to eclipse the sun with a palm."

The unnamed spokesman said a push for imposing more sanctions following North Korea's fifth and biggest nuclear test was "laughable," adding, "The group of Obama's running around and talking about meaningless sanctions until today is highly laughable, when their 'strategic patience' policy is completely worn out and they are close to packing up to move out."

The KCNA said North Koreans were delighted by Friday's test, which came only eight months after the previous one and was almost twice as powerful, at an estimated 10 kilotons. North Korea has vowed to increase its nuclear strike force "in quality and in quantity."

US, allies vow punitive measures

Sung Kim, the US State Department's special representative for North Korea policy, said during his visit to Japan that Washington and Tokyo would work closely in the United Nations Security Council and beyond "to come up with the strongest possible measure against North Korea's latest action."

Meanwhile, referring to Friday's phone conversation between President Park Geun-hye and Obama, South Korea's Senior Presidential Secretary for Foreign Affairs Kim Kyou-Hyun said the United States had vowed to defend Seoul using "all means available," including the nuclear umbrella and conventional forces.

Russia, China urge restraint

Russia, however, has urged the international community to find more "creative" ways to respond to North Korea's nuclear ambitions than merely imposing sanctions on the country.

"The current situation shows that diplomats should be more creative than just responding by sanctions, sanctions and sanctions again on any aggravation of the situation," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a joint news conference with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Geneva, Switzerland, on Saturday.

China, for its part, has said that all parties in the international community should exercise restraint following the test as it is in nobody's interest for there to be chaos or war on the Korean Peninsula.

In a commentary on Friday, China's state-run news agency Xinhua said North Korea's nuclear test is "not wise," but South Korea's decision to deploy an advanced US anti-missile system has also seriously damaged regional strategic balance.

In January, North Korea said it had successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb, its fourth nuclear test, and vowed to build up its nuclear program as deterrence against potential aggression from the US and its regional allies.

North Korea says it will not give up on its nuclear "deterrence" unless Washington ends its hostile policy toward Pyongyang and dissolves the US-led command in South Korea. Thousands of US soldiers are stationed in South Korea and Japan.

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US may impose unilateral sanctions on North Korea: Envoy

Iran Press TV

Sun Sep 11, 2016 6:56AM

The United States may impose unilateral sanctions on North Korea over its recent nuclear test, an American special envoy to the isolated state says.

On Friday, North Korea said it had conducted a successful "nuclear warhead explosion" test, which marked the country's fifth and biggest nuclear test so far.

"Our nuclear scientists staged a nuclear explosion test on a newly developed nuclear warhead at the country's northern nuclear test site," said a TV announcer.

The United Nations Security Council said Friday that it would begin to prepare a new round of sanctions against North Korea.

On Sunday, US special envoy Sung Kim said that the US, South Korea and Japan will launch their own sanctions against the North.

"In addition to action in the Security Council, both the US and Japan, together with the Republic of Korea, will be looking at unilateral measures, as well as bilateral measures, as well as possible trilateral cooperation," Kim told reporters in Tokyo after meeting Japanese foreign ministry officials.

He said the specific details of the US unilateral sanctions had yet to be decided, but added that both the US and Japan were looking at "a full range of possibilities, in terms of additional unilateral sanctions that can be implemented."

"We will be working very closely in the Security Council and beyond to come up with the strongest possible measure against North Korea's latest actions," Kim added.

US sanctions push 'laughable'

A defiant Pyongyang dismissed the new push for sanctions as "laughable" and vowed to continue to bolster its nuclear capabilities.

"The group of [President Barack] Obama's running around and talking about meaningless sanctions until today is highly laughable, when their 'strategic patience' policy is completely worn out and they are close to packing up to move out," a foreign ministry spokesman said on Sunday as quoted by the official KNCA news agency.

"As we've made clear, measures to strengthen the national nuclear power in quality and quantity will continue to protect our dignity and right to live from augmented threats of nuclear war from the United States," the official added.

The spokesperson also urged the US to recognize North Korea as a "legitimate nuclear weapons state."

North Korea has pledged to develop a robust nuclear arsenal to protect itself from the US military, which occasionally deploys nuclear-powered warships and aircraft capable of carrying atomic weapons in the region.

Pyongyang is discontent with joint military drills held in the Korean Peninsula by the South and the US as well as their plan to deploy the THAAD missile system in the region.

The country has been hit by five sets of UN sanctions since it first tested a nuclear device in 2006.

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US, Japan Consider More Sanctions Against Pyongyang Following Nuclear Test

By VOA News September 11, 2016

The United States is considering more unilateral sanctions against North Korea following Pyongyang's fifth and largest nuclear test.

Speaking in Tokyo Sunday, U.S. Special Representative to North Korea policy Sung Kim said "In addition to action in the (U.N.) Security Council, both the U.S. and Japan" along with South Korea "will be looking at unilateral measures, as well as bilateral" and trilateral measures of cooperation. He gave no details of what those measures might be.

Kim made the comments after meeting with with Japanese Foreign Ministry officials, calling Pyongyang's behavior "destabilizing."

Hours later, North Korea called efforts to add sanctions "laughable," and vowed to strengthen its nuclear program even further. A Foreign Ministry statement said Pyongyang will work to step up its nuclear force "in quality and in quantity." North Korea claims it needs a strong nuclear weapons program to protect itself from U.S. aggression.

South Korea and the United States are reported to have begun their search for radioactive materials following the nuclear test. The investigation team will collect air and water samples to test for radioactive material such as xenon, Yonhap reported.

South Korea said Saturday that the North's capabilities were rapidly expanding, echoing concerns from world leaders about the latest nuclear test.

"It is believed that the North's nuclear capability is becoming more advanced to a considerable level, and at a faster pace," South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se told senior ministry officials in a meeting Saturday, calling for "more and stronger sanctions."

China also spoke out against North Korea's nuclear tests, saying they were "not conducive to the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula."

"China urges North Korea not to take any more actions that could exacerbate tensions, and return as soon as possible to the correct direction of denuclearization," Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui told North Korea's ambassador to China.

The latest and possibly strongest North Korean nuclear test ever occurred as U.S. President Barack Obama was returning to Washington from his trip to Asia. Obama condemned the attacks Friday.

The U.N. Security Council met in a closed session Friday afternoon in New York. The council president, New Zealand Ambassador Gerard van Bohemen, told reporters that the 15 members strongly condemned the underground nuclear test and agreed to "work immediately on appropriate measures."

The explosive yield of Friday's test, a magnitude 5.3 seismic event, was estimated at 10 kilotons.

The last serious talks with North Korea on denuclearization, the six-party talks, ended in 2009.

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People-First Principle Is Life and Soul of WPK

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK via Korea News Service (KNS)

Pyongyang, September 12 (KCNA) -- A life and death drive is now under way in the areas along the River Tuman in the northern tip of Korea to recover from the severest natural disaster since the liberation of Korea.

The Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) sent an appeal to all the party members, service personnel of the Korean People's Army and other people to achieve a miraculous victory in the operations for recovering from the disaster in the northern areas of North Hamgyong Province by dint of the great single-minded unity in view of the prevailing emergency situation.

The main thrust of the 200-day campaign to glorify this significant year as the one of victors is directed to the sites for recovering from the flood damage in the above-said areas and main units active in major sites are rapidly dispatched to those areas.

Our Party took an important measure of letting the whole Party and army and all people focus all their efforts on the rehabilitation operations. Even the construction of Ryomyong Street nearing completion was suspended and all construction forces, equipment and materials to be used for it are diverted to those operations.

The primary thrust in the rehabilitation campaign is to build dwelling houses for the flood-hit people.

The WPK made this resolute and unwavering decision because it regards the people-first principle as its life and soul.

It is the party representing and protecting the interests of the people and serving them.

The Party's final purpose is to fully realize the independence of the popular masses and the Party regards it as the overriding principle of its activities to steadily improve the people's living standard.

From the very day of its founding the Party has enforced the politics of love and trust with the firm political creed of regarding the people as Heaven.

The people's wishes have been a barometer and starting point of all thinking and practices and the people's voices have been reflected in the Party's lines, policies and action programmes.

The nomenclature, army and many monumental edifices were named after the people and the historic tasks of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution, socialist revolution and building of a powerful socialist country were successfully carried out in conformity with the people's aspiration and will.

Such people-oriented policies as free medical treatment and free compulsory educational system were consistently enforced even during the Arduous March, the forced march, prompted by the new viewpoint of the WPK that the people's interests precisely mean profitability and no calculation is made in the work for the people.

An important decision was made to build new dwelling houses for those inhabitants whose houses were expected to come under water though the construction of power stations might be hindered and this principle is abided by as a formula in the field of power station construction. This epic of love could be created only by the WPK which is fully responsible for the destiny of the people.

Marshal Kim Jong Un made a classical formulation that Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism is, in essence, the people-first principle for the first time in history and is adding shine to the new history of prioritizing, respecting and loving the people on this land with warm loving care.

The slogan "Everything for the people and everything by relying on them!" reflects the will of Kim Jong Un to let the entire Party make selfless, devoted efforts for the good of the people.

The miracles performed in the drive to recover from the flood damage that hit Rason last year clearly proved in practice that there is no more urgent emergency for the Party than the pain being suffered by the people and no more important revolutionary work than alleviating their misfortune.

The flood-hit people and other people across the country turned out as one in the campaign to recover from the disaster with their absolute trust in the Party.

The WPK will bring the people in the above-said areas a new happier life by working unheard-of miracles in the rehabilitation operations by dint of the great single-minded unity. -0-

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Anti-Pyongyang sanctions can lead to a dead end: Beijing

Iran Press TV

Mon Sep 12, 2016 9:5AM

China says sanctions alone cannot solve the North Korean nuclear issue as the UN and the US are pushing for fresh bans against Pyongyang following its recent nuclear test.

On Friday, North Korea said it had conducted a successful "nuclear warhead explosion" test, which marked the country's fifth and biggest nuclear test so far.

Following the test, the United Nations Security Council said it would begin to prepare a new round of sanctions against Pyongyang.

On Sunday, US special envoy Sung Kim said that the US, South Korea and Japan would launch their own sanctions against the North.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Monday that unilateral action can only lead to a dead end.

The diplomat said the crux of the issue lies with United States not China, adding Beijing has made many efforts to uphold peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

Japan's Kyodo news agency said on Monday North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong had arrived in Beijing which has called for restraint following the nuclear test.

China's Foreign Ministry has said it was "firmly opposed" to the test but called for the issue to be resolved through six-party talks. The long-stalled negotiations process chaired by China brings together the two Koreas, Japan, Russia and the United States.

Pyongyang dismissed the new push for sanctions as "laughable" and vowed to continue to "strengthen the national nuclear power in quality and quantity."

North Korea has pledged to develop a robust nuclear arsenal to protect itself from the US military, which occasionally deploys nuclear-powered warships and aircraft capable of carrying atomic weapons in the region.

Pyongyang is discontent with joint military drills held on the Korean Peninsula by the South and the US as well as their plan to deploy the so-called Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in the region.

The country has been hit by five sets of UN sanctions since it first tested a nuclear device in 2006.

Flooding kills 133 in North Korea: UN

The new push for fresh sanctions comes as North Korea is grappling with the aftermath of a devastating flooding.

According to a Sunday statement by the UN, some 133 people have so far been killed while 393 others remain unaccounted for after the worst downpour pounded northeastern part of the county.

Citing Pyongyang government figures, the statement said that some 107,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the area along the Tumen River, which partially marks the border with China and Russia.

It also said that over 35,500 houses have been hit by floods, with 69 percent of them completely destroyed, and 8,700 public buildings damaged.

Around 16,000 hectares (39,540 acres) of farmland have been inundated and at least 140,000 people urgently need help, it added.

State media said Sunday that people in North Hamgyong province were suffering "great hardship," urging all soldiers and civilians to join a drive to help victims.

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Iraq 'deeply satisfied' with expulsion of anti-Iran MKO terrorists

Iran Press TV

Sun Sep 11, 2016 4:57AM

Iraq has hailed the expulsion of the remaining members of the anti-Iran terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), describing the eviction process as an "outstanding success."

In a statement released on its website on Saturday, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry voiced its "deep satisfaction" with the relocation of the last group of the MKO members from Camp Hurriyet (Camp Liberty), a former US military base in Baghdad, "abroad...at the request of the Iraqi government."

The statement was published one day after the terror group said the last 280 of its members were all flown to Albania. The UN refugee agency also confirmed the transfer.

Iraqi leaders had long urged MKO remnants to leave the Middle Eastern state, but a complete eviction of the terrorists had been hampered due to the US and European support for the terrorist outfit.

International efforts to solve the crisis were met with "an outstanding success," the statement read, adding that Baghdad "has fulfilled all of its commitments in accordance with [the] Memorandum of Understanding signed with [the] UN in 2011 concerning the resettlement of members of Mujahedin-e Khalq in other countries."

It further expressed "gratitude for the measures and efforts" by the world body and a number of its member states, including Albania, that helped facilitate the relocation.

In 1986, the MKO members fled Iran for Iraq, where they received support from the then Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, and set up Camp Ashraf, now known as Camp New Iraq, in Diyala Province near the Iranian border.

In December 2011, the UN and Baghdad agreed to relocate some 3,000 MKO members from Camp Ashraf to Camp Hurriyet.

The last group of the MKO terrorists was evicted in September 2013 and relocated to Camp Hurriyet to await transfer to third countries.

The MKO, the most hated terrorist group among the Iranians, has carried out numerous terrorist attacks against Iranian civilians and government officials over the past three decades.

Out of the nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist assaults since the victory of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, about 12,000 have fallen victim to MKO's acts of terror.

There has also been a deep-seated resentment toward the outfit in Iraq both for its criminal past and its full support for Saddam in the brutal crackdown on his opponents.

Washington and the EU have removed the MKO from their lists of terrorist organizations. The anti-Iran terrorists enjoy freedom of activity in the US and Europe, and even hold meetings with American and EU officials.

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Russian Specialists Start Developing Reactor for Iranian Bushehr NPP - Official

Sputnik News

16:44 11.09.2016

A Russian state company specializing in production of nuclear power plant reactors begins drafting a reactor facility destined for the Iranian Busher NPP, a senior official of the manufacturing corporation said on Sunday.

BUSHEHR (Sputnik)  On Saturday, a ceremony devoted to the start of the construction was held in the Bushehr province. The Russian Experimental Design Bureau (OKB) Gidropress, a subsidiary of the state atomic energy corporation Rosatom, will be responsible for the development of a reactor for the NPP.

"The contract was signed with the OKB Gidropress, the development [of the reactor project] starts from the date of commencement of work on the Bushehr 2 NPP project, on September 10, 2016, " Valery Limarenko, the president of JSC NIAEP-holding Company within JSC Atomstroyexport, part of Rosatom, told reporters.

The Bushehr 2 project was rolled out by Russian nuclear experts in Tehran in 2014. Russia and Iran signed a deal to build the second and third reactors at the site in southern Iran in November that year, with an option of building six more in the future.

The Bushehr NPP will include two power units with a Water-Water Energetic Reactor, VVER-1000, the initial version of which was developed in Russia in the 1960s. Currently, this type of reactor is the most widespread in its series as there are 34 such operating reactors all over the world.

 Sputnik

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South Korea Develops Plan to Annihilate Pyongyang in Case of War

Sputnik News

07:42 11.09.2016

South Korea reportedly has developed a preemptive attack plan against North Korea aiming to destroy the northern capital Pyongyang in case of a nuclear attack emanating from the north.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  South Korea has developed a preemptive attack plan against North Korea aiming to destroy the northern capital Pyongyang in case of a nuclear attack emanating from the north, local media said Sunday.

"Every Pyongyang district, particularly where the North Korean leadership is possibly hidden, will be completely destroyed by ballistic missiles and high-explosive shells as soon as the North shows any signs of using a nuclear weapon. In other words, the North's capital city will be reduced to ashes and removed from the map," a South Korean military source told the Yonhap news agency.

The plan provides for the use of South Korean-made Hyunmoo ballistic missiles with ranges of up to 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) to mainly target the North Korean leadership in cases of both nuclear and conventional war being attempted by the north, according to the source.

North Korea confirmed on Friday that it had carried out a nuclear test in the country's northeast. The blast is believed to be the fifth and largest since Pyongyang began pursuing nuclear and ballistic missile programs, drawing condemnation from the international community.

In response to the test, the South Korean Defense Ministry presented the Massive Punishment & Retaliation (KMPR) concept which reportedly contains the plans to annihilate sections of the North Korean capital.

 Sputnik

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Ahrar al-Sham terrorists say ceasefire reinforces Syrian government

Iran Press TV

Sun Sep 11, 2016 10:45PM

The Saudi-backed Ahrar al-Sham terrorist group has rejected a US, Russia brokered ceasefire just hours before its implementation.

The truce deal, negotiated by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, is set to enter into force on Monday, the first day of the Muslim holidays of Eid al-Adha (the Feast of Sacrifice).

The rejection was announced by a top-ranking member of the group via a video statement released on YouTube on Monday. The terrorist group claims that abiding to the truce would only "reinforce" the Syrian government and "increase the suffering" of civilians.

"The people cannot accept half-solutions," said the group's deputy leader Ali al-Omar in the video.

The group is a close affiliate of the Fateh al-Sham Front, formerly named the Nusra Front, and is mostly active in Syria's northern regions. In May, the US blocked Russia's bid at the UN to add Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham to the list of terrorist groups because of their ties to al-Qaeda and Daesh.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. Over the past few months, the Takfiri militants active in the Arab country have suffered major setbacks as the Syrian army has managed to liberate several areas.

According to United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, more than 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Syria. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in Syria, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.

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Iran welcomes truce agreement in Syria: Spokesman

Iran Press TV

Sun Sep 11, 2016 11:31AM

Iran has welcomed a Russia-US mediated ceasefire agreement in Syria aimed at putting an end to more than five years of deadly conflict gripping the Arab country.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran always welcomes a ceasefire in Syria and the facilitation of the access of all the country's people to humanitarian aid," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Bahram Qassemi, said on Sunday.

The truce deal negotiated by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is set to enter into force on Monday, the first day of the Muslim holidays of Eid al-Adha (the Feast of Sacrifice).

Syria's official SANA news agency reported that the Damascus government had approved the agreement, which promises a nationwide truce, improved access for humanitarian aid and joint military operations against terrorist positions.

The ceasefire does not include the terrorist groups of Daesh and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, al-Qaeda's Syrian branch formerly known as al-Nusra Front, as well as newly-established terrorist splinter groups, Qassemi said.

"Taking into account the experience of the past few months, the ceasefire should be sustainable and have implementation guarantees and should not be exploited as an opportunity for the reinforcement and delivery of arms and militants to terrorist groups," he added.

The Iranian official also called on the international community "to confront the Takfiri extremist terrorism seriously, resolutely, unconditionally and relentlessly."

"As the Syrian government has reiterated  the maintenance and prevalence of the truce hinges on the establishment of a comprehensive monitoring mechanism, especially border controls to prevent the dispatch of fresh terrorists and shipment of weapons and other material resources for the terror groups," he pointed out.

Qassemi further noted that the Islamic Republic has always emphasized that a halt in fighting and a political solution constitute the only way out of the Syria crisis.

Also on Sunday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari reaffirmed Tehran's positive outlook on the Syrian truce, saying that any agreement on and solution to the Syria conflict should have humanitarian, security and political aspects.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has always emphasized that the Syria conflict has no military solution and should be settled through peaceful means, he added.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. Over the past few months, the Takfiri militants active in the Arab country have suffered major setbacks as the Syrian army has managed to liberate several areas.

According to United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, more than 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Syria. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in Syria, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.

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Syrian soldiers, allied forces repel militant assault on Quneitra

Iran Press TV

Sun Sep 11, 2016 10:23AM

Syrian army soldiers, backed by allied fighters from popular defense groups, have managed to thwart an offensive by terrorists on a region in the country's strategic southwestern province of Quneitra.

The Syrian Defense Ministry said that Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly known as al-Nusra Front) terrorists launched an attack against the Tal Ahmar area of Quneitra, situated some 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of the capital, Damascus, on Saturday, prompting a fierce gun battle with Syrian soldiers and fighters from popular defense groups.

Scores of terrorists were killed and injured in the fighting, and a considerable amount of their munitions was destroyed.

Israeli military aircraft later carried out a number of airstrikes against Tal Ahmar in the wake of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham's defeat.

Meanwhile, seven Israeli ambulances carried the wounded militants away from Jubata al-Khashab Village in southern Syria to a field hospital inside the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories to treat them, Lebanon's Arabic-language al-Ahed news website reported.

There are also reports that Syrian army soldiers have lobbed a barrage of mortar shells at militant positions inside Turnejeh and Jubata al-Khashab villages, leaving seven terrorists dead.

Damascus says the Tel Aviv regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding the Takfiri militant groups fighting against the Syrian government.

Israel has spent millions of dollars for the treatment of terrorists injured in fighting with Syrian government forces, documents from Israeli hospitals reportedly show.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. Damascus says Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar are the main supporters of the militants fighting the government forces.

According an estimate by Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations special envoy for Syria, some 400,000 people have lost their lives as a result of over five years of conflict in Syria.

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Syria Cease-Fire Agreement Gets Cautious Welcome

By Steve Herman September 11, 2016

Syria says the Damascus government of embattled President Bashar al-Assad had accepted the cease-fire deal brokered by its Russian ally and the United States.

"A cessation of hostilities will begin in Aleppo for humanitarian reasons," the Syrian news agency SANA said. Hours later, the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside Assad loyalists, said it also would honor the cease-fire, while vowing to defend itself if attacked.

Turkey, which sent its military into the multisided conflict late last month, also announced support for the truce, which is to begin at sunset Monday.

The agreement was announced early Saturday in Geneva jointly by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced the agreement jointly in Geneva early Saturday.

Syrian opposition forces also said they welcomed the deal. However, since they feel neither Russian nor Syrian government forces adhered to earlier cease-fire plans, they said they doubted that a cease-fire could hold.

Moscow's influence on Damascus "is the only way to get the regime to comply," said a statement issued by Bassma Kodmani of the High Negotiations Committee of the Syrian Opposition.

Fighting rages despite deal

The complex and partly secret truce had little if any impact in or near war-ravaged Aleppo, as fighting raged and fatalities mounted Saturday.

An activist collective known as the Aleppo Media Center reported at least 45 people had been killed in rebel-held parts of the city, while the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights placed the regional death toll at 69.

Beyond the cease-fire, the primary aim of the United States, the United Nations and nongovernmental groups active in Syria was arranging broader access for humanitarian aid to residents of the besieged city, once Syria's biggest population center, which has been cut off from outside help for months.

If there is "reduced violence" in Syria for seven consecutive days after the truce begins Monday, and if sufficient humanitarian aid is allowed into Aleppo, a senior U.S. State Department official said, "the two main events of this agreement start to take effect."

With analysis and criticism of the conditions "going a little bit sideways" on social media, the senior U.S. official emphasized that "you're not going to see calm in Syria anytime soon."

If the Muslim Eid holiday, which begins at sunset Monday, is followed by a week of diminished violence, the United States and Russia are to begin coordinated airstrikes against the jihadist al-Nusra Front, as well as the so-called Islamic State group. And after those strikes get underway, the agreement then calls for the Syrian air force to cease all strikes against areas held by opposition forces. The regime's tactics throughout the conflict have produced heavy civilian casualty tolls.

Speaking Saturday, Kerry said Syrian government "air attacks have been the main driver of civilian casualties and migration flows and the most frequent violations of the hostilities."

"Halting all of the regime's military air activities in key areas  key areas that are defined  should put an end to barrel bombs and indiscriminate bombing of civilian neighborhoods," Kerry said, adding that this would "change the nature of the conflict," now more than 5 years old.

Syria set to cooperate

Lavrov told reporters that Moscow had informed the Syrian government about the arrangements, "and it is ready to fulfill them." Russia's top diplomat added that "no one can give a 100 percent guarantee" that the truce and other measures to follow will succeed, since there are forces in the region that will try to undermine the international agreement.

The United Nations' special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, briefly joined Kerry and Lavrov at the podium in Geneva to welcome the U.S.-Russian agreement. He said it created a "real window of opportunity which all relevant actors in the region and beyond should seize, to put the crisis in Syria on a different path and reduce the violence and suffering of the Syrian people."

Russia wants to see Syria's Assad stay in power, while moderate opposition forces and Turkey insist no transition deal can allow him to retain power for any period of time. The United States has long held that the Syrian leader cannot lead any future government, because of his brutal repression of all opposition throughout his time in power, long before the civil war broke out in early 2011.

If the U.S.-Russian agreement holds, Kerry said, it could lead to political transition and reverse the current trend of "simply creating more terrorists, more extremists and destroying the country in the process."

The Obama administration has repeatedly stated there is no military solution to the prolonged Syrian crisis, which has killed hundreds of thousands of Syrians and displaced 12 million people from their homes, according to U.N. estimates.

"Out of all this complexity is emerging now a simple choice between war and peace, between human agony and humanitarian relief, between the continued disintegration of an ancient society and the rebirth of a united and modern nation," Kerry told reporters before flying back home.

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Syrian Ceasefire: Washington Orders Rebels to Disband From al-Qaeda Linked Group

Sputnik News

01:36 12.09.2016(updated 02:57 12.09.2016)

The armed Syrian opposition to President Bashar al-Assad were told that they have a right to defend themselves and retaliate should they come under fire in a letter from the US government.

Washington called on the Syrian armed opposition to stick to the breakthrough US-Russia deal and demanded that the so-called "moderate" rebels immediately disband from the allegiance with Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the rebranded name for the long-time Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda, the al-Nusra Front.

The letter coming on the 15th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks highlight the curious position that the Obama administration finds itself in Syria working alongside militants who are closely tied with the great granddaddy of the War on Terror  al-Qaeda  who perpetrated the most heinous attack ever committed on US soil.

US-backed rebels dominating Eastern Aleppo had joined forces with al-Nusra under the umbrella banner of The Army of Conquest in order to beat back the Assad regime's siege of the city that prevented arms and re-enforcements into the area but also deprived the area's residents of food and medical aid as an unintended, and arguably necessary, consequence.

Social media accounts from the rebels in addition to monitors indicate that the al-Nusra terrorists were the vanguard of the fighting force that broke through the Aleppo siege last month in a major military offensive that surprised many military analysts, but the siege has since been restored after forces loyal to the Assad government beat back the rebels in recent weeks.

Russia made clear that the separation of the rebels from hardline terrorists like al-Nusra was a cornerstone of the deal, but many of the American-backed militants are not all too eager to part ways.

"Fateh al-Sham is a faction present on the ground and it takes part in most of the military operations, and the matter of separating it is not possible, particularly given that there are attempts to merge, within some factions, with Fateh al Sham," said Fares al-Bayoush, commander of the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) unit "Northern Division" as cited by Reuters.

The potential unwillingness of the rebels to comply with the demands laid out by Washington, and the group's own admission that they are inextricably intertwined with the terrorist organization highlights the fate of the Obama administration's current strategy aligned with the same terrorists who brought down the Twin Towers in an attempt to wage a proxy war against the Assad government instead of focusing its aims on destroying and degrading the terrorist group Daesh (ISIS).

 Sputnik

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Free Syrian Army Supports Fight Against al-Nusra Front Terrorist Group

Sputnik News

04:01 11.09.2016(updated 11:39 11.09.2016)

The Free Syrian Army (FSA) supports the fight against Jabhat Fatah al Sham (previously known as al-Nusra Front) terrorist group in Syria, Osama Abu Zeid, an FSA legal adviser, said Sunday.

DUBAI (Sputnik)  On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry announced a new plan aimed at reducing violence in Syria, which includes a new nationwide ceasefire starting on September 12. The agreement also stipulates distinguishing moderate opposition groups from terrorist groups, which is something Russia has been insisting on as being key to the fight against terrorism.

"Regarding the clauses of the agreement on carrying out strikes against Jabhat Fatah al Sham, of course we do not want al-Qaeda to have a presence in Syria," Abu Zeid told RIA Novosti.

At the same time, the representative criticized the agreement for omitting alleged Iranian, Iraqi and Lebanese Shiite fighters present in Syria and fighting on the side of government forces.

"The agreement inexplicably ignores all foreign terrorist groups fighting on the side of the [Syrian President Bashar] Assad regime," he said.

The United States have reportedly urged Syria's moderate opposition groups to adhere to the new Russian-US agreement and threatened grave consequences unless opposition groups distance themselves from terrorists.

Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to President Bashar Assad fighting numerous opposition factions and extremist groups, such as Jabhat Fatah al Sham and Daesh. Both groups are outlawed in many countries, including the United States and Russia, and are not covered by the ceasefire agreement.

 Sputnik

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Free Syrian Army Ready for New Ceasefire if Syrian Government Complies

Sputnik News

02:39 11.09.2016(updated 02:44 11.09.2016)

The Free Syrian Army (FSA) armed opposition group is ready to uphold the Syrian ceasefire if the country's government and Russia do likewise, Osama Abu Zeid, an FSA legal adviser, said Sunday.

DUBAI (Sputnik)  On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry announced a new plan aimed at reducing violence in Syria, which includes a new nationwide ceasefire starting on September 12.

"The upholding of the ceasefire by the armed opposition depends on being upheld by the regime and by Russia, the previous agreement was not upheld by the regime, which attacked moderate opposition under the pretext of fighting the Islamic State," Abu Zeid told RIA Novosti.

At the same time, the FSA is not optimistic about the government's ability to commit to the ceasefire, he added.

"For us, the protection of the civilian population is important, and we want to establish a real truce in order to protect civilians, but our experience of interacting with the regime totally precludes us from such optimism," the representative said.

Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to President Bashar Assad fighting numerous opposition factions and extremist groups, such as the Islamic State, which is outlawed in many countries, including Russia.

 Sputnik

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Syrian Ceasefire Begins at 16:00 GMT on Monday - Russian Defense Ministry

Sputnik News

18:07 12.09.2016(updated 21:14 12.09.2016)

The ceasefire in Syria agreed by Russia and the United States has begun at 16:00 GMT, the Russian General Staff announced Monday.

"In line with the [Russia-US] agreements, the ceasefire regime on the whole territory of the Syrian Arab Republic comes into force on Monday at 19:00 pm Moscow time [16:00 GMT]," Chief of the General Staff's Main Operational Directorate Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy said.

Moreover, Russia and the US are setting up a joint center to designate terrorist targets in Syria. Russian military jets will continue to carry out strikes against terrorist targets, he said.

"The Russian Aerospace Forces will continue airstrikes against terrorist targets in Syria. The Russian and US sides create a joint center that will help coordinate strikes by Russian and US-led coalition's aircraft to designate targets."

The Russian general emphasized that the fight against terrorist groups, Daesh and Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, "will continue regardless of any changes of names."

Damascus has agreed to abide by the ceasefire deal and halt military operations, he said.

"The Syrian side has been informed of the conditions of the agreement. [Damascus] has agreed to strictly observe it."

Russia will use drones to monitor Syrian ceasefire, Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudkoy said. "We have all means and possibilities to receive objective information on situation on the ground."

The Russian Defense Ministry expects all groups backed by the US to abide by the ceasefire deal. Moscow called on the Free Syrian Army backed by Turkey to stop fighting against Kurds near the Aleppo province.

The Russian center on Syrian reconciliation said that the US has not yet provided information about al-Nusra Front targets' locations in combat zone.

On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry announced a new plan aimed at reducing violence in Syria, which includes a week-long ceasefire that is expected to evolve into a permanent cessation of hostilities.

The agreement also includes the creation of a demilitarized zone around Syria's Aleppo to deliver humanitarian aid to the city, as well as close coordination of Russian and US airstrikes against Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, and Daesh terrorist groups operating in Syria.

 Sputnik

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Syria Cease-Fire Takes Effect

By Jamie Dettmer September 12, 2016

A U.S.-Russia mediated ceasefire went into effect Monday in Syria, hours after government warplanes launched airstrikes around Aleppo and other Syrian provinces, prompting mounting skepticism and anger among rebel leaders who are already highly suspicious of the deal. They have said the ceasefire will only serve to boost President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Syria's armed opposition issued a series of demands as well as requests for clarifications to the United States about the cessation of hostilities Monday, coinciding with the start of Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim holiday.

President Assad didn't help efforts to get rebels on board by pledging Monday to take back all of Syria. State television showed Assad visiting Daraya, a Damascus suburb recaptured last month by the government. The Syrian leader prayed alongside officials in a Daraya mosque and in a broadcast interview said: "The Syrian state is determined to recover every area from the terrorists."

He said the army would continue operations "without hesitation, regardless of any internal or external circumstances."

On Sunday, several insurgent leaders criticized the cease-fire agreement, but stopped short of saying they wouldn't accept it. The ultra-conservative Ahrar al-Sham, a close ally of the former al Qaida affiliate Jabhat Fateh al-Sham Front, previously known as Jabhat al-Nusra, announced Sunday it won't honor the cease-fire. The group had condemned the deal earlier, but withheld full rejection.

In a video statement, the militias second in command condemned the superpower accord, dubbing it an effort to secure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and divide rebel factions.

"A rebellious people who have fought and suffered for six years cannot accept half-solutions," said Ali al-Omar. But there were reports Monday the decision by Ahrar al-Sham wasn't unanimous among the faction's leadership.

Not optimistic

Opinion appeared to be hardening among other rebel leaders, who say they hold out little hope the deal will last or that the Assad regime will observe it.

Reflecting their concerns, the Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee says it is calling for "guarantees" on the implementation of the truce before endorsing it. Salem al-Muslet, a spokesman for the HNC, raised concerns about the armed militias who have been left out of the deal because Russia and the U.S deem them terrorists.

"We want to know what the guarantees are," he said. "What is the definition that has been chosen for 'terrorism', and what will the response be in case of violations? Will Russia abide by it, will the regime abide by it and halt its bombing and its crimes? We are asking for guarantees especially from the United States, which is a party to the agreement," the HNC spokesman told the AFP news agency.

HNC leaders say they have not received details about how the truce will be implemented nor the areas the truce covers. There are fears among rebels that the Assad regime will use the cease-fire to mop up pockets of insurgency around the capital Damascus. Insurgents are demanding also the release of prisoners and say that without an agreed political transition plan; the cease-fire will allow Assad to strengthen his military position.

The U.S.-Russia mediated truce deal, the second the superpowers have struck this year, calls for an initial 48-hour, renewable, cease-fire "anywhere where the opposition is present." It also stipulates that aid agencies should not be blocked or impeded from accessing besieged towns and areas.

New terms

Some rebel factions, but mainly the Assad regime, were faulted after the last cease-fire deal for blocking aid access. Under the terms of the new cease-fire accord Washington and Moscow will begin joint targeting of jihadists including Fateh al-Sham in a week.

For many rebel groups the proposed targeting of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (JFS) remains a key concern. For them the jihadist militia has been a crucial ally in defending insurgent-held districts in eastern Aleppo from a months-long brutal Assad regime offensive. "Very big questions remain surrounding how exactly the U.S. and Russia plan to determine areas where the opposition is sufficiently distant from Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and where they are in fact too close and thus legitimate counterterrorism targets," warns Charles Lister, an analyst at the Middle East Institute and author of the book The Syrian Jihad.

He adds, "The armed opposition in Syria now faces what is perhaps its biggest and most momentous decision since they chose to take up arms against the Assad regime in 2011. There is no hiding the fact that mainstream opposition forces are extensively 'marbled' or 'coupled' with JFS forces on front-lines from Deraa in the south, to Damascus and throughout the northwest of the country.

Among ordinary Syrians a deadly weekend of airstrikes dimmed hopes about the cease-fire. At least 90 people were killed in weekend airstrikes in northwestern Syria, a monitoring group estimated. The airstrikes were focused on rebel-held areas in Idlib and Aleppo, according to the monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The worst were in Idlib where monitors said 61 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in a strike on a crowded market.

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Taiwan, China conduct repatriations under Kinmen Agreement

ROC Central News Agency

2016/09/12 20:39:36

Taipei, Sept. 12 (CNA) Taiwan's immigration authorities repatriated eight Chinese nationals from Matsu Monday, based on the Kinmen Agreement, while China handed over three Taiwanese.

The reciprocal repatriations were conducted at Fu'ao Port on Nangan, an islet of the Taiwan-controlled Matsu Islands off southern China, with the participation of Taiwanese immigration, coast guard and justice affairs officials, police from Lienchiang County, and representatives of China's Fujian Border Armed Police Corp.

The Matsu Islands are under the administration of the Lianchiang county government.

It was the second time this year the two sides of the Taiwan Strait had repatriated people to the other side under the Kinmen Agreement, a pact signed by the Red Cross societies of the two sides on Sept. 12, 1990 to allow both parties to participate in and witness the implementation of cross-strait repatriation procedures via sea routes.

Those subject to repatriation under the agreement include individuals illegally entering the territory of the other side (fishermen taking temporary shelter due to force majeure are not subject to this stipulation), and alleged criminal suspects and criminal violators.

The pact is regarded as the first formal agreement reached by private organizations across the strait.

Among the eight Chinese handed over Monday, three had just ended jail terms after being convicted of offenses including homicide, robbery and kidnap for ransom, according to the National Immigration Agency.

(By Chu Tse-wei and Elizabeth Hsu)

ENDITEM/J

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Turkey axes 28 mayors over suspected 'PKK links'

Iran Press TV

Sun Sep 11, 2016 10:19AM

The Turkish government has fired more than two dozen local mayors in the mainly Kurdish-populated southeast of the country over suspected links to a banned pro-Kurdish militant group.

On Sunday, Ankara dismissed 28 mayors, who mostly belonged to the opposition pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) and were suspected of being linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

A similar measure had been taken on Thursday, when Ankara suspended about 11,500 teachers over suspected links to the PKK militant group. The Anadolu state news agency said the Education Ministry suspected that the teachers had been involved in activities "in support of the separatist terrorist organization and its affiliates," in an apparent reference to the PKK.

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that the huge military campaign against the PKK militant group, which has been fighting for Kurdish autonomy for three decades, was Turkey's largest ever in its history, and that the removal of civil servants linked to the militant group was a necessary part of the fight.

Meanwhile, Turkey's military says it has killed thousands of PKK militants in military operations in the southeast last year.

Ankara had already axed about 100,000 public servants and military personnel over alleged links to US-based opposition figure Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating a failed coup on July 15, 2016.

Turkey has also launched a military incursion into neighboring Syria in a declared attempt against Kurdish groups there.

Ankara says Turkey's military offensive in Syrian territory is not only aimed at eliminating the Kurds but also members of the Takfiri Daesh militant group.

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PKK Trying to Disrupt Turkey's Anti-Terrorist Operation in N Syria - Erdogan

Sputnik News

14:47 11.09.2016(updated 15:00 11.09.2016)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), outlawed by Ankara, of trying to disrupt prevent Turkey's operation in northern Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday.

ANKARA (Sputnik)  On August 24, Turkish forces, backed by US-led coalition aircraft, began a military operation dubbed Euphrates Shield to clear the Syrian town of Jarabulus and the surrounding area of Daesh terrorist group. Ankara also pledged to continue the operation until the threat allegedly posed by Kurdish militants active in the area is eliminated.

"We have seen that the PKK has stepped up its activities in the border region after July 15 [a failed coup attempt]. These actions, which had a clear aim of disrupting Turkey's military operation in Syria, are continuing, despite heavy losses, the most serous in its history But the PKK will not succeed, the people are openly speaking against the organization," Erdogan said in a statement.

Tensions between Ankara and the Kurds escalated in July 2015 when a ceasefire between Turkey and PKK collapsed over a series of terrorist attacks, allegedly committed by PKK members.

 Sputnik

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Protesters Clash With Police in Turkey Over Removal of Mayors

By VOA News September 11, 2016

Clashes between police and protesters erupted in southeastern Turkey after a government announcement that it had replaced 28 elected municipal and district mayors in several predominantly Kurdish towns.

The removed officials are suspected of ties with what the government considers terrorist organization, the Turkish Interior Ministry said Sunday.

When local governments "come under the influence of terrorist organizations, it is the state's primary duty to take precautions against those who have usurped the people's will," the statement said.

Twenty four of those removed are suspected of ties with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and the other four of links to the Gulen movement allegedly responsible for the attempted coup in July which killed over 270 people.

US concerns

The U.S. Embassy in Ankara posted a statement on its website and Twitter that it is concerned by reports of clashes in southeastern Turkey, following the government decision to remove the mayors.

The embassy said it supported Turkey's right to defend itself against terrorism,but emphasizes the importance of respect for due process and the right to peaceful protest.

"We hope that any appointment of trustees will be temporary and that local citizens will soon be permitted to choose new local officials in accordance with Turkish law," the embassy said.

The latest crackdown follows the massive removal and detention of people from Turkey's military, judiciary, civil service and education, following the July 15 coup attempt, which all combined have surpassed 80,000.

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Mayors Removed as Turkish Crackdown Intensifies

By Dorian Jones September 12, 2016

Turkey's crackdown on the outlawed Kurdish rebel group the PKK is increasingly targeting the country's legal pro-Kurdish movement. On Sunday, 24 elected mayors of the main pro-Kurdish party, the HDP, were removed from office and replaced by government appointees called "trustees."

"To me, it is a step that came late. It should have been taken long before," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared Monday. "You, as mayors and municipal councils, cannot stand up and support terrorist organizations. You do not have such an authority."

Along with the 24 Kurdish mayors, four others accused of being linked July's failed coup attempt also lost their jobs.

An Interior Ministry website post defended the removals. "The state has exercised its fundamental duty to take necessary precautions against those infringing the will of nation," it said. The statement, without citing evidence, accused the mayors of providing financial and logistical support to terrorist organizations.

Special powers passed by a government decree were used to oust the mayors. Turkey is under emergency rule following July's failed coup, which allows for rule by decree.

Critics denounce move

Most of the Kurdish mayors in question were elected with massive majorities, including Leyla Imret, who secured a record 81.6 percent of the vote in Cizre. The consequences could be far-reaching, warns international relations expert Soli Ozel of Istanbul's Kadir Has University.

"To say you can actually disregard the will of the people, who with their votes have elected certain people into certain positions, is truly unacceptable, and it would mean an open declaration of political war against Kurdish citizens who are sympathetic to the HDP and probably some of them to the PKK," Ozel said.

The ruling AK Party had for many years electorally tried to break the power of the HDP in the predominantly Kurdish region. Although many local mayors had been under investigation for alleged links to the PKK, the government had balked at trying to remove so many by legal means.

Western pushback deemed unlikely

Analysts point out that the controversial move comes with Ankara aware there would likely be little pushback from its Western allies, which are courting Ankara for cooperation against Islamic State and regarding refugees.

The U.S. embassy in Turkey did not criticize the mayors' dismissals. The embassy only called for their replacement by elected representatives as soon as possible, and urged that due process be respected. The European Union, too, has offered little in the way of criticism.

The mayors' removals are part of a wider campaign. Last week, the government suspended more than 11,000 teachers accused of links to the PKK, mainly across Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast.

"It [the teachers' suspension] will be perceived as a racist, discriminatory cleansing, because they are all Kurds who've been chased away from the public sector," said political columnist Kadri Gursel of Turkey's Cumhuriyet newspaper.

Gursel warns it could add to growing alienation from the Turkish state by all opponents of the ruling party. "These Kurds are also secular Kurds; these are probably left-leaning Kurds. This is a historical and total estrangement between the state and non AKP segments of society."

Turkey's only Kurdish-language newspaper, Azadiya Welat, was closed by a court, along with the main pro-Kurdish newspaper Ozgur Gundem, on charges of supporting terrorism. Legal proceedings against parliamentary deputies of the HDP are also accelerating, with arrest warrants being issued.

'New Turkish state'

International relations expert Ozel says the crackdown on the PKK and the pro-Kurdish legal movement could be part of a wider strategy of redefining Turkey in the aftermath of a failed coup in July.

"The ruling AKP and, in particular, the president want to put in place their project for a new Turkish state, before people come to their senses," Ozel said. "For this you need a justification, ammunition, and the ammunition is the war against the PKK."

The crackdown on the Kurdish movement plays well with Turkish nationalists, and the AKP has the strong support of the nationalist MHP, whose parliamentary support would give it enough votes to rewrite the constitution, a goal of Erdogan.

HDP deputy Ertugrul Kurkcu, who is himself facing court, warns the space for a democratic legal Kurdish movement is being closed. "This promises us not a path of democratic progress, but a deeper conflict, which would shatter the foundations of Turkish statehood. If a space of maneuver is not maintained, then we can in one night plunge into civil war. This is a very, very risky situation."

Erdogan and his government insist the country has no Kurdish problem, rather only a terrorist one, accusing the PKK and what it says is its political affiliate, the HDP, of seeking to create and exploit ethnic tensions. The government policy appears determined not only to eradicate the PKK, but also pursue its battle against the legal Kurdish movement, which observers warn will likely close the door to a peaceful resolution of the nearly four-decade conflict.

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Brexiters Tell PM May to Speed Up Britain's Break With EU

By Jamie Dettmer September 11, 2016

In the run-up to Britain's referendum on whether to remain in the European Union, opponents of Brexit warned that leaving the bloc would lead to economic peril, but the country's economy appears to have performed strongly in the 78 days since the vote, undermining predictions of gloom and doom.

And now, leading Brexiters are calling more loudly for a quick, sharp break with the EU  or a "hard Brexit." They point to the buoyant stock market and strong figures for jobs and retail sales as evidence the government should not delay invoking Article 50, the treaty clause that would start a two-year countdown for Britain's formal exit.

Among them a former Conservative Party leader, Iain Duncan Smith, who now says Article 50 should be invoked before Christmas, despite Theresa May, Britain's new prime minister, repeatedly saying otherwise. Last week, Smith blasted the current state of the EU, saying the bloc is in a "complete mess." He labelled the idea that Brexit won't happen a "ridiculous pipe dream."

On Sunday, leading Brexiters formed a new pressure group called Change Britain, which aims, according to the organizers, to help "deliver the UK's referendum result in the most effective way."

May has sought to keep at bay questions about how Britain will exit the troubled bloc, and what the country's future relationship will be with the EU, by repeating the mantra "Brexit means Brexit." But that slogan doesn't even begin to answer fundamental questions thrown up by the June referendum.

Some Brexiters want a total break; others  along with many in the Remain camp  hope Britain can negotiate a deal along the lines of Norway and remain a member of the Single Market, enjoying free trade with EU members.

And some Remainers are still holding out hope that when push comes to shove Britain won't in the end leave.

They are placing their hopes on High Court challenges to the referendum due to be heard next month, or they argue a change of government before the exit period is complete could lead to a reversal. But with the main opposition party, Labor, continuing to implode, the latter would seem unlikely - and the judicial challenges are a long shot, say legal experts.

Relationship with EU

Brexiters like Duncan Smith worry that the longer May delays on starting the exit process the more chance a closer relationship with the bloc than he wants will be the result.

Privately, in conversation with VOA, several leading Brexiters in the government say they fear May and her closest allies will shape a deal with the EU that would see Britain remain in the Single Market, but having to accept freedom of movement, meaning Britain won't be able to impose migration controls on Europeans living an working in Britain.

Securing access to the Single Market would also almost certainly entail Britain continuing to make large financial contributions to the EU budget.

May, who campaigned during the referendum for Britain to remain in the EU, is walking a political tightrope. She risks revolt by Brexiters inside her party who want to ensure the country breaks completely from the EU if it appears she is moving behind-the-scenes to shape a deal that would see Britain cleaving closely to the EU.

But at the same time she is coming under strong pressure from Britain's non-EU trading partners to negotiate a deal that would see Britain retaining access to the Single Market.

International concerns

Japan's Foreign Ministry took the unusual step during last weekend's G-20 meeting of the leaders of the world's most advanced economies of publishing a paper on the consequences of Brexit. The paper urged Britain to retain full access to the Single Market and allow British employers to hire freely EU nationals. Japanese firms are major employers in Britain and half of all Japanese investments to the EU are directed to Britain.

The Japanese aren't the only ones worried about what a hard Brexit would mean for their investments and businesses. American bankers have already drawn up plans to reallocate staff from London to Dublin, Amsterdam, Paris or Frankfurt in the event of a stark break. Hardline Brexiters pooh-pooh all the warnings, arguing the "Brexit boom" shows the strength of the British economy and how it will do well outside the EU.

But according to many economists it would be wrong to bank too much on the apparent boom. They say the economic consequences of Brexit remain unclear because Brexit hasn't actually happened yet. But they warn the longer-term signs are not good. Rupert Pennant-Rea, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, says the "strongest clue" of what Brexit might mean for Britain comes from the currency markets. "The message has been consistent and its implications have still to sink in," he argued in an opinion article written for Britain's Financial Times.

"In trade-weighted terms, the pound is down more than 15 percent from its level a year ago," he notes. "The currency markets are saying that all UK assets are worth less than they used to be. Land, property, companies, bank deposits, government debt  everything in the UK has been marked down against the rest of the world."

Senior Conservative and onetime government minister John Whittingdale rejects talk of economic peril, arguing naysayers about Britain's post-Brexit prospects are looking for evidence of an economic meltdown.

In an interview with Britain's Sunday Telegraph he argued the country's prime minister must trigger the start of Britain's formal withdrawal from the EU within weeks and he criticized May openly for delaying, warning that it leaves the door open for Remain campaigners to try to stop Brexit.

"Until you embark on the formal process there will be some who will continue to suggest that somehow this can be fudged, that we can make some changes but still essentially remain a part of it and will attempt to find a way out," he warned.

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Alan Burkitt-Gray speaks to Don MacNeil, chief operating officer of GTT, about its company restructuring after coming out of Chapter 11 and its strategic roadmap for the next 12 months.
MALVERN, Pa., Sept. 12, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (NYSE:VSH) today announced that its Vishay BCcomponents 220 EDLC ENYCAP series of electrical double-layer energy storage capacitors has been named by Electronic Products China magazine and 21IC as a winner in the 14th Annual Top-10 Power Product Awards. The storage capacitors were honored with the Green Energy Award in recognition of their extremely high energy density for energy harvesting, power backup, and UPS power source applications. This is the seventh consecutive year that a Vishay product has been chosen as an Awards winner.



The Top-10 Power Product Awards have become the industry benchmark for innovative power products, with winners being chosen based on their innovative design, significant advancement in technology or application, and substantial achievement in price and performance. This year, individual awards were added to the program to recognize product achievements in five categories: Technology Breakthrough, Best Application, Optimized Development, Green Energy, and Independent Innovation.

Available in power and energy versions with high stability, 220 EDLC ENYCAP series devices deliver high power density to 4.1 Wh/kg and capacitance values from 15 F to 40 F in small case sizes ranging from 16 mm by 20 mm to 18 mm by 31 mm. For the industrial, telecom, and PC markets, the polarized energy storage capacitors offer a maximum rated voltage of 2.7 V and feature very low internal resistance and rapid charge and discharge performance. The through-hole devices offer long leads and are RoHS-compliant.

The Electronic Products China Top-10 Power Product Awards were presented during a ceremony at the 2016 Power Technology Conference held on Sept. 8 in Beijing. Gerald Tatschl, Sr. Product Marketing Manager accepted the award on behalf of Vishay. The complete list of winners is available at the following Chinese-language web address: http://www.21ic.com/wz/CRXDQWHFA/20160802/20160802.htm.

Vishay Intertechnology, Inc., a Fortune 1000 Company listed on the NYSE (VSH), is one of the world's largest manufacturers of discrete semiconductors (diodes, MOSFETs, and infrared optoelectronics) and passive electronic components (resistors, inductors, and capacitors). These components are used in virtually all types of electronic devices and equipment, in the industrial, computing, automotive, consumer, telecommunications, military, aerospace, power supplies, and medical markets. Vishays product innovations, successful acquisition strategy, and "one-stop shop" service have made it a global industry leader. Vishay can be found on the Internet at www.vishay.com.

ENYCAP is a trademark of Vishay Intertechnology.

Vishay on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/VishayIntertechnology

Vishay Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/vishayindust

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HAMILTON, Bermuda, Sept. 12, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Elman Myers, a former US Air Force special agent who is now a managing director at Hiscox, will be the keynote speaker at this months 2016 ALARYS Congress conference (www.alarys.bm) in Bermuda.



A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/91e6f6a9-e9f6-4b6b-9d5f-f89f127b8720

Based in Miami as Managing Director at Hiscox Special Risks Agency (Americas), Inc, Myers will speak on Organised Crimea New Risk-Management Challenge in Latin America at the September 2527 event at Hamilton Princess & Beach Club.

It is an honour to come to Bermuda, one of the worlds great insurance centres, to share ideas on how businesses looking to capitalise on opportunities in Latin America can confront the security and risk-management challenges posed by organised crime, said Myers.

After 52 years of conflict, the Colombian government and Marxist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) agreed to end hostilities just last month, Myers noted. But organised crimemultinational criminal enterprises that engage in narcotrafficking, kidnapping, extortion, human trafficking, illegal mining, and money launderingare emerging as the next major regional security challenge.

How will this new criminal reality affect businesses looking to take advantage of opportunities in Latin America? he asked. We will take an overview of the security threats in the regions, show how they affect business interests, and explore ways to effectively manage the risk.

Myers began his career as a special agent with the US Air Force Office of Special Investigations, where he served nine years in investigative and counterintelligence positions in the US, Panama, and Honduras. He left military service in 1997 and worked at CIGNA International Specialty Products and Services (later purchased by ACE), and Willis, where he managed the Miami office until joining Hiscox in 2014.

Today, Myers manages a business-development and client-service team for Hiscox that markets Special Risks (Kidnap & Ransom) insurance throughout Latin America.

This is a highly relevant and timely subject that will be of major interest to our delegates, said Jorge Luzzi, President of the Fundacion Latinoamericana de Administradores de Riesgos y Seguros ALARYS (FUNDALARYS), who also serves as Executive Vice President of the International Federation of Risk and Insurance Management Associations (IFRIMA). We are honoured to have Elman address this topic for our audience and we look forward to welcoming him and all our attendees to Bermuda in two weeks time.

The theme of the 2016 Congress is Emerging and Non-Traditional Risk, with key sessions highlighting insurance-linked securities and other alternative risk-transfer products, as well as strategies for mitigating cyber, political, terrorism, kidnap and catastrophe risk. Topics will be discussed at roundtable discussions and moderated panel sessions, and networking breaks are also part of the agenda. Outside of conference business, activities such as a sunset cruise and other leisure downtime will showcase Bermuda and entertain delegates.

Its the third time FUNDALARYS has chosen Bermuda as host country for the trilingual conference. The Latin American Congress on Risk Management and Insurance was held previously in 2004 and 2010 in Bermudathe only non-Latin venue in its 20-year history.

CONNECTING BUSINESS

The BDA encourages direct investment and helps companies start up, re-locate or expand their operations in our premier jurisdiction. An independent, public-private partnership, we connect you to industry professionals, regulatory officials, and key contacts in the Bermuda government to assist domicile decisions. Our goal? To make doing business here smooth and beneficial
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA / TheNewswire / September 12, 2016 / MGX Minerals Inc. ("MGX" or the "Company") (CSE: XMG / FKT: 1MG) is pleased to report the Company has engaged the Saskatchewan Research Council ("SRC") to conduct lithium-enriched formation water testing. SRC will utilize the Company's rapid brine production process (see press release dated June 6, 2016) to extract lithium and evaluate key aspects of the proprietary extraction method, which aims to reduce brine evaporation times by more than 99% versus standard solar evaporation. MGX will provide SRC with 200 liters of lithium-enriched brine from the Company's Alberta lithium project to conduct the study with.

"MGX's proprietary processing technology would be the first of its kind for extraction of lithium from producing and past producing oil wells. The immense scale of historical and current oilfield brine production in Alberta is well understood. If our process design performs as predicted we will help solve two critical problems, the lack of saleable lithium in the world, which has caused prices to increase tenfold in the past few years, and how to increase revenue per oil well for low oil, high brine production wells," stated MGX President and CEO Mr. Jared Lazerson. Adding, "Any significant increase in revenue at the wellhead would have a major impact on the economics of the oil industry, that it may come from supplying the new energy industry with lithium is ideal."

MGX controls 45 Metallic and Industrial Mineral Permits throughout the Province of Alberta that encompass over 376,000 hectares, including 14 of the highest reported levels of lithium-bearing brine (1). The Company also recently acquired the Sturgeon Lake lithium brine project, which is located in the Fox Creek area of west-central Alberta.

(1) All assays referenced are as reported by Alberta Geological Service.

About SRC

The Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) is one of Canada's leading providers of applied research, development and demonstration (RD&D) and technology commercialization. With more than 375 employees, $70 million in annual revenue and over 69 years of RD&D experience, SRC provides products and services to its 1,500 clients in 20 countries around the world.

Cautionary Statement

MGX Minerals is actively working on bringing its Alberta Lithium Portfolio into production. However, readers are cautioned that the Company has not completed a pre-feasibility or feasibility study which establishes mineral reserves with demonstrated economic and technical viability. Further, the Company cautions readers that any potential production may not be economically feasible and historically projects taken to production without establishing reserves through a feasibility study have a much higher risk of economic or technical failure.

Qualified Person

The technical portions of this press release have been reviewed by Allan Reeves (P. Geo.) of Tuun Consulting, Inc. and Andris Kikauka (P. Geo.), Vice President of Exploration for MGX Minerals.

About MGX Minerals

MGX Minerals (CSE: XMG) is a diversified Canadian mining company engaged in the development of large-scale industrial mineral portfolios in western Canada that offer near-term production potential, minimal barriers to entry and low initial capital expenditures. The Company operates lithium, magnesium and silicon projects throughout British Columbia and Alberta. For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.mgxminerals.com.

Contact Information

Jared Lazerson

Chief Executive Officer

Telephone: 1.604.681.7735

Email: jared@mgxminerals.com

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (collectively "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is typically identified by words such as: "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "potentially" and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by the Company is not a guarantee of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking information as a result of various factors. The reader is referred to the Company's public filings for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects which may be accessed through the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Copyright (c) 2016 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Sep 12, 2016) - Dynasty Metals & Mining Inc. ("Dynasty" or the "Company") (TSX:DMM)(OTCQX:DMMIF) is pleased to announce the successful completion of its previously announced non-brokered private placement of common shares of the Company (each, a "Share") at a subscription price of C$0.15 per Share, for aggregate gross proceeds of US$4,000,000 (the "Private Placement") and settlement of US$700,000 in debt owing to companies managed by Robert Washer (the "Debt Settlement"), the former chief executive officer of the Company, in exchange for Shares at a subscription price of C$0.15 per Share.

A total of 34,997,331 Shares were issued under the Private Placement and a total of 6,124,533 Shares were issued in connection with the Debt Settlement. The Shares issued under the Private Placement and Debt Settlement are subject to a hold period expiring on January 10, 2017 in accordance with the rules and policies of the Toronto Stock Exchange (the "TSX") and applicable Canadian securities laws and such other further restrictions as may apply under foreign securities laws.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the Private Placement to settle certain amounts payable to the Ecuadorian government, creditors and employees and to provide additional working capital necessary to advance its mining projects in Ecuador.

In conjunction with the completion of the Private Placement (the "Closing"), Dynasty has received resignations from the following individuals:

Robert Washer, as chief executive officer

Hernan Moreno, as interim chief financial officer

Edison Lopez Viteri, as a director

Brian Speechly, as a director

Dynasty would like to thank the foregoing individuals for their years of service to the Company.

The size of the board of directors of the Company (the "Board") has also been increased to six (6) directors, and is now comprised of the following individuals:

Robert Washer, Chairman

Gregg Sedun, Lead Director

Keith Piggott

Javier Reyes

Leonard Clough

Mark Bailey

In addition, Keith Piggott has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer and Sam Wong has been appointed Chief Financial Officer.

The Board has also amended the by-laws of the Company to provide that the Lead Director shall be the chairman of any meeting of the Board and that the chairman shall have a casting vote in the event of a split decision of the Board. In accordance with the Business Corporations Act (Yukon), such amendments shall be submitted for confirmation to the shareholders of the Company at the next meeting of shareholders.

As part of the Private Placement, Keith Piggott, c/o Suite 1502, 1166 Alberni Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6E 3Z3, acquired ownership and control over 9,186,799 Shares for gross proceeds of US$1,050,000, representing approximately 10.5% of the issued and outstanding Shares on Closing. Immediately prior to Closing, Mr. Piggott did not own any securities of the Company.

Mr. Piggott's acquisition of Shares was primarily made for investment purposes, and he may increase or decrease his investment in the Company according to market conditions or other relevant factors. As disclosed above, on Closing Mr. Piggott was appointed the new chief executive officer of the Company and to the Board. Additional director and management changes and other transactions which occurred in conjunction with the Private Placement are disclosed in this news release and the Company's news release dated September 7, 2016.

A copy of the early warning report being filed by Mr. Piggott may be obtained by contacting Mr. Piggott at 604-687-7810. The report will be available under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com.

The Company is also pleased to announce that it has closed, in escrow, the restructuring agreement previously entered into among the Company, Vertex Managed Value Portfolio and Vertex Enhanced Income Fund (together, "Vertex") dated September 7, 2016 (the "Restructuring Agreement"), pursuant to which the parties have agreed to restructure the indebtedness owing by the Company to Vertex in the aggregate principal amount of US$4,000,000 and defer principal payments thereon, subject to the condition of receipt of conditional approval from the TSX, which is anticipated to be obtained on or about September 15, 2016, at which time all closing conditions to the Restructuring Agreement will have been satisfied. The effective date of closing of the Restructuring Agreement, which shall include the issuance of securities previously announced by the Company in its press release of September 7, 2016, shall be the date such conditional approval is received.

Keith Piggott commented: "Dynasty has amassed many significant assets in Ecuador, which is becoming recognized as an underdeveloped region with world class orebodies and stable government. The Company has loyal workers with good Governmental and social relations. We believe that this restructuring of the Company will allow the new management, which has a significant track record in asset utilisation, to focus on developing its true potential for all of its stakeholders."

About Dynasty Metals & Mining Inc.

Dynasty Metals & Mining Inc. is a Canadian-based mining company involved in the mining, exploration and development of mineral properties in Ecuador. The Company is currently focused on gold production and continued development at its Zaruma Gold Project. The Company also owns the Dynasty Goldfield Project, a permitted property 180km southwest of the Zaruma project, and the Jerusalem Project, an exploration property immediately south of the Fruta del Norte project.

For further information please visit the Company's website at www.dynastymining.com.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains statements which are, or may be deemed to be, "forward-looking information" which are prospective in nature. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "projects", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Such information in this news release includes, without limitation, statements regarding the use of proceeds from the Private Placement and plans for completion of the Restructuring Agreement. Forward-looking information is based on the then-current expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts about the business and the industry and markets in which the Company operates, including assumptions relating to the ability of the Company and the other parties thereto to satisfy the conditions required in order to complete the Restructuring Agreement and all related arrangements; the Company's ability to successfully implement its business plan in respect of its Ecuador projects; and the expected benefits of the Private Placement, Restructuring Agreement and new management on the business of the Company. Such statements are qualified in their entirety by the inherent risks and uncertainties surrounding future expectations. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause Dynasty's actual results, revenues, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Important risks that could cause Dynasty's actual results, revenues, performance or achievements to differ materially from Dynasty's expectations include, among other things, that the conditions to closing the Restructuring Agreement will not be satisfied and that the Company will be unable to complete the Restructuring Agreement; the Company will not be able to successfully implement its business plan in respect of its Ecuador projects under new management and a reconstituted board; and risks found in Dynasty's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2015, which is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Other than in accordance with regulatory obligations, Dynasty is not under any obligation and Dynasty expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Company files NI 43-101 Technical Report for Yauricocha Mine and is set to commission larger capacity hoist at the Mascota Shaft

Company seeks permission from Shareholders for share consolidation as predecessor to potential U.S. listing

TORONTO, Sept 12, 2016 /CNW/ - Sierra Metals Inc. (TSX: SMT) (BVL: SMT) ("Sierra Metals" or "the Company") is very pleased to announce that the Yauricocha Mine achieved historic production in August, 2016. The Mine produced 82,149 Dry Metric Tonnes ("DMT"), or 2,733 tonnes per day on average for the month which is the most ever produced in one calendar month in the history of the Mine, exceeding the previous best month achieved in December 2014 of 80,900 DMT.

Plant production at the Chumpe Mill at the Yauricocha Mine also set a historic record for the month of August, 2016 with production totalling 79,554 DMT which exceeds the previous best month of October 2014 when 74,997 DMT were produced.

"These are remarkable achievements that would have been deemed highly unlikely just ten short months ago when we began our operational improvement program at the Mine" commented Mark Brennan, President and CEO of Sierra Metals. "The operations team led by our COO, Gord Babcock, began the modernization and operational improvements at the mine starting late in the third quarter of last year. They have done a great job in putting the Yauricocha Mine into position for driving both higher value per tonne of ore and production volume." He continued "That said there will be volatility in both parameters as we move forward and work to complete certain aspects of the improvement program, however the bar is steadily moving higher as we begin to see the benefits of our efforts."

New Hoist Installation at Mascota Shaft 720 Level, Yauricocha Mine

Starting on November 1, 2016 Sierra Metals plans to transition from the current operating surface hoist to a new Hepburn 104 x 45 double drum 1100 HP production hoist currently installed on the 720 level, where it will service the Mascota Shaft. This new hoist has an installed capacity of 106,000 metric tonnes ("MT") per month based on Hepburn performance data. The hoist is capable of servicing the mine from the 680 level to the 1400 level, which is the undeveloped lower part of the mine (approximately 715 metres deep).

The new hoist will be hoisting from the 680 level to below the 1070 level (last level accessible from Mascota shaft) so that the hoisting distance is reduced to approximately 365 metres. With the shorter hoist distance, we expect to achieve other benefits including reduced hoist time, improved duty cycle as well as less hoist rope in movement in the shaft. Overall, once final commissioning and implementation is complete, management expects that there may be more opportunity to benefit from increased hoisting capacity in excess of the 106,000 MT per month capacity due to the shorter skipping distance.

The new hoist is expected to increase the current hoisting capacity by approximately 30,000 MT per month, and will help as we continue with our goal of increasing production in the future at Yauricocha. The current CIR hoist has an installed capacity to skip 70,000 MT per month from the mine.

As part of the installation and transition from surface to the 720 level we anticipate that there will be a 25-day shutdown and a planned production shortfall for November of approximately 42,000 MT. The Company has started stockpiling material on surface to help mitigate the effects of the shutdown. Production levels are expected to return to normal starting in December.

Sierra Metals announces filing of NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Yauricocha Mine in Peru

Sierra Metals has filed a technical report prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") on the Yauricocha Mine (the "Report"). The Report supports the disclosure made by the Company in its news release dated August 11, 2016 entitled "Sierra Metals Updates Mineral Reserve and Resource Estimate for Yauricocha Mine, Peru." and there are no material differences in the mineral reserves and resources contained in the Report from those disclosed in the news release.

The Report included maiden Reserves and Resource for the recently discovered Esperanza zone with:

Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves of 1,520,000 tonnes averaging 51.8 g/t silver, 1.20% copper, 1.12% lead, 2.87% zinc and 0.43 g/t gold.

Measured and Indicated Resources of 2,534,000 tonnes averaging 68.9 g/t silver, 1.71% copper, 1.26% lead, 3.23% zinc and 0.55 g/t gold.

Inferred Mineral Resources of 1,541,800 tonnes averaging 69.0 g/t silver, 1.87% copper, 0.92% lead, 2.49% zinc and 0.63 g/t gold.

The Report also included Reserves and Resources for all of Yauricocha (including Esperanza) with:

Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves of 3,787,000 tonnes averaging 61.1 g/t silver, 0.84% copper, 1.15% lead, 2.92% zinc and 0.62 g/t gold.

Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources of 7,871,000 tonnes averaging 60.8 g/t silver, 1.12% copper, 0.94% lead, 2.70% zinc and 0.67 g/t gold.

Inferred Mineral Resources of 3,745,000 tonnes averaging 49.1 g/t silver, 1.33% copper, 0.58% lead, 1.86% zinc and 0.53 g/t gold.

Notes on Reserve and Resource Estimate

The effective date of the mineral reserve and resource statement for the Yauricocha Mine including Mina Central, Cachi-Cachi, Mascota and Cuerpos mineral reserve and resource estimate is Dec 31, 2015. The effective date for Esperanza is June 30, 2016. Details of the estimate are provided in the Company's August 11, 2016 press release. A NI 43-101 compliant technical report to support the estimate has been filed on SEDAR on September 12, 2016. Measured and Indicated Resources include Proven and Probable Reserves.

Silver equivalent is based on the following metal prices: US$16.76/oz Ag, US$2.28/lb Cu, US$0.86/lb Pb and US$0.94 Zn and US$1,251/oz Au.

Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

For a specific breakdown of each category of resources (measured, indicated and inferred) and reserves (proven and probable), please refer to the Report.

The Report dated September 9, 2016 is was prepared by SRK Consulting and is entitled "NI 43-101 Technical Report on Resources and Reserves Yauricocha Mine Yauyos Province, Peru" and was prepared by independent "Qualified Persons" (as that term is defined in NI 43-101) under the direction of:

Matthew Hastings, MSc Geology, MAusIMM (CP), Senior Consultant (Resource Geology)

Jon Larson, BS Mining Engineering, MBA, MAusIMM, MMSAQP, Principal Consultant (Mining Engineer)

Jeff Osborn, BEng Mining, MMSAQP, Principal Consultant (Mining Engineer)

Fernando Rodrigues, BS Mining, MBA, MAusIMM, MMSAQP, Practice Leader/Principal Consultant (Mining Engineer)

Daniel H. Sepulveda, B.Sc. Metallurgist, SME-RM

John Tinucci, PhD, PE, President/Practice Leader/Principal Consultant (Geotechnical Engineer)

The Report is available for review on both SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and the Company's website (www.sierrametals.com).

Sierra seeking permission from shareholders for share consolidation as predecessor to potential U.S. listing

Sierra Metals is seeking permission from its shareholders to consolidate the issued and outstanding common shares ("Common Shares") of the Company (see the Company's management information circular dated as of August 27, 2016 (the "Circular") filed on Sedar on September 6, 2016). The Circular seeks an amendment to the Company's articles to consolidate the issued and outstanding Common Shares on the basis of one Common Share for every two Common Shares issued and outstanding, or such other consolidation ratio that the Board deems desirable to a maximum of one post-consolidation Common Share for every five pre-consolidation Common Shares.

Sierra Metals has been considering whether a listing on a US stock exchange could benefit the Company. However, to qualify for listing the price of the Common Shares must meet a minimum threshold. As such, the Company would first need to complete a consolidation designed to increase the price of the Common Shares. A final decision to proceed with a listing on a U.S. exchange has not been made and the Company may elect not to proceed with a listing even if the consolidation is approved by the shareholders.

Quality Control

All technical data contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Gordon Babcock, P.Eng., Chief Operating Officer and a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

About Sierra Metals

Sierra Metals Inc. is a Canadian mining company focused on production of precious and base metals from its Yauricocha Mine in Peru, and its Bolivar Mine and Cusi Mine in Mexico. In addition, Sierra Metals is exploring several precious and base metals targets in Peru and Mexico. Projects in Peru include Adrico (gold), Victoria (copper-silver) and Ipillo (polymetallic) at the Yauricocha Property in the province of Yauyos and the San Miguelito gold properties in Northern Peru. Projects in Mexico include Bacerac (silver) in the state of Sonora and La Verde (gold) at the Batopilas Property in the state of Chihuahua.

The Company's shares trade on the Lima Stock Exchange (Bolsa de Valores de Lima) and on the TSX under the symbol "SMT".

Forward-Looking Statements

Except for statements of historical fact contained herein, the information in this press release may constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities law. Statements containing forward-looking information express, as at the date of this news release, the Company's plans, estimates, forecasts, projections, expectations or beliefs as to future events or results. These statements reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking statements. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements unless required by securities laws applicable to the Company. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties is contained in filings by the Company with the Canadian securities regulators, which filings are available at www.sedar.com.

Continue to watch our progress at:

Web: www.sierrametals.com

Twitter: sierrametals

Facebook: SierraMetalsInc

LinkedIn: Sierra Metals Inc.

SOURCE Sierra Metals Inc.
Michael Sears/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/TNS Annabelle Jurena spoons brown sugar into the vanilla root beer mix as her sister Haley, 18, and father Dave look on.

SHARE Sisters Haley Jurena, right, 18, and Annabelle Jurena, 13, pose for a portrait with their family's root beer, Haley and Annabelle Vanilla Root Beer available in both diet and regular, in Milwaukee, Wis. (Michael Sears/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/TNS)

By Karen Herzog, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (TNS)

MILWAUKEE  It's safe to say Haley Jurena is starting college with more liquid assets than her peers.

While others socked away whatever cash they could save for college, the Jurena family of suburban Milwaukee saved for college by making and selling old-fashioned vanilla root beer. With roughly $1 profit per bottle of Haley and Annabelle's Vanilla Root Beer sold since 2007, the college fund for Haley and her younger sister now exceeds $50,000.

Which is a good thing, considering Haley is about to get her first tuition bill from the University of Minnesota, where she is a freshman in the Honors College. They plan to keep the root beer business going at least through Annabelle's college years; she graduates from high school in 2021.

Haley was 10 and Annabelle was 5 when they and their dad, Dave Jurena, started Haley and Annabelle's Bubbly Beverage Co., based out of the family's Soup Market business. Dave Jurena was chef-owner of two Soup Market locations back then; now he has five. The vanilla root beer is sold at all five locations, plus the girls' grandfather's barber shop and a farmers market on Saturday mornings.

The business has its own Facebook page where the family keeps fans posted on milestones, including when Haley started applying to colleges last fall.

The spark for the business came when Haley was in kindergarten and her dad made homemade vanilla root beer and ice cream to serve root beer floats to her classmates. It was an immediate hit.

"We did some research. Tried every root beer out there and experimented with flavors," Dave Jurena recalled.

"It's a passive way to make money," he said. "We mix up the syrup and it's sent off to be bottled. Once we get it back, it trickles out the door a couple cases here and there. This is delayed gratification. It was never like a part-time job with a paycheck at the end of the week."

The girls learned that part of every sale goes back into the product.

It costs 73 cents to produce each bottle of root beer, including ingredients, bottling with carbonation and the labeling. Dave Jurena's produce provider hauls the root beer syrup they mix in the Soup Market kitchen to the bottler, then hauls back 100 cases of root beer per batch a couple of times a year.

The photos of the girls on the bottle labels have changed through the years from goofy little girls to poised, smiling teens. The recipe that attracted a small but loyal following hasn't changed. They still use pure Madagascar vanilla extract, not artificial extracts like some sodas on the market.

The root beer has always sold for $2 a bottle or $24 for a case of 24 bottles.

Dave and Jill Jurena had conversations early on with friends about how to save for their daughters' college educations.

"You can only put so much aside," Jill said. "Dave and the girls doing this also was a great way for them to spend time together."

Haley worked behind the counter at one of the Soup Market locations and sold soup and root beer at the farmers market, too, to earn spending money, since the root beer profits go to the bank.

She knows she has something special.

"My parents are being very generous," Haley said. "They have a spreadsheet that shows, depending on my GPA in college, how much they will pay. If I get a 3.8 or higher, they'll pay 100 percent."

She still plans to take out small loans, and her grandparents offered to buy her books.

The root beer venture provided plenty of fodder for Haley's college application essays. One of her essays was about the 25 cents per case of root beer sold that is donated to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, where she had surgery twice within her first month of life. Her parents match those donations.

"It means a lot because they did a lot for me as a baby," Haley said of the hospital. "I wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for Children's."

The root beer college savings is about more than just money.

"It's really cool to have something with my sister and my dad that we do together, and we're very lucky to have a dad with a background in business," Haley said. "We're thinking about expanding the flavors now. Maybe a limeade."

Dave Jurena hopes his daughters are proud of what they accomplished together.

He also hopes that by learning to market the root beer, they learned to position themselves for their own careers.

"You have to develop yourself as a brand to make sure you are marketable to an employer," he said. "Hopefully through this venture, they'll see it's OK to take risks and stick your neck out, too. I'm glad it didn't fail, but it could have been a lesson if it did to pick yourself up."
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By The Associated Press

HOUSTON  More than a dozen teachers and administrators from across Texas say they delayed or denied special education to disabled students to stay below the benchmark state officials set for the number of students who should get such services.

A Houston Chronicle investigation found the Texas Education Agency's enrollment benchmark for special education services of 8.5 percent has led to the systematic denial of services by school districts. In the years since Texas' 2004 implementation of the benchmark, the rate of students getting special education dropped from near the national average of 13 percent to the lowest in the country. It fell to 8.5 percent in 2015.

If Texas provided services at the same rate as the rest of the U.S., 250,000 more kids would be getting services such as therapy, counseling and one-on-one tutoring. The newspaper said records show Texas is the only state to set such a benchmark, which was never publicly announced or explained.

The newspaper found that the effort saved TEA billions of dollars but denied support to children with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, epilepsy, mental illnesses, speech impediments, traumatic brain injuries and even blindness and deafness.

The teachers and administrators said that to stay below the benchmark, they've done everything from putting kids into a cheaper alternative program to persuading parents to pull their children out of public school altogether.

"We were basically told in a staff meeting that we needed to lower the number of kids in special ed at all costs," said Jamie Womack Williams, who taught in the Tyler Independent School District until 2010. "It was all a numbers game."

Spokesmen for numerous school districts, including Tyler, said they haven't denied special education to any children with disabilities.

In a statement, TEA officials denied keeping disabled students out of special education and said their guideline calling for enrollments of 8.5 percent was not a cap or a target but an "indicator" of performance by school districts.

Since 1975, Congress has required U.S. public schools to provide specialized education services to all eligible children with any type of disability.

Told of the Chronicle's findings, a U.S. Department of Education spokeswoman said her office would look into Texas' policy. Spokeswoman Dorie Nolt said that once the department gets more information from Texas officials, it will "determine if further actions are necessary."

Several former TEA employees told the newspaper that the benchmark came as the agency was worried about money. "There was always a concern about over-identification of special ed students and the costs associated with that," said Ron McMichael, the deputy commissioner for finance at the time.

The concern grew in 2003 when lawmakers cut the TEA budget by $1.1 billion. The next year the agency set the target as part of a new monitoring protocol. The instructions were clear: School districts could get a perfect score on that part of the score card by giving special education services to fewer than 8.5 percent of students. Districts that scored poorly could be fined, visited by regulators, compelled to complete corrective action plans or be taken over entirely, a manual said.

The TEA acknowledged in its statement that there is no research establishing 8.5 percent as ideal.

Kathy Clayton, among the agency employees who set the benchmark, said the percentage wasn't based on research.

Instead, she said, it was driven by the statewide average special education enrollment. Reminded that the statewide average was nearly 12 percent at the time, Clayton said, "Well, it was set at a little bit of a reach. Any time you set a goal, you want to make it a bit of a reach because you're trying to move the number."

Teachers and administrators say many Texas school districts have interpreted the TEA monitoring protocol as a strict ban on serving more than 8.5 percent of students in special education.
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By Michelle Gaitan of the San Angelo Standard-Times

At the start of the new school year, Christoval ISD is making a concerted effort to give equal footing to students when it comes pursuing either a path to higher education or entering the workforce after high school.

A ribbon-cutting and dedication was held on the first day of school to celebrate the completion of Phase 1 of the Concho Valley STEM Academy at Christoval High School. The academy supported through state funding specifically allotted for STEM courses and a $1 million loan to help with construction of new buildings and districtwide renovations.

"We made a commitment when House Bill 5 came out," said John Choate, Christoval's high school principal. "And House Bill 5 was kind of a re-shift by (the Texas Education Agency) to help schools work on the career aspect rather than the just the college aspect of the preparation for students."

House Bill 5, which passed in 2013 during the 83rd legislative session, gave more focus to career exploration for students to earn pursue course curriculum in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), business and industry, public services, arts and humanities and multidisciplinary studies.

"Since then we feel that the educational needs of the students now involve STEM skills  science, technology, engineering and mathematics," Choate said. "We're getting kids ready for the new economy and global workforce."

Phase 1 of the new STEM academy brought in fields such as forensics, principals of technology, robotics, computer programing, graphic design and 3D animations.

Two learning labs complete Phase 1  one for arts, audiovisual and career technologies, and the other for science classes and forensics, public safety and corrections and security.

Choate said students' input helped to guide the final decisions on what the academy would offer.

"I am really happy that the teachers here know to take advice from the students because I feel that in schools, the only way a school can stay alive is if it helps its students learn," said sophomore Reece Orr. "And if students don't like what they're learning then what's the point of having all this fancy equipment?"

Along with core subjects, Orr is now able to take elective courses that will help him prepare for the workforce.

"I am taking English, algebra and Chemistry II and all the rest are electives  engineering, programming, graphic design and animation," he said. "I chose programming because that's where I want to go with my life, and I couldn't think of another way to learn it better than in school where I can go every single day."

In 2015, the high school offered 26 Career Technology Education courses, but with the creation of the academy it has added 20 new courses including food technology, marketing dynamics and restaurant management.

"The key is marketability and adaptability," said Superintendent David Walker.

As the economy changes and the job market data changes, the district is looking at what it would take for students to acquire job skills needed and what they need to work on as far as soft skills  how to dress and the importance of showing up to work on time, he said.

"The people who can market themselves and adapt usually come out on top as far as having a job or anything," Walker said. "We want our kids to be able to have that through real life applications in the classroom about what they need in the career they choose."

With all the course additions, the district has hired three additional staff members since 2013, and more than half of its staff of 26 have been retrained in STEM-related fields to meet the challenges of introducing new courses and programs.

"We have an outstanding teaching staff  we did hire additional staff, but primarily to offer the variety of course work we offer, we asked teachers to retrain, recertify in a certain area and they've done that," Choate said. "They done a great job of stepping up to the plate to recertify in whatever areas we needed to offer this. Our faculty is now much more versatile."

Amy Fisher, a first-year teacher at Christoval High School, teaches a number of CTE courses  computer programming, graphic design, audio and video, technology communication and animation.

"It's going wonderful," she said of the program. "It's absolutely wonderful that we have all these options for the kids and all things they can do with all the different equipment they bought for the school

Fisher said her classroom size ranges from four to 17 students, depending on student interest.

"I think the school district is a wonderful facility and the kids are enjoying it immensely and they can really learn a lot from having all this experience through the technology that's offered here," she said.

Phase 2 is expected to begin in the spring of 2017 and will include expanding current structure of the Agriculture Shop to add a metal fabrication lab with state-of-the-art equipment and two additional classrooms for livestock, meat science, law enforcement and range management courses.

"Our philosophy is, No. 1, being a small rural school we want to give our schools the same opportunities that they have in a larger urban school, if we can," Walker said. "So we've kind of taken that approach to giving them as many different options  career preparation or college preparation to help them get ready for whatever."
Last week was Suicide Prevention Prevention Week, but the advice for helping to prevent suicides is important all year longl.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the tenth leading cause of death overall in the United States. For young people between ages 15 and 34, suicide is the second leading cause of death (National Institute of Mental Health). In many cases prescription medications are used. In the last year in Nebraska there were 145 drug overdose deaths, triple the number reported in 1999. Of these deaths, 29 were suicides.

So what can you do during Suicide Prevention Week and all year round to make sure medications arent falling into the wrong hands?

*Ensure your medications are securely stored in your home.

*Periodically check your medicine cabinet for expired prescription and over-the-counter medications.

*Dont flush or trash leftover medications, they can contaminate our soil and water resources.

*Take back your leftover, expired, or unused medications to a pharmacy participating in the Nebraska MEDS project for disposal. There are over 290 pharmacies across the state accepting medications, find a pharmacy near you at www.leftovermeds.com.

Visit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention at www.afsp.org to learn more about suicide prevention, including identifying warning signs and risk factors, treatment, and more.

Since the Nebraska MEDS project began in August 2012, over 33,000 pounds of pharmaceuticals have been collected across the state and disposed of safely. Do your part and take them back today!

This project is being offered to the state of Nebraska by a statewide coalition of partners and with funding from the Nebraska Environmental Trust.

The Nebraska Medication Education on Disposal Strategies (MEDS) Coalition consists of the Nebraska Pharmacists Association, the Lincoln/Lancaster County Health Department, the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, The Nebraska Regional Poison Center, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, WasteCap Nebraska and The Groundwater Foundation. The mission of the Nebraska MEDS Coalition is to educate Nebraskans about drug disposal and provide safe ways to dispose of them in order to better safeguard the environment and protect public health.
SHARE Yfat Yossifor / Standard-Times Arianna Gonzalez holds a flower during the 9/11 Memorial Service Sunday by the Concho River. Fort Concho Buffalo Soldiers present the colors at the 9/11 Memorial Service on Sunday by the Concho River. Yfat Yossifor / Standard-Times Yfat Yossifor / Standard-Times Fort Concho Buffalo Soldiers present the colors at the 9/11 Memorial Service Sunday by the Concho River. Yfat Yossifor / Standard-Times Peace Ambassadors of West Texas place a remembrance wreath at the 9/11 Memorial Site Sunday by the Concho River.

By Rashda Khan, Rashda.Khan@gosanangelo.com/@rashda_SAST

San Angeloans came together Sunday to remember and honor the 2,977 people who died in the Sept. 11 terror attacks during a ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of the day that shook America.

Bishop Emeritus Michael Pfifer, who served the Catholic Diocese of San Angelo for 28 years before retiring in 2014, traveled from San Antonio to attend.

"The spirit that I find here among the people is a spirit that I don't find in other communities," said Pfifer, adding that San Angelo will always be dear to him. "It's a spirit of wanting to respect each other more and more deeply, realizing we're all people of God  our view of God maybe slightly different, but we are all people of God."

This year's memorial ceremony, hosted by local NAACP Unit 6219  in its 70th year of existence, definitely highlighted the diversity of San Angelo, and many different interpretations of peace.

"The NAACP was started 1909 by an interracial group of men and women in protest of lynching going on during that time," said Garland Freeze, president of Unit 6219. Despite lynchings, beatings, incarceration, attacks by dogs, police hoses fire hoses, and other violence, the NAACP has been in the forefront of attempts to create equality for all, negotiations through peaceful means, and peaceful existence for everyone.

Sherley Spears, local NAACP program coordinator, designed the program to start an multigenerational, interfaith, and multicultural conversation about peace. Spears said she wanted all attendees to answer the question: "Where does peace reside?"

Spears reminded attendees that a San Angeloan  44-year-old Judy Rowlett, who worked at the Pentagon as a defense resources specialist  also died that day.

Rowlett's mother and sister were in attendance.

Her loss, and 15 years of reflection, have left Shirley Smith, Rowlett's mother, "more aware that we all need one another."

"It's the support I had, and still have, that helps me make it," Smith said. "That is today's miracle. He puts people in your path to be there for each other. God made all of us."

Fort Concho Buffalo Soldiers started off the event with the Presentation of Colors as the interfaith choir made up of community members and Angelo State University students sang the national anthem.

Prayers for peace were offered from many different faiths  Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Hindu and Wiccan.

The program offered community members a chance to share their visions of peace with performances; participants sang, danced and played musical instruments. One young woman  13-year-old Venetria Wyatt  mimed an intensely powerful dance of praise.

Mayor Dwain Morrison, Col. Michael Downs, commander of Goodfellow Air Force Base, and Bishop Pfifer shared moving messages. The Peace Ambassadors of West Texas presented a wreath at the site of the 9-11 monument.

A ringing of the bells from Sacred Heart Cathedral marked a moment of silence and reflection.

"There is a time when history makes us and there is a time for us to make history. This is our time," Bishop Pfifer said, adding that he was encouraged to see the Sept. 11 memorial program involving more and more people, especially the younger generation. "It's a time for remembrance, it's a time for resolve, it's a time to be peacemakers."

Pfifer also shared a hopeful message about the damaged 9-11 Monument and the missing piece of ground zero steel, given to Bishop Pfeifer by the Cardinal Archbishop of New York City.

The monument, near Celebration Bridge on the Concho River, was damaged earlier this summer. It was dedicated Sept. 8, 2003.

The Bishop has had several meetings with the mayor, City Manager Daniel Valenzuela, the monument's architect Craig Kinney, and the current San Angelo Diocese leader, Bish0p Sis and "they all say they want it restored." He said the Kinney will assess the damage and what needs to be done to get another piece of steel from the World Trade Center and restore the monument. Plans are to make it "stronger, with more lighting and security," the Bishop shared.

"It was the first 9-11 monument to be built in Texas," he said. "The cost is still being worked out, but I'm sure that with the people in San Angelo, the amount we'll be asking for could be raised. The monument had a very special place in our hearts and still does."
Michelle Gaitan/Standard-Times Broken remains of glass and rusty pieces of steel are left after a person or people destroyed San Angelo's Sept. 11 monument over the weekend. A piece of steel from the World Trade Center was stolen.

SHARE Jennifer Rios/Standard-Times A wreath sits next to the Sept. 11 memorial near the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts. The memorial itself includes a piece of debris from the north Twin Tower. Shot/Archived:09.11.14

By Michelle Gaitan of the San Angelo Standard-Times

Marking 15 years since the terror attacks at the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and in a field in Pennsylvania, local police are still searching for the person responsible for the destruction of San Angelo's Sept. 11, 2001 monument.

In June, vandals broke apart the monument and stole a piece of steel that came from the World Trade Center. The memorial is located near Celebration Bridge on the Concho River and below the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts.

The monument was dedicated Sept. 8, 2003, in memory of those who died on Sept. 11.

"To my knowledge, there is no new information, but the department will follow up on any information/tips that come in," wrote Officer Tracey Gonzalez in an email.

Police are asking anyone with information about the suspect or the stolen item to contact them at 325-481-2718. To remain anonymous, tip online at bit.ly/SAPDTips247, text TIP SAPD to 888777 or call the 24-hour tip hotline at 1-855-847-7247.

Crime Stoppers is offering up to a $1,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest.

Information about the suspect(s) or the stolen item can be directed to Crime Stoppers at 325-658-4357 or sanangelocrimestoppers.com.

sexual relations with inmates cases sent to grand jury

Cases against food service workers Luis Carlos Ayala, 51, and Shannon Lorrian Strasburg, 45, have been submitted to the District Attorney's office for presentation to the grand jury, according to Lt. Christina Lopez, public information officer with the Tom Green County Sheriff's Office.

Ayala and Lorrian were arrested Aug. 2 for allegedly having improper sexual relationships with inmates at the Tom Green County Jail and have since been released on bail.

Both were employed by Aramark Correctional Services, which is contracted to provide food services to the jail. Aramark's contract with the jail automatically renewed at the end of August for another year.

It is set to expire again in 2017, Lopez said.

Ayala and Lorrian are charged with violations of the civil rights of person in custody; improper sexual activity with person in custody in "separate and distinct violations."

As a result of the investigation and more than a week after the two arrests, Logan Boyd, 28, a correctional officer at the jail, was arrested on the same charges.

Lopez said "the two cases are not related. However, because of the first case new information was received which led to the arrest of Boyd."

Boyd's case has also been submitted to the district attorney's office and is awaiting presentation to the grand jury, she said.

Violations of the civil rights of person in custody is a state jail felony, punishable by 180 days to two years' confinement and up to $10,000 in fines.

ODIN investigation

Only one of seven handguns stolen from a burglary at ODIN Firearms Aug. 2 has been recovered.

"The ODIN Firearms investigation is still ongoing," said Matthew Vaughn, public information officer with the San Angelo Police Department. "(A detective) is currently working with the (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) on this case. I can confirm that seven handguns were stolen and only one has been recovered thus far."

San Angelo police have made four arrests in connection to the burglary  Joe Garrett Stanley, Michael Stanley, Michael Newsome and Levi Garrett Rosser.

Joe Garrett Stanley, who was arrested Aug. 7, has been charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, theft of a firearm, tampering with evidence and several outstanding arrest warrants.

Stanley's 27-year-old brother, Michael was arrested Aug. 11, and charged with burglary of a building, theft of a firearm, unlawful possession of firearm by a felon, unlawful possession of metal body armor by a felon and possession of a controlled substance penalty group 1.

Michael Newsome, 30, and Levi Garrett Rosser, 28  were arrested Aug. 12. Newsome is charged with possession of a controlled substance penalty group 1, and Rosser is charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.

Officer Tracey Gonzalez said because the burglary remains an active investigation, no further information can be released.
Ana Ramirez/Victoria Advocate via AP Dr. Sam Williams examines Nugget at the Crossroads Veterinary Clinic in Victoria. The horse had two ticks removed from her left ear.

SHARE ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, SEPT. 12  In this Aug. 28, 2016 photo, Julius Whitby, a veterinary technician, holds a horse steady as Dr. Paul Daniel examines the horse's eye for abrasions at the Crossroads Veterinary Clinic in Victoria, Texas. J.R. Burns, right, a barrel racer, watches as her horse is examined. (Ana Ramirez/The Victoria Advocate via AP) ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, SEPT. 12  In this Aug. 28, 2016 photo, J.R. Burns, a barrel racer, stands next to her sedated horse at the Crossroads Veterinary Clinic in Victoria, Texas. (Ana Ramirez/The Victoria Advocate via AP)

By Sara Sneath, Victoria Advocate

VICTORIA  Striker's breathing is still labored from an upper respiratory issue he's been trying to kick.

The tall, white-freckled horse underwent breathing treatments, which required the use of a large blue face mask that fit over his velvety muzzle.

In his youth, Striker competed in dressage. His former owner called him "the flying pillow." But after moving from Arizona to Texas, he's become a comfort horse for Sharon Miller.

Miller said she enjoys riding trails on the 19-year-old.

But at just over 17 hands tall, if Miller drops her hat on the trail, there's no easy way to get back up on Striker's back.

"I have a three step mounting block and he's still a step up," Miller told the Victoria Advocate.

Miller's herd at the Rocking M Ranch in Woodsboro has had problems with allergies this year because of the mixture of dry and rainy spells. Striker's problems became more severe, resulting in respiratory issues.

"He just had a real crusty nose and he was breathing real hard," she said. "His energy level, even though he's not usually very energized, you could just tell he wasn't himself."

Late last month, Striker and Miller returned to the Crossroads Veterinary Clinic, where he received breathing treatments. Striker was feeling much better, but his breathing was still somewhat labored, as though he was getting over the last week of a cold.

The Crossroad Veterinary Clinic recently completed a new indoor equine facility. There, Miller and Striker were surrounded by other horses and their caretakers. The new digs offer air-conditioned exam rooms, video monitored intensive care unit stalls and a surgery suite. But more than that, it offers an environment for horse lovers to congregate and ensure their animals' well-being.

In one of the stalls inside the building, a small brown horse also owned by Miller was getting her ear checked out. A tick had gotten inside the ear, making it sensitive, said Dr. Sam Williams, a large animal veterinarian who co-owns the clinic.

"It can cause some damage to the inside of the ear if they're allowed to stay in there and continue to feed," Williams said. "So, we have to get those things removed."

Williams gave the horse a sedative. It quickly set in and the horse started to close her eyes. She leaned forward and shuffled on her feet.

Rains have brought out more bugs, Williams said. And the ticks have been bad this year. Horses can't take oral tick medication, like dogs can.

Tick preventatives have to be applied topically.
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In my consulting work, I have on occasion assisted people intent on creating a startup company. I tell them they must come up with a comprehensive business plan that answers key questions related to the prospects for success in the proposed venture.

Some time ago I came upon just such a business plan, remarkable for many reasons, just one of which was the fact that it was written in 1947, well before the advent of many modern business practices. Also, the entrepreneur was a woman.

She was already a well-regarded practitioner of her trade and for almost 20 years part of a successful organization, yet she wished to launch a totally new corporation. Her name was Mary Teresa; her current organization was the Sisters of Loreto. She was a nun.

Her proposed startup was to be named the Missionary Sisters of Charity, and to make the move, she needed the hearty sponsorship of the archbishop of Kolkata, India, Ferdinand Perier. He is the one who sought Teresa's business plan before he could bring himself to sponsor her proposal.

Perier gave her an excellent list of questions for someone contemplating a startup. He told her to "sit down quietly and write" her response to seven queries:

What did she want to do (mission)? How would she bring it about (strategy)? How would she recruit her team? Whom would she recruit? Where would she locate? Can the same end be achieved through existing organizations? Can the end be achieved with a more loosely organized group?

Teresa took her time and answered all seven questions within two months. She even added two: What confidence did she have that her organization would succeed, and how would she fund the startup in its initial stages?

Her answers were, from a purely business perspective, startling. Her mission would be to bring Christ's love to the poorest people she could find. Her strategy would be to nurse the sick, bring peace to the dying, run free schools for destitute kids  "in a word, act the love of Christ among the poorest."

She then created a job posting for those who would join the startup: women from age 16, strong, healthy, with common sense. Generous, lovers of the poor, bright and cheerful nature, able to put their hand to any work however repugnant. This was not for everybody.

They would live where the poorest lived, period. And no, no existing organization of sisters did this work. Plenty of nuns served the rich, she wrote; none served the poorest of the poor.

How about the chances of success? Here, of course, success must be defined. Teresa admitted that she had no idea how successful she would be, but she made the outrageous claim that even if only one dying person left this world with peace in his heart, the enterprise could be called successful.

Funding, too, was addressed. Since the members would live in absolute poverty, they would need little. They'd farm, sell the excess, live off that. For the rest, she said, she and her cohorts would trust God.

After pestering the archbishop ceaselessly, Teresa did receive permission to create her startup, and on Aug. 17, 1948, dressed in a white sari with a thin blue border, she ventured into the tumultuous India of that day. Her cache of capital consisted of five rupees.

Mother Teresa, the CEO known since Sunday as St. Teresa, parlayed those five rupees into a massive organization serving the poor all over the world. The 5,000 sisters have been joined by orders of brothers, priests and lay missionaries with one mission: to bring the love of Jesus Christ to the forgotten poor.

Her measure of success, that just one destitute person die surrounded by love, has been achieved. One person at a time, many thousands of times over.

Orlando R. Barone is a writer in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. He wrote this for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Contact him at orby114@aol.com
A new NET special takes an in-depth look at a question many Americans are asking: Is my water safe?

Watching Our Water: The Challenge to Keep It Clean premieres at 7 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 17, on NET.

The half-hour television program illumines the challenges facing farmers, scientists and engineers. It explores the vexing question of how pristine water high in the Rocky Mountains ends up as a floating chemical dead-zone in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

It also examines what happens along the way as reporters visit Colorados Front Range -- the first to receive the Rocky Mountain snow melt before it travels downstream. A visit to the National Water Quality Laboratory in Denver shows how water quality is assessed and what is in ground and surface water.

The special covers farmers in Nebraska who demonstrate minimal chemical use as well as new ways of managing fields. In Hastings, engineers showcase a cost-effective solution to contamination. In a riverside laboratory in Omaha, scientists observe what is happening to fish and wildlife.

Watching Our Water will repeat throughout September on NET and NET World. For a complete program schedule, visit NETs website at netNebraska.org/television. To find all of NETs channels, please visit netNebraska.org/tvchannels.

A week-long radio/web reporting project will accompany the television special and air Monday, Sept. 19 through Friday, Sept. 23 at 6:45 a.m.; 8:45 a.m. and 4:45 p.m. each day. All of the content will also be available at harvestpublicmedia.org/ourwater.

Watching Our Water is a production of the Harvest Public Media video unit at NET, Nebraskas PBS & NPR Stations, with production partners KCPT in Kansas City and Rocky Mountain PBS in Denver and with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Harvest Public Media is a journalism collaboration between Midwest public media stations, including NET, which produces news stories on issues related to food, fuel and field.

NET operates the statewide public service network which includes NET Television, NET Radio, NET Learning Services and NET Technology Services. To learn more, visit netNebraska.org.
Trade and the U.S. Economy

'That Scares Republicans'

Trade Isn't Taboo Everywhere

Every president since World War II has pursued a policy of expanding free trade. But in the 2016 presidential election, free trade has been an all-purpose villain.Republican nominee Donald Trump has threatened to impose stiff tariffs on major trading partners such as China and Mexico, while Democratic runner-up Bernie Sanders rode an anti-free-trade message during his unexpected insurgency. Even Hillary Clinton, who supported free trade while serving as secretary of state, softened her position under pressure to defeat Sanders.Further down the ballot, candidates have gotten the message: Today, it's rare to find politicians openly supporting free trade on the campaign trail."I know I have seen one positive ad about trade this year, but I can't find it," said Jennifer Duffy, who handicaps Senate and gubernatorial races for the Cook Political Report. "I remember it because it stuck out in a sea of anti-trade ads."Duffy said that incumbents from the GOP -- the party that has been the primary supporters for free trade legislation in recent years -- have been "spooked by voters' reaction on trade this cycle. Wherever trade is playing this cycle, it is much more about opposition to trade agreements than about the virtues of trade."The team of political analysts at Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia came to the same conclusion."We honestly can't think of anyone" who has articulated a pro-free-trade campaign message in 2016, said Kyle Kondik, the website's managing editor. "Free trade is an easy scapegoat for economic problems, and it's true that the benefits of free trade have been unevenly felt."Even free-trade advocates have a hard time pointing to candidates this year who are running on their support of trade. When asked for examples of state-level politicians who have made support of free trade a key issue this year, several groups -- including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable -- didn't have much to say.Meanwhile, international trade has become a significant share of the economy.Federal estimates showed that 11.6 million U.S. jobs depended on trade in 2014. In 2015, the United States exported more than $2.3 trillion in goods and services. In all, trade accounted for 28 percent of the United States' gross domestic product -- up from 9 percent in 1960, which was before a string of key trade agreements took effect.While U.S. exports in 2015 were exceeded by $2.8 trillion in imports -- producing a roughly $500 billion trade deficit -- imports themselves support jobs in the United States. And the lower prices from imported products enable Americans to enjoy a better standard of living than they would otherwise.But don't expect candidates to mention these talking points this year."Free trade has always been a hard sell, even to many of those who benefit from it," said Tom Baxter, a veteran political reporter in Georgia.It's also become increasingly common for Democrats to criticize free-trade deals. In 1993, 102 Democrats supported the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), according to the. Twelve years later, just 15 Democrats backed a free-trade deal with Central American nations.What's different about this year is the backtracking by Republicans.This has been clearest in Senate races. As recently noted , Republican Senate incumbents in Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have been forced onto the defensive by Democratic challengers criticizing their past support for free trade.Duffy of the Cook Political Report pointed to a recent ad from the Democrat-aligned Senate Majority PAC that attacked Republican Sen. Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania. Toomey voted last year to give President Obama trade negotiating authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade agreement with several Asian nations. (As his re-election campaign heated up this year, Toomey came out against the TPP deal itself.)"Millionaire Pat Toomey," the ad's narrator said. "In Washington, Toomey's voted to protect tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas. And Toomey's voted for seven separate trade deals that crippled our economy. Toomey even voted for special trade status with China. Tax breaks for outsourcing jobs. A special trade deal with China. Pat Toomey: in Washington, he hasn't been standing up for us.""It's the linkage between jobs moving overseas and trade that scares Republicans," said Duffy. "Even though the two aren't necessarily related, voters are convinced that they are."In Ohio, Republicans have been split over the issue.Republicans in the state's congressional delegation were all over the map on approving trade promotion authority, according to Thomas C. Sutton, a political scientist at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio. The incumbent Republican senator, Rob Portman, has softened his support for trade agreements as he seeks a new term in 2016.As for the state's governor, Republican John Kasich, Sutton said "he's been consistent in supporting free trade as beneficial to Ohio, particularly for farming and the services and technology sectors." But even though Kasich sees benefits for manufacturing from free trade, "he does not promote this as heavily."In other Midwestern states, few Republicans have gone out on a limb.In a competitive congressional contest in northern Minnesota, for example, both candidates --incumbent Rick Nolan, a Democrat, and his GOP challenger, Stewart Mills -- "are asserting their opposition to trade arrangements that have cost the district jobs," said Carleton College political scientist Steve Schier. "Up there, the campaign talk is very much anti-trade."But not every part of the country is seeing such anti-trade fervor.In Massachusetts, for instance, which recently rated as having the strongest overall economy in the nation, trade is generally seen as a good thing."The dominant view is that free trade is vitally important to the state," said Tufts University political scientist Jeffrey Berry. "There's very little manufacturing here, while the high tech, biotech and engineering firms that are the engine of the state's economy value foreign trade."Another region where free trade is either welcomed, or at least tolerated, is the South.In Texas, "free trade continues to be widely supported by most Texas Republican elected officials, as well as by a significant number of Texas Democrats," said Rice University political scientist Mark P. Jones.Vocal supporters in Texas, he said, include Gov. Greg Abbott, Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Kevin Brady, all Republicans. Some Democrats are also supportive of free trade because NAFTA has bolstered many heavily Hispanic -- and heavily Democratic -- districts near the Rio Grande."By and large," said Jones, "there has been little backlash at the polls in either party against politicians who remain visibly and vocally supportive of free trade."Other states in the South welcome free trade because they either lack labor unions (which usually rail against trade deals), have a big agricultural sector looking to sell its products abroad or have experienced a record of investment by foreign companies in manufacturing."Louisiana is a heavy trade state, and everyone is on board," said G. Pearson Cross, a University of Louisiana-Lafayette political scientist. "We haven't really sent jobs overseas because our industries -- agriculture, oil, fisheries -- are here and can't be moved. What Louisiana politicians want is more trade on fair terms, along the lines of, 'Let our rice compete with theirs.'"For some Republican governors, their own longstanding support for free trade is running contrary to their backing for Trump.In Florida, Republican Gov. Rick Scott -- a Trump backer -- has consistently touted free trade as a key to future economic growth."Florida is already a hub for trade in and out of Latin America and the Caribbean," and Scott has backed expanding trade with Japan and China, said Aubrey Jewett, a University of Central Florida political scientist.Iowa Republican Gov. Terry Branstad, another longtime free-trade advocate, is also supporting Trump. But Branstad "has touted the close relationship he has with President Xi Jinping of China and how this benefits the Iowa economy," said Christopher Larimer, a University of Northern Iowa political scientist.Sometimes the solution can be as simple as changing the rhetoric, said Douglas Irwin, a Dartmouth University economist and author of"In many southern states," he said, "politicians tout the benefits of 'foreign investment' but not 'free trade.'"
Police

Aug. 1

1:25 p.m. - In the 900 block of Becton Street, Esther A. Ayala, 19, 905 Becton St., cited for dog at large.

Aug. 10

4:49 p.m. - At 18th Street and 26th Avenue, Erik A. Brown, 18, 2217 24th St., cited for stop sign violation.

Sept. 1

1:05 p.m. - At 18th Avenue and 23rd Street, traffic accident. Unknown vehicle struck vehicle driven by Natalie E. Palmer, 34, 1616 1/2 11th St.

Sept. 2

10:30 p.m. - In the 400 block of 26th Avenue, Maryann H. Husak, 19, 4611 30th St., cited for failure to maintain control.

Sept. 3

1:49 a.m. - At 28th Avenue and 23rd Street, Anthony R. Smith, 20, Gleenwood, Iowa, cited for no proof of insurance, no proof of ownership.

2:22 a.m. - In the 2500 block of Ninth Street, Brandon T. LaPointe, 32, 3358 29th Ave., jailed for third DUI, refusal of preliminary breath test, leaving the scene of a property damage accident, open container.

11:56 p.m. - In the 3200 block of 23rd Street, Austin J. Kocina, 23, Platte Center, cited for excessive torque.

11:56 p.m. - In the 3200 block of 23rd Street, Alex P. Korus, 22, Genoa, cited for excessive torque.

Sept. 4

4:08 p.m. - In the 1800 block of 23rd Street, David Gonzalez, 19, Schuyler, cited for improper turn.

Sept. 7

3:13 p.m. - At Third Avenue and 23rd Street, Peter G. Clark, 81, 217 30th St., cited for failure to yield right of way.

3:13 p.m. - At Third Avenue and 23rd Street, Sylvia Meda, 21, 1521 Fifth St., cited for no operator's license.

Sept. 9

7:50 a.m. - At Pershing Road and 23rd Street, traffic accident. Vehicles driven by Cory B. Schwartz, 49, 2317 Mahood Drive and Claudia L. Lee, 49, 319 Pershing Road.

12:30 p.m. - In the 2800 block of 23rd Street, traffic accident. Vehicles driven by Marvin C. Louis, 80, 8472 36th Ave., and Tiffany L. Behne, 33, 1560 19th Ave.

2:33 p.m. - At 33rd Avenue and 23rd Street, traffic accident. Vehicles driven by Mary D. Stradley, 60, 2056 East Calle Colombo, and Maria C. Ynfantes, 59, Carriage House Estates #38.

4:45 p.m. - In the 3000 block of 23rd Street, criminal mischief, vehicle keyed.

Sept. 10

7:13 a.m. - Bradshaw Park, 1577 48th Ave., burglary. Concession stand broken into, $50 damage and unknown amount of product taken.

10 a.m. - At Sixth Street and 18th Avenue, traffic accident. Vehicles driven by Rosa E. Leon, 19, 4071 East 29th St., and Calvin J. Maslonka, 25, 1815 Ninth St.

1:10 p.m. - At 25th Avenue and 10th Street, traffic accident. Vehicle driven by Damian J. Fielder, 24, 974 25th Ave., struck parked vehicle owned by Chelsea Gen, 3364 Fairlane Ave.

Sept. 11

8:57 a.m. - In the 2400 block of 21st Street, criminal mischief. Rock thrown at house, $10 loss from damage to siding.

3:25 p.m. - In the 1300 block of 18th Avenue, criminal mischief. Damage to window of van, $700 loss.

7:42 p.m. - In the 3300 block of 13th Street, theft from a car. Two speakers, speaker box, amp taken, $500 loss.

9:36 p.m. - In the 600 block of 33rd Avenue, theft of bike, $200 loss.

Sheriff

Sept. 10

3:11 a.m. - Merrick County, Route 30, Maddie Kirby of Central City cited for speeding.

10:21 a.m. - At Highway 22 and 280th Avenue, Marc Witte of Columbus cited for speeding.

4:36 p.m. - Matthew Roth cited for second degree assault and Daniel McGuane cited for assault of a confined person.

Sept. 11

11:30 a.m. - South of highways 81/30 junction, Jeremiah Jeffres of Lincoln jailed for DUR.

Fire

Sept. 9

4:59 p.m. - In the 2500 block of 47th Avenue, medical.

4:59 p.m. - In the 3000 block of 23rd Street, medical.

5:23 p.m. - In the 300 block of Morton Road, medical.

6:21 p.m. - In the 3100 block of 13th Street, medical.

8:03 p.m. - In the 1700 block of 17th Street, medical.

Sept. 10

7:42 a.m. - In the 2400 block of East Sixth Avenue, medical.

7:47 a.m. - In the 3600 block of 30th Street, medical.

9:34 a.m. - In the 4500 block of 38th Street, medical.

11:05 a.m. - In the 2900 block of 37th Avenue, medical.

Sept. 11

1:11 a.m. - In the 6800 block of 48th Avenue, traffic accident.

6:58 a.m. - In the 3600 block of 30th Street, medical.

1:49 p.m. - In the 2000 block of Northbrook Place, medical.

5:23 p.m. - In the 400 block of 23rd Street, traffic accident.

6:16 p.m. - In the 200 block of Seventh Avenue, medical.

7:25 p.m. - In the 4500 block of 38th Street, medical.

11 p.m. - In the 2600 block of 13th Street, medical.
When Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb belatedly jumped into Indianas tumultuous race for governor, he faced a big fundraising disadvantage.Six weeks later, he has made significant headway in catching up with Democratic opponent John Gregg.The question is: Did it come soon enough to allow the relatively unknown Holcomb to effectively get his message out to voters before Election Day?Holcomb had only about $20,000 in his campaign account when he was selected to replace Gov. Mike Pence as the GOP nominee for governor in late July. By comparison, Gregg had more than $5 million on hand.Then came another setback for Holcomb: Pence, who had pledged his financial support, could transfer only a fraction of his $7 million in campaign cash because of a federal prohibition that appears to have taken both campaigns by surprise.Holcomb has raised more than $4.2 million in large contributions (those worth more than $10,000) since becoming the nominee on July 26. Gregg has raised just $785,000 in large contributions during that same period. Smaller donations won't be reported until October."On large contributions, weve out-raised him three to one, and weve only been at this five weeks," said Pete Seat, a spokesman for the Holcomb campaign. "We feel great about the momentum of our campaign and the momentum of our fundraising."
A federal appeals court ruling late Friday blocked Georgia and two other states from requiring proof of citizenship when residents registered to vote using federal forms, a victory for voting rights group that had little immediate effect in Georgia since the state had not been enforcing the requirement.The case stemmed from a decision earlier this year by a top federal elections official, U.S. Election Assistance Commission executive director Brian Newby, to unilaterally allow Georgia, Alabama and Kansas to request citizenship documentation such as a birth certificate, naturalization papers or passport when residents used a federal mail-in voter registration form.In other states, people using the same forms to register must swear that they are citizens, but do not have to show birth certificates or other documents as proof.Newby, a former Kansas election official who had publicly supported that state's effort to change the federal registration form, made his decision without public notice or review from his agency's commissioners.He had defended the decision as a routine administrative action within his authority, but voting rights groups criticized the changes as "secretive" and said they created additional barriers for potential voters.A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Friday sided with the groups, saying Newby had overstepped his authority in a 2-1 ruling that came only a day after the panel heard oral arguments in the case.While Georgia was one of three states given permission to require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship on federal voter registration forms, it actually first considered asking for that requirement years ago.The state in 2009 passed a law requiring voter registration applicants to provide proof of U.S. citizenship, such as copies of passports or birth certificates, but had not been able to enforce it because it could not get into a federal immigration database that could be used to confirm citizenship.Then, in 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar statute in Arizona was preempted by federal law. The ruling in effect partly blocked Georgia's law, leading Secretary of State Brian Kemp to say at the time that he would consider asking the EAC to add new instructions on federal voter registration forms so Georgia can require proof of U.S. citizenship.After Newby granted that request earlier this year, a number of Georgia voting advocates became part of a federal lawsuit seeking to block Newby's decision.The Georgia NAACP, the Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda and the League of Women Voters of Georgia in February joined a suit filed by national organizations including the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the American Civil Liberties Union.The groups argued that Newby's actions were illegal under both EAC policy and federal law. They said the requirement would have a chilling effect on voter registration in the three states, as well as impede civic participation in voting.The disputed forms involved only federal elections; states are free to require ID from people to vote in local races.Neither Georgia nor Alabama had been enforcing their proof-of-citizenship laws. Kemp's office did not immediately respond Sunday to a request for comment.Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach argued for the change in court Thursday, saying Kansas voter rolls had grown overall and that there was no proof the requirement was a barrier for some residents to register to vote.
Mike Weinholtz, the Democratic candidate for governor, says he loves teachers, loves public schools and wants to raise taxes on high-income earners to give them a boost. But there's a segment of the education system he's not a fan of  charter schools.He sees the steady growth of these alternative taxpayer-funded schools that operate outside the traditional districts as a symptom of an under-supported system. And if elected, he'd set a goal of phasing them out."My personal belief is if we improve K-12 education we don't need charter schools," Weinholtz told The Salt Lake Tribune's editorial board recently. "To me charter schools are a reflection of our current Legislature's and governor's belief that they would like to privatize everything and they just generally don't believe in public education.Utah now has 110 charter schools that educate roughly 74,000 students. Gov. Gary Herbert, a Republican who polls say has a big lead in his quest for re-election, is among the supporters of charter schools. Many charters boast of educational specialties or smaller class sizes, and Herbert argues their primary value is giving parents additional options."Governor Herbert believes that Utah parents should be the ones deciding this issue," said Marty Carpenter, the governor's campaign manager. "If a charter school isn't working, parents can vote with their feet and choose a new school. The governor believes that Utah parents need more choice for their children, not less."
The White House on Thursday notified Gov. John Bel Edwards that the state of Louisiana has met its threshold to qualify for an increased match rate from the federal government for recovery efforts from the catastrophic flooding that swept the state last month.In a letter to Edwards, President Barack Obama writes that the federal share has been increased to 90 percent, up from 75 percent, lessening the state's portion that it must pay for disaster-related obligations, including the deployment of the National Guard and funding for other state and local government recovery efforts.Edwards, a Democrat, had requested the increased match rate shortly after flood swept across more than two dozen parishes through the southern portion of the state.He is currently in Washington lobbying members of Congress for additional recovery assistance, including a $2 billion aid package for infrastructure, housing and economic development recovery efforts. That would be on top of the nearly $200 million that FEMA has already authorized in individual assistance for flood victims.During an interview with The Advocate in Washington on Thursday, Edwards said he felt that meetings were going well but more work needed to be done."The challenge here is not just that we are trying to make our case and bring people up to speed on what happened in Louisiana -- the severity of the flooding -- but there is a timing element," Edwards said.Congress came back this week after a seven-week recess but is expected to break again at the end of the month. The U.S. House and Senate are not scheduled to return again until Nov. 14, once the presidential race and most Congressional elections are decided.Edwards said he currently sees opportunity for the additional funding to come through a continuing resolution or omnibus legislation."I feel optimistic right now that we are going to be able to get something done," he said. "We need this and we need it as soon as possible. A big part of this is just educating folks in Congress about how severe this really was."Edwards is scheduled to continue to hold meetings today and Friday in Washington. He will also testify during a hearing on FEMA's response to the flooding
A federal appeals court has determined that some people convicted of comparatively minor state crimes should get a chance to legally own guns, issuing a divided decision that reshapes longstanding rules.The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday sided with two Pennsylvania residents, deeming their crimes as minor even though they could have produced jail time of more than two years.The court restored gun ownership rights to Daniel Binderup of Manheim, Lancaster County, who pleaded guilty in Pennsylvania in 1998 to misdemeanor corruption of minors for a consensual sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl working at his bakery. He received probation and a fine, but the offense carried a potential sentence of five years.It also ruled in favor of Julio Suarez of Gettysburg, Adams County, who pleaded guilty in Maryland to misdemeanor possession of a handgun without a license, a conviction that could have sent him to jail for three years. He received a suspended sentence and a fine.The 3rd Circuit majority ruled that the federal gun ownership ban requires the offenses to be considered serious crimes, rather than simply carry state sentences of at least two years or more. The judges noted that Pennsylvania and Maryland graded Binderup and Suarez's convictions as misdemeanors. The decision was 8-7, although there was division among the majority about how challenges to gun prohibitions will play out in the courts.
On Saturday, in the morning, at the Pullman Reef Hotel Casino, Cairns, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC, with Mrs Kaye de Jersey, hosted an Investiture Ceremony for residents of Far North Queensland, recipients of Australian honours and awards announced on The Queens Birthday 2016, and then the Governor addressed guests.

Following, the Governor and Mrs de Jersey returned to Brisbane.

In the evening, at Suncorp Stadium, the Governor attended the Australian Rugby Union match between the Wallabies and the Springboks.
On Sunday, in the afternoon, at St Marys Anglican Church, Kangaroo Point, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC and Mrs Kaye de Jersey attended the baptism of their great-nephew baby Arlo Edgar de Jersey.
On Monday, in the morning, at the Royal Brisbane and Womens Hospital, Herston (RBWH), His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC officially opened the 2016 RBWH Healthcare Symposium and addressed guests.

In the afternoon, at Government House, the Governor and Mrs Kaye de Jersey hosted a reception in celebration of the visit to Queensland of Ballet Preljocaj where His Excellency addressed guests.
On Friday, in the morning, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC and Mrs Kaye de Jersey departed Brisbane for an official visit to Cairns.

In the afternoon, at Cannon Park Racecourse, the Governor and Mrs de Jersey attended the Cairns Amateurs Ladies Race Day where His Excellency presented the Governors Trophy.

In the evening, at the Cairns Cruise Liner Terminal, the Governor and Mrs de Jersey attended the Cairns Amateurs Ball where His Excellency addressed guests.
Description

GIS  12 September, 2016: The Prime Ministers Office will drive the implementation of the National Troupe of Mauritius Project. The project, under the patronage of the Prime Minister, aims at promoting cultural diversity and artistic capacity building as announced in Government Programme 2015-2019 and Budget Speech 2016-2017.

A Steering Committee, under the chairmanship of the Secretary to Cabinet and Head of the Civil Service, has been set up to advise Government and to chart the way forward for the setting up of the Troupe.

The Mauritius National Troupe will contribute to the creation of a distinctive Mauritian national identity and enable Mauritius to participate in international competitions and cultural exchange programmes. It will also be responsible to build critical skills in youth by fostering their creative talents
On average, one of every three adults over the age of 65 falls each year, making falls the most common cause of death or injury in the home and creating real concern for seniors and their loved ones. By offering the Philips Lifeline Service, Columbus Community Hospital is able to provide seniors with the help they need at the push of a button.

Philips Lifeline is the leading medical alert service in the U.S., dedicated to helping give seniors more confidence and peace of mind to live independently in their own homes. The service, available in Columbus and the surrounding communities through the hospitals program, calls for help at the push of a button in the event of a fall or emergency. Starting at just a little more than a dollar a day, seniors throughout the community can purchase this vital, lifesaving service.

Lifeline offers a range of choices to help maintain your independence. Whether you are in need of the GoSafe mobile, go-anywhere protection with AutoAlert fall detection, or the peace of mind to just enjoy life in the comfort of your own home, Lifeline has you covered.

How it works:

Summon help -- With a simple push of your help button youre connected to our response center, which is staffed 24 hours, including weekends and holidays. The available AutoAlert feature will automatically call for help if you fall and are unable to push your button.

Hear a reassuring voice -- A caring Lifeline response associate will quickly access your personal profile and assess the situation.

Get located -- Whether you are at home or if youve opted for the wireless mobile option, Lifeline pinpoints your location through the communicator of your GoSafe mobile pendant. GoSafe uses up to six advanced technologies to determine where you are.

Know help is on the way -- Our associate contacts a neighbor, loved one or emergency services -- based on your preferences -- and will follow up to make sure help has arrived.

Columbus Community Hospital understands the value of living independently, and has been offering the Lifeline program services since 1983 in an effort to provide a needed resource to the community. For more information regarding the Lifeline program and the available options to meet your needs, please contact Melinda Jeffcoat at 402-562-4499.
(TNS) -- Eastpointe City Manager Steve Duchane says local governments in Michigan have been doing a lot of reacting to revenue sharing cuts through the years, slashing services and programs because they have been receiving fewer state funds.But now, more than a dozen of those local governments  most in metro Detroit  are taking action, joining a nonprofit group that on Wednesday filed a civil lawsuit against the state for overstating various payments to local governments and causing a more than $1 billion shortfall to municipalities.Taxpayers for Michigan Constitutional Government, Duchane and two other Eastpointe employees filed the lawsuit against the state, the states Department of Technology Management and Budget and the Michigan Office of the Auditor General in the Michigan Court of Appeals. The state has until Sept. 28 to file a response, according to the online court docket.Kurt Weiss, spokesman for the state budget office, released a statement Thursday related to the lawsuit.The Office of Financial Management within the State Budget Office works hard each year to properly identify expenditures to determine the amount of state spending that goes to the aid of local governments, it states. Those expenditures are in turn submitted to the Office of Auditor General for validation to ensure the calculations are accurate. This is a methodology that has been applied consistently since the passage of Proposal A. The State Budget Office will take time to further review the complaint, but its important to note that these calculations have been consistently applied over time.But the group disagrees and says the state is violating the Michigan constitution by overstating spending that is paid to local governments and engaging in an illegal tax shift. The complaint states that Michigan is including payments from Proposal A revenue and payments to charter schools, county road commissions and others from the trunk line roads fund and payments to cover the costs of state mandates in its calculations of spending in the form of aid that is paid to local governments.When these items are subtracted, state spending in the form of aid that is paid to local governments falls significantly below 48.97% of total state spending, violating the constitution, according to the complaint.The group is asking, among other things, that these items be removed from the funding formula for aid paid to local governments. It is also asking that the court order the state to make up the funding shortages.On its website, the group claims that the loss of billions of dollars in funding has forced local governments to make significant cuts to services and programs to stay solvent.State spending continues without control and the locals have paid the price, said Duchane, the groups treasurer.The group was founded by Duchane and its president, John Mogk, a professor at Wayne State University School of Law.According to its website, its members include the cities of Center Line, Eastpointe, Mt. Clemens, New Baltimore, Richmond, Roseville, Utica and Warren and Clinton Township in Macomb County; Hazel Park in Oakland County; Harper Woods, Southgate and Grosse Pointe Woods in Wayne County; Grosse Pointe Shores, which straddles Wayne and Macomb counties, the city of Auburn in Bay County, the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice in Detroit, and Wayne City Councilman Tom Porter.Duchane said other communities may be joining the group, whose attorneys are John Philo, executive and legal director of the Sugar Law Center; Tracy Peters, who specializes in education and the rights of students and parents, and Robert Sedlar, a constitutional law and legal conflict professor at Wayne State University School of Law.Duchane said he doesnt know where the money local governments are supposed to be getting is going, but I can tell you where our money goes.For example, he said, if the state would have done revenue sharing like the group believes it should have, Eastpointe would have had $13.6 million accumulated from 2002 to the present. That kind of money, Duchane said, would have meant that officials would not have had to raise taxes.Many Michigan communities have said they were brought to their knees financially by a combination of events, including the Great Recession, the mortgage market meltdown that dramatically cut real estate values, the state's elimination of the personal property tax on businesses and continued cuts in state revenue sharing. Working their way back has been difficult because of the limits on property tax growth imposed by Proposal A and the Headlee Amendment.Eastpointe and Hazel Park formed a unique taxing authority for 20 years to raise funds for police and fire services in their cities. The city of Wayne tried to join that authority, but voters in that city and Eastpointe shot it down in the Aug. 2 election. Now, the city of Wayne  facing insolvency in December 2017  has asked the state for an emergency financial review and could be facing a state-appointed emergency manager.Wayne Mayor Susan Rowe told the Free Press late last month that city officials were to meet with the state treasurer in Lansing at the end of September to discuss finances that communities, in general, are struggling with. She also said she was working with a state senator to tweak two public acts that could help communities financially."We're just the tip of the iceberg," Rowe said last month. "We're not the only city in this (financial) situation. It'll be happening to communities around us soon. We don't have an expense problem. We have a revenue problem."
(TNS) -- Philadelphia is going paperless with its contracting services.In an effort to modernize and streamline government, city officials will begin accepting bids and proposals for city contracts electronically this fall. The move will free the procurement department of hundreds of boxes of paper bids from businesses seeking city contracts. It will also, city officials hope, make it more inviting for businesses to bid on city work."Our processes are cumbersome and businesses have complained, rightfully so," Rebecca Rhynhart, chief administrative officer in charge of the digital overhaul, said this week. "It's hard to do business with us and we're trying to change that."Rhynhart and other city officials are working to make every aspect of contracting electronic - from the bidding itself to allowing for electronic signatures from vendors and department heads.The website www.PHLcontracts.phila.gov went live Wednesday to allow businesses who want to contract with the city to register online. The procurement department already transferred 1,400 businesses that are active with the city to the online registry.Bids should start appearing online in October and electronic bidding will start in November, according to Trevor Day, the city's procurement commissioner.The ability to sign documents digitally will start as a pilot program this fall with some major departments."In 2017, we are looking to go completely electronic," Christine Derenick-Lopez, first deputy chief administrative officer, said.The city signs more than 1,000 new contracts each year.Professional services contracts, such as consultants, accountants and lawyers that the city hires already go through an electronic process. The change from paper to electronic will be new for public works, construction and supply vendors.The nonprofessional service vendors are also the ones that the city has struggled to diversify. Supply and equipment contracts worth $1 million or less on average get two or three bidders, according to a city analysis of bids."For the taxpayers that doesn't say efficiency, right? We need to change that," Rhynhart said.She is hoping that by improving the system, more businesses will bid for contracts. The more bidders, the more likely the city will get a lower price on work and products.The city would like to see at least six bidders per contract, ideally eight, Day said.City officials are also hoping to shorten the time to finalize a contract.It once took about 160 days to complete a public works contract from the initial request for a service to a signed contract. Procurement officials have reduced that to 115 days through efficiencies, Derenick-Lopez said. The goal is 90 days once the e-procurement system is live, she said.There are other nonelectronic aspects of the city's contracting process that could use reform, Rhynhart and Day said. But technology was the obvious issue to fix first."This is low hanging fruit in some senses," Day said of the current fixes. "I think there are best practices out there and part of that is training."
(TNS)  Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump want the United States to become a global energy superpower.The similarity in their energy policies ends there.The two major-party presidential candidates have staked out nearly opposite positions  Trumps based on fossil fuels, Clintons on renewable power.Trump vows to expand drilling for oil and natural gas, both onshore and off. He wants to end Americas dependence on OPEC and rescue the failing coal industry, which he says has been strangled by President Obama. His stances largely match the energy priorities pushed by the Republican Party for the last eight years.Democrat Clinton, meanwhile, pledges to turn the United States into the worlds clean energy superpower, installing 500 million solar panels nationwide during her first term. She wants to kill subsidies to oil and gas companies, cut Americas use of petroleum by one third and upgrade the electric grid to handle more wind, solar and geothermal power.Driving the difference is climate change.Clinton, like Obama, considers global warming a grave threat that needs to be confronted now. Trump has labeled climate change a hoax and bull, at one point suggesting that the idea had been cooked up by China to undermine American manufacturers. He later called the China comment a joke.Although Trump has recently softened his stance, telling an interviewer in August that there could be some impact from warming, he has pledged to back out of last years international climate accord signed in Paris and scuttle Obamas Clean Power Plan.Clinton, in contrast, would uphold both the Paris accord and the Clean Power Plan. She aims to cut Americas greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent below 2005s levels by 2025. Her long-term goal is far more ambitious  an 80 percent reduction by 2050, the same target California uses in its climate plans.Focusing on zero-carbon energy is tremendously important right now, and Clinton is focusing on it, and Trump isnt, said UC Berkeley energy economist Severin Borenstein.Their positions reflect the polarization of American climate politics during Obamas two terms.While most Democratic and independent voters agree that human activity is warming the globe  the conclusion of the vast majority of climate scientists  only 38 percent of Republican voters do , according to a Gallup poll in March. Long gone are the days when Obama and his 2008 Republican opponent for the White House, John McCain, agreed on the dangers of global warming and pitched many of the same policies to deal with it.Hillary Clinton feels climate change is a major concern, so she has major efforts to address it, said Paul Knappenberger, a researcher with the Cato Institute libertarian think tank who argues that the effects of global warming will not be as severe as many fear. Donald Trump does not share her concern. He wants to level the playing field and let the best or cheapest energy source win out.True to her policy-wonk reputation, Clinton has offered more energy proposals in detail than has Trump, from building more renewable power projects on public lands to pumping federal funding into research on energy storage and other carbon-free technologies.Trump has touted a few specific steps he would take, such as bringing back the Keystone XL pipeline extension that Obama killed, a project that would have shipped crude from Canadas vast oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries.But Trump has largely stuck with broader proposals.He has called for America to ramp up oil and gas production, particularly on public lands, using the money to improve roads, schools and public infrastructure.This is your treasure, and you  the American people  are entitled to share in the riches, Trump said during a May speech in North Dakota on energy issues.He has called for removing bureaucratic barriers to all forms of energy production  including renewables  arguing that the government should not try to favor one energy source over another. And he has vowed to revive the American coal industry, while saying Clintons policies would destroy it.His promise is, Were not going to do regulation, were going to go with whatevers cheapest, and thats coal, said Amy Myers Jaffe, a longtime energy market expert with UC Davis. My problem with that is coal isnt actually the cheapest.Indeed, while Obamas Clean Power Plan would force utilities to move away from coal as an energy source, the coal industry has been increasingly unable to compete against a different fossil fuel  natural gas. Hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, has triggered a boom in domestic gas production and pulled down prices, undercutting coal. Analysts dont expect that to change anytime soon.Unless (Trump) plans to subsidize coal mining, hes not going to save those jobs, Borenstein said.Clinton, for her part, has proposed a $30 billion revitalization plan for coal-mining communities that would redevelop mining sites for factories, expand rural broadband access to boost small-town economies, retrain workers and guarantee their pensions in case their old companies go bankrupt.While Clintons plans would shift America away from fossil fuels, she doesnt reject them entirely.During the primary campaign, for example, she staked out a much more nuanced position on fracking than her opponent, Bernie Sanders. Sanders called for ending the controversial practice  which uses pressurized water, sand and chemicals to extract fuel  while Clinton said she would let states or communities choose whether to ban it. She also said she would only support fracking if the companies involved revealed the chemicals they used and if there was no contamination of local water supplies.While some in the environmental community want to come down hard on fracking, at some point you need to have energy, and right now, thats mostly fossil fuels, Knappenberger said. You cant dial back on them too fast, too much.Clinton does, however, insist that the country start facing climate change now.Future generations will look back and wonder, What we were thinking? How could we possibly be so irresponsible, she says on a video posted on her website.The candidates on energy, climate changePresidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have pushed opposing visions:Donald TrumpExpand oil and natural gas drilling, on land and at sea, and spend the proceeds on roads, schools and infrastructure.Revive the U.S. coal industry.Cancel the Paris climate accord.Hillary ClintonBoost renewable power, installing 500 million solar panels in four years.Follow through with the Paris climate accord and President Obamas Clean Power PlanCut greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.
Lance Stroll says he is ready to drive a formula one car.

Still just 17, the Canadian is now the favourite to replace Felipe Massa at Williams for 2017.

Stroll's father is the well-known fashion billionaire Lawrence Stroll, but Lance is also the runaway leader of the highly-competitive European F3 series.

So when asked if he is ready for F1, Stroll told Germany's motorsport-magazin.com: "Yes, absolutely.

"I think formula 3 is at a very high level and only one step below GP2. Our cars have a lot of downforce but of course not as much power as F1, but the competition level is very high."

When asked what the other differences between the categories are, Stroll added: "I think a bit of everything, but I cannot say exactly because I have never experienced F1."

Stroll will at least be 18 by next March if he is selected to replace Massa, satisfying the FIA's new age limit that was introduced after Max Verstappen's debut.

"Max was unusually young when he got his opportunity that not many others get, but as we saw he did an incredible job," said Stroll.

"It is good for motor sport and formula one that young drivers are able to show what they can do. But I don't want to compare myself with anyone, because each situation is different.

"However, if you are well prepared and have the necessary talent then I see no problem about starting even at a very early age," he added.

(GMM)
Kevin Magnussen looks set to re-use the power unit that was aboard his Renault when he crashed heavily at Eau Rouge recently.

The car was destroyed and the Dane needed a trip to hospital after the violent accident, but Ekstra Bladet newspaper reports that the engine itself survived.

"We will probably use Kevin's motor unit on Friday in Singapore and Sepang, as it seems that there was no serious damage in the accident," technical boss Bob Bell said.

Bell added that, amid Renault's struggles in 2016, the power unit itself has at least been a success story.

"One of the real success stories of this year is how strong the power unit has been," he said. "And not only in relation to improved performance, but also reliability."

(GMM)




1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
Recently, candidate Trump met with Mexicos President Enrique Pena Nieto. At the conclusion, they jointly agreed to have talked about a wall to stop illegal border crossing, drug delivery and gun transfers. Later, Trump, by himself, recapped the meeting and said that the issue of Mexicos paying for the wall was not addressed. Subsequently, however, Nieto tweeted that during their discussions he had made it clear that Mexico would not pay for the wall. One of them is lying!
GREENWICH  A taste of international mystery is coming to Greenwich Library on Wednesday to kick off a busy month of authors paying a visit to town.

Stuart Neville, a resident of Belfast, Ireland and an award-winning novelist, will speaking Wednesday at 7 p.m. as part of a tour for his new novel So Say the Fallen, which is a sequel to his acclaimed 2015 novel Those We Left Behind. The new book continues the story of Belfast Detective Chief Inspector Serena Flanagan and has already come with advance acclaim for the author, who has been called the king of Belfast noir by The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom.

Neville is speaking as part of the AuthorsLive@GreenwichLibrary series. He will appear in the librarys meeting room. The author will talk about his new work as well as his past novels, which have been finalists for some of the top mystery prizes in the world. He will also be signing books and taking questions from the audience.

Marianne Weill, Greenwich Librarys coordinator of selection and acquisitions, said she knows from her own reading what an exciting author Neville is.

Ive been reading his books since the first one, Weill said. Irish crime fiction has a lot of moral complexity in it. Even though hes younger and wasnt around during the troubles theres a lot of social change and unrest as a backdrop in these novels. Hes a really good writer and these are really interesting mysteries.

Weill said she believes Neville has an eager audience in Greenwich given how his books circulate.

Hes a little bit different from the authors we typically feature because he is a mystery writer, Weill said. Thats something thats important for us. We want to bring in interesting people who write books we think people are going to want to be reading.

Neville is not the only author who is coming to Greenwich Library in the coming weeks.

On Sept. 19, New York Times bestselling author Andrew Gross will speak at 7 p.m. in the meeting room. Gross has spoken at Greenwich Library before and will be talking about his new novel The One Man.

The story is about a United States intelligence mission into the infamous Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz to find one prisoner who is considered crucial to the Allies war effort. Gross has written a popular series of novels about detective Ty Hauck, many of which are set in Greenwich.

Then on Sept. 27, Amor Towles will speak at 7 p.m. about his new book A Gentlemen in Moscow. Also a New York Times bestselling author, Towles is going to talk about his new book, his second novel, which focuses on a young Russian aristocrat who is sentenced to house arrest inside a luxury hotel.

According to the library, Towles book embodies the style and spirit of Russias golden age of literature.

We want to feature authors who are both good speakers and good writers, Weill said. We want authors that people might not know and we also want to be able to show off all kinds of different authors. We want to be able to talk about works that people might not be aware of and bring something new to our audiences. The main criteria, though is that they be good writers.

Towles appearance will be in the Cole Auditorium because library officials are expecting a large audience for it.

The AuthorsLive series is made possible through the support of Greenwich Librarys Board of Trustees as well as donors from the community. Dianes Books will provide copies of the books for purchase. The events are free and open to the public but seating in both the meeting room and the Cole Auditorium is limited.

More information is available online at www.greenwichlibrary.org/authorslive .

kborsuk@scni.com
GREENWICH  Greenwich High School science teacher Sarah Goldin was selected as a semifinalist in the 2017 Connecticut Teacher of the Year program on Monday.

We are very fortunate to have an inspirational role model such as Dr. Goldin guiding our students as both a scientist and a teacher, said Superintendent Sal Corda. We wish Sarah all the best as she moves forward in the states Teacher of the Year program.

Goldin was one of the six teachers selected and honored by the Greenwich Distinguished Teachers Awards Committee in April 2016, after a comprehensive nomination and review process.

In May 2016, former Superintendent William McKersie reviewed the nomination packets submitted for each of the six Distinguished Teachers, spent time in each of their classrooms and reviewed essays submitted as part of the selection process.

In June, he chose Goldin as the Greenwich Representative for the 2017 Connecticut Teacher of the Year program.

Now a semifinalist, Goldin will meet with members of the selection committee in Hartford this week for an interview and to give a brief presentation on a pre-assigned topic. Based on these interviews, the state committee selects the finalists for the next stage of the process.

If she is chosen as a finalist, Goldin will be visited at Greenwich High at the end of September.

Dianna Wentzell, commissioner of the state Department of Education, will announce the 2017 CT Teacher of the Year during the week of Oct. 10.

According to the state Department of Education, the Teacher of the Year program does not attempt to select the best teacher; rather, to identify, from among many outstanding teachers of the year, one teacher to serve as a visible and vocal representative of what is best in the profession. The program celebrates excellence in teaching by recognizing teachers who have inspired a love for learning in their students and who have distinguished themselves in the profession.

Before becoming a teacher, Goldin spent seven years working as a full-time laboratory research scientist and received a doctorate from Columbia University in genetics and development.

Goldin joined Greenwich High school in 2009. She has taught biology, honors biology and was a co-creator of the high schools honors biochemistry course. In order to prepare for the development of this new course, Goldin independently obtained her teaching certificate in chemistry.

Goldin was instrumental in launching the AVID program at Greenwich High School in 2010. AVID students are often the first in their families to go to college, are from homes where English is not the primary language or where students experience economic challenges. They are taught organization skills and provided with a mentor who supports them throughout middle and high school.

She also helped develop the Innovation Lab, which launched in 2015. For the Innovation Lab, she wrote and obtained two grants from the Greenwich Alliance for Education.

emunson@hearstmediact.com; @emiliemunson
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As Americans prepared to mark 15 years since the terrorist attacks that forever changed the country, a high school English teacher asked her students what they knew about that day in 2001.

Teacher Melissa Brubaker just started the fall semester at Shadow Creek Ranch High School, which is a part of the Alvin Independent School District, south of Houston.

RELATED: Last known 9/11 search dog euthanized in Houston area

Brubaker was a junior in high school on September 11, 2001. Her students were barely alive.

The students shared little about the events of that day, remarking that they learned of it from an educational cartoon, seen here, that describes the 9/11 attacks somberly.

Two characters in the six-minute clip explain what happened in New York City, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Al-Qaeda's motives are mentioned, along with Osama Bin Laden's death in 2011.

Houston-area teacher Jennifer Simpson said that to her students, the events of that week are discussed via the various conspiracy theories that abound online and in YouTube videos. Much like how the JFK assassination became less about the man who was killed and what it meant for Americans than who pulled the trigger.

"They enjoy discussing and analyzing all the conspiracy theories around it. I try to tell them it's disrespectful, but then again our generation enjoyed all the conspiracy theories around whether Hitler really was killed or not," Simpson says.

RELATED: 'Just like Korea is the forgotten war, the Pentagon is the forgotten 9/11'

Another teacher, Niki Williamson, said that the logistics of the events and the aftermath are unimaginable to younger Americans.

"I forgot that they had never seen an airport where you didn't have to go through a mile of security checks and take off your shoes. I had to basically explain what airports were like in the '90s. It never occurred to me before then that the "how" of the 9/11 would be so hard to comprehend, but it really is.

She said that the conversation was just as confusing as the time she tried to explain to them what Blockbuster Video was.

Another teacher, Alyssa Dupree, says that when it came time to talk about it with her middle schoolers they were enthralled that she was their age when it all happened.

"What began as me mentioning an example that I could use turned into a nearly 30-minute talk about my memory of that day. It was really strange," Dupree says.

RELATED: Trump, Clinton not planning to campaign on 9/11

Jill McKee's son is a freshman in high school right now at a school in North Carolina. He was born in October 2001.

She's worried that the sense of fear and unease that most Americans felt 15 years ago is being forgotten.

But then again how can you teach what it felt like to be worried that World War III was underway?

"There is a certain detachment in their feelings about it because they did not experience the emotions we did as it was happening," McKee said. "To them, it was serious, but something of a story. I beg all teachers to please include the emotional side of this, to explore the human feeling of it or the lesson will be lost."
May be time to investigate cactus water. Photo: Flavia Morlachetti/Getty Images

Congratulations, people  your fiveVita Cocosaday habit has depleted the Caribbeans coconut supplies. In a Bloomberg report, the regions experts quit mincing words and just flat-out warn Americans, The region is running out of coconuts. Production has dropped by as much as 60 percent since the 90s, the story says, and while farmers can blame other factors like Lethal Yellowing disease and drought, people in the industry argue demands now so great for the new It fruit that nobodys really even farming them properly anymore. Starbucks cant keep it in stock as a milk alternative, and sales of coconut water are way out of control  Vita Coco maker All Market says it flies through about 1.6 million coconuts every single day. Plus, the problem looks to have no end in sight: The industry is supposed to crack $4 billion by 2019.



No doubt the saddest part, though, is the shortages toll on locals. Bloomberg points out that the green coconuts that once were a dime a dozen on street corners are getting prohibitively expensive, and nations like Trinidad and Tobago are even battling fraud  bottles purporting to be coconut water will appear on store shelves filled with just H2O and some chemicals. One of the Dominican Republics top coconut-water brands cant hardly even find supplies anymore; its owner raised prices this year by 20 percent to compensate, and isnt terribly optimistic going forward because he says local farms are all in very bad shape and the trees are very old.
Its not like youre going to be happy about seating him. Photo: Headhunters/Getty Images

David Duke has resurfaced in Louisiana, and his arrival  along with a Senate campaign  has some people in New Orleanss restaurant world wondering: What do you do if the former KKK leader and convicted felon (tax fraud) shows up and wants to be seated? What are the, ahem, hazards of someone like Duke in a dining room? What are his rights, really? Even the most notorious notable technically should be served, yet chefs and owners confronted with situations like these have to weigh a variety of factors before deciding whether or not someone scandalous should be seated, as well as what happens to them (and their food) if they are.

On a night in the early 90s, after he lost the gubernatorial race to Edwin Edwards, Duke arrived without a reservation at Gautreaus, the esteemed French restaurant in New Orleans. Tony Tocco, who was a waiter at the time and now owns Atchafalaya in the citys Uptown section, remembers it was an issue. One owner was a supporter of the Jewish community. The chef loved hip-hop. This was not Dukes turf. Should they seat him and his date? The decision: Serve him. After all, it was late on a Monday and the restaurant was clearing out. They sat him at the table closest to the kitchen and blasted hip-hop from the speakers positioned by the door, Tocco recalls, in hopes of making Dukes experience as unpleasant as possible with no collateral damage, while still taking his money.

Duke, however, is far from being the only food lover with an unsavory past that restaurants have to deal with, and a solution isnt always so simple. The mere sight of the objectionable party could stir the entire room to lose its collective appetite, not to mention respect for the restaurant. Even if the crowd doesnt mind, or notice, the person in question, staff members (or the actual owner) may feel it goes against their principles of morality or taste to seat and serve a scandalous diner.

Theres no single way to handle it, and levels of notoriety fluctuate, of course. Anthony Weiner seems to have little trouble getting seated around New York, for example. And in March of 2015, murder suspect Robert Durst  made extra notorious by HBOs The Jinx  managed to sit quietly at the bar of Emeril Lagasses namesake New Orleans restaurant and enjoy his last free meal only an hour before being arrested. A restaurant staffer told the Post at the time that even though Durst sat with a weird little smile, he didnt recognize him (I dont have HBO) so the restaurant served him without incident. Meanwhile, O.J. Simpson, perhaps the most enduringly unappetizing man in America, regularly ate out during his years in South Florida following his murder acquittal. But when he went to Jeff Rubys Steakhouse in Louisville in 2007, on the eve of the Kentucky Derby, without a reservation, owner Jeff Ruby refused to serve him. (I may have ruined his Derby, Ruby would later tell reporters, but that doesnt bother me.)

With famously tight margins, it can be difficult for restaurant owners to turn away any potential business, but Ruby has also announced that he similarly wouldnt serve Trump, should the presidential nominee show up. However, since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a restaurant operator cannot legally refuse service to patrons based on race, color, religion or national origin. So even though restaurants sometimes will reserve the right to choose who can and cannot eat at their spots, its often just a front-door placard.

The people who can be 86d without incident are rowdy patrons, groups that are too large for the dining room, people who enter after the kitchen closes, as well as potential diners who are unkempt or unclean. And, perhaps most important for the purposes of this story, customers who may provoke a hazard to the safety, well-being, and welfare of other diners (or themselves).

I havent had to serve Duke yet, says Steve Watson, the co-owner of New Orleans neighborhood bar the Kingpin and the Italian eatery Midway Pizza, but I usually frown upon KKK people. After considering it further, he added, I would think Duke would pose a safety factor, so I guess Id kick him out and let him try to sue me later.

Others in New Orleans say theyd serve Duke, but only because they wouldnt want to bother with not serving him. Hes not reflective of who we are in Louisiana; he just happens to live here, says Robert LeBlanc, a state native who owns a string of buzzy restaurants (Cavan, Meauxbar, and Sylvain among them). Id be hard-pressed at this point to even know what he looks like, LeBlanc admits.

Joel Dondis, an owner of the citys Sucre dessert boutiques, agrees: If a customer enters our establishments in a virtuous and courteous manner, and with no political agendas, just someone with a sweet tooth, then theyre a welcome guest. But I couldnt pick Duke out of a lineup unless he was in a robe and hood.

One longtime New Orleansarea resident who worked as a valet at a family-style Italian restaurant just outside the city does recall one time Duke showed up, years ago. I remember the chef peering out into the dining area, watching him eat, says the former valet, requesting anonymity. The chef nodded his head slowly and said, I put my dick on that chicken. That may have been true, or not, but he adds, Ive worked long enough in the service industry to assume something happened. The back of the house is always full of pirates.

Still, this is the hospitality industry, so some owners just want to be as gracious as possible about the ways in which they refuse service to a potential diner. Others tell white lies. When asked what hed do if David Duke walked into one of the restaurants he owns in Manhattan, Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter offers the following solution: Id probably say that Con Ed is shutting down the gas and we cant serve any more diners. At his Waverly Inn, the menu is currently stamped with the quote Waverly Inn  worst food in city, attributed to none other than Donald Trump. So what would Carter do if Trump decided to pivot on that position and drop in for dinner? If Trump came in, Carter muses, Id tell him where Duke went when we sent him on his way.
Rising temperatures could have a big impact on wheat production. Photo: Aref Karimi/AFP/Getty Images

Another week, another study about how climate change will wreak havoc on a vital crop. The latest bit of research to enter this increasingly crowded field, published today by Nature Climate Change, deals with how climate change and, more specifically, rising temperatures could affect wheat production. The skinny? It, unsurprisingly, could mean very bad things for pasta, bread, and beer.

Authored by dozens of scientists from around the world, the study analyzes a number of other studies predicting the future of global crops, as well as three different methods used to evaluate what impact temperature increases will have on wheat. In focusing on the effects of temperatures, the researchers excluded other factors like rising carbon-dioxide levels and changes in precipitation. The different techniques all pointed to a global temperature increase of 34 degrees Fahrenheit leading to a decline in wheat yield by 4.1 to 6.4 percent. Thats not an insignificant amount, as the world produces 700 million tons of wheat every year, and a 6.4 percent drop would slash that figure by 44,800,000 tons.

As with other crops, the impact will vary by region. The authors believe China, one of the worlds top wheat producers, will see a reduction of 3 percent per 34 degrees, while India, another major producer, will be hit harder and suffer an 8 percent drop. The study suggests that the warmest areas will be hit the hardest, and, as with a recent study about climate change and coffee, the authors warn that there need to be efforts toward adaption.

Still, its not entirely clear whats going to happen. The studies analyzed by the authors became less consistent with each other above 34 degrees Fahrenheit as well at local and regional levels, and because temperature was the only factor the authors took into consideration, it wasnt comprehensive. Climate change will introduce a host of changes to the world, and its possible that some will positively impact crop production in parts of the world. Rising carbon-dioxide levels might even positively affect the growth of certain plants, according to some research. As Senthold Asseng, one of the studys authors and a University of Florida agricultural and biological engineering professor, explained, some of the factors might bring these numbers down, other factors bring them up. Wheat production will be affected, in other words, not just by temperatures, but by what happens when the cocktail of climate-change-induced factors gets mixed up.
Not a bad way to start your week. Photo: Melissa Hom

New Yorks Thai food scene has exploded over the last decade, amped up by a host of acclaimed restaurants largely specializing in the fiery, porky cuisine of the countrys Isaan region. Delicacies like salted crab papaya salad have been given serious play, yes, but no Thai restaurant here has made the ocean its raison detre. It goes without saying, then, that Fishcheeks, which opens tonight at 55 Bond Street, will bring something different to the New York table by turning its focus directly on the countrys bounty of seafood dishes.

With its psychedelic-bright chairs and fish-tile awning, the 58-seat restaurant looks like it could fit in as a laid-back beachside haunt where locals go for seafood pad cha after a dip in the ocean. Helming the kitchen are brothers and co-chefs Chat and Ohm Suansilphong, who grew up in the northern province of Sukothai in what Chat describes as a cooking family. Back home, their father ran a restaurant where the brothers first started cooking together as kids. While Chat went off to the Culinary Institute of America and then worked at Colicchio & Sons and for the Chace Restaurant Group, Ohm headed to Bangkoks revered Nahm, a regular on lists like the Worlds 50 Best. The goal, though, was to reunite, and after Chat moved to the United States, that goal became opening a place in New York.

Rather than focus on one region, the menu at Fishcheeks will draw from traditional cooking from all over the country. There will be an emphasis on dishes from southern Thailand, including a coconut-and-king-crab-meat curry and hat yai fried chicken, its crust amplified with shallots. Regulars of New York favorites Ayada and Sripraiphai will no doubt recognize the crispy watercress salad, but there will also be less-common dishes like clam strips with chile jam, a Thai-style ceviche with sea grapes, and a deep-fried branzino served with fish-sauce broth and garnished with fried garlic. Cocktails are by Employees Onlys Dev Johnson, who is consulting on a tight menu of Thai-influenced cocktails that incorporate galangal and other essential Thai herbs and spices. Check it out:

The deep-fried branzino. Photo: Melissa Hom

The curry paste for the coconut-crab currys is made the traditional way in a mortar and pestle. Photo: Melissa Hom

Steamed mussels with lemongrass, galangal, and Thai sweet basil. Photo: Melissa Hom

So you can pretend youre on vacation in Thailand this winter. Photo: Melissa Hom

Head on over. Photo: Melissa Hom

Menu [PDF]

Fishcheeks, 55 Bond St., nr. Bowery; 212-677-2223
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Update: The guys over at AndroidCentral reached out to Samsung, and were told that "this is not something the company has stated, and that all official guidance will be published on its website." Clearly, Samsung isn't outrightly denying a remote deactivation.

Original story follows:

Samsung seems to be leaving no stone unturned in ensuring the safety of its customers. The tech giant has already announced a global recall for the Galaxy Note7, and now a Redditor from France has claimed that they were told by a Samsung representative that the company will remotely deactivate unreturned Galaxy Note7 units after September 30.

The Redditor - who goes by the name of LimboJr on the website - also revealed that replacement units will arrive in the country starting September 19, with the package also including a Gear VR and "a prepaid parcel to send the defective device back without charges."

September 19 seems to be the date for other European countries as well - Portugal is currently confirmed. However, users in the US, one of the biggest Samsung markets, may have to wait a little longer though.

Meanwhile, it looks like the South Korean company is finding a bit hard to convince existing Galaxy Note7 users to go for the official Exchange Program - the tech giant outed a press release this past weekend, urging users to "immediately participate" in the program.

"Our number one priority is the safety of our customers. We are asking users to power down their Galaxy Note7s and exchange them as soon as possible," the press release quoted DJ Koh (President of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics) as saying.

"We are expediting replacement devices so that they can be provided through the exchange program as conveniently as possible and in compliance with related regulations. We sincerely thank our customers for their understanding and patience."

It's worth mentioning that those exchanging their current Galaxy Note7 device with a new Note7 unit through the US Note7 Exchange Program will be given a "Samsung J Series or equivalent device" until CPSC-approved Note7s are available in the country.

The exploding Galaxy Note7 fiasco has had a major financial impact on the tech giant. While the recall - analysts say - will cost the company somewhere around $1 billion, the US FAA's recent "strong advice" to Note7 users (against turning on or charging the device on board a plane) has wiped off as much as $10 billion from Samsung's market value.

Source 1 2 3 | Via 1 2
Published on 2016/09/11 | Source

The Chinese enclave of Daerim-dong in southern Seoul has undergone a transformation over the last few years from slum to bustling commercial district.

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The 200 m stretch from exit No. 8 at Daerim subway station to exit No. 12 now bustles with ethnic Koreans from China and Chinese migrant workers every night, crowding into the Chinese restaurants and karaoke bars that line the street.

Store owners say business is booming. Kim Soon-hee (54), an ethnic Korean from China, struck gold when she opened restaurants serving Chinese hot pot and sweet-and-sour pork.

Three years after opening her first two restaurants, Kim opened another two and invited her daughters to live with her in Korea. "There are a lot of merchants in Daerim-dong who made enough money to bring their families here", she says.

One estate agent in Daerim-dong said, "Stores in key locations here have seen the rent more than double over the last three years to rival those of Itaewon at W7-8 million per 99 sq.m (US$1=W1,108)".

The boom is mainly due to the large population of Chinese and ethnic Koreans from China. Forty percent of the 24,461 residents are Chinese, thanks in part to easier visas for professionals, who have started gentrifying the once dirt-poor neighborhood.

The number of ethnic Koreans from China who got F-4 visas, a special visa for people of Korean descent, rose from 116,988 in 2012 to 241,056 last year, and their family members are given F-1 visas, which makes it easy to invite them here.

Daerim-dong has also succeeded in shaking off its reputation for crime. Last year, police there formed a volunteer neighborhood watch of 90 Korean and 70 Chinese residents, the first of its kind in Korea. They pass out leaflets urging residents not to litter and patrol the back streets at night.

Now the neighborhood is attracting more people from elsewhere who want to experience a slice of China.

Kim Kyung-ah (53), who is learning Mandarin, says her language classmates visit Daerim-dong every three months to immerse themselves in the language. "I practice my Mandarin by eating in Chinese restaurants there and shopping in the supermarkets".
Harlow is a former New Town in Essex with a population of 86,000. Located in the upper Stort Valley, it was built in the decades after the Second World War to ease overcrowding and London and provide homes for people bombed out during the Blitz. It includes Britain's first pedestrian precinct and first modern residential tower block, The Lawn. Old Harlow, the historic part of the town, was mentioned in the Domesday Book. David and Victoria Beckham's former home, Rowneybury House, nicknamed 'Beckingham Palace', is nearby.

05:30, 30 OCT 2022
Bangladesh factory blast and fire leaves 26 dead and 70 injured

At least 26 workers were killed and 70 injured, many of them in a critical condition, in an explosion and fire at a food and cigarette packaging factory in the Tongi industrial area near the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka. Initial reports said the fire was caused by a boiler explosion, but other reports say the blast was due to a gas leak.

Stock image

Chemicals may have been stored on the Tampaco Foils factory ground floor, which officials said would explain how the fire spread so rapidly. Much of the building collapsed, and emergency services were still searching for survivors the following day.

The cause of the September 10 explosion was unclear, officials said. Three committees have been set up to investigate the incident.

The company chairman, Dr Syed Mokbul Hussain, told the Dhaka Tribune that the fire was probably caused by the fluctuating gas supply in the factory. When asked if a technical failure in the machinery might have caused the fire, he said: We regularly repair our machines and the older ones are replaced promptly.

He said his factory, which employed 475, did not violate any building codes and that there were adequate safety measures and fire safety equipment, but that when the fire started workers might not have taken safety considerations into account.

Lt Col Musharaf Hossain, a Fire Service and Civil Defence director, told reporters that the fire originated from a boiler explosion, but MA Mannan, chief inspector of boilers, said he had sent an inspector to the factory site who found no damage to the factorys two boilers.

Bangladesh experienced one of its worst industrial accidents when the eight-story Rana Plaza complex, which housed several garment factories, collapsed in 2013, killing more than 1,100. Five months earlier, a garment factory fire killed 112 workers.

In the aftermath of the Rana Plaza collapse, broad structural and fire safety reforms were put into effect, and global apparel companies agreed to help Bangladesh with fire safety and building improvements. But building safety in other industries has attracted less scrutiny.




Benin garbage dump blast kills two, injures 61

An explosion at a garbage dump near Cotonou, Benin, killed at least two people and injured 61, according to AFP. Cotonou police said the September 9 incident was caused by a company dumping flour and spoiled wheat and dousing it with petrol to burn it. Local people tried to recover the flour from areas that were not burning but were caught in an explosion.

Stock image

Benin's health minister, Alassane Seidou, said most of those with severe burns were being treated at a specialist unit in Cotonou, but additional resources were needed because of the number of injured.



The countrys minister of interior and public safety, Sacca Lafia, called the incident "regrettable" and promised the authorities would look to take measures to prevent a reoccurence. "To avoid this in the future we are going to find a way to close off the area and bring in a lot more security to prevent people from having access to such a dangerous place," he said.


REWARD GATEWAY

Reward Gateway provides employee engagement technology to the worlds leading companies. Over 1,200 clients, including Optus,



If you would like to talk about employee engagement solutions you can talk to Tracy Mellor, Reward Gateway group people director, on 0434 336 830 or Kylie Green, Reward Gateway sales director, on 0407 944 289; rewardgateway.com. Reward Gateway provides employee engagement technology to the worlds leading companies. Over 1,200 clients, including Optus, KPMG and McDonalds, use the companys products to attract, engage and retain the best employees. The companys products power employee communications and employee recognition.If you would like to talk about employee engagement solutions you can talk to Tracy Mellor, Reward Gateway group people director, on 0434 336 830 or Kylie Green, Reward Gateway sales director, on 0407 944 289; rewardgateway.com.

often has your HR team slaved over the words of some form of internal communication  perhaps announcing a new benefits or incentive program  only to have the subsequent take-up of that program be disappointingly low? Its something Tracy Mellor, managing director ANZ and group people director at Reward Gateway , has experienced time and time again in both her HR career and her consulting career.The question Im most often asked is how do I get our people to read emails? The answer is you dont! she says. Dont bother sending group emails to large cohorts of people with something you really want them to read.She adds that the open rate for HR emails is unsurprisingly low. Why? Because theyre never particularly interesting. Thats not to say HR missives cant ever stand out from the mountains of communications most employees receive daily.What weve found works best is a blended approach, says Mellor. A hub where we host all comms in one space thats easy to use. And mobile is key  everything has to be available and beautiful too, on mobile  so you can catch them on the bus or at the bus stop or on the train, or just anytime when theyre wanting to read something.Once everything is in one spot, Mellor suggests HR needs to determine how else they can catch people. Is it Instagram? Twitter? Facebook? Sometimes its even good old email if youve got a one-liner that grabs attention.Of course, knowing which platforms to use is one thing; getting the message to connect to the target audience is quite another. While marketing and PR/communications teams have fine-tuned sophisticated segmented approaches to communications, HR has generally been slower to take this on board.However, Mellor says one significant benefit of technology is the ability to segment communications. It doesnt have to be one size fits all, she says. Everyone should consider what theyre communicating and how, when and why they do it.She cites the example of McDonalds, which has embraced this concept. [McDonalds Australia director of people and culture] Hayley Baxendale and her team do a great job of segmenting their communications, ensuring their Licensees, Head Office and the Crew get the appropriate messages. Why do they do it? Because they are three really different cohorts of people and it would be silly to burden everyone with information thats irrelevant.McDonalds goes one step further to ensure that the needs of the different groups are met: it segments its benefits too. It would be inappropriate to offer discounts on things like wine and beer to their Crew, but it is appropriate for their Licensees, so they use technology to ensure the right people see the right benefits. And theyre lovin it! Mellor says.Its not just about age; geography matters too.Its important to provide access to lots of different options, as what works in Mackay doesnt necessarily work in Wagga, and you dont want to create benefit envy  something else I did wrong at Rebel, Mellor recollects. Everything was very metrocentric, and those in regional areas felt left out. If discounted shopping is one of your benefits, then not everyone has access to the big stores. Access to online shopping is really important too  particularly as were trying to stretch everyones disposable income, wherever they are.Here is a three-step guide to segmenting HR communications.The critical fi rst step in creating a segmented comms strategy is to know your objectives. For example, Sally Parke, head of people at Krispy Kreme, is very clear on this when shes communicating about the companys health and safety training: its not so relevant for those people in head office  they have an Engagement Hub  and she segments it so that the store people see the training tile (a technical term for a dynamic part of a website) on their website and the head office workers see something else.Mellor says there are many reasons why HR may decide that a one-size-fi tsall approach does not work. For example, Reward Gateway has customers who have salaried staff and hourly paid or award employees. Other customers are currently renewing their Enterprise Agreements and have chosen to segment their communications by state. As its so complicated anyway, why have everyone reading through everything  or why send out lots of different emails when you can just segment your website by state and show people whats relevant to them? she says.Mellor says employee involvement is critical to success. Weve just done some really interesting workshops with 12 people from each country around the Reward Gateway world. We tasked everyone to ask their friends and family what they liked in their companies so we got as much information as possible, and then we got busy with the groups and Post-it notes.Employees were asked to rank what was important to them in Reward Gateways current offerings, and they were then asked what else theyd like to see. Suggestions were worked on to see what could be added within the budget.The company put its benefits into five different categories: Fairness, Balance, Choice, Wow and Easy  and these principles were fed into everything within the benefits portfolio.This turned out to be an interesting exercise in more ways than one, because we actually then took away one of the benefits which was number one for some people, says Mellor. When we applied our principles, we realised that it wasnt fair to the majority of our workforce and only a small handful of people actually benefited from something which used up a disproportionate amount of our total benefits allocation  so we used the budget to create a wellness pot for everyone instead.When you launch something thats new or different you have to ensure that everyone knows whats happening. For Reward Gateways recent benefits review the company created benefits champions and ensured that they were totally au fait with everything that was changing and how to apply for all benefits. They also created managers briefing notes and presentations and held manager briefing sessions. Finally, using their own online portal, they created a SmartHub tile on benefits to ensure that the right people got the right information. They also created videos, Q&As and an infographic  to ensure that everyone had at least one touchpoint with one form of communication.While more sophisticated HR messaging seems like common sense, Mellor stresses that there are times when its appropriate to tailor the message to different groups, and times when this is not appropriate. Sometimes a unified message is more important, with links that go off to detail for different groups. In fact, its a good idea to question why we treat anyone differently at all. So, my take-home message is to ask: what do you want to achieve and how can you connect with as many people as possible in a way that works for them?
ineffective communication leading to misunderstandings and misperceptions

values clashes, such as perceived work ethic

stress and, in some cases, mental health conditions

behaviour associated with bullying, such as micromanagement, ostracism and rumour spreading

effective communication

conflict management and resolution

mediation

the issues are long-standing

the issues are complex

there is a risk of an adverse action

the disputants request one

internal resolution attempts have not worked

Pre-session

The session

opening statement

venting

issue identifi cation and agenda setting

issue discussion and agreement building

close session

Post-session

IHR AUSTRALIA

IHR Australia offers a full suite of Workplace Relations and HR Consulting services, Investigations, Mediations and Training services to ensure organisations are compliant with current workplace practices and legislation, while maintaining best practice people management. Our consultants have an average of 20 years experience and the ability to provide practical advice with actionable steps. Contact 1300 884 687 or visit ihraustralia.com.

ic workplaces are characterised by broken relationships, constant conflicts and disputes, bullying and harassment. They are places where the dysfunctional behaviour of those in the workplace is having a negative impact on the services or product that the organisation produces. Its moved beyond a minor tiff between John and Sally and is now a systemic problem whereby customers arent being looked after, patients arent being cared for, roads arent being repaired or information isnt being passed between security guards. Even more frightening, a toxic workplace knows no boundaries  it can seep in from the front line right up to the top.How can things get so bad? Dr Leigh Hodder , senior workplace relations adviser at iHR, says there are many root causes of workplace conflict. An experienced consultant, workplace mediator and investigator who has trained internal investigators at various organisations, Hodder is also a consulting psychologist with over 20 years experience. Shes witnessed just about every type of workplace conflict and summarises the primary causes of conflict as:While most organisations have dispute or conflict resolution procedures in place, and these are usually well written, Hodder says the problem lies with the implementation.People are generally not comfortable in approaching the person with whom they are in conflict, she says. This means that they bypass resolution at the local level and escalate the issues either to their manager or HR. Many managers feel ill-equipped to assist in the resolution process.To improve the situation, Hodder suggests organisations should consider providing their managers and staff with assistance in building the following skills:These skills are critical to positive employee productivity and engagement, she says.The third option, mediation, has gained ground in recent years as a viable  and successful  way to resolve conflicts before lawyers need to become involved.Hodder says an organisation should look to engage an independent mediator or facilitator when:At its heart, mediation is about starting the process of repairing the working relationship between employees, Hodder explains. Mediation provides people with a safe forum in which they can hear, be heard and reach agreement as to how their working relationship will progress. The primary question I ask people to think about is what sort of behaviours would you like to see in your relationship with this person?While some employers have embraced workplace investigations as a means of getting to the bottom of and resolving conflicts, Hodder says mediation is a very different proposition. Mediation can be used as a post-investigation intervention if the complainant and respondent must continue to work together, she says. Evidence is not required in the mediation process. There is no focus on who was right and who was wrong. The mediation process does not dwell, in depth, on the issues that led to conflict. It is a process primarily designed to move people to agreement.Mediation can of course be an alternative to calling in the lawyers, but where does it sit in Australias complex workplace law framework? There is no one law in Australia that says, Thou shalt mediate, says Hodder.However, mediation, when done properly, is a legally binding alternative dispute resolution process that is well established within Australian courts and tribunals and is supported by legislation. An example is the Family Law Act, where parties are encouraged to access mediation rather than go to court.The Fair Work and Human Rights Commission, the Federal Circuit Court/ Federal Court, as well as all levels of State Courts and Tribunals, insist on attempts at settlement before the matter is heard. In the NSW Supreme Court, for instance, the settlement rate is now 46%  and this is only for matters that were actually commenced in the court. The figure is even more impressive when one extrapolates the number of matters that were settled before they got that far.Australian industrial relations legislation recognises the efficiency of mediation and conciliation, rather than proceeding to costly arbitration in the first instance, says Hodder.Indeed, in most circumstances a court or tribunal will be required to certify that mediation and conciliation is unlikely to resolve the matter before exercising its arbitrary powers. An example is section 576(2)(ca) of the Fair Work Act 2009 in relation to the powers of the FWC which reads:(ca) mediating any proceedings, part of proceedings or matter arising out of any proceedings that, under section 53A of the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 or section 34 of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia Act 1999, have been referred by the Fair Work Division of the Federal Court or Federal Circuit Court to the FWC for mediation.Hodder says the mediation process itself is structured and quite simple, usually consisting of three stages.The first step is to prepare the parties to mediate  to set their expectations about possible outcomes at a realistic level, to start them thinking about the desired behaviours, and identify the issues they wish to raise. The mediator talks to HR about alternative outcomes should the mediation not result in agreement. The mediator meets with each party individually to understand the issues, provide further education about the process and assess the persons capacity to participate in the mediation. The mediator synthesises this information and plans the session strategies.The second step is to conduct the mediation session. This, in Hodders experience, averages from two to four hours. The mediator follows these steps:The third step involves the mediator finalising the agreement and sending it through to the parties for signing and implementation. The mediator liaises with HR regarding the success of the mediation.Having come through the process, participants will be keen to know how enforceable the outcomes are. In terms of workplace behavioural agreements, the agreed-to behaviours should align with code of conduct expectations, so appropriate disciplinary action could and should be taken for breaches of the agreement. Breaches to the confidentiality of the process should also be subjected to disciplinary action, Hodder says.As a final tip, confidentiality is the cornerstone of the mediation process, and participants may be asked to sign a confidentiality agreement by the mediator.
The ministry did not interfered improperly in the operational affairs of Finavia in dealing with the derivatives case. Nor has the ministry prevented the filing of charges against the former

The Ministry of Transport and Communications did not prevent the filing of charges in relation to the derivatives losses incurred by Finavia, states Anne Berner (Centre), the Minister of Transport and Communications.

managing director or former board members of the [state-owned aviation] company, she reiterates in a press release issued on Saturday.

STT reported earlier on Saturday that it has uncovered evidence of the alleged ministerial involvement in the decision to drop the charges. An e-mail obtained by the news agency indicates that the board of directors of Finavia was instructed not to proceed with the charges by Berner in October 2015.

I notify at the request of the minister that Finavia will hold an extraordinary general meeting in mid-November. The company should until then refrain from proceeding with the case of derivatives charges, the e-mail reads. The e-mail was sent to the now-former board chairperson of Finavia, Riitta Tiuraniemi, by Harri Pursiainen, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Transport and Communications, on 14 October, 2015.

STT reports that an e-mail it has obtained confirms that Anne Berner (Centre), the Minister of Transport and Communications, had a key role in the decision not to bring charges against the former management of Finavia.

Helsingin Sanomat points out that no extraordinary general meeting was ever held.

Berner argues in the press release that the e-mail was sent at a time when it had yet to be determined how to best address the issue.

Finavia, she adds, made two conflicting decisions on whether or not to bring charges against its former management: its board of directors decided unanimously not to bring the charges on 6 March, 2015, but overturned the decision by a narrow majority on 25 September, 2015.

The owner wanted to clarify the reasons for the conflicting decisions made by the company's board of directors and for the dissenting opinion of board members, explains Berner.

Berner also emphasises that no evidence of unlawful interference was found in the audit conducted by the National Audit Office of Finland (VTV).

VTV estimated in an audit report published in June that both Finavia and its board of directors acted with due diligence in regards to inquiring into the losses of 34 million euros arising from a series of derivatives contracts in 20092011. The Ministry of Transport and Communications, on the other hand, interfered improperly in the operations of the board of directors.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications has also published an excerpt of a document detailing its actions and the sequence of events during the inquiry. The document in question, it points out, was submitted to VTV in December 2015. The document can be found on the website of the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Juha Harju  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
Erkki Tuomioja (SDP), an ex-Minister for Foreign Affairs, became on Sunday the latest policy-maker to criticise the report for scaremongering but also admitted that the report contains correct and useful analyses of, for example, internal developments in Russia.

The Finnish Institute of International Affairs has come under criticism following its recent publication of a report on changes in the foreign policy of Russia and their implications for Finland .

Another indisputable conclusion is that we are currently living in a different operational environment than a few years ago. That has generally been taken duly into consideration in the approaches of Finland and the Government, he writes in his personal blog.

The report is also guilty of some unwarranted scaremongering, he estimates, echoing the sentiments of Antti Rinne, the chairperson of the Social Democratic Party.

Whipping up fears is indeed the central argument of the report, as it describes how Russia has utilised direct and indirect measures to threaten Finland, such as infringing on territorial integrity and staging unannounced military drills in nearby regions, claims Tuomioja.

The reform of health and social care services, he adds, is similarly portrayed as a threat on grounds that it could create an institutional vacuum that can be taken advantage of by Russia.

Tuomioja also points out that the report contains no discussion on or description of the possible reason for the course of action taken by Russia. A genuine academic study would approach the subject also from the viewpoint of comparative power politics, he writes.

The United States' response to the armed revolt conducted by Fidel Castro in Cuba in 19531959, for example, could offer some insight on how recent events in Ukraine have been perceived in Russia, according to Tuomioja.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Roni Rekomaa  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
The previous time the income limits of students were raised was in 2008, from 550 euros to 660 euros per month of benefits. The penalty interest for repayment is 15 per cent, she reminds in a press release .

Anna-Maja Henriksson, the chairperson of the Swedish People's Party, has demanded that the income limits imposed on higher education students be raised.

Henriksson argues that in light of the excessive cuts in student financial aid introduced by the Government of Prime Minister Juha Sipila (Centre), maintaining the current income limits is paradoxical because they effectively inhibit the opportunities of students to work while studying.

Students who exceed the annual income limit are required to repay student financial aid to the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela).

The penalty interest charged for repaying student financial aid is also excessively high. Many working hours are lost annually as a result of the red tape associated with aid repayments, argues Henriksson.

Students are currently allowed to earn a maximum of 660 euros in months they received either one or both of the benefits disbursed to students  the financial aid for students and housing supplement  and 1,970 euros in months they received neither of the two benefits.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Heikki Saukkomaa  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
Houston explains decision to skip Democratic forum

Henderson County School Board member Josh Houston explained that he skipped a Democratic Party forum Saturday because he was not told that the setting of the forum was a campaign event for State schools Superintendent June Atkinson.



I was graciously extended an invitation by the Henderson County Democrat Party to attend and I accepted, Houston, a former Republican Party executive committee member seeking a second term on the School Board, said in an email to reporters on Saturday. For whatever reason I was under the impression that it was just a School Board candidate forum.

When he learned that the event included Atkinson, he said, he made a call to the Democrat Party and politely canceled. My reasons are that I believe that the NC Department of Public Instruction led by June Atkinson has encouraged a system of over-testing along with other issues. 

"As a public school parent and especially as a member of the Henderson County Board of Public Education, I did not want to give the impression that I was supportive of the above mentioned issues involving the NC Department of Public Instruction and our school system by attending an event for current NC Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson.

I stand with the parents and students of Henderson County and our local school system. A change of leadership is needed at the NC Department of Public Instruction this November.

To support his view that Atkinson is unresponsive to issues that affect education at the classroom level, Houston included a letter that then-schools superintendent David L. Jones sent to Atkinson in February expressing frustration over the state DPIs reversal of a decision Atkinson had made. Jones was trying to get DPI to change end of course testing, which as structured now penalizes block-schedule high schools. (Three of the countys four high schools are on the block schedule.)

The usually mild-mannered Jones, who retired in June, accused Atkinson of misleading and making him look bad after he had told other superintendents "that we would be conducting a second administration (of the EOC) at the end of first semester based on your directions."

Here is the letter:

February 1, 2016



Dear Dr. Atkinson:

I want to express my frustration and disappointment regarding our on going discussion and ultimate final decision regarding a second administration of high school EOCs for students on the first semester block schedule. As you know, my main concern has always been about the inequity of the testing opportunities afforded to our students as determined by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. While I have provided a great deal of details in the past regarding my concerns, simply put, high school students who take an EOC during the first semester of a block schedule are not given the same opportunity as high school students taking an EOC on the second semester of a block schedule or a high school student taking an EOC on a year long schedule.

When I spoke to you about this issue, you seemed genuinely concerned and indicated you would try to resolve this issue. Through personal conversations and emails, you provided me with instructions on how we could make this happen and work for our students. I was so pleased with your response in your December 11th email, which stated, This policy gives you the flexibility to have another administration of a high school course after first semester, given that the policy is followed. You even spoke at one of our WRESA meetings, explaining how we could move forward. We worked with our High School Principals to create the appropriate procedure we would utilize. I followed up with you, and copied others at DPI, to explain how we would proceed and never heard back from you that this was a problem.

Dr. Rebecca Garland sent a memorandum to Superintendents on January 15, 2016, which seemed to put into question how we should move forward. I followed up with a memorandum to Dr. Garland on January 18, 2016, to clarify our procedure based on communications with our State Superintendent of Schools. That was followed up by a conference call with you and Dr. Tammy Howard on Friday, January 22, 2016, where you indicated we could move forward based on your interpretation of the State Board policy on credit recovery. Then, the following week I have several telephone calls with Dr. Howard and members of her staff only to hear that we could not move forward as this didnt follow policy. I then followed up with a telephone call to Dr. Howard and then a telephone call to Dr. Garland to seek clarification and also voice my dismay that the directions I had received from the State Superintendent of Schools were not accurate and I would need to tell my High School Principals that we would not be given the ability to provide this opportunity to our high school students who have taken an EOC first semester. Given that I had been discussing this issue since the beginning of the school year, it would have been extremely helpful to have been told this before the week we were ready to implement our plan. While I had received the go ahead from you, both the regional and state accountability staff members, and ultimately Dr. Howard, indicated that this would not be acceptable.

I have always tried to conduct myself as a professional, and I must tell you, I feel like I have been misled and treated unprofessionally. I communicated with my colleagues in the western region and others across the state that we would be conducting a second administration at the end of first semester based on your directions. I value my reputation and this action has been very detrimental to me. I assured people that this was appropriate because I had received the go-ahead from the State Superintendent of North Carolina. This is very disappointing and has created a lack of trust.

What is unfortunate about this entire situation is there was a simple solution. All that had to be done was to tell LEAs that they could follow the same procedure that was utilized for summer school with their first semester block students to ensure equity for all.

This situation is an example of the poor communications that exist within the Department of Public Instruction and then their poor communications with LEAs. It doesnt appear that the right hand knows what the left hand is doing. It is also apparent that the Department of Public Instruction is more concerned about what is convenient for their adults as opposed to what is best for our students.

In closing, I would strongly suggest that you deal with this inequity before the beginning of the 2016-17 school year. I would also suggest that you, as the leader of the Department of Public Instruction, have a candid conversation with members of the North Carolina School Superintendent Executive Board to seek advice on ways that DPI can better communicate, support and serve our students, schools, and LEAs across the state. Remember, Do not listen with the intent to reply, but with the intent to understand.



Sincerely,

David L. Jones, Ed. S. Superintendent




Annual Hunger Walk is Saturday

Hunger Coalition Financial Secretary Dick Ranges and his wife Barbara are once again organizing the annual Hunger Walk for the Henderson County Hunger Coalition.

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What is the Hunger Walk?

The Hunger Walk is an opportunity to raise money for eleven major food pantry operations providing emergency food supplies in Henderson County, and for people to show their support in a very public and healthy way. Pledges and donations are collected in advance by those walking, and on the morning of Sept. 17 participants gather, stroll through some of Hendersonvilles greenways and historic neighborhoods, and later share food and refreshments donated by local merchants.

This will be the 16th consecutive walk that Dick Ranges has helped organize as part of the Henderson County Hunger Coalition. He serves on the board as financial secretary, and says that he and his wife, Barbara, resettled in western North Carolina from the Chicago area with an eye on giving back. We wanted to serve in the community, and make some impact. Thats the way we decided wed like to spend our retirements.

Ranges heard about the Hunger Coalition at a local Methodist church soon after arriving. Frankly, the mission of this organization really touched me, he says. Food to needy families and individuals who are facing emergency crisis situations in our county. To me, there was a big need for folks to step up and help.

A cancer diagnosis, and subsequent treatment earlier this year, has not kept Ranges from his duties preparing for the coalitions main fundraising event. There still is that need, he says, that seems to not really lessen much.

Agencies seeking funds from the Hunger Coalition re-apply each year, so Ranges hears about the needs (One out of four children in the county living in poverty.) and can also make sure that funds are applied to do the most good in terms of our mission, emergency food supplies, he says.

One of the big changes that weve seen is for programs providing food for the countys children during the summer when the school programs are not in operation. A number of our agencies have gotten into taking care of that.

Ranges recalls the selflessness of a then-six-year-old named Janielynn Fowler, raising awareness and funds for the hunger problem from her friends and the community, and honored at the Hunger Walk in 2014. Individuals can make a big difference, and individuals and communities who band together to support emergency food needs can really make a difference, the 75-year-old Ranges smiles.

Everyones got talents, he says. Its kind of a test sometimes to find what those talents are and then to do something with them thats helpful, in service to others  which I think is very important.

SHIRTTAIL

The 2016 Hunger Walk takes place on Saturday, Sept. 17. The event offers walkers options of five or ten-mile walks through Hendersonvilles historic neighborhoods, as well as 1- and 2-mile Fun Walks for the more short-distance trekkers. Registration begins at Shelter #1 in Jackson Park at 8 a.m. and the walk is at 8:30. Participants will receive a 2016 Hunger Walk T-shirt, and food and refreshments will be served. Interested walkers can also pick up pledge envelopes and information at the reception area at Mud Creek Baptist Church, 403 Rutledge Drive. For more information contact Pat Fisher at 828-693-4940 or lefpfisher@yahoo.com.
The US presidential campaign has received a huge jolt of drama after Hillary Clinton left early from a 9/11 memorial event after becoming unwell - triggering fresh speculation about her health.

Video footage showed the former secretary of state apparently sagging and buckling as she waited for her vehicle and had to be helped inside.

In a move that was quickly seized on by opponents of Ms Clinton who have sought to try question her health, the Democratic candidate left the event at Ground Zero in New York after 90 minutes and went to her daughter's apartment to recover. As she waited, propped against a cement pillar, she appeared to wobble and stagger. Many people rushed to help her into the black van and was then driven away.

Her spokesman, Nick Merrill, said that she left after feeling overheated at the event to mark the 15th anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington, where she had gone to pay her respects to some of the families who lost loved ones. Almost 3,000 people died in the attacks.

It was hot and humid in the city and Ms Clinton (68), dressed in a dark jacket and trousers, was standing for much of the event.

"During the ceremony, she felt overheated so departed to go to her daughter's apartment, and is feeling much better," Mr Merrill said in a statement.

Shortly before noon, Ms Clinton was seen leaving the flat and waving to the crowd.

She briefly posed for a photograph with a young girl. To a shouted question from a reporter as to whether she felt better, she said: "Yes, thank you."

She added: "It's a beautiful day in New York."

Her campaign said she was heading to her home to Chappaqua, in upstate New York.

The news was first reported by Fox News, one of the outlets that has been a platform for claims by 70-year-old Donald Trump that Ms Clinton has been hiding a medical condition from the public.

Suffering

One anchor, Sean Hannity, has interviewed various doctors, none neurologists, who have suggested Ms Clinton could be suffering from any of number of issues. The Clinton campaign has repeatedly denied the suggestions.

Fox News said that Ms Clinton had left the memorial and lost a shoe as she entered her Secret Service vehicle. It said that a police source at the scene, said a member of her security detail had to recover the shoe.

A senior law enforcement official who was briefed on the matter said that after leaving the memorial plaza, Clinton was observed "fainting" in a departure area. Ms Clinton's campaign did not refer to this in its statement, though video of her at the scene showed Ms Clinton looking unsteady.

Ms Clinton has insisted she is in fine health and ready to assume duties in the White House. Her campaign has played down health scares, including an incident in December 2012 when she suffered a concussion and shortly afterward developed a blood clot.

In a letter released by her doctor in July, Ms Clinton was described as being in "excellent health" and "fit to serve" in the White House.

Reuters said that Ms Clinton's speech at a campaign rally earlier this month in Cleveland was interrupted by a coughing spell. During the speech, she quipped, "Every time I think about Trump I get allergic." She then resumed her speech.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama marked the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks by calling on Americans to embrace the nation's character as a people drawn from every corner of the world, from every religion and from every background. He said extremist groups will never be able to defeat the United States.

Obama spoke to hundreds of service members, and relatives and survivors of the attack that occurred at the Pentagon when American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the Defence Department's headquarters, killing 184 people. The youngest victim was only three years old.

In all, about 3,000 people lost their lives that day as a result of the planes that crashed into New York City's World Trade Centre and in a Pennsylvania field.

Extremist

The president said extremist organisations such as the Islamic State group and al-Qaida know they can never drive down the US, so they focus on trying to instil fear in hopes of getting Americans to change how they live.

"We know that our diversity, our patchwork heritage is not a weakness, it is still and always will be one of our greatest strengths," Obama said. "This is the America that was attacked that September morning. This is the America that we must remain true to."

Obama spoke on warm, mostly sunny morning, noting that the threat that became so evident on September 11 has evolved greatly over the past 15 years.

Terrorists, he said, often attempt strikes on a smaller, but still deadly scale. He specifically cited attacks in Boston, San Bernardino and Orlando as examples.

In the end, he said, the enduring memorial to those who lost their lives that day is ensuring "that we stay true to ourselves, that we stay true to what's best in us, that we do not let others divide us."
Rita Rafter was devastated when she was told to move out of her home because of damage to her ceiling

Rita Rafter was devastated when she was told to move out of her home because of damage to her ceiling

A 96-year-old Dublin woman was overjoyed after a kind-hearted builder offered to fix her ceiling for free.

Rita Rafter, who lives on the North Circular Road, was left devastated when she was told to move out of her home after it was deemed unsafe to live in.

Ms Rafter, who couldn't afford the repair costs herself, refused to allow her family to give her a helping financial hand. This inspired her grandson to launch a Facebook campaign.

"The mother told me that the ceiling collapsed and I went to visit her. As a laugh I brought her in a hard helmet, she loves a good laugh," her grandson Robbie Carey told the Herald. "But then she started to break down a little bit when I was there.

"She said she didn't want to move out because she'll miss all the girls. Her house is the one they all go to for the chats."

Mr Carey was overwhelmed by the reaction to his post on Facebook, which has been shared almost 3,000 times.

Help

"I'm amazed at how kind people are," he said. "I've been blown away. "I've had builders, plasterers and everyone offering to help out.

"Even people who aren't builders or whatever are sending well-wishes saying they hope it works out."

The man who came to Ms Rafter's aid is Stephen O'Driscoll, a builder with Ever Ready Building and Roofing Contractors.

"He got in touch and said send me your nanny's address and I'll fix it for her," Mr Carey said. "I told him that it's a bigger job than he might think, but he said: 'Don't be worrying about that.'

"He met my granny yesterday and they were both hugging each other. She's delighted because she doesn't have to move out now."

When asked if Rita will be having a party to celebrate, Robbie said: "Probably, she loves the craic."

"I'm not looking for any advertising and I'm not a charity organisation, but when I saw what was going on I said something has to be done," builder Stephen said.

"If it was my mother, I would want something done.

"She's a lovely woman, she's a very proud woman, and when I was told what happened I said I had to help, I couldn't just stand back. I'm not the only one who offered to help," he added.
Commuters in the capital face further headaches this week as no attempts were made by either union or management over the weekend to reach an agreement on the Dublin Bus strike.

Drivers say strikes will continue if management do not offer pay increases.

Unions representing staff at the semi-State body say that planned strikes this Thursday and Friday and also next weekend will go ahead if drivers' pay is not increased.

The National Bus and Railway Union (NBRU) said that nobody contacted them over the weekend in a bid to solve the dispute, while management at Dublin Bus also reaffirmed their position.

Bus drivers have sought a 15pc pay increase, along with a payment in lieu of a 6pc increase they were due in 2008 and did not receive.

Increase

Unions have roundly rejected the 8.25pc increase suggested by the Labour Court earlier this year.

Management at Dublin Bus last night said the 8.25pc increase is still on the table - but that the company cannot hike wages any further unless a discussion is held around productivity. Cliodhna Ni Fhatharta, media and communications manager for Dublin Bus, said the company was willing to come to the table.

"It's the same as we were on Friday. Two days of strike action is planned for this week and we hope they won't go ahead," Ms Ni Fhatharta said.

"We certainly don't want a situation where customers are discommoded again this week...we don't want any disruption.

"The offer of an 8.25pc pay increase is still available, but anything above that will have to be negotiated on the basis of productivity. We don't have the finances to fund anything above that," the spokeswoman added.

However, NBRU general secretary Dermot O'Leary last night said the issue of a flat pay increase must be dealt with first - before productivity.

Mr O'Leary also criticised transport minister Shane Ross, saying he has not tried to resolve the dispute because he is distracted by other issues

"He has other fish to fry, the minister is very busy trying to keep the Government together.

"His role should be to facilitate to get Dublin Bus and unions to sit around the table.

"We're open to going back around the table, but the flat pay rise needs to be addressed first," Mr O'Leary said.

Blow

Meanwhile, plans to privatise 10pc of Dublin Bus routes have been dealt a blow after two operators pulled out of a competition for the contract.

The National Transport Authority (NTA) announced in December 2013 that 10pc of Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann routes would be put out to tender - with services due to start in 2016.

However, National Express and a consortium between Dualway and RATP Dev have now pulled out of the completion.

Dualway chief executive David McConn said the consortium pulled out because the process was taking too long.
Eight people have died on Irish roads in seven days following three fatal collisions in 24 hours over the weekend.

In total 126 people have ben killed in road accidents so far this year, compared to 106 deaths during the same period in 2015.

The latest tragedies over the weekend claimed the lives of a car driver, a motorcyclist and a pedestrian.

In the early hours of Saturday morning a pedestrian, aged in his 60s was fatally injured after being struck by a car, near Hospital in Co Limerick.

A single vehicle collision occurred one hour later on the N52, Co Tipperary. A male in his early 30s died after the car he was driving left the road and collided with a fence. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A third life was lost shortly before 11pm on Saturday following a collision between a motorcycle and a car near Campile, Co Wexford.

The 38-year-old motorcyclist was pronounced dead at the scene, while the 25-year-old motorist was uninjured.

Saturday night's tragic collision brings to eight the number of people who died on Irish roads last week.

On Sunday morning last week, Maureen Creaner (92) was killed after being struck by a car on her way home from mass on the Navan Road in Dublin shortly after 8.15am.

The male driver of the vehicle was arrested and brought to Finglas garda station, but has since been released without charge.

The following day a man in his 60s was killed following a single-vehicle collision in Dundalk, Co Louth.

Just hours later, new mum Nicola Kenny died after her vehicle was hit by a truck while pulled over in the hard shoulder of the M8 near Cashel, Co Tipperary.

Baby

Nicola (26) had been on her way to Temple Street Children's Hospital, Dublin, with her mother and aunt to visit her newborn baby.

On Tuesday, Donna Fox (30) tragically died after the cyclist collided with a truck on Seville Place in Dublin's north-inner city.

Scores of relatives, friends and colleagues packed St Peter and Paul's church in Balbriggan for her funeral on Saturday to pay tribute to her.
On Aug. 24, The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA), and the U.S. Department of Labors Employment and Training Administration announced a $38.8 million POWER investment to grow the economy in the nations coalimpacted communities.

This announcement, in Huntington, West Virginia, named Appalachian Sustainable Development (ASD) as one of 29 recipients. The Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative awards will strengthen economies and workforce of communities and regions that have been negatively affected by changes in the coal economy.

The POWER initiative funds to ASD will support a Central Appalachian Food Enterprise Corridor. Appalachian Sustainable Development will act as the lead agency and will work with Athens, Ohio-based Appalachian Center for Economic Networks (ACEnet) to pass through much of the funding to local and regional partners. The five-state, 43-county collaboration will develop a coordinated local foods distribution network throughout Central Appalachia that will connect established and emerging producers of whole produce, value added products and forest botanicals in Ohio, West Virginia, Tennessee, Southwest Virginia and Eastern Kentucky to wholesale markets.

The ARC award will support planning, partner convening and capacity building, as well as production and processing equipment, supplies and distribution and labor costs, and will be supported by matching funding from the Just Transition Fund and CoBank. The Food Enterprise Corridor will act as regional economic driver.

ASD Executive Director Kathlyn Terry, who participated in the event in Huntington, shared her enthusiasm for the project. We are so honored to receive this support. Over the years we have seen that to truly help rural communities with limited resources, we have to connect with regional partners. Those connections help us expand access to markets and identify more ways for families to earn a living.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Jay Williams explained, The projects and awards we are here to celebrate today help communities persevere and flourish as they deal with the challenges presented by the coal economy. POWER invests in jobs and workers, and develops and implements strategies and projects that can help transform these respective regions, states, and our nation.

ARC Federal Co-Chair Earl F. Gohl said, Appalachian communities are actively engaged in creating diverse local economies that are resilient, sustainable, and strong. Local leaders and entrepreneurs will use these investments to develop, direct, and implement economic diversification initiatives which will have long-lasting impact.

The POWER Initiative is a multi-agency effort aligning and targeting federal economic and workforce development resources to communities and workers that have been affected by job losses in coal mining, coal power plant operations, and coal-related supply chain industries due to the changing economics of Americas energy production. The POWER Initiative is part of President Obamas POWER+ Plan, a broader set of investments in coal-impacted communities, workers and coal technology proposed in the presidents FY 2017 budget.

Appalachian Sustainable Development is dedicated to its mission to transition Appalachia to a more resilient economy and a healthier population by supporting local agriculture, exploring new economic opportunities and connecting people with healthy food. Since 1995, ASD has been serving more than 15 counties in northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia.

Tamara McNaughton is the agricultural program manager for Appalachian Sustainable Development. She can be reached by phone at 276-623-1121 or by email at tmcnaughton@asdevelop.org.
A string of social science snapshots, remarks, observations, data from the South Caucasus.
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HICKORY  Citizens of Hickory and other communities gathered Sunday at downtown Hickory in spite of the heat to remember the terrorist attacks of 9/11 in the annual Patriots Day ceremony.

15 years ago, we were attacked, said WHKYs Hal Row during an opening statement. In the days that followed, we were all Americans.

The attacks began at 8:46 a.m., when the hijacked Flight 11 crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. Less than 20 minutes later, the hijacked Flight 175 crashed into the south tower. A half hour later, Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, and after another half hour, Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, PA.

After Rows brief statements, Rev. George Coats of Hartzell Memorial United Methodist Church gave a prayer of remembrance.

We come to say thank you for the sacrifices that have been made to make this day possible, Coats said. We remember, oh God, those first responders, those civilians, military personnel and others who sacrificed their lives.

The highlight of the ceremony was speeches by Hickory master police officer John R. Wienbrock and Hickory Fire captain Patrick Auton. Hickory Chief of Police Thurman Whisnant introduced Wienbrock, who served with the North Carolina Army National Guard in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom.

For my generation, Sept. 11th is similar to Pearl Harbor or to when JFK was assassinated. People generally remember where they were on that day, Wienbrock said.

Wienbrock was driving on Route 1 in New Jersey at the time, and heard initial reports come in on a radio program. The as reports continued to come in, things became more serious.

We became Americans again, Wienbrock said. If we come together, we can accomplish great things.

Wienbrock asked the audience to remember the names of two friends, both NY Port Authority Officers, who died on 9/11. The names were Bruce Reynolds and John Skala.

Wienbrock moved back to North Carolina after the attacks, and reenlisted. Since his return to Hickory in 2012, he has served as a police officer.

Auton spoke next, and Hickory Fire Chief Fred Hollar introduced him. Auton served with the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard during Operations Desert Storm, Desert Shield, Iraqi Freedom and Freedom Sentinel.

On that day, I was on duty at Fire Station Three. We were in a training class when the Fire Chief came in. Auton said. No knowing the magnitude of the attacks, we watched the events unfold on the news.

I can confidently say that the firefighters standing here today would have done what the 343 brave firefighters of the FDNY gave their lives for.

Auton said that all in attendance were patriots in one way or another, and encouraged the audience to try to learn more about the victims of the attacks.

It should be like knowing the names of the five beaches on D-Day, said Auton about the locations attacked on 9/11. I am the twin towers, I am Flight 93 and I am the Pentagon. Memory is a code to who we are.

A moment of silence was held after the two men spoke. Off in the distance, a police car siren could be heard, an unintentional reminder of service to the gathered audience.

A solemn tolling of a bell and a singing of God Bless America followed the moment of silence, and a prayer by Lenoir-Rhyne University Pastor Andrew Weisner closed the event.

We pray for goodness, for those who live in danger and pain. May all of us gathered here, as we enjoy such blessings, be a means of blessing and peace for others, Weisner said. Where there is hatred, let us so love.

After the ceremony ended, many went to thank gathered first responders and veterans for their service.

I hope we never forget. That is going to be our theme from now, to as long as I have anything to do about it, Hollar said. Its going to be downtown, and we are going to do it every year. We do not ever want to forget what a good country we have.

Whisnant spoke after the ceremony as well.

It is so important to remember, Whisnant said. Unfortunately, America is often at its best right after tragedy, and we should take every day to remember not to focus on our differences, but to remember what we have in common.

Hallina Genaro, of Lincolnton, came to event with Karl and Rosa Meidinger from Germany. Genaro said that it was the closest remembrance they could find.

It was impressive, what we saw, Karl Meidinger said. America, they can do such memorials. It was interesting to hear the comparison with Pearl Harbor.

Karl and Rosa Meidinger said they were visiting a friend in Norway when they heard about the attacks.

War is a terrible, horrible thing, Genaro said. A little bit is expected here and there, but we didnt expect something like this.

When will it come to an end? Karl Meidinger said.
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Fifteen years ago, I was sitting in a high school anthropology class when news arrived of a plane crashing into the World Trade Center. It came in the shape of my twin brother Ishaan, who had a free period in the morning and thus had the liberty to interrupt our class with this breathless report. None of us had mobile phones so we had to go see for ourselves. We rushed to the roof of our Manhattan school, three miles from Ground Zero, and took in the utterly surreal sight of smoke spewing from the twin towers. I had no idea then that this wounded vista would be one of the defining images of the century.

It can be tempting for New Yorkers to remember the 9/11 attacks in a personal way. Many New Yorkers died or lost loved ones. A family friend was killed in the towers. School friends who lived in downtown neighbourhoods were made into refugees in their own city. We gathered in mourning in nightly candle-lit vigils in Union Square. For a few harrowing days, our mundane urban existence seemed raised to the lofty state of history.

Read | US response to 9/11 expanded terror threat: France president Hollande

And yet it feels increasingly indulgent to think of 9/11 as a New York tragedy, or even as a particularly American tragedy. The horror of that day is dwarfed by what followed  the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, wider instability in West Asia, the fanning of Islamist extremism, drone warfare, torture, refugee crises, and terrorism and repression from Canada to China. We might have felt shaken in the aftermath of the al-Qaeda attack in New York, but so many other parts of the world continue to tremble.

Thanks to its size and diversity, America has long had the luxury of being somewhat insular, its people able to satisfy their cultural needs within the continental bounds of the nation. In both politics and culture, Americans have yet to process the events of 9/11. No American novel or film has managed to grapple with the full trauma of that day. Similarly, the public maintains only a superficial interest in the turns of American foreign policy. This unwillingness to comprehend the outside world is powerfully evident in the current presidential campaign.

Read | Were at war: These handwritten notes reveal how Bush reacted to 9/11

Im often frustrated when the media facilitates serious conversations about foreign policy. The standard is rather low. Candidates are judged not on the content of what they say, but on their ability to sound like they are saying something at all. During the Republican primary debates that led to the nomination of Donald Trump, proposed solutions to the problems in West Asia included carpet bombing and taking the oil. There was a sophomoric quality to these discussions, abetted in part by the journalist moderators who patiently allowed the candidates to grope from empty statement to platitude to gross error as if they were teenagers competing in a high school debate. In the Democratic primary debates, Bernie Sanders was woefully vague in critiquing Hillary Clintons hawkish policy record. She appeared the more convincing candidate not because she possessed keener insights or more sophisticated policy positions, but because she knew more proper nouns.

Not knowing those nouns can be devastating. Last week, the libertarian candidate Gary Johnson (who was attracting voters unenthused by both Trump and Clinton) humiliated himself when posed a question about the Syrian city Aleppo. What is Aleppo? he asked gormlessly to the incredulity of the attendant pundits. For a prospective commander-in-chief, such obliviousness was unforgivable.

Read | Compromise: New Miss America has advice for Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton

But what is also unforgivable is the complicity of journalists in brewing this funk of collective ignorance. In a segment meant to revel in Johnsons gaffe, a pundit on the MSNBC network described Aleppo as Islamic States capital in Syria (Raqqa has that dubious honour). On the same day, an article in the New York Times had to be corrected twice, first in also referring to Aleppo as Islamic States capital and second in calling Aleppo the capital of Syria (Damascus is the capital).

These are trivial errors in the grand scheme, but they demonstrate that the chattering classes  in addition to the candidates they are meant to probe and challenge  dont know as much about the world as they should. Many journalists lack the confidence to press politicians on foreign policy matters, letting them get away with all manner of vagaries and vulgarities.

Read | Clintons illness dredges up doubts over health of oldest-ever candidates

That climate of fuzzy thinking aided the rise of a presidential candidate like Trump, who has convinced tens of millions of people that seizing Iraq and Syrias oil resources and forcing Mexico to wall itself off are viable policies. His rhetoric doesnt have to be serious in part because the American public isnt equipped to take foreign policy discussions seriously. The 9/11 attacks propelled America into the world, but it is damning how shallow mainstream conversation of international affairs remains.

Kanishk Tharoor is the author of Swimmer Among the Stars: Stories. The views expressed are personal.

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Chief Justice of India (CJI) TS Thakurs stress on the need for increasing the countrys judicial strength is his third intervention in the matter. In April the CJI broke down while speaking on the subject. Subsequently on another occasion he said the judiciary might have to step in to issue orders to the executive to clear the appointment of judges at high courts. His statements can be read in two ways. It is impossible to disagree with him when he said that India had too few judges. On Sunday the CJI said India had just 18,000 judges in a country of 1.2 billion. This is embarrassing because the Law Commission had spoken of having 40,000 judges almost 30 years ago. This in a major way is a factor behind the delay in judicial processes and untertrials having to stay in jail year after year. Anyone conversant with judicial processes knows that parties not directly involved in litigation are also affected by slow justice delivery. The countrys high courts have about 4 million cases waiting to be cleared. If one adds to that the figure about 30 million in the subordinate courts and the number works out to close to about 34 million.

Read: Shortage of judges will shackle Indias growth

That the judiciary is vital to our economy cannot be overstressed. On the earlier occasion the CJI had said those who are investing (in India) are concerned about the ability of our judiciary to deal with their cases. On Sunday he brought up the matter again by saying the judicial system also needs to improve to deal with disputes that will arise out of this progress. And with every single piece of legislation, there is additional pressure on the infrastructure.

Read: Burden on judiciary: What forced CJI Thakur to break down before PM

If one looks beyond the exigencies of the moments, a few things are discernible. Even at the cost of repetition, it should be stated that legal theory sees law as a social phenomenon. Seen in this light, the judiciary has by and large two roles to perform. One is the dispensation of justice to the wrongdoer as well as protecting the rights of the person on the right side of the law. The other is broadening the horizons of justice, which economist-philosopher Amartya Sen has talked about in his book The Idea of Justice. For him, deprivation, on which he has written extensively, is a denial of justice. Nothing can illustrate the importance of the expanded judiciary more.

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Recently, there has been several reports on Indias comatose public health system: From a man in Orissa carrying his wifes body because he was denied a mortuary van to a hospital in Rajasthan where patients are forced to sit outside the hospital and hang their IV bottles from nails hammered into tree trunks, the situation is dismal.

In an interview with HT, president of the Public Health Foundation of India Dr K Srinath Reddy speaks on what ails the public health system and what needs to be done to fix it.

HT: Indias public health system is in a shambles..

KSR: Media reports capture only a few tragedies. Several go unreported. Rural and urban poor as well as tribals are the worst victims of a health system that does not assure universal access, affordability and quality. Even the middle class is not assured of good quality care, even if they incur high out-of-pocket expenditure. The primary health care services are in a state of neglect. Apart from structural health system deficiencies, apathy and even dehumanisation among health care providers makes the poor voiceless victims of an uncaring system.

Read: Day after man carries wifes body on shoulder, Odisha govt launches Mahaprayan scheme

HT: How does the lack of a strong public health system impact a poor person economically?

Every aspect of health care - prevention, diagnosis, therapy, rehabilitation, palliation  is unaffordable for a poor person. Even if some of these services are provided free under national or state health programmes, barriers to access and variable coverage of health services prevent the poor from benefiting.

Many of the ailments are preventable or can be treated early in primary care. When that does not happen, costly advanced medical care becomes an economic burden. In addition, loss of wages of the ill person and family care givers compounds the financial strain.

The fact that over 50 million Indians are pushed in to poverty each year due to unaffordable health care costs is a grim reminder of the toll that an inequitable and inefficient health system extracts from the most vulnerable sections of our society.

Read: At this crowded govt hospital in Rajasthan, IV bottles hang from tree trunks

HT: If the State is unable to handle the public health challenges, what is the solution? Involving private players?

KSR: In India, a mixed health system has evolved by default. This is loosely governed and inadequately regulated. We have to optimally engage all our societal resources - in public, private and voluntary sectors - to provide universally accessible, affordable and appropriate health services to all citizens. This can only be done when all categories of health care providers are methodically integrated in to a well designed and efficiently coordinated framework of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

Primary health care has to be comprehensive, continuous and connected to referral services. It cannot be parcelled off as a separate piece in a laissez faire fashion.

Read: Kanpur hospital under scanner after boy dies on fathers shoulder, probe ordered

The big question is will the designated provider deliver quality primary care without imposing a financial burden on any individual or family?

Such an assurance will only be derived when UHC defines the deliverables and sets terms of accountability for all categories of providers . We cannot afford fragmented responses driven by expediency. They will cost us heavily in the long run.

Building a strong and sustainable health system is an inescapable imperative for any enlightened government that is committed to promote, preserve and protect peoples health.

HT: Young doctors dont want to go and serve in rural areas. How can this trend be reversed?

KSR: Young doctors are mostly trained in medically sophisticated, highly urban, tertiary care institutions. Both in terms of acquired skills and cultural affinity, they are alienated from the rural environment and feel ill-equipped to deal with the health challenges and resource constrained environment of basic health care facilities. We need to develop our district hospitals as major training centres for medical and nursing students, with both downstream exposure to primary health systems and upstream exposure to tertiary care.

The practical training has to be mostly location-based in district and sub-district health systems. Further, the government should provide free or heavily subsidised education to locally enrolled students from that state, with conditionality of service for four years after graduation.

Read: Health care crisis: Short of 5 lakh doctors, India has just 1 for 1,674 people

During this service, they can be sponsored for distance education in public health degree or diploma programmes so that they have an academic incentive and will also gain knowledge that will be useful in implementation of national health programmes.

Local recruitment in to medical colleges aids local retention, as documented in many countries. Even in existing medical colleges, a larger portion of the practical training must move to primary and secondary care settings in the district of their location.

Read: Affordable healthcare for all

In addition, government should also consider offering rural re-employment for recently retired government doctors, many of who are still physically fit and have acquired the experience of working in challenging environments.

@kumkumdasgupta

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More and more college boys from the city are taking to donating their sperm as a means to earn some extra pocket money, say infertility specialists. The doctors say that they now get 5-7 calls every day with related enquiries.

You can get paid Rs 2,000 or more every time you donate your sperm. But you can also get paid less -- Rs 1,000 or Rs 500, depending on the city you live in, said an expert.

Most city doctors refer callers seeking to donate sperm to clinics in Mumbai and Delhi, since there is currently no sperm bank in Madhya Pradesh. In the banks, donated sperm is frozen for later use.

90% of donors are college kids. Till about five years back, people preferred only donors from within their family, but not now. Its no more a hush-hush topic and people talk openly about it, says infertility specialist and gynecologist Dr Romika Kapoor.

The background researches, the blood tests and the HIV tests are done for over a period of 6 months to get a qualified donor. 

The movie Vicky Donor started this trend and college-goers see easy and lucrative pocket money in the process. In metropolitan cities, single mothers and infertile couples seek sperm donors, but since MP is a conservative state, we only get requests from infertile couples, Dr Kapoor adds.

Embryologist and child specialist Dr Randhir Singh says, I get over 2000 such calls and emails in a year. I tell them where to donate in Mumbai and Delhi clinics.

But, he adds, I usually counsel college kids to not go through with this. Though a donor can be anyone with a good sperm count and between the ages of 21 and 45, but all good clinics prefer a married man with a healthy 3-year-old or older child. According to research, this ensures good fertility of the donor and reduces the probability of abnormalities in any infant who may be produced with the sperm.

Sperm donation: The process

Family Background Check: A detailed interview about sexual behaviour of the donor is undertaken. This includes a check on his family background and the clinic seeks reasons on why the man is interested in sperm donation. Clinics often also require information related to health and genetics of three generations preceding the donor. The information is then evaluated.

Semen Analysis: The specimen semen is collected for analysis, which shows sperm count along with two other important factors -- sperm cell motility and normal sperm morphology.

Medical and Genetic Tests: A potential sperm donor must have clear results for HIV, Hepatitis B and C apart from several other tests. ABO-Rh factor blood typing is carried out, and genetic testing is done to check whether the sperm would be a potential carrier for cystic fibrosis.

The clinic or the sperm bank takes eight weeks to six months before giving a clearance certificate for sperm donation.

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Days after Aamir Khan fans went crazy with his leaked pictures online claiming to be his first look from Advait Chandans next, the makers of the movie decided to release the official first look.

According to a statement issued by the filmmakers, Aamir will play a cameo in the directorial debut of his former manager Advait. However, Aamirs part will be significant for the film. Despite being a cameo, Khan will be shooting for 15 days to get his character perfect.

Aamir Khans first look from the film.

Advait Chandan has shared a great relationship with Aamir and has handled his work for five years. He had narrated the script to Aamir while working for him. The actor immediately fell in love with the subject and decided to produce it under his banner Aamir Khan Productions.

The yet to be titled film will soon go on the floors.

Interestingly, the pictures that went viral rumoured to be from the sets of Advaits film, are actually for a special Lagaan ride, which is coming up at a Bollywood theme park in Dubai - it does not belong to any movie.

(Twitter)

For the Lagaan ride in the theme park Aamir will be playing Bhuvans grandson from his 2001 movie Lagaan, as part of a special sequence for the ride.

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Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn says his upcoming production venture Parched is a relevant film, which should be seen by men to learn how to treat women in society.

Directed by Leena Yadav, Parched stars Radhika Apte, Tannishtha Chatterjee and Surveen Chawla in lead roles.

Presenting PARCHED...18Awards, 24 Intl. film festivals across continents. Releasing 23rd Sep Trailer on 9th Sep. pic.twitter.com/tsxiU778qE  Ajay Devgn (@ajaydevgn) September 4, 2016

This film is not just about women... It is also about men to learn. Its societys pressure, I would say, which forces men to do the things they do, apart from the mindset...

From the film, there is nothing much that women need to learn about what is happening with them. I feel men need to learn what women are, and how to behave with them, the actor told reporters at the trailer launch.

Parched traces the tale of four women who struggle with their individual boundaries to face their demons and stage their own personal wars. The movie has ready travelled to several film festivals aboard and won a lot of acclaim as well as top honours.

The 47-year-old Singham actor said it is sad they couldnt start the films journey by first releasing it in India but hopes it gets the same reception here a it got in the West.

It is very sad, because though the issue is universal, the film is of our country. It is very sad that instead of starting with India, we had to start from abroad, because there is audience there which accepts such films.

From there, the film has travelled and reached here. We hope the film is accepted here too. The myth that only typical commercial films work, that needs to be broken by the audience, he added.

Parched is scheduled to release on September 23.

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Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt today thanked West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her support during his tough times.

I came here to thank her. When I was in jail it was Mamata didi and Shatrughan Sinha who stood by me. She was also good friends with my father, Dutt, 57, said after a meeting with her at the state secretariat Nabanna.

Sanjay Dutt interacts with media after his meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in Kolkata on Monday. (PTI)

In March 2013, Banerjee had said the actor, convicted in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, already suffered a lot for the blunder.

The Munna Bhai star has also accepted an invitation to attend the state-run Kolkata International Film Festival to be held later in the year.

Recalling that he had shot the hit film Parineeta in the city, Dutt said he is impressed by the changes in the metropolis.

He said he likes the idea of open jail and wants to be a part of the state governments project on this.

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It is imperative to give screenwriters their due if Hindi cinema is to move to the next level, Bollywood powerhouse Karan Johar said at the 41st Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

In a lively onstage conversation at the Glenn Gould Studio, a part of the festivals official programme, he said, The industry is trying out new genres and approaches all right, but we do not empower writers enough. The writer is the soul of a film. The director isnt everything, they should contribute to that soul.

Read: What I am in person, I am on camera. Karan Johar is different: Farah Khan

With that goal in mind, his Dharma Productions, he said, has set up a new writing division to encourage the creation of original content for films. The movie star is no longer King, content is. The writer is the backbone of a film, Johar, 44, asserted.

Speaking about his life and times as a film producer, director and entertainer, Johar was in scintillating form and brought the house down in Toronto on a wet and gloomy Saturday evening.

Read: I am proud of the way they turned out: Karan Johar on SRKs kids Aryan, Suhana

The nearly 90-minute In Conversation was laced with self-deprecating wit and punchy one-liners that had the expatriate audience asking for more. It was a rousing performance calibrated like one of his glitzy, star-studded films for maximum mass impact.

While the filmmaker lost no opportunity to underscore the increasing global relevance of Bollywood as a marker of Indias global soft power identity, he also acknowledged the chinks in the armour of one of the worlds most dynamic film industries.

Watch: Trailer of Kapoor And Sons

The success of a film like Kapoor And Sons is proof that the audience is evolving faster than the filmmakers. Many of us in the industry, including me, are caught in a time warp.

Kapoor & Sons, bankrolled by Johars Dharma Productions, had a gay protagonist. Six actors rejected the role because they were scared to play a homosexual character. Fawad Khan, who took the part and owned it, is not only a great actor but also a brave one, he said.

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Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who is currently shooting in Amsterdam for Imtiaz Alis next, is on a social media high. He has been posting pictures and videos regularly and they are mostly about the scenic beauty of nature and his cute kids.

Recently, SRK shared some fun moments with AbRam - his youngest son. In the video, the father-son duo are seen playing Spiderman. After SRK and AbRam introduce themselves as red and black Spiderman, SRK says, Together we are unbeatable. And, in a bid to imitate his daddy dear, AbRam says, Beatable in that cute voice.

"We cannot accomplish all that we need to do without working together" #srkinstagyaan A video posted by Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) on Sep 10, 2016 at 4:05pm PDT

On Monday, he also posted a series of two videos to mark 21 million followers on Twitter. They were shared early Monday morning.

In one of the videos shared via Facebook Mentions, SRK also thanks his fans for support and love. All of you make me feel happy, the star said.

Earlier, the 50-year-old actor made a Dutch man say the famous tongue twister Kaccha Papad, Pakka Papad (of Amitabh Bachchan-Amjad Khan starrer Yaraana, 1981 fame) and uploaded a video. Jurriaan our first AD learning how to do pappad & me the countdown. #hindidutchbhaibhai, he captioned it.

Jurriaan our first AD learning how to do pappad & me the countdown. #hindidutchbhaibhai A video posted by Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) on Sep 10, 2016 at 8:51am PDT

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For most part of Maruti Suzukis 30-year-old history in India, it sold basic small cars, which were without many features, and would fail American and European safety tests.

But as consumer behaviour changed and luxury auto companies began sourcing more from India, carmakers took a different road.

Maruti changed. Others, such as the Ambassadors and Premier Padminis (owned by Fiat), who could not, perished.

In January, Maruti launched airbags (only as an option) and left-side rear view mirror in all Alto 800 variants  its entry-level car, which has sold more than three million units since its launch 16 years ago.

Thirty years ago cars were only about mobility. With every passing decade the customer has changed, and so has his aspiration with respect to design, quality and technology Regulations, too, have changed, in India and globally, says CV Raman, head Maruti Suzukis engineering and R&D function.

Many of the features  rain sensing wipers, digital and touchscreen infotainment panels, auto headlamps, rear parking assist, anti-lock braking system and automatic transmission  that Maruti and its biggest rival on Indian roads, Hyundai Motor, offers today in its compact cars were meant for the rich, who could buy luxury cars made by Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi.

But this was not the picture till some years ago.

In 2014, Marutis Alto and Swift, Hyundai i10, Ford Figo, Volkswagen Polo and Tata Nano failed safety tests conducted by New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP), the global organisation for car safety. It was worrying. After all, India is the fifth-largest producer of cars globally.

But then things started changing as Indian component makers increased supply to luxury carmakers. In 2015-16, luxury carmakers sourced almost half of their components locally, shifting from fully imported units until six years ago.

And Indias auto component business is a hugely untapped market. With $39 billion in revenue is 2015-16, its more than Libyas gross domestic product  a measure of total goods and services the country makes. Its exports to global carmakers have grown more than five times to over $10 billion in the last six years.

Mercedes-Benz was one of the first global majors to tap this market. The local supplier base develops with us, says Roland Folger, CEO and managing director of Mercedes-Benz India.

High-end technology is used first in luxury cars. Suppliers then give it to other manufacturers, adds Wilfried Aulbur, India head of Munich-headquartered consulting firm Roland Berger.

Rival German luxury car brand BMW, too, agrees. We are confident that through our partnership with Indian auto component suppliers, we will set higher benchmarks in quality standards and supply chain management, says a BMW spokesperson.

Since 2007, as BMW increased the number of its locally produced car models, it partnered with Indian component suppliers, including Force Motors, ZF Hero Chassis, Draexlmaier India, Tenneco Automotive India, Valeo India, Mahle Behr and Lear India, for local sourcing.

Global carmakers bring in very strong processes and systems Many features that are used in luxury cars are now used in a budget car, says Pankaj Mittal, chief operating officer at Motherson Sumi, Indias largest component maker and a supplier to Mercedes-Benz.

For example, mirrors with blinkers that have electronic folding were only available in luxury cars. Logo and puddle lamp were Jaguar Land Rovers exclusive features till a few years ago. Door trims were cheap plastic, but not anymore. Airbags, too, cost less.

Rakesh Srivastava, head of sales and marketing at Hyundai India, says brands that bring in global platforms also bring in better features. The rear air-conditioning vent that Hyundai put in the i20 and Xcent was once available only in its high-end cars. Once you spread the price of technology over many units you can enjoy economies of scale That happens with exports as well, says Srivastava.

In a nutshell, global cars, especially those in the luxury segment, have over the years changed Indian cars. The gap between European and Indian cars is decreasing, says Raman.

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Sexologist? That is a nice designation. But I cannot use it. It will scandalise my patients, laughs Kuntal Dutta, an obstetrician with a leading hospital in Kolkata. The 56-year-old Dutta has been a sexologist for five years. But, in his hospital they call him counsellor.

I was getting bored of birthing children, counselling appealed to me. And the hospital said that there is a growing demand, says Dutta.

Sexology is the scientific study of human sexuality, including human sexual interests, behaviours and functions, says Wikipedia. The demand for it, as Dutta says, is indeed growing, translating into a burgeoning business for hospitals, clinics, and healthcare professionals. And of course for  inevitably, in this age  healthcare websites and apps.

Lybrate, an online platform to consult doctors, has 3,000 sex counsellors on its app, 45% more than it had six months ago. Sexual health queries raised by patients on its platform have risen 22%. Medikoe, an online health consultancy, says no less than 20 people seek appointments with its sexologists every week; there used to be just two in 2014. Naturally, it has 35 sexologists now, compared with two back then. It predicts 40 patients per week next year.

These are signs that sexual health and wellness has come out of the grasp of quacks who would whisper questionable advice to patients in rooms with flickering light bulbs, although Rajinder Yadavs parents have yet to reconcile to his choice of career.

My parents cannot get over the fact that I am officially a sexologist. They never understood why, despite a degree in urology, I chose to pursue sexology, says Yadav, who works with Fortis Hospital in Delhis Shalimar Bagh. He has no regrets, though; he earns more than 1,000 for every session, talking to people facing a diverse range of issues: from erectile dysfunction to anorgasmia, the inability to have orgasm.

In a lot of cases the gynaecologist doubles as sexologist, because the problem might not be anatomic, says Rupak Ranjan Ray, a gynaecologist. Ray says counselling can solve a lot of sex-related problems. People are more aware of sex-related issues at a much younger age these days, but lifestyle disorders and stress have led to complications. Anorgasmia has been rising due to stress.

Still, the nomenclature, as Dutta says in the beginning of this article, is taking people time to get used to. Consulting a sexologist is still taboo, says Yadav of Fortis, Shalimar Bagh. But more and more people are seeking consultations.

Earlier, people would think of every sexual problem as a disease, but in most cases a couple only needs assistance to get over its sex-related troubles. Sex-assistants are popular in the West, though Yadav says it is a concept that is unlikely to gain coinage in India.

But people are more open to assistance when they are not able to have children. Medicover is a Swedish chain that dabbles in assisted reproduction, also called In Vitro Fertilisation. Since starting out in India three months ago, it has treated 55 patients. We are a fertility centre, but a large number of cases of the inability to conceive come from improper sex, says Gaurav Malhotra, CEO of Medicover in India. Of course, Medicover does not use the term sexologist. We call them counsellors. Generally patients consult them as part of their gynaecological treatment, says Richa Sharma, fertility expert at Medicover.

With the growing demand, more doctors are taking to sexology. There are over 3,000 sexologists on the Lybrate platform. That is a 45% increase since our launch in 2015, says Saurabh Arora, founder and CEO of Lybrate.

That is a far cry from how things used to be. A search for sexologists in the yellow pages of Delhi throws up the likes of Sablok Clinic and Dr Rikhs Clinic. Sablok, tucked away in Old Delhis Daryaganj, was set up in 1928 with the motto of giving sexual lives to people. Secrecy is a virtue there. It is run by only one doctor, whose schedule, expectedly, is choc-a-bloc. We have lots of patients every day. You have to seek appointment. We take down the detailed problem and Dr Sablok will give you a solution, says the receptionist, who doubles as the spokesperson. Dr Sabloks treatment is based on counselling sessions with medicines.

There is still some way to go before sexology gains full respectability. Sexologists in India are a varied lot, coming from different branches of medicine: urology to gynaecology, some with certification in psychiatry. You could also find some homeopaths there.

Why urologist, you might wonder, isnt that someone who deals with the urinary system? True, but an estimated 10% of the urology patients come to consult on matters of sex. It (sexology) is a branch that still has to develop, as people do not like to talk openly about their sexual problems. But slowly, things are changing, says a spokesperson for Fortis.

May be that day is not far when sexologists will be able to use their designation without the fear of scandalising patients.
A gigantic 1,500 kg buffalo named Bahubali, bought from Ludhiana in Punjab for a whopping Rs 11 lakh, has become the centre of attraction during Eid-ul-Adha (Bakrid) festivities in Moradabad town.

Its owners are looking for a potential buyer who can pay several lakhs more than what they paid for it or they will sacrifice Bahubali on the day of the festival.

Mohammad Taufeeq Qureshi and Nadeem bought the buffalo in Ludhiana and brought it to their residence near the Idgah in Moradabad on Saturday.

Since then, this Murrah buffalo has become the cynosure of all eyes in the town as well as the nearby districts and people are pouring in to catch a glimpse of Bahubali.

Every day, people come individually and in groups to take a look at Bahubali, said Nadeem, adding that many visitors jostled with each other to pet the buffalo and click a selfie.

Reports said a man from Thakurdwara town offered to buy the buffalo but the owners refused, saying the price he offered was not good enough.

If nobody comes forward with a good price, then we will sacrifice the buffalo on the occasion of Bakrid, said Qureshi, explaining that every day, the buffalo drank 20 litres of milk and ate 20kg of apples along with normal fodder.

Given the humid weather, Bahubali has been kept in a room with two water coolers and a ceiling fan.

Muslims across the country will celebrate Eid-ul-Adha on Tuesday.

They slaughter goats, sheep and other animals on the day to commemorate Prophet Abrahams willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail on Gods command.
JAMMU/SRINAGAR: A policeman and three militants were killed as security forces battled twin attacks close to an army base in Jammus Poonch on Sunday, which also saw soldiers kill four infiltrators in north Kashmir.

The gunfights close to the line of control (LoC) came on the day home minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir where the death toll in more than two months of street protests climbed to 78.

In Poonch, havildar Rajinder Kumar was killed when a group of militants fired at a police patrol near the armys 93 Brigade headquarters at around 7am, deputy inspector general Rajouri-Poonch range Johny Williams said.

Three fidayeens (suicide attackers) have been gunned down... security forces are sanitising the areas. The ultras were heavily armed and carried grenades also, the police officer said, adding the militants were trained in Pakistan.

The army, which used drones to keep an eye on the militants and sent in commandos for the final assault, said combing operations would continue Monday morning.

The militants, whose exact numbers were not known, split into two groups after exchange of fire with the police patrol, William said.

One team entered an under-construction mini-secretariat building and the other barged into the house of Mohammed Nazir Mir in the neighbouring Allah Peer locality.

They took Mir and his wife hostage who were rescued by the commandos called in from neighbouring Udhampur, army sources said. Their domestic help was injured in the firing.

Two policemen, an equal number of soldiers and a civilian were also wounded in Poonch.

In north Kashmir, four militants were killed in an overnight gunfight as three infiltration bids were foiled along the LoC, the army said Sunday.

While infiltrators were beaten back in Tangdhar and Gurez sectors, a group managed to sneak through the LoC in Nowgam, where a gunfight broke out near Aatma post on Saturday night and continued in the morning, army spokesman NN Joshi said.

The infiltration bids come just two days after Indian Army chief general Dalbir Singh visited the LoC and north and south Kashmir.

The Centre has asked the army to step up presence in the southern parts, which have seen the worst of the street protests that are in its third month now. The death toll in violence-hit Valley touched 78 on Sunday when a 23-year-old man allegedly injured in firing by security forces in August died in a Srinagar hospital. Home minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday reviewed the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and asked the security forces to go after troublemakers as the death toll in the ongoing unrest climbed to 78.

Singh asked the security establishment to take steps so that schools and markets, shut for more than two months with occasional breaks for shops, opened at the earliest, sources said.

National security adviser Ajit Doval, home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and Intelligence Bureau chief Dineshwar Sharma were among those present in the meeting that comes within days of the government asking the army to step up deployment in south Kashmir.

On Sunday only one serious incident of stone-pelting was reported from Pulwama. We hope the situation will improve as Eid will be celebrated next week, said an official who attended the meeting. Eid al-Adha is on Tuesday.

South Kashmir has seen the worst of the violence in the Valley, which erupted after a militant leader was killed in a gunfight with security forces on July 8.

 the government is determined to re-establish the writ of state in these areas so that the citizens who are not with radicals or militants should not remain terrorised, the official said.

A 23-year-old man allegedly injured in firing by security forces on August 5 died in a Srinagar hospital on Sunday. Javaid Ahmad was brought in with a bullet injury to the leg, which was amputated to save his life but he died of renal failure, doctors said.
NEW DELHI: Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Sunday defended Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amanatullah Khan, booked in a case of sexual harassment and dowry, saying the party will not accept his resignation.

The Okhla legislator resigned as the Waqf board chief and from other posts on Saturday. The same day, police registered an FIR against him at the Jamia Nagar station after a woman claiming to be his relative accused him of harassing her for dowry and sexual favours.

Whenever there is any complaint against our party members, we conduct an internal inquiry. We have taken action against ministers after inquiries. In case of Khan also, an inquiry was conducted and we found that it is a case of family dispute. Khan had no relation with the woman, said Sisodia.

The deputy CM further said Khan was being dragged into the case for exposing corruption in the Waqf board.

Sisodia also accused the Delhi Police of becoming extra active whenever the AAPs name came up. The familys internal matter is being given political colour. Those who understand Waqf issues are aware of how influential people have grabbed Waqf lands. Khan is stopping these scams and is being targeted, said Sisodia.

He had given his resignation in pain  He sent out a very emotional letter to us. But our probe has not found anything. I spoke to the chief minister (Arvind Kejriwal) and also other leaders and we have decided to not accept his resignation, Sisodia said.

Police are yet to arrest Khan in the case. In July, he was sent to 14-day judicial custody after being arrested in a molestation case. Khan is presently out on bail in the case.

The Delhi governments Anti-Corruption Branch raided the Delhi Waqf Board office last week in connection with an alleged recruitment scam involving Khan, following a complaint.

In his letter, Khan said he was out of patience issuing clarifications and pleading innocence over allegations against him and his family.

Investigating officers said they will probe the womans allegations. They recorded her statement before a magistrate. We will ask the MLA to join investigation on Monday.
BHARATPUR: Neem is the tree of health. And in an eastern Rajasthan town, hard-pressed medical staff have turned to two neem trees on the campus to nurse back to health a flood of fever-stricken patients.

At the Saipau community health centre in Dholpur district, bottles of intravenous (IV) fluid hang from nails hammered into the tree trunks. Patients and their family members sit on the cemented platform around the trees and keep a watch on the fluid flow.

We have admitted patients beyond our capacity. We cant turn them away, centre in-charge Dr Charanjeet Singh Chauhan said.

The health centre, which has just 15 beds, is overwhelmed as there has been a spike in the cases of viral fever brought in by monsoon rains. The two trees have virtually turned into hospital wards. On Saturday, 15-20 patients were lying under each of them. The indoor patient count for the day was 200. There were people everywhere  on the floor, in the corridor and when the staff ran out of place, they thought of the trees.

At sunset, patients scrambled to find a corner in the centre building to spend the night.

Space in not the only concern. Dr Chauhan said the centre had just three doctors and they had run out of medicines as well. Some patients left after initial treatment because of lack of facilities.

Sanitation is another casualty. Patients and their attendants are forced to defecate in the open as the health centre is not equipped to handle the huge number of people.

They were trying their best but it was the governments responsibility to ensure there were enough doctors, beds and medicines, block chief medical and health officer Dr Virendra Bhaskar said.

Community health centres are a crucial link in rural health care and are meant to provide services to areas that do not have big hospitals. The idea is to provide modern facilities to rural population and ease overcrowding in district hospitals but equipment and staff continue to pose a challenge.
NEW DELHI: Delhi University poll panels grievance committee members will meet on Monday to discuss the National Students Union of Indias (NSUI) allegation of rigging during the Delhi University Students Union polls.

The DUSU polls were held on Friday and the results declared on Saturday.

NSUI, the student wing of the Congress, has alleged that the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) election results, was rigged. NSUI has also claimed that during voting in some colleges on Friday, there was problem with the electronic voting machines.

The party has demanded a re-election in Aurobindo College along with some other colleges.

NSUI has won the joint secretary position in DUSU. The other three posts were won by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Immediately after the results were declared on Saturday, NSUI party members had held a protest outside the vice chancellors office and started a hunger strike. However, the strike was called off after the grievance committee assured them of looking in to the issue.

The grievance committee chairman has given to us in writing that a meeting will be held on Monday. If need be, we will even approach the Delhi High Court, said Amrita Dhawan, NSUIs national president.

DU STUDENTS ARE FRESH MINDED

Union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju on Sunday said the victory of ABVP candidates in DU was due to fresh minded students who were insulated from a discarded ideology.

Rijiju also tweeted a picture of Hindustan Times headline, which said the Delhi University marches right and JNU goes left, and added: Yes, bcause (sic) fresh minded DU students are insulated from getting romanticised by a faulty obsolete & discarded ideology.
NEW DELHI: The police may arrest in the next two days the teachers and former vice-chancellor of the Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University, in the fake degree case involving former Delhi minister Jitendra Singh Tomar.

Tomar, the former law minister, was sacked and later arrested in June 2015 for allegedly forging a law degree from the university in Bihar to register himself as a lawyer.

Tomar registered himself with the Bar Council of Delhi on the basis of a provisional pass certificate from Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University.

But in an enquiry, the university found that the certificate number that Tomar claimed was his, was issued to a political science student.

Delhi Police sources said two teams have been sent to Bihar to arrest the former vice chancellor, the then-principal, teachers and the administrative staff.

Sources said investigation into the records of the university has shown discrepancies. Many provisional certificates, degrees and mark sheets of students were dispatched to people

Police get a complaint from the Delhi Bar Council saying Tomar enrolled himself as an advocate using fake BSc degree, provisional certificates, admit cards, mark sheets and Law degree

Two police teams verify certificates with universities concerned in Bihar, UP

FIR against Tomar at Hauz Khas police station.

Cops arrest Tomar and produce in court. Take him into remand

Tomar is taken to KS Saket College in UPs Faizabad, from where he claimed to have completed BSc in 1988. He is who never attended classes.

Sources said that files from a particular year showed over 500 degrees were handed out, even though 120 students had registered for the course.

This could not have been possible without the connivance of the university authorities, a police source said. dumbstruck when asked to name faculty members. He is found to have been enrolled as a student at DUs Rajdhani College at the same time

He is taken to Bihars Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University, from where he claimed to have obtained the Law degree. Has no idea about the college campus, classes or teachers Tomar admits to having bought both degrees. He says an agent from Munger helped him get the forged LLB degree of the university in Bihar. Another agent from Shakarpur helped him get the BSc degree the university in UP

It is also not possible that the then vice chancellor or the principal did not know about the racket. We will arrest some people soon, the source said.

A few illegal agents also told police that some staff members of the university were giving out fake degrees and mark sheets in exchange for money.

Tomar had reportedly told the police that he bought the degree from agents. Tomar said that his brother, PS Tomar, a practising lawyer, introduced him to Vinod who used to arrange degrees. Tomar asked for his help because he could not clear exams. Vinod helped him get the degree without actually enrolling for the course, sources said.

Tomar first took a BSc degree in 2001 and then an LLB degree from an agent in Munger, Bihar.

Sources said it was also found that about 2,000 practising lawyers registered with the citys bar council have degrees from the same college and university as the AAP leader Tomar. Some of them were even found to be forged. The investigation in the matter is still on and a separate FIR may be registered against others involved in the racket.

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NEW DELHI: Indias aviation safety regulator has decided to install full body scanners at the Delhi airport which will produce a mannequin-like image instead of revealing real body parts.

Full body scanners can show the full contours of the body and help security agencies detect foreign objects being carried by a passenger but privacy advocates have opposed the technology, saying it is too intrusive.

After a debate over the use of technology in India, the Bureau for Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has settled for machines which produce mannequin-like images.

The agency will install the machine on trial basis at Terminal 3 of Delhis Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA). Sources said US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has signed an agreement with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to provide body scanners for airports.

Sources said that BCAS is ready to bring in the technology by the end of this year. The specifications of the scanners have been finalised in the meeting with USTDA, said an official, requesting anonymity.

The US agency has agreed to bring one body scanner for trial. We will conduct a trial run at Terminal 3 for a week and then the government will come up with a policy, the official said.

Irrespective of the controversy surrounding it, we wanted to use the technology at the sensitive airports. A discussion to install shoe scanner was also held, the official said.

Initially, going through full body scanners will be voluntary for the passengers. Only suspicious passengers will be asked to go through the scanner.

Few years ago, a similar trial was conducted at the Delhi airport. A US-based company had installed a body scanner which could detect contraband and explosives.

A survey conducted during the first phase of the trial run showed that 90% of the passengers felt the new technology was good for security but only 40% of them volunteered to go through the body scanner.

The scanning, which does not take more than a minute, also comes with privacy filters, the use of which is optional for the official running the machine. The body scanner can reveal plastic and liquid explosive, composite weapons, plastic and metal guns, contraband, ceramic and metal knives, box cutters, precious metals and recording devices.

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NEW DELHI: The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are reportedly having a hard time retaining their MTech students, with many quitting the course after landing jobs in public sector undertakings (PSUs).

Officials said a number of IITs complained of such occurrences at the recently held IIT council meet, presided by human resource development (HRD) minister Prakash Javadekar. It is learnt that out of 8,000-odd students, 2,000 left the course after getting jobs at PSUs. To tide over the problem, the council has decided to ask all such PSUs to allow students to join after completing the programme.

We will take up the matter with the PSUs. A lot of time, money and energy are invested in the MTech programme. IITs are premier institutes, and there is a long waitlist for getting into them. If students leave midway, the seats go empty. We want to encourage students to go for higher studies and research, said a senior official on the condition of anonymity.

The HRD ministry will write to the department of public enterprises in this regard, said another official.

Admissions to the IIT MTech programme take place through the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), the score for which is also used by PSUs for recruitment. GAIL, ONGC and SAIL are said to be among the PSUs that offer jobs to MTech students from IITs.

To discourage deserters, the council also approved a proposal to recover the entire fellowship amount (of Rs 12,400 per month) if any of the students leave the programme midway. This happens because there is immense pressure on students to start earning after completing their bachelors. We are trying to get the PSUs onboard, so these students can rest assured that their jobs wont go to anybody else, the HRD official said.

The IIT council, which is the highest decision-making body for the prestigious institutes, also considered providing 1,000 teaching assistantships  bearing a fellowship amount of Rs 25,000 per month  to meritorious MTech students.

The council had recently approved a proposal to introduce the Prime Ministers Research Fellowships, aimed at encouraging BTech graduates from IITs to directly enroll in Ph.D courses.

There are 23 IITs in the country, with a total count of 72,000 students. Around 14,000 MTech students are enrolled in the institutes.

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NEW DELHI: Municipal corporation workers door-to-door visits to check for mosquito breeding have reduced by 13% since 2013.

Between January and September first week, 560 people tested positive for Chikungunya and 771 for dengue. There have been four dengue deaths this year, so far. Both diseases are caused by mosquitoes.

Last year, the Capital witnessed the worst dengue outbreak in 19 years with 16,000 confirmed cases and 60 deaths due to the disease.

Corporation data shows that Dengue Breeding Checking (DBC) workers visited 282 lakh houses till September 3.

The corporations employ field workers on contract during peak season to check mosquito breeding. They went to 324 lakh houses in 2013, 314 lakh houses in 2014 and 316 houses in 2015.

We have only one third of the supervisory staff left to oversee the work done by DBC workers. The rest have retired now. Moreover, this year the data has been released four days in advance as compared to previous years, said a senior health official from the north corporation.

Among the three corporations, the south body reported the maximum number of dengue cases  367 cases. It reported 63 out of the total 560 chikungunya cases.

South corporation officials claimed that residents are unwilling to cooperate with DBC workers. Workers visit the houses during the day when women are present at home. They dont allow strangers to come inside and check rooftops, said an official.

The three corporations issued identity cards to the 3,500 DBC workers to combat the problem. Residents can ask the workers to show their identity cards for their safety , said a senior SDMC official.

No one has fumigated our area. We are living in an unhygienic condition, said Meenu Chaudhary of Sangam Vihar.

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NEW DELHI: Union ministries are hiring private advertising agencies for their signature programmes, which they feel their own publicity wings are not adequately equipped to promote.

The urban development ministry is set to engage a Delhi-based public relations firm, Quantum Communications, to design and create promotional material for big-ticket programmes such as Smart City and Swachh Bharat. The cost: over Rs 7 crore for a three-year contract.

Last year, the tourism ministry appointed McCann Erickson at Rs 8.8 crore to handle publicity for the Incredible India campaign. Before that, Ogilvy & Mather handled it.

The commerce ministrys department of industrial policy and promotion engaged the India subsidiary of a US advertising agency, Wieden+Kennedy, for six months last year at Rs 4 crore for its Make in India programme.

You realise your capabilities may not be state of the art, so you go to specialists. Look at the Make in India campaign. Could a government agency come up with something like that? said Piyush Pandey of Ogilvy & Mather.

Information and broadcasting minister M Venkaiah Naidu tried to strike a balance, saying private agencies were engaged to complement the efforts of the DAVP.

But ministry officials admit government publicity wings  the DAVP and PIB  dont have the manpower and expertise to carry out high-profile campaigns.

Professional agencies have experience and exposure  They bring their expertise and I dont see anything wrong in it, said Prasoon Joshi of McCann India.

Critics accused the government of plugging its schemes through publicity blitzes, though there is not much to show on the ground.

Naidu, who is also the urban development minister, dismissed the allegation and said promoting the governments work does not amount to creating a hype. Government needs to explore all options to reach out to the people.

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NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Partys (AAP) trouble-prone lawmaker, Somnath Bharti, and more than 300 supporters were charged with rioting, damaging public property and misbehaving with security guards at AIIMS on Sunday.

This happened on a day deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia defended AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan, who has been accused of harassing a woman for sexual favours and dowry.

Sisodia defended the MLA, saying a false case was made against him as he was trying to expose corruption in the Waqf board.

Bharti, who represents the Malviya Nagar constituency, and his supporters were accused of trying to break a rear wall of AIIMS with a bulldozer on September 9. An FIR was registered after a complaint from the chief security officer of AIIMS.

For his part, Bharti said AIIMS was lying. The wall was denying legitimate access to Gautam Nagar residents he tweeted.

He was already embroiled in a domestic violence case and another for leading a raid at Khirki Extension in which several Nigerian women were attacked. The chief security officer of AIIMS accused AAP MLA and former law minister Somnath Bharti of trying to encroach government land and disrupting peace in the hospital.

In his complaint, based on which an FIR was registered against Bharti, the officer said the MLA and about 300 of his supporters beat up security personnel who had asked them to leave hospital premises.

According to the complaint, a copy of which is with HT, the officer alleged that Bharti insisted that the area was public property and a fence must be demolished.

The MLA failed to produce any order from a competent authority to stall the work on the fence and went ahead with the demolition forcefully.

At around 9:45am, Somnath Bharti along with 300 of his supporters assembled in Gautam Nagar near Nallah Road and started breaking the fence on the boundary wall with the help of a JCB machine in order to provide unauthorised people access AIIMS. They were claiming that the road belonged to the public, he said.

They were requested to produce the orders of the competent authority in this regard, but they could not. They were also not accompanied by any government official. They damaged the fence on the boundary wall and when I objected to it, they started shouting at me and misbehaving with the security personnel, he said in the complaint.

In his defence, Bharti posted a letter from the chief engineer (south), PWD, to the AIIMS director stating that the road leading to the Gautam Nagar nullah was a public property and had to be opened for general public use.

AIIMS has been using the area as a parking space for its dental college.

Bharti stated that the PWD had already given permission to open the area as AIIMS never responded to their notice. According to the letter  uploaded on Twitter by Bharti  the engineer requested the director of AIIMS to come for a meeting but no representative was ever sent for the meeting. Minutes of the meeting were also sent, but there was no response from AIIMS. Accordingly it is presumed that it has no objection to the proposal of opening the road for public, the letter read.

The security officer also alleged that some of his men also sustained minor injuries while protecting the government land.

....They used abusive language, disrupted the peace in the hospital and caused disturbance to the patients and employees of AIIMS. They adopted unlawful ways to encroach the government land. Strict action needs to be taken against the persons for an attempt to assault government servants on duty and disrupting peace in the hospital, the complaint read.

The FIR has been registered under sections of rioting, damaging public property and obstructing a public servant from discharging his duty.

An investigating officer said that six guards, who were injured in the encroachment drive, will give their statements before a magistrate, which is admissible as evidence in court.
The terrorists missed the target.

There can be no doubt Ed Rouse drew strength from the words he wrote in his letter to Al Qaeda.

Like so many of us, the Mechanicsburg man was sorting through mixed emotions in the wake of the attacks. His tone was defiant and determined on the Sept. 16, 2001, opinion page of The Sentinel.

Well, you hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but you missed America, Rouse wrote. You used American bodies to take out other American bodies, but you still missed America.

You guys seem to be incapable of understanding that we dont live in America. America lives in us! American spirit is what its called. And killing a few thousand or a million of us wont change it.

On that day of shock and horror, grief and anger, we were all just groping for words, struggling to understand what was happening that beautiful Tuesday morning when death came out of a crystal clear blue sky and changed our world forever.

Fifteen years have come and gone and those of us alive that day can still remember the events as a defining moment of our generation  so much like a Pearl Harbor or a Kennedy assassination.

Looking back on it all, we measure time differently. There was before 9/11. There is afterwards. But what happened in the days and weeks that followed showed us what we are capable of as a nation and a people. Sept. 11 brought us together, if only briefly.

Here is how it was remembered from the pages of The Sentinel newspaper.

Overwhelmed

Rich Lewis was an editor in the newsroom the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. He had heard that a plane had crashed into the North Tower.

I thought thats horrible but no different than any other major plane crash, Lewis wrote in a Sept. 13 editorial. The bodies would be counted, memorials held, the scene cleared and restored. Life would go on without change except for those directly involved.

Then the live footage, aired over millions of TV screens, of a second jet roaring in to collide with the South Tower. Lewis heard the news from a Sentinel staffer.

My heart leaped into my throat as I realized what that had to mean. I had often thought about a terrorist attack on the United States knowing how profoundly it could alter our country. Now it was happening.

Here in the newsroom we had work to do but it was hard to concentrate. More than once, I felt tears coming into my eyes and my heart raced with the kind of panic we only feel when overwhelmed.

The worlds changed

The reporting staff mobilized, The Sentinel went out into the community.

Raj Borgaonkar was in the second floor break room of the All-First Bank in downtown Carlisle. He watched in horror as a pall of dust marked the end of the World Trade Center towers.

Jesus. ... The whole thing. ... It just exploded, he shouted down to coworkers rushing to see the coverage.

There are no words to describe it, said Tom Morkin, vice-president of the trust division. Im just numb right now.

Numbness and disbelief were everywhere across America followed by the rush of raw emotion as the day wore on. Entire classes sat silent Tuesday at Cumberland Valley High School, glued to the television set, wrote Zach Bowers, a senior working an internship at The Sentinel. There was only one topic of conversation in the hallways.

Classmate Dave Andiorio was upset that terrorists had the gall to attack the country. Who do these people think theyre messing with? he told Bowers. No one just comes to the United States and pushes us around.

Senior Rebekah Slaybaugh said the attacks boosted her sense of pride in America, but she was at a loss on how to help. Just recently, I was told that my generation has no sense of unity and appreciation for our country, she said. But today, my patriotism has welled up within me and I feel completely helpless in how to stand up for my country.

For some, the fear was visceral. They remembered other times, other targets. If Three Mile Island were hit, it would be all over for a lot of people, said Edward Paul, a real estate agent with Glise Realty of Camp Hill. Its bad. You dont know if theres any more (hijacked planes).

Thats not just an isolated incident, said Marcia Bowers, owner of Expressive Arts Center on Main Street, Mechanicsburg. This is aggression towards our so-called peaceful nation that hasnt had a war here since the Civil War. Weve always kept it from our shores. Its here.

She felt the same way growing up as a child in Nebraska during World War II. We lived near the railroad station, she told a reporter. We would see troop transports going by. ... We would identify airplanes going overhead.

Others saw the unfolding events as a pivotal moment in history. The worlds changed in America today, said Doug Keefer of Mechanicsburg. It was always the rest of worlds problem. Its come home.

We live in a crazy mixed-up world that people would do this kind of stuff, said Bill Shrader, an employee of the Pague and Fagen hardware store in Shippensburg.

Terrible tendency

Sitting in the newsroom, Rich Lewis could almost picture the worst case scenario. People will be angry now, he wrote. They will want vengeance. An eye for an eye. ... Vengeance will only spur its kind in return ... endlessly.

More than anything The Sentinel editors wanted to calm the public and ease their fear. They set about preparations for a special edition to run Sept. 12, 2001. In a move rarely seen, an editorial ran on that front-page above the fold and above the masthead: Be not afraid: help your neighbors cope with tragedy. It read in part:

The danger is that Americans ... will strike back at innocent people because they are from certain backgrounds or hold certain political beliefs. Such a rush to judgement and rush to vengeance will increase the tragedy. We must trust that our government and military leaders will identify the people behind these crimes and react appropriately.

Do not panic. This is a war but not in the usual sense. No foreign armies will invade our land. That is not how terrorists work. They only have the resources for one dramatic act, which they have taken. Be cautious but dont be afraid.

Such thoughts were echoed in a letter from Bruce Apgar Jr. of Carlisle published in the Sept. 16 edition of The Sentinel. A Navy lieutenant commander, Apgar was a navigator onboard the amphibious assault ship Bataan deployed with the Atlantic Fleet.

We share your anger and frustration over the horrible events of the last couple days, but I encourage you to remain optimistic and not lay blame on any particular group until all the facts are available, Apgar wrote. The worst effects of this will be the terrible tendency to react with hatred toward those ethnic groups and religions which we associate with terrorist behavior.

Unity in a rage

Just as some voices urged calm, others called for unity and an end to partisan politics.

For the first in my 50 years of life, I am not a Democrat. ... I am only an American, wrote Robert Bradshaw of Newville. Today, there are no political parties, only Americans united in support of our government, united in our grief for those lost, and united in our resolve to bring to justice the cowards who have murdered thousands of innocent people.

With this unity came a renewed faith in America for David H. Naisby Jr. of Mechanicsburg. He recalled a childhood in his hometown of Sparta, N.J., where people had lost an appreciation for the meaning behind the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem. Classmates viewed the ritual as childish and uncool. He grew up with cynicism but learned loyalty from the Scouts.

In a letter published Sept. 16, Naisby recalled the scene from five days before when Congress united across the aisle to sing God Bless America in the aftermath of a modern Day of Infamy.

What a wonderful sound to have the sounds of freedom singing in the night, Naisby wrote. What a wonderful emotion to know America was rebuilding only seconds after it was violated.

I was wrong to think the spirit was lost, he added. It was far from forgotten. It has always been in our grasp. We are strong, wise and swift. We will continue to right, and we will prevail.

Vic Brown of Carlisle put it out there plain and simple for Sentinel readers on Sept. 18. A native New Yorker who had moved to Pennsylvania roughly 18 months before the attacks, he had choice words for those who traumatized his friends and loved ones:

We have a saying What goes around, comes around and you are about to discover firsthand, up close and personal, what happens when the power, spirit, fabric and sheer will of America is disturbed, as you have done with this cowardly act. 

We are not cowering in terror as you had undoubtedly hoped. We are united and although we are in shock and mourning, we are also in a rage. Well be seeing all of you real soon and make no mistake about it, all of America is looking forward to it.

These people are angels

With this fierce resolve came equal measures of sorrow. By the time he returned home from work early Wednesday morning, Sept. 12, Rich Lewis needed an emotional uplift. The special edition of The Sentinel took a lot out of the newsroom staff.

His wife pointed to a photograph their son Stephen had posted as new wallpaper on the computer screen. It was a steeply angled shot of one of the World Trade Center towers. Lewis wrote about that moment in his Sept. 13 editorial:

A beautiful, symmetrical latticework of steel, stone and glass. ... No airplane plunging into its side; no fireball erupting from its gaping wound; no frantic people leaping through black smoke from its shattered windows. ... A perfect building. ... I wanted to thank him (Stephen) for that, but he had gone to bed long before. ...

Now, I feel nothing but profound sadness, Lewis added later. It is in my head and heart, hanging on me like a too-heavy overcoat. Nothing good can come from this, and a great deal of bad.

Miste M. Diehl of Carlisle had this to say more than a week after the tragedy:

Horror ... Terror ... Evil ...

These are more than just mere words to me now. They are seared into my mind and my heart so deeply. I cannot escape them.

I think about the child whose parents never came to pick him up from school that day.

I think about the young woman who is expecting her first child in December and her husband is among the missing.

I think about the parents whose daughter called them moments before the second crash to say she was alright and for them not to worry, that she would see them later. Those parents are still waiting for her to come home.

And then I think about the people who are struggling with their own feelings, but are somehow able to push past them to help, to search for life. Search for hope. Search for answers.

These people are angels.

All of our lives changed in an instant. We will never forget this day. Hope ... Unity ... America ... These too are words that have different meaning to us all.

God bless all the suffering, the lost, the injured, the families.

God bless all those heroic angels who are pushing on through the rubble, exhausting themselves physically, mentally, emotionally. God bless our military and our leaders. Make them strong in mind and will. God bless America ...

Because  as Ed Rouse would put it  the terrorists missed the target.
NEW DELHI: A 42-year-old piano teacher has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting his six- year- old student at her home in south-east Delhis Kalkaji early Sunday morning.

Police said Ravi Kumar had been assaulting the girl for the past few weeks and threatened her to not tell her parents. The girl, however, broke down on Sunday morning, following which her parents approached the police.

Kumar, who lived near the girls house, was arrested soon after and a case of rape registered against him. He used to be a music teacher at a Delhi University college a few months ago, a senior police officer said.

He, however, quit his job and started giving tuitions. He was hired by the girls parents a few weeks ago, the officer said.

On Saturday, the girls father, a businessman, was out for a meeting and her mother was on the ground floor. The girl was alone with Kumar on the first floor of the house. Kumar closed the rooms door and sexually assaulted her.

The medical examination of the girl has confirmed sexual assault, another investigator said.
NEW DELHI: Four youths on Saturday night entered a compartment of the Gorakhdham Express train and robbed two passengers of Rs 70,000 cash and Rs 4,500 in valuables.

Gorakhdham Express travels from Hissar in Haryana to Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh via Delhi.

The incident was reported from Delhis Shakur Basti station. Police said that the incident took place around 8.30pm when the youths barged into one of the trains compartment as it halted at Shakur Basti station.

The robbers then asked the passengers to hand over their valuables and even beat up some passengers.

The police said that around 12 men received minor injuries during an ensuing scuffle and have been admitted to a hospital.

We suspect that the robbers were locals. An investigation is underway and we are in touch with the local police, DCP (Railways) Milind Dumbre, said.

A police officer said that they had identified one of the culprits after photos of some local criminals were shown to the passengers. We are in the process of tracking him down, the officer said.
Wherever common man will be troubled I will go. D allegation that residents dismantled the wall is a blatant lie. I will fight in court (sic), tweeted Somnath Bharti, Aam Aadmi Party legislator, soon after he allegedly led a group of Gautam Nagar residents trying to demolish the rear wall of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on September 9.

On Sunday, he and over 300 supporters were charged with rioting, damaging public property and misbehaving with security guards at the institute.

The Malviya Nagar MLA, who is also a founding member of AAP, is not new to controversy. Bharti first made headlines during his tenure as law minister in 2014 when he allegedly raided a house in Khirki Extension in south Delhi at midnight to expose a drug and sex cartel.

News channels had aired the footage showing Bharti in a heated argument exchange of words with the top cops on the fateful night when he led the crowd of the locals in Khirki Extension.Even at that time, he said he was rooting out a problem that had bothered the locals for long.

Read: AIIMS officer accuses Somnath Bharti of trying to encroach on govt land

Thanks to his early morning walks and drawing room conversations with people of the constituency, he is considered as one of the most accessible AAP legislators. But now he is known more as someone often brushing the law the wrong way. Three FIRs have been filed against him in less than three years.

Party insiders describe him as an aggressive personality. The MLA, however, is unapologetic. I am a go-getter. And I can go to any extent if I am convinced that the issue is correct and it concerns people at large, Bharti told Hindustan Times on Monday.

Can the righteousness of an issue grant him a license to take law in his own land? I have not broken law in any of the public causes I have been involved with. But if law does not provide relief, we need to explore other options within the ambit of the law, said Bharti, adding that wrong allegations were levelled against him as vested interests suffered a blow because of his activism.

The flourishing drug and flesh trade in Khirki was an open secret. The locals had asked me to take up the issue as the police had failed to rein in the menace. But the police booked me as it hit the police-politician nexus under whose patronage the illegal trade was thriving. It is history now, Bharti said.

About the controversy surrounding razing down the rear wall at AIIMS, Bharti said that come what may, the Berlin wall will have to go as its a public property and a roadblock in convenience of thousands of residents of Gautam Nagar and Masjid Moth.

Read: Fake degrees to rioting: List of AAP MLAs embroiled in legal trouble

People have joined hands against it. I am just leading them. Over the last two years, we have explored all options to sort out the issue. It is a matter of record that AIIMS management did not turn up at any of the meetings attended by PWD, SDMC and police officials to discuss the problem. We will take the issue to its logical end, he added.

The AAP legislator, who is also a qualified Supreme Court practitoner, underlines he has nothing else to do than serving his electorate as the Delhi Police has taken even his family away from him. He said it without referring to the domestic violence case filed against him by his wife Lipika. He was on the run after the matter came to light. Facing a predicament, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had to tweet and ask Bharti to turn himself in. Now he is becoming embarrassment for party n his family, he posted in a tweet last September.

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Rowing through the opaque waters of the Yamuna with the stench of pungent chemicals and waste hanging in the air, coupled with the sight of garbage piles and people defecating on the banks, is likely to become a reality for Delhiites.

The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) moved a petition at the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday, seeking permission to start water taxis in a portion of the polluted river.

The proposal mentioned the development of five boat-like structures, which would be anchored by cables across a portion of the river. These boats will be less than 20,000 square metre in size, the plea said.

Manoj Mishra from the Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan, however, said that there is no merit in such projects till Yamuna is back to being a river.

Yamuna will not become Thames overnight. What we see now is only a dead water body, which is as good as a collection of toxic waste. Where will they implement the project? said Mishra.

He said that starting boating activities on Yamuna will only be a white elephant project. Such activities are generally proposed at the end of complete restoration of the river and after that also the government should conduct an environment impact assessment, before giving a nod to such a project, he said.

No one would want to bear the foul odour and come for boat rides to the Yamuna, and even if they do, it will be a major health hazard. The infrastructure will go to waste. The implementation of the project will also obstruct the restoration of the river, he said.

The petition has, however, called the project an environment friendly initiative. It said that five floating terminals will be set up which will be removable, and the effect on the flood plan will be insignificant.

Approach roads to the terminals will also be made from kuchcha material.

The tribunal had earlier prohibited any construction activity in the demarcated floodplain of the Yamuna.

It is in pursuance of this order of the tribunal that the applicant is seeking the indulgence and permission of NGT for the development of an environment friendly and complimentary water transportation in the Delhi stretch of Yamuna, the petition read.

Delhis water minister Kapil Mishra said that in a meeting with the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) last week, the upstream of Wazirabad was identified as a clean portion of the river, where the project can be implemented.

If we get a nod from NGT then we will go ahead with the project. The portion of the river is fairly clean and such a project can be started then. We will ensure that all the guidelines are followed, he said.

This year, from the samples picked up from seven points between ITO and the Najafgarh Drain, the dissolved oxygen (DO) content was between 0.24 parts per million and 0.32 parts per million. DO levels in healthy water are above four. Below a DO of two, aquatic life begins to get affected.

Experts say Yamuna water has a high methane content, that causes headaches and nausea. It is produced because of the decomposition of organic material in anaerobic conditions in the river.

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At least 1,158 cases of dengue have been reported in the national capital with nearly 390 of them being recorded in the first ten days of September, the month in which the vector-borne disease begins to peak.

387 cases were reported this month, marking a rise of over 50 per cent from the previous count, according to a municipal report released on Monday.

Over 770 cases were reported till September 3 this season. Out of the total number of cases, August alone has accounted for 652.

At least nine deaths due to dengue have been reported this year in the national capital, though the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) which compiles the report on vector-borne diseases on behalf of all civic bodies here, has maintained the death tally at four.

The last dengue fatality reported was of Iram Khan (25), a native of Meerut, who lived in Jamia Nagar in south Delhi, and succumbed to dengue on August 31 at Apollo Hospital.

The other three deaths reported by SDMC include Nazish (38), sister-in-law of Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan, who had died of dengue shock syndrome at Apollo Hospital on August 12.

Muskan (12), a resident of Shaheen Bagh here, had died on July 29, while Deepak (19), from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, succumbed to the disease on July 27, both at Safdarjung Hospital.

Besides, five other fatalities have been reported by different hospitals in the city, which have not been acknowledged yet by the SDMC.

Two-and-a-half-year-old girl Usra had succumbed to dengue at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital on September 1, while Noma (3) died at Apollo Hospital on August 28.

Asad Iqbal (18), a native of Bihar, had succumbed to the deadly disease on August 28 at Apollo Hospital.

Safdarjung Hospital had recently reported another dengue death that took place late July.

This year, dengue cases have been reported rather early. The vector-borne disease had claimed its first victim on July 21 when a girl from Jafrabad in northeast Delhi died at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital.

SDMC Medical Health Officer P K Hazarika said, September-October is the peak season for dengue and the cases are likely to rise faster now. People must take all precautions and prevent breeding of mosquitoes in and outside of their homes.

Last year, the city saw a staggering 15,867 dengue cases--the worst in 20 years--with the disease claiming 60 lives, as per municipal reports. In 2015, August and September had seen 778 and 6,775 cases respectively while October had recorded a staggering 7,283 cases.

In 2015, only six cases were reported in June, while 36 were registered in July.

According to the report, south Delhi has reported 255 dengue cases till September 10, the highest among all the regions in the city.

Central Zone of South Delhi Municipal Corporation has recorded 100 cases, the highest among its four zones. Najafgarh, West and and South Zones reported 70, 43 and 42 cases respectively.

North Corporation and East Corporation have recored 105 and 70 cases respectively.

For North Delhi Municipal Corporation the cases reported are Sadar Paharganj (6), Rohini (23) and Narela (3), Karol Bagh (14) and City (29) and Civil Lines (30).
Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia has asked Delhis education department to relax rules and give admission to a Pakistani immigrant who has been struggling to secure school admission due to lack of required documents.

16-year-old Madhu came to India came to India with her mother, siblings, uncle and cousins two years ago, from Pakistans Punjab province.

Authorities at the co-ed senior secondary school in Sanjay Colony refused to enroll her in the ninth standard, as she did not have the documents required to complete formalities.

The girl then wrote to Kejriwal asking him to intervene. She also wrote to the deputy CM, requesting him to facilitate her admission on humanitarian grounds.

Union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj took note of the reports of Madhus struggle to secure admission and raised the issue with Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Approving the request, Sisodia said in his letter: Due to peculiar circumstances, the girl is not in possession of any school leaving certificate or date of birth certificate. She wants to study and on humanitarian grounds it is my considered opinion that we need to walk extra mile to accommodate her.

To accommodate Madhus request, the government can consider relaxing whatever rules and regulations, if they come in way of her joining our school, he added.

Accordingly, admission to Madhu may immediately be provided at any of our government schools located in Sanjay Colony, Bhati Mines, Fatehpur Beri, New Delhi. She would also be given necessary books and uniform and we may facilitate whatever is required for the girl to study in our school, the letter stated.
Bottles of intravenous fluid hammered to the trunks of two neem trees in the eastern Rajasthan town of Dholpur are used to nurse back scores of fever-stricken patients thronging the 15-bed Saipau community health centre. With close to 200 patients taking up all the space on the beds, floors, corridors and leaning against walls, hospital staff in desperation decided to use the tree canopies to provide shade to 15-20 patients.

Read | At this crowded govt hospital in Rajasthan, IV bottles hang from tree trunks

With new infections such as dengue, chikungunya and H1N1, popularly referred to as swine flu, adding to pernicious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis, Indias creaking public health infrastructure is coming close to collapsing. Increasing travel and migration between states has led to diseases that were endemic to some states causing outbreaks across India. In 2010, West Bengal had close to half of Indias more than 48,000 chikungunya infections, and in 2015, an outbreak in Karnataka accounted for more than two thirds of Indias more than 27,000 infections. This year, the mosquito-borne infection crossed several state boundaries to affect several hundred people in Delhi, where only six cases  all in travellers from affected states  were reported in 2012. For decades, policy-planners have regarded health expenditure as a non-productive social spending and kept budget outlays below 1% of the GDP. Poorly resourced public services  as the one in Dholpur  cannot meet the health needs of a growing population battling seasonal infections as well as non-communicable ailments such as heart disease, cancers, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, and mental illnesses. Most deaths in India occur outside hospitals and are neither attended to by doctors nor medically certified personnel, so people die and no one knows whats really killed them. The need to upgrade and invest more in the public health system becomes imperative to ensure people are diagnosed and treated quickly so infections are contained before they infect enough people to create a pool from where it can spread quickly to others in the community.

Read | To fight dengue, we must come out of denial

Quality care is a must and if policy-makers have the will, India has the skill and resources to provide it. India attracts medical tourism for its high-quality, low-cost advanced care, and has emerged as the global pharmacy for inexpensive drugs and vaccines. Yet Indias low public outlay so far makes it impossible for the public sector to respond to the growing health needs of the population. What is needed now is transformational initiatives in health financing, publicprivate mix in service delivery, and strengthening primary care to take health to peoples doorsteps to lower inequities.
A Dalit student at Lucknows Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU), who is suffering from liver cirrhosis, was allegedly forced to vacate his room by officials for beating up a professor last week.

Sumit Kumar, a forensic science student, was among one of the eight Dalit students rusticated by the varsity on Thursday for the alleged incident on Wednesday last week.

The university officials threw out all my medicines, ultrasound reports and other belongings without showing any mercy. They were so heartless that they did not even bother to inform me. On Thursday, they simply uploaded the order of my rustication (with seven others) and threw away all my belongings from the room in my absence, Kumar told Hindustan Times.

Kumar denied the charges against him and said he was not present during the incident on Wednesday night when some students beat up a professor.

I was wrongly implicated in the case... The university is biased against Dalit students, Kumar, who is now living outside the campus with a friend, said.

He added that he was going through a rough phase.

My father, who was a police sub-inspector, passed away in February 2015. My mother is running the family on the monthly pension of Rs 9,630 that she gets after my fathers demise. A good amount of this money is spent on my treatment. It is a hand-to-mouth situation for us, he said.

His friend and fellow rusticated Dalit student Shreyat Bouddh said that Kumar was under depression ever since university officials threw away his bags and belongings.

Fortunately, Aarakshan Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (ABSS) came in the support of Dalit students and provided interim financial relief of Rs 15,000 with which we are having our daily meals, Bouddh said.

The university administration, however, rubbished the charge of insensitivity.

These eight Dalit students have been regular trouble-makers in the varsity. They keep on disturbing the peaceful academic atmosphere of the campus, university spokesperson Kamal Jaiswal said.

BBAU has 50% seats reserved for scheduled caste and scheduled tribe students.

On Sunday, members of the pro-quota organisation met Dalit leader and junior social justice minister Ramdas Athawale to speak about the students plight.

They also requested the minister to take up the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar so that another Rohith Vemula-like incident could be prevented.

Vemula, a Dalit research scholar at the University of Hyderabad, committed suicide in January after he was suspended following allegations of assault on a leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), an RSS-affiliated students body.

Read more: Dalit student at JNU threatens suicide, demands release of grant

He was one of the five students to be thrown out of the hostel and denied access to campus facilities, except their classrooms and respective workshops. The issue took a political turn with allegations that the extreme step taken by Vemula was a result of discrimination against Dalit students.

ABSS convener Avadhesh Kumar Verma claimed that Athawale promised them that he would fight for justice for the Dalit students.

The university hogged limelight this year in January when a few Dalit students raised slogans against PM Modi during its convocation ceremony. Modi spoke about Vemulas death for the first time saying his death pained him and that Mother India has lost one of her sons.

Universitys version:

On September 8, BBAU vice-chancellor RC Sobti wrote a letter to joint secretary, government of India, SS Sandhu saying that it was the same group of students who were involved in all the unruly incident that took place in the campus in the last one-and-a-half year. HT has a copy of the letter.

The letter reads: Twice FIR was lodged against some of them but the registrar (Sunita Chandra) got them withdrawn. The same mob was also involved in the disruption during visit of Prime Minister for convocation at the university in January 2016.

Read more: Dalit students suicide: Is Modi losing touch with the youth?

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Ever imagined that the size of your kitchen might affect the size of your portion? Well, a recent study suggests that eating in an open concept kitchen with greater visibility and convenience of food access may make you eat more.

According to Kim Rollings, assistant professor at University of Notre Dame in the US, dining environments can have even more serious consequences for eating behaviours. Rollings and Nancy Wells, an environmental psychologist from Cornell University in the US conducted the study with 57 college students.

The study made use of folding screens to manipulate the arrangement of kitchen and dining areas during the service of buffet-style meals, and two-way mirrors for the unobtrusive observation of variously sized groups of student diners.

The results of our study suggest that the openness of a floor plan, among many other factors, can affect how much we eat. Eating in an open concept kitchen, with greater visibility and convenience of food access, can set off a chain reaction. Were more likely to get up and head towards the food more often, serve more food and eat more food, Rollings said.

Rollings noticed that each time college students in the study got up to get more food, they ended up eating an average of 170 more calories in the open than in the closed floor plan kitchen.

These results have important implications for designers of and consumers in residential kitchens; college, workplace and school cafeterias and dining areas; and buffet-style restaurants, she said.

Open-concept plans put kitchens on display, which is great for entertaining, but not necessarily for our waistlines. Serving food out of sight from diners in an open kitchen, serving food from a counter in a closed kitchen rather than from a dining table, and creating open kitchens that have the ability to be enclosed may help US adults maintain their weight, Rollings said.

She said the study findings have important implications not only for college and university students, but also for people who need to eat in health care, group home and military settings.

The study was published in the journal Environment and Behaviour.

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The true story of a young boy separated from his family and his 25-year journey to find them in Garth Daviss first film Lion roared at the Toronto film festival Sunday.

Adapted from Saroo Brierleys autobiography A Long Way Home, the film stars Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara, who is also appearing at the festival in Una and The Secret Scripture.

It sees Saroo, a precocious five-year-old who follows his older brother around everywhere, become separated from him one night on a train platform in their native Madhya Pradesh.

Soon, Saroo finds himself nearly a thousand miles away in Calcutta, where he does not speak the language.

There, he is picked up off the streets and placed in a government orphanage before being sent to Australia for adoption.

In his twenties, living in Tasmania, Saroo starts to wonder what happened to his brother and birth mother, and so begins an obsessive search.

He scours satellite imagery and online maps to try to locate his hometown, matching landmarks to childhood memories.

But delving into the past threatens the present, and he becomes adrift.

He had his past family and his present family and when Saroo starts to search and becomes obsessed, you start to see a tug-o-war between his choices: choosing the past you sacrifice the present, Davis said.

The film marks Patels return to the Canadian city that launched his film career.

Director Danny Boyles Slumdog Millionaire, which starred Patel as a teenager from the slums of Mumbai accused of cheating on a television game show, won the Toronto film festival audience prize for best picture in 2008 before going on to win an Oscar.

I rocked up here with Slumdog in my school shoes and a borrowed suit and its good to be back here with a bit of facial hair with this (film), Patel told a press conference.

The Briton said in the years since Slumdog, he has made four more movies in beautifully chaotic India that gave him an appreciation of his ethnic roots.

Its weird, because I spent most of my existence in school (in Britain) trying to shun my heritage to avoid getting beaten up or bullied and just to fit in, he said.

And then I discovered India with Danny Boyle and I was completely struck by lightning. Its just so enthralling to me, Patel added.

It sounds so cliche but I understand myself and where I come from more and more, and thats something I could feel in Saroos character too: were products of two different worlds.

In Lion, Patel plays an adult Saroo who is more Australian than Indian.

For Kidman, who is herself an adoptive mother, the story evoked a visceral reaction, she said. It was very, very emotional for me.

For me, this is a film about the power of mothers, whether theyre biological or adoptive, she explained. I said to the real Saroo (when they met): You have two mothers, lucky boy.

For a child to be loved and to grow up in a family with love is the most important thing, however that family comes together, she said.

Patel agreed: I think adoption is a beautiful thing, to be able to give someone a second chance at life.

The film takes audiences through gritty Indian neighbourhoods, showing the difficult living conditions in the poorest parts of India, but also finds beauty in the landscape and the relationships Saroo develops.

Davis said aerial shots in particular were inspired by Saroos psychic connection to his mother and Google Earth, which Saroo used to track down his hometown.

Toronto : Dev Patel participates in the Lion press conference on day 4 of the Toronto International Film Festival at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. (AP)

Saroo told me that every night he imagined himself going to India, walking those streets, going into that little house and whispering into his mothers ear Im here. For me, it was like an astral projection, or out of body experience, Davis said.

The making of the film, he said, also opened his eyes to the plight of millions of lost children around the globe and his producers are now in talks with a childrens charity to try to help.

I became much more aware of the plight of these children. Right now, there are so many children in need, Davis said.

I hope this (film) is one step toward some sort of dialogue.

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Janet Thomson

THE HISTORY: Janet Thomson was the wife of the Rev. Samuel Thomson, who was the first installed pastor of Meeting House Springs Church located two miles west of present Carlisle, and pastor of Silver Spring Church at the same time.

Thomson died Sept. 29, 1744, age 33. It is believed that her gravesite is the oldest marked grave west of the Susquehanna River. She was buried under a red sandstone slab bearing an engraving of the family coat of arms that includes a helmet, gauntlet, a deers head and a hunting knife.

Since 1734, the Meeting House Springs Cemetery has been the final resting place of some of the earliest families to settle the county. Its the beginning of our history, Richard Tritt, a member of First Presbyterian Church on the Square in Carlisle, told The Sentinel in a story published in 2015. They were the first wave of settlers.

HOW THEY DIED: There is no known cause for Thomsons death.

GRAVESITE: Meeting House Springs Cemetery, North Middleton Township
Oscar-winning actor Nicole Kidman warned Sunday that Hollywood was facing new challenges in the era of online streaming, and needed festivals more than ever to get films noticed.

I dont think there is a Hollywood anymore, the Aussie star told a press conference in Toronto following the world premiere of Lion by director Garth Davis.

Were all scattered around the world and we make films all around the world and Hollywood is of some bygone era now, which is sad in a way, she said.

Generations ago, the district of Hollywood in Los Angeles was the centre of the American film industry.

American movie studios collectively remain a powerhouse in cinema but international productions are increasingly common, with features shot at various locations around the world.

With the demise of the corner video store over the last decade, and cinemas struggling to capture audiences, more and more people are streaming films at home.

Amid these changes, publicists are seeking creative new ways to reach audiences.

Actress Nicole Kidman attends a press conference to promote the film Lion at TIFF the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto. (REUTERS)

I think film festivals are so important right now because its very hard for films to be discovered, said Kidman, who has launched several films at the Toronto, Cannes and Venice gatherings.

We need all the help we can get for smaller films and films that are not big big studio films or superhero films.

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The National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the disappearance of 22 men, women and children from Kerala, suspected to have joined the Islamic State (IS) in Afghanistan, has revealed that at least two of them were in touch with a couple in the United Kingdom.

The NIA has learnt that two of the women were pregnant when they left India and one gave birth to a baby girl on September 6. The second pregnant woman had delivered a baby boy last month.

One of the missing persons  Dr Ijas, who left with his wife Refaela  told his family on Monday about the birth of the baby girl.

The case of missing persons was initially probed by the Kerala police that arrested a woman named Yasmin from Delhi airport on August 1 when she was trying to leave the country for Kabul along with her child. When the case was transferred to the NIA, its sleuths questioned Yasmin.

Yasmin said that of the missing people, Abdul Rashid and his wife Ayisha were in touch with a UK couple that had converted to Islam. They were using communication application Telegram to send messages in support of IS and the Caliphate, said an NIA officer.

Investigators say the missing people were from Kasargod and Palakkad districts of Kerala and they left India between mid-May and first week of July.

All of them exited India to reach Kuwait, Dubai, Muscat or Abu Dhabi using different airports and finally landed in Irans capital Tehran. It is suspected that from Tehran they illegally crossed over Afghanistan. htc
The NDA government sacked Arunachal Pradesh governor Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa on Monday, after he refused to quit despite receiving several hints in this regard.

Rajkhowas stint came to an end after President Pranab Mukherjee passed the directive on the Centres recommendation.

Meghalaya governor V Shanmuganathan has been granted additional charge over the state for the time being. Rajkhowa was appointed governor on May 12, 2015. The Supreme Courts strong observations on his conduct went against him, said a home ministry official.

The SC, while restoring the Congress government in the state, said Rajkhowa had discarded all constitutional options to call an assembly session last year, resulting in the imposition of Presidents rule.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh met President Mukherjee last week and discussed the situation in Arunachal Pradesh, saying that Rajkhowas position had become untenable due to the Supreme Courts observations against him.

But the President had a few queries for the home minister following which the Singh said the government will get back to the President on the queries.

Reacting to the news of his removal, Rajkhowa said he was waiting for the order.

I have heard the news, but have not received the presidential order or any other order from the home ministry. I am waiting for it, Rajkhowa told HT from Itanagar.

Rajkhowa, a former IAS officer from Assam with a reputation for personal integrity, was appointed governor of the sensitive border state on May 12, 2015.

He had recommended imposition of Presidents rule in Arunachal, a decision later overturned by the Supreme Court. The top court also restored the Congress government in the state and held the decision to impose central rule as unconstitutional.

Rajkhowa had, last week, complained to the President for being put under pressure to resign by the Centre, following which the President forwarded the complaint to the home ministry.
The panel of doctors that reviewed the pregnancy of a teenage rape survivor has turned down her familys request for medical termination, citing advanced pregnancy as the reason.

The decision, made public on Monday, has quashed the last hope of the victim and her family to get an abortion.

According to the findings of the medical board, the girls ultrasound and other medical tests show that she is 32 to 33 weeks pregnant. The report states that termination of pregnancy in such an advanced stage was not suggested as per the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act.

Bareilly chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Vijay Yadav said, The doctors have compiled their medical review report and it will be handed over to the familys counsel.

The CMO was directed by the Allahabad high court to look into the matter after hearing the petition of the girls father seeking an abortion. On his directions, the victim was examined by a panel of two gynaecologists last Thursday.

The 14-year-old girl was repeatedly raped by a man on the pretext of marriage. Once she conceived, he left her. The young rape survivor and her family were not ready to allow the child to be born and thus filed an appeal seeking an abortion. The appeal was first declined by a lower court and then by a fast track court (rape) in Bareilly.

NO RELIEF FOR BAREILLY GIRL July 26: Girls family moves petitionbefore lower court for abortion

Girls family moves petitionbefore lower court for abortion August 4: They approach fast trackcourt with the petition

They approach fast trackcourt with the petition August 13: Court declines permission

Court declines permission August 22: Teenagers familymoves application before HCfor termination of pregnancy

Teenagers familymoves application before HCfor termination of pregnancy August 29: Court asks girlsfather to move application beforechief medical officer (CMO)

Court asks girlsfather to move application beforechief medical officer (CMO) September 3: Victims counsel meetsCMO, who allegedly declines to act

Victims counsel meetsCMO, who allegedly declines to act September 5: Family approachesdistrict magistrate

Family approachesdistrict magistrate September 12: Doctors that reviewedthe pregnancy turn downrequest for medical termination.

The girls family said that their future had been left in a lurch. The system has declined to accept termination of her pregnancy and my society is not ready to accept her with it, said the girls father.

He added, People in my village have already started talking about her. They hold her responsible for it (rape). Now, this child will add to our misery and we will be made outcasts.

The father also fears that his family could be forced out of the village. His (accused) family is rich and they will make it impossible for us to live here.

I dont know where will she deliver the child and what will happen to it but I will not allow that child in my home. The doctors or someone from the court who declined permission for termination should keep it, said the survivors mother.

The father, who alleges being constantly hounded by local police and the family of the accused, said that he had been forced to think about leaving the village.
Parts of Indias IT capital went up in flames as a decades-old dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over sharing of Cauvery river water turned violent on Monday, leaving at least one person dead and dozens of vehicles and property damaged in both states.

Curfew was imposed in 16 police station limits as tensions escalated.

Police said Rajgopal Nagar, Kamakshipalya, Vijaynagar, Byatarayanpura Kengeri, Magadi Road, Rajajinagar, RR Nagara, KP Agrahara Chandra layout, Yeshwanathapura, Mahalakshmi layout, Peenya, RMC Yard, Nandini Layout and Jnanabharathi are under curfew.

The violence began after the Supreme Court turned down in the morning Karnatakas plea to temporarily stop the release of Cauvery river water to neighbouring Tamil Nadu.

Riot police tried to contain mobs burning vehicles and vandalising shops in Bengaluru and other cities, while protesters in Tamil Nadu retaliated by targeting Kannadiga people and businesses in their state.

A man was killed and another wounded in police firing when a mob tried to attack a patrol at Hegganahalli in Bengaluru city. More than 200 people were arrested so far.

Rioters set ablaze at least 30 buses bearing Tamil Nadu licence plates at a depot in Bengaluru while trucks were attacked in Mandya, Mysuru, Chitradurga and Dharwad districts.

#WATCH: More than 20 buses set on fire by protesters in #Bengaluru's KPN bus depot #CauveryProtests pic.twitter.com/akqL7MDghr  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

As television footage showed flames leaping from burnt-out vehicles in Bengaluru, fears of the violence-hit IT hub losing international business began to arise.

Bengaluru is home to top Indian IT companies such as Infosys Ltd, Wipro Ltd and Mphasis as well as offices of several multinational companies like Samsung Electronics.

Police clamped prohibitory orders in the evening, barring the assembly of four or more persons, while private and office cars remained off the roads in the city. Authorities shut down schools and the metro network was temporarily suspended.

Tamil Nadu bound buses in flames after they were torched by pro-Kannada activists during a protest over sharing of Cauvery water, in Bengaluru. (PTI Photo)

Union home minister Rajnath Singh rang up the chief ministers of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and assured them central assistance.

The Centre rushed 10 companies or about 1,000 personnel of the special anti-riot paramilitary force, RAF, to Karnataka. If the need arises, contingents will be deployed in Tamil Nadu too.

Chief ministers S Siddharamaiah of Karnataka and Tamil Nadus J Jayalalithaa wrote to each other, appealing for protection to people from their states caught in the crossfire.

Hotels and properties belonging to Tamils in Karnataka are being attacked and damaged. This is an alarming situation and is causing considerable anxiety, Jayalalithaa said.

On the streets, passion ran high as Kannadiga groups targeted Tamil speakers. Even journalists were not spared as India Today deputy editor Rohini Swamy and video journalist Madhu Y were allegedly assaulted when they reporting the violence.

Crowds of people shouting slogans against the court order and Tamil Nadu marched along major roads in Bengaluru, Mysuru and Mandya. They forced shopkeepers to down shutters.

Hundreds of policemen fanned across the Tamil-majority areas in Bengaluru, but struggled to contain the protests.

Protesters in Tamil Nadu retaliated, as two petrol bombs were hurled at a Kannadiga-owned hotel in Chennai and a mob damaged vehicles from Karnataka in Rameshwaram.

If Tamilians living in Karnataka continue to be assaulted, their businesses here will continue to suffer. There are Kannadigas living here as well. Be warned, said a note left by the attackers.

The issue

At the heart of the dispute is the 765-kilometre long river that originates in Karnataka and flows through Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala. A British-era treaty governs water sharing between the two states but Karnataka says the award is unfair and demands a tripling of its share.

But Tamil Nadu believes that it needs the water to sustain extensive farming and insists that Karnataka honour its commitment to providing sufficient water.

After Independence, the dispute has dragged on for decades with even a tribunal ruling failing to gather consensus. Karnataka faulted the Cauvery Water Tribunal award, saying it did not deal with the issue of deficient water in the reservoir in a particular month.

RAF and police personnel controlling the protesters during their protest against Tamil Nadu Govt and Supreme Court verdict on Cauvery river water. (Kashif Masood / HT Photo )

In the Supreme Court, senior counsel Fali Nariman  arguing for Karnataka --requested the top court to keep the September 5 order in abeyance for five days but the SC refused to do so and modified the order. He said Karnataka needed more water for drinking and agriculture.

Nariman expressed regret over the Karnataka government citing law and order as a ground in its plea.

Read | Cauvery dispute: Conflicts, gaps and institutional spaces for reconciliation

The court, however, went on to say: The tone and tenor of the application is absolutely disturbing and to say the least, totally deprecable. Agitation, spontaneity or galvanized riotcan never form the foundation for seeking modification of an order, it said.

Tell your governments they have to implement the order and maintain law and order, the court told the senior counsel representing Karnataka and Tamil Nadu governments. Unless an order is modified, citizens and governments are obliged to comply with it, it emphasized.

Senior counsel Shekhar Nafade, Rakesh Dwivedi and Subramanium Prasad opposed the Karnataka governments plea, saying the Cauvery Supervisory Committee was meeting on Monday to decide on the quantum of the rivers water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states.

The top courts order came on Karnatakas plea that it was facing huge public pressure and police were preventing attempts to damage public property during recent statewide strikes with great difficulty.

The application also referred to inputs from security agencies that said if the current flow of water was allowed to continue, the situation may go out of hand. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have seen tit-for-tat attacks over the past few days around the sensitive issue.

(With inputs from agencies)

Read | Cauvery water row explained: Why Tamil Nadu, Karnataka fight over river usage?
Union minister of steel Birender Singh on Sunday chanted Bharat Mata Ki Jai slogan to prove his loyalty to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which he joined two years ago after quitting the Congress after an association of 40 years.

Main do saal pehle Bharatiya Janata Party mein aaya aur ab is party ke kitne kareeb aa chuka hun, ye aapko isse pata chal jaegaBharat Mata Ki Jai (I joined the BJP two years ago. Youll know how close Ive become to the party by this: Bharat Mata Ki Jai), Birender said in front of BJP national president Amit Shah during the Gaurav rally organised by him in his home district.

Also read | Shah targets Hooda, says he was serving Delhi ka damaad

Praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah, he said, Earlier, ministers from Haryana were inducted in the central cabinet after serving as chief minister of the state. Im the first leader to become cabinet minister without being a chief minister. Its all because of the PM party chiefs trust in me.

The union minister also lashed out at the Congress and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Talking about corruption, he said, Hooda learnt it (ways of corruption) within three months while we couldnt learn it in 30 years. He brought about selective development, in which too, he failed miserably.

Listing out Haryana constituencies which Hooda allegedly ignored, Birender said the BJP government would work towards bringing them at par with those developed by Hooda and other leaders.

However, Shah later asked Birender to think of the entire countrys development being a Union minister.
Televangelist Zakir Naik had been hosted by the BJP-led NDA government in 2003, the Congress alleged on Monday.

The Congress offensive against the BJP comes after the ruling side accused a former Congress minister for lobbying for Naik. Last week, union law minister Ravishankar Prasad highlighted UPAs minority affairs minister Rehman Khans letter seeking protection for Naik from channels to then information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari.

Hitting back at the BJP, Tewari said, Is it not a fact that Zakir Naiks three-day visit to J&K was organized by the then NDA government and all stops were pulled out to make that successful? Before BJP starts pointing fingers and imputing motives, it will be worthwhile to introspect if Zakir Naik was the devil incarnate, what were they doing frolicking with the Devil Incarnate in 2003.

Naik, 51, is on the radar of security agencies after reports emerged that the terrorists behind the carnage in Dhaka in July this year were inspired by his sermons. Naik has been barred from holding public sermons in India and his Islamic Research Foundations permission to receive foreign funds has been withdrawn. Four cases are also pending against the preacher in Maharashtra.
National Security Advisers (NSAs) of BRICS nations will meet in New Delhi over two days this week to discuss the upcoming agenda for summit-level talks on October 15-16 in Goa, with the focus firmly on terrorism, the Syria situation and developments related to the South China Sea. The meet is to be hosted by NSA Ajit Doval on September 14 and 15; all NSAs will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well. The BRICS comprises of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Top sources said Doval will be also holding bilateral talks with his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev and Chinese State councillor Yang Jiechi on the sidelines. Yang and Doval are also the special representatives in the India-China boundary resolution process.

The BRICS focus will be on terror emanating from Afghanistan -- and Pakistan-based groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad and al Qaeda in Indian subcontinent as well as the extreme violence perpetrated by the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. India wants BRICS countries to forge a common front against terrorism in the subcontinent and would like to see the Islamic State rooted out of Syria.

On the bilateral front with Russia, the two NSAs are expected to discuss cooperation in strategic areas of defence, space and nuclear energy with the focus being on India leasing one more Akula-class nuclear submarine from Moscow. The submarine is critical as the lease of Russian built INS Chakra expires in 2021 with indigenous nuclear submarines still some time away in future.

As the India-China and India-Russia relationships are largely run through the NSA route, Dovals meet with Patrushev, a close aide of President Vladimir Putin, will be important as India is keen to get into West Asia and wants to be part of the North-South corridor planned through Iran. Patrushev is also the Russian pointsperson on Afghanistan. Given that Russia and China have held joint navy drills in South China Sea, India does not want the close bilateral relationship to tilt away.

The Doval-Jiechi meeting is expected to be on bilateral issues focused on taking the relationship forward despite recognition of differences in some areas. Both countries recognize the need to keep the Line of Actual Control (LAC) peaceful as well as to ensure that freedom of navigation is practiced in the South China Sea as well as Indian Ocean. After Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the just concluded G-20 summit, Beijing is believed to have shown some flexibility to both Indias NSG membership as well as designation of Jaish leader Masood Azhar, main accused in the Pathankot airbase attack this year, as a global terrorist.

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The Supreme Court will on Monday hear Karnatakas plea to reduce the quantum of Cauvery water to be released to Tamil Nadu from 15,000 cusecs to 1,000 cusecs after violent protests on the sensitive issue paralysed life across the state.

The urgent hearing on a holiday was scheduled after Karnatakas plea seeking modification of the SCs September 5 order to release 15,000 cusecs of water for 10 days as immediate relief to Tamil Nadu farmers was mentioned before the courts registry.

A bench of justice Dipak Misra and justice UU Lalit will sit to only hear the matter as the court is closed on Monday. The hearing was fixed after consulting the Chief Justice of India TS Thakur.

Read: Cauvery dispute: Conflicts, gaps and institutional spaces for reconciliation

The plea noted that Karnataka was facing huge public pressure and police prevented attempts to damage public property during recent statewide strikes with great difficulty. The application also referred to inputs from security agencies that said if the current flow of water was allowed to continue further, the situation may go out of hand.

The hearing coincides with the Cauvery Supervisory Committees meeting to decide on the quantum of the rivers water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states.

The Karnataka government has demanded that instead of 10 days, the top court should restrict the release of water to only six as the state was facing a distress situation due to massive protests that inflicted daily losses of Rs 500 crore.

Even the minimum arrangement mentioned by your lordships has caused distress and havoc in the entire southern part of Karnataka, paralysing civil life. The agitation of farmers has been that their dry crop is equaled with that of the farmers in Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadus need for the rice crop consumes more than twice the water which is needed for light crops in Karnataka, it said.

The application sought to emphasize that farmers in Mysuru, Hassan, Mandya and Bengaluru had been squatting on the roads and streets, adversely affecting the IT industry  a source of huge revenue by way of income tax, service tax, and foreign exchange of USD 60 billion.

In its September 5 order, the top court had directed Tamil Nadu to approach Supervisory Committee, set up to implement the award of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, within three days for release of water as per the final order of the CWDT.

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Violence erupted in parts of Karnataka on Monday after the Supreme Court directed the state government to release 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu every day till September 20, modifying its earlier order of 15,000 cusecs water till September 16.

Karnataka home minister G Parameshwar said security was stepped up after reports that a group of protesters had set afire two trucks with Tamil Nadu registration plates at Nice Road on the Bengaluru-Mysuru road and at Attibele near the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border on National Highway 7.

Pro-Kannada activists, led by Karnataka Rakshana Vedike members, protested in the Bengaluru against attacks on Kannadigas in Chennai and damage to Karnataka registered buses earlier in the day.

A group of armed protesters threw a petrol bomb at a hotel owned by a person from Karnataka in Chennais Mylapore area early on Monday.

Police said the New Woodlands Hotel was attacked at around 3.15am by protesters who barged in and smashed window panes. The group was armed with wooden sticks and iron rods.

WATCH: Pro-Kannada activists set a vehicle on fire in Bengaluru during Protest over Cauvery water issue pic.twitter.com/FSMmpQ0FzT  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

The attackers left a note in Tamil, which said: If Tamilians living in Karnataka continue to be assaulted, their (Kannadigas) businesses here will continue to suffer. There are Kannadigas living here as well. Be warned.

No one was injured in the attack, a police official said.

Volunteers of a Tamil fringe outfit barged into a Karnataka Bank branch in Puducherry and created ruckus, protesting against the ongoing agitations in the neighbouring state, opposing the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, police said.

Farmers in both states have complained of severe water shortages.

The Cauvery River, which originates in Karnataka and flows into Tamil Nadu, has been the source of a bitter water dispute for decades. Karnataka told the court it did not have enough water reserves to share.

In Bengaluru, Parameshwar told reporters: We have intensified security and stepped up vigil in Bengaluru to ensure peace and maintain law and order. Additional police forces have been deployed in localities where pre-dominantly Tamils live, for their protection.

Platoons of Karnataka State Reserve Police have been rushed to Mandya and Mysuru for deployment on the state highways and protecting reservoirs in the river basin from being attacked by angry protestors over the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.

I appeal to the people, especially the protesters, not to attack anyone or damage public property, including buses, cars and transport vehicles, Parameshwar said.

Expressing disappointment over the Supreme Courts Monday order, the minister said though the state had respect for the court, the government would again approach it to modify the latest order due to water shortage in the reservoirs.

We are not happy with the latest order. But we have to respect the order. We will again ask the court to modify its order, as we are not in a position to release any more water due to the distress situation in the state, Parameshwar said.

Karnataka filed an interim petition on Saturday seeking modification of the apex courts September 5 order directing the state to release 15,000 cusecs daily from September 7 for 10 days (up to September 16).

We have petitioned the court to modify its order and accept our offer to release 10,000 cusecs daily for six days instead of 15,000 cusecs for 10 days, as we need water for drinking purpose in the region till June next, Paremeshwar added.
The Army Heritage Center Foundation Thursday will show the documentary Thank You for Your Service as a special viewing before the national release.

After the film, a panel will discuss both the film and the issues that the film raises. Panelist include: Col. (Chaplain) Jerry Sieg, Carlisle Barracks installation chaplain, moderator; Tom Donahue, director; Matt Tyson, producer; Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Gregg Martin, former commandant of the U.S. Army War College; Lt. Col. (Dr.) Gary Wynn, assistant chief of psychiatry, Uniform Services University for the Health Sciences, co-author, complementary and alternative medicine for PTSD; and Dr. Leonard Wong, Strategic Studies Institute, USAWC.

The U.S. military faces a mental health crisis of historic proportions, according to a news release from the foundation. With 20 veteran suicides a day, hundreds of thousands suffer from what has been called the Invisible Wounds of War.

Thank You for Your Service takes aim at the superficial understanding of war trauma and problems like PTSD and moral injury as well as the challenges to effectively develop support programs, according to the news release. Donahue (Casting By) interweaves the stories of four struggling Iraq War veterans with candid interviews of top military and civilian leaders. Observing the systemic neglect, the film argues for significant internal change and offers a road map of hope. Interviews include former Defense Secretary Robert Gates; Admiral Mike Mullen; Gen. David Petraeus, Gen. Peter Chiarelli; and Gen. Loree Sutton; Sebastian Junger; Nicholas Kristof; Dexter Filkins; Sen. Patty Murray; and Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

This event is hosted by the Army Heritage Center Foundation and the Carlisle Barracks Chapel. The documentary will be shown at 6:30 p.m.
The Centre rushed ten companies comprising 1,000 personnel of the special anti-riot paramilitary force Rapid Action Force (RAF) to Karnataka to tackle the violent situation over the Cauvery water sharing dispute.

Officials said the personnel have been sent to the violence-prone areas of Karnataka and if need arises, some of the contingents will also be deployed in Tamil Nadu.

These additional contingents will assist the state police even as three such RAF units and an all-women CRPF company have already been deployed in Karnataka in view of the violent protests.

They said 5-10 more companies of BSF and Indo-Tibetan Border Police are also on standby and can be sent in if the any of the two state governments require.

Sporadic violence broke out in Bengaluru, where several buses were set ablaze, and in some other parts of Karnataka as chief minister Siddaramaiah wrote to his Tamil Nadu counterpart J Jayalalithaa to ensure adequate safety and protection for Kannada-speaking people in the state.

Protests by fringe Tamil outfits erupted in parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, with some commercial and government establishments of Karnataka being targeted.
A local court framed charges on Monday against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh in a defamation case filed by Punjab revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia.

Damanbir Singh Sobti, the counsel for Majithia, said, AAPs Punjab affairs in-charge Sanjay Singh was booked under Section 500 (defaming any person), 502 (sale of printed or engraved substance containing defamatory matter) and 120 B (conspiracy) of the IPC by the court of judicial magistrate (first class) Jagjit Singh.

Earlier in order to ensure speedy justice, we moved an application before the court to conduct day-to-day hearing to which they (Sanjays counsel) submitted a reply to conduct hearing at regular pace. They are running away from a speedy trial for reasons best known to them. This is a positive step in the direction of conviction in the case.

The next hearing is on October 3.

Majithia filed a defamation case in a Ludhiana court in January this year, accusing Sanjay Singh and other AAP leaders of defaming him by dragging his name in Punjabs drug racket.
The Cauvery river water sharing dispute turned violent on Monday in Tamil Nadu with a group of armed protesters throwing a petrol bomb at a hotel owned by a person from Karnataka in Chennais Mylapore area.

Police said the New Woodlands Hotel was attacked at around 3:15 am by a group of protesters who barged inside and smashed window panes. The group was armed with wooden sticks and iron rods.

The attackers left a note in Tamil, which said: If Tamilians living in Karnataka continue to be assaulted, their (Kannadigas) businesses here will continue to suffer. There are Kannadigas living here as well. Be warned.

No one was injured in the attack, a police official said.

Investigations are on and police are looking at CCTV footage. No arrests have been made so far, the official said.

Read: SC modifies Cauvery order, gives relief to Karnataka over water row with TN

Elsewhere in Tamil Nadu, a group of protests in Rameshwaram smashed windscreens and window of buses and cars bearing Karnataka number plates.

The protests by Tamil groups are in response to the dissent by farmers and pro-Kannada outfits in several parts of Karnatak on the Cauvery issue and the Supreme Court directive ordering Karantaka to release 15000 cusecs for 10 days.

In Chennai, Tamilaga Valvurimai Katchi founder T Velmurugan said his party workers will stage democratic protests outside Kannada establishments including their government offices in the state.

Read: Cauvery water row explained: Why Tamil Nadu, Karnataka fight over river usage

The Tamil Nadu government has suspended the services of state owned transport buses due to the agitation in Karnataka. On Monday buses from Tamil Nadu were stopped at Hosur, close to Bengaluru.

There have been incidents of violence across the border in Karnataka, as well.

A group of men hurled stones at a truck bearing a Tamil Nadu registration plate in the district of Charmarajanagar, according to police.

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Former RJD MP and Siwan strongman Mohammad Shahabuddin who was released on bail from the Bhagalpur jail last week could run into trouble soon, thanks to his army of supporters.

The huge cavalcade that followed the ex-MP from Bhagalpur jail to Siwan, bursting crackers and celebrating noisily, is under the police lens, with station diaries completed in all the districts en route the 256-km trip.

According to sources in the police headquarters, the matter is being examined in the light of the terms of reference of the bail granted to the former RJD legislator.

"In case of violation of the bail terms, plea for bail cancellation may be taken before the court, as the government could not under any circumstance allow a reign of terror to return," said a senior police official.

Officials said that the respective district administrations have lodged several station diaries in connection with bursting of crackers, vehicle processions, shouting of slogans and nuisance created by the cavalcade, besides non-payment of toll tax at Muzaffarpur toll plaza. The cavalcade of Shahabuddin,which was escorted by the police, violated procedure of toll plaza and passed without paying.

In Siwan, supporters of former MP created nuisance after his bail petition was accepted. The town witnessed unruly scenes for three days continuously from September 8 to 10 with over 500 motorcycle-borne youths roaming the length and breadth of the town that sent ripples of panic among residents and business community. These youths, mostly triple riding on motorcycles, also shouted slogans in support of Shahabuddin, saying "Saheb aa rahein hain......hoshiyaar"

Read | Scenes of 2003 surrender come alive as Shahabuddin walks out on bail

Shahabuddins supporters also burst crackers outside the house of Chandrakeshwar Prasad alias Chanda babu during the cavalcade procession. Chanda Babus three sons including Rajiv Roshan were killed by Shahabuddins goons. Rajiv was the eye witness in the murder of his two brothers gunned down on June 16, 2014, barely three days before deposition of his witness in trial court. Siwan administration has taken the matter seriously and lodged station diary in this connection.

On September 7, the Patna high court had granted bail to Shahabuddin and directed the chief judicial magistrate (CJM), Siwan that any attempt to terrorize the prosecution witnesses, or to tamper with the prosecution evidence, by, or on behalf of the petitioner, shall give liberty to the concerned court to cancel the bail bonds of the petitioner.

It also instructed that one of the bailors must be a near relative and another having sufficient immovable property within the territorial jurisdiction of the court concerned and the petitioner shall remain present on each and every date during trial, and the default on two consecutive dates on his part, without any reason, shall disentitle the petitioner from privilege of bail.

The high court had earlier rejected another bail petition on February 3 on the plea that the case had not been committed to the sessions court and the trial had not even commenced.

Shahabuddin who had more than 30 cases against him ranging from murder to extortion, had already rubbed Nitish Kumar the wrong way, describing him as a chief minister of circumstances and insisting that for him, RJD chief Lalu Prasad remains the overall leader.

Read | The making of Mohammad Shahabuddin, a mix of crime, manipulation & politics
Strains within the Grand Secular Alliance government in Bihar have started to come out in the open.

Former RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin drew first blood by saying that JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar was a chief minister of circumstance.

RJD vice-president and former Union minister Raghubansh Prasad Singh on Sunday backed Shahabuddins comments by saying, What is wrong in it? Nitish Kumar has indeed been a chief minister of circumstances and not because of his own strength and numbers.

While Kumar on the same day trashed these comments by terming it as unimportant, his ministers Bijendra Prasad Yadav and Rajiv Ranjan Singh Lallan appealed to RJD president Lalu Prasad to rein in leaders like Raghubansh Prasad Singh who are regularly making irresponsible remarks.

State energy minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav told reporters,Raghubansh Prasad Singh is making uncharitable remarks, laced with filth against the government and the chief minister, even more than the opposition, BJP. His comments are not dignified and guided by personal grudge.

Lallan also lashed out at senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi for regularly making statements against the state government in the wake of Shahabuddins release from jail after he was granted bail by the Patna high court.

Sushil Modi is trying to create an environment of fear among the citizens of Bihar, he alleged.
DRDO chief S Christopher met defence minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday and briefed him on Indias airborne early warning and control (AWE&C) systems project based on the Embraer-145 plane, three days after allegations of kickbacks were reported in a Brazilian paper.

Last week, India set a 15-day deadline for Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer to submit a report on the graft charges in the $208-million deal. The UPA government inked the deal for three Embraer planes in 2008 as part of a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) programme to scale up the air forces AWE&C capabilities. The AEW&C systems developed by the DRDO are being installed on the planes.

Defence ministry sources said Christopher gave a detailed briefing on different aspects of the project that should have been completed in 2011. Last week, Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo revealed that the 2008 deal was under the lens of US authorities for possible kickbacks. The government could ask the CBI to probe the deal if there is evidence of criminality.

The planes supplied by Brazil have been fitted with indigenous radars to serve as AEW&C aircraft for the Indian Air Force under a Rs 2,400-crore project.

It is suspected that a UK-based middleman may have been paid bribes to influence the deal. Middlemen are not allowed in defence business in India.

The defence ministry has finalised a blacklisting policy for arms contractors, with new penalties debarring firms from conducting business with the government for a period ranging from one to 10 years. The provisions can be invoked in case criminality is proved or theres evidence of kickbacks. In 2014, India terminated a contract with AgustaWestland to supply 12 VVIP helicopters, following kickback allegations.
An elderly couple, who were held hostage in their own house by militants, was on Sunday rescued as three militants and a policeman were killed during the operation in Jammu and Kashmirs Poonch district.

The couple, who were held hostage, have been safely evacuated. Three militants have been killed, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Rajouri-Poonch range, Johny Willian told PTI.

Earlier in the day, the director general of police (DGP), Jammu and Kashmir, K Rajendra Kumar said, They (militants) are in a house, where there is a civilian couple in a hostage situation. Forces are retrieving them. We have to evacuate the civilians first.

Read: 7 militants, one policeman killed as 3 infiltration bids are foiled in J-K

The militants were holding Haji Nazir Mir and his wife Mumtaz Mir hostage.

Haji Nazir Mir is a cousin of the Congress MLC and deputy chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir legislative council Jahangir Hussain Mir.

In the encounter between militants and security force personnel, three militants and a policeman were killed while five others -- two cops including a sub-inspector, two army men and a civilian were injured.

Both Mir and his wife, who had locked themselves inside a room in the building, were rescued unhurt after the militants were killed around 7.15 pm, police said.

Read: Kashmir to have a silent and sullen Eid after weeks of strife, violence
The government has extended the date for filing of income tax returns by tax payers whose accounts are required to be audited under the Income Tax Act from September 30 to October 17, 2016, an official statement said on Monday.

Taking into consideration that the last date for making declarations under the Income Declaration Scheme 2016 is also September 30, 2016, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has decided to extend the last date for such returns which were due on September, 30, 2016 to October 17, 2016 in order to remove inconvenience and to facilitate ease of compliance, a statement from the finance ministry said.

The tax payers whose business receipts exceed Rs 1 crore or professional receipts exceed Rs 25 lakh during the previous year 2015-16 are required to file an income tax return accompanied by an audit report by October 17, 2016.
The government on Monday launched a toll-free number 1924 to register postal complaints -- a month after introducing Twitter Seva for redress of telecom and postal grievances.

Prime Minister has asked all departments to set up and strengthen public grievances redressal system. Moving on these lines, we started Twitter Seva on August 2, and now we have issued a toll-free number to address postal complaints, communications minister Manoj Sinha said after inaugurating the service.

The service will be operational initially for 12 hours on working days between 0800 hrs to 2000 hrs.

Sinha said the complaints will be addressed in 24 hours unless they are related to policy matters.

The service has been started initially in three languages -- Hindi, English, Malayalam and gradually we will start services in all scheduled languages, he added.

He said the department of posts (DoP) is the governments eighth largest department in terms of number of complaints received.

We have been receiving average of 100 complaints in a day from across the country on Twitter Sewa and the resolution status is 97% till date, Sinha said.

The DoP will set up a nodal officer in all postal circles who will handle public complaints.

In three months we will start providing services in all languages on India Posts helpline number. Meanwhile, we will direct calls received in any other language to the concerned circle. If required, we will also expand operating hours from 12 to 24, DoP Secretary BV Sudhakar said.

The complaints received on the toll free number would be registered in Computerised Customer Care (CCC) Centre portal by the operators at the Dak Bhawan and the 11 digits ticket number would be provided to the complainants.

If the complaint is already registered, the complainant would be informed about the status as viewed in CCC portal.
Officers facing sexual harassment charges could be transferred out to ensure they do not abuse their authority to influence the outcome of the inquiry, the Centre told departments last week.

The governments advisory is aimed at fixing a gap in the rules that gave the power to recommend transfer of the victim or the suspect to the complaints committee tasked to probe the complaint.

The memo issued by the department of personnel & training that serves as the governments human resource manager gave departments a free hand to transfer the officer facing charges if there were concerns about his ability to influence the outcome.

Departments may also consider transferring the suspect officer to another office to obviate any risk of that officer using the authority of his office to influence the proceedings of the complaints committee, DoPT director Mukesh Chaturvedi said in the memo.

A government official said the decision on the officers transfer would have to be taken on a case-to-case basis and would depend on the concerns expressed by the complainant.

This is an enabling provision, he said, adding that the transfer would not be taken as an indictment of the suspect.

The sexual harassment law mandates that every office has an internal committee headed by a woman officer to probe complaints. However, there were doubts if the woman officer had to be senior in rank to the charged officer.

Chaturvedis memo suggested that civil servants need not lose sleep over the seniority of the panel chairperson. It said the Allahabad high court had rejected objections on the seniority of the panel chairperson which pointed that the rules only require her to be senior.

Inspired by the 1997 Vishakha judgment of the Supreme Court that laid down the ground rules for handling complaints, Parliament had enacted a law to protect women from sexual harassment in 2013.

The law had, however, taken a conservative view on transfer of officials facing charges and only empowered the complaints authority to transfer the woman on her request or let her take a three-month leave. But the rules framed by the government gave the panel the power to recommend transfer of the charged officer too.

Women comprised nearly 11% of the governments staff strength of 33 lakh in 2011, up from 7.5% a decade earlier.

There are, however, no statistics about the number of sexual harassment complaints made by government offices so far.

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report released last month pointed that 119 cases were registered in 2015 for insulting the modesty of a woman in an office, the provision invoked under the penal code for sexual harassment at a workplace.

This was twice the number of cases registered under this section the previous year and could reflect the lower awareness about the penal provision.

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The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are reportedly having a hard time retaining their MTech students, with many quitting the course after landing jobs in public sector undertakings (PSUs).

Officials said a number of IITs complained of such occurrences at the recently held IIT council meet, presided by human resource development (HRD) minister Prakash Javadekar. It is learnt that out of 8,000-odd students, 2,000 left the course after getting jobs at PSUs. To tide over the problem, the council has decided to ask all such PSUs to allow students to join after completing the programme.

We will take up the matter with the PSUs. A lot of time, money and energy are invested in the MTech programme. IITs are premier institutes, and there is a long waitlist for getting into them. If students leave midway, the seats go empty. We want to encourage students to go for higher studies and research, said a senior official on the condition of anonymity.

Read | 31 companies blacklisted from IIT campus placements after flurry of complaints

The HRD ministry will write to the department of public enterprises in this regard, said another official.

Admissions to the IIT MTech programme take place through the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), the score for which is also used by PSUs for recruitment. GAIL, ONGC and SAIL are said to be among the PSUs that offer jobs to MTech students from IITs.

To discourage deserters, the council also approved a proposal to recover the entire fellowship amount (of Rs 12,400 per month) if any of the students leave the programme midway. This happens because there is immense pressure on students to start earning after completing their bachelors. We are trying to get the PSUs onboard, so these students can rest assured that their jobs wont go to anybody else, the HRD official said.

The IIT council, which is the highest decision-making body for the prestigious institutes, also considered providing 1,000 teaching assistantships  bearing a fellowship amount of Rs 25,000 per month  to meritorious MTech students.

The council had recently approved a proposal to introduce the Prime Ministers Research Fellowships, aimed at encouraging BTech graduates from IITs to directly enrol in Ph.D courses.

There are 23 IITs in the country, with a total count of 72,000 students. Around 14,000 MTech students are enrolled in the institutes.

Read | IITs lower the bar for applicants to fill up vacancies

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Guwahati

Bangladesh sees an opportunity in cow vigilantism in India that has otherwise checked cattle smuggling to some extent to hit the neighbouring countrys meat and hide-based economy.

While Bangladeshi traders admit the check is a crisis, economists and farm specialists say the crackdown will make space for the local cattle industry to expand and help the country be self-sufficient.

We would rather prefer the Border Guards Bangladesh to stop smuggling of cattle from India. This will encourage Bangladeshi cattle farmers to cater to the local and international market, Dhaka-based researcher Sheikh Rokon said.

Cattle smuggling has not stopped along the 4,096 km India-Bangladesh border despite crackdowns by gau rakshaks in the interiors and Border Security Force (BSF) personnel on the frontier.

But the illegal supply of cattle to Bangladesh, according to Rokon, has almost halved from 21 lakh heads in the 2013-14 fiscal. One of the reasons is the capture of more than 140 smugglers along with thousands of cattle heads in the Assam and Meghalaya sectors this year.

This has hit the cattle industry in Bangladesh, worth $600 million last year and powered mostly by 2 million cows and bulls smuggled from India. The smuggling increases during Id-uz-Zuha when about 55 lakh cattle are sacrificed in Bangladesh.

Read | Cow smuggling along Bangladesh border down, collateral problems up

Editorials in major Bangladeshi publications such as Daily Star lauded the Hindu nationalist government in India, particularly home minister Rajnath Singh, for the crackdown on cattle smuggling though it has had an economic impact in the Muslim-majority Bangladesh.

According to the Bangladesh Tanners Association, close to 200 tanneries suspended work due to lack of hides and some 4,000 workers were jobless. Beef exporters in the country too have cut down exports by 75% with price of cows increasing by 40-50% because of Indias move.

Until Indias crackdown, cattle slaughterhouses, beef processing units, tanneries and bone crushing factories contributed substantially to Bangladeshs $190 billion economy.

Read | Govts move to prevent cattle trafficking starves Bangladesh of beef

Security forces in Assam, meanwhile, sought Maharashtra-like laws to control large-scale transportation and smuggling of cattle. Existing laws in states like Maharashtra can be studied for similar rules in these parts, RM Singh, special director general (border) of Assam Police said.

Singh heads a newly-formed task force to assist BSF in checking border crimes including cattle smuggling.

Also read | At town hall event, PM Modi says self-styled cow protectors make him angry

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Police on Sunday booked a Muslim cleric in north Keralas Kozhikode for allegedly insulting a girl, who shook hands with state finance minister Thomas Issac when he visited her college, saying her act was highly improper and against the Sharia law.

Police filed a case against Noushad Ahsani under Section 119 (punishment for atrocities against women) of the Kerala Police Act after the girl complained that the cleric had publically insulted her for shaking hands with the minister.

Issac visited the Markaz Law College on August 18 to distribute prizes and shook hands with some of the award-winning students.

Ahsani showed one of the photographs of her shaking hands with the minister while delivering a speech on how Muslim men and women should conduct themselves in public.The cleric also said it was highly improper on the part of an unmarried woman to do this.

He also criticised the college management for allowing such a behaviour on the campus.

The girl said in her complaint that Ahsani circulated the video on social media after his speech. The girl, a second-year law student, accused the preacher of misrepresenting a noble act with a sexual undertone to defame her.

We have now booked him under sections pertaining to atrocities against women. We will add more sections after the cyber cell examining the video footage circulated on social media, police inspector MT Jacob, who is investigating the case, said.

Many student organisations also criticised Ahsanis speech, saying such communally-toned comments can send wrong signals.

Read | Anger brews in Kerala as Muslim community ups the ante against hardliners

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An FIR was lodged against 158 people for allegedly misbehaving with Union minister and Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel during a road show here.

An FIR was registered against local leader Vinod Dubey and over 157 others last night for allegedly misbehaving with Patel and Apna Dal workers during their partys roadshow, a senior police office said.

The FIR has been lodged at Raniganj police station.

The incident had occurred on Sunday afternoon when Apna Dal workers were on a roadshow with the minister of state for health and family welfare and party MLA, RK Verma.

Police said the procession came face to face with the supporters of Dubey, who is planning to contest the state Assembly polls as an Independent candidate, leading to an argument.

Read: Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel misbehaved with during UP rally

The Union minister had said the incident was a conspiracy to disturb her partys procession.

I think it was a conspiracy (of ruling SP). I was not provided with security and even after complaining, the district magistrate and the superintendent of police did not reach the spot immediately, she had said.

She said if such was the response of the law enforcement agencies to a request by the minister, then one could easily understand the plight of common people regarding law and order matters.

Alleging misbehaviour with their leaders, Apna Dal workers had blocked traffic on Raebareli-Varanasi highway and later, when the Union minister left, they sat on a dharna.
The Supreme Court reduced on Monday the daily quantum of Cauvery water to be released by Karnataka but increased the duration of the order, expressing displeasure over the deteriorating law-and-order situation across southern India, where life is paralysed by violent strikes.

The top court modified a September 5 order and asked Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs water to Tamil Nadu per day till September 20.

The earlier order asked for 15,000 cusecs to be released daily for 10 days, triggering violent protests and attacks in both states.

Karnataka wanted the apex court to keep the September 5 order in abeyance for five days but the SC refused to do so, instead modifying the order.

The order came on a day the Cauvery Supervisory Committee was to meet to decide on the quantum of the rivers water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states.

SC, however, refuses to keep in abeyance its Sep 5 order to Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of water a day from #Cauvery to TN. @htTweets  Satya Prakash (@satyastp_satya) September 12, 2016

Read: Cauvery dispute: Conflicts, gaps and institutional spaces for reconciliation

A bench of justice Dipak Misra and UU Lalit also rapped Karnataka for using the law-and-order situation to seek a modification of an SC order.

Tell your governments they have to implement the order and maintain law and order, the court told the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu governments.

Unless an order is modified, citizens and governments are obliged to comply with it.

#Cauvery: SC takes strong exception to Karnataka taking plea of law and order situation to seek modification of its order. @htTweets  Satya Prakash (@satyastp_satya) September 12, 2016

The decision came on a plea by Karnataka that said the state government was facing huge public pressure and police prevented attempts to damage public property during recent statewide strikes with great difficulty.

The application also referred to inputs from security agencies that said if the current flow of water was allowed to continue, the situation may go out of hand. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have seen tit-for-tat attacks over the past few days around the sensitive issue.

Read: Cauvery water row explained: Why Tamil Nadu, Karnataka fight over river usage?

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BJP president Amit Shah on Sunday hit out at former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, alleging that he obliged Congress president Sonia Gandhis son-in-law Robert Vadra to the fullest of his potential.

Shah was in Jind for BJPs Gaurav rally organised by Union minister of steel Birender Singh. Two years ago, Birender had joined the BJP after quitting the Congress in the presence of Shah in this district only.

Hooda left no stone unturned in looting Haryana residents to fill the pockets of his family members and Delhis son-in-law (Vadra). Now that his scams are coming out in inquiries, he is crying foul, Shah said.

Lashing out at the previous UPA government at the Centre, he said, Scams worth `12 lakh crore were reported during the UPA government. On the contrary, there has been no corruption under the Modi government during the past two-and-a-half years, he added.

Lashing out at three Lals of Haryana  Bansi Lal, Bhajan Lal and Devi Lal Shah said chief minister Manohar Lal (Khattar) was different from them and praised him for pledging to make Haryana kerosene-free and improving the sex ratio of the state from 837 to 914.

Haryana is a land of brave hearts. It gave hope to the country in the form of Sakshi Malik at Rio. With BJPs policies, there will be lots of Sakshis by next Olympic Games, Shah said.

It has been decided to give Rs 30,000 crore additional funds to the Haryana under the 14th Finance Commission as compared to 13th, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Khattar also attacked Hooda, alleging rampant corruption during his tenure. Earlier CMs worked only for their constituencies and castes. But, I have ensured to ensure equal development all over Haryana, he said.

The CM also lashed out at Jat leader Yashpal Malik without naming him. We will not let anyone damage the unity of Haryana, whether hes from the state or has come from outside, he said.

Earlier in the day, Khattar and union minister of road and transport Nitin Gadkari laid the foundation stone of `380 crore Government Medical College at Haibatpur village in Jind.

They also performed Bhoomi Pujan ceremony for 4-laning of the Punjab-Haryana border-Jind section of NH-7. Gadkari also announced an express highway, a Rs 20,000 crore project, from Delhi to Srinagar via Jind-Ludhiana-Amritsar-Katra.

Shah shown black flags by JBT teachers

Meanwhile, junior basic training (JBT) teachers on Sunday showed black flags Shah the moment he came to the podium to give his address. They raised slogans against the government. The teachers have been holding protests for long, demanding joining letters from the Haryana education department. Due to a pending inquiry, these teachers selected in 2013 have not been given joining letters by the government so far.

On Sunday, they had reportedly come fully prepared to create ruckus at the BJP rally. The police, which said they had intelligence inputs about teachers coming to protest at the venue of the rally, detained five teachers, while some others sneaked in the pandal with black clothes to raise their protest. The police rushed to stop woman protesters and tried to shut their mouths and dragged them outside the tent.

Jind superintendent of police (SP) Shashank Anand said the protesters were being questioned about their intentions.

Regarding the failure of the police to prevent teachers from reaching the venue of the rally, he said, The protesters had black clothes smaller than handkerchiefs which they managed to sneak in. The police seized dozens of knives, blades, fire crackers and sharp-edged items from the public coming in to attend the rally.

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Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday sacked two ministers facing corruption charges, a move aimed at boosting the ruling Samajwadi Partys image ahead of next years assembly election.

Mining minister Gayatri Prajapati and panchayati raj, animal husbandry and minor irrigation minister Rajkishore Singh were the ones to lose their jobs within an hour of each other.

The opposition termed the sackings as poll-oriented eyewash.

The Samajwadi Party is battling charges of lawlessness and the opposition has also targeted it over allegations of corruption against senior ministers.

Yadav, who took over as the youngest chief minister of Uttar Pradesh at 38 in 2012, has said he will seek re-election on the promise of development and a clean administration without indulging in vote-bank politics.

Prajapatis sacking came three days after the Allahabad high court rejected the state governments plea to withdraw an order for a CBI probe into alleged illegal mining in the state.

The court on July 28 set a six-week deadline for the Central Bureau of Investigation to conduct the probe, including the role of government officials, and submit a report. The deadline ended Monday.

Read | Lokayukta tightens noose on corrupt UP minister Prajapati

Prajapati, the backward face of the Samajwadi Party who is said to be close to party chief and Akhileshs father Mulayam Singh Yadav, faces several charges including those of kickbacks in mining contracts, land grab and extortion.

Illegal mining is rampant in the state and it is an open secret that he was promoting it... the CMs decision is a mere eyewash. It will not help as people know the reality, Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi said.

Rajkishore Singh, too, is accused of land grab. An NGO launched by his kin for recruiting employees to the panchayati raj department is also allegedly under the state government scanner.

Governor Ram Naik had accepted the CMs recommendation firing the ministers, a Raj Bhawan communique said.

Yadav has taken charge of minor irrigation portfolio while social welfare minister Govind Chaudhary has been given the panchayati raj department. Minister of state for horticulture (independent charge) Moolchandra Chauhan will look after mining and minerals.

The BJP said the two ministers were made scapegoats after the high court ordered a CBI probe into the mining scandal. The party, which is looking to corner the government on charges of corruption, demanded the chief ministers resignation for failure on all fronts.

After looting the state for five years, the chief minister is doing it for publicity... It will be an unsuccessful attempt to cover up the failure of a corrupt government under which crime ruled the roost and education, health and road sectors collapsed, BJP secretary Shrikant Sharma said.

(With agency inputs)

Also read | Inside the world of sand mafia: Terror casts gloom as cops bury heads

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Union minister of women and child development Maneka Gandhi has sought a detailed report from the station officer at the Chinhat police station in Lucknow after a sub-inspector on Sunday shot at a stray dog which had bitten him.

According to reports, sub-inspector Mahendra Pratap, a resident of Adarsh Nagar in Chinhat was heading for Barabanki for his duty when the dog bit him. The enraged cop returned home, picked up his licensed rifle and shot at the dog.

As news of the shooting and the local polices refusal to file a case against the cop spread, animal right activists demanded action.

Kamna Pandey, co-opt member of Animal Welfare Board of India complained to Maneka Gandhi, who then sought a detailed report from the officer at the Chinhat police post.

The condition of the animal was not known as it was not seen in the area after the incident.

This is a serious case in which police must act against the sub-inspector. Despite taking up the matter with the SO, no FIR has been lodged. They claim the dog was not killed but ran away from the area, Pandey said.

What if the bullet had hit some passer-by? What will happen if the dog is killed? As far as I am concerned, it seems to be a revengeful act. I have learnt that Maneka Gandhi has sought a detailed report. I will also send her a report to create pressure on police to file an FIR, said Pandey.

But station officer at the Chinhat police station, Surendra Katiyar insists there was no complaint against the sub inspector. Police reached the spot but no one came forward to file a report. So without a complaint how can we file an FIR?

The officer said he will act according to law if anyone files a report.
Muslims across the state are apprehensive of religious slaughter ahead of Id-Ul-Adha because of the present scenario involving the curb on the killing of cows that the BJP-Shiv Sena government imposed in 2015.

Id-ul-Adha involves sacrificing an animal as part of the religious rites.

People observing the festival have said that even permissible slaughter of animals and transportation has been targeted by self-proclaimed gau-rakshaks (cow protectors) in the recent past and that was a cause of major concern for them. The fear is also apparent in the state after the government conducted a special drive to recruit animal welfare officials to monitor the beef ban.

In May, the animal husbandry department called in for animal welfare officials to ensure the implementation of the ban. While the department received more than 2,000 applications, a high court-appointed committee to monitor animal welfare laws cancelled all the applications last month. Justice CS Dharmadhikari, retired HC Judge, who heads the 12-member committee, confirmed that the drive had been scrapped.

Before the drive, the state had 134 animal lovers who registered themselves as animal welfare officers who were to inform the police about any atrocity on animals. An official from the animal husbandry department said, The intention for getting more officers backfired as the applications were from people affiliated to political organisations. While the officers have no right to conduct raids, they do act as informers to help the state keep a check on animal atrocities. As far as Id is concerned, the department has not issued any special orders apart from routine maintenance and check on all slaughterhouses in the state.

To add to this, recent events in the country have aggravated the fear of facing trouble from fringe elements.

In Uttar Pradesh last year, a man was allegedly killed by a mob for storing and consuming beef. In Gujarat, four Dalit youths were beaten up for allegedly possessing beef. Haryana is recently facing biryani policing after the police allegedly found samples of beef in biryani at a place in Mewat district.

Political groups in Maharashtra have said that there is an increasing fear among Muslims ahead of the festival.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) has also written to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to be more vigilant of any untoward or manufactured incident in Mumbai and the state.

In his letter, SP MLA Abu Azmi has written about unmanned bulls, cows and oxen in the Shivaji Nagar-Mankhurd areas (dominant Muslim pockets in the city). It is important to round off these stray cattle to prevent any untoward or manufactured incident in the state, Azmi wrote in his letter.

Id will be celebrated on September 13,14 and 15. With September 15 also marking the final day of Ganesh Chaturthi, the party said it is important to maintain law and order.

According to SP, around 3 lakh goats and close to 5,000 buffalos are expected to be slaughtered in Mumbai.

The party has stated that self-proclaimed gau-rakshaks or cow-vigilantes are targeting even permissible trading of animals, creating a fear in the minds of Muslims. In 2015, the BJP-Shiv Sena ruled government brought in an amendment to the Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act, which bans the slaughter of bulls and bullocks in the state.

Precautionary measures in Mumbai:

As per a notice issued by the BMC, some of the steps to be adopted in Deonar Abattoir are:

Humane treatment of animals while transportation and religious slaughter

Using curtains while performing the slaughter

Covering carcasses of large animals and carrying them in closed vehicles

96 CCTV cameras

3 digital indicators

50 mobile toilets

4 helpline numbers

According to SP, around 3 lakh goats and close to 5,000 buffalos are expected to be slaughtered in Mumbai

In May, the animal husbandry department had called for applications for animal welfare officials for effective implementation of the beef ban imposed in 2015.

The department received over 2,000 applications, officials confirmed. The state currently has 134 animal lovers enlisted as welfare officials.

However, the applications were soon scrapped owing to their political affiliations. They were sent back by the high court-appointed committee to monitor animal welfare laws. The decision to call for more applications is still pending with the 12-member committee.

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Twenty more people approached the police on Monday with complaints against Pujit Aggarwal, managing director and chief executive officer of developer firm Orbit Corporation, who was arrested on Friday, claiming they havent received possession of their property.

Aggarwal was arrested based on a complaint filed by Ashok Aggarwal, senior vice-president of Capri Global Capital Limited, for failure to hand over property. Twenty investors came with similar complaints. We have noted their grievance and will look into it, said Vijay Kadam, senior inspector with Azad Maidan police station.

Meanwhile, Aggarwal was produced before the holiday magistrate court. Aggrawals lawyer Jayesh Kanani requested for a shorter police custody on health grounds.

The special holiday court remanded Aggarwal in police custody till September 16.

Kanani told the court Aggarwal suffered from slip disc and he be allowed to use his pillow and take his medicines. The court allowed him to take the pillow, but rejected its plea for medicines, holding he would be given medication under the supervision of a medical officer.

In his complaint, Ashok said he bought three flats in Orbit Residency Park in Saki Naka for Rs2.53 crore.

However, when Ashok and his family visited the spot in April, they found the site was sealed by bank officials, who had mortgaged the flats without informing them.

.

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The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) might have quite missed the irony of this action on their part  barely two years after they named a crossroads in Bhendi Bazaar, the citys Muslim enclave, as the Urdu Markaz Chowk the authorities shut down the Urdu cultural centre after which the square was named within two days of giving them notice on July 29.

The non-profit Urdu Markaz was operating out of an abandoned municipal school in Bhendi Bazaar since 1999. It had become popular not just among young Muslim students wishing to learn English but also with others wanting to learn Urdu. The centre was bringing cultures and languages together and in past seven years had held mushairas in both Urdu and Marathi. For the past two years it was holding a literary festival which it had named simply as the Bhendi Bazaar Festival.

Yet both in 2014 and 2015, authorities put the cultural centre on notice for conducting non-educational activities out of the premises but the NGO successfully argued its case for continuation. This year, though, they were given no time and have been locked out  all their library books, teaching equipment, etc, have been put out of bounds for those who made use of the centre.

Zubair Azmi, the director of the NGO is stunned. This is very absurd. We have been teaching, Urdu, English and Marathi at our centre. It also houses a substantial library. If such activities are not educational, tell me what is? he told Hindustan Times.

How do they define education? The teaching of languages, reading of poetry, holding of seminars, exchange of ideas etc, are also educational activities. We have also been consciously changing the profile of Bhendi Bazaar. Once it was associated with just Dawood Ibrahim. Now we are holding literary festivals in the name of Bhendi Bazaar. We are returning it to the culture of Kaifi Azmi and Majrooh Sultanpuri who lived here and practised their craft out of Bhendi Bazaar in the early days of their career.

Why Azmi and advocate Asim Khan, who has jumped into the campaign to reopen the centre, feel that the BMC action is beyond their brief is because there are other NGOs, both educational and non-educational, operating from such abandoned schools all over the area but they have not been touched by the BMC so far. The voices are rising against the seeming injustice of the arbitrary action with the growing feeling that the centre was targeted for being associated with a minority language.

Khan believes the word Urdu in the name of the cultural centre is what has probably triggered the action. Unfortunately Urdu is associated with Pakistan although that country speaks more Punjabi and Pushto today than Urdu which is a language born in India and has been nourished by great pundits and poets like Raghupath Sahay, Firaaq Gorakhpuri and Biraj Narayan Chakbast, among others, says Khan.

Urdu is the best medium for forging cultural unity in India. In the past it has brought Hindus and Muslims together and it continues to do so. But if they kill the medium how will the amity, unity and language survive, he asks.

That is a view shared by Marathi poet Manoj Varade who told the Hindustan Times, I am a public relations officer for a public service undertaking but my passion is poetry. I write in Marathi, Hindi and English but when a few years ago I felt my poetry would not be complete without an understanding of ghazals, I made my way to Urdu Markaz to learn the language. It helped to pursue my passion for couplets. If the authorities blindly shut down such centres which are bringing people of diverse cultures together, how will we be able to understand each other?

While Khan says such action is bad news for poets, writers and cultural activities and gives rise to the impression that there is an attempt to kill the Urdu language, there are others who mince no words when they say that the targeting of Urdu Markaz could be deliberate. According to Sarfaraz Arzoo, editor of the Urdu daily Hindustan, the short-sightedness is in continuation with the governments earlier action of invading the kitchens of its citizens (his reference is to the beef ban by the Maharashtra government in 2015 wherein they had made even possession of beef a non-bailable offence and punishable by five years of imprisonment). Now they are interfering with cultures and languages.

But Azmi points to the rich Urdu-Marathi tradition in Maharashtra from the times of Shivaji and his descendants in the 17th and 18th centuries when there was much mixing between Marathas and Mughals with many Urdu speakers in the Maratha armies and Marathi speakers part of the Qutubshahi and Adilshahi kingdoms based in Golconda and Bijapur respectively.

Urdu Markaz was attempting to recreate just that confluence of cultures and languages and there are many Marathi poets and writers who have attended their mushairas, seminars and exchange of ideas over the past years, including a major event to commemorate Kusumagraj, an iconic poet of Maharashtra. They are equally shocked about the lockdown. And so were Urdu writers who have gained from their interaction with Marathi poets and writers, says Azmi.

There are many commercial and non-educational NGOs including various unions who are occupying many rooms in such BMC schools. But they are still functioning while we have been shut down, he says.

The NGO has made several representations to the municipal officers who have so far ignored their appeals. Ranjit Dhakne, the education officer at the BMC, however, while not wishing to comment, washes his hands of the issue stating that the action was taken by junior officials as a matter of routine and senior officers would soon be looking into the issue.

Meanwhile students continue to study, squatting at the chowk named after their centre  without access to their library books or blackboards.

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Seventy people lost their lives and 86 others were injured in various mishaps on suburban trains last week, data from the Government Railway Police (GRP) showed.

The GRP officials said that while the suburban section was prone to accidents, most of last weeks casualties were caused due to overcrowding in trains owing to Ganeshotsav.

According to the GRP, contrary to the daily travel patterns, last week, the trains heading to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) were overcrowded during the night.

Trains on the Central Railway have been overcrowded, with scores travelling from beyond Kalyan. Many travelled on footboards. On Saturday, 14 people died while, 14 others were injured, said a GRP official requesting anonymity.

Three of the 14 deaths reported on Saturday were between Thane and Diva stations, while four deaths were recorded between Karjat and Dombivli stations. On Western Railway, four deaths were reported on the Mumbai Central-Borivli stretch.

The Government Railway Police (GRP) said, for most pandal hoppers, local trains are the preferred mode of transportation during Ganeshotsav. It is difficult to deter anybody from boarding overcrowded trains.Extra personnel have been deployed on platforms, said GRP officials, adding that medical aid is provided to accident victims at the earliest.

Sufficient personnel have been deployed at various railway stations that are in proximity to popular city pandals, which draw scores of devotees. The idea is to manage the footfall better and avoid any untoward incident, said Ritesh Aher, GRP spokesperson.

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Nearly a year after the lynching of a Muslim man over allegations of slaughtering a cow and storing its meat for consumption, Muslims of Bisada village are preparing for Bakr-Eid in the shadows of the incident.

Their Hindu neighbours are assuring for a grand and peaceful celebration, but one can sense the tension on the faces of the Muslims.

On the night of September 28, three days after Eid-ul-Adha last year, local resident Mohammad Ikhlaq and his son Danish were attacked by a mob over allegations of sacrificing a cow on Bakr-Eid and storing its meat for consumption. Ikhlaq had succumbed to his injuries and Danish survived with a fractured skull. Eighteen men, including three juveniles, were nabbed on charges of murder and assault.

The Muslims claim that they have hardly sacrificed an animal on Bakr-Eid in the last several years as they are not wealthy enough to buy one.

Nobody is stopping us from celebrating or sacrificing an animal. The Muslim residents of this village are financially not sound enough to buy costly animals. So we usually do not sacrifice animals during Bakr-Eid, Bano Begum, a resident, said.

She said she has a couple of goats and she is willing to sell its grown up offsprings to those who want to sacrifice an animal on Bakr-Eid.

Every year, I used to sell one or two goats to people from other villages willing to sacrifice an animal, Bano said.

Arbaaz Khan, a class 7 student at a local government school, said he has never seen his parents sacrificing an animal since his childhood.

Its not a tradition here. We have hardly seen anybody sacrificing animals on Bakra Eid. As far as I remember, I have seen only one such instance four to five years back, Khan said.

He said he has heard that some wealthy families sacrifice animals inside their residence.

Head woman of Bisada, Kaushalya Devi, however, said there will be no tension in the village ahead of any Muslim festival and they will help the Muslims in the celebrations.

We will celebrate the festival together, she said.

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Around 300 to 400 residents of Aditya Mega city and nearby highrises staged a candlelight march in Indirapuram against the growing stray dog menace in their area. Aditya Mega City residents said a small pack of dogs in their apartment complex has become aggressive and several incidents have taken place with residents.

Residents started the march from Aditya Mega City and marched around Windsor Park, Shipra Plaza, Lotus Pond, Habitat Centre and ATS Advantage highrises on Saturday evening.

The issue is about five stray dogs that have become aggressive. There are about 12 stray dogs in our apartment complex, but apart from these give the rest are friendly and children even play with them. However, we demand that these five dogs be treated so that they dont attack residents. In the past one and a half months, there have been three to four cases where the stray dogs have attacked residents, said Priyanka Rana of Aditya Mega City.

Another resident, Mayuri Nigam, who said she suffered severe injuries when she was attacked by five to six stray dogs on the morning of July 21, also participated in the protest.I am still on leave from my office since the incident and am still visiting the doctor. I have stopped my two-year-old daughter from going downstairs due to fear of dogs. I suffered 10-12 injuries that were termed category C by doctors at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi, she said.

The government agencies have not been able to resolve the issue. This march was the only way to make our voices heard by agencies, she added.

However, animal welfare activists said they are willing to get the strays sterilised.

There are certain legal guidelines that stray dogs cannot be relocated. They can only be sterilised, which will prevent them from becoming aggressive. There have been incidents where dogs have inflicted injuries, but in other cases people get injured when they fall while trying to run away. We have 11-12 stray dogs in our highrise, of which one is still not sterilised. That will be done soon, said Sumedha Iyer of Aditya Mega city and district president of the animal welfare organisation People for Animals.

On their part, Ghaziabad development authority officials said the municipal corporation should intervene in the matter as it has resources and teams for stray animals.

Meanwhile, we will take up the matter with senior officials and call up a meeting of departments and stakeholders so that the issue can be discussed and some resolution reached, said Chakresh Jain, executive engineer, GDA.
A 22-year-old student of Thapar University, Patiala, is feared to have drowned in Bhakra Canal near Century Enclave police post on the Nabha road here in the wee hours of Monday.

Anmol Rai, a student of BTech-2, had gone to the banks of the canal with his classmates Shrey Arora, Adit Khandelwal and Shivansh  after attending a party at a marriage palace. Anmols classmates said he went to touch the canal water and fell into it due to slippery surface. Police said they all were in an inebriated condition. Anmols father Manoj Kumar, who is the principal of DAV College in Jalandhar, termed it an accident.

Police post in-charge Shiv Kirpal Bedi said Anmols classmates didnt raise the alarm and rushed to their hostel. They returned at 5am and informed the police post staff. We immediately started the search operation but were not able to trace him till the evening, he said.

Statements of the victims friends and family are being recorded, he added.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Hardeep Singh, who has been booked for attempting to rape, is still out of police reach even after four days of registration of the case against him.

Hardeep is incharge of party activities of Lehragaga and neighbouring villages. The accused runs a shop named Hardeep Telecom in Lehal Kalan village, where he also does photography work. He allegedly attempted to rape a 15-year-old Dalit minor girl when she went to him to get photographed.

Deputy Superintendent of Police, Arshdeep Singh Aulakh said police officials have already raided the house of the accused. He said DSP said seven police teams have been raiding the places where possibility of finding Hardeep is high. The pace with which we are searching the accused, he will be arrested within three days, said DSP.

AAPs district leader Arun Jindal said, whoever did this was really condemnable. He said, no matter to which party the accused belongs, he should not be spared.

However, other political parties are slamming the AAP for their local leaders act.

Senior Akali leader Bheem Sain Garg said this was the real face of AAP. Congress leader and constituency in charge Tejinder Singh said every leader of AAP has been indulging in some or the other shameful activity. There is no hope that these people can provide good governance to people, he said.

On Thursday, the Dalit girl along with her younger sister went to Hardeeps shop to get photographed. The victim in her statement said while her sister was waiting outside the darkroom of studio, Hardeep locked the room from inside and allegedly tried to rape her. When the victim screamed, her sister unsuccessfully tried to open the door. Later, the victims sister shouted after which nearby people gathered and tried to break open the door. Hardeep, then, himself opened the door from inside and pushed people and managed to escape from the spot.

The accused has also been charged under sections 354B (using criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code and under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) act.
Suspended Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) legislator from Amritsar (south) assembly segment Inderbir Singh Bolaria is yet to announce his future course of action and has not given any clue so far about his joining the Congress, but the local Congress leaders, led by Jagdeep Singh Rinku Narula, of the constituency have started opposing his proposed entry into the party.

Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh had made a statement a few days ago that if the ruling alliances rebel leaders, including Navjot Singh Sidhu, Pargat Singh and Bolaria wanted to join his party they were welcome.

Besides, there is another apprehension amongst the local Congress leaders that Captain may field him from the party in the upcoming state assembly polls of 2017.

Upset over this, the Punjab Congress Veopar Cell co-chairman Rinku Narula, who is also staking a claim to the party ticket from this constituency for the upcoming polls, along with 6 former councillors, two block presidents and 9 ward presidents, conducted a meeting with his supporters here.

Interacting with mediapersons after the meeting, he threatened the party leadership that they would revolt against the party decision if Bolaria is allotted the party ticket. So far, being an MLA of the ruling party, he has committed atrocities against supporters of the Congress. Now, he is making efforts to join the Congress. We will not let him to join the party. If Captain accepts him in the party, we would not tolerate it and oppose him, he said.

Replying to a query about the voice Bolaria is raising against the establishment of a solid waste management plant in the constituency, Narula alleged that he is just playing drama as he had got the project sanctioned from the state assembly. The segment is in a state of neglect, but did not spend even a single penny from his fund to improve its condition, he added.

Showing documents to mediapersons, former councillor Partap Singh said, Besides many other people, he has been the victim of his excesses under which he used to encroach the land forcefully, He did not only ruin the businesses of Congress party leaders, but also slapped false cases against them, alleged Joginderpal Ginda, another former councillor.

Urging the PPCC chief not to get him into the party fold, the Congress leaders said his joining would hit the reputation of the party in the segment. If he is fielded in the assembly elections, he would surely face major setback as even his close fellows have left him, now he is one-man show, they added, while daring him to contest the election as an independent candidate.

They said they would also meet Rahul Gandhi and Captain in this respect.

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A day after the revision of Punjab Medical Entrance Test (PMET) merit list on court orders, the counselling for admission to the MBBS and BDS courses has begun in the state, finally.

The Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot, issued a public notice on Sunday, asking qualified candidates to submit college preference online by August 13. It will allot the seats between August 16 and 17, as the Punjab and Haryana high court directed on Friday.

Read more | After HC order, major shuffle in PMET merit list, top 3 slots unchanged

The candidates and their parents remain confused even after a month of legal battle that held up the admission process, even as experts say the revision will affect only the borderline college allotment cases. Dr Parmod Chug, father of a Fazilka petitioner, Garima, has asked the university to upload the revised answer keys to four questions that were corrected. The high courts stand on the answer to one of the questions in set 2 (190) was different from the universitys original key, he said.

The orders say on paragraph 109 that the university must correct the answer keys before passing on the benefit of four invalid questions to the candidates. It has declared results post corrections but we still await the revised key, Dr Chug said, threatening to file a court appeal by Wednesday, if required. Responding to him, university counsel Anupam Gupta said: The high court order says on paragraph 105 that the four corrected questions be restored based on the original answer key.

Top ranks to be unaffected

The rankings have deviated 5 to 10% after the revision of merit list. Chandigarh-based PMT trainer Arvind Goyal said the first 200-to-250 ranks were likely to stay but the spots beyond will move 20-to-30 positions and affect college allotment.

In borderline cases, the shift may mean gaining or losing a seat in a government college, Goyal said. For example, candidate Pushpreets order of merit changed from 331 to 346, while candidate Jyotsana jumped from 459 to 407. Candidate Varun Gupta slipped from 763 to 823. Experts advise the university to declare subject-wise marks for transparency.

Candidates free to change preferences

The candidates who submitted preferences last month can change the choice in the latest round of counselling, since new colleges have been added. The Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences and Guru Ravi Das Institute of Medical Science, Amritsar are new entrants.

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Heritage furniture from Chandigarh once again went under the hammer at an auction in the US on Saturday and was sold for around Rs 25 lakh.

As many as eight furniture items designed by Swiss architect Pierre Jeanneret in Chandigarh found takers in the auction held by Treadway Toomey Auctions at Oak Park, Illinois.

An architects stool pair was auctioned for US 3,750 dollars, a library chair model for 4,000 dollars, a round stool for 4,000 dollars, an office table desk-bookcase for 4,250 dollars, an architects stool pair for 2,400 dollars, six armchairs for 9,000 dollars, an office armchair pair and student desk went for 4,750 dollars.

There has been a spate of auctions of heritage furniture from the city at foreign auction houses since 2007.

The UT administration has been unable to stall these auctions as of now. Though attempts were made earlier by sending communications to the auction houses, the administration was informed that they had purchased these items from dealers and had all the required receipts.

The auctions have fetched the auction houses millions. Most of these items were sold as scrap in Chandigarh, not fetching more than a few thousand rupees.

City advocate writes to Union minister

City-based advocate Ajay Jagga has written a letter to Union minister of state (independent charge) for culture Mahesh Sharma stating that it is an economic offence to traffic culture property out of the country.

After a series of communications to the Chandigarh office of the CBI about auction of Indian heritage items in US, France, Germany, I approached the the CBI and then on April 25 this year they issued a letter to their Chandigarh office for taking further action on information regarding auction of heritage of Chandigarh items, reads the letter.

The thing is that the property of India (heritage of Chandigarh) is being auctioned abroad without any fear of law enforcing agencies, it says.

The property is smuggled or not is a matter of investigation. The property of the Chandigarh administration (furniture and fixture items created by architects Mon Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret) is being auctioned in the US for more than a decade, it further states.

Now, despite giving the advance intimation of an auction to held in the US on September 10, the auction went as per schedule and eight items were auctioned for 36,900 USD without any protest from the Indian side, it concluded.
The aspiring medical students of general category should be happy. Almost 90% of the NRI-quota MBBS seats in three government medical colleges that are set to fall vacant during the separate counselling on September 15 will come to them.

The 15% quota for the NRIs makes it 75 reserved seats in the government colleges  15 in Faridkot and 30 each in Patiala and Amritsar. And only seven NRIs qualified in the August 9 separate test. So 68 seats might be added to the general pool. Allotment starts September 16.

All the vacant NRI seats, whether in the government or private colleges, will be converted to general-pool seats and allotted to qualifying students during the counselling, director of medical education and research Dr Manjit Kaur Mohi confirmed here on Monday. A few NRI students who qualified also secured admissions elsewhere.

In pvt colleges, 60% seats to fall vacant

Its not just in the government colleges. At least 60% of the 74 seats in private colleges also dont have qualifying candidates. The admission there was to be based on National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET).

The provisional merit list on the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) website shows up only 28 NRI candidates in private medical and dental colleges. The qualifying score of 50% proved too tough.

The principal of the Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences, Jalandhar, Kulbir Kaur, said that the vacant NRI seats in private colleges could go to the general-pool management quota. Since the NRIs pay a higher fee, private colleges will lose revenue, but what can be done when the candidates dont qualify, she said.

Read | PMET 2016: MBBS, BDS counselling on after court orders

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Hillary Clinton has been under treatment for pneumonia, her doctor said on Sunday after the Democratic nominee abruptly left a 9/11 memorial service in New York, raising questions about her health and its effect on her campaign.

As she recovers at home in Chappaqua, New York, missing campaign events planned for this week on the West Coast, the campaigns of both Clinton and her Republican rival Donald Trump are under pressure to disclose more about the health of their nominees, beyond what they have so far.

Asked if the health of a candidate was an issue, Trump said in a television interview on Monday, I think it's an issue. In factthis last week I took a physical andwhen the numbers come in I'll be releasing very, very specific numbers.

Trump was surprisingly restrained in his remarks about Clintons illness, saying, I just hope she gets well and gets back on the trail, and we'll be seeing her at the debate.

Both nominees released letters from their doctors in 2015 that said they were in excellent health. But neither was detailed enough  Clintons was a little longer, two pages to Trumps four paragraphs. Questions have continued to be raised specially because of their age  Clinton is 68 and Trump 70.

Clinton seemed shaky on her feet as she left the 9/11 memorial service and was hoisted into the van before being driven off to her daughter Chelseas nearby apartment. Her campaign at first said she had felt overheated.

Her doctor later said in a statement: Secretary Clinton has been experiencing a cough related to allergies. On Friday, during follow-up evaluation of her prolonged cough, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. She was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule. While at this mornings event, she became overheated and dehydrated. I have just examined her and she is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely.

Leaving Chelseas apartment earlier, before being examined by her doctor, Clinton had waved at bystanders and posed for pictures and said, Im feeling great.

But that was not going to be enough to stop questions being raised about her health. Hillary Clintons health just became a real issue in the presidential campaign, ran a headline in The Washington Post, a publication Trump has frequently accused of being unfair to him.

According to a letter from her doctor released in January 2015 that had said Clinton was in excellent health, the nominees current medical condition (then) include hypothyroidism and seasons pollen allergies.

Her past medical history included a deep vein thrombosis in 1998 and 2009, an elbow fracture in 2009 and a concussion suffered in 2012, when she was still secretary of state, according to the same note.

Trump released his doctors letter in December 2015, which came under scrutiny recently for its bombastic tone  packed with superlatives such as extraordinary and  excellent. It said Trump would be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency. The doctor has since said he wrote the letter in five minutes flat, as a Trump campaign car waited outside.

But Trump has now promised to release more details, which is likely to put Clinton under pressure to reciprocate or allow right-wing conspiracy theories about her health to take root.
In a curious coincidence, two films from Australia premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) have taken on an Indian character or placed them at the centre.

Lion, which stars Dev Patel, has garnered the sort of critical acclaim that echoed his breakout 2008 movie, Slumdog Millionaire.

He stars as Saroo Brierley, adopted as a child by an Australian couple in Tasmania, who uses Google Earth to find his way back to his birth mother in Khandwa.

Unlike Slumdog Millionaire, Lion isnt full of frenetic action but is deeply emotive and the lead role is the most introspective that Patel has played yet, according to the actor.

While Lion is based on Brierleys memoir, the second film, Joe Cinques Consolation, is based on another Australian bestseller of the same name, published in 2004.

The film chronicles a 1997 case in the Australian capital of Canberra, in which law school student Anu Singh murdered her boyfriend Joe Cinque by subjecting him to a drug overdose.

This film is a psychological crime drama that captures the bizarre case in which some friends of Singh were aware she originally contemplated suicide, then a murder-suicide, and finally, killing Cinque.

The films director Sotiris Dounoukos said his intent was to portray how people through their inaction, consciously or not, contributed to the death of Joe. This became a bigger story than just two people. It became a story about the nature of community and what we owe to each other as a collective.

Singh ultimately went through a prison sentence of just about six years, as the court took her diminished responsibility into account. She now lives in Sydney and has objected to not being consulted for the film. Dounoukos said his material was adapted mainly from Helen Garners book about the case.

The director has a personal connection to the events that horrified and transfixed Australia, and as he said, has been a talking point in Australian society, the story has never gone away from public discourse.

He started studying at the law school where Singh went, at the same time, but had left Canberra before the tragedy occurred.

Joe Cinques Consolation is Dounoukos feature debut, though he has won an award for a short at TIFF earlier. It will release in Australia at the end of October.

The film raises a point that was furiously debated in the country, about how the murder was allowed to happen even though so many were aware of Singhs destructive behaviour. As Dounoukos said, Thats where we are left at the end of the film  how did we get here?

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Five Indians, including a college student, have been arrested in southwestern Kunming city for allegedly trying to smuggle 27kg of hashish into China, a charge that could lead to severe punishment.

The suspects  residents of Kidderpore area of Kolkata -- were caught at Kunming airport in two separate cases in the past two weeks. In the first case, the drugs were allegedly hidden in packets of branded bhujia (a crispy snack) popular in India, and in the second seizure, the hashish was sliced into thin layers and allegedly hidden inside the foams in new laptop bags.

The men have denied any wrongdoing and claimed they were unaware of the drugs.

Smuggling drugs is a serious offence in China. Last year, Chinas Supreme Peoples Court (SPC) said serious drug crimes merit the death penalty.

Chinese customs officers arrested two men from Kolkata on August 26 and seized nine kilograms of the drug from them.

The officials conducted a search when their newly upgraded scanning machine showed small, black tightly wound packets inside the zipped bags of bhujia. On closer inspection, the officials found hashish hidden inside around 60 packets of the popular snack.

The second seizure was made on September 6, when the three other men were arrested.

Officials became suspicious when they saw the trio carrying three bulky bags with new laptop bags inside them.

A scan of the laptop bags  around 80 in number - revealed the hashish though the contraband was cleverly wrapped in carbon paper. The malleable drug had been flattened and sliced into thin layers that were placed inside the layers of foam used in new bags.

The five suspects, aged between 22 and 46, were on their way to Shenzhen. One of the suspects is a student of Syama Prasad College in Kolkata. At least one of the suspects has been to China several times.

It is suspected the ring might have smuggled drugs into China earlier.

Under Chinese criminal law, a person can be sentenced to 15 years in prison, life imprisonment or death for  among other drug-related crimes - selling more than 1 kg of opium, more than 50g of heroin or methamphetamine, or a very large quantity of other drugs.

Serious cases involving drug lords, professional drug dealers or re-offenders, as well as drug smuggling, organised transnational drug crime and armed or violent drug crime could result in capital sentences, according to a circular released by the SPC and quoted by the The Diplomat.

In July, 23-year-old Colombian model Juliana Lopez was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being caught carrying cocaine at Guangzhou in south China.
Saudi-led airstrikes on a water well in northern Yemen have reportedly killed 30 people and wounded 17, a UN official said Monday, making it one of the deadliest attacks since peace talks collapsed a month ago.

The UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, said in a statement that the casualties in the village of Beit Saadan included first responders and children. The strikes took place on Saturday, on the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

McGoldrick said he is deeply disturbed by the unrelenting attacks on civilians and on civilian infrastructure, and urges rival parties to resume a ceasefire declared by the UN in April.

Yemens official news agency SABA, which is controlled by Houthi rebels, has reported that 100 people were killed or wounded in the airstrikes. Witnesses said an initial airstrike killed 13 people, but then a number of rescuers were killed in subsequent airstrikes. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

The UN statement said it based its findings on its own sources and media reports. The Associated Press was unable to independently verify the death toll. The Saudi-led coalition made no statement regarding the airstrikes, but its spokesperson, Brig. General Ahmed al-Asiri, has said before that relief and rights groups are biased and give misleading reports.

Yemens conflict pits the internationally-recognised government, which is allied with a Saudi-led military coalition, against Shia Houthi rebels and forces loyal to a former president.

The Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis and their allies since March 2015.

McGoldrick says the fighting has killed or wounded 10,000 people.

The Houthis, along with allied forces loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, have also waged cross-border attacks against Saudi Arabia. The coalition said Saudi air defence forces shot down a ballistic missile fired from Yemen before dawn on Monday. It says the coalition air force struck the area of the missiles launching pad. No damage or casualties were reported.

The coalition, which is supported by the United States, has accused Iran of arming the Houthis, something Tehran and the rebels deny. Saudi Arabia and Iran are regional rivals.
Brazil, one of the worlds largest emitters of heat-trapping gases, on Monday ratified the Paris agreement to fight global warming, joining top polluters United States and China and bringing the deal closer to implementation.

Brazils President Michel Temer signed the ratification in Brasilia following approval by both houses of Congress. US and China had ratified the deal on September 3.

With Brazils ratification, the Paris climate agreement comes closer to the requirements to enter into force. It needs ratification by at least 55 parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, representing at least 55% of global emissions.

The UN said that by September 7, it had 27 ratifications amounting to 39% of global emissions. Brazil accounts for around 10 to 12% of global carbon pollution.

Temer, who took over the presidency permanently last month after predecessor Dilma Rousseff was removed from office on charges of breaking budget laws, said Brazils support for the climate deal has not changed with the new government.

With its ratification, Brazil reinforced its commitment to cut carbon emissions by 37% by 2025 and 43% by 2030, compared to 2005.

The Paris deal aims to limit average temperature rises to 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. The agreement also calls for countries to do their best to try to limit that rise to 1.5 degrees.

Climate experts said Brazil now needs to work on a plan to fulfil its pledges.

Carlos Rittl, who leads a network of environmental organisations called Climate Observatory, said the government should include the climate agenda in its economic planning.

He criticized the recent focus on oil reserves development, saying renewables such as wind and solar power would help generate many more jobs at a time of high unemployment as Brazil is immersed in its deepest recession in generations.

The Climate Observatory published last week a study saying Brazils pledges to the conference could be more challenging. It urged the government to increase its ambitions by quickly adjusting its Paris goals.
Hillary Clinton has been under treatment for pneumonia, her doctor said Sunday after the Democratic nominee left a 9/11 memorial service abruptly in New York, raising questions about her health and implications for her campaign.

In a video of her exit taken by a bystander, the former secretary of state is seen resting against a traffic bollard as she waited of a vehicle and stumble while walking towards it. Her campaign had said she left because she had felt overheated.

Hillary Clinton 9/11 NYC pic.twitter.com/q9YnsjTxss  Zdenek Gazda (@zgazda66) September 11, 2016

Clinton was driven to her daughter Chelsea Clintons apartment a short distance from Ground Zero where the memorial service was being held. Leaving after a while, she waved at supporters and cameras, and posed with a little girl.

Im feeling great, Clinton said. Its a beautiful day in New York.

Clinton appeared to be in better shape after leaving her daughter Chelseas house. She waved at supporters and cameras, and posed with a little girl. (REUTERS)

Her doctor later said in a statement, Secretary Clinton has been experiencing a cough related to allergies. On Friday, during follow up evaluation of her prolonged cough, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. She was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule. While at this mornings event, she became overheated and dehydrated. I have just examined her and she is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely.

After leaving her daughters, Clinton was driven to her home in Chappaqua, New York, and made no public appearances. She later called off plans to fly to California on Monday morning for two days of fundraising, a public campaign and an appearance on Ellen DeGeneres talk show.

But reports about her engagements the day she was diagnosed with pneumonia seemed to suggest she might be not be away long, if at all.

Friday, day Clinton diagnosed w pneumonia, she appeared at 2 fundraisers, ran a 2-hour natl (national) security mtg, did a presser, sat for CNN intvu (interview), said a reporter covering the Clinton campaign in a tweet.

Another reporter covering the campaign added in a separate tweet: 1 day after NY (New York) presserfly to NC (North Carolina)  campaign in NCraise $ in NC fly to MO Missouri)  speak in MO  fly back to NY.

That was Saturday. And then the Sunday morning service.

While Donald Trump and his campaign, who had earlier fanned conspiracy theories about Clintons health, chose not to comment, noticeably, there was general agreement among experts and media commentators that her health was now a legitimate campaign issue.

Hillary Clintons health just became a real issue in the presidential campaign, ran a headline in The Washington Post, a news publication Trump has frequently accused of being unfair to him. Charlie Sykes, a conservative commentator and leading member of the NeverTrump movement in the Republican party, tweeted a link to that Post article saying, Yep. Hillary Clintons health just became a real issue in the presidential campaign.

Questions have been raised about the two nominees health, given their age  Clinton is 68 and Trump is 70.

The Clinton campaign released a letter from her doctor, Lisa Bardack, who also announced the pneumonia diagnosis Sunday, in January 2015 saying the nominee was in excellent physical condition and fit to serve as President of the United States.

At the time, the doctor had said, Clintons current medical condition include hypothyroidism and seasons pollen allergies. Her past medical history included a deep vein thrombosis in 1998 and 2009, an elbow fracture in 2009 and a concussion in 2012, when she was still secretary of state.

Trumps campaign issued a similar letter from his doctor in December 2015, which came under scrutiny recently for its bombastic tone and claims. It said Trump would be the healthiest president in the history of the country.

The doctor has since said he wrote the letter in five minutes flat, as a Trump campaign car waited outside.

(With AP inputs)
Saudi authorities deployed drones to watch over nearly 2 million pilgrims as they ascended Mount Arafat at the climax of the Haj on Sunday, part of stepped up efforts to avoid a repeat of last years crush amid an escalating war of words with Iran.

In one of the deadliest disasters to befall the annual Muslim rite in decades, the crush last year killed nearly 800 pilgrims, according to Riyadh, though counts by countries of repatriated bodies showed over 2,000 people may have died, more than 400 of them Iranians.

Chanting here I am at thy service, O Lord, the faithful climbed the craggy hills outside Mecca where Islam holds that God tested Abrahams faith by commanding him to sacrifice his son Ismail and the Prophet Mohammed gave his last sermon.

Muslim pilgrims gather on Mount Mercy on the plains of Arafat during the annual Haj pilgrimage, outside the holy city of Mecca, on September 11, 2016. (Reuters )

I have prayed to God to have mercy on us, give us relief and resolve Syrias crisis, said Um Fadi, wearing a traditional long black embroidered dress and head scarf native to her home in southern Syria.

Saudi Arabia has said that 1.85 million pilgrims, most of them from outside Saudi Arabia, have arrived for the annual pilgrimage, a religious duty for every able-bodied Muslim who can afford the journey.

Saudi Arabia stakes its reputation on its guardianship of Islams holiest sites and organising Haj, a role that Iranian authorities have challenged this week as part of an escalating war of words over the handling of last years disaster.

The Grand Mufti, the kingdoms top religious authority, warned Iran that to disrupt the Haj would be unacceptable, in comments reported by local daily al-Okaz on Sunday.

Any policy that aims to divert the Haj from its proper course is un-Islamic and is a criminal policy, he was quoted as saying.

Crowd control

Saudi Arabias state news agency also published a four-part broadside accusing Irans leaders of using the cloak of religion to implement heretical policies. The series said 300 Iranian pilgrims caused last years crush by taking a wrong turn in the direction opposite to where they had been assigned to move.

Saudi authorities have previously suggested that pilgrims failing to follow crowd control rules bore some blame for the disaster, but have not released any further details. An investigation into the incident is still pending.

Earlier in the week, Irans supreme leader accused Saudi authorities of murdering pilgrims during the crush. In response, Saudi Arabias mufti said Irans leaders were not Muslims.

Pilgrims from Iran are not attending Haj this year, after talks between the two Middle East powers over haj arrangements broke down in May.

The 2015 crush, in which two large groups of pilgrims arrived together at a crossroads in Mina, a few km (miles) east of Mecca, on their way to performing the stoning of the devil ritual at Jamarat, was the worst disaster to strike the annual pilgrimage for at least 25 years.

The Saudi authorities redesigned the Jamarat area after two stampedes, one in 2004 and one in 2006, killed hundreds of pilgrims, and the frequency of such disasters has greatly reduced as the government spent billions of dollars upgrading and expanding Haj infrastructure and crowd control technology.

Authorities have deployed drones to reinforce a network of electronic surveillance of the crowds that would alert authorities to intervene quickly if necessary.

Pilgrims used buses, trains and private cars to move from their encampments in Mena to Mount Arafat.

They will spend the day on the mountain and move by sunset to the rocky plain of Muzdalifa, where they will gather pebbles to stone columns symbolizing the devil at another location called Jamarat on Monday, which marks the first day of Eid al-Adha (feast of sacrifice).
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday called for the withdrawal of the US military from a restive southern island, fearing an American troop presence could complicate offensives against Islamist militants notorious for beheading Westerners.

Duterte, who was in the spotlight last week over his televised tirade against the US and President Barack Obama, said special forces now training Filipino troops were high-value targets for the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf as counter-insurgency operations intensify.

These special forces, they have to go, Duterte said in a speech during an oath-taking ceremony for new officials. I do not want a rift with America. But they have to go.

He added: Americans, they will really kill them, they will try to kidnap them to get ransom.

The comment by Duterte, a former southern mayor known for his terse words and volatile temperament, adds to uncertainty about what impact his rise to the presidency will have on one of Washingtons best alliances in Asia.

Duterte wants an independent foreign policy and says close ties with the US are crucial, but he has frequently accused the former colonial power of hypocrisy when criticised for his deadly drugs war. He denied on Friday calling Obama a son of a bitch.

Some US special forces have been killed in the southern Philippines since 2002, when Washington deployed soldiers to train and advise local units fighting Abu Sayyaf in OperationEnduring Freedom, part of its global anti-terror strategy.

At the height of that, some 1,200 Americans were in Zamboanga City and on Jolo and Basilan islands, both strongholds of Abu Sayyaf, which is known for its brutality and for earning huge sums of money from hostage-taking.

The US programme was discontinued in the Philippines in 2015 but a small troop presence has remained for logistics and technical support. Washington has shifted much of its security focus in the Philippines towards the South China Sea.

In his speech to officials on Monday, Duterte repeated comments from last week when he accused the US of committing atrocities against Muslims over a century ago on Jolo island.
Relatives of workers killed in a fire at a packaging factory in Bangladesh have filed a murder case against the owner, police said on Monday, as the death toll from the disaster rose to 31.

Another 12 people are missing after the disaster on Saturday, the worst since the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment complex in 2013 that killed more than 1,100 people.

The government launched an investigation into what caused the fire, but police in the industrial town of Tongi, where the Tampaco Foils Limited factory was located, said bereaved relatives had already filed a private lawsuit.

Read | Explosion and fire at Bangladesh factory kills at least 25

A murder case was filed by relatives of a dead worker against eight people, including the owner and his wife, Tongi police chief Firoz Talukdar said.

Police said they would launch a separate investigation into the murder allegation. Any decision on whether to bring charges will be taken by a court.

Talukdar said firefighters and soldiers engaged in search and rescue efforts had dug out two more bodies, but there was little hope of finding any survivors.

Firefighters work to put out a fire at Tampaco Foils Ltd. factory in Tongi industrial area outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, on September 11, 2016. (AP)

A man consoles a woman who lost a relative in a fire at the packaging factory in Tongi industrial area. Relatives of the accident victims have filed a murder case against the owners of the factory. (AP)

Around 70 people were also injured, some critically, in the fire at the factory, which packages food and cigarette products for local and foreign brands.

The blaze is the latest in a series of deadly accidents to hit impoverished Bangladesh, whose $27-billion garment industry is the worlds second largest behind Chinas.

The Rana Plaza tragedy triggered international outrage and successfully put pressure on US and European clothing brands to improve deplorable safety conditions at the factories which supply them.

The Tampaco factory supplies multinational and domestic brands including British-American Tobacco Bangladesh Limited and Nestle Bangladesh Limited, according to a company website.
Reaching out to help the community once again, Twin Oaks Vineyard and Winery held its 10th annual Twin Oaks Charity Grape Stomp on Saturday with proceeds benefiting BackStoppers.

After all the stuff you see on the television, we decided we'd give this years proceeds to BackStoppers, said Keith Hutson, owner of the local winery.

BackStoppers is a charitable organization that helps the families of law enforcement and related personnel. The winery held its traditional grape stomping competition and generated more than $4,000 for the cause.

This year, according to Hutson, they had a full allotment of teams, 35, stomping for the first place price.

One of the teams participating in Saturdays event was three members of the Farmington Police Department led by none other than the departments own Chief of Police Rick Baker.

Keith (Hutson) called me and said they didnt have a police team, Baker said. I told him I would get three guys or I would do it myself. See what happened.

Joining the chief in the barrel was Sgt. Sam Weekly and Officer Cord Blumenstock.

Many of the teams who joined the grape stomping competition were dressed for success as either Lucile Ball look-a-likes or in various other costumes.

It is a lot of fun, said Josie Barton, who was dressed as Lucy and is a former three time winner of the Lucy look-a-like contest. Its not every day you can dress up like someone else, and Lucy is so iconic.

For one group who joined the ranks of grape stompers it was the pressure of not stomping that led them to the barrels this year.

We have come to the event for the last three years and havent previously done it, said Mia Gowen, So this year we decided to get a team together and join in. Joining Gowen in her battle to be the best was Sara Lugo and Jessica Watkins.

Although many of the days competitors were local, one group of zombie nurses were ready to join the action.

Made up as extras from The Walking Dead, the ICU nursing staff from West Plain, Missouri, was made up of Jessica Barton, Kim Smith and Jennifer Siegrist. They had heard of the event while visiting wineries on the Rue De Vin.

When the grapes were all stomped, this years first place team and the winner of $60 was Trooper Wives, followed by Southern Sin Stompers with a second place win and a prize of $30, and Put a Cork In It walked away with the third place prize of $15.

The first place team, Trooper Wives, donated their prize back to BackStoppers, said Darcy Fangman, the winerys tasting room manager and event coordinator. They challenged someone to match their winnings and two others did match it.

In addition to the grape stomping fundraiser, the winery also held a silent auction with items guests could bid on throughout the day.

At the end of the day, according to Fangman, the annual event raised morew than $4,100 from the competition, corporate sponsors and the silent auction.
A 15-year-old boy has been arrested in Paris suspected of preparing imminent violent action, two judicial sources said, the second alleged plot with links to Islamic State discovered in France this week.

Last Sunday, a car loaded with gas cylinders was found near Notre Dame cathedral and jerry cans of diesel, leading to the discovery of a plot to attack a Paris railway station under the direction of Islamic State. Seven people, including four women, were arrested.

The boy had been under house arrest since France declared a state emergency after November 13 attacks in Paris in which Islamic State militants killed 130 people, two sources said on condition of anonymity. They did not say why he was under house arrest.

His arrest on Saturday came as he was planning an attack in a public place in the French capital, one of the sources said.

The second source said the boy had been in contact with suspected French Islamist militant Rashid Kassim and that Kassim also guided one of the women arrested last week in the plot to attack a train station in Paris.

French newspaper Le Monde reported that Kassim is in Syria. He has used Telegram, the messaging service, to call for more attacks in France.

Women, sisters, go on, attack. Where are the brothers?...She brandished a knife and she hit a policeman...Where are the men? Le Monde quoted a message of Kassim on Telegram.

One of the women, arrested on Thursday stabbed a police officer during her arrest on Thursday.

One of the women, who was arrested with her partner on a motorway on Tuesday , Ornella G., was formally placed under investigation on Saturday in connection with the car found last Sunday near Notre Dame cathedral.

The man was freed on Saturday.

One of the sources said Kassim, 29, inspired two men who carried out an attack in July in a French church during which they slit the throat of the elderly priest.

The attack shocked France, coming less than 12 days after another Islamic State militant drove a truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in Nice.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Sunday there would be new attacks in France but proposals by former president Nicolas Sarkozy to boost security was not the right way to deal with threats.

The French capital was put on high alert last week when French officials said they dismantled a terrorist cell that planned to attack a Paris railway station under the direction of Islamic State.

This week at least two attacks were foiled, Manuel Valls said in an interview with Europe 1 radio and Itele television on Sunday.

Valls said there were 15,000 people on the radar of police and intelligent services who were in the process of being radicalised.

There will be new attacks, there will be innocent victims...this is also my role to tell this truth to the French people, Valls said.

In an interview newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD), Sarkozy said France needed to get tough on militants by creating special courts and detention facilities to boost security.

He is wrong about trying to wring the neck of the rule of law, Valls said.

Sarkozy proposed to systematically place French citizens suspected of having militant links in special detention facilities.

And dont tell me it would be Guantanamo, Sarkozy said in the interview. In France, any administrative confinement is subject to subsequent control by a judge.

Guantanamo, opened by former President George W. Bush, was used to hold prisoners rounded up overseas when the United States became embroiled in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.
Gulf Arab states expressed concern on Monday over a bill passed by the US Congress that would allow relatives of victims of the 9/11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia for compensation.

The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), of which Saudi Arabia is the most powerful member, expressed profound worry, the blocs secretary general, Abdullatif al-Zayani, said in a statement.

He said the law contravenes the foundations and principles of relations between states, notably sovereign immunity.

The US House of Representatives passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act by a unanimous voice vote on Friday. The Senate had approved the bill four months ago and it now goes before President Barack Obama.

The White House has signalled that he is likely to veto the bill but his veto can be overridden by a two-thirds majority of both houses.

Zayani expressed hope the US administration will not endorse this law...which will create a grave precedent.

Saudi Arabia is a longstanding US ally but it was also home to 15 of the 19 al Qaeda hijackers who carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US which killed nearly 3,000 people.

The draft law would allow attack survivors and relatives of terrorism victims to pursue cases in US federal court against foreign governments and demand compensation if such governments are proven to bear some responsibility for attacks on US soil.

Two GCC members  Qatar and the United Arab Emirates  also issued their own separate statements on Monday criticising the bill.
Donald Trump and his presidential campaign will have nothing to say about Democrat Hillary Clintons health woes, two US media outlets reported Monday.

The Republican candidates campaign say they want to be respectful, and that staffers have been ordered to not post anything on social media about Clintons pneumonia diagnosis, CNN reported Monday.

Any violation of the order could result in termination, CNN said, citing unnamed Trump campaign sources.

Bloomberg reported a similar story, quoting people familiar with the planning.

The uncharacteristic move comes after Clinton fell ill Sunday at a 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York, renewing speculation about her health just under eight weeks from Election Day. She later cancelled a California fundraising trip.

Trump, who also attended the ceremony, has promoted the idea in recent weeks that the Democratic presidential contender has serious health problems.

The internet is awash with claims that Clinton may have a brain tumour, Parkinsons or dementia.

However the real estate mogul, known for his relentless and personal attacks, brushed off questions from reporters about Clintons health on Sunday.

The campaign instead put out a bland statement marking the 9/11 anniversary.

Trump is scheduled to campaign Monday in Baltimore, Maryland, where he will speak to the National Guard Association, then campaign in Asheville, North Carolina.
Libyan forces loyal to a powerful general say they have seized a third oil terminal from a rival militia in the east, giving the divisive leader a bargaining chip in negotiations with rival UN-backed authorities in the capital, Tripoli.

Forces led by General Khalifa Hifter said late Sunday that they had seized the Zueitina terminal from a militia known as the Petroleum Facilities Guards, hours after capturing the nearby terminals of Ras Lanuf and al-Sidra.

Most of Libyas oil exports went through the three terminals before the militia seized them more than two years ago.

Hifters army units urged the state-run oil corporation, which is based in Tripoli, to resume oil exports.

Libya drifted into chaos following the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed long-time dictator Moammar Gaddafi, and today is split between rival parliaments and governments in the east and west, each backed by a loose array of militias and tribes.

Hifter enjoys the support of the internationally-recognised parliament, which meets in the east. The parliament has refused to approve the formation of a UN-backed government in Tripoli, in the west, in part because of differences over Hifters future role in Libya.

The capture of the oil terminals could strengthen Hifters hand, making it more difficult to ignore demands from him and others in the east for more clout in a power-sharing government.

The UN-brokered presidency council  which is tasked with forming a unity government  said late Sunday that the takeover by Hifters forces is contradicting the path of reconciliation and frustrating Libyans.

The nine-member council is divided between supporters and opponents of Hifter. Martin Kobler, the UN envoy to Libya, expressed concern over the generals seizure of the terminals.

Libyan forces loyal to the UN-backed government are currently battling a powerful Islamic State affiliate in the central city of Sirte with the help of US-led airstrikes.

The US and other Western nations view the UN-backed government in the capital as the best hope for unifying Libyans and defeating the extremist group.

Italian foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni told reporters on Monday during a visit to Cyprus that Rome had agreed to a request from the Libyan unity government to send a military hospital, which obviously will have its protection, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Asked about media reports that some 200 Italian paratroopers could be deployed to protect the hospital, Gentiloni replied that more details will be announced later by the Italian defence minister.
Senior MQM leader Farooq Sattar and three others were injured when their vehicle had an accident on the Karachi-Hyderabad highway near Nooriabad area, a media report said.

According to Dawn News, Sattar was on his way back from Hyderabad after attending political meetings. He suffered injuries on shoulders and back.

The accident occurred when their vehicle reportedly hit a barrier erected on the highway to mark the under-construction area.

The other three persons, who suffered serious injuries in the road accident, were his guards.
Severe flooding in a North Korean border region has killed at least 133 people with another 395 missing and thousands of homes swept away, the UN says, after Pyongyang reported great hardship in the area.

Some 107,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the area along the Tumen River, the world body said in a statement received on Monday, which cited Pyongyang government figures.

The Norths official media has described the downpour which led to the floods near the northeastern border with China and Russia as the worst for decades, and said it brought severe hardship to residents.

It says a nationwide mass-mobilisation 200-day labour campaign intended to bolster the economy has been redirected to assist the flood victims.

The impoverished nation is vulnerable to natural disasters, especially floods, due partly to deforestation and poor infrastructure.

At least 169 people were killed by a massive rainstorm in the summer of 2012.

Major state resources are swallowed up by a missile and nuclear weapons programme which Pyongyang says is essential to deter US aggression.

More than 35,500 houses have been hit by the latest floods, with 69% of them completely destroyed, and 8,700 public buildings have been damaged, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement dated Sunday.

Around 16,000 hectares (39,540 acres) of farmland have been inundated and at least 140,000 people urgently need help, it said.

OCHA said a group made up of UN agencies, international NGOs, the international Red Cross and the Norths Red Cross had visited parts of the flood-stricken region last week to assess needs.

It said aid agencies have released material from stockpiles in the North such as food, shelter and kitchen kits and water purification and health supplies.

The Norths government was working urgently to reopen roads and was distributing relief goods and building materials. The priority was to rebuild 20,000 homes by early October, before the bitter Korean winter sets in.

The North has trumpeted the role of its ruling Workers Party in responding to the disaster in North Hamgyong province.
North Korea said on Sunday a push for further sanctions following its fifth and biggest nuclear test was laughable, and vowed to continue to strengthen its nuclear power.

The isolated state on Friday set off its most powerful nuclear explosion to date, saying it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile, ratcheting up a threat that its rivals and the United Nations have been powerless to contain.

A U.S. special envoy met with Japanese officials on Sunday and said later the United States may launch unilateral sanctions against North Korea, echoing comments by U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday in the wake of the test.

The group of Obamas running around and talking about meaningless sanctions until today is highly laughable, when their strategic patience policy is completely worn out and they are close to packing up to move out, state-run KCNA news agency cited a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman as saying in a statement later on Sunday.

As weve made clear, measures to strengthen the national nuclear power in quality and quantity will continue to protect our dignity and right to live from augmented threats of nuclear war from the United States, KCNA added.

Earlier, the Souths Yonhap news agency reported South Koreas military had a plan to use its missiles to decimate areas of Pyongyang if there were signs the North was about to launch a nuclear attack, quoting a source in the military.

The Souths Defence Ministry could not immediately confirm the report, but the military has vowed to take strong actions to retaliate in the event of an attack by the North.

The North has yet to demonstrate that it had deployed nuclear-capable missiles, despite claims to have mastered the technology to miniaturise a nuclear warhead to mount it on ballistic missiles.

North Koreans delighted

The U.N. Security Council denounced North Koreas decision to carry out the test and said it would begin work immediately on a resolution. The United States, Britain and France pushed for the 15-member body to impose new sanctions.

Obama said after speaking by telephone with South Korean President Park Geun-hye and with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday that they had agreed to work with the Security Council and other powers to vigorously enforce existing measures and to take additional significant steps, including new sanctions.

We will be working very closely in the Security Council and beyond to come up with the strongest possible measure against North Koreas latest actions, said U.S. envoy Sung Kim on Sunday.

In addition to action in the Security Council, both the U.S. and Japan, together with the Republic of Korea, will be looking at unilateral measures, as well as bilateral measures, as well as possible trilateral cooperation, he said, referring to South Korea by its official name.

South Koreas top nuclear envoy also spoke to his Chinese counterpart late on Saturday by telephone and emphasized the need for fresh countermeasures including a new U.N. security council resolution during their call, the South Korean foreign ministry said in a statement.

South Korea said on Saturday that the latest test showed North Koreas nuclear capability was expanding fast and that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was unwilling to alter course.

Another KCNA report on Sunday said North Koreans were delighted by the nuclear test.

The enemies can no longer deny the strategic position of our country as a nuclear weapons state, Jong Won Sop, a teacher at the University of National Economy, was quoted as saying.
A large section of Britains Sikh community is incensed with one of the countrys largest gurdwaras and Warwickshire police for their over-reaction to a protest on Saturday that led to 55 arrests and a day-long armed cordon outside the shrine on Sunday.

The police on Sunday said they have contained the situation and released 54 men on bail who were arrested during the clash, while a 30-year-old man remains in the custody as investigations were on the nature of the weapons used during the incident.

At the centre of the row is concern in the community over weddings between Sikh and non-Sikh individuals, and the August 2015 resolution of more than 180 gurdwaras in Britain that the Anand Karaj (marriage) ceremony should be conducted only between Sikhs.

According to Sikh groups, anticipating an Anand Karaj ceremony between a Sikh and a non-Sikh on Sunday, a group of protestors entered Gurdwara Sahib Leamington Spa and Warwick, about 150 km northwest of London, in the morning. The protestors were carrying the usual kirpan.

But the management committee of the gurdwara  one of the largest outside India  called Warwickshire police, allegedly informing them that masked men had forced their entry, carrying bladed items other than kirpans. Police mounted an armed response around the gurdwara, including a helicopter.

There was no comment from the committee, but Gurjeet Singh of the Sikh Federation (UK) told Hindustan Times: We condemn the over-reaction by the police and the disgraceful and inexcusable behaviour by the management committee at Leamington Gurdwara that have unashamedly brought the law-abiding Sikh community into disrepute by fuelling false and sensationalised media reports.

Warwickshire police admitted on Sunday evening that blades seized so far have been ceremonial and that another non-ceremonial weapon was seized. The protest was peaceful and most of those arrested were released with bail conditions, which further infuriated the Sikh community.

According to the August 2015 resolution, only a Sikh in accordance with the Sikh Rehat Maryada definition is allowed to be married in accordance with the Anand Karaj ceremony. It laid down that a person of non-Sikh origin who accepts the Sikh faith should demonstrate formal acceptance of this by including Singh or Kaur in their name.

Jasdev Singh Rai of the British Sikh Consultative Forum said: The issue of inter-faith marriages is complex. Most of the youth are brought up in UK. They are influenced by British idea of literal interpretation of law.

These youth tend to legalistically interpret complex aspects of Sikh tradition. There is a need for a wider debate and clarity from institutions such as Akal Takht for appropriate guidance.

Calling for an apology from the police, Gurjeet Singh said: The protesters were respectful and peaceful at all times in the gurdwara from video footage from inside the gurdwara. CCTV footage will show they simply walked into the gurdwara in the early hours and none of them were wielding swords.

This was a small group of young protesters who justifiably objected to an inter-faith marriage that was to be carried out.

Singh added the Akal Takht or the throne of the timeless one in Amritsar, which is the highest seat of Sikh temporal power that exists to address spiritual and temporal concerns of Sikhs, had ruled that the Anand Karaj is only appropriate between two Sikhs.

A Sikh who therefore wishes to marry a non-Sikh and have an inter-faith marriage is free to do so, but an alternative to the Sikh religious ceremony or Anand Karaj that is conducted in a gurdwara is necessary, Singh said.

The 2015 resolution was accepted by the vast majority of gurdwara committees in Britain but the Sikh Federation (UK) said there have been consistent reports that the management committee at Leamington Gurdwara were defiantly still booking Anand Karaj ceremonies between Sikhs and non-Sikhs, ignoring the ruling of the Akal Takht that is binding on all Sikhs worldwide.

Another group, Sikh 2 Inspire, came down heavily on British media for sensationalising the incident, particularly the total lack of respect and understanding in writing about the sacred Kirpan. This was adding what it said were growing incidents of racism after Britain voted in June to leave the European Union.

In Amritsar, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), an elected body of Sikhs that manages the affairs of gurdwaras in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, justified the opposition by some Sikh groups to the inter-faith marriage at the UK gurdwara.

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A new ceasefire brokered by Russia and the United States is due to begin at sundown on Monday in Syria.

It aims to halt fighting between President Bashar al-Assads forces and the opposition, but does not apply to jihadists like the Islamic State group. The regime and its allies have backed the truce but with only a few hours to go on Monday the opposition had not yet signed on.

Here is a breakdown of the forces involved:

Regime and allies

The Syrian Armys 300,000-strong pre-war force has been halved by deaths, defections and draft-dodging but is continuing to battle myriad rebel groups and jihadists.

The army is bolstered by 200,000 irregular fighters, notably from the National Defence Forces. It also battles alongside 5,000 to 8,000 men from Lebanons powerful Shia militia Hezbollah, as well as Iranian, Iraqi and Afghan fighters.

Russia, a key regime backer, began an aerial campaign in support of Assads government in September last year and has helped Damascus recapture areas in several provinces.

Iran is another key ally, providing financial and military support.

Rebels and backers

The truce is to apply to a wide range of opposition forces, including moderate rebel fighters and Islamist factions. The total number of rebel fighters is unclear, though in 2013 US secretary of state John Kerry said there were 70,000 to 100,000 oppositionists fighting in Syria.

The Free Syrian Army (FSA) was a key opposition faction in the early days of the conflict but has since splintered into a range of groups, though the term is still often used to describe moderate rebels.

Ahrar al-Sham is Syrias most powerful non-jihadist rebel group, with a commanding presence in Idlib and Aleppo provinces. It espouses a hardline Islamist ideology, and is a key partner of the jihadist Fateh al-Sham Front, participating in the Army of Conquest alliance with the group in ruling Idlib province.

Opposition factions deemed moderate are backed by the West, particularly the US, France and Britain. Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar also back the opposition, and have lent support to Islamist factions.

Another key opposition group is the Saudi-backed Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) linked to Mohammed Alloush, a leading rebel figure who briefly acted as the chief negotiator for the main opposition umbrella group, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC).

Jihadists

The Islamic State group and the Fateh al-Sham Front are excluded from the ceasefire agreement. IS emerged from the chaos of the civil war to seize control of large parts of Syria and Iraq in mid-2014, declaring an Islamic caliphate, committing widespread atrocities and carrying out or inspiring deadly attacks abroad.

Under pressure from a US-led air war launched two years ago and fighting on multiple fronts, IS has since suffered major losses but remains in control of significant territory in northern Syria, including its de facto capital Raqa.

The Fateh al-Sham Front is the former al Qaeda affiliate in Syria and was previously known as Al Nusra Front. It split in July from the global jihadist network founded by Osama bin Laden, in a move analysts said was aimed at easing pressure from both Moscow and Washington.

Questions remain about how the ceasefire will apply in several parts of the country where the Fateh al-Sham Front cooperates closely with rebel forces, including moderates and Ahrar al-Sham.

If the ceasefire holds for a week, Moscow and Washington are to begin unprecedented joint targeting of jihadist forces including IS and the Fateh al-Sham Front.

The Kurds

Syrias Kurds have largely stayed out of the conflict between the government and armed opposition, carving out a semi-autonomous region in north and northeastern Syria.

Their Peoples Protection Units (YPG) have become a key partner of the US-led coalition fighting IS as part of the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces. Both the YPG and the SDF said on Monday that they would respect the ceasefire.

Turkey launched an offensive into Syria last month against IS and the YPG, which Ankara regards as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that has waged a 32-year insurrection inside Turkey. Ankara welcomed the ceasefire agreement but has said it will press on with its operations inside Syria.
Monday

Bonne Terre Council

The Bonne Terre City Council will meet in regular session at 6 p.m. at city hall located on 118 N. Allen St. The meeting is open to the public.

Desloge Library Board

The Desloge Library Board meets in regular session at 7 p.m. in the Desloge Public Library, 209 N. Desloge Drive. The meeting is open to the public.

Tuesday

Leadington Board of Aldermen

The Leadington Board of Aldermen meets in regular session at 6 p.m. at city hall, 12 W. Weir St. The meeting is open to the public.

Park Hills City Council

The Park Hills City Council meets tonight at 6 p.m. for a regular session in the municipal court chambers at city hall, located at 9 Bennett St. The meeting is open to the public.

Wednesday

SFC 911 Board

The St. Francois County 911 Board meets in regular session at 10 a.m. at Desloge City Hall, 300 N. Lincoln. The meeting is open to the public.

Thursday

MAC Trustees

The Mineral Area College Trustees meets in regular session at 2 p.m. in the boardroom on the Park Hills campus. The meeting is open to the public.

West County Board of Education

The West County Board of Education meets tonight at 6 p.m. for a regular session in the Board of Education room located at 1124 Main St. in Leadwood. The meeting is open to the public.

Bismarck Board of Education

The Bismarck Board of Education meets in regular session at 6 p.m. in the elementary school library. The meeting is open to the public.
Police arrested 55 people in the British town of Leamington Spa on Sunday following an eight-hour protest at a gurdwara about an interfaith wedding that was to take place later in the day. According to news reports, the protestors, some with bladed weapons, entered the Gurdwara Sahib to stop an interfaith wedding. There have reportedly been tensions in the community over the last couple of years about permissions being granted to conduct interfaith weddings at the gurdwara.

Two groups Sikh 2 Inspire and Sikh Youth UK said they were merely staging a peaceful protest. They claim the wedding violated a consensus in the community to not allow Gurdwaras to host interfaith marriages.

Read | Several arrests made after armed trespass in UK gurdwara

Warwickshire police said that a significant number of bladed weapons were seized from the scene. It said the blades seized so far have been ceremonial but that another non-ceremonial weapon was seized. Nobody was injured in the incident but they were treating the incident as an aggravated trespass, pending investigation, believing it to be an escalation of an ongoing dispute. The Guardian said it was the third or fourth time in recent months that a group of men had attempted to gain entry to the Gurdwara over the issue of mixed marriages.

The gurdwara committees decision to call the police and the subsequent arrests have sparked sharp reactions on social media. Some backed the protests on religious grounds while others strongly objected to disrupting mixed marriages.

A law passed or decision made by Sri Akaal Takht Sahib is not up for debate, end of! #LeamingtonGurdwara has gone rogue  Pinda Mann (@Pinda_Mann) September 11, 2016

ABOUT TIME West Midlands police is taking seriously the threats from thugs who disrupt inter-faith marriages. They've ignored this for years  Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) September 11, 2016

@shashj It is about our faith. We are fine with mixed marriages it's about the religious ceremony as it is only meant to be for Sikhs.  Amanpreet Kaur Gill (@AmanpreetMedia) September 11, 2016

@AmanpreetMedia Its intimidation based on religious prejudice, and it's quite clearly illegal.  Shashank Joshi (@shashj) September 11, 2016

@shashj @AmanpreetMedia code of conduct given to us by our Guru Ji is religious prejudice? Do you even have knowledge of the ceremony?  Just Tarli (@TarliDigital) September 11, 2016

@TarliDigital @AmanpreetMedia use of force and intimidation to prevent a mixed-faith marriage? I call that prejudice and bigotry.  Shashank Joshi (@shashj) September 11, 2016

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Seeking to put behind her what is turning out to be the worst misstep of her campaign for the White House yet, Hillary Clinton on Saturday expressed regret for saying Donald Trumps supporters belonged in a basket of deplorables.

Last night I was grossly generalistic, and thats never a good idea. I regret saying half  that was wrong, Clinton said in a statement.

She added, however, But lets be clear, whats really deplorable is that Donald Trump hired a major advocate for the so-called alt-right movement to run his campaign and that David Duke and other white supremacists see him as a champion of their values.

The major advocate was a reference to Steven Bannon, the Republican presidential nominees campaign chief executive; and Duke is a former member of the racist Ku Klux Klan, whose support Trumps was slow to repudiate.

At a fund-raiser in New York on Friday, Clinton had said, To just be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it.

Trump hit back in a tweet on Saturday: Wow, Hillary Clinton was so insulting to my supporters, millions of amazing, hard working people. I think it will cost her at the Polls! Though Trump himself never apologizes  he hasnt yet for insulting Khizr and Ghazala Khan, parents of a fallen Muslim soldier  but his campaign demanded an apology from Clinton.

The Democratic nominee did, eventually.

But not before critics began comparing her remarks to campaign-defining low moments from earlier races  such as Republican nominee Mitt Romneys dissing of 47% of Americans who, he said during his 2012 campaign, didnt pay taxes, felt entitled to state support and wont vote for him.

Clinton, who has a reputation for being scripted and rehearsed in her public appearances, had not had this kind of a stumble yet, compared to a trail of those left behind by her Republican rival Trump.
TORONTO: Actress Sunny Leone has become one of the most famous Indo-Canadians after her success in Bollywood but she remains a deeply divisive figure in her hometown, where many refused to even talk about her for a new documentary film on her life.

Born as Karenjit Kaur Vohra in the small town of Sarnia in the Canadian province of Ontario 35 years ago, Leone finds the community in her hometown unwilling to welcome her back.

Thats because the girl who was sent to a Khalsa summer camp by her parents went on to gain prominence as a Penthouse Pet and then as a porn star. This is revealed in the documentary Mostly Sunny, directed by Toronto-based filmmaker Dilip Mehta, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

While Leone may have found acceptance among many Indians, like those who invite her to perform at weddings, she remains ostracised by Sarnias Indo-Canadian community, Mehta told Hindustan Times. When Mehta sent a camera unit to the gurdwara she worshipped at when young, its management called the police. And friends and relatives of her parents refused to discuss her, especially her choice of entering the adult film industry.

Mehta was first offered the project in 2013. But he felt uncomfortable about the project in the wake of the gruesome gang-rape in Delhi and almost dropped it.

Later, Mehta met Leone in Mumbai and decided to proceed. Filming wrapped late last year and the final shoot was in Sarnia, as Leone acted as a guide to landmarks of her childhood, without interacting with anyone from that period. Mehta shot in the places Leone and her husband made their homes: Mumbai and Los Angeles.

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NEW YORK: Would-be presidential assassin John Hinckley Jr. was released from a psychiatric hospital on Saturday, reports said, 35 years after he shot US President Ronald Reagan in an attack prompted by a deranged obsession with actress Jodie Foster.

Hinckley, 61, is moving in with his elderly mother in a gated community in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he has been making increasingly long furlough visits in recent years under the watchful eyes of the US Secret Service.

A federal judge in July ordered Hinckleys release from St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, finding that he no longer posed a danger to himself or to others. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity at a 1982 trial and was diagnosed with depression and psychosis.

As a 25-year-old college dropout, Hinckley had grown fixated upon Foster and the Martin Scorsese film Taxi Driver. Inspired by the films main character, who plots to kill a presidential candidate, Hinckley opened fire on Reagan in a misguided effort to win Fosters affections.

Reagan suffered a punctured lung but recovered quickly. His press secretary, James Brady, was left permanently disabled.

The shooting helped launch the modern gun control movement, and a bill later imposed background checks and a waiting period.
President Obama has been honoured with a kind of immortality. One new species of blood fluke and turtles in Malaysia will probably remember him forever. A parasitic flatworm, called Baracktrema obamai, will share its name with the President of the United States.

A scientist, Thomas Platt, a turtle disease expert who discovered the new species shortly before his recent retirement from St. Mary's College, is said to be the fifth cousin twice removed of President Obama. He clarified that the name is supposed to honor the President.

He has a great respect for President Obama as well as parasites - even if it sounds strange. He does have a point, though.

They "face incredible obstacles to complete their [life cycles] and must contend with the immune system of the host in order to mature and reproduce," he said.

B. obamai is described as sporting a long, thread-like body and has so far inhabited two freshwater turtles---the black marsh turtle (Siebenrockiella crassicollis) and southeast Asian box turtle (Cuora amboinensis). It is just as thick as human hair.

The scientists located tens to hundreds of fluke eggs in the turtles' lung alveoli. These are the tiny sacs in which the blood makes the gas exchange between oxygen and carbon dioxide. These flukes make the turtles cough, but how the eggs are able to come outside the turtles to hatch eggs and infect new hosts has not been made clear.

The entire cycle of baptism and naming appears to be interesting. "I have named a number of species after people I admire, from my father-in-law, my PhD adviser, and good friends who are academics and/or amateur naturalists," Platt said. "Baracktrema obamai will endure as long as there are systematists studying these remarkable organisms."

Surprisingly, Barack Obama will certainly not be forgotten by seven creatures in the parasitological world, who have all been named after him. Not only sad and suffering turtles infected with his namesake parasites, but other creatures too, such as fish (Etheostoma obama), a trapdoor spider (Aptostichus barackobamai), a lichen species (Caloplaca obamae) and an extinct insect-eating lizard (Obamadon gracilis) will recall him.

It's not clear whether Obama wants to remember it, even though Platt has made up his mind for him. "It is a unique component of the diversity of life on this planet," Platt said. "Anyone should consider it an honor."

No wonder President Barack Obama seems to be in a hurry to leave office

B. obamai has been introduced by scientists in the August issue of the Journal of Parasitology.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
So you think there are no aliens anywhere in the world?

Well, you're wrong---and arrogant to think so, according to Leroy Chiao, an ex-NASA astronaut and commander on the International Space Station, who has completed almost 230 days in space.

Ever since NASA's Kepler mission discovered thousands of exoplanets, of which 40 are thought to be within the "Goldilocks Zone," where it is not too hot nor too cold to get life support, scientists have found a planet that revolves around Proxima Centauri, our closest star. It has been named Proxima b.

Having been on four missions in space and completed six spacewalks, Leroy Chaio said that discoveries of other earth-like planets all over the world confirms what he has believed---that there is alien life in the entire universe. Proxima b, which is the closest to our own planet, is situated about 4.2 light years away.

The earth, though, doesn't have too nice a future, he explained:

"I believe that there is life all over our universe, since it would be the height of arrogance to think that we are alone. Moreover, I believe that at some point, life on Earth will die out, either from natural causes, or from our own doing. To me, this is a natural progression, just like individual lives on our planet. Unlike many people, including several of my astronaut colleagues, I don't think that technology will save us," he wrote. "I believe that life is always starting in some parts of the universe at the same time that it is dying out in others. We don't know about each other, simply because the distances are so vast."

Other scientists share his thinking. Many scientists told Congress in 2014 that "the components and conditions" that make life exist everywhere are probably widespread in the Milky Way.

"At least a half-dozen other worlds (besides Earth) that might have life are in our solar system," Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the California-based Search of Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute told the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Science, Space, and Technology at the time. "The chances of finding it, I think, are good, and if that happens, it'll happen in the next 20 years, depending on the financing."

Still, the naysayers dismiss the opinions totally.

William Borucki, a famed NASA scientist and pioneer in the finding of new planets said last year that if there were alien life, wouldn't we know it by now?

"Up till now, it was just an intellectual question. It isn't anymore. There could be 10 billion civilizations or none. The evidence certainly is none," Borucki said. "The evidence says no one's out there."

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Love relationship between Lee Min-ho and Bae Suzy is reported to be in trouble after she starred in drama "Uncontrollably Fond."

Lee was blamed to be the source of the drama's low rating, because of his jealousy to Kim Woo-bin, Suzy's partner in the drama.

KBS2 drama "Uncontrollably Fond" ended on Sept. 8. After starting a successful premiere in July, the drama suffered a low rating.

Based on the TnMs rating, the final episode only scored 7.3 percent, below average 8.8 percent in the Seoul metropolitan area. In entire Korea, the rating fell under 7.4 percent, below its nationwide average of 8.2 percent.

One main reason of the low rating in the later episodes was due to the poor acting of Suzy who played female lead character No Eul. Although the story has a beautiful and tearful romance, she failed to deliver best result.

Suzy's boyfriend Lee is suspected to be the main reason of her bad acting

According to Movie News Guide, Lee was jealous because Suzy got really close to Kim during the filming of "Uncontrollably Fond." Kim played No Eul's love interest Joon-young.

Fans speculated that Lee even asked Suzy to leave the drama because of his jealousy. They also connected it to previous relationship issues.

However this speculation needs to be confirmed as "Uncontrollably Fond" was also her first acting project.

Regardless of the rumor, Lee went to Spain to shoot his new drama, "Legend of The Blue Sea" on Sept. 11, as The Inquisitr reported.

He will paired with the veteran actress Jun Ji-hyun, and other top actors and actress such as Lee Hee Joon, Shin Hye-Sun, Moon Sori, Lee Ji-Hoon and Na Young Hee.

Lee's new drama "Legend of The Blue Sea" is scheduled to air in 2017, while Suzy will resume her singing career with her group Miss A. Up to now, there is no official announcement regarding their relationship.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.


After iPhone 7, another Apple product is on the verge of inducing another buzz of excitement. Because MacBook Pro 2016 is not on the list of products launched last September 7, 2016, a cloud of mystery is already in the air.

If the latest rumors are to be believed, another round of products from the Cupertino-based tech giant will be revealed in October. Whether or not the new MacBook will be announced next month needs to be anticipated, MacWorld has declared that Apple will be releasing a new laptop before the year ends.

Although the target date remains unclear, there is so much to expect from the laptop Pro. Aside from showing off plenty of USB C ports in a leaked photo, users and fanatics are looking forward to a potential processor upgrade and a new AMD graphics chip.

A photo has revealed a touchpad bigger than the current model with a thinner body.

A leak shared by Cult of Mac unveils a new design with keyboard that uses the newer layout found on the MacBook and the Apple Magic keyboard but with an opening at the top that likely includes an OLED touch panel to control some functions.

Connectivity is associated with four USB type C ports and a headphone jack with no SD card reader or MagSafe 2 charging connection.

Bloomberg's latest report has announced that MacBook Pro will be slimmer but not tapered like the MacBook Air. These new models will feature a larger trackpad that utilizes Force Touch technology.

The new laptop will most probably come with the Kaby Lake processor and the new GPU options. This type of processor has the appearance of a dynamic function row or the new OLED touch bar that replaces physical function keys. Hints of a 10 Gbps USB 3.1 Gen 2 support feature are slated. Theoretically, the Pro can power dual 4K displays over a USB C cable or a single 5K display.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Even as UFO sightings are raging, one intriguing 'UFO video' flew high on Facebook. Many viewers leaped to the conclusion that the strange-looking object near the clouds that was filmed during a lightning UK storm could only be that of an alien.

Only a few days after a UFO that seemed to be as big as the "size of a car" got caught on film, it just hovered over a Cheshire family home. A father of four, Chris Henry, spotted the jet-black right-angled object appearing in the sky near Manchester.

It was filmed by the owner of the house, who was waiting for a friend to pick him up in Macclesfield. However, he could not really explain anything about the video when he played it back later.

Henry said: "I just thought: 'What is that?' It was like an egg-timer shape. I filmed it from my doorstep but it was only when I got back home and zoomed in on the video that I saw how bizarre it was."

The 27-year-old UFO writer affirmed that though he has seen hundreds of UFO videos, he has never seen anything like this one. Within the website of The Norfolk UFO Network, he did not seem to belong to any of its categories.

After the UFO was captured on video it zoomed into Facebook, even as the sky was split by lightning while a wind funnel was whizzing and whipping up a storm.

Though he captured it first in the bottom of the video frame, it soon went up, while lightning raged across the sky. A sort of funnel cloud emerged in the center of the storm and made way to debris. However, many alien nuts felt that it looked more than just debris.

Henry said: "I posted the video on Facebook and people said it could be a drone or hot air balloon but it was too high up - it was the height planes fly at, and it was miserable weather too. It looked nothing like a drone either as drones have wings and propellers. No one's been able to put forward any sensible suggestion as to what it was."

It was a post that was shared multiple times on Facebook, with some viewers suggesting that it might have been an aircraft, while others said that it was a bird. Yet there were many believers who were firmly convinced that it was an alien. One of the worriers are edgy about the alien spacecraft controlling the entire world.

YouTube/Trident Eye

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Hollywood A-lister and UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie visited Azraq refugee camp in Jordan while calling actions on the implementation of humanitarian laws to people caught in war.

After seeing the conditions of the refugees, Jolie called on the necessity for an international assistance to alleviate the condition of the refugees most especially the families that were displaced during the crisis.

She lamented on the poor deliveries of humanitarian aid at the refugee camp as there were no food delivered to the victims since August.

During a press conference, she gave strong remark regarding the absence of humanitarian aid while exposing the flight of the refugees.

Amid their conditions, these people considered themselves lucky as there are still millions of Syrians trapped inside war zones, the People's Magazine quoted Jolie saying.

With the poor condition of the refugee camp, as also described in The Jerusalem Post, Jolie directed the blame not to the Jordan government but to the lawmakers around the world for not providing sufficient humanitarian aids to the victims of war.

"So my message to world leaders, as they prepare to gather at the UN General Assembly in 10 days' time, is to ask that the fundamental root causes of the Syria conflict, and what it will take to end it, are put at the center of the discussion," she said.

She reiterated that these refugees do not deserve a passive aid but a concrete political solution by effectively implementing humanitarian laws.

In addition, she also delivered a surprise speech before the UN Summit emphasizing that there should also be more number of women who will be involved in the peace process.

In time with her efforts in asking UN Leaders to strengthen humanitarian laws for the refugees, it is also the timely to get serious in dealing with issues relating to Syrian conflicts.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
DEAR HARRIETTE: I took my friend to my favorite pizza joint in my town. I have been going there for 10 years, so I know the owners and employees personally. When we ordered, my friend insisted on receiving a free water with his two slices of pizza. The slices themselves are huge, and two slices and a bottle of water cost $5. It's not like this business is asking you to break the bank. They don't even have cups, so everything comes in a bottle or can. This started an argument about my friend's rights as a restaurant patron. I was mortified.

A day has passed since this incident, and I refuse to lose the bond I've formed at this restaurant over my buddy having a tantrum. Should I go in and apologize to the owners? -- A Slice of Wrong, South Orange, New Jersey

DEAR A SLICE OF WRONG: Yes, you should apologize to the restaurant management and server about your friend's poor behavior. Explain that you thought you were bringing a good friend to your favorite spot, but it backfired. Assure the establishment that you remain a loyal customer.

As far as your friend goes, contact him immediately as well. Let him know that you do not appreciate his argumentative attitude with the restaurant. Remind him that you took him to your favorite spot. That should have been a cue for him to be on his best behavior. Tell him how upsetting and unexpected his reaction was for you. Don't ask him to do anything, though. His (likely shallow) apology could open a wound that is beginning to heal.

** ** **

DEAR HARRIETTE: I am a university student, so every semester is a treasure hunt to find the most affordable version of the textbook. This semester, I landed a great bargain on a business textbook and was proud of myself. When I got to class, the professor told us we should have purchased a new book or an e-book to receive the online access code. Now I'm mad because I have to shell out another $125 for a code -- just so I can do my homework! I want to avoid this happening to me again, but don't know if it is a wise move to bother professors on their breaks between semesters. Should I risk being the nagging student to save some cash? -- Save That Money, Baltimore

DEAR SAVE THAT MONEY: You should absolutely write to your instructors as soon as you receive your class lists and introduce yourself. In your introduction, express your eagerness to learn in the professor's class, and also acknowledge that you hunt for affordable books each semester. Ask if there are any special requirements for the text, including needing an online access code, so that you are fully prepared when classes begin -- and so that you haven't wasted money.

In your note, let your instructor know that you realize he or she may still be on summer break, and if so, you did not mean to intrude. You just want to do all you can in advance to be prepared for the semester. Your instructor will most likely appreciate your effort!

Harriette Cole is a lifestylist and founder of DREAMLEAPERS, an initiative to help people access and activate their dreams. You can send questions to askharriette@harriettecole.com or c/o Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106
What Drake said on stage had the entire concert go wild: "I pray that you find somebody that holds you down like this woman right here," he cried out, and everyone yelled---perhaps because God is deaf? Later the Toronto rapper called his girlfriend "incredible, beautiful [and] talented," said E!

It was Drake's lively Summer Sixteen concert at L.A.'s Staples Center on Saturday night, Sept. 10. And it was the concluding day of his three-night stand at the Staples Center.

Drake had already set the evening on fire when he coaxed Rihanna to join together in union with him.

She floated onto the stage in a floating, white mini skirt, looking lovely.

RiRi was quick to croon a solo "Bitch Better Have My Money" with her boyfriend.

There had been whispers that the two were smitten, even as Drake said that he nurtured a long-time love for Rihanna at the MTV Video Music Awards in late August, when he introduced the 2016 Video Vanguard winner.

At first, the rapper entered the stage, and seemed to want to exchange a kiss. But a few tussles followed and he got his kiss during his Miami show.

"She's someone I've been in love with since I was 22-years-old," he admitted.

Their love affair is visible to all. One insider revealed: "They are both mature and ready to commit now. Drake loves Rihanna so much and if it was up to him, he would marry her tomorrow."

Another source said: "Things are different this time between them for the better."

With the pair sharing a deeply felt love, their tattoos and even their password, it's not too difficult to confirm that their love is strong and steady----so far, at least.

YouTube/DominicanNiggazVideosHD

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 opened new hopes as investigators believed to have discovered some of its debris off the coast of Madagascar.

American investigator Blaine Gibson obtained burnt pieces of what were believed to be parts of the wreckage of the ill-fated flight MH370.

Five new pieces of debris that could belong to the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have been found in Madagascar. Two fragments appear to show burn marks, which if confirmed would be the first time such marks have been found.

The findings were made by debris hunter Gibson, who has previously found other parts of the plane. Gibson had been investigating the plane disappearance for the last 18 months.

On a Daily Mail report, Gibson was quoted saying, "The top layer of paint has been singed, scorched black. (It's significant) because it appears to be from the interior of the plane but not the main cabin, perhaps the cargo hold, perhaps the avionics bay."

Following the previous reports, NY Mag reported that they have found a "confidential document from the Malaysian police" regarding the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

The report revealed that, a month before the incident, Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah previously directed a simulated flight around the isolated southern Indian Ocean.

The statement has been said to be the "strongest evidence" to prove that Shah planned a mass murder suicide.

However, the Malaysian authorities disputed the claims.

According to Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, inspector general of police, "We have never submitted such a report to any authority abroad including FBI."

Following these reports, commercial pilot Byron Bailey argued that "the flight-simulator data proved that Zaharie had committed suicide."

If proven that the debris come from the missing Flight MH370, a strong argument will prevail whether or not the pilot committed a suicide in March 2014 bringing with him 239 other people on board.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Earlier this year, I had the immense privilege of visiting Ithaca, NY, to be a guest lecturer at the prestigious Cornell School of Hotel Administration. I was invited by Dr. Rohit Verma, a professor and the Dean for External Relations at Cornell College of Business. He is also the Executive Director of the Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures. My objective was to speak to his class of future hospitality leaders about the impact of mobile technology on service quality.

The Cornell Experience

The Cornell University Campus, even in the dead of winter, is a simply beautiful place. With so many great cafes and shops, Ithaca is such a charming city. The campus itself is home to the Statler Hotel, which is a teaching hotel operated by the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. If you travel frequently, you start to notice the little things that make or break a good hotel stay.

Needless to say, the Statler Hotel is one of the best hotels I have ever stayed at. The smallest of details  from accessible bedside iPhone chargers and plugs, to the guest check-in process  are meticulously planned and executed. If you are a hotelier and would like to visit a property to see how things should be done, it is worth a trip to the Statler Hotel for the latest and greatest in hotel technology and guest service.

On campus, my day was hectic. I was greeted by Rohit shortly upon arrival, had a lovely lunch in the hotel's teaching restaurant at the Statler Hotel, and was escorted to my first ever opportunity to teach a class. Though I had never taught or facilitated a formal class before, let alone at an Ivy-league university, the class and teaching staff were welcoming and made me feel at home.

About the Class

I was invited to facilitate the Quality Systems and Processes class. The students were a mix of young men and women, mostly Millennials. This Gen Xer had his work cut out for him! I kicked it off with some mini SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) brainstorming. I divided the class into four groups, and, holding my mobile phone in my hand, asked them to discuss in their groups the following two questions:

What opportunities exist for mobile devices to improve overall service quality? What are the potential drawbacks of such devices when it comes to the delivery of quality service?

As I walked around the room, the discussion was energizing. The room was occupied by a generation that lived on their mobile devices, but their education in service quality clearly had an impact on how they viewed the subject at hand. When adequate time had passed, each team elected a member to come up and present their findings. Here are the results:

How Mobile Devices Can Improve Overall Service Quality

Data Collection

Using mobile technology to collect information from guests was a major opportunity in the eyes of the students. The class felt that mobile messaging offered the ability to analyze guest requests and conversations over a period of time  a great tool for identifying trends to improve overall service.

Personalizing the Experience

The ability to identify the individual needs of a guest and anticipate them in the future was seen as a great opportunity. As an example, one student cited her ability to communicate with a hotel she stays at frequently about their yoga classes. That the hotel now knows this information about her, she said, means there is an opportunity to personalize future experiences around yoga to build a more meaningful connection. This was seen as something that helped tailor the relationship between the brand and guest, driving loyalty.

Profiling and Guest Preferences

Mobile messaging enables hotels to develop a profile of each guest in order to anticipate their needs. Referring back to the yoga scenario, the class felt that knowing this information allows the hotel to proactively provide a service for the guest upon their return  such as placing a yoga mat in the room for the guest's use during their stay.

Business Travel Convenience

The class felt that mobile technology can make life more convenient for business travelers in particular. In their view, mobile technology can make a multitude of items easier for this sub-set of travelers  including the receipt of hotel invoices, easy routing of guest folios to expense applications, and more. The class saw the convenience of messaging and other mobile applications as a significant opportunity for the industry to encourage repeat visits among business travelers.

Mobile is a great way for hotels to target Millennials, according to the class. They agreed that the ability to quickly request an item from a mobile device and have it added to their bill is a major opportunity hoteliers should embrace. Not only does it equate to a higher degree of guest satisfaction, it is also a way for hotels to generate more revenue. The class felt that the option to easily purchase an item or service using their mobile device would lead to more on-site requests and purchases.

Drawbacks of Mobile Regarding Service Quality

Potential to Create a Less Personalized Guest Experience

The class felt that mobile devices could result in fewer face-to-face experiences with hotel staff  a real problem for the traditional service model. They felt that having every guest ask for things anonymously could be too sterile, especially in a high-touch environment such as a luxury property.

To overcome this, the class agreed that technology should not replace the traditional service model, but instead serve as the launch pad for a conversation between the guest and the service professional. One student noted that, while it may be easy to order a bottle of wine with a phone, the real difference is the ability for the hotel's sommelier to share some notes and attributes of the various wines with the guest. In this way, mobile technology can be used to not just fulfill the request, but also open the door to further conversation.

Keeping Up with Guest Demands via Mobile Devices

The class noted that the amount of inbound enquiries from guests using their mobile devices could be taxing, especially in bigger hotels with a larger volume of guests making many requests during their stay.

To overcome this, they felt that mobile technology must automate certain requests and that strong processes need to be in place in the back end to ensure swift response times to guests requests. Technology, however, shouldn't replace the human element of the guest experience when it involves fulfilling special or unique requests.

Over-Automating the Guest Experience

New technology designed to auto-respond to a guest's requests was a major concern for the class. They felt that the ability for technology to automatically respond to a guest's requests without human intervention using mobile messaging or related technology carries many risks. They also noted that unreliable, mistake-prone technology has the potential to cause immense damage to the hotel brand.

To overcome this, they felt that auto-responses and other technology designed to replace hotel staff needs to be further perfected. Furthermore, any mobile technology that doesn't enable escalations to ensure that a guest's request is fulfilled in a timely manner could be problematic. After all, technology is only useful if it makes the experience better for the guest.

Multi-Channel Communication and Coordination

This concern focused on how a hotel would manage guest requests coming from multiple sources  for example, when a guest asks for something by speaking to a staff member at the front desk, then sends a text message in the elevator requesting something else. The students felt it is important to have a complete and continuous view of the guest during their stay and, moreover, that all team members can be connected and see these requests. A solution without such a feature runs the risk of losing guest requests.

The class agreed that having a centralized place where all requests can be seen by multiple staff members is essential to any mobile-based service tool.

Rants and Responses

The biggest challenge, according to the class, is managing upset guests who bypass direct engagement with the hotel and turn instead to social media. The students noted that two very different conversations exist when a guest is genuinely upset versus when they have a minor issue. The first tends to be anger-driven, and more often than not, the guest just wants to be heard; the second, meanwhile, is about receiving something or being compensated for an inconvenience. Both scenarios, however, have been amplified in recent years with the popularity of social media.

The students believed that the main difference between managing a guest on site versus online is the audience the guest chooses to address. When a guest has an issue and wants to be heard, they are more abusive toward the brand on social than they are when communicating directly with the hotel. They believed the main reason for this is that on social, there is an expectation that anger will attract the hotel's attention. But when guests call or speak to a manager on site, their behavior is much more subdued  even pleasant  as they want something and feel courtesy will benefit them.

Overall, the class felt that mobile technology has an equally positive and negative impact on service quality. Now that virtually everyone has access to an audience on social media with their phones, voicing a concern publicly is much easier today than it was 10 years ago. However, mobile devices also offer the ability for a hotel to communicate directly with guests in real time, potentially resolving guest issues before they are aired on social media. The students believed that because hotels have embraced social, they also need to embrace mobile guest engagement and the ability for a guest to voice their concerns directly to the hotel with the same degree of ease. When hotels fail to do this, they miss out on the opportunity to listen to their guests and have a dialogue with them to resolve issues  an important element in delivering a quality experience.

Loop, by Benbria Corporation, is a mobile messaging and engagement solution that helps brands

to enhance the customer experience. Leveraging the customer's preferred choice of communications  texting, web chat, native app, email and kiosk  Loop allows customers to communicate directly with a brand to make requests, resolve issues and share their experience before, during and after their visit. Closing the loop through on-the-spot staff action helps brands to improve customer satisfaction, save at-risk customers, increase revenue and drive long-term loyalty. For more information, visit www.benbria.com
Baar (CH)/Ras al Khaimah (UAE)/Manama (Bahrain)  SwissSelect Reward Program is not new to many, what's new is the wide array of hotel network that adds to the list contributing to the length and breadth of the program and making it an enticing reward system with time. Swiss International Palace Hotel, which came on board effective July 01, 2016, is the fifth hotel participating under the Swiss-Select Reward Program. Four more hotels are scheduled to be added in the list before the end of the year 2016.

Swiss International Palace Hotel launched Swiss-Select Reward Program on the 1 st August 2016. The launch took place after training the hotel staff in Manama, Bahrain which was took place on the 19th July 2016. Commenting on the launch, the hotel's General Manager, Mr. Harish Bhojwani, said: "We are glad with the successful implementation of the Swiss-Select reward program for the benefit of our hotel guests. Swiss-Select will enable us to recognize our frequent guests and secure their loyalty."

Samira Demeis, Vice President of VOILA Hotel Rewards added, "It is great to see the addition of new hotels under Swiss-Select, and we will continue to provide the support and systems to Swiss International hotels to enhance its membership enrollments and to strengthen the overall Swiss-Select reward program." Swiss-Select and Swiss International are partners of the Voila program worldwide. Please see: www.vhr.com for more information.

Mr. Henri (Hans) Kennedie, CEO of Swiss International Hotels & Resorts, said "Building long-term relationships with our guests has been of immense importance to us. Swiss-Select is a means towards developing established and new relationships with our guests. With the inclusion of our other hotels in the program we intend to create a well-connected network of Swiss International Hotels & Resorts. With the launch of Swiss-Select at Swiss International Palace Hotel  Manama, we expect an enhanced membership growth and increased guest loyalty to the Swiss International Brand."

Swiss-Select allows the members to earn points not only on their stay in any of the Swiss International hotels but also on the stays at any participating hotels within the VOILA hotel worldwide network. A member can exchange their points to earn complimentary room nights or may redeem it with a range of VOILA partners, which includes a range of retailers, such as best buy, amazon, boots, Emaar gift cards etc. The redemption option also extends to airline miles for airlines including France Air, KLM, Southwest Airlines, Virgin America and many more. Along with the redemption opportunities', members also enjoy perks such as priority check-ins, privilege access to hotel amenities, room upgrades, and other member-only benefits. The guests can apply for it online or at the hotel counters. To learn more about Swiss-Select, please visit http://swiss-selectrewards.com

Swiss International Hotels

Founded in 1982, Swiss International Hotels is established in Switzerland. Swiss International Hotels & Resorts is currently associated with hotels in Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Greater China, the Middle East and Africa. The company is registered in Baar, Switzerland and is operating from the UAE (Ras Al Khaimah). Swiss International is operating and licensing its hotels under the following brands: Royal Swiss (Luxury), Swiss International Hotels & Resorts (Upscale), Swiss Spirit Hotels & Suites (Mid-market) and Yes Inn (Economy).

Amee Yadav

Corporate Communications - Alpha Hospitality Management Services

+971 7 2433242

Swiss International Hotels & Resorts
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New 'NAVIS Serves' initiative supports staff in Florida and Oregon with Volunteer Time Off (VTO) as they devote their energy and talents to make a positive impact on lives and communities

NAVIS, the #1 reservation sales and marketing platform for the hospitality industry, not only contributes to the personal development of their staff, but also to the social and economic fabric of the communities where they work and live. NAVIS Serves is a newly launched program that supports employees as they devote their time, energy and passion to inspiring change and making a positive impact.

Now, more than ever, communities are relying on the private sector to share resources and help drive meaningful change. With a long history of giving back, NAVIS is now formalizing the spirit of giving, empowering staff with paid time off to lend their skills and talents to meaningful projects. Highlights of the NAVIS Serves program include:

Each employee receives paid Volunteer Time Off (VTO)

Red Cross Blood Drives at least twice per year

Monthly lunch preparation at Family Kitchen in Bend, OR

Annual Christmas Dinner preparation at Family Kitchen in Bend, OR

Monthly partnering with Second Harvest in Orlando, FL

Giving Tree during Christmas to donate toys and clothing to local children in need

At NAVIS, innovation doesnt apply only to technology, explains Kyle Buehner, CEO of NAVIS. One of our core values is serving others. The name of our program sums it up  NAVIS Serves. As a company, giving back is in our DNA, and this program builds on our heritage of improving lives and making the world a better place. We invest in our employees commitment to worthwhile causes by giving them opportunities to take action in their local communities. When we all join forces to create positive change, we are unstoppable. I am proud of our NAVIS family, proud of our communities, and proud that what we do makes a difference.

Interested in being part of the award-winning NAVIS family? View available career opportunities at www.thenavisway.com/careers.

About NAVIS

NAVIS is the #1 reservation sales and marketing platform for the hospitality industry. Because we believe technology should make you money, not cost you money, we developed our game-changing Revenue Performance Platform to transform teams into revenue makers, enabling them to drive, capture and convert more direct bookings. We deliver actionable guest insights so departments can seamlessly sell and market together. The result is always a dramatic increase in direct sales and profit. We guarantee it.

Founded in 1987, NAVIS is a privately held company with headquarters in Bend, Oregon and a growing East Coast office in Orlando, Florida. The company has been awarded Top Workplaces by The Oregonian for four consecutive years and named one of the 2016 Top 100 Workplaces in Central Florida.

To learn more visit www.thenavisway.com
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) today announced that Ranjay Radhakrishnan has been appointed Chief Human Resources Officer. He will join the business on 1st December and will become a member of IHG's Executive Committee, replacing Tracy Robbins who stepped down from the role in January 2016.

Mr. Radhakrishnan joins IHG from Unilever, where he has spent 23 years in a range of senior leadership roles at global, regional and country levels. He is a member of Unilever's Human Resources (HR) Leadership team and his most recent role was as Executive Vice President Global HR (Categories & Market Clusters), where Ranjay is responsible for leading HR for all of Unilever's eight regions (Market Clusters) as well as the four global Product Categories, under one unified global HR leadership role.

Richard Solomons, Chief Executive Officer of IHG commented: "I am delighted to welcome Ranjay to IHG. Having worked in numerous countries and markets across all specialist areas of HR, he brings a truly global and commercial perspective to the role and will be an integral part of my Executive Team. Our people have always played a critical role in building trust with our guests and owners. Ensuring that we continue to attract, retain and develop the very best talent in the industry is fundamental to the delivery of our strategy. I very much look forward to working with him."

Ranjay Radhakrishnan commented: "I have great respect for IHG's commitment to its people and for the opportunities it offers employees around the world. It is a privilege to join IHG and to play a part in shaping the future of a business where people are such a fundamentally important part of its operations."
Brodinski is a French producer who has been working with a lot of regional American rappers recently, further exploring the landscapes of Atlanta trap and beyond on his new mixtape, The Sour Patch Kid. One of the projects highlights is Weekend, a song more paranoid than its title might suggest.



A percussive bassline drives the track, as Juan and Guapo trade bars, trying out a range of moaning and galloping flows. Its a reminder that the two rappers, while often just outside of the spotlight, have just as keen a songwriting ability as some of their more-famous peers. Listen to the full tape, which also features 21 Savage and Johnny Cinco, here.
A recent trip Iggy Azalea and French Montana took down to Mexico in August suggested a romance was budding between the two rappers, especially when photos and videos of the two saw them getting very touchy.

Its been a couple of weeks, and people are wondering whether this was just a fling, or the two are ready to become raps next power couple, and naturally, TMZ has brought us some answers from Iggys side.



Im single, Iggy insisted when approached by paparazzi at the airport, saying her and French are just friends.



After a few jokes were cracked, she became a little less irritated with the photographer and began to playfully answers his questions about French. She says the chances of the two getting together are above 5 out of 10, but stressed that the answer was mostly to satisfy the photog, who was very much rooting for the couple.



Watch the clip below.





French Monta
Last night at around 2:30 AM (Sept. 11), members of Rich Homie Quans entourage were reportedly involved in a parking lot shooting outside of The Diamond Club in the small town of New Bern, NC. Its unclear if the Atlanta rapper was outside during the shooting, as he was there for a club appearance.

Five people were shot, while several more were injured, reports WNCT News. Three victims were transported to the Carolina East Medical Center and two victims were airlifted to the Vidant Medical Center. No fatalities have been reported, though one victim is in critical condition.

The Craven County Sheriffs office told TMZ that several associates of Quan were involved in the shooting. Quan was apparently interviewed by police, but they say he wasnt involved in any of the gunfire. No suspects have yet been revealed, though authorities are currently investigating the incident.

Earlier in the day, Quan had performed at the East Carolina Music Fest, alongside artists like Mario, Uncle Murda, and Ralo.

Rich Homie Quan
Fans of the Disney classic try to contain your excitement.

If you were a child of the noughties, then this news will be music to your ears. The tale of Mulan is an epic tale of courage and friendship, following heroine Mulan as she takes the place of her father in the army to battle the Huns.

Now, Sony have plans to turn the children's film into a live-action film set in China, with a mostly Chinese cast.

This is only one of the exciting projects Sony has in the pipe-line. Live-action productions of Bad Boys 3 and Peter Rabbit are also potential projects for 2017.

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Let's hope Sony bring back the show-stopping soundtrack from the original film.
Hotel Rwanda director Terry George is making a movie about the Armenian Genocide.

Its the twilight of the Ottoman Empire and the eve of World War I. Chaos will sweep the once majestic Constantinople. The story chronicles the lives of three people caught up in the conflict. Michael Boghosian, played by The Force Awakens actor Oscar Isaac, arrives in the city in hopes to bring modern medicine back to his home village. Christian Bale plays Chris Myers, a photojournalist whose reasons for his presence in Turkish cultural epicenter are two-foldhes covering geo-politics and hes captivated by Ana, played by Charlotte le Bon, an Armenian artist hes accompanied.

Inevitably, Michael and Ana connect over their Armenian heritage, sparking a love triangle with the pair and Myers. All of this occurs as violence erupts around them, the Turks join the German side in the World War, turning against its own minorities. Our heroes must find a way to survive the chaos.

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The Promise will release at an as-of-yet announced date this year. Considering the timing of the film, the historical subject matter, and the presence of Isaac and Bale, this movie looks to be a contender in the 89th Academy Awards, which will be held late in February.
PARIS - French police have arrested a 15-year-old boy at his Paris home to thwart what they feared was a planned weekend attack, as the prime minister warned on Sunday some 15,000 people in the country could be in the process of being radicalized.

The arrest of the teenager on Saturday came two days after police moved in on what the Paris prosecutor says was a group of female "commandos" arrested after an aborted attack at Notre Dame Cathedral and another possible attack. Those arrested included a 15-year-old girl, the daughter of one of three women arrested south of Paris.
The following are excerpts from just some of the reports recently generated by the Houston Police Department:

Dustin E. Bussard, 35, of 119 Hickory St. in Houston, was issued a citation for fourth-degree domestic assault after allegedly punching a 34-year-old woman in the face during an incident at his residence at about 1:30 a.m. Jan. 16.

Rowland J. Pearson, 62, of 11010 Bell Road at Success, was issued citations for driving while intoxicated (drug condition) and failure to drive on the right half of the roadway after a traffic stop on U.S. 63 at about 9:35 a.m. Jan. 12.

An officer made the stop after observing a red Acura sedan moving erratically. After making contact with the driver  Pearson  the officer noticed signs of impairment and field sobriety tests were conducted. A breath test was negative for alcohol, but Pearson had apparently taken prescription drugs.

He was taken to the Texas County Jail and released to a sober driver.

Leigh Ann McGaughey, 21, of 6177 Highway 137 at Yukon, was arrested Jan. 16 for having an active Texas County felony warrant for stealing over $750.

The Houston Police Department cited one person this week following a trespassing incident.

An officer who was aware of the warrant made the arrest after observing McGaughey driving a Chevrolet Suburban on Highway 17 and conducting a traffic stop.

A passenger in the vehicle was also arrested for having an active felony warrant for stealing over $750: Kolton C. Morgan, 23, of 14898 Sand Hollow Road at Bucyrus.

McGaughey and Morgan were both taken to the Texas County Jail where they were each unable to post $25,000 bond.

Suzanne M. Burke, 43, of 16466 Forrest Drive in Houston, was arrested Jan. 15 for having active Texas County warrants for driving without a valid license (third or subsequent offense) and failure to stop at a stop sign.

An officer made the arrest after observing a black Kia sedan with its hood up in the parking lot at the Houston Visitors Center and stopping to offer assistance. A computer check revealed the warrants.

Burke was taken to the Texas County Jail where she was unable to post $10,000 bond.
The following are excerpts from reports generated by the Texas County Sheriffs Department:

A deputy investigated a report that a stolen rifle (a Marlin lever action .30-.30) had been recovered by the Willow Springs Police Department. The officer attempted to contact the guns owner, a Willow Springs man.

A 61-year-old Plato man called Sept. 7 to report that a black truck had pulled into the driveway at his Long Hollow Road residence and knocked over a corner post valued at $150 when it backed out. The man told an investigating officer he believed the driver was someone who was there to pick up his daughter, but he hadnt been able to reach her since the incident.

A 60-year-old Houston man reported on Sept. 6 that he had allowed a 46-year-old Licking woman to stay overnight at his Barite Road residence and when he awoke in the morning he found that $500 was missing from his wallet. The man told an officer he wanted to pursue charges. Investigation of the case continues.

A deputy was dispatched at about 10:45 p.m. Sept. 3 regarding a report of an ATV traveling though houses yards on Ridge Road at Houston. The officer was unable to locate the vehicle.

A representative of Sherrill Township called Sept. 6 to report that a mirror and an antenna had been stolen off of the townships grader. There are no suspects.

A Willow Springs man reported on Sept. 3 that a man who lives adjacent to his Highway AZ residence was feeding his sheep without permission. The man told an investigating officer it was a problem because not all the sheep are coming to their barn at night, causing them to be possibly be exposed to predators.

An investigating officer made contact with the neighbor man, who said he would discontinue feeding the sheep.

A 34-year-old woman reported on Aug. 30 that a stove, refrigerator and a box of various items had been stolen from a trailer she owns on Brushy Creek Road. The woman stated she now lives in Phillipsburg, and named a Roby man as a suspect.

Texas County Jail admissions

Sept. 2

Michael S. McGuire  non-support

Cole Nelson  DWR

Oran S. Kimrey  DWI

Sept. 3

Donna M. Hunter  property damage

Sept. 5

Kelly M. Ellison  stealing

Sept. 6

David M. Klotz  30 days, contempt

Lori L. Cox  48-hour commitment

Jami L. Vance  Ozark County hold

Ryan D. Stagner  30 days shock

David A. DuJardin  Ozark County hold

Kolton C. Morgan  possession of controlled substance, resisting arrest

Sept. 7

Jeffrey L. Bradshaw  48-hour shock

Jacob W. Aslin  6-month commitment

Billy Jack Hayes Jr.  property damage

Christopher L. Ashmead  DWI

Christopher M. Belcher  driving while revoked

Sept. 8

John S. Beltran  Alchua Co., Fla., hold
The Missouri attorney generals office alleged last week that a property owner burned a home in January north of Houston.

Assistant Attorney General Darrell Moore said Justin W. Dixon, 30, of Raymondville, was charged last Wednesday with second-degree arson of a home he owns at 16233 Forest Drive, west of Mineral Drive. Firefighters from three departments responded to the blaze, which was ruled arson by the Missouri fire marshals office.

Authorities said the fire appeared to have been set where a mattress and other items had been piled up and doused with a flammable liquid. Texas County Sheriff James Sigman said deputies had responded to an incident at the same residence not long before the fire call was received.

A Texas County sheriffs deputy who investigated said Dixon admitted to setting the home on fire during questioning on Feb. 4. Dixon stated that he was tired of dealing with renter issues at this residence, according to a report. Authorities said a $92,000 claim had been filed with insurer, State Farm, and a check had been issued at the time of interview but had not been received. The department said the homeowner did not have permission from the lien holder of the property to burn it.

Dixon is free on $150,000 bond.
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Kids building castles and digging moats in the sand while humming along to songs they learned at summer camp. It's a typical summer scene that evokes feelings of calmness and ease. Kids tend to have an easier time being present than adults, and don't typically think too long and hard about what is to come.

But this isn't always the case when the start of the school year rolls around, and it's time to say goodbye epic summer park sessions, later bedtimes and sleeping in. In fact, returning to school may be more troubling for some kids than we realize, and it can take some time before they adjust to their new routine and environment.

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"Families have to adjust to a much more rigid schedule," Dr. Stuart Shanker explained, a York University professor and Canada's leading expert on self-regulation. "Sleep habits have to change. There are all sorts of new demands  physical, social, emotional, pro-social, and, of course, cognitive. And don't forget the possible effects of getting less daylight and exercise."

Self-regulation is a term used to describe the brain-body response to stress, including energy expenditure, recovery and restoration. Shanker, who travels across the country speaking to educators on the subject, said that, simply put, "Self-regulation refers to how efficiently and effectively a child deals with a stressor and then recovers."

Talk about stress

September and the return to structure happens to be a stressful time for a lot of people, children and parents alike. Talking openly about what it is that causes discomfort during the transition is key.

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"What we have found very helpful for teens is to have parents spend a few minutes talking with them about self-regulation," Shanker said. "Explain what stress is, how it zaps energy and makes it harder to deal with the physical, social, emotional and cognitive stress they can expect at the start of school. Maybe explain what "hidden stressors" are. And then ask them which stresses they think they could reduce, in order to build up the reserves they'll need to get the year off to a great start."

For younger children, however, having long conversations about what could be potentially stressing them out will usually be met with blank stares. These little people need concrete, tangible assistance. There are ways we can reduce certain stressors without them even knowing.

Create visual routines

Beverley Cathcart-Ross, parenting expert, said that children must not be slaves to you, but to a routine. Before I discovered her wisdom, I had been spending mornings repeating myself, asking questions and threatening the loss of this or that.

However, once I created a visual board of exactly what needed to be done before the kids would get a "reward" before school, mornings became much more peaceful. Their reward was a little TV if there was enough time, and their motivation to get teeth brushed, hair combed and shoes on was unbelievable. When my son would come to me barefoot and ask, "Can I watch TV now?" I'd point to the image of putting shoes on, and he would race to the door and tie them on within seconds. It was life-changing.

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Re-frame the doom and gloom

The positive aspects of the new school year might get lost in the weeds of your kids' worries, but redirecting their focus onto something that interests them about school can help. Is there a subject they enjoy and excel at? Friends or teachers they look forward to seeing? An extracurricular activity they look forward to? Focusing on the positive, fun aspects of going to school can help overpower any possible anxious thoughts.

Address the root cause

Ask your child questions about what it is that's making them stressed or anxious about school. Are they having difficulty making friends? Are they being bullied? Or struggling with school work? Determining the root cause of their school anxiety will help you decide on the best course of action for tackling the problem. Here are some tips for helping your child cope with anxiety.

Remember, kids aren't always aware of their emotions, and may express their stress and anxiety in different ways. Learn about the signs that your child might be anxious about school, here.

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New York Fashion Week is in full swing, and it looks like it's truly shaping up to be a "Fashion Week For All."

And there's one designer who's receiving particular praise for his decision to bring diversity to the runway: Christian Siriano.

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The American fashion designer, who notably dressed "Ghostbusters" star Leslie Jones for her film premiere after she was rejected by other designers, enlisted five plus-size models to walk his spring/summer 2017 fashion show, and even dressed model Ashley Graham who sat front row at the show alongside Pamela Anderson, Christina Hendricks and Coco Rocha.

Of his decision to showcase an inclusive collection, Siriano told Glamour it took pre-planning to ensure everything would work on the different body types and to keep costs at bay.

"We knew we wanted to have curvy girls in the show, so we pre-made things that I thought would work on their bodies. I made 12s, 14s, and 16s in pieces I thought would look good on those sizes, and then we altered them on the girls. Who, by the way, came in our normal casting," he explained.

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He also said it wasn't an "intentional" for him to become a crusader for body diversity.

"I think its great that were just doing what we doand then it turned into a thing," he told Glamour. "I think it's worked because Im just into womenand for my design, it's all about the body. I also grew up with a mom who was a size 16, 18, so it wasnt new to me to have a voluptuous woman in my life."

And the celebrities in attendance agreed.

"There are a lot of body shapes, Anderson, who also wore Christian Siriano, told the New York Times. "Not everybody is going to fit into tiny, tiny dresses for six-foot women. Its really refreshing."

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Siriano is no stranger to dressing "every woman." Back in April, he released a collection with plus-size retailer Lane Bryant, which sold out almost immediately.

"In my opinion, fashion should never be defined by size. Regardless if its for red carpet or a day at the office, every woman should feel stylish and comfortable in their clothes," he said in a statement.

Still, there is a long way to go for inclusiveness on the runway and in the fashion industry in general  size, race and abilities included. Here's hoping more designers will follow suit, and that diversity in the fashion and beauty world will no longer be something newsworthy, but rather, the norm.

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British actor Dev Patel rose to fame in 2008 for his role as Jamal Malik in the Oscar winning film "Slumdog Millionaire." It was the first of five films the actor had shot in India and it left a lasting impression on the 26-year-old actor.

"I spent most of my existence in school trying to shun my heritage... to avoid getting beaten up or bullied and just to fit in," Patel said in a press conference at the TIFF premiere for his new film "Lion."

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Patel went on to recall filming "Slumdog" in Bombay with director Danny Boyle, saying the experience left him "completely struck by lightning."

Rooney Mara, Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman attend the 'Lion' Red Carpet Premiere for the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival Premiere on September 10, 2016 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Walter McBride/FilmMagic)

Years later, Patel seems enamoured with India and it's impact on his life. "It's just so enthralling to me to go back," he said. "It sounds so cliche but I understand myself and where I come from more and more..."

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With a smile on his face, Patel went on to talk about the chaos of filming in India, describing it as both madness and beautiful.

"Lion" is based on the true story of Saroo Brierley, a young man who uses Google Earth to locate his original home 20 years after becoming separated from his family and adopted by an Australian couple.

Following the film's premiere on September 11, "Lion" received rave reviews from critics. The Hollywood Reporter labelled the film "as enthralling as it is emotional," while Awards Circuit called it a "prestige film through and through," noting it will likely get plenty of attention come awards season.

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The small one became the big one on the red carpet last night for the @QueenOfKatweMovie premiere! Love you, Madina! #tiff2016 #MadinaNalwanga

A photo posted by Lupita Nyong'o (@lupitanyongo) on Sep 11, 2016 at 1:49pm PDT
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Copyright owners have sent letters to students accused of unauthorized downloading that amount to extortion, threatening them with extreme consequences if they dont pay hundreds of dollars, the University of Manitoba says.

Under Canadas notice and notice system, internet service providers  including universities  are required to forward notices of infringement to customers who a copyright holder has accused of piracy.

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But the school says some rights holders  primarily porn production companies  are issuing letters that threaten students with multi-million-dollar lawsuits, loss of scholarships or even deportation if they dont settle for hundreds of dollars, the Manitoban reported last week.

None of which are real consequences that could ever happen in the Canadian scheme of things, the universitys copyright strategy manager, Joel Guenette, told the newspaper.

But we hear from students all the time  especially international students  who are really freaked out by this.

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He said the university has forwarded some 8,000 notices of infringement to students since the notice and notice regime went into force in early 2015.

The copyright holders threats are hollow: Under the new copyright regime brought in by the previous Conservative government, non-commercial infringement of copyright carries a maximum penalty of $5,000.

And the university is alerting students to the fact that they are not obligated to pay the money demanded in copyright infringement letters, which amount only to an accusation.

Those who are accused may not realize that the copyright holder doesnt know who they are. Under the copyright law, internet providers forward the letters to customers linked to certain computer addresses, but they dont identify those people to the copyright holders.

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A copyright holder would have to take the internet provider to court to get an accuseds contact information.

Threatening letters dont stop after payment

Despite this, some students have paid hundreds of dollars to settle the claims, Guenette told the CBC  and in some cases, the threatening letters dont stop.

"There is no evidence that I have seen that shows that the notices stop once payment has taken place," he said.

HBO has been one of the busiest issuers of infringement notices this year, particularly relating to its hit franchise Game of Thrones. But evidence suggests the network's letters dont demand money, instead notifying accused downloaders that "HBO programming can easily be watched and streamed on many devices legally."

"We hear from students all the time  especially international students  who are really freaked out by this.  Joel Guenette, University of Manitoba copyright strategy manager

Thats not the way some other companies are approaching the issue. Guenette said threatening letters are more common when the content is pornographic or "perhaps more of a sensitive nature."

The university is warning students not to respond to the letters, noting that doing so would make it easy for the copyright holder to identify the accused.

"We are essentially the middle link in that three-part chain, and we keep that information private," he said, as quoted at CBC.

"I would certainly think long and hard before responding directly to the rights holder."

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A toddler in the U.S. died last week after he suffocated under a bean bag chair at a daycare centre.

KSTU reports Leonardo Sanchez was at the West Jordan Child Center in Utah on Sept. 8. After the toddler crawled under the chair, a daycare worker sat on it and began reading a book to other children, unaware Leonardo was underneath.

The boy would have turned two on Sept. 17, according to KUTV.

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Leonardo Sanchez died at a daycare in West Jordan, Utah on Sept. 8. (Photo: Screengrab/KSTU/AOL)

"It's a tragedy, it's a tragedy what happened," Leonardo's mother, Danielle Sanchez, told KSTU.

"It's rough because you don't know when the last time is you are going to hold your child."

The employee is not facing any charges, according to Fox 13. A police investigation into the incident is ongoing.

'Somebody dropped the ball'

Sanchez said the death "baffles" her. She is seeking legal representation.

"How could this happen? "He's a big boy. How did they lose track of him?" she told KUTV.

"Too many kids, too much noise, overwhelmed, a bad day ... Somebody dropped the ball and now we're going to have to bury a boy because of that."

Danielle Sanchez, the toddler's mother, said her boy's death baffles her. (Photo: Screengrab/KSTU/AOL)

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The daycare issued a statement saying it regrets the toddler's death and doesn't "pretend to understand" how tragic the situation is for the boy's family.

"We know the family well, we grieve with them and we pray God will provide them the comfort and peace they will inevitably need," the centre said.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family with funeral costs.

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Orientaly via Getty Images combine harvesting

In Mali on Feb. 27, 2015, the organization Nyeleni (global congress for food sovereignty) produced The Declaration of the International Forum for Agroecology. It advocated a model of food production radically opposed to the current corporate-controlled system. Delegates pledged that they would work to:

"... build our own local food systems that create new rural-urban links, based on truly agroecological food production... We cannot allow agroecology to be a tool of the industrial food production model: we see it as the essential alternative to that model... We need to put the control of seeds, biodiversity, land and territories, waters, knowledge, culture and the commons in the hands of the peoples who feed the world."

The declaration represents a challenge to the commercial and geopolitical interests of the U.S. government and its transnational agribusiness sector. Rather than wanting to transform society and food and agriculture, these state-corporate interests require business as usual.

In recent times, much resistance to the power of agribusiness has centred on seed patenting, the deleterious impacts of glyphosate-based herbicide and the dangers that GMOs pose to human and animal health and the environment (GMOs were put on the market fraudulently in the first place). And, of course, there is the GMO labelling issue.

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A sign for DeKalb seed corn, a brand of Monsanto Co., stands near a corn field in Princeton, Illinois, U.S. (Photo: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

But if proper mandatory labelling of GMOs is successful and glyphosate gets banned, what next? Years of debate, deception, industry-funded science and PR over RNA interference, synthetic biology or some other "cutting-edge" technological development and regulatory bodies as government agencies continue to collude with companies?

That would suit powerful corporations just fine. By the time they surrender ground on one issue (if they ever do), the next technology is ready to be rolled out and be promoted or protected by their army of lawyers, PR departments, front groups, glove-puppet politicians and officials. Then it is left to the public and various organisations to fight the good fight all over again and engage in another rear guard action that could take decades to resolve. In the meantime, profits are secured, while health, agriculture and the environment are further degraded.

This piece describes how the people at Monsanto work inside a (well-paid) bubble defined by a business model that is aimed at market capture and profit maximization. As if to underline this, Jack Kasky on Bloomberg reports:

"Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Hugh Grant is focused on selling more genetically modified seeds in Latin America to drive earnings growth outside the core U.S. market. Sales of soybean seeds and genetic licenses climbed 16 per cent, and revenue in the unit that makes glyphosate weed killer, sold as Roundup, rose 24 per cent."

In the same piece, Chris Shaw, a New York-based analyst at Monness Crespi Hardt & Co states: "Glyphosate really crushed it," implying its sales were a major boost.

Powerful corporations might like to project the view that their particular business model and the public interest are one and the same. But this is clearly deluded thinking, given the health impacts of glyphosate and, for example, the deleterious impacts of a corporate agriculture throughout South America.

But through massive PR and advertising, this warped mindset or ideology is perpetuated not only within the confines of a company like Monsanto, but is also rolled out to try to convince the public of the same.

The only aim of companies such as Monsanto is to maximize profit. Why else would Monsanto see nothing wrong with making illegal profits from the seeds sold to farmers in India who live on a knife-edge? Why else would it seek to boost sales of health-damaging chemicals and conveniently ride high on an estimated wave of over $51 billion of taxpayer subsidies in the U.S. over a 10-year period to get farmers to plant its corn?

There is a need to establish societies run for the benefit of the mass of the population and a system of food and agriculture that is democratically owned and controlled.

Transnational agribusiness is very much embedded within dominant power structures and plays a key role in determining global and regional policies. While tackling agribusiness on an issue-by-issue basis is necessary, we must appreciate that there is a need to establish societies run for the benefit of the mass of the population and a system of food and agriculture that is democratically owned and controlled. This involves encouraging localized rural and urban food economies that are shielded from the effects of rigged trade and international markets, which serve transnational agribusiness interests.

It would mean that what ends up in our food and how it is grown is determined by the public good and not powerful private interests, which are driven by commercial gain and the compulsion to subjugate farmers, consumers and entire regions, while playing the victim each time campaigners challenge their actions.

There are enough examples from across the world that serve as models for transformation, from farming in socialist Cuba to grass-root movements centred on agroecology in Africa and India.

The 2015 Declaration of the International Forum for Agroecology (read here) sets out a framework for action. It was devised by delegates representing diverse organisations and international movements of small-scale food producers and consumers, including peasants, indigenous peoples, communities, hunters and gatherers, family farmers, rural workers, herders and pastoralists and fisherfolk. These diverse constituencies provide 70 per cent of the food consumed by humanity, and, as such, are the primary global investors in agriculture, as well as the primary providers of jobs and livelihoods in the world.

There is a need to transform a food system and rural sector that has been devastated by industrial food production. Groups like Nyeleni show there is an alternative to an increasingly globalized economic system that puts profit before the environment and privileges the needs of agribusiness ahead of all else.

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Simon Webb and Duncan Nicholls via Getty Images Man throwing dice at craps table

By Jordan Bateman (B.C. Director, Canadian Taxpayers Federation) and Sacha Peter (CPA, CMA)

Imagine you found yourself in a casino with $97.50 burning a hole in your pocket. You walk near a craps table and hear a special offer from the dealer: bet that $97.50 and roll anything other than a two, and you'll win another two bucks. But roll snake eyes and you lose it all.

Do you do it?

What if the money wasn't yours? Would you be more likely to take the risk then? The B.C. government would -- and is. But it isn't $97.50 on the line -- it's putting $97.5 million up to try and win $2 million more.

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Earlier this month, Finance Minister Mike de Jong announced that B.C. had become the first foreign government to issue a Masala bond in India. Essentially, B.C. took on $97.5 million in debt and immediately reinvested that money not in B.C. infrastructure or something that would help B.C. taxpayers, but inthe Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) Limited of India.

Why bother for such a minuscule return? Why go $97.5 million into debt and put that money into India?

After the deal was questioned on Twitter by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Premier Christy Clark's deputy chief of staff explained that the deal should generate $2 million profit for B.C. taxpayers over its three-year life. That's a return of roughly 0.67 per cent per year -- assuming everything goes right with the gamble.

It may very well pan out, but there are a few yellow flags. As proof of HDFC's solid footing, the government touts a World Bank Group member, the International Finance Corporation, as a Masala investor. But many great, reputable firms have lost a fortune on bad investments before.

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The news release says that the HDFC has a "domestic credit rating of triple-A." Sounds positive, but during the 2008 global economic meltdown, large, well-known Wall Street banks experienced losses on AAA-rated securities. We are not saying there will be another meltdown, but we need to understand that these securities are not risk-free.

British Columbia Finance Minister Mike de Jong. (Photo: REUTERS/Chris Wattie)

So why bother for such a minuscule return? Why go $97.5 million into debt and put that money into India? We know why India likes the deal: "This back-to-back issue... shows that B.C. and Canada continue to find imaginative ways to invest in India to help it achieve its core objectives of building needed infrastructure for this fast emerging economy," Canadian High Commissioner to India Nadir Patel said in the news release. British Columbians waiting in traffic, or passed up by a full bus, or sitting in a school portable might wonder about our own "needed infrastructure."

Eventually, every gambler rolls snake eyes and loses.

The government says the bond "adds to B.C.'s investor diversification and provides access to a new global source of liquidity." But there's no discussion on why B.C. should be contributing to funding the debt requirements of international corporations.

The biggest motivator seems to be entrenching economic links to India, especially as a B.C. lumber buyer. Indeed, B.C. is spending $5 million over three years to promote B.C. wood in India. A noble cause, to be sure, but one that should be kept separate from B.C.'s investment decisions. A decision to risk $97.5 million should not depend on marketing aims.

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The debt taken on by B.C. is backstopped by taxpayers. The government news release is silent on whether our investment into the Indian corporation is secured by any of HDFC's assets if they can't pay it back.

Make no mistake: the B.C. government is gambling with taxpayer assets. They stand a good chance of rolling the dice and adding $2 million to the $97.5 million they placed on the table. But eventually, every gambler rolls snake eyes and loses. When the government does, it's our money that's gone forever.

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KatarzynaBialasiewicz via Getty Images Lonely thoughtful girl sitting on the floor

I experience anxiety and depression.

In my life, I have fallen into despair and loneliness, had suicidal thoughts, cut myself to purge the pain, taken anti-depressants, and curled up on my floor in isolation. I've held hands with terrible feelings and had many "dark nights of the soul."

I am sharing this confession because I want you to know that you are not alone. Society encourages a pleasant disposition. Public media feeds such as Instagram and Facebook show us photos of friends, adventures, happy families, and celebratory events. Yoga -- branded by vibrancy, positivity and Lululemon smiles -- may seem unwelcoming to those who don't currently feel like life is great.

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You may start to think you're the only one who feels so bad.

The pressure to be pleasant may deprive you of the opportunity to connect honestly with your fellow soul travellers. Or even worse, it may deprive you of the opportunity to connect with yourself.

Our mats are not places to be perfect, or even places that we have to be particularly happy. They are places to be authentic. The mat is a place where it's okay to cry. They are places to give ourselves permission to feel, practice self-care, and use our beautiful physical bodies to potentially shift our experiences. We can move with our feelings, rather than cover them up.

If we are anxious or depressed, the physical practice can help us shift our physiological and psychological states, even if it's just for an hour. We remember that we are more than just our thoughts and emotions. We have a glimpse that there is something stable, pure, and beautiful within each of us.

My invitation: please come to the mat. And bring your whole self.

Bring your fatigue, your soul hunger, your yearning, your imperfection. Bring your sadness, your disappointment, your anger, your fear. Bring your anxiety, bring your depression. The yoga practice celebrates all of your humanity; not just the shiny bits. Of course, bring your joy, your excitement, and your utter magnificence as well. But they are not required for admittance.

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Has the yoga practice helped me personally with my anxiety and depression? Yes. It's one of the reasons that I am a teacher. Yoga has given me an alternate form of self-care, when I'd rather just drink wine, eat cake, and watch Netflix to numb the pain. The yoga practice helps me to find the crack where the light comes in, to break my heart open rather than close. To lean in rather than run away.

I'm going to share a secret with you: most of your yoga teachers don't do yoga because they are naturally happy, benevolent, and grounded. They are teachers because they also need the practice.

You are not alone.

So come to practice. Your whole self is welcome here.

Let's light our lamps in the dark.
sqback via Getty Images Property insurance concept

Tax havens have become increasingly formidable players in the global economy. With increased globalization and financialization of the global economy, tax havens have become important players in the world economy. According to a report by Tax Justice Network, $21 to $32 trillion is stashed offshore. According to the World Bank, the GDP of the world was US $73.4 trillion in 2015. This shows the importance of tax havens in the world and the influence they have on the world economy.

The money that pour into tax havens does not stay there, but is invested in various countries. However, any financial flow through a tax haven makes it tax-free, and any return on it tax-free as well.

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Corporations and wealthy individuals invest their finances through tax havens to avoid paying taxes or reduce their tax burden. Canada is not immune to it as well.

In 2015, Canadians put $40 billion in tax havens while the total amount of wealth held in top ten most popular tax havens is $270 billion. This shows that Canadians put significant amount of capital in tax havens. Therefore, the outflow of capital to tax havens is a concern for Canada as well.

The US is also prone to outflow of capital to tax havens. US corporations and wealthy citizens pour capital into tax havens. In 2013, US corporations held $2.1 trillion in untaxed foreign profits held overseas. This shows the level of foreign profits that US corporations hold overseas. If these overseas profits are brought into the US, this will generate increased levels of economic activity and employment generation in the US.

According to a report by US PIRG Education Fund and Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ), US-based multinational corporations evade $90 billion of federal income taxes each year. This is a substantial amount of revenue that the US federal government could use to support its various programs.

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However, there are some areas in the US like Delaware, South Dakota, etc. which effectively operate as corporate tax havens.

This shows that US corporations do not necessarily need to go to tax havens outside the US but take advantage of domestic tax havens to reduce or eliminate their tax burden.

Some of the leading economists of the world mentioned that tax havens 'serve no useful economic purpose'. It is true that tax havens do not serve any useful economic purpose, as they do not necessarily augment economic activity or increase the level of employment in a society. A counter-argument can be that tax havens reduce or eliminate taxes that lower the cost of doing business. This boosts the incentive to invest which leads to increased economic activity and employment.

However, the capital flow through tax havens are ultimately invested in countries where tax is imposed and going through tax havens only lead to tax avoidance. As the capital is ultimately invested in non-tax havens, companies and wealthy individuals would invest even if tax havens did not exist. Therefore, it can be argued that tax havens do not have significant influence on capital investment and employment generation, and do not necessarily boost capital investment and employment generation. On the other hand, tax havens allow corporations and wealthy individuals to avoid paying taxes, and dodge their tax and social obligations to the societies in which they operate.

Even though tax havens 'serve no useful economic purpose', they have important effects on countries. When companies and wealthy individuals evade tax or lower their tax burden by channeling their funds into tax havens, it leads to lower government revenues. When the government has lower revenue, it can fund fewer infrastructure, build fewer public schools, provide less subsidized or free healthcare, and provide fewer social programs for the marginalized sections of the society.

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This shows the negative impact of tax havens on a society that experiences capital outflow to a tax haven. When the government has less money to invest in infrastructure and social programs, it leads to poor infrastructure, and lower health and education of the population that in turn lead to lower human capital in the country. This decreases labour productivity and dampens economic activity in the country. Therefore, tax havens can have serious deleterious consequences, both economic and non-economic, for societies.

In Canada, when corporations and wealthy individuals pour capital into tax havens, there are lower tax revenues for the provincial and federal government. When they are evading or lowering their tax burden, the government cannot finance its various programs. Also, to maintain its expenditures, the government has to increase taxation on other sections of the society.

This invariably means that the tax burden on the middle-class and low-income segment of the population increases. The same is true in the US as it leads to lower tax revenue for the federal government, state governments and local governments. Therefore, tax havens lead to two problems, lower government revenues that make it difficult to fund government programs and increased tax burden on the middle-class and low-income segments of the society.

Tax havens have become increasingly important players in the global economy. A significant portion of global finance flows through them. Other than allowing tax avoidance and reduction of tax burden by corporations and wealthy individuals, tax havens do not play any beneficial role for the society. However, they lead to lower government revenues that make it difficult for governments to finance various programs while shifting the tax burden on the middle-income and low-income segments of the population.

A concerted effort by various countries, especially ones with large economies, and international organizations to reduce the practice and existence of tax havens could lead to decrease of tax avoidance by corporations and wealthy individuals. This will enable governments to generate more revenue that could finance various social programs as well as decrease tax burden on the middle-class and low-income section of the society.

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Cathy Yeulet via Getty Images Schoolchildren and their teacher in a science clas

When the more than half a million children in B.C. head back to school on September 6, they will be implementing the province's redesigned inquiry-based curriculum. Teachers have been experimenting with draft versions and providing input over the past year.

Officially launching this year for kindergarten to grade 9 students, the B.C. Ministry of Education is redesigning the K-12 curricula under a common 21st century learning framework. This approach emphasizes a more student-initiated, self-directed, inquiry-based learning model.

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Inquiry-rich learning

At Science World, we see this as an enormous positive for B.C.'s budding scientists. Science learning is at its best when it is hands-on and motivated by genuine curiosity. The redesigned science curriculum encourages teachers and students to learn about fundamental scientific ideas, by asking and answering their own questions. This curriculum includes less content, with more of a focus on process. This leaves space for teachers to recognize and adjust lesson content, allowing them to capture a student's interest and giving them the flexibility to dive more deeply into topics, issues and ideas.

Science is part of every aspect of our lives and the redesigned curriculum asks teachers and students to relate the science they learn to their local environments and communities. The 21st century learning framework prioritizes the skills and competencies students will need to be life-long learners, such as critical and creative thinking, social responsibility and effective communication.

A classroom environment rich in inquiry opportunities will allow teachers and students to take a more integrated approach to understanding the world around them. I hope this will inspire the next generation of science leaders in our province.

Scientific knowledge is more important than ever for students in our growing science- and technology-based economy. Only last month, business leaders from 18 of BC's high-tech companies, including Hootsuite, Electronic Arts and Visions Critical, published an open letter to Premier Christy Clark asking for a long-term solution to the shortage of technology and computer science graduates. The evolution of BC's economy continues to demonstrate the increasing need for students to be educated and interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math)-based disciplines.

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The challenge will be to ensure that educators are well supported and have access to the resources they need to champion and lead inquiry-based STEM learning.

Support from our STEM community

As the Ministry of Education rolls out this redesigned curriculum, we believe that the STEM community has an important role to play in supporting our educators and in guiding the growth of BC's knowledge-based culture and economy. To help facilitate this, Science World has been working with educators to better understand their needs and has collaborated with community STEM organizations to begin to build long-term connections and support. Our BC STEM community is well connected through the BC Science Charter network. The Charter organizations are committed to promoting science and technology, and understand their importance as drivers for a vibrant future for British Columbia.

In particular, an organization focused on STEM learning, like Science World, is in a great position to support and work with teachers, as they implement more inquiry-based learning in their classrooms.

Starting in the fall of 2014, Science World began a comprehensive study to identify teachers' current practices, needs and wishes. We held a province-wide survey as teachers learned about the curriculum changes. Over 325 teachers and education stakeholders participated in the survey and another 150 teachers participated in face-to-face workshops and focus groups.

The survey and focus groups identified specific types of support that Science World could offer teachers and schools, including professional development, resources for teachers and mentorship and leadership opportunities. Participants also recognized the value in Science World's school field trips and outreach, which have already been updated to reflect inquiry-based learning.

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In response to the survey feedback, Science World has developed four professional development workshops that specifically address the goals of the redesigned curriculum. Three of these workshops focus on implementing and assessing inquiry in the classroom and the fourth focuses on culturally-responsive and place-based science learning. Teachers throughout BC have been participating in these workshops for the last year.

In July, we hosted a four-day summer institute on inquiry-based science, specifically for elementary teachers. We also provided ongoing support for a collaborative group of teachers implementing inquiry-based learning in the Chilliwack School District, last school year. The participants in these programs have offered valuable feedback, which we're using to inform more professional development opportunities.

As the requests for more resources increased, we updated our website to include more than 300 free, downloadable, curriculum-linked activities, tested by students, teachers and parents. We are also focusing significant attention to recruiting and preparing volunteer STEM professionals to share their expertise and passions in BC classrooms, through the Scientists and Innovators in the Schools program. This program brings students, teachers and volunteers together in a fun environment, with an engaging approach to learning.

Our BC Green Games initiative is an example of collaboration between students and local organizations. This program is a digital eco-storytelling contest that promotes place-based environmental education and is a resource for high school teachers, who want to enter teams to compete for the greenest achievement.

We have recently forged deep community partnerships with organizations beyond our Vancouver home base. Example partner organizations include the Exploration Place in Prince George, the Nanaimo Science and Sustainability Society on Vancouver Island and the EcoDairy in Abbottsford. We continue to explore creative ways to work collaboratively with other committed groups, to more fully support schools in all corners of the province.

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The future

Many organizations are already taking a leadership role in helping to promote and support the implementation of the redesigned curriculum in areas like STEM and place-based education. These organizations include: the BC Science Teachers' Association; the Environmental Educators' Provincial Specialist Association (EEPSA); the Walking the Talk Society for Sustainability Education; Wild BC; the Columbia Basin Environmental Education Network (CBEEN); BC Hydro; Metro Vancouver; and Metro Vancouver Parks. However, educators will continue to need access to and support from community partners like Science World and we encourage more STEM-based organizations to do the same, to ensure our budding scientists reach their full potential.

I am excited to see how the redesigned curriculum will transform not only classrooms but individual students, into lifelong learners, curious about the world around them.

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Mark was a secondary school student when his family announced that they could no longer afford the $50 per annum to continue his education (in many African countries, school is only paid for by the government until a child is 14, at this point you have to pay and typically travel long distances to the nearest secondary school). Our project leader, based in Lira, Uganda, Ogwal Moses, had secured 50 bicycles to give away. One of the bikes he gave to was a local school boy named Mark. Mark then took a year off school and worked as a builder's labourer, earning money and saving it. He used his bike to go to the river and fill the large containers with water to transport them back to site for mixing cement. He would transport bricks from the main town to the building site...anything to earn a wage. After a year, Mark had earned enough to return to school and finish his education. Now he is at University in Kampala studying to become a doctor. We're very proud to share such stories to show how individuals can empower themselves with a bicycle!
We live in a cynical, sceptical world. Anything new or innovative in the smoking arena is going to cause some level of controversy. But we're constantly being fed mixed messages. On one side, we have the medical community, cautiously reasserting the value of e-cigs as a viable cessation method, yet reluctant to call them a "benefit." And on the other side we have the political community, hammering down stringent EU regulations to address the dangers, but without conducting the groundwork. While I will try to steer clear of the "how bad is vaping?" debate - anyone with half a brain knows that smoking in any form isn't "good" for human health! - I'd like to point out the problems with the way we're failing to distinguish differences in the extremely broad business we call the smoking industry.

But first, the facts... around 2.6 million Britons use e-cigarettes, and in 2014 alone, 900,000 people started vaping in order to quit tobacco smoking. Cigarette smoke contains around 7,000 chemicals, and roughly 250 of these are harmful to the human body, including arsenic, formaldehyde, carbon dioxide and acetone. Most e-cig liquids primarily consist of propylene glycol, vegetable glycerine, nicotine and food flavourings. Unlike tobacco cigarettes, e-cigs do not produce tar or carbon dioxide, and of all the toxic chemicals that remain, the quantities are nine to 450 times lower - these levels are comparable to pharmaceutical nicotine inhalers. An independent review conducted in 2015 found that e-cigs are 95 percent safer than tobacco cigarettes. That said, even such promising results aren't enough to satisfy the government, which has led to somewhat excessive regulation.

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On May 20th 2016, the European Union updated the 2001 Tobacco Products Directive, implementing new laws for vapers that essentially give the government greater control. These laws include smaller refill containers, which could prevent bulk buying and make e-liquids more expensive; and a maximum nicotine content cut from 24mg to 20mg, which could send a large proportion of users back to cigarette smoking. How this could affect the United Kingdom after Brexit is still up in the air.

Of course, the e-cig industry should not be completely unregulated. Just look how long it took for smoking to even be considered dangerous. Tobacco was cultivated in Europe for almost 400 years and grew into a huge industry before the first medical reports linked smoking to lung cancer in the 1920s. While we're living in another age with significantly advanced technology and a far deeper understanding of human biology, the point is still just a relevant: you can never be too careful, especially when people's livelihoods are at stake. However, nobody is claiming that e-cigs are healthy; they're simply claiming that they are a healthier alternative to tobacco smoking. Therefore, we shouldn't be fearing e-cigs, but using them to our advantage.

That said, even medical opinion is hugely divided as to whether or not nicotine-based products are the best way to kick a smoking habit. For example, the NHS don't provide e-cigs on a prescription basis; however, they do recommend them as a viable cessation method. Alternatively, the Smoke Free Partnership want to focus more on prevention, stating "We are disappointed with the EU debate focusing on e-cigarettes. We would be more interested to see measures that help prevent young people from smoking." The latter opinion being a classic example of trying to focus on a one-size-fits-all approach. However, targeting a single group, i.e. young starters, simply isn't enough. To regulate the industry properly there must be a clear distinction between quitters and starters. Others are worried that e-cigs could be counter-productive, serving as a gateway to tobacco smoking.

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The fear that e-cigs will become a form of encouragement for the younger generation is certainly understandable, especially now that they have developed far beyond a tool for quitting and curbing addition. With hipster culture popularizing the use of modification kits, flavoured liquids and space age smoking devices that look as trendy as the latest Apple gadgets, the real question should be "How do we draw a line between the trend and the assistive smoking device?" They are certainly not mutually exclusive, and should not be addressed in the same manner. A tobacco quitter isn't going to head out to an e-cig smoking meetup - which many retailers are now hosting - while hipster e-cig smokers won't just quit the hobby and elaborate techno-culture that they've grown to love. Fundamentally, until we start acknowledging the fact that not all smokers fall under the same category, and that not all smokers even want to quit, excessive EU regulations will make little difference to the trend of vaping, yet could potentially pose a threat to those who genuinely take it up for medicinal purposes.
The 10th of September, is World Suicide Prevention day.

It is a day that often passes unmarked, and unmentioned. However, awareness of suicide, how widespread it is, the numbers, the provision available to suicidal people is of the highest importance.

Every single suicide is preventable. Some may take their own lives as a means of control over a fatal, incurable illness takes them. However, according to the NHS, 90% of those who kill themselves have a diagnosed mental illness.

Suicide facts and figures

Every year many thousands of people commit suicide; they are commonplace. Though they rarely reach the news, each case represents not only the death of an individual, but also the butterfly effect of a family torn apart, each of their loved ones suffering the endlessness of grief, and the pain of their loved one's loss.

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The numbers are devastating.

In 2014, in the UK there were 6,581 registered suicides (552 in London alone), which counts as roughly 18 per day (Mental Health Foundation 2015 report).

In the USA, in 2013 there were 41,149 reported suicides (Centre for Disease Control website), which counts as 112 per day, almost five an hour, or one every fifteen minutes. The most common method being through firearms.

These figures obviously don't include the far larger number of attempted suicides, so the number of people suffering such tremendous agony that they consider killing themselves as an option, is incalculable.

Men generally commit suicide more often than women, in the UK 78% of all suicides in 2013 were comitted my men. The rate is so high that suicide is the leading cause of death in men aged between 20-49 years. However, according to data published by The Samaritans, the female rate of suicide is rising, and is at its highest point since 2005.

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Causes

Mental health issues are a common underlining reason behind suicide. These problems can be exacerbated via:

Family/relationship breakdown

Homelessness

Close exposure to suicide, especially if its a family friend or loved one; suicide can cause a chain reaction.

Returning from a war zone (according to the US department of Veteran Affairs, in 2014, 22 veterans committed suicide per day). This is even more notable, because as is mentioned earlier, the number of total suicides in the UK per day in the same year were fewer. PTSD can be a factor.

The causes are very vast, with no clear unifying factor, aside from mental illness. Therefore, suicidal thoughts need to be tackled as soon as they appear. However, in the UK at least, the provision available for suicidal people leave much to be desired.

Provisions and problems

There are many provisions to help those feeling suicidal, mainly via telephone, the most well known and oldest being The Samaritans.

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This charity, in any part of the country, 24hrs a day, is manned by volunteers who listen to those who feel that there is nobody in the world for them to talk to. Though Samaritan's support is not solely focused on suicide, it forms a large part. What they do is vital and almost certainly life saving. However, they receive almost no financial support from the government, which is unacceptable.

It is quite possible that this organisation could one day cease operations, or perhaps not operate to the extent hat they do currently. This would be disastrous.

Many other bodies providing support for the suicidal are in an equally perilous position, such as the May Tree Sanctuary in London, PAPYRUS, Turn2Me, and many more.

Even the NHS, through their website, suggests those feeling suicidal to call these numbers, alongside, ironically, the non-emergency NHS number 111.

Those looking to go through the NHS directly, are usually prescribed medication fairly quickly. However, this too can be problematic, as some antidepressants can initially cause suicidal thoughts as a side effect. As well as medication, people are advised or referred advised to see a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist or a counsellor .

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This is similar to what I was prescribed. However, the medication that was initially offered was ineffective (fluoxetine) and all the CBT practitioner did was assign me worksheets that had been printed from an Australian anxiety/depression charity.

Effective treatment takes too much time, time that someone on the verge of suicide simply does not have.

As I have mentioned in a previous blog post, of the money spent in health research (which alone is not sufficiently funded) only 5% goes into the research of mental health issues. Issues that cause tremendous suffering, pain, and isolation, even without suicidal thoughts.

The current problems with the NHS are vast and well reported but in my mind, however, the NHS does the greatest good of any service or governmental organisation. But were the NHS functioning healthily, the lack of parity between the research and treatment of physical illness and mental illness, would be deeply troubling. However when the NHS is underfunded and crippled, the effects are disastrous. Leaving the mentally ill, and the suicidal with insufficient public care previsions.
'Things To Come' is accomplished, masterful cinema that flows with consummate ease and Isabelle Huppert reigns supreme - Woody Allen's 'Cafe Society' charms and delights with great one-liners but can seem a bit contrived - 'Jim:The James Foley Story' is an emotional and personal tribute to the journalist Jim Foley brutally executed by Isis in Syria in 2014 - The 9th Life of Louis Drax' blends a murder mystery with the mysteries of the human mind and hints of the supernatural.

Director: Mia Hansen-Love. Isabelle Huppert, Andre Marcon, Edith Scob, Roman Kalinka. Drama. French with English subtitles. France, Germany 2016 102 mins. (12A) *****

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Mia Hansen-Love's 5th feature 'Things To Come' is accomplished, masterful cinema that flows with consummate ease and Isabelle Huppert reigns supreme. It's a should see, must see.

From 'Eden' and the dilemmas facing a 20 something DJ, Mia Hansen-Love uses a near-perfect wordy script and a stunning performance from Isabelle Huppert to sketch out the dilemmas facing Natalie (Isabelle Huppert), a middle-aged philosophy teacher and it's compelling viewing. Hers is a comfortable bourgeois life with her book lined Paris apartment, an on-the-beach Brittany retreat, 2 children who've flown the nest and Heinz (Andre Marcon), her husband of 25 years and also a philosophy teacher. Student revolution's in the air but Natalie, absorbed in her life is reluctant to accept change or experimentation, even askance at her publisher's suggestion to update the cover design of one of her textbooks. The only edge is Natalie's mother (Edith Scob) who suffers with depression. And then Heinz announces 'I met someone.' 'Why tell me? 'I thought you would love me forever - what an idiot.' And Natalie's mother dies. A moment of freedom? An opportunity for change?

A visit with Pandora, her mother's cat to her protege Fabian (Roman Kalinka), an anarchist whom she idolizes and who's moved to a commune in the mountains to write doesn't go well. Will Natalie re-think her life?

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The film spans the years and Natalie becomes a grandmother which is where we leave her. It's French and honours that so well even dropping a hint of the 1960s French New Wave - in a cinema a stranger sexually accosts Natalie, is rejected, follows her into the street and steals a kiss.

'Things To Come' is compelling, mature, intelligent cinema with faultless performances. Stunning. Don't miss it. A should see, must see.

Released 2nd September

Director: Woody Allen. Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Steve Carell. Comedy, Drama, Romance. USA 2016 96 mins. (12A) ***

Superbly shot by Vittorio Storaro, with strong lead players and great one-liners, Woody Allen's 'Cafe Society' charms and delights with a nostalgic feel for the glory days of Hollywood and New York.

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Naive Brooklyn born Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg) wants out of New York, a break away from the family. He's off to Hollywood and family connections. Uncle Phil (Steve Carell), an all important, knows everyone, Hollywood agent gets Bobby a job as an errand runner and Vonnie (Kristen Stewart), Uncle Phil's secretary makes Bobby's heart flutter but she's got a boyfriend, and it's Uncle Phil. Will there ever be a place in her heart for Bobby?

It's back to New York, the family, Marty (Ken Stott), his hen-pecked father and a mix of Manhattan high life, the mob and his brother Ben (Corey Stoll) who runs a club and isn't an easy going, smiley guy.

Woody Allen's 47th film is a gentle, funny, bittersweet nostalgic glance at Hollywood and New York long gone, although at times a bit contrived.

Released 2nd September

Director: Brian Oakes. Unai Aranzadi, Zac Baillle, Manu Brabo. Documentary. USA 2016 113 mins. ***

In 2012 journalist and war correspondent Jim Foley went missing in Northern Syria and was brutally executed by Isis in 2014. He'd experienced imprisonment in Libya in 2011 but the lure of the Middle East was too great and he travelled to Syria.

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'Jim,' a tribute to Jim Foley by his childhood friend, Brian Oakes told through his family, friends, fellow journalists and his fellow hostages reveals the dilemmas faced and the heart breaking tragedy his family faced. Drawn to faraway places away from the protective family embrace, Jim Foley reported on the plight of citizens caught up in the brutal reality of conflict. It's a personal and emotional tribute to a friend but without political and religious reference which backgrounds the Middle East, save that European governments managed to get their citizens released but for the US Government a ransom payment wasn't an option, it's only half the story.

War and behind the scenes politics are dirty games and we need journalists like Jim Foley. A tragic loss.

Released 2nd September

Director: Alexandra Aja. Sarah Gadon, Aaron Paul, Jamie Dornan. Mystery Thriller. USA 2016 108 mins. (15) ***

Louis Drax (Aiden Longworth) isn't the average 9-year-old boy. Some say he's a 'wacko-boy' who's jumped into a fantasy world but with parents who fight and yell who could blame him. Louis has accidents and when the 9th pops up on his 9th birthday, he falls off a cliff and his father Peter (Aaron Paul) disappears. Dead for 2 hours, Louis reawakens, moves into a coma but his mind's active and he becomes the patient of the celebrated neurologist Dr Allan Pascal's (Jamie Dornan). What causes the accidents? Clues emerge. The police search for his father. Is it murder? Family secrets emerge. Dr Pascal's world merges fantasy and reality and he begins an affair with his patient's fragile and manipulative mother, Natalie.

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Louis narrates part of the film detailing his parents marriage as the film attempts to blend a murder mystery, hints of the supernatural and the mysteries of the human mind. Visually great but it doesn't work for me.

Released 2nd September
As a proud African, it gives me great pleasure to see that our younger generations are harnessing science and technology for real social impact. In June, Quartz Africa named Kenyan cellular immunologist, Evelyn Gitau, one of this year's top African innovators for her efforts to develop a rapid malaria test. I've also been most impressed with Andela, a start-up founded by Nigerian entrepreneur, Iyin Aboyeji, which selects the top 1% of tech talent from the continent, trains them to be world-class developers, and places them with a tech company just six months after they begin training.

Despite these success stories, I worry that many young Africans lack the opportunity to develop critically important skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). In Sub-Saharan Africa, secondary school enrolment rates are a mere 40%, which means that there is a very small pipeline of talented students who go onto tertiary education. Of these, just one in 10 students will study the sciences.

Why is this so concerning? As many African leaders recognise, science, technology and innovation are crucial drivers of development, as they can help boost job creation, and help the continent address its most pressing challenges. If our countries are to achieve much-needed socio-economic transformation, we must invest in our human resources by building scientific and technological capacity. Considering that 11 million young Africans are expected to enter the job market each year for the next decade, our next generations will be a crucial part of these efforts. As a result, we need to take decisive action to ensure that young Africans have the high-level scientific and technical competences that they need to succeed and lead their countries.

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As the biggest source of job creation and a recognised engine of growth, I believe that private sector companies can partner with African countries to create the next generation of local scientific leaders. First of all, they can partner with local universities to deliver high-quality and industry-relevant STEM curricula. Businesses could help cash-strapped faculties that equip graduates with both a deep understanding of science and technology, as well as practical workplace skills. A great example is US enterprise tech giant, SAP, which partnered with a range of educational institutions to deliver the Africa Code Week initiative, as part of its broader efforts to foster digital literacy across the continent and inspire enthusiasm for software coding among African young adults. This year's iteration will see coding workshops take place across 10 African countries and the provision of high-quality online resources and training sessions. Initiatives such as these will help ensure that young graduates have the hard and soft skills they need to thrive in a competitive job market, and expose companies to a pipeline of local tech talent.

Businesses can also help talented young scientists pursue postgraduate and postdoctoral training in African universities by providing industry-focused scholarships and placements. For example, they could contribute to the newly launched HE Ameenah Gurib-Fakim PhD Scholarship Programme delivered by the PEI Foundation in partnership with the African Academy of Sciences and with support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. What makes this programme so valuable is that it provides funding for talented African students to pursue PhDs in areas that are critical to the sustainable development of Mauritius and the African continent: energy; water and sanitation; agri-business; health; blue skies research at leading universities both on the continent and overseas.

Furthermore, the programme will be delivered with the assistance of private sector partners. The involvement of for-profit businesses will help enable our researchers to develop the practical experience that employers are looking for, and that their research closely aligns to industry needs. This balance between ensuring the creation of high-quality research that will address key development challenges, and employability of researchers is testament to the vision of HE Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, formerly a bioscientist and businesswoman before she became President of Mauritius.

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As a businessman, I want to emphasise that this is beneficial to all stakeholders. By supporting this programme, companies are helping to build the hard and soft infrastructure they need to operate successfully on the continent. This programme will also help counter the brain drain that is stripping our countries of their best and brightest. We should not tie down our young minds with conditions to have to study and 'give back' to their home countries- we must seek to build the engaging, exciting scientific infrastructure that makes them want to stay and proud to work there.

Finally, if we truly want to harness the potential of our next generations, we must make every effort to increase girls' participation in the sciences. Key to this will be highlighting the achievements of leading female scientists and researchers across the continent. Given their significant brand equity, businesses are well positioned to celebrate talented women in the sciences for their achievements. For example, seventeen years ago, L'Oreal and UNESCO founded the For Women in Science programme to promote the importance of ensuring greater participation of women in science. Every year, they acknowledge five brilliant young female researchers in Africa and the Arab States, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and North America for their contributions to physical science. Such programmes complement the efforts of the African Union, led by the distinguished scientist H.E Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, which offers trailblazing women scientists the African Union Regional Award for Women Scientists. Recognition of our most talented female scientists will give them the means to pursue independent research projects, and show young women that they, too, can succeed in STEM fields.

Ultimately, our younger generations will be vital to achieving sustainable and inclusive development on the continent. Equipping them with high-quality and industry-relevant STEM skills will help ensure that Africa has a workforce ready to compete and lead in the 21st Century global marketplace.
As a GP, woman, mother, and ambassador for Always Discreet for sensitive bladder, the topic of adult incontinence is a cause that is very close to my heart. It didn't feature very highly in my medical school training, but once I arrived in general practice I soon got experience of the huge impact it has on the lives of millions of women across the UK. So many of the women I see come to me as a last resort, having suffered in silence for years. Their lives are blighted or sometimes even ruled by their bladders, but they have no idea that effective treatment is within their grasp. It all starts with a conversation, which makes me even more committed to raising awareness in the hope that it will empower women to open the discussion.

Though adult incontinence is a condition that has come to be associated with age, it isn't one that discriminates; in fact, research by Always Discreet has found that it's something that will affect 50% of women at some point in their lives. As I've seen first-hand, living with this condition has a huge impact on the lives of sufferers, but what you might not appreciate from afar is how much of someone's life the symptoms can impact. A sensitive bladder can affect everything from the clothes you feel comfortable wearing, what and how much you drink, to how confident you feel travelling and exercising.

Unsurprising are the knock-on emotional effects of this, and shockingly 51% of women with bladder sensitivity say they feel depressed as a result of their condition. Women in the UK are exhausted by coping with AI, 61% of women can't sleep, and 94% claim to be worn out. That's a lot of women.

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So, how can we enable these women? How can we reassure them that there is a light at the end of the tunnel? I think we need to tell them - to tell you - that you're not alone. One of the biggest problems is that women aren't seeking help - the walls of shame and embarrassment that surround the symptoms stop women from speaking to their friends, their partners, and even their GPs. As a result a shocking 67% of women aren't using a product designed for sensitive bladder, and 49% make compromises in their daily lives to help accommodate their symptoms. We need to start talking about incontinence.

If you are one of these women, I want to help you initiate this conversation with a health professional. This summer, Always Discreet have released an industry first - a very special documentary that follows five charming, honest women on their journey through living life with incontinence. They have worked with the incredible film maker Flora Berkeley, to shine a light on what is the last taboo in female health. I am really excited and privileged to have been a part of this journey, as I know how important the issue is for so many women - nearly half of the women who suffer from incontinence (45%) admit that having a sensitive bladder affects their happiness. Always Discreet wanted to give these women a voice and Jane, Claudia, Alyth, Coral and Sandra were among many who wanted to share their stories and try to break the silence about what it means to be a woman who doesn't let her incontinence define her.

You can watch the documentary here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h4e3iIQHvc&index=21&list=PLqacyb_U7wNooFuvYQsm6FrahSqwiQA5W

Despite Flora Berkeley giving the topic the attention it deserves, hundreds of women still feel uncomfortable about sharing their experiences of living with incontinence. Here are some of my top tips for how to start the conversation around adult incontinence:

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Be the first to bring it up - once you start talking about it, you'll be surprised how many others have also experienced a sensitive bladder. They'll probably find it just as much of a relief as you to be able to admit it

Start the conversation - introduce the fact that they may have noticed behaviour changes or that you avoid certain situations

Explain the symptoms - so people understand how it affects your life and the decisions you make e.g. avoiding long car journeys

Dispel the myths - let people know it's a common problem that affects millions of women of all ages. Make them aware of the specialist products now out there that are really discreet and make you feel comfortable and fresh all day. And don't let them believe that pelvic floor exercises won't help - most women will benefit if they do them often and properly and persevere long enough

Keep talking, don't be ashamed, have a giggle, answer questions, be confident - then you'll find you've got friends and family you can turn to if you need support

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Visit a GP - it is important to seek professional and medical advice on how to ease your symptoms. There really is help available - you just have to ask
As the Trades Union Congress (TUC) meets in Brighton this week for its 148th annual gathering, it faces in one way or another essentially the same challenge that it has done since it was first founded. Jobs, work and employment take place as ever under capitalism but capitalism is constantly re-configuring the way jobs, work and employment are organised.

The 'gig' - or 'on demand' - economy is now the most obvious example of this and part of how the proletariat with regular, secure full-time employment has increasingly been changed into a precariat dependent upon low paid, insecure and irregular work.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in delivery companies in London using couriers and drivers to ferry legal documents and meals around the capital's streets. These workers are not even offered 'zero hour contracts' because these are not employed by the companies they carry out the work for. Instead, they are self-employed 'independent contractors'. With self-employment, the workers are not eligible for sick pay, holiday pay and have to pay their own National Insurance. They also have to pay for their own means of transport and the cost of running this as well as their means of communication (like mobile phones). Such self-employed workers are not guaranteed a minimum level of work or a minimum level of earnings.

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It has been a fledgling, tiny non-TUC union that has been setting the pace in standing up to this new form of labour market exploitation. Before the Deliveroo strike hit the headlines last month, the Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) had quietly been winning higher and fairer payments at a series of courier companies in London, whether that be Mach1, eCourier or City Sprint, through a series of flashmob actions and social media campaigns. The union was set up as a split from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) or 'Wobblies' in 2012.

For a union with only 1,000 members, the action at Deliveroo became the icing on its cake because it showed what a bold and assertive minnow of a union could do in contrast to more conservative, longstanding and bigger counterparts of the TUC.

'Gig' economy workers are believed to be atomised from each other as they work alone so that they are difficult to organise. They are also in competition with each other for work so that any compulsion to band together is undermined. Yet at Deliveroo the introduction of a new payment structure showed how a collective grievance could be turned into a springboard to successful collective action.

The new structure increased the pay per delivery item but removed the hourly guaranteed earnings. Couriers saw this as an attempt to reduce their income. After six days of increasingly well reported and energetic protests outside the company's London headquarters, Deliveroo agreed to only introduce the new payment structure in a limited number of pilot areas and maintain the existing payment structure. The success of this collective action then inspired couriers a week later at UberEATS in London to protest in a similar fashion when the company began to remove its bonus system of payments.

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The couriers applied pressure upon Deliveroo in the form of damage to its brand and reputation in the eyes of customers and investors through their social media activities. But it was been the old-fashioned nature of the collective action to halt and disrupt the operations of the business that was critical to explaining the success. Specifically, the Deliveroo couriers were able to take collectively advantage of the company's use of a 'just-in-time' system of operations.

Under this system, the good or service - and its delivery - is required immediately with their being no slack in the system as a result of stockpiles. In the case of Deliveroo, it was couriers not working in the early evenings when food deliveries from restaurants are at their peak that was the critical juncture.

Such collective actions are traditionally called 'wildcats' given there is no notice given to the employer of the strike. And, under current legislation, there is no need to have a ballot for action or give notice because, technically, these workers are not employees and so are unable to strike. All they can do is to withdraw their willingness to provide contracted services.

So whilst there is mileage in social media campaigns and protests (as practiced by the IWGB as well as the much bigger and older Unite and the GMB unions) as well as in changing employment law by taking cases to Employment Tribunals (as again the IWGB, Unite and the GMB are doing), only the IWGB has stuck its neck out to make the seemingly impossible possible - mobilising self-employed workers scarred by insecurity and vulnerability to fight for their rights in militant collective action.
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This summer I have spent far too many an hour sat on my laptop reading articles about the Labour leadership election. This is partly due to a recent tonsillectomy, and partly because, as a Labour Party member, I'm going to have to choose who I want to be the leader of my party very shortly.

The thing is, I don't want to vote against Jeremy Corbyn. When he highlights job insecurity, the housing crisis and the government cuts, which are hurting the poorest and most vulnerable in our society, I think to myself, finally, at last, someone is on our side!

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Corbyn could be the path to generating the change our society so desperately needs.

However, there are clearly problems with his tenure: there would not have been another leadership election this summer if that were not the case.

"Corbyn could be the path to generating the change our society so desperately needs".

Yes, there is something to be said about the certain MPs who have, at every opportunity, looked to undermine Corbyn. Clearly, some underhand tactics have been used, akin to those of New Labour's Prince of Darkness.

Yes, parts of the media have been absolutely vile. The reaction to Corbyn's recent #traingate was ridiculous, for example. That he may have had a seat after all does not detract from his raising a very, very real issue! (Just ask my farther who commutes to London by train each day!) Sickeningly, the media has gone out of its way to catch him when it normally tip toes around the much shoddier goings on in the Tory party.

Maybe, he has never been given a real chance, but we are in the abysmal situation that we are in, and we have to be realistic about this.

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Corbyn is principled, authentic and moral, and that is fantastic. However, he suffers from, what I like to call, stubborn old man syndrome (the phenomenon whereby a man of a certain age becomes more and more entrenched in their ways and beliefs). Whilst I deeply respect his lifetime's work, when it comes to being leader of the opposition, you have to sensibly pick your battles.

"we are in the abysmal situation that we are in, and we have to be realistic"

The thing is, you see, the majority just does not care about politics enough; the politically motivated, particularly of the left, often find this hard to digest.

One cannot blindly preach to the converted and expect an apathetic public to magically move towards them. One must firstly go to the majority, and then convince them, in an astute manner (yes, I do believe that it is possible to advertise radical, socialist ideas and policies in a moderate tone, if one is clever about it) that it is, indeed, in their best interest to shift back along with you.

For Labour to do all the great things Corbyn speaks of, we must win an election. We can ill afford to so bashfully alienate voters on trivial issues. Owen Jones was bang on the money when he said, "[i]t is socialist to seek power to introduce socialist policies".

My other qualm addresses Corbyn's management qualities. 172 MPs voted that they had no confidence in him; we, the membership, cannot react by blindly labelling them all snakes and Blairites. Besides the fact that this is counterintuitive, as there really aren't that many Blairites in the PLP, most of these people are good people, who have done good things. Maybe, we should at least try to understand their reasoning.

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But then we come to Smith, and I just don't know. He speaks well, but does he mean it? He seems opportunist and is prone to unfortunate, sexist comments, though he does seem pragmatic. But is he genuine? Can I trust him? Would he really bring about change?

Slowly, I have come to the realisation that, in fact, I don't want to vote for either of these men. And, following last Thursday's dismal leadership debate, it seems others may agree with me, with some even labelling both men 'unelectable'.

This is why, at my CLP meeting a few weeks ago, where we voted for who we were going collectively endorse, I spoilt my ballot, enjoying the slightly thrillingly anarchic feeling which accompanies such an action.

I know that I am not offering a solution to our current mess, because, alas, we do need a leader come the 24th. I did choose to make one careful observation. 'Where are the women?' I wrote instead. Where are they, indeed?
I'm in a distribution centre in Gaziantep, southern Turkey and I'm surrounded by female Syrian refugees. I'm trying to learn more, about what violence, if any, they've faced while fleeing their home. But it's difficult to get answers, Turkish men stand around in the small tightly packed room with their arms crossed, listening. One Syrian man interrupts, telling me he can speak for the women. I look at my translator in surprise. 'Why would I want him to speak for the women?' I ask him. He looks down embarrassed and shrugs his shoulders. Upon leaving the centre my translator said, 'I think that is the first time anyone has asked those women about their rights.' I looked at him in surprise again. I was the first person to ask these women about their rights?

As the Syrian war has exploded the world has watched as millions of refugees have streamed out of their country. As part of my long running work on women's rights with my foundation Project Monma, I travelled to Lebanon and Turkey, two of the biggest recipient countries of Syrian refuges to learn about how women were faring in the midst of the crisis.

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I first arrived into Beirut and began what would be a two-week research schedule of speaking with women's rights activists, NGOs, fighters from the Free Syrian Army as well as the refugees themselves. My research first took me into the Bekaa valley, a mountainous region of Lebanon located in the centre of the country long known for being one of the more tumultuous areas of the country as well as home to several hundred thousand Syrian refugees.

I was put in contact with a Syrian refugee called Om Noor living in the Bekaa valley. From Beirut I travelled through the mountainous valley region, past the many wine vineyards to a small makeshift camp where she was living. When I arrived she brought me to her small tent where we met her two of her five teenager daughters who smiled broadly when they saw me. We sat down to talk, but before we could begin we were interrupted by one of the camp leaders, a man, who came into the tent. He told us that none of the women would speak with us about violence, it would be better if I would go else where. It felt as if we were being warned.

Despite the lightly veiled threat, Om Noor still wanted to tell her story. It was a difficult one. After the fighting began in Syria she fled to Lebanon with her five daughters. They had been abandoned by her husband in Syria, he didn't want the responsibility of protecting six women in a war zone. Rape is often rife during conflict and Om Noor quietly told us how women have come to expect sexual assault from the soldiers at the many checkpoints throughout the country. 'Sometimes its just one of them, sometimes its all of them,' she said. After escaping the bombs and the bullets, she told us sadly that her real problems began when she arrived in Lebanon. With five daughters to feed, she was desperate to find work. However, she, like all of the Syrian women that I met in both Lebanon and Turkey, was confronted with the problem of sexual harassment. Several other Syrian women in their 40's came in to join us in the small tent and they too complained that employers were asking them for sex. One woman in her 50s said that she was even told by a bus driver that to get on the bus she would have to have sex with him.

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The stories of sexual harassment facing Syrian women were no less disturbing in Gaziantep. I met with two sisters from Syria who were in their 40s in the backroom of a small refugee distribution centre. The stress that they had experienced was evident as they recounted their story. Wanting to escape the war they paid people smugglers to bring them over the border into Turkey. The violence however had not stopped with their arrival and they too reported sexual harassment from the Turkish men. Finding work was difficult because like in Lebanon, employers were taking advantage of their vulnerability and asking them for sexual favors in return for work. One of the sisters said she had heard Turkish men praying that the war in Syria would never end so that they could continue to have a supply of vulnerable women coming over the border. She said that she would prefer to go back to Syria and live in the war than to deal with the harassment she was facing in Turkey.

I understood her discomfort. I too was subject to leers from men in the street which made me feel uncomfortable, unsafe and disgusted.

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The Lebanese and Turkish men I spoke to for the most part shrugged their shoulders and dismissed the issue. Sitting back laughing in his seat, one Lebanese man in Beirut said, 'sexual harassment is our culture.' Another Lebanese man informed us there was a website where men were sharing advice about where they could buy the best, cheapest and youngest Syrian women. For these men, Syrian women were just a commodity, to be bought and sold. During a conversation with a Turkish man in Istanbul he linked the treatment of Syrian women to the general view of women in the region. 'Traditionally in Turkey women have just been used for sex and beating on the back with a stick. Women have not had value in Turkey,' he told me.
At our partner shelter, south of Beijing

In China, running an animal shelter has so many challenges. Over 400 dogs need around 180 kg of food a day. In a country with bad roads and chaotic traffic it takes a high level of organisation even to get the food delivered. As for vets, there is a growing trend of new chains springing up to cater for the growing middle classes and their prices are easily on a par with the west even though wages aren't. Rescuers have to learn to be extremely resourceful and have a strongly committed volunteer network just to stay afloat.

This year I spent my summer in China. After Yulin, now that the cameras have left, the slaughterhouses have once again reopened. This year, however, the butchers and traders have learned they are sitting on a gold mine - not just from consumers of meat but from well-meaning activists who throw money at them to save dogs. However there is a growing number of grassroots activists and rescuers in China - people who would not have dared speak out before are now not only advocating kindness to animals but also valuing the companionship of dogs and cats in the way we understand it in the West. This year I also saw that now even high school groups are willingly giving their time to bath rescued animals, help clean up waste and administer vaccinations. These young people know that atrocities such as boiling dogs alive but they are also aware of human rights abuses which go unspoken and unnoticed.

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Newly rescued Samoyed dog being shaved by volunteers at Mr Zhao's shelter.

Four years ago I was counting on the British government and world leaders to bring about change. Now, I have switched focus and am confident that by continuing to empower and encourage local activist groups the idea of animal protection will gain real traction and animal welfare legislation and practice will become a reality in China.

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Jasmine with blue and amber eyes - rescued from a dumpster and available for adoption.

Some would say my initiative to create a charity called World Protection for Dogs and Cats in the Meat Trade to fight the meat trade at a time when few were addressing the subject was over-ambitious, arrogant even. The catalyst which propelled us for first time to the Korean Embassy in London, 2012, was seeing the dog meat farmers in Seoul, Korea holding their own protest in a bid to legalise the trade. Protesting with my friend the late John Hughes in the rain we said to ourselves it would take an army to get this issue heard. At times it has been only my two beloved dogs (the Samoyeds) that kept me going forward - knowing that beautiful, loving beings exactly like them were being brutally tortured for food or fur. I just could not understand why governments and legislators were not addressing the issue.

At that time I opened a UK government e-petition for our government to 'Urge the South Korean Government to Respect Global Animal Protection Laws' which took a year to gather 10,000 signatures. Hugo Swire and the Foreign Office were unmoved and dismissive in their response at that time.

UK government response to my e-petition.

I turned to the House of Commons, battled those that control the agenda and nine months later that year was allowed to address the issue at the annual companion meeting, December 2013. I remember the look of horror on the faces of those assembled as I showed them the packaged Korean elixir drink made from puppies boiled alive that could be drunk through a straw in seconds. It was not until our campaign flooded social media and empowered other activists to start their own petitions and protest groups that word started getting out and larger charities began to take notice.

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In the last two days national newspapers in the UK have run gruesome headlines showcasing issues we have been publicising day in day out for years. This Monday there is to be another dog meat trade debate thanks to a petition which raised 100,000 signatures. This debate will focus on Korea.

Can a Westminster debate have any influence on overseas practices and legislation? Why do we focus on the dogs and cats for meat and not on other animals? At any rate, people are thinking about the reality and consequences of the meat on their plate and that is a good thing. It is right for the British public to know dogs they willingly watch being raced to death can also end up in a boiling pot and that both are abhorrent.

Annabel and I in Beijing.

I had a glimpse of some of the attitudes to dogs as I walked one our rescued dogs in Beijing. Annabel, an apricot chow-type dog, blind in one eye, is pictured on our pages at the moment and was pulled from a truck bound for slaughter. She provokes smiles from both fear and delight. Recent laws in Beijing have not promoted the welfare of dogs - it is illegal to own a dog taller than 35cm and you can't take your dog on a bus or train. Meeting a lovely couple with two growing Alsatians, I asked them what will happen if their valued pets were to be confiscated. Their solution will be to return the dogs to the country farm which bred them and get smaller ones but the reality for most large dogs has been euthanasia.

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Mr Zhao caring for our rescued dogs

Towards the end of my trip I travelled to a slaughterhouse in the North. It used to be a breeding farm but switched trades when business got bad. We managed to negotiate the release into our care of a dozen worn down breeding dogs - German Shepherds - sold for a pittance as it was feared they all had distemper. We also managed to rescue 17 Samoyed dogs - who just like the Mastiffs also now used for meat were once popular pets. Their story was powerful to me as I have a special place in my heart for them. Despite their ordeal, they were still so joyful and so trusting. I asked Mr Zhao who runs our partner shelter and has been to festivals like Yulin many times why he thinks business is bad and why puppy farmers then turn to dog slaughterers. He guesses it is just about money.

Our newly rescued Samoyeds - hard to recognise in the sorry state we found them.

Everything in China is about economics and making quick money - people are focused on surviving in the present not really thinking of the future. Mr Zhao used to run a factory selling window frames but was forced to close when products came on the market of a cheaper quality. Now he lives a simple life with his dogs. As winter 2016 approaches finding homes for the rescued Samoyeds and German Shepherd as the cats is now our charity's priority.

Perhaps you can help?! Here some of our dogs who need sponsoring. They are also available for adoption.

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Brexit has become a byword for racism and chauvinism. A gross generalisation has been born out of the admittedly undeniable fact that some extreme-right groups advocated an exit from the EU.

This unfair generalisation that those who supported Brexit are closet racists has passed into the norm of social thought and may take a while to reverse.

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On the EU-infatuated left, which has done much to proliferate this snobbishness, there are two main ideas at play. The first is the notion that post-Brexit Britain, compared to chic, cosmopolitan Europe, is descending into a racist state as a direct consequence of the vote. The second is that all things related to the EU - including the single market and free movement of people - need to be fought for at all costs, even if that means subverting democracy and overturning the result.

While the EU's freedom of movement disguises itself behind a smokescreen of respectability, its cheerleaders in Britain fail to mention some of its more reactionary traits and unsavoury advocates.

For instance, one of free movement's most vocal backers in Eastern Europe is Robert Fico, the Slovakian president and current EU Council President. During Theresa May's July bilateral meeting with Fico, the Slovakian leader vociferously defended freedom of movement, stating that British voters view immigration 'differently to how we perceive migration on the continent'.

Yet Fico, who once said that free movement was one of the 'greatest accomplishments of the European Union', should not be seen as a defender of a great progressive cause, but as a racist who has said that 'Islam has no place in Slovakia'. Tellingly, Theresa May did not challenge Fico on his attitudes towards Islam which, although relatively mainstream in his native Slovakia, would be intolerable for the majority of the British population.

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Elsewhere, the despotic prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban has talked of the need to build a wall to keep out the 'poison'. Orban insists that immigration, 'especially from areas where Europe and the western world are seen as the enemy...damages Europe's security'. Mr Orban - an albeit critical integrationist who has backed calls for a EU army - sees the European project as a bastion of white and ancient values against Muslim invaders, a discourse harking back to the crusades. As the BBC recently pointed out, 'Mr Orban and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico say Europe has to defend its "Christian" heritage.'

In Poland a similar story has developed. Racist sentiment has grown to such a worrying level that mass anti-'Islamisation' rallies have been held in Warsaw, while the Vatican even published a communique condemning this trend. This climate of hatred has been fostered and animated by Beata Szydlo, who not only suspended an agreement to take in 7000 asylum seekers from the Middle East in the wake of the Brussels attacks, but has even stated that she wants to 'keep Poland Polish'.

Over the course of her brief visit to Warsaw, Theresa May rightly condemned the post-Brexit spate of attacks against Poles, before proceeding to hear Szydlo's speech in defence of EU free movement. But while it might initially seem hypocritical to defend free movement and lead a hard-right party with fascistic tendencies, it actually makes perfect sense: EU free movement acts a convenient way of keeping Muslims out of Europe.

While these figures of arch-conservatism have in the past been critical of certain aspects of EU liberalism and present themselves as Eurosceptics, they are united in recognising the great role that the EU and its border agency Frontex play in enforcing national and ethnic purity, letting white people travel throughout while keeping migrants of colour out.

In Britain, the commonplace narrative goes that racism and Islamophobia will undoubtedly increase after leaving the EU. But whilst we need to remain extremely vigilant of such tendencies, they should not be explicitly linked to Brexit, as if prior to June 23rd the EU ploughed resources into an anti-racism police force.

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Of course, recent reports of attacks on Poles throughout the country are extremely worrying and need to be investigated urgently, but that is not to say that the Left should defend the EU or accept freedom of movement, much less call for a reversal of Brexit.

To be clear, problems of racism are not addressed by overturning a popular decision to leave an imperialist organisation. And looking at the wider picture, defence of an organisation that enforces a barrier against North African and Middle Eastern Muslims that are victims of imperial wars could arguably be seen as more Islamophobic than anything produced by the EU referendum.

A recent Pew Survey revealed some interesting patterns about European attitudes to diversity and Islam. It found that Britain fared much better than Greece, Italy, Hungary, Poland and Holland in its acceptance of diversity, and roughly the same as Germany. As for views towards Islam, the UK had the most favourable view of Muslims in the whole continent, showing that while there may be lots of work to be done to improving race relations and inclusivity, the idea that Britain leaving the EU is symptomatic of our descent into a racist state is simply not true.

On the 24th of June many young people took to social media proclaiming that they would abandon racist Britain and claim European nationality. But these Pew statistics on diversity might throw a spanner in the works of those liberal young globetrotters wanting to move to escape the St George's flag-wielding mob. The idea that a young person living in largely tolerant London should go into self-imposed exile in a European country where race issues are far more prevalent is simply laughable. We need to learn to recognise that the term EU or European is not tantamount to tolerance and progress, and that our positive associations with the Continent (holidays, city breaks, etc.) are not representative of the real struggles of the peoples of Europe.

The widely promoted narrative that Europe is inherently more progressive than Britain is wrong, and portrays an elitist mistrust in the capacity of British people to think in a sophisticated manner.

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Instead of demonising the working class people it ought to represent, the Left needs to respect the outcome of the largest democratic mandate in British history and do its best to shape the outcome of the negotiations. Part of that is debating immigration policy and making the case that EU freedom of movement is fundamentally anti-people, enforcing a wall round Europe that keeps people of colour outside, imposes wage deflation for working class people inside its parameters and unbridled freedom for white middle class people to explore the charms of the continent for months at a time.

The racist nature of our current EU migration system is succinctly highlighted by one fact. Over the last three years some 27,000 'illegal' migrants have been thrown into jail in the UK. And all the while there are over 2 million 'legal' EU migrants in work in Britain (the ONS was found to have massively underestimated this figure). So what marks the difference between a permanent place in Britain and a safe job, or an illegal status and a prison sentence? The colour of your skin and which side of the EU border you have happened to come from. That is plainly an injustice.

One only has to look at the recent news that Jamaicans with British roots and families are being deported in their hundreds to realise that something's not right with our immigration policy.

It's time for the Left to have a debate on the merits of leaving behind EU freedom of movement and the single market.

The terms of this debate need to be shifted away from the warped liberal media agenda which has divided one set of people against another; respectables against non-respectables, educated and against non-educated, liberals against illiberals, middle class against working class.

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After Theresa May famously stood on the steps of Downing Street talking about greater opportunities for all, the Telegraph hailed her new Cabinet as a "triumph for state education and women." Despite this, both her Cabinet and Parliament itself remain disproportionately privately educated, white and male.

There has been a wealth of research and commentary into disengagement with the political process and a so-called "Westminster Bubble" effect and whilst there are undoubtedly many factors which have contributed towards this, one which is at last catching the eye of MPs is the composition of Parliament itself.

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The All Party Parliamentary Group on Social Mobility, which I co-chair is holding an evidence session next Monday to find out why this is and what we can do about it, as part of our wider inquiry into Access to Leading Professions.

Despite some limited progress being made in recent elections, it remains the case that 32% of MPs were privately educated, compared to 7% of the general population, according to analysis by the Sutton Trust. Of these, the research shows that almost one in ten went to Eton. That's right, nearly 10% of all MP's attended the same school, if that does not highlight how power is concentrated then I don't know what does.

Amongst Conservative MPs, 48% were privately educated and while the Prime Minister's state school "triumph" with the new cabinet might improve on this slightly, it is still the case that the new Cabinet were still over four times as likely to have attended a Private School (29%) than the general population. The fact that is portrayed as a triumph shows how low sights are set on this.

Meanwhile, the stark fact remains that there have been fewer female MPs ever elected than there are male MPs currently sitting in the House of Commons. In the current Parliament, less than 30% of MPs are female and while I am incredibly proud of the work that my own party has put into this issue, it is clear that there is still some way to go across the board. Parliament also remains much less ethnically diverse, much less representative of LGBT+ communities and much less reflective of disability than the population which elected it.

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So when we hear about disaffection with the political process, at least part of it must relate to the fact that many who represent us don't appear to have had remotely similar lives to their constituents. Add to that the number of MP's who were formerly special advisers or worked in some part of politics professionally and it is easy to see why politicians of all hues can be described as an "elite".

What I know from my own experience is that while I don't come from part of any elite, I was incredibly lucky to even have had a realistic shot of becoming a Member of Parliament. I was lucky because an opportunity arose in the constituency I lived in, I was lucky that I had an employer who was prepared to support me through the selection and election process and I was lucky that I had a family environment that enabled me to dedicate a considerable amount of time to the task.

How would I have fared if I was a lone parent or a carer or if I just happened to be in a job that required me to work at the time when I should have been knocking on doors? These are all huge obstacles people have to negotiate and the reality is for most that standing for election, even at a local level, is a massive commitment that people of working age in particular find daunting.

Its not just those on the frontline where examination is needed. Behind the work of the Government is an army of over 400,000 Civil Servants, with the most senior among their ranks often having as much influence over policy direction at the Ministers themselves. The Leading People report found that among senior Civil Servants, around half (48%) attended private school and for those who went to University, over half had attended either Oxford or Cambridge.
When I was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2014 I had already started training for that year's Great North Run. As I was processing the rollercoaster of emotions at 100 miles per hour, it dawned on me that I wouldn't be able to do the run - it then became my unfinished business.

That's what cancer does - it leaves so much unfinished business. My beloved father passed away from prostate cancer when I was only 28 and unfortunately he left behind unfinished business: meeting his 2nd grandchild; his 40th Wedding Anniversary and the holiday he and Mum had dreamed of for years.

Once the shock had worn off, and after the many hours I spent recovering from surgeries and chemotherapy, I decided that this disease was not going to leave me with unfinished business. My children were only 15 and 11 - I wasn't finished guiding them and teaching them how to be adults. I certainly hadn't finished housetraining my husband! I wasn't finished being a daughter. I wasn't finished with my hair or my breasts. I just wasn't finished.

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Breast cancer is a cruel and heart-breaking disease - it strips you of your femininity and your confidence as a woman, leaving you open and vulnerable. BUT, these days it can leave you. If caught early enough, breast cancer can be eradicated: becoming finished business. My Auntie was diagnosed just after me with peritoneal cancer, and we started chemo on the same day. Tragically she passed away less than a year later and she left a lot of unfinished business, not least her much-longed for Grandson.

So once I had completed my chemo and recovered my emotional and physical strength, I set about finishing the things that breast cancer had put on pause. I started to lose weight as steroids had left me with a 3.2 stone gain. We extended our house and had a massive party to celebrate life and the future. I guided my son through his exams and into his first job; my daughter into her teenage years; and I finally taught my husband how to stack and empty the dishwasher.

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I am so incredibly lucky. Many people, including my own family, aren't as lucky. My cancer (we called it Betsy as I didn't want the word to be given any credence in our house) was caught, treated and finished - I was one of the lucky ones.

Now I finally feel strong enough to reclaim another piece of unfinished business - I will do this year's Great North Run but in my mind it will be 2014. I am running to raise funds for Breast Cancer Now to help other ladies tell their Betsy's to leave; that they also have unfinished business that they need to get back to.
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There is a rosy view of grammar schools that looks something like this...

Children who are clever, bookish, and dedicated but might not have a lot of money (those who the Victorians considered the 'deserving poor') are creamed off from the ones who aren't so bright, or those who are disruptive, or the ones who just don't want to learn. They're given an inspiring education among other similar children, and head off seven years later to university, bursting with knowledge and full of plans for their wonderful future.

Sounds great, doesn't it? No wonder Prime Minister Theresa May and education secretary Justine Greening are so excited about the prospect of bringing back selection to education.

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Except it's not like that at all. My son has just started year five and secondary school is looming. We live in Bromley - a London borough with two super-selective schools. We are also close to the border with the borough of Bexley, which runs borough-wide selection tests and has several grammar schools, and not far from Kent, the county that is widely thought of as the gold standard for selective schools. It's positively over-flowing with grammars and recently managed to get round the law forbidding new grammar schools by exploiting a loophole to create an annexe of an existing school.

So my son could potentially take three tests this time next year. If he passes he will be eligible to attend five or six very good schools. What a wonderful world of opportunity awaits him - what chances he has.

Except, once more, it's not like that. The stark reality is that already - with a year to go before he sits the tests - most of the kids who plan to take the grammar exams have been having extra tuition for a year, or longer and most of the tutors are already booked up. By the end of this year, between 90 and 100% of those children will be having extra lessons. That's at a state primary in a London suburb.

So those 'deserving poor' kids? The ones who can't afford the extra 30 plus a week for tutoring? They're out straight away. And do you know who's in? Prep school kids. Friends with older children at grammars tell me at least half of their kids' classmates were at independent primary schools. Schools where they are taught how to take these exams, where they have dedicated exam classes, and extra lessons at weekends, and summer school - and sometimes external tuition as well.

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Anecdotally, I've heard that boys from all over London and the south east come to take the test for our local super-selective, and sometimes from as far afield as Hong Kong or Singapore, with their families relocating if the children pass the test. The school's results are comparable with the top private schools in London so it's a risk worth taking - if you can afford it.

The stats bear this out. According to The Sutton Trust, grammar schools take just 3% of kids on free school meals, compared with the average of 18%. It's not an even playing field and it's not giving poor kids - deserving or not - opportunities. In fact, it's thought that poorer children do dramatically worse in grammar areas. A study for the Financial Times in 2011 found that selective education benefits the top 5% of society by income, and leaves the bottom 50% worse off.

Meanwhile the nine and ten year old children at my son's school are spending their evenings, weekends and holidays doing extra schoolwork for a year, or maybe two, or even longer. And how will they feel if something goes wrong on the day? If they feel ill? If they forget to turn over their question paper and miss half the test? If they're distracted by a bee in the room or another pupil with a runny nose? Will they feel like failures? Because I think that's a lot of pressure to put on a child.

My son is kind and empathetic. He's funny, and creative, full of energy and enthusiasm, and he's a brilliant swimmer. As far as the grammar schools are concerned, though, that's not important. All they care about is how he performs in one exam he takes on one morning, this time next year.
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Old hands in press offices across Whitehall nodded their heads in recognition this week: one of the old favourites was back. "We don't give a running commentary on..." This time it was Brexit, with the phrase trotted out several times by Theresa May and other ministers. The phrase is an old standby for the public sector when it needs to stonewall on almost anything: a police investigation, budget negotiations, the appointment of a new senior official. It allows the speaker to adopt an indignant tone, as if even being asked to provide such a thing is an affront, and to do so would be quite improper. Of course, it ignores the fact that often ministers are only too willing to give a running commentary on a whole host of issues. Within Whitehall, the phrase is recognised as signalling (a) nothing is happening, (b) things are moving excruciatingly slowly, or (c) things are actually going from bad to worse.

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With Brexit, the reality is (b): things are happening, but slowly. That much was made clear by the statements this week from the Prime Minister and the Minister for Brexit, David Davis. Mr Davis, once a self-styled ex-SAS man of action, revealed that his plan for Brexit (after two months of work) was to spend a lot of time talking to everybody involved (which is, er, everybody) and then come up with a plan which the whole country could agree on. Understandably, those on all sides of the debate were unimpressed.

The policy on Brexit, of course, is right. This is one of the most important and complex tasks a Government has embarked on in peacetime, and it needs to be got right. Civil servants will advise, correctly, that Mrs May only has one stab at the Brexit negotiations so she had better be well prepared. What are the options for access to the single market, and how might that play out regarding freedom of movement? What does the financial services sector, or pharmaceuticals, need? All options need to be modelled and then compared with what various EU member states might be prepared to offer, drawing on advice from our ambassadors across the Continent and in Brussels. Only then can a proper negotiating plan be drawn up, with realistic objectives.

This diligent strategy happens to chime with Mrs May's personal approach, which is to digest every jot of evidence on an issue before reaching a decision, preferring to delay it rather than get it wrong. (The Hinkley Point nuclear reactor is the most high-profile instance of this.)
Peter Nicholls / Reuters

"I am the heir to Blair," said David Cameron in 2005. With the announcement he is quitting the Commons after standing down as Prime Minister, he is certainly staying true to that premonition.

The difference is, Blair went at a time of his choosing, quitting Downing Street and Parliament on the same day.

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Cameron was of course not afforded that luxury, and was effectively forced to resign in the early hours of 24 June after the UK voted to leave the European Union.

With the decision to leave Downing Street forced upon him, Cameron has decided to take back control of the other exit plan - and has now quit Parliament entirely.

Cameron said today that: "I'm sure I will remembered for keeping that pledge to hold a referendum when many people thought that promise would never be kept".

All Prime Ministers want a legacy, yet are rarely remembered in the way they would wish.

Harold Wilson - another PM who was able to pick the timing of his departure - was proud of his reform of the education system and the abolishment of laws around homosexuality, abortion and capital punishment. Yet, most people think of his time in office as one of great economic upheaval.

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Ted Heath hoped the UK's entry into the European Common Market would ensure he was in the history books as a true internationalist. This year's referendum vote shows the British public did not quite share his zeal for European integration.

When Margaret Thatcher's name is mentioned many think of the poll tax riots or striking miners, while Blair will be forever associated with the word 'Iraq'.

What of Cameron's legacy? Like Blair, his name will always be associated with one word: Brexit.

He first promised the EU referendum in a speech in January 2013 as a way of quelling the growing disquiet over Europe in his own party. It was also designed to neutralise the growing threat of Ukip - which was slowly gaining support in the opinion polls.

In 2014, Cameron had another referendum to deal with, as Scots went to the polls to determine whether they should live in an independent country. Despite a scare in the run up to the vote - with one poll putting the independence camp in the lead - Cameron secured a ten-point victory.

The tactics used by his side in that referendum - nicknamed 'Project Fear' due to the focus on the negatives of leaving the union - were replicated in the 2016 EU vote, but with a different result.

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The proclamations of economic turmoil, weakening of security and a diminished place on the world stage fell on 17million pairs of deaf ears.

Cameron, who had put himself so central to the Remain campaign, had no choice to resign after losing the vote.

He could he have stayed on in Parliament - after all, not all ex-Prime Ministers bolt for the exit door after leaving Downing Street.

Wilson, who quit as PM in 1976, stayed on in the Commons for another seven years before standing down and then being made a peer.

Thatcher stuck it out on the backbenches for 18 months after being ousted over Europe in 1990, and also ended up in the House of Lords.

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Blair, however, shunned not only sitting on the green benches of the Commons after quitting as PM, but also being promoted to the red ones in the Lords.

He took roles with investment bank JP Morgan and Zurich Financial Services, and also acted as a Middle East Envoy on behalf of the EU, the UN, America and Russia.

If Cameron truly is the heir to Blair, then expect to see him taking a similar route and add another fortune to the one he was born into.
You probably remember exactly where you were when you heard the result of the Brexit referendum. I was in Germany on June 24 when the news broke about Britain's decision to leave the EU. I spent the day with many of my peers from other universities and our mood was sombre. We feared for the future of research funding, staff and student mobility and international scholarly collaboration.

As disappointing as I find Britain's self-exclusion, it is important to remember that over the centuries, academic institutions have survived upheavals and crises. Many collaborated across borders long before the formation of the EU member states. The University of Pisa, for instance, was established in 1343, but had its renaissance in the 17th century when Pisa was ruled from Florence by the Medicis. Like post-colonial Britain, post-colonial Pisa was a great centre of learning and just as battered by controversy. In seventeenth century Europe, heliocentrism was as divisive as Britain's membership of the EU. When Galileo Galilei, that eminent Pisan, was called before the Roman Inquisition for supporting Copernicus' theory that the earth moves round the sun rather than vice versa, he had to promise to 'abjure, curse and detest' the heresy. Deep seated religious beliefs held more sway than evidence in Pisa.

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Similarly, throughout the Brexit debate, feelings trumped facts, triggering strong emotional responses. There was the oft-cited argument that leaving Europe would mean that the British people would 'get their identity back' yet no-one explained what that truly meant. Most of us have multiple identities so there is nothing daunting being both British and European. In addition, many felt disenfranchised and ousted by immigrants who, they perceived, were taking their jobs. Misconceptions about Brussels' bureaucracy and democracy played a pivotal role in in-out decisions. Few in the UK understood that the rules, regulations and red tape of Brussels are actually considerably smaller than that of say, a town like Lancaster. Nor did many appreciate that EU decisions are made by the Council of Europe, constituted by the member nations and their elected representatives. It's true that negotiations in the Council and the management of the Commission are complex - but no more so than most political processes.

Universities in the UK lobbied hard to remain, pointing to the benefits of research funding and staff and student mobility. Already there are signs of pressure on collaborative research. Many British institutions profit from EU initiatives such as the Erasmus scheme, which helps students gain international experience, and Marie Curie grants, which allow staff to spend time working abroad. They also benefit from the freedom to recruit EU nationals as staff. All this could be hard to replace.

For a small regional and increasingly internationalised university like Bath Spa University, the challenges are different. In April I outlined what I consider to be two key risks for the University: leaving Europe and increased competition from private providers. The potential loss of international and EU students as a result of withdrawal could not only damage our funding and income but also be detrimental to British students who would lose cultural capital gained from studying with overseas students. Although still to be scrutinised at committee stage, the plans within the Government's Higher Education bill to fast-track entry for private university providers could also have a negative impact. I see these threats as a recipe for a retreat to a little England and a much narrower experience for our students.

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Leaving Europe will make globalisation even more critical for the University. Our students work in the creative industries - a highly globalised field. International networks can enhance students' chances of finding work. A recent study commissioned by the International Policy Network of Universities UK, Gone International (2016) showed that international mobility, such as study or placements abroad, transformed the employment prospects of disadvantaged students.
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Victoria Beckham has come under fire once again for using "ultra-skinny" models, this time in her spring/summer 2017 catwalk show at New York Fashion Week on Sunday 11 September.

Daily Mail writer Sarah Vine accused the pop star-turned-designer of bringing back "anorexia chic", describing the models as "emaciated" and musing that the hair and makeup appeared "deliberately designed" to give the illusion of illness.

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Vine's comments are almost identical to fellow Mail columnist Piers Morgan's, who called Beckham's models "painfully thin" and "painfully miserable" following her 2015 NYFW show.

Sad return of ultra-skinny (and sick looking) teen models | Victoria Beckham's NY S/S17 Show |Sarah Vine Daily Mail https://t.co/8xpDIlnVzV  Sarah Inge Parker (@SarahIngeParker) September 12, 2016

Singled out in particular, is Dutch model Jessie Bloemendaal - whose modelling agency Women Management describe her as 5'11" with a 24 inch waist.

Vine was "horrified" by this, noting that 24 inches is "around the size of a eight-year-old girl's" (check a children's clothing size chart, and it's actually the measurement for ten-year-olds).

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But young schoolgirls and adult women aren't the same shape. A 5'5" Marilyn Monroe had a 22 inch waist, this does not mean she was "emaciated".

What do you think of the models at Victoria Beckham's latest catwalk show? Attractive or too thin? pic.twitter.com/2VmHNuIXHD  Radio Aire Breakfast (@airebreakfast) September 12, 2016

It's completely irresponsible to publicly insinuate someone is suffering from an eating disorder simply based on their appearance.

As Beckham herself put it, following the backlash to her models last year: "They're young, they're thin, but that doesn't mean they're ill."

There is no denying the pressure to be thin in the fashion industry, and ensuring models are encouraged to look after their health needs to be a priority.

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But body-shaming is not the way to do it.

Instead of tearing women down for their appearance, we should be making steps towards positive change. Why not call attention to model Rosie Nelson's petition to parliament, requesting a set of health checks which would require models are to provide regular certificates from their doctor?

@victoriabeckham your models look ill, that's because they probably are, throwing up to wear your dresses , you should know better vic.  Emma Mckean (@EmmaMckeanSG) September 7, 2016

It's clear that Beckham's models were all of slim build, as were 99% of the models at NYFW. Out of hundreds of designers showing at NYFW this season, only two - Christian Siriano and Byron Lars - have cast plus size women.

This lack of diversity on the catwalk is a huge problem. Yet, again, Vine's comments are nothing but reductive.

She states that the "unforgiving" crushed velvet and silk fabrics, dramatic cut outs and corsetting means that "no one over a size 12 could ever consider putting [the clothes] on".

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Not content with simply skinny-shaming, she's also shamed women of all sizes.

Who says a size 16 woman wouldn't look badass in a crop top? It's this exact attitude that led to Tess Holliday's #effyourbeautystandards social media movement - which now has over 1.6 million posts from women tired of being told what to wear.

Vine asks Beckham to "spare a thought" for girls wrestling with body image demons, but scrutinising the appearance of other young women in the same breath is every bit as damaging.
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Isn't surrogacy illegal in the UK? No it isn't! In fact Parliament debated surrogacy reform in July 2016 as although it is legal, it is woefully inadequate and trails far behind many other countries.

It is however illegal to pay a surrogate in the UK, except for their reasonable expenses however. Since April 2010 it has also been possible for same-sex couples to undertake surrogacy in the UK. However this fact is still not always understood and there are many people who still do not realise that UK surrogacy is now an option more many, and not just for married couples.

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However, the laws currently in place around surrogacy in the UK were written in the 1980s, and many leading fertility lawyers agree that they are in desperate need of change, and the sooner the better.

Because the UK law is not adequate, thousands of surrogacies are taking place abroad in countries such as the US and Canada where the process is much more stable. However whilst their laws are stronger, this can have quite a financial burden on the intended parents (IP) and bring about their own set of challenges.

Under current UK law, surrogates are the legal mother of any child they carry, even if they are not genetically related, unless they sign a parental order after they give birth transferring their rights to the intended parents. Surrogacy contracts aren't enforced by UK law, even if a contract has been signed with the intended parents and they've paid for any expenses. This can result in a lot of uncertainty until six weeks after the birth. The surrogate could change their mind; the intended parents could change their mind. Many hospitals do not let intended parents be present at the birth as they are not legally related to the baby.

Under the current UK surrogacy laws at the moment of birth, the woman who gives birth to a child is regarded as the legal mother, regardless of the child's genetic origins. Her husband/partner, if she has one, is regarded as the legal father.

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Parental orders are used to address parenthood issues following surrogacy. Like an adoption order, a parental order reassigns parenthood, extinguishing the parental status of the surrogate parents, and transferring full parental status and parental responsibility on both IP. However this cannot take place until six weeks after birth, so if any legal decisions need to take place, perhaps to resolve a tongue tie, or in some cases more serious medical attention; it is the responsibility of the surrogate to give her permission to doctors.

Square Peg Media are working with a team of organisations including Surrogacy UK and CMS Cameron McKenna to try to get surrogacy reform moving. In addition to meetings with MPs, a large focus on surrogacy is taking place at the Alternative Parenting Show this year. There are 5 seminars around various areas of surrogacy and several exhibitors who provide surrogacy services.
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Apple's removal of the headphone jack on the iPhone 7 has, as was entirely expected, caused something of a minor uproar among consumers.

We've never really been good at change though have we, remember the time that Apple supposedly shot itself in the foot by switching from those enormous charging ports on the iPhone 4 to the Lightning cable on the iPhone 5.

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The pitchforks came out as literally thousands of people discovered that their new iPhone 5 wouldn't be compatible with their old cables or iPod docks. Apple released an adaptor for that too, but it didn't stop us, we hate change.

We're more than happy to keep an outdated piece of technology through no reason other than convenience and then start hurling abuse when Apple doesn't "innovate".

Let me be clear, I'm not saying our complaints weren't without merit. Big changes like this are expensive for the consumer and while an iPhone isn't a basic human right it is frustrating to have to constantly invest financially in change. Just look at the arrival of 4K and HDR TVs; It seems we've only just got used to having a Full-HD television and already there's something that's offering 4x the picture quality, for a price of course.

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Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro offers stunning graphics and better visual quality, but only if you have a 4K HDR TV.

Apple ditched the headphone jack because it was old, large and probably the only part of an iPhone that didn't actually feel very 'Apple'. The company has been doing this for years, just look at this astonishing interview with Steve Jobs.

Also just to clarify, I'm very aware that if there's one company that doesn't need its battles being fought for it, it's Apple. Don't confuse this then as a piece which places all of the praise at Tim Cook's feet. Apple aren't the only company that's taking away the headphone jack, but they are the company where it will have the greatest impact, and that's why it's worth talking about.

So what do we do now? Well the future is wireless, digital headphones. It's a tough sell I'll admit. Wireless headphones have long-suffered a stigma of being bulky, expensive and impractical. To be quite frank though, that's just not true anymore.

Moore's Law might have slowed down but this year has demonstrated more than anything that while the silicon itself isn't getting smaller, the ways in which we're using it are advancing at an alarming pace.

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Every single morning and evening I commute with a pair of PowerBeats2 Wireless; they weren't cheap (they cost me 169) but they're worth every penny. They can't compete in terms of audio quality with my B&W P5s (I love music) but they're ultra-light, waterproof, have a battery life that'll last me over two days of commuting and connect quickly and easily. I've never once had the signal drop out and through software updates I know they'll continue to get better.

The PowerBeats is just one example in a whole wave of new wireless headphones that can perform just as well as a pair of old analog cans and in some cases, far exceed them. Products like Jabra's new Elite Sport headphones effectively give us a personal trainer in our ear. Sony's Xperia Ear might not be perfect but it's a first step towards a digital personal assistant which you can talk to like a human adult.

Apple's solution to wireless headphones: The Apple AirPods.

Then you have Apple's own innovation, the W1 audio chip; a tiny processor that gives Apple and Beats headphones a 'brain'. The W1 allows headphones to be joined once to all your Apple devices, then when you want to switch across between device the experience is invisible. No searching through Bluetooth menus and re-pairing every single time.
Grey Parrot numbers have collapsed in the wild, driven by a ruthless international pet trade. That is why I signed a petition initiated by the World Parrot Trust calling on countries to support a ban on the international trade in wild Grey Parrots at a forthcoming global wildlife trade meeting.

You've probably seen one in a pet shop, or maybe a friend or relative has one. They are one of the world's most handsome and familiar parrots. With slate-grey mantle, paler chest and belly and striking red under-tail, the African Grey is also very popular. These beautiful birds are hugely engaging creatures, not least because they can talk, and when I say talk I don't mean simply copy sounds 'parrot fashion': they can actually talk. Being clever and beautiful is generally a recipe for success in life, but for these birds its fast adding up to a disaster: we're loving them to death.

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During the late 1980s and early 90s I worked at BirdLife International on a programme promoting the conservation of parrots. Of the 350 or so species of these birds in the world we believed about 100 of them were at risk of disappearing. Many of them were critically endangered and in imminent risk of total extinction. Although the African Grey wasn't one of them, it is now.

There were then, and still are now, two main reasons for wild parrots being in such peril. One is the destruction of their tropical forest homes and the other is the capture of birds for pets and collections. Between them these pressures have pushed many parrots to the brink of oblivion. The African Grey is at risk from both these pressures, and particularly the massive trade in birds going to pet markets.

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There are solutions that can improve these birds' fortunes and over the years I've been privileged to be involved in some of them. For example, compared with the situation in the late 80s many more areas of tropical forests are protected and progress has been made toward the sustainable management of some others. Local education programmes have succeeded in discouraging farmers from shooting some of rare species and scientists have gathered a great deal more information on what's needed to conserve various threatened parrots.

On top of all of this there has been a positive impact from the adoption and implementation of international rules to control unsustainable exploitation. One way that countries have cooperated to stop it has been via the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, that can introduce bans on the trade in the most endangered species. On top of the rules operated by CITES two of what were once the biggest markets for wild-caught parrots, the US and EU, have both now banned the import of all wild caught birds, including parrots. This has helped to reduce the barbaric and unnecessary consequences that come with what has most often proved to be an ecologically damaging trade.

There is still work to do though. In some parts of its range, that runs from the tropical rainforests of West Africa through to those of the Congo Basin, the African Grey Parrot has since the early 1990s suffered declines of up to 99 per cent. Recent information collected from the field describes collapses in wild populations as a result of capture for the pet trade. Confidence in any suggestion that this might be reversed or managed to be more sustainable is undermined by irregularities in trade and exports regularly exceed recommended quotas.

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Fortunately, however, even with a trade ban these birds can still be loved as pets by people around the world, but by parrots supplied from captivity. Demand in US and EU is already met by captive breeding. Between 2007 and 2013 South Africa reported the export of 158,458 captive-bred African Greys, revealing how the continuing capture of wild parrots is totally unnecessary.

Why would anyone be against such a listing? Well one group is the bird breeders. If African Greys were listed to ban the trade in wild birds then there would be a lot more paper work to prepare in getting permits to ship birds to markets overseas. It would still be legal, but more onerous. That is an issue, but in the end might not be so bad as they think. For a start they should bear in mind how their bird breeding businesses are being undermined by the supply of cheaper wild-caught parrots. They come with none of the costs they incur in taking care of the parrots and the immense time, effort and dedication they put into rearing birds that make far better pets than those wrenched from their natural habitats.

Some of the countries most important for the conservation of African Grey Parrots in the wild, including Gabon, Angola and Nigeria, are backing the proposed new listing for a trade ban and it is my sincere hope that other countries who are members of the CITES treaty won't be swayed by the short-term (and indeed wrong-headed) lobbying from bird breeders to to block it. That's why I signed that petition initiated by the World Parrot Trust.
Joshua Roberts / Reuters

Though I grew up in the shadow of the Rwandan genocide, I didn't realise what racism was until I was fifteen years old. I was visiting my best friend in Sloane Square when two policemen stopped me and told me that I "fit the description" of a young black man who was dressed in similar clothes to what I was wearing, a hoodie and trainers. This was only the beginning of my run-ins with the police, which I initially found confusing because I was a highly-respected and well-behaved student. Ever since then I have continued to have encounters with the police, who have stopped and searched me repeatedly throughout my life. I soon came to the realization that they had a preconceived notion that to be black was somehow to be intrinsically criminal, and that this informed the way they treated me when I was in their presence. This repeated racial profiling made me feel powerless - I can't, after all, rip off my skin - and, in a creeping way, worthless.

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As I grew older, my friends would tell me similar stories of how they too had been stopped and searched on numerous occasions; of how the police had punched and beaten them or called them "nigger" when they believed no one was looking - or no one whose word would be taken. And I read this singular statistic: there have been 827 deaths resulting from 'police contact' since 2004 in the UK, and yet, despite several rulings of unlawful killing, no officer has been successfully prosecuted as a consequence.

As an artist who is also a young black man in this country, I want to give the world a window onto the tense and traumatic encounters that can happen between black people and the police, and how in some cases this results in unwarranted death.

To tell this particular story I have conceived a theatrical work, Custody, drawing inspiration from Migrant Media's cult documentary films Injustice and Who Polices the Police. Custody, and the real experiences of families who have suffered from police brutality and struggled to find justice. It is an incisive exploration of the ways in which young black men and women are mistreated by the police in modern British society and draws directly from the stop and search experiences I faced in my youth.

With Custody I want to show that police brutality and the routine devaluing of black lives is not specific to the African-American experience, but also powerfully affects Black Britons. This is not as well known as it should be, largely due to the power of British institutions such as the police, and the state's ability to cover things up. It is also due to a culture of apathy in Britain and the inclination we have to sweep uncomfortable facts under the carpet.

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I chose theatre as my medium because it places the audience in a space where it is difficult to run away from uncomfortable truths. In theatre, in a ritualised way, for a short time we breathe the same air and inhabit the same space as the people who experience these tragedies. My intention is to present work that is provocative and transformative.
Our next several blogs will catalogue the various ways drug companies have ruthlessly promoted our nation's deadly opioid epidemic. This first installment on just the latest outrage- political lobbying to block the legalization of medical marijuana. Future blogs will each tell other aspects of this sordid story.

The exponential growth of addiction to prescription opioids offers a classic example of selfish corporate greed swamping any vestige of corporate conscience. The Pharma drug pushers are attempting to protect their blood money profits by blocking fair competition from much safer and much cheaper medical marijuana. As usual, Pharma displays great loyalty to its executives, its shareholders, and its subservient politicians, while displaying a shameful disregard for the lives of its customers and the welfare of our society.

Drug cartels are rightly reviled. But drug companies are now more deadly and only marginally less ruthless.

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Policymakers should weigh the considerable evidence that legalized medical pot improves pain management and reduces opioid addiction. They should focus less on the few real dangers and be less susceptible to powerful Pharma pressure.

Medical Pot Reduces Opioid Abuse And Deaths

Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia have legalized pot for medical purposes. It turns out that medical marijuana is over-rated for many of the conditions currently treated with it.

But pot could have a major role in improving our currently horrible management of chronic pain. A review of 79 studies found "30% or greater improvement in pain with cannabinoid compared with placebo."

Studies also show that legalizing medical pot, and making it available in dispensaries, reduces by 15-35% admissions for prescription opioid abuse and opioid overdose deaths.

In states that legalize medical marijuana, doctors also write many fewer prescriptions for medications meant to treat pain, depression, anxiety, seizures, and nausea.

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The dangerous over-use of prescription opioids has become our national nightmare. Any rational assessment of risks versus benefits would much favor pot over addicting pain pills.

Pharma Fights To Defend Its Opioid Profits

Pharma is the most active and powerful opponent of legalized medical pot. Its subversive activities take the usual form used by all rich and powerful industries to defend their selfish commercial interests when these conflict with the broader public weal: sponsoring friendly anti-pot researchers; funding friendly anti-pot organizations; lobbying government agencies; paying off politicians; and mounting public relations campaigns.

The financial stakes are high. On one side, Pharma is protecting its revenues of about $10 billion per year. On the other, the costs of opioid addiction to our society mount to many multiples of this. Consider all the medical and rehab treatments required to deal with prescription opioid abuse and addiction; the lost work productivity; the impact on the legal and correctional systems; and all the additional costs occasioned by downstream heroin addiction.

And this is to say nothing of all the lives lost and of all the lives ruined. Pharma will fight to the last dollar to protect profitable product, however deadly it is and however costly to society. Society needs to learn how to fight back and protect itself from predator drug companies.

Several other industries are allied with Big Pharma in actively opposing the legalization of pot- particularly the beer makers, distillers, Big Tobacco, and the prison lobby. All are blatantly self-interested, but none is quite so hypocritical as the drug industry -- which constantly trumpets its devotion to patient welfare while consistently sacrificing it on the altar of obscene profit.

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What Needs To Be Done

It is crazy public policy to make a relatively safe drug illegal, while simultaneously allowing Pharma to legally push an extremely deadly one.

The epidemic of addiction to, and deaths from, legal prescription opioids is a national tragedy plaguing all fifty states. It will have no simple solution, but clearly the universal legalization of medical pot should be part of the tool kit.

Political opposition is partly based on ideological and puritanical grounds; partly on groundless over-estimation of risk; and partly on Pharma's greedy efforts to hold its opioid market share against an effective and much safer competitor.

Recent history makes clear that Pharma owns Washington and also many state capitals. It invests twice as much on marketing and lobbying as it does on research and is much better at buying politicians than producing better products.

But right sometimes triumphs over might, particularly when the evidence is so clear and the stake in lives so high. Pharma's pressure on the many politicians beholden to it is increasingly meeting counter-pressure generated by the unprecedented spread of addiction to the general population and the consequent rising death toll.

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Now that 25 states have legalized medical pot and have derived such clear benefit from doing so, can the other 25 states afford to continue suffering the huge human and financial cost of unfettered legal opioids.

Legalizing medical pot will not by itself solve the overall opioid mess, but it is an obvious and effective step in the right direction. Other steps will be discussed in later blogs.
Across the United States, students have returned to schools that are engineered to be inequitable and segregated. They are designed to protect the privileges of some at the expense of others. They have been that way for a very long time, but that is an intentional decision -- a human-made arrangement -- not a natural unalterable occurrence like the rising and setting of the sun each day. Equity and democracy demand a different design. The education designs we accept, ignore, and reject for our children are a window into the soul of our nation, revealing what we care about most deeply.

Look around. Think about your life. Except maybe in a remote virgin forest, almost everything else has the imprint of human interaction, of design. Everything is either natural or engineered- that is, designed by humans who were guided by their goals, values, and by judgments about criteria and constraints.

From an engineering perspective, design begins with identifying the criteria and constraints that frame the problems that are chosen to solve, which features of those problems are selected to address, and the conditions or limits that are imposed on possible solutions.

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As I write, I am thinking about the view from my desk where I work at Stevens Institute of Technology. I hear my colleagues at the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education talking in the background and sounds from the street -- cars, trucks, lawnmowers, and construction noises. I am lucky to have a view of the Hudson River and the George Washington Bridge. The scene also includes boats, trees, grass, electric wires, and campus buildings. The river is natural, although the water that flows certain bears the mark of human design. Everything else is the result of human decisions.

The southerly flow of the Hudson River is a natural occurrence, but inequity in funding and achievement are the outcome of design features of our government and economic structure. Wealthy students attend schools that have more resources than those attended by poor students who live in neighborhoods that are the result of decades of intentional housing policies. Academic achievement is highly correlated with family income and mothers' educational level. These outcomes are not natural occurrences, but rather the inevitable result of design decisions.

The natural world imposes constraints. Objects do not fall up. If we want an object to go up -- to counteract the unalterable force of gravity -- we must expend energy. Energy use is a zero-sum game. Spend it in one place. Lose it in another. As we have learned, if we are not careful about design, there is a price to pay. When we take the potential energy out of fossil fuels, some of it is spent on generating electricity, but the rest is spent on heating the atmosphere.

Design decisions about the engineered world of social interactions, such as schools, are different. Those decisions reflect our countries goals and values and judgments about criteria and constraints. For example, design criteria for public schools attendance can either specify acceptance of all children who apply within a designated geographic area or alternatively, enable some of the children to compete in a lottery for entry into a charter school. Similarly, whether or not a school's zoned attendance area makes it diverse or racially isolated is a design criteria decision. Constraints related to how schools are funded in the United States are the product of a design decision too. Supporting schools through inequitable local tax revenue rather than progressive income tax is a decision based on goals and values. Federal and state aid to schools do not make up for differences in the tax capacity between states or between local districts. As a nation, this reflects a decision to protect the privilege of the wealthy at the expense everyone else.

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I know that the term "social engineering" has come to be used as a pejorative to attack government action to advance progressive issues such as equity and diversity. However, to be clear, existing inequity and segregation are also the products of engineering -- albeit without transparency about means and goals.

In the current political climate, everyone claims to be on the side education that provides access to the middle class with little talk and even fewer real policy proposals to eliminate poverty or inequitable school funding. There is virtually no discussion about promoting integrated neighborhoods and schools. From a systems engineering perspective, this is a doomed approach that restrains greater equity or education improvement. Inequity and segregation have long been inextricably linked. Segregation -- and the economic and racial isolation that accompanies it -- are the means by which privilege is protected. Segregation maintains and promotes unchallenged distrust at a distance that allows the "other" to be dehumanized so that common cause on behalf of equity can be thwarted. Alternatively, daily proximity and interaction across perceived difference tend to humanize and provide the potential for a common struggle for equity.

It is long past time to start engineering for equity and integration. Education policy is a great place to start.

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We should:

Enact and fund housing policies to promote integrated neighborhoods and schools;

Adopt equitable school funding formulas with revenue from graduated state and Federal income and corporate taxes with increases on the most privileged;

Mediate the effects of income-related disparities through government-supported services, such as universal health care and pre-school;

Provide funds to reduce class size;

Fully fund services for special education and English language learners;

Enact laws that require employers to pay workers a living wage;

Fund job-creating investments in infrastructure and research.

Let's engineer a different future.

Arthur H. Camins is the Director of the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education at Stevens Institute of Technology. He has taught and been an administrator in New York City, Massachusetts and Louisville, Kentucky. The views expressed in this article are his alone.
"It's no wonder that Mexican peasant brigades were able to beat the pride of the French army in the battle of Puebla on May 5 (Cinco de Mayo), 1862... the angels were on their side."

Mexico historian Jaime Capulli



Puebla's baroque-style cathedral is one of the largest in Mexico.

It's 1531, a decade after the Spanish conquest of Mexico, and a Dominican bishop wants to build a cathedral in a gorgeous valley. In a dream, angels show him a great spot for it, and he sets out to build his cathedral there (and while he's at it, a whole new city).

Legend has it the angels not only brought holy inspiration to the project, but the latest surveying techniques as well. It's said they used string lines to lay out a grid of streets accented by parks and fountains, all surrounding blocks where the cathedral would be built. But as things turned out, it took 44 years to wade through the red tape to get the green light to build the cathedral.

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Actual construction took quite a while, too. Finally, much of the cathedral's interior was completed and its two 200-foot-high towers were ready to welcome the masses. One problem remained: how to get an 18,000-pound bell up to the top of one of the towers (the other was bell-less).

Sure enough, the angels showed up again and raised the bell.

As a way of saying thanks to their cherubic helpers, the city was named Puebla de los Angeles (City of the Angels).



Downtown Puebla is a jump back in time to colonial Mexico.

Fast forward to 1862, and an invading French army on its way to Mexico City from the eastern port of Veracruz halts just outside the angelic city, about 135 miles inland. It's a glorious day, and the French dress up in their most colorful uniforms. Bugles blast out l'attaque - the signal to attack the twin forts guarding the city - and thousands of chasseurs, zouaves and other troops charge up the hill under guidons and pennants dancing at the end of their officers' lances.

They end up getting clobbered by the greatly outnumbered rag-tag Mexican peasant brigades defending the city under the command of General Ignacio Zaragoza.

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Mexican President Benito Juarez honored the victory by changing the name of the city to Puebla de Zaragoza. Years later the name was shortened to just Puebla, but the city - today the fourth largest in Mexico - is popularly known among the 6 million people living there by its original nickname, Angelopolis.



Al fresco restaurants line the streets of Puebla's historic district.

Outside Mexico, Puebla may be best known for the battle in 1862. It was on the 5th of May that year - giving rise to today's annual Cinco de Mayo celebrations.

An historical footnote: In Paris, Emperor Napoleon III was furious when he heard about the defeat of his army. The following year, he sent 27,000 reinforcements to Mexico for what turned out to be a two-month siege of Puebla. On May 17, 1863, the out-numbered, out-supplied and out-gunned Mexican troops - who by then had eaten their horses, dogs and cats and were mainly getting by on boiled leaves - finally threw in the towel. The French left three years later.
For 80 years, the Ford Foundation has sought to reduce poverty and injustice, strengthen democratic values, promote international cooperation and advance human achievement. Now stewards of a $12 billion endowment, when this remarkable organization's leader speaks, people listen. So it may well reverberate throughout the nonprofit world - and far beyond - now that Ford Foundation President Darren Walker has used the occasion of his annual letter to his constituents admitting that a new effort by the Ford Foundation to disrupt inequality had neglected people with disabilities.

Walker, who is African-American and gay said, "In the same way that I have asked my white friends to step outside their own privileged experience to consider the inequalities endured by people of color, I was being held accountable to do the same thing for a group of people I had not fully considered," Walker wrote. "Moreover, by recognizing my individual privilege and ignorance, I began to more clearly perceive the Ford Foundation's institutional privilege and ignorance, as well. It is clear to me now that this was a manifestation of the very inequality we were seeking to dismantle, and I am deeply embarrassed by it."

I have known Darren Walker for years and consider myself honored that he sought counsel from my organization and others in the disability community on this issue. He is an extraordinary man who has been a leader in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors for two decades. When TIME magazine names someone to its annual list of the "100 Most Influential People in the World" one could be expected to let that get to his head. Not Darren. His remarkable admission about the Ford Foundation's past ignorance and indifference to people with disabilities only underscores his humility and grace. He also knows when he's made a mistake and owns it.

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The sad reality is people with disabilities have been marginalized for centuries. Even in this age of prosperity, people with disabilities remain underemployed and their skills underappreciated. Twenty-six years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, its full promise has yet to be fulfilled, as millions of Americans with disabilities still struggle to attain a quality of life equal to our non-disabled neighbors.

Personally, I have felt a special connection to the Ford Foundation since my longtime mentor, Mike Sviridoff, went to work for the Foundation in the 1970's under its legendary leader McGeorge "Mac" Bundy. Together, Mike and Mac worked tirelessly to nurture a variety of programs to address the problems of our cities, most notably poverty. Two years before President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the war on poverty, Mike led an antipoverty program in New Haven that was set up with a Ford Foundation grant. In its first 30 months, the program found employment for 1,500 people and became a national model.

Fast-forward half a century, the Ford Foundation continues to deliver proven results for poor and excluded communities around the world. But even more importantly, Darren Walker takes the unusual next step of putting Ford's own practices under a microscope, and leading by example. In his letter, Darren notes that "those who courageously--and correctly--raised this complicated set of issues pointed out that the Ford Foundation does not have a person with visible disabilities on our leadership team, takes no affirmative effort to hire people with disabilities, does not consider them in our strategy, or even provide those with physical disabilities with adequate access to our website, events, social media, or building. It should go without saying: All of this is at odds with our mission."

In a country where most foundations don't consider disability among their focus areas, for the leader of the nation's second-largest philanthropy to acknowledge this gross oversight and to appreciate the need to be inclusive of people with disabilities, is a game-changing move for the people my organization represents and for our nation as a whole. I hope his actions will spur other foundations, large and small alike, to examine if they, too, have ignored people with disabilities in their programs and employment. He concludes his letter with a hopeful tone:

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"For my part, I am hopeful," he writes. "By demanding and expecting more of ourselves and our institutions, we can deliver more for others. In listening to each other, we will continue to learn. By listening more to each other, we can continue to forge a more just way forward, together."
When you look in your closet, you probably see a crush of clothes: some things that are old, some that are new, some you wear constantly and, some, almost never. I routinely cull and organize my wardrobe--it gives me a sense of control and accomplishment, albeit briefly--and when I do, I am struck by the items that I have worn happily and often for many years.

Some of them were big-ticket items:

a brocade evening coat with 3/4 sleeves (feminine and timeless)

a ruffled white blouse

a classic tuxedo pantsuit (you can wear the jacket and pants separately)

a perfectly tailored blazer

an ivory wool/cashmere bathrobe coat (love the drama of a white coat over black underpinnings)

a classic leather satchel (with minimal hardware, so it goes with everything)

a strappy black pump with a princess heel (that can be worn for day or evening)

a fur vest (I wear it instead of a jacket in the Fall months, and as a layering piece under various coats in the winter)

Many of these items were bought on sale, but they often stretched my budget, nevertheless.

Others were more affordable basics:

a wide-leg black trouser (the side-zipper creates the slimmest silhouette)

a cigarette pant in heavy silk taffeta (to wear for day with flats, for evening with a heel)

a leather pencil skirt

a silk shirtdress (my out-the-door in five minutes uniform)

a blue chambray work shirt

a chunky wool turtleneck

a mid-heel leopard pump (a touch of leopard always adds interest)

suede knee-high boots.

As for the pieces I almost never wear? I use a system of "triage." If I never wear it because it doesn't look good on me, then out it goes--to a consignment shop if I spent serious money on it or to the Vietnam Veterans, if I didn't. (They will come and pick up your cast-offs and give you a donation form for your taxes.)



If it's something that is well-made but currently not in fashion, I put it away to reevaluate in the future. My own mother was a "clothes horse," who routinely disposed of outmoded styles, only to regret it later. I really wish I had more of her fabulous dresses from the '60s and '70s!

I occasionally put aside a few really special things that I doubt I will ever wear again (or that I know will never fit me again!), just in case they might appeal to my daughter in the future--such as a Valentino tulle strapless evening gown by the eponymous designer, a Gucci military coat from the Tom Ford era, an elegant black lace cocktail dress from Oscar de la Renta and a knife-pleated leather midi-skirt from Donna Karan. Even if my daughter never shows an interest in them, they may have future value.

So take an afternoon to analyze your own wardrobe. What are the pieces that have served you well, and which ones have failed you? Can you discern a pattern to your "closet all stars" that may guide you in future purchases? I have to confess, I never liked those stories headlined "10 Items Every Woman Should Own." Every woman's life is different, and only you know which ones were worth every penny.
After the events of September 11, 2001, as a longtime FBI agent and division legal counsel, I blew the whistle on the FBI's failure to act on information provided by the Minneapolis field office that could have prevented the attacks.

On this sad 15th anniversary of 9/11, I am encouraged to see that Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein put out a statement calling for a new investigation not afflicted by all the limitations, partisan obstacles and other problems that adversely affected the 9/11 Commission.



It's what so many of us have long called for, including me personally (see here and here) as someone with a front row seat to the FBI's initial cover-ups. The FBI was only one of the agencies and political entities which strived to cover up the truth of why and how they all ignored a "system blinking red" in the months before the attacks. So successful had this been that when I testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee in June 2002, I actually felt I had to explain why the truth was important. That we "owed it to the public, especially the victims of terrorism, to be completely honest" and "learning from our mistakes" were two of the reasons I came up with.

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But the biggest mistake, the launching of the ruinous, counter-productive "war on terror," had already broken out even before my testimony (and long before the 9/11 Commission was allowed to begin work), along with its attendant war crimes such as torture, which were secretly "legalized." Not only had truth again become the first casualty, but Cicero's adage was playing out: "in times of war, the law falls silent."



As retired Major Todd Pierce recently said in an interview: "Everything that we have done since 9/11 is wrong." And I think that is largely because people still don't know the full truth about how 9/11 could have easily been prevented if only agencies and the Bush Administration had shared information internally, between agencies and with the public (see "Wikileaks and 9-11: What If?").

I debated, early on, with a former CIA legal counsel who claimed war was the answer as opposed to investigating/prosecuting terrorism as plain crime, and later tried to explain more fully why "The War on Terror (Is) A False Promise for National Security," published in the International Journal of Intelligence Ethics.

So much of the ease in perpetrating this type of deceit, described so well in David Swanson's book "War Is A Lie", comes back to Mark Twain's classic adage that "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." So it took a couple years after 9-11, after the first in the long series of Mideast wars had been launched, with US military occupations firmly installed for the duration (in what has now come to be called "perma-war") before the 9/11 Commission and other official and congressional inquiries could get out even the tiniest bit of truth, revealing that 9/11 was enabled by the lack of sharing of pertinent intelligence information inside and between agencies as well as with the public, not any lack of massive, non-relevant metadata collection on innocent people. We also learned that the countries we had launched war on, or had judged culpable for the attacks, Iraq and Iran, were not at all involved in 9-11. It's jaw-dropping that it's taken nearly 15 years to get the "28 pages" in the Joint Intelligence Committee's Report finally released. The "28 pages" show no culpability on the part of either Iraq or Iran, just strong indications of Saudi funding and support of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.



Another retired intelligence officer who cares about integrity in intelligence, Elizabeth Murray, also agrees with Jill Stein's call:



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I have long believed there needs to be a kind of 9/11 "Truth Commission" - completely independent and untainted by any political organization - in order for this country to be able to move forward in any meaningful way. The sad fact is that many folks, for varying reasons, just don't want to "go there" - ie. the truth may be too painful for them. I don't know exactly what happened on 9/11, but given my government's record on Iraq and other issues, I have no reason to trust the official version. I think that keeping the public in a fog regarding 9/11 is extremely destructive to the health of the nation. 9/11 is like an open running sore - let's heal it, painful as it may be.

-Elizabeth Murray, Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Near East, CIA and National Intelligence Council (ret.)
By way of justifying his art college's lack of business of art courses, the former chair of the fine arts department at Ringling School of Art & Design, once told me that "our faculty are all practicing, exhibiting artists who know very well what it takes to make it in the art world." Presumably, just the presence of these teaching artists and the example they set would provide their students all the information they needed. However, that claim is difficult to test. Certainly, art faculty don't lose their jobs if they haven't had a show or sold a work of art in many years, and no one would want that to be the criteria for evaluating an instructor.

Since that conversation, most independent art colleges, as well as a small number of university art departments where most art students receive their training, have established career workshops or entire business of art courses. One hopes that it does some good, although most undergraduate and even graduate art students don't take these workshops and courses and those that do are doing so during their last semester when their thoughts are largely consumed with their senior or MFA exhibitions. It is difficult to blame their lack of interest in the career stuff, which seems so far off and unrelated to their lives as students - what do consignment agreements and registering copyright have to do with me? - but the result is that almost every art school graduate leaves the academy with no clear idea of how to build an art career at the same time he or she is trying to find a job and an affordable place to live.

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For the foreseeable future, career assistance guides for artists will continue to find an audience of people who read the magazine articles about successful artists and have little to no idea how artists achieve success. Scottsdale, Arizona gallery owner J. Jason Horejs is among the many people offering career advice to artists, and some may be familiar with his online postings (http://reddotblog.com), which offer advice and suggestions on a range of practical topics, such as How to Behave in a Collector's Home and How to Overcome Rejection as You Seek Gallery Representation. The responses to his posts, and Horejs' responses to those responses are no less informative.

Artists who prefer reading his advice without having to scroll through years of blog posts, and have that information laid out in a more structured format, might consider his book 'Starving' to Successful. The tone is chatty, and Horejs views his audience as quite diverse, some of whom may have studio art degrees while others may be only self-taught. The title of the book concerns artists getting into galleries, but the first 130 pages are much more devoted to artists selling on their own. Again, Horejs is looking to appeal to the widest readership.

Certainly, there is plenty of information and advice available, such as: How many gallery-ready artworks should you have before approaching a gallery owner (and what does "gallery-ready" mean)? What kind of people (gender, age, occupation, geographical location) appear to be most attracted to your work, and how do you determine that? What do prospective buyers and dealers want to know about you? How and where should you go to meet people, and what do you talk about? How do you price your work? How and when should you raise your prices? What should an Artist Statement and a bio say about your work and you?

Horejs advises readers to work diligently and be organized. He offers tips on setting up a Web site and, being an inveterate blogger himself, recommends that artists create an "e-newsletter" for the purpose of "building relationships with your customers and driving them to your [Web] site....Make sure an image is the first thing appearing in subscribers' emails."

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It would be difficult to argue with many of his recommendations, while some others may strike readers as a bit more debatable. He suggests that artist be willing to accept a discount, reasoning that "[c]ollectors understand there is some give in the value of artwork, and for many it is part of the excitement of buying to negotiate the price down." That seems truer for gallery owners than for artists who sell their work directly, although artists certainly get bullied at art fairs. Horejs also advises artists not to put a date on their work, as some potential buyers may look at an older piece and wonder aloud or to themselves, "Why has this piece been around for so long and never sold?" There may be buyers who turn away from older, unsold works, although not dating pieces creates inventory tracking problems for artists and other concerns for dealers, museum curators and heirs.

His advice for artists seeking gallery representation is not sending portfolios or CD-ROMs or emails but "throwing your best pieces in the car...and approaching the gallery in person." Being right in the gallery makes an artist harder to ignore - the dealer cannot just hit a "delete" key as he or she could for an unsolicited email - and it is more difficult to say "no" in person. Pretty ballsy, although sculptors may have a bit more difficulty "throwing" works in the car than artists working in two dimensions.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted to ensure that most people would have access to affordable health care insurance and to decrease the high cost of health care in our country. I have previously written about the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) and the role they will play in decreasing costs, but it looks like Health Care Insurers are already acting to cut payments without even waiting for guidance from the IPAB.

Insurance companies are not in business to lose money. When they are paying out more for health care than they are bringing in in premiums and governmental subsidies, they will raise premiums, increase deductibles, ask for more subsidies, or pay less for the care rendered. As a surgeon, it is the decrease in my payment that is of most concern.

The "fee for service" model, recognized as a key driver for increasing health care costs, is being challenged. The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) establishes new ways for paying physicians who are taking care of Medicare patients. Other third party payers will follow the MACRA model.

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MACRA's value based programs have two different models. In the Merit Based Incentive Payments System, payment will be based on quality, resource use, clinical practice improvement and meaningful use of electronic health record technology. The terms are vague and have not yet been clearly defined but increased paperwork and data collection and analysis look to be labor intensive. Either the physicians will need to do this work themselves or hire people and train them to enter and analyze the data for them. If the different electronic health records do not communicate with each other, the data analysis will be difficult, if not impossible.

The second model will pay more for providers who participate in Alternative Payment Models such as Accountable Care Organizations (ACO), Patient Centered Medical Homes, and Bundle Payment Models. Details of payment with this model are still being worked out.

Under MACRA, physician's payments will increasingly rely on outcomes of their care. Value will need to be defined and measures of good care will need to be selected so that performance can be fairly judged. Measures, once selected, will be used to determine Medicare payments. Third party payers will likely follow the MACRA model. Historically, performance measures have not been shown to have much to do with quality so I am not optimistic that these proposed models will be workable.

In the near future, it will be pay for performance, MACRA, and, eventually, capitation with a global fee for each patient. The health care providers who survive will be the ones who provide the least costly care.

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Highmark, a Blue Cross and Blue Shield provider that has programs in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and West Virginia has recently announced that they will be cutting payments to their participating physicians because of mounting losses from the plans they have provided through the ACA exchanges in those states. Highmark has found that they are paying out more in claims than they are collecting in premiums.

Highmark reports they lost $221 million in 2014 and claimed to lose another $500 million in 2015 because of the mismatch in claims and premiums. In the original ACA plan, recognizing that health insurers may be facing some significant losses until the system comes into balance, the ACA originally had federal subsidies which were meant to offset losses for the first three years of the Act. However, the Congress, which is now under republican control, has blocked the administrations access to these funds for the time being. As a result, companies like Highmark are only getting 13% of the subsidy money they were counting on.

Some of these losses will be handled by pay cuts to the physicians who are Highmark providers. Of course, Highmark could spread some of the losses to the participating hospitals but they have chosen not to do this. Apparently, cutting reimbursements to hospitals would require hospital specific negotiations whereas the doctor contracts are more flexible and "adjustments" are already built in to the present contract structure.

Highmark could have taken the losses and remained viable by dipping into their reserve funds and they have done this in the past, but they have now decided that subsidizing money-losing exchange plans is no longer a reasonable option.

Highmark is not the only insurer that is losing money under the ACA. The United Health Group has recently reported a $720 million loss for 2015. If they don't see a financial turnaround soon, it is predictable that they will pull out of the exchanges. Other insurers such as Aetna and Anthem are also losing money on the exchanges.

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The insurers are facing increasing losses because the patients opting into insurance purchases are a riskier pool than the insurers had originally anticipated. Highmark has shown that the congestive heart failure rates for those among the ACA purchasers was 43% higher than for members of their regular commercial plans. Chemotherapy claims per ACA users has been found to be 49% higher than the regular commercial users. According to Robert Lowes writing in the March 3, 2016 edition of Medscape Medical News, these patients have high cost for care and the premiums paid by these patients (due to community ratings) do not cover the costs.

To remain in business, the insurers will need to increase their premiums and decrease their payments on claims. Decreased payments can be done by increasing deductibles on the plans as well as paying less for each claim made. It is hoped that more healthy people will opt into buying health insurance since the penalty (tax?) for not having health insurance is scheduled to rise. However, if the penalty is still significantly less than the premiums, it is unlikely that a rational healthy person will participate in the exchanges. This is even more likely due to "guaranteed issue" which allows a person to buy insurance at any time; this means he can wait until he is sick to buy the needed insurance.

Another strategy being used by the insurers is to deny payment for those drugs or procedures that do not meet the insurance company guidelines. This denial usually results in the health care provider appealing the decision which can be labor intensive and time consuming. Providers are justifiably aggravated as it seems like gatekeepers for the insurance companies are making clinical decisions on patients they have never seen. Also, guidelines have never been deemed to be the "standard of care" as each patient has their own unique characteristics which the provider needs to understand in order to make a reasonable medical judgment.

The "pay for performance model", MACRA, or even capitation will necessarily increase the time spent by the clinician in documenting care and coding properly. If they don't document and code properly, they will not be paid. The time spent with each patient must decrease. These administrative duties are not why we physicians went into medicine in the first place.

If the payments to physicians continue to decrease, there will come a time when overhead costs will exceed remuneration. Providers will either refuse to see patients with certain insurance or they will retire. Either of these two options can put the Affordable Care Act in jeopardy as providers are a critical resource in the health care model.

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As to the future of medicine, I am not so optimistic. The goals used to be to improve and prolong life. But now the costs for medical care have become a factor in the equation. Ethicists are now debating the costs of care related to the perceived benefits. The "right to die", "duty to die", and "assisted suicide" are, again, in the press. I hope that we physicians can be strong enough and principled enough to continue to do what we believe is right for our patients and fight to keep others out of our business.

Can the government force the physicians to participate in the ACA? Can the government prevent the physicians from retiring? These questions will need to be litigated and will probably have to go to the Supreme Court for a definitive decision. This process will take time.
2,615. That's the number of people who died in Northeast Texas in 2014 who wouldn't have died if mortality rates in the region were simply the same as in Texas overall. That's 16 percent of all deaths in the region that year.

We don't always think of the region on its own terms, as a distinct part of Texas. If Northeast Texas were its own state, however, it would be the size of West Virginia, and would rank 45th in the nation in overall mortality, sandwiched in between its geographic neighbors Arkansas (44th) and Louisiana (46th). Texas, by comparison, ranks 31st even if you include the Northeast region in its numbers.

An analysis The University of Texas System and UT Health Northeast just published, using data from the National Center for Health Statistics, found that the region has extremely high mortality rates for four of the five leading causes of death: heart disease, stroke, chronic lower respiratory diseases, and unintentional injury (car crashes, for example).

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Lung cancer mortality rates are 35 percent higher than the state overall. Suicide rates are 40 percent higher. Stroke mortality rates are so high that if Northeast Texas were a state, it would be dead last in the country, 51st out of 51.

The rates in Northeast Texas are also higher than the Texas average for infant mortality. Half of pregnant women in Northeast Texas do not receive prenatal care in the first trimester, and the rates of smoking during pregnancy are almost three times the state average.

2,615. This number is painful. It becomes tragic when we recognize that it's not just a number. It's mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, newborn babies, neighbors and friends.

There's no quick path to bringing better health to the 35-county region of Northeast Texas, which is home to just over 1.5 million people, over half of whom live in a rural area.

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Improving health for the region is possible, however, and it needs to begin from the recognition that the disparity between Northeast Texas and other parts of the state isn't primarily about lack of health care providers or access to insurance. On those metrics the region is in line with the overall numbers for Texas.

Understanding health disparities--whether racial or geographic--requires looking into differences in the conditions in which people are born, live, work, and grow old. Compared to the overall Texas and U.S. populations, median household incomes and education levels are lower in Northeast Texas.

Looked at in aggregate, it's an intimidating picture. However, the data provide direction on where to start. For most of the causes of death for which rates are higher in Northeast Texas, smoking is the key causal factor. In this region smoking rates are 40 percent higher and rates among pregnant women are triple the rates in Texas overall.

Smoking can be a terribly difficult habit to break, but we know that most smokers do want to quit, and there are good ways to help people quit. We also know, from looking at the numbers in Northeast Texas, that demography and geography aren't destiny. Rates of smoking-related deaths vary dramatically from county to county, and experience shows that with the right policies and practices in place smoking rates can come down over time.

Perhaps the most important thing the numbers tell us, though, is that we have to work together. To address the health challenges of Northeast Texas in a meaningful way we'll need a systemic, long-term effort that brings together stakeholders in the region with resources and players at the state level. We'll also need a vision of better health that focuses on prevention, social determinants, and sophisticated population-level analyses of health and illness.

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In January of 2017, as the centerpiece of The University of Texas System's commitment to realizing this vision, we will welcome the first class of graduate students to the new School of Community and Rural Health at UT Health Northeast in Tyler.

The school will have a particular focus on the challenges that face rural and underserved populations. Its mission won't be just to train the next generation of community health and public health professionals, but to serve the community directly, and to become a focal point of the kind of systemic effort that's needed to improve health in the region.

But we're just one player. It takes researchers to crunch the numbers and teachers to train the next generation of health professionals, but to truly make a difference it will require the knowledge, wisdom, and energy of local health care providers, officials, educators, and community members.
After serving as Alaska's junior United States Senator for twenty-two years, in 2002 Frank Murkowski was elected governor of Alaska. As governor, Frank's first action was to dumbfound Alaskans by appointing his daughter Lisa to serve out his term in the Senate.

In 1998 Lisa, a Republican because her parents were, had been elected to the Alaska House of Representatives from a neighborhood in Anchorage. During the two terms she served in the House her pro-choice views and willingness to work with Democrats to develop a fiscal plan for the state that included reinstating the income tax put her out of step with the Alaska Republican Party, whose members trend from center-right to flat-out-nuts. She was so out of step that in 2002 when she was elected to a third term, by only fifty-seven votes, she barely survived a challenge in the Republican primary election from an opponent who was supported by Alaska Right to Life.

Based on the record she compiled during her tenure in the Alaska House of Representatives, what her father's brazen act of nepotism accomplished was to saddle the Alaska Republican Party with a United States Senator who the party's rank-and-file never would have selected had they been given a say in the matter. That fact became apparent in 2010 when Lisa stood for reelection and was beaten fair and square in the Republican primary election by a Fairbanks attorney named Joe Miller, a Tea Party ideologue and protege of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin who has no use for father and daughter Murkowski because she has never forgiven Frank for not appointing her to his Senate seat.

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Several days before the primary election during a joint appearance with Miller at the Kenai-Soldotna Chamber of Commerce Lisa promised publicly that if he won she would support Miller in the general election. But when Miller did win she broke her word. The reason she did was that the Alaska Democratic Party's nominee was Scott McAdams, the titular mayor of Sitka, a small town in southeast Alaska. McAdams had no statewide name recognition, no political gravitas, and no money, and he had run for the Senate only because the Alaska Democratic Party had held its state convention in Sitka and during the convention no one else could be persuaded to run because no one thought Lisa could be beat in the general election.

When Lisa unexpectedly lost the Republican primary election the Alaska Democratic Party could have replaced McAdams with a real candidate around whom the anti-Miller vote in the general election could have been organized. When the Alaska Democratic Party inexplicably decided not to do so, that fortuity provided Lisa a window of opportunity to launch a write-in candidacy that the decision the United States Supreme Court had issued nine months earlier in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission made possible because it allowed business corporations that were owned by Alaska Natives who were terrified of Miller to finance the write-in campaign with contributions that totaled $1.7 million.

Lisa won the three-way contest in the November 2010 general election by defeating Joe Miller and Scott McAdams by 2,092 and 32,886 votes, respectively. But she only won because 36,474 Democrats and center-left independent voters who had voted for Ethan Berkowitz, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, abandoned McAdams in order to write-in Lisa.

Her history-making victory gave Lisa an opportunity to solidify the bipartisan coalition that had coalesced around her write-in candidacy by declaring that when the new Congress convened she would return to the Senate as an Independent who would represent the Alaskans of both political parties and of no political party who had reelected her. And being an Independent, she would not be a candidate in the 2016 Republican primary election.

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While she did not do that, during the lame duck session that was held after the 2010 general election Lisa experimented with independence by voting to repeal the military's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy, voting to ratify a Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty that conservative Republicans abhorred, and voting to end a Republican filibuster of the DREAM Act, whose enactment would have created a path toward permanent residence for undocumented immigrants who had been brought to the United States when they were children.

Politico was impressed enough with her performance to report: "Murkowski's willingness to defy Republican top brass after a bitter fight to keep her seat may mark a pivotal point in her career as she emerges as a real maverick foil to Sarah Palin, the conservative idol who put Alaska politics on the national map. And while conservatives who helped oust Murkowski from the GOP ticket in Alaska may howl about her being a 'Republican in Name Only,' Murkowski could enjoy a powerful perch as a much-sought-after moderate in an almost evenly decided Senate."

But after that encouraging start, Lisa soon settled back in as a dependable member of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's Republican caucus. For example, last February when Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died unexpectedly, without consulting the members of the caucus McConnell announced that the Judiciary Committee would not afford the individual the president nominated to succeed Scalia even the courtesy of a hearing. Lisa initially told the Alaska press that "I do believe that the nominee should get a hearing." But apparently after having been talked to by McConnell, the next day she fell into line.

When she did, she undoubtedly thought she could do so with impunity because, since she was generally popular, she did not need to curry favor with the Democrats and the center-left independent voters who six years earlier had saved her from Joe Miller, many of whom were outraged by McConnell's refusal to allow the Senate to consider the confirmation of Judge Merrick Garland who in March President Obama nominated to succeed Scalia.

Initially, that is how the 2016 Senate election in Alaska appeared to be playing out. Because in a state as blood red as Alaska the Democratic Party is a damaged brand, Kay Brown, the executive director of the Alaska Democratic Party, was instrumental behind the scenes in persuading an Anchorage attorney, retired army colonel, and MacArthur genius award winner named Margaret Stock to run as an independent in the general election with the Alaska Democratic Party's unofficial wink-wink support. Then in August Lisa easily defeated three never-heard-of-them candidates to win the Republican nomination, and Ray "Disco Ray" Metcalfe, a local political gadfly, won the Democratic nomination.

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But that smooth-sailing for Lisa ended last Tuesday when Cean Stevens, the nominee of the Alaska Libertarian Party, unexpectedly ended her candidacy and the party's board of directors replaced Stevens with Joe Miller.

As of this writing the smart money remains on Lisa. But as any boomer Mouseketeer can tell you, on the Mickey Mouse Club Wednesdays were Anything Can Happen Day. And with Donald Trump and Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson both on the Alaska election ballot, and with Joe Miller now in the race, anything now can happen in the Alaska Senate election. When Miller narrowly lost to Lisa in the 2010 general election he won more than 90,000 votes. If he can do the same in 2016 he can win. In the same vein, if Democrats and center-left independent voters who saved Lisa in 2010 decide that, once burned, they will not save her again, and, because no one takes Disco Ray seriously, they decide to support Margaret Stock while Joe Miller's presence on the ballot depresses Lisa's vote count, Stock has a chance to win that a week ago she didn't have.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization flag, white compass rose emblem in blue background

Denmark is a shrimp in the European ocean. A pleasant place to live, it is a geopolitical nullity. No one much cares what the Danes think about the world because, well, they can't do much to change it.

Unless they gain control of another nation's military. Most notably that of the biggest whale around, the U.S. The last NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, hailed from Denmark, which has 17,200 citizens under arms.

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Of course, that position did not allow him to deploy the American military. But it did give him unusual influence over U.S. policy. (Rasmussen's successor, Jens Stoltenberg, is from Norway, which is a little larger, spends a little more on the military, and has a few more citizens in uniform, but isn't that much different from Denmark).

Even as the American people tire of paying the cost of solving other nations' problems, shrimps are pushing the whale to stay the course. Politico recently interviewed Rasmussen, a former prime minister of Denmark. He sounded like an American Neoconservative in promoting an "American-led world order"--at American expense, of course.

While Rasmussen claimed that he was not taking sides, his greatest fear appeared to be that Donald Trump might be elected and end Washington's unique global role. "What is at stake here is the American role as the global superpower," Rasmussen argued.

He agreed that Europeans should do more on behalf of their own defense. Rasmussen was hopeful that 2015 would be the nadir for military expenditures by NATO's European members, but even he acknowledged that the rise "is very slow" and "of course we always wish for more." However, he offered no strategy to make serious and permanent increases a reality.

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Rather, Rasmussen was horrified by Trump's suggestion that Washington might not defend those nations which did not do more to defend themselves. That "would undercut the solidarity within the alliance," Rasmussen complained. Solidarity which, alas, is not evident when most European states consciously cheap-ride on Americans.

He also was critical of Trump's desire for better relations with Russia. Not that Denmark has any real interest in the issue. In a conflict the Danes would do little to defeat Moscow. Come the clash of armored divisions, air strikes on heavily defended targets, and exchange of nukes, Copenhagen likely wouldn't be involved.

Rasmussen complained about the GOP platform change to eliminate a pledge for military aid to Kiev. He worried: "The West risks losing a democratic Ukraine by undermining our support for the country." But when did "the West" gain Kiev, which is badly divided politically and culturally? Is the prospect of a "democratic Ukraine," whatever that means in practice, worth war with Russia? And war fought by every NATO member, including Denmark, and not just Washington?

Of course, Rasmussen contended that it is "in America's self-interest" to preserve "the international order." But surely not only in America's self-interest. How about the self-interest of Europe, which today can't be bothered to spend much on its own defense, let alone for operations elsewhere?

Indeed, he argued, if "America were to disengage from Europe, then you would really risk Russia increasing her influence," which would result in "a more hostile Europe." Is the continent really that weak, inconstant, foolish, and self-destructive? Europe is vastly more capable than Russia--with ten times the GDP, three times the population, twice the military outlays, and greater political stability--and should be able to protect itself from whatever mischief Vladimir Putin plans.

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Moreover, Europe is much freer and a far more attractive society. There is a reason Mideast refugees head for Europe, not Russia. America's economic, political, and cultural ties would remain strong even if the U.S. no longer garrisoned the continent. If the Europeans are so unfaithful that their loyalty can be procured only by a promise to relieve them of the burden of defending themselves, Americans are better off leaving now.

Yet Rasmussen is prepared to be quite generous with U.S. lives. He criticizes Donald Trump's "America first" slogan as being "out of touch with what is actually the role of the United States," which is "the world's leader." As a superpower America "has special obligations. As the world's only superpower, you cannot afford to say 'America first'." Really?

Rasmussen believes that Washington has "a special obligation to maintain the world order and promote peace." Indeed, it is America's "destiny" to lead. (I keep hearing Darth Vader in Star Wars telling Luke Skywalker that it is his destiny to join the former on the dark side of the Force.) If the U.S. does not act as a world leader, then "weaker powers will try to exercise their regional influence," such as Russia, China, and ISIS.

This sounds like the practiced cant of a con-man who knows flattery is the surest means to success. At the end of World War II only the U.S. was able to bolster war-ravaged friends and former foes and confront the Soviet Union. But that world disappeared in 1989, if not before. America's populous and prosperous allies benefit equally if not even more than America from today's international system. Collectively they possess larger economies and populations than America. They can do much to "maintain the world order and promote peace," and especially to constrain regional trouble-makers.

While whining about the threat posed by Russia, Rasmussen never explained why European governments had failed so abysmally in the most important test since the end of the Cold War. Most Europeans have little interest in spending more on the military, deploying troops in the easternmost NATO members, or confronting Moscow militarily over Ukraine. If America takes the "leadership" role Rasmussen desires, most Europeans never will support doing any of those things.

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Rasmussen tried another tack, one common with American Neoconservatives. He argued: "it's in the United States' interest to actually prevent conflicts while they are still manageable and small, instead of waiting and seeing them grow bigger," when "it would be much too expensive for the United States to actually keep the lid on all the boiling conflicts."

Again, one wonders why only America should act to keep "the lid on" in such cases. A quarter century ago the Balkans was in flames. That impacted Europe. It had no serious effect on the U.S. Wasn't it in Europe's interest to act?

Moreover, Rasmussen presumes that Washington officials are capable of discerning potential disasters in advance, acting swiftly and smartly to defuse impending conflicts, showing uncommon understanding in developing solutions, and steadfastly imposing and enforcing settlements. Really?

What American intervention gives rise to such a hope? Vietnam? Iraq? Somalia? Haiti? Libya? Kosovo? Yemen? Afghanistan? The results have been uniformly bad, often disastrous, leading to successive interventions to fix problems created by the previous effort. Better a few "boiling conflicts" than to be constantly scalded while unsuccessfully trying to hold down the lid.

Nevertheless, America must be the global policeman since "We don't have any other," declared Rasmussen. The cost to Americans obviously doesn't matter. Said Rasmussen: "I would ask the next president of the United States to exercise determined American global leadership," which apparently means making constant war.

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At least Rasmussen is nonpartisan in spreading the blame. He charged President Barack Obama with being "too reluctant to use American force to prevent and solve conflicts around the world." It is the president's refusal to use the military that has resulted in "autocrats, terrorists and rogue states" being more influential. Seriously.

Again, in what world does Rasmussen live? President Obama finished the Bush occupation schedule in Iraq, twice increased forces in Afghanistan and delayed his own withdrawal plan, intervened in Libya, mounted sustained drone campaigns in Pakistan and Yemen, launched a war on ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and backed Saudi Arabia in its brutal campaign in Yemen. What more should Washington have done?

About all that is left is Syria, but does Rasmussen really believe that there was something useful to do, the U.S. knew what to do, the American people would support what must be done, and the end would be peace and stability rather than years more of conflict? Even more bizarre is his belief that China, Russia, and terrorists would go away if only America exercised "global leadership." Unless Washington is prepared to go to war with nuclear-armed powers over stakes which are minimal for America but great for them, such challenges are inevitable. And intervention creates rather than eliminates terrorism. Failure to intervene more promiscuously did not create either al-Qaeda or the Islamic State.

The fact that someone with Rasmussen's extreme and unrealistic views played an influential role in NATO is another argument against the alliance. Indeed, people like him help explain the rise of people like Trump.

Policing the globe is not America's job. Protecting the interest of wealthy allies like Denmark and other European states is not America's job. Sacrificing its people's lives and wealth to suppress tragic but irrelevant conflicts around the globe is not America's job.

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The National Baptist Convention USA Inc. (NBCUSA) convening in Kansas City, MO, kneel with Colin Kaepernick and join with athletes, civil rights advocates, and decent people, who are calling for a "Kneel-in" this Sunday, September 11, 2016 in all churches. According to Dr. Amos C. Brown, Chairman of the Civil Rights & Political Action Commission, President Jerry Young gives his support and calls on all the National Baptist Churches to join this courageous 28 year old prophet, who has challenged America, to match its creed and pledges with actions of justice, equality and peace for all.



The Convention supports Kaepernick for his refusal to stand for injustice in this nation. His call comes at a critical time, with the Presidential Election just two months away. Moreover, with Republican nominee Donald Trump flirting with the White House, it is important now more than ever to remind voters of the GOP's continued suppression of African American voting rights.

What many don't know is that while the Black Lives Matter movement protests police brutality, African American rights are being stripped in other important ways, and quieter ways, via Republican policies. Dozens of Republican-controlled states have passed hundreds of laws that have turned poor, minority voters away from the polls. Moreover, there is no clear evidence that a Trump presidency will support a continuance of the voter rights act. He certainly hasn't said anything on one of the most crucial topics affecting black people: Access to education. The notion that education should be a right for everyone in the U.S. is foreign to Trump and Republicans. Their policies on the issue have only those can afford a proper education enjoying opportunities to thrive.

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On September 13, a House Ways & Means Subcommittee will hold a hearing to review tax-exempt college and university endowments. According to Janet Lorin in Bloomberg, the subcommittee "is set to look at how colleges, through their tax-exempt endowments, are trying to reduce tuition." Ms. Lorin reports that the subcommittee hearing will feature testimony from policy experts and college officials.

It's an interesting time to examine college endowments. As Ms. Lorin reports, most endowments are expected to post investment declines for fiscal 2016.

The House Ways & Means Subcommittee on Oversight will also look at how endowments intersect with the tax-exempt status enjoyed by colleges and universities. As Lauren Aronson, a spokeswoman for the House Ways and Means Committee, relates: "This is another step that the committee is taking to understand what colleges are doing to address soaring college costs through their endowments and nonprofit-tax status."

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The committee's hearing is separate from its joint inquiry with the Senate Finance Committee, whose members requested data in areas such as endowment spending, fees paid to investment managers, and rules on naming rights for donors from the 56 wealthiest private colleges last February.

For argument's sake, let's not take a position on whether this is information gathering or a Congressional witch hunt fueled by consumer polling. We can all agree that the effort to provide debt relief to Americans is a good idea.

It's not so much the noble aspiration but the approach that should raise eyebrows. Words and actions are always important. How you do it - and how you convey your intent - matters even more in these settings.

Most Colleges Have Little or No Endowments

Let's get real, Congress, and establish the facts:

The 56 wealthiest private universities do not reflect the rest of American higher education, not even remotely. They are large research complexes scaled and identified by purpose as distinct and different from undergraduate colleges, teaching universities, and community colleges.

Most colleges have little or no endowments, are heavily tuition-dependent, and are in deep debt for capital improvements. Many are, effectively, open admissions institutions with escalating tuition discounts.

Tax exemption is a broader issue than its relationship with endowments. The federal government granted tax exemption because colleges and universities serve a public good. They still do.

Tax exemption assists private colleges especially because it bridges the gap between public and private colleges, with public colleges also receiving additional state subsidies. It essentially levels some of the playing field among institutions in a decentralized higher education system.

State support over the past 20 years has decreased for public colleges and universities, with many now re-characterizing themselves not as state-assisted but as "state located" because of shrinking government support.

Congress must be certain to review government support across all programs for colleges and universities, whether public or private, as part of its fact-finding effort. Is it possible that the decline in government support has contributed to rising tuition sticker prices? Is the government really blameless in this debt crisis?

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How many federal regulations affect colleges and universities? Is it likely that the cost of these reporting requirements also jacks up tuition substantially? Most colleges and universities are almost entirely dependent on tuition revenue, yet are encumbered by across-the-board government reporting mandates, regardless of their size.

For those colleges with endowments that actually contribute to their bottom line, the rule on spending is often something like a draw down of 5% on a trailing 12-quarter average. When endowments drop due to market conditions, is it really feasible for Congress to deny them the flexibility to manage prudently in bad times over the long term?

American Higher Education is Not Monolithic

It is a fundamental mistake to paint American higher education as though similar conditions apply across the broad diversity of institutions that comprise it. What would be helpful is for Congress to assume less and learn more before it holds its hearings, given the idiosyncratic nature of the information it recently requested.



To do so, Congressional hearings must begin with the right questions. And they might do so by approaching higher education not as an arrogant, bloated industry in need of "big stick" political discipline.
By Myles Pellegrini

With dozens of countries represented, the 2016 EF Global Student Leaders Summit in The Hague, The Netherlands brought together thousands of motivated young activists with origins in countless backgrounds, cultures, and upbringings. This Summit was meant to provide students with the tools and knowledge necessary to make a difference in the world in the areas of human rights and social justice. In the days leading up to the Summit, each group took an in-depth tour somewhere in Europe that allowed student attendees to better understand the historical context of human rights there and in other interconnected places around the world.

As I navigated our historic tour through Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as the three-day Summit, it became clear to me: an overwhelming passion for human rights and a powerful feeling of shared humanity had ignited a fire within every student, one that united individuals and fostered a certain potential for global change going forward. Keynote speakers such as Arun Gandhi and Ndaba Mandela aimed to harness this fire and motivate the youth of today to make a lasting difference for tomorrow.

And yet, the question remains: How can we, all of the students who attended the EF Summit on human rights, implement the various ideas we learned about during our travels by crafting actionable plans to bring about positive change? This was a question that pervaded all aspects of my Summit experience. So I decided to spend some time at the Summit finding out... This article is meant to highlight what individual students are doing to advance human rights in their own communities after leaving the Summit.

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As an intern at the Summit, I had the honor of being able to personally interact with these aforementioned keynote speakers and delve into their respective policies regarding activism and human rights. As I spoke extensively with these inspiring men and women, I posed this essential question, and asked them to share the best piece of advice for young activists looking to make meaningful change.

Arun Gandhi, the grandson of the late Mahatma Gandhi, provided advice about setting reasonable goals. Claiming that we need to "always be introspective [regarding our role in both the problem and the solution], and find our weaknesses, and change those into strengths and ultimately become a stronger, better person, one who can then help those around you effect change." Gandhi believes that without self-awareness, one cannot make positive change in their community. Furthermore, Gandhi emphasized that in order to make change as a young activist, one must find an issue that he or she is intensely passionate about.

Ndaba Mandela a leader who is following in his grandfather Nelson Mandela's footsteps through business entrepreneurship and vocational training for young underprivileged Africans, punctuated the idea of setting ambitious, seemingly unreachable goals, so that from failure, progression and change can emerge. To him, failure was not something to be afraid of, but rather something to be embraced and welcomed, as there is no amelioration without the motivation of failure. For Mandela, no goal is too big, and even small impacts equate to monumental change.

These philosophies can make a substantial difference for young activists around the globe who long to make change, yet don't necessarily know the best way to do so.

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So, how did young leaders attending the conference relate Summit ideas into actual plans for communal change? Below are several examples:

Sabrina (San Antonio, Texas)

Long before the conference, Sabrina had attended a summer camp for disabled teens as a counselor, and realized the impact that art could have on the lives of those with physical and mental challenges. Combining her love of art with her boundless compassion for those experiencing disabilities, Sabrina created her very own non-profit, Artful Start, to provide relief for disabled persons in her community through therapeutic art activities. After the Summit, Sabrina plans to try to internationally expand Artful Start, as she realized the global nature of the challenges facing people with physical or developmental disabilities.

Jenna (Los Angeles, California)

As Jenna was preparing for the Summit, she decided to ask people living in Los Angeles about their own perceptions regarding the topic of human rights. Unsurprisingly, the majority of people interviewed had little to no knowledge regarding their own human rights, a revelation that was deeply unsettling to her. Using the knowledge she gained at the Summit, Jenna plans to dedicate her efforts towards increasing public awareness about contemporary human rights challenges by launching a nonprofit focused on engaging young people in her community on this topic through volunteer and other outreach efforts.



Gianluigi (Monteroni di Lecce, South Italy)

For nearly a year, Gianluigi has been a member of Amnesty International, a non-profit committed to restoring hope and humanity in the most oppressed societies. His experience at the Summit helped him decide to continue enacting impactful change at University next year by continuing to participate in Amnesty International, as well as other non-profits.

Francine (Delft, The Netherlands)

One of several local leaders from The Netherlands, Francine is active in LGBT advocacy as well as in furthering women's education in western Asia. The Summit motivated her to take a more active role in the local LGBT movement, and attempt to organize a rally in her hometown advocating for equality regardless of sexual identity. Additionally, Francine plans to continue contributing to an organization that provides and promotes schooling for educationally oppressed children near Nepal, Tibet.

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Sertan (The Hague, The Netherlands)

At the Summit, Sertan heard stories from former child soldiers, political refugees, and refugees displaced by civil war in their countries. He was deeply affected by these stories of redemption and suffering, so he decided to launch a nonprofit dedicated to providing refugees with a quality education called Edu4Refu. This non-profit plans to use political asylum centers, refugee centers, and school buildings as venues for providing an education to these refugees. Sertan plans to unveil Edu4Refu later this year, and hopes that it will help hundreds of refugees gain an education that could potentially improve their lives.

In reflection, the Global Student Leaders Summit has inspired countless people to enact change in their communities through the advancement of human rights. Through differences large and small, local and global, teenagers can work together to cement a peaceful and just society that respects the rights of individuals in the future.

Myles is a high school junior from North Eastham, Massachusetts.
I met up with Chef Charles for our private dinner tasting at his client Sarah Anne Stewart's West Village penthouse. With modern furniture, a built in aquarium and floor to ceiling windows, as well as a private rooftop, it is a warm inviting space conducive to hosting the healthy-focused dinner parties that his client Sarah, founder of Holistically Slim Movement, hosts with the help of the culinary creations by Chef Charles.

We sat down at the kitchen table, and Charles began telling me about his childhood. Of Sri Lankan descent, Chef Charles lived all over Europe and Asia as a child due to his parents jobs. He was always comfortable in the kitchen and, by six years old, was cooking meals for his family while his cousins played outside. As he got older, his parents encouraged him to take a more "practical" career route and, as a result, he got his MBA in Marketing from Pace University. After working at several large marketing firms, he experienced burn-out and, although it was a risk, decided to give up his promising career in marketing to travel the world, sampling cuisine and pursuing his passion. He says "it was a big risk. But when I took that year off, I thought worst-case scenario I can always come back to the corporate world. I thought I would at least give myself a chance to pursue my passion."

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The risk paid off. After traveling around Europe and learning about different foods and cultures, this self-taught chef started cooking for private clients at trendy "supper club" events at their homes. He ultimately ended up back in New York, interning for Anita Lo (of Annisa Restaurant fame) who became a mentor to him. He says that he learned from her how to optimize flavors and presentation and that "you shouldn't cut corners when it comes to food and cooking. I think that's the one thing I respect about French chefs - that they really take time to build the foundation of food through sauces and marinades, with slow sauces that cook for hours."



Photo By Emily Harris

He subsequently took on the role of executive chef at Village Prime and Vis-a-Vis. Although his time in the kitchen was a great learning experience, he craved the personal experience with the guests and loved seeing their reaction to his cooking. That helped inspire the launch of his personalized catering company, One World One Kitchen which is based on the idea that all the world's food is really unified and we are more similar than different as people in terms of what we love to eat. "I believe that food brings people together, of all walks of life, and across all cultures and communities. At One World One Kitchen, we like to bring that level of diversity into our kitchens and try to produce a seamless experience bringing flavors and ingredients from all across the world to create an unforgettable experience for everyone."

In addition to the global focus, health concerns of family members have him taking an interest this year not only in complicated delicious flavors and spices but also in the health benefits of certain foods. For my private tasting at the penthouse, the meal was cooked entirely gluten and dairy free. His focus on health has made him feel like he has a purpose and he tells me that "what I've been promoting is that food is not just tasty and delicious and beautifully presented but also nourishing people and making them feel better and keeping them away from diseases."

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As we continued our conversation, Chef Charles cooked and plated for sampling a beautiful kale salad with shaved almonds, coconut and pomegranate with lemon vinaigrette, a tasty salmon tartar over a creamy avocado wasabi puree, a seared salmon entree with thai curry sauce accompanied by quinoa, rounded out by a tender rosemary and thyme infused ribeye with chimichurri sauce. A flourless chocolate cake with berries and caramel ice cream was the final touch and, given the tastiness of the cake, I had to question again whether it was really made without dairy?! We had a good laugh and he remarked that this is his favorite moment - showing his guests how healthy food can also taste so good.

His company currently caters high-end private events for clients like Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka, and private, invitation-only supper club events like the ones hosted by his client Sarah. The variety of client tastes and desires keep his cooking fresh, and Charles tells me that he's constantly coming up with new recipes for his clients.

The meal has come to an end. I finish the last morsel of cake on my plate and say goodbye to Charles, leaving the meal feeling light, satisfied and inspired. And that's just the way Chef Charles would want it.
I've often written about how I pay attention to airline safety demonstrations and how important it is to listen to them each and every time before take off.

But when I do listen and they come to the part about "the inflatable slides can be used as rafts" and "there are additional rafts in the ceiling," or "your seat cushion can be used as a flotation device" I do find my interior monologue thinking, "Really? What are the chances of a water landing? And if there is one, what are the chances we'll survive to use them?"

With the recent release of Warner Bros.' "Sully," recounting Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger's heroic water landing of US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River, in which everyone did indeed survive despite the fact that most people probably didn't listen to the safety video and most deplaned without their life vests (perhaps because they had no idea there were life vests, or, if they did had no idea where they were located), it's time to note that Flight 1549 isn't the only water landing where everyone (or most people) survived unharmed.

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It wasn't even the only river landing in which all passengers and crew got out alive. In 1963, an Aeroflot jet with 45 passengers and seven crew on board ditched in Leningrad's Neva River, after a landing gear malfunction and bad piloting resulted in the Tupolev Tu-124 running out of fuel.

In fact, water landings of a different kind used to happen all the time. Pan American's Flying Boat routes, flown by aircraft such as the Sikorsky S-42 and the Martin M-130, were designed to land on water, as their name suggests, and did so without incident countless of times in the 1930's.

But we're talking here about unplanned water landings, such as the one that made Captain Sully famous. Here are some notable ones:

Pan Am Flight 845/26

On March 26, 1955, a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser with 18 passengers and five crew, en route from Portland, OR to Honolulu, was about 35 miles off the Oregon coast when an engine tore loose from the wing, causing loss of control and resulting in the pilot ditching the plane in the Pacific. The plane floated for enough time for a Navy vessel to reach the plane and rescue all but four of the souls on board.

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Pan Am Flight 6

After two of its four engines failed over the Pacific Ocean on October 16, 1956, this Boeing 377 Stratocruiser also ditched. All 24 passengers and 7 crew survived after boarding three life rafts and were quickly rescued by a U.S. Coast Guard ship. Forty-four cases of live canaries in the cargo hold were lost at sea, however. The incident became the subject of the movie "Crash Landing" (1958), which starred Nancy Reagan, who played the pilot's wife. Speaking of movies, you can even watch Flight 6 landing thanks to a U.S. Coast Guard film available on You Tube.

Northwest Flight 293

In October, 1962, off of Sitka, Alaska, all 95 passengers and seven crew survived without major injuries when a DC-7 propeller plane, on a charter flight carrying members of the military and their dependents, was forced to water land as a result of engine failure. The aircraft stayed afloat for 25 minutes, long enough for passengers to scramble onto life rafts and await rescue.

Then there are the "landings" that ended up in the water at the end of runways because of pilot error or other malfunctions. These aren't exactly ditchings, but show why airplanes carry life jackets, inflatable rafts and other "flotation devices".

Japan Air Lines Flight 2

Pilot error caused this Douglas DC-8 jet to land 2.5 miles short of the runway on a flight from Tokyo to San Francisco on November 22, 1968, ending up in San Francisco Bay. Amazingly, the plane was not severely damaged and even more bizarrely was refurbished by United Airlines and returned to service on JAL a year later. None of the 96 passengers and eleven crew was injured.

US Airways Flight 5050

Captain Sully's flight wasn't the first time a US Air plane ended in the drink upon departure from Laguardia Airport. On September 20, 1989, a US Air 737-400 carrying 57 passengers and six crew ended up in the East River soon after takeoff. Two people died, of asphyxia, oddly, rather than drowning, and two were critically injured; the aircraft was not equipped for extended over water operation and only seat cushions were provided for flotation, which the government accident report noted are "inadequate substitutes for life preservers, especially for infants, handicapped persons, and other injured persons." (Even today, some planes, such as an American Airlines Embraer I flew on recently from San Jose to Los Angeles, only have seat cushions rather than life vests.) By the way, these pilots were no heroes. Both were stripped of their flying licenses for going AWOL for over 36 hours after the accident, negating the opportunity for timely drug and alcohol testing.

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China Airlines Flight 605
120 Indian Nations and 5,000 people rejoiced on Friday, September 9 when the Department of Justice, the Department of the Army and the Department of the Interior rejected Federal Judge James Boasberg's 58-page dismissal of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's request for an injunction against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. At issue is a federal permit for Energy Transfer Inc.'s $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). The Tribe argued that USACE failed to conduct proper environmental and cultural impact studies and that the proposed pipeline would cross under a section of the Missouri River that serves as a source of water for the tribe. That is the simple summary, but the issues run tragically deep for the Sioux Nation and span hundreds of years of lies and broken treaties.

DAPL is calculated to move over a half-billion gallons of crude oil daily across four states. The oil would enter the pipeline in the Bakken shale fields of North Dakota, cross South Dakota and Iowa, and end in Patoka, Illinois. Winona LaDuke, founder of the environmental organization Honor the Earth, calls it a "pipeline from nowhere." The Bakken boomtowns are ghost towns since oil prices plunged, and LaDuke says the pipeline is a bet that oil will rebound to $60 a barrel.

No Artifacts, No Graves, No Problem

Energy Transfer made a very bad calculation when, less than a week before the rulings, it took court documents showing the exact locations of historic graves, including stone representation of the constellations, and brazenly used them as a map to identify and destroy cultural sites. Graves of ancestral chiefs essential to tribal history and beliefs were scattered and buried under eight feet of earth in some places. They are irretrievable.

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In an interview with Democracy NOW, Jan Hasselman, Earthjustice attorney for the Sioux Nation, described how Energy Transfer decided to literally bury the evidence of cultural artifacts and graves.

...We filed this evidence with the court Friday afternoon [September 2] in order to support our claim that there should be a timeout on construction until some of these legal issues can get resolved. We were stunned and shocked to hear that they took that information and, Saturday morning, over a holiday weekend, went out and bulldozed the entire site. We have a sworn declaration from one of the tribe's cultural experts that describes some of these sites, multiple gravesites and burials, very important archaeological features of the kind that are not found commonly. And we put all that in front of the court. And the next morning, it was gone.



North Dakota's Bloody Saturday

Shocked by the desecration of graves, peaceful protestors who had been camping in prayer at the Sacred Stones Camp near the Standing Rock Reservation, confronted the bulldozers. Women and children were pepper sprayed and bitten by attack dogs. Agents hired by the pipeline interests are currently being investigated by the North Dakota licensing board to determine if the "security forces" were licensed and "if the use of force was appropriate."

The State had to respond in some manner, since social media exploded with images of snarling dogs with foaming bloody mouths chasing woman and children. Memes quickly propagated with pictures of 1965's Bloody Sunday in Selma Alabama side by side with the DAPL attack dogs. North Dakota now has its "Bloody Saturday," but given the egregious nature of the attacks by pipeline interests, the licensing board inquiry rings hollow.

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On Saturday September 10, Morton County issued an arrest warrant for Democracy Now's Amy Goodman. Goodman's footage of the attack on protestors is a graphic account of what happened on bloody Saturday, and remains as the best record of what took place. It seems journalism is now also illegal in North Dakota. In a taciturn response on Twitter, Goodman said, "This is an unacceptable violation of freedom of the press. I was doing my job." Indeed.

In addition, the Governor of North Dakota has militarized the situation by calling out the National Guard to replace local law enforcement presence at a barricade on Highway 1806. The imposing and uniformed presence is a "traffic information point," but it is functioning as a profiling and arrest point for Native Americans. (As an aside, I sailed through the Guard checkpoint, but was detained at another checkpoint on Highway 6 because I had firewood in the back of my car. Being white does not necessarily protect you if you are carrying press credentials (or wood)).

The arrest and charging of Cody Hall, a leader of the neighboring Red Warrior camp, is a flashpoint of anger and frustration for protestors. Hall was arrested Friday afternoon at a checkpoint after police stopped him in a vehicle with expired tabs. He is charged with criminal trespass during the "Bloody Saturday" protests on September 3.

Casting an even wider net, Morton County authorities also issued arrest warrants for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and her running mate Ajamu Baraka. The two are also charged for criminal trespass.

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That is where the situation stands today, but the prayerful fight is far from over. It is important to understand that prayer was the universal response at the Camp of the Sacred Stones, even after the attacks by security personnel. Prayer and spirit are important components of Lakota culture.



Reading the Docket Tea Leaves

In order to understand the thinking of the Federal Court, it is necessary to plow through all 58 pages of Judge Boasberg's opinion. On the first page, Boasberg sums up the Court's thinking.

Domestic oil pipelines, unlike natural-gas pipelines, require no general approval from the federal government. In fact, DAPL needs almost no federal permitting of any kind because 99% of its route traverses private land.

Therein lies the rub.

Is the "private land" where the ancestors were buried before the bulldozers came really private, or does it belong to the Sioux Nation by treaty? In an ironic twist, before the signing of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, "Wicasa Wakan Tatanka Iyotake" (Sitting Bull) and 50 Oceti Sakowin (Great Sioux Nation Chiefs) gathered beneath a huge open tipi at Standing Rock to discuss persecution and other U.S. government policies.

Today there is a "United Nations" of 120 Nations in almost the same spot as Sitting Bull's encampment. For an excellent interactive account of shamefully broken treaties by the United States, see Ernestine Chasing Hawk's series online.

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Gabriel S. Galanda, the managing lawyer of Galanda Broadman, PLLC, in Seattle, says, "It is my hope that the #NoDAPL narrative begins to include the fact that these are reserved ancestral Sioux Treaty lands and waters."

Those sacred lands and the sacred lands astride the Missouri River in rightful dispute, are reserved ancestral Sioux Treaty territory. The 1868 Treaty of Ft. Laramie reserves ancestral lands "commencing on the east bank of the Missouri river where the 46th parallel of north latitude crosses the same, thence along low-water mark down said east bank..." Without getting into the technicalities of any Sioux Treaty land diminishment vis-a-vis the 1851 Ft. Laramie Treaty, the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation sits along the west bank of the Missouri River, as does the Camp.

"How then can there not be a legitimate claim to protect the water that runs through reserved ancestral Sioux Treaty territory---water that has demarcated the eastern Treaty boundary for 150 years---water that has run through Sioux lands since time immemorial?"

Is Judge Boasberg fluent in Treaty History?

Caution and Vigilance Required

Within an hour after Judge Boasberg's ruling, the Department of Justice, the Department of the Army and the Department of the Interior overturned the Judge's decision.

The Army will not authorize constructing the Dakota Access pipeline on Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe until it can determine whether it will need to reconsider any of its previous decisions regarding the Lake Oahe site under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or other federal laws. Therefore, construction of the pipeline on Army Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe will not go forward at this time.

But did it really stop construction of the pipeline, or is this a tactic to delay and calm tensions?

The language is riddled with loopholes denying DAPL access on "Corps land" bordering or under Lake Oahe "until it can determine whether it will need to reconsider any of its previous decisions." The agencies cite a "need for discussion," including tribal input "within existing statutory framework."

According to Judge Boasberg, the "statutory framework" requires that the pipeline move forward.

This language from DOJ is hardly a ringing endorsement of the Sioux Nation's claim for environmental protection and historical preservation.

Then there is expert testimony filed seeking an injunction from further construction by DAPL.

Thomas F. King, Ph.D., an anthropologist from the University of California, Riverside, has fifty years' experience working with the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and related federal laws and regulations, as well as with American Indian tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, and other indigenous and minority groups.

King is concerned and the Sioux Nation should be too.

The Corps, however, persisted and continues to persist in considering not the full range of effects of it permitted projects, but only those effects that fall under its regulatory control. Indeed, today I find the Corps deeply resistant to considering any effect that the applicant for its permit does not itself identify and report to be significant.



Cause for Skepticism and Getting to Yes

A day after the temporary reprieve from the Federal Government, The Sacred Stone Camp released the following statement,

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We have seen time and time again, a consistent strategy from the State in these situations: string out the process, break it to us gradually to avoid a big confrontation, present the illusion of careful, thoughtful review of the case, tempt us with promises of modest reforms...but then in the end make the same decision that serves money not people. So far this is just talk, not actions, and actions are all we should care about. Stop the pipeline, and then we'll celebrate. We are not leaving until this is over.

by Wakiya Waanata (Matt Remle- Lakota) Source: lastrealindians.com

Camp leaders have a valid point. No one wants to negate the relief and exhilaration the Sacred Stone Camp is experiencing, but the continuing military presence offers a cautionary tale. Why is the Governor of North Dakota using the National Guard to protect Energy Transfer, Inc. and the Canadian corporation Enbridge? Why the continuing warrants? Why the blockades?

This hardly seems to be a neutral ground for negotiation.

Responding to the call for caution from camp leaders, Winona LaDuke told Canadian television, "The consultation process has been abysmal."

"Consultation does not just mean getting to yes for a pipeline company. Actually, sometimes no means no."

Along Came a Reporter from Laos

It is quite possible that a question from an unknown Malaysian female journalist in Laos was the genesis for the sudden and unexpected intervention by the Obama administration. It seems that people a half a world away from Standing Rock knew more about the protests at Standing Rock than the President did.

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In an interview broadcast on CSPAN President Obama was asked specifically about the DAPL just two days before Judge Boasberg's scheduled ruling. The location was a press conference in Laos. The reporter specifically asked Obama if he stood in solidarity with indigenous people in North Dakota and how he could ensure protection of ancestral lands.

Obama stalled for almost two minutes before admitting that he did not know about the pipeline and referred to his staff for more information. He probably knew he was caught.

After all, just two years ago he stood at Standing Rock in an election year and promised support to the poverty stricken reservation.

"My administration is determined to partner with tribes," Obama said. "It takes place every day on just about every issue that touches your lives."

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Another broken promise.

The administration seems to have missed two years of discussion and heartache. Obama cannot get away with stopping the Keystone XL to great praise while replacing it with another that follows almost the same routing.

During my visits to Standing Rock over the last two weeks, I have witnessed too many tears and much anxiety. I was told many times by elders and young people alike that perhaps the events of Bloody Saturday were the Creator's design. Sometimes great tragedy is the predicator of needed reform. I think of Hurricane Katrina and the resulting great flood of New Orleans that exposed the shameless practices of the USACE.

I tend to agree with Camp leaders that much caution is needed during this time of celebration. We have tricked Native Americans time and time again, leaving them with flooded lands as rivers were dammed, a landscape devoid of wildlife and trees, and a crushing poverty.

Carefully read the words in the latest rulings and documents. Intent is written there.
When it comes to God and science, we'd like there to be definitive proof. A knock-down argument for the Deity would be nice.

"If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss Bank." -- Woody Allen



I've learned over the years of scouring arguments in the philosophy of religion that no proof for or against God is decisive, though, of course, some are better than others. Their best service is to offer plausibility to faith. They can tip the scales toward belief, but never command ascent.



On the other hand, science has similar limitations. It's rarely--if ever (this is debated)--that science has a "crucial experiment," one that decisively demonstrates a particular hypothesis or theory is superior to all other widely accepted hypotheses or theories. Scientific arguments, according to some of the top minds in the field, is summarized as "inference to the best explanation."



Best of all: if science could prove God's existence.



In fact, science cannot accomplish this task, as a friend and colleague, Geoff Mittelman phrased it so well in a widely popular blog post, "Sorry, Science Doesn't Make a Case for God. But That's Ok." Still, science can present intriguing convergences with religious belief, which helps us avoid the tired harangues about the conflict between science and religion, a culture war that 69% of college students find personally unappealing (like those I teach at Cal State Chico).



An evolutionary understanding of the development of the human brain provides specific starting point for an innate sense that God exists. Justin Barrett, through his work in developing a Cognitive Science of Religion, uses the findings of the cognitive sciences to argue that evolution has developed human beings so that we implicitly see purposes in events, or are predisposed toward teleology.

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"Evidence exists that people are prone to see the world as purposeful and intentionally ordered." -- Justin Barrett, cognitive psychologist

This feature of early childhood, termed "promiscuous teleology" by the psychologist Deborah Kelemen, naturally leads to belief in a Creator.

Preschoolers "are inclined to see the world as purposefully designed and tend to see an intelligent, intentional agent behind this natural design." -- Justin Barrett



Of course, atheists can use this tendency to impugn belief in God--i.e., we cannot help but believe, and it starts at such an early age! This rejoinder strikes me as inextricably tied with their philosophical commitments--"Let's find evidence to prove God's non-existence." In fact, these findings from cognitive science can easily head in another direction.



Let's try a suppositional argument. Suppose we are created by God, wouldn't it be consistent to find an openness to belief as endemic to our cognitive structure?



At this point, it's worth noting that C. S. Lewis begins in Mere Christianity by asserting that we all have a common stock of morality that points us to a moral God, an argument that a leading geneticist and head of the National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins, finds particularly persuasive. Interestingly, brain research suggests that evolutionary pressures, particularly the human need toward cooperation as it leads to survival, produces a common stock of morality;

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"A recurring theme is that humans seem to naturally converge upon a common set of intuitions that structure moral thought, such as 'it is wrong to harm a nonconsenting member of one's group.'" -- Justin Barrett



As I commented above, I'm not trying to prove God's existence, but note convergences between scientific insight and theism. And that brings me to the 16th century Reformer John Calvin and his notion of the sensus divinitatis or "sense of the divine." Calvin was not out to prove God, but to state that inherent in human existence is a basic, vague, and powerful natural knowledge of God. In vastly influential 1559 Institutes of the Christian Religion, he wrote,

"There is within the human mind, and indeed by natural instinct, an awareness of divinity." -- John Calvin

This awareness points to a sense of the Numinous, powerful and brooding. "Where can I go from Your presence? Where can I flee from Your spirit?" cries the psalmist (Psalm 139). It is the feeling of being out in a forest at night, knowing that no one is there, but feeling something. Often this experience can frighten us, and yet it also opens us to theistic belief. It seems that God has used evolutionary processes to create this innate awareness.



Where does that leave us? Still without a definitive proof for atheism or theism? Yes. But it does provide a way to read the Book of Scripture and the Book of Nature without contradiction. That is both attractive and useful. As Pew Research concluded, "Most American adults (68%) say there is no conflict between their personal religious beliefs and science."
The conservative-leaning Telegraph of London is lamenting, of all things, the death of Christmas. Their headline:

"Traditions such as Christmas celebrations will die out unless people stand up for British values, government review finds."

They chillingly tell their old readers "British laws and traditions such as the celebration of Christmas are under threat and must be vigorously upheld to stop ethnic segregations dividing society..."

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Now, of course, we know they mean those evil Muslims, but why stop there? Jews don't celebrate Christmas, are they to be branded as opponents of "British values?" Are we returning to that sort of gutter anti-Semitism? Even some Christian sects don't celebrate Christmas, or celebrate it at different times. In fact, most Brits aren't even Christians. As one report, earlier this year, noted:

The proportion of the population who identify in NatCen's British Social Attitudes survey as having no religion, referred to as "nones," reached 48.5% in 2014, outnumbering the 43.8% who define themselves as Christian -- Anglicans, Catholics and other denominations. In 2011 the BSA survey found 46% identified as having no religion.



Casey claims, "I have become convinced that it is only the upholding of our core British laws, cultures, values and traditions that will offer us the route map through the different and complex challenge of crating a cohesive society."

Before the rise of the cretinous UKIP types, diversity and tolerance was a British value. And, let's be honest, much of what is now called British values didn't used to be English at all. Democratic values originated in Greece, not monarchial England. Even Christianity was the result of immigration. Jesus didn't walk the streets of London. If the British clung tenaciously to old "British values" they never would have celebrated Christmas in the first place.

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The only time Christmas was seriously put at risk it was done so by the British parliament, not by immigrants. Puritans in Parliament, under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell made Christmas a punishable offense. Making Christmas illegal was done by Christians because they recognized very little of Christmas had anything to do with Christianity -- it was the continuation of old pagan rituals baptized with new names. One result of the law was rioting. in 1646 one satirist, John Taylor, published The Arraignment, Conviction and Imprisoning of Christmas to ridicule Parliament for making Christmas a crime. So, historically Christmas was introduced to England by an immigrant religion and banned by that most British of institutions, the House of Parliament.

Yes, immigration can change cultures. Immigrations does it peacefully, unlike the British method where cultural change was the result of imperialism. The British were not reluctant to use military power and slaughter to impose "British values" on nations around the world. They bragged how the sun "never set on the British Empire." Well, one cost of imperialism is cultural change in both directions.

Yes, the conquered are changed, but in the long term, so are the conquerors. If you want to set up an empire you will pay a price for it, and that price isn't just in pounds and blood, but in cultural change as well.

Certainly, it isn't all bad. Ghastly British cooking is less common as Brits have gotten used to cooking that doesn't require boiling away traces of taste. Now Tikka Masala is practically the national dish. Certainly British music has benefitted from the multi-cultural presences of various artists. In the 60s British Home Secretary Rab Butler was whining that "a sizeable part of the entire population of the Earthy is at present entitled to come and stay in this already densely populated country." True, and that's what helped change British music. Freddie Mercury, the lead for Queen, was of Indian descent and born in Tanzania.

Nothing is more British than the great department store, Marks & Spencer, except Marks was a Jew who emigrated from Belarus. He didn't celebrate Christmas but made oodles of money helping others do so. That bizarre British classic car "the Mini" was designed by a Greek immigrant.

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Even the Queen's husband was born in Corfu and was Prince of Greece. Prince Charles, in line as the next monarch, is the son of an immigrant. Nor should we neglect how the ruling House of Windsor wasn't always so damn British. They were the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a very German lineage, and the name was changed during World War I for PR purposes.

Even British journalism -- such as it is -- has two immigrants to thank, or blame as the case may be: Robert Maxwell and Rupert Murdoch.
In pledging $90 million in bomb clearance initiatives last week while visiting Laos for the U.S.-ASEAN summit, Barack Obama Jr. became the first U.S. president to acknowledge the effects of the secret war that was waged by the United States as an extension of the Vietnam War from 1960-1975. Mr. Obama told an audience that Laos had more ordinance dropped on it than on Germany and Japan during World War II and that "villages and entire valleys were obliterated," and "countless civilians were killed. That conflict was another reminder that, whatever the cause, whatever our intentions, war inflicts a wrenching toll, especially on innocent men, women and children." Obama's remarks directly counteract the historical revisionism about Vietnam that took root after the war epitomized by President Jimmy Carter's claim that the destruction "from the war was mutual," and Ronald Reagan's that "ours was in truth a noble cause." This is very important, however, Obama paradoxically used his visit to Laos to reaffirm commitment to the Asia pivot strategy, whose centerpiece is an expanded military presence that threatens a new arms race and potential proxy war on the Asian continent with China. The secret war also actually provides a template for the Global War on Terror which Obama has championed through his eight years in office. The U.S. pioneered weapons systems in Laos such as drone surveillance and electronic ground censors connected to computerized bomb targeting centers that are a feature of the so-called revolution in military affairs guiding U.S. operations in the Middle East. The U.S. government strategy in Laos was to subcontract counterinsurgency to proxy forces and rely heavily on Special Forces units and air power in the absence of regular ground troops while censoring media coverage. The manipulation of public opinion was epitomized by the fabrication of a story of a North Vietnamese invasion, during the monsoon season no less, when the roads were actually impassable. The United States began waging war in Laos after the Eisenhower administration staged a coup d'etats following 1958 elections in which the pro-communist Pathet Lao won a majority of seats. To circumvent the 1962 Geneva Conventions prohibiting foreign interference in the country and get around the woeful performance of the Laotian army, the CIA created its own clandestine army among the Hmong whom legendary CIA agent Edward Lansdale considered "splendid fighting men." In 1964, bombing operations commenced targeting Pathet Lao strongholds in the north and supply routes along the Ho Chi Minh trail that benefitted South Vietnam's National Liberation Front (NLF).

Monteagle Stearns, deputy chief of mission in Laos from 1969 to 1972 told Congress that the U.S. rapidly escalated its bombing after President Lyndon B. Johnson had ordered a halt over North Vietnam in November 1968. "We had all those planes sitting around and couldn't just let them stay there with nothing to do."



The extent of the bombing would likely never have been known if not for Fred Branfman, an International Voluntary Service (IVS) worker with a deep affection for the Lao people who stumbled upon refugee camps and interviewed survivors for his 1972 book Voices From the Plain of Jars: Life Under an Air War.



Branfman included in the book drawings by Lao farmers who survived by living in underground caves and had many of their loved ones killed. The drawings were juxtaposed with the testimonials of U.S. pilots fixated with padding their kill totals and who knew little about Laotian society.



Branfman wrote that "If the Nazi activities represented a kind of apex to an age of inhumanity, American atrocities in Laos are clearly of a different order. Not so much inhuman as a-human. The people of Na Nga and Nong Sa were not the object of anyone's passion. They simply weren't considered. What is most striking about American bombing in Laos is the lack of animosity felt by the killers to their victims. Most of the Americans involved have little if any knowledge of Laos or its people. Those who do rather like them."



These comments have unfortunate resonance in the present day where the Laos model of detached, mechanized covert and proxy war is again being waged in dozens of countries now under the rubric of the Global War on Terror.



Fred Branfman died of Lou Gehrig's disease in 2014, though if he were alive today he would be happy that a sitting president has gone to Laos and belatedly acknowledged the terrible consequences of America's secret war.



However, Mr. Branfman would also be aghast that the methods of the secret war are being continuously adopted elsewhere. And he would suggest that if Obama really wants to honor the Laos victims, he should cease creating more war victims and urge his successor to do the same.
With the opening of Alaska's first Goodwill store in March 2016, Goodwill is now officially in all 50 states.

It has been really exciting to watch the Alaska territory grow from the launch of its first Goodwill job connection center in 2014 to its first store this year. Today there are two job connection centers, a store, another standalone donation center, a couple warehouses, 40 employees, and it's growing. Our 50th state is taking off.

At the opening of the Goodwill store in Anchorage, Goodwill Industries of Alaska Board Member Steve Fishback said, "I think almost anywhere else you say 'I'm going to Goodwill' and that means something, and now it will in Anchorage."

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"I'm going to Goodwill" can mean different things to different people. Maybe it means, "I'm going thrifting," or "I'm going to donate a pair of jeans that no longer fit me." That's good and fair. I hope it also means, "I'm going to Goodwill for help with my resume and interview skills so I can further my career," or "I'm going to Goodwill to donate my rain boots because my donation will help fund Goodwill's job training programs."

"I'm going to Goodwill" carries weight because of our brand equity.

I'm not just talking about the recognition of our iconic Smiling G logo or the Goodwill blue shirts worn by many of our team members. A brand is more than a visual identity. A brand is the value, power and feeling that an organization develops through the experiences of donors, consumers, and the people we serve. Every interaction with a Goodwill product, service or team member has created a brand identity and develops Goodwill's reputation and value.

In the impact and sharing economy, brand can't be one-directional in a traditional provider/consumer sense; instead, brands are built as collaborative and reciprocal relationships. For Goodwill, our brand promise is that Goodwill organizations unite caring for people with enterprise to empower people to build communities that work. We put people first and empower individuals and families through community-based programs. The nature of brand value has a lot to do with today's global consumer, who actively seeks to purchase responsible products when possible and have high expectations for companies to address social and environmental issues. Our social media world gives individuals the power to advocate for their beliefs and address neglected social problems; it is not surprising that those organizations whose brands are associated with strong social good messaging float to the top.

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Some marketing agencies have even started to quantify brand value as defined by shareholders instead of as defined by direct financial value. This summer enso, an agency creating world value through mission-driven creativity, published the 2016 Brand World Value Index. More than 3,000 people were asked how they perceived the "world value" of 149 well-known companies and organizations based on the following criteria:

Awareness of Purpose: What does the brand stand for, beyond making money?

Alignment with Purpose: Is the company's purpose something that aligns with what people care about?

Active Support: Is the company's purpose something that people would publicly support?

Impact on Purchase: Does the company's purpose motivate people to buy from the brand?

Businesses implement and contribute to change in our communities as they interact with consumers on a daily basis. The perception of a brand's purpose is therefore an important measure when it comes to organization and consumer relationships. We were delighted to see that Goodwill's brand value is resonating with our shoppers and donors, with Goodwill ranked #1 overall as the brand doing the most good in the world. Goodwill was ranked at the top of the list by 80 percent of the audiences surveyed and is near the top of both awareness of purpose and active support categories. Goodwill organizations thrive in brand relationships because they are local community organizations that fit into the lives of individuals and families, not the other way around. Goodwill's autonomous structure and social enterprise model supports and fosters local engagement and innovation, leading to local solutions in our communities.
The Emmy awards will take place on September 18 as Hillary Clinton nears her crescendo, hammering Trump for the racism at the heart of his campaign. From the start, Trump has used the fear of Hispanic immigration and diversity to divide whites and people of color.

So it's unfortunate that David Simon's Show Me a Hero, one of the best limited series shows in television history, which brilliantly focused on the type of racism at the heart of Trump's campaign, failed to even get a nomination for an Emmy Award.

This widely praised docudrama, drawing on the experiences of real people, goes deep into the heart of an American city, Yonkers, describing the racial tensions that divided that New York suburb over housing segregation. The six-part series reveals black and white residents struggling to overcome their mutual suspicions and prejudices and then succeeding to take steps to reduce the consequences of years of racial discrimination by landlords, lenders, and city officials. It's a topic rarely dramatized in any art form.

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The members of the Academy, the Emmy sponsors, nominated American Crime, Fargo, Roots, The Night Manager and The People v. O.J. Simpson for best limited series. Roots and The People v. O.J are excellent historical dramas about race and politics, but they are retreads of familiar stories. Show Me A Hero, on the other hand, breaks new ground, dramatizing a true story that most viewers have never heard but need to know.

Simon understands race and cities. His previous work, The Wire, an HBO series about the violent life in Baltimore at the beginning of the millennium, has had an important influence on America's perception of inner city life. His HBO series Treme looked at post-Katrina New Orleans, dramatizing the devastation, pain and tragedy that took place in one low-income area.

Hero goes back to1985 to visit another turbulent America city. The drama begins with a man exiting his car at a graveyard, leaving his pager ringing 911 as he goes up a hill, and leans against a gravestone.

Then a rare Bruce Springsteen song, "Gave It a Name," about the evil that men do from Cain and Abel to the contemporary epidemic of sexual assault, plays against a montage of black kids shooting hoops in front of a high-rise public housing project, white teenagers gathering in a large grassy park, and small single-family homes with American flags. The camera pans up the large flowing Hudson River and then narrows in on slum dwellings.

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We next view developers and planners boarding a helicopter and then flying over Yonkers, discussing where to put low-income houses. As the camera sweeps over the city you can see the mansions and large open spaces in east Yonkers. And as they fly west we observe apartment buildings and row homes crowded together. We get a sense of Yonkers as a city divided by race, wealth, and geography.

Suddenly we are at ground level meeting Carmen Febles, a dark skinned single mom with her three children, getting out of a cab. On the way to their public housing apartment, they are forced to trudge up several flights of stairs to avoid the intimidating drug dealer doing business in the elevator. It's clearly the kind of building where parents worry that their children might be bit by a rat, hit by a stray bullet, or bullied on the street by gang thugs. Carmen will be soon be forced to leave her children in the Dominican Republic so she can work full time earning a living for them in the U.S.

Now the stage is set for an intimate tale using a familiar genre--the rise of a young politician--to focus on the pitched battle between the city's white working-class (folks who've been seduced by Donald Trump) and lower-income black and brown families. The story of this battle illuminates the larger issue of racism in America and the struggle to end it.

We quickly learn that as a result of a lawsuit brought by the NAACP, Leonard Sand, a federal district court judge, has ruled that Yonkers intentionally perpetuated segregation by concentrating almost all public housing in the city's overcrowded southwestern zone, where most black and Hispanics lived. Sand ordered the city to build 200 units of low-income housing in all white neighborhoods to remedy past housing discrimination.

Middle-class and working-class white residents were outraged by the idea of liberal outsiders trying to impose their will on the community. They feared a court-ordered invasion of poor black people into their neighborhoods and immediately began organizing protests.

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At a stormy city council session called by the mayor to respond to the judge's order, he urges the council not to appeal the ruling. He argues that if they defied his order, the judge could impose fines that would bankrupt the city. But the mayor's comments simply inflame the protesters, who continue to demand that the city appeal. "We're not prejudiced, we just object," yells a protester.

Nick Wasicsko, a 28-year-old, personable, naive, and ambitious city councilman, superbly played by Oscar Isaac, votes to appeal. Another council member - a cunning racist demagogue not unlike Trump - joins Wasicsko in voting to appeal the judge's ruling. Wasicsko challenges the incumbent mayor in the next election and with the support of irate white Yonkers residents, he wins an upset victory.

The first four episodes focus on four white men--a smart idealistic NAACP lawyer, a tenacious judge, an architect consultant, and the young mayor who is the hero referred to in the show's title. But it's the backstories of Carmen Febles and three other inner city families that are the most revealing. Also interesting is Mary Dorman, wonderfully played by Catherine Keener, as a working-class woman drawn to the opposition, who thinks people of color who live in public housing are thugs, immoral, lazy, drug addicted, and will destroy her neighborhood, but who eventually has a change of heart. Her evolution, which is at the heart of the series, gives the show a moral arc that reveals the complexity of racism and begs us not to stereotype white working class Americans as unrelenting and unredeemable racists.

As the drama picks up pace in the last two episodes, the lens turns toward the families of color, the victims of discrimination, who turn out to be strong women, and who take control of their lives belying Dorman's stereotype. Carmen Feblies never gives up her efforts for a better life for her children, even after her family is not chosen in the lottery for the new townhomes. Norma O'Neal, a hardworking 47-year-old black home health aide, played LaTanya Richardson-Jackson, who lives in the projects and insists on living independently even while she is going blind from diabetes. Billie Rowan is a young woman who shows resilience as she struggles to raise two children without the support of the father, who turns bad.

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The parents are typical of those who live in public housing: hard-working, protective and determined to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. And while the housing projects are run-down, their own apartments are modestly but nicely decorated, clean and neat.

The most intriguing character is Doreen Henderson, a young black woman born in public housing but raised by her parents in a stable suburban home. Drawn back to the public housing projects by her sister, she gets involved with a drug dealer, an under-treated asthmatic, who can't afford proper healthcare and ends up selling drugs to raise money.

Henderson evolves into an organizer who mobilizes other public housing residents, and builds relationships with sympathetic white neighbors, even while confronting without fear the racists opposed to building public housing in white neighborhoods.

The white working class Dorman rises above her fear and reluctantly reaches out to help the low-income families.

What's unique about Hero is that it transcends the stereotypes of inner-city residents portrayed in many TV dramas and books. Instead of showing them as helpless victims it depicts then struggling for change, something that even the much-heralded The Wire didn't do.

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While viewers thought that The Wire presented an honest look at the realities of class, race, and urban life in America, it actually distorts the picture in one significant way. Nearly all the black characters are from broken families or dangerous criminals, or drug addicts, dependent on government aid - culturally damaged, a class of people whose behavior and values separate them from the hard working white middle class. Moreover they are emotionally and politically paralyzed, with no capacity to mobilize and organize on their own behalf, victims of a system beyond reform. The Wire's unrelenting bleak portrayal missed what's hopeful and what problems are solvable in Baltimore and indeed, in other major American cities.

The Wire offered viewers little reason to think that the lives of the people depicted in it could be improved not only by individual initiative but also by collective action and changes in public policy. It offered viewers no hint that in Baltimore there was a small but growing movement to mobilize urban residents and their allies to address these problems - a movement that exists in every major city in the country and that has borne fruit in many ways.

Like The Wire, Hero is novelistic, follows vividly drawn characters, and takes us deep into racial conflicts driven by fear, ambition, and sleazy politics.

Although it's not a path-breaking literary drama or sociological treasure chest, as is The Wire, it is nevertheless an excellent drama that undermines two myths perpetrated by The Wire. One is that change in low-income neighborhoods is impossible. The other is that the poor, especially the black poor and working class, are helpless victims, unable to engage in grassroots collective efforts to bring about change. And it hints at a historical reality that social movements have organized and mobilized urban residents and their allies to address these problems.

Hero has its weaknesses. Viewers won't learn that the best-kept secret about public housing is that it actually provided excellent affordable housing when well managed. They won't learn that it was allowed to deteriorate because of bad management, government neglect due to policies pushed by free-market conservatives who aligned themselves with the private housing industry.

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While the show fails to accurately reflect the complexities of public housing problem, it does help undo the stereotypes of people who live there.

Hero could have been clearer about the role of the civil rights and fair housing movements that took place in the 1940s, two decades before the beginning of the story that led to LBJ signing 1968 the Fair Housing Act into law. These actions provided the basis for the lawsuit. There is an early scene where the young NAACP white lawyer challenges an NAACP leader for suggesting that fighting white resistance to integration may not be worth it. "The NAACP arguing against integration?" he says. The NAACP leader responds by saying he's not against it, but that he's "just tired."
Money holds the power to bring justice to social and environmental upheavals. The ways in which we invest our money have potential to promote clean technology, help keep families at risk of foreclosure in their homes, or even to launch small businesses started by ex-offenders. Impact investment is a movement to place capital in businesses and organizations that spur societal and environmental progress while providing financial returns. Impact investing will take center stage on the "Making an Impact with the Crowd" panel at RealCap Chicago on September 29th.

RealCap is a real estate crowdfunding conference that joins leaders and newcomers, developers and investors alike to network and explore this expanding industry. Entrepreneurs can learn to raise money online to fund their projects, and investors can gain knowledge of new opportunities. Hosted by American Homeowner Preservation and Small Change, RealCap promotes the continued growth of real estate crowdfunding while inspiring socially conscious investment.

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RealCap panelist Ben Bingham is an impact investment fund manager and author of Making Money Matter: Impact Investing to Change the World. He inspires investors to consider money as a tool for positive change and a catalyst for social and environmental justice. Bingham's background in sustainable agriculture leads him to regard financial portfolios as ecosystems requiring careful balance and nurturing. His understanding of the land and our existence within it has guided Bingham's impact investment strategies. "My approach starts with the simple idea that we should invest in products and services that are beneficial to humanity and the environment," said Bingham.

He believes his sustainable strategies translate to the array of investment offerings, including real estate. "If you're investing in real estate, you can try to influence the developers to use clean and efficient energy in their buildings as well as ensure sustainability in the materials used, such as sustainable forestry for wood buildings."

Beyond the constructs of investment properties are opportunities to promote justice for their inhabitants. "You have to consider how real estate investment will impact the lives of people," asserted Bingham. He stressed the importance of investing in properties and developments in proximity to public transportation and various food sources. "There's a whole food desert problem in real estate where people, especially lower income people, don't have access to good food because they are living somewhere in which the only way to get food is to go to a convenience store where everything is made of sugar and corn syrup."

Bingham applauds crowdfunding's success at allowing a broader range of investors to become involved in high-impact real estate endeavors. "I like very much the idea that you can invest in real estate even if you are not wealthy. You can take an interest in development and benefit from it and I think that's terrific," said Bingham. "It certainly gives an opportunity for people to get involved in investing that wouldn't before."

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Drawing inspiration from his agricultural background, Bingham compares investment diversification to crop rotation. Though he commends the inclusivity of crowdfunding, he warns of placing all capital in only one genre of investment. "If there is an opportunity for it, investors need to use crowdfunding in different areas, not just real estate. That way, they can put together a diversified portfolio," explained Bingham. "I compare diversified investment to having many different crops and rotating them: some years, one crop will do very well and another crop will not, but the successful crop will protect the unsuccessful one. It is the same with investments," he said.
This story, based on the real life story that took place on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 when the world witnessed the "Miracle on the Hudson" as Captain, Chesley Sullenberger, nicknamed "Sully" glided his disabled plane onto the frigid waters of the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 aboard. However, even as Sully was being heralded by the public and the media for his unprecedented feat of aviation skill, an investigation was unfolding that threatened to destroy his reputation and his career. Tom Hanks portrayal as Sully is the heart and soul of this film. KIDS FIRST! Film Critic Gerry O. comments, "Out of all the intense films released this year so far, Sully is the best one, hands down. Out of all the nonfiction films released this year, Sully is the greatest. From spectacular directing to emotional acting, Sully is easily one of the best films of 2016."

See his full review below.

Sully

By Gerry O., KIDS FIRST! Film Critic, Age 14

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Out of all the intense films released this year so far, Sully is the best one, hands down. Out of all the nonfiction films released this year, Sully is the greatest. From spectacular directing to emotional acting, Sully is easily one of the best films of 2016.

Interestingly enough, although this film may have a few action scenes, it shouldn't be branded as an action movie. It is full-on intense drama, with two or three jokes that are original and funny, but don't turn the film into a comedy. The story itself can also be considered an emotional and physical dramatic adventure that changes the lives of the characters forever.

Sully begins when U.S. Airways flight 1549 lands in the water in the Hudson river after both engines are destroyed by birds. Luckily, not one passenger is injured and this is due to the skill of both rescue teams and pilot Sully Sullenbrger (Tom Hanks) and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles (Aaron Eckhart). Unfortunately, the nightmare is not over. Even though all passengers are in safety, it is still a major question if Sully should have landed the plane in the water and if he might have had enough speed and altitude to reach the runway at an actual airport.

This is a very famous story that happened in 2009, but many people do not know what happened after the plane water landed. Sully truly shows all the events of this flight. Another amazing aspect of the film is the acting. Both Tom Hanks and Aaron Eckhart do phenomenal portrayals of the pilots. Not only do the two look so much like the actual people, they also got their personalities right too. The two actors excel in the scenes where they keep imagining the crash, and it clearly affects them day after day. Clint Eastwood has directed many wonderful films, but Sully, without doubt, is one of his best. The story does not feel like it lasts 96 minutes and I was surprised when it ended.

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Sully really does keep you on the edge of your seat using cinematography that makes you feel like you are a part of the movie, acting that is emotional and dramatic and even special effects that make it look very real. Something to note, the film was shot with IMAX cameras so seeing it in IMAX theaters gives you the best possible experience.

My favorite scene is the actual plane crash. From taking off, to the passengers getting into rescue boats, this scene keeps your heart beating very fast. I personally suffer from a fear of flying and it pumped me full of adrenaline. I could not blink until I found out what happened next. The special effects of the plane going down in the middle of New York looks very realistic and intense. On top of that, the emotional acting of not only the pilots, but the passengers and the flight attendants brings even more drama to the scene. It is easily the most intense scene in the whole film and, because of cinematography, it makes you feel like you are a part of it, is borderline scary.

Sully is a very mature story. And though it lacks adult content, language or gore, it is geared for a mature audience because of its intense and dramatic scenes. It may be too intense for younger viewers so I recommend it for ages 12 to 18. I definitely give Sully 5 out of 5 stars for its spectacular directing, wonderful cinematography, emotional acting and realistic special effects.
Whether youre trying to acquire capital to fund your startup idea, gathering funds for a lawsuit, or serving some other personal need, eventually youre going to need to look outside your own resources to find those funds. Traditional methods, such as hitting up friends and family members or using credit cards and personal loans can only take you so far. And, while funding may not necessarily be more plentiful in 2016, it is more widely available to those who are willing to get creative in order seek it out.

The Evolution of Fundraising

Fundraising, regardless of the end goal, has evolved tremendously over the past quarter of a century. What was once a very laborious and time-intensive responsibility can now be streamlined to a large degree.

In the past  and were only talking about a few decades ago  fundraising was largely a door-to-door event. People would canvas neighborhoods, knock on doors and use well-rehearsed, 30-second spiels to hopefully get invited inside. Once inside, a mini-presentation would be delivered, business cards handed out, and, in a perfect world, the individual would be responsive enough to fork over a few dollars.

In the next era of fundraising, people squirreled away in cubicles, with never ending lists of names and phone numbers, cold called for hours on end. While fundraising over the phone allowed for a larger volume of potential funders, it ultimately watered down the message and it rarely worked.

Thankfully, were well past door-to-door canvasing and cold calling. While there are still some instances in which these methods work, new technologies have ushered us into a Golden Era of fundraising where its possible to reach large audiences without compromising personality or one-on-one attention.

4 Key Advantages of Modern Fundraising

Fundraising in the modern era is beneficial for a number of reasons. Lets check out some of the biggest advantages and how they help business and individuals gain access to much needed capital.

1. Access to a Global Audience

The internet has opened up a world of opportunities for everyone. And when you look at fundraising, its clear that the internet has played a vital role in connecting fundraisers with funders.

With the internet, there are no geographical borders. Entrepreneurs, businesses, and other groups arent forced to rely on those within their immediate neighborhood, city, state, or even country. Instead, the world becomes your playground and the entire worlds population is your audience.

The global marketplace gives you access to an audience that spans the globe, no matter how small a niche your product or service occupies,

. That isnt a guarantee for success, but it does mean your market research, word-of-mouth promotion and brand presence can reach a market that would have been inaccessible to small or medium-sized businesses not long ago.

Social media, in particular, is one of the best tools for reaching people. Not only does it allow you to reach your immediate followers, but it also opens up new avenues through your followers.

For example, lets say one of your followers has 500 followers. If she shares your request, youre suddenly able to tap into an entirely new network that you previously would have never had access to. This snowball effect can provide a tremendous boost to whats otherwise considered small-scale fundraising.

2. More Niche Sources of Funding

Theres nothing wrong with general methods of obtaining fundraising, but pursuing more highly specialized routes can produce quicker and more lucrative returns. In 2016, theres been an increase in the number of niche sources of funding available on the internet.

One example of a niche funding source is legal funding. According to Thrivest Funding, one of the leaders in the industry, this type of funding opens up new opportunities for contingency fee attorneys and their clientele.

Simply put, legal funding is an advance specifically for plaintiffs and attorneys who are paid on a contingency fee basis,

, where both parties can receive financing against their anticipated award or legal fee.

For those who are unfamiliar with the legal system, this may not sound like a big deal. However, legal funding provides a unique solution to thousands of plaintiffs attorneys and their clients to monetize their unpaid legal fees and awards, respectively. This is money they would otherwise have to wait months, or in some cases years, to receive.

Another niche area thats growing in popularity is agricultural funding. Organizations like AgDevCo are emerging to the forefront and making it possible for businesses in impoverished areas to create jobs and enhance the food supply. To date,

totaling more than $76.7 million. This is just another example of how niche funding opens up new opportunities in the marketplace.

3. Better Information and Advice

From an indirect perspective, one of the greatest advantages of modern fundraising is the ubiquitous access to superior information and advice. In the past, if you wanted to learn about fundraising, you only had a couple of options. You could go to the library or a bookstore and find a book that discussed options, strategies, and techniques. Or, you could work with an expert to teach you the ropes.

While theres nothing wrong with either of these strategies, theyre far from effective. In 2016, anyone can learn about fundraising with a search engine and a few keystrokes. Between message boards, dedicated websites, and valuable webinars, theres a wealth of knowledge available online. This access to information makes it much easier for amateurs and first-timers to get started.

4. Access to Piecemeal Investments

Finally, you cant discuss modern fundraising without mentioning piecemeal investment mechanisms like crowdfunding. What started as a small-scale opportunity is now one of the single biggest funding options in the world.

Total global crowdfunding volume was just

. By 2015, that number had grown to a whopping $34.4 billion. Exactly half of this volume occurs in the United States.

The beauty of crowdfunding is that it allows individuals and organizations to leverage the power of volume. While a $5 gift from one person may not help very much, the same small investment from 2,500 people can amount to $12,500 pretty quickly.

If you want to get an idea of just how effective crowdfunding can be, check out some of the

from the past few years. Multiple businesses and entrepreneurs have successfully raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. These are successes that wouldnt have been possible without modern technology and the internet.

Take Advantage of the Golden Era of Fundraising

Its hard to deny the fact that were living in the midst of the greatest fundraising era in the history of the world. While there will most certainly be improvements in the future that make it even easier to gain access to funding for any variety of needs or desires, theres never been a better time than the present.

Whether youre a group of entrepreneurs looking to gather enough capital to launch a startup, an individual trying to access funds for the purposes of a lawsuit, a local politician seeking support for a campaign, or an established business attempting to launch a new product, there are ample fundraising opportunities in front of you.
Recently a judgment was released on the tobacco industry's (Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International, and Imperial Tobacco Group) lawsuit against the United Kingdom over plain - or standardized - packaging for tobacco products. You can almost picture the judges' jaws dropping as they reacted to one of the plaintiff's main arguments - that just as slave-owners were compensated in 1833 after emancipation, Big Tobacco deserves to be paid for losing the right to use branding on cigarette packages. The judges were not swayed. As they summarized in their judgment, "[I]t is inconceivable that anyone would be compensated for the manumission of a slave in a modern Western state." They went on to point out that, even absent the obvious moral depravity of the argument, the tobacco industry was wrong on the legal precedent set by the 1833 Act of Parliament granting compensation. If you would like to read the judgment, click here, and do a keyword search for "slavery" to find the relevant arguments. Tobacco plain packaging went into force in the United Kingdom (and also France) on May 20, 2016. The experience in Australia, which implemented plain packaging in 2012, is quite promising. Thousands of British lives will be saved. Tobacco and slavery have been linked in the past, not in terms of their comparative repugnance or harm but because of two basic connecting threads: the highly addictive nature of nicotine (making the user a "slave" to the product) and the moral turpitude of industries profiting while causing massive harm. The other commonality is aspirational: Owning slaves was once legal but now is illegal, and someday selling a product known to addict and kill will be too. Following revelations of bogus science, false front groups and perjury, for at least two decades the tobacco industry has been a global pariah, maintaining a reclusive public presence and speaking through industry groups and political donations. This strategy reflects a realistic self-assessment by the industry. It is certainly no surprise that a judge would compare them to slave owners. The shock here is that they would do so themselves, unprompted. A significant question for every tobacco executive remains: If you see yourselves in the same vein as slave owners, how do you justify continuing your line of work? Before abolition, some slave owners developed consciences and voluntarily freed their slaves. Some tobacco industry executives and researchers have turned away from the tobacco business, even turning their knowledge against it. As late as 1997, when asked, "What would you do with your manufacturing plant if scientists proved that cigarettes were a cause of cancer?" Philip Morris CEO Geoffrey Bible responded, "Shut it down instantly." And yet the tobacco industry still successfully recruits employees, from the board room to college campuses. Simply because an act is not illegal does not make it morally justifiable - slavery did not change its basic nature from moral to immoral the day after the 13th Amendment was passed in the United States, nor did it somehow remain ethical in the U.S. decades after emancipation in the British Empire. There is little doubt that someday tobacco will be a relic of history. That does not make profiting from death and disease defensible today.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump reads off a teleprompter as he speaks at the Cleveland Arts and Social Sciences Academy in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S., September 8, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar

Donald Trump likes to brag on the campaign trail that hes the best at bribing politicians. He said, for example, When you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do. But then, when he got caught giving and getting exactly what the hell he wanted, he claimed thats not what happened.

Not only that, Trump promises as president he would surround himself with the best advisers. The best! Just like he says he did as a businessman. And he claims hes a great businessman. The greatest! Well, maybe he forgot about his four bankruptcies that left hundreds of small businessmen and craftsmen unpaid. And maybe he forgot about the fiasco surrounding his namesake foundation illegally giving a donation to an attorney general who then decided to drop a fraud investigation against him. The advisers in that case? Not exactly the best.

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Much has been made lately about the Clinton Foundation. But Donnys got one too. Unlike the Clinton Foundation, to which the Clintons gave $1 million last year, the Trump Foundation hasnt seen a cent from Donnys pocket since 2009.

Image by DonkeyHotey on Flickr

Both foundations get lots of money from wealthy donors; the big difference is in how its spent. Among the Clinton Foundation focuses are providing access to HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB drugs in developing nations. Among the Trump Foundation programs are those providing gifts to Florida attorneys general considering whether to investigate allegations of fraud against Trump University.

Though the Trump Foundation gave this illegal grant back in 2013, the IRS was alerted to it only recently.

Like attorneys general in many states at that time, Floridas Pam Bondi, a Republican, received numerous complaints that Trump University was a scam. Angry students who felt they got short shrift for their tens of thousands in tuition wanted Bondi to charge Trump and other university officials with fraud or at least help them get their money back.

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Bondis spokesperson admitted to the Associated Press that Bondi personally asked Trump for a donation at the same time her office was deciding whether to join a lawsuit against Trump University proposed by New Yorks Democratic attorney general.

Bondi got a $25,000 check. And isnt it funny how quickly after that she decided against joining the lawsuit against Trump?

That left the individual Floridians who felt cheated to pursue reimbursement on their own. By contrast, in New York, the attorney general went ahead with the suit, representing students in his state that he believes were fleeced by Trump University in a bait-and-switch scheme.

When reporters questioned Trump about the $25,000 gift, he denied Bondi talked to him about a contribution. I never spoke to her about it at all, he claimed at first. But later, his spokeswoman admitted Bondi asked Trump for the money.

Trump didnt take the $25,000 out of his own wallet. He took it from the foundation.

And see, heres the problem. Non-profit foundations are prohibited by the IRS from making political contributions. And lying to the IRS about it is worse.

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Here is how Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer for the Trump Organization and treasurer for the Trump Foundation explained the bungling that led to the foundation paying a $2,500 fine to the IRS earlier this year.

First, Weisselberg claimed, a Trump clerk was asked to write a check for $25,000 to an organization called And Justice for All, which was Bondis political action committee.

Weisselberg swears that the clerk found a charity named And Justice for All in Utah, which helps people with disabilities, and wrote the check for And Justice for All intending it to go to a charity in Utah.

And then, he says, the check, somehow, he doesnt know how, got sent to Bondi.

And thats not all, folks!

Weisselberg blames the next blunder on Trumps accounting firm. When the firm listed the foundations 2013 donations for the IRS, it didnt list either And Justice for All from Utah or And Justice for All from Florida. Instead it listed an entirely different group, Justice for All from Kansas.

It was just a typo or something, Weisselberg claims.

So on the 2013 IRS form, first the Trump Foundation told the federal government that it had not spent money for political purposes, when, in fact, it had spent $25,000 for political purposes. Then it told the IRS it made a grant to a group it had not, in fact, given money to.

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All this fumbling from what Donnie promises will be the very best advisers in the world. The greatest!

The IRS never would have discovered this on its own. Its staff has been decimated by Republican budget cutting. Republicans dont want billionaires like Trump to get pinched for tax cheating. So they take care of that problem by eliminating the tax cops.

When they did, Donnie denied any of it was done on purpose. Now, dont forget, Donnies the guy who keeps saying things like this on the campaign trail: Ive given to everybody because that is my job. I gotta give to them. Because when I want something, I get it. When I call, they kiss my ass.

In Bondis case, though, Donnie denied she kissed his anything. He said they were just friends.

Ive just known Pam Bondi for years, he said. She was a great attorney general, so he sent her $25,000 when she asked for it while she was considering investigating his university and then he concealed the donation through his foundation and she dropped the investigation. Nothing to see here, folks!

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Fairness and the fight for equal opportunities are fundamentals in Europe. We like competition when it is fair and based on the merits: the quality of your product, the prices and the services you give. That is why the Single Market of more than 500 million potential customers is so attractive - it is an open and level playing field and you have a fair chance of making it if you play by the rules. And for those who do not play by the rules we are even-handed and enforce EU competition law consistently. And "we" are both the European Commission and the national competition authorities.

An important part of our European competition law is state aid control. By enforcing EU state aid rules, the Commission plays a key role in enabling a level playing field. State aid control has been part of our common rulebook since the very beginning, when EU member countries signed the original Treaty of Rome back in 1957. And these rules apply to all companies that do business in the EU's Single Market, regardless of size, sector or nationality.

The goal is clear: national governments cannot distort competition in the EU Single Market by giving an unfair competitive advantage to a particular company that its rivals cannot enjoy. State aid rules protect fair competition based on merits and European taxpayers.

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Following its in-depth investigation of two tax rulings issued by Ireland to Apple, the Commission concluded last month that these rulings gave Apple a selective advantage over other companies. It artificially reduced the tax bill of two Irish Apple companies. This is illegal State aid.

Apple now has to pay the unpaid tax since 2003, which amounts to up to 13 billion, plus interest. This does not penalise the company in question with a retroactive fine but simply restores equal treatment with other companies and so a level playing field for competition.

We have also concluded investigations concerning tax rulings in Luxembourg regarding Fiat, the Netherlands regarding Starbucks and a scheme in Belgium benefitting 35 mostly European companies. In those cases, too, we found that a select few were given a more favourable tax treatment than others.

Of course, Member States can design their own tax systems and set their corporate tax rates. State aid rules do not interfere with this right. What is at stake here is the equal treatment of companies. In this context, it does not matter whether the advantage takes the form of a subsidy or a reduced tax bill. Indeed, the Commission has taken a series of tax state aid decisions addressed to Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK stretching back to 1998.

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So, the Commission's decisions concerning tax rulings are only the most recent application of rules that have been in place for a long time.

The good news is that most tax rulings are used in a legitimate way. We have asked all our Member States for tax rulings when they issue tax rulings, and have already looked at more than a thousand different rulings in the last three years. Most of them are designed to give companies clarity about what tax laws mean, not to help them avoid tax. But where they give a company illegal tax benefits, EU state aid rules come into play.

Looking ahead, the ultimate goal is that all companies, big or small, pay tax where they generate their profits. EU state aid rules alone cannot achieve this. We need a change in corporate philosophies and the right legislation to address loopholes and ensure transparency.

Today, base erosion and profit shifting is estimated to cost up to US$ 240 billion a year, or up to 10% of the world's corporate income tax revenues. Global tax avoidance is a huge problem and a growing global concern. We need to close loopholes. A lot more coordination is needed to tackle these issues. The EU, the US and their international partners must work together, because fair taxation is dependent on international cooperation. That is the only way we can avoid mismatches between our national tax laws.

At last week's G20 in Hangzhou, China, the leaders repeated their commitment to join their efforts for fairer taxation. It's a commitment that has already produced important results. The G20 countries' endorsement of OECD recommendations to limit tax base erosion and profit shifting is a positive step.

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This is also high on the agenda in the EU. The Commission is pursuing a clear strategy towards fair taxation and greater transparency, which has already produced real change for the better: For example, EU Member States have last year agreed to automatically exchange information on tax rulings and produce country-by-country reporting of tax-related financial information of multinationals. But we want to go even further: in order to shed light on tax rulings that were previously in the dark, we are pushing for public country-by-country reporting that would make this information also available to the public - citizens as well as the press.
It's hard to imagine a world without majestic wildlife roaming Africa's savannahs. More and more, however, the unimaginable seems to be taking root - and it is unsettling beyond belief.

Years ago, I had the privilege of studying wildlife in Kenya as a graduate student. While I was researching Grevy's zebra, I observed other amazing species: elephant, gerenuk, and lion, as they searched for food and water while their land and water sources became more scarce. Habitat loss was one of the biggest threats to wildlife then, and it continues now to be a major threat: as agricultural activity and industry increase, there is less space for wildlife.



Photo by Michiel Terellen

We have the ability to maintain healthy wildlife populations in their habitats by marrying sustainable development with biodiversity conservation. Almost 20 years ago, I joined the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow to learn how to better integrate conservation and development. During my tenure, I've observed enormous success in community conservation, with more land put under conservation to the benefit of both local people and wildlife. I've seen growing wildlife populations and more secure and prosperous communities with whom they share their land.

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But these hard-won gains are threatened by a global poaching crisis so severe that more than 100,000 African elephants were slaughtered for their tusks in just three years, and rhino poaching in South Africa has increased to over 1,000 per year from 2013 to 2015, and the remaining tigers in the wild have dropped to fewer than 3,200. The trade in illegal wildlife, valued at billions of dollars, has evolved into one of the biggest black markets in the world. This trade is undoing decades of conservation and development work, risking the futures of both precious wildlife species and the local communities who benefit from ecotourism and other wildlife-friendly enterprises.

This crisis has serious implications for the security and prosperity of people around the world. The illegal wildlife trade often involves sophisticated transnational organized criminal networks, whose activities fuel corruption, discourage foreign investment, and eviscerate natural systems, with far-reaching consequences.

Protecting wildlife is not just a matter of protecting our planet. It is also a security issue, an economic security issue, and an international development issue that is critical to all our interests.

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New York University is tackling the explosion of illegal wildlife trade over the internet with their web-based tool that incorporates a computational model with machine learning to help law enforcement and other groups monitor online trade with greater efficiency.

The New England Aquarium wants to find illegal wildlife products hidden in legal, legitimate trade through their "smart invoice" technology that quickly digitizes customs paperwork for real-time analysis that identifies potential fraud.

The University of Washington wants to save pangolins - scaly anteaters that look like armadillos and are one of the most trafficked mammals in the world. Their solution will analyze the DNA of pangolin scales and meat seized by law enforcement, and use this information to pinpoint where those animals were poached.

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The National Whistleblower Center will fight the corruption that fuels wildlife trafficking through a web portal where potential whistleblowers can securely report evidence of wildlife crime, seek legal advice, and learn about their rights.

These incredible innovators are supplying solutions to more ably curb wildlife crime by providing indisputable evidence to trace the traffickers, support law enforcement, incentivize insiders to report corruption, and curb consumer demand.

You can assist our efforts to battle wildlife crime- get involved, follow our progress on the Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge website, and learn more about our innovators. Connect with them to support their efforts at info@wildlifecrimetech.org and wildlifecrimetech.org. To learn more about USAID's Forestry and Biodiversity work, including combating wildlife trafficking, visit our website.

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Together, we can build a world without wildlife crime.
Say all you want about Donald Trump 's bankruptcies or shady business dealings, his women or his lack of a plan. It misses the point. Donald Trump is not talking to you. And the people he's talking to are not listening to you. I am a product of the cities and cultures that "mainstream media" is talking to; the coastal population centers. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. My father taught at San Jose State. Most of my adult life has been spent in the Bay Area, mostly Marin County, Pasadena and Napa. When I travel for business, it is to Los Angeles or New York. Three years ago I became enchanted with and bought a house, a Victorian from the 1880s, in Mokelumne Hill, CA., a small town in California's largely rural Gold Country, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. With buildings still well preserved from the Gold Rush, Mokelumne Hill has the look and feel of an art colony. So it has attracted a collection of interesting types from the Bay Area. But it is surrounded by ranchers, many of them the fourth or fifth generation in the area. The county, Calaveras County, is economically depressed. Once supported by the mining and timber industries, there is little keeping it going today. Mining dried up. The timber industry took a few hard blows from the environmental regulations coming out of Sacramento and never recovered. It's not easy to make a living here. Even when mining and timber were alive, it was hard physical work. Agriculture here means working a few miracles to get a crop out of rocky mountain soil (this is not the fertile San Joaquin Valley). Grazing cattle used to be a viable option until the drought tipped the economic scale further. Today if you are young and on the ball, you leave Calaveras and go to Chico, Sacramento or Lodi and get a job. Or join the military. Many of the roads to the ranches are still gravel roads. One of them scares the hell out of me as you approach the top, and I've driven in everything from downtown Rome to the mountains of East Timor. It's not wide enough for two cars, it's eroding, and there's no railing. This in a state that is the fifth largest economy in the world.

And we're in solid Trump territory. Drive four blocks out of Mokelumne Hill and you don't just see Donald Trump bumper stickers. You see enormous handmade posters hung on wire fences. Last week, getting in my car at Lowe's in Jackson, the next town over, I looked at the bumper stickers of the cars around me. On three cars, I saw "Liberalism is a mental disorder," "Get US out! of the United Nations", "Hillary for Prison 2016," "Trump for President 2016," "Trump in 2016: Up Yours Hillary," "2016 Ted Cruz." And a Confederate Flag.



Fox News is the news source, on all day in some homes. Now that the Internet is becoming more ubiquitous, even on the ranches, it is supplemented by the conservative web sites and YouTube conspiracy videos. Facebook posts from people I know run into the zone where Hillary is a communist who has secretly converted to Islam and this is the communist/Muslim takeover. Surprisingly, nobody argues with it.



Racism? You bet. Certainly it's not everyone, and there is really no way to know how deep it runs. But then you see a bumper sticker that says "Hey n----r, didn't anyone tell you it's a White House?" They spelled it out. And they weren't ashamed of driving down the street with that on the back of their car. You hear comments over the dinner table that you wouldn't hear anywhere else.



Unless they've been in the military, most of the people here likely don't even know a black person. I know I have only seen one or two black people in this area in three years. But they've heard stories. They've seen Ferguson on TV.



We have a winery here that has $5 glasses on Friday. The community comes out and sits around large tables, listening to local musicians and enjoying each other's company. Last Friday a man at our table who may have had too much to drink said to no one, "Let's get Trump in here and get rid of all these f---king Mexicans." Never mind that there were no Mexicans in the winery. There aren't even any Mexicans in our town. They do work in the vineyards in Shenandoah Valley, in Amador County, 40 minutes away, not only working in but managing the vineyards. The one Mexican family I know here owns Borjon Winery and makes some of the finest Zinfandels and Barberas you'll run across in California.



A few weeks ago I was told a joke by a local resident about Jews that literally made me feel like my blood was draining to my feet. He later laughed and said he was "baiting me." But where do you hear that joke? Where do you even have any experience with Jewish people around here? I mean, I'm sure there are some. I just can't think of any. The same person once asked me how I was sure the Holocaust happened.



For three years, I have tried to get my wits around it. What makes it difficult is that these people are not the stupid people you expect them to be. Some of them are actually very bright. And decent people. Very decent. Decent in a small-town, take-care-of-each-other way.



In other ways, the people here are onto something. They are self-reliant. There are a few meth heads and now and then you see a homeless person coming around the food bank, but the bulk of the population of the area are either retired from a job that involved getting up in the morning and working hard, or they are getting up in the morning and working hard. There's not a lot of money around here, so they aren't reckless with it. They seem to pretty much own their homes outright or they have their mortgages covered. There were no waves of foreclosures here in 2008. The local banks weren't even doing subprime mortgages. If you can't afford it, you don't buy it.



You can pretty much operate on your word around here. They still have their hands on things many in the cities seem to have lost our grasp of somewhere along the way.



But they're pissed off. They're pissed off at their land drying up, their government recklessly running their country into debt, and they're pissed off at handouts. They are still talking about "Obama phones" around here. Don't even get started on Obamacare. Talking about welfare is like running your fingers on a chalkboard.



Before you get too arrogant, or as some of my liberal friends say, "sit over here and mock them," consider a few things.



I have been a Californian since I was five years old. I have never paid the slightest bit of attention to the people along Highway 5 in my State, the rural areas. As part of the coastal population centers, why would I? We outnumber them and dominate the State's politics. If salmon habitats are being destroyed by the timber industry, we act in good conscience and pass legislation to stop it -- even if it means crippling an entire industry. We don't have to care what effect it has on the livelihoods of the people on the other side of our State. Nothing to replace the jobs? Not our problem.



If you live in the coastal, liberal zones of California, the chances are good that, like me, you have no idea of the depths of racism here in our own State. Call it deplorable if you want. You've probably forgotten or you don't know that if you go back a few generations in your own family you will find the same.
McLean Hospital Guest Blogger

By Gil Noam, EdD, PhD

What can we do to address the recently reported shortage of trained psychiatrists in the US? As a clinical and developmental psychologist who trains child and adolescent psychiatrists in developmental thinking and practice at Harvard Medical School, I can see that we need a multidisciplinary approach to stem the epidemic of psychiatric illness, and we need to do it quickly. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the US has 55 million students attending elementary and secondary schools this year. When considering National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) reports that 13% of children ages 8 to 15 have had a diagnosable mental disorder within the previous year, 20% of youth ages 13-18 have a severe mental disorder, and 46% will experience some form of mental health disorder in their lifetime, this means that there are more than 10 million students, by conservative estimates, who are in need of mental health support and intervention in a system lacking the capacity to deliver these services. The true number of students in need is likely larger because that estimate doesn't factor in the mental health needs of children younger than age 8 or children who exhibit subclinical symptoms that may lead to the future development of a diagnosable mental disorder.

Even with proper identification and diagnoses, today's dwindling pool of child psychiatrists and other child mental health professionals is not equipped to serve the needs of millions of children. According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), there are approximately 8,300 practicing child and adolescent psychiatrists in the United States. Most of these practitioners are concentrated in urban centers, leaving an even greater shortage in many parts of the country. This is happening at a time when psychotherapy and psychopharmacology are making significant progress for some widespread conditions, such as ADHD, depression, anxiety disorder, and suicidality. Additionally, there are even more students who are suffering from traumatic events, chronic stress, and pre-clinical conditions that, if left untreated, will often lead to diagnosable psychiatric disorders.

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Approaching mental health as a purely medical issue is not enough. I believe the issue of youth access to mental health services is not just an issue of increasing the number of psychiatrists or other mental health professionals. Though many more are undoubtedly needed, the solution has to lie in teams that combine pediatricians, social workers, and psychologists. But even with teams in place, we need an innovative approach to reach children and deliver services. There is a significant opportunity for early detection and intervention that we need to focus on to stem this growing crisis: the education system.

Youth spend a significant amount of their time in school, an institution that is in charge of learning but has increasingly begun to focus on addressing the barriers that prevent learning, including social problems, lack of out-of-school-time opportunities, and physical and mental health issues. In my many years of working with schools as the director of a mental-health-in-schools center at McLean Hospital, I've seen that if we want to improve mental health in this country, we need to be reaching young people (and their educators) much earlier. Our current policy of waiting until a person is in crisis, with a full-blown disorder, is much too late. If we want to handle the avalanche of mental health issues, we need to address these challenges early, especially when they're subclinical, when sadness has not yet evolved into depression, and anger has not yet turned into conduct disorders.

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We need to adopt a similar approach to our mental health supports as we use for physical and dental health. We don't wait until a person's teeth rot out of their mouth to teach them about oral health: we train children from an early age to create routines around brushing and flossing, with regular check-ups at the dentist. Of course, there are disparities in how we reach children and families, but best-practice systems span promotion, targeted prevention, and intervention. We need to start teaching children and their parents and teachers about mental health by using the same approach, and we need to meet children where they are--in schools. Now imagine having only 8,300 dentists to service the entire child population of the US? Fortunately, there are an estimated 3.1 million full-time teachers, with a pupil/teacher ratio close to 16 to 1, and a focus on personalized learning and social-emotional development that is gaining traction within education policy--the moment is right to take action. Look at recent studies and it quickly becomes clear that embedding social-emotional support in schools isn't just a policy fad, it's imperative if we want our students to have a chance at living successful lives.

By connecting mental health professionals with educators, as we've done in our work, you can see that even small numbers of psychiatrists and psychologists can have a very significant impact on programs that can reach children before they hit crisis. This approach requires new thinking. People talk about prevention, but this is about putting prevention and early intervention into action. We need to address mental health issues when they first appear, before the need for crisis intervention by a small number of expensive, highly trained professionals that operate outside of our education system and are often only available to children of the wealthy. Simultaneously, we need to increase the number of child psychiatrists as well as child psychologists and other child mental health professionals who support those with serious mental disorders. The approach, however, cannot simply be to add more and more expensive professionals without addressing the problem "upstream" with preventative, social-emotional-focused programs in schools that reduce the numbers of children who go on to become ill or whose resilience is undermined by unaddressed trauma and toxic stress.
This is a saga about BOTH how to do customer service and how NOT to.

It is the story of my attempts to return 2 Samsung Galaxy Note 7's in light of the recall campaign. My carrier is AT&T -- and both the good and the bad are AT&T's story.

What follows is recommended reading for anyone who feels a need to know "yes it could have been worse." Have no fear -- mine was worse.

Three weeks ago (please remember the number three it proves to be important) I excitedly took advantage of the Samsung/AT&T offer for the Galaxy Note 7. BOGO plus all sorts of great stuff (two free tablets, two free memory cards, money etc.). I loved my Note 7 and so did my employee (to whom I had given the FREE Note 7).

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Then came the stories of exploding batteries, and the recall notices, and finally yesterday the US government said "stop using your Note 7's at once."

It was time to honor the recall notice and return the phones. There had been more than 1 million sold. AT&T is a major carrier. This should have been easy. IF only.

Step one: call the store nearest me (an AT&T authorized retailer). Can I return and exchange the phone with you? Yes is the reply. And on the AT&T website it said " Samsung and the Consumer Product Safety Commission strongly recommend you power down your device, take to your local AT&T retail location, and participate in the exchange program as soon as possible."

So in I pop. The helpful clerk (Savannah) types in a few things and then frowns. "You got this phone three weeks ago. I only can do this easily if you are within your two weeks I changed my mind period." But no fear she says, 20 minutes of phone calls later she announces: "You MUST go to a company store... They will not let me finish this trade." Sure enough in the fine print of the website its says: "Business customers should visit an AT&T store."

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First lesson: apparently an AT&T store is different from an AT&T authorized retailer. Only a COMPANY store is an "AT&T store." First 45 minutes wasted.

Ok. I drive 20 minutes to the closest COMPANY store. I arrive at 8 pm. The store is in a mall (the Simon Northshore Mall in Peabody, MA) and closes at 9. At 8:15 a helpful clerk (Louis) starts to help me and assures me we will be done in less than a half hour. The Apple Gods must have overheard him and set out a curse.

By 9:15 (15 minutes AFTER the store and the mall both closed) we were nowhere. The not-helpful AT&T computers were happy to take my Note 7 back but they refused to let me have another phone. "TUXEDO ERROR invalid provisioning" screamed the machine ... repeatedly. It seems that because I was outside of that magic 2 week "I changed my mind" period the computer wanted me to forfeit my right to upgrade my prior device (which had been a Galaxy 6 Edge Plus). I was to be denied a phone line and denied a device attached to my phone number.

Note that while I was waiting, 3 people who had Note 7's which were less than 2 weeks old were able to do an exchange. AT&T's programmers got that customer segment right. If only ....

Now the first GOOD customer service story: Louis and a colleague Frank stayed with me until 10:15 -- continually typing overrides into the computer. Finally (after more than 90 minutes and perhaps 30 combinations of override codes) the computer relented -- I could have a new phone. We were more than 75 minutes AFTER closing time and more than 2 hours into the transaction. Kudos to Louis for patience and perseverance and thanks to Frank for stepping in to help out.

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The next BAD customer service story: AT&T COMPANY stores have their own 800 number to help out their sales people. They also have an internal knowledge base with articles on what to do. The information in the article was simply wrong. Whenever Louis or Frank tried to follow those instructions up came the "TUXEDO ERROR." The 800# was worse. They announced the article was "wrong" but had no alternate instructions. Instead they wanted me to leave the store without a phone and please wait til Monday when someone at "small business customer service" might be able to help.

Last I checked AT&T is a PHONE company. BUT they wanted me to leave with NO phone service for 3 days -- because they were unable to give their computer and their staff appropriate instructions. I never thought of AT&T as the "a short period of silence and no technology will do you good" company.

Luddites.

I go home with a phone which then needs an hour or so to get back up to snuff (normally they would take care of that in the store but it was 10:15 pm when I got a working phone). Okay now this great feature (in fact the reason I use AT&T and Samsung Galaxy products) called number sync (which allows my cell phone, house, car and watch all to share the same number) refused to register. (Of course this was because the computer was still upset with me for getting a new phone despite its many efforts to block me.) So I need to call for support.

Next BAD story. It seems that if AT&T considers you to be a "small business customer" you are NOT ALLOWED access to customer support during nights and weekends. No matter what number you call the computer will recognize your phone and route you to "Our office is now closed please call back during normal business hours." As if support problems only happen during normal business hours.... It seems that being a "normal" customer is an advantage here (yes that seems backwards, small business customers generate higher revenues, but logic and common sense are NOT programmed into the AT&T computer).

Since I cannot reach anyone by phone I try on-line chatting. First I get a clerk named Lauren who tries to be helpful but can only send me canned messages about how much AT&T regrets any inconvenience. No access to a live person. I ask to escalate the case. My mistake. Now I get truly HORRIBLE customer service from Lauren's supervisor Sebastian. (AT&T management if you are reading this Sebastian should be fired.)

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HORRIBLE Sebastian spends a good half hour telling me over and over again -- just use the phone to reach customer service (he ignores my telling him the numbers revert to "office is closed please call back"), be grateful for AT&T's superior service and for his superior patience (they are much like Donald Trump's humility), and since I was able to get a phone despite the computer telling even Sebastian that I should not have -- well that was all I needed. Not that I needed a working phone.

It took Sebastian more than 30 minutes to tell me he had no way to get a call placed to me or another number for me to call. Instead he wanted me to indicate I was pleased with his services and to give him high grades on the feedback survey. (it is a shame they do not allow negative numbers nor red ink on that survey -- Sebastian got all zero's)

Still without a working properly phone I go my mother's. (No she is not some sort of tech genius -- she has a Verizon phone and now I have a way to reach a live person)

I will not bore you with next hour of AT&T errors and numbingly stupid excuses. BUT I will tell you the next BAD customer service story. Remember I gave Note 7 number two to my employee. He is in North Carolina. I am in Massachusetts. The AT&T computer (boy this device is a true genius at alienating customers) announces that phone #2 MUST be returned to the same Massachusetts store it came from. BUT HOW? We are not suppose to mail or ship the phone and it is not allowed on airplanes. Again the "we think you might benefit from silence" company suggests that my employee shut off the phone and make do without until "the next time he is driving up here."

Yeh. Right.

It is amazing the amount of patience I seem to have acquired in middle-age.

After being hung up on three times I finally am able to escalate the case to Moises. Moises is a g-dsend. This man needs a promotion and a raise. Moises, unlike the computer, has common sense. He gets my phone in proper working order AND ships a new phone to North Carolina. On his own initiative. L-rd, may I be blessed with many employees like Moises.

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FIVE HOURS of effort later I think all is well. (Along the way one unhelpful AT&T clerk offered me an extra $25 credit "for my trouble and to drop the matter" -- I explained that in all 50 states minimum wage was above that.)

The true test will come Wednesday when the North Carolina phone should arrive and .... be ... working.

Lessons and observations for AT&T:
"It feels like a once in a lifetime experience...this has just expanded my mind beyond reason," Christina Gilmore, a Millennium Delegate from Shaw University remarked on campus at Howard University. For five days in early August, the iconic capital of the United States served as the backdrop for the eighth annual Millennium Campus Conference (MCC). Over 250 attendees, including youth from over 30 nations (64% female, 30% first generation college students) and higher education administrators from 27 institutions, convened to share stories, make connections, and develop skills to launch undergraduates' social impact careers. The theme of this year's conference was #itstartswithempathy, challenging Delegates to approach every level of their global impact work from a baseline of acknowledging human dignity. In her awards speech, Dr. Helene Gayle, the CEO of McKinsey Social Initiative and MCN Advisor, affirmed that "empathy is the most important ingredient for being a whole adult."

Throughout conference sessions at Howard University, undergraduates convened for impact studios, debates, plenary sessions, and an advocacy day on Capitol Hill. They practiced skills from networking to ethical storytelling. They wrestled with big questions, like: should we be focusing our energies on Aid or Justice? And who is responsible for leading global development, the Global North or South? They also celebrated as two global campaigns were launched:

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Pedrisson and Emmanuelson Bernard, brothers from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, won the Millennium Oceans Prize for their campaign to reduce ocean pollution through proper waste management.

Thabu Mabula (from Zambia, studying at EARTH University), Beryl Nana Ama Akuffo-Kwapong (from Ghana, studying at Ashesi University), Jessica Russo (from USA, studying at the College of the Holy Cross), and Tanyaradzwa Chinyukwi (from Zimbabwe, studying at EARTH University), won the Millennium X-Factor Prize for their joint campaign - they are creating the Gender Network to tackle forms of gender inequality in their respective communities.

Student leaders also honored three extraordinary leaders who serve as role models for their global impact: USAID Administrator Gayle Smith, OPIC President and CEO Elizabeth Littlefield, and McKinsey Social Initiative CEO Dr. Helene Gayle.







Delegates connecting at MCC16 at Howard University

Meanwhile, higher education administrators and key stakeholders convened during a concurrent Executive Track at the White House, the U.S. Department of State, and Howard University to explore their role in leading global social impact. Five noteworthy innovations to ensure student success stood out:

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*Becker College, a Millennium Campus in Worcester, Massachusetts, Becker has partnered with Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus to create the first Yunus Social Business Centre in the United States. For student leaders, this includes the opportunity to travel to Haiti to study social businesses in the country in 2017.

*The Middlebury Institute of International Studies, a Millennium Campus in Monterey, California, houses the Center for Social Impact Learning - pioneering innovation in social entrepreneurship. CSIL has successfully launched the Ambassador Corps - the program connects students to the front line of social impact with very unique international summer internships in fields varying from microfinance to eco-tourism.

*The Jenzabar Foundation supported the participation of dozens of students and administrators in MCC16, continuing its long-standing partnership with MCN - and has transformed student organizations in the sector through its Student Leadership Awards. The annual Awards have supported campus-based organizations and national organizations advancing students' extraordinary efforts at the local, national and international levels.

*ONE Campus has over 100 campus chapters across the United States - enabling campus leaders to use their voices to ensure global development is a foreign policy priority. ONE Campus brought 52 Millennium Delegates to meet with policy makers on Capitol Hill during MCC16 and share their passion for fully funding the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

*The US Government: The White House and the U.S. Department of State hosted MCC16 Executive Track sessions. At the White House, Tina Tchen, Chief of Staff of First Lady Michelle Obama, highlighted Let Girls Learn - closing the education gap for 62 million girls across the globe. At the U.S. Department of State, Assistant Secretary Evan Ryan spotlighted the Gilman International Scholarship - enabling student leaders with financial constraints to study and intern abroad.

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MCN Executive Track Attendees at the U.S. Department of State

The Jenzabar Foundation, the Landry Family Foundation, the Remmer Family Foundation, the Cordes Foundation, the Ansara Family Fund, ONE Campus, Millennium Campuses, David Bernstein, END7, Strength of Doves, and more than 50 organizations have combined efforts to make MCC16 a reality.
Providing Local Solutions to Global Challenges.

In 2014, it was stated by UNESCO that the world needed 4 million more teachers to get every child in a classroom. That's according to a 2014 report from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which details the acute global teacher shortage currently taking place in 93 countries. If these countries were to achieve universal primary education over the next few years, they would need to hire millions more teachers, UNESCO found. The teacher shortage is most extreme in sub-saharan Africa, where over 70 percent of countries currently need more teachers. As it stands, schools in the region suffer from overcrowding and a severe lack of resources or building maintenance. Here is a statistic from Akwa Ibom.



It's 2016 and with the growing population in Africa and the strength of a touch of recession in Nigeria one is only left at an imagination at what could be going on within the walls of the classrooms, especially in smaller states like Akwa Ibom. The challenge to create a working education system in Africa is a feat everyone should key into otherwise elites will be in extinction by 2026. The statistics are not only alarming but heart breaking. This is not a case of "Feed Africa" and the impoverished children's pictures we share round social media depicting physical hunger, this is a mental hunger which isn't only ulceric but cancerous and is not only spreading really fast but is shutting down systems, structures and economies.

With the world moving into the fourth industrial revolution and the Internet nation, many Africans will be left behind or at the mercy of crime and social ill for development as the citadels of intelligence are decaying before our eyes while the stench of the intellectual decay is ridding the economy of growth and progression. While the youth decry the lack of jobs, employers are raising "unemployability" campaigns showcasing a deeper challenge "the lack of employable people". Where is the place of the average child and children who populate our education systems thirsty for knowledge and information to save the world, yet receiving next to nothing to save themselves?

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In the face of the heated and harsh reality ....a group of volunteers in the Akwa Ibom community are providing local and effective solutions to a global challenge through the The Akwa Ibom Teachers' Volunteer Scheme (TVS). TVS is a timely intervention to improve the quality of Education in Akwa Ibom State, by recruiting, intensively training volunteer teachers in critical subject areas and deploying them to address existing vacant positions in public schools in the State. It will also serve as a platform for empowerment, to complement current effort of Government at reducing unemployment in the state.

The TVS will provide person-to-person, teacher and student exchanges, quality educational opportunity for the less privileged. This set of volunteer teachers thus endowed with requisite experience will serve as a reservoir or "go to market" for future recruitment by the public or private sector. The TVS and its iVolunteer programs are centred on the conviction that the citizens can be central to providing solutions to challenges in their communities as a means of support to government's resolute effort.

Volunteer at a school today and save your generation from intellectual extinction tomorrow, you can save this generation by being a part of the solution.
He wanted to be a doctor, a pediatric cardiologist to be precise. I believe he will end up becoming a healer. Someone who could heal the gaping wounds - income gap, culture wars, bad governance, intolerance and violence -- that are tearing our country apart

This is Bryan Townsend I am talking about, the leading Democratic candidate for Congress from Delaware. Today I had an opportunity to diagnose him; his ideas, his political philosophy and what essentially motivates him to take up public service.

Bryan Townsend spoke to my class on Contemporary Political Ideologies (POSC 333) about his political philosophy. He was tasked to reveal his political values and explain how he chose the political causes that he pursues. He spoke for about twenty-five minutes, sharing with the students his life story, what drove him to politics, what he cares about and what he hopes to do for Delaware and America. He presented a compelling narrative.

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His narrative can be summarized as - I come from humble origins but I have a noble purpose and I harbor honorable intentions. But most importantly I listen, and then I act.

He then took a barrage of questions on education reform on the virtues of charter schools, on the plight of public schools in Delaware, on reform of the criminal justice system, on how to reduce criminal recidivism, ensure that undocumented workers are treated fairly, on how to address the gender gap and how to ensure that minorities, racial, religious and LGBT, are accorded the same rights as everyone else.

He ran into an unusually sharp, well informed and engaged cohort of youngsters, who tested both his philosophical acumen and his political savvy. At the end it was apparent that he passed with flying colors.

His many legislative successes as a State Senator are well known and he recounted some of them in the class today. They do paint a pretty picture of Townsend. He led or helped pass legislation ensuring that undocumented workers can drive, closing the gun purchase loophole, prohibiting housing discrimination, and helping those who were misguided in their youth to find work and turn their lives around. Clearly, he cares and wants to ensure that the least privileged amongst us are not left behind.

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As I listened to him work the crowd, engage the young idealists, challenge them to think differently I realized that he has a very special quality that will serve him well in his public service career. He doesn't think like a lawmaker alone, nor does he think like a policy wonk, he is able to look at things from both policy and legislative perspective, which I think will make him a very practical minded legislator and a potentially thoughtful executive.

He looks at a problem, tries to craft a policy solution and then thinks of how he can draft legislation to facilitate the policy to address the problem. This trait of his was on display as he tried to explain the fragmentation of public education in Delaware and the steps needed to resolve it.



Bryan Townsend is clearly a progressive liberal. He believes that government can be an instrument for good. He wants to ensure that all people have the opportunity and the means to realize their full potential. He values democracy and believes that there should be, in his own words, "no compromise on fundamental equality".

He fears the deepening inequality in our society and through inclusive politics seeks to celebrate our diversity and preserve our democracy.

Townsend is a believer in the value and power of education. He is convinced that through better education we can reduce income gaps and ensure that all people have equal rights and equal opportunity to realize their potential. He spoke of the success of his immigrant wife and her family in securing their American dream through hard work and good education. To the delight of the professor in me, he described education as a ladder to equality.

To Townsend the process of government is critical. He believes that if done properly government can do good for all. But at the moment, he believes, our government is not working for the people and he hopes that in Washington he will work to correct the course of governmental processes.

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Townsend's discourse was compelling. I stood back and watched the faces of our future listen to him with full attention, admiration and above all, hope.

I think in Bryan Townsend, Delaware has found a true leader, and he has my vote.
We took all three kids to a nice restaurant for dinner. We've seen other people do it. Older kids quietly sitting, coloring, playing on the iPhone, maybe even chatting with a sibling.

Since my children have "voice modulation" problems (i.e., they are loud enough to make your ears bleed), there's never anything quiet about them. Even a regular conversation with them is like being in a noisy bar, yelling pleasantries at each other. Their volume is always set at 12 when the rest of the universe operates at a 7.

"Pass the salt" is "PASS THE SALT."

So, so loud.

As the older two were happily yelling over each other, number three was sitting yelling all about his great day at school. Our waiter, a young, hip, tattooed guy who shaves his head to be cool (not to detract from his baldness) tried to be nice. He asked the kids what they wanted and my daughter screamed her order. Even though the restaurant was quiet. It's her way. She continues to abuse her vocal cords mercilessly. Child one has yelled so much for so long, he sounds like Demi Moore. After hipster waiter kindly brought us our alcoholic beverages, we apologized for the loud chaos of our children. He responded: "No worries, dude, it's great birth control for a young guy like me".

I felt accomplished. We're a walking PSA for safe sex.

We medicate our children. We take them to physicians who specialize in figuring out the right cocktail of drugs so they can function in the environment we place them in, and succeed. We chose to place them in a conventional school and live in a conventional community. I often wonder what life would be like if we lived on a farm in Arkansas and there was no school, no afterschool activities, no birthday parties or play dates my kids had to participate in. Places where they have to fit in and behave in a semi-acceptable way. In this Arkansas fantasy, my kids would wake up and run in a field, climb trees and jump into a pond. They would be happy.

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I would be miserable.

I don't medicate my kids solely because the environment we place them in doesn't tolerate loud, chaotic, hyperactive children. I can't either. It's like being stuck at a rave when you really just want to be in a library. If you're a person who doesn't have sensory issues, living with loud, frenetic people is hard. I've worn earplugs in my house, I've hidden downstairs or in the bathroom, I go to work happily....just to have some quiet.

I don't medicate my kids to mute them, so lest anyone starts frantically typing an angry response to this about how kids shouldn't be silenced and how selfish a mother I am- relax and keep reading. It's not only about the volume. My kids have pretty severe ADHD. Without medication, they can not function in school. Home is not much better either. Without meds, they operate only on a high/loud/fast/physical setting. They run, don't walk, everywhere. From the bathroom to the bedroom, it's a run, then a jumping leap and roll, ending with a knee slide through the door. That's how they get from point A to point B no matter how close the distance. Eating is shoving food in, singing, rocking, interrupting. Watching TV or playing on the iPad is interrupted every 2-3 minutes with a couch flip or a pile-on whoever happens to be sitting next to them. Throw a random loud song in there and you have a typical 30 minutes in my house.



In order for my kids to learn anything in school, they need to quiet down all the noise and make room for the information. They need to be able to read a page line by line and not skip words quickly because they can't slow down. They need to take pause for just a nanosecond before blurting answers out. Before reaching out their arms to touch/pat/kick their classmate. If they can't chill out, adults (me being the first one) start to get annoyed. They start to criticize, correct, stop the offensive behavior. This doesn't work. My kids can hear "stop" 40,000 times a day. Obviously they haven't stopped. It's like telling someone to stop sneezing. My kids can't stop sneezing so their entire day is full of "No", "Stop", "Take a break", ""Get out". Their evening at home is full of the same. There's no time or space for words of encouragement and validation. That, in my mind, is so unfair to them. It's irresponsible for us parents to put them in a position to fail. To have them not able to receive the validation crucial for developing into a sane member of society. My kids would live a life of "STOP THAT!" if they weren't medicated. How destructive is that for children to only hear negative commands that, by the way- they can't accomplish.

My kids also get medicated to help me mother them and remain somewhat sane. That may not be an official indication for focalin or adderal, but believe me- it should be.

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So we decided to medicate our kids because we didn't want them to feel defeated and because I wanted to keep living in my house and not blow my brains out.

Both reasons are equally important for this family to function.

There's no shame in this. My house is too loud for shame to live in.


Few of us become leaders without the help, shaping, and shielding of mentors, though we might not even recognize at times that we are being mentored--the gentle nudge or bit of advice from someone who has trodden the path before you that suddenly clears the way.

And the moment when a mentee stops on that path to turn and say thank you ... oh my. Words like "humbled" and "honored," a likely default in our otherwise speechless conditions (I have used both), cannot fully capture the feeling of awe or the appreciation for those who likewise mentored us.

Recently I was awarded the prestigious 2016 Eureka Prize for Outstanding Mentor of Young Researchers by the Australian Museum. The only bragging you'll hear is that none of the previous five winners is a nurse, and being the first to represent our profession at anything is always nice.

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OK, I'm absolutely thrilled. But the truth is that this award is really about my mentors and their mentors before, who passed down the uncommon wisdom that shaping the next generation is not just a duty but a privilege. I'm never going to be Bill Gates and have the money he has to give, but what I can give is my knowledge, skills, expertise, and support to create a generation that is going to make a difference. For in nurturing these bright people--especially nurses--you are touching, improving, or even saving lives that might not begin until you are dead 100 years. Just as rewarding? When your students take it upon themselves to mentor classmates.

What's the old line about nurses eating their young? At a time of nursing shortages and worrisome and expensive turnover rates at health care facilities everywhere in the world, it's time to squelch such nonsense once and for all. Mentoring and precepting, a type of seasoning and continuing education at the hospital or clinic, are essential to nursing in this day and age.

There's no more rewarding profession on earth than nursing, which is also gaining traction as a STEM field--for science, technology, engineering, and math. STEM can be a way up for women and minorities, and men of course. But nursing takes a little getting used to. That's why it's so essential to begin the mentoring process on campus. And to start it or increase it right now.

As time has passed, those I've sought to mentor have become trusted collaborators, peers, and friends in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Middle East, and of course the United States and Australia. They have made a difference alongside me and perhaps even because of me. Creating nurse leaders is a part of my commitment to global equity in health care. In order to change the trajectory of health across all populations, I want to be able to show nurses what it means to be a leader and then help them discover what it will take to get there.

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This is how, together, we will build the talented and resilient nurses who will take it from wherever we leave off. In the meantime, my humble advice:
This week, my grandchildren received a healthy dose of science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) at the California Academy of Science. Born in New York and living in a global community, Zella and Lazar are smart, savvy, 21st century elementary school kids who breezily meander around an iPad, not yet aware that the facility in accessing online games and Apps will be insufficient to navigate the STEM stumbling blocks ahead that will inhibit their generation's cyber trek to a bright future.

Zella and Laz will need a myriad of skills and competencies to achieve their STEM potential and fulfill personal aspirations in the world they inherit. In addition to inquiry-based learning in school, their STEM skillsets will be developed outside the classroom, by participating in FIRST LEGO League with their parents and friends, making a cat dance with Scratch on a Raspberry Pi with the help of a thirty-something engineer in an afterschool program

or experiencing the thrill of touching the nubby skin of a starfish while a sixty-something retired scientist at the California Academy explains the nefarious eating habits of this adorable sea creature.

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What I wish from the 2016 presidential election is not just a barrier-busting role model for my granddaughter, but a visionary administration to lead a well-coordinated national STEM literacy campaign that taps into burgeoning grassroots initiatives popping up around the U.S. and harnesses the creative energy of hundreds of thousands of spirited Baby Boomers on the cusp of retirement from their fulfilling STEM careers.

In her 1996 book, It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton observed that children are impacted by people and organizations outside their immediate families and that as a society, we should strive to meet our children's needs. This principle applies to STEM literacy in 2016 when it is alarmingly clear that it will take more than a village, it will take an ecosystem to effectively move the needle in our children's STEM education.

An ecosystem is defined as "a system, or a group of interconnected elements, formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their environment." At present, there are over thirty-five robust STEM Ecosystems in major regions of this country that are intentionally connecting formal and informal STEM learning stakeholders to impart STEM knowledge to kids of all ages.

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STEM Learning Ecosystems are championed by Jan Morrison of the Teaching Institute for Excellence in STEM (TIES) and the STEM Funders Network, a consortium of nationally-renowned private foundations that share a common mission of empowering young people to become STEM literate through seamless formal and informal STEM learning collaborations and equitable access to multiple pathways to assets and resources already available in their communities. This enables young people to engage in rigorous, collaborative STEM learning - 24/7.

The necessity of tapping into STEM Ecosystems goes well beyond securing our country's economic interests. Failure to prepare children with STEM competencies, which include the 21st century skills of critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creativity, imperils our way of life. Innovative science and engineering are the essential linchpins for solving the grand challenges in the environment, healthcare and sustainability of transportation, agriculture, communications and other modern infrastructures.

Critical to achieving success through community-driven STEM Ecosystems will also be dependent upon marshaling and deploying our national treasure trove: the legions of retiring Baby Boomers who combine vast STEM knowledge and experience with years of constructive service still ahead of them. These folks are the relief forces for the STEM education foot soldiers already on the ground in this campaign.

Education Week quoted Secretary Clinton as proposing an "education SWAT team" for the U.S. Department of Education in order to deploy "qualified people, teachers, principals, maybe folks who are retired, maybe folks who are active, but all of whom are willing to come and help." This is an idea that appears ripe for implementation in a campaign for STEM literacy as retiring scientists, technicians, engineers and mathematicians from the Boomer Generation seek out ways to give back to society.

In addition to recruiting retiring Baby Boomers, the next President should take broad steps through a cross-departmental initiative with the DOE, the Departments of Revenue and Labor, among others, to incentivize and reward STEM-driven companies to deploy their employees as volunteers in local STEM Ecosystems and implement strategies to recognize youth for their mastery of STEM skills through innovative rewards such as STEM badges, e-portfolios and other competency-based national awards. After all, this is their future workforce.

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Through a campaign to recruit a highly skilled SWAT team from retirees and STEM professionals from every field of government, business and academia, the next administration will help fortify our classrooms and afterschool programs with welcomed support from our formal and informal educators to deliver enhanced firepower within existing and future STEM Education Ecosystems and to prepare the next generation of STEM literate workers who will be equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to solve the real-world challenges ahead.
By Peter Bosshard and Josh Klemm

We shall know our prophets by their fruits, and the same is true for World Bank presidents. The first term of President Jim Kim is coming to an end, the Bank's Executive Directors will decide about his re-election in the coming weeks. In the energy sector, the president's harvest has been meager indeed.

Jim Kim's first term coincided with the global breakthrough of wind and solar power. From 2011 to 2015, these technologies accounted for two thirds of all the renewable energy capacity added throughout the world. In 2015, the added wind and solar power capacity for the first time outpaced all other sources of electricity - including fossil fuels and hydropower - combined.

Wind and solar power have not only become cheap and ubiquitous. They can also be deployed quickly, have a low social and environmental footprint, and are effective at reducing energy poverty in rural Africa and South Asia. In other words, wind and solar power are ideal investment opportunities for a development bank.

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When Jim Kim took over at the World Bank, he knew that he had to shift his institution out of climate destroying fossil fuels. Yet the new President didn't have the courage and foresight to prioritize emerging renewable energies. Instead, he personally championed the return of his institution to the mega-dam projects which had been popular in the 1960s and 70s.

In early 2013, Jim Kim started advocating for developing multi-billion dollar dam projects on the Congo, the Zambezi and in the Himalayas. Such projects, the World Bank argued, had the "potential to catalyze very large-scale benefits to improve access to infrastructure projects beyond borders." In early 2014, the Bank approved a preparatory grant for the Inga 3 Dam on the Congo, the largest hydropower project which the institution had ever funded. Around the same time, the Bank also increased support for the Kandadji Dam, a large hydropower and irrigation dam on the Niger River.

While the world turned to wind and solar power, the World Bank invested over 60% of its renewable energy lending to hydropower projects in the 2011-16 period, compared with only 23% for solar and 4% for wind power. In the Africa region, hydropower accounted for nearly 70% of all lending for the sector.

Jim Kim's backward-looking bet on mega-dams has not delivered results. The Inga 3 Dam has faced years of delays, and the World Bank suspended its support in July. The Kandadji Dam on the Niger is meanwhile faltering at a spectacular cost. The number of people likely to be displaced has doubled to more than 60,000, and sufficient replacement land for them does not exist. The thousands of people who have already been displaced have not found new livelihoods, and the cost of the project keeps rising.

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The mega-dams on the Zambezi and in the Himalayas which Jim Kim has championed have not moved forward either. After years of waiting, the governments of Mozambique and Zambia are now considering developing wind and solar farms instead.

In conclusion, Jim Kim's embrace of mega-dams has resulted in thousands of people displaced and millions of dollars wasted for no apparent benefit. Just as importantly, millions of poor people are still waiting for access to modern energy services while their governments' scarce capacity has been absorbed by boondoggles.

This appalling waste of livelihoods, resources and time would not have been necessary in that Jim Kim arrogantly disregarded the lessons of past experience when he re-engaged the World Bank in mega-dams. The report of the independent World Commission on Dams found that complex multi-purpose projects had the highest cost-overruns among all types of dams. Even before taking on Inga 3, the World Bank experienced vast time and cost overruns in rehabilitating the Inga 1 and 2 dams, an infinitely simpler undertaking at the same location. And after a critical evaluation of the experience with large-scale irrigation projects, the director of the Bank's Agriculture Department warned in 2006 that the institution would only support such projects in Africa again "over his dead body."

The World Bank's member governments need to critically evaluate Jim Kim's track record when they elect the institution's future leader in the coming weeks. We cannot afford a president under which the Bank has to relearn the lessons of the past every ten years, at a huge cost to the world's poor.
Well we finally know about Hillary's health and we find out like so many other women she's super human. On Friday we saw Hillary at a meeting with advisers on national security after which she held a detailed press conference. Following that she did an interview with Chris Cuomo. That same evening she first attended a reception and took pictures with about 100 individuals all who wanted a word or two with her. She then went out and gave a great speech to about 1000 people.

Today after standing in 80 degree heat and humidity for an hour and a half, meeting with the families of the victims of 9/11, she left feeling ill and faint and stopped at her daughter's apartment to cool off and relax. Then she leaves her daughter's apartment and stops to chat with a little girl and wave to well-wishers saying she felt much better.

The media goes wild with speculation before we find out on Friday, in the middle of that crazy schedule, Hillary had been diagnosed with pneumonia. You show me one man who would be able to do what she has done keeping to that incredible schedule. Most men I know when they get the sniffles take to their beds wanting to be waited on hand and foot.

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It's time the media stopped this double standard and treated Clinton's campaign as they would anyone else's. She is human after all. All the health information we ever got from Donald Trump was what sounded like a phony doctor's note of the kind a teenager could forge to take to their teacher to get out of doing something. Kind of makes sense as Trump usually sounds like a nasty teenager when he isn't making statements making him sound to the world more like Hitler or Mussolini.

Hillary Clinton has released 33 years of her and her husband's taxes, Trump has yet to release any. We have no idea what Russian banks or oligarchs he owes money too. The media reports on the Clinton Foundation which has done nothing wrong while the Trump Foundation has been fined for lying and misusing funds. The media demands the Clinton's separate from their Foundation but hasn't even asked what Trump will do about his businesses of which we aren't even sure what they are since he is being secretive about them.

The time is now for the American people to stand up and demand the media stop babying Trump. He is not running for City Council he is running to be President of the United States and the leader of the free world.

We are heading into the final 58 days of the campaign. Matt Lauer who in a recent turn as moderator proved he isn't really a journalist only joined a whole slew of others who claim they are journalists yet are failing the test in this campaign.

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If Trump should win without the American public knowing any more about him than we do now the media will be held responsible. All we know now because the media hasn't done their job is the crap he spouts which proves he is a sexist, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, bully. They don't bother to call him on his daily lies and let his surrogates spout a pile of BS without calling them on anything.
Co-authored by Philippe Cousteau -- Founder EarthEcho International, and Hannah MacDonald --environmental advocate, student, and EarthEcho Youth Leadership Council member.

As a rule, the challenges facing our ocean loom large and complex. Climate change, ocean acidification, and sea level rise certainly fall into this category. These environmental beasts require the world's collective brain power and cooperation to bring them in line; something we can and must do. However, there are actions we can take to begin healing our ocean that are utterly achievable, and proven to be highly successful. Marine protected areas in particular, including marine sanctuaries, estuaries, reserves, and national marine monuments, represent a solution to help restore our ocean while we confront the impacts of climate, pollution, and a growing population. There are more than 5,000 marine protected areas around the globe, 1,600 of which are located in U.S. waters, coastal areas, and the Great Lakes. They offer stories of progress and hope in a time when we need it the most.

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The proposed New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument represents a timely example. Located 150 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, this area is a ruggedly beautiful deep-sea Eden comprised of mountains (seamounts), some rising more the 7,000 feet from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, and massive canyons. The canyons and seamounts are home to fragile and ancient deep-sea coral communities, some the size of small trees, that provide food, spawning habitat, and shelter for an array of fish and crustaceans. The waters above teem with ocean life, including large fish like tunas and billfish, sea turtles, seabirds, and what may be the highest diversity of whales, dolphins, and porpoises in the North Atlantic, including the iconic sperm whale.

Later this week, at the Our Ocean conference in Washington, DC, President Obama has the opportunity to officially designate this pristine area a marine national monument, and the authors of this blog certainly urge him to do so. We feel certain that the 150 young environmental leaders we will join at the Our Ocean, One Future: Leadership Seminar being held parallel to the conference share our view. The reason this is such an important action -- protecting marine habitat on a large scale -- is because it creates a multitude of benefits. In the case of the New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts, protecting spawning habitat supports healthy fish and shell fish populations. Charismatic mega fauna like whales bolster the tourist industry. Because of the area's remote location, depth, and rugged character, it is remarkably untouched and remains a vital frontier for scientific discovery. And many scientists agree that these protected areas make our ocean more resilient against the impacts of climate change.

There is another layer to this story if we dive a little deeper. Marine protected areas can be shining sources of pride and respect that strengthen cultures and unite communities. The recently expanded Papahanoumokuakea Marine National monument in the Pacific Ocean is a prime example. Not only does this historic Monument protect extensive coral reefs that are home to over 7,000 marine species, one-quarter of which are found only in the Hawaiian Archipelago, it preserves and celebrates Native Hawaiian culture for future generations. From the fishing villages of Cape Cod to Hawaii's island communities, these special places remind us of the essential bond we have with our ocean and the responsibility we have to protect it.

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Immigration reform activists protest with a sign reading 'Reform Not Raids.'

Sometimes, the sound of a door slamming shut can reverberate across generations. Right now, in the presidential election campaign and debate about immigration reform we are hearing powerful echoes of a door that was firmly closed in 1924.

That year, nativist sentiment that had been brewing for decades led the U.S. Congress to adopt the Johnson-Reed Act, a federal law designed to severely restrict immigration. This legislation curtailed migration from Southern and Eastern Europe, nearly cut off immigration from Africa and banned outright the immigration of Arabs and Asians. This was a radical change to what had come before. To be sure, in the years between 1860 and 1924, the political climate wasn't always so welcoming of immigrants. But in that period 30 million people left their birthplaces and moved to America to fill US factories, build cities and settle America's west. More than two million of these immigrants were Jews: between 1881, when Tsar Alexander II was assassinated and both anti-Jewish legislation and violence followed, and 1924, fully one quarter of Europe's Jews departed Europe, most of them bound for the Goldene Medina, the Golden Land, as they called America. This influx of Jews -- along with millions of Irish, Italian and Polish citizens--fueled the nativist sentiments that led to the passage of the Immigration Act of 1924. Part of the concern arose out of sheer numbers, and partly there was a fear that among these "tired, hungry, poor masses" there were dangerous political radicals.

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As an American Jewish historian, I frequently point to the devastating implications of the 1924 Immigration Act on Jewish demography and politics. For all intents and purposes, America was eliminated as a refuge for Europe's Jews. Along with England's strict limitations on immigration to Palestine, this meant that as the situation grew increasingly desperate for European Jews in the 1920s and 1930s, there was simply no place for millions of Jews to go. The world knows the catastrophic results: six million European Jews died through the systematic efforts of the Nazis. When I speak to Jewish audiences, I usually point out how this cataclysm unexpectedly thrust the American Jewish community into a position of unexpected and unprecedented leadership for the world's Jews.

This year, I have been thinking about broader implications of the 1924 immigration restrictions. The provisions of the law significantly curtailed the number of people entering the United States, lowering it from 1907's record 1.3 million immigrants to less than 165,000 in 1925. In addition, they made it more likely that more of those entering were white by establishing national quotas from countries of origin and tilted it heavily toward immigrants from northern European countries. Even as subsequent legislation, especially the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, ultimately undid these provisions, we hear strong resonances of 1924 in today's political rhetoric.

Here's the irony: In the 1920s, nativist sentiment was infused with racism that judged Italians, Poles and Jews as lesser races than Anglo-Saxon Protestant stock that had been the majority of voluntary migrants to America. Yet in the decades that followed, the children of all of these groups largely became absorbed into white America, even held up as exemplars. So by the mid-1960s, when Lyndon B. Johnson began the Great Society Reforms that mandated civil rights for disenfranchised African Americans, nearly 85 percent of Americans were identified as white. It is unfortunate that many of their grandparents' siblings and neighbors had been shut out of the United States because of their inferior and potentially contaminating status.

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This is the America that Donald Trump problematically evokes in his campaign slogan "Make America Great Again." He harks back to a period of unprecedented whiteness in American life, achieved through punishing restrictions against populations perceived to be threatening--populations that within one or two generations were accepted. Once accepted, they benefited from structural racism to leapfrog over African Americans and many Mexican and Central American immigrants in social economic standing.

The transformed view of immigrants--from threat to citizen--shows the emptiness of the impulse behind the 1924 restrictions, and should guide us in our attitudes toward migrants today from Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East: people that may differ appear different from us but have enormous potential to contribute to their new homeland. Formerly marginalized groups like Jews and Italians have transformed American society for the better. I am not one to engage in counterfactual history, but I can't help but imagine what might have been if more marginalized groups had been allowed to contribute to the great American experiment.
On Friday night, Oliver Stone's new movie, Snowden, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. Early reviews were embargoed until then. But I can tell you, from the reaction of a tony crowd at a summer screening in East Hampton, let the award season begin with this movie. Peggy Siegal introduced Oliver Stone, providing a bit of the JFK director's resume: the 3 time Oscar winner adapted the script for Midnight Express (1978), and won for Best Picture and Best Director for Platoon (1986). His second Best Director award came for Born on the Fourth of July (1989). Stone makes important films, and his new one addresses and challenges our ideas about national security, and whether or not Edward Snowden is a hero.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the role, and Snowden is his best film. The supporting cast includes Melissa Leo as filmmaker Laura Poitras whose Citizen Four, an interview with the exiled Snowden, won an Academy Award for best documentary. Nicolas Cage is fine as a computer geek, and Shailene Woodley plays Lindsay Mills, Snowden's girlfriend who went to Moscow to live with him. While the film sees Snowden as an American hero, revealing his role in exposing ways in which our rights are threatened, particularly our privacy, many debate his actions.

Christie Brinkley, Robert Wilson, Ed Pressman, Katie Couric were among those sipping margueritas and munching on quesedillas at the Blue Parrot. Oliver Stone said he was having a conversation with a tall gorgeous rich woman who said she did not care about privacy, what did she have to be private about? The director was stunned, but this is the vital question his movie will have us all thinking/ talking about.

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Other topics of conversation, excellent movies screening in Toronto: among them Antoine Fugua's The Magnificent Seven, and Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann, Germany's entry for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton walks to her plane at Quad Cities International Airport September 5, 2016 in Moline, Illinois.Hillary Clinton launched the home stretch of her US presidential bid aiming to solidify her advantages over rival Donald Trump, with both candidates converging on working-class Ohio as ground zero of their 2016 campaign battle. / AFP / Brendan Smialowski (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

Hillary Clinton has drawn the most bizarre, unstable and unsuitable Republican opponent in American history. Yet she is barely ahead of Donald Trump in the polls.

I sit in conversations with the most fervent of Hillary supporters, and most of them are exasperated at her inability to wrap this thing up. As you get to the inner circle of Hillary intimates, the tendency is to blame the media. But there is also the sense that she brings her troubles upon herself.

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What the hell is at work here?

First, there is an element of sheer bad luck. The rightwing keeps up a drumbeat questioning Hillary's stamina, health and strength to do the job -- and right on cue she comes down with pneumonia.

NBC's Matt Lauer turns out to be a total dope, and his dopiness takes the form of obsessing on Clinton's emails and letting Trump get away with saying that he admires Vladimir Putin more than he admires the President of the United States.

Over to you, Matt. Uh, Matt?

Second, there is the odd gap between the public Hillary and the private one. Everyone who has worked with Clinton says she is terrific -- warm, funny, brilliant, caring, conscientious, well-informed, loyal to a fault.

I've been in small events with her only on a couple of occasions, but both times that description rang true. Yet the public Clinton often comes across as a composite creation -- scripted, not quite authentic, a little tense.

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That shouldn't matter, but it does. Barack Obama, in one of the genuinely wounding lines of the 2008 campaign, got at that vulnerability in the last debate of the New Hampshire primary when the moderator was asking about Hillary's warmth and Obama ad libbed, "You're likable enough, Hillary."

In the short run, that cruel touch of faint praise prompted a backlash that may have cost Obama the New Hampshire primary. But it accurately captured a weakness that continues to haunt Clinton: In politics, it turns out that "likable enough" is not, in fact, likable enough. Not by a long shot.

The New York Times recently sent a reporter to Ohio's most affluent county to ask swing voters about Trump versus Clinton. Several of them could not abide Trump, but were not ready to vote for Clinton. They just didn't like her.

The fate of the world should not hinge on a presidential election as a popularity contest, but that's how politics often works.

What can Clinton do about it, at this late date? She is 68, her personality and operating style were formed long ago. Not a lot.

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It's also the case that the problems that keep coming back to haunt her were baked into the cake long ago. We can't undo those emails, or the FBI's outrageous decision not to recommend a prosecution but to publically excoriate her nonetheless.

We can't roll back the tape and recommend that she exit from the Clinton Foundation long ago, and not take those bloated honoraria from Goldman Sachs.

Why do the Clintons continue to take these chances? If the public decides, rightly or wrongly, that you cut corners, it's hard to live that down. Bill's nickname, Slick Willie, didn't stick because he shot a great game of pool.

My most fervent Clinton loyalist friends say that the Clintons are held to a higher standard than other public figures; that nobody can prove quid pro quos in exchange for donations to their foundation or the honoraria; that no harm to national security came from the email thing.

Fair enough, but appearances matter. Why hand your enemies a loaded gun? This is how voters make up their minds about your character.

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Barack Obama, by contrast, has been a model of probity. Not a whiff of scandal in his public or private life. He gets hardly any credit for that, but I suspect it's part of why his approval ratings are in positive territory and hers are not.

Let's stipulate: Trump's misdeeds are of a whole other order than those of Clinton. The man professes concern for working people but declares bankruptcy multiple times and stiffs his contractors as part of his business model. He cheats students who gullibly go into debt to enroll in the fraudulent Trump University.

He makes statements -- "I have a secret plan to deal with ISIS" -- that would bring down ordinary politicians in a hail of ridicule. Uniquely, he won't release his taxes.

Yet the press treats his stuff and hers as if both were approximately equal. The bar has been so lowered that when Trump can get through a day without saying something idiotic, it is treated as an achievement.

Hillary Clinton would make a fine president. She has the experience, the compassion for the downtrodden, the expertise. For some of us, she represents too much continuity when the country is desperate for change. But compared to Donald Trump -- are you kidding?

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First, however, she has to get elected.

A couple of weeks ago, it was looking as if we could relax. Trump couldn't stay on script, the race was locking in favor of Clinton. Now it's a nail-biter again.

I have the sense that on Election Day, Clinton will still pull it out. But I sure wish she were a more effective candidate. The fate of the world should not depend on Donald Trump's penchant for blurting out nonsense.

Robert Kuttner is co-editor of The American Prospect and professor at Brandeis University's Heller School. In his spare time, he writes musicals. His latest book is Debtors' Prison: The Politics of Austerity Versus Possibility.
As teachers and students around the country head back to school, I can't help but think about my own years of starting school in the fall. I was always excited. Excited about new opportunities in the new school year. Excited about new friends to meet. Excited about figuring out just how my high school rock band could get in front of a crowd. I may not have been all that excited about eighth grade math assignments at St. Mary's School in Stoughton, Massachusetts, but the love of literature and poetry that Sr. Andrena instilled in me got me there every day and I learned some math too. And while the four years of 'Conversational Latin' at Boston College High School didn't quite drive me to get there each day, the prospect of playing music in that band did...and I learned some Latin.

Today when I think about back-to-school time, I worry. Will the teachers be prepared to reach every student--and reach them in the poorer corners of cities as well as rural areas? Are the schools welcoming and enticing to students and parents? Will creativity be a daily activity in the lives of our country's next generation of thinkers, leaders, and artists?

Just last year, I was honored to attend the signing of the new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced No Child Left Behind after almost 14 years. I was proud to represent the arts among the country's foremost leaders in the field of education, and the White House gathering buzzed with excitement as we waited for President Obama to arrive. This was a moment years in the making and I thought back to 2011 when Obama made a visit to Kenmore Middle School in Arlington, Virginia, to speak to students, educators, and educational leaders about America's need to deliver a world-class education, specifically citing the integration of the music of Duke Ellington into the school's curriculum. He concluded this speech with a call to end No Child Left Behind and reform the American education system.

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A student approached the podium at the White House event to introduce the President. His name is Antonio Martin--a math and science honor student from Kenmore also in the school's drama program and orchestra. "I care about education because it opens up a world of possibilities for students including me," he remarked. "I want to be an engineer and I work really hard in school. I love science and math and all of my teachers have helped me enrich my love of learning. For me, Kenmore has opened new possibilities because it is an arts-focused school...art is integrated into all subjects [and] I even have the option to be in drama and orchestra!"

A lot has happened since Antonio took the podium. The new law compels states to start drafting state-wide plans for the implementation of the new law. I'm happy to report that the law includes many arts-friendly provisions, and opens the door for states to deliver an arts-rich education to students across the country. Much of what we know about the value of arts education and the power of the arts to motivate positive change has been evidenced through many initiatives like the Turnaround Arts program on Obama's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and the "Embracing Arts Education to Achieve Title I Goals" report from the California Alliance for Arts Education.

At Americans for the Arts, we are pleased to be a partner on these and many other projects to help state leaders--like the tireless advocates from state arts advocacy groups, staff at the state Departments of Education and State Arts Agencies--take their place at the discussion tables that inform educational policies which will impact the next generation of students.

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We know that by infusing the arts, a failing school can turn around. We know that states can use Title I dollars to aid in this process. And we know that by doing so, the arts can be a solution for school reform, they can be an indicator in state accountability plans, they can be an entry point for parents and community members to engage, and they can infuse joy back into teaching and learning.

We also know that we often leave behind far too many students. We are watching demographics change in the United States, especially in our education system. Why is it that students of color are often less likely to have access to arts education? Why is it that students in many rural communities, don't have the chance to learn from a qualified and passionate teacher? And why is it that students on the autism spectrum or English language learners in many cases have fewer opportunities in the arts? These are issues we must address.

Through these challenges, the American public is with us. Released earlier this year, our Ipsos-administered public opinion poll tells us that 9 out of 10 Americans believe that the arts should be included in a well-rounded education. Additionally, that same 9 out of 10 Americans believe that the arts should be a part of education in every level of education--elementary, middle and high school. However, the public made it clear that there is not enough access. This is the reason why we must fight for policies like ESSA, which works to improve access and equity gaps nationally. As Hampshire College's motto states, "Non Satis Scire: To Know is Not Enough."

We must celebrate all that has been achieved this year but we must also be sure to continue to tell our civic and educational decision-makers about the importance of the arts in our lives. I invite you to join the field of arts education in celebrating National Arts in Education Week this week. Designated by Congress in 2010, the national event celebrates the transformative power of the arts in education. You can share your story using #BecauseOfArtsEd on any social media platform like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Parachuting into my first Academy of Management conference in Anaheim, California last month was exhilarating; much like the first time I blasted off from Space Mountain across the street at Disneyland. That famous thrill ride is billed as a journey through the stars. So was the AOM conference... a gathering of close to 10,000 academics and professional luminaries from the galaxy of scholarly management. The experience reinforced my conviction that the world's management educators are key change agents to prepare business leaders who can and will solve humanity's greatest challenges.

Once on the ground, I was amazed to discover how many conference goers already knew each other. Many had been reconnecting for years, even for decades. I felt I had landed amidst multiple family reunions. I don't think I met even one first-timer. And we all seemed to be drawn by the overarching theme of the conference - Making Organizations Meaningful.

This concept holds deep meaning for me and reflects my current work at Case Western Reserve University's Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit. Following decades as an investigative reporter exposing corporate misconduct, I've taken a radical turn. Associated with the Weatherhead School of Management at CWRU, I've been exploring how to research, discover, amplify, and celebrate corporate innovations aligned with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) unanimously approved by the United Nations in September 2015.

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These 17 Global Goals are the world's "To Do" list to achieve by 2030. They encompass everything from addressing poverty, to climate action, to quality education for all, to peace and justice. The goals are a beautiful framework to guide the next generation of business leaders. Lise Kingo, UN Global Compact Executive Director, estimates these challenges to be worth trillions of dollars in profits for those companies willing to embrace them. She says, "We must turn the global goals into business action and impacts in markets around the world."

The initiative I direct is called AIM2Flourish, and it was an honor to present this work on the AOM panel called "Purpose in Action: Paradigm Shift in Management Education for a Better World." Today's business students live in a pluralistic stakeholder world of interdependent social, economic, and environmental challenges. These crises are real and urgent, but management textbooks lag behind with a shareholder value focus. Fortunately, our young millennials have a keen desire to fix the mess they've inherited. They see a future in companies that do good, and do well and AIM2Flourish helps them discover it. And many now echo our AIM2Flourish credo: "We believe confronting the world's greatest challenges can be profitable and that business is the powerful force that can create a flourishing world for all."

AIM2Flourish catalyzes business innovation by discovering, sharing, and celebrating inspiring stories of businesses that do good and do well. We are preparing the next generation of business leaders to build a better world with the only higher-education experiential learning curriculum to teach the UN SDGs, along with a global story-sharing platform. Business school professors around the world use our Professor Resources to teach the UN's Sustainable Development Goals to our next generation of business leaders. Our curriculum includes how to conduct an "Appreciative Inquiry"; a strength-based interviewing technique that can reveal what inspired company presidents and corporate CEOs to create innovations with social impact. Many students tell us that the experience of researching innovations and connecting with their innovators through "Appreciative Inquiry" interviewing shifts their career goals to tackle real-world problems.

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Today, professors and students in some 50 countries participate on our AIM2Flourish.com platform. Together they've already published some 200 examples of diverse and inspiring business innovation stories -- most of which can't be found in business publications or anywhere else.

For instance, we've learned -

Plastic grocery bags in Indonesia made from tapioca biodegrade in just two weeks and support the country's cassava farmers in a cooperative.

Portable solar water filtration systems in Africa can generate 800 liters of fresh water in rugged areas of the continent.

A simple "Lucky Iron Fish" added to rice pots in Cambodia is an effective way to fight iron deficiency among one-quarter of the population.

A Brazilian company that respects rainforest resources can produce quality cosmetics in harmony with n

ature.

At the end of 2016, all of the stories gathered globally and published on AIM2Flourish.com will be considered for one of the 17 Flourish Prizes matched to each of the 17 UN SDGs. We'll celebrate the extraordinary best-of-the-best at the Fourth Global Forum on June 14-16, 2017 at CWRU in Cleveland, Ohio.

The dozens of distinguished professors participating in AIM2Flourish share a common passion: educating the next generation of business leaders on ways to practice business as a force for good. The community of professors that has grown up around AIM2Flourish is sharing syllabi, best practices, and networking with each other around particular interests. This relatively new initiative has had an organic flow to it and has grown faster than any of us would have expected.

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In addition to our home Case Western Reserve University's Fowler Center, we are grateful for our co-sponsor UN Global Compact PRME, the UN's network of management-related academic institutions, business schools, and universities. And recently, AACSB International (the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) the accreditation organization for 1,450 management schools, endorsed AIM2Flourish and posted a "What is AIM2Flourish?" video interview to explain and support our mission. AACSB SVP Dan LeClair joined the AOM panel to talk about his business education network's mission and referred to AIM2Flourish as an example of "Making Organizations Meaningful."

The recent Academy of Management conference convinced me that this passion for transforming how management education is taught is universal and inevitable. It's happening through these educators I met, sharing, networking, and refreshing their mindset about teaching. The experience confirmed my hope that the next generation of business leaders and managers will know how to tackle the world's great challenges and, in turn, will create good business opportunities in the process.
KRYNICA, POLAND - SEPTEMBER 06: The Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban gives a speech after he awarded as Man of the Year by the Programme Council of the Economic Forum at Krynica, Poland on September 06, 2016. (Photo by Omar Marques/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

"Young people born in today's Eurozone have no future ahead of them, unlike our youth born in the East," Hungary's brash, xenophobic Prime Minister Viktor Orban said at the 26th Economic Forum earlier this month.

All eyes were on the mini-summit of Southern European nations that took place in Athens last week. But what if the real problem currently facing Europe is the behavior of the Visegrad Group - comprised of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic.

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These countries want to become a buffer between the European Union and Russia, and at the same time emerge as a tough opponent of the European Commission's immigration policies.

We had an opportunity to observe this team in action at the 26th Economic Forum, held in the historic spa town of Krynica, Poland, in the verdant Carpathian mountains. This is the eastern version of the better-known Davos forum. It has grown to attract prominent corporate sponsors, huge turn-outs of business executives and politicians (though almost none from the EU), and strong security measures.

The four Visegrad members, who were joined on this occasion by Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, chose their leader a while back: the Hungarian premier himself.

They presented clear ideas to an attentive audience packed into an enormous, mountain-side conference room, among them: unbridled liberalism guided by cumbersome government and fueled by European and American funds; no immigration; a foreign policy independent of the EU; and a return to traditional values.

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No Syrian wants to live in a country as inhospitable toward immigrants as Hungary is today, yet Orban acts as if they're all vying to be there.





At least, these are their intentions. Otherwise, we're out of here, Orban threatens, despite the fact that his country -- like Poland, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic -- is continuing to grow at a rate even higher than in most Western countries, thanks to the maximum utilization of shared EU funds and a domestic devaluation policy that is very appealing to foreign investors.

Everyone knows that no Syrian wants to live in a country as inhospitable toward immigrants as Hungary is today, yet Orban acts as if they're all vying to be there.

The summit was overburdened with phrases such as "common European roots," and "common traditions," even though the goal of these four Eastern leaders is to disrupt the cultural hegemony of Italy, Germany, and France, who continue to move forward with a discourse of integration.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and French Prime Minister Francois Hollande use the word "Europe" as a uniting force. Orban, alongside his colleagues Beata Szydlo of Poland, Bohuslav Sobotka of the Czech Republic, and Robert Fico of Slovakia, use it to divide the prisoners of the Maastricht Treaty from the world's new champions of self-determination.

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Orban is as dangerous as he is charismatic. It is difficult to disentangle the strategic thread that runs through his elaborate discourse.

Are Rome, Paris, Madrid, and Lisbon working themselves ragged to respect the 3 percent deficit-to-GDP ratio required of EU members, and seeking wiggle room in their public expenditures amid steady deflation?

The Eastern European countries are raiding European funds, and creating a large "Carpathian" bloc. This alliance is capable of sending European immigration policies haywire, and has done so since the spring, erecting walls and calling referendums on the presence of foreigners.

Moreover, their economic strength relies in part on the money that belongs to all Europeans. The EU had allocated 325 billion to be divided among the 28 member states between 2014 and 2020, and the percentage of this money designated for Central and Eastern Europe has grown (from 177.57 to 180.93 billion, an increase of 2.6 percent) while the percentage going to Western Europe has shrunk (from 169 to 140 billion, a decrease of 16 percent).

To be more precise, the biggest winners here are Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Croatia in fifth place.

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Losing European funds, meanwhile, are the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovenia. But overall, transfers of common funds to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe are becoming ever more significant, comprising between 2 and 3 percent of regional spending, and often exceeding direct foreign investments.

As you listen to the Hungarian leader demanding the erection of "anti-immigration walls in Southern Europe," amid general complacency -- walls that are built by generous regional aid -- you rightly wonder if we're just arming Europe's enemy.

This prospect should be a source of concern for Brussels summit leaders, who were absorbed in Tspiras's Euro-Med summit as well as the latest of many meetings of their own Economic and Financial Affairs Council, and paid no attention to the meeting in Krynica.
Creighton University economist Ernie Goss recently estimated the death

penalty costs in Nebraska at $14.6 million per year.

Life or death.





When it comes to crime and punishment in Nebraska, what costs more?





As they go to the polls in November to pass judgment on the Nebraska Legislature's 2015 repeal of capital punishment, voters will consider an issue laden with ethics, justice, religion, public safety - and economics.





In a sense, Nebraskans will soon decide whether the death penalty is literally worth keeping.





The greater weight of the evidence suggests the death penalty costs more than life in prison without parole. Beyond a reasonable doubt, death penalty cases involve more lawyers, they generate more appeals and they demand significantly more court time to resolve than other serious felonies.





What remains debatable is the magnitude of the cost.





The expense of capital punishment has been the subject of dozens of studies in states ranging from California to Kansas to North Carolina. All have reached conclusions similar to that of Creighton University economist Ernie Goss, who recently estimated the death penalty costs in Nebraska at $14.6 million per year.





Goss also concluded that each death penalty prosecution costs the state about $1.5 million more than a case with life in prison as the maximum penalty.





The $16,000 study, funded by the anti-death penalty group Retain a Just Nebraska, quickly came under fire by supporters of capital punishment. They attacked the approach and said they thought the figures were inflated.





Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson, a strong supporter of the death penalty, was particularly pointed in his criticisms. He faulted Goss for not seeking data directly from state agencies and for relying on other death penalty cost studies, some of which are sponsored by opponents of capital punishment.





"It's game time when the public is potentially influenced by poor factual information," Peterson said.





Goss has defended his methods and said his figures, if anything, are low. In turn, he challenged the attorney general and other critics to put up their own reports for public scrutiny.





The World-Herald sought the opinion of Eric Thompson, an economics professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. After conducting a thorough review, Thompson said Goss employed methodology widely used by other economists and the study's conclusions are supported by underlying data.





His only criticism: a decision by Goss and his team not to report a range, to give people an idea how much more or less than $14.6 million the cost could run.





"I would have to say, by and large, they provided a lot of evidence there are some additional costs to the justice system in having the death penalty," said Thompson, who has collaborated with Goss on economic studies unrelated to the death penalty.





After a 10-minute skim of Goss' report, however, another economist dismissed the study along with all others that conclude the death penalty costs more to maintain than life without parole.





Anthony Yezer, a professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., said such studies fail to account for what's called the "plea-bargain effect." The term refers to the role the death penalty plays in potentially saving trial costs by convincing some accused killers to plead guilty to their crimes rather than risk execution.





Death penalty opponents frequently argue that the death penalty has no deterrence effect. But Yezer disagrees. And he said Goss made no attempt to factor in how much the fear of execution could save the criminal justice system by potentially preventing a murder.





"What's the cost of the murders that would have happened if Nebraska hadn't had capital punishment?" asked Yezer, author of a textbook titled "Economics of Crime and Enforcement."





In taking his own swipe at the Goss report, Gov. Pete Ricketts held up a 2015 analysis by the Legislature's Fiscal Office that concluded any cost savings derived by repealing the death penalty would, at most, be minimal. The Fiscal Office analysis was done as lawmakers debated the historic repeal of capital punishment.





"Dr. Goss' study was based on non-Nebraska numbers and is misleading for those voting on the death penalty in November," said the governor, who helped fund the petition drive that put the referendum on the ballot.





Goss called his decision to write the study and wade into the death penalty debate the "greatest mistake of my career." Describing himself as a political conservative who had been a "full-throated supporter of capital punishment," Goss said his cost study unleashed a wave of angry emails from death penalty supporters.





Nonetheless, he didn't back down from his conclusions.





Critics are wrong, Goss said, when they say he didn't use Nebraska numbers. The analysis that resulted in the $14.6 million annual expense relied on justice cost data that Nebraska courts, counties and state agencies reported to the U.S. Census Bureau.





If anything, Goss called his estimate conservative because it did not include law enforcement expenses. In addition, the economist used data from all states over a 2-year period in order to increase the sample size and make it statistically significant.





"Those numbers are darn good," he said, adding that the margin of error was 1/2 a percentage point.





But he expressed much less confidence in his estimate that death penalty prosecutions cost $1.5 million more. He relied on 19 studies from other states to come up with that number, which he said has a margin of error of plus or minus 18 % points. In addition, the sample size was too small to be statistically significant.





Nonetheless, Goss pointed out that the Legislative Fiscal Office relied on reports from 3 state agencies and the Douglas County Correctional Center to conclude that the death penalty results in minimal financial impact.M





What about the costs incurred by the other 92 counties or the courts, Goss asked.





"If I used the Legislative Fiscal Office methodology I would have been ostracized by economists across the nation," Goss said. "It's just wrong, wrong, wrong."





In response, Fiscal Office Director Michael Calvert said it would be improper for him to comment on Goss' report because it could be viewed as taking a position on the death penalty referendum. The fiscal note by his staff was based on agency information and the "analyst's knowledge of, and experience with, assigned agencies, allowing him to arrive at an opinion on cost consequences with passage of the bill."





Kent Scheidegger, a death penalty supporter and legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento, California, said he generally agrees that death penalty cases cost more. But after reviewing Goss' report he was skeptical of the $14.6 million figure.





To come up with the figure, Goss used an economic tool called multiple regression. Regression involves writing an equation consisting of variables that could impact a state's spending on justice. Goss' equation included 12 variables.





Scheidegger said the choice of variables for a regression analysis can greatly affect the outcome, and he said that some of the variables Goss included were "odd." For example, Goss factored in the % of each state's population that is black or Catholic.





Scheidegger said the study should have better explained the author's reasoning for such choices.





In response, Goss said it's common for a regression analysis to include racial and religious characteristics of a given population. He argued that both the black and Catholic populations in the state could affect how much the death penalty is pursued.





In his study, Goss also attempted to address the plea-bargain effect, which could save states some criminal justice costs by reducing the number of cases that go to trial. He suggested the death penalty does not prompt more defendants to plead guilty, but he incorrectly attributed the source material behind that conclusion. After the misquoted source raised an objection, Goss acknowledged the error.





But other research also indicates Goss wrongly concluded the death penalty doesn't result in a plea bargain effect, said Yezer, the George Washington University economist.





Yezer pointed to a 2006 study published in an academic journal that compared plea bargain rates in capital cases both before and after New York reinstated the death penalty in 1995. The study concluded the number of murder cases that ended with a guilty plea increased by 26 % after 1995.





The potential cost savings from the plea-bargain effect aren't accounted for in death penalty studies, Yezer argued.





Goss countered by saying his analysis did factor in plea bargaining in the sense that nearly all states engage in the practice.





And he also argued that plea bargaining can sometimes cost taxpayers, too. He mentioned the Beatrice 6, a wrongful conviction case in which the threat of the death penalty was one of several factors that influenced five Nebraska defendants to plead guilty or no contest to crimes they did not commit. A federal jury recently ordered Gage County to pay $28 million in damages for a reckless investigation in the case.





Perhaps the strongest critic of the Goss analysis is the attorney general. Peterson took issue with the state studies, which Goss relied upon to come up with the $1.5 million estimate of an individual death penalty prosecution. The studies conclude that death penalty appeals are a major cost driver, but Peterson said that's not the case in his office.





Each year the 9 lawyers in the criminal appeals section handle about 500 appeals, Peterson said. 5 or fewer of those appeals involve death penalty cases, which equates to about 1 % of the total.





Peterson provided a spreadsheet that shows the annual budget for the appeals division runs about $950,000; 1 % of that budget equals $9,500.





And while other state studies have concluded it costs more to house inmates on death row, state officials say that's not the case in Nebraska. The annual cost of housing each of the 10 death row inmates at the Tecumseh State Prison is about $37,000, the same as other inmates at that institution, said Dawn-Renee Smith, spokeswoman for the State Department of Correctional Services.





Death row inmates are kept in single-occupancy cells within an area called the special management unit, while in the general population, inmates share cells. But Smith said each prison gallery is staffed with a single corporal, regardless of the classification of the inmates.





Peterson's point: "These numbers are out there. He could have gone to the agencies and asked for them."





Peter Collins, assistant professor of criminal justice at Seattle University in Washington, has reviewed dozens of death penalty cost studies across the nation. He said he has determined about 30 of the studies are scientifically sound and will use them for a meta-analysis he is working on.





All of the studies concluded the death penalty costs more, he said. The $14.6 million cost cited in the Goss study is not out of line with what some other states have found, he added.





"The evidence is clear it costs more," he said. "How much more, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to know that without better record keeping."





Goss has made a similar point in response to those, like the attorney general and governor, who fault him for not seeking expense reports from individual counties or agencies.





He argued it would be difficult, if not impossible, for state and county officials to accurately break out the costs associated with a system that is as old as Nebraska itself. It would be like asking the faculty at Creighton University, where Goss works, to identify how much being affiliated with the Jesuits adds to the cost of the institution.





Shortly after the study was released last month, Goss appeared on a talk radio show where the host challenged his methodology. In reply, Goss asked how the host would have done it.





"I'm not the economist," the host replied.





To which Goss said: "That's right, I'm the economist."

 | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; send a submission; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com



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Source: Omaha World-Herald, Sept. 10, 2016
On November 27, 2015, Israel opened its first diplomatic mission in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Israel's diplomatic outreach to the UAE gained widespread international attention, as the UAE monarchy has officially refused to recognize Israel's right to exist. Israeli citizens are forbidden to travel to the UAE, with occasional exceptions being granted to athletes in international sporting competitions.

Israel's diplomatic overtures towards Abu Dhabi have been followed by other conciliatory gestures towards the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. Israeli defense officials have engaged in covert dialogues with their Saudi counterparts on containing Iran. Qatar has also tried to revive unofficial diplomatic ties with Israel that were severed following the 2008-09 Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

The expansion of Israel-GCC security cooperation can be explained by the GCC's declining concern about Palestine and Saudi Arabia's desire to import sophisticated Israeli military technology. This growth in informal cooperation has had profound implications for Israel's security and the geopolitical power balance in the Middle East.

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How Declining GCC Interest in Palestine Has Strengthened Israel-GCC Ties

Since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Israeli policymakers have used pledges to compromise on Palestinian self-determination to neutralize the threat Arab states pose to Israel's security. Israeli diplomats have used the 1994 normalization of relations with Jordan as a precedent for subsequent outreaches to the Arab League. The Jordanian monarchy's recognition of Israel was triggered by Amman's concern that Jordan's interests in Palestine would be excluded during the implementation of the 1993 Oslo Accords.

The thaw in Israel-Jordan relations proved to be an exceptional outcome. The failure of Israeli policymakers to negotiate a workable peace settlement with the Palestinian Authority (PA) prevented a thaw in Israel-GCC relations. GCC countries have also intensely criticized Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. In response to the 2008-09 Israel-Gaza War, Saudi Arabia urged the United States to militarily intervene to stop Israeli aggression. Qatar suspended informal diplomatic relations with Israel. The UAE's Dubai Emirate cancelled its New Years celebrations in a show of solidarity with Gaza.

Even though Qatar publicly sponsors Hamas, and Saudi Arabia provides extensive financial assistance to Palestinian organizations, the GCC's support for the Palestinian cause has become palpably less enthusiastic in recent years. GCC business leaders have tacitly displayed their frustration with PA corruption. UAE officials have become increasingly circumspect about Hamas's Muslim Brotherhood (MB) linkages, as they view an MB government as a gateway for Iranian influence. The GCC's continued patronage of Israel's strongest Arab ally and the MB's most strident opponent, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, indicate that the GCC consensus on Palestine has shifted dramatically in recent years.

As progress towards a peaceful resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict has stagnated, the GCC's assistance to Palestinian nationalist movements has become increasingly tactical in nature. Saudi Arabia has exploited the breakdown in the Hamas-Iran relationship over the Syrian conflict. Riyadh has also reached out to Fatah to counter PA President Mahmoud Abbas's increasingly cordial relationship with Iranian opposition factions. These aid provisions demonstrate that Saudi policymakers have made containing Iran a greater priority than creating a viable Palestinian state.

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Israel's soft power in the Middle East has been bolstered considerably by strains in the GCC-Palestine relationship. Even though representatives of the Kuwaiti and Bahraini monarchies expressed solidarity with Palestinian nationalists at the July 25 Arab League summit in Mauritania, the absence of Saudi Arabia's King Salman was a striking demonstration of the declining importance of Palestine to GCC countries.

The Gulf monarchies have also tacitly encouraged Hamas to soften its militant opposition to Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories. Israel has encouraged supervised dialogues between Hamas officials and their GCC patrons to ensure that the Palestinian terror organization embraces a moderate course in the years to come. In the eyes of Israeli policymakers, the increased reluctance of GCC leaders to antagonize Israel demonstrates that the Israel-GCC anti-Iran axis is becoming a durable feature of the Middle Eastern geopolitical arena.

Economic and Security Cooperation Between Israel and the GCC

The declining importance of the Palestinian conflict as a wedge issue between Israel and the GCC has caused the Gulf monarchies to engage with Israel in an increasingly pragmatic way. Saudi Arabia has developed clandestine business deals with Israeli companies in recent years, even though Riyadh officially maintains a stringent boycott on Israeli goods. To circumvent the trade boycott, Israeli goods have been shipped to Saudi Arabia under the purview of foreign companies. This circumvention has allowed Israeli IT products and irrigation technology to enter Saudi markets.

Israel has also made progress towards expanded economic cooperation with Qatar. Business elites in Doha have covertly expressed interest in Israeli high-tech products, which have typically been exported to India and Eastern Europe. The Qatari monarchy believes that access to these products could convince Qatari engineers who study from foreign universities to return to Qatar after graduation.

Some Israeli business elites have embraced GCC economic overtures, as they believe that deeper informal engagement with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar will prevent Israeli economic isolation. The Israeli Peace Initiative, founded by London-based Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer, has embraced economic deals with the GCC bloc as a gateway to lasting peace in the Middle East.

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Even though the GCC bloc officially regards Israel as a security threat, the Gulf monarchies have greatly expanded their defence and intelligence cooperation with the Israeli military. GCC officials have signed covert deals with the Israeli defence contractors to gain access to the IDF's prized military technology. In 2011, Israeli companies sold an estimated $300 million of military technology to the UAE. The Emirati government used Israeli military technology to secure the UAE's oil wells. Israeli media reports have also claimed that the IDF has offered Saudi Arabia Iron Dome military technology to defend Saudi territory from Yemeni rocket launches.

Small-scale provisions of military technology and security assistance by Israeli companies to the GCC bloc have provided the foundations for expanded Israel-GCC anti-Iran military cooperation. In 2009, Saudi Arabia allegedly tested its air defences to evaluate Israel's ability to use Saudi territory for a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. During a June 2015 Council of Foreign Relations event in Washington, representatives of Israel and Saudi Arabia revealed covert diplomatic meetings between the two countries over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

These dialogues have surprising public support within Saudi Arabia. The Associated Press reported in 2015 that 53% of Saudis view Iran as Saudi Arabia's primary adversary, compared to the 18% of Saudis who viewed Israel as Saudi Arabia's biggest enemy. The amelioration of the Saudi public's belligerent hostility towards Israel has also translated into closer diplomatic linkages.

Israel supported Egypt's handover of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia in April 2016. The Israeli Defense Ministry confirmed that Riyadh had given Israeli policymakers written assurances of the continued safety of the Straits of Tiran. As the Saudi monarchy's domestic legitimacy depends on continuing Riyadh's existential struggle against Iran, King Salman is likely to make similar diplomatic compromises to Israeli interests in the years to come.

Israel's strengthened economic and security cooperation with the GCC bloc is closely related to the GCC's growing indifference to the situation in Palestine, and Riyadh's single-minded desire to undercut Iranian influence in the Middle East. Even though GCC countries are unlikely to recognize Israel's right to exist, informal Jerusalem-Riyadh cooperation is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. As the United States continues its normalization efforts towards Iran, Washington needs to pay close attention to the scope and nature of Israel-Saudi Arabia collusion in the Middle East.

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by Shawn Wellington for ShermansTravel

While Americans regard prohibition as a romanticized thing of the past, alcohol bans still exist in countries like Brunei, Libya, and Saudi Arabia -- and if Indonesia's Parliament has its way, you can soon add tourist destinations like Bali to the list, too. But if you think a countrywide outlaw of liquor is outrageous, make sure you read these other bizarre rules and regulations on drinking around the world (including a few in the U.S.!). You wouldn't want to get caught violating them; the penalties are far from lenient.

1. Don't drink and horseback ride in Colorado

In Colorado, horses aren't just wonderful pets; they're a recognized mode of transportation. As such, you really shouldn't operate a horse while tipsy. If you're caught horseback riding while under the influence, you can be cited for drunk driving, just as if you were operating a typical motor vehicle.

2. Lukewarm in Oklahoma

Drinkers in Oklahoma may want to plan ahead a bit more than their colleagues in surrounding states. A quirky law prohibits the sale of refrigerated beer above 4 percent alcohol by volume, which means that you'll need to pick up your brews and then chill them yourself. You can still get softball stuff in the cold aisle, but consume that at your own peril.

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3. Tone it down, Alabama

If you're thinking of starting a new brewing company in Alabama, don't spend too much on graphic design. The Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board can prohibit labels with "a person posed in an immoral or sensuous manner." Something tells us Utah's Polygamy Porter wouldn't pass muster down in Talladega.

4. No shots after midnight, Aussies

Don't be surprised if you can't get a shot or cocktail after the stock strikes 12 while Down Under. Apparently, it's against the law to serve those up after midnight in Australia.

5. Watch out, first offenders, in El Salvador

While it's not mandatory, the death penalty is a viable option when judging those who experience their first drunk driving event in El Salvador. In other words, don't risk it. Or even think about risking it.

6. (Early) last call in Sweden

If you're looking to pick up a six pack after work in Sweden, you best get to the grocery store early. It's illegal for Swedish markets to hawk beer after 7 p.m.

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7. Marry smart, Malaysia

If you're nabbed for drunk driving in Malaysia, the man at fault as well as his wife can be jailed. If your luck runs even further south, the jailing can extend to other family members as well. Yikes!
Peruvian chicken, aka pollo a la brasa, or simply "charcoal chicken," has crisp, flavorful, smoke-kissed skin, juicy flesh and an herbaceous, positively addictive green sauce that accompanies it.

Peru has a Swiss national to thank for its most popular chicken dish, which has its own day on the Peruvian calendar (July 21). In the 1950s, Swiss expat-turned-chicken-farmer Roger Schuler was on the verge of losing everything. In desperation, he set up four tables in his farm home and advertised "all you can eat" spit-roasted chicken for only 5 soles (about $1.95) to local workers. Today, La Granja Azul (The Blue Farm) seats 450 patrons at its hacienda on the outskirts of Lima; chicken--still "all-you-can-eat"--is served with thick-cut fries and a green salad. And the price is 55 soles ($16.25).

When Peruvians emigrated to North America in the 1970s and 1980s, they brought this culinary treasure with them.

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If you have eaten Peruvian chicken at a polleria in Lima, you have likely noticed differences between the indigenous and Anglicized versions. The former is usually a smaller, younger bird, and while not aggressively seasoned, it often features two ingredients that are not well-known in the U.S.: aji amarillo paste, a yellow chile pepper paste with a fruity taste and mild to medium spice; and huacatay (wah-kah-tay) paste, a distinctive-tasting herb compote also known as black mint. The chicken was traditionally spit-roasted over charcoal from the now-endangered algarrobo tree.

So without further ado, here is some hard-won advice for making mouthwatering and authentic Peruvian chicken in your own backyard:

Slather the wet rub on the outside of the bird, then gently lift the skin covering the breasts and thighs and use your fingers (or a wooden spoon) to season the flesh. If you have extra rub, put it in the cavity. If desired, let the chicken marinate in the rub for up to 8 hours, covered and refrigerated.

To prevent the bird from flopping on the spit, either truss or tuck the wings behind the back and tie the legs together with butcher's string before grilling.

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No rotisserie? No worries. The chicken can be grilled indirectly on your grill or even beer can chicken-style.

To emulate Peruvian algarrobo charcoal, blend mesquite and mild-flavored smoking wood chips (such as apple or oak). At the most, you'll need 2 cups. Soak in water or beer for 1 hour, then drain before using.

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9/11: The Night that Race Didn't matter

Tonight NBC did something major on their coverage of 9/11, they featured Officer Maldano, a man of color, who was merely a child when that awful day occurred. Currently, Maldano was deployed to Iran and Afghanistan.

I cannot tell you how many calls I have received through the years, asking if any Black people were hurt amongst the 3,000 fatalities. It seemed as though, there were hardly been any interviews to that point.

As the only African-American woman and Female Chaplain for the NYPD, I was there on the front lines. That day started out as an election day for local NY Primaries.

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On the horrific day, prior to reporting to headquarters, I took my mother to the polls, and as I was returning her home in her driveway, my husband said " A plane just hit the towers." Being a New Yorker, the news almost numb to pain and trauma, and used to bad news as the norm, I along with my neighbors, thought we would hear about it later on the noon news.

September 11, 2001 was a busy day, like most folks I was busy. I was preparing to pick up a guest pastor from the Bahamas, visiting my local parish in the Bronx, for what would be a three day revival, as spiritual renewal, to begin the school year, and also preparing for the lunchtime ministry I do on Wednesday right down the block from where the towers stood. This guest minister's wife had flown in a day early to surprise him, and was staying at the LaGuardia Marriott. He had changed his flight, so all we knew was the landing time.

As I entered what was then the Triboro Bridge, the police officers and Port Authority were waving frantically to STOP. As I approached the bridge, I began to see the second tower's flames, looking Black as coal, and a building in the distance seeming to crumble.

I continued on to LaGuardia, but by this time pandemonium had broken out. The clerks, the ticket desk agents, the security, the passengers were all outside. No one had sophisticated cell phones, so we relied on Radios and Walkie-Talkies to let us know what had happened.

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Our vehicles are emergency vehicles, so I went right into action, helping police officers, firefighters report to their commands, and there was an elderly Black couple, who no one was sharing their cab with, who had gone on their plane to the tarmac, on their first flight, and were brought back to the airport.

I gave them a ride. Picked up my kids and other service officers' children from school, and for the next 60 days, we were in front line action. My parish's revival never happened and lunchtime ministries at the Old John Street Church the next week would create a new definition of PASTOR.

But that night... that first eerie night, as we arrived at Ground Zero, there was this thick Grey soot, looking like snow. It was the incinerated papers and remains of bodies and toxins flowing through the air, and anyone outside and anything outside was covered in it. Not Black, not White, but Gray. It didn't matter if I were Baptist or another Jewish or another Catholic, we were all New Yorkers, all trying to find our comrades, and all trying to get ready to bring a new normalcy to a traumatic situation.

Race did not matter. No one asked, or maybe even knew, about the 9/ll operators, mainly Black and Latina women, who had been on the phones with people as they screamed their last cries for help that I had to minister to for WEEKS following the tragedy.

And then there were our colleagues, Father Michael Judge,who I'd met on an interfaith trip to the Holy Lands with Dave Dinkins and Dr. Ruth., as our first Chaplain casualty. And now, he was gone.

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For a few short days, we worked together, cried together, prayed together, worshipped together, rescued and recovered together.

Covered with Gray. No Black No White. Only American.

My prayers are extended to all the families who lost loved ones and a shout out to all the unsung heroes who helped saved more lives than you'll ever know.
After decades of decline and marginalization, feminism is experiencing a renaissance.

Ten years ago, only 24 percent of women surveyed by CBS News considered themselves feminists. Now jump forward to a 2015 poll conducted by The Washington Post and Kaiser Family Foundation, which found that a robust 68 percent of women say that there is still a need for a strong women's movement today, and 60 percent of women (and 47 percent of the public) identified themselves as feminists. Support stretches across generations: Nearly as many Millennials (63 percent) identify as feminists as do Boomers (68 percent), and fully 83 percent of young women born after 1981 describe feminism as empowering -- a word that only 56 percent of women ages 65 and older choose.

Yet even as young women -- and, increasingly, men -- are enthusiastically endorsing the label, today's feminism looks very different from the cause that our mothers and grandmothers marched for. This New Wave of feminism "is shaped less by a shared struggle against oppression than by a collective embrace of individual freedoms, concerned less with targeting narrowly defined enemies than with broadening feminism's reach," explain the authors of an article based on The Washington Post's findings.

Inspired not by national organizations and charismatic leaders, today's feminists find common ground and shared energy on the Internet and through social media.

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To get an inkling of how the Internet and social media have become a uniting force for feminists around the world, just witness the online reaction to the surprise release of Beyonce's video, "Formation" in February. "Stop Everything!" wrote Essence columnist Aliya S. King, and within a week, more than 7 million people tuned in to watch -- and discuss -- how a mainstream pop artist pushed the limits on our perceptions of race and women in today's culture, with many women -- both black and white -- expressing their appreciation for her honesty and empowering message.

Beyonce considers herself a feminist. So does businesswoman Carly Fiorina. Black actress and comedian Keisha Zollar, who likes the term "womanist" because it was coined by women of color, shares the tent with white activists like Mindy Finn, the founder and president of Empowered Women. Muslim Sabin Ahmed, a consultant with the World Bank who believes abortion should be legal in all cases, calls herself a feminist, as does Charlene McField, a Christian stay-at-home mom who believes abortion should be illegal in all cases.

Today's feminists proudly fly the flag of inclusion and in embracing inclusiveness, feminism is going back to the future -- back to the original fight for equal rights for all American citizens, of all colors -- articulated by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1866. With 43 percent of all Millennials in the US identifying as non-white, the next wave of the women's movement is fundamentally more inclined to see the fight for equal rights as encompassing more than gender discrimination.

Young women are much more likely to identify as not simply women, but as individuals defined by the intersections between gender and generation, race, religion, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. While 85 percent of women think there's a lot of or some discrimination against women, just as many think there's a lot of or some discrimination against African Americans (84 percent) and gays and lesbians (85 percent). As 82-year-old feminist icon Gloria Steinem noted in an interview with 17-year-old Amandla Stenberg, one of the new generation of feminists, "In the beginning, we thought of feminism as addressing inequality between women and men, but the more we understood it, the more we grasped how broad feminism is."

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Yet for all the ways in which the path forward differs, depending on a woman's race, education, and socio-economic background, some challenges remain the same; and for all the ways in which the past differentiates their experience, some aspects of being female cross all divides. United in their belief that feminism is about having choices, young women are eager to forge their own paths toward happiness, whether that means pursuing a career, raising children, being active in their communities, starting a business, making the world a better place, or some combination of all these aspirations.
Welcome back to Doin' Work: Flash Interviews With Contemporary Photographers. This is a place to celebrate the photographers who inspire me, and present you with an easily digestible bite of their personalities and work.

This week's guest is Bryan Schutmaat. Bryan is a Texas-based photographer whose work has been widely exhibited and published in the United States and abroad. He has won numerous awards, including the Aperture Portfolio Prize, Center's Galllerist Choice Awards, the Daylight Photo Awards, and an Aaron Siskind Fellowship, among many others. His first monograph, Grays the Mountain Sends, was published by the Silas Finch Foundation in 2013 to international critical acclaim. Bryan's photos can be found in the permanent collection in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Hood Museum at Dartmouth, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.



The artist as a young man, image courtesy Bryan Schutmaat

Where do you live and work and how does it impact your photography?



I live in Houston, Texas, which I don't find it particularly inspiring for picture taking, so most of the serious shooting I do is pretty far away. And when I'm in places that are more conducive for my work, I'm really appreciative of the surroundings and feel a sense of urgency to get work done, given the effort and cost it takes to travel.

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When and how did you get your start in photography?



I picked it up by taking an elective photo course in college, and then over time I got addicted. The start was in the fall of 2003, but I didn't take photography very seriously until years later.



Image courtesy Bryan Schutmaat

What compels you to pick up your camera?



I'm compelled by a really fundamental desire to create stuff. Who knows where it comes from. I feel useless when I'm not doing something creative, and I can't imagine life without some kind of expressive outlet. For me, it's photography.

What are you working on now?



I'm working on a long-term and often-altered body of work about the landscape and highway drifters in the American Southwest. I'm also doing a lot of commissioned work and a couple small side projects/experiments.

If you had to explain your work to a child, how would you describe it?



I take pictures of people and mountains and things.

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Do you make a living as a photographer? If yes, please explain how. If no, tell me about your day job and how you balance photography with said job.

Yes, I sell prints, license photos, apply for grants and so forth, but the majority of my income is from jobs for magazines and other clients.

Show me the image you feel you're best known for. What are your thoughts on it?





Image courtesy Bryan Schutmaat

I don't have a way to gauge this with any degree of accuracy, but my best known picture might be "Ralph," a portrait of a man I met briefly in a cafe in Wyoming. I like the mood and the light.

What - if anything - frustrates you about photography?



Photography often lacks the emotional potency - or expressivity, I suppose you could say - of cinema, music, and literature. Most photographers will try to argue this point, but sadly I think they're wrong.

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Describe your working process.



I drive around a lot and look for things. I meet people and try to learn about their lives. Some days I spend all alone and other days I might find myself eating raw vegetables with hitchhikers in the woods of Idaho. When I'm out shooting, everyday is different and most are beautiful in one way or another. Lately, I've been traveling with a writer, Travis Klunick, and that has been really nice because he's curious and I can sense his appreciation for things most people wouldn't think to appreciate. It's contagious.



Image courtesy Bryan Schutmaat

Describe the approach you take when establishing a relationship with a subject.



There's not much to it. When photographing people, especially strangers, it's usually just a matter of conversation and kindness.



Image courtesy Bryan Schutmaat



Image courtesy Bryan Schutmaat



Image courtesy Bryan Schutmaat

What do you think of the vast sea of online photography? What's your approach for standing out?



Is it ok if I recycle something I wrote online while back? It was in response to Robert Frank's declaration that photography might not be art and maybe never was. I wrote on my blog: "There's ample reason to believe that photography still has something to contribute to art, perhaps even more so than ever. The existential crisis some photographers are undergoing in this bewildering digital age seems, to me, unnecessary. Years ago there were hundreds of millions of pictures circulating the globe and now there are trillions and trillions, but both these sums are beyond what human minds can fathom, so what's the difference? And most photos these days will never even be printed, lost somewhere in the digital sea. So let the photos flow plentifully, frequently, even infinitely, as they will, because photos don't really matter; it's what we say and do with them that does, and we have to trust that somewhere in society discerning eyes and minds will be receptive to our statements. Photographers could learn something from literature and how it has endured, since words are even more ubiquitous than photos. When the printing press made its debut or years and years later when word processing software and the internet etc came about, writers did't exclaim, 'There are too many words in the world! Too many people talking and writing about life! Why go on?' No, those with capability and something to say stand out in literature, so it shouldn't be different with photography and art."

What are you most proud of in terms of your work?



Probably the inclusion of my work in the recent exhibition "California and The West" at SFMoMA because my photos were shown on the walls next to my heroes.

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What are you doing when you're not making pictures?



When I'm not actually making pictures, I'm probably on the computer editing them or emailing people about them! But when I'm altogether not doing photo related tasks, I like spending time in nature, camping, hiking, being with loved ones, watching movies, reading, eating good food, drinking beer.

What do you think the future of photography might look like?



I think VR projects are going to be a thing.

Name three contemporary photographers that blow your mind.



Off the top of my head - Curran Hatleberg, Doug Dubois, Jasper Bastian. There are so many though.



Image courtesy Bryan Schutmaat
On Thursday, I finally went back to check on my loft. I live in Tribeca about 10 blocks from the Trade Center site. I had left my windows open when I left town, so I was concerned about smoke and debris. The drive back on Thursday afternoon was unobstructed, since the bridges and tunnels had only recently been reopened. At 21st Street, traffic was diverted away from the West Side Highway. At 14th Street, the streets were closed off to regular traffic. I parked my car on 8th Avenue and 18th Street and walked home, about two miles. At 14th Street there was a check-point where one had to show identification to prove he or she lived or worked below 14th Street. As I passed through Greenwich Village, smoke with an odor of burning rubber and plastics, began to fill the air. Passers-by commented that the fires must have resumed because the smoke had not reached so far uptown before. But a wind was blowing from the south, bringing the foul smelling smoke with it. Some restaurants were closed in Greenwich Village, but many were open for business. The sidewalk tables at the White Horse Tavern on 8th Avenue, about one and a half miles from the site, were full of people eating an early dinner or having drinks. Signs in many restaurant windows invited police and fire fighters to come in for drinks and snacks. The most dramatic change that far downtown was the lack of car traffic on the streets, but the streets were still populated with people. Or perhaps the most dramatic change was that people looked each other in the eyes, bound together by a common feeling of loss. By Canal Street the people on the streets had diminished to only a few; an occasional group of relief workers wearing masks walking their way uptown away from the scene, or some stragglers pulling their luggage towards 14th Street. At Canal Street there was another check-point where again one had to show identification. Canal Street was lined with trucks and buses of various descriptions in which relief workers or other equipment had been transported. Further south, a street was lined with parked bulldozers. Another contained police vans and more buses, that had brought relief workers to the scene. The smoke had thickened considerably. On passing a relief worker who was loading a truck with water, soft drinks and masks, he asked if I wanted a mask. I had been holding my sweater over my nose to block out the thickening smoke. I gratefully accepted and continued to my street.Walking down Greenwich Street below Canal, I could see the cloud of thick yellow smoke where the Trade Centers had once dominated the skyline and filled in the space between the buildings on either side of Greenwich Street. It was difficult to adjust to the empty space there. On my street, other trucks were parked on both sides. I am told they used my street to lay out bodies at one time during the rescue operations. Volunteers with masks hung out outside The Tribeca Grill, a neighborhood restaurant on my street that seemed to be open for the sole purpose of accommodating relief workers. Most of the relief workers that far south stood at check points or waited to be of use. I heard a great rumble and was told that part of the teetering wall of one of the buildings had finally come crashing down. Of course, the mood was somber. Upstairs my loft was full of smoke and a layer of dust from the disaster covered everything. But the windows were still in tact and only a few papers had blown off the counter. I looked out of the windows to the empty smoke filled space that used to house the great rectangles of the World Trade Centers, and again the eerie knowledge that these two great monuments of our city were gone was difficult to grasp. I realized how much a part of us they had become over the years; how much they had dominated every visual aspect of the skyline and the downtown scene. They were the landmarks one told visitors to look for to get their bearings when they emerged from subways; the landmarks that would silently inform them which way was south, and consequently, which way was east or west. They were the landmarks on which one blamed the wind tunnel that blew diagonally uptown, so that on windy days one could actually be blown off one's feet at 6th Avenue and White Street when taking the next step to cross the road. They were the landmarks from which Godzilla had dangled, and from which daredevils had performed their dare-devilish feats of bravery and skill. They were the landmarks that housed a diverse array of peoples in business, government, and the arts. Recently, artist's studios had been offered at the Trade Center by one of the state or city arts counsels. I would like to think this last was meant as a thank-you to the many artists whose labors and love of lower Manhattan had brought the districts, now known as SoHo and Tribeca, back to life over the last thirty-five years. The Trade Centers were monuments of vast strength and proportion, dwarfing even the tallest surrounding skyscrapers, yet they appeared to be held up by the thinnest possible supports, like broad-backed spiders on needle-point legs. At times they disappeared in a cloud of mist, but always emerged again, gleaming with sparks of silver as the sun burned the mist away. They had always been there in the twenty-seven years I have lived in their grace. They were there on waking with their spiral antenna poking at a cobalt sky, or spearing gray, slumbering, clouds. And they were there at bedtime as the lights in thousands of their windows illuminated the night. What had begun forty years ago as the butt of jokes and criticism for the designers and financiers of these nondescript monuments to America's financial domination, had somehow over the years become less like real estate, and more like old trusted friends; always there, always giving comfort that some things never change. With a capacity the size of small vertical cities, housing upward of 50,000 people, they became living, breathing entities at the edge of Manhattan; guardians that oversaw the whole of the island and outlying boroughs and states. And like parental figures, they had achieved a mysticism akin to the symbol of the flag still flying as bombs burst in the night. As I looked up from my debris encrusted windows to where the World Trade Centers once stood, I now saw only a cloud of yellow smoke rubbing its billowing haunches on a brilliant blue sky. It was difficult to imagine these friends would not emerge victorious this time as they had emerged from the mist so many times before. It was even more difficult to imagine that the remains of so many of their inhabitants, people from every spectrum of our great city, nation, and globe, who had breathed life each day into the halls and cubicles of these two great entities, were now inexorably mixed with the dust of their tragic demise. I offer my condolences to the multitude of people who tragically and needlessly lost family, friends, and co-workers to this senseless terror. And I offer my condolences to our great city for the demise of two beacons that had served as reminders to us and the world, of the extraordinary human capacity to achieve great feats, and that now remind us how fragile life is, and how tentative is our moment on the earth, even in the face of seeming strengths and apparent superhuman achievements.As no other tragedy of recent times, this for me brings to mind John Donne's famous Meditation XVII that:
Math on Whiteboard

Recently, the Office of Science and Technology Policy hosted a White House meeting of over 175 organizers of makerspaces. Passionate and creative organizers shared their ideas for building vibrant and inclusive Maker communities in cities and towns across the country.

The meeting supported President Obama's Nation of Makers initiative, which he launched at the first ever White House Maker Faire in 2014. This effort is designed to ensure that more students, entrepreneurs, and Americans of all backgrounds have access to a new class of technologies--such as 3D printers, laser cutters, and desktop machine tools--that are enabling more Americans to design, build, and manufacture just about anything. This initiative was featured in a report of 100 examples of President Obama's leadership in science, technology, and innovation.

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In recent years, participation in the Maker Movement by individuals and organizations across the United States and around the world has grown dramatically. More individuals are interested in being producers, not just consumers, and 2.3 million people have attended maker events around the world. The hardware and software tools needed to design and make just about anything are becoming more powerful, less expensive, and easier to use, and individuals can now get access to these tools at both commercial and non-profit makerspaces, TechShops, and Fab Labs. More and more organizations are recognizing the value of making for education, workforce development, innovation and entrepreneurship, advanced manufacturing, and economic development, including leading companies such as Intel, Autodesk, Chevron, Ford, Google, and GE.

President Obama has recognized the Maker Movement as a national priority for a variety of reasons.

First, making advances values and disposition that are ends in themselves, such as curiosity, creative confidence, self-expression, invention, and collaboration.

Second, making has a role to play in education and life-long learning. It can inspire more young people to excel in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects, connect their learning to real-world, personally meaningful problems, and reverse the decline in student engagement. Survey data reveals that two-thirds of high school students report being bored every day.

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In 2010, a team of 15 teens from a low-income school in West Philly showed us what's possible when our young people are challenged to solve real-world problems. When competing for the $10 million Automotive X Prize, they built a fuel-efficient hybrid car that outperformed other fuel-efficient cars built by professional engineers and graduate students from top universities. In a region with a drop-out rate of over 50 percent, every single member of the team graduated. Inspired in part by that experience, the teacher who led the team has now launched an entire public school focused on student learning through solving hands-on, real-world problems.

Third, making could help promote innovation in hardware and manufactured products. In the same way that cloud computing and open source software has lowered the costs and the barriers to entry for digital innovation, makerspaces could make it easier for an entrepreneur with a great idea for a manufactured product. Entrepreneurs can also take advantage of crowd-funding, open source hardware, accelerators and incubators focused on hardware startups, and low-cost components (e.g. sensors, cameras, semiconductors) created for smartphones. In the same way that companies such as Apple emerged from the Homebrew Computer Club, the 1970s version of the Maker Movement, some Makers are already turning "pro" and launching startups.

Finally, Makers can become an enormous asset for solving societal challenges. One non-profit (Tikkun Olama Maker) brings together Makers and people with disability to co-design assistive technologies. These "makeathons" have created prototypes of solutions that allow people with disabilities to get in and out of a wheelchair, open doors, grab objects, and go kayaking.

If we want to ensure that more Americans have access to these opportunities, we need to take the phrase "Maker Movement" literally. Movements have goals, and the organizational capacity to mobilize people and resources to meet those goals.

One concrete next step would be increase the number of regions that have mapped their assets and current initiatives, identified an ambitious but achievable goal, and are bringing together the people, organizations and resources needed to achieve that goal.

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Fortunately, a growing number of organizations are recognizing that they can both benefit from and contribute to the Maker Movement.

Companies such as Ford Motor are serving as "anchor tenants" for TechShops. In addition to helping Ford increase the number of employee inventions, this TechShop also benefits the broader Detroit community.

Schools such as Elizabeth Forward in western Pennsylvania have built a "Dream Factory" - a makerspace that allows students to work on real-world projects that integrate Career and Technical Education, computer science, and the arts. This has increased student test scores and graduation rates. School leaders in 1,400 schools representing 1 million students have signed the "Maker Promise" to unleash students' passion and capacity to make.

Case Western Reserve University is investing in a 50,000 square foot facility called the think[box] with space for prototyping, fabrication and business incubation. MIT is allowing students applying to MIT to submit their Maker portfolio in addition to their SAT and GPA scores.

Over 100 Mayors have taken the Mayors Maker Challenge because of its potential to foster economic development, job creation, and entrepreneurship in advanced manufacturing and hardware. Many cities are participating in the Urban Manufacturing Alliance, which is pulling together experts in workforce development, real estate development and local branding. These efforts are helping entrepreneurs make the transition from Maker to manufacturer.

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Libraries, science museums, after-school programs, and other non-profits are increasing access to makerspaces and mentors. In Pittsburgh, foundations such as the Grable Foundation have helped create a network of 250 organizations (the Remake Learning Network) committed to reimagining learning for the 21st century. This network recently announced commitments of more than $25 million to support hands-on, personalized learning, including Making.
Another September 11 is upon us and the usual calls for "vigilance," "resolve" and "remembrance" have begun. For Americans, this has become a quasi-religious event, with the kinds of rituals and communal utterances once reserved for holy days like Christmas and Easter. Except, in this case, it is not a call to love thy neighbor or one's enemies, but to continue what can only be described objectively as another failed government "war."

The War on Terrorism is as complete a failure as the War on Drugs. Both share the hallmark symptoms of all such government endeavors: continually increasing budgets, exploding proliferation of what is made war upon, increasingly harsh measures following each successive failure and enormous collateral damage.

At the center of both debacles is the same fundamental issue: the failure to recognize government intervention as the root cause of the problem itself.

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The attack fifteen years ago was not the first terrorist attack perpetrated by foreigners on American soil, but it was by far the worst. And just as it does for so many other government-caused catastrophes, the public demanded the government "do something" about it, rather than stop doing the things that motivated the killers.

Or, maybe the public simply went along with the government-media complex's unison exhortation for a "war on terror," along with its promotion of the ludicrous "hate us for our freedom" explanation of the motivation behind the attacks. Never mind that every single terrorist ever captured and questioned by U.S. authorities - including those prosecuted for the 9/11 attack itself - have cited U.S. military intervention in the Middle East as their motivation.

The unwillingness to accept the perpetrators' own words for the motivation behind their attacks is unprecedented in American jurisprudence. For any other crime, correctly identifying the motive is a key element of the prosecution's case. Failure to prove a compelling motive can mean acquittal, even for a guilty defendant. Yet Americans show no interest in the motive for this crime, defaming anyone who talks about it for "blaming America."

If a wife catches her husband with another woman and shoots him, nobody claims she hated him for his freedom. Acknowledging her true motivation is an integral part of proving her guilty. But for the War on Terror, like most government programs, common sense and logic doesn't apply.

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Regardless of whether one faces reality concerning the motive for 9/11, one thing is certain: terrorism has proliferated enormously since the government declared war upon it, just like drug use. It's time to ask ourselves exactly what we hope to accomplish with another fifteen years of bombing, invading or sanctioning destitute countries full of people with nothing left to lose.

There are two possible reasons for continuing the "war:" deterrence and revenge. The former is the politically correct reason. The latter is not, but, let's be honest with ourselves, just as real. When Americans post "never forget," they are expressing a range of emotions, but among them is the same understandable anger that motivated Sam Houston's soldiers who exclaimed "Remember the Alamo!" while visiting a merciless slaughter upon Mexican soldiers, even after the Mexicans began trying to surrender.

If revenge is the motivation, it has been accomplished. The 9/11 attackers killed approximately 3,000 Americans. The War on Terror has since killed millions of inhabitants of the Middle East, most of them as innocent as the Americans killed on 9/11. It has ransacked two entire nations, indirectly led to chaos in several others controlled by ISIS and other jihadist groups, and created the refugee crisis we now find ourselves dealing with. For fifteen years, every day has been 9/11 for populations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and several other Middle Eastern countries.

At some point, even Sam Houston's soldiers stopped the slaughter.

As for deterrence, it should be obvious by now that those of us who always maintained that fighting a conventional war with bombers and ground troops does nothing to deter individual terrorist acts were right. This should be intuitive. How could a conventional army fighting a war thousands of miles away possibly do anything to deter terrorists like the Tsarnaev brothers, who cited those very wars as the motivation for their attacks?

An entire generation of Middle Easterners who weren't even born on September 11, 2001 will turn fifteen years old tomorrow. They are approaching adulthood having lived their entire lives under the constant threat of death from above, with foreign troops of an alien culture patrolling their streets by day and kicking in their doors at night. Only a fool could expect anything but hatred, rational or not, from people in this situation.

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With the dawn of Eid-Al-Adha rising upon many countries around the world, Muslims everywhere are jubilant for the feasting that is about to take place. However, millions of Muslims and onlookers of the Feast of the Sacrifice are less enthusiastic about this Islamic tradition that has been celebrated for many generations.

Although sacrifice is not a pillar of Islam, one could argue that animal sacrifice has become embedded in certain aspects of Muslim society. Ritual sacrifice occurs not only during Eid-Al-Adha, but during weddings, festivals, and other types of Muslim celebrations annually. Animal slaughter is often considered a sensitive topic for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Some Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), as well as in communities throughout North America and Europe, feel pressured and belittled by Western society for practicing an ancient tradition which celebrates both Biblical and Quranic scripture concerning Abraham's sacrifice of a black ram instead of his son, Ismail, to God.

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The rights of sacrifice in the Qur'an are quite specific and state that animal sacrifice is meant to thank Allah. The "beauty" which surrounds this particular sacrifice is the sharing element, in which the community shares the sacrificed cow, sheep or goat meat in three parts; one for the family, one share for friends and neighbors, and another part for the poorer community members.

Animals rights activists and lobbyists around the globe are questioning animal welfare and the methods of butchering, which are used to sacrifice the animals for the upcoming holy festival. Some state that there are no regulations concerning the killing of the thousands of animals during this time each year. However, last week, the Egyptian government stated that it will impose fines for those who slaughter animals in the street, as the handling of the animals should be conducted inside specific slaughterhouses.

Halal specialists have argued that there should be more specific rules issued by religious leaders which will guarantee a higher spiritual connection for the practitioners of the sacrifice, and also protect the animals in conditioners which are 100% Halal. On the other hand, numerous Muslims and non-Muslims claim that Christian countries in the west still practice intensive factory farming, which also promotes horrific acts of animal bloodshed and environmental destruction worldwide.

Clearly this issue is not black and white, as there are many grey areas of dispute regarding methods of the sacrificial rituals. However, what should not be disputed is the inhumane way that some animals are treated before and during the Eid celebration. While walking through the streets of Cairo I've seen countless sheep in the back of transportation trucks beaten senseless for no reason, as well as animals standing outside in 100 degree weather in their own feces and urine, without any shade or a drop of water to drink. Is this meat still considered Halal? Won't this meat still be purchased, even though the animals have suffered before their sacrificial death?

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Muslims and non-Muslims should not ignore this grim reality. Of course, one could argue that the current economic and political situations in many of the MENA countries make it difficult to buy Halal meat, which is truly considered Halal. However, isn't it worth the extra time to investigate what were the conditions the animals lived in, how they were handled during transportation, and how were they treated during their final moments?

There are strong beliefs and traditions in Islam which promotes the humane treatment of animals, particularly the ones who will be slaughtered and offered to Allah. "God has ordained kindness (and excellence) in everything. If the killing (of animals) is to be done, do it in the best manner, and when you slaughter, do it in the best manner by first sharpening the knife, and putting the animal at ease" (Saheeh Muslim).
President Rodrigo Duterte, left, and President Joko Widodo, right.

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines)  The case of imprisoned overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Mary Jane Veloso gains ground as she is set to testify against her illegal recruiters "very soon," according to her lawyer Atty, Edre Olalia.





In an interview with CNN Philippines on Sunday, Olalia said the testimony will be recorded in the Philippine Consular Office in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He added that it was the Regional Trial Court of Baloc, Nueva Ecija that granted the prosecution's motion to take Veloso's testimony.





Olalia claimed this is a "significant move", saying that the pace of the proceedings of Veloso's case against her illegal recruiters is "faster than before."





For Olalia, Veloso's testimony will aid not only her case but also other possible victims of illegal recruitment and drug traffiicking.





"The full testimony of Mary Jane is about to be scheduled any time so that she can tell her whole story and, more importantly, so that she can help in the identification of the real culprits and the perpetrators of this very heinous crime of drug trafficking, which she herself is a victim," Olalia said.





"We are still at a stage of presenting prosecution evidence and of which the position of Mary Jane is important - if not a decisive element."





Foreign Affairs Sec. Perfecto Yasay on Saturday confirmed to CNN Philippines that Indonesia has taken off Mary Jane Veloso out of its execution list "indefinitely."





"That's very significant. She has been allowed also to testify in the case here, with respect to the prosecution of the illegal recruiters and, when that is completed, then she's stabilized that she was in fact a victim. Then we will see what the Indonesian government will do as far their own justice system is concerned," Yasay said.





Depending on the circumstances of the case, Yasay said they are also looking at applying for Veloso's clemency. However, Yasay said President Rodrigo Duterte will respect whatever Indonesia will decide on the case.





The 30-year-old Veloso, a mother of two, was arrested in 2010 after she arrived in Indonesia with 2.6 kg of heroin hidden in her suitcase. The OFW said she was tricked into bringing the prohibited substance to Indonesia. In October of the same year, she was given the death sentence.





Veloso's execution by an Indonesian firing squad was delayed at the last minute in April following the surrender of her alleged illegal recruiters, live-in partners Maria Kristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao.





Sergio and Lacanilao are facing charges of illegal recruitment, human trafficking, and estafa before the Baloc RTC Branch 37.





In September 2015, Sergio and Lacanilao pleaded not guilty to the illegal recruitment and estafa charges filed against them.





Meanwhile, in February this year, Sergio and Lacanilao refused to enter a plea in court for human trafficking and large-scale illegal recruitment. As required by the rules, the court entered a "not guilty" plea on their behalf.





Source: CNN Philippines, September 12, 2016





Duterte okayed Mary Janes execution, says Indonesian president





Mary Jane Veloso

Indonesian President Joko Jokowi Widodo said on Monday that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had given the green light for the execution of Filipina death row inmate Mary Jane Veloso.





President Duterte has given the go-ahead to proceed with the execution, Jokowi was quoted as saying by Antara news agency in Serang, Banten.





According to Jokowi, the legal process will be followed up by Attorney General M. Prasetyo.





I have explained to [Duterte] about Mary Janes situation and I told him that Mary Jane [has been found guilty] for carrying 2.6 kilograms of heroin. I also told him about the delay in the execution during the meeting, Jokowi said.





Veloso was arrested at Adisucipto Airport in Yogyakarta in April 2010.





Veloso was excluded from the list of the third round of executions prepared by the Attorney Generals Office (AGO) in April, as legal procedures continue in a separate but related case in her country.





Veloso was on the execution list last year but was granted a stay of execution because her alleged boss had been arrested in the Philippines, and the authorities there requested Indonesian assistance in pursuing the case.





Source: inquirer.net, September 12, 2016

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Buhler stopped the run but often got beat deep as Ark City wins 32-13

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It didn't do anything TO me - not any more than the cow did anything to me that was made into my cowskin leather shoes. But, like cows and pigs and other animals whose hides are used for leather goods, most ostriches are bred and slaughtered for meat. I've had it in England, and it's quite good.And, I bought it because it was my first "big" paycheck for appearing in an Off-Broadway play and I splurged... as I recall, at the time, the "big" paycheck just about covered the cost of the wallet LOL.
Premiums for US auto insurers could drop more than 40% once the use of automated vehicles is fully adopted, new data from insurance broker Aon Plc. suggests. For independent agencies, experts say the shift could mean significant changes in both commission and officse structure as one of the channels introductory products becomes less prominent.Paul Mang, head of analytics at Aon, spoke about the new technology at a press conference in Monte Carlo Sunday. Assuming driverless cars become the norm by 2050, Mang urged the industry to act quickly to ensure that we have the products available to align to the new paradigm.Autonomous driving clearly moves the business mix to fleet products and commercial lines, Mang said.The shift in liability  and in premium  will not happen all at once, however. By 2035, Aon says auto premiums could drop 20%. Its a similar figure to the 25% drop by 2030 anticipated by Stefan Schulz, global head of motor and property consulting at Munich Re Schulz suggested that while the advent of autonomous cars will make driving safer, it will also bring new risks, including hacking attacks on connected cars and rear-end collision of trucks driving in automated convoys.The bulk of personal liability, however, will be removed from auto risk and individual coverage will likely respond to simple property threats  something that could easily be sold by non-traditional partners.For example, insurers couldpartner with credit card companies to offer ridesharing insurance coverage as a part of a core or premium service, analyst firm Deloitte said in its June report, Future of Mobility.That leaves insurance agencies with a good deal to rethink in terms of how they train new producers and how they approach cross-selling opportunities, said John Matley, a member of Deloittes Future of Mobility initiative.If auto liability is more of a commercial product going forward, it will potentially impact agents and the distribution force in general, Matley told Insurance Business America. The reality is that as distribution evolves, potentially homeowners becomes a lead line instead of auto  especially if were looking to reduce the frequency and severity of losses in auto.Agencies should also work to strengthen their commercial relationships, as they will be better prepared to serve the new market for auto liability insurance than those whose primary focus is on the individual owner.Deloitte believes that while agencies will continue to be the primary distributor for insurance for personally owned autonomous vehicles, these changes in strategy will be critical to their continued integrity in the industry.Notwithstanding the potential narrowing of traditional channels, shared mobility and autonomous vehicles create fresh opportunities for the sale and distribution of auto insurance, the paper said.
The auto insurance sector needs to act quickly to be ready for the changes brought by driverless cars according to analytics chief of an international insurance brokerage.Aons Paul Mang said Sunday that autonomous vehicles will move the business mix to fleet products and commercial lines. He said the industry must ensure it has the right products available as the demand changes.The brokers figures show that personal lines auto insurance accounts for almost half of global premiums in the sector and that in the US alone there could be a 20 per cent drop in premiums from 2015 to 2035.The risk of the torrential rain which caused the devastating flooding in Louisiana was raised by at least 40 per cent by the effects of human-caused climate warming.That was the conclusion of a rapid assessment carried out by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and scientists from the World Weather Attribution.We found human-caused, heat-trapping greenhouse gases can play a measurable role in events such as the August rains that resulted in such devastating floods, affecting so many people, said Karin van der Wiel, a research associate at NOAAs Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and the lead author.The report stresses that the 40 per cent increase in the risk is a minimum and that it is most likely that the effects of climate change almost doubled the risk for the region.The global reinsurance industry could develop the largest blockchain applications outside the payments sector and save an estimated $5-10 billion in costs.A report by PwC concludes that the technology would allow speedier claims verification, facilitate the removal of task duplication, support entry into new markets and enhance transparency.Blockchain technology is still a new and uncertain area for reinsurers but those who are able to quickly build, assess and refine their applications will differentiate themselves, commented PwCs global insurance leader Stephen OHearn. At a time when companies are searching for cost savings, the potential of blockchain to vastly improve efficiency and accuracy cannot be ignored.The savings that can be made are estimated in the range of 15-20 per cent of expenses in the industry.
State Rep. Gailanne Cariddi says the state is taking a lead on national issues.

End of Session Review: Gailanne Cariddi

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  State Rep. Gailanne Cariddi says the state has taken a lead on national issues over the last session.

The legislative session finished up at the end of July and Cariddi said the highlights included working on the opioid scourge and passing an omnibus energy bill.

"I think the Legislature did a remarkable job of taking national issues and bringing them through the commonwealth's deliberative process to create some change for us in a positive way," the North Adams Democrat said.

"No. 1, the big thing that actually started a year ago was the continued effort on substance abuse and requiring detox and stabilization be paid for by insurers. We have not gone far enough on that because regionally I feel we need more assistance in stabilization, long-term stabilization."

The opioid bill strengthens the prescription monitoring program, increases education about opioid abuse, and enhances the number of rehabilitation beds. She cited a recent fining of a pharmacy chain for not checking the prescription monitoring program as an example of the type of moves the state is making to reduce the number of prescription narcotics hitting the streets.

"I think we've put another big dent in the whole issue of substance abuse," Cariddi said.

Locally, however, she says residents are inhibited by a shortage of reliable transportation. She is looking in the future to bring a Berkshire Regional Transit Authority "mini hub" to North County.

"If they had a little facility here where the buses would be here, the drivers would be here, they could provide more efficient transportation to local people," Cariddi said.

On the recent energy bill, Cariddi said the investment in off-shore wind will make a big difference in diversifying the state's renewable energy portfolio. The bill calls for some 1,600 megawatts of electricity generated from off-shore wind.

"It is definitely not like Cape Wind. Cape Wind was a different project because it sounded like the rate payers were going to pay for them. Not only were the rate payers paying for them, but you can see them just like you can see these [here]. People thought it was going to ruin Cape Cod. This is far and away from the visual impacts on Cape Cod and will help preserve the scenic beauty they have down there," Cariddi said.

She says there is still "controversy" locally around wind, which she still has concerns about. The citing of the mountains of Western Massachusetts as prime locations for wind turbines several years ago lead to strong opposition. But, by putting turbines off shore, the state will be able to improve the amount of energy coming from green sources.

"Massachusetts continues to be a leader in issues like diversification of and promoting clean energy sources. What I gather from the different sources, it is not just about diversification to make it different, it is toward a sustainable future for the commonwealth," Cariddi said.

Also for the environment, Cariddi said she helped pass legislation that requires gas companies to fix leaks in the distribution system.

"It absolutely makes no sense to me that they can let gas leaks, for 30 years, go on and on and on in the eastern part of the state where they have a lot more of that stuff and have the ratepayers pay for it when we could educate more plumbers, more construction people, to help fix those leaks for the long term," Cariddi said.

She also worked on laws that disallow natural gas pipeline builders from charging the ratepayers to pay for the infrastructure expansion.

Cariddi was vice chair of the Economic Development and Emerging Technology Committee  an assignment that comes with a full plate so no other committee appointments are made. It was through this committee that she filed what she calls the "TIF for small business" bill.

"While a business person and while very interested in economic development, my first thing is to try to help my district in economic development. One of the pieces of legislation I filed was to target various areas within the commonwealth that suffer from poverty, low employment rates, and also have unused or underutilized old structures to name a few, and try to incentivize businesses to those areas by putting what I call a TIF on fees and taxes on new businesses that move into the area," Cariddi said.

"To say the least, it was an uphill battle. While most elected officials automatically understand TIFs, tax increment financing, it was and has been a battle to transfer that to the state taxes and fees. I think probably because it doesn't incentivize a particular business segment. In the coming session, I am going to revamp what I feel is still a good idea and try to target it more toward incentivizing certain segments of businesses."

She is looking at targeting companies that could help move Northern Berkshire projects along  such as incentivizing industries that could help develop the Greylock Glen.

The committee also took a trip to Google headquarters in California, where she was able to meet with the leaders of technology businesses. The meeting was aimed to figure out what exactly Massachusetts needs to entice a technology company here.

"These companies have money to spend. But, they're targeted. They want to spend it to their advantage, obviously. So we are at this emerging technology committee level trying to make sure Massachusetts is positioned in a way to be able to help them take advantage of us," Cariddi said.

What comes out of those discussions is a focus for Massachusetts on industries to attempt to attract  such as medical technology.

"No government is ever going to be able to do these type of things. You have to have a public/private partnership in moving forward on the technology stuff," Cariddi said.

Another bill she filed in her first session has gotten a little further in the process. That is looking at telemarketing and is intended to strengthen the Do-Not Call List by penalizing companies for violating it, put the responsibility on the companies to stop the annoying calls after being told to stop.

"Hopefully is going to be the year for it. I seem to be building support with people in leadership about it. It will be the fourth time it has been filed and this will be my fourth term. Somebody told me in my very first term that for major pieces of legislation that is really going to do anything, it takes about eight years to get it through. I'm looking at that crest right now," Cariddi said.

Another aspect of the bill is that it requires charitable solicitors to disclose how much of the money is actually going to the charity. Right now the caller needs to ask, but even then the solicitor has loopholes to avoid disclosing the actual amount going to the charity.

"Right now in Massachusetts, it is a farce. Documents filed with the attorney general can state that a company, when asked that question, can say 100 percent of the money is going to the charity when in fact, on the very same page, they state to the attorney general that may 1 percent, 2 percent, 10 percent, are going to the company," Cariddi said.

That bill had some back and forth on the committee level, and at one point came out and was recommitted, and eventually made it to the final step before a vote. But, with a scurry of activity at the end of the session, the bill never went to a vote.

"It got close again, into third reading. But, the end of this session was different than the other experiences I have had in other sessions. The time frame was very much crunched and they were trying to get out huge bills," Cariddi said.

She also said she was active in repealing a law that automatically triggered a five-year revocation of a driver's license of someone convicted of a non-violent drug offense, even if a motor vehicle was not involved. Further, it required a $500 re-installment fee to get the license back after those five years. In Berkshire County, cars are important for people to get to work and the fine is costly to families of low and moderate incomes, she said.

The end of the session was particularly frantic with the legislators working throughout the final weekend. In the budget, the governor made hundreds of vetoes the Legislature overrode.

"The veto part through the budget, it seemed as though every one of my local requests for funding was vetoed by the governor. Some people might call those local requests, earmarking. I call them helping my constituents. The money the legislation is able to put aside for the [Northern Berkshire] Community Coalition every year  $100,000  was vetoed. The money that we target for Gallery 51, the MCLA storefront, $75,000 was vetoed. The money for, on a bigger scale, the Bay State Games, which is a huge economic boost in the middle of winter for organizations out here, was vetoed. That's another $100,000," Cariddi said.

All of that Cariddi was able to get reinstated. She was also able to secure $150,000 for the educational task force, which is looking at finding a new educational model for the county in the face of declining population.

"I try to help out other representatives, too. So say Tricia [Farley-Bouvier] had $25,000 for the [Berkshire] Carousel, some money for a drug house in Pittsfield, Berkshire Youth Development Commissions, all of those things that Boston doesn't know about but we know these projects work here," Cariddi said.

However, all of those programs aren't safe. Revenue figures continue to lag and Cariddi is concerned about mid-year cuts to the budget, which typically are aimed at those exact programs.

This session she was also happy with funding for higher education when it comes to internships and dual enrollment.

"We were able to again fund the dual enrollment program which helps people here because we have the state college right here. That incentives high school students who are on their way to completing their high school diploma to take college courses at the college," Cariddi said. "I also think that there is another program called the internship incentive program. It is a state dollar for dollar match for businesses that offer internships to the students."

She added more money was allocated to early education as well. On the other side of demographics, she said the state was able to increase the formula for spending at council on aging to provide more money per individual in the program.

Cariddi is running unopposed this election and is now planning her work for the next session. She has a couple bills specifically eyed for hospitals and she also hopes to encourage more services to be brought to North County. One bill would require community hospital boards to meet with the public annually to discuss the state of the hospital and another adds an educational component for fiduciary responsibility that hospital board members would have to take.
Some members of Common Folk at their potluck last month.

Growing Common Folk Collective Seeks Permanence

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  Common Folk is ready to expand and bring a sustained creative energy downtown.

Jessica Sweeney, co-founder and creative director of the North Adams-based artist collective, has seen the group grow and fluctuate through its early beginnings as a small collection of creative people to a force capable of hosting music festivals.

She noted that although the group is much stronger, it still struggles with becoming financially stable and has yet to find a permanent home to support its mission.

"At the end of the day, we arent just a club and we arent a group of people. We are here for the community and we want to do things that the community wants to do," Sweeney said. "We want to bring people together ... We are ready to be here permanently and we are hoping that there are other people who want us to be here permanently."

Common Folk is losing half its space acquired this summer in the Bekshire Bank plaza on the corner of Main Street. The stage area, where members often put on shows, will be renovated into a new gallery.

Although this represents a loss for Common Folk, Sweeney said it also means that what they are doing is working.

"I think what is happening is that we are an active presence downtown and we have a part in making downtown North Adams more vibrant," she said. "Everything that we do is because we care about the city, and we want more businesses to come and sign leases here. If we are part of that draw and we make the downtown feel more alive outside of those larger events, that is great."

Sweeney said Common Folk can still use the lounge area and support open mics, small acoustic shows and workshops. Although it has lost the ability to put on larger shows in its own space, Sweeney said it does not mean the group can't host them elsewhere.

"We want to work with other venues, and we want to talk to other people about putting on shows and really think outside of the box of what this looks like," Sweeney said. "If anyone has any cool ideas for collaboration we are really down for that.

She said Common Folk has been catapulted by creative initiatives such as the DownStreet Art Incubator Program and that downtown property owner Scarafoni Associates has been incredibly supportive as group has moved around. However, the clock is always ticking and funding runs out or someone wants to lease the space its in.

But it is almost there.

"I think we are at a critical point where we have enough of a backbone but we need the whole spine and if we want to stay downtown that is going to require more money and support," Sweeney said.

The group is not necessarily just asking for financial support but wants to continue to tap into the talents of people in the area.

"Really if anyone is just interested in joining the group we could always use someone who is interested in marketing or someone who is interested in being part of the team," she said. "So if people have skills they are willing to share, in anything really, we are kind of an open gate."

She said volunteer coordinators, curators, people with production experience and people who just want to volunteer are very welcome. The group is strong and diverse but solely volunteer run so the more the merrier.

She added that people often go to the Common Folk shows but they dont always realize what happens behind the scenes. She urged people who enjoy the shows to get more involved.

"It is about our community and about bringing together in our community to enjoy creative experiences," Sweeney said. "People know what we are, but they dont always know who we are and we are open to anyone who wants to join us."

Every third Thursday of the month Common Folk host a comedy open mic. The group also will be playing at Fresh Grass this coming weekend at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Using the promotion code of "COMMON" gets a discount on three-day passes. Common Folk will perform on Friday, Sept. 16.

Common Folk will also attend the Sept. 24 rally and vigil at Noel Field for National Recovery Month and also host an art exhibit at the Common Folk Gallery. It also hosts "Moon Hooch" on Oct. 5 at the Elks Lodge.
A ceremony was held to present Vermont Veterans Home with a plaque to signify their acceptance of Senior Crimestoppers into their location on Aug. 4.

Biz Briefs: Senior Crimestoppers Boosted by Berkshire Bank

Stopping crime: Berkshire Bank have joined CRA Partners and is helping vulnerable seniors by funding the Senior Crimestoppers program.



CRA Partners, powered by the Senior Housing Crime Prevention Foundation, is a national organization that guarantees banks federally mandated CRA credit through the operation of the turn-key Senior Crimestoppers program, providing safe and secure living environments for the nation's low to moderate income seniors.



Berkshire Bank was approached by CRA Partners to participate in Senior Crimestoppers and gladly accepted, choosing the Vermont Veteran's Home in Bennington, Vt., to be the site of their funding. Berkshire Bank has a history of making banking easier for our servicemen and servicewomen by providing discounts, money management tools, banking and lending offers to save money so they can make the most of lifes exciting moments. Implementing Senior Crimestoppers' programming into the Vermont Veterans Home serves as an extension of the dedication of Berkshire Bank to the servicemen and servicewomen of our country.



A ceremony was held to present Vermont Veterans Home with a plaque to signify their acceptance of Senior Crimestoppers into their location on Aug. 4.





Women in business: 1Berkshire is seeking ideas and suggestions for recognition of Women in Business during the month of October.



The organization will be utilizing our social media channels, e-communications, website and scheduled events to honor this theme throughout the month. This is a great opportunity for organizations or employees to be recognized for their contributions.


I would think running for President is just an arduous thing, because it is a 24/7 type of deal where the candidate has to be "on" all the time, and doing something every single day, because every single day counts. Especially in this 24/7 media cycle with the Internet on top of that.



Of everyone in the country and everyone in the World know who you are and everything you have done in life. Just full exposure, and nothing is private, the candidate is an "open book". Everyone about has a positive or negative opinion of you.



The constant traveling, hand shaking, speeches, flights, more speeches, interviews, raising money, more speeches, more planes, sleeping in strange hotel rooms (yeah, it is the five star Waldorf Astoria but is still a hotel room), more speeches, traveling, etc.



Not only that, but a sizable minority of folks who frankly would love to see them die. Not necessarily wanting to kill them, but of one of them dies, there would probably be a celebration. To my knowledge, no one wants to see me dead. It just brings out the nuts and the crazies. Hillary especially and also Trump will have to be guarded for the rest of their lives. Not only them, but their kids too. It would to me suck to be a child of a President because people would be following me around. Like one of Obama's daughters smoking a joint at a rock concert. Uh, most late teen college aged kids smoke weed at rock concerts. It is just that no one else gets their picture taken by a stranger and have it splashed on thousands of websites.



I just think this whole affair of campaigning is very difficult for someone near 70 years of age. Hillary is probably of average health for an average 70 year old woman. Unfortunately for her, Trump is healthier than a damn horse. Trump will one day when he is near 90 will have a heart attack and drop like a sack of potatoes with his fifth wife frantically calling security. Hillary seems the type who will have a lingering death of many illnesses and pain.
 on verification and mosquitos humming in harmony

I studied computer science in the pre-Internet 1980s, when the big shift of the time was from mainframes to distributed computing. As a graduate student, I first worked on getting the best throughput by executing multiple transactions on distributed databases, all in parallel.

These engineering systems drew me to pursuing a PhD in formal methods and program verification. It looks at a question like, when a swarm of mosquitos is humming, can you prove they are all humming in harmony? Why is this important? Because it translates to understanding big, complex systems like American Airliness Sabre reservation system  the first in the world in the 1960s. While formal methods are used to build and verify critical systems today, I believe it will re-emerge as human ambition scales up and we tackle complex projects like a mission to Mars.

 on breakthroughs that protect cryptographic devices from side-channel attacks

From 1998 to 2005, I worked in side-channel cryptanalysis (the analog emissions such as power consumption and electromagnetic fields from cryptographic devices). Just by analyzing the power consumption of a card reader when a smart card was plugged in, you could completely break the cards crypto, extract the secret key, and clone the card. For example, we were able to clone a GSM SIM card in minutes by taking as few as eight power samples.

We came up with provably secure countermeasures for our commercial cryptographic products by employing secret sharing schemes, where each bit of the secret key on the card is divided probabilistically into shares, and any computation using the secret key is done by accessing only the random shares at each point. Splitting the key amplifies the uncertainty of the adversary at each point and increases their work effort exponentially. From there we studied electro-magnetic transmissions and other devices such as SIM cards in mobile phones. This was the first time we were building an empirical discipline in security  looking at security in practice, and using the power of cryptography and engineering to build truly secure systems.

 on the growing complexity of security

Every platform shift, from the mainframe to cloud, poses new security issues. As we transform into a cognitive business, were storing  and creating businesses out of  all kinds of highly sensitive data, such as genomic data and healthcare records. Its clear that the old models of security are insufficient in protecting such data needs. This is what led us to use big data for security intelligence.

So today, Im working on how to use cognitive techniques to analyze the threat kinetics in enterprises, combined with consolidating the external threat intelligence from security vendors, to provide companies with true security insights. This cognitive approach uses threat analytics to take an internal look at a threat and how its evolving within an enterprise, lets say at a medical research company. Then that information connects to the threat intelligence that our systems gather from the outside world. This breakthrough will transform industries because it lets companies lock down their business and their crown jewels  like their customers genomic data.

 on tackling hard problems with simplicity

One of the most useful things I developed is an instinct about where the hard problems lie and the importance of focusing on simplicity of solutions. My PhD advisor, Prof. J. Misra, told us that in computer science, complexity comes for free. We have to work hard for simplicity. Not just simplicity in the design and elegance of solutions, but how to communicate ideas simply. Another professor, E.W. Dijkstra, a pioneer in computer science, used to challenge us to give a presentation imagining that there was a blind man in the audience. This meant no PowerPoint and no gesticulating. He would say that if we had to use our hands to speak, then there was something wrong with our words!

 on advice for working at a big company

Throughout my career at IBM, I have been blessed with wonderful managers and mentors who have supported me. John Kelly challenged us to not just innovate but to Think Big in our scale and ambition. Even though we work for a big company, we should work at the boundaries of our capabilities and expand them. That is the only way to grow.

Chung-Sheng Li has also been a mentor, source of inspiration and personal friend. Among many things, I learned the important skill of thinking strategically for the company and the industry, and executing an idea across the company. I am indebted to all of them.

Connect on Linkedin
We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector
On Friday Hillary Clinton spoke to a group of donors about how "deplorable" many of Donald Trump's followers are. She correctly pointed out that his campaign seems to appeal to the racist, sexist, homophobic faction in the Republican Party. In other words ... the Republican Party. Almost immediately the StormTrumpers went on the attack accusing Clinton of insulting his pure and virtuous supporters. You know, the ones who beat up protesters and think President Obama is a gay, Muslim, communist from Kenya. Today Clinton got confirmation that she was right.
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College depression: What parents need to know

Rochester, Minnesota - Helping your child make the emotional transition to college can be a major undertaking. Know how to identify whether your child is having trouble dealing with this new stage of life  and what you can do to help.

What is college depression, and why are college students vulnerable to it?

Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. College depression isn't a clinical diagnosis. Instead, college depression is depression that begins during college.

College students face challenges, pressures and anxieties that can cause them to feel overwhelmed. They might be living on their own for the first time and feeling homesick. They're adapting to new schedules and workloads, adjusting to life with roommates, and figuring out how to belong. Money and intimate relationships also can serve as major sources of stress. Dealing with these changes during the transition from adolescence to adulthood can trigger or unmask depression during college in some young adults.

What are the signs that a student is dealing with college depression?

Many college students occasionally feel sad or anxious, but these emotions pass within a few days. In contrast, depression affects how a person feels, thinks and behaves and can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems.

Signs and symptoms that a student might be experiencing depression during college include:

Feelings of sadness, tearfulness, emptiness or hopelessness

Angry outbursts, irritability or frustration, even over small matters

Loss of interest or pleasure in most or all normal activities, such as hobbies or sports

Sleep disturbances, including insomnia or sleeping too much

Tiredness and lack of energy, so even small tasks take extra effort

Changes in appetite  often reduced appetite and weight loss, but increased cravings for food and weight gain in some people

Anxiety, agitation or restlessness

Slowed thinking, speaking or body movements

Feelings of worthlessness or guilt, fixating on past failures, or blaming yourself for things that aren't your responsibility

Trouble thinking, concentrating, making decisions and remembering things

Frequent or recurrent thoughts of death, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, or suicide

Unexplained physical problems, such as back pain or headaches

Your child might also start having academic problems not consistent with her or her previous performance.

What should I do if I suspect my child is experiencing college depression?

Signs and symptoms of depression might be difficult to notice if your child isn't living at home. College students also might have difficulty seeking help for depression out of embarrassment or fear of not fitting in.

If you suspect that your child might be dealing with depression, talk to him or her about what's going on and listen. Encourage your child to share his or her feelings. Also, ask him or her to make an appointment with a doctor as soon as possible. Many colleges offer mental health services.

Remember, depression symptoms might not get better on their own  and depression might get worse if it isn't treated. Untreated depression can lead to other mental and physical health issues or problems in other areas of life. Feelings of depression can get in the way of your child's academic success. They can also increase the likelihood of high-risk behaviors, such as binge drinking, other substance abuse, and having unsafe sex, and increase the risk of suicide.

How can I help my child cope with depression during college?

In addition to seeking treatment, your child can take steps to feel better. For example, encourage him or her to:

Take it one step at a time. Encourage your child to avoid doing too many things at once. Instead, break up large tasks into small ones.

Care for himself or herself. Urge your child to get daily exercise, eat well, spend time in nature, get enough sleep, and avoid alcohol and drugs. Use of alcohol and drugs is a poor way to cope with stress. Keep in mind that when people abuse alcohol and drugs, depression can develop. Using stimulants to stay up and study also can lead to mood changes.

Seek support. Encourage your child to spend time with supportive family members and friends or seek out student support groups.

Have fun. Encourage your child to go out with friends and try to have fun. He or she might be surprised to find enjoyment.

How can I help prevent college depression?

There's no sure way to prevent depression during college. However, helping your child become accustomed to his or her college campus before the start of the school year might prevent your child from feeling overwhelmed by the transition. Encourage your child to visit the campus and talk to students, peer counselors or faculty about what to expect and where to turn for support.

If your college-bound child has risk factors for or a history of depression, make sure he or she takes the disorder into consideration when applying to colleges. Talk about whether choosing a college close to home or a small college might make the transition easier. In addition, help your child become familiar with campus counseling resources. If necessary, consider finding a doctor or therapist closer to campus to provide therapy or monitor medication. Once at college, keeping a short, daily record of key symptoms might help your child recognize if his or her symptoms are getting worse.

Remember, getting treatment at the earliest sign of a problem can relieve symptoms and help students succeed in college.
Miscarriage is usually beyond a mothers control

Rochester, Minnesota - Having a miscarriage can be shocking, stressful and sad. Its understandable that you want to do everything you can to avoid going through it again. Although there are some steps you may be able to take to lower your risk of another miscarriage, in most cases, a miscarriage isnt related to anything a pregnant woman did or did not do. The majority of miscarriages are due to chromosomal abnormalities that happen for no clear reason. Many women who have a miscarriage go on to have normal pregnancies and deliver healthy babies.

In general, a miscarriage is defined as the loss of a pregnancy before 20 weeks gestation. Because it is not a topic that receives much attention, miscarriage tends to be more common than people might think. Doctors estimate that up to 25 percent of all recognized pregnancies end in miscarriage.

Most miscarriages happen because the fetus isnt developing normally. Problems with the babys genes or chromosomes are usually the result of errors that occur by chance as the embryo divides and grows. They typically arent due to an inherited disorder, and usually arent caused by a mothers behavior or health.

That said, there are a few risk factors that can raise the chances of having a miscarriage. Among the most significant is advanced maternal age. This one doesnt apply to you right now, and it wont for some time. Women older than 35 have a higher risk of miscarriage than do younger women. At 35, the risk of miscarriage is about 20 percent risk. At 40, it goes up to about 40 percent. At 45, its about 80 percent.

Another risk factor that doesnt sound like it fits your situation is having certain medical conditions. Some disorders that may raise the risk of a miscarriage include uncontrolled diabetes, high blood pressure, thyroid disease, infections, hormonal problems and problems with the uterus or cervix.

When it comes to lifestyle choices you can control, it is important to avoid smoking, drinking alcohol or using illegal drugs when you are pregnant. Not only do these activities raise your risk for a miscarriage, they endanger the health of your baby throughout pregnancy. If you are on prescription medication, ask your doctor if its safe to continue taking that medication during pregnancy.

Staying at a healthy weight before you become pregnant and throughout your pregnancy may also help ensure your babys health. Being underweight or overweight appears to be linked to an increased risk of miscarriage, as well as other health concerns during pregnancy. For example, women who are significantly overweight are more likely to develop gestational diabetes.

None of the following activities cause miscarriage: lifting, straining, having sex or exercising.

If you have questions or concerns about becoming pregnant again, talk to your health care provider. He or she can review your health and family history, talk with you about risk factors and discuss any preconception care that could be helpful.

As you go forward, please keep in mind that, in almost all cases, miscarriages are beyond a mothers control. If you become pregnant again, unless an underlying medical condition is identified that needs special care, you shouldnt need to do anything differently. Get regular prenatal care and focus on taking care of yourself and your baby. - Dr. Yvonne Butler Tobah, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.
The Adorable Thing Bats Do to Catch Prey

Baltimore, Maryland - A Johns Hopkins University researcher noticed the bats he works with cocked their heads to the side, just like his pet pug.

Its an adorable behavior, and I was curious about the purpose, said Melville J. Wohlgemuth, a postdoctoral fellow in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. I wanted to know when bats were doing this and why. It seemed to occur as bats were targeting prey, and that turns out to be the case.

Using high-tech recording devices, Wohlgemuth determined that a bats fetching head waggles and ear wiggles synch with the animals sonar vocalizations to help it hunt. The finding, which is set to be published Thursday in the open access journal PLOS Biology, demonstrates how movement can enhance signals used by senses like sight and hearing  not just in bats, but in dogs and cats, and even in humans.

Bats use of echolocation to detect, track and catch prey is well documented. But lead author Wohlgemuth and his team are the first to show how the relatively mysterious head and ear movements factor into the hunt.

The researchers used a novel method to study the head waggles and ear movements of the big brown bat, a common bat species that in the wild hunts in both open and cluttered spaces.

First researchers trained bats to sit on a platform while tracking moving prey  mealworms attached to a fishing line. Once the bats were trained, the researchers attached reflective markers to the top of the bats head and both ears. The markers allowed the team to precisely measure the head and ear positions as bats tracked worms moving in various directions.

They found the head waggles, about one per second, occurred when the insect prey changed direction or moved erratically. The ear movements, a flattening and perking imperceptible to the naked eye, happened as the worm grew closer. Though very tiny, the ear twitches help the bat hear the echoes it uses to track and capture the prey.

Most notably, these head and ear movements coordinated with the bats vocalizations, on a millisecond time scale, allowing the animal to pinpoint prey with considerably more accuracy.

Co-author Cynthia F. Moss, a Johns Hopkins professor and neuroscientist, said other studies on how animals and humans localize sound sources missed the importance of head waggles and ear movements, because laboratories typically observe the subject with a fixed head position. Thats not at all how bats or other animals operate in the real world, when their heads are free to move, not restrained.

Moss compared the bats head and ear movements to other species that use active sensing  like the ear movements of a cat on alert, the head tilt of an owl, or the movements of a humans eyes, which are all used to attend to important information.

By studying these movements, she said, we as humans can get insight into how movement helps animals sense their environment.

Co-authors also included Ninad B. Kothari, a Johns Hopkins graduate student.
Pakistan Fans are Rooting for India's Win Against South Africa in T20 World Cup With Memes
LBCC to hold

Pokemon Go class

Linn-Benton Community College is holding a workshop on Pokemon Go and how business owners can use the smart phone application to attract and engage prospective new customers.

The workshop will be held at the Benton Center in Corvallis from 7:30 a.m. to 9:20 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 20. Cost to attend is $25, and attendees should bring a mobile phone with the app already installed.

To learn more, go to http://bit.ly/LBCCPokemon or call 541-917-4840.

SandBox Rebel

gets window

makeover

The Albany Downtown Associations Design Committee recently completed a window makeover for childrens clothing company SandBox Rebel, 121 Broadalbin St. S.W., and the design will be unveiled at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

Cake and coffee will be provided at the event.

In May, the ADA announced a window design makeover contest. Five locations applied, but SandBox Rebel was chosen as the winner.

The four businesses that were not chosen, as well as Sandbox Rebel, will each receive a private session on Oct. 12 from store and window consultant Seanette Corkill of Frontdoor Back, a Vancouver, Washington business.

Also on Oct. 12, Corkill will conduct a 90-minute workshop on store and window design at 8:30 a.m. at the Pix Theatre. Cost is $25, but ADA members get a discount.

For more information, contact the Albany Downtown Association at 541-928-2469.

Sherris to retire

from Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo service manager Lee Sherris is retiring after 41 years on Friday  which also happens to be her birthday  and the branch at 300 First Ave. W. will host a party, with cake served in the lobby all day long.

We are inviting anyone who would like to say goodbye to come by that day or any day throughout the week, said Jennifer Stothoff, branch manager.

Sherris joined the company in June 1975 as a teller in Portland and also worked for 28 years in Corvallis. Her career includes roles as a notes and collections teller, a mortgage loan processor, a certified teller and a general ledger clerk.

She served as a service manager in Philomath and Corvallis before transferring to Albany in 2013.
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Val McDermid is one of those writers who have become synonymous with crime fiction. Her output is prolific, her titles laced with shiver-inducing words like torment, graves, blood, bone and skeletons. The content is clearly flagged; this is human nature at its darkest and most devious. Awards and best-sellers show that in this genre she has few equals.

Her latest title Out of Bounds might appear as if she is taking a step back from the gore. It sounds more meek than murderous. But relax, by page 3 we are galloping along a trail of destruction thanks to four booze-addled teenagers and a stolen Landrover Defender. The bodies are soon piling up.

Having been disentangled from the wreckage of the Defender one of the teenager's DNA reveals a family link to an unsolved rape and murder some 20 years before. From the hinterland of Scottish cold cases enters DCI Karen Pirie, insomniac scourge of villains who are foolish enough to think they have got away with murder.

DCI Pirie, on her fourth outing here, has an unorthodox approach to chasing evil-doers which frequently puts her at odds with her clunky male superiors. She is surrounded by dunderheads. Her second in command is particularly dense which she is, rather uncharitably, not slow to point out. But she has a soft spot for him because he buys her donuts and presents no threat. Her Assistant Chief Constable is a different kettle of fish and Pirie has her work cut out trying to sidestep the curve balls he lobs regularly in her direction.

The DNA lead is just one of a number of challenges that she must pursue. Her nocturnal rambles regularly take her past a group of Syrian refugees who gather together at night by an Edinburgh canal in the absence of anywhere more congenial in daylight hours, which adds a genuine note of pathos and timeliness. Finding somewhere for them to congregate is added to Pirie's to-do list, alongside tracking down the DNA suspect and unravelling another historic conundrum involving a planeful of luvvies who were vaporised when it mysteriously exploded midair several decades previously.

McDermid steers her Scottish detective clear of the rocky outcrops of cliche (Pirie eschews malt in favour of gin, in which she is something of an expert) and McDermid's grasp of police procedural is both slick and assured. Although she does gift the DCI with more than her fair share of obliging friends  there is the software expert, the forensic expert, the legal expert and the accommodating local politician (that's for the Syrians)  the sleuthing is satisfyingly involved and compelling. The DNA lead, for instance, immediately hits the buffers when the crumpled joyrider turns out to have been adopted. While her fondness for nicknames does grate, DCI Pirie is nonetheless a refreshing and convincing addition to the crime canon.

Out of Bounds by Val McDermid, Little Brown 18.99 (hardback)
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The world is about to get very well acquainted with the name Taika Waititi, with New Zealand's favourite writer/director about to hit Hollywood with the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok.

But, until then, savour Hunt for the Wilderpeople; his latest film set to hit UK cinemas this week on a wave of critical praise and popular success. After proving a favourite with Sundance audiences earlier this year, the film soon broke records in New Zealand to become the country's highest-grossing local film; followed by a successful run stateside that saw it grow into something of an underground hit.

Audiences are falling madly in love with Waititi's cinematic world; our exclusive clip from the film perfectly displaying the director's unique flair for absurdist comedy, gently intermixed with a heartfelt sense of humanity, easily making him one of the most exciting voices working today.

Here, rebellious foster kid Ricky Baker (newcomer Julian Dennison) and adoptive Uncle Hec (Sam Neill) find their escape into the New Zealand bush interrupted by a group of bounty hunters, though they turn out to be no match for the mismatched pair whose survival skills see Ricky charmingly title themselves the 'Wilderpeople'.

Waititi is also behind last year's cult hit What We Do in the Shadows; pairing with frequent collaborator Jemaine Clement, best known for Flight of the Conchords, for a wildly ingenious mockumentary based around four flat-sharing vampires in Wellington.

 Hunt For The Wilderpeople - Trailer

It's a comedic sensibility that's been promised to make Marvel's third Thor outing a surreal 'intergalactic buddy road movie' and a completely fresh take on the franchise; with a hilarious clip shown at San Diego Comic-Con already driving some major hype around the film.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople hits UK cinemas 16 September.
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Star Wars Episode 8 may be over a year away but filming finished way back in July, signalled by a huge wrap party at the Natural History Museum.

However, despite director Rian Johnson posting an image of Maz Kanata earlier this year - seemingly of someone starring as the character in the Force Awakens sequel - Lupita Nyongo, who plays the character, has yet to work on the film.

Speaking to Collider, Nyong'o said when asked what it was like working with Johnson: Rian! I haven't worked with him yet; I've yet to shoot. That's in my future.

Speculators believed Kanata may play a significant role in the upcoming film, conflicting with Nyongo's comments. Perhaps it is more of a cameo?

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Meanwhile, Johnson recently revealed the classic war films that inspired Star Wars 8, including the likes of Bridge on the River Kwai, Twelve OClock High, Letter Never Sent, and Three Outlaw Samurai.

Star Wars 8 will pick up where last movie The Force Awakens left off, with Daisy Ridleys Rey meeting Mark Hamills Luke Skywalker on a desolate island. It is yet to receive a full title but is due to arrive in UK cinemas in December 2017. Meanwhile, Mark Hamill recently hinted at a semi-plot spoiler.
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De La Soul have been together for nearly three decades and, with last months release of And the Anonymous Nobody, are still releasing innovative and forward-looking work, rather than trying to rehash a previous sound. And they're doing it as a rap group.

Such hip-hop acts were once the norm, topping the charts and garnering critical acclaim. But by 2016, the big-name rap group has nearly vanished, a throwback to a bygone era. Gone are the days of NWA and A Tribe Called Quest dominating rap. We can only wait for reunion performances or the possibility of one final album (see: Bone Thugs-n-Harmony).

By its nature, hip hop has always been a collaborative art form. We still have labels (Young Money) and collectives (Odd Future), that have crew-affiliated artists. Some groups (Migos) still do come on the scene. But most of today's top rap artists are solo acts. Why don't we have major cohesive groups like those of the past?

The typical drama that breaks apart a music group in any genre -- money, drugs, ego, personality clashes -- has split up the most beloved rap groups. Last year's NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton dramatised many of those forces.

Just the logistics of getting a bunch of individuals, each with their own quirks, priorities and solo projects, can be a monumental task. Look at the 10-member Wu-Tang Clan, who spent years trying to corral everyone to make one last album.

Some groups, such as Public Enemy, have reincarnated with new members and continue to tour. Others, such as Outkast and A Tribe Called Quest, have had break-ups and hiatuses result in successful solo careers. As tempting as it is to recapture the magic of the past or satisfy nostalgic fans, it can feel gimmicky to get the band back together.

Andre 3000 -- who still puts out exhilarating raps, like the 78-second, rapid-fire track on Frank Oceans new album -- didn't actually want to go on Outkast's reunion tour in 2014 and said he "felt like a sell-out.

We hadn't performed in 10 years, he told Fader in 2014. It was old songs. I'm like, How am I gonna present these songs? I don't have nothing new to say.

Andre 3000 said that he felt weird about going out on stage and doing it again. I felt like people would be like, 'Y'all are doing all these festivals, y'all are just doing it for money.

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Today, it's easier than ever for artists to collaborate remotely, exchanging verses or beats online. And there can be a monetary incentive for going it alone.

It's more money in the solo play, Ice Cube, once a member of NWA, told the Wall Street Journal in 2015. The royalties don't go up for how many members you have in the group.

It's in this climate that we have the beloved and revered Long Island trio, De La Soul. With each new album, Pos, Maseo and Dave push their work forward, presenting different and fresh concepts still laced with their trademark humor and introspection. While De La Soul may be most widely known for their 1989 debut, the Prince Paul-produced 3 Feet High and Rising, they followed up that "flower power" vibe with a harder and more mature album, De La Soul is Dead.

Throughout the years, they've evolved together and remained together, remarkably drama-free. How?

I think a part of it is ... those groups, at one point, there was a disconnect, De La Soul's Dave told the Daily Beast in 2015. Not to say a begrudging disconnect, but the Wu has always had the opportunity to break apart and each member become a solo artist. And maybe that kind of gets in the way.

De La Soul has never split and tried to reunite, perhaps sensing the limits of solo work.

Through thick and thin, through good and bad  we've always been a unit, Dave said. We could probably go out and do solo albums. I'm sure we can. But we don't feel that. We've recorded solo records, but we don't feel like that's as important as the unit. So it kind of gives us a beautiful place to work with.

The trio's friendship predates De La Souls formation. They've learned to work with each other, and understand each other's fault as well as strengths, Pos told the Daily Beast. We've been blessed to be three individuals who don't let ego run who we are as individuals. We can do things without each other but it's with the respect and the support of the other members.

He added: Sometimes individuals have their own agenda and saw being a group as an approach to get them closer to their own agenda, as far as solo records or whatever.

It's not that De La Soul hasn't been without challenges. Their most commercially successful work is owned by Warner Music and isn't available on digital streaming services or for purchase on iTunes. Prior to the new release, their most recent album was 2004s The Grind Date.

In making And the Anonymous Nobody, De La Soul turned to their fans, not record companies, and asked them to directly finance the project via Kickstarter. And in order to avoid having to pay for samples, which marked a lot of their previous music, they instead recorded more than 200 hours of live musicians jamming, and sampled from that.

The result is a 17-track record that may not be on Spotify's top streaming albums but is receiving critical acclaim and climbing international charts. An eclectic mix of artists that spans eras and genres make cameos (David Byrne, 2 Chainz, Snoop Dogg, Usher, Roc Marciano, Little Dragon and Damon Albarn all feature). Cause we're still here now, the trio proclaims on one track. And indeed, they still are.

 Washington Post
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If theres one person who can be trusted to know a good beauty product its a makeup artist, and they dont come much better then Charlotte Tilbury, widely credited as the worlds best. Three years ago she launched her eponymous beauty line, now she hopes to make the leap into the heady world of fragrances with the launch of her debut scent.

Ms Tilburys clientele reads like a whos who of A-list stars and her CV includes creating the makeup looks for the biggest fashion shows and magazine covers in the business. And if that isnt enough to emphasise her credentials, when her line dropped into Selfridges back in 2013 it was the biggest makeup launch ever seen at the London department store, going on to break records, spark waiting lists and win industry awards.

For her makeup range, Ms Tilbury opted to implement an innovative new approach in which products are sold specifically with the intention of creating a certain beauty look; think Dolce Vita a la Penelope Cruz or Kate Moss Rock Chick, with the help of a fully integrated digital experience including video tutorials and playlists to help channel your chosen muse. Her debut fragrance also hopes to break the mould with an equally groundbreaking formulation.

Scent of a Dream 68 (charlottetilbury.com)

Scent of a Dream is the first of its kind, a chypre-floral scent that utilises alchemy to mind-altering effect. All sounds a little scary? Basically Ms Tilbury has gone beyond simply creating a pretty scent, she has used neuroscientists to concoct a smell that speaks directly to the subconscious, activating the animalistic parts of the brain. Working with visionary experts within the fields of neuroscience and fragrance, I have created an original magic scent, she explains. I believe you can use Scent of a Dream to create an emotional pathway with someone elses energy centres: their brain, heart and sex receptors, igniting the senses.

As for the scent itself, there is a fresh burst of lemon and peach underpinned by heady florals jasmine and violet that give it an almost vintage feel, despite its techy beginnings. Ever the perfectionist, Ms Tilbury even leaves application tips; forget a simple spritz to the neck, she advises spraying behind the ears, wrists and ankles to encourage the scent to rise in spirals up the body and finish with a spray around the neck, head and hair for a halo-like effect.
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Facebook has failed to stop legal action over a picture of a naked 14-year-old girl that was posted on its site.

Lawyers for the child argue that the site is liable for a picture they say was blackmailed from her and then posted on Facebook without her permission. It was posted repeatedly on a range of pages on Facebook, the case argues.

The girl is taking legal action against Facebook as well as against the man who posted the photo. The case is thought to be the first in the world and could set a major precedent about whether social media sites are liable for what is posted on them.

Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty

Lawyers for the girl have argued that Facebook should have blocked a "shame page" that it was posted on. If that site and the photo had been blocked then the image wouldn't have been published, they argued.

But Facebook lawyers said that the hearing should be dismissed, because Facebook did what it could to take the photo down when it was notified that it had been posted.

The girl is seeking damages from Facebook and the man who posted the image, arguing that they have misussed private information and have breached the Data Protection Act.

Facebook had looked to have the case thrown out. But a judge in Belfast refused its bid and the case will now go to a full trial.
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When faced with everyday problems (such as the fact that you might be hanged) everyone knows that the best thing to do is to rip off your shirt and start mining with a frenzy that shows off your sculpted pecs to their very best, sweaty advantage.

Thats what the creators of Poldark probably reckoned when they decided to include an artfully grime-smeared follow-up to the topless scything scene that won the first season such critical acclaim when series two arrived on BBC One last Sunday evening.

That it took just fifteen minutes into a new ten-part series for Aidan Turners Ross Poldark to disrobe is a sign of just how crucial his er, chiseling, is to programme-makers.

While tourism in Cornwall might have benefitted massively from the adaptation of Winston Grahams novels it isnt just beautiful scenery that 9.5m viewers have been been gawping at.

Turners co-star, Heida Reed, who plays Poldark's childhood sweetheart, Elizabeth, defended him against objectification during the media frenzy that led to the scything photo being the most-overused picture in the press probably ever (according to me, anyway).

She said she hoped viewers appreciated the programme for more than a topless scene. Yet, Turner was apparently unfazed by the attention, admitting that taking his shirt off was his idea. It was never in the script that he takes his top off - it just made sense to me.

It was filmed during one of the hottest summers on record, after all. The centrality of Turners sex appeal to the success of Poldark in 2015 was undeniable. Industry folk used to say there was no money in the objectification men, but the Sunday drama proved otherwise and prompted a slew of new shows boasting tantalising torsos and more.

A TV adaptation of Tolstoys War and Peace was dubbed Phwoar and Penis by lascivious critics eager to point out that Andrew Davies production contained more men and women in various states of undress than you might expect for Sunday night viewing.

Twitter shrieked Naked willies on the BBC! and Prime time penis after a much-reported incidence of full-frontal nudity in an episode when a soldier walks out of a bathing pond - his penis having no discernible relevance to the plot.

But then, are we really surprised that Davies, the producer behind that Colin-Firth-in-a-wet-shirt scene in the 1995 TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, knows how to get his audience feeling hot under the collar?

James Norton, one of the few stars of War and Peace who managed to keep his clothes on, has admitted that the Poldark-effect has left male actors feeling pressure to stay in shape. That Poldark shot made me feel incredibly inadequate and emasculated, he told the Radio Times.

Theres always been a body beautiful thing with television, but the focus has been more on women over the last however many decades. So its probably right that the tables should turn, but I dont know if its a healthy pressure. There is now a sort of expectation on men.

The actor, along with co-star Robson Green, recently stripped off for a swim in the River Cam in ITV drama Grantchester - and admitted he did press ups at the gym moments beforehand.

The 31-year-old is currently one of the most sought-after British actors also appearing in Sally Wainwrights Happy Valley, where the opportunity for skinny-dipping is mercifully precluded by the fact that it is chilly Yorkshire and his character is rotting in jail.

Another Brit who has been lauded for his booty almost as much as his talent in a manner ordinarily reserved for women is Tom Hiddleston.

BBC drama The Night Manager propelled the actor onto the world stage as a double-agent to rival 007. But, despite the brilliance of his overall performance, a sex scene where his bare bum took centre stage stole the limelight and most of the online conversation.

Bottoms had more democratically even exposure in German Cold War drama Deutschland 83 on Channel 4, which showed the pert peaches of both sexes in repeated swimming scenes - but launched the international career of Jonas Nay (partly) on the strength of his.

It isnt just European TV that is embracing the ethos of a nudist colony. As a journalist you can barely write the title Game of Thrones without having to add bare boobies, bloodshed and dragons.

But this year programme-makers apparently listened to one of its stars, Emilia Clarke, who complained that while female actors are often seen entirely naked the men keep their trousers on.

She demanded in a TV interview that the showrunners free the penis - a request they took so seriously that in one episode of the HBO show screened in May a mans genitalia fills the entire screen, if only for a few seconds.

Whether or not this was a sign of the show deciding to objectify men and women equally, the result was not pretty. The penis onscreen was being examined for STDs and you couldnt really tell what you were looking at.

It certainly wasnt an antidote to the reams of GoT scenes featuring unspeaking women with their boobs out standing about in the background.

So, should telly be objectifying men to make money and draw audiences? The issue here, as usual, is equality. I dont think the talents of any of the men discussed in this article are being belittled or overshadowed as a result of their aesthetic appeal.

Which is not something you could say of many female actors. If the actors are happy and the audiences are happy, then why not? But Norton's comments about pressure on men's body image shouldn't be ignored.

It doesnt look like there will be any more topless scything in Poldark this series. Writer Debbie Horsfield revealed it had been too chilly during filming last Autumn. But with Ross already having found an appropriate excuse to lose his vest, programme-makers are clearly mining a familiar seam.
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The Government is risking more than 6bn of tax revenue by changing rules governing non-domiciled taxpayers, an international law firm has warned.

Pinsent Masons said that proposals to scrap non-dom tax status for people living in the UK long-term, due to come into force in April 2017, could prompt many wealthy residents to leave.

Non-dom status applies mostly to wealthy foreign individuals who reside in the UK but have their primary residence in another country. It allows them to only pay tax here on UK earnings rather than all of their earnings, in effect giving them a significantly lower tax rate than UK-domiciled individuals.

High-profile individuals such as billionaire Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich and Tory party donor Lord Ashcroft have benefited from the rules. Lord Ashcroft, who was born in Chichester, West Sussex, gave up his status in 2010, as new requirements for MPs and Lords to be resident in the UK for tax purposes were introduced.

Fiona Fernie, partner and head of tax investigations at Pinsent Masons, said: Non-doms make a highly valuable contribution to the UK economy and any substantial exodus could have serious long-term impacts.

Policymakers need to consider what they might lose by placing the status under threat.

The availability of non-dom status awards the UK a real competitive advantage when it comes to attracting wealthy and talented individuals.

Removing or altering it now, especially in the wake of uncertainty generated by Brexit, will mean many look seriously at relocating.

Non-dom taxpayers contributed 6.57bn in income tax in 2014-15, averaging out at 56,589 per person compared with the 5,152 collected from regular residents.

As a group, non-doms pay billions in tax and bring huge combined spending power, skills and valuable connections to the UK.

Many are highly successful entrepreneurs and businesspeople, meaning they establish or invest in UK-based companies, thereby creating thousands of jobs, Ms Fernie added.

It is estimated that 116,100 people in the UK currently qualify as non-dom taxpayers.

The new proposals would only scrap non-dom tax status for people who have lived in the UK for at least 15 out of the past 20 years, who would have to pay the same rates of income tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax applicable to everyone else. In 2015, Labour proposed scrapping non-dom status completely.

Cities of London and Westminster MP Mark Field defended the current regime and called for the Government to reconsider its plans. With Brexit on the horizon, the Treasury should give serious consideration to delaying further changes to the non-dom regime until there is clear evidence that overall tax receipts are not harmed, he said.

Biggest business scandals in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Biggest business scandals in pictures Biggest business scandals in pictures Volkswagen emissions scandal VW admitted to rigging its US emission tests so that diesel-powered cars would looks like they were emitting less nitrous oxide, which can damage the ozone layer and contribute to respiratory diseases. Around 11 million cars worldwide were affected. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Martin Shkreli and Turing Pharmaceuticals Martin Shkreli became known as the most hated man in the world after his drug company, Turing, increased the price of a 62-year-old drug that treated HIV patients by 5,000% to $750 a pill. He was charged with illegally taking stock from Retrophin, a biotechnology firm he started in 2011, and using it pay off debts from unrelated business dealings. Shkreli, who maintains he is innocent, and says there is little evidence of fraud because his investors didn't lose money. Biggest business scandals in pictures Panama Papers: Millions of leaked documents expose how worlds rich and powerful hid money - April 2016 Millions of confidential documents have been leaked from one of the worlds most secretive law firms, exposing how the rich and powerful have hidden their money. Dictators and other heads of state have been accused of laundering money, avoiding sanctions and evading tax, according to the unprecedented cache of papers that show the inner workings of the law firm Mossack Fonseca, which is based in Panama. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Google's tax avoidance Google reached a deal with the HM Revenue and Customs to pay back 130 million in so-called back-taxes that have been due since 2005. George Osborne championed the deal as a major success. But European MEPs have since called for the Chancellor to appear in front of the committee on tax rulings to explain the tax deal. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Rogue trader A French court cut the damages owed by rogue trader Jerome Kerviel from 4.9bn (4.2bn) to just 1m (860,000). The court ruled on that Kerviel was partly responsible for massive losses suffered in 2008 by his former employer Societe Generale through his reckless trades. Kerviel has consistently maintained that bosses at the French bank knew what he was doing all along. AP Biggest business scandals in pictures Barclays CEO under investigation for trying to identify whistleblower - Monday Paril 10 Authorities have launched an investigation into Barclays chief executive officer Jes Staley for trying to identify a whistleblower, the bank said on Monday. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) are both investigating Mr Staley after the bank notified them that Mr Staley had tried to identify the author of two anonymous letters, which were sent to the board and a senior executive in June 2016. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures UK to crack down on bank money laundering after reports of 65bn Russian scam, City minister says - March 2017 The Economic Secretary to the Treasury has vowed that the Government will crack down on money laundering practices, after several of the UK's biggest banks were accused of processing money from a Russian scam, believed to involve up to $80bn (65bn). Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Former HBOS bankers convicted of bribery and fraud over 245m loan scam - February 2017 Two former HBOS bankers were among six people found guilty of bribery and fraud that cost customers and shareholders hundreds of millions of pounds, the BBC reports. Lynden Scourfield, 54, a manager at HBOS, forced struggling clients to use the services of his friends David Mills, 60, and Michael Bancroft, 73. In return, the two businessmen arranged sex parties, cash and lavish gifts. On Monday, the three were convicted at Southwark Crown Court on accounts including bribery, fraud and money laundering. Mark Dobson, another manager at HBOS, Alison Mills, and John Cartwright were also convicted. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Lloyds chief apologises for damage caused by affair allegations - August 2016 Antonio Horta-Osorio, the chief executive of Lloyds Bank, has broken his silence over allegations about his private life admitting he regrets any "damage done to the group's reputation". In a message sent to the bank's 75,000 employees, the banker said that anyone can make mistakes while insisting that staff had to maintain the highest professional standards. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Christine Lagarde faces court over 340m Bernard Tapie payment - July 2016 The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, must stand trial in France over a payment of 403 million (now 340m, then 290m) to tycoon Bernard Tapie, a France's highest appeals court has ruled. The court rejected Ms Lagarde's appeal against a judge's order in December for her to stand trial over allegations of negligence in her handling of the affair. Ms Lagarde could risk a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros if convicted. Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures HSBC senior manager arrested in FX rigging investigation at JFK airport in New York - July 2016 A senior executive at HSBC has been arrested at New York's JFK airport for his alleged involvement in a conspiracy to rig currency benchmarks, according to reports. Mark Johnson, global head of foreign exchange cash trading in London, was reportedly arrested on Tuesday. He will appear before a federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, Bloomberg said. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Former PwC employees found guilty in 'Luxleaks' tax scandal - June 2016 Two ex- PricewaterhouseCoopers staffers were found guilty in Luxembourg of stealing confidential tax files that helped unleash a global scandal over generous fiscal deals for hundreds of international companies. Antoine Deltour and Raphael Halet face suspended sentences of 12 months and 9 months and were ordered to pay fines of 1,500 (1,230) and 1,000 (822) for their role in the so-called LuxLeaks scandal. Despite the minimal sentences, the ruling was described by Deltours lawyer as shocking and a terrible anomaly. The ruling puts on guard future whistle-blowers, Deltour told reporters.The LuxLeaks revelations sped beyond Luxembourg, causing European Union regulators to expand a tax-subsidy probe and propose new laws to fight corporate tax dodging, while EU lawmakers created a special committee to probe fiscal deals across the 28-nation bloc. Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Goldman Sachs dealmakers lavished Libyan officials with prostitutes to win contract - June 2016 A former Goldman Sachs dealmaker trying to persuade Gadaffi-era Libya to invest $1 billion with the investment bank procured prostitutes and invited Libyan officials to lavish parties in the hope of winning the business, the High Court heard on Monday June 13.The Libyan Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund is suing Goldman Sachs for inappropriately coercing its naive staff into giving its sovereign wealth fund cash to the bank to invest in products they did not understand. The products were designed to generate big profits for Goldman, the LIA claims.Goldman denies wrongdoing and says the LIA was treated as an arms-length customer Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Former boss of BHS said his life was threatened - June 2016 Darren Topp, the former boss of BHS, has said former owner Dominic Chappell threatened to kill him when he challenged him over a 1.5 million transfer out of the business. MPs on the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee asked Mr Topp about a 1.5 million transfer Mr Chappell made from BHS to a company called BHS Sweden. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley admits paying workers below the minimum wage - June 2016 Mike Ashley admitted paying Sports Direct employees below the minimum wage at a hearing in front of MPs. The company founder said that workers were paid less than the statutory minimum because of bottlenecks at security in an admission that could result in sanctions from HMRC. Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Mitsubishi admits improper fuel tests - April 2016 Mitsubishi has admitted to using false fuel methods dating back to 1991. The scale of the scandal is only just coming to light after it was revealed in April that data was falsified in the testing of four types of cars, including two Nissan cars. AP Biggest business scandals in pictures Quindell, the scandal-ridden insurance firm Quindell was once a darling of AIM but its share price fell in April 2014 when its accounting practices were attacked in a stinging research note by US short seller Gotham City. In August the group was forced to disclose that the 107 million pre-tax profit it had reported for 2013 was incorrect, and it had in fact suffered a 64million loss. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Toshiba Accounting Scandal The boss of Toshiba, the Japanese technology giant, resigned in disgrace in the wake of one of the countrys biggest ever accounting scandals. His exit came two months after the company revealed that it was investigating accounting irregularities. An independent investigatory panel said that Toshibas management had inflated its reported profits by up to 152 billion yen (780m) between 2008 and 2014. Biggest business scandals in pictures FIFA Corruption Scandal Fifa, football's world governing body, has been engulfed by claims of widespread corruption since the summer of 2015, when the US Department of Justice indicted several top executives. It has now claimed the careers of two of the most powerful men in football, Fifa President Sepp Blatter and Uefa President Michel Platini, after they were banned for eight years from all football-related activities by Fifa's ethics committee. A Swiss criminal investigation into the pair is ongoing. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Libor fraudster City trader Tom Hayes, 35, has become the first person to be convicted of rigging Libor rates following a trial at London's Southwark Crown Court. Hayes worked as a trader in yen derivatives at UBS before joining the American bank Citigroup in Tokyo. He was fired from Citigroup following an investigation into his trading methods. He returned to the UK in December 2012 and was arrested following a two-and-a-half year criminal investigation by the SFO. Getty

Any UK residential property owned via an offshore company would also be subject to UK inheritance tax.

A Treasury spokesman said: The UK is open for business and we will remain a top destination for talented people who want to invest and create jobs in this country.

It is only fair that those who choose to live in the UK for a very long time pay their fair share of tax to help fund the public services we all rely on.

Additional reporting by PA
July 12, 1949  Sept. 5, 2016

Ron R. Bendsneyder, 67, of Albany died Sept. 5 at his home.

Ron was born in the Netherlands and immigrated to the United States when he was 13, later graduating from Corvallis High School. He married Gina in November of 1986.

In the 60s Ron was the lead guitarist of the band Mark Five. Years later Ron attended beauty school and became a very well-known and talented hair dresser for the following 20 years. He was later hired at Hewlett Packard and went back to school to become a graphic design engineer which lead to him receiving many prestigious awards and patents. Many years later Ron retired from Hewlett Packard.

Ron and his wife Gina than started a successful online engraving business. Ron and Gina were the best of friends for the 30 years they were married.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Arie and Sarlina Bendsneyder.

Ron is survived by his wife, Gina; son Justin Bendsneyder; daughter Rochelle Coulter; sisters Olga, Janie and Maryke; and seven grandchildren; Sandy, their beloved niece; and of course their fur babies, Ozzy and Bella.

Gina simply describes Ron as the kindest, sweetest, most generous and soft spoken man she has ever known.

A celebration of life was held Sept. 11. A GoFundMe account has been set up for memorial donations.
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A Belgian Paralympian who suffers from an incurable degenerative muscle disease says she will undertake euthanasia but not yet.

Marieke Vervoort, 37, was speaking after claiming the silver medal in the 400m-T52 final at the Rio Paralympics, and said she was "still enjoying every moment".

Ms Vervoort, who won a silver and gold medal at London 2012, explained she signed papers in 2008 to undergo the procedure which is legal in Belgium, BBC reports.

She said: "When the moment comes when I have more bad days than good days, then I have my euthanasia papers, but the time is not there yet."

Ms Vervoort's condition, which she was diagnosed with aged 14, causes her constant pain, paralysis of her legs and seizures preventing her from sleeping properly.

She announced after the 400m final, Rio will be her last Paralympics due to the punishing training regime.

The Belgian athlete told the BBC: "It's a feeling of 'Yes, I won a silver medal', but there is also another side to the medal, the side of suffering and of saying goodbye to the sport.

"Because I love the sport, sport is my life.

"It gives a feeling of rest to people, I know when it's enough for me, I have those papers."

 2016 Rio Paralympic Games in numbers

Euthanasia is currently legal in Belgium, the Netherlands, Colombia, India, Luxembourg and Mexico.
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A British Airways flight from Las Vegas to London Heathrow declared a medical emergency while flying over Scotland.

The pilot of the Boeing 747 requested a priority landing at Heathrow after reporting a passenger was feeling unwell.

Medics were prepped to meet the plane on the tarmac when it was due to arrive just after 3pm on Monday.

A British Airways spokesperson said before the plane landed: "The pilot requested a priority landing due to an individual on board feeling unwell.

"The aircraft landed as normal and medical services met the flight to provide assistance.

"There is no further update at this time on the condition of the passenger."

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA

The condition of the passenger in question was not yet known.
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A former counter-terrorism officer has claimed the Metropolitan Police ignored evidence of extremism among its officers for fear of being labelled Islamophobic.

Javaria Saeed, a practising Muslim, said she had complained to her bosses after hearing a fellow Muslim officer say FGM should not be criminalised because it was a clean and honourable practice.

She said the same officer also said female Muslim victims of domestic violence should go to local Sharia courts rather than the police for help except in the serious violent cases.

But when she raised her concerns with managers they refused to take action because they were afraid of appearing racist.

Ms Saeed, who worked for Scotland Yard for 10 years, told The Sunday Times she had been demonised by some of her fellow Muslim officers for not wearing the veil and was told she was better off at home looking after her husband.

The 35-year-old said she resigned in March from the forces Muslim Contact Unit (MCU) after being fed up of the political correctness which allowed an us and them culture to develop among the 600 Muslim officers.

She claimed the Met applied a different standard when investigating allegations of racist by Muslim officers than non-Muslim ones.

She said: Racism in the Met is not from white officers in my case, but from Muslim officers who the service refused to properly investigate because they were afraid of being called Islamophobic and racist.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA

My experiences were that it was Muslim officers being racist towards my individual views; also in private, holding racist views against white officers, and sexist views against females.

If such views were held and expressed by white officers, they would be fired.

She said she had joined the force in 2005 in the wake of the 7/7 bombings because she wanted to help bridge the division between the Muslim community and the authorities.

Recommended Read more Former army chief calls for Met Police review

Ms Saeed said she had been warned by friends and family that she was likely to suffer discrimination and racism from white officers but instead she was warned not to raise complaints about her fellow Muslims because it would hinder her career progression.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard told The Independent that the officer who made the comments about FGM had been subject to a management action  a procedure for minor infractions which usually involves a training course.

He said: The Met is aware of concerns raised by ex Sergeant Javaira Saeed in June 2013.

At that time and on a number of occasions prior to her leaving to the Met, the full range of options for dealing with her concerns was explained to her, ranging from an internal fairness at work procedure through to a full investigation. Each time she was asked if she wanted to document her complaint so that it could be investigated, she declined.

Ms Saeed said if white officers had made the same comments as she heard from Muslims within the MCU they would have been fired (Getty, file photo) (Getty Images)

Despite Ms Saeed declining to formally record her information as a complaint a full review of the Muslim Contact Unit (MCU) was carried out in 2013, which resulted in a number of recommendations being made. Most of these have been implemented. Since 2013 there have been no further issues or complaints made about the conduct of the officers within the MCU.

We are also committed to increasing the diversity of our own workforce, and making sure that all our staff feel valued and able to speak out if they come across wrongdoing.

Our Directorate of Professional Standards investigates all allegations; examines all intelligence and supports reporters of wrong doing.

Where officers fall below the high standards we will take action. This is vital for public confidence and the confidence of all the men and women of the Met who work to keep London safe.
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A Polish man has been seriously injured after he was beaten up by a group of up to 20 teenagers in what polices suspect was a racially-aggravated assault.

The 28-year-old victim and his friend were confronted by the group of males, aged 16 to 18, in a residential street in Armley, Leeds.

The teenagers then pursued the victim and reportedly began kicking and punching him.

He was taken to hospital with a cut to the head that required stitches, but his injuries are not considered life threatening.

West Yorkshire Police said the incident, which happened on Friday night, is being treated as racially aggravated due to comments made to the victim and his friend.

Leeds District Commander Paul Money has reassured the Polish community in Leeds that the police do not tolerate such attacks.

Chief Superintendent Money said: I want to reassure people, particularly the local Polish community, that we will not tolerate hate incidents of this nature and will do everything we can to ensure the people responsible are brought to justice.

Detectives from Leeds District CID are carrying out extensive enquiries into this incident and are checking CCTV in the area and speaking to witnesses. The victim is being supported by specialist officers."

The commander said he appreciated that the incident would cause "heightened concerns" among eastern European communities in the area, but insisted it was an "isolated incident".

Brexit racism and the fightback Show all 9 1 /9 Brexit racism and the fightback Brexit racism and the fightback Demonstrators protest against an increase in post-ref racism at London's March for Europe in July 2016 PA Brexit racism and the fightback These cards were found near a school in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, the day after the EU referendum Twitter/@howgilb Brexit racism and the fightback Getty Brexit racism and the fightback Romford, Essex, June 25 @diamondgeezer Brexit racism and the fightback A worker at this Romanian food shop was asleep upstairs at the time of this arson attack in Norwich on July 8, but escaped unharmed. Hundreds later participated in a love bombing rally outside the shop to express their opposition to racism and their support of the shop owners. JustGiving/Helen Linehan Brexit racism and the fightback This neo-Nazi sticker was spotted in Glasgow on June 26 Courtesy of Eoin Palmer Brexit racism and the fightback But after news emerged of neo-Nazi stickers appearing in Glasgow, some in the city struck back with slogans of their own. Courtesy of Eoin Palmer Brexit racism and the fightback Getty Brexit racism and the fightback More signs began to appear in some parts of the UK, created by people who wanted to show their opposition to post-referendum racism Courtesy of Bernadette Russell

The attack came on the same day Theresa May called her counterpart in Poland to express deep regret over race-hate attacks on Polish citizens living in the UK.

It comes less than a month after the alleged murder of Polish national Arkadiusz Jozwik, 40, who was killed outside a takeaway in The Stow in Harlow on 27 August.

A week after Mr Arkadiusz's death, two Polish men were attacked by a group of four or five males in the same area in what police described as a "vicious" incident.
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Across the Irish Sea, abortion rights have rightly been in the spotlight in recent years. It cant have passed anyone by that Irish women struggle to access basic reproductive healthcare. But on an often overlooked island a few miles closer to the UK mainland women are also being endangered by restrictive legislation on abortion. The Isle of Man seems to be the island that feminism forgot.

But not any more  a group of Manx women are fighting for their right to choose to terminate unwanted pregnancies. The Campaign for Abortion Law Modernisation (Calm) wants to bring Manx law in line with the UK. The Termination of Pregnancy (Medical Defences) Act is up for review in the next parliament, and the feeling on the Rock (as Manx people refer to their home) is that the time is ripe for a long-overdue change.

Beyond offshore tax avoidance, the TT motorbike race and Mark Cavendishs Olympic successes, the Isle of Man rarely makes the headlines. A Crown dependency, the Isle of Man is part of the British Isles, floating in the Irish Sea between Liverpool and Dublin. Its people are Celtic and have their own language, Manx Gaelic, though the last native speaker died in the 1970s. It is not part of the UK though many of its laws are similar (tax and abortion being two notable exceptions) and the Queen is the constitutional head of state, holding the title Lord of Mann.

Laws on the island are made at Tynwald, which is the oldest continuous parliament in the world, and which celebrated its millennium in 1979. The next election to Tynwald is in two weeks, on 22 September. It's equivalent to MPs are Members of the House of Keys (MHKs), and although the Island does have party politics, most stand as independents. There are 24 MHKs, so about three times the number of elected representatives per capita as the UK (fewer than 90,000 people live on the Isle of Man). Despite having so many elected politicians, the Isle of Man currently only has one woman MHK.

Manx citizens can travel to the UK for healthcare that cant be provided on the island, such as cancer treatment, neurological surgery and even complicated antenatal care. The NHS on the Isle of Man foots the bill, including travel and accommodation. Abortion is one of the few exceptions.

It is hoped that elections to Tynwalds House of Keys later this month will lead to reform of the Isle of Mans archaic abortion laws (Wikimedia Commons)

The campaign was only set up a few months ago and despite the strides that Calm has already made, abortion is still a very taboo subject on the Rock. Most women on the Isle of Man know somebody who has had to go away to use the preferred chilling local euphemism. However, many women dont realise how restrictive the law is until they find themselves facing an unwanted pregnancy.

We are calling on Tynwald to amend and modernise the Termination of Pregnancy Act, core sections of which are unacceptably restrictive, Calm spokeswoman Sam Morris says. Women and families are suffering due to a two-tier system that means if you have money, you have choices.

If you have money, the current law doesnt pose a huge problem to you; just book the procedure privately, pay the expensive short-notice air or boat fare and cough up for the hotel. Thats for two people of course, as you will most likely be advised to be accompanied home from the clinic as with any surgery involving anaesthetic. And if you end up having to stay in hospital longer due to unforeseen complications, no matter  you can afford to rebook your flight or stay a few extra nights at a hotel.

Maybe you have a friend or family member who can help you out with the cost. Somebody who you can tell about your pregnancy that is, somebody you trust enough to break the taboo. You wont be discharged the same day as your procedure without a chaperone, so if you dont have somebody you trust then expect to pay for at least two nights in a hotel.

Women without access to hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds at short notice have a few options. You could take out a bank loan or use a credit card but this is an option not available to women under the age of 18 or with a poor credit history. You could try to get financial help from a charity. Or you could do what women have been doing for thousands of years  and terminate your pregnancy illegally at home. The only difference is that in 2016, it is a great deal safer than it used to be.

If you are a UK resident and want an abortion, you pay nothing. And unless you live somewhere especially rural, the clinic is likely to be at most a few hours away from home.

Last year, more than 100 women travelled to the UK from the Isle of Man for a termination, although the numbers are thought to be much higher as many women do not give their real address to the clinic. Including travel and accommodation, the procedure typically costs upwards of 1,000 and women have to make the arrangements themselves.

With fairly safe abortion pills available online from Women on Web and Women Help Women, many women bypass their GP altogether. Women on Web told me that they receive about 80 requests a year from Manx women, so it is reasonable to assume that more women self-abort at home than go away, despite the fact that they could face up to two years in prison if the pills are intercepted by the Post Office.

BPAS recently launched a free confidential telephone aftercare helpline for women in Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man who have bought abortion medication online. The organisation says that the above websites provide the same high quality, safe medications to women who are up to 10 weeks pregnant that are provided from their own clinics. While adverse events are extremely unlikely, BPAS is concerned that because the women are committing an illegal act, they may not always seek help when they need it.

The Termination of Pregnancy Act allows for abortions in specific circumstances  rape, incest, mental health and severe foetal abnormalities  but in reality are almost impossible to access on the island. Currently fewer than 10 abortions are carried out on the island each year. Women are often advised that it would be easier to just access the procedure privately. BPAS and Marie Stopes both offer reduced rates for women from the Isle of Man, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Douglas, the Manx capital. Women on the island with unwanted pregnancies have severely limited access to advice and healthcare (Wikimedia Commons)

Most Manx women requiring a termination have a surgical abortion (84 per cent vs 50 per cent for UK women), which reflects the fact that Manx women tend to have their procedure later for financial and logistical reasons. However, after inspections of some Marie Stopes clinics by officials from the Care Quality Commission, all surgical abortions involving general anesthetic or conscious sedation have recently been voluntarily suspended. Although BPAS is doing what it can to take on additional patients, Calm has expressed concern.

I spoke to a number of young women among my own circle (I am Manx by marriage) for this piece. Most of these liberal, middle-class women know somebody who has gone away. One who herself had to cross to the UK for a procedure while in her teens describes the current law as vile and says that she feels like the Isle of Man is stuck in the 1800s.

Lots of my friends have had to go away, she says. It is a lot more common than people think. The statistics are definitely wrong. I know personally know a number women who have had abortions and not given their correct details, so wouldn't be registered in the official figures. One of my friends went away when she was 15 and didnt tell her family because she was so ashamed.

Alex Allinson, a GP standing as an MHK, characterised the current system as medieval and has made abortion law modernisation a manifesto commitment. The ethos of the original Act was to legalise abortion, he says, but it was perverted by amendment after amendment until it became regressive and unwieldy. In most cases, abortion is legal in name only. But many women dont know this until they arrive at the GP surgery to try to book their procedure. Even in cases where a woman does meet the conditions for an on-island termination, GPs have to jump through hoops and call in favours to make it happen.

The Isle of Man is trying to present itself to the world as a modern, progressive society  you cant do that while denying women basic healthcare.

GPs on the Isle of Man are registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) who confirm that doctors are required to provide advice on accessing a termination or refer the patient to another doctor who will  or face sanctions. Anecdotally, it is apparent that many GPs are not following GMC guidance.

Abortion Support Network (ASN), a UK-based charity, provides advice and financial support to women on the Isle of Man. They provide the closest thing to a counselling service, which was promised when abortion was legalised with the 1995 Act but which has never materialised. They rely entirely on donations. Not a single organisation exists on the island to provide support to women facing a crisis pregnancy or, more worrying still, to provide medical support and advice post-procedure to a woman bleeding out her unwanted pregnancy on the boat home. That is, if the boat isnt cancelled due to bad weather or the woman doesnt experience unforeseen complications with the procedure. Such complications are more common for Manx women as they are more likely to have a later-term abortion than women in the UK.

Women with money will always be able to get a termination, Mara Clarke of ASN says. So this law really just punishes poor and vulnerable women. As a charity we can help such women fund the healthcare they need  provided we have money in the bank.

The treatment of rape victims by the law is especially callous. To meet the criteria, a woman must have reported her rape, and signed an affidavit. This has to be done in time to have the termination within the 12-week limit. Rape Crisis England and Wales, which doesnt have a Manx equivalent, say that the likelihood of rape survivors being able to fulfil these strict criteria are very slim as it is very common for survivors to experience post-traumatic stress symptoms. This, as well as shame, fear of the perpetrator and fear of not being believed, means the vast majority of rapes are not reported to the police  meaning the victims are not entitled to legal abortion.

The Act is up for review in the next parliament, though as low priority, and not until 2018  for now. Calm are hopeful that Tynwald will pass more progressive legislation and tell me that they have had a mostly positive response from the MHK candidates that they have spoken to. The Manx Chief Minister, Allan Bell, has made comments in support of a change to the law.

Sadly, however, there is opposition to such progressive sentiment on the island. Another group campaigning for quite a different a change in the law was launched this month. Humanity and Equality in Abortion Reform wants to see abortion even further restricted and  laughably  refers to itself as a feminist campaign.

Abortion is now firmly on the political agenda on the Isle of Man but change isnt expected any time soon; the island moves at its own pace. In the meantime, hundreds of women will continue to be let down at a time when they are most vulnerable. If you want to help, you can sign and share Calms petition .

Rebeccas* story  The GP said he didn't believe in abortion and just told me to Google it

When I had my first abortion in early 2013, aged 17, I had just left college and didnt have a job. I was young and a bit stupid, and wasnt using contraception. I didnt think twice about terminating the pregnancy as I knew it was the right decision, but I felt so ashamed of not wanting to stay pregnant.

I was really nervous about going to the GP  he was our family doctor and even looked after my mum when she was pregnant with me. Its such a small world here.

The GP wasnt very nice. He said that he didnt believe in abortion and that it was illegal on the Isle of Man, so told me just to Google what to do or look on the NHS website.

Thankfully my mum was great and organised everything. I was so ill with morning sickness and anaemia that I could barely get out of bed. She booked the procedure at the Marie Stopes clinic in Manchester and came with me when I was nine weeks along. It was OK but it felt a bit like a conveyer belt.

My mum paid for it  it was 1,000 but the guy who made me pregnant would only give me 200. It is so unfair that it is always the women who have to face the financial consequences.

I went to the family planning clinic after I came back and they made me feel so ashamed and stupid, and basically forced me to get a contraceptive implant. Despite this, just months later, I became pregnant again. I didnt see the point in going back o the GP.

The guy I was dating was then older than me. I tried to be mature about it but he was so awful and didnt support me at all, just told me I had to have an abortion. I didnt want to do that again and I didnt know how I would afford it. My boyfriend made me watch really graphic videos of abortions and I just cried and cried.

My boyfriend became really violent, kicking me in the stomach to try to get rid of the baby but I stayed with him, I guess because I was vulnerable and because I didnt want to tell anyone about the abuse or the pregnancy.

My mum ended up having to pay for the termination again because my boyfriend wouldnt give me any money. I had to beg him to come with me because you cant go alone and he lived in Liverpool where the clinic was.

I couldnt afford two nights in a hotel so I had to get the boat back the same day. When I got to the clinic I was 17 weeks pregnant, further along than I thought, so I had to pay more. The clinic was great but I had a bad reaction to the anaesthetic. My boyfriend wouldnt talk to me. I ended up with really bad depression.

Three years later, I am glad that I didnt have a baby but I do want to be a mum one day. I really hope that speaking out will help change the law because women who want to have abortions will always find a way.

Emmas story  It was the worst day of my life

When you are told to go for a walk and come back in for a chat after your 20-week scan, you know that you arent about to get good news. Though at that point, I didnt realise just how bad it was going to be.

We have some concerns about your baby.

I was upset, my partner and I both were, but I was adamant everything was going to be fine. We were advised to seek a second opinion in the UK. We were cautiously optimistic, although we knew already that it would be unlikely that our daughter would ever be able to walk. But it quickly became apparent that things were worse than we feared.

We were told that our daughter wouldnt be able to swallow or breathe without help and would likely have severe learning difficulties. They were quite candid and told us that most parents in our position would choose to terminate the pregnancy.

You might wonder why I wanted to know the sex after getting news like that, but I just needed to hear something lovely rather than something awful and scary.

We were facing the worst of the worst case  upwards of 40 surgeries, just to keep her alive. As a mother, I didnt feel like putting my child through that was ethical.

We did look seriously at the option of palliative care but we were advised that if we didnt subject our daughter to surgery as soon as she was born, there was a risk that the hospital would do it anyway and argue it later in court. It was all really woolly though, and we wouldnt really know where we stood until after the fact. In the end, it turned out that she had more problems than we first thought and probably wouldnt have lived.

We didnt want to put her through all those operations and so we felt like we didnt have much of a choice but to terminate the pregnancy. The NHS on the Isle of Man funded it. I was one of the handful of women who meets the criteria.

It was a black hole in terms of information. We had been passed to the UK and it was for them to deal with us. There was nobody on the island there to help us make the decision, so the law still affects women like me who meet the criteria. The staff in Liverpool were able to be open in a way they couldnt be at home. They told us that a termination was a valid choice, just like continuing with the pregnancy was.

It was the worst day of my life. I was sent to the UK to have the procedure to terminate the pregnancy and then came back to the Isle of Man to deliver her that day. I could have delivered her in the UK, but I wouldnt have been able to bring her body back and having a funeral was really important to us.

Most of my friends still dont know that I had a termination. I was just so scared of a bad reaction at a time when I was already so low and so vulnerable. The stigma that surrounds abortion is amplified on the Isle of Man and it is just something we don't talk about which makes situations like mine even harder to deal with. I didnt want her to seem like less of a loss. She was wanted and loved and that is why we honoured her with a funeral but I thought people wouldnt understand that if they knew I had chosen to terminate.

Thats part of the reason why I didnt want to use my real name for this interview. How do you start untelling that lie to people who came to her funeral? But its also because I have other children and one day I would like to discuss this with them. I want them to understand that what we did was both legal and ethical.

I wasnt sure where I stood on the abortion issue before this happened. I certainly didnt think I would ever terminate a pregnancy. My eyes have really been opened now and I dont think it is my place, or anyones place, to tell women what they should do in whatever circumstances they find themselves in. I wish we didnt have such a culture of stigma which makes women like me feel like they just cant be honest.

I watched the scan while the termination was happening and she died very quickly, in seconds. My baby has only ever been warm and safe listening to my heartbeat. We feel like we kept her safe and made sure that she never, ever had to suffer. Isnt that what every mother wants for their child?

Follow Mrs Q on Twitter or visit her website here.
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A former Archbishop of Canterbury will join more than 200 religious leaders to call on Prime Minister Theresa May to do more to help refugees fleeing Syria, Iraq and other warzones.

Lord Dr Rowan Williams will deliver a keynote speech on Monday as leaders of Britain's major faiths criticise the Government's response to the refugee crisis as "too slow, too low and too narrow".

Last week, the Government announced it had secured enough local authority places to meet its pledge to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees over the next four years.

And in a major U-turn earlier this year former PM David Cameron committed to accepting 3,000 unaccompanied children registered in France, Italy and Greece.

But the Christian, Muslim and Jewish clerics, alongside lead representatives of other faiths, signed an open letter urging Mrs May to unblock rules preventing refugee families being reunited in the UK.

Their letter follows similar calls from around 300 top former judges and lawyers, approximately 120 of the world's senior economists, and 27 charities and NGOs.

Signatories to the letter include bishops and members of the House of Lords, including Baroness Rabbi Julia Neuberger, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain Harun Rashid Khan, as well as senior rabbis, imams and senior figures from other faiths.

The letter said: "Under the present immigration rules, a British doctor of Syrian origin could not bring her parents from a refugee camp in Lebanon - even though they were refugees and she could support and house them.

"A Syrian child who arrived alone in the UK could not bring his parents from a refugee camp in Jordan - even if the child were recognised a refugee and even though his parents were themselves refugees.

"Families in these situations can currently be reunited only by resorting to desperately unsafe irregular journeys, sometimes ending in avoidable tragedies."

One of the signatories, Bishop of Barking Rt Rev Peter Hill, criticised delays faced by children in Calais who are waiting to be reunited with their parents.

"The system is broken and The Home Office must establish a functional system which delivers now, without bureaucratic delays," he said.

"At the current rate of reunification it will take a year before all the children in Calais are reunited with their families.

"This is forcing children to take matters into their own hands on rail tracks, stowing away in lorries and putting themselves into the hands of unscrupulous people traffickers. How can a civilised country allow this to continue?"

The other Alan Kurdis: Refugee children who survived the journey Show all 8 1 /8 The other Alan Kurdis: Refugee children who survived the journey The other Alan Kurdis: Refugee children who survived the journey Basheer Basheer, a 3-year-old Syrian boy, lying on his father leg, lives with his family in a rent-free house as part of NRC's shelter programme in the village of Bair-Ras, in Irbid governorate, northern Jordan. Photo 11 October 2015 NRC/Hussein Amri The other Alan Kurdis: Refugee children who survived the journey Hisham Mustafa has fled from Aleppo, and is currently at Idomeni in Greece. Here he is playing with his nephew Hisham, 3 NRC/Tiril Skarstein The other Alan Kurdis: Refugee children who survived the journey Ahmaydi Bouchra Little Ahmaydi, 3, and her family of eight fled from fighting in Mali to the Goudebo camp in Burkina Faso in 2013. Neither of her two older sisters went to school in Mali. The whole family lives in a tent that is approx. 7m x 6m. The family bed is stored outside to make space inside the shelter during day time. In the evenings, they carry the bed back in. NRC/Ingrid Prestetun The other Alan Kurdis: Refugee children who survived the journey Farah Farah, 4, lives with her family in Irbid in a rent-free apartment. She stays home with her mother as her four sisters and three brothers leave for the day to their various schools. Photo 11t October 2015 NRC/Hussein Amri The other Alan Kurdis: Refugee children who survived the journey Batane Yacouba Batane Yacouba, 4, lives with his two older sisters and his mother in the Goudebo camp in Burkina Faso. A Tuareg family, they were forced to flee Mali fearing for their lives. Their father is dead NRC/Ingrid Prestetun The other Alan Kurdis: Refugee children who survived the journey Hassan Syrian boy Redor, 12, plays with Hassan, 3, after arriving at the port in Chios, Greece NRC/Tiril Skarstein The other Alan Kurdis: Refugee children who survived the journey Fatin Fatin, 4, and her family fled Syria to Irbid, northern Jordan. Her father has issued a birth certificate for her, in order for her to have access to health centres. NRC/Hussein Amri The other Alan Kurdis: Refugee children who survived the journey Born a refugee Alice Digama (24) sits on the tent floor with her two-week-old baby. Her son is one of many children born a refugee. Alice was heavily pregnant when she escaped South Sudan and crossed the border into Uganda, after her husband left her for another wife NRC/Sofi Lundin

Another, Rabbi Herschel Gluck said: "Being the son of refugees from Hitler, who lost over 100 of their close family members because of the lack of compassion and vision with regard to family reunification by the authorities at that time, I feel especially obliged to help ensure that we don't repeat those mistakes."

The Bishop of Edinburgh, Rt Rev Dr John Armes, said: "In the wake of a referendum campaign that divided our nation and stirred up feeling against immigrants, now is the time to reclaim our reputation as a place of welcome and hospitality to the stranger."

Qari Muhammad Asim, chief imam, Makkah Masjid said: "Many refugees with close family members in the UK are risking their lives trying to escape deplorable conditions in camps and reunite with their families. Many lives could be saved if safe legal routes were secured by the Government."

Lord Singh of Wimbledon, director, Network of Sikh Organisations UK, said: "We all have a responsibility to help those forced to make perilous journeys fleeing horrendous conflict, and reunite families tragically torn apart."
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Always start with a joke. Of course, we were both members of the whips office at the time of the Maastricht Bill! David Davis told Lord Boswell of Aynho. David Davis laughed. No one else did.

Whats funny, of course, is that was 25 years ago, and its about the last time The Secretary of State For Exiting the European Union had a proper job in government. And its not even really a proper job in government.

Still, time flies. And here, before the House of Lords European Union Select Committee, David Davis was determined to have fun.

Appearing before Lords Select Committees is a pleasure, he told them, slowly relaxing back into an ego that never really deflated to match a 20-year stretch on the political sidelines.

I like appearing before select committees full stop. But the Lords are always enormously courteous. Again David Davis laughed alone.

In the two months since Mr Davis was appointed Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, it appears that Exiting the European Union has become far more complex.

Two months ago it was easy. At least according to him, on 11 July.

Recommended Read more Anger after Tory Leave campaigner denies Brexit caused hate crime rise

I would expect the new Prime Minister on 9 September to immediately trigger a large round of global trade deals with all our most favoured trade partners. I would expect that the negotiation phase of most of them to be concluded within between 12 and 24 months, he said then.

Now, exiting the European Union will be the most complex negotiations ever. No one laughed at that either. Not even David Davis.

One of the outcomes is the sheer complexity, he carried on.

Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Show all 12 1 /12 Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Brexit protest: Thousands march in London A woman poses with a home-made European Union flag as Remain supporters gather on Park Lane in London to show their support for the EU in the wake of Brexit PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Remain supporters demonstrate in Parliament Square PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Tens of thousands of people gathered to protest the result of the EU referendum PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London A majority of people in the capital voted to remain in the European Union Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Protesters chanted: What do we want to do? Stay in the EU PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The march follows a similar rally in Trafalgar Square that was cancelled due to heavy rain  but which tens of thousands of people turned up to anyway Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum by 52 per cent to 48 per cent Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London But support for the Leave campaign in urban areas and among young people was significantly lower Rex features Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Marchers gathered at Park Lane at 11am and marched towards Parliament Square PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Some protesters held up baguettes in a display of affection for our continental neighbours PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The disparity between different parts of the country has promoted a four million signature petition calling for a second referendum and even a renewed push for Scotland to cede from the UK PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The events organiser, Kings College graduate Kieran MacDermott, wrote: We can prevent Brexit by refusing to accept the referendum as the final say and take our finger off the self-destruct button" Reuters

A whole series of economic exercises, a whole series of diplomatic exercises with at least 30 interlocutors, when you include all the member countries, the European Commission, the Council, the Parliament. Weve got the legal analysis too, and the lawyer wont be surprised that we have 180 degree opposite opinions.

This, they did laugh at. Not the scale of the challenge, of course. Which David Davis is close to comprehending. They were, one has to suspect, laughing at the one joke David Davis might not get. That its the gravest challenge facing any British politician since the Luftwaffe. And its David Daviss job to sort it out.
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The Government will keep key details about Brexit negotiations secret from Parliament, the Cabinet minister in charge of leaving the European Union has warned.

David Davis, the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, told parliamentarians on Monday afternoon that full transparency would not be in the countrys best interests.

Clearly there is a need for Parliament to be informed without giving away our negotiating position. I may not be able to tell you everything, even in private hearings, he told the House of Lords EU select committee.

The Government has refused to so far give details about what Brexit would entail or even give a definitive answer about when negotiations for leaving the EU would begin. Theresa May and those around her have consistently said they will not give a running commentary on Brexit and that Brexit means Brexit.

During the hearing Mr Davis suggested that MPs and peers might only be told things after they had happened in negotiations.

I can entirely see accountability after the event, thats very clear. In advance, I dont think its possible for parliamentarians to micro-manage the process and wouldnt give us an optimum outcome for the country, he said.

Much of the confidentiality Im talking about will be time-related. We can tell you something late but we cant tell you in advance.

Brexit racism and the fightback Show all 9 1 /9 Brexit racism and the fightback Brexit racism and the fightback Demonstrators protest against an increase in post-ref racism at London's March for Europe in July 2016 PA Brexit racism and the fightback These cards were found near a school in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, the day after the EU referendum Twitter/@howgilb Brexit racism and the fightback Getty Brexit racism and the fightback Romford, Essex, June 25 @diamondgeezer Brexit racism and the fightback A worker at this Romanian food shop was asleep upstairs at the time of this arson attack in Norwich on July 8, but escaped unharmed. Hundreds later participated in a love bombing rally outside the shop to express their opposition to racism and their support of the shop owners. JustGiving/Helen Linehan Brexit racism and the fightback This neo-Nazi sticker was spotted in Glasgow on June 26 Courtesy of Eoin Palmer Brexit racism and the fightback But after news emerged of neo-Nazi stickers appearing in Glasgow, some in the city struck back with slogans of their own. Courtesy of Eoin Palmer Brexit racism and the fightback Getty Brexit racism and the fightback More signs began to appear in some parts of the UK, created by people who wanted to show their opposition to post-referendum racism Courtesy of Bernadette Russell

He however suggested a House of Commons Brexit Select Committee could be set up to scrutinise the work of negotiators and boost accountability, and that he would appear before the House of Lords EU committee within reason to answer questions.

He added: Before article 50 is triggered will be a rather frustrating time because we wont be saying a lot. Well be saying a bit, laying out guidelines, but as the Prime Minister has said we wont give a running commentary on it because that would just undermine our negotiating stance from the beginning. Afterwards Id expect it to be more open process.

Mr Davis was smacked down by Downing Street last week after he publicly suggested that Britain would probably leave the single market after it left the EU. A Number 10 spokesperson said his words, made at the dispatch box in the House of Commons, were not policy and his opinion.

That response by Downing Street was followed by a similar response to similar comments about the nature of Brexit by Liam Fox.

Mr Davis heads a newly created Department for Exiting the European Union, while Mr Fox heads the Department for International Trade.
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Trade union members who voted Brexit wanted to give the establishment a kicking, the leader of Britains biggest union has said.

Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, blamed globalisation, "austerity and cuts in services" and "relentless downward pressure on wages" for leaving "communities derelict and generations without hope", which he claimed lead many industrial communities to vote Leave.

Speaking on the first day of the TUC conference in Brighton on Sunday, Mr McCluskey said a "shadow" was hanging over workplaces following the EU vote and warned firms not to use Brexit as an excuse to cut jobs and workers' rights.

He said productive factories such as Ford's engine plant in Bridgend, south Wales, have had their future thrown into doubt following the referendum result and called for an end to the "shameful racist backlash" on migrant workers.

"It is greedy bosses who are to blame for driving down wages, not migrant workers," he said, urging unions to "pick up the pieces" following the referendum result to protect workers' rights.

"This Congress and most affiliates went into the European Union referendum campaign determined that remaining in the EU was the right choice for working people," said Mr McCluskey.

"We took that case up and down the country [...] But we did not prevail. And now this movement has to pick up the pieces.

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Show all 6 1 /6 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you More expensive foreign holidays The first practical effect of a vote to Leave is that the pound will be worth less abroad, meaning foreign holidays will cost us more nito100 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you No immediate change in immigration status The Prime Minister will have to address other immediate concerns. He is likely to reassure nationals of other EU countries living in the UK that their status is unchanged. That is what the Leave campaign has said, so, even after the Brexit negotiations are complete, those who are already in the UK would be allowed to stay Getty 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Higher inflation A lower pound means that imports would become more expensive. This is likely to mean the return of inflation  a phenomenon with which many of us are unfamiliar because prices have been stable for so long, rising at no more than about 2 per cent a year. The effect may probably not be particularly noticeable in the first few months. At first price rises would be confined to imported goods  food and clothes being the most obvious  but inflation has a tendency to spread and to gain its own momentum AFP/Getty Images 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Interest rates might rise The trouble with inflation is that the Bank of England has a legal obligation to keep it as close to 2 per cent a year as possible. If a fall in the pound threatens to push prices up faster than this, the Bank will raise interest rates. This acts against inflation in three ways. First, it makes the pound more attractive, because deposits in pounds will earn higher interest. Second, it reduces demand by putting up the cost of borrowing, and especially by taking larger mortgage payments out of the economy. Third, it makes it more expensive for businesses to borrow to expand output Getty 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Did somebody say recession? Mr Carney, the Treasury and a range of international economists have warned about this. Many Leave voters appear not to have believed them, or to think that they are exaggerating small, long-term effects. But there is no doubt that the Leave vote is a negative shock to the economy. This is because it changes expectations about the economys future performance. Even though Britain is not actually be leaving the EU for at least two years, companies and investors will start to move money out of Britain, or to scale back plans for expansion, because they are less confident about what would happen after 2018 AFP/Getty Images 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you And we wouldnt even get our money back All this will be happening while the Prime Minister, whoever he or she is, is negotiating the terms of our future access to the EU single market. In the meantime, our trade with the EU would be unaffected, except that companies elsewhere in the EU may be less interested in buying from us or selling to us, expecting tariff barriers to go up in two years time. Whoever the Chancellor is, he or she may feel the need to bring in a new Budget Getty Images

"We also need to recognise why we lost  above all, why so many industrial communities, as this composite recognises, voted to Leave.

"It shouldnt be a mystery. Far too much of Britain has been left behind by globalisation. Whole industries have disappeared, leaving communities derelict and generations without hope.

"Add to that austerity and cuts in services on top, with relentless downward pressure on wages; and an elite that has passed the burdens of the crisis onto the less fortunate  and it is not surprising that millions of people, including significant numbers of our members, voted to give the establishment a kicking."

Unite is the Labour party's biggest donor and Mr McCluskey is backing Jeremy Corbyn's campaign to defeat Owen Smith for the leadership, however he failed to mention the Labour leader who has faced backlash over his backseat role during the referendum.

Dave Prentis of major union Unison called for an "electable" Labour Party at the conference, adding that the party "must get back to the job of providing a proper opposition and showing it is an alternative government in waiting", Sky News reports.

Matt Wrack of the Fire Brigades Union, however, said blaming Mr Corbyn for the Leave vote was "ridiculous".

Earlier on Sunday, John Whittingdale, who served as Culture Secretary until he was sacked by Theresa May in July, said the Prime Minister should begin the formal process of Brexit within a matter of weeks rather than waiting until next year to trigger Article 50.

Mr Whittingdale, was one of the most senior Tory politicians to break ranks with David Cameron and support Vote Leave, expressed worries that the longer it takes to leave the EU, the more it will encourage Remain campaigners suggesting Brexit need never happen at all.

I dont see what holds us back. We do need to get the formal process under way. I dont say that it has to happen tomorrow but I would like it to happen pretty soon, and by that I mean weeks, not months," he told the Sunday Telegraph.

Additional reporting by Press Association
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Ex-cabinet minister John Whittingdale has admitted breaching Parliament's rules after the standards watchdog found he did not properly register a trip to Amsterdam.

An investigation concluded the former Culture Secretary failed to correctly register the 1,500 trip to the 2013 MTV awards, that he took with his then-girlfriend.

Standards Commissioner Katheryn Hudson said Mr Whittingdale had now "aknowledged and apologised" for the breach and that no further action would be taken.

It emerged in April that Mr Whittingdale had failed to declare the trip taken while he chaired the Commons Culture Select Comittee, despite it being connected to the area of policy he was responsible for scrutinising.

The story hit the headlines after it emerged that the woman who accompanied him was a dominatrix, something unknown to the politician at the time.

Mr Whittingdale explained to the Commissioner that he did not believe he needed to register the hospitality because it was only worth 534.82, which was under the threshold of one per cent of an MP's salary.

But Viacom, the firm which paid for his attendance, told the Commissioner that figure did not include the ticket and other costs for the MP's partner. The total value was 1,529.07, according to the company.

In a letter to the standards watchdog Mr Whittingdale said he was surprised by the new figure, adding: "I of course recognise that this should have been declared in the register at the time.

"I apologise that I failed to do so which was the result of my misinterpreting the information that I received from the company as to the cost."

Ms Hudson said in her report: "Mr Whittingdale has acknowledged and apologised for his breach of the rules. I consider he has made an acceptable response and that the rectification action is sufficient to bring the matter to a close."
The Legislature's Joint Committee on Transportation and Modernization made it official last week: The panel, which is charged with crafting a transportation package for the 2017 Legislature to consider, has scheduled a meeting in Albany.

You've already circled your calendars for the date of the meeting, Oct. 24, but now we can fill in some of the other details: The meeting is scheduled for 5 to 7 p.m. in Forum 104 of the Albany campus of Linn-Benton Community College.

In a press release, the co-chairs of the committee, Sen. Lee Beyer of Springfield and Rep. Caddy McKeown said the meeting, the 11th for the panel, "will allow area leaders, business people and citizens to address committee members about the transportation challenges they face every day."

It sounds like two hours might not be enough. But at least the committee members will have a vague idea about those challenges before the meeting begins: They plan to tour the mid-valley beforehand to examine the issues mid-valley commuters face every day. If members have to miss the tour, maybe Albany Rep. Andy Olson can drive them around later; Olson is a member of the committee.

Here's a tip to the other members of the committee: Seeing how the meeting starts at 5 p.m., be careful about the possibility that you might get stuck on Interstate 5 or Highway 34. Give yourself a little extra time to get to the meeting, just in case.

The committee members already have met throughout the state. The committee is scheduled to meet on Thursday in Newport, with hearings to follow Sept. 19 in Hillsboro and Sept. 22 in Salem. (The Salem meeting is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. with a presentation by the Oregon Department of Transportation.)

So by the time the road show pulls into Albany, the legislators on the panel will have traveled enough throughout the state to confirm something that they likely already knew going in: Our transportation infrastructure is in sad shape. The 2017 Legislature needs to do something that eluded the 2015 session  pass a transportation package and figure out a way to pay for it. (The 2016 session didn't even take a crack at this; legislative leaders said the short session didn't offer enough time to work on such a contentious issue.)

Olson has said that the committee is kicking around various ideas for how to fund the transportation package. (Funding was the big hangup in the 2015 session.) But it's very doubtful that whatever funding mechanism legislators come up will with generate enough money to deal with all of the state's transportation needs.

That means we need to think about priorities: What are the most urgent state transportation issues facing the mid-valley? Olson has tossed out some ideas to get the juices flowing: Expanding I-5 to three lanes between Eugene and Salem. Developing a so-called "intermodal hub," where trucks could load their cargo onto trains, with the idea being to reduce the number of trucks on the highways. Hiring additional state troopers to patrol the roads.

The Legislature won't be able to fix all of the mid-valley's transportation needs. But where should it start? That's the question to keep in mind as we prepare for next month's meeting.
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David Cameron has denied that his surprise resignation as an MP has anything to do with Theresa Mays plans to bring back grammar schools.

The Prime Minister, who said while in power that the selective institutions were wrong, said Ms Mays controversial proposal to increase their number had nothing to do with his decision to quit.

But he hinted in the interview that he did not want to be a former leader who was constantly creating a distraction to what the government is doing.

Ms Mays plans have already met some opposition on the Tory benches, including from the MP who served as Education Secretary under that Mr Cameron and until Mrs May moved into Downing Street.

Mr Cameron once said that bringing back grammar schools has always been wrong and I never supported it.

But asked as to whether Ms Mays reversal of his policy was the reason for his departure he said: This decision has got nothing to do with any one individual issue and that way the timing I promise is coincidental but it goes to a bigger picture really which is, whatever the issue as a former PM, being a backbench MP, its difficult not to be a distraction and diversion and therefore build a reputation for yourself in politics that I dont really want to have.

Asked directly if he backed the policy he said there is lots of merit in the policy but that he did not want to get into the wheres and whys.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA UK news in pictures 7 September 2022 Police officers stand guard after Animal Rebellion activists threw paint on the walls and road outside the Houses of Parliament in protest, in London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 6 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA

Mr Cameron, who has represented Witney in Oxfordshire since 2001, will trigger a by-election to find a successor for the area in Parliament.

He had stepped down as Prime Minister the morning of the 24 June European Union referendum result after it became clear he had accidentally taken Britain out of the bloc.
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David Cameron is to stand down as MP with immediate effect, he has announced.

Mr Cameron, who has represented Witney in Oxfordshire since 2001, will trigger a by-election to find a successor for the area in Parliament.

He had stepped down as Prime Minister the morning of the 24 June European Union referendum result after it became clear he had accidentally taken Britain out of the bloc.

Recommended Read more Cameron to face inquiry into resignation honours list

Mr Cameron told broadcasters he would not be able to properly represent his area given the circumstances of his departure as Prime Minister.

Backing Theresa May's premiership, he said also said he did not want to be a distraction for the Government.

With modern politics, with the circumstances of my resignation, it isnt really possible to be a proper backbench MP as a former prime minister, he said.

I think everything you do would become a big distraction and a big diversion for what the Government needs to do for our country. I support Theresa May, I think shes got off to a great start, I think she can be a strong Prime Minister for our country.

I dont want to be that distraction. I want Witney to have a new MP who can play a full part in parliamentary and political life without being a distraction."

However, when quizzed about his support for grammar schools, Mr Cameron was less than effusive for his successors agenda of sweeping reform  though he denied they were related to his decision to stand down.

There are very many good things in the policy. But frankly I dont want to get into the whys and wherefores of this individual policy.

My announcement today is not about grammar schools. Theres no connection with grammar schools, its purely one of timing.

My view is, as Ive said, I dont want to be the distraction and diversion that the former prime minister inevitably is on the backbenches."

Mr Cameron added that he would continue to live locally and support local causes and charities  but that he would obviously have to build a life outside of Westminster.

I want to thank everybody here in West Oxfordshire who have been so supportive, he added.

David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 David Cameron's premiership - in pictures David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Britain's Queen Elizabeth II greeting David Cameron at Buckingham Palace for an audience to invite him to be the next Prime Minister on 11 May 2010 PA David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha wave from the steps of Number 10 Downing Street on 11 May 2010 Getty Images David Cameron's premiership - in pictures On 12 May 2010 Prime Minister David Cameron said in a press conference with Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, who was then deputy PM, they plan to "take Britain in a historic new direction" and Conservative-led coalition government would be united and provide "strong and stable" leadership Rex David Cameron's premiership - in pictures A decade ago, David Cameron visited the Arctic to witness the effects of climate change. However since coming to power in 2010, his government has gradually dropped down a succession of green policies David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Prime Minister David cameron told the then New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Queen had purred down the line after he told her Scotland had voted against independence in September 2014. He was forced to apologise for breaking constitutional convention Getty Images David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron greeted soldiers working on flood relief in York city centre after the river Ouse burst its banks, in northern England in December 2015 REUTERS David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Claims that David Cameron performed an obscene act with a dead pig and smoked cannabis during his studies at Oxford University spread around the world in September 2015. The extraordinary allegations were made in an unauthorised biography of the Prime Minister written by Lord Ashcroft David Hartley/REX Shutterstock David Cameron's premiership - in pictures In 2016, Mr Cameron was caught up in a worldwide scandal dubbed the Panama papers Reuters David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Prime minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha with seven week old Regan as they meet her parents, first time home buyers Robert Arron and Kelly Jeffers at the Heritage Brook housing development in Chorley, Lancashire. David Cameron has joked that he wants "another baby" and said that he feels a "bit broody" every time he sees a newborn on the campaign trail David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Prime Minister David Cameron was criticised for branding refugees in the Calais jungle camp as a bunch of migrants in January 2016 after thousands of refugees died in their attempt to cross the Mediterranean in 2015 Sky News David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron speaks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker during an EU summit meeting on 17 March 2016 at the European Union council in Brussels. Cameron was in Brussels to renegotiate deal of UK membership with other European leaders. The deal, sealed after hours of haggling at a marathon summit, paved the way for a referendum on whether Britain will stay in the EU AFP/Getty Images David Cameron's premiership - in pictures President Barack Obama shakes hands with British Prime Minister David Cameron at a meeting at 10 Downing Street in London on 22 April 2016. The President and his wife visited 10 Downing Street where he joined press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron and made his case for the UK to remain inside the European Union Getty Images David Cameron's premiership - in pictures After David returned from Brussels claiming victory in his renegotiation with European leaders, Boris Johnson announced that he will not support the Remain campaign. The prime minister said publicly he was "disappointed but Boris remains a friend" PA David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Prime Minister David Cameron makes a joint appearance with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan as they launch the Britain Stronger in Europe guarantee card at Roehampton University on 20 May 2016 in London. The 'guarantee card' lists five pledges should Britain remain in the EU, including the protection of workers' rights, full access to the single market and stability for Britain David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron speaks outside 10 Downing Street on 24 June 2016. Cameron announced his resignation after Britain voted to leave the European Union after a bitterly divisive referendum campaign AP

The former PM said he had met with his consituency party chairman earlier this morning, as well as his staff in Witney and London, before making his public resignation statement.

Prime Minister Theresa May said: I was proud to serve in David Camerons government  and under his leadership we achieved great things. Not just stabilising the economy, but also making great strides in delivering serious social reform.

His commitment to lead a One Nation government is one that I will continue. I thank him for everything he has done for the Conservative Party and the country and I wish him and his family well for the future.

The announcement, made in an interview, is a reversal of previous statements by the former prime minister, who had said he wanted to stay on.

In May this year he told BBC Radio Oxford that he was "very keen to continue" as an MP after the scheduled 2020 general election.

Asked whether he would stand at the time he replied: That is very much my intention.

Mr Camerons retreat from elected office comes after controversy over his resignation honours list. He was accused of awarding his cronies with honours: a Whitehall investigation has been launched.
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The pledge by Vote Leave to spend 350m a week on the NHS after Brexit was just an example of how such cash could be allocated, the organisations chair has said.

Gisela Stuart, who co-chaired the official campaign to leave the EU, downplayed the policy, which her organisation emblazoned on the size of a large red bus during the campaign.

No, the NHS was the example of that if youre spending that amounts of money and you dont have control of what to do with it, I would spend it on the NHS. It was about taking control of your spending decisions, the eurosceptic Labour MP told the BBCs Daily Politics programme

Recommended Read more Vote Leave wipes pledges from its website

The morning of the EU referendum result Nigel Farage, who was not affiliated with Vote Leave but also did not speak out against the 350m figure during the campaign, dismissed the pledge as a mistake.

No I cant [guarantee spending 350m on the NHS], and I would never have made that claim. That was one of the mistakes that I think the Leave campaign made, he said just hours after the votes were counted.

The claim comes shortly after other proposals by the Leave campaign, including a points-based immigration system, fade into the distance.

A poll conducted a week before the referendum by Ipsos MORI found that 47 per cent of the public believed the false claim that the UK pays 350m a week to the EU.

Just 39 per cent realised the figure, which formed the centerpiece of the Leave campaign, was false, while 14 per cent did not know.

The proposals by Vote Leave appeared on a bus (Reuters)

Sir Andrew Dilnot, chair of the UK Statistics Authority, said in May that he was disappointed that the Brexit campaign continued to make the claim as it was misleading and undermines trust in official statistics.

The figure in fact neither includes Britains rebate, nor money paid back to the UK through the Commons Agricultural Policy, regional development funding, scientific grants, or cultural grants. It also does not take into account the benefits to the public finances of increased economic activity that comes from being a part of the EU.

The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit Show all 7 1 /7 The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 22 May 2015 In his regular column in The Express Nigel Farage utilised the concerns over Putin and the EU to deliver a tongue in cheek conclusion. With friends like these, who needs enemies? PA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 13 November 2015 UKIP MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire Mike Hookem, was one of several political figures who took no time to harness the toxic atmosphere just moments after Paris attacks to push an agenda. Cameron says were safer in the EU. Well Im in the centre of the EU and it doesnt feel very safe. Getty Images The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 19 April 2016 In an article written for The Guardian, Michael Gove attempts to bolster his argument with a highly charged metaphor in which he likens UK remaining in the EU to a hostage situation. Were voting to be hostages locked in the back of the car and driven headlong towards deeper EU integration. Rex The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 26 April 2016 In a move that is hard to decipher, let alone understand, Mike Hookem stuck it to Obama re-tweeting a UKIP advertisement that utilises a quote from the film: Love Actually to dishonour the US stance on the EU. A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 10 May 2016 During a speech in London former work and pensions secretary Ian Duncan Smith said that EU migration would cause an increasing divide between people who benefit from immigration and people who couldnt not find work because of uncontrolled migration. The European Union is a force for social injustice which backs the haves rather than the have-nots. EPA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 15 May 2016 Cartoon character Boris Johnson made the news again over controversial comments that the EU had the same goal as Hitler in trying to create a political super state. Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods. PA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 16 May 2016 During a tour of the womens clothing manufacturer David Nieper, Boris had ample time to cook up a new metaphor, arguably eclipsing Goves in which he compares the EU to badly designed undergarments. So I just say to all those who prophecy doom and gloom for the British Business, I say their pants are on fire. Lets say knickers to the pessimists, knickers to all those who talk Britain down. Getty Images

In fact, the independent and respected Institute for Fiscal Studies has said the net effect of leaving the EU would be for a 36bn black hole in the public finances to open up during the spending period as a result of lower growth and tax revenue.

The Government is now considering how exactly Britain will leave the EU, although it has not yet officially secession triggered negotiations.
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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is to lose his seat under a planned redrawing of Englands election map, sources have confirmed.

The review by the Boundary Commission will see the Labour leaders North Islington seat carved up, with pieces being joined on to other constituencies.

Under plans already seen by MPs, a large section of it will be allocated to a new seat made up largely of the constituency represented by Diane Abbott  one of Mr Corbyns closest allies.

Recommended Read more May heading for MPs clash over election boundary review

The controversial review by the Commission was first ordered by David Cameron with the goal of reducing the number of MPs in the Commons from 650 to 600.

The aim of the drive was to equalise the number of registered voters in each constituency, but Labour has complained they will lose more seats under the plan than the Tories.

 David Cameron steps down as MP

Some Labour MPs also fear the review will be used as an excuse by Corbyn-backing activists to try and push them out of their seats and replace them with more left-wing candidates.

The party will be hardest hit by the changes according to most estimations, while key Tory cabinet ministers including Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Education Secretary Justine Greening could be affected.

The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Show all 11 1 /11 The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He called Hezbollah and Hamas friends True. In a speech made to the Stop the War Coalition in 2009, Mr Corbyn called representatives from both groups friends after inviting them to Parliament. He later told Channel 4 he wanted both groups, who have factions designated as international terror organisations, to be part of the debate for the Middle East peace process. I use (the word friends) in a collective way, saying our friends are prepared to talk, he added. Does it mean I agree with Hamas and what it does? No. Does it mean I agree with Hezbollah and what they do? No. Reuters The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn thinks the death of Osama bin Laden was a tragedy Partly false. David Cameron used this as a line of attack at the Conservative Party conference but appears to have left out all context from Mr Corbyns original remarks. In an 2011 interview on Iranian television, the then-backbencher said the fact the al-Qaeda leader was not put on trial was the tragedy, continuing: The World Trade Center was a tragedy, the attack on Afghanistan was a tragedy, the war in Iraq was a tragedy. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He is haunted by the legacy of his evil great-great-grandfather False. A Daily Express expose revealed that the Labour leaders ancestor, James Sargent, was the despotic master of a Victorian workhouse. Addressing the report at the Labour conference, Mr Corbyn said he had never heard of him before, adding: I want to take this opportunity to apologise for not doing the decent thing and going back in time and having a chat with him about his appalling behaviour. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn raised a motion about pigeon bombs in Parliament This one is true. On 21 May 2004, Mr Corbyn raised an early day motion entitled pigeon bombs, proposing that the House register being appalled but barely surprised that MI5 reportedly proposed to load pigeons with explosives as a weapon. The motion continued: The House believes that humans represent the most obscene, perverted, cruel, uncivilised and lethal species ever to inhabit the planet and looks forward to the day when the inevitable asteroid slams into the earth and wipes them out thus giving nature the opportunity to start again. It was not carried. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He rides a Communist bicycle False. A report in The Times referred to Mr Corbyn, known for his cycling, riding a Chairman Mao-style bicycle earlier this year. Less thorough journalists might have referred to it as just a bicycle, but no, so we have to conclude that whenever we see somebody on a bicycle from now on, there goes another supporter of Chairman Mao, he later joked. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn 'Jeremy Corbyn will appoint a special minister for Jews' False so far. The Sun report in December was allegedly based on a rumour passed to the paper by a Daily Express columnist who has written pieces critical of the Labour leader in the past. The minister did not materialise in his shadow cabinet. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn wishes Britain would abolish its Army False. Another gem from The Sun took comments made at a Hiroshima remembrance parade in August 2012 where Mr Corbyn supported Costa Ricas move to abolish it armed forces. Wouldnt it be wonderful if every politician around the worldabolished the army and took pride in the fact that they dont have an army, he added. The caveat that every politician must take the step suggests Mr Corbyn does not support UK disarmament just yet. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn stole sandwiches meant for veterans False. The Guido Fawkes blog claimed that the Labour leader took sandwiches meant for veterans at at Battle of Britain memorial service in September but a photo later emerged showing him being handed one by Costa volunteers, who later confirmed they were given to all guests. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He missed the induction into the Queens privy council True. After much speculation about Mr Corbyns republican views and willingness to bow to the monarch, his office confirmed that he did not attend the official induction to the privy council because of a prior engagement, but did not rule out joining the body. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn refuses to sing the national anthem. Partly true. The Labour leader was filmed standing in silence as God Save the Queen was sung at a Battle of Britain remembrance service but will reportedly sing it in future. Mr Corbyn was elusive on the issue in an interview, saying he would show memorials respect in the proper way, but sources said he would sing the anthem at future occasions. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Cheese True. The group lists its purpose as the following: To increase awareness of issues surrounding the dairy industry and focus on economic issues affecting the dairy industry and producers.

The capital will end up with five fewer MPs as a result of proposed changes, according to detail seen by The Evening Standard, with those represented by International Trade Minister Greg Hands - one of the smallest in the capital - and Treasury minister Jane Ellison also set for change.

The Tatton seat occupied by former Chancellor George Osborne is also expected to be abolished with voting wards amalgamated into surrounding constituencies.
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Jeremy Corbyn has wished David Cameron all the best for the future, adding that he got on well with him on a human level after the former Prime Minister stood down as MP.

Mr Cameron, who has represented Witney in Oxfordshire since 2001, told broadcasters on Monday he would not be able to properly represent his area given the circumstances of his departure as Prime Minister.

He had stepped down as leader of the country the morning of the 24 June European Union referendum result after it became clear he had accidentally taken Britain out of the bloc.

The move will trigger a by-election to find a successor for the constituency in Parliament.

Speaking as he arrived for a private dinner with the TUC general council in Brighton, Mr Corbyn thanked the former prime minister for the "courtesy" he showed him.

"We should respect people who move on to do something else with their lives, the Labour leader said.

"I want to wish him all the best for the future."

Mr Corbyn also recalled the "tragedy" of Mr Cameron losing a child, recalling his first meeting with him was at an all-party event to discuss the needs of parents of disabled children.

The pair have previously shared strained relations, which hit a tumultuous high in Feburary when they both came to blows over each others mothers at Prime Minster Questions with Mr Cameron saying his mother would tell the Labour leader to put on a proper suit, to do up his tie, and to sing the national anthem.

David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 David Cameron's premiership - in pictures David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Britain's Queen Elizabeth II greeting David Cameron at Buckingham Palace for an audience to invite him to be the next Prime Minister on 11 May 2010 PA David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha wave from the steps of Number 10 Downing Street on 11 May 2010 Getty Images David Cameron's premiership - in pictures On 12 May 2010 Prime Minister David Cameron said in a press conference with Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, who was then deputy PM, they plan to "take Britain in a historic new direction" and Conservative-led coalition government would be united and provide "strong and stable" leadership Rex David Cameron's premiership - in pictures A decade ago, David Cameron visited the Arctic to witness the effects of climate change. However since coming to power in 2010, his government has gradually dropped down a succession of green policies David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Prime Minister David cameron told the then New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Queen had purred down the line after he told her Scotland had voted against independence in September 2014. He was forced to apologise for breaking constitutional convention Getty Images David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron greeted soldiers working on flood relief in York city centre after the river Ouse burst its banks, in northern England in December 2015 REUTERS David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Claims that David Cameron performed an obscene act with a dead pig and smoked cannabis during his studies at Oxford University spread around the world in September 2015. The extraordinary allegations were made in an unauthorised biography of the Prime Minister written by Lord Ashcroft David Hartley/REX Shutterstock David Cameron's premiership - in pictures In 2016, Mr Cameron was caught up in a worldwide scandal dubbed the Panama papers Reuters David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Prime minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha with seven week old Regan as they meet her parents, first time home buyers Robert Arron and Kelly Jeffers at the Heritage Brook housing development in Chorley, Lancashire. David Cameron has joked that he wants "another baby" and said that he feels a "bit broody" every time he sees a newborn on the campaign trail David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Prime Minister David Cameron was criticised for branding refugees in the Calais jungle camp as a bunch of migrants in January 2016 after thousands of refugees died in their attempt to cross the Mediterranean in 2015 Sky News David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron speaks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker during an EU summit meeting on 17 March 2016 at the European Union council in Brussels. Cameron was in Brussels to renegotiate deal of UK membership with other European leaders. The deal, sealed after hours of haggling at a marathon summit, paved the way for a referendum on whether Britain will stay in the EU AFP/Getty Images David Cameron's premiership - in pictures President Barack Obama shakes hands with British Prime Minister David Cameron at a meeting at 10 Downing Street in London on 22 April 2016. The President and his wife visited 10 Downing Street where he joined press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron and made his case for the UK to remain inside the European Union Getty Images David Cameron's premiership - in pictures After David returned from Brussels claiming victory in his renegotiation with European leaders, Boris Johnson announced that he will not support the Remain campaign. The prime minister said publicly he was "disappointed but Boris remains a friend" PA David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Prime Minister David Cameron makes a joint appearance with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan as they launch the Britain Stronger in Europe guarantee card at Roehampton University on 20 May 2016 in London. The 'guarantee card' lists five pledges should Britain remain in the EU, including the protection of workers' rights, full access to the single market and stability for Britain David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron speaks outside 10 Downing Street on 24 June 2016. Cameron announced his resignation after Britain voted to leave the European Union after a bitterly divisive referendum campaign AP

The repost was one of many to take place at PMQs with Mr Cameron later telling Mr Corbyn to step down as leader of the opposition.

On Monday, Mr Cameron told broadcasters he would not be able to properly represent his area given the circumstances of his departure as Prime Minister.

Backing Theresa May's premiership, he said also said he did not want to be a distraction for the Government.

Mr Camerons retreat from elected office comes after controversy over his resignation honours list. He was accused of awarding his cronies with honours: a Whitehall investigation has been launched.

Additional reporting by Press Association
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Michael Gove is under fire after being accused of making a speech in which he likened himself to the head of the racist Ku Klux Klan group.

The Society of Legal Scholars made clear its anger about the comments made by the former Lord Chancellor to its annual conference.

Mr Gove  who was sacked by Theresa May when she became Prime Minister - is reported to have said: I feel rather like the grand wizard of the KKK giving an address to the AGM of Black Lives Matter.

One eyewitness said the apparent joke went down like a lead balloon.

In a statement, the Society said: The speaker at the annual conference dinner of the Society of Legal Scholars (SLS) in Oxford on Wednesday 7 September was the Right Honourable Michael Gove MP.

The invitation on behalf of the SLS was made and accepted when he was Minister of Justice and Lord Chancellor (and months before the EU referendum campaigns had begun).

In the course of his speech, aware that his academic audience might be largely hostile given his position on Brexit, Mr Gove drew an analogy, the gist of which has since been tweeted.

The Society wishes to distance itself clearly and unequivocally from this comment and sincerely regrets that it was made and caused offence.

Mr Goves office has not responded to requests to respond to the criticism.

The notorious KKK flourished in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, using violence against black people in pursuit of white supremacy.

The controversy came ahead of Mr Goves expected intervention in the debate over new grammar schools later today, when he is expected to give his cautious backing.


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George Clooney has accused South Sudans leaders of stealing vast amounts of wealth and using it to fund deadly militias who have taken the young country back to war as rivals fight over natural resources such as oil.

President Salva Kiir, former deputy president Riek Machar and those close to both men have looted the country in accumulating wealth that includes mansions, luxury cars and stakes in a number of businesses abroad, according to a new report by a watchdog set up by the actor and activist.

When South Sudan won its independence in 2011 campaigners - such as Clooney - hoped it marked a new dawn for a country mired in decades of civil war.

Those hopes were dashed two years later as it descended into conflict once again.

Mr Clooney said the blame lay with the countrys leaders as he launched the report, based on two years of research, in Washington.

They're stealing the money to fund their militias to attack and kill one another, he said.

We can either take action or we can spend the next decade mopping up the mess.

 South Sudan agrees to more UN troops

The Sentry, an investigative unit co-founded by the American actor, said it had obtained images of officials relatives partying in five-star hotels as well as information about their properties abroad.

Documents show that several children of the president, including his 12-year-old son, have held stakes in a number of business ventures, the new report says.

Officials in South Sudan who earn modest salaries have been able to amass fortunes with help from arms dealers, bankers, lawyers and others abroad, it said.

At the same time, conflict has forced 2.5 million people from their homes, mass rape has been used as a weapon of war and the country has divided on ethnic lines.

The report says: The key catalyst of South Sudan's civil war has been competition for the grand prize  control over state assets and the country's abundant natural resources  between rival kleptocratic networks led by President Kiir and (former) Vice President Machar.

The leaders of South Sudan's warring parties manipulate and exploit ethnic divisions in order to drum up support for a conflict that serves the interests only of the top leaders of these two kleptocratic networks and, ultimately, the international facilitators whose services the networks utilize and on which they rely.

A peace deal reached a year ago under international pressure has been violated repeatedly by fighting, and Mr Machar fled the country in recent weeks.

Mr Kiir and Mr Machar have not yet responded to the allegations.
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Five pieces of possible new debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may be investigated by authorities, after two items appeared to show evidence of fire damage.

The new items washed up on beaches in Madagascar and were found by a self-styled amateur MH370 investigator, who previously found a confirmed panel from the missing plane in Mozambique.

Blaine Gibson, a US citizen, travelled to take his new finds to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau in person, after officials failed to pick them up in Madagascar.

He says two of the pieces were burnt, which would be the first time any such markings have been found on debris and could give the first indication there was a disastrous fire on board.

At a briefing for relatives of some of the 239 passengers and crew on board the missing flight, families called for the possible debris to be examined to define a new search area.

Malaysia, China and Australia agreed in July that the search in the southern Indian Ocean would be suspended after the current 120,000-square kilometre expanse has been thoroughly examined with deep sea sonar equipment in the absence of credible new evidence that identified the planes location.

Eight relatives of lost passengers who met with Australian officials coordinating the search on behalf of Malaysia expressed frustration that they were not given a definition of what constituted credible new evidence that would result in a continuation of the search.

Mr Gibson attended the meeting at the ATSB headquarters with the relatives from Malaysia, China, Australia and Indonesia and handed the five pieces over.

Malaysia has yet to collect other potential debris that he has found washed up on Madagascar since June and handed to authorities there.

I hope that the search will go on and in my amateur opinion this constitutes new, credible evidence that justifies continuing the search, he told reporters of his unconfirmed debris find.

Some confirmed pieces of debris have washed ashore in the western Indian Ocean, and the families believe other items yet to be examined may be clues to the planes location.

Grace Nathan, a Malaysian whose mother was on the Boeing 777 that vanished during a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing on 8 March, 2014, said governments should be coordinating a search for debris and using drift modelling to define a new area to search after the current search is to be completed in December.

We want to call on the three nations  Australia, China and Malaysia  to make a concerted effort to go out and look for this credible new information, Ms Nathan said.

Its very impressive that one private individual citizen, Blaine Alan Gibson, has managed to find up to 15 pieces of aircraft debris and we hope that these three nations do more than just hope by fluke people find more debris, she added.

The ATSB confirmed in a statement that it had received debris from Mr Gibson and was seeking advice from Malaysia on how Australia should proceed.

Jennifer Chong, a Melbourne-based Malaysian-Australian dual citizen whose husband was aboard Flight 370, wondered why Malaysia had not sent diplomats to the five-hour meeting with Australian search officials. China and Indonesia both sent diplomats to support their citizens.

Potential passenger belongings from MH370 Show all 13 1 /13 Potential passenger belongings from MH370 Potential passenger belongings from MH370 A bag and pen Blaine Gibson Potential passenger belongings from MH370 The sole of a shoe Blaine Gibson Potential passenger belongings from MH370 A satchel with pen Blaine Gibson Potential passenger belongings from MH370 The inside of a bag Blaine Gibson Potential passenger belongings from MH370 A shoulder bag Blaine Gibson Potential passenger belongings from MH370 The word Mensa, from the high-IQ organisation, on an item Blaine Gibson Potential passenger belongings from MH370 A phone case and pen Blaine Gibson Potential passenger belongings from MH370 A wash bag Blaine Gibson Potential passenger belongings from MH370 A backpack Blaine Gibson Potential passenger belongings from MH370 A camera case Blaine Gibson Potential passenger belongings from MH370 A prayer hat Blaine Gibson Potential passenger belongings from MH370 The sole of a shoe Blaine Gibson Potential passenger belongings from MH370 A luggage bag and pen Blaine Gibson

Oceanographers are analysing the first piece of wreckage found, a wing flap known as a flaperon that washed up on Reunion Island off the African coast in July last year  16 months after the plane went missing  in the hope of narrowing a possible next area adjoining the current search boundary through drift modelling.

A wing flap found in Tanzania is also being examined at ATSB headquarters for clues. Search officials expect more Flight 370 wreckage to wash up in the months ahead.

Sheryl Keen, chairwoman of Air Crash Support Group, which is supporting the relatives during their week in Australia, called on Malaysia to collect the debris found by Mr Gibson on Madagascar and to consider handing responsibility for the search to Australia.

Additional reporting by the Associated Press
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The financial workings of one of the most opaque regimes in the world could be about to be subjected to unprecedented scrutiny, after it was decided the son of the dictator of Equatorial Guinea should face trial for corruption in France.

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has ruled Africas richest country per capita for almost 40 years, amid persistent accusations of corruption, electoral fraud and even cannibalism.

President Obiang describes his regimes management of Equatorial Guineas vast oil revenues as a state secret and in the past two years the country has been deemed too opaque to include on Transparency Internationals global corruption index.

Yet the outside world could be about to get its first look into how the countrys elite siphon off public funds - through the finances of President Obiangs son.

As Equatorial Guineas forestry minister, Teodorin Nguema Obiang was paid $100,000 a year (AFP/Getty)

Teodorin Nguema Obiang has already had $71 million worth of his assets seized by the US, including a $30 million Malibu mansion, a $38.5 million Gulfstream jet, a Ferrari worth more than $500,000 and Michael Jackson memorabilia worth almost $2 million.

And the 47-year-old playboy prince, who was named his fathers Vice-President earlier this year, looks set to be tried by a Paris court on charges including corruption, money-laundering and embezzlement of public funds.

The court is yet to announce a date for the trial, but sources close to the investigation told the AFP news agency the hearing will go ahead.

The process began when a French judge launched a landmark investigation in May 2009 into whether President Obiang and two other African leaders used state money to buy luxury cars and homes in Paris and on the French Riviera. It became known as the case of "ill-gotten gains".

Transparency International filed a complaint against the leaders, who denied any wrongdoing.

Lawyers for the Obiang family have repeatedly tried to scupper the proceedings, and achieved some success when a French court of appeal ruled activists couldnt sue foreign heads of state.

But a subsequent ruling authorised the investigation, and in July 2012 they ordered the seizure of Mr Obiangs vast Paris mansion, which featured gold-plated taps, a spa and an in-house nightclub, reportedly worth more than 100 million.

Other possessions, including a fleet of Feraris, Bugattis and other luxury cars and a clock which was alone worth 3 million, were also seized.

Despite its huge oil wealth and that of its ruling elite, Equatorial Guinea is also home to some of the most deprived communities in Africa. More than half the population lives beneath the poverty threshold.

President Obiang seized power of the country in 1979, overthrowing President Francisco Macias Nguema, a leader whose rule since independence saw the deaths of thousands. The former leader was tried and executed.

The accusations of cannibalism against the dictator stem from an interview with an exiled political opponent, Severo Moto, on Spanish radio in 2004.

In it, Moto said President Obiang was a demon who systematically eats his political rivals.

Making clear he wasnt just speaking in metaphors, Moto said the ruler was an authentic cannibal.

He has just devoured a police commissioner, he is quoted as saying. I say devoured as this commissioner was buried without his testicles and brain.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. 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Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. 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More substantiated claims suggest President Obiang licensed foreign companies to dump toxic waste on the pristine Atlantic island of Annobon.

And ex ministers have testified as to how the Obiang regime encouraged diplomats to use their immunity to smuggle large amounts of illicit drugs all over the world, even in the presidents own baggage.

Earlier this year, Equatorial Guinea filed a lawsuit with the The Hague asking it to end the French investigation. But even if it goes ahead, as now seems likely, Mr Obiang probably wont see his day in court. French officials say the trial is expected to take place without the defendant attending.
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In December 2014, three "non-contacted" Amazon tribespeople -- a young man, his mother and an elder female relative -- were led out of the forest they had lived in their whole lives and taken to a village.

A year and a half later, in an extraordinary twist, the two women have escaped back to the forest -- taking just an ax, a machete and their pet birds. They left clothes they had been wearing strewn on a path -- and their escape left a very clear message.

We don't want your civilisation. Instead, we choose our ancient way of life.

"It was a rejection," said Rosana Diniz, a coordinator for the Indigenous Missionary Council, a nonprofit group connected to Brazil's Bishops, who has worked with the women's tribe, called the Awa, for nearly 20 years.

"What is important for them is not television," said Diniz. "What is important for them is to be in their home, in the forest, with plenty of hunting, with rivers, with the animals."

The Awa is an endangered tribe of about 450 people who mostly live in villages in three reserves on the southeastern fringe of the Amazon. But an unknown number of others, like these three, still live an ancient hunter-gatherer existence.

The Brazilian government has registered 110 "uncontacted" groups in the Amazon who are increasingly threatened by illegal logging, mining and farming.

Today the Awa practice some farming, but most still hunt with rifles -- sometimes heading out for days at a time. The two women, Jakarewaja, in her 40s or 50s, and Amakaria, who is about 60, and Jakarewaja's son Wirohoa, in his 20s, were found by an Awa hunting party in December 2014.

They lived in a hut made of palm fronds, hunted with bows and arrows and collected fruits. The only modern possessions they had ever had were a slither of a knife blade, an ax, and an old pot with a hole in it they had picked up during a brief stay in a village, when Wirohoa was a small child, he told The Washington Post in an interview last year.

Threatened by loggers inching ever closer into their protected, 668-square-mile reserve, called Caru, the three were persuaded to come back to a village where the tribe has electricity, rudimentary health care -- and television.

But the two women fell seriously ill with tuberculosis. All three were taken by helicopter to a nearby city, where Jakarewaja and Amakaria spent months in a straw hut built on the grounds of a hospital.

They later returned to live in the village of Tiracambu, where Wirohoa has settled down with an Awa woman. He is believed to still be in the village.

Diniz said the women were reclusive and complained about the number of non-indigenous visitors, the food and medicine they were given by government health workers, and the heat in the tin-roofed metal hut they had shared with two other families.

A new hut was built for them, with a palm-frond roof. But sometime in the first week of August, they left, said Diniz, who found them gone when she visited shortly afterwards. Now they face new dangers -- fires have decimated parts of their reserves, reducing prey, and farmers and loggers are encroaching.

Threats like these can mean that "life is tough in the forest. But even so, Jakarewaja and Amakaria clearly prefer that life to the life in the community," said Sarah Shenker, a campaigner with Survival International, a London-based group that works for tribal peoples worldwide.

Shenker met the women in April 2015, when both were too sick to move and too scared to speak. That they headed back to their old existence shows how important forests are to uncontacted peoples, she said.

"Now it's a matter of protecting their lands," she said.

Washington Post
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Authorities say a New York City woman attacked two Muslim women who were pushing their young children in strollers and tried to rip off one woman's hijab.

Court documents say Emirjeta Xhelili approached the women near her Brooklyn home Thursday afternoon, punching one of them in the head as she screamed obscenities and told her to leave America.

Authorities say Xhelili pushed the woman's stroller toward the ground and later tried to grab the second woman's stroller away from her.

Xhelili faces charges including assault, menacing and endangering the welfare of a child. The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office has described the incident as a hate crime.

Xhelili is being held on $50,000 bond or $25,000 cash bail. Her lawyer tells the New York Daily News Xhelili has no previous arrests.

In pictures: Protest against burkini bans in London Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Protest against burkini bans in London In pictures: Protest against burkini bans in London Demonstrators stage a beach party outside the French Embassy, in Knightsbridge, London, in protest against burkini bans PA In pictures: Protest against burkini bans in London Jenny Dawkins, a curate from All Saints Church in Peckham, at an anti-burkini ban protest at the French Embassy in London on 25 August Lizzie Dearden In pictures: Protest against burkini bans in London Demonstrators stage a beach party outside the French Embassy, in Knightsbridge, London, in protest against burkini bans PA In pictures: Protest against burkini bans in London Somayia Khan's six-year-old daughter at a protest against burkini bans at the French Embassy in London on 25 August Lizzie Dearden In pictures: Protest against burkini bans in London Friends Rebecca (L) and Hannah (R) at a protest against burkini bans at the French Embassy in London on 25 August Lizzie Dearden In pictures: Protest against burkini bans in London Demonstrators stage a beach party outside the French Embassy, in Knightsbridge, London, in protest against burkini bans Reuters In pictures: Protest against burkini bans in London Demonstrators stage a beach party outside the French Embassy, in Knightsbridge, London, in protest against burkini bans EPA In pictures: Protest against burkini bans in London Demonstrators stage a beach party outside the French Embassy, in Knightsbridge, London, in protest against burkini bans AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Protest against burkini bans in London People participate in a 'Wear what you want beach party' protest outside of the French Embassy in London EPA In pictures: Protest against burkini bans in London A protester holds a sign which reads "Are you Burkini Beach Body Ready?" as she lies on a beach towel outside the French Embassy in London on August 25, 2016, AFP/Getty Images

The attack comes shortly after a heavily pregnant Muslim woman wearing a veil was attacked in front of her children in Barcelona in an apparent hate crime.

Investigators said the woman was walking in the Spanish city's central Old Town area with her husband and children on Monday evening when two men approached.

AP
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Donald Trumps US-Israeli relations adviser has voiced his support for controversial comments by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Palestinians were advocating for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the West Bank.

David Friedman said the Obama administration should be ashamed of their misguided reaction to a statement on Facebook by Mr Netanyahu which claimed the Palestinian leadership want a Palestinian state with no Jews in it.

In the video message Mr Netanyahu said: The Palestinian leadership actually demands a Palestinian state with one pre-condition: No Jews.

There's a phrase for that: It's called ethnic cleansing. And this demand is outrageous.

He claimed that Israels diversity showed its openness and readiness for peace.

After seeing the clip, the US State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau condemned the use of that type of terminology was inappropriate and unhelpful.

She said: We obviously strongly disagree with the characterisation that those who oppose settlement activity or view it as an obstacle to peace are somehow calling for ethnic cleansing of Jews from the West Bank.

We believe that using that type of terminology is inappropriate and unhelpful.

Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Show all 12 1 /12 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict The fire in my heart is beyond my ribs. You left me beloved - Soliman Shaheen, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict Let me get enough of you, as Im still hungry for your smile my son - Soliman Shaheen, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict They besiege me in my homeland so I flew to heaven - Rodaina Al Agha, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict And I am still facing the pain all by myself - Lama Shakshak, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict My brother, I watched you go while my heart was tearing - Helen Mo'amar, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict My new doll is lonely in the rubble - Ayah Sha'ath, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict When a soul hugs another soul they never split, even in death - Ismail Matar, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict Everyone is gone and I stayed alone to make the world witness the injustice done to me - Hamza Shaheen, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict The hand that carries the arms carries roses too - Madeeha Al Majayda, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict My eyes tell you about a dream that overcame the fence - Soliman Shaheen, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict A childhood caught in an unjust siege - Hadeel Quidh, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict All the details are torn after you - Hamza Shaheen, 17

She also said the policy of resettling Jewish Israelis in the West Bank raised real questions about Israels long-term intentions in the West Bank.

But Mr Friedman leapt to to Mr Netanyahus defence in an email exchange with Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

He claimed Ms Trudeaus position was entirely racist and anti-Semitic.

He said: Prime Minister Netanyahu makes exactly the right point.

The Palestinians want Israel to absorb countless 'refugees' - people who never lived in Israel and whose ancestors were never forced to leave Israel - while their so-called 'state' is required to be, as the Nazis said, Judenrein (devoid of Jews).

The former lawyer claimed Palestinians living in Israel enjoy the strongest human and civil rights in the region and said there is no better place for Arabs to live in the Middle East than Israel.

Donald Trump's campaign aide claims Netanyahu is correct and Israel is the "best place in the Middle East" for Arabs to live (Reuters) (REUTERS)

Last week, after Israel approved the building of 284 new housing units in West Bank settlements, the United States said the policies could expand settlements in a "potentially unlimited way."

US officials said the criticism from the US State Department marked the first time it has suggested in public that Israel may be moving towards unlimited settlement expansion on land the Palestinians seek for their state.

Last week, Mr Netanyahu and Palestinian Territories President Mahmoud Abbas agreed in principle to met to resume peace talks were abandoned in 2014 but have not set a firm date.
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Police in Florida are investigating an early morning fire at the mosque attended by Omar Mateen, the Orlando nightclub shooter.

No-one was injured in the blaze at the Islamic Centre of Fort Pierce.

The St Lucie County Sheriffs Office said surveillance video showed someone approaching the building moments before a flash is seen and the fire began.

A fire at any place of worship is alarming, regardless of the circumstances, it said on Facebook.

The fire was extinguished by firefighters after a 911 call was made. The full extent of the damage has not yet been determined.

The mosque was used by Mateen, the gunman who opened fire at the Pulse nightclub in June, killing 49 victims.

The rampage in the gay club was the worst mass shooting in modern American history.

 Who is Omar Mateen?

Major David Thompson, of the St Lucie County Sheriff's Office, declined to speculate on whether the date of the fire, at the end of the 15th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, was significant but he confirmed that investigators were treating it as arson.

Evidence has revealed that this fire was set intentionally, he said

Multiple agencies, including the State Fire Marshal's Office, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI, are investigating.

Firefighters at the Islamic Centre of Fort Pierce, Florida (AP)

Sheriff's officials added that they planned to release the surveillance footage and will appeal to the public for help in identifying the person responsible.

It's not the first time the mosque has seen trouble since the Orlando attack.

A few weeks after the shooting, a man was beaten outside the mosque, according to Sheriff Ken Mascara. Early on July 2, deputies were called by a man who said someone was trying to break into a vehicle.

Deputies found a man bleeding from the mouth who told them he was approached by someone who asked him what he was doing and then punched him several times in the face and head.

The man was stopped and arrested a short time later.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement that a man in a truck had stopped outside the mosque earlier that day and made slurs, including, you Muslims need to get back to your country.

Mateen's father is among the roughly 100 worshippers that regularly attend the mosque.
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South Florida police fatally gunned down a black man as he sat in his backyard eating dinner, calling into question the lack of de-escalation tactics of local law enforcement officers amid national scrutiny.

Broward Sheriffs deputies responded to a domestic violence call Friday evening at the home of Gregory Frazier in Pompano Beach. His sister, Deborah, had called authorities after she claimed Frazier, 56, and his daughter were involved in a fight.

However, the fight had reportedly ended by the time the officers arrived at the home. The two white deputies were directed to the backyard, where they found Frazier eating.

Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Show all 19 1 /19 Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Protestors demand justice for Philando Castile on July 7, 2016 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Stephen Maturen/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Protestors lie in an intersection during a demonstration for Philando Castile on July 7, 2016 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Stephen Maturen/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Protestors lie in an intersection during a demonstration for Philando Castile on July 7, 2016 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Stephen Maturen/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Protestors demand justice for Philando Castile on July 7, 2016 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Stephen Maturen/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Protesters march throughout New York City. Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Protesters march throughout New York City. Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Protesters are arrested by NYPD as they call for justice throughout New York City. Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Protesters are arrested by NYPD as they call for justice throughout New York City. AFP/Getty Images Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police AFP/Getty Images Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police AFP/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police AFP/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police AFP/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police AFP/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police AFP/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police AFP/Getty Images Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Getty

Officers ordered Frazier to get on the ground, to which he responded, Leave me alone, according to his nephew Quartaze Woodard. When order to the ground once more, Frazier gave them the same response. Police then opened fire, according to Mr Woodard.

Police handcuffed the wounded Frazier, before attempting to perform CPR. Officers reported that Frazier was dead at the scene.

This is where @browardsheriff shot Gregory Frazier last night. He was eating chicken wings. pic.twitter.com/NeIfnaUGpL  Antonia Noori Farzan (@antoniafarzan) September 10, 2016

Fraziers neighbour, Pastor Miguel Rosa, said he heard at least five shots, which he initially thought were fireworks.

I never would have called the cops if Id known this was going to happen, Ms Frazier told the New Times Broward-Palm Beach. They just came in and started shooting right away.

 Unarmed black care worker shot by US police while he was calming autistic patient

Ms Frazier told dispatchers that her brother had been holding a knife  a small pocket knife she said he always carried  but it remains unclear whether or not Frazier was holding the knife when police were on the scene. A representative for the Broward Sheriffs Office could not comment on this detail when asked by The Independent, citing an active and ongoing criminal investigation.

Fraziers death sparked criticism of law enforcement in the area, with calls for de-escalation by police and a force that better resembles the populace.

Its too much, said Sarahca Peterson, family friend of the Fraziers and community activist. There has to be change. They need to face criminal charges. If I kill someone, Im going to jail. They shouldnt be out there on the streets."
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Police have been left mystified after a fresh heart, believed to be human, was found in a field.

Officers say paramedics found the organ in a plastic bag by chance on land behind a supermarket in Norwalk, northern Ohio, after stopping in the store's car park.

Unable to identify its origins, police were notified and passed the heart on to the Huron County Coroner's office.

Norwalk Police Chief Dave Light told the Norwalk Reflector: "I havent heard anything like that

"The paramedics werent sure what they had, so they called us. It was fresh; it wasnt decomposed.

"Theyre 95 percent sure it was human, but they want to make 100 percent sure."

Human hearts are very similar to the hearts of pigs, dogs and chimpanzees making it difficult for the coroner's office to be certain.

Huron County Coroner Jeff Harwood said the organ was "in pretty good condition (but) had an odour of decomposition to it."

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Mr Harwood said no one had come forward to claim the heart.
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Coverage of Hillary Clintons medical episode at the 9/11 memorial event has exposed the misogynistic nature of the US press, a high-profile doctor has claimed.

Dr Jennifer Gunter, an American obstetrician who recently wrote about her positive experience in a NHS emergency department, suggested the presidential candidates pneumonia diagnosis was not released to the press because of how it reported on her health.

In an exchange on Twitter, Dr Gunter was asked by another user if she really thought "pneumonia was driving the bus", suggesting the purported diagnosis was actually cover-up of a bigger, underlying health issue.

In response, the doctor made clear she did not believe conspiracy theories surrounding Ms Clinton's health and that the problem was the "misogynistic press".



Ms Clinton became ill on Sunday and had to leave the New York ceremony early.

Video footage showed the Democrat being supported by aides as she was helped into her van, with her team later saying she had become dehydrated. While Ms Clintons team, including her doctor Dr Lisa Bardack, said she had been diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday and simply became overheated Fox News declared Ms Clintons health episode could revive pressure on her to release her medical records.

Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Show all 15 1 /15 Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Andrew Harnik/AP Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Darren McCollester/Getty Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Mary Schwalm/Reuters Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Brian Snyder/Reuters Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Brian Snyder/Reuters Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Brian Snyder/Reuters Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Brian Snyder/Reuters Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Brian Snyder/Reuters Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Andrew Harnik/AP Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Andrew Harnik/AP Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Darren McCollester/Getty Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Andrew Harnik/AP Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Andrew Harnik/AP Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Andrew Harnik/AP Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Andrew Harnik/AP

Ms Clintons health has been scrutinised by opponents before. Earlier this summer, social media users speculated about Ms Clintons health using the hashtag #HillaryHealth, while conspiracy theorists and US media outlets, including Fox News and The National Enquirer, produced stories about her alleged secret health problems.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump told his supporters in August that Ms Clinton lacked the mental and physical stamina to serve as president and lead the country's fight against Isis.



The Clinton campaign accused opponents of pushing a deranged conspiracy about Ms Clintons health, while Dr Bardack said the Democratic candidate was in excellent health and fit to serve as president of the United States.

Dr Gunter, in a blog post, said it looked as if Ms Clinton suffered from near-syncope (the medical term for almost fainting) on Sunday.

Fainting is scary and dramatic, but its often nothing, she said. Mrs Clintons near-syncopal event is almost certainly the result of prolonged standing in one position and heat and possibly dehydration and not due to some secret sinister illness.



Dr Gunter also pointed out George HW Bush vomited and fainted at a state dinner in 1992.

If presidents are going to get the stomach flu then some will faint," she said.



Hey, if presidents are going to be people some will faint."
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Hillary Clintons early departure from the 9/11 memorial service on Sunday due to illness has prompted an inevitable rash of alarming headlines across America's right-wing media.

Video footage that appears to show the presidential candidate fainting and being helped into her van has ensured renewed scrutiny over the Democrats health and ability to run the country.

Ms Clintons campaign team and doctor have since said she left the ceremony in New York because she felt overheated, having recently been diagnosed with pneumonia - a statement that has failed to quell continued speculation that suggests more serious underlying health issues.

So when did the fascination with Ms Clintons health begin and is it justified?

December 2012

Much of the speculation surrounding Ms Clintons health starts here. While secretary of state, Ms Clinton fainted at home while suffering with a stomach virus.

She had concussion as a result and wore glasses to help with her double vision. Her husband, Bill Clinton, later said it took her six months to recover fully. In a routine check-up following Ms Clintons concussion, doctors find a blood-clot.

The clot does not cause any damage and tends to be treated with a dose of blood thinners over a few days in hospital. Both the concussion and the blood clot have frequently been used by right-wing commentators as supposed evidence of more severe health problems.

Spring 2016

Four years later, with the presidential campaign in full swing, Twitter users begin to speculate about Hillarys health using the hashtag #HillaryHealth. Theories suggest she has an underlying health problem and is prone to seizures.

July 2016

During one interview, Ms Clinton is perceived by some as shaking her head eratically. It leads Jim Hoft, a conservative blogger from the Gateway Pundit, and other outlets to suggest Ms Clinton was having a seizure live on camera.

Lisa Lerer, who conducted the interview, wrote a column debunking the claims. Ms Lerer wrote in the Chicago Tribune that Ms Clinton was perhaps eager to avoid answering or was taken back by the volume of journalists in the press room. Where I saw evasiveness, they saw seizures, she wrote.

4 August 2016

The Infowars website, run by conservative conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, begins to publish stories about Ms Clintons alleged failing health and continues to throughout the month.

7 August 2016

Matt Drudge  another conservative blogger  posts a photo on Twitter of Ms Clinton being helped by aides after slipping on some stairs, alongside the words Hillary conquers the stairs.

The photo, as pointed out by Brian Stelter from CNN, is actually from February 24.

According to the BBC, Infowars claims the man helping Ms Clinton was her doctor and he is holding an injection pen used to treat seizures. It turned out it was just a torch.

8 August 2016

The National Enquirer, a US tabloid which has endorsed Mr Trump, runs a story entitled 'Hillary Clintons secret health crisis' and claims the candidate has had multiple strokes and suffered liver damage.

8 -11 August 2016

Fox News presenter Sean Hannity runs multiple segments on Ms Clintons health on his chat show. He claims she suffers from seizures and cites Ms Lerers interview as evidence. Medical experts on the show do not confirm his suspicions.

11-14 August 2016

CNN, the Washington Post and other outlets, debunk claims Ms Clinton has health problems. CNNs Brian Stelter calls Hannitys coverage reckless.

15 August 2016

In a speech, Mr Trump says Ms Clinton lacks the physical and mental stamina to serve as president and lead the fight against Isis.

16 August 2016

The Clinton campaign accuses opponents of pushing a deranged conspiracy about Clintons health. Her doctor, Dr Bardack, says: Secretary Clinton is in excellent health and fit to serve as president of the United States,"

18 August 2016

The Drudge Report publishes images of Ms Clinton sitting in chairs with pillows, alongside a headline saying Pillows for Hillary and claims she was being propped up. Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson later claims Ms Clinton suffers from dysphasia - a neurological condition that affects a persons speech - without citing any evidence.

6 September 2016

The Drudge Report continues its reporting of Ms Clintons health. This time it focuses on an episode of coughing that struck Ms Clinton at a rally in Ohio to suggest something has been wrong with her for months.

11 September 2016

Ms Clinton leaves a 9/11 service early due to overheating. Video footage seems to show Ms Clinton fainting, but her doctor says it is due to dehydration caused by recent pneumonia diagnosis.

Speculation surrounding her health starts up again. Under doctors orders, Ms Clinton cancels her trip to California. Commentators, including journalist Carl Bernstein, call on Ms Clinton to release her medical history, while Mr Trump says he will share his too.
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A Muslim woman had her blouse set on fire outside an upscale boutique in Manhattan, police sources told The New York Daily News.

The 36-year-old woman was wearing traditional Muslim attire and was able to douse the flames herself, in what appears to be the latest anti-Muslim attack in New York City.

Police sources said a man stood nearby the victim with a lighter in his hand. Without speaking to her, the suspect fled the scene, in front of Valentino flagship store on Fifth Avenue. As of Monday night, no arrests have been made.

Now, the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident as a potential hate crime.

Police say arsonist set Florida mosque on fire Show all 9 1 /9 Police say arsonist set Florida mosque on fire Police say arsonist set Florida mosque on fire As Law enforcement officials investigate a fire at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce part of a burnt wall is seen at the mosque that was attended by the Pulse nightclub gunman, who killed 49 people in Orlando on September 12, 2016 in Fort Pierce, Florida. Law enforcement officials are investigating the fire as an arson and say that surveillance cameras show a person approaching the mosque moments before the blaze on Monday morning. Joe Raedle/Getty Police say arsonist set Florida mosque on fire FORT PIERCE, FL - SEPTEMBER 12: A Law enforcement official walks near the scene of a fire at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce which is the mosque that was attended by the Pulse nightclub gunman, who killed 49 people in Orlando on September 12, 2016 in Fort Pierce, Florida. Law enforcement officials are investigating the fire as an arson and say that surveillance cameras show a person approaching the mosque moments before the blaze on Monday morning. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Getty Images Police say arsonist set Florida mosque on fire FORT PIERCE, FL - SEPTEMBER 12: Law enforcement officials investigate a fire at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, which was the mosque attended by the Pulse nightclub gunman, who killed 49 people in Orlando on September 12, 2016 in Fort Pierce, Florida. Law enforcement officials are investigating the fire as an arson and say that surveillance cameras show a person approaching the mosque moments before the blaze on Monday morning. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Getty Images Police say arsonist set Florida mosque on fire FORT PIERCE, FL - SEPTEMBER 12: Wilfredo Ruiz, from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, (2nd L) speaks to the media with other officials in front of the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce as Law enforcement officials investigate a fire at the center, which was the mosque attended by the Pulse nightclub gunman, who killed 49 people in Orlando on September 12, 2016 in Fort Pierce, Florida. Law enforcement officials are investigating the fire as an arson and say that surveillance cameras show a person approaching the mosque moments before the blaze on Monday morning. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Getty Images Police say arsonist set Florida mosque on fire FORT PIERCE, FL - SEPTEMBER 12: Law enforcement officials investigate a fire at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, which was the mosque attended by the Pulse nightclub gunman, who killed 49 people in Orlando on September 12, 2016 in Fort Pierce, Florida. Law enforcement officials are investigating the fire as an arson and say that surveillance cameras show a person approaching the mosque moments before the blaze on Monday morning. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Police say arsonist set Florida mosque on fire FORT PIERCE, FL - SEPTEMBER 12: Hamaad Rahman (C) whose father is an Imam of the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce arrives to speak to the media as Law enforcement officials investigate a fire at the center, which was the mosque attended by the Pulse nightclub gunman, who killed 49 people in Orlando on September 12, 2016 in Fort Pierce, Florida. Law enforcement officials are investigating the fire as an arson and say that surveillance cameras show a person approaching the mosque moments before the blaze on Monday morning. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Getty Images Police say arsonist set Florida mosque on fire FORT PIERCE, FL - SEPTEMBER 12: Law enforcement officials investigate a fire at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, which was the mosque attended by the Pulse nightclub gunman, who killed 49 people in Orlando on September 12, 2016 in Fort Pierce, Florida. Law enforcement officials are investigating the fire as an arson and say that surveillance cameras show a person approaching the mosque moments before the blaze on Monday morning. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Getty Images Police say arsonist set Florida mosque on fire FORT PIERCE, FL - SEPTEMBER 12: Law enforcement officials investigate a fire at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, which was the mosque attended by the Pulse nightclub gunman, who killed 49 people in Orlando on September 12, 2016 in Fort Pierce, Florida. Law enforcement officials are investigating the fire as an arson and say that surveillance cameras show a person approaching the mosque moments before the blaze on Monday morning. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Getty Images Police say arsonist set Florida mosque on fire FORT PIERCE, FL - SEPTEMBER 12: Law enforcement officials investigate a fire at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, which was the mosque attended by the Pulse nightclub gunman, who killed 49 people in Orlando on September 12, 2016 in Fort Pierce, Florida. Law enforcement officials are investigating the fire as an arson and say that surveillance cameras show a person approaching the mosque moments before the blaze on Monday morning. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Getty Images

The attack took place the night before the 15th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. In 2001, anti-Muslim hate crimes surged by 1,600 per cent in 2001, according to the FBI.

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, spoke on the importance of the investigation.

I would obviously be concerned because its symptomatic of the overall rise in Islamophobic sentiment in our society, he told The Daily News. Thats based on the spike across the country in hate crimes and hate incidents, in recent days and over the past year.

Two days prior, another incident was reported in Brooklyn where two Muslim women were allegedly attacked while pushing their babies in strollers. Police said the suspect yelled anti-Muslim sentiments at the women such as get the f*ck out of America, you dont belong here and said they are not supposed to be different from us.

Emirjeta Xhelili, 32, allegedly tried to remove the hijab from the women while striking their heads, and at one point, tipped over the stroller and attacked the children. Neither child suffered serious injuries in the attack. Xhelili was later charged with assault, reckless endangerment of a child, and harassment. She is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday and her bail has been set at $50,000.

On Monday, authorities in Florida ruled that the mosque where the Orlando nightclub shooter occasionally worshipped was intentionally set on fire by arsonists.
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For 18 months, Republican strategists, political pundits, reporters and Americans who follow them have been pursuing Hillary Clinton's personal email habits, and no evidence of a crime has been found. But now they at least have the skills and interest to focus on a much larger and deeper email conspiracy, one involving war, lies, a private server run by the Republican Party and contempt of Congress citations--all of it still unsolved and unpunished.

Clinton's email habits look positively transparent when compared with the subpoena-dodging, email-hiding, private-server-using George W. Bush administration. Between 2003 and 2009, the Bush White House "lost" 22 million emails. This correspondence included millions of emails written during the darkest period in America's recent history, when the Bush administration was ginning up support for what turned out to be a disastrous war in Iraq with false claims that the country possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and, later, when it was firing U.S. attorneys for political reasons.

Like Clinton, the Bush White House used a private email server--its was owned by the Republican National Committee. And the Bush administration failed to store its emails, as required by law, and then refused to comply with a congressional subpoena seeking some of those emails. "It's about as amazing a double standard as you can get," says Eric Boehlert, who works with the pro-Clinton group Media Matters. "If you look at the Bush emails, he was a sitting president, and 95 percent of his chief advisers' emails were on a private email system set up by the RNC. Imagine if for the last year and a half we had been talking about Hillary Clinton's emails set up on a private DNC server?"

Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Show all 15 1 /15 Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Andrew Harnik/AP Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Darren McCollester/Getty Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Mary Schwalm/Reuters Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Brian Snyder/Reuters Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Brian Snyder/Reuters Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Brian Snyder/Reuters Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Brian Snyder/Reuters Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Brian Snyder/Reuters Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Andrew Harnik/AP Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Andrew Harnik/AP Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Darren McCollester/Getty Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Andrew Harnik/AP Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Andrew Harnik/AP Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Andrew Harnik/AP Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Andrew Harnik/AP

Most troubling, researchers found a suspicious pattern in the White House email system blackouts, including periods when there were no emails available from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. "That the vice president's office, widely characterized as the most powerful vice president in history, should have no archived emails in its accounts for scores of days--especially days when there was discussion of whether to invade Iraq--beggared the imagination," says Thomas Blanton, director of the Washington-based National Security Archive. The NSA (not to be confused with the National Security Agency, the federal surveillance organization) is a nonprofit devoted to obtaining and declassifying national security documents and is one of the key players in the effort to recover the supposedly lost Bush White House emails.

The media paid some attention to the Bush email chicanery but spent considerably less ink and airtime than has been devoted to Clinton's digital communications in the past 18 months. According to the Boston social media analytics firm Crimson Hexagon, which ran a study for Newsweek, there have been 560,397 articles mentioning Clinton's emails between March 2015 and September 1, 2016.

In 1978, Congress passed the Presidential Records Act (PRA), which mandated that all presidential and vice presidential records created after January 20, 1981, be preserved and that the public, not the president, owned the records. The following year, the Reagan administration installed the White House's rudimentary first email system.

Despite the PRA, neither the Reagan nor the George H.W. Bush administration maintained email records, even as the number of White House emails began growing exponentially. (The Bush administration would produce around 200 million.) In 1989, a federal lawsuit to force the White House to comply with the PRA was filed by several groups, including the NSA, which at the time was mostly interested in unearthing the secret history of the Cold War. The suit sparked a last-minute court order, issued in the waning hours of the first Bush presidency, that prevented 6,000 White House email backup tapes from being erased.

When Bill Clinton moved into the White House, his lawyers supported the elder Bush in his effort to uphold a side deal he'd cut with the National Archives and Records Administration to allow him to treat his White House emails as personal. At the time, George Stephanopoulos--then the White House communications director--defended the resistance, saying his boss, like Bush, didn't want subsequent, and potentially unfriendly, administrations rooting around in old emails.

The Clinton White House eventually settled the suit, and White House aide John Podesta--now Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman--even invited members of the NSA into the White House to demonstrate how the new system worked. If anyone tried to delete an email, a message would pop up on screen indicating that to do so would be in violation of the PRA.

"We were happy with that," recalls the NSA's Blanton, who edited a book on the Reagan-Bush email evasion, White House E-Mail: The Top Secret Messages the Reagan/Bush White House Tried to Destroy.

Eight years later, in 2003, a whistleblower told the NSA the George W. Bush White House was no longer saving its emails. The NSA and another watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (which had represented outed CIA agent Valerie Plame in her case against the Bush administration), refiled their original lawsuit.

The plaintiffs soon discovered that Bush aides had simply shut down the Clinton automatic email archive, and they identified the start date of the lost emails as January 1, 2003. The White House claimed it had switched to a new server and in the process was unable to maintain an archive--a claim that many found dubious.

Bush administration emails could have aided a special prosecutor's investigation into a White House effort to discredit a diplomat who disagreed with the administration's fabricated Iraq WMD evidence by outing his CIA agent wife, Plame. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who was brought in to investigate that case, said in 2006 that he believed some potentially relevant emails sent by aides in Cheney's office were in the administration's system but he couldn't get them.

The supposedly lost emails also prevented Congress from fully investigating, in 2007, the politically motivated firing of nine U.S. attorneys. When the Democrat-led Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed related emails, Bush's attorney general, Alberto Gonzalez, said many were inaccessible or lost on a nongovernmental private server run by the RNC and called gwb43.com. The White House, meanwhile, officially refused to comply with the congressional subpoena.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) called the president's actions "Nixonian stonewalling" and at one point took to the floor in exasperation and shouted, "They say they have not been preserved. I don't believe that!" His House counterpart, Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.), said Bush's assertion of executive privilege was unprecedented and displayed "an appalling disregard for the right of the people to know what is going on in their government."

In court in May 2008, administration lawyers contended that the White House had lost three months' worth of email backups from the initial days of the Iraq War. Bush aides thus evaded a court-ordered deadline to describe the contents of digital backup believed to contain emails deleted in 2003 between March--when the U.S. invaded Iraq--and September. They also refused to give the NSA nonprofit any emails relating to the Iraq War, despite the PRA, blaming a system upgrade that had deleted up to 5 million emails. The plaintiffs eventually contended that the Bush administration knew about the problem in 2005 but did nothing to fix it.

Hillary Clinton waves to the press as she leaves her daughter's apartment building in New York (Getty ) (Getty)

Eventually, the Bush White House admitted it had lost 22 million emails, not 5 million. Then, in December 2009--well into Barack Obama's administration--the White House said it found 22 million emails, dated between 2003 and 2005, that it claimed had been mislabeled. That cache was given to the National Archives, and the NSA and other plaintiffs agreed, on December 14, 2009, to settle their lawsuit. But the emails have not yet been made available to the public.

The Senate Judiciary Committee was operating on a different track but having no more luck. In a bipartisan vote in 2008, the committee found White House aides Karl Rove and Joshua Bolten in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with subpoenas in the investigation of the fired U.S. attorneys. The penalties for contempt are fines and possible jail time, but no punishment was ever handed down because a D.C. federal appeals court stayed the Senate's ruling in October 2008, while the White House appealed. Rove's lawyer claimed Rove did not "intentionally delete" any emails but was only conducting "the type of routine deletions people make to keep their inboxes orderly," according to the Associated Press.

By then, Obama was weeks away from winning the election, so the Bush administration basically ran out the clock. And neither the Obama administration nor the Senate committee pursued the matter.

The committee's final report on the matter was blunt: "[T]his subversion of the justice system has included lying, misleading, stonewalling and ignoring the Congress in our attempts to find out precisely what happened. The reasons given for these firings were contrived as part of a cover-up, and the stonewalling by the White House is part and parcel of that same effort."

At the time, some journalists and editorialists complained about a lack of transparency on the White House's part, but The Washington Post, in an editorial, accepted the White House explanation that the emails could have been lost due to flawed IT systems.

The mystery of what was in the missing Bush emails and why they went missing is still years away from being solved--if ever. The National Archives now has 220 million emails from the Bush White House, and there is a long backlog of Freedom of Information Act requests already. But not all of the emails will be available to the public until 2021, when the presidential security restrictions elapse. Even then, with currently available archiving and sorting methods, researchers still have years of work to figure out whether Cheney deleted days' worth of emails around the time of the WMD propaganda campaign that led to war, Blanton says.

"To your question of what's in there--we don't know," he says. "There was not a commitment at the top for saving it all. Now was that resistance motivated by political reasons? Or was it 'We gotta save money'?"

Like Leahy, Blanton has doubts that the emails were ever truly "lost," given that every email exists in two places, with the sender and with the recipient. But unlike watchdog group Judicial Watch, which has been relentless about forcing the State Department to publicly release Hillary Clinton's emails, Blanton and his fellow researchers have decided not to press their fight for the release of the Bush emails.

Blanton says he has no idea whether the Bush email record will be found intact after 2021, when his group will be allowed to do a systematic search and recovery process in the National Archives. "Did they find all of them? We don't know," he says. "Our hope is that by that time, the government and the National Archives will have much better technology and tools with which to sift and sort that kind of volume."

Blanton says he's not expecting that kind of upgrade, though. "Their entire budget is less than the cost of a single Marine One helicopter," he says. "It's an underfunded orphan."

Meanwhile, the episode has been nearly forgotten by almost everyone but the litigants. A source involved with the stymied congressional investigation recalled the period as "an intense time," but the Obama administration didn't encourage any follow-up, devoting its political capital to dealing with the crashing economy rather than investigating the murky doings that took place under his predecessor. Since then, no major media outlet has devoted significant--or, really, any--resources to obtaining the emails, or to finding out what was in them, or what, exactly, the Bush administration was hiding (or losing).

Newsweek
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A man accused of raping a woman and alleging she said "no", but it wasn't a "hard no" is due to appear in court.

Austin Michael Brown, Nampa, Idaho, was arrested and charged on 29 August on a felony rape charge, according to KTVB.

The 22-year-old allegedly raped the woman in June after inviting her to his house.

The woman told police that once she arrived at the home, Brown picked her up and carried her upstairs before forcibly removing her clothing and having sex with her against her will.

She said she repeatedly told Brown to stop and tried to fight him off, but he allegedly held her down.

Brown initially denied that he had had sex with the woman but later admitted to the incident, police say.

He told police he had thought the encounter was consensual, and that the woman had told him no but that it wasn't a hard no, according to court documents.

Rape victims tell Angelina Jolie to leave stories untold Show all 2 1 /2 Rape victims tell Angelina Jolie to leave stories untold Rape victims tell Angelina Jolie to leave stories untold 485702.bin ANTONIN KRATOCHVIL Rape victims tell Angelina Jolie to leave stories untold 485703.bin AP

A warrant was issued for Brown's arrest on 19 August and he is due back in court on 21 September.

The case comes three months after former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner, 20, was found guilty of sexually assaulting a 23-year-old woman while she was unconscious near a house party.

His victim wrote a letter addressed to him following the incident which she read out in court, sparking a new conversation about rape cases in the USA and across the world.

Turner was sentenced to six months in prison.
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The Saudi-dominated Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has condemned a law passed by the United States Congress last week that would allow the families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to sue the kingdom's government for damages.

The head of the six-nation GCC said the law was "contrary to the foundations and principles of relations between states and the principle of sovereign immunity enjoyed by states."

"Such laws will negatively affect the international efforts and international cooperation to combat terrorism," GCC Secretary General Abdullatif al-Zayani said in a statement.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the "Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act," known as JASTA, on Friday but the White House has threatened to veto the measure.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers who crashed airliners in New York, outside Washington and in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001 were Saudi nationals, but the Saudi government has strongly denied responsibility and has lobbied against the bill.
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Joel Cervantes Macias was driving in Chicagos Little Italy village neighbourhood when he noticed 89-year-old Fidencio Sanchez struggling to push his cart of paletas. Mr Macias pulled over and took a photo of the man, bought 20 ice cream bars, and handed him $50.

It broke my heart seeing this man that should be enjoying retirement still working at this age, he wrote on GoFundMe.

He also learned that Mr Sanchezs only daughter died in July. Two years earlier, his wife injured her shoulder and was forced to stop selling paletas by his side.

Moved by the mans story, Mr Macias set up a fundraiser on GoFundMe and raised more than $100,000 by the end of the day.

We're trying to raise money to help him with whatever we can, he wrote. Anything helps. Let's all pitch in and help make life a little easier and brighten both of their day.

Mr Sanchez is originally from Mexico and only returned to work after his daughter died. He recently told Univision Chicago that he planned to donate most of the proceeds to his churches in Chicago and Mexico.

He also told Telemundo Chicago that he was not sure if he would retire.

But on the other hand, yes, because I need go out in the fresh air," he said. "I like it a lot and it helps me a lot."

Mr Macias said he would present the check to Mr Sanchez by the end of the week.
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A Muslim woman who was gang raped in India has said her attackers asked her whether she ate beef in what some suspect was another crime by Hindu vigilante groups.

The 20-year-old and her 14-year-old cousin were attacked by a group of men who trespassed into their home in Mewat, Haryana, and murdered their uncle and aunt before sexually assaulting the female victims two weeks ago.

Local police originally arrested four men for trespass and sexual assault, but after protests from the local community the men were charged with murder.

Now the older victim has said the men asked the victims whether they ate beef before insisting they did and proceeding to attack them.

She told NDTV: They asked if we eat beef. We said we don't, but they insisted we did.

"Then they said we're hurting you before so you don't and that if we tell anyone we'll will be insulted."

India protests against sexual violence Show all 20 1 /20 India protests against sexual violence India protests against sexual violence April 2015 School girls wear black bands on their faces during a protest rally against the rape case of a 16-year-old girl at Dhupguri town in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal Reuters India protests against sexual violence March 2015 Students of Convent of Jesus and Mary School participate in a protest against the alleged gang rape of a nun in her 70s AP India protests against sexual violence March 2015 Official figures for the number of women raped in India are often disputed by Women's Rights experts who claim the numbers are far higher SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images India protests against sexual violence March 2015 Women protest after the horrific rape and murder of Jyoti Singh in India BBC India protests against sexual violence June 2014 Women in India protest against rape and other attacks on women and girls in the country AP India protests against sexual violence June 2014 Indian activists from the Social Unity Center of India (SUCI) shout slogans against the state government in protest against the gang rape and murder of two girls in the district of Badaun in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and recent rapes in the eastern state of West Bengal, in Kolkata AFP/Getty India protests against sexual violence June 2014 Supporters of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were protesting against the rape and hanging of two girls Reuters India protests against sexual violence May 2014 Members of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union shout slogans during a protest against a gang rape of two teenage girls in Katra village, outside the Uttar Pradesh state house, in New Delhi. A top government official said the northern Uttar Pradesh state has sacked two police officers who failed to respond to a complaint by the father of the two teenage girls who went missing and were later found gang raped and killed. The placard at right reads, "Punish the culprits of gang-rape and murder of two Dalit girls" AP Photo/Manish Swarup India protests against sexual violence January 2014 Student protesters outside a Suri hospital where a rape victim is being treated Andrew Buncombe India protests against sexual violence January 2014 West Bengal Women's Forum activists walk a protest rally against a rape case in Calcutta, eastern India. A young girl was gang-raped on October 25 and afterwards repeatedly threatened by the accused, following which the disturbed girl set herself on fire December 23. She was admitted to the hospital with 40 percent burns and finally succumbed to her burn injuries on 31 December EPA India protests against sexual violence August 2013 Republican Party of India supporters protest in Mumbai against the rape of a female photographer Reuters India protests against sexual violence May 2013 Indian demonstrators shout slogans at the police during a protest calling for better safety for women AFP/Getty Images India protests against sexual violence April 2013 An Indian woman holds a poster as she protests with others against how Indian authorities handle sex crimes near the Parliament in New Delhi, after a second suspect was arrested in the rape of a 5-year-old girl. Child rights activists say the rape of the girl is just the latest case in which Indian police failed to take urgent action on a report of a missing child. Three days after the attack, the girl was found alone in locked room in the same New Delhi building where her family lives AP India protests against sexual violence March 2013 Indians protests against all-too-common gang-rapes in their country Getty Images India protests against sexual violence January 2013 Indian students of various organisations hold placards as they shout slogans during a demonstration in Hyderabad Getty Images India protests against sexual violence January 2013 A protester chants slogans as she braces herself against the spray fired from police water canons during a protest against the Indian government's reaction to recent rape incidents in India, in front of India Gate on December 23, 2012 in New Delhi Getty Images India protests against sexual violence January 2013 Indian children paint messages during a gathering to mourn the death of the 23-year old rape victim. Her statement was used in the trial AP India protests against sexual violence January 2013 Indians hold a candlelight vigil in Delhi in memory of a gang-rape victim. Five men have been charged with murder AP India protests against sexual violence December 2012 Indian protesters are escorted by police as they demonstrate against the brutal gang-rape of a woman AP India protests against sexual violence December 2012 Indian protesters destroy a police van during a violent demonstration near the India Gate against a gang rape and brutal beating of a 23-year-old student on a bus AP

Senior police officers have so far reportedly said the men had no link to so-called "cow vigilante groups".

But the Muslim community has expressed fears about a rise in attacks by Hindu groups.

Many Hindus consider cows sacred and the slaughter of the animal is banned in Haryana, along with several other states.

Earlier this year two Muslim women were reportedly been beaten up at a train station in India on suspicion of carrying beef.
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Muslims around the world are celebrating Eid al-Adha, one of the two most important festivals in the faiths calendar.

The holy day is also known as the Feast of Sacrifice and symbolises Ibrahims willingness to sacrifice his sons life as a testament to the strength of his faith. It is distinct from Eid-al-Fitr, or the Lesser Eid which marks the end of Ramadan and which was celebrated on 6 July this year.

On Eid al-Adha, people greet each other wishing them 'Eid Mubarak' or a blessed Eid. Many believers will start the day with morning prayers, followed by spending time with relatives, neighbours and friends. Some worshippers will also slaughter an animal such as a sheep or goat to echo Ibrahims sacrifice.

A Palestinian girl attends the morning prayer of Eid al-Adha on September 12, 2016 (Getty)

An Afghan guard of honour looks out as others offer Eid-al-Adha prayers at the Hazrat-i- Ali shrine in Mazar-i Sharif on September 12, 2016 (Getty)

An Afghan boy feeds pigeons at the Hazrat-i- Ali shrine in Mazar-i Sharif on September 12, 2016 (Getty)

A Sri Lankan Muslim woman prays during Eid Al-Adha celebrations at the Galle Face esplanade in Colombo on September 12, 2016. (Getty)

Men pray outdoors in Lagos, Nigeria on 12 September (Getty)

Members of an Afghan guard of honour greet each other after offering Eid-al-Adha prayers at the Hazrat-i- Ali shrine in Mazar-i Sharif on September 12, 2016 (Getty)

Afghan devotees greet each other after offering Eid-al-Adha prayers at the Shah-e Do Shamshira mosque in Kabul on September 12, 2016 (Getty)

A celebratory fireworks display on September 11, 2016 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (Getty)

It is estimated that 1.6 billion people worldwide are Muslim. In the UK, Islam is the second largest religion, with 2.7 million believers, or 4.5 per cent of the total population.
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The Italian town that suffered a devastating earthquake last month has filed a lawsuit against Charlie Hebdo over its depiction of the tragedy.

Amatrice is suing the French satirical magazine for defamation after it published a cartoon entitled: "Earthquake, Italian Style", in reference to the magnitude 6.2 earthquake that killed more than 291 people and left a further 2,500 displaced.

The image depicted three people: a bloodied man labelled Penne, tomato sauce, a charred woman labelled Crustes penne and a collapsed building with battered limbs poking out entitled Lasagne.

Amatrice lawyer Mario Cicchetti filed the complaint on behalf of the town's local coucil in Rieti.

Mr Cicchetti told Italian news agency ANSA: This is a macabre, senseless and inconceivable insult to victims of a natural event."

Italians had reacted to the cartoons with anger, and social media users described them as heartless" and "distasteful".

In response to the outcry Charlie Hebdo extended the unpopular joke by writing a message on their Facebook page stating: Italians, it's not Charlie Hebdo that builds your homes, it's the Mafia!

The Facebook post featured another cartoon depicting a bloodied and battered woman in the rubble with the same message.

Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Show all 23 1 /23 Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Pakistan Pakistani Islamists burn a French flag during a protest against the printing of satirical sketches of the Prophet Mohammad by French magazine Charlie Hebdo in Quetta, Pakistan on 22 January 2015 Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Afghanistan Afghan demonstrators set a French flag on fire during a protest against the printing of satirical sketches of the Prophet Mohamed by French magazine Charlie Hebdo in Jalalabad on January 19 2015 AFP/Getty Images Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Afghanistan An Afghan boy holds a placard during a rally against the French magazine 'Charlie Hebdo' Jalalabad, Afghanistan, 19 January 2015 EPA Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Afghanistan Afghans chant slogans during a protest against cartoons published in French magazine Charlie Hebdo in the city of Jalalabad, on 19 January 2015 AP Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Iran Protesters clash with members of the Iranian security services during a demonstration against Charlie Hebdo in Tehran on 19 January 2015 EPA Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Iran Iranians carry a placard bearing the picture of Jihad, the son of assassinated senior Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh, during a protest against Charlie Hebdo outside the French embassy in Tehran on 19 January 2015 AFP/Getty Images Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Niger People run past a police car on fire by protesters during a demonstration against French weekly Charlie Hebdo's publication of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohamed in front of the grand mosque in Niamey AFP/Getty Images Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Niger A church, which was damaged after it was set on fire by protesters during a demonstration against French weekly Charlie Hebdo's publication of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohamed in Niamey, AFP/Getty Images Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Niger A police van set on fire by protesters during a demonstration against French weekly Charlie Hebdo's publication of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed in Niamey AFP/Getty Images Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Niger Smoke billows in a street as people demonstrate against French weekly Charlie Hebdo's publication of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohamed near the grand mosque in Niamey, on 17 January 2015 AFP/Getty Images Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Chechnya People attend a state-organised rally against the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed by Charlie Hebdo in the Chechen capital Grozny on 19 January 2015 AP Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Chechnya People pray during a state-organised rally against the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed by Charlie Hebdo in the Chechen capital Grozny on 19 January 2015 AFP/Getty Images Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Chechnya Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov speaks an anti-Charlie Hebdo rally in Grozny on 19 January 2015 AFP/Getty Images Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Philippines Women protest in Marawi, Philippines, over Prophet Mohamed depictions AFP Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Philippines Protesters in Marawi, Philippines, burn a poster with the face of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Getty Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Pakistan Pakistani protesters shout slogans during a protest against the printing of sketches of the Prophet Mohamed by French magazine Charlie Hebdo, in Lahore on 18 January 2015 AFP/Getty Images Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Pakistan Pakistani demonstrators burn the French flag during a protest against the printing of satirical sketches of the Prophet Mohamed in Charlie Hebdo, in Peshawar on January 19, 2015 AFP/Getty Images Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Pakistan Supporters of banned Islamic charity Jamat-ud-Dawa rally against a decision by the controversial French magazine 'Charlie Hebdo' to publish a depiction of the Prophet Mohamed, in Lahore, Pakistan, 18 January 2015 EPA Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Mali Thousands of people take to the streets of the Malian capital Bamako on January 16 to protest against Charlie Hebdo AFP/Getty Images Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Mali People hold up signs as they rally against Charlie Hebdo in Bamako on 16 January 2015 Reuters Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Algeria Demonstrators burn the French national flag after Friday prayers in Algiers January 16, 2015 Reuters Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Algeria Demonstrators clash with police in anti-Charlie Hebdo protests after Friday prayers in Algiers January 16, 2015 Reuters Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests around the world Algeria Demonstrators clash with police in anti-Charlie Hebdo protests after Friday prayers in Algiers January 16, 2015 Reuters

International opinion on Charlie Hebdo is mixed. In January 2015 the publication attracted global sympathy and was hailed as a bastion of free speech after Islamists stormed its Paris offices and killed 12 people.

Charlie Hebdo has not responded to a request for comment.
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A Norwegian court has found a hairdresser guilty of discrimination for refusing to serve a Muslim woman wearing a hijab.

The Jaeren District Court on Monday fined Merete Hodne 10,000 kroner ($1,200) and ordered her to pay 5,000 kroner in court costs.

The 47-year-old hairdresser's lawyer, Linda Ellefsen Eide, said they will appeal.

Court papers state that Hodne told Malika Bayan during an October visit to the salon near the city of Stavanger she would not serve "people like her, go and find somewhere else."

Bayan was accompanied by a friend, and both women wore hijabs.

The court found that Hodne "had intentionally discriminated against Bayan and shooed her away from the salon because (she) was a Muslim." It said the hairdresser previously was involved in several organizations critical of Islam.

Speaking to Norways Tv2 last week, she said: I fear the totalitarian symbol of the hijab which says that I should be killed, and for me it is quite unnatural to provide good service in my situation.

As most people know hijab clad woman do not get to show their hair to men. My salon is a man and womens hair salon.

It would have been deeply discriminatory if I had banished men from the lounge because of a woman who could not show her hair to them.

She added: Evil is Islams ideology, Mohammedanism and the hijab are symbols of this ideology, like the swastika is for Nazism.
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A senior anti-corruption official in Russia has been arrested after a police search found $123 million (92 million) stashed in his apartment.

Dmitry Zakharchenko, deputy head of Moscows Ministry of Internal Affairs Committee for Economic Security and Combating Corruption, was detained on suspicion of abuse of power, obstruction of justice and accepting bribes after the money, worth around 8 billion rubles, was discovered.

Pictures purporting to show the cash seized in the raid on Thursday were published by Life.ru news, which alleged that investigators had to pause the search to find a big enough container to store the piles of money.

Around $2.2 million (1.6 million) of the money seized was in Euros, Tass news agency reports.

The final amount is unknown. [Police] confiscated a cache only in [Zakharchenkos] house; it is not yet known how many more assets [he has], but we are working in this direction, a source told RIA Novosti.

A large amount of cash was located in his study, sources said.

Cash was also discovered in his car, according to the Moscow Times.

Police are also investigating links between Zakharchenko and a case against Russias NOTA bank, which was stripped of its license in November 2015 for violating banking regulations.

A police source told Tass that Zakharchenkos arrest is connected with an embezzlement case involving 26 billion rubles from the bank.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. 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In court on Saturday, 38-year-old Zakharchenko said the money does not belong to him and claimed the flat where the cash was found belonged to his sister.

Moscows Presnensky District Court later ruled that Zakharchenko should remain in custody until 8 November.

Zakharchenkos defence has filed an appeal against his detention.

"We have submitted an appeal against the Presnensky District Courts ruling to take my client into custody as the necessary measure of restraint", his lawyer Yury Novikov told Tass.

Mr Novikov is previously cited by Interfax as saying: We are asking about two alternative measures: home arrest or 70 million rubles ($1 million) bail.
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At 48 people have been injured in an explosion near the ruling AKP party's headquarters in the city of Van in southeastern Turkey.

Turkish news agency Dogan has quoted local police who said initial reports suggest it was a car bomb.

The blast hit some 200 metres from the Van provincial governor's office and ripped through the city's central district setting buildings and cars alight.

It ripped the front from a four-storey building but the business district, which is normally busy at that time on a Monday morning, was unusually quiet as it was the first day of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha.

Local television footage showed smoke billowing from a building and firefighters battling flames.

There have been no immediate reports of any deaths but two are said to be in critical condition in hospital.

The blast was near to the provincial headquarters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the local AKP party's deputy leader, Burhan Kayaturk, told CNN Turk that the target of the attack was their regional headquarters but the building was well-secured and had not been badly damaged.

Van province's population is mostly Kurdish. Separatists groups such as the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) have carried out several terror attacks on the country in recent months after a two-year ceasefire with the government broke down last year.

They have been waging a three decades-long insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in the south-east of the country which has killed an estimated 40,000 people.

Security sources have blamed the PKK for the attack but there has been no immediate claim of responsibility.

Development Minister Lutfi Elvan condemned the attack, the perpetrators had no respect for the holiday.

He told the Andolu agency: "Of course the necessary response is being given to these traitors, and will continue being given.

The explosion ripped the front of the building near the AKP headquarters and the regional governor's office (AP)

"Our nation and our state are strong. we are easily overcoming them and God willing we will root out this divisive terrorist organization as well as Daesh (Isis). We don't want even a single person remaining."

The attack came a day after Mr Erdogan removed two dozen mayors from Kurdish-run municipalities from office in four towns in the wider Van province over alleged links to the PKK - which is treated as a terrorist organsation in Turkey.

The removals triggered protests and the pro-Kurdish opposition party, the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), saying the move was an illegal "administrative coup".

In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Show all 17 1 /17 In pictures: Turkey coup attempt In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish President Erdogan attends the funeral service for victims of the thwarted coup in Istanbul at Fatih mosque on July 17, 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey Burak Kara/Getty Images In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Soldiers involved in the coup attempt surrender on Bosphorus bridge with their hands raised in Istanbul on 16 July, 2016 Gokhan Tan/Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt A civilian beats a soldier after troops involved in the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, 16 July, 2016 REUTERS/Murad Sezer In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Surrendered Turkish soldiers who were involved in the coup are beaten by a civilian Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Soliders involved in the coup attempt surrender on Bosphorus bridge Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wave flags as they capture a Turkish Army vehicle Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt People pose near a tank after troops involved in the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, 16 July, 2016 Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers block Istanbul's Bosphorus Brigde Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt A Turkish military stands guard near the Taksim Square in Istanbul Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Pierre Crom/Twitter In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers secure the area as supporters of Recep Tayyip Erdogan protest in Istanbul's Taksim square AP In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Murad Sezer/Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers detain police officers during a security shutdown of the Bosphorus Bridge Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish Army armoured personnel carriers in the main streets of Istanbul Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Chaos reigned in Istanbul as tanks drove through the streets EPA/TOLGA BOZOGLU In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks to media in the resort town of Marmaris Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Supporters of President Erdogan celebrate in Ankara following the suppression of the attempted coup Reuters

The country is also being racked by an insurgency led by Isis militants angry at the country's strikes against them over the border in Syria.

In June, 41 people were killed and 239 others were wounded when two suicide bombers detonated explosives before three others opened fire with AK-47s at Istanbul Airport.

Turkey has seen widespread political upheaval since an ill-fated attempt to oust Mr Erdogan by some members of the army on 15th July.

Since the attempted coup Mr Erdogan has staged a widespread crackdown on the "Gullenists" - supporters of the exiled Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen - which has seen the arrest of at least 26,000 people with thousands more being sacked or forced to resign from government posts, the Armed Forces and the police.

Additional reporting by Reuters
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A ceasefire agreement has come into effect in Syria, after more than 100 people were reported to have died in airstrikes over the weekend.

The deal, which was brokered by the US and Russia, officially came into effect at sunset on Monday, though doubts remain over whether opposition fighters in Syria will abide by it.

If the cessation of hostilities lasts for a week, the US and Russia will carry out air strikes against Isis and other jihadist groups.

The deal was finalised in Geneva on Friday after months of negotiations between the US and Russia, and has reportedly been welcomed by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

Previous ceasefire agreements have prompted similarly heavy bombardments by the Syrian government prior to beginning, but have all ultimately failed.

The negotiations are the second attempt Washington and Moscow have made to broker a national ceasefire in the country, in a bid to bring an end to the violence.

It is hoped the truce will allow more than 30 aid trucks to deliver humanitarian aid to the besieged city of Aleppo.

Rebel groups including the Free Syrian Army and the Islamist group Aharar al-Sham have both accepted the deal.

Recommended Read more Disturbing video of child injured in strikes in Aleppo emerges

The Syrian government will still be able to attack Isis and other jihadi groups, and is officially supporting the ceasefire.

Nonetheless, President Assad said he was still determined to recover every area from terrorists, and to rebuild.

If the ceasefire holds for seven days, then under the terms of the deal, the US and Russia will set up a joint command centre to hit jihadist groups including Isis and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly known as the Nusra Front).

Former Foreign Secretary David Miliband told the BBCs Radio 4 Today programme the plans offered the best chance of a real ceasefire since the civil war began five years ago.

He said: The indications are certainly that there is a better short-term chance of a decent lull in the fighting than has ever happened before. The degree of Russian engagement seems to be of a much greater order than of any of the previous ceasefire attempts.

Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them Show all 13 1 /13 Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office

He added: If there are enough short-term interests that join the Americans and the Russians, then those of us on the humanitarian side have got a chance to try and make a difference for 17 million benighted people within the Syrian territory.
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A ceasefire began at sunset aimed at ending the five-year long civil war in Syria that has killed over a quarter of a million Syrians and forced five million more to flee the country. Under an agreement between the US and Russia, the initial truce will last seven days, during which time UN convoys will bring aid to besieged districts and Syrian government bombing of civilian areas will stop.

The Syrian army said a seven-day calm would be applied across Syria from 7pm on Monday, but it reserved the right to respond decisively using all forms of fire to any violation by the armed groups.

If the truce holds for a week, the US and Russia will form an unprecedented military partnership that will control airstrikes targeting Isis and Jabhat al-Nusra, the former Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda that has relabelled itself as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. Moderate rebel groups are supposed to separate themselves from al-Nusra in order to avoid air attack, though there are doubts about the feasibility of this.

 Syria's President Assad celebrates Eid al-Adha at mosque in Daraya, site of one of his most brutal sieges

Most of the participants in the war say they will respect the ceasefire, though armed groups seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad said they did not think al-Nusra should be singled out as a target for air strikes.

Observers in Damascus say one of the weaknesses of the accord is that Nusra is the backbone of the armed opposition, but has no reason to abide by the terms of the ceasefire from which it is excluded.

In the hours before the ceasefire, Syrian air force planes continued to bomb  having killed 90 civilians in Idlib province and Aleppo on Saturday  and al-Qaeda-linked groups conducted an offensive in the south of Syria. Opposition critics of the deal say that it lacks credible monitoring mechanisms.

Mr Assad has agreed to the accord, but said on Monday that his government would take back all of Syria from the terrorists. Earlier, he had prayed as part of the Eid al-Adha holiday in the main mosque in Daraya, a pro-rebel district of Damascus that had withstood a Syrian Army siege for four years until it surrendered on terms last month. Its pre-war population of 200,000 has disappeared and its rubble-strewn streets are silent and empty.

Mr Assad had little choice but to agree to a deal that was negotiated by Russia, on whom he depends for air support, weapons and diplomatic backing.

But, in any case, the agreement has several advantages for him, such as freezing the military situation as his military forces tighten their grip on Damascus and rebel-held East Aleppo. The US and Russia will be targeting al-Nusra, which has led all successful offensives by the armed opposition in recent years. The Syrian Army will be freed up to attack Isis, which still holds swathes of territory in eastern Syria.

The Syrian Kurds announced they were adhering to the truce yesterday, though not, presumably, when it comes to fighting Isis, which is excluded from the ceasefire. The Peoples Protection Units (YPG) have provided the infantry which has won a series of battles against Isis in the last 18 months because of their military skill and discipline and because they can call in the devastating firepower of the US air force to destroy Isis targets.

A feature of the war in Syria and Iraq is that the anti-Isis and anti-al-Nusra armies  the YPG, Syrian Army, Iraqi Army and Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga  all rely on foreign air forces.

This makes it difficult for them to go against whatever their foreign allies want them to do politically. Isis and al-Nusra are by far the most militarily effective parts of the ant-Assad opposition, primarily because of their mass use of suicide bombers which makes it possible for them to fight better-equipped enemies.

Rebel groups that have clashed with al-Nusra in the past have been rapidly defeated and there is no reason to believe that they will be more successful in similar circumstances today.

Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them Show all 13 1 /13 Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office

UN aid convoys will enter besieged villages, towns and urban enclaves as an important part of the agreement, bringing relief to between 250,000 and 275,000 people in East Aleppo.

These have been cut off over the last week after a government counter-offensive retook the Ramouseh Road in the south of the city. Under the agreement, neither government nor rebels are allowed to impede traffic on this road, though it remains in government hands.

The famous Castello Road in north Aleppo, previously the main rebel supply line to East Aleppo, will be demilitarised with both sides forces pulling back.

There are some 592,000 Syrians besieged or blockaded, most of them in opposition areas, though 110,000 are trapped by Isis in the eastern provincial capital of Deir Ezzor. Conditions differ markedly from place to place.

A woman from the rebel-held town of Madaya west of Damascus said she and her children were reduced to eating boiled thistles and putting spices in hot water to give it taste. But the 282,000 people in Eastern Ghouta, much the largest rebel enclave in greater Damascus, are better fed because they have agricultural land, and smugglers can bring in goods by tunnels or by bribing government checkpoints.

The chances of the truce turning into a long-term ceasefire are greater than before because the US and Russia are the most powerful countries engaged in the Syrian war.

The US has been using its air force in the country since 2014 and the Russians a year later. They are in a position to influence local allies on the ground in Syria and regional powers like Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Qatar. While the compliance of these countries, cannot be guaranteed even when they have publicly endorsed the agreement, they will have to be circumspect in trying to derail it.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar face the failure of their long campaign to overthrow Mr Assad and the targeting of al-Nusra, to whom they have given weapons and money.

Turkey has done so too, but lack of international criticism of its incursion into northern Syria in August may be a quid pro quo for Ankara not seeking to undermine the latest accord. Iran and Hezbollah of Lebanon have approved the deal and will be pleased that Mr Assad and his government are more secure, but they may also fear the outcome of US-Russian conciliation which might reduce their influence.

Observers in Damascus say the US and Russians have tried ensure that regional powers, which are a main driving force for the war, are brought on board in support of the agreement.
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The exclusion of female candidate's names from campaign materials ahead of municipal elections in the West Bank and Gaza has sparked a new focus on women's civil rights in Palestinian society.

Elections to decide the councils of more than 400 towns and cities in the Palestinian territories were due to be held October 8, but were suspended by Ramallah's high court last week. The fact that several slates included female candidates whose names had been replaced with 'wife of' or 'sister of' did not go unnoticed, however.

News that some election materials from villages near Hebron and Jenin excluded women's names caused an outcry on social media, birthing the Arabic hashtag 'Our names should not be covered', which quickly went viral.

Women took to Twitter and Facebook using the hashtag to say they are proud to put their names to their achievements, as well as those of their mothers, sisters and daughters. Many men did the same.

Our names are not mere terms; our names refer to our identity, rights activist Sumaya al-Mashharawi said in an statement.

The incident has resonated with Palestinians, making newspaper headlines and television news bulletins in the past week. It has also provided the catalyst for calls for more to be done for women's participation in public life in Palestine.

The Filastiniyat Association, a Ramallah-based NGO which fights for the equitable representation of women and girls, said the 'Our names should not be covered' campaign is a call to all educated women to urge the patriarchal society to stop neglecting this powerful social driver.

Filastiniyat's founder Wafa' Abdel Rahman said that although the campaign successfully got the candidate lists changed, Palestine's political parties have signed a code of conduct to ensure that women make up a minimum of 30 per cent of candidates, but were failing to live up to their pledge.

We still need need to work harder to pressure the political system to genuinely take every measure that enables women to be more visible, not only as numbers and quotas... the road is still long.

In Palestine, as in much of the Arab world, it is common for the name of the bride to be omitted from wedding invitations, or for men to not speak a woman's name at a public event or meetings such as political activity, al-Monitor reports.

Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures 541126.bin  Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures 541129.bin  Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures 541124.bin  Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures 541123.bin  Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures 541130.bin  Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures 541125.bin  Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures 541121.bin  Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures 541128.bin  Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures 541127.bin  Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures 541122.bin  Bruno Stevens

Men often do not refer to their mothers' names in order to save their reputations from ridicule or shame. In previous Palestinian elections, the pictures of some female candidates have been replaced with pictures of flowers and doves.

Nadia Abu Nalha, the Director of a Coalition of Womens Organisations in the Gaza Strip, called this year's controversy a step backwards.

The fact that some lists covered the names of female candidates is viewed as a serious decline in the way these movements think, even though the actions are justified as being in line with the social character [ie conservative] in some areas, she told Ma'an News.

If their names are not recognised, how can womens needs be added to the planning and coordination of the municipal agenda?

The Central Election Commission has said that the papers in question are illegal, since women are entitled to full political participation under Palestinian law.

The elections are yet to be rescheduled after the high courts decision to cancel given disagreements over the validity of Fatah slates in Gaza. Fatah, the secular ruling party in the West Bank, and Islamist Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, have not been in direct competition with each other for votes since 2006.

The contest is widely being viewed as a litmus test for how willing the two factions are to work together. Officials from both Hamas and Fatah have blamed each other for the delay, rendering the prospect of co-operation for any future parliamentary or presidential elections bleak.

A new hearing will be held on September 21.
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Top of the EU and British agenda is the issue of controlling external borders. Britain now takes in more non-EU than European migrants and if the new Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, really wants to reduce numbers coming into the UK she needs to look beyond Europe.

In Greece and Italy authorities are at breaking point. If a deal with Turkey slowed down access from Turkish coastal regions, the refugees and economic migrants helped by their travel agencies  denounced as people traffickers, but simply providing a service for money  will move to Libya. There the destruction of the state in 2011 following British and French intervention has opened a 1,100 mile breach in the previously well-patrolled southern frontiers of the Mediterranean.

The crisis over the so-called Calais jungle is not new, nor is the wider political turbulence over Angela Merkels Wir schaffen das opening of German borders to refugees concentrated in holding camps between the Middle East and the Alps. Extending the current security fence to discourage (but not prevent) people from jumping lorries will make little difference until the source of refugee flows is dealt with.

Merkels generosity over refugees cost her seats in the East German Land election earlier this month but the Social Democrats and Greens also lost to the anti-refugee Alternative fur Deutschland populists. She has since made clear she is not going to create a Festung Deutschland or refuse to allow refugees to enter Germany.

The first Wir schaffen das European leader was, in fact, Edward Heath. In the early 1970s he defied public, tabloid and political opinion and opened Britains borders to let in 103,000 Muslim immigrants seeking to flee the horror of Idi Amins rule in Uganda and other East African despots. Some of the stars of British public, media and business life today are the sons and daughters of that wave of immigrants. Heath took the decision against much of public opinion and against the Nigel Farage or Boris Johnson of the day  Enoch Powell.

Refugees settle in Germany Show all 12 1 /12 Refugees settle in Germany Refugees settle in Germany Germany Mohamed Zayat, a refugee from Syria, plays with his daughter Ranim, who is nearly 3, in the one room they and Mohamed's wife Laloosh call home at an asylum-seekers' shelter in Vossberg village on October 9, 2015 in Letschin, Germany. The Zayats arrived approximately two months ago after trekking through Turkey, Greece and the Balkans and are now waiting for local authorities to process their asylum application, after which they will be allowed to live independently and settle elsewhere in Germany. Approximately 60 asylum-seekers, mostly from Syria, Chechnya and Somalia, live at the Vossberg shelter, which is run by the Arbeiter-Samariter Bund (ASB) charity 2015 Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany A refugee child Amnat Musayeva points to a star with her photo and name that decorates the door to her classroom as teacher Martina Fischer looks on at the local kindergarten Amnat and her siblings attend on October 9, 2015 in Letschin, Germany. The children live with their family at an asylum-seekers' shelter in nearby Vossberg village and are waiting for local authorities to process their asylum applications. Approximately 60 asylum-seekers, mostly from Syria, Chechnya and Somalia, live at the Vossberg shelter, which is run by the Arbeiter-Samariter Bund (ASB) charity Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Kurdish Syrian asylum-applicant Mohamed Ali Hussein (R), 19, and fellow applicant Autur, from Latvia, load benches onto a truckbed while performing community service, for which they receive a small allowance, in Wilhelmsaue village on October 9, 2015 near Letschin, Germany. Mohamed and Autur live at an asylum-applicants' shelter in nearby Vossberg village. Approximately 60 asylum-seekers, mostly from Syria, Chechnya and Somalia, live at the Vossberg shelter, which is run by the Arbeiter-Samariter Bund (ASB) charity Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Mohamed Ali Hussein ((L), 19, and his cousin Sinjar Hussein, 34, sweep leaves at a cemetery in Gieshof village, for which they receive a small allowance, near Letschin Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Mohamed Zayat, a refugee from Syria, looks among donated clothing in the basement of the asylum-seekers' shelter that is home to Mohamed, his wife Laloosh and their daughter Ranim as residents' laundry dries behind in Vossberg village on October 9, 2015 in Letschin, Germany. The Zayats arrived approximately two months ago after trekking through Turkey, Greece and the Balkans and are now waiting for local authorities to process their asylum application, after which they will be allowed to live independently and settle elsewhere in Germany Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Asya Sugaipova (L), Mohza Mukayeva and Khadra Zhukova prepare food in the communal kitchen at the asylum-seekers' shelter that is their home in Vossberg village in Letschin Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Efrah Abdullahi Ahmed looks down from the communal kitchen window at her daughter Sumaya, 10, who had just returned from school, at the asylum-seekers' shelter that is their home in Vossberg Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Asylum-applicants, including Syrians Mohamed Ali Hussein (C-R, in black jacket) and Fadi Almasalmeh (C), return from grocery shopping with other refugees to the asylum-applicants' shelter that is their home in Vossberg village in Letschin Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Mohamed Zayat (2nd from L), a refugee from Syria, smokes a cigarette after shopping for groceries with his daughter Ranim, who is nearly 3, and fellow-Syrian refugees Mohamed Ali Hussein (C) and Fadi Almasalmeh (L) at a local supermarket on October 9, 2015 in Letschin, Germany. All of them live at an asylum-seekers' shelter in nearby Vossberg village and are waiting for local authorities to process their asylum applications, after which they will be allowed to live independently and settle elsewhere in Germany 2015 Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Kurdish Syrian refugees Leila, 9, carries her sister Avin, 1, in the backyard at the asylum-seekers' shelter that is home to them and their family in Vossberg village in Letschin Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Somali refugees and husband and wife Said Ahmed Gure (R) and Ayaan Gure pose with their infant son Muzammili, who was born in Germany, in the room they share at an asylum-seekers' shelter in Vossberg village on October 9, 2015 in Letschin, Germany. Approximately 60 asylum-seekers, mostly from Syria, Chechnya and Somalia, live at the Vossberg shelter, which is run by the Arbeiter-Samariter Bund (ASB) charity, and are waiting for authorities to process their application for asylum 2015 Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany German Chancellor Angela Merkel pauses for a selfie with a refugee after she visited the AWO Refugium Askanierring shelter for refugees in Berlin Getty Images

It may have cost Heath the 1974 election and certainly Margaret Thatcher sent out anti-refugee signals when she spoke of Britain being swamped by immigrants as part of her bid to win power in 1979.

Merkel seems more a Heath than a Thatcher, but handling mass people movement is never easy. Take Calais, where the French interior minister, Bernard Caseneuve, has said he will demolish the Jungle by Christmas. New immigrant reception centres are being opened in old railway sheds in northern Paris. Caseneuve, a close ally of President Francois Hollande, is moving to take Calais off the political agenda in the run-up to the presidential election in France next May. But again, he is doing nothing new.

In 2002, the Calais Jungle was full of refugees who had fled from the Serb atrocities in the former Yugoslavia, as well as those coming out of Afghanistan or those just hoping for a better life after leaving Africa. The interior minister in France at the time was the hyper-energetic Nicolas Sarkozy. He moved swiftly to close Calais down. But then the next year, 2003, came Iraq and eight years later Sarkozy  by now the president of France  intervened in Libya.

Discussions about Schengen, deporting refugees, closing down the Calais Jungle for a few months or blaming Paris or Merkel are irrelevant: Iraq, Syria and Libya continue to produce refugees and immigrants to the West at a rate not seen since the Vietnamese boat people or even those displaced at the end of the Second World War.

 Aylan Kurdi Anniversary: EU states failing in their obligations to refugees

Brexit will make matters worse. The introduction of UK entry visas for 450 million Europeans in an attempt to limit and monitor movement of people, either before travel or via a passport stamp, and the inevitable reciprocal action from EU nations will make for endless delays at Calais and Dover, as well as St Pancras and Gare du Nord.

If all of Europe took a share of the refugees the problem would be manageable. The churches in Germany and in other countries have been generous with their support. Pope Francis told the Poles to stop being so mean and ungenerous and washed the feet of refugees of all faiths on the Italian island of Lampedusa.

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The most significant step would be if European, US and Russian leaders could wind down the Syria civil war, even if that means holding noses and dealing with dictators, as Sarkozy and Cameron might have been advised to have done with Gaddafi, and Bush and Blair with Saddam. Then, finally, refugee flows will ease.

Another would be to create a serious fleet of naval vessels from all European navies (not just EU member states) in the Mediterranean to turn back illegal entryists.

Meanwhile, the British  who Europeans believe to have invented the queue  had better get used to tired feet and strained backs. The business of going in and out of France and other EU countries will needlessly make queuing a 21st-century British speciality once Theresa Mays vision of full-on Brexit immigration controls is turned into law.

Denis MacShane is the UKs former minister of Europe and author of Brexit: How Britain Left Europe
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Westminster is an uncomfortable place for former prime ministers. They cant win. They are either accused of being the Incredible Sulk, as Edward Heath was when he hung around, determined to outstay in the Commons the woman who deposed him as Tory leader in 1975, Margaret Thatcher.

Or they are accused of being absent without leave, as Gordon Brown was after making only rare Commons appearances after Labour lost the 2010 general election. The other option is to get out fast, as Tony Blair did after handing over to Brown in 2007. That has traditionally been seen as bad form because it causes an unnecessary by-election, and looks like the former PM cant be bothered to go back to being a mere backbencher dealing with constituents problems rather than vital matters of state.

It is perhaps no surprise that David Cameron, who once dubbed himself the heir to Blair, has opted for the Blair option and is resigning his Witney seat with immediate effect. Although he vowed to stay on as an MP when he quit as PM after the Brexit vote in June, he has had second thoughts after weighing up his options over the summer.

 David Cameron steps down as MP

Cameron can  just about  claim there are special circumstances that justify him turning his back on Westminster. His spectacular downfall, just 13 months after winning a general election, was caused by the issue that will dominate British politics for years to come  Brexit. So it would have been very hard for him to engage in that debate.

Second, it would be difficult for him to say much about other matters without being accused of being a backseat driver or bitter man. Todays media would put every half sentence under the microscope in the hope of getting a Cameron attacks May headline.

One factor in Camerons decision was surely that Theresa May has defined herself against him, making a deliberate break with the posh boys era of a country working for the privileged few and halting his policies such as the Hinkley Point nuclear plant and his opposition to new grammar schools. So if he had stayed on as an MP, Cameron would have had to either take a Trappist vow of silence, or would have been accused of disloyalty to May if he had defended his record. He is writing his memoirs and so we will probably have to wait until next year to get his version of the dramatic events which brought him down.

Camerons sudden departure will doubtless be seen as in character by his critics. His genuine attempt to make a dignified exit in June was soured by his extravagantly long resignation honours list and the revelation that he had rushed though wage rises and higher-than-usual severance payments for his special advisers. The cost of Camerons golden goodbyes has been estimated at 12m.

David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 David Cameron's premiership - in pictures David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Britain's Queen Elizabeth II greeting David Cameron at Buckingham Palace for an audience to invite him to be the next Prime Minister on 11 May 2010 PA David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha wave from the steps of Number 10 Downing Street on 11 May 2010 Getty Images David Cameron's premiership - in pictures On 12 May 2010 Prime Minister David Cameron said in a press conference with Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, who was then deputy PM, they plan to "take Britain in a historic new direction" and Conservative-led coalition government would be united and provide "strong and stable" leadership Rex David Cameron's premiership - in pictures A decade ago, David Cameron visited the Arctic to witness the effects of climate change. However since coming to power in 2010, his government has gradually dropped down a succession of green policies David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Prime Minister David cameron told the then New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Queen had purred down the line after he told her Scotland had voted against independence in September 2014. He was forced to apologise for breaking constitutional convention Getty Images David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron greeted soldiers working on flood relief in York city centre after the river Ouse burst its banks, in northern England in December 2015 REUTERS David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Claims that David Cameron performed an obscene act with a dead pig and smoked cannabis during his studies at Oxford University spread around the world in September 2015. The extraordinary allegations were made in an unauthorised biography of the Prime Minister written by Lord Ashcroft David Hartley/REX Shutterstock David Cameron's premiership - in pictures In 2016, Mr Cameron was caught up in a worldwide scandal dubbed the Panama papers Reuters David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Prime minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha with seven week old Regan as they meet her parents, first time home buyers Robert Arron and Kelly Jeffers at the Heritage Brook housing development in Chorley, Lancashire. David Cameron has joked that he wants "another baby" and said that he feels a "bit broody" every time he sees a newborn on the campaign trail David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Prime Minister David Cameron was criticised for branding refugees in the Calais jungle camp as a bunch of migrants in January 2016 after thousands of refugees died in their attempt to cross the Mediterranean in 2015 Sky News David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron speaks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker during an EU summit meeting on 17 March 2016 at the European Union council in Brussels. Cameron was in Brussels to renegotiate deal of UK membership with other European leaders. The deal, sealed after hours of haggling at a marathon summit, paved the way for a referendum on whether Britain will stay in the EU AFP/Getty Images David Cameron's premiership - in pictures President Barack Obama shakes hands with British Prime Minister David Cameron at a meeting at 10 Downing Street in London on 22 April 2016. The President and his wife visited 10 Downing Street where he joined press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron and made his case for the UK to remain inside the European Union Getty Images David Cameron's premiership - in pictures After David returned from Brussels claiming victory in his renegotiation with European leaders, Boris Johnson announced that he will not support the Remain campaign. The prime minister said publicly he was "disappointed but Boris remains a friend" PA David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Prime Minister David Cameron makes a joint appearance with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan as they launch the Britain Stronger in Europe guarantee card at Roehampton University on 20 May 2016 in London. The 'guarantee card' lists five pledges should Britain remain in the EU, including the protection of workers' rights, full access to the single market and stability for Britain David Cameron's premiership - in pictures Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron speaks outside 10 Downing Street on 24 June 2016. Cameron announced his resignation after Britain voted to leave the European Union after a bitterly divisive referendum campaign AP

His honours list has been seen as him putting up two fingers to the political world. It has played badly even in Conservative circles, where his decision to hand peerages to key aides has fuelled demands for the bloated 800-strong House of Lords to be cut down in size. There is growing pressure for the number of peers to be no higher than the number of MPs, which under boundary changes will fall from 650 to 600 by 2020. If a slimline Lords is a Cameron legacy, it will be an accidental one.

Unfortunately for Cameron, his legacy will be as the man who gambled on an unnecessary referendum and took the country out of the EU by accident. It could get even worse if Scotland votes to leave the UK.

However, there is still time for Cameron to learn a lesson from the man he still calls the master. Blairs reputation was sullied not just by the Iraq War but by what appeared to be his ruthless money-making machine after leaving office. Cameron will certainly want to earn a good living  and will be able to. But, as Brown has shown, there is a better way of doing that than Blair has chosen.
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When youre in a hole, stop digging is the kind of good advice politicians can be very bad at taking, and Sunday morning saw shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry with shovel in hand, blithely piling up soil during an interview with Dermot Murnaghan on Sky News.

Asked to name the French foreign minister and coming up blank, Thornberry immediately went in for the attack, accusing Murnaghan of pub quizzing her. When she pushed the discussion onto South Korea (presumably thinking it safer ground) Murnaghan caught her out again by asking her to name the South Korean president. By the end of the interview, Thornberry had escalated to openly charging him with sexism.

It sounded desperate: does Thornberry really believe theres a specific double standard at play here? That male politicians are not expected to know the details of their brief? That the names and characters of players on the international stage are mere trivialities which a man in her position would never have to trouble himself over?

If so, shes wrong. Murnaghan was obviously going for the gotcha with his line of questioning, but the fact that he did get her  repeatedly  exposes an unhappy truth about Labour. It isnt ready for power. With the shadow cabinet reduced to a loyal rump of Corbyn supporters, posts are awarded not so much on merit than simply because an MP is still in the room.

Stretching that thin selection of talent to cover the whole work of government, briefs are doubled and tripled up on: no one could envy Thornberry her dual role. The Foreign Office so notoriously demanding its historically been used by prime ministers to smother the careers of ambitious rivals, and trying to master the madness of Brexit is enough to make a fool of anyone.

Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Show all 8 1 /8 Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith clash at a leadership hustings in Gateshead, where Mr Smith was scarcely able to answer a question without being booed by Mr Corbyns supporters PA Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Jeremy himself admitted he was seven out of 10 in terms of his faith in the European Union. He said it, said Mr Smith during his second live debate with Jeremy Corbyn Getty Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Ballot papers are currently due to be sent out on 22 August and returned a month later, with the result being announced at a special Labour conference on 24 September Getty Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Jeremy Corbyn supporters cheer and wave placards as the Labour Leader addresses thousands of supporters in in Liverpool, England Getty Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Labour Party leadership candidate Owen Smith poses for a picture with supporters during a picnic for young members in London Fields, Hackney in London Getty Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith The Labour leader has a spring in his step at a leadership rally in Sunderland Screenshot Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Labour leadership contender Owen Smith delivers a speech at the Open University in Milton Keynes, where he promised to reverse Conservative cuts set to leave millions of low paid workers thousands of pounds a year worse off PA Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has urged Owen Smith to distance himself from those saying they want to split the Labour party Getty

But for Thornberry to admit the impossibility of her position would be to admit the impossibility of Labour under Corbyn being a party of government. Hence the deflection: blame the media, blame misogyny, blame anything but your own ill-preparedness. What really galls here, of course, is that sexist abuse of female MPs is endemic and ruinous, especially within the Labour Party.

Feminism means standing together as women, over and above political differences. But Thornberrys name is not one of the 45 signed to the letter imploring Corbyn to address the abuse his supporters have directed at women. Instead, she has repeatedly enjoined her colleagues to back their leader, despite the fact that his backing for them has been decidedly lacking.

When Thornberry complained to Murnaghan about the high bar imposed on women in politics, a more compelling example than her own foundering on basic facts would have been that of Angela Eagle, whose leadership challenge stumbled and ultimately faltered under a hail of abuse that included homophobic jibes and actual bricks through window. Invoking this toxic environment as cover for her own lack of preparation was an unsisterly act from Thornberry.
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I am pleased that MPs and peers are set to move out of the Houses of Parliament for refurbishment works. I only wish the move was permanent; a physical move is an ideal opportunity to update our anachronistic democratic structures.

The current Parliament might well be appropriate for an adversarial two-party approach to politics. But shouting at each other across two sides of a chamber has had its day. We now live in an era of multi-party politics and I believe a modernised building, similar in style to the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly or London Assembly, is what would be befitting of our 21st century democracy. All of these, together with the European Parliament where I sit in Brussels or Strasbourg, are circular in nature and tend to encourage more civilised debate and a more mature consensus based decision making process. An ideal set-up for building alliances rather than entrenching tribal politics.

Greens have long called for Parliament to surrender many of its traditional powers, and actively assist in the process of decentralisation. But we also need to see the decentralisation of power away from Westminster in the geographical sense as well.

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In conjunction with regionalising and localising power, our democracy would be more inclusive by moving the seat of national government away from London. My own choice for a new location would be Bristol, a dynamic, innovative city which was also European Green Capital last year. Where better to establish a slimmed down, energy efficient, carbon neutral parliamentary building? A Passivhaus design might just encourage MPs and peers to be a bit more passive and respectful in the way they address and relate to one another too. I dare say though, that Birmingham or Manchester might also reasonably lay claim to being perfect venues for a new Parliament building. Perhaps a competition whereby cities bid to house the new Parliament along with a range of exciting design proposals is the way to go.

Of course, moving to a state of the art building with a new style of politics would be a nonsense if we retain our current electoral system. A move out of the Houses of Parliament is the ideal time to usher in a fairer proportional voting system where every vote counts. It would also be a mistake not to use the opportunity to reform the House of Lords. We need a democratically elected second chamber, and a new design which reflects this.

Obviously there must still remain a place for the grade I listed Unesco world heritage Westminster Palace. We need a public debate on how this iconic building can be best used as a public space. It is clearly a significant tourist attraction and generates considerable revenue every year. Perhaps, like our democracy as a whole, it could become socially owned and used as a venue for debates and citizenship education.

Or perhaps it could be a museum to remind us of how democracy worked in the 20th century, before power was restored to the people whose representatives had learned to cooperate for the common good.

Molly Scott Cato is Green MEP for the South West of England
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To the beleaguered residents of Aleppo, or the refugees of war in camps from Lebanon to Calais, the stirring commemorations on the 15th anniversary of 9/11 must seem a strange spectacle. While many in the West would prefer to forget about barrel bombs and the deaths of some 400,000 Syrians, remembering the victims of the terrorist attacks on America in September 2001 is a point of honour  especially in the US.

The presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton naturally attended a ceremony at Ground Zero in New York (with Clintons health the surprise talking point afterwards). Six periods of silence were observed, four to mark the times that hijacked aircraft were deliberately crashed and two to commemorate the collapse of the World Trade Centre towers. The innocence of those who died on 9/11 and the heroism of emergency services receive equal focus, while grief is accompanied by a note of defiance: terrorists may have taken almost 3,000 lives on that day but they could not destroy Americas soul. As President Obama noted in his weekly radio address this week: Were still the America of heroes who ran into harms way; of ordinary folks who took down the hijackers; of families who turned their pain into hope.

At a time when anti-Muslim rhetoric is on the march in America, thanks in part to Trumps fact-evading campaigning style, it is important to consider whether the institutionalised memorialisation of the 9/11 attacks (or the July 2005 bombings here, or the Paris attacks last year, among others) is appropriate. Can it, far from creating unity, in fact spawn further division? After all, Islamophobic hate crime has increased five-fold in the US in the years after 2001. In Britain too, anti-Muslim sentiment is running at record levels: in 2015 a report by Tell MAMA showed an increase of 200 per cent in Islamophobic incidents.

It was inevitable perhaps that relations between Muslims and non-Muslims should have become strained. Atrocities were committed by men in the name of Islam and were intended to be an attack on Western values. Subsequent acts of terrorism have shown that others continue to share their world view and are intent on killing civilians to prove their commitment to the cause.

In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 Show all 12 1 /12 In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 President Bush was visiting Emma E Brooker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida as news of the attack on the World Trade Center broke In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 The president and his staff, including Press Secretary Ari Fleischer (L) were then brought to a holding room at the school, where he prepared to address the nation In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 President Bush was then rushed onto Air Force One and was flown to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. He watched television coverage of the attacks from his office on the plane In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 President Bush talks on the telephone at the General Dougherty Conference Center at Barksdale Air Force Base In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 President Bush is seen with his senior adviser Karl Rove at Barksdale Air Force Base In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 The president with White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card at Barksdale Air Force Base. Before leaving the base, the president held a press conference at which he said, Make no mistake: The United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 The president was consoled by Lt Col Cindy Wright of the White House Military Office aboard Air Force One. After leaving Louisiana, the president was flown to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska before he headed back to Washington In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 President Bush arrived at the White House Presidential Emergency Operations Center around 7 pm. Here he is shown with his wife, First Lady Laura Bush, Vice President Cheney and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 At 8:30 pm, the president addressed the nation from the White House. In his speech, he set the tone for the wars to come in Afghanistan and Iraq In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 Ive directed the full resources for our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and bring them to justice, the president said. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbour them In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 The presidents speech on the teleprompter In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 Immediately following the speech, the president had a national security meeting with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and others

Even so, the way in which 9/11 is commemorated can create an overly simplistic version of that narrative, one in which Muslims are extremists, killers and in every respect other. The fact that decent Muslim Americans were murdered in the Twin Towers is subsumed by a black and white version of events in which there is little room for nuance. Memorials to those who died are as much monuments to the might of the USA as they are tributes to individual victims.

None of this is to suggest we should forget the past, ignore the pain caused by terrorism or disbar grief. But  and this applies especially to the media  we must take care to place singular atrocities in their fuller context, seeking to understand their causes and their consequences. We owe that much to the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and elsewhere, many of who may ponder how their lives might have been different had four aeroplanes not been used as weapons of mass destruction a decade and a half ago.

Nor is this a plea for a dry, academic approach. Personal experience remains vital in understanding both the human impact of horrors like 9/11, and the broader fall-out: moreover the feelings of those directly involved are often more subtle and complex than those who see a terror attack only as a justification for fear-mongering and hate.

Indeed, the value of human voices in aiding our collective memory ought to be all the more obvious at a time when a growing number of Europeans and Americans, far from standing up for the core values of liberal democracy and social enlightenment, appear set on a course towards small-minded nationalism. And sure enough, there are ever fewer men and women still alive who witnessed and can recall the rise of fascism in the 1920s and 30s; who saw the crushing of personal liberty by dictators, and the scapegoating of whole races and religions. Their testimony resonated so strongly for so long: as the generations pass, their evidence is more easily silenced.

9/11 changed the world. We must neither underestimate its impact, nor simplify its symbolism. Nor, in a rush to remember this tragedy from our recent past, must we forget the lessons that historys longer view can offer us.
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Social media has been awash with back-to-school photographs for the past week. Its become a modern-day tradition  from images of newborns in the delivery room to teenagers celebrating exam results, we are chronicling childrens lives online.

I have enjoyed seeing friends images of their offspring ready for the start of a new school year. Ive cooed at toddlers starting nursery, five year olds clutching book bags, and adolescents swamped by new school blazers.

In the past I have shared similar images, but increasingly I am worried about a digital age where children are afforded little privacy.

Social media pet stars Show all 4 1 /4 Social media pet stars Social media pet stars Boo, the "cutest dog in the world" Boo becomes the Official Pet Liaison for Virgin America Airlines Social media pet stars Toast, the rescued King Charles Spaniel Canine Instagram star Toast is the New Face of Karen Walker eyewear Social media pet stars Bodhi, the most stylish dog in the world Bodhi, a six year old Shiba Inu has become an internet sensation after getting paid work as a menswear model for clothing lines such as Salvatore Ferragamo, ASOS and Coach. Here fpr Victorinox Swiss Army Social media pet stars Chloe, the Mini Frenchie Chloe has done shoots for Martha Stewart and Barneys;

Social media contacts are rarely limited to close family and friends, and once something is online it is no longer private. High-profile data breaches and website hacks serve as a reminder that anything online is potentially vulnerable. The wider issue is not simply should we share back-to-school images but what, if anything, should we divulge about children?

Here are five reasons to share less about our children:

Consent

Children cannot be expected to grasp the implications of their images or personal details being made available online. We must question whether this is in a childs long-term interests. Most of us will seek consent from friends and colleagues before sharing something on social media, yet we disregard the rights of children by removing choice and failing to protect their privacy.

Vulnerability

Young daughters of both Beyonce and EastEnders' actress Jacqueline Jossa came under attack, unkindly being labelled as ugly, after the celebrities posted images of the girls online. Social media invites opinion, comment and reaction; it begs the question whether we should be exposing children to this level of scrutiny.

Life Lessons

Kerry Katona recently made headlines when she tweeted an image of 15-year-old daughter Molly to her 479,000 followers. Mollys tweeted response was: I hate this photo delete delete delete. Children deserve to be educated about their rights and mutual respect. What are children learning from adults obsessed with seeking external validation instead of cultivating self-worth? Are we in danger of teaching them that we prize popularity, followers and likes over other qualities and values?

Safety

Many of us are poor at taking time to understand or check privacy settings. By sharing information online we may be unwittingly telling people exactly where they can find our children. The more personal details someone can learn about a child from social media, the more vulnerable we make them.

The Future

No one has yet grown up with their entire life documented on social media. The internet is only 25 years old, and we have no idea how information shared today may impact the future. Will a childs life, chronicled online, become something that hinders them, will it invite judgement, ridicule or cause embarrassment?

The internet has allowed us to connect with people around the world. We have become voyeurs and commentators of other peoples lives, and created a window into our world too. The only way of minimising potential risks to children is to share nothing about them online. It seems unlikely many of us will choose this option. Given that, its absolutely essential we think carefully before posting something about our children on social media and ask: is this in my childs long-term interests, am I considering their right to privacy, could I risk compromising their safety?
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The evils of the international drug trade, weapons smuggling, and human trafficking are well known. Drug turf wars devastate neighbourhoods while addicts leave behind the shattered lives of their families. The illicit weapons trade arms terrorists, brutal militias, and street gangs, while people smugglers fill leaky boats with desperate refugees and brothels with enslaved sex workers.

Yet few bother to think of the illicit trade in wildlife and the devastation it causes, even though it ranks up there with the trade in drugs, guns, and human lives, reaping in the order of $20bn a year. The impact is disastrous, causing immense suffering to animals and people and destroying ecosystems.

It is the slow, lonely death of a rhino with its face hacked off by poachers who have taken its horn for distant markets, or the carcasses of an elephant family mown down with automatic weapons for their ivory and left rotting in the sun. It is the industrial-scale illicit harvest of the pangolinthe worlds most trafficked mammalfor its meat and scales.

Wildlife trafficking is driving some of the world's most iconic species, as well as those you may never have heard of, towards extinction.

Angola works to end illegal wildlife trade

The good news is that we can stop this through persistent and collective efforts.

There is a strong and long-standing global collaboration that exists through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The latest meeting on 24th September in Johannesburg will be one of the most critical meetings in the Conventions 43 year history.

Much of the international attention will focus on the ivory of the African elephant and the horn of the Southern White Rhinoceros, and on combating their illegal trade, as the recently released African elephant survey showed serious declines in the savanna elephant population of over 100,000 since 2007  this reinforces the urgency of the situation.

But elephants and rhinos will be sharing the headlines with robust debates on CITES trade controls of species as diverse as baobabs, frogs, geckos, lions, pangolins, rays, rosewood, and sharks, and all for the first time against the backdrop of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Since the mid-1970s, CITES has regulated the global marketplace for wild animals and plants, ensuring that international trade in species is legal, sustainable, and traceable and that commercial trade is allowed only where it presents no threat to a species survival.

While commercial trade is prohibited in some species due to their conservation status, the well-regulated international commercial trade in some speciessuch as the legal trade in alligator and python skins, the meat of the queen conch, the wool of the vicuna, and the bark of the African cherry treecan have benefits for both wildlife and people.

The unity of our collaboration within and outside of the UN achieved over the past five years means that today we are confident that the world is united in its understanding of both the scale of the threat and how to tackle this illicit wildlife trafficking. The global response is taking place with a clear legal framework of action provided by CITES and its 182 members.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 finalists Show all 11 1 /11 Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 finalists Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 finalists 'Termite tossing' by Willem Kruger (South Africa) Termite after termite after termite  using the tip of its massive beak-like forceps to pick them up, the hornbill would flick them in the air and then swallow them. Foraging beside a track in South Africas semi-arid Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, the southern yellow-billed hornbill was so deeply absorbed in termite snacking that it gradually worked its way to within 6 metres (19 feet) of where Willem sat watching from his vehicle. Though widespread, this southern African hornbill can be shy, and as it feeds on the ground  mainly on termites, beetles, grasshoppers and caterpillars  it can be difficult for a photographer to get a clear shot among the scrub. The bird feeds this way because its tongue isnt long enough to pick up insects as, say, a woodpecker might, and though its huge bill restricts its field of vision, it can still see the bills tip and so can pick up insects with precision. Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 finalists 'Swarming under the stars' by Imre Potyo (Hungary) Imre was captivated by the chaotic swarming of mayflies on Hungarys River Raba and dreamt of photographing the spectacle beneath a starlit sky. For a few days each year (at the end of July or beginning of August), vast numbers of the adult insects emerge from the Danube tributary, where they developed as larvae. On this occasion, the insects emerged just after sunset. At first, they stayed close to the water, but once they had mated, the females gained altitude. They filled the air with millions of silken wings, smothering Imre and his equipment in their race upstream to lay their eggs on the waters surface. Then they died, exhausted, after just a few hours. This compensatory flight  sometimes as far as several kilometres upstream  is crucial to make up for the subsequent downstream drift of the eggs and nymphs, and luckily for Imre, it was happening under a clear sky. Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 finalists 'The disappearing fish' by Iago Leonardo (Spain) In the open ocean, theres nowhere to hide, but the lookdown fish  a name it probably gets from the steep profile of its head, with mouth set low and large eyes high  is a master of camouflage. Recent research suggests that it uses special platelets in its skin cells to reflect polarized light (light moving in a single plane), making itself almost invisible to predators and potential prey. The platelets scatter polarized light depending on the angle of the sun and the fish, doing a better job than simply reflecting it like a mirror. This clever camouflage works particularly well when viewed from positions of likely attack or pursuit. What is not yet clear is whether the fish can increase its camouflage by moving the platelets or its body for maximum effect in the oceans fluctuating light. The lookdowns disappearing act impressed Iago, who was free-diving with special permission around Contoy Island, near Cancun, Mexico. Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 finalists 'Nosy neighbour' by Sam Hobson (UK) Sam knew exactly who to expect when he set his camera on the wall one summers evening in a suburban street in Bristol, the UKs famous fox city. He wanted to capture the inquisitive nature of the urban red fox in a way that would pique the curiosity of its human neighbours about the wildlife around them. This was the culmination of weeks of scouting for the ideal location  a quiet, welllit neighbourhood, where the foxes were used to people (several residents fed them regularly)  and the right fox. For several hours every night, Sam sat in one fox familys territory, gradually gaining their trust until they ignored his presence. One of the cubs was always investigating new things  his weeping left eye the result of a scratch from a cat he got too close to. I discovered a wall that he liked to sit on in the early evening, says Sam. He would poke his head over for a quick look before hopping up. Setting his focus very close to the lens, Sam stood back and waited. Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 finalists 'Thistle-plucker' by Isaac Aylward (UK) Try keeping a flying linnet in sight while scrambling down rocky embankments holding a telephoto lens. Isaac did, for 20 minutes. He was determined to keep pace with the linnet that he spotted while hiking in Bulgarias Rila Mountains, finally catching up with the tiny bird when it settled to feed on a thistle flowerhead. From the florets that were ripening, it pulled out the little seed parachutes one by one, deftly nipped off the seeds and discarded the feathery down. Isaac composed this alpine-meadow tableau with the sea of soft purple knapweed behind, accentuating the clashing red of the linnets plumage. Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 finalists 'Crystal precision' by Mario Cea (Spain) Every night, not long after sunset, about 30 common pipistrelle bats emerge from their roost in a derelict house in Salamanca, Spain, to go hunting. Each has an appetite for up to 3,000 insects a night, which it eats on the wing. Its flight is characteristically fast and jerky, as it tunes its orientation with echolocation to detect objects in the dark. The sounds it makes  too highpitched for most humans to hear  create echoes that allow it to make a sonic map of its surroundings. Mario positioned his camera precisely so that it was level with the bats exit through a broken window and the exact distance away to capture a head-on shot. The hard part was configuring the flashes to reveal the bat and highlight the edges of the glass shards. His perseverance paid off when he caught the perfect pose as a bat leaves the roost on its nighttime foray. Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 finalists 'Collective courtship' by Scott Portelli (Australia) Thousands of giant cuttlefish gather each winter in the shallow waters of South Australias Upper Spencer Gulf for their once-in-a-lifetime spawning. Males compete for territories that have the best crevices for egglaying and then attract females with mesmerizing displays of changing skin colour, texture and pattern. Rivalry among the worlds largest cuttlefish  up to a metre (3.3 feet) long  is fierce, as males outnumber females by up to eleven to one. A successful, usually large, male grabs the smaller female with his tentacles, turns her to face him (as here) and uses a specialized tentacle to insert sperm sacs into an opening near her mouth. He then guards her until she lays the eggs. The preoccupied cuttlefish (the male on the right) completely ignored Scott, allowing him to get close. A line of suitors was poised in the background, waiting for a chance to mate with the female (sometimes smaller males camouflage themselves as females to sneak past the male. Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 finalists 'Blast furnace' by Alexandre Hec (France) When the lava flow from Kilauea on Hawaiis Big Island periodically enters the ocean, the sight is spectacular, but on this occasion Alexandre was in for a special treat. Kilauea (meaning spewing or much spreading) is one of the worlds most active volcanoes, in constant eruption since 1983. As red-hot lava at more than 1,000C (1,832F) flows into the sea, vast plumes of steam hiss up, condensing to produce salty, acidic mist or rain. Alexandre witnessed the action and returned in an inflatable the following evening to find that a new crater had formed close to the shore. Capturing the furious action in a rough sea was no easy task. From 100 metres (328 feet) away, he was blasted with heat and noise  like a jet taking off. In a moment of visibility, his perseverance paid off, with a dramatic image of glowing lava being tossed some 30 metres (98 feet) into the air against the night sky. Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 finalists 'Splitting the catch' by Audun Rikardsen (Norway) Sometimes its the fishing boats that look for the killer whales and humpbacks, hoping to locate the shoals of herring that migrate to these Arctic Norwegian waters. But in recent winters, the whales have also started to follow the boats. Here a large male killer whale feeds on herring that have been squeezed out of the boats closing fishing net. He has learnt the sound that this type of boat makes when it retrieves its gear and homed in on it. The relationship would seem to be a win-win one, but not always. Whales sometimes try to steal the fish, causing damage to the gear, and they can also become entangled in the nets, sometimes fatally, especially in the case of humpbacks. The search for solutions is under-way, including better systems for releasing any whales that get trapped. Having grown up in a small coastal fishing community in northern Norway, Audun has always been fascinated by the relationship between humans and wildlife. Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 finalists 'Golden relic' by Dhyey Shah (India) With fewer than 2,500 mature adults left in the wild, in fragmented pockets of forest in northeastern India (Assam) and Bhutan, Gees golden langurs are endangered. Living high in the trees, they are also difficult to observe. But, on the tiny man-made island of Umananda, in Assams Brahmaputra River, you are guaranteed to see one. Site of a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, the island is equally famous for its introduced golden langurs. Within moments of stepping off the boat, Dhyey spotted the golden coat of a langur high up in a tree. The monkey briefly made eye contact and then slipped away. Today, there are just six left on the island, and, with much of the vegetation having been cleared, the leaf-eating monkeys are forced to depend mainly on junk food from visitors Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 finalists 'Playing pangolin' by Lance van de Vyver (New Zealand/South Africa) Lance had tracked the pride for several hours before they stopped to rest by a waterhole, but their attention was not on drinking. The lions (in South Africas Tswalu Kalahari Private Game Reserve) had discovered a Temmincks ground pangolin. This nocturnal, ant-eating mammal is armour-plated with scales made of fused hair, and it curls up into an almost impregnable ball when threatened. Pangolins usually escape unscathed from big cats (though not from humans, whose exploitation of them for the traditional medicine trade is causing their severe decline). But these lions just wouldnt give up. They rolled it around like a soccer ball, says Lance. Every time they lost interest, the pangolin uncurled and tried to retreat, attracting their attention again. Spotting a young lion holding the pangolin ball on a termite mound close to the vehicle, Lance focused in on the lions claws and the pangolins scratched scales, choosing black and white to help simplify the composition.

We know that this action has to be for the long term. We have the regional enforcement networks and the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime, bringing CITES Secretariat, INTERPOL, UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Bank and the World Customs Organisation together to provide coordinated enforcement support.

In addition, there is a new financing mechanism through a Global Partnership on Wildlife Conservation and Crime Prevention for Sustainable Development. In this the UN Development Programme (UNDP) is working closely with the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), the World Bank, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), Asian Development Bank, International Union for Conservation of Nature, and the World Wildlife Fund in ensuring that much needed financial and technical support gets to the ground. Further exciting United Nations agency collaborations are in development.

These highly complementary and related initiatives are seeking to fight wildlife crimes through enforcement support from source through to destination, targeted demand reduction measures, and by ensuring local communities benefit from the wildlife they live amongst. And it is having an impact on the front lines where it matters mostbe it in the field, in the court room, at national borders, or in the illicit markets.

Illicit wildlife trafficking is about peoplepeople drive it through greed, ignorance, and indifference, people suffer from it, and people alone can fix it. Like other illicit trafficking, wildlife crime greases the palms of corrupt networks, draws upon over-stretched law enforcement, and robs ordinary people and communities in poorer countries of jobs and their governments of money. Armed and hardened poaching gangs add to insecurity in places where a lack of the rule of law allows these crimes to flourish.

Since the last conference, in Bangkok in 2013, there have been a number of very high-profile gatherings adding momentum to the global campaign against the scourge of illicit wildlife trafficking. This unity of purpose, together with widening the deployment of proven tactics to fight serious crimes, gives us confidence that the transnational organised criminal groups driving this industrial scale illicit wildlife trafficking can and will be beaten.

Helen Clark is the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and a former Prime Minister of New Zealand.

John Scanlon is Secretary-General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he was not opposed to an inquiry into the handling of Project Eagle

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has described allegations of bags of cash being paid to a former adviser to bad bank Nama as incredible and extraordinary.

Mr Kenny said he was not opposed to an inquiry into the handling of Project Eagle, the biggest property deal in Northern Ireland when US investment giant Cerberus paid Nama 1.2 billion for a loan portfolio in 2014.

The sale was first dogged by controversy after 7 million linked to it was found in an Isle of Man bank account.

Subsequently BBC Spotlight reported a series of taped conversations between developer John Miskelly and Frank Cushnahan, the former member of Nama's Northern Ireland advisory committee, including one about a handover of 40,000 cash in a hospital car park.

Mr Kenny said he had watched the programme.

"I found it quite incredible," he said.

"Nothing surprises me at the kind of activities that take place in politics, in that sense I find it extraordinary to hear the audio reports of engagements and meetings between certain personnel."

Project Eagle has been examined on several occasions at the Public Accounts Committee in Dublin.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) ran its own audit of the same. Its report, which is due to be examined by cabinet ministers this week, is expected to find that taxpayers lost out on hundreds of millions of euro.

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin has joined calls from opposition politicians for an inquiry.

Mr Kenny told Kfm: "If I find or our colleagues in Government find that this is a case that has to be examined then I won't be opposed to that.

"If there are questions arising from the Public Accounts Committee engagement with Nama, and they are due before them shortly, I'm not averse to taking action, but I need to know what it is I'm taking action on."

Mr Cushnahan has denied any wrongdoing.

Nama is due to appear before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on September 22 and its executives are also to be questioned at the Oireachtas Finance Committee, chaired by John McGuinness, a former PAC chairman.

Investigations have been launched into Project Eagle by the UK's National Crime Agency, the US Department of Justice's Securities and Exchange Commission as well as a parliamentary inquiry in Stormont.

Opposition parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly voiced anger on Monday when their attempts to have a debate on the Nama controversy were blocked.

DUP Speaker Robin Newton turned down requests for the topic to be raised as a matter of the day during the first plenary session of the new Assembly term.

Jim Allister, leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice party, made his feelings clear as business got under way at Stormont.

"Am I to understand that despite the most astounding revelations last week on BBC Spotlight this Assembly today is going to bury its head in the sand and proceed as if none of those revelations were made?" he said.

"Is that really so - we aren't even going to have the opportunity by questions on matters of the day or anything else to debate those shocking issues?"

Mr Newton insisted Nama was not the type of issue that would usually be the focus of a matter of the day debate.

"The member will know there are considerations I take into account when matters of the day are raised," he said.

"The member will also know there are procedural matters and a mechanism by which matters can be raised.

"I would say to all the members that I have taken my decision clearly in line with speakers' rulings and conventions on the type of issue which is accepted as a matter of the day."

Ahead of the start of plenary business, the Ulster Unionists also criticised the refusal to put the issue on the agenda.

UUP leader Mike Nesbitt said Stormont was indulging in "ostrich politics".

"This head in the sand ostrich approach does nothing to protect the integrity or relevance of the institutions under the control of DUP/Sinn Fein," he said.

Last month, Sinn Fein MLA and former Stormont finance committee chair Daithi McKay quit amid allegations he coached a witness who was due to appear before the committee's inquiry into the Nama deal.

Mr McKay apologised after admitting "inappropriate" communication with loyalist blogger Jamie Bryson ahead of his appearance before the committee.

The Twitter contacts were made before the loyalist made explosive claims to the finance committee.

Mr Bryson went before committee members to allege that former Democratic Unionist leader Peter Robinson was set to benefit from the 1.2 billion transaction - a claim the then first minister vehemently denied.

On Monday, Mr Newton told MLAs that he and his officials had been reviewing committee procedures in light of the revelations involving Mr McKay.

He said it was prudent to consider whether committee rules and arrangements needed to be "clarified, made more specific or strengthened" and said he would be contacting the chairs of the various committees to discuss the issue further.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Charles Flanagan said the border will be a key issue in the talks .

Ireland is cautious of British reassurances there will be no hard or heavily militarised border on the island after Brexit, the Foreign Affairs Minister has warned.

On the eve of the UK's Northern Ireland secretary James Brokenshire's first official visit to Dublin, Charles Flanagan said the fate of the 310-mile frontier will be key during detailed talks in the capital on Tuesday.

The border between Northern Ireland and Ireland will also become an EU frontier after Britain leaves the bloc.

Dublin has insisted it must remain "invisible" after decades of work, as part of the peace process, to remove barriers between both jurisdictions.

Mr Brokenshire and UK Brexit minister David Davis have both voiced their backing for keeping an open border.

But Mr Flanagan has said he was "taken aback" by reports that British international trade secretary Liam Fox is pressurising UK Prime Minister Theresa May into leaving the EU customs union as well.

"There is an issue, of course, about the border," Mr Flanagan said.

"This is a matter of great concern to the communities, and public representatives, north and south.

"I was pleased to hear the comments of David Davis last week when he said that there would not be a hard border.

"I would however caution on two grounds: firstly I was somewhat concerned and taken aback by comments by the international trade secretary Liam Fox during the summer, when he suggested a withdrawal from the customs union.

"Now I fail to see how a withdrawal from the customs union can be compatible with an invisible border."

The European Union customs union is the biggest in the world and countries within it can trade more freely with each other, without tariffs, or taxes on imports.

If Britain were to leave the customs union as well, it would make it more complicated in maintaining a soft border in Ireland.

Mr Fox reportedly wants to leave the customs union to make it easier for Britain to strike new trade deals with non-EU countries after Brexit.

Mr Flanagan said his meeting with Mr Brokenshire in central Dublin will be detailed "on where we are in terms of Northern Ireland with particular reference to Brexit".

"I would also stress that ultimately the matter of the border is a decision that won't be determined by the UK and Irish governments, irrespective of how we feel about the issue, but this will be a matter for the remaining 27 EU countries, one of which of course will be Ireland," he added.

Mr Flanagan said he has met with all of his 27 EU foreign minister counterparts and has told them "we don't want a hard or heavily fortified border right across the island of Ireland."
Irish people looking to work in the UK could face the prospect of having to secure work permits once the country leaves the European Union.

British Home secretary Amber Rudd said yesterday that she was looking at a permits system to control migration from the EU into the UK, a proposition which she said "certainly has value".

Whether such a system, if it comes into force, would also apply to Irish workers remains to be seen, and will form part of the complex and lengthy negotiations undertaken once the UK triggers Article 50.

Brexit secretary David Davis has underlined the need to "take control" of Britain's borders and to control immigration, but he has also said that both the UK and Ireland want to keep an open border in respect of Northern Ireland.

Ms Rudd told the BBC that her department was examining immigration control systems, but that no decisions had yet been made. "I think work permits certainly has value, but we're not ruling anything out at the moment," Ms Rudd said. "What we're going to look at is how we can get the best for the economy, driving the numbers down but protecting the people who really add value to the economy."

British Prime Minister Theresa May has rejected a "points-based" system to screen immigrants, setting up a potential conflict with Brexit campaigners in her government who promised to bring in Australian-style controls over EU migrants.

Ms Rudd backed Ms May's stance on that yesterday.

When asked if Irish workers might face the need to get work permits post Brexit, a spokeswoman for the UK Home Office told the Irish Independent she could not add anything further ahead of the negotiations.
British tourists in Ireland spent 12% less this summer because of the drop in the value of sterling against the euro. Photo: Niall Carson/PA Wire

The hospitality industry in the Border counties saw trade from Northern Ireland plummet by up to a fifth over the summer because of the Brexit-effect on sterling.

And spending from British tourists fell by 12pc on average, with the weakening in the pound versus the euro cited as the big factor, according to the study by the Restaurants Association of Ireland and the Vintners Federation of Ireland.

Expand Close Worried: Adrian Cummins. Photo: Tom Burke / Facebook

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It comes as Ibec warned that Irish food exports into the eurozone could be dented as a result of the vote in the UK on June 23. Adrian Cummins, Restaurants Association of Ireland chief executive, said the combination of high excise and uncertainty over Brexit had caused the 'perfect storm' for the sector.

"In our recent poll, our members told us that they are already feeling the pressure, as they report an average 12pc downturn for British tourists spend for July and August compared to the same time in 2015 with the effects of sterling exchange being cited as a factor," Mr Cummins said.

"It is more worrying, however, when we talk to our members in the Border counties who are seeing a drop of up to 20pc on cross-Border spend in July/August compared to this time last year."

Sterling has weakened from around 69 pence to the euro last November, to around 84 pence now. The pound weakened dramatically in the wake of the referendum vote on June 23.

Read more: Things go from bad to worse for Ireland as a 'hard' Brexit looms over the horizon

A weaker pound is bad news for Irish exporters, as it means their products are more expensive for UK buyers. But it also has the potential to dent the business of firms in Border counties, as it makes it dearer for shoppers north of the Border to come south.

It comes as business lobby group Ibec warned of a substantial threat to thousands of jobs if the Government failed to respond decisively to intense competitive pressures that have followed the referendum result.Its own report today reiterates that a further weakening in sterling could see losses in Irish food exports hit 700m. It could also result in 7,500 jobs being lost.

It called for a review of the national agri-food strategy FoodWise 2025; budget tax reform to improve Ireland's competitive position and the reintroduction of the Employment Subsidy Scheme.

The organisation's food and drink industry director Paul Kelly said: "A failure to act will compound the pressure on exporters, undermine Ireland's long-term position in the market and threaten jobs."
The National Asset Management Agency (Nama) is set for an unprecedented showdown with the State's spending watchdog over its report on the controversial sale of the agency's northern loan portfolio, Project Eagle.

A Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG) report to be published this week concludes that shortcomings in the sales process resulted in hundreds of millions of euro potentially being lost.

It found that Nama could have achieved a better price for the portfolio, which was once valued at 5.7bn but was sold for 1.6bn to vulture fund Cerberus in April 2014.

However, informed sources have said Nama is set to "robustly" reject the core findings when the report is published.

There is little or no precedent for reports by the C&AG being challenged in the manner that Nama is now expected to.

Sources said the agency would argue that there were no irregularities on its side of the sale, contending that it was an open market transaction with competitive tension between rival bidders.

Nama is also set to reject claims that it could have done better with the sale price, arguing that if it had shelved the sale to a later date the price achieved could have been less.

A spokesman for the agency said it would be making no comment until the report was published.

Read more: All eyes on Taoiseach as calls for Nama inquiry now too strong to ignore

Read more: Nama: First Minister rejects calls for cross-border inquiry following BBC Spotlight allegations

The Irish Independent understands that Nama expressed its views to C&AG Seamus McCarthy while he was in the process of compiling his report.

However, its arguments were not enough to persuade Mr McCarthy to alter his findings.

Meanwhile, Nama has complained to gardai and the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) about the conduct of Frank Cushnahan, a former member of its Northern Ireland Advisory Committee, following the broadcast of secret recordings by the BBC's 'Spotlight' TV programme last week.

A recording of Mr Cushnahan detailed how he received Stg40,000 (47,250) from Nama debtor John Miskelly and undertook to try to develop a scheme to extract the Co Down developer's loans from the agency.

Letters were sent by Nama to gardai and the NCA on Friday afternoon, alleging that the recordings may be evidence of a breach of ethics and anti-corruption laws.

Nama said Mr Cushnahan, who was deemed a public official under the Nama Act, was obliged to disclose his dealings with Mr Miskelly.

The programme showed a handwritten note purporting to show Nama valuations of Mr Miskelly's properties.

However, sources said Nama checked the figures after the programme and concluded that they were not correct. In some instances, the figures were 80pc out.

Political pressure has been rapidly mounting from opposition parties for a State inquiry into Project Eagle.

Two members of the Public Accounts Committee, Alan Kelly (Labour) and Mary Lou McDonald (SF), reiterated those calls yesterday. Mr Kelly said it was now "inevitable" that there would be an inquiry.

A Nama spokesman said it had no comment on the matter of a commission or an inquiry, adding: "We have always defended our position in respect of this sale and will continue to do so."

Separately, it has emerged that Nama official Enda Farrell, who received a two-year suspended sentence for disclosing confidential information relating to the agency, provided gardai with the names of four other Nama employees who he claimed either assisted him, or were involved in leaking sensitive material themselves.

It is understood that Mr Farrell made the claims while being interviewed by detectives from the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation in relation to his leaking in 2012 of sensitive information relating to the financial affairs of a number of the country's biggest developers, including Michael O'Flynn, the Cosgrave Development Group and Pat Doherty's Harcourt Group.
THE energy and lighting specialist firm UrbanVolt is to invest 5m in energy efficiency projects in businesses in the Cork region.

Some 2m of the fund will go to upgrading lighting facilities in the Blackpool Shopping Centre together with Pipelife in Whites Cross, Daly Industrial Supply Company on the Lower Glanmire Road and Graepels in Kinsale.

The funding will be used to pay for the retrofitting of commercial premises in the region with energy efficient LED lighting. Typical savings for SMEs who work with UrbanVolt are in the order of 50% of the lighting bills they faced before the investment.

Garett Sheehan of UrbanVolt said Were doing more business with SMEs in Cork than anywhere else in Ireland at present and we have ring fenced additional funds specifically for this region.

Blackpool Shopping Centre has signed a major deal which see the Cork premises retrofitted with highly efficient LED lights, significantly reducing its carbon footprint. John Hartnett, manager of the Centre said: We are delighted to have teamed up with UrbanVolt as we felt they are the ideal partner to guide us, ensuring that all our buildings are more efficient. And as Corks largest mixed scheme, we wanted to ensure that we enhance our customers and tenants experience.
For six years, the General Motors factory that used to make Chevy Trailblazers in Moraine, Ohio, sat abandoned, a rusting monument to the decline of the American car industry.

These days, the plant is humming again, fuelled by a resurgent US consumer. But now it's under Chinese management. On the shop floor, Chinese supervisors in sky-blue uniforms that carry the logo of the new owners, Fuyao Glass, teach American employees how to assemble windshields.

Drive along Interstate 75, through America's industrial heartland, and you'll find no shortage of Chinese-owned firms like Fuyao.

They're setting up shop in states such as Ohio and Michigan, key voter battlegrounds in November, where traditional manufacturing has been hollowed out, in many cases, by trade. Trade with China.

It's those losses that shape election headlines. Republican candidate Donald Trump excoriates China as an unfair trading partner, and blames a whole class of American politicians - including his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton - for selling out US workers to Beijing. It's an aggressively America-first brand of capitalism. Clinton's whole career suggests she's more comfortable with globalisation, though lately she's been drawn into the China-bashing and trade-scepticism too.

But away from the sound and fury of the national campaign, state and municipal governments of both stripes have welcomed Chinese firms with open arms.

When it took over the GM plant, Fuyao got a $9.7m tax credit from the Republican-run state of Ohio, which also kicked in a $1m grant for road work.

"This is an example of international capital choosing to locate here in Dayton, Ohio," said Republican Congressman Michael Turner, who represents Moraine, about a 10-minute drive southwest of Dayton.

"And that international capital happens to be Chinese."

Acquisitions

And there happens to be a lot of it about. This year has seen $75bn of Chinese acquisitions across the US, more than double the previous record - ranging from luxury hotels to aluminium-foil makers.

Since 2008, Chinese companies have invested $4.1bn in Ohio and Michigan alone.

Fuyao acquired roughly half the old GM plant in 2014, spending $450m to buy and remodel it. For a company that started out as a small producer of covers for water-meters and is now the world's second-biggest auto-glass supplier, the acquisition capped a decade-long push into US markets.

For the Dayton area, it meant employment: the city, hometown of the Wright brothers, was hit hard by the shutdown of the GM plant two days before Christmas in 2008. The following year another big local name, NCR Corp, announced it was moving to Atlanta after pioneering the cash-register during more than a century based in Dayton.

The company aims to be the world's biggest auto-glass plant, with capacity to equip four million cars a year, double the current level. That will require a workforce of 2,500 people, up from 1,700 now.

That current staff includes as many as 200 Chinese nationals sent over to train their US co-workers.

At lunch, a local restaurant delivers deep-fried prawns and chicken's feet for the Chinese employees.

Near the plant's entrance, construction is underway on a Chinese restaurant. It'll mostly cater to employees - but will also open its doors to the people of Moraine.

It's a cosmopolitan scene. Although some approve of the move as it secures jobs, not everyone in America's factory belt has come to terms with that kind of change.

Up Interstate 75 in Saginaw, Cheryl Badger is a 62-year-old nurse who used to work at GM.

"I take issue any time an American business is sold to foreigners," she said.

"It bugs me. But ain't nothing I can do about it." (Bloomberg)
There was a time when branding was confined to 'pesky' steers in cowboy movies, but now it seems, everyone wants to be branded - be it labelled footwear, logo-ed beachwear, or Abercrombie & Fitch emblazoned over one's manly chest; it seems necessary even to have a famous brand name on your sunglasses.

The international corporation we are examining this morning is another of those ubiquitous luxury global fashion brands, Michael Kors Holdings. Named after celebrity designer Michael Kors, the fashion line is known for its posh handbags with its signature 'MK' logo prominently displayed. The company also markets footwear, men and women's clothes, jewellery, watches, and the inevitable 'shades'.

The brand is marketed as "accessible luxury", which I'm sure could be applied to many hundreds of thousands of products. But Michael Kors sells through concession stands and in-store boutiques in upmarket outlets like Harrods, Bergdorf Goodman, Galleria La Fayette and Brown Thomas.

New Yorker Michael Kors set up his own operation in 1982 specialising in women's wear, but within a decade was forced to retire. He tried again in 2002, opening his first shop four years later, and by 2014 was listed on the stock exchange, becoming a billionaire in the process; not bad going for a dropout.

Today the company's main focus is on its own retail shops, leading department and speciality stores. Sales last year were $4.5bn split between retail and wholesale activities. Retail is the company's largest unit accounting for over half of total sales. Interestingly, accessories (handbags etc) accounts for some 70pc of total sales at $3.2bn.

The US is the company's most important market with sales of $3bn - more than three times that of Europe - helped by its 400 company-owned stores, 200 of which are in Europe. Surprisingly, sales in Asia - the Mecca for brands - were only $200m. However, the company has signalled its intention to expand in the Asian region after buying back its licence in China. According to some analysts this decision was driven by a softening in the US due to sluggish department store sales and a weak dollar.

In addition to its new Asian strategy, the company is picking up the pace in the US opening 45 new owned stores and intends competing in non-traditional locations, like stores in airports. This year it plans 500 more in-store boutiques adding to its 1,500 existing ones.

While its bricks and mortar strategy continues, a key focus is on e-commerce. Since its floatation five years ago the company has experienced a meteoric rise. Sales have quadrupled to $4.5bn and net income has risen from $147m to $840m in the same period.

Up to mid-2014 the share price reacted positively, peaking at almost $100 per share. Since then investors have cooled on concerns that margins have been sacrificed for sales growth. The stock is now trading at $47.73 with a modest price earnings multiple of 11, valuing the company at $8.4bn. To help its flagging share price, it has recently announced a $1bn share buyback programme.

The company is also trying to lessen its reliance on women's handbags. The fashion house is looking at new male customers. It has recently concluded a sponsorship deal with McLaren Formula 1 racing team. Under the deal Michael Kors will create a limited edition of leather jackets which it sees as kick-starting the re-launch of its menswear business. Observers are cautious because this is a crowded and competitive market.

Most analysts agree the company must seek other fashion areas to revamp its brand, which in the opinion of some may have peaked.

If you are interested in investing in a luxury brand it might be preferable to look at the European-quoted fashion companies like LVMH or Hermes, which have the added attraction of avoiding any exchange risk; unlike Michael Kors. However investors must first answer the question: is the tide going out for luxury brands?

Nothing in this section should be taken as a recommendation, either explicit or implicit to buy any of the shares mentioned.
The leaders of all EU countries bar the UK gather in Bratislava this week for an informal summit focused on the future of the European Union and required political reforms.

European Council President Donald Tusk has been on a tour of European capitals this week in preparation for the summit, which Taoiseach Enda Kenny has stressed will not specifically be about Brexit, as no discussions or negotiations can take place until after the UK has triggered Article 50.

Mr Tusk has said leaders will discuss how to breathe new life into the bloc after Britain leaves, but they will not discuss the divorce terms until London officially declares its will to quit.

Keeping the future of the EU and the negotiating strategy separate was a matter of principle, Mr Tusk has said.

Leaders are also expected to discuss migration and terrorism.

Also this week, the Bank of England is due to meet to set monetary policy in the wake of the Brexit vote.

The central bank is forecast to leave its key rate at a record low 0.25pc and the asset-purchase target at 435bn (514bn).

The focus will be on its assessment of how the economy has performed since its last gathering in early August, when most officials saw scope for another rate cut this year.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is also due to give a "State of the Union" speech to the European Parliament on Wednesday. He may discuss the European Union's future without the UK and policies in areas such as security and the economy.

(Additional reporting Bloomberg)
The Rundown: Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula Iguaran, his wife (and first cousin), leave their home town of Riohacha, Colombia, to find a better life and a new home. One night on this journey, while camping on a riverbank, Jose Arcadio dreams of a city of mirrors. Upon awakening, he decides to establish the village of Macondo at the river side.

Here begins the chronicle of the Buendia household and the village, right from its inception until it ends up as a "fearful whirlwind of dust and rubble". Jose Arcadio develops a friendship with a travelling gypsy, Melquiades, their only link to the outside world who bring inventions and news to Macondo. He introduces Jose Arcadio to the magnet, the telescope, and ice. He also leaves a manuscript in a strange language, which future generations try to decipher.

Need to know: This novel is considered a mainstay of Magical Realism: fiction that integrates elements of fantasy into otherwise realistic settings. Reading it is like stepping into a dream, where anything can happen. It is not unusual to encounter a woman ascending to heaven while folding sheets, a woman so sensual that her love-making causes livestock to reproduce at an unusually fecund pace, a priest who levitates when drinking hot chocolate. This style of writing opened doors for other writers like Toni Morrison and Salman Rushdie to take similar narrative liberties. With this ground-breaking book, Gabriel Garcia Marquez not only established himself as a writer with singular vision, he also established Latin American literature and Magical Realism as forces to be reckoned with. It was the first work in Spanish to become a best-seller in the English-speaking world and in 1982 Gabo, as he was known, won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

the end Of the last generation of Buendias, one is murdered by a gang of oversexed teenagers, another haemorrhages to death after childbirth, a third is killed by the weather, while Aureliano's infant son is eaten by ants. The whole town is destroyed by a hurricane, leaving no sign that there was ever anything there. Aureliano, the last surviving member of the Buendia family, finally deciphers the parchments of the gypsy, Melquiades, finding that all this has been predicted: that the village and its inhabitants have merely been living out a preordained cycle, "because races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth."

The Verdict: Salman Rushdie called it "the greatest novel in any language of the last 50 years" and The New York Times suggested making it "required reading for the entire human race". Unofficially, it's everybody's favourite work of world literature, from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama to me. Weaving together personal, social and political history, the genius of this book is in the operatic telling.

Did you know? One Hundred Years of Solitude was published in 1967, two days before The Beatles's Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band came out, and the reception it received was akin to Beatlemania. Everyone from intellectuals to blue-collar labourers to sex workers bought and read and talked about this wondrous book.
Director Jeff Nichols (L) poses with cast members Joel Edgerton (R) and Ruth Negga as they arrive on the red carpet for the screening of the film "Paterson" in competition at the 69th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 16, 2016. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau

Ruth Negga (L) and Rooney Mara attend the Cartier Fifth Avenue Grand Reopening Event at the Cartier Mansion on September 7, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Cartier)

Actor Ruth Negga attends the Cartier Fifth Avenue Grand Reopening Event at the Cartier Mansion on September 7, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Cartier)

Irish actress Ruth Negga has been tipped for Best Actress Oscar favourite for her performance in Loving.

The Limerick actress' star is on the ascent as The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg listed Negga among the favourites for the Best Actress Oscar for her role in Loving.

Expand Close Director Jeff Nichols (L) poses with cast members Joel Edgerton (R) and Ruth Negga as they arrive on the red carpet for the screening of the film "Paterson" in competition at the 69th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 16, 2016. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau / Facebook

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Whatsapp Director Jeff Nichols (L) poses with cast members Joel Edgerton (R) and Ruth Negga as they arrive on the red carpet for the screening of the film "Paterson" in competition at the 69th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 16, 2016. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau

The Academy Awards don't take place until March but the film has already cemented itself as a strong Oscar contender and Negga's performance has garnered well-deserved praise.

It's based on the landmark civil rights case Loving v. Virginia, which was brought by Mildred Loving (Negga), a black woman, and Richard Loving (Joel Edgerton), a white man, who had been sentenced to a year in prison in Virginia for their illegal interracial marriage.

Directed by Jeff Nichols, Loving was inspired by Nancy Buirskis 2011 HBO documentary The Loving Story which consisted of footage of the couple and contemporary interviews with Peggy Loving, their daughter.

"I'd seen the documentary, and I was so struck by this couple," said Negga.

Expand Close Ruth Negga (L) and Rooney Mara attend the Cartier Fifth Avenue Grand Reopening Event at the Cartier Mansion on September 7, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Cartier) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Ruth Negga (L) and Rooney Mara attend the Cartier Fifth Avenue Grand Reopening Event at the Cartier Mansion on September 7, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Cartier)

"Individually but also their love for each other just seemed such a beautiful, delicate, rare thing. I felt such outrage on their behalf, like many others, that the simple act of wanting to be married to another human being that would incur the wrath of the law and also make people really angry. So angry, violently angry. I was just so shocked by that."

The 33-year-old Ethiopian-Irish actress has seen her career go from strength to strength and is making her mark on Hollywood with her role as Tulip O'Hare in AMC's Preacher.

Expand Close Heart and depth: Ruth Negga as Rosie in Love/Hate with co-star Darren Sheehan / Facebook

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Negga, who previously starred season one of RTE gangland drama Love/Hate, has also featured in 12 Years A Slave, World War Z, the Jimi Hendrix biopic Jimi: All Is By My Side and a recurring role on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Last Wednesday, there was a lot of anger at Taylor Swift, when her romance with English actor Tom Hiddleston officially ended.

In the face of the split, people - strangers, obviously - needed to assert that they never believed in the couple anyway. These are people not only driven nuts by the notion that this four-month affair was a stunt, but by Taylor Swift in general.

Apparently, Taylor dumped Tom because she didn't want to be his "arm candy" at the forthcoming Emmys. And she thought he wanted to be too public with their love, it has been reported. This seems a bit weird given the very staged photos of their fledgling love at her Fourth of July party, which were hardly driven by his massive publicity machine. But we're not getting on board with the Taylor-bashing.

So she split up with yet another boyfriend. So she was silly-happy for a while and now she's over it. So she's bloody 25. If we were all held to account for our youthful passions, it would be a very cautious and dull world. But then, the rest of us aren't multimillionaire success stories. What's more, the whole world isn't jealous of the rest of us. Maybe she's been a bitch to Tom. Maybe she wasn't nice to Calvin Harris, her ex prior to taking up with Tom by a matter of weeks, but she didn't do anything to the rest of us. So shake it off, people, shake it off.

Belgrade a soak. But we'll always have Paris

Pat Fitzpatrick

They say it's all about the result when you play away from home. (In the sporting sense, as against the encounter you had with that guy you met on BoredAndMarried.com.) So it was good that Ireland took a point from Serbia last week. Everything else was diabolical.

There were no videos of 10,000 drunk Irish people being hilarious in an urban setting. Not one Irish fan changed a tyre for the camera. A lullaby for a tired toddler on a train? No. The only off-pitch thing of note was that an Irish fan claimed he was stopped at the turnstiles by an FAI official, who thought he might be carrying an anti-John Delaney flag.

The match was about as entertaining as live fishing. Ireland played like the contestant who gets kicked off Strictly Come Dancing in the first week. And then, when it was all over, there wasn't even John Giles on the panel to put things in perspective. To make matters worse for the FAI, they're dishing up a classic a week over at Croke Park. Things need to improve and fast. Because we're not in Paris any more.

Forget hygge, go for the crack

Will Hanafin

Just when we were all forgetting about mindfulness and frowning on feng shui, there's another wellness craze in town, the Danish art of hygge. At last count there were ten books about hygge on offer, which is all about the Danish notion of cosiness and living well.

Some of the advice is a bit basic. They tell you to have dinner with friends, enjoy wearing woolly socks by the fire and looking out the window at the crisp winter morning sky.

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The main hygge advocate is the aptly named Meik Wiking. He even tells us what hygge feels like. Apparently, you feel it if you run your fingers across a wooden surface or rub the hair of the skin of a reindeer! It's hard to feel all hygge when the Danes have such high divorce rates and take more antidepressants than most nations.

I'm going to stick with classic Irish concepts like the crack and feeling really bitter about other people's success!

Dail's Apple day keeps the brickbats away for one TD

Expand Close Transport Minister Shane Ross. Photo: Mark Condren / Facebook

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It felt right that the Dail should be recalled to discuss the ongoing Mystery of The Missing Apple Billions only a few days after Irish children returned to school.

There was that same familiar first day of term mood. On one side of the chamber - the swotty teacher's pets sitting up front with their new notebooks and pens. On the other - the "too cool for school" crowd lounging on the seats at the back, rolling their eyes at everything teacher says.

When the dust finally settled, everyone who thought from the start that Apple should just cough up still thought that Apple should just cough up, while those who thought the Government should fight the ruling from Europe still thought the Government should fight it. Politicians deciding they were right all along, huh? Fancy that.

The one person to come out of the day ahead on points was the beleaguered Minister for Transport and Sport, Shane Ross, above, because, for a few merciful hours, no one was talking about what a nightmare he's having in his new job. He should be glad that he could still get to his job in the first place. Most workers relying on Dublin Bus weren't so lucky.

What a Gay Day

Anne Marie Scanlon

The "I'm no homophobe but" brigade gave themselves an airing after Vicar Billy kissed boyfriend Todd on Coronation Street. Not only do this lot lack self-awareness (you SO are homophobes) but also a sense of humour. Social media was awash with statements of the "I thought it was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" variety. This line is tireder than the mother of new-born triplets.

Regular viewers aren't happy about Todd and Billy either. That wimpy do-gooder Billy would have the hots for bad boy Todd is believable. That his feelings would be reciprocated? Not in a month of Sundays in which Billy wore his best cassocks. Two other men made headlines this week with news of their shenanigans with Keith Vaz, the chair of Westminster's Home Affairs Committee. A happily married politician in a sex scandal, would you Adam 'n' Steve it?
'Now I'm going for a walk out in the countryside. Actually, I'm going down to the pub for a quick one." That was Keith Floyd, in a clip from the BBC archives shown recently on Saturday Kitchen. He had just prepared a rabbit stew - liberally using his hands, burning his fingers, one of which had a creepy flesh-coloured sticking plaster on it, adding "a little bit of white wine" (it looked like the guts of a bottle), and ordering the cameraman around: "come to me, come to me" - and was leaving it to simmer for half-an-hour. He came back and sat down to eat the stew, wearing a pale-yellow V-necked jersey with white bow tie, managing to look smart and dishevelled all at the same time, and asked his female guest "What are you doing after the show?"

The stew, which looked frankly unpromising as he assembled it, hampered by the unappealing camerawork and styling of the era - mid-1980s, at a guess - had somehow metamorphosed into something delicious. Perhaps it succumbed to the undeniable charm of Floyd, just as the rest of us did.

Keith Floyd was the original celebrity chef. At a time when domestic cooking was very much a woman's job, and professional chefs (mostly male, then as now), stayed in their kitchens, behind their aprons and tall hats, Floyd was a face, a name, an attitude that began the process of rescuing British food from the utter doldrums of the 1970s; he began to make food something a man could be interested in and knowledgeable about; brought it out from anodyne kitchens and 'here's one I made earlier,' into the open air of campsites and fishing boats. In all of this, Floyd hugely influenced the next generation such as Jamie Oliver, Heston Blumenthal, Gordon Ramsay and Nigel Slater.

For the average viewer, however, it was Floyd's personality far more than his cooking techniques that was the draw. The way he appeared to bumble, and indeed sometimes clearly did - "The way I cooked it was so off-putting that she knows, already, it's going to taste absolutely awful," he once confided to viewers, of the French chef about to taste his piperade - the way he got visibly more pissed as the show wore on, and the way his suave English-gentleman persona was subverted by a strong hint of loucheness. The real joy of Floyd was the way he looked as if he was only ever a glass of red away from doing or saying something outrageous. And of course, in his private life he very often did just that, his irresistible charm and joie de vivre vying with lengthy battles with depression and alcoholism. Four marriages, all of which ended in divorce, and two children he felt he hadn't done right by, along with bankruptcy, frequent changes of country - he lived in France, Spain, Ireland and Thailand as well as England - and business (he opened, and closed, at least 12 restaurants and pubs), escalating paranoia and belligerence, all suggest a fairly chaotic personal outlook.

Expand Close Keith Floyd with fourth wife Tess / Facebook

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Born in 1943, Floyd was brought up in Exmoor, a childhood close to nature and rural tradition, and educated at Wellington school in Somerset (along with Jeffrey Archer). He tried journalism first, then switched to the army, where he gained a commission in the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment in 1963. The army didn't last either, and Floyd began working in restaurants, often lowly jobs like kitchen porter, in France and London, until in 1966, aged just 23, he opened his first restaurant, Floyd's Bistro, in Bristol, where his parents helped out by washing dishes.

He was a talented chef and charming restaurateur who knew how to fill the tables. Proper fame may only have come once his TV career took off, but Floyd was always 'someone.' "I mean in the context of my little area of Bristol, Clifton, in the late Sixties and early Seventies, I became very famous," he once said. "I have always attracted attention, without having to seek it. It's very strange." And even though he came to hate fame - journalist Lynn Barber once wrote that he would come to describe it as "a type of leprosy he contracted in 1985" - seeing success as the possession of enough money to disappear, he attracted it as effortlessly as he seemed to attract women.

He married first when he was 24, to Jesmond Ruttledge, and had a son, Patrick, but the couple separated after three years, partly, Floyd always claimed, because he believed she had had a previous child, knowledge of which she kept hidden from him. This belief seems to have sprung from a fairly ridiculous episode - Floyd ringing the hospital after Patrick's birth, to be told by a nurse that Mrs Floyd's 'second child' had been born; there were, it later transpired, two Mrs Floyds in hospital that day. As a misconception, it seems perfectly ridiculous - the kind of thing a novelist wouldn't get away with - but apparently it did its sneaky work, poisoning the relationship. That said, relationships may simply have been something Floyd wasn't very good at.

Running a business apparently wasn't either. For all the apparent success of Floyd's Bistro - busy, booked out, talked-about - the financial side seemed to be beyond him, and in the early 1970s he sold the restaurant and used the proceeds to buy a yacht, Flirty, and set sail for the Mediterranean, leaving Jesmond and Patrick behind, although he and Jesmond wouldn't get divorced for another decade. This was Floyd's bid for freedom and the open road. Until then, he believed, he hadn't "had a life", and so he left without counting the costs. "I had vanished without thinking much about Patrick, a confession that sounds too cruel . . . As time went by, I would come to think of him all the time, and then the nightmares started." After 18 months, he came back to England, where he spent more time with Patrick, but accompanied by a girlfriend, Dolores (in his autobiography Stirred But Not Shaken he never gives her a second name, but describes her as "a kind of sub Mary Quant . . . with her raven black hair she was outstandingly attractive") and her mixed-race daughter. However, rural Somerset in the 1970s wasn't a broad-minded place, and Dolores and her daughter were viewed with hostility. Within a few months, she had left. Floyd then met Paddy Walker, the glamorous woman's editor of the paper he had once worked on as a reporter, and the two set up a wine-importing business, moving back to France, with her three children. There, Floyd did the very brave thing of opening a small restaurant, just six tables, in the Provencal town of L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, succeeding where most English people dismally fail. "Paddy was an absolutely wonderful woman," he writes, "but I couldn't handle the children." In the end, they moved back to England - "we simply abandoned the house, didn't even sell it" - and went their separate ways.

Back in England, without a penny, Floyd opened another bistro, simply called Floyd's, with the backing of friends - they called themselves the Five-Hundred Club, and there were six of them, who stumped up 500 each, on the basis that they could 'eat off' their investment." But there too finances were problematic, and by the time a TV career was foisted upon him, he was close to bankruptcy. Producer David Pritchard is the man responsible for Floyd's broadcasting career, persuading him in the face of initial reluctance - Floyd told him he "hated TV people" - and building a show around him rather than trying to fit him into an existing format. In 1985 the first series, Floyd on Fish, went out. More series followed, each with a book to accompany it, and almost instantly Floyd was a household name, and a bone fide celebrity, one who generated headlines in the red tops.

By then Floyd was married again, to Julie Hatcher, blonde, beautiful, ten years his junior, whom he wed just months after they met, and with whom he had a daughter, Poppy, who recalls that as Floyd's fame grew, he spent more and more time away, filming and working. At first, she would travel out to meet him, decked out with an 'Unaccompanied Minor' badge, but as the years wore on, he became more remote. "I remember him sending Easter eggs and they would arrive in the post in pieces. He might be in Thailand or he might be in Norway. We got the occasional postcard. When he remembered Christmas he would phone us up." Eventually, Julie and Floyd divorced, with Julie accusing him of "gambling, whoring and drinking ad infinitum." He denied the whoring.

Floyd, in one of his many sudden emotional reversals, moved to Ireland, to Kinsale, on what he described as a "Murphy's inspired whim." Kinsale, for Floyd, was to be a return to something more humble and real; "after the bullshit of making television commercials and attending chat shows, this was life with a roaring heart and blood pumping through it." He bought a cottage and moved in, but, for all he claimed to want a quiet life, he brought with him all the trappings of the Floyd roadshow. Poppy recalls one visit where he threw a party to celebrate the arrival of two plastic crocodiles from the by-then-closed Floyd's; "It was a classic picnic - pink Champagne, fresh lobster and caviar on a boat."

He became very involved with Kinsale rugby club and bought a flat in Beggar's Bush in Dublin, where he would go ostensibly to write, although the reality may have involved more time at the Shelbourne Hotel. Floyd himself recalled the romance of the period - in Ireland, like England, there seemed to be no shortage of women keen to spend time with him - "During that halcyon, hedonistic time women came and went but no hearts were broken and no blame attaches." One wonders if the women felt quite as blithe.

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By now, Floyd was drinking more, and had "moved on to the hard stuff." He was, in his own words "desperately unhappy." Ireland had not proved the solace he hoped for, and the relentlessness of fame and the need to make money, gave him no let-up. He continued to travel for work, and eventually sold the cottage in Kinsale. He had a relationship with a property developer, Zoe Meeson, but she left him after a couple of years. Then, following a period where he was known to ring girls who sent him fan mails, suggesting they come and stay with him - in Devon, at the gastropub he opened, called Floyd's Inn, where Jean-Christophe Novelli was chef - he met an Irish girl, Shaunagh Mullett, 23 years younger than him, and proposed marriage within four hours. Marry they did, but that lasted only two years - he accused her of forgetting his birthday and threw her and 50 diners out of the pub.

Novelli recalls Floyd thus: "His humour used to change, you know, but his food was very consistent . . . He may seem a bit of a spoiled child when he is pissed, but he is so funny, so gregarious, so loyal. He is a darling." But for the many staff Floyd hired and rapidly fired - he became known as 'The Butcher of Tuckenhay' - and the customers he occasionally abused, describing them as "thick and snobbish and as stupid as you can get", there was clearly another Floyd. Again, finances were a disaster, and in 1996 the pub was sold after a period in receivership.

It was, according to Floyd, a merciful release. "Thank God it's over," he said. "I was permanently frustrated and angry." He met his fourth wife, food stylist Tess Smith, 18 years his junior, and moved with her to the Costa del Sol, where the plan was to work very hard for a couple of years, then "hopefully, we'll have enough money to pull the drawbridge up, have children and lead the kind of quiet life that only money can buy." In the event, there weren't to be any children, and marriage to Tess ended in yet another divorce, 13 years later, after their lives together became, as he said "one long round of screaming matches interspersed with complete alcoholic blackouts" on his part. For her part, she later said, "I've never discussed why it didn't work out, and probably never will. Let's just say Keith wasn't the easiest man to live with." However, she described a life that was all work, with very little downtime; "in the whole time I was with Keith we never once celebrated my birthday because we were always travelling around the globe making one of his shows and were too busy even to go out for dinner." She also recalled, "Even if he was heating up a tin of soup, he'd shout 'Service!' to get me to clean up after him." And then there was the toll celebrity takes: "Women would come up and ask him for a kiss. Men would shove me out of the way to say how much they admired him."

There was talk of another pub or restaurant, first back in England, later in the Far East, but never with much conviction, although he lent his name to Floyds Brasserie in Phuket, opened in 2007. Floyd was at this stage drinking heavily, experiencing hallucinations, and his health was suffering. He had become increasingly paranoid and combatative, engaging in endless rows with producers, his manager, even friends. In 2009 he was treated for bowel cancer, but given the all-clear in September. To celebrate, he went for a typically extravagant lunch with Celia Martin, widow of his long-time friend, David, one of the Five-Hundred Club, with whom, he said, he was "very much in love." That evening, the Channel4 documentary about Floyd's life, Keith on Keith, made by Keith Allen, was to be broadcast. In the event, Floyd didn't live to watch it. He had a heart-attack during the broadcast and died that night. After two decades of hard work and considerable fame, he left just 7,500 in his will.

There is a touch of Alex Higgins, of George Best, to Keith Floyd - the considerable gifts and charm, allied to a difficult, selfish, self-destructive personality. In the end however, his TV series' stand the test of time. Behind the stale, static camerawork and unappealing styling, Floyd is as effervescent and brilliant as ever, very much a match for the Jamies, Hestons and Gordons he inspired.

Saturday Kitchen is on BBC1, 10am, Saturdays. Saturday Kitchen Best Bits is on BBC2, 10.10am, Sunday mornings
Two years ago Van Morrison was celebrated in an enchanted evening of words and music at London's Lyric Theatre. He introduced Foreign Window thus: "This was partly based on a documentary about Lord Byron. He said, 'I have learned to love despair'. I wish I could."

Give Van's new album Keep Me Singing a few listens and you will feel that the 71-year-old from Hyndford Street in Belfast hasn't yet learned to love despair - or a version of it, closer to melancholia - but he seems, however, to have learned to deal with it. And his place in the whole existential scheme of things.

Memory Lane is one of Van's finest - and most moving - songs in quite some time. "I stop a while and take in the scene. I stop a while and ask a stranger: 'Is this the place that was once called Memory Lane?"

The sense of resignation, even sadness, in his voice, in his words, sometimes almost whispering, drags the listener in deep. "I don't know where I am or what I'm after," he sings for the rest of the planet. This is more than Van Morrison's legendary otherness.

You can imagine Van standing there somewhere in the North of Ireland, his coat wrapped around to him to protect him from the cold, searching for some long-lost part of his past.

And, as he sings, "And now the leaves are falling and the nights keep getting shorter. . ." you also imagine that Van in some senses of the word is singing about the autumn of his own life, where the nights - the dark nights of the soul, most probably, knowing Van as we do - get shorter with the advancing years.

With Keep Me Singing, Van's first batch of original songs since 2012's Born to Sing: No Plan B, Van has become the esoteric existential soul-man more than ever.

On the haunting In Tiburon, he is singing that "the fog is lifting," before adding with a bona fide rapture in his voice, "We need each other more than ever to lean on."

This isn't the curmudgeonly, uncommunicative, self-absorbed Van of legend - what Van would call the "propaganda".

Practically anyone else singing the words, "We need each other more than ever to lean on" would make them sound like a sub-Paul Young cheese-fest. Van makes the words zing to the heavens like it was Lord Byron or William Blake who wrote them for him alone to sing.

At the aforementioned Van celebration in London in 2014, Edna O'Brien read Madame George ('And the love that loves to love. . .') and then told the audience that she believed he was "in the business of making magic."

If, like me, you listen to Van (and Messrs. Dylan, Cohen, Cave et al) in the sometimes vain hope of hearing some great philosophical truth by which to live your life, then Keep Me Singing has more than its share. Try "Don't let the green grass fool you, look beyond the hill" or "Crying in the rain/Start all over again."

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The musical style of the album is mostly jazz in its improvisation spirit. As Van told BBC Radio Ulster's Ralph McLean in an extraordinary two-hour interview recently: "I'm not saying I'm playing jazz all the time but that is the approach."

That said, Going Down To Bangor is a rollicking blues romp that is possibly the distant cousin of Goin' Down To Monte Carlo from Van's Born To Sing album.

And the swamp blues shuffle of The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword is Van invoking the spirit of his late pal, John Lee Hooker, when he sings: "They are going to get burnt because they are playing with fire/ They are going to get caught because someone is a liar." On Every Time I See a River, Van is announcing: "No feeling of isolation here. I guess I must be on the right track." I guess he must, only seven decades after he first set out in search of it.

Better late than never. Too late to stop now, Van.
Catherine Nevin was photographed in an all-black outfit while on day release from the Dochas wing of Mountjoy Prison last week.

The so-called 'Black Widow' wore black leggings, a loose black top and runners, which she teamed with a black handbag and designer sunglasses.

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The 64-year-old, who is serving a life sentence for the April 1997 murder of her publican husband Tom Nevin, also wore her hair in a French braid while on the shopping spree.

During her trial between February and April 2000, such was the public fascination with her coiffed hair, manicured nails and stylish clothes, the judge ordered a ban prohibiting the media from reporting on her appearance.
A man (left) is air lifted from the sea after he became trapped in a cave below the cliffs in Kilkee, Co Clare Photo Press 22

A FEMALE member of the coast guard has passed away after being thrown into the sea during a search-and-rescue operation.

The woman in her 40s was removed from the water by a rescue team from the Doolin Coast Guard after the boat she was in capsized.

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She was taken to hospital, but pronounced dead this afternoon.

This is a black day for us. These are volunteers who risk their lives everyday to save others. This woman was a hero, one lifeguard member said.

Two other members of the coast guard were also dislodged from the boat which was taking part in a search off the Clare coast for a missing local man.

Another woman in her 50s was rescued from the water and brought to University Hospital Limerick (UHL) where she is in a stable condition.

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A male colleague also in his 40s, the coxswain of the unit, was trapped in a cave area for a number of hours before being rescued this evening. He is said to be doing well, after earlier cliff and cave rescues were hampered by rough seas and strong winds.

It is understood rescue teams were attempting to remove a boat blocking access to the cliffs and others were attempting to use ropes to come down the cliffs.

He was rescued this evening by the Shannon Rescue 115 helicopter at approximately 5.30pm and has been airlifted to UHL.

Manuel Dilucia, founder of the Kilkee Marine Rescue, told Independent.ie earlier: "He is in there, been there for approximately four hours.

Rescue operation under way in Kilkee - coast guard member in cave at base of cliff pic.twitter.com/YiQqMYJ32b  Timmy Dooley TD (@timmydooley) September 12, 2016

"He is sitting on a ledge waiting to be saved"

The incident happened off the coast of Kilkee in Co. Clare. The crew from Kilkee Marine Rescue were taking part in the third day of a search-and-rescue for a man missing from the local area for a number of deays.

Their rigid inflatable boat (RIB) overturned shortly after 1pm when it hit a heavy swell near the cliffs at Kilkee.

A spokesperson for the Irish Coast Guard told RTE that they became aware of the incident shortly after midday today after Valentia Island Coast Guard office was contacted with a mayday call.

Doolin Coast Guard, the RNLI and the Lahinch Surf Rescue Team and divers were all involved in the final rescue.

Pat Breen, TD for Clare and a junior minister, expressed his condolences following the tragedy.

"My thoughts and prayers are with the coastguard crew and their families who were involved in this dreadful incident this afternoon in Kilkee," he said.

Speaking on RTE's Six One, Declan Geoghegan, Operations Manager with the Irish Coast Guard said there will be an inquiry into what happened.

Geoghegan said he didn't know"whether it was a heavy swell or a rogue wave, we are unsure. They obviously got thrown into the water and unfortunately we lost a colleague. Our other colleagues have been rescued."

He also confirmed that the members involved were local volunteers who had trained in Kilkee.

More to follow
Colm Meaney attending an interview about the upcoming film, The Journey, during the Toronto International Film Festival 2016, in Toronto, Canada

Actor Colm Meaney has described Sinn Fein politician Martin McGuinness as an "extraordinary statesman" after playing him in a new film.

Meaney said the former IRA commander, now Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister, is an "astute politician" working towards the "laudable goal" of uniting the island of Ireland.

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The Irish actor stars in The Journey, a fictional drama about the friendship forged between Mr McGuinness and his political opponent Ian Paisley during the Northern Ireland peace process.

Appearing at the Toronto International Film Festival, Meaney told the Press Association: "I think Martin McGuinness has become an extraordinary statesman, a real statesman.

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"I supported him in his candidacy for president of Ireland at the last election because I thought he was the most qualified person to do it.

"He's proved himself over the last 10 years to be a very astute politician and a remarkably competent statesman, which surprises a lot of people."

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Meaney - known for his roles in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa - brushed off controversy surrounding Mr McGuinness, saying: "Anyone who is involved in politics in Ireland is controversial."

He added: "I think what Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein have achieved in Ireland in the last 10 years is tremendous.

"They're the only all-Ireland party. They're moving towards bringing the island of Ireland together which I think is a laudable goal."

Mr Paisley, the Democratic Unionist Party leader who died in 2014, is portrayed in The Journey by English actor Timothy Spall.

His widow, Baroness Paisley, is reportedly boycotting the film, telling the Belfast News Letter: "I don't think it was written with great knowledge."

Director Nick Hamm insisted the the film is not a documentary but a fictionalised account of "two A-list politicians".

"We were not looking for either side to feel comfortable with the film," he said. "Neither were we looking for either side to condemn the film. We were looking to present a balanced argument where both sides would be equally comfortable and equally uncomfortable.

"It is not a documentary. It's a fictionalised, entertaining feel-good movie about peace."

A release date for The Journey has not yet been announced.
A 17-year-old boy, who snatched a woman's phone to help pay a drug debt, has been spared a sentence.

He pleaded guilty at the Dublin Children's Court to stealing the 200 phone on a south Dublin street on the afternoon of Jan. 8 last. Judge John O'Connor was told the teen snatched it from the woman's hand and then fled.

However, he was identified from CCTV footage but the phone was not recovered. He had nine prior criminal convictions including motor theft, three counts of hit and run as well as escaping from custody and dangerous driving. Earlier this year he was banned from driving for two years and he has recently completed a three-month custodial sentence.

The defence barrister furnished the court with a letter from the teen. He was apologetic when interviewed by gardai, the lawyer also said.

The court heard the teen had a chaotic lifestyle and had been under the influence of tablets when he stole the phone. He does not recall the incident.

He had a drug addiction money and was in debt, Judge O'Connor heard in pleas for leniency.

His custodial sentence brought about a change in him and he is staying away from drug-taking and also plans to get onto an educational course, the court heard.

The boy, who was accompanied to court by his mother, now interacts with new friends now and has not come to garda attention since his release.

Judge O'Connor was furnished with a probation report on the teenager. He noted it recommended placing him on probation for six months.

Judge O'Connor agreed to follow the recommendations.
Use Your Brain Not Your Fists campaign. Picture: Garda Press Office

Gardai have pleaded with young men to think about the consequences of their actions after shocking new statistics revealed 83 per cent of offenders in assault cases are male.

According to the Garda Analysis Service, the vast majority of assaults are carried out by males aged between 18 and 39 against males of a similar age.

The analysis reveals that the assaults typically take place in and around public places (street, roads, pubs and hotels) between 8pm and 5am at the weekend.

And approximately 25pc of incidents linked to the night time economy involved intoxication of either the suspect offender, the victim, or both.

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Seven out of every ten assaults involve a male attacking a male while 75% of victims are men.

Describing his experience following a serious assault, one victim (26) said: "Before the assault I was a happy go lucky guy, but since then I would describe my life as hell.

"Along with the terrible injuries that kept me in hospital for a long time, I have suffered from depression and paranoia and I still feel angry a lot of the time.

Another man (29), who was not identified, said: "Since the incident I think about the vulnerability of myself, my girlfriend and my family when out socialising or going about daily life. In the weeks that followed the incident I experienced disturbed sleep and anxiety.

It has emerged that there is a low recidivism rate and there is a very low level of repeat victimisation in these types of attacks.

The garda figures reveal that the recovery of the economy has led to a busier nightlife in pubs and bars with the knock-on increase in the level of assaults.

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In Dublin the number of assaults causing harm rose from 1,396 in 2012 to 1,707 in 2015, while minor assaults increased from 3,100 to 3,337 in the same period.

Despite this in 2016, assaults nationally have shown a decline with minor assaults down 2pc and assaults causing harm down 4pc.

Gardai have implemented a multi-strand anti-crime strategy to further reduce assaults and enhance community safe.

A series of 'assault hotspots have been identified and since early August there has been high visibility policing in the areas at key times.

Gardai say they are working with pubs, businesses and local councils to address issues while also creating an education campaign which went live from Monday is working in partnerships with licensed premises, the business community and local councils to address issues around anti-social behaviour.

Sergeant Kelvin Courtney, Garda Bureau of Community Engagement, advised people to be streetwise when they are out and about.

"The vast majority of assaults that occur are needless and avoidable, he said.

"They are usually carried out by males against males aged between 18 and 39, during evenings and early mornings. Dont be that guy; use your brain not your fists.

"Never attempt to reason with drunk or aggressive people. Walk away and look for help.

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"Be streetwise when youre out and about. Planning is key to having a good night out. Arrange transport to and from events in advance. Let someone know where you are going and when youll be back. Avoid walking alone and in dark places. Be wary of your surroundings and mind your property.

Sergeant Courtney urged assault victims to report the crime, which, according to the CSO may be under-reported by approximately 40%.

"Some victims of assaults, particularly men, are embarrassed to say they have been assaulted. I would encourage anybody, and in particular younger men, to report all assaults to An Garda Siochana. Anyone who has been assaulted will be treated with sensitivity by An Garda Siochana and it will be fully investigated.
Eight people have died on Irish roads in the past week following a further three fatal accidents over the weekend.

The latest tragedies over the weekend claimed the lives of a car driver, a motorcyclist and a pedestrian.

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In total, 126 people have died on Irish roads so far this year, in comparison to 106 during the same period in 2015.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, a pedestrian aged in his 60s was struck by a car and fatally injured.

The incident happened at approximately 1am near Hospital, Co Limerick.

Read more: Five perish on Irish roads to exceed death-toll target

A single-vehicle accident occurred one hour later on the N52 at Ardcroney, Co Tipperary.

A man in his early 30s died after the car he was driving left the road and struck with a fence. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The incident that claimed the third life on Ireland's roads over the weekend happened shortly before 11pm on Saturday when a motorcycle and a car collided near Campile, Co Wexford.

The 38-year-old motorcyclist was pronounced dead at the scene, while the 25-year-old car driver was uninjured.

The road was closed to facilitate an examination by Garda Forensic Collision Investigators and witnesses are being asked to contact New Ross Garda Station.

The deaths at the weekend brought to eight the number of people who died on Irish roads last week.

On Sunday morning of last week, Maureen Creaner (92) was killed when she was struck by a car on her way home from mass on the Navan Road shortly after 8.15am. The male driver of the vehicle was arrested and brought to Finglas Garda Station, but he was later released without charge.

The following day, a man in his 60s was killed in a single-vehicle crash in Dundalk, Co Louth.

Newborn

Just hours later, new mum Nicola Kenny died after her vehicle was hit by a truck while pulled over in a motorway hard shoulder lane near Dogstown, Co Tipperary.

Read more: First-time mother killed in motorway crash after stopping to take hospital call about newborn

Nicola (26) had been on her way to Temple Street Children's Hospital, Dublin, with her mother and aunt to visit her newborn baby.

Her funeral mass in Thurles was told that: "She was a beacon of life to her family and to a wide circle of friends and their children."

The following day, Donna Fox (30) was killed after her bicycle collided with a truck on Seville Place in Dublin's north-inner city.

Her funeral, which took place in Balbriggan on Saturday morning, heard how Donna would be remembered as "a beautiful person" who was "taken too soon".

On Wednesday night, a 62-year-old pedestrian was killed after being struck by a lorry on the Finuge to Abbeydorney Road at Bealkilla, Lixnaw, Co Kerry.
The more women on the staff of universities and other third-level colleges in Ireland the more efficient they are, according to a new study.

It is one of the findings of research from Trinity College Dublin (TCD) business school on the efficiency of the country's third-level institutions.

The recognition of the value of women in higher education strikes a chord in the wake of the controversy over gender equality in Irish third level.

In one example of the male-female imbalance, women make up 43pc of academic staff in universities, but hold only 19pc of professorships. Moves to address the inequality are under way following the report of an expert group, under former EU Commissioner Maire Geoghegan Quinn.

The Trinity study, undertaken by Professor Brian Lucey, Dr Charles Larkin and Dr Qiantao Zhang set out to measure the efficiency of Irish universities and institutes of technology in the key areas of teaching, research, and the transfer of knowledge to business and industry. It covered the period 2009-13, a time of funding cuts and rising enrolments,

In the first such assessment, it examined how the staffing, physical and financial resources available to a college translated into research papers, graduates and commercial spin-offs.

Colleges were found to be more efficient in teaching than in research and knowledge transfer - it was in research activity that a higher share of women was found to be beneficial.

The researchers conclude that "it may be impossible to deliver efficiency in all three areas of teaching, research and knowledge transfer".

Despite differences between institutions and the various types of activities in which they were involved, the study found no strong link between size and efficiency.

Report author, Professor Lucey said the evidence was "clear that a 'one size fits all' approach to higher education institutions' missions is not appropriate."

He said there was a strong case for specialised research and knowledge transfer-orientated institutions and for teaching-orientated institutions.

Meanwhile, another study, published today, has found that students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely to struggle at third level education, with many leaving courses as a result.

Research into the experiences of adults with ADHD, found the majority of participants had either dropped out of a college course or experienced difficulty completing coursework due to the 'self-directed' nature of third level academia.

Dr Padraig MacNeela, a psychology lecturer at NUI Galway who carried out the research, said third level education posed more challenges for people with ADHD and was often a "wounding experience".

Dr MacNeela said a lack of proper supports along with a dominance of linear thinking and rote learning was a major issue.

This practice begins in school and continues into higher education and some work environments.

He said many establishments had ill-prepared supports and structures to respond to the condition.

"Experiential learning and small tutorial-style learning environments worked best for participants studying at college.

"Although lecturers and student services were reported to be supportive, in many cases participation at this level of education had been a wounding experience," said Dr MacNeela.

He found people with ADHD need more explicit support structures to be put in place in the healthcare, school and college learning environments.

He acknowledged that some third level institutions offered school leavers supports.

Adults with ADHD were also more likely to find the work environment "unforgiving", because of a lack of supports.

While only 2.5pc of the population is affected with ADHD, a third of Irish children diagnosed with the condition see it remain with them into later life.
Cork University Hospital, which already has two cath labs to treat heart patients, is getting substantial investment to expand the facility - while the same service in Waterford virtually stalls.

Confirmation that cardiac services in the Cork hospital, which serves the constituency of Environment Minister Simon Coveney, will be upgraded is set to fuel more tensions over the refusal to give a second cath lab to Waterford.

There are already intense rivalries between the two hospitals, which are now part of the south/southwest hospital group. Waterford Hospital fears it will lose out to Cork across a range of specialties and that its status will be downgraded.

The controversial Government-commissioned Herity report turned down demands for a second catheterisation lab - an examination room with diagnostic equipment - in Waterford. Instead, its single cath lab, which currently operates from 9am to 5pm, must be content with longer opening hours and more equipment.

It is also reeling from the shock that Waterford will also lose its PCI service, to widen arteries in patients including heart attack victims, to Cork.

A spokesman for the south/southwest hospital group confirmed to the Irish Independent that there were currently two cath labs in Cork.

One is an electrophysiology lab for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with an irregular heartbeat. The second is a shared hybrid lab where rapid response diagnostics and surgical intervention for cardiac patients can take place in the one unit. It provides a higher level of efficiency and safety for certain high-risk procedures.

"There are currently plans to increase the capacity in the second cath lab," said the spokesman.

Currently, patients who need urgent cath lab procedures after hours in Waterford must be sent to Cork or sometimes Dublin.

Doctors in Waterford who are appealing for a second cath lab said patients who were on waiting lists were being put at risk. Currently, there are 581 patients waiting for procedure dates in the cath lab in Waterford.

Due to demand on the service, the categories of 'routine' and 'soon' waiting lists for patients are currently static, therefore only urgent cases can be facilitated.
Johnny Adair moved to Scotland after being released from prison as part of the Good Friday Agreement

The son of former loyalist leader Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair has been found dead at a house in Scotland.

Jonathan Adair Junior, nicknamed 'Mad Pup' by his father, was discovered at a house in Troon, South Ayrshire, on Saturday evening.

Police Scotland said officers were called to reports of a body found in a property at around 5.15pm.

Detectives said they were treating the death as unexplained and a post-mortem would be carried out.

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Adair Jr (32) had reportedly been released from prison recently after serving a sentence for drug offences.

In 2002, Jonathan Adair was shot in both legs just before his 18th birthday.

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He was shot through both calves in Florence Square, not far from his Lower Shankill Road home.

At the time, it was widely accepted that his father knew of the attack before it had taken place, or had even ordered the shooting himself.

'Mad Dog' Adair Snr was a leading paramilitary figure in the Ulster Defence Association during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

He was expelled from Northern Ireland by the Ulster Defence Association, the loyalist terror group of which he was a once a senior member.

The exiled loyalist was once the ruthless leader of the Lower Shankill 2nd Battalion, C Company, which murdered Catholic civilians in the early 1990s.

He became the first person to be jailed for directing terrorism in Northern Ireland in 1995.

After a failed bid to take over the entire UDA resulting in a murderous feud, 'Mad Dog' was ordered to leave Belfast or face execution at the hands of his former comrades.

He moved to Scotland with his family after being released from prison as part of the Good Friday Agreement and has lived in Ayrshire for a number of years.

The 50-year-old lives with his girlfriend Lynne Benson, the mother of his youngest child.

In an interview last year, Adair Snr said that he was "happier than I've ever been", living in Scotland.

"When the weight of the world is taken off your shoulders, you're leading a normal life with your girlfriend and son... it's a great life ... a happy life," he said.
Up to 30 young people were hospitalised for assault, drug and drink-related incidents linked to the MTV Crashes concert in Derry at the weekend

Emergency medical consultant Paul Bayliss said drugged-up, drunk or assaulted MTV concert-goers caused a "significant" increase in the number of patients attending Altnagelvin Hospital's emergency department.

MTV Crashes returned to Derry on Saturday night with thousands swarming to the Ebrington Square venue.

However, doctors said many concert-goers required medical treatment - with some admitted to intensive care in Altnagelvin Area Hospital.

"There was a large number of 16 to 25 year olds who presented at the department, most of them intoxicated with alcohol and or recreational drugs," said Paul Baylis.

"Out of the 100 overall attendances at the Emergency Department between 6pm on Saturday 10 September and 6am on Sunday 11 September, 30 of them were alcohol or drugs related.

"There was also an increase in the number of cases of assault attending our service whom the injured patients stated that they had been assaulted by drunk or stoned assailants"

Mr Baylis continued: "Weekends are usually quite busy in our emergency department anyway.

"Our staff were managing their usual busy workload alongside having to deal with the increase in intoxicated young people presented to the department.

"Many of the additional intoxicated young patients were extremely distressed and required significant nursing support.

"In essence as a direct consequence of the MTV event our usual challenging emergency department Saturday evening environment became a more dangerous environment for all our patients as our fixed staffing resources strived to cope with the additional workload.

"Some of those who attended the emergency department were extremely ill and needed to receive intensive care treatment. Many needed overnight observation."

Mr Baylis added: "All young people, and their parents, need to be conscious of the dangers associated with consuming alcohol and drugs in an uncontrolled environment.

"The drugs that are being peddled at these events are not regulated in any way and there is no way of knowing the dangers of consuming them, especially when washed down with alcohol.

"The effects of drugs and alcohol often result in paranoid and distressing behaviours which directly endangers the health and safety of the person taking them and also the safely of the people around them.

"In addition they can lead to extreme vulnerability to all forms of assault as they lose their ability to object to what may happen to them.

"Personal safety should be of paramount importance when frequenting outdoor events. All parents should give careful consideration before allowing their children to attend such an event in the future."

The concert is the third event the music broadcaster MTV has held in the city.

Promoter Legacy promotions told the BBC there were 12,000 attending the concert with 65 treated in the welfare facility on site and 12 sent to hospital as a precaution.

There were two arrests on the night, it said, and police and the Ambulance Service were on hand within the venue.

The promoter also said "drunk children without their parents" were turned away at the door but given treatment regardless.
A 13-year-old boy reported missing from Dublin has been found safe and well.

Gardai had sought the public's assistance in locating the boy who has been missing since Monday morning, September 12.

But on Tuesday morning officers confirmed that he had been located safe and well.
An Aussie-American who put the call out for Irish men to bring her to a wedding during her Irish adventure has received several non-conventional invites.

Tara Foster, 36, is planning on travelling around Ireland on nothing more than a push-bike and she is letting her Twitter followers plot her journey.

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However, since putting the call out on Twitter she has received more than a few strange challenges from the Irish public.

"Since the Independent.ie article went live last week, I've had 2,500 Twitter likes, over 200 Faceboook friend requests, 20 wedding invites, a 12-year-old asking me to go to the pub and a nudist colony asking me to hang out at at the beach with them."

Ms. Foster said she was hoping to be invited to an Irish wedding, however she did not think that she would have the opportunity to be going to her own wedding.

"I've also received a marriage proposal. It's been overwhelming. It's taken me two hours to sift though the messages. I also got a lot of messages like "the guy across from me is reading about you on the train right now"

Foster arrives in Dublin from Sydney on September 13. She is taking a few days to adjust from jetlag, then setting off on her journey from Wexford on September 18.

She will also be appearing on the Ray D'Arcy show on RTE Radio One during her time in Ireland.

You can follow Tara's adventure on @Taraustralis.
Micheal Martin admits that New Politics is a "horrible term" but still believes it can do some good. He believes it would be better defined as "rebalancing the power" between the Government and the rest of the Dail.

It stops people "ramming legislation through" and gives backbench TDs "a greater say", argues the Fianna Fail leader.

But isn't that the problem? Just eight pieces of legislation - including some leftovers from the last Dail, one to suspend water charges and one to set up a citizens' assembly - passed since the Fine Gael-led Government came to power in May.

"That's what happens when new ministers are appointed. They want to review legislation.

"I would expect in the autumn that we would have a pipeline of legislative proposals," says a diplomatic Mr Martin. But he adds: "It's arguable that the Opposition has been more proactive in proposing bills."

For Fianna Fail, he sees "pluses and minuses" from the arrangement that sees the party effectively prop up Enda Kenny's administration from the Opposition benches.

However, he believes his TDs have adjusted better to "the new reality".

"At least we stepped up to the plate and facilitated the formation of a government, having failed ourselves to get a government going with the Independents, Greens or Social Democrats.

"There's too much 'we have power but we don't like how we have it' in some circles of Fine Gael. They need to get with it.

"I think that has created some of the instability," he told the Irish Independent.

More instability is likely to brew in the coming months as Taoiseach Enda Kenny comes under increasing pressure to outline his exit strategy.

Unsurprisingly, after winning their election head-to-heads, Mr Martin is in no hurry for the Fine Gael leader to depart.

He says Mr Kenny's retirement "could cause its own tensions", but "ultimately it's a matter for Fine Gael who their leader is".

He declines to declare a preference from three frontrunners for the position, but is prepared to take aim at the three potential successors.

Mr Martin believes Leo Varadkar walked away from Health, Simon Coveney left Agriculture on the floor and Frances Fitzgerald has not engaged with the major issues in Justice.

The Fianna Fail leader is surprised Mr Varadkar did not retain the Health portfolio.

"I thought Leo Varadkar would go back into Health because he was attacking everybody else, me and previous holders of the office," he says.

And if Simon Coveney becomes the next leader of Fine Gael, then two Cork South Central TDs will be vying to be Taoiseach at the next election. Mr Martin says his constituency rival "left Agriculture at a time when it's on the floor".

Farmers are facing a series of crises, with diary and grain prices plummeting and many complaining they are surviving on income levels that are not sustainable.

Mr Martin had some praise for Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald, who he believes "engages with the Opposition".

But Garda morale is "very low" and he would like "more reassurance" that the terrorist threat is being sufficiently monitored in terms of the capacity to deal with a potential incident.

He is more scathing of Sinn Fein, which has long portrayed itself as the only "all-island party" - but Mr Martin says it risks polarising communities.

He describes the 'border poll' idea as a "divisive knee-jerk reaction".

"The way Sinn Fein did it would inflame loyalist and unionist opinion and would actually put back the day of Irish unity," he says.

He argues that Sinn Fein's reaction to the UK referendum was "classic Brexit stuff".

"It's an exact replicate of what happened in the UK. Produce a Brexit strategy and then have no plan B.

"At the moment, there is no evidence that people in Northern Ireland would vote for a united Ireland.

"Brexit could potentially change that into the future but we don't know. If we force attitudes now, they'll go the other way," the Cork TD says.

He adds that his vision of a united Ireland is not one led by a straightforward plebiscite under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

"To me, unity is about people, it's not about territory. It's about having genuine unity of people from different traditions.

"It's not about us saying we have 51pc nationalism versus 49pc. I don't believe in that kind of majority. That's the kind of majoritarianism that led to a failed Northern state. I don't want to replicate that ever. I believe in consensus."

He adds: "There's no point in having substantial division that festers, becoming an issue of discord and conflict potentially. Nobody wants that any more."

Of the upcoming Budget, Mr Martin indicates that his party has no inclination to bring the whole thing crashing down - but he does want a meaningful debate.

"When I came into the Dail first, you had two weeks debating the Budget and every backbencher was allowed in.

"It was a great platform for a backbencher to give their philosophy, their view of life. Nowadays it's two-and-a-half hours and get out a press release."

And that according to Martin is the real value of New Politics. "At least the balance has shifted."
Fianna Fail has ramped up the pressure on Independent junior minister John Halligan to quit the Government.

There was dismay within Fine Gael and the Independent Alliance yesterday at the fallout from a controversial interview the Waterford TD gave to the 'Sunday Independent'.

Using strong and profane language, Mr Halligan accused Fine Gael of "dirty politics" and a "stitch-up" over failures to deliver on his demands for a second coronary care facility at Waterford University Hospital. He also dubbed his own colleague Kevin 'Boxer' Moran "an idiot" after Mr Moran suggested he should have accepted a compromise.

Mr Halligan also said he would deliver dire consequences for the Government as he challenged the leadership to sack him. "What they should do now, if they believe I am destabilising the Government, is put me out. F**k 'em. Put me out," he told the 'Sunday Independent'.

Mr Moran and others in the Independent Alliance declined to comment. "On John Halligan, my lips are sealed. I am committed to the Budget and the Programme for Government," Mr Moran said.

But others close to the Independent Alliance conceded they were dismayed by Mr Halligan again stoking up the row, which had raged all last week, and the type of language used by him.

"We were hoping to be getting down to the business of the Budget and other matters," the source said.

Read more: Halligan won't budge despite review denying need for new lab

Fianna Fail, whose support is needed to keep the Coalition in office, intervened in the row with its science spokesman, James Lawless, saying he believed John Halligan was not doing the job he was appointed to in Government. "In the Dail, when the issues around his portfolio are debated, I am left looking across the chamber at an empty chair. He was given the important job of promoting science, technology and innovation but I see no evidence of him doing his job," said Mr Lawless, a new TD for Kildare North.

Mr Halligan could not be contacted for comment yesterday. But he told RTE he had no intention of resigning.

Fine Gael sources indicated they had no intention of pushing for his removal from his junior ministry, for the present at least.

Government Chief Whip Regina Doherty said she hoped Mr Halligan would continue in office. But Government sources again insisted they were not going to make any further concessions to him on the issue.

Fine Gael rank-and-file TDs remained extremely annoyed at Mr Halligan's behaviour, with many saying it was past time he left Government. The party's Cork South West TD, Jim Daly, said Mr Halligan should quit.

"It would be best for all now if he just left Government," Mr Daly said.

Mr Halligan insists he was promised a second hospital heart facility in coalition negotiations last spring by ministers Simon Coveney and Michael Noonan. Both insist the promise was contingent on a favourable medical review, but the subsequent report came down against a second facility.
Fine Gael ministers have a plan ready to replace Taoiseach Enda Kenny swiftly if the Government collapses and there is a snap election.

The behaviour of Independent ministers has prompted further doubts over the stability of the Coalition.

Mr Kenny agrees that he won't lead the party into the next election. But new party rules involve every member of Fine Gael having a vote in the election of the next leader. The unwieldy process would take several weeks to conclude.

Read more: Taoiseach branded a 'control freak' by own Cabinet minister

Read more: Fine Gael's pork-barrel deal with the Independents should be published

During Government negotiations, Fine Gael ministers discussed how to take a shortcut if there was another election.

The plan hatched was for the losers of an initial vote among TDs, Senators and MEPs to drop out, so cutting out the grassroots vote. Senior party figures told the Irish Independent this plan is still the best option if the Government collapses.

Mr Kenny will today be grilled by his own party about the huge losses in the general election, which were blamed largely on his own performance.

His leadership will be to the fore at the Fine Gael think-in in Newbridge, Kildare.

Meanwhile, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin has taken aim at the records of potential FG leadership contenders.

Today, Taoiseach Enda Kenny will be grilled by his own party about its huge losses in the General Election, caused in part by his own campaign gaffes.

Mr Kenny's leadership will be to the fore at the Fine Gael think-in, as TDs and senators grow increasingly anxious about when and how he intends to step down.

Two reports on the February General Election are to be debated by the parliamentary party at its preparation meeting in Newbridge, Co Kildare, before the Dail returns in two weeks' time.

There were already serious tensions about the set-up for today's debate, with TDs complaining about the failure to give them one of the reports and complaints about the length of time devoted to the second one, which was compiled by a team of TDs.

But the Fine Gael party chairman, Martin Heydon, who is hosting the meeting in his home constituency, has insisted that there will be adequate debate.

"It is important that everyone's voice be heard so that lessons can be learned and I believe that will happen," Mr Heydon told the Irish Independent.

Other deputies said they were unhappy that they will only receive a short summary of the report prepared by party supporter and academic Dr Marian Coy, who chairs the Michael Collins Institute.This report looks at campaign failures and communications breakdowns.

A second report will be given by Dublin Bay South TD Kate O'Connell, following a survey done by herself and fellow TDs Alan Farrell of Dublin Fingal, Peter Burke of Longford-Westmeath and Maria Bailey of Dun Laoghaire. This is critical of communications between Mr Kenny's staff and parliamentary party members and general communication failures during the election campaign.

Carlow-Kilkenny Fine Gael TD Pat Deering said the party failed to hold a proper assessment of the local council elections in May 2014, which also delivered heavy losses.

"Many mistakes made in 2014 were repeated in the General Election because important lessons were not learned," he said.

The issue of Mr Kenny's expected departure as leader will be a major underlying theme of the two-day gathering. But it appears less likely that it will lead to a direct challenge to Mr Kenny, who has said he will not lead in the next election, which many members now fear could happen suddenly, with the party unprepared.

One TD who raised the issue in the recent past, Jim Daly of Cork South West, repeated his view that the leadership question had to be dealt with after the Budget on October 11 .

"That has been my position before and it has not changed," Mr Daly said.

The election reports will be discussed this afternoon, with a reply from Mr Kenny.
An Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the officially opening of The Franchise Show at the Main Hall, RDS, Dublin. Picture by Philip Fitzpatrick / Collins Photos

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has hinted at plans to reshuffle government ministers next year.

The Fine Gael leader also took a swipe at John Halligan and wouldn't say whether he has confidence in his junior minister.

Mr Kenny even outlined his intention to replace Mr Halligan as minister for state with responsiblity for training and skills - if he decides to resign over the Waterford hospital controversy.

Speaking to reporters at the Fine Gael think-in in Kildare, Mr Kenny hinted at plans to reshuffle his team of ministers next year.

"As I said, my mandate is one I am not going to walk away from. I will of course reflect on the make-up of government and the ministers of State next year. And that's part of my responsiblity also."

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Asked whether he would sack Mr Halligan, Mr Kenny said the removal of a minister is the perogative of Cabinet.

But he said he does not "condone" remarks made by Mr Halligan in an interview with the Sunday Independent.

Mr Kenny also backed the response by Health Minister Simon Harris who is standing over the finding of the independent review which recommended against the introduction of a second cath lab in Waterford.

"I would expect that ministers and ministers of State would get on with their job that they've been assigned statutory responsiblity."

The Taoiseach also said he would seek to replace Mr Halligan if he resigns.

"If it transpire that somebody decides to retire or resign from government, I will of course make a replacement."

Asked whether he has confidence in Mr Halligan, Mr Kenny said he expects Mr Halligan to "do his job".

Mr Kenny was also asked about an interview he gave to Pat Kenny on 'Newstalk' today during which he said he has his "mojo back".

The Mayo TD replied:

"It's my zeal for life in politics. It's the recovery of meeting the challenge in politics in very difficult situations."

Mr Kenny said the current government is very different than its predecessor but that achievements have already been made in areas such as housing, homelessness and education.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said he will not lead Fine Gael into another general election. Picture Credit : Frank McGrath

Racing and best-dressed ladies give way to politics today on the Curragh of Kildare as Fine Gael members gather to prepare for a new Dail term.

So what happens at the Fine Gael think-in? John Downing explains what the hot topics are:

1. General Election errors

At the Keadeen Hotel, on the edge of Irelands famous expanse of racing turf, Taoiseach Enda Kenny will face the music. Fine Gael TDs, Senators and MEPs, will conduct an inquest into the loss of one third of their colleagues in this years general election.

There are two reports, one by a party-friendly academic and another by a team of TDs, which will lay the partys dreadful campaign errors bare.

2. When will Kenny quit?

Campaign errors lead inevitably to the issue of Enda Kennys leadership. Kenny had more than his share of election campaign gaffes. Bluntly the parliamentarians want to know when and how he will quit. He has said he will not lead them in the next election.

They fear, that given the fragile state of this minority Government, a snap election could happen any time.

3. Brexit plans

The Taoiseach is no rush to go. Hes preparing for a major EU leaders summit in Bratislava, the Slovenian capital, on Friday. He says he will be pushing Irelands special case in a post-Brexit EU, without our key ally of the past 43 years of membership. Friday will be the first summit without a British Prime Minister present.

4. Power of the Independents

There are other big picture problems troubling the Fine Gael party, especially backbenchers. They fear Independent government supporters and Fianna Fail, who are underpinning the minority coalition, have too much clout.

There will be much talk about the EU Commission ruling on Apples 13bn back-tax bill which leaves Ireland piggy-in-the-middle. Theres a growing inevitability of an official inquiry, which the Government has resisted for two years, into NAMAs operations. This will focus on its sale of Project Eagle, NAMAs Northern Ireland properties, to the giant US vulture fund Cerberus for one third of its original book value.

5. Halligan's tough words

Then there is the extraordinary case of Independent junior minister, John Halligan, locked in a public war with his government colleagues over additional heart-treatment facilities at his local Waterford University Hospital.

In an extraordinary Sunday Independent interview he used foul language to accuse three Fine Gael ministers of dirty politics and a stitch-up. He called one of his own Independent colleagues, Kevin Boxer Moran an idiot.

Then he challenged the Government leaders to sack him. Fine Gael TDs want Halligan gone. Kenny fears tough action might bring down the Government.

6. Budget talk

To calm things, Enda Kenny wants the meeting to focus on the Budget, due for delivery on October 11. The deputies will get to grips with detailed budget demands aimed at helping their voters. They will also discuss homelessness and mental health issues.

The main sessions will be this afternoon and tomorrow morning, punctuated by drinks and dinner tonight.

The meetings will end at lunchtime tomorrow. The Curragh of Kildare will revert to racing.
President Michael D Higgins has said that European nations failing to fulfil their humanitarian obligations towards refugees should learn from mistakes made during the Famine.

The President made the call during an emotional speech at Glasnevin Cemetery, where he was unveiling a Celtic cross memorial for the victims of the Famine. The cross was donated by the Glasnevin Trust, with Mr Higgins saying it would serve as a "permanent memorial to and reminder to those people".

Expand Close President Michael D Higgins places a wreath at the Celtic cross memorial for the victims of the Famine at Glasnevin Cemetery yesterday. Picture credit; Damien Eagers / Facebook

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Whatsapp President Michael D Higgins places a wreath at the Celtic cross memorial for the victims of the Famine at Glasnevin Cemetery yesterday. Picture credit; Damien Eagers

He also compared the current refugee crisis that has seen millions of people displaced and lying in "marine graves" to that of the Irish Famine, which claimed more than 1 million lives between 1845 and 1852.

"Is there not a lesson for all of us, as we are faced in our own time with the largest number of displaced people since World War II, as the Mediterranean becomes, for some, a marine grave, as European nations fail to respond to their humanitarian obligations?

"We now have the capacity to anticipate the threat of famine. We have the capacity to take measures to avoid it; and yet we allow nearly a billion people across our world to live in conditions of extreme but avoidable hunger," Mr Higgins said.

Hunger

Expand Close Michael Blanch, from Tallaght, with his sisters  Sheila McDonald (left) and Anna Carthy  at the new memorial. Picture credit; Damien Eagers / Facebook

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Whatsapp Michael Blanch, from Tallaght, with his sisters  Sheila McDonald (left) and Anna Carthy  at the new memorial. Picture credit; Damien Eagers

A wreath-laying ceremony was followed by a minute's silence in memory of all the men, women and children who lost their lives during the Famine.

More than 50 ambassadors from countries across the globe - including a representative for refugees - then laid wreaths beside the Celtic cross. The event was also attended by Arts Minister Heather Humphreys, who said millions of people continue to suffer from hunger today.

"While reflecting on issues beyond our own country we should remember that, while the Famine is a historical event for us to remember, similar suffering remains around the globe today," Ms Humphreys said.

More than 20,000 victims are buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, where more than 60 burials took place every day at the height of the Famine.

The chairman of the Glasnevin Trust, John Green, said the cemetery was under huge pressure. "Here in Glasnevin the impact of the Famine refugees was extraordinary, quickly the daily burials rose, from a daily average in the low 20s to an average 50 or 60," he said.
The scene near Kilkee where an Irish Coast Guard rescue boat capsized. Photo: Press 22

Poor weather had already hampered the search which led to three coast guards being thrown into the water off the coast of Clare.

One of the coast guards was later pronounced dead, while two other were hospitalised.

The coast guards got into trouble during a search and recovery operation for Lissycasey local David McMahon. The 33-year-old teacher was reported missing on Friday evening, with the Coast Guard first being alerted at 11pm after his car was found in Kilkee.

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The search, which focused on the hilltop and cliff walking paths in the area, was cancelled at 1.30am.

It continued on Saturday morning, but poor weather conditions led to the Irish Coast Guard requesting that the large number of public members who had now joined, stand down.

The combined search, which included Coast Guard volunteers and Gardai, resumed on Saturday and Sunday but conditions in the area were described as challenging.

The search continued this morning, with Valentia Island Coast Guard Centre receiving a mayday call for one of their own boats at ten minutes past midday.
The emotional moment an Irish granddad was reunited with his only granddaughter who lives on the other side of the world was captured in a heart-warming video filmed in Shannon Airport.

Abbey Devitt (4) travelled from Brisbane, Australia with her auntie to spend three weeks with her family in Co. Clare and surprised her Granddad John Reynolds who did not expect to see her.

Abbeys mum and dad Marie and Keith Devitt and her baby brother Alex (11 months) waved the four-year-old off at Brisbane Airport, and she travelled more than 32 hours for the surprise reunion.

The video shows Abbey surprising a number of her family members including her auntie Naomi, Nana Noreen, great-granny May and her other granddad Seamus.

Abbeys mum Marie said: No one knew she was coming home. Unfortunately it is just too costly for all of us as a family to go home so we decided to just send her and all of our family will get to spend good quality time with her. She is their only granddaughter. Abbey was born in Australia. It is extremely difficult living so far away from all of our family especially when my kids are their only grand children, she said.

Expand Close Abbey (4) surprised her Granddad John at the airport after flying from Brisbane / Facebook

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The couple emigrated to Australia eight years ago and were followed in recent years by Maries sister Charlene, who accompanied Abbey on the trip.

Abbeys auntie Charlene said: I think what makes it special is nobody expected her to come. Abbey is starting school January so it will be a long time before they will be visiting Ireland again, she said.
Dublin couple Joanne and Stephen are desperately trying to locate her engagement ring

An Irish bride revealed she has never been as happy as the moment she located her precious engagement ring, which was accidentally left in the back of a Dublin taxi six days before her wedding.

Joanne Nesbitt will be reunited with the band after a national search helped to link her with the taxi driver who carried the bride and her husband after they wed in a registry office last week, ahead of their ceremony abroad.

Expand Close An image of the taxi captured on CCTV outside Becky Morgans in Dublin, in which Joanne lost her engagement ring. The car is missing a hubcap from its rear passenger side / Facebook

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Whatsapp An image of the taxi captured on CCTV outside Becky Morgans in Dublin, in which Joanne lost her engagement ring. The car is missing a hubcap from its rear passenger side

Read more: Can you help this Irish man looking to be reunited with his long-lost best man after 40 years?

Nesbitt and her husband Stephen Whelehan will say their vows in Portugal on Thursday and were relieved to locate the precious ring after an appeal on Independent.ie and RTE Radio One's Liveline.

"I don't think I've ever been this happy. Thank God for that taxi driver."

The bride-to-be admitted she was blown away by the kindness she has received since losing her ring, particularly from Christopher Murphy Jewellers who offered to replace the lost valuable.

Read more: Are these the most Irish wedding pictures ever? Groom arrives to ceremony in a decked out John Deere tractor

Earlier today Joanne said losing the ring would have broken her heart.

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The ring is so special to me and Im desperate to find it. Stephen proposed to me with it in Alaska on a glacier last year, and I would be heartbroken to lose it forever."

The bride will be reunited with her ring ahead of the ceremony later this week.

"He's going to drop it off at the best man's house after picking up All-Ireland tickets and we'll have the ring on Thursday in Portugal," said Joanne.
Kate McGrew during an International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers by the Sex Workers Alliance outside Leinster House Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

In the Netherlands, where sex work is legal, the government offers grant schemes whereby citizens with disabilities receive funding to pay for sexual services up to 12 times a year. Photo: Getty

Many people with disabilities find that most of their needs can be met by carers, parents or friends - with one notable exception: sex.

Able-bodied people dance around the topic, leaving those with disabilities to figure it out, and some find that hiring a sex worker provides the outlet they are looking for.

In the Netherlands, where sex work is legal, the government offers grant schemes whereby citizens with disabilities receive funding to pay for sexual services up to 12 times a year.

Paying for sex is not illegal in Ireland, but many activities associated with it are, such as soliciting sexual services in public places. Irish sex workers typically advertise their services online, and many offer services for clients with disabilities.

Laura Lee is an Irish sex worker based in Scotland, and is a member of the TLC Trust, an online network that helps to connect disabled men and women with responsible sex workers in the UK.

Laura praises the wonderful service, and believes there ought to be a similar structure in place in Ireland. At the moment, the closest thing to it is an option on the popular EscortIreland website to find disability-friendly sex workers.

Its been quite a journey, Laura reflects. I started my career working in the parlours in Dublin and I worked back then with disabled clients, but there was no kind of formal structure in place.

There were girls who wouldnt work with disabled guys at all, they were afraid of them. But I was happy to see them and to bring happiness into their lives.

Through the site, Laura is approached by a range of people, from individuals themselves to carers and even parents of disabled people.

Some of her clients have been disabled since birth. They have limbs missing, or they are living with cerebral palsy or Parkinsons disease.

She also works with people with mental health issues such as Aspergers, autism, acute OCD, and soldiers returning from the frontline with PTSD.

A lot of times I get carers that have done all their research and know what its all about before they contact me, she explains.

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Their main concern is the security and comfort of the individual concerned, so I need to reassure them that Im not going to compromise anybodys safety, and Im certainly not going to nick somebodys wallet and run off.

It is also common for mothers, fathers and siblings to arrange visits from sex workers for their disabled family members.

I get parents as well, and I think thats quite amazing actually, that parents can reach the point where they think, Well, I do everything else for my son and this is quite a natural progression into adulthood, so why shouldnt he experience the same joys as someone else?

Over the years, Laura found there was quite a steep learning curve when working with some of her clients with disabilities.

I have learned a lot along the way, about myself and about disabled people. Ive learned practical things, like how to roll them or move them across the bed or use a hoist, to bathe them and how to change a catheter, but its also about getting to know them individually and their needs. They can often come with some issues.

The job can prove emotionally challenging at times, as Lauras clients can become frustrated.

They can feel a little bit resentful that all their friends are having nights out in pubs at the weekend and theyre left behind. Sometimes they can feel a bit of anger, so its about trying to get past that as well, she says.

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For some disabled people, sex workers can help them prepare for romantic relationships. Laura explains that part of her job is about giving (people) the confidence to go out there and try to chat somebody up.

Nothing gives me greater pleasure than when I get an email a couple of months later saying Thanks so much, Ive finally slept with my girlfriend and we had a great time, she says.

However, depending on the nature of a persons disability, thats not always an option: Sometimes, thats physically impossible, as they just cant get out of their houses.

Laura argues that the sexual needs of disabled people need to be recognised in Ireland, and refers to the system in place in the Netherlands.

Thats something I would like to see happening right across Ireland and the UK, but it will be a long, long road, she says.

Unfortunately we are going backwards here in Ireland which is a great shame, because other countries have recognised that its a real need that needs to be filled.

Sex worker Kate McGrew counts a number of men with disabilities among her clients, and says they tend to be younger than the average age of her clients, with most aged in their 20s and 30s.

She adds that it is not uncommon to find people with disabilities working in the sex industry, as the flexible work schedule can suit people who fatigue easily and who want to define for themselves what they can accommodate at work.

Since I started work in 2002 I have had clients with disabilities. I've had clients who have mild to severe cerebral palsy, dwarfism, and various other physical disabilities, she explains.

While most of Kates disabled clients contact her independently via her online profile, she has also heard from parents and siblings who wanted to arrange a booking for their loved ones.

They might briefly touch base after the first booking, but as with the family members of able-bodied people, they don't really want to know the details!

Arranging visits with her disabled clients can be more difficult, requiring additional time and preparation, along with good communication.

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Depending on the nature of the disability they either come to my in-call location or I go to their care facility. In care facilities, it is certain staff that have been identified by the client as informed and safe for me to interact with, and the need to be discreet is extra important, she says.

Once, in a first booking with a client who doesn't speak, I thought that we'd been very thorough going over all the important details via email. But when I arrived, I realised the room was set up differently than what I'd expected. His carer had explained to me how my client says yes and no, and so I just took my time to make sure I got clear signals from him.

Kate agrees that while the work can be emotionally challenging at times, its nothing she hasnt experienced before, and that when it comes down to the act itself, her disabled clients are no different from her able-bodied clients.

It can be emotional, if it has been a particularly long time since the client has had intimate contact. However I will say that is the same for my clients who are able-bodied!

Read :'Big manufacturers just don't make products for disabled people' - Irish adult stores sourcing accessible sex toys for people with disabilities on Independent.ie tomorrow
You've got to hand it to the Independents. In the space of four months, they've arguably done more to heal the lasting rivalries of the Civil War than efforts over the previous 93 years.

The various tantrums thrown by the ministers in the Independent Alliance have resulted in Fianna Fail emerging as the responsible element of the complicated Coalition arrangements. The supply and confidence arrangement, where Fianna Fail stays out of Government but votes to keep it in office, is working as smoothly as anyone could expect. It's even prompting some ministers in Fine Gael to think of the unthinkable: coalition with Fianna Fail.

Assuming there is no enormous shift towards one or the other party, which can't be ruled out given the volatility of the electorate, the alternative after the next general election is either Fine Gael or Fianna Fail being propped up by Independents.

Is there any reason to believe Fianna Fail would fare any better, even with a more familiar gene pool of Mattie McGrath, Noel Grealish and Michael and Danny Healy-Rae?

Once you divide the voters between those who wish to vote for parties and candidates who want to be in power, and those who vote for candidates to perennially protest or solely make a contribution from the opposition benches, then it's not that big a leap for the electorate if a functioning government is the desired outcome. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael would fight the next election based upon getting the maximum support for their own policy platforms.

After keeping up their side of the bargain, the Fianna Fail leadership is now reasonably asking Fine Gael to get its house in order and reminding the voters this is what they asked for by swinging so heavily towards Independents in the General Election.

But the instability caused by a series of crises of conscience of Independent ministers is certainly raising questions about how long the administration can last. The Independents are also - perhaps inadvertently - damaging the authority of Taoiseach Enda Kenny, particularly within his own party. Privately, Fine Gael ministers warn the Independents about how far they can push it as they will topple Kenny from within his own ranks.

With Kenny gone, the lifespan of the Coalition could be further shortened. His replacement is unlikely to be as tolerant of the Independents' carry-on.

Shane Ross rather cruelly labelled Kenny a "political corpse" following the General Election. Albeit right at the time, Kenny is back from the dead, ironically with the help of Ross. Kenny is more a political zombie now: not quite the presence he was before and susceptible to easily being finished off.

Since his poor performance in the election, Kenny has been on borrowed time. He admits he won't lead the party into the next election and says he has a "process" in mind for a respectable handover.

The patience of his backbenchers wears thin.

The next Fine Gael leader will, for the first time, have a mandate from across the party, rather than just the TDs, senators and MEPs.

Under new rules, grassroots members will have a vote in the leadership contest. The electoral college is broken into three parts: 65pc for members of the parliamentary party; 25pc for the ordinary members; and 10pc for councillors.

This process would take at the very least three weeks to complete. And the new system does pose a problem: what if you need a quick result, due to an imminent election?

This dilemma was certainly on the radar during March and April as Fine Gael struggled to put a government together and it looked like the people would have to go to the polls again.

In the event of another trip to the Aras, Kenny made it clear - and it was made clear to him - he wouldn't be leading the party in the campaign.

Fine Gael ministers tacitly floated a secret plan to elect a new leader within the confines of the timescale of a snap election.

Senior party figures were worried about the time it would take to give every member a say. So the plan hatched was to informally keep the election to the members of the parliamentary party.

Fine Gael TDs, senators and MEPs would meet quickly and vote for a leader. From there, rather than going on to have the votes of the grassroots, the losers of the parliamentary party round would drop out. The sole remaining candidate would become leader, thereby negating the need to go to the wider membership. Of course, this Queensbury Rules arrangement would need a clear-cut result so the runners-up wouldn't feel they could make up the lost ground among the grassroots and councillors.

The plan is not without its flaws. However, ministers told this newspaper it is still viewed as the best option available if there is an election before the handover.
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Billy Keane Opinion Even a dash to the Croke Park toilet wasnt enough to get rid of space invader who gave me Covid

I did the time, but there was no crime. Banged up I was, under house arrest after two red bars showed up on the Covid test. Im not too bad, thanks for asking. I have it down on a man who was nearly close enough to kiss me at the All-Ireland football final between Kerry and Galway.
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John Downing Opinion New British prime minister Rishi Sunaks succession proves an important milestone in British political inclusivity

There is an old saying in British politics that goes: The right looks for converts while the left seeks out traitors. It comes to mind when one reflects upon the election of Rishi Sunak as the UKs first non-white prime minister in a party traditionally seen as most opposed to mass immigration and the dilution of national identity via multiculturalism.
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Mary Kenny Opinion If men want to yammer on about sport, then let them  it helps them connect emotionally

I was travelling on a train from Dublin to Cork, and near me sat two Dublin men. Throughout the entire journey they managed to keep up a fluent dialogue about English football teams. From Aston Villa to Sheffield Wednesday, from Crystal Palace to Manchester City the conversation flowed eloquently. I was in awe at the minutiae of their knowledge and expertise. And if the topic of their discourse lacked a certain variety, it was nonetheless better than sitting in sullen silence, or glued to their phones.
Next week for the first time in many years I will not be attending the annual think-in of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party in Newbridge. Having served as both a senator and TD for more than 20 years, I was one of those unlucky enough to lose my seat in the February General Election. I will be the first to admit, my defeat came as a major blow to me and it has taken some time to sink in.

But the past six months has also given me an opportunity to reflect on the Fine Gael party and where it is headed in the months and years ahead. Having led the country out of the deepest recession in recent years, Fine Gael and its leader Enda Kenny can be proud of an immense achievement that will forever be recorded in history.

The Taoiseach reacted to the February election result by offering a full partnership government to Fianna Fail.

Regretfully, Fianna Fail declined this unique offer, which might have transformed the face of Irish politics forever.

As a result of all these developments, the Fine Gael party is now again at a crossroads as to its future direction.

The country has changed hugely over the past five years since the party came into power.

In order to continue, the party must also adapt and change with it, if it is to have a future and continue to play a part in shaping our future.

In politics, as in other walks of life, it is very often the case that while everybody favours change in principal, few are prepared to change themselves and even fewer to lead that change, due to fear of losing popularity.

Read more: Fine Gael's pork-barrel deal with the Independents should be published

This week's meeting of the parliamentary party is a particularly opportune time for reflection on the future and to hear the contribution from the many new TDs and senators who will be attending their first think-in.

The position of the leadership of the party will no doubt be up for discussion. Mr Kenny has already signalled that he will not lead the party into the next general election.

It is my firm view that Fine Gael must now take steps to ensure that it does not allow Fianna Fail the opportunity to pull the plug on the Government with an imminent general election with no new Fine Gael leader in place.

It is glaringly clear to me and to most observers that this Government does not have a very secure future and its lifetime will be of relatively limited duration. The best time for the party to elect a new leader is during a Dail recess. Ideally, Mr Kenny should be allowed to pick a time of his choosing to hand over the leadership, but that may not be possible due to the current Government make-up.

Accordingly, it is my personal view that the party should now proceed and elect a leader designate who will be ready to step into his shoes, the moment he steps down, or a general election is called, whichever comes first.

Not to have such a leader in place would, in my view, be foolhardy and not in the party's best interests. Indeed, the Tipperary hurlers, who had such a splendid win last weekend, had set an example by having a manager in place long before his predecessor departed. There should be time for all sectors of the party to have their say and to question the contenders.

And it's not just the leadership that should be reviewed at this week's meeting. The very nature of political parties means that the party officers and personnel must constantly reflect the new ideas to match the ever-changing Irish society in which we live.

This week's meeting should consider the whole, broad structure of the party and set in place the basis for a new strategy which will plot its course towards 2020 and beyond. Failure to do so would be to do a disservice to the party.

Tom Hayes was a TD for South Tipperary from July 2001 to February 2016. He was Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine from June 2013 to February 2016
Top model Rozanna Purcell has a new man in her life, the Diary can reveal.

In news that will come as a massive blow to her many male fans, one of Ireland's hottest women appears to be off the market.

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The well-known lifestyle blogger and author (25) was seen cosying up to a handsome suitor - who's well known on the music scene - in the VIP area of the Electric Picnic in Stradbally.

festival One onlooker said they looked like they were "very taken" with each other as they soaked up some festival fun together at the popular Laois event.

"They looked like they were more than just friends and she seemed very happy with him," said a source.

"She's a stunning girl, is hugely successful and is a genuinely nice person.

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"She was never going to be single for long."

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Roz had made her Electric Picnic debut over the weekend, having presented a slot at the Theatre of Food area.

Last May saw the Tipperary girl splitting from Blizzards frontman and Voice of Ireland judge Niall Breslin after spending more than three years together when the pair decided to call quits.

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She said at the time that there was "no story to it" and that the relationship had just ran its course, insisting that the pair were still good friends.

The author of healthy recipe book Natural Born Feeder has spent the summer months working on her many different projects, including filming for RTE's The Taste of Success, and working hard on a second book.

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The health-food guru and fitness fanatic revealed over the weekend that sometimes people presume that she's going out with someone when really she's just spending time with a male friend.

But the former Miss Universe Ireland prefers to keep her cards close to her chest when it comes to her personal life and has said that if she were dating again, she would never publicise it.

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"If I did have a boyfriend, I'd probably be keeping it very quiet. I doubt I'd be putting him all over Snapchat," she said.

"I was thinking about it recently and five of my best friends are guys - that's maybe because I spend so much time in the gym, too."

positive

And despite her break-up from Bressie and her beloved sister Rachel being diagnosed with Leukaemia, she said that the past year has been "one of the best years ever."

"Life is what you make of it. You need to have a positive attitude going in or out of anything, that's what's going to get you through," she said.

A representative for Rozanna declined to comment when asked about her relationship status.
The Great British Bake Off is moving to Channel 4 after the BBC said it could not afford to keep the show.

Channel 4 has signed a three-year agreement with Love Productions, the producers of the popular baking programme.

Earlier, it was announced that the BBC had lost its contract to broadcast the show.

A BBC spokesperson said the corporation would love to have kept Bake Off but that they were "a considerable distance apart on the money".

They said in a statement: "Working with Love Productions, we have grown and nurtured the programme over seven series and created the huge hit it is today.

"We made a very strong offer to keep the show but we are a considerable distance apart on the money.

"The BBC's resources are not infinite.

"GBBO is a quintessentially BBC programme."

The statement, issued before the Channel 4 deal was announced, ended: "We hope Love Productions change their mind so that Bake Off can stay ad free on BBC One."

Under the new partnership the multi-award winning series will remain on free-to-air television.

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The first Bake Off programme set to be broadcast on Channel 4 will be a celebrity version of the show in 2017, in aid of Stand Up To Cancer.

Channel 4 said they were "very proud" to be the new home for the series, which features judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood.

Chief creative officer Jay Hunt said: "I'm delighted we have been able to partner with the hugely talented team at Love Productions to keep this much loved show on free-to-air television."

Richard McKerrow, Love Productions creative director said: "We believe we've found the perfect new home for Bake Off.

"It's a public service, free-to-air broadcaster for whom Love Productions have produced high quality and highly successful programmes for more than a decade.

"It's tremendously exciting to have found a broadcaster who we know will protect and nurture The Great British Bake Off for many years to come."

In an earlier statement Love Productions thanked the BBC for the role it played in making Bake Off such an hit, and "the faith they showed in us over the years to develop it".

The show began on BBC Two in 2010 before moving over to BBC One in 2014.

Last year's Bake Off final was the most-watched show of 2015, with 15.1 million people seeing Nadiya Hussain crowned champion.

The return of the show in August set an audience record, as 10.4 million people tuned in for the first episode of the seventh series.

The programme, currently airing on BBC1 on Wednesday evenings, is hosted by Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins.
Colm Meaney attending an interview in Toronto about The Journey

Actor Colm Meaney has described Sinn Fein politician Martin McGuinness as an "extraordinary statesman" after playing him in a new film.

Meaney said the former IRA commander, now Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister, is an "astute politician" working towards the "laudable goal" of uniting the island of Ireland.

The Irish actor stars in The Journey, a fictional drama about the friendship forged between Mr McGuinness and his political opponent Ian Paisley during the Northern Ireland peace process.

Appearing at the Toronto International Film Festival, Meaney told the Press Association: "I think Martin McGuinness has become an extraordinary statesman, a real statesman.

"I supported him in his candidacy for president of Ireland at the last election because I thought he was the most qualified person to do it.

"He's proved himself over the last 10 years to be a very astute politician and a remarkably competent statesman, which surprises a lot of people."

Meaney - known for his roles in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa - brushed off controversy surrounding Mr McGuinness, saying: "Anyone who is involved in politics in Ireland is controversial."

He added: "I think what Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein have achieved in Ireland in the last 10 years is tremendous.

"They're the only all-Ireland party. They're moving towards bringing the island of Ireland together which I think is a laudable goal."

Mr Paisley, the Democratic Unionist Party leader who died in 2014, is portrayed in The Journey by English actor Timothy Spall.

His widow, Baroness Paisley, is reportedly boycotting the film, telling the Belfast News Letter: "I don't think it was written with great knowledge."

Director Nick Hamm insisted the the film is not a documentary but a fictionalised account of "two A-list politicians".

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"We were not looking for either side to feel comfortable with the film," he said. "Neither were we looking for either side to condemn the film. We were looking to present a balanced argument where both sides would be equally comfortable and equally uncomfortable.

"It is not a documentary. It's a fictionalised, entertaining feel-good movie about peace."

A UK release date for The Journey has not yet been announced.
Jessica and Ronan OGara, this year's Longines Irish Champions weekend Style and Sports Ambassadors pictured at Curragh racecourse. Photography: Conor Healy Photography

Wind speeds rivalled those of the horses racing at the Curragh, but strong gusts didn't put off the style set at the Longines Irish Champions Weekend.

Ronan O'Gara got a short break from the back-to-school blues after coming home for the races.

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The rugby legend and his wife Jessica, pictured right, made their way home from Paris to act as Ambassadors for the Longines Irish Champions Weekend.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, Jessica said the two days of equestrian action had been fantastic after a hectic previous two weeks.

"It's been busy," Jessica said. "We had 'la rentree', as it's called - the going back to school time."

And while the weekend at home offered some reprieve, it was set to be an early night for the O'Garas.

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"We're going back tonight, the kids have school in the morning," she said. "But Ronan's parents have come racing with him this weekend, so it's great to see the family."

The couple weren't the only ones beaming from ear to ear at the Curragh, as Willie Mullins claimed the top prize in the feature Palmerstown House Estate St Leger.

The champion trainer stole a victory with Wicklow Brave, ridden by Italian jockey Frankie Dettori.

Read more: 'He's was only about Willie Mullin's fourth choice' - Wicklow Brave causes shock in St Leger

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Wicklow Brave came third in last year's race, but sped ahead of the five other contenders this time.

Speaking after the win, Mr Mullins said it had "worked out fantastic".

"He was a horse that we were holding up all our lives, and every time we held him up and it looked like he was going to win a race, he wouldn't produce what we asked him to produce," he said.

"Today we thought let's make it and see what happens."

But winning jockey Dettori was more dramatic in celebrating the victory, dismounting and throwing his fists in the air in jubilation.

At one point, the delighted winner interrupted Mr Mullins mid-interview, yelling: "Come on Willie, we've a plane to catch!"

And while hundreds of stylish spectators made their way to the Curragh for the Longines Prize of Elegance, just five men and five women made the cut.

Despite tough competition, Dubliner Anna McGuire stole the show in a classy sleeveless jumpsuit and bolero jacket to match.

Having designed the ensemble herself, Anna (30) said she was ecstatic to have made it to the final stages.

"I'm delighted, I'm thrilled," she told the Irish Independent.

Anna won the Tipperary Crystal Rose of the Curragh award in late August, but said she never expected to win.

"If I get up on the stage, I'm doubly delighted. If I win it, I'm ecstatic," she said, taking home 3,000 worth of Kildare Village gift tokens and a Longines watch.

Meanwhile, Chris Bonini from Athlone had a great first day at the races, walking away with 2,000 worth of tokens and a timepiece after winning the men's award.

"This is my first competition, and it's my first time at the races," he said.

"I'm very surprised to have won, I wasn't expecting to."

While attendance figures were still being finalised on Sunday evening, early indications suggest it was a particularly busy year for the Curragh.
Over it: viral wedding videos have had their day in the sun. Photo: Getty

I know you're truly, madly, deeply head-over-heels in love. And your relationship is so fairy-tale dreamy it would have caused the late great Nora Ephron to sit up and pay attention.

I'm sure yours is a love that will be immortalised in the romantic canons; on a par with Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, or at least comparable to Chris de Burgh's devotion to blouson leather jackets.

But your wedding proposal does not need to go viral. Neither does your first dance. Or the groom's speech. Or the bridal party's late night dance routine to Sir Mix-A-Lot.

At first these videos were novel but I think we can all agree they've had their day in the sun. Each week, another elaborate video does the rounds. We've seen chat show proposals, sky diving proposals, Crossfit proposals, and Rose of Tralee proposals.

Worse yet is the long-form proposal pieced together over several months. So cloyingly sweet it makes you want to go home and stick your head in a bucket of gin.

Then there are the wedding dance-offs to Beyonce/Vanilla Ice/Richie Kavanagh. Spoiler: no one finds these funny. I know everyone laughed at the wedding but that's because they were drunk. Very, very drunk.

I love an old-fashioned romance but this intense viral one-upmanship grates on me. It's dated, self-congratulatory and clickbait-y.

Do we really need Facebook 'likes' to copper-fasten and validate our love? I long for a return to a simpler time, when a proposal involved uttering those simple but special words - "You're wha?!"

Trooper Panti breaks a leg but show must go on

As if we needed more proof that Dr Panti Bliss is an old school stage trooper. The gender discombobulist broke her foot this week while playing a very intense game of Snatch the Bacon. And no, that's not a euphemism - shame on you.

Panti was in the middle of rehearsals for Tiger Dublin Fringe show RIOT when the accident occurred.

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"We were playing a game and I went over my ankle. But the show will go on," she said.

Unfortunately, the injury means Panti will now have to perform in a rather clunky orthopaedic boot rather than her trademark heels.

"It's not that glamorous," she said. "But we're going to try and 'Pantify it' and throw lots of glitter at the situation."

Produced by Thisispopbaby, RIOT will play at the Spiegeltent in Merrion Square and will be filled with jigs, acrobatics and circus skits. Panti will lip sync extracts from Coronation Street and 1969 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Meanwhile, dance duo The Lords of Strut will perform flash raves.

Sound the red-carpet death knell: glamour gone but ruckus on horizon

Sound the red carpet klaxon. The 'naked dress' - favoured by the likes of Rihanna and JLo - is no longer naked enough. It has been replaced by the crotch-bearing floor-length gown.

This week Italian models Giulia Salemi and Dayane Mello sauntered up the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival in dresses so revealing they made Liz Hurley's 1994 safety pin frock look like something a Quaker might wear.

No one knew exactly what these women were doing on the red carpet but one thing was certain: they had no knickers on.

Later in the week, there were more beautiful women in more revealing outfits on more red carpets. Those crimson carpets have become ubiquitous and, as a result, they've lost some of their lustre.

"Its just models in borrowed dresses and bored actors," designer Peter O'Brien noted. "They possess all the glamour of a wet Tuesday afternoon in a Little Chef on the M41." While I agree that the red carpet has lost its glamour, I think the sense of drama has increased.

That's because the carpet has now split into two rival camps. In one corner, you have the very earnest and somewhat jaded "creatives", individuals who are contractually obliged to be there, but are on a mission to prove just how tedious and vacuous they find the whole rigmarole.

Last week, two members of this camp, Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan, attended the Dublin premiere of Anthropoid. Before they arrived journalists were told to treat "the talent" with respect. There were to be "no shout-outs and no selfies". But all the preliminary Dos and Don'ts were redundant when the two men darted past the crowds and into the cinema.

In the other camp you have the "desperate upstagers", a sort of adult equivalent of the Billy Barrys - without the charm. These people have modest talent but want everyone to notice them.

Last year, I saw one Irish TV presenter walk the red carpet at a black tie event four times to ensure their picture was taken.

I'm pretty sure Giulia and Dayane would fall into this camp.

So far, these two sides have managed to peacefully co-exist, but tensions are rising. Eventually they will clash and have some sort of spectacular red carpet showdown. And we will be there, with our buttered popcorn, ready to watch the action unfold.
Yemenis offer prayers at the portrait adorned graves of their relative who were killed in the ongoing conflict (AP)

Saudi-led airstrikes on a water well in northern Yemen have reportedly killed 30 people and wounded 17, a UN official said.

The UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, said in a statement that the casualties in the village of Beit Saadan included first responders and children.

The strikes took place on Saturday, on the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

Mr McGoldrick said he is "deeply disturbed by the unrelenting attacks on civilians and on civilian infrastructure", and urges rival parties to resume a ceasefire declared by the UN in April.

Yemen's official news agency SABA, which is controlled by Houthi rebels, has reported that 100 people were killed or wounded in the airstrikes.

Witnesses said an initial airstrike killed 13 people, but then a number of rescuers were killed in subsequent airstrikes.

The Saudi-led coalition made no statement regarding the airstrikes, but its spokesman, Brig Gen Ahmed al-Asiri, has said before that relief and rights groups are biased and give misleading reports.

Yemen's conflict pits the internationally recognised government, which is allied with a Saudi-led military coalition, against Shiite Houthi rebels and forces loyal to a former president.

The Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis and their allies since March 2015.

Mr McGoldrick says the fighting has killed or wounded 10,000 people.

The Houthis, along with allied forces loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, have also waged cross-border attacks against Saudi Arabia.

The coalition said Saudi air defence forces shot down a ballistic missile fired from Yemen before dawn on Monday.

It says the coalition air force struck the area of the missile's launching pad. No damage or casualties were reported.

The coalition, which is supported by the United States, has accused Iran of arming the Houthis, something Tehran and the rebels deny. Saudi Arabia and Iran are regional rivals.

AP
Hillary Clinton smiles and waves as she leaves her daughters apartment following her bout of illness at the 9/11 memorial. Photo: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Hillary Clinton has rushed to dampen fears about her health as she admitted a bout of pneumonia had led to her fainting scare at a 9/11 memorial.

The 15th anniversary of the Twin Towers attack should have been an opportunity for Mrs Clinton to present herself as the tested presidential alternative to Donald Trump.

Expand Close A young girl holds her mother during a commemoration ceremony at the 9/11 event in New York. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images / Facebook

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As a senator for New York during the attacks, she had toured Ground Zero, consoled grieving families and helped first responders get access to medical care.

But plans to rekindle her image of steady leadership in crisis went awry when she was forced to leave a commemoration ceremony at Ground Zero early due to a "medical episode". Video footage showed her stumbling to her van, propped up between members of her staff. Her campaign belatedly released a statement saying she had "felt overheated".

Then, several hours later, a statement from her doctors revealed she had been diagnosed on Friday with pneumonia. She was put on antibiotics and was "recovering nicely" after the 9/11 event.

The incident was typical of the past two weeks or so for Mrs Clinton. Nothing has gone to plan and her once-formidable lead has all but vanished.

Yesterday's incident raised questions about the health of Mrs Clinton (68) that have preoccupied conspiracy theorists.

Mr Trump, who is 16 months older than the former secretary of state, has referred to the issue by innuendo, claiming his rival lacks the "stamina" to be president, and keeps a less rigorous campaign schedule in order to maintain her strength.

Some of his supporters have gone further. Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, urged voters to Google "Hillary Clinton illness" to see claims that she has suffered brain damage or needed constant but discreet medical interventions.

Neither Mr Trump nor Mrs Clinton have released detailed medical records, a common practice among presidential candidates, so there is little to dispel the rumours beyond assurances from Mrs Clinton and her physician that she is in good health.

Speaking at a fundraiser in New York on Friday, Mrs Clinton made a remark that is likely to be replayed ad nauseam for the rest of the campaign.

"You can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. They're racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic," she said.

Trump's campaign pounced. A spokesman said Mrs Clinton had "revealed just how little she thinks of the hard-working men and women of America".

Mike Pence, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, piled it on. "Let me just say from the bottom of my heart: Hillary, they are not a basket of anything. They are Americans and they deserve your respect," he said.

The soundbite played into the wider narrative that Mrs Clinton looks down on ordinary Americans and lives in an insular world of wealthy donors and powerful politicians. At a time when the establishment is the dirtiest concept in politics, being a wealthy, well-connected ex-First Lady and former secretary of state is a tough sell.

Mrs Clinton spent the summer recovering from the scandal over emails sent from a private server while in office. It raised questions over her handling of classified information.

Damage had been done - polls show the majority of Americans find her untrustworthy - but with supporters such as Barack Obama on side, she appeared ready to move on.

Then emails from a close aide were released that appeared to show donors to the Clinton family's foundation had received privileged access to the state department under Mrs Clinton.

Coupled with the impending release of another 15,000 emails from her private server recovered by the FBI, the campaign is mired in controversy again.

The situation is unlikely to improve before November, says Peter Hart, a Democratic pollster. "Voters remain sceptical and uncertain about her integrity and likeability," he said.

Buoyed by his campaign's new leadership and with a newfound willingness to remain on message, Mr Trump has become stronger.

His penchant for colourful rhetoric remains, but he has steered clear of behaviour - such as his attacks on the family of a fallen soldier - that alienated many voters.

He has made efforts to come across as measured, submitting to using a teleprompter, and has been willing to shun the limelight when necessary.

In response to Mrs Clinton's "basket of deplorables" comment, he said: "While Hillary said horrible things about my supporters, and while many of her supporters will never vote for me, I still respect them all," he said.

By focusing his attacks on Mrs Clinton, he has been able to reinforce voters' concerns about her without damaging himself in the process. ( Daily Telegraph, London)
U.S. President Barack Obama waits to speak during a ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at the Pentagon in Washington. Photo: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

US President Barack Obama led the nation in remembering the nearly 3,000 people who died in the September 11 attacks 15 years ago.

He observed the sombre anniversary with a moment of silence in the Oval Office at 8.46am Eastern Time - the precise moment the attacks began on a sunny day in 2001 - when a hijacked passenger plane slammed into the north tower of New York City's World Trade Center.

Afterwards, Mr Obama arrived at the Pentagon, where he laid a large wreath at the beginning of a memorial service.

The American flag was lowered to half-staff at the White House and other federal buildings.

At Ground Zero, hundreds of victims' relatives and dignitaries gathered to hear the reading of the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed, under an overcast sky that shrouded the 1,776ft-tall top of One World Trade Center, the centrepiece of the rebuilt site.

"It doesn't get easier. The grief never goes away. You don't move forward - it always stays with you," said Tom Acquaviva, of Wayne, New Jersey, who lost his son Paul Acquaviva.

Hundreds of people also attended a ceremony at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The 15th anniversary arrives in a country caught up in a political campaign. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump also followed a custom of halting television ads for the day.

While Ground Zero and the nation around it are forever marked but greatly changed since 9/11, the anniversary ceremony itself has become one of the constants in how America remembers the attacks.

Organisers planned some additional music and readings yesterday to mark the milestone year. But they were keeping close to what are now traditions: moments of silence and tolling bells, an apolitical atmosphere and the hours-long reading of the names of the dead.

Transformation

"This idea of physical transformation is so real here," September 11 memorial president Joe Daniels said this week. But on this September 11 itself, "bringing the focus back to why we did all this - which is to honour those that were lost - is something very intentional".

Financial and other hurdles delayed the redevelopment of the Trade Center site early on, but now the 9/11 museum, three of four currently planned skyscrapers, an architecturally adventuresome transportation hub and shopping concourse and other features stand at the site. A design for a long-stalled performing arts centre was unveiled on Thursday.

Around the Trade Center, lower Manhattan now has dozens of new hotels and eateries, 60,000 more residents and more visitors than before 9/11.
Mr Yun said the latest tests showed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was unlikely to change course and tougher sanctions were needed to apply unbearable pain on the North to leave no choice but to change. Photo credit: Kyodo/via REUTERS

South Korea has a secret plan to "annihilate" Pyongyang if the North Korean regime shows any sign of mounting a nuclear attack, according to the country's largest news agency.

One military source claimed every part of the North Korean capital would be "completely destroyed by ballistic missiles and high-explosive shells".

Those districts which are thought to be hiding the leadership would be particularly targeted and the city "will be reduced to ashes and removed from the map".

The Yonhap news agency has close ties to the South Korean government and is publicly funded.

It came just days after North Korea launched what it said was its fifth nuclear test on Friday.

The international community is said to be considering its response, with the US saying it is considering imposing sanctions alongside those imposed by the UN Security Council, Japan and South Korea.

The US special envoy for North Korea, Sung Kim, said: "In addition to action in the Security Council, both the US and Japan, together with the Republic of Korea, will be looking at unilateral measures, as well as bilateral measures, as well as possible trilateral cooperation.

"We will be working very closely in the Security Council and beyond to come up with the strongest possible measure against North Korea's latest actions."

But Pyongyang responded to the US warning by saying the threat of "meaningless sanctions" was "laughable".

On Saturday, South Korea foreign minister Yun Byung-se said the North's nuclear capability appeared to be developing fast.

Mr Yun said the latest tests showed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was unlikely to change course and tougher sanctions were needed to apply "unbearable pain on the North to leave no choice but to change".

Under the 32-year-old, who took over control of the isolated state after the death of his father Kim Jong Il in 2011, North Korea has sped up its nuclear weapons programme despite UN economics sanctions being tightened in March.

South Korea's President Park Geun-hye said Kim was "mentally out of control", blind to all the warnings of foreign powers and "the patience of the international community has come to the limit". ( Independent News Service)
A security member stands after a car bomb attack in the city centre of Van, eastern Turkey (AP)

Turkish authorities have accused Kurdish militants of detonating a car bomb that wounded 50 people in the eastern city of Van.

Van Governor Ibrahim Tasyapan told state-run Anadolu news agency that 46 civilians and four police officers were wounded in the Monday attack at a police point in front of the ruling party municipal headquarters.

Mr Tasyapan said two of the wounded are in serious condition, but he did not specify if they are officers or civilians.

An earlier statement by the governor's office alleged that the bombers are affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

Hundreds of people have been killed and injured in Turkey in recent months in attacks the government says were carried out by Kurdish militants or the Islamic State group.

AP
Initial results of Croatia's early elections have shown that the conservatives are leading the vote, but will not be able to rule on their own, paving the way for another coalition government in the European Union's newest member state.

With more than half of the ballots counted, Croatia's state election authorities said the conservative Croatian Democratic Union, or HDZ, has won 62 seats in the 151-seat parliament, while the left-leaning People's Coalition won 53.

Third-placed are kingmakers Most, or Bridge, with 12 seats.

The results are not expected to change dramatically until the full count later on Monday.

If confirmed, the results will present a major success for the HDZ party, which also led the previous right-wing government that collapsed in June after less than six months in power, triggering the worst political turmoil in the country since it joined the EU in 2013.

"After such a victory, we are the party that will have a chance to form a stable, future Croatian government in the next four years," HDZ leader Andrej Plenkovic said. "We have shown that we have regained the trust of our voters."

Mr Plenkovic said the party will start negotiations with potential coalition partners on Monday.

The election outcome comes as a major blow for Croatia's left-leaning Social Democrats - the main party in the People's Coalition - who were leading the polls ahead of the elections, but apparently failed to capitalise on the political crisis created by their opponents.

The Social Democrats leader, former prime minister Zoran Milanovic, expressed regret over the results and said he hoped the next government will be formed soon, adding that the instability of the past several months must not be repeated.

"Unfortunately, this was not a happy day for Croatia," said Mr Milanovic. "But Croatia needs a stable government now, whoever may be part of it."

The previous Croatian government was formed after an inconclusive election last November following weeks of negotiations between the HDZ and Most. It fell because of bickering within the ruling coalition.

The months-long political deadlock has delayed reforms that are necessary for Croatia to catch up with the rest of the EU. It has also fuelled nationalist rhetoric amid heightened tensions with Serbia - its wartime foe in the 1990s, raising fears of renewed tensions in the Balkans.

HDZ and the Social Democrats have been the two dominant parties in Croatia since the country split from former Yugoslavia in 1991. The Social Democrats were in power for four years until last November.

Croatia had tilted to the right under the HDZ-led government that took over following the inconclusive vote last November. However, in the past few weeks it has sought to remake its image as a centrist party under new leader Mr Plenkovic.

President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic had urged Croats to come out and vote, saying the country's future was in their hands.

"The following months and years are truly decisive for Croatia, and today we have to be serious," Ms Grabar Kitarovic said. "We can't complain later if the outcome of the election is not the way we want it to be."

Although more advanced than other Balkan countries, Croatia has one of the weakest economies in the EU following years of crisis after the 1991-95 war.

After a six-year recession, Croatia has shown signs of recovery with reported growth of more than 2%. However, unemployment hovers around 14% - among the highest in the EU - and much of the fiscal growth is attributed to tourism along the Adriatic coast.

AP
Armed police surrounded a Sikh temple yesterday after scores of men, some carrying swords, stormed the building, reportedly in an attempt to disrupt an interfaith wedding.

Fifty-five people were arrested for aggravated trespass following an eight-hour siege at the Gurdwara Sahib in Leamington Spa, which has a history of tensions over mixed marriages.

A group calling itself Sikh Youth Birmingham admitted organising the raid, which it said was a peaceful protest to "uphold the sanctity" of the traditional marriage ceremony.

A Sikh bride was understood to have been scheduled to marry a Hindu groom there later in the day.

The group in the temple posted a video online of men clad in black with orange bandanas, chanting traditional Sikh verses, as well as a video showing an encounter with two armed policemen trying to talk to them.

One of the men was waving a placard which stated "Stop violating Sikh principles for money".

Police described the incident, which lasted from 6.45am to 2pm, as a "culmination" of "ongoing issues".

In July, protesters had tried to disrupt another mixed marriage at the temple.

Richard Barns, a witness, said he had earlier seen 10 members of the group standing at the door to the building with their arms folded. "It was quite intimidating," he said.

"It looked like they were securing the door."

Officers said a "significant number of bladed weapons", many of them ceremonial kirpans, were later recovered from the scene.

Jatinder Singh Birdi, a former treasurer at the temple, said: "There have been tensions that have been going on for a couple of years with some people objecting to mixed marriages taking place in the gurdwara.

"The general consensus is people are respectful of mixed marriages if the traditions are respected."

The Sikh Council has argued that the marriage ceremony should be reserved only for Sikhs, but it has also called for a halt to protests at mixed weddings. ( Daily Telegraph, London)
A lorry driver who was using his mobile phone moments before causing a crash which killed a police officer has been jailed.

Danny Warby, 28, was handed a six-year sentence at Peterborough Crown Court after being found guilty of causing the death of Cambridgeshire Police officer Det Con Sharon Garrett on June 6 2014.

Warby looked at a message on his iPhone seconds before his 13.6-tonne light goods vehicle veered into oncoming traffic on the A141 in Cambridgeshire, his trial heard.

He clipped an oncoming lorry and showered two more cars with debris before crashing into a Renault Clio driven by 48-year-old Ms Garrett, a married mother-of-two.

Expand Close Detective Constable Sharon Garrett Credit: Cambridgeshire Police/PA Wire / Facebook

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In a statement released through Cambridgeshire Police, the victim's family said: "The loss of Sharon has been the most devastating event in the life of our family. It has had an impact on so many people, and for so many reasons.

"As a mother, Sharon was inspirational to our two young children. She would always help them with their studies, setting aside time to make sure homework was completed. She was a very intelligent woman, and extremely knowledgeable about a lot of things.

"Sharon was full of energy. Working full-time, she always made sure our children had quality family-time wherever possible.

"Sharon was a truly remarkable woman, warm, friendly, kind, generous, intelligent, strong and hard-working. We have been left devastated, and our hearts left completely broken.

"There is a massive void in our lives which can never be filled.

"No sentencing can ever bring back Sharon, but it is our hope that the sentence passed today will remind others that the simple act of using a mobile phone while driving can have such devastating consequences."

Expand Close Detective Constable Sharon Garrett, as lorry driver Danny Warby who was using his mobile phone moments before causing a crash which the police officer has been jailed. Credit: Cambridgeshire Police/PA Wire / Facebook

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Whatsapp Detective Constable Sharon Garrett, as lorry driver Danny Warby who was using his mobile phone moments before causing a crash which the police officer has been jailed. Credit: Cambridgeshire Police/PA Wire

Warby had previous convictions for drink-driving in 2011 and for using a mobile phone while driving and driving without a seat belt.

He had completed several short journeys that day in the lorry which was carrying a crane and construction materials. The final journey, which ended in the crash, was less than one-and-a-half miles (2.4km).

During the seven-day trial in August, the court heard Warby, of School Road, Runcton Holme, King's Lynn, had only been driving for two minutes before the collision but had been using his mobile phone and responded to a text message.

He was also breaking the speed limit.

Pc Pete Bimson, who investigated the collision, said: "This was a tragic incident which claimed the life of a police officer.

"But the evidence heard in court showed it could have been avoided and emphasises the message that using a mobile phone at the wheel can have fatal consequences."
Workers at a UK manufacturing firm have found a venomous tropical spider stowed inside a shipping container.

The huge arachnid was found at the company in Dumbarton, West Dunbartonshire, and concerned staff called animal welfare officers, fearing it could be poisonous.

Scottish SPCA officers removed the interloper, identified as a huntsman spider, which is common in most warm-to-tropical areas and can give a painful venomous bite.

Scottish SPCA Animal Rescue Officer Emma Bonner was called to the scene on Friday.

She said: "When I arrived one of the employees had managed to get the spider inside a clear bag within a container. We didn't know if it was venomous."

Scottish SPCA Chief Inspector Fiona Henderson said: "An arachnid expert identified it as a huntsman spider. We believe that due to a yellow stripe on its abdomen that the spider is female.

"It would be hard to say where it is from exactly due to the fact it arrived here in a shipping container.

"It must be a tough little spider as it has done well to survive living in a cold container for so long before arriving in Scotland.

"If a huntsman spider bites you it will not kill you, but it does contain venom. If you do get bitten by one it can be extremely painful.

"Because it's a huntsman it's not native to this country, so we can't release the spider anywhere in Scotland.

"Collectors would also be concerned due to the fact that it's a wild species. If there are any bacteria or bugs that the spider is carrying that we are not aware of then it could introduce those to other species.

"The spider appears in good condition and is already an adult so we are going to try to find a specialist home for it."
Labour MP Emily Thornberry has accused Sky News presenter Dermot Murnaghan of "sexism" after he repeatedly asked her to name the French foreign minister.

The shadow foreign secretary clashed with Mr Murnaghan as she criticised him for "pub quizzing" her.

Ms Thornberry was asked whether she had taken part in any Brexit talks with her would-be counterparts in Germany and France.

She was then asked if she knew the name of the French foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault.

"Don't start pub quizzing me, Dermot," she said. "Don't start pub quizzing me."

She was then asked again if she was able to name the minister.

She said: "No and I'm not going to start answering your questions on this."

She continued: "Do you know what, what really upsets me about your attitude to me is that you do this with me. I don't remember you doing it with anybody else, you know.

"Have you done it to David Davis? Have you asked these questions? Do Sky journalists have a go at Boris Johnson on this basis? How about Liam Fox? Do you do pub quizzes with them? I mean honestly. Can we talk about some serious stuff?"

Ms Thornberry suggested that Mr Murnaghan should ask her questions about the situation in Syria or North Korea.

She added: "You really want to spend this time pub quizzing me? What's with you?"

She was later asked if she knew who the South Korean president is.

An increasingly frustrated Ms Thornberry said: "If you want me to go with you to a pub tonight and we can do a pub quiz tonight, let's do it."

She then told the presenter she wanted to "take this offline because I have got a lot to say to you and I don't think a lot of it ought to be broadcast".
Firefighters work at the scene of a fire at the Islamic Centre of Fort Pierce (AP)

The mosque that Orlando nightclub gunman Omar Mateen attended was set on fire in what Muslim leaders say was the latest incident in an escalating campaign of harassment and violence against the house of worship and its members.

Given the timing - Sunday's 15th anniversary of 9/11 and the start of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha - investigators believe the blaze at the Islamic Centre of Fort Pierce, Florida, may have been a hate crime, sheriff's spokesman Major David Thompson said.

No one was injured. The fire burned a 10-by-10-foot hole in the roof at the back of the mosque's main building and blackened its eaves with soot.

A surveillance video from the mosque showed a man approaching the building at around 12.30am local time with a bottle of liquid and some papers, then leaving when there was a flash and shaking his hand as though he may have burned it, Thompson said.

Mateen was killed by police after opening fire at the Pulse nightclub on June 12 in a rampage that left 49 victims dead and 53 wounded. His father is among roughly 100 people who attend the mosque.

Wilfredo Amr Ruiz, Florida's director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said the mosque and its worshippers have been harassed since the massacre.

"First there were threatening voicemails," he said. "Then drivers would splash water on the parishioners leaving on Fridays, and then a member got beat up in the parking lot when he came to the mosque for early morning prayers, and now the mosque has been set on fire."

The FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined the investigation into the fire. Officials said they will release the video and ask for the public's help in identifying the arsonist.

Ariana Borras stopped by the mosque with her two-year-old son to pay respects on Monday morning. Ms Borras said she is Hispanic and not a Muslim but is sometimes asked if she is Muslim because of the colour of her skin.

The fire "makes me scared for my son. It makes me scared for my skin colour," she said. "There have been a lot of racial issues going on and there's so much hate in the world right now."

Michael Parsons, 22, was standing outside his parents' home, directly across the street from the mosque. He said that since the Orlando shooting, "a lot of people have been driving by hollering and yelling expletives at the church or mosque or whatever they call it."

Parsons, a gutter installer with "trust no one" tattooed on his chest, said his mother's cancer doctor attends the mosque.

"America was founded so people can believe what they want to believe and do what they want to do," he said. "These guys flying the American flag on their trucks don't really know what the freedom is they're fighting for."

On July 2, a few weeks after the nightclub massacre, a man was beaten outside the mosque. CAIR said the victim was a Muslim and the attacker hurled slurs. A suspect was arrested. CAIR said that earlier that day, a man in a truck stopped outside the mosque and said: "You Muslims need to get back to your country."

On Monday morning, a truck with a "Don't Tread on Me" bumper sticker drove past the mosque. The driver revved his engine and raised his index finger in the air as if making the gesture for the number one.

AP
Hillary Clinton plans to release additional health records after an abrupt departure from a 9/11 anniversary ceremony raised concerns about her fitness to serve as commander in chief.

The questions about her health were compounded by the nearly eight hours of silence from Mrs Clinton and her team about the health scare, as well as the disclosure she had been diagnosed on with pneumonia. A Clinton spokesman acknowledged that information should have been released more quickly.

Mrs Clinton's doctor said the 68-year-old former secretary of state "became overheated and dehydrated" at the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan. Dr Lisa R Barback said Mrs Clinton was examined at her home in suburban New York and "is now rehydrated and recovering nicely".

The campaign has asked Dr Barback to prepare Mrs Clinton's medical records to be made public, according to spokesman Brian Fallon, and the Democratic nominee is expected to be back on the campaign trail by mid-week. Late on Sunday, she cancelled plans to travel to California for two days of fundraising, campaign events and an appearance on Ellen DeGeneres' talk show.

"There's no other undisclosed condition. The pneumonia is the extent of it," Mr Fallon said.

But less than two months from election day, it was a problematic visual for Mrs Clinton as she tries to project the vigour needed for one of the world's most demanding jobs.

Mrs Clinton's team tried to address some of the criticism on Monday morning, arguing that she wanted to keep her full schedule and the fault for the lack of information rested with her staff.

"In retrospect, we could have handled it better," Mr Fallon said. He said that was the staff's responsibility and "we regret that".

No longer can Donald Trump's questions about Mrs Clinton's physical stamina be summarily dismissed. The episode was also sure to fuel a vocal group of online conspiracy theorists, deemed "healthers" by some Clinton supporters, who point to videos and photos of Mrs Clinton as evidence of her poor health.

In phone-in television interviews on Monday morning, Mr Trump was uncharacteristically subdued about Mrs Clinton's health issues. On CNBC, he said he takes no satisfaction from her problems. On Fox News, he said he hopes "she gets well and gets back on the trail and we'll be seeing her at the debate". The first of three debates is scheduled for September 26.

Mr Trump also said he had a physical last week and will release detailed health information when he gets the results, which are expected in coming days. "I think they're going to be good. I feel great," he said.

Both candidates have so far released only limited health records.

The incident compounds a difficult time for Mrs Clinton as the race enters its final stretch. Despite Mr Trump's numerous missteps, the race remains close and many Americans view Mrs Clinton as untrustworthy.

On Friday, Mrs Clinton told donors that "half" of Mr Trump's supporters are in a "basket of deplorables" - a comment that drew sharp criticism from Republicans. Mrs Clinton later said she regretted applying that description to "half" of Mr Trump's backers, but stuck by her assertion that he has given a platform to "hateful views and voices".

Mr Trump called Mrs Clinton's remarks "the biggest mistake of the political season". He said that being elected to the White House means: "You're the president of all the people."

On Sunday, Mrs Clinton left the 9/11 memorial an hour earlier than planned. She had spent about 90 minutes standing with other dignitaries in the sun on a warm and humid day.

Her departure was not witnessed by the reporters who travel with her campaign. Aides provided no information about why she left or her whereabouts for nearly two hours. Mrs Clinton's spokesman Nick Merrill eventually said Mrs Clinton had gone to her daughter's nearby apartment, but refused to say whether she had required medical attention.

Mrs Clinton exited the apartment on her own, wearing sunglasses and carrying a handbag. She waved to reporters and said, "I'm feeling great. It's a beautiful day in New York". She was then driven to her home in Chappaqua, New York.

Dr Bardack said Mrs Clinton has had an allergy-related cough, and that during an exam on Friday, was diagnosed with pneumonia, put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule.

Mr Fallon said Mrs Clinton felt fine soon after the incident, saying she called aides from her car and played with her grandchildren at her daughter's apartment. Others at the campaign have been ill recently, he said, attributing the sickness to the gruelling pace of the campaign.

Unlikely previous presidential candidates, both Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump have opted not to travel with what is known as the "protective pool" - a small group of journalists that follow the candidate everywhere.

The goal is to keep the public informed about their condition, whereabouts and official interactions at all times. For a president, who always travels with a protective pool, an hours-long gap without knowledge of their whereabouts could spark unrest in the financial markets and international concern.

Mr Trump and his supporters have hinted at Mrs Clinton's potential health issues for months, questioning her energy when she takes routine days off the campaign trail and reviving questions about a concussion she sustained in 2012 after fainting. Her doctor attributed that episode to a stomach virus and dehydration.

Doctors said that pneumonia is commonly treated quickly and effectively with antibiotics. Dr William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University, said that based on the available information, "this should not in any way impede her function going forward".

AP
Rachid Kassim as he appeared on a video released on militant websites on July 20 2016. (SITE Intelligence Group via AP)

A single French Islamic State jihadi has emerged as the link among at least four plots to attack France since June, three people with knowledge of the investigation said.

The precise role of the extremist, Rachid Kassim, is under investigation, but the officials say he has become a key instigator who directs recruits in encrypted forums on how and where to carry out the Islamic State's call for European Muslims to strike at home.

Most recently, he was believed to be in contact with a 19-year-old in an unprecedented cell of French women who failed in their attempts to detonate a car bomb and kill police.

From the Loire River town of Roanne, the 29-year-old Kassim is believed to be in either Syria or Iraq yet figures in multiple French anti-terror investigations.

Kassim's virtual fingerprints were found as early as the June 14 knifing of two police officials at their home in the Paris suburb of Magnanville, in which the killer left behind not only a video that he had streamed on Facebook Live but a hit list of politicians, journalists and public personalities. That list is believed to have been drawn up by Kassim ahead of time, one of the officials said.

Attacker Larossi Abballa was shot dead when police stormed the home to rescue the dead couple's three-year-old child. His video, although removed swiftly from Facebook, reappeared in Islamic State propaganda.

Kassim then became the public face of Islamic State's claim of responsibility for the July 14 truck attack on Nice that left 86 people dead, appearing in a video in which he threatened France and beheaded a captive in Iraq.

On July 26, two Frenchmen who came together on the encrypted app Telegram slit the throat of an elderly priest in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, holding nuns and a couple of parishioners hostage until police fatally shot the attackers.

In that case, too, Kassim appeared to have a role, namely in bringing the two - Adel Kermiche and Abdel Malik Petitjean - together. Again, selfie videos filmed by the men were almost immediately transmitted to Islamic State's media organisations.

And this past weekend, a 15-year-old boy was arrested at his Paris home to thwart what authorities feared was a planned weekend attack - yet another person under investigation for possible links to Kassim, who was known even before he left to join Islamic State for proselytising among young people.

"He tried to lure young people," Abdennour Bentoumi, the head of the mosque in Roanne, told France Television. "He told them, heaven isn't praying. There's another way."

Islamic State has claimed responsibility in its official media for both the attack on the church and against the police. It has remained silent in the case of the car loaded with gas cylinders and the subsequent stabbing of two police officers, which the Paris prosecutor said came during a raid to prevent the women from carrying out another planned attack.

One of those women, identified as 23-year-old Sarah H, was engaged first to Abballa and then to Kermiche, according to the prosecutor, Francois Molins. Her current betrothed, Mr Molins said, is the brother of a man arrested in the Magnanville case, yet another thread in the web linking the cases.

"The act by these young women remote-controlled by individuals who can be found in Syria among the ranks of Daesh demonstrates that this organisation wants to make women into combatants," said Mr Molins, using another name for the Islamic State group.

Kassim himself seemed to confirm that fear in an encrypted Telegram message, according to Le Monde newspaper, which did not say how it acquired the message.

"You have to understand, if women are taking action it's certainly because too few men will take action," he wrote, seemingly referring to the youngest in the female cell, a 19-year-old who was identified through her father's abandoned car.

"She had her whole life before her but she left, she left to do something and they stopped her before she could succeed. But I'm talking about her intention. You, what's your excuse?"

AP
Syrian men carrying babies make their way through the rubble of destroyed buildings following a reported air strike on a rebel-held neighbourhood of Aleppo. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

Government troops and rebels were last night fighting to strengthen their positions in several parts of Syria on the eve of a truce aimed at easing the suffering of civilians.

Observers reported clashes around Aleppo and Damascus as well as pushes by the government in the mountainous northwest and by rebels in the southwest.

The moves are part of efforts to improve their positions before fighting is due to stop today.

A rebel official said yesterday that insurgent factions guardedly welcomed the ceasefire but expressed concern over what they see as a lack of agreed sanctions on the government if it breaks the deal.

"A big part of the agreement serves the regime and doesn't apply pressure on it and doesn't serve the Syrian people," said Zakaria Malahifji of the Aleppo-based rebel group Fastaqim.

Syrian state media quoted private sources as saying the government had given its approval to the deal but there has been no official response.

Meanwhile, more air strikes were reported in Aleppo and Idlib province yesterday after scores of people were killed in aerial bombardment on Saturday. One, in the town of Saraqeb, hit a civil defence centre, injuring several people.

The ceasefire will not apply to the jihadist groups Isil or Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, previously known as the Nusra Front, until it broke formal allegiance to al-Qa'ida and changed its name.

The Syrian air force bombed Isil targets near Palmyra, while rebels clashed with the group northeast of Damascus.
The car dangling off the side of the building

A car was left dangling from the ninth floor of a car park after a man reportedly lost control of the vehicle while parking.

Video footage shows a silver Toyota 4Runner suspended above a walkway in Austin, Texas, as bemused passers-by question what happened.

Kid dodged death today pic.twitter.com/4ciPMZZgyj  Gregory Alford (@coffeeandchez) September 9, 2016

The incident took place after the driver, 24, attempted to park at a slow speed but lost control of the vehicle, according to reports.

It was prevented from falling to the ground because one of the wires wrapped around one of its wheels, leaving the vehicle suspended in mid-air.

Zachary Cayson, who was in the car park when it happened, helped the driver climb to safety.

Mr Cayson told TWC News: I sprinted up the stairwell and I was the first one to get there.

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I introduced myself and we had a quick little chat about what we should do, whether we should stay there and wait for the police and the fire department or we should try to get him out of there.

We unbuckled the seat belt, and I took one arm and then he kind of swung his legs over to the side and there was a tiny little ledge there right on the other side of the barrier.

He managed to plant his feet on that and I picked him up.

When asked how the incident occurred, Mr Cayson said: I think [the driver] thought it was in reverse and he put it in drive. I don't really know, we were just glad to get him out of there.

I've sent him a Facebook request. The cops insisted we take a picture together - they said we'd be laughing about it in a week.

After the driver had escaped to safety, firefighters from Austin Fire Department managed to lower the vehicle safely to the ground.

Carl Schmidt, who was on the street below, told the news outlet: "Car, metal and glass started falling down from the sky so I slammed on my brakes and I heard the guy in the car screaming for his life."

Gregory Alford, who was in the car park after the incident happened, tweeted a photo and a video of the dangling car, along with the words: "The kid dodged death today."

Following the operation the department tweeted: "Now here's a call we don't make every day! #dontlookup", before joking: "So who do you call when your car goes through the wire barrier and goes over the edge of the 9th floor of a car park?"

The identity of the driver remains unknown.
The heart was found in a field near Friendship stores in Norwalk, Ohio Google Maps

Police have been left mystified after a fresh heart, believed to be human, was found in a field.

Officers say paramedics found the organ in a plastic bag by chance on land behind a supermarket in Norwalk, northern Ohio, after stopping in the store's car park.

Unable to identify its origins, police were notified and passed the heart on to the Huron County Coroner's office.

Norwalk Police Chief Dave Light told the Norwalk Reflector: "I havent heard anything like that

"The paramedics werent sure what they had, so they called us. It was fresh; it wasnt decomposed.

"Theyre 95 percent sure it was human, but they want to make 100 percent sure."

Human hearts are very similar to the hearts of pigs, dogs and chimpanzees making it difficult for the coroner's office to be certain.

Huron County Coroner Jeff Harwood said the organ was "in pretty good condition (but) had an odour of decomposition to it."

Mr Harwood said no one had come forward to claim the heart.
The White House says President Barack Obama continues to believe that former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden should return to the United States to face charges for leaking classified information.

Snowden's supporters are pushing for Mr Obama to pardon him, and a new movie is coming out on Friday about the case.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest has reiterated Mr Obama's position that Snowden's leaks "damaged the United States," harmed national security and put Americans at risk.

Mr Earnest says Snowden will be "treated fairly and consistent with the law" if he returns to the US.

As an NSA contractor, Snowden leaked classified details in 2013 of the US government's warrantless surveillance programme before fleeing to Russia. He faces US charges that could land him in prison for up to 30 years.
US police are searching for a woman (21) who was last seen in the company of a cat killer and whose car was found burned-out two days later.

Jessica Runions was last seen on Thursday evening at a house party.

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Her car was founded burned out on Saturday morning, according to Kansas police officers.

Police believe the young woman left the party with her boyfriends childhood friend, Kylr Yust.

Expand Close Kylr Yust has a criminal history and an ex-girlfriend who was never found. / Facebook

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While police have yet to name any suspects in the case, they are continuing their search for Runions.

An ex-girlfriend of Yusts disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

Yusts ex-girlfriend, Kara Kopetsky, disappeared in May 2007, soon after Kopetsky and her mother, Rhonda Beckford, filed a restraining order. They alleged that he was abusive.

Kopetsky was never found, and Yust was not charged in her disappearance.

Yust later pleaded guilty to abusing a different girlfriend. The young man has a troubled history - hes also been arrested for theft and animal cruelty, including killing cats.

Authorities say they are very concerned for Runions safety.

Its suspicious circumstances, her vehicle unoccupied, burned in a remote area ... just asking anyone who has had contact with her to call the police, Captain Stacey Graves, a police spokesperson, told KCTV News.
George Mendonsa plants a kiss on a surprised Greta Friedman in Times Square in this version of the scene captured by photographer Victor Jorgensen. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy/Victor Jorgensen, File)

The woman in an iconic photo shown kissing an ecstatic sailor in New York's Times Square celebrating the end of World War II has died aged 92.

Greta Zimmer Friedman, who fled Austria during the war as a 15-year-old, died at a hospital in Virginia, according to son Joshua.

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Greta Friedman was a 21-year-old dental assistant in a nurse's uniform when she became part of one of the most famous scenes of the 20th century.

On August 14, 1945, known as V-J Day, the day Japan surrendered to the US, people spilled into the New York City streets celebrating the news.

That's when George Mendonsa spotted Friedman, spun her around and planted a kiss. The two had never met. In fact, Mendonsa was on a date with a nurse, Rita Petry, who would later become his wife.

The photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt is called 'V-J Day in Times Square,' but is known to most as 'The Kiss'.

Another image from a different angle was taken by US Navy photographer Victor Jorgensen but it was Eisenstaedt's photo that became seared in people's minds.

His photo was first published in 'Life' magazine, buried deep within its pages. But over the years, the photo gained recognition, and several people claimed to be the kissing couple.

"It wasn't that much of a kiss," Ms Friedman said in 2005. "It was just somebody celebrating. It wasn't a romantic event."
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (L) looks over the shoulder of US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at the 15th Anniversary of September 11 at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, on September 11, 2016 in New York

US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton gets in her car while leaving her daughter's apartment building after resting on September 11, 2016

For weeks, the statements from the Trump camp about Hillary Clinton's health had been dismissed as the stuff of "conspiracy theories".

The revelation on Sunday that the Democratic presidential nominee was suffering from pneumonia dramatically changed that narrative.

Despite assurances from Mrs Clinton's doctor that she was "recovering nicely", the scare raised concerns about her health and prompted questions about why she had failed to disclose the information having been diagnosed on Friday.

Mainstream media never covered Hillarys massive hacking

or coughing attack, yet it is #1 trending. Whats up?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 6, 2016

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With a trip to California this week cancelled and aides struggling to spin a positive angle from the development, the twist in the election campaign threw up an unwelcome question for the Democrats: What would happen if she had to drop out of the race due to ill health?

'Unchartered political territory'

Mrs Clinton can only be replaced as the nominee if she herself decides to step down - and there is no suggestion of that at this stage.

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However, David Shuster, a journalist who has anchored for Al Jazeera America and MSNBC, quoted a Democratic operative as saying they had entered "unchartered political territory".

The unidentified source said the party may hold an emergency meeting to consider a possible replacement, but stressed selecting a new nominee would only arise if Mrs Clinton herself decided to withdraw.

"We can make contingencies, argue, plead with Hillary Clinton, but DNC bylaws are clear her nominee status now totally up to her," Mr Shuster quoted the operative as saying.

What happens if she drops out?

Were she to decide to step down, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders would be the likely names linked to the vacancy.

According to the rules of the Democratic Party, the national committee is responsible for filling the position. Party officials would each cast one vote at a special meeting and the winner is whoever gets the majority.

No special consideration would be given to Tim Kaine, the current vice-presidential candidate, or Bernie Sanders, Mrs Clinton's closest rival in the race to secure the Democratic nomination. And if someone other than Mr Kaine were selected, he would remain the vice-presidential candidate.

When the unlikely possibility of Mrs Clinton dropping out was raised months ago amid the furore surrounding her emails and whether she would be indicted, Mr Biden was widely considered the likely replacement at the time.

Clinton's health ... and that cough

Mrs Clinton has been in the news before for serious health issues.

In December 2012, she suffered a concussion and shortly afterward developed a blood clot.

In a letter released by her doctor in July 2015, Clinton was described as being in "excellent health" and "fit to serve" in the White House. It noted that her current medical conditions include hyperthyroidism and seasonal pollen allergies.

Mrs Clinton had a coughing fit while campaigning in Cleveland early last week. It was dismissed by her campaign as allergies and by the Democratic nominee herself at the time as coming from "talking so much".

It's possible Mrs Clinton may have assumed that symptoms from an earlier viral infection were due to allergies, Dr William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University, told the Associated Press.

Mrs Clinton takes antihistamines, which can "dry you out," and dehydration leads to a person being susceptible to heat exhaustion, Dr. Sharon Bergquist, an Emory University assistant professor of medicine who specialises in internal medicine, told AP.

Add in the possibility of fever, shortness of breath or other possible symptoms from pneumonia, and you have a constellation of factors that could have explained her feeling weak on Sunday, she said.

How serious is pneumonia?

Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs. Often it's a bacterial infection that sweeps in after a cold or flu virus.

In the UK, pneumonia affects around 8 in 1,000 adults each year, according to the NHS. It can affect people of any age, but it's more common  and can be more serious  in the very young or the elderly.

Dr Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert and senior associate at the UPMC Centre for Health Security in Pittsburgh who is not treating Mrs Clinton, said coughing is a cardinal symptom of pneumonia.

Recovery from pneumonia, the eighth leading cause of death in the United States, can be variable, he said, adding it takes a week for most patients to get better.

History of health in campaigns

Speculation about a presidential candidate's health is nothing new.

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Rumours about Franklin D Roosevelts health dogged his final presidential campaign in 1944. He continued to campaign energetically, though, and his aides managed to keep quiet the extent of the heart disease that would kill him the following year.

Since then, Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and Senator John McCain all faced questions about their health as Republican presidential nominees. Mr McCain, the failed 2008 Republican presidential nominee, allowed reporters to see 1,173 pages of medical records after concerns were raised about a cancer scare.

Political strategists said the Clinton campaign should confront the health issue head-on to tamp down any concerns. Bud Jackson, a Virginia-based Democratic strategist, said the statement from the doctor was a good start. He said the incident should encourage more transparency from the campaign about her health. "I think they did the right thing. They had her examined and put out a statement. It means less speculation," he said.

Donald Trump has also faced calls to release detailed information on his health and medical history.

Instead, in December, Mr Trump's doctor wrote in a short letter that was made public that his blood pressure and laboratory results "were astonishingly excellent" and that he would be "the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency."

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
North Korea is capable of detonating another nuclear device at any time at the country's main test site, South Korea has said, three days after Pyongyang carried out its fifth atomic bomb explosion.

The North's latest nuclear test, the most powerful to date, sparked worries the country is making headway in its push to develop small and sophisticated warheads to be topped on missiles. Seoul, Washington and their allies subsequently vowed to apply more pressure and sanctions on Pyongyang.

South Korea's Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun refused to say what evidence pointed to another possible North Korea test, but he told reporters that South Korean and US intelligence officials believe North Korea has the ability to detonate another atomic device any time.

Shortly after the North's test, South Korea's leading military intelligence officer Kim Hwang Rok said North Korea has two or three unused tunnels at the Punggy-ri test site where it can conduct an additional test if it wants.

Mr Kim, director of the Korea Defence Intelligence Agency, made the remarks during a meeting with South Korea's ruling party chief Lee Jung-hyun, according to party spokesman Yeom Dong-yeol.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing unidentified government sources, also reported signs that the North had finished test preparations in one previously unused tunnel at Punggy-ri.

North Korea's pursuit of missiles and nuclear weapons is one of the most intractable foreign policy problems for the US and South Korea. Diplomacy has so far failed. Six-nation negotiations on dismantling the nuclear programme in exchange for aid were last held in late 2008 and fell apart in early 2009.

Meanwhile, North Korea's foreign minister Ri Yong Ho has left Pyongyang for a pair of international meetings, including the UN General Assembly.

Mr Ri plans to attend the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Venezuela and then go on to the UN General Assembly in New York.

It will be his first time at the General Assembly as foreign minister. He was appointed at a major ruling party congress held in May.

His predecessor Ri Su Yong went twice, in 2014 and 2015. That marked a change after many years when North Korea did not send its foreign minister to the New York gathering.

AP
Damaged buildings in the town of Amatrice, central Italy, after an earthquake (AP)

The Italian town hit by last month's earthquake has filed a defamation complaint denouncing French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo for a cartoon depicting victims in layers of lasagne.

Mario Cicchetti, a lawyer who represents Amatrice, said that he lodged the complaint about the "macabre" cartoons at the prosecutors' office in Rieti, the provincial capital.

Charlie Hebdo published two cartoons with obvious reference to Amatrice, a hill town where most of the 295 people killed in the August 24 quake lived and which is famed for a tomato sauce, amatriciana, made from the cheeks of locally raised pigs and pecorino cheese.

One cartoon showed arms and legs protruding from between layers of lasagne, and sauce-splattered survivors. The other, depicting rubble, was captioned: "It's not Charlie Hebdo that built your homes. It's the Mafia."

Prosecutors will decide whether the defamation complaint has merit.

They are already investigating why so many buildings collapsed, to see if seismic-safety rules in the quake-prone central Apennine mountains area were followed or if corruption or other wrongdoing might have been involved in awarding construction contracts or building inspection certificates.

"The cartoons are macabre, senseless and incomprehensible," Mr Cicchetti said, contending that they express "contempt for victims of a natural disaster".

Those defamed by the cartoons, the lawyer contended, are "the dead, the survivors. They each lost three, four people - relatives, children, fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, friends", Mr Cicchetti added.

A lawyer for Charlie Hebdo, Richard Malka, said he would not comment until he has been formally notified about the complaint.

AP
Syrian president Bashar Assad prays at the dawn Eid al-Adha prayers at the Saad ibn Muaaz Mosque in Daraya, Syria (Syrian Presidency via Facebook/AP)

Smoke and explosions from the fighting between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and rebels rise in the village of Jubata al-Khashab on Sunday (AP)

A US-Russian brokered ceasefire for Syria has come into effect, with monitoring groups and state media reporting clashes up until the final minutes and the most powerful rebel groups having yet to commit to the truce.

Syria's military announced at 7pm local time that it would abide by a ceasefire until Sunday at midnight, while maintaining its right to defend itself against any violations.

The ceasefire marks the latest attempt to end the five-year conflict, which has killed more than 250,000 people and driven some 11 million from their homes. The 2011 uprising against President Bashar Assad began with peaceful protests but escalated into a civil war following a brutal government crackdown and the rise of an armed insurgency.

Russia and Western nations hope the truce can lead to the revival of peace talks between Assad's government and the rebels battling to overthrow him, and contribute to efforts to defeat the Islamic State group and other extremists in Syria.

Russia's deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov said peace talks between opposition groups and the government could resume as early as next month.

Ahmad al-Masalmeh, an opposition activist in the contested city of Daraa, said calm had prevailed over the city since 4 pm, but observers elsewhere in the country reported fighting all the way up to and after the start of the ceasefire.

In Aleppo, the northern city that has emerged as the epicentre of the fighting, opposition media activist Mahmoud Raslan said government helicopters dropped crude barrel bombs on a contested neighbourhood, while a doctor reported heavy shelling along the Castello road, a key route to besieged, opposition-held areas.

The terms of the agreement permit government forces to target the al Qaida-linked Jabhat Fatah al-Sham for the first week of the ceasefire. It was unclear whether the group's positions were being targeted after the truce began.

Hours before the ceasefire went into effect, Assad vowed that his government would take back land from "terrorists" and rebuild the country.

Assad spoke during a rare public appearance that included attending prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha in the Damascus suburb of Daraya, where rebels surrendered last month after a four-year siege.

But in the build-up to the start of the truce, government forces and their allies bombed opposition areas in the north, while al Qaida-linked militants pushed on with an offensive in the south.

In Geneva, the UN envoy for Syria said his office would monitor the start of the ceasefire "carefully, before making any hurried comments". Staffan de Mistura said no statement from his office about the truce was expected before the following afternoon.

The ceasefire deal, hammered out between US secretary of state John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Saturday, was backed by Assad's government. But it has received mixed messages of commitment from various rebel factions.

It allows the Syrian government to continue to strike at the Islamic State group and al Qaida-linked militants with the Jabhat Fatah al-Sham group, earlier known as the Nusra Front, until the US and Russia take over the task in one week's time.

The rebels and the Syrian government are expected to stop attacking one another. Assad's key allies - Russia, Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah - have also endorsed the deal.

But that scenario is complicated by the fact that Jabhat Fatah al-Sham remains intertwined with several other groups fighting on the ground.

One of the more immediate goals of the Kerry-Lavrov agreement is to allow the UN to establish aid corridors into Aleppo, the contested northern Syrian city. Over 2,000 people have been killed in fighting over the past 40 days in the city, including 700 civilians and 160 children, according to a Syrian human rights group.

On Saturday, presumed Russian or government air strikes on rebel-held Idlib and Aleppo provinces killed over 90 civilians, including 13 children in an attack on a marketplace in Idlib, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In the aftermath, rebels and opposition activists were asking on Sunday whether the government side could be trusted.

Several previous negotiated ceasefires have all eventually collapsed. A partial "cessation of hostilities" that brought sorely needed relief to civilians in March unravelled as the government continued to strike targets in opposition areas, including near a hospital and school near Damascus and a marketplace in Idlib province, killing dozens of civilians.

Previous ceasefires were also preceded by soaring violence as parties on all sides sought to improve their positions before the pause in fighting.

In Turkey, meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his earlier calls for establishing a no-fly zone in northern Syria, saying it is essential to boosting security in the area.

Erdogan said he told the leaders of Germany, France, Russia and the US that training and equipping troops on the ground to battle IS is "not enough," and that a no-fly zone should be the next step.

Turkey launched an incursion into northern Syria in late August, driving IS away from the border and also seeking to counter the advance of US-backed Kurdish forces, which Ankara views with suspicion.

AP
Hubert Zafke sits in a courtroom ahead of his trial in Neubrandenburg (AP)

A former SS medic who served at the Auschwitz death camp has gone on trial in the northern German city of Neubrandenburg.

But questions remain about whether the 95-year-old is fit enough for the proceedings to continue.

The trial of Hubert Zafke, scheduled to start in February, already has been postponed three times after presiding Judge Klaus Kabisch determined Mr Zafke was not well enough to participate based on a doctor's assessment.

On Monday, Mr Zafke was pushed into Neubrandenburg state court in a wheelchair, holding a wooden cane in his hand.

The dpa news agency reported that he made no comment after the charges against him were read.

Mr Zafke is charged with 3,681 counts of accessory to murder for allegedly helping the Nazi camp function.

His lawyer says he did nothing criminal.

AP

Prosecutors and lawyers representing Auschwitz victims and their families who have joined the trial as co-plaintiffs, as allowed under German law, said they would still file motions accusing Judge Kabisch of bias for his previous rulings on Mr Zafke's health.

However, Judge Kabisch put off hearing those motions and said he intended to examine the issue of Mr Zafke's health further, dpa reported.

The charges stem from a one-month period in 1944 and involve the deaths of Jews who arrived in 14 train transports, among them one that brought Anne Frank and her family to the camp.

Ms Frank died later at Bergen-Belsen, and Mr Zafke is not charged over her death.

Prosecutors allege that Mr Zafke's unit was involved in putting gas into gas chambers to kill Jews and others, screening blood and other samples from hospitalised women prisoners, and otherwise helping the camp run by treating SS guard personnel.

They say the unit was also involved in auxiliary guard duties.

AP
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The seafood industry is also hoping for a rebound after exports plunged last year.

Vietnam, already one of the biggest seafood exporters to Australia, is aiming to expand its market down under with a major boost in shrimp shipments.

Australia imports 200,000 to 280,000 tons of seafood each year, which accounts for about 70 percent of the countrys demand. Vietnam is its fourth largest seafood supplier, after Thailand, China and New Zealand, with an 11.2 percent market share, according to the Vietnam Trade Office under the Vietnamese Embassy in Australia.

Statistics show that Vietnams seafood exports to Australia soared 84 percent to $1.6 billion in 2015, from $868 million in 2011.

The most important product is shrimp, which makes up about 60 percent of the total turnover, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP). Vietnams tiger shrimp in particular is a favorite among Australian consumers, the industry group added.

But at the moment, about 80 percent of Vietnams shrimp exports to Australia are frozen, processed products, leaving a prominently untapped segment of unprocessed shrimp that Vietnamese exporters need to discover.

Vietnam has asked Australian fishery authorities to open this market segment of whole fresh shrimp to Vietnamese exporters, said Vu Van Tam, Deputy Minister of Rural Development and Agriculture.

He said for the past few years, Vietnam has remained the leading supplier of processed shrimp to Australia. However, a change in export strategies is needed as shipments started to show signs of slowing down last year, when a 25.6 percent decline was recorded.

In the final months of the year, Australia is expected to send a working group to Vietnam to conduct a review of biosecurity requirements for unprocessed shrimp imports, Tam said.

Vietnams seafood exports, which have grown persistently over the past 20 years, are poised for a small increase of 4.5 percent this year after sales to overseas markets fell by 15 percent to $6.7 billion last year, according to VASEP.

Seafood exports, one of the key foreign currency earners for Vietnam, have taken a worse turn earlier this year due to adverse weather conditions and an environmental disaster along the central coast.

Related News:

> Drought killing Vietnamese shrimp hits seafood exports

> Shrimp farmers going broke due to severe drought

> Drought and salinity rock Vietnam's economy in first half of 2016
A Wellington, New Zealand based photographer Philip Windley captured a shot that can only be described as amazing. He got the Moon, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter in a picture he took on the Kapiti Coast.

But what's even more amazing is the fact that he didn't even realise what he shot. It was only when he posted the picture on Instagram that one of his friends Kunal, noticed it and informed him about it.

Here's the shot he took.

Philip Windley

If you look closely, you'll see Venus above the moon, the mercury on the left & below it, while further left the faint star is Jupiter. Absolutely brilliant!

Philip wrote a post describing how he got the shot on his website.

For all the aspiring photographers out there, all we can say is, get out there and shoot.

Also Watch: Amazing Nightsky Timelapse Video Will Make You Fall In Love With Star-Gazing
Talking about his upcoming film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Karan Johar was at his candid best during the lively on-stage conversation at the Glenn Gould Studio, a part of the festival's official programme of 41st Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

The nearly 90-minute conversation was peppered with KJO's signature style self-deprecating wit and punchy one-liners. According to Karan, Dharma Production will now target in setting up a new writing division to encourage the creation of original content for films. He added, "The movie star is no longer King, content is. The writer is the backbone of a film."

Talking about the success of Kapoor & Sons, which surely was one of the best films of 2016 till now, he said,

Twitter

"The success of a film like Kapoor & Sons is proof that the audience is evolving faster than the filmmakers. Many of us in the industry, including me, are caught in a time warp. Six actors rejected the role that Fawad eventually played because they were scared to play a homosexual character. Fawad Khan, who took the part and owned it, is not only a great actor but also a brave one. The industry is trying out new genres and approaches all right, but we do not empower writers enough. The writer is the soul of a film. The director isn't everything they should contribute to that soul."

About his shot at acting in Anurag Kashyap's Bombay Velvet, Johar said, "There were too many gap days and too much hanging around doing nothing. I was bored with the process. That is probably why nobody has offered me another role, not even a bad one that I can refuse," he said.

Johar was asked about the autobiography that is due for release next fall. "It is titled An Unsuitable Boy. It has got everything in there the good and the bad," he said.

Twitter

Talking about Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, he said, "The film is an ode to myself without being self-indulgent. It is about the angst of falling in love without reciprocation. I am the brand ambassador of that emotion."

However, one statement that was definitely the most interesting one, he said "Every tear that you shed (when you watch a film of mine) is a dollar in my account. You weep and I laugh all the way to the bank."
Muslims in Lucknow had voluntarily given up cow slaughter on Eid-ul-Zuha (Bakrid) almost a century ago, long before the Uttar Pradesh Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act of 1955 was even thought of.

allaboutdhaka.com

The practice that has been kept alive ever since, was also validated by the Sri Dharma Bharat Mahamandal, established in 1887 by Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, and by Mahatma Gandhi in his letter to the Mumbai edition of the Times of India on September 6, 1919.

Under the leadership of Maulana Abdul Bari Ferangi Mahali, a freedom fighter and prominent figure of the Khilafat Movement along with the Ali brothers, a wave of abstinence from cow slaughter during Bakrid started to build. Previous efforts had also been made by Bari's ancestors, but were marred time and again.

BCCL

Penning his conversation with Maulana Bari, Mahatma Gandhi (who referred to Bari as his brother) in his letter also emphasised how the step was unconditional and how the Maulana enjoyed massive following, even though Hindus were unwilling to support the Khilafat movement. And as the Mahatma writes, true to his word, the Maulana after his conversation with Gandhi, started "preaching amongst his followers and friends the necessity of abstaining from cow-killing." That very day in 1919, Gandhi had also received a telegram from Maulana Bari (that is referred to in the letter) stating:

"In celebration of Hindu-Muslim unity, no cow sacrifices in Ferangi Mahal this Baqreid-Abdul Bari."

And not just in Ferangi Mahal, a letter to Maulana Bari on January 10, 1920 from the Sri Bharat Dharma Mahamandal thanked him profusely for his "efforts through speech and abstention himself, that in the days of Baqreid there was no cow-killing in Lucknow."

BCCL

A Sufi and an Aalim (scholar), as author and historian, Gail Minault wrote in her book 'The Khilafat Movement', Bari had "religious influence over a variety of followers, and a large group of disciples from the Northwest to Bengal to Madras."

But it was not out of pressure that the unifying step was adopted by Muslims under his leadership. In his speech at a Hindu-Muslim conference on January 15, 1920 in Saharanpur, Maulana Bari had said, "No Hindus, nor Mahatma Gandhi have requested me to stop cow slaughter, but with my own heartfelt desire for unity and not to hurt the sentiments of my Hindu brothers, I have stopped doing so."

Later, following Bari's footsteps, some senior members of the Muslim League had also agreed to avoid cow slaughter during Bakrid in other parts of the state too.
India and Japan are coming closer thanks to an overtly aggressive China. A deal for 12 amphibious US-2 aircraft is being discussed by the two countries. To make sure the sale goes through, Japan is now looking to sweeten the deal for India. This is not for any economic gains, but because it considers India a friend.

Top Japanese defence ministry sources told TOI in an exclusive interaction that they would look at reducing the price for the $ 1.6 billion aircraft deal ?as much as possible, in a fresh attempt to revive the negotiations.

The agreement, if it happens, will have a huge symbolic significance as a message to China about deepening defence and security cooperation between India and Japan, both victims of Chinese territorial aggression.

Reuters

"Our position is that if this agreement happens, it will have a very favourable impact on our relations with India,'' said a Japanese defence ministry official.

"We understand there are some consultations underway in India over pricing. Pricing is determined by several factors. We are not doing this for economic gains but for our friendly relations with India and can look at reducing the price to the extent possible," added the official.

Japan is now hoping that there will be some progress in negotiations by the time PM Narendra Modi visits Tokyo later this year for the annual summit meet. Known for its short takeoff capability, the aircraft was meant to be deployed in the Andaman Nicobar Islands.

After Japan overturned its self-imposed 1967 ban on export of arms in 2014, India was expected to become the first country to purchase defence equipment from Japan with an agreement for US-2 aircraft. India and Japan had last year, after the summit meeting between Modi and his counterpart Shinzo Abe, signed an agreement for transfer of defence equipment and technology.

Reuters

The 2 leaders had then said that they wanted to to deepen the bilateral defence relationship through two-way collaboration and technology cooperation, co-development and co-production. They had also expressed an intention to explore "potential future projects on defence equipment and technology cooperation such as US-2 amphibian aircraft".

The negotiations for the aircraft though were left in limbo with serious differences over pricing and India's demand that the aircraft come with state-of-the -art surveillance technology. Japanese officials, however, said there was no sensitive technology involved with the US-2 and wanted to treat it as a regular search and rescue seaplane only. India also wants co-production here as the government believes it can provide an impetus to the Make in India initiative.

According to Japanese defence ministry officials, manufacturing in India would be feasible only if the agreement comprised sale of a certain number of aircraft. "If the number is too few, it would not be cost effective for India,'' said the official.

YouTube

Maritime security is one of the key areas in Japan's cooperation with India. Japan, which is now participating regularly in India's Malabar exercise with the US, has encouraged India to speak up on issues related to South China Sea.

Japan is currently having to contend with an increasing assertive China in East China Sea where Chinese vessels continue to enter Japanese territorial waters in large numbers. While the Chinese coast guard have repeatedly ventured into Japan's contiguous zone and territorial seas near Senkaku (Chinese call it Diaoyu) islands, a Chinese navy vessel entered the contiguous zone for the first time in June this year. Japanese authorities see this as fresh escalation by China.
This may come as a shocker for dog lovers who claim stray dogs are sweet, innocent and need homes - it looks like these canines have got the taste of blood.

BCCL

A 2 day old girl was pounced upon by stray dogs in Hyderabad, and she was killed and eaten by them.

Her body was found the next day outside Vikarabad RTC bus stop, Deccan Chronicle reported.

Residents told the local police that 2 women had spent Saturday night at the bus stop, and left early Sunday morning. After they left, a girl left behind at the bus stop was attacked by the dogs.

BCCL/ Representative Image

Crying in pain, the girl's torturous screams alerted nearby residents who attempted to rescue her - but it was too late. Police have taken the body away, and are reportedly investigating the matter.

Also read:

65-Year-Old Woman Eaten And Killed By Some 50 Stray Dogs In Kerala

3-Month-Old Baby Among Victims As Stray Dog Menace Escalates In Kerala, Time To Change Nickname To #DogsOwnCountry

Karachi Culls Nearly 1,000 Stray Dogs To Prevent A Possible Rabies Outbreak. Seriously?
The woman who had allegedly drowned her three minor sons in a well before attempting suicide, was arrested from Gurujang village in Odisha's Angul district on Sunday, the police said.

odishatv.in

The woman, identified as Soubhagini Behera, who had fled after being rescued from the well on Saturday, was caught from a temple where she was hiding, Inspector In-charge of Kishorenagar Police Station, I Kerketta said.

Behera had attempted suicide after allegedly pushing into the well the three boys, aged around 6, 4 and 2 years, the police said.

odishatv.in

While fire brigade personnel rescued the woman from the well after being informed by villagers, the three children could not be saved, they said adding, the woman ran away shortly after being pulled out.

The woman was now being interrogated by the police to ascertain the circumstances under which she had taken the extreme step, they said.

youtube.com/Represenatational image

Her husband, who was the sole breadwinner of the family, was now lodged in jail after being arrested for some offence and the woman was apparently finding it difficult to manage the family, the villagers said.
America's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Advisory Board has voted to slaughter wild horses and donkeys in their short and long term holding facilities.

pcwallart

Approximately 44,000 animals are currently held in short and long term holdings with an estimated cost of $49 million spent on them in the last year alone.

In this unanimous decision made by the advisory board, the only no-vote on the Advisory Board was from Ginger Kathrens of the Cloud Foundation.

The Humane Society of the United States released a statement which read, The decision of the BLM advisory board to recommend the destruction of the 44,000 wild horses currently in holding facilities is a complete abdication of responsibility for their care. The agency would not be in this situation but for their long-term mismanagement. Alternatives to this proposal have been ignored for over 20 years. The HSUS stands ready to implement these alternatives at any time.

 Anne Novak (@TheAnneNovak) September 12, 2016





I Want My Tax Money to Be Used to Protect Wild Horses on Public Lands, NOT Support Welfare Ranchers! @BLMNational pic.twitter.com/m6PJrpJEtJ  Freedom4Horses (@Freedom4Horses) September 12, 2016

The decision as of now has been put on hold due to public outcry and multiple lawsuits being filed against them.

Bureau of Land Management Votes to Slaughter 44,000 Wild Horses to Make Room for Beef Cattle https://t.co/22kYFyVoob pic.twitter.com/LQf34KVQ7h  Animal Rights (@AnimalRRights) September 12, 2016

The BLM now finds itself struggling to make a decision. A spokesperson from the agency claimed that BLM wanted to study few methods to determine whether there are safe, effective options for controlling the wild horse population.

After the current proposal went downhill, BLM has no option but to wait until a substantial decision is taken.
AFP

Violence erupted in southern part of Karnataka on Monday after the Supreme Court directed the state government to release 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery water+ to Tamil Nadu. At least half-a-dozen vehicles bearing Tamil Nadu registration numbers have been set ablaze in Bengaluru and Mysuru.

Though no casualties have been reported, tension prevailed on the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway with mobs targeting Tamil Nadu trucks+ and cars. Traffic on the highway too came to a standstill as farmers' organisations and Kannada activists staged rasta-roko agitations. Read more here.

Here are 5 more stories that may interest you:

1. Guy Live Tweets About Corruption On Train, Gets The TTE Suspended Within Minutes

akshayv

We all have travelled by trains and doing so has led to many friendly and unfriendly conversations with the TTE. He's the guy who checks our tickets and also the one who allots seats, if you don't have one. That said, at some point, we have always rested our hopes on TTE to help us fetch a berth.

Recently, a man caught a TTE allotting seats after collecting money without issuing a receipt for it. Govind Narayan, a passenger on the Barmer-Kalka Express on Saturday noticed the TTE of the train doing this.

He saw him collecting Rs 15 from passengers in exchange of seat allotment, however, he did not give them a receipt for it. When Govind asked for the receipt, the TTE replied that its a long journey and he shall give him the receipt on the way. More details here

2. Japan Willing To Give India A Discount On 12 US-2 Amphibious Aircraft To Seal The Deal

Reuters

India and Japan are coming closer thanks to an overtly aggressive China. A deal for 12 amphibious US-2 aircraft is being discussed by the two countries. To make sure the sale goes through, Japan is now looking to sweeten the deal for India. This is not for any economic gains, but because it considers India a friend.

Top Japanese defence ministry sources told TOI in an exclusive interaction that they would look at reducing the price for the $ 1.6 billion aircraft deal ?as much as possible, in a fresh attempt to revive the negotiations.

The agreement, if it happens, will have a huge symbolic significance as a message to China about deepening defence and security cooperation between India and Japan, both victims of Chinese territorial aggression. Read more here

3. Sniper Kills 4 ISIS Terrorists With One Shot From 1.5 Km Away, Seconds Before They Burned 12 Hostages Alive

AFP/ Representative Image

It's the kind of shot that will go down in marksmanship history.

A British Special Air Service (SAS) sniper managed to take down four ISIS terrorists with a single bullet - that too from 1500 meters (1.5 km) away.

Instead of shooting at them directly, he used a Barrett .50 rifle to blow up the fuel tank of the flamethrower the fighters were planning to use to kill 12 hostages (eight men and four women). Read more here

4.100 Years Ago, The Muslims Of Lucknow Voluntarily Gave Up Cow Slaughter For Eid-ul-Zuha

allaboutdhaka.com

Muslims in Lucknow had voluntarily given up cow slaughter on Eid-ul-Zuha (Bakrid) almost a century ago, long before the Uttar Pradesh Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act of 1955 was even thought of.

The practice that has been kept alive ever since, was also validated by the Sri Dharma Bharat Mahamandal, established in 1887 by Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, and by Mahatma Gandhi in his letter to the Mumbai edition of the Times of India on September 6, 1919.

Under the leadership of Maulana Abdul Bari Ferangi Mahali, a freedom fighter and prominent figure of the Khilafat Movement along with the Ali brothers, a wave of abstinence from cow slaughter during Bakrid started to build. Previous efforts had also been made by Bari's ancestors, but were marred time and again. Read more here

5. Rape Accused AAP Activist Hiding From Police, Spotted In Photos With Kejriwal And Other Party Leaders

intoday.in

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) activist Hardeep Singh, who was booked for 'attempt to rape', continued to evade arrest by the Moonak police of Sangrur district, even as seven police teams had been pressed into service for tracing him.

The police, during a search operation of his home and shop in the village, found Hardeep's pictures with top leaders of AAP. He was shown closeted with AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal and senior leaders, including the party's Punjab affairs in- charge Sanjay Singh, Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann, and others. Read the details here.
It's the kind of shot that will go down in marksmanship history.

14 Of The World's Deadliest Snipers

AFP/ Representative Image

A British Special Air Service (SAS) sniper managed to take down four ISIS terrorists with a single bullet - that too from 1500 meters (1.5 km) away.

An Unidentified Masked Sniper Is Taking Out ISIS Top Leaders In Libya, And No One Can Stop Him

Instead of shooting at them directly, he used a Barrett .50 rifle to blow up the fuel tank of the flamethrower the fighters were planning to use to kill 12 hostages (eight men and four women).

AFP/ Representative Image

The shot turned the ISIS executioner into a "human fireball".

An Unidentified Masked Sniper Is Taking Out ISIS Top Leaders In Libya, And No One Can Stop Him



It was a great for special forces, who'd had him on their kill list for a while.

The hostages escaped alive, while the blast took out the executioner and three other jihadis.

AFP/ Representative Image

The unidentified sniper reportedly belongs to British and US special forces team tracking 'high-value' ISIS fighters, while the executioner was infamous for burning victims to death.
A Korean man was fined US$18) for throwing a tantrum on a Korean Air flight to Hanoi last week.

Vietnams aviation authorities have fined a South Korean man VND4 million (US$180) for throwing a tantrum on a Korean Air flight to Hanoi last week after he was refused a second alcoholic drink.

The 34-year-old passenger, whose name has been withheld, was flying in business class from Seoul last Friday, the Northern Airports Authority said in a statement.

A flight attendant reportedly refused to serve him an alcoholic drink, saying that he had just gulped down a strong one.

The passenger became agitated and started kicking the seats around him. Several bags that hold items such as eye masks and ear plugs were damaged.

He was allowed to enter Vietnam after paying the fine at Noi Bai International Airport.

The airports authority last June also fined two South Korean passengers for smoking on fights to Hanoi.

Related news:

> Passenger banned from flying for slapping Vietnam Airlines flight attendant

> Vietnamese flight attendant arrested for smuggling gold to S. Korea

> Vietnamese man fined for assaulting flight attendant over lost cell phone
Thirteen out of 15 remaining prior actions demanded by institutional creditors from Athens take center stage this month, with the leftist Greek government needing to ratify, among others, an agreement or the Helleniko real estate development agreement via Parliament
Almost two weeks after two Indian women were gang-raped in Mewat, Haryana state, one of them has alleged that the attackers asked her if she ate beef.

They asked if we eat beef. We said we dont, but they insisted we did. Then they said were hurting you before so you dont and that if we tell anyone wedl be insulted, the woman said.

The police, however, maintain that neither the women nor their families had mentioned these allegations earlier. Senior police officers say so far, no link to cow vigilante groups have emerged.

The 20-year-old woman and her 14-year-old cousin were sexually assaulted by several men in their home in Mewat on the August 24. Their uncle and aunt were tied up and then beaten to death.

Haryana police arrested four men in their 30s from the village and booked them for trespass, rape and murder.

The main motive seems to have been rape, the victims cousin said. The four arrested men are known troublemakers in the village and had been seen drinking the morning of the attack.

Many Hindus consider cows sacred. Cow-slaughter, sale and storage of beef is is banned in several states, including Haryana. It is punishable by a 10-year jail term and/or a fine of INR100,000 to INR500,000.
In 2015 Ikeja Electric PLC, Nigerias largest power distribution company, partnered with Huawei to use Internet of Things (IoT) technology in order to increase power and reduce power waste.

Nigerias power sector had always had issues of getting people to pay for their electricity quickly, high line power loss rate, and manual meter readings which created avenues for fraud from both the ends of service.

A new system using smart meters, as well as an electricity operation and management system was introduced by Ikeja Electric to tackle such problems.

This new system has undoubtedly kicked off with impressive results. Below are 6 ways in which power supply has been revolutionised by smart technology:

The line-loss rate has been reduced to 11% from 46%, and its easier to locate power loss among cables Electricity theft can be tracked, and fees for stolen power can now be retrieved Money is collected in advance with a prepayment solution services Automatic meter readings and IT-based systems reduce labour costs by 90% Electronic bills are available through SMS, email, and phone calls Stronger recharge methods, like counter, website, recharge cards, and self-service terminals, are available and leading to improved loyalty from customers.

Huawei has also developed broadband technology that operates at a rate 20 times that of narrowband, which provides 100% meter-reading success rates and real-time metering services. This has allowed full data collection, showing the substantial economic returns that have benefited tens of thousands of households.

Ikeja Electric, with the help of Huawei, now also promotes the construction of Smart Grid in Nigeria, enhancing its international competitiveness in the electricity industry.

Abiodun Ajifowobaje, former CEO, Ikeja Electric said: Advanced Metering Infrastructure allows us to monitor customer usage from our offices here.

We consider Huawei to be the best company to provide us with these services that are required to make our proposed meter rollout the simplest it can be.

SEE ALSO: Over 4 million Electricity Consumers Awaiting Prepaid Meters  NERC
Vietnam is set to record around 34,000 new cases of lung cancer by 2020.

About 22,000 new cases of lung cancer are recorded in Vietnam each year, statistics show. That figure is set to rise to about 34,000 new cases a year by 2020, according to a senior doctor.

Pham Xuan Dung, deputy director of Ho Chi Minh Citys Oncology Hospital, said that about two thirds of patients diagnosed with lung cancer are in the advanced stages.

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths in Vietnamese men and the second-most common cause in women. Statistics show about 19,500 people die from lung cancer in Vietnam every year.

Smoking is to blame for the majority of cases.

More than one in four people smoke regularly in Vietnam, according to a joint survey by the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization.

Vietnams Health Education and Communication Center estimates that 40,000 people die of smoking each year.

Smoking is one of the leading causes of death in the Southeast Asian country, with more than 100 people dying from tobacco-related diseases per day.

The latest report by the Health Ministry showed a slight decrease in cigarette smokers in Vietnam between 2010 and 2015, dropping from 23.8 percent to 22.5 percent. The report analyzed nearly 100,000 men and women aged 15 years and older across the country.

Despite the declining number of smokers, Vietnam still has one of the highest rates of tobacco smokers in the world, according to the World Health Organization.

Vietnam, with a population of 93 million, has some 15.6 million tobacco smokers, mostly men, which translates into one out five people, both men and women, over 15 years old smoker regularly.

The survey respondents were also asked about secondary smoke, and the results showed most smokers were not aware of the negative effects it can have on family members, co-workers and other people who dont smoke. The rate of secondhand smokers remains high with around 80 percent of those surveyed saying they suffer from passive smoking in restaurants, 62 percent at home and 42 percent at work.

While anti-smoking campaigns have so far been largely ineffective, the Vietnamese government has tried to take other measures to curb smoking such as imposing tough restrictions on tobacco advertising and banning cigarette imports.

Tobacco taxes currently make up more than three percent of the national budget.

Health officials are planning to ask the government to step up these efforts by imposing higher taxes on tobacco, said Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Viet Tien.

Related News:

>Boozing leads to stomach cancer hike among young Vietnamese

>15 million Vietnamese still sparking up the tobacco

>Vietnamese diet: Too much salt and not enough fruit and veg
As Nigerians groan under the weight of economic hardships, the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), has said that the full impact of a positive change anticipated by the citizenry may not materialize until 2018.

He made the disclosure during an interview with journalists after a church programme in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital on Sunday.

Mr. Osinbajo stressed that the Muhammadu Buhari administration is focused and determined to ensure this country is put on the right track.

He said the government was aware a lot of Nigerians had begun to doubt the Change mantra of the administration.

There are lots of people who will say where is the change they promised? he said. People will condemn and shout, but we are very focused, calm and extremely confident that God is on our side and this country will not be the same.

He, however, indicated that the full impact of the change may take a couple of years, until 2018.

In another couple of years, we will see the difference, he said.

All of us have a part to play in the change. Nigerians must be patriotic in our dealings and daily activities. We should be committed to the nation, said Vice President Osinbajo.
National leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has predicted that the country would overcome the present economic downturn, which he said is not our making.

Tinubu, in an Eid-el-Kabir message issued by his media office in Lagos, felicitated with the Muslim community on the occasion of the festive season, saying we must give thanks to almighty Allah for keeping us alive to celebrate this Eid.

The former Lagos State governor said: This spirit of sacrifice and unselfish giving that defines this celebration must guide us all in the way we relate to others and in our quest for a better society. Through sacrifice and a heart and hand of charity we can lift up many who will in turn become better tools for the socio-economic rejuvenation we so desire.

We must see our current economic situation as a passing phase. We shall overcome. Our faith summons us to have faith but also to work so that things can get better.

This economic predicament is not of our making or choosing. It came not by invitation. The economic downturn represents a tough challenge not lightly overcome. No one wished that such an impediment would confront us. Now, we must rise to the occasion. Our economic situation presents an opportunity for us to do something we have avoided too long.

The present circumstance demands that we engage in a discourse concerning the type of post-oil era economy we truly want and what are the ideological underpinnings and policy thrusts needed to erect this new architecture.

This architecture must be inward looking and homegrown starting with the boosting of the agricultural economy leading to a diversification we have all longed for. As the government re-tools and re-fines different policies, we as citizens must locate our role and responsibility and join hands with this government until the clouds of recession recedes. A new horizon beckons for Nigeria sooner rather than later as we pass through a necessary phase often experienced in the life of virtually all nations.

Nigerians deserve a better country, more empowerment, job opportunities and an overall strong economy. The current government is committed to achieving this.
The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has said that hed rather not be a governor than see the blood of Edo people spill.

Obaseki made this statement in Lagos State on Sunday While he was fielding questions from newsmen over the postponement of the State governorship election by the Independent National Election Commission, INEC.

He said: We were ready for the elections, but when the police belatedly raised the issue of security, there is nothing we could do.

I will rather not be a governor than to have the blood of many people shed by miscreants that were imported into Edo State to cause havoc.

Referencing the Rivers State incidents, Obaseki asked How many people have been tried or charged to court for the wanton killings and violence in Rivers State, let alone being convicted?

How many people have been arrested for the blatant murder of the Port Harcourt lawyer? he queried.

These imported hoodlums have nothing to lose, they are not from Edo, and would not think twice before killing our people the way they killed people in Rivers State, he added.

Obaseki maintained that though it was disappointing for the election to have been postponed as the APC was coasting home to victory, however, the APC will win the election convincingly any day or time.

The postponement was just a mere shift of the doomsday for the Peoples Democratic Party and others.

The people of Edo State have made up their mind never to go back to the dark era. They know me, they know the lineage of my family, they can trace me from four five generations back, they know I dont have a violent past.

I have never been charged or tried for violent behavior. Let me assure you that we will win the election and win hands-down, he said.
Supporters of gay marriage took to the streets in Mexico on Saturday to march in support of same-sex marriage. The march was organised by a Catholic organization, The National Front for the Family.

There are conflicting reports as to how many people turned up for the protests, with the Front reporting 300,000 while local media reported much lower number.

Same-sex marriage is legal in only four states in Mexico and demonstrators are pushing for wider acceptance.
Embattled Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki yesterday described his trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) and others as mere distractions that would soon fizzle out.

He made this known yesterday at a town hall meeting in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.

According to Saraki: All the travails one is going through for those people who believe in God knows that all these are politics. All those are distractions not to allow us focus on issues. They always say that the truth will always prevail. We are beginning to see truth is already prevailing. The distractions are finding their ways.

I want to assure you that since my eight years as governor of the state, the legacy that we left is there for people to see. There is nobody after I left office who can say either there is any uncompleted project or any contractor anywhere in Kwara State who can stand up and say I demanded for any gratification from him.

I want to say that my business in government is to improve the lives of the people. If it is for myself and family I dont have to be in government.

The Senate president stressed that the All Progressives Congress-led federal government has no excuse not to fix the economy, adding that no responsible leader would abandon his followers in time of distress.

He warned members of the National Economic Management team to buckle up and proffer solutions to the challenges confronting the economy, warning that any of them not willing to offer personal sacrifice would have the Senate to contend with.

He, however, urged Nigerians to exercise restraints with the ongoing efforts to find solution to the problems.

Saraki, who vowed that the Senate under his leadership would not rest until the solution was found, declared that It is a challenge to fix the problems and improve the nations economy.

We have no excuse not to fix Nigeria economy but we need to be more patient on our agitation. It is important and of necessity to bring about solution. There is no responsible leader that will allow his people to suffer just because the economy is not doing well.

Until we find solution to Nigeria problems, we will not rest. It is a challenge to improve the nations economy, and that is the primary reason people voted us into power. We can no longer engage in blame game, we are here to fix the problems. By the special grace of Almighty, we shall succeed, Saraki said.

The countrys number three also lamented that Nigerians were in the habit of aiding the economy of other nations with unbridled patronage for foreign goods at the expense of the locally made ones.

He noted that the National Assembly had provided requisite legal frameworks to strengthen the campaign for patronage of made-in-Nigeria goods.

Speaking on the renewed hostility in the Niger Delta, Saraki added that only dialogue would stem the rising militancy.

Explaining that the ruins in the region had grounded crude oil production from 2.2million barrels per day to 900,000 barrels, the Senate president maintained that engaging the concerned people in the area in talks would arrest the situation, adding that the same method was used during Yaradua and it worked.
Nigerian students namely Thankgod Harold, Success Jumbo, Savior Samuel, Godsgift Moses, Promise Owei and 30 others on full scholarships from a Nigerian government fund for four years have sued Alabama State University (ASU) for discrimination and treating them like animals, an Alabama news outlet, Daily Beast, has reported.

The students complained that after collecting millions of dollars from the home government, the university started to discriminate against them.

In their lawsuit, they alleged that the university overcharged them for books and meals, claiming that the school enrolled them in classes they never took simply because they were black foreigners.

According to one of the students who goes by the name Jimmy Iwezu: They called us cash cows, adding: Im a black man and Im proud to be black, but I felt discriminated against.

He said the university said it could do whatever it wished with the seven-figure sum Nigeria prepaid back in 2013 for some 41 students.

According to the lawsuit, which was brought to the court by Attorney Julian McPhillips, the students alleged they were shorted their deserved monies by ASU.

McPhillips contends ASU hammered the students with exorbitant billing and they were not being treated like other students.

The school allegedly inflated the costs of staples like books, room and board, and repurposed the funds to pay for the schools bond issues.

While most college students are permitted to bargain shop for textbooks wherever they wish or dine at different establishments beyond the school cafeterias, the Nigerian nationals at ASU, according to the federal complaint, were boxed in.

According to McPhillips, They were not allowed by ASU to spend this money, but instead the money was credited towards certain expenses the students incurred, or towards other expenses ASU incurred that were unrelated to the students.

Iwezu, who is one of the students, told Daily Beast: The school compelled us to buy books from the book store and eat only at the cafeteria, adding: I tried to make them understand, Hey, we dont want to live in the dorms anymore, and we dont want to eat our entire meals at the dorms.

He said greaed trumped reason. They want our money, he said, adding that the surcharge to live on campus was raised specifically for him and his Nigerian counterparts. They make us pay $3,000 (a semester) to live in the dorms, and that is more than a mortgage on homes in this area. Enough is enough.

Source: Thisday
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) said its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, who is in detention at the Kuje Prison, Abuja, is presently ill.

The IPOB leader was remanded at the Kuje Prison following his trial for alleged treason. He has been in custody since October 2015 with moves to secure his release through the courts, frustrated by the federal government, which views his activities as a threat to national security.

The pro-secession group, in a press statement signed by its spokespersons; Emma Nmezu and Clifford Iroanya yesterday, described as most shocking, the arrest and detention of any member of Kanus family who dared to vist him in prison.

We condemn the incessant harassment and security threats towards our leader, who has been in detention since Oct 14th, 2015 in Kuje prison Abuja and the harassment of the members, friends and relatives, who went to visit him in prison, the statement said.

The statement also accused prison authorities of shooting poisonous gas into Kanus cell to suffocate him.

There was a prisoners unrest last month in the prison, which resulted in prison guards releasing canisters of tear gas in a bid to bring the situation under control.

However, IPOB claimed that the tear gas was deliberately targeted at its leaders cell, knowing fully well his health condition.

We have warned before and will continue to warn mankind that the world should pray nothing happens to our leader, because if his present illness gets worse the IPOB worldwide will not take it easy with the Nigerian government, the group added.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has allowed Nokia to re-open its Lagos office, according to reports.

NCC closed and sealed the office because Nokia had been operating for a number of years without buying a sales and installation licence, which costs two million naira ($6,354).

SEE: NCC Seals Nokia Office In Lekki, Lagos For Operating Without License

According to a source close to the company, Nokia received permission from the NCC late on Friday to reopen the office.

The lack of a licence seems to have been a major error on Nokias part as telecoms vendors operating in the Nigerian market are meant to have a licence.

NCC said that Nokia had started the application process three months ago but had failed to complete it.

SEE ALSO: Innjoo Fined N4 Million by NCC
On July 10, 2016, Nollywood actor, Deyemi Okanlawon and his wife, Dami welcomed their son, Ademide Oluwafirekanmi Okanlawon to the world.

Since the news of his arrival, many of their fans have anticipated the release of the new infants photos.

While many were expecting the usual photo shoot for the new baby, the actor felt that would not be enough to celebrate his son, so he decided to shoot a film to introduce him to the world.

Shot in Dallas, Texas, USA, Deyemi teamed up with filmmaker-photographer Biola Metesun of MalekFoto Films to co-produce a well-shot movie starring his newborn.

Watch the short film below; For You, My Son  Ademide Oluwafirekanmi Okanlawon.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested four domestic servants, including a driver and a houseboy, whose names were used to open bank accounts for Mrs Dame Patience Jonathan, the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Sources within the anti-graft agency said on Sunday that the companies accounts were opened at Skye Bank.

The companies are Pluto Property and Investment Company Limited, Seagate Property Development and Investment Company Limited, Trans Ocean Property and Investment Company Limited and Globus Integrated Service Limited.

The four companies accounts, which have since been frozen by the EFCC, have a balance of about $15m while another account, which bears Patience Jonathans name, has $5m.

Mr. Sammie Somiari, who deposed to an affidavit on behalf of the ex-Presidents wife, said the former First Lady was the owner of the money in the accounts.

She had revealed that she gave millions of dollars to the then Special Adviser to the President on Domestic Affairs, Waripamowei Dudafa, to open accounts for her.

Somiari, however, claimed that Dudafa opened five accounts for Patience and that only one of the accounts was in her name, while the other four were opened in the names of companies belonging to Dudafa.

A detective at the EFCC, however, revealed that Dudafa used his domestic servants names to open the four other accounts and then deposited the money into the accounts.

The operative added, We were investigating Dudafa when we stumbled on those four companies domiciliary accounts opened at Skye Bank with a balance of about $15m. On further investigation, we were able to identify the directors of the companies.

When we detained the directors, we found out that they were Dudafas domestic servants. One of them was a houseboy while another one was a driver. Their photographs were used in opening the accounts and their signatures were forged.

We found out that these domestic servants were completely innocent because they had no access to the accounts. We have since released them. The sole signatory to the accounts was Patience Jonathan and she was issued with a special card, which is accepted worldwide. She has a separate account, which was opened in her name and has a balance of $5m.

The detective said a lawyer, Amajuoyi Briggs, who allegedly helped Dudafa to perpetrate the fraud, would also be arraigned.

It was learnt that two Skye Bank executives, Demola Bolodeoku and Dipo Oshodi, who helped Dudafa to open the accounts on March 22, 2010, were also being investigated.

The detective added, This is a clear case of fraud and there is no way the bank officials will say they did not know what was going on. They are under investigation and those found culpable will be arraigned.

The EFCC operative said he could not immediately confirm if the transaction was reported to the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit.

He explained that the commission had discovered a trend which politicians used in laundering and concealing funds, saying it was becoming more rampant due to the operation of the Bank Verification Number which links all accounts owned by an individual.

He added, What we have noticed is that in order to conceal funds, what politicians and top civil servants do is to open bank accounts in the name of family or friends and then make themselves the sole signatory to the account.

Dont forget that we traced about 17 bank accounts to the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (retd.).

Often times, they do this in connivance with bank officials and that is why the EFCC Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, has said henceforth, whenever we are investigating a bank official, we will probe the entire bank as well because these officials usually act under the instruction of their superiors.

Jonathans wife has, however, sued Skye Bank for freezing her bank accounts and giving the EFCC vital information about her finances.

She also wants the court to order Skye Bank to pay her damages in the sum of N200m for what she termed a violation of her right to own personal properties under Section 44 of the 1999 Constitution.

Source: Punch
A 30-year-old theft suspect in the central province of Phu Yen was killed during an interrogation.

Vietnams supreme court on Monday cut jail terms for two policemen convicted in the death of a suspect in their custody, in a controversial case that first went to trial more than two years ago.

The court, after a hearing in the central city of Da Nang on Monday, reduced the jail terms for Nguyen Than Thao Thanh from eight years to five, and for Nguyen Tan Quang from two years in jail to two-year probation.

They are among five officers from the central province of Phu Yen who have been found guilty for beating a theft suspect to death during interrogation in 2012. The victim, Ngo Thanh Kieu, was 30.

During the first trial in April 2014, Thanh, 32, received a five-year sentence as he was held directly responsible for dealing the fatal blow to Kieus head. Quang was put on probation for 18 months.

But the victims family lodged an appeal. The media reported widespread public discontent with the punitive measures, which were also criticized as too lenient in various editorials.

The strong reaction prompted a fresh investigation and a retrial.

A provincial court last year gave Thanh eight years and Quang two years.

The group then appealed the decisions. The supreme court on Monday commuted the sentences of Thanh and Quang. It however upheld jail terms of up to 30 months against the other three officers.

Related news:

> From life sentence to an $800,000 lawsuit: Prisoner of the Century's 17-year battle against the court

> Vietnamese police general turns down peoples right to ask cops for ID
There was chaos on Sunday on Moore Road, in the Yaba area of Lagos State, after suspected armed robbers attacked a student hostel, Deans Court, and carted away some property.

PUNCH Metro gathered that the three-man gang came in a red Toyota Sienna, with number plate, KJA 966 DY.

They had reportedly trailed a female student, identified only as Cynthia, who had recently returned from Malaysia.

It was gathered that the robbers came to the area based on the information that Cynthia came back from Malaysia with foreign currency.

Our correspondent was told that after leaving Cynthia, the robbers used the opportunity to rob students in the hostel.

It was learnt that the gunmen were about leaving the premises when a security guard at the gate challenged them.

He was said to have been stabbed in the chest and had been admitted at a hospital.

While two of the robbers escaped, the third suspect, identified as 36-year-old Olawale Adesola, was arrested by policemen from the Sabo Police Division.

A witness, John Aremu, said the incident happened around 6am, adding that a locally-made gun was recovered from the suspect.

He said, They were three men and they came in a red Toyota Sienna. They attacked Deans Court, a hostel used by students of tertiary institutions in the neighbourhood. The robbers raided their rooms, stealing laptops, phones and money.

They were leaving the place when the security man challenged them and there was a struggle. I think they didnt want to create a scene, because they didnt shoot.

They stabbed him in the chest with a knife and the man raised the alarm. Two of the robbers fled, but the guard held the third suspect and ensured that he didnt escape until a mob gathered and beat him up. The police patrol team also arrived on time and arrested the suspect.

The resident said the suspect, in his confessional statement to the police, said the gang was on the trail of the student because she had recently returned from Malaysia.

He said the girls name was Cynthia and she had just arrived from Malaysia after a successful deal. He claimed that the said Cynthia did not make the necessary settlements and that was why they were asked to rob her.

He added that their operational vehicle belonged to his wife, who is a businesswoman. He said they all came from the Ota area of Ogun State, Aremu added.

Our correspondent was told that an identity card recovered from the suspect indicated that he was an executive member of the National Association of Commercial Tricycle and Motorcycle Owners.

The Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, confirmed the incident, adding that the suspect was in police custody.

She said, About 7.30am, our operatives received a distress call that some armed robbers were operating on Moore Road, Yaba. A team of anti-crime patrol attached to the Sabo division proceeded to the scene. Some occupants of the place were robbed of their laptops, phones and money.

One of the suspects was arrested with a locally-made double-barrelled gun and a knife, while some exhibits were recovered, including an ID card. The security man on duty was stabbed in the chest and was rushed to a hospital where he is receiving treatment.

Source: Punch
The hit TV series, Power did not air its latest episode yesterday, September 11, as the show is on a 15-day hiatus. The hit Starz drama will return on 18 September with the penultimate episode titled I Call the Shots. As the show is slowly inching towards its finale, major twists are expected in the life of James Ghost St. Patrick.

Episode 8, which aired last week, has hinted that Omari Hardwicks character is falling apart as he was betrayed by almost all his loved ones. While Tommy appeared to get influenced by Milan in order to thrash Ghosts empire, Angel slept with her stalker Greg to protect the love of her life. But it remains to be seen how faithful she is to Jamie after her sleepover with her lovers arch nemesis.

Elsewhere, Curtis 50 Cent Jacksons Kanan has started flexing his evil muscles to trap Ghost and he started it from enchanting his teen son Tariq with hatred. In the previous episode, he planned to deliver a major blow by killing Jamies son but ended up forming an alliance with him after the Tariq confesses his hatred for his father.

The alliance is going to be deadly for the former drug lord and the current club owner. But lets not underestimate Ghosts insanity. The protective family man can go to any length to save his loved once and will do everything to save his son from the deadly clutches of his arch nemesis Kanan.

Here is the official synopsis for Episode 9:

Angela searches for the mole; Ghost works to regain the club deal; Kanan exerts a dark influence upon Tariq; Milan warns Tommy about the price of betrayal.

Independent
Authorities of the University of Ilorin, Kwara State on Sunday said that they had accepted the voluntary withdrawal of a student, Jephtaph Abolarin, from the institution.

Abolarin, a 300-Level Sociology student, had written to the university confessing to cheating during his West African Senior School Certificate Examination.

Abolarin, who claimed he had become a born again Christian, said continuing his university education, using an unmerited certificate was unjust and immoral.

He wrote the letter to the institutions Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academics, Prof. Sidiqat Ijaiya, on August 5, 2016.

According to him, he wanted to withdraw from the school because he got his WASSCE through examination malpractice.

Reacting to the letter on Sunday, the university Deputy Director, Corporate Affairs, Mr. Kunle Akogun, confirmed the withdrawal of the student.

Akogun, who noted that the Senate of the university had accepted the withdrawal letter, added that the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Abdulganiyu Ambali, commended Abolarin for his repentance and sincerity.

The VC, Akogun added, wished Abolarin well in his future endeavour.

Part of Abolarins letter to the DVC read, Just as a house that was built on a faulty foundation will surely collapse, it is also certain that a career that is built on a faulty foundation will definitely collapse. All through my secondary school days, I was just a church goer, without genuine salvation and the fear of God. As a result, I got my WASSCE result through examination malpractice.

By the grace of God, now, I have encountered the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which called for repentance and restitution.

Sir, with deep conviction, I have realised that there is no point building my academic career on a faulty foundation; since the WASSCE result I got through malpractice is the basis in which my admission into this university was anchored.

Therefore, I have decided to withdraw from the university and start all over again.

Source: Punch
Troops of the Nigerian Army on Sunday shot dead a suspected female suicide bomber in a failed attack in Dikwa Local government Area of Borno State.

The Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Sani Usman, stated this in a statement on Monday.

According to the statement, the suspects planned attacked was thwarted at a check point located at Kara Cattle market axis, Dikwa, towards Antul and Mukdala.

She refused to stop claiming to be coming from Monguno to see her parents in Dikwa.

Troops sensing that the direction of approach was suspicious and abnormal, fired a shot at her and the gallant sentry was proven right as she was carrying a Person Borne Improvised Explosive Device (PBIED), which exploded with a loud bang, killing her instantly and causing minor injury on two soldiers and a Civilian JTF assisting them, said Usman, a colonel.

The injured soldiers and the civilian JTF member have been treated and have continued with their duties, the statement added.
Sani Kukasheka Usman, Abuja: On Sunday 11th September 2016, evening, a suspected female suicide bomber was seen approaching troops check point located at Kara Cattle market axis, Dikwa, towards Antul and Mukdala, Dikwa Local Government Area, Borno State.

She was challenged from afar by the vigilant duty sentry, she refused to stop claiming to be coming from Monguno to see her parents in Dikwa.

Troops sensing the direction of approach was suspicious and abnormal, fired a shot at her and the sentry gallant sentry was proven right as she was carrying a Person Borne Improvised Explosive Device (PBIED) which exploded with a loud bang, killing her instantly and causing minor injury on 2 soldiers and a Civilian JTF assisting them.

The injured soldiers and the civilian have been treated and have continued with their duties.

This incident has shown that there are a few of the remnants of the Boko Haram terrorists that are determined to carry out criminal acts to create panic and insecurity in some areas.

In a related development, there is also very reliable information that remnants of the Boko Haram terrorists now disguise or pretend to be mad men or women in order to gain access to some locations especially in Maiduguri.

Consequently, all should be very wary of any seemingly mentally unstable or mad men or women found wandering and report same.

Therefore, it is imperative for all to be more security conscious and vigilant especially during the Eid festivities and public holidays.

The public are further enjoined to report any suspicious persons or movement to the security agencies.

Source: NTA
The governing All Progressives Congress, APC, has reacted to the dismay expressed by the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) in the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government.

In the build-up to the 2015 general elections, the APC, then an opposition party, was a strong voice behind the BBOGs campaign for the rescue of the over 200 Chibok schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram on April 14, 2014.

So strong was the bond between the group and some leading members of the APC that the PDP, which was in government, accused the BBOG of being an extension of the then opposition party.

The APC also made the abducted Chibok schoolgirls a part of its campaign issue against the PDP-led federal government at the time, promising to rescue them if elected into office.

Now in power for over a year and the girls still in captivity, APCs relationship with the campaigners has become frosty.

The BBOG members were on Tuesday barricaded by the police from marching to the Presidential Villa, Abuja. A pro-government group had on the same day also joined to block the groups path to the villa.

Piqued by the development, a co-convener of the BBOG and former Education Minister, Oby Ezekwesili, took to Twitter on Friday to remind President Muhammadu Buhari that it was 879 days since the Chibok girls were abducted.

No More excuses. Decide now. Act now, Mrs. Ezekwesili told the president.

The former minister, in her tweets, said that by slandering, renting a crowd, and attempting to stop their protest march, officials of low degree thought they could destroy BBOG, so that the group would stop disturbing the government.

As a reminder of what the group insists the president owes the people, Ezekwesili quoted a line from President Buharis inaugural speech on May 29, 2015 in which he said: We cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons.

She also referred the APC to the its December 2014 tweet, in which it said, Its hours to New Year celebration. Our Chibok girls arent home yet. If you talk about it, they label you opposition. Things must change.

The APC, in its response to Mrs. Ezekwesili, who was also a former World Bank Vice President, said it is committed to the BBOGs struggle, but that its strategy has changed since it is now the party in power.

As opposition then, #BringBackOurGirls was an open campaign, since that was the only way we could pressure government into action, the APC tweeted.

However, as leading party, our strategy changed. Were most concerned with actual efforts to rescue the girls and our efforts are evident.

The party said the BBOG leader would agree that the current administration is succeeding in its war against insurgency.

Dear @obyezeks, we respect your resilience and commitment to the #BringBackOurGirls struggle and would do anything to encourage you, Ma.

As a party, well continue to work with government and security forces, as much as legally allowed, until they #BringBackOurGirls.
Tech skills are in high demand. But maybe leaving your full-time IT gig in pursuit of a hot new career as a mobile developer or data scientist isnt the best bet. Or perhaps your employer doesnt offer enough growth opportunity and you want to expand your skills and experience without giving up all your benefits and starting from scratch.

Theres another, more flexible way to cash in on todays high demand for tech: Start a part-time business in your spare time. According to "Freelancing in America: A National Survey of the New Workforce," 14 million Americans engage in a part-time business (also known as moonlighting, freelancing, or running a side hustle). And in tech there is no shortage of part-time projects and contracts on offer, some of which will be in your wheelhouse, while others will provide an opportunity to learn new skills.

[ Thinking of striking out on your own? Download InfoWorld's 29 tips for succeeding as an independent developer for valuable guidance from a solo -- and successful -- solo programmer. | Find out how to get ahead with our career development guide for developers. | Keep up with hot topics in programming with InfoWorld's Application Development newsletter. ]

We spoke with a number of developers who have struck up successful side businesses with an eye toward finding out whether starting a part-time business is right for you.

Get your side business up and running

Skill development, increased income, and the option to become a full-time entrepreneur are common motivations for starting a part-time business. But youll need to consider what exactly youd like to accomplish before launching your side business. Much of your success will depend on your capacity for additional work, your current skills, your desire to acquire new skills, and most important, your motivation. Yes, your skills are in high demand, but following through consistently in your spare time to make your side business work can be challenging.

After reading 'The 4-Hour Work Week' by Tim Ferris, I wanted to develop a lifestyle with greater time and location flexibility as well as income, explains Corey Creech, a web consultant based in central Florida.

But Creech notes that sacrificing leisure time to build a business is part of the deal.

If you want a successful business, its going to mean less time with friends, ditching the latest TV series, and putting all of your effort into your business, says Creech.

The fastest way to start a business is to sell services to a client as a freelancer. This type of business can be started for less than $100: obtain a business license, open a business bank account, and put up a simple website. How quickly you start to earn money will depend on your sales ability and network. For many freelance businesses, landing the first client presents the greatest challenge.

The first and best place to find clients is your personal network of contacts. Writing handcrafted emails to people in your network can be a great way to land a first contract, Creech says.

When I decided I wanted to get back into web development, I knew that in order to validate the idea I had to get at least three people to pay me for my services. I also had to do it in my spare time. To make things more challenging, I gave myself 72 hours to find three paying clients with Facebook, explains Creech. He soon landed his first few clients and accepted payments through PayPal. Creech started his business while working as a field network engineer. If your network is limited, offering your services through an online services platform may be a good option.

Make the most of freelance marketplaces

Bidding on client projects through freelance marketplaces such as Upwork can simplify the marketing process.

On freelance sites, youre competing against a large number of people from around the world, so they are very competitive, explains Nick Loper, host of the Side Hustle Podcast. Loper has interviewed more than 100 people who have built part-time businesses in technology, consulting, and other industries.

Despite the competition, you can still win on these services if you put in the effort to read the project description and come up with a detailed response, Loper adds. I hired a virtual assistant from Macedonia on Upwork who worked with me for about two years. That relationship started with her writing a cover letter that demonstrated an understanding of my needs that stood out compared to other candidates.

But doesnt the global nature of freelance marketplace websites mean a race to the bottom for freelance pay?

Preston Hunters experience offers a stark counterpoint to that assumption. In 2015, Hunter, a developer based in Tempe, Ariz., earned approximately $80,000 through Upwork as a part-time business while holding down his day job.

When I first started out, I was typically billing around $15 per hour. Over time, Ive raised my hourly rate to about $86, and I often turn down client requests today, he explains.

I help clients build databases and web apps. For example, they may have an Excel spreadsheet and some ideas about putting it on the web, he says, noting that he focuses on database projects using MySQL, Microsoft SQL, and related technologies. I typically work about 10 hours per week on Upwork.

Toptal: Freelance network for high-end talent

Describing itself as an exclusive network of top talent, Toptal is becoming a popular option for developers and designers to land clients.

Before starting with Toptal, I worked on a couple of freelance projects, says Paulo Castro, who began freelancing while working for IBM in Brazil. While at IBM, Castro worked on IBM middleware technologies such as cloud computing, IBMs MobileFirst platform, BPM, and business rules management for enterprise customers. After completing a few freelance projects on his own, Toptal contacted him in 2011; he has worked with Toptal since that point.

Castros first few projects with Toptal focused on software maintenance.

A lot of customers have difficulties finding developers to do maintenance and support for existing software, but this kind of project was perfect for me as I was looking for part-time work and nonfixed hours, Castro says. This type of maintenance work was my focus for my first three clients.

In contrast to other services, Toptal plays an active role in interviewing developers, working with end clients, and administration.

Billing and invoicing are handled automatically, and I can count on my payments from Toptal like clockwork, Castro added. Toptals end clients include a mix of large and small companies such as J.P. Morgan, Pfizer, Zendesk, and AirBnb.

Building a product-based business

Earning income from selling technology products on the side is another path for a part-time business. In contrast to a services-based business, it generally takes longer to earn money, though the long-term rewards can be significantly greater. If you already have significant skills in app development, you might want to consider building a business around a software offering.

Of course, youll need to find a worthwhile market niche to fill with your app or software. After all, few side-hustle businesses receive angel or venture funding; money needs to come in from direct sales to justify the effort.

Gary Vaynerchuk, a digital marketing expert and author, regularly reviews the top app lists in the Apple iTunes Store, especially paid apps, to find new opportunities. Theres no need to create a new idea from scratch with this approach. Instead, you can build an app that leverages existing market demand. Over time, the best-selling iOS apps include games (such as Angry Birds, Words with Friends, and Plants vs. Zombies) and productivity apps (Camera+, iScanner, and TapeACall Pro). Performing market research on previously successful apps can help spark new ideas for areas with high demand.

Beyond mobile apps, software as a service can be another lucrative option for building a side business. Consider ConvertKit, an email marketing service created by Nathan Barry. Based in Idaho, Barry created the service in early 2013 after becoming frustrated with the capabilities of existing email marketing services. Prior to starting ConvertKit, Barrys work focused on selling premium digital books like "The App Design Handbook" and "Designing Web Applications." Barrys approach offers clues on how to build a successful SaaS product. He clearly understood the problem (ineffective and limited email marketing) and he defined a target market (professional bloggers like Leo Babauta).

Books: Spread your knowledge as a side business

Writing is another way you can leverage your technical expertise to earn money on the side. Writing books for a traditional publisher like Apress, OReilly, or Wiley is one approach. When you go with a traditional, established tech publisher, you earn an advance payment (likely less than $10,000 for a technical book) and royalties on books that sell. Beyond the immediate income, writing for a respected publisher is an excellent option to set yourself apart from other professionals in your niche.

Self-publishing offers another avenue with potentially greater rewards and flexibility. There are two popular ways to self-publish a book depending on your goals, skills, and resources: by creating a self-hosted premium e-book or by using a platform like Amazon.

Jason Rodriguez, product manager at Litmus, self-published a premium e-book called "Modern HTML Email." Unlike a traditional book, "Modern HTML Email" offers extra features like code samples, templates, and other resources. The book earned more than $3,000 when it launched and revenue continues to come in.

Brandon Savage self-published "Mastering Object Oriented PHP" while working at Mozilla. The books played a role in launching his new career as a software consultant. Technical books are well-suited for the premium e-book model because it is easier to include code samples, videos, and other instructional materials to help readers learn.

For other authors, Amazon represents a significant opportunity to build a business. While working as a senior software developer building iPhone apps in San Francisco, Chis Fox began to publish Kindle books. His fiction titles, "No Such Thing as Werewolves" and "No Mere Zombie," have sold well. As of February 2016, Fox has sold 35,000 copies of his books. Fox made time to write his books every day during commutes to the office and evenings.

Should part-time mean forever?

Keeping up a part-time business and a full-time job is challenging. Maintaining a traditional job and a part-time business creates additional pressure on your life. And that is another great facet of the side hustle: You can quit at any time. You may decide to close the business once you accomplish a specific goal such as paying off college debt. Or you may follow Paulo and Corey who grew their business so much that they could resign from their day jobs.

Related articles
Ive been having a little back-and-forth with InfoWorlds Roger Grimes about security vulnerabilities in the U.S. election system. This was sparked by Rogers post last week, Voting machines are still too easy to hack. The title says it all, but as Roger notes, the risk is mitigated by the fact that voting machines are not connected to the internet. You need physical access to voting machines in order to hack them.

This immediately led me to wonder about the vulnerability of systems that are connected to the internet, particularly in light of recent reports that Russian hackers had breached voter registration systems in Illinois and Arizona. What if hackers deleted registered voters wholesale? Some states allow you to register online or through motor-voter initiatives, so the state wouldnt necessarily have a paper record, nor would many voters. If they werent on their designated polling stations list, they could cast a provisional ballot, but that vote would be invalidated without the state having its own record of registration. Right?

Roger assured me that campaigns receive registered voter lists for mailings and other voter contacts. These lists are often printed out and in paper form even in the election offices, so they can be used for quick comparisons against any previous or new list, he said. There are enough safe checks in the system that any widespread election list deletion would be caught fairly easily and quickly.

That reassured me -- until I read a recent piece in the Washington Post about how Russia could wreak electoral disaster. Apparently Russia has already performed this sort of mischief in the Ukraine. Rigging or even attempting to rig the U.S. election in favor of either presidential candidate could destroy faith in the outcome, particularly those who have little idea how the system works.

"Faith" is the key word here. As IDG News Services Grant Gross reported in a recent news item, the United States is investigating what appear to be Russian attempts to spread disinformation and hack into U.S. political systems in an effort to undermine confidence in the upcoming election. In a world where conspiracy theories fly across the internet as fast as miscreants can type them, this could be truly corrosive. Its not necessarily about throwing the election to one candidate or another -- its about doing enough damage to create a toxic atmosphere of uncertainty.

To use a practical analogy, I imagine all of us have worked for companies at one time or another when repeated outages or mistakes completely undermine faith in the IT department. Cant they do anything right? Theyre trashing the brand and destroying the business! Even normal iterative processes can give stakeholders outside the inner workings of a complex system jitters, as InfoWorlds James Kobielus observes in his post today.

In hindsight, although it felt good at the time, I regret the ranting and raving I did in those situations when those things went badly wrong. Very rarely do we encounter situations in which an entire organization is utterly incompetent and needs to be fired en masse. Sure, certain individuals might well need to be handed their walking papers, but from the outside its hard to know who. Most people try their best. They make mistakes -- and in many cases learn from them. If you lose faith in their capabilities entirely without knowing the details, the problem might be yours, not theirs.

Hacking the voting system is only partly about security vulnerabilities and defenses. As James says, confidence is a psychological and even sociological phenomenon. Yes, we need to identify weaknesses and batten down the hatches in the face of potential attacks. But the voting system, like any system viewed from the outside, can never be completely transparent. Faith shouldnt be blind, but neither should it be lazily, cynically abandoned.
Thousands of publicly accessible FTP servers, including many from Seagate network-attached storage devices, are being used by criminals to host cryptocurrency mining malware.

Researchers from security vendor Sophos made the discovery when they investigated a malicious program dubbed Mal/Miner-C, which infects Windows computers and hijacks their CPUs and GPUs to generate Monero, a bitcoin-inspired cryptocurrency.

With most cryptocurrencies, users can generate new units by devoting their computing resources to solving complex math problems needed to validate transactions in the network. This process, known as "mining," provides an incentive for attackers to hijack other people's computers and use them for their own gain.

Bitcoin mining malware used to be widespread some years ago, but as the cryptocurrency's network grew, mining became more difficult and using personal computers, which have limited computing resources, stopped being profitable. Some malware writers, like those behind Mal/Miner-C, have now turned their attention to newer cryptocurrencies, like Monero, that are easier to mine.

The Sophos researchers found that Mal/Miner-C does not have an automatic infection mechanism and instead relies on users to execute the malicious program. As such, it is distributed via downloads through compromised websites, but also through open FTP servers.

Attackers scan for FTP servers that are accessible from the internet and attempt to log in with default and weak credentials or with anonymous accounts. If successful, they verify that they have write access on the server and copy the malware in all of the available directories.

This explains why Sophos counted more than 1.7 million Mal/Miner-C detections over the past six months from about 3,000 systems. Most of the affected systems were FTP servers that hosted multiple copies of the malware in different directories.

The researchers used an internet scanning engine called Censys to identify public FTP servers that allow anonymous access with write privileges. They found 7,263 such servers and determined that 5,137 of them had been contaminated with Mal/Miner-C.

Another interesting discovery was that many of those FTP servers were running on Seagate Central NAS devices. While this malware threat does not specifically target such devices, it turns out that Seagate Central's configuration makes it easier for users to expose insecure FTP servers to the Internet.

By default, the Seagate Central NAS system provides a public folder for sharing data, the Sophos researchers said in a paper published Friday. This public folder cannot be disabled and if the device administrator enables remote access to the device, it will become accessible to anyone on the Internet, they said.

FTP servers that have been compromised by Mal/Miner-C contain two files, called Photo.scr and info.zip. Photo.scr is a Windows executable file, but its icon masquerades as that of a Windows folder to trick users into accidentally executing it.
There is good news for Cambodian wildlife threatened by deforestation. The Royal Government of Cambodia and the Wildlife Conservation Society recently signed an important agreement in Phnom Penh to implement the historic carbon transfer agreement announced in July in New York.

The U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia, William Heidt, spoke at the ceremony, attended by Say Samal, Cambodias Minister of Environment, Dr. Sam Ang Chea, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Environment, and Ross Sinclair, of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

This project will address deforestation pressures on the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary by strengthening the management of the reserve, securing land titles for communities in the area, ensuring sustainable access to crucial forest resources, and implementing community development projects. Keo Seima, of course, encompasses nearly 300,000 hectares in Mondulkiri Province and is one of Cambodias most important remaining forests, said Ambasador Heidt.

Cambodias forests, he noted, are globally important for biodiversity conservation. Keo Seima alone is home to more than 60 species of animals and plants listed as threatened by extinction. Hundreds of communities in and around Keo Seima have been nourished by its nutrients and sheltered by its canopies.

But those forests, he warned, are under very serious threat.

The United States has been working closely with the Government for many years to combat deforestation in Prey Lang, Keo Seima, the Cardamom Mountains and other areas, he said.

In Keo Seima, USAID has provided financial and technical support for the past four years to conserve Keo Seimas biodiversity, improve the livelihoods of local communities, and help to prepare the transfer of carbon credits into the international carbon market, said Ambassador Heidt. These important activities will continue as part of the REDD+ project.

Partnerships with organizations like Wildlife Conservation Society are a very important way of leveraging international support and expertise to help meet the Governments goals. They recognize that not only does Cambodia value its natural resources, but that the international community is also committed to helping.

Ambassador Heidt said the agreement can play an important supporting role in the Governments efforts, and lay the groundwork for additional REDD+ agreements in the future that will benefit both Cambodias forests and the communities that live in and around them.
Limit up on Wheat? Banghart Properties - Sat Oct 29, 7:09PM CDT News broke over the weekend that could help wheat trade limit up when it reopens.

Rains in the Plains, Dow soars Sidwell Strategies - Sat Oct 29, 8:38AM CDT 1st winter wheat ratings Monday; consider carbon for cash flow during drought

Open Enrollment 101: Make the Most of Your Benefits Young & The Invested - Sat Oct 29, 6:00AM CDT The 2022 open enrollment season will be a difficult one as workers have to factor in persistently high inflation while they choose their coverage. These tips can help you maximize your benefits.

Hogs Rebound into Weekend Barchart - Fri Oct 28, 4:39PM CDT Lean hog futures ended the Friday round with 32 to 97 cent gains to fade the triple digit losses from Thursday. The USDA National Average Base Hog Price was $90.54 in the PM update, down by $1.15. The... HEZ22 : 86.100s (+1.15%) HEJ23 : 92.700s (+0.62%) KMZ22 : 96.125s (+0.37%)

Cotton Falls Triple Digits Barchart - Fri Oct 28, 4:39PM CDT December cotton ended the day locked limit lower on the 3c loss. The March contract worked back off the limit for the bell, but still went home down by 274 points. For the week, Dec cotton closed 702 points... CTZ22 : 72.11s (-3.99%) CTH23 : 72.07s (-3.66%) CTK23 : 72.30s (-2.99%)

Cattle Market Fades on Friday Barchart - Fri Oct 28, 4:39PM CDT Live cattle futures ended the weeks last trade day down by 35 cents to $1.02 with soon to expire October down the most. Cash trade picked up later in the week with some Friday catch up sales mostly... LEV22 : 150.375s (-0.68%) LEZ22 : 153.000s (-0.28%) LEG23 : 156.325s (-0.33%) GFX22 : 177.875s (-0.14%) GFF23 : 180.375s (-0.04%)

Loss for Friday Wheat Barchart - Fri Oct 28, 4:39PM CDT Wheat futures faded on Friday with the front month contracts going home 6 1/4 to 9 1/4 cents lower in SRW. For the December contract that completed the week with a 21 1/2 cent loss. KC futures closed down... ZWZ22 : 829-2s (-1.10%) ZWH23 : 849-0s (-1.05%) ZWPAES.CM : 7.6281 (-1.18%) KEZ22 : 925-0s (-0.78%) KEPAWS.CM : 8.8324 (-0.81%) MWZ22 : 945-0s (-0.58%)
When you think of who's trying to reduce the global carnage from traffic deaths, the first funder to come to mind is Bloomberg Philanthropies.

In fact, that's pretty much the only funder that comes to mind. We can't think of any other major foundation or top donor that's giving in a big way to tackle a problem that causes 1.25 million deaths annually, with that number set to rise in coming years.

Meanwhile, as we've often reported, Mike Bloomberg and his team keep plugging away at this issue. The foundation has committed over $259 million since 2007 to road safety projects in low- and middle-income countries with a high number of road related fatalities through its Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Road Safety Initiative (BIGRS).

It estimates that some 125,000 lives will be saved as a result of Bloomberg-backed road safety initiatives. If our math is right, Bloomberg will spend around $2072 for each life saved, which sounds like a bargain to us. That's even cheaper than saving lives by giving for anti-malaria nets, which has been estimated at about $3,500 for each life saved.

Malaria is a hot cause among many funders, large and small. Traffic safety is not. Why is that?

While you ponder that question, let's look at what's happening lately with BIGRS. Earlier this summer, it convened a three-day meeting in Bangkok, Thailand of the far-flung network of people involved in this work to take a look at the progress made, and determine what still needs to be done.

Related: Heres Where the New Bloomberg Road Safety Money is Going

There was a lot of urgency around this meeting. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), traffic accidents and road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among those aged 15 to 29. By 2030, the WHO estimates that road traffic crashes will result in more fatalities than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and breast cancer.

Road safety isnt sexy, but its a pretty big deal, and it's interesting to see the different moving parts of Bloomberg's approach to the problem, which was reflected by the participants in the Bangkok meeting. Working with governments and other stakeholders is key, and the initiative aims to pull various levers, including policy, law, and marketing. The foundation reports that since 2007, as a result of its work, "nearly 2 billion people have been covered by strengthened road safety laws, 65 million people have been exposed to hard-hitting media campaigns promoting road safety, close to 30,000 professionals have been trained on road safety tactics and governments have committed $225 million towards infrastructure improvements that will make roads safer."

Of course, there's a big data component, too, and lately, BIGRS has trained several hundred journalists in understanding road safety data.

Speaking of data, last year, Bloomberg Philanthropies launched a $100 million Data for Health Initiative in partnership with the Australian government. The goal of the initiative is to figure out how an estimated 35 million people died whose deaths have gone unrecorded. The purpose is to provide governments, public health leaders and aid organizations with better health data through improved collection systems and tools. The data will then be used to monitor risk factors for early death. As Bloomberg puts it, Reliable data is absolutely essential to problem solving.

Related: As Bloomberg Spends More to Save Lives, He Wants Better Data on How People Die

Anyway, back to our question above: Why aren't more funders working the road safety issue? After all, this is pretty low-hanging fruit in a world of complicated and daunting health and development challenges. As with curbing tobacco use (an issue the Gates Foundation is also behind, FYI), reducing traffic deaths is something that we know how to do, given that advanced countries have already had great success on this front.

Maybe the answer is that many foundations view road safety as an issue squarely within the purview of government, which regulates transportation, and don't feel confidence in their ability to sway policy in places like Brazil, Mexico and Vietnam. Bloomberg, by contrast, has a strong background in government.

Or maybe, as we said before, the issue just isn't sexy. That's certainly true, and it's hard to imagine Bono putting on a concert to enact seatbelt laws. On the other hand, what could be sexier than actually saving lives?
@JasonHathaway3 @EHRT3R  @NASCARHomeTrack #NPS #NASCARPintysSeries @AutodromeASE St Eustashe, Quebec- (September 10, 2016) Jason Hathaway and his #3 Raybestos/Fast Eddie Speedwear Chevrolet had an eventful race at the flat Autodrome St Eustashe oval, near Montreal, Quebec.

Hathaways car came off the trailer pretty stable and he practiced well; seventh in the first session and fourth in the second session. The looming rain finally came just before qualifying late in the afternoon and the starting field was set by the times established in the first practice.

The excitement started with the drop of the green flag as the 16 car field barreled into corner one. A rookie driver sailed it into the corner and spun Hathaway damaging the car. Crew Chief Craig Masters brought the car down pit road and the team cleared away the damaged fiberglass. Hathaway started 14th in the field and worked his way up to seventh place until he was spun by the 18 car bringing out the caution and putting Hathaway a lap down to the leaders. NASCAR then suspended the race due to rain.

The race got back underway an hour later and the team made some more repairs to the car and focused on getting themselves into a position to earn their lap back. The chance finally came on lap 115 and once they were back on the lead lap the Team didnt look back. Hathaway was a man on a mission and drove his way up to second place by lap 177.

Hathaway was spun again by the 18 car, the same driver that spun him earlier in the race with five laps to go. The wreck put them back to tenthth and with a green white checkered finish; Hathaway drove his way back to sixth place. Hathaway was assessed an aggressive driving penalty under caution and was scored 10th in the official finish.

Hathaway was frustrated with their great night that was hampered by one driver the entire race.

We had a great car tonight. Its a shame that some drivers cant just be patient and smart all at the same time. When you come up on one driver every lap and wonder how he is going to race you or wreck you, it isnt good for the sport. NASCAR can only officiate so much and the rest is up to us as drivers to settle on the track. Our team did an awesome job dealing with what was put in front of us and Im proud to have them behind me. They showed class and caliber. Said Hathaway

T3R/EHR is proud to be partnered with sponsors Raybestos, Fast Eddie Racewear, The Harman Group, DSI, Choko Motorsports and BIO 2000 Pressure Wash.

The Lucas Oil 250 will air on TSN on Sunday, September 18th and 1pm EST.

Jason Hathaway and his NASCAR Pintys Series team will return to the track for the final race of the 2016 season on Saturday September 17th, 2016 for the Kawartha 250 at Kawartha Speedway.

Fans can keep up with Jason and the rest of T3R/EHR at their Ed Hakonson Racing page on Facebook, on Twitter @JasonHathaway3 or @EHRT3R and Instagram at jasonhathaway3. In addition, fans can also visit the official webpage www.Team3Red.com for all updates on the 2016 season.

For additional information please contact Jamie Hakonson at 416-560-6103 or email jamie@team3red.com

From: Jamie Hakonson  Fast Eddie Racewear/ Choko Motorsports

Team 3 Red Racing/Ed Hakonson Racing

Phone: 905-642-1010

Fax: 905-642-1011

jamie@fasteddieracewear.com

www.fasteddieracewear.com
@jf_dumoulin @DumoulinDC @NASCARHomeTrack #NPS #NASCARPintysSeries @ St-Eustache  (Quebec, Canada), September 11th, 2016  Jean-Francois Dumoulin was participating in his first oval circuit event yesterday at Autodrome St-Eustache, and he was more determined than ever to conclude his season on a positive note. In eighth place on the starting grid, the #04 Spectra Premium/ Bernier Crepeau / Groupe Bellemare/ MIA / Trois-Rivieres Mitsubishi has suffered some damage right from the first lap. Stuck between two cars, Jean-Francois Dumoulin wasnt able to avoid a skirmish caused by competitors in front of him. This incident has caused a string of mechanical issues throughout the race which havent allowed him to deploy all of his skills on track.

#59 and 25 drivers were too aggressive in the first lap and I did everything in my power to avoid Hathaways skid in front of me, without success. The impact was not major, but the front bumper was bent in such a way that braking always caused it to hit the ground, destabilizing the car every time. On top of that, the back left shock absorber came undone and was lacking some parts. We made multiple pit stops to attempt a repair, but the car was under-steering in corner exits, which didnt allow me to remain competitive, explains the driver of the #04 Spectra Premium/ Bernier Crepeau / Groupe Bellemare/ MIA/ Trois-Rivieres Mitsubishi car.

Uncertain weather forced the series officials to cancel the qualifiers session and bring the start of the event forward by 30 minutes. The starting grid was determined by the results of the first practice session. Furthermore, at lap 63, heavy rain paralyzed all on-track action. Fans were treated to a complete stop for 53 minutes and 18 seconds.

Nearly 160 people from Spectra Premium joined up in St-Eustache to encourage their driver, Jean-Francois Dumoulin. They lined the bleachers in the second corner with blue and white, all wearing their company clothes. Despite the results, all the fans more than enjoyed their experience and the action brought by eight neutralisations. It was very cool to meet all of the Spectra Premium employees who came to encourage me, and it was great to hear them in the attendance, shares an enthused Jean-Francois Dumoulin.

This event marks the end of Jean-Francois Dumoulins 2016 season in the NASCAR Pintys series. Discussions are already underway for next season. This winter, well do our homework and come back strong next season. Be among us in 2017 for the return of the driver of the #04 Spectra Premium/ Bernier Crepeau / Groupe Bellemare/ MIA/ Trois-Rivieres Mitsubishi car.

EXCITEMENT IS STILL PRESENT

Save the date: September 19  Happy hour- waiter for a night

The Dumoulin Competition Great Romp fundraiser for the Quebec Cancer Foundation has continued successfully. The amount of $520 is now added to the previous $6,620 amount to bring the total to $7,140 to date. Only one more occasion left to come put your signature on the Dumoulin Brothers cars, join us this upcoming September 17 on the circuit of Kawartha Speedway (Peterborough, Ontario) which will conclude the 2016 season of the NASCAR Pintys series.

Save the date: On September 19, the waiter for one night only happy hour event will take place at La Maison de debauche par le Carlito, at which the two trunks of the Dumoulin brothers cars will be put up for auction, all going to the fundraiser for the Foundation. Come join us, many surprises are planned! Link to the event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1639824726307854

 Results of the race here: http://hometracks.nascar.com/results/nps-st-eustache-91016-results

 The race will be broadcast on the air of TSN on Sunday, September 18 at 1 PM, and on RDS on Tuesday, October 14 at 8 PM.

Passion  Performance  Partnerships

ABOUT PARTNERS



Spectra Premium Industries is a privately held company headquartered in Boucherville, Quebec, Canada. Spectra Premium is a team of more than 1,300 dedicated employees that specializes in auto parts manufacturing and distribution. The Company owns and operates four manufacturing plants and 17 warehouses. With its international distribution networks and unparalleled customer and after sales service, Spectra Premium is the automobile manufacturers, auto technicians and handymens choice for reliable, quality parts and automotive systems. Trust your vehicle to Spectra Premium. www.spectrapremium.com

Bernier Crepeau Chrysler Fiat: With 25 years of experience, the family business has built an enviable reputation in the field of vehicle acquisition. If the future of this company is linked to the loyalty of its customers, it is also held by the reliability and strong communication of its team. This team is at your disposal, ready to listen to you, to hear you. Passion, care, and determination. A team willing to go the extra mile, with its ears wide open. http://www.berniercrepeau.com/.

Group Bellemare: Competitive and dynamic, Thomas Bellemares innovative and growing family team is ready to take on any challenge. With support from senior members and a qualified team of managers, the third-generation Bellemares are reaching new heights. Built upon a solid past, the company moves forward with an exceptional team of experts and seeks a select group of clients. Our clients continue to benefit from our wide variety of services that target a large number of sectors. As a result, our visibility is constantly on the rise. Working with the Bellemare team has become a measure of success. Start off right by choosing a winning team! www.groupebellemare.com

MIA  Motorsports In Action: With over 50 years of combined Motorsport experience, MIA is making a name for itself in the industry in La Belle Province. Being trackside, situated at Autodrome St-Eustache, gives our clients real time results, testing their vehicles. One stop shopping is our strength, from high-end mechanics, exotic automotive maintenance, complete race car building and design to prestige paint and meticulous detailing. Leave it, then enjoy it! http://motorsportsinaction.com.

Trois-Rivieres Mitsubishi is proud to be one of the first Mitsubishi dealers in Canada (opening in 2002). The commitment from Mitsubishi is defined by the quality, reliability and durability of its vehicles, notably with their 10-year warranty, the best in the industry! Pride, integrity and respect are the values of the Trois-Rivieres Mitsubishi team. www.troisrivieresmitsubishi.com

WEBSITES :

 Spectra Premium : www.spectrapremium.com

 Bernier Crepeau Chrysler Fiat : www.berniercrepeau.com

 Groupe Bellemare : www.groupebellemare.com/

 MIA  Motorsports In Action : http://motorsportsinaction.com/

 Autodrome St-Eustache : https://autodrome.ca

 Kawartha Downs and Speedway : http://buff.ly/2bvBgeS

 Fondation quebecoise du cancer: www.cancerquebec.com

 La Maison de debauche par le Carlito : www.lecarlito.com

 Dumoulin Competition : www.dumoulincompetition.com

 Serie NASCAR Pintys : http://hometracks.nascar.com/series/pintys-series

 Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/dumoulincompetition

 Twitter: @DumoulinDC / @jf_dumoulin / @DumoulinLP

 Youtube : http://www.youtube.com/user/dumoulincompetition

Media Contacts:

Jessica Menard, Ph.D., Les Equipes Caissie-Menard inc., medias@dumoulincompetition.com, 819 448-6514 (Voicemail)

Paul Corbeil, Agent Certifie NHLPA Certified Agent, PARAPHE sports-management, 819 696-2768 (Voicemail)
Talk about good timing. At a moment when institutional asset owners are increasingly aware of the need to invest sustainably, the head of hedge fund investments for APG Asset Management, the asset management division of $427 billion Dutch pension plan Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, has left to start his own firm. Paulus Ingram is launching ARC Fiduciary, a sustainability alternative-investment manager, with a handful of his former APG Opportunity Fund colleagues.

At APG, Ingram, who began his career at New Yorkbased hedge fund firm D.E. Shaw & Co. before moving into real estate and private equity, oversaw $25 billion in hedge fund investments from New York. Working for APG has been a real honor and a privilege, says the ARC Fiduciary co-founder, who joined the Dutch pension in 2010. APGs hedge fund program is advised by New Yorkheadquartered New Holland Capital. The synergy between APGs size, long-term fortitude and discretion and New Hollands network and insights is very special, Ingram says.

ARC is slated to launch in the last quarter of 2016. The Greenwich, Connecticutbased firm is a specialist investment adviser that sponsors fiduciary institutional products targeting financial outperformance and supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Announced last September, the 17 goals set an agenda for sustainable development through 2030 that includes ending poverty, fighting inequality and injustice and tackling climate change. Reaching those targets will require massive injections of capital from the public and private sectors.

Ingram, who holds a BA in English literature and biology from Amherst College and a masters in finance from the University of Amsterdam, says he and the rest of the ARC team believe that the global efforts under way to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals give asset owners a huge opportunity to generate the risk-adjusted returns they need to achieve their financial objectives and be on the forefront of the economic transition to a sustainable future. Weve been watching this space develop over the last decade and have made significant investments already, he notes. However, there is a shortage of institutional-quality product available to large asset owners with fiduciary obligations.

This month a coalition of European asset managers, including APG, representing a total of 550 billion ($617 billion) in assets, pledged to use the U.N. goals as a framework to guide their investment decisions.

ARC is joining a rarefied group. Among the large institutional-quality firms that do exist are Generation Investment Management, the London-based asset manager founded in 2004 by former U.S. vice president Al Gore and exGoldman Sachs Asset Management chief executive David Blood; and Capricorn Investment Group, the New York and Palo Alto, Californiabased investment office of onetime eBay executive Jeffrey Skoll.

ARCs first fund focuses on climate change. The firms Energy Transition Opportunity Fund will pursue tactical investments in construction-ready U.S. energy infrastructure projects aiming to reduce carbon emissions by 50 to 70 percent. The fund, co-headed by Ingram and ARC CIO Dempsey Gable, will invest in solar, wind, hydro, more-efficient natural gas, and energy storage and efficiency projects that will help the world shift to a low-carbon economy over the coming decades.

At APG, Gable, a longtime energy investing expert, ran the $5.5 billion Opportunity Fund, which focused on asset-backed and nontypical investment opportunities. He previously built a $4.5 billion portfolio of energy assets at Commerzbank, Germanys second-largest bank. Before heading hedge funds at APG, Ingram worked for Gable as a senior portfolio manager on the Opportunity Fund.

Many of these assets are identical to the ones we invested in through the Opportunity Fund, and we plan to work hand in hand with developers we financed previously, says Gable, who also stresses the need to consider sustainable investing from the perspective of a fiduciary asset owner. For an investment to be sustainable, he says, it must produce returns too. We were trained that we want to do good in the world, but were investing somebodys pension, Gable observes. Its got to make money.

Last year, in an initiative spearheaded by chair Corien Wortmann-Kool, ABP announced plans to drive more capital into sustainable-investment strategies. Through 2020, with the goal of cutting carbon dioxiderelated investments by 25 percent, the fund will almost double its commitments to investments with Sustainable Development Goals, from 29 billion to 58 billion, and maximize its ownership role through engagement with corporations. Chairwoman Wortmann-Kools farsighted 2015 public announcement was really a catalyst for us, Gable says. He and Ingram now hope to be a part of making a low-carbon future possible for all institutional asset owners.

APG Asset Management says that Ingrams responsibilities will be divided among the internal team while the firm considers his replacement.

Follow Imogen Rose Smith on Twitter at @imogennyc.

Get more on hedge funds.
"We see these climate perils as no different to an explosion"
by Michael MataThe Australian government is suing Shenzhen Energy Transport Co., the company that owns Shen Neng One, for $120m. Shen Neng One is the Chinese coal carrier that was grounded on the Great Barrier Reef for nine days in 2010 before it was floated.On September 6, the Federal Court in Brisbane heard that up to one-and-a-half tonnes of toxic paint may have scraped off Shen Neng One and contaminated Douglas Shoal. The 225-metre long vessel carved a 2.2 kilometre-long, 400,000-square-metre scar in and around the shoal, about 120 kilometres east of Rockhampton.Shen Neng One released traces of tributyltin (TBT), a highly toxic anti-fouling agent, into the environment when paint coating the vessels hull came off. TBT is a biocide thats been banned in most parts of the world since the 1980s, though older vessels are allowed to continue operating with a top-coat to prevent the toxins from leaching into the water.The Australian government maintains that the toxins proved lethal to the marine life on the shoal. Martin Scott, the lawyer representing the Australian government, told the court that between 750 kilograms and 1.5 tonnes of paint was estimated to have scraped off the vessel. Martin further stated that the particles needed to be removed to ensure recovery, which would be difficult and expensive.However, representatives from Shenzhen Energy Transport Co. said that the reef would heal itself and could cope with the leakage of paint particles and oil. The representatives also called into question the testing methods which led to the detection of high levels of TBT in Douglas Shoal.The same representatives further argued that liability lay not with the defendant, but with the vessels independently-employed chief officer Xuegang Wang. Wang and the ships master Jichang Wang both received 18-month jail sentences for gross negligence. Both were found to have handled the vessel negligently, as it had strayed more than 10 kilometres from established shipping lanes.The insurance firm London P&I Club would be footing the $120m cleanup bill. However, the insurance firm has contested the cost, calling it unrealistic.
The United States welcomes the school year ceasefire recommitment made by Ukraine and Russia and witnessed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE.

To mark the September 1st beginning of the school year, Ukrainian and Russian authorities agreed to a ceasefire recommitment, following a period of the worst violence seen since August 2015.

Throughout the conflict, Russia has continued to arm, train, and fight alongside separatists in eastern Ukraine, and attacks by combined Russian-separatist forces have killed 59 and wounded 319 Ukrainian service members since July 1st.

A similar "back-to-school ceasefire last year deteriorated within weeks when combined Russian-separatist forces stepped up attacks on Ukrainian positions. This year, Ertugurl Apakan, head of the OSCEs Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) has urged all sides to implement "a full and comprehensive ceasefire."

The fighting in eastern Ukraine has taken a heavy toll on the civilian population. More than three million people are in need of humanitarian aid and more than a 1.7 million have been displaced. The death toll stands at 10,000, of which 2,000 are non-combatants.

"Access to education and provision of psychosocial support are crucial to give hope to children and adolescents in eastern Ukraine," said UNICEFs Giovanna Barberis. "Far too many children have experienced traumatic events caused by the armed conflict. We need to help these children now to recover and move on with their life."

Only a lasting ceasefire will allow these children to resume a normal life. It is crucial the SMM be allowed to do their job -- to verify the ceasefire and ensure the withdrawal of heavy weapons. Equally crucial is for Russia to cease its destabilizing actions in eastern Ukraine, honor all its commitments in the Minsk agreements, and end its occupation of Crimea.
Authorities say a fire in a unit at a bounce house play center heavily damaged the center in Harford County.

The State Fire Marshals Office said in a news release that Friday afternoon, a customer at the Jump On It Fun Center in Forest Hill, Md., saw smoke and flames coming from the blower of a Batman bounce house. Officials say about 25 customers left safely. An employee shut off electricity to other houses and tents in the facility, causing the bounce houses to deflate, which fire officials say helped contain the fire.

It took firefighters about 45 minutes to bring the blaze under control. No one was hurt. The Fire Marshals Office estimates damage to be $450,000. Officials say the fire was caused by a mechanical failure of the blower.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Maryland
Swiss Re landed on top of a ranking of global non-life reinsurers, just edging out Munich Re by a few hundred million dollars in premium on a list extracted from an A.M. Best analysis.

The rating agencys special report on the reinsurance sector, Innovation: The Race to Remain Relevant, which was published last Monday, contains a listing of the top 50 global reinsurance groups ranked based on 2015 gross written premiums for life and non-life business taken together.

Pulling out just the non-life gross premiums for 2015 and comparing those to 2014 non-life gross premiums presented in a prior A.M. Best report (published Sept. 2, 2015) reveals Swiss Res repositioning, with $19.6 billion of gross reinsurance premiums putting the Swiss giant just about the $19.3 billion total of its German peer. (Click on image to enlarge.)

But when life reinsurance premiums are added in, Munich Re is back on top with $5 billion more gross premiums written than Swiss Re on the life reinsurance side of the house.

The top 10 excerpt from the top 50 global reinsurer list in A.M. Bests report (shown below) reveals that both Swiss Re and Munich Re saw total reinsurance premiums fall in 2015. While Munichs premiums fell just a little bit more than Swiss Reroughly 5 percent for Munich vs. 3 percent for Swiss Reneither saw a decline close to the double-digit drop recorded for Berkshire Hathaways reinsurance operations.

With non-life premiums falling nearly 29 percent in 2015 and total reinsurance premiums down roughly 18 percent, Berkshire slipped in the rankings, coming in at No. 4 behind Hannover Re based on just non-life reinsurance premiums and at No. 6 for overall reinsurance premiums, with Hannover, SCOR and Lloyds all eclipsing Berkshires $12.2 billion gross premium total.

A.M. Best analysts highlighted Berkshires tumble, both in the report and during a webinar late last week, a few days ahead of the start of the Rendez-Vous de Septembre in Monte Carlo.

Thats a conscious decision on their part. They have pivoted away from the reinsurance market, said Scott Mangan, an A.M. Best senior financial analyst, noting public comments by Berkshires leaders, including Chairman Warren Buffett, who has noted the lack of opportunities in the reinsurance market and the emphasis on the specialty insurance segment as an alternative avenue for growth.

The Berkshire pivot is just one example of the strategies that global reinsurers are undertaking generally in the face of challenging market conditions, increased ceding company retentions, and stiff competition within the traditional reinsurance market and from alternative capital players, said Robert DeRose, an A.M. Best vice president. There truly is a race to remain relevant, he said, referencing the title of the report as he kicked off last Thursdays webinar.

DeRose and other Best analysts listed an array of innovations, including acquisitions of managing general agencies, build-outs of life reinsurance platforms and increased participation in specialty lines. They are just trying to find ways to access the market, to get closer to the client, to secure the risk and yet remain disciplined, DeRose said, also listing partnerships with competitors as a less popular but notable strategy.

Building on the same theme, the written report highlights another action by Berkshirea July 2016 agreement between TransRe and Berkshires General Re under which the 11th largest non-life reinsurer, TransRe, serves as the exclusive underwriter for U.S. and Canadian broker-sourced treaty business on behalf of General Re. One might be inclined to describe this deal as unfathomable, the report said.

You have two very relevant players who feel they have to find a way to be even more relevant to the market. And if its successful, it will certainly improve the relevancy of both. But then you have to ask yourself the question, what does that mean for the players at the lower end of the ranking, DeRose said during the webinar.

Does this compel other companies to try to become more relevant or to come up with some other innovative way to bring more capacity to the market? asked Mangan.

More M&A Inevitable

Earlier in the call, both analysts and two othersGreg Reisner and Steven Chirico, both assistant vice presidentstook part in a similar discussion to conclude that merger-and-acquisition activity is poised to take off in the reinsurance sector again. None of the analysts, however, had a specific prediction about the timing of a new wave that they see mimicking the M&A wave of 2015. The 2015 wave pushed the non-life rankings of XL Group and RenaissanceRe up five positions, according to the premium information in the A.M. Best report, after their respective tie-ups with Catlin and Platinum Re.

Assessing the deal environment going forward, Reisner noted that improving reinsurer valuations make deals easier to get done than they had been in some recent past years and that the deal drivers of 2015access to broader product capability, geographic reach, greater influence with brokers and potential attractiveness to third-party capitalare still present.

I do think that investment bankers are working very hard to try to construct deals, and I do think that deals are being entertained, said DeRose. Whether they actually occur, no one can predict. But I do think that [given] the dynamics of the market, its inevitable that there will be more M&A.

DeRose continued: The smallest players are going to be under greater pressure to remain relevant to the market, and ultimately, whether they like it or not, or whether the conditions are prime or not, it may force M&A to occur. If your share on a [reinsurance placement] slip is being reduced because youre small, or youre not viewed to be relevant in the eyes of the client, that can only go on for so long. Ultimately you have to come to the [conclusion] that something needs to be done, and usually its in the form of M&A, he said.

Chirico and Reisner noted that pressure from shareholders and private equity investors will factor in as well. On the one hand, reinsurers try to be disciplined, but at what point do you shrink to the point where youre not really relevant anymore? Chirico asked.

Reisner said that ROEs in the Bermuda reinsurance market fell below 10 percent for the first time in 2015. And we know returns are somewhat inflated by favorable reserve development, DeRose added. If levels of favorable development start to taper off, youre probably looking more at 4-4.5 percent ROEs, he said, Shareholders, investors, boards are going to become impatient, and theyre going to drive change, he said.

Mangan noted that M&A typically occurs in spurts, explaining that the intermittent surges take place because initial deals in the wave give a sense of urgency to competitors. After they see some of their peers grow or make some drastic changes, it increases the need for the other companies to be active, he said.

Rated Balance Sheets for Non-Traditional Competitors?

Mangan and DeRose also suggested that the race to remain relevant is not confined to traditional reinsurers.

Theres also some irony in that it was the convergence capital that was pressuring the traditional reinsurance players. Now you have traditional players entering or playing in the collateralized market, and its pressuring the collateralized players to innovate and come up with different ways of reducing their cost of capital and increasing their profitable business, Mangan said.

Turning to DeRose, Mangan went on to ask: At some point, do you see collateralized markets looking at a rated balance sheet, turning everything upside down?

Theres no question. Thats already happening, DeRose replied, noting that alternative capital providers are using their own MGA facilities to get closer to clientto find a controlled level of distribution.

Currently, collateralized capacity identifies a risk, finds a front who is willing to provide the paper but doesnt want that type of risk to pass through. But theres a cost to doing that, he said. Forming a company to replace the front and reduce the cost in deal flow is a trend that is evolving, DeRose suggested.

Topics Reinsurance Market AM Best Swiss Re
Chubb announced that Jamie Keaney, formerly European Personal Risk Services underwriting manager, has been promoted to the new role of vice president and chief underwriting officer for International Personal Risk Services, as the company continues to expand its international high net worth insurance capabilities.

Keaney will work on growing Chubbs global high net worth business outside North America, with a focus on the European and Australian markets. He will continue to be based in London, reporting to John B. Thompson, chief underwriting officer, International Personal Lines for Chubb.

Keaney has 20 years of experience in high net worth insurance. He joined Chubb in 2001 from Jardine Lloyd Thompson, where he worked as a Lloyds commercial art broker. In 2010, he became European Personal Lines underwriting manager.

Topics Europe Underwriting Chubb
Global insurance broker Hub International Ltd. has acquired New Dimensions Underwriters Ltd.

Based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, New Dimensions is a managing general agency. Russ Davis, the owner and president of New Dimensions, will join Hub Financial and be part of its management team.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Underwriting Canada
Confie, a national provider of personal and commercial lines insurance, has acquired the BMR Agency LLC dba First Stop Insurance in Washington Park, Ill.

First Stop Insurance specializes in non-standard auto insurance.

The acquisition is one of three recently announced by Confie, which also acquired a firm in Las Vegas and one in Miami, Fla. The company said it has made 14 acquisitions so far this year.

Confie is headquartered in Huntington Beach, Calif.

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions California Illinois
The state Bureau of Workers Compensation has awarded two Ohio universities with money to research occupational health and safety.

The grants support research in how injuries can prevented in the workplace and ways to improve the health and productivity Ohios workforce.

Ohio State University is getting nearly $500,000 through the grant program for projects that focus on conditions facing firefighters. One project looks at ways to prevent firefighter injuries when handling obese patients. Another is on the occupational exposure of structural firefighters and cancer risk.

The University of Cincinnati was awarded more than $432,000 for projects that examine prescription medication risk and controlling inhalation exposure of firefighters.

The grant program provides up to $250,000 per project and the research is limited to 12 to 24 months.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Workers' Compensation Commercial Lines Business Insurance Ohio Education Universities
The iconic American flag three New York City firefighters raised above World Trade Center rubble on 9/11 that later disappeared has been recovered and donated to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, 9/11 Memorial President Joe Daniels and Chubb CEO Evan Greenberg announced on the 15th anniversary of the attacks.

The historic flag went on display at the 9/11 Memorial Museum in commemoration of the 15-year anniversary of the 2001 attacks. With the help of the flags original owner, Shirley Dreifus, in honor of her late husband Spiros E. Kopelakis, and in cooperation with Chubb, the global insurance company, the flag was donated to the museum.

The authenticity of the flag was determined through a months-long forensic investigation.

In the darkest hours of 9/11 when our country was at risk of losing all hope, the raising of this American flag by our first responders helped reaffirm that the nation would endure, would recover and rebuild, that we would always remember and honor all of those who lost their lives and risked their own to save others, 9/11 Memorial President Joe Daniels said. We had always hoped this special flag and its story would be shared with our millions of annual visitors coming from around the world, and for that, we are thankful to Shirley Dreifus, the city of Everett, HISTORY, A+E Networks, and Chubb.

The raising of this American flag was a powerful symbol of hope, strength and resilience at one of the most trying moments in our nations history, said Greenberg. As we prepare again to pay tribute to those who were lost, this flag is a ti mely reminder of the spirit of our heroes and the resolve of a great city and great nation. Chubb is honored to donate the flag to its new, permanent and proper home in the 9/11 Memorial Museum.

We are honored that HISTORY played a role in the recovery and return of the Ground Zero Flag, an important national symbol, said Nancy Dubuc, president and CEO of A+E Networks. The story of how the flag was found, authenticated and returned to New York is one of the great modern day mysteries solved. I am pleased we can bring the story to a wider audience through Ground Zero Flag Found.'

Since its opening in 2014, the Museum displayed a large photograph of the three firefighters lifting the flag above the rubble as part of its historical exhibition. The raising of flag was photographed by Thomas E. Franklin, formerly of The Record of Bergen County, N.J. The image, which was circulated widely, captured the fortitude of first responders and became a symbol of hope and rebuilding in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.

The flag had been taken from the Star of America, a yacht owned by Dreifus and the late Kopelakis, which was docked at the World Financial Center. Later, a different flag was believed to be the original. But the original was actually lost and no one knew it at the time.

HISTORY chronicles the story of the flags recovery and journey back to New York in the special Ground Zero Flag Found, featuring best-selling author and HISTORY host Brad Meltzer. It premiered Sunday, Sept. 11.

The documentary follows the discovery of the flag, uncovering the mystery of its disappearance, and documenting the tests that prove its authenticity. The documentary also covers the investigation by Washington states Everett Police Department, whose dedication helped to bring the flag back to the public.

The story of the flag was shared in an October 2014 episode of the HISTORY series Brad Meltzers Lost History, produced by Left/Right Productions. After the episode aired, a person who wished to remain anonymous turned over the original flag to Everett police.

Police contacted HISTORY and Left/Right, and the three organizations began a forensic investigation that determined overwhelming evidence that the flag is the Ground Zero Flag. Chubb, which had insured Dreifuss yacht, and paid a claim on the lost flag, joined her in donating to the Memorial and Museum.

Topics New York Chubb
Lawyers who defend companies in product liability cases are celebrating an unusual order by a federal judge in Columbus, Georgia. In it, he told attorneys for the other sidethe ones who represent injured consumersthat he was going to crack down on frivolous claims, and that the penalty could come from their wallet.

The five-page order appeared last week from Chief U.S. District Judge Clay Land of the Middle District of Georgia. He issued it in connection with hundreds of consolidated cases he oversees concerning a vaginal mesh device made by Johnson & Johnson unit Mentor Corp. thats designed to treat urinary stress incontinence.

Now, its true that bashing plaintiffs lawyers for frivolous litigation is old hat. But the reason company lawyers are excited by Lands handiwork is that he placed the blame for such dubious claims on the procedures courts use to consolidate cases. Land, appointed to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, said in his Sept. 7 ruling that hes had to waste judicial resources deciding motions in cases that should have been dismissed by plaintiffs counsel earliercases that probably should never have been brought in the first place. Enough is enough.

From now on, he warned, he would impose sanctions, including possible money penalties, when dismissing such flimsy cases.

The Washington Legal Foundation, a pro-business advocacy group, praised Land for his spot-on critique of the multi-district litigation process. Multi-district litigation, or MDL, is a procedural mechanism by which the federal courts group together related suitssuch as the Mentor vaginal mesh casesand put them under the supervision of a single judge. The idea is that the MDL judge can help the parties resolve certain pretrial issues the cases may have in common and thereby speed up a settlement, or trial.

Judge Land observed that whatever the advantages of the process, there are also unintended consequences. One is that the tendency of MDLs to end in global settlements creates an incentive for the filing of cases that otherwise would not be filed if they had to stand on their own merit, Land asserted. In other words, attorneys with flimsy lawsuits jump on the bandwagon knowing theyll probably get a piece of the pie without anyone taking a hard look at their clients case. Such suits are often filed for claims that are too old and with only a minimal amount of evidence, he wrote.

This phenomenon produces the perverse result that an MDL, which was established in part to manage cases more efficiently to achieve judicial economy, becomes populated with many non-meritorious cases, Land wrote, cases that likely never would have entered the federal court system without the MDL.

Since 2010, tens of thousands of vaginal mesh cases have been filed against a half-dozen device makers in federal courts around the country. Johnson & Johnson has faced the most claims. To handle the vast caseload, MDLs have been arranged in New Jersey, West Virginia, and elsewhere. Women who have had mesh inserted to support sagging organs or treat incontinence have subsequently complained that the devices eroded and caused a variety of injuries.

Judge Lands Mentor MDL began with 22 cases and grew to more than 850an explosion, he said, that appears to have been fueled, at least in part, by an onslaught of lawyer television solicitations. So far, Land has presided over three trials, decided about 100 summary judgment motions (aimed at throwing out lawsuits before trial) and presided over 458 confidential settlements. Plaintiffs have dropped 74 cases voluntarily. (The device in question was taken off the market in 2006.)

From here on out, Land warned, plaintiffs attorneys should assume that hell make robust use of Rule 11, the federal court rule that provides for sanctions against attorneys. And he urged other judges to follow his example.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Lawsuits Legislation Claims
Uber Technologies Inc. doesnt appear ready to walk away from further negotiations with its drivers in their dispute over whether they should be treated as employees rather than independent contractors.

Three weeks after a federal judge threw out their $100 million settlement in a case central to the future of the sharing economy, the parties told a federal appeals court theyve resumed negotiations. The parties have sought a 60-day extension before their appeal as they attempt to hash out a fresh pact over compensation, according to the joint status report filed Sunday.

Although the district court has denied preliminary approval of the parties previously-negotiated settlement agreement, the parties continue to engage in good faith discussions regarding a potential resolution to these lawsuits, reads the filing.

The original settlement had sought to do away with lawsuits with potentially billions of dollars in claims under Californias bounty-hunter law, which gives workers the right to step into the shoes of the state labor secretary to bring enforcement actions.

Uber could have walked away from further negotiations after an appeals court hinted it might overrule a key pretrial ruling in the fight over whether drivers must be treated as employees. Todays statement to the court is clear indication theyre not quite ready to sever talks with their drivers.

Judges Denial

While acknowledging the risk for drivers and Uber if the case goes to trial, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen concluded on Aug. 18 the deal was unfair, partly because it low-balled potential claims under California law. He said he also wasnt convinced that changing the companys tipping policy would result in the substantially increased income for drivers as promised.

Lyft Inc., the second-largest U.S. ride-hailing company behind Uber, moved closer on June 23 to sealing its $27 million deal with drivers that leaves them classified as independent contractors. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in April had rejected an earlier $12.5 million offer, saying it shortchanged drivers because it didnt account for the companys rapid growth.

The Uber case is OConnor v. Uber Technologies Inc., 13-cv-03826, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco). The Lyft case is Cotter v. Lyft Inc., 13-cv-04065, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

Related:

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics California USA Personal Auto
The August 2016 flooding in Louisiana caused an estimated $8.7 billion in damage to residential and commercial properties, according to Louisiana Economic Development.

Damage to businesses in the state has exceeded $2 billion, according to a report commissioned by LED, the mission of which is to implement economic development strategies for the state. The damage estimate does not include damage to the states infrastructure.

LED commissioned economist Dek Terrell of Lewis Terrell and Associates LLC to conduct the damage assessment.

In addition to an estimated 109,000 housing units damaged, nearly 20,000 Louisiana businesses were interrupted by the flooding that began Aug. 11 and continued for days, leading to the flooding of more than 6,000 businesses in 22 affected parishes.

LED surveyed 455 economic driver firms in flood-impacted regions  those employers that contribute the most output to the states economy  and found that 6 percent suffered significant damage while 9 percent sustained minor damage.

The good news we want to project is that most of our major industries in Louisiana remained open and today are continuing their operations successfully, LED Secretary Don Pierson said. During the three-week period after the flooding event began, Louisiana shouldered labor and value-added production losses that affected 6 percent of our economic activity statewide. As a state economy we are doing better every day, and we remain strong and open for business.

Three of every four homes in Livingston Parish were impacted by flooding, the LED said.

The operations of an estimated 20,000 businesses were affected by the flooding. At peak, LED estimates that 278,500 Louisiana residents were unable to work due to temporary closures, suspension of operations, transportation impasses and residential flooding.

FEMA has so far provided more than $1 billion in total federal assistance to Louisiana disaster survivors and communities, less than 30 days after the flooding event began. More than 63,000 Louisiana families are receiving housing-related assistance through federal programs.

Gov. John Bel Edwards is asking Congress for $2 billion in additional flood disaster aid assistance.

Separately, in its most recent Global Catastrophe Recap report, Impact Forecasting, Aon Benfields catastrophe model development team, estimated that the total economic losses as a result of the Louisiana flooding are expected to range between $10 billion and $15 billion. However, because more than 80 percent of damaged homes were not covered by flood insurance, the public and private insured portion of the losses will be significantly less  in the low-digit single billions, the report estimates.

Related:

Topics Louisiana Commercial Lines Flood
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A.M. Best has affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of B (Fair) and the long-term issuer credit rating (ICR) of bb+ of Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Co. (Farmers) in Okarche, Okla.

The outlook for the long-term ICR has been revised to stable from negative, while the outlook for the FSR remains stable. The revised long-term ICR outlook reflects improvement in the companys operating results and risk-adjusted capitalization in recent years.

Concurrently, A.M. Best has withdrawn the credit ratings (ratings) as the company has requested to no longer participate in A.M. Bests interactive rating process.

The ratings reflect Farmers historical below average operating results mostly driven by unprofitable underwriting results in prior years due to weather-related events, inadequate pricing, fire losses and an elevated expense ratio. As a predominantly single state property writer operating exclusively in Oklahoma, the company is further exposed to potential changes in the judicial and regulatory environments. Also, the company maintains an expense disadvantage as reflected by its elevated expense ratio relative to the personal property composite.

Farmers positive rating attributes are derived from its moderate underwriting leverage and high quality investment risk profile. In recent years, the favorable turnaround in operating results has been attributed to several factors including the lack of catastrophe events, improved underwriting and pricing, as well as enhanced exposure risk management to lower concentrations in weather-prone areas.

However, the company will remain challenged due to its ongoing exposure to weather-related events and competitive market conditions. Disciplined underwriting and improved enterprise risk management capabilities will remain key factors in the companys ongoing success.

Source: A.M. Best

Topics Agribusiness AM Best Oklahoma
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslams administration is looking to turn back the clock on an underage drunken driving law that threatened to cost Tennessee $60 million in federal road money.

The law that went into effect in July raised the penalties for driving under the influence by 18- through 20-year-olds. But the change ran afoul of federal zero-tolerance standards for underage drivers by raising the maximum allowable blood alcohol content from 0.02 percent to 0.08 percent.

According to an advance version of legislation the Haslam administration plans to file during a special session this week, the state would eliminate nearly all of the provisions of the new law, returning the 0.02 percent rule and the more lenient penalties for all drivers beneath the legal drinking age.

From a public policy standpoint, this is obviously a step backward, said Republican Rep. William Lamberth of Gallatin, the lead sponsor of the original legislation. But it is a step that will put us in compliance with federal regulation and ensure that that $60 million comes to Tennessee.

Lamberths legislation was aimed at bringing drunken driving laws into line for all adults over age 18.

Previously, people aged 18 to 20 convicted of driving while intoxicated faced the loss of a license for a year and a $250 fine. The conviction could later be expunged, and there were no enhanced penalties for repeat offenders.

The new law imposed the same penalties as those faced by drivers 21 and older, including 48 hours in jail, one year of probation, a ban on expunging the crime from the record and mounting penalties for subsequent convictions.

Those tougher penalties will be walked back in Haslams legislation. Lamberth said he understands the need to preserve the highway funding but called the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations position frustrating.

It doesnt seem like they even care about deterring criminal activity as long as we have the 0.02 on the books, Lamberth said.

The Haslam administration still insists that the state had a valid claim that Tennessee should have still met federal zero-tolerance standards because of unrelated laws making it illegal for people under the drinking age to possess or consume any alcohol. But those arguments failed to preserve the highway funding.

The special session begins Monday and runs at least through Wednesday.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation Tennessee
Environmental officials say a drought has been declared in north Georgia and metro Atlanta.

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division announced in a news release Friday that 53 counties are experiencing severe or extreme drought conditions.

Water officials say restrictions may not be imposed on outdoor watering. For now, the outdoor watering schedule remains the same between 4 p.m. and 10 a.m.

EPD director Richard Dunn says the drought response is an opportunity to teach the importance of using water wisely.

Some of the counties include Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Habersham and Bartow.

State climatologist Bill Murphy says drought conditions are likely to continue through the fall season. He says the fall season is historically known as a dry time.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Georgia
Deputies in Pamlico County, N.C., say three men have been arrested in connection with multiple break-ins and the theft of more than two dozen guns.

Pamlico County Sheriff Chris Davis told local media outlets on Friday that in addition to the 26 guns found by deputies, investigators also recovered jewelry and other items taken in the break-ins that targeted both homes and businesses.

Davis said the three men were apprehended in Carteret County. Two of them are jailed under $125,000 bond apiece on several charges. The sheriff said 25-year-old Matthew Cummings of Hubert is jailed on a $500,000 bond on charges including second-degree burglary and 16 counts of larceny of a firearm.

Its not known if any of the men has attorneys. Davis also said more charges are pending.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Fraud North Carolina Gun Liability
The 11-year hurricane drought in Florida is officially over. While preliminary damage estimates and claims are still trickling in from Hurricane Hermine, Floridas first named hurricane since 2005, the consensus from the insurance industry is it could have been a lot worse.

Hurricane Hermine broke the states long streak without a hurricane-strength storm when the category 1 storm hit Florida in the wee hours of Sept. 2, battering the Panhandle and bringing significant storm surge to the Tampa Bay area before slowly traveling up the Eastern Seaboard.

The storm weakened to a tropical storm as it moved inland in Florida, with winds topping 70 miles per hour, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center, but it was still enough to cause widespread damage and power outages. The day after the storm Florida Gov. Rick Scott said more than 300,000 homes were without power. Toppled trees in Tallahassee left some residents without power for about a week.

As the lights came back on and clean-up efforts continued, the insurance industry began to see claims trickle in from wind, water, and tree damage.

Karen Clark, CEO of catastrophe risk management firm Karen Clark & Co. (KCC), said the losses arent anything the industry cant handle.

This was a very typical CAT 1 hurricane, said CEO Karen Clark. The biggest losses are from trees falling on houses. There was a lot of damage in Tallahassee there were some commercial losses, but really, the wind speeds werent enough to create structural damage unless a tree fell.

KCC estimated the damage would reach $500 million in insured losses with economic damages close to $1 billion. In Pasco County, officials estimated Hermine caused at least $30 million to $50 million in damages, destroyed nine homes and caused major damage to at least 297 others, the Associated Press reported. In Citrus County, initial damage assessments were estimated at $53 million.

Storm surge impacted hundreds in Tampa Bay, according to Citizens Property Insurance Corp. The state-run insurer reported Sept. 7 it had received a total of 573 claims statewide so far, with the bulk of those coming from the Tampa Bay region. Spokesperson Michael Peltier said the company was still determining if the claims were flood related or caused by wind-driven water.

The rain from the storm was also on the lighter side compared to what is seen with some tropical storms, Clark said. The fact Hermine hit in a more sparsely populated area also helped curb losses.

This storm wasnt extreme in any aspect  but people shouldnt be complacent either because there wasnt more damage, she said.

Additional claims, such as food spoilage and business interruption, are still likely for those affected by the long power outages in Tallahassee. Gov. Scott expressed frustration at the situation that people couldnt return to work and schools werent reopened several days after the storm.

The hurricane season is not over, and next time we could be facing an even stronger storm. Cities and counties must be prepared. The state will continue to offer every available resource to Tallahassee, Leon and Wakulla counties to help families without power so they can begin to recover, Gov. Scott said.

Gov. Scott activated Floridas Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan Program for those impacted by Hermine. The program is managed by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) and provides short-term, interest-free loans to small businesses that experienced physical or economic damage during the storm and recovery efforts. DEO is currently surveying businesses in the affected counties. Up to $10 million from the states General Revenue Fund has been allocated for the program with short-term loans for up to $25,000 available.

Industry Response

The insurance industry was out in full-force to aid with the clean-up and recovery process. In a message to Florida consumers, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater urged residents to reach out to their insurance company and begin the claims filing process.

I encourage you to contact your insurance company, if you havent already, to file your claims. I have seen many insurance companies on the ground in impacted cities surveying damage and adjusting claims, Atwater said.

The Professional Insurance Agents (PIA) of Florida distributed a dozen State Emergency Response Team (SERT) badges to agency members so adjusters licensed with the Florida Department of Financial Services could access disaster sites. The Association has distributed close to a hundred for the current badge cycle, which lasts three years and closes at the end of this hurricane season.

Corey Mathews said PIA issued a reminder to its member agents before Hermine hit that badges were available so they could respond and assist with emergency efforts.

One of the biggest challenges after an event like this is knowing what claims need to be filed and who they need to be filed with and agents become critical components of that process, Mathews said. We work in these communities and are the first boots on the ground with customers This helps them add value to do what they do.

Peltier said that Citizens had contingency claims adjusters on alert, but was able to handle the claims in-house.

The Florida Department of Financial Services extended the hours of the Insurance Consumer Helpline to help consumers access insurance experts if they had questions about their policy or with the claims-filing process.

It may still be a while before we know the true impact of the storm. However, Floridians can rest assured that the states home insurers are well prepared, and are now in the process of adjusting claims on a timely basis, said William Stander, executive director of the Florida Property & Casualty Association.

Financially, Clark says insurers are more than capable of handling the claims that could come in from Hermine and any other storms that hit Florida this season.

This was a small event and it wont make it more difficult for insurers to respond to an event, even if another one happens a couple weeks from now. Look what they have handled in the past  the 2004 season followed by 05  the insurance industry is very geared up, Clark said.

Stander agrees.

Our states home insurers have combined capital and reinsurance to pay all claims resulting from three Hurricane Andrew-sized storms, he said.

Fitch Ratings issued a statement saying Hermine isnt likely to have a significant impact on the financial condition of the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (FHCF) or Citizens Property Insurance.

Moodys said it didnt expect Hermine would impact its rated reinsurers and the effect on the overall property and casualty industry would be modest, but that regional carriers could see a larger effect on their third-quarter 2016 earnings.

Mathews said there is relief that the storm losses are not as bad as it could have been, particularly for an area that hasnt seen a large number of storm claims in recent years.

But with still two months to go in the 2016 hurricane season, Mathews said everyone  including the industry, state, municipalities and residents  should be mindful that Florida is still at significant risk for bigger storms.

It is absolutely amazing that in the grand scheme of things, the 04 and 05 storms were only a decade ago. Eleven years later people have already become quite complacent, he said. It is really important that as an industry we continue to educate people to be adequately prepared and ready with an emergency plan and disaster materials to respond to a storm.

Topics Carriers Catastrophe Natural Disasters Florida Claims Hurricane Market
P&C carrier Celina Insurance Group has selected Ones ProcessOne software to manage its payment processing, the company announced today. The Ohio-based company also adopts the vendor's ContactOne and PortalOne platforms for customers.

Celinas new products will enable it to enhance customer satisfaction, offer improved payment features, including credit card storing and improve data security, according to the companies. The end goal is to retain current customers and increase new business.

We wanted to offer our customers a better payment experience overall, including improved payment portals and the ability to make recurring payments, said Bill Montgomery, Celina Insurance Group president and CEO, in a statement.
Stephen Moore and Professor Alan Krueger are expected to share their views on tax, transfer pricing, tax policy, and the economy. Keynote speeches are open to registered conference delegates only. Registration closes Friday, September 16 and delegate forms can be found here. The full conference agenda can be obtained by clicking here.

September 22 Keynote: Stephen Moore

Stephen Moore, who formerly wrote on the economy and public policy for the Wall Street Journal, is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Project for Economic Growth, at The Heritage Foundation. Moore, who was also a member of the Journals editorial board, now focuses on advancing public policies that increase the rate of economic growth to help the US retain its position as the global economic superpower. He works on budget, fiscal and monetary policy and showcases states that get their fiscal houses in order.

Stephen Moore, an economic adviser to Republican candidate Donald Trump, addresses the Forum on September 22. Among other topics, he is expected to speak about how changes to US tax policy will assist the economy.

September 23 Keynote: Alan Krueger

Alan Krueger is one of Americas most respected economists and the Bendheim Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University.

He is among the 50 highest-ranked economists in the world according to Research Papers in Economics. Professor Krueger served as chairman of President Barack Obamas Council of Economic Advisers and as a member of his Cabinet from 2011-2013. He is the former chief economist of the Department of the Treasury and Department of Labour, and one of the foremost experts on labour and unemployment,

Professor Krueger, an economic adviser to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, addresses the Forum on September 23. Among other topics, he is expected to speak about how tax policy should be neutral with respect to industries.

The Global Transfer Pricing Forum, held at the Ritz-Carlton Battery Park, will also hear from two additional keynote speakers, Edward Kleinbard, a professor of law and business at the University of Southern California, and John Hughes, acting director APMA Programme, at the Internal Revenue Service.

The full biographies of all keynote speakers are available here

(HOMEPAGE PHOTO CREDIT of US FLAG/ELECTION RALLY: COURTESY GAGE SKIDMORE)
Nel terzo trimestre del 2016 il prodotto interno lordo, espresso in valori concatenati con anno di riferimento 2010, corretto per gli effetti di calendario e destagionalizzato, e aumentato dello 0,3% rispetto al trimestre precedente e dello 0,9% nei confronti del terzo trimestre del 2015. Lo sostiene lIstat.

La crescita congiunturale e la sintesi di un aumento del valore aggiunto nei comparti dellindustria e dei servizi e di una diminuzione nellagricoltura. Dal lato della domanda, vi e un contributo ampiamente positivo della componente nazionale (al lordo delle scorte), in parte compensato da un apporto negativo della componente estera netta.

Nello stesso periodo il Pil e aumentato in termini congiunturali dello 0,7% negli Stati Uniti, dello 0,5% nel Regno Unito e dello 0,2% in Francia. In termini tendenziali, si e registrato un aumento del 2,3% nel Regno Unito, dell1,5% negli Stati Uniti, dell1,1% in Francia. Nel complesso, il Pil dei paesi dellarea Euro e cresciuto dello 0,3% rispetto al trimestre precedente ed dell1,6% nel confronto con lo stesso trimestre del 2015.

I dati Istat sul Pil sono in linea con le stime del governo ha commentato il ministro dellEconomia, Pier Carlo Padoan, arrivando alla Camera per lincontro con il gruppo Pd sulla legge di Bilancio. ll titolare di via XX Settembre in un tweet, poco prima, aveva sottolineato come i dati Istat confermano che leconomia e sulla strada giusta e le stime di crescita sono affidabili. Ma occorre spingere per accelerare
The latest monthly construction purchasing managers index (PMI) from Ulster Bank  seen as the key barometer of health for the sector  shows that the industry continued to grow last month, albeit at a slower pace than in July.

A reading of 58.4 points was noted, down from 61 in July.

Anything above the neutral 50 point mark represents a sector in growth mode. Once again, commercial and housing activity drove growth, but civil engineering activity declined for the first time in eleven months.

The latest results... indicate that there was a further solid rise in activity at Irish construction firms in August, said Simon Barry, Ulster Banks chief economist for the Republic.

The pace of growth eased modestly relative to July, but the August reading of the headline PMI index  at 58.4  still remains very comfortably in expansion territory.

Indeed, August marked the 36th consecutive month of expansion, highlighting that a sustained uplift has been underway for three full years now at Irish construction firms, he added.

The August PMI comes just days after latest CSO data showed that Irish construction output grew by 16.5%  in volume terms  on a year-on-year basis in the second quarter of this year.

However, that growth was only cautiously welcomed by analysts.

These exceptional growth rates must be seen in the context of activity bouncing back off a low base. Housing completions are still averaging just 13,500 a year at present; well below demographic demand, said David McNamara of Davy Stockbrokers.

The Ulster Bank survey also had a positive line regarding the recent Brexit vote.

Almost 60% of respondents expect no impact from the referendum result on their activity over the coming year, while broadly similar proportions of companies expected activity to be boosted or reduced by the result. Indeed, firms remain strongly optimistic about prospects for construction activity over the coming 12 months, Mr Barry said.
As the new academic year commences, Irish university administrators are faced with a familiar dilemma. How to deploy their resources across an ever-growing student population without compromising quality in the process.

The ratings agencies continue to mark down our top third-level institutions and frankly, it is hard not to see why. Our campuses are bulging at the seams and people are taking note.

Our two largest institutions, Trinity College Dublin and UCD have taken a big hit, both dropping by 20 places or more.

TCD is now ranked at 98th, having been in 43rd place as recently as 2009.

UCD is in 176th place, having been as high as 89th, seven years ago.

There are now more than 210,000 students in third-level education, 38,000 at post-grad level.

The total has risen by 44,000 in a decade.

In a sense, it suits the politicians and the academic community to encourage more and more down this route. Increasing the numbers of graduates is seen as a good thing, but could we be conning ourselves?

Parking oneself among the groves of academia for three, four, five years, may be fine, if one is either brilliant, or simply dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake and realistic about employment prospects.

But too many, in the past, at least, have hung around, wasting years on unfocused research projects.

Many are left to pick up the pieces. Some have ended up in poorly paid part-time posts dependent on a professors whim, or continued funding for a research project.

The Government faces a dilemma. Our universities face a slow burn crisis of falling standards.

Take UCD. The student/ staff ratio at Irelands largest uni now stands at 23. According to the colleges head of communications, Eilis O Brien, since 2008, student numbers have risen by 25% while staff numbers are down by 5%. We are taking in 5,000 students this year. We used to take in 4,000 each year.

Relatively few permanent staff are being hired, with new posts being filled on a case-by-case basis.

The gap between the top and bottom of the academic food chain has grown. Irish professors are well-paid by international standards. In 2014, 1,093 out of 4,327 academics earned more than 100,000.

Professorial pay compares well with that on offer at elite UK and US institutions, though the figures may be skewed somewhat by the presence in Ireland of medical professors.

At ground level, you have the grunts, the poorly-paid part-timers performing a valuable front-line service. There have been real achievements.

Our academics work much harder than they, or their predecessors did, a generation ago. The number of citations of Irish academic work by their peers has jumped fourfold since 1990.

Regrettably, excellence in teaching is not recognised by the now ubiquitous ratings agencies which tend to focus on measurable outcomes such as research income and staff-to-student ratios.

Some continue to make time for their students. UCDs history department, for example, targets troubled undergraduates for attention.

However, in some university departments, relationships are often poisonous due to the dominance of rigid thinking academics.

There is often little scope for outside review or criticism in such cases. The search for funds has resulted in another unwelcome development.

Sales managers, recruited from outside academia, also exert increasing power.

In some cases, funds previously available for investment in college libraries have been diverted elsewhere by people with little understanding of the institutions employing them.

College computer systems increasingly creak, adding to the frustration of academics forced to engage in unnecessary paper pushing.

Irish institutes of technology have filled many gaps since their original establishment as regional technical colleges back in the 1960s.

There are, however, too many of them and while their original focus was on vocational subjects, local pressure has resulted in an increased prevalence of courses in softer subjects such as marketing and media studies.

The long-running recession has left many in a parlous state, close to financial collapse. Mergers are on the cards.

According to Athlone IT president, Ciaran OCathain, eight of the countrys 14 ITs are in difficulty. They have been dipping into cash reserves which are running out. We need a minimum of 1,000 to 1,500 extra per student, he said.

There are around 90,000 students in the institutes. The Government would struggle to come up with that kind of money. The scope for savings are modest given that salaries account for 84% of costs.

Former Enterprise Ireland CEO, Frank Ryan is now chairing the Athlone board.

The agency has been an important backer of universities and ITs, but Irish employers could do more to help out third-level institutions.

An analysis of UCD funding sources reveals that whereas over the past five years, 150m has been injected by Science Foundation Ireland, 96m by the EU, and 42m by Enterprise Ireland, a paltry 17m has come from Irish business.

Surely it is time for the countrys corporate high rollers and entrepreneurs to participate more in the regeneration of third level rather than leaving it to the hard-pressed ordinary taxpayer.

The Government must make a few hard calls now that Peter Cassells has completed his report on third-level education, but will it be given time to do so?

The rents crisis arguably has pushed the option of a further fee hike down the line, if not off the table.

The student loan option is problematic, to say the least. The Government may have to push for more direct funding but at the expense of which other sectors?

The country will continue to need a vibrant, locally based third-level education sector, but potential areas of duplication need to be addressed.

At the same time, there is scope for the sort of innovation that was displayed back in 1970 when Ed Walsh was establishing the future University of Limerick  bringing back ideas developed during his period in the US.

In the past decade or so, the focus has been on building up the countrys scientific infrastructure.

But the humanities are due a revival. Time for our leaders in politics and business to sanction backing for satellite projects in areas such as music and literature.

The success of many summer schools serves as a reminder of what can be done.
Sept. 10

Arnoldo Armendariz, 37, of Carlin was arrested at Alta Vista Drive and East Jennings Way for failure to maintain lane or improper lane change, driver failing to obey traffic control device, DUI and use or under the influence of a controlled substance. Bail: $6,450



George J. Bendinskis, 76, of Pioche was arrested at 479 Sixth Street in Wells for failure to appear on a traffic citation. $4,360



David J. Capron, 26, of Elko was arrested at 442 Idaho St. for carrying a concealed explosive, gun or dangerous weapon without a permit, affray, resisting a public official, and maintaining or permitting a nuisance. Bail: $4,475



Daniel Carreon, 33, of West Wendover was arrested at 101 Wendover Blvd. for the arrest of a fugitive felon from another state. No bail listed.



Ashley N. Funk, 30, of Elko was arrested at 368 Antimony Circle for domestic battery and resisting a public official. Bail: $4,280



Ashley N. Funk, 30, of Elko was arrested at the Elko County Jail for two counts of arrest or surrender to custody by a bail surety. Bail: $15,840



Hector M. Garcia, 42, of Elko was arrested at 12th and River streets for DUI. Bail: $1,140



Jacob L. Gerber, 32, of West Valley, Utah, was arrested at 735 W. Wendover Blvd. for DUI of a commercial vehicle. Bail: $1,300



David J. Nelson, 50, of Elko was arrested at 2503 Mountain City Highway for failure to appear after bail for a misdemeanor. Bail: $1,000



Summer C. Smith, 31, of Spring Creek was arrested at Mountain City Highway and Terminal Way for use or possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a hypodermic device. Bail: $1,774



Ronnie N. Sorenson, 40, of Elko was arrested at 2705 Sundance Drive for domestic battery. Bail: $3,140
The piece, entitled Ar scath a cheile a mhaireann na daoine (we live protected under each others shadow) was created by Roscommon artist Joe Caslin and is part of the Waterford Walls International Street Art festival.

It was presented in collaboration with the A Lust for Life, social enterprise movement for wellbeing and also marks the opening of the new Pieta House in Waterford City.

Waterford Walls festival looks to bring colour back to the city by transforming derelict buildings. Mr Caslin's mural sits on the abandoned Ard Ri Hotel in Waterford which overlooks the city.

Speaking about his work, Mr Caslin said, "I want people to look up at this drawing and find hope. The drawing is installed to confront stigma, to question how we find our moral compass, to challenge us to build resilience but, above all, it is a symbol of support.

Pic: Peter Grogran/Emagine

"With the recent opening of Pieta House in the city, I felt it was an ideal time to create this drawing in Waterford and with the support of many partners and my incredible team."

Co-founder and director of A Lust for Life, Niall Breslin (aka Bressie) said Joe Caslin is an ideal collaborator for his wellbeing movement.

"Joes ability, through his immense talent as an artist to capture the essence and mood of a social energy is a true illustration of how symbolism, art and imagery can impact and facilitate a cultural shift and become a strong foundation for a new conversation.

"We are humbled to be a part of this powerful project."

Brian Higgins, Pieta House CEO said the need to destigmatise mental health issues has never been more important.

"The only way we can ever close the doors of this house, which is our ultimate ambition, is by each and every one of us addressing the stigmas that impact on us and, in turn, being aware of the punches that we can land on other people that make them fall and being conscious not to do that.

"Art helps to spark the discussion that breaks down this stigma and through our collaboration with Waterford Walls, A Lust for Life and Joe Caslin, we hope to make a difference in peoples lives."

Waterford Walls will donate 10% of the proceeds of September's sales from their online shop to Pieta House.

People affected by mental health issues are encouraged to seek help by speaking to a friend, family member, GP, therapist or free confidential helpline as the Pieta House 24/7 helpline at 1800 247 247 . Samaritans helpline is 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org .
The development, titled Navigation Square, will span 310,000 sq ft, making it the single biggest city centre office development.

Developer Owen OCallaghan has been granted permission by the local authority for an amended plan spanning four new buildings for his site at Navigation House, on Albert Quay, and bounded by the quay and the river Lee to the north and by Victoria Road and Albert Quay and Albert Street, about 250 metres from City Hall.

The initial application, made in February 2016, was for 360,000 sq ft. If the approval signalled for a marginally smaller scheme isnt referred to An Bord Pleanala by any third party, work would start in early 2017 and continue into 2018, and 350 construction jobs would flow, said Mr OCallaghan.

He described his proposal as an ambitious, large-scale project that spoke volumes of the belief in the future of Cork City.

Welcoming the city councils green light in recent days for Navigation Square, Mr OCallaghan described it as a very significant project that makes Cork city much more attractive for foreign direct and indigenous investment projects.

The developer has a track record over five decades and has Apple as a major tenant at Half Moon Street by his Opera Lane shopping precinct.

He also has full planning for a separate 150,000 sq ft office and ground floor retail scheme on a site he owns at Andersons Quay, giving him scope to develop 460,000 sq ft in all. He confirmed they would be developed partly in parallel.

Close to all transport hubs, including bus, rail and park and ride, and a short walk to the city centre, Navigation Squares site spans 2.25 acres.

It had earlier been ear-marked by OCallaghan Properties for an events centre, but that lost out to a rival bid by BAM/Heineken, for the old Beamish and Crawford site.

An ambitious, large-scale project that spoke volumes of the belief in the future of Cork City.

The location for the 90 million OCallaghan Properties scheme of office buildings is just 150 metres downriver from the completed and fully occupied One Albert Quay 58m building, which has 170,000 sq ft of office over seven floors. Also in the same, evolving vicinity and built pre-crash are City Quarter, with hotel and 100,000 sq ft of offices, and the 17-storey Elysian tower.

In terms of size/scale, and as the citys largest proposed FDI office development, Navigation Squares 310,000 sq ft ranks in between the two John Cleary Developments (JCD) Mahon developments of City Gate, at 380,000 sq ft, and City Gate Parks 308,000 sq ft, home to Dell/EMC, among other tenants.

Design of the four-block quayside project is by Henry J Lyons architects, who also designed One Albert Quay and City Gate and Plaza in Mahon for JCD, as well as a number of projects for Owen OCallaghan.

As Irish developers now seek to have offices built and ready for inward, mobile FDI investment, further office schemes are in the pipeline. Projects have been proposed in Cork at the Grand Parade, at Horgans Quay, Andersons Quay and at Mahon, where a further 280,000 sq ft is approved for construction at City Gate Plaza.

An ambitious, large-scale project that spoke volumes of the belief in the future of Cork City.

OCallaghan Properties say their four Albert Quay buildings, with roof terraces, two restaurants and 100,000 sq ft of double-basement car and bike parking, are designed to Gold LEED energy efficiency standards, with floors flexibly configured for general office accommodation as well as space for other business and technology uses.

The buildings and river-side location will certainly appeal to the young employee demographic characteristic of enterprises in the new economy, said OCP MD Owen OCallaghan. The area has many links with Corks maritime trading history and hopefully this project will help to write a new chapter for business in the city and generate high value jobs for Cork. 
So far, warnings have been issued to owners of alleged eyesore sites in Youghal. Council official Helen Mulcahy advised councillors that notices were served on owners of three sites, but up to 25 other cases are pending across the East Cork Municipal District region, which encompasses the Midleton-Youghal area.

She named the Youghal sites as the former Seafield Textiles factory in the Strand, the former Hilltop Hotel, also at the Strand, and Indian Point on the eastern approach.

Notices have been served on 10 parties who comprise Seafield Partnership Ltd, and on the London-based CJ OShea Group, which is connected with the hotel, along with the receivers responsible for Indian Point.

Ms Mulcahy said that recipients had 30 days to comply with a list of requirements or face being placed on a derelict site register. This would lead an annual levy registered against a site that is accruable by the local authority upon being sold.

She said the OShea Group quickly agreed to address the problems. Indian Point was found to be technically overgrown rather than derelict but the receivers had agreed to tidy it. However, with just days remaining to a deadline, Seafield Partnership had yet to respond.

The municipal district chairwoman, Independent councillor Mary Linehan-Foley, said the sites compromised the towns tourism industry and undermined the work of voluntary groups such as the Tidy Towns committee.

She said that both the Hilltop and Seafield building were being regularly set on fire, with nearby residents forced to evacuate from their homes as smoke billowed across the Seafield buildings asbestos roof.

Seafield Partnership, meanwhile, has had two planning permissions for a retail development overturned by Bord Pleanala.

Ms Linehan-Foley said the public was being subjected to a major eyesore at the Strand. She felt demolition was the best option for Seafield.

The municipal districts chief officer, Joe McCarthy said the council would prefer to avoid legal proceedings but matters would shortly enter an enforcement and prosecution phase.

Meanwhile, Ms Mulcahy said acquiring proof of ownership was painstaking but her office was making progress in land registry searches on 25 properties, on Youghals main street and with some in Castlemartyr and Midleton. She said warning notices would follow.
The Defence Forces International Operational Medal is a new award created to recognise the role serving personnel have played when deployed overseas on humanitarian missions.

Junior Defence Minister Paul Kehoe announced the creation of the medal last week during a visit to personnel in Sardinia  and revealed the first medal ceremony would be in Rosslare, in his Wexford constituency.

Veterans group the Irish Seamens Relatives Association (ISRA) and Permanent Defence Force Other Ranks Representative Association (PDForra) criticised the decision, and claimed the preference among personnel was to have the ceremony at Haulbowline in Cork.

The ISRA claimed political expediency was the reason why a town in the ministers constituency was chosen, rather than Haulbowline, where the majority of navy personnel live with their families.

The Department of Defence said it frequently holds ceremonies, commissionings, and reviews at locations across Ireland.

The awarding of these medals to naval service personnel who have served on Operation Pontus will not be a one-off event, said the Department in a statement.

A number of medal ceremonies will have to take place so that every member who served in Operation Pontus receives their medal. The Naval Service Headquarters at Haulbowline will be one of those locations

The chosen location of Rosslare for the first of these ceremonies is not unusual as the Defence Forces regularly holds events and ceremonies outside of its many installations around the country.

It will also allow a wider circle of family, friends, and the public at large, to attend these formal events. These are positive initiatives that will only benefit the Defence Forces, both in terms of recognition and, importantly, when it comes to encouraging young people to join.

However, responding to the Department, PDForra said:

The ministers wish to allow the greater public to engage in this historic occasion has PDForra at a loss, as due to the difficulty and expense, our members can ill afford to travel to Rosslare to participate in this ceremony.

Whilst there will be a number of medal parades there will only be one first parade. Could the minister not allow this to take place at Haulbowline and then rotate this ceremony at different locations?

Simon Coveney

Housing Minister Simon Coveney has defended the decision on Rosslare.

I think its important to remind people that our naval service is a national service even though their headquarters are here in Haulbowline and Ive spent a lot of time with them  there will be a number of medal ceremonies for the naval service for their work in the Mediterranean which has been extraordinary and I suspect some of them will be in Haulbowline and some of them will be in other parts of the country and I dont think people should get too upset about that.

What we dont want is a naval headquarters where everything happens  this is a national service and we want to attract the best people from across the country, whether its into the army, the navy or the air corps, and this is part of this process of opening it up and being very public about it.
The Amber facility, at the Bandon Co-Op in Enniskeane, allows motorists to pay for their fuel at the pumps using debit, credit, or fuel cards.

It is aimed at diesel-powered vehicles and while it does not sell petrol, it does offer white diesel, MGO, kerosene/home heating oil, AdBlue  a diesel additive used in the treatment of exhaust fumes  as well as air and water pumps.

The 1,900 sq m site has been designed to cater for large buses, trucks and agricultural vehicles, and has fast-fill pumps specifically for buses and heavy goods vehicles. It will be operational from 7am to 10pm, seven days a week.

It is the latest development in Ambers ambitious expansion strategy.

Amber Petroleum was established in Fermoy in 1980 by the Fitzgerald family who spotted a gap in the market for a fuel discounter. The business now supplies fuel to 45 sites across nine counties. It has ploughed almost 8m into expanding the business over the last three years.

Company chairman Liam Fitzgerald said West Cork has played a key role in the companys growth strategy, with 3m spent developing service stations on the Bandon Road on the outskirts of Bishopstown, in Kilbrittain, Crossbarry, and Enniskeane in recent years. He said this investment alone supported up to 60 full and part-time jobs across the four sites.

Mr Fitzgerald said he was particularly pleased to develop the companys first unmanned fuel station on a site being leased by Bandon Co-Op.

While this type of fuelling may be relatively new to Ireland, it has been common on the continent for many years, particularly in rural locations, he said. I truly feel this will be an asset to a village like Enniskeane, with motorists benefitting from competitive prices in a convenient location.

Michael ODriscoll, the retail division manager at Bandon Co-op said, said they were delighted to work with Amber on the development of the site.

Amber is a well-recognised, trusted Irish brand and it is exciting to be involved in bringing new automated technology to this rural area, he said.
Nama sold its entire Northern Ireland portfolio, known as Project Eagle, to US investment fund Cerberus in 2014, however it is understood that the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) has found that hundreds of millions of euro more could have been realised from these assets.

Yesterday Government Chief Whip Regina Doherty said the report, which also found irregularities and shortcomings in the sale, will be brought to cabinet on Wednesday, before being published the same day or on Thursday morning.
Sean Canney has hit out at insurers who, he claims, are using Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management (CFRAM) maps to refuse cover to households.

The Galway East TD said the OPW has been compiling these maps to develop a national policy for flood risk management, and they are not to be used for commercial purposes.

He said many people are now being left with no choice but to accept increased bills as they are being refused insurance by many firms and often can only get cover from a single company.

The OPW minister of state has also vented frustration at insurers, who he said are still refusing to cover people living in areas where demountable barriers have been put in place. He said the insurance industry is still not really engaging with his department and continue to refuse insurance in areas where the OPW has built removable flood defences.

Mr Canney said: The other thing that is happening and its wrong is members of Insurance Ireland are refusing to take on cover based on CFRAM maps. Insurance Ireland members should not be using these maps.

Flood barriers being put in Mallow, Co Cork last January

He urged homeowners who have been refused cover based on CFRAM maps to ask for written confirmation.

I am advising people who have been refused to ask for it in writing. I would encourage people who have evidence to come forward.

Mr Canney is due to meet with members of the insurance industry soon, but he said he would also be asking the Department of Finance to get involved in a bid to tackle the issue.

A spokesman for Insurance Ireland said: The OPW disclaimer for the draft flood maps under the CFRAM programme states they cannot be relied upon for decision-making purposes, including setting insurance policies, premiums or policy excesses.

Insurance Ireland members would not generally use these draft flood mapping tools to determine flood risks as they generally use their own flood modelling for this purpose.

Insurers also generally use additional publicly available information as part of wider appraisals to inform themselves.
The planned scheme covers part of an area where a boil water notice was issued to 350 households in mid-July, and expected to last another four to six weeks.

The utility is seeking to construct a pumping station, enclosed building and associated works and infrastructure at Clogherane, close to Dungarvan, along with two water storage reservoirs, a control building and associated site works and infrastructure at Gort na Daibhce Uachtarach.
The Independent Alliance TD has been at loggerheads with his fellow members of Government  whom he criticised over the weekend  over the provision of a second cath lab in Waterford.

After refusing to accept alternative offers made by Health Minister Simon Harris, the Waterford TD appears to have backed himself into a corner.

In a sensational interview at the weekend Mr Halligan said he would bring all hell down on top of them if they dont deliver this.

Yesterday, he appeared to row back slightly, saying he really does not want to leave Government.

But speaking to RTE news, Mr Halligan said: I will step down if I have to, adding that he did regret that it has come to this.

One Fine Gael TD hit out yesterday, claiming that the inflammatory language Mr Halligan had used in what he called an extraordinary interview over the weekend was not helpful.

Noel Rock said: He really needs to think whether he really wants to be in Government.

As far as I am aware, this is his second, if not third direct fight over various issues, and the business of Government is often the business of compromise.

Mr Halligan fought hard in Government negotiation talks to secure additional health services for the South East. It was agreed between the Independent Alliance and Fine Gael during those talks that a second cath lab, used in the treatment of heart problems, would be provided to the hospital in Waterford, pending a review.

This review was commissioned by Mr Harris in May.

However, cardiologist Dr Niall Herity, who was tasked with carrying out the review, concluded that Waterford does not need a second cath lab.

Over the weekend Mr Halligan said: I am not going to be fucked over by anybody. I dont care if it is the man on the street or some guy threatening me. And you can print that.

What they should do now, if they believe I am destabilising the Government, is put me out, he told the Sunday Independent.

Mr Rock criticised Mr Halligan for his interviews, stating that this kind of inflammatory language ... isnt really helping what is fundamentally a constituency conflict.

The Dublin North-West TD said: Minister Halligan wants something for his constituency and was promised a review into it; the review said that it wasnt appropriate to give it.

However, what Minister Harris has said, the Minster for Health, is that they will improve the services and try to bridge that gap in services.

Minister Halligan isnt happy about that and has decided to reject the advice of the experts and now seemingly wants a new set of experts to give the answer that he wants ultimately, he told RTEs This Week programme.

As far as I am aware, this is his second, if not third direct fight over various issues and the business of Government is often the business of compromise.
The minister looked to reassure the workers after HMVs presence in Ireland came to an end with the closure of remaining outlets in Limerick, Dundrum, Henry St, and Liffey Valley.

Mr Varadkar said eligible staff would be entitled to payments from the State under the Redundancy and Insolvency Payments schemes.

The aim of the scheme is to compensate workers for the loss of their jobs by reason of redundancy, with an eligible employee entitled to two weeks statutory redundancy payment for every year of service, plus a bonus week. Compensation is based on the workers length of reckonable service and reckonable weekly remuneration, subject to a ceiling of 600 per week.

In order to qualify, an employee must have at least two years continuous service, be in insurable employment, aged 16 or over, and have been made redundant as a result of a genuine redundancy situation.

Other pay-related entitlements, including holiday pay, sick pay and payment in lieu of minimum notice, are covered by the Insolvency Payments Scheme.

Leo Varadkar

All applications under that scheme must be made by a liquidator on behalf of the insolvent company.

In a statement issued yesterday, Mr Varadkar said the Department of Social Protection would deal promptly with Redundancy and Insolvency applications in respect of the former employees of HMV when they are received from the liquidator.

In January 2013, HMV announced it was closing its 16 locations, and making 300 staff redundant after a receiver was appointed.

However, eight months later, its new owner, Hilco, re-opened stores in Dublins Henry St, Liffey Valley Shopping Centre and Dundrum town centre, as well as Limericks Crescent shopping centre.

As well as buying HMVs retail outlets in Ireland and Britain, Hilco also bought DVD chain Xtravision.

In January of this year, Hilco placed Xtravision into provisional liquidation with the loss of 580 jobs.
The Diada rally in Barcelona's Passeig de Sant Joan. ALBERT GARCIA

Hundreds of thousands of people packed the streets of five of the main cities in Catalonia on Sunday to back the regional governments plans to hold an independence referendum.

The regions local Guardia Urbana police estimated a total of 875,000 people took part in marches held to celebrate La Diada, Catalonias national day, in Barcelona, Tarragona, Lleida, Berga, and Salt, a significant drop from last year, when the authorities put the figure at 1.4 million.

Regional premier Carles Puigdemont says he intends to call elections in July 2017, which would be followed by an independence referendum

Speaking on Monday morning, regional leader Carles Puigdemont of the Catalan Democratic Party (the successor of Democratic Convergence of Catalonia), said he intended to call elections in July 2017, which would be followed by an independence referendum.

Puigdemont said he hoped to reach an agreement with acting Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy along the lines of the UK referendum held last year on independence for Scotland. But he added that either way, the regional government would continue disconnecting from Spain over the coming months ahead of the July poll.

In the 12 months since the last Diada, the pro-independence drive has nearly stalled, only to take on renewed impetus in recent weeks.

In January, after months of political deadlock, Puigdemont took over from Artur Mas following a regional election in September 2015 that left Catalonias pro-independence parties split on whether to endorse him as their leader.

Puigdemont, the former mayor of Girona, immediately restarted the push for a unilateral declaration of independence. Under an 18-month roadmap, the Catalan authorities have begun approving their own constitution and building institutions necessary for an independent state such as an army, central bank and judicial system.

Catalan premier Carles Puigdemont at the Diada march in Salt. Carles Ribas (EL PAIS)

Puigdemont has the support of Catalonias pro-independence parties, who have said they will back him in a key confidence motion in the regional parliament on September 28.

But the independence plan faces fierce opposition not only from Mariano Rajoys Popular Party (PP), but also from the opposition Socialists (PSOE) and other non-nationalist parties like Ciudadanos. The PP refused to allow a referendum in Catalonia in 2014, arguing it would contravene Spains constitution.

The ongoing independence drive in Catalonia plays into events at the national level. Spain has held two inconclusive elections since December last year and is still without a government, but Rajoy and his Socialist rivals have been unable to bury their differences and form a German-style grand coalition in Madrid to thwart the Catalan independence parties.

The resurgence of a unified independence movement is also preventing Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez from creating a left-leaning coalition with the countrys third political force, Podemos, which says it backs Catalonias right to hold an independence referendum. Emerging center right party Ciudadanos, which has offered to support the efforts of both the PP and the Socialists to form a government, also opposes any moves toward independence in Catalonia.

Opinion polls show that the majority of Catalonias 7.5 million people, who have their own distinct language and culture, say they want to remain part of Spain but with greater autonomy on issues such as taxation.

English version by Nick Lyne.
Mr Griffin said Mr Kenny had failed to get a good deal on banking debt in Europe and that a new face might better negotiate Irelands position on Brexit.

The Kerry TD told the Irish Examiner there was a vulnerable Dail arrangement that could collapse any day. His remarks will re- ignite debate about the Fine Gael leadership and the path the party is taking as it holds its two-day pre-Dail think-in, beginning today in Kildare.

Speaking about Fine Gaels second term since the February general election, Mr Griffin was emphatic about the minority government being in a vulnerable position.

I think this new politics thing is the biggest load of BS. Its not new politics, its a new set-up.

Enda Kenny

The reality is, the enforced situation, is to keep things functioning. This set-up we have, the 32nd Dail, it doesnt change your interaction with your constituents. Your clinics and work on the ground is the same. In Leinster House though, its a weird kind of feeling around the place. Its one day at a time. Its just so fragile.

If an issue arises, if any two people from Fine Gael, the Independents or two Fianna Failers decided not to abstain or vote against something, thats how vulnerable things are. Its a very vulnerable Dail. Theres a sense around Leinster House that people are on edge. I even notice that the printers are extremely busy, the design people are extremely busy, everyones doing their newsletters, not on a war footing, but certainly on high alert.

Mr Griffin, chairman of the Oireachtas committee on transport, put his head above the parapet in July when he called for a change in Fine Gaels leadership to be decided over the summer. He said his party would be decimated if there was a snap election and Fianna Fail pulled its support for the Fine Gael minority-government.

I really hope it lasts but I dont trust Micheal Martin... But Fine Gaels big problem at the moment is that we are not election ready. Weve a huge problem in that regard. In a scenario where an election happens, Fianna Fail are ready to go to the country, the Independents are always ready. Fine Gael arent ready. We have the huge issue of our leadership, who leads us into the next election.

Fine Gael got a huge bashing in the 2014 local elections losing over 100 councillors and this years general election was a disaster where half of its TDs lost seats, he noted. Thats a massive rejection by the people. Yet we still have the same leadership in place. As a party we never had a really proper discussion about the leadership.

Fine Gael needs to reconnect with voters, he said. I do feel that we need a generational change of leadership to connect with people who have left us and rejected us because they feel that we have rejected them.

He said Mr Kenny needed to step aside. I feel that the time has come, a time comes for every politician, that things need to change. I think thats the best thing for Fine Gael, for the country. A strong percentage of the Fine Gael parliamentary party shared his view.

Mr Griffin rejected claims Mr Kenny was best placed to lead Ireland in Brexit talks. I suppose you have to look at our last big test in Europe, which was our banking debt, a lot of people feel we didnt do very well there. You could argue now that with the UK now in a new era, that maybe the best thing would be for Ireland to have a new leader as well into that new era.
The longtime president of the Olympic Council of Ireland, who temporarily stood down following his arrest during the Rio Games in connection with a probe into ticketing, issued a statement in which he said he had just received formal notification from the Brazilian authorities of the charges laid against him.

I intend to face all the charges and to fight each and every one of them, he said. I am completely innocent of all such charges and I will also vigorously defend my good name and character that I have spent my lifetime building through voluntary service for numerous sporting bodies.
He claimed some of the rhetoric used today about those crossing the Mediterranean marine grave was similar to the British medias during the worst period of Irelands 19th century catastrophe.

Mr Higgins unveiled a Celtic cross memorial to the one million Famine dead following the failure of the potato crop.

He said: As we pray for the souls of all of those lost to famine, and in particular those lost in our own Great Famine, we must pray, too, that we not be condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past as we deal with the challenges of feeding the hungry in our own times.

The Great Hunger between 1845 and 1849 saw skeletal peasants selling their only clothing in an attempt to survive. Over a milliondied of hunger and related diseases, and two million fled a country with no hope.

Many who emigrated faced fresh marginalisation on arrival on foreign shores.

President Higgins asked: Is there not a lesson for all of us, as we are faced in our own time with the largest number of displaced people since World War II, as the Mediterranean becomes, for many, a marine grave, as European nations fail to respond to their humanitarian obligations? Isnt some of the rhetoric invoked today similar to what in the worst periods were the opinions of the London Times?

We now have the capacity to anticipate the threat of famine. We have the capacity to take measures to avoid it; and yet we allow nearly a billion people across our world to live in conditions of extreme but avoidable hunger.

The moral principle  the moral challenge of our humanity  remains the same: should we adjust our populations to an abstracted economic ideology, or should we, rather, use the best of our reason to craft economic and social models that can anticipate the needs and care for the peoples who share this fragile planet?

It was concluded by British administrators in the 1840s that the giving of relief directly to those dying would constitute a moral hazard.

President Higgins noted it was important, in the minds of those who sought to respond to the Famine, to continue the project of moral reform even amidst the greatest loss of life.

Avoiding the creation of dependency, as imperial elites saw it, was a target that could not be allowed to slip.

The president inaugurated a Celtic Cross memorial to the victims in their single largest burial ground at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. At the height of the Famine more than 60 funerals a day were taking place there.

President Higgins added: Surrounded by the remains of victims from all corners of the country, we should embrace the common bond that connects us to those who have gone before throughout the history of this island.
What is the Project Eagle scandal?

In April 2014, Nama said it had completed the auction of a huge bundle of distressed loans, known as the Project Eagle portfolio. The sale involved loans advanced during the boom years by Dublin banks to property developers in the North.

The portfolio has a par value of 4.5bn (5.3bn). The terms of [the] transaction are commercially sensitive and are not being disclosed, Nama said at the time.

Who bought it?

Cerberus Capital Management, a US equity fund, was named as the purchaser. It subsequently emerged that Cerberus had paid 1.6bn for the portfolio, but only after a rival bidder, Pimco, had pulled out of the auction, in March.

Pimco had informed Nama about its concerns over the destination of legal fees.

What was in the portfolio?

The loans portfolio was secured on approximately 860 properties, mostly in the North, including large swathes of new Lagan-side commercial offices in Belfast city centre.

When did it become a contentious issue?

In January 2015, Ian Coulter, a managing partner in Belfast legal firm Tughans unexpectedly resigned. Then on July 2, 2015, Independent TD Mick Wallace made allegations in the Dail regarding the Belfast legal firm and Project Eagle.

What were the allegations?

Deputy Wallace alleged that 7.5m in fees paid to Tughans for its work as an adviser on Project Eagle, ended up in an Isle of Man account. He said those monies were reportedly earmarked for a Northern Ireland politician.

The BBC Spotlight programme and the Irish News in Belfast, in subsequent months, reported on more allegations.

How did Nama respond?

If there was wrongdoing on the part of some parties involved on the purchase side of the transaction in Northern Ireland, including those who acted as professional advisers to potential purchasers, we in Nama have no more knowledge of that than what has been publicly disclosed to date, Nama chairman Frank Daly told the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee, in October 2015.

What and when was the Northern Assembly Project Eagle Inquiry?

It was announced in the summer of 2015 that the Finance Committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly would hold an inquiry into Project Eagle sale.

It released its report in March 2016, stating there were concerns around the sale and purchase process of Project Eagle.

What happened next?

Politicians continued to call for a Commission of Investigation to be set up to look at the sale. In Dublin, the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), launched an investigation into the sale of Project Eagle. The C&AG has reportedly found shortcomings and irregularities in the sales process. It has reportedly found that taxpayers have lost out on hundreds of millions of euros as a result of the deal.

READ MORE ON THIS STORY: Government under pressure to probe Namas Project Eagle sale.
Finland Open Dialogue is a significant departure from traditional mental health treatment philosophy, as the programme emphasises both the involvement of patients families in the treatment programme as well as continuity of care by the same multidisciplinary team.

Running in the West Cork town of Bantry for three years, the Finnish programme also gives priority to involving service-users in meetings and discussions both about their own cases and in the actual development of an appropriate treatment plan.

The successful programme was implemented first as a pilot project and later began operating as a fully fledged mental health clinic in the town.

It has, to date, assisted more than 100 families and now has a staff of 11 across all disciplines.

The programme is expected to be expanded to the South Lee area of Cork citys mental health service in October and November of this year.

A team is currently receiving training in the UK in preparation for the city-based clinic which will be supported by its Bantry counterpart.

We heard about the Finnish approach a few years ago and we brought Open Dialogue professionals to Ireland to train staff. From there we decided that we would pilot it, said Adrienne Adams, an advanced nurse practitioner and Open Dialogue practise lead.

She said interest in the programme had also been expressed by the Kerry Mental Health Service.

The pilot project saw about 22 families. It was a big change in the service to include families, said Ms Adams.

The feedback from service users, their families, and staff confirmed they really liked this approach.

Staff also felt very supported because this is also a very team-based approach.

Tomorrow, a phalanx of experts on Open Dialogue from Finland, the US, the UK, and Ireland will discuss the programme, which is now running in New York and Massachusetts as well as in Finland, Lapland, and the UK, where it is the subject of a major national NHS trial in London and other regions.

The conference will feature the views of participating families who will speak of their personal experience of the Open Dialogue approach.

The event will also feature special reflecting panels made up of service users, and representations of well-known mental health organisations, psychiatrists, and GPs, who will discuss and reflect on the presentation and facilitate discussion from the audience.

Staff from the Bantry Open Dialogue clinic will also discuss their experiences of the challenges inherent in establishing and running the clinic.

The Conference, Opening Dialogues: Implementing Open Dialogue in Mental Health Services, takes place tomorrow, between 9.30am and 5pm at the Cork International Airport Hotel, Cork Airport Business Park, Cork City
A study has found 86% of students surveyed were generally happy overall. Almost half of students (47%) reported being happy most of the time.

Male students recorded being happier than their female counterparts.

At 49%, males said they were happy most of the time, whereas this figure stood at 32% for female secondary school students.

Amarach Research carried out the study for the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD), the body representing secondary school principals.

The research surveyed 319 students from across Ireland, and in a variety of socioeconomic settings.

Students reported far higher levels of happiness compared to the rest of society. However, while the general happiness indicator was high, cyberbullying and mental health also featured strongly in the study.

One in five students said they had experienced cyberbullying and 10% reported being occasionally or rarely happy.

Furthermore, 38% of our secondary school students reported being aware of their peers experiencing mental health challenges.

Another finding showed that our teenagers will seek out the help of someone they have an intimate relationship with, as opposed to an independent healthcare professional when going through difficult emotions.

In terms of resources in our secondary schools to deal with mental health issues, it showed that students did not feel supported in this area.

Over half (58%) of students said they did not believe that there were sufficient enough supports in schools to deal with mental health challenges.

In relation to teachers, the study found that 61% of them were providing additional support or dedicated classes to assist their students in facing mental health issues.

Minister for Mental Health Helen McEntee said the survey findings were significant.

It represents an important snapshot into the mental health and wellbeing of our students, while also highlighting the areas where we must do more, such as continuing to tackle cyberbullying, Ms McEntee said.
A STORY about a gender-confused teenager will be played in the round at the Everyman Theatre. Scorch, which won a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival this year, is written by Stacey Gregg and directed by Emma Jordan of Belfast-based Prime Cut Productions.

This one-woman show is performed by Amy McAllister, who won best actor at Edinburgh for her portrayal of 17-year old Kes.

The premise of the play is that the character attends a self-help group.

That dictates it being in the round, says Jordan.

The audience becomes part of the self-help group with Kes coming in and out of the circle. She talks to the audience (of no more than 70) as if its part of her group. But theres no participatory element to the show. Its not confrontational. Given how provocative the issues are, its actually a very gentle piece.

The play is aimed at a general audience.

I think its quite a zeitgeist play. Theres more understanding now of gender issues. In the past, that was always linked to sexuality. But very often, thats not the prevailing issue but rather, the question of being wrongly assigned a gender, biologically. It has hit a nerve. As the human race evolves, our understanding around this issue also evolves.

Think of the history of the past 100 years in Ireland and the struggle for acceptance of homosexuality. Questions of gender are a step ahead of that. Maybe society has been a bit slow in catching up with this issue.

Jordan says that a lot of plays that are about issues can be very didactic, where people feel theyre being lectured to or being told the right way to think about something. This play isnt like that. Kes is a really lovely character. Audiences inhabit her world. I dont think people come away feeling bombarded.

From an early age, Kes thought of herself as a boy.

As the story is performed, she realises as her body begins to develop that shes not a boy. And then theres the internet, which can be really liberating and also very dangerous. Kes presents herself as a boy online and begins a relationship with a girl who thinks Kes is a boy.

The play is based loosely on court cases that happened in the UK, including the case of Justine McNally in Scotland, who was convicted of gender fraud after starting a sexual relationship with a teenage girl who believed her to be a boy.

You look at a society that sentences a 17-year-old person to prison and you kind of wonder if there is something wrong here in terms of our understanding and perception of a young person with a gender identity experience.

@prime_cut @ShermanTheatre #Scorch was truly captivating. Such important theatre sparking interesting discussions. Recommend to all.  Meg Lewis (@megfjlewis) September 11, 2016

The play is also about first love.

Its very interesting that whenever Im sitting in an audience and watching everybodys faces, they always smile. Most of us have had that experience of first love, bringing us back to our teenage years. Whether youre 70 or 14 years of age, it brings people back.

In the play, theres a lot of talk about how Kes tries to inhabit the body in terms of how she moves and dresses. But in reality, she has long hair. She looks like a girl but can present herself as a boy in a limited way.

When we meet Kes, shes at a stage in her life where shes confused because she doesnt quite know what she is. Is she a lesbian? Is she a boy? Should she transition  and what does transitioning mean? The play poses a series of questions but it isnt didactic or strident.
It takes quick wit, smarts, and guts to deliver a verbal punch that sticks. But more than dullness of intellect, its political correctness and reluctance to escalate conflict that make great insults the rare gems they are today.

With the exception of Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, and Roderigo Duterte, few current day politicians include off-the wall insults in their political arsenal. Thats largely why the latters alleged son of a whore smear spread around the world so fast.

As slurs go, it was nasty but lazy. Worse, it had no grounding in truth. Despite that, it grabbed headlines everywhere and set social media alight. That alleged affront hit the news again with reports that Duterte, on visiting Indonesia, had told the Filipino community that he never made that statement.

Roderigo Duterte

Dr David Fitzgerald, international politics lecturer at University College Cork, says: Whats unusual about Rodrigo Dutertes insulting of Barack Obama is that these sorts of epithets are far less common in international politics, where diplomatic etiquette is far more valuable than cheap point-scoring.

Thats a fact that seems to have gone over the head of Boris Johnson. There is no Debretts Guide to Diplomacy, but maybe there should be and maybe he should write it. After all, there seems to be little he doesnt know about the art.

He alone has learned that there are consequences for comparing Hillary Clinton to a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital, penning a limerick in which the Turkish president has sex with a goat, and insulting the entire Papua New Guinea race. He alone has learned that while his track record of loose-tongued feather-ruffling could have resulted in him being banished to the political wilderness, it instead landed him a much coveted job in Theresa Mays government.

While Johnsons jibes are embarrassing, David Camerons insults tend to amuse. Weve got a shadow chancellor who cant count and a Labour leader who doesnt count... he is the nothing man! bellowed Cameron once. Snide, cutting, and entirely offensive, his attacks had power, not just because they were acerbic, but because they were so often epic exaggerations of the truth.

David Cameron and Boris Johnson

During his time as prime minister, Cameron got away with belittling and slating his political adversaries because it was arguably his job to do so. His skill at vocally lacerating opponents, with mocking taunts cloaked in jocularity, was legendary. But even so, when accompanied by vociferous brays of approval from his political cronies his behaviour called to mind the bully-boy tactics of the playground in which the loud-mouth is brave when accompanied by his gang.

When referred to as Dodgy Dave by Labour MP Dennis Skinner in light of the Panama Papers scandal, Cameron looked uncomfortable, shifting papers on his lap. In that he was living proof that, no matter how clever or warranted the ribbing, dishing it out is one thing; taking it is quite another.

Memorable insults are sometimes better remembered than those who utter them. While it was a gentleman by the name of Thomas B Reed, who dished out the verbal equivalent of poison with honey on the side when he described William McKinley as having less backbone than a chocolate eclair, credit for the slur went to the popular Teddy Roosevelt.

It did his target no harm either, given that McKinley went on to become US president.

For all their cleverness, obviously contrived insults are often less memorable than those that appear to be uttered off the cuff.

Abraham Lincolns putdown of his rival Stephen Douglas went down in history, but his argument is as thin as the homeopathic soup that was made by boiling the shadow of a pigeon that had been starved to death, is not a slur we often hear parroted about town.

Unfortunately, the same cant be said of talking through her fanny. Even so, when senator David Norris opined in the Upper House that Fine Gael TD Regina Doherty was doing just that, she responded by saying she was upset by the personal nature of the remarks, which she described as contrived and intentional.

David Norris

As for the historical role played by insults in politics, Dr Fitzgerald says: In societies without mass literacy, they can offer a witty and brief way of characterising an opponent in a way thats likely to stick. For instance, we might think of Donald Trumps manner as being particularly insulting, but if we look at politics in the United States during the 19th century, we see much more colourful language being used.

Most famously, president John Adams called Alexander Hamilton a bastard brat of a Scotch peddler, which was a convenient way of reminding his audience that Hamilton had indeed been born out of wedlock.

As put-downs go, few are as memorably gentlemanly as that uttered by British statesman and 4th Earl of Sandwich John Montagu.

In response to the actor Samuel Foote declaring that I have often wondered what catastrophe would bring you to your end; but I think that you must either die of the pox or the halter, Montagu shot back: My lord, that will depend upon one of two contingencies; whether I embrace your lordships mistress, or your lordships principles.
Firebrand TD Brendan Griffin has made a name for himself openly calling for Enda Kenny to go by the end of the summer.

While some Fine Gael politicians privately see the Kerry TD as attempting to wage a personal war against the Taoiseach after not being promoted to the ministerial ranks, Mr Griffin says his criticisms are aimed at trying to save the party from an election meltdown and to reach out to disillusioned voters.

An amicable politician exuding humour, the former councillor came into the Dail alongside a wave of new young Fine Gael faces in 2011 when the party took power.

The 34-year-old has had his fair share of election disappointments too, having worked his way up the ranks from a young age where he campaigned, learnt from political figures and took a circular route to the Dail.

Enda Kenny

Sitting over a full pot of tea in Buswells Hotel last month, across the road from the gates of Leinster House, he sets out why he became interested in politics and how his Dingle roots have kept him in the loop, so to speak.

I was brought up in a house where the newspaper was left on the dining room table or the kitchen table, where the news was always on even though it was only RTE, in two-channel land it was a regular rural Kerry house.

Griffin became involved in political activities when in school and college and got involved in Fine Gael from a young age, thanks to his older brother Mike.

One of his earliest memories was the 1992 general election and getting up early in the morning to help his father, who was a party activist.

I was 10 years old but my father brought me to hold the torch while he was hammering the posters onto the polls, he tells me.

Later, his older brother had a strong influence on him.

He brought me into the fold. As in dropping leaflets in 1997 for the general election when I was 15 years old when I should have been studying for my Leaving Cert.

The following year, my first weekend away from home was actually for Simon Coveneys by-election in Cork.

It was the one and only time I wore a Cork t-shirt, waving the banner for Simon and 20 young people all there. It was all new to me, there was great energy, quips the TD as the tea keeps pouring while we chat.

The campaign was an eye-opener for the then-teenager, seeing election tricks in action.

So when the Fine Gael local election selection convention came up for Dingle in 2003, the former arts student threw his hat in the ring.

I was thinking it would be great to have someone ourselves, this is an opportunity I should go for and I did.

But he lost the selection as three incumbents were running again and ultimately ended up coming fifth out of seven candidates in the June 2004 election itself.

While later sub-teaching, he got a call from then-TD Jimmy Deenihan to be his parliamentary assistant, which he accepted.

Brendan Griffin

That was a turning point for me. It was a brilliant opportunity. I dont think I would have been elected to public office [without doing this], explains Mr Griffin.

He later went forward for selection in 2006 for the general election the following year, to lay down a marker for the future, as he says himself, but missed out on selection again.

This was a personal setback for the young politician, who instead decided to lease a local bar with his wife and take a break from politics. The networking, respect he got from locals and opportunity to run his own business helped get him elected where he went on to top the poll locally.

That was as good as any college degree, running a bar. I wouldnt have got elected to the council in 2009 without having taken the bar. I knew a lot of people but they got to know me, instead of just being a fella in a suit on a poster, they saw the guy that was moping out jacks at three in the morning, cleaning up all the vomit.

And hearing concerns day in and out about what resonated with people. It was a brilliant learning experience.

But a key piece of advice the young politician got then may shed some light on who the TD might back when and if a Fine Gael leadership contest emerges.

Weighing up whether to run for the council, he sent then-TD Leo Varadkar a five-line email in 2008, seeking advice about how he himself had turned his political career around.

The question I asked him was what did you do between 1999 and 2004 that changed you from not being elected in 1999 to when he had over two [election] quotas in 2004.

The following day I got an email back from Leo, it must have been three or four pages long. First thing I remember him saying is that they cant vote for you unless they know your name, emphasising the importance of leaflet drops, getting your name out there, a big long list of tips.

This helped the aspiring Kerryman set out his political path that eventually saw him win that council seat.

Brendan Griffins fortunes grew in 2011, after then-Ceann Comhairle John ODonoghue resigned and Kerry reverted to being a three-seater. He topped the poll in Kerry South.

Its funny the way things turn out, so Ive John ODonoghue to thank for being elected to the Dail, jokes the TD.

Since Fine Gaels shaky start to a second term this year, Griffin has openly questioned the direction the party is going and rebutted internal criticism from colleagues.

He tells me that some ministers, when leadership change comes, will try to hang on until the bitter end.

Singling out the partys poor performance in the general election, he points to where problems arose and what needs to change going forward. His observations are apt, given the fact that Fine Gael is sitting on two internal reports about its bruising election campaign, dossiers which are set to be discussed soon.

The young TD singles out a Fine Gael strategy early on in the election campaign which advised party election candidates not to appear on the live audience Peoples Debates in constituencies on TV3s Tonight with Vincent Browne.

How any communications strategy would come up with an idea of not engaging with a process in each constituency that was watched by people. That was some of the elementary stuff that Fine Gael has got wrong in recent times.

What went wrong for Fine Gael, its communication strategy and its leadership are set to come under scrutiny this week when that report is debated by the party at its pre-Dail think in. You can be guaranteed that Brendan Griffin is unlikely to shirk from expressing his views on the issue.
REVEREND Mother was on the phone from eastern parts to say she has a lovely baby girl... I can make the necessary arrangements for you to take the baby... maybe you would like to come yourselves... do not tell your business to anyone...

The letter, its colour faded over the years, runs on with other details, imparted in a slightly peculiar mix of colloquialisms and telegraphese.

There is reference to a station wagon being used to transport the child, and a warning: Do not tell of the childs mother.

That child now sits in the armchair of a hotel, unfolding and refolding letters and documents from a pile. Now a grown woman, she knows all this correspondence back-to-front, including one piece of paper which has the important line, we have no information on *Sineads father.

Her father, her dad, the priest.

Its quite a story, but not unique. Sinead, who has children of her own, was told early on that she had been adopted. She absorbed the news and got on with life, growing up in a happy household, and eventually she got to a point when, she says, I wanted to know where I was from. There is some need just to know where I was from.

Sinead is warm and engaging, and at times her eyes widen so much that sitting across from her, you see yourself reflected in the pupils. She is candid, but nervous. She wants to tell her story, but doesnt want to upset anybody.

On being adopted, she says: I would have always felt like I had to be very good and that was the way I went. It turns you into a people-pleaser; theres not a lot of room for manoeuvre. Youre trying to fit in.

Being the daughter of a priest adds yet more layers of complication. There is seemingly very few of us, she says, referring to a closed Facebook group to which some people have contributed.

File image

We have never all met. I think it would be nice if we had a meeting, to talk face-to-face. But, she adds: Im not putting my story on a Facebook page.

Being adopted did not come as a shock to her after being told when she was very young by parents she believes were truly enlightened, particularly considering the Ireland of the time.

I was quite lucky because my mother told me as I was growing up that I was adopted. She put it that we were more special because we were chosen, and the older I got, the more she was able to tell me, but there was very little information.

She would always think about my birth mother, at birthdays and Christmas, that she gave me to her because they couldnt have children.

A lot of people were not as enlightened. You would often hear people say, and say it in front of you, Oh, youre great to take them on, how do you know what they are going to turn out like?

I was told at one stage when I was a child [at school] that they werent my real parents and because I knew about it, it wasnt as bad, I was able to fight my corner. I might still have gone in and cried but I was able to hold my ground.

This newspaper has covered many stories in recent years about the struggles and obstacles faced by adopted children in seeking information about their past.

It was when Sinead was in her late teens that she first thought of digging deeper into her history.

I didnt know how to go about it and where to go. I didnt want to upset my parents at the time, she says.

Definitely in teenage years when we were doing biology class, about genes and genetics, and sometimes in religion classes and your family history and who you looked like... that used to make me really think about it then, but there was no recourse to finding out about it at all.

In her adult years, she finally went for it. The process took about a year. First, photographs were exchanged.

Sinead didnt think she shared much of a likeness with her natural mother .

I didnt see myself in her, she says. Her adoptive mother, while supportive, had misgivings. I think that she was afraid that there would be a younger, better version of her and I would transfer my feelings.

When the first meeting happened, on neutral ground, a social worker was present. One can only imagine how difficult it is to manage your expectations of such a momentous point in your life; the reality was different.

It wasnt a bit like it was on the television, she says, before breaking into a laugh that sounds a little rueful.

There was no emotional thing at all from her. I would have liked it if she had been emotional and given me a hug as it would have put my nerves at ease and I would have responded.

But it was just like... But I think she just shut down a huge amount, she has never been that type of person.

The staged nature of the meeting affected the atmosphere. You kind of wanted to impress her, do I look ok? Am I alright? Sinead admits her natural mother might have been in turmoil inside, but didnt show it. Maybe there was a reason for that.

It turns out, there was. Some time later, as their relationship developed, Sineads birth mother was showing her photographs and Sinead guessed the identity of her birth father. She had by then come to the conclusion that one possible scenario was that her natural father had been a priest. It wouldnt have been unknown, as high-profile cases involving Bishop Eamon Casey and Fr Michael Cleary illustrate.

Sinead says she had been dodging around the issue of the identity of her birth father for some time, living on tenterhooks.

That day, when confirmation came from her birth mother, she was rattled.

I thought I was prepared for it, I thought I was ok, but when it registered and I was, I think that I was gobsmacked myself, she says.

Having to act normal then, like nothing had happened.

The revelation didnt open the floodgates. Circumstances didnt allow that, and while the relationship with her birth mother continued, there was a tapering-off. There were more questions than answers, and a void.

She did hear some details of how it happened: Consensual, just the once.

I got the impression that she loved him, Sinead says.

The reticence and distancing made more sense now, once she realised the historical baggage her natural mother had been carrying for much of her life, but still there were outstanding questions. I never got the timeline, she says. I have been trying to talk to her since, to get the A, B, and C of what happened. Who decided to send her, what happened when she came home, all that kind of stuff.

In 2014 an organisation began, which sought to offer advice and assistance to people fathered by priests. Since then, Coping International has developed a worldwide network and has been corresponding with the Church at all levels, including in Rome. The Coping spokesman says of the Irish cohort: Between 10 and 20 in Ireland are directly engaging in the process currently. Some left without ever approaching anyone.

The main thing that people look for is authentication. Coping found its feet as it grew, thanks be to God. Most are delighted to meet with other priests kids and now we meet on Facebook and in person, when and where possible.

Coping International | Promo from Reasonably Shorts on Vimeo.

For the most part they say my dad is/was Fr XYZ, from the diocese of ABC and I have been shut up for my entire life and I am sick and tired of being subject to a lie. From here we get to know the person and it becomes clear if they are having you on, and so forth.

Nobody has come asking for money to date. Almost everyone wants to be able to talk.

THE spokesman also commended the Church for providing counselling services, adding that being perfectly honest, [the issue] is not new to them.

The Church must be commended, though there remains much to be done, for the most part at least, doors are open. Priests children owe a great debt of gratitude to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who at the onset believed in what Coping is doing.

Patricia Carey, CEO of the Adoption Authority of Ireland, said she was not aware of people making contact and seeking information in any cases where they had been fathered by a priest.

Obviously when the children were born it was highly unlikely that the birth father was even named [on the birth certificate] and certainly would not be putting forward his profession, she said. For its part, the Catholic Church here is aware of the issue.

A spokesman for the Catholic Bishops said: The Irish Catholic Bishops recognise the significance and importance of adequate care being provided for children born to priests and are anxious to ensure that appropriate support is being offered to all children.

In particular, it appreciates the sensitivity required in any pastoral outreach to children of priests.

In a letter to Coping sent in March of last year, the Irish Episcopal Conference referred to confidentiality agreements, claiming that while it was possible to enter into such an agreement as long as it was done freely by both sides and in the best interests of the mother and the child, there was a number of caveats to that, such as undue pressure being brought on the mother to comply, if used primarily to protect the priest with a veil of secrecy, or if there was a power imbalance that might distort the powers of natural justice.

It certainly hasnt been easy for many of those who make the unexpected discovery that their father was a priest.

According to the Coping spokesman: I myself was asked to leave the country, to go to Australia, and received late-night phone calls calling me all sorts of profanities. These calls were not from priests; they would not act so foolishly. Many expect you to be discreet, which is curious and evocative of the influence of the Church on our psyche in a secular society.

One Irish mother now lives in hiding in the North from her own family, having been physically assaulted by her own family when they found out in 2012. Another family whose mother and father (former priest and nun) both left, having fallen in love in the early 1970s, lives socially excluded lives and this exclusion has fallen upon their children also.

One girl aged only 19 (location withheld) came to our knowledge through a mutual friend. She never attended college and her self-confidence is through the floor as she feels worthless, while her father still ministers in the diocese wherein she lives. Social exclusion is the primary phenomenon we experience, and/or expectation of discretion.

SINEAD certainly felt excluded, or at least a sense of personal exile, carrying her newly- acquired secret around with her.

The worst thing was I was involved in the Church as a reader, she recalls.

I was being brought to Knock a couple of times a year. Then that hit me and I thought, Oh my God, should I be doing this? What if somebody found out? And there was nobody to ask, so I decided to go to Knock to confession.

I thought, Ill go to someone I dont know and then I will say the oath of confession. You dont know who youre going to get and you really just want to ask advice  what are you going to do? And I got a priest and my God, he ate me.

File image

He asked me was I looking for something, and he gave out to me about it and all I wanted to know was... He just went off and gave out to me. Did he think I was looking for money, did he think I was lying? It felt like it. I know myself, I just cut off.

He was yelling at me, was I looking for money, where did I think I was going, and what did I think I was doing, all this. I was trying to explain. I suppose I was asking was I still joined up with God, was he still going to be there for me and also was it ok for me to read at Mass? I came out of there in bits.

I came out then and I cried my eyes out and I didnt know where to go. I actually felt, I felt like it was all my fault. What am I going to do? My husband told me it was ok and he loved me but I was afraid to say it to anybody, I didnt know what to do.

I did go to counselling a few years ago. But a lot of people dont get the adoption issue. They dont get how intense it is, the feelings you have.

It has become something unspoken between her and her natural mother.

I dont know how to do it without causing problems, she says.

Its not hard to see why. Who knows? What do they know? How much do they know? Do they need to know? There are so many people to consider, across different generations, and between mother and daughter it is a secret seldom, if ever, spoken about.

Sinead has found out more about her father over the years. She knows when he was ordained, where he served, some of his interests and hobbies, and when he died. She visited his grave once, terrified that someone would see her and wonder why she was there.

Yet questions still remain, the answers just out of reach. People have helped her, not least a social worker who did a tremendous amount of digging to help retrieve some files.

More recently she has worked with Coping, and met with people in Maynooth to find out a little more about her natural father.

Figures in the Church have shown understanding, and even suggested a little healing ceremony-type thing at her natural fathers grave. I would like to do something like that but I am worried about someone seeing me there, she says. She has also confided in others, including some family members, who were all fine with it.

Years ago, on a visit to Medjugorje, she got into a deep conversation with a priest and was on the brink of telling him. More recently, she did tell a priest closer to home. He was just lovely about it, she says. I will always remember, he said to me: God doesnt make junk. That was the first time I didnt feel bad.

To say its a tricky situation is a gross understatement. Sinead agrees that her natural mother might be more open about certain aspects of the issue if it had been a more conventional situation to begin with.

I think I just want her to tell me once, where I could hear it from her own mouth and ask her some questions, step by step by step, and put a timeline on it. Im not looking for the gory details and I would like to hear it from her.

I get annoyed sometimes. I get annoyed that I have spent this long and she has seen that I am not going out to cause her any problems. I do get frustrated, and I hate myself for it because I think, look what she has been through, she didnt get counselling. I had counselling myself and I know how hard it is. But I am thinking, what about me?

If some of the obstacles put in place for adopted children were removed it might make things easier, she says. Youre supposed to take what you get and be grateful for it, and that hurts.

Sinead and her natural mother did have a brief chat about the short period of time when mother and baby were still together, before Sinead was passed on into a new life.

She told me that she looked after me. I know whatever she dressed me in was what I was wearing. In that station wagon, all those years ago.
Four friends sit in an office debating which one of them should pay for a tax dodge with seven years behind bars  a moral dilemma central to Netflixs first Spanish production, 7 anos (7 years), a 90-minute film that takes place in a single room over the course of one night.

Directed by Roger Gual and written by Jose Cabeza, it is to be released in 190 countries on October 28, and has 83 million potential viewers  as many as there are subscribers to Netflix, the streaming content provider that is producing and distributing the film.

The aim is to get people to relate to the characters and to consider what they would have done in their place

Director Roger Gual

Not surprisingly, the numbers are making Gual, winner of a Goya award for best new director in 2003 for Smoking Room, a little giddy. This is something else, he says. My last film [Menu Degustacion] had a bit more of an international reach, but my first movie didnt make it out of Spain. For those of us in the movie industry, the fact that a film can hit 190 countries at once calls for a bit of respect.

Netflix is about to change the path of Guals artistic career, but it could also be a gamechanger for the entire film industry in Spain.

While new operators such as Netflix, which streams videos via internet, have broadened consumer choice, they have also sounded alarm bells for traditional TV channels that are all too aware of the importance of generating content.

Private Spanish channels, in particular, consider these online multinationals to be serious competition, capable of putting their own business in jeopardy.

The Cable Girls Netflix also has a Spanish TV series in the pipeline. Bambu Productions,  think Velvet and Gran Hotel  are behind a new series that is set in 1920s Madrid and tells the story of four women working as operators for Spain's only telephone company. The cast includes Blanca Suarez, Ana Polvorosa, Maggie Civantos, Ana Fernandez and Yon Gonzalez.

Consequently, Alejandro Echevarria, president of media company Mediaset and of the industry association Uteca, is asking the government to treat all broadcasters equally, no matter what platform they use.

Technological neutrality should be accompanied by obligations, both economic and performance-related, and supervised by a regulating body, he said at an association meeting. In the presence of acting Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, he also called for a critical review of the conditions currently applied to alternative distribution companies in direct competition with DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television), not only in terms of audience but also publicity and content.

Within the EU, the idea is to demand that at least 20% of the output of these online companies be produced in Europe as a way of preserving the sectors interests on this side of the pond.

Obligations in Spain

If Utecas demands are taken on board, companies such as Netflix would be obliged to help finance Spains public broadcaster TVE and invest in film productions. Private channels pay 3% of their gross takings annually to TVE, while pay-TV operators chip in 1.5%. On top of this, they are expected to pay another 5% to finance movies, series or documentaries produced in Europe. This obligation applies to all channels that broadcast films less than seven years old.

With the movie 7 years, Netflix has gone beyond these legal requirements. Spain has a long film tradition; it was clear just months after we got established here that we could undertake a great project like this, says Ted Sarandos, Netflixs Contents Manager.

Private Spanish channels, in particular, consider these online multinationals to be serious competition, capable of putting their own business in jeopardy

Gual, Cabeza and producers Cristian Conti and Federico Jusid were working on the script when Netflix let it be known that they were open to collaborating on a Spanish movie.

By sheer chance, Cristian told me he knew that Netflix was looking for projects that were relatively low-cost and that this could fit the bill. So we sent them the script and got a positive response, says Gual, who notes how painless the process was. TV channels and producers usually make suggestions about who should be in the film, for example. In this case, we suggested the lineup, they approved it and we started to shoot.

The cast is led by Paco Leon, Juana Acosta, Juan Pablo Raba and Alex Brendemuhl, who play four friends and co-founders of a successful technological design company caught siphoning off funds to a tax haven. A mediator played by Manuel Moron tries to help them decide who should take the rap in a story that has, according to the director, a bit of everything.

English speakers use the term one-room thriller to define this kind of film, says Gual. It has drama, suspense and a little comedy. Its hard to label. The aim is to get people to relate to the characters and to consider what they would have done in their place.

Both Gual and Juan Mayne, director of Netflix International Productions, enthuse about the actors performances with Mayne singling out Paco Leon in particular for his interpretation of a very different kind of role from the ones he has played in the past (Aida, Three Many Weddings).

English version by Heather Galloway.
We all remember where we were when the planes hit the World Trade Center  and then the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania  15 years ago.

I was barely 20 years old, offshore in the Bay of Biscay as a volunteer crew member on a square red sailing ship for disabled people. Immediately, one had the feeling that the destiny of millions of people  perhaps many I knew  had been immediately changed.

For the US officials in authority, it was likely even more jarring. For them, it meant nothing less than changing the way the West approached the world.

The kaleidoscope has been shaken, British prime minister Tony Blair told the Labour Party conference less than a month later in a speech that promised to reorder the world.

We will never know, of course, what might have happened if the West had responded differently. Over the years, though, as every anniversary has passed, Ive been struck by an ever-growing nagging thought: Did the reflexive response  perhaps even overreaction  make matters worse?

Thats not to minimise the human tragedy  or, perhaps as important, the psychological impact of the assault. Nor is it to say the West should have ignored the threat from Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and Islamist militancy in general. But with the distance of time, there seems a rather jarring mismatch between what actually happened and how we responded.

Its not that most of us necessarily saw a dramatic increase in Western military involvement in the region as being a necessary response to what had just happened. Its just that it felt inevitable. For years, many had known that the risk of high-casualty attacks was growing. Islamists had struck the Twin Towers before, with a 1993 car bomb. Later, the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania demonstrated the attackers growing reach.

The technology used in these attacks was never particularly sophisticated  bombs crammed into trucks and boats. What al Qaeda was getting ever better at, however, was identifying points of vulnerability and exploiting them to increasingly devastating effect.

The death of almost 3,000 people on 9/11, however, left US intelligence and military chiefs feeling blindsided. Having failed to prevent or even predict the attack they abruptly revised many of their expectations.

9/11 was seen as something which might take place every week, a former senior security official told me a decade later.

When Mr Blair comes back to explaining the Iraq invasion, thats the core of his argument. Al Qaeda killed 3,000 on 9/11, but if they had been able to kill 3m people he said, they would have done so. The threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, therefore, could not be allowed to continue.

With hindsight, this was nonsense. Leaving aside the imperfect knowledge of what Iraq might or might not have had, it assumed the consequences of invasion were easy to predict.

Philosophically, there was a substantial gap between right-wing neoconservatives such as US vice president Dick Cheney and more neoliberal interventionists such as Mr Blair. Yet they came to the same conclusion: A more assertive military approach was central to both protecting the West and pushing back militancy by improving conditions in more volatile regions of the world.

Tony Blair with George W Bush

That thinking continued past US president George W Bush and Blair into the Barack Obama and David Cameron administrations. Both endorsed their own regime change operations in Libya after the Arab Spring. And both made the same discovery  intervening is complicated, and sending large numbers of Western troops on theoretically time-limited missions inevitably achieves less than the planners hoped.

Nor, crucially, has it done much to significantly reduce the threat of militant attacks. Though the West had, until the attacks of the last two years, largely escaped more than occasional bombings, thousands died as militant groups instead struck in states such as Pakistan, Nigeria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

What weve now seen is something of a sea change in Western thinking. The military interventions now underway  against Islamic State in Iraq, the air strikes in Somalia, the smaller campaign in Afghanistan  have a different flavour. The driving force is usually the local government. When US and allied troops and officials join the effort, it is in a supportive role rather than with the ambition of temporarily dominating the country before withdrawing.

Working through local forces and power structures was, ironically, at the heart of the initially impressively successful 2001 operation to topple the Afghan Taliban. Those lessons, though, were swiftly lost against the backdrop of more grandiose, militarily conventional ambitions in Iraq.

The one place this strategy does not work is Syria. There, the US remains conflicted about whether it still wishes to bring down the government. It also finds itself squaring off against other governments, including Iran, Russia, and now Turkey, that have very different perspectives and opinions.

The irony is that while so much of the intellectual and financial energy has gone into the larger wars since 9/11, the West has actually had considerable success on the counterterrorism front. Al Qaeda was gradually dismantled, Bin Laden eventually found and killed.

None of that prevented the rise of Islamic State, which is now finding new techniques to hurt the West. But that shouldnt be surprising. Like using antibiotics to treat an infection, there will always be virulent new strains requiring a different treatment.

Its easy to say that attacks  and attackers  should be found and neutralised long before they strike. But thats never going to be entirely possible. Whats important is to keep an eye on the real dangers and the real tools to mitigate them: limiting availability of weapons, not alienating large segments of the population so that they report potentially radicalised individuals.

We need to avoid an overreaction that ends up polarising society, deepening divisions and just making everything worse. In Europe, unfortunately, things seem to be going exactly the opposite way.

The ultimate strategic bungle that opened the door to the attacks on New York and Washington was alarmingly banal. It should never have been possible for passengers on aircraft to be carrying lethal edged weaponry like the box-cutters used to kill the pilots. Nor should the attackers have been able to get access to the cockpit.

Still, 15 years after that terrible day, I cant help but wonder if we might have achieved more by simply doing less.
WHEN examining the complaints made against nurses, which have come to public inquiry over the past year, two themes immediately emerged: a lack of care afforded to elderly people living in residential care settings, and financial abuse of elderly people.

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland is the regulatory body for all nurses and midwives in the country. Part of its remit is to handle complaints made against all nurses and midwives and so, theoretically, anyone within the sector could come before the attention of the inquiry.

However, a large number of those who have been the subject of public disciplinary hearings within the past year have been nurses working in residential homes or rehabilitation centres, caring for old and vulnerable patients. Amongst these, several complaints were in relation to nurses stealing money from elderly patients, some of whom had terminal cancer or dementia.

Although nurse John de Lara did not face any allegations in relation to harming patients, the fact that he was ordering Sudafed using the names of colleagues  and then failed to inform his employer, the Royal Hospital Donnybrook, that he was under investigation for the possession of crystal meth  shocked many of his colleagues and others.

John Benedict Butalid de Lara, 46, cared for elderly patients as a staff nurse at the Royal Hospital Donnybrook, for 11 years, from December 2003 until 2014. He was part of a team providing rehabilitation services primarily for elderly people, and served both long- and short-term patients.

But on March 31, 2014, Mr de Lara was arrested following a search of a flat on Marlborough Road in Donnybrook. During the search, Mr de Lara arrived at the flat and put a bag of something into his mouth, which he later spat out at a gardas request. The substance in the bag was later identified as just over 2.4 grams of crystal meth.

The following day, Mr de Lara was charged with possession of a controlled drug, namely methamphetamine.

The case was heard before the district court in July 2014, where the charges against Mr de Lara were dismissed, after he paid 1,000 to a charity. He was then fired from his job at the Royal Hospital Donnybrook, after his employer found out about his court appearance from a newspaper article.

At the disciplinary inquiry in February of this year, Mr de Lara, from Ballyfermot, Dublin, was found guilty of six counts of professional misconduct in relation to the possession of crystal meth, of ordering Sudafed using the names of several colleagues and of failing to inform his employer that he was under Garda investigation.

The hearing, held at the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Irelands headquarters in Blackrock, Co Dublin, heard that an ingredient in Sudafed, pseudoephedrine, can be used in the making of crystal meth.

On foot of the inquirys findings, Mr de Lara was struck off the register by the NMBI. He has since taken an unfair dismissal case against his former employer, which is ongoing at the moment.

During the inquiry, Mr de Laras former colleagues struggled to understand how someone who appeared to be such a conscientious nurse could become involved in something so unseemly. One of Mr de Laras former colleagues, health care assistant Nicholas Mallari, said he was shocked and surprised to find out Mr de Lara had used his name to order Sudafed. Referring to Mr de Lara, Mr Mallari said: Hes a nice person. Hes a good colleague. Hes a good nurse. As far as I know, hes a good man.

Asleep on the job

Another case involving a nurse charged with caring for elderly people was that of Eileen Mary Mulligan Kiernan, who worked at the Maple Court Nursing Home in Castlepollard, Co Westmeath, for more than a decade, from October 2002 until July 2013.

During her shifts, she would be in charge of the care for 21 elderly residents, most of whom were more than 80 years of age.

A disciplinary hearing at the Nursing Boards headquarters in December 2015 heard that Ms Kiernan would routinely sleep for one to three hours during her night shifts, between 2am and 5am. During this time, she would insist that the lights in the staff room were turned off, the refrigerator unplugged and that no laundry be done.

Sometimes, she would also insist that a care assistant stay with her in the staff room during these periods, which meant that no staff were present with the residents.

In May 2013, two care assistants at the nursing home completed whistleblower forms in relation to Ms Mulligan Kiernan, and gave them to nursing home manager Caroline Day, who then made a complaint to the nursing board. During the inquiry, one care assistant said she did not raise the alarm about Ms Mulligan Kiernans behaviour because she was afraid of her.

Care assistant Ann Daly said she worked one or two night shifts per fortnight with Ms Mulligan Kiernan, and that the nurse went to sleep in the staff room on every night she worked with her. Ms Daly said the nurse would go into the staff room around 1 or 2am, put several chairs together, get a blanket and lay down. Ms Daly said the nurse would set an alarm for 5 or 5.30am, and would sometimes say, Half a nights work for half a nights pay.

While Ms Mulligan was sleeping, Ms Daly said she herself was not able to properly do her rounds  which were usually done every two hours  because she needed another person to help her complete some of the tasks, such as repositioning the residents so they wouldnt get bed sores.

Ms Daly told the inquiry that before completing a whistleblower form in May 2013 in relation to Ms Mulligan Kiernan, she never said anything because the nurse used to say, If I go down, you go down.

Ms Mulligan Kiernan, who was not present at the hearing last December, denied the allegations.

Inadequate care

In May of this year, a disciplinary inquiry at the Nursing Boards headquarters in Blackrock found that nurse Allan Lasam Sanchez failed to provide adequate care to an elderly mother after she suffered a fall.

The 86-year-old woman, referred to as Ms C, suffers from dementia, and was a resident at the Carysfort Nursing Home in Dublin when she fell on the night of July 7, 2013.

Mr Sanchez failed to adequately examine the elderly woman after she fell, and failed to adequately document care provided to her. On the morning of July 8, 2013, Patient C was taken to hospital, where it was discovered she had a fractured hip. She has suffered increased mobility issues since then.

Stealing from elderly

Some of the most upsetting cases that came before the inquiries at the Nursing Board include ones involving elder financial abuse  a distressing issue which many older people are not even aware of, according to Age Action Ireland.

In April this year, nurse Elizabeth Yvonne Williamson Claffey was accused of stealing money from a terminally ill cancer patient, during her time working at Bloomfield Care Centre in Rathfarnham, South Dublin.

Ms Williamson worked at the residential home, which provides mental health care to patients and residents, many of whom are elderly, from 2009 until she resigned from her position there in July 2012.

It was claimed that while working at Bloomfield, she used an ATM card without the consent of its owner, a resident with prostate cancer referred to throughout the hearing as KD. It was also claimed the nurse withdrew more than 5,000 between October 10, 2011, and May 8, 2012,using his bank card, and at one point used the card to pay for her food shopping at Asda, during a trip up North.

KD, who is now deceased, was described by the deputy CEO of Bloomfield as a frail, elderly gentleman with significant physical health problems. He had cancer and subsequently received palliative care.

Irregularities in KDs bank account were eventually noticed, and the centre informed gardai. Ms Williamson then admitted to taking the funds to gardai  but said she only did it with KDs permission. Following this, Ms Williamson repaid KD 6,000 and wrote a letter of apology to him. The matter of came to light in October 2012 after KD wrote to his bank regarding potential theft from his account.

The inquiry heard that KD appeared surprised and shocked when he learned about the full extent of the matter, and said he had not given anyone permission to withdraw money. KD later decided not to pursue a case through the courts, as he did not want to see Ms Williamson again.

Another case involving theft was the case of home care assistant Edel Maria Fitzgerald, who was up before a disciplinary hearing in November 2015.

Ms Fitzgerald repeatedly stole money from Elizabeth OCallaghan, an elderly, wheelchair-using woman under her care who passed away late last year.

Ms Fitzgerald was employed by Kerry-based Home Instead Senior Care on a part-time basis between 2008 and 2014. Between June 2010 and April 2014, she provided non-medical home care assistance to pensioner Elizabeth OCallaghan, who was in her mid-90s at the time and required 24-hour care. Although Ms OCallaghan was mentally fit, she had to use a wheelchair.

The family knew Ms Fitzgerald  who went to school with Ms OCallaghans granddaughter  and so were delighted when she began to provide home care for the elderly Ms OCallaghan, as they thought she was someone they could trust.

Ms OCallaghans daughter, Josephine Dennehey, said she began to suspect money was going missing from her mothers purse in 2012. She queried family members and when it became apparent that Ms OCallaghan had not been giving the money to any of them, Ms Dennehey began to suspect home care assistants. The family placed hidden cameras in the house. Footage from these showed Ms Fitzgerald taking money on numerous occasions  often 50 at a time  and she was eventually arrested on April 9, 2014, and taken to Tralee Garda Station. Ms Dennehey said she decided not to press charges out of concern for Ms Fitzgeralds family, though this created difficulty in her own family.

Ms Dennehey said that, on the night after Ms Fitzgerald was arrested, the care assistant rang and then texted her, apologising for her actions. Ms Fitzgerald, who admitted her actions, was found guilty of professional misconduct at the nursing inquiry on November 15, 2015.

Raising Awareness

An Age Action spokesman said the prospect of financial abuse is quite frightening for elderly people, although many remain unaware of the issue.

Financial elder abuse is something that is frightening for a lot of older people  the idea that the people you rely on to care for you, the people who you trust, the people with whom youve shared some financial information can take money away, said Justin Moran, of Age Action Ireland.

Research from the advocacy group found that more than 50% of the older people they spoke with were not aware of the issue of financial elder abuse. Mr Moran said he hopes care homes can help raise awareness among residents, and inform them they can control their money, even if they are allowing someone to do some of their banking. This control could come in the form of putting restrictions on the account, such as limiting the amount of money that can be withdrawn or specifying which items money can be spent on.

Ensuring that older people know that those facilities are available is really important, said Mr Moran.

If there was more work done by care homes and care facilities to ensure that older people knew there are ways of maximising their control over their money, money that they worked very hard their entire lives for, and that they have every right to protect  I think that would be very helpful.

Mr Moran said that when elderly people and their families are considering care options and whether to move to a nursing home, its very important that whatever decision is made, the decision is made by the older person and is supported and facilitated by the family.

The vast majority of older people we deal with want to stay at home as long as possible. There may come a time when they need to go into some sort of residential setting, and if that happens, then the family needs to support and facilitate that.

He advised that when considering a nursing home, families should look at the Hiqa reports on the facility, visit it and speak with the current residents and their families about it. He also advised families, once an elderly person moves into a residential care setting, to stay in touch with that person and to listen and engage with them.

Ensure you keep in touch with the resident, so that they feel able to tell you when things are going wrong.

One of the challenges we found with elder abuse is that many older people dont want to be a fuss, dont want to cause a problem or make things challenging. They need to feel confident that if they come to their family and say, I have a little bit of a concern about this, I think theres something happening thats inappropriate, their family isnt going to gloss over it, and that theyll be taken seriously and listened to.

CASE STUDIES

John de Lara

John Benedict Butalid de Lara, aged 46, from Ballyfermot, Dublin 10, worked as a staff nurse at the Royal Hospital Donnybrook, Dublin 4, for more than a decade, from 2003 until 2014.

But something seemingly went wrong somewhere along the way for Mr de Lara, originally from the Philippines, who was arrested in March 2014 for possession of crystal meth.

As members of the gardai searched a flat in Donnybrook, Dublin 4, that day, Mr de Lara arrived at the residence. Seeing the gardai, he put a bag of something into his mouth, which he later spat out.

The substance in the bag was later identified as just over 2.4g of crystal meth.

Following his appearance before the district court in July 2014, the charges against Mr de Lara were dismissed. However, after his superiors at the Royal Hospital Donnybrook heard of the matter, Mr de Lara was fired.

He was the subject of an NMBI disciplinary hearing in late 2015, and then in February of this year, when the inquiry concluded.

He has since taken an unfair dismissal case against his former employer, which was heard for the first time at the Employment Appeals Tribunal in May of this year. The case was due to come before the EAT again last Tuesday; this did not happen, and it will be re-listed at a date as yet undetermined.

Eileen Mary Mulligan Kiernan

Eileen Mary Mulligan Kiernan was employed as a nurse at the Maple Court Nursing Home in Castlepollard, Co Westmeath, for more than a decade, from October 2002 until July 2013.

She came to the attention of her superiors when two care assistants claimed in a whistleblower form that Ms Mulligan Keirnan regularly slept on the job for more than an hour.

Healthcare assistant Ann Daly said that, before completing a whistleblower form in May 2013 in relation to Ms Mulligan Kiernan, she never said anything because the nurse used to say: If I go down, you go down.

Ms Daly said that, after she made the complaint, Ms Mulligan Kiernan sent her text that read: Why did you tell such lies? I never did anything to you.

Ms Mulligan Kiernan did not attend the public inquiry into these allegations, which was held in December 2015, but she strenuously denied them in a letter read at the proceedings.

In the letter, Ms Mulligan Kiernan said she loved her job and that she was a caring person whom the residents loved.

She wrote that she had an eye problem that required drops, and she needed to close her eyes for a few minutes after she applied the drops, but that she was fully alert during that time.

Elizabeth Claffey

Nurse Elizabeth Yvonne Williamson Claffey was thrust into the public eye in April of this year after it was claimed that she stole money from a terminally ill cancer patient.

The incidents took place while she worked at the Bloomfield Care Centre, in Rathfarnham, Dublin.

Ms Williamson worked at the residential home, which provides mental health care to patients and residents, many of whom are elderly, from 2009 until July 2012. Prior to that, she worked as a nurse in both Ireland and Scotland since 1999.

It was claimed that, while at Bloomfield, she used an ATM card without the consent of its owner, a resident with prostate cancer referred as KD.

It was also claimed that she withdrew more than 5,000 between October 10, 2011, and May 8, 2012, using KDs bank card, and at one point used the card to pay for her food shopping at Asda, during a trip to the North.

After irregularities in KDs bank account were noticed, the gardai were informed, and Ms Williamson admitted to taking the funds  but said she only did it with KDs permission.

Following this, Ms Williamson repaid KD 6,000 and wrote a letter of apology to him. KD decided to not pursue the case.

During her evidence to the inquiry, health care assistant Shirley OToole, who worked with Ms Williamson at Bloomfield, praised the nurse.

It was brilliant working with Ms Claffey. She was an excellent boss, Ms OToole said.

Allan Lasam Sanchez

Nurse Allan Lasam Sanchez was working as a nurse at the Carysfort Nursing Home in Dublin when an elderly woman, referred to as Ms C, aged 86, fell on the night of July 7, 2013.

Although Mr Sanchez helped Ms C, who suffers from dementia, back up and into bed, he failed to adequately examine her or recognise the full effects of the fall.

It was only in the morning, after the daytime staff arrived, that Patient C was taken to St Vincents hospital, where it was discovered she had a fractured hip. She has since suffered from mobility issues.

Patient Cs children attended the inquiry into Mr Sanchez, which was held in May of this year, although the nurse himself did not attend.

At the proceedings, expert witness Catherine Dunleavy said she believed Mr Sanchez did not pick up on what was happening for Ms C on the night in question in part because he had so many patients to look after.

At the time, just one nurse would be on duty during a night shift, attending up to 52 residents.

One nurse for 52 residents is not enough to safeguard residents needs, Ms Dunleavy told the inquiry.

Edel Maria Fitzgerald

In November 2015, home care assistant Edel Maria Fitzgerald was found to have repeatedly stolen money from Elizabeth OCallaghan, an elderly woman under her care .

Ms Fitzgerald, a psychiatric nurse from Tralee, was employed by Kerry-based Home Instead Senior Care on a part-time basis between 2008 and 2014. Between June 2010 and April 2014, she provided non-medical home care assistance to Ms OCallaghan, who was in her mid-90s, forced to use a wheelchair, and required 24-hour care, although she was mentally fit. She died last year.

When the family discovered Ms Fitzgerald was stealing money, they informed the guards and she was arrested in April 2014. However, Ms OCallaghans daughter, Josephine Dennehy, decided to not press charges. Ms Dennehy said on the night after Ms Fitzgerald was arrested, the nurse rang her, and then texted her, apologising for her actions.

At the inquiry, Kirsty Kavanagh, for Ms Fitzgerald, said her client accepts she has done wrong and has suffered greatly over the last 12 months. She said Ms Fitzgerald is disgusted with herself as a result of her own conduct.

Tim Healy, chief executive of Home Instead, told the hearing he was completely gobsmacked when he heard Ms Fitzgerald had been accused of stealing money. My experience of Edel Fitzgerald, except for this episode, had been superb.
Many sides to the university funding debate rightly point to the fact that the international rankings do not give anything like the full picture of activities in our third-level institutions.

But what they do illustrate very well are just some of the effects of cuts to funding in Irish higher education; and the need, not just to restore it to pre-recession levels but to increase it beyond what it has ever been in the past.

Nobody would argue that the slides in international university rankings are the reason this should happen. But as we know from recent political debate on tax policy, it sometimes takes risk to our international reputation to prompt our elected representatives to acknowledge the elephant in the room.

With one significant measure in the rankings being the ratio of students to academics, the impact of employment controls is particularly significant to Irish universities performance.

Restrictions on replacing retiring staff or making promotions to fill vacancies have hit the third-level sector hard. An employment control framework (ECF) is only now being slightly eased after several years.

Official figures comparing academic staff directly funded by the State in universities show numbers fell by nearly 300, from 4,576 to 4,291, between December 2008 and the end of 2015.

With these whole-time equivalent figures incorporating full-time and combined part-time posts, the fall in actual numbers of teaching staff is probably significantly higher in a sector blighted by limited lecturing hours and unsecure employment for hundreds.

A slight increase in academic numbers at Maynooth University from 262 to 273 reflects the fact that Froebel College of Education was incorporated into the Co Kildare institution in 2013.

University of Limericks academic numbers have increased, but not without having also dropped below their 2008 level in the interim.

At the same time as the universities total staff numbers have fallen by over 6%, their full-time students have shot up, with most of the rises in undergraduates .

The level of student increases varies widely, from just 5% at Trinity College Dublin to a 46% rise from 6,100 to nearly 8,900 full-time students at Maynooth. The figures show just how much squeeze has been placed on the third-level sector.

The staffing restrictions coincide with the fall by over one-third in core funding by the State, from nearly 1.4bn to just over 900m, with administrative and other staff in many cases harder hit than the academic side.

While nobody questions the need for an injection of cash in third-level education, other policies may need further consideration.

One possibility was dismissed as an illusion by the expert group, chaired by Peter Cassells, whose report on the future of higher education was finally published by Education Minister Richard Bruton in July.

It dismissed outright the idea that the funding problem can be resolved by placing a cap on the numbers entering higher education.

There is no suggestion that this would be a panacea to the problems facing the sector. But some of the efficiencies sought by the minister could be resolved by taking a closer look at the idea.

Rather than looking at the raw figures on third-level student numbers, which reflect population growth as education policy changes, lets take a look at them proportionately.

Instead of considering the growth in numbers entering higher education from 15,000 to 42,500 between 1980 and 2014, look at the figures in the context of school leavers. From just 20% in 1980, nearly 60% of those aged 18 to 20 now attend third level.

At the same time that academic numbers fell in the seven universities by 6% on average, the number of new entrants to degree programmes rose by 6%  from 19,760 to just below 21,000  between 2008 and 2015.

This has had an obvious impact on the number of students colleges are catering for versus their academic strength. This student:faculty ratio influences international rankings and it has increased to varying levels at the universities, although the troubling rises are not necessarily co-related to changes in comparative performance.

The emphasis of rankings on research measurements like citations in academic journals and research income offers no insight into quality of teaching.

Nor do they show any measure of the quality and availability of student services like health and counselling, libraries and academic supports, or services for those with disabilities or affected by disadvantage.

At 58%, our third-level participation rate is one of the highest in Europe, and there are political hopes to see the figures maintained and increased. With no immediate end in sight to the numbers completing second level, a repeated reference throughout the Cassells report to have widening participation in higher education as a national ambition should be examined more closely.

While there is rightly an emphasis on widening access to ensure nobody is excluded by virtue of disability, learning difficulty, or where they grew up, the wisdom of pushing up participation rates is more unclear.

Figures compiled on a regular basis by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) tell us that one-in-six students do not progress to the second year of their courses at universities, institutes of technology or teacher-training colleges.

These and other studies consistently show a significant relationship between the minimum CAO points required for admission to courses (based on Leaving Certificate results) and course completion at undergraduate level.

While other issues like social backgroundalso appear to play a role, those can be partially addressed by improving the reach and level of support offered to those affected by financial constraints.

But even the best teaching in the world can not bring all students who do not have the aptitude for higher education, or for study in a particular discipline, over the line. Prior educational attainment was found to be the greatest influence on successful progression through third-level courses in the HEAs report on retention and dropout rates in 2010.

If students in the lower range of CAO points from their Leaving Certificate results are the most likely to drop out, then perhaps it is time to give much more serious consideration to limiting access to those in that sphere of academic performance.

Of course, there are also particular problems with high dropout rates in certain disciplines, most notably areas like engineering and computer science. These may require more targeted action around entry requirements in maths and better supports and guidance counselling in schools.

BUT with anything between one-third and half of those students who got into college with between 150 and 300 CAO points  out of the current 625 maximum  not making it to second year, questions need to be asked.

For each of these students who leaves behind a third-level course, there has been a huge investment by taxpayers. More than half of those attending third level now receive financial support from the State, the very lowest level being half the 3,000 annual undergraduate fee and the highest an almost-9,000 combination of student fee and maintenance for living costs.

Adding probably the same amount for the average amount the Government pays to cover each of those students tuition brings the cost of each of those students unsuccessful stint in higher education to somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000. Almost 7,000 students who do not progress to second year could be costing the State something between 50m-60m a year.

If it were any other sector, the Dails Public Accounts Committee would surely be hauling in the people paying out the money to find out what was going on. In this instance, they should be calling before them the policy-makers who have decided that close to two-thirds of those who finish school attend third-level education.

With Richard Bruton kicking to touch on making any bold decisions on who should pay the extra money needed to fund the sector, he is awaiting political consensus instead from the Oireachtas education committee  something that is unlikely to come with any great speed.

But if they are looking for options beyond those laid out by Peter Cassells and his fellow experts, maybe they would look at this issue.

Should there be any concern about how to facilitate the thousands who might be left out by a cap on third-level places, they need look no further than a sector which has had an unjustified cap all the years that universities and ITs have been packing in the students.

The further education sector has seen numbers of students on its post-Leaving Certificate courses fall from 38,680 to below 32,500 in five years. While successive education ministers have given lip service to the sector each year when citing its value as an alternative to third-level, the department has had a strict limit on places at the very same time.

This is largely down to the fact there is a direct formula linking student and staff numbers, so money on teachers salaries is being saved.

But the courses offered by PLC colleges are, in most cases, pitched at exactly the kind of level suitable for those who can not progress in universities or institutes of technology.

Diverting tens of millions of euro wasted unnecessarily each year supporting students directed into a third-level system that is not right for them could generate a small chunk of the money needed to reverse the slump in that same sector.
YOU remember the photographs. If you saw them, you could never forget them. Most of them were head-on, cockpit-first shots, showing an enormous plane sitting in the river Hudson, its two great wings covered in passengers. Also in the picture are boats settling to rescue the passengers. Those on the wing closest to the boats are lined up, facing the vessels, apparently as orderly and unbothered as if they were queueing for a cup of coffee.

The captions, when the picture went around the world following the 15th of January, 2009 drama, talked of the Miracle on the Hudson, and the world quickly came to know the name of the miracle worker, pilot Captain Chesley Sullenberger III, and his nickname, Sully. What a guy, went the reaction. One minute, hes lifting his US Airways Airbus A320 in a normal takeoff out of La Guardia airport, and the next, the two great jet engines have ingested half a flock of geese each and flamed out, leaving Sullenberger without power.

Because he was so experienced a pilot and safety trainer, Sullenberger stayed clinically calm, made his choices, notified air traffic control and ditched the plane in the river, from where all on board were successfully disembarked by boat. Whos our hero? Sullys our hero.

Of course, the aviation authorities were always going to have to investigate the crash to find out if all was as it seemed. Questions had to be answered, including the central one: Could the pilot have turned the aircraft around and brought it back to the airport, rather than dropping it into the Hudson? The flight simulators suggested that it was possible. Several pilots using the simulator did it. But once the investigators measured the length of time taken for any pilot to react to total loss of power, consider the possibilities open, and take action on what was perceived to be the best option, they were less enthusiastic about what the simulators suggested. In fact, they decided, a 70 ton glider would not have cleared New Yorks skyscrapers. In other words, Sullenberger had made all the right decisions for Flight 1549.

It made a great newspaper story. Act of God happens. Pilot makes right decision and has the skill to make a perfect landing, because hes been forty years throwing planes through the air and has accrued a few skills along the way. Passengers survive. Plane gets a bit damp.

You might think it would also make a great movie. Clint Eastwood certainly did. Reading Sullenbergers book, he optioned it and set out to make the film, starring Tom Hanks as the heroic pilot. But a film needs more than a few minutes of spectacular flying and an obvious hero. It needs an arc of tension and a villain or two, and Eastwood worked out that the arc of tension could happen after the plane hit the water. The film, accordingly, majors on the possibility that Sullenbergers reputation will go straight down the Hudson at the hands of air crash investigators determined to prove that he is anything but a hero. Theyre going to use every technological gizmo at their disposal to prove that he could have brought the plane back to La Guardia safely and short circuited the whole river-dousing scene. So Chesley Sullenberger III and his co-pilot, Jeff Skiles, played by Aaron Eckhart, are fighting for their careers and  in the case of the former  legacy.

So far, so satisfactorily dramatic, in film terms. And, according to the captain of the plane, who has retired after 40 years flying passenger planes, pretty accurate in its portrayal of how he and Jeff felt at the time. While investigation of any major aviation incident is inevitable, Sully maintains that any pilot who is the focus of such investigation finds the process hugely stressful, not least because it is, he says, inherently adversarial, with professional reputations absolutely in the balance. The process, in other words, is what made the pilots feel threatened. But a process does not create tension in the audience watching a film, and so the director  Eastwood  gave the investigators themselves an edge just slightly this side of the Stasi. Understandably, he also changed the names of the investigators, giving them fictional monikers. None of which has lessened the outrage of Robert Benson, who led the National Transportation Safety Board interrogation of the Miracle on the Hudson. Robert is good and sore about how he and his colleagues have been portrayed in the film. His soreness may be exacerbated by the fact that it has all the advance markings of a blockbuster success and therefore millions of viewers may end up hating him.

We werent out to hose the crew, Robert Benzon protests. There were no rubber hoses being brought out, no bright lights. Sully is worried about his reputation, but this movie isnt helping mine.

This is where a good communications advisor should have sat Robert down and told him to get a small bit of a grip.

Robert, do yourself a favour, a good communications advisor would have said. Shut up. Right now, a bunch of actors appear in a movie, playing investigators doing stuff you didnt actually do. But this isnt a documentary. Poetic license applies to films. They have not attempted to portray you in a way that identifies you as the over-rigorous investigators. They have not named you. Nobody out there in the queues waiting to get into Sully knows you from a hole in the ground, whereas they DO know Sully. And like him a lot. If you continue to be silent, that will continue to be the case. Those who know you know the characters in the film arent you. Those who dont know you cant do you any harm. You put your head above this parapet, youre going to create a story that doesnt currently exist.

Nobody seems to have offered this reductive advice to Robert, who came out all guns blazing to protect his unthreatened credentials. Nor did he bother to see the film before he let fly. He operated on hearsay. The classic hearsay of friends who cannot wait to tell someone how awful a public communication is, and how dangerous and damaging it is for them. In this case, a few pals, having seen the film, wound Robert up to a conviction that he had to get out there and protest.

The end result was predictable. Lots of coverage of his defensive warblings, counter weighted, in the interests of balance, by contradictions from almost everybody involved in making the film, including its producer, who pointed out that the story is told through the experiences of the two pilots, who, at the time, felt under huge pressure, even if Robert intended them no harm at all.

The old PR advice was Never go to war with someone who buys ink by the barrel. An update on that advice might be: Never go to war with the famous and beloved. The payoff will be poor.

You put your head above this parapet, youre going to create a story that doesnt currently exist
Burma Leaders Meet to Resolve Shan State Conflict

RCSSs chairman Lt-Gen Yawd Serk (front row, second from left) is pictured with members of Taang and Shan delegations who attended a meeting to resolve conflict in northern Shan State. / Nyein Nyein / The Irrawaddy

CHIANG MAI, Thailand  A half-day meeting in Chiang Mai attended by the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) and the Taang National Party (TNP) in a bid to resolve an almost year-long conflict over territory in northern Shan State has yielded positive results, the organizations spokespeople said on Monday.

Tar Hla Pe, a central committee member of the TNP and a Shan State parliamentarian, said the meeting was the first step in finding solutions to help the local people who he likened to victims trapped between two buffalos, a phrase used to describe being forced into a situation of conflict and suffering.

Tar Hla Pe told The Irrawaddy that he hopes his party will be able to act as a mediator by bridging the gap between the two groups, referring to the RCSS and the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA). He is a close friend of RCSSs vice chief of staff Brig-Gen Pao Khay and said that both men want a ceasefire agreement and stability in the state.

Attendees also included: Chairman Lt-Gen Yawd Serk and vice chair Gen Sai Yiboth of the RCSSand Tar Aye Maung of the TNPs central Committee, as well as ethnic Taang (Palaung) monks from the Taang Sangha Central Committee.

Fighting continued on Monday between the TNLA and RCSS in Shan States Maimaw Township, according to Tar Hla Pe. Firefights between the two groups, along with TNLA clashes with Burma Army, have displaced thousands of local Taang in the area.

RCSS Lt-Col and spokesperson Sai Ngin said the group had experienced casualties during the conflict but did not reveal the exact number.

Sai Ngin said the two groups had reached an understanding not to consider the conflict as a struggle between two ethnic groups, addressing how it was referred to on social media earlier this year.

Taang monks participated in the Monday meeting out of concern for local residents education. Sixty-two schools have been closed in northern Shan State due to the conflict, as well as a number in towns in the southern part of the state including Mong Kai, Kholam, Mong Ton and Kesi.

Pyinna Thiri, a monk who joined the meeting, said they would work together to ensure access to education, medical treatment and water.

Participants said that building mutual understanding through negotiations would provide the best outcomes for the people of Shan State. RCSS chairman Yawd Serk added, such negotiations need to be held often to bring an end to the conflict.
Burma More Than 3,000 Villagers Flee Escalating Conflict in Karen State

Border Guard Force soldiers deployed on the Asian Highway in Karen State on Sunday. / KESAN

CHIANG MAI, Thailand  More than 3,000 villagers in Karen State have fled escalating conflict between a splinter group of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and a joint force of the Burma Army and its allied Border Guard Force (BGF).

The residents of villages around the Mae Tha Waw and Myaing Gyi Ngu areas of Hlaingbwe Township fled after Burma Army and BGF reinforcements were sent to the conflict-torn Mae Tha Waw area, where the DKBA splinter groupnamed after its late commander Na Ma Kyarkeeps mobile bases.

An official at a liaison office of the Karen National Union (KNU)the largest ethnic Karen armed organizationin the Thai-Burma border town of Myawaddy told The Irrawaddy that four to five trucks carrying Burma Army and BGF soldiers have been traveling to the area everyday since the beginning of the month, after the DKBA splinter group announced it would mount new offensives.

The KNU and DKBA both the signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement with the previous government last year, and have since had better relations with the Burma Army.

The liaison officer said the Burma Army and the BGF were waiting for the Myaing Gyi Ngu Sayadaw to finish building a pagoda on the Mae Tha Waw road. After that, we expect more fighting.

The Myaing Gyi Ngu Sayadaw is a Buddhist monk, known as U Thuzana, who helped found the DKBA in 1994 out of a Buddhist faction splitting from the Christian-dominated KNU. He still wields considerable influence in the DKBA, and in the BGF. He has inflamed religious tensions in Karen State this year by ordering his followers to build Buddhist pagodas in the compounds of Muslim and Christian places of worship.

Sources close to the KNU on the Thai-Burma border, who asked for anonymity, said that current Burma Army and BGF reinforcements are intended not only to hunt down Maj. Saw Saw Aung, a leader of the DKBA splinter faction who is on a Burma Army wanted list, but also to mount a more comprehensive operation against the splinter faction.

They have already calculated the risks and the benefits of launching an offensive, said the KNU official.

On Sunday, the Burma Army and the BGF reportedly shelled the vicinity of Waboe Taung, also known as Wa Klu Lu, a base belong to the DKBA splinter group. There are believed to have been casualties but no figures have been confirmed.

Sources close to the DKBA said that the Burma Armywith troops from Light Infantry divisions 22 and 44and the BGF were spread across several frontlines, in the areas of Myaing Gyi Ngu, Yinbaing, Mae Seik, Wa Boe Taung and Mae Tha Waw in Hlaingbwe Township.

Maj. Saw San Aung told The Irrawaddy, Light Infantry Division 44 and Artillery Battalion 207 from Kyaik Kaw joined them [the BGF]. Some are coming from Ka Ma Maung and Ohn Daung across the [KNU] Brigade 5 border.

They [the Burma Army and the BGF] have fired artillery almost everyday. Because we are outnumbered, we only respond at the right time and from the right position, he added.

In a video that went viral on Facebook over the weekend, some 2,000 villagersabandoning their homes out of fear of further fightingare seen being carried away on trucks, with the aid of the monk U Thuzana, to be sheltered in Myaing Gyi Ngu village. Many of them were women and children and were unable to take sufficient food and belongings with them.

Fighting in the areas of Mae Tha Waw and Myaing Gyi Ngu was also reported by Thai news agencies and television broadcasters. Several dozen villagers living in the border village of Mae Tha Waw crossed the Moei River into Thailands Tha Song Yan District for sanctuary.

Witnesses told The Irrawaddy that well-armed BGF troops have been deployed over the weekend along the Asian Highway connecting the border town of Myawaddy with the Karen State capital of Hpa-an. The highway remains open.

Sources on the border have speculated that the Burma Army and the BGF are seeking to gain better control of the Mae Tha Waw area, which is close to the former KNU headquarters of Marnerplaw and still features KNU troops along the Moei River.

Sources have also claimed that the Burma Army and the BGF is aiming to secure the site of the stalled Hatgyi Dam project on the Salween River in Hlaingbwe Township, close to the border with Papun Township. KNU Brigade 5 has opposed the dam, and has troops based nearby in the area of Mae Tha Waw along the Moei and Salween rivers.

When asked, a high-ranking KNU military official said that KNU troops based along the border had not gotten involved in the fighting, with no instructions to do so coming from the leadership.

KNU leaders have also yet to take any initiative in seeking to resolve the current conflict involving the DKBA splinter faction in negotiation with the Burma Army.
Burma Pro-Military Names Dominate US-Burma Discussion Panel

State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi (center) meets with Senators (left to right) John Kerry, Mitch McConnell, Harry Reid, Jim Webb, and Saxby Chambliss at the US Capitol in Washington in 2012. On her visit to the US this week sanctions sure to be high on the agenda once again. / Gary Cameron / Reuters

RANGOON  The majority of participants in a conference on the future of US-Burma relations being held in Washington on the eve of Daw Aung San Suu Kyis arrival in the United States are supporters of Burmas previous quasi-civilian government and military cooperation with the States. They are lobbying for the lifting of US sanctions on Burma.

The discussion, taking place on Tuesday organized by Washington-based Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), is titled The United States and Myanmar: Next Steps and will focus on Burmas economic growth. Of the ten participants, only one, U Bo Bo Nge, represents the current National League for Democracy (NLD) government; he is a member of the NLDs economic committee.

Topics tabled to be discussed include: The impact of remaining US sanctions, the future of US-Burma economic cooperation, Burmas political and military transition, civilian and military relations, the countrys peace process, and Buddhist-Muslim relations in Arakan State.

The keynote speech will be delivered by Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications within President Obamas administration. Amy Searight, a Senior Adviser and Director at CSIS, will deliver the introductory speech.

Neither speaker is a stranger to Burma. Ben Rhodes was working in the country in Aug. 2013 when the United States announced plans to work with the Burma Army to transform it into a professional national security force overseen by a civilian government.

Amy Searight met with senior Burmese military officials when she accompanied Deputy Commander of US Pacific Command Lt-Gen Anthony G. Crutchfield and Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Malinowski as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense on a trip to Naypyidaw in 2014.

A session on economic growth and development will be attended by both U Bo Bo Nge and Serge Pun (aka U Thein Wai), the chairman of Serge Pun & Associates and a well-known business tycoon who found success under Burmas military rule, as well as during President Thein Seins military-backed administration. They will be joined by Erin Murphy, founder of the Inle Advisory Groupa Washington consultancy firm that advises on doing business in Burma, and a lobbyist for the lifting of US sanctions on the country.

U Kyaw Yin Hlaing, a Burmese participant in a panel on Myanmars Political Transition: Looking Ahead, is the Director of Myanmar Egress, a pro-Thein Sein NGO. He used to be a senior member of the now-defunct Myanmar Peace Center, a peace negotiation team formed with Thein Seins blessing.

For the discussion, he will be joining US Ambassador to Burma under Thein Seins government Derek Mitchell and chief editor of Nikkei Asian Review Gwen Robinson. She covered Burma as a Financial Times correspondent when Thein Sein was in power and was one of the few foreign correspondents to reportedly have unlimited access to Thein Sein, traveling with him on trips.

Also joining the session is Murray Hiebert, a Senior Adviser and Deputy Director of CSISs Southeast Asia Program, who has been known to encourage the US government to work alongside Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to find practical ways to unwind remaining US economic sanctions against Burma and military reengagement.

Bertil Lintner, a Swedish journalist and longtime expert on Burma, told The Irrawaddy that a look at the names on the panel was enough to convince him of how one-sided the discussion is likely to be.

Not a single independent voice. Only old, pro-Thein Sein people which, by extension, means people who are more likely to be critical of the NLD than of the military, he said.
Interview There is a New Cold War in Asia: Bertil Lintner

Swedish journalist Bertil Lintner is the author of several books on Burma, including Outrage: Burmas Struggle for Democracy and Burma in Revolt: Opium and Insurgency Since 1948. / The Irrawaddy

The Irrawaddy asks Swedish journalist, author and Burma expert Bertil Lintner about the changing US-Burma relationship, as Burmas State Counselor and Foreign Minister Daw Aung San Suu Kyi visits the US this week.

During Daw Aung San Suu Kyis trip to the US, do you see the US easing sanctions further, or removing them entirely? Would that be wise?

There are certain sanctions that I believe will not and cannot be lifted, for instance the arms embargo, as long as there is a civil war, and sanctions against certain individuals, some of the so-called cronies, who have been and still are involved in the arms trade and outright criminal activities such as drug trafficking.

The Obama administration is interested in engaging the Burmese militaryproviding non-lethal assistance and education. Members of some ethnic groups have expressed concern and opposition to this. Under the Ne Win government (1962-88), Burma received arms from the US and some intelligence officers were even trained in the US. Do you see military-to-military engagement being expanded if Daw Aung San Suu Kyi gives the go ahead? After all, she is part of the armed forces family, because her father was the founder of the military. She always insists on having a professional army that is loved by the people. What role do you think she will play?

Under the 2008 Constitution, Burmas armed forces are autonomous, in the sense that it takes orders only from the commander-in-chief, not the elected governmentso Suu Kyis role in this regard is very limited. It is only in personal conversations with military officers that she may be able to influence the military. Will they listen to her? That remains to be seen. As for now, it seems to be the other way round. By asserting that they are behind the elected government, the military can capitalize on the legitimacy of that government, especially when it comes to stripping ethnic armed organizations of their claims to legitimacy.

The media has reported that Burmese generals prefer US training and weapons to Chinese variants and are tired of being dependent on China. But we are also seeing more military engagement between China and Burma.

Burma is strategically too important to China to let it go and become a US ally. Its Chinas outlet to the Indian Ocean, and oil- and gas-lines have been built from [Arakan] State to Chinas Yunnan province. It is also clear that China has not given up hope that the Myitsone [dam] project will be resumed. There are also other China-sponsored hydroelectric power projects in Burma, for instance on the Salween River. Therefore, China has unleashed a charm offensive with promises to build hospitals and to improve Burmas infrastructure. And, lets face it, Burma cant ignore China, a powerful neighbor. The US is, after all, far away.

Do you think the USs engagement in Burma has more to do with countering rising Chinese influence than anything else?

We have to bear in mind that human rights and democracy are not the two most important issues that determine US foreign policy.

There is a new Cold War in Asia with an increasingly assertive China on one side and a loose alliance of the US, India and Japan on the other. In May this year, the US announced that it would lift its arms embargo against Vietnam, hardly a democratic nation that respects human rights, but a very useful ally against China.

In 2011, Burma began to drift away from the close alliance it had had with China since crushing the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, [a move that] was welcomed by the US. In fact, Burma is the only example of the US managing to expand its influence at the expense of Chinas. But it is a rollback situation that the US has to handle carefully because democracy and human rights are still important issues to many congressmen, senators and civil lobby groups in Washington.

What do you think of the conference organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC on Tuesday. Some Burma watchers consider it controversial because some participants were supporters of the former U Thein Sein government?

I took a look at the names on the panel and was surprised to see how one-sided it was. Not a single independent voice, only old, pro-Thein Sein people which, by extension, means people who would be more critical of the NLD than of the military.
General Augusto Pinochet, who ruled Chile beween 1973 and 1990. Getty

More information La CIA sigue sin revelar todo lo que EE UU sabia del golpe de Pinochet

On September 11, 1973, US President Richard Nixon received his daily report from the CIA, which contained items about Laos, Vietnam, the Soviet Union and Chile.

More than four decades later, much of what the CIA had to say that day about General Augusto Pinochets military coup against the government of Salvador Allende remains a secret. This summer, the CIA declassified hundreds of such presidential reports from the Nixon era, but blacked out or deleted many paragraphs to conceal its role in ushering in one of the most brutal dictatorships in Latin America.

Kornbluh says the CIA has evidence that demonstrates what is already widely believed: Pinochet sanctioned Leteliers assassination

The CIA continues withholding information about what it told the president on the day of the coup, 43 years ago, says Peter Kornbluh, a journalist who runs the Chile Documentation Project at the National Security Archive (NSA), a non-governmental research center and repository of declassified US documents.

Kornbluh has spent much of the last four decades investigating US involvement in the Pinochet regime, which ran Chile until 1990.

The CIA is trying to cover up what Nixon knew about the coup plotters in Chile and since when, and it is also hiding its own connections to the coup organizers, says the author of The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability.

On Sunday, the NSA posted a series of files relating to the coup that the CIA had released in August. Much of the information was already known, in large part due to Kornbluhs own efforts, but large sections of some documents had been redacted.

The CIA committed crimes in Chile, and it continues to try to distance itself from the coup by covering up the extent of its contact with the coup leaders, Kornbluh told EL PAIS.

US involvement in the coup is hardly a secret. Even so, says Kornbluh, reading through the documents it becomes clear just how much intelligence the CIA had gathered and how well-informed Nixon was, as evidenced by a presidential report dated September 8, 1973.

The CIA continues withholding information about what it told the president on the day of the coup, 43 years ago Peter Kornbluh

Other documents dated the same day collected by Kornbluhs team show how the CIA initially thought the coup was planned for September 10, and how the Chilean armed forces were preparing for joint action.

Kornbluh, who has called on the Obama administration to order the declassification of all intelligence information about Chile, says the issue is a matter of principle.

These documents are not going to change what we already know, but we have an enormous debt to Chile, because Pinochet would never have come to power without the support of the United States, he says, adding: And Pinochet would not have been able to send terrorists and murderers to the United States to kill two innocent people, a reference to the deaths of former Allende foreign minister Orlando Letelier and his US assistant Ronni Moffit in a car bomb in Washington on September 21, 1976.

US Secretary of State John Kerry handed over dozens of documents to the Chilean government during a visit last year.This material suggests that the order to kill Letelier came from the highest levels within the Pinochet regime. But Kornbluh says that the CIA has other evidence that demonstrates unequivocally what is already widely believed: that it was Pinochet himself who sanctioned the assassination.

Chiles Washington ambassador Juan Gabriel Valdes, who was Leteliers assistant in the US capital 40 years ago, last week expressed his hope that the US government would take advantage of the 40th anniversary of the killings to release whatever information is still in the CIAs archives.

English version by Nick Lyne.
Monday, September 12th, 2016 (1:56 pm) - Score 1,318

The European Unions plan to end mobile roaming charges from 15th June 2017 (i.e. any call, text or data allowances will come from your domestic plan), which will also apply to the UK until we leave in a few years time, has been thrown into confusion after a key part of the policy was withdrawn.

The cost of EU roaming has already come down hugely in recent years and in April 2016 it fell again, with the maximum surcharge (this is added to your domestic rate) that mobile network operators (e.g. Three UK, Vodafone, O2 and EE) can levy dropping to 0.05 +vat (0.04) per minute for outgoing calls, 0.01 (0.01) per minute for incoming calls, 0.02 (0.02) per text and 0.05 (0.04) per MegaByte of Mobile Broadband data.

Initially the European Commissions plan was that these surcharges would be completely abolished from 15th June 2017, save for a Fair Use Policy exception to prevent abuse. Under the Fair Use rule, roaming charges would only be completely abolished for at least 90 days per year (operators could be more flexible if they wanted) or no more than 30 days of roaming use in a row.

EC Statement from 7th September 2016 Those of us who travel do so on average for 12 days per year. But the Commission goes much further by abolishing roaming charges for at least 90 days per year, much more than the average time that a European is roaming with their phone. So in practice these charges will disappear for the vast majority of us. 99% of European travellers are covered. Why did the Commission put forward the 90 days minimum? Very simple: We have to strike the right balance. We want to abolish roaming charges for people who travel. Without a few safeguards to avoid abuses  safeguards that the European Parliament and Council have asked the Commission to specify  network quality and investments in new capacity in some countries may suffer as people could opt for different territorial operators, and the domestic mobile prices might go up as operators would try to compensate losses. Those who travel to and from work, crossing borders every day, are not concerned by the minimum of 90 days.

A few reports expressed surprise at the new restriction, even though it wont affect the vast majority of travellers and isnt as harsh as some had feared when talk of a Fair Use exception first emerged (i.e. earlier on there was talk of a strict free roaming allowance being applied to calls, texts and data allowances).

However the new Fair Use Policy appears to have died before it could even be implemented. On Friday 9th September the Commissions President, Jean-Claude Juncker, was suddenly seen throwing a spanner into the works when he confirmed that the rules were being withdrawn for unspecified changes.

EC Statement from 9th September 2016

A few days ago, the Commissions services started a consultation on the draft measures related to the end of roaming charges foreseen in June 2017. In light of the initial feed-back received, President Juncker has instructed the services to withdraw that text and to work on a new proposal. For more than a decade, the Commission has been working hard to reduce roaming charges imposed on European travellers. Indeed, since 2007 roaming prices have decreased by more than 90% for calls, text messages and data. When the European Parliament and the Council agreed to the Commissions proposal to abolish roaming charges, they asked the Commission to define measures to prevent roaming services from being used for other reasons than periodic travelling (so-called fair use policy). A new proposal will be presented soon.

At this stage its unclear if the new proposal will be an improvement or something far worse. Its not as if the existing approach hasnt already taken the best part of two years to reach this point and the last minute political meddling is merely another headache for all those involved.
Apple's new iOS 10 will be released on Tuesday, Sept. 13, with several interesting feature updates.

iOS 10 Release

According to MacWorld, Apple's latest mobile operating system, iOS 10, was first announced on June 13, 2016, at WWDC in San Francisco. A series of beta versions of iOS 10 have been released by Apple since then.

All members of its iOS beta program have been notified by Apple in an email that the iOS 10 final release candidate has being rolled out on September 9. The iOS 10 GM candidate can be installed from Software Update.

In the coming weeks, the company will start shipping the final versions to customers worldwide. Apple will roll out the final iOS 10 public version to iPhone 5 on September 13. Later on, the iOS 10 will come to the iPad Air, iPad 4, iPad mini 2 and later generations.

The three/four-month gap between the final public release and the iOS 10 first announcement allowed Apple developers to add new features to their third-party iOS apps and to correct any bugs. The iOS 10 update will come with upgrades and new interesting features. According to Apple's website, the iOS 10 is company's biggest release yet and everything users of its mobile operating system love is now even better.

iOS Top Features:

Quick Message Feature

According to Latin Post, the new iOS 10 update introduces a Tapback feature that allows users choosing from six different quick responses when they don't have enough time to text.

Messaging

Users of iOS 10 will be able to send a text message in their own handwriting.

Multi-tasking + iMessage Apps

The new iMessage Apps will allow users of iOS 10 to access their favorite apps while they are still texting. Without ever leaving the message App users will be able to share content, make payments and more.

Invisible Ink

It will be possible to send messages that remain hidden until users swipe to reveal them.

Better emoji

Sketckes, heartbeats, fireballs and more have been added as emojis. Users can tap over words to exchange them with emojis or draw over videos just like Snapchat.

Stickers

Stickers available in the new App Store for iMessage can help users of iOS 10 to make their photos look better.

Maps

With iOS 10 the Maps App can make better suggestions, help search for coffee, restaurants and gas stations and help taking a faster route.

Better Music

While listening to their favorite song, users will be able to view lyrics.

Home App Integration With Home Appliances

The new Home App will allow users to unlock doors, turn on lights and raise window shades in their home.

Smarter Siri

Siri has just become smarter with the iOS 10 update. The personal digital assistant will help users to navigate their apps better than before. Siri can send money with Squar, book a Lyft or taxi and much more.
After passing the 10 million sales mark, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has finally released an official starter kit for its low cost microcomputer.

Raspberry Pi Starter Kit

According to the Raspberry Pi Foundation's official blog, the non-profit organization has released a premium bundle for the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, complete with cables, keyboard and optical mouse. A screen is the only element still missing to create a full-fledged computer.

Users that are interested in the official Pi starter can order it online in the U.K. from the Foundation's distributors RS Components and element14. The Raspberry Pi starter kit costs 99 (+VAT). In markets located in the rest of the world sales are expected to open up over the next few weeks.

According to Tech Crunch, for the Foundation that created the original Raspberry Pi the starter kit is something of a full revolution. The concept behind the Raspberry Pi was created with the intention of inspiring students to learn programming by messing around with wires and cables rather than being handed a plug and play box.

When the Raspberry Pi launched back in 2012, it was hardly the first single-board computer (SBC). The microcomputer wasn't even the only popular one among hobbyists, according to Slash Gear. But when interest in computers and programming started to grow, the popularity of the Raspberry Pi microcomputers started to grow as well.

With more than 10 million of its single board Pi microcomputers sold four and a half years later, the Raspberry Pi Foundation considered that it's time to put a cherry on top of their project with the white starter kit. The market for Pi will surely accommodate a premium bundle that, while continuing to support expanding access to computing in developing markets, is most likely to appeal to gizmo lovers in the Western world.

The official Pi starter kit includes an official case, a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, an 8GB NOOBS SD card, An official 1m HDMI cable, an official 2.5A multi-region power supply, a keyboard with high-quality scissor-switch action, an optical mouse and a copy of Adventures in Raspberry Pi Foundation Edition.
Celebrity couples come and go. This time, it might be Robert Pattinson and FKA Twigs turn.

Rumors about the couple's split are undying and with the two being mum about the issue, it only intensifies. Reports claim that Pattinson is spending less time with FKA Twigs and that they are drifting away from each other.

It can be recalled that last year, the couple also faced the same issue. However, sources close to Pattinson revealed in an interview that the actor's wedding to FKA Twigs was now "off the agenda".

"They've definitely drifted and have barely spoken while he's in Belfast and she's been in the States," the source revealed about the couple's conflicting schedules.

Recently, neither Pattinson nor FKA Twigs was in attendance at the MTV Video Music Awards despite Twigs' multiple nominations. It was reported that Pattinson was in Los Angeles while FKA Twigs remained in Philadelphia for a performance.

These led fans to speculate that two are indeed spending time off and that their conflicting schedule might be the cause of a possible split.

And now new reports surfaced that the actor was the one who called off their wedding. The reason? He is allegedly depressed over Kristen Stewart's possible engagement to girlfriend Alicia Cargile.

Pattinson is reportedly devasted when he learned about Stewart's plan to settle down with Cargile leading fans to believe that the actor still has feelings towards his ex-girlfriend. In fact, avid fans of the "Twilight" couple are still hopeful that they will rekindle their relationship.

However, that might be far-fetched since Stewart is allegedly a huge fan of Pattinson and FKA Twigs as a couple. Not to mention, the actress' steady relationship with Cargile.

The 26-year old actress thinks that the Pattinson and FKA Twigs are a perfect match. It was even reported that FKA Twigs reached out to Stewart for some advice since she "understands him almost better than anyone." And with the recent status of the couple, others speculate that Stewart might help save the relationship.

No confirmation has been made yet regarding Robert Pattinson and FKA Twigs split rumors. Fans will have to wait see what unfolds for this couple in the next days to come.
The suspect's tattooed back, in a police shot.

Spains National Police force has arrested a man known as The Mexican on suspicion of being one of the leaders of the international criminal organization known as Mara 18. He is thought to have been tasked with starting a new chapter of the violent gang in Spain.

The organizations main sources of income include extortion (especially of businesspeople and store owners), express kidnappings, gun and drug trafficking, and squatting in buildings that are later illegally leased to tenants. The individual, who was arrested in the Madrid suburb of Leganes, will remain in custody until his deportation from Spain.

The Mara 18 chief was carrying a fake ID when he was arrested

The Mara gang began in the 1980s in the United States, born out of social marginalization, family conflicts and petty crime. They are organized via a system of chapters, or clicas  groups of 25 to 50 young people who have chosen crime as a way of life. Though the first members were from El Salvador, Maras have now spread to Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia.

The investigation that led to The Mexicans arrest was a joint effort between the Spanish National Police and law enforcement agencies in Honduras and El Salvador. According to their findings, Mara 18 leaders had instructed their members in Spain to start an active chapter in the country.

When investigators identified and located The Mexican, he already had several legal claims against him. The Mara 18 chief was carrying a fake ID when he was arrested. According to the police, he had committed fraud in order to obtain documents for a legal stay in Spain. The investigation into his activities in Spain remains open.

English version by Dyane Jean Francois.
Its not uncommon for people to overlook the IBM i Power Systems platform when it is data warehouse project planning time. Laura Hamway sees things differently. Hamway is a consultant who works primarily with manufacturing companies running Infors LX ERP systems, which most people refer to as BPCS, the name of the software before the Infor acquisition. She helps these organizations consolidate data from multiple systems, which allows a single, summary view. More analysis. Less inefficiency. Better business. Theres too much data for ease of use in transactional applications like BPCS, MAPICS, JD Edwards and other ERP software that provides very detailed data. Most of the frustration that Ive been hearing over the past 20 years is that the reporting in the packaged ERP systems is not sufficient, Hamway says. Some have gotten better, but there are always some things the customers want that are not available in the ERP. Data collection is not usually part of the ERP software. So companies with a financial system or sales system or logistics system thats different from the core ERP needs to have that data from the other systems married to the transactional data from BPCS. If you need a report on transactions for the past two weeks, for instance, that can be done very easily. But if you want to analyze trends or see where there are hiccups, theres no reporting for that. Where to run a data warehouse is often a quick decision. Move all the data to SQL Server is, by far, the most common course of action. Keeping analytical workloads separate from production systems is a position that makes sense to some, while others believe whatever platform collects the operational data should house the data warehouse. Integrate And Interface Consolidating data from multiple sources is the best reason, but some would also note the typical transactional database architecture isnt designed for analytical uses. It was designed for operational data. DB2 for i, however, has supported several OLAP functionssuch as rank, dense rank, and row numberfor some time. And with IBM i 7.3, new functions, such as cumulative distribution support and lag and lead capabilities were added. There are also data warehouse experts who believe whatever platform collects the operational data should house the data warehouse. Like a lot of IT decisions, it should come down to the topic of skills. When theres a knowledgeable IBM i staff, familiar with the tools and languages of the data coming from multiple sources, the warehouse belongs on the i. We just dont see that happening all that often. What we do see is minimal staffing applied to IBM i and lots of staffing applied to Windows. The biggest problem is that IT staffs are overwhelmed with what they already have on their plates, Hamway says. Theres no time to research before making a move. So they do what they can by creating more queries and RPG reports, and that makes a few people happy. If they looked at a bigger picture, looked to the future, they would become proactive rather than reactive. As that happens, the value of the proactive projects will be more apparent. Because the existing workloads on IT staff are already pretty heavy, a consultant like Hamway ends up doing quite a bit of the work, which is integration orientedgetting systems to talk with one anotherand automating steps. Ive become pretty good at cutting projects into smaller sections so that it can be fit into the workday of the internal people. I dont want this to be something they cant understand or support in the future, she says. One of the cautions that Hamway emphasizes with regard to data warehousing projects is that they can easily become monsters. Creating A Monster Often a project starts out with small requirements, but quickly grow into big requirements. They need to be managed, she notes. Companies with small IT staffs have trouble handling this. Her advice is to understand, in the early planning stages, what the business needs to get out of the project and avoid viewing the project entirely from a technical perspective. Some companies already have reports that duplicate efforts to some degree and they dont clean this up as they move into new report writing technology. Adding selection criteria usually brings a reduction in the number of reports necessary. Creating unnecessary reports or duplicating results in several reports is time-consuming and costly in the long run. Determine the business reasons for having so many reports. That usually reduces the number, she says. I havent seen an ERP product that can do the whole data collection aspect of what companies need. It comes down to the customization of what each customer wants and not being satisfied with only what the packaged software provides. To make it easy to customize and add other apps, the ERP software only needs to provide the hooks. The ERP software company cant know all the possible add-ons and interfaces a company will want. Although most will happily provide the development services that build the bridges. Fighting The Current There are a lot of IBM midrange shops that are not current with the software or the IBM i OS. They let it lapse and think they are saving money. Of course, they do save money in the short term. Highly customized BPCS shops have a lot to test when changes in BPCS are made. There can be hundreds of programs to test. Its a project in and of itself, Hamway says. Eventually they turn to consultants to help them figure out problems. The majority of my customers are still doing green-screen DDS development using SEU. I try to raise the awareness of RDi, free-format RPG, and the use of change management software, she says. In the manufacturing area theres not a lot of shops building SQL databases. Its a time and budget question. If you have the time and budget, do modernization as soon as possible. After it is completed, it will save a huge amount of time and allow IT to be more productive doing things other than putting out fires and concocting piecemeal solutions. When the data warehouse is built before modernization takes place, it will take some reworking of these data collection processes when modernization does take place. However, it wont mean going back to square one if the planning is done right and a good data warehouse structure is built. New IBM i Conference Hamway has applied a lot of time and effort into organizing an IBM i technical conference, which will take place October 6 and 7 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. This two-day educational conference is being planned as the starting point for a new IBM i local user group in the greater Washington, D.C., area. A conference agenda, session schedule, list of speakers and list of participating vendors can be found online. The event is taking place at the Wyndham Hotel. RELATED STORIES DB2 Web Query For i Now Supports External Databases SEQUEL Data Warehouse Picks Up Where RODIN Left Off dbFunnel Provides Native ETL For IBM i Relief for Third-Party Software Upgrade Paralysis SkyVault to Go Active in Early 2014, Infor Says Why You Need a Data Warehouse
The European Commission's proposal to make mobile phone roaming across the European Union free for just 90 days a year lasted less than a week. It's been withdrawn while a new policy is drafted.

The 90-day limit, and another setting the maximum continuous period of free roaming at 30 days, attracted criticism -- particularly from students hoping to use mobiles from their home countries while spending a year studying abroad.

Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker was in China when Brussels officials published the draft regulation for consultation on Sept. 5, but on his return told officials to start over.

"The president heard and saw the feedback that we received from consumer organizations, from parliamentarians, from stakeholders, from others. ... This proposal was in his view not adequate." said Commission Deputy Chief Spokesperson Alexander Winterstein.

"We have been listening, and now we are going back to the drawing board, and we will come up with a better proposal," he said.

The change of heart pleased members of the European Parliament.

"Free roaming should be free roaming all year round. By limiting it to 90 days, it felt like the Commission was backtracking on its promises," said Guy Verhofstadt of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe.

The 90-day limit had been selected so that 99 percent of EU travelers would pay no roaming surcharge, the Commission said when unveiling its proposal. The average trip lasts 12 days, Winterstein said.

He declined to comment on what the new proposal might be, but suggested that this week would be a good time to announce it. Juncker is scheduled to give the annual state of the European Union address on Tuesday.

However long it takes to agree on a new proposal, it will be in place in time to abolish roaming charges next year, Winterstein said.

He took exception to accusations that the Commission was "flip-flopping" on the policy, one of the centerpieces of its action on digital markets.

"What you call a flipflop, I call taking into account the feedback that we receive. Now, if that's flip-flopping, then yes, we will continue flip-flopping whenever stakeholders come forward with objections, whenever people respond to the public consultations that we offer."
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This Week in Review

A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more.
The poll, by the Training and enterprise council Aztec, which held its annual street survey to assess skills levels in the area, also found that 15 per cent lack management skills.

Almost everyone who responded felt they had at least basic literacy, numeracy and communications skills."
Pan-Turanism, not Islam, motivated the Armenian Genocide

A recently published book Remembering for the Future: Armenia, Auschwitz, and Beyond, edited by Michael Berenbaum, Richard Libowitz, and Marcia Sachs Littell, is a collection of scholarly papers delivered at a conference held at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, March 8-11, 2014. In his paper, The Armenian Genocide as Jihad, Prof. Richard Rubenstein attributes the Armenian mass killings to Islamic fanaticism against Christians. This is an often misunderstood topic even by Armenians who proudly proclaim that they were the first nation to adopt Christianity as state religion in 301 A.D. There is a whole folklore based on the misconception that Armenians were martyred because of their faith and refusal to convert to Islam. Given the current anti-Islamic fervor in the United States and elsewhere, some people are misled by these false claims. Prof. Rubenstein starts his paper on the wrong footing when he describes a gruesome scene from Ravished Armenia, a 1919 Hollywood silent film which showed several naked Armenian women nailed to wooden crosses. Believing that the Turks intended to send a particular anti-Armenian and anti-Christian message with such horrifying images, Prof. Rubenstein mistakenly claims that the movie could not have been filmed without the involvement and consent of Turkish authorities. Prof. Rubenstein bases his assumptions of the religious motive behind the Armenian Genocide on the fact that the Ottoman Empire was governed as a theocratic state at the apex of which stood the Sultan, both the supreme head of state and, for Sunni Muslims, the Caliph and, as such, the successor to the Prophet and supreme protector of Islam. The Professor insists on stipulating a religious causal factor for the Armenian Genocide, even after quoting from the eminent scholar Dr. Vahakn Dadrian, who contradicts him. According to Dadrian, the members of the Committee of Union and Progress or Ittihad who gained power in 1908 and masterminded the Armenian Genocide, were not followers of the tenets of Islam. While the Ittihad continued to run the State largely as a theocracy, its leaders were personally atheists and agnostics. It is difficult to believe that a devout Muslim would murder a single human being, let alone millions! Dr. Rubenstein emphasizes the central role of Islam in the Turkish mass killings of Armenians, even though he acknowledges that [Ronald] Suny and other scholars have argued that the predominant motive for the murderous homogenization project was nationalism and there is no doubt that radical nationalism played a part. Rubenstein dismisses the issue of Pan-Turkish nationalism, arguing that the most important motivation for the monumental ethnic cleansing projects was religious and specifically a consequence of the unchanging nature of certain aspects of Islam. To demonstrate that religion was a major determinant in the Turkish leaders designs, Prof. Rubenstein states: on November 2, 1914, the Ottoman Empire declared war on the Entente powers, Britain, France, Russia, and their allies. OnNovember 13, the Ottoman Sultan, in his capacity as Caliph, issued an appeal for jihad. The next day, Mustafa Hayri Bey, the Sheikh-ul-Islam, and as such the chief Sunni religious authority in the Ottoman world, issued a formal (and inflammatory) declaration of jihad against infidels and enemies of Islam. Jihad pamphlets in Arabic were also distributed in mosques throughout the Muslim world that offered a detailed plan of operations for the assassination and extermination of all unbelievers except those of German nationality, the Empires wartime ally. Killing squads and their leaders were motivated by both the ideology of jihad and Pan-Turkism influenced by European nationalism. While the practical influence of the jihad on the masses was limited, it later facilitated the governments program of genocide against the Armenians. Prof. Rubenstein misses the point that religious fervor, rather than being the cause of the Armenian Genocide, was exploited to inflame the passions of the fanatical Turkish mobs in order to provoke them against the Armenians. Instead of religion, the primary motivation for the destruction of Armenians was their removal as an impediment to Turkification and an obstacle to the Turkish leaders grand scheme of establishing a Pan-Turanist empire reaching Central Asia. Even though they were Muslims, a large number of Kurds were also killed, simply because they were not Turks! Christian Armenians had no conflict with devout Muslims and their faith. In fact, large numbers of survivors of the Armenian Genocide were sheltered by Muslims in, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. Armenians remember well The Sharif of Mecca, Al-Husayn ibn Ali, who issued an edict in 1917 ordering Muslims to defend Armenian survivors of the Genocide, as they would defend their own families. The Young Turks' plan to eliminate Armenians from Ottoman Turkey was motivated by Pan-Turkish fanatical nationalism rather than Pan-Islamic fervor! By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
Girl! Yes, you got that right, Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna is expecting a baby girl. The controversial couple revealed the news at the premiere of their show, "Rob & Chyna" on Sunday.

Rob Kardashian is vocal on his wish to have a son, but apparently luck isn't on his side when he would actually get a daughter. Although that, according to a USA Today report, Kardashian still gets emotional upon knowing the gender of his first born.

Rob links his hopes to have a son to relive the relationship he had with his dad. "But, I'm sure that I'll have the same relationship that I had with my father with my daughter," Kardashian shares before they revealed the gender in their show.

Aside from their baby girl, Chyna also revealed on their show, how concerned she is about Rob being the best he can be now that they're be building a family. "I really want Rob to be the best that he can be," Chyna shares.

Just like how Us Weekly puts it, "Rob & Chyna" is as intense as it can be, and even more, than "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" as the two also shared that Chyna has kicked Kardashian out of their home.

Meanwhile, there's another thing the only male Kardashian sibling gets concerned with--his health and weight gain.
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Police arrest man in bank robbery

Authorities arrested a 22-year-old man sought in the robbery of a Wells Fargo Bank on Saturday.

Michael Lawrence Hill was located and arrested by Winston-Salem police at about 6 p.m. Saturday, according to a news release. A firearm was recovered during the apprehension, police said.

At about 9:20 a.m. Saturday, a man entered the bank at 5995 University Parkway armed with a handgun. He told a teller that he was committing a robbery and demanded money. He fled with an undisclosed amount of money and no one was injured, police said.

Investigators developed Hill as a suspect during the day Saturday and obtained a warrant for his arrest for robbery with a dangerous weapon.

Hill was arrested just after midnight on Sunday, according to court papers.

Hill was being held in the Forsyth County Detention Center under a $75,000 secured bond, according to court papers. His next court date is Sept. 29 in Forsyth District Court.

Authorities are still investigating the circumstances of this crime and ask anyone with relevant information to contact them at (336) 773-7700 or CrimeStoppers at (336) 727-2800.

Journal staff

Police look for man in officers shooting

SHELBY  A North Carolina man is facing an attempted murder charge as a police officer fights for his life after suffering a gunshot wound.

Shelby police were searching Sunday for 23-year-old Irving Lucien Fenner Jr. of nearby Grover after Officer Tim Brackeen was shot early Saturday. Brackeen was in critical but stable condition after being shot in the torso. Police say he was protected by a bullet-resistant vest.

Police say the 38-year-old Brackeen has been on the police force for 12 years and is currently assigned as a K9 officer. He was named the Shelby departments officer of the year in 2012. He is married and has one daughter.

Police say Brackeen was shot while looking for a subject wanted on outstanding warrants.

The Associated Press

Conservative religious group targets voters

RALEIGH  A conservative political advocacy group began its intensive focus on the election swing state of North Carolina on Sunday as it barnstorms the country to urge evangelical Christians to vote their values.

The Family Research Council Actions coast-to-coast bus tour made its first visits to a series of Baptist churches and other locations in western North Carolina on Sunday.

The lobbying arm of the Washington, D.C-based council plans 144 stops from Florida to Oregon, with more than 100 in North Carolina.

Instead of spreading ourselves thin, we decided to do deeper in one state, Council President Tony Perkins said. We feel like we can make a difference in this presidential election.

In North Carolina, the group seeks to tip a single big state to electing like-minded candidates, Perkins said. The groups goals include banning abortion, public policies that favor heterosexual marriage, and fewer church-state restrictions.

North Carolina is shaping up to feature a number of tight races, and its the turnout thats going to make the difference, Perkins said.

The Associated Press
Experts: Seyran Ohanyans new position wont change much (video)

Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan may head the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in the near future. The Defense Ministry neither rejects nor confirms this news published by Russian Interfax agency, which cites its source in the Armenian Government. The government representative isnt aware of the possible appointment, too. At present I cannot mention anything connected concrete with candidacy, but you can be sure that the candidate will be a representative from Armenia, says Koryun Nahapetyan, Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Defense, National Security and Internal Affairs. The right to hold the position of the CSTO Secretary General on rotation basis can be transferred to each member state of the organization. Whether Seyran Ohanyan or someone else will be the representative from Armenian in that position, will be announced on October 14 at the CSTO Council session to be held in Yerevan. Of course the appointment of a representative from Armenia in the position of the CSTO Secretary General is beneficial for us, but we shouldnt exaggerate and think that we can expect the most beneficial solutions for us in all the issues only with that fact, says Mr Nahapetyan. Armenian political experts arent excited about the fact of having Armenian representative in the position of the CSTO Secretary General. According to their assessment, after that the union isnt likely to toughen its stance in case of another aggression by Azerbaijan on the borders of Armenia. Sergey Minasyan notes, We should understand that we shouldnt have too many expectations from the CSTO. For us the CSTO is significant with the fact that it is connected with bilateral Armenian-Russian military and military-technical relations. Political expert Ruben Mehrabyan explains, Statement can be made on behalf of the CSTO, when that statement is approved by all the member states of the CSTO. Taking into account the member states of that structure, we must realistically assess those chances. The experts note that this appointment will not influence NATO-Armenia relations. NATO states clearly realize that whoever Secretary General is, except for Russia no state makes decisions in the CSTO.
Shelby police officer Tim Brackeen, who was shot Saturday, died Monday at Carolinas Medical Center, his department said.

Brackeen died at 11:42 a.m., Shelby police Chief Jeff Ledford said in a statement. The suspect in the shooting will now face upgraded charges of first-degree murder, he said.

At this time our department asks for everyone to keep Officer Brackeens family and the entire department in their thoughts and prayers, the chief said.

Gov. Pat McCrory announced earlier Monday that the state is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the shooting.

Brackeen was shot in the line of duty Saturday in the area of Shelbys Parkview Street, while searching for a subject who was wanted on outstanding warrants. The 12-year veteran of the department was wearing a bullet-resistant vest when shot in the torso, officials said.

Investigators have identified the suspected gunman as Irving Lucien Fenner Jr., 23, of Grover, North Carolina.

Brackeen, 38, was assigned as a K9 officer, police said. He was named the Shelby departments officer of the year in 2012. He was married and had one daughter.

Anyone with information about this case has been asked to contact the Shelby Police Department at (704) 484-6845 or the State Bureau of Investigation at (919) 662-4500.

Mark Price: 704-358-5245, @markprice_obs
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By Erdag Goknar | (Los Angeles Review of Books) |  

MOHED ALTRADS DEBUT NOVEL Badawi begins in the Cold Warera Middle East, where the Bedouin tradition of a nomadic life struggles against modernity. Maiouf, whose mother was cast out of her marriage and later buried in an unmarked grave, finds himself discriminated against at his Syrian school for his Bedouin background and ostracized by his own people as a result of his mothers ordeal. Nevertheless, the boy takes pride in his ethnicity. A tribal elder teaches him:

All through the centuries, we, the Badawi  the Bedouins, as outsiders call us  have travelled the desert. We had to fight the sedentary peoples who claimed the lands we ventured across. All through the centuries they tried to rob us of these lands. But all through the centuries, our fathers managed to defeat them.

In his rural school, Maiouf (whose name translates to the abandoned one) observes the reinforcement of Arab national identity among his classmates: every morning they sing the national anthem and raise their countrys flag sanctimoniously. Though he is alienated from these displays, his state school education enables his upward mobility and eventual financial enfranchisement. Altrad sets his semi-autobiographical novel in the 1960s, when Syria is ruled by the socialist Baath Party, and he alludes to cultural and geopolitical issues that continue to inform the region today. In this tale of a boy caught between worlds, Altrad brings a sparse, lyrical quality to his prose that at times verges on the poetic.

Maiouf, ever the promising scholar, graduates to secondary school, located in the town of Raqqa. There, he learns the lessons of class consciousness and social status, becoming doubly aware of his place on the margins. While his classmates don European clothes, his old djellaba [robe] now betray[s] his origins a little more blatantly every day. He is exposed to a more diverse urban life and cosmopolitanism, a place where people from very varied backgrounds [live] alongside each other, a place where social differences [are] felt more acutely than in the villages. He also confesses that this exposure includes his contact with the banned Muslim Brotherhood, marking one of the few places in the novel in which his widening social circle includes the possibility of an Islamist identity. The setting is significant  Raqqa will be captured by the Islamic State in 2013 and become the capital city of ISIS, making the novel more relevant and tragic, as the story of perseverance and success we read is no longer possible in this particular setting.

Maiouf is steadily remodeled into a secular citizen of the Syrian republic. He falls in love with a girl, Fadia, who is also pursuing her education. Meanwhile, his uncle, a policeman, is framed for the murder of a fellow policeman by men intent on limiting Bedouin rights and is sentenced to prison for 20 years. Maiouf becomes accustomed to operating within authoritarian institutions  school, courthouse  and relinquishing some of his autonomy to the state. He places first in the regional university exams and is invited to Damascus, the capital, where he learns he will receive a scholarship to study in Montpellier, France. He excels in his course of study  petrochemistry  selected for him by the Baathist state.

In a letter to his beloved Fadia from Montpellier, Maiouf displays a keen eye for economic and social disparity, saying that the poor are sadder here  sadder than in our country, I mean. Its like theyve lost their dignity. But his French university experience takes him even further from his Badawi roots, leaving him less concerned about social strife or poverty than he is about his own advancement. On his first and only return to Syria, he feels as though all the years hed spent in this country, his country, had been erased by his time in France. This erasure is borne of the seductive power of his new life in a European town and the privilege that his French education bestows. Nevertheless, Maiouf is a stranger in both European and Middle Eastern cultural settings, a divided self  a common phenomenon of colonial subjects:

In France hed to some extent adopted the way Westerners think and behave, and back in his own country, it was these sensibilities that whispered in his ear, telling him he was a foreigner. He thought of all the immigrants hed met in France [] Still, he didnt know many who wanted to return to their own countries. That was true of him too: he did care for Syria but like a childhood memory.

By erasing his past, making him a foreigner in Syria, and turning his life as a Bedouin into a memory, Maioufs experience of France prepares the ground for an inner conflict that threatens to lead him into profound turmoil.

The tension between village and city is a common theme of Middle Eastern literature, and it is one that dominates the first part of the novel. Once Maiouf is living in Montepellier, this tension is outpaced by the cultural gulf between Syria and France, the clash between occident and orient. Maiouf changes his name to Qaher, meaning the victorious, and adopts European dress. In short, he undergoes one of those secular conversions that is often the target of ridicule on account of inauthenticity; Qaher becomes one of the arrogant authority figures he once despised. Broadly, the narrative shifts from the social engagement and activism of a young man dedicated to his people, to the atomized self-interest of an international engineer who makes a fortune in the Gulf working in the oil industry. Badawi becomes a coming-of-age story that traces social and political transformations, foreshadowing what we have witnessed in Syria since the end of the Cold War: the collapse of the social welfare state into eventual civil war and terrorism as a symptom of the onslaught of neoliberal capitalism.

Qaher faces a third transformation in Abu Dhabi, in the world of the neoliberal petrodollar, where he takes his first job in the United Arab Emirates. Here, he is an assimilated European, rather than a Syrian, regularly drinking bourbon with his co-workers after hours. He is part of the Syrian brain-drain, and memories of his lost homeland fill him with mixed emotions. It is in the Gulf that Qaher loses himself completely, a process that is precipitated by the visit of Fadia, now a teacher, with whom he has made vague plans for marriage and a new life.

Reunited with Fadia, he cant help but brag: The cities here are nothing like Aleppo or Damascus. Theyre rich, modern and efficient. And though he knows she hasnt been to Europe, he asks her pointedly, Have you ever been to the West? Qaher emphasizes the differences he perceives between the West and the Middle East  agency versus servitude: Hed had to learn to reason in a different way, to think and react like someone in control of things rather than subjected to them. He believes he has attained agency, an illusion predicated on a binary opposition between tradition and modernity, or poverty and wealth.

Fadias visit is followed by a fire in the sector of the oil refinery in which Qaher works, for which he is held under suspicion. Suddenly, the duality hes felt internally is made manifest, and he realizes that being an Arab among Europeans and a European among Arabs is a dangerous thing.

Qaher, unable to sustain the divided self he has cultivated, eventually attempts to abandon his Western life and return to the desert, reassuming the name Maiouf. The sacrifice he makes is absolute. It is perhaps implied that native Badawi identity cannot coexist with modern life. Yet Maioufs return to the desert strikes a false note: an apology for the guilt of neoliberal success, which has made him despise, even hate, his origins. The reader is pushed to suspend disbelief when he embraces his authentic origins after a decade of denying them:

He would never be anything but a Badawi, a child of the desert [] Qaher had wanted to break away from his origins [] But at the same time hed become deaf to the beating of his own heart, hed wanted to believe hed freed himself of the desert, and that it would never try to get him back again.

Badawi is rendered, for the most part, gracefully from the French by Adriana Hunter. It reaches its US audience belatedly; the novel was originally published in French in 1994. With its focus on the themes of abandonment, loss, success, and redemption among Syrians at home and abroad, the novel sheds light on the refugee crisis that has dominated headlines over the past two years. It is a revealing account that is certain to find its place in university classrooms. Nevertheless, it must be noted that Maioufs exile from Syria, however trying, owes to the privilege of education rather than the exigencies of dire poverty or state violence.

Today, Syria is in a civil war, neighboring states and Europe are flooded with refugees, France has been hit by the suicide bombers of ISIS, and the UAE is guided by the strict principles of Islamic autocracy. It is possible to read the unraveling of the Syrian state as an imminent subtext of Badawi. The embattled ideology of Baathism, for example, extends to the present day under the rule of Bashar al-Assad. The novel is contextualized by the international forces that have decimated that country and the region: the legacies of European colonialism, authoritarian Cold War nationalism, and the ideology and funding of Islamic extremism based in the Gulf.

In 2012, the Academy of Montpellier recommended Badawi for its curriculum in regional schools, doubtless as a lens into the tense history of North Africans and Middle Easterners in Europe. Altrad has two subsequent novels on similar themes, which promise to appear in English before long: The Hypothesis of God (2006) and The Promise of Annah (2012). Much of the novel is true to Altrads own life, but while Badawi is a rags-to-riches story that ends in tragedy, Altrads own story ends happily. He has been dubbed the Bedouin Billionaire, and lives in Montpellier.

Finally, Badawi makes a subtle case for the importance of free access to education and opportunity for the poor; it is, in short, a story about the value of secular social modernity. Granted, Maiouf ends up rejecting this privilege, perhaps because he misreads it as being a zero-sum decision between ones origins and ones enfranchisement. In contrast, the author Altrad understands the nuance of a hyphenated life. Altrads life story itself is argument for an investment in civic society, pointing to a need for precisely those things being denied to the waves of Syrian refugees flowing into Europe: access to education, social welfare, and opportunity spaces. Stories like Altrads, at the very least, are necessary because they remind us that past successes might be repeated with the end of civil war and the defeat of ISIS. Todays Syria is no longer known for producing engineers, but refugees. This is the underlying tragedy that haunts Altrads account and serves as an indictment of the failures of international policies in Syria.



Erdag Goknar is director of the Duke University Middle East Studies Center and associate professor in the Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies. He is the author of Orhan Pamuk, Secularism and Blasphemy: The Politics of the Turkish Novel (Routledge, 2013) and is an award-winning literary translator.

Republished with authors permission from The Los Angeles Review of Books
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Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

Hizbullah, the national guard for South Lebanon, announced Saturday that it supports the agreement on a truce in Syria, where its fighters have been battling on behalf of the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Its statement said that the field commander for operations in Syria has affirmed that allies of Syria are abiding in a complete and exact fashion with what has been decided by the Syrian leadership and the government and the security and political leadership with regard to the truce and to respecting their decisions and implementing them in the desired manner.

Damascus itself signed off on the truce agreement worked out between the United States and the Russian Federation, which aims at an immediate tamping down of violence and and kickstarting negotiations toward achieving a political transition.

It is estimated that that 5,000 to 8,000 Hizbullah militiamen are fighting at various fronts in Syria.

Hizbullah receives military and financial support from Iran, which also welcomed the truce on Sunday.

The truce is supposed to come into effect Monday evening, in conjunction with the Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim holy day.

Hizbullah said that it would continue its open war against terrorist excommunicators, i.e. groups that try to throw other Muslims out of Islam and target them for violence. (The Salafi vigilantes in Syria consider Shiites to be heretics deserving of death.)

For its part, Iran said that the agreement, which it welcomed, needed a monitoring instrument so that what it called terrorist groups did not exploit the truce.

The office of Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif welcomed the Russo-American understanding. Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said that Iran looked forward to the implementation of any truce in Syria. He said its success would depend on the establishment of means to monitor the border so as to stop the flow of terrorist volunteers and weapons and finances.

It should be noted that the regimes Syrian Arab Army and its Shiite militia allies, including Hizbullah, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, and the Iraqi Movement of the Noble (Harakat al-Nujaba) at the moment have East Aleppo surrounded and besieged, and that the truce requires allowing civilian aid to reach it. Will they give up their current advantage and allow these supplies in?



Related video:

Press TV: Iran welcomes Russia-US ceasefire deal for Syria
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By Mohammed Nuruzzaman | (Informed Comment) |  

The failed July 15 coup in Turkey has generated a whole range of debates on who was really behind the coup, Turkeys future relations with NATO and the U.S., and President Erdogans possible pivot to Russia and Iran. A more serious debate that did not receive much media attention is the intra-Muslim debate  the controversies between the Muslim modernists and the Muslim traditionalists concerning the coup. The Turkish media are reporting the debates over the Gulenist treason illuminating whether or not Fethullah Gulen and his supporters, who are branded Muslim modernists, used or misused Islamic belief and ideals to orchestrate the coup, and for what end results.

Turkish theologians with modernist leanings point out that the Gulenists, who are part of the mainstream Sunni tradition in Turkey, believe in some kind of messianic rule  in a notion like the advent of Imam Mahdi at the end of times to revive justice worldwide. To many of his supporters, Gulen is the messiah, and their attempts to capture state power were linked up to this belief. The Gulenists had also opened up interfaith dialogue with the Christians and a number of Jewish organizations to promote exchange of ideas and cooperation across religious boundaries, an objective other modernists have often advocated.

traditionalists, in contrast, offer a diametrically opposite explanation about Gulen and his movement. They see the Gulenists as deviants from the mainstream Sunni tradition, as their social and political goals closely resemble the reformist agenda of the nineteenth century modernists, principally Sayed Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (18381897) and his Egyptian disciple Muhammad Abduh (1849 1905). As reformists, the Gulenists hardly hold on to the pure Sunni creed of Islam. Furthermore, the traditionalists consider modernist, rationalist theology as heresy, pure and simple.

Although quite old, the debates between modernists and traditionalists continue to immensely dominate Islamic philosophy and theology which, in turn, influence contemporary Muslim political and social activism. It may be of interests to briefly look at the issues at stake in the debates between the two rival Islamic camps.

There are three significant elements the Muslim traditionalists emphasize: i) the sacred religious texts  the Quran and the Hadiths (sayings and practices of Prophet Muhammad) are eternal and timeless; ii) Muslims salvation lies in their firm belief in and hold onto the guidelines contained in the sacred texts, and organizing their social and political systems accordingly. There is no need for rationalist theology or rationalist pursuit of knowledge, which the secular Western countries follow, outside the boundary of the sacred texts; and iii) a binary division of the world into Dar al-Islam (zone of peace) and Dar al-Harb (zone of conflict) that draws a dividing line between Islam and non-Islam.

Note that such a division of the world has no broad Islamic support. The Hanafi School of Islamic jurisprudence referred to such dual categorizations while the three other Sunni schools of jurisprudence  Shafii, Maliki, and Hanbali  saw it as a temporary issue. Neither the Quran nor the Hadiths has any particular sanctions for an Islam versus non-Islam typology.

Muslim modernists, on the other hand, put forward alternative ideas and visions to help the Muslims adapt to changing times and realities. They argue that Islam is an all-embracing ideology with a sense of purpose, a distinct community identity and a set of moral and ethical rules to organize Muslim community life. What is needed is the scientific pursuit of knowledge to improve Muslim life qualities and to open up the avenues of interactions with non-Islamic civilizations to promote productive mutual understandings. Islam does not prohibit the rationalist or scientific pursuits of knowledge, and the binary division of the world is obsolete, crafted only to hinder civilizational interactions and progress across diverse faith traditions. Muslims salvation lies in a modernist approach to spurt progress to arrest their economic and political decline, which explicitly started with the abolition of the Ottoman Empire in early 1924 followed by European encroachments in and domination over the entire Mideast.

Differences in theological or philosophical visions and interpretations notwithstanding, the Muslim modernists as well as the traditionalists share a common objective  the capture of state power. Their lust for state power is common, though the methods they employ to capture power are diverse. The original idea for state power came from Ibn Taymiyyah, a thirteenth century Sunni theologian and scholar with strong roots in the Hanbali School of Islamic jurisprudence. Ibn Taymiyyah argued for the force of the law, rather than individual virtues of the rulers, to protect original Islam. In other words, Islamic Faith must be backed by state power, for state power is essential to implement and defend Islamic belief system socially, politically and culturally. State power is also a safeguard against foreign intruders like the Mongol invaders who converted to Islam but misinterpreted the Faith to cling to power.

The Gulenists attempted to seize state power through a military coup, a process largely facilitated by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP). The AKP won electoral verdict first in 2002, having no strong support base in the army, bureaucracy and other state organizations. Under pressures from the secular Kemalists, the AKP forged an alliance with Fethullah Gulen whose supporters gradually replaced the Kemalists in all important power bases in Turkish politics, what eventually overwhelmed President Erdogan giving him a bitter wake-up call through the July 15 abortive coup.

The Muslim traditionalists have more resorted to direct wars or revolutions to achieve their political goals. Back in 1932, the bond between the Al-Saud dynasty and the religious fighters of the Sunni Wahhabi tradition created the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through the sword. Late King Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud organized a powerful tribal army to crush his opponents in the Arabian Peninsula  Sharif Hussein bin Ali of Mecca, who conspired with the British during World War I to drive the Ottomans out of the Arab Middle East, and Saud ibn Rashid of Jabal Shammar, a tribal state in the central Najd region of present-day Saudi Arabia.

Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini was an exception in that he captured power in 1979 through a religious revolution backed by popular support. Though it is difficult to definitively say whether Khomeini was a traditionalist or a modernist (since he emphasized strict adherence to Islamic Faith and was also open to scientific pursuit of knowledge to modernize the Iranian society), he set up a precedent  not only Marxism-inspired proletariat but also religiously motivated mass people can successfully carry out revolution, even by defying the hegemonic power of the time. Khomeinis revolution succeeded in legitimizing state power in the name of Islam; it gave Iran some sort of a new ideological and political identity, what he called neither East nor West, the Islamic Republic  an alternative to Eastern socialism and Western liberalism.

The radical traditionalists, grouped under al-Qaeda and the ISIS, have preferred the outright use of force against their local and foreign opponents  who are respectively branded near enemy and far enemy. ISIS is bent on reviving the Islamic Caliphate, modelled on the original Islamic State Prophet Muhammad established in Medina in the first half of the seventh century, though it remains uncertain whether it can survive the war Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi initiated against the whole world in the summer of 2014. They remain more wedded to the radical thinking of Egyptian Islamist thinker Sayyid Qutb who labelled the West a jahiliyya (ignorance of Divine Guidance) and advocated jihad to dislodge the forces of jahiliyya from the Middle East.

Whatever methods the Muslim modernists and traditionalists use to achieve their ultimate goals, that is, state power to protect Islam, the debates between them appear an endless process. We can expect the debates to surge often, at least occasionally, in the volatile Middle East region.

Dr. Mohammed Nuruzzaman is Associate Professor of International Relations, Gulf University for Science and Technology, West Mishref, Kuwait

E-mail: nuruzzaman.m@gust.edu.kw

Research Webpage: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mohammed_Nuruzzaman



Related video added by Juan Cole:

TRT World: A Failed Coup: From the eyes of journalists
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Sept. 12, 2016) - Rockcliff Copper Corporation ("Rockcliff "or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:RCU) today announced that the Company has acquired an option to earn a 100% interest in the Laguna Gold Property which hosts the high grade Laguna gold mine. The gold property is strategically located 20km southeast of Snow Lake, Manitoba and near Rockcliff's existing high grade copper-rich Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) deposits.

The Laguna gold mine is the highest grade former gold mine in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake mining camp. Historical intermittent gold mining from the Laguna vein between 1916 and 1939 from approximately 101,012 tonnes averaged 18.5 g/t gold (0.54 opt) and produced over 60,000 ounces of gold. The vein remains open along strike and at depth and the property has additional surface high grade lode gold-rich quartz veins for exploration.

President & CEO of Rockcliff, Ken Lapierre commented, "The Laguna Gold property was the highest grade lode-gold producer in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake greenstone belt. Laguna is part of a unique list of gold deposits with grades above 10g/t that make up less than 5% of all deposits globally and is part of Snow Lake's rich history of gold and VMS mining. It complements our goal of acquiring the highest grade metal deposits in the Snow Lake camp. With multiple high grade gold-rich quartz veins throughout the property and no diamond drilling since the 1940s, our exploration program will begin immediately and include geology, geophysics and a planned first phase drill program during the first quarter of 2017 or earlier."

Preliminary due diligence grab sampling by Rockcliff at Laguna confirmed the presence of high grade lode-gold mineralization throughout the property from at least six gold-rich quartz veins. Grab samples ranged from trace to 264.65g/t gold. Visible gold was observed in outcrop.

Table 1: A total of 28 due diligence grab samples by Rockcliff are tabulated below.

Location Gold g/t Comment Grab Sample # Bingo zone 4.15 quartz-muscovite schist 465131 Bingo zone 0.18 quartz vein 465132 Bingo zone 7.85 quartz muscovite schist 465133 Bingo zone 0.15 muscovite schist 465134 Bingo zone 2.00 quartz muscovite schist 465135 Laguna zone 30.13 quartz vein 465136 Laguna zone 72.17 quartz vein 465137 Laguna zone 264.65 sediments 465138 Laguna zone 142.75 quartz vein 465139 Laguna south zone 3.94 sediments 465147 Laguna south zone 2.43 quartz vein 465148 Laguna south zone 81.29 quartz vein 465149 Laguna south zone 0.27 quartz vein 465151 Laguna south zone 0.93 quartz vein 465152 Laguna south zone 0.05 quartz vein 465153 Prospect zone 14.33 quartz vein 465142 Prospect zone 2.62 quartz vein 465143 Prospect zone 3.46 schist wall rock 465144 Prospect zone 4.66 quartz vein 465145 Prospect zone 13.20 quartz vein 465146 Number 34 zone 1.85 quartz vein 465154 Number 34 zone 8.85 quartz vein 465155 Moosehorn zone 51.54 quartz vein 465156 Kisk #1 zone 12.07 quartz vein 465157 Kisk #1 zone 0.07 quartz vein 465158 Kisk #1 zone 0.03 quartz vein 465159 Kisk #1 zone 0.16 quartz vein 465161 Kisk #1 zone 0.03 quartz vein 465162

The Laguna Property includes 15 contiguous mining claims totalling 920 hectares and is located approximately 20 km southeast of the Town of Snow Lake. The Laguna gold mine infrastructure consists of a three compartment vertical shaft to 381 meters and 8 levels totalling over 3.0 km of underground drift and stope development. The property is strategically near Snow Lake, home to a former million ounce lode-gold producer and a fully functional non-operating 2,150 tonne per day gold mill facility.

The gold mineralization on the Laguna property is metallogenically controlled by subsidiary thrust faults attributed to the major Crowduck Bay Fault which crosses the entire length of the property a distance of 3.5 km. The gold-rich quartz veining along the northwest limb of the Herb Lake Syncline typically occurs where the subsidiary faults intersect quartz-feldspar and biotite porphryry stocks that intrude Missi Group sedimentary and volcanic rocks. Quartz-iron carbonate-albite-sericite alteration commonly overprint peak regional metamorphic assemblages within auriferous vein margins. Mineralization in quartz and surrounding wall rock consists of pyrite, arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, galena, pyrrhotite, native gold and telluride. Gangue mineralization is in the form of tourmaline and fuchsite.

Rockcliff can acquire a 100% interest in the Laguna Gold Property by paying an aggregate of $200,000 cash and issuing 750,000 shares over a four (4) year period. Expenditures over five (5) years total $1,000,000 with a minimum $100,000 in expenditures in any year. The vendor will retain a 2.5% NSR on the property of which one 1.5% NSR can be purchased at any time for $500,000 per 0.5% NSR. The vendor's remaining NSR will be subject to a first right of refusal in favour of Rockcliff from 0.5% NSR up to 1.0% NSR on certain claims of the property. An advance royalty payment of $35,000/year to the vendor begins after year five (5) of the option and is capped at $175,000. The advanced royalty payment will be repaid from production on the property.

Rock samples are taken in the field, packaged and shipped directly from Rockcliff's field office to TSL Laboratories (TSL), Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. TSL is a Canadian assay laboratory and is accredited under ISO/IEC 17025. Each bagged rock sample is dried, crushed to 70% passing 10 mesh and a 250g pulp is pulverized to 95% passing 150 mesh for assaying. A 0.5g cut is taken from each pulp for base metal analysis (if needed) and leached in a multi acid (total) digestion and then analyzed for copper, lead, zinc and silver by atomic absorption. Gold concentrations are determined by fire assay using a 30g charge followed by fire assay gravimetric an atomic absorption finish. Samples greater than an upper detection limit (3000 ppb) are reanalyzed using a 1 AT charge. Rockcliff inserted certified blanks and standards in the sample stream to ensure lab integrity.

Ken Lapierre P.Geo., President and CEO of Rockcliff., a Qualified Person in accordance with Canadian regulatory requirements as set out in NI 43-101, has read and approved the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for the disclosure contained in this press release.

The transaction is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.

Please visit our website at www.rockcliffcoppercorp.com for additional information.

About Rockcliff Copper Corporation

Rockcliff is a Canadian resource exploration company focused on the discovery, exploration and advancement of high grade VMS and gold-rich deposits near Snow Lake located in central Manitoba, Canada. The project totals in excess of 35,000 collective hectares and hosts high grade copper-rich deposits and a high grade former lode-gold producer. The VMS properties contain two high grade VMS NI 43-101 Resources (the Talbot Deposit and the Rail Deposit), a net smelter return royalty on the Tower Property, which hosts the T-1 Copper Deposit, and one historic high grade VMS deposit (the Lon Deposit). The VMS deposits represent the highest grade unmined copper-rich VMS deposits in the entire greenstone belt. The primary lode-gold property hosts the former highest grade gold producer (the Laguna Gold Mine) near Snow Lake. Rockcliff also owns a zinc-silver rich NI 43-101 Resource (the Shihan Deposit) in Ontario and a royalty on two gold properties in Colombia, South America.

Rockcliff is well funded with over $3.0M in its treasury and no debt.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This news release includes forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from the historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward looking. Although Rockcliff believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, continued availability of capital and financing, exploration results, and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required by law.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Sept. 12, 2016) - Callinex Mines Inc. (the "Company" or "Callinex") (TSX VENTURE:CNX)(OTCQX:CLLXF) is pleased to announce an updated mineral resource estimate on its Nash Creek zinc project (the "Project"), located in the prolific Bathurst Mining Camp ("BMC") of New Brunswick, Canada. Refinement of the previous estimate indicates the Project hosts a larger and higher grade deposit than previously disclosed on May 18, 2016. The Indicated mineral resource totals 9.0 Mt at an average grade of 3.58% zinc equivalent ("Zn Eq.") containing 711,991,000 Zn Eq. lbs and an Inferred mineral resource totaling 1.1 Mt at an average grade of 3.58% Zn Eq. containing 87,883,000 Zn Eq. lbs (See Table 2).

The current mineral resource estimate is based on two of five known mineralized areas, the Hickey and Hayes deposits, where 220 holes totaling 26,835 meters have been drilled by previous operators at the Project since 2004 (See Figure 1). The mineral resources in the Hayes Zone are located within 250 meters from surface and in the Hickey Zone within 110 meters as numerous stacked and sub-horizontal, to gently inclined, tabular bodies. Additional mineralized areas adjacent to the north and east of these deposits are not included within the current resource estimate. Callinex's technical team has also identified exploration potential to the south where the Hayes Zone may be open for expansion.

President and CEO, Max Porterfield, stated, "This latest accomplishment significantly enhances the potential viability of the Nash Creek Project. We believe this project has significant merit given the size of the near-surface resource, proximity to mining infrastructure and positive metallurgical results which have indicated that the average grade of material can be upgraded through a Dense Media Separation process." Mr. Porterfield continued, "Projects such as Nash Creek, with high leverage to zinc prices within established mining jurisdictions, will benefit significantly in a rising zinc price environment."

The current estimate incorporates more than 4,000 specific gravity measurements and includes detailed modelling of mineralized zones not included within the previous resource estimate. As a result, Indicated mineral resources increased in terms of total tonnes by 16% and increased in grade by 6%. Inferred mineral resources, which consist of only a small portion of the mineral resources, declined in terms of total tonnes by 8% but increased in grade by 14%. Mineralized boundaries were set at 2% Zn Eq. and designed to include minimal dilution.

The Nash Creek Project is located within the Bathurst Mining Camp ("BMC") and benefits from excellent infrastructure including a power-line, railway and major highway transecting or adjacent to the Project. Additionally, two processing facilities, a seaport and a lead smelter are located within 100 kilometers by road. The BMC has been one of the most productive and economically significant mining districts in the world. In total, more than 130 million tonnes of ore have been extracted from ten mines, nearly all of which has been mined since the 1950s.

A review of historical drilling concurrent with several geophysical anomalies suggests additional exploration has potential to significantly increase the current mineral resource estimate. In particular, the Central Zone which, lies 1.6 kilometers to the east of the Hayes and Hickey Zones, was discovered by drilling in 2005 and is coincident with a geochemical and airborne EM anomaly. There is a 1,000 meter wide gap which is mostly untested by historic drilling between the Central Zone and the existing mineral resources (See Figure 1).

The mineral resource estimate utilized metallurgical recoveries of 90.5% for zinc, 81.5% for lead and 50% for silver based on preliminary flotation studies. In 2011, four composite samples were submitted to RPC to evaluate potential for a pre-concentration process known as Dense Media Separation ("DMS"). DMS is a well-established process designed to concentrate sulphide mineralization and reject fine alteration clays thereby increasing the average head grade of material for mill processing.

The DMS results demonstrated significant upgrading potential ranging from a 40% to 173% increase in the average head grade of material with only an indicated loss of less than 10% of the contained sulphides (See Table 1).

Table 1: Initial results from preliminary pre-concentration DMS study

Original Sample Grade Resultant Mill-Feed Grade Upgrade Factor Samples Zinc

(%) Lead

(%) Silver

(g/t) Zinc

(%) Lead

(%) Silver

(g/t) (%) 3 6.6 1.2 11 9.1 1.7 15 140 4 4.3 0.9 24 12 2.3 63 273 5 4.9 0.8 13 7.3 1.2 19 152 6 1.5 0.2 13 2.5 0.4 24 175

Updated Mineral Resource Estimate

The mineral resource estimate was prepared by Tetra Tech EBA Inc., with an effective date of August 23, 2016. A NI 43-101 technical report supporting the updated estimate will be filed by the Company within 45 days.

Table 2: 2016 Nash Creek Mineral Resource Estimate

Resource Classification Tonnes Zn. Eq.

(%) Zn

(%) Pb

(%) Ag

(g/t) Hickey Deposit Indicated 3,174,000 3.09 2.38 0.53 15.8 Inferred 177,000 3.09 2.24 0.68 16.7 Hayes Deposit Indicated 5,859,000 3.84 3.01 0.59 19.4 Inferred 936,000 3.67 2.95 0.55 15.3 Total Indicated 9,033,000 3.58 2.79 0.57 18.16 Inferred 1,113,000 3.58 2.83 0.57 15.51

Notes:

Estimation and reporting of the mineral resource estimate adheres to NI 43-101 guidelines and CIM Definition Standards. Zn. Eq. is calculated using three-year trailing metal prices of $0.90/lb Zn, $0.87/lb Pb and $17.73/oz Ag, and recoveries of 90.5% Zn, 81.5% Pb and 50% Ag based on preliminary results from metallurgical testing. Mineralization was constrained using a 2.00% Zn. Eq. wireframe, and segmented in 16 domains in the Hickey Zone, and 5 domains in the Hayes Zone. The cut-off grade for the mineral resource estimate is 2.00% Zn. Eq. which is considered suitable for reporting mineral resources for a potential open pit project and depth of mineralization. The estimate is not constrained by a conceptual pit. Densities vary by grade and rock type with an average specific gravity of 2.84 for the Hayes Deposit and of 2.82 for the Hickey Deposit. The mineral resource estimate was calculated using an ordinary kriging (OK) methodology. The block model was constructed with block dimensions of 5 x 5 x 5 meters. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves and have not been demonstrated to have economic viability for extraction. The quantity and grade of reported inferred resources in this estimation are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define these Inferred resources as an indicated or measured mineral resource.It is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to an indicated or measured mineral resource category. Numbers may not add exactly due to rounding.

The Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects for this news release is James Barr, P.Geo of Tetra Tech EBA Inc., who is independent of Callinex and has approved its contents.

Figure 1: Nash Creek Plan Map with Drill Collars



About Callinex Mines Inc.

Callinex Mines Inc. is focused on discovering and developing zinc and copper rich mines within prolific Canadian VMS mining jurisdictions. The Company is actively exploring its Pine Bay Project, located in the Flin Flon mining district of Manitoba, which hosts significant historic VMS deposits that are within close proximity to a processing facility. The larger project portfolio hosts three significant zinc rich mineral resources including the Point Leamington, Nash Creek and Superjack Projects located in Eastern Canada.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Some statements in this news release contain forward-looking information. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to future expenditures. These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such factors include, among others, the ability to complete contemplated work programs and the timing and amount of expenditures. Callinex does not assume the obligation to update any forward-looking statement.
Armenia isnt that much pleased with NATO (video)

NATO doesnt invest enough measures for implementation of Individual Partnership Action Plan with Armenia. Armenian officials expressed their concern to NATO representatives at Challenges ahead: NATO from Wales to Warsaw and beyond discussion. In reply to it, William Lahue, Head of NATO Office in the South Caucasus, notes: Armenia has been an important partner for NATO since 90s. When a partner state of the alliance clearly decides its expectations, our further work can be organized easier. The alliance assists Armenia in elimination of corruption risks in the defense sphere, we also work within frames of good conduct in army project. We also expect that Armenia will take part in NATO-Georgia command exercises. Armenia-NATO military-technical partnership is still far from being on sufficient level, says Vladimir Karapetyan, Chairman of the ANC's Foreign Relations Committee. Irrespective of that, in the final communique adopted at NATO Warsaw Summit there was a satisfactory formulation for Armenia. This time though there is a desire in the formulation on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict resolution to resolve the issue within the frames of territorial integrity, international norms are also highlighted, the resolution based on the OSCE and UNO norms, notes Mr Karapetyan. NATO officials present at the discussion consider Warsaw Summit of the alliance to be historical. Not considering Russia to be a rival, NATO announced active steps to strengthen the eastern borders. Ambassador of Poland to Armenia Jerzy Marek Nowakowski notes, NATO shifts from the political role, which it has in the world, to a defense role. In Warsaw we decided to increase the finances provided to defense of the member states. We strengthen our presence in Georgia and Baltic states, too. No power can put a veto on our desire to extend. In case of Georgia, NATO membership has no alternative. Georgias former Foreign Minister attending the discussion claims that the public moods leave no other way out to the Georgian authorities. The polls conducted in Georgia show that the majority of the population supports NATO membership. There are rumors that Georgia wont become NATO member, as Russia doesnt want it. But the recent fact of sending membership invitation to Montenegro gives us hope to membership, says Maia Panjikidze.
Vancouver, BC / TheNewswire / September 12 2016 - FiresteelResources Inc. ("Firesteel" or the "Company") (TSX-V: FTR) today announced the appointment Tom Klaimanee as Corporate Secretary.

Mr. Klaimanee has been working with the Company since 2014 and has a wealth of international and management experience. He provides administrative services to private and publically listed companies.

Mr. Klaimanee holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Southern Mississippi, U.S.A.

About the Company

Firesteel is an exploration-stage junior mining company engaged in the acquisition and exploration of prospective precious and base metal properties in Canada and stable jurisdictions around the world.

Firesteel currently has two highly prospective properties in British Colombia.

The ROK Coyote property is 100% owned by Firesteel.

The property shares a boundary with Imperial Metals, Red Chris Mine on the South East and a boundary with Colorado Resources on the North West. The property is in good standing until 2025.

Highlights of the ROK Coyote property include:

-6,829 Ha of highly prospective that has the potential to host large tonnage Cu-Au targets with known Cu-Au results. -Adjacent to Imperial Metals Red Chris Mine development and Colorado

Resources North ROK property.

The Star property is currently operated under a Joint Venture agreement between Firesteel (49%) and Prosper Gold. (TSX-V: PGX) (51%).

Previous highlights of the Star property include:

-6,700 Ha property hosts five significant Cu-Au targets within close proximity with large tonnage, high grade potential. -Star Target - In 2014 a total of 6221.5 meters were drilled in 19 holes. To date the deposit which measures 550 meters north-south and 350 meters east-west and remains open. Recent drill results include 107m of 0.77% Cu & 0.41 g/t Au including 64m of 1.12% Cu & 0.59 g/t Au (previously reported September 23, 2014) .

The Company's management and board of directors have extensive experience in exploration, operations, business and corporate finance.

The Company's objective is to enhance shareholder value as a prospect generator by identifying and securing early-stage exploration opportunities and developing them to more advanced stages with the help of joint venture partners.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical information in this news release has been approved by Paul Sarjeant, P.Geo., a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 and a director of the company.

For a detailed overview of Firesteel Resources Inc. please visit:

www.FiresteelResources.com

For further information, please contact:

Michael Hepworth

President and Chief Executive Officer

(416)419 5192

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release

Advisory Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements. Users of forward-looking statements are cautioned that actual results may vary from forward-looking statements contained herein. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: expectations, opinions, forecasts, projections and other similar statements concerning anticipated future events, conditions or results that are not historical facts. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". While the Company has based these forward-looking statements on its expectations about future events as at the date those statements were prepared, the statements are not a guarantee of the Company's future performance. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot give any assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct.

The Company's forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement and are made as of the date of this new release. Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, the Company does not intend nor does it undertake any obligation to update or review any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent information, events, results or circumstances or otherwise.

Copyright (c) 2016 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.
VANCOUVER, BC --(Marketwired - September 12, 2016) - Klondex Mines Ltd. (TSX: KDX)(NYSE MKT: KLDX) ("Klondex" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a positive production decision at its underground True North Gold Mine ("True North") in Manitoba, Canada. Additionally, the Company is pleased to provide an updated Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource for True North.

Preliminary Estimated Operating Statistics:

Annual mill throughput of 600 - 1,000 tpd

Initial annual production of 45,000 - 65,000 Au oz

Average All-in Sustaining Costs of C$950 - C$1,050 per Au oz

Annual capital expenditures of C$15 - C$25 million

NI 43-101 Technical report will be issued within 45 days of this press release

Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource Highlights:

True North Proven and Probable ("P&P") Mineral Reserve is 85.5k Au oz at a grade of 0.24 Au opt contained within 352k tons

True North Measured and Indicated ("M&I") Mineral Resource is 294k Au oz at a grade of 0.21 Au opt contained within 1,386k tons

True North Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource are exclusive of the results of 35 of the 50 initial drill holes completed in Q2 of this year (see press release dated June 29, 2016)

True North year end Mineral Resource update is expected in Q1 2017

TABLE 1: True North Mineral Reserve

Category Tons (k) Au opt Au g/t Au koz Proven 153 0.241 8.26 36.7 Probable 199 0.245 8.40 48.8 Total P&P 352 0.243 8.33 85.5

TABLE 2: True North Mineral Resource

Category Tons (k) Au opt Au g/t Au koz Measured 455 0.232 7.95 106 Indicated 931 0.202 6.93 188 Total M&I 1,386 0.212 7.27 294 Inferred 2,793 0.165 5.66 460

Notes to Tables: 1. Mineral Resource is inclusive of Mineral Reserve. 2. Mineral Reserve is calculated at a gold price of C$1,500 per ounce. 3. Mineral Resource is calculated at a gold price of C$1,750 per ounce. 4. US$:CDN$ exchange rate is 0.80. 5. Metallurgical process recovery for gold is 94%. 6. Mineral Resource include resource modeling dilution to a minimum width of four feet or the vein width, whichever is greater. 7. Mineral Reserve includes mining dilution and is constrained to a five foot minimum mining width. 8. Cut off grade for the Resource is 0.09 opt Au. 9. Cut off grade for the Reserve is 0.13 opt Au which includes a mining cost of C$69/ton, processing cost of C$28/ton, G&A cost of C$45/ton and sustaining development cost of C$42/ton. 10. Mineral Resource and Reserve tonnage calculations used a bulk density 0.086 tons/cu. ft. 11. Mining losses of 2% have been applied to the designed mine excavations, and no additional unplanned dilution has been applied. 12. The effective date for Mineral Reserve and Resource is June 30, 2016. 13. Mineral Resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing, or other relevant issues. 14. The quantity and grade of reported Inferred Resources in this estimation are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define these Inferred Resources as an Indicated or Measured Mineral Resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to an Indicated or Measured Mineral Resource category. 15. The Mineral Resources in this press release were estimated using the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM), CIM Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves, Definitions and Guidelines prepared by the CIM Standing Committee on Reserve Definitions and adopted by CIM Council.

Paul Huet, President and CEO stated, "I am very pleased to have been able to deliver a positive production decision on our True North asset ahead of our initial expected timeframe. This will be our third operational mine and we believe it will deliver significant value to our shareholders." Mr. Huet continued, "We are also pleased with the updated Mineral Reserve and Resource estimate at True North knowing that it only includes the results of 15 of our initial 50 drill holes from 2016. We are optimistic about the potential to continue to increase our Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources in Canada."

The True North Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource is based on 7,746 drill holes totaling 213,206 m (699,496 ft) and includes data from 15 new drill holes totaling 1,949 m (6,393 ft), completed by Klondex since May 2016. In addition to the drilling, the Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource estimate also utilizes 28,763 channel samples provided from mining on the mineralized structures.

The updated Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource estimates for True North were prepared by P&E Mining Consultants, Inc.

To view partial results of the Company's initial drill program at its True North Gold Mine, please see the Company's press release dated June 29, 2016.

Mineral Resource Assumptions

Classification of the Mineral Resource as Measured, Indicated or Inferred was undertaken based on the number of drill and channel sample composites used and the average distance from the block to the composites.

A Measured Mineral Resource grade model block must have incorporated four composites within a distance of 50 feet. For an Indicated Mineral Resource, a grade model block must have incorporated four composites within 100 feet, and an Inferred Mineral Resource must have incorporated four composites within 500 feet. The search orientation ellipse was maintained approximately parallel to the strike and dip of each vein. Only Gold values were estimated at True North.

Drill interval assays for True North were performed by TSL Laboratories Inc. of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (independent laboratory). Channel sample assays were performed by Klondex's in-house laboratory at True North, using fire assaying with gravimetric finish and check samples were sent to TSL Laboratories Inc. of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Drill samples cited in this news release for True North were acquired by independent drilling contractors under the direction of Klondex staff. Standards and blanks were inserted every 20 samples or at least one per hole in the case where there are less than 20 samples in a hole. Duplicates are generated by the lab and re-assayed internally. QA/QC samples are tracked and if a result plots outside of pre-determined QA/QC gate limits, the batch is re-assayed and the new results replace the previous values.

Qualified Person

Scientific and technical information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Eugene Puritch, P.Eng. (PEO Lic#100014010), a "Qualified Person" within the meaning of NI 43-101.

About Klondex Mines Ltd. (www.klondexmines.com)

Klondex is a well-capitalized, junior-tier gold and silver mining company focused on exploration, development, and production in a safe, environmentally responsible, and cost-effective manner. The Company has 100% interests in two producing mineral properties: the Fire Creek Mine and the Midas Mine and ore processing facility, both of which are located in the state of Nevada, USA, as well as the recently acquired True North Gold mine and ore processing facility in Manitoba, Canada. The Company is in the process of acquiring the Hollister Mine and Esmeralda mill, located in northern Nevada, USA.

Cautionary Note Regarding Technical Information and Forward-looking Information

This news release contains certain information that may constitute forward-looking information or forward-looking statements under applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation (collectively, "forward-looking information"), including but not limited to information about the magnitude and the quality of the True North Gold mine and milling facility, the success and completion of exploration and development activities at the True North mine and milling facility, the accuracy of current interpretation of drill and other exploration results, the Company's intention and ability to complete additional drilling, the Company's intention and ability to monetize mineralized material, the Company's intention and ability to commence production at True North, project development and related permitting, cash flows, budgeting and the financial condition of the Company. This forward-looking information entails various risks and uncertainties that are based on current expectations, and actual results may differ materially from those contained in such information. These uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to, the strength of the global economy; the price of gold; operational, funding and liquidity risks; the degree to which mineral resource estimates are reflective of actual mineral resources; the degree to which factors which would make a mineral deposit commercially viable are present; the risks and hazards associated with underground operations; and the ability of Klondex to fund its substantial capital requirements and operations. Risks and uncertainties about the Company's business are more fully discussed in the Company's disclosure materials filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada and United States available at www.sedar.com and www.sec.gov, respectively. Readers are urged to read these materials. Klondex assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from such information unless required by law.

Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors Regarding the Use of Mining Terms

This news release has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the securities laws in effect in Canada, which differ from the requirements of U.S. securities laws. All Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource estimates included or referred to in this news release have been prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"). NI 43-101 is a rule developed by the Canadian Securities Administrators that establishes standards for all public disclosure an issuer makes of scientific and technical information concerning mineral projects. These standards differ significantly from the Mineral Reserve disclosure requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") set out in Industry Guide 7. Consequently, Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource information contained in this news release is not comparable to similar information that would generally be disclosed by U.S. companies in accordance with the rules of the SEC.

In particular, the SEC's Industry Guide 7 applies different standards in order to classify mineralization as a reserve. As a result, the definitions of Proven and Probable reserves used in NI 43-101 differ from the definitions in SEC Industry Guide 7. Under SEC standards, mineralization may not be classified as a "reserve" unless the determination has been made that the mineralization could be economically and legally produced or extracted at the time the reserve determination is made. Under SEC Industry Guide 7 standards, a "final" or "Bankable" Feasibility Study is required to report reserves, the three-year historical average price is used in any reserve or cash flow analysis to designate reserves and all necessary permits and government approvals must be filed with the appropriate governmental authority. Accordingly, Mineral Reserve estimates contained in this news release may not qualify as "reserves" under SEC standards.

The SEC's disclosure standards normally do not permit the inclusion of information concerning "measured mineral resources", "indicated mineral resources" or "inferred mineral resources" or other descriptions of the amount of mineralization in mineral deposits that do not constitute "reserves" by U.S. standards in documents filed with the SEC. Investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of mineral deposits in these categories will ever be converted into reserves. U.S. investors should also understand that "inferred mineral resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an "inferred mineral resource" will ever be upgraded to a higher category.
The courts in China issued a statement [text] Monday reiterating their dedication to human rights through the reformation of their criminal laws by upholding the presumption of innocence and the exclusion of illegally obtained evidence. This reformation comes as the UN has repeatedly criticized the country for the secrecy surrounding the judicial system and the manner in which prisoners are treated, especially political prisoners who may face particularly harsh prosecutions. The Chinese government has consistently rejected criticism [Reuters report] of its human rights record.

In July Amnesty International urged [JURIST report] Chinese authorities to end their ruthless assault against human rights lawyers and activists. In February UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein expressed concern [JURIST report] over Chinas recent crackdown on lawyers and activists. Chinese state media recently criticized detained human rights lawyers for undermining the rule of law. In January Chinese authorities arrested [JURIST report] high profile human rights lawyer Wang Yu and her husband on charges of political subversion. Also in January Human Rights Watch urged [JURIST report] the Chinese government to overturn a verdict sentencing three human rights activists in the Guangdong province to up to five years in prison. In December Chinese authorities released [JURIST report] prominent Chinese human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang after receiving a suspended sentence for causing a disturbance after he attended a weekend meeting that urged an investigation into the 1989 crackdown of pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.
Israels High Court of Justice [official website] ruled Sunday that the implementation of a law allowing the force-feeding of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strikes is constitutional. The court handed down the decision after ruling against petitions filed by the Israel Medical Association [advocacy website] and other groups contesting the law that had been introduced last year. The UN had also issued a statement [statement] condemning the practice at the introduction of the bill. The court reasoned [Al Jazeera report] that those who engage in a hunger strikes are not normal prisoners and that the courts top priority is to save lives, including those lives threatened by a hunger strike.

The increase in violence in the ongoing Israel-Palestinian conflict [HRW backgrounder] has created a contentious human rights situation. The UN Committee Against Torture (CAT), a body of independent experts, released [JURIST report] closing remarks to its fifty-seventh session in May, expressing concern about the use of excessive force by Israeli forces against Palestinians. An Israeli court in April convicted [JURIST report] Yosef Haim for the 2014 murder of a Palestinian teenager that led to a 50-day war in Gaza. UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories Makarim Wibisono [official profile] resigned [JURIST report] from his position in January, saying that Israel has not granted him access to the Occupied Palestinian Territory after repeated requests.
The Syrian government and opposition groups began a ceasefire Monday following negotiations by the US and Russia. The ceasefire agreement was reached on Friday and although air strikes were carried out over the weekend, news outlets have reported calm [BBC report] after sunset Monday. If all parties abide by the ceasefire for seven days, the US and Russia will coordinate [NPR report] attacks on jihadist groups. The US currently supports opposition forces, and Russia supports the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad [CNN profile]. The Free Syrian Army group and the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham both agreed to the ceasefire, although they are concerned that the ceasefire will later benefit Assads government.

The conflict in Syria [JURIST backgrounder] has continued for five years in a civil war surrounding the legitimacy of Assad. Last week a UN commission on Syria urged [JURIST report] parties in the Syrian conflict to return to the negotiation table after a new report highlighted an increase of violence suffered by civilians. In August a top UN official submitted a report detailing an in-depth investigation into chemical warfare [JURIST report] used by Islamic State and Assad in Syria. That same month Amnesty International said that a suspected chlorine gas attack in Aleppo could amount to a war crime [JURIST report]. In July Human Rights Watch reported [JURIST report] cluster bombs have been targeted at civilians and rebels in Northern Syria. In June UN human rights experts called for the immediate protection [JURIST report] of thousands of Syrian civilians.
Macroeconomic and demographic environment

Consumer context

Industry environment

Competitive environment

Route to market

IPO activity all but stopped in 2020, as the investment community grew wary of the effects of COVID-19 on economies. No matter how deserving a business was of flotation, momentum was halted by concerns of when a new normal of working patterns and trade would set in. Recently, sentiment has changed. Flotations picked up again during the second half of 2021, and now in 2022 the mood is decidedly optimistic. Business leaders have their eyes on fast rebounding economies, buoyant market indices and the opportunity once again to take their businesses public. As a result, global IPOs are expected to hit back this year. With GlobalDatas new whitepaper, IPOs in Consumer and Retail: 5 must-include elements for your prospectus industry report, you can explore exactly what is needed in the essential literature. GlobalDatas focus lies in the critical areas to get right:Interested to learn more about what to include in your IPO Industry Assessment report? Download our free whitepaper.
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Unilever product advertising is mainly through mainstream TV channels. Out of the products advertised so far at least 50% (over 850) of ads have been run on TV, while print media comes second with 496 ads. Unilever also utilizes social media platforms for advertisement. Unilever products are categorized by innovation ratings and tags in our product launch database. The North American region consists of almost 74 products with innovations related to the formulation of the product. Europe and other regions also have more products categorized under formulation-related innovation, followed by the packaging and positioning of the products. Most Unilever products are tagged with High Vitamins, Recyclable, and Natural tags to understand what the product differentiator is from other products available in the market. The majority of products belong to the personal care industry with a total of 5,788 products to date. This report, through the Unilever Example, illustrates how GlobalData Explorer enables you to:Dont miss out on key market insights that can help optimize your next investment  read the report now.
Algerian dairy firm Tchin Lait, a franchisee of Frances Sodiaal group subsidiary Candia, has expanded production with the opening of a new UHT facility in the capital city of Algiers.

The new plant is designed to meet increased demand for UHT dairy products, the company said.

Tchin Lait signed a franchise agreement in 1999 to produce dairy products under the Candia label. Today, Tchin Lait said it is Algerias market leader in the UHT dairy and UHT milk products category, with a market share of more than 75%.

Tchin Lait chairman Fawzi Berkati said the new facility, which includes four filling machines, meant the company was well-placed to supply the Algerian market with UHT products in handy, small-format carton packs.

According to Tchin Lait, the market for long-life milk products shows great promise in Algeria.

At around 273 million litres, overall consumption was still low in 2015, but industry insiders expect significant annual growth of around 12% in the next few years, the company said. A major reason for this is that with rising incomes and living standards in Algeria, the demand for quality products packaged for long life is also growing.
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The stage for those preferring the freedom of ad hoc actions than global multilateral scrutiny.

This years summit of the G20 (Group of the 20 biggest world economies) took place from 4 to 5 September in Hangzhou, China. It was hosted by the Chinese President, in the groups tradition of annually rotating its presidency among its members.

The agenda once again went beyond the classical economic issues of growth, trade and investment, and covered climate change, the 2030 Agenda or Sustainable Development, Brexit and even terrorism and health issues (see the Leaders Communique).

Many other issues were no doubt also discussed among the G20 leaders, in bigger or smaller groups. Moreover, the summit provided the backdrop for the US and China to announce that they had both ratified the Paris Agreement on climate change, a major step towards the latters entering into force.

It is interesting to observe that the G20 summits, initially a rather ad hoc tool for dealing with the global financial crisis of 2008, have acquired a long-term character and a growing agenda. They are gradually turning into sessions of some kind of a Global Economic Security Council, if not of a Global Directorate bringing together the most important established and emerging world powers.

Why not, one could say, since the G20 brings together the main global actors in a body that is more manageable than the G200, or G193 to be precise, that is the United Nations General Assembly.

One could also say that the group is more legitimate than the United Nations Security Council, which has only 15 members, five of which have the right of veto as victors of World War II. There is no veto right for any of the G20 members, and the legitimacy element of engaging smaller countries from around the world can be said to be covered by the invitations sent to several non-G20 members to attend each time.

As for the 54-member Economic and Social Council of the UN (ECOSOC), the G20 is what ECOSOC would like to be but has not managed to over the seven decades of its existence.

The G20 of course does not preclude meetings of big powers in other configurations, notably the G7 for the developed economies of the West and the BRICS for the emerging economies.

Very importantly, bilateral deals continue to be struck, and they are as important as the countries striking them. For economic and even climate change matters the duo US and China is very much at the centre of attention and a major catalyst for action. For matters of peace and security the US pairs with Russia for critical issues like the conflict in Syria.

In most cases the United Nations is part of the background, legitimising deals through its Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Security Council or other organ, with differing degrees of involvement, from rubber stamping (Syria) to more serious multilateral negotiations (climate change).

For broader normative matters the UN may retain the primary role of negotiating and deciding, as in the case of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but their successful implementation depends, as always, on the actions of each and every country, and most importantly of the most populous and economically significant countries, namely the G20.

How does Europe fit in this picture, one could ask? It is very well represented at the G20 table, with Germany, France, Italy, the UK (still in the EU) and the EU itself, which at the summit level means both the European Council President and the European Commission President. It is similar to the membership of the UN Security Council, where EU members hold two permanent seats (France, UK), as well as generally one additional non-permanent seat, out of a total of 15, although at the Council the EU institutions as such are not represented.

There could well be a powerful G3 or a G4, with the US, Europe, China and Russia working together on issues, in various combinations. However, the state of European integration, or rather the continuing lack of deep political integration, does not make it a realistic option, for now.

This holds true even when it comes to climate change, where the EU is broadly recognised for its ambitious targets and positive role in the international negotiations. But even then it is the US and China that mostly win the public relations contest and actually deliver agreement in the negotiations.

The polyphony of the various G groups may be an inevitable element of a fragmented global society that tries to deal with a multitude of major challenges. Let a thousand [G-]flowers bloom and each may find its niche, dealing with the corresponding challenge.

But the extent to which many of these Gs are increasingly unaccountable in terms of representativeness and transparency, critical voices and mistrust will inevitably build up among non-participating governments and the broader public.

A good solution to some of these issues of legitimacy would be to include at least the G20 in the UN structures, as a much-needed Economic Security Council or the executive arm of ECOSOC, working closely with the Security Council.

Do not hold your breath for that to happen, though. The resistance of those preferring the freedom of ad hoc action through the smaller Gs than broad multilateral scrutiny should not be underestimated. While they may be few in number, they are the strongest of them all.
Former Kearney resident, 70

SPEARFISH, S.D. - William Edward "Will" Lantis, 70, of Spearfish, formerly of Kearney, Neb., died Sunday, Aug. 6, 2006, in a vehicle-related accident near his home.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Friday at Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Spearfish with the Revs. Kent Stillson, Ken Fouty and Randy Gunn officiating and Masonic Rites by Spear-fish Masonic Lodge 18 AF&AM. The procession to the Nemo gravesite will leave at 1 p.m. Graveside military honors will be by the Spearfish Honor Guard.

Visitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the church with a celebration of life service at 7 p.m.

Fidler-Isburg Funeral Chapel of Spearfish is in charge of arrangements.

He was born Aug. 3, 1936, in Sioux City, Iowa, to Merle and Mildred (Maschmeier) Lantis.

On June 15, 1963, he married Mary Berdahl in Sioux Falls.

Survivors include his wife; son, Travis of Spearfish; daughters, Wendy Soulek and Cammy, both of Spearfish, and Leah Rinard of Longmont, Colo.; his mother, of Big Fork, Mont.; brothers, Bob of Rapid City, Don of Dakota Dunes and Ken of Salt Lake City; and sister, Marge Bagley of Bigfork, Mont.

Additional survivors include his daughter-in-law, Amy Lantis of Spearfish; sons-in-law, Paul Soulek of Spearfish and Greg Rinard of Longmont; grandchildren, Nicholas, Kassidy, Lucas, Zachary, Alexa and Kali; and numerous nieces, nephews and special friends.

He was a loving husband, son, father, grandfather, brother and good friend. He prided himself on meeting people of many backgrounds and being a man of his word. He loved people, and he loved to have fun. He was larger than life.

His family owned Ted's Cafe in Riverside. He graduated from Central High School in 1954.

He attended Montana State University and was drafted into the U.S. Army to serve in Korea, where he was a member of the Honor Guard and the Army Sharp Shooter Rifle team. He returned and completed his bachelor of science degree in political science and business with a minor in Spanish.

He and his wife moved to Kearney in 1964, and he sold chemicals for 25 years before founding Platte Valley Chemical. He purchased his first long-term heath care facility in Bridgeport. His drive to provide health care for underserved communities grew into Lantis Enterprises, which now owns and operates numerous facilities, rehabilitation clinics and home health agencies in five Midwestern states.

He fulfilled a life-long dream of purchasing a ranch north of Belle Fourche. He also built and operated Seven Down Arenas where he carried out his ongoing cowboy life. He loved riding good horses, backcountry pack trips, rodeoing, and, in his later life, mounted shooting and ground shooting competitions.

He incorporated many of his hobbies into his businesses. He loved racquetball, flying and traveling with his family. He attained his single-instrument, multi- and commercial-rated pilots licenses with more than 12,000 hours of logged flying time and more than 30 years of experience.

He lived life to the fullest. He was a member of the American Health Care Association; Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota Health Care Associations; Our Savior's Lutheran Church; Mason/Shriner; Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rites; Naja Temple; and Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association.

He founded the Scholarship Board and National Advisory Board, Single Action Shooting Society, Black Hills State University Advisory Board, Western South Dakota Buckaroos, U.S. Marshal's Posse, National Rifle Association, American Quarter Horse Association, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Elks Lodge and Veterans of Foreign Wars Club.

He was elected Lawrence County commissioner from 1994 to 1998. He served as co-chairman of the Lawrence County Republican Party, co-chairman of South Dakota Republican conference and chairman of Buffalo County (Neb.) Republican Party. He was appointed by President Reagan to serve on the VA Geriatrics and Gerontology Advisory Committee and was a four-year Presidential Appointee to National Health Services Corps Advisory council, which he chaired for one year. He also served on the Nebraska Masonic Home Board and served in the U.S. Army from 1957 to 1960.

More than anything, he was loved by his family and his friends.

A memorial is being established. Donations may be sent to Wells Fargo Bank in Spearfish, Attn.: Will Lantis Memorial or to P.O. Box 699, Spearfish, SD 57783, Attn.: Will Lantis Memorial.
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When you are looking for a physician, what kind of criteria do you use? Location is probably a priority as is whether or not the physician accepts your insurance. You might review your states medical board, make sure there are no issues with licensure. Reviewing a physicians medical school and residency training is important. Some people even like to go in for an appointment just to meet a physician. As one of my patients once told me, he had to kick the tires on a new doctor before he would commit to seeing them regularly.

While all of that is important, should patients start asking which electronic medical record a prospective doctor uses?

At first glance, it doesnt really seem to be something that a patient would care about. Patients have enough to worry about, let their physician worry about the electronic medical record, or EMR. There may be some reasons that you may want to include an EMR into your decision-making process.

Physicians spend a significant percentage of their day using the EMR. From scheduling an appointment to checking into prescribing medications to reviewing test results, the EMR is at the center of any clinic. Does your physician like their EMR? Does it make them more or less efficient? Will your care suffer if the EMR drags your doctor down and causes them to be chronically late and attentive only to the computer screen, not to you the patient? The EMR is the tool physicians use to make their encounter notes, and those notes are the basis for insurance coverage, referrals, and prior authorizations. Is the EMR good enough to make it easy for your physician to create good notes? Is it portable, can your doctor easily access it at home or when out of the office?

Most EMRs can not integrate with EMRs at other health care institutions.

Many people will have more than one physician that they receive care from. Can those physicians use their EMR to communicate? Can your physicians EMR provide information to the local hospital if you are admitted for an illness, or will they have to wait for your doctors staff to print out your chart and fax it in? Are you going to have to tell your medical history every time you see a different doctor or go to a different clinic?

You want to communicate with your doctor.

It isnt enough anymore to call your doctors office, leave a message and wait for a callback. Can you communicate directly with your doctor through their EMR? Is it easy to receive your labs and test results? Can you ask the questions about your medical care with email or text? How comfortable is your doctor with digital communication or will they just have their nurse leave your results on your voicemail?

Sharing data with your health care team is important.

There are many connected health devices in your life. Can your doctors EMR integrate with any of these connected devices? Can you send your weekly blood sugar log to your physician for review? What about a picture of a new mole on your arm, can that information be transmitted electronically? Will your doctor have to ask you how much you exercise if they already have your daily average of steps, miles run and calories burned?

While not the most important criteria when choosing a doctor or health care facility, the fact is the computers and EMRs are central to health care today. Choosing the right combination of physician and technology could be the difference between a good and bad experience in health care.

Matthew Anderson is a family physician who blogs at Digital Medicine and You. He can be reached on Twitter @DrAnderson19.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
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We went looking for big-name stocks with above-average dividend yields and below-average price-earnings ratios. Some on Wall Street call them YARP stocks, for yield at a reasonable price. With help from research firm Morningstar, we found eight promising YARP stocks for dividend investors, including the three technology companies below.

All of the companies have market capitalizations of more than $5 billion, and the stocks are cheaper than, and yield more than, Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. To be specific, we sought stocks that yield at least as much as the indexs 2.1% yield and trade for less than its price-earnings ratio of 17 (based on estimated earnings over the next four quarters). Prices and related data are as of September 1.

Cisco Systems

Symbol: CSCO (opens in new tab)

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Share price: $31.58

Market capitalization: $160.4 billion

Dividend yield: 3.3%

52-week high/low: $31.88/$22.46

Estimated earnings per share: fiscal year ending July 2017, $2.43; fiscal year ending July 2018, $2.56

Price-earnings ratio: 13

The business: Cisco is the world's largest manufacturer of computer networking equipment, such as routers and switches. Its hardware is the backbone of the internet. The company generated earnings from operations of $12 billion, or $2.36 per share, on revenue of $48.7 billion in the fiscal year that ended July 31.

The valuation story: Given Cisco's size and the extent of its domination of the hardware markets, its fast-growth days are just a memory. In the last fiscal year, sales rose a mere 3%. That slow growth explains the stock's low P/E of 13. Yet value-hunting investors have made the stock a big winner over the past four years, with the price doubling in that period. Cisco's appeal now is twofold: First, its massive router and switch business generates huge amounts of cash, which supports fat dividends. Second, it is slashing costs in its old-line businesses while investing heavily to drive a new growth phase: selling software to run its hardware. The idea is to offer Cisco's hardware users a way to make their computer networks more efficient and easier to manage. For Cisco, the attraction of software is that profit margins are richer than for hardware.

The yield story: There is no guarantee Cisco will succeed in significantly boosting growth. But investors can still be confident about earning hefty dividends along the way. Since 2011, the dividend has risen at an annualized rate of 34%. With $66 billion in cash and securities on its balance sheet, Cisco has the resources to keep dividend hikes coming. Brokerage Barclays calls the company a "steady ship and an attractive industrialized tech play."

Intel

Symbol: INTC (opens in new tab)

Share price: $36.02

Market capitalization: $170.9 billion

Dividend yield: 2.9%

52-week high/low: $36.30/$27.68

Estimated earnings per share: 2016, $2.50; 2017, $2.73

Price-earnings ratio: 14

The business: The world's largest manufacturer of microprocessors, Intel is synonymous with the rise of Silicon Valley and the personal computer. As PC sales fade, the company is betting its future on a more diverse menu of chips.

The valuation story: The decline of PC sales is forcing Intel to reinvent itself, but the process has been slow. Total revenue of $55.4 billion in 2015 was up just 2.5% from 2011, and per-share earnings were down 2.5% over the same period. The lack of growth has, understandably, left investors unwilling to put a high valuation on the shares, which trade for just 14 times estimated year-ahead earnings. But optimism about 2017 has given the stock a lift this year, to its best levels since early 2015. Bulls on Intel note the pickup in demand for chips used in powerful servers at the heart of "cloud" computing (the delivery of myriad computer services via the internet). S&P Capital also sees "significant opportunities" in new memory chips and in chips for the "Internet of Things" (smart household appliances, for example). Another profit source: Intel has ramped up making chips under contract for other companies, including for cell phones  a sector in which Intel stumbled badly with its own chip designs. All in all, analysts on average see sales hitting a record $59.8 billion in 2017 and profits reaching a record $2.73 per share.

The yield story: Intel hasn't been as generous with dividends as some other tech giants. The company's payment has risen 8.7% per year, on average, since 2010. Still, the current yield is a decent 2.9%. That may be enough for optimists who are content to bet on  and wait for  Intel's new chip opportunities to finally generate substantial returns.

Qualcomm

Symbol: QCOM (opens in new tab)

Share price: $63.47

Market capitalization: $93.5 billion

Dividend yield: 3.3%

52-week high/low: $63.70/$42.24

Estimated earnings per share: 2016, $4.29; 2017, $4.75

Price-earnings ratio: 14

The business: Founded in 1985, Qualcomm is the genius behind much of the technology that makes cell phones work. It is a major designer of computer chips for wireless phones and also earns royalties from other companies that license its cell technology.

The valuation story: Qualcomm's shares soared from nearly $10 in 2002 to more than $80 in 2014 as revenues and profits surged. But since 2014, a number of challenges have caused earnings to decline and raised doubts about the company's long-term outlook. One issue is rising competition from such chip giants as Samsung. Another worry: government probes into the fairness of Qualcomm's licensing fees. Qualcomm shares were nearly cut in half from April 2014 to February 2016, before rebounding this year. But with the stock trading at 14 times estimated year-ahead earnings, brokerage Goldman Sachs says its still a bargain. Qualcomm delivered a surprisingly strong profit report for the quarter that ended June 30, and Goldman says the company was "particularly positive" about both global chip demand and about resumed royalty collections in China, which settled its probe with Qualcomm in 2015. Long term, the company expects to benefit from advances in phone technology and from chip demand from emerging industries, such as self-driving cars.

The yield story: Qualcomm's royalties, about 35% of total revenue, have helped fund a generous dividend. The per-share payment has nearly doubled since 2012, and the stock now yields 3.3%. What's more, Qualcomms hoard of $31 billion in cash and investments provides security for the dividend and the wherewithal for reinvesting in the chip business. That said, the key to additional gains in the share price is whether last quarter's earnings momentum will continue.

Check out five more YARP stocks offering income investors yield at a reasonable price.
For her research into cloud physics, Corinna Hoose, Professor of Theoretical Meteorology at KIT, receives an ERC starting grant. (Photo: Sandra Gottisheim, KIT)

Clouds are of crucial importance to weather and climate: The height and the composition of clouds determine whether they shield the earth from solar irradiation and have a cooling effect or contribute to warming. Investigation of the thermodynamic cloud phase, i.e. of the question whether clouds consist of liquid water, ice, or both, is in the focus of research conducted by Professor Corinna Hoose of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). By combining simulations of cloud formation with satellite observations, she is looking to decisively enhance process understanding and predictability. In the next five years, this project will be funded by a starting grant of the European Research Council (ERC) in the amount of EUR 1.5 million.

The ERC starting grant is one of the most prestigious grants for young scientists in Europe.

Cloud formation starts with aerosols, smallest particles that act as condensation nuclei on which water droplets form. Corinna Hoose is particularly interested in mixed-phase clouds. In these clouds, liquid water and ice exist in parallel, with aerosols acting as ice nuclei. Mixed-phase clouds are supposed to trigger most of the precipitation. Ice formation in mixed-phase clouds depends on a large variety of microphysical factors and processes. In principle, it may occur between 0 and -37C, says the scientist, who heads the Clouds Physics Group of KIT. Her project Closure of the Cloud Phase  C2Phase is aimed at better understanding and predicting these processes. Cloud development and cloud properties are influenced largely by whether the cloud consists of ice particles, liquid water droplets, or both. Ice formation may affect the albedo of the cloud and, hence, global warming. Clouds with liquid water droplets reflect solar irradiation more strongly.

As soon as the first ice has formed, ice formation proceeds rapidly, such that clouds are either predominantly liquid or predominantly consist of ice. This distribution of the cloud phase cannot yet be simulated adequately by weather and climate models, Hoose says. In C2Phase she therefore plans to combine new high-resolution models with satellite observations. Studies will focus on the spatial, temporal, and temperature-dependent distribution of the cloud phase. We want to show that the process of ice formation is understood and described well by numerical models. On this basis, it is possible to predict the distribution of the cloud phase under different conditions that can be observed from space. Corinna Hoose and her team also plan to study how this improved forecast can be used in weather and climate models. Research will focus on Europe, as here high-quality data measured by the SEVIRI satellite instrument are available and various mixed-phase clouds occur over all seasons.

Click here for more information on research conducted by Professor Corinna Hoose: http://www.imk-tro.kit.edu/14_1794.php

About the Person

From 1999 to 2004, Corinna Hoose studied physics at the then Universitat Karlsruhe (TH), todays Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). In 2004, she was awarded her diploma with distinction. In parallel, she received the French degree Maitrise de Physique also with excellent marks. For her outstanding achievements in the exchange program between Karlsruhe and Grenoble, she was granted the German-French University Prize in 2003. Between 2005 and 2008, she studied for her doctorate at ETH Zurich, the subject being Aerosol Processing and Its Effect on Mixed-phase Clouds in a Global Climate Model. For her doctoral thesis, she was granted the medal of ETH Zurich. Then, Hoose worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Oslo in Norway until 2010. In 2010, Corinna Hoose returned to KIT and has been heading the Helmholtz Young Investigators Group Aerosol effects on cloud ice, precipitation, and climate since then. Since 2013, the 36-year-old physicist has been Professor for Theoretical Meteorology at KIT.

This years call for the 2016 starting grant was the 9th call of this type. In total, 2935 proposals were submitted, only 325 (11 percent) were approved. In previous rounds, seven scientists of KIT were successful .

More about the KIT Climate and Environment Center: http://www.klima-umwelt.kit.edu/english.

Being The Research University in the Helmholtz Association, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 9,800 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,300 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.
Sept 12 (Reuters) - Pakistan's central bank has amended itsregulations to exempt Islamic banks from using interest-basedbenchmarks for some of their financing products, the latestgovernment step aimed at boosting Islamic finance.

Despite a direct ban on charging interest, interest-basedbenchmarks are used as a pricing reference by a majority ofIslamic banks, due in part to the absence of stable andwidely-published alternatives.

In a circular, the State Bank of Pakistan said Islamicfinance institutions would have to outline their alternativepricing mechanism for participatory financing schemes, replacingthe use of the Karachi Inter Bank Offered Rate or KIBOR.

Since 2004, the central bank has required all banks to useKIBOR as a benchmark rate. The use of such benchmarks is viewedas a shortcoming of Islamic banking that discourages wideradoption, in particular among retail clients.

The government, however, wants to help develop Islamicfinance, a sector which now holds 11.4 percent of all bankingassets and 13.2 percent of all bank deposits in theMuslim-majority country.

The exemption applies with immediate effect to participatorymodes of financing known as musharaka, mudaraba and wakala.

Such sharia-compliant contracts are well-known but havetraditionally been eclipsed by murabaha, a cost-plus-profitarrangement in Islamic finance.

Under murabaha contracts, one party agrees to purchasemerchandise such as a commodity on behalf on another, whichpromises to buy it at an agreed mark-up.

That mark-up has been commonly set against a financialbenchmark such as KIBOR or LIBOR for dollar-denominated deals.

This has been criticised by some religious scholars as notbeing sufficiently based on real economic activity, a keyprinciple in Islamic finance.

The practice dates back to the beginnings of modern Islamicfinance in the early 70's, with scholars giving their blessingsto what was deemed a temporary measure until alternatives couldbe developed.

Under the new directive, banks must ensure compliance withsharia standards issued by the Bahrain-based Accounting andAuditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions, andmust receive a sign-off from their internal sharia board.

(Reporting by Bernardo Vizcaino; Editing by Eric Meijer)
HANOI, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Here's a snapshot of Vietnamese dong exchangerates in the official market and indicative SJC gold prices in Hanoi at 0055GMT.

Sept 12 Sept 9 USD/VND mid-point 21,945 21,932

USD/VND interbank 22,301/22,302 22,301/22,302 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 36.09/36.38 36.21/36.48

NOTES: As of Jan. 4, 2016 the State Bank of Vietnam has begun setting themid-point rate on daily basis, allowing dollar/dong transactions to move in aband of +/- 3 percent around the mid point. The dong's exchange rate against other currencies is not restricted by aband. Interbank quotes are indicative bid/ask prices.

One tael is equivalent to 37.5 grams or 1.21 troy ounces. SJC gold pricesare quoted by state-owned Saigon Jewelry Co, the gold manufacturer.

Interbank offered rates are indicative, quoted from market sources.

For Vietnam market overview click on: Vietnam's bonds market auctions: Bonds auction results: (Compiled by Hanoi Newsroom)
By Kit Yin Boey

SINGAPORE, Sept 12 (IFR) - Foreign companies are stilllooking to sell bonds in Thailand's local market despite tougherrestrictions on the use of proceeds.

Chinese solar panel maker Trina Solar and Malaysia'sKNM Group last week won approval to sellbaht-denominated bonds, becoming the latest foreign issuers totarget Thai investors.

The two companies will have to sell the bonds within anine-month period that will end on May 31 next year, accordingto the approval from Public Debt Management Office (PDMO).

Both companies will have to keep the proceeds in baht anduse the funds in the country, a condition that Thailand'sMinistry of Finance imposed earlier this year.

That restriction had slowed foreign issuance in Thailand,but the latest approvals underline the appeal of the country'svast local investor base.

Trina Solar Singapore Science & Technology will have noproblems meeting the requirement as it is expected to use theproceeds for its production facility in Thailand as part of anexpansion plans in the Southeast Asian markets.

Trina's proposed bond will come with a guarantee from theAsian Development Bank's Credit Guarantee and InvestmentFacility (CGIF).

This is Trina's second attempt at a CGIF-wrapped baht bondissuance. The Chinese parent company had obtained approval inNovember last year for a similar guaranteed bond, but that fellthrough as investors were nervous about the impact ofanti-dumping restrictions in the US and EU markets.

The latest bond will be issued through the Singaporesubsidiary instead.

Meanwhile, KNM Group is likely to use the proceeds for abioethanol project in Thailand, which is currently underconstruction. The plant is part of the move by the Malaysiancompany to diversify into renewable energy industries.

FUNDING HUB Other foreign issuers, however, are more affected. Companiesthat had looked to remit proceeds overseas to complement theirgeneral funding sources have put their baht plans on hold.

Bankers and industry officials worry that the new rule ishobbling Thailand's development as a regional funding hub.

"The Thai prime minister had made visits last year to theneighbouring countries in Indochina, offering the baht bondmarket as a regional funding centre for the region," said aninvestment banker. "But this requirement goes against the grainof that policy."

Market participants have appealed to the PDMO and the MoF,but the ministry has not budged from its position.

"All baht bond proceeds raised by foreign issuers must bemobilised for domestic markets to help boost Thailand's economicgrowth," said PDMO director-general Suwit Rojanavanich.

The MoF's stance has disrupted issuance plans by the LaoPeople's Democratic Republic. Laos received approval for itsfifth baht bond in May but has yet to launch the transaction asit is working to accommodate the new requirement. The republictypically repatriates the funds to meet the government's needs.

Rojanavanich suggested that Laos could use the proceeds topay off debt owed to Thai financial institutions.

Four financial institutions that won approval to sellbaht-denominated bonds in January this year have yet to issue.

ANZ Banking Group , Central American Bank forEconomic Integration, National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Malayan Banking have until the end ofthis month to sell the notes before their approvals expire.

The only foreign borrower to sell bonds in Thailand so farthis year is Laotian utility EDL-Generation , whichraised $312 million last month and brought the proceeds backhome to finance power generation projects.

The bond was denominated in U.S. dollars, approval for whichcomes from the Bank of Thailand and not the PDMO, a loopholethat could give a way for foreign issuers to circumvent therequirement. The PDMO controls the approvals of baht bonds byforeign issuers.

(Reporting by Kit Yin Boey; Editing by Vincent Baby)
* Payments suspended in June over bank bailouts

* Govt has agreed to reverse deals with banks

* Country hit hard by freezing of donor support

By Joe Bavier

ABIDJAN, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fundcould lift a suspension on payments aimed at helpingGuinea-Bissau emerge from years of political turmoil followingan evaluation mission this week, the institution's countryrepresentative said on Monday.

The IMF agreed a programme with Guinea-Bissau last yearafter 2014 elections drew a line under a coup two years earlier- one of a succession that have spawned chronic instability andhelped make the West African country a haven for South Americancocaine traffickers.

Disbursements were suspended in June, however, after thegovernment took on 34 billion CFA francs ($58.3 million) in badloans from two private banks. Donors followed suit and suspendedbudget support for 2016 equal to around 2.1 percent of GDP. IMF representative Oscar Melhado told Reuters by email that the Fund welcomed a government decision to cancel the bailouts,whose value amounted to around 5.5 percent of GDP.

"The only remaining obstacle is the refusal of the banks toaccept the bad portfolio back into their books," he said.

The IMF had argued the bailouts benefited the wealthiestcitizens and foreign investors. Authorities had said they wereneeded to shield the private sector from bankruptcy.

Monday was a public holiday and the banks, Banco da AfricaOcidental and Banco da Uniao, were not available for comment.

Melhado said the government should also commit toimplementing prudent macroeconomic policies and key structuralreforms during the visit due to begin on Tuesday, whichconstitutes the first and second reviews of the IMF programme.

Disbursements worth 4.1 billion CFA could still be made thisyear if the reviews are approved by the IMF's board in December.

Total donor contributions, including direct budget supportand financing for targeted sectors and projects, typically makeup around 80 percent of Guinea-Bissau's budget. After the IMFfreeze, Finance Minister Henrique Horta described the economicsituation, including a budget deficit amounting to about 3.5percent of GDP, as "catastrophic". The government of Guinea, which is helping to mediate in itssmaller Portuguese-speaking neighbour, said earlier this monththat Guinea-Bissau would not be able to pay the salaries ofcivil servants and the security forces from October.

"We hope that donors will resume support following the IMF.It would depend on each donor's policy," Melhado said.

The IMF visit comes days after an agreement to form a newgovernment, ending a year-long political crisis that hasparalysed state institutions. ($1 = 582.9600 CFA francs)

(Reporting by Joe Bavier; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
* Speculators raise bullish stance on gold, silver

* SPDR Gold holdings drop over 1 pct Friday

(Updates throughout, adds LONDON dateline, byline)

By Zandi Shabalala

LONDON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Gold steadied on Monday with investors looking for a safe haven as fresh speculation about anear-term U.S. rate hike weighed on equities and other assets.

Spot gold held steady at $1,327.92 an ounce at 0930GMT. U.S. gold futures edged 0.3 percent lower at $1,330.60 an ounce.

A chorus of hawkish comments from Fed officials kept expectations alive for a September rate hike despite a recent spate of disappointing economic data.

After Boston Federal Reserve President Eric Rosengren spoke on Friday, odds on a rate hike in September rose to 30 percent probability from 24 percent before his comments. "The gold markets looked at other markets and thought the panic is a reason to hold gold. On the other hand, markets are thinking there might be a rate hike," said Citigroup analyst David Wilson, adding that the metal held up well compared toother commodities.

"There are still a lot of risk issues out there that investors are concerned about, whether its currency devaluation and search for yields."

Gold, often seen as an alternative investment during timesof geopolitical and financial uncertainty, benefited from therisk-averse sentiment in the market along with other havenassets such as the Japanese yen and U.S. Treasuries.

Fed governor Lael Brainard is scheduled to give a talk inChicago later on Monday, a day before the central bank'scommunications blackout period takes effect.

There is chance for some more volatility ahead withBrainard's speech, MKS PAMP Group said in note.

"If rate concerns really rattle the financial markets, moreprofound equity market declines could set off renewed'safe-haven' purchases," HSBC analyst James Steel said, addingthat a hawkish speech could put gold under selling pressure.

Hedge funds and money managers hiked their net long positionin COMEX gold contracts to a nine-week high in the week to Sept.6, and they also raised a bullish stance in silver, U.S.Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed on Friday. SPDR Gold Trust , the world's largest gold-back edexchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell 1.12 percent to 939.94 tonnes on Friday. Spot silver shed 0.4 percent to $18.95. The metal touched its lowest since Sept. 2 at $18.75 per ounce.

Touching their lowest in over a week, platinum fell0.7 percent to $1,050 an ounce and palladium was down 1.6 percent at $663.88, also both at their lowest in over a week.

(Additionally reporting by Swati Verma and Nallur Sethuraman inBengaluru)
SHANGHAI, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Reports that the Chinesecentral bank had relied upon foreign exchange sales bystate-owned banks to stabilise the yuan on Monday morning arenot factual, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in anemailed statement.

Reuters and other news outlets had cited traders saying thatstate-owned banks were offering dollars on behalf of the PBOC topull the yuan back from breaching psychologically importantlevels, in fear of a too rapid descent. Fan Gang, a member of China's central bank monetarycommittee, told media last week that China should use moderatecontrols to allow gradual yuan depreciation.

(Reporting by the Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by JacquelineWong)
(Repeats story published Friday to reach additionalsubscribers)

* German firm sells 3.6bn PIK at lowest coupons

* Greatly improved credit lures bond investors

* Warning signs of riskier deals emerging

By Robert Smith

LONDON, Sept 9 (IFR) - Schaeffler sold the largestpost-crisis payment-in-kind toggle bond on Thursday, a monster3.59bn-equivalent trade that also smashed records for the riskyasset class's lowest coupons.

The German bearing maker announced plans on Wednesday toraise a 2.5bn-equivalent senior secured PIK toggle note splitinto euros and US dollars at its holding company, withmaturities of 5NC2, 7NC3 and 10NC5. At this size the deal wouldalready have been the largest PIK toggle sold post-crisis.

But on Thursday the transaction was upped to3.59bn-equivalent, with the three euro tranches sized at 750mand the three dollar pieces at US$500m.

The euro tranches cleared at par to yield 2.75%, 3.25% and 3.75% respectively, well inside the 6% yield Schaeffler soldPIKs at in October 2014, the previous market low for theinstrument.

PIK notes are deeply subordinated debt instruments thatallow companies to pay coupons with additional bonds rather thancash. PIK toggles are a twist on the format where the securitycan toggle between either paying coupons in cash or additionalbonds, depending on the company's ability to service debt.

"Investment-grade buyers were willing to buy not onlycallable bonds, but also PIK toggles," said a source close tothe deal.

"It's hard to tell if a deal is definitely going into IGfunds, but when pretty much every long-only fund manager in theworld is in for at least 100m, that tells you it is going intopeople's IG funds."

BANKING ON ECB UPSIDE

Despite the unprecedentedly low yields on offer, oneinvestor said he saw scope for Schaeffler's holding companybonds to grind tighter in secondary, given Moody's upgraded itsoperating company to a Baa3 investment-grade rating this week.

"You have an opco that is becoming CSPP eligible, whichshould lead to massive tightening that should in turn pull thePIK tighter," he said.

"Of course, there's an argument that the relationship mightnot hold - because you're talking HY PIK on the one hand and IGbullet on the other - but I don't think you'll lose your shirton this regardless."

The ECB's corporate bond buying programme has spurredmassive tightening in investment-grade credit, which this weeksaw the first negative-yielding euro bonds sold in the primarymarket by non-state owned companies. And the secondary market is on the cusp of achieving theultimate paradox: negative-yielding high-yield bonds. Bank ofAmerica Merrill Lynch strategists said the market was close toseeing the first negative-yielding Double B rated bullet bonds,in a piece called "Think the unthinkable" published this week.

The two euro bonds in question - HeidelbergCement's 9.50%2018 and Peugeot's 7.375% 2018s - are bid at 0.30% yields,according to Tradeweb.

WORRYING SIGNS?

PIKs are often seen as a worrying symptom of an overheatingcredit market, particularly as they are often used to paydividends to shareholders.

Schaeffler's deal in contrast refinanced existing holdingcompany debt, while the upsize allowed it to full repay a legacyintercompany loan.

Ardagh raised a Triple C rated US$1.715bn-equivalent PIKtoggle in euros and dollars on Wednesday, that returned 270m ofcash to the European packaging firm's owners. But the dealprimarily refinanced debt, with a US$150m size increase used toreduce more debt at its operating company.

"PIK deals are obviously not best for the market structurein the long term, but the use of proceeds is stillconservative," said the investor.

"Both deals were refinancing trades, save for a little bitof dividend at Ardagh."

Dividend recapitalisation deals have been thin on the groundin Europe since Phones 4U went bust in September 2014, one yearafter raising an aggressive PIK deal to hand cash to its owners.

But there are signs that the market's clamour for higheryielding paper could bring these deals out of the woodwork.

"There's been a lack of new supply this year, and we knowbanks are pitching dividend recaps to companies with the rightcredit story in a bid to satisfy demand," said JonathanBrownson, co-head of global leveraged finance at Allen & Overy.

"This dynamic will depend on how much primary LBO activitythere is in the next few months, as it's the lack of M&A thisyear that's really driven the low supply."

A second investor noted that while Schaeffler has spentyears prudently improving its capital structure - afteroverloading on debt in a mistimed 2008 bid for tyre makerContinental - it looks set to start buying up assets again.

CEO Klaus Rosenfeld told Handelsblatt on Thursday that thecompany was now ready to pursue acquisitions in the three-figuremillion range, having greatly reduced its debt-load.

"Now we have to see what kind of acquisitions," the investorsaid, "...and if it means more debt to come in the next fewmonths."

(Reporting by Robert Smith)
FRANKFURT/DUESSELDORF, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Investors arelining up to get their hands on shares of Innogy, the renewable,network and retail unit German utility RWE plans tolist via an initial public offering next month, its chiefexecutive said.

"There is considerable interest among investors," PeterTerium, currently holding the CEO position at both RWE AG andInnogy, told Reuters on Monday.

He added there was room for anchor investors in the plannedlisting, which will involve parent RWE selling existing shareson the market, alongside a capital increase that is expected tofetch 2 billion euros ($2.24 billion).($1 = 0.8911 euros)

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Matthias Inverardi; Editingby Harro ten Wolde)
HANOI, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Here's a snapshot of Vietnamese dong exchangerates in the official and unofficial markets, indicative SJC gold prices inHanoi and interbank offered rates at 0438 GMT.

Sept 12 Sept 9 USD/VND mid-point 21,945 21,932 USD/VND interbank 22,300/22,302 22,301/22,302 USD/VND unofficial 22,290/22,300 22,290/22,300 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 36.10/36.37 36.21/36.48

Interbank offered rates Overnight 0.4-1.0 0.5-1.0

1 week 0.5-1.2 0.6-1.2

1 month 1.7-2.4 1.7-2.4

3 months 3.3-4.2 3.5-4.2

NOTES: As of Jan. 4, 2016 the State Bank of Vietnam has begun setting themid-point rate on daily basis, allowing dollar/dong transactions to move in aband of +/- 3 percent around the mid point. The dong's exchange rate against other currencies is not restricted by aband. Interbank offered rates are the latest indicative bid/ask prices, quotedfrom market sources.

One tael is equivalent to 37.5 grams or 1.21 troy ounces. SJC gold pricesare quoted by state-owned Saigon Jewelry Co.

For more interbank rate fixings released at 0400 GMT, click on .

For Vietnam market overview click on: Vietnam's bonds market auctions: Bonds auction results: (Compiled by Hanoi Newsroom)
By Tom Polansek

CHICAGO, Sept 12 (Reuters) - A U.S. congresswoman urged theLabor Department on Monday to investigate Chipotle Mexican Grill for possible wage theft, another potential hurdle forthe burrito chain as it seeks to rebound from food-safetyproblems last year.

U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat fromConnecticut, said the department should probe allegations fromabout 10,000 current and former Chipotle employees who havejoined a federal lawsuit that alleges the company did notproperly pay them for hours worked.

Such actions, if true, would contradict federal law, DeLaurosaid in a letter to the department, "depriving workers of thewages and earnings to which they are legally entitled."

Chipotle said her call for an investigation was"misdirected."

"We have maintained from the outset that this case iswithout merit and will vigorously defend our employmentpractices," company spokesman Chris Arnold said.

The Labor Department had no immediate comment.

Chipotle has been working to revive sales growth afteroutbreaks of E. coli, norovirus and salmonella linked to itsrestaurants sickened more than 500 people last year and droveaway customers. Last week, activist investor William Ackman disclosed thathis hedge fund had purchased a 9.9 percent stake in the company,saying it was undervalued. The case over unpaid wages began two years ago when LeahTurner, who worked as a manager at a Chipotle restaurant inColorado, alleged in a lawsuit that the company routinelyrequired hourly paid employees to work "off the clock,"according to court records.

The company used timekeeping devices that automaticallypunched employees off the clock, even if they were stillworking, the lawsuit said.

Since then, about 10,000 others from across the country havejoined the lawsuit seeking to recover unpaid wages, said AndrewQuisenberry, an attorney representing the workers for law firmBachus & Schanker. The large number of plaintiffs is"significant to us, showing that it's widespread acrossChipotle," Quisenberry said.

The case is Tuner et al vs Chipotle Mexican Grill, U.S.District Court, District of Colorado, No. 14-cv-02612.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Peter Cooney)
CHICAGO, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Chicago would sell up to $3.5billion of revenue bonds this year for its O'Hare InternationalAirport under proposals approved on Monday by the city council'sfinance committee.

With no discussion and on a voice vote, the committee sentthe bond measures to the full city council, which meets onWednesday. The committee on Friday postponed voting after somealdermen raised concerns about low minority-owned firmparticipation in airport bond deals and construction contracts,according to local media reports.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel proposed refunding up to $1.5 billion ofgeneral airport revenue bonds (GARBs) through Bank of AmericaMerrill Lynch to save an estimated $187.2 million, according toa city briefing document.

The city would also sell as much as $1.5 billion of GARBsthrough Morgan Stanley to fund a runway and air fieldimprovements.

The proposal calls for the sale of up to $350 million ofpassenger facility charge (PFC) bonds through Loop CapitalMarkets to expand and improve O'Hare's international terminal.Another approximately $80 million of outstanding PFC bonds wouldbe refunded for savings.

Chicago and airline officials in July unveiled a bigterminal plan for O'Hare, the world's second-busiest airport asmeasured in landings and take-offs. Credit ratings for O'Hare bonds at A and A2 with stableoutlooks are higher than the low-investment grade to junkratings for Chicago's general obligation debt.

(Reporting by Karen Pierog; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
(Adds interview with Barrick executives, context)

By Nicole Mordant

VANCOUVER, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Barrick Gold Corp ,the world's biggest gold producer, said on Monday it wouldpartner with Cisco Systems to incorporate digitaltechnology in all aspects of its mining business, aiming toimprove productivity and reduce costs.

Toronto-based Barrick said it planned to spend around $100million between now and the end of 2017 working with Cisco toembed technology in various parts of its operations to deliverbetter, faster and safer mining.

Mining sector players have long lamented the lack oftechnological innovation in the industry although some minerssuch as Dundee Precious Metals have started usingwireless technology and software platforms to track undergroundoperations in real time. "Barrick of three years ago is going to be very, verydifferent indeed going forward," Barrick Chief Operating OfficerRichard Williams said in an interview.

"We think actually that all mining companies will have to dothe same if they are going to remain in existence," he said.

The technology project is the latest move by BarrickChairman John Thornton to transform the miner into a profitable,low-cost producer after cost-blow outs, overpriced acquisitionsand a weak gold price knocked 80 percent off its share pricebetween 2010 and late-2015.

Williams said the technology initiative will help Barrickmeet its target of reducing its all-in sustaining costs to below$700 per ounce of gold by 2019.

Barrick's Cortez gold mine in Nevada will be the firstoperation where it will roll out new technology. Early projectsthere include using technology to predict maintenance in itsfleet of haul trucks to reduce down time, said Michelle Ash,Barrick's senior vice president of transformation andinnovation.

The company also plans to set up a central data repositorywhere any Barrick employee can access any piece of data acrossany site.

"At the moment it sometimes takes us weeks to compile as allour data is in silos and you have to access to that particularsilo, and we have hundreds of them," Ash said in an interview.

Barrick said the technological shift will help it reduce itsenvironmental impact and allow it to be more transparent withindigenous communities, local governments and non-governmentalorganizations.

Barrick's shares were up 2.2 percent at C$23.39 on theToronto Stock Exchange, in line with other gold stocks.

(Reporting by Nicole Mordant in Vancouver; Editing by WillDunham, Bernard Orr)
Stuff reports:

Nick Leggett has promised to axe what he calls Wellington City Councils annual $3 million secret slush fund if he becomes the capitals mayor.

Leggett took aim at the councils City Growth Fund on Wednesday, pledging to abolish it and redirect the ratepayer cash into a strategy for tackling the challenges faced by Wellingtons CBD.

The City Growth Fund, formally the Wellington Economic Initiatives Development (WEID) Fund, has been a controversial topic around the council table this past term.

About $3m has been made available annually since 2013 to support economic growth initiatives. But some councillors have been critical of the fact that funding decisions are made by a smaller panel of councillors, behind closed doors.

The council recently began revealing the names of funding recipients every six months, along with how much money some of them receive.

But some funding amounts are kept quiet for reasons of commercial sensitivity, and the council has not given any public indication of what its return on investment has been.

Leggett said the City Growth Fund met the textbook definition of a slush fund.

We must always take a careful and transparent approach to spending ratepayer money and, frankly, this scheme leaves the council wide open to accusations of corruption.
The Herald reports:

Thousands of New Zealand smokers lives could be saved by legalising domestic sales of electronic cigarettes containing nicotine, a leading vendor says.

The claim by Cosmic, which is selling the devices comes as submissions close today on a legalisation plan and has some backing from public health experts, both here and overseas.

Public Health England, which has helped to revolutionise official views on e-cigarettes in New Zealand, has said the nicotine delivery systems can help smokers quit, and they carry only a small fraction of the risk of smoking tobacco.

Auckland Universitys Professor Chris Bullen, who led the worlds first high-quality trial to compare the quit-smoking rates of e-cigarettes and nicotine patches, said: I dont think they are a magic bullet.

Theyre not the sole thing thats going to get us there [to the Smokefree 2025 goal], but I think they will help some population groups where we havent seen a breakthrough before.

There could be some real potential for Maori smokers.

His groups trial found in 2013 that nicotine e-cigarettes were as good as patches, but he said the e-cigarettes sold today were superior to those in the trial, which delivered less nicotine than a cigarette.

Experienced users can [now] get nicotine equivalent to smoking a standard cigarette.
People line up outside Kroger in Powell (Michael Patrick/News Sentinel)

SHARE Jenean & Herb Hurst among first shoppers at new Powell Kroger. (Michael Patrick/News Sentinel)

By News Sentinel Staff

The new Kroger Marketplace store at 234 East Emory Road in Powell will celebrate its grand opening on Wednesday at 7 a.m.

The official ribbon cutting is planned for 9 a.m. on Wednesday. This is the fifth Kroger Marketplace Store to open in the Greater Knoxville Area, and it has created more than 375 new jobs, according to a news release.

"Our staff is excited about the new store and all our grand opening festivities," said Molly Stiles, store manager, in the release. "We are proud to be part of this community, and we look forward to serving customers in this wonderful new facility."

The 124,000-square-foot store includes apparel, home decor, bed and bath items, a toy department, The Bistro with freshly prepared meals including a Build Your Own Burrito Bar, Murray's Cheese Shoppe, salad bar, fresh sushi, Service Meat and Seafood, Starbucks, a large selection of wine, floral shop, a pet center, and a Kroger Pharmacy with drive-thru service.

The Little Clinic, which provides healthcare for the whole family 12 months and up with no appointment needed, will be inside the store. It will be open seven days a week.

A Kroger Fuel Center is part of this new location, too. Customers will be able to save big on fuel at this location Sept. 16-18. For these three days only and at this location only, customers will get 20 cents off per gallon of fuel with their Kroger Plus Card. Plus, they can redeem Kroger Fuel Points to save even more at the pump.

This new Kroger, beginning Sept. 21, will become the fourth store in the Greater Knoxville area to offer ClickList, the company's new online ordering service, says the release. Customers order online at www.kroger.com/clicklist. On the website, customers create their shopping list, select a pick-up time, and then place the order. Next, a store associate handpicks the order and stores it in temperature-appropriate zones until the customer arrives. Finally, the customer pulls his or her vehicle up in the designated pick-up lane and a store associate will load the order into the car. As an introductory offer, Kroger will waive the $4.95 service charge for each customer's first three orders.

The grand opening celebration will go on for a few weeks, but the first 500 customers beginning at 7 a.m. Wednesday will receive coupons for free breakfast items including orange juice, sausage, a dozen eggs, and English muffins. Drawings for $300 Kroger Gift Cards will be held Wednesday at 9 a.m., noon, 3 p.m., and 6 p.m. Customers must be present to win.

As part of the celebration, Kroger will present a $2,500 check to the Knoxville Area Rescue Mission. On hand to entertain will be the Halls High School Band and Powell High School Band Drum Lines. Each school will be presented with a donation from the company.

Festivities also include the unveiling of a mural by area artist Jonathan Howe, a celebrated artist working in many creative fields. He often gets his inspiration from the rolling hills and farmlands of the Powell community which he has depicted in this mural.

Kroger is one of the nation's largest retail grocery chains. The Nashville Division operates 94 stores and 80 fuel centers in Middle and East Tennessee, Southern Kentucky, and North Alabama. The key focus areas of giving for Kroger are K-12 education, feeding the hungry, women's health and wellness initiatives, and other grassroots community initiatives, according to the release.
SHARE Author Pamela Schoenewaldt will organize an Adult Spelling Bee on Friday, Sept. 16.

ADULT SPELLDOWN

On Friday, Sept. 16, the Knoxville Writers' Guild will host an adult spelling bee at 7 p.m. in the Central United Methodist Church fellowship hall, 201 E. 3rd Ave.

Pamela Schoenewaldt, spelling bee director, says competitors will be limited to the first 40 adults over age 18 who register. The entry fee is $10. There will be cash prizes of $100 for first place and $50 for second place. Spectator admission is $2.

Nelda Hill with the Knox County Public Libraries will moderate the bee.

Proceeds will help fund programs and operations of the nonprofit Knoxville Writers Guild.

For info, contact Pamela Schoenewaldt at p.schoene@comcast.net.
Katie Cauthen

SHARE

Granted, Knoxville and its surrounding area rank relatively low in terms of market size when compared to other markets nationwide. Recent statistics cite it as number 61, according to Nielsen Market Research, and number 72 for radio, as defined by the Arbitron ratings system. Nevertheless, those numbers belie the fact that as far as the diversity, Knoxville remains one of the most dynamic markets in the country. While the major markets may be the ultimate destination as far as an on-air person's career is concerned, the quality of talent and programming prowess in this market easily compares with any other place in the country.

Media Watch is a new weekly column focused on comings and goings, ins and outs and behind-the-scenes developments taking place in local media. We hope to both entertain and enlighten, as well provide insights about the people and programs that come into our homes on a daily basis.

That said, here's a sampling of what's taking place at some of the outlets around town...

Christmas Cheer

You heard it here first: WDVX has a very special holiday treat in store for its listeners this year. On Friday, Dec. 16th, the station will present "A Suzy Bogguss Christmas" live from the Standard, one of the newest local event venues. Tickets for the show, which is made possible by support from the Knoxville Americana Music Foundation, will go on sale shortly. Stay tuned to WDVX and/or WDVX.com for details.

Happily, we don't have to wait until Christmas to enjoy some special musical moments on local radio. WDVX has also announced that award winning Bluegrass greats Phil Leadbetter, Steve Gulley and Richard Bennett will participate in a special WDVX Tuesday Night Shindig at the Wild Wing Cafe on Oct. 11. The show starts at 6:30 p.m., but it's best to get there early because it's a free show.

And while we're on the subject of WDVX, congratulations to the station's new programming director, Katie Cauthen. After conducting a nationwide search, management wisely decided to look right here at home. Katie began her radio career interning at the station and gradually increased her involvement as the years went by. Her promotion is further affirmation of the fact that oftentimes it's better to promote from within.

Comings and goings

Earlier this month, WUOT, the radio station run by the University of Tennessee, said goodbye to its popular afternoon concert host, Whitney Dodds. Why the switch? She's going back home to Ohio. "Anyone who's ever met Whitney knows why we will miss her terribly," the station's Matt Powell Shafer told us. "She's fun, funny and a great person to work with."

Going ape

Local NBC affiliate WBIR-TV, along with the News Sentinel and Zoo Knoxville, have teamed up to provide some viewing of a decidedly different variety. Between 6:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. each day, the station streams ongoing images from the McGaha Gorilla Cam. It offers opportunity to eavesdrop on two new zoo inhabitants, a baby girl gorilla named Obi and a baby boy gorilla named Ubuntu. Go to www.wbir.com/features/gorillacam or www.knoxnews.com/multimedia/webcams to watch the babies monkey around.

Eat it up

Radio stations are fond of giving away great prizes, and WJXB/B97.5 is no exception. The station has partnered with Ingles supermarkets to give one lucky winner groceries for an entire year, or, to put it another way, $100 a week for 52 weeks. Listeners are encouraged to listen to Ashley, Brad and Michele in the morning and call in throughout the day at 7:15 a.m., 9 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. through October 7. Go to http://media.mwcradio.com/flatterpages/contest_rules/groceriescontest.pdf for details.

Did you know

WVLT-TV anchor Ted Hall may seem the staid professional onscreen, but apparently he's also a closet rock 'n' roller. According to the station's website, he's particularly fond of Muse, Queen, Weezer, Volbeat, Foo Fighters, Bob Marley, ELO, Amy Winehouse, and Scott Miller.

If you have news or information you would like included inMedia Watch, contact Lee Zimmerman at lezim@bellsouth.net
Knox County Commission Chairman Dave Wright says he will wait until hearing from the state that the position held by outgoing state Rep. Joe Armstrong is vacant before deciding on when to call a meeting of the commission to decide whether to fill the seat until the Nov. 8 election.

Wright said Saturday he talked with county Law Director Richard "Bud" Armstrong, state Sen. Richard Briggs and state Rep. Harry Brooks about Joe Armstrong's retirement, announced Friday as the state Legislature prepared to meet this week in a special session to resolve an issue that could cost the state $60 million in federal highway funds because of changes to Tennessee's DUI laws.

Joe Armstrong set his retirement as effective today. He had remained in the post representing Knoxville's 15th District House seat after being convicted in federal court on Aug. 8 of filing a false income tax return. As a felon, he could not stand for re-election.

Wright said he doesn't yet know who notifies the county of the vacancy or to whom in the county the notification will be sent. As that gets sorted out, then he'll know how to proceed, he said.

Joe Armstrong said he wrote a letter to Gov. Bill Haslam with copies to House Speaker Beth Harwell and Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh about his intentions.

Knox County Democrats have replaced Joe Armstrong with Rick Staples on the ballot for the 15th District post. Independent Pete Drew also will be on the ballot, and Rhonda Lynnese Gallman is mounting a write-in campaign.

Joe Armstrong's attorney, Gregory P. Isaacs, has asked a federal judge to toss out the conviction or grant Armstrong a new trial. A sentencing hearing is set for Nov. 30.

RALLY FOR $15 WAGE: A busload of Knoxvillians is expected to go to Nashville today for a rally at the State Capitol in support of a $15 per hour minimum wage and on union rights and racial justice, among other issues. The rally is at 11:30 a.m. CST.

Among the speakers will be the Rev. Jim Sessions of the Interfaith Worker Justice of East Tennessee. Those participating are expected to be other clergy, fast food workers, home care workers, hotel workers, Black Lives Matter activists, union members, students, nonprofit leaders and other community groups, said Jayanni Webster, communications and community organizer for the Mid-South Organizing Committee of the Memphis Fight for $15.

The Knoxville group is to leave at 8 a.m. from the local CWA offices, 1415 Elm St.
SHARE KPD Chief David Rausch shows the vest and recovered bullet from when Officer Jimmy Wilson was shot trying to arrest a Florida career criminal in 2015. Rausch and Knox County District Attorney General Charme Allen announced Monday, September 12, 2016 that Matthew Pryor has been convicted of the 2015 shooting of Officer Jimmy Wilson at a Knoxville motel. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL) Wilson while KPD Officer Jimmy Wilson describes being shot during an announcement Monday, September 12, 2016 that the shooter Matthew Pryor has been convicted of the 2015 shooting. Officer Wilson was trying to arrest the 30-year-old Florida career criminal at a Knoxville motel.(MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL) Wilson while Matthew Pryor, Florida fugitive who shot Knoxville police officer Officer Jimmy Wilson in his body armor. (KNOX COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE) Related Coverage Officer out of hospital after East Knox shooting

By Hayes Hickman of the Knoxville News Sentinel

KNOXVILLE  A Florida man faces 100 years in prison for a crime spree that culminated in the May 2015 shooting of a Knoxville police officer, prosecutors announced Monday.

Matthew Pryor, 31, pleaded guilty in Knox County Criminal Court on Monday to the attempted murder of Officer Jimmy Wilson.

Wilson, who had tracked the fugitive to the Value Inn on Magnolia Avenue, was saved by his bullet-resistant vest when Pryor opened his motel room door and shot the officer once in the chest at point-blank range. The gunman immediately closed the door, and surrendered to police after a 30-minute standoff.

Wilson escaped serious injury and later was awarded the Knoxville Police Department's Purple Heart for bravery.

Under a plea agreement, Pryor was sentenced to 50 years in prison for attempted first-degree murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, Knox County District Attorney General Charme Allen said during a news conference at KPD headquarters.

Pryor will serve that time consecutive to a separate 50-year prison term imposed in January after being convicted on federal charges of shooting at authorities in Miami-Dade. Fla. and a subsequent carjacking in the days before he fled to Knoxville.

In-cruiser camera footage of the attack, released Monday, underscores Wilson's mental toughness during the episode, as well as the professionalism of himself and his fellow officers at the scene, Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch said.

"It's vital that the truth be shown," Rausch said. "We see enough of the (police) videos people question. Those are the exception. This is the norm."

The police chief noted that officers James Erskine and Chris Burke, who responded with Wilson as he knocked on Pryor's door, both had finished their field training barely three months earlier. Yet they exercised incredible restraint in the moment, Rausch said.

"Most individuals hearing gunshots, seeing their partner shot, would open up  wildly, quite frankly," Rausch said. "They did not. They maintained their composure."

In the footage, Wilson can be seen quickly picking himself up after being knocked off his feet by the .380-caliber round, and then running for cover. The officer immediately radioed their location and requested an ambulance. The officers then secured the area, ordering other motel guests to stay in their rooms.

On Monday, Wilson said he remembers several details of the shooting, except for the impact itself. He now keeps a copy of the video footage in police cruiser and watches it "almost weekly."

"I've looked at things I would do differently," Wilson said. "The one big thing that I'll say is, the vest. Always wear a vest.

"I was never one of those guys who would walk up and pat (a fellow officer) on the back just to feel it. I'm now one of those guys, because I know how important it is. That's the big thing I would tell any officer  make sure you have it on."

More details online as they develop and in Tuesday's News Sentinel.
Union County Criminal Court Judge Shayne Sexton admonishes the audience for the second day that emotional outburst will not be allowed during the murder trial of Kevin Lee Waggoner Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015. Waggoner, a former Knox County Schools officer, is charged with second-degree murder for the death of Michael A. Woodby. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL)

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By Jamie Satterfield of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Judge still could deny diversion for Scott jailers in inmate sex case

HUNTSVILLE  In a case of first impression in Tennessee, a judge on Monday refused to expand to oath-taking employees the scope of a law designed to bar those in power from escaping convictions for misdeeds.

The ruling came in the cases of two former Scott County Sheriff's Office jailers  Deana Shedara Keith and Tabitha Wilson  who had sex with inmates. The women pleaded guilty to official misconduct charges but sought a privilege known as judicial diversion that would have allowed them to avoid their own jail term for their sexual escapades with inmates and qualify to have their records wiped clean.

But 8th Judicial District Judge Shayne Sexton at an earlier hearing raised a question of whether a state law enacted after a pill-popping Knox County judge won diversion would apply to the jailers and  by extension  other law enforcers or government employees who must take an oath as a condition of employment and then abuse their authority by committing job-related crime.

That law says "any elected or appointed person in the executive, legislative or judicial branch of the state or any political subdivision of the state" cannot be granted diversion for crimes committed "in the person's official capacity or involved in the duties of the person's office." A state appellate court has not yet tested the law's scope.

On Monday, Sexton ruled the law's reach does not extend to jailers, who take the same oath of office as do sheriff's deputies.

"As a matter of law, each defendant is entitled to diversion," Sexton said.

However, he did not grant the women diversion and made clear he still has the authority to deny it as a sentencing option. He set an Oct. 31 hearing for a final decision.

Under a diversionary sentence, a criminal can walk away without a permanent conviction despite guilt upon completion of a probationary period with good behavior. The privilege is restricted to those who come into court with clean records and face nonviolent charges.

Former Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner received diversion in 2011 for official misconduct when he admitted buying prescription painkillers from a felon on probation in his court. The privilege spared his pension.

Baumgartner's behavior upended several criminal cases, prompting new trials for two of the four defendants convicted in the January 2007 torture killings of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. Those upheavals prompted not only public outrage but the Legislature to enact the law barring offenders like him from getting diversionary breaks.

A federal grand jury later indicted Baumgartner for lying to protect the drug dealing of his mistress, who also supplied him painkillers. He suffered felony convictions as a result, and his pension was stopped. He also served a short prison stint.

Assistant District Attorney General Philip Kazee is mounting a case against diversion, arguing the jailers breached the public's trust. He has filed a recent Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals decision backing a Greene County judge's decision to deny diversion to Greeneville Police Department Detective Jeff Sowers, who fondled at least three female inmates while purporting to prepare them for taking an exam to get their general equivalency diplomas.

In that case, Judge John Dugger Jr., relied heavily on Sowers' breach of trust in denying diversion. Sowers was sentenced to 18 months behind bars. The appellate court ruled Dugger's reasoning was legally sound.

Keith, 32, and Wilson, 28, each had sex with male inmates last year. A third jailer has pleaded guilty to facilitating Keith's illegal liaison by bringing the inmate to a guard tower where Keith was supposed to be watching over inmates but instead had sex in a nearby bathroom with the inmate.
By Michael Collins of the Knoxville News Sentinel

WASHINGTON  From boots, binoculars and body armor to mine-resistant trucks, helicopters and rifles, used military equipment stockpiled by police agencies in Tennessee over the past decade ranges from the mundane to the menacing.

Law enforcement agencies in the state have accumulated more than 47,000 pieces of used military gear and weaponry since 2006 under a Pentagon program that gives surplus equipment to local police.

The hardware's original value: $126 million, according to a database provided by the state Department of General Services.

Police say they need the used military gear to do their jobs, especially when terrorists can strike with weapons designed to kill and maim large numbers of people quickly and efficiently.

"It's vital for local law enforcement that we have this type of equipment to protect our citizens and the officers who serve them," said Clinton Police Chief Rick Scarbrough, second vice president of the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police.

But the buildup of military weaponry by local and state police departments, which accelerated after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, is cause for concern in some quarters.

Images of camouflage-clad officers using mine-resistant vehicles and combat-style assault weapons to quell protests in Ferguson, Mo., two years ago touched off congressional hearings on the militarization of local police and prompted President Barack Obama to issue an executive order making certain types of military gear off limits to law enforcement.

While the use of some military-type gear by police might be appropriate in certain circumstances, "there's a very difficult balance that we need to figure out how to handle," said U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., R-Knoxville.

"I think very few people would want a federal police state," Duncan said. "In some ways, we've gone a little too far in that direction."

In Tennessee, the stash of used military equipment and weaponry that police officers have accumulated through the Pentagon program includes standard supplies, such as flashlights, tourniquets, antennas, bed sheets, canteens and helmets.

Other items involve more elaborate machines and weaponry, such as helicopters, mine-resistant trucks, all-terrain vehicles, boats and dozens of rifles and pistols.

The Memphis Police Department, for example, got a mine-resistant vehicle valued at $658,000 and five 7.62-mm rifles valued at $138 each.

The Nashville Metropolitan Police Department received an armored truck valued at $65,000, four observation helicopters valued at $92,290 apiece, three dozen 7.62-mm rifles valued at $138 each, and a dozen .45-caliber automatic pistols valued at $58 each.

The Jackson Police Department stockpiled $2.5 million worth of gear: a mine-resistant vehicle (value: $733,000), an observation helicopter ($92,290), two military-training helicopters ($833,400 each), more than six dozen 5.56-mm rifles ($499 each) and more than a dozen 7.62 mm rifles ($138 apiece).

The helicopters aren't equipped with weaponry but are vital in searching for missing people and often can get to the scene of a car crash before a police squad can arrive, said Jackson Deputy Police Chief Barry Michael, who is in charge of operations for the department.

The mine-resistant vehicle hasn't been needed yet but would allow police to engage an active shooter without endangering officers, Michael said.

"It can take fire and pretty much stop any type of rifle we might encounter," he said.

Jackson police often get calls for assistance from surrounding rural counties, so the used military equipment could be deployed at times across the entire region, Michael said.

Besides protecting the public and officers, the used military hardware is also a good deal for taxpayers, Scarbrough said.

Police departments get the gear and weaponry for free. They pay a nominal fee to participate in the program and then must make arrangements to pick up and transport any of the equipment they are given. They also are responsible for maintaining the equipment.

For smaller departments, updating weapons and other basic equipment can be a financial drain, Scarbrough said.

"If we can find those resources on the federal government surplus fund, which have already been paid for by taxpayers, there's no need to buy new equipment," he said.

Still, concern that police are becoming too militarized has led to restrictions on the program.

The executive order that Obama signed last year barred the federal government from giving local police departments certain types of military gear, including tracked armored vehicles, bayonets, grenade launchers, ammunition larger than .50 caliber, and some types of camouflage uniforms.

Other equipment, including tactical vehicles, explosives and riot equipment, can be transferred to local police only if the departments certify that appropriate protocols and training requirements have been adopted and that other oversight measures are in place.

In the Tennessee General Assembly, state Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, and state Rep. Martin Daniel, R-Knoxville, filed bills last year that would have required local governing boards, such as city councils or county commissions, to approve the acquisition of military-style equipment by their law enforcement agencies. Police would have been required to explain what equipment they wanted, why they needed it and how it would be used and maintained.

The lawmakers decided not to move forward with the legislation after Obama's order addressed many of their concerns, Daniel said.

While it's important to equip police officers to do their job, "we want to ensure that Tennessee law enforcement officers are trusted and respected in the community, not feared," he said.
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The newest installment of the East Tennessee Historical Society's Brown Bag Lecture Series will tell the story of a legendary Knoxville radio station and its influence on music in America.

For decades, Julian Burke, a local expert on old televisions and radios, has collected unique pieces of broadcasting equipment. His vast collection includes the original announcer microphones from WNOX, an iconic Knoxville radio station known as the "Cradle of Country Music," according to a news release for the event.

On Wednesday, Burke will share early history and artifacts from WNOX's studio.

The event will begin at noon at the East Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay St.

The lecture is part of an exhibition, "Come to Make Records; Knoxville's Contributions to American Popular Music," on display at the Museum of East Tennessee History through Oct. 30, according to the release.

The exhibit analyzes old-time jazz, blues and gospel records created in 1929-30 on the Brunswick Records' Vocalion label at the St. James Hotel in downtown Knoxville.

Those recordings influenced American music and inspired the next generation of country music stars.

The exhibit includes artifacts, videos, recordings and photographs that demonstrate the history of East Tennessee music and the significance of WNOX Radio.

The Brown Bag Lecture is sponsored by Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC and is free and open to the public.

Guests are encouraged to bring brown bag lunches, and soft drinks will be available.

For more information, visit www.EastTNHistory.org.
Tennessee state flag.

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By Megan Boehnke of the Knoxville News Sentinel

The Tennessee State Board of Education is investigating the Union County school system after learning from news reports late last week that a teacher was charged with sexual battery of a student.

School districts have 30 day to report to the state when a teacher is suspended, fired or resigns in lieu of termination for misconduct. Ray Lincoln Head II submitted his resignation in November 2015, but the state board never received notification, said Philip Cramer, an attorney with the State Board of Education.

The board first learned about Head's resignation and criminal charges Thursday, after the News Sentinel and other outlets reported on a federal lawsuit filed by the victims mother, Cramer said.

The board will also determine whether to take disciplinary action against the teacher, which could include revoking his teaching license.

"With criminal actions, the state board waits until the conclusion of the proceedings, so we can use the conviction or anything that comes out during the trial as a basis for licensure action," Cramer said.

In the meantime, Head's license has been flagged by the state Department of Education, which would notify other districts that he is under investigation should he apply for jobs elsewhere in the state, Cramer said.

When asked if other disciplinary actions could be taken against school system officials for failing to act on previous complaints against the teacher, something the victim's mother has accused in her $4 million lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Knoxville, Cramer said he couldn't answer that without knowing more about the case.

The lawyer said he planned to reach out to school district officials Monday to begin gathering information.

Head, a geometry teacher at Union County High School, has been charged with three counts of sexual battery against the female student after her mother reported to law enforcement that he had been harassing her from the time she enrolled at the school last year.

In the federal civil-rights lawsuit filed against the school district, the mother alleges other teachers and students had complained about Head's inappropriate behavior, but the school system did nothing.

Within days of enrolling, the lawsuit contends, Head began following the girl in class, "stroking her shoulders, neck and hair," calling her "beautiful and smart" and "intentionally touching her body parts."

In one instance, Head rubbed against the girl while pressing her into a dry-erase board in front of the class, the lawsuit claims.

Fellow students first went to another teacher about Head's behavior, and that teacher reported it to the Principal Linda Harrell and Vice Principal Carmen Murphy. Students were interviewed, but neither administrator did anything about the complaints, the lawsuit alleges.

The mother accuses the school system of failing to protect her daughter, and of failing to properly notify the state Department of Children's Services and law enforcement.

The News Sentinel is not naming the woman who filed the suit to protect the identity of her daughter.
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By Tom Humphrey of the Knoxville News Sentinel

NASHVILLE  Fifty-three Republican state legislators have teamed with a Christian conservative group in trying to become involved in the pending divorce of two Knoxville women who are arguing over child custody.

The Family Action Council of Tennessee announced that its legal arm, known as the Constitutional Government Defense Fund, is representing the legislators in filing a motion to intervene in the divorce case of Sabrina Renae Witt vs. Erica Christine Witt.

The motion contends the legislators' "unique and substantial interest in the legislative power and process will be impeded, impaired, and/or nullified" if courts interpret a state law "to apply to any persons other than a man and woman joined together as 'husband' and 'wife.' "

Knox County Circuit Court Judge Greg McMillan ruled in June that Erica Witt has no legal rights under Tennessee law to involvement with a daughter born to Sabrina Witt through artificial insemination, as reported by the News Sentinel at the time. The couple were legally married in Washington, D.C., in April 2014, when same-sex marriage was prohibited in Tennessee. There is still no state law on the books authorizing same-sex marriages, but they were validated by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year.

The motion appears basically to endorse the position taken by McMillan in his ruling. The judge decided  as argued by Erica Witt's attorney  that the relevant Tennessee statute dealing with parenting rights in cases of artificial insemination speaks only to "husbands" of the birth mother and does not cover the mother's same-sex spouse.

Thus, Sabrina Witt was deemed to have no rights to decision-making or visitation with the child and no obligation to pay child support. Erica Witt's attorney argued that, under the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the state law should be interpreted to apply to women spouses of the birth mother artificially inseminated child as well as "husbands."

McMillian authorized an appeal, putting the divorce action on hold pending a state court of appeals decision on whether to hear the issue.

"Given the novelty of this issue, the court thinks it appropriate to see if the appellate courts want to address this," the judge said.

In a news release, David Fowler, a lawyer who is executive director of FACT and a former Republican state senator, praised the 53 legislators and declared "they are defending the will of the people."

"They understand the importance of this case constitutionally. This is not a case involving the policy that should be applicable in situations such as this. Rather, this case involves a very important constitutional question: Does the U.S. Supreme Court's Obergefell decision authorize judges to determine for state legislative bodies what policies it must have relative to custody issues in divorce proceedings?

"If it does, then matters of family law, which have historically been within the constitutional powers of the states to determine, will have essentially been judicially taken from the states and placed in the hands of federal judges," said Fowler, who filed the motion to intervene.

Legislators signing the document included 15 Republican senators and 38 Republican representatives. House Speaker Beth Harwell and Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey were not among them.

Fowler, acting as lawyer for FACT and its litigation arm, has filed two other lawsuits that seek to invalidate same-sex marriages in Tennessee  one in Williamson County and the other in Bradley County. A judge has dismissed the Williamson County lawsuit, declaring FACT had no legal standing to bring such a case  though denouncing the U.S. Supreme Court decision in doing so. A decision in the Bradley County case is still pending.

Signing on

Republicans signing the motion to intervene in the divorce case of Sabrina Renae Witt vs. Erica Christine Witt:

HOUSE

David Alexander of Winchester

Harry Brooks of Knoxville

Kevin Brooks of Cleveland

Sheila Butt of Columbia

David Byrd of Waynesboro

Mike Carter of Ooltewah

Glen Casada of Franklin

Barry Doss of Leoma

Bill Dunn of Knoxville

Jeremy Faison of Cosby

Tilman Goins of Morristown

Curtis Halford of Dyer

David Hawk of Greeneville

Matthew Hill of Jonesborough

Timothy Hill of Blountville

Andy Holt of Dresden

Dan Howell of Georgetown

Bud Hulsey of Kingsport

Kelly Keisling of Byrdstown

Sabi Kumar of Springfield

William Lamberth of Portland

Mary Littleton of Dickson

Ron Lollar of Bartlet

Pat Marsh of Shelbyville

Judd Matheny of Tullahoma

Jimmy Matlock of Lenoir City

Debra Moody of Covington

John Ragan of Oak Ridge

Jay Reedy of Erin

Courtney Rogers of Goodlettsville

Cameron Sexton of Crossville

Jerry Sexton of Bean Station

Mike Sparks of Smyrna

Terri Lynn Weaver of Lancaster

Dawn White of Murfreesboro

Ryan Williams of Cookeville

Tim Wirgau of Buchannan

Jason Zachary of Knoxville.

Senate

Mike Bell of Riceville

Mae Beavers of Mount Juliet

Janice Bowling of Tullahoma

Rusty Crowe of Johnson City

Todd Gardenhire of Chattanooga

Mark Green of Clarksville

Dolores Gresham of Somerville

Ferrell Haile of Gallatin

Joey Hensley of Hohenwald

Bill Ketron of Murfreesboro

Mark Norris of Collierville

Kerry Roberts of Springfield

Steve Southerland of Morristown

Jim Tracy of Shelbyville

Bo Watson of Hixson
By Joel Ebert And Dave Boucher, USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee

NASHVILLE  Embattled Rep. Jeremy Durham sent an eight-page letter to his House colleagues on Monday in which he defends himself, attacks the women who alleged sexual misconduct and blasts House leadership for its handling of the investigation.

In the letter obtained by The Tennessean, Durham addresses a variety of issues ranging from the legislature's sexual harassment policy and House leadership's attempts to expel him to an unrelated, ongoing investigation into his campaign finances. He denies any sexual wrongdoing with the women interviewed by Attorney General Herbert Slatery for his scathing report that found 22 women who accused Durham of inappropriate sexual conduct.

"This type of unbridled authority is dangerous," he said while discussing the "dangerous precedent" it sets for expelling a member based on an attorney general's report.

Durham, 32, faces an ouster vote this week as lawmakers meet in Nashville for a special legislative session. In the letter, Durham threatens to release a document that he says would name the accusers and show text messages that he says could prove his innocence.

"Due to the way this situation has been handled, my family finds itself in the position of wanting to largely clear my name by releasing names and text messages of many Jane Does while also wanting to not make the situation a bigger circus than it has already become," Durham writes in the letter.

"I've prepared a document responding to each and every Jane Doe  with names  and with text messages stored on a cloud. But that process should be handled according to House rules  not in a public expulsion proceeding."

The attorney general's office spent more than six months compiling its reports. The interactions described by women in the report range from inappropriate sexual comments and contact, like long hugs, to having sex with a 20-year-old "college student/political worker" in his legislative office and home. The women spoke to the attorney general on the condition of anonymity, afraid there could be negative personal and professional ramifications if they were identified.

Durham says "zero of the 22 Jane Does remotely fit any definition of sexual harassment." He argues that sending a text that says "what's up" or "offering a simple verbal compliment can hardly be considered inappropriate conduct."

The report goes in to detail about many interactions that go substantially further then sending a text message that says "what's up." The attorney general establishes a pattern of behavior for Durham based on the interactions with Durham, but also on more than 70 interviews.

"Rep. Durham's conduct ranged from what some of the women viewed as 'fishing,' such as invitations for drinks with him alone, flirting, and similar conduct, to sexually suggestive comments, such as those to lobbyists Jane Doe #30 that he expected something in return for supporting her bill, Jane Doe #17 ("there's a thousands places I'd rather meet you than my office"), and Jane Doe #63 ("What about thurs-sun ... My roommate's gone and I'll be super bored"), to attempted or touching of a sexual nature, such as that reported by intern Jane Doe #44 (attempted kiss, 2015), legislative staff member Jane Doe #24 (pulled her close while talking; kissed her, 2013), lobbyist Jane Doe #17 (pressed her breasts in a full frontal hug with an "mmmmmm" sound, 2015), and lobbyist Jane Doe #2 (rubber her thigh, 2014)," the report states.

Durham also alleges many of the Jane Does have ties to special interests that want to expand Medicaid in Tennessee, a proposal he opposes. At no point during any legislative session has the passage of Medicaid expansion or Insure Tennessee, a proposal from Gov. Bill Haslam that would offer new health benefits to many, come anywhere close to passing.

Durham denies allegations he used campaigns for personal purposes but declines to go into detail about the ongoing campaign finance investigation.

He said he doesn't plan to attend the ouster proceedings, but reserves the right to change his mind if he believes House leadership plans to conduct what will, in his view, amount to a fair process.

House Speaker Beth Harwell and Republican Caucus Chairman Glen Casada say they believe there are more than enough votes to oust Durham.
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The media have had an epiphany. After more than a year of covering Donald Trump as an entertainer running for president, several of them have recently admitted to grading him on a curve.

From the beginning, the news media didn't take Trump's candidacy seriously, to our peril. To garner ratings, they offered him free publicity without the cost of scrutiny. When he said. "I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people cheered the take-down of the World Trade Center," it lasted one news cycle. When he said, "Mexico is sending us their criminals, drug-dealers and rapists," it was shrugged off as hyperbole. No big deal. Nonpartisan PolitiFact has rated 76 percent of Trump's statements as false.

Any other candidate who called women pigs, dogs and slobs would have been run out of town. Far worse than his slurs are his dishonest business practices. More than 3,500 tradespeople have sued Trump for welshing on their contracts. Currently, there are two class-action suits against his Trump University alleging such offenses as false advertising, elder abuse and RICO violations. Recently, it was verified that Trump contributed $25,000 to the campaign of Florida's attorney general, Pam Biondi. Four days later she dropped the state's representation of plaintiffs suing Trump University.

Compare this to his trumped-up charges of "pay for play" against the Clinton Foundation, although no quid pro quo connections have been made after a thorough investigation. The foundation has an A rating from CharityWatch.

In the recent military town hall, he expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and said he would have taken Iraq's oil as a spoil of war.

It's time the media held Trump up to the same standard for truthfulness, knowledge and accomplishments as for every other candidate. He's not entertaining. He's a bad joke.

Cheryl Peyton, Loudon
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Gil Smith wrote an excellent guest column, "Republican Party must return to its proven principles." This letter is about the basic forces that have caused the party's recent transitions. There are recent events that can point us toward the hidden forces. The Republican Congress denounced Donald Trump, saying he was not qualified to be president, prior to his nomination. Once nominated, this Congress united to totally support the campaign, for one basic reason  to save their jobs. This action is certainly not patriotic since it jeopardizes America's future. The point is that we must accept that political survival outweighs even America's future.

However, this is expected human behavior (we are all primarily concerned about family and job security) and has been the basis for the long-term documented growing lack of trust for our entire government (Republicans and Democrats). Political survival and congressional careers have existed over generations, which means this is not about particular people but rather the political system that allows this behavior. Many people have understood the effects of congressional careers but have become apathetic because the problem won't get fixed by Congress and there is no media coverage to steer the public.

This is an excellent time for the public to vote differently to minimize congressional careers by not voting for any incumbents. If there are no other choices, write in a vote for T. Limits.

Raymond R. Givonetti, Knoxville
By Choi Sung-jin



Korea was ranked last out of 61 countries in a recent survey of corporate practices, conducted by the Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD). The nation also was eighth out of 11 Asian countries in corporate governance structure, as assessed by the Asian Corporate Governance Association (ACGA).



Outdated corporate governance has long been regarded as one of the reasons for the "Korea discount." This means the values of Korean companies and their products have not been duly recognized in global markets because of backward systems and practices in running businesses.



It is against this background that the government has decided to intervene, directly and indirectly, in corporate efforts _ or lack thereof _ to upgrade their governance structure, officials said Monday.



Specifically, they plan to enhance "model criteria" for corporate governance, obligate businesses to make public the reasons for non-compliance, and make institutional investors, including pension funds, play a more active role in the process. But businesses are opposing the government's moves, saying there can be "no correct answers" in corporate governance.



The model criteria were made in 1999, responding to the advice of the International Monetary Fund to improve the opaque governance structure of family-run conglomerates in the wake of the Asian financial crisis, were revised in 2003 and had since remained unchanged. The Group of 20 nations and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development modified some principles of corporate governance last year, forcing Korea to modify its own.



The model criteria, or norms, are not laws but an autonomous code of practices made by the Corporate Governance Service, a corporation set up by capital market-related organizations, including the Korea Exchange and the Korea Financial Investment Association. So why is the business community reacting so strongly to such unbinding rules? The content of the revised norms shows the reason.



The new rules, for instance, call for conglomerates, or chaebol, to make policies concerning the successors of top managers, called owners here. In other words, the boards of directors should make organizations responsible for the succession of managerial control and train a group of candidates. This is to reduce the "owner risk," to prepare for their chairmen having accidents or facing judicial procedures.



From the standpoint of conglomerates, however, this means falling into a trap set by themselves. "Korea's corporate governance, which is inherited from founders to their children and grandchildren, is different from that of Western countries, where corporate controls are in the hands of professional managers," said an executive at a chaebol group. "How can we make succession plans public while knowing nothing about the intention of our chairman?"



The new canon also advises businesses against appointing those who damage corporate values or are responsible for infringing on shareholders' rights and interests as executives. In other words, the new rules stipulate that people who received administrative or judicial discipline, distort information on corporate financial conditions intentionally or are unable to execute their duty because of too many concurrent posts should not be on the board of directors.



That could be quite burdensome for many chaebol whose tycoons have faced legal action or been pardoned, business watchers said.



It also calls for Korean businesses to maintain working conditions hovering above at least international standards and provide sufficient information on shareholders' meetings in good time. "We have included provisions that require a greater sense of responsibility on the part of listed companies in keeping with changes in the domestic corporate environment and international capital markets," said Professor Cho Myung-hyon of Korea University, who doubles as head of the Corporate Governance Service.



To pack more punch into the legally non-binding norms, its drafters have added a rule that obligates listed firms to make reports on their observance of 10 essential points and, if they fail to abide by some of them, present the reasons, in what the experts call a "comply or explain" formula. The 10 major duties concern shareholder rights, equal treatment of shareholders, functions of the board of directors, composition of boards and selection of executives, outside directors, operation of boards, committees within boards, evaluation and rewards, in-house audit organization, and outside auditors.



There are no means of punishing businesses that do not submit this report, or fill in only part of the 10 items. A chaebol executive said, however, "People will regard businesses which avoid making public these things as less than fair and square," indicating businesses are afraid this system can be used as a "name and shame" scheme.



The new canon also will introduce the "stewardship code," a voluntary set of behavioral principles institutional investors should follow. It will urge pension funds and other institutional investors to care not only about rates of return but also about improving corporate governance.



There are opponents to this rule, too. Yoon Chang-hyon, a professor at the University of Seoul, said: "If institutional investors are allowed to meddle in management, they are likely to push up dividend rates to rake in more profits while ignoring long-term corporate development."



How should the nation enforce these new norms more effectively, then?



Currently, 34 of the 35 OECD member countries have rules on corporate governance equivalent to Korea's model criteria. The United States, for instance, has a listed companies' manual and Britain has a corporate governance code of conduct. They do not coercively apply these rules but make businesses explain why they do not abide by some of them through reports or public notices.



Most countries make businesses explain reasons for their non-compliance through somewhat compulsory devices, such as laws and rules (21 countries, 62 percent) and listing regulations (nine countries). Only four countries _ Korea, Mexico, Switzerland and Czech Republic _ leave it to the discretion of businesses.



"However frequently the authorities may revise model criteria, they would be of little substantive help for improving corporate governance if the regulators leave the job in the hands of businesses," said Yun Seung-young, a CGS researcher.








Hyundai Motor president Chung Jin-haeng, third from left in front row, poses with Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Joo Hyung-hwan, center in front row, and other participants after signing business agreements at the Sejong Convention Center, Sejong City, Monday. Under the deals, the automaker will run 10 Tucson ix fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) as taxis in Ulsan in December, as well as providing 30 vehicles for a pilot car sharing program in Gwangju.

/ Courtesy of Hyundai Motor



Automaker plans to sell vehicles as taxis, begin car sharing program



By Lee Hyo-sik

Hyundai Motor is stepping up its efforts to commercialize its hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), the first of its kind in the world, to become a top manufacturer of environmentally-friendly cars.

Korea's largest automaker said Monday that it will sell FCEVs as taxis and begin a car sharing program later this year to promote the use of the emission-free vehicles among businesses and individuals.

Hyundai began mass-producing the Tucson ix FCEV in 2013, but has sold just 78 vehicles only to government agencies and public enterprises, mostly for various trial projects, because of the high prices and a lack of fuel stations. But now the company wants to expand the customer base for the Tucson ix FCEV.

First, the carmaker plans to operate 10 Tucson ix FCEVs as taxis for a trial run in Ulsan in December, while providing 15 vehicles for a pilot car sharing program in Gwangju.

An FCEV is a hybrid car that uses a fuel cell and a battery to power an electric motor, instead of a combustion engine. It generally uses oxygen from the air and compressed hydrogen, emitting only water and heat. The Tucson ix FCEV can travel a maximum of 400 kilometers per charge and has a more stable storage tank, according to the company.

On Monday, Hyundai Motor held a ceremony in Sejong City, signing business agreements with municipal administrations and partner firms.

The automaker signed a deal with Ulsan Metropolitan Government and a taxi association in the city to offer 10 Tucson ix FCEVs as taxis. It plans to add five more vehicles in Ulsan in 2017, and begin running another 5 as taxis in Gwangju.

In 2018, a total of 100 FCEVs will run as taxis across five municipalities, Hyundai said.

In addition, the carmaker signed agreements with Gwangju Metropolitan Government and rental car firm J-Car to use 15 Tucson ix FCEVs for a car sharing program. The firm plans to increase the number to 150 by 2020 and expand the program to other regions.

"Hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles have been touted as one of the two futuristic vehicles, along with electric vehicles," a Hyundai Motor official said. "The two projects will enable more people to experience what the vehicles are like and publicize the safety and excellence of the environmentally-friendly, zero-emission cars. We will continue to enhance our global leadership in FCEVs and nurture them as our new export item."

Earlier, the government started a consultative body of representatives from the public and private sectors to foster the hydrogen car industry as one of Korea's new growth engines.
By Kim Tae-gyu



Global customers appear to be remaining loyal to the Galaxy brand of Samsung Electronics despite the recent issue of "exploding" batteries of the Galaxy Note 7 released last month.



Android Police, a blog dedicated to news on Google's mobile OS, started a poll Sept. 4 to learn how Samsung's recall of 2.5 million Note 7s a few days ago changed people's perception of the Samsung brand and its smartphones.



Out of around 12,000 respondents up to Monday, 39 percent said that the recall has not affected their trust of the Samsung brand while 36 percent said that their trust has increased because of the company's swiftness and effectiveness in addressing the potential defect.



Twenty-four percent said that recent incidents prompted them to feel somewhat less trusting of Samsung smartphones or greatly diminished their trust.



Samsung released the Galaxy Note 7, Aug. 19, in 10 countries including the United States and Korea but announced a global recall Sept. 2 due to claims of batteries catching fire while charging.



Once the costly fix of offering a new Galaxy Note 7 to those who have already bought one is completed, Samsung is expected to continue marketing the large-screen devices beginning late this month or early next month.



Over the past few days, regulators of multiple governments advised Galaxy Note 7 owners to turn off the devices and stop charging or using them but such strong measures don't seem to have seriously harmed the Galaxy brand image yet, local watchers said.



"Readers of Android Police are mostly in favor of Android phones. Hence, I think that they do not have big incentives to shift to Apple's recently released iPhone 7," an analyst in Seoul said.



"Still, the results show that loyalty to Samsung is pretty strong in spite of all the mishaps with regard to the battery issue. It remains to be seen how things will evolve in the future."



Apple introduced the iPhone 7 last week but the U.S. company did not disclose preorders, which made it difficult to check early responses of end customers.



GSM Arena, which provides news about mobile devices, also began a poll Sept. 3 asking its readers whether they would wait for the Galaxy Note 7 to return.



Out of about 7,500 respondents, 63 percent answered positively while the remaining 37 percent said they would jump ship to other brands.



SamMobile, a news-sharing community for Samsung customers, also carried out a survey Monday to gauge the ripple effect of the Note 7 recall.



Around 3,000 responded and 45 percent said they were not concerned because recalls happen in all industries.



Up to 39 percent said they appreciate how the company has handled it while 16 percent said they will not buy a Samsung product again.




Samsung Electronics Co. said Monday it approved the sale of its printer business unit to U.S. personal-computer maker HP Inc.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Samsung said the transaction is part of its "efforts to concentrate on its core business areas."

Under an agreement with HP, Samsung will source printers from HP and continue to market them in Korea under the Samsung brand, the company said in a statement.

Samsung's printer business posted sales of 2 trillion won last year, according to the statement. (Yonhap)
A former chief of cash-strapped Hanjin Shipping Co. on Monday offered 10 billion won ($8.96 million) in personal assets to the country's No. 1 container shipping line currently under court receivership, in order to help the company tide over the current crisis.



Choi Eun-young, former chairwoman of Hanjin Shipping, earlier said she was willing to offer her private assets to help the shipper whose ships have been stranded at sea following its court receivership in South Korea earlier this month.



The 54-year-old Choi, the wife of the late Cho Su-ho, the younger brother of Hanjin Group chairman Cho Yang-ho. Cho Su-ho died in 2006 when he was serving as chairman of Hanjin Shipping.



Choi took over the management of Hanjin Shipping in 2006 after her husband's death and served as its chairwoman until April 2014 before handing over the control of the world's seventh-largest shipper to Hanjin Group.



She has been under fire for allegedly mismanaging the world's seventh-largest shipper for the past few years, whose demise has sent a blow to the global cargo flows.



Hanjin Shipping's debt ratio had surged from 150 percent to 1,400 percent during Choi's reign, prompting criticism that she was largely to blame for the shipper's collapse.



Adding to the critics, Choi, who owns Hanjin Shipping's headquarters building in downtown Seoul through a holding company, has reportedly collected 14 billion won annually in rent from the financially troubled shipper.



Her assets are estimated at up to 40 billion won.



Meanwhile, Korean Air Lines Co., Hanjin Shipping's largest shareholder, decided to provide 60 billion won to its shipping affiliate, and group chairman Cho promised to offer 40 billion won in private assets as well.



But local business circles are negative about the group's moves due to controversy over breach of trust, with the Korea Economic Research Institute, a think tank run by the chaebol lobby Federation of Korean Industries, saying at a seminar that it is inappropriate for the largest shareholder of Hanjin Shipping, Korean Air Lines, to be put under pressure to shoulder additional financial burden to rescue a court-managed company. (Yonhap)




Yoon Yeo-seong, head of Hyundai Mobis China, speaks by a conveyer belt linking its module plant to a Hyundai Motor manufacturing plant, during a press tour in Beijing, Friday. / Courtesy of Hyundai Mobis



By Jhoo Dong-chan

BEIJING, China  A car has some 25,000 parts that need to be assembled, but it is almost impossible to put the parts together one by one. Automakers, therefore, assemble small parts into bigger pieces, or so-called "modules," to maximize production efficiency.

Hyundai Mobis, an affiliate of the nation's largest automaker, Hyundai Motor, is in charge of producing such modules, an important and fundamental assignment for the automaker's production operation.

The world's No. 6 automotive supplier's operation is the same in China.

Only 50 meters from Hyundai Motor's manufacturing plant, the Hyundai Mobis module plant in the capital Beijing produces and supplies three major modules  chassis, driving seat and front end. The modules account for about half a complete car. The two plants are connected by a conveyer belt.

Yoon Yeo-seong, head of Hyundai Mobis China, told a visiting press group, Friday, that this year is crucial for Hyundai Mobis and Hyundai Motor.

"Last year, Hyundai Motor experienced a sales decline for the first time in China since it started sales operations here," he said.

"The global auto market is approaching an inflection point with the introduction of eco-friendly and autonomous cars. Hyundai Mobis' role will be very crucial for Hyundai Motor's future competitiveness. We will do our best to contribute to Hyundai Motor's rebound in sales here."

Hyundai Mobis had 4.85 trillion in sales in China last year, a 7.4 percent surge year-on-year. It was the company's best overseas sales performance, accounting for about 25 percent of total sales.

In 2002, Hyundai Mobis built its first plants in Beijing and Jiangsu  where Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors have factories  and started supplying major modules. It then built plants in Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing that produce the three major modules and safety devices like airbags.

Hyundai Mobis' Tianjin plant also makes various automotive application components, including audio and safety systems.

A Hyundai Mobis official at the Tianjin Plant said they will soon supply these components to America's GM and France's Peugeot.
Choi Wook-kyung's "Reject" (1974) / Courtesy of Kukje Gallery







Artist Choi Wook-kyung

/ Korea Times file

By Kwon Mee-yoo

Artist Choi Wook-kyung (1940-1985) was a person with rare intelligence in the Korean art scene of the 1970s.

She was an outsider in the Korean art community, while the Dansaekhwa (Korean monochrome painting) and the sociopolitical Minjung art prevailed. Her position was unrivaled then as well as now since she was responsible for expanding the scope of Korean abstract art, especially Abstract Expressionism.

An exhibition titled "American Years 1960s-1970s" at Kukje Gallery K2 in downtown Seoul sheds light on the highly gifted artist who died young. The exhibit features 70 paintings and collage works solely from the period when Choi resided in the United States between 1963 and 1978.

Kim Sung-won, artistic director of Asia Culture Center in Gwangju, organized the exhibit as a guest curator.

"Choi achieved her own style in the States, but her works were unappreciated in the Korean art scene which was split between the avant-garde artists of Dansaekhwa and performance and more conservative groups who sought the National Art Exhibition," Kim said. "Choi tread a solitary path because she did not and could not take sides with any of them. The time is ripe for us to rediscover this artist who blazed a trail in Korean abstract art."

Coming from a wealthy family in Seoul, Choi showed artistic talent from an early age and was taught by renowned artists such as Kim Ki-chang (1914-2001). After graduating from the College of Fine Arts at Seoul National University, Choi went to the U.S. and entered the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1963 to pursue her career as an artist.

While in the States, she absorbed the strong and bold impact of Abstract Expressionism, the postWorld War II art movement in America led by Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning. Choi accommodated the international art trend, but she continued to experiment on it with Korean aesthetics and colors.

Her earlier paintings use bold colors and complimentary contrast, while her works in the '70s employ softer colors such as pink and yellow. Her residency at the Roswell Museum in New Mexico made the artist explore more natural images and organic shapes. She also incorporated traditional Korean elements from dancheong (multicolored paintwork on wooden structures) and minhwa (folk painting) as well.

Choi was a prolific artist who created over 500 paintings and 1,000 drawings. The exhibit presents two different ways Choi artistically unraveled her thoughts -- her paintings are abstract, taking away concrete details, while she pasted reality as it is into her collages.

Influenced by pop art, her collages use newspaper clippings that directly reflect social issues such as anti-war sentiment or racial discrimination. This is an example of tireless artistic experiments Choi conducted throughout her life.

Choi met an early death at 45 when she had a heart attack. She didn't leave a will, but bequeathed an unforgettable legacy in Korean abstract art.

The exhibit runs through Oct. 30. Admission is free. For more information, visit kukje.org or call 02-735-8449.
Actress Min Hyo-rin waits in line at Gimpo International Airport on Sept.11. / Courtesy of Instagram



By Ko Dong-hwan

When visitors to Gimpo International Airport discovered actress Min Hyo-rin on Sept. 11, she was not surrounded by bodyguards or managers, or tried to leave the place in hurry. She was right among the crowd waiting in line to get their boarding passes.

The rare scene of a hot celebrity was photographed and posted on Instagram. Wearing blue jeans and a white shirt, with a handbag slung over her shoulder, the star, 30, waited about 30 minutes in the long line of people leaving the country before the Chuseok holiday season, or Korean Thanksgiving.

"Min was spotted waiting in line without using a free pass' often used by celebrities not to go through the hassle of waiting for a long time," media reports said.

The star from KBS variety show "Sisters' Slam Dunk" was on her way to Japan for a magazine photo shoot.
A Korean speaking competition will be held on Oct. 6 at Gyeongsang National University in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province. / Courtesy of Gyeongsang National University



By Lee Jin-a

Gyeongsang National University will hold its annual Korean speaking competition on Oct. 6 at its campus.

GNU said any foreigners residing in South Gyeongsang Province will be able to participate.

The 8th "Gyeongsang Foreigners Speech Contest" will be held in two categories -- students and adults. Adults will be tested on their five-minute speech about "a Korean person that they cannot forget" and students about "their life in Korea."

GNU said the winner in each group will receive 300,000 won ($270) while second place gets 200,000 won and third 100,000 won.

To participate, people must submit an application form to the GNU Center for Korean Language and Culture by Sept. 23, with a copy of their passport or certificate of alien registration. The form is available from the official GNU website (http://ckc.gnu.ac.kr).
Park administration has few measures to tame Kim regime

By Jun Ji-hye

President Park Geun-hye has vowed to give a firm response to North Korea's fifth nuclear test, but she appears to have few options to use against the isolated, unpredictable state, analysts said Monday.

The Park government has already taken almost all available measures it has to pressure the North in the wake of Pyongyang's previous nuclear test in January and launch of a long-range rocket the following month. The measures included resuming anti-North Korea propaganda broadcasts via loudspeakers along the border, shutting down the joint industrial park in the North's border city of Gaeseong, and asking people to refrain from visiting North Korean restaurants overseas.

In July, the government also announced its decision to allow the deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery here by the end of next year as a means to more effectively deter evolving threats from the North's nuclear and missile programs.

But the isolated state pushed ahead with a fifth nuclear test, Friday, claiming to have successfully detonated a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can be placed on a ballistic missile.

"The government now seems to have no more options in deterring the North except for military action," said Koh You-hwan, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul. "The government has already used everything involving the Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC) and THAAD. Plus, exchanges between South and North Korea have been blocked since the Lee Myung-bak administration imposed the May 24 Measures in 2010."

The May 24 Measures that severed almost all economic ties with the North were imposed in retaliation for the North's torpedoing of the South's warship Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors, in 2010.












Police said Monday they have arrested eight Chinese tourists on charges of beating up a South Korean restaurant owner on Jeju Island last week.

According to Jeju Seobu Police Station, the tourists  six men and two women  are suspected of assaulting the 53-year-old owner of the restaurant, identified only by her surname Ahn, on the southern resort island of Jeju on Saturday, causing her injury.

The incident took place after the 53-year-old Ahn prohibited the tourists from drinking alcohol they brought from outside, according to police.

They allegedly attacked the victim when she asked them to pay for the food they ordered before leaving, police said. The suspects are also accused of assaulting three others who were trying to stop them, including Ahn's son.

The restaurant owner is currently being treated at a local hospital, according to police.












Sung Kim, the U.S. special envoy on North Korea's nuclear issue, arrives at Gimpo International Airport in Seoul, Monday, for talks with his South Korean counterpart, Kim Hong-kyun, scheduled for today, on North Korea's latest nuclear test and possible countermeasures. / Yonhap



By Kang Seung-woo

North Korea is ready to carry out an additional nuclear test at any time following its fifth nuclear detonation on Friday, the defense ministry said, Monday.

While confirming its fifth nuclear test three days ago, Pyongyang announced that it plans to continue strengthening its nuclear force.

"The South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities assess that the North is always prepared for an additional nuclear test at its Punggye-ri nuclear test site," said Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-kyun in a briefing.

According to government sources, North Korea has an unused tunnel at the test facility on the country's northeastern region and the allies' intelligence detected the North's complete preparation for another test there.

"Should the North detonate another nuclear device, it is highly expected to use the unused tunnel," a government source said.












Minister Je Jeong-boo



By Kim Jae-kyoung

South Korea will step up efforts to export its legislation system to developing countries, according to Korea's Minister of Government Legislation Je Jeong-boo.

Je said that he will place a top policy priority on globalizing Korea's advanced legislative system to boost bilateral cooperation and pave the way for Korean firms to strengthen their footholds in the burgeoning markets.

"The role of a legislative system as intangible social infrastructure for national development has become more important than ever," he said during a recent interview. "Sharing Korea's advanced legislative experience with our Asian neighbors will help them design systems for their development and create a foundation for common, sustainable growth."

He pointed out that exporting Korea's legislative system will make it easier for Korean firms to do business overseas.

"I anticipate that Korean companies in other countries will be better able to actively invest in local markets, if the host countries offer legislative systems similar to that of Korea," he said.

Je plans to focus on Southeast Asian markets first as many Asian countries are deeply interested in Korea's experience.

"Southeast Asia will become the base from which legislative hallyu will expand worldwide," he said.

"Once we achieve success in Southeast Asia, we will reach out to developing countries in Africa and Latin America through Central Asia and the Middle East."












A Korea Meteorological Administration official explains the epicenter of the record magnitude-5.8 earthquake at the agency's office, Monday night. / Yonhap



5.8-magnitude shock strikes Gyeongju



By Park Si-soo, Chung Hyun-chae, Kim Rahn



A 5.8-magnitutde earthquake, the most powerful seismic activity here since 1978 when the nation started measuring tremors, struck the historic city of Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, at 8:32 p.m., the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said Monday.

It occurred about 50 minutes after a 5.1-magnitude quake hit the city at 7:44 p.m.

The Ministry of Public Safety and Security organized a Disaster Management Office, an emergency team that monitors damage and takes necessary emergency measures.

At least 22 aftershocks with magnitudes of 2 to 3 were detected by 10 p.m. with more expected throughout the night.







The epicenter for the first quake was the Naenam Elementary School in Gyeongju. The second quake's epicenter was 1.4 kilometers away, according to the Daegu Regional Meteorological Administration.

Tremors spread throughout the country, including Seoul, terrifying people who felt them. They were even detected in Kyushu, Japan.

The government has ordered people in the quake-hit areas to evacuate to safe areas.
Je Jeong-boo, left, minister of government legislation talks with Nguyen Khac Dinh, chairman of the Law Committee of the National Assembly of Vietnam, at the committee building in Vietnam, Aug. 31.

/ Courtesy of the Ministry of Government Legislation



By Kim Jae-kyoung

A growing number of Southeast Asian nations are seeking to take a cue from South Korea in upgrading their legislative policies by strengthening cooperation with the country's Ministry of Government Legislation (MOLEG).

Vietnam and Myanmar are leading the trend. They are keen to learn Korea's knowhow and experience on how its legislative system has helped the Korean economy achieve such fast development over a short period of time.

"Korea has developed its industries through a systematic legal system. Korea's experience in legislation and legislative information management systems will contribute significantly to legislative policies in Vietnam," Vietnam's Justice Minister Le Thanh Long said in a recent meeting with Je Jeong-boo, minister of government legislation.

The meeting came after Korea's legislation ministry and Vietnam's justice ministry held a workshop, Aug. 31, on "Efficient Management and Provision of Legislation" to share their experiences and seek ways to intensify cooperation.

Je also met with Nguyen Khac Dinh, chairman of the Law Committee of the Vietnamese National Assembly, to discuss ways to bolster cooperation in legislative policies and maximize the effect of a bilateral FTA that came into effect in November, 2015.

"For the smooth progress of the Korean-Vietnam FTA, our two nations need to swiftly exchange information on the most recent laws in order to enhance understanding of both nations' investment climate," Je said.

The agreement was the outcome of a six-day visit by a delegation from MOLEG to Vietnam and Myanmar from Aug. 30 to Sept. 4. The visit sought to strengthen relations regarding exchanges and cooperation between the respective legislative bodies and governments of the two countries.

In Myanmar, Je visited the Ministry of Justice and the Bill Committee of the Lower House, and discussed what more could be done to successfully implement a Myanmar Law Information System, Sept. 2












Ahmet Uzumcu, the director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, speaks during an interview with The Korea Times on the sidelines of the Seoul Defense Dialogue at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul, Thursday. / Courtesy of Ministry of National Defense



By Jun Ji-hye

The international community should work together to ensure North Korea is obliged to join the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) that calls for destroying such munitions and never producing them again, said the head of an international chemical weapons watchdog.

The U.N.-backed Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), set up in 1997 in The Hague, is the implementing body of the CWC, which entered into force in 1997 with four key provisions  destroying all existing chemical weapons, preventing new weapons from reemerging, providing assistance and protection to states parties against chemical threats, and fostering international cooperation to strengthen implementation of the CWC and promote the peaceful use of chemistry.

The OPCW Director-General, Ahmet Uzumcu, said in an interview with The Korea Times that whatever resolution the international community is eventually able to achieve on the North's nuclear capability, it must also oblige the regime to join the CWC as chemical weapons are not a strategic option for anyone.

The interview took place on Sept. 8 on the sidelines of the Seoul Defense Dialogue (SDD) that kicked off on Sept. 7 for a three-day run with representatives from 33 nations and five international bodies.

Uzumcu said the organization has not been able to confirm Pyongyang's chemical weapons capabilities as the regime is not a member of the convention yet, but it is believed that the isolated state does possess such weapons.

"Every state, which joins the CWC, has the obligation to declare whether it has a chemical weapons program and if it has some chemical weapon stockpiles and production capabilities. The organization has the task to verify whether declarations are accurate and complete," he said. "North Korea is not yet a member of the CWC, therefore we are not able to confirm the information which is available publicly. But looking at the public information, it seems that North Korea does possess chemical weapon stockpiles, and the estimates are around 3,000 metric tons."

The Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) noted in December last year that the North is thought to be among the world's largest possessors of chemical weapons, ranking third after the United States and Russia, though the regime claims it does not possess such weapons.

The NTI added that Pyongyang is believed to be capable of deploying its stockpile of chemical agents through a variety of means, including field artillery, multiple rocket launchers, Scud and Rodong ballistic missiles, aircraft and unconventional means.

In 2012, Seoul's Ministry of National Defense also estimated that the isolated state possessed between 2,500 and 5,000 metric tons of chemical weapons.

Uzumcu said, "It is also mentioned that North Korea has production facilities for several kinds of chemical weapons, and the number is mentioned as 16 to 18. We will only know whether this public information is correct or not when North Korea joins the convention."

The carreer diplomat continued that the OPCW has made various efforts for several years to bring the North to the CWC including having made public appeals and written letters to the regime's foreign ministers together with the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

"I also sent letters to their head of state. But all those unfortunately were unanswered," he said. "We are going to continue those efforts. We also expect that our member states will continue to put some pressure on North Korea. They should urge the North Koreans to review their position in regard to the CWC."

As of today, the OPCW has 192 member states, who are working together to achieve a world free of chemical weapons, but four nations _ North Korea, Egypt, Israel and South Sudan _ have yet to join the CWC.

The OPCW head said that from the organization's point of view, it does not make any sense to stay away from the CWC, urging nations that remain outside of the convention to join it without delay and comply with the obligation to eliminate chemical weapon stockpiles and never develop and produce them again.

He said the organization has been requesting the states' parties, especially those which have some relations and contacts with North Korea, to use their influence to convince the North to join the convention.

"This is the only way we can actually convince the few states which remain outside of OPCW to join," he said.

In particular, Myanmar, which became the 191st state party to the CWC last year, is raising hope that the country might be able to act as a communication bridge between the North and the OPCW as Yangon and Pyongyang are known to have maintained close diplomatic relations. When Myanmar joined the CWC, the OPCW head said that the country's membership will significantly strengthen the global prohibition against chemical weapons, especially in Asia.

Uzumcu pointed out that chemical weapons are inhumane and should not have been developed or used.

"Unfortunately in history, we have seen that they were used excessively during WWI," he said. "But after this experience, the international community decided to ban the development and use forever. All these efforts were culminated in developing and putting in force the CWC in 1997."

Since 1997, an increasing number of countries have joined the convention and implemented it fully, he said, adding that, "This included the development and the testing of them."

Regarding allegations that the reclusive state has tested chemical weapons on human beings such as political prisoners, he said, "It is unacceptable that some countries including North Korea continue to develop such weapons, especially testing them on human beings."

He stressed that once a country joins the CWC, the OPCW provides a number of opportunities to train expert chemists on the peaceful use of chemistry as well as opportunities to receive and use certain chemical materials.

"States that are not party to the convention cannot benefit from such trade," he said. "I think being part of such treaties and international instruments for arms control and disarmament means to be integrated into the international community, so becoming a respected partner of the international community. I think this is the main reason for any country to join the CWC."

He added that the North, by committing itself to the obligations of the CWC, will demonstrate that it is becoming a peace-seeking country, which will be welcomed by the whole international community.

In 2013, the OPCW was awarded the Nobel peace prize in recognition of its hazardous mission to destroy Syria's chemical weapon stocks as well as 16 years of wider global efforts to eliminate chemical weapons.

In a keynote speech given to the opening ceremony of the Seoul Defense Dialogue on Sept. 8, Uzumcu said the mission to remove and eliminate Syria's chemical weapons most recently attested to the resilience of the convention.

"It significantly reinforced the CWC by extending, and consolidating, the rules governing its implementation, and made it more responsive to the contingencies," he said. "This has included how the OPCW has addressed allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Syria through its fact-finding mission, as well as efforts to engage Syrian authorities to resolve outstanding issues related to the declaration they submitted to the OPCW."

Uzumcu assumed office as director-general of the OPCW in July 2010.

He previously served as the permanent representative of Turkey to the U.N. Office in Geneva from 2006 to 2010.
By Michael Broning

BERLIN  This is Berlin's summer of discontent. Exactly one year ago, Chancellor Angela Merkel's principled decision to open Germany's borders to refugees stranded in Hungary impressed millions of people around the world. As ordinary Germans flocked to train stations and border posts to greet people seeking shelter from war, distress, and misery, Germany's "Welcome Culture" was saluted as a truly inspiring example of humanitarianism.

One year later, the tide has turned  above all against Merkel, now in her 11th year in office. Her credo, "Wir schaffen das" ("We can do it"), inspired thousands of volunteers to open their hearts  and often their homes  to refugees. Now, however, her assertive optimism is confronting a dramatic political backlash.

Sunday's election in Merkel's home state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern  widely seen as a test run for Germany's federal election in September 2017  was devastating for her Christian Democratic Union. While all mainstream parties suffered severe losses, the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) finished second, winning an unprecedented 21% of the vote and relegating the CDU to third place.

The Mecklenburg result was not an isolated outcome. In March, the AfD, founded in 2013 as a Euroskeptic party critical of the Greek bailout, sent shockwaves through the country when it finished second or third in regional elections in three German states. Germany's position in the refugee crisis has transformed the AfD into a staunch anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim movement, supported by disillusioned voters from across the political spectrum.

Current national polls put the AfD's support at 15%, making it the second strongest party in eastern Germany and the third largest political force overall. Against this background, Berlin's regional election in two weeks is now fueling growing concern among Germany's government coalition, which comprises the center-right CDU and the center-left Social Democrats.

The two parties' "grand coalition," according to recent polls, is grand in name only. Public support for the government has fallen below 50%, and there is much speculation about whether Merkel will seek reelection as her party's candidate for another term.

Clearly, public dissatisfaction with Germany's stance on the ongoing refugee crisis is at the root of this upheaval. Many Germans still favor a compassionate approach toward refugees. But enthusiasm has largely given way to skepticism, anger, and polarization. After a controversial European Union deal with Turkey was put in place to keep refugees out, many Germans wonder whether the political and moral costs of doing business with an increasingly autocratic Turkish leader are too high.

Moreover, spreading disillusionment stems from the confrontation of aspirations with practicalities. For many, Germany's warm welcome to refugees was unquestionably heartfelt. For others, it was an opportunity to embrace a post-nationalist identity and overcome the weight of the past. But it was never entirely free of self-interest. In particular, the Welcome Culture was at least partly based on anticipated economic and demographic benefits.

In the summer of 2015, a chorus of German business leaders pointed out the long-term advantages of open borders in overcoming the country's persistent shortage of skilled workers. But the long term means just that, and whatever benefits it may bring have yet to materialize. A recent report points to a sobering fact: all 30 major companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange have so far employed a paltry 54 refugees.

Likewise, the cultural impact of absorbing an influx of refugees on this scale is becoming apparent. While many initially embraced the influx as a shift towards a more pluralist and culturally diverse country, the mass harassment of women in Cologne on New Year's Eve proved a turning point for public opinion. This summer's wave of Islamist-inspired terror further contributed to a widespread sense of insecurity and skepticism regarding the challenges of integrating hundreds of thousands of Muslims (even though many refugees are themselves survivors of Islamist terror).

In response, Germany's political class has started to change course. Just last week, Merkel assured the CDU's executive board that the refugee crisis of 2015 will not be repeated, and that "in the next few months, the most important [thing] is to return refugees." On Sunday, Germany's interior minister Thomas de Maiziere announced a proposal to "send refugees back to Greece."

Already in February, the Bundestag voted to change Germany's benign asylum laws, thereby suspending family reunification for refugees, decreasing monthly cash benefits, facilitating deportation of failed asylum-seekers, and designating Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia as safe countries of origin. Finally, in July, the Bundestag enacted a controversial law that threatens to reduce welfare benefits for asylum-seekers who refuse to attend "integration courses."

Most recently, the public debate has shifted and now focuses on the loyalty of Germans with a Turkish background, and prohibiting full face and body coverings in public places  a policy that according to opinion polls, more than 80% of Germans would support

While Germany's dramatic change of course from last year's open-border, open-arms policy was perhaps inevitable, it is unclear whether the government's recent steps will take the wind out of the far right's sails. As Germany's Welcome Culture recedes from the horizon, the populist ship appears to be gaining speed.

Michael Broning is Head of the International Policy Department of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, a political foundation affiliated with the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Copyright belongs to Project Syndicate.
CIA Director John Brennan expressed concern about North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, saying the two dangerous capabilities, when married up, pose a threat to the United States.



"I think North Korea under Kim Jong-un is clearly a concern and needs to be an international concern because they continue to develop their nuclear capabilities with the test that was just done last week," Brennan said on CBS' "Face the Nation."



"But their continued development of missile capability, marrying up those nuclear devices or warheads with ballistic missiles that can reach great distances, is a cause of concern not just for the East Asia region but also for the United States," he said.



In June, the CIA chief said the North's nuclear program is one of the top "blinking-red" problems that should be highlighted at an intelligence briefing for the next U.S. president, along with cyberthreats and terrorism.



"Proliferation is something that we cannot forget about, which is brought into stark relief by the activities of North Korea and Kim Jong-un, and the continued development of his nuclear program and ballistic missile capability," he told a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.



The North carried out its fifth nuclear test on the country's founding anniversary Friday, just eight months after its fourth test in January, the first time the regime has conducted more than one nuclear test in a year.



The latest test was the most powerful of the five conducted by the North, with its yield estimated at 10 kilotons of TNT, compared with January's 6 kilotons, according to South Korea's military. The powerful yield demonstrates the regime's nuclear program is making real headway.



The previous tests came in 2006, 2009, 2013 and January this year.



Analysts have warned that it is only a matter of time until the North develops nuclear-tipped missiles. Some experts have recently warned that the communist nation's nuclear arsenal could expand to as many as 100 bombs by 2020. (Yonhap)








North Korea is the "single most significant danger" that the next U.S. president will face, a former top U.S. diplomat said Sunday, calling for greater efforts to curb Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs.



Former Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte issued the caution in a radio interview after the communist North carried out its fifth nuclear test, just eight months after its fourth test in January. It was the first time the regime has conducted more than one nuclear test in a year.



"I think this is the single most significant danger that the next administration is going to face," Negroponte said. "Something is going to have to be done about the continuing developments of North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities."



Negroponte, who also served as director of national intelligence and ambassador to the U.N., also said that resolving the issue will take more than a U.N. Security Council resolution or more sanctions, adding that those measures have failed to curb the North's weapons ambitions.



"We're gonna have to find a way to really come to grips with this situation so that someday we don't wake up and learn that the North Koreans have shot a missile that has reached the continental United States," Negroponte said.



Jonathan Pollack, a senior expert on Korea at the Brookings Institution, also said that the issue of the North's nuclear and missile programs will be "a lead item" that the administration of President Barack Obama will bequeath to his successor.



The communist nation is seeking to get the outside world to take its weapons programs as a fait accompli, the expert said, pointing out some unusual points in the North's announcement of its fifth nuclear test conducted Friday.



"North Korea announced the latest test not through governmental or diplomatic channels, but from technical personnel affiliated with an organization identified as the Nuclear Weapons Institute of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," Pollack said in an article on the institution's website.



The institute made a very specific claim that the test was of "a newly researched and manufactured nuclear warhead" and that the purported warhead was now standardized and could be utilized on an array of ballistic missiles, he said



"Until now, Pyongyang had described tests of its nuclear weapons by a variety of names but never as a warhead," he said. "It clearly wants the outside world to conclude that its weapons capabilities are now an established, irreversible fact."



The North's nuclear and missile testing of recent weeks and months gives them "added urgency that cannot be ignored," he said.



"It will also be a lead item that the Obama administration  despite its repeated efforts to curtail North Korea's weapons programs through increased cooperation with all affected states  will bequeath to the next president," Pollack said. (Yonhap)




A U.S. nuclear envoy will visit South Korea this week to discuss with its ally North Korea's latest nuke test and possible countermeasures, diplomatic sources said Monday.



Sung Kim, the U.S. special envoy on North Korea's nuclear issue, will arrive on Monday afternoon and is scheduled to hold talks with his South Korean counterpart, Kim Hong-kyun, on Tuesday, according to sources.



The two nuclear negotiators are expected to hold a press conference after the meeting.



His visit comes on the heels of the North's fifth nuclear test on Friday, which is regarded as Pyongyang's strongest underground blast to date.



South Korea, Japan and the U.S. requested the United Nations Security Council launch discussions on the North right after the communist nation conducted the nuclear detonation on its founding anniversary, just eight months after its fourth test in January.



The UNSC adopted a press statement strongly condemning the North and pledging to begin work to put together a new resolution of sanctions aimed at punishing the communist country for its nuclear provocation.



Before coming to South Korea, Sung Kim held a meeting with his Japanese counterpart, Kenji Kanasugi, in Tokyo, where they promised to see the strongest ever measures again the North.



South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry earlier promised to work together in producing tough resolutions that would fill up any "loopholes" in previous punitive measures in order to make the North feel the repercussions of its actions.



Experts say the loopholes that may be affected include the exceptions in previous sanctions linked closely with the daily lives of ordinary people in North Korea. Blacklisting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un might be another possible measure to be discussed.



Meanwhile, the U.S. nuclear envoy was recently appointed to be the new ambassador to the Philippines. His visit to Seoul is expected to be the last one as his current capacity of Washington's top negotiator for the now-stalled six-party talks.



The multilateral denuclearization talks involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia have been stalled since late 2008 when the North walked away from the negotiating table. The North earlier said that the talks have been "dead," indicating that it has no intention of returning to them. (Yonhap)




Repeated sanctions against North Korea following its defiant nuclear and missile provocations will "lead nowhere" in making Pyongyang give up its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, a U.S. expert said Monday, calling for more "diplomatic efforts" and "engagement" to break the current vicious cycle.



In an op-ed piece for Yonhap News Agency, James Person, the coordinator of the Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, said that it is the time to re-assess the global efforts to eliminate the threat from the North.



"With each nuclear and ballistic missile test North Korea advances its threat capabilities. It is time for an immediate re-assessment of ongoing efforts to eliminate the threat North Korea's weapons programs pose to the region," he said.



"The sadly predictable response from the international community will be to issue harsh statements condemning the test, impose a fresh new round of sanctions... and call for China to do more to tame its unruly ally. These actions will lead nowhere and North Korea will continue to flagrantly disregard the international community's calls to abandon its weapons programs," he added.



On Friday, the North conducted its fifth nuclear warhead denotation test in defiance of a series of punitive sanctions including the Resolution 2270 adopted by the United Nations Security Council in March following its fourth test in January. The latest blast is regarded as its most powerful yet.



The UNSC immediately adopted a press statement strongly condemning the North and pledging to begin work to put together a new resolution of sanctions aimed at punishing the communist country for its nuclear provocation.



Person said those sanctions aimed at isolating the North from the global economy and cutting off money flows into its nuclear weapons program have been "ineffective," citing many unique situations including the fact that Pyongyang has lived through such harsh living conditions for many decades and that it is not integrated into the outside market in the first place.



"These factors combined make sanctions less effective when dealing with North Korea," he said.



The expert admitted that China has great leverage over North Korea but noted that the influence mostly based on their economic ties can be a "double-edged sword if used over a prolonged period of time.



He argued that it could result in a regime collapse in the North and precipitate a flood of refugees into China, a scenario that Beijing does not see as benefiting its interest.



He called for more diplomatic efforts to be made, suggesting that a lesson can be learned from the Iran nuclear agreement.



"Recognizing the limits of international sanctions and of China's ability to control North Korea, U.S. officials must commit to more creative diplomatic solutions," he said. "Waiting until North Korea agrees to denuclearization before talks is only allowing the threat to grow."



"Washington should be willing to negotiate with Pyongyang if talks offer a serious prospect for achieving a freeze. The U.S. can sit down with foes and hammer out a deal, as is demonstrated by the Iran nuclear agreement, however imperfect. Similar robust engagement with North Korea is needed to break this vicious and accelerating cycle," he added. (Yonhap)




A group of ruling party lawmakers on Monday proposed setting up a parliamentary panel to discuss "effective" measures to counter Pyongyang's escalating nuclear threats.



The group, led by former Saenuri Party floor leader Won Yoo-chul, made the proposal during its emergency session at the National Assembly, where the participants called for "measures equivalent to South Korea's own nuclear armament."



"We propose establishing a parliamentary panel that involves both ruling and opposition parties, in order to craft effective measures to make sure that North Korea's (threats from its) nuclear test will no longer be disregarded," the group said in a statement.



The session was held three days after Pyongyang sharply raised cross-border tensions with its fifth and most powerful nuclear test. The North's latest provocation has added to the growing calls for South Korea to develop its own nuclear arms.



The group said that at the envisioned panel, lawmakers can explore ways to prevent the North's additional nuclear provocations. It said preventive measures include redeploying the U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to the Korean Peninsula and introducing a nuclear-powered submarine.



"North Korea's fifth nuclear test is breaking peace and stability in Northeast Asia, and fueling fears and anxieties," Rep. Won said during the session. "We (South Korea) should devise all possible ways to deter (North Korea), including South Korea's nuclear armament, from a standpoint of self-defense."



Monday's meeting was also attended by Defense Minister Han Min-koo and Foreign Ministry's Director-General for Policy Planning Shin Beom-chul.



"What the Kim Jong-un regime can obtain from its development of nuclear arms is stronger international sanctions and isolation, and it would only hasten its self-destruction," the defense chief said. "We will maintain a full readiness posture to sternly and strongly respond to any type of provocations."



The ruling party has been split over the idea of the country's nuclear development.



Some argue that South Korea's nuclear armament is the only effective way to deter a provocative North Korea. Others, however, say that the country's nuclearization is unrealistic as it runs counter to its long-held denuclearization principles and could trigger international sanctions and isolation.



"For South Korea to be armed with nuclear weapons, it should withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," Saenuri Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun told Yonhap News Agency over the phone. "Considering the relations with the U.S. and possible international economic sanctions, the government cannot make a decision toward nuclear armament." (Yonhap)




South Korea has asked its people to take extra caution in traveling to the region near the China-North Korea border, citing possible terror and abduction attempts by the North amid heightened tension after its latest nuclear test.

"It cannot be ruled out that the North could seek additional provocations such as terror attacks, luring and abduction of people," the embassy said in a notice posted on its website last Friday.

The embassy, in particular, warned against its people getting in touch with anyone suspected of being North Koreans in the cited region and urged them to make sure they let their families and friends know where they are going before leaving home.












President Park Geun-hye poses with the leaders of the three major parties ahead of talks at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. From left are People's Party floor leader Park Jie-won, Minjoo Party of Korea Chairwoman Choo Mi-ae, Park and Saenuri Party Chairman Lee Jung-hyun. Park called on the political circle to have a united front against growing North Korean threats. / Korea Times photo by Koh Young-kwon



President, opposition wide apart over THAAD

By Kim Hyo-jin

President Park Geun-hye warned Monday that North Korea could continue its provocations and ignite the risk of a war on the Korean Peninsula, calling for bipartisan cooperation to deter threats from Pyongyang.

She said the nation needs to enhance all military capabilities, including getting guarantees concerning the U.S. nuclear umbrella, to cope with the hostile country.

Her remarks came during a meeting with the leaders of the three major parties at Cheong Wa Dae to discuss countermeasures to the Kim Jong-un regime's fifth nuclear test, Friday _ less than a day after the East Asia Summit (EAS) adopted a statement urging the country to give up its nuclear and missile programs.

"North Korea's nuclear and missile programs are not a simple warning for negotiations but a realistic and imminent threat targeting us. It has warned of additional provocations, raising the risk of a war on the Korean Peninsula, terrorist attacks or localized confrontation," Park said.

"We should stand united and show this unity to ensure the security of the nation and the people. I ask for bipartisan cooperation against North Korean threats."

Underlining the country now faces a "grave" security situation, Park urged the party leaders to agree on the deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery here.

"I reiterate that a THAAD deployment by the U.S. army stationed in Korea is being pushed as part of efforts to counter North Korea's threats and increase our self-defense," she said.

The meeting was arranged at the request of the presidential office amid rising tension between the two Koreas following the North's nuclear test. This was the first meeting between the President and party leaders since the launch of the 20th National Assembly, May 30.

Party leaders responded in unison that they condemned the test.

However, the leaders of two opposition parties remained poles apart with Park over the THAAD deployment.
Defense Minister Han Min-koo, right, speaks during a forum at the National Assembly, Monday, arranged by Rep. Won Yoo-chul, second from right, and other lawmakers from the ruling Saenuri Party to discuss measures to resolve issues involving North Korea's nuclear program. / Yonhap



By Kim Hyo-jin

Key senior members of the ruling Saenuri Party are calling for the country to develop nuclear weapons as a means to counter threats from North Korea.

They argue that South Korea should be allowed to arm itself with nuclear weapons to better defend against the reclusive state's threats and play a leading role in resolving regional security issues.

Pyongyang's fifth nuclear test conducted on Friday added fuel to the pro-nuclear argument that had been limited to a few hawkish lawmakers.

Saenuri Party Chairman Lee Jung-hyun joined the call, Sunday, stressing the need for tougher measures against the North's nuclear moves.

"The time might have come to put the issue on the discussion table," Lee told reporters.

"The political sector should come up with much stricter measures than now in joint efforts with the government to tackle North Korea's imprudent nuclear and missile provocations."












By Stephen Costello

North Korea's fifth nuclear test on Friday can be understood as a celebration of sorts on the state's national day. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was founded on 9 September 1948. It also may be push-back against what they see as continued US and South Korean preparation for ending the Kim Jung Un regime. But it can also be read as a parting shot for President Obama as he prepares to leave office in 5 months. Assessments of his policies toward this region are emerging, and will inevitably have to deal with the contradictions and erroneous assessments that underpin the past eight years of US policy.

The linkage of American policy toward the Korean Peninsula, and toward North Korea in particular, with the much-debated Obama administration policy of Pivoting to East Asia, has rarely been considered. Missing, too, has been an appreciation of the politics, realism and effectiveness in Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing and Washington, despite the fact that political considerations, ideology and ability are central to policy.

A confusing list of reasons has been at the heart of the Pivot from its announcement in 2011. The US is said to be showing leadership of rule-making and rule-sustaining in the region, in opposition to new efforts by China to change the system. It is also trying to engage China on the range of issues, both global and regional, where their interests overlap, such as climate change. And US policy is also directed at linking and strengthening the military capabilities of countries in the region so that they could resist bullying by China.

Certainly it has been welcome for the Obama team to pivot away from the Bush administration's approach to the region, which was too centered on anti-terror concerns and betrayed the excessive unilateralism and arrogance that had so defined the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld worldview. Obama's new embrace of regional fora, from ASEAN to the ARF, was smart and overdue. The unpredicted turn of Chinese leaders to increased nationalism, aggression and authoritarianism had to be confronted as well. The long-term mix of policies to deal with this will be at the heart of US policy in Northeast Asia for decades.

But it has seemed from the beginning that the Pivot was based on shaky expectations and a thin understanding of how countries in the region would react to it. As former White House/NSC Director for Asia Ken Lieberthal wrote just after the policy was launched, "The notion that the United States will shape the major outcomes in the region because countries there will welcome clear American leadership misunderstands [the] more complicated calculations around the region."

The Trans Pacific Partnership, for instance, may contain some good tariff-lowering aspects, as well as some higher-standard labor practices. But its non-trade parts are often not in the interests of the public, either in Asia or the US. Even Obama administration officials describe the TPP as more a symbolic challenge to Chinese leadership than as a multilateral advance in trade rules.

Obama's greatest mistake was in policy toward North Korea, and its impact on US relations with South Korea, Japan and China. In working with China, both before and after the Xi Jin Ping presidency, Obama and his team proclaimed both to be engaging on common interests and refusing to do the main work that would accomplish this. At the center of the new US policy was an unresolved contradiction between following the Clinton administration's provisionally successful and smartly ambitious deals to denuclearize the DPRK and increase North-South Korean common interests, or embracing the counter-productive and failing efforts by the Bush administration to sanction and isolate the North into submission.

Their choice to double down on the Bush approach has crippled the Pivot, making it unnecessarily difficult, if not impossible.

The Chinese had embraced the Clinton Agreed Framework and President Kim Dae Jung's North-South engagement efforts. This made sense, since the DPRK's nuclear and missile programs would be contained if not ended, the North's economy would slowly be integrated with the South, leading to development where there had been only poverty since the 1980s, and the border could see thriving trade. Although security issues would have to be addressed if the North and South continued to cooperate, they paled in comparison to the advantages a denuclearized and developing peninsula held for China.

The view from Japan was similar. Prime Minister Koizumi's visit to North Korea in September 2002 to attempt a breakthrough in relations was late, and was opposed by the Bush administration. But it was a recognition that a pacified North Korea, needing everything to accelerate development, was greatly in Japan's interest, far more so any lingering worry about the power of a possible, future united Korean peninsula.

South Korea would be the biggest winner if Clinton and Kim policies continued. Although the South Korean conservatives had retaken the Blue House after a decade of progressive policy, society was divided in 2009, and the appeal of North-South engagement continued to be central to policy choices. The fact that Obama would have to cajole President Lee Myung Bak should not have made much difference. Clinton had had to persuade President Kim Young Sam, a far more difficult task than Obama's.

By rejecting these long-term and strategic interests, Obama set his administration on a hopeless mission.

The Chinese were endlessly and publically criticized for not stopping the North Korean nuclear programs. In an assessment that most media have never questioned, pundits asserted China had the most leverage over the DPRK's weapons. In fact, the US has for twenty years had the most leverage. The vision of a more stable and developing Northeast Asia was ignored in favor of a Bush administration fantasy. Professor Stephen Walt of Harvard recently listed "Rogue nuclear nations" as one of the top myths that should be abandoned, noting that leaders in such states have well-developed instincts for self-preservation, among other reasons to avoid hyping threats.

China's military expansion will have to be managed. East Asian nations will have to decide how to maintain both security and independence between the US and China. But when the next US President takes office, she will have to choose to either remember the basic reasons for working the North Korean dilemma, with its difficulties and opportunities, or continue on a dangerous and escalating trajectory that she cannot control.

Stephen Costello is a producer of AsiaEast, a web and broadcast-based policy roundtable focused on security, development and politics in Northeast Asia. He writes from Washington, D.C. He can be reached at scost55@gmail.com.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye will hold a meeting with the leaders of the three major parties Monday to call for bipartisan cooperation in handling escalating nuclear threats from North Korea, her office Cheong Wa Dae said.

The meeting at the presidential office will be attended by the leaders of the ruling Saenuri Party, the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea and the People's Party -- Lee Jung-hyun, Choo Mi-ae and Park Jie-won, respectively.

It is the first such gathering since the new National Assembly began its term on May 30.

Park is expected to capitalize on the meeting to stress the need for national unity following Pyongyang's fifth and most powerful nuclear test Friday, which she said attests to the communist state's "urgent and existential" threats.

The commander-in-chief is also likely to seek bipartisan support for the planned deployment of a U.S. antimissile system, which she has repeatedly defended as an "inevitable, self-defense" measure.

During a meeting of security and foreign policy officials Friday, Park called for an end to the "political offensive" against the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to the Korean Peninsula.

The leaders of the two opposition parties, Choo and Park, have opposed THAAD, arguing it would further aggravate cross-border tensions and complicate efforts to resolve the decades-old nuclear standoff with Pyongyang.

On the economic front, Park is likely to urge the political leaders to quickly pass economy-related bills and a set of bills on labor reform, which her government has said are crucial to creating jobs and revitalizing the economy. (Yonhap)
By Choe Chong-dae

North Korea's recent nuclear missile threats are no longer imaginary. They are now real threats to South Korea as well as to neighboring countries.

The international community has been negotiating the decommissioning of nuclear facilities in North Korea and other countries. These efforts have been rife with periods of crisis, stalemates, and tentative progress towards denuclearization.

It is disheartening to learn from Hrant Bagratyan, a former prime minister of Armenia, that Armenia has created nuclear weaponry. His comments raise profound concern, as Armenia is technically at war with Azerbaijan over the territorial conflict of Nagorno-Karabakh.

As we are aware, in early April the two states actually fought a 4-day war, which resulted in a ceasefire, but skirmishes and tensions have persisted.

If Bagratyan's assertion is true, I am anxious that war in Nagorno-Karabakh might resume, especially over Azerbaijan's substantial and abundant resources.

Bagratyan's comments should not be taken lightly. There are substantiated revelations that Armenian citizens have played an instrumental role in smuggling nuclear and radioactive nuclear waste materials, as reflected in media reports exposing them. Many groups of Armenian citizens associated with the smuggling of radioactive materials were exposed many times in the territories of neighboring countries. Furthermore, some Armenian groups even tried to smuggle highly enriched uranium and cesium-137 from Armenia in 2003 and 2010. It is also known that three Armenian citizens who previously worked at Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) were arrested in Georgia this April for attempting to smuggle and illegally sell nuclear materials. One of the detainees was identified as a former associate of the Armenian secret service. This group planned to sell a quantity of uranium-238 costing $200 million to the Middle East.

The possibility of "dirty bombs" being made cannot be dismissed. The recent arrest was not the first. Arrests of Armenians who have crossed into neighboring Georgia have increased in the past years, causing alarm among nuclear non-proliferation experts in the US and elsewhere. Since proliferation conducted through illicit networks escapes the control of the supplier state, it is imperative to track and curtail these networks, not only because of the costs they impose, but also because of the deterrent value of counter smuggling efforts.

There is great nuclear security risk to the region regarding Metsamor NPP, especially in the context of the occupation of Azerbaijan territory by Armenia. The dubious condition of spent fuel and waste material from Metsamor NPP also raises safety concerns. Built in 1976, Metsamor NPP is based on technologies from Chernobyl NPP that ceased operations in 1988 due to a nuclear disaster. The operation of the Metsamor nuclear power plant in Armenia and the cases of smuggling of nuclear and radioactive materials from this NPP poses a nuclear threat to the entire region, and it also constitutes a serious threat and danger for the Korean investment in the region.

H.E. Mr. Ilham Aliyev, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, delivered a speech at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington on March 31-April 1, 2016. His speech drew great attention from the international community to Metsamor NPP and called on nations to take measures against the threat emanating from this facility.

We urge that the International Atomic Energy Agency and global community assess and exercise strict control of the systematic cases of smuggling of radioactive materials arranged by Armenia. Threats of the use of nuclear weapons by Armenian officials who are obsessed with revenge against Azerbaijan are unnerving. If Armenia and North Korea continue to pursue their nuclear weapon ambitions and smuggling of nuclear materials, we will all face hastening self-destruction.

Choe Chong-dae is a guest columnist of The Korea Times. He is president of Dae-kwang International Co., and Director of the Korean-Swedish Association. He can be reached at dkic98@chol.com.
By Chang Ka Mun

SHANGHAI  For 15 years, China has been a key engine of global growth. But now that China's investment-led boom has run its course, continued economic growth  in China and globally  will depend on urban Chinese consumers. By 2030, people living in cities will drive 91 percent of global growth in consumption, and China is emphasizing both urbanization and a consumer-led growth model.

The McKinsey Global Institute's latest research is optimistic that China's strategy will succeed. MGI (where one of us is a partner) foresees continued growth in the number and income of urban consumers, and predicts that 700 Chinese cities will generate $7 trillion, or 30 percent, of global urban consumption growth between now and 2030.

Today, China's urban working-age consumers number 521 million; in just 15 years, their ranks will have swollen to 628 million. Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen will each add more than one million households with annual income above $70,000  the number of Hong Kong households in that income bracket today. Per capita spending is set to jump from $4,800 to $10,700 by 2030, at which point this group will spend 12 cents of every $1 of urban consumption worldwide.

Urban incomes in China are now reaching a threshold where spending on both goods and services accelerates rapidly. Annual household spending on personal products and on dining out will more than double, to $770 and $720, respectively. Chinese consumers are also traveling more, with the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute predicting that more than 100 million Chinese will travel abroad by 2020.

China's new consumer army will have the means and, more important, the willingness to spend its higher earnings. According to McKinsey's 2016 Global Sentiment Survey of more than 22,000 consumers in 26 countries, China's working-age population has the world's highest propensity to spend additional income, rather than save it or use it to pay off debt.

Just like Western baby boomers, Chinese urban consumers  who have grown up in post-reform China and have different views from their parents about saving versus spending  will make a generational break from the past. That shift in mindset will fuel China's transition to a consumer-led economy.

China's working-age consumers, as children of the digital age, are driving innovation by interacting directly with companies to help reinvent products and services. In a McKinsey survey, 55% of them said that they would be willing to recommend a product, service, or company to their friends or family on the social network WeChat. Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone company, conducts direct online polling of consumers to find out what innovations they would like to see. The company has more than ten million "fans" on Weibo, the microblogging platform.

And now Western companies are following suit. Volkswagen's China operation engages with potential customers directly online, rather than relying solely on traditional dealerships. The Fung Group (where one of us is a managing director), in partnership with IBM and Pico, has set up a "retail laboratory" in Shanghai to provide a controlled setting for businesses to observe  in real time  how consumers react to new technologies and products.

In addition to driving further innovation, Chinese consumers  even those with relatively low incomes  are also investing heavily in the next generation, with 12.5 percent of overall consumption growth expected to go to education between 2015 and 2030. That's the second-highest rate of any country MGI examined, behind only Sweden (12.6 percent). By investing in the skills and capacity of the next generation now, Chinese consumers are building a strong foundation for continued growth and innovation in the future.

That continued growth will require China to shift its economic model further from production to consumption. No pivot of this kind is easy, and many challenges lie ahead. But China's increasingly prosperous, educated, and confident consumers have the clout  and the numbers  to transform the way the world spends, possibly even more than Western baby boomers did in their prime. Their mobile-first shopping habits, openness to travel and new experiences, and rising purchasing power suggest that the products and services they buy will influence consumer markets worldwide, fueling global economic growth. The world economy needs them  and no consumer-facing company can afford to ignore them.

Chang Ka Mun is managing director of the Fung Business Intelligence Centre of the Li & Fung group of companies.
Three cases of cholera have been reported, all on Geoje Island, South Gyeongsang Province. Fortunately, the disease often associated with developing countries so far appears contained. The Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) tracked the source of contamination down to the seawater off some shores of the island.



The stool samples from the three patients proved to be a 97.8 percent match to those of seawater samples in a DNA check. Numbers above 95 percent are regarded as a positive match.



The question is how the bacteria ended up in Geoje waters.



Tracking the route through which the bacteria enter the area before infections occur is as important as tracking the human contamination route because both help fight the spread of diseases and plug the holes for an onslaught next time. Officials in charge of anti-infectious diseases have not been good with this basic duty. The previous outbreak occurred in 2001 and the source of infection was a cook, who, not being aware of being infected, prepared food in a restaurant in North Gyeongsang Province. Over 140 people came down with the disease. Then as now, no entry route was confirmed.



KCDC sleuths are all out but without success, some complaining that it is comparable to an attempt to find a needle in a haystack. They suggested three possible routes. The first is discharged ballast water from vessels. Ships occasionally take in or discharge water to maintain balance so, as the theory goes, the bacteria travel with the ships and contaminate the Geoje waters when the ballast tanks are emptied. One question that is puzzling is why Geoje is contaminated when Pusan, the nation's biggest port, is not.



The second is that crewmembers of vessels on port calls are infected and their stool is discharged instead of being treated and stored in a septic tank as required. Port officials dismiss it as a remote possibility. The third is that cholera bacteria move along warm currents originating from Southeast Asia. As a matter of fact, traces of nontoxic cholera bacteria were detected in a coastal seawater survey in 2011.



True, cholera is transmitted through contact with the feces of patients or from drinking contaminated water but the high standard of personal and public hygiene we enjoy by and large prevents the occurrence of the disease. When it does occur, these public and personal safeguards block it from spreading uncontrollably.



Scientists believe that higher-than-average water temperatures may be a major contributing factor. The likelihood is that the nation's weather is getting hotter meaning that cholera and other heat-sensitive diseases may be on the rise. Clueless health officials can only make the situation worse as shown in the case of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) epidemic.




Beijing key to resolving NK's nuclear brinkmanship



Since North Korea's fifth nuclear test, Friday, the world is looking to China again as the only country that can thwart the reclusive state's nuclear ambitions.



In a statement released hours after the North's allegedly successful test, China's Foreign Ministry "firmly opposed'' it. The statement also urged Pyongyang to "honor its commitment to denuclearization, comply with the relevant (U.N.) Security Council resolutions and stop taking any actions that worsen the situation.''



Not surprisingly, the statement was not much different from that issued by China every time North Korea has conducted nuclear and missile tests over the last 20 years. That's quite disheartening, considering the North has refined its nuclear and missile capabilities and is on the brink of deploying nuclear weapons.



In March, after a considerable tug-of-war, China agreed to the toughest U.N. sanctions ever that included a ban on exports of North Korean coal. Given that the North has taken a step closer to becoming a de facto nuclear state, the U.N. will take action to hammer out a new round of sanctions.



In fact, the UNSC said it would start discussing new "significant'' measures against Pyongyang. The new sanctions could include slapping a blanket ban on North Korea's export of mineral resources, including coal, and prohibiting Beijing from supplying oil to Pyongyang. The North might also face difficulty in sending workers abroad to obtain hard currency.



But it's highly unlikely that China will give consent to the kind of sanctions that could lead to the collapse of North Korea, although it reluctantly takes part in international discussions to enforce fresh sanctions on the isolationist state.



China, which holds the key to international efforts to frustrate the North's nuclear weapons program, fears possible pandemonium on its border with North Korea in the event of turmoil in the reclusive state amid speculation that millions of North Koreans might enter China. Beijing also feels it increasingly difficult to abandon Pyongyang because of its high strategic value at a time when its hegemonic rivalry with the United States is intensifying.



But the North going nuclear will be no less nightmarish to China. The Middle Kingdom could be confident of being in control of North Korea even after it is virtually armed with nuclear weapons. But given its unpredictability, the North might level a gun at China at any time. A nuclear-armed North might become a poisoned chalice to Beijing if Japan follows in the footsteps of North Korea to go nuclear or South Korea brings back America's tactical nuclear weapons.



All of this requires China to do far more to terminate the North's nuclear program. Specifically, it should actively take part in fresh international moves to slap far harsher sanctions on North Korea.



Of course, this is not to say that sanctions alone can resolve the North's nuclear brinkmanship. There should be international efforts to resolve the gridlock through dialogue, especially led by the United States. But it's definitely China that holds the key to maintaining peace in Northeast Asia amid the escalating nuclear threats from the North.




Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong / Korea Times file



Printing business to be sold to Hewlett-Packard



By Yoon Sung-won

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong will take greater control and responsibility in management as a registered executive director on the board, the company said Monday.

The board announced that they have decided to hold an extraordinary shareholders' meeting to appoint Lee as a registered director of Samsung Electronics.

The decision has been made under an urgent need for strategic decision-making on aggressive investments and new growth engines from a long-term perspective, the company said.

"We have agreed that we cannot postpone the vice chairman's appointment as registered director and his official participation in management as we need to keep pushing for aggressive and swift investments for future growth and business restructuring to strengthen our core competitiveness and corporate culture innovation amid rapid changes in the IT industry," the directors said in a statement, Monday.

The board also recognized Lee's leadership capabilities.

"The vice chairman has accumulated years experience in business management as chief operating officer," the board said. "He has demonstrated his capability and talent as a leader while accomplishing a performance turnaround and business restructuring even under a difficult management environment with Chairman Lee Kun-hee hospitalized for the last two years."

If the planned appointment passes an extraordinary shareholders' meeting next month, Samsung Electronics CFO Lee Sang-hoon will resign from his director position to maintain the board's quota.

Samsung Electronics' board has four inside and five outside directors.

Meanwhile, the company also said it will sell its printing business to Hewlett-Packard (HP).

The meeting of shareholders in October will also determine a plan to divide the printing business as a separate subsidiary on Nov. 1 and to sell off the separated subsidiary to the world's top printing company within a year, Samsung said. It will continue to sell printers under the Samsung brand on behalf of HP in the Korean market.

"Samsung Electronics will concentrate its capabilities on its key businesses through preemptive business restructuring while HP will be able to solidify its status as the world's leading printing company," Samsung said.

The company said its printing business unit posted 2 trillion won in sales last year. It operates an office in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, a sales post in China and 50 overseas retail bases.
President Tran Dai Quang and Governor of Japans Aichi prefecture Hideaki Omura (Source: VNA)



The Vietnamese State and people always value the strengthening of friendship and cooperation with Japan in general and Aichi in particular, he said, vowing all possible support for Japanese firms, including those from Aichi, to do business in Vietnam.

As an economic and industrial hub of the central region with a gross domestic product of nearly USD350 billion, Aichi holds great potential of reinforcing ties with Vietnam, particularly in fields of its strength such as automobiles, support industry, agriculture, and reception of Vietnamese graduates, Quang said.

He also hailed the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Governor and the Ho Chi Minh city leader during the visit, and expressed his pleasure with collaboration between around 150 Aichi businesses and their partners in Vietnam, especially since the issuance of a statement on a joint vision for bilateral relations in September 2015.

Omura, for his part, informed the host of the outcomes of his working session with the Transport Ministry, saying that the opening of direct flights connecting Aichi and Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city will facilitate exchange and travelling between Japans central region and Vietnam.

The guest wished for further support from the Vietnamese State to expand ties with Vietnam, thereby boosting the Vietnam-Japan extensive strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia.

Aichi is currently home to more than 13,000 Vietnamese living and working.

The same day, the Governor was also received by Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh, who asked his guest to pay more attention to investment in Vietnam, especially in automobiles, support industry and tourism, as well as share experience with the country in agriculture, technology transfer, and workforce training in high-tech farming.

He also urged continued assistance for Vietnamese technical graduates major in mechanical engineering and agriculture as well as Vietnamese nationals living in the prefecture.

Omura expressed his wish that cooperation between Japan in general and Aichi in particular and Vietnam would increasingly grow./.
Forty state legislators oppose a ballot measure that would legalize casinos in three counties.

The Committee to Protect Arkansas' Values/Stop Casinos Now on Monday released the list of lawmakers backing their bid to stop a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow casinos in Boone, Miller and Washington counties. The proposal would let three companies owned by supporters of the amendment open the casinos.

The committee sued to try to disqualify the measure from the November ballot and criticized it for writing a private business into the state's constitution.

Supporters of the proposal call the criticism hypocritical because the committee's supporters include horse and dog tracks that offer electronic gambling like video poker.
A former St. Clair County sheriff's deputy received three years of probation last week for helping a jail inmate file for unemployment benefits. A judge also ordered Michael Mullaney to pay $898 in restitution to West Virginia, where the inmate applied for benefits.

A federal grand jury indicted Mullaney and inmate William Parker for felony counts of stealing public funds in December 2014 for a scheme in which Parker filled out an application for unemployment benefits and Mullaney helped send it over the internet. Parker was in jail after being charged with first-degree burglar in February 2010, when he made the application.

The unemployment aid application required Parker to certify that he was available and willing to accept full-time work, which was a lie because Parker was in the St. Clair County jail in Osceola. Investigators said the scheme netted Parker $5,388.

The charge in the indictment could have carried a prison sentence up to 20 years. Instead, Mullaney pleaded guilty in May for a misdemeanor and the U.S. Attorney's Office dropped the felony charge. U.S. Magistrate David Rush sentenced him to three years of probation and ordered him to pay $898, part of the money that Parker fraudulently received on a debit card from West Virginia.

Parker pleaded guilty last February for the scheme. He also received three years of federal probation last Aug. 17, and also had to pay $898 in restitution. He served five years of state probation for the burglary from 2010 to 2015.
A man who used to live in Greene County received two consecutive life sentences on Monday for the murders of his nephew and his nephews wife in April 2011. Robert Campbell, 72, is the fifth person to go to prison for the shooting deaths of Russell Rusty Porter and Rebecca Becky Porter.

A Jasper County jury in July convicted Campbell, 72, for two counts of second-degree murder. It rejected first-degree murder charges that would have meant a life prison sentence without chance of parole. Despite that, the sentence on Monday means Campbell likely will never leave prison because of his age. His attorney indicated in July that he plans to appeal the jury verdict.

The Porters disappeared from their home north of Willard in April 2011. Their bodies were found buried in July 2011 in a rural, remote location in Taney County. Each of them was shot in the head.

Investigators learned Campbell recruited four other people to murder the Porters because of resentment over them living on family property. Campbell lived nearby at the time, although he later moved to a rural area near Purdy, south of Monett.

The case, which was prosecuted by the Taney County prosecuting attorney, was moved to Joplin from Forsyth to try to ensure a fair outcome.

Background

Investigators believe Robert Campbell recruited four others to help him kill Russell "Rusty" Porter and Rebecca "Becky" Porter because of a family dispute over real estate at their home along Highway HH northeast of Willard.

The Porters disappeared in April 2011. Their buried bodies turned up in rural Taney County four months later. Five people were charged in Taney County for the murders in late 2012, although Greene County Sheriff's Department investigators said they had a pretty good idea who committed the murders soon after they happened.

Campbell used to live near the Porters; Rusty Porter was his nephew. The dispute, according to search warrant documents, appeared to stem from the Porters living on what Campbell considered his family's "home place."

Campbell's trial on two counts of first-degree murder was moved from Forsyth to Joplin to try to ensure a fair outcome.

Tony Friend, his wife, Windy Friend, his son, Phillip Friend, and Dusty Hicks are all serving time for the murders after they were convicted at trial or pleaded guilty. Investigators say Hicks, Tony Friend, and Phillip Friend broke into the couple's house, tied them up, took them to a remote area of Taney County near Protem, shot them in the head, and buried their bodies.

After the murders, Campbell and his wife moved to a home in rural Barry County. After he was suspected of stealing a vehicle in 2013 while he was out on bond for the murder case, a judge revoked his bond and he's been in the Taney County jail since late 2013.

End of background report
President Tran Dai Quang receives Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean (Photo: VNA)



The President thanked President Tony Tan Keng Yam, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean for their warm welcome during his recent State visit to Singapore to discuss the development orientations of the two countries relations in the coming time and share regional and international visions on a strong and united ASEAN.

He said PM Lee Hsien Loong agreed with Vietnams proposal on enhancing bilateral cooperation in defence, security and fight against organised, cross-border and cyber crimes.

In this spirit, he suggested Deputy PM Teo Chee Hean promote specific collaboration in training, supporting the prevention and early warning of terrorism risks, extremism, and cyber, organised, and trans-national crimes to ensure security in the respective countries.

The President also proposed the two sides actively implement the new economic deals signed during his visit to Singapore, including one between the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) and the Government Investment Corporation of Singapore (GIC) and another between the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and Singapore Business Federation (SBF).

He expressed his pleasure at the strong development of VSIP over the past 20 years, which helps connect the two economies. He said he hopes Singaporean enterprises will actively invest in Vietnam via venture capital funds while sharing information and experience to link Vietnamese firms with the global market.

Deputy PM Teo Chee Hean showed his delight at the thriving strategic partnership between Vietnam and Singapore, especially in the fields of economy, trade and investment.

The development of the seven VSIPs, including two under construction, illustrates Singapores interest in the Vietnamese market, he said, noting that the five active ones have attracted 600 companies from across the world and generated jobs for 170,000 workers.

The most important factor that foreign investors, including those from Singapore, eye Vietnamese market is the countrys measures to improve its investment climate, he said.

Singaporean investors are very interested in hi-tech development projects in Vietnam, especially in high added value and highly-applicable industrial sectors, he added.

Regarding the cyber security, Deputy PM Teo Chee Hean said Singapore has invited the Vietnams Ministry of Public Security to participate in the Asian conference in October to discuss challenges in the field with ASEAN ministers and extra-bloc partners.

He confirmed the outcomes gained during the recent State visit to Singapore by President Tran Dai Quang demonstrate the growing strategic partnership between the two countries and their determination to elevate the bilateral relations to a new height.

Sharing regional and international issues of mutual concern, President Tran Dai Quang spoke highly of Singapores positive viewpoints on the East Sea issue and hoped the country will promote its role as a coordinator of ASEAN-China relations in issues related to the enforcement of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and the early conclusion of a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).

Deputy PM Teo Chee Hean said Singapore pledges to urge the involved parties to implement the DOC and soon reach the signing of the COC as a coordinator of ASEAN-China relations, adding that Singapore supports the settlement of disputes in the East Sea by peaceful means line with international law./.
Some Edo State women over the weekend in Benin demanded that Mrs Betty Obaseki, the wife of the APC candidate in the state apologize to all Edo women over a statement, credited to her in which she faulted past PDP administrations for contributing to the problem of prostitution among the women in the state. They also asked her to tender an unreserved apology in all national dailies

While addressing the women, Deaconess Regina Oviasu said that it was worrisome that the same woman wants to lead Edo women she has tagged prostitutes.



She said, I want to stand and say that Mrs. Obaseki should apologise to all Edo women as mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters for the statement she made. She does not know Edo women. An Edo woman has integrity. She commands respect. She is hardworking. I think its a slip of the tongue on her part, and she must apologise.

Also speaking, former Executive Director of the Edo State Poverty Alleviation Agency in the APC government, Chief Evelyn Igbafe who used the event to announce her decision to pitch tent with the PDP, called on all women voters in the state to vote against the APC.

She said, We are not happy that a woman who has a husband who wants to be the governor of Edo state will tag Edo women as prostitutes. We reject her aspiration. She can never become the first lady of Edo State. We will not close our eyes and allow such a woman who is not even from Edo State to tarnish our hard earned image.

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Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh city Peoples Committee Le Thanh Liem (Photo: VNA)

He affirmed that Ho Chi Minh city and its people were willing to cooperate with Vientiane in terms of economics, society and culture to foster the relationship.

Specifically, in the upcoming time, the two sides will carry out cooperative programs earlier agreed on, including supporting the training of financial and banking cadres, and projects on the development of breeding techniques, and the training of tourism human resources.

The Vice Mayor of Vientiane thanked Ho Chi Minh city for its assistance for Vientianes socio-economic development.

He stressed that Laos capital city of Vientiane wanted to carry out cooperative activities in all areas with Ho Chi Minh city, especially in investment and trade, for the rights of the two cities peoples, and for the peace and prosperity of the two countries.

Leaders of the two cities agreed to assigned relevant agencies to discuss programs realising all cooperative deals, especially in trade, investment and human resource training./.
Sheinbaum gets a birthday kiss from Jane Fonda a few years ago. Photo: JaneFonda.com



From his home on Rockingham Avenue in Brentwood, where he and his wife Betty hosted countless salons and strategy meetings, Stanley Sheinbaum played a key role in conversations and events that led to major changes. Sheinbaum died Monday at home. He was 96.

Sheinbaum was the president of the Los Angeles Police Commission in the stormy era after the beating of Rodney King and the 1992 riots. During the Vietnam War, he collaborated with journalist Robert Scheer to expose CIA activities in the United States, and helped support Scheer's Ramparts magazine. Sheinbaum was an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War and twice ran for Congress as a peace candidate. He served as a UC regent for 12 years and took on many other roles.

From the LA Times obituary:

In the 1960s he engineered the release of Andreas Papandreou, the Greek leader who had been imprisoned by a military junta. In the 1970s he was the chief fundraiser for Daniel Ellsbergs defense in the Pentagon Papers trial. In the 1980s he led a delegation of American Jewish leaders who persuaded Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat to renounce terrorism and accept Israel as a state....

He often took stands that invited outrage. When he was photographed shaking hands with Arafat, fellow Jews called him a traitor and a dead pig was thrown on his driveway. When he criticized the Los Angeles Police Department, he rankled Gates, who called him a pain in the ass. He had courage, said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who met the peripatetic advocate in the 1970s before she held political office. I dont know anyone who is basically a volunteer activist who played the role Stanley has. His fortune gave him the freedom to agitate and aggravate. A child of the Depression who trained as an economist at Stanford University, he gained his wealth through marriage to Betty Warner, the daughter of movie mogul Harry Warner, and doubled it through shrewd investment. He belonged to the Malibu Mafia, a small group of socially conscious Westside moguls, including Lear and Max Palevsky, who channeled hundreds of thousands of dollars into progressive causes and candidates. George McGovern, John Anderson, Jesse Jackson and Bill Clinton were among the politicians who relied on Sheinbaums support.



His 2012 memoir was "Stanley K. Sheinbaum: A 20th Century Knights Quest for Peace, Civil Liberties and Economic Justice. Sheinbaum more recently hosted a conversation with Bernie Sanders.

Mayor Eric Garceti said on Twitter: "Mourning the passing of Stanley Sheinbaum a tireless advocate for justice, equality, & democracy. LA and the world are better from his work."


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Seattle-area Blue Origin released details Monday about its new orbital reusable rocket, further pitting Jeff Bezos space company against Elon Musks SpaceX.

Named after astronaut John Glenn, who was the first American to orbit the Earth, the New Glenn rocket will lift off with 3.85 million pounds of thrust from seven engines and have a diameter of 23 feet.



For the record: An earlier version of this story said the girth of Blue Origins New Glenn rocket will be 23 feet. It should have said that is the rockets diameter.

That makes it more powerful than SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket, but not quite as powerful as the Hawthorne companys Falcon Heavy rocket, which has yet to launch, but will have more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.

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The Delta IV Heavy rocket, made by a joint venture of Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., has about 2 million pounds of thrust.

Blue Origins rocket will come in two variants  a two-stage, 270-foot-tall rocket, and a three-stage, 313-foot-tall rocket that will be capable of flying beyond low-Earth orbit.

In an email to followers, Bezos said the company plans to launch New Glenn for the first time before the end of the decade at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The rocket is designed to launch commercial satellites, as well as fly humans into space, he said.

Our vision is millions of people living and working in space, Bezos said in the email. New Glenn is a very important step.

Blue Origin has been testing its New Shepard suborbital launch vehicle at its West Texas facility. The vehicle is intended to take tourists into space, and the company has launched and re-landed the rocket booster four consecutive times.

The company said the lessons learned from New Shepard, especially about reusability, will be incorporated into New Glenn and its reusable rocket booster.

The new rocket will be powered by Blue Origins BE-4 liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas engines, which the company has been developing for United Launch Alliances Vulcan rocket. The engine is intended to replace the Russian rocket engines that have blasted U.S. government spy satellites into space.

Blue Origin has said the low-cost availability of liquefied natural gas allows for an extended engine development program. Experts have also said methane is clean, meaning it is less likely to clog fuel lines and could reduce the amount of rigorous cleaning needed to clear particulates and make it easier to reuse rockets. Many rockets use liquid oxygen and kerosene as a propellant.

The company did not release details on pricing, but an analyst said the company will likely try to leverage the cost savings from its reusable rocket booster to be competitive with SpaceX, the industrys low-price leader.

Its basically a declaration that theyre entering the market, said Phil Smith, senior space analyst for the Tauri Group, a space and defense analytic consulting firm.

He said it is fairly clear New Glenn will be a heavy-lift vehicle, capable of carrying huge satellites into high orbits. That means Blue Origin could be setting itself up to compete with United Launch Alliance and SpaceX for lucrative national security launch contracts.

These vehicles can tap any and all markets, so that gives maximum flexibility, Smith said.

Blue Origin has long been interested in ferrying tourists into space. The company has said its New Shepard will carry humans more than 62 miles above the Earth. But the companys next project could be even more ambitious.

Up next on our drawing board: New Armstrong, Bezos said in the email, a possible hint of the companys plans to send the next launch vehicle to the moon. So far, Blue Origin has named each of its launch vehicles after the U.S. astronaut that first accomplished that feat. Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon.

samantha.masunaga@latimes.com

For more business news, follow me @smasunaga
The for-profit college boom has gone bust.

Closures of high-profile schools such as ITT Technical Institute have left thousands of students in limbo while raising questions about the future of an industry that provides training for vocational, technical and other mid-level skilled jobs.

For-profit schools are facing major challenges on several fronts after a period of meteoric growth.

Federal and state officials have filed suits or launched investigations into allegations of predatory lending and false advertising by some leading chains. At the same time, the Obama administration is trying to reshape the industry by pushing new regulations that would tie student debt limits to job prospects and make it easier for students to have their loans forgiven if they were defrauded  with the school potentially on the hook for the tab.

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For-profit schools began aggressively expanding their numbers and enrollments in 2000 as online education became more widespread, attracting students who were more likely to be low-income, minority and part-timers.

Theyve done their part of the bargain. They took out the loans to pay for their education. They graduated and what the school promised them wasnt true.  Debbie Cochrane, vice president of the Institute for College Access and Success

Those schools ratcheted up their growth even more after the Great Recession, when many Americans sought new skills in hopes of finding better jobs in a tough labor market. Wall Street drove education company stock prices sky-high.

The problems that followed, including high default rates on student loans and accusations of predatory lending, triggered a crackdown by the Obama administration.

ITTs parent company blamed the administrations actions for the closure of the chains 137 campuses last week, meaning 35,000 students who were preparing to start classes this month wont get the degrees they were seeking.

Alvaro Laborin, a 36-year-old Navy veteran from Los Angeles, said he spent the last few years working all manner of odd jobs  bartender, mechanic, Uber driver, even a walk-on Hollywood extra  to be able to afford cybersecurity classes at ITTs Torrance campus.

It felt like home to me, Laborin said. This school has been around since before I was born and now its gone?

He was among about 20 ITT students at a clinic Thursday night at the offices of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles to figure out their options. They include trying to transfer ITT credits to other schools or seeking forgiveness on student loans.

Laborin wasnt sure if he would try to attend another for-profit school or try a public community college. But he said he would not quit on his goal of a college education.

Id rather be in debt up to my neck for the rest of my life than give up now, he said. When things like this happen, you have to either change or be the one who gets left behind.

Less than 18 months ago, thousand of students at another high-profile for-profit chain were forced into the same situation. Corinthian Colleges Inc. closed the doors on its remaining campuses following government allegations of falsified job placement rates.

Many students at ITT, Corinthian and other for-profit schools paid for their education by taking out federally backed and private student loans. And though borrowing has shot up at all colleges and universities in recent years, students at for-profit schools led the way.

Their federal student loan originations increased tenfold from 2000 to 2011, according to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Those students were more likely to default. Many either didnt finish school or graduated but were unable to land well-paying jobs in their field.

Theyve done their part of the bargain. They took out the loans to pay for their education. They graduated and what the school promised them wasnt true, said Debbie Cochrane, vice president of the Institute for College Access and Success, an Oakland nonprofit group that advocates for broader access to higher education.

Since 2004, annual default rates for students at four-year for-profit schools have been two to three times those of public or nonprofit private institutions, the New York Fed researchers found.

Despite the high-profile closures, the industry is still large. In 2015, there were about 3,500 for-profit institutions, including two-year and four-year vocational and technical schools. Thats an increase of 36% since 2000, according to the New York Fed data.

About 1.6 million students attended those schools. Enrollment nearly quadrupled from 2000 to 2011, with a surge after the Great Recession began in late 2007.

Although enrollment has declined since then 2011, a sharp increase in heavily debt-saddled students has drawn the ire of consumer groups and liberal activists who have accused the schools of predatory lending.

Steve Gunderson, president of Career Education Colleges and Universities, a trade group for the for-profit college industry, acknowledged that there have been problems.

This sector grew too fast and too much during the recession. We practiced open enrollment and admitted students even if they werent academically prepared, he said. A lot of students dropped out, had debt and default. We shouldnt walk away from that.

This sector grew too fast and too much during the recession. We practiced open enrollment and admitted students even if they werent academically prepared.  Steve Gunderson, president of Career Education Colleges and Universities

But Gunderson and others in the industry have said the Obama administration has unfairly targeted for-profit schools through enforcement actions and new regulations.

The moves threaten opportunities for students to get trained in fields that public and private non-profit colleges often dont offer, such as truck driving, cosmetology, automotive repair and medical office work, said Gunderson, whose association does not include ITT Technical Institute.

For-profit schools filled educational gaps as many community colleges began offering more four-year degree programs. But after the Corinthian and ITT closures, some community colleges are offering themselves as alternatives for students seeking to transfer their credits.

U.S. Education Department officials said their actions against ITT were designed to protect students, as well as taxpayers who are on the hook for federal student loans that dont get paid back.

The department forgave about $171 million in debt owed by Corinthian students. About $500 million worth of student loans to ITT students would be eligible for forgiveness, offset in part by about $90 million in insurance ITT had paid to the Education Department, said Education Undersecretary Ted Mitchell.

We knew when we stepped up our oversight of ITT that this outcome was a possibility and we have been planning for this contingency, Mitchell said last week of the chains closure. Ultimately, our responsibility is not to any individual institution. Its to protect all students and all taxpayers.

 ITT students look to legal aid attorneys for answers in the wake of another for-profit school shutdown

Last month, the Education Department barred ITT from enrolling new students who used federal financial aid because of significant concerns about the chains operations and financial viability.

In 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed fraud charges against ITT Educational Services and the companys two top executives. The SEC said ITT hid from investors the poor performance and looming financial impact of two private student loan programs the company guaranteed.

And in 2014, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued ITT for predatory lending, accusing the company of pushing students into high-cost private loans that were likely to end in default.

Other big players are also facing problems. In January, the Federal Trade Commission filed suit against the operators of DeVry University, alleging its ads deceived potential students about their job and earnings prospects. And the FTC has been investigating the University of Phoenix for similar deceptive marketing practices.

On top of that, other changes will make it more difficult on for-profit schools.

In June, a federal panel recommended the shutdown of the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, which provides the accreditation necessary for many schools to have access to federal financial aid. If the recommendation is approved by Education Department officials, those institutions will have to find another accreditor  and that could be difficult.

See the most-read stories in Business this hour 

At the same time, the Obama administration has toughened regulations of for-profit schools. New rules for schools that offer career training  for-profits and public community colleges with non-degree programs  would limit the amount of debt that students can take out relative to the incomes they can expect to earn with their education.

And this summer, the Education Department proposed new rules that make it easier for students to have loans forgiven if they were defrauded or deceived. The school could be required to pay off the loan balances for claims that are upheld.

The accreditation and regulatory changes add to the pressures of declining enrollments at many for-profit operators, said Trace Urdan, a research analyst for financial services firm Credit Suisse who follows the sector.

Were going to see hundreds of schools going out of business, he said.

Still, most of the for-profit institutions should adapt and survive, Urdan predicted.

Nobody made the kind of bad decisions on such a big scale that Corinthian and ITT did, he said.

jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com

Follow @JimPuzzanghera on Twitter

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Democratic senators want hearings on Wells Fargos aggressive sales tactics

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The Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing next week on the aggressive sales tactics by Wells Fargo & Co. employees that led to a $185-million settlement package with federal and state regulators.

The decision by the panels chairman, Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), to look into the matter came Monday night just hours after five Democrats on the committee publicly released a letter to him requesting hearings.

The magnitude of this situation warrants a thorough and comprehensive review, the lawmakers, led by Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, wrote to Shelby.

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The five senators requested a committee investigation into the pressure-cooker sales practices, first uncovered by the Los Angeles Times in 2013, that pushed thousands of Wells Fargo employees to open as many as 2 million accounts that customers never wanted.

The hearing will be held Sept. 20, said Torrie Matous, a spokeswoman for Shelby. There were no further details Monday night.

The Democrats asked that the committee probe include hearings and testimony from Wells Fargo Chief Executive John Stumpf, Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer as well as the heads of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

As members of the committee with oversight over the banking industry, we should accept nothing less than a full and transparent explanation of what went wrong, who is responsible, how to fix it and how to prevent such fraud in the future, the senators wrote.

In addition to Menendez, the letter was signed by Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

A Wells Fargo spokeswoman declined to comment.

Feuer, a Democrat, said earlier Monday that he hoped that Shelby would agree to hold hearings.

Many members of the public certainly are outraged by this and deserve to know more, Feuer said. This isnt a partisan issue. Its a consumer protection issue.

A spokesman for the Committee for Better Banks, a coalition of bank employees, labor groups and community and consumer advocates, said the aggressive sales policies extend beyond Wells Fargo.

We believe its an industry-wide problem and it needs to be addressed, said Shane Larson, legislative director for the Communications Workers of America, a union that is part of the coalition.

Feurer said hearings could deter other financial firms from engaging in similar practices.

I do not know if other banks have engaged in conduct like weve alleged here, Feuer said. But I do think there has been for a long time an imbalance in power between the big banks and the consumers they serve. Any time we can shine light on that, it helps.

On Thursday, Feuer joined Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray and Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry to announce that they had reached settlements with Wells Fargo and hammered the bank for a major breach of trust.

Feuer said his office began investigating Wells Fargos practices after The Times story and sued the bank last year. The suit alleged that Wells Fargo victimized their customers by using pernicious and often illegal sales tactics, including unrealistic quotas and policies that have driven bankers to engage in fraudulent behavior.

The CFPB, which conducted its own investigation, said bank employees may have opened as many as 1.5 million checking and savings accounts, and more than 500,000 credit cards, without customers authorization.

Wells Fargo agreed to pay $100 million to the CFPB  the largest fine the federal agency has ever imposed  as well as $50 million to the city and county of Los Angeles and $35 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

The bank separately fired 5,300 workers for improper sales practices since 2011, according to the agency.

The five Democratic senators are strong supporters of the CFPB. They wrote that the Wells Fargo settlement package is yet another indication that the CFPB is making consumer financial markets safer for consumers and protecting hard-working American families from abusive financial practices.

Democrats are eager to tout the accomplishments of the CFPB, which was created as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank overhaul of financial regulations that is one of President Obamas major accomplishments.

But Shelby and other congressional Republicans have complained that the CFPB is too powerful and that its actions have made it more difficult for banks to offer consumer products. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has called for dismantling nearly all of the Dodd-Frank reforms.

Last week, Democratic presidential nominee Hilary Clinton seized on the Wells Fargo settlements to warn of the implications for the CFPB if Trump becomes president.

She said the CFPBs forceful response in the case was a stark reminder of why we need a strong consumer watchdog to safeguard against unfair and deceptive practices.

Wells Fargo did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlements. But the bank apologized to customers, announced that it was changing its sales practices and agreed to pay refunds to customers assessed fees on accounts they never wanted.

The bank still faces lawsuits from customers, as well as former employees who claim that they were were fired or forced to quit when they wouldnt resort to breaking rules to meet the strict sales quotas.

jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com

Follow @JimPuzzanghera on Twitter

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UPDATES:

6:10 p.m.: This article was updated with the announcement that a hearing would be held next week.

2:30 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer, a spokesman for the Committee for Better Banks and a senior Senate Banking Committee aide, as well as additional details and background.

This article originally was published at 8:20 a.m.
An investment property of late fashion designer and marketer Christian Audigier, who helped popularize the Von Dutch and Ed Hardy brands, has come on the market in Hancock Park for $1.679 million.

The Spanish-style home, built in 1924, sits behind a waist-high privacy wall and has a gate emblazoned with Audigiers initials. Lush landscaping and a mix of palms surround a porch/patio and an arched front entry.

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Blending period character and chic modern finishes, the 2,131 square feet of white-walled interiors feature slightly rolled ceilings, contemporary fixtures and walls of built-ins. A formal living room, a dining room, an open-plan kitchen, four bedrooms and 3.75 bathrooms are among the living spaces.

Outdoors, theres a patio area and a fenced swimming pool. A separate cabana complete with a fireplace and a changing room sits adjacent to the pool.

Audigier bought the house six years ago for $1.35 million, records show. It was previously offered for lease at $7,550 a month.

Rory Posin and Kristian Bonk of Results Real Estate Group, an affiliate of Re/Max Estate Properties, hold the listing.

Audigier, who died last year at 57, used his connections with celebrities to help turn brands such as Ed Hardy and Von Dutch into global powerhouses. In 2011, he sold the Ed Hardy label for $62 million.

neal.leitereg@latimes.com

Twitter: @NJLeitereg

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HP Inc. is buying Samsung Electronics Co.s printer business in a deal worth $1.05 billion.

HP said Monday that it is the largest print acquisition in the Palo Alto companys history and that it will help it go from traditional copiers to multifunction printers. HP also said the deal will strengthen its position in laser printing, which it established with Canon.

Samsungs printer business includes more than 6,500 printing patents.

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The deal is expected to close within a year. In South Korea, where Samsung is based, printers manufactured by HP will be sold under the Samsung brand.

HP shares rose 3% to $14.49.

Last year, HP split off its operations focused on selling business technology products, creating Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.; HP retained its personal computer and printer operations. At its height, the combined HP generated more than $100 billion in annual revenue.

Dion Weisler, president and chief executive of HP, said in a statement Monday that the split enabled us to become nimble and focus on accelerating growth and reinventing industries.

The acquisition of Samsungs printer business allows us to deliver print innovation and create entirely new business opportunities with far better efficiency, security and economics for customers, Weisler said.

Samsung described the sale as part of its efforts to concentrate on its core business areas. Divestment is not a new strategy for Samsung. In 2014, the company sold stakes in four chemical and defense firms for $1.72 billion.

A Times staff writer contributed to this report.

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How the art insurance system determines value (and whether a work is even art). Politics in Turkey get the best of a biennial. And the Finns say no to a new Guggenheim museum. Plus: Donald Trumps speed painting, Gagosian tattoos, and the long history of zombies.

 The surviving bits of art from 9/11 that were declared non-art by a quirk of the art insurance system in a world that defines art exclusively by its monetary value. Daily Beast

 Organizers have canceled a Turkish biennial amid fears of a government crackdown. Hyperallergic

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 The plans to build a Guggenheim in Helsinki, Finland, appear to be floundering after a local political party blocked state aid for the project. Reuters

 A portrait of Greta Moll by Henry Matisse that hangs at the National Gallery in London is now the target of a lawsuit brought by Molls heirs. They allege that the painting was stolen in the years following World War II. BBC

 This past weekend, the Washington Post had a blistering report about the activities of Donald Trumps family foundation. An item that caught my eye was that apparently the foundation spent $20,000 on a painting of Trump by original speed painter Michael Israel. Which, naturally, led me to Israels website. Be sure to watch the video. It will: Rock. Your. World. Washington Post

 Neighbors of Londons Tate Modern say the new Herzog & De Meuron-designed tower is leading to peeping tom-style shots of nearby apartments. Tip: Buy curtains. Artnet

 A piece of a lost work by Rene Magritte is found under another painting of the artists in the Norwich Castle Museum in England. New York Times

 Little Big Horn as depicted by someone who was there: Stephen Standing Bear. This Tulsa, Okla., exhibition looks very intriguing. Hyperallergic

 The Gagosian Gallery is doing a tattoo parlor of artist-designed tattoos at the next New York Art Book Fair. The one by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge has already sold out. ARTnews

 Artist Laurie Simmons first feature film, My Art, hasnt exactly been well received at the Venice Film Festival. Critic Neil Young writes that it will struggle to penetrate much further than the affluently hip New York milieu glimpsed in the first reel. Ouch. The Hollywood Reporter

Laurie Simmons at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival in Italy. (Ettore Ferrari / EPA )

 The artist Sturtevant, who became known in the 60s for creating rough replicas of other artists pieces, at one point was at work on creating a replica of Michael Heizers 1969 earth work Double Negative in a nearby Nevada land parcel. If only  Greg.org

 If I didnt do it, how else were they going to be seen? Artist Kerry James Marshall on painting the black figure exclusively. He opens a new show at the Met Breuer late next month  a show that will later land at MOCA Los Angeles. New York Times

 New York Citys Department of Cultural Affairs and the Rockefeller Foundation have teamed to fund internships that promote diversity in the arts. Artnet

 A vast strangeness: Photographing the light halos of Californias prison industrial complex. Boom

 A historical map collection  featuring everything from a 17th century constellation map to a 19th century atlas for the blind  finds a home at Stanford. Hyperallergic

 The International Banana Museum. SoCal Connected

 A museum tour in Klingon. /Film (via Arts Journal)

 A map of gentrification in L.A. Curbed

 An open invitation to commit suicide. Meet the winner of Britains worst new building award, a.k.a. the Carbuncle Cup. Dezeen

 The construction of the High Line park may have brought a breed of winter-resistant roach to New York City. This doesnt sound like a horror-movie-in-the-making at all. New York Daily News

 There is something almost Dionysian about the zombie multitudes, with their limb-tearing frenzies and their contagious, 24-hour moshing. Tom Fleming on the history of the zombie. Los Angeles Review of Books

 And last but not least, Top Ten Words I Am Sick of Seeing on Artists Statements. e-flux

Sign up for our weekly Essential Arts & Culture newsletter 

Find me on Twitter @cmonstah.
Isabelle Huppert has been nominated 15 times for the Cesars, Frances national film award. No other actress has been recognized more.

Yet she has never been nominated for an Oscar.

It has crossed my mind, Huppert said over tea at the Toronto International Film Festival, where she, prolific as ever, has three movies playing. Its a prestigious recognition. I think at some point it crosses everyones minds. But it has never happened.

FULL COVERAGE: Toronto Film Festival 

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Partly, thats because the opportunities have been few. Huppert, 63, has worked mostly in France, partnering with such directors Claude Chabrol, Francois Ozon and Jean-Luc Godard. She just finished shooting her fourth movie with Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke. When Huppert has worked in the States, it has been with similar, auteur filmmakers  Michael Cimino, David O. Russell, Curtis Hanson, Hal Hartley.

I work with people in America that allow me to follow exactly the same line Ive followed in France, meaning the directors choice before everything, Huppert says. Some of them were successful, some were not, but they were in the same line as my body of work in France. Great directors.

Huperts highest-profile turn that found its way into the Oscar conversation came in Hanekes 2002 domestic horror film, The Piano Teacher, which won three awards at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival  picture, actor Benoit Magimel and, of course, Huppert. In it, she played a demanding music instructor leading a secret life of self-mutilation. It was a fearless, harrowing performance, unforgettable for anyone who saw it.

So why no Oscar nomination? Huppert believes she knows the reason, but she doesnt want to offer it on the record. In fact, she waits patiently for me to turn off my tape recorder before revealing it. Lets just say that if you have a dim view of the politics involved in Oscar campaigning, her story would make you grind your teeth.

At Toronto, there has already been early talk among voters in film critics circles about rewarding Hupperts superb year, which includes lead turns in Paul Verhoevens Elle (Nov. 16 in Los Angeles, via Sony Pictures Classics) and Mia Hansen-Loves Things to Come (Dec. 2, IFC). (Her third film, a romance titled Souvenirs, has no U.S. distributor yet.)

In Elle, she plays a woman who is raped and decides to shift the power between the victim and the avenger. In Things to Come, shes a philosophy professor rethinking her structured life after her husband leaves her.

The two movies are far apart in tone and circumstance, but Huppert sees common ground between the women who take the power and do not victimize themselves.

But theyre not warriors, either, which is the other opposite stereotype from the victim, she adds. They are not superficial characters. There is mystery to both of them.

Both Sony Pictures Classics and IFC plan to campaign hard on Hupperts behalf. Academy voters have shown a willingness in three of the past four years to go far afield in their lead actress choices  Emmanuelle Riva in 2012 for Hanekes Amour, Marion Cotillard in 2014 for the Dardenne brothers Two Days, One Night and Charlotte Rampling last year for Andrew Haighs 45 Years.

The companies handling those three films? Sony Pictures Classics and IFC.

Both movies earned enthusiastic responses at Toronto. The line for the first screening of Things to Come at the 1,250-seat Ryerson Theatre wrapped around the block  and then around another block. The provocative Elle packed the 1,500-seat Elgin the next day. Huppert was seated among the crowd, watching the movie for the first time since Cannes.

Oh, my God, it played really well, she says. People really paid attention and laughed in the right places. Its always better to see a movie anywhere on the big screen than on a television.

On that count, she is enough of a true believer to have purchased a cinema last year in the Latin Quarter of Paris, naming it Christine 21. Her son programs the theater.

We dont sell popcorn, Huppert says. Too much noise. Too distracting. When I go to the movies  and Im a great moviegoer, theres nothing I love more  I want to forget myself and disconnect from the world.

So  no cellphones in her theater, either? Huppert shakes her head and smiles.

I dont think I have the legal right to confiscate them, she says. But they wouldnt dare take them out in my cinema anyway.

See the most-read stories this hour 

glenn.whipp@latimes.com

Twitter: @glennwhipp
Panda rapper Desiigner was reportedly released from jail Saturday after being arraigned on a couple of misdemeanors  none of which was a gun charge  stemming from a Thursday road-rage incident in Manhattan.

The Kanye West protege born Sidney Royel Selby III had been arrested on suspicion of four felonies and was originally charged with felony counts of criminal possession of a weapon, menacing and possession of a controlled substance, police said Friday.

However, police who searched the Cadillac Escalade in which Desiigner had been riding with three friends and a hired driver found no weapon, the New York Daily News reported Saturday.

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The 19-year-old was arraigned on misdemeanor drug possession and menacing charges and released without having to post bail, Rolling Stone said.

On Thursday night, police told The Times, someone called 911 to report that a passenger in a white Escalade had allegedly stepped out of the SUV during a traffic-related argument, flicked a lighted cigarette and brandished a gun at another motorist, then fled the scene in the vehicle. The passengers, including Desiigner, were arrested a few blocks away from the alleged incident.

Citing law enforcement sources, TMZ reported Monday that the 302 pills police found in the Escalade were all steroids that belonged to the driver. Everyone in the vehicle has been charged with possession, the site said.

The 42-year-old driver, Scott Siegel, had his bail set at $5,000 after he was arraigned on two drug-related felony counts plus two forgery charges in connection with carrying fake active-duty firefighter plaques in the car, the Daily News said.

On Sunday, Desiigner posted a gleeful (and profanity-filled) video on social media, captioning it, They tried  Rapper Tyga also posted a video showing himself with Desiigner out shopping, flashing stacks of cash.

The rapper is due back in New York Criminal Court on Oct. 13, according to a New York court database.

Follow Christie DZurilla on Twitter @theCDZ.

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If a pairing between movie and audience could be engineered in a lab, Sunday nights Midnight Madness screening of Blair Witch might be the result

Before the screening, the festivals Midnight Madness programmer Colin Geddes ran down the festivals history with director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett. Their first collaboration, A Horrible Way to Die played a different section of the festival in 2010. While at the festival, they were so into the midnight crowds that they made Youre Next with that audience in mind. Their next film, The Guest, played the festivals midnight section as well.

Wingard and Barrett came out to briefly introduce the film.

Im really excited to watch this movie with you guys, said Wingard, because when you make a horror movie, you make it to watch it with an audience.

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FULL COVERAGE: TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL 

In this era of prequels and reboots and movies that do everything they can to avoid being a sequel or remake, there is something refreshing about the fact the Blair Witch is an unabashedly genuine follow-up to the 1999 original, The Blair Witch Project.

That film, about three young people who disappeared while attempting to unravel the mysteries of a supposedly haunted woods, was a smash, considered one of the first hit movies of the online age and also largely responsible for kicking off the found-footage horror trend. (The new film also neatly sidesteps the widely disdained 2000 sequel Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2.)

In Wingard and Barretts telling, James (James Allen McCune), whose sister was of one of the original trio, wants to find out what happened. So with his friends (Callie Hernandez, Brandon Scott, Corbin Reid) he plans to go into those same woods. Along the way they pick up two locals (Wes Robinson, Valorie Curry) who are self-styled experts on local legends.

Even with modern technology like a flying drone and ear-piece cameras with GPS, the movie relies on the simple suspense of flashlights piercing the darkness of nighttime trees, loud noises or the terror of whats around that corner or down that hole. The movies final section, a variation on a haunted house, becomes a frenzy.

 The trailer for Blair Witch, a sequel to the original horror hit.

As the end credits rolled, Wingard, Barrett and Geddes took to the stage with flashlights under their chins, campfire ghost story style, to begin talking about the film. Then they brought out Hernandez, Scott, Reid, Robinson and Curry from the cast as well.

Wingard and Barrett talked about how they had been involved in the project for some three years and had needed to keep it a secret until the recent reveal at this years Comic-Con that the project they had been making known as The Woods was in fact the sequel Blair Witch.

Barrett noted that one of the main challenges was that in the original film the footage that audiences saw was largely shot by the actors with the cameras they were seen holding. Not so for the new Blair Witch, which nevertheless maintains the premise that what audiences see is real, recovered footage. (Wingard also noted that one of the cameras seen onscreen, meant to be an outdated model, is the actual camera they used to make their own A Horrible Way to Die.)

For me, the main thing that I remember from the original film as an audience member is just how authentic it felt, said Wingard. And thats whats so cool about being able to do a film like this, is being able to do it from the perspective of what worked for you whenever you saw it as a regular audience. So for me the main thing that was important was that we live up to that commitment towards reality.

They also worked hard to both respect the mythology of the original film and to build upon it. As Barrett noted, when the first film came out people were inclined to believe just about anything they read on the Internet, while now people dont believe much of anything they see online.

Ive retained all this basically useless information, Wingard said of the fictional mythologies of the first film. And finally I could put this to use; I spent a lot of time on the Internet looking at all this  and finally I can justify my pitiful existence.

Barrett summed up the experience of working on the film when he said, It was exciting just as fans to create the sequel we always wanted to see.

When the audience exited the theater, the courtyard just outside the entrance was filled with creepy wooden figures like those seen in the movie, along with an eerie smattering of smoke-machine fog and a long, light-up banner for the film. One final bit of spooky showmanship to send everyone off into the night.

SIGN UP for the free Indie Focus movies newsletter 

Mark.Olsen@latimes.com

Follow on Twitter: @IndieFocus

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Colonialism and the inequity between First and Third World nations are not the usual stuff pop songs are made of, so when M.I.A. came along more than a decade ago, she had little competition.

She combined her experience as a Tamil refugee from Sri Lanka with experimental rap and dancehall music from Londons fringe music scenes. The British artist gained a name among her party-minded contemporaries, singing about unlikely subjects such as freedom fighters and closed borders.

Her fifth album, AIM, continues the rebellion, though in M.I.A. fashion, its an unpredictable mix of sharp, artful commentary, wildly creative song making and, despite the albums title, plenty of aimless, indulgent meandering.

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Inconsistency on an album is to M.I.A. what hit singles are to Taylor Swift  a given. Its an approach thats lowered her profile in a field she once dominated.

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour >> 

Meanwhile her former partner in love and music, Diplo, has turned global groove into dancefloor gold. He removed unpleasant lyrics about poverty and war from his work, infused it with big, thumpy EDM beats and became one of the worlds top DJs and festival draws.

Though Diplo and M.I.A. have collaborated for a non-album remix of her bizarre new Bird Song, turning it into a more mainstream savvy track, on AIM, the Blaqstarr-produced song  and, indeed, record as a whole  is clearly an M.I.A.-driven production. Here she challenges you to sit through some of her most bizarre songs (Jump In) in order to hear some of her best work (Freedun).

Indian instrumentation blends with electronic beat and pillow-soft backing vocals by former One Direction dream Zayn Malik on Freedun. This melodious and quirky single isnt afraid of being too catchy, too pretty or too accessible, and that sets it part from a lot of M.I.A.s more adamantly esoteric work.

With a sense of humor, she plays on stereotypes of macho cultures when she sing/raps, Im a swagger man, rolling in my swagger van, from the Peoples Republic of Swaggerstan.

In Finally, M.I.A. (Mathangi Maya Arulpragasam) expresses a newfound freedom from her struggles with notoriety  and the scrutiny it brings. Shes been criticized by various Sri Lankan groups for her politicized artwork and lyrics, shes feuded on Twitter with critics of her albums and flipped the middle finger to half of North America during her big moment performing at the Super Bowl with Madonna in 2012.

Here she forgoes clever wordplay and sings in sincere, unguarded tones about her efforts to rise above the fray. What youre here to say about me dont worry me, I keep moving forward to whats ahead of me.  You get stronger from adversity.

In Survivor, she states it another way: Cant carry feelings like a basket cant carry water, then justifies her reluctance toward fame: Stars come and go, just like every empire. Something that might sound trite in another artists hands is revealing in M.I.A.s.

The Skrillex-produced Go Off is where M.I.A. gets her swagger on. Its a compelling, percussive mix of Eastern sounds, dubstep heaviness and her harder, street-savvy raps: There is no competition. Im gonna talk and you gonna listen. Im on 10 like men, even better than them.

But alongside M.I.As inspired numbers that shame the competition are the alienating ones that belie her insecurities about becoming too palatable.

Enter Ali R U OK?, a Middle Eastern flavored number thats as hypnotic and cool as Bad Girls on one hand, but lyrically, sounds like she transcribed not-so-interesting text messages to a friend shes trying to connect with. It just doesnt work.

And in the albums opening track Borders, she recites a list of grievances punctuated with the phrase Whats up with that?: Your privilege? Broke people? Your future? Your families? Your power? Whats up with that? Is it about the apathy and ignorance of the First World toward the Third, or a stoned session with friends that likely made sense at the time, or really, is it even worth untangling?

The great thing about M.I.A. is that shes not willing to compromise who she is to get ahead. The bad thing about M.I.A. is that shes not willing to compromise who she is to get ahead.

She recently said that AIM would be her last LP ever, which is doubtful given that she still has plenty to say. But it is a reminder that no matter whats at stake, M.I.A. will fight whatevers expected of her, even if it means forsaking her own talent.

M.I.A. AIM (Interscope)

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Coming to American television immediately following the anniversary of 9/11, via the streaming service Acorn TV, The Secret Agent is the fourth BBC adaptation of Joseph Conrads 1907 novel of anarchists in the UK.

Set in 1886 and inspired by a real event, the Greenwich Observatory bombing of 1884, the novel was also the basis of Alfred Hitchcocks 1936 film Sabotage, with its famous sequence of a boy unwittingly carrying a bomb onto a crowded bus. Though Conrad subtitled the book a simple tale of the 19th century, the social and political currents it describes were still abroad in the 20th, and would soon help usher in the First World War.

Screenwriter and playwright Tony Marchant makes Conrads out-of-order timeline conventionally chronological, reassigns some dialogue and inserts some new action for purposes of intensity and suspense  business as usual in turning literature into television. But the miniseries  which debuts in three parts, Monday through Wednesday, with each episode remaining available after its premiere  is generally faithful to the shape of the novel and the interior lives of its characters, if not always their physical descriptions. Directed by Charles McDougall with perhaps a surfeit of darkness and drear, its a satisfying adaptation that grows more powerful as it grows more dreadful.

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Marchant sets his opening scene, appropriately enough, on Guy Fawkes Night, Britains ironic, fireworks-fueled celebration of the man who tried to blow up Parliament. Here we meet meet Mr. Verloc (Toby Jones), the proprietor of what I guess youd call a Victorian sex shop; his wife, Winnie (Vicky McClure); and her developmentally challenged brother, Stevie (Charlie Hamblett). After hours, Verloc hosts meetings of an anarchist cell, upon which he is also informing, fitfully, to the (pre-revolutionary) Russians.

His cellmates include Ossipon (Raphael Acloque), who flirts with Winnie; Michaelis (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor), a writer lately out of prison, who has been taken up by a society woman; and the Professor (the always memorable Ian Hart), who goes about London in a big coat wired with explosives and a detonator ever ready in his hand. Broadly speaking, they represent three faces of revolution: the opportunist, the idealist and the nutcase. The police, we learn from chief inspector Heat (Stephen Graham), do not consider them particularly capable or worrisome; and though they are nominally a group, they are hardly in agreement.

Things start to happen when Verlocs new Russian boss, Mr. Vladimir (David Dawson), decides that England, absurd with its sentimental regard for individual liberty, requires a jolly good scare to bring in a more repressive social order, and tells Verloc, who has barely been earning his secret agent pay, he is the person to do it. His own life threatened and much to his displeasure, Verloc becomes a terrorist.

Short and round with a bulldog face and a melancholy demeanor that serves him well in comedy and tragedy alike, Jones is, as usual, excellent; his final scene with the invaluable McClure, nearly a monologue, has an almost theatrical weight. (Its not surprising to learn that in 1923 Conrad himself turned his novel into a three-act play.)

Marchant doesnt let his audience forget that this is a story that might have some relevance to our own terrorized times. But The Secret Agent works on the page and on the screen because, ultimately, its not a political but a particular human story that runs on a mixture of bad decisions and bad luck, out where psychologies and circumstances run afoul of history.

The Secret Agent

Where: Acorn TV

When: New episodes debut to stream through Wednesday via Acorn TV

robert.lloyd@latimes.com

On Twitter @LATimesTVLloyd

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One taste of this rich stew and you might never guess its made from just a handful of ingredients. But patience can yield a lot of flavor, and this smoky black bean stew is no exception. Simmer dried black beans with dried morita or chipotle chiles, onion, garlic, a bay leaf and a touch of seasoning, and within a couple of hours you have the perfect meal, garnished as you like. Better yet? This is one dish that only gets better with time, as the flavors have time to marry.

KITCHEN PRO TIP: Many recipes call for rehydrating dried chiles before using them. The process is simple: submerge the chiles in hot water until softened, then use as desired. Check out the video below for this and other tips with working with dried chiles.

 Los Angeles Times Test Kitchen director Noelle Carter shows how to quickly and easily rehydrate dried chiles.

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SMOKY BLACK BEAN STEW

Total time: 2 hours | Serves 6 to 8

1 pound dried black beans

6 cups water

2 dried morita chiles or 1 dried chipotle chile

1 cup coarsely chopped onions

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 bay leaf

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Crema Mexicana, or sour cream, for garnish

Chopped green onions, for garnish

Chopped cilantro, for garnish

Grated cotija cheese, for garnish

1. Heat the oven to 325 degrees. In a heavy pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, bring the black beans, water, chiles, onions, garlic and bay leaf to a simmer. Cover tightly and transfer to the oven.

2. Cook for 1 hour, then add 1 teaspoon salt and a generous grinding of black pepper and stir to combine. Re-cover the pot and return it to the oven to cook until the beans are tender and creamy, 30 to 45 more minutes.

3. Use an immersion blender to coarsely puree the beans just enough to release some of the starch. Alternatively, puree 1 cup of beans in a stand blender and return them to the pot. Heat just until the beans have thickened. (The dish can be prepared to this point several days in advance and refrigerated, tightly sealed.)

4. When ready to serve, bring the beans back to a simmer. Add a little more water if they are too thick. Taste and correct seasoning with salt and pepper.

5. Ladle the beans into warmed serving bowls and garnish with a spoonful of crema Mexicana, a sprinkling of green onions and cilantro, and grated cotija cheese, with more passed at the table. Serve immediately.

Each of 8 servings: Calories 189; Protein 12 grams; Carbohydrates 34 grams; Fiber 12 grams; Fat 1 gram; Saturated fat 0; Cholesterol 0; Sugar 1 gram; Sodium 293 mg

Love cooking as much as I do? Follow me @noellecarter

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Health comes back into the presidential race. When none of the above polls better than you do.

Im Christina Bellantoni, and this is Essential Politics. We start with some fresh polling in the Golden State.

California is still Hillary Clinton country, a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll conducted by SurveyMonkey has found.

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She holds a lopsided lead over Donald Trump, but weaknesses here suggest voter ambivalence that could thwart her presidential campaign in more contested states, Cathleen Decker writes.

The numbers:

Clinton led Trump by 25 points, 58% to 33%, when the two candidates were matched head to head among registered voters.

When the choices were expanded to include Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein, Clinton led 49% to 29%. She lost more support to the third-party hopefuls than Trump, especially among younger voters.

But the poll also showed trouble for Trump. He creates a significant drag on Republicans down the ballot in California. In every part of the state, voters said they would be less inclined to side with a congressional candidate who had endorsed Trump; statewide, 40% said they would be less likely to vote for such a candidate and 15% said they would be more likely.

GETTING OVERHEATED

A hot day. A video posted on Twitter. A lack of transparency with the media. Those three things were a nasty combination for Clinton on Sunday, as a commemorative ceremony at Ground Zero turned into blaring headlines declaring the former secretary of State had a health emergency.

What we do know is that her campaign at first said nothing, even when pressed by reporters trying to figure out where the nominee had gone after leaving the ceremony earlier than expected. A spokesman more than an hour later issued a brief statement that Clinton had gotten overheated. Attendees at the event called it stiflingly hot. In the evening, the campaign released another statement, this one from Clintons doctor, saying that she had been diagnosed two days earlier with pneumonia and was on antibiotics. By Sunday evening, the doctor said, she was recovering nicely.

The series of circumstances capped what had been an already difficult week for Clinton, Seema Mehta writes.

The Democrat was forced to express regret for suggesting at a fundraiser that half of Trump supporters could be described as the basket of deplorables, which she referred to as racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic  you name it.

Clinton was scheduled to get back on the fundraising circuit tonight in San Francisco and then head to Los Angeles, but the campaign scrapped the trip late Sunday night.

Get the latest from the campaign trail on Trail Guide and follow @latimespolitics. Check our daily USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times tracking poll at the top of the politics page.

SANCHEZ GOES NUCLEAR

In what may be a sign of things to come, Rep. Loretta Sanchez launched a broadside attack against her rival in the U.S. Senate race, California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris. Phil Willon reports that the Orange County congresswoman criticized Harris for defending a California Coastal Commission permit allowing more than 300 million tons on nuclear waste to be buried near the shuttered San Onofre nuclear power plant in San Diego County. She also accused Harris of botching a criminal investigation into the $4.7-billion settlement reached between the California Public Utilities Commission and Southern California Edison. The Harris campaign responded with an accusation that Sanchez was politicizing a criminal investigation.

NONE OF THE ABOVE

The new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll of the Senate race found Sanchez is not only lagging behind Harris, but shes also struggling to outpace none of the above. Willon reports that 16% of the registered voters polled said they would not vote for either Sanchez or Harris in the November election. Thats the same percentage of voters who said they favored Sanchez.

Tick tock. The election is less than two months away, folks.

HOW THIS CONGRESSIONAL RACE TURNED INTO ONE OF THE MOST EXPENSIVE IN THE COUNTRY

There is a hot, expensive and somewhat mysterious race to replace retiring Santa Barbara Rep. Lois Capps  a contest claiming the attention of both Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Ohio coal magnate Robert E. Murray. Javier Panzar reports that the $1.5 million in outside spending makes Californias 24th Congressional District contest one the most expensive in the country. Among his findings: donations from Murrays coal company and YouTube videos posted by the campaigns that ended up in ads paid for by outside groups.

The race pits 28-year-old Republican Justin Fareed against the Democratic establishments pick, Santa Barbara County Supervisor Salud Carbajal.

WHAT WAS BEHIND THE BIG HOUSING PLANS DEMISE?

One of the major failures of the recently ended legislative session was Gov. Jerry Browns plan to streamline housing regulations to boost affordability. Liam Dillon reports that local governments, labor unions, environmentalists and renters all contributed to its death, revealing how difficult it might be in the future for the state to increase housing supply.

Keep an eye on our Essential Politics news feed for the latest in California politics.

TODAYS ESSENTIALS

-- The statewide voter guide detailing each of 17 ballot measures is 224 pages, 0.6 pounds and will cost taxpayers up to $15 million

-- Two major pieces of legislation aimed at combating climate change are now California law.

-- The nation marked the 15-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

-- The U.S. House of Representatives remembered the victims of the attacks Friday in a ceremony on the House steps, with remarks from Pelosi.

-- Mike Pence released 10 years worth of tax returns, highlighting anew that Trump has not done the same.

-- Noah Bierman profiles the woman with what may be one of the toughest jobs in politics this year: director of Hispanic Communications for the Republican National Committee. She has to appear on television defending a man she once compared to a street dog and explaining him to deeply skeptical Latino voters.

-- The California Politics Podcast touched on the Senate race and some of the measures on the ballot in November.

-- In a sign that Californias pot initiative is getting national attention, a Pennsylvania millionaire has contributed $1.3 million to a nonprofit group that is raising money to oppose Proposition 64 on the November ballot.

-- Sen. Dianne Feinstein is asking the federal government for money to cut down California trees killed by drought before they catch fire.

-- Several California lawmakers will show off land they want added to the California Coastal National Monument to the head of the Bureau of Land Management.

-- Meet the San Diego teen recognized by the White House as a National Student Poet.

-- Who will win the November election? Give our Electoral College map a spin.

LOGISTICS

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The woman authorities say is the victim at the center of a sex scandal has been charged with simple battery in Florida following the controversial decision to send her to an out-of-state rehabilitation facility even though she is expected to serve as the key witness in the prosecution of at least seven police officers in the Bay Area.

The woman, whose name The Times is withholding because she is an alleged victim of a sex crime, was originally facing a charge of aggravated battery in the biting of a security guard at a drug rehabilitation facility in Stuart, Fla., according to court records. If convicted, she would have faced up to 15 years in prison.

But Monday, prosecutors decided to charge her with simple misdemeanor battery, dramatically reducing the amount of jail time she could face, according to David Lustgarten, an assistant states attorney in Floridas 19th Judicial Circuit, who is prosecuting the case.

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The decision to send the woman out of state for rehabilitation has drawn sharp rebukes from Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and Alameda County Dist. Atty. Nancy E. OMalley, who announced on Friday filed that charges would be filed against seven East Bay law enforcement officers in connection with the scandal.

OMalley said she was forced to delay the filing of formal charges against the officers because the woman had been moved out of state.

Though his office has been in touch with Alameda County prosecutors, Lustgarten said the decision to file the lesser charge in Florida had nothing to do with the womans status as a key witness in California.

As any prosecutor who charges crime in this country will tell you, you go where the evidence takes you, he said. It was not bringing me to believe I would be able to prove aggravated battery beyond a reasonable doubt.

Lustgarten has extended a plea deal to the woman, but he declined to discuss the terms. Calls seeking comment from the womans attorney and a spokeswoman for the Alameda County district attorneys office were not immediately returned.

The woman, a self-described 19-year-old sex worker from Richmond, made national headlines in June when she claimed in a televised interview to have slept with more than a dozen Oakland police officers. She said some of the sexual encounters happened when she was too young to consent, and she accused officers of trading information about planned prostitution raids for sexual favors.

The scandal soon widened, and accusations were also made against several other East Bay law enforcement agencies, including the Richmond and Livermore police departments and the Contra Costa County and Alameda County sheriffs departments.

On Friday, OMalley announced her intent to charge five current and former Oakland police officers with a wide array of criminal charges in connection with the womans claims. A Livermore police officer and a Contra Costa County sheriffs deputy, both of whom have since resigned from law enforcement, are also expected to face criminal charges.

The charges include failing to report the abuse of a minor and engaging in acts of prostitution. Oakland police Officer Giovani LoVerde and former Contra Costa County Sheriffs Deputy Ricardo Perez also will be charged with felony oral copulation with a minor, OMalley said.

OMalley said her investigation also uncovered sexual contact between the woman and police officers in San Joaquin and Contra Costa counties as well as the city of San Francisco, though she did not have jurisdiction to prosecute there.

A spokesman for the San Joaquin County district attorneys office has said the agency is investigating allegations of misconduct involving the woman and a law enforcement officer within their jurisdiction.

Contra Costa County prosecutors have already declined to prosecute one Oakland police officer, Terrell Smith, in connection with a sodomy charge related to the womans claims.

Doug McMaster, Contra Costa Countys chief assistant district attorney, told The Times last week his office has not received any cases it could prosecute in relation to the scandal. OMalley said Friday that Smith will face charges of improperly accessing a law enforcement database in Alameda County in connection with the scandal.

The disclosures have caused Oakland to remove three police chiefs, fire four officers and suspend seven others in recent months.

In August, funds from the states victim compensation program were used to send the woman to Florida for drug rehabilitation. The move was coordinated by a victims advocate employed by the Contra Costa County district attorneys office who is based at the Richmond Police Department, one of the agencies the woman has made claims against.

Richmond police have repeatedly refused to answer questions about the decision to send the woman to Florida, and a spokeswoman for the victims compensation program said she was barred by state law from commenting on the case. McMaster has said there was nothing nefarious about the decision to move her out of state.

Calls to McMaster seeking additional comment were not returned.

While in Florida, the woman was accused of being involved in a violent altercation with several security guards at a drug rehabilitation facility. She bit a guard on Aug. 29, and attempted to solicit sex from Martin County sheriffs deputies during the course of her arrest, according to a police report.

The decision to send the woman out of state has been heavily criticized, with some in the Bay Area implying a crime had been committed.

Thats pretty outrageous conduct. Thats a material witness, said John Burris, the Bay Area civil rights attorney who negotiated the settlement that placed Oakland Police under federal oversight in 2003. That borders to me on obstruction of justice. I just dont understand how they could legitimately think that was a proper thing to do.

james.queally@latimes.com

Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for crime and police news in California.

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8:20 p.m.: This article has been updated throughout with additional editing and other details.

This article was originally published at 2:25 p.m.
A longtime advocate for social change in Los Angeles could become the citys newest Police Commission member, replacing a member of the oversight panel who is stepping down from her post.

Mayor Eric Garcetti said Monday that he had nominated Shane Murphy Goldsmith to the five-person Police Commission. Goldsmith would fill a seat being vacated by Kathleen Kim, an attorney and law professor who focuses on immigrant rights, and has served on the panel since 2013.

If approved by the City Council, Goldsmith would be the third new police commissioner to join the board in a year.

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Kim said she decided to leave the commission at the end of the month to focus on her professional work. She said she appreciated her time as a police commissioner and the opportunity she had to help shape the way the LAPD interacts with immigrants and influence policies aimed at curtailing the of use deadly force.

I have seen changes that Im gratified by, she said.

In a statement, Garcetti thanked Kim for her important contributions to the commission. He noted her efforts to improve the LAPDs relationship with immigrant communities and in developing the departments new homelessness policy.

Her work will continue to be felt in the progress she helped to bring about, Garcetti said.

Goldsmith is the president and chief executive officer at the Liberty Hill Foundation, an L.A.-based group that connects philanthropists and community organizers to address racial, economic, environmental and LGBT issues. She currently serves on the citys homeless services authority and worked for Garcetti when he was a city councilman.

Garcetti described Goldsmith as someone driven by a deep sense of compassion that informs everything she does. Goldsmith, he added, understands the urgency of conversations regarding policing.

I am confident that her values and approach will be an asset to the Police Commission, Garcetti said.

Police commissioners oversee the operations of the 10,000-officer force, set LAPD policies and have an inspector general who investigates and audits the department on their behalf.

In one of their most important roles, commissioners decide whether police shootings and other serious uses of force were appropriate. Its a responsibility that has come under greater scrutiny as police officers across the country have been criticized for how they use force, particularly against African Americans.

Goldsmiths appointment comes as the Police Commission has taken an increasingly hands-on oversight role, particularly when it comes to shootings by officers. The board has directed the LAPD to find ways to reduce those shootings by revamping department rules, revising training and making more less-lethal devices available.

Those efforts have been praised by Garcetti and others across the city, including civil rights leaders. However, some activists affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement have criticized the commissioners, disrupting their weekly meetings and accusing the board of not doing enough to improve the LAPD.

Kim said she believed the LAPD has been responsive to the publics calls to reduce police shootings, improve de-escalation efforts and mend relationships with residents. But, she said, those issues are going to continue to be the most challenging.

In an interview, Goldsmith said her primary focus as a police commissioner would be to include the community in the boards efforts to improve the LAPD -- ensuring that the people who dont trust the police department are part of making the police department the best it can be.

I want to help build those bridges, she said. I want to be proactively engaging people and bringing them to the table and just hammering out those solutions together. That is not going to be easy. But I think thats what we need.

A Santa Monica native, Goldsmiths career has centered on addressing a range of social issues. After college, she managed a homeless shelter set up in the basement of a church in a small Indiana town, later working to address housing policy and build affordable homes. She focused on economic issues as a community organizer in South L.A. Later, she became a senior adviser to then-Councilman Garcetti, who officiated Goldsmiths wedding in 2008, when she and her wife became the first gay couple married in L.A., on the steps of City Hall.

The job in Garcettis office is where Goldsmith said she began to work with police to address everyday problems in neighborhoods. It gave her a chance to see how police could respond to those concerns, she said, but also that officers are real people with hard jobs.

Goldsmiths interactions with police have also involved her younger brother, who she said suffers from mental illness and has shuffled between jail and homelessness. That experience, along with Goldsmiths professional work, has focused her attention on a few key issues surrounding policing: de-escalation of force and preventing people from entering or re-entering the criminal justice system.

People who are experiencing homelessness are vulnerable, she said. The stakes are a lot higher for them when they interact with police.

Matt Johnson, the president of the Police Commission, welcomed Goldsmiths nomination to the board, describing her as someone unafraid to take on the toughest issues.

Shanes background and skill set are exactly what this moment in our citys history calls for, he said.

Goldsmith credited the Black Lives Matter movement for pushing the countrys attention onto the sometimes frayed relationships between police and residents, saying that helped create an incredible opportunity for change.

Its why I want to serve on the Police Commission, she said. Theres an opportunity now to make a difference.

kate.mather@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter: @katemather

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2:35 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from outgoing commissioner Kathleen Kim and Police Commission President Matt Johnson.

This article was originally published at 10 a.m.
Homeless residents of Pomona will be provided storage for their property and will be allowed to sleep in public spaces until shelter beds exist for all of them, following the settlement of a lawsuit challenging the citys practice of homeless cleanups.

In the settlement reached with the pro bono law firm Public Counsel, the city agreed to build 388 lockers for the property of homeless people and to stop enforcing three laws that prohibit tents, personal property and overnight sleeping on public property.

Enforcement of the overnight sleeping ban could resume once sufficient accommodations exist, either in indoor shelters or open spaces designated for overnight stays.

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Both sides praised the agreement as a win for the city and its homeless population and as a model for cities struggling to balance their health and safety measures with the moral and legal restraints on homeless crackdowns.

Across California, laws that criminalize homeless people continue to be enacted and enforced, despite constitutional challenges that are gaining weight in the courts, according to a June study by the Berkeley Law Policy Advocacy Clinic at UC Berkeley. The authors found that all of Californias 58 largest cities have laws that target homeless people by restricting standing, sitting and sleeping in public places.

So many lack sufficient shelter options and yet have these anti-homeless ordinances that penalize the homeless for doing what they simply have to do to survive, said Christina Giorgio, Public Counsels attorney in the case.

The city of Santa Ana on Tuesday declared a health and safety crisis and voted to increase policing and enforcement of a growing homeless encampment in Civic Center.

By contrast, the Pomona City Council is scheduled next week to approve construction of the lockers for its homeless population and to declare a shelter crisis, allowing public facilities to be used as shelters.

The Pomona agreement stops the practice of ticketing folks for camping and sleeping in public when those being ticketed dont have a choice but to sleep where they are because there are not housing options for them, Giorgio said.

From the citys viewpoint, the settlement preserves its power to remove permanent dwellers from public places if they have another place to sleep.

The ultimate goal is to get people off the streets, said Assistant City Atty. Andrew L. Jared. You cant shackle someone and force them to go somewhere. At the same time the police powers of zoning do not allow people to sleep and live in public areas.

Though the agreement does not require the city to provide more shelters, Jared said the lawsuit only spurred efforts already underway.

Within a month the city will roll out a proposal for an open-air accommodation, Jared said.

People would be able to roll up their beds in that location, he said. It would be managed. It wouldnt be a tent city. There would not be the lawlessness that occurs in other places where the city turns people out on a vacant lot.

More conventional solutions are also in the works.

The City Council has approved a shelter zone where a Christian organization hopes to open a 48-bed shelter this fall.

Mayor Elliott Rothman said the city is looking at opening a year-round shelter in a state-owned armory building, which has recently been used as a winter shelter.

Public Counsel filed the class-action lawsuit in March, alleging that the constitutional rights of homeless people were being violated by city officials who confiscated and destroyed their property.

The 15-point Pomona settlement goes beyond the issues in the lawsuit by addressing the thorny topic of overnight camping.

Enforcement must stop until there are more shelter beds in the city than the unsheltered population in the most current count by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. The 2016 count found 366.

The settlement parallels a similar legal battle in Los Angeles a decade ago. A federal appeals court ruled that L.A.s practice of arresting and ticketing homeless people for sleeping in public was a violation of the 8th Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment because these residents had no other place to spend the night.

The ruling in what became known as the Jones case was vacated following a settlement in which L.A. agreed to stop enforcing its no-overnight-camping ordinance and to provide storage space.

Since then, the U.S. Department of Justice has called on federal courts to adopt the reasoning in the Jones case, but cities often sidestep the issue by enacting bans that cover only specific times of day or locations, said Jeffrey Selbin, director of the Berkeley clinic.

The Pomona settlement showed an unusual spirit of compromise.

The plaintiffs, for example, agreed that the city could continue enforcement at two railroad underpasses acknowledged to be drug hangouts.

Our clients were in support of the citys request on this, Giorgio said. Ive toured these areas. On Reservoir Street its very problematic.

Giorgio praised the city for agreeing to provide individual lockable storage, unlike the trash cans used in Los Angeles.

Having lockers you have access to is a better way to go, she said.

In addition to a 120-gallon limit on property, the agreement allows bicycles, walkers, wheelchairs and an important item: collected recyclables.

People will say they see that as trash, she said. Its currency for many people working in that trade.

The settlement requires the city to pay $49,000 in damages to be distributed among the 15 named plaintiffs and no more than $160,000 in attorney fees.

doug.smith@latimes.com

Twitter: @latdoug

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A 32-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of making a sex video with a woman he dated and then uploading it to a pornographic website after she cut off communication with him, police said Monday.

Sergio Ortiz faces one count of distributing a private image of someones intimate body parts under Californias revenge porn law, which took effect in October 2013, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

The victim is suffering tremendous emotional distress and humiliation at work, as well as among friends and family, after Ortiz posted the video of the two of them having sexual intercourse, the department said in a statement.

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Ortiz met the woman on a dating website and they later agreed to have sex, according to the police department. At some point during sex, he began filming the act. The woman, police said, reluctantly agreed to the video recording, then later told him to delete it.

After she stopped talking to Ortiz, he uploaded the video to the porn website without her consent, police said.

Police said the woman found out about the video from a coworker.

During the police investigation, detectives found videos of other unidentified women, according to the LAPD.

Detectives are now looking for anyone who thinks they were victimized by Ortiz, police said.

It is not known at this time whether these women consented to having these videos uploaded and made public on the Internet, the department said.

The states revenge porn law makes the crime a misdemeanor and offers protection to victims whose nude photographs were distributed without their consent.

In December 2014, Noe Iniguez was the first person to be convicted under the law after prosecutors said he posted a topless photograph of his ex-girlfriend on her employers Facebook page without her consent. He was sentenced to a year in jail.

With the explosion of smart phone technology and the prevalence of social networking, the increase of revenge porn has become an alarming social phenomenon, the police department said in a statement.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.
Former California Assemblyman Tom Calderon, a member of a now disgraced California political dynasty, was sentenced Monday to a year in federal custody for laundering bribes taken by his brother.

Citing Calderons significant health problems, U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder showed some leniency, ordering Calderon to serve only the first half of the sentence in prison. For the second half, Calderon will wear an electronic monitoring device and live under house arrest.

The punishment, which sends Calderon to prison for significantly less time than the 18 to 24 months called for under federal sentencing guidelines, stemmed from a plea deal Calderon struck with the U.S. attorneys office. Under the terms of the agreement, Calderon admitted to the money-laundering charge and prosecutors agreed not to seek more than 12 months behind bars.

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The proceedings Monday brought to a close part of an FBI sting operation and bribery case that primarily targeted Calderons brother. Former state Sen. Ron Calderon has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from undercover FBI agents and a corrupt hospital executive. He is scheduled to be sentenced next week.

After being indicted by a federal grand jury in February 2014, the brothers, Democrats from Montebello, insisted they were innocent. Ultimately, however, they admitted their guilt in June, shortly before their trial was to start.

In pleading guilty, Tom Calderon acknowledged in a court filing that he had agreed to allow bribe money to be funneled through the Calderon Group in order to conceal and disguise the fact that the money represented the proceeds of bribery. The Calderon Group is a political consulting company.

Calderon addressed Snyder briefly before she handed down her sentence. I am truly remorseful and regret my mistakes, he said. I am ready to move on and accept my punishment.

Ron Calderon faces a harsher sentence from Snyder. In his own deal with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to a count of mail fraud. He admitted to accepting bribes in 2013 from an undercover FBI agent posing as a film industry executive in exchange for advocating for an extension of tax credits for film productions. Investigators also allege he took bribes from the owner of a medical firm in exchange for action on legislation involving workers compensation.

In court Monday and in court filings, Calderon and his attorney, Shepard Kopp, had asked Snyder to spare him from any time behind bars. Heart problems and diabetes, they said, would be difficult to treat if Calderon was not under the care of his physicians.

Snyder agreed somewhat but said Calderon needed to spend some time in prison, largely to send a message to others that corruption by public officials would not be tolerated.

She decided on the split sentence, saying she expects Calderon to serve the first five months in a federal facility with adequate medical services and another five months at home with an electronic monitor locked to his ankle. Assuming Calderon does not have any discipline problems while in prison, hell receive credit for good behavior and his sentence will be cut to 10 months.

joel.rubin@latimes.com

For more news on federal courts in Southern California, follow me on Twitter: @joelrubin

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7:25 p.m.: This post was updated to include the Calderons party affiliation.

4:35 p.m.: This post was updated to include a quote from Tom Calderon.

4:22 p.m.: This post was updated to remove comments by Ron Calderons attorney, which were made at an earlier court hearing.

This article was originally published at 4:05 p.m.
For two decades, a small gray songbird has made the difference between development and conservation in some of the most coveted coastal land in California.

A federal decision last week to leave the coastal California gnatcatcher on the endangered species list brought praise from environmentalists but left Southern California developers primed for an ongoing fight.

The gnatcatcher has been a linchpin to conservation planning in San Diego, Riverside and Orange counties since it was listed as a threatened species in 1993. In 2014, the Pacific Legal Foundation petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to delist the bird, arguing that recent science casts doubt on its threatened status.

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The service rejected that petition last week, but debate over the gnatcatcher isnt over. Building groups say they may sue over the decision, while conservation groups worry the bird remains at risk from wildfires, climate change and development pressure.

Were still in the process of analyzing the services decision, said Robert Thornton, an attorney who represented the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California on the petition. The next step is possibly a lawsuit. The issue here is, did the service comply with the Endangered Species Act, which requires it to use the best science available.

The gnatcatcher is a blue-gray songbird that lives in coastal sage scrub from Santa Barbara to the Baja peninsula. Researchers say that urban sprawl has whittled away 90% of its habitat in California.

By the 1990s, the birds were feeling the pinch. At that time, a 20-year-old environmentalist named David Hogan with the Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition to list the gnatcatcher under the Endangered Species Act.

Back then, there were virtually zero measures in place anywhere in Southern California to protect the gnatcatcher or its critically endangered habitat, Hogan said.

The listing ushered in complex systems for protecting ecosystems, known as habitat conservation plans or natural community conservation plans. The plans aimed to streamline environmental permitting, while preserving habitat for multiple species. And the gnatcatcher was at the center of it.

The way the federal Endangered Species Act is structured is that it looks at things species by species, said Ileene Anderson, a senior scientist for the Center for Biological Diversity. But when you have an endangered habitat, one species can act as an umbrella species for a lot of other species that are imperiled. In the case of the gnatcatcher, this one species is a relatively wide-ranging bird that only lives in the coastal sage scrub habitat of California, which is also very desirable for development.

By protecting the gnatcatcher, regulators also safeguarded animals such as the coastal whiptail lizard, coastal horned lizard and coastal cactus wren, Anderson said

The gnatcatcher listing was absolutely critical not just to ensure the survival of that one species, but also to set the wheels turning on these regional habitat conservation plans, Hogan said.

Developers, however, saw the bird, and its ensuing regulations, as a roadblock to the regions construction boom.

In general, species listing and the critical habitat designation that goes along with that listing takes areas out of consideration for building and development, said Shanda Beltran, general counsel for the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California. That obviously would be a concern to the industry when developable area is reduced.

The Pacific Legal Foundation said in a news release that the gnatcatcher listing took hundreds of thousands of acres in Southern California off the table for construction.

In total, approximately 197,303 acres in San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Ventura counties have been designated as critical habitat for the coastal California gnatcatcher, the foundation, a Sacramento watchdog agency for property rights and limited government, stated. Federal officials estimate that the economic impact of these restrictions will total more $900 million by year 2025.

In 2014 the foundation petitioned to remove the gnatcatcher from the list, on behalf of the Property Owners Assn. of Riverside County; the Center for Environmental Science, Accuracy & Reliability; and the Coalition of Labor, Agriculture and Business, along with the California Building Industry Assn. and the National Assn. of Home Builders.

They argued that new research showed that the Southern California gnatcatcher is genetically indistinguishable from its Mexican counterparts, and shouldnt be protected as a separate species. The service, however, convened a panel of geneticists, ornithologists and statisticians, and determined that the original listing is still valid.

The Pacific Legal Foundation and its partners say theyre contemplating a lawsuit to challenge that decision. They hope to change the way the service reviews data and perhaps reset the bar for future endangered species listings.

Environmentalists say they would be happy if the gnatcatcher population recovered. But with the limited space it has left, theyre not counting on that soon.

Theres less than 10% of this original habitat left, Hogan said. And the gnatcatcher and many other species are threatened as a result of that habitat loss. How many pieces of the engine can you remove until the engine breaks down?

Sullivan Brennan writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

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For more than four decades, Stanley Sheinbaum regularly gathered moguls, presidents, celebrities and activists in his Brentwood living room to sip wine and debate the issues of the day. King Hussein and Queen Noor of Jordan, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Norman Lear, Barbra Streisand and Warren Beatty were among the many famous faces who participated in the vibrant salons Sheinbaum and his wife, Betty, held at their art-filled home on exclusive Rockingham Avenue.

But more than a high-powered host, Sheinbaum often was a change agent, whose fingerprints can be found on a remarkable array of notable events.

In the 1960s he engineered the release of Andreas Papandreou, the Greek leader who had been imprisoned by a military junta. In the 1970s he was the chief fundraiser for Daniel Ellsbergs defense in the Pentagon Papers trial. In the 1980s he led a delegation of American Jewish leaders who persuaded Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat to renounce terrorism and accept Israel as a state. And in the 1990s he headed the Los Angeles Police Commission after the beating of motorist Rodney King and helped drive controversial police Chief Daryl Gates from office.

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NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj 

Hes a pot boiler, Lear once said of his longtime friend and ally. Something is always brewing in Stanley.

Sheinbaum, who said helping to keep a liberal voice alive was the overarching goal of a lifetime of activism, died Monday at his home in Brentwood, according to his assistant Marti Maniates. He was 96.

He often took stands that invited outrage. When he was photographed shaking hands with Arafat, fellow Jews called him a traitor and a dead pig was thrown on his driveway. When he criticized the Los Angeles Police Department, he rankled Gates, who called him a pain in the ass.

He had courage, said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who met the peripatetic advocate in the 1970s before she held political office. I dont know anyone who is basically a volunteer activist who played the role Stanley has.

His fortune gave him the freedom to agitate and aggravate. A child of the Depression who trained as an economist at Stanford University, he gained his wealth through marriage to Betty Warner, the daughter of movie mogul Harry Warner, and doubled it through shrewd investment.

He belonged to the Malibu Mafia, a small group of socially conscious Westside moguls, including Lear and Max Palevsky, who channeled hundreds of thousands of dollars into progressive causes and candidates. George McGovern, John Anderson, Jesse Jackson and Bill Clinton were among the politicians who relied on Sheinbaums support.

Born in New York on June 12, 1920, Sheinbaum was the son of a leather-goods manufacturer whose company collapsed during the Depression. To earn money, young Stanley sold magazines, clerked in a department store and worked as a delivery boy. When his father was able to reopen his business, Sheinbaum learned to operate a sewing machine and became so skillful he could sew dresses.

He had courage. I dont know anyone who is basically a volunteer activist who played the role Stanley has.  Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles)

He had little interest in school and the poor grades to prove it. He put some of the blame on his hyper-critical mother. In fighting against the inevitable feeling that I was no good, I, of course, became no good, he wrote in his 2012 memoir, Stanley K. Sheinbaum: A 20th Century Knights Quest for Peace, Civil Liberties and Economic Justice.

After his fathers company failed a second time, Sheinbaum drifted until, at age 20, he joined the Army. He spent most of World War II making maps.

Following his discharge in 1946, he applied to 33 colleges but was rejected by all of them. He returned to high school at age 25, doing well enough to gain admission to Oklahoma A&M. He later transferred to Stanford and graduated summa cum laude in economics. He traveled to Paris on a Fulbright fellowship to study international monetary affairs.

In the late 1950s he was hired to teach economics at Michigan State University, which assigned him to a program providing technical assistance to South Vietnam. He became the coordinator in 1957, not knowing that the program was a front for the CIA.

When he finally learned the truth, after 18 months in the job, it radicalized him.

I realized then the real threat was not in Vietnam but right here at home, he told The Times many years later.

Sheinbaum resigned as coordinator in 1959 and in 1960 joined the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara as a research economist. He had remained quiet about the CIAs links to the Michigan State program until he was contacted by journalist Robert Scheer, who had discovered the connection on his own. Sheinbaum wound up collaborating with Scheer on an article published in Ramparts magazine in 1966 that exposed the program.

The CIA launched an investigation of Ramparts and a campaign to discredit it, which quickly evolved into a broader program of domestic political espionage, according to journalist Angus Mackenzie in his 1998 book Secrets: The CIAs War at Home. Mackenzie wrote that Sheinbaum was the first person to go public with his experience of CIA activity in the United States  a story about the Agencys infiltration of a legitimate civilian institution.

Sheinbaum became an outspoken critic of U.S. policies in Vietnam, appeared at antiwar teach-ins around the country and twice ran for Congress as a peace candidate.

After losing both Congressional races, he was tapped to organize support for Ellsberg, the Vietnam war critic arrested in 1971 for leaking the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times, and his co-defendant Anthony Russo. Sheinbaum raised nearly $1 million.

Most of the funds came in small contributions from thousands of individual donors, but Sheinbaum organized one big-ticket event that featured Streisand and raised $50,000. Had Stanley not put on that event and raised $50,000 the trial would have ended and I believe Nixon would have stayed in office for the rest of his term, Ellsberg said in Citizen Stan, a documentary directed by Patty Sharaf. And the war would have continued.

The case ultimately was dismissed over revelations that a break-in at Ellsbergs psychiatrists office was committed by Nixon White House operatives who later would be tied to the Watergate affair.

The Ellsberg work plunged Sheinbaum into Los Angeles political life. As chairman of the fundraising arm of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California from 1972 to 1982, Sheinbaum led efforts that increased the organizations budget from $60,000 to more than $700,000, enabling it to pursue the long-running Los Angeles school desegregation case and fight the LAPD on policies such as the use of chokeholds and battering rams.

Stanley would always think through what was morally right, what needed to be done. And he was never fazed by criticism or people who turned away from him.  Ramona Ripston, ACLUas retired longtime executive director

Stanley would always think through what was morally right, what needed to be done. And he was never fazed by criticism or people who turned away from him, said Ramona Ripston, the ACLUs retired longtime executive director.

When he stepped down from the ACLU post, he said part of the reason was to devote more time to his duties as a UC regent. Appointed in 1977 by Gov. Jerry Brown, he served for 12 years, during which he chaired a committee on the social effects of UC investments and advocated divestment of interests in South Africa because of apartheid.

In 1988, he was asked by officials from the Swedish foreign ministry to organize a group of American Jewish leaders to meet with the PLO and persuade them to adopt positions that would satisfy U.S. requirements for opening peace talks. That effort culminated in the breakthrough with Arafat in Stockholm on Dec. 6, 1988, and paved the way for a historic 1993 meeting at the White House between Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Akiva Eldar, former U.S. bureau chief of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, recalled that Sheinbaum was credited with helping lay the groundwork for the American Jewish peace movement.

He was one of the heroes of the Israeli peace camp, Eldar said Monday.

But, at the end of the Stockholm negotiations, Sheinbaum was photographed with his arm around Arafat, an unpardonable sin to many Jews. Sheinbaum said later that he felt no guilt over his role in the Stockholm summit. I feel very Jewish about going.... I think I did something that I would have done for any people if I had the opportunity. And in this particular instance, I did it for Israel.

It was not the first time he had a role in world affairs.

When Papandreou was imprisoned by a military junta in Greece in 1967, Papandreous then-wife, Margaret, recruited his friend and fellow economist to help free him. Sheinbaum, who had met the Greek-born economist from UC Berkeley years earlier, spent months in fruitless strategizing until he received a call to fly to Paris. There he met with several of the juntas chief witnesses against Papandreou. They told Sheinbaum their testimony had been coerced.

Sheinbaum persuaded them to come to the U.S. to tell their story to Ramparts. The resulting article took the ground out from under the juntas case, Sheinbaum said, and Papandreou was released.

In spring 1991, Sheinbaum sent word to Mayor Tom Bradley through an intermediary that he was interested in joining the Police Commission. Coincidentally, the message was relayed on the night that King was beaten during a traffic stop by Los Angeles police officers. Two weeks later, after the videotaped encounter caused a national furor, the mayor called to tell Sheinbaum he had the job.

From the outset, Sheinbaums civil liberties background set him at odds with Chief Gates, who was under fierce attack for his departments handling of the King incident. During the 1992 riots Sheinbaum walked the streets of South Los Angeles and helped defuse a tense situation at a park where protesters, including many gang members, had been ringed in by police.

Most people would say he had no business there, Waters said of Sheinbaum, who helped her escort the protesters through the police ring and out of the park. He was an unusual human being.

On the Police Commission, Sheinbaum became the overseer of its efforts to oust Gates and hire Willie L. Williams. He also helped spearhead commission efforts at reforming the department.

He was a vital member of the police commission at a terrible time in the life of Los Angeles when the LAPD was at its lowest ebb, former Los Angeles City Council member Joy Picus told The Times recently. Stanleys thoughtful and almost radical approach to things was helpful at a time like that.

Even Gates acknowledged that Sheinbaum had been effective.

Stanley Sheinbaum was supposed to be an irritant. He proved to be one  a pain in the ass, most of the time, Gates said in the film Citizen Stan.

When Sheinbaum was replaced on the Police Commission by Mayor Richard Riordan in 1993, he sounded a surprising pro-police note, saying he regretted the panel had failed to give the public a full appreciation of the challenges of policing

Im not better than anybody else, he once said, but I do have a commitment to a good society and time to work on that.

Special correspondent Josh Mitnick in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.

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12 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details.

This article was originally published at 6:10 a.m.
Its no secret that partisan state legislators, once in power, frequently try to alter voting laws to give their party an advantage.

But increasingly, when those laws are challenged in federal court, the outcome appears to turn on whether the judges or justices hearing the case were appointed by Republicans or Democrats.

Last month, North Carolinas Republican leaders were blocked from enforcing several new restrictions on voting that had been adopted over the fierce opposition of Democrats. They included less time for early voting and a requirement that a registered voter show one of several specific types of photo ID cards.

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A federal judge appointed by former President George W. Bush had upheld the full law in April, deciding the regulations were reasonable.

They were struck down in late July by a panel of three judges of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, all of them Democratic appointees, who said the new rules violate the federal Voting Rights Act because they target African Americans with almost surgical precision.

They noted the law would allow people to vote by showing a military or veterans ID, but not if they had photo IDs showing they worked for a city or a state agency, were enrolled in a state university or received public assistance. More whites than blacks rely on mail-in ballots, and these were exempted from the photo ID rule, the appeals court noted.

When the states Republican governor appealed to the Supreme Court, he lost when the justices split 4-4. The high courts four Republican appointees voted to restore the GOP-backed rules, while the four Democratic appointees refused.

Three years ago, the high court split 5-4 to weaken part of the Voting Rights Act that had prevented Southern states and counties from making changes in their voting rules without clearing them with the U.S. Justice Department. The courts five Republican appointees voted to strike down this part of the law, while the four Democratic appointees dissented.

Election-law experts and voting-rights advocates say they are dismayed to see the partisan divide over election rules reflected in the courts.

I wasnt surprised North Carolinas appeal was turned down. They had a very weak argument, but I am surprised it got four votes, said Daniel Tokaji, who teaches election law at the Ohio State University. I dont think the current Supreme Court can be relied upon to protect the right to vote, even when there is evidence of intentional discrimination like we saw in North Carolina.

I dont think the current Supreme Court can be relied upon to protect the right to vote, even when there is evidence of intentional discrimination.  Daniel Tokaji, election law professor at the Ohio State University

UC Irvine Law Professor Richard Hasen points out the partisan judicial divide is hardly a new phenomenon. In the Bush vs. Gore decision in 2000, the courts five most conservative justices, all Republican appointees, voted to halt the ballot recount in Florida, thereby preserving George W. Bushs narrow victory.

But prior to 2010, the court had two liberal-leaning Republican appointees in Justices John Paul Stevens and David Souter. And not all lower courts judges are predictable when confronting new election regulations.

But partisanship is still a pretty good predictor of how judges will vote in these voting wars cases, and it is not because the judges are consciously trying to help their political parties, Hasen said. It is that Democrats and Republicans tend to see these issues differently, with Democrats believing these laws present a greater danger of suppressing votes, and Republicans believing these laws are still necessary for anti-fraud purposes or to promote public confidence.

And sometimes, there are exceptions.

Michigans Republicans lost last week when they tried to end the states 125-year-long practice of allowing straight-ticket voting. With Donald Trump at the top of ticket, they worried many voters might check the box for a straight Democratic vote and thereby hurt GOP candidates running for local, state or federal offices.

A federal judge appointed by President Obama agreed with civil rights lawyers who said this change could cause confusion and longer lines at polling places, particularly in the Detroit area. He blocked the changes from taking effect, and a three-judge panel, all Democratic appointees, upheld his decision in August.

Michigans Republican attorney general asked to the Supreme Court to revive the law, but fell short. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., both Republican appointees, said they would grant the appeal. The other six justices said nothing, but the outcome suggests Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy agreed with liberals to reject the appeal.

In a pending case from Ohio, the court will consider whether the state may cut back on the number of days for early voting.

Ohio adopted early voting after an election-day debacle in 2004 in which some voters waited hours in line to cast a ballot. Since then, African Americans have been more likely than whites to vote in the period before election day.

Ohio wants to eliminate its first week of early voting, a time when voters can re-register and cast at a ballot at the same time. Republicans who sponsored the change say the state would still offer 23 days for early voting, among the most generous in the nation.

Democrats oppose the reductions, saying more than 80,000 voters cast ballots in 2012 during this first week of early voting. They noted, too, that each county offers early voting at only one polling place.

In May, U.S. District Judge Michael Watson, a Bush appointee, agreed with Democrats that the state did not have a good reason for reducing the days for early voting, and he blocked the change.

But in August, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, in 2-1 ruling, reversed his decision. Two Republican appointees said judges should not become entangled, as overseers and micro-managers, in the minutiae of the state election process. The dissenter, a Democrat, said minority voters in Ohios largest cities took advantage of the opportunity to re-register and vote during one trip to the county election office.

The Ohio Democrats appealed to the Supreme Court last week, urging the justices to restore the full period for early voting.

But it takes a majority of five justices to issue such an order, so the Democrats cannot win without support from at least one of the courts Republican appointees.

In the Ohio case, I expect that we wont see more than two votes in favor of the appeal, Hasen said, citing Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor. So that may show it is not a complete partisan divide.

A decision is expected this week.

On Twitter: DavidGSavage

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A retired Indianapolis fertility doctor said he used his own sperm about 50 times instead of donated sperm that his patients were expecting, impregnating several women decades ago, according to court documents.

Dr. Donald Cline, 77, pleaded not guilty Monday to two felony obstruction of justice charges for misleading authorities who were investigating complaints from two of the now-adult children against him.

Cline is accused of being the biological father of at least eight people, the youngest of which would be about 30. The accusations against him were first reported by WXIN-TV in May.

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The doctor from the Indianapolis suburb of Zionsville told six adults who believed they were his children that he had donated his sperm about 50 times starting in the 1970s, a probable cause affidavit said. He had told his patients that they were receiving sperm from medical or dental residents or medical students and that no single donors sperm was used more than three times.

One of the six took a saliva-based DNA test through a private personal genomics company and found that she was related to at least eight other people in its database, the affidavit said. Meanwhile, two others also investigated their ancestry through DNA tests and learned that their mothers were patients of Cline and that they were related to 70 relatives of Cline, it said.

Cline said he used his own sperm whenever he didnt have a donor sample available, the affidavit said he told them. But when the state began investigating complaints, Cline denied having done so.

I can emphatically say that at no time did I ever use my own sample for insemination, he said in a letter to the Indiana attorney generals office. Cline retired from his practice at Reproductive Endocrinology Associates in Indianapolis in 2009.

Clines attorney, Tracy Betz, released a statement saying he is not accused of hiding documents, influencing witnesses or otherwise not cooperating with the attorney generals investigation.

Cline was released on his own recognizance.

The most notorious fertility doctor to secretly use his own sperm was Cecil Jacobson, who may have fathered as many as 70 children from 1976 to 1998 in Vienna, Va. And in 2009, Dr. Ben. D. Ramaley of Greenwich, Conn., quickly settled a 2005 lawsuit for using his own sperm.

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Clinton cancels California trip in aftermath of illness

(Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

Hillary Clinton canceled her trip to California planned for Monday and Tuesday after she revealed she had pneumonia and had appeared unsteady on her feet Sunday.

Secretary Clinton will not be traveling to California tomorrow or Tuesday, spokesman Nick Merrill said Sunday evening.

Clinton had been scheduled to spend two days in the state for fundraisers and the taping of an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

The announcement came on the heels of a frantic day when the Democratic presidential nominee abruptly left a Sept. 11 remembrance ceremony in New York because she felt overheated. A bystanders video showed Clinton struggling to stand and needing help climbing into a van.

Clintons personal physician examined her at her home and announced that she was recovering but had been diagnosed with pneumonia two days prior during an evaluation for a prolonged cough.

Clintons health has been the subject of both questions and conspiracy theories at least since she fell at her home in late 2012 and suffered a concussion. Speculation has ramped up in recent weeks after Trump began discussing it at rallies.
Clinton ignored doctors advice to rest for five days after pneumonia diagnosis

(Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

Hillary Clinton said Monday that she ignored her doctors advice to rest for five days after she was diagnosed with pneumonia.

Im feeling so much better. Obviously I should have gotten some rest sooner, Clinton told CNNs Anderson Cooper in a phone interview from her home in Chappaqua, N.Y. Like a lot of people, I thought I could keep going forward and power through it, and obviously that didnt work out so well.

Clinton said she would return to the campaign trail in the next couple days.

Clinton made the remarks a day after she abruptly left a Sept. 11 ceremony because she felt overheated. Video emerged of Clinton struggling to stand and needing assistance to get in her van, leading to speculation that the Democratic presidential nominee had fainted.

Clinton said she did not lose consciousness.

I felt dizzy and I did lose my balance for a minute, but once I got in [the van], once I could sit down, once I could cool off, once I had some water, I immediately started feeling better, she said.

Clinton acknowledged previously feeling unwell because of dehydration.

It is something that has occurred a few times over the course of my life, and Im aware of it and usually can avoid it, she said.

She added that she ignored her doctors advice and attended the memorial because she was representing New York as a senator when the terrorists attacked. It was incredibly personal for me.

Clintons campaign has come under criticism for not releasing the pneumonia diagnosis Friday, the day it was made, and for not telling the press traveling with her what happened for about 90 minutes after she left the ceremony.

Clinton pushed back at the notion that she had not been transparent, noting that she had released 40 years of tax returns, tens of thousands of emails, and a medical note from her physician that contained the same information as previous nominees of both parties.

She argued that Republican rival Donald Trump, who has not released his tax returns and very little medical information, needs to provide more details about his background.

People know more about me than almost anyone in public life, she said.  Compare everything you know about me with my opponent. I think its time he met the same level of disclosure that I have for years.

Trump and Clinton plan to release additional medical information this week.
The completion of Metros Expo and Gold lines has made it easier than ever to travel from Azusa to Santa Monica without getting into a car. But while riding these new rail lines may beat sitting in traffic, the final leg of your journey can still be daunting  especially if youre on foot.

Los Angeles has some of the most dangerous streets in the United States. Almost 200 people a year are killed in traffic crashes here. Our annual collision death rate is higher than Chicagos, Seattles, or San Diegos, and it almost doubles that of New York City and San Francisco. The victims of traffic crashes are disproportionately people walking or biking. Only 18% of all trips in Los Angeles are made on foot, but pedestrians account for 33% of those killed or severely injured in transit here. These victims are often the most vulnerable people in our city: students walking to school and the elderly account for 30% of all people killed or severely injured in pedestrian or bicycle-related accidents. Traffic collisions are the leading cause of death for children ages 2 to 14.

If were ever to truly improve safety and mobility in Los Angeles, we need to make the city more walkable. This starts with the way we make decisions about the design of our streets  and making sure that those affected have a say in this process.

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The symbol of our unsafe streets is a lack of painted crosswalks and other pedestrian safety infrastructure, such as flashing pedestrian-activated signals. Long stretches of road with nonexistent or poorly marked crosswalks, especially when paired with our wide boulevards, encourage driver speeding and force walkers to choose between risking their lives at an unmarked, or unprotected crossing, or going as much as a quarter of a mile out of their way to find a safe crosswalk.

You might think simply requesting that the city install more marked crosswalks at trouble spots would make for an easy fix.

Unfortunately, the process of getting a well-marked crosswalk added to your neighborhood streets is almost as frustrating as trying to walk safely in L.A. Online city improvement tools such as MyLA 311 and MyLADOT can be used to make requests. MyLA 311, the better known of the two and the one with a mobile app, contains no category for crosswalks. Suggestions and requests made via MyLA 311 often fail to port to MyLADOT, which does have a Pedestrian category. Whicever mechanism you use, youre likely to never get an answer, and there may well be no official record that you even tried.

The citys crosswalk decisions appear to err on the side of not marking crosswalks at all. New crosswalks require warrants  a checklist of conditions engineers use to determine a sites feasibility  and the bar for feasibility is set high. As a result, marked crosswalks and other pedestrian infrastructure improvements tend to be viewed as emergency measures, put in place only after a death or debilitating injury in a particular locale.

Still, pedestrian safety in L.A. is making some headway. The recently launched Vision Zero campaign is a multiagency initiative led by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, with the goal of reducing traffic deaths to zero by 2025. Its preliminary research has already determined that roughly half the people who are killed or seriously injured while walking are struck where there is insufficient crossing infrastructure on a pedestrian path of travel. The LADOT is beginning to reform the checklist for marking crosswalks.

These changes are welcome. But there is still far more work to be done.

Los Angeles Pedestrian Advisory Committee suggests that a new system be created that empowers neighborhood councils, business improvement districts and coalitions of businesses and residents to formally request a marked crosswalk. This process should be transparent from beginning to end: A copy of the warrant sheet for every LADOT crosswalk decision should be sent to the petitioners and their council office. If the site is deemed appropriate for a marked crosswalk, it should be entered into a public database until construction funds become available. If the site is rejected, the public should know why.

Though its masked by our dangerous and traffic-clogged streets, another L.A. is possible  one where it is easy, pleasant, and safe to travel on foot. To uncover it, we have to change the way we make decisions. Los Angeles can no longer afford to prioritize the movement of vehicles at the expense of safety, with all the attendant tragic consequences.

Max Podemski is the planning director at Pacoima Beautiful. Mehmet Berker is a cartographer and geographic information system specialist. They are both members of the Los Angeles Pedestrian Advisory Committee.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook
In each presidential race, including the one were still slogging through, candidates tout their professional background as offering the best preparation for the job. Is leading a business like leading a country? Should one have foreign policy or military experience? At least a modicum of public service seems like a requirement.

But what if a lengthy career in public office, including elected and appointed posts, has little or nothing to do with a presidents job performance? What if its even a detriment? Having just steeped myself in the life of James Buchanan, I am quite skeptical that a long ride in government jobs automatically prepares anyone to lead an unwieldy nation like ours.

Buchanan was, easily, the most governmentally experienced presidential candidate in the first 80 years of the republic.

Buchanan was, easily, the most governmentally experienced presidential candidate in the first 80 years of the republic  and perhaps even through the present day. He was a state legislator in Pennsylvania, a member of the U.S. House, a U.S. senator, minister to Russia, minister to Great Britain and secretary of State. He also is said to have refused Supreme Court nominations from Presidents Tyler and Polk before becoming president in 1857, a few days before his 66th birthday.

Buchanan knew personally every president from James Madison through his predecessor Franklin Pierce, and for decades met anyone of importance who came through Washington. In the often wastrel city, he was known for hosting the best parties and he impressed even Queen Victoria and Czar Nicholas I with his fete-making.

Yet as president, Buchanan chose the wrong path at every fork in the road. Two days before he was inaugurated, he got Congress to pass the Tariff Act of 1857, which subdued manufacturing just as it was modernizing in the North. The day after his inauguration, the Supreme Court issued a ruling he had influenced behind the scenes: Dred Scott v. Sandford. The decision, which declared all descendants of slaves noncitizens and sharply curtailed the federal governments right to regulate slavery, is generally acknowledged as one of the worst rulings ever. Buchanan, however, thought it would solve the slavery problem, not launch the nation toward the Civil War.

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The uncertainty about slavery caused people to pull back on plans to settle out West in the new territories, stopping a two-decade economic boom almost immediately. Railroads and other businesses linked to the countrys expansion began to fail. Every bank in New York effectively closed, refusing to issue scrip for anything but solid gold or silver.

Buchanans response? He would do nothing. People deserved what they got if they were in debt or held speculative stock, he said. Eventually the Panic of 1857 would be solved, but it took the buildup to Civil War to do so.

Slave or Free Kansas? Buchanan wouldnt take a side, leading to the murders and battles of Bleeding Kansas. John Browns raid on Harpers Ferry? Buchanan balked at sending troops until Robert E. Lee stepped in to convince him Browns desire to spark a slave rebellion was indeed a danger to the union. Support Stephen Douglas, the Democrats proposed nominee to succeed him? No, he would stand neutral, thus allowing the Democratic Party to split three ways, assuring the Republican Abraham Lincoln the election. Six Southern states seceded between election day and Lincolns inauguration, but Buchanan said the Constitution didnt give him, as president, the power to do anything to keep them in the union.

Buchanans long government service may well have been the main contributor to his remarkably bad presidency. He was deliberative, plodding and compromising, perhaps not such bad traits for a senator or diplomat, but hardly the best behaviors for a president in a crisis.

Three men always top historians list as the best presidents: George Washington, Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. None were previously exemplars of political success. None served in the Cabinet, as senator, ambassador or judge. Washington, of course, had no opportunity for such office pre-Revolution  but both Lincoln and FDR lost bids for the Senate and Roosevelt ran for vice president and lost.

Like Buchanan, those at the bottom of presidential success lists had long elective careers: Richard Nixon was a congressman, senator and vice president. Franklin Pierce was speaker of the New Hampshire House as well as a U.S. congressman and senator. George H.W. Bush had deep elective and executive branch experience. None, certainly, distinguished himself in the White House.

No career ladder, then, ensures a president will perform well once in office. In Buchanans case, four decades in vital governmental posts still left him in the presidential rankings cellar. The presidency is a singular job whose best practitioners apparently are just singularly adept people.

Robert Strauss is the author of the book Worst. President. Ever. about James Buchanan.
Its no secret that I believe Hillary Clinton is the best choice for president. Throughout the months Ive been writing about the election, Ive been consistently attacked for being in Clintons pocket on my personal email account, on Facebook, on Twitter, even in Instagram messages. But theres a difference between being in her pocket  in which case Id approve of everything from the way she handled the State Department email controversy to her full campaign platform (I dont)  and believing she is our only serious option.

Look: Donald Trump has made a persuasive case during this campaign that hes a racist  he has myriad other failings that I could point to, but in a better world that one trait would be enough to disqualify him from our countrys highest office. Jill Stein is incapable of outlining how her policy positions might be implemented, and Gary Johnson is unable to compellingly apply libertarian principles to the interconnected world in which we live. Long shots, Johnson and Stein are interesting and animating people, but if interesting and animating were enough to qualify a person to be leader of the free world, Id put forward a number of others.

If you want to talk about the world in which we actually live rather than a world in which you may wish we lived, your choices for president this November are Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

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So when I read that Clinton had fainted this morning, my heart sank. The lead shed taken over Trump has been evaporating in national polls, although she has maintained her edge in several key battleground states. Her controversial statement that roughly half of Trumps supporters fell into a basket of deplorables, the term she used to refer to the ones who were racist, sexist, homophobic or xenophobic, brought her margin down to about 2%. (Though Im not quite sure I understand why; as many have pointed out, those who dont perceive themselves as harboring deplorable beliefs should have nothing to be offended by.) The margin between Clinton and Trump is so close now that any slip on her part, of the tongue or of the body, could result in the election of a Putin-loving, immigrant-stigmatizing, flip-flopping, shallow and painfully unqualified former reality-television host slash ersatz self-made emperor as the United States 45th president.

Worse, Clintons shaky early departure from a Sept. 11 commemoration ceremony in New York reinforced ugly speculation by Trumps team that she is suffering from some kind of debilitating illness, possibly linked to the concussion she suffered late in her tenure as secretary of State. The clean bill of health shed received from her physician this year did nothing to quiet those rumors.

Clinton didnt faint at Sunday mornings event, exactly; the video I saw showed her wobbling into her van, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot. By any measure, she did not look well. Having experienced fainting spells for the last year that have turned out to be neither meaningful, preventable nor attributable to any particular cause, Ive learned how confusing such spells can be. You might drink more water, doctors have yawned in my direction. Still, Im not running for president.

This afternoon, Clintons physician, Dr. Lisa Bardack, released the following statement: Secretary Clinton has been experiencing a cough related to allergies. On Friday, during follow-up evaluation of her prolonged cough, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. She was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule. While at this mornings event, she became overheated and dehydrated. I have just examined her and she is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely.

Remember when Trumps physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, wrote: If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual elected to the presidency? Democrats scoffed at Bornsteins hyperbolic language, and continued their persistent questioning of Trumps mental health. Bardacks pneumonia diagnosis is just as unlikely to quiet Republicans.

For those who believe, as I do, that Trumps candidacy is an insult to the safety and intelligence of our countrys electorate, Clintons poor health is cause for concern only to the extent that it has the potential to improve her opponents chances. Granted, neither the 68-year-old Clinton nor the 70-year-old Trump is a spring chicken. But consider who might take over for them if they suffered an incapacitating medical emergency: Clintons running mate, Tim Kaine, may be a snooze, but hes far more qualified to lead than Trump or the Republican nominee for veep, Mike Pence. Pence is a wolf in sheeps clothing, an aw-shucks-dad type who has been a consistent opponent of reproductive rights and equality under the law for LGBT Americans. Pence once described himself as Rush Limbaugh on decaf. Hes the kind of evangelical who apparently thinks, Ill throw in with a twice-divorced former abortion rights advocate who vilifies a good chunk of Gods people. He could really get me somewhere. Like Trump, he represents a platform that is deeply hateful.

For those of us who believe the integrity of our countrys future is predicated on a Clinton presidency, any wobble is cause for concern.

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The bromance between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin is the key to understanding the kind of leader Trump wants to be for America.

Throughout his run for the presidency, Trump has had nice things to say about the Russian strongman, precisely because he views Putin as a strong man  not only tough, commanding and ruthless, but a guy with very high popularity numbers.

Putin has characterized Trump as brilliant (using a Russian word, by the way, that really means flashy or flamboyant, not super smart). Trump took that as an accolade and said, Its always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his country and beyond.

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During an NBC candidates forum last week, host Matt Lauer questioned Trump about his open admiration for Putin. In response, Trump said, Well, he does have an 82% approval rating

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Lauer noted that Putins regime has annexed Crimea, invaded Ukraine, supported the brutal dictator Bashar Assad in Syria and engaged in other kinds of troublemaking around the world. Lauer could have added that Putin has crushed dissent in his own country by jailing opponents, silencing and sometimes killing journalists, stifling honest pollsters and creating a vast propaganda machine that has pumped up his image as a strong leader. None of that seems to faze Trump.

If he says great things about me, Im going to say great things about him, Trump told Lauer. Ive already said, he is really very much of a leader. I mean, you can say, Oh, isnt that a terrible thing  the man has very strong control over a country. Now, its a very different system, and I dont happen to like the system. But certainly, in that system, hes been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader.

Obviously, Trump praises Putin, in part, to demean President Obama and, by extension, Hillary Clinton. Pressed on his kind remarks about an autocrat who has done so many deplorable things, Trump said, But do you want me to start naming some of the things that President Obama does at the same time?

Well, let us consider a few of the things Obama has done. Obama oversaw the successful pursuit and elimination of Osama bin Laden. He rescued the country from a looming economic disaster in his first months in office, and, though growth has been slow, put the economy on a positive course. He signed into law a healthcare scheme that has made medical care available to millions of people who did not have it before. He brokered an agreement with Iran that has put that countrys nuclear program on hold with strict monitoring. And he helped get most of the countries in the world to join together on a bold plan to limit the effects of climate change.

Now, conservatives have harsh critiques of almost all those achievements, but Putins record does not compare favorably. While busy threatening his neighbors, brainwashing his own people and running a kleptocracy, Putin has let the Russian economy sink like a rock. What Trump loves about Putin cannot be his actual accomplishments, rather it is his tough guy image, it is his popularity with crowds of revved up nationalists, it is his bullying and sensitivity to the least slight. In other words, Trump admires Putin for all the qualities Trump values most highly himself.

President George W. Bush once claimed to have looked into Putins eyes and seen his soul. Trump looks at Putin and sees himself.

David.Horsey@latimes.com

Follow me at @davidhorsey on Twitter
Hillary Clinton holds a lopsided lead over Donald Trump in decidedly Democratic California, but weaknesses here with younger voters suggest problems that could thwart her campaign in more contested states, a new poll has found.

Trump once vowed to win California and other heavily Democratic states, but he hasnt said that recently, and the poll shows why: Clinton led Trump by 25 points, 58% to 33%, when the two candidates were matched head to head in the latest USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll of registered voters.

When the choices were expanded to include Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein, Clinton lost more support than Trump, and the gap between the two narrowed to 20 points. Johnson picked up 11% and Stein 6%.

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Even at 49% to 29%, that is still a substantial Clinton lead over Trump  just below the historic margins achieved by President Obama in his California victories in 2008 and 2012. But it nonetheless demonstrated limits to Clintons hold on some voters, particularly young ones who formed a key part of Obamas success.

In a state that is more closely contested than California, the Johnson and Stein candidacies have a potential to cause a problem for Clinton, said poll director Dan Schnur, who heads USCs Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics. Out here, its probably not going to make a difference.

Trump appears to have no shot at moving California and its 55 electoral votes into contested territory. Indeed, he creates a significant drag on Republicans down the ballot here.

In every part of the state, voters said they would be less inclined to side with a congressional candidate who had endorsed Trump; statewide, 40% said they would be less likely to vote for such a candidate, and 15% said they would be more likely.

That could represent a problem for some GOP congressional candidates in the state, particularly given the likelihood of a tepid Republican turnout. Not only is the presidential race not close here, the two candidates for Senate on the November ballot are both Democrats, reducing the draw for Republican voters.

A candidates endorsement of Clinton was a wash, the poll found, with about equal numbers of voters saying they would be more or less likely to vote for a candidate who had backed her.

The poll was conducted Sept. 1 to 8 online by SurveyMonkey for the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and The Times. It is the third statewide SurveyMonkey poll that USC and The Times have commissioned as the organizations continue to experiment with methods for measuring public opinion.

The poll questioned 4,212 people who said they were registered to vote in California. The error estimate was 2 points in either direction for all respondents, larger for subgroups.

How the poll was conducted 

The poll showed Clinton winning in almost every area of the state, even those typically taken by Republicans.

And she also was winning a group among whom she has trailed nationally and in 2016s most competitive states: those without a college education. That is because in California many of those voters are nonwhite, a chunk of the electorate on which Clinton maintains a fierce grasp.

In the two way matchup against Trump, Clinton was winning almost 8 in 10 African American voters, about three-quarters of Latino voters and 69% of Asian voters. Among white voters, she did not quite achieve a majority, but at 49% to 43% maintained a 6-point edge.

It was the views of young voters, many of whom sided with Clintons opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders, in the states June primary, that were most striking and an indicator of potential trouble for the Democrat elsewhere.

Among those ages 18 to 24, Clinton won 71% against Trump in the two-way matchup, but only 45% when all four candidates were listed. Among those ages 25 to 34, Clintons support dropped from 67% to 54%.

Trumps support change relatively little: He won 24% of the youngest voters against Clinton in the two-way contest and lost only 5 points when the other candidates were included. Among those ages 25-34, he went from 22% to 14%.

Trump came in third among voters younger than 25, behind Johnson with 21% although the gap is well within the polls margin of error for the relatively small subgroup of young voters. Stein was at 12%. Among those ages 25 to 34, Trump was again in third, while Johnson received 17% of the vote and Stein 10%.

The results suggest that among younger voters, Clinton is acceptable when she is the only alternative to Trump; when there are other options, some voters are not as keen on her.

Results could differ in battleground states where young voters are being more eagerly courted by the Clinton campaign. Some former Sanders backers in California have said they feel free to vote for one of the alternative candidates, secure in the belief that Trump wont win the state regardless of their votes.

It is also unclear whether backing for Johnson and Stein will hold until election day, because support for minor-party candidates typically ebbs as November nears. In this case, however, both Clinton and Trump conjure strongly negative impressions among many voters that may make alternatives more palatable.

Voters younger than 35  who make up nearly 1 in 3 casting ballots  were also far less likely to say they were drawn to vote by the presidential election, compared with other age groups.

Among all voters, 56% said the presidential race was the biggest draw in November. But among those younger than 25, only 41% said they were most enthusiastic about voting in the presidential election. Among those ages 25 to 34, only 36% cited the presidential contest.

Both sets of younger voters were far more likely than older Californians to cite as a prime November interest the measure that would legalize personal use of marijuana.

Younger voters have been a persistent thorn in Clintons side. They are strongly Democratic in their voting patterns and disagree with Trumps views on social, economic and military issues.

But they also have been among those most critical of Clinton when it comes to honesty and ethics, and many have criticized her policy positions as insufficiently liberal.

The fact that support for her dropped significantly when Johnson and Stein were added as options does not bode well for the odds they will turn out in strong numbers for Clinton, said Jon Cohen, chief research officer for SurveyMonkey.

For more on politics 

Despite that concern, Clintons overall standing in California remains secure.

In the head-to-head matchup, she enjoyed a 35-point margin over Trump among female voters and was 13 points ahead of the Republican among men, a group that often sides with him elsewhere. Among voters ages 65 and older  another group aligned with Trump in national and swing state polls  Clinton was 2 points ahead.

In the states Democratic centers, the Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles, she was leading by 48 and 41 points respectively.

But even in places normally sympathetic to Republican candidates, Clinton was ahead: by 10 points in the Central Valley and 7 points in the Orange County and San Diego area.

The only geographic area in which she trailed was the Inland Empire. There, where the 2008 economic collapse hit hard and where the share of white voters without college educations is higher than in coastal regions, Trump was leading by 8 points.

The difference between California and other states involves both its more liberal ideology and its demographics. Trump is suffering from the same factors that have made the state impossible for Republican nominees to overcome since George H.W. Bush eked out a narrow victory in 1988 when the state was more racially homogenous.

Trumps success this year has been greatest in areas where white voters are dominant, but in California 44% of voters now are nonwhite.

Trump maintained his advantage in California among whites without college degrees, leading Clinton by 13 points. Clinton led him by 29 points among college-educated whites.

Whether they hold college degrees or not, about 8 in 10 African American voters sided with Clinton. The same was true among Latino voters, at least 7 in 10 of whom sided with her no matter the education level. Those numbers did not shift markedly when the two minor-party candidates were added to the race.

The influence of nonwhite voters here also explains much of the trouble facing the down-ballot candidates who endorsed Trump.

The greatest resistance to Trumps candidacy comes from minority voters, Schnur said. There are a lot more minority voters in California than in most states, so its not surprising his numbers here are so much worse.

cathleen.decker@latimes.com

Twitter: @cathleendecker

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Of all the rules of politics that Donald Trump has broken in his run for the White House, his way with words may top the list.

Perhaps not since Sarah Palin gave Americans her tossed-word salads has a candidates speech pattern been so debated, celebrated and mocked.

But Trump is more than just a free-style rambler. Experts say he employs a very deliberate, effective communications approach unlike any other presidential candidate in memory.

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The Trumpisms  Believe me, People say, Sad!  have become so well known they are the subject of spoofs. But like a savvy salesman or break-through advertising campaign, Trumps techniques carry a quiet power.

Heres a breakdown of Trump-speak.

Donald Trump talks with reporters on his campaign plane. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press )

The art of the insult

Little Marco. Lyin Ted. Crooked Hillary. Even in the rough-and-tumble world of presidential politics, Trump has taken the art of the insult to a new level.

Trumps name-calling may sound like simple bullying. But labeling his opponents with cutting nicknames also creates simple frames  catch phrases  that stick in voters minds, often because they reinforce existing perceptions.

George Lakoff, a linguistics professor at UC Berkeley who has written extensively about political speech, says studies show that 98% of thought is unconscious. Creating those nicknames is a way to make the broader message resonate with voters long after the rallies have ended  like a good advertising jingle.

Even if he loses the election, Trump will have changed the brains of millions of Americans, with future consequences, Lakoff writes on his blog.

As a businessman, Trump learned that speaking in an irreverent, shock-jock manner often won him free media attention. Now some Trump supporters are cheering that same willingness to give voice to politically incorrect opinions that they may secretly share, but would never say out loud.

Among the most controversial examples were his description of Mexican immigrants as rapists and his pondering of whether the Muslim mother of a U.S. Army captain killed in Iraq wasnt allowed to speak alongside her husband at the Democratic convention.

He has this great talent for, any time theres a lull, he goes and grabs up all the attention again, said Barton Swaim, author of The Speechwriter: A Brief Education in Politics. Im out of the business of predicting how he wont go to the next level.

Trump unveils his 10-point plan to crack down on illegal immigration during a campaign event in Phoenix. (David Cruz / AFP/Getty Images )

Say it. Repeat it. Say it again.

Its a crescendo of almost every Trump rally, the call-and-response moment when Trump promises to build a great wall along the Southern border. Whos going to pay for it? he asks. Mexico! the crowd answers.

Of course the Mexican president has said unequivocally that his country will not be paying for Trumps wall. But that hardly matters. In Trumps world, repeating something makes it seem true, even when its demonstrably not.

For example, Trump continues to insist that he warned against entering the 2003 Iraq War, despite a 2002 audio clip of him voicing support. He has repeatedly claimed to have watched TV footage of Muslims in New Jersey cheering on 9/11, despite no evidence of such an event.

He often repeats false claims that inner-city crime is at record highs or that neighbors of the San Bernardino terrorists saw bomb-making materials in their apartment but did not report it.

The more a word is heard, the more the circuit is activated and the stronger it gets, and so the easier it is to fire again, Lakoff writes. Trump repeats. Win. Win. Win. Were gonna win so much youll get tired of winning.

I know more about ISIS than the generals do. Believe me, Trump has said. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press )

Believe me

With this two-word imperative, Trump draws voters in, hoping to inspire confidence, create intimacy and form a bond of trust with voters. Its a connection that has often eluded Hillary Clinton, with her multi-point solutions to the nations problems.

He often uses it to reassure his audience that he has the answers to the nations problems or to allay doubts about his abilities.

I know more about ISIS than the generals do. Believe me.

We are going to get rid of the criminals, he says about his immigration plan, and its going to happen within one hour after I take office. Believe me.

Experts say it plays to listeners desire for a strong leader with easy solutions. Trump becomes like someone who is huddling close to tell a secret, or like a salesman giving you the inside scoop on a deal.

But Jennifer M. Sclafani, associate teaching professor in linguistics at Georgetown University and author of the forthcoming book Talking Donald Trump: A Sociolinguistic Study of Style, Metadiscourse, and Political Identity, said what people interpret from this particular command is ambiguous.

That makes believe me a double-edged sword for Trump, she said. For Trumps supporters, it reinforces what they already believe about Trump. But skeptics are likely to interpret this phrase as coming from an untrustworthy candidate who needs to command his audience to believe him, because he is naturally unbelievable.

The people say construct allows Trump, shown in August, to float an idea without taking full ownership or blame. (Loren Elliott / Associated Press )

People say

One of Trumps signature constructs comes when hes about to say something controversial  even conspiratorial  but wants to lean on others to do it.

Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the U.S. because of Hillary Clintons hacked emails, Trump tweeted last month, though such a conspiracy theory was easily debunked.

After the Orlando nightclub shooting, Trump implied President Obama did not want to stop terrorists, but tried to take cover by putting the offensive remark in the mouths of others. There are a lot of people that think maybe he doesnt want to get it, Trump said on the Today show. A lot of people think maybe he doesnt want to know about it.

The people say construct allows him to float an idea without taking full ownership or blame.

What hes doing is making use of principles that people use all day every day  to get across ideas that are not true, Lakoff said.

Trump dismissed criticism that he linked rival Sen. Ted Cruzs father to President Kennedys assassination, insisting he was only pointing to a National Enquirer story about the elder Cruz allegedly meeting with Lee Harvey Oswald.

This Trump style, too, has found a home on social media. One band in Texas tweeted recently: Many people are saying our next album will heal the sick and end all war. Its just what many people are saying.

Never having to say youre sorry

Trump rarely issues a public apology, no matter how wrong he is proven to be or how strong the public pressure.

He insisted he did not regret anything about his attacks on the Gold Star Khan family. He refused to back down from his claims that an American-born judge overseeing the Trump University fraud lawsuit could not be fair due to his Mexican heritage.

He wont apologize for leading the so-called birther movement questioning Obamas citizenship, even though advisors say it might help him win over African American voters.

I like not to regret anything, he told radio host Don Imus earlier this year when asked if he regretted questioning whether Sen. John McCain of Arizona, captured during the Vietnam War, should be considered a war hero.

His one and only public expression of regret came last month, but even that was vague and included the verbal architecture of an Im-sorry-if-you-were-offended apology.

Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you dont choose the right words or you say the wrong thing, Trump told a crowd in North Carolina. I have done that, and I regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain.

Donald Trump speaks to the American Legion National Convention in Cincinnati. (Evan Vucci/Associated Press )

Keep it simple

One of Trumps biggest strengths with voters has been his ability to speak plainly and to simplify  some would say oversimplify  complex issues.

Build the wall to stop illegal immigration. Bring back coal and steel-manufacturing jobs. Defeat the terrorists so fast your head will spin. He convinces supporters that simple solutions would work and intractable problems linger only because of the stupidity of U.S. leaders.

In contrast, Clinton is often criticized for sounding too scripted, too poll-tested, too detail-oriented. Obama, too, seemed sometimes paralyzed by the complexity of challenges.

His tweeting is a prime example, mastering the ability to boil down talking points and policy views to 140 characters or less.

Lakoff says that Trumps simple solutions appeal to those who see direct cause-effect of problems, but not those who view the world in more complex terms.

Clinton is very careful about what she says. But when she does that, that means shes not engaging in normal everyday conversation, Lakoff said. Hes using all of these mechanisms: Its what you hear, not what you say. He has just taken it to the extremes and run with it.

Say it bigly

Trumps plans are tremendous. His victories HUUUGE. Exaggeration and hyperbole are hallmarks of Trumps communication style.

His financial disclosure statement used all capital letters to boast his wealth: TEN BILLION DOLLARS. Though he is the first presidential candidate in decades to refuse to release his tax returns, he insisted recently that he has released the most extensive financial review of anybody in the history of politics.

The Clinton Foundation is not merely a scandal, according to Trump, its the most corrupt enterprise in political history.

And then theres bigly.

Were going to win bigly, Trump said in a victory address in Indiana after becoming the presumptive nominee.

Much has been said and written about bigly  if its a word and if its what Trump is saying. Dictionaries say bigly exists in one of those old-timey ways that hasnt been in fashion for 100 years or so.

But Trumps spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, told Slate magazine its not bigly at all. Trump, she said, is saying, big league.

Like much of Trumps speech, it seems open for interpretation.

lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

Twitter: @LisaMascaro

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It would be hard to find a more potent example of the Latino success story than Helen Aguirre Ferre.

Her family, of Nicaraguan descent on her fathers side, started Miamis earliest Spanish-language newspaper in the 1950s, easing the cultural transition for the waves of exiles who fled Cuba after Fidel Castro took control. Her Puerto Rico-born father-in-law served as the citys first Latino mayor in the 1970s and 1980s, marking Miami as a multicultural capital.

Aguirre Ferre then carved her own path as a columnist, television host and radio personality in two languages. As the chairwoman of the nations largest community college, Miami Dade, she provided comfort, vigorous political support and financial aid for immigrants in the country illegally who were seeking a slice of American prosperity.

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So it was more than a big leap, and nothing less than a shock to many who know her, when Aguirre Ferre cast aside her sharp criticism of Donald Trump to become his chief marketer to the nations Latino voters.

It may be one of the toughest jobs in politics. Aguirre Ferre, director of Hispanic Communications for the Republican National Committee, has to appear on television defending a man she once compared to a street dog and explaining him to deeply skeptical Latino voters.

The RNC is lucky to have someone of her competence, but they couldnt pay me enough, said Rudy Fernandez, a former RNC and George W. Bush official. Fernandez helped Bush make inroads with Latinos in his 2004 reelection and worked closely with Aguirre Ferre to build public support in 2013 for an immigration overhaul that Trump has condemned as amnesty.

Her predecessor at the RNC left in June, reportedly because of her discomfort about working to elect Trump. Other high-profile Latino Republicans, including members of Miamis congressional delegation, its mayor and activists on the nominees own Latino advisory council, have renounced Trump, who has support from only about one in five Latinos nationwide.

In the three months since Aguirre Ferre took the job, she has been grilled on CNN for defending a man whos been kicking us like puppies, been confronted by people who once called her an advocate, and subjected to a campaign seeking to oust her from her unpaid post at Miami Dade College.

Aguirre Ferre -- 58 and well-liked on both sides of the aisle -- didnt seem to need the headache at this stage of her career.

Thats a mistake that I would have expected a 25-year-old to make, said Jose Dante Parra, a Democratic strategist who headed Latino outreach for Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and has frequently debated Aguirre Ferre on her radio show.

I wanted to have a voice. I wanted to be able to work for something that I truly believe in.  Helen Aguirre Ferre

I cant for the life of me figure what her end game is. And she cant be effective when she goes on Hispanic media, he added, she has to spend half the time defending her past very strong criticism of Donald Trump.

I wanted to have a voice, Aguirre Ferre said, a few minutes into a recent interview. I wanted to be able to work for something that I truly believe in.

Asked what, exactly, that was, Aguirre Ferre did not initially mention Trump, instead falling back on the Republican Party and the need to reach communities that have, in her opinion, been pandered to by Democrats.

Im not marketing Donald Trump, she insisted. Im talking about the Republican values and vision that we represent as a party.

Only later, after prodding, did she clarify.

I believe in Donald Trump. Im going to vote for Donald Trump, she said.

Trump, she said repeatedly, was far better than Hillary Clinton. Its a unique time, and voters want a new approach, she added, ticking off a list of conventional Republican positions on financial regulations, healthcare and security.

And wasnt President Obama the real deporter in chief?, she added, using a term coined by left-leaning immigration activists who have attacked Obamas record number of deportations.

Even allowing for those arguments, the candidate clearly has put Aguirre Ferre in a difficult position.

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Did she agree with him that Mexico was sending mostly rapists and drug dealers across the border? No.

Or when he declared that all Muslims should be banned from entering the country? No.

Or when he questioned the impartiality of an Indiana-born federal judge because of his Mexican heritage?

I think that Mr. Trump, I cant really comment, she said, briefly breaking her calm smile. The issue with the judge, I dont agree with that.

Some close to Aguirre Ferre believe she came to the RNC in hopes of softening Trumps rhetoric and immigration policy, or at least protecting the GOP. In a brief statement, Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, whom Aguirre Ferre worked for in the primary, praised her friendship, conservative values and commitment to the party.

When her father-in-law, Maurice Ferre, the former mayor and a Democrat, asked her if she would be embarrassed to take the job helping Trump, she pointed to the party, he recalled.

If you take people like Helen away from the Republican Party, then what youre doing is giving it to the extreme right, said the 81-year-old Ferre. Thats the worst thing that could happen.

Yet Aguirre Ferres ability to influence Trump is limited. Two days before Trump delivered his hard-line immigration speech in Phoenix, she said she had no role in crafting it. Nor did she know what Trump would say.

Im not sure what his immigration policy is going to be, she said.

She had been in a room with Trump only twice, in group settings, she said.

Hes affable, a very gracious host, she said. When he asks a question, hes very intent on listening. He loves hearing other peoples suggestions and conversations, takes it all in, and then formulates his own ideas.

After Trump delivered the speech -- blaming immigrants in the country illegally for countless deaths and lost jobs, setting out a plan for millions of deportations, and calling for new limits on legal immigration  several of the Latino supporters who had been in meetings with Trump and Aguirre Ferre said they could no longer support him, with one prominent supporter calling the speech nativist. .

Aguirre Ferre said her own support has not wavered and that, even as two members of the advisory council had stepped down, more supporters would be added. She said that if Obama had pushed through an immigration bill when Democrats controlled Congress, the problem would have been solved.

For many in her home community, Aguirre Ferres transformation from a commentator on the edge of politics to full-time operative with an unpopular candidate has been too much.

Gaby Pacheco, a nationally known immigration activist, met Aguirre Ferre about a dozen years ago, when Pacheco was president of the Miami Dade College student body and an early activist for students in the country illegally in what would later become the Dreamer movement.

Pacheco had come to the United States from Ecuador on a tourist visa when she was 7. In 2006, Pacheco was awakened from a sound sleep to find the rest of her family being rounded up and taken in for deportation proceedings. Many of the colleges politically connected leaders stepped in to help the family, who believed the deportation proceeding was motivated by Pachecos activism.

See the most-read stories this hour 

Aguirre Ferre promised to help Pacheco with anything she needed, and over the years, the two have spoken regularly, often on Aguirre Ferres television or radio show.

Shes probably been one of the strongest Latina spokespeople in the country, said Pacheco. When the college had undocumented students, she did everything she could to help figure out how to support them.

After activists began circulating a petition demanding that Aguirre Ferre step down as chairwoman of the college, Pacheco called to urge her to stay on the board. If Aguirre Ferre left, Florida Gov. Rick Scott might appoint a replacement who would put the thousands of students at the college who are in the country illegally at risk, Pacheco reasoned.

But the call was not a happy one. Pacheco says she told Aguirre Ferre she felt sad for her.

How in anyones mind can they be an apologist for this man, be his dictionary trying to explain for what he says when everyone can clearly see what he means? Pacheco said.

I told her I have high regard for her, Pacheco recalled. But just seeing her doing this was disappointing.

noah.bierman@latimes.com

Twitter: @noahbierman

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As many California voters prefer none of the above as plan to vote for Loretta Sanchez.

Support for the Orange County congresswoman in the states U.S. Senate race not only lags far behind that of her rival, Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, but is matched by the pool of Californians who say they dont plan to vote for either candidate, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.

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The survey found 16% of registered voters, mostly self-described Republicans and independents, have decided to skip the first open U.S. Senate race that California has seen in 24 years  the same percentage of voters who favor Sanchez. Support for Harris came in at almost double that level at 30%.

And more than a third of California voters indicated they still dont know which Senate candidate theyll pick on Nov. 8, according to the poll, conducted for USC and The Times by SurveyMonkey.

This is the first open U.S. Senate seat in a quarter of a century in California and no one seems to care.  Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC

This is the first open U.S. Senate seat in a quarter of a century in California and no one seems to care, said Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC.

Californias race to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer has been lost in the shadow of the combustible presidential face-off between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, which has saturated news coverage and seems to have more than satiated the limited appetite many voters have for politics.

Although the Democrat-versus-Democrat Senate race sets the stage for the highest-profile contest between two members of the same party since California adopted a top-two primary election system in 2012, it also has sapped interest among California Republicans who dont see one of their own on the ballot, Schnur said.

Three-quarters of self-described Republicans said they were either undecided or would not vote. The same goes for close to two-thirds of voters who described themselves as independents, and 29% of Democrats.

Among them was Republican voter Jordan Wethe of Glendale.

Theyre two losing candidates to me. Im pretty conservative, said Wethe, an actor and big Trump supporter.

Wethe said hes still not sure whether hell even cast a ballot, but said that if he does, hell probably pick Sanchez.

I really dont like Kamala Harris. I think shes a fraud, in my opinion, he said. Sanchez seems to be more hawkish on defense issues, so if Im going to vote at all itll be for her.

Sanchez in recent weeks has been courting the vast pool of undecided Republicans and moderates, and has tried to paint Harris as a far-left liberal favored by the San Francisco Democratic establishment.

Wethe is in the minority. According to the poll, Harris has more support than Sanchez in every major region of the state, among both men and women. Close to half of Democrats supported Harris, compared with the 21% who backed Sanchez. Harris also leads among white, black and Asian voters, while Sanchez was favored by Latino voters, the poll showed.

Sanchez, shes not a bad person. I just think Kamala Harris is just a little more devoted to how I think, said hospice nurse Mandy Catron, a Democrat from San Bernardino who took part in the survey. Ive read up on Harris, and I just like her views.

Democratic political consultant Doug Herman said picking up ground on Harris before the November election would be extremely difficult for Sanchez, especially since the attorney general leads by wide margins in Californias two most voter-rich areas: Los Angeles County and the Bay Area.

Along with strong support from Latinos, Sanchez had a slight edge among voters whose top level of schooling was high school and below, while Harris led among college graduates. Sanchez also was favored by conservatives who plan to vote in the Senate election.

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In August, Sanchez appeared on a conservative talk radio station in San Diego, and last week she landed the support of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), one of the most vociferous critics of President Obamas administration. Her campaign also has boasted about endorsements from former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and former Rep. Howard Buck McKeon of Santa Clarita  both Republicans.

Among those voters who supported Sanchez in the poll, 73% approved of how Obama has handled the job as president. Among Harris supporters, 89% gave Obama high marks.

For Sanchez to win, she has to be the first candidate in modern political history to put together a Republican, Hispanic coalition, Schnur said. Its not impossible, but its a very fine line to walk.

Schnur said he doubts Republican endorsements will help much. Unlike Democrats such as Obama and Gov. Jerry Brown, Republican politicians in California are not prominent enough to sway votes with their endorsement.

Among those surveyed, 18% said the endorsement that would matter most to them would come from Obama  by far the most coveted among a list of those who issued endorsements in the Senate race.

Obama endorsed Harris in July. Sanchez responded with a scathing critique of the president, accusing him of being part of a political establishment that has failed to work for Californians. Days later, during a Spanish-language television interview, Sanchez implied that Obama may have endorsed Harris for Senate because they are both black.

The poll was conducted online Sept. 1-8 by SurveyMonkey. The survey was done in English and Spanish among a sample of 4,212 adults who said they are registered to vote in California. The margin of sampling error was 2 percentage points.

phil.willon@latimes.com

Twitter: @philwillon

ALSO

Meet the men plotting strategy for Californias U.S. Senate candidates

Hurting for support in her own party, Rep. Loretta Sanchez tilts her Senate campaign to the right

Obama, Biden endorse Kamala Harris for U.S. Senate
The idea behind Gov. Jerry Browns plan to stem the states housing affordability crisis was simple: Make it easier to build houses.

If developers pledged to set aside some units in their projects for low-income residents, the governors proposed legislation would have eliminated some local hurdles to building, likely leading to a modest increase in construction.

Yet the proposal the governor unveiled in May represented a profound shakeup in how the development process would have worked in California. The measure challenged the primacy of local control over housing, inflamed powerful entrenched interests and was eyed warily by the very groups representing those the plan was supposed to help.

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Because of the resistance, Browns effort became so unpopular in the state Capitol that not one of 120 lawmakers was willing to publicly stand behind it. After weeks of little action, the plan died a quiet death last month, never having received a vote in the Legislature.

I think it was an aggressive proposal that touched a lot of nerves.  Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco)

I think it was an aggressive proposal that touched a lot of nerves, said Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco), the chairman of the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee.

The defeat of Browns effort reveals the high obstacles in the way of the governor and legislators who hope to make meaningful increases to home building in California at the same time the problem is getting worse. The states average home price of $466,900 is nearing 2  times the national figure and rising.

Don Perata, the former president pro tem of the state Senate and now a lobbyist and executive director of the California Infill Builders Federation, said the governors struggles convinced him that the issue wont get resolved without a statewide ballot measure.

When you walk out of your house in the morning, the problems you see are traffic, housing, said Perata, who supported Browns plan. These are the problems that people want to see you take care of. And that was such a failure.

In California, cities and counties control what is built in their communities. But study after study has pointed to the hurdles local governments put in front of development  such as parking requirements and lengthy environmental reviews  as reasons why homes arent built at the rate needed to keep pace with rising prices.

See the most-read stories this hour 

Last year, the independent Legislative Analysts Office estimated the state would need to nearly double the rate of planned housing production and build about 100,000 more units a year than currently planned, primarily in desirable coastal communities, to meet demand from job growth and growing populations.

Browns plan took aim at these local restrictions. It would have allowed developers to build without further review on land planned for a set number of units if the developer reserved some units for low-income residents.

For instance, a 300-unit condominium project would have qualified if it was proposed on land zoned for that number of units, but not if the land was planned for single-family homes.

Still, Browns proposal would have wiped away the laundry list of approvals many cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, require aside from zoning. Though Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee indicated their support as a way to increase affordability, other local governments resisted because it took away their power.

Cities and counties place restrictions on development because their residents want them, said Dan Carrigg, legislative director of the League of California Cities, which opposed the governors plan.

Cities are little functioning democracies, Carrigg said. Public input and transparency are cornerstones to the process.

Asked last week why his plan didnt go anywhere, Brown blamed local governments.

What, you mean why people dont want to cut red tape and overcome local control? Brown said. Because people dont like those changes. Ask the League of Cities.

Still, more powerful interests than cities opposed the governor.

Labor unions and environmental groups, both highly influential on the states ruling Democratic majority, became the proposals fiercest antagonists.

Their beef? Browns plan would have allowed qualifying projects to avoid additional review under the California Environmental Quality Act, known as CEQA, the states chief environmental law governing development.

The 1970 law has helped preserve the states environment, but has also been sharply criticized by many including Brown, who contends its restrictions can strangle development and that its abused by labor unions and others to leverage labor-friendly hiring rules and other perks.

Robbie Hunter, the head of the State Building and Construction Trades Council, acknowledged that some labor groups have used the environmental law this way. But he argued thats no different than developers and businesses that have also threatened CEQA lawsuits to stymie rivals projects.

Were the scapegoat for a lot of things, Hunter said.

Hunter said CEQA protects construction workers by requiring developers to study construction sites prior to building, ensuring that workers wont breathe in hazardous materials. More broadly, Hunter said he was concerned that Browns housing plan didnt require qualified developers to pay construction workers whats known as prevailing wages  a higher amount often equivalent to union pay.

You cannot address the issue of affordable housing by driving the construction workers who are building the affordable housing into needing the affordable housing, Hunter said.

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Brown opposed the higher-pay rules, saying he was concerned about their cost. In turn, the construction workers union went all-in against the plan, leading a coalition of more than 60 labor and environmental groups as well as community organizers and even renters organizations in opposition.

Citing a lack of progress in negotiations with the governors office, the coalition walked away from the table in early August. The plan officially died fewer than 10 days later.

What might have seemed surprising about that coalition was opposition from groups representing low-income residents and tenants  the people Browns plan was designed to help.

Aimee Inglis, the acting director for Tenants Together, a statewide advocacy organization for renters, said the governors proposal wasnt going to improve renters lives. The more acute crisis isnt the housing shortage, Inglis said, but rather land speculation and other forces driving poor residents from their communities.

Browns plan would have made it easier for developers to tear down existing housing to build new homes. Even if that new construction created more units for low-income residents, it still would have displaced those who have lived in neighborhoods for a long time, Inglis said. Beyond that, she said, removing some local approval would have cut renters from debates over where housing should go and what it should look like.

We support affordable housing, Inglis said. But its not important enough right now for us to give up all this other power.

After Browns plan received a chilly reception when he first announced it, the governor agreed to spend $400 million on low-income housing subsidies if legislators approved his streamlining proposal. Democratic lawmakers have pushed for years for more state housing dollars, but Brown has resisted. With the failure of the housing plan, the $400 million is now sitting unspent.

Brown implied that cash might get legislators back to the table for future debates over streamlining housing production.

Theres always arguments, he said, but we still have the money.

liam.dillon@latimes.com

Follow @dillonliam on Twitter

ALSO

Low-income housing negotiations are done for the year, Assembly speaker says

Gov. Jerry Browns housing plan could wipe away development rules in Los Angeles and San Francisco

Labor unions, environmentalists are biggest opponents of Gov. Browns affordable housing plan

UPDATES:

2:23 p.m.: This article was clarified to better reflect the position of Inglis, the acting director of Tenants Together, on the states housing shortage.

This article was originally published at 12:05 a.m.
A public house-style restaurant featuring a locally sourced tapas menu and craft beer is closer to opening in the revamped Lido Marina Village.

The Newport Beach Planning Commission voted 5-1 last month to approve a permit for Lido Bottle Works, which is expected open in late fall on the east side of Via Oporto, adjacent to Newport Harbor.

Commissioner Bill Dunlap dissented but wished restaurant owner Eric Paine luck. Commissioner Erik Weigand was absent.

Paine is chief executive of Community Development Partners, which has offices above the 1,234-square-foot space slated for Lido Bottle Works.

Balboa Peninsula resident George Schroeder raised concerns during the Planning Commission meeting about the concentration of alcohol licenses in the area.

Paine assured commissioners that Lido Bottle Works wont be a bar, saying it will cater to a sophisticated clientele seeking high-quality food and craft brews.

We think its a good concept for the area and something that will help Lido Marina Village succeed, Paine said.

The restaurant is one of several expected to open in the rejuvenated village. Italian restaurant LIsoletta and bistro Zinque, a coffee and wine bar with a location in West Hollywood, also plan fall openings. Nobu plans to open one of its sushi bars this winter.

The retail center also has an array of apparel and lifestyle shops.

In 2014, DJM Capital Partners began construction efforts on the aging Lido Marina Village. The center, built in the 1970s, had fallen into disrepair.

Construction is winding down, and stores will continue to open through early 2017, according to DJM.

City officials have billed the centers rejuvenation as key to revitalizing the Balboa Peninsula as a whole.

Weve sprinkled some pixie dust on it and its finally coming to fruition, said DJM Chief Marketing Officer Linda Berman. Its pretty exciting to see it actually taking shape when weve been imagining it and living it for so long.
Newport Beach voters will have an opportunity to see and hear candidates for local offices during two community forums this week.

On Wednesday, Speak Up Newport will present a forum for City Council hopefuls. Three council seats are up for grabs in the Nov. 8 election, with at least two candidates running for each one.

Local attorney Phil Greer, city Finance Committee member Will ONeill and former Planning Commissioner Fred Ameri are running to replace Councilman Keith Curry, who will be termed out of his seat representing District 7 (Newport Coast and Newport Ridge).

Businessman and activist Mike Glenn, longtime resident Jeff Herdman and businessman Lee Lowrey are running to replace Councilman Ed Selich, who will be termed out of his seat representing District 5, which includes Balboa Island, Newport Center and portions of Big Canyon.

Harbor Commissioner Brad Avery and law student Shelley Henderson are vying to replace Councilman Tony Petros, who is not running for reelection, representing District 2, which includes Newport Heights, Newport Shores and Newport Crest.

Michele Gile, Orange County reporter for KCBS-TV/2 and KCAL-TV/9, will moderate Wednesdays panel. Residents can submit questions for the candidates by filling out a form at www.speakupnewport.com/contact-us.

The forum will be held in the Civic Center Community Room, 100 Civic Center Drive, from 6 p.m. to about 7:10 p.m.

Council and school board forum

The Newport Beach Womens Democratic Club will hold a forum on Thursday for candidates for City Council and the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board of education.

Lowrey declined to attend that forum, and Henderson did not respond, according to event organizers.

Three Newport-Mesa board seats are up for grabs in November.

Incumbent Vicki Snell and challenger Michael Schwartzmann, a local parent and managing director for a public accounting, consulting and technology firm, are seeking the seat representing Area 1, which includes Early College and Estancia high schools, TeWinkle Intermediate and Adams, California and Killybrook elementary schools.

Incumbent Martha Fluor and Newport Beach resident, businesswoman and parent Amy Peters are vying for the seat representing Area 3, which includes Back Bay/Monte Vista High School, Lindbergh School and Kaiser and Mariners elementary schools.

Incumbent Dana Black and Newport Beach resident and teacher trainer Leslie Bubb are competing for the Area 6 seat representing Newport Harbor High School, Ensign Intermediate, Harper Preschool and Newport Heights and Woodland elementary schools. Bubb will be unable to attend the forum because of a family commitment, according to the club.

The forum will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Room 2AB at the Oasis Senior Center, 801 Narcissus Ave., Corona del Mar. The event is open to everyone, but RSVPs are requested at www.nbwdc.org.
We met on Bumble, another swipe-right app that creates a hive of connections. The woman makes the first move within 24 hours, otherwise the match disappears forever.

Id developed what I believed to be a highly discerning online dating strategy. I seldom swipe right and rarely match, but when I do Im certain Ive stung him.

I was visiting the Bay Area when we matched. (Men in Northern California are much more interesting.) I was already back in L.A. when I heard from him, though he wasnt in Northern California at the time but rather in St. Louis, where hed unexpectedly flown to support a hometown friend whose dear mother had died.

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Sweet. He lives in Marin, was raised in the Midwest, and works in finance. Solid.

After texting a bit, he noted that he prefers communicating by phone. Texting is for teenage girls. And he should know, because he has two daughters in college. Which is why he understands women so well, he said. The phone is more personal. He asked for my number. Chivalry is still alive, he said.

Or wait, did he text that?

Are you a veteran of L.A.'s current dating scene? We want to publish your story

We chatted a bit for a few weeks. L.A. must be a hard place for single women, he said. Its so superficial. Men seem to care only about how women look and women about men with money.

Finding me a fascinating, beautiful woman, he offered to fly to L.A. under the pretense of an important business trip. But really, he said, the trip would be all about finally meeting me.

We spoke the night before our date. The plan was to meet at 4 p.m. in Venice at Gjelina. He was landing at LAX early in the morning for a meeting in El Segundo. Afterward, wed have the whole evening together before his 9:50 flight back to San Francisco.

At 2 p.m. I received a text: Hed been called to an unexpected meeting downtown. Our date would now be around 5:30. Ill call you in 20 minutes. Ruh-roh. Red flag.

At that point, I was in Mid-Wilshire, halfway between Venice and downtown in 93-degree heat. I was sweating through my date-wear: off-white silk lace camisole, black pants, low heels. Not too sexy, not too professional. My freshly blow-dried hair was damp and losing volume, quickly.

I was super annoyed. All I wanted to do was go home, tear my clothes off, turn on the AC and climb into cotton jammies. Id rather be alone watching election coverage than be out on a date anyway. This could be a deal-breaker.

But hed flown all the way to L.A. to see me, so I thought Id be open and extend myself by offering to meet downtown. Id be on the 10 in late afternoon traffic either way. Whats the difference?

About 15 degrees.

He texted back at about 3:30 to say, Ill get to Venice. Right. I took a minute and replied, I imagine youll be closer to 6. His next two texts: No stress. Ill call you soon.

More L.A. Affairs columns

I decided to drive toward Venice. Id be early, but at least its cooler there. Id already canceled our dinner reservation  there was no way Id be able to push it back. It was Gjelina after all. No substitutions.

Next text, 5:50 p.m. He had another unexpected stop in Century City. Sure. By the time he gets to Venice, wed have time for only a drink and quick bite before bolting for LAX.

I wanted to be home. But traffic to the Valley would be a nightmare. It had cooled off, so I wandered down the street to Wabi-Sabi. I sat down at the bar, the restaurants folding doors flung wide open. I felt the beach breeze and could almost smell the ocean air.

I ordered a glass of sparkling rose. I decided Id wait till 7:15 p.m. If I didnt hear from him by then, Id head home.

7:07: Weve an unexpected dinner  Ill call as soon as Im out. So sorry for all this.

Sorry at 7 oclock for not showing up to a 4 p.m. date?

He  who hates texting  texted to say hes sorry.

Really?

Outrageous. Rude. Deal-breaker, definitely.

I hadnt eaten in hours. I was starving. Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I committed to staying in Venice. Alone. At a bar. Which in nearly my entire adult life in L.A., Id never done before. I ordered some snacks and $85 later I walked to my car, but not before stopping at Salt & Straw for a $7.50 double scoop ice cream cone.

9:15: On the 405, my phone rang. It was him, probably just about to board the plane at LAX. I let it go to voice mail. Hi, Julie. Its ___. Give me a call back when you get a chance.

Really, thats it? Not even a Please? So much for chivalry. I deleted the message.

9:50: I was home in my cotton, watching MSNBC, wondering: Does the dude feel guilty? Is he embarrassed, ashamed? Does he even realize how badly he blew it? I decided to send a scathing text while he festered in-flight.

The following night he left another voicemail. Its __. There was something going on personally yesterday. I want to explain.

I didnt call back. His Bumble profiles since disappeared. Forever.

Julie Buckner is a communications consultant and owns a yoga studio. She lives in the San Fernando Valley with her two teenage sons.

L.A. Affairs chronicles the current dating scene in and around Los Angeles. We pay $300 a column. If you have comments or a true story to tell, email us at LAAffairs@latimes.com.
U.S. airlines frequent-flier programs have undergone big changes in recent years. Delta, United and American, for instance, now award miles based on how much you spend, not how far youve flown.

These legacy carriers also have revamped their award charts. Now many awards, especially those in premium cabins, require several thousand more miles than before.

Given these changes, this could be the right time to consider switching your loyalty to the frequent-flier program of a foreign carrier. Heres why:

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Earning miles may be easier. Because each of these three U.S. legacy carriers is in an airline alliance  American is in Oneworld, Delta is in SkyTeam and United is in Star Alliance  you can credit miles flown on them to any number of partner programs.

Many foreign frequent-flier programs base mileage earnings on the distance flown and the fare class of the ticket. Fliers might earn anywhere from 25% to 150% of the miles they fly when crediting a foreign program. You can find this information on the section of a carriers website about earning rates on partner flights.

More transfer partners. All four major transferable (also called convertible) points programs in the U.S.  American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Starwood Preferred Guest and Citi ThankYou Rewards  partner with several foreign frequent-flier programs. That means you can convert points into miles in your accounts with those airlines.

For example, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer and Air France/KLMs Flying Blue mileage programs are partners with all four. British Airways accepts transfers from all but Citi.

Short-haul redemptions. Although the major U.S. legacy carriers do offer some bargain short-haul redemptions, including Americans new 7,500-mile level for flights of less than 500 miles, several foreign programs offer great values on short-distance awards as well.

British Airways is the notable program in this group. Some awards start as low as 4,500 miles each way on its own flights, and 7,500 miles on American Airlines flights.

Discounted awards. Some foreign programs also offer off-peak or discounted awards. Flying Blue offers monthly Promo Awards in which fliers can score rebates of up to 50% on awards in economy, premium economy and business class on Air France and KLM flights. That means a round-trip business-class award from the U.S. to Europe could be redeemed for as few as 62,500 miles total, and economy awards for just 25,000 miles round trip.

By comparison, Delta, Air France/KLMs U.S. partner, would charge 125,000 miles for business class and 60,000 miles for economy awards.

Better award charts. Although many foreign frequent-flier programs have raised their award redemption levels recently, some have not done so as drastically as domestic carriers.

Air Canadas Aeroplan program charges 70,000 miles each way to fly first class on its partner Lufthansa from North America to Western Europe, compared with the 110,000 miles United now requires.

All Nippon Airways (an American Express transfer partner) requires 104,000 miles for business class or 195,000 miles for first class on its partner Etihad to fly round trip from the U.S. to the Middle East.

By comparison, American Airlines (another partner of Etihad) would charge 140,000 miles for business class or 230,000 for first class.

More non-alliance partners. Like U.S. carriers, foreign airlines often have non-alliance partnerships with other airlines. That means more opportunities to redeem those miles.

For example, besides Star Alliance partners, All Nippon is also partners with Etihad, Garuda Indonesia, Hawaiian Airlines, Philippine Airlines and Virgin Atlantic. Thus its miles can be even more versatile for redemptions.

More premium awards. Certain airlines, including Singapore, Air France and Swiss, block first-class awards from partner mileage redemptions. For instance, if you want to fly those famous Singapore first-class suites without shelling out tens of thousands of dollars, you will need to use Singapores own KrisFlyer miles to book an award.

Likewise, though Korean Air and Delta are both in SkyTeam, Delta will not allow you to redeem its SkyMiles for first-class partner awards, so if you want to fly Koreans first-class seats, you will need to redeem the Koreans own miles to do so.

Beware fuel surcharges and taxes. One major caveat. Though foreign frequent-flier programs might have more favorable award redemption rates and availability, some do charge taxes and fees on award tickets that can be hundreds of dollars more than their U.S. counterparts.

Look at sample awards for routes you are likely to fly before committing to a program.

More credit cards, more bonuses. Several U.S. credit-card issuers offer products that are co-branded with foreign frequent-flier programs. Chase fields a British Airways Visa that offers a sign-up bonus of up to 50,000 Avios (British Airways mileage points) as well as benefits such as a 10% discount on British Airways tickets.

travel@latimes.com
It pays to commit war crimes, according to a report by an investigative group co-founded by actor George Clooney that spent two years scrutinizing the worlds newest country, South Sudan.

On the surface, the countrys brutal 2013 civil war was fought over ethnic divides. It grew out of a conflict between the president, Salva Kiir, a member of the Dinka ethnic group, and his then-deputy, Riek Machar, a member of the Nuer who was angling to succeed him.

But the Sentry, the group co-founded last year by Clooney and activist John Prendergast, contends that the conflict was really a struggle for power and control of state assets, such as oil. The authors of the report accuse the rivals of drumming up ethnic hatred to fuel the conflict, transforming the country into a violent kleptocracy.

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South Sudan is one of the worlds least developed countries, heavily dependent on the international community for aid. But top officials got rich on war, the group alleges  and had little incentive to usher in peace as a result.

The key catalyst of South Sudans civil war has been competition for the grand prize, the report says, control over state assets and the countrys abundant natural resources  between rival kleptocratic networks led by President Kiir and [former] Vice President Machar.

South Sudans top officials have benefited both financially and politically from the continuing war and atrocities committed within their country.

South Sudanese officials have not yet responded to the reports claims.

The group found that top officials ultimately responsible for mass atrocities in South Sudan have at the same time managed to accumulate fortunes, despite modest government salaries. Researchers scrutinized the assets of South Sudanese officials, relying on published information, interviews, social media postings and Google Earth images of properties owned by the officials.

Top officials and their families also own stakes in companies doing business in South Sudan, have stashed fortunes overseas, drive luxury cars and have bought multimillion-dollar mansions outside the country.

Kiir has a 12-year-old son who holds a 25% stake in a South Sudanese holding company formed in 2016, the researchers found. In all, seven of his children, his wife and his brother-in-law own stakes in two dozen companies operating in oil, mining, construction, gambling, banking, telecommunications, aviation, and government and military procurement in South Sudan.

Both Kiir and his rival, Machar, own luxurious homes outside South Sudan. Gen. Paul Malong, the military chief of staff, owns two houses in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, and a $2-million mansion in Nairobi, Kenyas capital, despite a government salary of $45,000 a year, the group found.

Another military official, Gen. Gabriel Jok Riak, has a Kampala property next door to Malongs, while Gen. Malek Reuben Riak has a house a few miles away. Malong and Reuben Riak have held stakes in oil, mining and telecommunications companies.

The group also questioned payments made by foreign companies. One Kenyan bank processed payments to Gabriel Jok Riak after he was sanctioned by the United Nations in March 2015, and his assets were supposed to be frozen.

Large financial transactions involving politically exposed persons, defined as senior government officials, judges, military officers, and senior executives of state-owned corporations, as well as their families, ought to raise red flags that those transactions, or the conduct that led to them, may have been unlawful or otherwise improper, the report says. Unexplained wealth such as this should be enough to provide authorities with a reasonable basis for investigating the sources of that wealth and whether any wrongdoing occurred.

The report calls on the U.S. and other governments to take tougher steps to crack down on money laundering by South Sudanese officials.

The Sentry was launched last year to investigate how war is financed by state resources, including diamonds, minerals and oil. The South Sudan report is its first investigation.

After fighting started in the capital, Juba, in 2013, it swiftly spilled into brutal ethnic conflict in other parts of the country, particularly the north and east. Women and girls were gang-raped and forced into sex slavery. Men were shot on sight. Boys were castrated. Those couldnt flee  babies, old people, the weak and sick  were burned alive in houses, according to reporting by the U.N. and human rights organizations.

Both sides were responsible for war crimes, according to the U.N. and human rights organizations that have reported on the atrocities.

The two sides signed a peace deal in August 2015 that was never implemented. A government of national unity was to be set up but fighting broke out in July, and Machar and many of his fighters fled the country.

The war led to a dire humanitarian crisis, with populations in Unity state in the northeast facing conditions close to famine last year as they fled with nothing but waterlily bulbs to survive on.

Close to a million people were driven from their homes, according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and about 4.8 million people  40% of the population  need emergency food aid, according to the World Food Program.

robyn.dixon@latimes.com
Chinas latest diplomatic crisis began with an earthquake in a region not known for seismic activity.

North Korea confirmed international fears hours later, when a woman in a bubble-gum pink dress went on state television to announce that the country had tested its fifth, and strongest, nuclear weapon.

China immediately denounced the test, which occurred Friday. But Chinese analysts dont expect Beijing to do much else. Concerned about the implications of a North Korean collapse, China shows little appetite for confrontation.

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This reserve illustrates how the one country with power to stop North Koreas nuclear ambitions is paralyzed by its tiny, upstart neighbor, which has no other allies.

Two Chinese men chat near the China-North Korea Friendship Bridge between the North Korean town of Sinuiju (rear) and Dandong (foreground), in northeast China on Sunday. (Greg Baker / AFP/Getty Images )

The reason North Korea dared to conduct this nuclear test is because it knew the Chinese are very much handcuffed, said Tong Zhao, an associate at Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing.

China is the only lifeline for leader Kim Jong Un, whose test coincided with the anniversary of the founding of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea by his grandfather. The bigger neighbor accounts for 90% of North Koreas trade, much of it along the Yalu River, which serves as a border between the two countries.

Leaders worry that economic upheaval in the totalitarian nation could flood northeastern China with millions of refugees, Zhao said. But they fear much more the loss of a buffer between China and U.S.-backed South Korea, with its nearly 30,000 American troops.

China already is incensed at a July agreement between Seoul and the U.S. to deploy a missile defense system, known as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, to protect the South from any Pyongyang attacks. Beijing sees the equipment as a threat to its own national security. China has displayed its anger by backing out of defense talks in Seoul and canceling performances that feature South Korean entertainers.

The tensions threaten efforts at any unified strategy toward North Korea. And they likely handed the unpredictable, 32-year-old Kim a greater opportunity to flout international sanctions.

For China, North Korea is a necessary evil, said Zhang Baohui, the director of the Center for Asian Pacific Studies at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. China has to maintain the survival of the North Korean regime. Thats its fundamental quagmire.

Beijing agreed to United Nations Security Council sanctions against North Korea in March, although loopholes kept the border porous.

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Stronger sanctions, which Zhang doubts China will approve, would further choke trade. North Korea relies on Chinas oil pipeline, and its larger neighbor could inflict significant pain by chopping access. But that might cause economic disaster for North Korea, causing it to see Beijing as an enemy rather than a half-hearted ally.

So far, Beijing has agreed only to push for multi-country talks that stalled seven years ago.

At a meeting Saturday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui told North Koreas ambassador, Ji Jae Ryong, that the nuclear tests run counter to the expectations of the international community, escalate tension on the peninsula and [are] not conducive to the peace and stability there, according to the official New China News Agency.

A separate commentary by the news agency cautioned restraint on the Korean peninsula, which it called a tinderbox that could ignite with a spark.

From Chinas point of view, North Koreas real weapon of destruction is chaos, said Euan Graham, former charge daffairs at the British embassy in Pyongyang and current international security program director at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Australia. The fear of chaos runs so deep in the Chinese psyche that its this overriding fear [that dominates] rather than one of a freelancing and uncontrollable ally.

Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung once described the relationship with its Communist brother North Korea as close as lips to teeth.

Those days are gone. Fissures started to show in 2006 after Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear weapons test and Beijing backed sanctions. Chinas tone has since rotated between condemnation and appeasement. Despite concerns about the countrys nuclear goals, a top Chinese Communist Party member attended North Koreas military parade to celebrate the ruling partys 70th anniversary.

And yet Kim thumbed his nose at his Communist partner this month, launching three ballistic missiles toward the Sea of Japan as China was hosting its first G-20 summit of world leaders. Chinese President Xi Jinping has never invited Kim to visit. Some Chinese social media users refer to the young leader, the third member of his family to rule North Korea, as Fatty Kim III.

China has many options, said Go Myong-Hyun, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. What China is lacking is willingness.

Current sanctions dont appear to have much effect. A report by two researchers at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found they actually improved North Koreas ability to procure material for its weapons plan. The North opened offices in China and hired more capable Chinese middlemen to avoid sanctions, they said. Obama, at a news conference last week, acknowledged the actions failed to do much.

Chinese policy experts have rightly suggested that the Obama administration has done little with the Korean nuclear challenge, said Zhang, the Hong Kong professor.

Beijing now kicks the ball to the U.S. and South Korea he said. China has accepted the reality of a nuclear North Korea.

Meyers is a special correspondent.

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A re-vote in the Austrian presidential election, which could install the first far-right populist leader in Western Europe since World War II, was postponed on Monday over defective glue.

The government in Vienna was forced to acknowledge that the glue used on the envelopes for the absentee ballots wouldnt stick  another embarrassing setback after the results of the initial vote in May were thrown out in court.

Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer, a dapper dresser and skilled orator who campaigned on an openly anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim program, lost the May 22 election to leftist candidate Alexander Van der Bellen by a razor-thin margin of just 31,000 votes, or 50.3% to 49.7%. Even though the Austrian presidency is a largely ceremonial post, the election attracted attention across Europe and around the world because of Hofers rhetoric.

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Hofer later filed a successful complaint to the Constitutional Court about procedural irregularities: Some of the 740,000 absentee ballots were counted on election day instead of a day later.

Hofer had actually held a small lead after the popular vote was counted on May 22. A day later, he ended up losing to Van der Bellen when the record number absentee ballots were counted on May 23. All absentee ballots should have been counted on May 23 but some were counted -- illegally -- on May 22. The court said that sloppiness mandated that the whole election be done over.

A new round of voting was set for Oct. 2, and recent opinion polls showed the once-vanquished Hofer well ahead of his rival, Alexander Van der Bellen from the Greens party, as the fragile coalition to defeat Hofer started to unravel and Hofers conservative supporters became energized after getting the unexpected reprieve.

On Monday, the Austrian government official responsible for elections threw a new wrench in the works by announcing the vote would have to be postponed  to the end of November or early December.

There were production errors with the ballots, said Wolfgang Sobotka, Austrias interior minister, after the federal crime agency examined the envelopes and found them to be faulty. Sobotka apologized to Austrians for the blunder.

The envelopes re-open 25 minutes after being sealed, he said. That means there are several hundred invalid absentee ballots that have already been distributed. Its thus not possible to have a legally unobjectionable election.

The election already caused a stir in Austria in April, when candidates from the dominant center-left Social Democrats and center-right Peoples Party  the parties that had ruled Austria since World War II  were eliminated in the first round of voting, sending the Freedom Party and the Greens to a runoff election.

Hofer drew international headlines by positioning himself as the anti-establishment candidate unequivocally opposed to allowing in any more refugees.

He has made xenophobic appeals to voters that have drawn comparisons to Donald Trump. By virulently opposing immigrants, Muslims and transatlantic free trade agreements, he touched a nerve in the Alpine country of 8.7 million at the heart of Europe.

His rise reflects turmoil in Austria and in Europe, where many countries have undergone a major shift to the right in the last year. At first, Austria warmly welcomed some 90,000 refugees from the Middle East but closed its borders earlier this year amid popular protests and the high numbers of refugees.

Kirschbaum is a special correspondent.

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A radicalized French teenager had been planning to carry out a knife attack at a popular weekend spot for families and tourists, investigators said.

The 15-year-old, already on a high-security threat list, was arrested on Saturday, one week after French police prevented an attack in central Paris by a group of female Islamic State followers who tried to blow up a car filled with gas bottles.



For the record: An earlier version of this article said one suspect, Ornella Gilligmann, 29, has been charged over the failed attack near Notre Dame Cathedral on Sept. 3. The aborted attack took place Sept. 4.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned on Sunday that the terrorist threat was at its maximum level and said Frances security forces were foiling attacks every single day.

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The unnamed youth was arrested at his home near the Coulee Verte, a green corridor walkway in Paris similar to New Yorks High Line, where detectives allege he was planning to stab random passers-by last weekend.

Detectives told French media the youth admitted he wanted to be killed by the police and die a martyr. However, one officer told LExpress magazine that his evidence was confused and he was later said to have withdrawn his statements.

The teenager had already been under house arrest at his family home in the 12th arrondissement of the French capital for the last five months, as part of the state of emergency introduced in France following the November 2015 attacks. He was detained in April 2016 and questioned about alleged plans to travel to join Islamic State in Syria.

Police reported that he had been in contact with Rachid Kassim, a French jihadi who is fighting with Islamic State in Syria. Kassim has also been linked to the killer of two police officers in a Paris suburb in June and two men who cut the throat of a Catholic priest in Normandy in July. In both cases, the terrorists were killed by police.

Investigators are attempting to unravel the network around Kassim, whose members communicated using the heavily encrypted message system Telegram. They believe Kassim, who uses the pseudonym Ibn Qassim, has been directing the recent terror attack attempts in France from his Islamic State hideout in Syria.

The women, our sisters, went into action. Where are our brothers? Kassim posted on Telegram after the women were arrested last week, according to French media. Where are the men?You have to understand that if these women went into action, its because so few men are doing anything  why are you waiting so long to the point the woman are overtaking you in terms of honor?

Five French women between 16 and 39 are in police custody being questioned about the latest terrorist plots. One, Ornella Gilligmann, 29, a mother of three young children, has been charged over the failed attack near Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Sept. 3. Gilligmann was also known to French intelligence services after allegedly trying to travel to Syria.

Gilligmann was arrested after her fingerprints were found in an abandoned Peugeot 607 car containing five gas cylinders, three bottles of diesel and a lighted cigarette 300 feet from the busy cathedral courtyard. The cars license plates had been removed and it was parked with its emergency lights flashing. Two women fled the scene after failing to set the car alight.

On Thursday last week, police arrested three more women: Ines Madani, whose father owned the Peugeot, and two others named only as Sarah H, age 23, and Amel S, age 39. The 16-year-old daughter of Amel S was arrested later.

French public prosecutor Francois Molins said in a televised news conference last week that the women were determined. He said Sarah H had been engaged to Larossi Abballa, 25, who killed a police commander and his partner, also a police officer, in front of their infant son in June. After Abballa was killed in that attack, she became engaged to Adel Kermiche, 19  before he was also shot dead while participating in the killing of a priest in Normandy a month later.

The three women were confronted by police as they left a flat in the suburbs of Paris, allegedly on their way to carry out another attack at the Gare de Lyon station. During the arrest, one of the women stabbed a police officer with a kitchen knife. Madani allegedly jumped on another and tried to stab him. In Madanis handbag, detectives say they found the keys to the Peugeot 607 and a note pledging allegiance to Islamic State.

On Sunday, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the threat of a terrorist attack remained maximum.

We have seen this the last few days, the last few hours, and even as I speak, Valls said in a televised interview.

Every day, the intelligence services, the police, gendarmes, are foiling attacks, unraveling Iraqi-Syrian networks. The threat today is maximum and we are a target, everyone understands that.

Valls said 700 French jihadis were believed to be fighting with Islamic State in Syria, among them more than 200 women. French intelligence services were watching 15,000 people suspected of being radicalized.

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A year ago, masses of people fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan began to stream through the western Balkans on their way to northern Europe. Like anyone following the news closely, I was deeply moved by the chaotic scenes of crowded fields and train stations.

A year on, these images have all but disappeared, but the numbers are telling a very different story. According to the International Organization for Migration, by July this year arrivals were up 17% compared with arrivals during the first seven months last year, many of them arriving through Italy and Greece.

Europes migration crisis is showing no signs of abating. Thats because the crises fueling it are intensifying, uprooting ever growing numbers from their homes. It doesnt help that refugees are being quarantined or spurned in many places where they set foot. Those kind of measures create even more poverty and despair among already traumatized people.

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In May, I took part in the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, Turkey, where heads of state and international organizations promised to step up emergency relief efforts for the 130 million people affected by war and natural disaster  half of them displaced.

I listened to personal testimonies of suffering and perseverance, and discussed solutions with a host of government officials and nonprofits.

Most significant was the call for closer collaboration between the humanitarian aid sector and development organizations. We should reduce needs instead of just dealing with crises when they become full-blown, delegates unanimously agreed.

A few months have passed and I am now convinced that the international communitys approach to migration requires a similar overhaul.

Here are four ways this can be done:

First, there needs to be political will to eliminate the root causes of migration. Conflict prevention and disaster preparedness initiatives  which could save so many lives and significantly lessen the prospect of an exodus are severely underfunded. Meanwhile, creating jobs and allowing young people to participate in politics and society need to become urgent priorities.

Second, countries should pass laws that better protect refugees  especially women  and put into place mechanisms to boost their life chances, such as ensuring they get an education and job opportunities. The average amount of time a displaced person spends away from home is now 17 years.

Thats enough time for a girl born in displacement to graduate from high school. Many refugees also have skills that can match the local demand. These need to be nurtured.

Third, transit and destination countries provide an essential public good as they cater to the needs of displaced people. Having to absorb large numbers of newcomers, local governments require funding and support so they can upgrade public services and administrations, stimulate the economy, and preserve peace and social harmony.

Fourth, tackling migration is a global issue. As hard as it may seem, governments and political parties in Europe must resist their isolationist inclinations in favor of common solutions and shared responsibilities for harboring refugees. Everyone will be better off that way.

The United Nations Development Program is working to prevent conflict and create opportunities for displaced people and the communities hosting them across the world.

For example, in Turkey  the country hosting the largest number of refugees in the world  we are helping thousands of Syrian refugees get career training and language instruction. The countrys pioneering new legislation now allows refugees to apply for jobs.

On Sept. 19 on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, the secretary-general of the U.N. will convene a conference on how to tackle the migration crisis. Building on the Istanbul summit, participants will seek to create a more responsible and predictable system for responding to huge waves of refugees and migrants.

The following day, President Obama will host a leaders summit on refugees that will call for governments to pledge significant new funds for aiding refugees.

As we prepare for these important events, let us deliver on the commitments made in Istanbul to leave no one behind. If migration can be used as a force for positive change, the international community will have scored a major victory in its effort to eliminate poverty around the world.

Cihan Sultanoglu is United Nations assistant secretary-general and director of United Nations Development Programs Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
North Korea is mobilizing to deal with a disastrous flood that killed more than 130 people, destroyed tens of thousands of homes and crippled infrastructure in its northern-most province.

Brigades of soldiers from around the country have been enlisted to help victims of the flooding, which began Aug. 29 and was caused by Typhoon Lionrock.

According to a United Nations report issued by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the floods displaced tens of thousands of people and destroyed homes, buildings and critical infrastructure. North Korean media said it was the worst single case of downpours and high winds since 1945, though that claim couldnt be verified.

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The report said the government has confirmed 133 people were killed and an additional 395 missing. It said more than 35,500 houses, schools and public buildings were damaged, with 69% completely destroyed. It reported widespread inundation of farmland and at least 140,000 people in urgent need of assistance.

The hardest-hit areas, parts of which remain inaccessible, are Musan and Yonsa counties near the Chinese border in the northern tip of the country.

North Koreas state media reported Sunday that high winds and heavy rainfall swept over several cities and counties, causing buildings to collapse and leaving railways, roads, parts of the electric power system, factories and farmlands destroyed or submerged.

It said a mass recovery effort has been launched.

On Monday, North Korea reported construction units were arriving in the flood-hit areas from all over the country, including the capital, Pyongyang.

The countrys manpower and material and technical potentials are now concentrated on the flood damage rehabilitation, the Korean Central News Agency said. It said the ruling party has urged citizens to achieve the miraculous victory of converting misfortune into favorable conditions ... with the tremendous might of single-minded unity!

The North Korean media also said the focus of a 200-day loyalty campaign already underway to mobilize the nation behind leader Kim Jong Un in a mandatory show of devotion has been switched to a call for all citizens to support the recovery effort.

The U.N. agency said humanitarian agencies have released relief materials from their stockpiles inside North Korea, including food, shelter and kitchen kits, water purification and sanitation supplies and emergency health supplies.

The U.N. report said the government is urgently working to reopen roads, distributing relief goods and preparing to rebuild 20,000 houses by early October, before the onset of North Koreas bitterly cold winter.

It added that the government had allowed U.N. agencies, the North Korean Red Cross and International Federation of the Red Crescent, along with private international aid groups to conduct a joint assessment of needs in the affected areas last week, but they were unable to access Musan and Yonsa.

NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj 

The flooding occurred around the Tumen River, which runs between North Korea and China.

North Korea experiences frequent natural disasters, which are more devastating because of its often problematic infrastructure and lack of civil engineering projects designed to mitigate damage.

In August last year, major downpours followed by flash floods killed at least 40 people and devastated parts of the Rason area, near the Russian and Chinese borders where a key special economic zone is.

A series of floods and droughts were a contributing factor in the disastrous famine years of the 1990s  called the arduous march in North Korea  that nearly brought the country to economic ruin.

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Rebel factions in Syria expressed deep reservations on Sunday about the terms of a U.S.-Russian deal that seeks to restart the peace process for the war-torn country, with the leader of at least one U.S.-backed rebel faction publicly calling the offer a trap.

The second in command of the powerful, ultraconservative Ahrar al Sham group condemned the superpower agreement as an effort to secure President Bashar Assads government and drive rebel factions apart.

A rebellious people who have fought and suffered for six years cannot accept half-solutions, said Ali Omar in a video statement.

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But the commander and other rebel leaders stopped short of fully rejecting the agreements interim cease-fire, which is slated to come into effect in stages beginning on Monday at sunset.

The deal hammered out between U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva on Saturday allows the Syrian government to continue to strike at Al Qaeda-linked militants until the U.S. and Russia take over the task in one weeks time.

The arrangement has divided rebel factions, who have depended on the might of the powerful Al Qaeda-linked Front for the Conquest of Syria faction to resist government advances around the contested city of Aleppo.

Omar said his group would refuse the targeting of any faction of our blessed factions and called on rebels to unify into a single front.

Still, a senior official inside Ahrar al Sham said rebels would nevertheless abide by the cease-fire to regroup after a punishing conflict with pro-government forces over Aleppo.

The Islamist factions and [the Front for the Conquest of Syria] will abide by the cease-fire without publicly declaring it, said the official. They will announce they are opposed to the U.S.-Russian agreement, but they will halt their operations on the ground because of the losses they sustained in the battles for Aleppo, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Other factions less closely tied to the Front for the Conquest of Syria, including those backed by Turkish ground forces in the northern frontier area, will publicly commit to the agreement, according to the Ahrar al Sham official.

The free Syrian factions under the Euphrates Shield banner will announce their commitment to the agreement, of course, he said.

Under the terms of the agreement, the U.S. and Russia will coordinate to target the Islamic State group in Syria and Front for the Conquest of Syria, while rebels and the Syrian government will be expected to stop attacking each other. The deal has received the endorsement of Assads government and its key allies  Russia, Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

But that scenario is complicated by the fact that the Front for the Conquest of Syria remains intertwined with several other factions. It is not clear how these governments intend to distinguish between the Front for the Conquest of Syria and other allied rebel factions or how they will be able to attack the Al Qaeda-linked militants without hitting other rebels as well.

Despite fundamental differences in their vision for Syria, rebels and opposition activists hailed a rebel coalition led by the Front for the Conquest of Syria when it broke a government siege on the rebel-held eastern quarters in Aleppo. The U.N. estimated a quarter million residents were trapped inside with dwindling food and medical supplies.

The government has since reestablished its siege.

More than 2,000 people have been killed in fighting over the last 40 days in Aleppo, including 700 civilians and 160 children, according to a Syrian human rights group. One of the more immediate goals of the Kerry-Lavrov agreement is to allow the U.N. to establish aid corridors into Aleppo.

On Saturday, presumed Russian or government airstrikes on rebel-held Idlib and Aleppo provinces killed more than 90 civilians, including 13 children in an attack on a marketplace in Idlib, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In the aftermath on Sunday, rebels and opposition activists were asking whether the governments side could be trusted.

What truce, when the regime commits a massacre in Idlib? said Ahmad Saud, commander of the U.S.-backed Division 13 brigade, on Twitter. I am starting to feel that the truce is a military trap to kill us more.

Several previous negotiated cease-fires all eventually collapsed. A partial cessation of hostilities that brought sorely needed relief to civilians in March unraveled as the government continued to strike targets in opposition areas, including near a hospital and school near Damascus and a marketplace in Idlib province, killing dozens of civilians.

Previous cease-fires were also preceded by soaring violence as parties on all sides sought to improve their positions in the buildup.

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Thousands of opponents of same-sex marriage, including Tijuanas new Roman Catholic archbishop, gathered for a rally in the city Saturday to protest Mexican President Enrique Pena Nietos proposed constitutional reform favoring the right of couples to marry regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation.

The morning march to City Hall was one of dozens of such protests across Mexico that took place Saturday, drawing a combined hundreds of thousands of citizens. The demonstrations come on the heels of a series of legal victories scored by proponents of same-sex marriage in states across Mexico.

Same-sex marriage is legal in Mexico City and nine of the countrys 31 states. The Mexican Supreme Court last year ruled that state bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional, but that decision doesnt automatically invalidate each states prohibition. Amid pending legal challenges to the remaining 22 bans, same-sex couples can marry by getting a personalized injunction from a federal judge.

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In Tijuana, participants in Saturdays peaceful protest chanted Viva la familia natural  long live the natural family  as they walked in an unbroken stream that stretched for several blocks along Paseo de los Heroes through the citys Rio Zone. They were of all ages and came from all corners of the city, many of them members of Catholic parishes or evangelical Christian congregations.

Marriage is between a man and woman for the purpose of procreation, said Ariadna Leon, 39, a Catholic and mother of two from Ampliacion Guaycura in eastern Tijuana. We are asking for the respect of the nucleus of society, which is the family.

The rally was organized by the National Front for the Family coalition.

Ricardo Cano Castro, a spokesman in Baja California for the coalition, said it has been supported by about 1,000 groups, including schools, orphanages and antiabortion organizations. The Roman Catholic Church has openly backed the cause and encouraged its faithful to join the protests Saturday, but its leaders have insisted that the church is not an organizer.

The issue is a sensitive one, as advocates for same-sex marriage have accused the church hierarchy of violating Mexican laws that stipulate a separation of church and state.

Its very clear how these civil society organizations are being used to promote the positions of churches, said Alex Ali Mendez, an attorney who has led the legal fight across Mexico on behalf of same-sex couples petitioning to marry.

While freedom of expression exists in Mexico, the standards for that freedom of expression are different when exercised by religious groups and those involved in public worship, Mendez said.

Andres Cruz, president of Comunidad Cultural de Tijuana LGBTI, a group that supports same-sex marriage, said the protesters are creating hate, and this leads to physical aggression against people in the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities.

Quietly taking part in Saturdays demonstration was Tijuanas Roman Catholic archbishop, Francisco Moreno Barron, together with his predecessor, Rafael Romo Munoz, at his side.

The Tijuana Archdiocese was named in a complaint submitted last week at Tijuana City Hall by Mendezs organization, Mexico Igualitario, and Comunidad Cultural de Tijuana LGBTI. The complaint to Mexicos Interior Ministry accused the archbishop of violating Mexicos Constitution when he publicly encouraged participation in the protests.

We have the right to defend our values, Moreno said in a recent homily, as he spoke of his intention to join the march in Tijuana.

Dibble writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

To read the article in Spanish, click here.

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A cease-fire in Syrias civil war got off to a shaky start Monday as the government and rebels accused each other of violations and the U.S. and Russia, which brokered the agreement, failed to clarify who was to blame.

Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov negotiated the seven-day truce, which was announced Saturday, but neither the Syrian government nor the rebels took part in the talks, and no one made clear how compliance would be monitored.

The cease-fire was backed by the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

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If the cease-fire takes hold, and food and medical supplies are delivered to the besieged eastern part of Aleppo and other cities, Moscow and Washington will initiate an exchange of intelligence and information to target attacks on the Islamic State extremist group.

They will also target the Front for the Conquest of Syria, the group formerly known as Al Nusra Front, which had been affiliated with Al Qaeda, but which has achieved hero status among the U.S.-backed moderates because it helped break the siege of Aleppo last month.

Kerry told reporters in Washington that there were methods for resolving questions about whether a party had violated the cessation of hostilities but he did not specify any actual punishment. Continued fighting would prevent Russia and the U.S. from forming a joint implementation center for coordination of future airstrikes, he said.

There has to be an earnest good faith effort to make this work, Kerry said in discussing the Syria deal with reporters in Washington. And we will judge that very quickly.

An effective cease-fire will also lead to a resumption of political talks for a transition to a broader government in Syria.

But signs the cease-fire was taking hold were mixed at best. Al Ikhbaria, Syrias official television, charged that rebels had bombed government positions in northern Aleppo with rockets and artillery and said the military retaliated by firing back.

Aleppo Today TV reported that government helicopters dropped explosive cylinders on Handarat and Shafiq neighborhoods in the north of the city within 15 minutes of the start of the truce, which coincided with the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha.

Earlier in the day four barrel-bombs  long tubes filled with shrapnel and explosives and dropped from helicopters -- fell on civilian targets on Aleppos Qaterji neighborhood, wounding three, and there were reports of barrel-bombings in five other neighborhoods.

At least 13 civilians were killed in the village of Maarat Misrin, near Idlib, and in the provincial capital itself, a mother and two children died in what local activists said was a Russian airstrike. In rebel-held Duma, near Damascus, three people were killed and many injured in government missile attacks, activists said.

The five years of fighting has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced millions.

But key players in the cease-fire appeared to have different interpretations of the content of the agreement.

Russia, an Assad ally, formally announced the cease-fire on the whole territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, but Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy, the chief of the general staff operations, said the Russian air force would continue airstrikes against terrorist targets in Syria.

That raised concerns for many who say that for much of the last year, Russia has been bombing U.S.-backed moderate rebel forces, as well as hospitals, schools and other civilian targets while claiming it was targeting terrorists.

For its part, the Syrian military announced a seven-day regime of calm, but warned that Syria reserved the right to respond to any violation from the side of terrorist groups. Syria defines all opponents, including the U.S.-backed moderate opposition, as terrorist groups.

The militarys terminology is ominous for the Syrian population. The last time Syria announced a regime of calm was in early July, when it launched a fierce offensive backed by Russian airstrikes that closed the last remaining supply route to rebel-held Aleppo.

Assad, meanwhile, said Monday that the government planned to recapture the entire country from rebel forces. Before the cease-fire went into effect, Assad visited Dariya, a suburb of Damascus, the capital, recently evacuated by opposition fighters.

The most controversial aspect of the U.S.-Russian accord is no doubt the plan for joint cooperation in fighting the Front for the Conquest of Syria. Rebel groups say that it is unfair to target a group that has cut its ties with Al Qaeda and not target the Lebanese Hezbollah, which is on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations and is fighting for the Syrian government.

In a statement issued Monday, 21 rebel groups said theyd welcome the cease-fire if it provides access for humanitarian aid to reach government-besieged cities but they would oppose any bombing of the Front for the Conquest of Syria.

They voiced doubts that the government and its allies would abide by the truce but called for close monitoring. It appeared that the groups neither endorsed nor rejected the accord, and a spokesman, Col. Hassan Hamadi, said the groups have reservations about the accord.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights in a report released Saturday said Russia has bombed 59 hospitals and clinics since it began its air intervention Sept. 30, 2015, killing 86 civilians, among them 26 medical personnel. Most of the attacks were in Aleppo, where about 300,000 people live in rebel-held eastern neighborhoods, and in Idlib, which is entirely under the control of rebel factions.

The United Nations has plans to send food and medical supplies to Aleppo and other besieged cities and towns, whose population totals more than 1 million.

But U.N. officials said under current plans, no U.N. personnel or vehicles will be sent into Aleppo and U.N. agencies will turn over supplies to local partners. That means there will be no monitoring of the cease-fire by U.N. personnel and no reporting by international observers of the aid deliveries.

Although many people were skeptical about the prospects for peace, children in Aleppo apparently had a much brighter outlook.

The kids in Aleppo are still alive. They didnt give up, Abdulkafi Alhamdo, a teacher, told reporters on an Internet newsroom connection. They run, they play and laugh. It is fantastic to see life from the ashes of war.

Gutman is a special correspondent. Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Washington contributed to this report.

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UPDATES:

4:55 p.m.: This article was updated with more reaction to the cease-fire.

12:55 p.m.: This article was updated with statements by Syrian and Russian officials and additional reporting.

This article was originally published at 9:35 a.m.
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Hispanic Heritage Month 2016  Thursday Sept. 15 to Saturday Oct. 15  is a month set aside to remember the hard work, contribution and dedication of Latinos in America where the public gets a chance to really focus on Hispanic culture and history. It is also a month during which several Latin American Independence Days are celebrated. Take a look at Hispanic Heritage Month Events in big cities throughout the U.S.

MORE: Why Does Hispanic Heritage Month Always Start on September 15th?

Hispanic Heritage Month NYC Events

If you are in New York City during this years Hispanic Heritage Month, check out the Macys Herald Square in concert on Sept. 27 featuring songwriter Jencarlos Canela. Join the crowd to learn about Carlos Cuban background, his sense of style and his career. You can get a picture with the star as well when you spend $25 or more.

The El Barrio Latin Jazz festival will start on Thursday Sept. 15 at P.S. 109. Attendees will learn about the Latin music scene in Harlem and its global impact while enjoying live jazz performances. The festival will continue through Sept. 25.

Room 28 group presents an event on Wednesday Sept. 21 at El Museo Del Barrio where this group shares culturally relevant information about the Latino community through comedy sketches.

Hispanic Heritage Month Los Angeles Events

If you are in Los Angeles, check out the El Grito de Dolores event on Sept. 16 in Downtown L.A. El Grito marks the beginning of the Mexican War of Independence and each year, the City of Los Angeles celebrates with a reenactment of the battle on the steps of City Hall.

The whole family can enjoy the Latino L.A. Festival on Oct. 1 at 4 p.m. in Wilmington Waterfront Park. There is rock climbing, face painting and an obstacle course for kids while adults get to enjoy various art exhibits and a live performance by Susie Hansen Latin Band.

Hispanic Heritage Month D.C.

If you are in the Nations Capital, check out the National Gallery of Art from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 for Hispanic Heritage Month. There are Spanish-language guided tours and audio guides available for an exhibit that honors Latino culture.

Attend the Prince George County Hispanic Festival on Sept. 18 at Lane Manor Park in the D.M.V area where you will get a taste of Hispanic culture through carnival games, arts and crafts, live music and food.

There is also the Latino Festival  Fiesta D.C. held Sept. 17 to Sept. 18 in Downtown D.C. The fiesta has a parade, science festival, international cuisine and more. If you like animals, enjoy some time at the National Zoo on Sept. 18 where there will be Latin American food, costumed dancers and Latino music in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month 2016.
A mother and daughter, who married each other in March, are charged with incest and can face up to 10 years in prison if indicted. The 43-year-old mother and 25-year-old daughter had warrants out for their arrest but the mother has also been married to her eldest son in the past.

Authorities sent out felony arrest warrants issued in Stephens County District court for the mother Patricia Ann Spann and the daughter Misty Velvet Dawn Spann, after getting a tip from an Oklahoma Department of Human Services Child Welfare Division.

Patricia said she had met her biological daughter two years ago and they hit it off and felt that there were no legal issues with the marriage since her name was no longer on her daughters birth certificate.

The women said they will consider annulment while Patricia has a 2010 incest annulment from her son Jody Spann.

The Youngest Son Speaks Out

Patricias son, 24-year-old Cody Spann, says that his mother forced his older brother, and later his sister, to marry her.

Although Patricia told authorities that she reunited with her children two years ago, Cody says she reentered their lives in 2007 as a friend. After spending time with them in Texas, Patricia and Jody became close, got married, and went to their hometown in Oklahoma.

My grandmother looked at my brother and told him that was his mom, Cody told PEOPLE. My brother...said that he wanted to get away from her  that was not what he wanted. And she threatened to kill him. She threatened to poison him.

Cody said his mom tried to come on to him once but he pushed her off, telling her that it was wrong. And although Misty is an adult, she too was manipulated, forced and threatened to marry her mother. He said Patricia threatened to kidnap Misty if she refused.

A Duncan Police Department says that there seems to be some coercion in the incest relationships between Patricia and her children, but that both parties went to the court on their own free will.

Why would you want to be with one of your kids? Cody questioned his moms motive. You birthed these children. God gave you a blessing of putting three kids on earth that actually belong to you and the first thing you want to do is go and mess it all up.

Patricias children were taken away from her when they were really young and left to be raised by their grandparents.
demetrius davis at hearing

Demetrius Davis leaves his preliminary hearing Sept. 12, 2016, in Bethlehem. Davis now faces trial on attempted homicide and related charges. (Sarah Cassi | lehighvalleylive.com)

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A Bethlehem woman on Monday detailed the night of torture she says she endured before being stabbed twice by a man she knew.

The woman described being repeatedly punched and choked by Demetrius Davis the night of July 6 into the morning of July 7 at a home on Argus Street in the city.

Davis kicked her in her face, knocking out her two front teeth, and then forced her to perform a sex act on him, the woman testified.

At one point, the woman said she was able to get out of the house and hobble to a neighbor's door, but Davis laughed at the victim, grabbed her in a headlock and pulled her back into the house.

"I was terrified...I was so scared I was going to die," the woman testified.

The 30-year-old Davis is accused of stabbing the woman twice before he fled -- once in her abdomen and once in the face below her left eye.

Demetrius Davis (Courtesy photo)

Then Davis went shopping, according to police. He was arrested after making a $162 purchase at the Sneaker King store in the Airport Road shopping center with one of the victim's bank cards.

Davis was originally charged with attempted homicide and aggravated assault. On Sept. 1, prosecutors added more charges: involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, theft, access device fraud and three counts of robbery.

After Monday's hearing, all of the charges were sent to Northampton County Court, where Davis now faces possible trial. He remains in Northampton County Prison in lieu of $250,000 bail.

The woman said the stab wound in her abdomen punctured her intestines and she suffered internal bleeding; she underwent emergency surgery at St. Luke's University Hospital in Fountain Hill.

The trauma to the victim's left eye was so severe, she needed a specialist. The woman testified she was placed in a medically-induced coma at St. Luke's, and was flown to Philadelphia for surgery to save her left eye.

The stab wounds were in addition to the multiple bruises, scratches and bite marks on the accuser's body, authorities said. The woman said she needed stitches on the side of her right eye, and has bite-mark scars on her fingers, arms and neck.

After Davis left, the woman tried cleaning herself up in the shower. At one point, she said a man came into the house, and she called him to the bathroom. She didn't know who the man was, and couldn't see out of her injured eyes, but asked him to call 911.

"I just remember asking him for help, which he did not do," the woman testified.

The accuser said her three children, all under the age of 10, were in the house during the attack. Davis' attorney asked why she didn't yell, and the woman said she was afraid Davis would kill her.

"I'm lucky I made it out alive," she testified.

Police said Davis took the victim's cellphone and debit cards, and withdrew about $800 from her accounts.

Davis got a room at the Knights Inn on Airport Road in Hanover Township, Lehigh County. Investigators searched the room after his arrest and found a pile of bloody clothes, his cellphone and the victim's cellphone, as well as bank receipts from around 5:30 a.m. on July 7 detailing money he withdrew from the victim's accounts at an ATM in Hellertown.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Jhamaer Keyes showed up for jury selection and the opening arguments of his cop-assault trial.

But he skipped the next day and the day after that.

So Northampton County Judge Emil Giordano said the 30-year-old Winslow Township, New Jersey, man is on the hook for the cost of bringing in jurors those two days.

The judge held him in contempt during a brief hearing Monday.

Keyes is accused of pinning a police officer between his car and a police car and running over another officer's foot during a drug sting on Sept. 28, 2015, at the Value Place hotel in Bethlehem Township.

Keyes checked himself into the hospital on July 6, 2016, the day testimony was supposed to begin. He claims he suffered from heart failure.

His attorney, Anthony Rybak, had paperwork showing he was in the hospital and that he suffers from an enlarged heart and mental health issues, but none of it convinced the judge that Keyes had a legitimate reason to stay away from the trial.

Jurors earn $9 a day for their first three days of service, then $25 a day after that.

The judge said he will hold a sentencing hearing on the contempt charge within 30 days. Keyes is scheduled to stand trial Oct. 31 on the assault charges.

Keyes appeared in a wheelchair in court Monday. Rybak said Keyes would entertain a plea offer, but Assistant District Attorney John Obrecht said Keyes failed to accept an offer earlier and it's now off the table.

Keyes is charged with pinning Bethlehem Township police Officer Dean Wilson between his car and an unmarked police car.

According to police, Officer Ed Fox fired shots at Keyes' back tire to try to minimize Wilson's injuries. Keyes allegedly rammed the car backward and forward until he could squeeze through and drive away. Fox suffered an injured foot and Wilson injured his arm.

Keyes recklessly drove away and reached 120 mph on Route 22 before he got away, police said.

Keyes is charged with two counts each of aggravated assault and simple assault, five counts of reckless endangerment, and single counts of criminal mischief and fleeing police.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.
Bethlehem Township police expect the driver in a fiery crash that killed three passengers to surrender soon on vehicular homicide charges.

Terrell Barclay, 27, of Orange, New Jersey, was seriously injured in the crash and never considered a flight risk despite police indicating on Friday that he had not been located at the time the warrant for his arrest was issued.

He is facing 16 charges, including three counts of homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence, following the 1:22 a.m. May 6 crash in the 1800 block of Willow Park Road in the township.

Barclay since Friday has agreed with authorities to surrender by mid-week in Bethlehem Township, Inspector Tony Stevens said Monday. A family member is expected to drive him to district court for an arraignment.

Barclay allegedly crashed a rented 2015 Chrysler 200 into three parked vehicles. Witnesses saw Barclay emerge from the sedan on fire and run across the street.

Killed in the crash were Amanda Martin, 26, of New Ringgold, Schuylkill County; Ashlee Mosher, 29, of Easton; and Joshua Edwards, 28, of Easton.

Blood testing put Barclay's blood-alcohol content 90 minutes after the crash at 0.19; penalties begin for most drivers at a BAC of 0.08. He allegedly also had THC, the intoxicant in marijuana, in his system.

Barclay was driving while his New Jersey and Pennsylvania licenses were both suspended, police said. A .40-caliber Taurus Millennium handgun found in the road where Barclay had exited the burning car was later identified as having been stolen from Plainfield Township.

Barclay, the lone survivor in the crash, had been hospitalized in a medically-induced coma at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Salisbury Township just after the crash until July 27. He then was transferred to the Easton Health and Rehabilitation Center.

Police on Friday charged Barclay and put out a warrant for his arrest, but said in announcing the charges that they were still trying to find him.

Bethlehem Township's top cop on Monday said there may have been some public uncertainty on Friday over whether Barclay was on the lam.

"I think that it came out differently on Friday because it was not our intent to locate him on Friday," police Chief Dan Pancoast said. "The intent was to locate him (Monday). We had a good idea where he was. We were confident he wasn't going to run and that no specific effort would have to be needed to locate him."

Barclay stayed at the rehab center until about two weeks ago when he was discharged and returned to his Orange home. Police kept tabs on him then and continue to check in with Barclay and his family, said Stevens, the inspector.

"We knew when he left and the district attorney was aware of it," Pancoast said.

What took so long?

Why didn't authorities charge Barclay before he left the hospital or rehab center?

Stevens says the investigation wasn't complete when Barclay was transferred from Lehigh Valley Hospital's burn unit to the rehab center. Bethlehem Township police were still working with Pennsylvania State Police and the Northampton County District Attorney's Office to collect evidence to charge Barclay.

"He did nothing wrong leaving the facility and the hospital did nothing wrong," Stevens said.

Among the evidence needed was an accident reconstruction, drug/toxicology results from the lab, as well as a decision from Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli.

"It didn't come together until Thursday (Sept. 8)," Pancoast said.

Morganelli echoed that charging Barclay before he left the hospital would have been premature.

"Charges were filed at the right time -- when the investigation was complete," he said. "If we do it before, (the) clock starts ticking against the state and we get rushed. No need to move fast on a case like this when the defendant was in a coma and and we had not had a chance to talk with him. (It's) not like he is a serial killer -- he was substantially incapacitated."

Morganelli added once charges are filed, a "speedy trial rule" starts and police can't sit by for months still investigating.

"That is why we like to be sure all is done before we charge -- typically in accident cases we wait because it takes months for accident reconstruction to be complete," the district attorney said.

No 'flight risk'

Authorities say Barclay has been fully cooperative and they don't believe he'll be a "flight risk." That is despite Barclay being uncooperative at the crash scene and trying to leave, court records had indicated.

When asked why police don't just arrest Barclay in New Jersey and take him to Pennsylvania, Stevens said Monday, "Considering his medical condition, we felt it's best if he turns himself in. He's been cooperative, but if that changes and we have to go that route, we can."

Barclay is horribly disfigured, being burned nearly from head to toe, Bethlehem Township police Sgt. Rick Blake said.

"We'll know (what condition he is in) when we see him," Pancoast added. "His injuries were significant, requiring the medically-induced coma. He's nowhere near full recovery at this time."

It's unclear if Barclay will be able to provide any testimony remembering what occurred the morning of the crash or the night before. Pancoast said Stevens conducted an interview with Barclay about a month ago; Stevens declined to go into specifics.

"I don't recall anything in the statement that is going to be helpful," Pancoast said.

Also interviewed were Barclay's family members, including an uncle who is a lieutenant with the Newark Police Department. The police officer assured township police Barclay would surrender.

"There was some concern we might not know where he is and that was not the case," Pancoast said.

Reporter Tony Rhodin contributed to this report.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
The mother of a then-12-year-old Broughal Middle School child will serve six months on probation for yelling and encouraging her daughter to fight another 12-year-old.

Natalie Marie Newton grabbed her daughter's backpack as she encouraged her to fight after school on March 7, 2016.

"Shut the (expletive) up! Listen here! Listen here! You wanna fight? Fight!" she yelled to the girls, according to court papers.

"Get her!" she yelled to her daughter as the fight progressed. After the girls were struggling on the ground the mother pulled her daughter off the other girl and said "That's it."

The fight at 2:30 p.m. in the 600 block of East Fourth Street in Bethlehem was captured on two surveillance videos.

Newton, 30, of the 900 block of Evans Street in Bethlehem, pleaded guilty Friday to corruption of minors. She was sentenced to six months of probation by Northampton County Senior Judge Leonard Zito.

Court papers say Newton told Broughal Principal Rick Amato and the district's dean of students that videos of the fight were broadcast on social media. Girls involved in the fight and their parents went to Newton's home to confront her, records say.

Amato turned over the surveillance videos of the fight to school resource officer William Rodriguez, who filed the charges.

Newton's attorney, Hala Tahan Khouly, didn't return a phone call. Newton couldn't be reached for comment.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.
The Philadelphia Police Department and the FBI are searching for a male suspect they say robbed various city banks.

The most recent robbery occurred Sunday afternoon when the robber entered a TD Bank branch, 111 S. 11th St., and handed the teller a note demanding cash, police said.

After obtaining an undisclosed amount of money at 12:48 p.m., the robber fled.

Police also believe the same suspect on Sept. 4 robbed the same TD Bank branch.

He also is connected to an Aug. 19 attempted robbery at a Citizens Bank branch, 6201 N. 5th St., and approximately 40 minutes later, a robbery at the Hyperion Bank branch, 199 West Girard Ave.

Police are describing the suspect as black; approximately five feet, eight inches to five feet, nine inches in height; a medium build, and having a "scraggly black and gray beard."

He is considered "armed and dangerous," according to police.

On Sunday, the suspect was seen wearing a white, blue and gray striped short-sleeved shirt, tan cargo shorts, thick-rimmed eyeglasses, a black bucket hat and a red and white hospital/medical wristband.

Anyone with information about the robberies or the suspect is urged to call the FBI at 215-418-4000 or the Philadelphia Police Department. Police said there is a reward for information leading to this suspect's capture; tipsters can remain anonymous.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A car making a U-turn Sunday afternoon on Route 61 in Berks County was struck from behind by a motorcycle, throwing two people off the northbound bike, leading to the death of one of them, the Reading Eagle reports.

Tilden Township police told the newspaper that the initially southbound car was just completing the turn about 3 p.m. near the Interstate 78 interchange when the crash happened.

The 53-year-old man driving the bike was pronounced dead by the county coroner's office and the female passenger was taken to an area hospital for treatment, the newspaper said.

Identities had yet to be released as of just after midnight.

Tilden Township is about three miles west of Hamburg.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
justice.jpg

Should Pennsylvania judges be allowed to serve until they reach the age of 75?

(Express-Times file photo)

Though they might not know it from the wording of the referendum, Pennsylvania voters will be asked in the Nov. 8 election whether the mandatory retirement age for judges should be raised from 70 to 75.

Actually, voters did weigh in on this in the May primary election. A majority of voters said the retirement age should remain 70, but their votes didn't count. Legislative leaders decided the wording of that question might have been confusing to voters and canceled it weeks before the primary. (It was too late to remove it, so the voided question remained on the ballot.)

If anything, the new question is more misleading than the one it replaced. The original asked whether the age should be raised from 70 to 75; the revised one merely asks if a mandatory retirement age of 75 should be imposed, with no mention of the existing cutoff at 70. In the eyes of some observers, it may appear the state is enacting an age limit for the first time.

In our Sunday editorial, we argued that the question is misleading and should be scrapped.

Here's the question that appeared on the May ballot:

Shall the Pennsylvania Constitution be amended to require that [judges] be retired on the last day of the calendar year in which they attain the age of 75 years, instead of the current requirement that they be retired on the last day of the calendar year in which they attain the age of 70?

Here's the amended question set for November:

Shall the Pennsylvania Constitution be amended to require that justices of the Supreme Court, judges, and magisterial district judges be retired on the last day of the calendar year in which they attain the age of 75?

Two former judges sued in court to block the new question, saying it doesn't give voters enough information. Earlier this month the state Supreme Court split 3-3 on that request, so it appears the question will remain on the ballot -- unless a lower court assumes jurisdiction and decides otherwise.

Despite the shenanigans, there's an important issue at stake -- whether judges who reach 70 should be permitted another five years of service. The change would affect all judges -- from the state appellate courts to common pleas court to magisterial court.

What do you think? Should Pennsylvania judges have the option to serve until 75? Have a say in our informal poll, and feel free to elaborate in the comments section.
Talen Energy fire at Martins Creek plant on Sept. 11, 2016

Flames are seen after a reported transformer fire outside Talen Energy's Martins Creek power plant in Lower Mount Bethel Township on Sept. 11, 2016. (Tim Wynkoop | lehighvalleylive.com contributor)

Firefighters were called to Talen Energy's Lower Mount Bethel power plant Sunday night for a transformer fire.

The natural-gas fired plant is off Depues Ferry Road in Lower Mount Bethel Township, along the Delaware River.

Initial reports indicated there had been an explosion at the plant, but a Northampton County emergency dispatch supervisor said it was a transformer fire outside the building.

"It is contained, the plant is stable and there is no risk to plant personnel or the public," Talen Energy spokesman Todd Martin said.

No injuries were reported, officials said. The first call went out about 7:40 p.m.

The plant had been run by PPL until the Allentown-based utility spun off its power generation business last year.

PPL spokeswoman Dana Burns said PPL, which distributes energy manufactured at the plant, was monitoring the fire. No power outages were reported as a result of it, she said.

"We've dispatched crews to keep an eye on the situation," she said. "We're monitoring it, making sure that everything is looking good."

The plant is across the Delaware from Harmony Township in Warren County. Residents in Pennsylvania and New Jersey reported hearing an explosion and seeing a column of thick smoke.

Talen's Martin was unable to confirm an explosion but stressed the plant was functioning normally and no one there was hurt.

"The situation is stable and contained," he said.

"At this point, our primary focus is on understanding exactly what took place. That will take an investigation both internal and external. When that is completed, we'll be able to provide more information."

Jim Deegan may be reached at jdeegan@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @jim_deegan. Find lehighvalleylive on Facebook.
Never forget.

That was the phrase stressed by speakers in poems, speeches and readings as Warren County residents Sunday marked the 15th anniversary of the deadliest terror attack in U.S. history.

More than 100 people gathered at the Warren County Patriot Day Observance event at the county's 9/11 and Emergency Service Memorial in Franklin Township. Besides residents, attendees included friends and family members who lost loved ones in the line of duty, as well as police, fire and EMS officials, county officials, Scouts and military service members.

Warren County Freeholder Deputy Director Richard D. Gardner, the event's keynote speaker, said it's important to remember 9/11 to teach future generations what happened that horrific day.

"To stay on guard and not become complacent about the security of this great nation," he said. "The sovereignty of our great society can only last if it is protected well from those who wish to dismantle it."

Gardner said while chaotic events were unfolding with people trapped in the World Trade Center, emergency workers rushed in to save lives in spite of imminent, perilous danger.

"Actually, ladies and gentleman, they rushed in to 'hell on Earth,' that morning to save fellow man," he said. "That takes fortitude, guts and immeasurable courage to sacrifice onseself to save another."

Words also were said by Joan Biondi, legislative aide to Assemblyman John DiMaio, R-Warren/Hunterdon; Freeholder Edward J. Smith; Assemblyman Erik Peterson R-Warren/Hunterdon and Department of Public Safety Director Frank E. Wheatley.

Peterson said his 7-year-old son, who just started learning about 9/11 in school, came home and asked, "Why do we want to remember it?"

The child, Peterson said, didn't understand why a horrible, tragic event should be remembered.

"So we never forget who died," Peterson said. "We can never forget -- not the actual act itself -- but the people who perished in 9/11. These were people just going to work."

Sunday's tribute also included bagpipers playing "Amazing Grace;" the singing of the national anthem and "God Bless America" by Belvidere High School students; taps, prayers and the placing of memorial wreaths at the site.

Bells rang out for seven New Jersey State Police troopers, five municipal police officers and three volunteer firefighters killed in the line of duty from 1874 to 2011.

A poem titled "The Twin Towers," written by late county resident William Miller, was read by Chief Joseph Fox, director of the Warren County Fire Academy. The poem encouraged those in attendance to walk away in remembrance of those who made the ultimate sacrifice that day.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
The amount of money set aside for water supply schemes in rural Laois has trebled from an original sum provided earlier this year.

In total 387,250 has being provided for group rural water schemes in Laois under the Multi-Annual Rural Water Programme for 2016. Laois County Council was given an indicative figure of 100k to work with last May.

It will be up to county hall to decide on how to spend the money.

Laois TD and Minister Charlie Flanagan welcomed the funding saying it is great news for communities in Laois.

The funding for Laois County Council is aimed primarily towards the improvement of water quality in existing group water schemes in Laois, the takeover of some schemes by Irish Water in cases where the scheme has sought such a takeover, and upgrading and water conservation works in group water scheme distribution networks.

Funding is also provided towards new group water and sewerage schemes in county Laois. These new schemes enable rural households, to have a supply of good quality piped water for the first time.

The allocation for Laois today is significant news and will ensure that more people in county Laois have access to a good quality piped water supply in their houses.

Minister Flanagan said the Government the Multi-Annual Rural Water Programme and the funding announced for Laois, is an important step in this economic recovery for rural areas.

The total 2016 allocation of almost 14.9 million under the Multi-Annual Rural Water Programme is an increase of almost 30% on last year.
The September item of the month in Ballinamore Library is about Thomas H. Parke who was a truly remarkable Irishman.

He was born on the 27th November 1857, at Clogher House, Kilmore, a short distance from Drumsna, where he lived his early years. He died suddenly 35 years later, in the prime of life.

Apart from his humanitarian and medical achievements, he had crowded into his short span on earth, experiences which would do justice to a H.G. Wells or a Robert Louis Stevenson adventure story. In Dublin, a statue was erected to honour this great man. It stands close to the entrance of the National History Section of the National Museum in Merrion Square, Dublin. The bronze plaque depicting Parke sucking the poison from an arrow wound, with the great explorer Stanley, standing by, at the base of the statue.

While Parke led an eventful and incident packed life he did not become widely known until he joined Stanleys Congo Expedition in 1887. He proved to be the backbone of this enterprise. At the time that Parke joined the expedition, he was the first Irishman to cross Africa. He was also the second doctor to do so, being preceded only by David Livingstone.

On April 20th 1888, Parke and Jephson, while on a shooting trip to replenish food supplies, first sighted the mountains. They reported the matter to Stanley who was sceptical but on May 25th 1888, the clouds parted and this time Stanley saw the snowy peaks glimmering in the distance. Thus the last of the legendary features of the fountains of the Nile came to be discovered. Stanley in his account of the expedition Through Darkest Africa failed to mention Parkes and Jephsons priority in sighting the range. When Parke finally returned to the United Kingdom he became the worthy subject of high professional acclamation.

Among the testimonials given to him was the honorary fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland. He then took up his army duties once more and wrote two excellent books, My Personal Experiences in Equatorial Africa and Guide to Health in Africa.

He was entertained at a banquet by his fellow officers of the army medical staff. The Editors of The Lancet entertained him at their offices on the afternoon of June 6th 1890 and presented him, in the presence of their staff, with a large silver salver. In the evening of the same day a banquet was given in his honour by some of the most distinguished medical men, under the Presidency of Sir Andrew Clarke. The Chairman, Mr Jonathan Hutchinson and Sir James Page all spoke in eloquent terms of his services.

The University of Durham conferred on him the Honorary Degree of D.C.L. and he was presented at Birmingham with the Gold Medal of the British Medical profession for distinguished merit.

The hardships that Surgeon Major Thomas Heazle Parke had undergone had ruined his health and during the remaining years of his life he had several seizures of an epileptiform nature. He died suddenly on the 10th September 1893. His remains arrived in Dublin on September 15th and were received by a military escort. Next day they were interred in the private burial ground of the Parke family at Drumsna, Co. Leitrim.

The Prince of Wales, later to become King Edward VII was represented at the burial services. At a meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Freemasons of North Connaught held on September 19th 1893, a life size oil portrait of Parke painted by Miss Folliott, was presented to the Lodge (of which both he and his father had been members) by Lieut. Colonel Folliott, D.L. of Hollybrook, County Sligo. It was for a time in the Masonic Lodge Boyle, but was finally placed in the Parke Memorial Hall, Carrick-on-Shannon, which was so named in honour of the famed surgeon explorer.

This booklet Surgeon Major T.H. Parke  A Short History of His Life published by Carrick-on-Shannon & District Historical Society is the chosen item of the month for September and all are welcome to come and view it at Ballinamore Library. Opening hours are Monday, Wednesday & Friday 10 - 5.30; Tuesday & Thursday 10 - 8; Saturday 10  5, daily lunch closing 1.30  2.30pm.
In the early hours of the morning of June 24th, everything we understood about the UKs relationship with the rest of Europe changed.

The European Union and our belief in its goals of peace and economic prosperity is an enormous part of what it is to be a Liberal Democrat. We are internationalist, co-operative, tolerant. And as that reality sank in we realised there was another consequence: What did this mean for our relationship with the rest of the UK?

Scottish Liberal Democrats have spent years campaigning for a strong Scotland within the UK, for a federal UK that pools and shares resources. And in two referendums in the past two years the people of Scotland have agreed with both of those precepts: Remain in the EU and be part of the UK.

So we understand the dilemma of those who now feel themselves torn between commitment to two different unions being pulled apart by the Conservatives constitutional recklessness and a decision, the consequences of which, none of us yet know.

That is why the approach of Liberal Scotland in Europe is to have a free, open debate in our party on how Scotland can secure the best possible future relationship with the UK and the EU. The group accepts that may not be possible, but none of us is prepared to give up on it, before we even know what Brexit will look like.

And that is why Liberal Scotland in Europe has put forward a motion to this autumns Scottish Conference which aims to keep the partys, and Scotlands, options open.

Other parties may only be about unionism or nationalism, but the Liberal Democrats are about more than that. Our policies are decided by the membership, and as a membership we need to live up to our radical traditions and take on the challenge of finding a creative way forward for Scotland. We want to encourage our leadership to explore all possibilities, with all parties, to pursue the best possible outcome for Scotland.

There is a huge chasm between the Tories Brexit for all, and the SNPs independence strategy. Somewhere between the two may be a federalist position that works for Scotland.

We welcome Willie Rennies No Borders proposals, and we continue to believe that a Scotland at the heart of both Europe and the UK is the best possible outcome. It may be possible to achieve that vision. It may not. But we will never know unless we try, and without exploring options we could end up with none.

This period of political history may prove to be the most significant for our constitution in 300 of years. It is for the Scottish Liberal Democrats membership to decide what role the party will play and what route we will choose. But if we are to secure the best future for Scotland and the strongest relationship with both the UK and EU, we will need to leave no possibility unexplored.

If we fail to do that our children and grandchildren will not forgive us.

* The Liberal Scotland in Europe team is a group of Scottish members
I would like to contribute to the radical and distinctive LibDem platform of the Radical Association. We should be proud of our devolution process, freely achieved without unrest and violence. But it has created inconsistencies underlined by the Scottish and EU referendums:

We are a Union of four countries, each theoretically equal within the Union

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have a Parliament and First Minster

England does not have a Parliament of its own, or a First Minister

England does host the national Parliament to which the others also send MPs

But England has way more seats (533) in this national Parliament than the other three together (59 in Scotland, 40 in Wales, 18 in Northern Ireland)

And this essentially English Parliament makes national decisions that affect us all

There is clearly something unbalanced and undemocratic about this. How to fix it? The LibDems have long campaigned for House of Lords reform. Let us go several steps further:

The House of Commons becomes what it used to be  the Parliament of England

This single chamber handles the affairs of England (like the other home Parliaments)

The leader of the majority party in the Commons is the First Minister of England

Next, abolish the House of Lords

In its place, a new Assembly of Home Nations (a kind of Senate)

In this Assembly each country elects an equal number of representatives or Senators (say 25, a total of 100)

So how does this work? Firstly, all four countries now have a Parliament and First Minister, all of equal standing. And the UK Prime Minister and national Cabinet are chosen from the new Assembly to form the UK Government, which must also include all four First Ministers.

Secondly, nationally important matters (like leaving the EU or invading Iraq):

Are debated in each home parliament;

If all four approve, the issue then goes to the Assembly of Home Nations;

If the measure fails there, it goes back to the lower levels, or is shelved.

Lastly, devolved services and other powers continue to be the responsibility of the four country parliaments (subject to national frameworks approved by all four countries in the new Assembly).

Some will say this all too complicated, but it is no more so than what we have now. It avoids daft ideas like English votes for English laws in the national Parliament. And it creates a true union of equal countries in a sovereign United Kingdom. It would also ensure that the UK has a truly national leadership. And we get rid of an anachronistic and undemocratic upper house.

Some will cry England is grossly under-represented in the Assembly! One might reply, so what? For centuries England has dominated  It is time to even the balance. We can also look at the USA, or Australia, with Senates that give their constituent states full political equality. Each state elects the same number of Senators (2 in the USA, 12 in Australia), irrespective of population or economic clout. Separate, elected state governments and leaders looks after state issues; national issues are debated and approved at the higher national level.

My proposal has only one House for national matters. But a check-and-balance exists: its decisions have to be endorsed by each Parliament (a kind of collective lower house). Throw in a manifesto commitment to PR (already used outside England) and we have a radical and distinctive new start.

* Chris works in international development, specialising in rural development, land and environmental issues.
A LOCAL autistic boy is hoping to get a companion dog, thanks to a childrens choir which is launching a fundraising CD.

Six-year-old Kevin Mason, who has sensory issues associated with autism spectrum disorder and ADHD, would benefit immensely from a service dog, according to his mother.

Tracey Mason said that the dog would give Kevin more independence.

According to Tracey, Kevin has no sense of danger, particularly near the road. As a result, he currently uses a buggy.

Kevins care team suggested that an autism service dog from My Canine Companion would change his life.

The Sing Out Loud choir, made up of children between the ages of seven and 16, has recorded I Have a Dream by Abba to raise funds for Kevins dog.

The single was produced entirely in Limerick by the group, which is a mixed ability choir that focuses on inclusion.

The choir was founded last year by mother and daughter team Gretta OShea and Vanessa Finn.

Gretta said that singing is an effective communication tool for when other methods dont work.

The whole idea of the choir is to give a voice to people who normally don't feel they have a voice, she said.

This is something I am really passionate about because I believe everybody can sing a song.

As a community musician, Ms OShea believes that music can help to break down barriers between the children.

We have children with autism and with all different levels of ability and disability, she added.

Tracey said that her sons behaviour changes completely when he is around service dogs.

I brought Kevin to training sessions and he calmed down completely when he first came into contact with a canine companion, she said.

The dog would help Kevin to cope with social interaction, as well as helping him with his own personal safety.

Tracey and Emmet Mason from Dooradoyle, who have six children, have been preparing for the arrival of the service dog in recent times.

The parents also have an older son with autism.

Theres a change in Kevin when hes around the dogs, according to Tracey.

Ever since Kevin first came into contact with a service dog, the family has been fundraising to get him his own assistance dog.

We cant really go for family meals or do anything like that  its very stressful for Kevin, said Tracey.

The dog would add so much to his current therapies, she added.

My Canine Companion is a national charity that provides highly trained service dogs to people with disabilities, particularly autism spectrum disorder.

The charity specially trains the dogs for children and young adults so they can gain independence.

Each service dog costs My Canine Companion over 10,000 to train, and training each dog takes two years.

It provides dogs to children with autism all over Ireland, despite receiving no government funding, relying solely on fundraising and donations.

Kevins mother hopes that such a dog will give the family some much needed freedom to go out with Kevin without fearing for his safety.

The single will be launched on September 12 at Perys Hotel on Glentworth Street at 6pm.

The CD will be available at several outlets throughout the city for five euro.

Any money left over from sales of the CD will go to Red Hill School in Patrickswell, where Kevin and his brother attend school.

Ms O Shea added that the Sing Out Loud choir is currently recruiting new members and has invited children of all ages and abilities to get involved.

Auditions for the choir, which aims to inspire confidence in children, will be held on September 14 in Christchurch, OConnell Street.
THE entire Shannon estuary coastline could become part of the phenomenally successful Wild Atlantic Way, the Minister of State for Tourism and Sport Patrick ODonovan has revealed.

Speaking to the Limerick Leader, Minister ODonovan said: The Wild Atlantic Way comes to Foynes. We are working on an initiative with Clare that it would take in the whole estuary.

The initiative comes from an ad hoc working group involving the Minister, senior council officials, Ballyhoura and West Limerick Resources which has been examining various tourism projects.

The Minister also revealed that he saw huge potential for the development of historic and OPW sites in East Limerick as part of the Irelands Ancient East route but added that West LImericks historic attractions should also be promoted more.

Minister ODonovan also revealed that the Great Southern Trail will, over the next few years, be linked into a national network of greenways being developed as part of a new national strategy..

And he hopes that a new greenway from the city to Charleville via Croom will be developed as part of that new strategy. The Limerick to Charleville trail is still at a very, very early stage, the Minister acknowledged but said: Ballyhoura are very anxious to get the ball rolling on it.

The city would also be linked to the Great Southern Trail at Rathkeale under this strategy. Following discussions on the greenways with the chief executive of Limerick City and County Council, Conn Murray, the Minister has urged that the council gets everything in order as rapidly as possible to be among the first to benefit from the 100m that will be made available under the Smarter Travel scheme between now and 2021.

Those local authorities who have the donkey work done will be prioritised, he told the Limerick Leader. Any future spending will be done on the basis that local authorities that have plans and engagement in place will be put to the front of the queue.

We know there are difficulties on the North Kerry section, the minister said before he left for the Rio Paralympics. And his advice has been to concentrate on initiatives within the county, ie to complete the Great Southern Trail from Limerick to Rathkeale and to move on the trail to Charleville.

Last month, Limerick City and County Council received grant aid of 500,000, which is to be matched by the councils own funds, to begin the work of extending the greenway from Rathkeale to Limerick. Earlier this week, the council was awarded a further 291,000 which, it is understood, will be spent on upgrading and promoting the existing route and installing new signage.

A lot of work has already been done in drawing up the new, national strategy for greenways, Minister ODonovan said. The key objective was to bring all the various agencies and local authorities together and to create a blueprint for a national network of greenways, which would be of similar standard.

Greenway routes should not stop at county bounds, he argued. It should be possible to get on a bike in Dublin and cycle down to Cahersiveen, the Minister said.
STAFF at a facility for severely troubled teenagers in Mulgrave Street say they are in fear of their lives.

The Impact trade union is to seek urgent meetings with management at Coovagh House  a 6m facility which houses three minors  after workers spoke of how they fear a repeat of the situation in Oberstown, where teens there ran riot and a fire broke out at the Dublin centre.

Thirty people work at the high-security site in the city, and it is understood some are refusing to take clients out of the centre on visits, due to fears for their safety.

One staff member, who asked not to be identified, said: Every day when you go in there, you fear you will be assaulted, or something worse. Some of us are afraid of our lives. The gardai have protection, they have pepper spray, they have handcuffs and batons. We have nothing.

Another long-serving staff member said: The clients we are dealing with now are very dangerous. We used to get kids in there who needed proper therapeutic intervention. They are not getting that now. We are containing the children. I would compare it to Oberstown. There is a fear there could be another Oberstown here.

Coovagh House, which is in the grounds of St Josephs Hospital, was set up to deal with five troubled teens at a time.

But this number has fallen to three due to the fact there are not enough staff to provide round-the-clock care.

In a 2013 report, Hiqa recorded 37 staff working in Coovagh House. This has since fallen to 30.

An Impact source confirmed they had sought a meeting with management of the Tusla-run facility over the health and safety of staff.

People are presenting with a lot more aggressive behaviour.

There have been a number of incidents of aggressive behaviour over the last 18 months, they said.

Meanwhile, the Limerick Leader understands the youth who may be moved to a specialised secure psychiatric facility in Britain is based at Coovagh House.

The High Court heard this week that the government jet may be called upon to make the transfer.

Tusla said as an agency, it liaises on a regular basis with Impact officials in relation to staff welfare and working conditions at Coovagh House.

Tusla can confirm one such meeting is taking place on Thursday, September 8 and issues relating to staff welfare and working conditions will be discussed, a spokerson added.
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Ukraine's State Fiscal Service is inspecting facts related to the pretrial investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) into the signs of abuse of power by officials from the State Fiscal Service, the press service of the authority has reported.

"The inspection of nonresident companies registered in offshore jurisdictions and allegedly controlled by officials from the State Fiscal Service and their associates has been started to conduct an unbiased and all-round consideration of the above-mentioned facts, establish the circumstances of crimes and punish guilty persons," the fiscal service told Interfax-Ukraine last week.

According to NABU's pretrial investigation No. 42016100000000329, officials from the State Fiscal Service with the help of officials from Kyiv customs office are participants of a criminal customs clearance scheme setting too low customs value of goods via fabrication or replacement of cargo accompanying documents.

According to the investigators, improper advantage is sent by unknown resident companies to the accounts of offshore companies controlled by officials from the State Fiscal Service and their associates, including Abital LP and Iris Assets Limited.

According to a posting on Nashi Groshi website, Iris Assets Limited and Abital LP are registered in Britain and affiliated with Belize's B2B Consultants Ltd.

According to the court ruling register, the investigating judge of Solomiansky district court of Kyiv on August 15 permitted Latvian authorized agencies to have access to the documents and information about Abital LP and Iris Assets Limited in Latvia's Baltic International Bank.
Ukrainian resumed importing gas from Poland at 7:00 a.m. Kyiv time on Monday following a pipeline leak in Ukraine that forced the imports to be suspended in the morning on September 9, Ukrtransgaz press secretary Maksym Beliavsky reported.

"Imports from Poland resumed at 0700; the regime is 4.25 million cubic meters (mcm); the capacity utilization of the corridor is 99%," Beliavsky said on Facebook.

Beliavsky said the repair work had been completed late on Saturday night.

Ukraine has capacity to import 4.3 mcm from Poland on pipelines operating in the reverse direction. It imported 35.544 mcm from Poland in the first ten days of September, and 466.163 million cubic meters from Europe in general.

Ukrtransgaz, a 100% subsidiary of Naftogaz Ukrainy, operates Ukraine's trunk gas pipeline system, as well as its 12 underground storage facilities with capacity for 31 bcm.
Ukraine boosts gas stocks in inventories by 4.7 bcm of gas after completion of heating season

Ukraine after the completion of the heating season 2015/2016 has increased natural gas stocks at Ukraine's underground storage facilities by 55.4% or 4.674 billion cubic meters (bcm), public joint-stock company Ukrtransgaz has reported.

If on April 6 8.438 bcm of gas were in the underground storage facilities, then on September 10 gas stocks amounted to 13.112 bcm.

Average daily pumping to the underground storage facilities in August was 60.7 million cubic meters and on September 10, 2016 it was 59.5 million cubic meters.

Gas imports from Europe on September 10 totaled 45 million cubic meters, including 39.1 million cubic meters from Slovakia and 5.9 million cubic meters from Hungary.

Naftogaz Ukrainy top managers earlier that the holding seeks to start the new heating season with gas stocks of at least 14.5 bcm.

Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers has ordered to draw up a schedule for pumping natural gas to underground gas storage facilities, according to which gas stocks as of November 1, 2016 are to be 17 bcm. The Energy and Coal Industry Ministry, Economic Development and Trade Ministry, Finance Ministry and national joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy are to draw up the schedule and approve it by September 15.
Ukraine would be able to earn from $200 million to $400 million from privatization of state-run enterprise Ukrspyrt, Agricultural Policy and Food Minister of Ukraine Taras Kutoviy has said.

"To privatize Ukrspyrt is the same as in the famous statement "to see Paris [and die]." If my team manages to do this, we would be part of history for sure. We have all legal mechanisms for this I think that the state will be able to earn from $200 million to $400 million from the sale of Ukrspyrt corporation," the minister said in an interview with Dzerkalo Tyzhnia newspaper.

Kutoviy said that a bill on the specifics of privatization of spirit and alcohol industry enterprises envisages that the distilleries will be sold to alcohol producers who would have an exclusive right to produce spirit during five years. The distilleries that would not be interesting for investors would be offered to producers of alternative fuel or as a site for other production activities.

Earlier in June 2016 Head of Ukraine's State Property Fund Ihor Bilous said that the fund is ready to accept Ukrspyrt for further privatization.

Ukrspyrt is a large spirit producer in Ukraine. Its production capacity is 31.3 million decaliters a year. It incorporates 41 production sites.
Here, an image from the Grolier Codex, a Mayan text that researchers now say is authentic.

The authenticity of the Grolier Codex has been disputed for the last four decades. A group of researchers who revisited the rare Maya text now argue that there's no way it could be a forgery.

If the 800-year-old Grolier Codex is indeed authentic, it would be the oldest known paper manuscript from the Americas, and one of just four Maya codices that are known today.

The fragmentary codex is made up of 10 painted pages full of Maya hieroglyphs, depictions of deities and a calendar that tracks the movement of the planet Venus, which was important for keeping religious rituals. [Photos: Maya Mural Depicts Royal Advisors]

The calendar spans 104 years, meaning the codex could have been used by at least three generations of calendar priests or "day-keepers," the authors of the new study wrote. For the Maya, Venus was an omen for unfortunate events, and the different cycles of the planet were linked to particular godsmost of whom are depicted in the Grolier Codex as dangerous, holding weapons like spears, darts and knives used for beheading.

Shady provenance

When it surfaced in the 1970s, the codex was eyed as a possible forgery. Those suspicions arose in part because of the manuscript's shady collecting history; it was not discovered by archaeologists, but looters, who sold it to a Mexican private collector JosueSaenz in the late 1960s.

Saenz presented what many scholars thought was an outlandish story about how he had acquired the manuscript. He said he was taken in a light plane to a remote airstrip in an undisclosed location in the Mexican state of Chiapas. There, the looters allegedly showed him the codex along with other Maya artifacts, including a wooden mask and a child's sandaland told him that the objects had been found in a cave.

According to the research consortium Trafficking Culture, Saenz allowed archaeologist Michael Coe to display the text at theGrolier Club in New York (hence the name of the codex) where it gained international attention. It then apparently sat for years in the basement of the Mexican National Museum of Anthropology.

"It became a kind of dogma that this was a fake," study researcher Stephen Houston, an archaeologist at Brown University, said in a statement. "We decided to return and look at it very carefully, to check criticisms one at a time."

Evidence of authenticity

Coe, Houston and two other researchers have just published their 50-page reassessment of Grolier Codex in the journal Maya Archaeology.

Among the supporting evidence they present are radiocarbon dates that show the manuscript dates back to the 13th century. This would suggest the text was created toward the end of the early post-Classic period (A.D. 9001250), when both Chichen Itza in Yucatan and Tula in Central Mexico were falling into decline, and the authors say that the Grolier Codex contains imagery similar to what's been found at those two archaeological sites.

Skeptics had previously argued that a hoaxer could have created a forgery using genuinely ancient Maya paper. But the researchers also argue that the codex bears features that Mayanists in the 1960s didn't fully understand, and so a forger wouldn't have been able to create such features. The manuscript, for instance, contains images of deities that hadn't yet been discovered, the authors write, and some of the paintings are rendered in a pigment known as "Maya blue," which hadn't been accurately synthesized in a lab until the 1980s.

"A reasoned weighing of evidence leaves only one possible conclusion: four intact Maya codices survive from the pre-Columbian period, and one of them is the Grolier," the authors wrote.

The three other Maya codices which are much longer and in better condition than the Grolier Codex are the Dresden Codex, the Madrid Codex and the Paris Codex, each named after the city where the text is housed. It's not that the Maya didn't produce many written records. But many texts were written on organic material like strips of paper made from the inner bark of fig or mulberrytrees, and they likely disintegrated under the wet conditions of Central America. Still, others were deliberately destroyed by European Christians who saw the manuscripts as heretical works.

Some book burnings were even described in colonial accounts that would make any historian's heart sink. For example, one 16th-century Spanish Franciscan friar named Diego de Landa wrote about finding a large number of Maya books that contained "nothing in which there was not superstition and lies of the devil," so, he and his fellow missionaries burned them all, which the Maya, unsurprisingly, "regretted to an amazing degree."

Original article on Live Science.
Telenor to offer 8% in Russia'sVimpelcom, may place $1 bln in bonds convertible into Vimpelcom ADS

Norwegian telecom holding Telenor plans to offer 142.5 million Vimpelcom Ltd ADS on the market, Vimpelcom said in a press release.

The offering amounts to 8.11% of Vimpelcom share capital and 24.54% of Telenor's stake (totaling 580,578,840 shares).

Vimpelcom does not specify the trading floor where the shares will be offered. Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan will act as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners and Citigroup and Credit Suisse will act as joint bookrunners for the offering.

Before pricing of the ADS offering, Telenor may also launch a three-year bond exchangeable into Vimpelcom ADSs totaling up to $1 billion, with an exchange premium that could be up to 35%, Vimpelcom said.
Russian banks have invested approximately $3 billion in their subsidiaries in Ukraine, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told a press conference.

"Russian state banks have participated in the capitalization of their subsidiaries in Ukraine. Russian banks invested around $3 billion in their Ukrainian subsidiaries in a period that was difficult for the banking process," he said.
Releases

In this section of the Lockheed Martin Newsroom, you'll find our news releases. The releases are listed in chronological order and are archived by year.
Humility and reticence are qualities many of us aspire to yet rarely master.

They are, however, virtues that invariably sum up the character traits of Forney native, Sr Mary Keegan.

Much of that reasoning was evidenced a little over two weeks ago when the proud Co Longford woman marked her golden jubilee with the Sisters of Mercy.

That celebration, held within the confines of Forgney's Church of the Immaculate Conception, was as joyous as it was sentimental.

It was after all the backdrop in which the popular nun was baptised and made her First Holy Communion in.

Yet far from revelling in the magnitude of it all, Sr Mary had been hoping to keep matters laid back by imposing an embargo on any form of public tribute.

I banned any kind of presentation even though I didn't want to let the occasion pass, she confessed to the Leader this week.

I wanted to mark the anniversary of my religious profession but in as low key a way as I could but obviously other people had other ideas.

As it turned out Sr Mary admitted the day couldn't have gone much better as close family and friends joined her at Glasson's Country House Hotel for an afternoon filled with emotion and mild reflection.

I was very humbled by the people's kindness and good wishes she confided. We had a lovely celebration from start to finish.

The venue's opulent setting, on the shores of Lough Ree, couldn't have been more at odds with the world which Sr Mary first entered.

Born in 1945 and the second eldest of eight children to her dear parents, Mary and the late Tom, Ireland back then was a far cry from the fast-paced, and at times, profuse world it is today.

Opportunities, it can be safely said, were nowhere near as plentiful, never mind attainable.

To get ahead you had to be bright as well as go-getting.

Sr Mary was both.

After attending Forgney National School, she secured a county scholarship to Ballymahon's Mercy Secondary School in 1958.

Having completed her Leaving Cert there, it seemed the young Forgney woman was primed for a career not necessarily aligned to God's work.

Originally, I hadn't seen myself as a nun. I actually wanted to teach but in my later teens I felt attracted to doing missionary work, she said.

It was a calling which prompted her to seek the advice of Edgeworthstown nun, Sr Ita Cahill.

As a serving member of the Sisters of Mercy congregation, Sr Ita was at the time based in Burnley, a market town in the heart of Lancashire's manufacuring and aerospace industries.

Clearly taken by the ecclesisatical bug, Sr Mary opted to follow suit and join the institute first founded by North Dublin woman Catherine McAuley in 1831.

It was real wrench to leave as I left my parents and younger siblings very sad, she poignantly admitted.

It was a decision which brought with it many challenges for the aspiring nun.

The difference between rural Ireland and an industrial town like Burnley was quite a culture shock at first.

The Convent was actually opposite Burnley FC and was quite a noisy spot especially when the pubs emptied but as soon as I stepped in the front door I felt I was in the right place.

The fact Sr Mary had chosen to leave her home and family as well as turn down more financially rewarding careers this side of the Irish Sea was very much indicative of a woman more focused on benevolence than on furthering her own personal aspirations.

I actually turned down a job in the civil service which I remember people saying was crazy but I followed my dream, God's dream, she said.

After completing her 'Novicios' or period of internal training, Sr Mary pursued her educational career with spells in Leeds, London and France.

The latter was a destination of which she became especially fond, and which ultimately paved the way to her landing a teaching post at St Hilda's High School back in Burnley.

For the next two decades, Sr Mary excelled in her role, teaching students French, Religious Studies and Pastoral Care.

Life was good. Being able to spread God's work whilst being deeply immersed in a job she had always longed to do, things couldn't get much better it seemed.

All of that was about to change however.

In 1992, while driving in the north of England, Sr Mary sustained serious injuries in a car accident.

Little did she know then that it would put paid to her burgeoning teaching career and cause her to continue her religious duties through the more sedate means of pastoral care.

Following her father's unexpected passing in 1998 at the age of 83, Sr Mary made the decision in 2003 to return home to care for her sole remaining parent.

Like her initial decision to leave home all those years ago, saying goodbye to those she had served alongside in Burnley was equally tough.

When I came back it did take some adjusting for a while but the community (in Burnley) have been very supportive.

We still keep in close contact and I take a couple of breaks a year to keep up that contact, she added.

Though her first thoughts are justly focused on her mother, Sr Mary is still involved in parish and community life.

A large slice of that focus, has its roots firmly entrenched in the very mantra on which her chosen vocation was founded upon.

The Sisters of Mercy are a very hands-on congregation that are involved in many aspects of daily life from teaching to nursing and social work and outreach, she said.

It is not and never has been an enclosed order. Catherine McCauley who founded the order in the 19th century said its purpose was to help the needy in Dublin and that work has continued right through until today.

Obviously numbers are dwindling but those of us still standing are doing our best to continue that work.

Her thoughts on the hardships facing the Church in enticing new recruits to spread its teachings is just as rational.

Society from the 60s onwards has gone through quite a big cultural change and the Church is very much part of that. I think that has affected the uptake of vocations to the priesthood and religious life but it's not something I find worrying because I think future religious life as I know it will be very different.

Her reference to a quote by the order's founder Catherine McAuley that 'If it's God's work, it will prosper', is testimony to her way of thinking.

We have to listen and see where the Lord is calling us to, but it's not something that depresses me at all - far from it.

Perhaps fittingly, and not for the first time, a quotation from the Bible - and more specifically from the Book of Matthew - is called upon to spell out those feelings.

There's no need to worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself, she said.
Double Paralympics finalist Nicole Turner returns to the swimming pool in Rio de Janeiro today (Monday, September 12) as she swims in the heats of the SM6 200m Individual Medley at 3.30pm.

It will be her fifth race of these Paralympics to-date and should Nicole be successful in her bid to qualify for her third final, she will be in action again later tonight at 11.39pm.

14-year-old Nicole, the youngest member of Team Ireland, finished in seventh place in the S6 50m Freestyle Final on Saturday night at the Rio Aquatic Centre. She swam an impressive 36.31 seconds, just five hundredths of a second shy of her best ever time.

While on Friday, Nicole finished fifth in the S6 50m Butterfly Final in new personal best time of 37.31 seconds. Swimming from Lane 6, Nicole looked very strong throughout but missed out on the medal by just 0.5 of a second.

Nicole, who had a rest day on Sunday, is enjoying her debut Paralympics Games experience and she is looking forward to her four remaining events, beginning with this afternoons race.

Speaking after the 50m Freestyle Final, she said, Im really happy, its better than this morning, I performed to my best and I got what I wanted out of it.

Yesterday I was a bit nervous because I didnt really know what to expect. Im getting into things now, so it makes it easier.

I still have the 200 IM, 100m Breaststroke and 100m and 400m Freestyle to come so hopefully I can get as close as I can to PBs on them too.

Nicoles dad, Jason, is the warehouse manager at C&D Foods in Edgeworthstown and he, along with mum Bernie, have been cheering on their daughter, who has captured the hearts of the Irish nation with her infectious smile and great performances, from poolside at Rio.

While employees of C & D, who held a number of fundraisers for Nicole ahead of the Paralympics, have been watching her races on TV screens across Longford and beyond.

Nicoles mum Bernie tweeted so proud of our Nicole, I could burst!!

Meanwhile, RTEs TV coverage of the Paralympics is being co-presented by a familiar face to Longford viewers. Daraine Mulvihill, whose father Liam - former Director General of the GAA - is a native of Kenagh, is presenting the show alongside Joanne Cantwell.
Local News, Business & Finance, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: September 12 2016

The new regulations will require payroll card companies to provide access to at least one fee-less ATM near where employees live or work.

Albany, NY - September 8, 2016 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today enacted the countrys most comprehensive payroll card protections for low-wage workers, preventing thousands of workers statewide from losing hundreds of dollars a year accessing their hard-earned wages. The new regulations will require payroll card companies to provide access to at least one fee-less ATM near where employees live or work, prevent card issuers from receiving kickbacks or financial remuneration for delivering wages via payroll card, and eliminate a host of fees, including those for account maintenance, overdraft and inactivity.



"These tough new standards protect some of our most vulnerable New Yorkers from predatory practices that seek to deny them a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, Governor Cuomo said. By eliminating costly hidden fees and removing barriers to accessing money workers have rightly earned, these nation-leading regulations build upon this administrations efforts to prevent worker exploitation and help ensure all employees are treated with fairness, decency and respect.



One of the top priorities of the administration is protecting workers from abuse and exploitation, Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon said. The regulations adopted today ensure a transparent process and protect workers from watching their hard-earned paychecks whittled away by hidden fees.



An estimated 13,000 businesses in New York State pay approximately 200,000 workers through debit cards that often feature hidden fees for accessing cash or checking balances. Many of the workers paid with these cards do not have a bank account, forcing them to use ATMs that require additional fees on top of those already imposed by the card issuer.



Last May, Governor Cuomo announced that the state Department of Labor had published draft regulations to combat these predatory practices and ensure workers in New York State have access to their wages in full. These regulations include the following measures and are being adopted today:

Require that employees have access to at least one fee-less ATM near where they live or work. Employers who use payroll cards that provide access to wages are responsible for guaranteeing access;

Mandate unlimited free withdrawals from a fee-less ATM;

Prevent employers from passing on costs associated with a payroll debit card account to an employee and prohibit employers from receiving a kickback or other financial remuneration from the issuer, card sponsor, or any third party for delivering wages by payroll card; and

Go further than any other state in the nation by eliminating fees, including those for customer service, startup or maintenance, overdraft, inactivity, balance inquiries and account closing, among others.
Local News, National & World News, Community, Charity & Cause, Health & Wellness, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: September 12 2016

Legislation extends the period for workers and volunteers seeking lost wage and medical benefits as a result of their involvement in the September 11th rescue, recovery and clean-up operations.

Albany, NY - September 11, 2016 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today signed legislation to extend the period for workers and volunteers seeking lost wage and medical benefits as a result of their involvement in the September 11 th rescue, recovery and clean-up operations.

"Though September 11 th may feel like an eternity ago, we still feel the pain and the loss like it was yesterday, and the thousands of brave men and women who stepped up in our darkest hour are still grappling with the aftereffects, Governor Cuomo said. We vow to do whatever we have to do to provide these brave men and women and their families the benefits they deserve. As New Yorkers, when we are knocked down, we get up twice as strong because we have our fellow New Yorkers to raise us up. The volunteers and workers raised us up in our time of need, and we will ensure they get the resources and the support they need.





Photo Credit: Governor Cuomo's Press Office, via Flickr.
School & Education, Local News, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: September 12 2016

The Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University is establishing a scholarship fund to honor former Nassau County District Attorney Denis Dillon.

Hempstead, NY - September 12, 2016 - The Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University is establishing a scholarship fund to honor former Nassau County District Attorney Denis Dillon. Dillon was one of the longest-serving district attorneys in the country, with a tenure that lasted for more than three decades. During that time, he transformed the office into a professional prosecutors office, hiring the brightest, most ethical and most dedicated assistant district attorneys.

The Denis E. Dillon Endowed Scholarship will be awarded annually to an entering Hofstra Law student with strong academic credentials, with a priority given to students interested in working as a prosecutor. Dillon not only served as Nassaus chief law enforcement officer but also worked under Robert Kennedy in the U.S. Justice Departments Civil Rights Division, handling segregation cases in the South, and later headed up the Organized Crime Strike Force for the Eastern District of New York.

I am happy that we are establishing this scholarship at Hofstra Law to honor Denis Dillon, said Hofstra Law Dean Eric Lane. His respect for and understanding of the extraordinary power of the District Attorneys Office, and his sense of fairness and justice, makes him a model for the young lawyers this scholarship will support.

Dillon would often tell his ADAs that a politically minded DA is Americas worst curse. To that end, when asked to provide a comment about the Denis Dillon Scholarship, U.S. Congressman Peter King said, I have never known anyone in politics or government to be less influenced by political considerations than Denis Dillon. Denis was guided entirely by what he thought to be morally correct, no matter what the political impact might be to him.

Dillons longtime executive ADA Patrick McCloskey said, This overriding philosophy that the prime goal of a prosecutor is to seek justice was the lifeblood of Denis office. He was more concerned with justice than with statistics. He always strove to do the right thing. If all prosecutors were as vigilant and ethical as he, we would, in my judgment, have an ideal criminal justice system.

Fred Klein, a former chief of the Major Offense Unit under Dillon and now a professor at Hofstra Law, said, I am grateful that I had the opportunity to work for Denis Dillon as a prosecutor. He provided me with the career of a lifetime. I had work that was exciting, rewarding and challenging. I had the opportunity to work and learn from the best lawyers around. He taught me to be fair, compassionate and tough (in that order) and to always do what I considered to be the right thing. I cannot think of a more rewarding tribute to Mr. Dillon than to put his name on a scholarship for future prosecutors.

The goal for the scholarship fund is to establish it as an endowment in perpetuity. The family and friends of Denis Dillon are now seeking contributions. All gifts are tax-deductible and can be made online or by mail. More information about the scholarship, including remembrances from more of Dillons former colleagues, can be found here.

Checks can be made payable to Hofstra University  Maurice A. Deane School of Law, with a note that the donation is for the Denis E. Dillon Endowed Scholarship Fund, and mailed to:



Office of External Relations

Maurice A. Deane School of Law

121 Hofstra University

Hempstead, New York 11549

About Hofstra Law

The Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University prepares passionate students to have an impact in the legal community and beyond. Since 1970, Hofstra Law has provided an education rich in both the theory and skills needed to produce outstanding lawyers, business executives and community leaders. Located on the campus of Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, Hofstra Law is 20 miles outside New York City in suburban Long Island. Hofstra Law offers a J.D. program, as well as LL.M. graduate degrees in American Legal Studies (for foreign law graduates) and Family Law. Two joint-degree programs are available: a J.D./M.B.A. in conjunction with Hofstras Frank G. Zarb School of Business and a J.D./M.P.H. in conjunction with Hofstras School of Health Sciences and Human Services.
Russia will cast its vote against providing International Monetary Fund (IMF) money to Ukraine, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said at a press conference on Monday.

"We today are giving all the necessary instructions to our IMF representative concerning examination of the issue of providing an IMF loan tranche to Ukraine. We will vote against this decision, since we believe that it was not approved in accordance with the existing rules," Siluanov said.

Russia's observations will be sent to IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde. "Perhaps the fund did not have all of the information concerning the talks, although it would seem strange. Our entire negotiating position was open," Siluanov said.

The IMF program to 2018 for Ukraine does not provide money for repaying debt to Russia.
Others, Family & Parenting, Local News, Crime, Community, Charity & Cause

By Christian Abbatecola Published: September 12 2016

Victoria Foster has been missing from her home in Levittown since August 30th, 2016.

Victoria Foster, 15, of Levittown. Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to contact 516-573-7347 or call 911.

Update - September 14, 2016 - Victoria Foster has been located. Her family and friends are grateful for her return home.

Below is the original story.

A Levittown family is still searching for a young girl, 15-year-old Victoria Foster , who has been missing since Tuesday, August 30th.

Victoria was last seen by her mother, Nancy Foster, at 4:00 p.m. on the 30th as Victoria left their residence on Stonecutter Road by foot. It is not known where Nancy was headed at the time. Victoria is described as Caucasian, 5'8" and 170 lbs with brown eyes, straight red hair, and piercings on her nose and tongue.



Victoria Foster was last seen on August 30th, 2016. Victoria Foster was last seen on August 30th, 2016.

Anyone who has seen Victoria or may have information concerning her whereabouts is asked to contact the Missing Persons Squad, which can be reached directly at 516-573-7347, or by calling 911.
Local News, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: September 12 2016

The Attorney General urges voters experiencing problems or issues at the polls to call 800-771-7755 or email civil.rights@ag.ny.gov at any time on Tuesday (6 a.m. and 9 p.m.).

New York, NY - September 12, 2016 - Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced that his office has created a Hotline to help troubleshoot and resolve a range of issues and barriers encountered by voters at the polls for the primary on Tuesday, September 13. The Attorney General urges voters experiencing problems or issues at the polls to call the offices hotline at 800-771-7755 or email at any time on Tuesday between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. The hotline will be staffed by attorneys and staff in the office's Civil Rights Bureau.

Ensuring that all eligible voters have the ability to cast an effective ballot on Election Day is the cornerstone of our democracy, said Attorney General Schneiderman. My office is here to work with the Board of Elections to resolve a wide range of issues that may come up at the ballot box, and I urge all New Yorkers to contact my office immediately if they encounter any possible improprieties.

To determine whether you have a contested election in your election district, contact your county Board of Elections.

In New York City and the counties of Erie, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Orange, Rockland and Putnam, polls open at 6 AM and close at 9 PM. In all other counties polls open at noon and close at 9 PM.

The Attorney Generals Office has operated the Hotline since November 2012. During previous efforts the office fielded hundreds of complaints from voters across the state and worked with local election officials and others to promptly address issues encountered by voters at the polls. The Election Day hotline is part of Attorney General Schneiderman's ongoing statewide initiative to ensure that voters do not encounter language barriers on Election Day.

During the April 19th Presidential Primary, the Attorney Generals office received over 1,000 complaints about voter irregularities at the polls. In response, the office announced an investigation into alleged improprieties in primary voting by the New York City Board of Elections. That investigation is active and ongoing.

In addition, the Attorney General's Office will focus on barriers impacting voters with disabilities, voter intimidation reports, and other issues faced by minority voters. Registered voters have the right to accessible elections. This means that voters with disabilities or language access issues have the right to request assistance from any person of their choice. In addition, all registered voters have the right to vote free from coercion or intimidation, whether by election officials or any other person.

The office will receive and respond to election-related complaints relating to any of the statutes that the office enforces.

The Attorney Generals Election Day Hotline is being led by Assistant Attorneys General Ajay Saini, Diane Lucas, and Sania Khan of the Civil Rights Bureau, led by Bureau Chief Lourdes Rosado. The Social Justice Division is led by Executive Deputy Attorney General Alvin Bragg.
Looking to stay up to date about all of the news stories and local headlines that are important to Long Islanders? We've rounded up the top coverage for all of the important topics from multiple sources around Long Island, so you can be sure you've got the most recent update on the top stories for Long Island. Have an idea for a news story? Email us at news@longisland.com

Columnists Press Releases
Russia is prepared for prejudicial negotiations regarding Ukraine's debt, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told a press conference.

"We're prepared for prejudicial agreements on the debt. Yes, it really is in our plans to meet with the Ukrainian finance minister in Washington with the mediation of the Federal Republic of Germany," he said.

He said Russia will be prepared to consider settling out of court provided that Ukraine's proposals "differ substantially from those proposals to which the commercial creditors consented."

"We won't be able to come to an agreement if Ukraine adopts the very same position. If this continues in the same vein as at our previous meetings, our talks will not be constructive at all," he said.
The meeting of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and U.S. President Barack Obama will be held in the framework of the UN General Assembly, Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin said.

"I think, it will be a short meeting, for sure," Klimkin said at Inter TV channel on Sunday night.

He said that Obama devoted special attention to the Ukrainian issues during recent meeting of G20 leaders.
Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin hopes that Ukraine will receive a visa-free regime with the European Union in October or November.

"I hope that the decision will be made either in October or November," Klimkin said at Inter TV channel on Sunday night.

According to Klimkin, all EU countries support granting visa-free regime to Ukraine: "... and I would like to say again, to say it in the air: at present there is no European Union country that supports the visa-free regime. There is only one problem that the European parliament is discussing locking mechanism of migration risks and its response," Klimkin said.
Doctors, patients and the public now have more help to make informed decisions about statin therapy, thanks to a major review of the available evidence on the safety and efficacy of the drug published in the Lancet.

The authors, including researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, warn that the benefits of statin therapy have been underestimated, and the harms exaggerated, because of a failure to acknowledge properly both the wealth of evidence from randomised trials and the limitations of other types of studies.

Research on statins has been ongoing for over 30 years, generating a large amount of data from a wide variety of patients. The review explains how the available evidence on the efficacy and safety of statin therapy should be interpreted.

It concludes that lowering cholesterol by 2 mmol/L with an effective low-cost statin therapy (e.g. atorvastatin 40 mg daily, which costs about 2 per month in the UK) for five years in 10,000 patients would:

a Prevent major cardiovascular events (heart attacks, ischaemic strokes and coronary artery bypasses) in 1,000 people with pre-existing vascular disease ('secondary prevention'), and in 500 people who are at increased risk (eg, due to their age or having hypertension or diabetes) but have not yet had a vascular event ('primary prevention').

a Cause five cases of myopathy, a rare condition involving muscle pain, tenderness, or weakness accompanied by significant increases in blood creatine kinase concentrations, one of which might progress to the more severe condition of rhabdomyolysis if the statin is not stopped. It would also cause 5-10 haemorrhagic strokes, 50-100 new cases of diabetes and up to 50-100 cases of symptomatic adverse events such as muscle pain.

Professor Liam Smeeth, co-author from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: "The best available scientific evidence tells us that statins are effective, safe drugs that have a crucial role in helping prevent cardiovascular disease: the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide."

The authors note that although further research may identify small additional beneficial or adverse effects, this is unlikely to materially alter the balance of benefits and harms for patients because of the evidence generated so far.

Professor Rory Collins, review author from the Clinical Trial Service Unit, University of Oxford, said: "Our review shows that the numbers of people who avoid heart attacks and strokes by taking statin therapy are very much larger than the numbers who have side-effects with it. In addition, whereas most of the side-effects can be reversed with no residual effects by stopping the statin, the effects of a heart attack or stroke not being prevented are irreversible and can be devastating.

"Consequently there is a serious cost to public health from making misleading claims about high side-effect rates that inappropriately dissuade people from taking statin therapy despite the proven benefits."

The review discusses the strengths and limitations of different types of studies. Randomised controlled trials are a robust and well recognised way of determining the effect of treatments. Whereas observational studies based on databases can generate hypotheses about associations between the use of drugs and health outcomes, randomised trials can determine cause and effect.

Earlier this year, the School announced the start of a new trial investigating the link between statins and muscle pains reported by people taking the drug.

Publication:

Rory Collins, Christina Reith, Jonathan Emberson, Jane Armitage, Colin Baigent, Lisa Blackwell, Roger Blumenthal, John Danesh, George Davey Smith, David DeMets, Stephen Evans, Malcolm Law, Stephen MacMahon, Seth Martin, Bruce Neal, Neil Poulter, David Preiss, Paul Ridker, Ian Roberts, Anthony Rodgers, Peter Sandercock, Kenneth Schulz, Peter Sever, John Simes, Liam Smeeth, Nicholas Wald, Salim Yusuf, Richard Peto. Interpretation of the evidence for the efficacy and safety of statin therapy. The Lancet: DOI 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31357-5

Related links:

Related courses:
Public confidence in vaccines varies widely between countries and regions around the world, and the European region is the most sceptical about vaccine safety, according to the largest ever global survey of confidence in vaccines.With recent disease outbreaks triggered by people refusing vaccination, the authors believe the findings provide valuable insights, which could help policymakers identify and address issues.

The new study, published in EBioMedicine, is led by researchers from the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, together with co-authors at Imperial College London, the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore and the University of Birmingham.

Nearly 66,000 people were surveyed across 67 countries to discover their views on whether vaccines are important, safe, effective, and compatible with their religious beliefs.

Although overall sentiment towards vaccines was positive across the countries surveyed, the researchers found significant variation in attitudes around the world.

The European region had seven of the ten countries in the global sample that were the least confident in vaccine safety (France, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Russia, Ukraine, Greece, Armenia and Slovenia). France was the country least confident in safety, with 41% of those surveyed disagreeing that vaccines are safe, more than three times the global average of 12%.France was followed by Bosnia & Herzegovina (36%), Russia (28%) and Mongolia (27%), with Greece, Japan and Ukraine not far behind (25%).

The Southeast Asian region was most confident in vaccine safety across countries, including Bangladesh (fewer than 1% did not think vaccines are safe), Indonesia (3%) and Thailand (6%).

The authors say the negative attitudes in France may come as a result of a number of controversies in the country over the past two decades, including controversy over suspected side effects of the Hepatitis B and HPV vaccines, and hesitancy among a significant proportion of GPs as to the usefulness of some vaccines.

Public trust in immunisation is an increasingly important global health issue. Decreases in confidence can lead to people refusing vaccines, which in turn has triggered disease outbreaks such as measles in the US, Europe, Asia, the Pacific and Africa. It has also caused setbacks to the global polio eradication programme. The World Health Organization's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization has called for improved monitoring of vaccine confidence and hesitancy to help prevent these damaging public health consequences.

Study lead author, Dr Heidi Larson from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: "Our findings give an insight into public opinion about vaccines on an unprecedented scale. It is vital to global public health that we regularly monitor attitudes towards vaccines so that we can quickly identify countries or groups with declining confidence. We can then act swiftly to investigate what is driving the shift in attitudes. This gives us the best chance of preventing possible outbreaks of diseases like measles, polio and meningitis which can cause illness, life-long disability and death.

"It's striking that Europe stands out as the region most sceptical about vaccine safety. And, in a world where the internet means beliefs and concerns about vaccines can be shared in an instant, we should not underestimate the influence this can have on other countries around the world."

The findings show that many countries (particularly France, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Japan, Iran, Mongolia and Vietnam), display much greater confidence in the importance of vaccines than in their safety. This suggests that people do not necessarily dismiss the value of vaccination even if they have doubts about how safe vaccines are.

Dr Larson added: "Our study suggests that the public largely understands the importance of vaccines, but safety is their primary concern. This could reflect a worrying confidence gap and shows that vaccine acceptance is precarious. The findings underline that the scientific and public health community needs to do much better at building public trust in the safety of vaccination."

Bangladesh, Iran and Ecuador had the highest proportion of people who agreed that vaccines are important, while Russia, Italy and Azerbaijan reported most scepticism around their importance.

Although the researchers found that in some countries particular religious groups were more sceptical of vaccines than others were, no single religion was associated with negative attitudes worldwide. They say this indicates that the impact religion has on attitudes towards vaccines is dependent on the local context, rather than being driven by the religious doctrine itself.

Another finding suggested that older people (aged 65 and over) globally had more positive views on vaccines than other age groups.

WIN/Gallup International Association collected the data as part of their annual end-of-year survey. Survey responses were either collected through face-to-face interviews, telephone or online, based on phone and internet availability in each country.

The researchers note that the findings cannot reveal whether attitudes were related to specific vaccines, or give reasons behind the attitudes expressed. They hope future surveys will provide these insights, and that this study can be used as a baseline to monitor change in attitudes towards vaccines over time.

Publication
Cars / Yachts

Oct 15, 2016 | By Vimi Haridasan

We are just weeks away from the SINGAPORE RENDEZVOUS and the excitement is heating up. While we cant share too much information about whats in store just yet (more reason for you to get those tickets to see it in person), we are able to give you just a few hints that are sure to whet your appetite. For many, the yachting industry in Asia may be one that is daunting and challenging. Thankfully, we have industry insiders such as Kit Chotithamaporn, Asia Regional Manager for Leopard Catamarans, to help us navigate through uncharted territory. As one of the exhibitors at the highly anticipated and inaugural SINGAPORE RENDEZVOUS, he took some time to tell us more about his thoughts in the future of the yachting industry and why the event is one that shouldnt be missed.

What inspired you to get involved in the yacht industry?

I was born in Phuket, Thailand and my father loved the sea. He was an avid recreational fisherman who can most likely be considered the first recreational boater in Phuket. He had his own boat built and went fishing. At a very early age my father would bring us fishing, boating, and swimming at the beach so the sea and the beach or anything related to both became a passion for me. When the opportunity came along for me to get involved in the yachting industry 13 years ago, it was a very easy decision.

Where would you say is the best location for boating in Asia?

Personally I believe Southeast Asia is one of the most amazing areas for boating in the world. Its a massive area covering different countries with vast cultural and environmental diversity which makes for great boating. Weather wise its also mild compared to other areas in Asia. I am of course from Phuket so I will forever be biased towards the island and its surrounding cruising grounds. Phuket itself has lots of beautiful beaches and bays to moor up in and the numerous islands within close cruising range which offer a boater years of cruising. Ive seen Phuket back in the days when it was a sleepy little town with pristine beaches and all the islands around were untouched and barely had a soul on it. Obviously the changes in Phuket have been drastic over the years with the development of tourism and there are good and bad effects that come with it but I still love the place deeply and see many reasons to live and boat here.

What is your biggest sales market and why do you think it is so?

Currently my biggest sales market would be Southeast Asia. For Asia I believe Southeast Asia is the region that has been exposed to the boating lifestyle at an earlier stage therefore its had more time to grow and develop. With an earlier start the infrastructure and services in the region has had fairly good development with marinas and yachting related services from Indonesia up to Thailand. Having said that the region and whole of Asia is still in need of more development for the industrys continued growth. Besides the infrastructure growth, of course the main reason is also the amazing cruising grounds. As stated previously Phuket is one of these amazing areas and hence the reason why it is now considered the hub for boating in the region.

What are some of the things that clients look out for when purchasing Catamarans?

When someone is looking to purchase a catamaran I think the first thing they look for is the space and comfort it provides compared to a monohull. On deck, the rear cockpit on a catamaran is huge as it spreads out over both hulls. The rear cockpit and saloon are also on the same level which gives better light, visibility, and spaciousness. The foredeck or bow area is also a massive area with a big trampoline that goes across both hulls and makes for a great area for lounging and sunbathing. Underway its always a favorite space to be as it gives one the feeling of floating over the water. On a Leopard Catamaran we have a unique feature which is our forward saloon door and forward cockpit seating area. The forward saloon door offers convenient and safe access to the bow directly from the main saloon and you will also go through our very unique and famed forward cockpit which provides another shaded seating and dining area.

Down below you will find good headroom and overall space in all the cabins. On our Leopard 48 for example, you will find all cabins to be ensuite which is unlikely on a monohull.

Sailing wise catamarans offer much better stability and while sailing underway the boat does not heel like you would on a monohull. Performance is also an advantage where a catamaran is generally faster under power or sail. Draft is another advantage meaning you can get into shallower and hard to reach areas as well as anchoring closer to shore.

With power catamarans, the one major advantage over a monohull would be the fuel consumption. Normally consumption would be half, if not more due to the small surface area below the waterline for the two hulls. With Leopard Catamarans, our powercats are true powercats offering good performance with 25 knot top speed and cruising in the 18 to 20 knot range.

Could you tell us more about the latest model, Leopard 40?

The Leopard 40 is our newest model, launched a year ago, replacing its predecessor the Leopard 39. The Leopard 40 is a completely new design with nothing carrying over from the Leopard 39. The main saloon space has been increased significantly with a forward facing galley offering great visibility through our large vertical forward windows and the Leopard 40 now also has our signature forward saloon door offering direct access to the bow. The main saloon sofa is now positioned towards the rear adjacent to the rear cockpit seating area. With the new Leopard 40 the sliding saloon glass door now opens all the way and you can now join the indoor main saloon sofa seating area with the outdoor rear cockpit. This is a great feature which opens up the entire main saloon level offering great entertaining space and keeping everyone onboard together. Leopard Catamarans main identity has always been conviviality and to keep everyone onboard together as a group without anyone feeling left out. The new Leopard 40s features keeps to this promise and improves upon it.

What makes this model stand out against previous Leopard Catamarans?

Besides the new features mentioned above, the Leopard 40 brings our smallest model in line with the same design concept and features with our larger models such as the Leopard 48. Although it is our smallest model at 40 feet, the Leopard 40 now offers much more space and comfort compared to the previous Leopard 39. Compared to a monohull you would need at least a 50 foot boat to get the same space provided by the Leopard 40.

How receptive have clients been to the Leopard 40?

The Leopard 40 has been well received since its launch with deliveries now well into mid 2017. We have also recently delivered one of the very first Leopard 40 to a client in the Philippines through our dealer there. I believe more will be sold to Asia once we launch the model here and start to display a boat in the upcoming SINGAPORE RENDEZVOUS and regional boat shows. The Leopard 40 offers a lot of boat at its price range.

Leopard Catamarans are designed by a team in Florida, crafted by a team in South Africa and sold in Asia. Are there any difficulties faced in working with teams that are spread across various continents?

The whole partnership between our head office in Florida and Roberson & Caine in Cape Town works very smoothly and after so many years of partnership weve managed to work out all the hurdles and now operate at a very high level of efficiency. For me in Asia the biggest issue would be the time zone differences and having to wait for replies to emails etc.

Leopard Catamarans prides itself in delivering quality products to customers and catering to their needs. Does this also extend to the way in which each catamaran is delivered?

For delivery we actually offer our owners a few options. The most obvious one is shipping from Cape Town to the boats destination. Another very popular option for our sailing catamarans is our on water delivery where we sail the boat with a delivery crew on its own hull from the factory in Cape Town to any destination worldwide. We have delivered over 1,300 boats this way and have become well known in the industry for this achievement and its a testament to the quality of a Leopard Catamaran. Finally, we also offer owners an option where they can fly into Cape Town to take possession of their boat and from there they can sail to their desired destination on the beginning of their sailing adventure.

Why do you think clients should invest in Leopard Catamarans?

The overall build quality of a Leopard Catamaran is superior and our fittings and materials used also tend to be of higher quality. Many of these features are subtle and not be immediately noticeable but once noticed owners will know the difference immediately. As in all things, its the details that make the difference. Besides the hardware, Leopard Catamarans also have unique and innovative features such as our forward saloon door, forward cockpit, safe rig with double back stays and rigid boom vang, standard hard top on all boats, and a helm station designed for short-handed sailing. Performance wise our boats tend to sail better due to our stepped hull design and powerful sail plan. With our powercats, they are true powercats with high speed ability and not just a sailing hull without the mast.

Another main reason which Im proud to say is Leopard Catamarans is the only builder that can lay claim to the fact that our boats are truly blue water tried and tested. We have delivered well over 1,300 boats on their own hull to destinations all over the world from our shipyard in Cape Town. For example, there were two Leopard 48s delivered to Hong Kong towards the end of last year and both boats spent 1 and  months at sea from Cape Town to Hong Kong with three delivery crew onboard. One of the boats went through 30 knot winds and 3 to 4 meter waves for 30 days continuously. This is the ultimate testament to the build and quality of these boats and the delivery journey offers the best sea trial a boat can possibly go through. After arriving at its destination, anything that can break has most likely broken and any problems would have presented itself. Through Leopard Catamarans post-delivery commissioning process, we repair and replace all the items and the owner will never see these problems again as most owners will never go through the same conditions the delivery crew has gone through.

Whats next for Leopard Catamarans?

Leopard Catamarans is constantly improving and evolving with new models being introduced. Currently we have a completely new model to be launched soon with new designs and features but Id like to keep that a secret for now so watch this space.

Are there any exclusive benefits of owning Leopard Catamarans? Such as customer care or perks?

In my years of working in the yachting industry and working with various shipyards, Id say Leopard Catamarans offers one of the best after sales care to our owners. We accept all warranty claims and manufacturer defects without question and the process is very easy and straight forward. We absolutely do not go out of our way to make the claim process difficult or question the claim endlessly causing long delays and ending up with a frustrated and unhappy owner. I personally look after all the claims and work very closely with owners so they are confident they are dealing with someone close and with local knowledge.

Leopard Catamarans will be one of the exhibitors at the SINGAPORE RENDEZVOUS, which is right around the corner. What do you hope to achieve there as an exhibitor and would there be other types of catamarans on display?

We are looking forward to the SINGAPORE RENDEZVOUS and we committed to the event immediately as we like the new concept and timing wise it is also positioned at a good time. I hope the show can attract a more diverse type of crowd for attendance or at least it can offer visitors a different and more approachable boat show. Id like to use this event to raise the awareness of Leopard Catamarans brand in the region and of course closing a few deals through the show wouldnt be bad either! Leopard Catamarans plans to have our brand new Leopard 40, brand new Leopard 43 Powercat, and the Leopard 51 Powercat which has proven to be a very popular model in the region. Both the Leopard 40 and 43 Powercat will be a brand new model being shown for the first time in Asia.

What are your thoughts on Asias future yachting industry?

I believe Asias yachting industry will continue to grow at a steady pace as it has since I started in the industry 13 years ago. Southeast Asia will continue its gradual but steady growth. China, which is in a bit of a slump due to its political climate especially after its glamorous rise into the yachting lifestyle a few years ago, will slowly come back given that the players involved in the industry there market the yachting lifestyle in a more sustainable way. More interestingly I believe will be the emergence of completely new markets where there has been little to no movement in terms of yacht sales. Countries such as Taiwan which has had a thriving yacht building industry purely for export for the last 30-odd years has only just changed its laws allowing Taiwanese citizens to own their personal yachts. A few years ago it was illegal for a Taiwanese to own a private yacht. Vietnam with a lack of infrastructure and difficult regulations has a big potential as there have been some interesting announcements there lately. Myanmar is another place to look out for as the country is currently going through a dramatic change in governance as well as being part of the AEC should see some interesting changes. Overall, Asia still has a lot of potential for growth over the coming years.
Panama court has ordered a $600,000 bail for ex-head of the State Agency for Investment and National Projects Management Vladyslav Kaskiv and he filed a political asylum petition, Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yevhen Yenin has said.

"Tonight (Kyiv time) Panama court ordered a $600,000 bail for Kaskiv and restricted his movement within Panama City [new selfies with policemen should not mislead Ukrainians]. As soon as he pays the money he will be released," he wrote on his Facebook page.

Yenin said that Kaskiv is obliged to report to the police twice a week. He said that Kaskiv has filed a political asylum petition.

"Kaskiv's readiness to cooperate with Ukrainian law enforcers was a fake. There would not be short extradition procedure. Kaskiv has filed a political asylum petition. Chances to have it passed are small, but this means extra time," Yenin said.
New Delhi: Home Minister Rajnath Singh will visit Russia and United States next week for discussion on the issues of homeland security and cooperation in anti terrorist activities. He will also highlight issue of the Pak-sponsored terrorist activities.

However, Singh's meeting with Russian and American internal affairs ministers ratcheted up a pressure in Pakistan as the country was currently sending its parliamentarians to various parts of the world to raise the Kashmir issue.

Rajnath's Russia visit will be from September 19 to 22 where he will have bilateral talks with Russian Minister for internal Affairs Vladmir Kolokoltsev. However the bilateral visits of the Home Minister is a part of India's efforts to create global opinion against Pakistan sponsored terrorism.
As many as 214 attacks on Ukrainian army positions, populated localities and infrastructures by illegal armed units were observed in Donbas during the first ten days of September, the Ukrainian mission to the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) of ceasefire and stabilization on the contact line said.

"The Ukrainian mission to the JCCC was particularly concerned about the September 11 incident, when 122mm artillery systems were used against Ukrainian army positions in the Mariupol sector for the first time since the imposition of full ceasefire. Twelve artillery shells exploded in the area. In addition, JCCC monitors observed the use of 120mm and 82mm mortars (78 and 14 explosions, respectively) during that day," the press center of the army operation staff said on Facebook, quoting the Ukrainian mission to the JCCC.

According to the report, most shelling incidents were random and provocative, "seeking to prompt the Ukrainian army to return fire and to expose defenses."

The Ukrainian army strictly complies with the Minsk agreements and returns fire "exclusively in case of a risk to the life of servicemen and civilians and destruction of crucial infrastructures of the region," the Ukrainian mission to the JCCC said.
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko is scheduled to hold a lot of meetings on the margins of the UN General Assembly, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin has said.

"Meetings have been scheduled, there will be many meetings, moreover, they will be focused not only on Europe, but also the U.S.," Klimkin said at the Inter TV channel.

Klimkin said that Poroshenko will make a speech at the UN General Assembly. He also noted that there would be two meetings of the Security Council.

"And it will be very important for us, as the one meeting will be devoted to the Middle East and Syria, and the other - to the aviation safety. We expect it will be preceded by the final report relating to the Malaysian Boeing, which is extremely important," the minister said.

The 71st session of the UN General Assembly will open at the organization's headquarters in New York on September 13.

As previously reported, Klimkin said that the meeting of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and U.S. President Barack Obama will be held within the framework of the UN General Assembly.
The Donald Versus Killary: War or Peace?

Although history does not exactly repeat itself, it does provide parallels and sometimes quite ominous ones. Such is the case with the current U.S. Presidential election and the one which occurred one hundred years earlier.

The dominating question which hung over the 1916 campaign was whether the country would remain neutral in regard to the horrific slaughter which was taking place on the European battlefields in probably the greatest act of mass insanity ever recorded, World War I.

President Wilson had maintained that the U.S. would continue a policy of strict neutrality. By all indications, the nation wanted no part of the war, with the Presidents own party at his nomination delivering an emphatic No to any foreign intervention.

Although Wilson maintained a neutral policy through the election and briefly afterwards, his advisors and Cabinet had been lobbying for war and continued to do so even more vehemently after the Presidents re-election was secured. Nearly all of them, including Wilson himself, had deep financial, family, and political ties to J.P. Morgan. Wilson received considerable Morgan financial backing for his two presidential runs.

The Morgan operatives within the Administration were pushing for war because the House of Morgan had invested heavily in the Allied cause and a defeat or a negotiated settlement with any favorable concessions to Germany would be a catastrophe for Morgan financial interests.

Germany understood the cozy Morgan relationship with the Wilson Administration and the Allied powers as Morgan representatives, especially the sinister Colonel House, had repeatedly rebuffed peace proposals from the Central Powers. The Allies and their opponents understood that Wilsons re-election would mean U.S. entry into the conflict.

Tragically, for the U.S. and for the course of war-ridden 20th century history, Wilson capitulated and brought the U.S. into the battle despite the campaign promise of neutrality and no real German threat. The House of Morgans financial bacon was saved at the cost of a devastated Western world.

One hundred years later, the U.S. and the world stand at another critical juncture and face a similar choice: the election of a known war criminal who has not only shown no remorse for her murderous policies, but promises, if elected, to continue them; or the election of a candidate who has spoken of negotiating with Americas supposed principle enemy, a possible pull back in the nations unsustainable global empire, and the enactment of a legitimate use of federal authority  protection of the countrys borders.

It is difficult to believe that Donald Trump is not sincere in seeking accommodation and friendly relations with Russia. It would be far easier for the billionaire businessman and would most likely secure his election if he followed the bellicose policy of the Democrat and Republican Presidents of the recent past who have continued to antagonize and threaten Russia. The most hopeful sign for peace coming from the U.S. in quite a while has been Trumps talk of de-escalation of tensions and a pledge to place American interests first in foreign policy, instead of mouthing the global domination designs of the crazed neocons.

Some of the things he has said about Vladimir Putin and Russia have been, to say the least, quite encouraging:

I think I would get along with Vladimir Putin. I just think so.*

It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man [Putin] so highly respected within his own country and beyond.**

I have always felt that Russia and the United States should be able to work well with each other towards defeating terrorism and restoring world peace, not to mention trade and all of the other benefits derived from mutual respect.***

Although not a non-interventionist, a President Trump is unlikely to provoke Russia or China into a civilization-ending conflagration and has displayed the instincts of a true peace maker.

There is, however, little hope for a reduction of global tensions if his sociopathic opponent becomes Commander-in-Chief. Killary has repeatedly demonstrated that she is a willing tool of the neocons and the global financial forces that will profit mightily from continued U.S.- instigated conflicts. If she makes it past the finish line, either legitimately or more likely through fraud, she will surely do their bidding.

For once, politicians and pundits who routinely call every election the most crucial of a generation are right. This years Presidential election is the most significant one since at least the fall of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc. If the U.S. electorate wants to avoid the disaster not only to its own land and the world that followed in the wake of the 1916 election, there can be only one choice in November of 2016.

* , Trump Says he Would Get Along Very Well With Putin. NBCNews.com 30 July 2015.

**Maxwell Tani, Vladimir Putins Praise is A Great Honor.' Business Insider. 17 December 2015.

***Ibid.

Antonius Aquinas@AntoniusAquinas

By Antonius Aquinas

http://antoniusaquinas.com

 2016 Copyright Antonius Aquinas - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




The Donbas situation is generally controllable despite a trend towards escalation, the press service of the army operation staff said, adding that the militants conducted 37 attacks on Ukrainian army positions over the past day.

Most of the militants activity was observed in the Mariupol sector, totaling 20 attacks, it said.

"The enemy staged armed provocations in the Vodiane area where 122mm artillery banned by the Minsk agreements fired on Ukrainian strongholds in Vodiane and 82mm mortars were used against defenders of Shyrokyne and Vodiane," the report said.

In addition, the militants used BMP-2 armored personnel carriers in Shyrokyne and fired small arms, grenade launchers and machineguns in Hranitne, Maryinka, Starohnativka, Shyrokyne and Talakivka in the Mariupol area, it said.

The militants committed nine violations of the truce in the Luhansk sector, the report said. "Novooleksandrivka came under attack of infantry combat vehicles, an anti-tank missile system, grenade launchers, machineguns and small arms. A sniper was also active in Novooleksandrivka," the report said.

The least degree of militants activity was seen in the Donetsk sector, where eight shelling incidents occurred. According to the staff, the militants fired small arms, machineguns and grenade launchers on Avdiyivka and Luhanske.
Deputy Health Minister Pavlo Kovtoniuk hopes patients will be able to choose their doctors, whose salary will depend on the number of patients they treat. He said the changes could be introduced by the middle of 2017.

"We would like to start from the doctor whom patients address first  the family doctor, general practitioners and pediatricians and apply the 'more patients more money' principle. This doctor would receive money for a real person whom he treats and who signs an agreement with the doctor," Kovtoniuk said on 1+1 TV channel.

He said that citizens would receive a chance to select own doctors themselves and doctors would receive salaries depending on the number of serviced patients.

The deputy minister said that thanks to the application of this principle revenue of doctors would considerably grow.

"I think that in spring or in the middle of 2017 we would tell patients: go and look for a doctor and sign an agreement with them," he said.
Ukrainian Justice Ministry and the National Police have signed a memorandum on cooperation in the fight against company raiding.

The memorandum was signed by Ukrainian National Police Chief Khatia Dekanoidze and Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko in Kyiv on Monday, the Interfax-Ukraine agency reports. "The memorandum will not be effective unless there is a common political will," Dekanoidze said during the signing of the document.

She complained that there is no proper legal framework for the prosecution of people involved in the illegal takeovers. "There are security firms that are engaged in raiding. I do hope that there will be will to review the operation of such companies," the National Police chief said.

She also expressed hope that the justice minister will make every effort to ensure that the memorandum "has a real power."

"Legislative framework, effective judicial system and common political will are necessary for combating raiding," Dekanoidze said.

Justice minister stressed in his turn that law enforcement authorities should be given an effective mechanism to combat raiding.

Petrenko also addressed colleagues from the Prosecutor General Office of Ukraine and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau with the cooperation proposal.

In addition, the minister called on Ukrainian entrepreneurs and citizens to apply to the Justice Ministry and National Police on each case of illegal actions concerning property encroachment.
With Jeremy Corbyn on course to win another landslide victory in the contest for the Labour leadership, the Party Establishment are preparing the ground for a split. Rob Sewell, editor of Socialist Appeal, looks back at the Labour split of 1931 to analyse the important lessons of Labour's history for today's tumultuous events.

Political realignments do not happen often in British politics...But the space may be opening up for a new, pro-European, economically liberal and socially compassionate alternative to pinched nationalism and hard-left socialism.

The Financial Times (30/6/16) I would be lying if I said it would be easy to stay in a party led by Mr Corbyn where people like me are so unwelcome.

Jess Phillips, Labour MP (The Financial Times, 7/8/16) We are teetering on the edge of a precipice here. The Party could be split. The Party that has been here for 116 years as the greatest source of social and economic justice could be bust apart and disappear. Owen Smith, Labour MP (The Guardian, 5/8/18)

Not surprisingly, discussions about splits and political realignments have become very popular in recent months. With the appointment of Theresa May as Tory leader, the deep-seated divisions within the Tory party have been papered over, at least for the time being. Now all eyes are centred on the divisions and civil war within the Labour Party.

The Corbyn revolution

The rise of Jeremy Corbyn came as an almighty shock to the British Establishment. It was never supposed to happen. So what went wrong?

Under the Blair years, the Party became infested with right-wing careerists and the Partys working-class base was bureaucratically shunted aside. However, the crisis of capitalism has turned everything on its head - not only in Britain, but in the United States, across Europe, and internationally. Everything has been put into the melting pot as millions of people search for a way out of the crisis.

This was the background for the unexpected victory of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader, which has unleashed an almighty battle within the Party. Today, the right wing, with the full support of the ruling class, is hell-bent on discrediting, then ousting Corbyn, and re-establishing their apparently God-given right to have control of the Party. This struggle is not a secondary struggle, but represents a fight to the finish.

The reason for the ferocity is that this is a fight for the future of the Labour Party. Up until now, the British ruling class has exercised control over the Party through its right-wing leaders. It seemed to be in permanently safe hands. Tony Blair was their arch representative. His aim on behalf of the Establishment was to destroy the Labour Party and create a Tory Party Mark II. Despite all their efforts, however, the New Labour architects of Blair, Mandelson, et al. never quite succeeded in breaking the Partys links with the organised working class.

Today, the grip of the right wing has been shattered by hundreds of thousands of Corbyn supporters joining the Party. For decades, anger and frustration had been building up within society, and this pressure was seeking an outlet. Corbyn became a political reflection of - a lightning rod for - this anger.

The ruling class was aghast at his victory. The scale of Jeremy Corbyns victory in the Labour partys leadership election is a political earthquake, stated a gob-smacked Martin Wolf in the Financial Times of last year. Britains Labour Party is neither Greeces Syriza nor Spains Podemos. It has been in power for just less than 40% of the time since 1945. (20/9/15)

How could such a thing happen? It was utterly intolerable to the Labour Establishment and the ruling class! They could never accept this left takeover and swore to destroy Corbyn and his revolution. If this meant a split, then so be it. Lord Mandelson openly admitted the existence of two Labour Parties that were (and are) in conflict. Frank Field, the right-wing Labour MP for Birkenhead, advocated that the Party appoint two leaders: one in Parliament (the real leader), and the other outside, thereby removing Corbyn as leader. The leadership challenger, Owen Smith - another Kinnock - wanted Corbyn to resign as leader and become Party President instead!

Open split?

The support for deselection of MPs amongst Labours ranks has hastened talk of a split in the Party. It is so intense that the right wing dominated PLP are openly talking about making a unilateral declaration of independence and announcing themselves as the party. They are even contemplating legal action to keep Labour in the title. Such an act would constitute an open split, as was seen in 1931 and 1982.

Lord Owen, a member of the Gang of Four who split from Labour to form the SDP (Social Democratic Party) in the early 1980s, has even suggested a timeline for a new split: For at least two years, fight like hell, I would say. I wouldnt contemplate a new party until the end of 2017. Lady Shirley Williams, another Gang of Four member, supported him saying, eventually there will be a new party of the centre left.

It is no shock to hear that leading Labour MPs have been in close discussions with leading Tories and Liberal Democrats about a possible political realignment. These careerists can see the writing on the wall. As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together.

Events are moving extremely fast and processes are already coming to a head. Of course, plans to split the Labour Party are not new. The ruling class has encouraged splits whenever there has been a danger of the right losing control of the Labour Party, as in 1931 with the formation of the National Government and in 1981 with the formation of the SDP. Such splits were used to sabotage the Labour Party, preparing the way for a National or Tory government. Of course, there are many differences between now and then, but the direction of travel is the same.

The rot of careerism; the stink of Blairism

Ramsay MacDonald Photo: Public DomainThe main difference between then and now is that the Parliamentary Labour Party is even more rotten, corrupted and dominated by right-wing careerists.

Under Neil Kinnock and Tony Blair, the tops of the Party became increasingly stocked with lawyers, solicitors and so-called professionals, wholeheartedly committed to the wonders of the market. There is nothing wrong with capitalism with a social conscience or a human face, said Lord Mandelson, a Labour man keen on becoming filthy rich. I want a situation more like the Democrats and the Republicans in the US, explained the war criminal, Tony Blair.

You could not put a cigarette paper between the bulk of Labour MPs and the Tories. This growing together went much further than even the Butskellism of the 1950s. The current breed of right-wing Labour MPs speak, dress and behave exactly the same as the Tories.

As one MP said, quoted in the Independent on Sunday back in 1995 after Blair became leader, Tony [Blair] is surrounding himself with people who are clever, able, upper-middle-class and arrogant, and who do not respect the Labour Party. Nothing whatsoever has changed for these people since then. In fact, they have only ever treated the Party as a vehicle for their careers.

The degeneration of the Parliamentary Labour Party has gone far. It means that whereas in the past a right-wing split was a relatively minor affair, as in 1931, a future split would see a large proportion of the PLP cross the floor. The fact that 172 of them voted for a motion of no confidence in Corbyn - the democratically elected leader - shows their true loyalty. More than 60 resigned from the Shadow Cabinet in a coup to force him out.

A big majority of such careerists are likely to split away as soon as they have their marching orders from big business. The memory of Ramsay MacDonald's betrayal of the 1931 government is etched in blood on the Party's memory, explained The Financial Times (23/4/16).

The split in 1931 constituted one of the greatest betrayals in Labour history, when Ramsay MacDonald, the Labour Prime Minister, stabbed the Party in the back and joined the Tories and Liberals to form a National Government. For him, Country came before Party. MacDonald stood for the national interest  the national interest being of course the interests of big business.

Then as now, there are those in the Party leadership who will jump ship when the time comes. It is better to deselect them now before they jump.

The same types carried out the great betrayal of 1931. Then, facing certain opposition to cuts and austerity in the Labour Cabinet, Prime Minister MacDonald, Chancellor Philip Snowden, Lord Privy Seal J.H. Thomas and Lord Sankey resigned and crossed the floor to join the National Government. Now, 66 Labour MPs have voted with the Tories over the bombing of Syria and 140 of them over Trident renewal.

Crisis and slump

Of course, the right-wing Labour politicians are always subject to flattery by the ruling class for their statesman-like behaviour.

Mr Snowden, with rare though belated courage, has shown that he at least knows where that duty lies, and, whatever the attitude of the rest of his Party, the public will never grudge him any assistance which he may need in carrying through his difficult task, declared the London Times in early 1931.

Then as now, capitalism was experiencing a deep world slump. In 1929, just over one million were unemployed, but this had risen to 2,700,000, 22% of the insured workers, in the summer of 1931. Production had declined 8% below that of 1913. The growing budget deficit threatened to force Britain off the gold standard. The government was informed that loans could be secured from the bankers, but only with massive cuts in public spending.

The Parliamentary sponsored May Committee recommended that economies amounting to 96 million should be made, the majority of which should be in the form of cuts to unemployment benefits and the imposition of a means test system.

Labour Ministers such as MacDonald, Snowden, Henderson, Thomas and Graham made a counter proposal of some 56 million in cuts, which the majority of the Cabinet actually accepted. A minority still opposed them, who MacDonald accused of taking the easy path of irresponsibility.

But it was from outside the Cabinet that the biggest opposition to the cuts was seen. The TUC registered its firm opposition to the cuts. Nothing, wrote MacDonald, gives me greater regret than to disagree with old industrial friends, but I really personally find it absolutely impossible to overlook dreadful realities, as I am afraid you are doing.

The opposition of the TUC also stiffened the opposition inside the Labour Cabinet. Such opposition forced MacDonalds hand. He fully understood that this would lead to a breach.

By this time, MacDonald and the leaders of the Tory and Liberal parties were in constant touch with the Palace. In a strictly constitutional capacity he [the King] has rendered a signal service to his people, noted The Times. George V met with Baldwin, the Tory leader, and Sir Herbert Samuel, the Liberal leader, to discuss the national interest.

Sir Herbert cynically informed the King:

In view of the fact that the necessary economies would prove most unpalatable to the working classes, it would be to the general interest if they could be imposed by a Labour Government. The best solution would be if Mr Ramsay MacDonald, either with his present, or with a reconstituted Labour Cabinet, could propose the economies required. If he failed to secure the support of a sufficient number of his colleagues, then the best alternative would be a National Government composed of members of the three parties. It would be preferable that Mr MacDonald should remain Prime Minister in such a National Government.

So the authority of MacDonald as former Labour Prime Minister would be used to enact the austerity. MacDonald graciously accepted this role. With the Labour Cabinet partially divided, the creation of a National Government was seen as the only viable option. After its formation, Snowden boasted to MacDonald that tomorrow every Duchess in London will be wanting to kiss me.

The ruling class were also extremely delighted with the outcome. A strong national government had been formed. All concerned are to be warmly congratulated on this result, commented The Times.

MacDonalds former Labour colleagues were stunned by the speed of events. Arthur Henderson, secretary of the Party, claimed that they had all agreed with the need for sacrifices and a balanced budget but had been thereafter kept in the dark.

When the split came, some right-wingers like Henderson and J.R. Clynes did not follow MacDonald but remained behind in the Party to prevent it falling into the wrong hands, given that the betrayal would inevitably radicalise the movement.

There is a third danger ahead, wrote the Times, but it is a danger to the nation rather than to the Government. Broadly speaking, the whole of the Socialist Party will be reconsolidated in Opposition - with this enormous difference, that they will have lost the guidance of leaders few indeed in numbers but the ripest of all in practical experience of affairs...The Labour Party...will now be definitely controlled by its more prejudiced and ignorant elements. (26/8/31).

MacDonald then called a panic General Election towards the end of August 1931, resulting in a landslide victory for the National Government  which gained 554 seats and 70% of the vote. The Labour Party, given the split, lost heavily at the polls, gaining only 52 seats and 6.5 million votes.

Kick out the traitors

While the Labour leaders were regrettably saddened over this great loss to the Labour Movement, the angry rank and file  the ignorant elements - forced the National Executive to expel MacDonald and others from the Party as traitors.

The revulsion from MacDonaldism caused the Party to lean rather too far towards a catastrophic view, observed Clement Attlee, Deputy Leader of the PLP.

The attitude of the rank and file of the Party seems to me to be extremely dangerous at the moment wrote Stafford Cripps, who felt the ground moving under his feet. There is a strong tendency to discard the realities of the situation, he added.

In other words, the Partys rank and file reacted to the betrayal with disgust and a rejection of gradualism. As a result, Labours Annual Conference, cleansed of MacDonald and the other riff-raff, shifted decisively to the left and proclaimed that the main objective of the Labour Party is the establishment of socialism.

At Leicester, wrote Hugh Dalton, a future Labour Chancellor, the floor several times ran away with the platform.

On the whole, wrote a disorientated Beatrice Webb, I rejoice in the crisis as I think it will clear the issue and purify the Party.

The Independent Labour Party (a key affiliate of the Labour Party) at its 1932 Easter Conference stated that the class struggle which is the dynamic force in social change is nearing its decisive moment...there is no time now for slow processes of gradual change. The imperative need is for Socialism now. However, within a few months, the ILP took the decision to disaffiliate from Labour.

The Labour Party continued, however, to shift further to the left. In 1932, Harold Laski, a reformist theoretician, asked whether evolutionary socialism (had) deceived itself in believing that it can establish itself by peaceful means within the ambit of the capitalist system.

Another leading figure, Stafford Cripps, in a pamphlet entitled Can Socialism Come by Constitutional Means? warned that the ruling class will go to almost any length to defeat Parliamentary actions if the issue is the direct issue as to the continuance of their financial and political control. He then went on to advocate emergency powers for a Labour Government to tackle the crisis.

Calls for socialism

The Labour Party Conference passed a resolution, without dissent that: the common ownership of the means of production and distribution is the only means by which the producers by hand and brain will be able to secure the full fruits of their industry.

Another resolution demanded that:

Socialist legislation must be immediately promulgated, and that the Party shall stand or fall in the House of Commons on the principles in which it has faith. Let us lay down in some such resolution as this the unshakeable mandate that they (the Labour Government) are to introduce at once, before attempting remedial measures of any other kind, great socialist measures, or some general measure empowering them to nationalise the key industries of the country.

Arthur Henderson, the Party chairman, was almost howled down by the delegates when he opposed the resolution for tying the hands of the leadership. He was so disgruntled at the general atmosphere of the Conference that he told me on the last morning that he had decided to resign the Leadership, explained Hugh Dalton.

The right wing, although on the defensive, were determined to keep their hold on policy. A secret City group was established behind the backs of the Party, as a direct link to big business. Early in 1932 I took some part in encouraging the formation of a small group of City people to advise the Party on questions of which they had practical knowledge, explained Dalton. The membership, and even the existence, of this group was kept for some time a very close secret...Its secret name is XYZ.

This shows the clear role of the right wing within the Labour Party. It was through such individuals  overt and covert - that the ruling class exercised control.

Today, while a split away of the Blairite members of the PLP could initially hinder or even prevent a Corbyn-led Labour victory in a general election, it will propel the Party far to the left.

Failure of reformism

Following 1931, Attlee and Cripps put out a warning in a memorandum against the adoption of gradual half-measures:

So long as Capitalism holds the power and the control, so long will it use every weapon to retain it...The result of failure of a Labour Government will be the immediate splitting of the Labour Party into fragments, to the great and permanent advantage of the perpetration of the capitalist regime. From these fragments will probably be built up amongst others a strong revolutionary party and the eventual issue will be fought out between that party and Capitalism.

The betrayal and shipwreck of the Labour Government of 1929-31 was the result of its attempt, in the middle of a slump, to manage the capitalist system. It exposed the failure of reformism.

The key lesson from this debacle, especially in a period of deep crisis, is that it is not the task of the Labour Party to rescue capitalism but to do away with it.

That is why the Marxists are consistently campaigning for a bold socialist programme to put an end to this system of dole queues and hardship. Very shortly, such a message will find a colossal echo in the movement of the working class.

The Labour Party was founded to represent the working class in Parliament. Under the impact of the Russian Revolution, it adopted a socialist aim, which was abandoned and ignored by the right wing. Instead, they have used their positions  right up to the present - to further their careers and defend capitalism. It is time such representatives were booted out and replaced with genuine class fighters.

For the advanced sections of workers and the youth, the experience of 1931 contains vital lessons for the future. In the fight to support Corbyn, we must urgently cleanse the Party of careerists and Tory carpetbaggers and commit the Labour movement to immediately implement socialist policies to end this crisis-prone system. In this struggle, the Marxist tendency will play a leading role.
German Ambassador to Ukraine, Ernst Reichel does not believe that German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier have different positions with regard to resolving the conflict in Donbas.

"From my own working experience in Berlin, I can say that this perception does not match reality. The federal chancellor and the federal minister carefully coordinate their actions, as well as their counterparts," Reichel said in an exclusive interview to Interfax-Ukraine.

The diplomat also noted that the communication in the Normandy format (Germany, Ukraine, France, the Russian Federation) are carried out at different levels, both at the heads of government level and at ministerial and various officials levels. It would be impossible to reasonably work if there wasnt close cooperation.

Reichel said that the visit of Foreign Minister of France Jean-Marc Ayrault and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier will be held in Kyiv within the framework of the work in the Normandy format.

"The visit of the two ministers is due to the negotiation process in the framework of the "Normandy format", so they are coming together. In addition, Federal Minister Steinmeier chairs the OSCE. Thus, the main issues are to be focused on the implementation of the Minsk agreements, as well as on the activities of observation of OSCE SMM mission in Ukraine on ceasefire in Donbas," the ambassador said.
sk.jpg

Katherine Appy, left, Laura Kent, chairwoman of the Amherst Regional School Committee at a meeting last week.

(Diane Lederman/The Republican)

AMHERST -- With the departure of Superintendent Maria Geryk final and details surrounding the discussions that led to her six-figure settlement public, Amherst Regional School Committee members are hoping a Tuesday night "retreat" will help the board move forward.

The retreat, usually held in the summer before the return to school, was delayed because of all the committee faced in finalizing Geryk's separation settlement.

Members met more than 14 hours in executive session to reach the agreement that will pay her $309,515 over the next two years.

But the settlement -- opposed by three committee members -- caused division on the board. Committee member Trevor Baptiste wanted the committee to look into firing Geryk.

On Tuesday night, the committee will hear a presentation from Dorothy Presser, field director for the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.

Part of her work involves helping school committees develop skills to function better and support students -- and regional chairwoman Laura Kent said that is what she is hoping Presser will do in Amherst.

She is also hoping Presser can help restore trust among committee members and administrators.

When former regional vice chairwoman Sarah Dolven resigned in August, she said she was "truly heartsick" about what she described as a dysfunctional board, citing "suspicion, mistrust and deception."

Kent said she hopes to rebuild trust and respect among the members.

"I have so much respect for everyone who sits on the board," she said. "Everybody brings really great strengths."

But she said members need to find a way to reach consensus through "balanced deliberation" -- a process that relies on trust and respect, Kent said.

Kent said Presser will help committee members understand the board's roles and responsibilities, and for members to understand the rules of governance and member responsibility.

In November, Presser will return to see how members are doing, to develop best practices for working together and to set goals for both the board and the schools.

Kent said committee members hope to name an interim superintendent between now and then, so Presser would have an opportunity to meet with that leader as well.

As the committee spends the next year looking for a new superintendent she said it would be "great to have the standards and norms in place."
11305403-large.jpg

A hyrdroplane boater flipped during a Detroit River race hosted by the American Power Boat Association in 2012. Pictured here is that crash.

(Associated Press. )

TAUNTON -- A 39-year-old New Hampshire man died in a 65-mile-per-hour boat collision on Saturday at an annual race on Watson's Pond -- an event that has claimed at least one other life.

It marked the second death in the last five years of the Bill Giles Memorial Regatta, the Boston Globe reports.

Mark Greene of Moultonborough, N.H., was identified as the victim in a press release by the Bristol district attorney's office.

Meanwhile, a second man on the struck boat -- Stephen Joy, 67, of Bangor, Maine -- was in critical condition at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence as of Sunday. A third person was treated for minor injuries.

The crash occurred around 1 p.m. during the race's first turn and caused all three boat drivers to be ejected from their vessels. Greene was declared dead on the scene, the Taunton Gazette reports.

In 2012, another crash in the same race took the life of Peter Hurwitz, 73, of Walpole.

A state police sergeant told the Gazette the Massachusetts Environmental Police were investigating the crash.

It marked the 33rd time the race had been held, featuring 50-horsepower hydroplane boats that skip along the water's surface.
Ukrainian law enforcement authorities continue the investigation into the events related to the arson attack on the building where National Information Systems (NIS) Company, which produces programs for the Inter television channel, is headquartered in Kyiv, Ukrainian National Police Chief Khatia Dekanoidze said.

"I don't have any new facts at this point, the investigation is underway," Dekanoidze said in Kyiv on Monday when asked how the probe into the arson attack on the NIS office was progressing.

It was reported earlier that on September 4, a group of activists protesting the Inter television channel's editorial policy set fire to car tires outside the NIS office on Shchusev Street in Kyiv.

At the same time, a group of unidentified persons wearing masks snuck into the building and, using force, committed an arson attack on the first and second floors where the company's premises are situated. Later, when fire brigades put out fires over areas of 10 and 20 square meters, some perpetrators repeatedly set fire to the NIS offices on the second floor, causing the burning out of another 60 square meters of offices, including the company's server room.

The incident caused no fatalities, but several employees of the company were intoxicated with combustion gases and sought medical attention. Apart from that, Inter reported that a female employee at NIS inured her leg during the evacuation.

The arsonists who infiltrated the office building were not detained. Police have not yet said if they have identified the assailants.

The criminal case has been investigated under the Ukrainian Criminal Code articles 'Hooliganism' and 'Intentional Damage to Property'. Investigators are looking into several theories of the fire incident in the building, including felony arson, the chief of Kyiv's National Police main directorate, Andriy Krishchenko, said.
The majority of political forces in Germany does not see grounds for lifting sanctions from Russia, German Ambassador to Ukraine Ernst Reichel has said.

"A broad consensus has been reached at the political level, maybe apart from leftist parties, including what used to be the Communist party. At present there are no conditions for lifting sanctions," he said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

The ambassador said that there are different opinions regarding extension of sanctions against Russia among German economic associations and individual businessmen.

"I know that Ukraine is attentively monitoring the discussions held among German economic associations and individual businessmen. I have an impression that maybe you pay too much attention to this issue. We have an open pluralistic discussion and everyone can present his or her opinion. There are different opinions," Reichel said.

The German diplomat said that Ukraine should not provide any reasons to doubt that it fulfills the Minsk agreements.
A lot could be at stake for Montana school kids and teachers, college students and university employees in this years race for governor.

Both major party candidates, incumbent Democrat Gov. Steve Bullock and Republican challenger Greg Gianforte, speak passionately about education. Both have taken concrete actions to promote education and praised Montanas public schools.

Yet they have very different visions and priorities for education.

By Gail Schontzler Chronicle Staff Writer

Full Story: http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/education/bullock-gianforte-differ-on-education/article_8888a3ee-20bd-5a0e-9716-419488f2ef1b.html
Court in Kyiv has permitted to detain judge of Dniprovsky district court of Kyiv Mykola Chaus.

"On Friday Solomiansky district court permitted to detain Chaus," the press service of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine (SAP) reported on Monday.

As reported, during the evening of August 9 NABU agents procedurally backed by prosecutors from the specialized anti-corruption office exposed Chaus accepting a $150,000 bribe. The money was found in two glass jars buried by the judge in the yard of his private residence.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on September 6 supported the recommendation of the General Prosecutor's Office to grant consent to detain and arrest (take into custody) Chaus.

Chaus is in Crimea now, SAP said.
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Kyiv cannot fully hold its ground within the framework of the Minsk Agreements on the Donbas conflict and should make certain concessions, German Ambassador to Ukraine Ernst Reichel said.

"In the conflict, which is subject to the Minsk Agreements, Ukraine cannot assert its interests completely and should make certain concessions," he said in an interview with Interfax.

He also said that Germany expects from all sides, including Ukraine, constructive and intensive work on the Minsk Agreements' implementation, which means full ceasefire, withdrawal of heavy weapons and ensuring a political settlement reached in Minsk.

"We are strongly convinced that it is more beneficial for Ukraine to have the Minsk Agreements at its disposal and implement them rather than to be in a situation where there are no agreements with Russia. And I was glad when Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko confirmed this during his speech in the Verkhovna Rada," he said.

The diplomat also expressed support for the stance of Poroshenko, who stands firmly for complete implementation of the Minsk Agreements.
Since the beginning of the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) in Donetsk region the regional police registered more than 1,700 terrorist attacks against civilians.

Since the start of ATO, nearly 800 people have fallen victims to the attacks, 174 of them died, the communications department of the Donetsk region police reported on Saturday.

"For three years the Russian aggressor has been trying to destroy our land. This is what happened on January 13, when terrorists carried out a cynical shelling of the bus. We will do our best to bring to justice those who committed this murder. At present, the Donetsk region police, the National Guard, the Security Service of Ukraine and the Armed Forces of Ukraine are making every effort to prevent more deaths among civilians," the communications department quoted Deputy Chief of the National police department in Donetsk region Serhiy Matviychuk as saying.

On Saturday, a memorial sign opened near the village of Volnovakha, which commemorates the victims of a shelling attack on a regular bus carrying civilians, which was shelled from Grad multiple rocket systems on January 13, 2015. When a missile hit the bus, ten civilians were killed on the spot, two more people died from multiple shrapnel wounds in hospital, 18 people were injured.
On Wednesday, September 14, at 13.00 the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency's press center will host a press conference entitled Reforming of Interior Ministry and Interior Ministry Agencies: Results, Plans and Problems. The participants will include: Director of Kharkiv Human Rights Group Yevhen Zakharov, Deputy Executive Director of the International Renaissance Foundation Taras Kachka, Director of the Legal Support Department at the Interior Ministry of Ukraine Denys Horbas (8/5a Reitarska Street). Registration requires press accreditation. Additional information at: zakharove@gmail.com (Yevhen Zakharov).
Chicken will be the best-positioned protein due to its low price position in times of pressure on consumer spending power but rises in production costs and the long-term impact of COVID-19 threaten to disrupt the sector, according to Rabobank.
First Recipient of Face Transplant Dies at 49

Isabelle Dinoire, first recipient of groundbreaking face transplant declared dead at 49.

The french woman died on April 22 this year after suffering from chronic illness. The hospital did not release the specific cause of her death. However, French media disclosed that she suffered from transplant rejections which necessitated her to take anti-rejection drugs which later on caused her two cancers.

In 2009, she shared her postoperative story with BBC saying that "the donor is always with me" as she saw a combination of herself and the donor whenever she looked in the mirror.

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Dinoire attempted to end her life prior the surgery. She overdosed herself with sleeping pills and was found by her Labrador dog unconscious. Her pet wake her up already filled with blood after being gnawed and bitten at her face.

Instead of sessions of face reconstruction, her doctors proposed face transplant to correct the injuries on her chin, nose and mouth. Her case pioneered the practice of face transplant.

Dr. Jean-Michel Dubernard and Dr. Bernard Devauchelle stitched a brain-dead donor's nose, mouth and chin to Dinoire. The lower part of her face came from a person who died of suicide, CNN reported.

The operation occurred on November 2005. It received praise and criticisms due to an ethical argument that facial reconstruction should be considered first before opting face transplant.

According to reports, the woman felt happy after her surgical transformation. However, the attention from people especially the media caused bothered and stressed her,

Disclosure of her death was postponed to show respect to the mourning family and their privacy. "In accordance with the will of her relatives, no obituary was published in the press in order to protect their legitimate privacy at that painful time," doctors revealed.

Several nations have been adopting the practice of face transplants these past few years including the United States, Turkey, Poland, China and Spain.

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Fragmentation is the biggest change and challenge in marketing today, according to David Rodnitzky, CEO at 3Q Digital, a Harte Hanks company. Consumers use multiple devices, dividing their time between social networks, apps, search, and video. He says brands should expect an increasing amount of fragmentation through connected cars, smart TVs, virtual reality and augmented reality.

Marketers can expect to wake up every morning with more channels, more devices, and more data to sort through. For brands, the days of spending 90% of their online budget on search ending marketing or advertising and accounting for all of the results via last-click attribution are long gone.

So Search Blog asked Rodnitzky what the first step should be for advertisers to take to address this fragmentation. Pointing to the self-help book -- Discover your strengths! -- he suggests that advertisers need to look in the mirror and assess their strengths and realize what they can't, won't, and don't know how to do. He says that creates a framework for investment to determine what the company should take in-house or assign to an agency, as well as the type of technology required to get the job done.

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Search Blog: Many advertisers are not paying attention to the mounds of data that will become available to them through IoT devices. They tell me it's too soon. How will the emergence of IoT devices change this or force advertisers to rethink strategies?

Rodnitzky: I think it just reinforces the need for analytics and machine learning. Advertisers have a hard enough time crunching their data from Google Analytics, AdWords, and Facebook. Now add IoT, connected cars, and in-store beacons into the mix and the idea that we can just get really good at Excel to get a true understanding of our customers becomes specious. So I think we are going to start seeing advertisers build decision sciences teams that combine analytics, attribution, data management, and data mining.

SB: Are you concerned for those advertisers that are not paying attention to the data?

DR: Absolutely. I call this information asymmetry. If I know that men buy 50% more shampoo between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. while surfing an Android device and you don't, I'll increase my bids at that time and outbid you and let you out-bid me for inferior audiences. You'll be scratching your head as to how I am able to profit from a given keyword or display placement, but because I have better data, I'm effectively taking all the great traffic and giving you all the "crap" traffic, as my British counterparts would say.

SB: When you wake at 2 a.m. and cannot get back to sleep, what type of customer experience or advertising strategy are you thinking about as it relates to search, fragmentation, data and IoT?

DR: I think a lot about how digital marketers will one day disrupt traditional advertising, like TV, radio, direct mail, and out-of-home. I think we are nearing that point where all media is programmatic and addressable. That will be a fun time for digital marketers, but perhaps not as fun for the big agencies that have had a lock on traditional marketing.

SB: What type of attribution model should advertisers think about?

DR: Not last-click. Seriously, however, the blessing and the curse of attribution is that it has made us realize that there is something better than last-click, but it has added so much uncertainty into the accuracy of our data. Because there are so many attribution models now, it's really hard to know if we're using the right one. So I think the best thing we can do is to continually test new models, feed in new data points, and try to get better. There isn't one model that is the heir apparent right now.

SB: What is the best piece of career advice you ever received?



DR: There are two: first, you don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate. Second, the California Lotto ran an ad that said: "Somebody's gonna lotto, might as well be you." I think that applies to work too -- why not you?

SB: Any other pieces of advice do you want to give advertisers?

DR: Standing still is moving backward in advertising today. Channels and strategies get outdated pretty quickly.

SB: What is the future of search advertising? How do you see your role as working at an agency to support brand clients evolving as search evolves?

DR: A few months ago I wrote a controversial article stating that search engine marketing agency was dying. My basic premise is that SEM by itself is becoming a commodity, which means that clients will either bring it in-house or choose a low-cost solution. To continue to provide value to clients, agencies need to address the fragmentation we talked about earlier -- they need to service multiple channels and offer non-media buying solutions that strengthen media buys such as CRO, analytics, strategy, etc.

My agency is in stage two of a three-stage evolution: from SEM agency to digital performance marketing agency, to performance marketing agency. In other words, I think we'll someday offer offline and online media buying plus any ancillary service that drives ROI for clients. We will be agnostic to channel or service -- we'll just ferret out the best ROI anywhere we can find it.
The Washington Post, Monday, September 12, 2016 5:38 AM

Threatening emails that caused Virginia Tech to shut down briefly last month originated in South America. Virginia Tech's campus police department issued a statement about the event revealing that federal and foreign authorities are now investigating the threat. After the school received threatening emails on August 29, the campus was shut down for a day.

Read the whole story at The Washington Post 
by Larissa Faw , September 12, 2016



FCB is promoting top talent in its Canada operations to further grow and evolve the Interpublic-owned agency. Tyler Turnbull, currently FCB Toronto CEO, will become FCB Canadas CEO, succeeding Tim Bowen, who has been named FCB Canadas chairman.

Turnbull will be responsible for daily operations across the agency's network, supporting its roster of talent and clients. At the moment, there are no plans to replace him at the Toronto office.

In his new role, Bowen will focus on corporate strategy, new business, and client relationships.

Both joined the agency from different Canadian shops two years ago. A major account on their watch was the North American BMO Harris Bank account last year.

Meanwhile, Jon Flannery, currently FCB Toronto Chief Creative Officer is returning to the states to become EVP, Executive Creative Director, FCB Chicago. This appointment is FCB Chicago CCO Liz Taylor's first major creative hire since she was hired at the Interpublic agency last month.

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Flannery is a familiar face among the Chicago ad community, having spent six years at FCB Chicago, seven years at Element 79, and nine years at Leo Burnett, leading brands such as KFC, Del Monte, Kelloggs and Philip Morris International. His return underscores his leadership abilities as Chicago is one of FCB's largest shops with 750 people.

Flannerys latest move is triggering changes at his old shop. Nancy Crimi-Lamanna (VP, Creative Director) and Jeff Hilts (VP, Creative Group Head) are being promoted to co-CCOs of FCB Toronto.
by Philip Rosenstein , Staff Writer, September 12, 2016

The recent frenzy over Hillary Clintons health made me think of Aaron Sorkins The West Wing. Not because pneumonia is anything close to fictional President Bartlets multiple sclerosis, though we can certainly find scores of Trump supporters who believe Clinton has some sort of degenerative disease.

It is because of the important distinction between health, and having the right temperament, the appropriate values and the poise to be President of the United States.

Conservative news outlet Infowars claims that Hillary Clinton has a debilitating medical crisis, reporting that she has Parkinson's disease. In contrast, it was announced Sunday that Clinton had been diagnosed with pneumonia last Friday.

The loud voices making such unproven assertions will feel emboldened by yesterdays events, when Secretary Clinton left a 9/11 memorial event earlier than expected. Further, a relatively troubling video surfaced showing the Democratic nominee unable to hold herself up when getting into her motorcade.

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In fairness, her medical reports have been made public. Conversely, Trump refuses to supply a detailed health record.

Clintons delay in announcing her pneumonia diagnosis, coupled with a strong sense among the American public that she is untrustworthy, will do her no favors as we reach the climax of election 2016.

Another video showed Clinton looking recovered as she waved to cameras a few hours later when leaving her daughter Chelseas apartment. Whatever episode Hillary Clinton had yesterday morning, her speedy recovery and decision to cancel a trip to California early this week, point to serious measures taken to deal with her health.

The question: are Clintons recent health issues a reason not to vote for her in November? The answer for many will be no. Trumps rhetoric about Muslims, Hispanics, women, the disabled, to name a few prominent concerns, is why.

A presidential election is about values and a candidate's ability to react appropriately in the innumerably varied situations a president is thrown into from day one. While there is not enough space here to reiterate all of Trump's disqualifying quotes, a recent one illustrates perfectly the danger of a Trump presidency.

Trump basically ripped up the First Amendment when he told a group of supporters: In a Trump administration, our Christian heritage will be cherished, defended and protected like youve never seen before. Just like it says in the Constitution, mused The Guardian.

Add that to his desire to crack down on press freedom and religious minorities. Plus, his recent claim that he would fire military generals if he reaches the office of the president. Bottom line: The GOP presidential nominee dangerously misunderstands the circumscribed powers of the office.

Instead, he sounds like someone who wants to emulate one of his idols, Vladimir Putin. That is what we should fear in this election, not Hillary Clintons health. Remember, FDR, one of our most revered presidents, who served during some of Americas most trying years, had polio.

This is not to say that Clintons health should go unchecked. Both she and Trump should release more extensive health records -- McCain, older than both current candidates at the time he was running, did so in 2008.

There are also the serious issues of Trump withholding his tax returns from the public and his apparent pay-for-play relationship with Pam Bondi in Florida. Clarity is needed on both fronts.
by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, September 12, 2016

Yelp scored a major victory today, when a federal appellate court refused to revive a small business owner's lawsuit against the company over a one-star review.

A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Yelp is protected from liability for posts by users, thanks to the Communications Decency Act. That law broadly provides that operators of platforms aren't responsible for posts created by users.

The decision stems from a 2013 lawsuit against Yelp by Douglas Kimzey, a locksmith in Redmond, Washington. Kimzey took issue with a review posted in September of 2011 by "Sarah K," who had some choice words about the company. "This was by far the worst experience I have ever encountered with a locksmith," she wrote-- in all capital letters, no less. "Do not go through this company."

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Kimzey made a host of allegations against Yelp, in an effort to hold the review site liable for the post, which he believed was defamatory. Among other arguments, he contended that Yelp was responsible for the review because it appeared in Google's search results. (Kimzey apparently contended that Yelp "republished" the review on Google, according to the 9th Circuit's summary of the arguments.)

The appellate court rejected that theory. "Just as Yelp is immune from liability ... for posting user-generated content on its own website, Yelp is not liable for disseminating the same content in essentially the same format to a search engine," the court wrote.

Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman, who has followed this lawsuit, writes that the decision could serve as "an important and defense-favorable complement" to a 2008 ruling that made it harder for Web site owners to defend themselves when users acted illegally.

In that earlier matter, the 9th Circuit ruled that the site Roommates.com must face a lawsuit accusing it of helping to match roommates based on race, sexual orientation and other unlawful criteria. The Web site had argued that the Communications Decency Act immunized it from discrimination lawsuits based on user posts, but the 9th Circuit ruled that the roommate-matching site couldn't rely on that statute because the company allegedly solicited unlawful information. (Roommates.com ultimately won the lawsuit, but the 2008 opinion is still on the books.)

Goldman also points out that Yelp is still fighting a separate battle over whether it can be forced to remove bad reviews. In that matter, a lawyer who got a bad write-up sued the author without notifying Yelp. The lawyer then obtained a court order requiring Yelp to take down the post.

Yelp says that order should be vacated on the grounds that the company wasn't told about the court case in advance. The California Supreme Court is expected to decide soon whether to hear Yelp's appeal.
Surgeons at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital have performed the world's first operation inside the eye using a robot.

Robert MacLaren, Professor of Ophthalmology assisted by Dr Thomas Edwards, Nuffield Medical Fellow, used the remotely controlled robot to lift a membrane 100th of a millimetre thick from the retina at the back of the right eye of the Revd Dr William Beaver, 70, an Associate Priest at St Mary the Virgin, Iffley, Oxford. He is the first patient ever to undergo this experimental procedure.

The Robotic Retinal Dissection Device (R2D2) trial is sponsored by the University of Oxford and funded by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre with support from Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital. Additional funding was provided by Zizoz, a Dutch charity for patients with choroideremia, a genetic form of blindness.

The robot needs to operate inside the eye through a single hole that is less than 1 mm in diameter and it needs to go in and out of the eye through this same hole during various steps of the procedure, even though the eye may rotate.

The device is designed to eliminate unwanted tremors in the surgeon's hand - such as through their pulse - so tiny surgical manipulations can be safely carried out within the eye.

The robot acts like a mechanical hand with seven independent computer-controlled motors resulting in movements as precise as 1000th of a millimetre in scale.

In the case of Father Beaver, the patient for this first operation, a membrane growing on the surface of his retina had contracted and pulled it into an uneven shape. This leads to a distorted image, like looking in a hall of mirrors at a fairground. The membrane is about 100th of a millimetre thick and needed to be dissected off the retina without damaging it.

Surgeons can just about do this by slowing their pulse and timing movements between heart beats, but the robot could make it much easier. Moreover, the robot could enable new, high-precision procedures that are currently out of the reach of the human hand.

The surgeon uses a joystick and touchscreen outside the eye to control the robot whilst monitoring its progress through the operating microscope. This gives the surgeon a notable advantage as significant movements of the joystick result in tiny movements of the robot.

Whilst robots have been developed for large scale surgery, such as in the abdomen, until now no device has been available that achieves the three dimensional precision required to operate inside the human eye. The device has been developed by Preceyes BV, a Dutch medical robotics firm established by the University of Eindhoven. Over the last 18 months, the Preceyes engineers and the team at the University of Oxford's Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology have worked together to plan this landmark clinical trial. This has resulted in the world first robotic surgery inside the human eye.

On completing the operation, Professor Robert MacLaren said: "There is no doubt in my mind that we have just witnessed a vision of eye surgery in the future.

"Current technology with laser scanners and microscopes allows us to monitor retinal diseases at the microscopic level, but the things we see are beyond the physiological limit of what the human hand can operate on. With a robotic system, we open up a whole new chapter of eye operations that currently cannot be performed."

Speaking at his follow up visit at the Oxford Eye Hospital, Father Beaver said, "My sight is coming back. I am delighted that my surgery went so well and I feel honoured to be part of this pioneering research project."

Professor MacLaren added, "This will help to develop novel surgical treatments for blindness, such as gene therapy and stem cells, which need to be inserted under the retina with a high degree of precision."

The current robotic eye surgery trial will involve 12 patients in total and involves operations with increasing complexity. In the first part of the trial, the robot is used to peel membranes off the delicate retina without damaging it. If this part is successful, as has been the case so far, the second phase of the trial will assess how the robot can place a fine needle under the retina and inject fluid through it. This will lead to use of the robot in retinal gene therapy, which is a promising new treatment for blindness which is currently being trialled in a number of centres around the world. This follows on from the successful gene therapy trials led by researchers at the Oxford Eye Hospital and includes developing treatments for retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic condition that is one of the most common causes of blindness in young people and age-related macular degeneration, which affects the older age group.
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Miss Japan 2016 Winner is Half-Indian; Does Being a 'Hafu' Difficult?

This year's winner of Miss Japan is half-Indian succeeding the biracial title-holder, Ariana Miyamoto last 2015.

22 year old Priyanka Yoshikawa took home the crown with an objective to "change perceptions."

The beauty queen emphasized in an interview with the AFP News that she is Japanese and having an Indian father is something she is proud of. She added that her pride for being an Indian does not make her less of a Japanese, BBC reported.

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Yoshikawa who is a licensed elephant trainer gives credit to Miyamoto for showing "mixed girls the way." She said that "before Ariana, haafu girls couldn't represent Japan. That's what I thought too. Ariana encouraged me a lot by showing me and all mixed girls the way."

The controversial winner described her unpleasant experience when she returned to Japan. She said "everyone thought I was a germ. Like if they touched me they would be touching something had. But I'm thankful because that made me really strong."

Biracial born babies only account for 2% of the total births in Japan annually.

Critics debate that Yoshikawa lacks purity. This is not the first time a biracial beauty queen was criticized. Miss America Nina Davuluri with an Indian descent was also bashed online and called 'terrorist' because of her background.

In a study conducted by Oshima, a "Rainbow Project" was conducted to know how Hafu, born mixed-racial, lives in Japan. According to the author, biracial children don't consider themselves different until they reach the age of 6 to 18. During the said period, Hafus tend to change their appearance or deliberately hide their ethnic background to other people. Hafus also get bullied on this stage.

As they mature, Hafus learn to accept their real selves by feeling positive about their minority identity and would consider their ethnic background as an advantage.

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These structures were first found to exist in human cells by the same team behind the current research, but at the time it was not exactly clear where these structures were found in the genome, and what their role was, although it was suspected that they had a link with certain cancer genes."There have been a number of different connections made between these structures and cancer, but these have been largely hypothetical," said Professor Shankar Balasubramanian, from Cambridge's Department of Chemistry and Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, and the paper's senior author. "But what we've found is that even in non-cancer cells, these structures seem to come and go in a way that's linked to genes being switched on or off."Starting with a pre-cancerous human cell line, the researchers used small molecules to change the state of the cells in order to observe where the G-quadruplexes might appear. They detected approximately 10,000 G-quadruplexes, primarily in regions of DNA associated with switching genes on or off, and particularly in genes associated with cancer."What we observed is that the presence of G-quadruplexes goes hand in hand with the output of the associated gene," said Balasubramanian. This suggests that G-quadruplexes may play a similar role to epigenetic marks: small chemical modifications which affect how the DNA sequence is interpreted and control how certain genes are switched on or off.The results also suggest that G-quadruplexes hold potential as a molecular target for early cancer diagnosis and treatment, in particular for so-called small molecule treatments which target cancer cells, instead of traditional treatments which hit all cells."We've been looking for an explanation for why it is that certain cancer cells are more sensitive to small molecules that target G-quadruplexes than non-cancer cells," said Balasubramanian."One simple reason could be that there are more of these G-quadruplex structures in pre-cancerous or cancer cells, so there are more targets for small molecules, and so the cancer cells tend to be more sensitive to this sort of intervention than non-cancer cells."It all points in a certain direction, and suggests that there's a rationale for the selective targeting of cancer cells.""We found that G-quadruplexes appear in regions of the genome where proteins such as transcription factors control cell fate and function," said Dr Robert Hansel-Hertsch, the paper's lead author. "The finding that these structures may help regulate the way that information is encoded and decoded in the genome will change the way we think this process works."Dr Emma Smith, Cancer Research UK's science information manager, said: "Figuring out the fundamental processes that cancer cells use to switch genes on and off could help scientists develop new treatments that work against many types of the disease. And exploiting weaknesses in cancer cells could mean this approach would cause less damage to healthy cells, reducing potential side effects. It's still early days, but promising leads like this are where the treatments of the future will come from."Source: Eurekalert
New Genes Identified for Blood Pressure

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COL21A1 - This gene is involved in the formation of collagen and so is important in many organs like the heart and the aorta.

- This gene is involved in the formation of collagen and so is important in many organs like the heart and the aorta. RRAS - This gene has been liked with the 'Noonan Syndrome' that is associated with abnormalities of the heart. It is also involved in the cell cycle processes. COL21A1 and RRAS are of particular significance as they are both associated with the remodeling of the blood vessel which is important in the development of hypertension.

- This gene has been liked with the 'Noonan Syndrome' that is associated with abnormalities of the heart. It is also involved in the cell cycle processes. COL21A1 and RRAS are of particular significance as they are both associated with the remodeling of the blood vessel which is important in the development of hypertension. RBM47 - The protein that is coded for by this gene is found to modify RNA.

Understanding the mechanism involved in the disease pathway

It provides new targets for therapy.

It provides a better understanding of the prognosis involved.

It removes ambiguity about the cause of the disease and will provide an insight into better management of the disease.

It will help evaluate possible transmission to children for increased awareness and care.

It provides a better understanding of genetic variation.

There have been many studies associated with identifying genes for blood pressure but the influence of these genes on elevating blood pressure have been small. However, the current study by Dr. Patricia Munroe and colleagues has identified 31 genes, out of which three genes that rarely occur are found to have considerable effect on blood pressure.Dr. Patricia details the significance of finding genes associated with hypertension and blood pressure "We already know from earlier studies that high blood pressure is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Finding more genetic regions associated with the condition allows us to map and understand new biological pathways through which the disease develops, and also highlight potential new therapeutic targets. This could even reveal drugs that are already out there but may now potentially be used to treat hypertension."The University of Cambridge's Dr. Joanna Howson who is the co-author of the study talks about the study that involves participants from across different countries. "The sheer scale of our study has enabled us to identify genetic variants carried by less than one in a hundred people that affect blood pressure regulation. While we have known for a long time that blood pressure is a risk factor for coronary heart disease and stroke, our study has shown that there are common genetic risk factors underlying these conditions," she says.347,000 people were assessed to understand the association between genes and the risk for blood pressure and hypertension. Healthy individuals were taken as controls along with people with hypertension, coronary artery disease and diabetes. The study participants were from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Norway, U.S.A, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, U.K and Denmark. The study also utilized the services of over 200 investigators from across 15 countries to take part in the research study. This would allow a glimpse into the varied genetic background and the genes associated with risk of hypertension and blood pressure.Out of the 31 genes that were identified, three genes which were found to occur rarely, played a significant role in blood pressure.Other significant genes identified in this study was;- This gene codes for an enzyme that is used as a therapeutic agent as it play a significant role in controlling blood pressure by contracting and relaxing the blood vessels.Identifying genes that are associated with elevating blood pressure or hypertension will aid in:The Associate Medical Director from The British heart Foundation that co-funded the study Dr. Jeremy Pearson spoke about the significance of the study "Large scale genetic studies continue to expand the number of genes that may contribute to the development of heart disease, or risk factors such as high blood pressure. But so far most of the genes discovered in these studies individually have only very small effects on risk - though they may still provide valuable clues for new drug targets. This study has increased the number of genes implicated in control of blood pressure to almost 100 and, in the process, has also identified three genes that have larger effects on blood pressure than previously found."Source: Medindia
Ocular migraine refers to recurrent temporary visual changes in one eye and the patient is completely normal between attacks. While some define retinal migraine as associated with headache, others state that it may or may not be associated with headache. Ocular migraine is also referred to as eye migraine, retinal migraine, anterior visual pathway migraine, ophthalmic migraine, or visual migraine.

Ocular migraine appears to be due to vasospasm (spasms in blood vessels) that occur in the retina. The vasospasms cause temporary narrowing of the retinal blood vessels. The vision comes back to normal once the blood vessels relax.

The triggers for these vasospasms include:

Cold

Exercise

Smoking

Low blood pressure (hypotension)

High blood pressure (Hypertension)

Emotional stress

Birth control pills

Reduced blood sugar

Prolonged exposure to heat

Elevated altitude

Lack of water (dehydration)

Bending over

Inflammation of the arteries

Restriction in the blood circulation of the retinal arteries

Conditions that should be ruled out in a patient suffering from vision disturbances in one eye include:

Lupus erythematosus (inflammatory disease)

High blood pressure

Increased clotting of blood

Incomplete closure of the heart valve

Antiphospholipid syndrome, an autoimmune disorder associated with pregnancy complications

Giant cell arteritis (inflammatory disease of the blood vessels)

Epilepsy

Hardening of arteries

Sickle cell disease

Advertisement

Symptoms of retinal migraine include the following:

Temporary vision loss in one eye. The vision loss may appear suddenly or as a gradually increasing shaded area or blind spot. The episodes usually last for up to an hour and the vision is normal between attacks Lights that flash in the eyes (e.g. zigzag lines or jagged lines in the eyes or shimmering stars or spots)

Headaches following, during, or before the visual loss

Several similar episodes in the same day

History of similar earlier episodes and /or a previous history of migraine

If the person is going through the symptoms of visual loss while at the doctors office, then the ophthalmologist can check for reduced blood flow to the eye with an ophthalmoscope.

The investigative tests that are recommended by an eye specialist to rule out other possible causes of vision changes and diagnose the condition are:

Tests to evaluate the condition of the heart like electrocardiography, transthoracic echocardiography and Holter monitor

Tests to evaluate blood flow through blood vessels like carotid duplex Doppler ultrasonography and fluorescein angiography

Blood tests like total blood count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and prothrombin and partial thromboplastin times

Ocular migraine is treated by an ophthalmologist or a neurologist.

Since ocular migraine deals with transient visual loss, the most obvious thing is to have a visual field test performed.

Amyl nitrate inhalation is prescribed in the early stages of an attack to resolve the problem.

Beta blockers (e.g. propranolol), amyl nitrate therapy, and calcium-channel blockers, such as nifedipine and verapamil are prescribed for those who have frequent attacks of transient visual loss (e.g. more than 2 episodes in a week). These drugs relax blood vessels and prevent symptoms of retinal migraine.

Nifedipine or aspirin is used to prevent exercise-related attacks.

If the episodes are not that frequent, then the patient just needs to be reassured and should just go for regular follow-ups with the doctor to monitor the condition.
Russia This Week is a weekly review by the MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project, covering the latest Russia-related news and analysis from media in Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe.

Cartoon Of The Week



Vitaly PodvitskyRia.ru, September 9, 2016.

Uncle Sam is violently banging at Russia's door:

Uncle Sam: You are all savages, inhospitable; you provoke me all the time!

Zakharova Dixit

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova is one of the most-quoted Russian officials. She is known for using colorful language when describing Russian foreign policy in her weekly press briefings. The following are Zakharova's quotes of the week:



(Source: Mid.ru, September 8, 2016)

On The Need To Distinguish The Syrian Militia From Terrorists

"Time and time again, we emphasize the urgent need to divide the terrorists from those who seek to continue to enjoy the protection provided to ceasefire participants. This division is all about separating those who want to live in a peaceful Syria from those who want to carry on the bloody war.

The unending criminal activity of terrorists in Syria and throughout the Middle East calls for clear and principled assessments and responsible decision-making on the part of all those who are interested in bringing peace to Syria, stabilizing the region and eliminating the global terrorist threat originating there."

(Mid.ru, September 8)

On The Expansion Of Anti-Russian Sanctions By The US

"...You have probably already familiarised yourself with the numerous comments by Russian officials regarding the sanctions the United States imposed on Russia on September 1 and 6, unprecedented in their scale: 11 of our citizens and 107 legal entities fell under them. With obstinacy certainly worthy of a better cause at this historical time, the outgoing US administration keeps ruining our bilateral relations, citing the developments around Crimea and Donbass as an excuse...

"What effect will such sanctions have? None. Even the White House, it seems, is aware of that and acknowledges that. They failed to rip our economy to tatters - the task proved too hard even for the White House. The policy of isolating Russia in the international arena has failed too. First to look forward to new meetings, call Moscow daily and ask for support in dealing with international crises, and then to talk about isolation - it's just absurd. I'd like to stress that it's not us who turn to the Americans for support, it's them who appeal to us all the time to help and join in efforts to resolve some regional or international conflict or another. The most curious and most ridiculous thing of all is that they ask us to get involved in resolving precisely those conflicts that they themselves instigated. That's as far as the outgoing administration is concerned. Evidently, it is now either politically inexpedient or not possible to admit that the failure of the course that they themselves worked out is their own fault. Therefore, some new steps are needed to emphasize its topicality, the 'depth of thought and the height of flight.' We realize that behind all that is an attempt to save face before their own public and cheer up their allies who are groaning under the losses they incurred from such a policy.

"Unfortunately, despite the fact that we are aware of the foolishness of what the White House is doing, the principle of reciprocity in foreign policy has not been abandoned, with regard to blacklists as well. No one, including the Obama administration and, of course, those who will move into the White House, should have any illusions that the Russian Federation can be put under pressure. I do hope that they will prove to be wiser."

(Mid.ru, September 8)

Quotes Of The Week:

On September 9, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov answered media questions "on the sidelines" of his bilateral meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Geneva:

Sergey Lavrov: How are you? Exhausted?

Journalists: Yes.

Sergey Lavrov: Me too.

Journalist: But heartened?

Sergey Lavrov: It's a very tough vertical of power in the democratic system of the US.

(Mid.ru, September 10)



Lavrov with journalists in Geneva (Source: Mid.ru, September 10, 2016)

In The News:

Russia-US Agreement On Syria



Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with US State Secretary John Kerry (Source: Tass.com, September 10)

After 13-hour long talks in Geneva, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry coordinated a package of five documents to enforce peace in Syria. Lavrov said: "Despite lack of trust, despite attempts to disrupt today's agreement, we have managed to coordinate a package of documents. Today's document is not the only one. In fact, there are five of them... This package of documents allows establishing effective coordinated in the fight against terrorism, allows broadening humanitarian access to the population in need in Aleppo and allows strengthening the regime of cessation of hostilities." He then added: "All this created conditions for resuming the political process which has been stalling for too long." Lavrov also warned that "no one can give 100 percent guarantees", that the deal will bring peace to Syria as the parties involved in "this puzzle" have conflicting agendas.

(Tass.com, September 10-11; Sputniknews.com, September 11)

The staged agreement consists of :

- Securing a nationwide ceasefire as a first step that will be binding on both "Damascus-led forces and armed opposition groups.

- The cessation of hostilities will be introduced for a 48-hour period at sunset on September 12, when the Islamic world marks the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, and will be reapplied for an additional 48 hours if it holds. Kerry explained that this requires a halt to all attacks (including aerial bombardments and any attempts to gain additional territory at the expense of the parties to the cessation.), it requires unimpeded and sustained humanitarian access to all of the besieged and the hard-to-reach areas, including Aleppo.

- If all stakeholders adhere to the ceasefire for at least seven days, Russia and the United States will move to the second stage.

- The second step involves both sides establishing a Joint Implementation Center and, "working together to develop military strikes" against al-Nusra Front.

- Lavrov said that the "physical separation" of terrorists from the moderate opposition on the ground is "the key priority."

(Sputniknews.com, September 10)

The Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee (HNC) said that it will support the Russia-US plan, provided that Syrian government forces will observe the cessation of hostilities as well.

(Tass.com, September 10)

The Syrian government said it was issuing its consent to the ceasefire envisioned by the agreement that the US and Russia reached in Geneva.

(Tass.com, September 11)

Russian Federation Council International Affairs Committee Chair Konstantin Kosachyov said that the negotiations in Geneva between Lavrov and Kerry marked the beginning of true partnership between the two countries on Syria. Kosachyov said: "Apart from pure appearances [...] Geneva has chances to make history as a new reference mark in the Syrian drama. Surely, this is not a 'coalition' (how many of them have existed?), but this is a transition from uncoordinated actions to coordinated ones, and therefore, from rivalry to partnership."

(Inferfax.com, September 10)

Gazeta.ru's Columnist: Russia Should Pull Out From Syria

Gazeta.ru's columnist Mikhail Hodarenok wrote that Russia should extract its forces from Syria, except from the Hmeymim base, and cease its involvement in the conflict, since it is impossible to win a war with such an ally as Assad's army. According to Hodarenok, Assad's army is demoralized and unwilling to fight. Even the army's generals don't believe they can alter the situation on the ground without third-country involvement.

(Gazeta.ru, September 6)

Russia Concerned Over Turkey's Actions In Syria

On September 7, the Russian MFA has published a special statement regarding Turkey's actions in Syria: "The Foreign Ministry expresses grave concern about the advance of the Turkish troops and armed groups of the Syrian opposition it supports further into Syrian territory, and stresses that these actions are not being coordinated with the legitimate Syrian Government and are undertaken without approval of the UN Security Council. This undermines the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic. Taking this into account, the position adopted by Damascus seems justified and valid in terms of international law. The Foreign Ministry believes that Turkey's actions could further complicate an already challenging military and political situation in Syria and negatively affect international efforts to devise a settlement platform that would ensure a more sustainable ceasefire, uninterrupted humanitarian access and would provide a solid foundation for conciliation and overcoming the crisis in this country. Russia calls on Ankara to put these objectives above immediate military and tactical aims and refrain from steps that could further destabilize the Syrian Arab Republic.

On September 6 Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu requested military ground support from Russia in order to proceed with Turkish Shield of Ephrata operation against ISIS. According to deputy chair of defense and security committee of the Federation Council Franz Klintsevich, Russia will not participate in ground operations and will not send its ground forces to assist Turkish military. Klintsevitch said: "It's clear that it's impossible to defeat ISIS without such an operation [i.e. with boots on the ground], but the problem is that the US special services and other NATO countries are assisting the opposition - mainly the terrorists. Thus, I think, in these conditions Moscow will not send its ground forces to Syria - except that the public opinion won't support such a move."

Stanislav Tarasov, CEO of "the Middle East-Caucasus" research institute, added that it's not likely that Moscow will give a positive answer on sending ground forces since this move implies a trilateral Syrian-Turkish-Russian agreement. However, Tarasov expressed his regret that Moscow did not provide air cover for Turkish military operations, since currently it is the US Air Force that provides air support to Turkish forces.

(Izvestia.ru, September 8)

On September 9, at the initiative of the Turkish side, Lavrov and Cavusoglu conversed by phone to discuss the Syrian crisis while Russia-US talks were underway in Geneva.

(Sputniknews.com, September 9)

On September 8, Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at the Turkish side's initiative. According to the Kremlin's website, special attention was devoted to the situation in Syria, and both sides avowed their intention to continue active contacts at various levels to coordinate efforts in assisting a Syrian settlement.

(Kremlin.ru, September 8)

The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the rumors about a possible trilateral meeting between the Presidents of Russia, Turkey and Syria.

(Ria.ru, September 5)

Meeting Of Israeli And Palestinian Leaders Under Russia's Mediation

During her weekly briefing, Zakharova said that the impasse in the Israeli-Palestinian settlement is "a matter of grave concern" for Russia and confirmed Russia's intention to mediate a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Zakharova said: "Unfortunately, after the failure of US mediation efforts in 2013-2014, there was virtually no direct dialogue between the two parties to the conflict and it did not resume for a long time. Russia strongly believes in the need to resume the negotiation process with a view of bringing the situation back to normal in the area of Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reaching compromises based on international law. In this respect, responding to the appeals by both Palestinians and the Israelis, Russia confirmed its readiness to organize a meeting in Moscow between President of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu. We are satisfied with the fact that Russia is being called upon to contribute to the Middle East peace process, as well as the fact that the leaders of Palestine and Israel have agreed in principle, including publicly, to meet each other in Russia. The main issue right now is to choose the right moment for this meeting. Intensive contacts to this effect continue."

(Mid.ru, September 8)

Mahmoud Abbas As KGB Agent

Israel's Channel 1 television recently revealed that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was a Soviet agent in Damascus in the 1980s. Channel 1 quoted information from the Mitrokhin archive smuggled out of the USSR. In the documents, it is revealed that Abbas, code-named Krotov (Krot means mole in Russian), was a Soviet agent, in the same years that Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov, was serving as a diplomat in Damascus. Fatah official Nabil Shaath denied that Abbas was ever a KGB agent. It should be noted that Russian media covered the issue only 12 hours after the news while out and no comment was made on the issue.

(ITV Channel 1, September 6)

Russia-Egypt Military Cooperation

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said that in the military-technical sphere there are "steady trends and growth in the value of defense contracts" with Egypt. Shoigu added: "We note with satisfaction that for the use of its armed forces, Egypt wishes to use the most advanced weapons and military hardware of Russian manufacture,"

(Tass.com, September 8)

Russia-Bahrain Military Cooperation

On September 6, Russian President Vladimir Putin met the King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in Moscow. The two leaders discussed possibilities for military technical cooperation between the two countries. Putin told the Bahraini king: "You said you wanted to learn about the possibilities of our defense sector. I hope you had a chance to see what we can offer our friends and partners. I would like to hear your opinion about what you have seen today." The Bahraini king replied: "Indeed, we would like to get a closer look at your modern products, your arms manufacturing complex. And naturally, taking this into account, we build our relations in accordance with our needs. And, glory to God, everything that we agreed on earlier is being put into practice. However, of course, we, Russia and Bahrain, would like to set even more objectives for ourselves." It should be noted that by hosting Bahrain's king, whose ouster is called for by Iran, Russian diplomacy again displays its willingness to be on good terms with all sides.

(Tass.com, September 6; Kremlin.ru, September 6)

Earlier in the week, Russia and Bahrain signed an interstate defense cooperation agreement, which implies mutual military drills and possibility of warships docking/military aviation visiting the countries seaports/airfields.

(Ria.ru, September 9)

Russia Expands Military Cooperation With African Countries

A military cooperation agreement was signed between Russian and Islamic Republic of Gambia. The document was signed by deputy chief of staff of Russian Army and Chief of Staff of the Gambian army.

(Ria.ru, September 8)

Shoigu told reporters that Russia is contemplating expanding military-technical relations with Rwanda.

(Ria.ru, September 8)

Russia's Military Cooperation With Latin America

Russian and Bolivian Defense Ministers Sergei Shoigu and Reimi Ferrera signed an agreement on military cooperation. At the signing ceremony, Shoigu said: "I hope that the signing of this agreement will be a good guarantee of prospects for our military cooperation. This document will lay a reliable legal foundation for further military and, hopefully, for military-technical cooperation in the future."

The Bolivian minister stated: "For us, Russia is a fraternal country, with which we have excellent relations." He then added that boosting military cooperation with Russia is important for Bolivia, because of the high quality of Russian weapons. However, Bolivia is interested in developing relations in other areas as well.

(Tass.ru, September 6)

Russia's Total Weapons Exports

The Deputy Director-General of Rosoboronexport, Sergey Goreslavskii, revealed that during the last 8 months, Russia has exported weapons worth 7 billion USD. At the end of 2016, the overall export revenues should total 15 billion USD.

(Ria.ru, September 7)

News In Brief:

- On September 8, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov received Iraq's Ambassador to Russia Ismail Mohsen at the latter's request. The sides exchanged opinions on the situation in Iraq and the settlement in Syria. (Mid.ru, Sep 8)

- Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that discussion of an oil production "freeze" is not on the agenda of the coming meeting between the Russian and Algerian Energy Ministers. (Tass.ru, Sep 8)

Strange But True

To celebrate the reaching of an agreement on Syria, Lavrov offered journalists pizza pies and bottles of vodka. "The pizza is from the Americans, the vodka is from us," Lavrov said jokingly to the reporters.

(Rt.com, September 10)



(Source: Facebook.com/maria.zakharova.167, September 10, 2016)



(Source: Rt.com, September 10, 2016)

During the talks in Geneva to find an agreement on the ceasefire in Aleppo, Kerry sent pizza to Lavrov "to apologize for the 9-hour long pause in talks caused by US delegation's coordination of the progress in talks with Washington," informed Zakharova on her Facebook account.

(Tass.com, September 10, 2016)



(Source: Tass.com, September 10, 2016)
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's September 5, 2016 message for the annual Hajj pilgrimage was particularly anti-Saudi in tone; in it, he called on the countries in the region, and on all Muslim countries, to recognize the true nature of the Saudi rulers, and described them idolaters, infidels, criminals, and servants of the American Satan and the Zionists, and saying that they act in this Satan's name, murder Muslims in the region, and deliberately caused the deaths over the years of Muslim pilgrims to Mecca and Medina, most of them Iranian. He also called on the Islamic world to rethink whether Saudi Arabia should continue to administer these holy sites.[1] Khamenei's message was posted on his website along with images showing his hostility towards the Al-Saud dynasty, which he referred to as "the accursed tree" (see Appendix).

It should be mentioned that this year Iranian pilgrims are barred from making pilgrimages to the holy sites in Saudi Arabia. Following the 2015 stampede in Mina, in which over 1,000 pilgrims, mostly Iranians, died, the Iranian regime accused the Al-Saud royal family of responsibility for the disaster. After Saudi Arabia and Iran failed to reach a deal on arrangements for Iranians to attend this year's pilgrimage, the two countries traded accusations on who was to blame for the impasse. The Saudi regime stated that the Iranian delegation to the talks had made unreasonable demands in an attempt to politicize the Hajj. The Iranian authorities, for their part, announced that this year Iranians would not perform the pilgrimage.[2] It should also be noted that, in early January 2016, Saudi Arabia announced that it was cutting off relations with Iran, after Iranian protestors stormed and set fire to Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran following Saudi Arabia's execution of senior Shi'ite cleric Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr.[3]

Khamenei's virulent anti-Saudi comments came the day after Expediency Council Chairman and pragmatic camp leader Hashemi Rafsanjani criticized Khamenei's policy vis-a-vis both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. In his September 5 Hajj message, Khamenei reiterated the two main pillars of this policy - political conflict with the U.S. and with Saudi Arabia.[4]

Khamenei's statements provoked harsh responses from Saudi officials. They stressed that Saudi Arabia has always allowed all pilgrims to carry out the Hajj, and that Iranian pilgrims are prevented from doing so this year as a result of the Iranian regime's unreasonable demands and its attempts to politicize the Hajj ceremonies. The Saudi mufti even said that Iranians "are not Muslims, but rather Zoroastrians, and that their hostility towards the Muslims, particularly the Sunnis, is ancient." The Saudi press published many cartoons and images condemning Khamenei and the Iranian regime (see Appendix).

The following are excerpts from statements by Iranian and Saudi officials.

Rafsanjani Criticizes Khamenei's Militant Attitude Regarding Saudi Arabia And U.S.

On September 4, 2016, Rafsanjani's website published a recent interview with him in which he challenged Khamenei's policy vis-a-vis Saudi Arabia and the U.S. Rafsanjani noted that Americans are human and wish to maintain relations with Iran. With regard to Saudi Arabia, he clarified that Iran must first of all conduct itself appropriately and morally - hinting that it is Tehran that should extend the hand of friendship to Riyadh.

Following are excerpts from the interview:

Question: "Regarding Saudi Arabia and the current situation, who should reach out in friendship? You have said several times that it was you who reached out in friendship to the late [Saudi] King 'Abdallah, and that they [the Saudis] welcomed this..."

Rafsanjani: "If I were president - I don't mean right now - had I been president at that time, I would not have seen a problem with this issue. Presently, [Iranian President Hassan] Rohani is not in the same position I was. This [dialogue with Saudi Arabia] is possible and I think it is not so hard to get Saudi Arabia to accept [Iran's] authority. Saudi Arabia understands that there is nothing to gain from a conflict with Iran, and has already realized that it is helpless in Yemen, and that it is suffering humiliation after humiliation there. A country with so many weapons and so many divisions and soldiers can accomplish nothing besides killing people. Ultimately, it will wise up. In any case, we must conduct ourselves appropriately and morally, and then act [to repair relations]...

"The Americans are humans too, and they have certain interests. They want us to work with them. The American people want us to work together. They are afraid [of a scenario in which] we are not working with them and no sanctions [remain]; then, Russia, China, and India [will be] potential [candidates] for cooperation with Iran. They are doing all these calculations, and I think there is a chance that they will make up for [how they acted in the past]."[5]

Khamenei In Hajj Message: The Saudis Are Infidels, Idolaters, And Killers Of Muslims; They Encourage Terrorism And Operate According To U.S., Zionist Dictates

The following day, on September 5, 2016, Supreme Leader Khamenei published his Hajj message. Following are excerpts from Khamenei's Hajj message, from his English-language website:

"...Those who have reduced Hajj to a religious-tourist trip and have hidden their enmity and malevolence towards the faithful and revolutionary people of Iran under the name of 'politicizing hajj' are themselves small and puny Satans who tremble for fear of jeopardizing the interests of the Great Satan, the U.S.

"Saudi rulers, who have obstructed the path of Allah and Masjid ul-Haraam [i.e. the Mecca Grand Mosque] this year and who have blocked the proud and faithful Iranian pilgrims' path to the Beloved [God's] House, are disgraced and misguided people who think their survival on the throne of oppression is dependent on defending the arrogant powers of the world, on alliances with Zionism and the U.S., and on fulfilling their demands. And on this path, they do not shy away from any treason.

"Almost one year has now passed since the horrifying events in Mina, as a result of which several thousand people tragically lost their lives - under the hot sun with thirsty lips - and this happened on the day of Eid while they were in the clothes of ihram [i.e. pilgrimage clothes]. Shortly before that, another group of people was crushed to death in Masjid ul-Haraam while they were worshiping and performing tawaf and salat [Hajj rituals].

"Saudi rulers were at fault in both cases. This is what all those present, observers, and technical analysts agree upon. Some experts maintain that the events were premeditated. The hesitation and failure to rescue the half-dead and injured people, whose enthusiastic souls and enthralled hearts were accompanying their praying tongues on [the] Eid ul-Adha [holiday], is also obvious and incontrovertible. The heartless and murderous Saudis locked up the injured with the dead in containers - instead of providing medical treatment and helping them or at least quenching their thirst. They murdered them.

"Several thousand families from different countries lost their loved ones, and their nations were bereaved. From the Islamic Republic [of Iran], close to 500 people were among the martyrs. The hearts of their families are still broken and bereaved and our people remain grief-stricken and angry.

"Instead of apology and remorse and judicial prosecution of those who were directly at fault in that horrifying event, Saudi rulers - with utmost shamelessness and insolence - refused to allow the formation of an international Islamic fact-finding committee.

"Instead of being tried as the accused, they acted like the plaintiff and with increased malice and vileness, they revealed their long-standing enmity towards the Islamic Republic and towards any flag of Islam raised to confront kufr [heresy] and arrogance.

"Their propaganda mouthpieces - from the politicians whose behavior towards the Zionists and the U.S. is a source of disgrace for the world of Islam, to impious and haraam-eating [i.e. eaters of foods forbidden in Islam] muftis who blatantly issue fatwas against the Book [i.e., the Koran] and Sunnah, and to media minions who are not even deterred by codes of professional conduct from spreading and telling lies - are making futile efforts to show that the Islamic Republic is at fault for depriving Iranian pilgrims of this year's Hajj pilgrimage.

"The fitna-promoting rulers, who by forming and arming wicked takfiri groups have plunged the world of Islam into civil wars, murdering and injuring the innocent and shed blood in Yemen, Iraq, the Levant, Libya and other countries - the godless politicians who have extended the hand of friendship towards the Zionist regime, have closed their eyes on the Palestinians' sufferings and heartrending tragedies and have spread their oppression and betrayal to the cities and villages of Bahrain - the irreligious and unconscionable rulers who gave rise to the great tragedy in Mina and in the name of being servants of the two holy places, sacrificed divine sanctity and God's guests on the day of Eid in Mina and in Masjid ul-Haraam shortly before that - these same people are now claiming the need to avoid politicizing Hajj and are accusing others of the great sins that they themselves have committed and caused.

"They are the perfect example of the enlightening Koranic description: 'And when he turns his back, his aim everywhere is to spread mischief through the earth and to destroy crops and cattle and Allah does not love mischief. And when it is said unto him: Be careful of your duty to Allah, pride takes him to sin. Hell will settle his account, an evil resting-place' (Koran, Al-Baqara, Verses 205-206).

"Based on reports, this year as well, besides barring the participation of Iranian pilgrims and pilgrims from certain other countries, they have placed pilgrims from the participating countries under unprecedented surveillance, with the help of the spy agencies of the U.S. and the Zionist regime. They have made the divine sanctuary unsafe for everybody.

"The world of Islam, including Muslim governments and peoples, must familiarize themselves with the Saudi rulers and correctly understand their blasphemous, faithless, dependent, and materialistic nature. They must not let those rulers escape responsibility for the crimes they have caused throughout the world of Islam.

"Because of these rulers' oppressive behavior towards God's guests, the world of Islam must fundamentally reconsider the management of the two holy places and the issue of Hajj. Negligence in this regard will confront the Islamic Ummah with more serious problems in the future.

"Muslim brothers and sisters! This year enthusiastic and sincere Iranian pilgrims are absent from the Hajj ceremonies, but they are spiritually present among the pilgrims from different parts of the world and they are concerned about them and they pray that the evil progeny of the taghut [infidel tyrants] do not succeed in harming them."[6]

Khamenei: "The Hated Saudis Are A Group Within The Islamic World, And Some Of Its Members... Act Against The Muslims"

Two days later, on September 7, Khamenei reiterated his anti-Saudi statements, at a meeting with families of victims of the Mina stampede. He repeated his accusation that the Saudi rulers are not acting like true Muslims or for the benefit of the Arabs, but rather are collaborating with the U.S. against the true Muslims - i.e. the Shi'ites - while it is Iran that is acting according to the Koran and for the benefit of the Arabs. He also reiterated his claim that the Mina stampede was deliberately caused, and called for removing the administration of the Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia from the hands of the Al-Saud family.

Following are excerpts from his remarks:

"The Mina disaster shows again that Saudi Arabia - the criminal and accursed tree - is unfit to administer the holy sites, and this should be realized by all in the Islamic world. If Saudi Arabia is right [by insisting] that it is not responsible [for the disaster], then it must allow a true Islamic and international team to come in, to scrutinize the situation, and to clarify the matter. Saudi Arabia must not use [its] money to shut mouths...

"The brave Iranian nation is standing fast against Saudi Arabia's stupidity and confusion, and proudly states its positions, which stem from the Koran. Other nations and countries must also show courage and must grab the Saudis by the throat...

"The supporters of the Saudi regime are accessories to the crimes of this regime and to the Mina disaster. The dishonorable Saudi regime relies on American support, and is brazenly standing against Muslims and spilling their blood in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Bahrain. Therefore, America and other supporters of Riyadh are accessories to the Saudi crimes.

"The propaganda apparatuses that the [Saudis] control are attempting to depict the Mina disaster as [just] another Shi'ite-Sunni or Arab-non-Arab dispute. The Saudi rulers' propagandists repeat this lie [as well] - even though most of the 7,000 Mina martyrs were Sunnis, including those from Iran...

"Al-Saud, and the terrorist elements that it created, are drowning the Arabs in Yemen, Syria, and Iraq in blood and ashes. That is why, in contrast to the criminal Western propaganda, Saudi Arabia is not supporting the Arabs, and the Mina affair has nothing to do with some fabricated media clash between Arabs and non-Arabs...

"The truth is that the hated Saudis are a group within the Islamic world, and that some of its members, knowingly or not, are acting against the Muslims. The Islamic world must stand against them and express disgust with the Saudi bosses - that is, the criminal America and England.

"The various [Iranian regime] apparatuses, including the Foreign Ministry, the Hajj [and Pilgrimage] Organization, and the Martyrs Foundation [Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs], need to deal seriously with the Mina disaster, and fully carry out their duty [in this regard]."[7]

Iranian President Rohani: Saudi Arabia Commits Crimes In The Region, Supports Terrorism, And Spills Muslim Blood - And It Must Be Punished

On this issue, Rafsanjani's protege, Iranian President Hassan Rohani, aligned with Khamenei, and at a September 7, 2016 government meeting made harsh statements about Saudi Arabia. He said that the country was spilling Muslim blood in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen and bombing it cruelly, and demanded that it be punished. Following are excerpts from his statements:

"If the problem with the Saudi regime was just the issue of the Hajj and [the] Mina [disaster], then maybe we could have solved it. But, unfortunately, Saudi Arabia is committing crimes in the region, supporting terrorism, and spilling Muslim blood in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, cruelly bombing women and children in Yemen every day.

"The problem with Saudi Arabia is greater than just issues such as the Hajj. Countries in the region and the Islamic world should coordinate measures for solving the existing problems, and should punish the Saudi government. If that happens, the Hajj pilgrimage can be made genuinely and honorably, in Mecca, Medina, and the holy sites, and the countries in the region will be saved from the terrorism backed by the Saudi regime and the Yemeni people can live in peace and security."

Rohani also stressed that Iran would continue to support "Muslims and oppressed people throughout the world" and added that in the near future, there would be security in all the countries of the region, particularly Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.[8]



Cartoon on Iranian Tasnim website: "The Blind Murderer - last year, over 6,000 died in the Mina disaster, and Saudi Arabia is still falsely reporting that only 700 were martyred" (Tasnimnews.com, September 5, 2016)

Khamenei Advisor: Al-Saud Regime Serves America, Zionists

On September 6, 2016, Khamenei's international affairs advisor, Ali Akbar Velayati, called Khamenei's statements about Saudi Arabia resolute and decisive. He added that the Al-Saud regime was an accomplice to the shedding of Muslim blood in the region, and that Saudi Arabia had sent its mercenaries, that is, ISIS, to the region. Velayati also accused the Saudis of attempting to bring down the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, and of supporting Wahhabi extremism, and said that instead of serving the holy sites, they serve America and the Zionists.[9]

Saudi Responses To Khamenei's Statements

Saudi Crown Prince: The Iranian Regime Is Seeking To Politicize The Hajj

The day after Khamenei's Hajj message was released, Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Naif responded to Iran's statement that it is the Saudis who are not allowing Iranian pilgrims to make the Hajj, stressing that since its establishment, the kingdom allowed all pilgrims to carry out the Hajj and that Iranian pilgrims are prevented from doing so this year as a result of the Iranian regime's desire to politicize the Hajj:

"Since its establishment, Saudi Arabia has served the two holy sites [Mecca and Medina], taking care of [all] those interested in making the pilgrimage to them, and providing everything they need to carry out this supreme mission... What was said in the Iranian media and by some Iranian officials is not credible or objective. They [the Iranians] know full well that Saudi Arabia has facilitated Iranian pilgrims just like other pilgrims - but that this year, the Iranian Hajj delegation made demands that contradict the purpose of the Hajj and the obligations of other Hajj delegations. These [demands] jeopardize the security of Hajj and the pilgrims, including the Iranian pilgrims, and also violate the sanctity of the place and the time.

"Saudi Arabia will absolutely not allow Iran or its ilk to do anything that... that will violate the Hajj ceremonies, undermine security, or [negatively] impact the lives and safety of the pilgrims. It is elements in Iran that do not want the Iranian pilgrims to come, due... to their desire to politicize the Hajj and transform it into slogans that contradict the teachings of Islam and harm the security of the Hajj and of the pilgrims..."[10]

Mufti Of Saudi Arabia: Iranians Are Not Muslims

In an interview with the official Saudi daily Makkah, 'Abd Al-'Aziz Aal Al-Sheikh, mufti of Saudi Arabia and head of its Council of Senior Scholars, had harsh words for Khamenei and the Iranian regime: "Khamenei's attack on Saudi Arabia and his questioning of the special measures it undertakes during the Hajj are unsurprising. We must understand that they are not Muslims, but rather Zoroastrians, and that their hostility towards the Muslims, particularly the Sunnis, is ancient. Anyone attempting to harm the service that Saudi Arabia [does] for the Hajj and the pilgrims... will be unsuccessful..."[11]

Saudi Arabia's Council Of Senior Scholars: "Islam Does Not Accept Iranian Regime's Attempts To Harm And Curse The Hajj Ceremony"

Saudi Arabia's Council of Senior Scholars itself also criticized Khamenei on Twitter, and expressed support for the Saudi policy vis-a-vis the Iranian demands: "Islam does not accept the Iranian regime's attempts to harm and curse the Hajj ceremony. Moreover, these attempts constitute harm to Hajj sites and rituals. The Council of Senior Scholars supports Saudi Arabia's permanent policy to ban any element from ruining the Hajj atmosphere, harming the safety of the pilgrims, or attempting to damage Islamic unity. [To maintain] the security of the [Saudi] state and its holy sites, we cannot allow any action or behavior to overshadow this atmosphere of faith, harm public interests, or offend Muslims."[12]

Appendix: Images On Khamenei's Website Express His Anti-Saudi Message; Saudi Press Responds To His Statements With Anti-Iran Cartoons

Images on Khamenei's Website

As noted, Khamenei's Hajj message was posted along with a series of images on September 5 visually expressing his anti-Saudi sentiment:[13]



"Preventing God's Will: This year, the Saudis prevented God's will and barred the brave and pious Iranian pilgrims from travelling to the house of God [the Grand Mosque]. They are humiliated deviants who see their calling in an alliance with the Zionists and Americans, and make efforts to carry out their will"



"This year, the Saudis, in addition to blocking pilgrims from Iran and from some other countries, have turned the safe house of God into an unsafe place, together with the American and Zionist espionage apparatuses"



Image shows Saudi mufti hiding behind the face of Saudi foreign minister, accompanied by text: "Useless efforts by Saudi rulers to paint Iran as the guilty party: The voices of their propaganda - from politicians to muftis who are not religious and eat [forbidden] foods and issue fatwas contrary to the Koran and Sunnah and their servants in the media - are all engaged in a useless effort to blame Iran for the ban on Iranian pilgrims during this year's Hajj"



"The Accursed Tree [Al-Saud family]: We pray that the tyrannical accursed tree does not succeed in causing damage to pilgrims from around the world" (image features the hashtag "Al-Saud Hijacks Hajj")



"The Hajj is the place to show aversion to infidels and unity to the pious: A unified Islamic Hajj embodies [the verse] 'be harsh with the infidels and merciful with each other.' This is the place to show aversion to the infidels and a united alliance with the pious"

Saudi Cartoons Slamming Khamenei And Iranian Regime

The Saudi press responded to Khamenei's statements with numerous cartoons, infographics and illustrations condemning him and the Iranian regime in general. Below are several examples:



Illustration accompanying 'Okaz article titled "Iran - World Champion in Executions and Racism" ('Okaz, Saudi Arabia, September 8, 2016)



Infographic: "The Supreme Leader Gains Wealth while the Iranians Get Poorer. Khamenei - an Empire of Plunder." ('Okaz, Saudi Arabia, September 8, 2016)



Khamenei uses Iranian pilgrims to harm Saudi Arabia ('Okaz, Saudi Arabia, September 9, 2016)



Iran uses Iranian pilgrims to "politicize the Hajj" (Makkah, Saudi Arabia, September 10, 2016 )



Cartoon in Government daily Al-Jazirah: Iran uses its serpent's tongue to "ignite sectarianism" (Al-Jazirah, Saudi Arabia, September 11, 2016)

Endnotes:
As soon as Global Citizen and OMLs CEO, Vijay Nair, made a statement saying people dont have to sell stuff, or get a bank loan to get a ticket to the Coldplay concert happening in November in Mumbai, I decided to keep track of the Global Citizen website and app for all further updates; and even tested it out to get an idea of what were all up for.

 Radio News

For starters, the app is available for download on the Gobal Citizen website for iOS and Android phones. Once youve downloaded the app, you get a notification telling you to Take Action in order to earn points. Following this, a series of events unfold. Heres the complete chronology.

Step 1: Sign Up

 Global Citizen

Your first step is to sign up. My advice is dont sign up using Facebook. To be clear and absolutely sure, use a proper email account separate of your Facebook account, to help you keep tabs on your track.

Step 2: Verify Your Account

 Global Citizen

You wont be able to proceed with your petitions and tweets if your account is not verified. So best be getting on with it.

Step 3: Sign A Petition

 Global Citizen

This is essentially your first task where you sign a petition to the chief ministers of India requesting them to ensure a better future by adopting the Global Goals for Sustainable Development.

Step 4: Email Jim Yong Kim

 Global Citizen

The email to Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank, is a call to the World Bank and world leaders to prioritise sanitation.

Step 5: Spread The Word

 Global Citizen

Once youve sent this email, you share the appeal on your social media channels to spread word.

Step 6: Sign Another Petition

 Global Citizen

This petition is to be sent to Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways, to provide clean and safe toilets on highways.

Step 7: Watch A Video

 Global Citizen

Youre asked to watch a short video called The Largest Lesson. Its actually quite an interesting and fun video to watch. It is crucial to your next step.

Step 8: Take A Quiz

 Global Citizen

Based on the video you just watched, youre asked 3 questions with multiple choice answers. You choose the option you think is the most appropriate, according to the video and submit.

Step 9: Sign Another Petition

 Global Citizen

This petition is to urge university vice-chancellors to integrate the Global Goals into the curriculum so as to educate the Indian youth.

Step 10: Click A Picture

 Global Citizen

Get yourself camera ready. Then, on a blank piece of paper, write out the words I am a Global Citizen. Then, get someone to click a picture of you holding up the paper.

Step 11: Tweet The Picture

 Global Citizen

Once you have taken your picture and are satisfied with the results, you upload this on Twitter, using the hashtag #IAmAGlobalCitizen

Step 12: Post A Tweet

 Global Citizen

You post yet another tweet, without a photo this time, pledging to become a beacon of change and adding the following hashtags ##ShuruaatHoonMain.

Step 13: Refer 5 Friends

 Global Citizen

You, then, invite at least 5 of your friends to become a Global Citizen by signing up and taking the initiatives forward. For each friend that signs up, you earn 1 point.

Step 14: Check Your Progress

 Global Citizen

At the end, you go to your profile and check as to how many points you have collated.

Step 15: Then Enter And Wait

You have to complete all the tasks and accumulate a total of 25 points in all to be able to qualify for entering as an eligible candidate for the Coldplay concert ticket. The important thing to understand here is that once youve cleared the steps and earned the 25 points, you still have to Enter to Win to be considered eligible for the tickets.

 Global Citizen

So, those of you who are signing up with the idea that completing all 15 steps and earning all points is going to ensure that you will be getting your Free ticket to the concert, are going to be sadly mistaken. Yes, its a great initiative if you intend to do it with a social purpose and a bigger picture of helping others and there is absolutely no reason why you shouldnt do it anyway, even if it doesnt get you the ticket. Look at the bigger picture here and its certainly not just Coldplay.

However, if youre completing these steps JUST to see Coldplay, you might want to start saving up that 25K after all. Sorry, PR folks at the Global Citizen and Vijay Nair; while I do believe in, and get the importance and the social necessity of following the 15 steps to poverty emancipation on the app, I still dont believe its going to get even 50 per cent of the people the Coldplay tickets they want.

As for me, Im 19 points in and awaiting what actually lies ahead of the Enter To Win tab.

Id still recommend doing it for a good social cause.
An ecstatic 40-year-old Anwar Ahmed is thankful to Vinod Mehra for bringing joy to his home just before Eid-ul-Azha while Mehra himself is grateful for Ahmed's return gift. Stepping beyond religious boundaries, Mehra and Ahmed donated their kidneys to each other's wives in a private hospital in Jaipur.

"I will celebrate this Eid-ul-Azha with more fervour, all thanks to Vinod. He has given his kidney to my wife. My wife is doing well now and recovering. She will be discharged from the hospital a day before Eid-ul-Azha. I have a respect to Vinod bhai as he has given his kidney to my wife," Ahmed said.

Mehra too was overjoyed. "If it is Eid-Ul-Azha for Ahmed, it is not less than Diwali for me as it will bring home happiness soon when my wife will be discharged from the hospital. She got Ahmed bhai's kidney in a kidney transplant surgery. For me Hindu-Muslims are bhai-bhai. I never thought any discrimination in my life and I will never do it in my life. But, after transplant, we (the two families) share special bonding," Mehra said.

Mehra and Ahmed (donors) were discharged from the hospital while their wives will be discharged on Monday.

Doctors termed the surgery as rare in the sense that it was a swap kidney transplant breaking religious boundaries while both the recipients were females. "In 90% of the cases, females are donors but here males are donors," private hospital's chief nephrologist, Dr Ashutosh Soni, who conducted the transplant said.

Dr Soni said, "Wife of Vinod, Anita was suffering from glomerular disease for the past few years leading to kidney failure. Her blood group is B positive. Vinod's blood group was A positive. Besides, Ahmed's wife Tasleem Jahan's kidney failed due to excessive use of pain killers. Her blood group was A positive and Ahmed's blood group is B positive. According to Human Organ Transplant Act only near relatives can donate kidneys. But, it permits swap kidney transplant. In the case of these two couples, they were perfect for swap kidney transplant. Ahmed's blood group was matching with Anita's and Tasleem's blood group was found matching with Vinod. The transplant was successfully conducted on September 2."
Obama Says Trump Not Qualified to be U.S. President

President Barack Obama struck Donald Trump with a statement that the Republican candidate is not qualified to be U.S. president.

In a news conference in Laos, Mr. Obama stressed "I don't think the guy's qualified to be president of the United States, and every time he speaks that opinion is confirmed." He added that Trump's comments are often contradictory and wacky, the Wall Street Journal reported.

"When you speak it should actually reflect thought out policy that you can implement," Mr. Obama added.

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In an NBC broadcast, Mr. Trump said that in case he wins the election, he might remove some U.S. generals from their positions. He stressed, "I think under the leadership of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the generals have been reduced to rubble - to a point where it's embarrassing for our country."

The mocking statement of Mr. Trump against John McCain, U.S. Senator made many in the military community furious. Mr. Obama said "people start thinking behavior that in normal times we would consider completely unacceptable and outrageous becomes normalized."

Mr.Trump added that President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation has "great control" over his country which is contrasting to Obama. He assumed that he would have a very good relationship with Mr. Putin if he gets elected.

For the past years, Russia and U.S. have not been in smooth conditions due to several issues including the involvement of the former in a Democratic National Committee cyber breach, objection of the White House to grant asylum to Edward Snowden and the military interventions in Ukraine and Syria.

Mr. Obama informed that he would campaign for his former state secretary and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The president said that if Mr. Trump, if seated, would undo the policies he established during his two terms, Yahoo News reported.

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(Xinhua) 14:50, September 11, 2016

PYONGYANG, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) called on its people to engage in a rehabilitation campaign in wake of strong storms, the official news agency KCNA reported Sunday.

The ruling Workers' Party of Korea has made it a top priority to rebuild the disaster-hit cities and counties, in particular in North Hamgyong Province in the northeast, where tens of thousands of houses and public buildings collapsed and railways and roads were destroyed, said the KCNA.

The floods were caused by the strongest storms and heaviest downpour since 1945, it noted.

The ruling party will launch a 200-day campaign to help with disaster relief and post-flood reconstruction.

The heavy rains have left more than 60 people dead and 25 missing in the North Hamgyong Province, according to an earlier KCNA report.
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) announced on Sunday that it will continue to develop its nuclear capability despite increasing condemnation by the international community.

"We are holding fast to the line of simultaneously developing the two fronts (economic growth and nuclear development) to safeguard the sovereignty, right to existence and peace from the ever-increasing nuclear threat and blackmail of the U.S., and the recent test was just part of the whole course of implementing the line," said a statement issued by a spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry and carried by the state media KCNA.

The statement came two days after the DPRK's announcement that it had successfully carried out a nuclear warhead explosion, which marked its fifth nuclear test after Pyongyang conducted what it called a hydrogen-bomb test on Jan. 6.

The DPRK was compelled to develop nuclear warheads, and nuclear blackmail from the United States is "an engine which pushed the DPRK to reach this point," the statement noted.

"We will continue to take measures for increasing the nuclear force of the country in quality and quantity to ensure genuine peace from the U.S. increasing threat of a nuclear war," it added.

In the wake of its nuclear warhead test, the international community has voiced its strong condemnation over the development.

After a closed-door meeting on the matter, the United Nations Security Council on Friday issued a press statement, saying "a clear threat to international peace and security continues to exist" with the DPRK's latest test.

The 15-member Security Council imposed severe sanctions on Pyongyang in March following its fourth nuclear explosion, including an export ban and asset freeze.

Also on Friday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement expressing firm opposition to the nuclear test and commitment to settle the problems through the six-party talks on Pyongyang's denuclearization.

The statement said China's stance has always been to achieve denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, prevent nuclear proliferation, and maintain peace and stability in Northeast Asia.
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When she was born her entire foot was the size of a fingernail and she weighed no more than a bell pepper.

Nine months later, the world's smallest baby Emilia Grabarczyk has defied expectations and continues to make giant leaps.

Born in the Witten, west Germany, measuring just 22 centimetres and weighing a mere eight ounces, it was feared she would not survive.

But the girl, labelled 'the little fighter' by doctors treating her, astonished everyone and is thriving.

She now weighs in at 7lb 2oz - a healthy weight for a newborn.

Local reports say it makes her the lightest premature baby in the world to survive.

The previous record is thought to be held by Rumaisa Rahman, who was born in the Loyola University Medical Centre in of Chicago when her mother was 25 weeks pregnant. At birth, she was eight inches tall and weighed 8.6 ounces.

Dr Bahman Gharavi, head of children and youth clinic at St Mary's hospital in Germany, said Emilia's survival was miraculous.

He said the joint effort of paediatricians, gynaecologists and paediatric surgeons - as well as Emilia - had made it possible.

'Even children with a birth weight of 14 ounces rarely survive. We have to thank Emilia as well for her own survival,' he said.

'She is a little fighter.

'For more than six months, it was unclear whether she would survive. Only in recent weeks she is getting more robust.'

At the beginning of the 26th week of pregnancy Prof Dr Sven Schiermeier, chief physician of obstetrics, decided together with the parents to deliver the baby by Caesarean section.

He said that otherwise Emilia would have died in the womb as there was a problem with the placenta meaning she was not getting the nutrition needed to survive.

Usually, a foetus in the 26th week of pregnancy would have weighed around 21 ounces but the problem meant Emilia was well underweight.

Parents Lukas and Sabine Grabarczyk said there was no question as to whether they would give the child a chance even if the odds for survival were low.

But naturally, her early arrival and low birth weight was followed by a period of uncertainty.

Dr Gharavi explained complications including an increased risk of hyperactivity and learning difficulties.

Yet luckily for the girl, there are no signs of serious disability.

Emilia was initially fed with a tiny tube and nurses would use a cotton bud soaked in sugar water to soothe her and relieve pains.

The tiny tot even survived an abdominal surgery at a weight of just 12 ounces.

Proud mother Mrs Grabarczyk said: 'There were many difficult days and many tears, but she clearly wanted to survive.'
Sept. 11, 2016 was the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that shocked the world. Even as the anniversary of the tragedy was marked around the globe, the threat of terrorism still remains - evolved and more widespread than ever.

The 3,000 beautiful lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001 will never be forgotten, said U.S. President Barack Obama in a speech delivered outside the Pentagon to memorialize the anniversary of the attacks. Obama told survivors and families of the victims that, even as you've mourned, you've summoned the strength to carry on," ABC News reported.

The U.S. president pointed out that the threat of terrorism has evolved 15 years after the attacks, and that unspeakable violence has occurred in Boston, San Bernardino and Orlando. Obama then noted that groups like the Islamic State hope to spark fear and change the way people live, despite knowing they cannot defeat a nation as strong as America.

But it is not only the U.S. that is a target for terrorism. U.S. policy in the Middle East has put Europe at an elevated risk for acts of terrorism, what with escalated racial tensions and fallout from the refugee crisis, Peoples Daily commented.

Globally, terrorism has also intensified," read an article in USA Today penned by the chairman and vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission. Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton wrote, "According to the Global Terrorism Index, terrorist activity reached its highest recorded level in 2014, the last year with available data, with 32,685 terrorist-caused deaths. In 2001, that figure barely exceeded 5,000. Out of 162 countries studied, 93 have suffered a terrorist attack.

It is crucial at this time to strengthen international cooperation to combat terrorism, CCTV noted, criticizing the way the U.S. has politicized and leveraged anti-terrorism campaigns.

Kean and Hamilton also pointed out that the U.S. has been unable to prevent all terrorist attacks on its own soil. Thus, the global community at large is in need of a new, long-term strategy to combat terrorism.
Business at Beijing Friendship Store, Chinas very first friendship store, has been undeniably gloomy as of late. Fortunately, the store is likely facing a renovation in the near future, with the project currently awaiting municipal government approval.

A tour of the store, which sits on Changan Avenue, a major thoroughfare in Beijing, evokes a feeling of nostalgia and history, according to a report by Beijing Youth Daily. The article stated that the four-story outlet mainly stocks calligraphy, paintings, jewelry, silk carpets and other art pieces. During the four-hour tour, few customers were present to occupy the sales personnel, many of who sat idling or chatting with one another.

Some of the goods, priced at thousands of yuan, were collecting dust behind the counters, their tags yellowish and dusty. On the third floor, roughly one-third of the light bulbs were burnt out, the report described.

Friendship stores were first opened in a handful of Chinese cities in the 1950s. In the early days, they sold exclusively to tourists, foreigners, diplomats and government officials; ordinary citizens were granted access to the stores starting in the 1990s. The Beijing Friendship Store, which opened in 1964, used to boast the best, rarest and most popular products. Salespeople were required to speak foreign languages, especially Japanese and English, according to Beijing Youth Daily.

Inevitably, though, stores born in the age of a planned economy have taken a major hit from the e-commerce competitors. According to salespeople at the friendship store, some foreign tourists occasionally still visit, in search of high-quality and fairly priced products. However, this minimal business does not allow employees to meet their sales requirements.

Now, a new project called Friendship Plaza is being planned to take over the original friendship store location. Friendship Plaza is expected to rise 11 floors above the ground and become a major commercial facility on Changan Avenue, according to a project blueprint published on July 23.

The project will cost about 193.5 million yuan, and construction is slated to take place from September 2016 to January 2019, according to the blueprint, which is still awaiting approval.
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PIGEON  Scheurer Hospital announced it will be hosting the following events:

 The Grief Support group GriefShare will meet at 6 p.m. Sept. 20 at Country Bay Village in Pigeon. A free meal is provided to participants at 5:30 p.m. For more information or to register, call 989-453-3981 or 877-486-6671.
"Once the Tianhe Project is completed, it will be possible to transfer water in the air via an air corridor.' [The corridor] will be formed as part of the South-to-North Water Diversion project," said Wang Guangqian, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and president of Qinghai University. Wang introduced his proposal at a meeting on Sept. 9, which aimed to jumpstart the novel project.

According to the project's description, the atmospheric boundary layer and the troposphere form a passage through which water vapor can be transported in a stable and orderly way. The passage can be regarded as "tianhe" (literally, a river in the sky). The proposed undertaking has therefore been named "Tianhe Project."

"We monitor the content and migration routes of water vapor, and then we conduct interference in certain regions to solve water shortages in northern China," Wang explained.

According to the UN World Water Development Report, northern China will face a severe water shortage by 2025. The established eastern and middle routes of the South-to-North Water Diversion project, which began in 2002, have relieved that "thirst" to some degree. However, the western route is still a work in progress due to high altitude, complex terrain and fragile ecosystems. The air corridor proposition may offer an innovative solution to those challenges.

The South-to-North water diversion project is the biggest project of its kind ever undertaken in China

The South-to-North Water Diversion project is the world's largest water diversion project, according to a Xinhua report. It was designed to transport water from the Yangtze River to dry regions in the north of the country. At its outset, the project was estimated to cost 500 billion yuan ($81.4 billion).

Bao Weimin, a CAS academician and director of the Science and Technology Committee of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, believes the proposed Tianhe Project and future air corridor are natural next steps toward supporting the ecology of the Tibetan Plateau. Bao also hopes the project will promote national economic and social development, especially in northern China.

File photo taken on May 18, 2015 shows one part of the South-to-North Water Diversion Middle Route Project in Zhengding County, north China's Hebei Province. (Photo/Xinhua)

Tianhe Project will attempt to increase annual precipitation in Sanjiangyuan (the birthplace of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang Rivers), the Qilian Mountains and the Qaidam region by 2.5 billion, 200 million and 120 million cubic meters respectively. Its long-term goal is to transfer 5 billion cubic meters of water per year.
PIGEON  The CEA of Cross Lutheran School will host a spaghetti dinner to support Cross Lutheran School.

The event is scheduled to run from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Sept. 30 at the school, which is located at 200 Ruppert St. in Pigeon.

The menu consists of spaghetti, salad, bread, drink and dessert. The price for adults is $7; children ages 12 and under are $4; and children under 5 years old eat for free.

The mission of Cross Lutheran School is: Guiding children to learn, love and live under the grace, love, mercy and forgiveness of God.

Anyone wishing more information regarding enrollment in the preschool or the K-8 classrooms is invited to stop by or call 989-453-3330.
CA, Inc., doing business as CA technologies, develops, markets, delivers, and licenses software products and services in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Mainframe Solutions, Enterprise Solutions, and Services. The Mainframe Solutions segment offers solutions for the IBM z Systems platform, which runs various mission critical business applications. Its mainframe solutions enable customers enhance economics by increasing throughput and lowering cost per transaction; increasing business agility through DevOps tooling and processes; increasing reliability and availability of operations through machine intelligence and automation solutions; and protecting enterprise data with security and compliance. The Enterprise Solutions segment provides a range of software planning, development, and management tools for mobile, cloud, and distributed computing environments. It primarily provides customers secure application development, infrastructure management, automation, and identity-centric security solutions. The Services segment offers various services, such as consulting, implementation, application management, education, and support services to commercial and government customers for implementation and adoption of its software solutions. The company serves banks, insurance companies, other financial services providers, government agencies, information technology service providers, telecommunication providers, transportation companies, manufacturers, technology companies, retailers, educational organizations, and health care institutions. It sells its products through direct sales force, as well as through various partner channels comprising resellers, service providers, system integrators, managed service providers, and technology partners. The company was formerly known as Computer Associates International, Inc. and changed its name to CA, Inc. in 2006. CA, Inc. was founded in 1974 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
Centrica plc operates as an integrated energy company in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, North America, and internationally. The company operates through British Gas Services & Solutions, British Gas Energy, Centrica Business Solutions, Bord Gais Energy, Energy Marketing & Trading, and Upstream segments. It supplies gas and electricity to residential customers, as well as offers energy-related services; and generates power from nuclear assets. The company also provides installation, repair, and maintenance services for domestic central heating, plumbing and drains, home electrical, and gas and kitchen appliances; and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment, as well as offers breakdown services. In addition, it is involved in the procurement, trading, and optimization of energy; procurement and sale of LNG; and supplies energy efficiency solutions and technologies to residential customers. Further, the company produces and processes gas and oil; develops new fields to maintain reserves; constructs, owns, and exploits infrastructure; and engages in the social enterprise investment fund activities. Additionally, it provides vehicle leasing, commercial, and insurance services, as well as energy management products and services; and operates a gas storage and franchise network. The company was formerly known as Yieldtop plc and changed its name to Centrica plc in December 1996. Centrica plc was founded in 1812 and is based in Windsor, the United Kingdom.
After the recently-concluded G20 and East Asian summits, the nuclear test launched by North Korea last Friday, Sept. 9 drew much scrutiny from the international community. It was the country's fifth nuclear test this decade.

There are likely three main reasons for this most recent test. First, the test was carried out on the country's national day, and may have been intended to bolster national pride. Second, in terms of technical development, the country is trying to verify the structure, movement, performance and power of its standard warheads. Third, North Korea hoped to demonstrate for the international community its uncompromising attitude toward external pressure and sanctions.

The nuclear test obviously violated resolutions adopted by the United Nations Security Council. For that reason, North Korea is now facing unprecedented international sanctions. Whats more, nuclear tests have not improved the country's sense of security. On the contrary, every test has backed the country into a more isolated diplomatic corner.

North Korea is attempting a synchronous development of its economy and nuclear arsenal. However, nuclear tests and the countrys acquisition of nuclear weapons have further escalated tensions on the peninsula, actively preventing the desired synchronous development.

Four of the five most recent nuclear tests happened during the presidency of Barack Obama. Now, with only four months left before he leaves the office, the U.S. presidents strategic patience proposition is on the edge of failure, rendering North Koreas nuclear issue a casualty of the Asia-Pacific Rebalance strategy.

Nuclear dismantlement is a foregone precondition for diplomatic relations between the U.S. and North Korea. However, Obamas strategic patience not only failed to facilitate the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries, it was also unable to halt North Koreas nuclear plans. Indeed, the U.S. is now in an especially difficult position, given that the countrys enhanced military presence in Northeast Asia  the stated purpose for which is to monitor North Korean nuclear threats  has added to regional tensions and deteriorated regional security.

Mutual suspicion is the root cause of the North Korean nuclear issue, a symptom left over from the Cold War. Northeast Asia is one of the few regions still drastically affected by the Cold War; the peninsula is still working toward the replacement of its armistice agreement with a peace treaty.

Against such a background, a spokesperson from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the security concerns of the Korean Peninsula can only be resolved in a way that serves all parties' interests. Any unilateral actions based on self-interest will only lead to a dead end, aggravating tensions and making it harder to achieve change.

Put bluntly, North Korea, together with the U.S., South Korea and Japan, are currently headed for just such a dead end. In contrast, China's proposal to pursue the denuclearization of the peninsula and to replace the armistice agreement with a peace treaty would help to foster long-term stability on the Korean Peninsula and across Northeast Asia.

(The author is a commentator for People's Daily and a senior research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies.)
Parkland Corporation operates food and convenience stores in Canada, the United States, the Caribbean region, and Central and South America. The company operates through four segments: Canada, USA, Supply, and International. The Canada segment owns, operates, supports, and distributes a coast-to-coast network of retail convenience, food, and fuel sites, as well as commercial cardlocks and bulk fuel facilities; and provides propane, heating oil, lubricants, and other related services to commercial, industrial, and residential customers. It operates 1,812 retail gas stations under the Ultramar, Esso, Fas Gas Plus, Chevron, and Pioneer brands; and a convenience store under the On the Run brand. This segment also delivers bulk fuel, bulk and cylinder exchange propane, heating oil, lubricants, and other related products and services to customers in oil and gas, construction, mining, forestry, fishing, and transportation industries under the Ultramar, Bluewave Energy, Pipeline Commercial, Chevron, Columbia Fuels, and Sparlings Propane brands. The International segment operates retail service stations under the Esso, Shell, and Sol brands; and delivers and supplies gasoline, diesel, fuel oil, propane, and lubricants. This segment also provides commercial solar and other renewable energy solutions. The USA segment operates a network of gas stations; and delivers bulk fuel, lubricants, and other related products and services under the Rhinehart Oil, Farstad Oil, Conrad & Bischoff, Tropic Oil and NFN National Fuel Network brands. The Supply segment manufactures transportation fuels; transports, stores, and markets fuels, crude oil, and liquid petroleum gases; and manufactures and sells aviation fuel to airlines. The company was formerly known as Parkland Fuel Corporation and changed its name to Parkland Corporation in May 2020. Parkland Corporation was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.
The following companies are subsidiares of Illinois Tool Works: A V Co 1 Limited, A V Co 2 Limited, A V Co 3 Limited, ACCU-LUBE Manufacturing GmbH - Schmiermittel und -gerate -, AIP/BI Holdings Inc., Accessories Marketing Holding Corp., Advanced Molding Company Inc., Allen France SAS, Alpine Engineered Products, Alpine Systems Corporation, Anaerobicos S.r.l., AppliChem GmbH, Avery Berkel France, Avery India Limited, Avery Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avery Weigh Tronix, Avery Weigh-Tronix Finance Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix International Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix LLC, Avery Weigh-Tronix Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Properties Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Suzhou Weighing Technology Co. Ltd., Azon Limited, B.C. Immo, Beijing Miller Electric Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Berkel Ireland Limited, Berrington UK, Brapenta Eletronica Ltda., Brooks Instrument B.V., Brooks Instrument GmbH, Brooks Instrument KFT, Brooks Instrument Korea Ltd., Brooks Instrument LLC, Brooks Instrument Shanghai Co. Ltd, Buell Industries Inc., CCI Realty Company, CFC Europe GmbH, CS Australia Pty Limited, CS Mexico Holding Company S DE RL DE CV, Calvia Spolka z Ograniczona Odpowiedzialnosci, Capital Ventures Australasia S.a r.l, Capmax Logistica S.A. de C.V., Celeste Industries Corporation, Coeur, Coeur Asia Limited, Coeur Holding Company, Coeur Inc., Coeur Shanghai Medical Appliance Trading Co. Ltd, Compagnie Hobart, Compagnie de Materiel et d'Equipements Techniques-Comet, Constructions Isothermiques Bontami C.I.B., Crane Carrier Company, Denison Mayes Group Limited, Despatch Industries, Diagraph Corporation Sdn. Bhd, Diagraph ITW Mexico S. de R.L. De C.V., Diagraph Mexico S.A. DE C.V., Dongguan Ark-Les Electric Components Co. Ltd., Dongguan CK Branding Co. Ltd., Duo Fast de Espana S.A.U., Duo-Fast Korea Co. Ltd., Duo-Fast LLC, E.C.S. d.o.o., E2M Production B.V.., E2M Technologies B.V.., E2M Technologies Inc.., ECS Cable Protection Sp. Zoo, ELRO Grosskuchen GmbH, ELRO Holding AG, ELRO-WERKE AG, Elro Group, Eltex-Elektrostatik-Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Envases Multipac S.A. de C.V., Eurotec Srl, Exhibit 21, FEG Investments L.L.C., Filtertek De Mexico Holding Inc., Filtertek De Mexico S.A. de C.V., Filtertek SAS, GC Financement SA, Gamko B.V., Gun Hwa Platech Taicang Co. Ltd., HOBART Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Hartness International, Hobart Andina S.A.S., Hobart Belgium B.V., Hobart Brothers International Chile Limitada, Hobart Brothers LLC, Hobart Dayton Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Hobart Food Equipment Co. Ltd., Hobart International Singapore Pte. Ltd., Hobart Japan K.K., Hobart Korea LLC, Hobart LLC, Hobart Nederland B.V., Hobart Sales & Service Inc., Hobart Scandinavia ApS, Hobart Techniek B.V., Horis, ILC Investments Holdings Inc., ITW AEP LLC, ITW AOC LLC, ITW Aircraft Investments Inc., ITW Ampang Industries Philippines Inc., ITW Appliance Components EOOD, ITW Appliance Components S.A. de C.V., ITW Appliance Components S.r.l.a, ITW Appliance Components d.o.o., ITW Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, ITW Australia Property Holdings Pty Ltd., ITW Australia Pty Ltd, ITW Automotive Components Chongqing Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Components Langfang Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Japan K.K., ITW Automotive Korea LLC, ITW Automotive Parts Shanghai Co. Ltd, ITW Automotive Products GmbH, ITW Automotive Products Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Bailly Comte, ITW Befestigungssysteme GmbH, ITW Belgium B.V., ITW Brazilian Nominee L.L.C., ITW Building Components Group Inc., ITW CER, ITW CP Distribution Center Holland BV, ITW CS UK Ltd., ITW Canada Inc., ITW Celeste Inc., ITW Chemical Products Ltda, ITW Chemical Products Scandinavia ApS, ITW China Investment Company Limited, ITW Colombia S.A.S., ITW Construction Products AB, ITW Construction Products AS, ITW Construction Products ApS, ITW Construction Products CZ s.r.o., ITW Construction Products Italy Srl, ITW Construction Products OU, ITW Construction Products OY, ITW Construction Products Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Construction Products Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW Construction Services Manila Inc., ITW Contamination Control B.V., ITW Contamination Control Wujiang Co. Ltd., ITW Covid Security Group Inc., ITW DS Investments Inc., ITW DelFast do Brasil Ltda., ITW Denmark ApS, ITW Deutschland GmbH, ITW Diagraph GmbH, ITW Dynatec, ITW Dynatec Adhesive Equipment Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Dynatec GmbH, ITW Dynatec Kabushiki Kaisha, ITW EAE B.V., ITW EAE Mexico S de RL de CV, ITW EF&C France SAS, ITW EF&C Selb GmbH, ITW EU Holdings Ltd., ITW Electronic Business Asia Co. Limited, ITW Electronic Components/Products Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Electronics Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Epsilon Sarl, ITW Espana S.L., ITW European Finance Co. Ltd., ITW European Finance II Co. Ltd., ITW European Finance III Co. Ltd., ITW FEG Hong Kong Limited, ITW FEG do Brasil Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW Fastener Products GmbH, ITW Fluids and Hygiene Solutions Ltda., ITW Food Equipment Group LLC, ITW GH LLC, ITW GSE ApS, ITW GSE Inc., ITW Gamma Sarl, ITW German Management LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings Y Compania Sociedad en Comandita por Acciones, ITW Global Investments Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Europe GmbH, ITW Global Tire Repair Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Japan K.K., ITW Graphics Asia Limited, ITW Graphics Thailand Ltd., ITW Great Britain Investment & Licensing Holding Company, ITW Group France Luxembourg S.ar.l., ITW HLP Thailand Co. Ltd., ITW Holding Quimica B.C. S.L. Sole Shareholder Company, ITW Holdings Australia L.P., ITW Holdings I Limited, ITW Holdings II Limited, ITW Holdings III Limited, ITW Holdings IV Limited, ITW Holdings IX Limited, ITW Holdings Inc., ITW Holdings V Limited, ITW Holdings VI Limited, ITW Holdings VII Limited, ITW Holdings VIII Limited, ITW Holdings X Limited, ITW Holdings XI Limited, ITW ILC Holdings I Inc., ITW IPG Investments LLC, ITW Imaden Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW India Private Limited, ITW International Holdings LLC, ITW Invest Holding GmbH, ITW Ireland Holdings Unlimited Company, ITW Ireland Unlimited Company, ITW Italy Holding Srl, ITW Japan Ltd., ITW Korea LLC, ITW LLC & Co. KG, ITW Limited, ITW Lys Fusion S.r.l., ITW Materials Technology Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Meritex Sdn. Bhd., ITW Metal Fasteners S.L., ITW Mexico Holding Company S. De R.L. de C.V., ITW Mexico Holdings LLC, ITW Morlock GmbH, ITW Mortgage Investments II Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments III Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments IV Inc., ITW Netherlands Administration BV, ITW Netherlands Beta B.V., ITW Netherlands Finance Alpha BV, ITW New Universal LLC, ITW New Zealand, ITW Ningbo Components & Fastenings Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Novadan Sp. Z.o.o., ITW PPF Brasil Adesivos Ltda., ITW Packaging Technology China Co. Ltd., ITW Participations S.a r.l., ITW Pension Funds Trustee Company, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Japan Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Korea Limited, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids OOO, ITW Performance Polymers ApS, ITW Performance Polymers Wujiang Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers and Fluids Group FZE, ITW Peru S.A.C., ITW Poly Mex S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Polymers Sealants North America Inc., ITW Pronovia s.r.o., ITW Pte. Ltd., ITW Qufu Automotive Cooling Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Real Estate Germany GmbH, ITW Residuals III L.L.C., ITW Residuals IV L.L.C., ITW Rivex, ITW SMPI, ITW SPG Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Simco-Ion Shenzhen Co. Ltd., ITW Slovakia s.r.o., ITW Spain Holdings S.L., ITW Specialty Film LLC, ITW Specialty Films France, ITW Specialty Materials Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Sverige AB, ITW Sweden Holding AB, ITW Test & Measurement Equipment Shanghai Co. Ltd, ITW Test & Measurement GmbH, ITW Test and Measurement Italia Srl, ITW Test and Measurement Services Industry and Trade Ltd., ITW Texwipe Philippines Inc., ITW Thermal Films Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW UK, ITW UK Finance Beta Limited, ITW UK Finance Delta Limited, ITW UK Finance Gamma Limited, ITW UK Finance Limited, ITW UK Finance Zeta Ltd., ITW UK II Limited, ITW Universal II LLC, ITW Welding, ITW Welding AB, ITW Welding GmbH, ITW Welding Products B.V., ITW Welding Products Group FZE, ITW Welding Products Group S. DE R.L. De C.V., ITW Welding Products Italy Srl, ITW Welding Products Limited Liability Company, ITW Welding Produtos Para Solgdagem Ltda., ITW Welding Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW de France, ITW do Brasil Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Illinois Tool Works Chile Limitada, Illinois Tool Works ITW Nederland B.V., Illinois Tool Works Inc., Impar Comercio E Representacoes Ltda., Industrie Plastic Elsasser GmbH, Inmobiliaria Cit. S.A. de C.F., Innova Temperlite Servicios S.A. de C.V., Innovacion y Transformacion Automotriz S.A. de C.V., Instron Brasil Equipamentos Cientificos Ltda., Instron Foreign Sales Corp. Limited, Instron France S.A.S., Instron GmbH, Instron Japan Company Ltd., Instron Korea LLC, Instron Shanghai Ltd., Instron Thailand Limited, International Leasing Company LLC, Isolenge - ITW Sistemas de Isolamento Termico Ltda., Itw Spraytec, KCPL Mauritius Holdings, Kester, Kleinmann GmbH, Krafft S.L., Loma Systems, Loma Systems BV, Loma Systems Canada Inc., Loma Systems sro, Lombard Pressings Limited, Lumex Inc., Lys Fusion Poland Sp. z.o.o., M&C Specialties Co., MAGNAFLUX GmbH, MEHB Holdings Limited, MGHG Property LLC, MTS 2 LLC., MTS 3 LLC., MTS China Holdings LLC, MTS Europe Holdings LLC, MTS Holdings France S.a.r.l., MTS Japan Ltd.., MTS Korea Inc.., MTS Systems China Co. Ltd., MTS Systems Corporation, MTS Systems Danmark ApS., MTS Systems Europe B.V., MTS Systems Finance C.V.., MTS Systems Germany GmbH, MTS Systems Holding B.V.., MTS Systems Hong Kong Incorporated, MTS Systems Limited, MTS Systems Norden Aktiebolag, MTS Systems S.r.l, MTS Systems., MTS Systems.., MTS Sytems Do Brazil, MTS Testing Solutions India Private Limited., MTS Testing Systems Canada Ltd., Manufacturing Avancee S.A., Meritex Technology Suzhou Co. Ltd., Meurer Verpackungssysteme GmbH, Miller Electric Mfg. LLC, Miller Insurance Ltd., NDT Holding LLC, NOVADAN APS, North Star Imaging Inc., Nova Chimica S.r.l., Orbitalum Tools GmbH, PENTA-91 OOO, PR. A. I. Srl, PT ITW Construction Products Indonesia, Pacific Concept Industries Limited Enping, Panreac Quimica S.L., Paslode Fasteners Shanghai Co. Ltd., Peerless Machinery Corp., Polyrey, Premark FEG L.L.C., Premark HII Holdings LLC, Premark International, Premark International LLC, Prolex Sociedad Anonima, QSA Global Inc., Quimica Industrial Mediterranea S.L., R&D Engineering A/S., R&D Prague s.r.o., R&D Steel ApS., R&D Test Systems A/S., R&D Tools and Structures A/S., RDGDK Engineering Private Limited, Ramset Fasteners Hong Kong Ltd., Rapid Cook LLC, Refrigeration France, S.E.E. Sistemas Industria E Comercio Ltda., ST Mexico Holdings LLC, Sealant Systems International Inc., Sentinel Asia Yuhan Hoesa, Shanghai ITW Plastic & Metal Co. Ltd, Simco Japan Inc., Simco Nederland B.V., Societe de Prospection et dInventions Techniques  SPIT, Speedline Holdings I Inc., Speedline Holdings I LLC, Speedline Technologies GmbH, Speedline Technologies Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Speedline Technologies Mexico Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Stokvis Celix Portugal Unipessoal LDA, Stokvis Danmark ApS, Stokvis Holdings S.A.R.L., Stokvis Promi s.r.o, Stokvis Prostick Tapes Private Limited, Stokvis Tapes B.V., Stokvis Tapes Benelux B.V., Stokvis Tapes Deutschland GmbH, Stokvis Tapes France, Stokvis Tapes Hong Kong Co. Limited, Stokvis Tapes Italia s.r.l., Stokvis Tapes Limited, Stokvis Tapes Limited Liability Company, Stokvis Tapes Norge AS, Stokvis Tapes Oy, Stokvis Tapes Polska Sp Z.O.O., Stokvis Tapes Shanghai Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes Sverige AB, Stokvis Tapes Taiwan Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes Tianjin Co. Ltd., Stolvis Holdings II S.A.R.L., Subsidiaries, Technopack Industria Comercio Consultoria e Representacoes Ltda., Teknek China Limited, Teknek Japan Limited, Teksaleco Ltd., The Miller Group Ltd, Thirode Grandes Cuisines Poligny, Tien Tai Electrode Co. Ltd., Tien Tai Electrode Kunshan Co. Ltd., Unichemicals Industria e Comercio Ltda., VR-Leasing Sarita GmbH & Co. Immobilien KG, VS European Holdco BV, Valeron Strength Films B.V., Veneta Decalcogomme S.r.l., Versachem Chile S.A., Vesta, Vesta Global Limited, Vesta Guangzhou Catering Equipment Co. Ltd, Viltronics Soltec, Vitronics Soltec B.V., Wachs Canada Ltd., Wachs Subsea LLC, Weigh-Tronix Canada ULC, Weigh-Tronix UK Limited, Wilsonart International Holdings LLC, Wynn Oil South Africa Pty Ltd., Wynn's Automotive France, Wynn's Belgium BVBA, Wynn's Italia Srl, Wynn's Mekuba India Pvt Ltd, and Zip-Pak International B.V..

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Despite Flipping in Surf 4 Times in a Year, Marines Say New ACV Is the Future of Amphibious Warfare

Some Marine veterans familiar with the vehicle and its operations have worried about the reliability of the ACV.
A professor at Sichuan University has introduced a facial recognition system to monitor students in his class.

The system, invented by Professor Wei Xiaoyong of the university's computer science department, has been deemed a "magic device" by Wei's students. Among other things, it is able to analyze the effect of Wei's teaching.

In Wei's lab, a reporter got to examine the system at work, observing a video in which every student's face was marked with a yellow box. Each box was labeled as "happy" or "neutral," classifying the students' overall feelings.

Based on facial expressions, Wei is able to know when students are the most active, and when they need more interaction to stay engaged. Long-term monitoring of 324 students revealed that academic performance may be proportional to the level of students' activity in class.

Wei Xiaoyong

"The facial expressions tells me which teaching methods are most easily understood and accepted," Wei confirmed.

The system has also been used to study relationships between students. By recording the students' interactions with others, the system tells Wei whether an individual pupil is an introvert or an extrovert.

"In the future, expressions will be divided into more categories, which will allow us to do more analysis," Wei said. In addition to maximizing the efficacy of teaching, the system can be employed in many other fields.

For example, a camera installed in front of an advertisement can analyze the effect of the advertisement by capturing the expressions of the public," Wei offered.
These are Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump's current plans for veterans, service members and their families if elected president.

The 2016 election is just weeks away, after a whirlwind year, during which more than 20 candidates sought to serve in the highest office in the land. Now, we've narrowed it down to just two main candidates: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

The challenges and responsibilities imposed on the office of the presidency are enormous. The coming weeks will be devoted to debating which candidate has the experience, perspective and vision to tackle them.

Here's our contribution to that question, as it pertains to veterans affairs.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau's most recent report, there are more than 21.3 million American veterans, a majority of whom are predicted to cast ballots in the 2016 election. In fact, nearly 70% of veterans voted in the last presidential election.

Up until recently, this voting population received little substantive attention from either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. However, on Sept. 7, the organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America hosted a veterans town hall on NBC, which sparked a national conversation about the treatment of service members and veterans.

Currently, Trump leads Clinton 55% to 36% among voters who are now or have previously served in the U.S. military.

To identify the key policy issues that directly impact the military community most significantly this election, Task & Purpose interviewed Raymond Kelley, Carlos Fuentes and Ryan Gallucci, who serve on the legislative team for the veteran service organization, Veterans of Foreign Wars.

The VFW offered seven topics that voters should be paying attention to as they decide who they want as their next commander in chief. These areas are key concerns for veterans across America, and a candidate's platform often lays the foundation for his or her relationship with the military when he or she takes on that role.

After discussing each of these areas thoroughly with the VFW, we then spoke with representatives from both the Clinton and Trump campaigns about their plans for veterans and their families. Clinton's platform was represented by Army veteran Bishop Garrison and policy adviser Laura Rosenberger, while veterans director Matt Miller spoke on behalf of the Trump campaign.

Budget

Sequestration

While the VFW holds the following six issues in high regard, each of those policy areas are ultimately contingent on the federal budget. It all comes back to sequestration. And as such, the organization is a strong advocate of needs-based budgets, not arbitrary budget caps for the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The Clinton position: "Ending the sequester [is] something that is really important for our military," Rosenberger said. Arbitrary cuts hurt the military and its readiness.

In her platform, Clinton has said, "We must go further by ending the sequester for both defense and nondefense spending in a balanced way, and prioritizing full-funding and advance appropriations for the entire Department of Veterans Affairs."

However, Rosenberger and Garrison added that they could not provide details about where that funding might come from, whether it would be raised taxes or redistribution of the federal budget.

The Trump position: The Trump campaign described its primary concern as restoring the national economy, which will create a more robust market and bigger federal budget. It can then work to restore combat readiness.

Trump suggested Sept. 7 that the increase in defense spending would come from cuts in waste and streamlining bureaucracy, but it isn't clear how that will impact veterans.

"The goal would be to reshape the military," Miller said. When asked where the money to do that will come from, he added, "I can't create policy."

Education

Post-9/11 GI Bill

There have been numerous attempts to cut back on GI Bill spending through various congressional bills in recent years. VFW officials said they have strongly advocated against such actions. Its legislative team said that all the components of the original Post-9/11 GI Bill need to be protected as part of the government's promise to the volunteer force. In addition, the organization believes the Department of Veterans Affairs should expand the type of active-duty orders that count toward eligibility and ensure the future viability of the program's funding.

The Clinton position: The Clinton administration wants to make the Post-9/11 GI Bill a lasting part of our social contract with those who serve, according to her platform. And it should not be altered. "She believes the GI Bill is critical," Rosenberger said.

Additionally, at a VFW convention in July, Clinton said, "I will protect, preserve and defend the post 9/11 GI Bill. It has opened doors of opportunity to more than one million veterans and family members."

The Trump position: "We have to continue honoring the promise we made to veterans. That should be the number one objective" Miller said, adding that the Post-9/11 GI Bill is included in that promise.

However, in an interview where Chris Cuomo asked Trump if he supports the GI Bill, he replied, "No. I want to bring jobs back to our country."

Dependents' Education Benefits

Cutting any portion of the Post-9/11 GI BIll, including Basic Allowance for Housing, or dependent housing allowance, is not acceptable, the VFW said. However, the organization acknowledged that this is contingent on sequestration. While there may need to be improvements or changes to these programs, they should not come at expense of dependents.

The Clinton position: The Clinton platform does not support cutting any benefits that are currently stipulated under the Post-9/11 GI Bill, and intends to work with Congress to pass legislation that bolsters existing benefits, and preserves and extends family transferability -- including non-traditional families. She doesn't believe in chipping away at the bill in any way, Rosenberger said.

The Trump position: Miller reiterated the need to protect the promises made to service members, adding, "Dependents' benefits are included in that." While Trump has not directly addressed dependents' education benefits, he has assured veterans that he will work to keep all the promises made to them when they joined the military.

Vocational Schools

Not all veterans have the desire to attend a traditional college, the VFW said. Many states want to approve more vocational schools, but the institutions need to prove their credibility in order to be eligible for GI Bill funding. In addition, "vocational rehabilitation for employment should have no limit; now it expires after 12 years," Gallucci said. "That limit should be lifted."

The Clinton position: As with for-profit schools, vocational schools need to meet educational standards and provide adequate job training, Rosenberger said.

The Trump position: "Whichever best suits the veterans," Miller said. "But we need to ensure that schools do not take advantage of veterans."

Applying Credits or Licenses to Transferable Skills

"This is important, but it isn't necessarily a legislative issue," Kelley said. It depends on the school. Right now, the VFW is working on federal licensing for veterans skills transferability, but for state programs, it gets more complicated because you can't force a state to accept federal training as adequate.

The Clinton position: The Clinton plan supports the transfer of skills earned in the military to the civilian world. "Whether it's apprenticeship or college credits, there's some specificity that we need to work on. But it's of the utmost importance that we ensure that the training they receive in the military is respected and we do what we can to make sure they get credit for it," Garrison said.

The Trump position: "We want to work with states to make sure that accreditation and certificates for service members -- that they earned -- that they qualify for transferable or similar civilian sector employment," Miller said, whether it's making federal certificates transferable among states, or applying course credit for military skills to educational institutions.

For-Profit Education

The VFW said it hopes the next administration will take responsibility for providing a quality education for veterans, and recourse against bad actors -- for-profit colleges, for example. The next administration needs to prevent veterans from slipping through the cracks, and recoup benefits if a school loses accreditation or shuts down, like ITT recently did.

The Clinton position: The Clinton campaign does not support schools that use fraudulent methods to obtain federal aid. Her platform also supports closing the 90/10 gap, which bars for-profit colleges from receiving more than 90 percent of their revenues from Department of Education Title IV federal student aid, but does not include GI Bill money in that 90 percent. "She believes we should really fight back against schools that prey on veterans," Rosenberger said.

The Trump position: The Trump administration wants to hold all for-profit schools accountable, Miller said. "Their degrees should mean something," he added. At one point, however, Trump started a for-profit college known as Trump University, which closed in 2010. Since then, the school has been involved in several ongoing lawsuits and has also been investigated and criticized for abusing federal resources.

Health care

The Department of Veterans Affairs

After surveying veterans, the VFW put out a framework for VA health care reform in early 2016. It contended that in order to provide the necessary care to veterans, the VA must restructure the veterans health care delivery system; redesign the systems and procedures that facilitate access to health care; realign the provision and allocation of VA's resources to reflect the mission; and reform VA's culture with workforce innovations and real accountability.

The Clinton position: The Clinton administration plans to address VA health care issues by modernizing it, holding its employees accountable, and blocking any attempts to privatize. "The VA needs to be strengthened, not privatized," Rosenberger added. However, the Clinton administration does acknowledge the need to encourage private partnerships, provide better care coordination, and focus on bringing the VA into the 21st century.

Her plan aims to modernize and refocus the full spectrum of veterans' benefits across the federal government; overhaul VA governance to create a new veteran-centric model of excellence; and empower veterans and strengthen the economy and communities by connecting their unique skills to growing job fields.

The Trump position: In July, the Trump administration released its 10-point plan to fix the VA. Under this plan, Trump plans to appoint a new VA secretary; fire incompetent VA employees; create a private White House hotline, which will be active 24 hours a day; allow veterans to choose private care in lieu of the VA; increase the number of mental health care professionals; and modernize the VA technologically.

"Accountability must be demanded of VA leaders," Miller said. "The 10-point plan puts veterans first."

Post-Traumatic Stress and Traumatic Brain Injury

Access and knowledge are the best ways to combat these issues. Those veterans who know their benefits and have access to treatment options are able to proactively tackle PTSD and traumatic brain injury, which may also prevent suicide associated with either of these conditions. In addition, veterans with less-than-honorable discharges should be cared for, not neglected by the VA.

The Clinton position: In terms of the overall plan, this is an area where veterans need proper care and proper protection under the VA. However, regarding implementation, Rosenberger added, "We're still working on the specifics."

The Trump position: Trump's veterans care reform plan makes specific mention of treatment for PTSD and TBI. "A key component of the 10-point plan is to place more resources in education, training and hiring mental health professionals," Miller said. According to Trump's platform, more funding will "support research on best practices and state of the art treatments to keep our veterans alive, healthy and whole. With these steps, the Trump plan will help the veteran community put the unnecessary stigma surrounding mental health behind them and instead encourage acceptance and treatment in our greater society."

Combating Suicide

The VA recently released a report that shows increased suicide rates for veterans who haven't sought care or stayed connected with the VA or the veterans community at-large. "Access is key," Gallucci said. So a lack of resources -- like nearby doctors or medical facilities -- or an overarching inability to connect with the VA, contribute to the heightened rates of veteran suicide.

The Clinton position: "The suicide epidemic is an incredible tragedy," Garrison said. He added that throughout her career -- as first lady, senator and secretary of state -- Clinton has a proven record of caring for veterans, specifically in this area. Clinton's platform says she plans to increase funding for mental health providers, and expand programs targeted at providing effective mental health treatment and promoting better prescriber and treatment practices.

The Trump position: According to Miller, in addition to hiring and better training mental health professionals, the best way to really address veteran suicide is to get families involved in helping loved ones who may be struggling. The Trump administration also plans to establish a 24/7 veterans hotline at the White House, Miller added, "for people to call up and expose problems they're having with the VA." In terms of access to resources, Trump's platform calls for embedding satellite VA clinics within rural hospitals and other care facilities.

Family

Gold Star Families

The VFW said it feels very strongly that survivor benefits must be protected. The government must keep its promise to care for the families of service members who paid the ultimate sacrifice. Moreover, education benefits for survivors must be protected and expanded.

The Clinton position: "When she was a senator, she worked very hard to provide benefits increases for survivors benefits," Rosenberger said, adding that this is an area where she has a long-standing record of working across party lines and will continue to do so as president.

The Trump position: Both Gold and Blue Star families should be taken care of, Miller said. He again made reference to promises the government makes to the men and women of the armed forces, and said that we owe it to veterans to care for their loved ones if something happens to them. "Those families who paid the ultimate sacrifice should have our respect," he added.

Spouse Unemployment

A major issue for Blue Star families across the country is spouse unemployment. Military families often need a second income to afford the cost of living. One solution proposed by the VFW is to give families more say in location when they are permanently changing stations, Kelley said, so that spouses can apply for work in their fields. The organization has also advocated for the military to offer geographical hiring preference -- this would allow spouses to apply to jobs in a location prior to a permanent change of station.

The Clinton position: According to the platform, the Clinton plan would expand spousal employment support and training initiatives both during active duty, and after the transition into the civilian world. "The only way we're going to be able to help these families stay afloat is to increase and widen the benefits that are available to spouses," Garrison added. The Clinton campaign also supports allowing families to PCS separately if a move interrupts a dependent's training or education program.

The Trump position: "They shouldn't have to want for a job," Miller said. The Trump administration believes any spouse who wants a job should be able to get one, and it supports programs that aid in spouse employment.

Employment

Job Services For Separating Service Members

The transition assistance program has been very successful at connecting veterans to civilian employment opportunities, when they have knowledge of and access to it, Kelley said. But the VFW said it believes that employment benefits should be expanded, because service members should have access prior to separation, during separation, and for the rest of their lives, regardless of where they live.

The Clinton position: The Clinton platform includes plans to "expand tax credits for veterans' employment, strengthen veteran entrepreneurship programs, and create pathways for service members to enter growing career fields." She will also protect veterans from discrimination and predatory companies. According to Garrison, "We're going to continue to expand programs that are available to veterans." That also includes supporting veteran service organizations that connect veterans with jobs or other employment resources.

The Trump position: "One unemployed veteran is one too many," Miller said. The Trump campaign supports a plan that allows service members to use the last six months before they retire or separate to pursue internships or try out a field where they might be interested in working. In addition, Miller reiterated the campaign's support for states that allow service members to transfer skills or certificates into the civilian world as well.

Military Retention

According to VFW, the military needs to become a more competitive employer in order to retain the talent it cultivates. Especially in a time of downsizing, the government must keep the benefits and services it promised to those who volunteered. For those who are retained, pay, retirement and health care must be adequate, and opportunities for upward mobility must be presented. In addition, talent and training must be cultivated from E-1 and O-1. The senior staff of the military should not consist of "last man standing," Kelley said.

The Clinton position: The Clinton campaign commended the Pentagon for making great strides in recent years to provide bonuses, promotions and benefits for service members. "[The military] always has been one of the greatest meritocracies," Garrison said. A lot of what will need to be done over the next several years to retain the talent is to consider service members' livelihoods and their families.

The Trump position: "You keep your promises," Miller said. "That's the number one thing." In order to retain talent, he added, the military must be able to offer a life that is comparable to civilian counterparts.

Retirement

Pension

The pension program should be similar to retirement programs in the civilian world -- something resembling a blended pension and 401(k) system. It needs to be robust but also flexible, and it should have funding enough to take care of the veterans who served no matter what their needs may be. In the future, veterans should also be able to extend pension or retirement to a beneficiary, Kelley added.

The Clinton position: The Clinton plan will support the notion that improving benefits for veterans also improves readiness. "She envisions working with Congress and service to ensure ongoing improvements to the system," Rosenberger said.

The Trump position: "We have to look at programs that empower veterans to plan earlier in their career for retirement," Miller said. He added, however, that preparing veterans for civilian employment is key as well.

Veteran Homelessness

This area is finally moving in the right direction, but it isn't 100 percent fixed yet, Kelley said. The prevention method is where the government should focus its attention, because veterans shouldn't have to become homeless to receive aid. Instead, mental health, medical care and employment services should keep veterans from ever ending up on the streets, Fuentes said.

The Clinton position: The Clinton platform aims to protect veterans with mental health issues and medical conditions, and those who are seeking jobs, in an effort to cut down on homelessness. Some of that homelessness is attributed to the ambiguous language in the Fair Housing Act, which is meant to protect people from discrimination when they are renting, buying or securing financing for any housing. "We're talking a combination of factors that will be utilized to address the issue," Garrison said.

The Trump position: The Trump campaign believes that the mayors of most major cities have done a good job of addressing homelessness in recent years and should be commended. However, as with veteran unemployment, Miller added, "One homeless veteran is one too many." Additionally, Trump's platform would look at mental health and employment resources as a means to stave off homelessness.

Empowerment and Legacy

Diversity in the Military

The military is often a catalyst for change, especially in the area of integration, whether that is gender, race, religion or sexual orientation. The VFW supports the military putting the uniform first, but Fuentes and Kelley added that with a diversifying force, it is important to take into account the needs of the individuals who volunteer to serve.

The Clinton position: According to her platform, Clinton plans to adopt inclusive personnel policies, which will combat military sexual assault and harassment; integrate women into all military positions; and support transgender Americans to serve openly in the military. "I think you're going to continue see Secretary Clinton working hand-in-hand with the services to ensure that we have a most prosperous, diverse group of candidates coming into the military," Garrison said.

The Trump position: "Diversity of all types is a key component," Miller said. And the Trump administration believes that diversity is important so long as it doesn't compromise readiness. However, this is an area which has not been widely discussed within the campaign.

Second Oath: Veterans Serving the Community After They Separate

Veterans are more likely to be involved in their local communities than their civilian counterparts. It is important to encourage those who served in the armed forces to volunteer in first responder, local government and community leadership positions, because a call to service is often lifelong, Fuentes said. The VFW, as a veteran service organization, partners with other groups and local communities to foster veterans' ability to serve after they leave the military.

The Clinton position: "There are a variety of ways to do this," Garrison said. "Society benefits whenever we leverage the experiences of veterans as much as we can." Many veterans are service-oriented by nature, and the Clinton administration wants to give them every possible opportunity to continue to do that on federal, state and local levels.

The Trump position: "This is one of the key duties of the president," Miller said. "They are a unique and often overlooked asset." He added that whoever is the next president needs to convey how important veteran service is, whether they go on to become politicians, law enforcement or doctors. He suggested that the best way the government can honor them is to encourage them to become civic leaders when they retire from the military.

Honoring the Fallen

The VFW suggested that civilian leaders who make decisions should consider service members' lives and families when making decisions regarding budget and military engagements. In addition, the government should foster partnerships with veteran service organizations to care for the families of the fallen, and to honor the ultimate sacrifice made by veterans, whether through counseling services or financial aid.

The Clinton position: "We're going to work very closely with the community, with military leaders both current and retired ... to determine what the best answers are on this," Garrison said. The Clinton administration also plans to work closely with veteran service organizations to find the best ways to support families of the fallen and maintain the legacy of those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

The Trump position: "There are few things as sacred as honoring the fallen," Miller said. "We must make sure that those who have laid down their lives are never forgotten." The Trump administration believes that the best way to respect those who paid the ultimate sacrifice is to take care of their families, maintain the nation's cemeteries, and keep their stories alive.
Naval College Russia Maritime Studies Institute

The U.S. Naval War College (NWC) has opened a Russia Maritime Studies Institute (RMSI) on their Newport, Rhode Island campus, tasked with the mission of better understanding Russia's expanding role in the global maritime environment. Establishing the institute is partially in response to a resurgent Russian military that has enabled Moscow to assert itself in Ukraine, Syria and elsewhere. RMSI will leverage connections across the U.S. Government and academia to conduct research into Russian naval policy, strategy, maritime operations, shipbuilding, international law and other topics. For more information, visit the U.S. Naval War College website.

For more Navy news, visit the Military.com Navy section. For guides on military education benefits and programs, including the current GI Bill, finding schools, and tuition assistance, visit the Military.com Education section.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Political commentator and Wall Street Journal columnist Karl Rove says Americans are preparing to choose from two of the most disliked presidential candidates in modern history.

The rise of social media, the government bailout of the economy and the Affordable Care Act have led to a broad-based populist revolt against Washington establishment, Rove told the Economic Club of Grand Rapids on Monday, Sept. 12.

"We have never nominated a candidate, let alone two candidates, as unpopular as these two are," said Rove, an adviser to former President George W. Bush and Republican Party during the Bush presidency.

As a result, Donald J. Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders were able to stand the traditional political order on its head, said Rove, who also pitched his latest book, "The Triumph of William McKinley: Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters."

Rove lamented the current state of presidential politics, noting Trump used his status as a celebrity to suck up 60 percent of the media coverage in a primary campaign that included 17 candidates with government experience.

Likewise, Sanders, a "back-bencher" from Vermont with few formal ties to the Democratic Party, nearly beat the well-funded and well-organized party machine created by Hillary Clinton.

Meanwhile, Trump has bypassed the mainstream media with his Twitter account, which has 14 million followers who digest his pronouncements 140 characters at a time, Rove said.

"These things are not going to go away," Rove said. "These are things we are going to encounter as we go forward."

Trump also has bypassed the Republican Party with his non-traditional campaign, said Rove. That has hindered Trump's efforts to unite the GOP behind his candidacy, he said.

"He hasn't earned the right to claim party loyalty," said Rove, noting that before Trump became a candidate, one of his largest political donations was a 2006 contribution to former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rove said.

If Trump is elected, Rove said he expect the nation's government to fundamentally shift back to being governed by Congress, where the Republicans have been developing a political agenda that Trump the Dealmaker will be willing to work with, Rove said.

Although many are looking to the presidential debates as a defining event that will determine the election's outcome, Rove said history has shown they have little impact on the result.

History also shows Trump will have a hard time gaining the 270 electoral votes he needs to beat Clinton, said Rove. Even if Trump takes all of the states which GOP nominee Mitt Romney won in 2012, it will be difficult to win other states he needs to carry him over the top, he said.
[File photo]

Legislation regarding a new nuclear security law is expected to be approved by the end of 2016, which may create a legal basis for Chinas booming nuclear industry. The law would also promote public access to environmental data.

As far as we know, opinions and suggestions are currently being solicited for the nuclear security law, which will be submitted to the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress for deliberation by the end of 2016, said Liu Hua, Chief Nuclear Safety Engineer of China's Ministry of Environmental Protection, in an interview with Beijing Youth Daily.

Lius remarks came on the heels of a statement made by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Sept. 8. In the statement, a team of IAEA experts said that Chinas regulatory framework for nuclear safety is effective, but will require further development due to the rapid growth of nuclear energy.

On Sept. 8, the Integrated Regulatory Review Service team concluded a 10-day mission to assess China's regulatory safety framework; the review positively evaluated Chinas efforts on nuclear safety, Peoples Daily reported on Sept. 11.

According to Liu, the draft of Chinas Nuclear Security Law will ensure the independence of regulatory institutions from other entities that could potentially create conflicts of interest. The draft also emphasizes the importance of promoting public access to more extensive environmental data.

Although China put the brakes on its nuclear energy development after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, it has highlighted nuclear power development as a priority for the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020). Currently, China has 24 nuclear power-generating units under construction, ranking first in the world, Xinhua reported.

As a leading nuclear power, China has put a great deal of effort into promoting nuclear security. During the fourth Nuclear Security Summit in Washington D.C. in April, President Xi Jinping stated, China applies the most stringent security monitoring to ensure the safety and security of nuclear power stations within China and of those exported to other parts of the world. Nothing is left to chance.
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Barton Pond, an impoundment on the Huron River where Ann Arbor gets most of its drinking water, on Aug. 28, 2016. Local officials hope the Gelman dioxane plume spreading through the area's groundwater never reaches the pond.

(Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News)

ANN ARBOR, MI - Now in what they hope is the final stretch, Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County officials are continuing their multi-year lobbying effort to get the state of Michigan to comply with its own laws and adopt stricter dioxane exposure standards.

Their hope is that a new standard will provide some momentum to better address the toxic plume of pollution that's been spreading through the groundwater in Ann Arbor and Scio Township -- slowly moving toward the Huron River from the former Gelman Sciences site on Wagner Road -- for decades.

DEQ officials told local officials in late July they were confident the state would establish stricter standards by the end of the year, and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has made certain assurances with regard to the process.

But local officials have been concerned that opposition from industry groups representing polluters could derail the process.

Matt Naud, Ann Arbor's environmental coordinator, is in Lansing today, Sept. 12, for a public hearing to ensure the city's voice is heard.

It's been almost three years since the state failed to meet a December 2013 statutory deadline to update the standards for dioxane and 300-plus other chemicals and hazardous substances to reflect current science.

That includes 2010 findings by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that indicated the cancer risks from dioxane (which is in Ann Arbor's groundwater but not yet in Barton Pond where the city gets its drinking water) are greater than previously believed. The EPA's findings six years ago suggested the state's allowance of dioxane in drinking water at concentrations up to 85 parts per billion is not protective of public health and it should be in the single digits.

The state Department of Environmental Quality agrees and finally proposed a new standard of 7.2 ppb earlier this year, but now that proposal is going through a rules promulgation process in Lansing, along with numerous other changes for the 300-plus regulated substances. In some cases, there could be stricter standards for certain substances. In other cases, a loosening of standards.

The public hearing is taking place from 1-4 p.m. today, Sept. 12, at Lansing Community College West, 5708 Cornerstone Dr.

The public comment period, which started June 17, will conclude Sept. 13. Anyone who can not attend today's hearing can submit written comments to the DEQ by emailing DEQ-RRDCriteria@michigan.gov.

Local officials already have sent in comments lobbying for adoption of the stricter dioxane standards so they can be applied to the Gelman plume, which will require going back to Circuit Court to revise a consent judgment.

The Ann Arbor City Council voted unanimously last week to authorize the submission of three pages of written comments signed by Mayor Christopher Taylor to Heidi Grether, the new DEQ director.

"These criteria are an important part of protecting public health, safety and welfare, in addition to adding certainty to the remediation, closure and redevelopment of contaminated sites across the state," the city's letter states. "It is imperative that these criteria be promulgated and begun to be used across the state."

The letter mentions that the city's staff was pleased to participate in a criteria stakeholder advisory group that helped develop a hierarchy of toxicological data sets to be used by the DEQ as inputs to develop new criteria.

"This hierarchy better ensures that the best available science is used," the city's letter reads, agreeing with the group's recommendation that the EPA's Integrated Risk Information System should be used when data is available.

"The city also applauds the members of the regulated community participating in the CSA process," the letter continues. "These participants have raised valid concerns about how these criteria affect the regulated community, have supported the use of best science, and have recognized the need to update the criteria, including adding a child receptor to the exposure assumptions."

In the new letter, the city also voices support for getting the DEQ to develop a more nimble approach to updating the exposure criteria.

"To that end, the city would prefer to see the hierarchy and the algorithm promulgated in the rules without the table of values," it reads. "This would allow the MDEQ to recognize new, best available science and use these data to generate new cleanup criteria through an open and transparent process. The MDEQ would publish a new table of values on an annual basis when updates are made."

Similarly, the city recommends the DEQ develop a process whereby the regulated community, local governments, NGOs and the public can petition the DEQ to review criteria when new science is available or the science on which the criteria is based comes into question. The city suggests capping the number of petitions in any given year to ensure the DEQ is not overwhelmed.

"The MDEQ has attempted to update these criteria several times over the past five years, but it has been several years since these criteria have been updated and there is a significant amount of new, best-available science that needs to be reflected in the MDEQ cleanup criteria," the city's letter states. "For example, EPA's IRIS process developed new toxicology data for 1,4-dioxane in 2010, yet the MDEQ has not updated the state standards to reflect this new information until, finally, the currently proposed cleanup criteria. This is true for many of the other 303 chemicals under review. The process for updating criteria is flawed and needs to be updated so that new science can be rapidly incorporated into criteria."

The city's letter goes on to to say the city recognizes the process is not complete and significant concerns remain within the regulated community around a few key pieces of the rules, including the use of draft IRIS values, vapor intrusion, and key exposure assumptions. However, the city supports promulgation of the proposed rule package as proposed -- or with minor revisions -- and commits to continue to support the criteria stakeholder advisory group process to work through remaining concerns from the regulated community within the next year.

"While we are supporting the timely adoption of the new standards, we're also making several recommendations in our comment letter related to improving the overall rule-making process to make it more timely, more science-based and rigorous, and more nimble," said City Council Member Jane Lumm, an independent from the 2nd Ward.

"Given the lack of action and delays experienced with the 1,4-dioxane standards, those comments are certainly appropriate," she said.

"I'm very hopeful that the state takes this opportunity to do right by its citizens in this regard," added City Council Member Kirk Westphal, D-2nd Ward.

Mayor Christopher Taylor said the city is making it clear it wants to see new dioxane standards adopted by the end of the year and it wants to see swift movement in court to get them implemented in the real world.

State Rep. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, submitted written comments of his own to the new DEQ director on Sept. 7.

"These standards should be approved because they more closely reflect the best available science," he wrote. "As a result, the proposed standards will do a better job of protecting public health from environmental hazards. However, the proposed standards would do an even better job of protecting the public from cancers and other health problems if the exposure assumptions were improved. Specifically, the lifetime exposure threshold of 30 years is 50% longer than the EPA's 20-year assumption, and the child exposure factor is too low, underestimating the impact of cancerous substances on small humans."

Irwin noted Michigan law requires the DEQ's criteria to use best-available science to protect the public health.

"Our current standards, especially those for 1,4-dioxane, are based on old studies that underestimate the danger from chemical exposures," he wrote. "The 85 ppb dioxane standard has failed families like the Pates (a family in Scio Township), who were told their well water was safe for them and their three young children at 50 ppb, simply because Michigan has been slow to update our cleanup criteria.

"And it has failed our community as a whole, as we have watched dioxane spread towards our main municipal water supply. Already, Ann Arbor has been forced to close a municipal well because cleanup of the aquifer could not be mandated to safe levels under the current standard. As you take leadership of the DEQ, this situation presents an opportunity for you to prevent another municipal water crisis and re-align the agency with its mission to protect public health."

Irwin concluded his letter by saying it's known that dioxane is more dangerous than previously believed.

"In communities like mine, where pollution has been allowed to remain and spread based on outdated assumptions, these new standards are critical to protecting public health," he wrote. "Please adopt these new standards and then consider improving exposure assumptions to bring our standards in line with the nation and majority of states."

Irwin said he and City Council Member Sabra Briere, D-1st Ward, were attending today's hearing in Lansing.

Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioner Evan Pratt has submitted a letter to the DEQ, saying adoption of the proposed standards would demonstrate the state's commitment to protecting public health based on best science. Conversely, he said, failure to adopt them immediately would be a strong message that the state is fully aware of the deficiencies of the current standards but knowingly and intentionally chose not to protect public health.

Pratt said other county officials, including the county's public health division, are submitting comments as well.

Ryan Stanton covers the city beat for The Ann Arbor News. Reach him at ryanstanton@mlive.com.
ANN ARBOR, MI -- Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine will visit the University of Michigan campus on Tuesday, Sept. 13, to deliver a speech at the Diag.

The speech is expected to take place around noon, with the event opening around 9:45 a.m., according to a press release from U-M's College Democrats.

"We are thrilled to give Senator Kaine a big Wolverine welcome to Ann Arbor, and his visit reaffirms the important role young voters will play in electing Hillary Clinton as our next President," said Collin Kelly, chair of the College Democrats at the University of Michigan, in a press release. "Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine are committed to making college debt-free for all and allowing students with existing debts to refinance their loans. Young voters and students will have an ally in Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine in the White House, and that's why we will continue registering students and making sure they make their voices heard in this election."

MLive reported on Sept. 8 that Kaine, who is running alongside Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, is expected to hold an event with university students and area residents about the importance of the Nov. 8 election. He is also expected to discuss why Clinton is the best candidate for residents and students.

Kaine is also expected to encourage voter registration. The last day to register to vote in the Nov. 8, 2016 presidential election is Oct. 11, according to information posted on the Michigan Secretary of State's website.

On his last visit on Aug. 5, Kaine went to Grand Rapids and contrasted Clinton with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. He also helped open one of 30 campaign offices the Clinton campaign has opened around the state.

Members of the public can RSVP for the speech here.
Greece Migrants

A woman plays with a child at an abandoned hospital wing, which is used as a makeshift shelter for about 150 Syrian refugees in Athens, Greece, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016. More than 59,000 people remain stranded in the country, most in army-built camps on the mainland and about 7,800 refugees are receiving hotel vouchers or live in vacant apartments.

(AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

ANN ARBOR, MI - Samaritas, Michigan's largest refugee resettlement agency and the fourth largest in the nation, has been approved by the U.S. State Department to begin resettling refugees in the Ann Arbor area.

One of the state's largest faith-based nonprofits, Samaritas is now expanding its office at 2770 Carpenter Road, where it offers foster care services, to create space for refugee resettlement staff, including at least one case worker.

"Ann Arbor has a vibrant international population that is yearning to welcome refugees," Mihaela Mitrofan, southeast Michigan director of refugee resettlement for Samaritas, said in a news release.

The Ann Arbor City Council has gone on record indicating it wants the city to be a welcoming place for refugees and Samaritas has taken note.

As the surge of refugees increases, driven primarily by larger numbers of Syrian refugees seeking safe haven, finding adequate, safe housing for new Americans is a challenge, according to Samaritas.

One solution, the agency says, is to forge new relationships in communities that are welcoming to newcomers.

Mitrofan said Washtenaw County has a strong Middle Eastern community that is well established and welcoming.

"They are eager to support refugees, and housing in surrounding enclaves is affordable and safe," she said. "We have evaluated employment opportunities and the receiving community's suitability to integrate refugees."

Refugees may find themselves living in Ypsilanti, Westland, Inkster, Northville and parts of Ann Arbor, according to this week's announcement from Samaritas.

Samaritas says partnerships with local agencies such as Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County, which until now has been the only agency in the county contracted through the State Department to resettle refugees here, help to pave the way for smooth transitions for refugees.

Similar expansion plans have been in the works for Samaritas' west Michigan refugee resettlement office, which is looking to Kalamazoo to find additional safe, affordable housing for refugees. More than 40 Syrians have arrived in Kalamazoo, supported by the Kalamazoo Islamic Center, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Lutheran Church of the Savior, and the Kalamazoo Refugee Council.



Samaritas also operates refugee resettlement offices in Troy, Grand Rapids and Battle Creek, and now Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo are added to the list.

Samaritas spokeswoman Lynne Golodner said the agency already has plans to resettle 12 families in the Ann Arbor area, though she said that likely will happen over the course of many months. She didn't have specific information on which countries they're coming from, but she said the Middle East is a focus.

The agency also has resettled refugees in Michigan who have come everywhere from Africa to southeast Asia. Through the end of July, Samaritas helped resettle a total of 1,066 refugees in Michigan, Golodner said.

After establishing a place to live, refugees receive support in enrolling their children in school, finding work and attending English language and financial literacy classes. Samaritas assists with those functions and is growing a mentoring program through a Refugee School Impact program.



Additionally, congregations in Oakland, Macomb, Wayne, Washtenaw and Genesee counties are partnering with Samaritas to welcome refugees and guide them in building new lives.

September marks the one-year anniversary of Samaritas' New Americans Services partnership with Detroit, another collaboration to welcome refugees.

Part of the upcoming expansion in the Ann Arbor area will be guided by a collaborative known as Washtenaw Refugee Welcome, a collective of nine Ann Arbor area congregations, representatives from local outreach organizations and University of Michigan staff and students. WRW meets monthly to plan for assisting Samaritas and Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County with the upcoming refugee resettlement process, harnessing resources for housing, medical care, transportation, education, employment and more.



"The five areas of resettlement include housing, health, education, employment, and cultural orientation," Mitrofan said in the news release.

"We don't only want to offer save haven to families fleeing dangerous situations. We want to help them build a healthy life here in America. And we find that the refugees we help are eager to give back as soon as they can. They are so grateful for the generosity our nation shows them in their time of need."

Ryan Stanton covers the city beat for The Ann Arbor News. Reach him at ryanstanton@mlive.com.
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The University of Michigan has received a $1 million gift from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to endow four postdoctoral humanities positions in the Michigan Society of Fellows. MLive file photo

ANN ARBOR, MI -- The University of Michigan has received a $1 million gift from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to endow four postdoctoral humanities positions in the Michigan Society of Fellows.

Additional funds were committed by the Rackham Graduate School to permanently secure these positions. In 2007, a $1.97 million gift from the Mellon Foundation funded these positions for six years. The new gift ensures the future of the fellows, providing the opportunity for recent Ph.D.'s with the time and financial support to prepare the major publication usually required to obtain a tenured faculty position.

"This is an example of the importance an endowment can play. By providing such a gift at this point, we can secure the future of these positions in perpetuity. The original gift from Mellon is significantly enhanced by this one," said Carol A. Fierke, Dean of the Rackham Graduate School and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs - Graduate Studies, in a news release.



Michigan Society of Fellows Chair Donald S. Lopez, Jr. said the gift is important in helping the fellows maintain a strong presence in the humanities.

"The 2007 gift from the Mellon Foundation was transformative to the Michigan Society of Fellows in so many ways, while providing a precious postdoctoral position to four additional fellows each year. We are deeply grateful for this generous gift to our endowment, which will ensure the strong presence of the humanities in the Society of Fellows for generations to come," said Lopez in a statement.

More than 1,000 applications are received annually for a position in the group. The Society of Fellows selects applicants for appointment to three-year fellowships in the biological sciences, physical sciences, social sciences and humanities, as well as in the professional schools.

Each fellow has a three-year appointment as an assistant professor in an affiliated department of the university and a three-year appointment as a postdoctoral scholar in the Society of Fellows.
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Pedestrians walk near the University of Michigan School of Dentistry at the University of Michigan. The U-M Board of Regents will vote on a proposed $122 million project that would renovate the W.K. Kellogg Institute and Dental Building at its meeting on Sept. 15. The Ann Arbor News file photo

ANN ARBOR, MI -- The University of Michigan Board of Regents will vote on a proposed $122 million project that would renovate the W.K. Kellogg Institute and Dental Building at its meeting on Thursday, Sept. 15.

According to the Regents' action request, the proposed project includes the renovation of approximately 172,000 gross square feet and the addition of 37,000

gross square feet, of which 6,000 is planned to be shelled space.

This project is part of the 2017 Capital Outlay Request to the State of Michigan and subsequently received authorization for design in the Fiscal Year 2017 Capital Outlay budget. Once construction is authorized by the state legislature, the state will fund approximately $30 million of the project, with the university funding the balance with Office of the Provost resources.

The renovation will address deferred maintenance, including exterior envelope repairs and life safety, electrical, mechanical and plumbing system improvements.

A new freight elevator and emergency power generator for the building would be

installed, if approved.

The project "will create a more welcoming, accessible facility with an improved patient entrance; modern teaching clinics with flexible furniture and equipment that can be reconfigured as needs change," according to the action request.

The project proposal also includes the addition of open, flexible research space to support the school's research along with space designed to foster collaboration among faculty and students.

A new special needs/inter-professional care clinic to treat patients with complex medical conditions and disabilities would also be created if the project is approved.

The W.K. Kellogg Institute and Dental Building were built in 1940 and 1969, respectively. With the proposed additions, the buildings total approximately 379,000 gross square feet of space, housing research laboratories, classrooms, clinics and offices for the School of Dentistry.
It had already been an extremely wet August and most of Mid-Michigan was looking forward to the transition September typically brings: cooler temperatures and a decrease in the rainfall.

But when Sept. 10, 1986, hit, it brought with it the most widespread, catastrophic flooding disaster Michigan has ever experienced. An unbelievable amount of rain developed and repeatedly moved over the same area from as far west as Wisconsin to as far east as Michigan's Thumb.

Meteorologists called the phenomenon "train-echoing."

The thousands of people who had to evacuate their homes, pray their businesses survived and watch their crops -- their livelihood -- drown under several feet of rain simply called it "The Flood."

This month marks the 30th anniversary of the Great Flood of 1986, a weather event that stretched across 30 Michigan counties and caused more than $500 million in damages -- $1.1 billion in today's dollars.

To commemorate the 30th anniversary, Bay County's MSU Extension is launching a project to document memories of the flood and provide educational material for future preparedness.

"The project is twofold," said Katy Hintzen, sea grant extension educator in Bay County. "First, it's a public service. It's going to break down what was done from the emergency management side of this incident and what was learned from it. But then it's going to tell the personal stories and show those amazing photographs that so many people from around here remember."

Once complete, the project is going to launch online at www.1986Flood.com. Hintzen is also working with the Bay County Historical Society to see all of the information permanently archived at the museum.

Using past media reports from The Bay City Times and The Saginaw News, and government documents, including the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) report, MLive has documented how the storm unfolded and has included excerpts of some of the most traumatic stories from the event.

A Midland home saw water rise to its doorstep during the flood of September 1986. Photo courtesy of the Midland Historical Society.

Little warning

Forecasts for the week of Sept. 8, 1986, called for scattered showers. The flood, though, came with very little warning.

"Any rain came with some concern because a month prior was extremely wet already," said MLive Chief Meteorologist Mark Torregrossa. "The ground was already flooded in some areas."

Leo Beeg, Saginaw's Public Works superintendent from 1968 to 1988, told The Saginaw News in 2011 the storm caught many residents off guard. Early in the morning on Sept. 11, he received a call from his neighbors asking if his basement had flooded.

"It had been raining for two or three hours, and I didn't realize what had happened," he said. "I went to my basement, and we had 2 inches already."

Saginaw experienced record-setting rain with 8.54 inches of precipitation that day. Much of Mid-Michigan was experiencing similar rainfall.

The Cass River in Vassar crested at 24.75 feet during the storm. About 8 feet of water poured into the city's downtown via the river.

Residents along the Saginaw River in southern Bay County fled their homes as the river eclipsed its 19-foot flood stage. There were no forced evacuations. Many residents on Middlegrounds island left their homes.

Volunteers build a sandbag barrier along the railroad tracks parallel to Westervelt Road south of Zilwaukee in September 1986.

Response

"It was a couple of non-stop days," said Kelly Jean, one of Bay County's first 911 dispatchers. Jean, along with a dozen others were trained in January 1986. Three months later, the service went live for the first time. "We were all pretty new, so this event was exciting and challenging at the same time."

A majority of calls to 911, Jean said, were people calling to say that their basement was flooding.

"So many people had never dealt with flooding before," she said. "They had no clue what to do, so they called 911."

The challenging part was juggling those calls, with the more serious calls of cars being carried into ditches that were filling with water or people clinging to trees to avoid being swept away by the flood's strong current.

"I remember being asked to stay over and do four hours of overtime," Jean said. "I told myself that when I get a break, I would call my parents and let them know I was going to be late. When I finally called them, I realized that the four hours had already passed by. That's how busy it was."

Michigan Gov. James Blanchard sent the National Guard to Tuscola County as floodwaters overtook Vassar where store merchandise from businesses was floating outside. There were reports of looting by people in rowboats who were picking up the soggy merchandise and taking it with them.

Prisoners from Camp Tuscola were relocated to Camp Grayling in Crawford County.

Nikki Opdycke's mother was in the Bay County Sheriff Reserve unit and was dispatched to Wenona Beach mobile home park to do sandbagging.

"I went with her to help and at one point, it got rather dangerous, so the officers on duty put me on the bus that was out there and made me wait until it was safe to get out," she said. "The water was rushing past the bus and lifting cars in the park. Some of the trailers got shifted off their blocks. Everything out there was a mess."

A tractor becomes a rescue vehicle as a couple heads for dryer ground on S. Lincoln Road.

The damage

The total damage of the Great Flood was estimated at $505.2 million, or about $1.1 billion in today's dollars. A majority of the cost was due to crop loss, being that the floods hit during the harvest season. (A major flood that hit Metro Detroit in 2014 exceeded the damage cost of the 1986 flood at $1.8 billion, but the destruction wasn't nearly as widespread.)

Dry beans took the hardest hit, with about 50 percent of the crop destroyed in Midland County, 30 percent in Saginaw County, and 40 percent in Tuscola and Gratiot counties, according to the Michigan Department of Agriculture.

There were about a half of a dozen deaths as a result of the flood, according to different media reports. Roland Wiesenauer drowned in Culver Creek in Bay County's Monitor Township after his vehicle became disabled and he was swept into a ditch.

Hintzen, with MSU Extension, said there were reports that a farmer had taken his own life after learning his crops were destroyed. Those reports are unconfirmed.

A $200 million, 0 percent interest emergency loan plan was proposed by Gov. Blanchard to help farmers recoup the loss.

Insurance agents saw the damage first hand. Tom Weber, who was working for All State in Bay City, said he experienced several "heartbreaking" moments when he had to deliver the news to his clients that they didn't have flood insurance.

"No one was buying flood insurance at the time because the water levels had been so low," he said. "We never had a month where it rained for 26 days. The water had nowhere to go, so it went into our basements and all over the place."

People were angry at the insurance companies, he said.

"We took a lot of flack, but a lot of these people knew that their houses weren't covered for floods," he said. "There was a lot of yelling, hollering and cussing -- and a lot of tears."

A client called Weber, who now lives near Frankenmuth, to have him look at his basement.

"He told me, 'I already know that my home insurance doesn't cover floods, but I just wanted someone to commiserate with me,'" he said. "He opened the door to his basement and the water was only one step down. He had two brand-new TVs downstairs and new furniture."

The federal government allowed those impacted by the flood to purchase flood insurance after the fact, but it only covered a portion of the claims.

Retired WNEM TV-5 meteorologist Eric Jyla was working for WSGW AM at the beginning of the flood, but had just accepted a job at the CBS affiliated television station. His first story was covering a freighter that had gotten stuck in the Saginaw River near Independence Bridge.

"The current was so strong that as the freighter came through the bridge, it turned and got stuck," he said. "It was there for a couple of days."

A crowd rows up to Campbell's Party Store, at Frank and Elm streets on Bay City's West Side.

Memories

Ask a longtime mid-Michigan resident about the 1986 flood and they'll have a story to tell you.

Becky Linton was a college co-op working in environmental at the Dow Chemical Co., which had lost power. She remembers being one of the few in the office when a man from the governor's office called to find out what was going on at the chemical manufacturer.

Marty Kravat was living in Auburn in a lower level apartment.

"The water was 10- eet from our window and running like a raging river," he said.

Gary Stefaniak remembers watching people paddle a canoe down a flooded Birney Street in Essexville. Janell Fulco missed her birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese because her family was unable to cross the bridge to get to Saginaw.

Those with memories are encouraged to use the 1986Flood.com website, which is slated to launch this week, by uploading their stories and photos. Those uploads are going to be marked on a map on the site that the public can click and read.

There have been other floods that made headlines in the past 30 years, including a 1996 flood in Vassar that caused damage. But several municipal leaders throughout the region impacted by the 1986 flood made a pledge: Never again.

Plans were launched to build dikes. Some homes were raised. Townships were stocking up on sandbags, just in case.

The flood of 1986 destroyed businesses and homes, but it also brought communities together.

Tom Barwin, St. Charles village manager at the time, told The Saginaw News that the floods fostered stronger community sentiments.

"It seems here that the community has grown stronger because of it," he said.
BAY CITY, MI -- After blowing his chance to keep a felony from plaguing his record, a Bay City man is spending the next few months in jail for stalking a woman with a series of fire-and-brimstone text messages.

Bay County Circuit Judge Joseph K. Sheeran on Monday, Sept. 12, sentenced Alexander J. Newsham, 26, to 345 days in jail with credit for 206 days already served, meaning he has almost five months left to serve. Upon release, he is to serve 18 months' probation, and he must obtain mental health treatment.

The judge held in abeyance an additional 20 days in jail, only to be served if Newsham violates his probation.

Newsham in June pleaded guilty to aggravated stalking, a five-year felony. Newsham was to receive a two-year delayed sentence. In that two-year span, he would have effectively been on probation. If he successfully completed his probationary term, he'd then have been allowed to withdraw his plea and instead plead guilty to misdemeanor stalking, thereby avoiding a felony record.

However, when it came time for Sheeran to sentence Newsham in July, he read how the defendant referred to his case as "complete and utter bull" in a presentence report. Sheeran then opted against accepting the plea.

In August, Newsham accepted some responsibility and expressed remorse, prompting the judge to reinstate his plea. The judge delayed sentencing Newsham until May 7, 2018, but Newsham again squandered his chance of avoiding a felony record by making threats against a relative he was living with, violating the conditions of his delayed sentence.

Newsham's case stems from a 23-year-old woman on Dec. 10 telling Michigan State Police troopers she had been receiving text messages from a person she believed to be Newsham, who she had a personal protection order against since March. She has had issues with Newsham since 2014 and he was on probation for violating the PPO, court records show.

The phone number sending the text messages had a Florida area code, court records show. The woman emailed troopers the offending text messages.

"Your make up looks horrible, maybe you should just take it off and stop it," reads one message. The woman responded by asking the sender his or her identity. "God," the texter responded.

"So you should prolly listen. Enless you want to be smited, covered in a sea of locusts, and internal fire, eternal demnation. Which you should prolly just prepare for anyways, because as god I know you dont honor your mother. And thats a pretty heft sin their child. except Jesus christ as your lord and savior, because he gave his life for you, you know. So you prolly start adhereing to your mothers wishes, and also stop dressing like you work the night shift on woodward ave."

The text messages went on to tell the woman to read her Bible, go to church, follow the Ten Commandments, and repent for her sins, court records show.

Police visited Newsham's parents' house. The man's father said he had kicked his son out of his home previously for making threats against him. At one point, Newsham asked his dad if he wanted to know what bleach tastes like, he told police.

The father went on to say his son refuses to get help for his issues and should be on medication, but refuses to take it. He told police he previously bought his son a bus ticket to Florida to stay with family, adding that if he was going to be homeless, he could be so someplace warm.

On Dec. 16, the same alleged victim told police she had received several more messages, though they were now originating from a local number, court records show.

On Dec. 28, police went to Newsham's aunt's house and found him. He initially denied any knowledge of the odd texts received by the woman.

"I asked Alexander why he was texting her knowing that (she) has a PPO against him," the trooper wrote in his report, contained in court records. "Alexander shrugged his shoulder and said he does not have a reason why, he just does."

Newsham added he uses a Google Play app to send the texts, court records show.
Steven M. Sanderson

BAY CITY, MI -- Days before a Bangor Township man engaged in a standoff with police, he repeatedly threatened to kill himself and take others with him in several phone calls to the Social Security Administration, authorities allege.

The early afternoon of Friday, Sept. 9, Michigan State Police troopers went to the home of 42-year-old Steven M. Sanderson at 174 Lagoon Beach Drive, intending to serve an arrest warrant issued out of the federal Western District of Michigan. Sanderson, however, initially refused to come outside, before surrendering an hour or so later.

Sanderson was free on a personal recognizance bond at the time, having been arraigned in Bay County District Court on Wednesday, Sept. 7, on one count of malicious use of telecommunications services. The charge is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

That charge, and the federal warrant state troopers were executing, stems from incidents that occurred Tuesday, Sept. 6. According to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids and authored by Social Security Special Agent William C. Brown, Sanderson at about 1:45 p.m. rang up the Social Security's field office in Traverse City and spoke with a claims specialist.

A volatile Sanderson yelled at the specialist in a profanity-laden tirade, telling him "blood is going to be on your hands" if he didn't get the information he wanted, Brown's complaint states.

"Sanderson told Claims Specialist ... that he was going to shoot up the place (referring to the Social Security Administration) and that he was tired of being '(expletive)' by the SSA," the complaint states. "Then Sanderson said that he was going to kill himself and take others with him."

Sanderson went on to claim he had spent 11 years in prison and was not afraid to go back, the complaint states. Prior to hanging up on the claims specialist, Sanderson said he was going to "open his front door and 'beat the living (expletive) out of the first person he saw.'"

Bay County sheriff's deputies responded to Sanderson's house. After they left, Sanderson called Social Security at 2:49 p.m. and again spoke with the claims specialist.

"Sanderson again became hostile, and proceeded to shout obscenities and then made threatening statements about law enforcement officials stating, 'If they come back he will barricade himself indoors,' and that 'He will only be leaving in a body bag' and that he will take out others with him if they even try to come on his property," the complaint continues. Sanderson allegedly ended this second communication by saying he'd serve prison time for "beating somebody's head in with a hammer."

Troopers responded to the scene and arrested Sanderson and his girlfriend on a charge of resisting and obstructing. The troopers interviewed Sanderson, who told them he had discovered his monthly disability benefits had changed and he was going to have difficulty purchasing his medications. When troopers told him he can't call the SSA and threaten staff, he "responded saying that he could do whatever he wanted and that he was mentally ill and that he could not be arrested."

In the complaint, Agent Brown states the SSA's call control processing center routed Sanderson's calls through a network in Baltimore, Maryland, through to the Traverse City field office. Brown contends Sanderson violated interstate commerce law by threatening the claims specialist, which is a 20-year federal felony.

Since his arrest Friday, Sanderson has been transferred to the Newaygo County Jail to be held on the federal matters.

He is next due to appear in Bay County District Court for a pretrial conference at 8:45 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 7.
BAY CITY, MI -- The owner of a Bay City head shop is no longer facing a five-year felony of having illegal tobacco, pleading guilty to a lesser count.

Jason A. Tenjeras, of Ortonville, on Thursday, Sept. 8, appeared before Bay County District Judge Mark E. Janer and pleaded guilty to one count of Tobacco Tax Act violation, punishable by up to one year in jail and a $5,000 fine. The specific part of the statute Tenjeras pleaded to prohibits a person from selling between 1,200 and 2,999 tobacco products with an aggregate wholesale value of $100 to $250.

Janer proceeded to sentence Tenjeras, 41, to pay a $300 fine. Court records indicate Tenjeras had previously paid the tax and penalty in a civil assessment of $2,200.

Tenjeras' case dates back to April 28, 2014, when a Michigan State Police Tobacco Tax Act team was checking tobacco-selling businesses when they stopped by 3 Doors Down Head Shop, 4116 Wilder Road in Bay City.

"They found (the shop) had some tobacco that didn't have the stamps on it," MSP Special 1st Lt. David Kaiser previously said. "They requested a worker pull the invoices, which she did. There was nothing that supported that they had paid sales tax on it."

Kaiser said the tobacco was purchased from a Wisconsin-based distributor who was not licensed in Michigan.

The state police seized the unlicensed tobacco, Kaiser said.

Investigators spent the next year trying to locate and interview Tenjeras, the business's owner, Kaiser said. Tenjeras also owns tobacco shops in Traverse City and Waterford, the lieutenant added.

Police eventually found Tenjeras and interviewed him on Dec. 7, Kaiser said. Officers' reports were sent to the Michigan Attorney General's Office.

Authorities issued a warrant for Tenjeras on Aug. 22.
BAY CITY, MI -- A Saginaw man police say overdosed on an opiate 100 times more potent than heroin has pleaded guilty to a felony.

Christopher L. Dean, 28, on Monday, Sept. 12, appeared before Bay County Circuit Judge Joseph K. Sheeran and pleaded guilty to one count of possession of fentanyl. The charge is typically a two-year felony, but Dean also pleaded as a habitual offender with a second offense sentencing enhancement, upping the maximum potential penalty to three years in prison.

On Feb. 5, a Michigan State Police trooper was dispatched to a home in the 3200 block of Sycamore Court in Bangor Township for a reported overdose. He arrived to find Bangor Township firefighters tending to Dean, who was sitting in a kitchen chair, breathing but unresponsive. On the table in front of him were two silver spoons containing apparent drug residue, along with a glass pipe, court records show.

A 40-year-old woman had called 911. She told the trooper she was dating Dean and had gone upstairs. On coming back down, she saw Dean in his current condition, she told the trooper. She said she had seen him inject heroin before, court records show.

Dean regained consciousness at the scene, but appeared to have difficulty understanding the trooper's questions. Dean was transported to McLaren Bay Region hospital by Mobile Medical Response, court records show.

At the hospital, the trooper again spoke with Dean. He said he took a Xanax pill and snorted some heroin, then injected more into his left arm, court records show. He added he doesn't use drugs often.

When the trooper asked about what happened to the syringe he used, Dean speculated his girlfriend removed it from his arm and disposed of it, court records show.

Police sent the spoons to the Michigan State Police Crime Lab for analysis. A lab report dated April 18 indicates both spoons tested positive for fentanyl, court records show.

When a rash of heroin overdoses began in Bay County in spring 2015, police and health officials largely cast the blame on fentanyl. Heroin cut with minute amounts of fentanyl often leads to lethal results.

In all, 27 people died in Bay County in 2015 due to heroin-related overdoses.

Judge Sheeran is to sentence Dean at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 24.
Government calls on New Zealanders to learn Chinese at language week

(Xinhua) 16:16, September 12, 2016

New Zealanders were urged to learn Mandarin or Cantonese on the opening of Chinese Language Week on Monday.

"China is one of New Zealand's largest trading partners. Our trade relationship with China has nearly tripled over the past decade to 23 billion NZ dollars (16.87 billion U.S. dollars) in June 2016," Ethnic Communities Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga said in a statement.

"In order to build relationships with trading partners, it is important that we better understand the culture and language. It is also important when you are trying to build social and political ties," he said.

"More New Zealanders should learn Mandarin or Cantonese so they can be part of the increasingly important Asian markets we trade with."

More than 172,000 ethnic Chinese now lived in New Zealand, and it was crucial to celebrate their successes and achievements, said Lotu-Iiga.

"When you learn the basics of another language you start to build a relationship with that culture. Chinese Language Week is held to encourage more New Zealanders to have a go at speaking Mandarin or Cantonese."

Co-chair of the New Zealand Chinese Language Trust Jo Coughlan said many New Zealanders would have never considered trying to speak Mandarin.

"It could be that it's perceived as being too difficult or it may be they don't know where to begin," Coughlan said.

"This week is about encouraging people to widen their horizons and showing them where they might find information to take the first step in learning Chinese."

Prime Minister John Key, Chinese Ambassador to New Zealand Wang Lutong, and New Zealand Ambassador to China John McKinnon have voiced support for the week.

Events during the week include calligraphy workshops, Peking Opera performances and a Chinese Short Film Contest for schools in the largest city of Auckland.

New Zealand's Chinese Language Week runs until Sept. 18.
[File photo]

Chinas latest cooperation with other G20 countries on overseas asset recovery and the extradition of corrupt officials will help to overcome political and legal barriers, according to experts. The cooperation will also promote China's participation in the establishment of international anti-graft institutions, the experts said.

On Sept. 5, leaders from G20 countries agreed to advance an anti-graft campaign, the details of which included the establishment of a research center on fugitive repatriation and asset recovery in China, Xinhua reported.

China has been fighting unswervingly against corruption, and the country's achievements in anti-graft causes have been widely recognized by the international community. Thus, important anti-graft breakthroughs were made this year during the G20 summit, said Song Wei, deputy director of the Research Center for Government Integrity at the University of Science and Technology in Beijing. Song gave an interview with Legal Daily on Sept. 12.

With corruption already considerably reduced at home, China has lately been intensifying its international efforts in apprehending corrupt officials overseas. According to data released on Sept. 6 by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, 1,915 fugitives have been brought back from around 70 countries and regions since the launch of operation Sky Net in 2014, with 7.5 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) recovered.

Most corrupt officials have chosen G20 countries as their destinations. Further cooperation with these countries will be beneficial for the location and retrieval of suspects overseas, said Zhuang Deshui, a professor with Peking University, in an interview with Legal Daily.

Despite China's anti-graft achievements, experts have said that more effort should be made to strengthen the countrys legal system, and to improve understanding of international laws and treaties.

Most importantly, China should strengthen its legal system, including its trial by default system, realizing the integration of Chinese and international laws, Zhuang added.
Xie Qiujun, a 26-year-old woman in Chengdu, Sichuan province, lost both her hands in a fire when she was just 4 years old. After about 40 surgeries, 10 new "fingers" were eventually sculpted from her wrist. Despite subsequent challenges, Xie has successfully opened more than 100 fast food restaurants.

"I am able to do things just like other people," Xie insisted, explaining that she never considered herself special. However, from all appearances, Xie is quite special. She attended school and distinguished herself as a top student; she studied 3-D animation and earned several prizes; she worked in sales and became a champion seller among her 6,000 co-workers. Finally, she chose to start her own business.

Xie was born in 1990. Her happy childhood came to a screeching halt after her accident, which cost 10,000 yuan in medical expenses every three days. She almost died several times. Doctors told her parents to give up, and Xie maintains that it was only her parents' love and persistence that made her miraculous recovery possible.

Despite Xie's lack of hands and severe burns, her mother encouraged the young girl to face the public and make friends. She also taught Xie to do housework so she could live independently. Under her parents' patient guidance, Xie developed an exceptionally strong will.

Xie faced another obstacle when she was in high school and failed the university entrance exam. However, she remained confident that there was always a way out. And her optimism paid off: she was given a free 3-D animation training course by the Disabled Persons' Federation.

One day, Xie heard a speech about entrepreneurship, which ignited her own dreams. She found a job with a sales company to gain experience. Later, in 2014, Xie met her husband. They got to know each other through WeChat, and the young fast food restaurant owner was touched by Xie's passion and spirit. They shared the same entrepreneurship dream. Together, they opened a new fast food restaurant three month later. Now they own more than 100 restaurants.

The couple obtained a marriage license this year and is planning a wedding ceremony in 2017.
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Tanintharyi Region is holding public forums where community members can weigh in on how the regional governments efforts to promote development across a range of sectors, from gender equality to electricity, should proceed.





Dawei township held a forum on September 5 and 6 as part of the new regional governments efforts to include community concerns when drafting development policies. The first forum as part of the strategy was held in Kawthaung township, and the third and final forum will take place in Myeik.

Daweis forum, which drew more than 1500 people, focused on tourism; electricity and industry; agriculture, livestock and fisheries; migrant workers; gender equality; youth; and socio-economic status.

U Thant Zin, coordinator of the Dawei Development Association, said communitys input was submitted to the regional government office after the forum.

The voices of the community can directly reach the regional government, he said. The advice and data provided by the forum will help [the government] draft economic and environmental policies.

If the region draws up a wider development strategy, U Thant Zin is hoping the community can cooperate with development experts to help influence the policy.

Some of the issues can be solved within the forum through discussion, he said. Some have to be solved by the regional government and some may need to be submitted to the central government level. So the forum cant solve all the issues at once, but at least when it is finished the government can know what is really happening on the ground.





U Wai Phyo Aung, founder of Dawei Active Youth, said the previous government rarely invited civil society groups to discuss specific issues.

Once you know what is happening on the ground, it is easier to approach the issues and find out the solutions, he said. But the forum is just to allow the government to listen to community voices  drafting policies based on that advice will take time.

Read more: Fight for resources in Myanmar's deep south

Daw Lae Lae Maw, Tanintharyi chief minister (NLD; Thayatchaung township), said the regional government will finalise conclusions from six government committees  representing various government departments like mining and agriculture  that collected views from the forum. These conclusions will help the government draft the policies needed, she added.

The forum helps the community participate in the regional governments development process and its clear what needs to be done after listening to the issues, she said, adding that while the regional government would be able to solve some of the problems or amend regional law, other issues may require the central government to amend national legislation.

Companies in some areas  particularly the mining sector  are not following existing regional policies, she said. The regional government intends to draft new policies to ensure that business follow the rules, she added.

Daw Yee Yee Htwe, secretary general of Dawei District Farmers Union, said the community had strong opinions on many of the issues.

There are [already] laws on land use in the region but the communitys concern is how those laws are applied, she said. Depending on the issue, the law can often be applied one way for a community, but quite differently for a company, she added.

Having made its voice heard on policy, the community will be closely watching how the government implements the recommended measures, Daw Yee Yee Htwe said.
In a bid to formalise the murky industry of artisanal oil drilling, the government has initiated a review of small-scale operators and will introduce a system of licensing that it says will clean up the poorly regulated sector.





Speaking at a press conference on September 9, Daw Nilar Oo, deputy director at Myanma Petrochemical Enterprise, said the government needed to introduce tighter safety and environmental standards to the hand-gouged oil business.

The purpose of issuing licences is so that these people can do their work without damaging the environment and without starting fires, and we are also aiming to develop the areas where this is occurring, she said.

Hand-gouge wells are widespread in Sagaing, Ayayarwady and Yangon regions, while the government will also issue licenses for Magwe Region, according to officials.

At present, we are just doing fieldwork and studying the issue. For the hand-gouge wells that are not in accordance with our expectations, we will issue a temporary licence after demanding that they make the right adjustments, Daw Nilar Oo said.

The Ministry of Electricity and Energy will request a list of artisanal oil drillers, many of which are individuals or small groups, from regional governments. The list is to be completed by September 25, while local governments will then be tasked with disseminating information related to the new liceneces by October 25. The government plans to issue temporary licences to those who meet the minimum standards, while those seeking a longer-term licence will need to apply.

At present, we are doing fieldwork and studying the situation. For the hand-gouge well businesses that do not meet the norms required, we will issue temporary licences for them only after demanding they make adjustments, Daw Nilar Oo said.





The new government is also seeking to make amendments to a bill passed by the previous government last year, aiming to make the requirements for the industry more practical, officials said on September 9.

Meanwhile, Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise confirmed last week that major international oil companies that received permits for exploration in 2013 and 2014 were still in the early stages of research, with many in the process of working the environmental assessments.

The previous companies that were issued permits are only just at a starting point and they are just measuring potential, although some have not yet even started doing this yet, said U Than Htun, an adviser to Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise. None of the 2014 contract firms has started drilling yet. They are still in the process of getting their EIAs [Environmental Impact Assessments].

A total of 38 blocks  20 off-shore and 18 on-shore  were awarded to companies during international bidding rounds conducted in 2013 and 2014, U Than Htun said. Many of these were awarded to international firms and their local partners, such as oil and gas giants Australias Woodside Energy (Myanmar), British Shell Myanmar Energy and Japans MOECO Oil and Gas Asia, he added.

They will negotiate production-sharing contracts with the state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise. But it will be some time before extraction will begin, said U Than Htun, particularly given the decline in global oil prices, which has seen many in the industry less willing to invest.
In a cooperative venture with conservationists, the government has sent officials to confer with Thai experts on the maintenance of one of Myanmars leading wetlands sites. The goal is to have it listed as a zone of international environmental importance, stimulating tourism and job opportunities, and helping preserve the local bird and animal species such as the threatened spoon-billed sandpiper.





The organisations concerned want to designate the wetlands of the Mottama Gulf as a site under the international Ramsar Convention, which promotes the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.

The first section of the wetlands bidding for conservation status is located in Bilin and Kyaikto townships in Mon State.

Daw Zin Myo Thu, the national coordinator of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said it was working with the government and with other environmental and conservation organisations to have the site designated by the Ramsar Convention. Funding of 4 million Swiss francs (US$4.1 million) is provided by SDC, the Swiss agency for development and cooperation.

The community-led coastal management project they have set up is currently in its first stage, which extends from September 2015 to April 2018. Other groups involved in the effort include the Network Activities Group, the Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association (BANCA) and the Swiss international cooperation agency Helvetas.

Last month, nine officials from Bago Region and Mon State visited Thailand for a week to study methods for the management of coastal systems. In an August 29 statement, the IUCN said the Mottama Gulf was important in terms of the protection of rare species, and for the development of local job opportunities.

The officials also conferred with their Thai counterparts on the benefits that would accrue from designating the gulf as a Ramsar conservation site and to examine the laws Thailand had passed to ensure protection of its wetlands sites, Daw Zin Myo Thu said in a statement.

She said the lesson learned from the tour was that economic development entailed more than just setting up industrial zones.





There are job opportunities to be created not only in wetlands, but also in the conservation of streams, rivers and other sites in Bago, said U Zaw Win Myint, director of the Bago Forestry Department. Conservation activities could also be extended to Kawa and Thanatpin townships in Bago, and the Moeyungyi Wetland Wildlife Sanctuary.

The IUCN statement also called for greater involvement on the part of local activists, saying, Creating a network of CSOs can accelerate better natural resource management.

U Zaw Win Myint said, In Thailand, community-based organisations are strong. Theyre getting involved in forest management.

He said a follow-up meeting later this month would discuss a more detailed approach to the designation of the gulf wetlands as a Ramsar site.
Kachin ethnic politicians have cracked down hard on an attempt by Lisu and Red Shan activists to call for their own state within Myanmar. In a statement issued on September 7, the Kachin Political Cooperation Committee announced its objections to the demand, which was voiced at the 21st-century Panglong Conference.





Were still struggling for our equal national rights. That kind of demand could split our unity. The Lisu, the Red Shan and other Kachin tribes live together in the Kachin land. First, we have to realise the promise of Panglong  then we can address other problems, said Labya Jaw San Naw, a spokesperson for the Kachin Democratic Party.

The Kachin Political Cooperation Committee comprises the KDP, the Lhaovo National Unity and Development Party (LNUDP) and the Kachin State Democracy Party (KSDP).

Before independence, just a few Lisu lived in the area. Afterward, Lisu from China arrived, and now the Lhaovo/Rawang and the Lisu populations are almost the same. We want to live together peacefully. When the Lisu asked for their own state, people criticised their demand, said B Haung Zal, a spokesperson for the Lhaovo National Unity and Development Party.

Critics in Chipwe township, Kachin State, have pointed out that a 1955 electoral law that listed the Kachin ethnic groups does not include the Lisu.

We will discuss the matter with the LNUDP and the Tai Leng Nationalities Development party, said Labya Jaw San Naw.

Resolving the multiple desires for statehood could be one of the major challenges when the time comes to try to build a federal union. Now it is time to discuss the foundation of the state. This is when we need to be united, he added.

The KPCC statement expressed strong objections to the demand by the Lisu and the Red Shan, and stressed the need to find a political solution that reflected current realities.





The statement also called for a ceasefire between the Tatmadaw and the armed groups in advance of the next round of peace talks.
The World Health Organization (WHO) held its annual Southeast Asia regional conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from September 5 to 9. On the sidelines of the conference, The Myanmar Times Aung Shin spoke with Dr Myint Htwe, Union Minister for Health and Sport. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.





What have you mainly discussed at the conference?

The WHO holds these conferences annually to review what every country in the region has accomplished within the last year. Every country presents their health sector needs, and the regional health ministers discuss the WHO projects in their country and whether they are performing well or not. This year, our discussions have focused on non-communicable diseases and also universal healthcare.

What are the main health issues in Myanmar?

We are now starting in Myanmar to update our health information system. It is a very important step. In every country, conditions of disease outbreak and control depend on having precise statistics. Some countries make announcements about disease eradication and outbreak control with imprecise data. But every country needs to make sure their health information systems are strong. We call it systematisation. Without that, planning or projections can go wrong.

Is this your priority under the new government in Myanmar?

Yes, we have been starting on that. We have a lot to do for the systematisation of the health sector. The working procedures of the health sector, in all the ministrys offices, need to be standardised. We also must standarise codes of ethics for all personnel in the health sector, such ethics for doctors, ethics for nurses and ethics for medical science. We are working on these issues.





The private health sector is growing fast in Myanmar, with most people relying on private hospitals and clinics. How will the Ministry of Health regulate the private health sector?

This is why we have the Myanmar Medical Council, which I chair. We have to cooperate with the private health sector and also monitor what they are doing to see whether their medical treatment is qualified or not, whether they are asking fair charges for treatment or not. We cannot let them operate without oversight. At the same time, we [the public health sector] have to monitor our health services too to ensure quality services.

Many people complain about the poor standards of medicine, with a lot of fake medicine distributed locally. How will the Ministry of Health control this private medicine market?

This falls under the responsibilities of the Myanmar Medical Council. People can complain to the ministry or file a medical case. The council will examine whether the case is true or not, and whether it is a mistake or misunderstanding. The medical council must monitor the whole medical service sector  So far not many issues or case have been received, only a few.

You presented something about the health budget at this WHO regional conference. What was it?

WHO has a lot of health projects in each country. They must review which projects are the more important. It shouldnt happen that a large share of the budget goes to less important project. So the WHO has to review their budgeting system to ensure the most important projects get the most funding.

Another hot issue at this conference is the Zika virus. The WHO has confirmed Zika cases in Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. What has Myanmar done to prepare for that disease?

We have standard procedure guidelines for all disease outbreaks. We have alerted all responsible departments and personnel. We are not careless about Zika or any disease outbreak. It is not an easy job if we have some infections of that disease.

There are some countries announcing they have officially eradicated some diseases, meeting the UNs Millennium Development Goals. We have never heard of this happening in Myanmar. What MDGs has Myanmar achieved?

You should ask other the countries if these announcements are technically true or for a certification of their having met MDGs or eradicating particular diseases. Actually, no one has achieved the MDGs. It is impossible so far. The systematisation of the health sector is still poor.
A group of 68 former child soldiers was freed by the Tatmadaw late last week.





The September 9 discharges were the first of their kind under the National League for Democracy-led government and bring the total to 800 releases since a roadmap on ending the use of children in the army was put forward in 2012.

Thirteen of the 68 former child soldiers were considered outside the 800 tally as they were recruited as children but already adults by the time the roadmap was signed.

The former child soldiers will take part in a series of reintegration programs to help them settle back into society and restart their lives.

But several United Nations officials are pressuring the government to increase efforts to fully end the use of children in the countrys armed forces.

We call on the government to accelerate essential remaining steps, particularly by clearly banning use and recruitment of children in the soon-to-be-adopted national Child Law, further reinforcing age assessment procedures within the military recruitment process, and including the prevention of violations against children in the military curriculum, said Bertrand Bainvel, country representative for the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF).

State media reported on September 10 that action had been taken against 81 military officers and 402 personnel of other ranks in connection with the recruitment of children.

The Myanmar Times could not verify this claim or the nature of the action taken against them.





A March report by NGO Child Soldiers International said that military officers and civilian brokers continue to use deliberate misrepresentation, intimidation, coercion and enticement to obtain new recruits, including children.

Civilian brokers have frequently recruited boys under false pretences, often offering them a different job, such as a driver, the report said.

In addition to the Tatmadaw, there are seven non-state armed groups listed by the UN secretary general as being persistent perpetrators in the recruitment and use of children in Myanmar.

They are the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, the Kachin Independence Army, the Karen National Liberation Army, the Karen National Liberation Army Peace Council, the Karenni Army, the Shan State Army South and the United Wa State Army.

The Myanmar Times understands that UN agencies have begun a dialogue with several of these groups to discuss the possibility of signing action plans to end the recruitment and use of children.

Child Soldiers International material stresses that military recruitment of children, whether or not they are recruited willingly, subjects them to severe risks, jeopardises their education and long-term well-being, and violates many of their fundamental rights.

Two hotlines are available for anyone to alert and report suspected cases of child recruitment or use by the Tatmadaw. The hotline numbers are 09-421166701 and 09-4211667020.
A female tourist onboard a cruise ship sailing from Shanghai to Japan is believed to have jumped into the sea on the night of Sept. 10. The woman so far remains missing, the cruise ship operator told thepaper.cn.

The tourist was first confirmed missing at 9:15 a.m. on Sept. 11, and a surveillance camera showed the woman jumping overboard from a public area on the 15th deck of the cruise ship at 10:28 p.m. the night before, according to a statement from the cruise operator.

The report in thepaper.cn states that the Sapphire Princess, a cruise ship owned by Princess Cruises, left Shanghai International Cruise Terminal in Baoshan District on Sept. 10. The cruise was scheduled to head to Nagasaki, Japan and Jeju, South Korea in the course of a five-day, four-night trip.

The ship was in deep waters when the woman jumped. She was last seen onboard by another passenger at 7 p.m. on Sept. 10, according to Shanghai Daily.

The ship turned around to search for the woman before continuing on its scheduled voyage, according to thepaper.cn. However, ongoing rescue efforts and an investigation are both underway, Shanghai maritime authorities said.

A passenger surnamed Sun told thepaper.cn that the captain of the cruise had announced an emergency rescue around 10 a.m. on Sept. 11 (Japanese time). All passengers were required to evacuate their cabins. After a three-hour research, the captain confirmed that the missing passenger was not on the ship, said Sun.

Sun also reported that the missing passenger was said to be in her 60s. She was staying on the 6th floor of the ship with her son. Sun was skeptical that a passenger could have fallen overboard accidentally, as the fence surrounding the perimeter of the ship is around 1.4 meters high.

Last month, a Shanghai tourist was rescued from the sea by a fishing boat 38 hours after she was reported missing from a cruise ship. The 31-year-old woman, who was traveling from Fukuoka to Shanghai with her parents, was reported missing from the Mariner of the Seas at around 9 p.m. on Aug. 10. She was picked up by the fishing vessel at around 12 p.m. on Aug. 12.
An upper house lawmaker is challenging a decision by the lower chamber to remove a provision of the Peaceful Assembly and Procession Law making it illegal to incentivise individuals to join a demonstration.





Section 9(i)  which states that no one is allowed to engage in a peaceful demonstration or procession by taking money or something else  was removed by the Pyithu Hluttaw in amendments to the legislation earlier this year.

Parliamentarian U Aung Thein (NLD; Bago 12) was among four MPs to discuss the law on September 9, telling fellow lawmakers that he did not know why the lower house had removed the ban on inducements.

A known precedent for such behaviour made the ban on induced protests necessary, U Aung Thein argued.

In some cases of assembly or procession, some people are paid money or something. During the 2015 election campaign, a political party that could afford to spend money paid K3000 [US$2.47] or K5000 to have a big group of supporters. It showed its strength by providing them with food or a hat or T-shirt. We have such examples, he said.

Amyotha Hluttaw lawmaker U Soe Thein (NLD; Thanintharyi 10), also known as U Maung Soe, also argued for the importance of section 9(i).

He said he objected to its removal by the Pyithu Hluttaw because it was intended to deter people from recruiting protest participants, typically targeting the impoverished, who otherwise would have no desire to join.

The Pyithu Hluttaws amendment bill left seven of the legislations original points unchanged, amended 24 points, removed section 9(i) and added one point.





U Soe Thein also objected to the Pyithu Hluttaw addition, which prohibits behaviour that would damage public properties and private properties at the permitted assembly point or along processional route and behaviour which would dirty the surroundings.

He said the Public Property Protection Act already criminalised damaging public or private property with a punishment of up to seven years in prison.

Following last weeks discussion, the Amyotha Hluttaw speaker announced that the Peaceful Assembly and Procession Law would be sent back to the upper house bill committee for review.

Translation by Thiri Min Htun and Zar Zar Soe
Rakhine nationalists in Yangon and Sittwe last week commemorated the 77th anniversary since the death of U Ottama, a former monk repeatedly jailed under British colonial rule.





U Zaw Aye Maung, the Yangon Region Minister for Rakhine Ethnic Affairs, led a march through the newly renamed U Ottama Park in Dagon township on September 9. He urged Rakhine people to remain unified, and told Rakhine youth to marry within their ethnic group to continue to preserve the Rakhine identity.

Born in 1879, U Ottama was prominent among Buddhist monks agitating against British rule and was jailed for the first time in 1921 for sedition. His death in 1939 followed hunger strikes he staged during periods of incarceration.

His preachings were seen as radical for arguing that monks had a moral and religious duty to intervene in politics and improve the lot of ordinary people. Although inspired by Mahatma Gandhis teachings of non-violence, U Ottamas stance evolved into clashes between monks and successive military regimes in the decades to come.

In both Rakhine State and Yangon, devotees called on the government to make September 9  the date of U Ottamas passing  a national holiday.

Responding to the requests, U Nyi Pu, chief minister for Rakhine, said his state could not make its own national holiday.

While I share the publics desire, it is up to the Union government to define national holidays, he said.
Public financial management reforms are central to Myanmars entire transition. Improvements to social services like garbage collection, investment in new roads and bridges, and raising standards of health and education are all premised on the government being able to raise more revenue and then effectively spend it achieving policy goals. In order for the National League for Democracy government to achieve its goals for economic and political reform, it is therefore a critical area for prioritisation.





For instance, Myanmars health and education outcomes are currently some of the lowest in the world, yet government expenditure on defence is still greater than education and health combined. At the same time, while Myanmars low levels of general government expenditure are in part explained by low income, a 2015 Global Witness report suggests that Myanmars jade industry pays little tax, despite being equivalent to around half of Myanmars annual GDP. And while raising and spending more is a central consideration for reforming Myanmars public finance system, the current issues faced are emblematic of a history of centralised decision-making and socialist planning.

Yet there has been some real progress in reforming public finances since Myanmars recent political and economic transition began. Take the current divisions of power. The 2008 constitution, for all its weaknesses, was an imperative first step toward giving the 14 states and regions some control over policy, as it provides them the authority to make laws, raise taxes and influence where money should be spent. As a result, since 2011, each state and region government now has its own parliament, budget and portfolio of responsibilities, which can be implemented through sub-national government departments. This has also been paired by efforts from the Union government to better share public resources, with an increasing proportion of Myanmars budget being allocated to state and region governments through Union financial transfers.

At the same time, the previous government also instigated a number of important practical measures designed to mirror these on-paper reforms with functional changes in the way decisions around budgets are made. Take the national planning process, which Myanmar uses to frame discussions around achieving the policy goals of government and how budget spending should reflect this. Since state and region governments were first established, sub-national cabinets have played an increasing role in setting targets and creating their own plans, providing an important step away from Myanmars history of authoritarian decision-making. As a result, local parliamentarians now have a greater say about how the countrys resources should be spent, and where this revenue should come from.

Such reforms were also initiated at levels closer to the community, with the U Thein Sein government having been instrumental in establishing a range of local committees within Myanmars townships. These committees, while arguably being far from democratic, were an important first step to creating local governance structures that at least begin to reflect some community needs. On a practical level they have also been a promising move toward more bottom-up planning, with local priorities they identify being used as input into the Union and sub-national budgets as part of the national planning process. These moves have also been enhanced by the more democratic selection of local representatives, with ward and village-tract administrators seeing recent reforms to their selection method.

However, while it is important not to underestimate how far Myanmars public financial management reforms have progressed, there is still a long way to go. For instance, at the most basic level, while the Union government budget is now regularly published, state and region budgets often are not.

At the same time, while published budgets provide some indication about which government body is undertaking the expenditure, limited information is available on what they are actually doing with public funds; in other words, how funds are actually spent rather than simply who was responsible. In addition, budgets are only developed on a year-to-year basis as a result of public spending not being determined according to longer-term policy visions. Consequently, even with recent improvements in transparency, for the wider public it is still extremely difficult to meaningfully engage in conversations about how Myanmars limited resources can best be used.





At the same time, while the establishment of local committees has been welcomed as an important step, local autonomy and citizen participation is often minimal. For instance, although state and region planning processes do incorporate local input, decisions in many areas are dominated by the chief minister, who is nominated by the president. In addition, most township committees are heavily controlled by officials ultimately under the authority of a Union ministry, such as the General Administration Departments township administrator. As a result, even with recent efforts to share power, sub-national spending is still heavily controlled by central authorities, thereby again limiting the extent to which local budgets can be tailored to the needs of local communities.

While government finances may not be the first thing that springs to mind when considering Myanmars many priorities, it will fundamentally define the resources available to fuel economic and social development. It is therefore critical. However, perhaps more subtly, the reform of Myanmars public financial management systems is intimately linked with how economic resources are distributed and political power is shared in a democratic system. As a result, for the incoming government to drive long-term development, building on existing improvements in resource sharing, budget transparency and bottom-up budget consultation all provide critical levers of reform and important avenues to begin repairing Myanmars social contract.

Rebuilding trust between the public and government will also be essential. While currently many of Myanmars citizens doubt the benefits they receive from taxation, the relatively small size of Myanmars budget means government is also constrained in what it can provide.

However, with economic growth and rising incomes comes a clear opportunity to change this. Yet to do this sustainably requires not just that government be able to collect more tax, but also that it do so efficiently and fairly. At the same time, such reforms also need to be paired with the better use of government resources and wider policies to build the accountability of government so economic and political reforms reinforce one another.

Giles Dickenson-Jones is an independent consultant specialising in economic policy. Matthew Arnold is program director for the Asia Foundation in Myanmar.
[September 12, 2016] Cellcom Israel Announces Developments Re Purchase Of Golan Telecom

NETANYA, Israel, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE: CEL) (TASE: CEL) (the "Company") announced it is publishing this press release since the Company's controlling shareholder will report this information under its Israeli reporting obligations: Following previous reports regarding its agreement for the purchase of Golan Telecom Ltd., or Golan Telecom's, share capital, or SPA, which has not received regulatory approvals: (1) the Company has agreed to allow Golan Telecom (as an exception to its "no shop" obligation) to conduct negotiations with two third parties (which are not active MNOs), for a possible purchase of Golan Telecom's share capital or operations or a part thereof, subject to certain conditions, including a prior consensual termination or update of the SPA to reflect any such agreement. In addition, the Company is conducting negotiations with those third parties for a future collaboration. The Company cannot estimate the results of any of the abovementioned negotiations and whether such negotiations shall mature into an agreement; and (2) the Company has filed a petition against the Ministry of Communication's decision not to approve the SPA, and Golan Telecom has also filed a similar petition. For additional details see the Company's 2015 Annual Report under "Item 3 Key Information - D. Risk Factors- Risks Related to our Business -We face intense competition in all aspects of our business" and "- Risks Related to the Proposed Acquisition of Golan Telecom Ltd." and under "tem 4. Information on the Company -"B. Business Overview - General - Agreement for the Purchase of Golan", and under "-Competition - Cellular" and " - Government Regulation -Additional MNOs", and the Company's current reports on Form 6-K date March 28, 2016, April 12, 2016, May 16, 2016, June 13, 2016, July 12, 2016, July 21, 2016, August 10 under "Other developments during the first quarter of 2016 and subsequent to the end of the reporting period - Golan Telecom" and September 6.



About Cellcom Israel Cellcom Israel Ltd., established in 1994, is the largest Israeli cellular provider; Cellcom Israel provides its approximately 2.812 million cellular subscribers (as at June 30, 2016) with a broad range of value added services including cellular telephony, roaming services for tourists in Israel and for its subscribers abroad and additional services in the areas of music, video, mobile office etc., based on Cellcom Israel's technologically advanced infrastructure. The Company operates an LTE 4 generation network and an HSPA 3.5 Generation network enabling advanced high speed broadband multimedia services, in addition to GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks. Cellcom Israel offers Israel's broadest and largest customer service infrastructure including telephone customer service centers, retail stores, and service and sale centers, distributed nationwide. Through its broad customer service network Cellcom Israel offers technical support, account information, direct to the door parcel delivery services, internet and fax services, dedicated centers for hearing impaired, etc. Cellcom Israel further provides OTT TV services (as of December 2014), internet infrastructure (as of February 2015) and connectivity services and international calling services, as well as landline telephone communication services in Israel, in addition to data communication services. Cellcom Israel's shares are traded both on the New York Stock Exchange (CEL) and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (CEL). For additional information please visit the Company's website http://investors.cellcom.co.il/

Company Contact Shlomi Fruhling

Chief Financial Officer

[email protected]

Tel: +972-52-998-9755 Investor Relations Contact Ehud Helft

GK Investor & Public Relations

In partnership with LHA

[email protected]

Tel: +1-617-418-3096 SOURCE Cellcom Israel Ltd.

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Although it has been a week since Russian President Vladimir Putin gifted Chinese President Xi Jinping with a box of ice cream at the G20 summit, Russian ice cream still remains a buzz word in Russian media. Guzel Asylova, chair of Russia's Bashkortostan State Committee for Trade and Consumer Protection, has announced that ice cream produced in the republic will soon hit the Chinese market.

In Chinese border cities like Suifenhe and Manzhouli, Russian ice cream is already very popular. According to Russian media reports, ice cream from Russia was an in-demand item in Suifenhe this summer. A logistics company capable of storing 2,000 tons of ice cream was recently established in Suifenhe. This year, as measured by weight, ice cream imported by China from Russia increased 206 percent from last year.

The popularity of Russian ice cream in China reflects Chinese consumers' trust in its neighbor and interest in Russian food. What's more, due to the exchange rate of the Russian ruble, Russian ice cream also maintains an advantage in price compared to brands from Europe and the U.S.

With the recent surge of exports, the production volume of ice cream in Primorsky Krai of Russia has doubled since 2015, Russian media reported. The quarantine department of Russia has promised to offer better service and increased efficiency to ensure that its ice cream can enter the Chinese market as soon as possible.
12.09.2016 LISTEN

Wife of late legendary sound engineer, George Forest, Maame Adomaa, has disclosed that her late husband died of Pneumonia.

Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung affecting primarily the microscopic air sacs known as alveoli. Typical signs and symptoms include dry cough, chest pain, fever, and trouble breathing, depending on the underlying cause and severity.

The late George Forest during his last interview had revealed that he was battling malaria and that its was almost 37 years since he felt sick.This tempted many people to presume that the ace veteran sound engineer died of malaria.

But speaking to Ebenezer Anderson aka Dr.Who host of Hot and classic Showbiz review on Accra-based Hot Fm,Maame Adomaa revealed that the postmortem shows that her late husband died of Pneumonia:

We just commemorated his one week celebrations and postmortem reveals that my husband died of Pneumonia.Its very sad but God giveth and he also taketh..there is nothing we can do,She revealed.

George Forest died at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi on the 29 th August and will be buried on the 5th of November,2016

The late multiple award winning sound engineer came into the music industry at the age of 12 with Nana Acheampong, Akwesi Ampofo Adjei, Nana Aboagye Da Costa, Obaapa Christy, Gifty Osei, Ohemaa Mercy and Philip Baafi among the numerous artists he has produced as a sound engineer during the 34 years of his career.
Washington (AFP) - South Sudan's warring leaders and their cronies have amassed fortunes -- including foreign properties and stakes in international firms -- while prosecuting a murderous conflict, George Clooney charged Monday.

After presenting the results of a detailed two-year inquiry to the media, Hollywood stars Clooney and Don Cheadle stopped by at the White House to discuss the crisis with President Barack Obama, a US official said.

South Sudan is the youngest country in Africa and support from the United States was instrumental in shepherding it into existence, but patience is running out with local leaders after it slipped back into civil war.

The latest bout of bloodshed erupted in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup and has already claimed tens of thousands of lives and forced many more to flee their homes.

United Nations experts have blamed both Kiir and Machar's camps for reigniting the fighting and the world body is seeking to recruit forces for a stronger peace-keeping effort to protect civilians and aid workers.

Actor George Clooney, co-founder of Sentry, speaks during a news conference on September 12, 2016, in Washington, DC, to present the report "War Crimes Shouldn't Pay: Stopping the looting and destruction in South Sudan"

But the report by The Sentry -- a watchdog group founded by Clooney and rights activist John Prendergast -- goes further in detailing the web of corruption sustaining and motivating the predatory behavior of local leaders.

Violent kleptocrats

Appearing in Washington, Clooney accused the rival leaders of overseeing mass atrocity, starvation and rape "while plundering the state's resources and enriching themselves and their families."

At his side, Prendergast warned that South Sudanese officials "no longer take seriously the threats made by the United Nations, by the United States and others to impose consequences for their behavior."

The report gives a detailed breakdown, backed by research on the ground and through international business networks, of the looting and describes a conflict that degenerated into a battle of resources between corrupt gangs.

In addition to publicizing the allegations, The Sentry has passed its files to global enforcement bodies it hopes will use tools more normally used to go after organized crime or terror networks to punish the guilty.

Almost half of the population of South Sudan relies on food assistance for survival, and more than 800,000 South Sudanese have fled to neighboring countries as refugees.

Countless villages have been burnt to the ground and human rights organizations say both government forces and Machar's rebels frequently use rape as a weapon of war.

The report said that while political rivalry is often blamed, the war's "key catalyst" is actually "competition for the grand prize -- control over state assets and the country's abundant natural resources -- between rival kleptocratic networks.

According to the report -- entitled "War Crimes Shouldn't Pay" -- this form of "competitive corruption" has dominated South Sudan's politics since long before the nation voted for independence in a 2011 referendum.

Both Kiir and Machar the report says, "benefit financially from the continuing war and have effectively ensured that there is no accountability for their human rights violations and financial crimes".

Top officials' families "often live in multi-million dollar mansions outside the country, stay in five-star hotels, reap the benefits of what appears to be a system of nepotism and shady corporate deals, and drive around in luxury cars -- all while much of their country's population suffers from the consequences of a brutal civil war, and in many places, experiences near-famine condition."

It added that individuals and major firms outside South Sudan had facilitated the deadly corruption.

Top officials, it alleged, "could not maintain the status quo without the system of international banks, businesses, arms brokers, real estate firms, and lawyers who, knowingly or unknowingly, facilitate the violent kleptocracy that South Sudan has become."
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12.09.2016 LISTEN

The most pressing public policy concern in these times is unemployment, particularly among the youth. Albeit officially reported to be 10.9 percent by Ghana Statistical service in 2013 (see GLSS6, p.57), that figure does not account for those who are discouraged and have consequently stopped searching for work. Discouraged jobless persons are excluded from the economically active population and therefore unaccounted for in the workforce. Hence the official youth unemployment rate may be a romantic smoke screen that obscures a more accurate representation of reality. The reality is much more alarming once we employ a more broad definition; joblessness.

A recent World Bank report titled "Landscape of Jobs in Ghana" (also cited by Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia in his recent economic lecture) found that joblessness among Ghanaian youth was 48%. The high rate of joblessness is a major policy concern. What is even disconcerting is that such key macroeconomic data that feeds public policy response is founded on an incomplete foundation. Program design for addressing youth joblessness first needs to have a clear quantitative view of the problem. It is my respectful view that 48% joblessness or the 10.9% youth unemployment as reported by World Bank and Ghana Statistical Service respectively are all understatements.

The following are the reasons why:

1. Ghana's Youth Policy document (para.3.2, p.5) defines youth age bracket as 15-35yrs.

2. Ghanas official definition of youth is consistent with that of African Union as contained in the AU Youth Charter (p.11).

3. Government of Ghana, effectively uses 15-35years in administering its youth program under Youth Employment Authority (YEA) and Youth Enterprise Support (YES).

The question naturally arises: why then does the policy conversation on youth unemployment reporting, focus on the age bracket 15-25 years, effectively cutting off persons between 25-35yrs?

One would ask, what difference does it make? Well first, understating the problem, from both a causative and quantitative view, ignites a sense of urgency needed to tackle the issue comprehensively. Incomplete diagnosis leads to inaccurate prescription. Secondly, an incomplete view creates a false sense of security that the problem may not be as bad as it is. It causes complacency misplaced policy priorities. Thirdly, it pollutes the governance environment and destroys all meaningful communication between the government and the governed, as legitimate calls for redress ends up being misconstrued as political propaganda.

If indeed the World Bank used 15-24 years to estimate joblessness at 48%, then surely the actual jobless situation among Ghanaian youth, which covers persons between 15-35 years, is at least 48%. The same principle applies to Ghana Living Standards Survey by Ghana Statistical Service. Actual youth unemployment rate lies on the band between 10.9% and 14.7% and not the 10.9% reported for persons between 15 years and 25years.

The political and bureaucratic class must be consistent in how development data is used for policy formulation. Honesty is still the best policy.
A woman from Shiyan, Hubei province was recently discovered to have kept her four children locked in their house for over a year, local media reported. The children were between the ages of 5 and 16. During their detention, they weren't even permitted to wear clothes.

A group of reporters and doctors visited the woman's house and were immediately struck by the mess and pervasive odor. According to a village cadre, the woman, surnamed Fan, is married. However, her husband works far away from home.

Fan became alert only when the doctors asked to communicate with her children. She finally agreed to the doctors' request after 30 minutes of negotiation.

Based on a preliminary examination, Fan is suffering from schizophrenia. Her four children were also diagnosed with mental illness. According to Zhang Guijin, a doctor from Shiyan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the children are autistic with impaired communication; the latter issue could be the result of their long isolation. Fortunately, Zhang said that the children could fully recover with proper rehabilitation.

However, Fan has resisted treatment at every step, consenting only to some simple examinations and medical treatments. Currently, Fan's children have been sent to live at a school where they can be taken care of by teachers.

Shiyan Hospital has prepared a room for Fan, and the local government is helping to cover Fan's medical expenses. Further examinations will be conducted.
Cotonou (AFP) - Eight people have now died after an explosion at a rubbish dump outside Cotonou in Benin, the local mayor said on Sunday.

"Our tally is eight dead, six of them in hospital and two at home, and 87 injured," the mayor of Tori, Robert Tolegbon, told state television.

The authorities had initially reported two people killed and 61 injured in the blast, which happened in the Avame district of Tori, around 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Cotonou, on Thursday evening.

A company dumped flour and spoilt wheat at the landfill, setting it on fire, but local people flocked to areas that were not burning to try to get the foodstuffs when there was an explosion.

Many of those injured suffered severe burns.

Waste dumps in much of West Africa are uncontrolled, with toxic materials, including electronic equipment and chemicals, regularly discarded alongside household rubbish.

Poverty forces many to scavenge and salvage for items to sell or use.
The United States is deeply concerned by the South Sudanese governments increasing efforts to silence South Sudanese civil society actors.

We have consistently expressed our longstanding concern about the intimidation of civil society representatives to senior South Sudanese officials and have demanded an end to these acts, which have included violence, intimidation, and threats to shut down civil society groups and to seize their assets. Recently, these actions have been taken under the guise of the recently passed Non-Governmental Organizations Act and the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission Act. Together, these Acts are being used to severely limit the ability of civil society and humanitarian organizations to function effectively in South Sudan.

The Transitional Constitution of South Sudan (2011) protects the rights of freedom of expression, assembly, and association. The United States urges the Government of South Sudan to respect these inalienable rights and to allow unhindered political and civic engagement, as these are vital elements for an environment conducive to the stabilization of South Sudan.

A free and vibrant civil society is the cornerstone of any democracy. As South Sudan seeks an end to the conflict, organizations must have the freedom to operate unhindered by government intimidation, and the South Sudanese people need to be free to voice their opinions in order for there to be a lasting return to peace.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May and H.E. President Kenyatta have reaffirmed the close ties between their two countries in a call focused on trade and investment, defence and counter-terrorism.

A spokesperson for the UKs No 10 Downing Street said:

President Kenyatta of Kenya called the Prime Minister today to congratulate her on her appointment. He told her that Kenya greatly values its relationship with the UK, which is based on shared values and common interests.

The Prime Minister underlined Britains commitment to continuing to build on our ties in a number of important areas such as trade and investment, defence and counter-terrorism. She welcomed Kenyas recent ratification of the Defence Cooperation Agreement, which is an important element of our partnership, and provides a platform for future collaboration.

They ended the call by looking forward to meeting at the earliest opportunity.
12.09.2016 LISTEN

Nana Akufo Addo, the modern day biblical David or Joseph, is as fit as a fiddle. I can confirm this to all Ghanaians worldwide, with the NDC propagandists cum doubting Thomases inclusive.

The idiomatic expression to be as fit as a fiddle means to be in excellent form or health. This explanation is for the benefit of those who may otherwise have some difficulty comprehending the import of its application in this write-up.

Many a member of the NDC propaganda and campaign team is going about both in public and private misinforming innocent Ghanaians that Nana Akufo Addo, the NPP flag-bearer and presidential contestant, is suffering from cancer.

Cancer is one of the known most dreaded, often incurable and fatal diseases tormenting humanity until today.

Why has the NDC not only wished or perceived this disease for Nana Akufo Addo but also, gone to the extremes to assert with authority and certainty that he suffers from that disease? What do they stand to gain if Nana Akufo Addo were to be sick of cancer as it is maliciously being claimed or peddled by them? Do they want to turn Ghanaians against him in the hope of the electorates deciding to not cast their votes for a sick person?

When did a presidential candidates health become a major determinant in the political history of Ghana on deciding who is to become the president?

Is it just because of the unfortunate fate of the late President Evans Fiifi Atta Mills who for his poor health became a total cabbage while in office, giving out of the blue chance and rise to then Vice President and later to become full President, John Dramani Mahama Mahama, to wield unruly powers to mismanage Ghana to the sorrowful extent as we see today? Is it to avoid the reoccurrence of that catastrophe becoming part of the history of Ghana hence going out with that nonsensical and unproven allegation against the person of Nana Akufo Addo, Ghanas saviour in waiting? Is it to sensitize the electorates to the dangers of having a sick person as President?

No, it is all about their mischievous enterprise to get the electorates vote to re-elect the same corrupt, incompetent, clueless and lawless President Mahama and the NDC to a further four-year term in office. If this is their objective, then let me ask, have they checked the health status of President Mahama? If they have, who checked it, where and when and what was or is the result?

Whatever the falsity or veracity of the allegation, Ghanaians in their majority are suffering economically so they cannot afford to live under any further clearly corrupt administration by President Mahama and the NDC.

They will in any day any time prefer cancer-suffering but incorruptible, dynamic and honest Nana Akufo Addo if their allegation made out of the figment of their imagination was true, to an unprecedentedly corrupt, incompetent, clueless and nepotistic President Mahama.

In fact, Ghanaian politics is dirty and some Ghanaians, especially the NDC gurus, do very dirty politics. In the face of their marked incompetence and institutional corruption, they are still shamelessly persuading Ghanaians to vote to re-elect them for another 4-year term in office. How can they be that wicked?

Please, fellow Ghanaians, do not allow NDC to continue to play on your intelligence. We should not allow them to continue to take us for fools by telling us absolute lies about their political opponents which we may easily believe to influence the way we shall cast our votes on December 7, 2016.

To conclude, I say, it is never true that Nana Akufo Addo suffers from any cancer. It is all NDC propaganda aimed at canvassing for President Mahama and their party in their bid to win election 2016.

A word to the wise is enough.

Long live Nana Akufo Addo.

Long live all discerning Ghanaians who aspire to better Ghana, better themselves and to secure the collective interests of Ghanaians.

Long live NPP.

Rockson Adofo
During the celebration of Eid al-Adha, Muslims honor and remember Ibrahim's (may Allah be pleased with him) trials where he had a dream in which he was sacrificing his son, Ismail (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). He took his dream literally and wanted to sacrifice his son, but Allah sent his angels and asked him to sacrifice an animal instead of his son. Muslims therefore sacrifice animals to commemorate the occasion.

The meat from the sacrifice is mostly given away to others. One-third is eaten by immediate family and relatives, one-third is given away to friends, and one-third is donated to the poor.

It is very important to understand that the sacrifice itself, as practiced by Muslims, has nothing to do with apologizing for our sins or using the blood to wash ourselves from sin.

"It is not their meat nor their blood that reaches Allah; it is your devotion that reaches Him." (Qur'an 22:37)

The sacrificing symbolizes our will to give up some of our own bounties, in order to strengthen ties of friendship and help those who are in need. It is to train us how to surrender ourselves to the will of Allah for the sake of serving humanity. We recognize that all blessings come from Allah, and we should open our heart and share with others.

Eid al-Adha is like a symbolic rehearsal of high values and it is essential that these values be translated into practical life all the year round. We must be reminded all the moments of our living by how religiously we have gone through the act of sacrificing.

We need to practice the spiritual effect of sacrifice so that we learn to rely on Allah's provisions rather than the things we have built for ourselves.

Overcoming the common grievances against each other that prevent our mutual co-existence is the ultimate spirit of sacrifice. It is also a day for rejoicing by getting involved in a good, clean and honest enjoyment.

They strengthen our inner spiritual and moral resources and develop qualities of character which are essential to our struggle at every level of our existence.

Every act of sacrifice nourishes and increases our 'Faith, for it transforms a verbal confession and a mental conviction into a living reality. It confirms, and thus increases, our love for Allah, for every step we give up something for the sake of his love.

Sacrifices are essential for the development of all moral qualities, especially for the development of tolerance, strength, determination, firmness and purpose. Every sacrifice reinforces the quality of patience, making it grow in quality and strength.

As the political parties go about their campaigning trying to explain to good the people of Ghana what is it that they could contribute to the development of this country, COMOG is urging them to sacrifice their ego and pride for the sake of the ordinary Ghanaian. They must eschew insults, violence and endue creating of tension before, during and after the elections.

Like Prophet Ibrahim, COMOG calls on the politicians and Ghanaians in general to sacrifice for the sake of this country stability and development being at their workplaces or dealings with one another as a people.

We wish all EID MUBARAK.

.

Haj Abdel Manan Abdel Rahman

General Secretary

0244470505/0277430055

The Spiritual Meaning of Sacrifice

The historical background of Eid al-Adha is that the Prophet Ibrahim (may Allah be pleased with him) had a dream in which he was sacrificing his young son, Ismail (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Prophet Ibrahim, a great believer in Allah, took his dream literally and wanted to sacrifice his son. But, according to the tradition, Allah the Almighty sent his angels and asked him to sacrifice an animal instead of his son.

During the celebration of Eid al-Adha, Muslims honor and remember Ibrahim's (may Allah be pleased with him) trials, by themselves slaughtering an animal such as a sheep, camel, cow or goat.

Allah has given us supremacy over animals and permitted us to eat meat, but only if we pronounce His name at the earnest act of taking life. Muslims slaughter animals in the same way throughout the year. By saying the name of Allah at the time of slaughter, we are reminded that life is sacred. Life is to be valued with utmost act of piousness and holiness.

The meat from the sacrifice of Eid al-Adha is mostly given away to others. One-third is eaten by immediate family and relatives, one-third is given away to friends, and one-third is donated to the poor. It is to divide among those who honestly deserve the share of it rather than consuming all among ourselves.

It is very important to understand that the sacrifice itself, as practiced by Muslims, has nothing to do with apologizing for our sins or using the blood to wash ourselves from sin. This is a misunderstanding by those of previous generations:

"It is not their meat nor their blood that reaches Allah; it is your devotion that reaches Him." (Qur'an 22:37)

After the five pillars of Islam, Sunnat-e-Ibrahimi (sacrifice) is the most important activity. This sacrifice is the legacy of Prophet Ibrahim who combines the Prophetic patronage from three religions i.e. Jewish, Islam and Christianity. The festival also symbolizes the trial of faith and loyalty towards Allah. It enlightens ours path with true spirit of righteousness and rectitude.

A sacrifice, usually taken to be the slaughtering of animals, is more than that. The physical act of sacrificing of the animals is just a ritual, is just a tradition and is just a sacred practice whereas the essence lies far beyond it and the spirit of it goes far beyond common human perception.

The act symbolizes our will to give up some of our own bounties, in order to strengthen ties of friendship and help those who are in need. It is to train us how to surrender ourselves to the will of Allah for the sake of serving humanity. We recognize that all blessings come from Allah, and we should open our heart and share with others.

Eid al-Adha is celebrated for certain number of days but its impact is required to last the entire year. Eid al-Adha is like a symbolic rehearsal of high values and it is essential that these values be translated into practical life all the year round. We must be reminded all the moments of our living by how religiously we have gone through the act of sacrificing.

Perhaps, most of us think of the spiritual sacrifice as giving something up, but we have to look inside ourselves to see why we are sacrificing something in the first place.

In fact, sacrifice is an act of submission to Allah. It is to submit to the will of the Almighty. Sometimes Allah asks us to sacrifice something important to us in order to learn that there is something greater beyond it. But sadly we fail to translate the essence of its sacrificial values in our life!

Furthermore, we need to practice the spiritual effect of sacrifice so that we learn to rely on Allah's provisions rather than the things we have built for ourselves.

Eid is also a day on which Muslims remember the deceased, visit the sick, see relatives and friends, overlook grudges, help the needy and show kindness and generosity to all.

Overcoming the common grievances against each other that prevent our mutual co-existence is the ultimate spirit of sacrifice. It is also a day for rejoicing by getting involved in a good, clean and honest enjoyment.

Sacrifices contribute to the success of our struggle. They strengthen our inner spiritual and moral resources and develop qualities of character which are essential to our struggle at every level of our existence.

Every act of sacrifice nourishes and increases our Imaan, that is to say 'Faith', for it transforms a verbal confession and a mental conviction into a living reality. It confirms, and thus increases, our love for Allah, for every step we give up something for the sake of his love.

It reinforces our loyalty and faithfulness to Allah, for all other loyalties become secondary as they are sacrificed for the sake of this loyalty. In short, sacrifices bring us nearer to Allah and develop a sort of invisible communication with the Creator. It makes us feel stronger and firmer.

The process is mutually interactive: the stronger the faith, the greater the will and capacity to sacrifice, the greater the sacrifices, the more internalized and deeper the faith. That is indeed the secret of our good and balanced living.

Sacrifices are essential for the development of all moral qualities, but especially for the development of tolerance, strength, determination, firmness and purpose. These can be summed up in just one word patience (Sabr).

Every sacrifice reinforces the quality of patience, making it grow in quality and strength. Forbearance, in turn, sustains and increases the capacity to sacrifice.

All promises of help from Allah, all assurances of success in this world and rewards in the Hereafter, have been made conditional upon the attainment of sacrifice and patience.

Indeed, sacrifice is the essence of life and we should leave no stone unturned to sacrifice our money, comfort and time for the sake of Allah. We should make an effort to live truly to the expectations of the spirit of sacrifice that the festival of Eid al-Adha stands for.
The National Chief Imam of Ghana, Sheikh Dr Osuman Nuhu Sharubutu, led a number of Imams, chiefs and Chairman of Pilgrims Affairs Office of Ghana (PAOG) in a special prayer for a peaceful election ahead of the December elections.

The adu'a (special prayers) which took the form of reading from the Holy Quran and individual prayers was well attended by all the Ghanaian pilgrims.

Issues regarding Ghana's elections took centre stage for the Chief Imam's adu'a with great emphasis on a free, fair and peaceful election devoid of any acrimony, insecurity and violence before, during and after the entire electoral processes.

Dr Sharubutu urged Ghanaians to be circumspect and grateful to Allah in all their dealings to help keep the peace, love and harmony the nation is currently enjoying.

He admonished the congregants that when Allah blesses a person and he/she shows appreciation, Allah increases the blessings but when the person is ungrateful, Allah leaves the person to go through challenges.

The Chairman of PAOG, Abdul Rauf Tanko Ibrahim expressed gratitude to the National Chief Imam and all those who offered prayers at the gathering.

He congratulated all pilgrims for being part of those who observed the Hajj emphasising that Hajj without being at Arafah is invalid according to the sayings of Prophet Mohammed.

Alhaji Tanko used the opportunity to wish all Ghanaian Muslims and Muslims across the globe a happy Eidul-Adha.

He also apologised to all Ghanaian Muslims who couldn't participate in Hajj pilgrimage this year due to circumstances beyond the control of PAOG.

The Ghanaian pilgrims then proceeded to observe the final phase of adu'a on the Arafah as individuals took the time to say prayers to Allah for themselves, their family, friends, country and Muslims Ummah worldwide.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Abubakar Ibrahim | Email: [email protected]
London (AFP) - Crystal Palace's Pape Souare was taken to hospital on Sunday following a car accident, the Premier League club announced Monday.

The 26-year-old Senegal defender sustained thigh and jaw injuries during the crash and will remain in hospital to receive treatment, the south London side said.

"The club are liaising closely with the hospital on his progress and we obviously wish him a speedy recovery," said a Palace statement.

"Our thoughts are with Pape and his family at this time."

According to Britain's Sun newspaper, Souare was airlifted from the crash site, reported to be on the M4 motorway west of London, to hospital in a helicopter.

Souare, who joined Palace from French club Lille in 2015, did not play in the Eagles' 2-1 league win away to Middlesbrough on Saturday.
President Mahama has apologized for governments inability to airlift all Muslims scheduled to fly to Saudi Arabia for the 2016 Hajj pilgrimage.

I wish to express my regret to all who due to certain reasons were unable to embark on the Hajj this year he addressed Muslims during Eid Ul Adha prayers in Accra.

Photo: Shiek Husein Zakaria welcomes President Mahama to the Independence Square in Accra.

There were chaotic scenes at the Hajj Village in Accra on Friday August 9 as stranded prospective pilgrims demanded answers from the Hajj Board for their inability to board the last flight.

The frustrations were against the backdrop of accusations of favouritism to enplane party faithful of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) on the last flight.

Photo: Hajj Board talks to failed pilgrims

The Hajj Board revealed it had refunded a colossal amount of money to most of the unsuccessful Hajj hopefuls with few left to be settled.

Explaining the causes of the disappointment, the president said, it was because of a dramatic growth in the number of pilgrims as against the 5,424 quota set for Ghana by the Saudi Arabian government.

He said the airlifting of 2,500 pilgrims straight from Tamale to Saudi Arabia affected the number of those who were expecting to perform the pilgrimage from the capital Accra, the traditional flight route.

President Mahama promised to fix the inconvenience by boosting the number of Ghanaian pilgrims next year.

"I have asked our Hajj committee to request an increase in our quota of pilgrims .to 7,000 pilgrims next year."

Photo: President Mahama prays with Muslim leaders

The President also urged Muslims to uphold the peace as the December 2016 elections beckons. The elections are Ghanas sixth since 1992 and pit the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) against its arch rivals, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and several other smaller parties.

A loss for the opposition NPP extends its stay in opposition to 12 years, the longest time it has been in opposition since 1992 while a loss for the NDC resigns President Mahama to one-term as president after he won in 2012.

I am always thankful that Allah has blessed me with the opportunity to be the president of such as industrious, united and peace-loving people like Ghanaians, he said.

President Mahama encouraged Muslims to turn out in their numbers to vote in the elections.

I remain confident that once again.you will respond with vigour and deliver another peaceful fair and transparent election to the world, he noted.

Story by Ghana|myjoyonline.com
Some parts of the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis were plunged into darkness last Friday following the cutting of underground cables belonging to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) by some alleged thieves.

The purported thieves dug deep into the ground and made away with some 600 meters of ECGs underground cables worth GH1 million.

The areas that were affected included the Takoradi Port, Ghana Cement, Takoradi Flour Mills areas as well as other strategic installations in Takoradi.

Western Region Public Relations Officer of ECG, Phillip Osei Bonsu, revealed that the obstruction in power supply to the facilities would cost the Company over GH200,000 to fix.

He stressed the need for the general public to help ECG by protecting the assets of the company.

The public needs to be educated that what happens in Takoradi, for instance, has an effect on the entire network, that is how come we had a total blackout in the most parts of the metropolis on Friday dawn, he explained.

He described incident as unfortunate and indicated that ECG was collaborating with the police to bring the culprits to book.

We are very hopeful, the lead we have so far will assist the police in investigations, he revealed.

The Cables and Network Manager of ECG in the region, Nelson Asimenu told journalists that the thieves operated for a number of days to be able to dig out the cables.

He said his outfit was alerted about the theft by a contractor who was fixing a problem in an area adjacent to where the cables were stolen.

Since it is an emergency, we are doing everything possible to restore power he assured.

From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi
Ghanas overall export of fish and fish based products to the European Union (EU) market reached more than $250 million.

Alexander Dadzawa, Head of Marketing and

Promotion at Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), who disclosed this at the press launch of Blue Sea Land fair 2016, said the lead product exported to EU was canned tuna which generated about $219 million.

He said, A chunk of our fish and fish based products that are exported to the EU are fresh or processed tuna, fresh or chilled fish, cattle fish, octopuses and lobsters.

Mr Dadzawa revealed that last year Ghana exported horticultural products to foreign markets to the tune of over $77 million.

The fisheries sector is very important for Ghana and the Fisheries Ministry is developing governments capacity in the sector, government is embarking on major strategies to add more value to fish products, he said.

Mr Dadzawa said government was also in the process of building more landing sites to in order to properly preserve fresh fish.

Ghana was banned in 2014 from exporting fish to the European Union due to fallen standards. However, in 2015 the ban was lifted to give Ghana the opportunity to rake in revenue from the export of fish to the European Union.

Fish is Ghanas most important non-traditional export commodity, and the fisheries sub-sector accounts for about 5 percent of the agricultural GDP export earnings from fresh and fishery products.

The sector contributes significantly to the growth of the country's economy.

[email protected]

By Cephas Larbi






The essence of the North Korean nuclear issue is the conflict between the U.S. and North Korea, and the U.S. should shoulder its due responsibility, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying at a press conference on Sept. 12. Hua's statement refuted the remarks made by U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter that China is responsible for the recent nuclear test by North Korea.

Hua pointed out that the essence of the North Korean nuclear issue is a conflict between the U.S. and North Korea. She therefore suggested that the U.S. review the issue carefully and seriously consider practical solutions.

As for how to ease the conflict, Hua urged the U.S. to shoulder its due responsibilities. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and as a neighboring country to the Korean Peninsula, China has spared no efforts to find a proper solution to the issue so as to safeguard regional peace and stability, as well as to maintain the authority of the international nuclear non-proliferation system.

However, it has now been proven that pressure and resistance only serve to escalate the conflict to a deadlock. It is now time for the directly related parties to step up and make their own efforts to address the root causes of the conflict, Hua said.

"China insists that measures to balance the security concerns of each party and achieve long-term stability on the peninsula must be sought through dialogue that addresses root causes," she emphasized.

The spokesperson stressed again that each party should examine the big picture, take prudent actions and make a true contribution to the non-proliferation and stability of the Korean Peninsula.

Related Reading: DPRK vows to continue nuke arsenal development
Vivo Energy Ghana, the reigning CIMG Petroleum Company of the Year, which distributes and markets Shell-branded products and services in Ghana, has organised a fire drill at its Shell service station at Sakasaka in the Northern region.

The main objective of the exercise was to test staff's readiness and effectiveness in responding to emergencies that may result in injuries, asset damage and fire outbreak within the service station.

The exercise also sought to test the response time and equipment deployment of the Tamale National Fire Service (TNFS) in response to a distress call.

In less than six minutes, the fire service was able to reach the site and deploy fire fighting compounds to quench the simulated fire.

Speaking after the drill, the Health, Safety, Security and the Environment (HSSE) Implementer of Vivo Energy Ghana, Esi Defor, praised the team for their quick response.

HSSE is of primary importance to Vivo Energy Ghana, so we took these measures to ensure that site staff would be adequately prepared in the event of emergencies. It is very encouraging to witness such a swift response from the team, but it is equally important that we endeavour to report all potential incidents to prevent them from happening in the first place, said Mrs Defor.

After the drill, a debriefing was done by both the Vivo Energy Ghana HSSE team and the head of the TNFS, Aiden Badong.

It was to ensure safety at the service station by encouraging customers to make sure they don't talk on phone while fuelling, smoke on site, keep their engines on, among others.


Accra Brewery Limited (ABL) has educated 500 pregnant women in Tema on preventable birth defects caused by alcohol consumption during pregnancy.

The programme was held in commemoration of Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Day observed annually on September 9 to remind the world of the dangers associated with drinking while pregnant.

The brewery, which is celebrating its 85th Anniversary, has over the years undertaken holistic alcohol responsibility campaign, including responsible retailing, preventing underage drinking and alcohol & pregnancy sensitization programmes.

Since the beginning of the three-pronged campaign in 2013, ABL has trained more than 1,000 retailers in Accra, Koforidua and Kumasi to sell responsibly.

Over 8,900 underage persons have also been educated on the harmful use of alcohol.

More than 3,000 pregnant women have also been educated on the harmful effects of alcohol to them and their unborn babies.

Owing to the positive impact of the campaign in Accra and Koforidua, ABL extended the Alcohol & Pregnancy campaign to the Tema General Hospital to observe the FASD day at the ante-natal department of the hospital.

A nurse from the hospital, who facilitated the interactive discussions on the dangers of alcohol intake during pregnancy, Christiana Afful Akonnor, explained that when a woman drinks alcohol during pregnancy, it enters the foetal blood which may cause physical, intellectual and behavioural defects to the baby either at birth or later.

Speaking to journalists at the event, Adjoba Kyiamah, Corporate & Legal Affairs Director of ABL, indicated that her outfit presents opportunities and benefits to society, including employment opportunities across its value chain.

However, these benefits come along with the responsibility to protect ABL's customers and consumers, as well as society at large, she said.

A Business Desk report
A section of the frustrated workers at the press meeting. INSET: Lord Laryea addressing the media while some ex-workers looks on.

Over 5,000 ex-workers of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), who were declared redundant in 2002, have threatened to picket at the World Bank Office to force authorities to pay them their severance packages.

The ex-workers are made up of 1,500 permanent workers who voluntarily retired and 4,194 non-permanent workers who were laid off by the then management of GPHA.

According to them, the permanent workers who voluntarily retired received some packages that they were unhappy about while non-permanent workers were yet to receive their share.

Lord Nsiah Laryea, Convenor of the ex-workers, who spoke at a press conference held by ex-workers at the Ashaiman Government School to express their grievances, announced that they would picket at the World Bank Office and the GPHA head office as a last resort to demand their severance package.

Mr Laryea challenged the World Bank, which they believe bore the full cost of the retrenchment and restructuring of the port in 2002, to openly disclose the amount allocated to each former worker.

He stated that even though the 1,500 ex-permanent workers received between GH30 and GH5,800, two bags of rice, two bags of sugar, and a gallon of cooking oil, they were aware management of the GPHA then shortchanged them.

Mr Laryea said several legal actions from the High Court to the Supreme Court and petitions to Parliament, CHRAJ, Chief Justice and the Presidency have yielded no result.

He appealed to President John Dramani Mahama to hasten interventions that would lead to the payment of their severance packages.

Mr Laryea stressed that if they do not hear any favourable interventions from the President, they would be compelled to picket at the World Bank and GPHA offices.

According to him, more than 600 of the former workers have lost their lives because of stress and frustration over the issue.

Our situation has worsened and they must pay us what is rightfully ours, he stated.

Stephen Ashitey Adjei, leader of the 4,194 non-permanent ex-workers, told the media that they were yet to receive any concrete communication from the Presidency after several petitions.

He questioned why Parliament and the Presidency could not treat their issue with the urgency and importance they attach to the payment of ex-gratia to ministers and Members of Parliament without any litigation.

Most of the former workers are dying, our marriages are falling apart and we cannot educate our children and have a place of abode due to the treatment meted out to them by their former employer, Ashitey Adjei said.

He reminded government that their efforts to fight social vices would yield no result if people like them do not receive their severance packages.

GNA
French soldiers in Lalain France, in 1794, reported a Rain of Toads. The 2016 presidential race makes one nostalgic for such relative normality. Underneath the medias current Rain of Toads this election turns on the question of whether Trump or Clinton can better restore the American Dream. Good.

Michael Tomasky writing recently in The New York Review of Books summed it up perfectly:

Theres no disputing the fact that, absent a major event like a terrorist attack or a legal indictment, the economy is the most important factor in any presidential election. More specifically, as John Sides and Lynn Vavreck argue in The Gamble, its the economic conditions that obtain in the last few months or perhaps the last year before the voting.

But  what exactly does economic conditions mean in practice?

The economy, sometimes nicely romanticized as the American Dream, has two components: prosperity conjoined with justice. I call this equitable prosperity. Sure enough, whether your economic emphasis is on opportunity or fairness, Carvilles Law remains in force. Its the economy, stupid.

Trump emphasizes prosperity. His enemies caricature him as heaping more wealth on the already wealthy while neglecting, or even fleecing, workers and the poor. Clintons long arc bends towards justice. Her enemies lampoon her as attempting to impose the equal sharing of misery that socialism and its derivatives always induce.

Trump and Clinton and their critics all possess more than a grain of truth.

But theres more to it.

Both candidates have been reasonably clear as to their priorities. Both have been reasonably specific about the policy formulations on how to get there.

Trump promises to make America great again. How? By, among other things, dramatically cutting the US corporate tax rate, eliminating the death tax, and other tax cuts.

Clinton promises to make America fair again. How? By, for example, raising taxes on the rich to subsidize colleges costs, refinance student debt, and provide job training programs.

Their promises are pretty clear. That said, campaign promises are notorious for getting broken. Can either or both of the nominees achieve their stated objectives? Lets pay some attention to the interesting, mostly overlooked, question of whether the candidates show signs of effectiveness, like Reagan or Bill Clinton, or ineffectuality, like Ford or Carter.

The greatest management guru ever was the late Peter Drucker. In his iconic 1964 book The Effective Executive Drucker writes:

Among the effective executives I have known and worked with, there are extroverts and aloof, retiring men, some even morbidly shy. Some are eccentrics, others painfully correct conformists. Some are fat and some are lean. Some are worries, some are relaxed. Some drink quite heavily, others are total abstainers. Some are men of great charm and warmth, some have no more personality than a frozen mackerel. There are a few men among them who would answer to the popular conception of a leader. But equally there are colorless men who could attract no attention in a crowd. Some are scholars and serious students, others almost unlettered. Some have broad interests, others know nothing except their own narrow area and care for little else. Some of the men are self-centered, if not indeed selfish. But there are also some who are generous of heart and mind. There are men who live only for their work and others whose main interests lie outsidein community work, in their church, in the study of Chinese poetry, or in modern music. Among the effective executives I have met, there are people who use logic and analysis and others who rely mainly on perception and intuition. There are men who make decisions easily and men who suffer agonies every time they have to move.  What all these effective executives have in common is the practices that make effective whatever they have and whatever they are. And these practices are the same, whether the effective executive works in a business or in a government agency.

Drucker goes on to teach that:



There are essentially five such practicesfive such habits of the mind that have to be acquired to be an effective executive: Effective executives know where their time goes. They work systematically at managing the little of their time that can be brought under their control. Effective executives focus on outward contribution. They gear their efforts to results rather than to work. They start out with the question, What results are expected of me? rather than with the work to be done, let alone with its techniques and tools. Effective executives build on strengthstheir own strengths and the strengths of their superiors, colleagues, and subordinates; and on the strengths in the situation, that is, on what they can do. They do not build on weakness. They do not start out with the things they cannot do. Effective executives concentrate on the few major areas where superior performance will produce outstanding results. They force themselves to set priorities and stay with their priority decisions. They know that they have no choice but to do first things firstand second things not at all. The alternative is to get nothing done. Effective executives, finally, make effective decisions. They know that this is, above is, a matter of systemof the right steps in the right sequence. They know that an effective decision is always a judgment based on dissenting opinions rather than on consensus on the facts. And they know that to make many decisions fast means to make the wrong decisions. What is needed are few, but fundamental, decisions. What is needed is the right strategy rather than razzle-dazzle tactics. These are the  the only  components of effectiveness.

Donald Trump has attracted plenty of criticisms for his many outlandish, sometimes offensive, statements. That said, a presidential campaign is nothing but a long, tarted-up, job interview for the most important job in the world.

Would we, the voters, prefer someone who did not utter cringe-worthy statements? You bet. But our primary concern, as voters, is whether the job applicant can get the job done (without causing unacceptable collateral damage).

There are reasons  maybe even up to ten billion reasons  to believe that Trump is effective and could be effective at making America great again whether or not (as I do not) you buy that his principle proposed mechanisms of immigration restriction, trade militancy, tax cuts, and deregulation would be safe and effective. (I do buy his unproposed mechanism of the gold standard.)

There are over a 110 million reasons (and then some) to believe that Hillary Clinton is effective and could be effective at fomenting economic and social justice, whether or not (as I do not) you buy her proposed mechanisms of taxing the wealthy and providing benefits to the poor and workers.

Trump and Clinton both appear to be managing the little of their time that can be brought under his control. They have focused, both in their commercial lives and in their campaign declaration, on results rather than the work. Both Trump and Clinton seem to have a good grasp of how to build on their strengths, their own and their team. Good signs.

Both demonstrated in the primary cycle that they could set priorities  first things first and second things not at all. Trump has not, so far, showed as high a level of effectiveness in the general election. That said, Trumps track record shows him to be a quick study. Open question.

Will Trump now take the right steps in the right direction, make a judgment based on dissenting opinions rather than consensus, a few fundamental decisions, and the right strategy rather than razzle-dazzle tactics? Meanwhile Hillary, who so far has outperformed Trump in this regard, well could stumble. The ongoing general election campaign will provide the voters a substantial amount of information with which to make a reasonably well grounded assessment of whether either or both of the presidential aspirants would be likely to be effective as president.

What are the chances of Donald Trump's being effective at making America great again? What are the probabilities that Hillary Trump will make America fair again?

Drucker:



There have been few great commanders in history who were not self-centered, conceited, and full of admiration for what they saw in the mirror. Similarly, the politician who does not with every fiber in body want to be President or Prime Minister is not likely to be remembered as a statesman. He will at best be a usefulperhaps highly usefuljourneyman. To be more requires a man who is conceited enough to believe that the worldor at least the nationreally needs him and depends on his getting into power. 

As Drucker distills it:



In every area of effectiveness within an organization, one feeds the opportunity and starves the problems. And therein lies the essence of effectiveness.

The candidates put their emphasis on the different components of the American Dream  prosperity and justice for all. Both values are legitimate. America will be better for more of both. Now, with this lesson from Drucker learned, let's turn our consideration in part to the next question. Would Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton make the more effective executive?
A group photograph of journalists who attended the media sensitisation programme

As donor support towards the activities of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) dwindles, the Institute of Social Research and Development (ISRAD) has called on government and NGOs to intensify their search for alternative sources of funding to sustain the ongoing malaria eradication programmes.

Regional Coordinator of ISRAD, Abdul-Razak Issah, hinted that the total eradication of malaria from Ghana is very likely to suffer a setback if stakeholders in health delivery do not also find ways of preventing the disease.

Malaria continues to top cases recorded at the various out-patient departments on daily basis across the country, and still a leading cause of mortality in Ghana despite efforts to get it eradicated.

ISRAD, with sponsorship from UK-AID, has launched a project dubbed: 'Advocacy for Resources for Malaria Stoppage (ARMS)' as its contribution towards an aggressive fight to reduce malaria.

Under this project, some 100, 000 healthcare service providers will be sensitised to adhere to the national malaria diagnosis protocol and some one million healthcare seekers will also be sensitised to insist on being tested for malaria before treatment commences.

According to Abdul-Razak Issah, ISRAD through the ARMS project will form and operationalise district malaria advocacy groups in six districts in the Upper East Region to help improve the involvement of all stakeholders in mobilising support for malaria control programmes at the district level.

The district malaria advocacy groups will also work to improve community participation in health decision-making processes, particularly in malaria prevention and management, and also mobilise resources, including funds to ensure regular supply of required malaria commodities such as the long lasting insecticide net and malaria drugs.

They will have to engage their assemblies to ensure that the 0.5 percent of the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) meant for the malaria prevention is released. This year's guideline for the use of the DACF stipulates that 0.5 percent of the fund should be utilised to support the district response initiative for the prevention of malaria, Abdul-Razak Issah revealed.

A journalist and resource person at the media sensitisation on the ARMS project, Samuel Akapule, charged the media to probe the various assemblies on the release of the common funds to the Ghana Health Service and also monitor how the Ghana Health Service also utilises the moneys released by the assembly.

FROM Ebo Bruce-Quansah, Bolgatanga


The Ashanti Regional Police Commander, COP Kofi Boakye, was given a rousing welcome by the people of Aboabo when he visited the densely Muslim populated area on Wednesday and Thursday to interact with them.

The police chief, who was mobbed by the people of Aboabo, travelled to the place ahead of the Eid-Ul-Adha.

COP Kofi Boakyes main agenda was to interact with the Muslim leaders and also wish them well during the festive occasion.

He visited virtually all the mosques at Aboabo where he preached peace to the people.

COP Kofi Boakye urged the Zongo youth to behave well to make Eid-Ul-Adha peaceful.

He described Islam as a religion of peace and entreated the faithful to always work hard to sustain peace in Ghana.

COP Kofi Boakye used the occasion to thank members of the Muslim community in the region for supporting the police.

He stated that the support of the public, especially the Muslim leaders, contributed to peace in Kumasi.

COP Kofi Boakye also donated sheep at all the mosques to the delight of his hosts.

From I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi
On September 9, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov received Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Libya Martin Kobler, who is in Moscow on a working visit.

The officials had a wide-ranging exchange of opinions on the situation in Libya with a focus on various aspects of the implementation of the UN-brokered inter-Libyan political agreement that was signed on December 17, 2015 in Skhirat, Morocco, which provides for the formation of a national unity government in Libya. In this context, they noted the importance of implementing UN Security Council Resolution 2259, which formalises the Skhirat agreements as a key element in the settlement of the domestic Libyan crisis.

The officials reaffirmed the need for representatives of all the main political forces, tribal groups and the countrys regions to be involved in the effort to establish unity government bodies in Libya. They underscored the importance of achieving consensus-based agreements on remaining points of friction as soon as possible in order to enable the government to address the pressing internal problems, including the task of effectively countering the growing terrorist threat.
Why, he paused looking up into the early morning sky with clouds hanging over the small village outside Aflao. Being seventy three years of age blessed with stable health his sharp eyes and sound mind had created in his dark brown eyes the reflection of his childhood. Why did he do that? His soft, smooth skin covering a longish created head with curly hair, stretched lips to form the center of his lower face part vital for his assignment in life, to speak out and teach the world, emerged this dawning time in sorrow and wrinkles. He was a great man standing out in his extended family like no one before, being a stony tree in the middle of uncertainty, darkness, promise and failure. Standing in front of Students his elegance of spoken words and wisdom accomplished by reading endless nights books and articles combined with hardship in life, made him truly an outstanding character cherished by the once that had a sense for Beauty of Life and progress in Humanity. Everyone with a sound mind praised his humble attitude in honour of his Creator to have given this world a special man to teach them.

She sat next to him, his second born child, a woman of great statue being important to Ghana. He knew her work was a great challenge, came with frustration where happiness and success was supposed to enlighten her days in the Office in Accra to drive Ghana into a better future. Her big glasses, her shining composure she never forgot to carry around even on private occasions, her slow walks, her passion for GODs words and works, her well designed female attributes, her weekly changing hair style and African Print of all imaginal shapes and sizes made her look like a black Lady that could have been walking in the Castles of England with dignity and grace like in the olden days of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. She loved her Father so much. Her heart was closer to him, than to her mother. While her Father had a triangle face, bushy eye brows, little fingers ending his big hands, a contradiction to what was expected from a Professor of Sociology, she assembled her Mothers feature. Carrying her Fathers Spirit in her heart, she had developed herself into an own independent personality. Under pain and years of suffering she had given birth to a beautiful Baby girl, Princess Katharina, wishing for a second child, a Baby Boy. The girls child was a retired solder, no wonder Princess had inherited the spirit to bossy her peers around whenever and wherever possible, yet carrying the grace of her mother around no matter where she appeared. In her little life she had a Candyman, someone that loved her knowing about the sweet side of the little, adorable girl.

Professor Dumor was a wise man, mostly, like all wise men in the little things in life, childish making jokes and fun of everything that came across his way. Grey hair had made him even more of a man with innocent heart that did not know that words and gestures can hurt others simply wanting to enjoy life to the fullest being it too short to miss the blessings life has to offer but blinding oneself with a curtain of tears.

During the last years he had observed that President John Dramani Mahama did not have any much needed vision what so ever, but was a humble and kind Man lacking to understand the Basics of Politics like all other Politicians in Ghana essential to move the country forward. While wasting the time of a whole Generation of Ghanaians, he found it impossible to priorities the needs of his people to use the small available money wisely. Ghana was in a big mass, his soul and spirit told him with, no way out from within.

Wind blow, a clear warning sign rain might set in at any moment. They were sitting for breakfast outside on the Veranda which he had built with his own hands while he was young. After retirement Professor Dumor had left the Family Residence in Adabraka, close to the Circle in Accra to spend his restless retirement in Volta Region, the place of his Family for Generations past. His daughter Mawuena, married to Pastor Trebarh, had served the early Sunday morning Tea and Coffee with bread and eggs as her late mother always used to do before setting off walking a few minutes to their nearby Pentecostal Church to worship GOD.

Mawuena had to travel a lot around the world. The moments with her beloved Father were scarce a reason for her to even enjoy them and treasure them more than ever not knowing when these moments of tranquility and life reflection would come to an end. Josephine, the younger sister of Professor Dumor, had joined them that morning. She was a Lady in her best rights carrying herself like a Grand Dame with grace like her niece. The face was well proportioned, her eyes filled with an ocean of life stories and wisdom, right information, about life. Aunty Josephine was that kind of woman anybody meeting her for the first time would love to embrace and feel the privilege of holding her for a few moments in his arms. Peace of mind, a warm feeling surrounded her, yet she was a simple person that had experienced all possible pains life has to offer.

Why? Oh, GOD why, Professor Dumor repeated again holding his Sisters hands to his right and his daughters hand to his left. Tears filled his voice. He looked down. Steamy hot Coffee and Chocolate Drinks aromas assembled over the light blue Plastic Breakfast Table in a bubble, a delight for any Morning Feast, while he was feeling in his heart the not ending question: GOD, if I only would be able to understand why two years ago you took my son too soon from us. Komla had just entered in his forties, a brilliant Journalist with BBC.

Mawuena pressed the hand of her Father saying quietly with a tender voice: Nobody of us knows what GOD has in his mind. We must have faith in him that only he knows what he is doing and pray always to him for our salvation that in our family raise and failure will come to an end.

I know, I always wanted him to become a Medical Doctor, Professor Dumor lamented regretting to have given his late son hard times for many years. When he became a Journalist and I realized how much people enjoyed his work and the impact he had on themmy heart was at ease.

Mawuena looked at him, her eyes wide open, her round shaped lips closed, her back upright. Waves of understanding and her warm heart made her whisper: Father, Komla knows your good heart and the hard times you had given him are long time forgotten. For all of us he was a shining star in our family and an inspiration. As we remember his passing today in Church, we all know he is still with us and teaches us what he always did while he was in London.

to be continued
Something must be done to save this family from destruction and family curses, were his word spoken while all the eyes of the family were on him. He turned to Mawuena Trebarh declaring: Your future will come from our Church and it will last. In your family people arise and shine, but their fortune never stays forever, it comes and goes. It is a family curse that last for Generationsand I have come to break it, to set you and all others free. His eyes rested on Abigail while she looked out of the window into the arising Moon. I have come to set you free, he repeated intensively not taking his eyes of Abigail that looked at him emotionless and unmoved.

Professor Dumor broke the silence which had dominated the living room for endless seconds by saying: During Colonial Times there was discipline in the country and Civil Service was effective and incorruptible working for the people. Our Environment was clean and Forest was there plenty.

I often think of Nelson Mandela and his decision to have left the White Man in the system while Presidents after Kwame Nkrumah made them leave Ghana, Prophet Emmanuel Badu Kobi responded while sitting in the comfortable armchair the place during TV Movies of the House Master. I have to think more about it before I can come to conclusions.

You are known in Ghana for that among Pastors, Professor Dumor laughed enjoying his dark, red wine from a Vineyard in South Africa. His great pleasure was each week to empty one bottle of Red Wine alongside a good dark chocolate from the local Manufacturer that had recently come into the hands of an innovative German making headlines around the world with his approach to market chocolate from Ghana as the best in the world and a daily must for success in all aspects of life. The German was so passionate about it that he, the old man from Ghana, was able to taste the Beauty of his own country and heritage, Ghanas identity Cocoa, in his mouth having it slowly melted in his stomach for long lasting happiness and the believe, Ghana has come into this world for a great mission.

Prophet Emmanuel Badu Kobi smiled with understanding being a Man of GOD that knows how to enjoy life with good food, Designer clothings, expensive cars, houses and plots of land given to him for free as an honour in exchange for his blessings and spiritual works. Yet, he was a humble man with an honest heart GOD had chosen to set his people free and make them a great Nation among Nations. As a Prophet he was outstanding, seeing around him and in people what they were not able to see. The anointing he carried, blessed by his Spiritual Father, had helped him to embark on his long journey from Kumasi to Accra.

As a businessman selling pencils and pens, women he wanted to marry, did not look at him asking him to look very well at himself as a poor man and walk away from them. While supporting other Men of GOD, it had never crossed his mind one day to be a Man of GOD himself to lead other Pastors in Ghana and beyond. He knew only too well what poverty was shame and disgrace; when people look down on someone that has no underpants but jumps into trousers with holes in the pockets to go hungry with no money for his children to provide to go to school or pay hospital bills for them, than life was hardship only being able to survive knowing about a better future to come. Being humiliated and send into Prison, slept into his face very well by others only to find mercy in the eyes of a few that gave him shelter while finding his way around Nungua, the first place in Accra after reaching from Kumasi, a difficult place indeed filled with bad Spirits, Witches and Wizards, he never gave up on GOD.

A Leader can only lead and be accepted by others when he has gone through the difficult times his Church Members are going through to feel for them, inspire them, show them the right way out of their misery into their Glory and by this to the Glory of GOD. He always insisted that Prophecy is only for the moment, learning Laws and Principles is for a live time of a Christian, adding, nobody should come to him for Prophecy unless being able and willing to take up battles as once a Prophecy is out, the devil will fight the person very well.

We will change Ghana, Prophet Emmanuel Badu Kobi said seeing from the light of the Living Room into the Darkness of the Night with endless stars on the Horizon.

Abraham was not able to count all of them, they are so plenty, Mawuena said remembering one of her Prophets teachings.

Yesyes, turned the Prophet around looking at Abigail that was ready to leave the Family for home, something needs to be done as we must vision our good future, our freedom from bondage  as Christians alone have the right to be the head of their families and not the Unbelievers.

Father, as you can see outside, it is time for me to go home, stepped Abigail forward to shake Professor Dumors hand waving the rest Good Bye. See you next week in Church, she added while leaving into the Darkness of the Night.

Prophet Emmanuel Badu Kobi got up, followed silently by the eyes of all family members. He walked over to the window opening the view to the Gate through which Abigail disappeared into the quite night with no barking of any dog or song of a bird. Strangeit is so quiet, he noted looking down on him meditative. Nobody dared to speak out, sitting filled with expectations on their seats hearing the Prophet saying: Something must be done to win the battle!

to be continued
12.09.2016 LISTEN

By Iddi Yire, GNA

Accra, Sept 12, GNA - The Chief of Defence Staff Air Marshal Sampson-Oje, has urged Moslems to praticalise their service to Allah in the service of humanity.

He urged Moslem service men to let the spirit of sacrifice and charity, which moves them to distribute offerings to their neighbours across the religious divide to be a permanent hallmark of their professional lives.

Air Marshal Sampson-Oje made the appeal in speech read on his behalf at this year's Eidul Adha prayers at the Al-Aziz Central Mosque at the Burma Camp in Accra.

The prayer service on the theme: "Piety-The Best of Provisions for Every Moslem" was led by the Imam of the Ghana Armed Forces, Major Shamsudeen Yussif Mensah.

Air Marshal Sampson-Oje reminded Moslems that Eidul Adha is a festival of sacrifice, devotion in submission, obedience and loyalty to the Almighty Allah as was done by the Prophet Ibrahim.

He said these are virtues, which the Ghana Armed Forces stand for and reinforces as of its mission to serve God and country.

"I want to use this opportunity to call on all Moslem servicemen to let the lessons of this feast imbue upon them a greater sense of sacrifice and devotion," he said.

"You serve as the arm of the State and you prepared to sacrifice your comfort in the interest of your brethren who do not bear arms.

"Hence, in this year of election, whist you undertake duties of preserving the territorial integrity of the country, do not be oblivious of your sense of civic responsibility, which behooves your impartial conduct as contending entities seek the mandate of the electorates.

"Your impartiality is a very much cherished virtue, just as your devotion to the preservation of the state is.

"Let us all remain true to our democratic aspirations and facilitate a conducive atmosphere for the promotion of peace and national development before, during and after election," he said.

Major Mensah urged Ghanaians to keep the peace of the nation before, during and after the general election.

"We are in an election year, it behooves all to keep the peace and refrain from loose tongue, it could create anarchy.

"We are one people with common destiny. Let's live in harmony, so that together we will continue to build a strong society, a strong nation," he added.

Eidul Adha is an Islamic festival to commemorate the willingness of Ibrahim (also known as Abraham) to follow Allah's (God's) command to sacrifice his son Ishmael. Muslims around the world observe the event.

GNA
(Xinhua) 19:10, September 12, 2016

China has urged all related parties in Syriato implement the ceasefire agreement and improve the situation in the country, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Monday.

Hua Chunying said that China welcomes the fact that Russia and the United Stateshave reached a ceasefire agreement on Syria, saying that it is an important precondition for a political settlement.

Hua said that China calls on the international community to support the ceasefire agreement and create favorable conditions for resuming peace talks.
Accra, Sept. 12, GNA - A graduate from Ghana Technology University (GTUC), Accra, is seeking sponsorship to pursue Masters, in Microelectronics in Telecommunications at St Petersburg Polytechnic University in Russia or Masters in Satellite engineering at Technische UniversitAt Berlin in Germany.

Mr Aaron Yankey Antwi, a told the Ghana News Agency in an interview on Monday that he has had a number of admissions from universities in Japan and Russia, but lacked sponsorship to cover the cost for the courses.

'I am therefore appealing to public-spirited individuals and organisations to come to my aid,' he said.

Mr Antwi is a holder of a B.Sc. in Telecommunication Engineering with First Class Honours. He also has a certificate in Systems Tool Kit (STK) Analytical Graphics Inc, and a Ghana Amateur Radio Operator with callsign: 9G1-IC.

He obtained a national diploma in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Federal Polytechnic Bida, Nigeria.

He is skilled in computer programming, including the following languages: C, C++, LabView, Django, Python, Octave, Bash, CUDA (GPU programming).

He is also a Linux expert. His expertise in electronics includes Embedded System development such as Microcontrollers (Raspberry pi, Atmel), FPGA (Xilinx), GPUs (NVIDIA).

Mr Antwi's projects could be categories as follows: In 2016, he designed and developed a smart incubator; in 2015, he helped install NASA's Aeronet robot at All Nations University College and in 2014, designed and developed the Linux architecture for the first Amateur Radio Ground Station (9G2AA) in sub-Saharan Africa.

In this project, Mr Antwi designed and implemented the entire Linux subsystems viz communication, tracking, networking, automation and storage and was the technical team leader. In the same year, he helped develop the laboratory infrastructure for the Space Systems and Technology Lab.

In 2013, he made his debut in amateur radio, by contributing to the Narrow Band FM (NBFM) transmission module for the SoDa-Radio project (v3.3), which is still used in production internationally.

Mr Antwi is popularly known for his immense contribution to the development of the subsystems for the first Cansat in sub-Saharan Africa, where he developed the power, communication, and onboard computer subsystems and was the technical team leader for the project.

For his final year project, Mr Antwi successfully designed and developed a Power line communication system with home automation features.

In this project, Mr Antwi was able to demonstrate that communication could be done using electric power lines, without extra cables.

He designed and developed a full home automation system that won the Institute of Engineering and Technology-Present Around The World competition. The system controls devices over the Internet, via SMS, and users could talk to their devices.

In 2010, he designed and constructed an electric power anti-theft system and car anti-theft system with GPS tracking system. From 2007 - 2008, Mr Antwi was credited for Power Inverters development 100VA - 5KVA at Fairness Communications Limited Abuja, Nigeria and in 2004, he developed a 20 W audio amplifier.

Mr Antwi is also a prolific researcher. In 2015, he took academia by storm, by being one in four and the only African to make a paper presentation titled, A Linux based SDR for Amateur Ground Stations, with the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).

He is also the author of, GPU Smart Earth-Observation Cubesats, published by, All Nations University Journal of Applied Thought (ANUJAT).

In 2014, he co-authored the paper, Powerline Communication System for Controlling Appliances in Ghanaian Homes, published by International Journal of Emerging Science and Engineeringa (IJESE). He also co-authored, The Prospects of SAR onboard a Satellite for Monitoring and Detection of Oil Spills in Ghana, published by ANUJAT.

Mr Antwi's has also helped pioneer a number of institutions in Ghana. They include the Space and Satellite Technology Laboratory in Ghana and The Institute of Engineering and Technology, Ghana Local Network.

He has been given numerous awards for his diligence and excellence, some include; The Institute of Engineering and Technology Ghana Local Network Certificate of Honour; The Institute of Engineering and Technology: Present Around The World (PATW) competition Judge; The Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET): Present Around The World (PATW) competition (Achievement Award.)

Mr Aaron was also the student representative for Ghana at the University Space Engineering Consortium, Student Organisation (UNSION), from 2013-2015.

Some of his important referees are: CanSat: http://www.voanews.com/a/ghanas-home-grown-space-program-takes-off/1686704.html

Labview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc40JoCFUH0

NASA Aeronet Robot: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/why-ghana-started-a-space-program

First Armateur GroundStation: http://graphic.com.gh/news/education/38387-all-nations-university-advances-in-satellite-technology.html.

SodaRadio: http://sourceforge.net/projects/sodaradio/

Final Year Project: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwG6uZP0YYNqzklRkxu2TYji84gnFREYG

Mr Antwi could be contacted on +233204244772 or [email protected]

GNA
12.09.2016 LISTEN

By Gifty Amofa /Josephine Nyarkoh, GNA

Kumasi, Sept 12, GNA - A Senior Lecturer at the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, Dr. Alidu Seidu, has called for the media to lead from the front the national peace campaign as Ghanaians readied to go to the polls.

He said they should judge correctly, be ethical and do everything to help defuse political tension, ahead of the general election.

He was speaking at a day's workshop held for journalists in Kumasi by the National Media Commission (NMC) with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Dr. Seidu said the expectation was that they would put the spotlight on issues that united the people but not the opposite, adding that, the felt needs of nation should take centre stage.

Any aggressive political rhetoric, hate speech or anything toxic to the health, security and stability of the society must not find space in the newspapers or given airtime.

He said it was important to identify and to critically analyze the agenda of the political stakeholders, who used their platform, to foretell and prevent trouble.

Dr. Seidu highlighted the urgent need to take a second look at the 'winner takes all' system, something, which had been pushing the political parties to do everything to win power to control affairs of the state or lose everything in defeat.

That, he said, must change - give way to an all-inclusive governance, 'where there are no losers'.

He reminded the media of its responsibility to give equal access to all the political parties and must not be seen to be giving unfair advantage to anybody.

He said this was the way forward to aid voters to make the right choices at polls.

GNA
12.09.2016 LISTEN

Accra, Sept. 12, GNA - The National Democratic Congress (NDC) extends its regards to Muslims on the occasion of Eid - Ul- Adha as it is a Feast of Sacrifice recognised as one of the major events on the Muslim Religious calendar.

"The NDC will always associate with this special occasion as it provides the opportunity for Muslims throughout the world to pray for peace, tolerance and Allah's blessings, irrespective of colour, religion, creed and tribe for the development of the nation."

A statement signed by Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, General Secretary of NDC, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Monday said: "We commend Muslims for their selflessness and commitment towards unity and peaceful co-existence among all faith in the country."

The NDC reiterated its call on this occasion, to all Ghanaians to unite in the country's quest to pool resources towards the transformation of the country.

"We urge Ghanaians not to entertain any act that has the tendency to disturb the peace currently prevailing in the country especially as the country goes to the polls at the end of the year," it said.

The statement said that the NDC is convinced Allah, in His merciful nature, would accept the prayers and sacrifices of brothers and sisters and also bring pilgrims back home safely.

"We wish Muslims and all Ghanaians both home and the Diaspora a happy and fruitful Eid -Ul-Adha," it said.

GNA
Accra, Sept. 12, GNA - The Peoples' National Convention (PNC) wishes all Muslims and Ghanaians a happy Eid-Ul Adha day and admonished the citizenry to be selfless in their endeavours.

A statement signed by Bernard A. Mornah, the National Chairman of PNC and copied to the Ghana News Agency said: "As Ghanaians, we are all reminded that this day marks the Feast of Sacrifice and remains an important event on the Islamic Calendar.

"As a Government-in-waiting, we believe the tenets of this 'Feast of Sacrifice' are one that our country needs at this time - selflessness, devotion and commitment towards the needs of our neighbours and poor in the society.

"That is why we have on countless occasions reminded Ghanaians that the Kwame Nkrumah-Hilla Limann tradition is one that fills the history books with many a commendable illustration of leadership that is selfless and genuinely committed to the aspirations of the Ghanaian people."

The statement said: "It is these values of selflessness and sacrifice that remains in the veins of the PNC- led by its flag bearer, Dr Edward Nasigre Mahama, and which can transform this country.

"As we celebrate with our brothers and sisters, let us be moderate and mindful of our activities and maintain sobriety in our joy. But most importantly, let us as Ghanaians make this occasion count in committing to lead lives of selflessness and sacrifice to offer Ghana a 'New Beginning, New Deal and New Force',' it said.

GNA
By Stephen Asante, GNA

Kumasi, Sept 12, GNA - Bishop Joseph Manful Crentsil has been inducted as the new Presiding Bishop of the Church of God Ghana.

He would serve for four years and succeeds Bishop Kwabena Opoku Appiah, who had served out his term.

His induction ceremony in Kumasi also saw the swearing-in of the newly-elected national officers of the church.

Bishop David Mills, West African Superintendent of the Church of God International, reminded him to operate strictly within the confines of the church's regulations.

He should demonstrate good leadership qualities - fair, firm, even-handed, approachable and be ready to work with everybody to grow the church.

Bishop Mills, additionally, urged him to be visionary and results-oriented, stressing that, the church must do more to address the needs of the society, to improve the living conditions of the people.

He said he was confident that the new Presiding Bishop would bring his vast experience as a preacher, which had taken him on many international crusades, to bear on the church's evangelism.

Bishop Manful Crentsil thanked the church for the confidence and pledged not to disappoint.

GNA
Adjen Kotoku (GAR), Sept. 12, GNA - The Rotary Club of Ghana, has donated medical equipment to the Ga West Municipal Assembly to be distributed to medical facilities.

Some of the items are 10 gurneys, four section machines, two dental chairs, eight delivery beds, 27 mattresses, 20 crutches, 10 examination beds, four dialysis machines, among other consumables.

Rev Moses Allison Tetteh, a representative of the Rotary Club who presented the equipment said it was the club's assistance to mitigate challenges faced by health facilities in the Municipality.

Mr Sam Atukwei Quaye, the Municipal Chief Executive who received the donation, expressed gratitude to the Rotary Club and gave the assurance that the kind gesture would help maintain good relationship.

He mentioned the beneficiary communities as Amasaman Hospital, Adjen Kotoku Health Centre, Ofankor Hospital, Mayera Clinic, Kwadjo Ashong Health Centre, Amamoley Clinic, Samsam Community Clinic, Odumase Clinic and Pokuase Hospital.

Dr Doris Arhin, the Municipal Director of Health Services, commended the initiative of the Rotary Club and called on other philanthropists and non-governmental organisations to emulate the example.

She said the provision of the items would go a long way to ease the sufferings of patients, especially pregnant women who have to travel long distances to Nsawam and other healthcare centres to seek for medical attention.

Nii Kortey Boi II, Ofankor Manste and also the Presiding Member of the Municipal Assembly, who chaired the function extolled the Rotary Club for its kind gesture.

He called on chiefs in the Municipality to give out lands for developmental projects.

GNA
12.09.2016 LISTEN

Akim Swedru (E/R) Sept. 12, GNA - Mr Dominic Fobi, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Chairman of the Akim Swedru Constituency, has asked the electorate who have illegally transferred their votes to the area to be mindful of the consequences.

He said the act constitutes electoral offence and therefore people should be wary of it.

Mr Fobi gave the advise at a news conference at Akim Swedru in the Birim South District of the Eastern Region at the weekend.

He alleged that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) had executed an illegal mass transfer of about 300 non-resident voters from other towns to the Akim Swedru Constituency.

Mr Fobi said the transfers have been done at places like Apoli-Ningo, Akim Swedru, Adinkrom and Adenkyesu.

Mr Alex Bonkwah, the Akim Swedru Chairman of the NDC who was contacted by the Ghana News Agency said the accusation is untrue and that it is an act of intimidation and sabotage to lower the spirit of the party's campaign in the area towards the December 2016 Election.

He called on representatives of political parties to rather strive hard to lobby for votes instead of following unfounded rumours.

GNA
By A.B. Kafui Kanyi, GNA

Kpetoe (V/R), Sept. 12, GNA - Madam Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, has said government is committed to the construction of a Kente Village at Kpetoe in the Agotime-Ziope District to create jobs and boost eco-tourism.

'Kpetoe Kente Village is on our agenda and I want to assure the chiefs and people of the area that it will be done,' she said at a durbar held to climax this year's Agbamevorza (Kente Festival) of the chiefs and people of Agotime.

The facility is expected to help preserve the cultural heritage of kente, act as a one-stop-shop for the fabric; and serve as an avenue for people to learn about the kente cloth.

Madam Ofosu-Adjare said Agotime-Kpetoe has the highest concentration of kente weavers in Ghana and the sub-region saying there is the need to preserve the uniqueness of the Kente cloth and to make the industry sustainable.

She described kente weaving as lucrative and urged the youth to desist from migrating to urban centres and engage in profitable ventures like kente weaving or agriculture.

Madam Ofosu-Adjare urged Metropolitan, Municpal and District Assemblies to collaborate with the Tourism Authority to develop appropriate sites in their jurisdiction to meet the required standards and help attract local and international tourists.

Nene Nuer Keteku III, Konor of Agotime, said the traditional area needed the Kente Village to offer a greater opportunity for local entrepreneurs to scale up their craft and businesses and get connected to universities, which use Kente as part of their graduation regalia.

He also called on government to help address the acute water challenge facing them by connecting the area to the Volta Water Supply System.

Nene Keteku also appealed to government to prioritise the construction of Kpetoe District Hospital to take care of the wellbeing of more than 45,000 people in the District.

Madam Helen Adjoa Ntoso, Volta Regional Minister, commended the people for the successful celebration of the festival and urged the youth to conduct themselves peacefully in the December polls.

GNA
The office of JOY2012 for 2016 under the leadership of independent presidential Candidate Jacob Osei Yeboah wishes to inform the general public that, Armed Robbers stormed the third floor of the hotel room of Jacob Osei Yeboah last Saturday night to steal his ipad and wrist watch leaving behind his wallet and money.

The ipad contained series of information regarding the campaign strategies and also information about the pending court issue between JOY and E.C

Meanwhile the case has since been referred to the police for further investigation, moreover the public is advised to disregard any false rumors that he was shot and rushed to the hospital. Jacob Osei Yeboah is presently unharmed and stronger than ever, he is however assisting the police in investigation.

NOTE ; That his location and the hotel 's name have been kept out of the public till further notice.

Press Secretary

Enoch Egyir
(Xinhua) 20:49, September 12, 2016

China and the Netherlands signed a social insurance agreement on Monday that will exempt company personnel sent to work in each other's countries from mandatory social insurance contributions.

The deal was signed in The Hague after three rounds of negotiations since November 2014, China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security announced.

The agreement will take effect following legal procedures in the two countries, the ministry said.

Without the agreement, Dutch citizens working in China have to participate in five insurance programs -- pension, medical, work-related injury, unemployment and maternity insurance -- in accordance with the law, and both employee and employer must contribute to the social insurance premiums.

According to Chinese rules, if a foreigner leaves China prior to reaching the statutory age for pension withdrawal, his or her social insurance personal account will be retained, and the contribution years will be calculated on a cumulative basis if he or she comes back to China to work again in the future.

The insurance premiums account for nearly 40 percent of a foreign employee's wage, but employees cannot receive pensions until they have paid premiums for a total of 15 years.

China has signed similar bilateral social insurance agreements with Germany, the Republic of Korea, Denmark, Finland, Canada and Switzerland, in addition to the Netherlands. Enditem
Flagbearer of Ghana Freedom Party, Madam Akua Donkor was at the Independence Square in Accra to join Muslims observe Eid al-Adha, also called the "Sacrifice Feast".

Akua Donkor appeared to have set for herself the goal of meeting president Mahama as she was seen moments later trying to find a seat on the Presidential dais.

Turned away, Madam Akua Donkor would wait for a more opportune time to get her wish.

After the ceremony was over, Akua Donkor was quick to approach the president while he was heading for his car.

They say if at first you don't suceed, try again. She got her wish.

Brief as it was, the flagbearer often a source of humour in a serious political season was glad to finally shake the hands of the man she has staked her political career on.

Story by Ghana|myjoyonline.com
Harare (AFP) - Zimbabwean opposition parties vowed Monday to stage mass protests to press for electoral reforms, unfazed by veteran President Robert Mugabe's threat to increase a crackdown on organisers of anti-government protests.

"We are going ahead with the demonstrations," said Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) spokesman Douglas Mwonzora, speaking on behalf of opposition parties under the coalition of the National Electoral Reform Agenda.

"This is the demonstration that we are doing on the 17th. We are going ahead with or without their blessing or permission. We have the law in our favour and we are not going to negotiate the law with Mr Mugabe."

Jacob Ngarivhuma, leader of fringe political outfit Transform Zimbabwe, said: "This Saturday we are organising 210 demonstrations throughout the country to force the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to accept reforms.

"We are going to continue fighting. This is the language they understand."

The planned protests follow a two-week police ban on street protests in the capital which was over turned by the high court last week.

Opposition to Mugabe's rule has grown in recent months with a surge of public demonstrations triggered by an economic crisis that has left banks short of cash and the government struggling to pay its workers.

Two weeks ago police made a series of arrests, including activists and bystanders, following violent demonstrations in the capital.

Mugabe, who has long been accused by opponents of silencing his critics and smothering democracy, warned at the weekend the protestors were "playing a dangerous game".

"Let the opposition parties and all those angling for chaos, mayhem and violent demonstrations be warned that our patience has run out," Mugabe said in an address to his party's central committee.

"We also understand that they are planning to terrorise the rural areas in the mistaken belief that they can intimidate and harass our supporters. Let them be warned. They cannot win that war."
Tripoli (AFP) - General Khalifa Haftar, whose forces have seized three vital Libyan oil terminals, is a controversial military strongman who has refused to bow to a UN-backed unity government.

Haftar, 73, presents himself as Libya's saviour in the face of a growing jihadist threat, but is himself a hugely divisive figure.

He enjoys the support of lawmakers in the internationally recognised parliament in the country's far east, but is opposed by the UN-backed and Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) and has refused to recognise its legitimacy.

Haftar's relations with the authorities in Libya have always been complex.

In 1969, he took part in a coup that overthrew the monarchy and brought dictator Moamer Kadhafi to power.

Haftar served under Kadhafi but later fell from grace when he was captured by Chadian troops during Libya's fruitless 1978-1987 conflict with its neighbour.

Tripoli denied Haftar was part of the Libyan army, and he languished in jail until the United States managed to secure his release and offer him political asylum.

In 2011, he returned home after more than two decades living in the United States where it was rumoured that he worked for the CIA, to take part in the NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed Kadhafi.

Three years after the revolution, Haftar declared war on jihadists in second city Benghazi, prompting Libya's then-government to accuse him of trying to stage a coup.

But after Islamists seized Tripoli soon afterwards, forcing parliament to flee to the country's far east, the recognised authorities gradually allied themselves with a figure previously seen as a power-hungry renegade.

In March 2015, Haftar was named head of the Libyan army loyal to the internationally recognised parliament which has steadfastly refused to recognise the GNA's legitimacy.

Self-styled commander

The appointment aimed to "legitimise" Haftar, a year after the general and self-styled commander of the Libyan National Army waged "Operation Dignity" against Islamists in Benghazi.

Since the campaign was launched in May 2014, forces of the white-haired general with contrasting black moustache have pushed most of the jihadists from the city.

They also announced plans to fight the Islamic State group in Sirte, but kept aside as forces loyal to the GNA in May this year began an offensive against the Muslim extremists in Kadhafi's home town.

With the loyalists weakened by a more than three-month offensive against IS, Haftar's forces at the weekend fought pro-GNA oil guards for control of oil terminals west of Benghazi.

This file photo taken on January 8, 2016 shows smoke billowing from a petroleum storage tank after a fire was extinguished following fighting at Al-Sidra oil terminal, which is one of three oil terminal seized by Khalifa Haftar's forces

By Monday they were in control of Al-Sidra, Ras Lanuf and Zuwaytina terminals.

The unity government called on all forces loyal to it to "protect and defend" the ports against what it called "flagrant aggression" against Libyan sovereignty.

Oil is Libya's main natural resource with reserves estimated at 48 billion barrels, the largest in Africa.

The GNA was hoping to use revenues from oil exports to rebuild the country's economy which has been devastated by five years of conflict.

It was the first time that Haftar's forces and fighters loyal to the GNA have clashed directly since the unity government started working in the capital in March.

Analysts warned that it may not be the last and the two could clash again.

In a 2015 interview with AFP, Haftar insisted the military had no interest in meddling in politics, describing it as the "protector against anyone trying to disrupt the democratic process by force".
The governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), has suffered from a major political blow in the Kumbungu Constituency of the Northern Region, where over 800 supporters have defected to the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).

The defectors are from three communities comprising Kumbung-Kukuo Yipeli-Naayili and Duli Zugu.

They organized a rally at Duli Zugu, where the NPP's Parliamentary Candidate for the Kumbungu Constituency, Iddrisu Muqtar Dems and other party bigwigs from the Northern Region, officially welcomed them into the elephant fraternity.

Their Spokesperson, Mahama Seidu, in a Citi News interview said they were tired of the NDC's deceit and neglect.

He mentioned lack of electricity and youth unemployment among other factors as reasons for their defection.

We have been voting for the NDC since 1992 in these three communities with more than 600 households and we have been knocking the doors of the NDC party to meet our demands and no response.

As for this time round, we won't agree and we are going to vote for our own development because in these three communities there is no electricity.

Mahama Seidu added that, as peasant farmers, they could not pay their children's school fees because of the decline in agriculture.

We have realized that there is no way we can be sustained under the NDC and that is why we have to quit. There is no single person from this area who is under the youth employment programme and we have to ask ourselves what are we voting for?

He complained about their women sleeping in other communities to grind their cereals and sheanuts. Mahama Seidu commended the erstwhile Kufour led NPP administration for connecting their communities to pipe borne water.

It would be recalled that on August 17 2016, some angry residents of Gbulung and its surrounding communities in the Kumbungu District, threatened to boycott the 2016 polls if government fails to fix their deplorable road network.

About a thousand of them including sub and youth chiefs, opinion leaders and assembly members, joined the massive demonstration.

The Convention Peoples Party's (CPP) incumbent Member of Parliament for the constituency is in the 2016 Parliamentary race with the NDC's Ras Mubarak and Iddrisu Muqtar Dems on the NPP's ticket.

-citifmonline
12.09.2016 LISTEN

Still evangelising on the hubs to ensure peaceful elections, the President of the SEWA Foundation Ghana, Jones Owusu Yeboah, has professed a vigorous message across the nation to outline the interest of peace in the country during the impending 2016 elections.

Mr. Jones Owusu said NGOs have a lot to do so far as ensuring peace is a must, he cleared a conception about the fact that the Non-Governmental Organizations in the country must not wait to witness a disaster strike before they executes their main mission.

He said all these in an interview with Nsiah Ababio a reporter for Pentigh.com.

Proceeding, he made mention of NGOs like; UNICEF, IOM, UN, COMPASSION INTERNATIONAL GHANA, PLAN GHANA, UNDP and CSOs must see to it that peace prevails in the country to avoid the overload of work on the NGOs. Mr. Jones Owusu stated that, is not right for an organization like the NGO's to wait and take advantage of an upfront situation just to take money from the government.

Furthermore, NGO's should create an avenue that preaches peace. He said no one should allow him or herself to be used by those Politian's and that we should see to it that we maintain the peace each and every citizen enjoys and that there is only one nation i.e GHANA.

Finally he urged all Ghanaians to be very vigilant ,and that no one should allow him or herself to be used to gain political power in their own selfish interests.
12.09.2016 LISTEN

The United Cadres Front of Ghana have joined the call for discouraging hate-speech by politicians especially as the 2016 general elections draw near. This call comes on the heels of a purported hate-speech attributed to Mr. F.F. Anto, the First National Vice Chairman of the New Patriotic Party; that President John Dramani Mahama deserved to be shot in a manner as happened in 1979.

Indicating that President Mahama deserved a similar fate was mind-boggling since there was no correlation between the periods 1979 and 2016; neither was there any democratic order of contesting for political positions in Ghana in 1979.

It is also instructive to question the motive of reference to a historical event that invokes sad memories to the family of General Kutu Acheampong and the purpose it intends to serve in our contemporary political history.

We recall the ferocity of attacks vented on the recent unfortunate and damnable event involving the Montie Trio by all folks and sundry; probably because the three were perceived to belong to the National Democratic Congress.

For such a heinous statement to come from a leading member of the New Patriotic Party, and Ashanti by tribe (referencing and invoking Ashantis by pitching President Mahama with the Late Kutu Acheampong) to be considered (as usual), and to be taken as nothing serious by civil society, the faith-based groups and particularly the Peace Council is very unfortunate.

We have stated and will continue to state that selective treatment of national issues as witnessed over the years, and particularly this election year, can serve nobody any good. It is nothing but a recipe for chaos which extent can hardly be fathomed; since the naked and blatant supervision of issues that are clearly seen as embers of war cannot be entertained even at the doorsteps of the most acclaimed coward.

We expect everybody and institutions commissioned by statute to keep the peace before, during and after the 2016 general elections to be seen to be up and doing and equally prepared and committed to prosecute their tasks with vigour and patriotism, without fear or favour; let or hindrance.

Signed:

EFANAM FELIX NYAKU

Secretary, Interim Management Committee of UCF-GH

0242727105
In line with its program to support the needy, the Islamic Council for Development and Humanitarian Services (ICODEHS) has donated 20 sewing machines to some girls to pursue their work as seamstresses in Secondi in the Western Region.

According to an official of ICODEHS the donation was made through funding from Abu Dhabi Red Crescent of the United Arab Emirates adding that it is part of an ongoing program for ICODEHS to support women and girls with sewing machines, deep freezers and other items throughout the country.

Meanwhile ICODEHS has also commissioned a new four (4) classroom block with an office to aid teaching and learning at Salaga in the Northern Region. THE NEW SCHOOL BLOCK IN SALAGA

In addition to the school block ICODEHS also built a Mosque and donated a loudspeaker to the Muslims in the town. In a statement released by ICODEHS the organization went ahead to build mosques for the people of Yendi and guntigli in the Northern Region and Kandiga Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region.

In a statement from ICODEHS all the projects were funded by the Red Crescent society of the United Arab Emirates. The chairman of ICODEHS Sheikh Mustapha Ibrahim thanked Allah for the early completion of the projects and promised to provide more schools blocks and mosques projects in other parts of the country to promote education and moral development in Ghana

Executive Director

EANFOWORLD FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

0244 370345 (Airtel)/ 0274853710 /0208844791 /

[email protected]/[email protected]

2016-09-12 212329

2016-09-12 212346
By D.I. Laary, GNA

Accra, Sept. 12, GNA - Dr Osei Kofi Darkwa, the President of Ghana Technology University College (GTUC), has expressed hope that the institution would continue to pursue relevant technology programmes and train creative and cultured students for rapid economic progress.

Sharing his thoughts about the remarkable progress the university college has made over the last 10 years, Dr Darkwa said: 'I see a university which taps into the creativity of each of its students; I see a university which integrates technology across all disciplines and throughout the campus.

'I see a university that is moving in the direction of distributed distance and open learning; I see a university which is dedicated to serving as a community resource for the economic and technological development of this country.'

'I see a university where the concept of service to the community and the world threads throughout our curriculum.

'I see a university which will move away from students success in terms of credits and grades and will focus more on its students development as compassionate, creative and cultured human beings well prepared to have in a technologically, sophisticated and economically independent global village.'

'And today, am happy to say we are well on our way to achieving that vision.'

Mrs Julian Owusu Ansah, the Registrar of GTUC, said: 'I have been impressed by the involvement of staff and faculty members of the University College.

'They carry their job responsibilities seriously, they have wide professional experience and they bring an amazing array of skills to the table. We are people who know how to get things done and how to get everyone involved.'

'Together we are an incredibly rich resource to GTUC and to ourselves. One of the things we have done over the past 10 years is to teach and imbibe in each and every member the importance of growing together as one big family and that is what we refer to us the spirit of GTUC.

She said the University College derives its knowledge from learning and would continue to introduce top-notch academic courses, expand infrastructure, and boost teaching and learning to make students learn at their own comfort for proper assimilation of knowledge.

Mrs Afua Amankwah Sarkordie, Head of Department, University Relations, said: 'When we talk about the GTUC brand, we are referring to a number of branding values, we talk about innovation, convenience, flexibility, international partnerships and collaborations.

'We talk about uniqueness, a matchless ability to provide a type of tertiary education that is not common in this country or in fact this part of Africa.

'We are talking about an institution that is committed to providing students with programmes and courses that are underpinned by current technologies.

'Almost 25 percent of our students come from destinations beyond Ghana. These students come to us because we are offering them education that provides employable skills and as we celebrate this milestone, we appreciate all our partners for giving us the opportunity to service them these past ten years.'

Mr Samuel Nunoo, the President of Students Representative Council, said: 'GTUC has come a long way. Over the short period I have studied here, I have seen the university grow and transform.

'The University College remains committed to the delivery of quality ICT education, underpinned by excellence, integrity and the freedom of students to think outside the box.'

'On behalf of all my colleagues I wish GTUC a happy 10th Anniversary.'

Over the past 10 years, GTUC has expanded tremendously in infrastructure, courses and human resource capacity.

The University College now has a population of about 8,000 students pursuing over 28 undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. It has also established working and mutually beneficial partnerships with over 20 reputable institutions and universities around the globe.

It has its roots in Ghana Telecom's flagship Training Centre, which was one of a kind in West Africa.

It was first used as a Royal Air Force Training School during the Second World War and subsequently handed to Cable and Wireless to train Telecommunications Technicians for British West African Countries - Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia.

The Training Centre progressed rapidly through deregulation and privatization to become the main source of teaching and certification in Telecommunications Engineering for Ghana Telecom employees as well as other institutions in Ghana and West Africa.

In 2005, Ghana Telecom's management upgraded the infrastructure and equipment to modern standards in preparation for converting the training centre into a university for telecommunication and multimedia engineering and information technology.

On November 01, 2005, GTUC was given approval to continue its preparation for accreditation from the National Accreditation Board (NAB).

On March 30, 2006, the University College was given accreditation and registered under regulation 12(1) of the Tertiary Institutions regulations, 2002, L.I. 1700, to run eight programmes.

The programmes included Diploma in Telecom Engineering, BSc Information Technology, BSc Computer Engineering, BSc Informatics, BSc Telecom Engineering, BSc Mobile Internet Communication, MSc Telecom Management and MSc Telecom Engineering.

Three new programmes were later accredited by NAB which enabled the University College to offer Diploma in Information Technology, BSc (Top Up) in Information Technology and BSc (Top Up) in Telecom Engineering.

The primary target for the 'Top Up' programmes is for holders of Higher National Diploma (HND) who look for ways to upgrade to degree status.

The University College is described as technology training hub in the sub region and was officially inaugurated on August 15, 2006, by His Excellency John Agyekum Kufuor, former president of Ghana.

GNA
By Francis Ameyibor, GNA Correspondent, Arusha Tanzania

Arusha, Sept. 12, GNA - African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights (AfCHPR), has exposed about 50 senior editors and journalists from more than 25 African countries to the inner operations of the court.

The African Court at Arusha, Tanzania serves as the continental court established by African countries to ensure the protection of human and peoples' rights in Africa complements and reinforces the functions of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights.

Dr Robert Eno, Registrar of the African Court explained that as at February 2016, only seven of the 30 States Parties to the Protocol had made the declaration recognising the competence of the Court to receive cases from non-governmental organisations.

He therefore commended the seven including Ghana, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Malawi, Benin and Tanzania for taking the bold steps towards broadening the scope of protecting the rights of their citizens.

Dr Eno, who led a team of officials of the Court to school the senior editors and journalists, explained that Rwanda made the declaration on February 6, 2013 but has recently served noticed for the withdrawal of the declaration next year.

The 23 States who have ratified the Protocol but are yet to make the declaration are: Algeria, Burundi, Cameroon , Chad, Comoros, Congo, Gabon, The Gambia, Kenya, Libya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Nigeria, Niger, Rwanda, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, South Africa, Senegal, Togo, Tunisia and Uganda.

Dr Eno explained that the Court has jurisdiction over all cases and disputes submitted to it concerning the interpretation and application of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, the (the Charter), the Protocol and any other relevant human rights instrument ratified by the States concerned.

Specifically, the Court has two types of jurisdiction: contentious and advisory.

Justice Ben Kioko Vice President of the Court explained that the African Court under Article 3 of the Protocol has jurisdiction to deal with all cases and disputes submitted to it regarding the interpretation and application of the Charter, the Protocol and any other relevant human rights instrument ratified by the concerned States.

He noted that under Article 4 of the Protocol, the Court may, at the request of a AU Member State, any AU organs, or any African organisation recognised by the AU, provide an opinion on any legal matter relating to the Charter or any other relevant human rights instruments.

He said provided that the subject matter of the opinion is not related to a matter being examined by the Commission.

Justice Kioko, who is a Kenyan Judge, said in February 2009, the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the AU requested the AU Commission, in consultation with AfCHPR, to assess the implications of extending the jurisdiction of the Court to try international crimes, such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

To implement this decision of the Assembly, the AU Commission engages a consultant to undertake a study on the implications of extending the jurisdiction of the AfCHPR (yet to become operational), including considering whether unconstitutional change or prolongation of government, could be considered a new crime.

He said the Draft Protocol with an extended mandate of the Court is currently under consideration by AU Policy Organs.

Mr Sukhdev Chhatbar, African Court Senior Information and Communication Officer who took the senior Editors and Journalists around the facility of the Court explained that it has an open door policy.

The Court is equipped with modern technological gadgets, progressive security network headed by Major Kwame Keddey (Rtd) of Ghana.

Mr Chhatbar explained that the exposure of the senior editors and journalists which formed part of a three-day training would form the basis for a new collaborative works with African media.

He said the African Court is opening a new channel for communicating with media across the continent for the protection of human and people's rights.

GNA
Dodowa (GAR), Sept. 12, GNA - Nene Okukrubour Teye Kwesi Agyemang V, Ruler of Dodowa Kingdom, has called on Ghanaians especially politicians to demonstrate a high level of tolerance to ensure peaceful elections.

He said Ghanaians acknowledged the desire of politicians to serve their country but then they should know that Ghana belongs to all of us.

Nene Teye Agyemang made the call at the launch of this year's Ngmayem festival of the chiefs and people of the Shai Traditional Council, at Dodowa in the Shai-Osudoku District of the Greater Accra Region.

It is on the theme: 'Sustaining Community Development Through Education."

Nene Teye Agyemang said the situation where some politicians were at each other's throat whenever they mount platforms does not augur well for the country's infant democracy.

He said there are some politicians whose aim is to serve and not to be served adding that there are also some politicians whose aim at enriching themselves at the expense of the ordinary Ghanaian.

Nene Teye Agyemang charged political parties to conduct their campaigns based on issues, which is devoid of insults.

He charged the youth to resist the temptation of being used as agents to create confusion during the elections.

The Ruler of Dodowa Kingdom urged the chiefs to take active interest in politics and vote for people who have the development of the country at heart.

He expressed the hope that the festival would be celebrated in peaceful atmosphere as had been the case.

GNA
A mysterious case of murder in a small village in northwest Chinas Gansu Province, which saw a whole family poisoned, had grabbed the attention of authorities and the public alike.

Yang Gailan, a 28-year-old mother is thought of administrating poison to her four kids aged from three to six, including a pair of five-year-old twins, before taking her own life on August 26.

It is argued that the suspect is herself a victim of poverty, having succumbed to despair as the destitute family led a life of frugality and misery.

The grief-stricken husband, Li Keying, was found dead a few days after the incident. He had returned back to the village a day after the incident took place, and went missing on September 2. His lifeless body was found in nearby woods after a two-day search operation.

Poison was confirmed to be behind his demise, yet it is unknown whether it was a case of suicide.

The case further proved to be an enigma, with mystery shrouding the details of what happened on that unfortunate day.

One witness, a villager who is surnamed Shi, said she heard shouting and cries coming from the house.

When people rushed to the ramshackle house, they found all four kids injured. Three had died, but the oldest daughter, who had sustained a crack on her skull, and the mother were still heavily breathing. Both were sent to the hospital immediately, but it was too late.

"Their family is poor, but Yang was always nice and cheerful. I can't imagine why she did this to her own children," one villager said.

Yang's 52-year-old father Yang Mantang and her 70-year-old grandmother Yang Lanfang, who shared the same living space with the family of six, spoke with heartache about their loss.

"I witnessed my great grandkids dying and I tried to stop Gailan and ask why she had to do this. Gailan grabbed me and said she would take all her children with her, no one will be left behind," the traumatized lady said, adding she could not understand her granddaughter's act.

Investigators are contemplating poverty as a motive that guided Yang to kill her own blood.

The family was financially struggling, and unable to make ends meet. Yang worked the land, and Li was a worker in the city. Of the estimated 7,000 yuan (over 1,000 US dollars) he earned per year, over 3,000 (over 450 dollars) were sent home for his familys subsistence. Livestock helped the need family earn a few pennies.

However, the family was deprived of government allowance in 2013, when it was evaluated that the average personal income stood at 4,000 yuan (about 600 US dollars) annually, higher than the 2,300 yuan (343 US dollars) limit set by the government.

The State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development is now jointly working with local police and Gansu Provincial Department of Civil Affairs to conduct further investigation.

At the end of 2014, China had 70 million people living below the nations poverty line of 2,300 yuan (343 US dollars) in annual income. However, poverty elimination is one of the countrys major goals, and Beijing aims to end poverty by 2020, when Chinas 13th Five-Year Plan comes to an end.
12.09.2016 LISTEN

By Godwill Arthur-Mensah, GNA

Takoradi, Sept. 12, GNA - Muslims in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis on Monday defied the early morning showers to celebrate EID-UL ADHA, the festival of sacrifice, with a call Muslims to live in peace and tolerate the views of others.

Mr Alfred Ekow Gyan, the Deputy Western Regional Minister, who joined the EID-UL ADHA celebration at the Takoradi Jubilee Park, urged Muslims to avoid any act of violence that could result in social conflict and war.

He said: 'We are one nation, with one mission, one vision and one destiny, therefore, let the spirit of love unite us and serve as a beacon of peace for our dear nation'.

Mr Gyan entreated the Muslim Community to continue partnering the country in infrastructural development so as to facilitate development, adding 'Commit your resources towards the construction of schools, health facilities and the promotion of the general welfare of our people'.

Imam Mohammed Awal, the Chief Imam of Takoradi Central Mosque, reiterated the call for violence-free, fair and transparent polls on December 7, and urged all stakeholders in the election to conduct their campaigns devoid of insults and acrimony.

He prayed for the leadership of the nation and asked for Allah's blessings and protection for the entire citizenry.

Mr Kwodwo Okyere-Darko-Mensah, the Member of Parliament for Takoradi, commended Muslims for their contribution to national development over the years and wished them success on their festive occasion.

He presented a cash donation of GH1,400 to the Muslim Community towards the celebration and 200 pieces of cement blocks for the fencing of the Takoradi Muslim cemetery.

The MP announced that his outfit would soon cut the sod for the construction of a Senior High School for the Muslim Community in Takoradi comprising classroom blocks and teachers offices to enhance education among Muslim students.

GNA
12.09.2016 LISTEN

By Afedzi Abdullah, GNA

Cape Coast, Sept. 12, GNA - Dr Eugene Dordoye, the Director of the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital, has appealed to Government to help refurbish the hospital's rehabilitation centre.

This, he said, would enable the hospital train and successfully reintegrate healed mental health patients into the society.

He said the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital's rehabilitation centre which was built during the Kwame Nkrumah's era but had been left to deteriorate and no longer served the purpose for which it was established due to lack of funds and resources.

Meanwhile, the refinement of psychiatric rehabilitation had reached a point where it must be made readily available for every person who has been treated of mental health.

The goal of psychiatric rehabilitation is to help such individuals to develop their emotional, social and intellectual skills needed to live, learn and work in the community with the least amount of professional support.

Dr Dordoye made the appeal when Dr Ekwow Spio Garbrah, the Minister for Trade and Industry, presented assorted food items to the Hospital ahead of his 63rd birthday on Saturday September 10.

The items included bags of rice and maize, gallons of edible oil, sugar, fruit drinks, detergents and soaps, milk, biscuits and other provisions.

Dr Dordoye said social relationships, work and leisure as well as quality of life and family burden was of major interest for the mentally disabled individuals living in the community, therefore building their capabilities to get them engaged was imperative.

He expressed gratitude Dr Spio Garbrah for the gesture and called on philanthropists, Non Governmental Organisations and other corporate institutions to come to aid of the Hospital.

Dr Spio Garbrah said the Ministry was ready to provide support to the hospital and lauded the idea of a rehab programme.

He said one of the psychological stresses of being a mental patient was the inability to fully integrate into the society after treatment.

He said families would be ready to accept relatives after treatment only when the patients have developed skills such that they could engage in income generating activities

Dr Spio Garbrah said the gesture was a way of showing appreciation to God for his existence on earth and also show love to persons who through no fault of theirs found themselves in difficult situations.

This was the third of such presentations after supporting the Dzorwulu Special School and another orphanage in the Central Region.

GNA
Koforidua (E/R), Sept. 12, GNA - The Eastern Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) has donated food items to support the Muslim community in Koforidua in the celebration of Eid-Ul Aldha.

The items include 100 bags of rice, cartons of cooking oil, four sheep and undisclosed amount of money.

The donation was for four Muslim religions groupings in the Koforidua Municipality, the Central Mosque, Tijyanis, Almadyia Mission and the Aladunas.

Presenting the items, Mr Joseph Tetteh Angmor, the Deputy Regional Minister said, the donation was to aid the Muslim community in the celebration of the Eidul Aldha.

He asked the Muslim community to continue praying for the country's peace and stability.

The Regional Chief Imam, Alhaji Yussif Amdani Sulemana, who received the items on behalf of the Central Mosque, thanked government for the continues support during every Muslim celebration.

He gave the assurance that the Muslim community would continue to pray for the country to ensure peace and stability before, during and after the December 7 elections.

Mr Tawiah Boateng, Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) said the prayers of Eid- Ul Aldha celebration would go a long way to sustain the peace in the country.

He advised the youth to resist anyone who would lure them to perpetrate violence in this year's election to destabilise the peace of the country.

GNA
By George-Ramsey Benamba, GNA

Accra, Sept 12, GNA - Government would provide socio-economic opportunities for all Ghanaians irrespective of their religion, ethnic group or geographical location, President John Dramani Mahama has announced.

This he said would include the rehabilitation of the railway sector, provision of more buses to ease road transportation and the generation of power for both domestic and external consumption.

"By providing all these opportunities more jobs will be created to offer employment to most of our graduates in the country."

President Mahama who was addressing Muslims at the Black Star Square, in Accra to commemorate their annual Eid-Ul-Adha celebration, said such laudable policies could only be achieved in the atmosphere of peace and unity and called on Ghanaians to continue to live peacefully in all their localities.

The Eid-Ul-Adha is celebrated annually by the Muslims to give praise to Allah and reflect on the sacrifice of the Prophet Ibrahim, who is the Father of monotheistic faith who showed his readiness to do the will of Allah.

President Mahama said the provision of such socio-economic opportunities would transform the Ghanaian economy and have positive rippling effects on the West African countries as Ghana is positioning herself to becoming a net exporter of energy and food.

On the pilgrimage of Muslims, President Mahama said he had directed the Hajj Committee to request for an increase of pilgrims from 5,424 to 7,000 in subsequent years to provide more opportunities for Ghanaian Muslims.

He explained that a number of Ghanaian Muslims could not embark on the pilgrimage this year because Ghana had exceeded her quota, coupled with the massive airlifting of 2,000 pilgrims directly from Tamale International airport.

The President said the increment of the number would enable all those who could not make it this year to perform their Hajj next year.

President Mahama called on Muslims to uphold the peace and unity the country had enjoyed over the years by conducting themselves peacefully before, during and after the 2016 general election.

He said it is the peace and unity Ghanaians exhibited in previous elections that had made Ghana a model of democracy in the African continent and expressed the hope it would be deepened after the 2016 polls.

In a speech read on his behalf Dr Nuhu Sharabutu, National Chief Imam called on Ghanaians to remain calm and united in all events leading to the 2016 general election.

"I am assuring all Ghanaians who were born and bred as one, but belonging to different political parties, different ethnic groups, as well as within the ethnic and religious divide... that we shall unite for a purpose."

He cautioned the media to be circumspect in their daily journalistic practices, as misleading pronouncements could plunge the country into a state of disorder and lawlessness.

The National Chief Imam added: 'The presidential candidates are all Ghanaians and should not forget that they are representing large communities, hence the need to speak well of themselves and refrain from throwing insults against one another."

Dr Sharabutu also appealed to the Electoral Commission to be transparent, accountable and God-fearing in dealing with stakeholders to avoid any form of mistrust after the elections.

He admonished Muslims against patronising the activities of self-seeking politicians who would attempt to lure them into carrying out violence and other nasty deeds that would win them power.

GNA
12.09.2016 LISTEN

By D.I. Laary, GNA

Accra, Sept. 12, GNA - The Greater Accra Regional Health Directorate of the Ghana Health Service has launched an operational plan for elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS after officials noticed upsurge of cases.

The three-year comprehensive blueprint seeks to cut down HIV infection to babies to at least five per cent by the end of breastfeeding period as well as provide antiretroviral therapy to 90 per cent of pregnant women by 2018.

The regional health officials also hope to increase access to HIV testing and counselling for pregnant women from 61.5 per cent to 100 per cent and identify 95 of HIV infected infants by close of the period 2018.

Dr Vera Opata, Greater Accra regional HIV Coordinator, giving an overview of the situation in the region during the launch on Friday, expressed worry that a greater number of transmissions happened during labour.

She said the region has the highest HIV prevalence rate with a record of 3.2 per cent in 2015 which is above the national average of under two per cent.

Mother-To-Child (MTCT) transmission HIV is the second most common mode of transmission of the deadly virus in the country, she said, with15 per cent of all new HIV infections coming from mothers to babies.

Transmission of the virus occur largely during pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding, Dr Opata said, but 'a big chunk of the transmission is happening when the woman is in labour.'

Approximately 40 to 45 per cent of infants born to HIV infected mothers acquire the infection.

She said 10 per cent of the transmissions occur during pregnancy, 10 to 15 per cent during labour and delivery while 5 to 20 per cent happen during breastfeeding period, depending on duration of breastfeeding.

She attributed the bleak situation in the region to inadequate HIV testing and counselling activities at existing prevention of MTCT centers as well as inappropriate management of logistics at various health facilities, deepened by shortage of test kits.

Shortage and irregular supply of antiretroviral drugs, poor documentation and non-reporting by some health facilities were also blamed for the development.

The coordinator, however, said health facilities were challenged by limited availability of space for staff to work, shortage of trained staff, staff rotation and retirement and ddifficulty of providing training to private providers who often do not report for training sessions.

She said the unavailability of lab equipment at some antiretroviral therapy sites, delays in repair of broken down lab equipment and rampant shortage of test kits and drugs often defeated the purpose to fight the concern.

Effective prevention of MTCT programmes require women and their infants to have access to - and to take up - a cascade of interventions including antenatal services and HIV testing during pregnancy.

Access to use of antiretroviral treatment by pregnant women living with HIV; safe childbirth practices and appropriate infant feeding; uptake of infant HIV testing and other post-natal healthcare services.

Implementation of the regional operational plan is expected to increase the proportion of HIV infected mothers who are initiated on antiretroviral drugs from 32.1 per cent to 95 per cent.

It is to raise proportion of exposed infants who are initiated on antiretroviral prophylaxis from 17.1 per cent to 95 per cent and shore up proportion of exposed infants who are tested at six weeks after delivery from 22.3 per cent to 95 per cent.

It will also increase the proportion of exposed infants who are retested at 18 months after delivery from 6.2 per cent to 95 per cent and push up proportion of pregnant women who had IPT 3 from 24.7 per cent to 80 per cent.

The officials say they put in place tracer interventions to achieve the targets set from 2016 to 2018.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and other development partners supported the plan to scale up a programme for the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV to the 660 health facilities across districts in the region.

GNA
Accra, Sept. 11, GNA - The Rheumatology Initiative (tRi) Foundation, a non- profit organisation, dedicated to provide education, advocacy and research into the autoimmune rheumatic conditions in Ghana and Africa, has officially been launched in Accra.

It has a special focus on young and adolescent persons with these conditions.

It seeks to create advocacy for people with such conditions, and help conduct research into the causes and treatment of such conditions as well as providing support, services and hope to persons affected and their loved ones.

The term autoimmune disease refers to a varied group of illness that involves almost every human organ system; the body's immune system becomes misdirected and attacks the very organs it was designed to protect.

Speaking at the launch ceremony, Dr Dzifa Dey, the Director for tRi Foundation said research shows that autoimmune diseases are on the increase, globally, whereas, autoimmune diseases strike women three times more than men.

She said with a population of more than 24 million people in Ghana, West Africa, very little is known about autoimmune/rheumatology diseases despite its incurable nature, therefore there is a need to create more awareness.

'The first rheumatological unit was commissioned only six years ago (2012), and it currently treats about a 1000 patients with only two specialists in the country," she added.

The Director noted that a relative lack of awareness among the general population and even among health professionals about rheumatologic diseases, together with limited diagnostic facilities, implies a lot of patients are not diagnosed until their diseases are far advanced.

She said at the Medical Unit of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, a two year audit of in-patient admissions showed rheumatologic cases constituted 5.8 per cent f all medical admissions.

Dr Dey, who is also a Physician Specialist / Rheumatologist, explained that most deaths are from infections and renal complications while the mortality rate is at a highly unacceptable figure of 48 per cent.

She noted that symptoms vary widely, notably from one illness to another and even within the same disease; and since the diseases affect multiple body systems, their symptoms are often misleading, which hinders accurate diagnosis.

Dr Dey said access to effective treatment is known to keenly improve survival, but unfortunately for patients in developing countries like Ghana, there is limited access to these lifesaving medications mainly due to financial constraints, which limit the treatment benefits that can be offered with the timely appropriate treatment.

'Most of these medications are not covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme, and for those who can afford it, the options are limited to treatments, which may be sub-optimal due to costs, scarcity of the drugs and inferior generics; these drugs in an acute flare can cost up to GHa 2000 per person.', she added.

She said over the past four years, tRi has been the only sympathizer to many sufferers of these diseases, as it focuses on advocacy, education, providing life saving treatments, skills training, fundraising, support groups and charity shop to support its members.

Dr Linda Vanotoo, Greater Accra Regional Director of Health Service, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the sideline of the event, called on benevolent individuals and organisations to support people living with such conditions.

Dr Vanotoo, who described the Foundation's mission as a worthy course, stated that the education, advocacy and research would not only create the awareness for the public including care providers, but it would as well help Ghana as a whole, get its records right.

She expressed the hope that people would be found to be diagnosed and managed; 'and we can have more doctors trained as Ghana currently has only two doctors'.

'It will help to know the extent of the disease so we can have more people showing interest and going for training thereby decentralising the training so that some of the patients will have doctors taking care of them in other places instead of everybody moving to Accra for treatment, which adds to the cost of the treatment,' she added.

The ceremony was crowned with a fundraising.

GNA
By Francis Ameyibor, GNA Correspondent, Arusha Tanzania

Arusha, Sept. 12, GNA - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights partner to fight impunity for crimes against journalists.

The rate of impunity for crimes against journalists remains extremely high worldwide, according to UNESCO figures, which show that since 2006, fewer than 7 per cent of these crimes have been brought to justice.

In Africa, only five of the 131 murders of journalists committed between 2006 and 2015 has been brought to court, Ms Zulmira Rodrigues, Head of UNESCO at Dar es Salam Office, Tanzania stated to announce days of activism to herald International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.

November 2, has been slated as the International Day to end impunity for crimes against Journalists as crime against journalists is considered as one of the main factors fueling the cycle of violence against the exercises of freedom of expression.

Speaking at a day's seminar for Senior Editors, Journalists, Judges and Lawyers from over 30 African Countries at Arusha, Tanzania; Ms Rodrigues explained that the event seeks to raise awareness and help reinforce capacity building of law professionals in Africa regarding freedom of expression.

She noted that, access to information remains to be a fundamental freedom which is part of the basic human rights to freedom of expression. 'Receiving and imparting information both online and offline are cornerstones for the very foundation of democracy, good governance and rule of law.

'However, freedoms of expression guarantees are of little value if journalists cannot exercise this right in safety'.

Ms Rodrigues noted that where individual journalists or media organizations are routinely subjected to surveillance, threats, harassments or physical attacks, the media cannot exercises its role as a platform for democratic discourse.

She noted that: 'Legal protection for journalists in the exercise of their profession is an important prerequisite for freedom of expression'.

Ms Rodrigues noted that operators of judicial systems - Judges, prosecutors, lawyers, investigative police officers, are crucial in addressing the issues of impunity against journalists.

She noted that deepening and sharing experiences and jurisprudences of regional courts, as well as decisions from national high courts, can be an important tool in fighting impunity by raising knowledge about international standards and international law.

Justice Augustino Ramadhani, outgoing President of the African Court noted that by increasing the safety of journalists, reinforcing the fight against impunity and raising awareness forms part of a broader UN plan of action on the safety of journalists and issues of impunity.

He called on African Governments to join the global campaign to promote freedom of expression, freedom of the press, safety of journalists and the fight against impunity especially in Africa.

'By increasing the safety of journalists, reinforcing the fight against impunity and raising awareness about the decriminalization of defamation, will contribute to fostering peace and security, good governance, democracy and rule of law in Africa,' Justice Ramadhani stated.

Justice Ramadhani member States to the declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa, which reaffirms the fundamental importance of freedom of expression as an individual human right, as a cornerstone of democracy and as a means of ensuring respect for all human rights and freedoms.

He noted that the media and other means of communication are considered as key actors in assisting people to make informed decisions and in facilitating and strengthening democracy given its capacity to reach a wide audience.

Justice Ramadhani explained that AfCHPR Freedom of Expression hinges on the right to seek receive and impart information and ideas, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other form of communication, including across frontiers, is a fundamental and inalienable human right and an indispensable component of democracy.

'Everyone shall have an equal opportunity to exercise the right to freedom of expression and to access information without discrimination. No one shall be subject to arbitrary interference with his or her freedom of expression.

'Any restrictions on freedom of expression shall be provided by law, serve a legitimate interest and be necessary and in a democratic society'.

He said the principle also imposes an obligation on the authorities to take positive measures to promote diversity, which include availability and promotion of a range of information and ideas to the public.

He said governments are mandated to create a pluralistic access to the media and other means of communication, including the vulnerable or marginalised groups, such as women, children and refugees, as well as linguistic and cultural groups.

Others are the promotion and protection of African voices, including through media in local languages; and the promotion of the use of local languages in public affairs, including in the courts.

'Public bodies hold information not for themselves but as custodians of the public good and everyone has a right to access this information, subject only to clearly defined rules established by law,' he said.

Justice Ramadhani said any attack such as the murder, kidnapping, intimidation of and threats to media practitioners and others exercising their right to freedom of expression, as well as the material destruction of communications facilities, undermines independent journalism, freedom of expression and the free flow of information to the public.

He said: 'States are under an obligation to take effective measures to prevent such attacks and, when they do occur, to investigate them, to punish perpetrators and to ensure that victims have access to effective remedies'.

Ms Joan A. Obiero, Associate Legal Officer, Office of Legal Counsel African Union, Kenya speaking on the Protocol and Declaration of the African Court stressed the need to identify and strengthen strategies to increase the number of African Countries ratifying the Protocol as only 30 countries have done so.

She expressed concern that out of the 30 countries who have ratified the Protocol only seven countries have deposited the Declaration allowing their citizens to present their cases to the African Court.

The seven Countries who have deposited the declaration are: Ghana, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Malawi, Benin and Tanzania. Rwanda made the declaration on February 6, 2013 but has recently served noticed for the withdrawal of the declaration next year.

The 23 States who have ratified the Protocol but are yet to make the declaration are: Algeria, Burundi, Cameroon , Chad, Comoros, Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Kenya, Libya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Nigeria, Niger, Rwanda, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, South Africa, Senegal, Togo, Tunisia and Uganda.

Mr Guy Berger, Director of the Division of Freedom of Expression and Media Development, Communications and Information Sector UNESCO noted that Journalists are public symbols of the wider right of each person to speak freely and without fear.

'They are the cock that crows in the morning. People pay attention to what happens to them; if a journalist is attacked the signal is that ordinary people should button their lips. A woman journalist is especially a symbol for women more broadly.

'Attacks on journalists that go unpunished, also send a very public signal that the rule of law is not being applied; that justice is not being applied and Journalists who can work without fear can promote vigilance towards the rule of law,' he said.

Mr Berger noted 'In fact, both the rule of law and the exercise of free and independent journalism can only exist in an environment where attacks, harassments and arbitrary arrests against journalists are not the norm; they are not accepted by the society'.

He noted that it is important to prioritise cases involving journalists as court rulings in regard to Journalists resonate very far beyond the individual cases concerned. They impact on the building of human rights norms much more broadly.

GNA
Accra, Sept. 12, GNA - The Electoral Commission (EC), has released an updated version of its electoral calendar with a plan to recruit election officials from next week.

On the calendar, the EC would be accepting nominations from presidential and parliamentary candidates on September 29 - September, 30.

The Presidential candidates are to pay as GHa 50,000 filing fee while GHa 10,000 is to be paid by parliamentary aspirants as filing fees.

There would be exhibition of the provisional voter's register on September 9 to September 10 for people who registered during the Continuous Voter Registration process and those who registered while in the prisons as well the National Health Insurance Scheme registrants.

The Commission is therefore calling on the political parties to send their agents to observe the exhibition of the voters register at the District Offices of the Commission and the prisons while urging 'all registered voters in these categories to visit the District Offices of the Commission to confirm their details on the register'.

It said anyone who wishes to transfer their votes for the general voting public must do that from September 9 to October 7.

The statement signed by Mr Eric Kofi Dzakpasu, Head of the Communications at the Commission specified that 'all political parties would be given copies of the certified Voters Register by September 23'.

The calendar has a place for special voting for the media, security personnel and election officials, which is fixed on December 1.

GNA
12.09.2016 LISTEN

Accra , Sept. 12, GNA - GNA - Dr Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), has inaugurated a disability friendly modern gym/playground at the Mamprobi '1' Junior High School in Accra.

He said the provision of such social amenities is a policy of government to prevent the youth from indulging in anti-social practices and to mould their character for a better future.

He said the provision and improvement of educational infrastructure has been his focus during in his tenure as the MCE and enumerated a number of ongoing development projects he had so far implemented in the constituency, such as the Millennium City Schools.

'It is for this reasons government is creating all opportunities and other social intervention programmes that will allow the youth to develop their potentials to the fullest,' he said.

Dr Vanderpuije reminded the electorate that the country is preparing for election this year and urged them to retain President John Mahama to continue with his good developmental agenda - 'Changing Lives and Transforming Ghana.'

Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, a Minister of State who graced the occasion urged community members to take advantage of the playground/gym and exercise regularly to minimise lifestyle diseases.

He assured the Turkey that provided funding for the facility that it would be used for the benefit of the children to develop their talents.

He urged Ghanaians to stop the 'pull him down' tactics and focus on things that would move the nation forward.

He said the government is committed to promote and improve their living standard.

Mr George Kum Ning, leader of the Turkish delegation described Ghana as 'a vision star in Africa,' hence his nation's investment in the country.

He gave the assurance that Turkey would establish a factory in the country, after the completion of feasibility studies.

GNA
By Kodjo Adams, GNA

Accra, Sept. 12, GNA - Reverend Dr Joyce Aryee, Founder of Salt and Light Ministries has noted that education is not only about examinations but more importantly about how the student uses the knowledge acquired to address problem in the society.

She said some students only prepare for exams and forget afterwards, making it difficult to excel in the corporate market.

She urged them to learn hard to solve problems and make an impact in the society for the benefit of all.

Dr Aryee said this at the launch of the 10 anniversary of the Spelling Bee Competition in Accra on the theme: 'Equipping the Ghanaian Student for the World Stage.'

The event was organised by the Young Educators Foundation with support from Indomie Instant Noodles, DSTV, Rufus, Ecobank, Voltic, Muscatella and Blue Knights Limited.

She noted that teachers play an important role in the development of student's performance, saying it is imperative for teachers to encourage students to develop the habit of reading to improve their vocabulary.

Dr Aryee said the emergence of social media has affected reading habits of some students because they spent more time on their phones to the detriment of their studies and urged parents to take keen interest on the activities of their wards.

She urged students to inculcate the habit of reading since it gives them better opportunity to acquire knowledge, learn from others, gives different perspectives to things they already know and build a solid foundation for effective communication.

She called for development of libraries where students could read quality books and enhance their knowledge adding that through education, students could avoid social vices and put the country on the path of development, progress and peace.

Mrs Eugenia Tachie-Menson, Country Director, Young Educators Foundation said the spelling bee competition targets students from age eight to 13 to teach them on effective use of the English language.

She said the competition started with 13 students from six schools and that currently about 7000 children have pass through the competition.

She said currently the foundation is in three African countries namely: Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria, with the mission to improve the lives of the youth through literacy as well champion the cause of education in Africa.

'This we strongly believe that education cannot be limited to only what is taught in the classroom; co-curricular activities must be included in the country's curriculum for holistic learning,' she added.

She said for nearly a decade, the foundation has been at the forefront of helping to stem the tide of falling standards of the English language through literacy, as well as making a case for education being a priority.

Ms Afua Ansah, the Spelling Bee 2016 Winner and 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee finalist urged students to develop the interest of reading to build a good foundation for their careers.

Present at the event include Mrs Matilda Amissah-Arthur, wife of Vice President Amissah-Arthur, Mr Robert Jackson, US Ambassador to Ghana, Dr Patrick Awuah Junior, President of Ashesi University, Mrs Lucy Quist, Chief Executive Officer of Airtel and Mr Kofi Akpabli, 2011 CNN Multichoice African Journalist for Arts and Culture.

GNA
(Xinhua) 21:52, September 12, 2016

South Korea's opposition party chiefs on Monday expressed objections to the deployment of a U.S. missile shield in their homeland, calling for dialogue with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in their rare meeting with President Park Geun-hye.

Park met with the leaders of three major political parties for about two hours in the presidential office to discuss how to address the DPRK's fifth nuclear test, according to Park's office.

The meeting was attended by ruling Saenuri Party chairman Lee Jung-hyun, main opposition Minjoo Party chairwoman Choo Mi-ae and interim head of the minor opposition People's Party Park Jie-won as well as top presidential security advisor Kim Kwan-jin and ministers of foreign affairs and unification.

Asked directly by Park about whether to favor the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in South Korea, the People's Party chief expressed his clear objection to the THAAD deployment on the South Korean soil, he told reporters after the meeting with the president.

The Minjoo party chairwoman said the THAAD issue is not of military nature but of diplomatic one, telling the president that the U.S. missile defense system cannot protect South Korea from the DPRK's nuclear threats from a military perspective.

The chairwoman said close relations with China, South Korea's largest trading partner, can help save people's livelihood economically, according to local media reports.

Seoul and Washington agreed in July to install one THAAD battery in southeastern South Korea by the end of next year despite strong oppositions from China and Russia.

China and Russia have opposed the U.S. missile shield, of which X-band radar can peer deep into their territories, breaking strategic balance in the region and damage security interests of the two countries.

President Park and the three party leaders denounced the DPRK's fifth nuclear test with one voice, but they were divided over how to deal with the DPRK's nuclear and missile program.

Pyongyang said Friday that it successfully conducted an explosion test of nuclear warhead that can be mounted on ballistic missiles. Seoul's military estimated it is the "most powerful" nuclear detonation so far with a yeild of 10 kilotons, stronger than 6 kilotons recorded in the previous test in January.

The two opposition party chiefs called on President Park to resume talks with the DPRK, though they acknowledged the need for sanctions against Pyongyang.

The main opposition party chairwoman asked Park to send a special envoy to Pyongyang as part of dialogue efforts, but the president flatly rejected the proposal, saying it will allow the DPRK, which focuses only on advancing a nuclear capability, to buy time.

In her introductory remarks, President Park denounced the DPRK's nuclear ambitions as "reckless and fanatic" adherence. "It clearly shows once again how reckless the North Korean (DPRK) regime is and how fanatically it adheres to a nuclear (program)," Park said.

She said Pyongyang's fifth nuclear test showed a totally different pattern from previous tests that had been carried out every three years or so.

The DPRK's first atomic device test was conducted in October 2006, followed by the second in May 2009 and the third in February 2013. The explosive yield has risen from 0.4 kilotons in the first test to 6 kilotons in the fourth and 10 kilotons in the fifth.

Park said South Korea is seeking to adopt stronger sanctions toward the DPRK rapidly in cooperation with the international community.

In March, UN Security Council introduced tougher-than-ever sanctions on Pyongyang over its fourth nuclear detonation in January and the launch in February of a long-range rocket. The DPRK is banned from any test of nuclear and ballistic missile technologies under UN Security Council resolutions.

Citing Pyongyang's claim that it successfully miniaturized nuclear warheads small enough to fit on ballistic missiles, Park said the DPRK's nuclear and missile programs are not a simple blackmail but an urgent, realistic threat targeting South Korea.

The DPRK has said it will continue to develop its nuclear capability despite increasing condemnation by the international community.
12.09.2016 LISTEN

God willing Muslims throughout Ghana and other parts of the world will observe the Eid Al Adha festival on Monday September 12, which has been declared a public holiday in Ghana. Congregational prayers would be organized simultaneously in open parks such as the independence square, and large mosques throughout the country after which sheep, cattle and other animals will be sacrificed in accordance with Islamic tradition that followed the order by God to Prophet Abraham to sacrifice his son.

While Muslims young and old enjoy the holiday together with Christian friends and neighbors, the large number of Muslims from all over the world now on pilgrimage to Mecca would be preparing to wind up their trips to Mecca, Medina and other parts of Saudi Arabia after converging on the Arafat mountain on Sunday September 11.

The Hajj Pilgrimage being one of the five pillars to Islam is not a duty that is performed for fun. Being a religious activity all those embarking on it are required to follow religiously all the rituals there .such as going round the Kaaba in Mecca seven times moving up and down Safa and Marwa, a visit to the tomb of prophet Mohammed in medina , throwing of stones at the devil and to converge on Arafat mountain among other rituals.

As the pilgrim undertakes all the rituals he or she would be required to remain spiritually alive as they recite the name of God several times daily during after prayers and to remain pious even when they return home.

It is recommended that in the last ten days of the pilgrimage the pilgrims must recite the name of Allah regularly. They must make the takbeer at all places and at ALL times during these ten days of Dhul Hijjah.

the first method in making the takbeer is to say Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Laa ilaaha illa Allah, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar wa Lillahil Hamd.

The second way is to say: Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Laa ilaaha illa Allah, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar wa Lillahil Hamd.

The pious pilgrim would say this individually but the truth is that reciting it in UNISON IS BID'AH or disallowed as it is NOT from our Deen or the religion of islam.

Today Hajj which began in the days of Prophet Abraham long before prophet Mohammed was born 1400 years ago, has grown from only two people, from two Prophets, Ibrahim and his son Ismail, going round the Kabah all those thousands of years ago, to the present age with about 3 million pilgrims every year. Each rite is intrinsically linked to their actions; the Prophet Mohammad () reawakened their actions on the Farewell Pilgrimage.

And al sayda Hager also, while she was searching for food and water to Ismail went back and forth 7 times, till Zamzam water came out around Ismail. These 7 became the ritual known as Ashwat al Safa and Marwa

Pilgrimage to Mecca annually has become a popular part of Islam that has become a big business worldwide to the extent that the Saudi Arabian government and governments and people of other nations reap a lot of dividends in it . The one to three million or more people who converge on Saudi Arabia make a lot of trips and engage in businesses while there.

This is said to be happening due to the blessings bestowed on Saudi Arabia and Muslims by God Almighty through the succeeding prophets who came after Prophet Abraham. Ever since Saudi cities of Mecca, Medina and others became centers of worship and pilgrimage, men and women of all classes in the world have paid visits and continue to do so to perform Hajj and Umra.

Some of the notable figures are presidents kings and queen and boxers like Mohammed Ali and recently mike Tyson who just converted to Islam. All of them appear as equals as they perform the hajj wearing similar clothing and performing the same rituals.

This signifies equality of men before the Lord Currently the National Chief Imam of Ghana Osman Nuhu Sharubutu is in Mecca as he does yearly to perform the hajj together with his delegation and to pray for the nation. This is an election year and the nation would need his prayers and those of others for God to bless us with a peaceful polls.

The visit by dignitaries has been with us for many centuries. Leaders of old Mali Empire like Mansa Musah and others after him from West Africa went on the trip to Mecca by road on camels carrying gold and many people including slaves with him.

Since the Hajj Pilgrimage has come to stay, most nations like Nigeria, Indonesia, and Malaysia have devised means of making the pilgrimage less cumbersome. Though they also have petty problems, they allow most intending pilgrims to pay their fares gradually for a period and to travel on first come first serve basis .However in Ghana pilgrimage has been a nightmare for quite some years now.

Succeeding Governments since independence after moving over from carrying pilgrims by road on Tarzan Transport have been finding it difficult to sanitize and improve on pilgrimage to be able to get all those who pay their fares to make the trips.

Although the current Hajj Board has done a lot to improve the situation the officials in charge admit that there is more room for improvement. Up till date not all those who pay their fares to Mecca are able to make the trip. Some of the stranded pilgrims do get monies they pay for the trips refunded to them, while others agree to wait to go on the trip in the coming years.

The time has come for a permanent Hajj Board to be established and be made independent of governmental control. Such a board can succeed only when it learns from best practices and weaknesses of countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Nigeria. This way we would get the opportunity to get out of the annual ritual of botched hajj pilgrimage during which many would be pilgrims get stranded

Executive Director

EANFOWORLD FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

0244 370345 (Airtel)/ 0274853710 /0208844791 /

[email protected]/[email protected]
13.09.2016 LISTEN

The Province of British Columbia will dedicate the Great Bear Rainforest to The Queens Commonwealth Canopy (QCC), a pan-Commonwealth forest conservation initiative in Her Majesty The Queens name.

The announcement was made today by the Premier of British Columbia, Christy Clark.

The Great Bear Rainforest is an iconic and globally significant area covering 6.4 million hectares along the central and north coast of British Columbia. It is home to a quarter of the earths temperate rainforest and 26 separate First Nations. It is also the only place in the world where the Kermode, or Spirit, Bear is found.

Increasingly threatened by industrial logging, the Government of British Columbia passed historic legislation earlier this year to protect the Rainforests ecology and indigenous people.

Making the announcement, Christy Clark said: The Great Bear Rainforest is a global treasure, and all British Columbians have a stake in protecting it. The international recognition conferred by The Queens Commonwealth Canopy is something all British Columbians can be proud of.

Michael Lake CBE, Director of The Royal Commonwealth Society said: The inclusion of the Great Bear Rainforest in The Queens Commonwealth Canopy highlights Canadas ongoing commitment to the Commonwealth and its leading role in conserving key ecological and indigenous peoples cultural values. The ecosystem-based management regime for British Columbias Great Bear Rainforest, developed in collaboration with First Nations, industry and environmental organisations, provides an example that other Commonwealth countries can look to when pursuing their own forest conservation agendas. The Society is proud of this important Commonwealth initiative, conceived in The Queens name and honoring Her commitment as Head of the Commonwealth.

Canadas commitment to the QCC joins those previously received by Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Belize, Jamaica, Malta, Mauritius, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom and Zambia.

The announcement comes before Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge travel to Canada for a Royal Tour later this month to visit British Columbia and the territory of Yukon. This will be the second tour to Canada by The Duke and Duchess who made their first visit in 2011.

The Queens Commonwealth Canopy (QCC) was launched in 2015 with the goal of uniting the Commonwealths 53 members in conserving forests for future generations. The initiative, in The Queens name, will raise the awareness of the Commonwealths 2.3 billion citizens of the value of saving forests and facilitate knowledge exchange between Commonwealth members, sharing best practices and creating new, collaborative initiatives for forest conservation.

The Great Bear Rainforest is one of the planets largest intact temperate rainforests, covering 6.4 million hectares along the central and north coast of British Columbia. The World Wildlife Fund has ranked the Great Bear Rainforest as a globally outstanding ecosystem due to its biological diversity and rank.

The QCC Partners:

The Royal Commonwealth Society is a network of individuals and organisations committed to improving the lives and prospects of Commonwealth citizens across the world. www.thercs.org

Cool Earth is an award-winning, UK-based charity that works alongside indigenous villages to halt rainforest destruction. www.coolearth.org

The Commonwealth Forestry Association links foresters, scientists, students and policy-makers throughout the Commonwealth to seek ways of wise forest management. www.cfa-international.org
We wish to commend the Executive Secretary of the Ghana National Accreditation Board (NAB), Mr. Kwame Dattey, for coming out with a press statement on the issue of accreditation and diploma mills conferring awards on Ghanaians. We also commend him for warning prospective students in Ghana to stay away from the Swiss Management Center (SMC) and other unaccredited institutions operating in Ghana.

Unfortunately, while Mr. Dattey attempted to address some of the issues in contention, his calculated attempt to cast insinuations that tend to question our integrity leaves so much to be desired of a public office holder who should be commending us for expending our scarce resourcestime, money, knowledge, and energyto make this disruptive phenomenon the focus of public discourse for the past few weeks.

In the introductory paragraph of Mr. Datteys press statement, he stated that the NAB has serious reservations about the ethical considerations employed for the study. We wish to inform the Executive Secretary and his organization that, for a public discourse such as this, it will do all of us, the reading public, a lot of good if he can pinpoint the ethical principles that our work has breached. More so, we are not sure there is any profession under the sun that does not have its ethical challenges.

If a physician, in the course of his/her duties, commits a malpractice or an error, there are institutional review boards that examine malpractices or errors in professional practice with a view to ensuring that the offending practitioner gets the appropriate sanction and education. This way, public service is improved and the recurrence of the malpractice or the error is forestalled. To employ insinuation cannot be deemed to be a professional way of addressing the substantive issues of public interest. Casting insinuations at individuals you disagree with can only be a demonstration of lack of understanding of the substantive issues or a sign of immaturity. Thus, we urge the Executive Secretary of the NAB to state emphatically which ethical principles our work has breached, register the breach with the Valdosta State University, or constitute his own panel of ethicist and serve us notice and we will respond to him and his organization.

Now back to the substantive issues at stake.

Honorary Degrees

We do appreciate the work the NAB has done over the years in warning the public about some of these shadowy institutions and the questionable awards they confer on our compatriots from time to time. Our appreciation for the work of NAB is never in doubt. On page 21 of the 56-page report, we acknowledged the difficult task of NAB when we pointed out that:

With the declaration of Kwesi Appiahs honorary doctorate null and void

by the NAB on September 18, 2014, that precedent quashes all other doctoral

awards by the aforementioned institutions. That being the case, one would

expect a reputable media organization such as the Daily Graphic to respect the

legal instrument of the NAB. Contrary to this expectation, on December 16, 2014,

in the run-up to the NDC congress at which Kofi Portuphy was elected as the

NDC Chairman, the Daily Graphic carried a profile feature on Portuphy. In this

piece, Kobby Asmah and Kofi Yeboah, quoted Porturphys discredited honorary

doctorate degree to promote his candidacy. (Tsikata & Dotse, 2016, p. 21)

The point is that for even our first policeman of the land, IGP (Dr.) John Kudalor, NDC Chairman, (Dr.) Kofi Portuphy, Member of Parliament, (Dr.) Bernice Adiku Heloo Heloo Presidential Candidate (Dr.) Hassan Ayariga, and (Dr.) Patrick Kobla Agboba, alias Torgbi Sri III, among others to still be parading themselves in the public space as doctorate holders (whether earned or honoris causa) can attest to the fact that the NABs actions have not been biting enough to deter any of these individuals and institutions. This frustration is succinctly captured by the Minister of Education, Prof. Naana Opoku-Agyemang, when she pointed out that this worrisome and disruptive phenomenon has been discussed in the public domain for years; some papers have been written on it (Personal Communication, August 18, 2016).

The average reader can infer from the foregoing that the NAB cannot tame this hydra-headed phenomenon alone. Thus, we rather deserve commendation and appreciation, not insinuations and condemnation from the NAB and its Executive Secretary, Mr. Kwame Dattey.

Unaccredited Institutions

We wish to point out to the NAB and its Executive Secretary that we are not oblivious of the challenges that national organizations such as the NAB face in an ever-widening global sphere in the execution of their duties of monitoring and supervising the accreditation process of educational institutions. Any serious minded individual would discern that fact from the very title we chose for our work: Accreditation Challenges in Transnational Educational Ecology: The Ghanaian Experience. The emphasis is on the word challenges. In the opening chapters of the report, we highlighted these challenges not only for Ghana, but for the rest of Africa and the developing world. We went on to state our recommendations for implementation, before drawing some important conclusions. For the NAB Executive Secretary to now issue a press statement demanding from his august researchers how the NAB should act on institutions outside the jurisdiction of Ghana is simply befuddling. It only raises the question: Did the NAB Executive Secretary and his institutional members read and digest the report before issuing this pathetic press statement or at best they only read the most convenient parts?

We wish to point out emphatically that the kind of arrangements at the NAB that made it possible for Professor Paul Buatsi, who is concurrently a member of the NAB and the SMC representative in Ghanaa clear conflict of interest situationand other graduates of the SMC, an institution we are contesting, are the arrangements that we are bringing to the attention of the public and the systems managers. An example of the SMC product being an Academic Advisor to the NAB is Rev. (Prof. Dr. Dr.) Mrs. Goski Alabi. These are cases of conflict of interest that Mr. Dattey should rather be explaining to the Ghanaian public and to the UPSA community in particular. We are sure the NAB as an institution is answerable to an oversight institutionthe Ministry of Education.

Swiss Management Center (SMC)

At this point, there is no belaboring SMCs accreditation status from the Swiss Embassy in Accra and other unrecognized institutions by the Office of Post-Secondary Education (OPE) of the US Department of Education (DoE). It is heartening to know the registration of the SMC has been withdrawn until it is able to satisfy the national accreditation requirements of the Swiss authorities. For now, we still remand this matter with the Ministry of Education to set up a task force to investigate all the degrees conferred by the SMC, including the double doctoral degrees it conferred, in conjunction with the Central University of Nicaragua.

In a previous rejoinder, we cautioned the NAB and the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) to desist from using a letter from the Swiss Embassy in Accra as sufficient basis to register the SMC. In that letter, the Embassy clearly remanded final registration decision with NAB and UPSA, upon due diligence with accrediting institutions in Switzerland. For the benefit of readers, the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) is a body in the United States (US) that accredits business programs offered by institutions/universities. ACBSP does not have the mandate to accredit SMC! It can only accredit business programs offered by SMC. These are two different things.

(Rejoinder retrievable from

http://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/rejoinder-upsa-justifies-swiss-university-s-accreditation.html ).

Unqualified Teachers in Tertiary Systems

In public speaking and for that matter public intellectual work, we emphasize diversity of source materials, including the popular press. Newspapers can become a source of support, especially if the individual being reported is an authority figure or an expert in a particular field. In this vein, if Joy FM, Ghana Business News, and Ghana News, among others, published that the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Education Winneba, Professor Mawutor Avorke, speaking at the 20th congregation of his university referenced that 61% of lecturers in tertiary institutions in Ghana are unqualified, we would have no doubt from the cross references. If the NAB can prove this statement to be untrue, then, again, it would only go to underscore the institutional failures we have been trying to highlightincluding the media and even authority figures in our universities. We, therefore, urge the NAB to take up the challenge to investigate the assertion of the learned professor to prove its mandate and justify the taxpayers sustaining either Professor Avoke or Mr. Kwame Dattey. Unless the NAB, like the so-called Vice Chancellor of the SMC, Dr. Ted Sun, can assert that materials in the news or from authority figures can no longer be the basis for public intellectual work (Please follow the links to the news below:

).

Going Forward

It is very unfortunate that a public officer in the person of Mr. Kwame Dattey, on behalf of his institution, would attempt to question our patriotism for attempting to ensure that undesirable elements in our educational sector, especially those in higher education, are found and removed for the benefit of the society. Patriotism can be such an ambiguous word that even those who are blatantly flouting Ghanaian institutional edicts can also claim to be patriotic. To us, in the context of our discourse on accreditation, patriotism implies that we have to ensure that when our students go through Ghanaian institutions and apply for postgraduate admission to accredited institutions both in Ghana and abroad, a first class holder should be represented as such. And the only way we can ensure that is to begin to take a critical look at the institutions and professors that confer these degrees and awards. Mr. Dattey should be informed that the days when institutional failures are swept under the carpet are gradually giving way to institutional transparency, probity, and accountability. If we cannot expose these institutional failures, because we are patriotic, then that patriotism is rather questionable and only meant to maintain the status quo. Does Mr. Kwame Dattey benefit from the status quo?

Further, the attempt to malign our hard work to expose crime and corruption as a hearsay research is neither here nor there. We cannot ascertain what materials Mr. Dattey and his colleagues at the NAB have been reading about ethical principles and secondary sources. Emails and other forms of personal communication always serve as a fodder of authenticity to corroborate communication between researchers and respondents, especially in this age of the Internet, and are always added to research work as an appendix. We would advise Mr. Dattey and his colleagues to appreciate the fact that the phrase he chose, personal emails, neither renders those emails private nor confidential. Those email communications were initiated between him and his institution on the one side, and the researchers on the other, in an official capacity. Therefore, the public has a right to these forms of communication. Mr. Dattey can contact us behind the scenes if he needs materials on that to enrich his understanding of public communication. By the way, Mr. Dattey and his colleagues should be aware of the fact that email communication anywhere in the world cannot be deemed to be private.

Going forward, the NAB and its Executive Secretary should appreciate that in our report, we identified over 10 institutions and over 40 individuals. NAB and the UPSA should not unnecessarily divert attention from those institutions and individuals by their unnecessary tirades. We have clearly indicated that the Ministry of Education is called upon to play its oversight role without further delay. In this regard, NAB should not be unnecessarily interfering in these matters which are in dispute. If we may prescribe, the preoccupation of the NAB at the moment should be how to find ways to deal with individuals and institutions that are in clear violation of its edicts, including getting them to publicly recant their dubious PhDs and honorary doctorates.

The NAB should also, henceforth, cease from its diversionary antics by referencing non-existent breaches in ethical principles and research methods. If Mr. Dattey cannot point to the exact ethical breach, we will demand a withdrawal of that errant insinuation and an apology from him and the NAB. For those interested in appreciating the constraints under which this work emerged, some of those issues have been addressed in a previous rejoinder (Retrievable from: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Rejoinder-response-from-SMC-on-recent-media-allegations-464150 ).

If Mr. Dattey and his organizational members are unaware of what is known as public intellectual work, it would serve them a great deal of good to do some reading on thatwhen academics step into the public space, away from academic complexities, to address some of these issues. By and large, the public can agree that we have successfully ignited and steered this ongoing discourse very successfully so far. What is now needed to be seriously implemented is to investigate the issue to be followed by CAPA (corrective actions and preventive actions) from all institutions concernedNAB, UPSA, SMC, and the Ministry of Education as key players.

Prosper Yao Tsikata, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Communication

A. Kobla Dotse, Ph.D.

Director, Chemical Research and Development
13.09.2016 LISTEN

Stories and video clips of Nigerian been assaulted by South Africa Policemen is no longer a story of the past as a new and fresh story hits the internet again.

South African police officers were allegedly caught on video assaulting an unarmed Nigerian on the street of Pretoria, South Africa which was led by Batista, who is a Police officer at Sunnyside Police station and also an alias with the criminal police officers involved in the criminal activities.

Sources also revealed Sunnyside policemen and Batista have been involved in a lot of negative activities and assaults of Nigerians based in Pretoria by entering their houses to rob them, also outside the bank and on the streets.

The Nigerians in South Africa are calling out to the Nigerian Consulate, South Africa as the issues has become too much in the town and a solution should come forth soon. ARE NIGERIANS SAFE IN SOUTH AFRICA?




you are here:
business Cairn India shareholders approve merger with Vedanta In an exchange filing, Cairn India said that in a court-convened meeting, 65.41 percent of shareholders present, representing 92.86 percent in value, voted in favour of the merger.
business Tata Steel Q1 loss widens 10-fold to Rs 3,183 cr, EBITDA up 21% Tata Steel started off the financial year 2016-17 on a weak note with the consolidated quarterly loss widening 10-fold to Rs 3,183 crore compared with Rs 317 crore in same period last fiscal.
NEW YORK, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was diagnosed with pneumonia at home after she fell sick during a memorial service marking the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks here on Sunday.

Local media quoted physician Lisa Bardack as saying "She was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule. While at this morning's event, she became overheated and dehydrated. I have just examined her and she is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely."

A video posted on Twitter shows the 68-year-old Clinton stumbled and she was being helped by her staff into a waiting van and left the memorial service early.

According to her campaign, Clinton had a rest in her daughter's apartment in Manhattan. As she went out the apartment shortly before noon, Clinton said, "I'm feeling great."

Clinton's rival, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his supporters have questioned Clinton's health, saying Clinton is physically unfit for the White House, accusing her of being "exhausted" and sleeping too much.

Last July, Clinton released a letter from her doctor saying she was a healthy female whose health issues were only as bad as hypothyroidism and seasonal allergies.

Doctors also found a blood clot at the time, but the letter says those issues were mostly cleared up after two months of various treatments.
A screenshot of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone [Photo: samsung.com]

Indonesian leading carrier, PT Garuda Indonesia, on Sunday banned passengers from using or charging Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone in all flights following a battery fire incident, an airline official said.

The decision was made after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told passengers not to use the smartphone following a recall of all the products due to a problem on its battery, according to Vice President Corporate Communication Benny S. Butarbutar.

"Garuda Indonesia asks all passengers not to operate mobile phone during flight due to the advisory from the FAA on the use of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phone," he said in a statement.

"Therefore, Garuda Indonesia urges passengers not to turn on or recharge the battery or place the mobile phone in baggage facility," Butarbutar said.

He said the airline will evaluate the call until the FAA issue a new guideline.

On Sept. 2, Samsung Electronics said in Seoul that it has decided to recall all of Galaxy Note 7 smartphones sold worldwide as some of the gadgets were founded faulty in battery.

Koh Dong-jin, head of Samsung's mobile division, told reporters that a total of 35 complaints had been filed with its service centers at home and abroad for the Galaxy Note 7's battery problem as of Sept. 1.
According to Sam Jimmy Ervin Jr., a North Carolina State Supreme Court justice from Morganton, the judicial system is the branch of government that is least understood by the public.

But he is hoping a new program will take hold and educate folks in each county in the state.

The North Carolina Judicial Branch is launching a new Speakers Bureau, a free public service to raise awareness and understanding provided by the judicial and legal community of North Carolina, said a press release from the NC Administrative Office of the Courts.

Led by Supreme Court Justices Paul Newby and Ervin, the Speakers Bureau is a united effort to support civics education by engaging stakeholders throughout the bench and bar to inform the public about the rule of law, the judicial system, and what it means for our society, the release said.

The level of knowledge of how government works in general among the public is not as high as a lot of us would like it, Ervin said.

Those who have volunteered to speak to their local communities include judicial officials and court staff, as well as private attorneys.

For Burke County Superior Court Judge Daniel Kuehnert, District Attorney David Learner and Ervin are the volunteers available to speak to groups.

This is the most concentrated effort that he has seen recently by the court system to provide opportunities to educate the public, he said.

Each speaker will bring their own unique perspective on their role within the judicial system, as well as inform the audience about the establishment of the North Carolina court system and its impact within our communities, the release said.

This will be an ongoing effort by the court system, he said.

My understanding has been that this is a speakers list that the (Administrative Offices of the Courts) will maintain over time and there will be additional efforts to get other folks to agree to participate in it, he said.

There will be multiple ways of communicating available, but Ervin says he prefers to speak to groups in person.

I know that Justice Newby told me recently that he had actually spoken to a class in Germany over Skype, Ervin said. I havent done anything like that, but that is the kind of things available.

He hopes this will be an efficient tool for school and other community organizations.

In the future when somebody in the school system or a community organization wishes to have somebody to come and speak to them about issues like this they can have a place to turn to, Ervin said.

When citizens know more about about how their government and judicial branch functions they are more apt to participate in it and be heard in it, he said.

This is a government that has been said in times to be by and for the people to the extent that the people do not understand the way the system of government operates they cant function effectively as citizens and have the impact that they might want to have on the way the government functions, Ervin said.

He hopes that over time the program and speakers can better educate the members of the public about the operation of government in general and the working of the court system.

Those interested in scheduling a speaker can visit celebrate.nccourts.org/Speakers-Bureau and complete the online request form or call 919-890-1394.

Staff Writer Jonelle Bobak can be reached at jbobak@morganton.com or 828-432-8907.
Faye Wong talks about upcoming concert in December at a news conference in Beijing, Sept 9, 2016. [Photo provided to China Daily]

No one gets attention like Faye Wong.

The pop diva returned to the spotlight on September 9 when she announced in Beijing that she will hold a concert at Shanghai's Mercedes-Benz Arena in December this year, her first show since her tour in 2010.

Titled Faye's Moments Live 2016, the concert will be streamed live exclusively by Chinese internet giant Tencent, which means her fans will be able to enjoy the show from any corner of the world.

Wong says she will perform more than 20 songs and the look of the stage will be "dreamy".

"I will sing some of the hits, along with the songs that are my favorites but I rarely perform at concerts," says Wong.

"I have never been too ambitious about my career. I don't listen to much music these days either. I just do what I like," she adds.

Asked why there will be just one concert, the 47-year-old says she is interested in the streaming technology and wants to give it a try. The show will also use virtual technology.

"This is not a farewell concert," Wong says, in reply to the rumors about her retirement. "Probably I will have tours in the future, but this time I just want to hold one concert."

The news conference was streamed live by Tencent, which attracted nearly 10 million fans. According to Han Zhijie, the general manager of Tencent's copyright department, the internet company will work closely with Wong by using latest technology to interact with her fans, such as launching exclusive online channels to live-stream the concert's preparation.
Shannon Kirwin

This fund is run by experienced manager Didier Lambert, who heads JP Morgans local-currency team within the companys 44-member global emerging-markets-debt team, led by Pierre-Yves Bareau.

Lambert has built a solid long-term track record here and at a similar strategy that he managed at Fortis for three years before joining JP Morgan in 2009. We appreciate the structured process at work here, which integrates top-down and bottom-up research.

However, we are concerned about some recent departures from the team, including macro strategist Matias Silvani, who had contributed to the funds top-down positioning. The fund has struggled to outperform its peer group since the recent turnover, which has prompted us to assign a rating of Neutral until we can gain a better sense for how the manager and his team have weathered the recent departures.

Analyst Notes

Peter Brunt

James Ross was appointed co-manager on the Henderson Horizon Pan European fund on the August 31 2016. He joined Henderson as a graduate and, while he has focused on UK equities for the last three years, he spent his first years at the group as an analyst on the European equities team and therefore has the experience to contribute meaningfully to this fund.

Ross will be helping in stock research and portfolio construction, but Tim Stevenson remains the lead manager and final decision maker. We welcome the effort to build Stevensons analytical resource and will closely monitor how Ross settles into his new role.

Lena Tsymbaluk

Mitesh Patel has been appointed as assistant fund manager on the Jupiter Japan Income and Jupiter Japan Select SICAV funds. Patel will join on the October 3 2016, supporting lead manager Dan Carter.

Patel has 11 years investment experience and joins from Barings Asset Management where he was an investment manager covering Japanese equities since 2013. Prior to joining Barings in 2009, he spent three years at BlackRock on the global equities and UK equities teams.

We welcome Jupiters effort to boost the Japan equities team, which shows their commitment to the strategy. This, however, doesnt change our current view on the fund, which holds Morningstar Analyst Rating of Neutral. We will continue monitoring how both managers settle into their respective roles and work together.
(Xinhua) 11:28, September 12, 2016

BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- A white paper published Monday by the State Council Information Office hailed the new progress made in human rights protection in the field of justice as China enhances the rule of law in all respects.

The white paper, titled "New Progress in the Judicial Protection of Human Rights in China," said the judiciary is the last line of defense to safeguard social fairness and justice, and judicial protection of human rights is an important part of human rights progress in a country.

It said that in recent years, especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), progress has been made in modernizing the system and capacity of state governance. The country has effectively protected the people's rights and freedoms in an extensive array of fields in accordance with the law, while its people duly fulfill their obligations.

In particular, the white paper noted that since the CPC's 18th National Congress, the allocation of judicial powers and responsibilities have been further improved, and the independent and impartial exercise of the judicial and procuratorial power ensured.

Since 2014, pilot programs have been promoted nationwide to improve performance in the following areas: judicial accountability, category-based management of judicial personnel, job security for the judicial profession, and unified management of the personnel, finance and property of people's courts and procuratorates below the provincial level.

Meanwhile, the judicial accountability system has been improved, while judicial transparency promoted to ensure the right to know and the right to supervise for concerned parties and the public.

Progress was also made to ensure lawyers' right of practice, so that lawyers are playing a bigger role in safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of parties concerned.

The Regulations on Protecting Lawyers' Right of Practice in Accordance with the Law, issued in 2015, made clear various measures to protect lawyers' right of practice, made it more convenient for lawyers to participate in litigation, and improved the remedy and accountability mechanisms for ensuring lawyers' right to practice.

The white paper also highlighted pilot programs to reform the system of people's assessors and supervisors, the establishment of a national judicial assistance system, and the abolishment of the system of reeducation through labor.

It nonetheless said there is still much room for improvement for the rule of law in China.

Strengthening judicial protection of human rights will continue to be a major task in implementing the rule of law, it said, adding that the country will proceed from its prevailing reality, learn from the achievements of other countries regarding the rule of law, enhance judicial protection of human rights, safeguard social fairness and justice, and implement the rule of law in all respects.

LAWFUL CRACKDOWN ON CRIMES

To enhance judicial protection of human rights, China has punished crimes by law, tried civil and administrative cases fairly, and strengthened the execution of effective judgments, the white paper said.

In particular, it noted that a total of 54,249 people in 40,834 cases were investigated for work-related crimes in 2015.

From 2012 to 2015, courts at all levels concluded 94,900 cases of corruption and bribery and sentenced 100,200 criminals. A total of 10,300 cases of offering bribes were concluded and 9,219 criminals were sentenced, said the white paper, adding that courts at all levels concluded 21,300 cases of dereliction of duty, and sentenced 23,500 criminals.

Among the defendants, 381 were formerly at or above the department or bureau level, and 2,269 were at or above the county or division level, the white paper said.

It went on to say that the state focused on punishing violent terrorist crimes, serious crimes of violence, gangland crimes, crimes involving guns and explosives, crimes endangering food and medicine safety, and crimes related to drug production and trafficking, among others.

Criminals who infringe the rights of minors were brought to justice, and the protection of minors' rights was strengthened.

Death penalty is under strict control and is employed with prudence, the while paper said.

It said China's attitude toward the death penalty is to ensure that it applies only to a very small number of extremely serious criminal offenders.

China in 2011 adopted the Amendment (VIII) to the Criminal Law which abolishes the death penalty for 13 economy-related, non-violent offenses.

The Amendment (IX) to the Criminal Law, adopted in 2015, also reduced the number of crimes for capital punishment, abolishing the death penalty for nine areas of crime. It also extended the possibility of reprieve in cases of capital sentence.

In death penalty cases, the defendant's right to defense and other legitimate rights and interests are fully protected, as hearings are held for all death penalty cases of second instance, the white paper said.

When the Supreme People's Court reviews a death penalty case, it focuses on interrogating the defendant in accordance with the law, and listening to opinions of the defense counsel, according to the white paper.

PREVENTING & CORRECTING MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE

Meanwhile, the white paper said China has revised the Criminal Procedure Law, and implemented principles of legality, in dubio pro reo, exclusion of unlawful evidence.

The country revised the Civil Procedure Law to effectively settle disputes, revised the Administrative Procedure Law to strengthen the protection of legitimate rights and interests of private parties in administrative lawsuits, it said, adding it enacted the first Anti-Domestic Violence Law to strengthen legal protection of the personal rights of victims of domestic violence.

Judicial authorities have "put in place a system to exclude unlawful evidence and protect the legitimate rights and interests of criminal suspects," the paper said.

In 2014, the Ministry of Public Security issued more explicit regulations concerning the scope of and interrogation recording requirements for cases subject to audio and video recording.

The interrogation rooms of public security organs and detention houses are all equipped with audio and video recording facilities to prevent misconduct in law enforcement such as extorting confessions by torture and obtaining evidence through illegal means.

In 2015, the procuratorial organs at all levels demanded the withdrawal of 10,384 cases wrongly filed by investigation organs, and regulated 31,874 cases of illegal conduct involving abuse of compulsory measures and unlawfully obtaining evidence.

China has also improved procedures for juvenile criminal cases to help underage offenders better reintegrate into the society, said the white paper.
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(Xinhua) 11:35, September 12, 2016

BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- A total of 54,249 people in 40,834 cases were investigated for work-related crimes by Chinese procuratorates in 2015, according to a white paper issued Monday.

Procuratorates investigated and dealt with 4,490 cases of embezzlement, bribery, and defalcation of more than one million yuan each, a year-on-year increase of 22.5 percent, said the white paper titled New Progress in the Judicial Protection of Human Rights in China.

Issued by the State Council Information Office, the white paper said 13,210 people were investigated for taking bribes and 8,217 for offering bribes, and 13,040 civil officials for dereliction and malfeasance.

From 2012 to 2015, courts at all levels concluded 94,900 cases of corruption and bribery and sentenced 100,200 criminals. A total of 10,300 cases of offering bribes were concluded and 9,219 criminals were sentenced, said the white paper, adding that courts at all levels concluded 21,300 cases of dereliction of duty, and sentenced 23,500 criminals.
Calgarys rental sector is the most expensive market for the countrys low-income earners, according to the head researcher of a recent study from the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy.Professor of Economics Ron Kneebone, lead author of the new analysis The Very Poor and the Affordability of Housing, noted that while Vancouver and Torontos eye-popping costs might lead one to conclude that these cities are basically unlivable, Calgary actually outstrips these cities in terms of accessibility to the lowest-earning workersby a significant margin.A lone parent in Calgary would need to be spending 70 per cent of their income on rent for a low-quality one-bedroom apartment, Kneebone stated, as quoted by CBC News. If you take that same person in Montreal, than they're spending less than half that amount on rent.Vancouver has relatively more rental accommodations than Calgary does  There's no place to live in Calgary and as a result the price of low-end housing is really expensive, he added.The academic noted, however, that the main point of these findings is that theres no one-size-fits-all solution that can be employed to address the crisis.One of the things we wanted to stress with this study is there is no national housing issue. There are housing issues in particular cities, Kneebone stressed. What I'm afraid of the government doing is saying there is one solution that will fit every city. And our point is that there isn't.
What does the future of alternative lending look like? One expert has his say.Pino Decina, EVP Residential Mortgage Lending at Home Trust , recently attended the IMBA Professional Development Symposium as panel member. According to Decina, in a Home Trust blog post, a great deal of discussion surrounded the future of the alternative lending segment.These are the trends the leading alternative lender has identified for the future of this increasingly important lending segment.Immigration will continue to be a major driving force behind the alt-a segment, according to Decina.It is my view that demand for alternative lending will continue to grow and I base this position on an examination of several factors, he wrote. Looking first to Canadas immigration policies, it is clear that the government intends to maintain an aggressive recruitment strategy.Along with immigration, the growing number of self-employed Canadians  many of whom will lack the sufficient employment records to qualify for the more traditional and, indeed, strict a-lending space  is expected to continue to spike.And thats good news for brokers as many specialize in this niche sector.Because these individuals dont fit neatly within the banking industrys rather narrow definition of the ideal borrower, we see this as an opportunity for mortgage brokers and lenders to expand their alternative business, Decina wrote. We also expect the major banks to continue a tightening of their risk appetite in response to current price volatility in many parts of the country including the key housing markets in Vancouver and the Greater Toronto Area.This will result in more borrowers being rejected by the major banks providing further opportunities for alternative channel participants.With more and more Canadians having to rely on the alt-a space, brokers will surely be ready to meet their mortgage needs.The major banks remain hesitant to lend to these borrowers as they consider them to be higher risk, Decina wrote. The thing is, though, that individual borrowers from this group do not automatically represent any greater risk than the rest of the population.
Hello Everyone,

Im up to my old TIFF tricks now. Long days/nightsminimal sleep.

My first film today was The Weinstein Companys big Oscar hopeful for this year  LION, directed by Garth Davis and starring Dev Patel. This is the story of a little Indian boy who gets lost in the streets of Calcutta  hundreds of miles away from home. After eventually being adopted by an Australian family, 20+ years later he begins a trip to find his birth family. Once again, I found myself interested in trimming this film down. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Im watching dozens of moviesbut Im finding most material would be better if trimmed down. This film shouldnt be 2 Hrs & 10 Minit should be 20-30 minutes shorter. That said, what it accomplishes is indeed lovely, and the story is wonderful. The final bit of archival footage at the end resulted in even more tears.

I met up with a friend to catch the next film on my list  A UNITED KINGDOM, directed by Amma Asante (director of BELLE). This is the film about the relationship between Seretse Khama (a former African royal) and his wife Ruth Williams. Being a black man, alarm bells go up on each side of the fence when he courts and eventually asks for a white Englishwomans hand in marriage. This film feels old-fashioned in a good way. The storytelling is very direct  nothing edgy here, just solid storytelling, and I came away feeling as though Id just had a good (and entertaining) history lesson. David Oyelowo is fantastic as Khama  his speeches are particularly moving and seem like they could stand alone as inspirational messages about race and patriotism. Rosamund Pike plays Williams, and shes lovely as usual.

After lunch with a friend from Dayton I hadnt seen in almost a decade  who now works at Almo Drafthouse (in Austin), I took a little nap before heading to my two evening screenings. Next up was a film I had already seen at an exhibitor screening. I almost never see a film at TIFF that Ive already seenbut because I got a tip that Pedro Almodovar was in town, I got a ticket to JULIETA. Unfortunately, the tip was some bad intel. He wasnt there. That said, I had tweeted a hopeful message that I wished Rossy de Palma would attendand imagine my giddiness when she was introduced  her first time to Toronto. The film was even better with a second viewing  its richness in color and layers of storytelling all the richer. This is the story of a woman who decides to stay in Madrid in hopes that her daughter will return  someone who left her side 20 years before. With an exceptional score and great performances (Julieta is played by three different actresses in different stages of her life), this film is lovely. Its hard to let an Almodovar film stand on its own without comparison. When compared to his other work, it falls short of being one of Almodovars masterpiecesif it stood alone, it would be heralded as superb. And P.S. The Q&A was delightfuland Rossy was so funny, warm and personable. I got my picture taken with her at the stage door, and my day was made!

Tom Fords second feature film NOCTURNAL ANIMALS was my final film of the day. Ive been waiting 7 years since A SINGLE MAN to see what Tom Ford would do next, and this new film is exceptional! Starring Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Shannon, this is the story of a woman who receives an advanced reading copy of her ex-husbands novel which is a terrifying story that hits a little too close to home. The film uses certain visual devices to distinguish three different stories happening at once  the present story, the story of the novel and flashbacks to the relationship that spurred the novel. The costume design, sets and photography are stunning, the performances are incredible, and the story is intense and emotional. With a late 2016 release in store, I think this film will certainly begin to create some award buzz. (no trailer is available yet)

I then went out to meet up with a bunch of industry folks for a couple beers. That 5:50am alarm is gonna be hard.

Thanks for reading,

Jonathan
Hello Everyone,

I got the tickets I needed this morning (for Monday), so the day was off to a great start. I hightailed it to the Scotiabank multiplex for my first screening of the day  a movie I know we wont play (but I felt like I wanted something ridiculous)  Christopher Guests MASCOTS (which will soon make its debut on Netflix). Its been a long time since we saw Guest and his crew, and I was delighted by the opening scenes. I thought hes back! The set-up is an competition for mascots from around the world  and it lends itself to some really fun material. Unfortunately, the material lost some steamand though the movie is sprinkled with a few gems, I felt like it didnt quite live up to previous films (though the return of one of Guests most famous characters was a moment that made me feel like applauding).

ALL I SEE IS YOU, the new film by Marc Forster (FINDING NEVERLAND, MONSTERS BALL) starring Blake Lively, was next on my list. This is a dramatic film with Lively playing a woman who lost her sight in an accident when she was a child. The first 20 minutes of the film has a certain experimental tone  as Forster has us experiencing many moments as the lead character sees them. Its a lovely, interesting approach, and the film works in setting a tone (though I never understood why it was set in Thailand). An operation is available for Livelys character to have her vision restored, and everything changes. With sight, she is surprised by how the world around her looksand her husband quickly becomes disappointed in how their lives are changing. The movie then shifts tone and becomes more of a quiet thriller. I wont give away more of the story, but I did feel like the tonal shift was surprising and the final 6 minutes of the film wrapped things up in a very frantic pace from what started as a slow and methodical first 90 minutes. The sound design is incredible, and the photography is lovely. I think this film will find an audience, but its not incredible.

After a short nap and a bite to eat, I went to an event  IN CONVERSATION WITH ISABELLE HUPPERT. This 80 minute curated Q&A was incredible. Accented with clips of Hupperts body of work (shes made over 100 films/television appearances), she sat with Piers Handling and talked about her craft. From insight to how she doesnt feel like she truly prepare for roles to inside stories about movies like HEAVENS GATE to the fact that sometimes she takes a role because she reads the script and falls in love with one line, its a wonderful inside look at one of the greatest actresses working today. Heres a treatyou can watch the taped event by visiting this LINK and clicking the image of Huppert.

My final film of the day was also the highlight of the festival so far  Barry Jenkins MOONLIGHT. This gorgeous, poetic look at the life of a black man growing up in Miami, is based on the play IN MOONLIGHT, BLACK BOYS LOOK BLUE. The film is told in three chapters  with the protagonist played by three different actors (each giving incredible performances). We see him grow from a bullied, guarded young boy to a hyper masculine drug dealer. This examination of masculinity is one of the most thoughtful and beautifully told stories Ive seen in recent years. Performances are incredible across the board, the photography is lovely, and the screenplay is touching and heartbreaking and honest. I think this film will see a lot of love this award season. (Janelle Monae, one of my favorite music artists, has a small role in this filmand seeing her on screen seemed like a natural extension of her talents. She sat across the aisle from me at the screening, and though I contained myself, I was a giddy schoolgirl inside.) The cast, director and playwright had a Q&A after the screening, and it was also incredible.

After the screening, I met up with a friend from NYC for a couple beers and a bite to eat. I returned to my apartment at 2:00so my alarm going off at 5:50 will not be a welcome sound.

Thanks for reading,

Jonathan
JPMorgan Chase will have to face a lawsuit that accuses it of the retaliatory firing of a whistleblower, according to a Reuters report.



A federal appeals court revived the lawsuit in a ruling today, according to Reuters. The lawsuit alleges that JPMorgan fired vice president and wealth manager Jennifer Sharkey after she warned that an Israeli client might be committing fraud.



The 2nd US Court of Appeals found that Sharkey had a reasonable belief that the unnamed client was committing fraud and money laundering, according to Reuters. Sharkey claimed that she was fired in August of 2009, only a week after warning the bank that it should dump the client, who generated around $600,000 in annual billings, Reuters reported.



Sharkey warned the bank of red flags  and was fired  just a few months after JPMorgan client Bernie Madoffs giant Ponzi scheme was exposed.



However, a US district court judge dismissed Sharkeys lawsuit last October, Reuters reported. Judge Robert Sweet said JPMorgan could have fired the whistleblower for poor performance or for having allegedly lied about communications involving another client. Sharkey, however, denied having lied.



The appeals court disagreed with Sweets assessment, ruling that the close temporal proximity between Sharkeys warning to the bank and her termination justified reviving the case.



A JPMorgan spokesperson said the bank believes the lawsuit is without merit, Reuters reported.



In 2014, the bank agreed to pay $2.6 billion to settle litigation over Madoffs scheme, and  in a deferred prosecution agreement with the federal government  acknowledged responsibility for failing to stop him, Reuters reported.


ROYSE CITY, Texas (AP)  A man has been arrested on a murder charge in the fatal shooting of a Dallas-area firefighter and the victim's wife has been arrested on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder.

Royse City police say 37-year-old Michael Garza turned himself in Sunday at the Hunt County sheriff's office.
China and Russia will start an eight-day joint naval exercise from Monday, which for the first time will take place in the South China Sea for the first time, according to a Chinese navy spokesman.

The drill, "Joint Sea-2016", will feature naval surface ships, submarines, fixed-wing aircraft, ship-borne helicopters marine corps and amphibious armored equipment from both navies, spokesman Liang Yang said on Sunday.

The naval exercise will be held in the eastern waters of Zhanjiang, the southernmost city of Guangdong province, where the Nanhai Fleet under the People's Liberation Army Navy is headquartered.

Most of the Chinese participants will come from the Nanhai Fleet. The exercise will be commanded by Rear Admiral Yu Manjiang, vice-commander of the Nanhai Fleet.

The annual China-Russia joint naval exercise is the fifth between the two sides since 2012.

Chinese and Russian naval forces will undertake defense, rescue, and anti-submarine operations, in addition to joint-island seizing missions and other activities, said Liang, the navy spokesman.

Liang said the drill, from Sept 12-19, is part of an annual program, which aims to consolidate and advance the Sino-Russian comprehensive strategic partnership, and deepen friendly and practical cooperation between the two militaries.

Yang Yujun, spokesman of Chinese Defense Ministry, said in July that the drill "does not target any third party".

Vladimir Matveyev, the chief press officer of Eastern Military District for the Pacific Fleet of Russia, told TASS news agency late last month that the Russian anti-submarine ships Admiral Tributs and Admiral Vinogradov, the amphibious ship Peresvet, the towboat Alatau, and the tanker Pechenga will take part in the drill.

Yin Zhuo, director of the PLA Navy's Expert Consultation Committee, said that dispatching large anti-submarine ships shows that the Russian navy attaches great importance to the joint exercise with China.
Three missing, five injured in east China bridge collapse

The collapsed bridge is seen in Taihe County, east China's Jiangxi Province, Sept. 11, 2016. A bridge in Taihe collapsed Sunday while it was being dismantled, injuring five and leaving three missing. [Photo: Xinhua/Hu Chenhuan]

Three workers went missing and five were injured when a bridge in east China's Jiangxi Province collapsed on Sunday while it was being dismantled.

The collapse happened around 9:17 a.m. in Taihe County of Jiangxi over the Ganjiang River.

Three of eight workers fell into the river and remain unaccounted for, according to the local government.

"I was driving an excavator when the floor of the bridge suddenly collapsed. I lost consciousness after the fall," said Hu Qihua, one of the five injured workers.

Two of the injured workers, Shan Yongkun, 27 and Huang Yong, 32, have suffered multiple bone fractures and remain in critical condition.

More than 400 police and rescuers are looking for the three missing workers.

The 828-meter-long bridge was completed in the early 1990s. An inspection in December 2012 suggested it should be repaired. Workers had been dismantling the bridge structures since August this year.

The cause of the incident is under investigation.
We have been cursed with leaders ...
President Obama was Mondays KVML Newsmaker of the Day. Here are his words:

Fifteen years ago, a September day that began like any other became one of the darkest in our nations history. The Twin Towers were reduced to rubble. The Pentagon was in flames. A Pennsylvania field burned with the wreckage of an airplane. And nearly 3,000 innocent lives were lost. Sons and daughters, husbands and wives, neighbors and colleagues and friends. They were from all walks of life, all races and religions, all colors and creeds, from across America and around the world.

This weekend, we honor their memory once more. We stand with the survivors who still bear the scars of that day. We thank the first responders who risked everything to save others. And we salute a generation of Americansour men and women in uniform, diplomats and our intelligence, homeland security and law enforcement professionals  who serve, and have given their lives, to help keep us safe.

A lot has changed over these past 15 years. Weve delivered devastating blows to the al Qaeda leaders that attacked us on 9/11. We delivered justice to Osama bin Laden. Weve strengthened our homeland security. Weve prevented attacks. Weve saved lives.

At the same time, the terrorist threat has evolved, as weve seen so tragically from Boston to Chattanooga, from San Bernardino to Orlando. So in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and beyond, well stay relentless against terrorists like al Qaeda and ISIL. We will destroy them. And well keep doing everything in our power to protect our homeland.

As we reflect on these past 15 years, its also important to remember what has not changedthe core values that define us as Americans. The resilience that sustains us. After all, terrorists will never be able to defeat the United States. Their only hope is to terrorize us into changing who we are or our way of life. Thats why we Americans will never give in to fear. And its why this weekend we remember the true spirit of 9/11. Were still the America of heroes who ran into harms way; of ordinary folks who took down the hijackers; of families who turned their pain into hope. We are still the America that looks out for one another, bound by our shared belief that I am my brothers keeper, I am my sisters keeper.

In the face of terrorism, how we respond matters. We cannot give in to those who would divide us. We cannot react in ways that erode the fabric of our society. Because its our diversity, our welcoming of all talent, our treating of everybody fairlyno matter their race, gender, ethnicity, or faiththats part of what makes our country great. Its what makes us resilient. And if we stay true to those values, well uphold the legacy of those weve lost, and keep our nation strong and free. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

The Newsmaker of the Day is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML.
A family of five is being helped by the Red Cross after a SUV drove into their home early Monday morning.

5 people were in the house at time of crash

No one was hurt

Driver ran away, is being sought

Deputies are looking for the driver who allegedly ran away from the scene after crashing the SUV, which the Florida Highway Patrol said was reported stolen out of Seminole County.



The Orange County Sheriff's Office and Orange County Fire Rescue responded to the crash on Balboa Drive in Pine Hills at about 2 a.m.

Fire crews left the scene a couple of hours later after making sure everyone was OK. No injuries were reported.

Nellie Campbell was sleeping in the living room when the SUV crashed into her grandson's bedroom.

Campbell said she is grateful her grandson had left the bedroom to go to the bathroom at the time of the crash, because he could have been seriously injured.

"If he would have been in his bed, it wouldn't have been good," Campbell said. "The fire department said he was lucky and I was lucky, because when I was at the front door, I was asleep in the recliner and something popped from the front door, and that's when I heard him screaming."

Five people live inside the home, including Campbell's husband, grandson, granddaughter and a 5-month-old baby.

Campbell said the driver of the vehicle was wearing a white T-shirt and has dreadlocks.

She said the home is not safe for the family to live in, so they will receive help from Red Cross.
As a milestone in the financial compensation process for Pulse victims and families passed Monday, one family said it's grateful but still grieving.

OneOrlando Fund claim deadline is midnight Monday

Families, loved ones continue to visit Pulse site 3 months later

Donations to fund will be accepted through Sept. 23



Monday marks the last day for shooting survivors and victims families to file for OneOrlando Fund compensation. The fund will will accept applications online until midnight, and organizers will accept any postmarked Sept. 12, 2016.

In the three months since the tragedy that claimed 49 lives and wounded 53 others, more than 248 people have applied for compensation from the OneOrlando Fund, which has raised about $25 million.

"It still really feels like yesterday," said Tara Connell, who lost her 21-year-old son, Cory, the night of the shooting. He was at Pulse on June 12, salsa dancing with his girlfriend, when he was shot and killed.

Now, Connell said she is trying to cope with the thought that he's gone forever.

"I keep thinking he's going to walk through the front door and ask, 'Mom, what's for dinner?' "

On Monday, one chapter of Connell's journey through grief came to a close.

While families still struggle to say goodbye, donations collected by the OneOrlando Fund should help them and so many other families who have struggled to find normalcy since the tragedy.

"The quicker (the families) can get help, obviously the better," Connell said.

OneOrlando Fund organizers said the funds will be allocated after Sept. 27, once all the applications have been reviewed and the allocation formula has been approved by the fund's board. The fund will continue to collect donations for distribution through Sept. 23.

Connell said her family isn't concerned with how much they'll receive. They're grateful for any help, because work and life has been tough without Cory.

"It makes me very proud to be his mother, knowing that when he left that house, he made a difference," Connell said.

More assistance for those impacted in the LGBTQ community can be found at Equality Florida. The United Way Family Assistance Center will also provide counseling and financial aid to those directly impacted by the Pulse shooting for the next three years. You can visit them Monday through Friday at 507 E. Michigan St., Orlando, 32806, or call them on their 24/7 hotline at 407-500-HOPE.

Ceremony honors first responders



Law enforcement and first responders held a ceremony at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Orlando on Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, in honor of emergency workers, survivors and victims of the tragedy 3 months ago. (Vincent Earley, staff)

First responders and members of the Central Florida community gathered at the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center on Monday morning to remember the Pulse victims and the emergency workers who helped them.

Orlando Police Chief John Mina said the ceremony meant a great deal to him and his officers.

"On the heels of 9/11, it gives us a chance to honor and remember the sacrifice that our first responders did not only that night but every single day. Our officers have a very difficult job for strangers every single day."

Mina said all the officers who responded to the Pulse shooting have received counseling. One officer has not yet returned to work.
Instead of traveling to Dublin, Ireland, for the St. Patricks Day Parade in March 2017, the Plainview High School Band will go to Hawaii in June 2017.

We are very excited to perform in Pearl Harbor on the Battleship Missouri, explains PHS Band Director Anthony Gonzales. This promises to be an educational and fun trip for all involved.

The trip is scheduled for June 8-13, he reports.

The change in destination, Gonzales explains, was primarily due to economic concerns and the challenge in obtaining passports for the large number of students who participate in the Plainview High Schools band program.

The St. Patricks Day Parade is a competitive event, and the band would not be able to compete given the instrumentation of the students going on the Ireland trip, he said. Due to the high cost involved for each student, Gonzales said the group likely would not have had sufficient numbers of percussionists traveling to Ireland for the marching band to perform up to its customary high standards. Some of the other sections would also have fewer instrumentalists than normally desired.

By playing a standstill concert on the battleship, we can showcase our students in the most positive light possible, he said.

The lower price, more time to collect funds, and the fact that passports will not be necessary should allow many more students the opportunity to go on this trip.

While on their visit to Hawaii, the local students will each receive a traditional Hawaiian Lei upon arrival, Gonzales says.

The students also will have a chance to participate in a number of activities, such as feasting at a traditional Hawaiian luau, exporting the Diamondhead crater which is an extinct volcano, tour historic Pearl Harbor and visit the USS Arizona Memorial, snorkel at the famous Hanuama Bay and have plenty of beach time on Waikiki Beach, he said.

By moving the trip to June, students wont be forced to miss any class time.
(Xinhua) 08:52, September 12, 2016

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- China and the United States are still hopeful that the two countries could conclude negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) under the Obama administration, a former Chinese official has said.

The Chinese negotiating team will come to Washington D.C. for a new round of BIT talks with the U.S. side in the coming week, China's former chief negotiator for World Trade Organization (WTO) entry Long Yongtu said Saturday here at a lunch event about China-U.S. trade relations hosted by the Center for China and Globalization, a Chinese leading social think tank.

"That means the Obama government still wants to get it done before he leaves office," Long told former U.S. trade officials and China experts with Washington-D.C. based think tanks.

In China, the BIT talks enjoy strong and wide support from the top leadership to the private sector, said the former Chinese vice minister for trade, adding that "there's a good chance" that the two countries could wrap up the eight years of talks under the Obama administration.

A total of 28 rounds of BIT talks have been held since China and the United States started negotiations in 2008 to increase mutual investment, which only accounted for a tiny share of their respective overseas investment.

The two sides have recently exchanged "the third revised and significantly improved negative list offers" of sectors that remain closed to foreign investment, and "made further progress in all aspects of the negotiation", according to the outcome list released after a recent meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama in Hangzhou, China.

China and the United States commit to "further intensify the negotiation with a view to concluding a mutually beneficial and high-standard treaty" , the outcome list said.

While provisions regarding the state-owned enterprises remain a sticking point in the BIT talks, Long believed the two sides would "find a way" to reach a deal.

He also suggested that American trade negotiators should be "a little bit less aggressive" trying to manage specific issues in the BIT negotiations, but he didn't elaborate further.

As part of the so-called second-track dialogue of China-U.S. relations, Long had met campaign teams of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in the past two days, trying to figure out the future direction of bilateral relations after the general election in November.

Long expressed his concern about the rise of anti-trade and anti-globalization in the current U.S. presidential campaign. But he believed the forces of globalization "remain strong" with the fast development of new technologies, particularly the Internet, and transnational corporations, which bring investment and trade to every corner of the world.

With the help of the Internet, many small and medium-sized enterprises have also started to join the forces of globalization, which will reinforce the trend toward globalization, he said.

China will remain a driver of globalization and continue pursuing the policy of opening up to the outside world, the former Chinese official said, noting that a significant majority of Chinese people have benefited from that process.

Chinese government also sets up a fund to assist those unemployment workers hurt by certain trade agreements, Long said. "This is the government responsibility. If we don' t do that, people will be against trade agreements and globalization."

"I think we have done it quite well. That' s why in China we do not hear strong voices against globalization, we do not hear strong voices against opening up to the outside world," he said, suggesting the United States could learn from China to help those workers hurt by trade agreements and globalization.

"It's not the fault of those protesters against trade agreements. It's the fault of the government which does not do sufficiently to address those issues," he said.

Reflecting back on China' s accession to the WTO in 2001, Long said China's entry into the WTO has not only brought tremendous benefits to China but also brought significant benefits to the United States and other countries.

China has become the largest export market of American agricultural goods, helping create at least 160,000 jobs in the United States, he said, adding that the two countries should continue expanding cooperation in trade and investment.

The world's two largest economies have become more closely connected over the past few years, as China has become a huge and growing market for U.S. businesses and Chinese investment in the United States has rapidly accelerated.

The investment treaty is expected to continue to expand two-way trade and investment and cement the foundation of China-U.S. economic ties.
MERIDEN  Police say a local man stole items from a Jeep and then ran from officers while handcuffed.



Damain Garcia-Santiago, 23, of 146 Sherman Ave., was arrested Friday and charged with interfering, custody escape, third-degree burglary, first-degree criminal mischief, fourth-degree larceny, tampering with a motor vehicle and possession of drug paraphernalia.



About 7:30 p.m. Friday, police responded to the Bradley Avenue area for a report of a suspicious person. Officers saw a man walking near a Jeep in the area of Lambert Avenue, said Sgt. Christopher Fry. Police determined the Jeep belonged to someone else and found a car speaker nearby, Fry said. The owner of the Jeep arrived and told officers that radio and stereo equipment in the Jeep had been tampered with and destroyed. The damage was estimated at $1,500.



As officers were leading a handcuffed Garcia-Santiago to a cruiser, he tried to run away, Fry said. The officers apprehended him a short distance away. When officers searched him, they found two hypodermic needles.



Bond was set at $25,000.



 Lauren Sievert






WALLINGFORD  A Massachusetts man faces a trespassing charge after police said he refused to leave a health care facility on Sunday.



Thomas Brophy, 54, of 130 Cross Cart Way, Eastham, Massachusetts, was arrested Sunday and charged with second-degree criminal trespass.



Around 8:20 p.m. police responded to Masonicare, 22 Masonic Ave., for a report of a visitor that refused to leave. A nurse told Brophy that visiting hours had ended, and Brophy began yelling at the nurse, according to a police report. At one point Brophy physically moved the nurse out of the room and slammed the door shut. The nurse did not want to press charges, but officers arrested Brophy, who appeared intoxicated, because he would not make arrangements to leave, the report said.



He was released on a $1,000 bond and scheduled to appear at Meriden Superior Court on Sept. 23.










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Nick Jonas made San Antonio sizzle late Saturday night when he paid downtown diners a visit, handing out plates of bacon to swarms of screaming fans who followed him after his concert at the AT&T Center.

Local fans didn't have to pay top dollar for meet-and-greet tickets to rub elbows with the youngest Jonas Brother, who has since embarked on a solo career. All they needed was to keep track of his social media accounts to be invited to the "crazy" after parties he hosted at Mary Ann's Pig Stand and Lulu's Bakery and Cafe.

In addition to being up-close-and-personal with the heartthrob, they had the chance to gnosh on strips of bacon with him.

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"We cooked about 30 pounds of bacon," Lulu's Bakery Manager Vivian Bellino told mySA.com. "It was crazy, he (Jonas) wanted every guest to have bacon."

Bellino said the Dallas-born pop star let the diner know ahead of his concert, around 6 p.m., that he would be stopping by later that night to promote his latest hit, "Bacon," which has a corresponding music diner-themed music video.

So Lulu's was prepared for the herds of shrieking, cellphone wielding fans, who made the small businesses look like the setting of 1960's news coverage showing The Beatles coming to town.

Before Jonas sauntered through the doors of the restaurant with a boombox blaring "Bacon," he tipped of fans with a sly tweet posted a little after 10 p.m.

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"On that late night, doin' what I wanna do thing. San Antonio, let's meet at Pig Stand after the show..#Bacon on me. You down," The Jonas tweet sent the crowds flocking to the businesses. Bellino said surrounding parking lots were filled with cars hoping to get their brush with Jonas.

And like the song says, on "late nights," Jonas does just what he wants to do. On Saturday, that meant sharing bacon with everyone and making the checkered floors of Lulu's and the Pig Stand his dance floor.

RELATED: 18 places in San Antonio where you might spot a celebrity

The manager at Lulu's said he passed around plates of bacon and spent about 10 minutes mingling and posing for fan selfies, then left.

Micayla Serrato, who was one of the fans quick enough to catch Jonas' pop-up event, told mySA.com there were "no words" to adequately sum up what it was like to meet the star.

"Meeting Nick Jonas was definitely something to cross off my bucket list," she said. "He was such a genuine artist and not many famous people take the time to surprise fans after a show like he did. He was amazing."

Mary Ann's Pig Stand, at 1508 Broadway Street, hosted a similar "crazy" scene, employees told mySA.com on Monday.

Pig Stand staff said Jonas started passing out bacon when he showed up around 11 p.m.

"It was a lot (of bacon), enough for every girl in there," a worker said. "It was pretty awesome in here."

Another fan, Alyssa Mclean, captured the party in a video she shared with mySA.com.

"I only got to say 'thanks for the bacon!' It all happened so fast," she said. "But just being that close was something I've waited 10 years for."

Click through the gallery above to see how Nick Jonas cooked San Antonio into a fan frenzy Saturday night.

mmendoza@mysa.com

Twitter: @MaddySkye
Yonanetl Zavala from Holachina.cn signs her name on arrival at Wenquan Hotel in Emeishan city, before the reporting journey starts, on Sunday.

Ten foreign reporters from mainstream media outlets in Beijing and Shanghai gathered in the city of Emeishan in Sichuan province on Sunday, Sept. 11 to kick off a three-day reporting trip.

During the trip, reporterswill visit Mount Emei, which is one of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of Chinaas well as a UNESCO World Heritage site, in order to witness the Buddhist architecture, local practice of martial arts and abundant natural scenery.

The group is touring at the invitation of Peoples Daily Online and the publicity department of Leshans CCP Committee. The group includes reporters from the Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, German and French editions of Peoples Daily Online. Also included are Beijing correspondents for Middle East News Agency, Vietnam-based Nhan Dan Newspaper, Columbia News Agency and Shanghai-based HolaChina.

A member of the Leshan CCP Standing Committee, Lai Shufang, held a banquet on Sunday night to welcome the reporters.

Walid Abdallah, Tunisian reporter for Arabic edition of Peoples Daily Online.

Randa Ibrahim Elwan, Bejing correspondent for Middle East News Agency, National news agency of Egypt.

Olivier Leclouerec, French reporter from Peoples Daily Online.

Ten foreign reporters from mainstream media based in Beijing and Shanghai have gathered in Northwest Chinas Emeishan city of Sichuan province on Sunday, to kick off a 3-day reporting trip.

The member of Leshan Communist Party of China Standing Committee, Lai Shufang holds a banquet to welcome the reporters and delivers a speech on Sunday night.
Update: It is open. Click here for our first look review.

The Bin, the newest concept from chef and restaurateur Jason Dady, opens Sept. 22 near The Pearl, his restaurant group announced.
Video of a brawl at a San Marcos pool party posted on Twitter over the weekend is gaining viral attention online, but went unreported to local law enforcement.

Twitter user @WhiteBoy_Ejyay posted the video Saturday and said the party occurred at Capstone Cottages, a student housing apartment complex located about 2 miles from Texas State University.
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BRIDGEPORT  The long-simmering feud between school board Chairman Dennis Bradley and board member Maria Pereira turned into a war Monday.

On the day Pereira filed a lawsuit against Mayor Joe Ganim for filling a Board of Education vacancy after the school board didnt, Bradley announced that Mondays board meeting was canceled.

Not only that, Bradley called on Pereira to resign.

Board Vice Chairman Joe Larcheveque, as well as members Kevin McSpirit and Annette Segarra-Negron, are backing Bradley, and say they, too, refuse to convene any further regular board meetings until Pereira steps down.

McSpirit said that after much thought, he stands by the call for her resignation.

"Ultimately, this action is about having a board and its members that conducts itself in a manner worthy of the citizens it represents. There is too much at stake for it to be otherwise, McSpirit said.

Larcheveque said that while he has respect for the time Pereira puts into board issues, it always ends in an attack.

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Bradley said it was about drawing a line in the sand.

"Our interim superintendent (Fran Rabinowitz) should not be under harassment nor threatened with board reprimands, Bradley said.

Pereira, who showed up for the canceled meeting at Johnson school, said she has no intention of resigning.

A number of angry parents who also gathered outside Johnson suggested it is Bradley who should resign.

You need to go, Joanne Kennedy, a parent leader, told Bradley, when he, too, showed up at the canceled meeting, technically creating a quorum on the currently eight-member panel.

Sauda Baraka, a board member who said she drove 14 hours the day before to make the meeting, was outraged by the cancellation.

We are here to do a job, she said. Right now we are not taking care of business.

Bradley, who held a news conference in his office to explain his position, said thats just it.

Business isnt getting attended to, Bradley said, because meetings are bogged down with fighting and name calling.

At the end of the last full board meeting, Bradley called Pereira a bully. Pereira countered that Bradley was a buffoon.

The lack of decorum, Bradley said, can jeopardize much-needed funding and the attraction of permanent superintendent candidates. Board dysfunction even got a mention in last weeks historic school funding trial decision, when the judge noted that the interim superintendent reports she routinely faces four to five hours of harassment from disgruntled board members. Real board business in doesnt even get started until around 11 p.m.

While Bradley sees Pereira as an obstructionist, Pereira said she sees Bradley as an agent for what she called a corrupt Ganim and Democratic Town Committee Chairman Mario Testa.

Their concern is certainly not about children, Pereira said. Its about getting their hands on (the boards) $245 million operating budget. Its something I am not going to stand for.

Howard Gardner, another board member, said he stands with Pereira.

This is a power play, Gardner said, adding that the meeting was canceled because they realize they are in a losing position.

When you see through the facade and listen to the substance, once you get to the core, she is speaking the truth, Ben Walker, another board member, said of Pereria. She is taking us in the direction we need to go to help our students.

Pereiras lawsuit, filed Monday in Bridgeport Superior Court, said the mayor contorted the General Statutes and ignored the City Charter in filling a vacancy created last spring with Annette Segarra-Negron, a Republican.

Av Harris, a spokesman for the mayor, said the lawsuit was without legitimate merit.

The mayor had not intent to usurp the powers of the board, Harris said. The Board of Education had a 30-day window to replace a member of the board, and that wasnt done.

Pereiras lawsuit says there is no 30-day time limit.

Among items on the agenda of the canceled meeting were the selection of a search firm for a new superintendent and possible selection of a board member to fill another vacancy.
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STAMFORD  An undocumented workers injury on a downtown construction site and her claims that the company asked her to falsify forms sparked a small protest Monday outside the Broad Street office building.

Delmi Alberto Mejia, a contracted worker for a ninth-floor renovation project at 177 Broad St., fell last month from a rolling scaffold and sustained a dislocated elbow, radius fracture and torn ligaments and tendons, according to a New England Regional Council of Carpenters.

NERCC claims the scaffold lacked standard safety rails, and the rails were not available at the job site.

Mejia, who speaks Spanish, said through a translator that said she was brought onto the project by a representative from a company called Interior Construction. However, Mejia said they told her to say she was hired by the projects subcontractor, Alva Interiors.

When Mejia could not accurately identify her employer when she arrived at Stamford Hospital, she was initially unable to receive surgery to correct her injuries. However, doctors eventually determined her injury was an emergency and performed the surgery without documented insurance, she said.

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A representative from Alva Interiors declined to comment on the safety violation, but an employee in the payroll office said the company has no record of hiring Mejia for the project at 177 Broad St.

RFR Realty, which owns the Broad Street building, declined to comment and would not provide details about the renovation project.

A representative from Interior Construction also declined to comment.

The projects general contractor, Signature Construction Group, did not immediately respond Monday to a request for comment.

The state labor departments Wage and Workplace Standards Division was not able to verify Mejias employer. A wage agent planned to speak with Mejia to determine if she was paid the proper wages and if the payments complied with state record keeping and wage payment laws, department of labor spokeswoman Nancy Steffens wrote in an email.

Mejia also said that a representative from Interior Construction asked her to falsify I-9 and W-2 forms before she would be paid her wages or receive workers compensation following the accident. She declined to falsify documents, and the NERCC helped Mejia legally file the proper workers compensation forms.

Other workers on this job have told me that when they sign in at the start of the work day, they put their names under Alva, but they are paid cash by Interior Construction, said Bob Corriveau, of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters. This is a practice designed to circumvent labor laws by employers. It allows them to not pay state and federal income taxes, Social Security taxes, unemployment taxes and skip out on workers compensation insurance.

nora.naughton@scni.com; twitter.com/noranaughton
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ALBANY  Absentee ballots will determine the winner of the race to be the next City Court judge as Joshua Farrell leads James Long by 96 votes, according to unofficial results.

Farrell led Long by 2,921 to 2,825 votes with all 127 election districts reporting, Albany County Board of Elections returns showed.

About 534 of 600 absentee ballots were back to be counted, according to the Long campaign. It's an ironic twist for Long that the election goes to the absentee ballots  he's been an election law expert that Capital Region Democrats have turned to in past counts.

Farrell expressed confidence that he would maintain his lead.

"I know it's going to be successful. The strength of the campaign was the people," said Farrell.

Long described the race as very close and said he was struck that with his background in election law the race would be decided by the absentees.

"We had a robust absentee voter effort," Long said.

The seat is a 10-year post with an annual salary of $173,700.

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The attorneys ran for the vacancy opening in January with the retirement of Rachel Kretser.

In other races

Giles Wagoner, a retired airline pilot endorsed by the town Democratic Committee, defeated Roland Graves, a construction company owner, for Bethlehem council. With 29 of 30 precincts in, Wagoner had 1,072 votes to Graves' 592.

Wagoner, 67, of Selkirk is also cattle farmer whose experience includes being a Selkirk Fire District commissioner and Bethlehem Conservation Easement Review Board member.

In the Scotia village trustee race, Thomas Gifford has a 3-2 lead over Gregg Zeman in the Conservative primary, and the two are tied with seven votes each in their Independence showdown  but both races showed 17 write-ins and it's as yet unknown who they are, so any victory declaration must wait.

In the Republican primary for a Princetown board vacancy, Benjamin Jacaruso was ahead of Thomas LaBelle 62-51.

Laura TenEyck led Alexandra Moreau in the Conservative primary for New Scotland Council with a 29-21 vote with all eight precincts reporting.
NEWTOWN - A traveler who contracted measles abroad and might have had contact with a handful of unvaccinated people in Newtown is not a cause for major public concern, the towns top health official said Monday.

There are no particular precautions for the public to take, said Donna Culbert, the director of the Newtown Health District. But I do want to take the opportunity to emphasize the importance of vaccinations.

The people thought to have had contact with the traveler  who have not been vaccinated against measles  are confined to their homes until the incubation period for the disease has passed, Culbert said.

They all agreed to movement restrictions while we are monitoring them, Culbert said on Monday.

Measles is highly contagious virus spread by coughing and sneezing. It starts with a fever and sinus symptoms, followed by a full body rash.

Before vaccinations rendered the disease extremely rare, there were as many as four million cases in the United States each year, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

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Measles was in the news in 2015, when 100 cases were reported within two weeks after a visitor to Disneyland apparently started an outbreak.

At the time, the Newtown School District reminded residents that although measles was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000, it can be contracted in other countries and spread among pockets of unvaccinated people.

Maura Downes, spokeswoman for the Connecticut Department of Public Health, said the local measles case was reported to the state at the beginning of the month, when the traveler sought medical attention.

The state informed the Newtown Health District that the traveler had been in town, and local health officials determined that the exposure was extremely limited.

As a result, neither the state nor the town issued a health alert. They might have if the extent of the exposure was not known, or if more than one person had measles, Culbert said.

Details about the people being monitored were not available, except that they were not school-age children.

They have less than a week to go before the incubation period is over, and they are free to leave the house, Culbert said.

Information was not available about the traveler who was being treated for measles, except that the traveler was from Fairfield County.

This is a good opportunity to remind people about the importance of vaccinations, Culbert said.
DANBURY - The city has set a public auction for early October to sell a collection of used cars and trucks.

The surplus vehicles that are no longer needed by parks and recreation, police, public works, and other departments, will be sold to the highest bidder on Oct. 6.
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Green Island

Union representatives at the Honeywell Aerospace factory in Green Island traveled to South Bend, Ind., Monday for a new round of contract talks with the company in hopes of trying to end a four-month lockout.

The trip will also include a health and safety inspection of Honeywell's South Bend factory by the United Auto Workers, which represents workers at that plant as well as the Green Island plant, which makes steel brake pads for airplanes and employs 42 union workers.

Both facilities are covered by a master labor contract, and Honeywell locked out workers at both sites in early May after they rejected the company's contract offer.

The South Bend facility, which is larger, makes carbon brake pads.

Honeywell has been using temporary workers at both plants since the lockout happened. While union members have questioned the quality of the work of the temporary workers, Honeywell has said that there have been no quality control issues.

The UAW requested a health and safety review, or inspection, of the South Bend plant back in July, telling the company in a letter that it had "uncovered a number of concerns" at the plant.

The issues range from the improper handling of hazardous chemicals such as dichromate to improper ventilation in the carbon machine shop and water dripping into electrical boxes.

Honeywell, which agreed to the health and safety review, told the union at the time that it was not aware of any of the issues cited by the union. It also offered to meet again with union officials to resume contract talks since they were going to be in South Bend.

It is unclear what could happen to contract talks if the UAW uncovers health or safety issues at the South Bend plant this week.

The last talks between the two sides were held June 8.

lrulison@timesunion.com  518-454-5504  @larryrulison
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A Torrington woman has been charged with selling fentanyl-laced heroin that led to the overdose death of a New Milford man last fall.

Police used the mans phone to trace text messages back to the woman, who they say sold the heroin to the man who sold it to the overdose victim, who was found .

Dana Baxter, 57, appeared in state Superior Court in Litchfield last Wednesday, on two felony drug charges.

The man police say Baxter sold heroin to, Anthony Buonaiuto, 31, of Washington, has been charged with second-degree manslaughter, possession of narcotics, risk of injury to a child, sale of illegal drugs, and conspiracy to sell illegal drugs stemming from his part in the New Milford mans death.

The victim, who was 35 when he was found on Sept. 19 last year slumped next to a hypodermic needle in a small bathroom in Morris, had injected a potent mix of heroin and fentanyl that police say both Buonaiuto and Baxter knew was bad.

According to court documents, when police looked at the mans phone to find a family member to call moments after they found his body, they came across a text from Ant,who police say is Buonaiuto.

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u wana go out with a bang i have the best i think i have ever had call me, the first text police found read.

While police had his phone, Buonaiuto continued to text the dead man, asking if wanted to re-up on heroin, documents said.

When police arrested Buonaiuto in his Washington apartment, they found 40 small baggies labeled LETHAL CANDY and 1 LOVE full of brown powder, documents said.

Police arrested and charged Buonaiuto with two of his eventual five felony charges less than a week after the mans death. Buonaiuto helped police track down Baxter.

Police claim that Baxter admitted selling the heroin to Buonaiuto. They both knew the dry powder was a deadly mix of heroin and fentanyl, documents said.

Baxter even used some as she drove to Buonaiuto to drop it off, documents said. On the way to Buonaiuto, police said Baxter told them she was so sick that I was forced to pull over.

Police said Baxter delivered the drugs to Buonaiuto, who she thought would be using the stuff himself, and told him not to inject it. This was something that should come with a warning label. It was too strong, police said Baxter told them.

Buonaiuto then sold the drugs to the New Milford man for twice what he paid for them, documents said. The man died the same day.

Buonaiuto is still being held on $150,000 bond. His next court date is Sept. 23. And Baxter, who was released on a $75,000 bond, will next appear in court Oct. 7.

blytton@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3411; @bglytton
Some African journalists at a foreign affairs service center in Guangzhou

Guangdongs capital Gunagzhou is a household name on the lips of foreigners including those studying across China. Any African you ask in China will advise that you shop in Guangzhou. Most of the foreigners use vacation and other free times to go on shopping spree in Guangzhou.

Not that they always go only to buy, they also ship things to their respective countries from Guangzhou. In addition, there are many African business people in Guangzhou who, in collaboration their Chinese friends, assist in shipping their things and as well establish business opportunities for some.

Guangdong Province is situated in south China, adjacent Hong Kong and Macao. It has unique feature of easily connecting the world with China. Besides being Chinas most populous province, it is also the highest connecting point for Chinese and foreigners including business people and other entrepreneurs. Many traders transport goods by sea and air through Guangdong Province.

As part of our tour in the Province on September 6-10, 2016, we, African journalists on fellowship in China, visited the Dengfeng Community in the provincial capital Guangzhou. The community pays host to majority of foreigners in the city due to its strategic location of commercial activities as well as other social opportunities. Therefore, it is also referred to as foreigners residential community.

The conducive business climate pulls more foreigners, mostly Africans to the Chinas most populous province of more than 106 million. A Sierra Leonean who has lived in China for more than two years said he finds pleasure living in Guangzhou because he transacts between Africa and China easily from the area.

From shopper to businesswoman

A Nigerian business lady, who only identified herself as Mrs. Lawal, said she has become successful because Guangzhou is a place of opportunity for her. Mrs. Lawal explained that in 2011, while visiting her sister in Changsha, Hunan Province, they went to shop in Guangzhou. During the process, she came across many of her kinsmen who assisted her to start business in Guangzhou. After my first shipment, I was encouraged and decided to continue and now I am an international business person, she said.

The Nigerian business woman commended China for the level of friendship it continues to extend to Africa, providing more opportunities to Africans. She is pleased with the assistance by Guangdong officials, who, she said are cooperative. She concluded: I am now transformed from shopper to businesswoman.

A social worker speaking with African journalists on how they assist Africans in the area

At a foreign affairs service center in the community, one or two Africans could be seen among every 10 to 15 commuters. Even in shopping malls and other commercial centers Africans are seen in their numbers, transacting. They include short and long stay Africans.

A social worker at the foreign affairs service center told African journalists that Africans come to Guangzhou in their number daily. I do not have the statistics but they come in thousands, the staff noted. The social worker named services they provide for foreigners at the center as: lodging registration, language learning, policy consultation, health maintenance, social assistance and cultural exchange, among others. These services are intended to ensure that the foreigners live peacefully in China.

With such services, coupled with the increased cooperation between China and Africa, there are high prospects of business opportunities for Africans in China and Chinese investments in Africa.

To increase the business cooperation volume, Guangzhou hosted the 2nd Investing in Africa Forum on September 7-8, 2016. Chinas vice premier Ma Kai, South African President Jacob Zuma, Benin President Patrice Talon, other African officials, representatives of international financial institutions, Chinese officials and other Asian business people graced the occasion. Several economic and development agreements were signed at the forum.

For local officials, Guangzhou of more than 16 million people and economic hubShenzhen of more than 10 million people are among the most populous and important cities in China.

According to them, the province has achieved remarkable economic and social development since Chinas reform and opening up. They revealed that in 2015, the province recorded US$1.2 trillion GDP, increasing by eight percent over the GDP in 2014.

Guangdong as a leading industrial base as well as an export processing base for a wide range of products contributes markedly to the countrys export growth. Major export product types include electric and electronic products, computer and communication technology, machinery and equipment, among others. It is also strong at light manufacturing industry. Products include electrical appliances such as television sets, electrical fans and refrigerators, and other consumer products like garments, toys, shoes and electronics. In recent years, Guangdong have moved towards heavy, new and high technology industries.

Fredrick P. W. Gaye is the News Editor of In Profile Daily Newspaper in Liberia and a fellow at the China Africa Press Center (CAPC). He can be reached by: [email protected]
Jefferson Co. Sheriff's Office

A Beaumont man who pleaded guilty to impersonating a sheriff's deputy last year is headed to prison for 10 years, Jefferson County District Attorney Bob Wortham said in a statement released Monday.

Randall Errol Walker, 42, was arrested in July 2015 on two charges of impersonating a public servant and another charge of driving with an invalid license, jail records show.
WESTPORT  Cuts to state funding wont diminish the quality of this state park, if the Friends of Sherwood Island have anything to say about it.

The evening of Friday, Sept. 9 the group hosted its annual Shorefest fundraiser, which included lots of lobster, shellfish and a silent auction.
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NORWALK  If Connecticut based its education funding formula more on community needs than on property values, Norwalk Public Schools could see its state education budget tripled.

Thats one possible long-term outcome of the Sept. 7 Superior Court judges ruling that the state must rework its irrational education funding model within 180 days, according to Mike Lyons, chairman of the Norwalk Board of Education.

The change could mean an additional $20 to $40 million per year in funding for the school district, which Lyons said has been inadequately funded by the state for years due to basing funding needs on property values rather than household income, poverty rates or other, more telling, city data.

Even on the low end, $20 million would be an astounding amount of money, Lyons said. For Norwalk, this looks like really good news.

But the range of possible outcomes are almost limitless, said Alex Knopp, a former Norwalk mayor and city council member who helped bring the education funding case to court.

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Its very hard to make predictions, Knopp said. Especially about the future.

I think our job now is to work as hard as we can to persuade the state and the Legislature about the requirements of a successful, rational and appropriate formula for Norwalk, Knopp said. And work to have that be part of the recommendations It could lead to what Mike Lyons suggests or possibly less.

The courts decision to re-evaluate state education funding comes after decades of dispute over what constitutes a fair and adequate funding model.

The current model, the Education Cost Sharing formula, was set up in the late 1980s in response to another lawsuit challenging the basis of state education funding.

Originally, the state designated money to school districts on a per student basis, but because schools have different needs  and therefore different needs when it comes to funding  the case brought to court eventually led to the ECS formula, which bases funding on the property values of communities. The thinking was that cities with higher property values could afford to cover more of their own educational costs, Knopp said.

Over time, the ECS formula has been tinkered with but has remained mostly the same at its core. That is until state Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher earlier this month gave the state six months to change what has been dubbed an irrational school funding formula into a rational one.

The idea is to rework the formula so that education funding would better reflect the needs of students and not be discounted so much by the artificial wealth of property values in the state, Knopp said.

Norwalk Public Schools currently receives about 7 percent of its budget from the state, Lyons said, while other Connecticut cities comparable to Norwalk tend to get around 28 percent of their budget from the state.

For context, bigger cities throughout the state, such as Hartford, receive 50 to 70 percent of their education budget from the state, Lyons said.

Norwalk tends to get less state education funding because towns with higher property values are assumed to be more self-supportive of their school systems.

However, the system unfairly penalizes communities like Norwalk, which have relatively high property values (due to their proximity to New York City or the coast), but also high levels of poverty, Lyons said.

The ECS formula doesn't take into consideration personal incomes, rates of poverty or percentages of children in school systems who come from poor backgrounds. Think kids who receive free or reduced lunches, Lyons said. In Norwalk, that is about 50 percent of students.

The result is that, in particular, Norwalk and Stamford  Norwalk even more so  really get hammered under the formula, Lyons said.

Meanwhile, Lyons added, the incomes of the communities surrounding Norwalk are three times higher on average and have almost no students who receive free or reduced lunch.

They look at us and say youre rich  youre not getting any money, Lyons said. Norwalk is treated under the ECS formula almost as if we were Greenwich, Fairfield or New Canaan.

Knopp said the underlying issue remains basing Norwalks standard of wealth on its property values.

You may have what is considered a wealthy house because its on the water, but that doesnt mean you can go out and spend your front porch, Knopp said. Property values have increased over time, but that doesnt mean the owner of the house is wealthy.

Knopp said the court ruling is a great victory for Norwalk and an opportunity to bring change to a city that has been the poster child for communities that have been underfunded due to the current state education funding model.

These opportunities to fundamentally change state policy dont come along very often, Knopp said. I hope we will do all we can to advocate for the best solutions and not miss this once-in-a-lifetime chance to make a real fundamental change and do the right thing.

KSchultz@thehour.com; 203-354-1049; @kevinedschultz
Yang Gailan's home

As a grim murder unfolds in rural China, the countrys social media is rife with questions and concerns about poverty.

On August 26th in Chinas northern province of Gansu, a young mother, Yang Gailan, killed her four children, then proceeding to take her own life. Around 6:00 PM, the 28-year-old mother reportedly brought her four children to the small road behind their home in the mountain village of Agu. She then murdered each of them with an axe, according to local Kangle county authorities. Afterwards, she ingested agricultural chemicals and killed herself.

Yang Gailan

Ms. Yang, her husband, and their four children all lived together with Yangs father and grandmother. On September 4th, eight days after the incident, Yangs husband, Li Keying, was found dead in a forest. Overcome with the grief of losing his wife and kids, Li also chose to ingest poison and end his life.

The actual cause of the murder-suicide remains unclear, though theres been plenty of speculation. Reportedly, shortly after the incident a dying Ms. Yang, smiling, said to her grandmother, I was forced to You dont understand. I cant make you understand.

Yang Gailan's grandmother

Subsequent interviews with Agu locals revealed that the family lived in a home made of mud brick. Their financial straits were tough, and got tougher once villagers voted to cancel their low-income welfare. The family didnt talk much and were not popular. The welfare was thus allocated to families in favorable economic situations, said an official.

In recent years, several reports of nepotism have surfaced, with welfare being given to those closer to village officials. Those in real need are often overlooked as a result.

Additionally, because of issues with the childrens hukou (Chinas household registration system), they reportedly couldnt attend school in the larger, wealthier urban area.

Still, the investigation has yet to reach a conclusion.

Yang's bedroom

However, their extremely poor living conditions have gained national attention, sparking a discussion on Chinese social media about the poor living conditions still prevalent in parts of rural China. While many feel sympathetic, others regard this type of behavior by parents as absolutely inexcusable. One person writes, You cant always wait anxiously for welfare. Theres a larger number of ways to escape poverty than there are challenges posed by it.

Others see the tragedy as a reminder to be grateful. One person writes, Im reminded of a line from The Great Gatsby, to not carelessly criticize others, because not everyones conditions are as good as your own.
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Laura Thompson, the interim state representative in Texas House District 120, has gathered enough signatures to qualify as an independent candidate on the Nov. 8 ballot, providing a late challenge to Democratic nominee Barbara Gervin-Hawkins.

The Texas secretary of state notified Thompson on Thursday that she had met the requirements of the Texas Election Code to be added to the ballot as an independent.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 12

Trend:

Armenian armed forces have 14 times violated the ceasefire on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops over the past 24 hours, said Azerbaijans Defense Ministry Sept. 12.

The Armenian armed forces stationed in Berkaber village of Armenias Ijevan district opened fire at the Azerbaijani positions located in Gizilhajili village of Gazakh district.

Positions of the Azerbaijani army also underwent fire from the Armenian positions located near the occupied Chilaburt village of Terter district, Horadiz, Garakhanbayli villages of Fuzuli district, as well as on nameless heights in Goranboy and Fuzuli districts.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
DALLAS (AP)  Investigators don't believe that the 14-year-old girl who shot and wounded a fellow student before turning the gun on herself at a West Texas high school knew the victim, the school district's superintendent said Friday.

Officials are still looking into possible motives for Thursday's shooting at Alpine High School, said Alpine Independent School District Superintendent Becky Watley. She said bullying hasn't been discussed during her conversations with investigators and noted the investigation was ongoing.

Gunshots rang out around 9 a.m. at the school in Alpine, a town about 220 miles southeast of El Paso. Authorities said the 14-year-old died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in a school bathroom near where the victim was shot, and the victim was taken to a local hospital with injuries that weren't considered life threatening. Their names haven't been released.

RELATED: Texas sheriff: 1 student dead, 1 hurt in school shooting

The local sheriff and police chief didn't return messages Friday seeking details about the investigation.

Watley said staff and students at the district's three schools responded fast and exactly as they'd been trained for a shooting incident by locking down classrooms after the shooting was reported. She confirmed that the 14-year-old had moved to the area about six months ago, but she declined to discuss other details.

"It's an ongoing investigation and we are working closely with law enforcement," Watley said.

Cade Blevins, a student at the high school who said he was friends with the victim, told television station KOSA that the victim didn't know the shooter. Blevins said he visited her in the hospital, and she told him she went to the restroom, saw the shooter and tried to flee when she was shot.

Such shootings are rarely carried out by females, according to Jack Levin, co-director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict at Northeastern University. Levin noted that more than 95 percent of fatal school shootings are committed by males.

"And if you look only at the shooters who are students at the school at the time, almost all of them are boys," said Levin, who has written several books about mass shootings and school violence. "Boys who open fire are much more likely to do so indiscriminately."

Levin, who isn't involved in the Alpine investigation, said there are common motivators in school shootings, such as depression or lack of conventional methods of finding support. He also noted that bullying has been present in more than 80 percent of the school shootings he has studied.
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A San Antonio man pleaded guilty Monday to charges that he bribed a former Texas Department of Public Safety employee to get drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants.

Azeez Mistry, 45, would charge between $1,000 to $5,000 to immigrants for the licenses, but he paid an average of $700 per license, bribing Jose A. Ytuarte, 54, who worked as a DPS customer service representative in Hondo, according to court records and statements in court.

The total that immigrants paid Mistry between May 2013 and July 2015 didnt exceed $40,000, court records said.

As part of a plea deal, Mistry pleaded guilty to a single count of use of a facility of interstate commerce with the intent to carry out unlawful activity-bribery. Other charges are to be dismissed when hes sentenced Dec. 7 by U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez.

Rodriguez sentenced Ytuarte last week to 18 months in federal prison for his role.

The FBI and DPS investigated the case after the FBI received a tip, Mistrys plea deal shows. And, according to statements from a prosecutor in court Monday, it appears the agencies still dont know the full names of all the immigrants who got the licenses.

More for you Man charged with stalking Black Rifle Coffee employee

In Texas, foreigners  such as those with visas  can get a drivers license only for the period of their authorized stay and must show proof of their lawful immigration status, the plea deal said. When an immigrant applies for a license, DPS runs a check with the U.S. Homeland Security Department to verify the legal status.

Ytuarte bypassed the system by fraudulently documenting that the immigrants had U.S. birth certificates, Mistrys plea deal said.

They would wait until lunch to conduct the transactions so that other DPS clerks would be away, Mistrys plea deal said.

When U.S. Magistrate Judge John Primomo pressed for details, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christina Playton said that on one occasion, in February 2014, Mistry took an immigrant from India, who had paid him $3,000, to the Hondo DPS office and Ytuarte entered fraudulent information that enabled the immigrant to receive a license through the mail.

The immigrant was identified only as Asad Ali, but the first name was unknown, according to information Playton read into the record.

Mistrys lawyer, Albert Flores, declined comment other than to stress that the case has no ties to terrorism. Court records show agents jumped on this case and a similar one to make sure no one with terrorism ties got drivers licenses.

In the other case, Linda Ann Perez, a clerk at the DPS office on South Gen. McMullen Drive on San Antonios West Side, was sentenced in July to 47 months in prison for taking $215,000 in bribes in exchange for entering fraudulent information into DPS computers so undocumented immigrants could get drivers licenses.

gcontreras@express-news.net

Twitter: @gmaninfedland
The birth of a pair of jaguar cubs at the San Antonio Zoo Tuesday, September 6, was the "first significant births" of the species at the zoo since 1974, according to a news release.

In December 2014, the cubs' mother, Arizona, arrived in San Antonio from Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo to mate with a male named B'alam as part of the Association of Zoos and Aquarium's Species Survival Plan.
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BROWNSVILLE  Miriam Hernandez, 25, who is eight months pregnant, follows a simple regimen to avoid mosquitoes that might carry the Zika virus.

I always put on repellent, she said, and I never go outside at night.

On a recent afternoon, Hernandez squeezed into the cramped kitchen of a neighbors trailer, rubbing her swollen belly as a community health worker informed a small gathering of young mothers about Zika, the virus that has been linked to birth defects, especially a condition known as microcephaly, in which babies are born with abnormally small heads.

Most of the women demonstrated a basic understanding of how to protect themselves against Zika, but none was especially concerned, much less Hernandez, noting that measures to protect her unborn child had proved effective.

I just had a checkup, she said. My baby is healthy.

Even as Zika, transmitted mainly through bites from infected mosquitoes, has spread across parts of Latin America, the Caribbean and most recently Miami, nearly all of the more than 170 cases reported in Texas were contracted by people traveling outside the country.

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So far, Zika has not been detected in the Rio Grande Valley, which might explain why the fear it has caused in some communities is largely absent in this corner of the border. Yet health officials here warn that this almost certainly will change.

Zika is going to be here sooner or later, said Eddie Olivares, Hidalgo County health director. Its going to happen, so we have to prepare.

The Aedes aegypti mosquito, which can carry the Zika virus, dengue and chikungunya, is endemic to the Texas-Mexico border. Air conditioning and window screens help prevent transmission, but impoverished neighborhoods, known as colonias, often lack these amenities.

Zika first came to the attention of Hidalgo County health officials late last year. Since then, Olivares has aggressively sought to educate the public, relying heavily on partnerships with faith-based leaders and community organizations to spread the word about the virus.

Proyecto Azteca, a nonprofit self-help construction company, spent several weeks this summer knocking on doors in Indian Hills, a colonia made up of ramshackle homes near Mercedes where stagnant water pools in discarded tires and empty lots are overgrown with waist-high grass.

Promotoras, or basic health care providers, working with Proyecto Azteca delivered pamphlets on Zika, handed out 1,000 cans of repellent and helped organize trash cleanup in the colonia.

People would see Zika in the news, but they werent sure what to look out for, said Amber Arriaga, assistant executive director of Proyecto Azteca. But when someone knocks on your door, you pay attention.

Educating the community is the most direct and best way to prevent Zika transmission, according to Olivares. Meanwhile, the county is working with drainage districts to clean ditches, and environmental health inspectors are systematically setting traps, distributing larvicide and spraying.

While larger communities typically pay for their own Zika-prevention measures, county health departments are tasked with many of the unincorporated colonias. The challenge of Zika left Olivares with little choice but to shift money from one line item in his general fund to another to increase funds for supplies and equipment.

Lack of funding isnt going to stop us from moving forward, Olivares said. But by moving those around, other line items may suffer  Im almost robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Complicating matters, every day thousands of women travel to communities in Mexico for work or to visit family. Nearly half of pregnant women who seek care in Cameron Countys Health Department clinics have traveled through Mexico or Central America in recent months, according to Yvette Ortega, a county nurse practitioner in San Benito.

People infected with Zika may suffer from fever, joint pain, a rash and red eyes, but many infected people show no symptoms. Protocol along the border now requires that any woman who has been to Zika-transmission areas be tested for the virus, regardless of the absence of symptoms.

When I think of the border, I dont think of it as the 3 million who live on the Texas side. I think of it as the 7 million people who live on both sides together, said Ronald J. Dutton, director of the Office of Border Health with the Texas Department of State Health Services. It should be considered one epidemiological region.

Its the binational nature of the border region that presents a challenge. Even as health officials in Hidalgo and Cameron counties monitor Zika alongside their counterparts in Mexico, the rise of dengue in Mexicos Tamaulipas state during the early part of this year led some to fear that Zika could follow.

The threat soon faded, in part because a hot and dry summer limited the mosquito population, but dengue is a persistent concern here.

When a dengue epidemic spread through border communities in Tamaulipas in 2013, a pregnant Diana Karen Valdez, 23, became infected with the virus.

I had a fever  I really had to take care of myself, she said. When I found out I was pregnant this time, I moved to Brownsville.

Valdez is eight months pregnant. She thought perhaps there was a vaccine for Zika. There isnt, which her OB-GYN, Roberto Diaz Gonzalez, told her. So far, though, he has found her coming child healthy.

Throughout her pregnancy, Valdez put on repellent when she ventured outdoors, and she wore long pants when she did. But she didnt worry too much, an attitude Gonzalez encourages among his patients.

If I were a young lady of reproductive age I would be scared, but I try not to scare people, he said. The only way to really attack the problem of Zika is to provide the money for research.

Cameron County commissioners last month made a pre-disaster declaration, urging Congress, which has been at an impasse over funding for Zika, to provide resources to South Texas to prepare for Zika. Yet with the chances for funding unlikely to come soon, Esmeralda Guajardo, Cameron County health administrator, said the county will just have to make do with the resources it has.

That figures to be a challenge in a county where the per capita income is less than $14,000 and many people cant afford medical care. There are also many undocumented immigrants who live in the county and are uninsured.

Were trying to battle this threat, and we dont have the resources to do it. We have to get creative. What else can we do? Guajardo said. This is a battle we fight every single day. Zika is nothing new; it just intensifies the battle we face.

anelsen@express-news.net
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 12

Trend:

The first meeting of the contact group created within the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be held during the upcoming session of the UN General Assembly.

The announcement was made during the meeting of Azerbaijans Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov with OIC Secretary General Iyad bin Amin Madani who is on a working visit to the country, Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry told Trend Sept.12.

During the meeting, the parties exchanged views on cooperation between Azerbaijan and OIC, the priority areas of this cooperation, bilateral relations with the organizations member states and other issues of mutual interest.

OIC secretary general congratulated the Azerbaijani state and people with Eid al-Adha. He praised Azerbaijans active role and contribution to OICs work as the organizations member.

Iyad bin Amin Madani emphasized that Azerbaijan preserves the multicultural traditions and religious values at a high level. He expressed confidence that the cooperation with Azerbaijan will continue further at a high level.

Mammadyarov, for his part, said that Azerbaijan attaches special importance to the development of relations with OIC. He pointed out that there is a favorable platform for further developing the bilateral and multilateral relations with OIC member states.

The foreign minister provided detailed information about the status of the talks on resolving the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, expressed gratitude to the OIC secretary general and member states for supporting Azerbaijans fair position in this conflict. He expressed confidence that the creation and activities of the contact group will contribute to the conflicts settlement.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

Further, Iyad bin Amin Madani expressed gratitude to Azerbaijan for its initiative to hold Islamic Solidarity Games in 2017.

Mammadyarov noted that as an active member of OIC, Azerbaijan will continue to make contribution to the fulfillment of the tasks on the organizations agenda.

During the meeting, the parties also emphasized the necessity of strengthening the Islamic solidarity within the organization.
The populace in United States is aging. This will become a reality from 2011 to 2029, as more baby boomers reach retirement age.

One trend that is less apparent is the rapid growth of the elderly population among Latinos in the United States as well as throughout Latin America. In the U.S., while the number of white elderly rose by 24 percent between 2000 and 2014, the number of Latino seniors more than doubled from 1.7 million in 2000 to 3.5 million in 2014. The Latino elderly population also doubled in California and Texas during this time. In California, for the first time ever, there were more Latinos than whites joining the ranks of persons 65 and older between 2000 and 2014. Mexicos elderly population nearly doubled between 2000 and 2010 as well.
America has had better weeks than the one just past.

Only days away from the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates convened last week for what was dubbed the Commander-in-Chief Forum, sponsored by NBC News and hosted by Where in the world is Matt Lauer?

Indeed.

And then there was Libertarian Gary Johnson, whose spaceship apparently just landed in Earths 2016. Appearing on Morning Joe, he responded to Mike Barnicles question about Aleppo with, And what is Aleppo? Barnicle might as well have said it was an Italian coffeemaker and moved on.

At the forum, we learned that Lauer apparently just got wind that Clinton used a private email server because he devoted fully one-third of her allotted time to questions about the email, which has been investigated exhaustively for about two years. Otherwise, we learned that Clintons top counterterrorism goal is to defeat the Islamic State, which failed to awaken the thousands of people who requested an induced coma until after Nov. 8.

From Trump we learned that he built a great company, which was news to us, and that he has a plan for defeating the Islamic State but hes not about to tell anyone because he might be elected and then the terrorists would know that he intends to ask his top generals for a plan.

We also learned, because weve never heard this before, that the U.S.-led Iraq invasion was a mistake that Clinton once favored and that Trump did not, except that he did. But who, pray tell, ever cared what Trump the New York real estate developer thought about our military plans for Iraq? Why not just ask Joe the doorman at 30 E. 76th Street? Or the cashier at Madison Avenues 3 Guys Restaurant?

Today, lets face it, everybodys against it after they were for it.

Clinton seems to have abandoned even her qualifying trope for voting for the Iraq invasion  based on the intelligence we had at the time. At the forum, she simply and solemnly intoned that it was a mistake.

This was a noteworthy moment, obviously premeditated in anticipation of the question, and seems to have been choreographed to convey statesmanlike buck-stops-here gravitas. A curious choice when speaking to the military audience gathered and an unqualified obscenity to the ears of families whose loved ones perished. Why not use the opportunity to say that as commander in chief, her first order of business would be to ensure no such intelligence failure ever happens again?

Similarly curious was Trumps response outlining his qualifications to command the military: Ive built a great company. For real? He missed an obvious opening to say something thoughtful and original that highlights what he has over his opponent  a record of dealmaking and negotiation. He had a chance to create a new narrative: If war is a failure of diplomacy, then Trump could say hes uniquely qualified to use his talents to end all wars.

This isnt necessarily so, but it sure beats his usual campaign Big Talk about nukes and nationalistic jingoism. Instead, he essentially finessed the forum by saying so little of substance that no ones the wiser and his supporters can continue to invent whatever fantasy narrative gets them through the night. Including, it would seem, that its OK for the Republican nominee to blow kisses at Vladimir Putin, whom Mitt Romney long ago, and to much eye-rolling, identified as our greatest geopolitical foe.

Not to Trump, who declared last week that Putin is a far better leader for Russia than Barack Obama has been for the U.S. Never mind that Putin  former KGB officer, aggressor, oppressor, autocrat and, yes, dictator  leads in part by ensuring that his opponents cease breathing. Is this really Trumps idea of leadership? What could go wrong?

To distill the week: Clinton proved herself knowledgeable, if foggy, and experienced in public affairs, as well as in artifice and deceit. Trump is a substance-free figment of his own imagination, whose stated reason for running for president is that he thinks he can win. Finally, Johnson is a former governor who stopped smoking pot to run for commander in chief because a crow landed on his shoulder in the New Mexico desert and whispered in his ear that he should.

Missing Romney yet?

kathleenparker@washpost.com
If there has been one unifying theme to Donald Trumps campaign, its probably this: Throw the bums out.

Unfortunately, that is not exactly a concrete set of policy proposals, nor is it a coherent governing philosophy. Despite what you may learn watching The Apprentice, you cant just fire your way to success.

Still, Trump seems to think there is no problem that cant be solved through layoffs.

At last weeks Commander-in-Chief Forum, for example, NBCs Matt Lauer asked the Republican nominee about his declaration that within his first 30 days in office, his top generals would submit a plan for soundly and quickly defeating ISIS. What use would that serve, Lauer asked, when Trump has said that he already knows more about the Islamic State than the generals do?

Well, theyll probably be different generals, to be honest with you, Trump retorted, later adding that current personnel have led to the worst and you could even say the dumbest foreign policy.

At no point did Trump provide guidance on what hed be looking for in new military advisers  other than, of course, a public endorsement of Trump  or what his or their secret master plan for defeating the Islamic State should look like.

Just a few weeks earlier, Trump suggested he might soon be cleaning house in the countrys intelligence agencies, too. On Fox News, he said he didnt trust the U.S. intelligence community and planned not to use the people that are sort of your standards.

Its not just the national security apparatus that deserves to be purged, in Trumps view. As president, he would also cleanse the entire executive branch of career civil servants appointed during President Obamas tenure.

As you know from his other career, Donald likes to fire people, Trump adviser and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said while explaining the plan  which would require changing civil service law  during a closed-door donor meeting at the Republican National Convention, according to Reuters. (Trump could get beaten to the punch; if a January government survey is to be believed, 1 in 4 federal employees would consider voluntarily resigning if Trump were elected.)

Trumps pitch to voters is a broader application of this fire everyone and dont ask questions about their replacements philosophy. Your lives suck, he tells voters, which means the whole system deserves to be burned down, and replaced with  something terrific.

Look at how much African-American communities are suffering under Democratic control, he said last month. To those I say the following: What do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump? What do you have to lose?

In Trumps pitch, establishment equals bad, new guy equals good  regardless of what that new guy stands for.

Within his own campaign, Trump fired and replaced two campaign managers over two months, each time in an apparent response to declining poll numbers. As proof of Trumps claim that he hires only the best people, the latest all-star lineup includes an accused sexual predator and the man who presided over the leading forum of the racist alt-right.

But, hey, better the devil you dont know than the devil you do, right? Thats the Trumpian worldview.

I get the throw-the-bums-out impulse. It makes intuitive sense to look at disappointing outcomes and decide that something, and someone, needs to change. But smashing an unsatisfactory status quo without thinking deeply about who or what will succeed it is hardly a recipe for success.

Life would be easier if clearing out the dead wood were the same thing as planting new seedlings. But, sadly, thats not how life works.

By all means, voters may have motive to throw the bums out; still, we ought to be careful about what kind of new bums take their place.

crampell@washpost.com
Among the more enduring oddities of this presidential campaign will be the bromance between GOP nominee Donald Trump and Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.

In a televised forum Wednesday testing the commander-in-chief chops of the two major party presidential candidates, Trump again became apologist-in-chief for the Russian leader.

While Hillary Clinton, confronted with her appreciation for secrecy in communications, did not come away unscathed, Trump simply flunked on a number of fronts. He said the U.S. should have seized oil from Iraq during the invasion. He failed to disavow his claim to know more about ISIS than U.S. generals, whom he wants to fire. He said that intelligence briefers told him through body language that they were not happy with President Barack Obama.

But his remarks on Putin were particularly disturbing. There is high confidence that Russia was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee. Authorities warn that more Russian cyber-mischief in U.S. elections could be afoot. Putin seized Crimea and, in the Ukraine, is fighting a war by proxy and with covert boots on the ground. A Russian-made missile shot down Malaysian Flight MH17, killing 283.

Putin militarily backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, giving that murderous regime  and ISIS  breathing space. Putins political enemies are murdered.

After the moderator tried to detail some of Putins excesses, Trump said, Do you want me to start naming some of the things that President Obama does at the same time?

As with much of what Trump said during the forum, this should have not gone unchallenged. But it would have been more revealing of Trump than the president  revealing the GOP nominee as not just clueless but dangerous. Again.
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Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have promised more releases of information on their health. This is long overdue and the release by Clinton shouldnt have depended on her bout with pneumonia and what appeared to be a near collapse as she left a service marking the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

The fact is that transparency has been an issue for both candidates, not just Clinton. Trump hasnt been forthcoming enough on his own medical records and, of course, he has famously refused to release his tax records. Clinton has released her tax records.

Aside from her email controversy, Clinton has been dogged by knocks on her strength and stamina by Trump and on her health generally by his surrogates. Following the incident Sunday, Clintons campaign said it will release additional medical records this week. Trump said earlier he would release such records.

These releases must be as thorough as possible, not like the inadequate claims of good health by Trumps doctor recently without any proof of that quality of health.

Yes, the questioning of Clintons stamina and health was more a case of speculative rumor-mongering, helped along by her persistent cough. But there was an easy way to counter that. Though she had released some medical information, she simply could have made her health an open book for the voting public.

And neither was her reputation for resisting transparency helped by how her campaign reacted to the incident Sunday.

Though the campaign said there had been a diagnosis of pneumonia the previous Friday, it did not disclose that until after more than six hours after her stumbling departure from the 9/11 event. The public and the press were both kept in the dark.

Though Clinton is 68 (birthday in October) and Trump 70 (birthday in June), the release of health records by any presidential candidate of any age is important.

In an election, more than stances on issues must be weighed. Americans must have confidence that our next president can stand up to the immense rigors of the job.

Both the candidates penchants for secrecy  and not just regarding health  have ill served their campaigns and voters. This must stop.

Let the health releases signal an end to this.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 12

Trend:

President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a phone call to President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on September 12, Azerbaijani president's press service reported.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan congratulated President Ilham Aliyev on the occasion of Eid al-Adha and wished the people of Azerbaijan well-being.

The head of state expressed his gratitude to the President of Turkey for attention and congratulations. President Ilham Aliyev congratulated Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the people of Turkey, and extended his wishes for peace and prosperity of the people of Turkey.

The heads of states expressed their confidence that the friendly and brotherly relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey would continue successfully developing in all areas.
Zimbabwes former police chief Augustine Chihuri has won his battle against moves to seize his properties under a controversial unexplained wealth law.

Chihuri, who fled to exile during a 2017 military coup, however failed to have the law declared unconstitutional in a partial victory at the Harare High Court.

Justice Pisirayi Kwenda, in a judgement read on his behalf by Justice Justice Rodgers Foroma Manyangadze on Tuesday, stopped the National Prosecuting Authority from forfeiting Chihuris vast portfolio of properties unless he can explain how he acquired them.

Justice Kwenda amended, by deletion, several parts of the unexplained wealth order granted by the High Court on June 11, 2020. In doing so, he stopped the NPA from asking further questions about several properties including Chihuris imposing Gletwyn mansion sitting on 30 acres and valued at US$7 million. The property combines seven stands.

Other properties the NPA has been blocked from inquiring into include a 1,219 square meter house in Strathaven, a 9.25-hectare farm in Lomagundi, a 5,500 sqm house in Quinnington, a 4,639 sqm house in Athlone, Harare, a 142 sqm house in Zengeza and a 4,891 sqm house in Mt Pleasant.

The High Court has also ordered non-interference with several other Chihuri properties including five vehicles, agricultural equipment at the Lomagundi farm and farming equipment at his Inyika Farm in Shamva including combine harvesters, tractors, planters and boom sprays.

It was however not all good news for Chihuri after Justice Kwenda said he was not satisfied that good cause has been shown to set aside the other order with respect to funds received by four of Chihuris companies  Croxile Investments, Adamah Enterprises, Mastermedia and Mastaw Investments  from the ZRP for services. The companies have since stopped trading.

Chihuris lawyer Addington Chinake had argued that unexplained wealth orders demonstrate the hazard that exists in allowing public officials unfettered power to simply point at a person and ask you to explain.

He said in Chihuris case, he was not given an opportunity to explain how he acquired the properties before the NPA applied for the unexplained wealth order.

When you have such power, you have to exercise it judiciously and fairly, and you should give any such person due notice of what you intend to do and affording them opportunity to respond and an opportunity to be heard. Where they (NPA) see reason to take action, they must give reasons for doing that, Chinake argued.

Chihuris case was a good example where the Prosecutor Generals office did not satisfy these requirements and for that reason this unexplained wealth order was obtained improperly and in an unconstitutional manner and must be set aside, the lawyer said back in March, before judgement was reserved.

Chinake said Chihuri owned a company called Kidsdale for 20 years after securing a loan from CBZ bank. The company owned tippers, earth movers and other construction equipment.

It had big contracts, Chinake said. My client is not a dubious character who suddenly woke up to amass such wealth. Its painful, for example, that the applicant being a beneficiary of the land reform programme was also a farmer producing maize which he sold to GMB. However, after the November 2017 events, his maize would not be accepted by the state.

The applicant cannot be said to have obtained money or generated money through improper or illicit means when in fact he has chronicled before this court full details of how he was engaged in banana farming and maize farming which was sold for profit.

 ZimLive

Breaking News via Email
ALEXANDRIA, Va.  NACS issued a statement last week expressing its strong opposition to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarlings (R-TX) intention to hold debate on the Financial Choice Act (H.R. 5983), which includes a provision to repeal debit swipe fee reforms contained in the Durbin Amendment.

NACS is deeply disappointed that Rep. Hensarling will try to repeal debit swipe fee reform, said NACS Senior Vice President of Government Relations Lyle Beckwith. Repeal would allow the credit card Goliaths to resume price-fixing of debit-card fees and block smaller card networks from competing with them for business.

Even with reform, the dominance of the Visa-MasterCard duopoly means retailers and consumers in the United States pay the highest swipe fees in the worldup to seven or eight times European levels. Without the vital protections of debit reform and the small measure of competition it has introduced to the market, consumers would face higher prices and smaller merchants would face even greater burdensespecially convenience store owners. Higher swipe fees, which on average are the fastest-growing expense and second-largest operating cost for retailers, cost American consumers tens of billions of dollars every year.

We strongly urge Congress to put the interests of merchants and consumers ahead of the credit card giants by voting against the Financial Choice Act.

Six years ago, debit reform passed (with bipartisan support in the Senate) as an amendmentformally known as the Durbin Amendmentto the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform package. The reform stated that centrally price-fixed swipe fees on debit transactions had to be reasonable and proportional to the cost of processing the transaction. Importantly, the reform ensured that competition among debit networks continued.

Debit swipe fee reform has helped both merchants and consumers alike. Merchants have seen transparency for the first time when a customer swipes a debit card. And according to an economic report released by the Merchants Payments Coalition, cutting debit fees put $6 billion in consumers hands through lower prices and created more than 37,000 new jobs annually.

NACS is asking convenience retailers to reach out to their representatives and encourage them to oppose the Financial Choice Act as long as the provision to repeal the Durbin Amendment remains. In just a few minutes, industry stakeholders can send a letter to their members of Congress telling them how Hensarlings legislation would affect their business and their customers.
By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She now spends most of her time in India and other parts of Asia researching a book about textile artisans. She also writes regularly about legal, political economy, and regulatory topics for various consulting clients and publications, as well as writes occasional travel pieces for The National.

I guess that you might expect a film showing security guards unleashing dogs and pepper spray on those protesting the Dakota Access oil Pipeline (DAPL) would be bound to get someones attention. Surely it might lead to an arrest or at minimum, disciplinary measures against those who employed such tactics against non-violent protestors. After all, the optics of such measures surely rebound against those who order them to be unleashed (anyone remember Selma, for example?)

Well, if you thought that, you would be wrong. We dont live in sane times.

Instead, a warrant has been issued in Morton County, North Dakota for the arrest of award-winning journalist Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, on a charge of criminal trespassing, a Class B misdemeanor offense, as reported by the local Dickinson Press. Goodman and her team have been in the forefront of covering the DAPL protests. On September 3, they filmed security personnel working for the pipeline company using dogs and pepper spray to attack protesters. That graphic report, which may be viewed here, went viral and was rebroadcast widely by CBS, NBC, NPR, CNN, MSNBC and the Huffington Post, among other outlets.

This is an unacceptable violation of freedom of the press, said Amy Goodman in a statement. I was doing my job by covering pipeline guards unleashing dogs and pepper spray on Native American protesters.

So much for heeding the reminder that the First Amendment applies as spelled out in the statement issued by the Department of Justice, Department of the Army, and the Department of the Interiors on Friday that asked for voluntary suspension of DAPL construction within a forty mile area surrounding Lake Oahe:

Finally, we fully support the rights of all Americans to assemble and speak freely. We urge everyone involved in protest or pipeline activities to adhere to the principles of nonviolence. Of course, anyone who commits violent or destructive acts may face criminal sanctions from federal, tribal, state, or local authorities. The Departments of Justice and the Interior will continue to deploy resources to North Dakota to help state, local, and tribal authorities, and the communities they serve, better communicate, defuse tensions, support peaceful protest, and maintain public safety. In recent days, we have seen thousands of demonstrators come together peacefully, with support from scores of sovereign tribal governments, to exercise their First Amendment rights and to voice heartfelt concerns about the environment and historic, sacred sites. It is now incumbent on all of us to develop a path forward that serves the broadest public interest.

Now, to be sure, the government statement doesnt explicitly mention allowing the press to do its job. But, the last time checked, the First Amendment still applies to such press activities:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Im wondering whether they have copies of the US Constitution in Morton County. I mean, seriously, who could have thought that issuing such an arrest warrant was a good idea especially after the feds stepped in and essentially asked everyone to take a time out. At whose instigation was this move undertaken? I cant get my mind around what the move was designed to achieve: did they think they would actually shut down Amy Goodman?

Morton County officials have also issued arrest warrants for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and her running mate Ajamu Baraka on misdemeanor counts of criminal trespass and criminal mischief. That case is not so straightforward, as Stein has admitted to spray painting construction equipment during protests last week. She has promised to return to North Dakota to face the charges and is now working with her attorneys and North Dakota authorities to fix a court date, according to the Chicago Tribune.

So far, 38 arrests have been made related to the DAPL protests, according to the Dickinson Press, which also reports that the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board is investigating the use of dogs by security personnel in connection with the protests as well as whether the personnel were properly licensed or registered to work in North Dakota.

Some strange things going down in North Dakota, however, and they dont augur well for those who are peacefully engaging in constitutionally protected activity, including peaceful protest and press coverage. I noticed, for example, that the state

recently became the first to authorize the use of armed drones by police Watch your back, Amy! (And keep an eye peeled to the front and sides as well.)

Protests are not likely to go away, at least in the longer term. In an obvious attempt to defuse the situation, the three federal agencies on Friday called for a temporary halt in construction on a small portion of DAPL shortly after federal district court judge James E. Boasberg declined to issue an injunction stopping construction throughout the pipelines entirety. Yet as I argue here, there is far less to this federal action than meets the eye, and with the possible exception of the Lake Oahu section,the pipeline company will press on with construction as it is committed to supply contracts that kick in in 2017.
Inorganic double helix (Nanowerk News) It is the double helix, with its stable and flexible structure of genetic information, that made life on Earth possible in the first place. Now a team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has discovered a double helix structure in an inorganic material (Advanced Materials, "Inorganic Double Helices in Semiconducting SnIP"). The material comprising tin, iodine and phosphorus is a semiconductor with extraordinary optical and electronic properties, as well as extreme mechanical flexibility.

Needles of the flexible semiconducting material SnIP; on the left side residual black phosphorous and tiniodide (red). (Image: Andreas Battenberg / TUM) (click on image to enlarge)

Flexible yet robust  this is one reason why nature codes genetic information in the form of a double helix. Scientists at TU Munich have now discovered an inorganic substance whose elements are arranged in the form of a double helix.

The substance called SnIP, comprising the elements tin (Sn), iodine (I) and phosphorus (P), is a semiconductor. However, unlike conventional inorganic semiconducting materials, it is highly flexible. The centimeter-long fibers can be arbitrarily bent without breaking.

"This property of SnIP is clearly attributable to the double helix," says Daniela Pfister, who discovered the material and works as a researcher in the work group of Tom Nilges, Professor for Synthesis and Characterization of Innovative Materials at TU Munich. "SnIP can be easily produced on a gram scale and is, unlike gallium arsenide, which has similar electronic characteristics, far less toxic."

Needles of the flexible semiconducting material SnIP. (Image: Andreas Battenberg / TUM)

Countless application possibilities

The semiconducting properties of SnIP promise a wide range of application opportunities, from energy conversion in solar cells and thermoelectric elements to photocatalysts, sensors and optoelectronic elements. By doping with other elements, the electronic characteristics of the new material can be adapted to a wide range of applications.

Due to the arrangement of atoms in the form of a double helix, the fibers, which are up to a centimeter in length can be easily split into thinner strands. The thinnest fibers to date comprise only five double helix strands and are only a few nanometers thick. That opens the door also to nanoelectronic applications.

"Especially the combination of interesting semiconductor properties and mechanical flexibility gives us great optimism regarding possible applications," says Professor Nilges. "Compared to organic solar cells, we hope to achieve significantly higher stability from the inorganic materials. For example, SnIP remains stable up to around 500C (930 F)."

Electronmicroscopic image of SnIP-needles (9700x, 5 kV). (Image: Viola Duppel / MPI for Solid State Research)

Just at the beginning

"Similar to carbon, where we have the three-dimensional (3D) diamond, the two dimensional graphene and the one dimensional nanotubes," explains Professor Nilges, "we here have, alongside the 3D semiconducting material silicon and the 2D material phosphorene, for the first time a one dimensional material  with perspectives that are every bit as exciting as carbon nanotubes."

Just as with carbon nanotubes and polymer-based printing inks, SnIP double helices can be suspended in solvents like toluene. In this way, thin layers can be produced easily and cost-effectively. "But we are only at the very beginning of the materials development stage," says Daniela Pfister. "Every single process step still needs to be worked out."

Since the double helix strands of SnIP come in left and right-handed variants, materials that comprise only one of the two should display special optical characteristics. This makes them highly interesting for optoelectronics applications. But, so far there is no technology available for separating the two variants.

One chain of the double helix is formed by an alternating string consisting tin and iodine atoms, the other is formed by phosphor atoms. (Image: Prof. Tom Nilges / TUM)

Theoretical calculations by the researchers have shown that a whole range of further elements should form these kinds of inorganic double helices. Extensive patent protection is pending. The researchers are now working intensively on finding suitable production processes for further materials.

Interdisciplinary cooperation
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 12

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

The Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA) is ready to help Azerbaijan expand the potential of agribusiness and make Azerbaijani agricultural products reach domestic and foreign markets, GCCA Vice President of International Programs Richard Tracy told reporters in Baku.

Tracy said he was impressed by some enterprises in Azerbaijan, adding that they fully meet international standards, however, some businesses need support in bringing their work to international standards.

He went on to add that the GCCA representatives had already visited a number of enterprises operating in Azerbaijan. The quality of some companies is very good and the alliance can help them to become even better and expand their business, he added.

GCCA vice president also touched upon the possibility of Azerbaijani agricultural products export to other countries.

Azerbaijan produces some of the most delicious products in the world, Tracy noted. The country has an advantage in the export of domestically produced pomegranates, he said, adding that their quality is good, and so is their cost.
Stretchable nano-devices towards smart contact lenses (Nanowerk News) Researchers at RMIT University and the University of Adelaide have joined forces to create a stretchable nano-scale device to manipulate light (ACS Nano, "Mechanically Tunable Dielectric Resonator Metasurfaces at Visible Frequencies").

The device manipulates light to such an extent that it can filter specific colors while still being transparent and could be used in the future to make smart contact lenses.

These are nanoscale glass structures that filter or manipulate light. (Image: RMIT/The University of Adelaide)

Using the technology, high-tech lenses could one day filter harmful optical radiation without interfering with vision -- or in a more advanced version, transmit data and gather live vital information or even show information like a head-up display.

The light manipulation relies on creating tiny artificial crystals termed "dielectric resonators," which are a fraction of the wavelength of light -- 100-200 nanometers, or over 500 times thinner than a human hair.

The research combined the University of Adelaide researchers' expertise in interaction of light with artificial materials with the materials science and nanofabrication expertise at RMIT University.

Dr Withawat Withayachumnankul, from the University of Adelaide's School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, said: "Manipulation of light using these artificial crystals uses precise engineering.

"With advanced techniques to control the properties of surfaces, we can dynamically control their filter properties, which allow us to potentially create devices for high data-rate optical communication or smart contact lenses.

"The current challenge is that dielectric resonators only work for specific colours, but with our flexible surface we can adjust the operation range simply by stretching it."

Associate Professor Madhu Bhaskaran, Co-Leader of the Functional Materials and Microsystems Research Group at RMIT, said the devices were made on a rubber-like material used for contact lenses.

"We embed precisely-controlled crystals of titanium oxide, a material that is usually found in sunscreen, in these soft and pliable materials," she said.

"Both materials are proven to be bio-compatible, forming an ideal platform for wearable optical devices.

"By engineering the shape of these common materials, we can create a device that changes properties when stretched. This modifies the way the light interacts with and travels through the device, which holds promise of making smart contact lenses and stretchable colour changing surfaces."

Lead author and RMIT researcher Dr. Philipp Gutruf said the major scientific hurdle overcome by the team was combining high temperature processed titanium dioxide with the rubber-like material, and achieving nanoscale features.
Metal to insulator transition understood (Nanowerk News) Physicists have for the first time succeeded in directly visualising on small scales how a material abruptly changes its state from conducting to insulating at low temperatures. Researchers Erik van Heumen of the University of Amsterdam and Alex McLeod from the University of California thereby provide evidence for a 60-year-old theory that explains this phenomenon and pave the way for more energy efficient technologies. The teams experiments are described in the latest edition of Nature Physics ("Nanotextured phase coexistence in the correlated insulator V 2 O 3 ").

Network of conducting and insulating rivers as seen in a metal-oxide in the middle of a phase transition. (Image: A.S. Mueller)

Materials that conduct electricity at high temperature but are insulating at lower temperatures have been known for decades. However, until recently it was not possible to directly measure how such phase transitions proceed on small length scales. Using a new technique, Van Heumen and McLeod are now able to visualise the changes taking place in the material during such a phase transition on the nanometer scale.

In their experiments, the team observed a so-called percolation transition taking place among the electrons in the material. Above a certain critical temperature, the electrons can move relatively easily through the material enabling the flow of electrical current. When the temperature drops below a threshold temperature, small imperfections in the material trigger a kind of traffic jam for the electrons. Starting from small nanometer length scales, this traffic jam slowly grows outwards across the entire material. The previously freely moving electrons come to an abrupt halt and the material loses its conducting properties.

The material in which the team investigated the metal-to-insulator transition is the metal-oxide called vanadium-sesquioxide, V 2 O 3 , which is a more exotic relative of better known metal-oxides such as magnetite or rust. Such metal-oxides are interesting because of their exotic electrical properties, which could find use in future electronics applications.

`You could use these types of switchable materials alongside the current silicon technology used in cell phones or laptops, says Van Heumen. These materials are cheap, energy efficient and could contribute to improving sustainability. Van Heumen is also enthusiastic about possible applications on the interface with quantum technology. `When used, silicon heats up and becomes disruptive to sensitive quantum technology. The abrupt metal-insulator transition that we investigated could also be forced to take place under influence of, for example, a light flash, which could find applications for better isolating the computational units of quantum computers.

Nevertheless, more research on the phase transitions in oxides is needed before this becomes reality. Van Heumen: `The fundamental research we are currently doing to better understand the properties of these materials is similar in spirit to research on silicon forty years ago. Nowadays, silicon technology is integrated in all our electronics, so who knows what these materials will be used for twenty years from now.

Using an ingenious method to increase the resolution of their microscope, Van Heumen and McLeod succeeded in testing a 60-year old theory that explains the switch from metal to insulator. Until recently, the wavelength of light  with a scale of several micrometers in the case of infrared light  limited the resolution of electrical conductivity measurements. The physicists used a small needle to probe the insulating or conducting nature of the material below it with a resolution of 25 nanometers. The needle itself acts as a little antenna that sends this information back to a detector.

McLeod: `Our technique allows optical imaging at unprecedented spatial resolution. With this unique method, we could directly visualise for the first time how the transition spreads through the material.
Human Brain Project receives 89 million euros from the European Commission

(Nanowerk News) The European Commission and the Human Brain Project (HBP) Coordinator, the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), have signed the first Specific Grant Agreement (SGA1), releasing EUR 89 million in funding retroactively from 1st April 2016 until the end of March 2018.

The signature of SGA1 means that the HBP and the European Commision have agreed on the HBP Work Plan for these two years. The funding will be released based on periodic assessments of the Project's progress, as part of the agreed work plan. SGAs are two-year agreements drawn up between the HBP and the European Commission. Each SGA describes the work to be carried out by the Project, it determines the budget and how the Project's progress will be assessed.

The signature of SGA1 follows the HBP's successful Second Periodic Review, in which the HBP was praised for making significant progress during the Ramp-Up Phase (October 2013-March 2016).

Chris Ebell, HBP Executive Director, said that the signing of SGA1 represented an important step in driving forward European research efforts: "The next phase of the HBP will allow researchers to build on the pioneering work carried out in the Ramp-Up Phase, and move the Project closer to establishing an enduring European Research Infrastructure". This will be achieved under a new governance which includes a Science and Infrastructure Board, a Directorate, and a Stakeholder Board.

Thomas Skordas, Acting Director of the European Commission Digital Excellence and Scientific Infrastructure Directorate, said "The Project is now ready and well-prepared to begin the next phase.The new governance and the SGA1 work plan provide the right basis for the Project to make significant progress in the coming two years towards reaching its overall goals".

The SGA1 work plan will move the Project closer to achieving its aim of establishing a cutting-edge, ICT-based scientific Research Infrastructure for brain research, cognitive neuroscience and brain-inspired computing.

Background
World first for robot eye operation

(Nanowerk News) Surgeons at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital have performed the world's first operation inside the eye using a robot.

Robert MacLaren, Professor of Ophthalmology assisted by Dr Thomas Edwards, Nuffield Medical Fellow, used the remotely controlled robot to lift a membrane 100th of a millimetre thick from the retina at the back of the right eye of the Reverend Dr William Beaver, 70, an Associate Priest at St Mary the Virgin, Iffley, Oxford. He is the first patient ever to undergo this experimental procedure.

The Robotic Retinal Dissection Device (R2D2) trial is sponsored by the University of Oxford and funded by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre with support from Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital. Additional funding was provided by Zizoz, a Dutch charity for patients with choroideremia, a genetic form of blindness.

Professor Robert MacLaren praised the success of the worlds first robotic operation inside the eye.

The robot needs to operate inside the eye through a single hole that is less than 1mm in diameter and it needs to go in and out of the eye through this same hole during various steps of the procedure, even though the eye may rotate.

The device is designed to eliminate unwanted tremors in the surgeon's hand - such as through their pulse - so tiny surgical manipulations can be safely carried out within the eye.

The robot acts like a mechanical hand with seven independent computer-controlled motors resulting in movements as precise as 1000th of a millimetre in scale.

In the case of Father Beaver, the patient for this first operation, a membrane growing on the surface of his retina had contracted and pulled it into an uneven shape. This leads to a distorted image, like looking in a hall of mirrors at a fairground. The membrane is about 100th of a millimetre thick and needed to be dissected off the retina without damaging it.

Surgeons can just about do this by slowing their pulse and timing movements between heart beats, but the robot could make it much easier. Moreover, the robot could enable new, high-precision procedures that are currently out of the reach of the human hand.

The surgeon uses a joystick and touchscreen outside the eye to control the robot whilst monitoring its progress through the operating microscope. This gives the surgeon a notable advantage as significant movements of the joystick result in tiny movements of the robot.

Whilst robots have been developed for large scale surgery, such as in the abdomen, until now no device has been available that achieves the three dimensional precision required to operate inside the human eye. The device has been developed by Preceyes BV, a Dutch medical robotics firm established by the University of Eindhoven. Over the last 18 months, the Preceyes engineers and the team at the University of Oxford's Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology have worked together to plan this landmark clinical trial. This has resulted in the world first robotic surgery inside the human eye.

On completing the operation, Professor Robert MacLaren said: "There is no doubt in my mind that we have just witnessed a vision of eye surgery in the future.

"Current technology with laser scanners and microscopes allows us to monitor retinal diseases at the microscopic level, but the things we see are beyond the physiological limit of what the human hand can operate on. With a robotic system, we open up a whole new chapter of eye operations that currently cannot be performed."

Speaking at his follow up visit at the Oxford Eye Hospital, Father Beaver said, "My sight is coming back. I am delighted that my surgery went so well and I feel honoured to be part of this pioneering research project."

Professor MacLaren added, "This will help to develop novel surgical treatments for blindness, such as gene therapy and stem cells, which need to be inserted under the retina with a high degree of precision."

The current robotic eye surgery trial will involve 12 patients in total and involves operations with increasing complexity. In the first part of the trial, the robot is used to peel membranes off the delicate retina without damaging it. If this part is successful, as has been the case so far, the second phase of the trial will assess how the robot can place a fine needle under the retina and inject fluid through it. This will lead to use of the robot in retinal gene therapy, which is a promising new treatment for blindness which is currently being trialled in a number of centres around the world.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 9



By Aygun Badalova - Trend:



Oil producers must consider risks from shale supply when talking about the output freeze agreement in order to stabilize the market, analysts of the US JP Morgan bank said in the report, obtained by Trend.



If OPEC members consider the threat from shale oil production as the greatest risk to markets at this juncture, then maintaining a strategy of defending market share would be appropriate as this will force high cost producers out of the market, analysts said.



Evidence of this policy working comes from the decline in production from Vietnam, Colombia, China and other high cost regions, they said.



However, the second quarter results season for US shale producers again demonstrates that those companies with good assets, positioned at the bottom end of the cost curve can survive and in some cases thrive at current price levels, according to the analysts report.



US analysts retain the view that US crude supply will decline sequentially until the end of the year, to 8.4 million barrels per day before rebounding in 2017.



According to the latest forecasts of the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), US oil production to average 8.8 million barrels per day in 2016 and 8.5 million barrels per day in 2017.



The countrys crude oil production averaged 9.4 million barrels per day in 2015, according to the EIAs estimates.



The informal OPEC meeting is expected in late September in Algeria. It is expected that the talks on oil production freeze will be held between OPEC and non-OPEC countries.



The meeting will be held at the fringe of the International Energy Forum in Algiers from 26-28 September.
Find the newest releases to watch from National Geographic on Disney+, including favourite documentary series and films Free Solo, The Rescue, Shark Beach with Chris Hemsworth and The World According to Jeff Goldblum.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 12

By Aygun Badalova  Trend:

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has arrived in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to pay tribute to Uzbekistans first President Islam Karimov, read a message posted on the website of Akorda, Kazakh presidential palace.

During the visit, Nazarbayev will lay flowers at Karimovs grave and meet his family.

Nazarbayev will also meet with Uzbekistans acting president Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 12

By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:

Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), has left Tehran for Brussels, Belgium, for talks on energy.

Salehi is scheduled to meet European Commissioner for Energy Miguel Arias Canete as well as several European and Belgian officials during the visit, IRNA news agency reported Sept. 12.

According to the report, he will discuss cooperation between Iran and the EU on the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

He is also expected to discuss several documents on expansion of ties between Iran and the EU.
Deputy Secretary General Vershbow met with Mr. Enver Hoxhaj at NATO Headquarters on Monday (12. September 2016) and stressed the Alliances commitment to long-term stability in Kosovo and to the Alliance-led KFOR operation. He said that KFOR will continue to contribute to a safe and secure environment and freedom of movement in Kosovo, working in close cooperation with the Kosovo authorities and with the EU.

Mr. Vershbow said that NATO will continue to support the development of the security organisations in Kosovo and welcomed the increased professionalism shown by the Kosovo Police. He stressed that the Alliance welcomes Kosovos aspirations to improve its ability to ensure safety and security for all its inhabitants, as well as to contribute to security in the Western Balkans.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 12

By Farhad Daneshvar  Trend:

Azerbaijan has extradited 22 Iranian prisoners to the Islamic Republic on the occasion of the Eid al-Adha.

Seyyed Naser Mir Jamali, the head of consular section of Iranian embassy in Azerbaijan, has said the extradition took place on Sept. 12 through Astara border checkpoint, the embassys press office reported.

The 22 Iranian inmates will have to serve the rest of their prison sentences in the home countrys jails, he added.

According to Mir Jamali, this is the 20th round of extradition of prisoners between the two neighboring countries.

He added that most of the inmates were charged with drug crimes.

Over the past years, Iran and Azerbaijan on several occasions have extradited a number of prisoners, which comes following the expansion of political relations between Tehran and Baku.
(NaturalNews) The U.S. Government has been caught conducting an insane amount of vile, inhumane, and grisly experiments on humans without their consent... and often without their knowledge. These are the thirteen most evil, creepy, disturbing cases of human-testing ever conducted by the United States of America.Conspiracy theory nuts are known for being a little out there, but once you read the wild government experiment stories on this list, you'll be a believer too. Did the U.S. government really infect its own citizens with syphilis and not tell them? Sure did.Did other government agencies test nuclear weapons, resulting in radiation fallout on multiple innocent Pacific islands? Oh yes. And did top U.S. officials condone the research of corrupt doctors who were clearly torturing their research subjects? Click through the list below to find out.Get ready to become one of those conspiracy theory nuts, because after this list, you will never fully trust the U.S. government again.(Article by Robert Wabash, republished from http://www.ranker.com 1. Mind Control, Child Abuse - Project MKULTRA, Subproject 68This is the stuff of nightmares. The CIA-run Project MKULTRA paid Dr. Donald Ewen Cameron for Subproject 68, AKA experiments involving mind-altering substances. The entire goal of the project was to look into methods of influencing and controlling the mind and extracting information from resisting minds.In order to accomplish this, the doctor took patients admitted to his Allen Memorial Institute in Montreal (mostly for issues like bi-polar depression and anxiety disorders) and conducted "therapy" on them. The treatment they received was life-altering and scarring.Between 1957 and 1964 Cameron was paid to administer electroconvulsive therapy at 30-40 times the normal power. He would put patients into a drug-induced coma for months on end and playback tapes of simple statements or repetitive noises over and over again.The victims forgot how to talk, forgot about their parents, and suffered serious amnesia. All of this was performed on Canadian citizens because the CIA wasn't willing to risk such operations on Americans.To ensure the project remained funded, Cameron, in one scheme, took his experiments upon admitted children and in one situation had filmed the child engaging in sex with high-ranking government officials.He and other MKULTRA officers blackmailed the officials to ensure more funding.2. Mustard Gas Tested on Soldiers via Involuntary Gas ChambersAs bio-weapon research intensified in the 1940s, officials also began testing its repercussions and defenses on the Army itself. In order to test the effectiveness of various bio-weapons, officials were known to have sprayed mustard gas and other skin-burning, lung-ruining chemicals like Lewisite on soldiers, without their consent or knowledge of the experiment happening to them. Upon contact with the skin, this would cause extreme pain, itching, and swelling reminiscent of severe chemical burns.They also tested the effectiveness of gas masks and protective clothing by locking soldiers in a gas chamber and exposing them to mustard gas and Lewisite, mimicking the gas chambers of Nazi Germany.It was also rumored that along with the soldiers, patients at VA hospitals were being used as guinea pigs for medical experiments involving bio-warfare chemicals, but that all experiments were changed to be known as "observations" to ward off suspicions.3. U.S. Grants Immunity to Involuntary-Surgery MonsterAs head of Japan's infamous Unit 731 (a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II), Dr. Shiro Ishii carried out violent human experimentation on tens of thousands during the Second Sino-Japense War and World War II.Ishii was responsible for testing vivisection techniques without any anesthesia on human prisoners. Vivisection is the act of conducting experimental surgery on living creatures (with central nervousness) and examining their insides for scientific purposes. So basically, he was giving unnecessary surgery to prisoners by opening them up, keeping them alive, and not using any anesthetic.During these experiments he would force pregnant women to abort their babies. He also subjected his prisoners to change in physiological conditions and inducing strokes, heart attacks, frost bite, and hypothermia. Ishii considered these subjects "logs."Following imminent defeat in 1945, Japan blew up the Unity 731 complex and Ishii ordered all the remaining "logs" to be executed. Not soon after, Ishii was arrested. Then, the respected General Douglas McArthur allegedly struck a deal with Ishii. If the U.S. granted Ishii immunity from his crimes, he must exchange all germ warfare data based on human experimentation. So Ishii got away with his crimes because the U.S. became interested in the results of his research.While not directly responsible for these acts, the actions of the American government certainly illustrated that it was more than willing to condone human torture for advancements in biological warfare that could kill even more people.4. Deadly Chemical Sprays on American CitiesShowing once again that the U.S. always tends to test out worse-case scenarios by getting to them first, the Army, CIA, and government conducted a series of biochemical warfare simulations upon American cities to see how the effects would play out in the event of an actual chemical attack.They conducted the following air strikes/naval attacks:- The CIA released a whooping cough virus on Tampa Bay using boats, and so caused a whooping cough epidemic. 12 people died.- The Navy sprayed San Francisco with bacterial pathogens and in consequence many citizens developed pneumonia.- Upon Savannah, GA and Avon Park, FL, the army released millions of mosquitoes in the hopes they would spread yellow fever and dengue fever. The swarm left Americans struggling with fevers, typhoid, respiratory problems, and the worst, stillborn children.Even worse was that after the swarm, the Army came in disguised as public health workers. Their secret intention the entire time they were giving aid to the victims was to study and chart-out the long term effects of all the illnesses the public was suffering.5. US Infects Guatemalans With STDsIn the 1940s, with penicillin as an established cure for syphilis, the U.S. decided to test out its effectiveness on Guatemalan citizens. To do this, they used infected prostitutes and let them loose on unknowing prison inmates, insane asylum patients, and soldiers. When spreading the disease through prostitution didn't work as well as they'd hoped, they instead went for the inoculation route.Researchers poured syphilis bacteria onto men's penises and on their forearms and faces. In some cases, they even inoculated the men through spinal punctures. After all the infections were transmitted, researchers then gave most of the subjects treatment, although as many as 1/3 of them could have been left untreated, even if that was the intention of the study in the first place.On October 1, 2010, Hilary Clinton apologized for the events and new research has gone on to see if anyone affected is still alive and afflicted with syphilis. Since many subjects never got penicillin, its possible and likely that someone spread it to future generations.6. Secret Human Experiments to Test the Effects of The Atomic BombWhile testing out and trying to harness the power of the atomic bomb, U.S. scientists also secretly tested the bomb's effects on humans. During the Manhattan Project, which gave way to the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, U.S. scientists resorted to secret human testing via plutonium injection on 18 unsuspecting, non-consenting patients.This included injecting soldiers with micrograms of plutonium for Project Oak Ridge along with later injecting three patients at a Chicago hospital. Imagine you're an admitted patient, helpless in a hospital bed, assuming that nothing is wrong when the government suddenly appears and puts weapons-grade plutonium in your blood. Out of the 18 patients, who were known only by their code-names and numbers at the time, only 5 lived longer than 20 years after the injection.Along with plutonium, researchers also had fun with uranium. At a Massachusetts hospital, between 1946 and 1947, Dr. William Sweet injected 11 patients with uranium. He was funded by the Manhattan Project.And in exchange for the uranium he received from the government, he would keep dead tissue from the body of the people he killed for scientific analysis on the effects of uranium exposure.7. Injected Prisoners with Agent OrangeWARNING: the above video may be disturbing, but is a reality of what Americans used as biological warfare during Vietnam and what we, as Americans, VOLUNTARILY injected into people for "testing" purposes... with the help of a very popular American company.While he received funding from Agent Orange producer Dow Chemical Company, the U.S. Army, and Johnson & Johnson, Dr. Albert Kligman used prisoners as subjects in what was deemed "dermatological research."The dermatology aspect was testing out product the effects of Agent Orange on the skin. For the effects Agent Orange had on the Vietnamese during the Vietnam War, please click here. (WARNING images in this article may be extremely disturbing, as they include extreme human deformation, including that of infants.)Needless to say the injecting of, or exposure to, dioxidin is beyond monstrous to voluntarily do to any human. Kligman, though, injected dioxidin (a main component of Agent Orange) into the prisoners to study its effects. What did happen was that the prisoners developed an eruption of chloracne (all that stuff from high school combined with blackheads and cysts and pustules that looked like the picture shown to the left) that develop on the cheeks, behind the ears, armpits, and the groin - yes, the groin.Kligman was rumored to have injected 468 times the amount he was authorized to. Documentation of that effect has, wisely, not been distributed.The Army oversaw while Kligman continued to test out skin-burning chemicals to (in their words) "learn how the skin protects itself against chronic assault from toxic chemicals, the so-called hardening process" and test out many products whose effects were unknown at the time, but with the intent of figuring that out.During these proceedings, Kligman was reported to have said, "All I saw before me were acres of skin ... It was like a farmer seeing a fertile field for the first time." Using that analogy, it's easy to see how he could plow straight through so many human subjects without an ounce of sympathy.8. Operation PaperclipFollowing World War II, the U.S. Goverment covertly instituted Operation Paperclip, a program of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in which over 1,500 German scientists, technicians, and engineers from Nazi Germany and other foreign countries were brought to the United States for employment.They did this in part to keep German scientific expertise and knowledge from the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom, and to keep post-war Germany from redeveloping its military research capabilities. The U.S. Government "bleached" the scientists of their Nazi ties, removing and/or destroying any documents or records tying them to the party.Evacuations netted the U.S. Government an estimated 1,800 technicians and scientists, along with 3,700 family members. Any who had special skills or knowledge were taken to detention and interrogation centers, to be held and interrogated, sometimes for months at a time. Some were then transported to villages without research facilities or work and forced to report twice weekly to police headquarters to prevent them from leaving. A Joint Chiefs of Staff directive stated that the scientists should only be released "after all interested agencies were satisfied that all desired intelligence information had been obtained from them."9. Infecting Puerto Rico With CancerIn 1931, Dr. Cornelius Rhoads was sponsored by the Rockefeller Institute to conduct experiments in Puerto Rico. He infected Puerto Rican citizens with cancer cells, presumably to study the effects. Thirteen of them died. What's most striking is that the accusations stem from a note he allegedly wrote:"The Porto Ricans (sic) are the dirtiest, laziest, most degenerate and thievish race of men ever to inhabit this sphere... I have done my best to further the process of extermination by killing off eight and transplanting cancer into several more... All physicians take delight in the abuse and torture of the unfortunate subjects."A man that seems to be hell-bent on killing Puerto Rico through a cancer infestation would not seem a suitable candidate to be elected by the U.S. to be in charge of chemical warfare projects and receive a seat on the United States Atomic Energy Commission, right?But that's exactly what happened. He also became vice-president of the American Cancer Society. Any shocking documentation that would have happened during his chemical warfare period would probably have been destroyed by now.Read more at: http://www.ranker.com
Fire sparks speculation: Anti-GMO activists to blame?



USDA facilities in five states shut down amid threats to worker safety

(NaturalNews) A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) building that's part of a facility specializing in genetic modification caught on fire Tuesday, September 6. Reports confirm that the blaze occurred one week after anonymous threats shut down USDA facilities in five states, including the agricultural research center in question, which is located in Beltsville, Maryland."Flames were shooting through the roof as firefighters arrived on scene and thick black smoke could be seen from miles away. Fire officials said they were alerted to what was first described as a shed fire by a call to 911 just before 10 a.m.," reportsThe timing caused some to speculate whether the fire was arson, possibly set by anti-GMO activists ; however, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found no evidence to substantiate such claims.Investigators found no evidence of criminal activity whatsoever, according to reports.The damaged building is confirmed to house a number of workshops for the agricultural research center , which conducts research in a number of controversial fields, including the genetic modification of crops, animals and insects.The facility says its mission is to "develop the knowledge and technology to improve genetic and reproductive traits, nutrient utilization and disease resistance in livestock and poultry to enhance growth, product quality and maintain superior genetics for economic gain."The facility studies "genes responsible for the uptake/utilization of nutrients and the impact of environment." It also identifies natural immunity mechanisms in animals and host-pathogen interactions, among other things, according to the USDA website.The agency says that several of its employees received anonymous threats, but declined to provide details regarding the nature of the threats. The USDA did say, however, that the threats drew concern about the safety of its employees and facilities.The agency took precautionary measures and closed its offices, said USDA spokesman Matthew Herrick. The threats were made against USDA facilities in Fort Collins, Colorado; Hamden, Connecticut; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Kearneysville and Leetown, West Virginia.Law enforcement in West Virginia provided some information about the threats, revealing it involved the intent to do harm to USDA employees."It's a threat to do harm to people at the facility until the police arrive. They were going to break into the building," said West Virginia's Jefferson County sheriff, Pete Dougherty, in an interview withAerial images captured by the local media show a burning building formerly used to store all-terrain vehicles, tools, oil drums and other petroleum products. Firefighters say that the fuel never exploded.The research center had reportedly reopened just two days after the anonymous threats were made."A spokesman for the USDA said the facilities were shut down until additional security measures could be put in place but the nature of the threats were not revealed. FOX 5 reached out to USDA but have not heard back."
For nearly a decade, children played in dirt contaminated with dangerously high levels of heavy metals

Families trapped in Superfund site

Industrial site produced arsenic, lead and copper

(NaturalNews) Families residing in an Indiana housing complex constructed atop an inoperative lead smelting plant claim they were never warned, until recently, about the dangers of lingering toxins in the soil, which are presumed responsible for adverse health effects in children. An estimated 1,100 tenants, 33 percent of which are children, call the West Calumet Housing Complex home.The area lies within East Chicago, a "gritty industrial town" located just across the Indiana border from Chicago on the south end of Lake Michigan. The 79-acre section was declared a Superfund site by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2009 due to high concentrations of arsenic and lead in the soil.Between 2014 and 2015, federal health officials took soil samples from the front and back yards of all residences located within the West Calumet Housing Complex. Testing confirmed lead concentrations up to 30 times higher than allowable safety limits established by the EPA, as well as high levels of arsenic, according to reports.However, residents say they weren't warned about dangerously high toxin levels in soil until last month. As a result, an unknown number of children may have irreparable damage caused by playing outside in the contaminated soil "The tragedy is that this could have all been avoided," attorney Barry Rooth told, adding that 85 of the children he's representing have unsafe lead levels in their bodies. "We've had at least seven years of lead exposure to a whole generation of children ."Rooth said the situation in the West Calumet Housing Complex is eerily similar to residents in Flint, Michigan poisoned by lead in the drinking water because in both instances, officials failed to warn the public of the dangers."Common sense morality tells you that you shouldn't be renting apartments to people in a complex where there are dangerously high levels of lead," said Rooth. "They were renting properties the whole time."The families were supposed to have been given vouchers for hotels and relocation expenses funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). However, Roger Pardieck, another attorney representing citizens living in the complex, told thethe families remain tied to the area."They are staying in their homes until they find housing. There isn't any other place for them to go," said Pardieck, adding that corporations and the government are to blame."It's the city government, the state of Indiana, EPA, HUD, and then the polluters themselves, Anaconda, US Steel, and other companies."The U.S. Smelter and Lead Refinery, Inc. was the primary and secondary smelting facility in East Chicago from 1906 until its closing in 1985. For 14 years, the operation involved copper smelter, but in 1920 began specializing in lead production.The company generated a variety of toxic waste including calcium sulfate sludge, blast furnace flue-dust, bag-house bags and rubber and plastic battery casings, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). An additional facility on the property produced arsenic A 2011 report by ATSDR found that "substantial lead contamination had spread off-site as far as one-half mile to the north and northeast of the site." While air samples detected elevated lead levels on and off the site in the 1985, the agency reported no further findings since the plant's closing in 1985."U.S. Smelter and Lead Refinery site posed a hazard to public health in the past from breathing in lead contaminated air prior to 1985," the report concluded. "Prior to 2006, lead contamination in yards downwind of the USS Lead site posed a public health hazard in the past for young children eating contaminated soil."At the time of this writing, seven residents have filed class action lawsuits against the City of East Chicago, claiming several children have suffered injuries as a result of lead poisoning . At least 30 children have health problems due to exposure, Rooth toldPardieck added that all children need to be tested to determine the extent of the effects. "With some of the children we know that the levels are dangerously high and will cause adverse effects. We don't have the results from all of them," he said. ATSDR.cdc.gov [PDF]
The safety of fresh meat

Need for stricter antibiotic regulations

(NaturalNews) One in four chicken products bought in the UK contains killer antibiotic-resistant E. coli bacteria , according to Cambridge University research. The superbug was found in poultry samples taken from top grocery chains ASDA, Aldi, Co-op, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose.The bug can cause serious issues, including urinary tract infections, blood poisoning and kidney failure. In severe cases, or when all antibiotics fail, it can even lead to death.According to the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC), at least 2 million people in the United States become infected with some superbug each year, and about 23,000 people die as a direct result of these infections.The scientists analyzed products such as whole roasting chickens, packs of legs, thighs and drumsticks, as well as diced breast meat. Of the 92 chicken samples tested, 22 contained detectable levels of ESBL, which is resistant to the vitally important cephalosporin antibiotic.The study also found that 51 percent offrom pork and poultry samples was resistant to the antibiotic trimethoprim, which is used to treat lower urinary tract infections. Furthermore, 19 percent of the bacteria were also resistant to another life-saving antibiotic, gentamicin, used to treat more severe cases of upper urinary tract infections.In total, the researchers analyzed 174 pork and chicken samples collected from stores across England, and another 15 from stores in Scotland. Dr. Mark Holmes, reader in microbial genomics and veterinary science at the University of Cambridge, told thethat the levels of resistantthey found are worrying.People are not only at risk of blood poisoning or urinary tract infections when they fall ill, but they also risk being infected with a superbug that cannot be treated with modern medicine and can spin out of control. These out-of-control situations can be lethal.Joinfounder and editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, on his quest to send an unforgettable message to Big Food that says, "We demand food transparency, honest ingredients and clean food!"According to Dr. Holmes, insufficient resources are being put into the surveillance of antibiotic resistance in farm animals and the meat sold at grocery stores. The study results highlight the need for improved antibiotic regulations and control in veterinary medicine.The study was commissioned by the campaign group Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics, which unites health, medical, environmental and animal welfare groups such as the Soil Association, Compassion in World Farming and Sustain.Its scientific adviser, Coilin Nunan, noted that the findings should be a wake-up call for supermarkets and the government, as many consumers are exposed to high levels of antibiotic resistance at every meal."E.coli is now killing more than twice as many people as MRSA and Clostridium difficile combined, so the price of any further inaction will be measured in human lives," Nunan toldTo be safe, families are advised to handle uncooked meat carefully, and to wash hands after contact with raw meat. Also, make sure that meat is thoroughly cooked before being consumed. The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service recommends cooking pork to a minimum internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit, and chicken to a minimum of 160 degrees.
Infant struggles to survive after contracting Listeria while in the womb

Pregnant women 10 times more likely to contract listeriosis

Poor sanitation practices

(NaturalNews) Never in her wildest dreams did Michelle Wakley-Paciorek think she could be harming her unborn baby by eating healthy fruits and vegetable s during her pregnancy. But little did she know that unsafe food practices at an operation in Colorado would nearly rob her of her beautiful infant child, Kendall Paciorek, and have lasting impacts on her health.Wakley-Paciorek was one of 147 people in 28 states affected by a Listeria outbreak that originated from contaminated cantaloupe produced at Jensen Farms in Holly, Colorado 2011. The outbreak was responsible for causing 33 deaths and one miscarriage, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The expecting mother contracted listeriosis, a food-borne disease caused by listeria bacteria, after snacking on some cantaloupe. She began to experience several flu-like symptoms including "headaches, aching legs, sweats, chills and dry heaves," according toBut Wakley-Paciorek mistook the symptoms as being part of her pregnancy, and unfortunately, so did her doctor.One day while she and her 4-year-old daughter were getting pedicures, Wakley-Paciorek suddenly went into labor, giving birth to Kendall three months prematurely. "[T]he doctors warned her parents about all sorts of dire medical complications that she could develop: blindness, deafness, mental retardation, cerebral palsy, and others."The doctors issued their prognosis before realizing that Wakley-Paciorek and her daughter both had listeriosis. They suspected an infection was involved, but were uncertain until receiving the blood results, which showed that listeria bacteria were responsible for the mother's symptoms and the premature birth.The infant, struggling to survive, was one of three newborns diagnosed with listeriosis during the time of the outbreak."A week before she was born, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a voluntary recall of the entire crop of fresh, whole cantaloupe from Jensen Farms," reports"But the news about the Listeria[sic] outbreak linked to cantaloupes wasn't widespread when Kendall was born because people were just beginning to get sick. It can take up to 70 days for symptoms to develop after exposure."Listeria bacteria are often found in soil and water, and transported by animals that don't appear ill, contaminating meat and dairy products, according to the CDC . Humans are known to contract the infection after eating contaminated foods, which include uncooked meats and veggies, and unpasteurized dairy products.Pregnant are one of three groups most at risk for developing listeriosis as one in seven cases occur during pregnancy. The infection may cause miscarriages, stillbirths, premature births or death in newborns.Pregnant women are 10 times more likely to contract the infection, says the CDC. Other populations at risk include adults 65 and older and individuals with a weakened immune system including those with cancer, HIV/AIDS and diabetes.Wakley-Paciorek's infection had entered her bloodstream, becoming so severe that the baby essentially pushed itself out in an effort to survive."Kendall was immediately put into a neonatal incubator with tubes and machines attached to her on all sides. The tiny 3-pound, 11-ounce baby was fighting for her life. She stayed in the incubator for weeks during which time her parents couldn't hold her."For months, the baby had to be fed through a feeding tube in her stomach. "Every time she ate, she vomited," said Wakley-Paciorek. But Kendall's health began to turn around after being connected to an automatic drip feeder.Born in September, the child finally got to home just a few days before Christmas. Almost 5-years-old, Kendall is smaller than most be appears to be developing normally.Wakley-Paciorek says she can run, talk and say her ABCs, an impressive feat for the infant who cheated death.The cause of the listeria outbreak has been attributed to poor sanitation practices at Jensen Farms.The FDA found that "several areas on both the washing and drying equipment appeared to be uncleanable[sic] and dirt and product buildup was visible on some areas of the equipment, even after it had been disassembled, cleaned and sanitized."Additionally, the operation had abandoned its antimicrobial wash, allowing melons to cross-contaminate the equipment and other melons. This allowed bacteria existing on a single melon to spread to entire batch before being distributed across the nation.In order to prevent food-borne illness , it's been recommended that women avoid foods such as unwashed fruits and veggies, raw sprouts, under-cooked meat, raw fish, unpasteurized juice, eggs that aren't fully cooked and salads prepared in retail locations that contain ham, chicken salad or tuna salad.
Condom industry preparing for a significant increase in sales

Zika virus survives in semen for months, say scientists

Chemicals used to fight Zika more harmful than virus

(NaturalNews) We recently revealed four profit-driven agendas that stand to benefit from what the establishment media is calling a "Zika crisis." These agendas fall under several industries, including the chemical industry, the vaccine industry, biotech companies and Planned Parenthood. However, a new, less obvious industry has emerged: condom manufacturers.Reports that Zika could potentially be spread through sexual intercourse have excited the condom industry, as it now believes that the virus could spur an overwhelming demand for its products that protect against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).The CEO of the world's largest condom manufacturer recently told thethat she expects the virus to cause a sharp increase in condom sales."The awareness that such a virus brings will further bolster long-term growth prospects of condom demand overall," said Miah Kiat Goh, CEO of Malaysia's Karex Berhad. The company manufactures 10 percent of condoms sold globally.reports:"The company, which produces about 4 billion condoms annually, won't see a big jump immediately, Goh said, because most of its condoms are sold to brands like LifeStyles and Durex. (USAID is also a client.) But investors think it will come in time: The company's stock price is up almost 10% since the beginning of September.""This is after all how the big boom in condom demand during the 1980s occurred when governments first became increasingly aware of the outbreak of HIV-AIDS," Goh told theThe World Health Organization reports that the virus is typically spread through insect bites, specifically from themosquito, but can also be transmitted through sexual intercourse and blood transfusions.New research suggests that the virus can persist in semen for up to six months, which is longer than previously thought, according to the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP).Scientists "recently documented a case of sexual spread from an asymptomatic man to his female partner and sexual spread of the virus from a woman to a man," CIDRAP notes.The WHO recommends that men and women returning from regions affected by Zika abstain from or practice safe sex for six months.While the establishment media portrays Zika as something to be deathly afraid of, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms that most people who contract the virus do not have any symptoms, and when they do, they are typically mild and include things like joint and muscle pain, headaches and fever."People usually don't get sick enough to go to the hospital, and they very rarely die of Zika. Once a person has been infected with Zika, they are likely to be protected from future infections," the agency states on its website But that hasn't stopped regions like Florida from unleashing a chemical assault on its residents. Beginning in August, the Miami area launched an indefinite campaign to aerially spray an insecticide called Naled in an effort to destroy mosquitoes carrying the virus.Naled is an organophosphate insecticide that causes "many health effects, both chronic and acute" when it breaks down in animals and the environment, according to, which adds that it acts as a "severe" irritant to the skin and eyes.The chemical can affect animal and human health through ingestion and inhalation, the latter of which is believed to cause the most damage. Animal studies showed naled to be 20 times more toxic to rats when it was inhaled versus being consumed in food and water.A study by the New York Health Department found that spraying Naled only reduced mosquito populations temporarily, whilethem in the long-term. After 11 years of spraying, mosquito populations increased 15-fold, the study found.A similar situation appears to be unfolding in Florida.reports that Palm Beach County Mosquito Control recently noted that the aerial spraying used to combat mosquitoes in Miami-Dade doesn't work, and "might just be for show."Palm Beach County environmental program supervisor, Gary Goode, said that spraying Naled is "not effective" against mosquitoes that carry Zika, adding that the community has no intention of using the chemical.Meanwhile, residents of Miami Beach are protesting at city hall, demanding that officials terminate plans to deploy Naled, while highlighting the chemical's deadly effects.If you live in Florida or anywhere else deploying Zika chemicals, Google your community's aerial spraying schedule. Most of them have Facebook pages where you can monitor the time and area where they will be spraying.In this way, you'll have a chance at reducing your exposure to these harmful chemicals.Stay tuned as the Zika madness continues to unfold.
Government is the main culprit, but doctors are making matters worse

Mainstream media not prepared to point fingers at the government

(NaturalNews) Many of us have long believed that the high drug prices in this country can be blamed on the government for allowing Big Pharma to have a monopoly, and now a Harvard study has admitted that this is indeed the main cause of this increasingly serious problem. The paper , which is entitled, sought to uncover the origins of the country's high drug prices and look into the effects caused by these prohibitive costs in order to help develop policy options that could help rein them in.It was authored by Harvard Medical School's Dr. Jerry Avorn and Dr. Aaron Kesselheim along with jurist Ameet Sarpatwari. They examined peer-reviewed health policy and medical literature dealing with the sources of drug prices in the country over the past decade. They found that per capita spending on prescription drugs in America is the highest in the world, with the figure for Americans more than double the average of 19 other industrialized countries.While many Americans are willing to accept the free market concept of high drug prices being related to the high costs of testing, studying and getting approvals in theory, it turns out that development isn't really the main driving force behind the price. Instead, the report notes The authors add that market exclusivity stemming from legal protection against competition provided by the government is the single most important factor allowing Big Pharma to set these ridiculous prices. Such regulatory exclusivity is granted upon gaining FDA approval.They also point out that doctors who prescribe pricey medications when cheaper alternatives exist are contributing to the problem. This is another issue that needs to be addressed, as pharmaceutical companies have become quite crafty at providing kickbacks to doctors who peddle their wares.It's interesting to note that on the occasions when the mainstream media does point out the exorbitant fees charged by Big Pharma  like the outrage over the EpiPen's recent astronomical price rise  they fail to mention that the reason that they can get away with doing so is the support they get from our government.The paper points to the case of Turing Pharmaceuticals, which managed to raise the price of its toxoplasmosis medication, Daraprim, by 5500 percent, jumping from $13.50 to $750 per pill last year. The medication did not have patent protection, but because no other competing manufacturers were licensed to market this particular drug in America, the company could get away with setting the price however it see fit.The authors offer some suggestions regarding how the situation can be alleviated, but it's not something the government is likely to embrace or get on board with any time soon. They propose putting more stringent requirements in place for obtaining exclusivity rights and boosting competition by making sure generic drugs can be made available in a timely manner, among other approaches.With the prices of medication being so high and the side effects giving many individuals pause, it's no surprise that people are increasingly turning natural health options such as vitamins, turmeric , and exercise to help avoid getting sick in the first place. As pill prices continue to climb, people are increasingly realizing that they simply cannot afford to get sick in this country.
Why are police and elected officials okay with this?

Fishing expeditions

(NaturalNews) The digital age is leading to the end of centuries-old constitutional privacy guarantees , as evidenced by the growth of Internet cloud-based data storage and electronic records, both of which are too easily accessible to prying eyes enabled by power-hungry politicians.For instance, most Americans are unaware that state and federal governments are tracking  and accessing  your prescription medication records. Dozens of states allow federal and state law enforcement agencies free, warrantless access to databases that contain your drug history. What's more, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency is scrambling for authority to search databases in states where there are pharmaceutical privacy protections, reportsAt present, 31 states grant authorities this kind of carte blanche access; only one state  Missouri  and the District of Columbia do not have prescription drug marketing programs. But these protections are likely to fall as well; Missouri's program is currently on target for state approval, while D.C. officials say theirs will be up and running by year's end.noted further that very often disclosures to police agencies of a person's prescription drug history are done without actually notifying that person, thereby denying them any opportunity to object to the warrantless search or consult a lawyer. No court ever approves the records release that divulges medical histories that most people rightfully want to keep private.State programs are in place to help track and analyze information that assists healthcare providers and pharmacists limit abuse of addictive medications like opioid painkillers. But patchy state statutes have left many privacy loopholes, giving police ready access to your records.During a five-month investigation,discovered that law enforcement officials gained access to at least 344,921 prescription histories of American citizens between 2014 and 2015 in states that do not require a court-ordered warrant, as per the Fourth Amendment . That's more than six times the number of searches conducted by police in states that have enacted better privacy measures. But the access without court oversight  or any other oversight, really  is what concerns privacy advocates because it paves the way for abuse.Marlon Jones, an assistant fire chief with the Unified Fire Authority of Salt Lake County, Utah, toldthat he could have lost his career and his family after he was falsely charged with felony crimes associated with doctor shopping, all because of a warrantless search by local police.Police were investigating the theft of prescription drugs from regional ambulance services. Though they had no suspects, probable cause or warrant, an officer working the case logged onto the state's controlled substances database and searched through prescription records for all 480 fire department workers."I had no idea that a police officer, just on a whim, could go into my medical records and then determine what's appropriate, in his opinion," Ryan Pyle, a firefighter paramedic whose prescription records were also accessed in the same warrantless search, toldOfficers did not make any arrests in the theft of drugs, but rather focused on prescription histories of both Jones and Pyle, charging them with purchasing controlled substances under false pretenses  charges that had nothing at all to do with their investigation."It impacted every bit of our lives," Jones noted, adding that he was put on suspension just a few months after having been promoted. "What (the investigator) did threatened to take everything I held dear."Pyle's arrest came right as he and his wife were in the middle of adopting two boys. He said that when he was charged his immediate thought was that he was going to lose those two kids.What's really scary  and offensive  is that local officials had no problem with searching the prescription drug database without a warrant. So much for standing up for the Constitution."We would not do anything that would go beyond the bounds of what the law allows," said Cottonwood Heights mayor Kelvyn Cullimore, Jr., hiding behind the state law that permitted the search. While he admitted that the search could have been more narrow, he claimed that if state law allows it, then it's fine.Except that it'salright. And there is  rightfully  a legal battle now brewing over the treatment of Jones, Pyle and many other Americans whose Fourth Amendment rights are being trampled on a daily basis.Scott Michelman, an attorney for Public Citizen, a Washington, D.C.-based legal watchdog representing Pyle and Jones, said that allowing police to go on warrantless "fishing expeditions" through personal information, then making untrained medical judgments, has the potential to destroy people's lives, and it ought to be stopped.He's right, of course.
The oil spill at Louisiana's Bay Long continues with coast guards having recovered more than 6,000 gallons of oily water. Apart from oily water, workers have also captured and treated more than 200 birds caught in the oil spill.

Repairs to the damaged pipeline continue, all of which was caused by an environmental restoration project. According to reports by NOLA via The Times-Picayune, the excavating marsh buggy subcontracted for Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. had accidentally cut through the line. The pipeline is owned by the Harvest Pipeline Company.

Last Sept. 4, workers continued with the repairs of the pipeline that had released more than 5,300 gallons of crude oil. Birds in and around the Cheniere Ronquille Barrier Island and the East Grand Terre Island have also been captured and treated due to the oil spill.

As of Sunday, one Kemp Ridley Sea turtle and 11 birds have been rescued. The Louisiana Coast Guard urges the public to report wildlife affected by the oil spill to 337-519-1754.

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality continues with its effort to assess the impacts on the shoreline caused by the oil spill. As of Sunday, Fox News reports that more than 150 people and 25 boats have been deployed to Louisiana's Bay Long to contain and recover oily water from the pipe leak.

As for other parts of Louisiana, more than 850 people are living in shelters after floods have forced them to vacate their homes. Most families have left the shelters while some are still stuck due to the struggles of locating appropriate transportation and properties for rent.

Reports by The Advocate state that shelters for flood victims remain open in East Feliciana, Tangipahoa, Ascension, East Baton Rouge and Livingston. The Federal Emergency Management Agency continues to deploy teams to shelters. Other agencies offering help include the Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Baton Rouge and the American Red Cross.

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Astronomers of the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics have reportedly found the largest object in the universe -- though the word "largest" isn't enough to describe their discovery. Their latest find is called the BOSS, the largest supercluster of galaxies in the universe.

The BOSS Great Wall was named after the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. This method maps galaxies and quasars in the early universe. The BOSS Great Wall is said to be made up of 830 separate galaxies, which gravity managed to combine into four superclusters. Massive filaments of hot gas hold them all together.

This supercluster of a structure is found 4.5 to 6.5 billion light-years away and has a mass of 10,000, which is larger than the Milky Way. The discovery of BOSS Great Wall has been published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

"On the grandest scales, the universe resembles a cosmic web of matter surrounding empty voids - and these walls are the thickest threads," states Joshua Sokol in a report by the New Scientist.

BOSS is reportedly two-thirds bigger than Sloan Great Wall, the previous record holder for the largest structure in the universe. Sloan was discovered back in 2003. In addition, BOSS trumps over two other superstructures namely the CfA2 Wall of 1989 and the Laniakea supercluster.

Despite the study and research that has gone into the discovery of the BOSS Great Wall, not everyone is convinced of its greatness. Allison Coil of the University of California questions the "size" of the superstructure.

"I don't entirely understand why they are connecting all of these features together to call them a single structure. There are clearly kinks and bends in this structure that don't exist, for example, in the Sloan Great Wall," stated Coil.

Research on BOSS Great Wall continues to prove it indeed could be the largest object in the universe.
President Hassan Rouhani is scheduled to travel to Venezuela on Friday to attend a Non-Aligned Movement summit due to be held in the Latin American country, IRNA news agency reported.

Parviz Esmaeili, the head of the department for communications and information dissemination of the presidential office, said that Rouhani, as the rotating president of the NAM, will confer presidency of the NAM to the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The president will also meet and confer with a number of heads of state on the sidelines of the event, Esmaeili said.

After the NAM Summit, the president will leave Venezuela to Havana upon an official invitation by his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro, Esmaeili added.

Apart from meeting the Cuban president, Rouhani is also scheduled to meet with Fidel Castro, the leader of the Cuban Revolution.

Then the president will leave Havana for New York where the 71st UN General Assembly meeting is to be held.
Landscape photographs are, most of the time, fascinating. But they can be both fascinating and intriguing especially if the subject is the Earth-like rock formations on Mars. The Mars Curiosity Rover currently traversing the red planet captured another surprising image of Mars. The colored images released by NASA show landscapes that are almost similar to Earth.

NASA released colored images of Martian formations showing rocks, hills and plateaus almost similar to formations of rocks in deserts here on Earth. The mast camera aboard the Curiosity Rover, which has been roaming the planet since 2012, captured the images.

The photos showed the "Murray Buttes," a rocky region on the surface of Mars. Even scientists from NASA cannot deny the uncanny similarity of the Martian surface to the rock formations here on Earth.

"Curiosity's science team has been just thrilled to go on this road trip through a bit of the American desert Southwest on Mars," Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity rover project scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement. This is because of the rocks, hills and plateaus visible on the images that the rover beamed back to Earth.

Presenting a colored image of Mars is no easy feat. Vasavada and the rover team assembled large, color photographs taken in the Murray Buttes region into a mosaic to give a bigger perspective of the area. Experts say that the buttes and mesas found on the Murray buttes were remnants from ancient sandstone eroded by winds during the formation of Mount Sharp. The enhanced images play a big role in the scientific analysis of the images taken from the red planet.

The Curiosity Rover team assembled and analyzed the images not only to produce a stunning representation of the Martian surface, but most importantly, to understand the processes involved for the current rock formations to be shaped in such ways. The wind factor as well as the chemical influence on the formation of buttes on Mars are also being investigated.

Man's Threat to the Martian Surface

Stunning images of the Martian surface are results of several planetary explorations conducted by men. But some scientists expressed their concern, stating that explorations on Mars might contaminate the water on the planet. This was expressed after more unmanned and manned missions are being planned for launch to the red planet starting 2018.

Planetary protection officers are lobbying for more research before sending humans to Mars to eliminate the chance of polluting Earth's neighboring planet.

Interesting Formations on Mars

Earlier this year, NASA released more than 1,000 images of Mars from its HiRISE camera, making the database free and available to scientists, students and even conspiracy theorists.

Because of this, scientists and enthusiast were given a pass to analyze the photographs of Mars. Many have suggested that there are undeniable Earth-like formations in some regions on the red planet, while others suggest that there were clues of extra-terrestrial remnants present and evident from the images released by NASA.
A Penumbral Lunar Eclipse will take place on Sept. 16/17 and it will be visible in Pakistan. The lunar eclipse is also the last eclipse of 2016.

A penumbral lunar eclipse is different from a solar eclipse, the most commonly sighted eclipse on Earth. A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when the moon swiftly passes through the dimmer, fainter outer part of the Earth's shadow. Because of its nature, it can be mistaken as a full moon.

The moon typically reflects the Sun's ray, but during a lunar eclipse, the Earth is strategically positioned in between the Sun and the Moon that blocks the sunlight from reaching the moon.

In a penumbral lunar eclipse the Sun, moon and Earth are in a straight alignment. During this time, the Earth will block some of the Sun's ray from reaching the moon's surface and cover parts of the moon with its shadows. The Sun covering the moon with its outer shadow is called "penumbra," this is where the name penumbral lunar eclipse was derived, according to Time and Date.

This year's penumbral lunar eclipse will be visible in most regions of Pakistan and in some parts of Africa, Europe and Asia starting at 09:55 pm on Sept. 16. The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) is closely monitoring the last eclipse of the year. The agency said that the eclipse would last for three hours until Sept. 17 at 01:54 am.

However, PMD advised that the weather might be an obstruction but there were identified areas where the skies will be clear during the eclipse including Balochistan, Upper Punjab, Sind, South Punjab and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

According to NASA, the eclipse will last for exactly three hours, 59 minutes and 16 seconds. A detailed world map showing where the eclipse will be visible can be seen on NASA's eclipse information website under the Goddard Space Flight Center.
NASA's asteroid-sample-return mission could help save the Earth from life-threatening asteroid impacts in the future, scientists said.

On Sept. 8, NASA launched its OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security- Regolith Explorer) mission, which aims to collect rock and dust samples from an asteroid. The target asteroid is Bennu, a dark and roundish asteroid circling the sun just within the orbit of Mars and is included on NASA's list of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids.

The purpose of the mission is to study asteroid samples that could provide knowledge about the origin and evolution of life on Earth. Moreover, the mission could also provide insight on how to prevent a potential asteroid collision.

"If astronomers someday identify an asteroid that presents a significant impact hazard to Earth, the first step will be to gather more information about that asteroid," Edward Beshore, deputy principal investigator for the mission, said in a report by National Post. "Fortunately the ORISIS-REX mission will have given us the experience and tools needed to do the job."

While asteroid Bennu is unlikely to crash into Earth, scientists think that by understanding and studying its composition, they could find out how to prevent other space rocks that could potentially hit the planet.

"I think that's the whole reason we have missions like OSIRIS-REx - to go out and see what we really know about asteroids," Lindley Johnson, director of NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office, said in a news conference held on Sept. 7.

The mission will also allow scientists to study the sun's effect on the orbital paths of small space rocks or the Yarkovsky effect, which occurs when the orbit of a rock is altered by a small thrust caused by the radiating heat that comes from sunlight.

According to NASA's planetary defense scientists, large rocks have already been found, but only half of the rocks the size of Bennu have been identified. Researchers are using NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) -- a telescope mission that observes near-Earth objects.

Apart from observations, NASA has partnered with the European Space Agency (ESA) in working on the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), which will study an asteroid and its moon, Space.com reports. The mission will test the space agency's capability of deflecting an asteroid before it impacts Earth.
ESA has signed a contract with French commercial launch service provider Arianespace to secure the launch of the Aeolus satellite, which is the first mission to probe the Earth's winds.

The mission is slated to launch in 2017 on board a Vega rocket, Arianespace's new-generation vehicle that carries small to medium-sized satellite payloads. Vega offers configurations that could handle a wide range of payloads, from a single satellite to one main satellite plus small additional satellites, ESA said.

"Aeolus has certainly had its fair share of problems," Josef Aschbacher, ESA's Director of Earth Observation Programs, said in a statement. "However, with the main technical hurdles resolved and the launch contract now in place, we can look forward to it lifting off on a Vega rocket from French Guiana, which we envisage happening by the end of 2017."

The Aeolus satellite will deliver wind measurements and other information about aerosols and clouds in near real-time. The satellite will carry a unique space instrument called Aladin wind "lidar," which is a radar in laser form. Aladin's two powerful lasers will beam ultraviolet light at Earth and will bounce off air molecules and minute particles, such as dust, ice and droplets of water in the atmosphere. Then, Aladin's telescope will gather and measure the portions of light that are scattered back towards the satellite.

The mission also aims to explore atmospheric dynamics, such as thunderstorms, jet streams, hurricanes and global air circulation to improve weather tracking, cloud scanning and gauging.

According to ESA, creating the Aeolus mission had been challenging. It took the agency longer than expected to develop optics for the instrument that could survive high-intensity laser pulses. Because of developments and recent setbacks had the spacecraft's launch in 2015 had been postponed.

But recent tests showed that problems in the technology had been resolved. Developers are currently adding the instrument to Aeolus, and once ready, the satellite will be shipped to Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, ESA said.
WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - Congress is close to passing a Sexual Assault Survivor's Bill of Rights. The bill would guarantee what many are calling basic rights for rape victims. The Senate passed the bill before summer recess and the House passed the bill Tuesday. However, the pieces of legislation were not identical so they now go to conference before heading to the presidents desk.

The CDC currently estimates that the number of sexual assault survivors is nearly 25 million people; comparable to the population of Texas.

When a person reports a sexual assault, they are able to have an exam done. The contents are then placed in a kit that is sealed until tested. Some people choose never to test their kits. Each state decides how kits are kept. In some states, untested kits could be thrown out before the statute of limitations expires.

Its really traumatizing, says survivor Amanda Nguyen. Every six months, I have to go and fight for my right to keep my kit out of the trash can. The criminal justice system was worse than the rape itself.

Nguyen worked with members of Congress to draft a bill that would provide basic rights to survivors of sexual assault. The bill only applies for assaults committed on federal property. It would make sure victims are not charged for the rape kit exam and ensure those kits are preserved at least through the statute of limitations. If a survivor wants to keep the kit longer, they can do so with a written request.
US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Syrian opposition groups to separate from al-Nusra Front terrorist group and reiterated the call ceasefire in a press briefing on Monday for all parties to the Syrian conflict to join the US-Russian deal on ceasefire in the war-torn country, Sputnik reported.

Russia and the United States announced a new plan aimed at reducing violence in Syria, which includes a new nationwide ceasefire starting at 16:00 GMT on September 12.

The agreement also includes the creation of a demilitarized zone around Syria's Aleppo to deliver humanitarian aid to the city, as well as close coordination of Russian and US airstrikes against Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, and Daesh terrorist groups operating in Syria.

"I reiterate my call to all parties to observe the cessation of hostilities," Kerry stated. "I want to praise the oppositions courage in embarking on this arrangement, and call on them to separate themselves from Al-Nusra in those areas where intermingling has been a problem."

Early reports of the renewed ceasefire in Syria indicate that there is some reduction in the level of violence in the country, Kerry said.

All parties involved in the Syrian conflict should abide by the new US-Russia ceasefire agreement as it could be the last chance to save Syria as a unified country.

"I urge all the parties to support it [the ceasefire], because it may be the last chance that one has to save a united Syria," Kerry stated.
Four people were arrested in a protest Saturday afternoon in downtown Oakland, police said Sunday.

The arrests were made between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. near the 1500 block of Broadway near Oakland City Hall.

One business was damaged in the protest, according to police.

Officers did not say who was protesting but a person posted on the website itsgoingdown.org that about 200 people staged a Prison Strike solidarity march between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. in downtown Oakland. The demonstration started at Latham Square.

During the demonstration, protesters spray-painted the outside of a Bank of America branch near Lake Merritt, according to the account by the same person.
Anahi Jimenez was just five years old when terror attacks shook the nation on September 11, 2001. Fifteen years later to the very day, she and 18 other Chicago-area soldiers said goodbye to their families and left for a deployment to Afghanistan.

Even though I don't remember it, I was taught through school what happened and now, knowing that Im deploying, it just makes me really proud to be born in this country, Jimenez said at the deployment ceremony for the 19 soldiers in the Illinois Army National Guard.

Family and loved ones were joined by Governor Bruce Rauner and Senator Mark Kirk for the send-off in suburban Riverside on Sunday. The soldiers left for Fort Hood, Texas, for training and will ultimately be deployed to Afghanistan for a nine-month mission.

The group will assist hospitals and clinics in the Bagram, Afghanistan area and provide medical support to both U.S. and coalition forces, Rauner said in a release.

We were prepared for this, this was something that I knew was coming, said one soldiers wife. But that didnt make the goodbyes any easier.

I'm just ready to go so I can come back to my family, Michael Looze said, fighting back tears as he leaned in to kiss his son.

Sunday also marked Zachary Taylors 29th birthday. Just three weeks into his marriage, he began the day of his deployment by saying a prayer for the lives lost on September 11, 2001.

I think it's is a good way to take it back, to take back this day from something that tragically happened and keep it as ours, he said.

Deploying on a day like September 11th, you really know the mission you are about to make, said Sen. Mark Kirk.

It a difficult sacrifice that you are making, Rauner told the soldiers during the ceremony. We owe you debt of gratitude.
Paul Green, one of Chicago's beloved political commentators, died unexpectedly late Saturday at the age of 73, according to his wife Sharon. A political science professor at Roosevelt University, Green suffered what appears to be a brain aneurysm, his wife said.

Known for his quick wit, Green was a go-to political analyst for broadcast and print reporters. He'd entertain and embark knowledge, whether it was a local political issue or insight on a national campaign.

Green was a professor at Governors State University before joining Roosevelt University in 1999. He was an accomplished author, having written several books detailing Chicagos political machine.

Green was also the chairman at the City Club of Chicago, a non-partisan group that hosts newsmakers, debates, and forums  one of which he hosted as recently as Wednesday, according to a statement from City Club President Jay Doherty.

As a professor, Paul taught thousands, Doherty said in the statement. As a researcher, he will touch generations to come. As a commentator on radio and TV, he helped us understand political currents in the moment, with unerring accuracy."

"As the obligatory first stop for out-of-town journalists, he helped untold millions understand this city he loved. As an ambassador for Chicago on his many overseas speaking tours, he kindled interest in our region and connections that strengthened Chicagos place in the world," Doherty added.

Paul Green was a Chicago political legend and countless people across the city know him as a gifted writer, teacher, historian, and analyst, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement. I have known Paul personally for many years, and was always impressed by his capacious intellect, his boundless curiosity, and his quick wit.

Tributes to Green continued to pour in on social media after news of his passing broke.

Horrible, horrible news, David Axelrod tweeted. Paul Green was a Chicago original, and a civic institution. He will be sorely missed."

"Generous, wise, amused and amusing, Paul Green made all of us in the media look more in the know than we really are, added Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg.

Political analyst Thom Serafin noted, "I loved Paul- full of history, knowledge and ready sense of humor, a terrible loss for his family, all of us."

Green is survived by his wife Sharon and their daughter Sarah.
UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said that the relations between Russia and the United Kingdom has not normalized yet, but it is necessary to discuss the differences between the two nations, Johnson's spokesperson said Monday, Sputnik reported.

Earlier in the day, Johnson held a phone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"The Foreign Secretary noted that relations have not returned to business as usual, but it is important to discuss areas of shared interest, including where we have differences," the spokesperson told RIA Novosti citing Johnson's words during the phone conversation.

He added that the two heads of foreign services agreed to take forward discussions in person during their upcoming meeting at the UN General Assembly in New York later in the month.

Moscow-London relations have been overshadowed by the Ukrainian crisis and Crimea's reunification with Russia since 2014. the United Kingdom was among the Western nations that imposed sanctions on for its alleged role in fueling the conflict in southeastern Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly refuted the accusations, and warned that the sanctions are counterproductive and undermine regional and global stability.
Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna just revealed whether they're having a baby boy or a baby girl. During Sunday's premiere of "Rob &Chyna," the pregnant E! star and her man make a doctor's appointment to find out the sex of their baby.

"I'm pretty nervous. I'm excited," Rob says before the big reveal. "I really want a boy."

Then the doctor announces, "You are having...a girl!"

"Rob, it's a girl!" Chyna exclaims excitedly. "Oh, that's crazy," Rob adds.

Blac Chyna's Sweetest Mommy Moments

"You have a boy at home, right?" the doctor asks them, referring to Chyna and Tyga's son King Cairo.

"Yeah, but I don't," Rob says. "That's OK, this is your first," the doctor reassures Rob.

"It's an emotional moment. Me wanting to have a boy, it definitely stems from my dad but I'm sure I'll have the same relationship that I had with my father with my daughter," Rob says in a confessional. "I'm just happy that the baby's healthy and I'm gonna be super happy with a girl."

"That's a nice, normal heartbeat," the doctor tells Rob and Chyna. "It's regular and there's no problems with the beat of the baby's heart."

Kardashians Sound Off on Rob &Chyna's Romance

The doctor continues the ultrasound and adds of their baby girl, "Look it, she's putting her little booty right up at ya."

"She better not be doing that!" Rob jokes. LOL!

Now the big question is: what will the newest Kardashian girl be named?!

During a Facebook Live chat last month, one fan asked Rob and Chyna if they'll "carry on the tradition of the K names" in his family.

"But probably not," Rob revealed. Chyna then echoed Rob, "Probably not."
Whats in a name? A lot, when it comes to your vehicles registration with the DMV. In fact, you might want to take a closer look at your own paperwork.

Joe Kestenbaum loves the motorcycle he bought this summer. Getting to the point where his new ride was roadworthy was a struggle. Not for the reasons you might think.

Kestenbaum went to the DMV in Wethersfield to register his bike. After an hour and a half, he was turned back for a paperwork issue by the seller. He returned, and after another hour and a half, and got his registration. However, it was not registered to his West Hartford address. Instead, it said a man in Madison down on the shoreline was the new owner.

The NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters discovered that individual is actually in Atlanta, Georgia and has not lived in Connecticut for more than a decade.

Kestenbaum was stunned My license plate my VIN number, my bike, but not my name. Some other persons name.

Kestenbaum explains the DMV did keep him from having to make a return trip to a branch. It took another hour and a half to clear up the agencys mistake.

The person on the phone said, gee I wonder how this happened, and I said Im sure someone just clicked on the wrong name. And she said yeah, thats really easy to do in the new system thats what she said.

The DMV tells the NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters in the case of Kestenbaums motorcycle, an examiner just grabbed the wrong identification off the system. Agency spokesman Bill Seymour says this has happened occasionally with both its new computer software, and the previous software it used as well.

I know for sure that its not widespread, were not getting major reports into the commissioners office, and to our title unit, and our registration unit, and into our branch offices, with people saying, how did this happen? Seymour said.

Kestenbaum expressed frustration at the sitution. This is a pretty straightforward interaction. Buying a new vehicle. Getting new plates. Its something that happens every day. So if anything they should get that right.

And what about the man whose name was on the motorcycles erroneous paperwork? Shawn Ryan of Atlanta says when he learned about it he was "immediately concerned."

"We are all concerned about identity theft. When my mother subsequently contacted the DMV the error was already corrected, he said.

NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters also reached out to the Madison tax collectors office. It never received the motorcycle paperwork with Ryans name on it, so he will not be getting a tax bill from the town. The office says however, it has noticed several cases like this recently.
As North Texans pause to remember the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, we wanted to take a moment to honor the first responders. Theyre the men and women who run into danger when everyone else is running away.

This week NBCDFW was fortunate enough to spend some time with a group of police officers who've found a unique way to give a little extra to the communities they love.

We're all adrenaline junkies, said Rod Hill. He spent almost 24 years as a police officer in Arlington. Hill was even recognized for saving a life after he knocked down a door to stop a man from beating his sister.

She probably wouldn't have survived," said Hill. "When you take the oath you are willing to sacrifice yourself for someone you don't know.

Now, Hill is was working on a new mission.

I have several friends with special needs children. Hill is practicing calf roping so he can ride in a police rodeo benefitting the Special Olympics.

Hill is not alone.

I was raised on a cattle ranch in Arizona, said Officer Chad Roberts with the Grand Prairie police department. "[Growing up] my grandfather and my parents they taught me: God, country, family are the most important three things.

Officer Roberts is also a member of the Grand Prairie Mounted Patrol. He hopes the Cowboy Cops rodeo in Fort Worth sends a message to the community and especially young North Texans.

We really do care about them. We really do want to involve them in everything we do, said Roberts.

Corporal Cliff Elliott works for the Arlington Police Department and also rides on their mounted patrol.

This is what I grew up to do, said Elliott. This was my dream of being a mounted police officer and doing my job what I love on top of a horse; were in Texas so why shouldnt we?

Corporal Elliott said for him its important to set a good example.

I know as a kid I looked up to police officers," said Elliott.

Part cowboy but always an officer, these men are working hard to set a good example both in the rodeo arena and on the streets.

You don't even think about it, you just do it, said Hill.
Car insurance is something driver's can't live without, but a Fort Worth woman reached out to NBC 5 Responds when her rates spiked every year despite her coverage remaining the same.

Rita Goris was happy with her car insurance. But last year, when her bill jumped $360, she called her company for help.

"[An insurance agent] said maybe we can correct this," she said.

The agent asked Goris a series of questions about traffic tickets and her highest level of education before negotiating a lower rate.

But then, Goris' 2016 bill arrived.

"It went up from $675 to $1,035," she said. "They raised the amount, but they did not raise the coverage."

Goris isn't the only North Texan seeing her auto insurance rate skyrocket. According to a study by the car insurance comparison company The Zebra, Dallas car insurance rates have increased 40.3 percent during the past five years  far higher than the national increase of 11 percent.

So we wanted to know what's driving these numbers. An expert with The Zebra broke it down into three factors: bad weather claims, sudden population growth and the number of uninsured auto drivers.

Goris said she plans to keep shopping around until she finds a rate she can afford.

And that really is the best option. To get the best rate, make sure you're reviewing your coverage and ask about discounts for things like a good driving record or higher education.

Online: The State of Auto Insurance
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has called for a permanent ceasefire in Syria, RIA Novosti reported Sept. 12.

On Sept. 9, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry agreed on a multi-stage plan for Syria, which includes a break in hostilities starting from Sept. 12, dissociation of the Syrian opposition from terrorists and continuation of the fight against militants.

As Turkey's prime minister, I urge to end the violence in Syria, Yildirim told reporters. It is time to make the ceasefire permanent, since this meaningless war hasnt brought anyone benefits for six years. The countries struggling with the terrorists in the region, primarily the US and Russia, should play a more active role in the peace process.

He added that in Syria, it is necessary to create the authorities which would unite the interests of all ethnic and religious groups on the principle of the territorial integrity of the country.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 12

By Orkhan Quluzade  Trend:

Latest on the car bomb attack in Van, Turkey

14:37 (UTC+04:00) Forty-eight people were injured in the car bomb explosion in the Turkish province of Van, the Dogan news agency reported citing a source in police Sept. 12.

Reportedly, two of the injured are police officers.

The injured have been taken to the hospital. The police have launched an operation to catch the terrorists.

The prosecutors office of Van has initiated a criminal case over the terrorist attack.

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14:03 (UTC+04:00) Nineteen people were injured in the car bomb explosion in the Turkish province of Van, TRT Haber quoted the province governor Ibrahim Tasyapan as saying Sept. 12.

He noted that the terrorists were targeting the policemen guarding the nearby buildings.

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13:01 (UTC +04:00) Turkish A Haber TV channel reports that the explosion occurred as a result of a car bomb attack.

The report said the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) terrorist group stands behind the blast.

There are so far no exact numbers on casualties.

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12:53 (UTC +04:00) The explosion occurred in the center of Turkish city of Van between the buildings of the governorship and office of the Justice and Development Party, the Anadolu Agency reports.

Several people were injured in the explosion.

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12:23 (UTC+04:00) A large explosion has occurred in Turkish province of Van, the Haber 7 newspaper reports.

Rescuers and ambulances have been sent to the scene.
Congress sent President Barack Obama a bipartisan bill that would allow families of Sept. 11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia, putting lawmakers on a collision course with the White House on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the attacks.

The House passed the legislation Friday by a voice vote, about four months after the measure cleared the Senate despite vehement objections from Saudi Arabia. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals.

The legislation gives victims' families the right to sue in U.S. court for any role that elements of the Saudi government may have played in the 2001 attacks that killed thousands in New York, the Washington, D.C., area and Pennsylvania.

The White House has signaled Obama would veto the legislation over the potential for it to backfire and apprehension about undermining a longstanding yet strained relationship with a critical U.S. ally in the Middle East. The Obama administration has warned that if U.S. citizens can take the Saudis to court, then a foreign country could in turn sue the United States.

Votes from two-thirds of the members in the House and Senate would be needed to override a veto.

Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, said the U.S. government should be more concerned about the families of the victims than "diplomatic niceties." Poe said he doesn't know if the Saudi government had a role in the Sept. 11 attacks.

"That's for a jury of Americans to decide," Poe said.

There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia. The timing of the vote could be seen as an additional slap at the kingdom, which was preparing for the annual hajj pilgrimage beginning Saturday. But a sponsor of the bill, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said lawmakers were focused only on the symbolism of bringing the bill to the floor as close to the 15th anniversary as possible.

The bill's proponents disputed the argument that there will be a boomerang effect if the measure is signed into law. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., another sponsor, said foreign governments cannot look the other way if terrorist activities are being plotted or launched from their countries.

Terry Strada, national head of 9/11 Families United For Justice Against Terrorism, dismissed fears the U.S. could be the target of lawsuits.

"If we're not funding terrorist organizations and killing people, then we don't have anything to worry about," she said.

The vote came after House members from both parties briefly adjourned to commemorate the anniversary of the attacks. House Speaker Paul Ryan led a moment of silence on the Capitol steps, and lawmakers sang "God Bless America" in remembrance of 9/11, when lawmakers gathered in the same location to sing the song immediately after the attacks on New York and Washington.

The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act had triggered a threat from Riyadh to pull billions of dollars from the U.S. economy if the legislation is enacted. But Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir denied in May that the kingdom made any threats over the bill. He said Riyadh had warned that investor confidence in the U.S. would shrink if the bill became law.

"In fact what they (Congress) are doing is stripping the principle of sovereign immunities, which would turn the world for international law into the law of the jungle," Al-Jubeir said.

The House vote came two months after Congress released 28 declassified pages from a congressional report into 9/11 that reignited speculation over links at least a few of the attackers had to Saudis, including government officials. The allegations were never substantiated by later U.S. investigations into the terrorist attacks.

Brian McGlinchey, director of advocacy website 28pages.org, said making the documents public "strengthened the resolve of 9/11 families and other advocates of justice to bring about the enactment" of the bill.

A decision by Obama to veto legislation "that would give 9/11 families their well-deserved day in court would truly stain his legacy," McGlinchey said.

In a separate development, a bipartisan group of senators are seeking to block the Obama administration's proposed sale of more than $1 billion worth of U.S. weapons to Saudi Arabia.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., cited Saudi Arabia's poor human rights record and the kingdom's role in Yemen's civil war.

The war is pitting Yemen's internationally recognized government and a Saudi-led coalition against the Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who are allied with army units loyal to a former president. The Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes in Yemen since March 2015.
What to Know 23-year-old Desray Leroy was killed and 6 other people were hurt when two cars collided in Queens early Sunday morning

Leroy had been out celebrating her younger sister's birthday just before the crash

A 53-year-old woman in the other car was arrested for aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle at the scene

A 23-year-old Queens woman was killed and six other people were injured in a t-bone crash at a Queens intersection Sunday morning, authorities said.

Desray Leroy was riding in an Audi sedan at about 4:30 a.m. with five other passengers and a driver when their car was struck by the driver of a Honda Civic near the corner of 120 Street and Linden Boulevard in South Ozone Park, according to police.

Leroy had been out celebrating her younger sisters birthday with friends. Video posted to Snapchat shows Leroy dancing and riding in the Audi earlier that night.

In video of the crash, two cars collide and the Audi flips upside down and lands violently against a wall. Police said the Audi blew a stop sign at the intersection moments before the crash.

The Audi, which only seats five people, had seven crammed inside at the time of the collision. Leroy was on another persons lap. In the video, her friends and younger sister can be seen climbing out of the smoking car.

Leroy and the six other people in the Audi were transported to area hospitals, according to the NYPD. They included a driver, four men in their early 20s and a 21-year-old woman.

Leroy suffered head trauma and was pronounced dead at Jamaica Hospital. The driver was critically injured in the crash and taken to Elmhurst Hospital. The four men and 21-year-old woman were taken to Jamaica in stable condition.

The driver of the Honda, 53-year-old Ray Mouton, was arrested for aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle at the scene of the crash, authorities said. It's unclear if she was injured.

Leroy had recently graduated from a radiology program and was preparing for her future. She was less than a mile away from home when the two cars collided.

Everybodys reaction was: This has to be a joke. It has to be. Theres no way. We just saw her, Edward Davis, Leroys childhood friend, said.

She had just finished her radiology program, she was planning on taking care of her mom, Davis said.

Friends and family are now left to remember who Leroy was and to mourn who she could have become.

Police said the crash is still under investigation.
A school bus carrying members and coaches of a Colorado high school football team crashed into a concrete pillar Sunday at Denver International Airport, killing the driver and injuring 18 passengers, authorities said.

Joe Ferdani, a spokesman for the Adams 12 Five Star Schools District, said 15 students from Legacy High School in Broomfield, north of Denver, were transported to four hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries. Most have been treated and released, Ferdani said. Three coaches suffered "more serious injuries," he said.

The driver, a woman who wasn't identified, was killed, Denver police Sgt. Michael W. Farr said.

It wasn't immediately clear what caused the crash.
Turkey's finance minister on Monday accused local municipalities under the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) of having financed PKK terrorism, Anadolu agency reported.

Naci Agbal said the government under the principles of a state of law would deal with those who supported or financed terrorists.

His remarks came at a gathering in the northeastern province of Bayburt where he went to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, also known as the feast of sacrifice.

Referring to the recent appointment of trustees by the Turkish government to some southeastern municipalities, the minister said the government had done what was necessary.

How come a municipality, elected by the votes of citizens living there, can transfer its funds to terrorists? Agbal asked.

He added: The HDP municipalities clearly finance terrorism.

Trustees were appointed to oversee 28 local administrations Sunday following the suspension of mayors accused of links to the PKK or the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO). The latter has been linked to the July 15 coup attempt.

Agbal also discussed an extensive development plan for 23 provinces in southeast Turkey. Education, health, transport and infrastructure projects are underway to boost employment and improve the regional economy, he said.

Referring to Mondays bomb attack in the eastern province of Van, Agbal said Turkey would never give up the fight against terrorism.

PKK and Daesh on one side and FETO on the other side are all targeting Turkey's future, he said. However, the power of this nation is above all.

A bomb-laden vehicle exploded at 10.50 a.m. local time (0750GMT) near a police station in front of the Justice and Development (AK) Party building, injuring 48 people. Two of the injured were in critical condition.

The blast heavily damaged the AK Party building and a nearby hotel. Windows of nearby houses and storefronts were also shattered in the blast.
Firefighters battled a blaze at a Lehigh Valley natural gas power plant for hours after an explosion sparked a fire at the facility Sunday evening, officials said.

A transformer exploded just after 8 p.m. at Talen Energy's Lower Mount Bethel power plant along Depues Ferry Road in Lower Mount Bethel Township, Northampton County emergency dispatchers tell NBC10.

Photos posted by people living near the plant, which sits next to the Delaware River, showed intense flames and thick black smoke billowing into the air.

Firefighters were forced to stay back from the fire because of electrocution concerns when they first arrived on scene. They were spraying fire-retardant foam on the blaze from afar, officials said.

The fire was contained to the transformer on the plant's grounds and was brought under control around 10:10 p.m. said Northampton County dispatchers.

The plant burns natural gas to produce electricity, according to Talen's website. Officials said the generation facility is not burning.

There were no reports of injuries and residents were not evacuated.

Todd Martin, a spokesman for Talen Energy, said the plant was completely shut down and would remain closed for the foreseeable future. Martin said there was no danger to the public or employees.

"[It] will will take time to investigate and evaluate to ensure whatever has happened will not happen again," he told NBC10. "An investigation is ongoing into what caused the units involved to stop operation tonight."

Martin said the company will work with state regulators on an investigation into the incident.

The plant's shut down did not result in power outages, officials said.
A woman has been struck and killed by a New Jersey Transit train in Essex County.

Authorities say 45-year-old Kara Beloreshka was hit around 10 p.m. Saturday near the Maplewood station.

It wasn't immediately clear if the Springfield woman was on the tracks when she was hit by the Morris and Essex line train, which was headed to Penn Station in New York. Authorities said the investigation was ongoing.

None of the 175 passengers and crew members aboard the train were injured in the accident.

Service on the Morris and Essex line was suspended in both ways between Maplewood and East Orange while the accident was investigated.
Two Paradise Hills natives on stage together as the curtain rises on The Lion King this month have an unlikely tale of friendship.

Michelle Camaya, an ensemble member, and Chondra Profit, who plays Sarabi, both grew up in Paradise Hills, just miles apart from each other.

But years before the two met while starring in the cast of The Lion King on Broadway, the women had a chance, and brief, meeting: in a high school classroom.

Chondra, a student at the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts (SDSCPA), still remembers a very special day in one of her classes taught by one of her mentors, Mr. Robinson: the day Michelle came to visit.

In the early 2000s, SDSCPA alumna Michelle came back to the school to talk about her professional life as a performer in The Lion King on Broadway.

It wasnt until Michelle came to the class that it made it real and tangible, Chondra said.

Chondra came home and added The Lion King to her vision board, hoping that one day she, too, could join the company.

I only had Lion King on my vision board after that, she said.

Michelle would have never guessed Chondra would go on to play Sarabi in The Lion King.

Chondra was cast as a swing in the Broadway production of The Lion King several years later, where she covered the role of Nala often. A year and a half later, she was offered the role of Sarabi full time. She was offered a quick break from the Broadway production to come out and perform as Sarabi in San Diego.

But being a part of one of the largest touring productions in America comes with a unique set of physical challenges for both women: mastering the blend between costumes, dance and singing.

I always say Im like a walking zoo, said Michelle, who has multiple costume changes a night as a member of the ensemble.

You have to make the hyena come alive, you have to wear a harness, you have to be in the hyena stance, you have to wear boots and get the posturing and the physicality of the hyena, Michelle said. Youre a performer, basically, dancing in weights.

As Sarabi, Chondra said she gets lucky: aside from a heavy headpiece, her costume/puppet combination is one of the lightest in the show. But what she lacks in costume, she makes up for with more physical movement onstage.

This show is a little taxing because its very involved with your body, she said. Vocally, the music in the show is amazing, its very intricate, so you have to be to be vocally on point.

Now that The Lion King is back in San Diego, both Michelle and Chondra have the opportunity to perform in front of the community that lifted them up as performers.

Its just great; its great to be home and be around the people who really get you and who have been instrumental in getting to me where I am, Chondra said.

On opening night Thursday, Chondra's extended family came out to see the show  something she did not think would realistically be possible.

The honest thing is that realistically, they would never be able to get to New York, all of them, to see the show, Chondra said. Its amazing.

For Michelle, a current San Diego resident, performing in the show in San Diego for the first time means having some of the Fillipino-American community she has been a part of for so many years see her dance. Michelle has been a part of The Samahan Filipino American Performing Arts & Education Center for over 30 years and is now a Vice-President, choreographer, teacher and dancer of the company.

Lion King has been a part of my life since 2002, she said. Its literally full circle, from my experience -- Ive done it everywhere else but San Diego.

Michelle first auditioned for the show on Sept. 11, 2001. Her first scheduled show back with The Lion King is on Sept. 11, 2016, 15 years later. The whole process has been a circle of life, in its own way, she said.

To finally do it here, in my hometown, is perfection, Michelle said.

The Lion King runs in San Diego from Sept. 7 to Oct. 2. Purchase tickets here.
China Looking Forward to Stronger Relations with Laos Through Railway and Hydroelectric Projects

Loatian President Bounnhang Vorachit welcomed China's eagerness to strengthen relations. (Photo : Getty Images)

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with Lao President Bounnhang Vorachit to engage in talks about improving bilateral relations between the two countries.



Li said that the partnership between Laos and China will be in the form of economic investments, railway, and hydroelectric projects.



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The Chinese leader said that they would want to focus on areas like tourism and education.



He said, "China, with a traditional friendship with Laos, would like to promote their high-level contacts, share their experiences in the governance of their respective countries and deepen pragmatic cooperation."



In turn, the Lao President welcomed the efforts of China to revitalize the strategic partnership between the two countries.



Bounnhang appreciated the support of Li toward Laos and the efforts of the country in hosting the recently concluded ASEAN Summit.



The president said that Laos and other Asian nations followed the principle of "good neighbors, good friends, good partners and good brothers."



U.S. President Obama also attended the ASEAN Summit and reiterated American support for Asian countries. China, in particular, had remarked on the U.S.'s interfering with sensitive issues such as the South China Sea dispute.



Obama said, "I recognize this raises tensions but I also look forward to discussing how we can constructively move forward together to lower tensions."



Li reacted and said that "China was willing to work with Southeast Asian countries in dispelling interference . . . and properly handling the South China Sea issue."



ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minh said, "Both China and the United States are among the most important partners of ASEAN, and ASEAN does not want to have to choose between those partners."


Police are searching for the man who robbed a bank Sunday afternoon in Bedford, Massachusetts.

Officers responded to the TD Bank at 175 Great Road just before 3 p.m. after getting several 911 calls from witnesses and receiving a hold-up alarm.

Witnesses said the man had approached a teller demanding money, then fled the scene with an undisclosed amount of cash.

No injuries were reported.

The man was 6 feet tall with a slender build. He was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with the United States Army logo on the back of it, and dark-colored pants and gloves. The suspect's face was covered.

Area police used a K-9 unit to search the area but were unable to locate him.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Bedford Police Department at 781-275-1212.
Two teenagers facing charges in connection with the stabbing of a livery driver Sunday in Chelsea, Massachusetts, faced a judge Monday.

The boys, 15 and 17, were both charged with armed assault with intent to murder and assault and battery.

The 15 year old from Chelsea was ordered to be held on $25,000 bail, and his bail in an open case out of Lawrence was revoked. Meanwhile, the 17 year old from Chelsea was ordered to be held on $10,000 bail.

Police say officers responded to the area of 250 Congress Ave. at 6:40 p.m. where they found a 57-year-old East Boston man inside his vehicle suffering from an apparent slash wound to his neck.

Witnesses were able to describe the suspects and police located the teens.

The victim was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital to be treated and has since been released.

Police are investigating the incident but believe the victim was a sub-contractor for livery company and was giving the two teens a ride when they allegedly stabbed him.

The teens, who were not identified because of their ages, are due back in court on Sept. 22.

Their attorneys are Craig Mulcahey and Patrick Colvario.
Vernon police have arrested a man accused of choking his girlfriend while intoxicated.

Police said Tyree Alford, 23, of New York City, showed up at his girlfriends apartment on Terrace Drive intoxicated around 4:52 a.m. Saturday. Alford allegedly became upset with his girlfriend and choked her. He also told her he wanted to kill her, police said.

The victim was able to call 911 and when officers arrived Alford confronted them outside the apartment. Police said he was intoxicated, agitated and yelling at officers. Alford was also found with a large kitchen knife in his hand, police said.

According to police, Alford resisted arrest and had to be tackled to the ground before they took him into custody.

Alford was charged with second-degree strangulation, first-degree unlawful restraint, first-degree reckless endangerment, risk of injury to a minor, disorderly conduct, second-degree threatening, interfering/resisting an officer, and carrying a dangerous weapon. He was held on a $150,000 bond and scheduled to appear at Rockville Superior Court on Sept. 12.
Health Officials Expect Active West Nile Season (Photo : Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The Shelby County health officials had confirmed the first case of West Nile virus in the area. Another case of the virus was also found in Lake County in Illinois.



The health officials have announced on Thursday that the first case of West Nile Virus in Shelby County for 2016 has been confirmed, as The Commercial Appeal reported. Elizabeth Hart, the spokeswoman of the Health Department said that the first victim of the West Nile Virus is a man, 67 years old. Hart expressed that she could not provide further information regarding the man's condition.



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In 2001, the first ever case of West Nile Virus was documented in the area of Memphis. In 2015, there was only one incidence of West Nile Virus in Shelby County compared to 10 identified cases in 2014.



In the other news, the Lake County in Illinois has also confirmed its first case of West Nile Virus in 2016 according to the Daily Herald. The victim is said to be residing in Ingleside, Illinois. The Lake County resident was confined in a hospital late August and in early September the patient was discharged.



In the midst of this impending outbreak, The Lake County Health Department continually urges its residents to implement precautions from against the bites of mosquitoes. This year, thus far two birds and 84 pools (batches) of mosquitoes in Lake County have been identified positive with the West Nile Virus.



In a statement from the Health Department's Interim Executive Director Mark Pfister, he said that this is a season of the year wherein we can identify cases of the West Nile Virus. Pfister added that though the weather temperature is getting colder, the mosquitoes will continually become active "until the first hard freeze".



Pfister expressed that they are urging citizens to remain active outdoors but to remember to apply mosquito repellant chemicals and take further precautions to prevent mosquito bites. Health officials are urging county residents to prevent mosquito exposures through draining and discarding stagnant water on their properties and by staying inside the home during dawn and dusk, a time when mosquitoes are very active.



The West Nile Virus could typically cause minor illnesses in healthy humans. However, it could prompt and trigger a lethal inflammation in the brain called encephalitis.



Here's a brief explanation on how West Nile virus affects human body:






In honor of the 15th anniversary of 9/11, Massachusetts Fallen Heroes participated in a mass for remembrance in Boston's Seaport District on Sunday.

Following a service at Chapel of Our Lady of Good Voyage, Gold Star Families, Veterans and the public were invited to a candlelit procession and vigil at the nearby Massachusetts Fallen Heroes Memorial.

Steve Milley, who attended the annual event, lost his son in the War on Terror.

"My son was killed on November 30, 2010," Milley said.

First Lieutenant Scott Miley died in Afghanistan at the age of 23.

Joe Kelley's son was killed in action in June of 2005.

Both he and Milley say they both attend the event to pray and reflect.

"It makes me feel good in my heart that people still remember," Kelley said.

The names of all the service men and women who lost their lives during the War on Terror were read at the candlelit vigil.


New minister welcomed to Norwich Elim church New minister welcomed to Norwich Elim church

Nick Whipps has been welcomed as the new minister of Norwich Elim Church on Trory Street at an induction service that gathered the local church family as well as others from across the region.
In somewhat of a kick in the teeth for law enforcement and spy agencies, a science institute says smartphones will soon be able to take advantage of some of the most spectacular encryption ever known.

The Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) says random number generators (RNGs) will soon be able to function without ever repeating the random number and that the quantum-based chips will soon be small enough to fit in a smartphones form factor. It would create the fastest and smallest encryption functionality ever.

+ Also on Network World: Why smartphone encryption has law enforcement feathers ruffled +

One of the problems with traditional RNGs is that they are based on algorithms, and experts say the numbers generated by the mathematics can be guessed if you know how the algorithm was built. An RNG isnt really random, ICFO explains in a news release on its website.

The RNG is actually a pseudo-random number generator. It appears random, but eventually the sequences repeat. Thats not good if youre using RNGs to create encryption keys. Truly random number generation would be better.

Quantum processes can better extract randomness, the institute says. And if that could be made to work well, the RNGs would be truly random and unpredictable.

ICFO, which has published its paper in Optica, says its developed a 6mm-by-2mm Quantum random number generator (QRNG) microprocessor that uses photonics.

Photonics are light-based data mechanisms and transmission methods.

How the QRNG chip works

The groups chip uses a combination of quantum-specific techniquesone called phase diffusion, related to patternsand lasers. A series of pulses are created with similar amplitudes and random phases. Messing with the light pulses, using an interferometer, generates a high-rate random sequence of numbers. Theyre better random numbers, in other words.

The group says their demonstration device is fast enough to even encrypt voice callsamong other processing-intensive applications, such as video and data being sent to servers. It could make keys quickly for extremely heavy usage applications, such as social network servers.

This new device operates at speeds in the range of gigabits per second, the release says. And its clearly small.

Others in the federal government and spook, commentary business are taking note:

For the first time, engineers have developed a fast random number generator based on a quantum mechanical process that could deliver the worlds most secure encryption keys in a package tiny enough to use in a mobile device, Homeland Security Newswire says in its coverage of the development.

Senior police officers and spy bosses don't think smartphones should be encrypted at allor should be encrypted with backdoors to help them catch evil-doers. Some levels of encryption have existed natively on the two largest smartphone operating systems, Android and Apples iOS, for a while.

The security chiefs will certainly not be happy to learn that an RNG that creates numbers that cant even be guessed might shortly be making its way into mobile devices such as smartphones. Police bosses have in the past called smartphone encryption going dark because of the level of impedance they say it has on their job.

Public awareness of secret government snooping, though, was brought to the forefront by the Edward Snowden revelations, and civil freedom fans (and crooks), on the other hand, will welcome the news.
To say the National Security Agency (NSA) prefers to lay low and shuns the limelight is an understatement. One joke said about the secretive group, widely regarded as the most skilled state-sponsored hackers in the world, is NSA actually stands for No Such Agency.

But now a recent leak has put the group right where it loathes to besquarely in the headlines. Last month, a group called The Shadow Brokers published what it claimed were a set of NSA cyber weapons, a combination of exploits, both zero day and long past, designed to target routers and firewalls from American manufacturers, including Cisco, Juniper and Fortinet.

+ Also on Network World: Cisco, Fortinet issue patches against NSA malware +

The exploits were advertised on a variety of outlets in two installments. The first release acted as a sort of teaser for the second, which allegedly had the best files for auction at a price of 1 million bitcoins (which at this moment converts to about $628 million). This posting violated Githubs policy forbidding the sale of stolen property, and the site moved quickly to delete the files.

Though the exploits were somewhat outdated, appearing to be from mid-2013, many attested to their authenticity and importance. A new set of documents published by The Intercept from Edward Snowden confirm the leaked files are authentic NSA hacking tools.

The leak marks the first time any full copies of the NSAs infiltration software have been made available to the public.

One anonymous NSA employee who worked in the NSAs special hacking division said of the leaked code, Theyre the keys to the kingdom. [The release of these files] would undermine the security of a lot of major government and corporate networks both here and abroad.

Who did it?

The breach has raised a slew of troubling questions about the scale of the hack and who is ultimately responsible. While the true identity of The Shadow Brokers remains a mystery, Snowden in a set of Twitter messages said, Circumstantial evidence and conventional wisdom indicates Russian responsibility.

Obtaining the files was no small feat of espionage. The unchanged file names in the leak indicate they were directly copied from the source, meaning whoever is responsible infiltrated either the top-secret, highly compartmentalized NSA computer servers or other computer networks the agency used to store the files.

Further, the codes date, mid-2013, indicates the period of time before Snowdens disclosures to the wider world and before the NSA shuttered the compromised servers and moved code to new ones as a security measure. Some believe the hackers access was cut off around then.

Additional questions raised by the hack include why code stolen in 2013 would be released three years later in 2016. Also worth considering is the possibility that The Shadow Brokers is a collective attempting, for whatever reason, to impersonate Russian hackers and that this was an inside job. With so many questions and lack of definitive answers, its clear this leak will take a significant amount of time to sort through.

Offense and defense in cybersecurity

What is not murky is the fact that the NSA has been using these tools to spy on customers of technology companies such as Cisco, Fortinet and Juniper for at least a decade. The rise of state-paid cybersecurity in recent years has raised several troubling conflict-of-interest cases like these.

The fact is that cybersecurity tools can be used either for offense (infiltrating computer systems for nefarious purposes) or defense (protecting systems from being compromised by unauthorized users). How these tools are used depends entirely by the person wielding them.

This dichotomy exacerbates tensions between both various branches of government and between government and private industry. Within government, the NSA withholding zero-day exploits for their own use in spying and other offensive maneuvers conflicts with agencies tasked with protecting Americans from attack, like the Department of Homeland Security.

Further, does the NSA have the right to withhold zero-day exploit information from American tech manufacturers such as Cisco, Microsoft and Apple? The rules are still fuzzy. The Obama administration, according to a 2014 New York Times article, has ordered the NSA to disclose security holes it finds in most cases, but these holes can be held in secret if they can be used to serve a clear national security or law enforcement need.

Unfortunately, by withholding this information, the NSA has raised the troubling thought that these zero-day exploits may have been used by Americas adversaries for a similar length of time.

The opinions expressed in this Blog are those of Michelle Drolet and do not necessarily represent those of the IDG Communications, Inc., its parent, subsidiary or affiliated companies.
The digital business era is highly competitive with companies looking for a way to one-up the competition. One way to do that is to gain new insights from data gathered from various systems.

A significant source of data that has been vastly underutilized is the network. Business today is network-centric, meaning companies should leverage network information to make better, more-informed decisions.

This week, Aruba Networks, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, announced its Mobile First Platform that aims to provide more data and insights to improve applications and services. The platform is built on the companys latest operating system, ArubaOS 8.0, which runs as a virtual machine on an off-the-shelf server appliance. The new OS provides rich, contextual information from the infrastructure via northbound APIs.

ArubaOS 8.0 has many benefits to its traditional buyer, as it simplifies changing or scaling the infrastructure through automation. One general rule of thumb that Ive always advised IT to abide by is that if a solution is more complicated that the original problem, dont do it. While that seems obvious, thats not always the case with networking solutions. Generally, as a deployment gets larger and needs to scale, the operational side becomes more complex, so its good to see Aruba focusing on simplifying the management overhead.

Making apps smarter

More important, the new OS is aimed at application developers, as it enables greater programmability of Aruba infrastructure with capabilities to access information from the network in real time. In a sense, what Aruba has done is modularize its controller functionality so developers can use pieces of it to make apps smarter.

For example, ecosystem partner SkyFii uses contextual information available in the OS to help businesses analyze and visualize customer behavior. Arubas Analytics and Location Engine (ALE) has made contextual data available regarding devices, applications and location to let SkyFii customers, such as retailers, engage with shoppers better with targeted and personalized advertising.

As part of the new OS, Aruba also made several enhancements and improved third-party integration capabilities to its mobile access ClearPass software. ClearPass Extensions simplify the process of integrating cloud-hosted technology services into ClearPass. Aruba partners can drop their own software into the Aruba service and make it available via an API. Customers and developers can leverage these services to automate mobile workflows. For example, the security posture of a connected device can be checked using Intel Security McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator. Other examples of available ClearPass Extension services are multi-function authentication from Kasada and automation of guest Wi-Fi access using Envoy and Sine.

Also as part of this release, the Aruba Mobile First Platform brings advanced Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) analytics capabilities to the Meridian Mobile App Platform. Dwell time monitoring has been available for some time, but the new Meridian Goals feature gathers insights and provides information to marketing and business teams about the success or failure of engagement campaigns through detailed reports. Without it, businesses would need to sift through massive amounts of data and reports to understand the results of an engagement campaign.

The importance of turnkey solutions like this cant be understated. In a world where speed means everything, businesses cannot take months or even weeks to understand whether their campaigns were successful.

Aruba also added a location sharing feature into Meridian. Workers or visitors to a venue that run a Meridian-enabled application can share their physical location with colleagues or friends. Hospitals could use this to enable clinicians to locate specific doctors, or students could track down each other on large campuses. There are hundreds of other business and personal use cases.

Aruba Central improved

One more notable announcement from Aruba is the enhancements to Aruba Central, its subscription-based, cloud-hosted network service. Aruba has added a managed services portal to its multi-tenant cloud, enabling resellers to quickly create their own branded managed services.

Aruba reseller partners or even customers can add Central to their portfolio by integrating it into their systems through APIs. Aruba Central also includes several new capabilities, such as predictive visibility for Wi-Fi health and Wi-Fi analytics, as well as a mobile application for IT to deploy wired and WAN routing infrastructure with zero touch.

Aruba, like many IT solution providers, is trying to position itself as a platform, but many vendors are a platform only for their own products. Arubas new OS enables a broad ecosystem of partners, as well as customers, to easily build mobile-enabled applications on top of the Aruba foundation. Networking is about more than connectivity, and Arubas Mobile First platform should allow the company to have a strong play with businesses looking to take advantage of digital transformation.
Microsoft has secured some big allies in a fight against the federal government, including three of its chief rivals, plus a hometown airline.

Microsoft is fighting the government over its right to tell customers when federal agents request their data and emails. The company filed a lawsuit in April against the federal government, charging such gag orders violate the Constitution and threaten the future of cloud computing.

+ Also on Network World: Microsoft says tech companies whipsawed by conflicting laws on global data transfer +

Lining up behind Microsoft are Amazon, Google, Apple, LinkedIn (which Microsoft is in the process of acquiring) and the Alaska Air Group, which is based in Seattle. The companies all signed a pair of amicus briefs filed with the court regarding the suit. An amicus brief means "friend of the court," where a company can show its support for another in a legal proceeding.

"Microsofts lawsuit raises vitally important legal questions about the scope of the governments power both to search the private information that internet users store in the cloud without notifying the target of the search," said the brief.

All told, Microsoft has quite a collection of supporters. They include The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, Delta Air Lines, Alaska Air Group, Eli Lilly and Co, BP America, the Washington Post, Fox News, the National Newspaper Association and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

At issue is how the government views the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), a 30-year-old law that forces Microsoft to stay quiet when the government demands electronic records of a company or individual under investigation. Microsoft contends it should be able to determine if and/or when it should notify customers of government information requests.

The government maintains that when it requests information on a customer from a company such as Microsoft, that company must maintain secrecy in order to prevent subjects of an investigation from destroying evidence.

According to Reuters, in the 18 months before Microsoft filed the lawsuit, the company said the government issued nearly 2,600 secrecy orders preventing Microsoft from informing customers that the government had requested their information and that more than two-thirds of those requests did not specify an end date.

Microsoft says the law was created before cloud computing existed. Microsoft and other cloud providers, such as Amazon and Google, store vast amounts of customer data, making it easier to request that data.

"Those benefits are threatened, however, by the governments extensive use of gag orders," the brief said.

By not notifying customers of these requests, Microsoft feels its assisting the government in violating its users constitutional rights, in particular the Fourth Amendment, which protects against illegal search and seizure.

No court date has been set.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s stock performance is displayed on a monitor on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York. (Photo : Getty Images)

Now on its 52-week high, Alibaba stocks could rise to new highs even if the SEC accounting probe fines the company for violations, according to an article published by seekingalpha.com.



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Although currently its stocks remain at bargain prices, Alibaba broke above $100/share last week for the first time since Jan. 2010.



Some American investors and journalists have been comparing Alibaba to Amazon.com, which leads the U.S. market in e-commerce and rapidly gaining a foothold in cloud services.



Alibaba, on the other hand, is the leading Chinese e-commerce firm and its cloud service business has been growing faster than other firms in the sector, Goldman Sachs said.



But there are differences between the two companies and how they manage their finances.



In last four quarters, Alibaba registered year-over-year revenue growth of 27 percent, 26 percent, 33 percent and 48 percent. The growth is not only huge but also continues to accelerate, the report said.



On the other hand, Amazon's revenue growth, in the same quarters, was reported to be 23 percent, 22 percent, 28 percent and 31 percent, respectively.



According to the report, Alibaba's underperformance in the market has been caused by three factors. First is that many U.S. investors do not trust China, as fears of Chinese economic collapse threatened the market in the past two years. Investors are wary of the nation's debt levels which have reached 250 percent of GDP, although the Chinese government controls a majority of the financial institutions, including state-owned enterprises and so-called private firms, according to American Enterprise Institute scholar Derek Scissors.



Scissors said that the Chinese instability is different from other countries, since it is "linked to the fact that we have essentially market-driven financial systems, and that's just not the case in China."



The scholar added that China is far from economic collapse as the country even reported a 6.7 percent growth rate in the second quarter and it is growing more than twice as fast as the U.S.'s reported 1.2 percent rate in the same period.



The second factor that troubles U.S. investors is Alibaba's financial structure. The company is structured as a "variable-interest entity," which means shareholders do not own a direct interest in the company. Instead, they own an interest in a Cayman Islands company that holds a contract with Alibaba to receive fees and royalties based on its earnings.



Although this may seem suspicious to U.S. investors, this financial structure was required by Chinese regulations for all Chinese companies that wanted to list overseas. Baidu Inc, China's search engine giant, also does the same.



The third factor is its accounting practices. In May, the SEC announced that it is investigating Alibaba for its accounting practices to determine if it had violated federal laws.



The report said that investors fear accounting irregularities but Alibaba chairman Jack Ma is confident. He said in July that the SEC probe is "an opportunity for us to let them understand what we're doing."


Archaeologists uncover ancient building during recent dig

COULD archaeologists have unearthed one of West Berkshires first-ever micro breweries in Boxford?

The walls of a small building, which is believed to have been used for malting barley  the first stage of brewing beer  were discovered during a two-week dig in the village.

And while examinations still have to be carried out by experts, the early signs look promising.

Joy Appleton, chair of the Boxford History Project said: The main discovery was a small building, gradually uncovered and identified as a grain dryer, which sounds rather boring until malting comes into the picture.

So was this one of the first West Berkshires micro breweries? From the research we have done, it certainly looks as though it could be.

We live in the middle of an extensive barley area and our local farmer sold a lot of barley from malt, so it is not beyond the wit of man to say it could have been used for that purpose. We do think it is highly likely.

Pottery, bones, shells and metalwork were also discovered and will all be sent to experts for identification, as well as soil samples taken for environmental analysis.

A number of ovens and kilns were also found.

On Sunday, almost 100 people turned out to the see the results of this years Big Dig in Boxford.

Members of the Berkshire Archaeology Research Group (BARG), volunteers and Cotswold Archaeology were on hand to explain that the site contained not only Roman, but Iron Age finds.

A few of the finds were on display on Sunday and when they have all been recorded and analysed, they will be put on display in Boxfords Heritage Centre.

Mrs Appleton said: Thanks go to Cotswold Archaeology, BARG and all our volunteers, without whom none of this would have been possible.

Special thanks goes to David Willison, who ferried equipment around, and his wife Pru who washed innumerable finds.

Now we are looking forward to our last Heritage Lottery-funded project next year in August  another Roman villa, maybe two, or perhaps the second building will be a barn or full-scale brewery.

If you would like to volunteer, contact Joy Appleton at: joy@appleton.uk.net
Newbury school for deaf children rated 'good' by inspectors

STAFF and students at Mary Hare School, Newbury, are celebrating after Ofsted inspectors rated the school good.

The residential school for deaf children received the second-highest rating following the inspection in June, an improvement from the previous rating of requires improvement.

Inspectors noted that the pupils take great pride in their school, calling their behaviour exemplary, while also saying adults, including the therapy staff, attended well to pupils learning, emotional and healthcare needs.

The teaching at the school, at Snelsmore Common, was also praised with inspectors calling teachers confident, passionate and enthusiastic.

The school, which currently has 203 pupils enrolled, is a registered charity providing for profoundly and severely deaf children and young people from all over the UK.

The report said the schools governors offered a valuable set of skills, knowledge and expertise, adding: Since the previous inspection they have re-focused their roles and made clear what they expect of leaders within the school and what leaders can expect of them.

Special praise was also given to principal and chief executive of the school, Peter Gale.

The inspectors said: The principal has restructured the leadership of the school successfully.

With a clear focus on raising achievement, he has established a strong team of middle and senior leaders.

Following the inspection, Mr Gale said: I am delighted with this report.

We are pleased to have achieved good in every judgement but the real pleasure comes from reading the full text of the report.

I am especially pleased that there are such wonderful comments about teachers, teaching assistants, residential care staff, governors and the pupils themselves.

I have spoken to all staff, however, to assure them that whether they work in the kitchen or maintain our beautiful grounds or in any other department, that they have all contributed to this success.

We are a very happy school and this comes across very plainly.

It is not always easy for families to persuade their local authority to fund a place at Mary Hare and such a positive report can only help that process.

The report comes as the Mary Hare Hearing Centre, in Weavers Walk, prepares to hold its annual open day.

This years event is entitled Celebrating 70 years of Mary Hare School and will offer preliminary hearing checks, a hearing aids cleaning and repair service, and show off the latest hearing technologies.

The open day will be addressed by Mr Gale, who will speak about the schools 70-year history..

The free event will take place at the Arlington Arts Centre, at the school, on Tuesday, September 20, from 9.30am to 2.30pm.
All proceeds from Cote Pavlova sales will be donated to Swings & Smiles

A NEWBURY-based charity will be hoping that a leading restaurant chain can use the power of the pavlova to help raise some of the money it needs to move into a new permanent home.

Cote Restaurants, the UKs leading French brasserie group, is aiming to raise more than 30,000 this September in support of Swings & Smiles, which provides recreational facilities for children with special needs and their families.

Cote  which opened a new restaurant in Northbrook Street, Newbury last year  will donate proceeds from sales of its popular fruit pavlova directly to the charity.

The charity currently supports 260 families, and more than 350 children, at the Phoenix Resource Centre in Newbury.

But the council-run facility is only a temporary base for Swings & Smiles, which is aiming to raise at least 450,000 to build a new permanent home to meet the ever-growing demand for its services.

Sian Cook, founder of Swings & Smiles, said: The trustees and I are absolutely thrilled that Cote Restaurants has offered to raise this money.

Cotes efforts are another, fantastic step towards building Swings & Smiles a permanent home, so we can support more families and secure the long term future of the charity.

Cotes chief executive Alex Scrimgeour, who lives locally, said: Having seen first-hand what a remarkable charity Swings & Smiles is, we are delighted to join forces with Sian Cook, the inspirational founder of Swings & Smiles, and her team.
The Venice Film Festival showcases outstanding movies from filmmakers across the globe. (Photo : Getty Images)

Giorgio Gosetti, the director if an independent event during the Venice Film Festival, said that despite the growing Chinese film industry, Europe and China should work together to develop the art of making films.



Gosetti was the vice-director of the Venice Film Festival from 1992 to 1996 and has founded or directed the Rome Film Festival.



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He explained that there are many Europeans who are interested to see Chinese movies and that filmmakers should work towards bringing their work to the global market.



He said, "The generation of masters like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, opened the Europeans' mind toward a different culture and through this passage, the international and European film festivals received and are receiving more works from china. This is a tradition and a good start."



There are changing trends in both China and Europe that filmmakers should explore, he added.



The director explained, "But now we have both in China and Europe a new generation of young audience and filmmakers, they have different taste and expectation for cinema."



"The integrating point is, in my opinion, the development of the diversity of contents and of talents. China and Europe should work together to match the tendencies and even to create a new group of audience," he added.



Gosetti emphasized the importance of creating venues to discuss the changing perspectives in film and that young filmmakers should take advantage of film festivals to meet other artists.



He said, "I do hope Chinese directors come to Italy and invent a story with its own sensibility."



During the event, the director organized a forum for Chinese directors and European film artists can exchange ideas.



Young filmmakers in China today are more professional than the last generation. I think Europe can offer certain partnerships in terms of professionalism and technique, which could be useful to the Chinese new generation," he said.


Coal production will increase as prices surge. (Photo : Getty Images)

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) will allow companies to increase coal production as prices are increasing in the global market.



The plan includes the allowing of working time by coal plants but the NDRC will be careful in carrying out and will be watchful over the coal mining companies.



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Coal production has been excessive in the country and the government has been trying to curb overproduction.



Guan Dali, a coal analyst from the industry portal chem365.net, said, "If the government loosens production restrictions too much, it might suppress the coal price, and the government does not want that to happen."



Yicai.com reported that the NDRC held a meeting on Thursday with representatives from major domestic coal companies and workers from the China National Coal Association (CNCA). The NDRC wants to stabilize coal supplies and wants to prevent coal prices from surging.



Lin Boqiang, director of the Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University said that the price of coal is increasing because "the government shortened of domestic coal mines' annual working days, which largely suppressed coal supplies."



According to Guan, "The government does want coal prices to rise, just not in a too abrupt manner."



He added, "With the rising coal price, some private coal mines have already secretly restarted production."



Zhao Chenxin, the spokesman of the NDRC, said that total production already was short by 95 million tons of coal by the end of July, which 38 percent of the yearly target.



Some experts are skeptical if the government really intends to cut production of coal.



According to Deng Shun, an analyst with ICIS China, "China's coal imports will continue to rise as the country's production cuts have created a supply shortfall. There is no sign that the government will ease its efforts in addressing overcapacity."


The China Tibet Tourism and Culture Expo is not all about tourism development and cultural exchanges--this is also a platform for business people to show their products to the world.



Lagqiong, a silverware maker from Tibet's second-largest city Shigatse, comes to the expo every year.



He says this event gives him more customers.



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"The demand for my silverware products has increased a lot ever since I came to the expo. I have a workshop back in my hometown Shigatse. People would go to my factory directly to place orders. I have plenty of customers now."



Lagqiong added before he came here, he had already received many orders.



More than 200 businessmen from some 110 Nepali enterprises were also invited to attend this year's expo.



Bhim Sherchan owns a factory making hand-made Nepalese Tibetan carpets and handicrafts.



The company has been exporting to Germany, the U.S., Japan and other European countries.



Sherchan says among them, China is his largest market.



"Of course, due to its large population--and the cold region is here--it's a potential area for us. Before we couldn't introduce ourselves, now we're going to introduce ourselves, these hand-made products. So I think a lot of the markets are here."



He added that the most difficult thing for his job in China was language, but the popular social platform "WeChat" has totally addressed his concerns, and allows him to promote his carpets in Chinese.



The expo not only provides a platform for craftsmen to show their work, but also gives them opportunities to expand their business network.



Dojre Cairang, general-manager of Tibetan rug manufacturer, is planning to export his raw materials to Nepal.



"Today I talked to a Nepali carpet maker, who owns the largest carpet-making factory in Nepal. He asked me whether I could provide him with raw materials to make carpets. My products can totally meet his requirements, and he thinks we should maintain a long-term relationship for cooperation."



The week-long expo gathers about 1,500 officials, experts and representatives from more than 15 countries and regions.



The event will come to a close on Sept. 16.



Credit: CRIENGLISH


New US Imaging System that can Read Closed Books is a Big Security Problem for CAPTCHA

MIT and Georgia Tech researchers are designing an imaging system that can read closed books. (Photo : Barmak Heshmat)

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta are designing an imaging system capable of reading closed books.



They've announced the development of a prototype of a system they've tested on a stack of papers, each with one letter printed on it. The system was able to correctly identify the letters on the top nine sheets.



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The MIT researchers developed the algorithms that acquire images from individual sheets in stacks of paper while the Georgia Tech researchers developed the algorithm that interprets the often distorted or incomplete images as individual letters.



The MIT/Georgia Tech system exploits the fact that trapped between the pages of a book are tiny air pockets only about 20 micrometers deep. The difference in refractive index -- the degree to which they bend light -- between the air and the paper means that the boundary between the two will reflect terahertz radiation back to a detector.



At the moment, the algorithm can correctly deduce the distance from the camera to the top 20 pages in a stack.



Past a depth of nine pages, however, the energy of the reflected signal is so low the differences between frequency signatures are swamped by noise.



Terahertz imaging is still a relatively young technology, and researchers are constantly working to improve both the accuracy of detectors and the power of the radiation sources, so deeper penetration should be possible.



"It's actually kind of scary," said Barmak Heshmat, a research scientist at the MIT Media Lab and corresponding author on the new paper, of the letter-interpretation algorithm.



"A lot of websites have these letter certifications (CAPTCHAs) to make sure you're not a robot, and this algorithm can get through a lot of them."



CAPTCHA is a type of challenge-response test widely used on the internet and in computing to determine whether or not a user is human. The most common form of CAPTCHA requires a user to type the letters of a distorted image, sometimes with the addition of an obscured sequence of letters or digits that appears on the screen.



CAPTCHA means "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart."



The MIT/Georgia Tech system uses terahertz radiation, the band of electromagnetic radiation between microwaves and infrared light to read text inside a closed book.



Terahertz radiation has several advantages over other types of waves that can penetrate surfaces such as X-rays or sound waves. It's been widely researched for use in security screening because different chemicals absorb different frequencies of terahertz radiation to different degrees, yielding a distinctive frequency signature for each.



By the same token, terahertz frequency profiles can distinguish between ink and blank paper in a way that X-rays can't.



Terahertz radiation can also be emitted in such short bursts that the distance it has traveled can be gauged from the difference between its emission time and the time at which reflected radiation returns to a sensor. That gives it much better depth resolution than ultrasound.



In the researchers' setup, a standard terahertz camera emits ultrashort bursts of radiation and the camera's built-in sensor detects their reflections. From the reflections' time of arrival, the MIT researchers' algorithm can gauge the distance to the individual pages of the book.



While most of the radiation is either absorbed or reflected by the book, some of it bounces around between pages before returning to the sensor, producing a spurious signal. The sensor's electronics also produce a background hum. One of the tasks of the MIT researchers' algorithm is to filter out all this "noise."



The information about the pages' distance helps. It allows the algorithm to hone in on just the terahertz signals whose arrival times suggest that they are true reflections.



Then, it relies on two different measures of the reflections' energy and assumptions about both the energy profiles of true reflections and the statistics of noise to extract information about the chemical properties of the reflecting surfaces.



"The Metropolitan Museum in New York showed a lot of interest in this, because they want to, for example, look into some antique books that they don't even want to touch," said Heshmat.



He said the system can also be used to analyze any materials organized in thin layers, such as coatings on machine parts or pharmaceuticals.



Heshmat is joined on the paper by Ramesh Raskar, the NEC Career Development Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences; Albert Redo Sanchez, a research specialist in the Camera Culture group at the Media Lab; two of the group's other members; and by Justin Romberg and Alireza Aghasi of Georgia Tech.



The study was published in the latest issue of Nature Communications.


Chinas Opposition to THAAD Likely Doomed in Face of North Korea's Nuclear Weapon and Missile Tests

A THAAD battery launches an ABM interceptor. (Photo : US Army)

The revelation North Korea will conduct a sixth underground nuclear weapon test within the year, and probably as early as next month, is another huge blow to China's increasingly discredited attempts to justify its opposition to South Korea deploying an American anti-ballistic missile to defend its territory.



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South Korea believes the forthcoming test might exceed the 10 megaton yield of the weapon detonated last Sept.10 at the north's Punggye-ri underground test site. Following the blast, North Korea's state-run media said the test will enable the country to produce "a variety of smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear warheads of higher strike power."



That latest nuclear test and North Korea's simultaneous launch of three ballistic missiles as China was hosting the G20 Summit is a huge strategic setback for China. These events severely weaken China's argument against the United States stationing anti-ballistic missiles to defend South Korea from North Korean missiles armed with nuclear warheads.



South Korea has no indigenous anti-ballistic missile capable of defeating North Korea's short- to medium-range ballistic missiles. It has had to ask the U.S. to deploy its Terminal High Altitude Terminal Defense (THAAD) system in its defense.



Equally galling for China is that the fifth nuclear blast and the trio of missile launches confirms China has lost whatever influence it has on North Korea's leader, the volatile Kim Jong-un, who seems determined to chart his own course without regard for China's interests.



The nuclear test of Sept. 10 drew condemnation from the UN and world leaders, including China.



China and its ally, Russia, together oppose the deployment of the THAAD because the system's powerful search radars can look thousands of kilometers inside China, compromising China's security. China fears THAAD will enable the Americans to increase surveillance of eastern and central China where most of its armed forces is located.



China also fears THAAD might be used to destroy its land-based anti-ship ballistic missiles such as the "carrier killer" DF-31 that are the backbone of it anti-access/anti-denial (A2/AD) strategy to deny the U.S. Navy access to waters off its eastern coast.



North Korea's repeated missile and nuclear tests have seriously weakened China's argument against THAAD. But of more strategic import, North Korea's repeated provocations will most likely accelerate the deployment of THAAD to two sites in South Korea.



There are indications the South Korean government might request more THAAD batteries be deployed to its shores. The first THAAD battery will become operational on an American air base by the end of this year.



"There were voices against its deployment within South Korea but the test will further provoke South Korea's conservative camp in pushing forward the date," said Cui Shiying of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.


Uttarkhand State in northern India.

The joint wargame "Yudh Abhyas 2016" will again see men of the Indian Army and the U.S. Army train together in mountainous conditions to fight insurgency and terrorism.



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The new exercise from Sept. 14 to 27 will be the twelfth staging of this joint exercise hosted alternately by India and the U.S. It will take place at the settlement of Chaubattia in the Almora District of Uttarakhand State in northern India, which shares a long border with China.



The wargame also comes two weeks after India and the United States signed the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) that will allow the military forces of both nations to use each other's military bases in the Indo-Pacific region.



The agreement will give each nation access to supplies, spare parts and services from each other's land facilities, air bases and ports.



Yudh Abhyas 2016 is part of the ongoing defense cooperation program between India and the United States. The exercise will be conducted by the headquarters of the Central Command of the Indian Army. Uttarakhand counts among the seven states in the north defended by Central Command.



Based at neighboring Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, Central Command is one of the seven operational commands in the army. The unit's commander is Lt. Gen. B S Negi.



Yudh Abhyas 2016 is one of the longest running joint military training and a major ongoing bilateral defense cooperation exercises between India and the U.S. The exercise will simulate a scenario where both nations fight together to counter insurgents and terrorists attacking through mountainous terrain.



The exercise will also see soldiers from each country become better acquainted with each other's weapons, equipment, tactical drills and organizational structure. Much of the Indian Army's military hardware is of Russian origin or are license-built copies made in India.



The two week-long drill will involve 225 U.S. Army personnel and men of the Congo Brigade of the Indian Army. Highlight of the exercise will be a large joint operation against "terrorist forces."



LEMOA will immensely aid the U.S. in the massive redeployment of its military forces to Asia as part of the "Pivot to East Asia" because its forces can operate out of India's military bases on the Indian mainland instead of having to build new military bases.



For its part, India will have access to U.S. bases in the Indian Ocean such as the one on Diego Garcia atoll in the Chagos Archipelago. China is expanding its naval presence in the Indian Ocean and as part of this strategy will build a military base on the Seychelles and will open its first overseas naval base in Djibouti in 2017.


Several thousand people demonstrated Saturday in the southwestern French city of Perpignan to demand their Catalan heritage be spelt out after nationwide territorial reforms.

Organisers said as many as 10,000 people gathered -- police put the figure at some 7,800 people -- to demand their newly-merged region contain the words "Pays catalan" (Catalan land).

The new region merging Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrenees is slated to be called Occitania following 2014 reforms shrinking the number of French regions from 22 to 13 in an administrative shake-up.

But, in a much smaller echo of the spat between Barcelona and Madrid across the border with Spain, where many Catalans support full independence, 450,000 or so French Catalans want to see their identity literally put on the map.

Many marchers wore badges urging "yes to Pays Catalan" badges as they converged on Perpignan's main Catalonia Square and waved a banners proclaiming "pride an honour to speak a language with a great history -- even if the Catalan tongue is spoken far more widely across the border.

Red- and yellow-striped Catalan flags fluttered in the capital of the Pyrenees-Orientales department as the protesters embarked on their rally a day ahead of Catalan national day, La Diada, marked on Sunday.

June saw a plenum of regional councillors vote for Occitania with the added subtitle of "Pyrenees-Mediterranean.

"We are waiting for the decree to be signed before appealing to the council of state," said Joan Becat, spokesman for a pressure group urging the addition of Pays Catalan to the new region.

Some locals see the choice of Occitania as wide of the cultural mark. Some people in parts of southern France as well as Spain and Italy speak Occitan, a Romance language derived from Latin albeit not dissimilar to Catalan.

"Occitania is all well and good -- but we don't want to lose our identity," said one protester, Marie-Cecile, 22, amid a chorus of boos for regional chamber of commerce head Bernard Fourcade.

Marchers then sang Lluis Llach's L'Estaca (the stage, but figuratively meaning without freedom) - composed in 1968 to underscore Catalan opposition to then Spanish dictator General Franco.

Feelings of Catalan identity on the French side of the border traditionally run less strong than in Spain where tens of thousands of Catalans were set to protest on Sunday to demand a speeding up of their drive to break away from Madrid, which has gained momentum in recent years.

After winning a clear majority in Catalonia's regional parliament last year, secessionist parties approved a plan to achieve independence in mid-2017 but internal ideological differences have hampered progress.

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A North Cairo court ordered late Sunday the release of the director of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms Ahmed Abdallah and four others for the second time.

This is the second time the court has ordered their release, as a prosecution appeal was accepted last week blocking the release of the five men, who are facing charges including inciting protests and attacks on security forces.

According to a judicial source, the prosecution is currently considering appealing the courts decision.

The five men have been accused of inciting the forceful overthrow of the government and attacks on police stations for terrorist motives, as well as belonging to an outlawed group.

Abdallah, who has served as legal consultant for the family of murdered Italian student Giulio Regeni, was arrested from his home in New Cairo last April ahead of planned protests against the Red Sea island deal with Saudi Arabia.

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With his recent visit to Saudi Arabia 25 August, the US secretary of state stirred some controversy over the so-called Kerry planfor resolving the crisis in Yemen. Was it a planor was it an initiativeor just ideas? How did the Gulf countries and Riyadh in particular respond? Such questions lay at the centre of the initial debate. But setting formalistic matters aside, the upshot is that the US placed a new proposal on the table for restructuring the Yemeni settlement process.

What is new in Kerrys proposal? Can it succeed where the Geneva and Kuwait rounds failed? To answer these questions, it is useful to analyse the substance of the joint press conference held by the US secretary of state and his Saudi counterpart, Adel Al-Jubeir, at the conclusion of Kerrys bilateral and multilateral talks with Gulf officials along with the Russian deputy foreign minister.

While Kerry mentioned the word planin his remarks, he did not clearly enumerate its points. However, a close inspection of his remarks makes it possible to deduce four general points.

Firstly, there are certain broad outlines on which all parties agree. All seek a return to the negotiating table in order to bring a halt the war for which all parties are paying dearly. All agree that the military option will not settle the war or resolve the crisis. They also agree that there is a dire humanitarian crisis in Yemen, with 80 per cent of the population in need of humanitarian assistance due to the conditions created by the warfare, and that the longer this situation continues the more Yemen risks becoming a failed state, increasingly vulnerable to violent extremist groups such as Al-Qaeda.

The second point concerns procedural steps that essentially entail preparatory consultations for the resumption of negotiations overseen by UN Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed. The chief purpose would be to obtain clear responses to the new US vision before returning to the negotiation table, thereby formulating of a new draft political process within a few months after the return to Kuwait. It appears that Kerry sought to strike a certain neutrality between the concerned parties. In the press conference he made no explicit references to the legitimategovernment supported by Riyadh or to the government of the insurgents, or even to the Presidential Council recently formed by the Saleh-Houthi alliance in Sanaa.

In this regard, Ahmed Rafiq, a member of the General Peoples Congress who is close to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, told Al-Ahram Weekly, The US Secretary of State is trying to rescue the negotiations before the current US administrations term ends. He tried to convince Saudi Arabia that the legitimacythat Riyadh used as an excuse for war no longer exists. Some anticipated that Russia was in the process of preparing an initiative, which is why the Russian deputy prime minister was in Riyadh at the same time.

Rafiq denied that Saleh played a part in the formulation of the Kerry plan. He said that Saleh had presented his ideas regarding the negotiating process in a letter to the Emir of Kuwait during talks in Riyadh. Rafiq anticipates that preparations to resume negotiations could take up to three months.

Kerrys third point involved a transitional working plan. Any forthcoming negotiations will take as their starting point the need to address the problems that caused the previous round of talks to collapse. Essentially these revolved around the prioritisation of the political or security tracks in the process. Kerry proposed that the two tracks proceed simultaneously. He also called for the participation of all concerned parties in the political process in accordance with their respective political weight. He took the opportunity to state that while the Houthis should have an opportunity to be a part of a future government, they should bear in mind that they are a minority in Yemen. He also called for the swift formation of a new national unity government, with power shared among the parties; the withdrawal of forces from Sanaa and other key areas; the transfer of all heavy weapons, including ballistic missiles and launchers, from the Houthis and forces allied with them, to a third party.

We could label the fourth point of the Kerry plan as the final working plan. The aim is to realise political stability through general countrywide elections. In this regard, it is important to note that Kerry did not allude to any political or administrative subdivisions but rather treated Yemen as an indivisible whole. In addition, he stressed that he and his counterparts were also committed to providing future support economic and stabilisation support to help meet urgent humanitarian needs, to stabilise the economy, and to assist in the development and reconstruction.

Commenting on the Kerry plan as a whole, Yemeni political analyst Abdel-Aziz Al-Majidi said, Clearly, Kerry wants to give the country over to the Houthis. The US has a vision for reinstating Ali Abdullah Saleh or delivering the reins of power to the Houthi-Saleh alliance.

On the Saudi viewpoint, it appears that there is a considerable gap between Riyadh and Washington on a number of issues. One might be termed the inversion between the minority and majority in Yemen. As Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir put it, Keep in mind that the Houthis, in a country of 26 million people, are less than 50,000. Thats their number, 10 per cent of the population of Saada So were saying that the Houthis have every right to be part of the political process in Yemen like every other citizen, but they cannot have a privileged position where they have veto rights over a country of 26 million in which they represent less than 50,000.

But Kerry, while noting that the Houthis were a minority, and a very small minority, raised the subject of power sharingagain. This concept was subsequently translated into a three-part formula that triggered considerable controversy: the legitimate government, the Houthis, former president Saleh. Under such a formula, the Houthi minority allied with the Saleh camp would constitute a two-thirds majority while the government of President Hadi would be reduced to a one-third minority.

A number of Yemeni sources contacted by the Weekly anticipate that communications will be made with Iran with regard to the resumption of negotiations. They also believe that an Iranian role may be formalised in the agreement on the grounds that Iran is part of the solution in the regional framework of the Yemeni crisis. In the Saudi opinion, while there is no denying the large role that Iran plays in Yemen, its position as a potential partner in the solution to that crisis has been exaggerated. While Kerry did not hesitate to reproach Iran for threatening its neighbours, he made it clear that he believed that Iran could play a constructive role in the settlement process and that, perhaps in so doing, it would have a better chance of getting what it wants through negotiations than through war. As for Washington, it would inevitably become a party of any war in one way or another, which would ruin the USs strategies for dealing with this region at present.

A political solution does not necessarily eliminate the need for military action, from the Saudi perspective. This is not just because of the civil war but also because of the cross border threat to Saudi Arabia due to Houthi missile fire. Riyadh asserts that it is fighting on two fronts: Houthi insurgents against legitimacy, on the one hand, and extremists epitomised by Al-Qaeda, on the other, although Al-Qaeda has not engaged in a single confrontation but rather withdraws from one threatened position in order to reassert itself in another.

In official Saudi rhetoric, the Houthis are a militiaand not just a demographic majority. We were facing a radical militia, a virtual Hizbullah that was in possession of the government with ballistic missiles and with an air force. This represented a clear and present danger to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,Al-Jubeir said in the joint press conference.

The Kerry plan includes no provisions for penalties in the event of non-fulfilment of obligations. This is another area where US and Saudi opinions diverge, the latter believing that the secretary of state is too trusting of the Houthis. In fact, Kerry himself brought up the case of Houthi actions in Kuwait that led to where we are today. What if the Houthis showed commitment during the talks but failed to follow through on implementation?

In an exclusive interview with the Weekly, Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed Bin Daghr said, referring to Abdel-Malek Al-Houthi, The country will not be handed to a child for him to drag it more than half a century backwards. We have fixed principles, which are to safeguard the republic, to regain control of government, to ensure that weapons heavy weapons are possessed exclusively by the state, and to safeguard the territorial unity of Yemen.He added that any negotiating process not based on three frames the Gulf initiative, UN Resolution 2216 and the outputs of the national dialogue would never be acceptable.

While there are divergences between the US and the Gulf countries in general, it is clear that some differences emanate from a bilateral level, between Washington and Riyadh in particular. Both parties have different priorities and different perceptions of threat. Therefore, for example, while Washington has reiterated its commitment to Riyadh as an ally, and to safeguarding Saudi security, it sees Al-Qaeda as a graver threat that is poised to move into areas. Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, has prioritised the Houthi threat.

It appears that Riyadh is still bent on compelling the other parties in the Yemeni conflict the Houthi-Saleh camp to negotiate on the basis of frames of reference that oblige them to recognise the legitimategovernment of President Hadi. At the same time, it continues to withhold equal recognition to other opposition parties. Perhaps in this context it is possible to understand why former president Saleh declared that there was a plot to assassinate him in the same manner and in the same way as the previous assassination attempt against him. Observers have suggested that his intent was to insinuate that Riyadh was scheming against his life.

The US, for its part, is searching for a last opportunity, one that thinks outside the box of Saudi-Hadi stipulated frames-of-reference. The problem is that the Kerry plan not only faces obstacles from the divergences between key players, but also the pressure of the clock. Any new plan requires time to win consensus and be put into effect. For Kerry, time is not in abundance.

*This story was first published at Al-Ahram Weekly.

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Cranston East no match for Portsmouth

With their 36-6 victory on Friday night, the Patriots clinched the top seed in their half of Division II.
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Cloudy early with showers for the afternoon hours. High around 60F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

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A car bomb exploded Monday outside the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) headquarters in the eastern Turkish city of Van, wounding 48 people including two police officers, the local governor's office said.

Turkish officials have blamed the attack on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is listed as a terror group by Turkey and much of the international community.

The attack took place near a police checkpoint outside the AKP offices in the heart of the bustling city, the local governor's office said in a statement.

"Forty-six civilians and two police officers were injured after a bomb-laden car... was blown up by members of the separatist terror organisation," it added, using a term to describe Kurdish militants.

Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the bombing, which comes on the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha.

But Besir Atalay, an AKP lawmaker from Van, also pointed the finger of blame at the PKK, which is waging a bloody campaign against the Turkish state.

"The terrorist organisation has targeted our party building and the AKP's presence in the past. This is one of their attacks," he added, in live comments on the private NTV television.

Witnesses said the force of the blast shattered the windows in the surrounding vicinity and the AKP's provincial offices sustained severe damage.

Several ambulances rushed to the scene and television images showed water cannon being used to put out a fire caused by the explosion.

Van, a city with a mixed Kurdish and Turkish population on the shores of the lake of the same name, has generally been spared the worst of attacks like those seen in the nearby city of Diyarbakir.

The city is a popular tourist destination, particularly with Iranians who arrive from across the border in huge numbers to enjoy shopping and the relaxed atmosphere.

The blast came a day after the government announced the removal of 28 mayors, mainly over alleged links to the PKK in a move strongly denounced by pro-Kurdish parties.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended the suspension of 28 mayors, saying it was a long-overdue.

"You, as mayors and municipal councils, cannot stand up and support terrorist organisations," he told reporters after prayers outside an Istanbul mosque, shortly before the attack.

"You do not have such authority."

The government has stepped up its military campaign in the restive southeast to eradicate PKK militants, who have launched almost daily attacks since the rupture of a fragile ceasefire last year.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the PKK first took up arms in 1984, with the aim of carving out an independent state for Turkey's Kurdish minority.

Turkey has also launched an operation inside Syria to remove Islamic State (IS) group militants as well as Syrian Kurdish militia from its frontier.

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The University of Georgia College of Public Health has announced a new strategic partnership with The Forum Institute, an Oregon-based nonprofit think tank, to implement a first-of-its-kind preconception to infancy public health initiative for the state of Georgia.

The Forum Institute will provide $2.4 million in funding to the UGA College of Public Health over two years to support the establishment of the P2i Center of Excellence, the nation's first center focused on preconception to infancy care. Dr. Jose F. Cordero, Patel Distinguished Professor of Public Health in the College of Public Health, will serve as director of the new center, which will open in Atlanta in early 2017.

The Forum Institute established the Preconception to Infancy initiative, or P2i, on the conviction that existing strong science and clinical practice offer a means of improving outcomes and significantly reducing the incidence of chronic disorders among infants when women reduce exposure to toxins, ensure proper nutrition and maintain optimal health before and during pregnancy.

Cordero and the College of Public Health will lead the center's efforts in developing best practices for preconception care, while expanding current knowledge in the field through clinical research, statistical analysis and the publication and distribution of scientific findings. The college will also collaborate with The Forum Institute in developing curricula for physicians and mothers-to-be in preconception care and related topics.

"We are very pleased to establish this partnership with The Forum Institute to advance the Preconception to Infancy public health initiative," said Phillip Williams, dean of the College of Public Health. "With Dr. Cordero, we have one of the leading experts in child and maternal health guiding this program. His role places us in an ideal position to implement an outstanding public health program for Georgia residents."

Representatives from UGA and The Forum Institute met on Sept. 9 to formalize the partnership. UGA officials in attendance were Cordero; Williams; Pamela Whitten, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost; David Lee, vice president for research; and Kelly Kerner, vice president for development and alumni relations. Representatives from The Forum Institute included board Chair Gleason Eakin, board President David Humphrey, Executive Committee members Lee Grossman and Judi Rees, and P2i Program Executive Director Mary Closson.

"I'm honored to serve as the director for the P2i Center of Excellence," Cordero said. "This is an outstanding partnership that will leverage the public health expertise at UGA and will be able to help many couples have healthy babies. The research developed at the center will prove invaluable for future generations of families in Georgia and around the country."

An internationally recognized researcher and public health leader, Cordero has dedicated his career to addressing maternal and child health, minority health and health disparities. For 27 years, he served in the U.S. Public Health Service at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During his time at the CDC, he attained the rank of assistant surgeon general of the Public Health Service and held a number of leadership positions focused on improving the health of mothers, children and adults in programs such as immunizations, birth defects and disabilities. The most prominent of these roles included deputy director of the National Immunization Program and founding director of the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.

"We are delighted to be working in cooperation with UGA to implement the public health component of P2i," Eakin said. "Dr. Cordero's participation in our think tanks over the past few years, combined with his role on the UGA faculty and the P2i initiative give him a unique perspective into the steps which must be taken to successfully deliver the program through a public health mechanism."

Whitten noted that that the P2i initiative has the potential to impact the lives of children and families for generations to come. "Improving pregnancy outcomes and reducing the incidence of chronic conditions in infants is an urgent priority," Whitten said, "and the strategic partnership between the University of Georgia and The Forum Institute underscores our shared commitment to creating a healthier future in Georgia and beyond."
One Medicine: how human and veterinary medicine can benefit each other

Professor Roberto La Ragione

News-Medical speaks to Professor Roberto La Ragione, Chair of Trustees at Humanimal Trust, about the concept of One Medicine and how human and veterinary medicine can collaborate, share knowledge, and initiate research for the benefit of both humans and animals.
Ducati XDiavel from the rear. (Photo Courtesy: Ducati)

What happens when an exotic Italian brand like Ducati, which is known for creating some of the best performance-oriented superbikes, gets down to make a cruiser? The result of this would be a machine that promises the comfort and touring capabilities of a tourer along with the performance that can out almost every motorcycle to shame. This idea is not hypothetical, though, as Ducati has already built a motorcycle that promises all of this, called the XDiavel.The reason why everyone is talking about the XDiavel is because will soon be launching the XDiavel in India. They recently teased the launch on their twitter handle as well.The XDiavel is powered by Ducati's 1,262 cc Testastretta DVT engine which is capable of delivering 156 hp and almost 129 Nm of torque that comes mated to a 6-speed transmission. The company promises 'low-speed excitement' which is due to the fact that the bike can deliver peak torque at as low RPM as 5,000 RPM. Interestingly, the XDiavel is a belt-driven motorcycle, which means that powered is delivered to the rear wheel via a belt and not a chain, like regular cruisers but is a first for Ducati.It has three riding modes  Sport, Touring and Urban. In terms of electronics the bike is fitted with Ducati Safety pack (ABS+EBD), Ride by Wire, Traction Control and a 'Launch Control' system for those quick 0-100 km/h sprint times. Keeping up with tradition, high-end cruisers, the bike also has a cruise control.The biggest question surrounding the motorcycle is the pricing, which is expected to be around Rs 16-20 lakhs. As of now, we can only wait for the 'Power Cruiser' to come to India on September 15, 2016. Watch this space for updates.
Greta Friedman, the woman in white kissed by a sailor in New York's Times Square in a photograph symbolizing the end of World War Two, has died at age 92, media reports said on Saturday.



Her son, Joshua Friedman, said she died on Thursday in Virginia after suffering a series of ailments, including pneumonia, NBC News reported.



CBS News said she would be laid to rest with her late husband, Mischa Elliot Friedman, at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.



Friedman, then a dental assistant on a break, was the woman in one of the most famous pictures of the 20th century, the moment Americans learned of the Japanese surrender on August 14, 1945.



Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt snapped a sailor in a dark uniform kissing Friedman with his arms around her and her white-clad body bent backwards as revelers in New York's Times Square celebrated the victory over Japan, or V-J Day.



"I did not see him approaching, and before I know it I was in this vice grip," Friedman told CBS News in 2012. After the embrace, Friedman and the sailor, quartermaster George Mendonsa of Rhode Island, went their separate ways.



Eisenstaedt's photo, "V-J Day in Times Square," ran the following week in Life magazine.



The photographer recalled in his 1985 book "Eisenstaedt on Eisenstaedt" that a sailor in Times Square was kissing women randomly. When he saw a flash of white, he took four shots in 10 seconds.



"If she (Friedman) had been dressed in a dark dress I would never have taken the picture. If the sailor had worn a white uniform, the same," he said.



Mendonsa and Friedman were not identified until 1980 when Life asked the unknown pair to come forward. Mendonsa told CBS he and his future wife had been celebrating the end of the war when he began kissing women in the street.



In a 2005 interview with the Library of Congress' Veterans History Project, the Austrian-born Friedman said she later designed dolls' clothes, worked in summer theater and became a book restorer.



She moved to Frederick, Maryland, and graduated from Hood College in 1981, the same year her son and daughter graduated from university.



Friedman said of the photo, "It was a wonderful coincidence, a man in a sailor's uniform and a woman in a white dress ... and a great photographer at the right time."
New Delhi: Twenty two Keralites accused of leaving India to join the Islamic State are learnt to have reached "the caliphate" in Afghanistan in the first week of July, said investigators who grilled the arrested IS sympathiser Yasmin Mohd Zahid.



The 29-year-old Yasmin was arrested at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport while trying to exit India for Afghanistan on August 1.



She informed investigators that thirteen of the missing Keralites were men, six women and three children, and "they had left their houses in Kasaragod and Palakkad districts of Kerala between mid-May and the first week of July."



Citing Yasmin's statement, a National Investigation Agency (NIA) official, close to the investigation, told IANS that all of the missing Keralites had "exited India from Bengaluru, Hyderabad or Mumbai airports for Kuwait, Dubai, Muscat or Abu Dhabi from where they are learnt to have travelled to Afghanistan through Iran."



During custodial interrogation, Yasmin further said that she had got married to Abdul Rashid, 30, on May 3 this year in a nikah ceremony solemnised over phone. Rashid is one of the accused who left India along with other Keralites.



Investigators said that two other co-accused Ashfak and Yahya acted as witnesses of the nikah ceremony while another co-accused Shihas acted as "wali" (guardian) of the bride.



Yasmin also informed investigators that her husband Rashid used to send videos and messages to her on Telegram -- a messaging app -- in support of "the caliphate and Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi".



She told NIA interrogators that Rashid and his first wife Ayesha were in touch with a UK couple who were converts to Islam and were spreading messages in support of IS and the Caliphate over Telegram channel.



"Rashid had told Yasmin in the first week of July that he and other missing persons from Kerala had reached the Caliphate in Afghanistan," the NIA official said citing Yasmin's statement.



The officer said that Rashid had also given the ATM card of his first wife Ayesha to Yasmin and transferred Rs 1.5 lakh into the account in mid-July which Yasmin used for her travel preparations to Afghanistan.



"Yasmin had purchased flight tickets, paid for the Afghanistan visa and also purchased $620 using the money."



The NIA also said on Monday that the sister of another missing accused person Dr Ijas informed them that her brother and his wife Refaela were blessed with a baby girl on September 6.



The NIA had registered an FIR in the case in the last week of August.



The FIR has listed 19 missing persons as the accused. As many as 14 persons from Kasaragod district and five from Palakkad are on the list. The agency is probing whether the missing persons are linked with terror outfit IS.



The children, who are believed to have gone missing with their parents, have been excluded from the list of the accused. Sources with the NIA said some unidentified persons are also accused in the case. The FIR was registered at the NIA court in Kochi.


Srinagar: All mobile phone services, except BSNL post-paid connections, were suspended across the Kashmir Valley on Monday, a day ahead of Eid, even as the shutdown continued for the 66th day.



Mobile Internet facilities on cell phones and other appliances have been suspended since July following the death of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.



Sources also said authorities could suspend broadband Internet facility on fixed landlines on Tuesday to check spread of rumours.



Separatists have appealed to locals to celebrate Eid on Tuesday with austerity as a mark of respect for the victims of the ongoing unrest, and called for march to the office of United Nations Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) in Sonwar area of Srinagar.



Authorities have decided to impose curfew and restrictions to prevent the march.



"We have intelligence inputs that separatists are planning large scale violence on Eid in Srinagar and elsewhere. Adequate arrangements have been made to scuttle the separatist designs," said a senior intelligence officer.



Life in the valley remained paralyzed for the 66th consecutive day in Kashmir, where restrictions have been imposed on the movement and assembly of people in some areas on the eve of Eid-ul-Azha.



The deadly violence has left 76 people, including two police personnel, dead and more than 10,000 others injured.



The separatists have extended the shutdown programme till September 16.






An internationally brokered ceasefire in Syria was due to begin at sundown on Monday but, with only hours to go, the country's opposition forces had yet to sign on.

And in a further sign of the deal's fragility, Syria's President Bashar al-Assad vowed to retake the whole country from "terrorists".

The ceasefire deal, announced on Friday after marathon talks between Russia and the United States, has been billed as the best chance yet to halt the bloodshed in Syria's five-year civil war.

As well as bringing a temporary end to the fighting, it aims to provide crucial aid to hundreds of thousands of desperate civilians.

Under the deal, an initial 48-hour ceasefire is to begin at 7:00 pm local time (1600 GMT), halting fighting in areas not held by militants like the Islamic State (IS) group.

Aid deliveries to the country's many besieged and "hard-to-reach" areas are set to simultaneously begin, with government and rebel forces ensuring unimpeded humanitarian access in particular to the divided and devastated city of Aleppo.

The ceasefire will be renewed every 48 hours and, if it holds for a week, Moscow and Washington will begin unprecedented joint targeting of militant forces including IS and the former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front.

After years of stalled peace efforts and the failure of a landmark truce agreed in February, world powers are anxious to bring an end to a conflict that has left more than 290,000 dead and forced millions from their homes.

But Syria's opposition is deeply sceptical that Assad's regime will abide by the agreement and on Monday demanded guarantees before endorsing the deal.

"We want to know what the guarantees are," Salem al-Muslet, a spokesman for the High Negotiations Committee, the main opposition umbrella group, told AFP.

"We are asking for guarantees especially from the United States, which is a party to the agreement."

He said it was unclear how the deal defined the "terrorist" groups that will be targeted, and what the response would be to truce violations.

"We fear that Russia will classify all the Free Syrian Army (rebel factions) as terrorists," he said.

Washington has long supported moderate rebels fighting Assad, who in turn is backed by Russia and Iran.

Questions also remain about how the ceasefire will apply in parts of the country where the Fateh al-Sham Front, previously known as Al-Nusra Front, is present.

A crucial part of the deal calls for rebels to distance themselves from the group before joint US-Russian operations against it begin.

But Fateh al-Sham cooperates closely with many of Syria's rebels, including the powerful Ahrar al-Sham faction, which on Sunday issued a scathing condemnation of the Russian-US deal.

Ahrar al-Sham's deputy leader Ali al-Omar said the agreement would "only serve to reinforce the regime and surround the revolution militarily."

"The people cannot accept half-solutions," he said in the message to mark the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha on Monday.

His remarks suggested a rejection of the deal but hours later Ahrar al-Sham's spokesman Ahmed Qara Ali told AFP that they were merely meant to note the deal's "drawbacks".

"The movement has not taken a position on the deal and will announce its position in a clear statement in consultation with other factions," he said.

Ahrar al-Sham is Syria's most powerful non-militant rebel group, with a commanding presence in Aleppo and Idlib province, which it rules as part of the Army of Conquest alliance with Fateh al-Sham.

Syria's government and its allies including Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement have already backed the truce.

But on Monday Assad made clear he was intent on recapturing all of Syria.

"The Syrian state is determined to recover every area from the terrorists," he said as he toured Daraya, a former rebel stronghold that surrendered last month after a four-year government siege.

"The armed forces are continuing their work, relentlessly and without hesitation, regardless of internal or external circumstances," he added.

The run-up to the truce has also seen a spike in violence, with at least 74 people killed in air strikes on Aleppo and Idlib cities over the weekend.

New air strikes hit Aleppo on Monday, an AFP correspondent said.

Despite the beginning of Eid al-Adha, the city's streets were quiet, with few able to celebrate amid shortages created by a renewed government siege.

Aleppo has been roughly divided between rebel control in the east and government control in the west since mid-2012.

In August, rebel forces broke a weeks-long government siege on the east of the city, but regime troops restored the blockade on September 8.

"We hope there will be a ceasefire so that civilians can get a break," said Abu Abdullah, a resident of east Aleppo. "Civilians have no hope anymore."

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday modified its September 5 order and asked Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs instead of 15,000 cusecs Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu till September 20.



The apex court also expressed anguish over "tone and tenor" of Karnataka's plea, says law and order problem can't be ground for not complying with its order.



The order came after the Karnataka government on Saturday evening requested for an urgent hearing over the dispute.



For the last one week violent protests were reported across Karnataka and Tamil over the Cauvery water dispute.



The police have made elaborate security arrangements across Cauvery basin districts including Bengaluru.







The fallout of Cauvery water dispute took a turn on Monday after petrol bombs were hurled at an iconic Udupi restaurant - New Woodlands hotel - in Mylapore, some Tamil Nadu registration number vehicles were also attacked in Karnataka.



A written note was also found at the New Woodlands hotel which warned of more attacks if Tamilians are assaulted in Karnataka.
New Delhi: The Cauvery Supervisory Committee, headed by Union Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekhar, on Monday met in New Delhi to decide on the quantum of water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states after September 20.



Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court had asked Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs Cauvery water per day, down from previous 15,000 cusecs, to Tamil Nadu till September 20.



"The committee will decide on the quantum of water to be released after September 20," an official said.



Besides Shekhar, the meeting is being attended by officials of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry governments.



The meeting comes in the backdrop of the apex court on September 5 asking Tamil Nadu to approach the committee over the issue.



Protests by farmers and pro-Kannada outfits have been reported from several parts of Karnataka over the Supreme Court's order asking it to release water to Tamil Nadu.
#WATCH: More than 20 buses set on fire by protesters in #Bengaluru's KPN bus depot #CauveryProtests pic.twitter.com/akqL7MDghr  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Bengaluru: Protesters vandalise and set vehicle on fire in Nayandahalli over #CauveryIssue pic.twitter.com/pfDLiSUzSs  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

: At least 40 buses were set on fire in Bengaluru on Monday even as prohibitory orders under Section 144 were imposed throughout the IT city following the violence that erupted and spread across Karnataka over the Cauvery water sharing dispute with Tamil Nadu.Around 200 people were detained after vehicles belonging to Tamilians were targeted in the city in retaliation against similar attacks on shops and trucks belonging to Kannadigas.According to Karnataka DGP Om Prakash, Kengeri is the most effected area and all units of the Rapid Action Force have been posted here.A few vehicles with Tamil Nadu registration were attacked in the Karnataka capital and a lorry was set on fire in the outskirts of the city. A few other vehicles were also burnt down in south Bengaluru.This was hours after a Kannadiga-run restaurant was attacked in Chennai and Karnataka registration buses faced the brunt of a raging dispute over the water sharing issue.The busy Bengaluru-Mysore highway which reopened for public traffic just a day ago has once again been blocked by angry protestors. The bus service between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu has also been halted.Also read: Cauvery Row: SC Cuts Down Water Release to 12,000 Cusecs Per Day Bengaluru's Namma Metro also suspended the operations after 3 PM.The city police imposed section 144 in the city and school buses were stranded in some parts of the city leaving parents worried over the safety of their children.The south and western parts of Bengaluru also witnessed cases of sporadic violence.Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has appealed for calm and has asked all pro-Kannada organisations to show restraint. He warned of strict action against the miscreants and also said that he will request Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa to keep the situation under control."We have deployed forces at central points. We have taken utmost precautions and received support from the Centre. We have deployed sufficient amount of police," State Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara told the media during a press conference."I appeal to people of both the states to maintain peace. There is a relief of 3000 cusecs of water. In fact we are not happy about it and we will appeal again in the apex court. Small incidents of violence should not be blown out of proportion," Parameshwara added."There is no loss of life and the police is doing its job. We will immediately control the situation. The violence will be brought down soon," Karnataka DGP Om Prakash told CNN News18.Tension was brewing in the city and across the Mysuru region, including Mandya since Monday afternoon after the apex court directed Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs daily from Tuesday up to September 20 in response to the state's interim petition to allow it only 10,000 cusecs daily for six days - from September 7 to September 12.Security has been beefed up for business establishments owned by Kannadigas and also outside the homes of noted Kannada personalities in Tamil Nadu, police said on Monday.(With inputs from IANS)
Kashmir: Security forces found the body of a militant inside an under construction mini secretariat building in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, where a gunfight is continuing.



A senior police official said while carrying out room to room searches in the building, security forces found the body, taking the toll of killed militants since Sunday to four.



The search operation is going on in the same under construction mini secretariat building in Poonch, where the Sunday's firing took place.



"The building and adjacent areas were surrounded. The army jawans are slowly moving inside the building with probe firing to ascertain whether any terrorists are still holed up inside the building or not," the official said.



On Sunday, violence erupted in large parts Kashmir with incidents of clashes, terror attack and gun shots reported from Pulwama, Poonch and in Gurez sector respectively.



"One policeman was killed and another injured. Also two army jawans and a civilian are injured while an old couple was rescued yesterday by forces just before the encounter started," police sources said.







Meanwhile, the Valley remained shut for the 66th day with authorities deploying security personnel in Srinagar and other places to maintain law and order, even as the death toll reached 79.


Jammu: Two drivers were injured and 17 tankers damaged in alleged stone-pelting attacks by protesters in Kashmir Valley on Sunday, prompting the truckers to announce a strike from Monday.



"Two drivers have been injured and 17 tankers damaged in fresh attacks by mobs and in stone-pelting in Kashmir Valley today," All Jammu and Kashmir Oil Tankers Association (JKOTA) president Anan Sharma said.



Meanwhile, All J&K Goods Carrier Association has announced that truckers operating in Kashmir, Ladakh and other parts of the state have decided to observe a "complete strike" from Monday in protest against the increasing attacks on trucks and the drivers in the Valley.



An emergency meeting of the association under the chairmanship of Harbans Singh was held on Saturday and the members resolved to the observe strike.



Sharma said the situation is not conducive for them to operate as it has become a routine that tankers and trucks are attacked in Kashmir on a daily basis.



The tankers and trucks, which had come from Jammu to deliver supplies, were attacked at various places in Humama chowk, Bijbihara and other city areas, he said.



"We will hold a meeting after all tankers are back from Kashmir and decide the next course of action," Sharma said.



Members of All J&K Goods Carrier Association alleged that even after assurance from the Divisional Commissioners of Jammu and Kashmir, adequate security was not provided to them.



Many trucks have been damaged and drivers beaten up recently and attacks are on rise in Kashmir, they said.



Over 70 trucks and tankers have suffered damages and several drivers have been injured in the mob attacks in Kashmir, they alleged.



Last month, oil tankers' association had gone a strike in the Valley which severely hit supply of essential commodities.


Srinagar: Normal life remained affected for the 66th consecutive day on Monday in violence-hit Kashmir, where authorities imposed restrictions on the movement and assembly of people in some areas on the eve of Eid-ul-Azha.



Restrictions have been imposed in some of the towns in Kashmir as well as in three police station areas of Srinagar, a police official said here.



He said restrictions have been imposed in the towns of Ganderbal, Kupwara, Baramulla, Budgam, Shopian, Kulgam, Pulwama and Anantnag. The curbs have also been imposed in Khanyar, Nowhatta and M R Gunj police station areas of Srinagar city, the official said, adding the step has been taken to maintain law and order.



Meanwhile, normal life continued to remain affected due to the restrictions and the shutdown called by separatist groups against the death of civilians in clashes in the aftermath of killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani in an encounter.



Shops, business establishments and petrol pumps continued to remain shut during the day even on Eid eve on Monday.



They open in the evening on some days of the week in view of the 12-hour relaxation in the strike from 6 PM announced by the separatists.



The separatists have extended the shutdown programme till September 16.



They have called for a march towards the local office of United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) on Eid-ul-Azha on Tuesday.



Schools, colleges and other educational institutions in the Valley continued to remain closed.



Some of the areas in the outskirts and civil lines of Srinagar witnessed increased movement of private vehicles and auto-rickshaws this morning, while some shops selling essentials were also open in view of the festival.



Few bakery and mutton shops were open at some places in the Valley where people were seen shopping for the items, the official said.



The deadly violence has left 76 people, including two police personnel, dead and more than 10,000 others injured.



The CRPF said five of its personnel were injured in stone pelting incidents in the past 24 hours.



"5 CRPF personnel injured & 2 CRPF vehicle damaged in 18 incidents of stone pelting involving the Force in the Kashmir valley in past 24 hrs," the force tweeted.
Haringhata (West Bengal): Two men kept their mother's body in their house at Simhat in Nadia district for almost nine months and the skeleton was recovered on Sunday, police said.



Arun Saha (65) and Ajit Saha (55), both unmarried, told police that their mother Nani Bala Saha died on January 16 at the age of 85, and they could not take the body for cremation as it was very cold then.



"We thought of taking the body to the crematorium a few days later. But later, maggots formed in the body and it was not taken for cremation," the elder brother said.



Locals said the brothers did not interact much with the neighbours. Enquired about the woman's health, they would say she was ill and sleeping. But, no one was allow to go inside their house.



A few days back, Rupak Adhikari, a local, went to the house for a survey on behalf of Haringhata Municipality. He had to measure the house and look into some documents but was not allowed inside.



Adhikari said he became suspicious and discussed this with other people and chalked out a plan.



"We formed a group of six people and sought to visit their mother this morning. When they did not allow us, a large number of people entered the house forcibly and found the skeleton on the bed. The room was shabby, dark and dirty," he said, adding the police were informed then.



The house is situated on large land and far from the main road. Apparently, that is reason why the stench from the body did not attract attention, locals said.



The brothers did not do anything for a living and led a frugal life. The younger brother was a private tutor some years ago, they said.



Police said the two brothers have been detained and are being interrogated. They seemed to have psychological problems.



In June last year, police had found a man living with the skeletons of his sister and two dogs in his house at posh Robinson Street in Kolkata.
Roof-top mania #badreeland A photo posted by Varun Dhawan (@varundvn) on Sep 9, 2016 at 11:04pm PDT

My friends. Such beautiful mystical creatures #badrinathkidhulaniya A video posted by Varun Dhawan (@varundvn) on Sep 7, 2016 at 5:56am PDT

Cosy-ing up to a script on my day off. Time well spent I would say! #lifeofanactor #badrinathkidulhania A photo posted by Alia  (@aliaabhatt) on Sep 3, 2016 at 4:56am PDT

Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt are all set to recreate their chemistry in their upcoming film, Badrinath ki Dulhania. The actors were recently shooting in Kota, Rajasthan for the film.The images from their shoot is going viral on social media, with fans and media frolicking the shooting arena every now and then. Both Varun and Alia started their careers together in Karan Johar's Student of the Year and again starred in Humpty Sharma ki Dulhania in 2014.In this video from the sets Varun, Alia are seen shooting a scene from their new film. By the looks of it Varun's character looks irritated by something said by Alia.The duo is again working in Dharma Production's Badrinath ki Dulhania, which was earlier been seen as Humpty Sharma's sequel.Varun will be seen essaying a rugged avatar for the film while Alia will be seen as her bubbly self.The actors have been sharing photos from on and off the sets for quite sometime now.Directed by Humpty Sharma ki Dulhania famed Shashank Khaitan, we can't wait to see one of Bollywood's youngest duo recreate their magic on screen. The film is slated to release on March 10, 2017.(Image/Video Source: Aashi Chaudhary)
Patna: A delegation from the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) will meet Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind in Patna to oppose the bail granted to former RJD MLA Mohammad Shahabuddin.



On Sunday, lawyer cum activist Prashant Bhushan said that he will challenge Shahabuddin's bail in the Supreme Court.



"Shameful that HC granted bail to notorious Gangster/politico (RJD) Shahabuddin. Hv agreed to seek cancellation of Bail in SC on victims behalf," he tweeted.



He had said, "Somebody called me last evening saying there is threat to his life as killer of his son is now out on bail. Giving bail to such a notorious criminal is danger to society. I will move to SC against his bail."



Shahabuddin was released on bail on Saturday after 11 years in jail.







Shahabuddin who represented Siwan in Lok Sabha for four times as an RJD candidate was granted bail by the Patna High Court in the Rajiv Raushan murder case. Rajiv Raushan was shot dead in Siwan in June 2014 when Shahabuddin was still in jail.



Among the other high profile cases where the former MP is an accused is the murder of former JNU chairman Chandrashekhar Prasad.


Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday defended the suspension of 28 mayors over alleged links to Kurdish militants or US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, saying it was a long-overdue move.

"To me, it is a step that came late. It should have been taken long before," Erdogan told reporters after prayers at an Istanbul mosque on the first day of the Muslim feast of Eid Al-Adha.

"You, as mayors and municipal councils, cannot stand up and support terrorist organisations. You do not have such an authority," he said.

Twenty-four of the outgoing mayors are accused of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which is waging a deadly insurgency in the southeast, and four of them to Gulen, whom the authorities blame for the attempted July 15 coup.

The latest step was taken under the state of emergency imposed in the wake of the coup, with the ousted mayors, who were elected in the 2014 local elections, replaced by state-appointed trustees.

Erdogan accused the ousted mayors of "sending state funds to the mountain," referring to the areas where the PKK is holed up.

"They are carrying TNT (explosives)... they constitute a constant threat in the region," he said.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim also said some municipalities had turned into a "logistical centre for the separatist terrorist organisation."

The municipalities affected by the decision are mainly in the Kurdish-dominated southeast including Sur in the Diyarbakir region which has been ravaged by violence between the PKK and security forces.

Critics have accused the government of using the state of emergency to implement a vast crackdown, but Ankara has defended the measures as crucial at a time when Turkey is battling alleged coup plotters and the PKK insurgency.

In a statement, the US embassy in Ankara expressed concerns over the resulting clashes in the southeast between protesters and police after the mayors were suspended.

"As Turkish authorities investigate allegations that some local officials have participated in or provided material support to terrorist groups, we note the importance of respect for judicial due process and individual rights, including the right of peaceful political expression, as enshrined in the Turkish Constitution," it said.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, who took over from his predecessor Efkan Ala earlier this month, said the US embassy's reaction was "unacceptable".

He said the mayors had been removed from their posts in line with the law, and denounced the American statement as "interference in Turkey's domestic affairs."

"We are fighting with our allies against any form of terrorism but such statements that are far from this responsibility would only encourage terror," he said.

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Azamgarh: Rahul Gandhi on Sunday took an apparent dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his expensive monogrammed suit as he said that he does not visit the farmers as he fears that his suit might get dirty.



"He (Modi) does not go to the farmers so that his suit does not get dirty. He is a leader who loves to travel to the US and China," the Congress vice president said addressing a meeting here in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.



The suit which Prime Minister Narendra Modi wore during his meeting with US President Barack Obama in Delhi last year was auctioned later and was bought for Rs 4.31 crore by Surat diamond baron and private airline owner Laljibhai Patel.



Earlier, Rahul, who addressed public meetings at various places here, attacked BSP and the ruling SP, saying while the "elephant" (election symbol of BSP) has eaten all the money, the "cycle" (poll symbol of SP) is standing "punctured" in the state.



"Haathi saara paisa kha gaya. Hathi ko apne maar ke bhaga diya (elephant--the election symbol of BSP--ate all the money and then you chased it out)," Gandhi said while addressing a public meeting on the sixth day of his yatra.



"Phir aap cycle (SP's election symbol) laaye. Ye paanch saal se phansi hui hai, hil nahi rahi hai. Uska tyre puncture hai aur apko ration card nahi dila pa rahi hai (Then you voted for SP's cycle which has been stranded for past five years. It's tyre is punctured and is not moving. The party could not provide ration cards to you)," he said attacking SP.



During his yatra, the Congress vice president had 'chai' (tea) and 'samosa' at a local shop and later paid visit to a Dalit family's home where he had lunch.



Appealing to people to vote for Congress in the upcoming elections, Rahul said, "Now you should think about the hand (Congress's election symbol) and then see what we do about ration (cards) and farmers," he said.



The Gandhi scion, who is on his 2500 km 'Deoria to Dilli yatra' to connect with the masses in the run-up to the 2017 state Assembly polls, resumed his yatra from Azamgarh and after holding series of meeting in Mau he will reach Ghazipur.



Azamgarh is parliamentary constituency of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Washington, Sep 11 (PTI) Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is leading her rival Donald Trump by five percentage points, according to a latest poll which said that the real-estate tycoon may have a more challenging route to victory.



Clinton holds a 46 per cent to 41 per cent edge over Trump among likely voters, followed by Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson at nine per cent and the Green Party's Jill Stein at two per cent, The Washington Post-ABC News said in its latest poll.



However, Clinton, 68, lead Trump, 70, by 10 percentage points among the registered voters, 45 per cent to 35 per cent, it said.



"The findings come at a time when the margins between Clinton and Trump have narrowed in some battleground states and few national polls also have shown a tightening in the competition," the Washington Post said, adding that Trump has a more challenging route to victory.



According to another poll, the two presidential candidates are tied in four key battleground States of Arizona, Georgia, New Hampshire and Nevada.



NBC News-Wall Street Journal-Marist poll said Clinton leads Trump by one point among likely voters in Arizona, Nevada and New Hampshire.



Trump has a three-point lead in Georgia.




London: Fifty-five people were arrested on Sunday after an eight-hour-long armed protest in the West Midlands region of England where a gang of 20-30 sword-wielding men stormed a Sikh temple, apparently opposing a mixed race marriage between a Sikh and a non-Sikh couple.



Specially trained officers from Warwickshire Police are still believed to be inside Gurudwara Sahib in the town of Leamington Spa to negotiate with the other men.



Fifty-five people have been arrested after an eight-hour armed protest at the Gurudwara, BBC reported.



A spokesperson for Warwickshire Police said: "The report was received at 6.47 am after a group of between 20 and 30 men entered the temple. This is currently being treated as aggravated trespass and at this time we believe that it is an escalation of an ongoing local dispute."



"We believe that some of the men are in possession of bladed items and as such armed officers have been deployed to the scene. Officers are inside the temple to negotiate a peaceful resolution," the spokesperson said.



However, the spokesperson said several of the weapons seized were kirpans, ceremonial daggers that are carried by Sikhs as an act of faith, the report said.



"We would like to reassure people that this is not being treated as a terrorist incident," he added.



The spokesperson confirmed religious leaders in the temple were working with officers to negotiate a peaceful resolution.



"There are police cordons in place around the temple and we would ask that people avoid the immediate area while the incident is resolved," he said.



Some reports claim the armed gang is demonstrating against a mixed race marriage, although this remains unconfirmed.



Jatinder Singh Birdi, a former treasurer at the temple, said a marriage between a Sikh and non-Sikh couple was due to take place.



"There have been tensions that have been going on for a couple of years with some people objecting to mixed marriages in taking place in the Gurdwara," Birdi said.



"The general consensus is people are respectful of mixed marriages if the traditions are respected. Nothing has happened on this level before. This is meant to be one of the happiest moments of somebody's life - it shows a lack of respect," he said.



A police cordon is currently in force around the temple while officers and religious leaders try to end the stand-off.
Washington: CIA Director John Brennan on Sunday said the US needs to be alert about Russian President Vladimir Putin as he is "very assertive, aggressive and manipulative".



"He (Putin) is somebody who is very aggressive, very assertive," the CIA Director John Brennan said.



"I think his intelligence background gives him a certain perspective. A lot of the senior Russian officials are also former KGB (Russian security agency). And so he's somebody that we need to, I think, be very wary of in terms of his ability to manipulate environments for Russia's advantage," he said while responding to a question.



He also said that Russians might be collecting information in cyber-realm, CBS News reported.



"I think that we have to be very, very wary of what the Russians might be trying to do in terms of collecting, as well collecting information in that cyber-realm, as well as what they might want to do with it," the CIA chief said.



"In certain areas, they are adversaries, yes. But also, in areas, we need to find ways to cooperate with them, because they do also have a vested interest in trying to bring stability and trying to dismantle these terrorist organisations," he added.



Russia, he said, is a world power.



"They are involved in many different parts of the world, military capability. They're involved in the Middle East right now, obviously in Ukraine, Central Asia. So, Russia is a formidable adversary in a number of areas. Also, there are areas that we need to be able to work with Russia, specifically in Syria," he asserted.



Russia has "exceptionally" capable and sophisticated cyber-capabilities, in terms of collection, as well as whatever else it might want to do in that cyber-sphere, he said.



"So we have known this for quite a while. Their intelligence services are quite active around the world. This is something that we have to make sure that we're on guard for, not just for our national security purposes, but also for making sure that our system of government here is going to be preserved," he said.



He said that hacking of the server of the Democratic National Committee was a criminal activity.




Russia said a truce due to take effect in Syria from 1600 GMT Monday would cover the entire country, but Moscow would still strike "terrorist targets".

"Today from 1900 (local time) the cessation of hostilities is being resumed across all the territory of Syria," senior Russian military official Sergei Rudskoi said at a briefing, adding Russia would "continue to carry out strikes against terrorist targets."

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Law firms in Lynchburg, Roanoke to merge

The law firms of Lynchburg-based Edmunds & Williams P.C. and Roanoke-based Woods Rogers PLC are merging, effective Oct. 1.

The firm will operate as Woods Rogers Edmunds & Williams PLC in Lynchburg, but will remain as Woods Rogers PLC in Roanoke, Charlottevesille, Richmond, Danville and other markets.

The merger of Wood Rogers and Edmunds & Williams is a natural fit for both firms, said Woods Rogers President Dan Summerlin in a news release. Edmunds & Williamsthe largest firm in Lynchburgis known and respected for delivering exceptional service to their clients.

With the addition of the Edmund and Woods staff, Woods Rogers will have 78 attorneys working in five different Virginia offices. The largest practice groups in the combined firm will be banking and corporate; labor and employment; health care; litigation; and tax and estates.

This merger allows us to efficiently provide greater services to our existing clients while working side by side with the like-minded Woods Rogers attorneys, Edmunds & Williams Managing Partner Rick Sorenson said in a news release.

The combined firm will also offer us the chance to grow and gain access to a broad spectrum of businesses in Virginia, the mid-Atlantic and beyond.

Margaret Carmel

Servpro buys Bedford County industrial property

Servpro has bought a 25,000-square-foot office and warehouse property on six acres of land for $837,500, according to a commercial real-estate firm that handled the deal.

Servpro, a fire and water damage restoration business, bought the property at 9826 E. Lynchburg Salem Turnpike in Goode, according to Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, the real-estate firm.

Staff reports

BB&Ts Waterlick branch closing

BB&Ts Waterlick financial center at 21437 Timberlake Road in Lynchburg will close Dec. 2, according to a letter sent to customers.

It will merge with the banks Timberlake office at 7901 Timberlake Road.

Customers with questions are encouraged to call (434) 832-8400.

Staff reports

Physical therapist earns neurology certification

William LaMont Council, of Centras Acute Rehabilitation Center, has received the Neurological Clinical Specialist certification from the American Board of Physical Therapist Specialties.

Dr. Council is the only physical therapist practicing in a clinical setting full time within a 50-mile radius of Lynchburg with the certification. The special designation requires at least 2,000 hours of direct physical therapy care in the area of neurology over a 10-year period.

The NCS certification focuses on treating patients who have had strokes, traumatic brain injuries, spinal-cord injuries, multiple sclerosis, Parkinsons disease, vestibular disorders and other neurological conditions. He will be honored at a national conference to be held in February in San Antonio, Texas.

Margaret Carmel

Columbia Gas customers to see lower monthly bills

Customers of Columbia Gas of Virginia will see their overall monthly bills drop slightly as natural gas commodity prices continue to fall.

The total residential typical monthly bill will be $35.94 compared with the current total monthly bill of $36.19, based on a seasonal usage of 10,000 cubic feet of natural gas, the company said. The proposed prices take effect with customer bills that were being mailed this week.

Columbia Gas adjusts its gas costs to reflect the price the company pays for natural gas. The costs are passed on directly to customers without markup or profit.

Chesterfield-based Columbia Gas of Virginia serves about 13,000 customers in the Lynchburg region. In all, it has more than 250,000 customers locally and in portions of suburban Richmond, Central Virginia, Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, the Shenandoah Valley and Western Virginia.

Richmond Times-Dispatch
The Retail Merchants Association Foundation awarded a total of $230,000 in grant money to five area nonprofits, including a $150,000 award to the Academy Center for the Arts.

This means a tremendous amount to us, and its a huge boost to us in a really important time of growth, Geoffrey Kershner, Executive Director of the Academy Center for the Arts, said at an RMA press conference Monday morning. This whole campaign to restore our historic theater has been one that has been an entire community effort on every level from individual donors to our corporate community.

A $29 million project is under way to restore the historic Academy of Music Theatre. In May, Academy officials announced they had surpassed a capital campaign fundraising goal of $16.6 million. Officials are hopeful that tax credits can be used to make up the difference between the amount raised and the projects total price tag but have noted that additional donations still are welcome due to uncertainties in tax-credits programs.

The RMA foundation was started in 1996 by a group of retail merchants in Lynchburg and has since given $3 million back to the community, according to the foundations website.

Weve always supported nonprofits that deal with arts, education and revitalization projects like this one, David Somers, President of the Retail Merchants Association, said. We thought its perfect timing with this icon because its happening during the rebirth of downtownWe felt like this was a great project for the community.

The donation will be used partially for the construction of the restored theater and new lobby addition, as well as help pay for more events the Academy is putting on in the coming year.

In this upcoming year were going to be starting a ramp-up in activity as we prepare for 200 nights a year of events in the finished theater, Kershner said. Were going to be starting a con-cert series in Riverfront Park to bring national acts to Lynchburg. We know this is something people in Lynchburg want so we dont have to keep traveling to Roanoke and Charlottesville for all of our concert events.

In addition to the donation to the Academy, the RMA foundation also donated $20,000 each to Brook Hill Farm, a rehabilitative farm for horses; STEP with Links, a leadership and character-building program for Lynchburg City Schools students; Hunton Randolph Community Center, which provides educational and recreational programs for Lynchburg families; and Lynchburg Grows, an urban farm.
Gary Proffitt has a gift for fixing cars. A little more than five years ago, he found a way to use that gift to serve God when he started New Testament Automotive Ministry, also known as NTA. Through his garage, Proffitts Automotive, he offers discounted car repairs and sells vehicles to people in need.

After coming back to Christ, I realized God gives us all different gifts, and were supposed to use those gifts for his purposes to help people around us, Proffitt said. And this [New Testament Automotive Ministry] is how I feel I can use my gifts for his purposes.

Proffitt, a mechanic in Moneta for 15 years, left his job at a local garage when he received the calling to start his ministry.

You cant really be on the phone about something or working on something unrelated to your employer, he said. So I had to start my garage.

He opened his business on Virginia 122 near Moneta Farm and Home Center five years ago.

Ive seen a lot of people over the years come in who could not afford to get their car fixed, Proffitt said. When they cant fix their cars they lose their jobs; their families suffer because they cant get to the doctor or to school or go to the store. And if youre not in the city where you can get on a bus or a taxi, you cant get to those places.

New Testament Automotive Ministry offers a 30 percent discount on parts and labor to customers who have been referred through Lake Christian Ministries, The Agape Center and Bedford Christian Ministries.

Its definitely been worthwhile, Proffitt said. Its been hard, because I took a big reduction in pay from where I used to work, but it is very rewarding. Theres more peace of mind, and I dont regret it.

In addition to offering discounted car repairs, NTA takes donated vehicles and reconditions them. They are resold for the amount of parts and labor that Proffitt puts into them. Proffitt is hoping that other garages will get involved because the need is so great. He also is looking for volunteers to help as well as donated vehicles.

This is not the easiest road Proffitt is traveling, but he said it is definitely the most joyful. He started his business and ministry when he was a single parent with two daughters. Proffitt said he hopes his work has made a good impression on them.

Hopefully Im setting a good example for my children showing them to do what God needs us to do, Proffitt said. That he is going to take care of things even though we dont always see the possibilities of it. Hopefully theyll see and understand the joy that comes into the peoples lives that we are able to help and the appreciation that those people sometimes show. It is such a blessing helping people, and so many people miss out on that because they dont want to get out of their comfort zone and help someone out.

More information about New Testament Automotive Ministry is available via Facebook or by calling (540) 296-3007. New Testament Automotive Ministry is located at 12179 Moneta Road, Moneta.
(Beijing)  China Vanke Co. Ltd., which has been mired in an ownership battle, denied that it promised a multibillion-yuan annual dividend to corporate suitor Shenzhen Metro and said it did not conceal information about an asset-swap deal with the subway operator.

The real estate developer's statement followed comments from Shenzhen Metro's chairman that raised concerns among regulators.

During a National Development and Reform and Commission (NDRC) meeting on Thursday, Lin Maode said he agreed to take over Vanke based on the promise of a 2 billion yuan ($299 million) annual dividend from Vanke, which would give the subway operator a "strong cash flow."

Stock market regulators quickly expressed concern about Lin's comments because such an agreement was not disclosed when Vanke said in June that it planned to issue new shares in a deal valued at 45.6 billion yuan that would make the subway operator its largest shareholder.

The deal was part of an effort to ward off what Vanke's management team calls a hostile takeover from Baoneng Group, a privately owned property developer and financial-services group. Through two subsidiaries, Baoneng has built up a 25 percent stake in Vanke in the past year, making it Vanke's largest shareholder despite strong opposition from Vanke's management team.

The Vanke deal with Shenzhen Metro was later shot down by Baoneng and China Resources (Holdings) Co., Baoneng's second-largest shareholder.

In response to an inquiry from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Vanke said on Monday that it did not promise to pay annual dividends of 2 billion yuan to Shenzhen Metro.

Lin's comments "were based on the previous outstanding performance of Vanke and its dividend payment policies, confidence in the 'subway plus property' development model and forecast of the investment," the home developer said, citing a reply from Shenzhen Metro.

Vanke also denied that it concealed any information from regulators.

Contact reporter Chen Na (nachen@caixin.com); editor Ken Howe (kennethhowe@caixin.com)
The broad measure of China's money supply, or M2, is expected to rise 10.8 percent for August from a year earlier, slightly higher than a 10.2 percent gain in July, which was the slowest pace since April 2015, according to economists from 15 financial institutions polled by Caixin.

Despite the modest uptick in M2  which includes M1 (cash and short-term bank deposits) plus long-term deposits  it is likely that companies are still holding cash or boosting bank deposits rather than spending and investing. The divergence of the two major supply measures, with M1 growing by 25.4 percent in July while M2's expansion was at 10.2 percent, suggests the central bank's efforts to expand the money supply hasn't effectively benefited the real economy.

The country's central bank is to release data on money supply and new loans within the week. Economists polled said the new loans last month will range from 600 billion yuan ($90 billion) to 900 billion yuan, with the average at about 722 billion yuan.

Growth in industrial output might stand at 6.2 percent in August, compared with the same period in 2015. The figure was 6 percent in July.

Retail sales volume in the consumer market last month is expected to rise by 10.3 percent from a year earlier, 0.1 percentage point higher than the data in July.

China's National Bureau of Statistics will release the data on industrial output, retail sales, fixed-asset investment and property sales at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

Contact reporter Coco Feng (renkefeng@caixin.com); editor Ken Howe at kennethhowe@caixin.com
$120m for Police

The TTPS has been under pressure from all quarters to improve on its poor crime detection rate.

Prime Minister Keith Rowley revealed the major spend on the service in his address to the nation last night, which included a stirring plea to the national community to respect and support your policemen and women. It is they who stand between you and those who may wish to harm you, the Prime Minister told the nation.

He had earlier in his nationally televised address alluded to the crime situation with which the country has had to grapple as it seeks also to deal with the quite parlous economic situation.

As we focus on making our way in the world amidst much that we have little control over, he said, We wake up each day to the numbing news of the depressing actions of a proportionately small number of our citizens; non-stop killings; from the revenge murders among the organised criminal gangs to the ever too frequent tragedies of domestic violence; to the inexplicable mindless acts of wantonness which defy logic, causing us to believe that amongst us there are warped minds which place no value on human life. He said his government is resolute in its commitment to confront those who choose crime as a way of life and undertake to work tirelessly to rebuild a sense of safety through meaningful reduction of crime and removal of the fear of crime in our communities.

The Prime Minister said that in order to accomplish this the Government will sustain its resourcing of the TTPS and other security agencies to allow them to better engage in crime prevention and detection.

To this end recently the National Security Council had Cabinet authorise a US$17.5 major equipment purchase to upgrade the intelligence gathering efforts of the Police, the Prime Minister disclosed. This is expected to significantly boost evidence gathering and greatly assist the law enforcement capabilities of the security agencies. Pointing out that the country has spent $25 billion on national security over the last five years, the Prime Minister said that our officers have been trained and retrained, and facilities have been updated and technologically modernised.

It is not unreasonable for us to expect to reap the rewards of this mammoth investment and quite frankly hold our police officers more responsible and accountable, the Prime Minister said. The Government believes that with proper management systems and a can do attitude that they have it within them to get the job done.

He told members of the national community in the not too distant future the government was looking forward to people identifying with their local Municipal community constabulary and their volunteers which was all part of the local government reform deliverables which the administration has been working on for the last 12 months.

He said government was eagerly awaiting the appointment of a Police Commissioner, and live in hope to bear fruit from the new spirit of collaboration and cooperation between the Government and the Opposition.

Only time will tell, the Prime Minister said. Rowley added last night: Steps have been taken to initiate the still cumbersome process with the intention of having a substantive Commissioner of Police appointed. It is the intention of the Government to invite the Opposition to cooperate with us to abolish the current failed process and replace it with some new arrangement such as an accountable Police Service Commission cloaked with the responsibility and authority to supervise an effective modern Police Service. The Prime Minister said the government has been encouraging the TTPS to decentralise its efforts by concentrating its manpower and leadership over an aggressive regional substructure. He suggested that this would bring greater accountability alongside more actionable information and boots on the pavement over more hours of the day.

Programs to build public trust, including rooting out corrupt and otherwise unsuitable individuals from the Service is a major part of the plan, Rowley said last night.
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Dozens of peer-to-peer online financing investors lodged an hours-long protest in front of Ernst & Young in Shanghai last Friday  only to learn they had targeted the wrong business.

At about noon, dozens of P2P investors gathered in front of the EY office in the bustling financial district of Lujiazui in Shanghai. They complained they lost money after investing in Uprosper Asset, an online lender that boasted of a "strategic cooperation" with EY, one of the "big four" audit firms. Some protestors refused to leave until 6 p.m.

However, the London-based EY dismissed any strategic cooperation with the P2P lender and told Caixin it has never audited or commented on that company's financial reports.

EY demanded the online lending company remove all "relevant falsified information." Since then, the names of all companies with whom the P2P site claimed to have a partnership have been deleted.

Uprosper said it manages investments in private equity, pre-IPO equity, secondary and even overseas markets by "cooperating with internationally renowned investment banks and institutions." It mentioned Ernst & Young, China Construction Bank and Dentons, a global law firm, according to information once on its website.

In June, Usprosper Asset owner Wang Mian disappeared, causing investor panic and a cash crunch at the P2P platform. Since then, 2,216 investors have been unable to get back a combined estimated 436 million yuan ($65.2 million).

The P2P industry has seen rapid growth in recent years, as the number of online lenders has tripled since the end of 2013 to about 2,200 at present. They operate largely in a regulatory vacuum, and more than 1,000 have been shut down or run into financial difficulty, unable to return investors' money.

Contact the reporter Dong Tongjian at (tongjiandong@caixin.com); Ken Howe at (kennethhowe@caixin.com)
(Newser)  As the judge put it, Pardon the pun, but it seems to me you wanted to get there, come hell or high water. That was apparently the case for an American nabbed while crossing illegally into Canada on an air mattress, CBC reports. Officials say John Bennett, 25, was busted last week after he washed up on shore in New Brunswick and was spotted by a local resident. "He was wet and carrying his boots," said prosecutor Peter Thorn. Bennett told Royal Canadian Mounted Police that he had tried to cross the border at Calais, Maine, the normal way, but was denied entry after a background check turned up criminal mischief charges pending in the US, the Guardian reports. He said he had to get to the town of St. Stephen to protect his pregnant girlfriend from a violent ex-boyfriend.

So he bought an inflatable mattress at a Walmart in Maine, used a wooden board as a paddle and headed out on the St. Croix River. He, in his mind, thought he needed to do what needed to be done to get over there to see her and ensure that she was OK, Thorn said, adding that there has been no word yet from the "so-called fiancees side." Bennett pleaded guilty on Thursday to illegally crossing the border, and a judge sentenced him to two months in jailbut not before noting the unusual nature of the case. Even the prosecutor said the "gallant" act has tugged on heartstrings. "I sense that theres this element of a Romeo-Juliet type of thing," he said. (These distracted Canadians accidentally crossed the border while playing you-know-what.)
(Newser)  An underwater microphone has picked up two dolphins seemingly carrying on a conversation as if they were two people, the Telegraph reports. When researchers in Russia recorded a pair of Black Sea Bottlenose dolphins in a pool, it sounded as if they were chattingand quite politely, at that. Each dolphin would listen to the other without interruption before responding. While researchers have known for a while that dolphins could communicate via clicks or whistles, this study found that they also altered the frequency and volume of their sounds. As a result, researchers say the aquatic duo could form sentences of up to five "words," though scientists had no idea what they were going on about.

The dolphins' communication skills exhibit "all the design features present in the human spoken language," writes lead researcher Vyacheslav Ryabov in the journal Mathematics and Physics. "Their language can be ostensibly considered a highly developed spoken language." Now, says Ryabov, it is up to humans to decode dolphin speak. Their high-frequency sounds are beyond the human range of hearing, notes the Christian Science Monitor, but scientists could use equipment to capture and mimic those sounds, then respond in a way the dolphins would theoretically understand. Australian researchers have previously pinpointed particular whistles the mammals use to communicate ideas such as, "There's food over here," per the Telegraph. (Last year, scientists using 3D imaging figured out how dolphins "see" with sound.)
(Newser)  A Florida man is behind bars after becoming the latest person to realize too late that bulletproof vests shouldn't be tested when people are wearing them. Cops say Alexandro Garibaldi, 24, fatally shot his 23-year-old cousin, Joaquin Mendez, in Tampa on Saturday night after Mendez tried on the vest and wondered aloud if it still worked, reports the Tampa Bay Times. A witness told police that Garibaldi said, "Let's see," then fired at his cousin. Officers called to the scene found the wounded cousin, who died after being hospitalized, and a vest with a bullet hole in it. Garibaldi, who initially told police he found his wounded cousin after hearing a shot, is being held without bond on a manslaughter charge, WESH reports. (This German woman was saved by her bra after wandering into the middle of a wild boar hunt.)
(Newser)  If you came of age in the New York tri-state area in the '70s and '80s, it was hard to escape the "Crazy Eddie" ads that touted one of the region's most well-known electronics retailers. But there won't be any more Christmases in August for the man behind the store's name: Eddie Antar, the ex-owner of the now-defunct chain, died Saturday, the New York Times and New York Daily News report, citing confirmation from family and a local memorial provider. No cause of death was given. Antar built up his business from one Brooklyn store to more than 40 stores in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. People today still remember the Crazy Eddie commercials from that era, featuring frenetic pitchman Jerry Carroll (who many people thought was Eddie himself) bouncing around the set with high-energy enthusiasm and promising bargain prices that were "insane."

But despite the success of his retail chainsales peaked at $350 million, per the Timesthings started to fall apart in 1987, when investors staged a hostile takeover of the company and prosecutors went after Antar for securities fraud and insider trading. Antar disappeared to Israel for a few years but was extradited back to the US in 1993. He eventually accepted a plea deal to a racketeering conspiracy charge and served about seven years in prison. The new owners of the retail chain, meanwhile, had declared bankruptcy in 1989, and while Antar tried to get the business back up and running as an online venture once he got out of prison, it never took off. "He was very charming, charismatic, very powerful, very decisive. He was an incredible leader.  And then there was the dark side that got him into trouble," a former business associate who helped Antar develop his famous ads tells the Times. (Read more obituary stories.)
(Newser)  How did eight Chinese tourists rack up a tab worth about $4,400 at an Israeli hummus restaurant? That's what the Israeli Foreign Ministry is asking after the group was charged a hefty 16,500 shekels for dinner, the New York Daily News reports. "By behaving this way we are destroying with our own hands the budding potential of the Chinese market for Israel," complained an Israeli tourism group to Globes. Some 47,000 Chinese visit Israel each year, and the Israel Incoming Tour Operators Association said it chose to go public with the bill in order to chide the restaurant and dissuade others from following in the restaurant's allegedly unfair footsteps. The bill at the popular Abu Ghosh Restaurant included:



$1,064 for a private room

$173 for hors d'oeuvres and salads

$1,569 for booze

$838 for main courses

$400 service charge

$359 for desserts

Restaurant owner Jawdat Ibrahim defended the bill and said the Chinese asked him to close the eatery on one of his busiest nights. "They sat there from 3pm on Friday until midnight, and became rowdy and drunk," he said, noting that the group added a 10% tip. He says he got a thanks from the diners, only to find them "trying to besmirch us ... two weeks later. The Association disputes that account, saying the Chinese arrived at 7pm, never asked Ibrahim to close the place, and arrived to find the alcohol pre-ordered and on the table. HummusGate has prompted an inquiry by the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Embassy in China, which is trying to track down the tourists, the Washington Post notes. (This drunk diner accidentally tipped 1,800%.)
(Newser)  In a picturesque corner of Afghanistan, a unique conservation effort has helped bring the elusive snow leopard back from the brink and given hope to one of the poorest and most isolated communities on Earth. The leopards range across the snowy mountains of a dozen countries in Central and South Asia, but their numbers declined in recent decades as hunters sought their spotted pelts and farmers killed them to protect livestock. Now they appear to be thriving, thanks to a seven-year program and a newly declared national park, the AP reports. Scientists tracking the shy leopards estimate there are up to 140 cats in the Wakhan National Park, established two years ago across 4,200 square miles. Stephane Ostrowski, a specialist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, says that's a healthy and sustainable number, and indicates that other species like the Siberian ibex and golden marmotthe leopards' main preyare also doing well.

The WCS believes global leopard numbers could be much higher than a previous upper estimate of 7,500, after data gathered by Ostrowski and others showed there could be more than 8,000 in just 44% of the animal's known range. The World Wildlife Fund lists the species as "endangered." The Wakhan corridor is high in the Hindu Kush mountain range and cut off by snow for most of the year. The population of around 17,000 lives off of subsistence farming. The leopards had long been seen as a menace, but conservation efforts are now catching on. The park has been attracting a small but steady stream of adventurous foreign tourists, and the WCS has been building enclosed corrals with mesh roofs to protect the sheep, goats, and cows that are the backbone of the local economy. (Read more snow leopards stories.)
(Newser)  Stan Wawrinka wore Novak Djokovic down and beat the defending champion 6-7 (1), 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 on Sunday for his first US Open title and third Grand Slam trophy overall. The 31-year-old Wawrinka is the oldest US Open men's champion since Ken Rosewall was 35 in 1970, the AP reports. Yet the Swiss man already had gained the upper hand by the time No. 1 Djokovic clutched at his left leg and grimaced after missing a forehand while getting broken early in the fourth set. From there, Djokovic briefly began conceding points, showing little of the fight he's so famous for, and received treatment on both feet from a trainer.

The No. 3-seeded Wawrinka has won only five of 24 career meetings against No. 1 Djokovic, but he has now beaten the 12-time major champion on the way to each of his own Grand Slam titles, including in the 2014 Australian Open quarterfinals and 2015 French Open final. Wawrinka took time out at the end of his victory speech to remember the victims of the 9/11 attacks. "It's been a big battle on the court ... four hours," Wawrinka told the crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium. "But I just want to remember what happened 15 years ago." His statement followed that of American Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who won the women's doubles title with Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic and appeared to choke up during her victory speech, telling the crowd, "It's a special day today here for everybody in New York." (Read more Stan Wawrinka stories.)
(Newser)  Before Omar Mateen shot up the Pulse nightclub in Orlando and killed 49 people in June, he had been a longtime regular at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, showing up at Friday services for 13 years. That mosque went up in flames early Monday, per the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office, and officials are investigating it as an arson case, CNN reports. Per CBS News, a statement from the sheriff's office says surveillance video at the mosque shows a person approaching the building "just moments before a flash is seen and the fire starts." Mosque leaders say they'd been receiving threatsincluding those that said the mosque would be set ablazesince the shootings, WPEC reported in June.

What made the mosque notable, in addition to it being Mateen's place of worship, is that Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, believed to be the first American suicide bomber in Syria, also attended services there. But another attendee told CNN in June that there was nothing unusual about the mosque and that "we never hear any stupid things coming out from anybody. It's very low-key." As for the link to both Mateen and Abu-Salha, he notes, "It's very strange to me." (Read more Pulse Orlando shooting stories.)
(Newser)  It was a night that kicked off with peace and ended up in violence. Police in Birmingham, Ala., say one person was killed and five were injured as they stood in the streets of a public housing community after an anti-violence rally Sunday night, AL.com reports. Cops say as many as five dozen shots were fired at around 8:15pm, about an hour after the rally ended, from what were likely multiple guns; police think the shooting began with one person and that others then jumped in with their own firearms. While police rep Bryan Shelton says the five wounded aren't critically injured, a man identified by friends as Bobby Clayton died from his injuries.

Residents in the Gate City community describe a chaotic scene, with bullets flying past as children milled about and residents enjoyed the evening on their porches. "I'm getting as low as I can and trying to get my family in the house," says one resident who had just thrown a first birthday party for his son. "The events of tonight are disheartening and troubling," Shelton says, adding there's currently no motive or suspects, per NBC News. "More lives could have been lost tonight due to reckless actions." (Read more Alabama stories.)
(Newser)  The latest attempt to bring peace to Syria has officially begun: A ceasefire brokered last week by the US and Russia went into effect Monday morning, reports the BBC. However, this being Syriawhose civil war is a many-sided conflictit remained unclear just how effective it would be. The Syrian government and its main allies, Russia and Iran, say they will abide by the weeklong truce, but the country's most powerful insurgent groups have not yet said whether they will, reports AP. If the truce holds for a week, the US and Russia would begin intelligence sharing and target coordination against the Islamic State and al-Qaeda-linked militants. Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar Assad vowed that his government would take back all its land from "terrorists."

Assad spoke during a rare public appearance that included attending prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha in the Damascus suburb of Daraya, which had surrendered last month and reverted to government control after a four-year siege. "We call on all Syrians to turn toward reconciliation," he said. Italy, meanwhile, says a Syrian cease-fire could pave the way for political negotiations aimed at ending the long and bloody conflict. Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni told reporters after talks with his Cypriot counterpart that a cessation of hostilities must happen before talks can begin. CNN has a primer on the truce. (Read more Syria stories.)
China's ruling Communist Party will promote Gu Shu to president of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the nation's largest state-owned bank, Caixin has learned.

Decisions about the top job at large state-owned companies are not entirely internal affairs.

Gu, 49  a vice president of the bank  was recommended by ICBC after a vote by its management. The recommendation went to the Communist Party of China's organizational department, which is in charge of assigning the jobs of government officials and leaders of state-owned enterprises.

The organizational department sent officials to ICBC on Monday morning to announce the decision to appoint Gu as deputy secretary of ICBC's party committee. Traditionally, the person in this position doubles as the bank's president.

The official appointment will come after the confirmation of the listed company's board of directors and the China Banking Regulatory Commission. ICBC is listed in the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock markets.

ICBC's presidency has been vacant for three months, since then-President Yi Huiman was promoted to company chairman, replacing 63-year-old Jiang Jianqing.

Gu was promoted to be one of the bank's three vice presidents in October 2013, in charge of finance, accounting and international business.

He won positive reviews from inside the bank, where he is seen as young and skillful, and able to raise sensitive issues without alienating people, according to media reports.

Gu, who earned a doctorate at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, has been working at ICBC for 18 years.

In an interview with the China Central Television in 2014, Gu spoke in fluent English about ICBC's strategy of international expansion.

According to its annual report, ICBC had assets at the end of 2015 of 22.2 trillion yuan ($3.3 trillion), making it the world's largest bank.

Contact Wu Gang at gangwu@caixin.com; editor Ken Howe at kennethhowe@caixin.com
(Newser)  A crew searching the Arctic has found the second and final lost ship from one of the most renowned polar expeditions in history. Researchers with the Arctic Research Foundation say they have located the HMS Terror off King William Island, reports the Ottawa Citizen. (Coincidentally, it was found in Terror Bay.) The ship and its sister vessel, the HMS Erebus, went down in 1848 after an expedition led by British explorer John Franklin to find the Northwest Passage got stuck in ice. None of the 129 men survived. The discovery of the Terror is notable on several fronts, including its pristine condition. "If you could lift this boat out of the water, and pump the water out, it would probably float," a researcher tells the Guardian. Three panes of glass still guard the captain's cabin.

Also of note is how it was discovered: The search vessel detoured miles away from the main group after an Inuit crew member told the captain of seeing a mast sticking out of the ice years ago in this general location. The hunch paid off. And certainly not least, the location of the two ships may now change the narrative of the crews' final days. It has been long thought that the men abandoned their ships near the north end of Victoria Strait and attempted to walk out of the Arctic. Now it appears that at least some of the men reboarded the vessels and tried to sail south. "This discovery changes history," says a foundation official. The theory is that the remaining Terror crew eventually scuttled it intentionally, then boarded the Erebus, which made it another 50 miles or so south. (The Erebus was found two years ago.)
New Delhi:

One more terrorist has been killed in fresh encounter between security forces and terrorists in Jammu and Kahsmiras Poonch district. This is third encounter between infiltrators and security forces in two days. Operations underway.A

Three militants and a policeman were on Sunday killed and six others, including a police officer, were injured in twin encounters between security forces and four terrorists in Poonch town of Jammu and Kashmir.



The encounters between security forces and the militants, who were holed up in a house and another structure near the under-construction Mini Secretariat, erupted at around 7.30 AM and continued through the day.

Here are the live updates:

#Anticipating protests, BSNL Broadband services have been suspended in Kashmir valley. Only BSNL Voice calling services to work

This is shameful act by Pakistan, that too on Eid: Poonch resident on ongoing encounter with terrorists pic.twitter.com/Hu3w8gVcFR a ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Exchange of fire between security forces&terrorists continues in Poonch (J&K) (Visuals deferred by unspecified time) pic.twitter.com/ezw3uCt6yv a ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

FLASH: One terrorist has been killed in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir. Operation underway. a ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

J&K: Exchange of fire between terrorists & security forces underway in Poonch (visuals deferred by unspecified time) pic.twitter.com/wFNWlrDa3B a ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

J&K: Firing again starts in Poonch, exchange of fire between terrorists and security forces continues a ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016



aThree militants have been knocked down. The civilians, who were held hostage, have been safely evacuated. Operation is still on,a Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Rajouri-Poonch range Johny Willian told PTI.



A policeman Rajinder Kumar was killed in the incident. Two Army jawans, two police jawans and a civilian were also injured.



One of the injured is Sub Inspector of Special Operation Group (SoG) Manzoor Hussain and another a civilian Tariq, police said, adding the injured have been hospitalised.

(With PTI Inputs)

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Seoul:

North Korea is ready to conduct another nuclear test at any time, South Koreas defence ministry said on Sunday, just days after Pyongyang sparked worldwide condemnation with its fifth and most powerful test.



An additional test could be conducted in a tunnel that branches off from the second tunnel or in the third tunnel, where preparations have been completed, ministry spokesman Moon Sang-Gyun told reporters.



The spokesman declined to elaborate, citing intelligence matters, but said the Souths military is on full combat-readiness to respond to further nuclear tests, ballistic missile launches or land provocation by the North.



Citing an unidentified government official, South Koreas Yonhap news agency reported earlier today that Pyongyang had completed preparations for another nuclear test in its previously unused third tunnel at the Punggye-ri site in the northeast.



The North conducted its first nuclear test in October 2006 in the first tunnel and the last four tests in the second tunnel, according to Seouls defence ministry.



In a statement hailing the success of its test on Friday, the North vowed to take further measures to increase its nuclear strike force in quality and in quantity.



The yield from Fridays test was estimated at 10 kilotons, almost twice as much as the one Pyongyang conducted only eight months earlier.



The North also boasted that the test was of a nuclear warhead that could be mounted on a missile.



The UN Security Council agreed Friday to start work on new punitive measureseven though five sets of UN sanctions since the first nuclear test have failed to halt the Norths nuclear drive.



Sung Kim, the US State Departments special representative for North Korea policy, said yesterday during a visit to Japan that Washington and Tokyo would work closely to come up with the strongest possible measure against North Koreas latest action.



He also suggested that the US may launch its own sanctions.



The envoy will arrive in Seoul later today and hold talks with his South Korean counterpart Kim Hong-Kyun tomorrow morning.

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New Delhi:

Armed men entered a Delhi-Gorakhpur express train that had slowed down near the Shakur Basti railway station in Delhi and looted cash and valuables from passengers, police said.



The Gorakhdham Express slowed down before entering the Shakur Basti railway station around 8.30 PM on Sunday when around seven-eight men entered the train, police said.



They looted passengers and even stabbed two men who tried to protest, said a senior police officer, adding that the two men were carrying Rs 40,000 and Rs 70,000 respectively and they were robbed and attacked.



The miscreants jumped off the train when it reached the station, police said.



The injured passengers were taken to a hospital, police said.The station doesnt have CCTV cameras.
New Delhi:

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday met a youth from Jammu and Kashmir who has topped the examination for assistant commandant in Border Security Force, saying his success story will inspire many in the state.



Singh said he was immensely happy to meet Nabel Ahmad Wani, a young man from Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir, who topped the BSF assistant commandant examination recently.



aThe success story of Nabeel shows that youths in Jammu and Kashmir have lot of potentials and his success will inspire many young boys and girls in the state,a he said.

Happy to meet Nabeel Ahmad Wani, a young man from Udhampur in J&K, who topped the BSF entrance exams this year. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/EC3HM7yDa9 a Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) September 11, 2016

The success story of Nabeel Wani shows that J&K youth have a lot of potential. His success will inspire many young boys & girls in J&K. 2/2 a Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) September 11, 2016

Wani was accompanied by Director General of BSF KK Sharma when he met the Home Minister, who also wished Wani success and bright future in life.



The Home Minister also introduced Wani to top officials, including NSA Ajit Doval, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and others, who had come for a meeting with Singh during that time.



Wani said that he felt unemployment was the biggest problem being faced by the youth which can only be solved by education.



Wani, who is currently serving as a junior engineer in Udhampur, said it was his dream to join the defence forces and serve the country which has now been fulfilled. A

aThe more we get education the better and more jobs we will get. We cannot get education by taking to stones but by holding a pen,a Wani said.

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09.12.2016 19:02

New interpretation also allows payments for wrongful detention and illicit seizure of assets by police

By Shan Yuxiao and Li Rongde

(Beijing)  China's top court will allow litigants in civil cases to apply for compensation due to mental suffering caused by wrongful detention, seizure of assets by police prior to sentencing, or improper enforcement of a verdict.

The ruling takes effect Oct. 1.

The Supreme People's Court's new interpretation of the 1994 state compensation law, published last week, comes amid a fresh push to reduce the number of complaints about verdicts that are not enforced due to corruption, interference from local governments, or certain other causes.
Mumbai:

In a dramatic turn of events, a man, who recently performed Ganesh puja at Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis official residence Varsha here, was arrested in connection with a criminal case filed against him three years ago.

A police official from Kudal in Konkan told PTI that the accused, Parmanand Hewalekar, was arrested yesterday and produced before a local court. He was released on bail.

Hewalekar was arrested in connection with the FIR filed in 2013 under IPC Section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), the police official said.

Hewalekar and his wife were recently invited by Fadnavis to perform Ganesh puja at Varsha after he came to know about the social boycott faced by the couple in their native village.

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Los Angeles:

Actress-activist Angelina Jolie has visited a Syrian refugee camp and urged world leaders to help sort the current crisis.

This is not a problem of Jordans making, or that Jordan should be left to bear alone. They have been warning for years that they would reach a point where they on their own could do more. The world has known about the situation in the Berm for months, but no solution has yet been put forward.

This is symptomatic of the wider problem. For all the good intentions, extraordinary efforts in the field, and the generosity of host communities, it is impossible to say that we, as an international community, are using all the tools at our disposal, or that we have even come close to doing enough to help the Syrian people, Jolie said in a statement.

She further said that the Syria conflict and the concerns of its people should be at the center of discussion at the upcoming United Nationals General Assembly.

My message to world leaders, as they prepare to gather at the UN General Assembly in 10 days time, is to ask that the fundamental root causes of the Syria conflict, and what it will take to end it, are put at the centre of the discussion.

During her visit, the 41-year-old actress met with a family who had suffered imaginable loss.

In a statement released through the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), she said, This is my fourth visit to Jordan since the conflict in Syria began. It is almost impossible to fathom what the last five years have meant, in the lives of refugees in Jordan and elsewhere in the region.

Not a single family in this camp of 60,000 people has not suffered loss and trauma. I met a family this morning, who fled Daesh in Raqqaa, and then moved 20 times, trying to find safety inside Syria. In that time, the mother suffered repeated miscarriages, and her two brothers and one sister were killed in an airstrike.

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New Delhi :

Delhi Police has arrested a 40-year-old piano teacher in southeast Delhi's Kalkaji area for sexually assaulting his seven-year-old student over a period of two months.

The victim, who is a resident of Govindpuri Extension, had been learning to play piano from the accused, Ravi Kumar, for the last two years, a senior police officer said on Sunday.

The assault began over two months back and the girl was bearing it silently till Saturday when she confided in her father about the incident, who filed a case against Kumar, added the officer.

The girl told her father that she didn't want to go to the piano class but he couldn't understand the reason for her refusal, police said.

A case under section 376 IPC (rape) and relevant sections of the POCSO Act was registered and the accused was arrested from his Kalkaji home, police said.

Kumar is married and used to teach many other children as well, police said.

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New Delhi:

Violent protests broke out in Bengaluru on Monday after the Supreme Court reprimanded the Karnataka Government for noncompliance of its order to release water to Tamil Nadu. The SC has since modified its Sept 5 order and has asked Karnataka Govt to release 12000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu every day until Sept 20.

Reacting on the SC judgement, Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara said, "SC has reduced water by cusec and extended by days, then how is it a relief? We will again appeal after Sept 20."

[FOR MORE DETAILS AND LIVE UPDATES CLICK HERE: Violence flared up in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu over Cauvery issue]

Pro-Kannada activists have torched several vehicles in Bengaluru, focing police to resort to lathicharge.

Earlier on the day, the SC expressed its displeasure over the non-compliance of its order on Cauvery issue by the Karnataka Government. The apex court had on September 5 ordered Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu.

Also Read: Public transport bears the brunt as Cauvery water war between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka rages

Karnataka Government on Sunday filed an application seeking a direction to reduce the quantum of water to be released from Cauvery river to Tamil Nadu from 15,000 cusecs to 1,000 cusecs.

Also read: Cauvery water crisis: 5 key observations by Supreme Court

Hearing the plea in a special session on Monday, Justice Dipak Misra observed, Citizens and executive of this country have to accept and obey the order of the SC unless it is modified.



Here are the live updates:

#CauveryIssue: Protesters vandalise lorries bearing Tamil Nadu registration numbers near Hubli Bypass, Karnataka. pic.twitter.com/sl9nkp70IP  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Puducherry: Tamilaga Valvurimai party workers protest inside Karnataka Bank with broomstick over #CauveryIssue pic.twitter.com/z4CBrhtYdr  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Puducherry: Tamilaga Valvurimai party stage protest against Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah #CauveryIssue pic.twitter.com/Z45sAhaeBz  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

#CauveryIssue: Security deployed near the statue of Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar in Bengaluru. pic.twitter.com/qqpjYQQYm1  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

#CauveryIssue : Stones pelted at lorries bearing Tamil Nadu registration number near Hubli Bypass. No injuries reported.  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

We urge to all Bengalurians to not pay heed to rumours. Stay calm and do not panic: #Bengaluru Police #CauveryProtests  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

#Bengaluru: Around 270 Cheethas (police patrol vehicles) deployed all over the city in wake of #CauveryProtests: Police  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah writes to the CM of Tamil Nadu Jayalalithaa over violent protests #CauveryIssue pic.twitter.com/33yPargngz  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Quick Reactions teams,Rapid Action Force teams,City Armed Reserve police,K'taka State Reserve Police deployed all ovr city-#Bengaluru Police  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

#Bengaluru: Police deployed in Tamil populated areas like Tanary road,Hegde Nagar, Sri Rampura and Kalasi Palyam in wake of #CauveryProtests  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Bengaluru-Police deployed in Tamil populated areas like Indira Nagar,KR Nagar,Prakash Nagar,Frazer Town,RT Nagar in wake of #CauveryProtests  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016







WATCH: Pro-Kannada activists set a vehicle on fire in #Bengaluru during protests over #CauveryIssue. pic.twitter.com/hDTuNZULd1  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

#CauveryIssue : Following fresh protests, maximum schools in Bengaluru shut down early today  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

#CauveryIssue: Metro service in Bengaluru resumes, was suspended for 20 minutes #Karnataka  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Cauvery water issue: 144 Section Prohibitory Order has not been ordered to any area of Bengaluru city.  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Pro-Kannada activists set a vehicle on fire in Bengaluru during Protest over Cauvery water issue pic.twitter.com/ne7lFzpJW1  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

All Kannada people in Tamil Nadu are living safely; there's no issue at all: CR Saraswathi, AIADMK #CauveryIssuepic.twitter.com/CejM3ltKIa  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

There were three cases of vehicle burning around Mysuru road, situation coming back to normalcy: Police #Cauverypic.twitter.com/8g43owEyaH  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

#WATCH Cauvery issue: Pro-Kannada activists vandalise shops at bus stand in Bengaluru from where buses leave for TN. pic.twitter.com/FVsyASB6VO  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Situation is under control, normal traffic has been restored. Extra force deployed: Charan Reddy, Addl Commissioner of Police #Bengaluru  ANI (@ANI_news)

WATCH: Pro-Kannada activists set a vehicle on fire in Bengaluru during Protest over Cauvery water issue pic.twitter.com/FSMmpQ0FzT  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Bengaluru: Pro-Kannada Protester says "I didn't break much, just a little bit", during the protest. pic.twitter.com/xwyHYkx2i6  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Cauvery water issue: Police lathi-charges protesting pro-Kannada activists in Bengaluru. pic.twitter.com/qp6puvyduv  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Protest over Cauvery water issue: Pro-Kannada activists vandalise vehicles in Bengaluru. pic.twitter.com/DoBMUSn0av  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Cauvery water issue: Pro-Kannada activists stage a protest in Bengaluru, police detains protesters. pic.twitter.com/WG2XBn2LBP  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

No anger related incidents should occur. It is expected that they (TN) will take action: K'taka CM on petrol bombs thrown at Chennai hotel  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

SC has reduced water by cusec & extended by days, then how is it a relief? We'll again appeal after 20 Sept: G Parameshwara on Cauvery issue  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

We appeal ppl to maintain peace because this is not somebody's making, it is SC's judgement:K'taka HM G Parameshwara pic.twitter.com/mwHWfhhAlG  ANI (@ANI_news)

Supreme Court also rejects Karnataka's demand to keep in abeyance it's 5th September order for releasing water to Tamil Nadu.  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Supreme court modifies its 5th September order. Court asks Karnataka to release 12000 cusecs water to Tamil Nadu per day till 20 sep  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

FLASH: Supreme court modifies its 5th September order #CauveryWaterIssue  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Justice Dipak Misra: If the court passes an order, either comply or come for modification. People cannot take law into their hand.  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Justice Dipak Misra: If the court passes an order, either comply or come for modification. People cannot take law into their hand.  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

#WATCH: Bus from Karnataka vandalised by Naam Tamilar Katchi party workers in Rameswaram, driver threatened #Cauverypic.twitter.com/3til65O5jU  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Justice Dipak Misra observed: Citizens & executive of this country have to accept & obey order of the SC unless it is modified.  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Supreme Court expresses displeasure over the non implementation of the order by Karnataka Government.  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Karnataka Government tells Supreme Court "agony claimed by Tamil Nadu on water crisis not there".

Rameswaram(TN): Bus from Karnataka vandalised by Naam Tamilar Katchi party workers, driver threatened #CauveryIssuepic.twitter.com/r7uwOddWkv  ANI (@ANI_news)

Chennai: Unknown people hurled a petrol bomb at New Woodlands Hotel in Mylapore in early morning hours. pic.twitter.com/8WF2vLASpz  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

The Supreme Court's decision to hear the plea, filed late on Sunday evening, came after it was mentioned before the court's registry, which consulted Chief Justice T S Thakur.



In its plea, Karnataka has sought modification of the apex court's September 5 order for release of 15,000 cusecs of water for 10 days as immediate relief to Tamil Nadu farmers.



Monday being a holiday, the bench is sitting only to hear the matter. Karnataka's decision to move the Supreme Court comes ahead of the Cauvery Supervisory Committee's meeting on Monday to decide on the quantum of the river's water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states.

Also read:

Cauvery water dispute: SC to hear Karnataka's plea on Monday

Restrict cauvery water limit to 15,000 cusecs to 1,000 cusecs: Karnataka to SC

Karnataka Govt hails Centre's intervention over Cauvery dispute

The application has sought that instead of 10 days, the apex court should restrict the release of water to only 6 as the state itself was facing a distress situation due to a massive agitation which was causing a loss of Rs 500 crore per day to Karnataka.



In the plea, Karnataka has said there was "huge public pressure" and the state police, with great difficulty, have been able to prevent attempts to damage public property.



"Even the minimum arrangement mentioned by your lordships has caused distress and havoc in the entire southern part of Karnataka, paralysing civil life.



The agitation of farmers has been that their dry crop is equalled with that of the farmers in Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu's need for the rice crop consumes more than twice the water which is needed for light crops in Karnataka," the application said.

(With PTI Inputs)

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New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Monday modified its September 5 order on the ongoing Cauvery water crisis to reduce quantum of water to be released to Tamil Nadu by Karnataka to 12000 cusecs from 15000 cusecs, as ordered earlier.

The apex courts order came after Karnataka Government filed an application seeking a direction to reduce the quantum of water to be released from Cauvery river to Tamil Nadu from 15,000 cusecs to 1,000 cusecs.

A minor respite in water ration has come at a cost of Karnataka Government as the SC Justice Dipak Misra expressed strong displeasure over noncompliance of SCs order by the state government. The Judge also took an exception of the rampant violence that erupted in both states following the previous judgement on the issue.

Also read: Live Cauvery protests: SC modifies its Sept 5 order, asks Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs water to TN per day

Here are the 5 key observations by the Supreme Court in the Cauvery water crisis:

#Citizens can't become law in themselves. When a court passes order, it's the duty of citizens to obey the same.

#Supreme Court also rejects Karnataka's demand to keep in abeyance it's 5th September order for releasing water to Tamil Nadu.

#Supreme court modifies its 5th September order. Court asks Karnataka to release 12000 cusecs water to Tamil Nadu per day till 20 Sept

#Justice Dipak Misra: If the court passes an order, either comply or come for modification. People cannot take law into their hand.

#Supreme Court expresses displeasure over the non implementation of the order by Karnataka Government.

SC says: Citizens can't become law in themselves . When a court passes order, it's the duty of citizens to obey the same. #CauveryIssue  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Supreme Court also rejects Karnataka's demand to keep in abeyance it's 5th September order for releasing water to Tamil Nadu.  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Supreme court modifies its 5th September order. Court asks Karnataka to release 12000 cusecs water to Tamil Nadu per day till 20 sep  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Justice Dipak Misra: If the court passes an order, either comply or come for modification. People cannot take law into their hand.  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

Supreme Court expresses displeasure over the non implementation of the order by Karnataka Government.  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

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New Delhi :

The Supreme Court on Monday modified its September 5 order in Cauvery water dispute case and asked Karnataka government to release 12,000 cusecs water to Tamil Nadu per day until September 20.

1. SC asks Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs water to Tamil Nadu per day till Sept 20

SC expressed its displeasure over the non-compliance of its order on Cauvery issue by the Karnataka Government. The apex court had on September 5 ordered Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu.

2. Test squad for New Zealand series announced; Virat Kohli named captain

BCCI has announced 15 member Test squad for upcoming home series against New Zealand. Virat Kohli is the skipper of Indian test team against Blackcaps. Out of form batsman, Rohit Sharma has made the team.

3. Sensex recovers early losses, still down 399 pts in late morning

Market benchmark Sensex pared some of the early losses on mild buying in IT stocks, but was still down 400 points in late morning deals, tracking heavy selling in global markets following re-emergence of US Fed rate hike concerns.

4. Kashmir: One more terrorist killed in fresh encounter in Poonch, operation underway

One more terrorist has been killed in a fresh encounter between security forces and terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district. This is the third encounter between infiltrators and security forces in two days. Operations underway.

5. Delhi shocker: 40-yr-old Piano teacher held for sexually assaulting 7-yr-old student in Kalkaji area

Delhi Police has arrested a 40-year-old piano teacher in southeast Delhi's Kalkaji area for sexually assaulting his seven-year-old student over a period of two months.

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New Delhi:

The ongoing Cauvery water dispute between South Indian neighbouring states Karnataka and Tamil Nadu is worsening day by day.

As per police, a Karnataka Bank branch at Puducherry witnessed a ruckus earlier in the day after volunteers of a Tamil fringe outfit barged into the bank, protesting against the ongoing agitations in the neighboring state opposing release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.

The bank staff were taken off guard as around 25 workers of Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi stormed into the branch on Misson Street wielding broomsticks, banged them on the tables and asked the staff to vacate the premises. The panic stricken staff ran helter skelter while the panic-stricken customers rushed out.

Police men, who were deployed in the vicinity were quick to take action by taking the unruly protestors into custody.The bank was closed for a few hours after the incident and later reopened.

However, it was again shut following advice from police earlier, volunteers and leaders of various Tamil outfits came in a procession and staged a demonstration a few meters away from the bank protesting against the Karnataka government and condemned the attack on a Tamil youth by a group of men in Bengaluru for allegedly posting "derogatory" remarks on social media against Kannada film actors.

Besides condemning the ongoing agitations in Karnataka over the Cauvery issue, the protesters shouted slogans against the Karnataka government, alleging that it had failed to protect the properties of Tamils there.

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New Delhi:

Sporadic violence broke out in Bengaluru and in some other parts of Karnataka amid the raging Cauvery water sharing row, with the Siddaramaiah government asking Tamil Nadu to protect Kannadigas and assuring to safeguard Tamils in the state. Trucks with Tamil Nadu registration numbers were either stoned or set on fire in Bengaluru, Mandya, Mysuru, Chitradurga and Dharwad districts as Kannada activists gave vent to their anger over alleged attacks on state vehicles and property of Kannadigas in the neighbouring state.

Also Read: Public transport bears the brunt as Cauvery water war between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka rages

Here are the live updates:

#WATCH: More than 20 buses set on fire by protesters in #Bengaluru's KPN bus depot #CauveryProtests pic.twitter.com/akqL7MDghr  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

#Curfew imposed in 7 police limits of ngaluru: Umesh Kumar, IGP, Bengaluru

#One killed another injured in police firing in Karnataka amid protests over sharing Cauvery waters with Tamil Nadu

#Protesters pelt stones at the residence of Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah in Mysuru

#More than 20 buses set on fire by protesters in Bengaluru's KPN bus depot

#Agitated protesters in Bengaluru break camera of a private news channel, also hit the reporter



#Tomorrow at 11:30 AM, K'taka CM has called emergency Cabinet meet to discuss #CauveryIssue: Karnataka HM G Parameshwara

#10 companies of CRPF & RAF have been sent. We have also requested for 10 more companies: Karnataka HM G Parameshwara

#Have deployed sufficient amount of police force. We have got support from Centre: Karnataka HM

#Our appeal is if you are protesting, please protest peacefully. We know that injustice has been done to Karnataka: HM Parameshwara

#Saying "we will fight it legally", Karnataka HM G Parameshwara requests pro-Kannada activists and farmers associations to maintain peace

[WATCH: Public transport bears the brunt as Cauvery water war between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka rages]

#CRPF, RPF, CISF delpoyed. Apart from this, 20,000 homeguards and 185 KSRP platoons have also been deployed: Karnataka HM

#Vandals set fire to vehicle with Tamil Nadu number plate in Mysuru Road, Bengaluru

#Section 144 CrPC has also been imposed in Pandavapura area: Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara

#200 protesters who were involved in such acts in the state, have been detained: Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara

#Cauvery Supervisory Committee meeting postponed for September 19

#As a preventive measure, Section 144 CrPC imposed in Bengaluru City from 5 PM, today: Bengaluru Police

#It's normal for ppl in this situation to get excited, but I request ppl of Ktaka that they should maintain peace, law and order: S Gowda

#We thought SC will send a team to see situations of reservoirs,collect data &then come to a conclusion, but nothing as such happened: S Gowda

#People of Karnataka never expected such a verdict from SC: Union Minister Sadananda Gowda on #CauveryProtests

At least six Tamil Nadu trucks were set on fire or stoned and a Chennai-based mobile shop and two hotels were attacked in Bengaluru, police said, as activists of different pro-Kannada outfits took to the streets. Bengaluru police said prohibitory orders had not been imposed in any part of the city and asked people not to pay heed to rumours.

[ALSO READ/WATCH: Protests turn violent in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu]



Elaborate security arrangements are in place in Bengaluru city with 15,000 policemen being deployed. Karnataka State Reserve Police, City Armed Reserve Police, Rapid Action Force, Quick Reaction Teams, special forces, Central Industrial Security Force and Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force and 3000 home guards are also on duty.



In Mandya district, the main epicentre of the Cauvery agitation, two trucks were set ablaze and the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway was blocked after the Supreme court order came out.



Police made a lathicharge to disperse a violent mob, which tried to loot some shops. Several vehicles with Tamil Nadu registration number were damaged on Bengaluru-Mysuru highway, police said.



The violence also flared up shortly after the Supreme Court, modifying its September 5 order, on Monday asked Karnataka to release a reduced amount of 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery River water to Tamil Nadu till September 20.



What happened in Supreme Court



The Supreme court on Monday modified its September 5 order, asking Karnataka to release a reduced amount of 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery River water per day to Tamil Nadu till September 20 from the earlier 15,000 cusecs a day to ameliorate the plight of farmers of the neighbouring state.



A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and UU Lalit, which sat on a holiday to consider the urgent plea of Karnataka, however, expressed deep anguish over the "tone and tenor" of the fresh plea and said the law and order situation cannot be taken as a ground for non-compliance of the order of the court.



It rejected one of the prayers of Karnataka that the apex court direction asking it to release 15,000 cusecs water per day to Tamil Nadu be kept in abeyance till next date of hearing on the ground that there has been a fault in the Cauvery Water Tribunal award, which does not deal with the issue of deficient water in the reservoir in a particular month.



Referring to the content of Karnataka's fresh plea, the bench said, "If we are allowed to say then we must say that the tone and tenor of the application is absolutely disturbing and to say the least, totally depricable that apart the application for modification contain certain averment which follow the tenor or similar language which cannot be conceived of in a court of law seeking modification of an order."



"Agitation, spontaneity or galvanised riot or any kind of catalystic component can never form the foundation for seeking modification of an order."



"An order of this court has to be complied by all the concerned and it is the obligation of the executive to ensure that the orders are complied in letter and spirit."



Protests by farmers have been reported from several parts of Karnataka over the Supreme Court order asking it to release water to Tamil Nadu.



During the hearing, the bench noted the stiff claim and counter-claims of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and said that it would apply the concept of fair compensation in the matter and fixed it for further hearing on September 20.



The apex court was hearing the application filed by Karnataka seeking a direction to reduce the quantum of water to be released from Cauvery River to Tamil Nadu from 15,000 cusecs to 1,000 cusecs.



Violent protests in Tamiil Nadu, Karnataka



Voicing concern over attacks on state vehicles and a hotel run by a native of Karnataka in Tamil Nadu amid the ongoing Cauvery row, the state government on Monday asked its counterpart to take steps for the safety of Kannadigas living there and to protect their property.



Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said he would write to his Tamil Nadu counterpart Jayalalithaa to help cooperate in maintaining cordiality between the states, which are now locked in a bitter row over release of Cauvery water. Siddaramaiah said he would also speak to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, if necessary, on the incidents targetting Kannadigas.



The state Chief Secretary and Director General of Police had spoken to their Tamil Nadu counterparts and asked them to ensure stern action against the culprits and that such incidents did not recur, Siddaramaiah told reporters here.



While seeking measures to protect the interests of Kannadigas in Tamil Nadu, it had been assured to Tamil Nadu that similarly, steps would be taken for the safety of Tamils in the state and also their property, he said.



Siddaramaiah also advised the media "not to glorify" certain incidents relating to "sensitive" issues and be restrained in reporting them.



Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara said police forces had been deployed in areas where Tamils live in large numbers in Bengaluru and elsewhere in Karnataka. "We have taken precautions."



He appealed to people of both states not to resort to violence. The state DGP had conveyed to his Tamil Nadu counterpart that safety of Kannadigas be ensured while "equally, we will also ensure that Tamils are safe in Karnataka," he said.



Asked about a Tamil engineering student being beaten up allegedly by a group of people here for posting 'derogatory' remarks against some Kannada actors and against the Cauvery agitation, with a video capturing the incident going viral, he said it was a "small incident".



Parameshwara said the police tried to contact the student but he was not available, adding, "small incidents should not be blown out of proportion."



Suspected pro-Tamil protesters on Monday attacked and damaged a hotel run by a native of Karnataka in Chennai, damaging its window panes using iron rods and wooden logs.

The incident occurred during the wee hours on Monday when the group of protesters gathered around the hotel situated in Mylapore and damaged its window panes using iron rods and wooden logs, police said adding that no one was injured.



The incident comes a day after a video purportedly showing a 22-year-old Tamil youth being beaten by a group of men in Bengalur for allegedly posting "derogatory" remarks on social media against Kannada film actors went viral.



Seven tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration parked at a temple in Rameswaram were damaged allegedly by activists of various outfits including Naam Tamizhar Iyakkam.



Meanwhile, Bangalore Tamil Sangam on Monday asked Siddaramaiah to direct the police to maintain law and order and provide security to?all Tamils living in the state.



"We request you to kindly instruct the police to maintain law and order and provide security to all Tamilians living in the state," Sangam President Damodaran said.



He also urged the media, especially visual, not to "incite" people of both the states by sensationalising the news of violence. He urged the central government to intervene to solve the vexed problem.



Protests by farmers and pro-Kannada outfits have been reported from several parts of the neighbouring state over the Supreme Court order asking Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu.



Committee on quantum of Cauvery water



The Cauvery Supervisory Committee, headed by Union Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekhar, on Monday met in New Delhi to decide on the quantum of water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states after September 20. "The committee will decide on the quantum of water to be released after September 20," an official said.



Besides Shekhar, the meeting was attended by officials of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry governments. The meeting comes in the backdrop of the apex court on September 5 asking Tamil Nadu to approach the committee over the issue.



Karnataka govt's plea



The apex court's decision to hear the plea, filed late Saturday evening, came after it was mentioned before the court's registry, which consulted Chief Justice T S Thakur.



In its plea, Karnataka has sought modification of the apex court's September 5 order for release of 15,000 cusecs of water for 10 days as immediate relief to Tamil Nadu farmers.



The application has sought that instead of 10 days, the apex court should restrict the release of water to only 6 as the state itself was facing a distress situation due to a massive agitation which was causing a loss of Rs 500 crore per day to Karnataka.



SC's order on Sept 5 on Cauvery row



In an interim order on September 5, the court had directed Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu for the next 10 days to ameliorate the plight of the farmers there.



The apex court had also directed Tamil Nadu to approach Supervisory Committee, set up to implement the award of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, within three days for release of water as per the final order of the CWDT.

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New Delhi:

The apex court of the country, the Supreme Court made modifications to its September 5 order, asking Karnataka to release a reduced amount of 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery River water per day to Tamil Nadu till September 20 as against the earlier 15,000 cusecs a day to bring some relief to the dismal condition of the farmers of the neighboring state.

A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and U U Lalit, which sat on a holiday to consider the urgent plea of Karnataka, however, expressed their discontentment over the "tone and tenor" of the fresh plea and said the law and order situation cannot be taken as a ground for non-compliance of the order of the court.

It had dismissed one of the prayers of Karnataka that the apex court direction asking it to release 15,000 cusecs water per day to Tamil Nadu be kept in abeyance till next date of hearing on the ground that there has been a fault in the Cauvery Water Tribunal award, which does not deal with the issue of deficient water in the reservoir in a particular month.

Referring to the content of Karnataka's fresh plea, the bench said, "If we are allowed to say then we must say that the tone and tenor of the application is absolutely disturbing and to say the least, totally depricable...that apart the application for modification contain certain averment which follow the tenor or similar language which cannot be conceived of in a court of law seeking modification of an order." "Agitation, spontaneity or galvanised riot or any kind of catalystic component can never form the foundation for seeking modification of an order. "An order of this court has to be complied by all the concerned and it is the obligation of the executive to ensure that the orders are compiled in letter and spirit.

Protests by farmers have been reported from several parts of Karnataka over the Supreme Court order asking it to release water to Tamil Nadu. During the hearing, the bench noted the stiff claim and counter-claims of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and said that it would apply the concept of fair compensation in the matter and fixed it for further hearing on September 20.

The apex court was hearing the application filed by Karnataka seeking a direction to reduce the quantum of water to be released from Cauvery River to Tamil Nadu from 15,000 cusecs to 1,000 cusecs.

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New Delhi:

Raking up the Ram Janmabhoomi issue yet again, RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat on Monday said that Ram temple should be built in Ayodhya because it is the birth place of Lord Ram. He also said that religion has never been a reason behind the tensions between Hindus and Muslims but politics has been the main deterrent. He was speaking at an event in Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on Monday.

Here is what all the RSS chief said:

#Ram mandir should be constructed in Ayodhya. Politics has to be blamed for the tussle between Hindus and Muslims, religion has never played a role

#Ours is a global culture, which took the form of Hinduism later



#We talk about unity in diversity, that is Indian culture

#There shouldnt be protest against Ram mandir. Ram belongs to all

#The troubled parsis and yahuds come and live in India, we welcome them with open arms



#The one which is known as Manav dharm is the Sanatan dharm



#There is no peace in the world. The world today is facing natural disasters and struggles.

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New Delhi:

A 65-year-old man on Monday died of chikungunya at a hospital in Delhi, in what could be the first fatality from this vector-borne disease in the national capital.

The victim, R Pandey succumbed to the disease, considered generally as non-fatal, in the wee hours at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.He died at the hospital at 4 AM. The patient was brought here in a critical condition from Yashodhara Hospital in Ghaziabad on Saturday at 10:30 PM and admitted to ICU. The cause of the death was chikungunya with sepsis, hospital authorities told PTI.

The patient died in ICU. His test for chikungunya done by RT-PCR method at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital came positive with high viral count, they said.

Incidentally, one suspected chikungunya death has also been reported at the AIIMS, but hospital authorities today said they have not yet confirmed it.

We are yet to confirm if the death was due to chikungunya. We are trying to do so, but till then it is a suspected case, AIIMS spokesperson Amit Gupta said.

According to reports, the chikungunya death at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences took place sometime in September and five persons have also died of dengue this month.

The remaining five death cases too are also suspected to be due to dengue. We are trying to confirm them too, Gupta said.

Chikungunya cases in the national capital has sharply risen to over 1,000 this season, marking a jump of nearly 90 per cent from its count last week.

According to a municipal report released today, at least 1,057 cases of this vector-borne disease have been recorded till September 10, however, hospitals in the city altogether are reporting much higher number.

Authorities at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said, Pandey was kept under the care of a senior specialist in the Department of Medicine and a team of doctors from the Internal Medicine-ICU.

Lalit Dar of Department of Microbiology at AIIMS said, At our laboratories, 1,360 chikungunya blood test samples have tested positive in the last till yesterday. Cases are rising and more and more people are getting affected.

Doctors say that chikungunya is not a life-threatening disease in general, but in rare cases leads to complications that prove fatal, especially in children and old persons.
Collapse of Europe: Migrants in Sweden have turned suburbs into war zones

The migrant crisis in Europe has been an issue that has left entire countries in shambles; decaying shells of what they once were. Everywhere from Germany to France has been negatively impacted by this dangerously liberal belief.

Its clear now that there is a direct correlation between the open-border policies that these countries rallied behind and the increasing number of violent attacks that have occurred in recent months. Many of those who are migrating to other countries are bringing death and destruction with them.

Many of these migrants  especially the teenagers  now seem to be attempting to turn Sweden into a dystopian battleground. Between attacking Swedish citizens, throwing rocks and setting cars ablaze, the migrants have proven themselves to be a legitimate threat to the human decency displayed in that country.

Infowars reports that Immigrant youths are leading the effort to transform Swedish suburbs into something reminiscent of dysfunctional civil war zones, where people are afraid to go out at night and immigrant gangs ravage. Like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie, the imagery is terrifying because its all too real.

While these actions are genuinely horrific and the violent nature of their actions is truly despicable, the main question, for us in the United States, is are we next?

Thanks to crooked politicians like Hillary Clinton and the increasingly politically correct nature of the Regressive Left, there isnt much preventing America from adopting similar policies that allow these violent migrants from entering into our country as well  and that should be truly frightening for those of us who value our personal safety.

Members of the Regressive Left will call this belief xenophobic, racist, or bigoted, while conveniently ignoring the fact that its not all immigrants that are so worrisome. Its a very particular group of people from a very particular region, but the only way to be safe is to give everyone an extensive background check. If the federal government elects not to  likely for financial gain  then our blood is on their hands.

Given their track record when dealing with issues such as this one, its probably a good idea to be prepared for the absolute worst. Thankfully, the authoritarian leftist havent succeeding at repealing the Second Amendment just yet, so law-abiding American citizens will at least be able to protect themselves in the event of an open-border turn in the United States.

Before it comes to that, though, its important to make your voices heard. Tell the politicians and the excuse-making media that we want to keep our country safe from any potential dangers  and that means being extra cautious when it comes to immigration.

Safety, as we all learned during our elementary school tenure, should always come first.

Sources:

Infowars.com

Breitbart.com

Submit a correction >>
The chief financial officer of Frontier Communications is leaving the company, with Frontier announcing as his replacement the former CFO of British giant Cable & Wireless who had two previous stints with Frontier.

Norwalk-based Frontier stated Monday that John Jureller has left to pursue other opportunities, without providing details. His departure comes nearly 18 months after Frontier promoted Dan McCarthy to CEO, replacing the retired Maggie Wilderotter who had hired Jureller from General Atlantic, a private equity firm with offices in Greenwich and New York City.
NEWTOWN - A traveler who contracted measles abroad and might have had contact with a handful of unvaccinated people in Newtown is not a cause for major public concern, the towns top health official said Monday.

There are no particular precautions for the public to take, said Donna Culbert, the director of the Newtown Health District. But I do want to take the opportunity to emphasize the importance of vaccinations.

The people thought to have had contact with the traveler  who have not been vaccinated against measles  are confined to their homes until the incubation period for the disease has passed, Culbert said.

They all agreed to movement restrictions while we are monitoring them, Culbert said on Monday.

Measles is highly contagious virus spread by coughing and sneezing. It starts with a fever and sinus symptoms, followed by a full body rash.

Before vaccinations rendered the disease extremely rare, there were as many as four million cases in the United States each year, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Measles was in the news in 2015, when 100 cases were reported within two weeks after a visitor to Disneyland apparently started an outbreak.

At the time, the Newtown School District reminded residents that although measles was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000, it can be contracted in other countries and spread among pockets of unvaccinated people.

Maura Downes, spokeswoman for the Connecticut Department of Public Health, said the local measles case was reported to the state at the beginning of the month, when the traveler sought medical attention.

The state informed the Newtown Health District that the traveler had been in town, and local health officials determined that the exposure was extremely limited.

As a result, neither the state nor the town issued a health alert. They might have if the extent of the exposure was not known, or if more than one person had measles, Culbert said.

Details about the people being monitored were not available, except that they were not school-age children.

They have less than a week to go before the incubation period is over, and they are free to leave the house, Culbert said.

Information was not available about the traveler who was being treated for measles, except that the traveler was from Fairfield County.

This is a good opportunity to remind people about the importance of vaccinations, Culbert said.
On February 14, 1929, one of the most infamous gang killings happened in Chicago: the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

On this day, seven men associated with the Irish gangster George "Bugs" Moran were shot down by men wearing police uniforms, history.com writes.
TORONTO, Sept. 12, 2016 /CNW/ - 01 Communique Laboratory Inc. (ONE:TSX-V) today announced results for its third quarter fiscal 2016, which ended July 31, 2016. The loss and comprehensive loss for the third quarter was $162,660 (2015 - $345,956). The adjusted loss, which excludes non-cash expenses for stock-based compensation and depreciation, was $70,206 (2015 - $297,216). The Company completed the period with $211,172 of cash and cash equivalents.

"We remain committed to our plan of continuing operations as well as pursuing the matter with Citrix Systems Inc. ("Citrix") until its conclusion," said Andrew Cheung, President and CEO for 01 Communique. "Earlier in the year we significantly reduced operating expenses to conserve our cash as we work through this process. With respect to the lawsuit with Citrix, all briefs with respect to post-trial motions were filed in April 2016. We are now waiting for a decision by the District Court and then an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit can be taken, if needed. The motions included motions for renewed judgment as a matter of law and for a new trial."

An Update on the Company's Operations follows:

At the request of the Company, KPMG LLP has resigned as the Company's auditors. The Company has appointed Shimmerman Penn LLP to replace them. The board of directors of the Company and its audit committee has approved the resignation of KPMG LLP and the appointment of Shimmerman Penn LLP.

In addition to moving forward with the appeal process in its patent lawsuit against Citrix the Company plans to continue and work with Hitachi as well as approach other companies with a goal for them to license the Company's products and technology. Substantially all development work has been completed on the products that the Company is looking to license and with respect to the appeal process the Company relies on its lawyers and hence minimal internal resources are expected. Accordingly, the Company has reduced operating expenses significantly as it works through the appeal process. To assist in achieving this expense reduction the Company's executive management and board of directors are not drawing a salary.

Operating expenses for third quarter 2016 were $158,438 (2015 - $356,229). Excluding non cash expenses for stock based compensation and depreciation the cash operating expenses for third quarter 2016 were $65,984 (2015 - $307,489) a reduction of $241,505.

On September 12, 2016 stock options were granted to members of the Company's executive management and directors. There were 2,150,000 stock options granted in total expiring on September 12, 2020, with an exercise price of $0.05 and vesting on March 12, 2017.

Background on the Company's patent lawsuit against Citrix:

In February 2006, the Company commenced a lawsuit in the United States District Court, Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, against Citrix alleging infringement by their GoToMyPC product line of the '479 Patent. On January 11, 2016 a jury trial commenced in the lawsuit with the jury reaching and returning a unanimous verdict on January 19, 2016. The Court entered Judgment as follows:

Defendants Citrix have not infringed claims 24 or 45 of 01 Communique's patent (United States Patent No. 6,928,479);



Claims 24 and 45 of United States Patent No. 6,928,479 are not invalid;



Plaintiff 01 Communique takes no damages from Citrix;



Except as set forth above or adjudicated through Summary Judgment, all other claims and counterclaims in this matter were dismissed;



Each party retains its right to, and does not waive its right to, file timely motions for renewed judgment as a matter of law, for new trial, for the award of attorneys' fees, for the award of costs, and to prosecute an appeal from any aspect of the case to the extent allowed by statute, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and/or this Court.

On March 7, 2016 the Company filed post-trial motions with the District Court that presided over the trial. These included motions for renewed judgment as a matter of law and for a new trial. Citrix's opposition brief to these motions was filed and the Company's reply brief was filed on April 28, 2016. Now that all briefs are filed we are waiting for a decision by the District Court on this matter and then an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit can be taken, if needed.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange ("TSX-V") nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

About 01 Communique

Established in 1992, 01 Communique Laboratory Inc. (TSX-V:ONE) offers a suite of remote access services designed for small-medium sized business, mobile professionals and IT service providers. 01's software as a service offerings are deployed on-demand and include functionality enabling on-line meetings, remote computing and IT support. 01's suite of products includes its remote access offering I'm InTouch (www.imintouch.com), its online meeting offering (www.imintouchmeeting.com) and its remote support offering I'm OnCall (www.imoncall.com) products are protected in the U.S.A. by its patents #6,928,479 / #6,938,076 / #8,234,701 and in Canada by its patents #2,309,398 / #2,524,039 and Japan by its patent #4,875,094. For more information, visit www.01com.com or call (905) 795-888 or (800) 668-2185 (North America only).

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements.

Certain statements in this news release may constitute "forward-looking" statements which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. When used in this news release, such statements use such words as "may", "will", "expect", "believe", "plan", "intend", "are confident" and other similar terminology. These statements reflect current expectations regarding future events and operating performance and speak only as of the date of this news release. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether or not such results will be achieved. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the factors discussed under "Risk Factors" in the company's Annual Information Form filed on SEDAR. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes are reasonable assumptions, the company cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with these forward looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and the company assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances.

01 Communique Laboratory Inc. SELECTED FINANCIAL INFORMATION Consolidated Statements of Financial Position Unaudited







31-July-16 31-Oct-15





Assets



Current assets





Cash and cash equivalents $ 211,172 $ 551,205

Accounts receivable 26,748 112,034

Prepaid expenses and other assets 60,299 21,618

298,219 684,857





Property and equipment 5,169 8,596

$ 303,388 $ 693,453





Liabilities and Shareholders' Equity









Current liabilities





Accounts payable and accrued liabilities $ 492,175 $ 549,499

Deferred revenue 13,705 15,081

505,880 564,580





Liability portion of Debenture 370,580 359,714

876,460 924,294 Shareholders' equity





Share capital 40,832,777 40,628,777

Equity portion of Debenture 47,111 47,111

Contributed surplus 5,324,937 5,036,997

Deficit (46,777,897) (45,943,726)

(573,072) (230,841)

$ 303,388 $ 693,453

01 Communique Laboratory Inc. SELECTED FINANCIAL INFORMATION Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income For the 3 and 9 month periods ended July 31, 2016 and 2015 Unaudited









for the 3 months ending

for the 9 months ending

31-Jul-16 31-Jul-15

31-Jul-16 31-Jul-15











Revenue $ 9,453 $ 23,018

$ 56,456 $ 76,311 Cost of revenue - -

- -

9,453 23,018

56,456 76,311











Expenses (income) :









Selling, general and administrative 130,594 162,032

583,682 575,728 Patent litigation & re-examination expenses - -

- 6,658 Research and development 27,844 194,197

266,923 590,352 Interest (81) (497)

(844) (1,911)

158,357 355,732

849,761 1,170,827 Loss before interest and accretion on









liability component of debenture $ (148,904) $ (332,714)

$ (793,305) $ (1,094,516)











Interest on debenture 10,000 10,000

30,000 10,650 Accretion on liability portion of debenture 3,756 3,242

10,866 3,462











Loss for the period and comprehensive loss $ (162,660) $ (345,956)

$ (834,171) $ (1,108,628)



































Loss per common share (note 6)









Basic $ (0.002) $ (0.005)

$ (0.013) $ (0.017) Diluted $ (0.002) $ (0.005)

$ (0.013) $ (0.017)











Weighted average number of common shares Basic 66,543,807 65,795,437

66,468,807 65,761,159 Diluted 66,543,807 65,795,437

66,468,807 65,761,159

01 Communique Laboratory Inc. SELECTED FINANCIAL INFORMATION Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows For the 3 and 9 month periods ended July 31, 2016 and 2015













three months ending

nine months ending

31-Jul-16 31-Jul-15

31-Jul-16 31-Jul-15 Cash provided by (used in):





















Operating activities:











Loss for the period $ (162,660) $ (345,956)

$ (834,171) $ (1,108,628)

Adjustments to reconcile loss for the











period to net cash flows from operating activities













Depreciation 1,204 1,392

4,080 4,719



Stock-based compensation 91,250 47,348

368,940 165,418



Accretion on liability portion of debenture 3,756 3,242

10,866 3,462



Interest paid on debenture 10,000



30,000





Interest income (81) (497)

(844) (1,911)

Change in non-cash working capital 10,619 7,708

(12,094) (197,589)

(45,912) (286,763)

(433,223) (1,134,529) Interest income received 81 497

844 1,911

(45,831) (286,266)

(432,379) (1,132,618)











Financing activities:











Issue of common shares - 205,000

123,000 205,000

Issue of debenture - -

- 400,000

Interest paid on debenture (10,000)



(30,000)

Investing activities:











Purchase of capital assets - (1,017)

(655) (1,758) Increase (decrease) in cash (55,831) (82,283)

(340,034) (529,376)











Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period 267,003 923,720

551,205 1,370,813 Cash and cash equivalents, end of period $ 211,172 $ 841,437

$ 211,171 $ 841,437























Cash and cash equivalents comprise:









Demand deposits $ 71,500 $ 601,500





Cash 139,672 239,937







$ 211,172 $ 841,437







SOURCE 01 Communique Laboratory Inc.

For further information: INVESTOR CONTACT: Brian Stringer, Chief Financial Officer, 01 Communique, (905) 795-2888 x204, [email protected]
Drill Hole AVA16-005 at Barsele intercepts 6.0 metres grading 16.20 g/t gold, and 26.00 metres grading 2.22 g/t gold and Drill Hole AVA16-007 intercepts 33.40 metres grading 1.68 g/t gold, and 8.00 metres grading 3.23 g/t gold.

VANCOUVER, Sept. 12, 2016 /CNW/ - Barsele Minerals Corp.  (TSX-V: BME) ("Barsele") is pleased to provide a fifth operational progress update for the current exploration program within the Barsele Au-VMS Project area in Vasterbottens Lan, northern Sweden. The exploration program is being operated by joint venture partner Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (TSX, NYSE: AEM) ("Agnico Eagle"). Ownership in the project is 55% Agnico Eagle and 45% Barsele.

Phase-2 drilling commenced with one drill on April 29th. A second drill was placed in operation on June 7th, with a third drill commissioned on August 29th. Recently, drilling has been carried out on Titan geophysics targets adjacent to and northeast of the Avan Zone, and along the principal trend of gold mineralization within the Avan and Central zones. Drilling has also been carried out on the Kohobben VMS target, with results pending. As well, a BOT (base of till) drill was commissioned during the month of August, to test for gold mineralization indicators along a corridor adjacent to and southwest of the entire Skirasen-Central-Avan mineralized corridor.

As of August 29th, diamond drilling in 2016 totals 13,522 metres. A cumulative total of 21,907 metres has been drilled since the beginning of the joint venture in October, 2015.

Drill hole AVA16-005 was drilled to test the down dip extension of the gold mineralized zone at Avan. Assay results have returned several mineralized intercepts. Highlight results include 6.00 metres core length (estimated 4.50 metres true thickness) grading 16.20 g/t gold uncut (7.28 g/t gold cut), plus 26.00 metres core length (estimated 19.50 metres true thickness) grading 2.22 g/t gold. These intercepts occur between 145 and 250 meters vertically below surface. Hole AVA16-006 cut 34.00 metres core length (estimated 25.5 metres true thickness) grading 0.87 g/t gold at roughly 150 metres below surface. Hole AVA16-007 cut 33.4 metres core length (estimated 25.10 metres true thickness) grading 1.68 g/t gold, plus 8.00 metres core length (estimated 6.0 metres true thickness) grading 3.23 g/t gold. These intercepts occur between 420 and 545 metres below surface.

Results from holes AVA16-005 and AVA16-007 are considered to be highly significant as they are suggestive of improving ground preparation, and alteration and mineralization at depth at Avan. Both intercepts are located roughly 1,250 metres to the northwest of the core of the Central Zone.

Drill holes AVA16-001, AVA16-002, AVA16-003 and AVA16-004 were drilled to test Titan geophysical anomalies, to the northeast of the Avan Zone. Hole AVA16-003, cut 2.40 meters core length (estimated 0.20 meters true thickness) grading 46.15 g/t gold uncut (11.87 g/t gold cut), at 365 meters below surface. More drill testing is required in this area.

Drill Highlights Reported in this News Release

Barsele Drilling Program (July-August, 2016) Hole From To Core Length (m) True Thickness Au (g/t) Top-Capped (m) (m) (m) (g/t) at 20 g/t







Au (g/t) AVA16001 No Significant Intersection AVA16002 No Significant Intersection AVA16003 536.30 538.70 2.40 0.20 46.15 11.87 AVA16004 No Significant Intersection AVA16005 115.00 130.00 15.00 11.30 0.87



139.00 154.00 15.00 11.30 0.55



165.00 169.00 4.00 3.00 1.65



221.00 227.00 6.00 4.50 16.20 7.28

367.00 393.00 26.00 19.50 2.22

AVA16006 239.00 273.00 34.00 25.50 0.87

AVA16007 194.00 212.00 18.00 13.50 1.11



221.00 244.00 23.00 17.30 0.65



477.60 511.00 33.40 25.10 1.68



636.00 644.00 8.00 6.00 3.23



Results Pending

Barsele's President, Gary Cope comments, "Drilling at Avan has yielded two highly significant intervals of good grade rock in holes AVA16-005 and AVA16-007. We remain optimistic that Agnico Eagle will continue to define and extend the Avan Zone to the northwest and to depth as well as to the southeast toward the Central Zone."

As project operator, Agnico Eagle is continuously involved with a community relations program to engage the various stakeholders in the project area to discuss project progress and future planning.

In 2016, Agnico Eagle plans to spend approximately $US 6.0 million on exploration to further evaluate the mineral potential on the property. This work will include expansion drilling, validation drilling, regional drilling, and Base of Till drilling, all of which is ongoing. In addition, environmental base line studies (water chemistry, biota in water, nature inventory) continue.

About the Barsele Gold Project

The Barsele Project is located on the western end of the Proterozoic "Skellefte Trend," a prolific volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits belt, where it intersects with the "Gold Line" in Northern Sweden. Both polymetallic deposits and intrusive hosted orogenic gold deposits are present in this region and on the property. Current and past producers in the region include Boliden, Kristineberg, Bjorkdal, Svartliden, and Storliden.

In September of 2015, mineral resource estimates were released for the Barsele Project in four zones, the Central, Avan and Skirasen Gold Zones and the Norra VMS Zone. The resource estimate for the Central-Avan-Skirasen Zones states an Indicated Resource of 14.1 million tonnes grading 1.21 g/t gold for 547,000 contained ounces, plus an Inferred Resource of 20.2 million tonnes grading 0.97 g/t gold for 627,000 contained ounces. The polymetallic Norra Zone contains an Indicated Resource of 110,000 tonnes grading 3.13 g/t gold, 30.3 g/t silver, 0.53 % copper and 0.72 % zinc, plus an Inferred Resource of 310,000 tonnes grading 1.62 g/t gold, 12.7 g/t silver, 0.26 % copper and 0.42 % zinc. All zones were estimated at a gold cut-off grade of 0.6 g/t.

Art Freeze, P.Geo. is the Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101 and takes responsibility for the technical disclosure contained within this news release.

About Barsele Minerals Corp.

Barsele is a Canadian-based junior exploration company comprised of highly qualified mining professionals. Barsele's main property is the Barsele Gold Project in Vasterbottens Lan, Sweden, a joint venture with Agnico Eagle Mines Limited.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Gary Cope

President

This News Release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, potential mineral recovery processes, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements and Barsele undertakes no obligation to update such statements, except as required by law.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release

SOURCE Barsele Minerals Corp.

For further information: please contact Barsele Minerals Corp. at (604) 687-8566 x227, email [email protected] or visit our website at www.barseleminerals.com
A new generation of Russian and Chinese-built long-range air-to-air missiles could threaten the critical nodes that enable U.S. air operations. Those nodes include the AWACS, various intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets, aerial refueling tankers and electronic attack aircraft.

Long-range air intercept weaponscoupled with the right fighter could disrupt the ability of the United States to conduct sustained air operations in both the Asia-Pacific and the European theaters. Essentially, Russians and/or Chinese forces could pair long-range air-to-air missiles with aircraft like the Mikoyan MiG-31 Foxhound, Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA and the Chengdu J-20 to attack American AWACS, JTARS and aerial refueling tankers like the Boeing KC-135 or forthcoming KC-46 Pegasus. Especially over the vast reaches of the Pacific where airfields are few and far between, lumbering aerial refueling tankers could be an Achilles Heel that Beijing could chose to exploit.

China and Russia also have the ability to disable Global positioning satellites (GPS) and intelligence satellites.

The United States also has the ability to take out the same systems on the Chinese and Russian side.

This would bring both sides down from 21st precision warfare to something closer to 1970s era air to air combat.

An airborne early warning and control (AEW and C) system is an airborne radar picket system designed to detect aircraft, ships and vehicles at long ranges and perform command and control of the battlespace in an air engagement by directing fighter and attack aircraft strikes.

Modern AEW and C systems can detect aircraft from up to 400 km (220 nmi) away, well out of range of most surface-to-air missiles. One AEW and C aircraft flying at 9,000 m (30,000 ft) can cover an area of 312,000 square kilometers (120,000 sq mi). Three such aircraft in overlapping orbits can cover the whole of Central Europe

Refueling planes are needed to extend the operating range of fighters and bombers. This enables aircraft carriers to stay out at safer ranges.

GPS is needed for precision targeting of weapons. Precision targeting enables fewer missiles or weapons to be used to accomplish the same mission.

Vietnam era combat did not have many of these systems.

SOURCES- National Interest, Free Beacon, wikipedia
The Nigerian Army has warned the public to beware of lunatics as Boko Haram insurgents now disguise as mad men and women to perpetrate t...

The Nigerian Army has warned the public to beware of lunatics as Boko Haram insurgents now disguise as mad men and women to perpetrate their heinous activities.Army spokesman, Col. Sani Usman in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday warned that there was reliable information that remnants of the Boko Haram terrorists now disguise as mad men or women in order to gain access to some locations, especially in Maiduguri.Consequently, all should be very wary of any seemingly mentally unstable or mad men or women found wandering and report same.Therefore, it is imperative for all to be more security conscious and vigilant, especially during the Eid festivities and public holidays.Usman also disclosed that troops foiled a suicide bomb attack at a check point in Dikwa Local Government Area of Borno.Usman said the female suicide bomber was killed while two soldiers and a civilian were injured in the incident.He said the incident occurred on Sunday evening near the Kara cattle market in Dikwa.The spokesman said: On Sunday 11th September 2016, evening, a suspected female suicide bomber was seen approaching troops check point located at Kara Cattle market axis, towards Antul and Mukdala, Dikwa Local Government Area, Borno.She was challenged from afar by the vigilant duty sentry, she refused to stop claiming to be coming from Monguno to see her parents in Dikwa.Troops sensing the direction of approach, was suspicious and abnormal, fired a shot at her and the gallant sentry was proven right.She was carrying an explosive device which exploded, killing her instantly and causing minor injury on two soldiers and a Civilian JTF assisting them.Usman said the injured soldiers and the civilian were treated and have since continued with their duties.He said the incident had shown that a few of the remaining insurgents were determined to carry out criminal acts to create panic and insecurity in some areas.
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Saad Abubakar III, has commended President Muhammadu Buhari, for introducing `Change Begins With Me campaig...

The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Saad Abubakar III, has commended President Muhammadu Buhari, for introducing `Change Begins With Me campaign in Nigeria.The president deserves commendation for making this bold move christened, The Change begins With me, he said.Abubakar spoke in Sokoto on Monday when, Gov. Aminu Tambuwal, paid him the traditional Sallah homage.Abubakar said: the campaign cannot come at a better time than now when Nigeria is in dire need of change.Change is, however, very unpalatable and pretty difficult as such Nigerians should be cooperative and patient.Destruction is always very easy, while reconstruction takes more time and patience is required.The monarch said Nigerians should start the campaign by self-appraisal, adding: we should look inwards, reappraise our behaviours and our attitudes from our various and workplaces.We should start and contribute to the campaign by re-orientating ourselves and this should be done by Nigerians at all levels.Abubakar further acknowledged the ongoing efforts by the government to revamp education, agriculture, security and all facets of life.The sultan maintained, the situation should never remain as usual, if Nigeria must truly change for the better.Abubakar spoke in Sokoto on Monday when, Gov. Aminu Tambuwal, paid him the traditional Sallah homage.Abubakar said: the campaign cannot come at a better time than now when Nigeria is in dire need of change. Change is, however, very unpalatable and pretty difficult as such Nigerians should be cooperative and patient.Destruction is always very easy, while reconstruction takes more time and patience is required.The monarch said Nigerians should start the campaign by self-appraisal, adding: we should look inwards, reappraise our behaviours and our attitudes from our various and workplaces.We should start and contribute to the campaign by re-orientating ourselves and this should be done by Nigerians at all levels.Abubakar further acknowledged the ongoing efforts by the government to revamp education, agriculture, security and all facets of life.The sultan maintained, the situation should never remain as usual, if Nigeria must truly change for the better.
Right days after his wife Christiana died, General Evangelist, Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) Worldwide, Prophet Elijah Abiara, was hospi...

Right days after his wife Christiana died, General Evangelist, Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) Worldwide, Prophet Elijah Abiara, was hospitalised after suffering ill health.The septuagenarian was rushed to the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan at about 1:30 pm on yesterday.He was immediately placed on admission by doctors after examination.Abiara braved the loss of his wife during a condolence visit by Oyo State Deputy Governor Moses Adeyemo last week.He gave Adeyemo and his team a warm welcome.Yesterday, a source said Prophet Abiara was weak on arrival at the hospital.It was learnt that the doctors did not spend much time on him before deciding that he should be taken in on admission.
Human Rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has counseled President Muhammadu Buhari to reject the condition attached by the Swiss government before...

Human Rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has counseled President Muhammadu Buhari to reject the condition attached by the Swiss government before the return of $321 million Abacha loot to Nigeria.Falana, in a letter to Buhari, stated that the conditions provided by the Swiss government were a violation of international laws.In the event that the government of Switzerland refuses to return the said sum of $321 million without any conditionality, the Federal Government should not hesitate to initiate legal proceedings for the recovery of the asset, he noted.In the proposed suit, Nigeria should claim punitive and exemplary damages and interests from Switzerland for keeping the loot for over 20 years, he added.Pointing out that the Swiss government had included in the MoU a condition that required the World Bank to supervise the spending of the returned loot, Falana said We note that grand corruption, money laundering and return of stolen assets have long become major issues of concern to the international community.We further note that Switzerland has acceded to all the relevant international treaties such as the United Nations Convention against Corruption for the return of assets.We believe that the conditionality imposed on Nigeria, which allows the World Bank to supervise the spending of returned assets by the Nigerian government, breaches international law principles and standards.In particular, Article 57 of the UN Convention against Corruption requires states parties to return assets on the basis of a final judgment in the requesting state party. But in circumstances where there is no final judgment, Article 57 allows for assets to be returned on the basis of agreements or mutually acceptable arrangements, on a case-by-case basis, for the final disposal of confiscated property.While the UN Convention against Corruption contains provisions for special considerations when states parties are concluding agreements, this does not give the government of Switzerland the right to unilaterally impose conditions on Nigeria, Mr. Falana said.He added that the Article 57 suggested that Switzerland had no legal authority to impose conditions on Nigeria regarding the spending of recovered assets.Falana also said the World Bank had failed to demonstrate sufficient level of transparency and accountability in its supervision of previously repatriated Abacha loot.
During last nights premiere of Rob & Chyna's show, pregnant Chyna and Rob made a doctors appointment to find out the sex of the...

During last nights premiere of Rob & Chyna's show, pregnant Chyna and Rob made a doctors appointment to find out the sex of their baby.Before the big reveal, Rob said,Then the doctor announcedChyna exclaims excitedly. Rob adds.the doctor asks them, referring to Chyna and Tygas son King Cairo., Rob says. he doctor reassures Rob.Rob then said in a confessional. the doctor tells Rob and Chyna. 
A passionate appeal has gone to the United Nations, UN, to arrange and conduct a referendum soonest, to ascertain the willingness or other...





A passionate appeal has gone to the United Nations, UN, to arrange and conduct a referendum soonest, to ascertain the willingness or otherwise of the people to be part of an independent Biafra.The Owerri Zonal Leader of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, and a member of the organisations Elders Council, Chief Canice Anujuru and Chief Okechukwu Nwogu respectively, made the plea during a news conference in Owerri, to mark the 17th anniversary of the birth of MASSOB.Conducting this all important referendum for the independence of Biafra is long overdue. Biafrans earnestly await this exercise, Anujuru said.While recalling that the UN granted MASSOB observer status since 2000, Chief Anujuru also pointed out that since then, MASSOB has been prosecuting its campaign for the independence of Biafra in a non-violent manner.He expressed regret that despite the groups non-violent posture, the Nigerian government and its security agencies had mindlessly killed, maimed, arrested, detained and prosecuted several pro-Biafra agitators over the years.Answering a question, Chief Anujuru blamed the current economic hardship sweeping across Nigeria on the on-going frustration of Biafran independence, by the Nigerian government.The current suffering faced by Nigerians is because the Nigerian government has refused to support the freedom of Biafran people. The current economic recession has divine connotation, Anujuru reasoned.The MASSOB leaders also warned that until Biafran people are granted freedom, things will continue to go wrong in Nigeria.On how MASSOB loyalists would mark the event, Anujuru said there would be rallies in every major town in Biafran territory, stressing that the celebration will enable members appraise our gains and challenges.Speaking also, Chief Okechukwu Nwogu regretted that the bulk of the revenue used in running the affairs of Nigeria comes largely, from the Eastern Region. While saying that the celebration will commence September 13, 2016, Nwogu however added that Biafra was all about the past and future of the people.He commended Chief Ralph Uwazuruike for his foresight and commitment in promoting the Biafran agenda, especially the non-violent posture in the struggle for the actualization of the sovereign state of Biafra.
The annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia yesterday reached its climax as1.5 million Muslims gathered at Mount Arafat to offer day-long...

The annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia yesterday reached its climax as1.5 million Muslims gathered at Mount Arafat to offer day-long prayers and recitations from the Koran.The pilgrims congregated from sunrise at the site and the vast plain which surrounds it, about 15km from Mecca.Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad gave his last sermon at the location.The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, which all Muslims are called upon to perform at least once.On Saturday it became clear that Saudi Arabias top cleric, Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, would not deliver the traditional Hajj sermon for the first time in 35 years because of health complications.It follows controversy sparked by his remarks that Iranians were not Muslims.The comments came after Irans supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denounced Saudi Arabias management of the Hajj.Iran boycotted this years pilgrimage, instead endorsing an alternative event on Saturday at the holy city of Karbala in Iraq.Tensions between the two countries have risen after a crush in last years pilgrimage killed at least 2,426 people, including 464 Iranians, according to an unofficial count.Saudi Arabia and Iran do not have diplomatic relations and are at loggerheads over a series of regional issues including the conflicts in Yemen and Syria.But news of the Ayatollahs absence has not diminished the enthusiasm of the pilgrims.Its marvellous, Egyptian pilgrim Louza, 45, was quoted as saying. Im here closer to God. Its an indescribable feeling.Against a backdrop of other mountains the pilgrims squatted, stood, or climbed up steps constructed into the hill while reciting the Koran.We feel at ease and are totally benefiting from our pilgrimage, Soumaya, 30, from Mali, told the AFP news agency. Her friend, Khadija Bechir, 23. agreed, praising the event for being well organised.Pilgrims come from all over the world to the Hajj with Indonesia  the most populous Muslim nation  having the largest quota.Official figures issued on Saturday revealed that more than 1.3 million pilgrims are attending the Hajj from outside Saudi Arabia.A vast expanse of white fireproof tents has been pitched at Mina, to accommodate in excess of 2.5 million pilgrims.The stampede in Mina last September is considered to be the worst disaster in Hajj history. It took place as pilgrims were going to the Jamarat Bridge for a stoning ritual which this year will start today, according to officials.
Militancy in the Niger Delta contributed largely to Nigerias economic downturn, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, said yesterday.

Militancy in the Niger Delta contributed largely to Nigerias economic downturn, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, said yesterday.According to him, the country has lost 60 per cent of its revenue and 40 per cent of its gas supply to vandalism of pipelines since the return of militancy in the Niger Delta.Osinbajo, who is the chairman of the Federal Governments economic management team, said President Muhammadu Buhari is determined to put things on the right track, adding that critics wont deter the government.He spoke to reporters in Abeokuta after worshipping at the Alleluya Christian Centre on Ajebo Road, in the Ogun State capital.Admitting that Nigerians are passing through a challenging time, he assured that the government was tackling the situation.The people, he added, would soon be noticing positive difference, arising from the efforts of the government in tackling the economic crisis.He said: We are focused and determined to ensure this country is put on the right track. There are lots of people, who will say where is the change promised? People will condemn and shout; but we are focused, calm and extremely confident that God is on our side and this country will not be the same.In another couple of years, we will see the difference. All of us have a part to play in the change. Nigerians must be patriotic in our dealings and daily activities. We should be committed to the nation.One of the key reasons why we are in recession is the fact that we lost about 60 per cent of our revenue due to the vandalism of the pipelines on the Niger/Delta and we lost almost 40 per cent of the gas.I have strong belief that by the grace of God, we will be able to resolve that. Once we are able to resolve that, we would at least be able to earn more revenue. If revenue grows, it is an added advantage.These are challenging time, it is very obvious and we know the reasons. It is high-level of corruption and we have dealt with that. We are controlling government expenditure. Once you can control corruption, we are out of it.I strongly believe that this country is one that God has a hand in its affairs. In fact, the reason why President Buhari is in office is because God has a plan and hand in this nation; that this nation will be governed properly, that stealing of resources will stop and that we focus on issues of development, Osinbajo said.The vice president said part of governments measures to revive the economy was to diversify into agriculture and solid minerals, adding that government had also observed many opportunities in manufacturing and technology to re-jig the economy.According to him, the government would soon begin the implementation of the 500,000 volunteer corps job opportunities and the micro-credit facilities to no fewer than a million market women and artisans.
CAMDEN -- A man who was previously convicted of using dating services to scam more than 50 women out of $200,000, is facing new charges after he escaped from a federal halfway house and returned to his old scams, authorities said.

Patrick Giblin, 52, formerly of Ventor, was charged with wire fraud for allegedly stealing more than $7,000 from at least eight women using wire services such as Western Union and Moneygram, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said in a news release.

Between Dec. 2012 and Dec. 14, 2014, Giblin created numerous accounts on telephone dating sites such as Quest Personals and Lavalife and used them to tell women he needed to borrow money for bills, car repairs, moving expenses and other phony expenses, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Giblin, authorities say, convinced these women he'd pay them back. He also allegedly posted advertisements and messages on these dating services, claiming he was moving to a victim's location, that he owned oceanfront property in Atlantic City, and that he worked in the casino business.

One of the eight victims resided in Boonton, while the others were from Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Giblin was sentenced in April 2007 to nearly 10 years in federal prison on wire fraud charges related to similar scams involving more than 50 women. He was released to a federal halfway house on work release in Dec. 2012, but, a month later, he walked away and failed to return.

He was captured by U.S. Marshals Service on Dec. 16, 2014 at a motel in Colonie, N.Y. Giblin was sentenced this past October to another two years in prison for violating the terms of his release.

He was taken into custody Monday as he completed his two-year sentence in federal prison in Fairton.

Giblin, who has been in federal custody since that time, faces a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

Justin Zaremba may be reached at jzaremba@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinZarembaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
BRIDGETON -- Firefighters dressed in their full gear climbed the 11 stories to the top of the Bridgeton senior high-rise Sunday morning, then made the trek back down.

Along with them were civilians also made the climb, remembering how, 15 years ago, so many first responders went into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and took to the stairways there in an effort to save lives but never came out alive.

This was the fifth year for the Bridgeton Stair Climb.

"This was the biggest one yet," said Bridgeton Fire Department Captain Anthony A. Brago who organized the event.

There were 132 people registered to take part in the climb, well over the 100 or so who took part last year. The Bridgeton Housing Authority's senior high-rise at 110 East Commerce St. is the site of the event.

While symbolizing the heroic efforts New York City firefighters made on Sept. 11, 2001, the Bridgeton climb also raises funds to aid the families of fallen firefighters.

The climb is fully sanctioned by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. All of the money raised at Sunday's event will go to the organization.

Brago says the conditions inside the high-rise stairway that the climbers encounter are "very realistic" to what those firefighters going into the World Trade Center faced 15 years aog.

He said the climb itself is very physically demanding.

"The significance on what happened in 2001 on 9/11 is etched in everyone's minds and will never be forgotten," Brago said.

Bill Gallo Jr. may be reached at bgallo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Bill Gallo Jr. on Twitter @bgallojr. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
You can't run for office in Louisiana unless you are up to date with state and federal taxes, and have paid any fines incurred for failure to 
The federal government plans to pour $125 million into the fight against a mysterious disease that has ravaged corals in Florida and much of the Caribbean, and now poses a dire threat to the treasured reefs off the Louisiana and Texas coasts.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has issued a subpoena to Donald Trump. The nine-member panel sent a letter to the former president's lawyers on Friday, demanding his testimony under oath by mid-November and outlining a series of corresponding documents. The decision by lawmakers to exercise their subpoena power comes a week after the committee made its final case against the former president, who they say is the "central cause" of the multi-part effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. It remains unclear how Trump and his legal team will respond to the subpoena, if at all.
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A fire in a factory in Bangladesh has killed at least 22 people and injured dozens of others just outside the capital, Dhaka, authorities said.

According to officials, the fire broke out Saturday after an explosion in the boiler room at the four-story building.

"Most of them had burn injuries. We sent the critically injured victims to the hospitals in Dhaka," Parvez Mia, a doctor at the Tongi state-run hospital said.

Police are still concerned other workers may still be trapped inside the Tampaco Foils Limited factory. Around 100 people were in the building when the fire started.

The manufacturing plant produces and prints plastic packaging for potato chips and household goods such as mosquito coils.
Hundreds of thousands of Catalans marched in Barcelona and other Spanish cities Sunday to rally for independence for the country's northeastern region.

Catalan police say as many as 800,000 marchers turned out while the Spanish government in Madrid, which is opposed to independence, say the turnout was less than half that number.

Calatonia's pro-independence regional government has set the middle of next year as a target for independence from Spain, but has been unable to persuade the central government to approve a referendum on the issue.
For now, Samsung has not confirmed any of the specs above. However, the new Galaxy A handsets should become official by the end of the year, so stay tuned.

The highlights of the Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) include the following - 1.5 GHz octa-core Qualcomm processor with ARM Mali-T830 graphics, 2 GB RAM, 8 GB internal storage, 4.7-inch 720p display, 8 MP front camera, 13 MP main photo shooter, the usual connectivity features, but also a pedometer and barometer. Although launching with Android Nougat installed should become something usual, it looks like this handset is only loaded with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow.

The next iteration of Samsung's mid-range A series has been in the rumor mill for a while, and now the time has arrived for another step forward. After the initial rumors, these devices have been spotted on import tracking website Zauba as they made their way into India for testing. Now, the Galaxy A3 (2017) has just shown up on GFXBench.

- 5678 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2013 Codrut Nistor - Senior Tech Writersince 2013

In my early school days, I hated writing and having to make up stories. A decade later, I started to enjoy it. Since then, I published a few offline articles and then I moved to the online space, where I contributed to major websites that are still present online as of 2021 such as Softpedia, Brothersoft, Download3000, but I also wrote for multiple blogs that have disappeared over the years. I've been riding with the Notebookcheck crew since 2013 and I am not planning to leave it anytime soon. In love with good mechanical keyboards, vinyl and tape sound, but also smartphones, streaming services, and digital art.
Syria says the Damascus government of embattled President Bashar al-Assad had accepted the ceasefire deal brokered by its Russian ally and the United States.

"A cessation of hostilities will begin in Aleppo for humanitarian reasons," the Syrian news agency SANA said. Hours later, the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside Assad loyalists, said it also would honor the ceasefire, while vowing to defend itself if attacked.

Turkey, which sent its military into the multisided conflict late last month, also announced support for the truce, which is to begin at sunset Monday.

The agreement was announced early Saturday in Geneva jointly by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced the agreement jointly in Geneva early Saturday.

Syrian opposition forces also said they welcomed the deal. However, since they feel neither Russian nor Syrian government forces adhered to earlier cease-fire plans, they said they doubted that a cease-fire could hold.

Moscow's influence on Damascus "is the only way to get the regime to comply," said a statement issued by Bassma Kodmani of the High Negotiations Committee of the Syrian Opposition.

 Fighting Rages Despite Deal

The complex and partly secret truce had little if any impact in or near war-ravaged Aleppo, as fighting raged and fatalities mounted Saturday.

An activist collective known as the Aleppo Media Center reported at least 45 people had been killed in rebel-held parts of the city, while the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights placed the regional death toll at 69.

Beyond the cease-fire, the primary aim of the United States, the United Nations and nongovernmental groups active in Syria was arranging broader access for humanitarian aid to residents of the besieged city, once Syria's biggest population center, which has been cut off from outside help for months.

If there is "reduced violence" in Syria for seven consecutive days after the truce begins Monday, and if sufficient humanitarian aid is allowed into Aleppo, a senior U.S. State Department official said, "the two main events of this agreement start to take effect."

With analysis and criticism of the conditions "going a little bit sideways" on social media, the senior U.S. official emphasized that "you're not going to see calm in Syria anytime soon."


The UN Security Council in a press statement Friday condemned North Korea's fifth and biggest nuclear test and discussed a new round of sanctions.

In a rare move, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also denounced the nuclear test in a press conference prior to the UNSC meeting.

Fifty-five countries and five international organizations condemned the North only a day after its nuclear test.
The key talking points, injuries and judiciary news from the opening weekend of the 2016 NRL Telstra Premiership Finals Series.

Broncos v Titans

The Gold Coast Titans' impressive 2016 campaign has come to an end at the hands of the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.

Injuries: Zeb Taia (quad, pre-game), Ashley Taylor (hip)

Judiciary: James Roberts (contrary conduct).

Match report: Titans bow out as Broncos advance

Broncos v Titans: Five key points

Watch: Match highlights

Draw Widget - Finals Week 1 - Broncos vs Titans



Raiders v Sharks

The Raiders went down to the Sharks with James Maloney kicking a decisive penalty goal, with the home side earlier losing star hooker Josh Hodgson to injury and Cronulla earning a week off and a preliminary finals berth.

Injuries: Paul Gallen (back, pre-game), Wade Graham (concussion), Josh Hodgson (ankle).

Judiciary: No charges.

Match report: Sharks edge Raiders in Canberra

Broncos v Titans: Five key points

Watch: Match highlights

Draw Widget - Finals Week 1 - Raiders vs Sharks



Storm v Cowboys

Melbourne were too strong for North Queensland in a game that featured plenty of determined defence at AAMI Park on Saturday night, with the Storm earning the right to host a preliminary final in two weeks' time.

Injuries: Kane Linnett (calf), Dale Finucane (ankle).

Judiciary: No charges.

Match report: Storm power into preliminary finals

Broncos v Titans: Five key points

Watch: Match highlights

Draw Widget - Finals Week 1 - Storm vs Cowboys



Panthers v Bulldogs

The Penrith Panthers were at their attacking best on Sunday afternoon, ending the Canterbury Bulldogs' season with a 28-12 win at Allianz Stadium.

Injuries: Michael Lichaa (concussion), Josh Reynolds (concussion), Brett Morris (knee), Waqa Blake (shoulder)

Judiciary: No charges.

Match report: Stylish Panthers send Dogs packing

Broncos v Titans: Five key points

Watch: Match highlights

Draw Widget - Finals Week 1 - Panthers vs Bulldogs

Game on. Data off.

Stream every NRL game, including finals, live and data free with a 2016 Footy Pass, exclusive to Telstra mobile.

Watch all the NRL action live on your compatible tablet or mobile device with data-free streaming on your Telstra mobile plan.

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VALPARAISO  A 27-year-old man faces a felony charge of residential entry after police said he walked into a strangers house Saturday night while intoxicated and used the bathroom.

Philadelphia resident Patrick William, who told police he is a law student at Valparaiso University, said he believed he had just used the bathroom at the home of a college friend, according to the arrest report.

The door to the home he entered in the 300 block of Elmhurst Avenue was unlocked and William was not aggressive or belligerent when confronted by the residents, police said.

One of the residents said she assumed her son had arrived home after hearing the front door open and close, police said. She confronted William as he was leaving the bathroom and he gave her his correct first name.

William stood on the porch and spoke with a resident through the front door before walking away.

Police were called and said when they found William walking nearby, he raised his arms, identified himself as a law student and a black man in America and said I dont want to die tonight. William reportedly re-fused to lower his hands.

Police said William, who appeared intoxicated, said he had walked downtown from the area of Duffys Place. He refused to say how much alcohol he had to drink, police said.

In addition to the felony count, he faces a misdemeanor charge of public intoxication.
VALPARAISO  A judge Monday rejected a request to further reduce bond for a 33-year-old Valparaiso man charged with attempted murder.

Defense attorney Russell Brown said his client, Lee Glover Jr., could not afford the current bond of $50,000 surety and $5,000 cash.

He asked that it be reduced to just $5,000 cash.

Porter Superior Court Judge Roger Bradford rejected the request after confirming that nothing has changed in the case accusing Glover of shooting a man July 1 following an argument over money.

That was the courts ruling then and remains the courts ruling now, he said.

Bradford reduced the bond in July from $500,000 cash to the current amount.

The victim in the case told police Glover shot him after he collected the belongings of a mutual friend at her request. A disagreement broke out over how much he should be paid for the effort. The shooting occurred early in the morning outside the victims home in the 400 block of Union Street in Valparaiso.

Glover is accused of shooting a 12-gauge shotgun twice, missing the first time and striking the other man in the side the second time. The victim was taken to Porter Regional Hospital and later to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois.

Porter County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Matt Frost said in July that Glovers request for a bond of $5,000 was woefully low.

Had Glover had better aim and succeeded in the allegations against him, he would not be eligible for bond at all, Frost said, referring to the terms of a murder charge.

A hearing is scheduled in the case for Oct. 17.
WESTVILLE  Ted Koppel, the former ABC News anchor and managing editor of Nightline, was the guest speaker at the first installment of the 63rd season of the Purdue Northwest Sinai Forum on Sunday afternoon at the new James B. Dworkin Student Services & Activities Complex.

Koppel spent the hour giving the audience a taste of his new book, Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A National Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath, saying a cyberattack on the nations power grid system is a likely event.

Koppel segued into his remarks by noting the day was the 15th anniversary of 9/11, the most successful act of terrorism in the world, but he said the worst is yet to come.

As bad as 9/11 was, Koppel said it was nothing compared to what can be launched against the United States, and the difficulty of determining who is responsible is extreme.

Koppel asked the group to imagine what a power outage in urban centers like New York, Chicago or Los Angeles for weeks or months would be like, noting that food would spoil, and there would be no heat or air conditioning and no flushing toilets.

What do you think would happen in a city of 8 million people if you cant flush human waste away? Koppel asked. How many people die after a week or two weeks? If you evacuate, where do you go?

Koppel said although the United States has spent billions of dollars creating and operating the Department of Homeland Security and TSA, it has ignored the danger of a cyberattack on the countrys power grids. Through his research, he has discovered that no plan exists for it if it were to happen.

The Russians and Chinese are already inside our power grids, Koppel said. The good news is that the two nations that have greatest capability to launch a cyberattack against the U.S. probably have inhibitions against doing so.

Yet Syria and Iran are close behind and are likely candidates, Koppel said.

Koppel concluded by commenting on the lack of objectivity in the media and its impact on the democracy and upcoming presidential election.

Many of our fellow citizens have the point of view that they are entitled to their own facts, and they get their facts through the prism of a left-wing or a right-wing organization, Koppel said. You can no longer trust the media to give you an objective point of view or to focus on the issues that are important.

How can we have an intelligent election in this country when we are so divided among ourselves? Koppel asked. Everything conspires to turn us one against the other.
GARY  A Gary man died after he jumped from a bridge onto the Borman Expressway on Monday and was hit by a semi, police said.

The 56-year-old man stopped on the Colfax Street overpass about 10:20 a.m., got out of his 2003 Pontiac, put the hood up and jumped off the bridge, according to Indiana State Police.

He landed in a middle lane, and an Iowa man driving a 2014 Kenworth semi and box trailer was unable to avoid hitting the Gary man, police said. The box trailer was loaded with 43,000 pounds of recreational vehicle parts.

The Gary man was pronounced dead at the scene by Lake County coroners investigators, police said.

The situation backed up traffic in both directions of Interstate 80/94 for several hours and also caused heavy traffic on Ridge Road.

The expressway remained congested as of 12:40 p.m., and police recommended drivers seek alternate routes.
EAST CHICAGO  The vibrant colors, festive music and rich culture of the Mexican community were on full display Sunday afternoon as Union Benefica Mexicana hosted the 62nd installment of the citys annual Mexican Independence Day parade.

The celebration included a festival scheduled to begin after the parade at Jeorse Beach at which well-known Mexican accordionist and vocalist Ramon Ayala was the featured entertainer.

The festivities were held in advance of Sept. 16, which holds significance due to the start of a Mexican revolution against Spanish rule that began on that date in 1810.

Margaret Gomez is president of the Union Benefica Mexicano, an organization that provides cultural, educational and recreational programs for the Mexican community in Northwest Indiana.

She said the annual parade is a celebration of Mexican history.

Thats something thats been embedded in us since we were children, to be proud of who we are and our heritage, Gomez said.

She said there has been a lot of talk in the news about immigration matters regarding the Mexican population in the U.S., but that Sunday was a day to focus on positives.

And the positive thing here about our independence is if you look at the children, how proud they are dancing, showing off their culture, instilling the knowledge that they need to know about who their ancestors were, where they came from and theyre very proud of who they are, Gomez said.

Aracely Lohmoeller waited near Washington Park on Parrish Avenue for the parade to pass by after its start at Block Stadium.

The East Chicago resident has attended the parade since she was a child and looked forward to the music and dance groups of girls dressed in traditional Mexican costumes.

Every year we come here I see friends that moved away from East Chicago years ago, but theyre still here at this parade, Lohmoeller said.

Her two young children were dressed in traditional Mexican clothing.

For the Mexican culture in particular, our heritage is such a big part of our lives from kids all the way up, Lohmoeller said.

Jaime Tirado, of Hammond, attended the parade with his three younger brothers and held a large Mexican flag at the corner of Parrish Avenue and Columbus Drive.

He said they enjoy the music and the many horses in the parade.

I like that its very diverse, Tirado, 19, said. Theres more than just us Mexicans that come and watch the parade because theres others that come and enjoy, as well.

Rick and Delia Vargas grew up in the Indiana Harbor section of East Chicago but now live in Hobart.

They come back for the parade each year and on Sunday stood on Main Street near a vendor selling Mexican corn on the cob, or elotes.

Rick Vargas said he thought this years parade held special meaning because of the immigration issue.

We all came as immigrants from all nationalities and today being September 11th, we all should be together, he said.

Mayor Anthony Copeland was among a number of politicians or others seeking elected office who marched in the parade.

He said it is the citys largest and longest-running parade.

You couldnt have picked a better day to have it, Copeland said. It just brings thousands and thousands of people into our city annually.
HOBART  City officials have concerns about the lack of progress being made at the Cressmoor Trailer Park, but a representative for the facility said it will take time to complete improvements there.

The status of the park on West 37th Avenue was discussed during a recent Board of Public Works and Safety meeting.

Mayor Brian Snedecor said he visited the site prior to the meeting and was surprised by the condition of some of the units that have been brought in to the park.

When I went through there (Wednesday), I was sick to my stomach, Snedecor said.

He said there are construction trailers parked at the site, and half of a modular facility intended for a new office is collapsed.

The construction trailers will be rehabbed to convert them into dwellings, said Dan Sawochka, of Northern Indiana Regional Development LLC, the owner of the park.

I assure you they wont look like (construction trailers) when were done, he said.

Sawochka said half of the modular unit for the office was damaged while it was being delivered to the site. He said he likely will remove the entire unit and dispose of it. It could take about 30 days to do that.

The recent concerns come after the city earlier this year removed about 20 vacant mobile homes from the park because the units were creating public safety and health risks.

Efforts to remove the mobile homes began prior to Northern Indiana Regional Development acquiring the park.

Snedecor said the city has taken aggressive action to clean the site and the new ownership has made enhancements there. He said he doesnt want the facility to return to the prior condition.

Ive got to be honest with you, I feel like were regressing here, Snedecor said.

City Attorney Anthony DeBonis said enhancing the mobile home park requires coordination of multiple Hobart departments and Sawochkas cooperation.

Sawochka said he is attempting to do everything right and he isnt hiding anything from the city.

He said Northern Indiana Regional Development has been in control of Cressmoor for about five months. He believes there has been much progress to address the appearance of the site. With more time, additional improvements will be made there, Sawochka said.

Snedecor said he doesnt agree with the direction thats being taken at the site.

I wish you the best, but I can assure you the city will stay on top of this, he said.
A special rapporteur of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Sunday recommended that Oxy Reckitt Benckiser apologize to and compensate victims of germicide poisoning in Korea.

The special rapporteur said the company should "ensure that all victims receive a sincere apology," calling for more efforts to compensate victims who have not been identified yet.

Some 200 people died and many more suffered lung damage caused by Oxy humidifier disinfectants.

The rapporteur also recommended that a permanent memorial be set up at a location of significance. The rapporteur posted his recommendation on the OHCHR's website.

Baskut Tuncak, the special rapporteur, stressed the need to "share mistakes made and lessons learned with the global community so that other governments and businesses may avoid similar mistakes."

Tuncak visited Korea in October last year, and inspected damage from humidifier disinfectants and the Korean government's response and legal process.

Oxy did not begin drawing up compensation plans for the 2011 germicide scandal until this May. Only after prosecutors began an investigation and a nationwide boycott was launched did it announce a compensation program offering up to W350 million to the victims and issues an apology (US$1=W1,102).

Even then it offered compensation only to seriously affected victims and blamed the Korean subsidiary, which at the time of the scandal was not yet owned by Reckitt Benckiser, implying that the ensuing cover-up had nothing to do with its head office in the U.K.

Thirteen of 28 witnesses from Oxy called to testify at a public hearing at the National Assembly last month never showed up.

Ata Safdar, Oxy Korea's president, denied any connection between the incident and head office, saying the decision to use the toxic substances was made before Reckitt Benckiser bought Oxy.


At about 2:15 p.m. the plane landed in a field in the area of 145th Avenue east of State Line Road. One person was in the plane and there were no injuries. Police said the aircraft was being flown out of Griffith-Merrillville Airport and airport personnel responded to assist with FAA personnel en route to the scene.
VALPARAISO  The South Shore Leadership Center on Monday announced it has partnered with Purdue University Northwest and named Harry J. Vande Velde III its president and CEO.

The center had been seeking for the past year to affiliate with a local university to build on its Leadership Northwest Indiana program for current and emerging leaders and its South Shore Leadership Youth for Community Engagement program for young leaders, according to a news release.

The partnership will allow the center to evolve into a regional leadership resource center, said Leigh Morris, the centers interim president and CEO. The two organizations will work to provide leadership development programs for the private and public sectors and nonprofit organizations.

Whatever the needs may be in terms of leadership development ... were going to be trying to fullfill those needs, Morris said.

The affiliation between the center and the university will be effective Oct. 1.

Though the center will relocate into university-hosted facilities, it will remain an independent nonprofit organization that supports and augments the universitys research and economic development efforts.

PNW Chancellor Thomas Keon said in the release that the affiliation means the university and center will work together to provide leadership development programming intended to enhance the economic, social and cultural well-being of residents in the seven counties that make up Northwest Indiana.

This partnership is a strong fit because South Shore Leadership Centers reach across the Northwest Indiana region closely matches the greatest area of impact of Purdue Northwest, Keon said. Furthermore, PNW has a significant number of faculty members at our two campuses, located in Westville and Hammond, who have extensive expertise in numerous areas of leadership, making this relationship not only geographically but intellectually gratifying.

Morris took the helm of the leadership center in late 2015, after founder Keith Kirkpatrick stepped down. Vande Velde, a former president of the Legacy Foundation and Andrean High School, will become the South Shore Leadership Centers president and CEO effective Thursday.

Morris said Vande Veldes past experience with nonprofit and education organizations is a good combination for his new role.

Vande Velde, a graduate of the Leadership Northwest Indiana program and former member of the centers board, will be responsible for planning the centers continued transformation, the news release said.
EAST CHICAGO  Dialogue continues over the the possible opening of a homeless shelter for men at 611 W. Chicago Ave.

The City Council's Environmental Public Health Committee met last week to address the topic, as it previously did at an Aug. 30 meeting.

"Based on our last meeting, we had some feedback that many members of the business community were not all informed," said Council President Myrna Maldonado, D-1st.

She said last week's meeting was to allow business owners to hear and discuss Marcus Martin's plans for the property in a commercial district and would require a special use permit to operate as a shelter.

The property would be owned by the East Chicago Housing Authority and Martin would manage the shelter through Grace Beyond Borders, a nonprofit organization.

Only about a dozen audience members attended the meeting, and just two business owners spoke.

Both expressed concern that having a shelter in the commercial district could intensify panhandling they said is already a problem.

Cathy Serrano works at the Indiana Restaurant on Indianapolis Boulevard and said customers are scared away by people standing outside begging.

"I feel sorry for the homeless people," Serrano said. "Get 'em a place, just in the business district is the worst thing."

Martin said he has done outreach on the streets of East Chicago since 2013 and that, based on his observations, 90 percent of the panhandlers in the city are not homeless.

Councilman Lenny Franciski, D-2nd, said the council is working on having signs placed in the city that would say no panhandling allowed.

Tony Askounis, owner of the Indiana Restaurant, said he would like to see those signs go up before the shelter opens.

East Chicago resident Rudy Velasco asked if the area where the shelter would operate has been tested because it is next to the site of a former cleaners.

He is concerned the area might be contaminated by toxic chemicals from the closed business.

Marino Solorio, the city's planning and economic development director, said the area will be tested.

Solorio said opening the shelter in the commercial district will allow closer proximity to jobs and transportation.

Martin said homelessness is a problem in the city and that his organization has worked with 71 homeless people in East Chicago since the start of this year.

"There must be a place for people to go and be able to get on their feet without worrying about where their next meal is gonna be and most of all not worrying about where they're going to sleep at night," Martin said.

He spoke of a homeless person who was recently assaulted as he slept in a city bus shelter and explained that what would open at the proposed location would more accurately be described as a transition facility rather than a homeless shelter.

"When you come there, you're going to be assessed and evaluated and given the opportunity to be in a program to help you move out of your situation," Martin said.

The matter of the required special use permit to open the shelter did not appear on an agenda posted for the next City Council meeting tonight.

Maldonado said she was not sure if she would add the item to the agenda but said she is aware the petition for the permit will be considered approved unless the City Council denies it within 90 days from the date the Board of Zoning Appeals gave its recommendation for approval, which was Aug. 11.

That approval was given with certain conditions, such as that security cameras must be installed.
LOWELL  The Tri-Creek School Corp. board has taken another step toward a districtwide solar project aimed at dramatically reducing energy costs.

The board recently contracted with Telamon Corp., of Carmel, Indiana, for project management and architectural services on the project.

Bruce Breeden, Telamons vice president of energy solutions, requested a meeting with his companys engineers for this week to break ground on the project by mid-March.

Telamon will work with Skillman Corp., currently overseeing other capital projects within the school system.

For several months, the board has been learning about its options for solar energy from Kevin Moore, president of Midwest Wind & Solar, Griffith.

Superintendent Debra Howe has said the ultimate goal is to get off the grid.

Tri-Creek realized success with its pilot solar panel array at Lowell Middle School, which provided a hands-on outdoor classroom experience during installation as well as an alternative energy source to reduce costs.

A second project there added solar panels to power the adjacent transportation center. The board plans to install such arrays at other schools.

At the same time, the project is planned as a new revenue source to cover operating expenses for the district.

As presented by Chris Yurke, president of Superior Renewable Solutions, his company would finance Tri-Creeks project through an energy service agreement with the district and use the federal IRS tax credits not available to school systems.

The agreement would put $500,000 into operating revenues annually and give ownership of the arrays to SRS.

Tri-Creek could buy out of the deal after seven years.

That means the solar project financing would put money where Tri-Creek needs it most  the fund which pays salaries, energy costs and insurance. The project payments would come from other funds which cannot be used to pay day-to-day operating costs.

On another topic, the board heard from frustrated teachers at Lake Prairie Elementary School where they suggested another teacher is needed to reduce class size

It was noted that, this year, there are large class sizes at the third-grade level in all three elementary schools.

The cost to hire three teachers is a quarter of a million dollars, Howe said. She said it would be problematic to hire a teacher at one school and not address the needs of the others.

A frustrated parent talked about her student not being adequately challenged in a high ability classroom due to large class size. Howe said the topic will be put on the discussion agenda when teachers and the administration meet.
On a day when the two major-party presidential candidates agreed to effectively pause their campaigns, Hillary Clinton nonetheless became a major focus of attention after she appeared to faint at the September 11th commemoration ceremony. Now, her doctor says she is battling pneumonia and is on antibiotics. Time Warner Cable News' Bobby Cuza filed the following report.

Hillary Clinton emerged from daughter Chelseas apartment telling onlookers she felt great, but offering little more information.

Reporters: "What happened? Give us a statement."

Clinton: "Its a beautiful day in New York."

A beautiful day in New York, but one that seemed to get to Clinton Sunday morning.

She arrived at the World Trade Center site to attend the annual September 11th commemoration, and spent time chatting with other dignitaries and paying her respects.

However, after about an hour and a half, she left apparently not feeling well. In a video captured by an attendee, her knees appear to buckle as two members of her detail help her off the curb and into a waiting van.

In a statement, a Clinton spokesman said, During the ceremony, she felt overheated so departed to go to her daughter's apartment, and is feeling much better.

During the ceremony, Clinton  flanked by New York Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand  stood in close proximity, but apparently had no direct interaction with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who stood alongside advisors Rudy Giuliani and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

Asked later about the incident, Trump had no comment. Yet he and his supporters have made Clintons health an ongoing issue, pointing to a 2012 fainting episode and discovery of a blood clot in her head. Clintons doctor last year essentially gave her a clean bill of health, stating she is in excellent physical condition.

Clinton has shot back at the conspiracy theories. His latest paranoid fever dream is about my health, she said. "And all I can say is, Donald, dream on."

Her campaign did not say whether she required medical attention or offer any other details of Sundays episode, undoubtedly fueling further speculation.
Muslims in the city are joining more than a billion Muslims around the world in celebrating one of Islam's most important days of the year. Mayor Bill de Blasio dropped in on one prayer service, to deliver a message of tolerance on the holiday.

A solemn moment of prayer on one of Islam's holiest days, Eid Al-Adha, which is known as the festival of sacrifice.

"You sacrifice for humanity," said President of the Jamaica Muslim Center Khwaja Mizan Hassan. "You sacrifice for each other. That's what it really means."

Thousands came to pray at the football field at the Jamaica Educational Campus, to mark the first day of Eid Al-Adha. The Muslim holiday is based on the story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son. It's a day of prayer and festive gatherings with family and friends.

"We are peaceful here," said Samuel Barobhuiya. "We enjoy being with everyone and having fun."

And he was able to enjoy the day without worrying about missing classes, city public schools were closed in observance of the holiday, something that the Mayor instituted last year.

"We get to hang out with family, eat a lot of food," said Rakim Mahbub. "You should join us it would be fun."

"This is something that all the children relish to have a holiday, an official holiday," said Sayed Muzaffer, Vice Chairman of the Jamaica Muslim Center. "And that's a great thing our Mayor did for our community."

The Mayor stopped by along with other elected officials  the holiday comes at a tense time for Muslims here  after the murder of the leader of the head of a Queens mosque and his associate last month. Authorities have not yet publicly identified a possible motive for the attack.

"Our job all of us, is to help each other to understand the many faiths and cultures that make up this extraordinary city this beacon to the world," Mayor de Blasio said.

Another part of the holiday is the actual sacrifice of an animal  some Muslims go to local slaughterhouses where a goat or sheep is sacrificed, the meat given to the poor, family and friends.
Jury selection begins later this morning in the retrial of Pedro Hernandez in the murder of Etan Patz in 1979. The first trial a year and a half ago ended with a hung jury. NY1's Michael Herzenberg filed the following report.

Jury selection may take nearly a month. First, as many as 400 prospective jurors will be screened to make sure their schedules allow for this three to four month long trial. Then those that pass that part will fill out a 26 page questionnaire that asks things like have you seen, heard or read anything about the widely publicized case and does it affect your ability to be fair and impartial?

Jurors will watch Pedro Hernandez confess four times to strangling Etan Patz in 1979, and dumping him in a nearby alley in SoHo.

Some jurors from the first trial vow to attend this one.

Eleven jurors voted to convict Hernandez of kidnapping and murder. The holdout questioned Hernandez's mental health and wondered if cops violated the defendant's rights.

The NYPD arrested Hernandez in 2012 after Hernandez's brother-in-law turned him in.

At the trial, five witnesses said Hernandez had told them he killed someone..

Those confessions dated as far back as the early 1980's but they differed in some key points.

The defense said Hernandez believed he killed Etan, but that it was a hallucination.

The defense suggested the killer was Jose Ramos, who dated Etan's babysitter. Ramos is in now prison after molesting other children.

Etan's father Stan Patz had thought Ramos was the killer. But after watching every day of Hernandezs trial, he says he came to believe in his guilt so much, he and his wife had a judge throw out the wrongful death civil judgment they won against Ramos years ago.

Etan's disappearance shocked the city, scared parents across America into being more protective of their kids, and led to improvements in police procedures.

He was walking two blocks to his SoHo bus stop alone for the first time when he vanished.

Police combed the neighborhood for clues. There's even video of the lead detective going into the local bodega talking with Hernandez's brother in-law behind the counter.

Hernandez was 18, worked as a clerk there and said he lured the boy to the basement with the promise of a soda.

The prosecution this time may try to emphasize how Hernandez's hallucinations were a product of guilt and drug use.

The judge ruled Friday that Ramos can testify if he wants. In previous proceedings he's invoked his fifth amendment right not to incriminate himself.
FORT PIERCE, Fla.  The Florida mosque attended by the Pulse Nightclub shooter caught fire Sunday night, and it's being investigated as a possible arson. caught fire overnight, and it's being investigated as a possible arson.

The St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office says surveillance video shows someone approaching the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce moments before a flash was seen and the fire started.

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Someone called 911 just after midnight, this morning, to say the mosque was on fire.

Multiple agencies, including the State Fire Marshal's Office, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI, are investigating.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement that a man in a truck had stopped outside the mosque earlier that day and made slurs, including, "you Muslims need to get back to your country."

Late shooter Omar Mateen's father is among the roughly 100 members that attend the mosque.
VATICAN CITY  Pope Francis had encouraged bishops from more than 120 countries to speak freely when they gathered at the Vatican nearly three weeks ago for a broad discussion of family matters to guide the worlds 1.2 billion Roman Catholics. And speak freely, they have.

The result has been the most momentous, and contentious, meeting of bishops in the 50 years since the Second Vatican Council, which brought the church into the modern era. The meeting has exposed deep fault lines between traditionalists focused on shoring up doctrine, and those who want the church to be more open to Catholics who are divorced, gay, single parents or cohabiting.

As the bishops face a deadline Saturday to present their report to the pope, it is increasingly clear that Francis is struggling to build consensus for his vision of a more inclusive and decentralized church. The question is whether the pope, who has won the hearts of those in the pews, can persuade the bishops to help create a church that fully welcomes people with the kinds of family situations it now condemns.

This is a pivotal moment of this pontificate, said Roberto Rusconi, who teaches the history of Christianity at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, a state school. Pope Francis is sounding out the worlds bishops to better understand whether they are going to follow his line or not.
Samsung on Saturday urged consumers around the world to stop using their Galaxy Note 7 smartphones immediately and exchange them as soon as possible.

The move is expected to deal a severe blow to the brand, but Samsung felt compelled to make the plea as more of the phones caught fire during recharging. Samsung has already announced a global recall over defective batteries.

Earlier last week the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission also urged consumers to turn off their Galaxy Note 7. And the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration warned airline passengers not to turn on or charge their Note 7s in flight and not to put the smartphone in their luggage.

When the company decided to push ahead with the recall, analysts and market watchers did not anticipate the controversy to drag on much longer, and shares even rallied on the day despite the huge cost of the recall.
Reflecting on the last few months of her career, Rhiannon Giddens said recently, Its been a rather roller-coastery kind of year. And she can reasonably make this claim: This musician, vocalist and co-founder of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, the Grammy Award-winning string band, has experienced peaks like being cast in the new season of the TV drama Nashville, and lows, like seeing her much anticipated Broadway debut unravel before it could happen.

And now, another peak: Ms. Giddens is the winner of the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass. The $50,000 award is presented annually by a board that includes Mr. Martin as well as other banjo stars like Bela Fleck, Tony Trischka, Pete Wernick and J. D. Crowe. The boards official announcement of Ms. Giddenss honor is expected to be made on Monday.

While she will accept your congratulations, she said, in a recent phone interview: I dont want it to bring attention to me  I want it to bring attention to my banjo. I exist to tell the story of that thing.

Since she graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Ms. Giddens, 39, a North Carolina native, has been a present-day devotee of old-time music, an American genre that dates to the 19th century and is distinct from bluegrass. (To her, old-time music is dance music, and bluegrass is performance music, Ms. Giddens said.)
THE SECRET AGENT on Acorn TV. Toby Jones stars in this three-night BBC adaptation of the Joseph Conrad novel about Verloc, a sex-shop owner in 1886 London who spies for Russia, which has grown furious with Englands indifference to the anarchy running amok in Europe. So hes given an assignment: blow up the Greenwich Observatory and make it look like a terrorist attack  or have his identity outed. Ian Hart plays the professor who will supply the explosives, Stephen Graham is the chief inspector of Scotland Yard and Vicky McClure is Verlocs wife, who is livid when she discovers the truth.

THE BUREAU on iTunes. An undercover agent (Mathieu Kassovitz of Amelie and Munich fame) for the French intelligence service returns home to Paris after a six-year mission in Damascus, where he struggles to relinquish his alias  and a forbidden affair with a married Syrian woman. Eric Rochants spy thriller, at once cerebral and gadget-filled, had access to the D.G.S.E., Frances equivalent of the C.I.A.

LONDON SPY on Amazon and iTunes. A chance meeting between Alex, a reclusive investment banker, and Danny, a clubgoing warehouse worker, seems to portend happiness. Then Alex meets a suspicious demise, and his true identity as an MI6 code genius is revealed  prompting Danny to pursue the truth behind his lovers death. Ben Whishaw and Edward Holcroft pair off in this five-part thriller, which stars Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling, Clarke Peters and James Fox as well. Writing in The Times, Mike Hale called it a loopy mix of love story and conspiracy thriller with a profligate use of fine actors.
Eddie Antar, the Brooklyn-born man who created the chain of Crazy Eddie electronics stores only to watch it collapse when an underlying fraud was exposed, died on Saturday. He was 68.

His death was confirmed by the Bloomfield-Cooper Jewish Chapels in Ocean Township, N.J., which did not say where he died or give the cause.

Mr. Antar, who was born on Dec. 18, 1947, grew his business from a single Brooklyn store, founded in 1969, into the largest consumer electronics chain in the New York metropolitan area, fueled in large part by the spread of the VCR. At its peak, the chain had 43 stores, with locations as far north as Boston and as far south as Philadelphia.

As it expanded, Crazy Eddie also became famous for a memorable series of commercials starring an exuberant, fast-talking man many falsely believed to be Mr. Antar himself.
Those trends test cultural notions of family that go back hundreds of years. While arranged marriages have largely faded in China, parents remain deeply involved in the nuptials of their offspring, chasing down leads on potential suitors and hounding their children during holiday visits about marriage plans.

Ms. Liu, Ms. Songs mother, agrees that her daughter should wait for the right match, but she still hopes that she finds someone. I want her to have a happy life, Ms. Liu said, and I think its more secure to have a family.

On the economic front, the impact could be double-edged. Single people generally buy fewer houses, have fewer children and buy fewer toys and gadgets than married couples. That could complicate Chinas efforts to turn its traditionally tightfisted population into American-style spenders, to offset its economys dependence on exports and big-ticket government projects.

It could also lead Chinese consumers to put more money away in the bank or under mattresses. Families of prospective grooms in China often save money for years to buy a home for a couple before they marry to give them financial stability. Families save more, to buy bigger homes, if brides are hard to find, said Mr. Zhang, the Peking University professor.

But Chinese consumers could simply spend money on something else  with single young people leading the pack. Some of the decline in marriage stems from the growth of a group of young, educated urban women who no longer need to wed to achieve financial security.
Updated, 11:17 a.m.

Good morning on this flawless Monday.

When it comes to the looming state and local elections, the primaries could be the biggest battles.

At least in some districts, winning the nomination more or less clears a candidates path to victory, according to Sarah Rosier of Ballotpedia, an online encyclopedia of United States politics and elections.

Thats useful to know, as primaries for New Yorks state and local elections are to be held on Tuesday.

The primary is often a lot more of a race than the general election is in certain districts, Ms. Rosier said.
Lawmakers were not committed to a principled, constitutional system that distributed aid based on need and on sound educational practices, the judge said. He found that the recent budget crisis left rich schools robbing millions of dollars from poor schools and left open the possibility that at any time funds could be moved away from starving cities to rich suburbs for no good reason. The system, he said, can work only if the state uses an honest formula that delivers aid based on need.

After seeing the vast gulf between achievement levels and graduation rates in poor and wealthy communities, the judge chastised the state for standing on the sidelines, imposing token statewide standards that had no demonstrable, verifiable connection to student learning.

The state standards were so loose, he said, that students in struggling communities were left with meaningless diplomas. Touching on what will clearly be a sore point with unions, he noted that teachers who should be evaluated on how well they teach were instead being measured by useless evaluations and paid based on seniority and the number of degrees they held.

He criticized the special-education policy, saying it called for costly services but offered no system for judging whether they were successful and were delivered to the right students. The states failure to fulfill its constitutional duty to take responsibility for public education  and its insistence on delegating it to localities  had left rich districts to flourish and poor districts to flounder, he said.

The ruling requires that the state start to fix its broken system. It must follow a school funding formula based on school need and sound educational practices, develop standards that give children a chance at an effective education, and tie the terms of teacher employment to factors that are known to promote better education.
Lets get straight to it: Hillary Clintons comments Friday at a fund-raiser that half of Donald Trumps supporters could be put in a basket of deplorables wasnt a smart political play.

Candidates do themselves a tremendous disservice when they attack voters rather than campaigns. Whatever advantage is procured through the rallying of ones own base is outweighed by what will be read as divisiveness and disdain.

Here is Clintons full quote:

You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trumps supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic  you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people  now 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric. Now some of those folks  they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America.

Then, she continued: But the other basket  and I know this because I see friends from all over America here  I see friends from Florida and Georgia and South Carolina and Texas  as well as, you know, New York and California  but that other basket of people are people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and theyre just desperate for change. It doesnt really even matter where it comes from. They dont buy everything he says, but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. They wont wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroin, feel like theyre in a dead end. Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well.
HOUSTON  To those who concede that the Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump, is not entirely prepared for the presidency but argue that he would  of course!  surround himself with admirable advisers, I have one name for you: Sid Miller.

A few weeks ago, Mr. Trump tapped him to be an agricultural adviser to his campaign. Mr. Miller is in good company, with the likes of Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas, former Gov. Rick Perry of Texas  soon to be a Dancing With the Stars two-stepper  and Texas official cowboy poet, Red Steagall.

If you live outside Texas, you are probably unfamiliar with Mr. Miller, who is the states agriculture commissioner. Within Texas, he is recognizable as one of those folks who keeps our infamous stereotype alive, against the best efforts of new Texas ambassadors like Beyonce and those wonky, presentable Castro twins, Julian and Joaquin.

Mr. Miller, at 61, is weathered, blue-eyed and beefy, a classic backslapping good ole West Texas boy. He favors a wide-brimmed, white-as-snow cowboy hat and pointed boots. A former Baptist, he is today an elder in the Cowboy Church of Erath County. The United States Calf Roping Association named him a world champion in 2004. You get the idea.
Political scientists teach their students that to win elections, the parties in a competitive two-party system must take policy positions that appeal to centrist swing voters. If voters choose the candidate closest to them ideologically, moderates will hold the crucial balance of power necessary to win a majority.

But contemporary American political parties seem not to have gotten the message. On major issues, their positions routinely diverge from the center of public opinion, with Democrats well to the left (for example, see Hillary Clinton on abortion, affirmative action and government spending) and Republicans well to the right (for example, see Donald J. Trump on immigration, foreign policy and tax cuts for the wealthy).

Many analysts argue that candidates  usually meaning their political opponents  take extreme positions because they must cater to the views of the core partisans who provide them with primary votes, enthusiasm and money. Modern Republican politicians cant be serious, liberals like Paul Krugman say, because the partys base demands extremist positions. Conservatives like Jason Greenblatt claim that Democratic candidates compete to see who can genuflect lower before the radical, anti-capitalist, anti-Israel fringe of the Democratic Party.

Yet the striking fact is that presidential candidates are frequently even more extreme than their own partys core supporters, who have also become more extreme in recent decades.
To the Editor:

Re Retire to Manhattan, Live Long, by Willard Spiegelman (Sunday Review, Sept. 4): My wife and I retired and moved from the Washington, D.C., suburbs to Manhattan nine years ago. Our friends were bewildered or envious. The reasons for a retirement life in Manhattan outlined by Mr. Spiegelman made our decision so compelling.

As a docent for the Municipal Art Society, I often quote E. B. Whites description of the three types of New Yorkers (natives, commuters and immigrants) and consider Manhattan my city of final destination, in Whites words. And as he aptly observed, No matter where you sit in New York you feel the vibrations of great times and tall deeds. Its still true today.

Like Mr. Spiegelman, I shop at the Fairway Market at Broadway and 74th Street. About five years ago, I entered the store when the crowds were more frenetic than usual. Long lines of shoppers were unevenly distributed among the narrow checkout lines.

From out of nowhere, former Mayor Ed Koch appeared and took charge. He began ordering people into different lines to even out the flow. He was so authoritative that no one challenged his orders. Then a shopper barked, What are you doing here on the Upper West Side? Mr. Koch, a Greenwich Village resident, replied, I like the prices.
Trade between North Korea and China has increased since UN Security Council sanctions against the North came into effect in March, Japanese media reported Sunday.

Long lines of trucks waited at the border in Hunchun, Jilin Province to pass through customs on Saturday, the day after the North's latest nuclear test, according to the Asahi Shimbun.

In Tumen in the same province, over 3,000 North Korean workers went to work as usual. One of them told the paper she was happy about the nuclear test because cash-strapped Pyongyang needs to keep sending workers to overseas to earn more hard currency.

China did impose some sanctions in March, banning blacklisted ships from its ports and thoroughly searching trucks arriving from the North. But as time went by things returned to normal.
Calvin was the most influential religious reformer of the 16th century. His theological imagination and organizational genius prepared the way for almost all forms of American Protestantism, from the Presbyterians to the Methodists to the Baptists. He was also a severe and uncompromising thinker. The Ayatollah of Geneva, some have called him.

Late in the third book of his 1559 Institutes of the Christian Religion  when he seeks to describe the utter power of God over man, and our utter dependence on Him  is usually where my students revolt. These young people come from all walks of life. They are atheists, agnostics, Christians, Jews, Muslims and more besides. They are the face of California diversity, young people with wildly different social, religious, ethnic and racial experiences.

Diverse as they may be, their reaction is the same when they read a sentence like this: Some are born destined for certain death from the womb, who glorify Gods name by their own destruction. This is the heart of Calvins teaching of predestination, his insistence that God determined each human destiny before the creation of the world. The elect are bound for heaven, the reprobate to hell, and there is absolutely nothing to be done about it, ever. Jacob is chosen and distinguished from the rejected Esau, by Gods predestination, while not differing from him in merits, is how Calvin put it. Your merits, your good will, your moral action: None of these make a difference. The chosen Jacob is no better than the rejected Esau. The damned glorify Gods name. And God is pleased by the whole business.

The classroom erupts in protest. Nothing has prepared my students for an idea like this. Secular students object: How can so much arrogant misanthropy pass itself off as piety? Non-Christian students are agitated, too. What kind of God is this, they ask, that took pleasure in creating man so that he might be condemned to everlasting damnation? And the various types of Christian students are no less outraged. Follow me, Christ said, and doesnt that mean that we are asked to choose, that the choice between death and salvation is a free one? All different concerns, but the outcome is the same: rejection, usually disgust.

I ask the students to read on. After all, Calvin anticipated these objections, since they were raised in his day, too. He dedicated a whole chapter to dismissing the insolence of the human understanding when it hears these things. He knew that our first reactions would be anger and denial, that we would be baffled by predestination. So he demanded that his readers, then and now, think alongside him. His argument goes like this: If God alone created all things, doesnt that mean that he did so freely? If he is free in his choices, how can it be otherwise than that God himself determines our fates, right to the edges of hell? Once you grant the first premise  that there is no God besides God and that he made the universe  reason itself apparently requires we assent to this terrible thought.
First of all, lets get this straight: The Russian Federation of 2016 is not the Soviet Union of 1986. True, it covers most of the same territory and is run by some of the same thugs. But the Marxist ideology is gone, and so is the superpower status. Were talking about a more or less ordinary corrupt petrostate here, although admittedly a big one that happens to have nukes.

I mention all of this because Donald Trumps effusive praise for Vladimir Putin  which actually reflects a fairly common sentiment on the right  seems to have confused some people.

On one side, some express puzzlement over the spectacle of right-wingers  the kind of people who used to yell America, love it or leave it!  praising a Russian regime. On the other side, a few people on the left are anti-anti-Putinists, denouncing criticism of Mr. Trumps Putin-love as red-baiting. But todays Russia isnt Communist, or even leftist; its just an authoritarian state, with a cult of personality around its strongman, that showers benefits on an immensely wealthy oligarchy while brutally suppressing opposition and criticism.

And that, of course, is what many on the right admire.

Am I being unfair? Could praise for Russias de facto dictator reflect appreciation of his substantive achievements? Well, lets talk about what the Putin regime has, in fact, accomplished, starting with economics.
For a preview of how unions may change the graduate experience, consider New York University, whose graduate assistants in 2001 became the first at a private university to form a union and negotiate a contract. Before they started organizing, most of them had been receiving annual stipends of $10,000 and had to pay for their health insurance. Under the contract, which ran through 2005, minimum salaries rose by at least 38 percent, to $18,000 for a Ph.D. student in the 2004 academic year, and by 15 percent for graduate employees earning above the minimum.

N.Y.U. also agreed to pay the entire cost of graduate employees health care coverage. Other new benefits and protections included pay for pre-semester teaching-related duties, subsidies for child care, overtime pay that counted the hours spent grading papers, and grievance procedures to resolve claims of discrimination and harassment.

The effects were felt beyond New York University. Columbia, Yale and other private universities followed suit with raises and new benefits for their graduate assistants, though they generally maintained that they made the changes to remain competitive and not to stop union-organizing activity, which started spreading in the wake of the success at N.Y.U.

In 2004, however, this new era was cut short when the N.L.R.B., in a misguided decision, revoked the right of graduate assistants to bargain collectively. N.Y.U. refused to negotiate when the original contract expired in 2005, and over the next decade most of the improvements eroded.

Undeterred, graduate assistants continued to organize, usually through the United Automobile Workers, which had successfully organized graduate-assistant unions at many public universities. In another turn in the long path to unionization, N.Y.U. relented in late 2013 and became  for the second time  the only private university to negotiate a contract with graduate assistants. Under the new terms, which cover 1,200 employees from 2015 to 2020, Ph.D. teaching assistants generally receive annual compensation of $36,600, with guaranteed raises each year of about 2.4 percent. Medical and child care benefits have been expanded and grievance procedures reinstated.
For Crawford, the British designer whose gorgeous, subtle Sinnerlig collection came out in late 2015, it was how to preserve the rawness and tactility of natural materials, like cork and seagrass, when making mass-produced furniture. It was also designing for a home that has become more fluid. People work in the living room, eat in the bathroom (really), so Crawford created pieces with multiple uses, like a dining room table with a hidden sling where you can stash your work papers out of sight. The British designer Tom Dixon, whose Ikea collection launches next fall, sought to upend the staid conventions of upholstery by constructing a sofa with an aluminum frame (taken a bit from the car industry, Dixon told me) that can be customized with various modular parts, and thus formalizes the informal practice of hacking Ikea furniture. The Danish design company Hay, whose collection also debuts in 2017, is reimagining a series of new modern basics, Engman says  furniture, lighting, textiles and accessories in a subdued palette of gray, green and white, including a wooden table, bench seating and a tasteful woven update on the infamous blue and yellow Frakta bag. As a designer, it is compelling to have the opportunity to reach so many people, Ilse Crawford says. The whole design industry put together produces a fraction of what Ikea does. The collaboration enabled us to understand where we could push the boundaries, to see where improvements could be made within the production process to achieve a more human result.
At the fifth MAD Symposium  Denmarks annual culinary twist on the Butterfly Effect, where small acts lead to large outcomes  a young cook from India, Ashwami Manjrekar, landed a gig with Rosio Sanchez, the Mexican-American chef from Chicago who opened a now-famous taqueria in Torvehallerne. That two women from disparate cultures on opposite sides of the earth found common ground over tacos under a circus tent is just one example of how MAD Symposium is arguably the most impactful food movement around.

Founded by Noma restaurants chef/owner/visionary, Rene Redzepi, MAD (the Danish word for food) is a not-for-prot organization that aims to spread ideas, forge new relationships, discuss injustices and update  in real time  the global playbook for an ethical, sustainable food culture. This year, organizers pared the guest list from 1,500 applicants to a vital 350 catalysts from 43 countries who promised to engage, collaborate, expostulate, break bread  and break barriers.

From August 28-29, attendees were delivered by kanalrundfart (canal boat) to an undeveloped peninsula jutting between the Baltic Sea and Atlantic Ocean, to explore the MAD5 theme of Tomorrows Kitchen via two questions: What do we hope our kitchens will be like in the future? And what can we do today to make those dreams a reality? After hot debate, cold beer, laughs, tears and enough Norwegian mackerel to trigger a tent-wide omega-3 brain-boost, one truth emerged: The answer is not in the food, but in the people behind it. Barefoot in rolled-up pants, the DC-based chef/humanitarian Jose Andres, one of this years keynote speakers, paced over pine straw laid inside the not-for-profit organizations signature red circus tent  where he delivered a TED Talklike sermon imploring cooks, restaurateurs, suppliers, food writers and tastemakers to provide for others what you want for yourself. Heads nodded and fingers snapped in united affirmation.

With nearly 100 different sessions running throughout the symposium, countless secondary topics  from millennial chefs and microbial terroir to alpha females and food waste  spurred important sidebars. Yet, the two big issues on MAD5s main stage were unmistakable: the mental and physical health of industry insiders, and the importance of nurturing the food communitys next generation. If you want to go fast, go alone, Andres said. If you want to go far, go together.
Good morning.

Welcome to California Today, a morning update on the stories that matter to Californians (and anyone else interested in the state).

Tell us about the issues that matter to you  and what youd like to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com.

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As we take a closer look at the 17 voter initiatives on the ballot this November, one of the less prominent measures with a lot of money at stake is Proposition 51. Though it will likely get overshadowed by flashier topics like marijuana and the death penalty, a yes vote would allow the state to issue $9 billion in bonds for school construction projects.
Who better to handle the United States Navys new futuristic destroyer than a captain named James A. Kirk?

The countrys largest destroyer, the U.S.S. Zumwalt, deployed from its home at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Maine on Wednesday and set sail with the smallest crew in naval history since the 1930s.

While the 610-foot, 15,000-ton warship technologically resembles the Starship Enterprise from the television series Star Trek  with a captains bridge hemmed by 360 degrees of video monitors and automated weapons, fire and flood control systems  there is no relation.

Certainly, I have been ribbed every now and then with someone saying, Youre going where no man has gone before on this class of ship, Captain Kirk told The Associated Press.
WASHINGTON  When the United States became aware late last month of a video showing an American woman and a Canadian man pleading to be saved from their Taliban captors, the government did something it had not done well in the past.

Before the video became public, a new hostage team led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation quickly alerted the couples families to brace for the chilling footage.

The effort reflected a sweeping change in how the government handles hostages, a shift ordered last year by President Obama after hostages families complained of officials callousness and poor communication. The new hostage team faces no small task as Americans continue to move through the worlds many war zones.

Officials say that more than 70 hostages who are Americans or legal permanent residents of the United States have been freed since the revamped effort came together at the F.B.I. headquarters, but it is unclear whether there has been any change in the rate that captives have been rescued. Members of the F.B.I.-led team and their counterparts at the State Department are still trying to bring home more than a dozen people, officials said.
Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Clinton were once adversaries  Mrs. Obama took umbrage in private during the 2008 Democratic primary race at Mrs. Clintons criticisms of her husband  but their goals are now inextricably aligned.

Mrs. Obama is a very trusted voice who has not seemed to have an agenda, and someone whose husband ran against Hillary and is now a big believer in her, so those words coming from Michelle Obama are especially meaningful, said Jennifer Palmieri, the communications director for Mrs. Clintons campaign.

The first lady has also demonstrated a knack for using pop culture and social media to appeal to the core coalition that propelled her husband to the White House  young voters, minorities and single women. Those elements will also be part of her push for Mrs. Clinton, aides said, though they declined to detail her itinerary because it is still developing.

Shes able to speak in an honest and relatable way that the American people can connect with, said Jennifer Psaki, Mr. Obamas communications director and a strategist on his presidential campaigns.

That is the part of her job that Mrs. Obama has always said she relishes the most. Unlike Mrs. Clinton, a politics junkie and policy wonk who as first lady wanted an office in the West Wing and led Bill Clintons health care task force, Mrs. Obama has avoided hard-edged debates. She has instead prioritized more universally popular causes such as her Lets Move campaign for healthy eating and exercise, the Joining Forces initiative to support veterans and their families, and her Let Girls Learn effort to expand educational opportunity for women and girls.

When Barack was talking about running, I was like, Are you crazy?  I mean, would you just, like chill out and do something else with your life, Mrs. Obama told Oprah Winfrey in June during an appearance in Washington. During their discussion, the first lady said she had determined early on to "protect my time jealously, and was looking forward to the day when she could finally leave her home without consulting the Secret Service.
North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test on Friday in spite of intensifying international sanctions and just eight months after the last one. The blast is estimated at 12.2 kilotons of TNT, rivaling the intensity of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II. North Korean state media said the test aimed to "check the capacity of a new nuclear warhead," which may be bluster or may mean that the North really has made strides toward developing a nuclear warhead small enough to be mounted on a missile. State media boasted that the warhead was "standardized" enabling mass production.

If that is true, South Korea would have no way of dealing with an attack. Seoul has spent the last 20 years looking for ways to stop North Korea from developing nuclear weapons. The so-called Sunshine Policy of rapprochement merely helped the North accelerate its nuclear development thanks to oodles of free cash, but even tough international sanctions have not deterred it. President Park Geun-hye's attempts to pressuring North Korea by forging closer ties with China have also not worked out.

The South's own missile defense plans would be incapable of thwarting a North Korean attack since the North can now fire missiles from submarines and mobile launch vehicles hidden in caves, so a launch would be detected far too late. Preemptive strikes are impossible if the locations of the launchers are unknown and would be pointless with conventional weapons against a nuclear-armed enemy. Seoul must develop its missile defense system, but it lacks the technology, and even the U.S. cannot achieve a 100-percent success rate. Some are calling for South Korea to develop its own nuclear weapons, but the repercussions would make that a nightmare scenario.

If North Korea actually deploys nuclear missiles, it may find itself in one-on-one negotiations with the U.S., and the U.S. could even launch a strike against the North. Both scenarios would spell disaster for South Korea. But is Seoul doing everything it can? The government and the U.S. tell South Koreans to trust the U.S.-led nuclear umbrella. But in the event of a North Korean nuclear attack, the U.S. president and Senate would have to authorize military action, and amid increasing isolationist sentiment in the U.S. that might not be forthcoming.

A radical new approach is needed. North Korea may be succeeding in its nuclear efforts, but its internal affairs are a mess. If international sanctions cannot stop Kim Jong-un's nuclear ambitions, they can rattle the foundations of the regime. What is needed now is a concerted effort to topple Kim Jong-un by fomenting internal unrest in every way possible.
WASHINGTON  A contentious visa program that allows wealthy foreigners to obtain a green card by investing in economic development projects will expire at the end of this month unless Congress acts to extend it.

The program, called EB-5, allows foreign investors to gain a quicker path to citizenship by investing from $500,000 to more than $1 million to finance a business that eventually employs, directly or indirectly, at least 10 American workers in economically depressed areas.

Developers and supporters in Congress say the program, run by the Department of Homeland Security, has brought billions of dollars to areas that would otherwise not have access to capital.

But the program has been marred by fraud and used to build large projects in wealthier areas like Manhattan and the Las Vegas Strip instead of high-unemployment or rural areas. Federal investigators have also discovered that attempts to infiltrate the program were made by people with possible ties to Chinese and Iranian intelligence, and that international fugitives who laundered money in their home countries gained citizenship through the program.
ZAGREB, Croatia  The conservative Croatian Democratic Union won the most seats in parliamentary elections held in Croatia on Sunday, but the country looked set for long negotiations among potential coalition partners after voters once again declined to return a clear governing majority.

With all of the votes counted, the party, known as H.D.Z., had 61 seats, pushing the Social Democrats into second place with 54. But it was still short of a majority in the 151-seat Parliament, even with the support of the center-right Most party, or Bridge, whose 13 seats make it a likely kingmaker.

In a sign of voter disillusionment, turnout plunged, and Zivi Zid, or Human Shield, a populist left alliance, surged from one seat to eight by promising to be tough on banks and demanding the prosecution of unnamed corrupt officials.

The H.D.Z. seems best placed to form a government, but it could be difficult for any party to build a coalition with a clear mandate to carry out the painful public administration changes being urged on this country of 4.3 million.
BARCELONA, Spain  Hundreds of thousands of pro-independence Catalans took over downtown Barcelona and four other cities on Sunday to urge their politicians to push ahead with plans to break away from the rest of Spain.

For a fifth consecutive year, demonstrators used Catalonias national day to raise the secessionist pressure on politicians in Madrid. But unlike protests in previous years, the demonstration took place amid a serious political deadlock in Spain, which has been without an elected government since inconclusive elections last year. Another general election, the third in a year, is likely to be held in December.

Sundays protest in Barcelona was smaller than ones in the past, with a turnout of 540,000 people, according to the local police. In 2012, when the first such giant demonstration was held, 1.5 million people took part, according to police estimates.

But comparisons were difficult to draw, because the organizers decided this year to add demonstrations in four other cities in Catalonia, which is home to 7.5 million people, rather than have all the protesters converge on Barcelona.
BERLIN  Fighting erupted in Libyas oil crescent on Sunday when forces loyal to the dominant militia commander in eastern Libya attacked and seized as many as three major oil terminals, military and civilian officials said.

The sudden offensive from the commander, Gen. Khalifa Hifter, adds a new layer to Libyas multifaceted civil war, and presents a fresh challenge to the authority of the already weak unity government backed by the United Nations.

General Hifters forces attacked the oil ports of Ras Lanuf, Es Sider and Zueitina early Sunday, said Ahmed al-Mismari, a spokesman for General Hifters Libyan National Army. Since 2013, the ports have been held by a smaller militia known as the Petroleum Facilities Guard, led by Ibrahim Jathran.

In July, Mr. Jathran signed an agreement with the unity government to resume oil exports from Libya, ending a three-year-old embargo. But on Sunday, his soldiers had been expelled from Ras Lanuf and Es Sider, though there were reports of continuing fighting at Zueitina.
The actor and celebrity Alec Baldwin sued the art dealer Mary Boone in New York State Supreme Court on Monday, asserting in court papers that he had been defrauded in the purchase of a painting from Ms. Boone in 2010.

The suit asserts that Ms. Boone deceived him by promising a painting, Sea and Mirror, by the artist Ross Bleckner, that had been sold at Sothebys to a Los Angeles collector in 2007, but in fact supplied another similar Bleckner painting, also called Sea and Mirror.

The painting Ms. Boone delivered was not the authentic Sea and Mirror painting Mr. Baldwin had purchased and was not the painting Ms. Boone represented it was, the filing said.

Mr. Baldwins suit says that Ms. Boone fraudulently stamped the back of the painting she sold to Mr. Baldwin with the gallery inventory number of the other painting. In a statement Ted Poretz, a lawyer for Ms. Boone,
In a twist to a longstanding debate that for years has riveted a corner of the art world, one of the leading experts on Degas has decided that a long-disputed plaster of that artists Little Dancer, which shows the ballerina in a slightly different pose, is indeed an earlier model of his famous 1881 sculpture Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans.

Arthur Beale, the retired chairman of the department of conservation and collections management at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, says he now believes the controversial theory put forward by another art historian, Gregory Hedberg, that the plaster, only discovered in 2004, was created during Degass lifetime.

What makes Mr. Beales endorsement of Mr. Hedbergs theory so surprising is that Mr. Beale was once part of a group of other distinguished art historians, among them Gary Tinterow, now the director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, who have long argued against Mr. Hedbergs view of the plaster, which was found in a closet of a foundry, now defunct, outside Paris. Mr. Hedberg has asserted that it is the work of Degas, or of his studio, and was created before the artists death in 1917.

Choosing his words carefully, Mr. Tinterow said of the plaster in 2010, In my opinion, there is nothing that demonstrates that Degas had a set of plaster casts made of his sculptures during his lifetime. The Degas experts generally believe that the plaster is a copy  albeit one with many distinct differences in pose, posture and expression from the actual Little Dancer.
LONDON  Oliver Mears, the artistic director of Northern Ireland Opera, will take over as the head of opera at the Royal Opera House in March 2017, the London theater announced on Monday.

The decision to appoint Mr. Mears to succeed the Danish-born Kasper Holten came as a surprise, because Mr. Mears has little experience with the politics of big opera houses and has a relatively modest international profile.

Mr. Mears, 37, who has led Northern Ireland Opera since its founding in 2010, trained as a theater director before helping to found the London-based opera company Second Movement, which specializes in new works and site-specific productions.

He has directed a number of pieces for Northern Ireland Opera, including Tosca, Macbeth, and a take on Salome, set in the American South and described in The Guardian as making Belfast a place to be for cutting-edge music theater.
Shareholders seemed a bit more skeptical. After the deal closes, Potash shareholders will own 52 percent of the new company, while Agriums investors will own 48 percent. The stocks of both companies declined on Monday, with Agrium about 3 percent lower, and Potash slipping more than 1.5 percent. One possibility for the declines: The deal does not have a premium.

The combination would help Potash, which produces half the potash in North America, reduce its exposure to volatile prices for the potassium product. Agrium has a big presence among farm-retail chains, enabling it to produce more stable earnings than wholesale fertilizer, according to a Sept. 1 report by Fitch Ratings after word of preliminary talks between the two companies came out. A combination will improve market reach and allow the company to optimize its product margins, Monica Bonar, a senior director at Fitch, said in the report.

The deal follows others that involve the farming industry, including the pending merger between Dow Chemical and DuPont to create a company that would eventually break into three parts, one of which would focus on agricultural chemicals. In addition, China National Chemical Corporation, or ChemChina, has agreed to acquire seed and farm chemicals producer Syngenta. And the German industrial giant Bayer has been in back-and-forth negotiations with Monsanto, the American company known for its genetically modified crop seeds.

Some farm groups have raised concerns about the effect of a merger of Agrium and Potash on fertilizer prices. Yet there has been little public outcry since the two companies said on Aug. 30 that they were in talks.

I dont think the rank-and-file farmers are excited about the deal, said Wade Barnes, president and chief executive of Farmers Edge, an agriculture technology company. When two manufacturers come together, theres less optionality of who to buy from, so the price point will probably be higher for them.
Maurice R. Greenberg, the former chief executive of American International Group, goes to trial this week  a mere 11 years after charges were filed.

Mr. Greenberg, who is known as Hank, and A.I.G.s former chief financial officer, Howard I. Smith, are accused of:

 Engineering bogus reinsurance transactions to bolster reserves, and

 Orchestrating other transactions to allow the company to convert insurance losses into investment losses.

Its no accident that it has taken this long to go to trial.

The words give up dont exist in Hank Greenbergs vocabulary, notes Kenneth G. Langone, a Wall Street executive who helped found Home Depot.

And, as David Schiff, a former insurance analyst, observes, this is his legacy, his reputation.

Ireland Doesnt Want Apples Taxes. Or Does It?

The Irish government is appealing Europes ruling over Apples taxes. Thats not surprising: After all, it does not want to scare off other multinationals looking to invest.
E-Trade Financial, the online retail broker, has shuffled its top management and created a new role for a former executive who is returning to the firm and being tasked with bolstering growth in its main business.

The changes, announced on Monday morning, mean the departure of the companys chief executive, Paul T. Idzik, who had been in the post since January 2013.

Image Karl Roessner, who had been general counsel of E-Trade, will become chief executive. Credit... E-Trade

Karl A. Roessner, who had been general counsel, takes over the role of chief executive and will join E-Trades board. Rodger A. Lawson, who was chairman of the board, has been named executive chairman. And Michael Curcio, who was E-Trades president before leaving the company in 2013, is returning to take on the new role of chief brokerage officer. Mr. Curcio was most recently chief executive of Aperture New Holdings, the parent company of the derivatives trading platform OptionsHouse, which E-Trade acquired for $725 million in July.
The Philippine president says he wants all U.S. forces out of his country's south, where they have been advising local troops battling Muslim extremists.

Speaking before newly-appointed government officials Monday, Rodrigo Duterte blamed the U.S. for the restiveness of Muslim militants in the region, marking the first time he has publicly opposed the presence of American troops in the country.

Duterte did not set any deadline or say how the withdrawal would proceed, but said the Americans were high-value targets for the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf as counterinsurgency operations intensify.

"Those special forces, they have to go, they have to go... I do not want a rift with America, but they have to go...It will just get more tense. If they [Muslim militants] see Americans there, they will really kill them. They will try to get ransom, then kill them," he said.
LONDON  HSBC said on Monday that it was adding the former chief executive of the Singapore bank DBS to its board, while the vice chairman of its global banking and markets unit was leaving the company.

The bank, which is based in Britain but generates much of its earnings in Asia, said that Jackson Tai, the former vice chairman and chief executive of DBS, would join its board effective on Monday.

Mr. Tai, who is 66 and known as Jack, is a former JPMorgan Chase investment banker who served as chairman for the Asia-Pacific region before joining DBS.

It is rare to find the combination of hands-on banking expertise, top-level governance experience and the deep knowledge of Asia and China that Jack has accumulated throughout his career, Douglas Flint, the HSBC chairman, said in a news release.
It is a rare corporate love-in. The Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan and Agrium, a fertilizer company, have agreed to a merger of equals worth $36 billion in enterprise value. Mondays straightforward, no-premium deal is a contrast to other recent attempts at industry mash-ups, which gave off a whiff of exuberance before collapsing.

Potash shareholders will receive 52 percent of the shares in the combined company. Agrium investors will own the rest, reflecting the relative market capitalizations of the two companies before they confirmed deal talks last month. No cash will change hands. And leadership will be evenly split, with the Potash boss Jochen Tilk becoming executive chairman and Chuck Magro of Agrium chief executive. Both camps will also get equal board representation. It looks remarkably like a genuine merger of equals.

Past industry consolidation attempts have been more complex, less amenable, or both  from the mining company BHP Billitons abortive $39 billion hostile bid for Potash in 2010, to an abandoned tax inversion between CF Industries of the United States and OCI of the Netherlands this year. In the broader agricultural sector, the planned $130 billion merger of the chemical companies Dow and DuPont comes with an extra twist, a three-way breakup, while the American seed specialist Monsanto is demanding a big cash premium from German would-be acquirer Bayer.

A friendly, balanced merger of two domestic fertilizer companies looks prosaic by comparison. The partners expect to wring $500 million of costs annually within two years. That is worth $3.5 billion, or roughly 13 percent of their current combined market value, assuming the increased profit is taxed at 30 percent and capitalized on a multiple of 10. The all-share transaction means both sets of investors can achieve additional upside when the fertilizer market recovers from its slump.
The new fund, which has been in the works for about a year, is the latest entry into social impact investing. Most impact funds have been run by smaller investment firms, though last year Bain Capital announced that it had hired Deval Patrick, the former Massachusetts governor, to oversee what it called its Double Impact fund.

Overseeing the effort by TPG Growth is William E. McGlashan Jr., who in 2013 moved his family to India for a year to help oversee the firms investments in developing countries in the region. Among its more prominent investments is in Apollo Towers, which runs cellphone towers in Myanmar and which the firm has promoted as having helped spur mobile phone use in the country.

Investments by the Rise Fund will most likely look similar to the one in Apollo Towers, which has generated strong returns. TPG Growth expects returns from the new fund to produce, at minimum, market-rate returns.

A study published last year by Cambridge Associates and the Global Impact Investing Network found that on average, impact funds that had raised less than $100 million outperformed their nonimpact counterparts, though those that had raised over $100 million tended to lag in returns.

One major element of the Rise Fund is that it aspires to have rigorous metrics that quantify the social impact of its investments, the people with knowledge of the matter said. To that end, TPG Growth and Elevar plan to work with the Bridgespan Group, which has worked with the likes of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Omidyar Network, the philanthropic organization of Pierre Omidyar, the billionaire founder of eBay.
Saudi Aramco is in competition for the Lyondell refinery with Texas-based Valero, as well as two big Canadian companies, Suncor and Cenovus.

Energy experts who have been briefed on the negotiations say that Saudi Aramco is a leading contender and that the price for the refinery could be as much as $1.5 billion.

The Lyondell plant has a capacity to refine nearly 270,000 barrels a day of crude, which could increase Saudi Aramcos capacity to refine its oil on the Gulf coast by about 50 percent. The refinery produces not only gasoline and other fuels, but also can also produce feedstocks for petrochemical production.

Imports of Saudi crude have been dropping in recent years, from 1.8 million barrels a day in 2003 to 1.1 million barrels a day this year, largely because of the shale drilling boom in Texas and North Dakota.

It looks like they are doubling down on their U.S. relationship, said David L. Goldwyn, who was the State Department coordinator for international energy affairs in the first Obama administration.

It makes economic sense, Mr. Goldwyn said, because they want to be a global petrochemical power. And it makes political sense because they see a long-term relationship with the U.S. as the kind of strategic assurance they will be seeking from the next administration.

The Saudi effort is part of an initiative to expand its refining empire as a way to protect its share of the global market.
They dont have badges or grand jury power, and yet corporate monitors are often entrusted to keep an eye on Wall Street.

At a time when federal authorities are focusing on white-collar crime, monitors have become a growing industry  and a proxy for the government  as they oversee compliance with settlement deals and review problematic practices. These arrangements, most recently in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureaus settlement with Wells Fargo, have produced a flood of business for corporate monitors at law firms and stand-alone consulting shops, which in turn have gone on something of a hiring spree for former government employees.

That spree will continue on Monday, when Guidepost Solutions, a well-known monitoring firm, is expected to announce that it hired Daniel M. Burstein, who until recently was a top official at the New York State Department of Financial Services. Mr. Burstein, who helped oversee several of the state agencys prominent enforcement actions against big banks and mortgage firms, will lead Guideposts financial institutions practice.
The National Book Foundation announced the Longlist for the 2016 National Book Award for Young Peoples Literature on Monday. The 10 nominated books represent a stylistic and thematically diverse range, with fiction, a graphic memoir and nonfiction that address subjects like domestic violence, sexual identity, race, social activism and how children cope during war. The remaining longlists, for the poetry, nonfiction and fiction categories, will be announced over the next three days. Finalists will be revealed on Oct. 13, and the winners will be announced at a gala in New York City on Nov. 16.

Here are the nominees:

Kwame Alexanders Booked (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), a coming-of-age novel in verse about a 12-year-old African-American boy named Nick who is dealing with a bully and problems at home.

Kate DiCamillos novel Raymie Nightingale (Candlewick Press), about a girl named Raymie who hopes to win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition.

John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powells (Artist) March: Book Three (Top Shelf), the final volume in a graphic-memoir trilogy about the Civil Rights movement.
Sunday morning, officially the fourth day of New York Fashion Week and one scheduled with back-to-back shows from some of the best-known designers, started on a somber note. It was Sept. 11.

At the Victoria Beckham show  held downtown not far from where many, including two presidential candidates, were gathering at National September 11 Memorial & Museum  attendees observed the two moments of silence before the first model walked the runway.

It was part of a formal recognition of how, every year, Sept. 11 falls somewhere on the New York Fashion Week calendar and how, for 15 years, designers and attendees have struggled with how to mark that day in an appropriate way.

This year, for the first time, the Council of Fashion Designers of America blocked off the 9 a.m. time slot on the Fashion Calendar  roughly the time the planes hit the Twin Towers  in acknowledgment, and donated $15,000 to the Sept. 11 museum.
If Hillary Clinton brushed aside medical advice to rest after getting a diagnosis of mild pneumonia, she was risking developing a more serious case, medical experts said Monday.

Pneumonia  which leads to infiltration of fluid into the lungs, leaving a patient short of breath and often feverish but still able to function  can become serious or even fatal if it is not properly treated, doctors said.

The illness can be caused by viruses, bacteria or, less often, fungi or damage from toxic fumes. Without extensive testing, which is not normally needed, it is impossible to know what caused Mrs. Clintons case.

Mrs. Clintons doctor released a statement saying that the illness was diagnosed on Friday morning and that she was advised to rest and modify her schedule. Her team has released very little information about her condition: exactly how it was diagnosed; what antibiotics she is taking; the results of any blood work, chest X-ray or other diagnostic tests that may have been performed; or whether she has any underlying condition that made her vulnerable to the illness. On Monday, a campaign spokesman said that more medical information would be released this week and that those records would show she had no other undisclosed condition.
By early this year, however, the Center for Medicare Advocacy was hearing from many sources that despite the settlement, providers and the contractors reviewing Medicare claims were still denying coverage when beneficiaries didnt demonstrate improvement.

Its like saying, Weve been holding you up, but now were going to let you fall, said an exasperated Dr. Michael Wasserman, a California geriatrician and board member of the American Geriatrics Societys Health in Aging Foundation. For a frail 95-year-old, not continuing therapy and letting her decline only leads to readmission to the hospital, readmission to skilled nursing.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services showed no inclination to take further steps, so the plaintiffs lawyers went back to court, seeking enforcement of the agreement. The federal judge in Vermont who oversees the settlement ruled in August that C.M.S. didnt have to further revise its manuals, but did have to mount a better educational campaign.

By early next month, it has to explain how it plans to do that. A C.M.S. spokeswoman said the agency had reviewed the courts order, but would make no other comment.

Of course, patients and families have the same right to appeal coverage denials that theyve always had. (A notice to this effect is buried somewhere in the paperwork they sign.) They also have the same odds of prevailing theyve always had: very low, said Judith Stein, the executive director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy.

Patients generally have 72 hours to appeal, a process that involves seeking a redetermination and then, if that fails, a reconsideration. If families go all the way to a hearing before an administrative law judge, Ms. Stein said, they have a good shot.

But most families dont persevere, in part because they cant afford to pay for care while the appeal proceeds. (If they do spend their own money, though, they can appeal for reimbursement.)
By contrast, the older pan-democratic parties have had little new to offer. The Democratic Partys political centerpiece in the recent election amounted to asking Beijing to reopen the door to electoral reform. The pan-democratic leaders, in sticking to what is widely viewed by the youth as a depleted strategy, have lost the trust and respect of younger people.

The separatists still face many challenges. Ideological fights within their camp have been bitter and divisive. And leaving aside the possibility of a military crackdown or severe retaliatory economic penalties against Hong Kong by Beijing, secession of the territory from the mainland would be impractical: China controls the bulk of the citys food, water and much of its energy supply. Meanwhile, much of the Hong Kong public is wary of the youthful radicalism.

Chinas leaders appear to think that taking a hard line against the separatist movement can contain it. A stern postelection statement from Beijing said the Hong Kong government should punish independence activists.

This strategy will backfire. It was the heavy-handed behavior of Leung Chun-ying, the pro-Beijing Hong Kong chief executive, that has fueled the separatist movements growth in the last two years. Mr. Leung singled out a separatist publication for public reprimand last year, angering Hong Kongers with what they saw as an implicit threat to free speech. He banned a student leader who supported independence from attending his universitys council meetings.

Direct interference from Beijing in local affairs has made matters worse. Last year, five workers at a Hong Kong publisher of provocative political books were kidnapped and brought to the mainland where they were detained.

It may be too late for China to convince the hard-core separatists to back down, but there are steps the leadership could take to stem the growth of the movement.

Beijing should remove its central government staff from Hong Kong. The Central Liaison Office has been blamed for many of Beijings illegal interventions in Hong Kong affairs. Pro-Beijing politicians are regularly seen visiting the office, giving the impression they take orders directly from the mainland. Shuttering it is an easy gesture that would remove a source of conflict.
Joe Quinn is speaking. His brother Jimmy died on 9/11. The sun is shining from a clear sky, as it was that day. I am on the treadmill listening to music, watching images of the memorial service on the 15th anniversary of the attack on America. I pull the headphone plug out of my iPod and insert it in the treadmill jack.

The voice is strong. After his brothers death Quinn was inspired to serve, doing tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He recalls the national unity that followed the loss of 2,977 lives in the 9/11 attacks, 2,753 of them at New Yorks twin towers, and notes the disunity that seems to have become the American condition since then.

Dont believe it, Quinn says.

No, dont believe it. Suspend all doubt and rancor. Of the 2,753 victims in New York, no identifying trace of 1,113 was ever found, according to the medical examiners office. If it has been required of so many to make their peace with such absence, it behooves us all to lift our gazes beyond Yeats weasels fighting in a hole.

Dont believe in American disunity. Believe in the daily fashioning and refashioning of America, its constant reinvention and its high idealism, believe that, as Lincoln said, government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth  and recall the onerous sacrifice over generations for that cause.
To the Editor:

Re Clinton Falls Ill at a 9/11 Tribute; Pneumonia Cited (front page, Sept. 12):

With less than two months left in an increasingly tight presidential election, every day and every issue become critical. That Hillary Clinton hid that she had pneumonia and didnt curtail her grueling schedule after she contracted it may seriously hurt her in the presidential election.

It clearly demonstrates her poor judgment, her penchant for secrecy and her lack of transparency. Her health, particularly since she is 68 years old, one of the oldest presidential candidates in history, and has had serious health issues in the past, may have vaulted to the most important issue in the 2016 campaign.

It raises a lot of key questions. Will she be able to campaign vigorously? Will she be able to participate in the presidential debates? If elected, will she be healthy enough to carry out the duties of president?

This all points to the need to have an independent physician give both candidates for president a physical examination, which would be disclosed publicly.
WASHINGTON  The United States and Mexico have a rich, shared history. For more than a century, people have moved back and forth at the border to work. Their toil and industry could have taken place within a well-regulated and mutually beneficial labor market. But in recent years much of their labor has occurred in a vast black market  harming workers, families, security and public finances in both countries.

There is justifiable disappointment at this outcome. We have watched with frustration, from the highest levels of government on each side of the border, as two neighbors have wasted opportunities to help each other.

Our countries ceased cooperating to regulate labor migration in 1965. They understandably rejected the previous history of flawed bracero agreements adopted as early as 1942, which contained inadequate safeguards for workers from both countries. But rather than work to fix those flaws, they have since rejected any genuinely cooperative regulation of lower-skilled labor flows.

The sad result has been decades of rampant illegality. Today, by some reasonable estimates, of the 11.7 million Mexican-born individuals living in the United States, almost half (5.6 million) have no legal authorization. The root cause of this tragedy is that past governments did not jointly enact a well-regulated framework for new and lawful flows of labor.
To the Editor:

When Police Unions Impede Justice (editorial, Sept. 4) was spot on but had one questionable element.

You write that even if the Chicago Police Board votes to dismiss the officers, they will be able to challenge their dismissals in court. Whats wrong with that?

Judicial review of agency action that is, for example, arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, contrary to law or unsupported by substantial evidence is a familiar and critical part of the rule of law.

The process for disciplining police officers may have serious flaws, but this isnt one of them.

EUGENE R. FIDELL
CARLISLE, England  After this ancient fortress city was hit by a crippling flood in 2005, its residents could take some comfort in the fact that it was the kind of deluge that was supposed to happen about once every 200 years.

But it happened again four years later. And again last winter, when Storm Desmond brought record-breaking downpours that turned roads into rivers, fields into lakes, living rooms into ponds.

I really felt like we were in danger of death, said Jonathan Bryant, who scrambled out of his car  helping his wife, Diane, their two children and a cat  after they were hit by a wall of water and had to wade a quarter-mile back to their house, through rushing torrents, pelting rain and 60-mile-per-hour wind in the pitch black.

In many places, the threat of climate change can still feel distant, even theoretical. But not here, a city of about 74,000 in the far northwest corner of England, where one of its rivers swelled to about 30 times its normal volume last year.
Apple plans to release a free coding education app on Tuesday that it developed with middle-school students in mind, in the latest salvo among technology companies to gain share in the education market and to nurture early product loyalty among children.

Apples app, called Swift Playgrounds, introduces basic computer programming concepts, like sequencing logic, by asking students to use word commands to move cartoon avatars through a fanciful, animated world. Unlike some childrens apps, which employ drag-and-drop blocks to teach coding, the Apple program uses Swift, a professional programming language that the company introduced in 2014.

When you learn to code with Swift Playgrounds, you are learning the same language used by professional developers, Brian Croll, Apples vice president of product marketing, said in a telephone interview. Its easy to take the next step and learn to write a real app.

The introduction of Apples app coincides with a larger Silicon Valley campaign to press public schools to teach coding. Tech executives have argued that such training could help address socio-economic differences among students, by providing them with marketable job skills. In January, President Obama said he was asking Congress to provide $4 billion in the budget for a computer science initiative in public schools. (Congress has not yet passed a budget.)
If you want to see the future, head to Pittsburgh is probably something unsaid for most of a century. That may be about to change, because of the way its local government is welcoming its robot overlords.

As Cecilia Kang reports, Pittsburgh, once known as Steel City, is about to see a 100-strong fleet of self-driving cars from Uber deployed. These are not test cars, but commercial vehicles that will pick up paying passengers.

The cars will have human overseers in the drivers seat, for now, but they are expected to operate as autonomous vehicles. And autonomy seems to be what the mayor has given Uber  he and the chief of police have ridden in the cars, but no one else in government has even seen them.

If you want to be a 21st-century laboratory for technology, you put out the carpet, said the mayor, basically encapsulating a concept called greenlight governing, or letting companies do whatever they want (within reason).
The members of the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce had broken their fasts and left the mosque near Floridas eastern shoreline. In the waning minutes of Sunday, less than an hour later, a surveillance camera recorded a man as he approached the mosque. Then came a flash as flames damaged the house of worship where the man who attacked an Orlando, Fla., nightclub often prayed.

The authorities, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, were investigating the fire as a potential hate crime, even as officials cautioned that they remained uncertain about the motive.

The blaze occurred on the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and nearly three months after Omar Mateen opened fire at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. It also happened around the beginning of Eid al-Adha, a Muslim holiday.

Today was supposed to be a day of this community exchanging gifts with their kids, visiting their family members, having dinners, having lunches, Wilfredo Ruiz, a spokesman for the mosque, said at a Monday afternoon news conference in Fort Pierce, Fla. Instead, they needed to go to another place to worship.
How the occupation began

On Jan. 2, a small group of members of a right-wing militia group adopting the name Citizens for Constitutional Freedom  the number grew as the occupation wore on  seized control of administration buildings at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, about 30 miles southeast of Burns, in Harney County, a sparsely populated area in the high desert of eastern Oregon.

In daily briefings with reporters, Ammon Bundy said the group had acted against what he called unconstitutional federal land management policies that infringed on the rights of citizens. His softly spoken statements echoed terms of a simpler, earlier America, where individual effort on the land counted for all, and governments business was to stay out of the way.

But guns, on hips and in the arms of lookouts, were ever-present.
ARLINGTON, Va.  Nineteen rows down and 20 to the right. Thats the math Mimi Robinson wanted to know: the distance between her father and Capt. Humayun Khan at Arlington National Cemetery.

Like many Americans, she was moved when Captain Khans father testified to his sons values and sacrifice at the Democratic National Convention in July. So, a few days ago, she walked the neatly ordered grounds from the grave site of her father, a member of the Coast Guard who died in 2014, to the marker for Captain Khan.

At the foot of the captains grave stone, with its Islamic crescent and Purple Heart inscription, she left a handwritten note on a sheet of loose-leaf paper.

Ive been thinking about the ways politics and bureaucracy have tainted my love for this country, she wrote.
WASHINGTON  The White House said on Monday that President Obama would veto legislation approved by Congress that would allow the families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to sue Saudi Arabia for any role in the plot, escalating a bipartisan dispute with lawmakers over the measure.

Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said Mr. Obama does intend to veto this legislation, and would work to persuade lawmakers in both parties to change course. If he cannot, the measure could lead to the first veto override of his presidency, as the legislation drew the backing of lopsided majorities in both the House and Senate.

The president feels quite strongly about this, Mr. Earnest said of the legislation, which Mr. Obama has said could dangerously undermine the United States interests globally, opening the country to a raft of lawsuits by private citizens overseas.

The concept of sovereign immunity is one that protects the United States as much as any other country in the world, Mr. Earnest said, referring to the rationale behind a 1976 law that gives other countries broad immunity from American lawsuits. Its not hard to imagine other countries using this law as an excuse to haul U.S. diplomats or U.S. service members, or even U.S. companies, into courts around the world.
The whole thing felt real, and that was exactly the point. The idea of the simulator is to immerse agents in the type of tense situations that they are likely to face on the job, and put their judgment and reactions to the test.

Will the suspect comply with a command? Will the agent pull the trigger?

The situations are based on real-life events. The difference is that, on the simulator screen, the interactions unfold based on the agents responses.

We want to know, what did you see? said Jason Daniels, an instructor who trains Border Patrol agents. Why did you react that way? What else could you have done?

Since the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014, and a series of police shootings that followed it, a debate has erupted over the use of force by local police departments. The border with Mexico is also not immune to violent confrontations with law enforcement.

According to one tally, more than 30 people have been fatally shot by agents along the southern border since 2010, and several others have been injured in shootings. One of the victims, a Mexico-bound truck driver, was shot on Thursday by Border Patrol agents who said he had swerved his vehicle toward officers working at the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales, Ariz. He remained hospitalized on Sunday.
Most parents unwittingly give their kids the wrong dose of liquid medication  in some cases more than twice as much as instructed, a new study shows.

The study, conducted at pediatric clinics in New York, Atlanta and Stanford, Calif., also found that most dosing errors occurred when parents used a measuring cup. There were fewer errors when parents measured the dose with an oral syringe.

Pediatric medicines generally rely on liquid formulations, and parents have to decipher a sometimes bewildering assortment of instructions in different units with varying abbreviations  milliliters, mL, teaspoon, tsp., tablespoon. Some medicines come with a measuring tool, but often the units on the label are different from those on the tool.

The Food and Drug Administration in 2013 recommended that over-the-counter products use standard dosing tools and consistent labeling, but the changes were not required. Last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics endorsed moving to milliliter-only dosing, and recommended standard dosing tools.
Leaders of the two sides responsible for mass killings and rapes in the South Sudan conflict have amassed enormous wealth inside and outside the country, at least some of it illegally, according to an investigative report released on Monday by a Washington advocacy group.

The families and top associates of the principal opponents in the conflict, President Salva Kiir and his rival and former vice president, Riek Machar, own multimillion-dollar properties, drive luxury cars and stay at expensive hotels, all while much of their countrys population suffers from the consequences of a brutal civil war and, in many places, experiences near-famine conditions, according to the report.

Neither of the two men nor members of their immediate families are among the half-dozen South Sudanese officials facing the international sanctions imposed last year. But the report said the leaders had benefited financially from the continuing war and have effectively ensured that there is no accountability for their human rights violations and financial crimes.

The report, by the Sentry, a partnership of rights advocates and policy experts, was based partly on United Nations documents and other official sources of information. Its authors said it had taken nearly two years to complete.
By the mid-1900s, the organs had grown more popular, and players began to switch from German polkas to Mexican music  songs of love and nostalgia that appealed to older generations.

These days, if a player does not own his instrument, he can rent one for about $80 a week, the union says.

For a variety of reasons  the cost of proper maintenance, the lack of repair know-how and overuse of the instruments  the melodies are often horribly off key. A cloud comes over diners faces when an organist pops up and begins cranking, forcing them to wait out the auditory assault.

There is also a skill that newcomers do not appreciate, the older players say. It is a craft. An organist does not just turn the lever and let the instrument do its business. One must crank consistently, which is not so easy given the instruments weight. The tempo must differ from song to song.

This knowledge is often passed down from one generation to the next.

Daniel Chavez, 40, works alongside his father on a bar-lined cobblestone street in the historical center of Mexico City, where he is slowly learning the trade.

My father is the best one I know, he said, pausing on a recent weekday to admire the older man, who has been playing for nearly 60 years.
BEIJING  The young mother lived in obscurity in a wobbly house at the end of a dusty road. She did not speak much with strangers, spending her days tending to rows of wheat, peas and potatoes.

Then, one day in late August, everyone in Agu Shan Village in northwestern China seemed to know her name: Yang Gailan. Ms. Yang, 28, was found dead outdoors alongside her children, three girls and a boy, all under 7 years old. The authorities said Ms. Yang killed herself after poisoning her children with pesticides and attacking them with an ax.

The gruesome story, which was widely shared across social media over the weekend, has ignited concerns across China about the grim realities facing many rural families, as more people leave the countryside for jobs in big cities.

It has also prompted a debate about inequality in Chinese society and the effectiveness of government efforts to reduce poverty, which President Xi Jinping has vowed to eliminate over the next four years.
SEOUL, South Korea  President Park Geun-hye of South Korea warned on Monday that there would be more provocations from North Korea after the Norths fifth nuclear test last week, adding that they could raise the danger of war on the Korean Peninsula.

Ms. Park issued the warning when she met the leaders of opposition political parties to appeal for a united front against what she called the Norths maniacal obsession with building a nuclear arsenal.

Ms. Park has become increasingly critical of the North since the test on Friday, when she said that its leader, Kim Jong-un, was guilty of fanatical recklessness and that his mental condition should be considered out of control.

On Monday, she ruled out dialogue with the country, saying that its nuclear program was not a bargaining chip but a present and urgent threat to her countrys security. She said such discussions would only buy the North more time to perfect its nuclear weapons. China, Russia and opposition parties in South Korea called for talks with North Korea, insisting that sanctions alone could not end its nuclear ambitions.
NEW DELHI  Violent protests broke out in the southern state of Karnataka on Monday after the Indian Supreme Court ordered the state to release water to the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu, the latest chapter in a longstanding dispute.

The authorities in the Karnataka city of Bangalore banned public gatherings and deployed riot police officers as protesters set fire to vehicles and pelted buildings and cars with stones. The police fired on protesters who were setting fire to police vehicles in Bangalore, killing one and injuring two others, said Madhukar Narote, an assistant subinspector for the state police.

Protests raged elsewhere in the state as well. Several trucks that were burned had Tamil Nadu license plates, said Chandrashekhar, a deputy commissioner of police in Bangalore who goes by one name.

The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that Karnataka would have to release 12,000 cubic feet of water, or almost 90,000 gallons, per second to Tamil Nadu every day until Sept. 20 from the Cauvery River, which originates in Karnataka and flows downstream to Tamil Nadu. It is the main source of water for the states thirsty rice crops, particularly in the event of a weak monsoon like this years in the southwest.
LONDON  The post is ancient, and the duties are light (nonexistent, actually). But in order to step down from his seat in the House of Commons, David Cameron, the former prime minister of Britain, had to take on another position on Monday: Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead.

Under arcane parliamentary rules, normally referred to as taking the Chiltern Hundreds, the purely symbolic appointment provides a legal escape hatch from the House of Commons by disqualifying lawmakers from holding their seats. Embracing the role has helped many lawmakers bring down the curtain on their careers without waiting for the next election. In this case, it is formally closing out a political rise and fall defined by Mr. Camerons decision to stage a referendum on European Union membership.

Mr. Cameron resigned as prime minister in June after failing to persuade Britons to vote to remain inside the bloc. The announcement on Monday means that he will also give up his parliamentary seat in Witney, Oxfordshire. The seat will be filled by a special election.

In my view, with modern politics, with the circumstances of my resignation, it isnt really possible to be a proper backbench M.P. as a former prime minister, Mr. Cameron told ITV News, using the abbreviation for member of Parliament. I think everything you do will become a big distraction and a big diversion from what the government needs to do for our country.
JERUSALEM  In the absence of any prospect of peace with the Palestinians, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has started a video war.

His latest, and so far the most provocative, two-minute video in a recent series is titled No Jews. In the video, Mr. Netanyahu accuses the Palestinian leadership of demanding a Jew-free Palestinian state by opposing Israeli settlements in the West Bank. He adds, Theres a phrase for that: Its called ethnic cleansing.

A storm of international and domestic criticism followed the release of the video on Friday, with some calling Mr. Netanyahus arguments divisive and delusional. The State Department described the language in the video as inappropriate and unhelpful and said it had taken the issue directly to the Israeli government.

But many have cheered for him, saying Mr. Netanyahu is exposing the hypocrisy of Israels detractors, whose concern for human rights, they feel, seems to apply only to the Palestinians.
Samsam, 26, is an aid worker in the government-held western part of Aleppo, which was once Syrias largest city. She asked to be identified by only a nickname  it means sesame in Arabic  because she was not authorized by the government to speak to foreign reporters. She said in a telephone interview from Aleppo, which is divided between the government in the west and the rebels in the east, that residents found cease-fires frightening. When the truces inevitably break down, she said, violence escalates, and the halt in fighting also interrupts wars predictable routine.

There was a big shelling the previous Eid, which hit an open area and it killed lots of children.

We hear shelling, bombing and this kind of stuff, and we got used to it, but when we hear there is a cease-fire, we say, God protect us. People didnt forget. They manage their life without thinking what will happen next. They take each day individually. They get used to not thinking about the future: We see this day, we are going to work, we are going to the cafe, to meet some friends or some relatives. Just for today. I think its a powerful message. The streets are crowded by people and children. But still its early to judge if the cease-fire will last or not.

Dr. Omar Abu Mariam, 30, a neurosurgeon, asked to be identified by only his first name and a nickname, for the safety of his family. He is the only neurosurgeon working in the rebel-held part of eastern Aleppo, where many patients with brain injuries die because doctors lack equipment and the evacuation route to Turkey has lately been cut off by shelling.

Image Even the less severe cases Dr. Omar Abu Mariam treats can be heart-rending, like Khaled, 8 months old, whose skull was fractured in a missile strike. Hours after the cease-fire was announced on Friday, doctors did not know where his mother was or if she made it.

He often operates around the clock and does not expect the cease-fire deal to change that, he said in a text message.

For Eid, he went to a friends house for dinner. His friend had managed to find a sheep to slaughter, though it was more difficult and expensive to come by than usual, and they ate sheeps liver and honey-soaked baklava, traditional Eid sweets. On the way back, the city was almost pitch black.

The streets were empty. Dark, he said. No fuel for cars. Few generators.

The first evening of the truce passed without a call to the emergency room. But when he got home, he could hear explosions in the distance. Surface-to-surface missiles, he speculated.

The doctor wondered if he would make it through another day without heading back to the operating room. The cease-fire is a big lie, he said.
AL MUKALLA, Yemen  Maj. Mortada al-Youssefi has more to worry about as commander of a government military unit in Yemen than the enemy. He has also had to figure out how to stop hundreds of his own men from walking off the battlefield over not being paid.

He is one of the many Yemeni officials who have been struggling to contain the growing anger of pro-government fighters over payment delays from the Saudi-led Arab coalition that has been propping up the divided countrys president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, and for the past 18 months fighting his main opponents, the Houthi militias that rule much of the country.

The Saudis may be well financed in their campaign against the Houthis, who come from the north of Yemen, but they are very slow to pay, according to the Yemenis.

Speaking by telephone from the embattled city of Taiz, Major Youssefi recalled how he had calmed down his fighters. We told them it would negatively impact our image, he said. And we agreed to give the married soldiers a week or two off to go work to feed their children. The soldiers immediately accepted the deal and took turns leaving their posts in small groups to find temporary employment elsewhere, he said.
Tunisia was the featured country at this summers Fancy Food Show in New York, and almost half of that countrys exhibits were promoting extra-virgin olive oil. The industry, which has existed since Roman times, has shifted to a higher-end product for export to Europe and America. Although Tunisias extra-virgin olive oil is still sent in bulk to Europe for anonymous blending, production rules and labeling certifications for extra virgin and organic have been tightened. Now 100 percent of whats in a bottle labeled Tunisian is indeed from Tunisia. Some oils tend to be lighter, sweeter and less peppery than their European counterparts. For example, Terra Delyssa Extra Virgin Olive Oil is typically mild and fruity with a hint of bitterness in the aftertaste (try it in a salad dressing), and Olivi Chemlali de Djerba Extra Virgin Olive Oil is lighter and even more delicate. Les Moulins de Mahjoub, an organic extra-virgin oil, is deeper in color, more viscous and herbal, with a nice green olive bite. It would add a sleek finish to grilled fish and vegetables: Terra Delyssa, $8.99 for 34 ounces, worldmarket.com; Olivi, $14.90 for 8.45 ounces, from amazon.com; Les Moulins de Mahjoub, $19.99 for 12.5 ounces, from amazon.com.
LaRina Pastificio & Vino, an inviting new Italian neighborhood restaurant in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, offers an extra perk: a retail counter well stocked with food made both in-house and imported from Italy. Silvia Barban is the chef and an owner. Her fresh pasta includes buckwheat shells, black bucatini and ruffled lemon-scented gigli that begs for a sauce of crab meat and cherry tomatoes. Calabrian chiles, fat jars of anchovies, taralli biscuits, fresh sausages, Corbara tomatoes from the Naples area, and tartly sweet pomegranate balsamic vinegar from Modena are some of the other items. The counter opens with the restaurant at 5 p.m. Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. Saturday and Sunday: LaRina Pastificio & Vino, 387 Myrtle Avenue (Vanderbilt Avenue), Fort Greene, Brooklyn, 718-852-0001, larinabk.com.
When Marian Burros, a longtime food reporter for The New York Times, first wrote about the plum torte in September 1983, no one expected it to become the most requested recipe, and among the most beloved, in the history of the newspaper.

It certainly appeared without fanfare, nestled in the bottom left-hand corner of the page, accompanying a brief report about the arrival of the Italian plum season. With just eight ingredients and a few short steps, it didnt seem to have the makings of a hit.

Yet after the fact, the newspaper received so many requests for the recipe that the editors decided to reprint it the following year, and the next, and each subsequent year until they decided it was time to put an end to the madness. In 1989, they ran an updated version (three-quarters of a cup of sugar, rather than a full cup) with a broken-line border, encouraging readers to cut it out, laminate it and save it. Ms. Burros wrote: This could really be the last time we print the recipe. Really!

Numerous letters arrived in protest.

The appearance of the recipe, like the torte itself, is bittersweet, a reader wrote. Summer is leaving, fall is coming. Thats what your annual recipe is all about. Dont be grumpy about it.
Hagiography is mocked as a literary form, but  at its best  it can be inspirational. Some of the finest political biographies are robust celebrations of their subjects. But there is little that is celebratory here. Man of the World assumes a defensive crouch: To write a book about Bill Clinton, as I know from past experience, is to invite pointed criticism and even angry denunciation, Conason says. But thats not true. In the barn at his Chappaqua home, Clinton has several shelves of books about his presidency  including, caveat lector, one by me, The Natural  most of which did not invite denunciation, angry or otherwise. And many of which acknowledge this basic truth from Conason about the Clintons: Like her husband, Hillary Clinton felt such confidence in her own probity that she was unable to imagine how others might view her acceptance of enormous sums of money from special interests.

Thats a world-class conundrum right there. Conason might have written a fascinating book that focused on the conflict between the great works done  an estimated seven million Africans treated for AIDS by an arm of the Clinton Foundation, for instance  and the appearance of impropriety, the cozying up to sketchy plutocrats looking to improve their public images through charitable giving and the shadow such transactions would cast on Hillary Clinton, first as secretary of state and then as the Democratic nominee for president of the United States.

To take one example, Conason does yeoman work knocking down some of the more outlandish claims in Clinton Cash, a conservative tract written by Peter Schweizer in 2015. But he doesnt mention one of Schweizers most unsettling contentions, subsequently confirmed by Punditfact: that Bill Clinton gave 13 speeches for more than $500,000 between 2001 and 2012, 11 of them while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. I dont believe the Clintons are fundamentally corrupt, but jeez  how could a master politician like Bill Clinton allow himself to indulge in such a flagrant appearance of impropriety?

Conason does report on conflicts within the Clinton Foundation, and marriage, along with Clintons tiffs with Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama  but gently, gently. Many significant questions go unanswered, which is especially frustrating given Conasons access to all the major players. He describes a dinner party Madeleine Albright held for Hillary Clinton and former secretaries of state after she joins the Obama administration. According to Conason (and also according to Clinton in her F.B.I. testimony), Colin Powell suggested that she use her own email, as he had done, except for classified communications. Powell claims no recollection of the conversation. (Conason has recently said he spoke to a Powell assistant while doing his research, though this is not mentioned in the book, and was told that Powell does recall sharing with Secretary Clinton his use of his email account and how useful it was, but that he knew nothing then or until recently about her private home server.) When Douglas Band, Bill Clintons closest aide, leaves the foundation to form a private consulting firm  another sketchy endeavor, which, in effect, sold access to the former president  Conason writes that Band felt that he understood what was good about Clinton, and what was less good. But we dont. Nor do we understand Clintons strange attraction to his good friend and business partner Ron Burkle, the supermarket mogul. Conason too casually dismisses a famous Vanity Fair piece about Clinton-Burkle high jinks on Burkles plane, written by Todd Purdum, who is married to Clintons former press secretary Dee Dee Myers. Why has Clinton allowed himself to be surrounded by questionable sorts like Burkle, Steve Bing (two paternity suits) and Jeffrey Epstein (convicted of soliciting sex from an underage girl)? Well, they all had access to private planes. And they all contributed mightily to Clintons remarkable programs in Africa and elsewhere.

The most valuable passages in Man of the World recount the work of the president and his longtime policy pal, Ira Magaziner, in establishing the Clinton H.I.V./AIDS Initiative (CHAI). It is a classic instance of what Clinton does best, mobilizing a private-public partnership, an international buyers club to raise funds for drugs and testing equipment, and then spending the time and effort to train local health workers, leaving a double legacy of a healthier population and a functioning health service in countries that had neither. There are roadblocks aplenty, with recalcitrant government leaders like Thabo Mbeki in South Africa, and also with the bureaucrats attempting to implement President George W. Bushs own  very admirable  AIDS plan. Clintons ability to charm almost anyone is the sort of weapon rarely deployed for humanitarian causes.
Anticipation for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has been so high that fans began dressing up as its main character, Newt Scamander, based solely on the trailer. That surprised its star, Eddie Redmayne, when he attended Comic-Con International in July and looked out into the audience only to see several Newts staring back at him.

I found that deeply exciting and weirdly shocking, he said by phone from London. Imagine what will happen when the movie arrives Nov. 18, and eager Harry Potter fans get another look at J. K. Rowlings wizarding world.

Ms. Rowlings story  this is her debut as a screenwriter  follows a self-proclaimed magizoologist who was expelled from Hogwarts but eventually wrote one of the schools most important textbooks. He has been traveling the world collecting, studying and building relationships with all kinds of magical beasts, toting them in a suitcase as part of his mission to educate wizards about why beasts are so important to them. But when some creatures escape and take to the streets of 1926 New York, the mishap could expose the wizarding world and lead to war.

While the beasts are at the heart of the films title, humans are at the heart of its story, said David Heyman, a producer on the Harry Potter movies: The Potter films and this film all emanate from a place of character. Newt is an outsider, a bit like all of [J. K.s] characters. Thats why he feels best able to connect with the beasts, though eventually he connects with people as well.
Miller opens stable doors in South Korea

Kiwi horseman David Miller is open for business in South Korea.

Im the first New Zealander to train here, he said. Ive started to get horses into the stable now and Ive got 24 boxes and it wont be hard to fill them.

L to R: Changsig Kim, David Miller, Mike Kneebone, See Hwan Lee and Andrew Birch at the Busan races last week.

The hardest part is getting the quality, theres no problem with quantity.

They arent a bad block of stables and they are on the track with swimming pools and walkers as well.

Miller is based at the Busan racecourse, which opened in 2005, with meetings every Friday and Sunday.

Its the strongest racing here even though Seoul is the capital, he said. All the big races are won by horses from Busan.

Its a sand track and Ive never seen anything as good as their business model.

Miller can speak from experience as he has seen his share of racing.

When I was a jumps jockey in New Zealand I used to ride in the winter and travel in the summer, he said. This is the eleventh country Ive worked in.

Miller, who came from a training stint in Malaysia, said there was a hefty start-up cost involved in South Korea.

I had to put down nearly $US90,000 to open a company, but if things go well I should be making good money, he said.

If a horse can run between first and eighth it pays the training fees for a month.

A class one race can be worth $US100,000 and class five and six races can go up to $US50,000. The trainer gets seven percent, the jockey six and 10 percent goes to the staff.

You have to have four Korean-bred horses before you can buy a foreign horses at the sales.

Ive got six two-year-olds and three three-year-olds coming to the stable that are untried and of the others I should have my first starter within a month.

Miller said South Korea was likely to be his last overseas venture - Ive still got roots in New Zealand and property there.  NZ Racing Desk.
GOOD WORKS: Boeing employees at the Seal Beach facility recently donated backpacks and school supplies to students in the Los Alamitos Unified School District. The donation drive for supplies was held July 27. The district received over 40 backpacks and packages of school supplies from Boeing. Employees also donated $250 for more supplies for families in need. Boeing matched the donation, growing it to $500.

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

Childrens Hospital of Orange County has named Ryan Hansen as new director of its heart institute. Formerly of Texas-based Memorial Hermann Health System, Hansen has spent his career working in cardiovascular care. At CHOC, he will work with doctors and administrators to bring innovation and new technologies to the institute. Hansen has an MBA and masters of health administration.

The Boy Scouts of America, Orange County Council has added three members to its board: Allen Boerner, president and chief executive of Granite Investment Group; Bob Olson, founder of R.D. Olson Development; and Rob Friedman, chairman and co-founder of Auction.com.

William F. Meehan has been elected to managing partner of Rutan & Tucker, a Costa Mesa-based law firm. He succeeds Layne H. Melzer who was recently appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown to a judgeship in Orange County Superior Court. Meehan, who is a partner in the firm, is 43 and becomes the youngest-serving firm-wide managing partner for any AmLaw 200 law firm.

Jeffrey Bucher has joined Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group as managing director and head of transaction banking sales for the regional bank. Bucher, based in the banks Irvine office, is responsible for developing the transaction banking business, which covers retail banking, wealth markets, business banking, commercial banking, real estate industries and more.

Lori Ybarra Ohls has returned to KidWorks, a Santa Ana-based nonprofit that helps at-risk children, teens and families, as director of development. Two decades ago, she was one of KidWorks first interns, along with current Executive Director David Benavides. Both served six-week internships before KidWorks opened its first after-school program in a small apartment in central Santa Ana. She later became director of after-school programs for the nonprofit. Before her return to KidWorks, she was associate director of donor relations and communication with the American Red Cross in Orange County.

Rich Howard with MHM (Mayer Hoffman McCann PC) has been re-elected to a two-year term to represent the North America region on the Kreston International board of directors. Kreston is a global accounting network in which MHM is a member. Howard, who works from the firms Irvine office, has been with the company since 2002. He also serves as West region attest practice leader, overseeing the operations of the audit practices in California, Arizona, Colorado and Utah.

NEW VENTURES

Alliant Insurance Services in Newport Beach has acquired Spokane, Wash.-based Farmin, Rothrock & Parrott, an insurance brokerage, as part of its ongoing acquisition campaign in the Northwest. Terms were not disclosed. This marks Alliants fifth acquisition in the Northwest since 2014 as the company continues to grow its middle-market division. FRP was founded in 1922 and provides commercial and personal insurance solutions to clients in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. Alliant, which dates to 1925, provides property and casualty, workers compensation, employee benefits, surety, and financial products and services to more than 26,000 clients nationwide. In 2015, Alliant acquired Australian-based QBEs U.S.-based specialty agencies for roughly $300 million.

Taxpayers in need of service at the Laguna Niguel IRS office will now need to call to schedule an appointment. Residents requiring assistance should call 1-844-545-5640 to schedule an appointment at the Taxpayer Assistance Center at 24000 Avila Road. The IRS is moving to an appointment service at this office as part of an ongoing effort to eliminate lines and reduce frustration for taxpayers and for IRS employees who assist them.

NEW BOOK

Hayes Drumwright, CEO of Irvine-based POPin, has published his first book with Apress, Management vs. Employees: How Leaders Can Bridge the Power Gaps That Hurt Corporate Performance. The book explores how to address the typical divide between management and the employees they lead. In addition to founding POPin, Drumwright also launched Trace 3, a tech consulting firm in Irvine with more than $500 million in annual revenue; InstantScale, a venture capital firm in Los Angeles; and Memento Mori, a Napa Valley winery.

COMING UP

SHRED EVENT: Residents of Mission Viejo can destroy their sensitive documents in a free drive-through shredding event from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday. The shred event will be held at Mission Viejo High School parking lot at 25025 Chrisanta Drive. City residents and businesses can bring up to 10 legal-size boxes of paper records  canceled checks, pay stubs, credit card statements and more  for immediate shredding by Orange County Shredding. The boxes may contain staples and paper clips but must be free of notebooks or other bindings. For more information, call 949-470-8433 or e-mail crimeprevention@cityofmissionviejo.org.

JOBS FAIR: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 22 at the Main Place Christian Fellowship Church in Orange. Military veterans, employed workers looking for new career opportunities and those who are presently unemployed will have the opportunity to network and interview with participating employers at the church at 1310 E. Lincoln Ave. Attendees should dress in business attire and come equipped with resumes. Positions include jobs in accounting, administration, clerical, customer service, education, financial services, health care, nursing, law enforcement, management, manufacturing, nonprofit, sales and transportation. The job fair will also feature various employment resources and higher educational opportunities.

Send executive promotions, new business ventures, milestones and good works to Business Editor Samantha Gowen at sgowen@ocregister.com.
RIO DE JANEIRO  Brazil, the country thats home to the largest tropical rainforest on Earth, ratified the Paris climate agreement Monday  making it the third-largest country for emissions, after the U.S. and China, to have done so.

We are following a path Brazil started on long ago, President Michel Temer said during a ceremony announcing the agreement in the capital Brasilia. The climate issue is for the state. It is an obligation for all governments.

Temer has only just succeeded Dilma Rousseff, who was impeached last month amid a massive corruption scandal in the country.

Brazils ratification is significant because in order for the climate agreement to enter into force, 55 separate countries, accounting for 55 percent of global emissions, must sign and then ratify or otherwise approve it. Currently, according to the World Resources Institute, 27 countries have done so, representing 39.08 percent of those emissions (this total does not include Brazil).

However, the majority of those are small countries that dont contribute much global carbon pollution (though the total also includes a few moderate sized countries like Norway and Peru). And then there are the U.S. and China, which just joined the agreement and account for a whopping 38 percent.

Brazil, however, accounts for a very significant 2.48 percent of global emissions  making it the globes 7th highest emitter, and also a rather unique one in that so many of its emissions are due to deforestation of the Amazon, rather than the burning of fossil fuels.

This should spur other countries to join and help galvanize global action, said David Waskow, who directs the international climate initiative at the World Resources Institute.

The Brazilian governments decision to ratify the agreement shows that on the environment issues, Temer wants continuity with his predecessor, Dilma Rousseff. He was Rousseffs vice-president but the two are now bitter enemies.

Rousseff was removed from office last month after an eight-month impeachment process, ending 13 years of rule by her leftist Workers Party. She and her supporters have attacked the impeachment process as a parliamentary coup and Temer as a traitor who plotted against her.

In a speech in June 2015 during a U.S. visit, Rousseff said Brazil aimed to reach zero illegal deforestation by 2030 and restore 12 million hectares, or 46,332 square miles, of its forests  about the size of England  by 2030. Some environmentalists said then that these promises did not go far enough.

The country has reduced deforestation by 80 percent since 2004  but significant portions of the vast Amazon rain forest are disappearing every year, and after a steady decline in deforestation rates from 2005 onwards, deforestation rose in both 2013 and 2015.

Since taking over as interim president in May, Temer has moved Brazils government to the right with plans for austerity measures and ambitions to get its stumbling economy out of a deep recession and back into growth. A bill that aims to free up rigorous and lengthy environmental licensing procedures had led to fears that Brazil would roll back protection of its vast forests.

The bill is still being discussed in the Brazilian congress. But in ratifying the Paris agreement Brazil has made a step forward and committed to cut greenhouse effect gas emissions in 37 percent by 2025, with a possible 43 percent reduction by 2030, compared to 2005 levels. The country first presented its commitment in September last year. Under the Paris agreement, every country must submit, and regularly update, its plans for reducing its emissions.

Signing the Paris Agreement will help the countrys development by guiding growth without damaging the environment, Brazils Environment Minister, Jos Sarney Filho, said at the ratification ceremony Monday.

Foreign Minister Jos Serra said the Paris climate agreement created a milestone for efforts to reduce climate change.

Few international instruments have had such widespread support, Serra said.

Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations, has called world leaders to the U.N. headquarters on the 21st of this month for a ratification ceremony for the Paris agreement. Some 175 have already signed, and along with the recent move by the U.S. and China, Brazils move just considerably increased the likelihood that there will be something to celebrate.

Its an important signal, and continues the momentum going into next week in New York, said Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
BEIJING  North Koreas biggest nuclear test, conducted last week less than 50 miles from the Chinese border, sent tremors through homes and schools in Chinas northeast. But hours later, there was no mention of the test on Chinas state-run evening television news, watched by hundreds of millions of viewers.

The decision on Friday to publicly ignore stark evidence of Pyongyangs expanding nuclear capabilities illustrated the embarrassment that North Koreas leader, Kim Jong Un, poses for his patrons in Beijing.

But although North Korea remains nearly 100 percent dependent on China for oil and food, Chinese analysts say that Beijing will not modify its allegiance to North Korea or pressure the country to curtail its drive for a full-fledged nuclear arsenal, as the United States keeps requesting.

The United States cannot rely on China for North Korea, said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. China is closer to North Korea than the United States.

China sees living with a Communist-ruled nuclear-armed state on its border as preferable to the chaos of its collapse, Shi said. The Chinese leadership is confident that North Korea would not turn its weapons on China, and that China would control its neighbor by providing enough oil to keep its economy afloat.

The alternative is a strategic nightmare for Beijing: a collapsed North Korean regime, millions of refugees piling into China and a unified Korean Peninsula under a U.S. defense treaty.

The Obama administrations decision to deploy an advanced missile defense system in South Korea also gives President Xi Jinping of China less incentive to cooperate with Washington on a North Korea strategy that could aim, for example, to freeze the Norths nuclear capacity, the analysts said.

The U.S.-supplied missile defenses in South Korea, known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, has effectively killed any chance of China cooperating with the United States, they said.

China is strongly opposed to North Koreas nuclear weapons, but at the same time opposes the defense system in South Korea, said Cheng Xiaohe, an assistant professor of international relations at Renmin University. It is not clear which situation the Chinese leadership is more agitated about, he said.

Beijing interprets the THAAD deployment as another U.S. effort to contain China. The system reinforces Chinas view that its alliance with North Korea is an integral part of Chinas strategic interests in Asia, with Americas treaty allies, Japan and South Korea, and tens of thousands of U.S. troops close by, Shi said.

Washington insists the THAAD system, due to be installed in 2017, is intended to defend South Korea against North Korean missiles, and is not aimed at China. The system does not change the strategic balance between the United States and China, President Barack Obama said after meeting with Xi in Hangzhou, China, a week ago.

But China is not persuaded. Chinese officials argue that the THAAD radar can detect Chinese missiles on the mainland, undermining its nuclear deterrent.

So despite what Chinese analysts describe as the governments distaste for Kim and his unpredictable behavior, Chinas basic calculus on North Korea remains firm.

Xi would continue to ensure that North Korea remained stable. The Chinese leader, 63, has shown disdain for the much younger Kim, 32. He has not invited him to China, and has only authorized sporadic visits by Chinese officials to Pyongyang. The two militaries remain largely uninvolved with each other.

But the personal and professional antagonisms do not alter Beijings goal of preventing a unification of North and South Korea under a U.S. defense arrangement.

The long-standing fear that punitive economic action would destabilize North Korea makes it unlikely that Beijing would cooperate with the United States on more stringent sanctions at the United Nations, according to Chinese analysts.

In March, after considerable hesitation, China agreed to Washingtons appeals and signed onto tough U.N. sanctions that included a ban on the export of North Korean coal.

Now as the West moves toward another round of U.N. sanctions, Chinas mood is very different, said a former senior Chinese official who worked on North Korea. He said some officials were wondering why China would work with the United States at the United Nations after Washington went ahead with the anti-missile system against Chinese wishes.

There are differing opinions in China about whether an oil embargo  an unlikely punishment  would result in Kim giving up his weapons.

If China stopped the flow of oil, North Korea would face a severe economic crisis in about one year, and then face a choice between keeping its economy going or compromising on its nuclear program, the former senior official said.

It is possible that at that point Kim would negotiate, the former official said.

But others disagree, saying the Chinese government would not dare cut the oil supply, knowing that North Korea would be able to get supplies from Russia and elsewhere.

The fundamental reason for not cutting oil is they dont want to sacrifice the buffer zone, and they also know if they cut off the oil supply it will not force Kim Jong Un to surrender his weapons, Shi said.

Shi questioned why China would want to risk making North Korea into an enemy by cutting off the oil supply. If you cut off the oil, there is a 50 percent possibility North Korea will not surrender their weapons, and they will hate China even more, he said.
Hillary Clintons campaign, responding to enormous political pressure after she had to be helped into a van Sunday  and after waiting hours before explaining that she was suffering from pneumonia  said Monday that it would release more medical information about her this week.

A spokesman, Brian Fallon, said on MSNBC that the campaign was working with Clintons doctor on a fuller release of medical information, and that those records would show she had no other undisclosed condition.

The campaign has until now resisted requests for the more comprehensive discussion of her medical history that is traditional for presidential nominees.

The shift came after Clinton was videotaped being helped into a van by Secret Service agents Sunday, her feet dragging, while departing early from the Sept. 11 anniversary ceremony in New York.

The manner in which Clintons illness became public revived concerns among supporters and criticism among her detractors about her seemingly reflexive tendency to hunker down and hoard information, often citing a zone of privacy, when she senses a possible political threat.

Clinton had been given a diagnosis of pneumonia Friday morning.

But she said nothing about it late Friday, when she eagerly told reporters about her plans to defeat the Islamic State, called for a rethinking of the Obama administrations approach to North Korea and ridiculed Donald Trumps praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

I just didnt think it was going to be that big a deal, she said Monday of the pneumonia diagnosis she received Friday.

She told CNNs Anderson Cooper 360 that despite doctors orders to rest for five days, she thought she could just keep going forward and power through it, and that didnt work out so well.

More than five hours after the video  shot by an onlooker, showing Clinton being helped into a van  surfaced online, her campaign released a statement from her physician, Dr. Lisa Bardack, saying Clinton had been told she had pneumonia and was put on antibiotics Friday. The statement said Clinton had become dehydrated and overheated at Ground Zero.

The sequence of events quickly intensified pressure on both Clinton, 68, and Trump, 70, to be more forthcoming with information about their health and medical histories.

But it also has reinforced a central vulnerability for Clinton that has nothing to do with physical stamina.

Allies and critics alike drew parallels between her handling of her illness and, among other things, her decision to use a private email server for official business when she was secretary of state.

Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia. Whats the cure for an unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems? David Axelrod, a former adviser to President Barack Obama, wrote on Twitter.

Matthew Dowd, a former strategist for George W. Bush, advised a miracle drug called transparency.

On Monday, Clintons campaign acknowledged that it had come up short in providing information about her illness, though it insisted she was a model of transparency.

We could have done better yesterday, but it is a fact that (the) public knows more about H.R.C. than any nominee in history, Jennifer Palmieri, a campaign spokeswoman, wrote on Twitter in response to Axelrods criticism.

Many of Clintons supporters said privately that they believed she would have been criticized whichever path she chose: Had she skipped the ceremony, she risked feeding doubts about her health. But by keeping her schedule, she risked getting sicker.

Pneumonia, particularly in people older than 65, can be challenging to recuperate from.

But most of those supporters also acknowledged that by not revealing she had pneumonia immediately after the sick spell Sunday morning, she had fed the perception that her campaign was secretive.

Clinton aides have ample reason to be careful on the subject of her health: Political opponents on the right have spread a variety of conspiracy theories insinuating that she is physically unfit for the presidency, and Trump has fanned those theories.

After she had a coughing attack last week, Matt Drudge, editor of the Drudge Report, posted a spoof photo of Clintons traveling press corps wearing surgical masks on her campaign plane.

Most voters have not been moved by this line of attack: 74 percent of registered voters said they were unconcerned about Clinton being healthy enough to carry out the job of president, a Fox News poll last month found.

But trustworthiness is a glaring problem for Clinton: Roughly 6 in 10 voters said they did not trust her, about the same as said they distrusted Trump, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll released last week.
NEAR CANNON BALL, N.D.  When visitors turn off a narrow North Dakota highway and drive into the Sacred Stone Camp, where thousands have come to protest an oil pipeline, they thread through an arcade of flags whipping in the wind. Each represents one of the 280 Native American tribes that have flocked here in what activists are calling the largest, most diverse tribal action in at least a century, perhaps since Little Bighorn.

They have come from across the Plains and the Mountain West, from places like California, Florida, Peru and New Zealand. They are Oglala Lakota, Navajo, Seneca, Onondaga and Anishinaabe. Their names include Keeyana Yellowman, Peter Owl Boy, Santana Running Bear and Darrell Holy Eagle.

Some came alone, driving 24 hours straight across the Plains when they saw news on social media about the swelling protest. Some came in caravans with dozens of friends and relatives. One man walked from Bismarck.

Others finished the journey in canoes. They brought ceremonial pipes, dried sage, eagle-feather headdresses and horses that they ride bareback through the sea of prairie grass. They sleep in tepees, camper trailers and tents, and they sing and drum by firelight at a camp that sits on land controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers.

On Friday, the federal government announced that it was temporarily blocking construction of the pipeline at an important river crossing just up the road from the camp.

We say mni wiconi: Water is life, said David Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux, whose reservation sits just south of the pipelines route. We cant put it at risk, not for just us, but everybody downstream.

He added: Were looking out for our future, the children who are not even born yet. What is it they will need? Its water. When we start talking about water, were talking about the future generations.

Here are stories about a few of the people who have come to this remote rolling corner of North Dakota.



John Thomas Arnel, Northern Arapaho of Wyoming:

The veterans that are here, we fought for this country, Arnel said. We fought for this land to preserve it for our future generations to enjoy it. We helped defend with nontribal members, he continued, and other people that have different points of view from all around the world. We were all united as military, but once you get out and come back to the civilian sector, youre automatically put into a demographic scale.

But, he added, were all Americans.



Charles Baker, Lakota and Swinomish of Washington:

Our water matters, and they cant just put a pipeline through it, Charles, 13, said. His father is Lakota from Standing Rock and his mother is Swinomish from La Conner, Washington. The family returns to Standing Rock often to visit relatives.



Joseph and Kinehsche Marshall, Hoopa Valley tribe of Northern California:

Ive been telling her since she was a little person that shes the storyteller, Joseph Marshall said of Kinehsche, his 9-year-old daughter. When were all gone, shes going to be the one telling the story. So it was really important that as soon as I found out I was going, I was like, Kinehsche, youre going with me.



Thayliah Henry-Suppah, Paiute of Oregon:

Henry-Suppah wears a traditional wing dress with ribbons, beaded necklaces, shells, otter furs and basket earrings for a ceremony. She said, No human being can live without water. She said she kept the following Native American proverb in mind while in North Dakota: Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents. It was loaned to you by your children.



Arrow Heart, Lakota and Dakota of South Dakota:

Arrow Heart, a senior at Little Wound School in Kyle, South Dakota, and his family travel each year to the Standing Rock Reservation for the annual pow wow, a spiritual gathering for indigenous communities. Ive been doing that for 15 years now. Havent missed it once, he said.



Ceanna Horned Eagle, Nakota and Kickapoo of Kansas:

Many of our ways  our culture, our way of life, our spirituality, our language  we have slowly lost it, said Horned Eagle, who has a prayer fan tattooed on her neck. But I have seen a change. Were trying to relearn it or to gain it back. And this coming together gives me hope that my kids wont have to fight as hard as my parents did, as I have, she said.



Apesanahkwat, Menominee tribe of Wisconsin:

Apesanahkwat spent 30 years as the tribal chairman of the Menominee. It wasnt something I chose when I came home from Vietnam, he said. But it led him into a career in Washington, D.C., which is near where he now lives. When he heard of the events in North Dakota, he felt compelled to drive to the Sacred Stone Camp. All of these things that are happening are incredibly beautiful, he said.



Howard Eagle Shield, Sioux of North Dakota:

This is my home, and my granddaughters are going to be here long after Im gone, Eagle Shield said. He grew up in North Dakota, on the Standing Rock Reservation. There was trees all the way through here, all the way down to the Nebraska border, he said of his youth. There were trees big enough that it would take five or six guys to hold their hands around to circle those trees. And theyre all flooded out; theyre gone after they put this dam up.
WASHINGTON  Is the death penalty in America gradually dying?

There have been just two executions since May 1 and the total for 2016 probably will hit a 25-year low.

Execution drug shortages, sometimes grotesque errors in death chambers and legal challenges to sentences imposed by judges have contributed to a dramatic decline in the number of states that are carrying out executions.

Just three states, Texas, Georgia and Missouri, are using the death penalty with any regularity, though Texas has not executed anyone since April. Four executions are scheduled in the state before the end of the year.

The reduction in executions and in the number of states that are enforcing death sentences led Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to conclude recently, I think the death penalty is fading away. There is not enough support on the court to abolish capital punishment, Ginsburg said, but added that may not be necessary.

Most states dont have any executions. The executions that we have are very heavily concentrated in a few states and even a few counties within those states, she said in an interview with The Associated Press in July. Ginsburg joined a lengthy dissenting opinion by Justice Stephen Breyer last year that highlighted problems with the death penalty that led the two justices to conclude that it probably is unconstitutional.

States that have had to halt executions, though, are trying to figure out how to resume. Ohio and Oklahoma are among states that intend to re-start executions once they have corrected well-publicized problems in their death chambers.

Ohio, which last executed an inmate in January 2014, has set a January 12 execution date for a man convicted of raping and killing a three-year-old girl in Akron. But its unclear whether his execution, or more than two dozen others that are scheduled into 2020, will take place because the state lacks lethal execution drugs and has struggled to find a supplier, as have other states.

In Ohios last execution, in January 2014, Dennis McGuire gasped and snorted repeatedly during a 26-minute execution that used a never before tried combination of two drugs. That protocol has since been eliminated and those drugs arent available for executions.

Oklahoma last execution was in January 2015, amid the use of the wrong drug and other problems. The states prison system is expected to adopt new execution procedures soon. Even then, Attorney General Scott Pruitt says he will wait at least another five months before asking a court to schedule an execution.

Oklahoma imposed a moratorium on the death penalty after two problem-filled executions and a third that was called off when prison officials noticed they received the wrong drug. The top lawyer for Gov. Mary Fallin urged officials to go forward anyway, telling another lawyer to Google it to confirm the drug could be used, according to a grand jury investigation.

Alabama and Florida havent put anyone to death since January because of questions about the way death sentences are imposed in those states.

Even Texas has seen a reduction in executions. The states highest criminal appeals court has stopped four executions in the past month, though each case raised different issues. Separately, the Supreme Court will take up two Texas death row cases in the coming months, also involving discrete issues.

California has the largest death-row population, 746 inmates as of early August, but hasnt executed anyone in 10 years. Voters in the nations most populous state will consider separate ballot questions in November that would abolish the death penalty on the one hand and speed up the appeals process on the other.

The longer states go without executions, the harder it may be for them to resume, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

The law of inertia is that a body in motion tends to stay in motion. A body at rest tends to stay at rest. There are policy parallels for that with the death penalty. Right now most states are comfortable not executing anybody. And for the most part, the public is comfortable, even in death penalty states, with their states not executing anybody, Dunham said.

So far there have been 15 executions this year. At the current pace, there would be 19 executions by the end of 2016, the fewest since 1991, when 14 people were put to death. The high-water mark was in 1999, when there were 98 executions.

The number of new death sentences also is approaching historic lows as most jurisdictions are forgoing costly capital trials in favor of seeking life sentences with no chance of parole. Texas, which has executed more people since the modern resumption of the death penalty in 1976 than the next six states combined, had only two new death sentences last year.

Many of the executions that are being carried out are for crimes committed up to 30 years ago, before some states enhanced the legal representation in capital cases, said Stephen Bright, an experienced death penalty lawyer who is president of the Southern Center for Human Rights.

There are a lot of people who are getting executed who would never be sentenced to death today, Bright said.

Associated Press writers Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City and Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.
HUNTINGTON BEACH  A crowd of about 1,000 people filled the plaza area of City Hall Sunday to watch the unveiling of a $200,000 memorial that featured twisted steel salvaged from the wreckage of the World Trade Center.

The memorial and commemoration marked the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 in New York, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania. The event included New York City police officers, ceremonial music, presentation of a flag from the World Trade Center and drum corps and a flyover by Orange County emergency units.

The event went very well, said Dennis Hashin, CFO of the Huntington Beach Police Officers Association and Foundation, who spearheaded the monument effort.

The memorial effort began in 2011, when the steel was given to Huntington Beach police by New York firefighter Chris Howard, whose father, George Howard of the Port Authority police, died in the collapse of the Twin Towers while attempting to rescue victims.

Proponents of the Huntington Beach memorial overcame five years of setbacks because of issues with the soil and the Americans with Disabilities Act before finally getting the memorial erected.

The monument is set on a pentagon base, with two black granite towers bracketing the words We Will Never Forget and the steel on a pedestal. It is lit at night.

 Greg Mellen
The last thing Scott Atkinson recalls was waving to his teenage son Nate before paddling back out to rejoin Nate in the lineup and catch more waves at Doheny State Beach.

As he paddled, Dad had no hint he was about to black out.

Olivia Boisen, a 19-year-old rookie state lifeguard from Mission Viejo who was staffing Tower 11 on the beach, had been busy with a string of rescues July 21.

Suddenly she noticed an empty surfboard about 25 yards off the end of a jetty known as the hammer and what appeared to be a limp surfer, face-down in the water.

You kind of just go, she said. She grabbed her buoy and sprinted for the water, yelling over to her supervisor, Jason Gabriel, who was near the base of her tower. He joined her in the sprint.

The next thing Atkinson knew, others were around him, battling to keep him alive. He doesnt recall where that was  beach, emergency room at Mission Hospital Laguna Beach or intensive care at Mission Hospital Mission Viejo  when he at last recognized hed suffered a seizure in the water and nearly died.

On Saturday, the 49-year-old San Clemente resident revisited Doheny to thank Boisen, Gabriel and other lifeguards he credits with saving his life. He brought his wife, Michele, and their children Nate, 17, Kyle, 13, and Emmy, 11.

I am alive here today because of you guys, he said, citing the lifeguards diligence and professionalism. I dont know, how do you express that? I am just so grateful. I am here for my family because of it  they have me and I have them, and I have some more of my life because of you.

The rescue has been life-changing for Boisen. You hear about it in stories, like, Rookie, something crazy is about to happen, then it just happened to me. I was like, Did that just happen? It was so surreal, like this is what Im here for. I think about it a lot.

Atkinson and Boisen revisited Tower 11 and relived her spotting him, swimming out and reaching him just as another surfer paddled over and flipped him over. Boisen placed the buoy beneath him. She and Gabriel pulled him to shore, where other lifeguards already had CPR gear in place and paramedics were on the way.

From the rescue in the water to bringing him out on the sand doing ventilations, the CPR, the compressions, the medics getting there, everything was textbook-perfect, said Ennio Rocca, lifeguard supervisor. The result speaks for itself.

Lifeguards credited Nate Atkinson, a San Clemente High School senior, with staying calm as he arrived on shore, gathered his siblings and provided information. Michele, at work in San Diego, was notified immediately and was in the ER 2 1/2 hours later, joyful her husband was alive but not knowing if there was brain damage.

I was scared to death, she said. The doctors didnt know. Four days later they told us it could have gone very bad.  These guys did a phenomenal job.

Scott Atkinson said hed had seizures before but they were rare, always in morning hours, in a controlled environment. In the last one, a year and a half ago, hed fallen in the shower at home.

He said he had previously stopped surfing but felt safe taking the kids to Doheny for an afternoon. He and Nate could surf and teach the younger kids. By a stroke of fate, he had the seizure on the day that we happened to go out, Nate said.

Im glad I came here, Scott told the lifeguards. It was fortuitous that I came here.

He said he doesnt plan to tempt fate. His surfing days are over.

Going through something like this makes you realize that you shouldnt take anything for granted, he said. Every day is a gift. I think a lot of people read that, they hear it, they say it. But you need to feel it all the time. Its really true.

Contact the writer: fswegles@ocregister.com or 949-492-5127
The judge simply does not believe that the black duffel bag, the one stuffed with $360,540 cash from Zulmai Nazarzais closet, mysteriously disappeared on that summer day six years ago. And, really, its hard to blame him.

The most incredulous story Ive ever heard, and Ive heard some whoppers, Orange County Superior Court Judge Andrew Banks said in 2010, when he ordered Nazarzai to go to jail on contempt of court charges for failing to turn over the money as ordered.

Nazarzai was never charged with, or convicted of, a crime. But he has been in solitary confinement in the Orange County jail ever since.

Last week, however, a crack appeared in the prison wall: For the first time, a state appeals court asked Orange County Superior Court to hold a hearing to decide whether Nazarzai lacks the present ability to comply with the courts turnover order; whether theres a substantial likelihood that continued confinement will accomplish the purpose; and whether Nazarzais continued confinement has, in fact, become punitive.

If the county does not hold that hearing, it must explain why. The Court of Appeal gave Orange County until Sept. 19 to comply.

Nazarzais lawyers have been petitioning higher courts for years seeking to free him: Even if he knew where the money was once, theyve argued, he doesnt know where the money is now, and he certainly cant repay anyone while sitting in jail.

Legal scholars have likened the case to Les Miserables and decried the approach as a modern take on debtors prison. This is the first time such arguments have gotten any traction.

Its exactly the right decision, said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Irvine School of Law, and Tom Campbell, professor at Chapman Universitys Dale E. Fowler School of Law.

The Court of Appeal has ordered the hearing that should have been held much earlier than now. I suspect if the trial judge rules against Mr. Nazarzai after the hearing that the Court of Appeal ordered, he will appeal that and likely win a reversal at the Court of Appeal level.

Its a good sign, but way too early for congratulations, said Nazarzais public defender, Scott Van Camp.

The California attorney general accused Nazarzai of doing very bad things in the civil suit that started this chain of events. He and his then-girlfriend were the masterminds behind a boiler-room telemarketing operation that lied to distressed and elderly people on the verge of losing their homes back in 2008 and 2009, prosecutors said in court documents. More than 1,000 people paid $2 million to keep their homes from foreclosure, most often unsuccessfully.

The state attorney general prevailed in this civil  not criminal  action, and the couple were ordered to pay more than $4 million in penalties and restitution. Nazarzai pulled some $370,000 of company funds from the bank and stashed it at his home; the judge ordered him to hand it over to a court receiver.

Nazarzai said he gave the cash to then-girlfriend Fasela Sheren, who said that she stuffed it in the duffel bag and was driving it to the receivers office in Los Angeles when she blacked out. She awoke at a hospital; the car had been towed; and when she reclaimed it, the bag with the money was gone, she said in a deposition.

I think hes got the money in his possession, custody or control, Judge Banks said of Nazarzai at the time. And he holds the keys to getting out of jail.

Contempt is a tool judges use to compel reluctant witnesses to testify, deadbeat parents to pay child support or recalcitrant journalists to reveal sources.

The law gives judges sweeping authority to use this tool: One can be held in civil contempt as long as a judge thinks its possible for you to comply and theres a chance of compliance, said UC Irvines Chemerinsky. Former lawyer H. Beatty Chadwick set the American record for time in jail on a contempt charge, spending 14 years behind bars under circumstances similar to Nazarzais.

In 1995, a Pennsylvania judge ordered Chadwick to place $2.5 million into a court-controlled account during divorce proceedings. Chadwick said he couldnt, as he had lost the money in bad investments. His wifes lawyer charged that he actually hid it offshore. The judge believed the wife: Chadwick went to jail for failing to produce the money. He stayed there until 2009, when the court finally agreed that his incarceration had morphed from something coercive into something punitive. Continued jail time wouldnt result in him producing the money, the court concluded, and he was set free. Chadwick noted that if he had been convicted of third-degree murder, he would have been out in half the time.

Had the attorney general filed criminal charges against Nazarzai and prevailed, law professor Campbell doubts Nazarzai would have been sentenced to five years. If he had, and if his behavior in prison had been good, hed be out by now, Campbell said.

Contact the writer: tsforza@scng.com
Heres a roundup of restaurant and retail news from across Orange County. Take a look at the slideshow for more details on each.

Pacific City adds tenants

Pacific City, a shopping destination with seashore views of Huntington Beach, has added a handful of new tenants this summer. The retail center, which opened last fall, has more than 40 stores and eateries open for business.

The most recent additions are:

Philz Coffee: The coffee shop opened in June.

Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics: The beauty store opened in June.

Sunglass Resort: The sunglasses boutique opened in June.

Free People: The store, best known for its bohemian look, opened in June.

Linksoul: The mens lifestyle brand store opened in July.

Surfing Supply: The temporary art installation opened in August.

AT&T: The cellphone store opened in August.

Seafolly: The Australian swimwear store opened in April. It offers a variety of suits and cover-ups.

KIN: The accessory store opened in April. It carries handbags, shoes and some apparel.

Molly Browns Swimwear: The store selling high-end swimwear opened in April. The brand has locations in Laguna Beach and Newport Beach.

Tankfarm & Co.: The mens apparel store opened in April. The brand is known for its T-shirts with a 1950 photograph of Richard H. Anderson. He is the grandfather of the stores current runners.

Barnabas: The clothing store opened in May. The company donates 10 percent of proceeds to Living Room International, a charity in Kenya.

Smocking Birds Baby & Childrens Boutique: Mother and daughter Becky Pierce and Stephanie Holdridge of Huntington Beach opened the boutique in January.

Heirlooms and Hardware: The hardware store also opened in January. The store makes custom pieces with salvaged materials.

Sephora: The popular makeup store opened in February.

Francescas: The boutique clothing store opened in March.

Food hall Lot 579 has added these eateries recently:

Pie-Not: The Aussie-style bakery opened in June. It sells savory pies, desserts and coffee.

Hans Homemade Ice Cream: The ice cream store, which has a location in Santa Ana, opened in June.

Burnt Crumbs: The artisanal sandwich shop opened in June. It is from the people behind Burnt Truck and Burntzilla.

PopBar: The shop offers 40 rotating flavors of frozen pops that can be dipped in toppings. It opened in June.

Bear Flag Fish Co.: This is its third location and opened in June. The restaurant is known for its seafood, sushi and fish market.

Petals and Pop: The flower shop opened in June. It is the Seal Beach shops second location.

Portola Coffee Lab: The coffee shop opened in August.

Other news

Water Grill: The premium seafood concept by Costa Mesa-based Kings Seafood Co., is scheduled to open in early October in the old Scotts Restaurant & Bar location.

The Habit: The restaurant opened a location in Dana Point on Wednesday. It is at 32505 Golden Lantern in the Ocean Ranch Village. The Habit is best known for its burgers.

Slice Deli & Cakery: The Fountain Valley restaurant will offer free meals to kids under 12 every Monday. The restaurant has also debuted a new kids menu. The restaurant, at 8780 Warner Ave., No. 15, is known for its sandwiches and cake.

Underground Dance Company: Owner Elizabeth Lund has opened the studio for kids at 23034 Lake Forest Drive in Laguna Hills. The studio says it promotes self-confidence through positive body imagery, increases physical fitness and explores kids artistic skills. The studio is a member of Youth Protection Advocates in Dance, a coalition working to protect children against sexual abuse.

New Life Cryotherapy: Owners Kevin Booth of Lake Forest and Karen Stewart of Irvine have launched New Life Cryotherapy at 22521 Avenida Empresa in Rancho Santa Margarita.

Whole body cryotherapy involves enclosing the body for three minutes in dry air at minus 200 degrees Fahrenheit, which is purported to reduce inflammation and increase energy.

Marie Ekberg Padilla contributed to this report.

Send any retail updates to hmadans@ocregister.com and any restaurant news to nluna@ocregister.com
JOHANNESBURG (AP)  Protection efforts in South Africas biggest wildlife park have reduced rhino poaching there, though poaching syndicates may be moving operations to parks elsewhere in the country, a top official said Sunday.

The carcasses of 458 poached rhinos were found in Kruger National Park between January and the end of August, down about 18 percent from the same period last year, said Edna Molewa, South Africas environmental affairs minister.

The African News Agency quoted Molewa as saying that poaching groups may be responding to pressure in Kruger park by killing more rhinos in other areas, although rhino poaching nationwide is still down from last year. Areas where rhino poaching has increased include the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal, Free State and the Northern Cape.

Poachers killed 36 elephants this year in Kruger park, a worrying development in an area that had been mostly unaffected by the Africa-wide slaughter of elephants. A study released last month reported a big decline in the number of Africas savannah elephants in the past decade as international and domestic ivory trades drove poaching across the continent.

It is also of concern that we have also begun experiencing an increase in elephant poaching, despite the vigorous and determined efforts by our rangers, the police, and soldiers on the ground, Molewa said.

A total of 414 alleged poachers have been arrested in South Africa so far this year, nearly half of them in Kruger park, according to the South African government. The park, which is almost the size of Israel, is infiltrated daily by teams of poachers, many of whom come from neighboring Mozambique.

Record numbers of rhinos have been killed in South Africa in recent years to meet demand for their horns in parts of Asia, particularly Vietnam. Consumers believe rhino horn, which is ground into powder, has medicinal benefits, but there is no scientific evidence to support the belief.
NAIROBI, Kenya  Three women, who, according to police, were armed with a gasoline bomb were shot dead Sunday morning in Mombasas central police station.

The women, who were dressed in burqas, walked into the station under the pretext of reporting a stolen phone. They had concealed a knife and the bomb in their clothing, police said.

While police officers were questioning them about the particulars of the stolen phone, said Patterson Maello, the police commandant of Mombasa County, one of the women drew the knife while another threw the bomb at the police station personnel. Police reaction led to the three being shot, Maello said.

A witness, Salma Mohamed, a resident of Mombasa County who was at the station when the women walked in, said that a police officer was stabbed twice before the women were killed.

The women were shouting, Allahu akbar  Arabic for God is great  Mohamed said.

Two officers were taken to the hospital with injuries.

Two bulletproof jackets and an unused gasoline bomb were recovered from the suspects, police said.

The motive behind the attack remains unknown, although unconfirmed reports indicate that the attackers were attempting to free prisoners held at the police station, according to the Standard, a Kenyan newspaper.

This is the second terrorist attack at a police station in Kenya, the last being in July when a rogue police officer suspected of having terrorist links held people hostage at a police station in western Kenya. He was gunned down by Kenyas elite terror squad.

Since 2011, the al-Shabab group has launched a series of attacks in Kenya, mainly in Nairobi and Mombasa.

These attacks are thought to be in retaliation for Kenyas involvement in a coordinated military mission with the Somalis, under the African Union Mission in Somalia banner, against al-Shabab.

Kenya also has been battling homegrown terrorism, with the worst attack having taken place in 2015 at the Garissa University College. It claimed 148 lives.
Located near the northeastern edge of Argentina, in the swampy marshes of Parana Delta, is an enigmatic floating island that allegedly rotates on its own axis. Nicknamed The Eye, the nearly perfect circular island has become the subject of an upcoming documentary that will try to unravel the mystery of its existence.

The Eye was discovered six months ago by Argentine film director & producer Sergio Neuspillerm, who was looking for filming locations for a film about paranormal occurrences, like ghost and alien sightings, in the area. After spotting the unusually round island surrounded by an equally round body of water on Google Earth, Neuspillerm and his crew knew they had stumbled upon something truly special, so they abandoned their original film project and decided to focus on this mystery instead.

When locating this reference in the map we discovered something unexpected that left the film project in the background, we call it The Eye, Neuspillerm said in a video. The Eye is a circle of land surrounded by a thin channel of water with a diameter of 130 yards. Both circles [the water and land] are so perfect that it is hard to believe that this is a natural formation.

Photo: Elojo Project

Neuspillerm soon teamed up with Richard Petroni, a hydraulic and civil engineer from New York, and tech expert Pablo Martinez and together journeyed to Parana Delta to see The Eye first hand. The place was amazing and extremely strange. We discovered that the water is incredibly clear and cold, something totally unusual in the area, the filmmaker said. The bottom is hard in contrast to the swampy marshes surrounding it and the center part floats. We dont know over what, but it floats.

Their expedition brought up more questions than answers, so the trio of explorers recently set up a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund a second expedition to The Eye and hopefully learn more about its origins and purpose. Theyre asking for $50,000, of which they have raised $8,800, with 28 days to go. For a pledge of $25, backers will be invited to watch the upcoming documentary on The Eye online and see all the white papers from the analysis and tests conducted during the investigation. However, for a $10,000 contribution, you get to accompany the team on their historical expedition, while $5,000 guarantees you a spot on a subsequent visit to the enigmatic island.

Photo: Elojo Project

We want to return with a complete scientific expedition having scuba gear, geologists, biologists, ufologists, specialized drones and more, and take samples of the water, soil, plants an all other objects we may find, Neuspillerm said about their project, called Elojo (The Eye). We want to understand The Eyes relation with supernatural stories told by the locals.

The Eye has apparently been visible on Google Maps  at coordinates 341507.8S 584947.4W  for the last decade, but until the Elojo project went public, no one ever paid it any mind. Now, the internet is buzzing with theories about its existence. Most are associating it with UFO activity and go as far as to claim that the rotating island is concealing an alien base, while the locals believe that its circle-within-a-circle shape represents the presence of God on Earth.

Pablo Suarez, who does dynamic systems modeling at Boston University, allegedly told Paranormal News that he has never seen anything like The Eye before. He added that the almost perfect circular shape makes it unlikely to be simple crater or a formation created by a typical natural phenomenon.

However, the same website recently received a message from someone named Daniel Roy Finkley who claims that The Eye is no mystery. It is apparently one of dozens of formations with more or less irregular edges. He claims that they are actually a characteristic natural environment of the coast. Theres also a YouTube video that shows several similar formations around Argentina.
Joe Honick

Its remarkable how powerful people, no matter what theyre accused of, manage to sell their dubious wares to new buyers. Such is the reality for Roger Ailes and his new client Donald Trump.

Ailes, charged with all sorts of sexual misconduct that, so far, has cost the Murdoch empire about $20 million, remains a brilliant strategist and tactician, which may make him even more dangerous or helpful to the election process, depending on your politics.



Having been taken on by candidate Trump, the changes were already obvious the night of the NBC questionable venture almost comically titled Commander-in-Chief Forum. Trump suddenly lowered the volume while looking very serious, almost impassioned, as he delivered the same kinds of personalized invective about Hillary Clinton and anyone else who had the chutzpah to challenge him. Without breaking a smile, Trump was just as passionate about why he and Russian boss Vladimir Putin could almost be good buddies, disregarding American security, politics or almost anything else. And Trump was effective as the salesman hes been, the same kind of salesman now under indictment for selling an allegedly fraudulent real estate university and a real estate tip sheet it turns out he did not even write.

Somehow, despite all the efforts of a revolving door of previous advisors who tried to get Trump to tone down his freewheeling accusations, Ailes seems to have made his point with the candidate quickly. What this portends for the rest of the campaign cannot simply be predicted because, as usual, so much depends on the complexity represented by candidates who are hardly as usual.

Back to the matter of Trumps affection for Russias Putin, how will he handle the many allegations of Russian interference with the American electoral system which Trump says is already rigged? No doubt Ailes has been working hard on this issue as well.

For the Clinton campaign, however, the Ailes effect cannot be dismissed or categorized. It must be met with the same or more effective strategy that does not trap Hillary into trying to act as nasty as Trump.

It might be useful for her strategists to make note of Americans falling for the Hitlerian tactics that were powerfully launched in the 1931 Proclamation to the German nation just to give his party four more years to demonstrate how to make the country great again. From that time, and until WWII actually engulfed the United States, major American universities and industrialists not only embraced Nazi visitors and business partnerships, but some of the latter helped finance the Hitlerian regime. The media also played to the isolationist concerns of the Depression-wracked Americans regarding our need to avoid any foreign involvements. Sound familiar?

With debates scheduled to begin only days from now, no doubt what Ailes Trump will be a powerful measure of the candidates conduct to be watched very carefully. What must also be watched are the so-called media that suddenly emerged to propagandize for the Trump campaign to American voters short on attention span but strong on response.

How Clinton contends with these realities will be clear right from the debate start on September 26.

* * *

Joseph J. Honick is president of GMA International in Bainbridge Island, WA.
On the night of February 4, 1880 five members of the Donnelly family (three of whom) were born in Co Tipperary were murdered in their Canadian homes by a vigilante mob and nobody was ever brought to justice.

On the night of February 4, 1880 five members of the Donnelly family (three of whom) were born in Co Tipperary were murdered in their Canadian homes by a vigilante mob and nobody was ever brought to justice.

They had settled near Lucan, Ontario in Biddulph Township and even today theirs is a story that still divides and brings out the raw emotions in people in that area and beyond. Today coins, trinkets and roses are left on their grave in St Patricks cemetery outside of Lucan by visitors on a daily basis as a way of showing homage and respect.

The circumstances that led to their demise are long, complex yet truly fascinating. They are intertwined with many factors including religion, culture, business, politics, theres many individuals involved and its easy to get led down different routes of investigation and research. There are also various views and counter views about what the family were like and about what really happened to them.

But who were this family, how did they end up in Canada, why were they targeted, why wasnt anybody convicted of the crime and where in co Tipperary did three of the five victims come from? Their roots in Ireland and what became of them after they left is to be subject of a radio documentary.

Borrisokane historian Eamon Slevin and Tom Davis who resides in Derrinvohill House outside the town examine beliefs that the patriarch James Donnelly hailed from the local area while Pat Donnelly (no relation) discusses records that prove how his wife Johannah Donnelly (nee Magee) definitely hailed from the Tipperary / Offaly border close to where he lives.

The couple had one son before they emigrating to Canada in 1842 but the reason for their departure might not necessarily be down to poverty and starvation as was the case for the thousands that followed later. According to Ray Fazakas - a retired lawyer from Hamilton, Ontario who has been researching their story for over 50 years there is a possibility that he was in jail at Nenagh and awaiting trail in the months leading to them opting to board a ship.

In Canada James and Johannah essentially became squatters and settled on 100 acres that they did not legally own. They also have seven more children. Eventually matters came to a head and following a court case James was convicted of killing his neighbour Patrick Farrell who also laid claim to the property. He was sentenced to seven years in prison in 1858.

This resulted in a tide of bad feeling towards the family and they in turn adopted a more hardened stance towards many in the community. The seven Donnelly sons in particular were accused of many crimes in the years to follow yet few convictions were secured against them. According to Harry Hardy in Lucan, Ontario the Donnellys were by no stroke of any imagination angels yet Jim Cameron - a descendant of the family discusses how at the same time they were not without friends.

On February 4th 1880 a vigilante mob called to their house and murdered James, Johannah, their 25 year old son Tom and a nice named Bridget who was visiting from the Borrisokane area. They burned the place to the ground before proceeding to a second house where they shot 32 year old son John Donnelly. Many had no doubt as to the names of the guilty but despite two trials no one was convicted. Rob Salts who lives on the present day site of the Donnelly homestead describes it as a political move on the part of the premier of Ontario .

The documentary which includes a visit to the Lucan Area Heritage and Donnelly Museum also features an interview with a descendant of one of the vigilantes who was arrested in connection with the shooting of John Donnelly. Others interviewed are Paula Waters and Kathryn Murray from Dublin who are descendants of the Donnellys as well as historian Randy White and John Winkler in Toronto who reveals a unique Donnelly artefact in his possession. Baptismal records, newspaper accounts, eyewitness statements, legal documents together with reference to the two trails are also incorporated.

The revealing documentary entitled The Donnellys - Tipperarys Most Hated Family by Tom Hurley can be heard outside the county on www.tippfm.com or as a podcast.
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 At the stunning National September 11 Memorial & Museum this year in New York, I came across the south towers survivor stairs.

I immediately thought about Jason Quinn. He survived 9/11 by descending 36 floors in the south tower of the World Trade Center and exiting minutes before the second plane struck.

The graduate of Westside High and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln had heard a thud  the plane striking the north tower  and left his Frenkel & Co. insurance office without bothering to grab his wallet and keys. On his 14-minute descent, he ignored an announcement that people could return to their desks.

When I opened the door and got out, he recalled Friday, it was like winter  a coating of dirty white stuff. Someone told me people were jumping from the north tower.

When the second plane hit, I was directly below the south tower. I ran to the corner of Brooks Brothers and took shelter under an overhang.

Today the survivor stairs remain in place, with the museum built around them. The faces of the 2,977 who died on 9/11 are on large screens, and the victims will be remembered anew this weekend on the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attack.

The museum tells the long story, starting with construction of the World Trade Centers twin towers, which opened in the early 1970s. Damaged FDNY and NYPD vehicles and other memorabilia are displayed. You can hear recordings of phone calls to loved ones from passengers on Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania.

Jason stayed in New York for three more years before returning to his familys Quinn Insurance Co. in Omaha.

He had nightmares about 9/11 for a while, but said its therapeutic to talk about it. Sometimes people learn that he lived in New York and innocently ask, Where were you on 9/11? When he tells them, he said, the response is usually an OMG.

He doesnt mind people asking. Im not the type to bottle up my emotions. I feel very lucky to have survived.

 During the Cold War, Omaha feared the day would come that Air Force One would land at Offutt Air Force Base and the president would go to its storied underground command post.

That remarkable event happened on 9/11, though President George W. Bush left after less than two hours to address the nation from the White House.

Something else remarkable happened that day: Rabbi Aryeh Azriel of Temple Israel gathered members of his congregation to help guard the mosque at 73rd and Pinkney Streets. With tensions high after the terrorist attack, the kind gesture wasnt lost on Muslims in Omaha.

What followed were joint meetings and picnics and then plans for a tri-faith campus. Sunday at 1 p.m., the Tri-Faith Initiative welcomes the public to the 9/11 Circle of Peace, at which Christians, Muslims and Jews will assemble in the amphitheater at Temple Israel on the campus southeast of 132nd and Pacific Streets.

On this site, a statement says, we will join hands forming a circle of peace, showing the world that new hope arises from the ashes, igniting healing and wholeness between neighbors of the Tri-Faith Initiative.

A mosque is under construction to the west of the temple, to be followed by a Christian church and an interfaith center.

 The First Responders Association of Omaha, which grew out of 9/11, welcomed 450 to an event that raised $100,000 Thursday evening at the Omaha Police Departments mounted patrol barn at Sixth and Leavenworth Streets.

Gov. Pete Ricketts and Mayor Jean Stothert were among the speakers honoring the work of police, firefighters and others.

Over the years, the association has raised $2.5 million. Among other things, that has paid for an infrared camera on the police helicopter and 240 personal accountability system units for firefighter safety.

The association will hold a minute of silence at 9:11 a.m. Sunday at Stinson Park at Aksarben Village, 67th and Center Streets.

 World-Herald editorial cartoonist Jeff Koterba and his Prairie Cats band played at the top of the World Trade Centers north tower two months before 9/11.

On that New York trip, he met for the first time in years with his cousin, Ed Koterba Morgret, a school psychologist then living in West Virginia.

Today at 3 p.m. the cousins will sign books at the Bookworm, north of 90th Street and West Center Road. Jeff will have his memoir, Inklings, and a book of his cartoons. Ed will sign The Essential Ed Koterba, about his journalist father.

In 1961, Ed Koterba died at 42 in a small-plane crash. The next day, President John F. Kennedy opened a press conference by sorrowfully calling him a most outstanding newspaperman.

The younger Ed was 9, and his mother later married Charles Morgret. About a decade ago, the son began looking through his fathers newspaper clippings, stored in an attic.

Ed Koterba, who grew up in Omaha and worked as a newsroom copyboy at The World-Herald, became a columnist syndicated in 100 newspapers, as well as a White House correspondent.

His writing style was compared to that of World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle. He traveled the country and wrote of people in the style of later CBS News correspondent Charles Kuralt.

Morgrets book includes his own commentary as well as 363 of his fathers columns reporting on civil rights, McCarthyism, the Cold War and everyday topics. A review by Gerry Lanosga, assistant professor at Indiana Universitys Media School, calls the book a fine time capsule of the nations and journalisms story in the 1950s.
Many new mothers have questions and concerns about breastfeeding after leaving the hospital during that first week or two at home.

Getting off to a good start is important for long-term breastfeeding success. Meeting with a board-certified lactation consultant in the early days is a great way to build confidence and receive the support a mom may need during those first weeks at home, especially if she is experiencing any challenges with feedings, such as sore nipples or her baby is experiencing weight loss. Hands-on assistance and support from a highly skilled board-certified lactation consultant can help a mother gain the proper advice and support she needs to be successful.

Your pediatricians office can help you set up a one-on-one appointment with a lactation consultant. At Childrens Physicians, we have board-certified lactation consultants (who are also registered nurses) in each and every one of our 13 locations. Most insurance companies cover the cost of a lactation visit.

Lactation visits are typically an hour, and they all begin with a conversation. What are your needs? Whats going well? What are you struggling with? Hows baby doing? Well talk about your history and your goals. Our lactation team at Childrens Physicians wants mothers to know that were here to help you meet your breastfeeding goals.

Bring your baby hungry to the consult, as we will assess a feeding and weigh your baby. Then well address your specific needs and create a plan to help you achieve your goal. Mothers walk away feeling empowered and confident. They feel like they have a plan, as well as a professional contact alongside them as they progress through their breastfeeding experience. We may call you a couple days after the consult to follow up if needed. Some mothers may benefit from an additional visit. Well meet with you as long as you want to meet!

All of our Childrens Physicians lactation consultants are board-certified by the International Board of Certified Lactation Consultants. This is the highest level of certification in lactation. Each member on our team has had at least 1,000 hours of direct lactation assistance, 90 hours of continuing education and has passed a board exam.

The best thing about my job is when a mom leaves an appointment with a new sense of confidence. She might come in feeling discouraged, but she walks out feeling informed and empowered. Mothers want to be successful, and we can help provide them with the support and advice they need.

***

Tammi Martin, RN, BSN, IBCLC, is a board-certified lactation consultant at Childrens Physicians. To read more about Tammi, click here.
His grandfather Harry, the last mayor of Millard, led the fight against annexation by Omaha, but lost in 1971. His father, Harry Jr., ran Millard Electric, a presence in that community since 1946.

Now Greg Andersen, 48, is returning to Omaha after 23 years in New York City and three in Los Angeles to become chief executive of the Bailey Lauerman advertising agency, which was involved in a recent controversy.

Andersen has been facing a controversy of his own, filing a lawsuit alleging wrongful termination, retaliation and discrimination by his former employers CEO in California.

Andersen said he has talked through all the issues with Bailey Lauermans board of directors and is thrilled to return to his home city. His wife, Stephanie, and two daughters, ages 3 and 7, will join him soon.

Im very Nebraska proud, he said, crediting his father and grandfather with showing him the importance of being part of a community and dealing with people properly.

They taught me a lot about ethics and really gave me a fundamental belief that you can be successful in business and still be a good guy, he said.

Andersen graduated from Creighton Prep and as an advertising major at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, then moved to New York City. I wanted to see how far I could go in the business.

He worked his way up to CEO of the Bartle, Bogle, Hegarty ad agency. When that company was sold, he moved to Los Angeles as president of RAPP U.S., a division of publicly traded Omnicom Group.

But he was fired in April.

According to industry publication AdWeek, Andersen filed a lawsuit alleging that RAPP CEO Alexei Orlov fired him in retaliation for reporting Orlovs destructive behavior to an Omnicom attorney and to its top human resources officer.

The lawsuit alleged that Orlov created a hostile work environment and demonstrated through his comments and actions that he harbored discriminatory animus against women and various racial and ethnic groups.

RAPP has responded that Andersens position was eliminated and the company could not comment on the lawsuit further, adding: RAPP has, and enforces, policies prohibiting discrimination and retaliation on the basis of gender, race, age, disability, sexual orientation or any other legally protected status.

Andersen told The World-Herald on Friday that he couldnt discuss the lawsuit specifically but that he strives to bring integrity to all that I do.

At Bailey Lauerman, Andersen succeeds Andy Fletcher, who left in July. Carter Weitz, chairman and chief creative officer for Bailey Lauerman, said Fletchers departure was not related to a controversy involving the Nebraska Tourism Commission, a separate situation that our entire leadership team has addressed.

In April, an audit of the Nebraska Tourism Commission showed financial and accountability problems under director Kathy McKillip, including overspending its contract with Baily Lauerman by $4.4 million over three years.

The audit also criticized the commission for receiving dozens of free meals from Bailey Lauerman, for improperly reimbursing the ad agency for alcohol and cigarettes and for using McKillips daughter in an advertising campaign.

Bailey Lauermans work for the commission included an advertising campaign titled Visit Nebraska. Visit Nice.

In May the commission fired McKillip and appointed deputy director Heather Hogue as interim director. Bailey Lauerman continues its work with the commission.

Andersen said the matter was an important point of discussion for myself and the board. Before joining, I discussed the situation in great detail with the board of directors.

The ad agency and the commission now have systems and processes in place to prevent such things from happening again, he said.

Certainly there were errors made by the agency that should not have happened, Andersen said. But I feel quite confident in the boards response and how quickly and transparently they addressed the issue with the Tourism Commission.

Other Bailey Lauerman clients include Cuties oranges, Panda Express, Disney, TD Ameritrade and Bass Pro Shops.

Andersen said Bailey Lauerman is going through a transition, with about 75 employees in Omaha and fewer than 10 finance staff in Lincoln. Thats about the same total staffers as when the agency began moving its main operations to Omaha in 2013.

Bailey Lauerman has a national reputation based on the quality of its work and is the right size to move quickly with consumers shifting behaviors and rapidly changing technology, he said.
Online trading continues to grow in popularity. More than 14 million households in the U.S. are signed up with an online trading service, according to data from Statista, a statistics company. Online trading offers access to almost any stock, bond or other type of security.

With online trading, or e-trading, the trader makes all decisions himself. Such an approach to trading differs from using a stockbroker, as the broker typically offers input and advice. Another difference is in the fees: Online trading is generally considerably less expensive than using a stockbroker to make trades.

Here are some advantages and disadvantages of online trading.

Benefits

Lower fees: One of the clearest advantages of online trading is the reduction in transaction costs and fees associated with traditional brokerage firms. Typically, youll pay between $5 and $10 to buy and sell stocks and exchange-traded funds at online discount brokerages, according to a Bloomberg report.

Even cheaper fees are possible thanks to startups such as Motif and TradeKing, both of which charge $4.95 per ETF or stock trade.

More control and flexibility: The speed of using online trading portals is a benefit to many investors. Online you can execute a trade almost immediately.

Traditional brokers might require appointments just to initiate a trade. The time involved in such transactions is an inconvenience in the best of circumstances and can cost you money in the worst scenarios.

Ability to avoid brokerage bias: By taking trading into your own hands, you can eliminate brokerage bias. Bias sometimes occurs when a broker gives financial advice that benefits the broker  such as in the form of a commission for selling specific mutual funds and other products. This kind of biased advice might even lead to investment decisions that are good for the broker but bad for you.

Access to online tools: Many of todays online trading companies offer customers an impressive suite of tools to help optimize trades. For example, sites such as TradeKing, Interactive Brokers and Motif offer a robust selection of tools designed to give customers immediate access to valuable information.

Option to monitor investments in real time: Many online trading sites offer stock quotes and trade information that make it easy for people to see how their investments are doing in real time. Companies such as Scottrade and TradeKing, for example, offer customers access to streaming data. You get real-time quotes, stock market news and more.

For some traders, this one-stop, at-a-glance convenience trumps picking up the phone and calling a broker, turning on the television, or even going to a different website to get market information.

Drawbacks

Easier to invest too much too fast: Because online trading is so easy  you basically push a button  there is the risk of making poor investment choices or overinvesting.

The Securities and Exchange Commission warns investors that although it takes just a nanosecond to make a trade, real investment decisions require time. Investors who are not used to fast-moving markets can get caught up in the excitement. Before they know what hit them, they can lose a lot of money.

Online investors can protect themselves by understanding the stocks they are buying and setting up safeguards in fast-paced markets. Placing a limit order on your account is one way to control what you buy and how much of it.

No personal relationships with brokers: By and large, online traders are on their own. They dont have a broker to help them navigate the uncertain waters of the stock market.

From getting help on how to create an investment strategy to understanding how the results of feedback mechanisms affect the market, online traders are left to their own devices.

Experts often stress the importance of research, particularly for new traders. You need to learn as much as you can about the companies in which you invest.

SEC filings are a great place to start. Public companies are required to submit detailed information to the SEC on a regular basis, including specifics about company finances, potential conflicts and risk factors. The public can access this information online.

Addictive nature: Online traders can experience a certain high when trading that is similar to what people experience when gambling, according to a recent report on excessive trading published in the journal Addictive Behaviors.

The report noted that some investors choose short-term trading strategies that involve investing in risky stocks offering the potential for large gains but also significant losses.

The structure itself of the two activities (gambling and trading) is very close, the study concluded.

Internet-dependent: Youre at the mercy of your Internet connection. If the connection is too slow or is interrupted, you can lose out on a potentially important or lucrative trade.

The SEC recommends investors have a backup plan in case they are cut off from the Internet. Find out if your online trading firm has alternatives to making trades on the Internet.

Many firms allow customers to use a touch-tone phone ordering system, and others even provide live brokers to take orders.

Buying errors due to computer missteps: With online trading, to assume a trade was not completed can cost you money. Investors who believe their trade was not completed might make the trade again and end up investing twice as much as intended.

Check with your broker about how to verify canceled trades. The SEC warns that simply receiving an electronic cancellation receipt is not necessarily sufficient evidence that the trade was canceled.

Assuming a trade was completed without seeing confirmation also is a mistake. Make sure you understand how to verify trades and review statements.
In the past month or so the picture that weve gotten of the restaurant industry hasnt exactly been a promising one. Dunkin Donuts saw traffic slip at its U.S. locations in the latest quarter. Potbelly Sandwich Works said it expects to be challenged by a more cautious consumer in the near future. And McDonalds said its sales were hampered by a broad-based retreat from dining out.

Talk of a restaurant recession has been percolating on the Internet after an investment bank analyst used the provocative phrase in a research note to describe where the dining industry  and the overall economy  might be headed. So whats going on here? Here, we break down a few popular theories.

Theory 1: This is an early, foreboding sign that consumers are starting to pull back on their spending. This is the most frightening of the possibilities, because if its right, it suggests the broader economy could be poised for a slowdown. But its also the explanation that seems toughest to prove.

Lets start with the factors that are causing the hand-wringing. For one, restaurants have been one of the bright spots of the broader retail industry for years now, but recent data suggest business is getting gloomier.

NPD Group, a market research company, found that visits to fast-casual eateries fell in the most recent quarter for the first time since it began tracking them in 2004. Trade publication Nations Restaurant News found that sales at publicly traded restaurants saw a median decline of 1.7 percent in the second quarter.

Theres some anecdotal evidence, too, that seems discouraging. Michael ODonnell, the chief executive of the parent company of Ruths Chris Steak House, told investors in late July that its a la carte dining business is struggling. Unlike its happy hour or private events business, that area is usually fueled by what he called aspirational diners, who might go to the steakhouse for a birthday or anniversary dinner.

Mark Kalinowski, a restaurant industry analyst for Nomura, said he believes restaurant sales can offer the earliest hints of an economic downshift.

How you eat and what youre spending money on to eat tends to be a very real-time decision by literally hundreds of millions of people, Kalinowski said.

But before you fret that economic storm clouds are forming, consider that there are plenty of other indications these fears are overblown.

Healthy consumer spending is what powered GDP growth in the second quarter. The National Retail Federation recently bumped up its forecast for industrywide growth for the year, saying factors such as high consumer confidence drove the decision.

And then theres the fact that some retailers have seen shoppers coming out in full force. Home Depot recorded a 6 percent increase in revenue in its most recent quarter, and sales were up 8.1 percent for items that cost more than $900. TJX Cos., the parent of T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, saw total sales soar 7 percent. Within the restaurant industry, Dominos Pizza and Papa Johns had a solid quarter.

Theory 2: Grocery shopping is looking like a good deal right now. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, prices for food at home  a proxy for grocery store prices  fell 0.2 percent in July and have declined 1.6 percent over the past 12 months. Meanwhile, the food away from home category has seen prices move in the opposite direction: They notched up 0.2 percent in July and 2.8 percent over the previous year.

Executives from McDonalds, Wendys and Jack in the Box each mentioned this pattern on their most recent earnings calls because they believe the wide gap in prices was a challenge to their sales in the most recent quarter. And it indeed seems plausible that some shoppers saw such good comparative value at the grocery store they might have backed off from eating out. Plus, big chains such as Whole Foods Market are making a push around prepared foods, which offer more direct competition to quick-service and fast-casual restaurant players.

Theory 3: These earnings reports arent capturing the full picture. Of the 25 largest restaurant brands in the United States this quarter, Kalinowski said, only one likely posted an increase of 5 percent or better in sales at restaurants open more than a year. That would be the lowest number of restaurants hitting that threshold in any quarter this decade, he said.

But that doesnt necessarily mean things are looking rough out there. It just means business is tough for those particular mega-brands. It doesnt tell us much about how regional players or independent outposts are faring.

Ultimately, consumers are spreading their purchasing across a broader range of brands, said Darren Tristano, president of restaurant research firm Technomic.

And then there are the customers who are lining up at local restaurants. The earnings of the big restaurant companies do little to illuminate what is going on with these experience-oriented consumers, who are dining out almost as a hobby.
Some counties in Nebraska have no attorneys whatsoever and, no, that is not a good thing.

Wayne State College has announced a partnership with the University of Nebraska College of Law to generate more attorneys for rural practice.

The Rural Law Opportunities Program is designed to recruit students from rural areas and train them to become lawyers who will return to rural communities.

Wayne State reports that there is a shortage of attorneys in rural places. The college said 12 counties in Nebraska currently have no attorneys.

Only students from rural Nebraska will be considered. Rural Nebraska is defined as all areas of the state except Lincoln and the metro Omaha area.

Upon completion of program requirements (3.5 grade-point average or better, 154 LSAT score or better), several Wayne State students will be provisionally accepted by the NU College of Law unless there is information that reflects poorly on the applicants character.

UNL solicits comments as accreditation nears

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln seeks public comment about the university as it prepares for evaluation by an accrediting body.

UNL will host a visit Oct. 24 and 25 from the Higher Learning Commission, the regional group that has accredited the university since 1913.

The team will review UNLs ability to meet the commissions accreditation criteria, which may be viewed at this link.

The public may send written, signed comments to Third Party Comment on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Higher Learning Commission, 230 S. LaSalle St., Suite 7-500, Chicago, IL 60604-1411.

Comments also may be submitted on the commissions website.

Observations should address substantive matters related to the quality of the university. All comments must be received by Sept. 24.

Iowa State enrollment rises to its largest number yet

Iowa State University reported fall enrollment of 36,660, the largest in school history.

The university in Ames said that its previous record was last falls 36,001.

Over the past decade, Iowa State reported, enrollment has gone up 44 percent, by close to 11,200 students.

The student body includes members from each Iowa county, every U.S. state and 125 countries.
CHEROKEE, Iowa (AP)  More than a year after two of Iowas four mental health facilities were closed, the institute in Cherokee is operating similarly to how it had in recent years.

Apprehension had run through Cherokee in 2009, when state officials explored closing one or more of the states four mental health institutes. The loss of the northwest Iowa campus would have delivered a $24 million hit to the local economy.

But the facility, which has treated patients for 114 years, survived possible cuts a second time in seven years, the Sioux City Journal reported.

The state in July 2015 closed the mental health institutes in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda. The closings, however, have not resulted in more patients being treated in Cherokee or the other remaining institute, in Independence.

Cherokee still has 36 beds  24 for adults and 12 for children  and remains full most days, said Cory Turner, superintendent of the institute.

In 2015, 552 people were served with an average stay of 34 days for adults and nine days for children. That compares with 539 in 2014, with the stay slightly shorter for adults.

The number of Cherokee Mental Health Institute employees also has remained constant, Turner said.

The closings of the two facilities havent really affected us, from a patient perspective or from even a staffing perspective. We havent lost positions or funding, Turner said.

Following a plan by Gov. Terry Branstad to move to community-based mental health care services and away from larger institutions, the closings at Mount Pleasant and Clarinda were made because of difficulty in recruiting clinical staff, a declining number of people served and high costs to serve them.

Iowa Department of Human Services spokeswoman Amy McCoy said private agencies can provide some services at one-fourth the cost of whats delivered by the state institutes.

When the Clarinda and Mount Pleasant facilities were shut down, three patients were transferred to Cherokee.

Cherokee stayed off the state chopping block by having national accreditation, meeting rigorous standards in providing modern care and operating the states only civil commitment unit for sex offenders.

McCoy and Turner said there are no plans for the state to close the Cherokee institute.

Copyright 2016 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Bellevue Public Schools voters who havent made up their minds about the districts proposed bond issue are running out of time.

Ballots for the districts special mail-in election on its first bond issue in decades are due Tuesday by 5 p.m.

The district is asking voters to consider a $76 million plan for building maintenance, technology upgrades and security enhancements. It would bring a $193.56 annual increase in property taxes on a $100,000 home.

Voters who havent mailed the ballots back can return them to the Sarpy County Election Commission Office, 501 Olson Drive, Suite 4, in Papillion. The office is open 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Monday through Friday.

There also is a drop box for ballots outside of the office that can be used until 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Property taxes are dominating the conversation in western Douglas Countys Legislative District 39, and both candidates for the seat say they have a plan for reducing the tax burden.

The race pits veteran Republican Lou Ann Linehan against a longtime Elkhorn-area farmer, Democrat Bill Armbrust. The winner will replace State Sen. Beau McCoy, who cant run this year because of term limits.

Both candidates say their strengths include building coalitions and bridging the urban-rural divide.

But they differ on how they would tackle lowering property taxes, as well as issues such as charter schools, expanding Medicaid and the Learning Community.

Armbrust opposes charter schools and voucher programs; Linehan says shes open to the idea. Armbrust supports expanding Medicaid, and Linehan opposes it. Linehan would abolish the Learning Community, while Armbrust said he likes a new law that eliminates the common levy but allows the entity to continue to collect its own tax.

Linehan and Armbrust are the two survivors of the most expensive primary battle of 2016.

In the one-on-one battle Linehan has a party advantage; of more than 30,000 registered voters in the district, 56 percent are Republicans, 21 percent are Democrats and 22 percent are nonpartisan.

But Armbrust said hes counting on his longtime involvement in the Elkhorn community and his nonpartisan message to carry him through.

And he said that although he raised less money than his opponents, hes happy that his support comes mostly from individuals and labor unions.

I wont be owned by anybody, he said. I represent the people of this district, not anybody thats funding my campaign.

On property taxes, Armbrust said he thinks Nebraskans have high standards for quality of life issues, such as education. And he said his philosophy as a legislator would be to fight to maintain Nebraskans quality of life.

He said he thinks people are OK with paying taxes as long as they are sure the government is spending money efficiently.

So the solution to property taxes, he said, is finding ways to make sure government programs are as efficient as possible, then making cuts from there.

After thats done, Armbrust said he sees a need to redistribute the tax burden so that property taxes would be lower, though he said he doesnt have a specific proposal.

Another major issue for Armbrust is his support for medical cannabis. In the previous session senators were three votes short of cutting off debate on a bill that would have allowed medical cannabis for people suffering from conditions, including certain types of cancer, terminal illnesses, ALS, Parkinsons disease, severe epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV and opioid addiction. Those three votes effectively killed the issue for the year.

Linehan, who has been active in the Nebraska Republican Party for decades and served as chief of staff to former U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel, also sees property taxes as the top issue on District 39 voters minds.

For her, its also personal: Four years ago, when she and her husband were trying to decide what was next for them, she suggested they could retire. He replied that property taxes were too high.

I said Theyre not that bad.  But, as it turns out, she said, They are that bad.

So now Linehan wants to join the Legislature to fix the problem.

In the short term, as a freshman senator, she said she would follow the lead of Gov. Pete Ricketts and legislative leaders such as Sen. Jim Smith of Papillion.

In the long term, she hopes to make her mark in education.

She said the key is to make sure that by the time a Nebraska student graduates from high school, he or she has the skills to get a job.

You cannot have a large number of kids graduate high school  or not graduate high school  and theyre not employable, she said. That has to stop.

That means reaching as far back as elementary school to make sure students have the tools to be successful.

And she said she believes everything should be considered, including charter schools and private school vouchers.

Linehan spent more than $120,000 to prevail over Republican Pat Borchers in the primary. That makes her the highest spender of any legislative candidate in the state during the primary. Borchers was the second. Armbrust spent about $16,000 in the primary.

Linehan won the primary with 38 percent of the vote, while Armbrust garnered 32 percent and Borchers received 30 percent.

*******

About the candidates

Bill Armbrust

Age: 58

Party: Democratic

Occupation: cattleman and farmer

Home: Elkhorn

Public offices held: Elkhorn Suburban Fire District

Education: bachelors degree, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Family: married; three children, three stepchildren

Faith: Lutheran

Lou Ann Linehan

Age: 60

Party: Republican

Occupation: consultant

Home: Linehan

Public offices held: none

Education: working on a degree at University of Nebraska at Omaha

Family: married; four children

Faith: Catholic
Dozens of balloons scattered across the sky above Omaha on Sunday in remembrance of those who have taken their own lives.

The balloon release was part of the annual Out of the Darkness Walk.

More than 3,000 attended this years event, which helped the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention raise more than $100,000, said Aileen Brady, chair of the Nebraska chapter of that organization.

I dont know if weve ever been this crowded, Brady said.

Many individuals at the event walked to remember a loved one, friend or co-worker. That more than 3,000 would turn out is a reminder, organizers said, that people affected by suicide are not alone.

Suicide is the leading cause of death for youths ages 10 to 14 in Nebraska and the 11th leading cause of death for Nebraskans overall, according to the suicide prevention organization.

The young lives we are losing is just heartbreaking, Brady said.

Events such as Sundays help raise money for research, support families and survivors of suicide and generally raise awareness of suicide as a public health problem.

The 5-kilometer walk was held at the Lewis & Clark Landing in downtown Omaha. The Nebraska chapter hosts walks throughout the year, with upcoming events in Beatrice and Alliance. All walks are organized by volunteers.

We dont want people to feel ashamed about what happened in their lives, said Janice Hurtado-Aeppli, central division senior director of the suicide prevention group.

The goal of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is to reduce by 20 percent the annual suicide rate in America by the year 2025.

Weve got a lot of work to do, Brady said.
LINCOLN (AP)  The family of a woman who died this summer in Whiteclay, Nebraska, hopes an investigation will yield answers about the circumstances of her death.

Authorities have said Sherry Wounded Foot of Porcupine, South Dakota, died of head trauma, but they havent released many details of the investigation, and no arrests have been made.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that relatives said another family member died in 2012 in the Nebraska town that sells millions of cans of beer annually near South Dakotas Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Sherry Wounded Foot was found Aug. 5 behind the Lakota HOPE Ministry building and was taken by ambulance to a hospital. Authorities didnt initially think she had been assaulted until family members reported it the next day.

She died on Aug. 17 after family members decided to end life support measures.

Family members say they never learned what happened to Sanford Wounded Foot after his death in 2012. He was found beaten on Whiteclays main street.

Sherry Wounded Foots oldest son, Logan Lafferty, said he fears no one will ever be charged in his mothers death, either.

Each death in Whiteclay seems like nobody could care less, like us Natives arent human, he said.

Sheridan County Attorney Jamian Simmons said the investigation into Sherry Wounded Foots death is active and ongoing.

Activists urged the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission again last week to shut down Whiteclays four beer stores because the town lacks a permanent law enforcement presence.

Whiteclay has claimed another life, said John Maisch, a former Oklahoma alcohol regulator who made a documentary about the town of about a dozen residents. Whiteclay is a lawless place.

Alcohol is banned on the reservation, but alcohol-related problems are rampant. An estimated one in four children on the reservation is born with fetal alcohol syndrome.

Copyright 2016 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
UPDATE, 10 P.M.: Hillary Clinton is calling off plans to visit the West Coast on Monday and Tuesday following a health episode at the 9/11 memorial.

The Democratic nominee was scheduled to attend fundraisers on Monday and Tuesday in California, and tape an episode of Ellen DeGeneres' talk show.  AP

* * * *

UPDATE, 4:30 p.m.: The Associated Press is reporting that a doctor says Hillary Clinton was diagnosed Friday with pneumonia and was put on antibiotics. The doctor said Clinton was "recovering nicely" after the 9/11 event.

* * * *

Hillary Clinton left a New York memorial service marking the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks early after feeling "overheated," according to a campaign spokesman, and video of her departure showed her buckling and stumbling as she got into her van.

"Secretary Clinton attended the September 11th Commemoration Ceremony for just an hour and thirty minutes this morning to pay her respects and greet some of the families of the fallen," spokesman Nick Merrill said. "During the ceremony, she felt overheated, so departed to go to her daughter's apartment and is feeling much better."

A video circulated on Twitter appeared to show Clinton leaving the commemoration at Ground Zero. Flanked by several Secret Service agents who are regulars on her detail, Clinton can be seen leaning against a security bollard while agents prepare to help her into a black van. As she steps forward, Clinton can be seen stumbling and buckling as agents help lift her into the van.

One individual familiar with the incident and who knows members of the security detail confirmed that Clinton felt ill and dizzy and that she wobbled as she got in the van.

"However, all details were reporting heat-related matters/issues," the individual said. "This is actually common and anticipated for events such as this."

Later, shortly before noon, Clinton was seen leaving daughter Chelsea's apartment. She waved and left in her motorcade.

"I'm feeling great, it's a beautiful day in New York," Clinton said as she walked out.

Clinton's rival, Republican Donald Trump, has for more than nine months questioned Clinton's health, saying that she doesn't have the "strength" or "stamina" for the presidency and accusing her of being "exhausted" and sleeping too much.

Neither Trump nor his aides responded immediately for requests for comment Sunday. But the attacks have intensified in the past month as unverified and often debunked theories about Clinton's health have floated around the Internet.

Clinton arrived at the memorial at 8:18 am and greeted Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and his wife as she exited her van, according to the pool.

Reporters traveling with Clinton became aware about 9:36 a.m that she was no longer in the place where she had been standing. By 9:48 a.m., her campaign confirmed that Clinton had left the viewing area as early as 9:30 a.m.

Clinton's daughter lives on East 26th Street, in the Gramercy neighborhood of lower Manhattan  about a 15-minute drive from Ground Zero.

Just before noon, it was 82 degrees and humid at Ground Zero, though it was probably a bit cooler when Clinton left two hours earlier. Reporters traveling with Clinton could not see her directly, but the politicians around her were all standing and packed tightly together. It was not clear if she was standing in direct sunlight, but there was not much shade anywhere at the service.

Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., told MSNBC that Clinton seemed "perfectly normal" when he encountered her earlier at the ceremony. He noted that it "was incredibly stifling" at the event and several people were sweating through their clothes.

Clinton walked out of Chelsea Clinton's apartment wearing the same dark blue suit and sunglasses she had been wearing at the memorial. She waved, smiled and paused to talk to a young child.

"Yes, thank you, very much," Clinton responded when asked by a reporter whether she was feeling better.

Clinton has been generally healthy as an adult, with the exception of clotting in one leg in 1996 and a concussion and associated health problems from a fall in December 2012. But she has been repeatedly criticized by conservatives and accused of hiding more serious health issues.

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, a close adviser to Trump who is regularly at his side on the campaign trail, said last month that he thinks Clinton is "tired" and "looks sick."

"What you've got to do is go online," Giuliani said on "Fox News Sunday" in late August, accusing the media of hiding information about Clinton's health. "So, go online and put down Hillary Clinton illness, take a look at the videos for yourself."

A coughing episode on Labor Day prompted a fresh round of questions about Clinton's health. During a speech during a festival in Cleveland, Clinton started coughing repeatedly at the outset of her remarks, took several sips of water and a lozenge and continued to sound hoarse as she spoke. Later that day, she interrupted a question-and-answer session with reporters in the back of her plane after she started coughing. Clinton told reporters her condition was due to "seasonal allergies."

The 2012 episode led to a brief hospitalization for a blod clot in Clinton's head. Details on Clinton's condition were initially hard to come by, but her State Department office eventually provided extensive medical information.

Clinton wore special corrective glasses for some months afterward, and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, told an audience in 2014 that it had taken about six months for his wife to recover fully. Clinton herself has said she was surprised by the illness, because she had not experienced anything like it before.

Clinton's campaign released a memo from her personal physician, Lisa Bardack, last summer, pronouncing the candidate healthy and suffering no lasting effects from the concussion.

The 2012 concussion caused concern among Clinton friends and supporters who hoped she would make a second run for the presidency, and some of whom predicted correctly that the episode would fuel speculation that Clinton was too frail to be commander in chief.

Her campaign dismisses any suggestion that the candidate, who is 68, is not up to the job, while suggesting that the speculation is an example of a sexist double standard not applied to male candidates.

Clinton seemed upbeat and sometimes jovial as she engaged with reporters several times on her campaign plane last week. However, as rumors have mounted about Clinton's health in recent weeks, her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, has inserted a short section into his speeches about how much stamina she has.

During a keynote address Saturday night at a Human Rights Campaign dinner, Kaine said he is "amazed when Donald Trump makes fun of Hillary Clinton's stamina and energy because I got added to the ticket 100 days out, and I'm already getting lapped by her."

"I can't imagine the stamina and energy it takes to run this campaign for 18 months," Kaine added. "This is one determined lady."

Sarah Dirkes, Jamie Relle, Caitlyn Cockran, and Elizabeth Ward were sitting at brunch at the Black Barn, a restaurant next door to Chelsea Clinton's building, when they saw Hillary Clinton emerge at about 11:45 a.m.

"She looked fine," said Ward, who was just finishing up her brunch.

"Great sunglasses," added Dirkes.

A little girl ran up to Clinton and asked for a photo with her. The Democratic nominee obliged, and waved to other brunchers at Black Barn before getting in a car and departing.

* * * * *

More 9/11 coverage:
BEIRUT (AP)  A cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia is set to begin at sunset in Syria amid mixed messages of commitment from various rebel factions but with verbal backing by President Bashar Assads government.

Assad made a rare public appearance Monday, attending prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha at a mosque in the suburb of Daraya, which surrendered last month after four years of government siege.

The cease-fire deal hammered out between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva last week allows the Syrian government to continue to strike at the Islamic State group and al-Qaida-linked militants, until the U.S. and Russia take over the task in one weeks time.

Rebel factions have expressed deep reservations about the deal.
Moore, Terry Lancer, Jr. Sep 6, 1969 - Sep 7, 2016 Preceded in death by sister, Tawni L. Moore and niece, Lita Lee Virgilito. Survived by his father, Terry Moore, President, Omaha Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, and mother, Mary Moore; stepmother, Tania Moore; sister and brother-in-law, Tara and Jim Virgilito; stepsisters, Jill and Nicole Abrahamson; numerous cherished nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles, and extended family; and countless friends. The family will receive friends Wednesday, Sept. 14th from 5pm to 7pm at St John Catholic Church, 2500 California Plaza on the campus of Creighton University, with VIGIL SERVICE at 7pm at the church. MASS OF CHRISTIAN BURIAL Thursday, Sept. 15th at 10am at St. John Catholic Church, Creighton University. Entombment, Resurrection Mausoleum. In lieu of flowers, memorials to The Salvation Army Kroc Center in South Omaha. HEAFEY-HOFFMANN-DWORAK-CUTLER BEL AIR CHAPEL 12100 W. Center Rd. 402-391-3900 www.heafeyheafey.com
The president of the United States lands with all the majesty of Air Force One, waiting to exit the front door and stride down the rolling staircase to the red-carpeted tarmac. Except there is no rolling staircase. He is forced to exit  as one China expert put it rather undiplomatically  through the ass of the plane.

This happened at Hangzhou airport. Yes, in China. If the Chinese didnt invent diplomatic protocol, they surely are its most venerable and experienced practitioners. Theyve been at it for 4,000 years. They are the masters of every tributary gesture, every nuance of hierarchical ritual.

In a land so exquisitely sensitive to protocol, rolling staircases dont just disappear at arrival ceremonies. Indeed, not one of the other G-20 world leaders was left stranded on his plane upon arrival.

Did President Xi Jinping directly order airport personnel and diplomatic functionaries to deny Barack Obama a proper welcome? Who knows? But the message, whether intentional or not, wasnt very subtle. The authorities expressed no regret, no remorse and certainly no apology. On the contrary, they scolded the press for even reporting the snub.

No surprise. Chinas ostentatious rudeness was perfectly reflective of the worlds general disdain for President Obama. His high-minded lectures about global norms and demands that others live up to their international obligations are no longer amusing. Theyre irritating.

Foreign leaders have reciprocated by taking this administration down a notch knowing they pay no price.

In May 2013, Vladimir Putin reportedly kept the U.S. secretary of state cooling his heels for three hours outside his office before deigning to receive him.

Even as Obama was hailing the nuclear deal with Iran as a great breakthrough, the ayatollah vowed no change in his policy, which remained diametrically opposed to U.S. arrogant system.

The mullahs followed by openly conducting illegal ballistic missile tests  calculating, correctly, that Obama would do nothing. And when Iran took prisoner 10 American sailors in the Persian Gulf, made them kneel and broadcast the video, what was the U.S. response? Upon their release, John Kerry publicly thanked Iran for its good conduct.

Why should Xi treat Obama with any greater deference? Beijing illegally expands into the South China Sea, meeting only the most perfunctory pushback from the U.S. Obama told CNN that he warned Xi to desist or there will be consequences. Is there a threat less credible?

Putin annexes Crimea and Obama crows about the isolation he has imposed on Russia. Look around. Moscow has become Grand Central Station for Middle East leaders seeking outside help in their various conflicts. As for Ukraine, both the French president and the German chancellor have hastened to Moscow to plead with Putin to make peace. Some isolation.

Iran regularly harasses our vessels in the Persian Gulf. Russian fighters buzzed a U.S. destroyer in the Baltic Sea. And just Wednesday, a Russian fighter flew within 10 feet of an American military jet. The price they paid? Being admonished that such provocations are unsafe and unprofessional. An OSHA citation is more ominous.

Add to that American acquiescence not just to ransoming hostages held by Iran, but to delivering the loot by unmarked plane filled with stacks of cold (untraceable) cash, like a desert drug deal.

Why the stealth? Obviously to conceal the manner of the transaction from Congress and the American public. Some humiliations are so grotesque that even the Obama team cant miss it.

Now the latest. At the G-20, Obama said he spoke to Putin about cyberwarfare, amid revelations that Russian hackers have been interfering in our political campaigns. We are more technologically advanced, both offensively and defensively, in this arena than any of our adversaries, said Obama, but we really dont want another Cold War-style arms race.

Instead, we must all adhere to norms of international behavior.

It makes you want to weep. This KGB thug adhering to norms? He invades Ukraine, annexes Crimea, bombs hospitals in Aleppo  and we expect him to observe cybercode etiquette? Rather than exploit our technological lead  with countermeasures and deterrent threats  to ensure our own cyber safety?

Were back to 1929, when Secretary of State Henry Stimson shut down a U.S. code-breaking operation after it gave him decoded Japanese telegrams. He famously explained that gentlemen do not read each others mail.

Well, comrade, Putin is no gentleman. And hes reading our mail.
Donald Trump is shifting to responsible candidate mode now, so his remarks on foreign policy last week sounded relatively restrained  until you begin parsing the details.

Lets start with Trumps comment in the NBC forum that after invading Iraq, his policy would have been to take the oil. Thats what many Arabs, in their most extreme conspiracy theories, believe U.S. intervention was all about.

His argument that seizing the oil would have stopped the Islamic State is probably backward. It would have been a recruiting tool.

There was a raw neo-imperialist tone to Trumps rhetoric. When moderator Matt Lauer pressed him on how he would have done that (or would do it in the future), heres how Trump responded: We would leave a certain group behind and you would take various sections where they have the oil. . . . You know, it used to be to the victor belong the spoils. Now, there was no victor there, believe me. . . . But I always said, take the oil.

For Islamic State propagandists, Trump is the gift that keeps on giving.

In a forum aimed at testing the candidates fitness to be commander in chief, Trump showed a disdain for the architecture on which U.S. security is built. That came through in his strident criticism of U.S. military leadership.

Thanks to President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the generals have been reduced to rubble, he said. Its embarrassing for our country, and if Trump were elected, theyll probably be different generals who can defeat the Islamic State in the manner of Gen. George Patton, who is spinning in his grave.

Presidents can appoint new generals, to be sure. Abraham Lincoln famously relieved Gen. George McClellan, convinced that he had the slows in pursuing the Confederates.

But the modern U.S. military is a supremely professional force that provides nonpartisan military advice. Trumps assertion that men and women who have been at war for 15 years are rubble and embarrassing is extraordinary. It would not have been made by anyone who knows the current senior military leadership.

If Trump wants to be taken seriously on national security issues, he needs to understand that theres near-unanimity among military leaders that it would be a mistake to insert a large U.S. ground force in Iraq or Syria.

If he has an alternative, what is it? His talk about not wanting to broadcast to the enemy his secret plan for victory wont hold up over the next two months.

A third head-scratcher came in Trumps discussion of the intelligence briefing he received last month.

The correct answer would have been to say: Im not going to discuss a secret briefing. What Trump did instead was insidious: He implied that Obama had ignored policy recommendations from the intelligence community and did not follow ... what our experts said to do.

Trump knew this because hes pretty good with body language and could tell that (the analysts) were not happy.

This reflects a chronic misunderstanding of how the intelligence process works. Analysts do not make policy recommendations. Its a violation of their basic tradecraft.

What they do, at best, is offer honest, unsentimental assessments of whether policies are working. Over the decades, theyve offered withering assessments of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria, to name just a few. But that doesnt mean they offered policy direction.

If Trump gets another intelligence briefing, it should be prefaced with an admonition: Mr. Candidate: Nothing in this session should be construed as policy advice.

The final jaw-dropper was Trumps enthusiasm for Russian President Vladimir Putin. If he says great things about me, Im gonna say great things about him. Ive already said he is really very much of a leader. . . . I mean, the man has very strong control over a country.

The Trump-Putin bromance is becoming genuinely frightening. Putin has invaded Crimea. He is fighting a proxy war in Ukraine. He has intervened in Syria, tipping the military balance in the Middle East. His thugs are assaulting U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers overseas.

Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warns that Putins Russia poses an existential threat to the U.S.

And Trumps response is I think that Ill be able to get along with him.

His vision of foreign policy seems to be a kind of authoritarian big guys club  stealing other countries oil, sacking generals, politicizing intelligence and buddying up to a Russian leader whos running a covert action against the American political system.

Really, was this the presentation of a man who would be commander in chief?
The continued growth in the University of Nebraskas enrollment, up 1.3 percent from last fall with records set at various campuses, shows forward momentum stemming from the quality of NUs offerings and the strength of its marketing.

NU officials have set ambitious, best-case enrollment goals: 35,000 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (25,897 now) by about 2025 and 20,000 at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (15,627 now) by 2020.

Those stretch goals underscore the campuses commendable aspirations to enhance their reputations and programs.

Higher enrollment brings particular challenges. NUs success in boosting student numbers means campuses must be energetic in helping freshmen navigate their first-year uncertainties and ultimately graduate on time.

Forty-five percent of UNOs 2,069 freshmen this fall are first-generation college students, for example.

NU laudably has increased its outreach so that nearly a third of UNOs incoming freshmen are students of color, and at UNL the figure is 17 percent.

The university has the obligation to send the message that its campuses are welcoming places with well-designed supports for all students, regardless of background, so they maximize their opportunities and progress successfully toward completion of their studies.

A fifth year in college can add about 20 percent to the cost of a bachelors degree, Nebraska lawmakers were told during a hearing last year.

These challenges arent news to NU leaders and faculty. The university system has implemented its Commit to Complete strategy to help students manage their college career.

UNL received national attention last year when a study indicated it had done better than 255 other colleges in narrowing the gap between white and black graduation rates over the past decade.

Even so, UNLs minority graduation rate in 2013 was 56.2 percent, and the national rate was 50.1 percent. Universities here and nationwide generally have far to go in ensuring needed improvements on this score.

The NU enrollment figures for the new academic year provide encouragement in various ways besides the overall increase to a record 52,515. Some examples:

 The University of Nebraska Medical Center broke an enrollment record for the 16th straight year. The College of Dentistry, with a total enrollment of 274, has an incoming dental class of 33 rural and 15 urban students and an incoming dental hygiene class of 14 rural and 10 urban students  an encouraging development, given UNMCs effort to address Nebraskas rural health needs.

 UNL boosted its number of out-of-state freshmen by some 18.3 percent over last year. Significant increases included the numbers from Illinois (up 9.8 percent), Minnesota (up 8 percent) and Colorado (up 11.1 percent).

 International students at UNL now total 2,787, an increase of 10.4 percent from a year ago. Nonresidents now account for 31.4 percent of all students at UNL.

 The University of Nebraska at Kearney is focusing on issues such as support for first-generation college students rather than specific increases in enrollment. Still, UNKs freshmen total of 1,008 is up by 70 from a year ago, and its total enrollment of 6,788 exceeds last years by 41 students.

NU campuses can take pride in their increased numbers, even as they strive to meet the big obligations that accompany the growth and outreach.
Getting grilled is part of the job

The World-Heralds Jeff Koterba was spot on with his Sept. 8 editorial cartoon showing Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts and Corrections Director Scott Frakes upset about being grilled.

In a free society, we should expect our public officials to be grilled when our government is not operating as it should be.

Governor, do you want some cheese with your whine?

Dale Rezac, Omaha

Helping out struggling wealthy companies

Tax-increment financing for HDR Inc.s planned new corporate headquarters at Aksarben Village (HDR might get city help for its new home base, Sept. 6 World-Herald)? Smells like rich folks welfare to me.

Don ONeill, Omaha

Bill isnt complete without restaurant tax

I read the article about Baela Rose, a new restaurant in Dundee, with interest (Bridging fine and casual dining, Sept 8 World-Herald). It sounds like a good place to go. But I may not, due to one point that is overlooked.

The article states: Now, think about a similar plate, one creative, elegant and tasty, but with a price tag of $12 served in a casual chic atmosphere.

Sorry, but that $12 plate will cost me more when you include the restaurant tax, which Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert promised to repeal.

Ill at least try to keep my money in Papillion. Theres no equivalent to Baela Rose here, but I can at least attempt to avoid paying the Omaha restaurant tax when possible.

Bill Mahoney, Papillion

Ashford flip-flops on Islamic State threat

Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Ashford is misleading voters with his new ad indicating that he understands the threat the Islamic State poses.

In a June 12 World-Herald article, Ashford said, Whats clear is that weve turned the tide on ISIS. That was the same day as the Orlando nightclub shooting by a man who had pledged his allegiance to ISIS. Now, in the new ad, he calls it a direct threat to every American.

Ashford cannot decide if the Islamic State is a problem or a dying issue.

However, his Republican opponent for the 2nd District seat, retired Brig. Gen. Don Bacon, understands the seriousness of the Islamic State. He served in the Middle East and has the background and knowledge to help defeat the Islamic State.

Our country needs decisive leaders. It needs Don Bacon.

Brandon Lewis, Omaha

Much ado about emails

When will we discuss real issues instead of nonstories, such as Hillary Clintons emails?

Seriously, there were over 62,000 emails during her time as secretary of state, and a small handful of them were confidential. Its time to move on.

As for her stating she couldnt remember some of the details during her interview with the FBI, it was 62,000 emails! No one has that good of a memory.

As for Donald Trump, he is on tape making inflammatory statements, and he still denies it.

Who has the faulty memory?

Jeff Johnston, Elmwood, Neb.

Trump doesnt understand history

The best predictor of the future is a thorough understanding of the past. During Wednesdays commander in chief forum, Donald Trump told the world that the biggest mistake we made in the Iraq War was not taking the oil.

Can you imagine what our global standing would be if we had invaded Iraq only to confiscate its oil? The world would have gone crazy, and the United States would have been viewed as an opportunistic, mercenary, colonial power.

Trump said that it used to be to the victors belong the spoils. At the end of World War I, the victors took the spoils, demanding harsh reparations. How did that work out? Just 20 years later, we were involved in World War II.

After that war, the United States created the Marshall Plan, which rebuilt the economies of the defeated and war-torn nations. Its been more than 70 years since the last world war.

If judgment is called for from our commander in chief, Trump proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has none.

James P. Laakso, Omaha

A Putin wannabe

Donald Trump is a cheap knock-off of the Russian oligarchs he clearly admires. He conducts shady business deals but still has to file for bankruptcy. He incites violence against political rivals but only gives them a stronger platform. He tries to leverage the media to gain authority but forgets that power comes from the people, not ratings.

Trump campaigns on the offensive idea that America is not great.

Vladimir Putins Russia is at the center of numerous and growing threats to American and global security. It is actively growing its nuclear program, engaging in territorial expansion and promoting cyberattacks against American institutions.

We must not elect Trump, who wants to be like Putin.

Hillary Clinton has a record of standing up to Russia. As secretary of state, she fought to pass the New START treaty to reduce Russias deployed nuclear arsenal. She supports strengthening our military so we are able to resist violent expansionism. And she understands we must do more to protect Americans from cyberattacks.

Jim Magill, Papillion

Clintons resume of failure

I have been reading Public Pulse letters that attest to the amazing qualifications of Hillary Clinton.

As I recall, the qualifications for president are quite simple. Be a citizen and be 35 years old. Since my age is more than twice that, I must be really qualified.

Forget qualifications and look at success. Donald Trump has obviously had success. He has made a ton of money.

Clinton, on the other hand, has a long history of failure. In the Senate, she did nothing. Her term as secretary of state was a disaster. She even failed as a candidate for president in 2008.

When you add in her trust issues and her handling of her email, she cannot be believed.

Cecil Parker, Holdrege, Neb.

Two-person debate isnt democratic

The presidential debates are the most important events in our election process. We cant have real democracy without a free exchange of ideas and an informed public.

The debates should give voters the opportunity to see all the candidates discuss important issues in an unscripted manner so that the people can make informed decisions about the direction of our country.

The debates should include all candidates who are on enough state ballots to be able to win the presidency. In 2016, that would mean four candidates in the debates  Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Republican candidate Donald Trump, Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.

The Commission on Presidential Debates, which is actually controlled by the Democratic and Republican Parties, stifles democracy by locking out independent candidates from the debates. The right to vote means little unless we have the right to know who we can vote for.

As de facto leaders of their parties, Trump and Clinton could be champions of democracy by working to end the monopoly of the Commission on Presidential Debates that prevents voters from hearing a full debate on the issues facing the nation, and demand four-way debates in 2016.

Will Clinton and Trump stand for American democracy or against it?

Andy Dundis, Washington, Neb.

Johnson held to a different standard

Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson on MSNBCs Morning Joe was asked, What would you do, if you were elected, about Aleppo? Johnson asked what Aleppo was.

Aleppo is a city in Syria and is the source of a great deal of the refugee problem facing the world today. Mind you, the question wasnt what he would do about the refugee problem in Aleppo, just, What would you do ... about Aleppo? There was no context.

Apparently the media thinks this should disqualify Johnson for the presidency.

Yet, Hillary Clinton has repeatedly stated that her vote to give President George W. Bush the authority to go to war in Iraq was a mistake  a mistake that cost the lives of nearly 5,000 of our finest and wounded tens of thousands more. Did the media say that was a disqualifier for the presidency?

In May 2008, Barack Obama stated that he had campaigned in 57 of the states. Apparently, the media didnt think that disqualified him from the office of president of the United States.

So, not immediately recognizing the name Aleppo as being a city in the Mideast is a disqualifier, but making a mistake that cost thousands of lives or not knowing how many states are in the United States arent.

Klaus P. Lindner, La Vista
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Karnataka to survey all Arabic schools to check if on same page as state board

Cauvery row: Karnataka makes midnight move, gets SC to hear plea on a holiday

Bengaluru

oi-Vicky

Bengaluru, Sept 12: After moving the Supreme Court at midnight, Karnataka will get to argue the Cauvery waters case on Monday, despite it being a holiday. Chief Justice of India, TS Thakur placed the matter before a Bench headed by Justice Dipak Mishra for urgent hearing.

Karnataka is seeking modification of the Supreme Court order of last week which had directed the release of 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu for ten days. Following this order the state of Karnataka witnesses widespread protests and even a one-day shutdown on Friday.

Karrnataka CM to Modi: Intervene or we will have no drinking water left

Karnataka in its petition has sought to modify the order. It has stated that between September 5 and 10, 66,000 cusecs of water had already been released to Tamil Nadu. While citing acute shortage of water, Karnataka says in its petition that the Samba region of Tamil Nadu has sufficient water.

The matter will come up before a Bench comprising Justice Dipak Mishra who had passed the original order on September 5. On the last date of hearing, Justice Mishra had told Karnataka to embrace the principle of "live and let live."

OneIndia News
Solar eclipse to be sighted in Bengaluru for 45 minutes: Report

Karnataka gets Rs 7 crore grant from Centre for 2 forensic labs

Raising anti-RSS slogans, three men attack Hindu youth with stones in Shivamogga

KCET counselling 2022 final seat allotment result today: How to check

Karnataka to survey all Arabic schools to check if on same page as state board

Civic body BBMP completely failed in filling potholes in Bengaluru: HC

Cauvery row: Curfew imposed in various areas of Bengaluru

Bengaluru

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Bengaluru, Sept 12: The Supreme Court on Monday modified its order and directed Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu until Sept 20. Following this, several incidents of violence were reported from Bengaluru.

Get all the live updates on the issue:

Cauvery row: Security increased in Srirampura, Okalipuram, Shivanjinagar and Prakashnagar

Photos: Bengaluru burns over Cauvery again

12.00: Curfew imposed in 9 more police station limits in Bengaluru.

11.46 pm: Kerala CM requests railway minister to arranage special trains to bring Keralaites back from Karnataka.

11.28 pm: One dead while another injured injured after police opened fire on protesters in Bengaluru's Hegganahalli area at Bengaluru.

11.12 pm: Curfew imposed in Kamakshipalya, Kengeri, Byatrayanapura, Vijaynagar, Rajainagar, Rajgopalnagar and Magadi road.

8.40 pm: Union Home Ministry seeks report on Cauvery riots.

8.14 pm: US issues advisory to its citizens in Bengaluru to avoid places of demonstration.

8.00 pm: Two people have been injured in police firing. The protestors were trying to torch a police vehicle at Hegganahalli, Rajgopalnagar, Police station limits.

7.05 pm: More than 20 buses belonging to Coimbatore based KPN travels set on fire on Mysuru road.

7.00 pm: Several buses burnt at Timber Yard layout in Bengaluru- Cauvery protests

5.57 pm: Karnataka Chief Minister calls for emergency cabinet meeting at 11.30 AM tomorrow to discuss the Cauvery issue.

5.54 pm: 10 companies of CRPF and Rapid Action Force have been sent. We have also requested for 10 more companies: Karnataka Home Minister.

5.53 pm: We have the support of the centre. We have deployed enough police personnel. We know injustice has been done to Karnataka, but please protest peacefully says Karnataka Home Minister

5.51 pm: Supervisory committee tells Karnataka it cannot supercise all reservoirs in both states (Tamil Nadu). Karnataka had asked for on field assessment of all reservoirs in both states.

5.50 pm: Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have been asked to submit data of nine years relating to water resources by Supervisory Committee on Cauvery issue which will meet again on Sepmtember 19.

5.48 pm: Nayandahalli remains very tense. Protestors vandalise a Toyota Innova

Home Minister appeals for calm. Says the Cauvery issue would be fought out legally

5.45 pm: Vehicular movement most affected on Mysuru road

5.43 pm: CRPF, RPF, CISF delpoyed. Apart from this, 20,000 homeguards and 185 KSRP platoons have also been deployed says Home Minister of Karnataka, Parameshwar

5.40 pm: Around 200 protestors have been detained in Bengaluru

5.37 pm: Supervisory committee to meet again on September 19.

5.34 PM: Supervisory Committee tells Karnataka to file a report by September 16th about the diversion of Cauvery water from the KRS dam to Tamil Nadu.

5.30 pm:As a preventive measure, Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure has been imposed in Bengaluru city from 17:00 hours. The Bengaluru police took to its Twitter account to announce the same. Earlier the commissioner had clarified that there were no prohibitory orders imposed.

5.22 pm:

As a preventive measure, Section 144CrPC is imposed in Bengaluru City from 1700 hours today. @BlrCityPolice @blrcitytraffic  Abhishek Goyal (@goyal_abhei) September 12, 2016

5.12 pm: Four people have been detained by Chennai Police in connection with petrol bomb attack at New Woodlands Hotel in Mylapore in early morning hours.

5.05 pm: Theatres stop screening movies, shut after protests erupted in the city.

5.02 pm: KSRTC stops both RTC and BMTC bus services completely, people stranded at Majestic and Shivajinagar.

5.00 pm: Cauvery-Protests staged at Yadgir by activists.

4.54 pm:

A Kannadian safely dropped a Tamilian(me) in his home at Bangalore during the tense situation. Hope this kind of #love spreads #CauveryIssue  Ramanathan (@smile_rams) September 12, 2016

4.53 pm: Youth attempts suicide in Maddur.

4.43 pm:

#CauveryProtests : We request all Bengalurians to check updates only by @BlrCityPolice for latest and genuine news/updates. @CPBlr  BengaluruCityPolice (@BlrCityPolice) September 12, 2016

4.35 pm: Indranagar, Vijaynagar remain tense. Security enhanced in Tamil dominated areas such as Tannery Road, Ulsoor.

4.32 pm: I appeal to people of both the states to maintain peace: G Parameshwara, Karnataka Home Minister.

4.28 pm: Cops telling establshments to down shutters as precautionary measure. Bengaluru witnesses traffic jams.

4.27 pm: Stones pelted at lorries bearing TN registration number near Hubli bypass.

4.23 pm: Security deployed near the statue of Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar in Bengaluru.

#CauveryIssue: Security deployed near the statue of Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar in Bengaluru. pic.twitter.com/qqpjYQQYm1  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

4.17 pm: Around 270 Cheethas (police patrol vehicles) deployed all over in Bengaluru in wake of Cauvery Protests: Police.

4.15 pm: Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah writes to the CM of Tamil Nadu Jayalalithaa over violent protests

Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah writes to the CM of Tamil Nadu Jayalalithaa over violent protests #CauveryIssue pic.twitter.com/33yPargngz  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

4.10 pm: After fresh protests, we have completely shut down Metro services till further orders: Vasant Rao, BMRCL.

4.04 pm: Bengaluru Police Commissioner has appealed for peace.

4.00 pm: Metro services which resumed briefly has now been shut down until further notice.



3.54 pm: 15,000 police personnel, 3000 home guards and 270 cheethas deployed in Bengaluru.

3.53 pm: A2B hotel attacked on Bannerghatta Road.

3.48 pm: According to TV reports, total 12 lorries, one canter have been set on fire.

3.37 pm: Metro services in Bengaluru resume.



3.33 pm: Additional Commissioner of police, Charan Reddy says situation in Bengaluru under control. Traffic jams are being cleared.

Some parts of city remain tense and heavy police presence can be seen in the city.

Commissioner of police says no section 144 imposed. Home Minister contradicts him tells a television channel that there is prohibitory order in the city.

3.30 pm: I urge Kannadigas and Tamilians across the border to maintain peace, said Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah.



3.28 pm: Police deployment heavy around Tiruvallur statue at Ulsoor.

3.25 pm: Hero Showroom in Nayandahalli set on fire, four fire tenders rush to the spot.

3.20 pm: Mantri Mall in Malleswaram forcefully shut. Meanwhile, stones thrown at Karnataka bank in Chennai.

3.15 pm: Traffic jam reported from several parts of the city including MG Road, Richmond Road, Bomanahalli.

3.12 pm: Protests reported from Narendra bypass, Dharwad.

3.00 pm: Two trucks from Tamil Nadu stoned at Hassan and Channarayapatna on Bengaluru-Mangaluru national highway.

2.55 pm: Prohibitory Order has not been Ordered to any area of Bengaluru City: Commissioner of Police.

Prohibitory Order has not been Ordered to any area of Bengaluru City by @CPBlr  BengaluruCityPolice (@BlrCityPolice) September 12, 2016

2.53 pm: Section 144 imposed in parts of Mysuru.

2.50 pm: All Kannada people in Tamil Nadu are living safely; there's no issue at all: CR Saraswathi, AIADMK

All Kannada people in Tamil Nadu are living safely; there's no issue at all: CR Saraswathi, AIADMK #CauveryIssue pic.twitter.com/CejM3ltKIa  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

2.48 pm: Three cases of vehicle burning reported around Mysuru road. Situation returning to normal says police.

2.47 pm: Charan Reddy, additional commissioner of police say normal traffic has been restored and situation is under control.

2.45 pm: Pro Kannada activists call for bandh on Tuesday.



2.37 pm: Mohandas Pai appeals to people to remain calm, says violence will not solve anything.

2.27 pm: Retired Tamil Nadu judge Shivappa's house attacked in Pandavpura.

2.25 pm: Pro-Kannada activists vandalise and set vehicles on fire in Bengaluru.

Protest over Cauvery water issue: Pro-Kannada activists vandalise & set vehicles on fire in Bengaluru. pic.twitter.com/QI2ARmLQfK  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

2.20 pm: Cauvery water issue: Police lathi-charges protesting pro-Kannada activists in Bengaluru.

Cauvery water issue: Police lathi-charges protesting pro-Kannada activists in Bengaluru. pic.twitter.com/qp6puvyduv  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

2.19 pm: Lorry with TN registration set on fire near PRS junction. TN registered qualis set on fire at Mysuru.



2.18 pm: Police increase security. Hoysala vehicles across city.



2.12 pm: Pro-Kannada activists vandalise vehicles in Bengaluru.

Protest over Cauvery water issue: Pro-Kannada activists vandalise vehicles in Bengaluru. pic.twitter.com/DoBMUSn0av  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

2.11 pm: Section 144 CRPC imposed in Bengaluru.

2.10 pm: For both states to live in peace such incidents should not occur: Karnataka CM on violent protests on Cauvery issue.

For both states to live in peace such incidents should not occur: K'taka CM on violent protests on Cauvery issue pic.twitter.com/sxFkxkssLD  ANI (@ANI_news) September 12, 2016

2.07 pm: Protests erupt in Mysore road, several shops, commercial establishments attacked.

2.06 pm: Vatal Nagraj and other protestors taken into custody.

2.04 pm: Security increased in Srirampura, Okalipuram, Shivanjinagar and Prakashnagar.

2.00 pm: Stores in Indiranagar attacked.

1.55 pm: Security has been heightened in several parts of the city after several incidents of violence.

1.52 pm: Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah to write to Tami Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa over attacks in TN.

1.45 pm: Metro train stops services following protests.

1.35 pm: Adiyar Anand Bhavan on Mysore Road attacked, stone pelted at the restaurant.

1.30 pm: Few Bengaluru schools voluntarily decide to close down fearing violence over Cauvery issue. Government has, however, not declared holiday and says some schools have taken voluntary decision, says situation is under control.

OneIndia News
Arunachal Governor J P Rajkhowa sacked

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Sept 12: Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa, who refused to quit even after being nudged by the Centre, was today sacked as Governor of Arunachal Pradesh.

A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said Rajkhowa "shall cease to hold the office of the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh".

President Pranab Mukherjee has asked Meghalaya Governor V Shanmuganathan to discharge the functions in addition to his own duties, until regular arrangements are made, it said.

Rajkhowa, who was appointed the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh on May 12, 2015, was the first gubernatorial appointee of the Modi government and has also been sacked by it after informing the President that it has "lost trust" in him.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had called on the President last week and conveyed to him that Rajkhowa's continuance in the post has become untenable after the Supreme Court's observations against him over dismissal of the Congress government in the state.

Arunachal Pradesh ratifies GST bill

The Home Minister's meeting with the President came after Rajkhowa refused to step down despite a nudge by the Centre to put in his papers after the Supreme Court passed serious strictures against him over the dismissal of the Congress government last year.

A defiant Rajkhowa had said he would not step down but was ready to be sacked. "I want the President to dismiss me. I will not resign. Let the President express his displeasure. Let the government use provisions of Article 156 of the Constitution," the Governor had told a Guwahati-based TV news channel on Monday.

Rajkhowa said he had been asked to resign "on health grounds" weeks after the Supreme Court had restored the Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh and censured him. Rajkhowa had also written to the President explaining his position and the letter was forwarded to the Home Ministry by Mukherjee.

However, when the Home Ministry submitted a detailed report on the Governor to the President, he finally sacked Rajkhowa today. Rajkhowa, a 1968 batch IAS officer, had retired as Chief Secretary of Assam before being appointed as Governor.

PTI
No one has approached us so far: Naveen Patnaik on backing NDA presidential nominee

Congress, BJD reject Shahs claim that BJP will form next government in Odisha

BJD fact-finding team submits report to Naveen Patnaik on Mahanadi barrages in C'garh

India

oi-PTI

Bhubaneswar, Sep 11 A fact-finding team of the ruling BJD, which had visited Chhattisgarh to study the barrages being built in upper reaches of the Mahanadi river, and the impact of those on Odisha today submitted its report to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Rajya Sabha MP and former minister Prasanna Acharya who led the team, and party general secretary and minister Debi Prasad Mishra presented the 23-page report to Patnaik.

"The fact-finding team that went to Chhattisgarh to examine the Hirakud water problem has just presented its report," Patnaik said here.

Refusing to disclose contents of the report, Acharya hit out at Chhattisgarh government for undertaking construction of barrages and other projects saying these would severely affect flow of the Mahanadi river water into Odisha through Hirakud Dam.

Construction works taken up in an unilateral manner is against the principles of the federal set-up, he said.

The BJD team, formed by Patnaik, who is also the party chief, had undertaken a two-day visit to Chhattisgarh last month and made spot visits to different projects being taken up on Mahanadi river and its tributaries in that state.

The team members had also spoken to Chhattisgarh officials before preparing the report, Acharya said.

Submission of the report assumes significance as the Odisha Chief Minister has suggested to the Union Water Resources Ministry that he could join the proposed tripartite talks on Mahanadi river water dispute on September 17 in Delhi.

Patnaik has also called for a preparatory meeting here tomorrow to discuss the issue threadbare ahead of the proposed tripartite talks.

PTI
Karnataka to survey all Arabic schools to check if on same page as state board

Cauvery row: Curfew imposed in several parts of Bengaluru

India

oi-Vicky

Bengaluru, Sep 13: In a bid to curb the escalating violence over the Cauvery waters issue, curfew has been imposed in several parts of Bengaluru.

The police imposed curfew in 16 police station limits of the city. Curfew has been imposed in R RNagara,K P, Agrahara, Chandralayout, Yeshwanathapura, Mahalakshmilayout, Peenya, RMC Yard, Nandini Layout, Jnanabharathi, Kamakshipalya, Kengeri, Byatrayanapura, Vijaynagar, Rajainagar, Rajgopalnagar and Magadi road.

Police are analysing the situation in other areas as well. Depending on the situation a decision on whether to impose curfew in other areas will be taken.

The police however clarified that curfew and prohibitory orders have been imposed, but no shoot at sight orders has been ordered.

Cauvery row (Live): Curfew imposed in nine more police station limits of Bengaluru

The decision to impose curfew in various parts of the city was taken owing to the volatile situation in the city.

A few hours ago one person was killed and another injured in police shooting. The two persons had attacked a police vehicle Hegganahalli and the deceased has been identified as Yogesh.

The police are taking extreme precautions as the situation is extremely volatile. Earlier nearly 52 buses at a depot were torched by a mob of 200 persons. There are 15,000 police personnel on the streets of the city who are aided by ten companies of the Rapid Action Force and also the CRPF.

Violence in the city erupted after the Supreme Court today had refused to stall the release of water to Tamil Nadu. In a modified order, the court had directed Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu until September 20.

OneIndia News
As radical as it gets: Islamists in Coimbatore, TN have merged to target Hindus, temples

Coimbatore: 24 years back and now, the radical Islamists are of the same family

Cauvery row: 52 buses set on fire at depot in Bengaluru

India

oi-Vicky

Bengaluru, Sep 12: The violence has shown no signs of dying down in Bengaluru. Protestors set fire to 52 buses belonging to the Coimbatore based KPN travels which were parked at the depot.

Around 200 people had stormed into the depot and burnt down the buses, eye witnesses reported.

Bengaluru has witnessed violence since morning over the Cauvery waters issue and since afternoon the situation has only worsened although Home Minister, G Parameshwar claimed in a press conference that the situation was brought under control.

An angry mob entered the depot at around 6.00 PM and set fire to all the buses that were parked over there. All buses bearing the Tamil Nadu registration had suspended operations since morning.

Cauvery row (Live): Emergency cabinet meeting at 11.30 AM tomorrow

Several buses, lorries and other vehicles bearing the TN registration were vandalised by protestors today.

Earlier home minister Parameshwar told the press that nearly 27 vehicles had been damaged. 10 companies of RAF and CRPF have been deployed and more than 200 people had been detained, he also said.

He also said that great injustice has been done to the people of Karnataka. However we must all protest peacefully he also appealed to the people. He also said that a cabinet meeting had been convened to discuss the issue tomorrow at 11.30 AM.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, September 12, 2016, 20:16 [IST]
Final points of Rafale contract being worked out: Govt sources

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Sep 12: The contract for 36 Rafales is in the last stages of finalisation and the multi-billion euro deal with France could be announced soon.

"Final points of the contract are being worked out. The deal is almost in final stages," government sources said. Last month, a report submitted by a team negotiating the much-anticipated Rafale deal with France was cleared by the defence ministry.

The file was then sent to the Prime Minister's office for review and clearance. Sources said the PMO had sought from Defence Ministry some clarifications on the life cycle costs and unit price of the aircraft which was replied to.

French sources have said they are expecting a positive development this month. During his visit to France in April last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that India would purchase 36 Rafale jets in a government-to-government contract.

Soon after the announcement, the defence ministry scrapped a separate process that was on to purchase 126 Rafale fighter planes, built by French defence giant Dassault Aviation. The deal is expected to be worth around 7.89 billion euros for the 36 fighter jets in fly away conditions.

The weapon systems, part of the deal, will also include the new-age, beyond visual range missile, Meteor, and Israeli helmet mounted display.

The price of the deal was brought down from nearly 10 billion euros, as sought initially, due to various reasons including tough negotiation by India, the discount offered by the French government and reworking of some of the criteria. It is not clear if the price has been brought down further, but India has been keen on it.

PTI
HC starts dictating order in 2002 Sardarpura riots case

India

oi-PTI

Ahmedabad, Sept 12: The Gujarat High Court today started dictating its order on appeals filed in the 2002 post- Godhra riots case of Sardarpura village in Mehsana district where 33 members of a minority community were burnt alive.

On November 9, 2011, a Special Court in Mehsana had awarded life imprisonment to 31 persons for the massacre and acquitted 42 others.

A division bench of Justices Harsha Devani and Biren Vaishnav started dictated its order on appeals filed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) and the state government challenging the acquittals. Some of the victims have also challenged the trial court's order acquitting 14 of the accused persons, claiming there was enough evidence against them.

The dictation will go on for a few days before the order is pronounced. Today the HC focused, among other things, on submissions made by the SIT special prosecutor challenging the rejection of "conspiracy theory" by the trial court.

The HC dictated submissions of the SIT claiming the sequence of events suggested it was "a clear case of conspiracy". The Supreme Court-appointed SIT said a conspiracy was hatched by some local leaders to target members of a minority community of Sardarpura in Vijapur taluka on the intervening nights of February 28 and March 1, 2002, in reaction to the February 27 Godhra train burning incident that left people 59 dead.

As per SIT submissions, villagers started gathering at the Panchayat office from around 9.30 PM on February 28, 2002, as part of a conspiracy. Between 11.30 PM and 2.30 AM on the intervening night of February 28 and March 1, the mob torched the house of one Ibrahim Sheikh and stood there to ensure nobody could rescue people shouting for help.

According to SIT, if the witnesses did not touch upon the conspiracy aspect, it was because they were mentally traumatised when examined in the trial court.

Timeline of Gulberg Society massacre case

Lawyers linked to the case said the dictation will go on for a few days during which submissions made by government pleader, counsel of victims and the defence will be noted. Out of the 42 acquitted, 11 were freed due to lack of evidence and 31 were given benefit of doubt. On the fateful night, a violent mob targeted a minority population of the village who took shelter in the 'pucca' house of Sheikh.

The mob torched the house after pouring petrol, killing 33 people, including 22 women. In all, 76 people were made accused, of which two died during pendency of the trial, while one was a minor against whom proceedings are on in a juvenile court. The Special Court had framed charges against 73 accused in June 2009.

PTI
Raghubar Das, the man who never lost an election

The Jharkhand jinx: No CM has returned for a second term

Jharkhand CM launches blistering attack on Nitish Kumar

India

oi-PTI

Ranchi, Sep 11 Slamming Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for indulging "politics" in Jharkhand, Chief Minister Raghubhar Das today said Kumar was "helpless" as his own allies in Bihar were "opposing" him.

Das asked Nitish to first rein in Mohammed Shahabbudin and take confidence of fearful people there before bothering about Jharkhand, an official release said quoting him.

The Jharkhand CM further blamed Kumar of riding piggyback on such leaders of Jharkhand who lacked the base and resources.

Commenting on Kumar's Jamshedpur visit yesterday where the CM demanded to enlist kurmi caste in the tribal list, Das took a swipe at the Bihar Chief Minister and accused Kumar of indulging in politics in Jharkhand.

While sometimes Kumar calls for banning liquor, at other times he raises demand for inclusion of kurmi caste in tribal list, Das said.

PTI
Kerala readies for Mother of all vegetarian meals: 26-dish Onam sadya

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 12: With Onam at Kerala's doorstep, one thing common to all households would be the most popular 26 dish Onam sadya -- verily the Mother of all vegetarian meals in the state.

Of the three Onam days, including the first, second and third Onam, which begins from Sep 13, it's the "Thiruonam", the second day, which is the highlight as this is when the sadya is served on a plantain leaf and eaten with the hands.

Even though the common meal at most Hindu marriages in Kerala is the sadya, it's the one served on Onam that wins hands down simply because it binds practically every Keralite, as the harvest festival is celebrated irrespective of religion.

The mouth-watering lunch includes chips, poppadoms, various vegetables, a variety of sweet and sour pickles, the traditional aviyal, sambar, dal along with a small quantity of ghee, rasam, two different kinds of buttermilk, a chutney powder prepared from grated coconut and a series of payasams eaten either straight or mixed with a small ripe plantain.

"This is the first time in recent times that our family is coming together. It was a unanimous decision that this time we will celebrate Onam in its true sense and will prepare our sadya at our ancestral home. This is to relive the Onam that this house had seen for several years," said Malini Sukumaran who arrived in Thiruvalla with her family from Doha and is now waiting for the arrival of her three siblings.

But 70-year-old Devaki Nair, a retired teacher, is not pleased with the way things take place during Onam -- be it the meals or the festivities.

"I remember in my younger days, in the run-up to Onam, the activities would begin at least a month before. My father used to ensure that all the essential items, including vegetables, are either readied for harvesting or sourced from other homes or markets a few days before Thiruonam. As a result, the best produce used to be in our kitchen," said Nair, who lives alone at her home near Kottayam and is now waiting the arrival of her son and his family from Kuwait.

Sreedevi Karthikeyan, a homemaker, has adapted to the changing times and recalled with a smile how the minutest of details were taken care of before serving the sadya.

"My father was very particular about everything. Even the colour of the plantain leaf was taken note of and the way it was placed on the dining table or on the floor. There was even an order of serving the curries, the way the meal was eaten and the way it ended. Today, I really doubt if all the rules are followed," said Karthikeyan.

These days, many households, rather than preparing the Onam sadya in their kitchens, rely on caterers and restaurants, who provide the meal in neatly-packed containers.

This year, the cheapest packed Onam sadya starts from around Rs 200 and goes beyond Rs 2000 in five-star hotels.

IANS
Karnataka to survey all Arabic schools to check if on same page as state board

Kerala requests two special trains for Keralites in Bengaluru

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 13: In wake of the widespread violence in Karnataka on Monday over the apex court order to release Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu, a huge number of Keralites have got stuck thereand Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has requested Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu for two special trains to ferry them home for Onam.

Vijayan on Monday night requested Prabhu to see that two special trains are allowed to bring back Keralites who reside in Bengaluru, as many of them who had booked to travel to Kerala on buses saw their trip being curtailed due to the violence.

"We have requested for two trains one to Kannur and another to Thiruvananthapuram. The Minister has agreed to consider our request favourably," said Vijayan in a press release issued here.

Besides Vijayan, senior Congress leaders Oommen Chandy, V.M.Sudheeran and Ramesh Chennithala spoke to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and apprised him that a lot of anxious Keralites are there and wanting to come home for Onam holidays and sought special care be provided to them.

Cauvery row (Live): Curfew imposed in Bengaluru

The Kerala Police has sent about 100 policemen to Karnataka's Mandya to ensure Keralites travelling on road are safe on their journey home.

IANS
Mewat gangrape: NCW seeks action taken report

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Sep 13: Taking note of the claims of a gangrape survivor from Mewat that her attackers asked her if she ate beef, the NCW Chairperson today said the panel has written to the authorities seeking an action taken report even as she refrained from commenting on cow vigilantism.

"We had conducted an inquiry when the gangrape incident happened a few weeks ago. At that time, we got a different version. Now they seem to have changed their version totally.

"...an FIR has been registered and a probe is on so we can't interfere. We have written to the police and the District Magistrate and sought an action taken report," NCW Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam said. "Cow vigilantism has nothing to do with us. Perpetrators have to be brought to book regardless of cow vigilantism... Cow vigilantism is not part of our work.

We are not a political outfit. We should make an effort to give survivors justice," she said. She also said that she did not want to politicise the crime because "then politics takes precedence over crime".

"To me crime doesn't become bigger because of caste or creed or cow vigilantism. To me a rape is rape regardless of the victim and her social/cultural/ political background. Similarly for the perpetrator," Kumaramangalam said.

In an interview to NDTV one of the two gangrape survivors said, "They asked if we eat beef. We said we don't, but they insisted we did. Then they said we're hurting you before so you don't and that if we tell anyone we'll will be insulted."

On Congress activist Shehzad Poonawalla's complaint to her on the matter seeking "directions to the central government to enforce a ban on cow vigilantes", the NCW chief said.

"He is unnecessarily politicising the issue." Poonawalla, in an e-mail this morning, made five demands from NCW which included a fair probe, summoning of the Haryana Chief Minister, directions to the Centre on cow vigilantism and compensation for the rape survivors.

The 20-year-old woman and her 14-year-old cousin were sexually assaulted by several men in their home in Mewat on August 24. Their uncle and aunt were tied up and then beaten to death.

PTI
Who is Pushkar Singh Dhami, the new Chief Minister of Uttarakhand

Pushkar Singh Dhami to take oath as new Uttarakhand CM today, swearing-in ceremony at 6 pm

PM Modi to interact with Chief Ministers of six states on COVID-19 situation today

A Look back at CMs who completed full 5-year term in history of Karnataka

Nitish Kumar, the 8th time Bihar CM in 22 years | A look at sushasan babu's turns and u-turns so far

Siddaramaiah assures protection to Tamils in Karnataka

India

oi-PTI

Bengaluru, Sep 13: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today assured Tamil Sangam of protection for Tamils in the state in the wake of violence in the city following a Supreme Court direction to release 12000 cusecs of Cauvery water everyday for next ten days to Tamil Nadu.

Siddaramaiah also informed the Sangam leaders, who met him at his residence, that a suo motu case has been filed against culprits who had assaulted a youth Santosh Deena for posting comments on Cauvery issue on Facebook on September 10.

A suo motu case has been filed against the persons who had assaulted Santosh, Sangam President George Damodaran told reporters here.

The youth was allegedly beaten up by culprits as he had questioned Kannada film stars for protesting over Cauvery issue. Siddaramaiah also asked the Sangam leaders to petition Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to give protection to Kannadigas living in Tamil Nadu, Damodaran said.

"We are petitioning the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister via email," he said. The Chief Minister has directed the police to maintain law and order and provide security to Tamils living in the state, the Sangam President said.

Cauvery row: Curfew imposed in Bengaluru

Damodaran said he also brought to the notice of the chief minister the "provocative" statement of Narayana Gowda who is heading 'Karnataka Rakshana Vedike'. Gowda had reportedly said the situation that prevailed in 1991 should prevail and all Tamil films should be stopped from screening to teach them lesson.

In 1991, during Bangarappa's tenure as chief minister, anti-Tamil violence had taken place in Bengaluru in which 18 people had died and hundreds fled.

PTI
Will go to Sabarimala on Nov 16 when temple door opens, says activist Trupti Desai

Women's activist Trupti Desai offered 'Bigg Boss' reality show

India

oi-PTI

Pune, Sep 12: Women's rights activist Trupti Desai today claimed she has been offered popular reality show "Bigg Boss", but said she would participate on the condition that a female voiceover will be roped in for the series.

Desai claimed she received the offer from the concerned television channel (Colors), and she is thinking of participating in the forthcoming season of the show. "I am ready to enter into the ('Bigg Boss') house.

During my meeting with the TV channel and its producers, I conveyed them that if they rope in a female as the voice of 'Bigg Boss', I will accept the offer," Desai told PTI. Since its inception, a male voiceover has been used for the "Bigg Boss".

"I have not given them any confirmation and had told them during the meeting to give a thought over the condition and get back to me," she said.

"I know, for them it is difficult to replace the male voice with female for this season, but if they assure me that they would rope in a female as voice of 'Bigg Boss' in the next year season, I would accept the offer."

Desai said it won't be easy for her to stay in the house for a long time as she has campaigns lined up for coming months, but believes "Bigg Boss" is a good platform to promote male-female equality.

"Since there are several campaigns on various issues lined up in next few months, it would be very difficult to stay in the house for a long time.

However, the platform of 'Bigg Boss' will be a good medium to spread our message about equality." Colors is, however, yet to make an official announcement on the contestants in the upcoming season, which will be hosted by superstar Salman Khan.

The activist, who belongs to the Bhumata Brigade, had successfully campaigned for women's entry into the inner sanctum of Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra and fuelled a national debate on gender bias in various other temples of the country.

PTI
Even if not contesting 2020 polls, Hillary Clinton will not be entirely out of scene

Hillary Clinton says Julian Assange must 'answer for what he has done'

Hillary Clinton ahead of Donald Trump by 5 points: Poll

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Washington, Sept 12: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is leading her Republican rival Donald Trump nationally by 5 percentage points among likely voters, according to the latest Washington Post/ABC poll.

According to the poll released on Sunday, Clinton was leading Trump 46 per cent to 41 per cent, Politico reported. Among registered voters, her lead was slightly greater, 45 per cent to Trump's 35 per cent.

Will not allow N Korea to have deliverable nuke weapon: Hillary Clinton

Though the race remains somewhat fluid, the poll found that voters were growing more decisive about their choices, with 79 per cent of Clinton supporters saying they would "definitely" vote for her and 81 per cent of Trump supporters saying the same for him.

The Post and ABC conducted the poll from September 5-8, using cellular and landline phones to reach a random national sample of 1,002 adults, Politico reported.

Meanwhile, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll which also released on Sunday said Clinton and Trump are deadlocked in four battleground states -- Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and New Hampshire.

In Arizona, Trump leads 42 per cent to 41 per cent. Clinton, however, leads among registered voters with 41 per cent to 40 per cent, Politico reported citing the poll.

In Georgia, Trump leads by 3 points among likely voters, 46 per cent to 43 per cent. The margin of error is 3.9 percentage points. Among registered voters, Clinton and Trump were tied at 44 per cent, with a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points.

Clinton takes the lead in Nevada by 1 point -- 45 per cent to 44 per cent among likely voters. Clinton's lead widens among registered voters, 46 to 41.

In New Hampshire, Clinton is up 1 point on Trump among likely voters, with 42 per cent to 41 per cent. Among registered voters, Clinton and Trump are tied at 40 per cent, Politico quoted the poll as saying.

IANS
Even if not contesting 2020 polls, Hillary Clinton will not be entirely out of scene

Will not allow N Korea to have deliverable nuke weapon: Hillary Clinton

International

oi-PTI

Washington, Sept 11: The US will not allow North Korea to have deliverable nuclear weapons, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said on Sunday. "I absolutely believe that it has to be made very clear we will not allow North Korea to have a deliverable nuclear weapon, and we will approach this from a number of perspectives," Clinton said.

President Barack Obama had earlier said that the US will never accept Pyongyang as a "nuclear state".

Trump's aide blames Hillary Clinton for N Korean nuclear test

Responding to a question, Clinton said she has had conversations in the past with the Chinese about North Korea. "Up until relatively recently, I think they were under the impression that they could control their neighbour, and they didn't want to crack down because they saw it as a useful card to play.

He gets a little crazy, maybe the South Koreans will, you know, move toward them a little bit. He gets a little crazier, maybe they can make some deals with the Japanese about some things they want," she said.

"It was a strategic calculation. It's not that way anymore. The current leader is unpredictable for both the Chinese and the rest of us. The current leader is clearly intent upon ignoring pressure, advice of any sort coming from anywhere else. And so we have got to make it clear missile defense is going in as quickly and broadly as possible," Clinton said.

"Our message to the North Koreans and everyone else listening, they will not be permitted to acquire a nuclear weapon that has a deliverable capacity on a ballistic missile and we have got to start intensifying our discussions with the Chinese, because they can't possibly want this big problem on their doorstep," she said.

The Chinese, she said, have been "awfully leaky". "The regime lives off of luxury goods and the kind of benefits that they then can use to, you know, reward their loyal followers. We have never been able to fully cut that off. So we will do more on sanctions, because that's part of an overall strategy, but that's not enough," she said.

North Korea fired three ballistic missiles off its east coast on September 5. North Korea has conducted a series of missile tests this year. This is the fourth nuclear test since January.

PTI
Cauvery row: SC directs release of 12,000 cusecs till Sept 20

New Delhi

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, Sept 12: The Supreme Court on Monday modified its order and directed Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu until Sept 20.

Karnataka had sought modification of an earlier SC order which had ordered it to release 15,000 cusecs of water for ten days. The court, however, refused to keep in abeyance its earlier order.

The court noted that it would take up the matter on September 20 at 2 PM in which the problem of the farmers and the one relating to drinking water would be taken up.

The Bench comprising Justices Dipak Mishra and UU Lalit while passing the order of modification observed that they were inclined to do so.

During the course of the arguments, Karnataka represented by senior counsel Fali S Nariman asked the Supreme Court to suspend its Sept 5 order in which the release of Cauvery water to Tamil nadu was made. Karnataka also told the SC that the agony claimed by Tamil Nadu on a water crisis is not true.

When Nariman said that as a result of the Sept 5 order, there were protests in the state, the Bench said, "You cannot take the ground that there is huge public agitation in the state. This is not permissible in court."

The Bench also while taking objection to the non-implementation of the order said, "Once order is passed, either comply or seek modification. No one can take law into their hands."

Further the Bench also stated that citizens and executives of the country must accept and obey orders of the Supreme Court unless it is modified.

Karnataka told the court that it has already released 16,506 and 34,529 cusecs to TN as on September 10. Karnataka then asked the court to restrict the release of water to 6,000 cusecs for the next six days.

OneIndia News
Gag order first, terror tag later for Zakir Naik

New Delhi

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, Sept 12: The Centre is proposing a gag on controversial Islamic preacher, Dr Zakir Naik. While the legal opinion states that he should be booked under the anti-terror law for inciting people through his speeches, the home ministry would wait until the probes against him are complete.

The government does not want to rush through anything and would want to build a water tight case first. The ministry is still scrutinising the donations that have been made to the Islamic Research Foundation.

Attack on me, will be attack on Indian Muslims: Zakir Naik

Nothing concrete has emerged out of this exercise as yet, the ministry while renewing the FCRA licence has,however, put the NGO on prior permission mode. Under this, the NGO would have to seek prior permission before it receives any donations.

The first step would be to gag Naik. The complaint is that Naik's speeches had inspired several people who went on to become terrorists. This was first flagged by Bangladesh which had said that one of the Dhaka cafe attackers was inspired by Naik's speeches.

Once a gag order is in place, he would not be permitted to deliver sermons in India. Any such attempt would be illegal and he can be booked by the police.

To a question on whether a ban would be imposed on Naik, officials say that under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, an individual can be banned if he is involved with a terrorist outfit. If our probe does indicate something to that effect then the ban would be enforced, the officer also said.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, September 12, 2016, 10:26 [IST]
BJP MLA in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh Kapil Dev Agarwal was on Monday attacked by unidentified assailants in his constituency. The attackers also threw chilly powder into the eyes of the MLA. The reason behind the attack is uncertain yet. The cops have launched a manhunt to nab the assailants.
Violent protests by pro-Kannada activists over the Cauvery Waters issue brought the city of Bengaluru to a grinding halt. Metro services were suspended and all Tamil Nadu buses were told to suspend operations. Nayandahalli, Mysuru road and Satellite bus stand reported the most violence. The CM and the Home Minister have appealed for calm. While schools and colleges have declared a holiday, several establishments downed shutters. No call to close has been taken by any of the MNCs.
The former Delhi minister allegedly incited a crowd to damage AIIMS' fence and misbehaved with the hospital's security personnel, charges that Bharti has denied. According to the complaint by the chief security officer that Bharti provoked the mob to damage the fence of the hospital with JCB at Gautam Nagar Nallah Road in order to give access to unauthorised persons inside AIIMS property and also misbehaved with security personnel. To know more watch the video.
Cauvery row: Tamil outfit creates ruckus inside Karnataka Bank

Puducherry

oi-PTI

Puducherry, Sep 12: Volunteers of a Tamil fringe outfit today barged into Karnataka Bank branch here and created ruckus, protesting against the ongoing agitations in the neighbouring state opposing release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, police said.

[PHOTOS: Bengaluru Burns Over Cauvery Again]

Around 25 workers of Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi entered the branch on Misson Street wielding broomsticks, banged them on the tables and asked the bank staff to vacate the premises. The staff ran helter skelter while the panic-stricken customers rushed out.

Police men, who were deployed in the vicinity, rushed there and took the protesters into custody. The bank was closed for a few hours after the incident and later reopened.

[Read: Cauvery row: Karnataka makes midnight move, gets SC to hear plea on a holiday]

However, it was again shut following advice from police Earlier, volunteers and leaders of various Tamil outfits came in a procession and staged a demonstration a few metres away from the bank protesting against the Karnataka government and condemned the attack on a Tamil youth by a group of men in Bengaluru for allegedly posting "derogatory" remarks on social media against Kannada film actors.

Besides condemning the ongoing agitations in Karnataka over the Cauvery issue, the protesters shouted slogans against the Karnataka government, alleging that it had failed to protect the properties of Tamils there.

PTI
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Eurasia Review 26 Oct 2022

By Ryan McMaken*



On Monday, thirty members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus called on the Biden administration to..
Cambridge News 12 Jul 2022

It's the first time the community have been able to host a large event since before the pandemic
13th China-ASEAN Expo opens in Guangxi

2016-09-11 16:44

Zhang Gaoli, Chinese Vice-Premier, delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of 13th China a-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit, September, 11, 2016. [Photo by Huo Yan/chinadaily.com.cn]

The 13th China-ASEAN Expo opened on Sunday in Nanning, capital city of China's southern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the ASEAN-China Dialogue Relations and the beginning of the full-range development of China-ASEAN free trade zone. It has also seen various Belt and Road projects carried out.

This year's expo and summit hope to promote new cooperation between China and ASEAN countries in areas such as capacity cooperation, Belt and Road Initiative, China-ASEAN Information Harbor among others.

Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli and political leaders of ASEAN countries attended the opening ceremony and Zhang delivered the keynote speech.

"For 25 years, the relations between China and ASEAN counties have developed fast and both sides have forged one of the closest ties," Zhang said.

"The development of China-ASEAN friendship is an essential contribution to the global stabilization," Zhang added.

"The result of the China-ASEAN cooperation is solid and the joint development of the two sides brings real benefits to the people," Zhang added.

Zhang put forward proposals to further improve the cooperation between China and the ASEAN countries.

For the first, he proposed to improve development of inclusiveness and realize the connection of strategic development plans.

"We will continue to promote the 2+7 Cooperation Framework and Lancang-Mekong cooperation mechanism for common future," Zhang said.

He called for capacity cooperation between the two sides to realize complementary development.

Zhang said an open market is essential to the economic and trade cooperation and the two sides should lower tariff to promote trade and investment.

He also said the ties should be strengthened to bring more benefits to the people.

The four-day 13th China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit will last until September 14.
Eurasia Review 24 Nov 2019

By Johanna Markind*



In the years since the 9/11 attacks, the individual perpetrators of these and similar crimes have..
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Yggdrasil Enters Romanian Market

Published September 12, 2016 by Ivan P

One of the leading gaming software suppliers, Yggdrasil Gaming has been granted two Romanian licenses allowing the company to offer their services in the country.

One of the top casino games providers in the industry, Yggdrasil Gaming, has been granted two Romanian licenses by the Romania's National Gambling Office (ONJN). These licenses will allow the company to offer their impressive selection of slots as well as their promotional tools to operators in possession of the Romanian Class 1 License.

Romanian eGaming Market on the Rise

After last year's changes to online gambling laws in Romania, the country has been experiencing a revolution of sorts, with numerous casino providers and affiliate sites successfully applying for licenses. Online Casino Reports has recently been granted Class 2 License as well, allowing for the site's return to the Romanian market.

With licenses in place, Yggdrasil Gaming will be able to offer its full portfolio of slots to licensed casino operators as well as their in-game promotional tools package, BOOST and social media tool, BRAG. The company will enter the market gradually, making a part of their titles available at first, with the full package to be offered in a near future.

About Yggdrasil Gaming

Yggdrasil Gaming, headquartered in Malta, has established itself as one of the leading game suppliers, cooperating with some of the industry giants like bwin.party, bet365, Betsson Group, and Unibet. Apart from Romanian Licenses, the company has also been granted operating licenses in the UK and Gibraltar, to accompany their native Malta license.

As the CEO of Yggdrasil Fredrik Elmqvist emphasized, the company's commitment to receiving as many relevant licenses as possible clearly demonstrates their determination to increase their reach and expand to numerous European markets, but within constraints of local laws.

Yggdrasil's slots, built on HTML5 technology, are available across all desktop and mobile devices, making their integration into any platform practically seamless. Their innovative BOOST and BRAG systems help with games marketing and self-promotion via social media channels.

The constant innovation and commitment to the market have earned Yggdrasil several prestigious awards, including 2016 EGR's Slot Provider of the Year and 2016 International Gaming Awards Gaming Software Supplier of the Year.
by Joe Giambrone



Missing Link: Osama Bassnan

(Image by History Commons) Details DMCA



You probably didn't hear from your corporate media that those 28 pages concerning Saudi state support to the September 11th suicide-hijackers have been released to the public. Or if you had, you would have most likely heard only the Saudi spin, published widely, and parroted by Barack Obama's spokespeople, that the pages don't mean anything.

One might ask of those 28 pages: if they didn't mean anything in the first place then why cover them up for fifteen years until the population mostly forgot about them?

This September 11 th , if you actually read the pages yourself, they might wind up meaning quite a lot to you. Couched in Congressional weasel-words, "may have" being repeated throughout, the report is a shocking eye-opener. It was likely the catalyst for the September 9 unanimous House of Representatives vote to pass JASTA, the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act.

A single paragraph from the long-censored Congressional Joint Inquiry chapter should convey a sense of the disgraceful cover-up as it now stands:

" Osama Bassnan. ...Bassnan was a close associate of al-Bayoumi and Omar Bakarbashat, another one of the hijackers' close associates. He also lived across the street from the hijackers, and made a comment to an FBI asset that he did more than al-Bayoumi for the hijackers. According to an FBI document, Bassnan told another individual that he met al-Hazmi through al-Bayoumi and later that he met two of the hijackers through al-Bayoumi. He also told the asset that al-Bayoumi was arrested because he knew al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhur very well. ...Bassnan has many ties to the Saudi Government, including past employment by the Saudi Arabian Education Mission, referred to in an FBI document as [REDACTED, INEXPLICABLY]. The FBI also received reports from individuals in the Muslim community alleging that Bassnan might be a Saudi intelligence officer. According to a CIA memo, Bassnan reportedly received funding and possibly a fake passport from Saudi Government officials. He and his wife have received financial support from the Saudi Ambassador to the United States and his wife. ...The report states that during that trip a member of the Saudi royal family provided Bassnan with a significant amount of cash. FBI information indicates that Bassnan is an extremist and supporter of Usama bin Laden, and has been connected to the Eritrean Islamic Jihad and the Blind Shaykh."

That "Saudi Ambassador to the United States" is, of course, "Bandar Bush," otherwise known as Prince Bandar bin Sultan.

The Saudi regime has been an arms supplier, funding source and trainer of Sunni terrorists for a long, long time. Beginning in 1979 they partnered with the US CIA and Pakistani ISI to create a fundamentalist army in Afghanistan, otherwise known as Operation Cyclone, the largest CIA operation in history. The Central Intelligence Agency was on the same side as Osama bin Laden, who was supplied with fighters--covertly--from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and a number of other nations where Al Qaeda types were deemed a bit too dangerous to remain at home. The Afghan strategy was to send the Wahabbi radicals off to fight their Jihad elsewhere, and so solve two problems with one action.

If the Islamists are blowing up Soviets or Syrians or Libyan government forces then they are not blowing up targets in their homelands, such as in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, et cetera. This strategy persists to this very day and fuels the carnage in Syria.

Lest anyone believe that the Saudis acted alone on September 11th of 2001, without US official protection, that argument is indefensible. The great lengths that two US administrations have gone to keep this crime covered-up should be sufficient to dispel that fantasy. A simple 1 plus 1 train of logic: if the Saudis acted without US permission to attack the USA and murder 3,000 Americans at home, including an attack on the Pentagon(!), their entire country would have been vaporized off the planet the following day 9/12/01. It is not even remotely plausible that the Saudis would act alone against the US, and they most certainly did not.

A longstanding partnership exists here, and so we must expose the treachery of US high officials as well. The counter-terrorism adviser tot he White House, terror "Czar" Richard Clarke has accused the CIA, and George Tenet specifically , of hiding the hijackers from him and from the FBI, and thus allowing the September 11 th attacks to succeed. FBI agents on the case also complained about the CIA's deliberate hiding of Al Qaeda terrorists/hijackers inside the United States. There has been zero accountability.

Clarke, the highest counter-terrorism official in the land on 9/11, points the finger directly at Tenet, but with a caveat. He proposes a cover-story about Saudis allegedly "recruiting" Al Qaeda to serve as double agents. This "recruiting" story should be disregarded as cheap talk, however. The CIA pretended to warn the Bush White House of " spectacular attacks " domestically, while it simultaneously continued to shield known Al Qaeda men inside the US from exposure and arrest--for over a year. As with all witnesses we must strip away any speculation or opinion from Richard Clarke's statements and deal only with the facts. The CIA deliberately withheld intelligence about hijackers inside the US from the Counter-Terrorism Adviser to the White House and from the head of the FBI.

Prince Bandar floated that same sort of recruiting-bad-guys story, claiming to have watched the hijackers "with precision." With Saudi "precision" he apparently watched them for over a year until they flew right into the World Trade Center. Some stories fail the laugh test, and this is clearly one of them. A security loophole was exploited by those who knew better. We see a cover-story in place to attempt to deflect blame, but the cover-story has yet been unnecessary owing to the success of the larger 9/11 cover-up. That cover-up is now unraveling.

The CIA deliberately failed to fulfill its core mission, its raison d'etre, why it was created in the first place post Pearl Harbor: to protect the nation from an attack. The fact that CIA was aware of Al Qaeda terrorists living inside the US during numerous warnings of suicide skyjackings and of "spectacular attacks," yet failed to simply phone up the FBI and alert them, is the glaring red flag here which reads "Treason."

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"The narcissist," someone once wrote on an Internet discussion forum devoted to the topic, "learns nothing, forgets nothing, and forgives nothing."

In conscious appeal to this tendency, the American political class flocks to shrines in New York, DC and Pennsylvania each year to once again cynically wring as much narcissistic flag-waving hoopla as possible from the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

I generally avoid watching these observances. This year my sole exposure to them was video of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton collapsing as she left the New York event during a medical emergency.

9/11 will remain American political propaganda's killer app (pun intended) for many years, I'm sure, but I consider 9/12 and the following few days far more important in the scheme of things. Call ME a national narcissist, but I find the response more compelling than the initiating event.

Fifteen years on, it is clear that America's political class still relies on Americans having learned nothing, forgotten nothing, and forgiven nothing. That reliance seems justified.

Consider this excerpt from an op-ed I wrote on September 12, 2001:

"Our politicians have acted for years with impunity, citing only our 'national interest,' as if any legitimate interest could be served by the intentional killing of civilians simply because those civilians have been designated 'the enemy'.

"We watched as those politicians were hustled away to 'safe houses,' the better to immunize themselves from the consequences of their own actions of years and decades past.

"Now, they emerge from their hiding places, and they wail and gnash their teeth, vowing revenge and demanding that we surrender even more of our freedoms in order to avoid more of what they themselves brought upon us in the first place. They regard the blood of September 11 not as a horrible payment for their past errors, but as ink with which to write new checks to the order of their power and drawn on the account of our lives and freedoms."

Has anything changed since I wrote that column? Not that I can tell.

After 15 years of unremitting exploitation of 9/11 to justify war on our civil liberties at home, and war abroad of the very type that culminated in 9/11, American politicians still believe that all they need to gull the populace into supporting more of the same is, as Joe Biden put it of Rudy Giuliani, "a noun, a verb, and 9/11."

They're right. And until that changes, nothing else will.
Reprinted from Truthdig

The naive hopes of Bernie Sanders' supporters -- to build a grass-roots political movement, change the Democratic Party from within and push Hillary Clinton to the left -- have failed. Clinton, aware that the liberal class and the left are not going to mount genuine resistance, is running as Mitt Romney in drag. The corporate elites across the political spectrum, Republican and Democrat, have gleefully united to anoint her president. All that remains of Sanders' "revolution" is a 501(c)(4) designed to raise money, including from wealthy, anonymous donors, to ensure that he will be a senator for life. Great historical events happen twice, as Karl Marx quipped, first as tragedy and then as farce.

The multibillion-dollar extravaganza of our electoral Circus Maximus is part of the smokescreen that covers the ongoing devastation of globalization, deindustrialization, trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, endless war, climate change and the intrusion into every corner of our lives by the security and surveillance state. Our democracy is dead. Clinton and Donald Trump do not have the power or the interest to revive it. They kneel before the war machine, which consumes trillions of dollars to wage futile wars and bankroll a bloated military. To defy the fortress state is political suicide. Politicians are courtiers to Wall Street. The candidates mouth the cliche's of justice, improvements in income equality and democratic choice, but it is a cynical game. Once it is over, the victors will go to Washington to work with the lobbyists and financial elites to carry out the real business of ruling.

While there is a difference in the temperament of the two major presidential candidates, that difference will play out only in how our poison will be delivered. Political personalities serve global corporate centers of power. They do not control them. Barack Obama illustrates this.

To neoliberals, everyone and everything are disposable. The failed states that have risen up across the Middle East, Africa, the Caucasus and Asia in the wake of the Cold War herald a neoliberal world driven by violence, corruption, greed and desperation. The drug traffickers, smugglers, pirates, kidnappers, jihadists, criminal gangs and militias that roam huge swaths of territory where central authority has vanished are the real faces of globalization. These nihilists define Islamic State just as they define the corporate state. Corruption may be more naked and cruder in Afghanistan or Iraq, but it has its parallel in the for-sale politicians and political parties that dominate the United States and Europe. The common good -- the building of community and solidarity -- has been replaced through decades of corporate indoctrination with the callous call to amass all you can for yourself and leave the stranger bleeding on the side of the road.

Is the Goldman Sachs commodity trader who hoards futures of rice, wheat, corn, sugar and livestock to jack up prices on the global market, leaving poor people in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America to starve, any less morally repugnant than the drug trafficker? Are F-16 pilots who incinerate families in Raqqa morally distinct from jihadists who burn a captured Jordanian pilot in a cage? Is torture in one of our black sites or offshore penal colonies any less barbaric than torture at the hands of Islamic State? Are the decapitations of children by military drones any more defensible than decapitations of Egyptian laborers on a beach in Libya by self-described holy warriors? Is Heather Bresch, the CEO of Mylan, who raised the price of the lifesaving EpiPen by 400 percent or more and whose compensation since 2007 has risen by 600 percent to above $18 million a year, any less venal than a human trafficker who sends an overloaded boat and its occupants to their doom on the coast of Libya?

There is a new world order. It is based on naked exploitation. It -- not democracy -- is what we have exported across the globe. And it looks a lot like the anarchic state that Hobbes feared. The criminal gangs that deliver migrants to Europe make about $100 million a month for their work. They exploit and traffic human beings just as highly paid CEOs do.

The failed states of Iraq, Syria and Libya, a direct result of globalization, have their counterparts in Detroit, St. Louis, Oakland, Memphis, Baltimore, Atlanta, Milwaukee and the south side of Chicago. They are our versions of Mogadishu, complete with lawlessness, senseless killings, armed gangs, widespread hunger, fear, a population retreating into the numbing embrace of opiates, crippling poverty, dysfunctional state institutions, the growth of private security companies that protect the elites, and indiscriminate police violence that creates reigns of terror aimed at the poor.

The more the global corporate forces extract from us in the name of austerity and the maximization of profit, the more parts of the U.S. will descend into domestic versions of the failed states overseas. The same system exists here and abroad. And it has the same result here and abroad. It may appear first in Somalia, Mali, Guinea-Bissau and Libya, but it will soon come to characterize much of America. The proliferation of weapons will do to our society what it has done to every other failed state where there has been unchecked access to arsenals -- hand power to those with a penchant for violence.

"Anyone who wants to rule men first tries to humiliate them, to trick them out of their rights and their capacity for resistance, until they are as powerless before him as animals," Elias Canetti wrote in "Crowds and Power." "He uses them like animals and, even if he does not tell them so, in himself he always knows quite clearly that they mean just as little to him; when he speaks to his intimates he will call them sheep or cattle. His ultimate aim is to incorporate them into himself and to suck the substance out of them. What remains of them afterwards does not matter to him. The worse he has treated them, the more he despises them. When they are no more use at all, he disposes of them as he does of his excrement, simply seeing to it that they do not poison the air of his house."

History has amply demonstrated where this will end up. The continued exploitation by an unchecked elite, and the rising levels of poverty and insecurity, will unleash a legitimate rage among the desperate. They will see through the lies and propaganda of the elites. They will demand retribution. They will turn to those who express the hatred they feel for the powerful and the institutions, now shams, that were designed to give them a voice. They will seek not reform but destruction of a system that has betrayed them.

Failed states -- czarist Russia, the Weimar Republic and the former Yugoslavia -- vomit up political monstrosities. We will be no different.

A form of fascism has already taken hold in two nations on the edges of the European Union, Hungary and Poland. Far-right parties, reacting to the flood of more than 1 million migrants that descended on Europe last year, are gaining ground in France, Austria, Sweden, Germany and Greece. Nationalism, buttressed by a deification of the military, will be used to compensate for individual powerlessness and a loss of national identity. Dissent in the U.S. will become "anti-American," a form of treason. Enemies at home will be vilified along with enemies abroad. And this will lead to even more warfare in the Middle East. The far-right political parties in Eastern Europe flirt rhetorically with military conflict with Russia. And because of its membership in NATO, the United States would be obligated to enter any hostilities.

Voting for Hillary Clinton will not halt this slide into the apocalypse. It will only accelerate it. Donald Trump may vanish from the political landscape, but someone even more venal, and probably more intelligent, will take his place.

Our job is to dismantle the machinery that is pushing toward the cliff. And this means sustained and massive civil disobedience. It means -- as exemplified by the protests at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and by prisoners across the nation who carried out work stoppages last Friday -- doing everything possible not to cooperate with the elements of authority. It means disrupting the mechanisms of power. It means overcoming fear. It means no longer believing the lies we are told.
Reprinted from Truthdig

Editor's note: John Kiriakou is a former CIA officer, former senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and former counterterrorism consultant for ABC News. He was responsible for the capture of Abu Zubaydah, then believed to be the third-ranking official in al-Qaida, in Pakistan in 2002. In 2007, Kiriakou blew the whistle on the CIA's torture program, telling ABC News that the CIA tortured prisoners, that torture was official U.S. government policy, and that the policy had been approved by then-President George W. Bush. He became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act -- a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a result of the revelation and now writes a regular column for Truthdig.

The Guardian published a story Friday on Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) investigator Dan Jones and his quest to get to the bottom of the CIA's torture program. Jones' hard work resulted in the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture. The article provides great insight into the day-to-day machinations between the SSCI and the CIA, although no new details on the torture program per se.

LISTEN: Robert Scheer and John Kiriakou Talk Government Double Standards

What the article does provide, however, is proof that then-Attorney General Eric Holder and others conspired to keep the worst news of the CIA's torture crimes secret. They conspired to protect the CIA's most notorious torturers. Holder also worked hard to make sure that as little news of the torture program as possible was released to the American people.

Jones, a whistleblower in his own right, admits in the article that he (probably "illegally") removed a document from the CIA that, in the end, formed one of the main points of the torture report: that the CIA tortured its prisoners with a level of brutality that was heretofore unknown, that the agency covered up the torture and that it lied to both the congressional oversight committee and the president about the extent of the program and its efficacy.

READ: What Was Saudi Arabia's Involvement in the 9/11 Attacks?

The document that Jones removed, known as the "Panetta Review," was more than 1,000 pages long. Jones did not leak it. He locked it up in the SSCI's secure spaces and provided it to Democratic members of the oversight committee. The CIA initially denied its existence. It later argued that the document was a "work product" and thus not meant to be turned over to the committee. In fact, it already had been turned over, but then it was subsequently deleted from the SSCI computer system.

The article's author, Spencer Ackerman, notes that Jones and the committee faced a stacked deck from the very beginning:

"In November 2005, a senior CIA official named Jose Rodriguez destroyed 92 videotapes depicting the brutal 2002 interrogations of two detainees, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. Rodriguez's tapes destruction remained a secret to his congressional overseers for two years, until a 6 December 2007 New York Times article revealed it; they barely even knew the CIA taped interrogations at all. Outrage was swift and, while tilted toward the Democrats, bipartisan, to include the eminences grises of the 9/11 Commission. Even the U.S. Justice Department began an ultimately fruitless inquiry. The Senate committee, then controlled by the Democrat (Jay) Rockefeller, demanded an explanation."

That explanation came from then-CIA Director Michael Hayden. He told the committee that there was no "evidence destruction," because the CIA kept extensive records of its interrogations. If the committee needed data, the CIA would provide it.

What the CIA eventually provided stunned committee members. It included, for the first time, reports that Abu Zubaydah had been tortured so relentlessly that he would obey his interrogators "like a dog, when they would snap their fingers." Zubaydah was "kept naked, filthy, stinking, shaking with fear, shoved inside a filth-riddled wooden box, defecating on himself." Jones said, "Everything we (committee investigators) were told was basically the opposite of what happened."

Jones stated further that "it was hard to deny the ineffectiveness of the CIA interrogations, the brutality, or the fact that the committee had been deeply misled by the CIA." Unfortunately, Jones' conclusions did not seem to interest most members of the SSCI.

Importantly, however, what Jones described was a pattern of felonious behavior, including conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false statements, all of which are punishable by five years in a federal prison per incident.

READ and WATCH: John Kiriakou Challenges the American Injustice System

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This is a reprint from NewsBred.

I sincerely believe we would never know the forces of our world till we read Animal Farm by George Orwell. It tells the story of a society consisting of only two forces, one who wants control and the other who is controlled. The one that wants control uses propaganda, deception, money, violence and terror. It covers up its tracks with moral positions. The other one is easily duped by these methods. According to Orwell's Animal Farm , one only fall in either of the two categories: controllers and controlled.

Propaganda makes use of a primary weapon: the historical, religious, caste, and race divides which are ever-present in any society. Propagandists keep driving a wedge into these fault lines so that society remains divided. The classic "Divide and Rule" formula. Hindus, Muslims, Dalits, and Christians are made suspicious of each other. They tear each other apart rather than rejoice in common themes between them.

Lilliputian leaders ride high on the animosity between groups in order to win elections. They are damned if they improve the lot of those who voted them into power. Nor do the propagandists fret, for it was never their aim to improve the lives of the controlled. They want to keep society weak and polarized. They want to keep society sick, just like a patient who never leaves the couch of a loathsome doctor while he sucks the patient dry of all resistance and resources.

So identify which of the two groups you belong to. Don't delude yourself into believing that you fall into neither group. It is as if one who does not fall into either group does not exist, and one does not matter to society. Those who do not matter will also pay a price, and so will their children. To be neutral is to be considered dangerous to society and the next generation.

I take my role as one of the "NewsBred", as one that takes on the propagandists. One could argue that the like of Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai and Sagarika Ghose are not propagandists, and that they believe in a just and equal society. That they believe in the freedom of the individual, and they do not want intolerance and injustice to exist in society.

Every time one deludes oneself in misplaced trust, and comes out in defense of news-peddlers, then they only need to give themselves one simple test. As an Indian you are told daily that Kashmir is burning. Ask yourself whether the propagandists whom you believe has told you these simple facts:

That out of 22 districts of Jammu and Kashmir, the trouble involves only 5 districts: Srinagar, Ananthnag, Baramullah, Kulgam and Pulwama;

That the residents of other 17 districts, unlike a few secessionists in these five districts, are completely pro-Indian;

That the population of these five districts is less than 15 per cent of the entire Jammu and Kashmir state. Obviously a far lower number must be the ones who are "secessionists";

It ought to surprise you that there are more than 14 major religious/ethnic groups comprising 85 per cent of the Jammu and Kashmir population who are pro-India. These include Shias, Dogras (Rajputs, Brahmins, Mahajans), Kashmiri Pandits, Sikhs, Buddhists (Ladakhis), Gujjars, Bakarwals, Paharis, Baltis, Christians and many more;

The total number of Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir state are 69 per cent of the population--and since only a handful are involved, it ought to give one the idea that not everyone is looking for "secession," or "azaadi";

That Shias (12 per cent), Gujjars Muslims (14 percent), Pahari Muslims (8 per cent), Buddhists, Pandits, Sufis, Christians and Jammu Hindus/Dogras (approx. 45 per cent) are totally opposed to separatism and Pakistan;

That out of a total population of 1.25 crores, the majority do not speak Kashmiri as their mother tongue. Their mother tongue is Dogri, Gujjari, Punjabi, Ladhaki and Pahari;

This "Kashmiriyat" narrative by propagandists would make better sense if one was told that almost 85 percent area of Jammu and Kashmir state are not Muslim majority. The area-wise division of Jammu and Kashmir is: Kashmir 15 %, Jammu 26% and Ladakh 59%;

That only a small number in Kashmir speak Kashmiri and this group controls the narrative from business to bureaucracy to agriculture; from Hurriyat to militants; from National Conference to PDP; from media houses to think-tanks in Delhi--and the foreign forces who want a weak India;

That stone-pelting, hoisting of Pakistani flags and anti-India demonstrations are held in just 5 districts in Kashmir valley. The other 17 districts have never participated in such activities;

Poonch and Kargil have over a 90 per cent Muslim population. There has never been an anti-India or separatist protest in these districts.

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120 Indian Nations and 5,000 people rejoiced on Friday, September 9 when the Department of Justice, the Department of the Army and the Department of the Interior rejected Federal Judge James Boasberg's 58-page dismissa l of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's request for an injunction against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. At issue is a federal permit for Energy Transfer Inc.'s $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). The Tribe argued that USACE failed to conduct proper environmental and cultural impact studies and that the proposed pipeline would cross under a section of the Missouri River that serves as a source of water for the tribe. That is the simple summary, but the issues run tragically deep for the Sioux Nation and span hundreds of years of lies and broken treaties.

DAPL is calculated to move over a half-billion gallons of crude oil daily across four states. The oil would enter the pipeline in the Bakken shale fields of North Dakota, cross South Dakota and Iowa, and end in Patoka, Illinois. Winona LaDuke, founder of the environmental organization Honor the Earth, calls it a "pipeline from nowhere." The Bakken boomtowns are ghost towns since oil prices plunged, and LaDuke says the pipeline is a bet that oil will rebound to $60 a barrel.

No Artifacts, No Graves, No Problem

Energy Transfer made a very bad calculation when, less than a week before the rulings, it took court documents showing the exact locations of historic graves, including stone representation of the constellations, and brazenly used them as a map to identify and destroy cultural sites. Graves of ancestral chiefs essential to tribal history and beliefs were scattered and buried under eight feet of earth in some places. They are irretrievable.

In an interview with Democracy NOW, Jan Hasselman, Earthjustice attorney for the Sioux Nation, described how Energy Transfer decided to literally bury the evidence of cultural artifacts and graves.

...We filed this evidence with the court Friday afternoon [September 2] in order to support our claim that there should be a timeout on construction until some of these legal issues can get resolved. We were stunned and shocked to hear that they took that information and, Saturday morning, over a holiday weekend, went out and bulldozed the entire site. We have a sworn declaration from one of the tribe's cultural experts that describes some of these sites, multiple gravesites and burials, very important archaeological features of the kind that are not found commonly. And we put all that in front of the court. And the next morning, it was gone.

North Dakota's Bloody Saturday

Shocked by the desecration of graves, peaceful protestors who had been camping in prayer at the Sacred Stones Camp near the Standing Rock Reservation, confronted the bulldozers. Women and children were pepper sprayed and bitten by attack dogs. Agents hired by the pipeline interests are currently being investigated by the North Dakota licensing board to determine if the "security forces" were licensed and "if the use of force was appropriate."

The State had to respond in some manner, since social media exploded with images of snarling dogs with foaming bloody mouths chasing woman and children. Memes quickly propagated with pictures of 1965's Bloody Sunday in Selma Alabama side by side with the DAPL attack dogs. North Dakota now has its "Bloody Saturday," but given the egregious nature of the attacks by pipeline interests, the licensing board inquiry rings hollow.

On Saturday September 10, Morton County issued an arrest warrant for Democracy Now's Amy Goodman. Goodman's footage of the attack on protestors is a graphic account of what happened on bloody Saturday, and remains as the best record of what took place. It seems journalism is now also illegal in North Dakota. In a taciturn response on Twitter, Goodman said, "This is an unacceptable violation of freedom of the press. I was doing my job." Indeed.

In addition, the Governor of North Dakota has militarized the situation by calling out the National Guard to replace local law enforcement presence at a barricade on Highway 1806. The imposing and uniformed presence is a "traffic information point," but it is functioning as a profiling and arrest point for Native Americans. (As an aside, I sailed through the Guard checkpoint, but was detained at another checkpoint on Highway 6 because I had firewood in the back of my car. Being white does not necessarily protect you if you are carrying press credentials (or wood)).

The arrest and charging of Cody Hall, a leader of the neighboring Red Warrior camp, is a flashpoint of anger and frustration for protestors. Hall was arrested Friday afternoon at a checkpoint after police stopped him in a vehicle with expired tabs. He is charged with criminal trespass during the "Bloody Saturday" protests on September 3.

Casting an even wider net, Morton County authorities also issued arrest warrants for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and her running mate Ajamu Baraka. The two are also charged for criminal trespass.

That is where the situation stands today, but the prayerful fight is far from over. It is important to understand that prayer was the universal response at the Camp of the Sacred Stones, even after the attacks by security personnel. Prayer and spirit are important components of Lakota culture.



Reading the Docket Tea Leaves

In order to understand the thinking of the Federal Court, it is necessary to plow through all 58 pages of Judge Boasberg's opinion. On the first page, Boasberg sums up the Court's thinking.

Domestic oil pipelines, unlike natural-gas pipelines, require no general approval from the federal government. In fact, DAPL needs almost no federal permitting of any kind because 99% of its route traverses private land.

Therein lies the rub.

Is the "private land" where the ancestors were buried before the bulldozers came really private, or does it belong to the Sioux Nation by treaty? In an ironic twist, before the signing of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, "Wicasa Wakan Tatanka Iyotake" (Sitting Bull) and 50 Oceti Sakowin (Great Sioux Nation Chiefs) gathered beneath a huge open tipi at Standing Rock to discuss persecution and other U.S. government policies.

Today there is a "United Nations" of 120 Nations in almost the same spot as Sitting Bull's encampment. For an excellent interactive account of shamefully broken treaties by the United States, see Ernestine Chasing Hawk's series online.

Gabriel S. Galanda, the managing lawyer of Galanda Broadman, PLLC, in Seattle, says, "It is my hope that the #NoDAPL narrative begins to include the fact that these are reserved ancestral Sioux Treaty lands and waters."

Those sacred lands and the sacred lands astride the Missouri River in rightful dispute, are reserved ancestral Sioux Treaty territory. The 1868 Treaty of Ft. Laramie reserves ancestral lands "commencing on the east bank of the Missouri river where the 46th parallel of north latitude crosses the same, thence along low-water mark down said east bank..." Without getting into the technicalities of any Sioux Treaty land diminishment vis-a-vis the 1851 Ft. Laramie Treaty, the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation sits along the west bank of the Missouri River, as does the Camp.

"How then can there not be a legitimate claim to protect the water that runs through reserved ancestral Sioux Treaty territory---water that has demarcated the eastern Treaty boundary for 150 years---water that has run through Sioux lands since time immemorial?"

Is Judge Boasberg fluent in Treaty History?

Caution and Vigilance Required

Within an hour after Judge Boasberg's ruling, the Department of Justice, the Department of the Army and the Department of the Interior overturned the Judge's decision.

The Army will not authorize constructing the Dakota Access pipeline on Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe until it can determine whether it will need to reconsider any of its previous decisions regarding the Lake Oahe site under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or other federal laws. Therefore, construction of the pipeline on Army Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe will not go forward at this time.

But did it really stop construction of the pipeline, or is this a tactic to delay and calm tensions?

The language is riddled with loopholes denying DAPL access on "Corps land" bordering or under Lake Oahe "until it can determine whether it will need to reconsider any of its previous decisions." The agencies cite a "need for discussion," including tribal input "within existing statutory framework."

According to Judge Boasberg, the "statutory framework" requires that the pipeline move forward.

This language from DOJ is hardly a ringing endorsement of the Sioux Nation's claim for environmental protection and historical preservation.

Then there is expert testimony filed seeking an injunction from further construction by DAPL.

Thomas F. King, Ph.D., an anthropologist from the University of California, Riverside, has fifty years' experience working with the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and related federal laws and regulations, as well as with American Indian tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, and other indigenous and minority groups.

King is concerned and the Sioux Nation should be too.

The Corps, however, persisted and continues to persist in considering not the full range of effects of it permitted projects, but only those effects that fall under its regulatory control. Indeed, today I find the Corps deeply resistant to considering any effect that the applicant for its permit does not itself identify and report to be significant.



Cause for Skepticism and Getting to Yes

A day after the temporary reprieve from the Federal Government, The Sacred Stone Camp released the following statement,

We have seen time and time again, a consistent strategy from the State in these situations: string out the process, break it to us gradually to avoid a big confrontation, present the illusion of careful, thoughtful review of the case, tempt us with promises of modest reforms...but then in the end make the same decision that serves money not people. So far this is just talk, not actions, and actions are all we should care about. Stop the pipeline, and then we'll celebrate. We are not leaving until this is over.

by Wakiya Waanata (Matt Remle- Lakota) Source: lastrealindians.com Camp leaders have a valid point. No one wants to negate the relief and exhilaration the Sacred Stone Camp is experiencing, but the continuing military presence offers a cautionary tale. Why is the Governor of North Dakota using the National Guard to protect Energy Transfer, Inc. and the Canadian corporation Enbridge? Why the continuing warrants? Why the blockades?

This hardly seems to be a neutral ground for negotiation.

Responding to the call for caution from camp leaders, Winona LaDuke told Canadian television, "The consultation process has been abysmal."

"Consultation does not just mean getting to yes for a pipeline company. Actually, sometimes no means no."

Along Came a Reporter from Laos

It is quite possible that a question from an unknown Malaysian female journalist in Laos was the genesis for the sudden and unexpected intervention by the Obama administration. It seems that people a half a world away from Standing Rock knew more about the protests at Standing Rock than the President did.

In an interview broadcast on CSPAN President Obama was asked specifically about the DAPL just two days before Judge Boasberg's scheduled ruling. The location was a press conference in Laos. The reporter specifically asked Obama if he stood in solidarity with indigenous people in North Dakota and how he could ensure protection of ancestral lands.

Obama stalled for almost two minutes before admitting that he did not know about the pipeline and referred to his staff for more information. He probably knew he was caught.

After all, just two years ago he stood at Standing Rock in an election year and promised support to the poverty stricken reservation.

"My administration is determined to partner with tribes," Obama said. "It takes place every day on just about every issue that touches your lives."

Another broken promise.

The Administration seems to have missed two years of discussion and heartache. Obama cannot get away with stopping the Keystone XL to great praise while replacing it with another that follows almost the same routing.

During my visits to Standing Rock over the last two weeks, I have witnessed too many tears and much anxiety. I was told many times by elders and young people alike that perhaps the events of Bloody Saturday were the Creator's design. Sometimes great tragedy is the predicator of needed reform. I think of Hurricane Katrina and the resulting great flood of New Orleans that exposed the shameless practices of the USACE.

I tend to agree with Camp leaders that much caution is needed during this time of celebration. We have tricked Native Americans time and time again, leaving them with flooded lands as rivers were dammed, a landscape devoid of wildlife and trees, and a crushing poverty.

Carefully read the words in the latest rulings and documents. Intent is written there.

(Still Photos by Georgianne Nienaber)

Cross posted at Huffington Post.
See original here by Kelly Hayes

By toasting the illusion of victory, we could undo what we have built at Standing Rock, this unprecedented act of collective resistance. By celebrating too soon, you're helping to build a pipeline.

All Native struggles in the United States are a struggle against erasure. The poisoning of our land, the theft of our children, the state violence committed against us -- we are forced to not only live in opposition to these ills, but also to live in opposition to the fact that they are often erased from public view and public discourse, outside of Indian Country. The truth of our history and our struggle does not match the myth of American exceptionalism, and thus, we are frequently boxed out of the narrative.

The struggle at Standing Rock, North Dakota, has been no exception, with Water Protectors fighting tooth and nail for visibility, ever since the Sacred Stone prayer encampment began on April 1.

For months, major news outlets have ignored what's become the largest convergence of Native peoples in more than a century. But with growing social media amplification and independent news coverage, the corporate media had finally begun to take notice. National attention was paid. Solidarity protests were announced in cities around the country. The National Guard was activated in North Dakota.

The old chant, "The whole world is watching!" seemed on the verge of accuracy in Standing Rock.

And then came today's ruling, with a federal judge finding against the Standing Rock Sioux, and declaring that construction of the pipeline could legally continue. It was the ruling I expected, but it still stung. I felt the sadness, anger and disappointment that rattled many of us as we received the news. But then something happened. Headlines like, "Obama administration orders ND pipeline construction to stop" and "The Obama Administration Steps In to Block the Dakota Access Pipeline" began to fill my newsfeed, with comments like, "Thank God for Obama!" attached to them.

Clearly, a major plot twist has occurred. But it's not the one that's being sold.

To understand that this isn't the victory it's being billed as, you have to read the fine print in the presently lauded joint statement from the Department of Justice, the Department of the Army and the Department of the Interior:

"The Army will not authorize constructing the Dakota Access pipeline on Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe until it can determine whether it will need to reconsider any of its previous decisions regarding the Lake Oahe site under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or other federal laws."

Note what's actually being said here, what's being promised and what isn't.

What is actually being guaranteed?

Further consideration.

But this next section is a little more promising, right?

"Therefore, construction of the pipeline on Army Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe will not go forward at this time. The Army will move expeditiously to make this determination, as everyone involved -- including the pipeline company and its workers -- deserves a clear and timely resolution. In the interim, we request that the pipeline company voluntarily pause all construction activity within 20 miles east or west of Lake Oahu."

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This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

[Note for TomDispatch Readers: It's an honor to have a remarkable piece about our fraying American world by Bill Moyers today. I hope it will be a reminder to TD readers that this is a site worth supporting. If you're in the mood, check out our donation page. For a contribution of $100 ($125, if you live outside the U.S.), you can get signed, personalized copies of quite a range of books for our moment, the most recent being Arlie Hochschild's vivid account of Tea Partiers in Louisiana, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right. Tom]

Hope: it's in short supply in America this year. I was reminded of that recently when I spoke at a kick-off event for the school year hosted by the Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas. The Institute's namesake is, of course, Bob Dole, the war hero turned Republican congressman, senator, minority and then majority leader, and finally presidential nominee in 1996. On a beautiful summer evening, on the front lawn of the Institute, my host, a KU senior named Cody, and I discussed -- what else is there to talk about this year? -- The Donald, Hillary, and Bernie. Then we plunged into the perilous topic of the media and its curious future and the life of a journalist (me) covering the gravity-defying spectacle commonly known as election 2016. More than 100 students showed up -- nothing to do, I'm sure, with the free burgers and soda -- and when it came time for the Q-and-A portion of the event, I couldn't help but be struck by the acuity and thoughtfulness of their questions.

Afterward, I met a smaller group of them at a nearby basement bar. During my five years as an undergraduate, I can't recall having a conversation as substantive as that evening's. Kansas's state government, led by its governor, Sam Brownback, has plunged into a radical experiment in "conservative" governing, and it was on their minds. We talked about a variety of depressing topics, including the devastating effects of the legislature's repeated budget cuts to higher education and another grim signature legislative issue: the open carry of guns on campus. "No gun" signs were ubiquitous there, but everyone wondered: For how long? The students spoke eloquently and knowledgeably. More than that, they spoke with passion and in detail about how such problems might be dealt with and even fixed, and they did so with the Dole Institute's bipartisan ethos in mind. Some of it may have been the youthful idealism of the undergraduate but, believe me, it was refreshing.

I say all this because, as a journalist in this crazy year of our lord 2016, on a good day the temptation is to tilt toward cynicism. It's our job to rake the muck and expose the trolls, to cast light on the wrongdoing and the failings in our society, but it's up to others to set them right. Today, at this site, Bill Moyers writes about the greatest failing, the true disaster, of our time: the scourge of growing inequality, economic and political. He describes it as "a despicable blot on American politics," as the very wealthy convert their financial might into political power to guard that wealth while exacerbating inequality further. The statistics Moyers deploys are chilling. Consume enough of them and you're liable to feel a bit gloomy. But like those undergraduates, Moyers (very distinctly a post-graduate of our difficult political world) holds onto the hope, as today's piece suggests, that Americans can still fix our world, make it a better place.

Those students I met gave me hope and Moyers does the same -- hope for a more equitable future brought on by the hard work of Americans, whether as journalists, legislators, or activists, as lawyers, doctors, engineers, or teachers. These are strange, often grim, times, and such bursts of hope are what keep us going. Andy Kroll

We, the Plutocrats vs. We, the People

Saving the Soul of Democracy

By Bill Moyers Sixty-six years ago this summer, on my 16th birthday, I went to work for the daily newspaper in the small East Texas town of Marshall where I grew up. It was a good place to be a cub reporter -- small enough to navigate but big enough to keep me busy and learning something every day. I soon had a stroke of luck. Some of the paper's old hands were on vacation or out sick and I was assigned to help cover what came to be known across the country as "the housewives' rebellion." Fifteen women in my hometown decided not to pay the social security withholding tax for their domestic workers. Those housewives were white, their housekeepers black. Almost half of all employed black women in the country then were in domestic service. Because they tended to earn lower wages, accumulate less savings, and be stuck in those jobs all their lives, social security was their only insurance against poverty in old age. Yet their plight did not move their employers. The housewives argued that social security was unconstitutional and imposing it was taxation without representation. They even equated it with slavery. They also claimed that "requiring us to collect [the tax] is no different from requiring us to collect the garbage." So they hired a high-powered lawyer -- a notorious former congressman from Texas who had once chaired the House Un-American Activities Committee -- and took their case to court. They lost, and eventually wound up holding their noses and paying the tax, but not before their rebellion had become national news. The stories I helped report for the local paper were picked up and carried across the country by the Associated Press. One day, the managing editor called me over and pointed to the AP Teletype machine beside his desk. Moving across the wire was a notice citing our paper and its reporters for our coverage of the housewives' rebellion. I was hooked, and in one way or another I've continued to engage the issues of money and power, equality and democracy over a lifetime spent at the intersection between politics and journalism. It took me awhile to put the housewives' rebellion into perspective. Race played a role, of course. Marshall was a segregated, antebellum town of 20,000, half of whom were white, the other half black. White ruled, but more than race was at work. Those 15 housewives were respectable townsfolk, good neighbors, regulars at church (some of them at my church). Their children were my friends; many of them were active in community affairs; and their husbands were pillars of the town's business and professional class. So what brought on that spasm of rebellion? They simply couldn't see beyond their own prerogatives . Fiercely loyal to their families, their clubs, their charities, and their congregations -- fiercely loyal, that is, to their own kind -- they narrowly defined membership in democracy to include only people like themselves. They expected to be comfortable and secure in their old age, but the women who washed and ironed their laundry, wiped their children's bottoms, made their husbands' beds, and cooked their family's meals would also grow old and frail, sick and decrepit, lose their husbands and face the ravages of time alone, with nothing to show from their years of labor but the crease in their brow and the knots on their knuckles. In one way or another, this is the oldest story in our country's history: the struggle to determine whether "we, the people" is a metaphysical reality -- one nation, indivisible -- or merely a charade masquerading as piety and manipulated by the powerful and privileged to sustain their own way of life at the expense of others. "I Contain Multitudes" There is a vast difference between a society whose arrangements roughly serve all its citizens and one whose institutions have been converted into a stupendous fraud, a democracy in name only. I have no doubt about what the United States of America was meant to be. It's spelled out right there in the 52 most revolutionary words in our founding documents, the preamble to our Constitution, proclaiming the sovereignty of the people as the moral base of government:

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Reprinted from Truthdig



President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama visited Saudi Arabia in 2015 and met with King Salman bin Abdulaziz.

(Image by White House photo by Pete Souza) Details DMCA



The following excerpt is adapted from "Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection" from O/R Books.

To this day, there is no clarity about the role of the Saudi Arabian government or individual Saudis with close ties to the government in the 9/11 attacks.

We know that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi. We know that the bin Laden family had close ties to the family of George W. Bush. We know that right after the attack, wealthy Saudis living in the United States frantically contacted the Saudi Embassy in Washington asking to leave because they feared a backlash. Just days after the attack, some 140 Saudis, including about two dozen members of the bin Laden family, were mysteriously spirited out of the country with little questioning by the FBI.

READ: How Little We Know About the Origins of 9/11

There have been claims that Saudi Arabia's ruling elite, under the guise of support for Islamic charities, distributed money to Sunni extremists inside the United States in the run-up to the Sept. 11 attacks. Omar al-Bayoumi, an alleged Saudi agent living in San Diego who helped two of the hijackers, seemed to have access to large amounts of money from Saudi Arabia. An FBI source identified al-Bayoumi as the person who delivered $400,000 from Saudi Arabia to a mosque in San Diego.

The allegations were bolstered when former al-Qaida operative Zacarias Moussaoui accused prominent members of Saudi Arabia's royal family of being major donors to the terrorist network in the late 1990s -- allegations that Saudi officials denied.

Many 9/11 family members thought that the 2002 Congressional Joint Inquiry into the terrorist attacks would provide answers. The 838-page investigation was completed in December 2002, but the Bush administration refused to release it until after the invasion of Iraq, and refused to declassify a 28-page portion of the report that dealt with Saudi Arabia and the financing of the attacks.

Members of Congress were allowed to read the 28 pages in a secure, soundproof facility in the basement of the Capitol, but they were not allowed to take notes, bring any staff, or talk about the content. After reading the 28 pages, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky said, "They're the most consequential pages in the 1,000-page report." Massie said the section was "shocking" and he had to "stop every couple pages and try to rearrange my understanding of history."

Former Sen. Bob Graham, who chaired the investigation, fought hard to get the section released. "The 28 pages primarily relate to who financed 9/11, and they point a very strong finger at Saudi Arabia as being the principal financier," said Graham. He suggested that the Bush and Obama administrations refused to release the information for fear of alienating an influential military and economic partner.

Graham also said the FBI withheld from his commission's inquiry the fact that the bureau had investigated a Saudi family in Sarasota, Fla., and had found multiple contacts between the Saudi family and the hijackers training nearby, and that the family fled the country just before the attacks. "One thing that irritates me is that the FBI has gone beyond just covering up into what I call aggressive deception," Graham said.

Many people dispute Graham's interpretation and insist the Saudi government had no ties to the attacks. They point to a separate congressional study in 2004 by the 9/11 Commission that found no evidence that the Saudi government or senior Saudi officials individually funded al-Qaida.

In May 2016, however, John Lehman, a Republican who served as U.S. Navy secretary in the Reagan administration and was among the 10 commission members, said there was, indeed, clear evidence that Saudi government employees helped some of the 9/11 hijackers. He said the commission investigated at least five Saudi government officials, including employees of the kingdom's Ministry of Islamic Affairs, who potentially aided some of the hijackers.

On July 15, after 14 years of pressure, a redacted version of the 28 pages was finally declassified. Some reported that it contained no smoking gun and the matter should be put to rest. Graham, on the other hand, said it did indeed confirm Saudi government links to the hijackers and that it should herald the flow of more government-withheld information. The 28 pages dealt mostly with the three hijackers who lived in San Diego, but most of the hijackers lived in Florida, Virginia and New Jersey. Graham contends that there are over 80,000 pages from these investigations that should be released.

The best way to get this information released is through litigation. For over a decade, 9/11 widows have tried to sue Saudi Arabia in U.S. courts but have been blocked by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. A bill called the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, or JASTA, would strip immunity from countries potentially involved in acts of terrorism on U.S. soil.

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This paper was first published in Feb. 2007. It received over 100 comments at op-ed news. It was republished in June 2009 and another 36 comments were added. It all still holds true, on the 16th anniversary.

President Obama has continued the 9-11 coverup. Meanwhile, many professionals- architects and engineers, intelligence officers, health care workers, as well as people who were there at the time, have challenged the official story. Meanwhile the crucial question was never asked.

WHODUNIT ???

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Anyone who has studied 9-11 at all knows it was an inside job.



George W. Bush was not surprised. His brother Marvin's security company closed down one tower the week before and brought in lots of cables and other equipment. The towers, including building 7, were dropped by controlled demolition. The planes provided a dramatic cover story- great pix.



Rumsfeld had control of scrambling planes to intercept enemies transferred to himself, exclusively, a few months before. He was unreachable that morning, so no planes intercepted the four hijacked airliners. Instead, there was a "stand-down" of NORAD.

By some strange coincidence, a dozen military air exercises were being run that morning, at least one of which simulated planes crashing into buildings, so that the air traffic controllers were confused about whether the "attack" was real or part of a drill.



The buildings were pulverized, but the passports of the hijackers were somehow left in a car and quickly "discovered". There was no investigation, only a coverup that blamed the CIA and recommended police state measures to prevent future "attacks".



Then there's the lack of plane parts and small hole at the Pentagon. The flying out of the Bin Laden family the next day. The millions made on selling airline stocks short by those in the know. The confusion about passenger lists. The rejection of FBI reports about possible terrorists at US flying schools. The trucking out of girders from the demolished towers before dawn, so that crucial evidence disappeared. The finding of thermite and demolition materials, in the rubble. And on and on.



There are so many videos that its hard to choose, but my favorites is 9-11 Mysteries at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6708190071483512003 If you are not certain that 9-11 was an inside job, please watch this video. It's 1 1/2 hours of factual material that will convince you. You owe it to yourself and all the rest of us to learn the truth about 9-11.



Most Americans, even those who are working for peace and justice, are reluctant to believe that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest actually planned and implemented 9-11, even though their long range plan (PNAC) clearly states that they need "a new Pearl Harbor". The Reichstag fire is a better parallel, since it was also an inside job.



Polls show widespread skepticism of the cover story, and suspicion that Bush allowed 9-11 to happen, ignoring warnings from abroad and from his own intelligence service. But to think that he actually helped plan it, that demolition charges were set in the Towers by his brother's company- that is a depth of evil that most of us can't even begin to contemplate.



Why is this? We all know so well what liars and connivers the Bush people are, how little they care for human life, or truth, or honor, how greedy they are for power and how ruthless they are in pursuing it. Why is it so hard to believe that they planned and carried out 9-11?



The degree of denial is astounding.

The cover story is paper thin. Osama bin Laden was blamed within 24 hours, with no investigation. It's obvious that the 9-11 Commission asked the wrong question,- not whodunit, but why were the signals missed? It's obvious that Osama, no matter how bright and charismatic, could not have orchestrated such a massive attack from caves in Afghanistan. It's obvious that the Saudi hijackers, if that's who they were, were allowed into this country with no screening, allowed to take flight lessons, allowed to get on airplanes with box cutters- but how could all this be known, when the twin towers were pulverized? Etc. etc.





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Immersing oneself in to another world as an Spanish language student  the Oceanografic in Valencia

www.Costadevalencia.com

Language students know: connecting a language vacation with visits of touristic attractions is very easyValencia. Valencia is home to many attractions which make the city to a very special vacation destination. The beach and park help to completely let loose and relax but the mind will not get bored here either. This city offers fantastic opportunities to complete a language vacation in a Spanish language school, where the students not only learn the language but also get to see some really nice things. Of course you can visit the attractions yourself but isnt it more fun to do so with a group of nice people with similar interests and a guide who knows Valencia? Hence learn Spanish and its everyday figure of speech effortlessly and with joy.Who visits Valencia will definitely have heard of the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias. It is a building complex of the modern times which is not only impressing on the outside, but also on the inside.Amongst other things the Oceanografic is located here; it is the largest aquarium of Europe. Thousands of people and families come each year to discover the unknown world of the deep waters. Going there during a vacation in Valencia is a Must-See for everyone who likes the nature and is interested in animals. Taking a trip there with the language school makes the visit even better because a group of students gets discounts.When entering the aquarium the visitor already gets welcomed by the world of fish. In the reception building are many information points with maps, some souvenir shops and the first fish tanks. In the background plays relaxing music to give the visitor enough time to look around. All over are additional information boards to learn more about the specific animals, here and there little anecdotes give even more information and also arouse interest with the children.During the day you may start with a tour through the Mediterranean area to discover this part of the sea following going outside to experience the world of birds. In a huge round cage are many different species to discover which live by or in the sea but also are able to fly. And so it goes on and in the end there was more to marvel than you can remember: beings from the Red Sea, the Antarctic, the oceans, different tropic and South American islands and much more. All this combined in one place: Valencia.You can also find a house of butterflies here and of course the Delfinario which is the main attraction for most of the visitors. Many dolphins live here and when coming on the right time you can even witness the feeding or a show. This is not only fun for children; it also brings a lot of joy to adults.Although there are some restaurants and little shops which secure the visitor to be fully taken care of but the animals stand always in the center. There are writings concerning the problems of the environmental pollution and global warming all over the place. Additional awareness is being projected with videos, which transmit the message that nature does not need mankind but mankind needs the nature and therefore humans should treat it right.All in all the Oceanografic is a destination for the whole day and who does not like to go alone and also wants to improve their Spanish skills is welcomed to go with the Spanish language school Costa de Valencia  where group trips are being organized to share the fun of the day with nice people. Who has the opportunity to go should not miss it because the Oceanografic is unique in Europe.Since 1995 the language school Costa de Valencia has focused on teaching Spanish to non-native speakers. This language school, which is situated in the heart of Valencia, is a Centro Acreditado of the Instituto Cervantes and a member of many associations.The teaching material, which is used during the lessons, is worked out by a team of well-versed teachers. One of the most important aspects of teaching in this school is the individual involvement of every single student. This way every student has the possibility to speak very much during the language course. Furthermore, both managers place big value the quality of the language lessons and a broadly diversified leisure programme.Costa de Valencia, S.L.Avda. Blasco Ibanez, 66E-46021 ValenciaTel.: (+34) 96 361 03 67Fax: (+34) 96 393 60 49info@costadevalencia.comContact person:Andreas Temer (manager)Andreas@Costadevalencia.com
Traditional music boxes from Dong ethnic group come face to face in London with 21st century science

From:chinadaily.com.cn | 2016-09-11 16:45

Photo shows a traditional Dong music box. [Photo courtesy of Dr Nick Bryan-Kinns]

A collaboration that started between one of Britain's best known universities and an ethnic community in China will see traditional music boxes taking a starring role at an event which opens Saturday in London.

A collection of music boxes were crafted in Hengling village as part of an interactive project with Queen Mary University in London (QMUL). The idea was to combine traditional Dong crafts and music with the concept of music boxes used in the western world.

The boxes in "Intersections", a free exhibit with immersive installations, haptic interactions, kinetic sculptures and much more as a showcase of Msc and PhD students from the Media and Arts Technology CDT program at QMUL.

The event runs from Saturday until next Thursday. It will include a symposium, talks and demonstrations as well as an exhibition focusing on the relationship between the arts and science.

Queen Mary academic Dr Nick Bryan-Kinns set up a collaboration with Hunan University in 2012 after he led an expedition to find partners for QMUL. The two universities have since created a collaborative masters program, as well as joint research projects and now two summer camp activities.

The Hengling music box project, is a collaboration between Hunan University, Queen Mary University of London and British company b00t Consultants. They were made specially for the project and have never previously been used or displayed in Britain.

Photo shows a Dong music box being made in China. [Photo courtesy of Dr Nick Bryan-Kinns]

They are described as interactive artifacts inspired by the Dong ethnic minority culture in rural China and focus on Interaction Design with Audio (IDwA).

Included are Doye boxes with their beautiful local songs and memories from Dong culture.

People can interact by changing the position of the box, creates different atmospheres by projecting local patterns as shadows on coloured lighting.

The Dong Shine is a portable music lamp based on Dong culture. Drawings on papers represent sceneries using Dong-style patterns, playing Dong songs. People interact by waving their hand under the lamp to make it play different music.

Dong Tunes is a traditionally shaped Lucky Flower decoration hung in symbolic buildings in Dong's community for good luck.

The KeepMake is a modern-day keepsake for storing intangible materials found in the surrounding environment, drawing Inspiration from local waterwheel. It features the sound of the river; and makes sound of local waterwheel when tilted to ear.

Bryan-Kinns told Xinhua: "A Maker space is a collaborative work space for making, learning, exploring and sharing that uses both high tech digital tools and no-tech traditional tools. Maker spaces are quite popular in big cities such as Shenzhen or London, but ours is one of the first in rural Chinese location."

"The idea was to combine traditional Dong crafts and music with the Western concept of music boxes. The projects utilised local textiles and bamboo making to create hybrid objects interactive objects built locally and using local sounds using western technologies," said Bryan-Kinns.

A number of students from Hunan University, along with a Hunan alumni currently at Queen Mary studying for a PhD as a student of Bryan-Kinns are expected to go to the Intersections event.
Understanding challenges and opportunities of Power Technology Sector in Kenya

Power Tech Africa 2017

Kenyas economy has been growing consistently at the rate of 5.1% over the past 10 years. Inspite of this fact, power sector of the country is facing several hindrances in fulfilling the power generation needs which in turn is impacting the countrys economy and investing opportunities for other countries. To understand the challenges and prospects in power sector of Kenya, Bricsa Consulting in association with Kenya Renewable Energy Association, Alliance for Rural Electrification, East Africa Venture Capital Association and Green Africa Foundation are hosting: Power Tech Africa 2017 Conference, at Villa Rosa Kempinski in Nairobi, Kenya on 30th-31st January 2017.Julius Korir, Principal Secretary of State Department of Industry and Enterprise Development at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Co-operatives will join the prestigious speaker panel at the conference. Robert Pavel Oimeke, Director of Renewable Energy representing the Energy Regulatory Commission, Zulandi Van Der Westhuizen, Deputy Director Scenarios and Resources from World Energy Council and Jonathan Lodompui, Director of Enablers and Macro Directorate at Kenya Vision 2030 will update the attendees on the latest development on power technologies in Africa .Identifying the effects on African economies due to the current scenario and an insight of the Institutional framework of the power sector will be some of the key topics open to discussion. In addition, the role of FDI policies in operating the power system in eastern African region, along with Solar Energy v/s Wind Energy as renewable source of energy will be explored.Discussion on the above topic will not only help in better understanding of the power sector in the sub-Saharan region, it will also provide the best platform to the solution providers who can showcase their products and services at the conference. It will also interest all the stake holders who are willing to invest in the power sector of Africa as the market industry is enormous, business opportunities are abound.For Additional Information, Please Contact:Jasbir SinghMarketing at Bricsa Consulting+91 22 4298 4103Bricsa Consulting is engaged in producing high-end networking and knowledge sharing platforms, for senior executives from the government and private sector in the emerging market. Our effort is to provide business communities with superior products designed by thoughtful research. We foster communication among our customers from the industry and working professionals enabling them to work more efficiently and thereby advancing knowledge and learning. Our dynamic growth allows us to invest continually across a larger geographical market. We think ahead, move fast and promote change. Creative business models, innovative products and mutually beneficial international partnerships have established us as a trusted name in the information age.A 916, Sagar Tech Plaza, Level 9, Sakinaka Jn,Andheri East, Mumbai 400 072, India.
Environmental disaster in Vietnam

The 5 by the environmental disaster most affected provinces and coastal regions in central Vietnam.

http://www.vietnam-visa-for-vietnam.com/environmental_disaster_in_vietnam.html

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In Vietnam occurred the biggest environmental disaster since the deployment of Agent Orange by the Americans during the Vietnam War. It happened almost unnoticed by the world while Europe was busy with the refugee crisis and America with the forthcoming presidential elections of the USA. The perpetrators of the environmental disaster come from abroad and are supported by the Vietnamese politicians, similar as it was happen at the Vietnam War." probably the biggest environmental disaster in Vietnam since Agent Orange "Beginning in early April 2016 a massive fish deaths on the coast of Vietnam was perceived. The disaster began in Ha Tinh province, in central Vietnam and then spreads to more than 200 km of coastline, into the provinces of Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue and Da Nang. Since then a few hundred thousands (well much more than 115 tons) of dead fish were purged on the beaches of the region. Thousands of Vietnamese are threatened in their existence.those who are responsible for the environmental disaster in Vietnam" Do you want fish or steel? "A steel plant of the Taiwanese company Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) in Vietnamese Ha Tinh province has been begins the operation in early April 2016. The mass fish mortality started at the same time. Fishermen of the region discovered some pipelines of the Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Company (FHS), which initiated the company's wastewater directly into the sea. The fishermen were sure that they had found the cause of the environmental disaster.This assumption of the fishermens was then confirmed in a first unofficial statement of Formosa. Mr. Chou Chun Fan, a senior manager of the company apologized for the disaster. But he made it clear that one must lose something if ones are planning to win something. He underscored his opinion with the statement: "Do you want fish or do you want a steelworks? You need to decide!". This led to a wave of protests as well to indignation among the Vietnamese population. The allegations were vehemently disclaimed by official side of Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Company (FHS). Mr. Chou Chun Fan was dismissed on the grounds that he does not represent the opinion of the company.The Vietnamese government in Hanoi practiced restraint. However, it was emphasized that they wanted to solve the case rest. The Vietnamese Deputy Minister for Resources and Environment, Mr. Vo Tuan Nhan spoke the Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Company (FHS) free from any responsibility on the environmental disaster during a press conference on 27.04.2016. Cause of the fish deaths was probably rather an algal bloom and the initiation of toxic chemicals by the residents of the region. Questions were not permitted by Vietnamese government during the press conference. Vietnamese civil rights activists assume that corrupt government officials were bribed by the Formosa to cover up the incident. Formosa Plastics Group The Taiwanese Formosa Plastics Group is with an annual turnover of 78 billion USD and more than 106-thousand employees one of the largest chemical concerns in the world. The Group operates numerous subsidiaries in Taiwan, China, Vietnam as well in the United States and other countries.The owners and the management of the Formosa Plastics Group were in 2009 denounced, by the ethecon - Foundation for Ethics & Economics with the Black Planet Award as they belonging to the persons who are responsible for the largest pollution at the earth.Read full article about the environmental disaster in Vietnam at ITI-HOLIDAY:ITI-HOLIDAY Germany is an online travel agency for tours in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. We are offering affordable individual tours and fair travel service for the Europeans and here especially for the German market, into the Asian regions. ITI-HOLIDAY is an specialised international tour operator with a comprehensive service for travelers in Southeast Asia and Indochina. We are present on the European travel market Since 2008. We pleased about our growing customer numbers and popularity. We set great attention to customer satisfaction, service, fair prices and to realize it, we are leveraging the long experience of ITI-HOLIDAY Asia. Our strong community of local tour operators makes it possible.ITI-HOLIDAY GermanyIndochina Travel IndividualKlingerstrasse 41F09117 ChemnitzGermanyProprietorHeiko GrimmTel.: +49 371 2832201Tel.: +49 371 3179571Fax: +49 3212 1415272E-Mail: info(at)iti-holiday.comInternet:
Global Distributed Energy Generation (DEG) Systems Market 2016, Trends and Forecast Report

Distributed Energy Generation (DEG) Market

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Professional and Depth research on Distributed Energy Generation (DEG) Systems Market report.The review has been based on the report titled, " Distributed Energy Generation (DEG) Systems Market - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2016 - 2020." This report studies Distributed Energy Generation (DEG) Systems in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Asia and India, focuses on top manufacturers in global market.Each market segment is then analyzed considering its contribution in terms of volume produced (in kilo tons) and the revenue it generates (in US$).Read Complete Report @Firstly, Global Distributed Energy Generation (DEG) Systems Market report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. Upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also carried out.The Distributed Energy Generation (DEG) Systems Report important aspects like development Trends , Capacity Production Overview,Production Market Share Analysis, Demand Overview and Supply Demand.This Distributed Energy Generation (DEG) Systems Report also state Import/Export Consumption,Cost,Price,Revenue and Gross Margin for better understanding.The Distributed Energy Generation (DEG) Systems Research study covered policies and plans on Cost Price, Production Value,Gross Margin and Revenue by Region (North America, Europe and Asia) and by Country(United States, Germany, Japan and China).Also, the Distributed Energy Generation (DEG) Systems Industry growth in various regions and R&D status are also covered.Request for Sample Report @Lastly, the report profiles the major players operating in the Distributed Energy Generation (DEG) Systems market in the world in order to analyze the competitive hierarchy of the market, and overall research conclusions are offered.Market Research Store is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations.Contact UsJoel JohnTel: +1-386-310-3803GMT Tel: +49-322 210 92714USA/Canada Toll Free No. 1-855-465-4651Email: sales@marketresearchstore.com
Europe Motion Sensor Market 2016:Accelerometer, Digital Compass, Motion Sensor Combos

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Motion sensors are equipment & devices that are specially programmed to detect or track movements by monitoring a change in relative position of an object with respect to its surroundings and notify the users. The Motion sensors are made using varied electronic devices that help in the automation of different functions. Motion sensing is an emerging technology that has transformed the way machines interact with humans and assists in monitoring the change in environment by offering required information.Technological developments in have resulted in design of high performing sensors with reduced size, which is a key factor driving the growth of the market. Furthermore, the incorporation of MEMS technology into making advanced motion sensors has opened the product to a range of applications such as in consumer electronics, automotive sector, aerospace & defense sector, healthcare, and others. MEMS-based sensors have smallest form factor, which is a major reason for the adoption of these motion sensing technologies. Another major factor driving the motion sensors market is the increased demand of accelerometers, a type of sensor used in the consumer electronics segment.Access Full Report:Emerging technologies such as fully autonomous vehicles and voice-controlled equipment is expected to provide great opportunities for the growth of the market. Consumer electronics is one of the fastest growing segment in terms of applications of motion sensorsThe applications of motion sensors in designing gyroscopes and magnetometers, which are used in mobile devices such as smartphones, notebook computers and tablets, are the key drivers of this market. Using sensors in the design of remote-controlled planes and advanced aerial drones is expected to expand the growth opportunities in the market. Recent applications of these sensors across medical & healthcare sector such as in designing implantable medical devices is expected to witness future growth opportunities in the European sensor market. However, privacy issues related with location based sensing is a key market challenge. Furthermore, due to the presence of large amount of personal information available online, there is a higher risk of identity theft and other online crimes hampering the growth of the market. Creating awareness by stakeholders to educate the consumers on managing the trail of information online would help the key market players to overcome the challenges.Get Free Sample Report Of Motion Sensor Market @The report segments the European motion sensor market on the basis of product, end users technology and region. On the basis of products, the market is further segmented into accelerometer, gyroscope, digital compass & motion sensor combos. Based on end-users, the market is segmented into automotive, consumer electronics, industrial manufacturing, healthcare, defense, and aerospace. Based on technology, the market is segmented into microwave, dual-technology, passive infrared, ultrasonic and tomography. Based on region, the market is segmented into the U.K., France, Italy, Germany and Rest of Europe.New product launches, partnerships & agreements, and acquisitions are key strategies adopted by market players to strengthen their market position. Key market players profiled in the report include, Atmel Corporation (Europe), BOSCH Sensortec GmbH (Europe), and Colibrys SA (Germany), and others.About Intense ResearchIntense Research provides a range of marketing and business research solutions designed for our clients specific needs based on our expert resources. The business scopes of Intense Research cover more than 30 industries includsing energy, new materials, transportation, daily consumer goods, chemicals, etc. We provide our clients with one-stop solution for all the research requirements.Contact Us:Joel John3422 SW 15 Street, Suit #8138,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442,United StatesTel: +1-386-310-3803GMT Tel: +49-322 210 92714USA/Canada Toll Free No. 1-855-465-4651Email: sales@intenseresearch.comWeb:Contact Us:Joel John3422 SW 15 Street, Suit #8138,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442,United StatesTel: +1-386-310-3803GMT Tel: +49-322 210 92714USA/Canada Toll Free No. 1-855-465-4651Email: sales@intenseresearch.comWeb:
System and Software Segment Expected to Realize the Fastest Growth in the Global IoT in Healthcare Market, During 2015 - 2020

www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/internet-of-things-in-healthcare-market

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The global IoT in Healthcare market was valued at $24,666.7 million in 2014, and it is expected to grow with a CAGR of 37.6% during 2015 - 2020. Among the various components, the system and software segment is expected to witness the fastest growth during the forecast period, with a CAGR of 40.7%. The global IoT in healthcare market is growing at a significant rate, due to increasing demand for advanced healthcare information system, and growing prevalence of chronic and lifestyle associated diseases. In addition, the growing need for remote patient monitoring services, increasing demand of mHealth technologies, and increasing support from government organizations are also driving the growth of the global IoT in healthcare market.Explore Report with Detailed TOC Global Internet of Things (IoT) in Healthcare at:The information and data in the publication Global IoT in Healthcare Market Size, Share, Development, Growth and Demand Forecast to 2020 represent the research and analysis of data from various primary and secondary sources. The bottom-top approach has been used to calculate the global market size by type and drugs. The market numbers for countries are obtained through top-down approach. P&S Market Research analysts and consultants interacted with the authorities from leading companies of the concerned domain, to substantiate every value of data presented in this report. The company bases its primary research on discussions with prominent professionals and analysts in the industry, which is followed by informed and detailed, online and offline research.The IoT applications in healthcare, such as telemedicine, medication management, clinical operations and workflow management, inpatient monitoring, helps in compiling services related to diagnosis, treatment, care, and rehabilitation. It improves communication between patients and healthcare providers, to reduce medication errors and provide better coordinated care.Request for Report Sample:According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 9.6 million people were diagnosed with tuberculosis and 1.5 million died due to the disease in 2014. Similarly, according to the WHO, globally 130 million to 150 million people had chronic hepatitis C infection in 2014. Moreover, according to the WHO in 2014, 1.2 million people died from HIV related causes globally and 2 million people were newly infected with HIV.However, lack of security; insufficient memory, computational and energy limitations; and inadequate healthcare infrastructure in developing economies are inhibiting the growth of the market. The increasing number of collaboration and partnerships, growing number of product launches and increasing popularity of IoT healthcare devices are the major trends observed in the global IoT in healthcare market.Explore Related Research:Geographically, North America dominated the global market of IoT in healthcare in 2014; whereas the Asian market is expected to witness the fastest growth, a CAGR of 41.6%, during the forecast period.Some of the key companies operating in the global IoT in healthcare market include Medtronic Plc., Koninklijke Philips N.V., General Electric Company, Qualcomm Incorporated, Honeywell Life Care Solutions, SAP SE, Stanley Black & Decker Inc., International Business Machine (IBM) Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Cerner Corporation, Diabetizer Ltd. & Co. KG, Proteus Digital Health Inc., AdhereTech Inc., and fPhysIQ, Inc.GLOBAL IOT IN HEALTHCARE MARKET SEGMENTATIONBy Component Medical Deviceso Wearable External Deviceso Implanted Medical Deviceso Stationary Medical Devices Software and Systemso Remote Device Managemento Network Bandwidth Managemento Data Analyticso Application Securityo Network Security ServicesBy Connectivity Technology Wi-Fi Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Zigbee Near Field Communication (NFC) Cellular SatelliteBy Application Telemedicine Medication Management Clinical Operations Connected Imaging Inpatient Monitoring OthersBy End User Clinical Research Organization (CRO) Hospitals & Clinics Research and Diagnostic Laboratories OthersBreakdown by Geography North Americao The U.S.o Canadao Rest of North America Europeo The U.K.o Germanyo Franceo Rest of Europe Asiao Japano Chinao Indiao Rest of Asia Rest of the World (RoW)About P&S Market ResearchP&S Market Research is a market research company, which offers market research and consulting services for various geographies around the globe. We provide market research reports, industry forecasting reports, business intelligence, and research based consulting services across different industry/business verticals.As one of the top growing market research agency, were keen upon providing market landscape and accurate forecasting. Our analysts and consultants are proficient with business intelligence and market analysis, through their interaction with leading companies of the concerned domain. We help our clients with B2B market research and assist them in identifying various windows of opportunity, and framing informed and customized business expansion strategies in different regions.Contact:DeepAssistant  Client Partner347, 5th Ave. #1402New York City, NY  10016Toll-free: +1-888-778-7886 (USA/Canada)Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.comWeb:347 5th Ave. #1402- 210New York CityUnited States
Global Paraxylene Market (Size of $34,745.7 Million in 2015) to Witness 12.8% CAGR During 2016  2022

www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/paraxylene-market

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The global paraxylene market was valued at $34,745.7 million in 2015, and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.8% during 2016 - 2022. The major factors driving the growth of the market globally include growing demand of PTA in polyester manufacturing, rising demand for PET bottle resin due to increasing use of PET in soft drink and mineral water bottles, recycle and renewable raw material and the growth in end-user application. Based on application, the PTA segment accounted for the largest share in the total market in 2015, and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.9% in terms of value during the period 2016 - 2022. Growing demand of PTA in polyester manufacturing is the major factor driving the demand for paraxylene. Most of purified terephthalic acid (PTA) is used in polyester production, including polyester fiber, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle resin and polyester film. Among other grade of polyester used in textiles and food and beverage containers, PTA offers more economic feasibility and better solutions. In Asia, the strong growth rate of PTA consumption is driven by strong polyester fiber demand, which in total accounts for nearly two-third of global polyester demand.Explore Full Market Research Report on Global Paraxylene Market at:Polyester fibers are used to make fabrics for apparel and home furnishings such as bed sheets, bedspreads, curtains and draperies. The polyester fiber is used with natural fibers, such as cotton, to produce cloth line with enhanced properties such as high wrinkle resistance, high wear and tear and others. In North America and Europe, PTA consumption has observed slow in demand as growth of textile industry had shifted towards Asia-Pacific regions. Here, the growth has been seen in the PET bottle resin market.Among the various end-users of paraxylene, the polyester fiber segment held the largest share in the global paraxylene market in 2015. The growth in disposable income of middle class population along with increasing population is creating pressure on textile industry to meet the growing household and apparel needs. To meet the growing demand, installation of new facilities and new developments are being carried out mainly in Asia-Pacific regions.In 2015, Asia-Pacific held the largest share in the global paraxylene market with 82.4% share. The surging level of urbanization, growing domestic consumption along with increasing disposable income and strong GDP growth are some of the major forces supporting the growth of paraxylene market in Asia-Pacific, particularly in countries such as India and China. China is the largest market for paraxylene across the globe; however, India, South Korea is expected to witness significant growth in the near future. The impact of growing population and strong GDP in developing countries on the paraxylene market is anticipated to remain high during the next few years.The information and data in the publication Global Paraxylene Market Size, Share, Development, Growth and Demand Forecast to 2022, represents the research and analysis of data from various primary and secondary sources. Bottom-up and top down approach has been used to calculate the market size. P&S Market Research analysts and consultants interacted with leading companies of the concerned domain to substantiate every value of data presented in the report. The company bases its primary research on discussions with prominent professionals and analysts in the industry, which is followed by informed and detailed, online and offline research.To Browse For Related Research:GLOBAL PARAXYLENE MARKET SEGMENTATIONBy ApplicationPure Terephthalic Acid (PTA)Dimethyl terephthalate (DMT)Di-Paraxylene (DI-PX)OthersBy End-UsePackagingPolyester FibersOthersGEOGRAPHICAL SEGMENTATIONNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaRest of North AmericaEuropeGermanyUKFranceNetherlandRest Of EuropeAsia-PacificChinaJapanIndiaSouth KoreaRest of Asia-PacificRest of the World (RoW)BrazilSaudi ArabiaOthersAbout P&S Market ResearchP&S Market Research is a market research company, which offers market research and consulting services for various geographies around the globe. We provide market research reports, industry forecasting reports, business intelligence, and research based consulting services across different industry/business verticals.As one of the top growing market research agency, were keen upon providing market landscape and accurate forecasting. Our analysts and consultants are proficient with business intelligence and market analysis, through their interaction with leading companies of the concerned domain. We help our clients with B2B market research and assist them in identifying various windows of opportunity, and framing informed and customized business expansion strategies in different regions.Contact:DeepAssistant  Client Partner347, 5th Ave. #1402New York City, NY - 10016Toll-free: +1-888-778-7886 (USA/Canada)Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.comWeb:
Biopower in Portugal, Market Outlook to 2030 - Capacity, Generation, Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE), Investment Trends and Regulations

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"The Report Biopower in Portugal, Market Outlook to 2030, Update 2016 - Capacity, Generation, Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE), Investment Trends and Regulations provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz""Biopower in Portugal, Market Outlook to 2030, Update 2016 - Capacity, Generation, Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE), Investment Trends and Regulations" is the latest report from GlobalData, the industry analysis specialists that offer comprehensive information and understanding of the Biopower market in Portugal.The report provides an in-depth analysis on global renewable power market and global Biopower market with forecasts up to 2030. The report analyzes the power market scenario in Portugal (includes conventional Hydro, nuclear and renewable energy sources) and provides future outlook with forecasts up to 2030. The research details renewable power market outlook in the country (includes Wind, small hydro, biopower and renewable) and provides forecasts up to 2030. The report highlights installed capacity and power generation trends from 2006 to 2030 in Portugal Biopower market. A detailed coverage of energy policy framework governing the market with specific policies pertaining to Biopower market development is provided in the report. The research also provides company snapshots of some of the major market participants.The report is built using data and information sourced from proprietary databases, secondary research and in-house analysis by GlobalDatas team of industry experts.Download Sample copy of this Report at :ScopeThe report analyses global renewable power market, global biopower (Biomass and Biogas) market, Portugal power market, Portugal renewable power market and Portugal biopower market. The scope of the research includes -- A brief introduction on global carbon emissions and global primary energy consumption.- An overview on global renewable power market, highlighting installed capacity trends, generation trends and installed capacity split by various renewable power sources. The information is covered for the historical period 2006-2015 (unless specified) and forecast period 2015-2030.- Renewable power sources include wind (both onshore and offshore), solar photovoltaic (PV), concentrated solar power (CSP), small hydropower (SHP), biomass, biogas and geothermal.- Detailed overview of the global biopower market with installed capacity and generation trends, installed capacity split by major biopower countries in 2015 and key owners information of various regions.- Power market scenario in Portugal and provides detailed market overview, installed capacity and power generation trends by various fuel types (includes thermal conventional, nuclear, large hydro and renewable energy sources) with forecasts up to 2030.- An overview on Portugal renewable power market, highlighting installed capacity trends (2006-2030), generation trends(2006-2030) and installed capacity split by various renewable power sources in 2015.- Detailed overview of Portugal biopower market with installed capacity and generation trends and major active and upcoming biopower projects.- Deal analysis of Portugal biopower market. Deals are analyzed on the basis of mergers, acquisitions, partnership, asset finance, debt offering, equity offering, private equity (PE) and venture capitalists (VC).- Key policies and regulatory framework supporting the development of renewable power sources in general and biopower in particular.- Company snapshots of some of the major market participants in the country.Reasons to buy- The report will enhance your decision making capability in a more rapid and time sensitive manner.- Identify key growth and investment opportunities in Portugal biopower market.- Facilitate decision-making based on strong historic and forecast data for wind power market.- Position yourself to gain the maximum advantage of the industrys growth potential.- Develop strategies based on the latest regulatory events.- Identify key partners and business development avenues.- Understand and respond to your competitors business structure, strategy and prospects.Table of Contents1 Table of Contents 21.1 List of Tables 51.2 List of Figures 62 Executive Summary 72.1 Government Support in Conjunction with Technology Development Driving Global Renewable Power Installations 72.2 Global Biopower Generation Expected to Reach 864 TWh by 2030 72.3 Renewable is the Dominant Source in Portugals Capacity Mix 82.4 Portugals Renewable Capacity to Witness Slow Growth Pace 93 Introduction 103.1 Carbon Emissions, Global, 2001-2015 103.2 Primary Energy Consumption, Global, 2001-2025 133.3 Biopower Market, Technology Analysis 143.3.1 Biopower Market, Feedstock Conversion Processes 153.3.2 Biopower Market, Primary Energy Conversion and Recovery Technology 163.4 Report Guidance 204 Renewable Power Market, Global, 2006-2030 214.1 Renewable Power Market, Global, Overview 214.2 Renewable Power Market, Global, Installed Capacity, 2006-2030 234.2.1 Renewable Power Market, Global, Cumulative Installed Capacity by Source Type, 2006-2030 234.2.2 Renewable Power Market, Global, Cumulative Installed Capacity Split by Source Type, 2015 and. 2030 254.2.3 Renewable Power Market, Global, Comparison among Various Sources, Cumulative Installed Capacity, 2015 - 2030 274.3 Renewable Power Market, Global, Power Generation, 2006-2030 294.3.1 Renewable Power Market, Global, Power Generation by Source Type, 2006-2030 294.3.2 Renewable Power Market, Global, Power Generation, Source Comparison Based on Power Generation, 2015-2030 314.4 Renewable Power Market, Global, LCOE Comparison of Power Generating Sources, 2014-2015 335 Biopower Market, Global, 2006-2030 355.1 Biopower Market, Global, Overview 355.2 Biomass Power Market, Global, Installed Capacity, 2006-2030 365.2.1 Biopower Market, Global, Installed Capacity Share by Region, 2015 and 2030 385.2.2 Biopower Market, Global, Installed Capacity Share by Country, 2015 and 2030 405.3 Biopower Market, Global, Power Generation, 2006-2030 425.3.1 Biopower Market, Global, Generation Share by Region, 2015 and 2030 445.3.2 Biopower Market, Global, Generation Share by Country, 2015 and 2030 466 Power Market, Portugal, 2006-2030 486.1 Power Market, Portugal, Overview 486.2 Power Market, Portugal, Installed Capacity, 2006-2030 496.2.1 Power Market, Portugal, Cumulative Installed Capacity by Fuel Type, 2006-2030 496.2.2 Power Market, Portugal, Share in Cumulative Installed Capacity Split by Source Type, 2015 and 2030 516.3 Power Market, Portugal, Power Generation, 2006-2030 537 Renewable Power Market, Portugal, 2006-2030 557.1 Renewable Power Market, Portugal, Overview 557.2 Renewable Power Market, Portugal, Installed Capacity, 2006-2030 567.2.1 Renewable Power Market, Portugal, Cumulative Installed Capacity by Source Type, 2006-2030 567.2.2 Renewable Power Market, Portugal, Cumulative Installed Capacity Split by Source Type, 2015 and 2030 59Follow us on LinkedIn:MarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Mr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Global Green Information Technology (IT) Services Market Dynamics 2015-2021

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Green IT involves the practices related to information technology (IT) optimization and environmentally sustainable computing. It involves uses, manufacturing, design and disposing of servers, computers and associated subsystems such as communication system, networking systems, storage devices, printers and monitors effectively and efficiently with no impact or minimal impact on the environment. Major objectives of green IT involves reduction of hazardous materials, promote the recyclability and maximize energy efficiency. Software deployment and optimization is dependent of factors such as algorithmic efficiency, resource allocation, virtualization and terminal servers optimization. Many organizations are going green and they are finding vendors who can help them in providing green IT services which can help them reduce costs related to data centers and other IT services. Big organizations and business firms already have started deploying metrics or criteria such as power use, water use along with tracking their corporate carbon footprint. In addition to it, firms are focusing on optimized use of their assets by reusing their existing IT assets instead of buying new ones. The capital intensive approaches adopted by firms are driving the green IT services market.Download Sample @Corporate and IT sectors desire to improve efficiency and save money is driving the global green IT services market. Many corporate and other sectors are hiring information technology firms to implement and help green IT initiatives in their firms and businesses. Furthermore, government initiatives for green projects is also leading to the growth of green IT services market. However, currently green IT projects and green IT initiatives are primarily focused at data centers; thus, expanding the reach of green IT services into other IT functionalities holds major opportunity for the green IT services market. In 2006, Capgemini S.A. along with Cisco Systems Inc., SAP AG, Oracle Corp. and Intel Corp. formed Smart Energy Alliance (SEA) for the development of smart energy services (SES) and utilities.Global green IT services market is segmented on the basis of type of solution, services and geography. On the basis of solutions green IT services market is segmented into green IT solutions, purchasing solutions, equipment manufacturers solutions, real estate development solutions, green business solutions, workplace innovation solution, waste reduction solutions, energy reduction solution and sustainability compliance solutions. On the basis of service type the market for green IT services is segmented into IT system design services, IT infrastructure system designing services, integrated facilities designing services, business process and system design services, eco-footprint assessment, eco-innovation planning services, sustainability program and project management service, Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) for IT system service and sustainable IT education program services. On the basis of end-use industry the market for green IT services is segmented into information technology industry, government industry, education industry and healthcare industry, among others. North America and Europe are the largest geographical markets for green IT services in terms of revenue. Government and administration in these regions have extensively focused on the green projects.Request TOC (desk of content material), Figures and Tables of the report:sustainableIT Inc., Accenture plc, GreenIT Inc., Cap Gemini S.A., BT Global Services plc, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, Hewlett-Packard Company, Computer Sciences Corporation, IBM Corp., Dell Inc. and Tata Consultancy Services Limited, among others are some of the major vendors in green information technology services market.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353
New Research Report on Gellan Gum Market, 2016-2026

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Gellan gum is a food ingredient which are used in foods and beverages which is produced by culturing bacteria. Gellan gum is mainly water soluble polysaccharide made by fermenting the microbe Sphingomonas elodea, it produces highly transparent gel purified by recovery with isopropyl alcohol, dried, and milled. Gellan gum is used as a gelling component in food products, mostly in gummy foods or beverages. Gellan gum is an alternative to agar-agar and carrageenan, which is an anti-settling agent, stabilizer, thickeners or gives structure to prepared foods. It does not alter color and taste of foods to which it is added and odor in taste, used in small doses as it is an anti-settling agent.Gellan gum helps in improving quality of the product and reduces their cost. It is vegan and can be used in religious groups. It is used in low-calorie products.It usually contains nitrogen containing compounds which results for fermentation procedures.Request Free Report Sample@Gellan Gum Extracts Segmentation:Gellan gum is segmented on the basis of the application, types and region. On the basis of application, gellan gum market is segmented as food and beverages, cosmetics, personal care products, medicine, chemical industry and textile production.It is widely used as thickener, emulsifier, and stabilizer in food and beverages. On the basis of types of gellan gum: gel made with high-Acyl Gellan Gum are flexible and elastic and does not break and Low-Acyl Gellan Gum is hard and firm and does not break. Acyl is an acidic group of molecules. It is added in desserts, jelly jam, pudding, confectionary, frost of cake, sugarcoating of confectionary, cakes and pet foods. Gelled beverages are prepared by dispersing gellan gum and other beverages ingredients in solution and heating the solution while stirring. Gellan gum has unique composition and beneficial properties, it is currently described as a potent multifunctional additive for various pharmaceutical products, and it makes the tablets which are easy to swallow. It is commercially produced by C. P. Kelco in Japan and the USA. Gellan gum is also used in cosmetics and hygiene products such as creams, face masks, lotion and makeup, it provides a good hold and texture, in sunscreens Gellan gum is used to stabilize the oily phase. On the basis of region, globally among all the region, the China is considered as the largest market for Gellan gum followed by USA, Japan and Europe.Gellan gum is used as a substitute for starch in some products, it can replace a portion of the starch from the product which improves flavor release. It is approved in 25 countries worldwide, including Japan, U.S.A., Canada, Australia, South Africa, most of the Southeast Asia and South America.Request For TOC@Gellan Gum Market: DriversRising demand of bakery products increases the demand of desserts, jelly jam, pudding, cakes, confectionary and marshmallows across the year is expected to support the growth of gellan gum during the forecast period. It provides the additional benefits to beverages by use of fluid gel technology. Rising number of consumers consuming bakery products. Other factors that drives the growth of gellan gum market is rising consumers demanding for personal care products.Gellan Gum Extracts Market: Key playersSome of the key participating players in gellan gum are C P Kelco, Biopolymer International, H and A Canada, IHC Chempharm, DSM, Ingredients U.K, Menera Berlian, Dancheng Caixin sugar industry Co. ltd., Xinjiang Fufeng Biotechnoologies Co., Ltd., Nanjing Joyfulchem Co., Ltd., Transperency Manufacturers, Food manufacture. Co. UK., Zhejiang Zhongken Biotech Co.,Ltd, Xinjiang Fufeng Biotechnologies Co., Ltd.Browse Full Report@ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Market Size of Automotive Straps, Forecast Report 2016-2026

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Straps are used across various industries for holding, reinforcing or fastening an items. Straps could be made from a wide range of materials primarily plastics, depending upon the purpose and tensile strength required. The materials can be bonded by a variety of methods: sewing, pressing, hooking, and injection molding etc. In automotive industry straps are employed in luggage compartment, car interiors, seating systems and transportation. In luggage set-ups straps are commonly used for fastening purposes. Contrary pull straps made with high grade webbing materials are being empirically used for towing, hauling and carrying vehicles. These days high standards of interior designs and functionality can be seen in modern vehicles, and straps forms an integral part of this structure. Not only they are being used as safety belts but also used for tightening and positioning seats, tethering airbags, retaining spare tires etc. The market is full of diverse elastic and non-elastic straps for vehicle interiors. Automotive straps are available in variegated designs and forms owing to the purpose it satisfies. The global market for straps used in automotive industry is anticipated to see a decent CAGR over the forecast period.Global Automotive Straps Market: Drivers and ConstraintsThe continuous growth in automobile sales across the globe is anticipated to be the primary factor driving the global automotive straps market in the forecast period. With advancement in automotive logistics and growth in transportation sector the need for pull straps used for automobile carriage purposes is presumed to rise. Alongside, the growth in tourism and logistics industry across the world will drive the demand for straps used for fixing luggage in car boots. Accompanying this the rising demand for multifunctional and beautiful car interiors is also expected to fuel the market for straps used in automotive interiors. At the same time the ever changing consumer needs and some technological advancement might counter effect the growth in the conventional straps market.Request Free Report Sample@Global Automotive Straps Market: SegmentationOn the basis of application area, the Global Automotive Straps Market is segmented into:Carriage/Automotive PullingLuggage CompartmentSeats and Seating SystemsOther Interior ApplicationOn the basis of material type, the Global Automotive Straps Market is segmented into:PolypropylenePolyesterPolyamideOthers (Rayon, Nylon etc.)On the basis of elasticity type, the Global Automotive Straps Market is segmented into:ElasticNon-ElasticOn the basis of vehicle type, Global Automotive Straps Market is segmented into:Passenger VehiclesCompact SizeMid-RangePremiumLuxuryCommercial VehiclesLCVHCVOn the basis of distribution channel, the Global Automotive Straps Market is segmented into:OEMAftermarketRequest For TOC@Global Automotive Straps Market: Regional OutlookIn terms of geography, the global automotive straps market has been divided in to seven key regions including North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Middle East & Africa and Japan. The APEJ nations (especially China) are expected to significantly contribute in the growth of global automotive strap market. With avid economic growth in the Asian nations, rising FDI, cheap labor cost; the growth in automobile manufacturing/transportation as well as consumption is destined to show an impressive increment, in-turn increasing their share of pie in the global automotive straps market. Furthermore owing to the large number of car owners and innumerous logistic activities, North America and European markets are anticipated to protectively hold their majority share in the forecast period. In essence, the global growth in transportation and automotive sector will escalate the global automotive straps market across all the covered regions.Global Automotive Straps Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players in the automotive straps market are JUMBO-Textile GmbH & Co., Maypole Ltd, Zilmont SRA, Damar Webbing Solutions Limited, Erickson Manufacturing Ltd., Sturges Manufacturing Inc., MISC Products Inc., etc.Browse Full Report@ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Past and present: Beijing in the eyes of a French artist

From:chinadaily.com.cn | 2016-09-12 13:45

Charlotte EL Moussaed's works exhibited at Yishu8 Art Center in Beijing, Sept 11, 2016. [Photo by Li Hongrui/chinadaily.com.cn]

Black and white old photos pieced together with colorful picture-cut, a shot of a plastic bag of silk placed on a small platform, an image of a half-statue hanging from the roof of a hallthese are the works of French artist Charlotte EL Moussaed that were inspired by her understanding of Chinese ancient poems.

Beijing, in these images, is a fusion of the past and the present. There are people who smile innocently in the old photos, and colorful modern women who appear seductive.

Moussaed portrayed Beijing with the feeling she got from Chinese poems. And she used the name of Chinese poet Lu You's poem as the title of this series of works that were showcased at Yishu 8 Art Center in Beijing on Saturday.

"I got new inspirations from China, and found a relation between people and things. These works are the final fruit of my discovery," said Moussaed.

Through her eyes, visitors can see a city in which people and things are closely connected in a seemingly chaotic way.

"These works are a lonely stroll of a traveler, a period of boring time, a desire for reading and a short cultural shock," she said.

Moussaed's three months in Beijing brought her closer to Chinese ancient poems. The rhythm and beauty of the poems stirred her imagination.

She observed people and things and pictured Beijing based on her perception, observation and a little imagination.

"Beijing, a city that has so many people with different outlooks, is mysterious and hard to decipher," said Moussaed.

Yet, in her mind, those lonely souls, couples and families are her greatest interest.

"My stay in Beijing this time gave me some real freedom in creation. I put myself fully in the stories that Beijing and China told me. And this feeling is like a Chinese ancient poem with some fast pace, confusion, intoxication, and joy."

Jia Yue, founder of Yishu8, said Moussaed's works expressed the things she had experienced in the flesh. China is a great book with colorful images, which will provide endless inspirations to artists.

The exhibition will run until October 13.

If you go:

Yishu 8 Art Center, No. 20, Donghuangcheng North Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing

Charlotte EL Moussaed's works exhibited at Yishu8 Art Center in Beijing, Sept 11, 2016. [Photo by Li Hongrui/chinadaily.com.cn]

A piece of Charlotte EL Moussaed's work exhibited at Yishu8 Art Center in Beijing, Sept 11, 2016. [Photo by Li Hongrui/chinadaily.com.cn]
Sheath Materials Market Forecast By End-use Industry 2016-2026 A sheath can be defined as a protective covering around an electrical wire or as a closed fitting cover for a knife or sword. The sheath around a knife is usually made up of leather, plastic, nylon or kydex. However, the sheath used in cable wire are usually made up of metals, non-metals and alloys like lead, aluminium, titanium, stainless steel, carbon steel, incoloy, hastelloy-x (iron, chromium, molybdenum) etc. A sheath material should be resistant enough to hold the knife with sharp blades while the knife is not in use. Moreover, the sheath ought to be solidly constructed, it should have a snug fit so that the knife blade doesnt get dislodged by accident. For the cable wires, material should be selected on the basis of maximum allowable sheath temperature, material being heated and required corrosion resistance. The market for sheath materials is expected to have a positive growth rate over the forecast period, due to numerous factors such as its significant fire resistant properties and physical strength, thereby increasing the efficiency of products. The global sheath materials market is expected to witness a moderate growth during the forecast period.



Sheath Materials Market Dynamics:



One of the major driver impacting the growth of sheath materials market is its excellent properties such as high resistance to heat, moisture and other external factors which could otherwise damage the products. Due to increase in efficiency and durability of products sheath materials are highly used, thus having a positive impact on the global sheath materials market.



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The plastic and Kydex sheath effect the sharpness of knife blade and hence are very less preferred. This in turn is expected to restrain the growth of global sheath materials market. The major trends observed in the global sheath materials market are the use of PVC (Polyvinyl chloride) due to its low cost, high physical strength, and good flame resistant properties. Over the past few years, the consumption of Kydex (thermoplastic acrylic-polyvinyl chloride materials) has increased significantly.



Sheath Materials Market: Segmentation



The global sheath materials market can be segmented on the basis of material, product type and application areas. On the basis of material type, the global sheath materials market can be categorized as leather, kydex, plastic, nylon, lead, aluminum, titanium, incoloy, stainless steel, ceramic sheath thermocouple and others (hastelloy-x, alloy of iron, chromium, molybdenum). On the basis of chemical product type the global sheath materials market can be segmented as thermoplastic (soft when heated, hardened when cooled) and thermosetting. On the basis of application the global sheath materials marketcan be segmented into knife sheath, cable wire sheath and heaters.



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Sheath Materials Market: Regional Outlook



The global sheath materials market can be segmented on the basis of geography into North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan, Middle East and Africa (MEA). Due to the increase in industries and cabling requirements in the developing countries of Asia the market is expected to grow at a greater rate in this region. North America and Europe are expected to witness a sluggish growth during the forecast period.



Sheath Materials Market: Key Players



Some of the key players identified across the value chain of global sheath materials market are as follows:



Steel will, Durex industries, Ducab, Marttiini, Caledonian, SAB Brockskes GmbH & Co. KG and many more.



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Global Industrial Gases Market (Size of $47,200 Million in 2015) to Witness 6% CAGR During 2016  2022

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The global industrial gases market was valued at $47,200.0 million in 2015, and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.2% during 2016 - 2022. The factors driving the growth of the global market include rapid industrialization and increasing population. In addition, the advancement in industrial gas production technology, and huge demand in emerging economies, such as India and China are driving the growth of the global industrial gases market. Petroleum is the primary end user for industrial gases. The secondary end-user industries include chemical manufacturing, food processing, pharmaceutical, and metal processing. The global mergers and acquisitions in the chemical industry are expected to increase the demand for industrial gases in the market. Food processing is a vast industry comprising several verticals. These verticals are increasing at high pace, due to increasing population and growing disposable income. The nuclear power and space exploration industries are also among the end users of industrial gases for their operations. However, the demand for industrial gases in these sectors is largely dependent on political decisions.Explore Report with Detailed TOC at:Among the various applications, the petroleum refinery segment held the largest share in the global industrial gases market. Over the last few years, the demand for hydrogen in petroleum refining has increased significantly, owing to stricter environmental legislations imposed by various governments. For instance, the Chinese government is focusing more on strengthening environmental standards in China through the promotion of eco-friendly fuel cell vehicles in the country. The stricter environmental norms in China are anticipated to help reduce CO2 levels in the region. In 2011, in its Twelfth Five Year Plan, the Chinese government allocated USD 15.8 million for the construction of a hydrogen highway to meet the growing demand for hydrogen and fuel cells in the country. In refineries, hydrogen is used to remove sulphur from crude oil.Among the various product types, the hydrogen segment held the largest share in the global industrial gases market. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the global crude oil production increased from 77,980 thousand barrels per day in 2014 to 80,071 thousand barrels per day in 2015. This in turn, is anticipated to increase demand for hydrogen in oil refineries. The increasing per capita vehicle ownership in developing nations is fuelling demand for hydrogen.In 2015, Asia-Pacific held the largest share in the global industrial gases market with 38.9% share. The industrial gases market in the region is anticipated to witness the highest growth at a CAGR of 6.6% during the forecast period. The major reasons behind the growth of the industrial gases market in the region include increasing refinery output particularly in countries, such as China and India. China was the largest market for industrial gases in the region in 2015; however, India is expected to witness highest growth in the near future. The increasing demand for environment-friendly energy carriers is further driving the growth of the industrial gases market in the region. Moreover, economic growth along with industrialization has increased the disposable incomes in Asia-Pacific, which in turn, has led to increase in vehicle ownership in countries such as India, Japan, and China. This in turn, drives the growth of the market in the region.To Browse For Related Research:GLOBAL INDUSTRIAL GASES MARKET SEGMENTATIONBy Product TypesHydrogenOxygenCarbon DioxideNitrogenHeliumArgonAcetyleneBy Production and DeliveryMerchant Gases (Liquefied, Tank Delivery)Merchant Gases (Cylinder Delivery)High Volume Gases (On-Site Generation)By ApplicationPetroleum RefineryChemical ProductionFood ProcessingHealthcareElectronicsMetal ProcessingOthersGEOGRAPHICAL SEGMENTATIONBy RegionNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaMexicoEuropeU.K.GermanyFranceSpainItalyRest of EuropeAsia-PacificChinaJapanIndiaSouth KoreaRest of Asia-PacificRest of the WorldBrazilOthersAbout P&S Market ResearchP&S Market Research is a market research company, which offers market research and consulting services for various geographies around the globe. We provide market research reports, industry forecasting reports, business intelligence, and research based consulting services across different industry/business verticals.As one of the top growing market research agency, were keen upon providing market landscape and accurate forecasting. Our analysts and consultants are proficient with business intelligence and market analysis, through their interaction with leading companies of the concerned domain. We help our clients with B2B market research and assist them in identifying various windows of opportunity, and framing informed and customized business expansion strategies in different regions.Contact:DeepAssistant  Client Partner347, 5th Ave. #1402New York City, NY - 10016Toll-free: +1-888-778-7886 (USA/Canada)Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Semiconductor Wafer Cleaning Systems Market Drivers and challenges By 2015-2021

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Semiconductor wafer manufacturing requires utmost quality standards to be followed and the production output needs to be free from contamination. Superior quality of wafer surface is a necessary requisite for easy and suitable fabrication of VLSI and ULSI circuits. Presence of unwanted particles or materials during the manufacturing process of semiconductor wafer, results in the degradation of product quality. The unwanted particles, materials, or contamination can be of caused due to presence of alkali metals, heavy metals, organic contamination, dopants, base, acid contamination, etc. These impurities are removed with the help of semiconductor wafer cleaning systems. The demand for semiconductor cleaning systems is closely related with electronics production which is mainly concentrated in Asia Pacific region.Semiconductor wafer cleaning systems, on the basis of technology are classified as cryogen aerosol based cleaning technology, vapor cleaning technology, local area cleaning technology, fine particle detection technology and supercritical fluid based cleaning technology. There are various steps involved in wafer cleaning process which are often identified as purposes such as pre diffusion clean, particulate removal clean, metallic ion removal, film removal, and post etch clean.Download Sample @On the basis of type of equipment, the semiconductor wafer cleaning systems can be segmented into rotary wafer etching system and semi-automated or manual wet batch system. On the basis of end use the semiconductor wafer cleaning systems can be segmented into those being used for removal of particle contamination, metallic contamination, and chemical contamination.On the basis of geography the semiconductor wafer cleaning systems market is segmented into Asia Pacific, Japan, Middle East & Africa, Latin America, North America and Europe. Asia Pacific region is expected to be the largest market for these systems owing to increasing semiconductor production and electronics industry output. Prominent countries in Asia Pacific to represent promising growth in semiconductor wafer manufacturing systems include China, South Korea and Taiwan. Some of the underlying demand driving factors include miniaturization of electronics devices, reducing thickness of circuit systems, increasing demand of portable consumer electronics devices and constantly improving quality standards of production. Reduction in size of microelectronic devices and introduction of advanced materials in semiconductor manufacturing has substantially increased the demand for wafer cleaning and thus semiconductor wafer cleaning systems.Some of the trends identified in end use industry sectors such as increasing automation in industries / factories, increasing preference of customers towards aesthetics of electronics or consumer products, improving standards of product performance and increasing scale of defragmentation in electronics industry is driving electronics manufacturers to constantly evolve and generate quality output. Such initiatives are in turn expected to drive adoption of semiconductor wafer cleaning systems across the globe.Request TOC (desk of content material), Figures and Tables of the report:Utilization of semiconductor wafer cleaning systems at vital stage in electronics production leads to low bargaining power of electronics component manufacturer over the system suppliers. Some of the players in the market we identified includes, Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd, Tokyo Electron Limited, Cleaning Technologies Group, Lam Research Corporation, Falcon Process Systems, LLC, MEI Wet Processing Systems and Services LLC, Modutek Corporation, and Akrion Systems LLC.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com
Industrial Refrigeration Market Global Industry to Witness 7.2% CAGR During 2016  2022

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The global industrial refrigeration market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.2% during 2016-2022. Among the various product types, the evaporation units segment held the largest share in the global industrial refrigeration market in 2015.The concern over ozone layer depletion has been taken up very seriously by the governments worldwide. Globally, the government has adopted stringent regulations towards the use of fluorochemicals, as a refrigerant. The technology has changed in recent years from F gas to natural refrigerant. The developed countries of Europe and North America are using ammonia, as an industrial refrigerant from a long time. However, the small and medium sized refrigerated warehouses and food processing industries in the developing countries of Asia-Pacific have started following F-gas regulations recently, due to increasing international pressure for the adoption of Montreal Protocol.Explore Report with Detailed TOC at:In 2014, the government of China announced the closure of five F gases production plants, in order to phase-out of 58,864 tons of HCFC production by 2020. The Phase-out of F gases, as a refrigerant for industrial refrigeration in developing countries, is expected to drive the replacement of existing industrial refrigeration setup, with ammonia-based refrigeration system. This in turn is expected to drive the growth of the global Industrial refrigeration market.The technological advancement in industrial refrigeration facilitated superior energy efficiency. Atlas Copco is an industrial compressor manufacturer, which launched GA VSD+, a range of oil-injected and compact rotary screw compressors that consume 50% less power, as compared to a conventional load type compressor of the same capacity. The reduction in thermal resistance of the heat exchangers are increasing the throughput and power efficiency of industrial heat exchangers in the chemicals, and energy sector.The information and data in the publication Global Industrial Refrigeration Market Size, Share, Development, Growth and Demand Forecast to 2022 represent the research and analysis of data from various primary and secondary sources. Top down approach has been used to calculate the global industrial refrigeration market by type. P&S Market Research analysts and consultants interact with leading companies of the concerned domain to substantiate every value of data presented in the report. The company bases its primary research on discussions with prominent professionals and analysts in the industry, which is followed by informed and detailed, online and offline research.Food and beverages processing is one of the largest industry in the world. The annual production of food and beverages accounted for about $7 trillion, as of January 2015. The processed and ready to eat food and beverages are consumed in all countries. On an average, the developed countries including the U.S. processes 90% of their foods produce. The food processing rate in developing countries is however quite low. China processes 40% of its food produce. Other developing countries, such as Thailand, Philippines, and Brazil are processing, as high as 30%, 78%, and 70% of their food produce respectively.The Indian food processing sector ranks fifth in the world in exports. The production and consumption of processed food in developing region is driving the growth of the refrigeration market in the food processing industries. In India, the food processing industries are getting considerable government support, as recently the government of India included food processing sector in its ambitious Make in India initiative. Currently, the food processing sector in India contributes 9-10% of the countrys GDP. During the 11th and 12th five year plan, the government of India sanctioned 40 mega food park projects in the country. Similarly in 2012, the government of South Africa allocated $764 million to support and stabilize the industrial output, due to which, the food processing industry is expected to be a major contributor to the growth of the Industrial refrigeration market.To Browse For Related Research:Global Industrial Refrigeration Market SegmentationBy TypeEvaporator UnitIndustrial RacksOpen ReciprocatingOpen ScrewCompressorsOpen ReciprocatingScrew OpenOthersHeat ExchangersBlazed PlateShell & Tube/CoaxialOthersOther Industrial refrigeration(I.R.) UnitsGEOGRAPHICAL SEGMENTATIONBy RegionNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaRest of North AmericaEuropeGermanyU.K.FranceItalyRussiaSpainRest of EuropeAsia-PacificChinaJapanIndiaThailandAustraliaIndonesiaRest of Asia-PacificRest of the World (RoW)BrazilMexicoTurkeyIranSaudi ArabiaOmanU.A.ERest of RoWAbout P&S Market ResearchP&S Market Research is a market research company, which offers market research and consulting services for various geographies around the globe. We provide market research reports, industry forecasting reports, business intelligence, and research based consulting services across different industry/business verticals.As one of the top growing market research agency, were keen upon providing market landscape and accurate forecasting. Our analysts and consultants are proficient with business intelligence and market analysis, through their interaction with leading companies of the concerned domain. We help our clients with B2B market research and assist them in identifying various windows of opportunity, and framing informed and customized business expansion strategies in different regions.Contact:DeepAssistant  Client Partner347, 5th Ave. #1402New York City, NY - 10016Toll-free: +1-888-778-7886 (USA/Canada)Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Carbon Fiber Market 2016 Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Supply Revenue and Forecast 2021

Carbon Fiber

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http://goo.gl/TCJS3e

Global Carbon Fiber Market 2016 Industry Size Share Growth Forecast Research and DevelopmentThe Global Carbon Fiber Industry report gives a comprehensive account of the Global Carbon Fiber market. Details such as the size, key players, segmentation, SWOT analysis, most influential trends, and business environment of the market are mentioned in this report. Furthermore, this report features tables and figures that render a clear perspective of the Carbon Fiber market. The report features an up-to-date data on key companies product details, revenue figures, and sales. Furthermore, the details also gives the Global Carbon Fiber market revenue and its forecasts. The business model strategies of the key firms in the Carbon Fiber market are also included. Key strengths, weaknesses, and threats shaping the leading players in the market have also been included in this research report.The report gives a detailed overview of the key segments in the market. The fastest and slowest growing market segments are covered in this report. The key emerging opportunities of the fastest growing Global Carbon Fiber market segments are also covered in this report. Each segments and sub-segments market size, share, and forecast are available in this report. Additionally, the region-wise segmentation and the trends driving the leading geographical region and the emerging region has been presented in this report.Get Complete Report with TOC :The study on the Global Carbon Fiber market also features a history of the tactical mergers, acquisitions, collaborations, and partnerships activity in the market. Valuable recommendations by senior analysts about investing strategically in research and development can help new entrants or established players penetrate the emerging sectors in the Carbon Fiber market. Investors will gain a clear insight on the dominant players in this industry and their future forecasts. Furthermore, readers will get a clear perspective on the high demand and the unmet needs of consumers that will enhance the growth of this market.Table of ContentChapter One Carbon Fiber Industry Overview1.1 Carbon Fiber Definition1.1.1 Carbon Fiber Definition1.1.2 Product Specifications1.2 Carbon Fiber Classification1.3 Carbon Fiber Application Field1.4 Carbon Fiber Industry Chain Structure1.5 Carbon Fiber Industry Regional Overview1.6 Carbon Fiber Industry Policy Analysis1.7 Carbon Fiber Industry Related Companies Contact InformationGet Sample Copy of Report @Chapter Two Carbon Fiber Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis2.1 High Purity colloidal silica Supplier and Price Analysis2.2 Equipment Suppliers2.3 Labor Cost Analysis2.4 Other Cost Analysis2.5 Manufacturing Cost Structure2.5 Carbon Fiber Manufacturing TechnologyAbout Us:MarketResearchStore.com is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations.Contact US:Joel JohnSuite #8138, 3422 SW 15 Street,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803
M-Connect Media Launched Advance Ajax Login Extension to Enhance the Login and Registration

Magento 2 Advance Ajax Login Extension

https://www.mconnectmedia.com/advance-ajax-login-m2.html

https://www.mconnectmedia.com/magento-dedicated-team/

www.mconnectmedia.com

Sometimes there are certain processes which make their shopping experience somewhat tedious and not happening. One such process is Account Login and Account registration. To make this process quicker and easier, M-Connect Media has developed the Advance Ajax Login extension for Magento 2.Kennesaw, Georgia, September 12th 2016 The launch of Advance Ajax Login extension for Magento 2.0 based stores has made the login to the respective user accounts a way easier and faster. It saves so much time for the new users as well as existing users.M-Connect Media is the complete Magento eCommerce Services provider which is primarily based in Georgia, United States. They build websites for ecommerce businesses with Magento platform. They also try their best to provide a complete solution to the eCommerce industry and however, they create different Magento extension which ultimately helps the shop owners to enhance the performance of their websites.The company up till now have created many extensions for the different versions of the Magento platform. Now, to solve the issue of page reload and time wastage during registration and login, they have developed a new extension  Advance Ajax Login.The gateway to your store is the Registration and Login forms. So, if you want to impress your users and visitors from the very first step then start with creating the correct register and login forms. To make the process of registration and account login easy and smooth, you can try the Advance Ajax Login extension from these guys.The best thing about this extension is that the shop owners can decide to which page they wish their customers to redirect once they are registered, logged in our logged out. This also helps them in marketing their brands or new products or featured products. The users do not have to go to the homepage for logging into their account. They will be able to login or create account from the page they are on.Lets see what the spokesperson of M-Connect Media said about the new Advance Ajax Login extension launched, As customers, we have seen that the login and registration processes takes so much time. This was because of the page reload or redirection. So, we thought of creating something which eliminates this issue and makes the process easier and faster. This extension will give an option with which the shop owners can redirect their customers to the pages they want them to be on. This will be useful for both the parties.To know more about the functionalities of our new Magento 2.0 extension, please visit the below link:M-Connect Media is a Magento eCommerce development and Extension development company, founded in 2009. The company has its focus on implementing their knowledge and providing the solutions to eCommerce business owners and online shoppers. They work on the clients project with the most creative and extremely experienced Magento developers. To know more about the company, visit their website:M-Connect Media353 McCook Cir NW,Kennesaw, Georgia 30144,United States.E-mail: info@mconnectmedia.comPhone: +1 319 804-8627Website:
Mobile Advertising Market - Advertisement Campaign solutions Holds the Largest Share

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Advertisement Campaign solutions holds the largest share as political parties are using these solutions for attracting the attention of population in their region during different stages of elections which include local body to national level elections. The reporting & analytics solution is expected to be the fastest growing segment in the forecast period due to rising adoption of data analytics solutions in understanding the mindset of customers.Download Free PDF:According to a new market report published by Transparency Market Research entitled Mobile Advertising Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2016 - 2024, the global mobile advertising market in terms of revenue accounted for US$ 13.05 Bn in 2014 and is forecast to expand at a CAGR of 31.3% during the period from 2016 to 2024. Rising adoption of personal devices and companies leveraging on disruptive technology for customer reach are the key factors driving the growth of the mobile advertising market. In addition, the growing trend of social media and the introduction of video ads is further anticipated to drive the growth of this market over the forecast period.With consumers carrying mobile devices wherever they go, it has become crucial for marketers to target this large consumer base with mobile advertisements and promotions. A mobile advertising platform firm provides services to marketers that allow them to send these advertisements to consumers using mobile devices. Each distinct mobile advertising platform contains opportunities for marketers to deliver their message to a broad range of consumers.Two of the leading platforms in the world are Android and iPhone. BlackBerry is slowly gaining pace in the market as a mobile advertising platform. Mobile advertising platform and related technology allows advertisers to deploy advanced targeting technologies so that they can reach their audience of different demographics, characteristics, and criteria. This trend, along with increasing smartphone penetration, is further driving the global mobile advertising market. Advertisers and the media industry are increasingly considering the numerous opportunities presented by the fast-growing mobile market.In the coming few years, the global mobile advertising market will observe advertisers focusing more on performance. They will increase their spending as their ROI gets clearer along with more valuable and quantifiable results. The preference of location-based advertising is growing and will continue to assert its importance in the future. Location-based technology allows advertisers to deploy hyper-targeting, which enhances the effectiveness of mobile advertisements.Read More:About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
IT Robotic Automation Market - Growing Use of IT Robotic Automation in Financial Sector to Facilitate Reduction in Costs

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Transparency Market Researchs new research report on the global IT robotic automation market says that the said market will exhibit a significant leap during the forecast period from 2014 to 2020. According to the reports findings, displaying a phenomenal 60.50% CAGR from 2014 to 2020, the valuation of the market will reach close to US$5 bn by 2020, increasing from US$0.18 bn in 2013.The report is titled IT Robotic Automation Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 - 2020 and is available for sale on the company website.Brochure can be found atRobotic automation involves utilizing a computer application or machine that mimics human actions in order to accomplish process-based tasks. For instance, in the IT industry, automation software is the means to achieve robotic automation. Likewise, request management, monitoring, problem management, access management, incident management, and availability management are some of the processes that can be accomplished through robotic process management.The report says that IT robotic automation is emerging as a robust alternative to outsourcing, especially offshore outsourcing. Some of the benefits of robotic automation are cost benefits and increased process efficiency over manual processes, which are contributing significantly to the development of the global IT robotic automation market.Furthermore, robotic automation has the ability to access other software applications sans integration, because of which the adoption of these systems has been proliferating in the finance and accounts sector over the past few years.However, the global market for IT robotic automation will be adversely affected by security concerns due to misinterpretation of information by these automated systems. In the BPO sector, existing contracts for project outsourcing will restrict the utilization of IT robotic automation. Nevertheless, the IT robotic automation market has tremendous growth potential, provided robotic process automation programs and infrastructural management applications are in place.Tools and services are the two segments into which the IT robotic automation market is divided on the basis of type. The tools segment is further sub-segmented into model-based application tools and process-based application tools. With the rising demand for robotic automation of application management, request management, infrastructure management, access management, and others in the IT sector, process-based application tools will exhibit an upsurge during the forecast period.Research Report on IT robotic Automation:The report divides the global IT robotic automation market into the regional segments of North America, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, Latin America, and Europe. In 2013, North America and Europe emerged as the largest markets for robotic automation software.In North America, reasons such as fast adoption of technology, combined with worthwhile initiatives taken by tool providers for creating awareness about robotic automation tools have led to significant growth of the IT robotic automation market. However, Asia Pacific will exhibit the highest growth in the adoption of IT robotics automation during the forecast horizon.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Politics: Motion patterns and voice determine impressions

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http://www.fwf.ac.at/en

http://www.prd.at/en

The motion patterns and voices of politicians influence the way in which their personality is judged. For example, expansive chopping movements of the arms create an impression of dominance within seconds. This has been demonstrated by a study conducted with the support of the Austrian Science Fund FWF.Every day, politicians compete for the favour of the electorate. In the process, they also communicate via non-verbal signals: "We mustn't underestimate the role of non-verbal communication. People judge others by their appearance, how they talk and move and other outward features", explains anthropologist Markus Koppensteiner. "Especially in this day and age, where we usually see politicians in short clips on TV or on our smartphone, the content fades into the background. In the stream of information, we form our impression by latching onto quickly perceivable, non-verbal signals such as motion patterns." As part of a project by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, he has investigated the way in which different communication channels shape how politicians are judged in practice.Authentic materialThe team headed by Koppensteiner designed an elaborate study for the project. Test subjects were confronted with 16-second clips of political speeches from the German Bundestag. The intention was to ensure that the test subjects were not familiar with the politicians' personalities, and prejudice and party allegiances were to be eliminated as interfering factors. The first and second groups were shown either the original video or just a still photo from the speech. Groups three and four listened either to a recording of the speech or its contents read by a monotone computerised voice. The fifth group was shown animated stick figures specially developed for the study which portrayed the movements in abstract form.Simple motion patterns are decisiveThe main focus was on the role of body movements in ascribing personality characteristics. It turned out that they play a major role, particularly in our perception of extroversion. The research team was surprised by the extent to which test subjects' assessments were influenced by simple motion patterns. "Many, expansive movements with little variation in amplitude are seen as more extroverted", explains Koppensteiner. "Vertical movements in particular, i.e. lifting and lowering the arms, for example, are judged to be dominant. Even a few expansive up and down motions with the arms are enough to appear dominant."Friend or foeThe important role of simple patterns of movement for first impressions could have its roots in evolution. "Dominance is an important characteristic for preparing or avoiding interaction and therefore needs to be easily recognizable", states Koppensteiner. The researcher is convinced that dominant behaviour is always accompanied by an aggressive component: "Our results showed that the motion patterns showing positive correlation with dominance had a negative correlation with the perception of friendliness and trustworthiness. It seems you can't appear dominant and at the same time friendly and trustworthy", adds Koppensteiner.The voice sets the toneHowever, as the study showed, movements were not alone in influencing the way impressions are formed. "The voice, i.e. its tone, intonation and pitch, had a strong effect. In the case of extroversion, friendliness and composure, there was also a link between voice and gestures as a jointly perceived signal", states Koppensteiner. According to Koppensteiner, the initial assessment of the extroversion, friendliness and composure of politicians is a very good indicator for predicting the overall judgement of their personality.The insights gained in the course of the FWF project reveal the major significance of non-verbal communication. The results are not only interesting for the research of perception, but also for the development of interfaces for man-computer interaction and for political science, as they underline how simple, superficially perceivable signals can influence public decision-making.FWF Austrian Science FundThe Austrian Science Fund (FWF) is Austria's central funding organization for basic research.The purpose of the FWF is to support the ongoing development of Austrian science and basic research at a high international level. In this way, the FWF makes a significant contribution to cultural development, to the advancement of our knowledge-based society, and thus to the creation of value and wealth in Austria.Scientific Contact:Dr. Markus KoppensteinerUniversity of ViennaDept. for AnthropologyAlthanstrae 141090 Vienna, AustriaT +43 / 1 / 4277 54713E markus-koppensteiner@gmx.netAustrian Science Fund FWF:Marc SeumenichtHaus der ForschungSensengasse 11090 Vienna, AustriaT +43 / 1 / 505 67 40 - 8111E marc.seumenicht@fwf.ac.atCopy Editing & Distribution:PR&D  Public Relations for Research & EducationMariannengasse 81090 Vienna, AustriaT +43 / 1 / 505 70 44E contact@prd.at
RDP Thin Book India's Most affordable Laptop

RDP ThinBook (Intel 1.84 GHz Quad Core / 2GB RAM / 32GB Storage) 14.1" HD Screen Laptop

RDP is unveiling Indias most affordable Laptop a new range of offering Laptops with budget price, The main aim is to become a global brand and to provide Laptops to all sectors with sleek design and stylish features.RDP Laptop comes with Intel x5 processor and 2GB RAM, 32GB storage RDP Laptop are with 1366 x 768 pixels software and due to high USB 3.0 speed, it allows data transfer speed 10 times faster than USB 2.0 and Power consumption is less in RDP Laptops.Laptops are becoming most inevitable gadgets in humans life, Technology innovation brings most cost effective solutions to invite Rapid Changing technology in their day to day life but country like India few people are unable to buy laptops due to price. Especially people living in Tier 2, 3 Cities & Rural areas are trying to explore the information around the Globe but they couldnt able to do that due to Price Factors. To make India most Technology Centric RDP has Introduced a laptop for Just 9999/- thru this all sorts of people can afford a laptop and fulfill their Dreams. And a Laptop with internet Connection brings everything to students fingertips, it offers students to access educational information on the internet and conversant about news to become technological whizzes and can help with the overburdened work.RDP is India's Leading IT hardware and mobility devices manufacturing company. It was incorporated in 2012 with a mission to provide simplified, affordable computing and mobility solutions, and has grown rapidly to establish a strong presence across India. The company's Sales and Support Personnel are spread across major cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kochi and Hyderabad. RDP's dealer network comprises of nearly 1000+ dealers pan-India and the company has set-up over 100 support centres across India to offer simplified after sales support.RDP Workstations Pvt. Ltd.#403, Ashoka Capital, Road No-2, Banjara Hills, Opposite KBR Park, Hyderabad, Telangana 500034Phone: 040 6457 1110
Peking Opera adaptation of 'The Taming of the Shrew' to be staged at Shanghai Theater Academy

From:Shanghai Daily | 2016-09-09 14:39

Veteran performers of over 10 theater troupes from all over the world will present their latest theater interpretation of Shakespeare classics at Shanghai Theater Academy from September 11 to 17.



The festival will also offer Peking Opera adaptation of the Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" and modern drama "Hamlet in Shanghai Alley."

Foreign performing artists will host academic workshops with local scholars and students.

The Shakespeare Festival is a special edition of the 9th Shanghai International Experiment Theater Festival.

Officials from Shanghai Theater Academy said that it is held to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeares death this year.

This year's festival is also a collaboration with International Theater Institute.

A total of 15 productions of different styles will be staged. Performances include "Hamlet, Witness of Denmark," a play of Iran, Italian production "Ballad to Shakespeare," UK production "Macbeth: Without Words" and Ukrainian production "King Lear."
The new On Schedule timeline may make you shout holy moley!

http://www.onschedulesoftware.com

Happy Christmas, happy Easter, happy Ramadan, happy Diwali, happy Chanukah, happy second coming of the great prophet Zarquon. The new On Schedule timeline has been released. Warning, it may make you want to sprint to the nearest dance floor, jiggle and shout holy moley.It is better cos... It stretches across the whole screen. You can zoom meaning you can see the details of even 15 minute visits easily. Errors and warnings are marked with colour coded lines on shifts or visits as you schedule not in retrospect. Slide open the change panel from the right to see the error or warning detail. You can now do almost all scheduling from a single view including setting absence, cancellations and notes. Enter or edit time and attendance on the slide out change panel on the right and visualise it in the slide out police box at the bottom. Filter what is shown on the screen using the rainbow bar on the left. Let the system guide you on who is the best candidate for a shift or visit with employee attribute match scores, travel distances from previous or next visits and percentages of time previously spent at this location or client. Oh yea and the security is fanatically tight as usual.Keep it On Schedule.Visitfor additional information.Powerful yet simple to use online staff scheduling software. Automated or manual rota creation. Drag and drop interface. Standard or client / place visit (including home care) schedules.Contact :10 Ambleside Road,Nottingham. NG8 5RB.UKPhone- +441332926388Email- hello@onschedulesoftware.com
Princeton Company Offers Sensory Business Cards on Paper, Wood, Metal and PVC

www.sensoprint.us

Sensoprint is proud to announce the unveiling of its brand new websitePrinceton, NJ (September 12, 2016)  Sensoprint, a printing company located in Princeton, has made it easier to order business cards that stimulate the senses with the launch of its new website,. Metal, wood, PVC and cotton papers are just a few of the materials used to create amazing and unique business cards. The executives at Sensoprint trekked across Europe, Asia and North America searching for original types of paper to offer the widest range of customizable business cards that stimulate the senses.The business card is the first, and sometimes the only document that professionals exchange when they are intending to do business together. Thus, a business card can be much more than a piece of paper used to share contact information. A card can also build credibility and shows that a company cares about its image towards prospective clients. Sensoprint seeks to consistently raise the creativity and impact of business cards.Sensoprint users can choose among a huge variety of papers, including wood and metal. By selecting the number of colors, foils, embossing and other finishes they simultaneously get a price estimation for their project. The main advantages of Sensoprint are the wide range of papers, materials, finishes and its competitive prices.Despite the numerous combinations of materials and finishes, the price simulator works pretty fast. Still, there is always improvement to be made on a website. Sensoprint is aware of that and its team is intending to continuously enrich the visitor's online experience. The team is currently focused on correcting grammatical and orthographic mistakes. In the meantime, the website already allows U.S. entrepreneurs to setup and order fancy and luxurious business cards. Sensoprint store is fully operational.It is quite easy to place an order. Users start by choosing their paper or material. Once they made their choice, they select quantities and kind of finishes that they need to materialize their graphic design. Then the ordering process can begin in the most traditional way. To ensure a perfect match between selected options, provided files and expectation, Sensoprint checks and normalize the files for free. A control proof is sent at the end of this process to verify all data on the business card before production begins.Professionals working in graphic design or printing can apply as retailers. This status grants them the access to a permanent discount on Sensoprint products. To become a retailer they can simply make the request on the registration form provided for that purpose. Applications are analyzed and processed one by one, manually, to guarantee exclusive access to effective resellers. Distributors also have the option of being listed on the site.or call +1 609-786-2401 on opening days from 8:30 to 5:00 Eastern TimeMedia Contact:Frantz GAILLARDOUfrantz@sensoprint.comSensoprint Raises the Impact and Level of Creativity.SensoprintSensoprint US - 300 Carnegie Center, Suite 150 Princeton N.J. 08540Media Contact:Frantz GAILLARDOUfrantz@sensoprint.com
The Leading Infrastructure Sector Company, Kamdhenu Limited has Launched Colour Max Colour Coated Sheets in Punjab Market

Ludhiana: In view of the fast paced growth in Punjab, Kamdhenu Limited is offering a very strong and attractive range of colour coated sheets under the brand name Kamdhenu Colour Max. In addition to offering unmatched beauty and durability the brand Kamdhenu Colour Maxisproviding a wide range of designs and thickness. These sheets are superbly water resistant, unbreakable and flexible.Kamdhenu Colour Maxcan ideally be used in green buildings and these are eco-friendly products. These sheets, with ease in handling and application, help in speeding up the infrastructure works.In the huge market of Punjab characterised by varied consumer requirements,Kamdhenu Colour Max provides complete roofing solutions. These products are being used for the roofing of houses, offices, factories and warehouses. The smart range of Kamdhenu Colour Max is best suited for smart construction needs. Lending superior strength over competitive brands, Kamdhenu Colour Max is available in three different designs, including; High-rib profile, Tile profile and Corrugated profile. In the thickness range of 0.40 mm to 0.80 mm on competitive prices, all the three designs of Kamdhenu Colour Max are available in very appealing colours to make very long lasting, rust free beautiful roofs.Kamdhenu Colour Max can be easy to use and its water protective grooving is perfectly leak-proof. Manufactured through multiple high-quality coating layers applying on the Steel Alloy material; Kamdhenu Colour Max iscompletely rust-free. Kamdhenu Colour Max is designed for all weather comfort. Its reflective coating keeps interior cool in summer, it resists drum-effect noise during rains and with better insulating properties keeps the interior cosy in winter.Suitable to green building concept, Kamdhenu Colour Maxprotects the environment by helping in minimizing the energy cost of the building.The Director, Kamdhenu Limited, Mr. Sunil Agarwal said, All the Kamdhenu products are being manufactured using latest technology and machineries, thereby Kamdhenu products are known for its market appropriateness, quality and eco-friendly features. He added further that, Kamdhenu Colour Maxis also eco-friendly along with very superior in quality aspects. The advanced reflective colour coating used for Kamdhenu Colour Maxreduces the absorption of heat through roof and keeps the interior up to 20% cooler. So it reduces the electricity cost of cooling too.About Kamdhenu Limited:Kamdhenu Limited is a leading company of Kamdhenu Group which manufactures, market, brand & distributes all products related to building construction such as steel, paints, plywood & etc. ISO 9001:2008 certified & listed in BSE & NSE, company has done the business value of Rs. 885 cr. in the FY 2015-16. But put together all the brand value of Kamdhenus product is more than Rs. 8,000 cr. The company is having more than 60 franchisee manufacturing units and 4000 dealers of paint division and 4500 dealers & distributors of steel, spread across the country.Kamdhenu Ltd, Kamdhenu Steel,B-121, Sector-71 ,Noida, Uttar Pradesh
Pre-Filled Syringes, Industry - Market Review, Forecast 2020, Global Analysis 2016

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"Global Pre-Filled Syringes Industry 2016 Market Research Report". The Report covers current Market Trends, Analysis, Forecast, Review, Share, Size, Growth, Effect.Description-The Global Pre-Filled Syringes Industry 2016 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Pre-Filled Syringes industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Pre-Filled Syringes market analysis is provided for the international market including development history, competitive landscape analysis, and major regions development status.To Free Sample Report With TOC @Secondly, development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions (United States, EU, China and Japan), and other regions can be added.Then, the report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. Whats more, the Pre-Filled Syringes industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.To Enquire Regarding This Report @Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of Pre-Filled Syringes1.1 Definition and Specifications of Pre-Filled Syringes1.1.1 Definition of Pre-Filled Syringes1.1.2 Specifications of Pre-Filled Syringes1.2 Classification of Pre-Filled Syringes1.2.1 By Material1.2.2 By Structure1.3 Applications of Pre-Filled Syringes1.3.1 Biologics1.3.2 Biosimilars1.3.3 Vaccines1.3.4 Others1.4 Industry Chain Structure of Pre-Filled Syringes1.5 Industry Overview and Major Regions Status of Pre-Filled Syringes1.5.1 Industry Overview of Pre-Filled Syringes1.5.2 Global Major Regions Status of Pre-Filled Syringes1.6 Industry Policy Analysis of Pre-Filled Syringes1.7 Industry News Analysis of Pre-Filled Syringes2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Pre-Filled Syringes2.1 Raw Material Suppliers and Price Analysis of Pre-Filled Syringes2.2 Equipment Suppliers and Price Analysis of Pre-Filled Syringes2.3 Labor Cost Analysis of Pre-Filled Syringes2.4 Other Costs Analysis of Pre-Filled Syringes2.5 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Pre-Filled Syringes2.6 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Pre-Filled SyringesResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.For More Information Kindly Contact:ResearchMoz Global Pvt. Ltd.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesBlog -866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free),+1-518-621-2074,Email to: sales@researchmoz.us,
US will need at least 1.13 million registered nurses by 2021- Healthcare Staffing Market in US Research Report says

Healthcare Staffing Market in US | Beige Market Intelligence

http://www.beigemarketintelligence.com/reports/research-report-healthcare-market/healthcare-staffing-market-us-strategic-assessment-forecast-till-2021/

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and the US Department of Labor, the overall nurse employment is set to increase to 3.44 million by 2022.A recent research published by Beige Market Intelligence Healthcare Staffing Market in US  Strategic Assessment and Forecast till 2021 predicts the Healthcare Staffing Market in US to grow at a CAGR of 13.70% by 2021. The report covers the present scenario and growth aspect of the Healthcare Staffing Market. The report outlines the major driving factors, emerging trends, challenges and key vendor analysis of the market.Increased Demand of Registered Nurses  An Emerging Trend in Healthcare Staffing Market in USThe healthcare industry in the US is witnessing a shortage of nurses in the country. Despite the fact that the registered nurses are among the single largest healthcare professionals in the country, the vacancy rate for registered nurses is growing. In 2015, the vacancy rate stood at 7.2%.About 55% of the overall nursing workforce, currently in service, in the US, is above 50 years of age. This significant number of nurses are getting retired over the next few years. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 526,800 nurses will be retiring over the forecast year.Considering the numbers of registered nurses retiring during this period it is expected that the US will need at least 1.13 million registered nurses during the forecast period. - The analysts at Beige Market Intelligence say.The demand for registered nurses is expected to grow over 18% over the next few years. Industry participants agree that filling jobs opening for registered nurses is one of the toughest jobs to fill currently.Furthermore, The overall nurse employment is also to increase from 2.86 million in 2012 to 3.44 million by 2022. The projected number of new registered nurse job creation in this duration is 574,400.The top US states where the demand for registered nurses will grow over 20% till 2021 are Texas, Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Alaska, Colorado, Washington, and Montana. There are over 30 states that will witness 15% growth in the demand for registered nurses at the same time. Out of overall demand for these nurses, those states which will together account for about 50% of the overall job growth are: Texas, California, Florida, New York, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Michigan, and Massachusetts.For More Information:About Beige Market Intelligence:Beige Market Intelligence is new-age provider of competitive business intelligence, working across various industry verticals. Our expertise and knowledge ensures that the market analysis Beige provides is comprehensive, detailed and complete. The analysis helps our client organizations become aware and make educated decisions, as far as investing or devising a marketing strategy is concerned. The actionable insights delivered through our market research provide a comprehensive market analysis for every level of market segmentation in an industry. Beige Market Intelligence is a quality driven high end Market Research organization. Our team of experts ensure the analysis you receive is not just analysed and smartly presented, but is completely customized based on the clients requirement. Our deliverables guarantee our current global client base does not look beyond Beige when it comes to any kind of industry and market analysis.KhyamaBeige Market IntelligenceChinnapannahalli , Doddanekundi Main Road, Bangalore- 560037contactus@beigemarketintelligence.comUS: +1 347 903 9949UK: +44 20 323 99499APAC: +91 99 012 75473
Data Brokers Market  Segment, Forecast, Analysis, Trends, Share 2024

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=13037

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Data Brokers Market: OverviewData broker is a business that collects and stores the personal information about consumers and sells to organizations who require that data to design their marketing strategy based on the preferences of the customer. The data brokers collect this information from a variety of sources such as government records, browser cookies and credit/debit card transactions. The brokers integrate and synthesize the data using advanced analytics tools such as rapid miner and Google fusion tables to formulate individual profiles of the customers.Get Free Sample Report Copy :These individual profiles are updated regularly and are sold as per the demand of the buying organizations. The data brokers collect various kinds of data such as consumer data (personal information such as name and contact detail), commercial data (companies data), scientific data (weather information & drugs composition), real estate data (homes, farms or properties) and location data (global positioning, traffic and landmarks).Data Brokers Market: Key Growth EnablersThe data brokers store every bit of the information such as Internet activity, bulk transaction records and personal data such as date of birth, and books read. Various businesses are looking forward for that data to target the customers accordingly. This is the major driver for the growth of the market. Absence of data protection compliances in the emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil supports the growth of data brokers market. The data broker organizations support the companies in analyzing the buying pattern of the customers, thus support the organizations in developing products according to demand of the customers.Growth of Internet of Things (IoT) and rising demand of data analytics is anticipated to create immense opportunities for data brokers market. However, the customers are unaware of data being collected, thus privacy issues occur consistently. This is expected to provide hurdles in the growth of the data brokers market. The sector specific compliances pertaining to data privacy such as Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is further anticipated to present challenges to the players in this market.Data Brokers Market: SegmentationData brokers market is broadly segmented on the basis of product type, data type, insight level, and geography. On the basis of product type, the data brokers market is segmented into marketing products, risk mitigation products and people search products. Various data types associated with this market include consumer data, commercial data, scientific data, real estate data and geo-location data. On the basis of insight level, the data broker market is segmented into basic insights, smart insights and adaptive insights. Moreover, in terms of geographies, the global data brokers market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (MEA) and Latin America.North America has been the key contributor to the revenue generated by data brokers market during the last few years. This is attributed to presence of highly digit tech savvy population in the region which generates huge amount of data. Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing region in terms of adoption of data broking services as it enables the businesses to design personalized promotional campaigns to target the mass population present in the region.The major participants in the data brokers market include Acxiom Corporation, CoreLogic Inc., DataLogix Inc., eBureau LLC, Experion Plc, Intellius Inc., Peekyou LLC, Databroker Ltd., Pipl Inc. and Epsilon Data Management LLC.About Us :Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact Us :-Transparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
eSentire Partners with Carbon Black to Provide Endpoint Detection Capabilities to the Midmarket

https://www.esentire.com/what-we-do/core-technologies/endpoint-security

www.esentire.com

www.carbonblack.com

eSentire Endpoint Managed Detection and ResponseTM, Powered by Carbon Black Strengthens Defense Against Cyber Threats and Attack VectorsCAMBRIDGE, ONTARIO  September 12, 2016  eSentire, Inc., the leader in managed cyber threat detection and response services, today launched eSentire Endpoint Managed Detection and Response (MDR), powered by Carbon Black, the leader in next-generation endpoint security. The integrated service makes endpoint security available to midmarket organizations, helping them strengthen their overall security posture.Cybercrime and the attack vectors used by hackers are evolving faster than the traditional defenses organizations require to counter advanced threats. eSentire Endpoint MDR, powered by Carbon Black, provides a critical layer of protection for todays most common target, the endpoint. (70% of all breaches occur at the endpoint according to Verizons 2013 Data Breach Investigations Report).A Powerful Cybersecurity CombinationThe integrated cybersecurity service makes eSentire the first and only vendor in Gartners 2016 Market Guide for Managed Detection and Response Services to provide Carbon Black endpoint visibility and response as a comprehensive, fully managed security service.eSentire Endpoint MDR provides real-time continuous monitoring, hunting, detection, and isolation of endpoint threats before they propagate within the customers network. The service goes beyond legacy solutions, leveraging analysts, attack patterns, and behavioral analytics to forensically investigate and combat unknown threats.Carbon Blacks Cb Response is the market-leading incident response and threat hunting solution. Its integration with eSentire Endpoint MDR allows the service to continuously record and centralize all endpoint activity, providing eSentires Security Operations Center (SOC) analysts with complete, real-time information needed to understand exactly how attackers are targeting a customers organization so they can identify root cause, hunt anomalous behavior, and isolate threats with precision.Cb Response empowers eSentire Endpoint MDR to streamline alert validation, accelerate investigations, reduce dwell time, eliminate unnecessary reimaging, and limit IT involvement in the security lifecycle process. Endpoint Detection Response (EDR) recording is essential for threat remediation, complementing full packet capture analysis techniques. This enhanced visibility enables eSentire SOC analysts to rapidly contain attacks and accelerate remediation efforts.Technology simply isnt enough to combat todays sophisticated cyber-attacks. In the case of the endpoint, it has been clearly demonstrated that traditional antivirus and firewall technologies cannot prevent endpoints from being compromised. The attacks and malware are always evolving faster than the signatures can keep up, said Mark McArdle, CTO, eSentire. The key to MDR is having broad and deep visibility into the network and its endpoints. Identifying and understanding a threat is required before you can respond. eSentire Endpoint MDR provides our clients with unparalleled endpoint threat management. Our business has been built on hunting down and terminating threats, and partnering with Carbon Black allows us to deliver an affordable, premiere endpoint service to midmarket organizations.eSentire Endpoint MDR Benefits: Arms organizations against the most sophisticated threats. Detects threats, isolates and responds to attacks in real-time with its always-on, 24x7 service. Continuously records, centralizes, and correlates all endpoint activity to quickly detect attacks others miss. Detects unknown attacks leveraging attack patterns and behavioral analytics  not simplistic signatures or IOCs. Instantly reveals root cause and scope, helping to prevent repeat attacks. Secures Mac, Linux, and Windows devices for local and remote users. Lightweight agent on endpoints. Reduces time, effort, and costs associated with incident response. Cloud implementation reduces complexity; zero hardware and maintenance costs. As part of eSentire Managed Detection and ResponseTM service, eSentire Endpoint MDR benefits from unparalleled visibility to network events thanks to always-on full packet capture and the real-time, signature, behavioral, and anomaly-based threat detection and prevention capabilities delivered through eSentires SOC.As the leader in next-generation endpoint security, Carbon Black has had great success helping organizations of all sizes. Partnering with eSentire allows us to continue making our market-leading incident response and threat hunting solution available to one of the fastest growing attack targets today, the midmarket, said Tom Barsi, SVP, business development, Carbon Black. Leveraging Cb Response, eSentires expert security analysts can continuously monitor, hunt, detect, isolate, and respond to never-before-seen endpoint threats, stopping cybercriminals in their tracks. For customers, the eSentire and Carbon Black partnership makes a cyber-security service available that was previously perceived as unattainable due to the cost and resources required to power EDR monitoring.eSentire Endpoint MDR provides the most complete protection against advanced cyberattacks that target endpoints and servers, 24x7. For more information, visit:About eSentireeSentire is an industry leader, providing managed detection and response (MDR) services to mid-sized organizations, keeping them safe from constantly evolving cyber attacks that traditional security defenses simply cant detect. eSentire combines people, process, and technology to deliver an unmatched, premium level service that detects, remediates, and communicates sophisticated cyber threats in real-time, 24x7. Protecting more than $3.2 trillion in Assets under Management (AuM), eSentire is the award-winning choice for security decision-makers in mid-size enterprises.eSentire has received multiple accolades for exceptional service, including numerous HFM (Hedge Fund Manager) Service Provider awards (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016). In 2015, eSentire was named to Deloittes Technology Fast 50TM and Fast 500TM lists, and included in the 2016 Market Guide for Managed Detection and Response Services and 2015 Cool Vendors in Cloud Security Services reports by Gartner, Inc. For more information, visitand follow @esentire on Twitter.About Carbon BlackCarbon Black has designed the most complete next-gen endpoint-security platform, enabling organizations to stop the most attacks, see every threat, close security gaps, and evolve their defenses. The Cb Endpoint Security Platform helps organizations of all sizes replace legacy antivirus technology, lock down systems, and arm incident response teams with advanced tools to proactively hunt down threats. Today, Carbon Black has approximately 2,000 worldwide customers, including 25 of the Fortune 100 and more than 600 employees. Carbon Black was voted Best Endpoint Protection by security professionals in the SANS Institutes Best of 2015 Awards. For more information, visitPR Contacts:Angela TuzzoMRB Public Relations for eSentire+1 732.758.1100, x. 105atuzzo@mrb-pr.comMandy BachuseSentire Corporate Communications+1 226.338.7135mandy.bachus@esentire.com
"Trevor" -- an intriguing play at Artists Repertory Theatre about a show-biz has-been chimpanzee and his motherly, wacky owner -- shows, among other things, how animals are not human, although humans wish they could be. Winner of a Drama Critics Circle Award for his funny and ferocious look at simian-human relationships, playwright Nick Jones ("Orange is the New Black") was inspired by a real-life situation about a chimp named Travis and its owner, Sandra Herold, which ended in tragedy when Travis mauled the owner's friend and had to be put down.

Jones moves out of the realm of reality and into metaphor here as he constantly lets us know what Trevor (superbly sketched by John San Nicolas) is thinking or saying to himself. Put that in contrast with what his owner Sandra (a strong, impassioned performance by Sarah Lucht) is telling him, and confusion prevails: Only occasionally are they on the same page. This makes for an uneasy humor that jolts the audience at first. But soon we're used to this dissonant duet, where the audience hears the chimp, but no one on stage does. It's a clever device that gives the play its rhythm. Like a human actor, he worries about his lost television career, fantasizes about meeting television star Morgan Fairchild (Jana Lee Hamblin), with whom he once worked, it seems, and dreams about getting back in the business.

At the start of the evening, Trevor has taken Sandra's car keys and gone out for a spin, ending up on a lawn. "You might have tuned it up," he mutters arrogantly, after he's been scolded. Most ape owners would have locked the animal in his cage, but Sandra is relatively easy-going with her "baby." He craves coffee, he likes wine out of fragile stemware, he lies around watching television, and she is not a strong disciplinarian, to say the least. When Ashley, a neighbor, comes by to complain about the lawn, we learn she has a young baby. Sandra makes lots of excuses for her pet -- who is more than a pet -- and later, Trevor's snatching of the infant offers a brutal warning of things to come. There's a reason for scenic designer Susan Gratch's cluttered set, with myriad colored bits on the fridge, assorted toys on the floor. When all hell breaks loose, the house is trashed magnificently.

Highlights: There are many: Trevor's exchanges with Fairchild in her gleaming gowns, remembering the days when she praised his talents; his loving interactions with Sandra, mostly big hugs; the chimp's interactions with the animal control officer, who has to use a stun gun. Trevor's visits with his simian pal Oliver (Michael Mendelson is very funny), a pompous show-biz colleague in a white tuxedo, who says he's married to a human, living in Florida, and career is going great. For a while, at least.

Best Performance: San Nicolas is wonderful as Trevor. He hovers in that area between ape and human that is so fascinating to watch on stage. He's got the slightly lopsided lope, the hanging arms, but he doesn't overdo it. This isn't a caricature. It's a playwright's creation, and the actor is working from within, a tough endeavor, creating a being with thoughts, desires, ambitions, sadness and primal savagery. Lucht is close behind him, giving an impressive, fiery performance of a woman treating her pet as a child, forgetting most often that he is not human, empathetic to the core when he's tranquillized or traumatized. Lucht can also be hilarious in her flurry of confusion, but it's her character's angst that grounds the play.

Best quote: "Sometimes you groom: Sometimes you are groomed."

Take-away: Animals don't have language. We do. We find ways to communicate with our pets, whom we love dearly, but it's so limited. In "Trevor," Jones has shown us the problems that love gives us, and how hard it is to substitute an animal for a child if we have expectations. In the program notes we learned that chimpanzees are much stronger than humans when they're fully grown, which is an interesting warning. It's a fascinating idea for a drama, and Jones balances humor with pathos to enhance the story.

-- Holly Johnson, for The Oregonian/OregonLive

***

"Trevor"

Where: Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 S.W. Morrison St.

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday through Oct. 9, 2 p.m. Sundays

Tickets: $25-$50; artistsrep.org or 503-241-1278
Lisa Halcom remembers not thinking much of the ambulance parked at the beauty salon across the street from her coffee shop on Gladstone's main thoroughfare five years ago.



It was May 28, 2011 and she was celebrating her 30th birthday that evening with friends and family. To this day, Halcom says, it bothers her that she nor any of the people gathered at the coffee shop didn't hear any gunfire.



It wouldn't be until the next day that she learned Debbie Higbee Benton, the beloved, bubbly, longtime owner of Gladstone Beauty Salon, had been found dead. Halcom says she and other residents still find it surreal that Lynn Edward Benton, a former police sergeant in the Clackamas County town of 12,000 and Higbee Benton's husband, is charged with orchestrating the salon owner's death.



Halcom remembers the cop as easygoing, routinely responding to Halcom's calls if she was having any trouble at her business. She recalled that a child with autism once got lost in the neighborhood, and it was Benton who found the child safely.



"Being in a small town like this, you think you know everyone," said Halcom, 35. "But then something happens and you realize you don't really know people at all."



Opening statements begin Tuesday in Clackamas County Circuit Court for the trial of Benton, who is accused of aggravated murder, solicitation to commit aggravated murder, criminal conspiracy to commit aggravated murder and attempted murder. He is charged along with his friend Susan Campbell, 58, and her son, Jason Jaynes, 36, in what prosecutors claim was a murder for hire plot to kill Higbee Benton, 54, that culminated from past failed attempts including trying to poison her hot chocolate.



Jaynes's trial is scheduled for March 2017 and Campbell, who recently had her guilty plea for attempted aggravated murder revoked, does not yet have a trial date scheduled. The trio could face the death penalty if convicted by a jury of the most serious charge against them, aggravated murder. But defense attorneys say Benton and Jaynes are innocent of the murder and that the case is shaky because it was largely built around Campbell. She is the only person who has admitted a role in the killing and once had a deal in place to testify against her alleged co-conspirators, but saw it disappear because a judge found she repeatedly violated the terms of her cooperation agreement.



Benton's trial is expected to last at least two months and at least 75 people are planned to testify. The case has slowly worked its way through the justice system as attorneys navigated 25,000 pages of documents and new elements that sprang up during their homicide investigation, including child porn, sex abuse and jailhouse informants.



With Higbee Benton gone, so is the salon she owned for at least 20 years. It became a tattoo parlor soon after her death. Nearly two months ago, a Hawaiian shaved ice shop opened in its place.



"We all want closure for her friends and family," Halcom said. "We're all waiting for a conclusion to all this. Five years is a long time."



***



Benton, who was born a woman, began his law enforcement career as a Multnomah County corrections deputy in 1987, police records show. He joined the Gladstone Police Department a year later, worked briefly as a Beaverton police officer, and then returned to Gladstone in 1990.



Benton was promoted to detective in 1993 and to sergeant two years later. The Gladstone department had no lieutenants or captains at the time, making Benton one of the highest ranking officers in the 16-officer agency. Benton also served as the department's public information officer starting in 2005 and became its public face at community events.



Multnomah and Clackamas County court records show Benton was married to Jose Zonis from 1993 to 1996, and was in a domestic partnership with Marla Montgomery from 2001 to 2009. Benton began dating Debbie Higbee in 2008 and moved in with her in December of that year. In 2010, Benton began undergoing gender reassignment and legally changed his name from Lynne Irene Benton to Lynn Edward Benton. He and Higbee married in October 2010, court records show.



Higbee Benton was against the idea of Benton transitioning, the former sergeant told investigators, and gave him an ultimatum to stop the process. By April 2011, a month before the killing, he moved out of their Gladstone home to live with his sister, Karen, in Troutdale.



A counselor at Western Psychological Service told investigators that she had been treating Higbee Benton up until her death for severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, which she said were brought on by emotional abuse and Higbee Benton's fear of her husband.



Benton's defense team countered in court documents that Higbee Benton had experienced several traumatic events in her life and that the marital separation had triggered the post-traumatic stress disorder.



***



On the day of the slaying, court documents show, two friends had become concerned when Higbee Benton didn't show up for dinner as planned at 6 p.m. They drove to the salon, found her car parked in the back of the business and the front door locked. The salon's appointment book showed her last customer was scheduled to leave around 3 p.m. She owned the salon for at least 20 years.



The friends found an off-duty firefighter who knew Higbee Benton and her police officer husband. The firefighter walked across the street to the police station and found Benton, who was on duty.



Benton used a spare key to let himself and the firefighter into the salon around 8:42 p.m.



They found Higbee Benton on the floor in a storage room. The firefighter later told police that Benton screamed when he discovered the body. He then checked her pulse and, after not finding one, said not to touch anything because the salon was now a crime scene. Within two minutes, Benton radioed for help.



The deputy medical examiner who responded found an abrasion on the salon owner's chin, discoloration on her chest and a puncture wound on her back, and concluded that Higbee Benton likely died from a heart attack or natural causes. As a result, police didn't fully search the beauty salon that day.



The next morning, the senior deputy medical examiner who conducted the autopsy determined that Higbee Benton's death was actually a homicide. A bullet had caused the puncture wound on Higbee Benton's back before becoming lodged in her spinal cord. She also had a fractured thorax, several cracked ribs, a lacerated liver and other injuries. A state medical examiner told investigators that Higbee Benton had likely been shot first, strangled and then beaten.



Police served search warrants at the salon and Higbee Benton's home at 9 p.m. the same day. Among the items seized was a .25-caliber shell casing from the storage room where her body was found.



Benton told detectives that his shift the previous day had been uneventful, court documents show. He mentioned that he didn't know who would want to harm his wife. He said he visited Campbell, who lived less than half a mile from the beauty salon, about 90 minutes before his wife's body was discovered. Campbell was playing the part of "a matchmaker" and trying to help him reconcile with his wife.



Investigators later found that text messages from the day of the killing had been erased from Campbell's cellphone. According to search warrant affidavits from two police detectives, Benton never asked how his wife was killed.



***



Benton and Campbell met in 1993, when the officer investigated a criminal case in which Campbell was the victim. They became friends. Campbell later took care of Benton's grandmother, and Benton maintained a checking account for the Campbells, court documents said.



Campbell's psychologist later described the relationship as "abnormal" and said Campbell was susceptible to Benton, according to a May 2012 memo from the doctor. The doctor said Campbell had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression, anxiety and poor impulse control.



The doctor met with Campbell four days before Higbee Benton's death. Campbell claimed during their session that Benton offered to hire her to kill his wife, but Campbell said she would "never do anything like that," the memo said. The doctor said she didn't report it because Campbell "didn't act as though she would ever do it."



One of Campbell's neighbors called police after Higbee Benton died and claimed Campbell had talked two months earlier about killing the salon owner. The neighbor also said Campbell told her she was in the salon the day of the killing, but insisted that Higbee Benton was alive when she left.



At the request of police, the neighbor wore a body wire and met with Campbell twice more. Campbell is recorded saying that Higbee Benton had been shot and strangled, a fact that hadn't been publicized. Campbell said her son, Jaynes, helped her get a gun and that she disposed of a .25-caliber pistol in two paint cans and left them by another neighbor's house. Campbell also mentioned that Benton was going to pay her to kill Higbee Benton, but couldn't get the money because police seized keys to a safety deposit box that had the cash.



Police later recovered the paint cans Campbell mentioned and the gun.



Police detained Campbell and her husband June 1, three days after the killing. Susan Campbell admitted to police that she helped plan the killing and hid the gun, police say. She again claimed Benton offered to pay her to commit the murder and wanted the killing done on the weekend of May 28, 2011. She was arrested June 3 on suspicion of aggravated murder. Campbell's husband was released and not charged.



In later interviews with police, records show, Campbell said she shot Higbee Benton with the only bullet in the gun but she survived. Campbell then called Benton, who told her to leave the salon, records show. Campbell said she didn't know who beat and strangled Higbee Benton.



According to court documents, Campbell told investigators that once in her dining room Benton told her and her son that he wanted his wife dead. Campbell said her son jokingly mentioned a $2,000 fee, and Benton replied that he won't pay any more than $5,000. Jaynes replied that he wouldn't kill anyone for less than $20,000. Campbell also claimed Benton met with her at least an hour before Higbee Benton was killed and reiterated that he wanted Campbell to kill his wife.



According to investigators, Campbell claimed the payment for the killing was supposed to come from more than $50,000 that Higbee Benton kept in a safe deposit box. Police seized the keys to the bank box, but Higbee Benton had blocked Benton from accessing it. There's no evidence Campbell received any money.



***



Jaynes was detained three days after the killing, when police spotted him trying to break into his mother's house as she was being interviewed by police. He was later released.



Police interviewed him four times between June 2011 and September 2011, and he denied having any involvement in the slaying. He told police he had worked until around 9 p.m., at a Gladstone gas station about a mile away from the salon. Investigators found no physical evidence of Jaynes being at the scene.



But a co-worker told investigators that Jaynes had left twice during his shift on the day Higbee Benton was killed. Jaynes' attorneys have noted the co-worker initially told police he never saw him leave.



Jaynes did say during interviews that he overheard Benton offer Campbell $2,000 to kill Higbee Benton. He said he didn't offer to kill the woman himself, but said he later joked in a text to his girlfriend about getting money for the killing.



In December 2012, a detective discovered a decade-old connection between Jaynes and Benton.



The cop learned Jaynes was the subject of a 1999 second-degree rape investigation in Gladstone. The investigating officer said he turned his report in to his supervisor, Benton, but that it never got forwarded to the Clackamas County District Attorney's Office for further review.



The officer said he thought there was enough evidence to prosecute Jaynes. The victim claimed she lived in the same neighborhood as Jaynes in the late '90s and began to have sex with him when she was 13 and he was 18. They continued to have sex for about a year, until the girl's father found out and alerted police. The girl was interviewed by officers in June 1999. Her father also went to the police department in and spoke with Benton, who assured that it was being handled.



Police re-opened the case, and Jaynes was indicted in September 2013 on suspicion of abusing the girl, as well as two others.



In jail, a fellow inmate claimed that Jaynes confessed to having sex with underage girls -- and to having a role in the murder plot. The inmate told investigators in December 2013 that Jaynes said he went with his mom to "take care of" Higbee Benton because he owed a police officer a favor for preventing the rape charge.



The inmate also claimed Jaynes said he was with his mother and the officer when Higbee Benton was killed. The inmate testified before a grand jury, and Jaynes was charged with aggravated murder in May 2014. He had initially been charged with attempted aggravated murder and criminal conspiracy to commit aggravated murder.



The new indictment arrived one month after Jaynes was convicted of third-degree rape, third-degree sodomy and using a child in display of sexually explicit conduct. He was sentenced in October 2014 to 14 years and seven months in prison. The inmate also testified during Jaynes' trial in that case. The city of Gladstone agreed in January to pay a $230,000 settlement to the neighbor who was victimized.



***



Benton was placed on paid administrative after Higbee Benton was found dead and never returned to work for the police department. He was fired in December 2011, seven months after his wife's death, after the city of Gladstone concluded he violated city policy by possessing and viewing pornography on his work laptop. City officials also learned Benton arranged his first marriage so his husband, a Brazilian man, could qualify for U.S. citizenship. No charges were ever filed in connection against either spouse.



After he was fired, Benton took a job as a Greyhound bus driver. He moved in with a new girlfriend in Portland in summer 2012.



Campbell agreed in July of that year to cooperate with prosecutors in the homicide investigation. But she admitted to having trouble with her memory and a history of not being truthful. During one interview with detectives, Campbell said she sometimes exaggerates. When one of the detectives tells her that "guilty people lie," she responded with, "I lie all the time, though."



She also said she had trouble remembering certain events from the day of the killing because she was "doing a lot of pain medications." Still, prosecutors moved forward with the deal and amended the agreement in October 2012.



Under the deal, Campbell agreed to plead guilty to attempted aggravated murder and testify about the killing in exchange for a 10-year sentence. If she failed to live up to the deal, she would be tried for aggravated murder, a capital offense.



She testified before a grand jury in October and November of 2012, and claimed Benton had tried to kill his wife by injecting her with insulin in February 2011 but failed. Campbell said Jaynes gave her the insulin, which she then gave to Benton.



Benton was indicted Nov. 6, 2012, on charges of aggravated murder, solicitation to commit aggravated murder, criminal conspiracy to commit aggravated murder and attempted murder. He was arrested the next day after arriving to work at the Greyhound terminal in Portland. Jaynes had also been indicted and was arrested on Nov. 8.



Detectives found child pornography on a laptop and thumb drives when they searched Benton's sister's home on Nov. 29, 2012. An investigation determined the devices belonged to Benton's father, Roy, who was visiting when police served the search warrant. He was ultimately charged for possessing child porn in state and federal court. Roy Benton's attorney argued that the evidence seized at Karen Benton's home, as well as child pornography later found his Richland, Washington, home should be suppressed because there wasn't probable cause for the searches.



Roy Benton, 83, pleaded no contest in March 2015 in Multnomah County Circuit Court to one count of second-degree encouraging child sexual abuse and was sentenced to probation. The federal case was later dismissed.



Campbell pleaded guilty soon after her grand jury testimony to attempted aggravated murder, and was to be sentenced, per her agreement, after the trials of Benton and Jaynes. She also pleaded guilty to a separate drug case and was sentenced to 30 months in prison.



In 2013, she told investigators that Benton told her about the sexual assault allegations against her son in the 1990s and promised not to pursue them. Campbell said Benton later told her she owed him a favor, and that he threatened to expose the sexual abuse case if she didn't go through with killing Higbee Benton.



Another informant also emerged in June 2015. A man who was being held in the same cellblock at the Multnomah County jail as Benton told investigators that the former cop told him he was involved in the death of his wife and other attempts to kill her. The informant, Travis Layman, provided notes that he said he detailed the conversations with Benton. The defense team is challenging the credibility of those notes, because the conversations weren't recorded. He is expected to testify against Benton during the former police sergeant's trial.



Since at least 2013, prosecutors have expressed doubts about Campbell's ability to be honest with investigators in her cooperation in the cases against Benton and Jaynes, court documents show. They discovered that she left out information during a police interview and later tried to pressure one of her son's victims -- who was serving time at the same prison -- to lie during his trial on sex abuse charges. Campbell was convicted of witness tampering and sentenced in July 2015 to 13 months in prison. Prosecutors also modified her plea deal in the murder case to increase her agreed sentence from 10 to 16 years.



According to court papers, prosecutors filed a motion to withdraw the agreement entirely in July 2016 after they discovered Campbell wrote a letter she gave to her husband from prison to give to their son. Prosecutors previously planned to cancel the agreement in 2014, but later reversed course.

Campbell's husband, confused by the letter, gave it to his wife's legal investigator and he gave the note to prosecutors. In it, Campbell wrote that she intended to change her account of events related to Higbee Benton's death to minimize their roles in the killing and an alleged past attempt.



"I told Jason that I killed Debbie cause I thought I had, not because I did," she wrote. "It was right after Lynn called me that night." Campbell also wrote that she only mentioned Jaynes to police so he could corroborate her claims that Benton was pressuring her to kill his wife.



Campbell later told her husband from prison that she knew she shouldn't have written the letter, but she loved her son and felt like she was being pressured by other inmates not to testify against him, court documents said.



On Sept. 8, Clackamas County Judge Kathie Steele found that the letter was proof Campbell either lied to the grand jury or wasn't cooperating with the prosecution. She knew both were violations of the cooperation agreement she had with prosecutors, Steele wrote in a letter.



"The terms of the agreement are clear," the judge wrote. Steele revoked the plea agreement, and Campbell once again faces charges of aggravated murder.



***



As Benton's trial gets under way, Gladstone Police Chief Jeff Jolley said it's apparent that the loss of Debbie Higbee still resonates with the community.



Jolley joined the department in September 2012 as a sergeant and was named interim police chief in April 2015 after the previous chief retired. He was sworn in as the official chief in June 2016.



Jolley said he has never met Benton.



"Our thoughts and concerns with this trial are that justice is served, that the family and friends of Debbie Higbee are comforted and feel support," Jolley said.



At Jolley's office in the police department, on a shelf in his office among a collection of medallions lay two Gladstone Police Department business cards, one on top of the other. Benton's name is on both of them.



"I think it's important we don't forget our faults, so we don't repeat them," Jolley said. "We're all fragile and I keep them to remind myself to always remember your integrity and the reason we serve."



When asked if he would attend Benton's trial, Jolley said he hadn't made up his mind.



-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com

503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey
1uber.JPG

(The Associated Press)

By Tyler Cowen

How much would be lost if Uber simply went away? That's actually happened in Austin, Texas, and the service has faced legal troubles in France, Spain, Germany and parts of India.

How much is really at stake? A new paper by Peter Cohen, Robert Hahn, Jonathan Hall, Steven Levitt (of "Freakonomics" fame) and Robert Metcalfe comes up with a pretty good, dollars-and-cents measure of how much UberX, the main Uber service, is improving the lives of its users.

Based on their study, here are a few ways of framing the value of Uber ride services to Americans:

- For a typical dollar spent by consumers on UberX, they receive $1.60 worth of gain.

That's an unusually high amount of "consumer surplus," as it is called by economists. It means there aren't that many close substitutes for Uber at prevailing prices, as moving people around is something the U.S. does not do especially well.

- UberX produces daily social value of about $18 million.

That is comparable to having an excellent French impressionist painter produce a beautiful work each day and give it away for free.

- UberX produces about $6.8 billion in social value a year.

If distributed across every American, that would be over $20 in benefits for each.

Are those numbers a lot or a little? They're not much compared to an $18 trillion gross domestic product, but they're probably a lot compared to other new companies. Either way, there is a more general point: If you consider those numbers to be small, then you don't have to worry about the taxi drivers who lose from Uber.

In general, the more consumers gain from lower prices from a new service, the more competing suppliers lose. (The same trade-off holds with foreign trade or immigration.) So if you are worried about the losers from Uber, you also should believe the gains for users are high. Alternatively, if you rave about the glories of Uber, consistency requires you to recognize larger distributional losses for competitors.

You might think that an economy can absorb progress only so rapidly, but since American rates of productivity growth have been low, it's difficult for this economist to see a strong case for keeping Uber out of transportation markets. Insofar as we should do something to help taxi drivers, that is best accomplished by general benefit and retraining policies for the unemployed, not by restricting innovation.

The researchers used an ingenious method for calculating the user benefits. Uber calculates figures for surge pricing at times of high demand, but it rounds off. So a computation of market conditions that might lead to a surge price that is 1.249 times higher than normal fares is rounded down to 1.2, but 1.251 would be rounded up to 1.3. Yet the initial, unrounded 1.249 and 1.251 estimates represent almost the same underlying market tightness.

Using data from Uber, the authors therefore could see how the demand for Uber varied with surge prices that vary (say from 20 percent to 30 percent above normal fares) even when market conditions are roughly constant.

If anything, this method underestimates the worth of Uber, as it doesn't capture what economists call "option value." Let's say you walk home with a guy or gal late at night, hoping something nice will happen. But you're not quite sure, as he or she might make the wrong noises about a particular political candidate, and then you would wish to bail out quickly. Uber would be the safety net. Most of the time you don't end up using the service or recording a transaction that would count for this study, but you can start making plans because you know you have Uber as a fallback.

Or consider those urban residents who have ditched their cars altogether. They know they can take Uber to the local market if they need to, even if most of the time they have not run out of milk and dog food. Similarly, the existence of Uber is helping some localities economize on mass transit expenditures.

The study also doesn't measure how Uber might help get the U.S. to the next level of market innovation, which in this case might mean a network of on-demand, self-driving vehicles.

Going beyond the work of the authors of this study, it is possible to try to tease out a better estimate the future of Uber. Do these consumer gains mean that Uber will convince local governments to let it operate without major hindrance? Or will that consumer surplus attract more market entrants into ride-sharing, possibly even Google, thereby eroding Uber's current dominance?

The real lesson here is an old one, namely that the fight between progress and protection never goes away. Progress is painful to some precisely because it is a big step forward for all the others.

Tyler Cowen is a Bloomberg View columnist. For more columns from Bloomberg View, visit http://www.bloomberg.com/view.

(c) 2016, Bloomberg View
By Dana Milbank

WASHINGTON -- The smell of fresh paint greeted lawmakers reacquainting themselves with their workplace after their seven-week break.

The scaffolding was coming down, revealing a gleaming dome and, underneath it, restored friezes, oil paintings and statues. The Capitol has been returned to its former glory.

If only they could do the same to Congress.

After their seven-week recess, which was the longest break since at least 1960, the people's representatives in the House are back for just four weeks before recessing again until the election -- and there has been talk of cutting those four weeks of work to three or even two.

They might as well go home, because the House to-do list could end up looking something like this: Impeach the IRS commissioner. Punish the Democrats. Sue the Saudis.

This is how Donald Trump happened.

Americans are worried and angry about the big issues: stagnant wages, immigration, trade deals, health care, entitlement programs, the Zika virus. Yet the best Congress can do for the moment is to keep the government running on autopilot for a few more months, and even this isn't guaranteed.

With three weeks to go in the fiscal year, Congress has enacted not one of the 12 annual appropriations bills (the House has passed six). While leaders struggle to pass a temporary "continuing resolution," Republicans fight among themselves about how long it should last and hard-liners threaten to derail it by adding language banning Syrian refugees.

As Republicans sat down for their caucus meeting Wednesday morning, the conversation wandered -- this member's new grandchild, that member's engagement, various anecdotes and talking points. GOP leaders held a news conference after the meeting, at which they voiced enthusiastic support for ... a new soapbox that had appeared over the recess to help shorter members of the caucus be seen behind the lectern.

"You could put three people on that thing," House Speaker Paul Ryan said upon entering the room and spying the new piece of furniture.

"Gee whiz!" exclaimed Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan., trying it out.

With so little happening, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy tried to create the illusion of activity, asserting that in this Congress "a total of 219 bills have been enacted into law. That's an increase over the 25-year average."

Actually, the average number of bills enacted into law in previous Congresses going back to 1991 is 435 -- double the current output. McCarthy's spokesman said the claim was based on when Congress went on its long summer holiday. But as of now, McCarthy's 219 bills are well below the 25-year average of 257 enacted at this point by previous Congresses. And most have been minor "suspension" bills, such as post-office namings.

"People want a positive vision and a clear direction for solving the country's big problems," Ryan declared at his news conference.

But instead, they're getting:

-- An attempt to impeach the IRS commissioner. Some hard-liners, still angry about the IRS' treatment of conservative groups, are trying to force leaders to hold a vote to impeach the current commissioner, John Koskinen, who took over after the alleged wrongdoing occurred.

-- A bid to punish two dozen House Democrats, led by civil rights icon John Lewis, who staged a sit-in on the House floor in June to protest Republicans' refusal to bring up gun-control legislation.

-- Legislation allowing the families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia in federal courts, a bill with no chance of getting enough votes.

Instead, House Republicans could spend their fleeting time at work resolving an impasse blocking funds to fight the Zika infection. The Senate reached a bipartisan deal in May to provide $1.1 billion for the effort, but the agreement fell apart when House Republicans added a provision restricting funds from going to Planned Parenthood.

At Wednesday's news conference, CNN's Manu Raju asked Ryan why he wouldn't accept a "clean bill" without the poison pill.

"Look, give me a break," Ryan said, blaming the Senate.

But even some of Ryan's Republicans aren't giving him a break. Rep. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y., told Bloomberg's Billy House that "we become obstructionists" with the Planned Parenthood gambit.

And Rep. David Jolly, R-Fla., carried a jar full of Florida mosquitoes onto the House floor. "During the seven weeks ... we were gone, cases of Zika rose from 4,000 to by some estimates over 16,000 in the country," he said. His constituents "are demanding action and they are seeing inaction, and in that inaction they are angry."

Yes, but have they seen that new soapbox for members of Congress? Gee whiz!

Follow Dana Milbank on Twitter, @Milbank.

(c) 2016, Washington Post Writers Group
facebook.jpg

A defense lawyer in the Oregon standoff case found that federal prosecutors improperly shared raw Facebook account data on 10 defendants with all 26 alleged conspirators, contrary to a search warrant's parameters. (Thomas Boyd|The Oregonian)

Federal prosecutors in the Oregon standoff trial will be able to use Facebook account information on defendants obtained through a search warrant.

But U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown plans to admonish the federal government "for its lack of diligence'' in failing to seal or quickly destroy the Facebook material deemed irrelevant to the case.

With opening statements set to begin Tuesday morning, Brown on Monday told lawyers of her ruling, denying the defense motion to suppress the Facebook evidence.

The judge is still completing her written order and opinion explaining her analysis.

Seven of 26 defendants are on trial, charged with conspiring to impede federal employees from carrying out their work at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge through intimidation, threats or force. Five of the seven also are charged with possession of a firearm in a federal facility. Two of the seven face an additional charge of theft of government property. The case stems from the 41-day occupation of the refuge in Harney County.

Defense attorney Per C. Olson, who represents David Fry but was arguing on behalf of all co-defendants, had urged the judge to suppress the government's Facebook account data for disregarding search warrant terms that required sealing irrelevant material after a review.

Olson argued in court last week that a federal prosecutor and an FBI agent gave the court inaccurate information during two separate court hearings this summer when claiming the Facebook material in question had been either sealed or deleted.

Further review, done at the request of Olson and the judge, showed some of the material was still accessible to FBI agents when the two government representatives had addressed the court on July 18 and Aug. 23.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Bradford conceded that the court "may find the government didn't seal information when it should have,'' but he argued that neither the prosecutors nor the FBI engaged in "indiscriminate fishing'' of the Facebook material seized. Prosecutors also were never exposed to material from defendants' Facebook accounts that wasn't related to the case, he said.

Bradford took umbrage at Olson's allegation that someone had lied to the court. He argued that both Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Gabriel and FBI agent Ronnie Walker didn't intentionally mislead the court but "provided information based on what others told them.''

The matter stemmed from a search and seizure warrant that a federal magistrate judge granted the federal government in April for the Facebook accounts belonging to 23 of the 26 defendants in the federal conspiracy case.

On Aug. 3, Olson discovered that the U.S. Attorney's Office improperly handed over raw material from 11 Facebook accounts belonging to 10 defendants to all 26 defendants even though the information was considered irrelevant and should have been sealed.

Here's what the judge wrote so far:

Judge's notice that she is denying motion to suppress Facebook evidence.

This story will be updated once the judge issues her order/opinion in writing.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian
Tuesday 13 September 2016 11:03am



Professor David Murdoch

Growing the University of Otago, Christchurchs presence and involvement in the Canterbury community is a priority for its new Dean, Professor David Murdoch. Other priorities include building on the campus successes, innovations, diversity and global collaborations.

Murdoch talked about his priorities to staff and students in an official welcoming ceremony, or Mihi Whakatau, this week.

A major part of my role is to develop and foster a positive presence within the city of Christchurch and wider Canterbury community. To further improve relationships with key partners and help develop our own sense of style here on the Christchurch campus, which sets us apart from but retains that vital link to the mothership in Dunedin.

Murdoch said Christchurch staff and students had much to be proud of.

There is general consensus that successful universities thrive on the achievements of their staff and students. We have many successes to celebrate at this School. I would like to make a special mention of general staff who do not always feel connected to academic achievements at the School, but who clearly play such a central role. It is the collective effort that makes us great, and that involves all of us.

Murdoch said some distinctive aspects of the campus were its diversity, creativity and innovative approach.

A Deans job  is to facilitate an environment that encourages and stimulates successes to encourage initiative and creativity. To help attract the most talented staff and students, no matter where they come from, and open ourselves to new ideas and approaches. I dont have figures for the whole School, but I know there are nearly 30 different nationalities represented in the Department of Pathology alone. We need to celebrate this diversity and embed a global perspective across all aspects of teaching, learning and research. In many ways, our students are leading the way in this regard.

Murdoch said he was deeply honoured to be the new Dean of such a great campus.

You will hear me talk a lot about creating and maintaining a positive culture. Thats what got us through the earthquakes and will keep us on a steady course during other tough times, as well as during the good times. It is also what makes us come to work each day.
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Chatting for the first time with Tim Clark, an editor at The Old Farmers Almanac, is like talking with an old friend.

Thats not surprising, really, as Clarks charge  a periodical that has been around for centuries  is made up of the stuff that affects peoples lives daily. Specifically, the weather, the sky, the earth, plants, animals and everything in between.

Indeed, the pale yellow book with lots of writing on the cover is as practical today as it was 225 years ago.

Its not a dusty, little quaint thing thats an acquired taste, said Clark in a telephone interview from the publications headquarters in Dublin, N.H., a town he described as classic New England, with population 1,500.

The Old Farmers Almanac, founded in 1792 by Robert B. Thomas in New England, is a favorite with the millions of people who buy copies each year.

Its a handy reference guide at the ready for information on sunrises, sunsets, moonrises, moonsets, visible planets and planet conjunctions, eclipses, meteor showers, length of day, high tides, frosts and growing seasons, and the all-important, most talked-about weather forecasts. (Look for warmer than normal temperatures and wetter than normal precipitation for our winter this year, Clark said.)

People like the Almanac, Clark said. It makes people smile.

The 2017 Old Farmers Almanac, on sale now, is a special anniversary edition and contains a five-page replica of the first edition, for the year 1793. It also includes a centuries-spanning time line of important dates in the Almanacs history, beginning in 1792 when Thomas wrote about predicting a years worth of weather, As to my judgment of the weather, I need say but little; for you will in one years time, without any assistance of mine, very easily discover how near I have come to the truth.

That phrase is a favorite with Clark, one of eight editors at the Almanac.

Thomas claim for a years worth of forecast success has certainly been tested. Clark humbly mentioned the 80 percent success rate of the Almanacs annual weather predictions but was quick to warn against gloating, even when the periodicals prediction for the 2014-15 winter had a 96.3 percent accuracy rate.

We were so accurate it was a little scary, Clark said. The Almanac forecasters had nixed a mainstream forecast for a strong El Nino that year. The El Nino didnt happen and the Almanac nailed the forecast. But there were no public high fives and little fanfare, Clark said, because then, he quipped, people would demand near-perfect forecasts all the time and there always was the next year.

Case in point, the next season, last years winter of 2015-16.

Almanac forecasters again went against their mainstream contemporaries who were calling for a strong El Nino. But unlike the 2014-15 winter, a strong El Nino emerged and the Almanac forecast turned out to be substantially less accurate at 55.6 percent.

Whats a sure bet for 2017, though, is next summers Greatest Spectacle  the first total solar eclipse over the U.S. mainland in 38 years. That happens Aug. 21.

I have never seen a total eclipse, Clark said. I am childishly excited about it.

When the moon passes in front of the sun, it will created a 140-mile wide stripe of darkness that will span the United States, west to east, from Oregon down to the Carolinas. The eclipse happens during the morning over the Pacific Northwest, midday over southern Illinois, and afternoon over the southeastern states, according to the Almanac.

There will be tens of millions people driving to get to that stripe, himself included, Clark said. And theres going to be clouds  guaranteed, theres going to be clouds somewhere.

However, another chance to see another mainland total eclipse comes only seven years later, this one on April 8, 2024.

Clark has been working for the Old Farmers Almanac for nearly 40 years, taking a break to teach high school English. Back at the job, he lives two miles from the Farmers Almanac offices. He is the town moderator of Dublin, which means he is responsible for running the elections there, opening the polls at 8 a.m., taking everyones ballots from their hands (state law) and putting them in a wooden box made in 1883 and closing the polls at 7 p.m. The votes are hand-counted.

Its not surprising this man with a gift for description sprinkled with humor is the editor in charge of the unusual history, oddball events, folklore the almanac has delighted its readers with for years.

Since 1980, Clark has written what is called the weather doggerel each month found in the calendar section. A doggerel, Clark said, is a little verse which is amateurish and crude. His job is to sum up the New England forecast for each month, with a few rules: It has to rhyme, has to be funny, has to reflect the New England forecast in a little space.

For example, the September 2017 doggerel: Pitter-pattering, of showers a-scattering. Brief repeat of the summer heat. Boomier, then gloomier  thrills and chills! In fall sloshes, wearing galoshes. Time to start picking those Cortlands and McIntoshes!

And what it means: September 2017 will start with some rain, then some heat, then some storms, and finish with apple harvest time.

He also pens the most enjoyable Farmers Calendar, which appears next to the doggerel each month.

April 2017, in part: Go out around midnight on a clear New Moon night and look straight up. See that faint oval-shape smudge of light? Thats the Andromeda Galaxy, which may contain a trillion stars. Its the most distant object visible to the naked eye  more than two million light years away.

There is something new to discover each day, Clark said.

The Almanac is not something you read and recycle, he said. You keep it around. It tells you something new about every single day. It puts us back in touch with the sky and the land, and thats special.
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Francine Bradley, of Clare, never met a slice of bacon she didnt like, but found she loves it even more on top of a warm doughnut from Cops & Doughnuts.

Delectable, nefarious and OMG good, said Bradley taking a bite of the sweet treat.

Its breakfast all in one bite, said Clare Cops & Doughnuts General Manager Sam Middleton.

The confectionery earned second place honors for a bakery in the Midland Daily News 2016 Readers Choice awards.

Krishta Larsons 3-year-old daughter wouldnt settle for anything less than Cops & Doughnuts for her third birthday.

It was the only caterer that would make her happy, Larson said. Im not a doughnut fan, but I have to say, they are pretty good. My daughter (Janelle) would eat them for every meal of the day. She still has a metabolism.

But, it is not all about doughnuts. The menu also includes a Stool Pigeon Sandwich, Misdemeanor Wiener, the must-have sausage and gravy biscuits, soups, fries and other traditions.

MORE WINNERS: 2016 Midland Daily News Readers' Choice Awards

While getting a loaf of bread recently, Desiree Emery of Detroit said not everything at the bakery will make your waist swell  yeah, Im lying. But it is so worth it.

Honey, some of this stuff tastes so good that if they werent the police they should be arrested by them, Emery said.

Middleton said she meets people from Africa, Asia and all over the U.S. who come in for a taste of their menu.

I still pinch myself when I come to work, she said. It doesnt feel like a job.

Middleton said the business has locations in Clare, Bay City, Ludington, Gaylord and their first out-of-state location in South Bend, Indiana.

Middleton is amazed by how far people will travel to visit the store and to get their products.

You cant find this kind of quality anywhere, said Middleton, noting how much she loves the family atmosphere.
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Saturday morning, some 80 Republicans gathered at a Plymouth Park shelter filled with red, white, blue and yellow balloons as Rep. Gary Glenn, R-Midland, announced his intentions to run for a second term.

Sen. Jim Stamas, R-Midland, stated that Glenn was Freshman Legislator of the Year and also applauded Glenns efforts in setting energy policy. Stamas said hes seen Glenn in action.

He made a commitment and hes living up to that commitment. Stamas urged everyone to make sure hes there for four more years.

Congressman John Moolenaar, R-Midland, complemented Glenns tenacity, as he stated that Glenn is a leader in making Michigan a Right to Work state.

Im proud to stand behind him, Moolenaar said. Its a lot better for our city when Republicans are in the majority.

Glenn asked the crowd, Can anyone remember the last time Midland County elected a Democrat? The crowd was silent and then laughed.

But, Im not going to take anything for granted, said Glenn, who was ranked as the second most conservative member of the House by Inside Michigan Politics.

Energy was a common theme at the event. Glenn said free enterprise works best and with a monopoly youre not going to get the best service. Glenn said this concept applies to electricity as well. He said when companies compete they provide customers more efficient service.

Glenn asked for prayers, campaign contributions and volunteers. He urged volunteers to put up 1,200 lawn signs and to knock on doors. Glenn recalled knocking on doors in past elections and said it was a positive experience. Even if the residents dont agree theyre polite, he said.

Glenn had cancer and thanked his wife, Annette, for driving him to Lansing to cast votes when he couldnt drive. Now Glenn is cancer-free.

Midland County GOP Chairwoman Cathy Leikhim said Midland Countys Victory Center on the Circle is open and also serving as Glenns headquarters.

Bill Betts, of Midland, attended and hopes Republicans will win. The Democratic Party is ruining our country, he said. Betts said Democrats are way too liberal and Republicans would get spending under control. Betts said it is unsustainable to provide housing, food, and everything else under the sun and people should work instead.

Kathy and Dean Berden drove all the way from Snover to attend.

Dean Berden, an organic farmer and owner of a solar installation company, was a delegate at the Republican National Convention. He said their demographics would peg them Democrats, but they are in fact staunch Republicans. Democrats talk big, but they dont act, said Berden. Were the party of action.

Kathy Berden is the National Committeewoman for Michigan at the Republican National Committee. Berden also attended the Republican National Convention in Ohio.

Whether for Glenn or Donald Trump, Kathy Berden said it is important to attend events to show candidates support. Berden also said its a chance to ask candidates questions. Its a great opportunity, she said.

Kathy Berden has attended 80 Republican events in 50 counties over the past 12 months. Berden said these events, like the Republican National Convention, are like a kickoff to the election. This is Garys kickoff, she said.

Dr. Steven and Vanessa Simmons, along with their daughter, Brianna, also attended the event. Both work in the health field, healthcare is one of their top issues. Vanessa Simmons said health decisions, such as vaccinations, should be made by families.

Brianna Simmons is excited for the election. At age 18, this will be her first time voting. A Trump supporter, she said he knows how to manage money and get out of debt. She said she enjoyed the Glenn event because she enjoyed getting together with other people who are supporting the same candidates.
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Midlands community run to raise money for Special Olympics has been tops in the state for participation and the amount of money raised for the last three years, and Midland Police Deputy Chief Rodney Roten is looking to collect the honor again.

Were going for the four-peat this year, Roten said of the Midland Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics, which is being held Thursday.

Runners and walkers of all skill levels are invited to participate in the event, which starts at the Midland Law Enforcement Center, 2727 Rodd St., at 5:30 p.m. The event is not a race, but a leisurely run/walk to bring people together for the purpose of raising funds and awareness for the over 20,000 Special Olympics athletes in Michigan, a release states.

There are two routes  a 3.4-mile route for runners and a 2.5-mile route for walkers, with the finish line either inside the Dow Diamond, depending on the Great Lakes Loons playoff progress, or at Northwood University, Roten said.

As far as local runners and teams who will be participating, the list includes high school and middle school cross county runners.

Bullock Creek has jumped on board this year, Roten said, along with Meridian High, H.H. Dow High and Midland High.

As of early August, $1,025 had been raised by early registrations. Last year, we raised over $5,000, he said, adding he has a pretty good feeling well be able to top last years mark.

Midland has an excellent support team that helps make this happen, including donations of water, pizza and fruit for after the race, Roten said.

The Law Enforcement Torch Run is the single largest grass-roots fundraising effort for Special Olympics International, according to the Special Olympics Michigan website. Michigans Law Enforcement Torch Run program raises funds for thousands of athletes who participate in Special Olympics Michigan.

Same-day registrations are available, and registrations will be taken any time prior to the start of the run/walk. Register online at www.firstgiving.com/miletr/midland16 or pick up a form at the LEC.

For questions or further information on the Midland run, contact Roten at rroten@midland-mi.org or at (989) 839-4703 or (989) 600-0141.
BLOOMINGTON  Bloomington officials are not disclosing the nature of the concerns that led them to ask Illinois State Police to pursue an investigation of past financial operations of U.S. Cellular Coliseum.

"To protect the integrity of the ongoing criminal investigation, the city will not have any further comment related to these issues until the investigation is completed," city officials said in a news release Monday announcing the investigation.

The city staff first reported concerns to the state police several months ago. Officials would not say how long the investigation is expected to last.

McLean County States Attorney Jason Chambers said Monday that his office has assisted state police with securing documents. He declined to specify the material investigators asked for, or the method used to obtain it. The request for assistance came several months ago, he said.

Questions surfaced as the city was working to close the city-owned arena's financial books during the management transition from former operators Central Illinois Arena Management (CIAM) to the new managers, VenuWorks, Mayor Tari Renner told The Pantagraph in late August.

The investigation focuses on Coliseum operations while CIAM was in charge, according to the city's statement.

CIAM President John Butler issued a statement Monday in which he said he was "shocked and surprised" to learn of the investigation and promised to cooperate fully.

"The Coliseum staff was a professional staff and I am confident there has been no wrongdoing and at the most only differences (were) in interpretation of the management agreement," he wrote.

He said he offered to meet with city officials last week but was rebuffed. "I feel like I have been ambushed," he wrote.

CIAM operated the Coliseum from its 2006 opening until the firm's 10-year contract, which CIAM did not seek to renew, expired March 31. In June, the city signed a five-year contract with VenuWorks to manage the 7,000-seat arena.

As part of the management transition, city staff conducted extensive internal reviews and auditing, said City Manager David Hales.

"These reviews brought forward multiple areas of concern for city staff, which we promptly reported to the Illinois State Police in an effort to determine whether any unlawful conduct had occurred," said Hales in the statement.

As city staff and internal auditors reviewed and reported various issues, Police Chief Brendan Heffner said his department requested the assistance of state police to avoid the appearance of any conflicts.

"Several months ago, we had our first meeting with the Illinois State Police to report the citys concerns and to request a more comprehensive investigation," said city attorney Jeff Jurgens. "Since that time, a small group from the city has been working very closely with the state police and we will continue to do so through the completion of the investigation."

In addition to the annual audits, the city brought in specialized internal auditors in 2015 for assistance in reviewing various Coliseum accounting and operational issues because of negotiations with CIAM over a possible new contract, said Hales.

"Although the Coliseums accounts are audited every year by an independent audit firm and have received a clean opinion each year, the contract negotiation and management transition allowed us to do a much deeper dive," Hales said.

"This work was performed by the Bronner Group, who started working with the city on a special audit of the Coliseum contract in March 2015," he said.

State police declined to comment on Monday, saying, "This case remains an open and ongoing investigation. No further information is being released at this time."

"I would also call on our community to wait for all of the facts and avoid a rush to judgment," Renner said in the statement. "This is not the time for politics or half-truths. There are professionals involved, and we need to let them do their job without interference.

"We bring the announcement of the investigation forward now in the interest of transparency and anticipating it may have become public in the near future as the criminal investigation continues," said Renner.

Hales said replacing CIAM's 10-year-old management contract with a new agreement that contains clear terms and conditions, as well as safeguards for the city "was real triumph and turning point."

"The management agreement we have with the city, in terms of oversight and clear directive, is probably one of the strongest our company has out of the approximately 50 different venues we serve," added Curtis Webb, VenuWorks' executive director at the Coliseum.
LeROY  Old traditions were mixed with a day of honoring veterans and remembering the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack during the 16th annual Intertribal Powwow at the Grand Village of the Kickapoo Park near LeRoy on Sunday.

I dont care where you come from, said Leonard Malatare, who served as master of ceremonies for the two-day event, but today, we are all Indians. All of us, today, we are one people, one nation, dancing around to big drums. One way, the right way, the Indian way.

Malatare, a member of the confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana, said events such as the powwow help bring people together, leaving all differences aside.

We come in the memory of our ancestors to sing and dance, he said. Its not political, its not religious, its just about having a good time in a good way. This is about making new friends, meeting old friends, talking with each other, or maybe even talking about each other. We do that sometimes.

The highlight of each day was the grand entry that includes a salute to veterans. Army veteran Bob Lewis of Champaign was designated to carry the American flag, leading the grand entry.

I dont know how that happened, really, he said. It reminded me of being in the Army, though, because I just kind of got drafted to do it. But I enjoyed it, and I enjoy powwows. I have gone to several. It gives you a real sense of tradition.

Malatare said Sundays grand entry meant a little something special, since it fell on the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington D.C.

We cannot forget about those who died on that day, he said.

Powwows provide opportunities for Native Americans to celebrate Native American traditions, said Angelo Padro, a member of the Grand Village of the Kickapoo Park board.

People love the camaraderie, he said. The Native Americans love to share their experiences and their culture. They enjoy sharing and educating others about their past and their traditions.

The site of the annual powwow is owned by Bill and Misty Vermaat, and is the former home of the Kickapoo Tribe, who occupied the land from the 1700s until 1832. The Grand Village of the Kickapoo Park board was established in 1997. The first powwow was held three years later.

There is a real sense of tradition with the powwow and I try to get out every year, said LeRoy resident Harold Gust. This was their ground before America was even a country and you can feel that atmosphere. Their native dances, music and costumes are really an inspiration.

Katie Brummett of Abingdon also visits the powwow every year for the opportunity to dress in her Native American costume and participate in the grand entry and traditional dances.

I enjoy the company and making friends with others who have a Native American background, she said. Now my daughter is able to enjoy it and I really think it is important that we share where we came from, not only to our own families, but to others as well.
NORMAL  Stephen Brown was only 2 years old when terrorists used airplanes to attack targets in New York and Washington D.C. on Sept. 11, 2001. Although he doesnt have specific memories of that day, he understands the impact it had on the nation.

I have a real passion for this country, the 17-year-old senior at Normal Community High School said Sunday afternoon, just steps away from Constitution Trail in Normal. I have great respect and am very proud of those who served. I think this is the greatest nation on earth and those who serve are the best we have to offer.

On Sunday night, Brown officially completed his final task for his Eagle Scout project, by raising a flag on a flagpole he installed near the Connie Link Amphitheater near Constitution Trail in Normal.

The ceremony followed a fundraising effort that raised more than $2,300. Sen. Mark Kirk donated a flag that flew over the Capitol in Washington D.C. on Aug. 16 for the ceremony.

Brown, who plans on applying to the U.S. Naval Academy, picked Sunday for a reason.

I wanted to show that its not for just those in uniform, but to honor all Americans as well, he said. Ive watched a lot of news shows and read about the attacks and so, today, was the right day to officially raise this flag.

Brown garnered support from the project from Marcus Luttrell, a former Navy SEAL and the inspiration for the movie Lone Survivor, for his role in Operation Redwing, a military operation during the war in Afghanistan.

Marcus Luttrell is one of my heroes and the lone survivor from an operation where three out of the four members of his platoon were killed, he said. I sent an email to him, asking for a donation and he decided to publish my request on social media. I started receiving offers and received $2,300 in just 72 hours.

That was enough to cover the purchase of the pole, the installation and landscaping, he said.

A plaque with an engraving sits at the base of the pole which was donated by the Pontiac Granite Company.

Its a $600 plaque donated for free and its an amazing contribution, he said. Its exactly what we needed.

The flag was officially raised Sunday night during a special ceremony.

To have the flag raising on the anniversary is just awesome, said Normals deputy city manager, Pam Reece. We appreciate Stephens initiative and work ethic. This particular flag and plaque will be appreciated by lots of people in the community.

Browns mother, Kathie, said she was very proud of her son.

It was his idea, and he did all of the work, she said. He is a rising star and in many places, I know he will go far. Im not just saying that because Im his mother, but he really cares about this and it turned out great.
Every photo has a story behind it. Recently, a viral photo of a baby hugging his twin already tugged the heartstrings of many but the story behind it would probably make anyone weep buckets of tears.

Twin babies Hawk and Mason were born prematurely to parents Tommy Buchmeyer and Brandy Guettler on August 18. Huffington Post reports that Brandy's pregnancy was delicate and the twins were both born with an unhealthy condition.

Shortly after the delivery, Mason was sent to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) while Hawk was diagnosed with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). Hawk had to undergo surgery on Aug. 30.

But before Hawk was sent to the operation room, he shared a touching moment with his twin brother Mason that their parents were able to capture in a snapshot. CBS 12 reports that as per the nurse's suggestion, Brandy laid Mason beside Hawk. When Mason felt Hawk's skin, he immediately grabbed his brother's arm and smiled.

Brandy and Tommy shared the photo on social media with the caption, "The picture was taken 11 days after they were born, it's the first time they have ever touched, and as soon as Mason felt Hawk he reached out for his arm and smiled this big. We thought it was time for everyone pulling for our boy to see this picture."

That love for each other, which was immortalized by the photo and a thousand shares on Facebook, was one of the last moments of Hawk and Mason together. But Hawk died from CDH six days later.

According to Boston Children's Hospital, a CDH is a hole in the diaphragm that makes it possible for organs from the abdomen to move into the chest. This means that the infected baby will be experiencing difficulties to breathe properly.

It is a rare disease that affects one in every 2,500 babies. As per Boston Children's Hospital, the annual success rate of their treatments to babies with such a case is at 90 percent. Sadly, for Hawk, he was not able to survive.

Tommy and Brandy, who have shared the news about Hawk's passing in Facebook, received condolences from the followers of their story all over the world. The parents ask that they be given the time to grieve for their little boy's death.

After reading the story behind the viral photo, how did it affect you? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section. Follow Parent Herald for more news and updates.


Zika Virus has been transmitted globally and is now setting on disasters in 46 countries and territories just in the region of America, according to Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Brazil, the epicenter of the virus, has doubled birth defects statistics as CNN reports. Many Brazillian babies' future are at stake because of Zika.

Babies and fetuses infected by Zika virus are reported to have hardened calcium deposits in the brain. This can lead to swelling in the brain and breakdown of some tissues. Over 150 babies were reported to have microcephaly in 2014 and terribly soared to over 4000 cases this year and still counting.

Congenital malformtions have been stable until 2015 at 40/100,000 live births but in the recent months, it has been detected to have been raised to 170/100,000 births. This sets a four times increase, according to CNN. Babies who are now infected by Zika virus do not just have smaller heads (microcephaly) but are also feared to have deadly inflammations of the brain and spinal column, which may come in the form of encephalitis, encephalomyelitis, and myelitis. Now a new disorder called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) is also seen as a potential destroyer of the immune system, where pain, paralysis, and even death can be the end result.

Zika virus circulation in the Americas is dreaded to have increased the number of cases for GBS not just in Brazil but also in other countries and territories, says PAHO. Among these countries are Colombia, Honduras, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Martinuque, Jamaica, Venezuela, Suriname, and French Guiana. Other countries outside the Americas are also starting to suffer from the tremendous transmission of Zika. Asia, Europe, Australia, and some areas in the Pacific Islands are struck by the virus as well.

GBS can cause temporary damage, which means that it can be cured through proper medication and medical care. However, some people who have GBS experience permanent damage especially in the nervous system. Fatality is low for GBS cases, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In cases of heated, acrimonious and winner-take-all custody battles in divorce or separation, the stakes are often massive. One of the most heartbreaking realities of heated custody battles is the so-called parental alienation, where one parent could instill negative thoughts into a child's mind against the other parent who spends a limited time with a child.

In the 1980s, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Richard Gardner identified a phenomenon that often occurs during high conflicting divorce battles where a parent brainwashed a child to denigrate the other parent. This phenomenon was called the parental alienation syndrome. But today, Mail & Guardian revealed that psychiatrists no longer believed that the said syndrome still exists but parental alienation does.

In a study on the prevalence of parental alienation in the United States published in the journal Children and Youth Services Review, High Point University psychology assistant professor Sadie Leder Elder and Colorado State University researchers found that 13 percent of parents have reported being alienated. Additionally, more than 22 million adults are also potentially alienated from their children, according to High Point University.

With that said, Elder stressed that the degree of parental alienation in the U.S. is quite alarming. Elder also suggested that more funding and policy changes are needed in order to further determine and understand the effects and impacts of parental alienation in the country.

Due to the prevalence of parental alienation in the United States, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center psychiatry clinical professor Dr. Richard Warshak called the phenomenon as a "divorce poison" since it can maliciously turn a child against a parent with no good reason at all. Warshak also pointed out how parental alienation can portray a parent as "unloving and unworthy of love," ABC News noted.

The prevalent recognition of parental alienation claims in family courts, however, has ignited a heated controversy and debate. Several family law experts urged the federal government to appoint more judges with family law expertise, especially in parental alienation claims where it can be treated very differently depending on where your location is and which family court judge hears the case.

With the complexities that parental alienation bring, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine's psychiatry professor Dr. William Bernet and trial lawyer James Bocott stressed that parental alienation should not be tolerated. The reason? Children who have been subjected to parental alienating behaviors are more at risk to develop and manifest mental health issues such as anxiety, depression and substance abuse, according to Omaha World-

\Herald.

Severe parental alienation has even been considered a form of psychological abuse. However, Columbia University professor and former American Psychiatric Association president Dr. Paul Appelbaum said no scientific evidence has been found to consider parental alienation a real mental disorder.

Parental alienation, however, does not only exists in the United States. In fact, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) in the U.K. has recently launched a program intended to help and provide support to parental alienation victims.

Since parental alienation has become a common scenario among families going through divorce or separation, Cafcass decided to launch a government-funded program called "Parents in Dispute." The project aims to encourage and to educate parents how to handle family breakdowns better, First Wives World reported.

Meanwhile, family law experts believed that promoting shared parenting could eradicate the horrors of parental alienation. As said by National Parents Organization founder and board chair Dr. Ned Holstein in a previous Parent Herald article, it would be difficult for anyone to turn a child against a parent if he or she experiences frequent loving care, which is what shared parenting is all about.

Do you think shared parenting is a panacea to the tragic cases of parental alienation? Share your thoughts below and follow Parent Herald for more news and updates.
A bank in California is making big adjustments for its employees who still have infants to take care of. Schools Financial Credit Union is apparently allowing its staff to bring their babies to work every day if needed, and do so until the children are old enough to crawl.

According to WFAA, working parents at the Schools Financial Credit Union are grateful for the company's policy on parental privileges. Such policy, which has actually been retained by the company since 2001, has been one of the reasons why employees prefer working at this California bank. So far, 130 babies and their parents have already benefited from the policy.

It is mostly the working moms taking advantage of bringing their babies to work at the Schools Financial Credit Union, but some 20 percent of the working dads have also been doing the same. The company thought it would be wiser to provide such a benefit because most of the workers deal with sensitive information, which makes it impossible to do the work at home, according to Red Book Magazine. Once employees have maximized their maternity and paternity leave benefits, however, some families can no longer extend taking time off because this would mean being off work without pay.

Lisa Mackay, the company's human resources head, stated that the company also recognizes that some of its employees cannot afford to bring their children to daycare. Hence, giving them the option to bring their babies to the office actually works best for everyone concerned.

"We know going in the employee is not going to be 100 percent productive," Mackay said in the reports. Fortunately, no major problems have risen from this set up. The whole intention of the program is to assure its working parents of job security and the company understands that productivity could be temporarily affected. "That is just part of the program, and it's part of the intention of the program," said MacKay.
There is no doubt that George RR Martin's "The Winds of Winter" is the most wanted book today. The "A Song of Ice and Fire" fans have been waiting for the book for five years and counting. There have been several reports about the release date of "The Winds of Winter" but Martin never confirmed it. Learn about what Martin has to say about it.

Parent Herald previously reported that a placeholder for "The Winds of Winter" appeared on Amazon France. The post listed the date as March 9, 2017, which sent many "TWOW" fans into a frenzy because at last "The Winds of Winter" has a release date.

Unfortunately, we later learned that it was just a false alarm. The alleged release date and ISBN of "The Winds of Winter" are not true. This left the avid "ASOIAF" fans devastated once again.

Although we understand that everyone is wishing to get a copy of "The Winds of Winter," one should be cautious with the release date coming around unless George RR Martin, himself confirmed it.

According to George RR Martin on his blog two years ago, there will be no clues to decipher when "The Winds of Winter" is ready because he will announce it to his waiting fans directly. Martin added that the anticipated book will not be coming out in Christmas, Valentines Day or Lincoln's birthday. "The Winds of Winter" will be done on whatever day he finishes it.

So for those wishing for a surprise launch of "The Winds of Winter" that is unlikely to happen. As what some sources say, it is more beneficial to market the book than do big surprises.

Meanwhile, the editor already confirmed that "The Winds of Winter" will be delayed by just a few days. However, per Asiastarz, it remains unknown as to when it will see the light of day but one thing is certain, George RR Martin is still writing it.

Did you believe the reports claiming that "The Winds of Winter" is coming out in March? Do you believe that George RR Martin will announce the book when it is ready? When do you think will "The Winds of Winter" arrive? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
In an era where technology has become very influential, it is really not surprising to learn how education has been changed by technology. In spite of the fact that education technology (EdTech) has become quite an exhausting market lately, experts still believe that technology's role in changing the ever-evolving field of education is critical.

Education technology has been concentrating in exploring the commercialization, personalization and democratization of teaching and learning in recent years. However, one question remains--is technology changing education for the better?

In the book, "Is Technology Good for Education," Australia's Monash University education professor and nook author Neil Selwyn outlined the present key issues and debates about education technology. In an interview with Inside Higher Ed through an email, Selwyn explained why many educational institutions have been experimenting with technology to be incorporated in classrooms.

According to Selwyn, education technology or digital education has been the latest trend when it comes to contemporary education. However, today's EdTech is no longer based on the experimentation with technology alone. Instead, colleges are basing their whole provision on digital technology.

Education technology has become the "mainstream orthodoxy." As technology dominate the educational experience of most students and teachers, Selwyn stressed the stakes are much higher now that in the '90s and EdTech has now become a billion-dollar enterprise that affects the entire society.

Due to the contradictions and complexities between education and technology, Selwyn also pointed out that online is the best platform for the ongoing conversations regarding education's future. Selwyn added better news media commentary on education and technology are also essential.

Speaking of education and technology, IT Business Edge revealed the so-called "micro-degrees" have the potential to bridge the pace-of-change gap between the educational systems and technology. "Micro-degrees or nanodegrees" is a program that aims to provide a "credentialed set of skills" in just a short timeframe.

Since traditional and old-school class can't keep up with technology, Yello's (Chicago's talent acquisition software provider) CEO Jason Weingarten explained that these "micro-degrees" can provide tools that can immediately add to the skills acquisition ecosystem. These developed apps and programs are also not taught in school as no one could even teach it yet.

Meanwhile, technology's influence and advantages in the field of education are really undeniable and unstoppable. Unfortunately, the rise of technology has become challenging to the education and employability of those who are visually impaired or disabled, Your Story reported.

What are your thoughts about the undeniable connection between education and technology? Sound off below and follow Parent Herald for more news and updates.
Zika virus continues to spread in Southeast Asia and as per the latest report, eight pregnant women are infected in Singapore. Singapore confirmed that there is a total of 329 Zika cases in the country making the World Health Organization (WHO) worry about the matter.

Reuters reported that the Singaporean government, the doctors, the Ministry of Health and, the National Environment Agency are providing close support and counseling to the patients infected with the virus. In the latest report about Zika virus in Singapore, it was tallied that there were 11 new cases on Sunday of the locally-transmitted Zika virus.

Zika virus was first identified in Uganda in 1947, but it became known in the United States only in 2014. In the U.S., the most hit state is Florida where numbers of home-grown Zika cases have been steadily increasing since then.

The virus, however, is still affecting large parts of the Caribbean and Latin America. Singapore reported its first ever locally-infected Zika patient on August 27.

Redrico Ofrin, the WHO regional emergencies director for Southeast Asia, said that countries in the area should carry out effective surveillance and reporting systems in order to monitor the spread of the disease, Voice of America reported.

He added, "WHO is working with countries across the South East Asia region to continue to prevent, detect and respond to the Zika virus transmission." The other South East Asian countries affected are Malaysia and Thailand.

A person who contracted Zika will experience mild symptoms such as fever, rashes, and muscle pains. However, for pregnant women, the effects are all the more impactful. The babies of the mothers who had Zika while pregnant causes the infant to have microcephaly. This is a severe birth defect wherein the brains and the heads of the babies affected are undersized. It also rarely causes an infrequent neurological syndrome called Guillain-Barre in adults.
Do good things truly come to those who wait? After not knowing its real status for almost a year, the "Rise of the Tomb Raider" for PS4 is now within arms reach. To make-up for the long wait, Square Enix has recently confirmed that the version for the Sony console will have some noteworthy additions.

After being an Xbox One exclusive for several months, "Rise of the Tomb Raider" is finally coming to the PS4 on October 11, 2016. As previous reports suggested, the release will coincide with the franchise's 20th anniversary.

As part of "Rise of the Tomb Raider" PS4's release, Square Enix has recently shared a Tokyo Game Show trailer for the highly anticipated title. In the trailer, fans will get a first glimpse of the new Endurance co-op mode as well as the Blood Ties expansion, Twinfinite noted. As previously reported, the DLC will allow players to follow Lara Croft as she visits a now ruined and haunted Craft Manor. Somehow taking notes from "Resident Evil," Blood Ties will let players defend the mansion from rabid zombies.

Check out the new "Rise of the Tomb Raider" PS4 trailer below.

Meanwhile, Xbox One users should not get envious of the additional content PS4 owners are getting. It has already been disclosed that Xbox One players can download the DLC as soon as "Rise of the Tomb Raider" for PS4 has been released.

Are you excited for the cool content added to title? Stay tuned for more "Rise of the Tomb Raider" PS4 release date updates here!
Colleges, high schools and middle schools in the United States are providing free tampons and sanitary pads to students. Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island is the first higher-education institution to have joined the campus-wide initiative, which was led by its student body president.

Viet Nguyen, who headed the student-led movement, and 20 other students will hand-deliver tampons and sanitary pads into all non-residential bathrooms, Newsweek reported. The initiative signifies that pads and tampons are a bathroom "necessity" (like toilet paper and hand soap) and "not a luxury."

Tampons and sanitary pads will be available in women's, men's, and gender-inclusive bathrooms. This echoes students' wish to access free feminine hygiene products in all bathrooms at the university regardless of gender labels. Nguyen said that this establishes a "tone of trans-inclusivity and not forget that they're an important part of the population," Newsweek further reported.

Nguyen said that they have received positive feedback just two days after the initiative was launched. Other universities have called or emailed them to ask for help on how they can start their own programs similar to Nguyen's.

There are people, however, who opposed Brown University's initiative. Almost all of that negative feedback was about the feminine hygiene supplies being available in men's bathroom.

A statement from Brown University's student government described the initiative as "long overdue." They also encourage other student governments to follow their example for the current school year. Funding for the free feminine hygiene products was provided by the undergraduate student association's finance board.

Student government representatives will refill the tampons and sanitary pads once a week, The Washington Post reported. The group hopes that the university will assume that responsibility in the long run.

Students at Brown University aren't the only ones getting free tampons and sanitary pads. New York City public schools will also provide free feminine hygiene products starting this fall, Newsweek further reported.

NYC's landmark legislation passed on July 13, 2016 will involve 25 schools with sixth to 12th graders. There will be free feminine hygiene products in homeless shelters and correctional facilities as well.

Other schools that have advocated for free feminine hygiene products in bathrooms are the University of Arizona, Columbia University, Emory College, Reed College, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, UCLA, and Grinnell College, among others, Newsweek listed. The Wellington School in Columbus, Ohio, started providing free tampons and sanitary pads in school bathrooms a decade ago.
While "The Fault In Our Stars" has touched the hearts of many viewers, there actually is a real-life couple who are both suffering from cystic fibrosis. Accordingly, the Pragers have undergone lung transplants but Katie's was not successful so her husband, Dalton, is racing to get to her even just for their final moments together.

Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disorder that causes thick mucus to build up in the lungs of a person who has such illness. The couple met through Facebook when they were only 18 years old after Katie sent Dalton a message that she understands his pain since they have the same situation. Dalton and Katie did not know each other initially. The two got married two years later and planned to write about their journey. The two then received a life-saving lung transplant but Katie's transplant was not successful.

Twenty-six-year-old Katie was placed in a hospice in Kentucky last week and that she was told by doctors there is nothing more they can do since the transplant did not work. She said that she wanted to spend her final days with her husband and that she pointed out her body is so tired, Refinery 29 reported.

Despite the simple request of Katie, it might not be possible since Dalton's health has declined and he is not near where Katie is. He is in a hospital in St. Louis. He is said to be suffering from pneumonia, Daily Mail reported.

Initially, Katie and Dalton were not allowed to meet as it was feared they would be infected during their meeting. Katie shared in a statement, "I don't look back because I can't really change the past. I've had this time with Dalton and so I might as well keep looking forward." The two met in 2009 after Dalton drove from Missouri to Kentucky.

Dalton received his transplant in November 2014 while Katie had to wait for a few more months.
Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield reunion rumors are currently making rounds online after the former "Amazing Spider-Man" couple was spotted together. A recent report suggests that the 27-year-old actress is hesitant about rekindling her relationship with her ex-boyfriend because of their busy schedules.

Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone have once again sparked speculations that they are back together after their rumored split in 2015. MailOnline reports that the couple was spotted on a night out in London, months after the couple was believed to have called it quits.

Several reports claimed that Stone and Garfield broke up because of their busy schedules. However, there were also claims that the 33-year-old actor cheated on the "Easy A" actress while he was in Taiwan to film an upcoming project.

While the couple never really denied or confirmed the breakup rumors, Stone and Garfield were never seen together in public until their latest sighting in London. Many fans believe that the couple has split, but they are trying to rekindle their romance.

An insider also told Hollywood Life that Garfield is keen on reuniting with his ex-girlfriend. Garfield previously gushed about Stone and how wonderful his life has been after meeting her on the set of the "Spider-Man" movie franchise.

According to the source, the "La La Land" actress is a bit hesitant about reuniting with Garfield because they are still busy with their respective projects. However, Garfield is reportedly determined to get Stone back into his life and would do anything to achieve that.

The insider shared that Garfield even "begged" Stone for another chance and apologized for messing things up the first time. Now, it looks like the ball is on Stone's court and it is up to her whether or not she will give Garfield and their relationship another try.

Do you think Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield should get back together? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!


"General Hospital" will have a major shocker this week as one of its major characters may soon exit the show. Ever since the revelation of Paul Hornsby as the serial killer, fans are bracing themselves to whom among the major characters will bid farewell to "GH" this week.

According to Soaphub, the major character who will die in the hands of Paul Hornsby has been with "General Hospital" since 2012. However, there is no definite day when the murder would commence.

For this week "General Hospital" spoilers, Finn will be destructed on his research and find a cure for his illness. While he has not told anyone he is sick but because of his constant verge of collapse and his weak all the time, Curtis will find out that something is wrong with him.

Curtis who wants to help Finn will tell Hayden about his situation and fortunately, she knows how to help Finn. On the latest spoilers of "General Hospital," Finn will get the help he needs with the medicine she will get in his room at the MetroCourt.

Hayden who sees more than friendship with Finn encourages him to start researching for a possible cure and Finn will be very motivated to start again as he wants to live for Hayden. However, Liesl Obrecht will destroy Finn's research as she suspects that she is the serial killer in "General Hospital."

Hayden will also find out that she and Liz are sisters as Franco reveals that they are to stop their argument. The biggest anticipation most fans are waiting is Paul's next victim. While Paul's identity as the serial killer in "General Hospital" has not been revealed to the characters, the suspicion among them is still growing.

Paul was aiming to murder Monica but instead will kill someone else. Paul first started killing random patients but this week it will be one of the major characters of the show. It is possible that Sabrina Santiago might get killed this week since she has been very suspicious of Paul.

It could be that this week, in an attempt to save Monica from Paul that Sabrina might be the one to get killed. Her life could be on the line on "General Hospital" since she already confronted Paul about his conspiracy together with Ava.

Who do you think will Paul kill on "General Hospital?" Share us your thoughts below.
Galileo Before the Holy Office, by Joseph Nicolas Robert-Fleury (1797-1890) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons]

*****

Clinton Hooper is an agnostic. He showed up in a Facebook thread of mine that had a meme with 16 Catholic scientists. It sarcastically stated: Catholics are Anti-Science. Wed Probably be in the Space Age by Now if it Werent for Those Catholics. His words will be in blue. I wont bother to correct all of his lack of capitals, etc.

How many of those catholics were catholics because to openly not be catholic during their time was basically a death sentence.

I should rephrase I suppose how many of those catholics were quite literally ordered under threat of imprisonment and the possibility of torture to not disagree with the church. easiest example: galileo. may have been catholic, but he was also explicitly ordered not to hold a heliocentric view by the church and subsequently imprisoned by the church how much worse would that punishment have been if he had been like meh, im not a catholic anymore either!

[I posted links to three of my related papers]

Galileo: The Myths and the Facts [5-11-06]

No Ones Perfect: Scientific Errors of Galileo and 16th-17th Century Cosmologies [7-29-10]

Dialogue on the Galileo Fiasco and the State of Scientific and Astronomical Knowledge in 1633 (vs. Eric G.) [5-13-06]

The Church clearly made mistakes in the Galileo affair, but none that affected infallibility. Galileo was sentenced to a luxurious palace with a supporter.

This is nothing like how the enlightened atheists in France treated great scientists. Lavoisier, the father of chemistry, was killed. For some reason, no one ever hears about that at all!

im glad you can google, but nothing youve posted disagrees with what I said. in 1633 galileo was imprisoned for the rest of his life under house arrest being comfortable does not make a prison any less of a prison.

Not to mention the officially atheist Chinese and Soviet treatment of scientists.

This isnt about atheists or protestants. its about catholics. Also, galileo according to the first article you posted galileo was only in the palace for a few months. he spent the rest of his life under house arrest with friends.

I wasnt Googling. These are all my own papers.

What is your worldview, Clinton? Yes, its about Catholics. We freely admit that we screwed up about Galileo. But things must be put into perspective, and a fair-minded approach taken. Thats what I attempt to do in my treatments of it. There is a huge double standard. Its always Catholics and their error here [that are brought up].

Never mind that scientists at the time were, e.g., neck-deep into astrology. No one ever hears about that. Never mind that Galileos notion of scientific method was less modern than Bellarmines was. Never mind that Copernicus famous book was endorsed by the pope at the time.

Its only Catholics who are supposedly anti-science.

My point in bringing up Lavoisier is obviously to argue: if you are gonna get all righteously indignant about Galileos house arrest, as if this is the height of anti-scientific bigotry, then also get much more indignant about Lavoisier being murdered by the French radicals of the so-called Enlightenment.'

Dont simply highlight one bad thing and ignore a far worse thing. That gives a wrong impression and is lousy history. But it happens all the time. The analyses are so often anti-Catholic in motivation.

Fair enough, the google comment was out of line.

My world view is irrelevant to the conversation, however I believe that there may or may not be a god. go back far enough and theres still things that science cannot answer with current theories. whos to say that far enough back there wasnt a creator and he didnt put all of this into motion. go back far enough and even science relies upon blind faith in the form of assumptions.

I dont take issue with catholics in particular, and I dont really think Catholicism in its current state is anti-science but that doesnt mean that it was always the case. galileo is a prime example of this. was galileo wrong? absolutely, thats the way science works were constantly disproving someone else by presenting a better argument

When the discussion is stifled by fear of persecution by the church, then the church (at the time) is anti-science. pretty much every major form of Christianity has been anti-science at one point or another.

I should say pretty much every major form of religion, including atheism, has been anti-science at one point or another.

Thanks for sharing your worldview, and I appreciate the qualifying statements.

Worldviews are always relevant to conversations, because everyone has a bias, and opposing positions have to be informed as to what someones position is in order to sensibly argue against them (because knowledge of premises of ones debate opponent is key to all constructive dialogue).

You being an agnostic means that you will tend to view things in certain ways regarding all sorts of topics, just as I will tend to have many views because of being a Catholic.

I also put together an entire book about this issue.

Herein lies the problem. my worldview is not pertinent to the facts you are arguing against me rather than discussing the facts. not to say this isnt a perfectly valid strategy in order to win a debate, but its not the most effective way to get to the truth.

Worldviews are relevant for precisely the reason I gave: it creates some bias and others need to know about that. I am biased too. Thats all Im saying.

Im not arguing against you as an agnostic. Thats silly and a piece of sophistry. I have made all kinds of arguments in my papers and book on science; that the Galileo fiasco is not the height of anti-science in the history of the world. Far, far from that . . .

I used to think much like you when I was an evangelical. I thought that the Catholic Church was uniquely anti-science, till I studied the actual facts about the Galileo case.

It was temporarily, partially anti-science in a sense, and in a much more limited way than the standard secular / Protestant critical (and sometimes anti-Catholic) approach portrays it.

As soon as these clowns got power in France, they started killing tens of thousands of people for disagreeing with them: priests, nuns, great scientists . . . And that was supposedly enlightened and a reaction against all those wicked intolerant Catholics.

Here are the numbers of murders in less than one year, in the Reign of Terror in France [1793-1794]: The death toll ranged in the tens of thousands, with 16,594 executed by guillotine (2,639 in Paris), and another 25,000 in summary executions across France. [Wikipedia article]

You keep trying to compare saying oh well these people were much worse! well getting punched in the gut is not as bad as being punched in the face, but its still being punched. in much the same way what happened elsewhere in the world was worse, but that doesnt mean that the church wasnt bad. the question at hand is not was the world anti-<insert literally anything> but specifically is/was the catholic church anti-science

In that limited scope of topic, literally anything else is irrelevant. my beliefs, your beliefs, the enlightened and the reign of terror.. all irrelevant to the question of is/was the catholic church anti-science.. this scope limitation isnt brought about by me, but by your original post.

Oh and by the way, never once did I say or even imply that what happened to galileo was unique to the catholics nor the height of anti-science just that it was an excellent example of the church being anti-science for a time.

Well, you didnt put it in such a sophisticated, nuanced fashion the first time. You stated: how many of those catholics were quite literally ordered under threat of imprisonment and the possibility of torture to not disagree with the church.

Yes, how many? Good question. Why dont you tell us how many you think it was, and give us documented examples? You came up with Galileo as your easiest example. He wasnt tortured. He was put under a relatively luxurious house arrest.

Since you imply that such things were widespread, why dont you give us some more examples? If you cant, then dont go around implying that it was common, expected treatment for scientists to be threatened with imprisonment and torture in Catholic circles.

One anomalous example of poor treatment of a scientist doesnt overcome the meme and establish that as a general rule, Catholicism was anti-science. It was not. We had a short period of time when the Church wrongly assumed that geocentrism was factually true: just a few decades after the great scientist Tycho Brahe held the same position, and when virtually all of the leading scientists (including Galileo) were enthralled with the pseudo-science of astrology.

Theres every reason to believe that Copernicus would have faced similar trial and imprisonment as galileo had he not died shortly after publishing his book on the same topic. according to my friend google (which I readily acknowledge does not tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth) here are a couple of examples other than galileo.

Bacon was imprisoned, and the church restricted him (as friar) from publishing works without their specific approval

Descartes fled from france and take refuge in Sweden, to have his works banned by the catholic church after he passed

Now, how many of the folks who had their works banned or condemned overall were catholic I dont know but the number of scientists and philosophers condemned by the church, or who had works banned/condemned by the church seems to be quite large for an organization that has never been anti-science.

It seems to me that the church went through a good long stretch where some science was embraced, so long as it didnt contradict with anything they had previously taught. but where works exhibited support for ideas that didnt necessarily agree with the church got their authors in some serious trouble.

[Roger] Bacon is not a very good example of your dubious thesis. According to Wikipedia:

The Condemnations of 1277 banned the teaching of certain philosophical doctrines, including deterministic astrology. Some time within the next two years, Bacon was apparently imprisoned or placed under house arrest. This was traditionally ascribed to Franciscan Minister-General Jerome of Ascoli, probably acting on behalf of the many clergy, monks, and educators attacked by Bacons 1271 Compendium Studii Philosophiae. Modern scholarship, however, notes that the first reference to Bacons imprisonment dates from eighty years after his death on the charge of unspecified suspected novelties and finds it less than credible. Contemporary scholars who do accept Bacons imprisonment typically associate it with Bacons attraction to contemporary prophesies, his sympathies for the radical poverty wing of the Franciscans, interest in certain astrological doctrines, or generally combative personality rather than from any scientific novelties which he may have proposed.

Thus, scholars either question that it took place at all, or hold that if it did, it had nothing to do with science.
Remember The Alchemist?

A few years ago it was reported that Laurence Fishburne was going to direct a film adaptation of Paulo Coelhos 1988 novel, which concerns an Andalusian shepherd who goes to Egypt looking for treasure after a prophetic dream points him that way.

It was also said that Fishburne would take a supporting role as Melchizedek, a king of Salem who is presumably connected somehow to the biblical Melchizedek.

Actors like Javier Bardem and Idris Elba have also been associated with the film over the years  but it hasnt actually gone into production yet.

Now Deadline reports that the Weinstein Company has sold its interest in the film to PalmStar Media, which is planning to shoot the film in 2017 for release in 2018.

Time will tell if the film gets made. Ill post more updates if and when they arrive.

September 30 update: And now Sony-based TriStar is on board.

 The picture above shows Laurence Fishburne starring in Othello (1995).
Patna: NDA leaders in Patna led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Monday met with Governor Ram Nath Kovind and handed over a memo to him demanding imposition of Crime Control Act (CCA) on Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) former MP and notorious criminal Mohammed Shahabuddin who was released from the prison after spending over a decade on murder and other charges.

"With the release of the former Siwan MP, Bihar is back to the Jungle Raj of the nineties when no one, except for the RJD leaders, felt safe stepping out of their homes. The Governor should direct the Nitish government to impose CCA against Shahabuddin so he could be put back in jail where he belongs," Modi said at a press conference held at the BJP office after the meeting with the Governor.

Though such meetings with the Governor have been proven to be merely a photo-op and a political drama; the NDA leaders are hopeful of a positive reaction by Mr. Kovind.

"The Governor has assured us to look into our demand and take necessary action, the BJP leader said adding if the government could slap CCA on Anant Singh, the Janata Dal  U leader with long criminal history, there was no reason Shahabuddin could also not be imprisoned under the same Act.

The former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar further accused Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of 'staging' the release of Shahabuddin and demanded action against government officials who deliberately ran out the clock in framing charges against the Siwan MP causing his release on bail on technical grounds.

Members of the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) were also present at the meeting.
Patna: With the Bihar government lately dedicating a large portion of its time tying to seek suggestions from the citizens on how to make Patna a 'smart city', the current water-logging in the state capital could have offered the officials some clue into the immediate need of the people before embarking on a fantasy that is more than likely to stay in the dusty government files than becoming a reality anytime soon.

{gallery}newsimages2016/sept/091216{/gallery}The city, after receiving 133.8 mm of rain on Sunday night and Monday morning, as reported by the weather office in Patna, the entire city, barring a few VIP areas, plunged into rain water once again confirming that the government had utterly failed on this front despite tall promises by the Nitish administration for the last 10 years.

Be it Kankarbagh or Gardanibagh, Rajendra Nagar or Rajvanshi Nagar, Lohanipur or Mithapur  more than three-fourth of the city was witnessing water-logging like never seen before. In many areas, water has entered homes as residents struggled to move their belongings to higher plains by stacking 'chowkis' over 'chowkis'.

All the schools and colleges have been ordered closed and only emergency facilities like hospitals and private clinics were open for business under a skeletal staff.

With over two feet of water entering into the Sudha Dairy plant in Phulwarisharif, the entire facility had to be shut down and with both Hindu and Muslim festivals just around the corner, the shortage of milk is certain to hit both communities.

As always, neither the Chief Minister nor the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) officials showed any sign of urgency.

Releasing a canned response, the Chief Minister's office said the government had directed the officials to commission all available resources to rid Patna from water-logging. PMC Commissioner Abhishek Singh also blamed the weather for the state capital's woes and issued two phone numbers for people to register their complaints.

"We are operating 37 pumps round the clock to drain rainwater out. However, these things take time and we ask the people to have patience as the PMC was doing its best to restore normalcy in Patna," Singh said.
Iran, China finalize deal on $1.2b refinery project

09/12/16

Source: Tehran Times

China's Sinopec and Iran's Oil Ministry have finalized an agreement regarding the development project of Iran's Abadan refinery, Mehr news agency reported on Saturday. Based on the report, according to Iranian Deputy Oil Minister for Refining and Distribution of Oil Products Abbas Kazemi, the first phase of the $1.2 billion project will start in the near future.





Historic Photo: Abadan Refinery in 1920s





"The project includes the development, optimization and improvement of production processes in Abadan refinery as the largest oil refinery in Iran," Kazemi told Mehr.

Deputy oil minister noted that based on this agreement one of the Sinopec's subsidiaries will be responsible for the implementation of the first phase. "Reducing fuel oil production to less than 10 percent and increasing production capacity for gasoline and diesel based on Euro4 standard are among the most important goals of the project," he said.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Kazemi mentioned that the talks for opening a credit line for this project are underway with China's central bank and noted, "It is anticipated that the Chinese company will start the project in the Iranian ninth month of Azar (November 21-Decemebr 20)."

Iran is aiming to increase export volumes of cleaner diesel in upcoming years as its refineries are being upgraded.
The best 2-in-1 laptop 2022: our picks of the best convertible laptops

These are the best 2-in-1 laptops you can buy right now
Im getting ready to book a trip to Orlando for the theme park industrys big annual convention in November, and theres noting like planning a trip to the Walt Disney World Resort to help you appreciate living so close to Disneyland.

Now Im not saying that people shouldnt go there  its a wonderful vacation destination and deserves a spot on every theme park fans bucket list to visit some day. But planning a trip to the Walt Disney World theme parks requires a lot more advance work than hopping in your car and driving over to Disneyland. And thats not even considering getting to central Florida.

Walt Disney World and Disneyland might be part of the same corporate family, and they might offer many of the same rides, shows and sights, but they offer very different vacation experiences. Disneyland, with so many of its visitors being locals with annual passes, is well designed for spur-of-the-moment visits. But Walt Disney World, with its fan base consisting of mostly once-a-year or even once-in-a-lifetime visitors, requires as much advance planning as a military invasion.

Sure, you could just show up there. But only if you enjoy waiting in a tropical swamp with tens of thousands of other visitors, confused by a complex ticketing system and wondering just why you cant just stick your ticket in a Fastpass machine to get a return time to go on anything.

Walt Disney World has four theme parks, not two like at the Disneyland Resort, plus two water parks and a much, much larger dining and shopping district (now called Disney Springs instead of Downtown Disney, as it continues to be known in Anaheim).

None of these places are located as close to each other as Disneyland and Disney California Adventure are. Everythings spread out across about 40 square miles in Florida. Forget walking that.

Each park at Walt Disney World has its own, expansive, surface parking lot. Theres no one-stop-serves-all parking as at Disneyland.

Park hopping is a lot less convenient with everything so scattered at Walt Disney World. I recommend that first-time visitors save the up-to-$69 a ticket cost for the Park Hopper option and just opt for a ticket that gets them into one park per day.

Buying your ticket in advance is a must, not just to save time when you arrive, but it also allows you to use Walt Disney Worlds Fastpass+ ride reservation system. There are no more regular Fastpass ticket machines there. You make your Fastpass+ reservations online  using either a Web browser or Walt Disney Worlds app  and you have to have a valid admission ticket, registered online with Disney, to do it.

You can start making your Fastpass+ reservations 60 days before your visit, if you are staying in a Disney World hotel, or 30 days in advance otherwise.

Dont want to plan that far ahead? Then you will be stuck in the standby queues  a place every self-respecting Disneyland annual pass holder fears. You can make up to three Fastpass+ reservations for each day of your visit, then add extra Fastpass+ return times, using the app, on the day of your visit, once youve used your three pre-planned Fastpass+ reservations for that day.

What about meals? Walt Disney World offers a fixed-price Disney Dining Plan to its hotel guests. That can make a vacation there kind of like an all-inclusive ocean cruise, where all your meals are included in your vacation package price, paid in advance. But people who use that plan can start booking their dining reservations up to 180 days in advance, making walk-up seats much harder to get at Walt Disney World restaurants than at Disneyland, where you dont need to make reservations more than a few days in advance if at all.

Heck, I literally wrote a book on how to do all this stuff, and thinking about it still makes my head hurt.

Still, I will go and I will love it when I am there.

But Ill be especially happy when I get back home to Disneyland, where I can leave my car in one place, walk from park to park, and not have to think about micromanaging my day  at least, until Disney decides to bring Fastpass+ here.

Robert Niles is the founder and editor of ThemeParkInsider.com. Follow him on Twitter @ThemePark.
Gary Johnsons governorship of New Mexico in the 1990s coincided with Mike Laynes college years in Santa Fe.

Today, Laynes front yard in Redlands features a Johnson lawn sign. Layne, a 47-year-old consultant who helps nonprofit groups, cities and schools pursue grant funding, is drawn to Johnsons mix of fiscal conservatism and social liberalism.

I think thats what were missing from the candidates. Theyre either left of center or right of center, said Layne, a former Redlands City Council candidate who is not registered with a political party. You used to be able to be socially liberal in the Republican Party and they ran those people out several years ago.

With this years presidential race featuring a matchup between two unpopular major party candidates, supporters of Johnson and Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein see a golden opportunity to loosen the Republican and Democratic parties stranglehold on political power.

This is an opportunity that just does not happen, said Jim Gray, a retired Orange County judge who was the 2012 Libertarian Party vice-presidential nominee. Its a perfect storm for us with regard to the candidates for the Democrats and the Republicans but its very scary for the country.

As of Wednesday, Sept. 7, an average of recent polls showed Johnson and Stein with 8.4 percent and 3.2 percent of the vote, respectively, according to the polling website RealClearPolitics, which gave Democrat Hillary Clinton a 2.1 percentage point edge over Republican Donald Trump.

A Field Poll from July shows Johnson at 10 percent, with Clinton leading Trump by 24 percentage points. Clinton is widely expected to win Californias 55 electoral votes in the November general election.

This years race for the White House is unusual given voters general dislike of Clinton and Trump. RealClearPolitics as of Wednesday reported a minus-13.9 percent favorability rating for Clinton, who has been dogged by questions about her email practices, honesty and the Clinton Foundation charity, and a minus-21.5 favorability rating for Trump, who has been condemned by critics as an offensive narcissist who caters to white supremacists.

Johnson, who was a Republican while governor, supports positions appealing to conservatives, including a balanced federal budget, cutting regulations and replacing income and payroll taxes with a sales tax.

But he departs from GOP orthodoxy in his support of marijuana legalization, abortion rights and immigration reform that emphasizes assimilating immigrants over building a border wall. On his campaign website, Johnson argues against interventionist foreign policy, saying it only creates more problems and perpetuates war.

Stein, who ran for Massachusetts governor and other offices in that state, wants to create jobs through a Green New Deal that would have America running entirely on clean renewable energy by 2030. She supports guaranteed access to housing, health care, food and water, a federal $15 an hour minimum wage, abolishing student loan debt and cutting military spending by at least 50 percent while closing overseas military bases.

Statewide, Libertarians and Greens made up fewer than 2 percent of all registered voters in California as of June. Forty-five percent of state voters are Democrats, 27 percent are Republicans and 23 percent are not affiliated with any political party.

REAL CHANCE

Jack Pitney, a professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College, agrees that this election cycle offers hope for Greens and Libertarians long confined to the political sidelines. Johnson probably has greater potential, he said.

Neither Stein nor Johnson is going to win in 2016; the two-party system is too deeply entrenched, Pitney said. But the Trump candidacy has severely damaged the GOPs reputation, and many limited-government types will be looking for a new political home.

And if Clinton wins and disappoints progressives  a very real possibility  the Greens will have a real chance at growth.

But Pitney also sees obstacles for Stein and Johnson.

Stein can appeal to Bernie Sanders Democrats who think that Hillary Clinton is too close to business interests, he said. One big problem, however, is the memory of Ralph Nader. In 2000, Nader took enough votes from (Al) Gore to tip the state of Florida  along with the presidency  to George W. Bush. That memory is a huge burden for any Green candidate.

Stein, a physician, has waffled on the issue of vaccination, Pitney said. While Stein told The Washington Post that vaccines have been absolutely critical in preventing diseases such as smallpox, Stein also has been quoted as saying there are real questions about vaccine safety.

To be credible, Stein has to shift the focus away from such issues and emphasize bread-and-butter concerns such as economic inequality, Pitney said.

With Johnson and his running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, the Libertarians are in the unusual position of offering a presidential and vice presidential candidate who both have real governing experience, Pitney said.

But to break through to the public and make a bigger dent in the Trump vote, (Johnson) needs some high-profile endorsements. If Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney got behind him, he might be able to pick up the few additional points he needs to meet the debate threshold.

Johnson hopes to break the 15-percent polling threshold needed to participate in the upcoming presidential debates. The first one is set for Sept. 26 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.

Getting into the debates is crucial for Johnson, said Gray, who was Johnsons running mate four years ago.

If that happens, we will capture the voters imagination and become the odds-on favorite to win, Gray said. Were asking people (if a pollster calls) to say you support Gary Johnson. Get us in the debate and it will be a game-changer.

Johnson also will have to convince voters hes qualified, and a recent TV interview didnt help. Asked what he would do to solve the refugee crisis in the Syrian city of Aleppo, Johnson replied: What is Aleppo?

The gaffe didnt faze Layne. I would venture that 90 percent or more of registered voters could not answer the same question that Johnson was asked, and yet he is somehow now not qualified?, he said.

The Stein campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

MOOD IS RIGHT

Johnson and Stein have reached out to disaffected voters in both major parties. Johnson has wooed Republicans who dont like Trump, while Stein and running mate Ajamu Baraka, a human rights activist, are trying to recruit Sanders supporters angry with Clinton and the Democratic establishment.

Andy Favor, a 52-year-old certified public accountant from Laguna Niguel, registered as a Republican to vote for then-GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul. This time around, he has a Johnson bumper sticker on his car and has donated to Johnsons campaign.

I hope that Republicans would realize that Trump cant win, and take a look at Johnson, Favor said. I think Republicans are going down with the ship.

Christopher Cruz, a 25-year-old from Montebello who works in tech support for the Los Angeles Unified School District, thinks Stein cares more about issues facing people of color than Clinton.

I really want communities to be aware theres another option, Cruz said. We grew up with hereditary politics. We saw our parents voting Democratic or Republican and we think there are only two options.

To those who think he is wasting his vote, Cruz said: The Democratic Party is not entitled to my vote. Theyre not entitled to anybodys vote. Look at the Democratic Party and look what theyve done for you.

From my perspective, I could vote for Hillary and I might prevent some deportations from happening, Cruz added. But that wont stop it. It will continue to happen, just based on Obamas record. For me, Im not comfortable with that.

Given Clinton and Trumps unpopularity, I think it really will push third party candidates to another level, Cruz said.

I really think the mood is right, the time is right, especially at the local level. The local level is where you can make a lot of change.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9547 or jhorseman@scng.com
A motorcycle rider was hospitalized with major injuries Sunday afternoon, Sept. 11, following a crash in Moreno Valley.

Riverside County sheriffs deputies are investigating the crash, which was reported around 2:30 p.m. on Graham Street near Old Valley Drive, said sheriffs spokesman Deputy Armando Munoz. Graham Street will be closed to traffic in both directions between Eucalyptus Avenue and Sunnymead Boulevard until about 7:30 p.m., Munoz said.

No information was available promptly after the crash regarding the circumstances leading up to it.

The crash involved a motorcycle and a car, authorities confirmed. The driver of the car suffered moderate injuries, and refused to be transported to a hospital, according to a Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department news release.

This story is developing. Check pressenterprise.com for more information.
The setting is a hot August day in 1970 at an East Los Angeles bar where customers are talking about weighty issues while having a beer and playing tunes on a jukebox.

The issues presented in the Teatro Urbano production of The Silver Dollar at Casa Ontario are many of the same ones affecting the Latino community more than four decades later.

Lack of jobs, educational inequity, immigration, veterans struggles with post-traumatic stress and other problems are many of the issues that are still relevant today, said Rosemary Soto Rodriguez, the plays director, and spouse of Rene Rodriguez, the works author.

Rene Rodriguez, a Vietnam War veteran, wrote the fictional account in the mid-1970s, inspired by the events of Aug. 29, 1970, Soto Rodriguez said. On that day, the Chicano Moratorium Against the Vietnam War took place in East Los Angeles. The march followed a route that included Whittier Boulevard and took participants past The Silver Dollar bar, the place where Ruben Salazar, a Los Angeles Times columnist and news director for Los Angeles Spanish-language television station KMEX, was fatally wounded the same day.

Salazar had been reporting about many of the problems affecting the Mexican American community. On the day of his death, Salazar had been covering the march, which had started as a peaceful event drawing thousands of participants but ended in a violent clash between some of them and law enforcement.

Salazar and another reporter were in the bar when a member of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department fired a tear-gas canister that struck Salazar. The incident was ruled an accident, but in the eyes of many, it was part of an effort to silence Salazar.

On the anniversary of Salazars death, a performance was presented that included a talk by Rosalio Munoz, who was part of the movement to end the war and address the needs of the Chicano community.

Among the concerns in 1970 were the large numbers of Latinos and African Americans who were being sent to the front and made up a large proportion of casualties, said Munoz, a Los Angeles resident.

Looking back, changes have taken place since 1970. More Latinos are attending college, have entered fields such as law and medicine and hold elected office, Munoz said.

Theres been incalculable and important advances, Munoz said. But theres a need to do more.

The Silver Dollar was first performed in 1979 and for many years was presented around the country and outside the United States, Soto Rodriguez said.

The last 10 years, weve been trying to do it every year, she said. A lot of people dont know about what took place on Aug. 29, 1970, she said.

Younger generations of Latinos need to know about the historically significant events of that day and about the work of people such as Salazar, Soto Rodriguez said.

Contact the writer: morodriguez@scng.com; @PomonaNow on Twitter
Stater Bros., the Inland-based grocer with nearly 170 locations throughout Southern California, plans to build an environmentally efficient Blue Ribbon market in Norco.

The company already has a store at 1999 River Road. The new 44,200-square-foot store, expected to open in early 2017, will replace it and serve as anchor of the Norco Village shopping center.

The expanded supermarket will double the existing employee count and bring more good-paying, new union jobs to the area, the company said in a news release.

Company officials said customers will continue to find certified meat cutters behind the full-service meat department counter; meet seafood professionals in the new full-service seafood department; find a selection of more than 800 items in the expanded produce department; and enjoy the convenience and selection at the new full-service bakery, full-service deli and full-service floral departments.

Stater has one other store in Norco, at 2790 Hamner Ave., and says it plans to build three more Blue Ribbon supermarkets  in Menifee, Rancho Cucamonga and Tustin.

Contact the writer: business@pressenterprise.com
The head of Policy Unit at the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Dr. Ishmael Ackah is calling for a legal action that will force the Ghana National Petroleum Authority, GNPC to publish its audited accounts.



He regretted that since its establishment in 1983, the National Oil Company published its audited report only once, in 2014.



All sectors that receive oil revenues; they publish their audited accounts quarterly and annually. The third organization that receives our oil revenue is GNPC so why dont they account for what they receive and what they use it for, Ackah quizzed.



When you publish your accounts, it can even promote investment into the oil and gas sector.



The ACEP official was speaking to Citi News Umaru Sanda Amadu at a workshop organized by Penplusbytes and the Ghana Oil and Gas for Inclusive Growth (GOGIG) in Takoradi for journalists on the need to amplify oil and gas issues in Election 2016.



Although GNPC previously published a report on how it utilized its revenues, Dr. Ackah insisted on an independent audit report. He argued that GNPC has also not published the returns on investments it made with Ghanas oil money into non-oil sectors.



GNPC is not in competition with any company so there is nothing stopping them from publishing their audited accounts, he observed.



The national oil company is reported to have received about 30% of the 3.25 billion dollars revenue accrued by the country in the first five years of the commercial production of oil.



I should be interested in what they used the money for because they received the second biggest allocation over the past five years, he charged.



Maybe we need a mass action in court to force the company to do the right thing, he insisted.



Commenting on the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), Dr. Ackah described them as a report writing body and charged them to widen their scope of investigations.



Why cant Parliament invite the institutions implicated by PIAC and interrogate them live on television like the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament does? he queried.



Other speakers at the workshop were Dr. Steve Manteaw, a member of PIAC who lamented the fact that the committee only produces recycled information because it relies on second hand information provided by institutions in the sector.





The workshop, organized by Penplusbytes and other partners for about 20 journalists was on the theme: Does oil and gas matter in Ghana elections?

Source: Citifmonline.com









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The Communications Director of the Hare Krishna Movement in Ghana, Jnana Chaksus Das says going to Hell is just like being sentenced to prison on earth.



He explained that, just like the prisons are for reformation, sinners are sent to hell by God for "rectification" and bring them back on earth to live holy lives.



Jnana Chaksus Das revealed this in an exclusive interview with Adom FMs Kofi Adoma Nwanwani on his Youtube channel, Kofi TV.



He indicated that, even in hell, there are 38 hellish planets and sinners like prostitutes, murders and even politicians will go to different hellish planet for their punishments.



The Hare Krishna scribe said, just like people are jailed less for stealing a goat and more for murder, "your degree of sin will determine the number of years God will sentence you to hell".



It does not make sense for a goat thief and a murderer to be sentenced to eternity in hell so God gives you the sentence based on your sins he added.



Jnana Chaksus Das also revealed that, heaven and hell is eternal  noting that only where God lives is eternal and the only people qualified to go there are perfect people.



Heaven and Hell are not eternal, if you are sinful, you will go to hell, if you are righteous, you will go to heaven but if you are perfect, you will go to the Kingdom of God he stressed.



Quoting Genesis 1:1 to buttress his point, he said God resides somewhere waiting for perfect people from heaven to join him for eternal life.





Source: Adomonline.com









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Shippers, both importers and exporters, have hailed the abolishment of the Terminal Handling Charge (THC), which some shipping lines operating to and from the seaports of Ghana sought to introduce locally.



A statement signed by Mr Seth Twum-Akwaboah, the Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Ghana Industries, (AGI) on behalf of nine bodies, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, informed the business community that the THC as proposed by the Shipping Lines had been totally abolished in Ghana with immediate effect.



We highly commend the Minister for Transport and his team for the urgency and commitment to ensuring sanity in the Maritime Industry, the statement said. Members are to note that the Minister for Transport has issued a clear directive to that effect.



The statement urged the shipping community to consider the directive by the Minister of Transport, forbidding the introduction of the THC, as the final decision on the matter and comply with it.



The THC is totally illegitimate and must not be accepted by shippers, the statement said.



Whatsoever, any attempt by any Shipping Line to impose the THC on Shippers constitutes a serious indictment of the Minister's authority and sovereign right of the business community in Ghana.



Therefore, any attempt by any Shipping Line to impose the THC or hold Shippers' cargo unduly must-quickly be brought to the notice of the respective Association with some evidence.



The Shippers, therefore, urged the Government to apply heavy sanctions against any Shipping Line, which would act contrarily or attempt to impose such arbitrary charges on Shippers.



The statement was endorsed by leadership the AGI, Ghana National Chamber of Commerce, Ghana Chamber of Mines, Federation of Associations of Ghanaian Exporters, Ghana Union of Traders Associations and Private Enterprise Federation.



The rest are Ghana Root Crops and Tubers Exporters Union, Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders, and the Greater Accra Regional Shippers Committee.

Source: GNA









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President John Dramani Mahama has pledged to establish a juice factory for the people of Eguafo in the Komenda Edina Eguafo Abrem (KEEA) District of the Central Region during his second term as president.



Addressing residents on the second day of his campaign tour in the Central Region, President Mahama said establishing a citrus factory in the municipality was not a promise his government could not fulfill.



The President's promise followed a request by the Omanhen of Eguafo Traditional Area, Nana Kwamena Ansah III, when he paid a courtesy call on him at his palace on Tuesday.



President Mahama said the KEEA was a very important agricultural area where oranges and other fruits were grown but due to the unavailability of a ready market for their produce, people come from Ivory Coast to the purchase fruits.



He said in some cases the fruits were left to rot because there was no ready market but emphasised that, that dilemma would be a thing of the past when the citrus factory is established for them.



He said government would not hesitate to resuscitate the citrus factory built by Kwame Nkrumah in the area as it has done with the Komenda sugar factory.



President Mahama said the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) criticised him for building the Komenda Sugar Factory adding that but stressed that borrowing to build a citrus factory was not a waste of the tax payer's money.



He said he was not perturbed by those criticisms because Dr Kwame Nkrumah suffered a similar fate in the hands of the Danquah- Busia tradition but persisted to establish many factories during his time as president.



President Mahama urged to the people in the area to vote massively for him and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2016 polls to ensure that his vision for them becomes a reality.



Nana Ansah III expressed unhappiness with the situation whereby a lot of focus was given to the fishing communities in the constituency while those who engaged in farming were neglected.

Source: GNA









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One of the election flashpoints in Accra, the Odododiodio Constituency, erupted in violence Friday evening when supporters of rivalry National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party clashed.



A supporter of the NDC, who is a lady, was stabbed in the melee, while several others from both parties sustained various degrees of injury.



The windscreen of at least two cars was also smashed. No arrest have been made. The supporters had gathered at the Bukom Square to cheer on their respective candidates who were taking part in a parliamentary debate by the Accra-based radio station, 3FM 92.7, when tempers flared.



Candidate for the NDC, incumbent Nii Lante Vanderpuije and NPPs Nii Lante Bannerman were ushered to the event grounds by hundreds of party faithfuls who chanted songs.



The event kicked off peacefully with the five aspirants contesting the elections in the constituency discussed the germane issues on their agenda and that of their party to justify why each is best choice to represent the constituency in parliament.



They are Evangelist William Larbie of the Progressive Peoples Party, Issaku Sampson of the Convention Peoples Party and Jonathan Heward-Mills of the All Peoples Congress as well as Mr Bannerman and Mr Vanderpuije.



The attack



Prior to their arrival, their representatives were given the platform to sell their candidates jabbed each other and accused the incumbent MP as being responsible for what is happening constituency.



Supporters of NPPs Bannerman arrived at the grounds with placards bearing inscriptions that attacked NDCs Vanderpuije; something that incensed the supporters of the NDC.



Some of the placards, which were raised high, read: MP Liar, MP rapist. At the height of the debate, an NDC supporter moved out of the charged crowd to drop one GHC1 notes on Mr Vanderpuije.



The NPP responded in similar manner with GHC10 notes. The situation heightened the long-standing tension between the supporters of the two rivalry parties, causing each side to cast aspersions and insults on the other while the debate progressed.



Anytime NDCs Vanderjuije took the microphone to speak, the NPP supporters will raise their voice amidst the shouts of away, away, away.



This and the inscriptions on the placards angered Mr Vanderpuije who controlled his temper. But just about six minutes to the end of the debate, which was broadcasted live on 3FM, an apparent angry NDC supporter moved out of the crowd to the dais and punched one of the representatives of Mr Bannerman. Then the situation degenerated.



The supporters from each side started hurling stones and sticks at each other, and while the Police tried to intervene to ensure order, they clashed.



The Police pushed back the crowd far from the podium, cordoned the area and whisked the candidates away into their vehicle to secure their safety. They then called for reinforcement. Although the Police were armed, they did not fire warning shots or teargas to disperse the crowd as that could have resulted in a bloody situation.



Leaders in the predominant Ga community quickly intervened. The debate, which formed part of Media Generals election platform, the Election Command Centre was hosted by Johnie Hughes and Alfred Ocansey.

Source: 3news









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NPP Parliamentary candidate Kojo Oppong Nkrumah wants IMANI to properly study Dr. Bawumias an economic analysis before offering a critique of the vice-presidential candidates work.



Suggesting that IMANIs response was not thorough enough, the NPP candidate for Ofoase Ayirebi constituency in the Eastern region observed that it appears as if they are in a hurry to punch holes.



I dont want to be uncharitable to my good friends IMANI...[it] is an organisation I very much respect. If you look at the speed they delivered this responsethey are in a hurry, the former broadcaster noted.



Less than 24 hours after a lecture addressed by the 2016 NPP Vice-Presidential candidate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, IMANI Ghana released a 4-page response.



It pointed out seven claims it believes are an unfair interpretation of data for partisan advantage and also endorsed 12 claims as accurate.



The think-tank also stated its position on five policy pledges made by the former deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana Dr. Bawumia.



In one of the criticisms, IMANI challenged Bawumias claim that average lending rate is now about 40%, which is worse than the situation under the NDC.



IMANI believes that this is another claim that is rather hard to ground without complex mean rate analysis over aggregate periods. The CEPA graph below depicting average lending rates between the beginning of 2006 and the end of 2014 shows that on average the rate dynamics have been tepid and hard to compare secularly



But responding to the critique, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah indicated that it is not enough for IMANI to question the model or formula used by Bawumia to arrive at his conclusion.



He wants the policy think-tank to also demonstrate that Bawumia was wrong by offering what it believes is the correct figure or formula.



When you use this formula, what was the answer they got and does that answer depart from the substance the argument Dr. Bawumia is making?



When they mention the mean rate variable, did they do the computation for you? he asked host of Joy FM/Multi TV news analysis show Newsfile.







According to Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, he has used some of the computations adopted by IMANI Ghana and has arrived a similar conclusion that Ghana is on the wrong path.



The way they have managed things, the results today is at variance with what they set for themselves he said referring to governments failure to meet its own fiscal objectives spelt out in GSGDA II medium term strategy for 2014 to 2017.



According to Bloomberg report, Ghana cut its economic growth forecast for 2016 to the lowest rate in more than three decades as the country reduced its targets for oil and gold production.



West Africas largest economy after Nigeria will likely expand 3.2 percent this year after growing 3.9 percent in 2015, Finance Minister Seth Terkper said in a statement on the ministrys website. That will be the slowest rate since 1983, when the economy contracted 4.6 percent, according to World Bank data.

Source: Myjoyonline.com









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The New Patriotic Party's (NPP) running mate and a former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia, on Thursday 8th September 2016 delivered a lecture on the state of Ghanas economy.



Under the Theme  "The State of the Ghanaian Economy  A Foundation of Concrete or Straw", Dr. Bawumia painted what he believes is the exact picture of the countrys economy.



Dr. Bawumia touched on Ghanas bailout programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), decline in the countrys per capita income, fiscal deficit, infrastructure, agriculture, among others.



He used the opportunity to rubbish President Mahama and the National Democratic Congress supposed achievements in the last eight years, and highlighted on what the NPP will do if given the mandate on December 7, 2016.



Click here to read the full document

Source: peacefmonline.com









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The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has called on Muslims in the country to pray for peace as part of their Eid ul-Adha celebration as the nation heads to the polls in December.



In a statement signed by the partys acting General Secretary, John Boadu, the NPP also charged Muslims to pray for the partys flag bearer Nana Akufo-Addo and running mate Dr Mahamudu Bawumia to rescue the country from sinking.



The New Patriotic Party joins hearts and minds with our Muslim brothers and sisters on the occasion of this year's Eid ul-Adha celebration. We particularly acknowledge their continued fervent prayers for the peace and development of the country, especially on this sacred occasion. By this statement, we also join the Muslim fraternity in the world in marking this year's pilgrimage to Mecca. Our prayer is for Allah to ensure the safety of all the pilgrims throughout their stay there and their return home, the NPP stated.



The party added: On this sacred occasion, we encourage our Muslim brothers and sisters to continue with others from different religious persuasions in prayers for the peace of our dear nation, especially as we prepare for this year's presidential and parliamentary elections. While we do so, let us also see it as a divine duty to ensure that all stakeholders carry out their mandate in a manner that will be in the collective interest of our dear country.



We are convinced that with Nana Akufo-Addo, our presidential candidate, and his running mate, Dr Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia, well-positioned to execute the patriotic duty of rescuing our sinking country, you will continue to remember our party in your prayers, to ensure that the change agenda we are set on delivering for the nation comes into reality.









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Leader of the Labor party Bill Shorten has today introduced a new marriage equality bill in Parliament.

The Marriage Equality Amendment Bill 2016 is a private member bill by Shorten, aiming to bypass the expensive and divisive plebiscite currently being pushed forward by the Liberal party, and instead legalise same-sex marriage in a parliamentary vote.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten introducing legislation for marriage equality into Parliament pic.twitter.com/pUF8p81wys  ellinghausen (@ellinghausen) September 12, 2016

Shorten presented the bill in the House of Representatives this morning, saying,

Marriage is about love, not about gender. Its up to us to summon the courage and show the decency to make this happen. Its up to us to prove the Parliament can lead and keep faith with the people. Its up to us to make marriage equality a reality.

Watch below:

.@BillShortenMP introduces a marriage equality bill to the parliament #auspol https://t.co/eMl58Sx3ip  Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) September 12, 2016

Labor Deputy Leader and Member for Sydney Tanya Plibersek seconded the motion, posting this image to Twitter:

We dont need an expensive + divisive plebiscite, we could have #marriageequality this week. pic.twitter.com/l5ZGVng47l  Tanya Plibersek (@tanya_plibersek) September 12, 2016

Shorten spoke of the severe harm the plebiscite will cause to the LGBTQIA community  particularly amongst young gay and queer people who need support, not to be surrounded by an aggressive and bigoted No campaign:

The plebiscite is not a real vote, it is a straw poll. But it will cause real harm and real waste. @billshortenmp #auspol  Labor Herald (@LaborHerald) September 12, 2016

Putting the question of marriage equality to a national vote risks providing a platform for prejudice @billshortenmp #auspol  Labor Herald (@LaborHerald) September 12, 2016

There is real risk that LGBTI Australians will be subjected to a well-organised well-funded campaign of vitriol & prejudice @billshortenmp  Labor Herald (@LaborHerald) September 12, 2016

Every piece of expert advice tells us young Australians who are gay are more likely to contemplate suicide @billshortenmp #auspol  Labor Herald (@LaborHerald) September 12, 2016

A No campaign would be an emotional torment for gay teenagers @billshortenmp #auspol  Labor Herald (@LaborHerald) September 12, 2016

if one child commits suicide over the plebiscite, then that is one too many. @billshortenmp #auspol  Labor Herald (@LaborHerald) September 12, 2016

He also reiterated the legislating is the job of Parliament; as well as exposing young LGBTQIA Aussies to damaging hate speech and bullying, its also a waste of tax payer dollars and fundamental failure of a governing body.

Shorten also requested that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull support the bill, due to his previous (but recently quiet) support for marriage equality.

.@billshortenmp asks PM @TurnbullMalcolm to support his marriage equality bill, or move his own which Labor will support #auspol  Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) September 12, 2016

This is an issue you said you cared about  Bill Shorten goes Malcolm Turnbull over whether to legislate / plebiscite #auspol  Alice Workman (@workmanalice) September 12, 2016

Just after the Labor Bill was brought into Parliament, another cross-party marriage equality bill was presented by Deputy Leader of the Greens Adam Bandt, co-sponsored by independents Andrew Wilkie and Cathy McGowan.

Its time we end discriminationonce and for all, Bandt told the house. If a free vote were held in this room now, a bill would pass.



We will update this story as more information arises from Canberra.

Source: Twitter.

Photo: Mark Metcalfe / Getty.
After Bill Shorten spoke in Parliament yesterday about the severe harm a plebiscite could have on Australias LGBTQIA community, the Federal Cabinet have now agreed on a date for the nation-wide vote on same-sex marriage.

The cabinet have signed off on plans to have the plebiscite on February 11 next year.

They have also agreed to give funding to both the yes and no campaigns  each side of the debate will allegedly receive public funds of $7.5 million each.

The cabinet also agreed on the phrasing of the question. Australian voters will give a yes or no answer to, Should the law be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry?

The proposal will be put to Coalition MPs in a party room meeting in Canberra today, and pressure will be increased on the Labor party to declare if theyre gonna support the legislation needed to go ahead with the plebiscite.

Yesterday in Parliament, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull alluded that public funding for the campaigns would happen, but argued it would be utterly fair:

Any funding provided to the yes or no case will be scrupulously equal and fair as it always has been.

The fate of the plebiscite is pretty much in Shortens hands, who yesterday denounced it and spoke passionately about the risk of LGBTQIA suicide due to a hateful no campaign:

Putting the question of marriage equality to a national vote risks providing a platform for prejudice @billshortenmp #auspol  Labor Herald (@LaborHerald) September 12, 2016

There is real risk that LGBTI Australians will be subjected to a well-organised well-funded campaign of vitriol & prejudice @billshortenmp  Labor Herald (@LaborHerald) September 12, 2016

Every piece of expert advice tells us young Australians who are gay are more likely to contemplate suicide @billshortenmp #auspol  Labor Herald (@LaborHerald) September 12, 2016

A No campaign would be an emotional torment for gay teenagers @billshortenmp #auspol  Labor Herald (@LaborHerald) September 12, 2016

if one child commits suicide over the plebiscite, then that is one too many. @billshortenmp #auspol  Labor Herald (@LaborHerald) September 12, 2016

Source: ABC.

Photo: Torsten Blackwood / Getty.
This is really conflicting for me, because I love it when massive overseas companies pay tax for money theyre making in Australia, but at the same time, I really, really love buying cheap shit off the internet.

Consumer advocacy group CHOICE is reporting that theyve found a loophole in legislation that will be implemented in 2017 that will allow the Government to block websites that dont pay GST on goods bought by Australians.

The laws were announced in 2015 but wont take effect until July next year, and will affect any overseas business that turns over more than $75,000 a year in Australian business.

The laws are designed to appease Australian businesses who have been losing sales to overseas competitors who can offer goods under $1000 for cheaper because they dont have to pay GST.

Apparently website blocking would be the last resort, with the Government likely using international law to force the companies to pay the tax, but they have the power to force telcos to block businesses who dont comply.

CHOICE Head of Communications Tom Godfrey says it wont be a great time for consumers:

Consumers buy a range of specialty products from overseas-based online stores. These include niche cosmetics brands like Charlotte Tilbury or Glossier, and non-standard sized clothing brands like Long Tall Sally and Pink Clove. If the Federal Government is going to start blocking these websites, it will disadvantage local consumers while providing absolutely no economic benefit to Australia. These products are not available in Australian stores. If the websites that supply them are blocked, consumers will lose out.

Its much more likely businesses will tack on the GST for Australian shoppers but on the off chance they refuse to, dont worry, well always have VPNs.

Source: CHOICE.
James-Acord-sentenced-as-heroin-epidemics-ugly-face-as-cops-release-pic-of-parents-passed-out-with-tot-in-car.PNG

The two passed-out adults became unwitting poster children, putting an ugly face on America's heroin epidemic when a police department posted their photos on Facebook. Now, the pair -- James Acord, 47, and Rhonda Pasek, 50 -- are coming face-to-face with the legal consequences.

(East Liverpool, Ohio, Police Department )

The two passed-out adults became unwitting poster children, putting an ugly face on America's heroin epidemic when an Ohio police department, in a rare move, posted their photos on Facebook, showing a boy in the backseat of the car.

Now, the pair are coming face-to-face with the legal consequences of their alleged actions.

The Latest: Update on boy, 4, in car with adults passed out on heroin

As WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh reports, accused driver James Acord, 47, has plead guilty to charges of child endangering and driving while impaired in the Sept. 7th incident. He now faces a sentence of a year in jail in the East Liverpool, Ohio, case.

Meanwhile, Rhonda Pasek, 50, identified as the caretaker of the 4-year-old boy pictured in the backseat of the car, has pleaded not guilty to child endangering charges. She is set to be back in court again next week in the case, according to the WPXI report.

Both are from West Virginia.

Acord told police he was taking Pasek, who was passed out, to the hospital. Acord eventually passed out as well. Both were believed to be on heroin and were revived using Narcan. The 4-year-old boy in the backseat was taken into protective custody.

Meanwhile, the East Liverpool, Ohio, Police Department posted photos of the pair to its Facebook page last week, with the post immediately going viral.

Here is the department's statement that accompanied the shocking photos:

The city Police department recently responded to a call of an incapacitated driver, attached are photos from the scene along with the actual police report. The city administration works hand in hand with our men in blue to combat this epidemic and together with the law director we have made the decision to release the attached.

We feel it necessary to show the other side of this horrible drug. We feel we need to be a voice for the children caught up in this horrible mess. This child can't speak for himself but we are hopeful his story can convince another user to think twice about injecting this poison while having a child in their custody.

We are well aware that some may be offended by these images and for that we are truly sorry, but it is time that the non-drug using public sees what we are now dealing with on a daily basis. The poison known as heroin has taken a strong grip on many communities not just ours, the difference is we are willing to fight this problem until it's gone and if that means we offend a few people along the way we are prepared to deal with that.
PITTSBURGH SKYLINE.JPG

According to the Facebook post, it will happen at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 9.

That's when upwards of 6,000 people have agreed to drive their cars off of Pittsburgh's Mount Washington en masse -- all in the name of Harambe the gorilla, whose June shooting death in a Cincinnati Zoo prompted global outrage and now a slew of satirical social media accounts and posts.

Before you alert the authorities, know that organizer Alexander Blair calls the Mount Washington event a "social experiment," not a literal appeal to lemmings. The location itself sits hundreds of feet above the river below and is known for its vertigo-inducing view of the city.

On the event page, Blair tells followers that he tried this once before with a "drive your car off the bridge for Harambe" event which Facebook administrators promptly deleted.

An early screengrab from the "Drive your car off Mount Washington for Harambe" Facebook page.

"I'll probably get banned from Facebook for this one," he writes on the latest iteration. "Oh well. It's like, for Harambe."

As of Sunday, some 6,500 people had expressed interest and 6,000 had RSVP'd. The post has also been shared over 4,900 times and inspired a litany of responses, some horrified, but most in on the joke.

"Mount Washington? More like Mount Justice!!" one writes.

"Think I can use an uber driver for this event?" says another.

"I got my license yesterday just for this," writes a third.

There are many, many more like these.

There are also other events like this one, including several created in Harambe's name in cities like Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Denver, each with an absurd premise and some with names too profane to reprint here. (Seriously, you'll want to wait to find and scroll through these if kids are with you in the room.)

But despite their unmistakable and often viral popularity, not everyone approves.

One person wrote on Blair's Mount Washington page: "Harambe never would have wanted this. You're ruining his memory. Shame on you all." It's not entirely clear, however, if this is sincere outrage or simply another layer in the complex and dark world of Harambe-based Internet humor.

This as the gorilla's posthumous cultural ascendancy remains indisputable, along with his status as a bonafide Internet meme.

As thisisinsider.com reported, Harambe's death, while tragic and traumatic for many, has become an outlet for a taboo form of humor often out-of-bounds in most corners of the world and web.

"The internet has a dark sense of humor. Making jokes about murder is the best expression of that," the website reads. "But it's not acceptable when it's about a human death. It feels okay to make fun of Harambe, though, because he's not a human being."

The website quotes one Twitter user who noted: "The popularity of Harambe jokes proves that people want to laugh about murder but feel bad about it. Ape murder is the perfect compromise."

The result has been a normalizing of the subject and a deconstruction of the surrounding taboo, experts say.

For proof, look no further than the Minnesota Vikings' Harambe tribute before Sunday's game against the Titans.

Also look no further than the reach of Blair's Mount Washington page, which currently enjoys an international audience, many of them pledging their participation.

"See you on the other side, Harambe," a poster from Alberta, Canada writes.

"Soon we will be able to join him in paradise," writes another. "Anyone want to carpool?"

But for every person in on Blair's joke or offended by it, some remain most concerned about those who fail to get it at all.

As one person wrote: "You know there is going to be that one idiot who does end up doing it..."
UPDATE: Man accused of selling pot on Facebook gets probation

Investigations by the Lebanon County Drug Task Force led to the arrests of 11 people since June, according to a news release from the Lebanon County district attorney's office.

Among the those arrested, authorities apprehended a man accused of using Facebook to advertise marijuana for sale, a man who had cocaine in a parking ticket envelope, and a woman who sold crack cocaine with her children present.

Information of the arrests are listed chronologically as follows:

Bethany Marie Keller, 21, of Minersville, was charged after a June 10 incident on the first block of 10th Street in Lebanon, where authorities reportedly found Keller in possession of four doses of suboxone and paraphernalia for heroin. She is charged with possession of a suboxone, and possession of paraphernalia.

Eric Conde Maldonado, 20, of Lebanon, was caught with cocaine in a Lebanon City police parking envelope June 15 on the 1200 block of Buttonwood Street in Lebanon, officials said. He was charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and driving with a suspended license.

Rubiel Dejesus Velez-Roldan, 28, of Lebanon, sold heroin to a police informant multiple times in April and May, officials said. When he was arrested on June 15 on the 500 block of South Lincoln Avenue in Lebanon, authorities said Velez-Roldan was in possession of heroin and cocaine. He was charged with four counts of delivery of heroin, five counts of possession of heroin, and one count of possession of cocaine.

Misty Lynn Stoner, 24, of Lebanon, is accused of selling heroin to a police informant twice in May and June. During a sale on June 17, officials said Stoner took the $100 she was given during a drug transaction leaving the scene without giving the buyer drugs. Stoner was charged with delivery of heroin, possession of heroin, theft by unlawful taking, possession of drug paraphernalia and criminal use of a communication facility.

Shatique Timothy Batista, 21, of Lebanon, posted marijuana he had for sale on Facebook, officials said. He agreed to sell the drug to an undercover officer June 17 on the 300 block of North 10th street in Lebanon, where he was caught with 28 bags of marijuana, valued at $280. Batista is charged with criminal attempt to deliver marijuana, possession with the intent to deliver, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, and criminal use of a communication facility.

McClellan L. Woods, 31, of Hershey, was caught with 10 bags of heroin and three doses of suboxone July 30 on the 800 block of East Main Street in Palmyra. Woods is charged with possession of heroin, possession of suboxone, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Alfredo Rivera-Lugo, 25, of Lebanon, was initially stopped on suspicion of driving under the influence when he and others were interfering with traffic while riding bicycles on Aug. 5 on the 700 block of Lehman Street. During an attempt to avoid police, Rivera-Lugo Struck the door of a police vehicle and sustained a minor head injury. Rivera-Lugo had a blood-alcohol content of 0.112 percent, police said. He was charged with two counts of DUI and a summary offense for riding a bicycle on a roadway.

Victor Manuel Rivera 29, and Andrea Jo Diaz, both of Lebanon, were charged on Aug. 25 after authorities executed a search warrant and found half a pound of marijuana, the psychedelic drug called Dibutylone, scales, and drug packaging materials. Rivera and Diaz were charged with possession with the intent to deliver, possession of marijuana, possession of Dibutylone, possession of drug paraphernalia, and criminal conspiracy.

Melissa Deann Jackson, 34, of Lebanon is accused of selling crack cocaine to a police informant six times from mid-August to Sept. 1 when she was arrested. Jackson reportedly made the sales when her young children were present. Authorities found 550 bags of heroin and 71 bags of crack cocaine worth about $7,000 in Jackson's bedroom. She was charged with six counts of delivery of crack cocaine, six counts of criminal use of a communication facility, seven counts of possession of crack cocaine, seven counts of possession of drug paraphernalia, four counts of endanger the welfare of a child, two counts of possession with the intent to deliver and two counts of possession of controlled substances.

Angel David Lebron, 28, of Reading, was arrested Sept. 3 after selling crack cocaine to a police informant through a third party. He was charged with delivery of crack cocaine, conspiracy to deliver crack cocaine, criminal use of a communication facility and driving with a suspended license.
HPIM4148.jpeg

Hanover police released this photo of the suspect in a story robbery that took place early on Sept. 12, 2016.

(submitted)

Someone with a knife went into a store in Hanover early Monday and demanded money.

The 25-year-old employee, who was alone in the storein the 300 block of Eisenhower Drive, wasn't hurt, police said.

Police said the robber ran away with an undisclosed amount of money following the 3:25 a.m. robbery. He was described as white and about 6-foot-5-inches tall with a muscular build. He was wearing a dark hood, sunglasses and dark gloves. Police asked anyone with information to call them at 717-637-5775.
Iranians have defied such warnings throughout the popular revolt in which women have played a prominent role.
missing-PA-girl-13-is-found-dead.jpg

Her father believes she was abducted when she went to a Dollar General store in western Pennsylvania Friday evening, the last time 13-year-old Shevy Lynn McGiffin was seen alive. On Sunday, the worst fears were realized as the Clarion County 7th grader was found dead during an organized search for her.

(screen shot/WPXI)

UPDATE: Cause of death ruled for missing Pa. girl, 13

Her father believes she was abducted when she went to a Dollar General store in western Pennsylvania Friday evening, the last time 13-year-old Shevy Lynn McGiffin was seen alive. On Sunday, the worst fears were realized as the Clarion County 7th grader was found dead during an organized search for her. All this, according to WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh.

The station reports that Shevy McGiffin's body was found by the Clarion Volunteer Fire Department, which was part of a search crew. Her body was found in Trout Run near the Clarion River, the station adds.

Background from WPXI:

Pennsylvania State Police in Clarion say McGiffin left her home around 6:45 p.m. for a nearby Dollar General Store. She was last seen in the area of the store, which is about one-fifth of a mile from her home.

Her parents have told the media that they believe she was abducted, with the father saying he observed something strange:

"He seen her talking to an older gentleman in a gray or brown Buick," WPXI quotes Tina Schneider, McGiffin's mother, as saying.

An autopsy is planned for today as the investigation continues.

Anyone with information is asked to contact PSP Clarion at 814-226-1710.
pagopyearbook.com

Nearly two dozen Republicans among the Pennsylvania GOP Yearbook collection include former Gov. Tom Ridge, Congressmen Charlie Dent and Pat Meehan, national security experts and state party officials.

(pagopyearbook.com)

This is not a school yearbook, but it is a class of Republicans who refuse to support Donald Trump.

A day before his visit to a crucial voting area in southeast Pennsylvania, Hillary Clinton's campaign is launching a website to highlight 21 GOP politicians who aren't backing their party's presidential nominee.

Trump will campaign at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Aston Community Center in Delaware County. His running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, will campaign at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Kenworth of Pennsylvania near Scranton.

The new website, pagopyearbook.com, joins an ad airing in Pennsylvania that features Republicans across the country criticizing Trump's candidacy as "divisive and dangerous."

Nearly two dozen Republicans among the Pennsylvania GOP Yearbook collection include former Gov. Tom Ridge, Congressmen Charlie Dent and Pat Meehan, national security experts and state party officials.

"With a bumper sticker approach to policy, his bombastic tone reflects the traits of a bully, not an American president and statesman," Ridge said in a column cited by the campaign.

The latest move by the Clinton campaign is an attempt to hold the lead the Democrat has in the state.

She was up 44 percent to Trump's 39 percent in the latest Quinnipiac University poll.

That's about half of the lead Clinton had coming out of the Democratic National Convention in July.

Trump has polled well in blue-collar areas like Scranton, where Pence is headed Wednesday, but the southeast corner of the state is key to winning Pennsylvania, numerous political analysts have said. That's where Trump is going Tuesday.

The Republicans' visits to the state and new Hillary for Pennsylvania website follow a rough Sunday for the Democrat, with her health and credibility again being called into question.
Rob Portman

FILE - In this Sept. 29, 2014, file photo, U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, promotes Republican voter turnout during a rally in Independence, Ohio. Doctors' letters for U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, his Democratic challenger, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, and Green Party candidate Joe DeMare say they have no medical problems to speak of, after The Associated Press requested results of post-primary physicals and lists of their major health conditions and prescription medications. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan, File)

(Mark Duncan)

By George F. Will

TERRACE PARK, Ohio -- Sen. Rob Portman probably will win a second term, despite the fact that he deserves to. The swarm of young people who gathered on a Saturday morning in this Cincinnati suburb to feast on doughnuts and his gratitude are among the 5,000 volunteer interns, including students from 35 campuses, who have made 3.5 million voter contacts.

George F. Will (PennLive file photo)

Portman's supporters are a forgiving sort, undeterred by his many accomplishments and qualifications that could be disqualifying in this season of populist antagonism toward people who have actually governed.

A graduate of Dartmouth and the University of Michigan Law School, Portman was one of President George H.W. Bush's counselors.

After six terms in Congress, Portman became President George W. Bush's trade representative and, a year later, director of the Office of Management and Budget.

It gets worse: This year's Republican presidential nominating electorate decided that the lungs are the locus of wisdom, but Portman is as quiet as his 19th-century Quaker abolitionist ancestors probably were when assisting the Underground Railroad. (In "Uncle Tom's Cabin," Eliza escapes over the Ohio River ice floes about 50 miles east of here.)

Given today's apotheosis of the outsider, Portman is fortunate to be running against a former congressman and governor, Ted Strickland, a political lifer who first ran for Congress (unsuccessfully) 40 years ago.

He is an ordained Methodist minister from the gun-toting coal country of southeastern Ohio.

Fortunately for Portman, Strickland, after losing the governorship to John Kasich in 2010, became head of the Washington-based, impeccably liberal Center for American Progress Action Fund.

What was he thinking? Probably not about running again in Ohio.

Strickland has revised the Clintonian mantra about making abortions "safe, legal and rare." He seems to prefer "safe, legal and as frequent as subsidies can make them":

He favors repeal of the Hyde Amendment which for 40 years has banned taxpayer funding of abortions.

The center supports many gun control measures unacceptable to the NRA, which supported Strickland in 2010 but has endorsed Portman.

The Center for American Progress shares the Obama administration's animus against coal, so the United Mine Workers (like the Teamsters and the Fraternal Order of Police) have abandoned Strickland.

Tip O'Neill's incessantly quoted axiom -- "All politics is local" -- is increasing false in polarized America, where many elections are nationalized.

This year, however, it is in Portman's interest to stress local issues unrelated to anything being bellowed about by the person at the top of the Republican ticket.

Sixty-thousand eligible voters say that the biggest issue for them is algae threatening Lake Erie.

And the biggest issue might be the epidemic of deaths from heroin and other opioids. Nationally, such deaths -- about 27,000 a year -- are almost half the drug overdose deaths that now take more American lives than do car crashes.

Opioids are especially devastating in post-industrial communities, of which Ohio has its share. In 2012, Ohio was one of 12 states where the number of opioid prescriptions written was larger than the number of people.

Ohioans who are pleased that Portman authored the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act must forgive him for having done so in Washington.

In Portman's 15-minute parking-lot pitter-patter to his supporters here, he did not mention the choleric man at the top of the ticket.

Portman's strategic reticence does not extend to the matter of trade: He has made the obligatory vow to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Strickland's one-track-mind campaign focuses on international trade as the root of most of Ohio's evils.

Never mind that Honda is Ohio's biggest auto employer and that Portman says one-third of the state's farm acres are growing crops for export.

Six presidents were elected from this state (William Henry Harrison, Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, William McKinley, William Taft, Warren Harding), a seventh (U.S. Grant) was born here, and there could have been an eighth -- Robert Taft (1889-1953).

A president's son, he was "Mr. Republican" during his 14 years representing Ohio in the Senate seat that Portman now occupies.

Then as now, Ohio had many blue-collar industrial workers, and Taft's critics said he could not represent them. So, in 1947 a reporter asked Taft's wife, "Do you think of your husband as a common man?" Aghast, she replied:

"Oh, no, no! The senator is very uncommon. He was first in his class at Yale and first in his class at the Harvard Law School. We wouldn't permit Ohio to be represented in the Senate by just a common man."

In 1950, Taft was easily re-elected. Portman probably will be, too, even though he should be.

George F. Will is a columnist for The Washington Post. His work appears on Mondays on PennLive. Readers may email him at george@willwashpost.com.
Pete Buttigieg visits Charlevoix to support Democratic candidates

In a show of support for the local slate of Democratic candidates, Pete Buttigieg made an appearance at the Charlevoix Public Library on Saturday.
Hi Lon:



I didn't know you were sick, so I am happy your condition has improved.



I read with some concern the Daily News' article about Venezuela you included in your blog. That is something I am not so proud to see in an international news media. But I have to recognize that that issue is not far away from the truth. But it's not something new in this country. However this practice have been extended alarmingly in the last 15 years thanks to the Cuban influence, which was promoted heavily by former and late President Chavez.



So it is not strange to see in our cities streets people dressed completely in white, which is the (priest or witches) symbol of the "Santeros". But what is more alarming is what the article call the gangster rite. In Spanish is the "corte malandra", where the Malandro is a kind of thug or rough criminal.(Malandra Court: saints of sin in Caracas)



The Malandro is a figure which the Chavez government promoted to make the middle class scared to death. They have established their kingdoms in the Barrios, where the people live under their law because police is afraid to penetrate into this slums. This people are better armed than police officers and the military. They usually have AK-43 and R15 rifles.



This issue of the Yoruba religion is so extended that a Spaniard writer published a book named "Los Brujos de Chavez ", The Chavez Wizards, in which he describes the bloody ceremonies that people surrounding Chavez and himself practiced in the presidential palace in Caracas. (And I am afraid still do)



But as I said before this is nothing new in Venezuela because is a practice extended since the colony years, when the Spaniards brought the slaves. And once they were liberated in the XIX century, and some of them before, they mixed with the Indians and white people and they're customs were so extended throughout the country.



So the Yoruba religion absorb the Catholic's saints giving birth to new worships that include Negroes saints as well the Catholics (syncretism). We can mention between them Santa Barbara, La Virgin del Valle and Negro Primero (First Black) who was an independence war's hero, and who was killed in the Battle of Carabobo, the final battle against the Spaniards.



The point I want to remark is that this ritual form is part of our folklore, but that the Cubans and Chavez people have perverted to the point the article signaled as a valid way to survive in a leftist failed country.



Let me finish adding that in Venezuela people of all social classes, including politics and the miltary, always have recurred to this kind of assessment, including Tarot readings, cigar readings, prays and animal sacrifices, as a way to know the fortune, and specially to cure ailments and grave ailments.



Is a shame that after a period of 50/60 years of progress still our country might be identified with this dark witchery practices.



Hope you the best,



Henrique

The hunt is on to track down the "Humber Monster", a terrifying sea creature said to have a head the size of an elephant, six humps and flashing eyes.Historian Mike Covell, from Humber Monster Watch, is heading the campaign which aims to track down the creature ahead of Hull being crowned UK City of Culture in 2017.Speaking to The Express, he said: "Throughout the 1920s, trawlermen from Hull had reported strange sightings of a creature in the Humber and the North Sea."In 1923, a Hornsea school teacher was swimming off the coast when he was attacked by an unknown sea creature."Throughout the 1920s, the Humber Monster terrorised the city's residents, with sightings of the beast filling the pages of the local press. It was said the beast, with its gargantuan head and oddly shaped body, could travel faster than 100mph.According to the Hull Daily Mail, in 1934, Thomas Atkinson suffered a frightening encounter with the monster. He had been on the shores of the river with his wife and children when he spotted a black creature swimming in the water. It had turned towards the family and reportedly stared at them with "eyes the size of portholes" until they fled in horror.However, the sightings of the monster were not the only inkling that something strange was brewing in the Humber. In 1925, a supposedly giant octopus was found by fishermen on Withernsea beach, near Hull. It was reportedly 6ft long with eight tentacles full of suckers.**********A supernatural squabble has broken out between a British pub that dates back to medieval times and a Chinese artist.The Ye Olde Man & Scythe, a 765-year-old pub in in Bolton, England, claims it was haunted by the ghost of James Stanley, the seventh earl of Derby, who was beheaded outside the pub in 1651. The establishment even posted footage on Youtube that allegedly features images of the ghost in action.But the ghost has... well... given up the ghost. Hes missing, and the pub owners are blaming Chinese artist Lu Pingyuan for stealing it.Lu wrote on his website that he caught the ghost at the pub in a symbolic act in reaction to the UKs colonialist past, which saw great losses of both tangible and intangible cultural assets by other nations.Now the pub wants its specter back.********************The world's most amazing humanoid encounter cases. The bizarre, real, global reports of; UFO occupants - ultraterrestrials, extraterrestrials, intraterrestrials, robots and more. Mysterious beings - Bigfoot, flying humanoids, lightbeings, mermaids and even stranger exotic humanoids.Here's an example:Location: Near Naples, Florida.Date: Late 50s.Time: Daytime.One day a group of farm workers saw something crash nearby. Thinking it was a plane, all the workers ran to the site to search for survivors. The aircraft was sticking out of the sea near the beach. When the group got there they realized that it wasnt a plane, but some type of spacecraft. The ship had no doors or windows that could be seen. Beside the ship was one of the pilots. The pilot was still in its spacesuit. It was tall and very skinny. But had a very large helmet. The helmet didnt have a shield but a robotic looking face plate. Two of the workers picked it up and said it had little weight. It appeared to be dead.Others found a second suit. The suit was empty. It was lying in the nearby grass. Still others tried to get into the ship to look for anymore survivors. Then suddenly an Army helicopter appeared. The Army came in great numbers to secure the location. Troops surrounded the workers camp and forced them to stay. They were there for two days afterward. The military told the workers that no one would believe them if they told what transpired. Who would believe hobos, drunks, and uneducated Mexicans? The foreman told the workers to do what the military said and no one would get hurt.While trapped there, one of the women (the reporters mother) met an unusual person. While sitting waiting for the occupation to be over, a person wearing a large blanket approached her from behind. In a bizarre mechanical voice, the strange individual asked her Are they looking for me? She turned to see a mechanical face under the blanket. There appeared to be lips moving but there was a delay of sound coming from them. She realized it was not human and told it, Yes! She told it to keep away from the military and look for a chance to escape. When the Army was still there cleaning up, the hobos found the surviving crew member.They put a hooded coat on it and other clothes to totally cover it up. They poured booze over it to make it smell like a drunk and helped it since it had trouble walking. When the bus came to pick up a batch of workers, the workers carried it onto the bus. It suddenly spoke with its mechanical voice, Are they still looking for me? They told it to shut up and get on the bus. The main reporters family left the next day. Those who took the alien were never seen again.HC addendum.Source: Phantoms and Monsters, September 24, 2014. Type: X**********
HOW ARE YOU enjoying the Pat Toomey v. Katie McGinty Senate race thus far?

Not into it? Really? Not following the back-and-forth pies in the face?

Come on. It's American politics in action.

If you have a TV or just passing interest, you know Republican Toomey's a right-wing Wall Street and NRA toady while Democrat McGinty's an elitist liberal who thinks lots of Pennsylvanians are stupid.

Nice choice, eh? Reminiscent of the top of the ticket?

But Toomey's no Trump; agree with him or not, he actually knows stuff and, unlike The Donald, runs a good campaign.

McGinty's not unlike Clinton: hand-picked by party leaders, well-positioned to win not so much because she's a great candidate but because Trump's on the ballot.

The Senate race is a virtual tie.

And with high stakes - it could decide Senate control - money pours in, attacks are constant (over taxes, trade, guns, et al) and, as in war, truth is a casualty.

Just a couple examples.

Perhaps Toomey's strongest appeal to moderates and independents, a good chunk of whom he needs to win, is his bipartisan efforts on gun background checks, rare in the GOP.

As a result, he's supported by gun-safety advocates former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent, and Gabby Giffords, a former Arizona Democratic congresswoman shot in 2011.

McGinty backs broader gun-control laws than Toomey and is supported by the gun-control group CeaseFire PA.

It's an issue McGinty fights to own.

So a pro-McGinty TV ad slams Toomey as an NRA goon. It shows him at a campaign stop near the Ohio border. A narrator says, "Listen to Pat Toomey brag" just before Toomey declares, "I have had a perfect record with the NRA."

But what the ad doesn't show is Toomey kept talking. And, as recorded by the New Castle News, this is what he said next: "I am a gun owner, and I take my son shooting. And having said all that, I do not think that background checks are a contradiction. I don't think background checks infringe on our Second Amendment rights."

Not exactly a "brag" about the NRA.

A candidate's words often are the strongest weapon against them, especially when the words are cherry-picked.

But how about when the words never were spoken?

Toomey's camp keeps insisting McGinty denigrated voters some months back by telling the Jewish Exponent, a Philly-based weekly, that people in central and northern counties are basically goobers with suspect mental capacity.

Toomey statements (including three last week) quote McGinty telling the Exponent she "found an alarming undercurrent of misinformed people in the 'T' part of the state." And that's why she won't debate anywhere but in big cities.

Devastating, right? An elitist snub of the "misinformed" millions outside Philly and Pittsburgh.

Except she never said it. Exponent editor Josh Runyan tells me a statement he issued after the article appeared is accurate. The statement said a review of an Exponent reporter's notes and recording could not justify what was attributed to McGinty "even in paraphrase."

Ah, but such is the nature of politics, especially in the din of a presidential race chock-full of fact-bending, in an era of polarization where too many are willing to believe the worst about those whose ideology doesn't mirror their own.

Campaigns and our social media culture encourage us not to trust OR verify, while simultaneously selling tainted versions of truth.

So expect, for example, to hear how Toomey opposes gun safety, how McGinty thinks Pennsylvanians are dense.

Just take it all with a grain - maybe a pillar - of salt.

baerj@phillynews.com

Blog: ph.ly/BaerGrowls

Columns: ph.ly/JohnBaer




There have been many reports that we are going to see a Xiaomi Mi 5s refresh by the end of the year, the new specs listing clearly shows that Xiaomi is on track for a late reveal.

The Xiaomi Mi 5s is expected to feature a 5.15-inch 1080p display but this time with Force Touch or 3D Touch. Powering the smartphone is the new Snapdragon 821 quad-core SoC with Adreno 530 GPU, 6GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 2.0 storage. We have seen a similar configuration recently with the Asus Zenfone 3 Deluxe but only being sold in Taiwan at the moment.

Xiaomi Mi 5s Expected Specifications

5.15 inches Full HD Display (1080 x 1920 pixels, 428 ppi)

Dual-core 2.4 GHz Kryo & dual-core 2.0 GHz Kryo, Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 821 Processor

Android OS, v6.0 (Marshmallow)

Internal storage 256 GB, 6 GB RAM

16 MP primary camera with Dual-LED (Dual Tone)

4 MP front facing camera

Fingerprint Sensor

4G LTE, NFC, GPS, Wi-Fi, FM Radio

3490 mAh Non-removable Li-Ion battery

Coming back to the Mi 5s, there may be 4GB RAM models with 64GB and 128GB storage on offer as well. The rear camera remains at 16MP but gets a f/1.8 aperture lens and possibly a new sensor as well alongwith PDAF, 4-axis OIS.

Check Out: Xiaomi Mi 5 vs Xiaomi Mi 5s Specs Comparison

A 3490 mAh battery can also be found under the hood to keep the phone running with support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 for a quick top up. You will find a USB Type-C port here to similar to the previous-gen Mi 5. According to the listing the Xiaomi Mi 5s will keep the same 7.25 mm thickness, but with an increased weight of 147 grams. NFC support would also come in, which coupled with the ultrasonic Qualcomm fingerprint sensor may work with Xiaomi Pay.

At present there is no word on a launch date, or pricing. But we will keep you updated, stay tuned.

Source: Android Pure
Red Tractor is launching its biggest ever promotion to coincide with the start today of Red Tractor Week.

Fronted by farmer and Rural TV presenter, Adam Henson, the promotion includes giving away a Premier Cottages UK mini break worth 300 every day for 10 weeks, all in the cause of spreading the Red Tractor assurance (RTA) message.

In addition, UK farmers up and down the country will be talking to shoppers outside major supermarkets throughout the week, explaining about where UK food comes from and the standards that are used to produce it.

Environment secretary, Andrea Leadsom, has also given her support, commenting: British food is renowned around the globe for its quality, innovation and tradition and the Red Tractor logo is an iconic symbol of this; assuring shoppers that their food is traceable, safe to eat and produced responsibly.

RTA marketing manager, Andy Thompson, added that this week will mark the Red Tractors biggest on-pack promotion to date and that the goal of highlighting the importance of food standards remains crucial at a time of heightened awareness around food sourcing.

For the first time ever, promotional stickers will be on an extensive range of Red Tractor products in major supermarkets, including meat and poultry, dairy, cereals and fruit & vegetables, he said. This has the potential to be the biggest on-pack promotion in the UK, appearing on millions worth of quality assured foods.

Headline image shows Red Tractor pig farmer Andrew Freemantle, one of several case study farmers profiled on the RTA website. He runs a 360-sow enterprise at Kenniford Farm near Exeter, Devon.



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Sun Peaks Dampness:

Reece Wallace - GoPro of the World clip submission:

Flat Out with Elliott Heap:

The Wyoming Dreamline:

The Boyz:

SamVallee - Mont Orignial:

"Hidden Playgrounds" Pt. 1 - The Bings:

Coffee, Ride, Sleep, Repeat:

Young Guns - Growing Style:

More Than a Ride:

NS Snabb Carbon:

Waking up the Woods:

Bryan Regnier - Back to the Ashes:

Jaws rides Antidote CarbonJack:

Alex Pro - Five Days In Pemby:

Lynden Sandy getting some rainy laps in before the mountain closes for winter.Front flipping the big table on A-Line during my Air DH race run at Crankworx.I spent an afternoon with CRC Nukeproof Junior, Elliott Heap, on some local dirt. That dirt ended up a good six feet in the air from the force he was hitting corners. Hit play and have a gander at some flat out action.Alan Mandel, professional trail builder and rider, builds his dreamline on the sage covered Wyoming landscape where he grew up and first fell in love with riding. Video: Kyle Duba. Aerial Cinematography: Brian Hensien.Summer with the boyz brought to you in standard definition.Rider: Sam Valee. Video: ksiebfil.caChris Smith goes in search of hidden playgrounds in the otherworldly landscapes left by West Lothian's rich industrial past.Dane Petersen and I got the nod from Camelbak to go out and film a little piece. Anything. No big guidelines. This is the result.We've been working on this video for the last eight months, trying to combine different riding styles from French riders in Les Vosges. The riders are 16, 17, and 18 years old. All their talent comes from their determination and hard work, but also from their dedication to the sport. We have no doubt that the future of MTB is bright.Follow Jackson Hare through his 2016 season. Video: Jackson Parker.The NS Snabb Carbon in its natural habitat. Follow The Swiss Downhill Syndicate guys down some of the best trails in the mountains of Gstaad. Video: Gzela.euSelf-filmed segment of dawn patrol on Lower Black.Regnier slaying as per usual.Video: Sheiffa.AP sampling some mighty fine trails.

Alex Pro 5 Days In Pemby from leo hoorn on Vimeo.

Ty Morrow "No Bicycles"

Ty Morrow - Deadline Segment:

Dronesurfing:

Nick McNutt's Almost Ablaze:

Free Solo Highline World Record by Friedi Kuhne:

Never Work: A #TCC Member Exhibition ft. Atiba Jefferson:

Tinto de Verano:

Easily one of the best street segments of 2016.This is a classic.The team at Freefly closed out the summer with the introduction of a brand new sport: Dronesurfing.The performance earned the Whistler based skier an IF3 Rookie of the Year Award and a nomination at this years Powder Awards.This looks scary.What makes a legend? For action sport and lifestyle photographer Atiba Jefferson, its all about balance. Dividing his time between commercial and skate photography, hes maintained the perfect equilibrium of structure and spontaneity. Both are so different but both will keep you creatively pushed."From the heavenly spots to the all-star cast of skaters, this video might just have you booking a one-way ticket to Spain before the last trick. Enjoy.Title Photo by: Bryce Piwek To check out videos submitted by fellow Pinkbike members that didn't quite make Movie Mondays here
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Another Republican conspiracy about Hillary Clinton just got killed and even worse, the truth makes the Democratic candidate look like Superwoman.

Hillary Clinton was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday by her personal doctor, Dr. Lisa Bardack. M.D. The former Secretary of State was advised to rest. Since that diagnosis, she has behaved exactly like a President would; going to fundraisers, holding a presser, doing a two-hour national security meeting, and going to a 9/11 memorial event at Ground Zero.

In other words, Hillary Clinton is more Superwoman than sickly candidate.

Dr. Lisa Bardack also attended to Clinton on Sunday after her dehydration episode caused her to leave the 9/11 event early, which the campaign described at the time as her overheating.

Statement from Clinton's longtime physician, Dr. Lisa Bardack, M.D.: Clinton has pneumonia, has been advised to rest pic.twitter.com/HIPcAnhRbY  Ruby Cramer (@rubycramer) September 11, 2016

Bloomberg politics correspondent Jennifer Epstein noted that Clinton did all of this with pneumonia:

Friday, day Clinton diagnosed w pneumonia, she appeared at 2 fundraisers, ran a 2-hour natl security mtg, did a presser, sat for CNN intvu  Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) September 11, 2016

Politicos national political reporter Gabriel Debenedetti laid out the travel involved:

1 day after NY presserfly to NCcampaign in NCraise $ in NCfly to MOspeak in MOfly back to NY https://t.co/KXIHuvvg61  Gabriel Debenedetti (@gdebenedetti) September 11, 2016

The hopeful conspiracy was really taking off, too:

This is just embarrassing. pic.twitter.com/Ok8ssLGB6r  Isaac Chotiner (@IChotiner) September 11, 2016

As she left the 9/11 event early, Clinton was seeing being assisted into a van, which caused a resurgence of the Republican conspiracy theories that she is on deaths bed or unable to function as a President.

Conservatives lit up Twitter with their diagnoses, rubbing their hands together in glee as they hoped that Clinton was really, really sick. You know, like empathetic people do.

Trump has been accusing Clinton of being sick and making much of her allergies, claiming that she not qualified to be President because shes too sick.

So much for Trumps suggestion that Clinton lacks the mental and physical stamina to fight ISIS.

Meanwhile, Trump has refused to release anything resembling real medical records. All we have from him is a bizarre note penned in a car proclaiming that all of his tests are positive. Donald Trump also failed to do the presidential thing of wishing her well and hoping she recovered quickly.

It turns out that Hillary Clinton is made of steel. Not even pneumonia can keep her down. She continued on with her job just like a president needs to do.

So, this isnt exactly the direction the Republicans were hoping this conspiracy would take, but its kind of perfect. Hillary Clinton has the excellent physical stamina required of a president. Even when she has pneumonia, she takes care of business

While Donald Trump picks fights on Twitter and divides his own party.
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You could spend the rest of your life trying to figure out Trumps policy positions, assuming he actually has any. It takes rather less time to imagine what the Trump cult of personality would do to America.

All you have to do is look at his praise of Putin to find out what his ideal state looks like. In 2007, Trump told Larry King,



Look at Putin  what hes doing with Russia  I mean, you know, whats going on over there. I mean this guy has done  whether you like him or dont like him  hes doing a great job in rebuilding the image of Russia and also rebuilding Russia period.

Paul Krugman has already demonstrated just how much Putin has done for Russia:

CNBC cites one analyst as saying,

Over the past year, the average Russians monthly wage fell 9.5 percent, slipping below $450 dollars  less than in China, Serbia and Romania.

Less than Serbia. Less than Romania. Is that Trumps definition of great? CNBC went on to note that,

While the United States and Europe continue to eke out a steady economic recovery, very little is going right for Russia.

This morning Krugman had more to say on the subject: ever the economist, he explains that Russia is a petrostate, and as oil prices plunged, so did the Russian economy, which has done very badly in the past few years, and Russia wasnt going to realize its technology potential under a regime where business success depends mainly on political connections.

Political connections. Add business connections and that sounds an awful lot like Trump. So what Trump wants to give us is Putin redux, which sounds awfully good for Donald Trump  Putin is doing rather well for himself, after all  but not so good for the rest of us.

Good neither economically nor First Amendment-wise, given that Trump seems to like criticism no more than Putin.

Bill Moyers writes,

In one way or another, this is the oldest story in our countrys history: the struggle to determine whether we, the people is a metaphysical reality  one nation, indivisible  or merely a charade masquerading as piety and manipulated by the powerful and privileged to sustain their own way of life at the expense of others.

Trump says he doesnt approve of the Russian system but this seems a weak protest. He would seem to prefer the latter of Moyers options, as his praise for Russian strongman Vladimir Putin demonstrates. Putin is a dictator. You dont question him.

How valid then is Putins 82 percent approval rate? President Obama is nearer 60, but you dont go to prison for disagreeing with Obama.

Trump has displayed an affinity for this sort of thinking, as his comments about changes he wants to make to the free press reveal. As Paul Krugman mocks, Oppose the Putin regime, and youre likely to end up imprisoned or dead. Strong!

Thats not an America of we, the people. Not at all. Its an America that looks, in fact, an awful lot like Russia, which is nothing to aspire to.

President Obama correctly identified Russia as a regional power. The United States is a world power. Looking at soft power, Krugman makes the point that, Russia has very little  except, maybe, among right-wingers who find Mr. Putins macho posturing and ruthlessness attractive.

Trump ruthlessness and macho posturing may fire the loins of white supremacists and ultra-nationalists, but its an unreasoning posturing that relies on fantasy rather than fact. America is strong, Russia is not, by comparison, anything to write home about.

Yet Trump says Putin is a strong leader and Obama is a weak leader. This reasoning makes no sense. America, by any reckoning, is already great.

It is clear that Trumps praise of Putin isnt based on any concrete accomplishments by the Russian leader. As Trump said at the NBC News commander-in-chief forum, If Putin says great things about me, Im going to say great things about him.

Mutual praise sans facts is not much of a recommendation for greatness, but its awfully good for overblown egos at the heart of a cult of personality.
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Donald Trump put out a shiny new ad whining about how mean Hillary Clinton is because she called the alt-right white nationalist neo-Nazis who support Trump deplorable.

Donald Trump and his campaign arent very smart.

Because now, Hillary Clinton gets to remind the media and the public of Donald Trumps deplorable highlight reel. The brutal takedown is everything.

Is he deplorable? Well

The Trump ad voiceover: Speaking to wealthy donors, Hillary Clinton called tens of millions of Americans deplorable.

Hillary camp: (edited and sometimes paraphrased from campaign statement) Trump not only left out the broader context but also her apology and clarification, which by the way includes mention of David Duke and the white supremacists who follow Trump.

Er maybe this wasnt a good idea.

Hillary camp continuing: Clinton also said that the deplorables are not America. And she spoke to the other basket who feel that government has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they are just desperate for change.

Hillary camp listed examples of Clinton speaking positively of Trump supporters, calling them hard-working. Hillary camp quote Clinton saying Trump supporters who buy into his dark vision dont represent the vast majority of Americans. Quote Clinton talking about Trumps prejudice and paranoia.

Is this really what the Trump campaign calls a good idea: The white nationalists against the country? Theres no upside to this and theres no way Trump can cast himself as the victim unless hes in a play with Putin.

Clinton camp: Quote Clinton saying Trump is ruining the Republican party, We wouldnt tolerate this kind of behavior before and we wouldnt tolerate it in our own homes. And we shouldnt stand for it in a presidential candidate.

We all learned this in kindergarten, except for Donald Trump. So that resonates.

Trump ad voiceover: HILLARY CLINTON: You could put half of Trumps supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. The racists, sexists, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it.

Yeah, the thing is, most of America thinks being one of those things is pretty deplorable.

Clinton camp: Quoting the New York Times Editorial Board: Mr. Trumps white supremacist followers dont take his disavowals too seriously There arent enough of these people to put Mr. Trump in the White House. But his candidacy has granted them the legitimacy they have craved for years.

Oh dear. Shall we discuss the white supremacists Donald Trump retweets and who follow him with adoration? Probably not what the Trump campaign had in mind.

How about the KKK using Trump as a talking point as they expand their movement.

Clinton camp: Quoting from Politico, The Ku Klux Klan is using Donald Trump as a talking point in its outreach efforts. Stormfront, the most prominent American white supremacist website, is upgrading its servers in part to cope with a Trump traffic spike.

See, Im pretty sure the majority of America finds the KKK deplorable.

Trump ad voiceover: People like you, you, and you

Clinton camp: Quote Trump saying of African Americans, I read the numbers where you have so many in poverty and the crime is horrible and the education is terrible and they live terribly.

Quoting the New York Times, But the unrelievedly dire picture he has painted of black America has left many black voters angry, dumbfounded or both. Interviews with roughly a dozen blacks here turned up no one who found any appeal in Mr. Trumps remarks. More common was the suggestion that Mr. Trump was trying to appeal to whites who might support him.

Wait, theres more:

Quoting the WSJ, Trump said U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel had an absolute conflict in presiding over the litigation given that he was of Mexican heritage and a member of a Latino lawyers association.

The Clinton camp went on to detail Trump calling for a ban of all Muslims, Trump calling immigrants criminals and rapists, Trump saying Megyn Kelly had blood coming out of her wherever, Trump saying in disgust of Carly Fiorinas face Would anyone vote for that?, and Trump saying Hillary Clinton didnt look presidential.

Trump ad voiceover: Deplorable

Clinton camp: Quoting Donald Trump saying hes proud to be a birther, and then another quote of Trump whining about being called a birther just because he thinks Obama should have a birth certificate.

Trump ad voiceover: You know whats deplorable?

Clinton camp: Trump attacked a Gold Star family who lost their son in Iraq. Trump suggested his business career was a sacrifice comparable to the loss of Khizr Khans son.

Trump ad voiceover: Hillary Clinton viciously demonizing hard working people like you.

Clinton camp: Quote Donald Trump: How stupid are the people of Iowa? How stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap?

Quote Donald Trump: We won with poorly educated  I love the poorly educated.

Reminder: Trump mocked a New York Times reporter with a disability.

In a devastating statement the Clinton camp finished Trumps ad off,  if hed like to argue against Hillarys claim that people who are racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic or Islamophobic are deplorable, we are happy to have that debate.

Thats the end of Trumps horrible ad and the Clinton camps brutal take down. Bait taken.
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With covetous eyes on Iraqs oil, Rudy Giuliani offered us the old ends justify the means routine on ABCs This Week with George Stephanopoulos, claiming in support of Donald Trump, that because during war, anything is legal, we should have taken Iraqs oil and kept it.

Thats an excuse that didnt get the Nazis anywhere at Nuremberg and shouldnt get Trump anywhere now. War is a messy business and often an excuse for atrocities, but humans have tried, with mixed success, to establish certain rules that apply to all nations fighting a war.

Trump has made clear he doesnt like those rules, like those applying to torture. And as the examples of My Lai during the Vietnam War; Abu Ghraib during the Iraq War; and the War on Terrors Gitmo demonstrate, they dont always work.

According to Giuliani, if wed taken Iraqs oil, and kept it, there would be no Islamic State. Actually, if we hadnt taken Iraq, there would be no Islamic State. But the Trump campaign and its surrogates want nothing to do with pesky facts.

Watch Giulianis appalling justifications courtesy of Media Matters for America:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (HOST): One of the things that Donald Trump also said on Thursday night, again, is that we should have taken the oil of Iraq. Even if you could do that practically, and most experts say you couldnt, wouldnt that just be theft?



RUDY GIULIANI: Well, no, he said take it so that the Islamic State then would not have had it available.



STEPHANOPOULOS: But he said leave a force back there in take it.



GIULIANI: Leave a force back there and take it, and make sure its distributed in a proper way. And basically 



STEPHANOPOULOS: Thats not legal, is it?



GIULIANI: Of course its legal. Its a war. Until the war is over, anything is legal. That oil becomes a very critical issue. First of all, if that oil wasnt there, we wouldnt have the Islamic State. So when he says things like Obama and Hillary are the founder this Islamic State, he doesnt mean literally, and he follows it by saying they would get the MVP award. That oil is what makes the Islamic State so rich. Had we held that oil, made sure that it was equitably distributed in Iraq, we would been able to 



STEPHANOPOULOS: He says we should have taken it.



GIULIANI: He [INAUDIBLE] said we should take it for ourselves necessarily, he said we should secure it so it doesnt get taken by terrorist forces, and then we can have some say, some control over the distribution of it.

Anything is legal. As The New York Times Maggie Haberman put it, This isnot true.

To be fair, the West long understood the importance of Iraqs abundant oil reserves, 11% of the worlds total in 2002. The pesky fact here is that Big Oil wanted Iraqs oil back after Saddam Hussein nationalized the oil companies and said Iraqs oil belonged to Iraq.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, who should know, said in 2007 that,

People say were not fighting for oil. Of course we are. They talk about Americas national interest. What the hell do you think theyre talking about? Were not there for figs.

President Bush claimed in 2002 that he just wanted freedom for the Iraqi people, but after destabilizing the region, claimed in 2005 that he wanted to keep the oil away from al Qaeda, even though Saddam Hussein had already doing that before we invaded:

If Zarqawi and [Osama] bin Laden gain control of Iraq, they would create a new training ground for future terrorist attacks. Theyd seize oil fields to fund their ambitions.

The Washington Post has pointed to Trumps illegal, impossible, and beyond goofy idea of seizing Iraqs oil, but Giuliani would never admit it was impossible in the first place.

His guy is the guy who will build the wall, and make Mexico pay for the wall they say they wont pay for, and who has a secret plan to defeat ISIS even our generals couldnt come up with. Nothing is impossible in the eyes of the Trump cult of personality  except for actual facts.

Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani apparently feel that rules are for losers. If Trump didnt feel that way, he would not be under constant investigation for one money-making scheme or another. He just doesnt think the laws that direct and guide the rest of us apply to him. That is appalling enough on a personal level; it is positively dangerous on an international scale, as another rule breaker, George W. Bush, proved when the other shoe  and the world economy  fell in 2008.
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Donald Trump, who has spent his entire campaign demonizing Americans  Mexicans, Muslims, blacks, women, and others, addressed Hillary Clintons deplorables remark at a National Guard Conference in Baltimore today.

He seized the opportunity to accuse her of demonizing his followers, whom he says are decent American citizens who want to keep our country safe.

The literally ivory tower Trump accused Clinton of living a cloistered life, of thinking herself above all Americans. The guy who brags about being a big donor and uses special interests for his own economic gain, accused her of being indebted to special interests.

You cannot run for president if you have such contempt in your heart for the American voter, he claimed, or such a low opinion of its citizens. He accused her of failing to apologize  after all the appalling accusations he has made.

In short, the man who accused Mexicans of being rapists and Muslims of being terrorists, accused her of precisely what he has been guilty of, saying it is part of the Democratic playbook to smear people and try and seriously scare.

Needless to say, without his own campaign of fear, Donald Trump would have no campaign. He has done his level best to frighten white voters worried about loss of privilege, and while claiming to represent all Americans, has demonized virtually everyone who is not white.
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"You can't stand out if you're trying to blend in." That's the message Sally Hogshead drives home in the updated edition of "Fascinate," her how-to handbook for making any brand impossible to resist.

"In any crowded marketplace, you have to make a choice," she writes. "Either have the biggest marketing budget ... or be the most fascinating. Otherwise, your messages will be ignored and forgotten."

Her research shows that a product or service can charge up to 400 percent more, without changing the product, by identifying how to fascinate buyers. She goes on to demonstrate how anyone can make anything fascinating. Her book gives the tools to prove it.

In her original version published in 2010, Sally explained how our brains become captivated by certain people and ideas. She shared the seven ways in which brands fascinate people, or as she puts it, "the why, but not the how."

The new version of her book includes more than 60 percent new content. Most exciting is the introduction of her Brand Fascination Profile, a process that enables you to measure the advantages of your own service or product.

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Another new feature is TurboBranding, a step-by-step process that shows you how to create branding messages in about an hour.

Sound like useful information? You can't begin to imagine how many ways you can apply this advice. After all, as Sally writes, "Corporations don't create brands. People do."

What attracts people to certain branding messages and not others? "Every day, in every relationship, you're 'marketing' your ideas to be heard," Sally says. "You want clients to hire you, or customers to recommend you. ... Your influence will be measured by your ability to fascinate."

The word "fascinate" comes from the Latin "fascinare," which means "to bewitch or hold captive so that others are powerless to resist." Fascination is the most powerful force of attraction, drawing customers into a state of intense focus.

How do you harness this fascination? "If you master the forces that influence human behavior, you win," Sally says. "You can win bigger budgets, more time, better relationships, greater admiration, deeper trust."

But if you don't attract people, you lose the battle. She cautions: "As a business, if you can't persuade customers to act, you might as well donate your entire marketing budget to charity."

You will know your brand is fascinating if you are provoking strong and emotional reactions, creating advocates and inciting conversation, or forcing your competitors to realign.

The examples and stories Sally shares offer convincing evidence. One describes how women who were given the choice between sunglasses with a designer logo and plain sunglasses were willing to pay more for the logo, although the functionality of the product was the same. The experiment showed they weren't concerned about buying something that was better, but something that was different.

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"That's the heart of differentiation," she writes. "It's tough to be better. But far easier to be different."

Fascination goes beyond rational thinking, she says, "transforming customers into fanatics and your brand's products into must-have purchases."

But what if your marketing budget is limited? "The goal here is not to spend more money on marketing. It's actually to spend less money by marketing more effectively," Sally advises.

"Spend less, but see better results. Outthink instead of outspend. If you don't have the biggest budget, then be the most fascinating."

The real meat of this book comes in Part II, "The Seven Fascination Advantages: How to Make Your Brand Impossible to Resist." Here, Sally describes the creativity of innovation, the emotion of passion, the confidence built by power, the new standards set by prestige, the stability of trust, mystique's language of listening and the rules of alert.

She next moves into tactics, a practical system to customize your message. The seven advantages are coupled with specific tactics to position your message more effectively. Sally also shows how to combine the seven advantages with each other to customize your branding.

The closing section sends you on your way with a five-step action plan. The "Fascinate System" is not a "substitute for a full-service agency," she says. But "it condenses the time-honored marketing process into a streamlined and straightforward process for identifying your brand's message and key competitive advantage."

In a nutshell, "Fascinate" is fascinating. Your brand can be fascinating too.

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Mackay's Moral: Big-time branding doesn't require a big-time budget, just a commitment to fascinate.
St. John's hosts annual 'Blue Mass'

The Church of St. John the Evangelist, in Rochester, will host its annual Blue Mass, honoring first responders, police and fire departments for their service and sacrifice, starting at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Bishop John M. Quinn will preside over the service and Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede will attend. It is open the public. The service is followed by a reception in the church's fellowship space.

St. John's is at 11 Fourth Ave. SW.

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Fall Freedom Luncheon is Sept. 13

Rochester Christian Women's Connection's fall luncheon will feature talks by Tierre Webster, of Next Chapter Ministries, and Barbara Tornow, of Wentworth, S.D.

In her presentation, titled "Soul Check," Tornow relays how she transformed her life from chains to freedom.

The luncheon will be from 11:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 13, at the Eagle's Club, 917 15th Ave. SE, Rochester. Tickets are $12. Reservations are required, call Jan at 288-1144, or email Marlene at mploetz@hbcsc.net.

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Assisi program focuses on poverty

People living in poverty are the subject of an installment of Assisi Heights' "Voices" program series, 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Assisi Heights.

The series is an effort to search and support a variety of justice issues by educating ourselves while embracing these stories. By hearing the voices of three families living in poverty, we hope to establish communication and connection among peoples with diverse issues and beliefs and to bring together those who walk a similar path. By raising awareness of the poverty in the midst of Rochester and the greater Olmsted County area, we can empower ourselves and others to search for compassionate solutions.

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Donations are appreciated and will be used to help people living in poverty.

The program is led by Monica Bogucki, Mary Vlazney, Sister Ruth Snyder and Mary Kivi.

Assisi Heights is at 1001 14th St. NW, Rochester. Register online, www.rochesterfranciscan.org, or call 507-280-2195.

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Historic church hosts hymn sing

LENORA  An old-fashioned hymn sing will begin at 3 p.m. Sept. 18 at the historic 1856 Lenora United Methodist Church.

They will use an old pump organ to accompany the songs. Featured hymn writer will be Fanny Crosby who was blind.

The Lenora Pioneer Church Society invites people of all ages to enjoy the historic church. People are welcome to bring food for the local food shelf and an offering will be received for the work of the church. The church is in the Fillmore County village of Lenora off of county roads 23 and 24.

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For more information about the church, please contact Rev. Mark Woodward at faitheyota@embarqmail.com.

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South Troy church hosts family festival

South Troy Wesleyan Church will hold an event, "Back to Church Sunday," featuring a community cookout, children's classes, food, and inflatables and games and activities for the entire family.

The event is at 10:30 a.m. Sept. 18. The cookout starts at noon, and a Ministry Fair starts at 1 p.m.

More information: www.southtroywesleyan.org or call 507-259-1442.

The church is at 56817 U.S. Highway 63, Zumbro Falls.

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Take an architectural tour of the Heights

Tour Rochester's Assisi Heights in an event, "Stories in Stone," 6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14.

The tour, led by architectural historian Ken Allsen and Sister Marlys Jax, who holds an architectural design degree, will feature the stories that chronicle the history hidden behind the walls.

Come up close to see some of the architectural features, aesthetic design aspects, and a few often overlooked artistic features. Hear the stories stored in stone. Unravel the mystic nature of Assisi Heights. Wear walking shoes as this is an outdoor and indoor event.

Admission is $10 for those who pre-register and pre-pay. It is $15 at the door.

Assisi Heights is at 1001 14th St. NW. Register online, www.rochesterfranciscan.org, or call 507-280-2195.

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Meet founding Mayo women at Oakwood

Meet the founding women of Mayo Clinic in a cemetery walk event, 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, at Oakwood Cemetery in Rochester.

The event is co-sponsored by the cemetery, 41 Seventh Ave. NE, and Assisi Heights Spirituality Center.

More than 20 women who were involved in founding Mayo Clinic are buried in Oakwood. These physicians, nurses, librarians, secretaries, wives, and mothers were instrumental from the day of the tornado in 1883 to the midst of World War II. Receive a map of all the grave sites, meet several of the women portrayed by local actors, and hear their stories firsthand. The narratives are based on the recently published book Women of Mayo Clinic: The Founding Generation.

Admission is $10 for those who pre-register and pre-pay. It is $15 at the door.

In case of poor weather, an alternate date is Sept. 22.

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Join a book discussion on compassion

Join a discussion of the book "A Fearless Heart: How the Courage to Be Compassionate Can Transform Our Lives," by Thupten Jinpa, on four Thursdays, starting Sept. 15, at Assisi Heights in Rochester.

The discussions are 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. and are held on the dates: Sept. 15, 22, 29 and Oct. 6.

Admission is $20 for those who pre-register and pre-pay. It is $25 at the door.

Pulling from the latest Western research, as well as traditional Buddhist psychology, "A Fearless Heart" offers a path to awakening and cultivating compassion. Using a revolutionary course in Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) at Stanford University, Jinpa, one of CCT's creators and highly acclaimed thought leader and longtime English translator for the Dalai Lama, takes us from mindfulness practice into a deeper and more powerful practice of compassion. We recommend that you purchase and read the book in its entirety before the evening's discussion, if possible.

Facilitated by Cathy Ashton, who is working with Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede, Rochester Franciscans, and others to develop Rochester as a Compassionate City.

This is an introduction to the "Compassionate Rochester 2016 Workshop" on Oct. 15. More information at www.rochesterfranciscan.org.

Assisi Heights is at 1001 14th St. NW. Register online, www.rochesterfranciscan.org, or call 507-280-2195.

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How to stop violence without violence?

How can we protect citizens from violence without resorting to violence yourself? Learn how at a discussion Sept. 17 at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Rochester. The discussion will be led by Mel Duncan, co-founder and current director of advocacy and outreach for Nonviolent Peace force, a world leader in unarmed civilian protection, which provides direct protection to civilians caught in violent conflict and works with local civil society groups on violence deterrence throughout the world. NP's unarmed civilian protectors are from many nations, and live and work in conflict-affected areas including South Sudan, Myanmar and the Mindanao region of the Philippines.

The discussion takes place from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Admission is free but donations are appreciated. The event is co-sponsored by Assisi Heights Spirituality Center, the First UU church, Pax Christi Peace Group and Southeast Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers (SEMNAP).

First Unitarian Universalist Church of Rochester is at 1727 Walden Lane SW.
"Hijab for a Day," a multimedia program, will be presented Wednesday at Rochester Civic Theatre , 20 Civic Center Drive SE.

The event includes a documentary film about four women who chose to wear a traditional hijab, or veil, for a day. There will also be live music, a photography show and discussion.

But the project is about more than the experience of wearing the hijab, said Regina Mustafa, of Community Interfaith Dialog on Islam. "It's was never meant to be that," she said. "It's about how the women see themselves."

Self-confidence, body image, eating disorders, depression and other issues concerning women came to the surface during the project, Mustafa said.

The evening starts at 6:30 p.m. in the theater lobby with spoken word pieces, a photography exhibit by Dawn Sanborn, and original music by Bob Sanborn.

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At 7 p.m., the program moves into the main theater space for the documentary film, more spoken word pieces and music, and a dialogue.

"It will be funny and there will be elements that are theatrical, because we're on stage," Mustafa said.

Dawn Sanborn, who is an artist and photographer, and Pam Whitfield, who teaches writing at Rochester Community & Technical College, proposed and participated in the project, which was funded by a grant from the Rochester Downtown Alliance.

"I hope people come away with the idea that if you want to understand what it's like to be another person, whoever that 'other' is, try to walk in their shoes a little bit," Mustafa said.
I made my way down the rocky path in the predawn darkness to the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Settling down on a bolder at the edge of the water, I could just start to make out the shape of the Golan Heights six miles across the lake.

I have made this trek many times over the years and it has become a ritual of sorts for me on our first morning in the Holy Land. It is a time where I can settle myself a bit from the hectic pace of guiding 25 folks through three airports and seven time zones.

The theologian N.T. Wright comments in his book "The Way of the Lord, Christian Pilgrimage Today" that, although he has no theological basis for saying so, "When God is known, sought and wrestled within a place, a memory of that remains, which those who know and love God can pick up."

I have that same sense as I sit beside the waters of Galilee. Two thousand years ago, Jesus walked this same shore and called together a rag-tag group of people to assist in building His Kingdom. The memory of those events is steeped into the very landscape around me.

I take every opportunity I can to remind my group that this trip to Israel, to the Holy Land, is meant to be much more then informational, it is to be transformational. My wife Peggy and I have led this trip six times and we never tire of telling stories of how this pilgrimage has transformed people. Faith comes alive when you have the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. Certainly you will never read your Bible the same way again.

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Steeped in history

In 13 days we traveled from one end to the other in the land of Israel. From a base in Tiberius on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, we explored the ancient towns of Capernaum and Korizim. These two towns, along with the town of Bethesda, formed a triangle that could be walked easily in a day.

It was in this area where most of the ministry of Jesus took place. The sick were healed, the lame were made to walk and the blind were made to see. Because this area is largely protected, the sights are very much the same as they were in the first century.

As a great fan of archeology and church history it is thrilling for me to see remains of churches dating from the fourth century. Thrilling to gaze on mosaic floors that were laid down when the Byzantine Empire ruled.

As a group we gathered for a service on a boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, the body of water where Jesus calmed a great storm at his command and appeared, alive, to his disciples after the resurrection. In the North we also have an opportunity to see what is left of the fortified city of Megiddo, including city walls and gate dating to nearly 1000 B.C.

Hospitable land

As we made our way south, we got our first glimpse of the influence of the Roman Empire in the Middle East when we visited Caesarea Marittima.

Situated on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, this Roman port city was the site of the Apostle Paul's imprisonment, as well as his great defense of the Gospel before King Agrippa. The Roman client king Herod the Great, famous for his great feats of architecture, left his mark here with the remains of a great theater that faces the breezes of the Mediterranean, as well as a partially restored Hippodrome, where horse and chariot races once took place.

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Shifting our base of operations, we moved to the Olive Tree hotel in East Jerusalem, just a few blocks from the Damascus gate and the walled Old City of Jerusalem. For Peggy and I, Jerusalem feels like a second home. Middle Eastern hospitality is legendary and we have always been made to feel at home, whether in Israel proper or the Palestinian West Bank. It is not an uncommon experience to share a few words with a shop owner and in short order to be invited to share a cup of Arabic coffee together with a feeling that you are old friends.

Hospitality extends to sharing meals together as well. It seems like every meal we have is an extravaganza. In the Old City, there is a tiny family-owned restaurant called Abu Shakri. Plastic tables and chairs, '70s-era paneling hanging haphazardly, but looking up I realized that I was in a room that was built before the founding of our country.

Next year

These can be fighting words, but in my estimation, Abu Shakri has the finest hummus and falafel in all of Israel, but that's just a start. Once you are seated, they start bringing small side dishes of salads, pickles, pita, sauces, and very quickly you lose count as the table overflows with food.

The Old City of Jerusalem is a warren of twisting and turning streets and alleyways. So narrow that there are virtually no cars, just mobs of people going about their daily life.

Within an area less than one square mile, you have the Holiest sites for all three of the monotheistic faiths. Al Aksa Mosque, built almost 1,000 years ago; the Western Wall, holy to the Jewish people because it is the closest they can come to the original Temple; and just a few hundred yards away lies the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site of both the crucifixion and the empty tomb of Christ.

These holy sites, along with many more of the places where Jesus once walked, are retraced with our own footsteps as we find ourselves changing in big ways and small.

As our plane lifts off for our return to the U.S., we all feel a little like we are leaving family behind, and so we join in the Jewish prayer: "Next year in Jerusalem!"

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With Labor Day signaling the end to Minnesota's summer tourism season, an upward trend of travel business statewide has continued and there are positive predictions for fall tourism as well.

That's the two-pronged report from Explore Minnesota, the state's tourism promotion office, based on reports from Minnesota lodging properties, including hotels and motels, resorts, B&Bs, campgrounds and vacation home rentals.

The leisure and hospitality industry has a large economic impact in the state  it's considered a $13.6 billion industry and employs some 254,000 workers  representing 11 percent of Minnesota's private sector employment. That section of the economy generates 17 percent of the state's sales tax revenues, reports Explore Minnesota, with the state welcoming nearly 70 million domestic and international travelers a year.

This year's surge topped 2015's strong summer season, Explore Minnesota noted in a news release, and the results align with national trends, with consumer confidence at its highest level in nearly a year, according to the monthly consumer confidence survey conducted by Nielsen.

Regarding the state's summer tourism season, more than half  61 percent  of those responding in the survey said their summer revenue was up, and 46 percent cited increased occupancy compared to a year ago. Some 20 percent reported a decrease in revenue while 25 percent reported decreased summer occupancy. Importantly, 84 percent of the respondents described their financial health as growing, or stable but positive.

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The Explore Minnesota survey revealed a similarly positive outlook for fall travel, with some 33 percent expecting increased occupancy and 39 percent anticipating higher revenue than fall 2015. Only 19 percent predicted decreased occupancy and revenue.

In commenting on the survey findings, Explore Minnesota's director John Edman said, "These results continue an exciting trend for Minnesota tourism, and along with a strong economy indicate that our marketing efforts and #OnlyinMN campaign are working. Minnesota continues to be an attractive, close-to-home getaway for our core target market and is gaining the attention of more travelers from further away."

The evolution of Explore Minnesota's #OnlyinMN campaign this summer featured three new TV spots, as well as robust digital effort, print, radio and out-of-home advertising, including two traveling Instagram-inspired MNstagram Booths in Chicago, Denver and Kansas City. To date, the popular #OnlyinMN hashtag has been used more than 420,000 times, and Explore Minnesota has amassed more than 325,000 fans on social media, the state's tourism promotion office reports.

The marketing campaign will continue this fall in a five-state region, plus Chicago, Winnipeg and Thunder Bay, and to help travelers follow the progress of Minnesota's fall colors, Explore Minnesota launched its free, weekly fall color updates earlier this week.
ST. PAUL  Minnesota voters this year have more options than they've ever had in a presidential election year.

Minnesotans can begin casting no-excuses absentee ballots one week from Friday. It is the first presidential election year that voters can request absentee ballots without providing an excuse for why they can't get to a polling place.

Early voting will also be available to most Minnesotans beginning seven days before the Nov. 8 election day. Voters will be able to fill out ballots at elections offices and feed them into voting machines just as they would on Election Day.

Secretary of State Steve Simon predicted the new options will change the way many Minnesotans vote, and make it more convenient for those who cannot vote within a 13-hour window on a specific Tuesday.

"It helps everybody. I think as more people hear about this, I can tell you more people are excited about it," Simon said.

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Get out the vote

The new ways to vote also have big implications for candidates. Ken Martin, chairman of the Minnesota DFL Party, said political operatives are trying to bag as many early votes as possible.

"From a campaign perspective, it really means that it's elongated that get-out-the-vote period," said Martin.

Martin said the DFL will use 25 offices and 300 staffers around the state to focus on competitive congressional races in the 2nd, 3rd and 8th Districts and on a slew of close legislative contests

"We know in some of those legislative races that they're going to be decided by, you know, 50 to 100 votes  maybe even less than that  and so this program could make the difference," Martin said.

Republican Party of Minnesota Chair Keith Downey said the GOP will be making similar efforts, but Downey won't specify the number of officers or staff members involved.

But Downey is not a fan of the new early voting options.

"I personally have always thought that going to vote on Election Day is preferable," he said.

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Voting early risks missing the opportunity to react to an 11th hour campaign development that could change the way someone might vote, Downey said, and he is concerned about the potential for voter fraud.

"Early voting opens up a problem in Minnesota by virtue of our same-day registration issue. This kind of open door that we have in Minnesota that causes a problem in any election, add 45 days of same-day voter registration, and you have an even bigger issue," he said.

"I have the exact opposite take from that," said Simon, a Democrat.

"The people you can get registered and voting before Election Day, the more opportunity there is to vet and filter and screen."

Machine optional

No-excuses absentee voting is available to every Minnesotan but not all Minnesotans will have the option to feed their ballots into voting machines beginning seven days before the election. It's up to local governments to make that option available.

Simon said most places are rolling out machines. But Polk County in northwestern Minnesota, for example, is not.

"In an effort to streamline our process at the counter and make the experience for the voter on the other side of the counter as quick and painless as possible, we choose not to utilize the option for that voter to feed their ballot into a machine," said Michelle Cote, who administers elections in Polk County.

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According to Republican State Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer, it is unfair that early voting is not available to everyone in the state. Kiffmeyer served as secretary of state for eight years ending in 2008.

"It is not statewide and so the reason why I objected to it is because it was unequal treatment of voters," said Kiffmeyer.

Simon counters that many election specifics are left to the discretion of local governments.

Simon said he hopes interest in the presidential race, along with more voting options, will boost turnout, leaving Minnesota leading the nation as it did for the last presidential election, when more than 76 percent of eligible Minnesota voters cast ballots.
A St. Paul-based foundation, which also owns a regional chain of banks, awarded $473,549 in grants to charitable organizations in southeastern Minnesota last week.

The Otto Bremer Trust, which is the primary owner of the parent company of Bremer Bank, issued grants to seven area groups on Thursday.

"The work of these grantees often plays a role in providing opportunities for individuals to make progress in reaching their full potential," stated Trust CEO Brian Lipschultzin the announcement of the grants.

The seven southeastern Minnesota awards were part of a $9.9 million round of grants to organizations in Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin. The area recipients included:

 Diversity Council in Rochester, $10,000, to support the Community Leaders Creating Change training program for communities of color, immigrants, and under-represented populations.

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 Rochester Public Schools, $29,976,to support the Bridges to Education Careers program, a career and college preparation program for adult learners to become teachers.

 Rochester-based Recovery Is Happening, $25,000, to help establish recovery homes in southeastern Minnesota for people seeking recovery from substance use disorders.

 Southeast Minnesota Rural Education and Resource Center in St. Charles, $27,233to expand the operations and for capital improvements to a new food shelf in St. Charles.

 The Main Street Project in Northfield, $65,000,to build wealth and revitalize low-income immigrant communities through entrepreneurial opportunities in agriculture.

 Winona Family YMCA, Inc., $250,000,for a capital campaign to build a new facility for the Winona area community.

 Winona State University Foundation, $66,340to increase the diversity and number of qualified health care workers in Minnesota.

The Otto Bremer Trust is a private charitable trust established in 1944 by Otto Bremer. The trust owns 92 percent of Bremer Bank.

Bremer Bank moved into the Rochester market area at the start of 2015, when it acquired the 112-year-old Eastwood Bank and its 13 branches.

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Biz buzz

Look for a downtown Rochester retail warrior to expand its reach soon by opening a second location in the Med City's southwest quadrant.

I should have more details on this deals soon.
CALEDONIA  Two Brownsville residents were injured Sunday morning in a one-vehicle rollover on Minnesota Highway 44 a few miles north of Caledonia, the State Patrol reported.

According to the patrol, Cassidy R. Oldenburg, 20, was driving south when the vehicle left the highway, went into the ditch and rolled. He and his passenger, Autumn J. Brabbit, 20, of Brownsville were taken to Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center in La Crosse, Wis. Both were treated and released, according to a center spokeswoman.

The crash was reported at 6:26 a.m., the patrol said.
Just when it seemed like the door had been slammed shut on a legislative special session, the governor is signaling there could be an opening.

Last month, Gov. Mark Dayton declared special session talks dead after he and legislative leaders had spent months trying to cut a deal. The biggest hurdle proved to be funding for the Southwest Light Rail Transit project in the Twin Cities. Dayton and the DFL-led Senate insisted funding for the project be part of any agreement. The Republican-led House stood firm in its opposition to financing the project.

With legislative negotiations in gridlock, Hennepin County, the Metropolitan Council and the Counties Transit Improvement Board agreed to step in and cover the nearly $145 million in funding officials had hoped would come from the state. With the light rail transit funding resolved in the short-term, some are hoping a special session can still be called. Dayton had breakfast with Republican House Speaker Kurt Daudt on Friday to talk about whether a special session would be possible. Such a session would allow lawmakers to pass a $260 million package of tax cuts and $1 billion public works bill.

According to Dayton's Deputy Chief of Staff Linden Zakula, the governor did discuss with the speaker whether it would be possible to convene a special session.

"The governor indicated he was open to that possibility, but did not want to go through another round of the impasses," Zakula said.

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He added that there are other disagreements that would still need to be resolved. The governor has said he opposes the earmarking of funding for 21 transportation projects in the public works bill. That includes funding specifically set aside for the expansion of U.S. Highway 14 from Dodge Center to Owatonna. Dayton instead favors allowing the Minnesota Department of Transportation to determine how best to spend highway dollars. He also wants additional money for the restoration of Fort Snelling and improvements to the St. Peter treatment facility.

Sen. Carla Nelson, R-Rochester, sent a letter to Dayton last week urging him to call a special session now that the light-rail funding situation has been resolved.

"Now that this major stumbling block has been removed, a new opportunity is at hand. I am writing today to ask you to put Minnesotans first and seize this opportunity," Nelson wrote.

In an interview, Nelson said she was disappointed to hear that the governor was "holding hostage" tax relief and infrastructure spending to get other things he wants, even though the fight over light-rail funding was clearly the major obstacle to getting a special session. She added that the governor failed to communicate these concerns to lawmakers at the end of the regular legislative session.

"I think it's the height of irresponsibility," Nelson said.

Rep. Kim Norton, DFL-Rochester, said in her 10 years of lawmaking, she has never seen such drawn out special session negotiations. While she would support a special session to pass fair, reasonable legislation, she is not getting her hopes up at this point.

"I know our state and our community have needs that I hope can be met, but I am not going to get myself worked up again over nothing. I will just wait and see if the governor calls us in," Norton said.

Candidates face off

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Candidates in two of this fall's hottest legislative races will face off Wednesday in Red Wing. DFLer Lisa Bayley and Republican Barb Haley are running for the open House District 21A seat. Earlier this year, Rep. Tim Kelly, R-Red Wing, announced he would not seek re-election. The candidates will square off at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Red Wing City Hall in a forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters Red Wing. Also going head-to-head will be freshman DFL Sen. Matt Schmit and his rival, Republican Mike Goggin.
There's a good chance many of you will be switching political parties during the next 15 years. You may be a corporate executive who's voted rock-solid Republican for decades, but you might be a consistent Democrat by 2024. You may be an African-American community activist in Cleveland, but don't be surprised if you someday call the Republican Party home.

The fact is that political parties can swap constituencies in unexpected and dramatic ways. Through American history, there's been a general pattern: a period of party stability; then some new issue comes to the fore that divides the country in new ways; old party coalitions fall apart and new ones emerge.

African-Americans were once Republican, but the Great Depression brought economics to the fore and FDR lured them the other way. New England professionals once were Republican, too, but the rise of Barry Goldwater-Ronald Reagan Sun Belt conservatism turned them Democratic.

We seem to be at one of those transformational moments now. Something bigger is afoot this year than the relative deficiencies of Trump and Clinton.

In the first place, many of the existing partisan mentalities are dying out. This is the last presidential election in which two baby boomers will be running against each other. In the years ahead, politics will no longer be defined by the hidden animosities of the Vietnam era, by the sexual revolution/culture war issues of the 1970s.

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Future candidates will not be nostalgic for some white America of ancient memory or the union-heavy labor markets of the 1950s. They're not going to be fired up by the "paradise lost" hot buttons that excite the old guys who watch Fox News.

Politics is catching up to social reality. The crucial social divide today is between those who feel the core trends of the global, information-age economy as tailwinds at their backs and those who feel them as headwinds in their face.

That is to say, the most important social divide today is between a well-educated America that is marked by economic openness, traditional family structures, high social capital and high trust in institutions, and a less-educated America that is marked by economic insecurity, anarchic family structures, fraying community bonds, and a pervasive sense of betrayal and distrust.

These two groups live in entirely different universes. Right now, each party has a foot in each universe, but those coalitions won't last. Before too long the politics will break down into openness versus closedness, dynamism versus stability, what Ronald Brownstein of The Atlantic described in 2012 as the Coalition of Transformation versus the Coalition of Restoration.

The Republican Party is now a coalition of globalization-loving business executives and globalization-hating white workers. That's untenable. At its molten core, the Republican Party has become the party of the dispossessed, not the party of cosmopolitan business. The blunderers at the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable bet all their chips on the GOP at the exact instant it stopped being their party.

Now imagine a Republican Party after Donald Trump, led by a younger candidate without his bigotry and culture war tropes. That party will begin to attract disaffected Sanders people who detest the Trans-Pacific Partnership and possibly some minority voters highly suspicious of the political elite.

The Democratic Party is a coalition of the upscale urban professionals who make up the ruling class and less-affluent members of minorities who feel betrayed by it. That's untenable, too. At its molten core the Democratic Party is the party of the coastal professional class, the 2016 presidential ticket of Yale Law and Harvard Law. It's possible that this year the Democrats will carry every state that touches ocean.

Just as the Trump GOP is crushing the Chamber GOP, the Clinton Democrats will eventually repel the Sanders Democrats. Their economic interests are just different. Moreover, their levels of social trust are vastly different.

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We don't normally think that politics is divided along trust lines. But this year we're seeing huge chasms depending upon how much trust you feel toward your neighbors and your national institutions. Disaffected low-trust millennials see things differently than the Hollywood, tech, media and academic professionals who actually run the party.

This sort of divide is being replicated all around the world. The distinctly American feature is race. If the Republicans can drop the racial wedges  which admittedly may be a big ask  and become more the party designed to succor those who are disaffected from the globalizing information age, then it might win over some minority voters, and the existing party alignments will unravel in short order.

Polls suggest the Democrats will win among college-educated voters. Republicans will win among whites without a college degree. The social, mental and emotional gap between those two groups is getting wider and wider. That's the future of American politics. Republicans are town. Democrats are gown. Could get ugly.

David Brooks is a columnist for the New York Times.
The city of Rochester's purchase of a bank is about more than savings.

Buying the Think Mutual Bank building at 4001 W. River Parkway NW for a new police precinct saves the city millions when compared to the original $19 million estimate for building a new facility. Yet, the $3.2 million purchase, along with $448,000 in initial renovations, offers opportunity beyond merely saving tax dollars.

The opportunity starts with the minimal work that needs to be done to house about 25 staff members to start. "As I found out during the process, banks are actually designed a lot like police stations," Rochester Police Chief Roger Peterson told the Rochester City Council Wednesday.

While some of those similarities are security related, perhaps the most important are connected to the fact that successful banks must be accessible to the community. The location is ideal for patrol officers who need ready access to city thoroughfares, which likely will help reduce response times, but it also provides improved access for residents.

Where banks hope to draw new customers with easy and quick access, a police precinct will have the opportunity to engage the community in a part of the city populated with high-density housing. The northwest police precinct will offer the chance to be more open to its new neighbors, letting them know they are welcomed.

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Too often, police stations seem unapproachable. The new precinct has the opportunity to be inviting.

Peterson noted the building also will offer added space for meeting rooms and events, which will help build new relationships and strengthen existing ones.

The potential also extends beyond the future precinct's walls. As council members noted, the bank sits on more than nine acres, offering endless opportunities for the added space as the city grows, and those opportunities will likely strengthen the police department's connection to Rochester's residents, as well as its visitors.

Ultimately, the bank purchase provides a worthy investment in our community.
Senators of the Guam Legislature yesterday unanimously passed a measure that would remove the statute of limitations for civil cases involving child sex abuse. The legislation, Bill 326-33, was authored by Sen. Frank Blas Jr. and was passed by 13 senators while Sens. Tina Muna-Barnes and Tom Ada, were absent.

We know that time restrictions have been a particularly pressing problem in light of the delicate nature of child sex crimes as victims often need many years to overcome the pain of their abuse and time to obtain the courage needed to speak out about the abuse that they have suffered, Blas stated in a release. As the national trend moves toward loosening past restrictions and statutes of limitations, we are now doing the same with the passage of Bill 326-33."

A series of public hearings took place before the bill was placed on the session floor. The hearings included testimony from four individuals who have accused Archbishop Anthony Apuron of sexual abuse. Walter Denton, Roy Quintanilla and Roland Sondia joined John Champ Quinata, the brother of the late Joseph Sonny Quinata in testifying in support of the bill.

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During the hearings, a fifth individual, 73-year-old Leo Tudela, stated publicly for the first time that he was allegedly abused by clergy members.

Earlier efforts

Vice Speaker Benjamin Cruz noted that Bill 326 is not the first time the legislature has addressed the protection of child sex abuse victims.

"I just had someone ... ask if that meant that the archbishop would be prosecuted for the alleged offenses. And I said 'No.' This bill only addresses the civil action," Cruz said.

The legislature, five years ago, removed the statute of limitations on criminal actions with Public Law 31-6, he said.

"Unfortunately, through the Constitution ... we cannot ex post facto  make a criminal statute that would go back to 1977 or 1976  to criminally prosecute. This bill is attempting to do that civilly not criminally," Cruz said.
When Ruth Aguon participated in a bone marrow registry drive in Guam 13 years ago, she never imagined she would be contacted to save someone's life. The Talofofo resident is now in Hawaii donating stem cells in the hope of saving the life of a woman she's never met.

In 2003, the island community took part in a bone marrow registry for 5year-old Justice Taitague, who was battling cancer. Justice died a week after a bone marrow drive was held in her honor, but island residents who registered during the event are still in the system for those around the world looking for a bone marrow match. Aguon and her husband, Ray, were among thousands who registered.

We did the cheek swab and over the years, the (National Bone Marrow Registry) sent us information asking if were still interested in being on the registry, Aguon said.

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'I was in shock'

After returning home from deployment with the Guam Air National Guard's 254th Red Horse Squadron in June, Aguon received a call informing her that she was a potential match for a patient. She agreed to undergo a series of tests to see if she was an actual match. She recalls the initial lab work that required 14 or 15 vials of her blood. She went off-island for annual training and didnt think much of the lab work results. While preparing for formation at the annual Liberation Day Parade in July, Aguon received a phone call from the Hawaii Bone Marrow Office informing her she was the best match for a female patient.

"I was in shock; I was in awe. I even had to ask her to tell me again. When I did all of the blood work, I never really thought anything would get past that, Aguon said. What are the chances? You just think the odds of being the perfect match just aren't that great."

But more blood work while she took her eldest child back to college in Portland, Oregon, confirmed she was the best match. Time was of the essence, and Aguon and her husband were flown to Hawaii.

Its hard being here at the Kapiolani (Medical Center for Women and Children), seeing so many women and children suffering from cancer, she said. The lab work and the procedure Im going through pales in comparison.

While traditional bone marrow transplants extract the bone marrow from the donors hip, Aguon was part of a clinical study of a less invasive but still intensive procedure known as aphreysis where blood is taken from the donors arm and processed. The stem cells are removed and the blood is returned to the donors other arm. Aguons procedure occurred on Sept. 7 and took seven hours.

The decision to help

Knowing that bone marrow transplants are a last resort for patients fighting for their lives, Aguon said she understood the magnitude of her decision to help.

I would hope that if some day, God forbid, Ray or my family, if something should ever happen to them and they got sick and none of us were matches, that whoever they did find is a match would accept and do it, she said. The Hawaii Bone Marrow Office coordinates communication between the patient and the donor, if the patient agrees.

Following Wednesdays procedure, Aguons stem cells were flown out of Hawaii and delivered to the patient who has been undergoing intensive preparations for the transplant. While shes never met her, Aguon is hopeful that the patient will eventually want to meet her.

I pray that whoever and wherever the recipient is, that they get better soon and continue to live in love with family and friends, she said. I feel blessed to be able to give back and do what I can to help.
Congressional candidate Jim Moylan will not let truth or distortions stop him from saying anything to get elected. It is up to political analy Read morePolitical ploys at the last part of election?
Our friend Tevi Troy, author of the excellent What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted, has written a new book. Its called Shall We Wake the President? Two Centuries of Disaster Management from the Oval Office.

Tevi is a presidential historian and served as an aide to President George W. Bush. He knows whereof he speaks.

The book is just out and I havent read it. However, Tevi offers a preview in Politico.

Picking up on Hillary Clintons famous 3 a.m. phone call ad, Tevi finds it mostly myth to think that any president is ever asked to make critical decisions in the middle of the night. Usually, there is little that can or must be done by the president so quickly as to warrant awakening the commander in chief, he contends.

The most famous wake up decision in presidential history was probably the decision of President Reagans staff not to wake up the president after two U.S. F-14 Tomcat fighters shot down two Libyan MIGs. As I recall, Reagan backed his staffs decision saying that he needed to be rousted only if the Libyans had shot down our guys.

Nonetheless, the decision to let Reagan sleep generated criticism. Johnny Carson quipped: There are only two reasons you wake President Reagan: World War III and if Hellcats of the Navy is on the Late Show.

Since then, Tevi notes, presidents and their staffs have erred on the side of waking the commander-in-chief.

Staffers sometimes awaken the president to report good news. A Colonel Butterfield woke Abraham Lincoln up to report that the Union had won a battle, its first victory of the Civil War. It was the sixth such disturbance of the night.

At the other end of the seriousness spectrum, President Obama was awakened by staff to learn that he has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, says Tevi, was probably as much of a surprise to him as it was to the rest of the world.

It looks to me like Tevis book is must reading for American history buffs. Check out the Politico article and see whether you agree with me.
Donald Trumps comeback in the polls has the Washington Post rattled. Yesterday, its editorial board basically called, Bernie Sanders like, for a moratorium on discussing Hillary Clintons emails so that the focus can be on Donald Trumps manifest unfitness for office.

But Clintons willingness to put her personal interests ahead of the national security and her unwillingness to discuss the matter honestly after she was found out are good grounds to question her fitness for office. The issue isnt going away.

Today, the Post, anticipating a possible Trump victory, ran an article explaining how Washington bureaucrats can overrule the electorate by resisting President Trump. The article, by liberal former Post columnist Melinda Henneberger, is called (in the paper edition) How the federal government could resist President Trump.

Resisting a Republican president has never been a problem for Washington bureaucrats. They were doing it when I worked in summer jobs for the government during the Nixon administration. They did it at the EPA during the Reagan administration, as Henneberger recounts. The Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department did it during the George W. Bush administration, to cite a more recent example.

The Washington Post plays a key role in the resistance. It screams bloody murder when appointees of popularly elected Republican presidents insist on implementing the policies of the nations chief executive over the objections of liberal bureaucrats. On the pages of the Post, political people are perpetually bullying dedicated career public servants during Republican administrations.

If Trump is elected, the dance of the bureaucrats and the Post will resume, but in a much more frenzied form. The liberal bureaucrats I know hate Donald Trump even more than they hated George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan (though probably not more than they hated Nixon). Thus resistance will be fiercer.

Moreover, Trump seems more likely than Bush and Reagan to lash out against severe bureaucratic resistance. It could be quite a spectacle.

Hennenberger, for her part, is clearly on the side of the bureaucrats. She claims that their Washington exists to serve the liberal, constitutional order. She gets the liberal part right.

As for the constitutional order, not so much. The executive power resides with the president, not with D.C. bureaucrats. Calling them nonpartisan civil servants, as Henneberger does, doesnt change this.

Its good for laughs, though. Hennebergers nonpartisans include the folks at the IRS who targeted conservative groups. They include the folks who helped come up with the executive amnesty through which the Obama administration usurped congressional power.

They include the folks at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission who, ever since I worked there in the 1970s, have acted as advocates for the interests of women and minority groups, often with little regard for what the statutes they are paid to enforce actually provide. The goal has always been to stretch the law for ideological purposes, not to interpret it honestly.

They include my friends and acquaintances who work, or have worked, for the federal government. Most of them are good people, but few can be described as nonpartisan.

If Trump is elected, they will know what to do.
TORONTO, Sept. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mandalay Resources Corporation ("Mandalay" or "the Company") (TSX:MND) today announced the dial-in information for its investor day on September 12, 2016, beginning at 11:20 am (Toronto time).

All presentation materials for the investor day are posted on Mandalay's website and can be accessed here: http://www.mandalayresources.com/investor-day-presentation-materials/

Interested analysts and investors who wish to dial-in to the teleconference are invited to call the following number:

Participant (Toll-Free): 877-407-8289 Participant (Toll): 201-689-8341 Conference ID: 13643878

A replay of the conference call will be available until 23:59 (Toronto time), September 26 and can be accessed using the following dial-in number:

Encore Toll Free Dial-in Number: (877) 660-6853 Encore ID: 13643878

About Mandalay Resources Corporation:

Mandalay Resources is a Canadian-based natural resource company with producing assets in Australia, Chile, and Sweden, and a development project in Chile. The Company is focused on executing a roll-up strategy, creating critical mass by aggregating advanced or in-production gold, copper, silver and antimony projects in Australia, the Americas, and Europe to generate near-term cash flow and shareholder value.

For Further Information: Mark Sander President and Chief Executive Officer Greg DiTomaso Director of Investor Relations Contact: +1.647.260.1566
As Nigerians celebrate the Eid-el-Kabir, it is only right to select some good movies to watch. For those interested in Hausa movies, the following selections are great choices.

The themes of the selected movies are based on love, betrayal, family values and the stark realities between vices and virtues.

See list:

Uwar Gida starring Adam A. Zango and Fadeela Mohammed

This movie shows that outside influences especially in marriages may not always have the best interests for the parties involved.

Married couples will definitely learn a thing or two from this entertaining movie. It will also teach them to take whatever their friends say with a pinch of salt, while they commit their marriage to Almighty Allah.

El-Mustapha starring Abba El-Mustapha, Sadiya Mohammed

This movie is for the whole family as it brings laughter and light-heartedness into the home. The story is centred on El-Mustapha who despite his parents affluence, feels he must find his own path. Much like Eddie Murphys character, Hakeem in the 1988 classic, Coming to America, he finds a bride, whom he later marries with the help of his parents!

Gani Na starring Ali Nuhu and Rahama Amir

This movie is centred on tainted love. Or better still, a love triangle gone wrong. The love meant to be shared between siblings seems to take a bitter turn as a young woman swears to destroy her sisters happiness. In fact, this movie easily reminds the watcher of Sheesha, the indian classic movie where a sister goes to extreme lengths to destroy her sisters marriage.

Fakat starring Maimuna Muhammad and Sheriff Aminu Ahlan

This story shows how bad behaviours put up by parents can result in temporary or permanent destruction of their childrens psyche. The main character grew up as a terror to the opposite sex. This was due to his mothers unpleasant actions as a wife and mother. His experience led him to declare war on women, but can he be redeemed?

Haduwar Jini starring Asmau Ahmad and Shehu Hassan Kano

This movie is focused on giving alms, which is one of the virtues expected of everyone especially during Sallah. It cautions viewers against pride when they have wealth.

Most viable lesson is the realization that no condition is permanent. Anyone can be poor and anyone can be rich. A must-see for the family.

Sharifah starring Ali Nuhu and Nafisa Abdullahi

This movie dishes a lesson in blind trust and reliance on Almighty Allah for wisdom to counter ill-will from those closest to us. A woman who was left great wealth by her family, was the target of an unexpected enemy. But will she overcome?
Unlike the United States government, which releases travel advisories for its citizens, in mostly Third World countries, the Nigerian government rarely wastes time penning such nonsense. At least, I cant remember reading one in my life time.

The Nigerian official is too busy penning prolix intended to pamper the ego of his principal to be worried about such fiddling inanity like warning Nigerians traveling to US to stay away from the dangerous neighbourhoods of Chicago where 500 people have been murdered this year alone, for instance.

Nigerian governments ineptitude aside, the unwritten travel advisory for Nigerians traveling to Europe, Canada or the U.S. is constant  dont travel without your malaria medication.

I took this advice for granted and unleashed a wave of panic that could have had me quarantined for days, if not weeks.

Two weeks before my trip to the US, I had taken a prophylactic dose of anti-malaria medication, just in case. Nigerians like to joke that almost every Nigerian runs around with the malaria parasite. We would say if one tested 10 Nigerians for malaria, nine of them would probably come back positive for malaria.

I was supposed to carry an extra malaria medication along with me. I forgot. When I remembered mid-flight, I did not fret too much about it. I assured myself that the prophylactic dose I took just two weeks before would have killed off any strain of the disease that might have been incubating in my bloodstream before. I also avoided being exposed to mosquito bites. But you never know.

Everything was fine for three weeks. Then there was trouble.

It was the last day of first phase of the World Press Institute fellowship, which I was taking part in. We had spent three weeks in the twin cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. In that time, we had travelled up county Minnesota to Woody Ely and to Tracy  Soybeans and cornfield county.

The second phase  a whirlwind trip across nine states in the US starting from a trip to Washington DC- was to start the next day. Like we say in Nigeria, my village people chose this day to pay me a spiritual call.

I remembered feeling too tired to leave the bed that morning. I laid in bed yawning and stretching, like a bored and hungry dog. I soon realised I was feeling cold. By mid-day I was down with the chills. I was shivering and sweating.

Please, this should not be malaria, I muttered, my jaws clattering like a jalopy.

See, I have heard stories of how people are quarantined and treated like they got the plague when diagnosed of malaria in the West. This is something Id rather read about and not experience. Also, I didnt want to miss the trip across the US.

I rushed to the University St. Thomas Anderson Students Centre to buy some aspirin (the WPI fellowship is residence at the university). Never! This cannot be malaria, I repeated. The plan was to keep the fever in check until we got to DC and if it persisted then Id surrender myself to be treated in a hospital there for malaria treatment, with all the consequences.

I fell asleep on the couch on my apartment for about 30 minutes, wrapped in duvet. I was roused back to consciousness by a knock on the apartments door. It was one of my host moms, Susan Wolkerstorfer, 65. I had told her earlier that I had a fever. I must have looked like I had a brawl with death from the look on her face when I opened the door. She had promised to come with a thermometer to check my temperature. She almost immediately stuck the tiny glass rod underneath my tongue. After three minutes she checked my temperature had climbed up to 101.1F.

You certainly have a fever, she said after checking.

I said it was nothing and that I should be fine enough to make the trip to DC. She was having none of that. Immediately she started looking for the nearest hospital on her GeoBlue app  fellows were also using the same medical insurance provider. After searching and making calls to the World Press Institutes Programme Directors Doug Stone, she eventually decided to drive me to Regions Hospital, in down town St. Paul. Regions hospital was a public hospital and the nearest health facility with a round the clock ER.

We arrived at the ER section at about 9.45 pm. At the Check -in counter a friendly nurse asked if I had been outside the U.S in the last three weeks. Affirmative. I only arrived the US three weeks ago. My temperature was taken. Though it has subsided some notches the nurse still agreed that I still had enough fever to be looked at.

I was given a very uncomfortable face mask to wear and told to wait for the room where I would be seeing a doctor to be prepared. I tried to push it below my nose once and one of the nurses gave me the look.

I took a selfie of me in the mask and shared it on the fellowships Whatsapp group. The messages started pouring:

Tell us what is going on. Can we help? Marina from Bulgaria wrote.

I have a little fever, I replied.

Aurelio from Argentina aid I should try and be well for the trip to DC in the morning.

Lets know what the doctor said. And if you need something, added Nataly from Ukraine.

Whats the prognosis? Hope its just a fever? asked Aurelio.

Again I said that which shouldnt have been said:

It looks like malaria chills. I have the usual symptoms. Started today. But Id wait for the doctors verdict.

Hope you will be fine! Nataly wrote.

Oh Nicholas! I hope it turns out to be not too serious!!!, added Yasmine from New Zealand. Let us know how it goes. Hugs, and get plenty of sleep!

Our thoughts are with you, hopefully you get better soon, wrote Miao, the Chinese.

When I saw the exclamation points littered all over my Whatsapp and I thought: Oh dear. What have I done?!

Yes, their thoughts were with me but they certainly were panicking. I later learned that while they were sending those nice messages Aurelio was asking someone to check the incubation period for malaria. They were freaking out. And they wanted to be sure I wasnt contagious. I had become a health risk; even among my colleagues!

Even the hospital wasnt taking chances. I was ushered into a negative pressure room  the air from the room is controlled so that it doesnt contaminate other part of the facility. These people werent taking chances in case I had a contagious respiratory disease.

These people should just tell me they are scared I might have Ebola, I thought.

Curiously, everyone who came a metre near me, was wearing a huge mask over their face, except Mrs Wolkerstorfer. She was thinking about it too. But was too nice to complain.

I was checked into the room about 10.30pm, asked to change into a faded hospital gown. Then the wait began.

The effect of the aspirin was beginning to wane and I started to shiver again. Mrs Wolkerstorfer managed to get me a warm blanket. I shut my eyes and tried to sleep. No luck.

Doctor Hillary Simon walked in at about 11.45 pm after a staff meeting, probably related to an impeding nurses strike at another group of hospitals on Monday Regions wasnt part of the group but I learned employees at Regions were strategising on how to handle the possible increase in the number of patients.

She apologised for the delay; ordered a blood smear test, and a faster but less accurate test. She said the tests could take about two hours because the hospital lab didnt usually get patients with malaria (she had only ever treated one person with malaria) and because the lab had their hands full with people who had made bad choices at the state fair. Too much booze and large crowd of people hardly mix well, clearly.

An hour later, nurse Jessica came in to draw blood. She was nice, tried to calm me. She said her Nigerian friend told her malaria was common in Nigeria and how most Nigeria carry it around without much ado. She said she hasnt been to Nigeria before but was fascinated by the description of Nigerians living in the US in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies Americanah. She wasnt wearing a face mask.

Lymes Disease

At 3 am, another nurse, Megan, came in. Preliminary test result for malaria came back negative! Hallelujah. She said they suspect Lymes disease from a possible tick bite when the group travelled to Ely or Tracy. I couldnt remember being bitten by a bug. The only incident I had, in Tracy, was when I slipped on a rock and got thoroughly wet at the waterfall at Pipestone monument.

Forty-five minutes later, Dr Simon came in with her supervisor. They said it probably wasnt malaria and prescribe antibiotics  doxycycline for the Lymes disease. She also gave all clear to travel to DC as the disease was not contagious.

I was given a malaria prescription and told I could get it in DC in case the second test came back positive for malaria. We left the room at about 4.05 to pick up the medication at the pharmacy. My last recorded temperature before we left the hospital was 98.9F.

Mrs Wolkerstorfer was with me the entire time and stay awake the entire time. She asked a pillow at about 1am to ease her next as she sat on a chair in the room. She dismissed my profuse words of appreciation with: any self-respecting host mom would do what I have done! Angels live among human and clearly, one was sitting by my bedside the entire night.

This article was first published on the World Press Institute (WPI) blog. Nicholas Ibekwe, a journalist with PREMIUM TIMES, is 2016 fellow of the WPI.
Jake Epelle, founder of the Albino Foundation of Nigeria, is calling on the Nigeria government to create an environment for the education of vulnerable groups.

He campaigns for the improved conditions for marginalized groups, particularly albinos and the disabled. He was at the August 29, 2016 unveiling of Strategic Planning for the Education Sector by the minister, Adamu Adamu.

He was appointed the Chairman of the Inclusive Education group, one of the 11 focal groups the ministry intends to focus on in repositioning the sector.

Mr. Epelle told PREMIUM TIMESs Omono Okonkwo that the government should embrace inclusive education by scrapping special schools, which he said caused alienation of vulnerable groups.

Excerpts:



PREMIUM TIMES: Tell us what you do and how you became chairman of the inclusive Education focal group.



Jake Epelle: I am the chief executive officer and founder of the Albino Foundation. I was hired as a consultant by the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Federal Ministry of Education to map out key challenges and strategies. These will aid in developing inclusive education so all Nigerians, regardless of their physical, mental and social abilities/inabilities, can come together to acquire education.

I didnt do this alone but with a very wonderful team. Together, we were able to assemble a document which has been adjudged one of the best policy documents within the education sector.

PT: Who adjudged this document as one of the best?



Jake Epelle: The Ministry of Education and the DFID. These are very high-level organisations. The fact that I submitted and it was approved means that I met all the necessary criteria.

PT: Will this document be used by the federal government in the strategic planning as unveiled by the education minister on August 29?



Jake Epelle: Yes, the document is a part and parcel of it. During the panel sitting after the minister had unveiled all focal groups, I brought up the issue that adult literacy and inclusive education needed to be separated. The two have different challenges and strategies.

The head of the secretariat, Federal Ministry of Education, created a whole department for it. It is relevant, it is needed and it is also timely. The world is adopting inclusive education and Nigeria should not lag behind.

PT: What is your position on where Nigeria currently is as regards education; what is lacking in the sector?



Jake Epelle: We have lack of coherent, cohesive policy, lack of implementation, lack of political will on the part of leaders to implement the wonderful policies drawn up for the growth of the sector. Corruption is also a major problem, monies are allocated to the sector and some people pocket the money.

We also have dilapidated infrastructure and in some cases, no infrastructure at all; children are still studying under trees, weak buildings, make-shift wooden and aluminium buildings.

On my journey around the country, I discovered that many girls, especially in the North are not in school due to lack of toilets. This is a major contributing factor to the huge demography we have for out of school children (10.5 million).

Lack of funding is a major problem, sometimes the money that is voted is not enough to meet needs, other times the money that is voted is pocketed by individuals. There is also the problem of unqualified teachers and in some cases, there are no teachers at all.

We also lack human capital development (capacity building) for teachers who ought to know what to teach; teaching materials are not readily available as well. Sometimes, wrong curriculum is a problem and in other cases, there is no curriculum at all.

Other times, having people who are not qualified as administrators of the education sector is also a problem on its own. On some levels, the education stakeholders are not properly sensitized, especially at the community level, so they do not even know what to do.

At the same time, this country needs to recognize lack of proper education as a human rights issue. Education is the right of everyone (children and adults).

I think if we embrace inclusive education in its robust nature, we will solve the general problems of education in the country. This is because inclusive education embraces all persons.

PT: If the government does approve inclusive education for all schools in the country, what will happen to special schools (schools for the blind, disabled, etc)?

Jake Epelle: To make inclusive education even more effective in Nigeria, there is a need to shut down, although strategically, the so-called special schools because they are not making any positive impact in the society. You put all the blind together, they go to school, come out and they feel segregated and alienated from the society; we have not made any impact.

PT: What you are saying is that all socially, psychologically and physically challenged students should be incorporated into regular schools?

Jake Epelle: Oh yes. A lot of countries no longer use the special education system because it has not helped at all. In fact, there is a United Nations charter and call for all countries to embrace inclusive education; it brings everybody into one learning environment. This gives them a sense of belonging  the albinos, the physically challenged, even the girl-child in one classroom. The problem here however is we do not have many qualified teachers for this but we can train them.

We can do this through getting into colleges of education and engaging teachers with relevant information technology and materials for them to work with, so that they can come out and be inclusive teachers. Everything is going inclusive  inclusive communities, financing and education.

PT: Speaking of students who fall into the vulnerable groups category, how do you think the government can encourage them to access proper education?



Jake Epelle: It is high time the federal government began to think of a free education programme for all vulnerable groups in the country; particularly albinos and the physically challenged individuals at all levels.

This is because 40 per cent of the very poor in our society are traceable to these marginalized and underserved groups. With education, success, confidence, empowerment and knowledge are inevitable and with these come financial freedom.

PT: What can parents and guardians do to ensure their children willingly embrace a proper education? It seems these days young ones are more interested in making fast money than being in a classroom.

JE: Sensitization is the way to go. From a young age, parents and guardians ought to show their children that embracing education is the best way for them to make positive impression on their society.

One of the ways to do this is imbibing reading culture in them. Even the parents need sensitization every now and then on how important education is.

PT: Thank you for your time, Sir.

JE: It is my pleasure.
Nigerian leaders have called for more understanding with the current administration in its efforts to address the challenges of the nations declining economy.

In different Sallah messages, leaders at various levels urged greater faith in the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration of the All Progressives Congress amidst the economic hardship.

In his message made available to journalists in Abuja on Sunday, President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Samson Ayokunle, urged Muslims and Nigerians in general to trust God to provide for the country.

Though we are in a trying time economically in Nigeria, you must all have the trust that the same God that provided a ram for Abraham in the barren desert is going to provide for you and meet all your needs, not only in the time of this celebration but beyond.

If you cannot afford to celebrate with what you desire this year, trust God that next year would be better. Let us seize this opportunity to pray for peace, unity and progress of our Fatherland, President Buhari and the government of the day to be able to lead us to better days ahead, he said.

Similarly, Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, said the current hardship requires greater faith, more tolerance and patriotism from Nigerians.

Let us implore the almighty God to restore to us those values that place high premium on human life, love of neighbour and sharing.

This period requires more patience, fortitude, tolerance, endurance, patriotism and a greater willingness to make personal sacrifices for the good of all.

The President Muhammadu Buhari administration remains committed to lead the nation in overcoming its current economic and developmental challenges. As we celebrate this auspicious occasion, let us renew our faith in our nation, he said.

The Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello, enjoined Nigerians to be positive-minded and make sacrifices of prayer and peaceful coexistence for the development of the nation.

Every leader is anointed by Allah; therefore, we must continue to pray for our nation and our leaders.

A world of peace is inestimable. Peace is the father of development. As we seek development, we must preach peace among religions and ethnicities. Muslims must be seen at the forefront of promoting peace in the country, Mr. Bello said.

His Nasarawa State counterpart, Umaru Almakura, said Muslims should use the Sallah period to reflect more on the virtues of tolerance and good neighbourliness.

Mr. Almakura said the Muslim leader, Prophet Mohammed, was a man of great piety, love and peace.

He therefore enjoined Muslims to imbibe the examples of the great Muslim leader.

Also, a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Tunde Braimoh, said the Eid-el-Kabir celebration is a reminder of faith, loyalty and sacrifice.

He called for greater faith in the nations leadership and urged leaders in turn to try fulfilling their promises to the people.

Eid-el-Kabir is a reminder of faith, confidence and loyalty. As Nigerians, we must strive to believe in our leaders while the leaders must in reciprocity keep their words to the people.

This is the bond and synergy that may engender the desired growth, development peace and security. Lets pray for divine intuition, speed and enablement for the leadership as it struggles to realign and redress the fortunes of Nigeria from the malfeasance and misrule of the past, he said.
Residents of Sambang Dagi in Jaba Local Government of Kaduna State witnessed another earth tremor in the early hours of Monday.

The incident occurred barely 24-hours after the first tremor was reported at Nok village about 20km away from Sambang.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the second vibration occurred around 4a.m Monday, leaving shocked residents scampering for safety.

It was not immediately clear whether there were casualties.

Earlier, the Kaduna State government had in a press statement, urged residents of the affected communities to remain calm.

The government on Sunday appealed for calm, and sympathised with the residents of kwoi in Jaba Local Government Area, following the first tremor.

The government said in a statement signed by Samuel Aruwan, Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to Governor Nasir El-Rufai, that it had made a formal report to the appropriate authorities to investigate the development.

The statement said Mr. El-Rufai, had notified the geological and emergency agencies of the incident.

The governor sympathises with the people in the Kwoi area over the reported earth tremor, the statement said.

He has directed the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) to mobilise to the area and comfort the citizens.

The National Geological Agency has also been notified, and has been invited to investigate the tremor in the Kwoi area and provide appropriate guidance.

The Kaduna State Government is receiving updates from the area and relevant government agencies have been directed to take steps to comfort the residents and to assuage their unease as they come to terms with an unusual event.

The Kaduna State Government wishes to appeal for calm, and urges everyone not to spread unverified information, or create panic, the statement said.

NAN reports that the first incident, which occurred at about 1p.m, shook the community and created some panic among the people. (NAN)
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) subsidiary, NNPC Retail, along with 22 major and independent petroleum products marketing firms owed the federal government at least N86.4 billion by July 21, 2016, PREMIUM TIMES can report today.

The debts are in respect of products allocated to the companies by the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) for distribution over the last 10 years, details seen by this newspaper show.

The documents were filed to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

Members of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and the NNPC Retail (mega filling stations) account for about 85 per cent of the debt, while the independent marketers owe the balance.

The major marketers include NNPC Retail (N22.56 billion), Oando (N25.05 billion), Forte Oil (N10.09 billion), Nigerian Independent Petroleum Company (NIPCO) N5.5 billion, Total Oil (N1.42 billion), Conoil (N1.3 billion) and Mobil Oil (N276.95 million).

The independent marketers include Master Energy (N5.5 billion), MRS Oil & Gas (N3.997 billion), Heyden Petroleum (N2.7 billion), Danium Petroleum (N2.35 billion), A&E Petroleum (N1.89 billion), Rahamaniyya Petroleum N1.65 billion), Capital Oil (N1.3 billion), and Amicable Petroleum (N495.35 million).

Others debtors are Aiteo Petroleum (N426.37 million), Honeywell Oil (N40.96 million), DM Kurfi (N36.11 million), Ascon Petroleum (N20.04 million), Azman Oil (N19.35 million), Felande Petroleum (N8.4 million), Sharon Oil (N3.8 million) and Zamson Petroleum (N3.06 million).

The most indebted companies are owned by some of Nigerias and Africas richest billionaires.

Oando PLC, which owes the largest chunk of N25.05 billion, is owned by Wale Tinubu.

Femi Otedola, another billionaire, owns Forte Oil, which is responsible for N10.09 billion. Conoil is owned by Mike Adenuga, who is also the telecoms company, Globacom. The company is owing N1.3 billion.

The allocation of products to the firms was under the intervention bulk allocation arrangement and intervention truck distribution to marketers by the NNPC marketing and distribution subsidiary from its Suleja, and other products depots across the country.

The arrangements fetched revenues from partnership agreements for products supplied by the PPMC, which the oil marketing firms refused to pay to the government over the years.

Petition for action

A law firm, B. I. Murtala & Co., had petitioned the EFCC, accusing top NNPC and PPMC officials of abuse of office, economic sabotage, illegal diversion of petroleum products, illicit enrichment and corruption as well as criminal conspiracy.

The petitioner listed suspected officials it wanted investigated to include the Supervisor and Area Manager, Kaduna Depot of PPMC, Ajabi Hussaini and Rabo Shuaibu respectively, and Manager, Programming & Operations, NNPC, Abuja, Ahmed Tukur Gwarzo.

Others include Executive Directors, Commercial as well as Shared Services, PPMC, Ezecha Justin and Mustapha Muhammad respectively, and Manager, Finance & Accounts, PPMC, Titonenye Kokade.

There exists a conspiracy between PPMC/NNPC and suspected oil marketers who deliberately withheld huge government revenues in respect of petroleum products received on credit without due payment or remittance into the Federation Account, the petitioner said.

The law firm alleged the process of allocation and distribution of petroleum products by PPMC/NNPC was fraught with fraud and criminal conspiracies with marketers, leading to massive diversion of government revenues from the federation account.

Following EFCCs investigations, NNPC Retail paid back over N15.95 billion between July 25 and August 1, 2016, with over N6.62 billion still outstanding. The EFCC also recovered over N5.57 billion from NIPCO, leaving a balance of N1.93 billion.

Other recoveries include N1.2 billion from Master Energy, with N4.31 billion still unpaid; N2.2 billion from MRS Petroleum, which still has N1.75 billion to pay, while Rahamaniyya Oil & Gas repaid N400 million, to leave N1.25 billion unsettled.

The PPMC, through a memo, August 1, 2016, by the NNPC Company Secretary/Legal Adviser, Omoluabi Victor, informed the EFCC of the payments.

IPMAN President, Chinedu Okoronkwo, did not respond to phone calls on Sunday. He also did not respond to a text message.

However, a senior official of the MOMAN, who asked not to be named because of the sensitive nature of the issue, said the relationship between NNPC/PPMC and marketers allowed marketers to owe for a long time without reconciliation and payment.

Products are supplied and an average of two weeks grace given for payment. Depending on the time of reconciliation, there could be credit and debit here and there. There is no month marketers would not owe NNPC for products supplied.

There is always overlapping period before reconciliation. But, no marketer would owe for a long period of 10 years without NNPC taking action to recover monies from them, he said.

The acting General Manager, NNPC Retail, Ibrahim Jumah, who spoke in the same vein, told PREMIUM TIMES although PPMC was one of the major sources for products by NNPC Retail, there was a regular arrangement for reconciliation for payment.

NNPC Retail has a credit period of two weeks with PPMC. But, from June, we wrote to PPMC and insisted we want to proceed on cash and carry basis. So, we have been paying for products, and sometimes cannot even lift all, Mr. Jumah, who is also the GM, Finance & Accounts, NNPC Retail, he said.

The PPMC is owing us N1.9 billion for coastal products we paid for about two years ago and have not been able to lift. So, they cannot classify us as indebted to them.

The spokesperson for Forte Oil, Sam Ogbogoro, asked for time till Monday to respond to PREMIUM TIMES enquiry, as he would need to consult with officials of the company familiar with the facts of the case before responding.

He did not revert at the time of this report.
President Muhammadu Buhari has assured Nigerians that his administration is doing its best to get Nigeria out of the current challenges.

Mr. Buhari gave the assurance on Monday in Daura, Katsina State, after the Eid el-kabir prayer.

According to him, the previous Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government had left nothing for his regime despite being in power for 16 years.

Nigerians should realise that this government inherited nothing from PDP governments.

After 16 years of PDP regime, there was no power supply, no much infrastructure, no rail and no security; this is what it left for us, he said.

The president said his government was tackling three key issues with the aim of moving the country forward.

The issues are security, economy and fight against corruption.

According to him, his government was making efforts to improve the security, economy of the country and fighting corruption.

Mr. Buhari said the government was also making efforts to create jobs for graduates and other unemployed youths.

We have plans for the country; we must first secured the country, for security is the key to development.

We first dealt with the Boko-Haram and now we are dealing with the militants.

Through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and an inter-ministerial committee under the Vice-President, we are working out jobs for graduates and other youths.

We are equally tackling corruption, which will be a continuous thing.

So, we are trying our best and we want Nigerians to do their best too, the president said.

President Buhari also expressed hope that the country would have a food security after recording bumper harvest from this years cropping season.

(NAN)
The Catholic Bishops meeting in Akure has called on the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to take urgent measures to alleviate the sufferings of poor Nigerians in the face of the prevailing economic recession.

Speaking at the 2nd plenary session of the opening mass of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria on Sunday in Akure, Ignatius Kaigama, President of the conference, said the body of bishops made a representation to Mr. Buhari in May concerning the plight of ordinary Nigerians and the state of the economy. He said the clerics extracted a promise from him to act quickly.

He also cautioned the President to eschew sentiments in the running of the country and provide an environment of equity and justice for all Nigerians.

A lot still needs to be done by the Federal Government in alleviating the sufferings of the masses in the face of the current economic hardship, he said.

The country should not be ruled with sentiments and there should be fairness and equality.

He also advocated an all-inclusive governance in a bid to fast track national development.

Mr. Kaigama expressed satisfaction on the cooperation between the church and the government of Ondo State. He said the Olusegun Mimiko-led administration had brought smiles to the faces of the people through the provision of good roads, infrastructural development, quality healthcare and urban renewal.

The Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, in his remarks at the conference attended by the Deji of Akure, Aladetoyinbo Adelusi, appealed to the bishops to join in the call for the restructuring of Nigeria.

According to Mr. Mimiko, true federalism remained the only panacea for the growth and development of the country.

He argued that Nigerias Federal Government was biting more than it could chew with the larger percentage of the resources at its disposal to the detriment of the federating units.

Mr. Mimiko also noted that the government had a responsibility to curtail religious bigotry in the country. He urged religious leaders to continue to pray for the nation.

He said corruption facing Nigeria could be addressed with the right policy in place.

He also cautioned on inter-religious conflicts, saying they may lead the country into more danger that might be difficult to overcome.

Government has responsibility of bringing these bigots to book, said Mr. Mimiko. We are not comfortable with what the bigots are doing.

What they are doing is most worrisome in Nigeria. The church has a major role to play by praying for Nigeria.

The governor charged churches to always stand up when they see an abuse of the secularity in Nigeria.

We must stand to resist the few bigots who want to destroy Nigeria.

He said deepening inequality also fuels radicalism in the society.

He commended the Catholic Bishops in Nigeria for what they had been standing for in Nigeria.
Nigerian government officials responsible for assisting pilgrims for the 2016 Hajj in Saudi Arabia may be stopped from performing the rites, a government representative said Sunday.

The chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON, Abdullahi Mohammed, told journalists at the plains of Arafat in Saudi Arabia that officiating and performing hajj could be challenging.

To officiate as well as perform hajj is difficult. We have done that in the past, and at the end of the day we all felt it in our body. Sometimes you dont have the right state of mind to really do the needful in terms of performing your official functions, he said.

Nigeria and other participating countries, alongside host Saudi Arabia, have implemented new policies to enhance pilgrims safety during the 2016 Hajj, following the death of more than 2000 people in accidents during the 2015 event.

Mr. Mohammed said NAHCON may also consider the next policy in the 2017 Hajj exercise.

From next year, we will discuss with other stakeholders to find a way of making it as a policy in partial implementation and then gradually we will enforce it as a policy in the whole nation, he said.

He also said even if Nigeria was not considering such a policy, the Saudi authorities will in the near future impose it.

I am certain that even if we dont do it as a nation, a time will come when the Saudi authorities will do it. If you are in the Kingdom for the purpose if observing Hajj, you observe it; and if you are an official who is supposed to officiate Hajj activity, they would not allow you to perform the Hajj and they would put that restriction, he said.

Mr. Mohammed said the policy would help officials to perform optimally on their duties as it would help them monitor and assist pilgrims.

This concept will not be restricted to only the staff of the commission or those who come under the it but will also go down to the states, because that is where the bulk of the work in terms of management of the Hajj is, he said.

National prayer for Nigeria

Meanwhile, the Hajj commission has taken advantage of the Arafat day to organize national prayers for Nigeria and its leadership.

The prayers, which began immediately after the press conference, saw cleric offering prayers in Arabic, English, Hausa, Yoruba and Ijaw languages.

The prayers were centered around the return of full peace in the land and for God to grand president Muhammadu Buhari and all leaders at all levels the wisdom to govern well.

Prayers were also offered for the continued well being of all citizens.

In a short remark, NAHCON boss said the prayer was organised because standing on the plains of Arafat is not just the pillar of Hajj, but that God grants the wishes of all pilgrims.
Nigeria is currently undergoing economic challenges. This is due to the fall in the value of the Naira and other factors. Purchasing rams for the Muslim Eid-el-Kabir celebration is difficult this year.

This is especially true for those who belong in the low income class.

PREMIUM TIMES spoke to an Islamic cleric about what those who cannot afford rams ought to do to be a part of the Eid-el-Kabir celebration.

Ibrahim Garba Muhamad is a cleric at the Kugbo area mosque in Kugbo, Abuja.

According to him, everyone is aware of the current economic challenges facing the country.

I have no idea how other people view the economic situation but personally, I dont see how the economy stops one from purchasing a ram.

I bought my own ram at between N25, 000 and N30, 000. As you can see, it is not really as expensive as many people think it is, he said.

When asked if all Muslims are required to slaughter a ram for Eid-el-Kabir, Muhammad said it was not compulsory that all Muslims must do so.

The exception is if you have the financial capability of obtaining a ram for the celebration. It is not compulsory but if you have the means, you should get a ram, he said.

The ram sacrifice signifies the end of Zul-hijjah, the Muslims pilgrimage to Mecca. This they do from the first to the ninth day of Zul-hijjah. Those that re not privileged to go for Hajj will offer sacrifices as their own token, he said.

Muhammad advised those who cannot afford to buy rams during this Sallah to focus on the spiritual significance of the celebration.

The most important thing is the praises we offer on Eid. For instance, on the eve of the Eid-el-kabir, we offer fast from sun-up to sunset to mark the day of Arafat. I think that is the most important aspect of the celebration.

The spiritual aspect of Eid-el-Kabir ought to be very important to all Muslims.

Killing rams is equally important as Muslims are supposed to use the ram meat to show and spread love to the less-privileged in their environment. So, they can feel included in the celebration.

The killing of the ram is not for those who purchased the ram. It is for every other person, that is why sharing of the meat is very common, especially to those who do not have, he said.
President Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday joined Muslim faithful at Kofar-Arewa Eid-ground, Daura in Katsina to observe the Eid-el kabir prayer.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the prayer, which started at about 9:45 a.m., was led by the Daura Emirate Chief Imam, Sheikh Safiyanu Yusuf.

In his sermon, Yusuf stressed the importance of sacrifice in Islam, adding that it could be done with ram, sheep, goats, cattle and camel.

Yusuf said the sacrifice could not be done with animal with one eye, ear, broken horn, cut tail, cripple, sick and malnourished, adding that no part of the sacrifice should be sold.

The Imam said the sacrifice should be done only with the intention of getting closer to the Almighty Allah.

One should mention the name of Allah while slaughtering the animal, he said.

Yusuf also said that sacrifice could also be performed two days after the Eid-el kabir day, and the meat given to the poor and needy.

President Buhari and the Emir of Daura slaughtered their rams after the prayer at the ground.

The prayer was attended, by the Emir of Daura, Umar Farouq, Director-General, Department of State Services, Lawal Musa Daura, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, Garba Shehu, traditional rulers in the Emirate, among others.

Eid-el kabir prayer is performed on 10th day of Zulhajj, the twelve month of Islamic calendar.(NAN)
The ruling All Progressives Congress has reacted to the apparent drift in the relationship between the Federal Government and the #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) group.

Responding to a tweet by a leader of the BBOG, Oby Ezekwesili, suggesting a volte face by President Muhammadu Buhari on the issue, the APC said it remains committed to BBOGs struggle but has only changed its strategy since it is now the party in power.

Before the May 2015 presidential election, the APC was a powerful voice behind the groups campaign for the rescue of the over 200 Chibok school girls abducted by the extremist group, Boko Haram.

The then opposition party made the missing Chibok girls a campaign issue against the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Now in power and the girls still not rescued, APCs relationship with the campaigners has become frosty.

The BBOG members were on Tuesday prevented by the police from marching to the Presidential Villa, Abuja. A pro-government group had on the same day also joined to block the groups path to the villa.

Miffed by the development, Oby Ezekwesili, a former minister of Education, and a leader of the BBOG, took to Twitter on Friday to remind President Muhammadu Buhari that it was 879 days since the Chibok girls were abducted.

No More excuses. Decide now. Act now, Ms. Ezekwesili said to the president.

The series of tweets released by Ms. Ezekwesili, since after the Tuesday incident, give a picture of what the BBOG now think of President Buhari and his administration.

The former minister, in her tweets, said that by slandering, renting a crowd, and attempting to stop their protest march, officials of low degree thought they could destroy BBOG, so that the group would stop disturbing the government.

As a reminder of what the group insists the president owes the people, Ms. Ezekwesili quoted a line from President Buharis inaugural speech on May 29, 2015 in which he said: We cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons.

She also referred APC to the partys December 2014 tweet, in which it said, Its hours to New Year celebration. Our Chibok girls arent home yet. If you talk about it, they label you opposition. Things must change.

The APC, in its response to Ms. Ezekwesili, said it is committed to the BBOGs struggle, but that its strategy has changed since it is now the party in power.

As opposition then, #BringBackOurGirls was an open campaign, since that was the only way we could pressure government into action, the APC tweeted.

However, as leading party, our strategy changed. Were most concerned with actual efforts to rescue the girls and our efforts are evident.

The party said the BBOG leader would agree that Mr. Buharis administration is succeeding in its war against insurgency.

Dear @obyezeks, we respect your resilience and commitment to the #BringBackOurGirls struggle and would do anything to encourage you, Ma.

As a party, well continue to work with government and security forces, as much as legally allowed, until they #BringBackOurGirls.

The Nigerian police, on Friday, reversed itself and declared that public protest was allowed in Abuja, and other parts of the country.

The police statement said public protest was part of democracy, but that it must conform to the rule of law and public order.

The Nigeria Police Force recognises the constitutional rights of every law abiding citizen to express his or her view through public protest/procession and other legitimate means, the statement said.

The BBOG has demanded that the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, apologise for the police attempt to block them in the first place.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Sunday felicitated with Muslim Faithful over the Eid el-Kabir season and urged all Nigerians to embrace the Change-Begins-with-Me campaign.

This is contained in a statement signed by the APC National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun.

Mr. Odigie-Oyegun urged Muslims and all Nigerians to use the Sallah occasion to show love, promote harmonious and peaceful co-existence with one another, irrespective of ethnic or religious affiliation.

He urged Nigerians to pray for the peace and quick recovery of the nations economy.

Muslim Faithful and indeed all Nigerians are enjoined to use the occasion of Eid el-Kabir to pray for the peace, development and prosperity of the country, he said.

He called on Nigerians to support the administration to pull the country out of the present hardship and restore the country on the path of growth in all facets.

Indeed, Nigeria is today passing through challenging times in its socio-economic life.

Happily, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC administration is already employing all legitimate and innovative means to restore the countrys battered economy to health in the quickest possible time.

In a bold move to repair our value system that has been badly eroded over the years, on Sept. 8, President Muhammadu Buhari launched the laudable national re-orientation campaign, Change Begins with Me.

The party appeals to all Nigerians to be part of this campaign which will institutionalise the best practice and time-honoured values of honesty, hard work, patriotism, abhorrence of corruption, accountability and integrity in our everyday life, he said. (NAN)
Former British Prime Minister David Cameron has resigned from the UK parliament with immediate effect.

It is not going to be possible to be a normal backbencher as a former prime minister, Mr. Cameron told the BBC on Monday.

He added that his presence in parliament could be a distraction for his successor as Prime Minister, Theresa May.

Mr. Cameron had pledged to support Mrs. May, who has got off to a cracking start since she became the nations leader in July.

The ruling Conservative Party elected Mrs. May to lead the country after Mr. Cameron resigned following his failed campaign to persuade voters to remain in the European Union in Britains Brexit referendum.

He said at the time he planned to remain in Parliament although he would no longer have a leadership role in the Conservative Party.

Mr. Camerons unexpected announcement on Monday will trigger a bye-election for his seat in Oxfordshire.

It was not immediately clear when the bye-election for his seat would take place.

Mr. Cameron promised to support the Conservative Party candidate chosen to replace him in the bye-election that would be held to fill the vacancy.

He won re-election in 2015, but his position became untenable after losing the EU vote on June 23.

(dpa/NAN)
The Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima, on Monday led top government functionaries to Konduga, one of the liberated Boko Haram territories, to observe this years Eid-el-Kabir celebration with internally displaced persons.

Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Garba Abari, Senators Abubakar Kyari and Baba Kaka Garbai, and the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Abdulkareem Lawal, accompanied the governor.

Konduga, about 35km from Maiduguri, the state capital, is the gateway to the dreaded Sambisa forest and one of the 27 local government areas that suffered the most attacks by Boko Haram insurgents.

Though the main township was never captured by the insurgents, Konduga was under repeated attacks by Boko Haram which wanted its control for unfettered access to Maiduguri.

The persistent attacks forced the villagers to flee into IDPs camps in Maiduguri where they remained for about two years.

According to a statement by Isa Gusau, spokesman of Governor Shettima, the delegation arrived Konduga at about 9am and was received by officials of the local government, and a large number of former IDPs who had returned home to Konduga two weeks ago.

The Eid prayer was led by the Imam Eidaini of Konduga, Imam Goni Lawan, who later, symbolically slaughtered his ram in the presence of Mr. Shettima to pave way for other worshipers to slaughter theirs, said Mr. Gusau.

He said it was the first time he could recall that the governor of a largely Muslim populated state like Borno observed Eid prayer outside the state capital.

He said the governor took time to explain his decision to alter tradition by praying outside the state capital.

Konduga is not more important to us than Askira Uba where two emirs have returned; it is not more important to us than Gwoza, which is bigger and more populated; Konduga is also not more important to us than Monguno, Kukawa, Damboa, Ngala, Dikwa or any other part of the State where our citizens have returned.

We chose Konduga because of proximity to Maiduguri; given the fact that some of those working with me need to go back and slaughter their rams mostly in Maiduguri and they also need time with their families; while we have other activities scheduled at the Government House in Maiduguri, Mr. Shettima said.

So, Konduga is a symbol, which represents all the communities where our people have returned. We are here in solidarity with them, to celebrate the Sallah with them, to strengthen the fact that they are no less important than those who were not affected by the insurgency, to reaffirm our commitment to resettlement of IDPS.

We came to share this moment with them and to also reassure them that we wouldnt have allowed them to return to Konduga if it was classified unsafe, this is why we are here with them.

We are determined to restore the dignity of our people, to reinstall civil authority, to rebuild their schools, hospitals, markets and homes so they can return to safe homes and I want to reiterate that we will not allow our citizens to return to unsafe communities, the governor said.

The IDPs from Konduga local government areas were officially permitted to return to their homes Monday, last week.

The returnees have, however, since been complaining of hunger and lack of houses to settle their families in the largely destroyed town of Konduga, and because food and other relief items were not provided as they were asked to return home.

Mr. Shettima had then assured that food and other needs would be conveyed to the returnees the day following their departure from the camps in Maiduguri. But it seemed the arrangement had not been followed.

But with the governor shifting his Eid praying ground to Konduga, it was expected that the returnees would at least enjoy Sallah celebration.
A 42-year-old mother, Blessing Arigi-Osakwe, died on Sunday of injuries sustained while attempting to save her two children from an inferno in Sokoto.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the two children died after the bid to save them by their courageous mother failed.

While the children died in the fire and their bodies were recovered in the early hours of Saturday, their mother later died on Sunday.

The spokesman of the Teaching Hospital, Tijjani Saddique, confirmed the story.

He said, the two children were brought into the Trauma Centre of the hospital on Saturday dead.

However, their mother died at the hospital on Sunday, he said.

The fire at their home along Trade Fair, Old Airport area of Sokoto, was said to have been caused by an electrical fault.

A source said the deceased mother, alongside her husband and two older children, had initially escaped from the fire unhurt.

She was, however, said to have later made a brave and desperate attempt to save the younger children who were still trapped inside the burning house.

The two children were identified as her nine-year-old son and nephew.

According to eyewitnesses, the burning roof suddenly collapsed on the woman as she attempted taking the children to a safer place.

The remains of the three deceased persons had since been deposited at the morgue of the Usman Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto, while the two other children were receiving treatment

When contacted, the Director-General of the State Fire Service, Alhaji Ibrahim Dingyadi, told NAN that the incident was not reported to the department.

Our personnel only attended to a fire incident along Offa road, Sokoto on Friday and there was no casualty, he said.

Similarly, Elmustapha Sani, the police spokesman in the state, told NAN that the incident was not reported to the police. (NAN)
The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate in the governorship election in Edo rescheduled to Sept. 28, Osaro Onaiwu, has called for further shift of the exercise to Oct. 1.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday announced the postponement of the election fixed for Saturday to Sept. 28, following insecurity alert by security agencies.

Mr. Onaiwu told journalists in Benin on Monday that a further shift in the date of poll was necessary as Sept. 28 was the day students sitting for the ongoing General Certificate of Education (GCE) across the country would write Physics.

He said Oct.1 was the earliest possible date for the election.

Mr. Onaiwu said the shift would afford eligible voters among the students to participate in the election.

According to him, education is number one pillar in APGAs manifesto, and the authorities must be wary of threats from some of the students that they would sue INEC if they were prevented from voting in the election.

On the claim by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that the election was postponed because it was obvious that the party would win, the APGA candidate said that such claim was a mere presumption.

He slammed the PDP for insisting that the election should have been allowed to go on.

Are we going to wait for what happened in Rivers? PDP is crying because they know what we dont know.

Since security agencies said the election was not possible and INEC has shifted it, everybody should abide, he said.

(NAN)
The Ondo governorship candidacy of businessman, Jimoh Ibrahim, on the platform of the Ali Modu Sherrif faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, has been challenged by Olusola Ebiseni.

Mr. Ibrahim was declared winner of the partys primary which held in Ibadan, but petitions arising from the exercise stalled his campaign activities.

Mr. Ebisenis challenge is coming a day after suspected hoodlums attacked Mr. Ibrahims campaign office, destroying posters, flags and banners bearing his portrait.

Speaking to journalists in Akure, Mr. Ebiseni said the exercise was fraught with irregularities.

.

He said the Ibadan primary was a mockery of democracy. He said he had petitioned the Appeal Committee of the party to address the issues.

But Mr. Ibrahim, through his campaign Director General, Olabisi Johnson, said Mr. Ebiseni was acting as a typical Nigerian politician who would discredit an election if he fails to emerge winner.

He accused Mr. Ebiseni of turning against the party, after he congratulated the winner and commended the election organising committee for a job well done.

Mr. Ebiseni, a former Commissioner for Environment in the state, pitched his tent with the Sheriffs faction of the PDP after an alleged imposition of Eyitayo Jegede by Governor Olusegun Mimiko.

Mr. Mimiko supports the Ahmed Makarfi faction of the party.

Making the challenge, three weeks after the election, Mr. Ebiseni said what happened in Ibadan was an illegal anti-democratic contraption that cannot stand.

He said the candidacy of Mr. Jegede was also illegal even though he was handpicked by Mr. Mimiko.

Our grouse is that what took place in Ibadan could not be referred to as any form of election by any stretch of the imagination, he said.

There was no means of identifying who really were delegates. No delegates list or register presented no accreditation of any form which faulted the entire process.

How could an election which lasted barely an hour have involved accreditation of almost 1000 delegates.

Mr. Ebisemi also expressed the concern that the faulty conduct of the Ibadan primary had made a mess of the desire for integrity which made him and others to seek correction under Sheriffs faction.

It was unfortunate that some people would, out of indiscretion, desecrate the altar of integrity on which the Sheriff group in Ondo State worship and for which we sought a separate tabernacle in the first place, he said.

He also doubted that the nomination form allegedly issued to Jimoh Ibrahim by the Independent National Electoral Commission was genuine.

But Mr. Ibrahims spokesperson, Mr. Johnson, said Mr. Ebisemi was present at the primary, and accepted the defeat in the presence of all the delegates.

He was present at the primary and participated in it, Mr. Johnson said. He took the microphone and congratulated the winner, commending the process and even saying it was better than the one conducted at the Dome.
Tracey Stahl lost part of a leg to bone cancer last fall, and she has to wince through bouts of crippling pain from an ill-fitting artificial limb because of a strange health insurance limit: Her plan covers just one limb per lifetime.

She now has to weigh whether to put the nearly $9,000 new leg on her credit card as she fights her insurance company. I feel  its embarrassing to say  paralyzed about what to do, said Stahl, from her home in Penfield, New York.

Caiti Rileys left leg was amputated below the knee at age 4 due to a rare birth defect. The San Antonio resident is 31 now and covered by the best insurance she ever has had. Her plan is paying most of the about $5,000 bill for a new running leg to complement the one she uses daily.

I work out every day. Theres nothing really that I cant do now, she said.

Glaring differences in insurance coverage persist for amputees, children with autism and others in need of certain expensive treatments even after the Affordable Care Act set new standards as part of its push to expand and improve coverage, and despite efforts by states to mandate coverage for some treatments.

These differences do not develop just because some people pay more for better coverage. They stem from random factors like what state someone lives in or who happens to provide their coverage.

The federal health care law largely leaves decisions on what gets covered up to states or employers who provide insurance for workers.

These gaps can bury patients in debt or force them to skip care and may become more common as cost of care rises and insurers and employers look for ways to

control that expense.

Researcher Sabrina Corlette thinks nothing short of federal action can close these coverage gaps, and she doesnt see that happening anytime soon.

I think you would need to see Congress say, OK, we need more uniformity here,' said Corlette, a Georgetown Health Policy Institute professor. And I just dont see this Congress or any near-term Congress stepping in and wanting to do that.

States have passed about 1,800 mandates requiring the coverage of various treatments or conditions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. But those mandates dont extend beyond state borders, and they dont apply to the self-funded coverage offered by nearly all large employers.

North Carolina, for example, recently became one of 44 states to require coverage of autism treatments  and it wont help Iris Castillo one bit.

The Raleigh, North Carolina, resident said it felt like a cold bucket of water had been tossed on her when she learned that insurance from her new job wont cover applied behavior analysis therapy for her 9-year-old son, Alex.

Hours of this daily therapy, which is a standard treatment for autistic children, have helped Alex learn simple tasks, such as how to brush his teeth or say hi to another kid. Castillo worries her son will regress if treatment stops. But it can cost more than $40,000 a year, far beyond what Castillos family can afford.

You dont feel like youre in control, she said.

Her employers coverage is self-funded, which means it pays its own health care bills instead of buying coverage from an insurer. That also means it doesnt have to comply with most state coverage mandates.

Employers have been slowly switching to this type of coverage for several years to help control what has become one of their largest expenses and to avoid some of the requirements imposed by the ACA, said Robert Laszewski, a health care consultant and former insurance executive. He expects gaps or differences in coverage to become more common as health expenses grow.

Insurers and employers routinely cover organ transplants, heart procedures and other expensive surgeries. But coverage still varies widely for a range of patients that includes people recovering from eating disorders, including anorexia, and women who need breast reduction surgery to ease back pain.

The cost of a particular treatment, the need for it in a covered population and lingering disagreements over necessity help explain some coverage differences.

Bariatric surgery, which can improve the health of obese patients by limiting food intake, can cost $7,000 to $30,000. Coverage is improving, and Dr. John Morton estimates about 75 percent of patients who need the surgery have some insurance for it.

But the quality of that coverage varies widely, according to the Stanford School of Medicine surgeon. Some plans only cover the procedure for severely obese patients, while others may charge deductibles of around $10,000, which can dissuade many from having surgery.

An annual survey of large employers by the benefits firm Mercer found that 40 percent offered no coverage for infertility treatment last year. Some companies dont view it as essential to a persons health, while others with an eye toward attracting and keeping good workers, have started offering the coverage to help LGBT patients conceive.

We see a lot of variation between employers, and its extremely confusing to the consumer, said Dr. David Kaplan, a senior partner at Mercer.

Stahl, who lost her leg to cancer, got a prosthesis in January, but her leg shrank so the artificial limb no longer fits. This forces her to use crutches or a wheelchair when she has to walk more than a short distance. If the pain grows too intense, she retreats to bed and keeps her leg elevated.

She bought her coverage on New Yorks public insurance exchange. Her insurer, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, said the coverage it sells there follows a model set by the state. The insurer rejected Stahls claim for a new limb in May and then rejected her appeal in July.

In Texas, Riley said her previous insurance capped limb coverage at $2,500 every four years, which she likened to a smack in the face. Now her coverage is so good she says she almost feels bad about it.

I know what the challenges are, she said. If you go out and get in a car accident and lose your leg, youre not going to be prepared for something like this.
FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP)  Authorities in Florida are investigating an early Monday fire at the mosque that was attended by the Orlando nightclub shooter as a possible arson.

In an update on its official Facebook page, The St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office said surveillance video shows someone approaching the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce around 12:30 a.m. Monday, moments before a flash was seen and the fire started. Firefighters extinguished the fire and there was no word about how much damage the fire caused.

No injuries have been reported.

The mosque was attended by Omar Mateen, who opened fire at the Pulse nightclub on June 12 in a rampage that left 49 victims dead and 53 wounded. It was the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Early Monday, Maj. David Thompson of the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office declined to speculate on whether the Sunday anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks played a role in the fire.

Multiple agencies, including the State Fire Marshal's Office, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI, are investigating. Sheriff's officials said they will be releasing the video and asking for the public's help in identifying the person responsible for the fire.

It's not the first time the mosque has seen trouble since the Orlando attack.

A few weeks after the nightclub shooting, a man was beaten outside the mosque, according to Sheriff Ken J. Mascara. Early on July 2, deputies were called by a man who said someone was trying to burglarize a vehicle. Arriving deputies found a man bleeding from the mouth who told them he was approached by someone who "asked him what he was doing and then punched him several times in the face and head."

The man was stopped by deputies and arrested a short time later.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement that a man in a truck had stopped outside the mosque earlier that day and made slurs, including, "you Muslims need to get back to your country."

Mateen's father is among the roughly 100 members that attend the mosque.
VINELAND  It will cost at least $8.7 million to clean up contamination from the former Kil-Tone Co. pesticide plant, and the federal government will likely have to pay for all the work, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday.

The $8.7 million only covers work related to the removal of an estimated 21,000 cubic yards of soil, contaminated to some degree by lead and arsenic, from 57 residential properties near the Kil-Tone site in the 500 block of Chestnut Avenue, the EPA said in a statement.

Jane Morton Galetto, president of Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River and Its Tributaries, said, Its scary that so many residential properties are considered at risk.

After beating acute pollution, Maurice River faces tougher challenge The Maurice River epitomizes the conflict in New Jersey between exceptional natural areas an

She said the EPA findings are clearly worrisome for the river, adding it is typical to start cleanups close to the source and move out from there.

And sometimes tearing up a river bed can be worse, Galetto said of the prospect of later cleanups of arsenic and lead focusing on the Tarkiln Branch, a waterway that leads to the Maurice River.

Other work linked to problems with commercial and industrial soil, surface water, sediment and groundwater at the actual Kil-Tone site and the Tarkiln Branch will be the subject of future cleanups, the statement reads. Surface water and sediment samples taken from the Tarkiln Branch in April 2015 showed elevated arsenic and lead levels related to the Kil-Tone property, it continued.

The EPA said it attempts to find parties responsible for contamination at Superfund sites in order to hold those parties accountable for the cost of investigations and cleanups.

Kil-Tone is a Superfund site, however, the EPA has not been able to locate any viable liable parties for (the Kil-Tone) site and, thus, the remedial action at this site will need to be funded by the Superfund program, according to the agencys statement.

Kil-Tone produced pesticides from about 1917 to 1926, the EPA said. Kil-Tone sold the property in 1926 to the Lucas Kil-Tone Co., which is believed to have continued manufacturing pesticides at the site until at least 1933, the agency said. The property is currently occupied by an unrelated and active business, the EPA said.

The important thing is that the property will be cleaned up, said Jeff Tittle, director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club.

The only concern we have is that there is no party to go after, and we have to use public money and theres not enough of it, Tittle said. Thats the real concern.

Tittle said environmental organizations have pushed for the return of a special fee imposed on chemical and pesticide companies. That fee provided funds to help the federal government pay for Superfund cleanups at sites, like Kil-Tone, where no responsible entity can be found to finance the work, he said. The fees absence leaves the Superfund program dependent on funds allocated annually by Congress and the president, he said.

The money has done a lot of good, he said. The problem is that they run out.

Galetto said the Kil-Tone situation underscores the importance of dealing with problems early.

I think the lesson continues to be, if something is not right, or seems not right, to get it checked out and not to labor it because of some presumed benefit, Galetto said. Those things can migrate off site  then affect all these peoples lives.

Judith Enck, administrator for EPA Region 2, which covers New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and eight tribal nations, said the work must be done.

Lead is a toxic material that can build up in the body and, even at low levels, cause learning disabilities, impaired hearing, reduced attention spans, hyperactivity and other behavioral problems in children, and harm fetuses in pregnant women, the EPA said. Arsenic can cause various forms of cancer, it said.

The EPAs cleanup actions will help protect children and adults from exposure to arsenic and lead in soil at these (57) properties, Enck said. The EPA is committed to addressing the lead and arsenic contamination from the former pesticides manufacturing facility site.

EPA spokesman Elias Rodriguez said preparatory work at the 57 properties is underway. Full field work is expected to begin in the spring, he said.

The $8.7 million residential cleanup operation involves removing the existing soil from the 57 properties and disposing of it at a licensed facility, the EPA said. The excavated areas will be backfilled with clean soil, replanted with vegetation, if appropriate, and restored.

The soil-cleanup operation will be monitored to measure its effectiveness, and the EPA also will monitor the air near the work areas, the agency said.

The operation allows for work at more than the 57 properties. Other properties may be added based on EPA soil testing, the agency said.

The EPA will coordinate with the property owners and occupants to ensure that the work is done with minimal disruption, according to the agency.

The Kil-Tone site is one of four Superfund sites in the city, added to a list of toxic violators that includes Vineland Chemical Co., Iceland Coin Laundry and the Nascolite Corp. Those four sites are part of 10 Superfund locations in Atlantic, Cumberland, Cape May and Gloucester counties still undergoing some kind of treatment.

The EPA said cleanup operations at the other nine sites now exceed $403 million.

Contact: 609-226-9197
TRENTON  Assemblyman Ralph Caputo, D-Essex, is set to introduce a resolution Thursday that will detail how revenue from North Jersey casinos would be used if the states voters approve gambling outside of Atlantic City in November.

Caputo told The Associated Press on Tuesday that a casino at the Meadowlands Racetrack, if approved, might be taxed at 35 to 40 percent while a costlier one in Jersey City could pay 15 to 20 percent.

Voters will decide whether or not to approve as many as two casinos in North Jersey during the Nov. 8 general election. The ballot question states the new casinos must be in separate counties and at least 72 miles from Atlantic City, where four casinos closed in 2014 and another, Trump Taj Mahal, is set to close Oct. 10.

Revitalizing A.C. requires gaming expansion, says Jeffrey Gural I write this not as a casino operator, but as someone who loves harness racing and has dedic

Transparency and clarity is critical for residents and all parties involved in the North Jersey casino debate, especially as we move closer to November elections, Caputo said. We have seen and heard many different opinions on this issue, both negative and positive. However, it is important that the Legislatures intent for any funding coming out of a casino built in the north is spelled out clearly and as definitively as possible.

Deutsche Bank said last year that North Jersey casinos could generate $500 million in gambling revenue. A 50 percent tax rate would put $250 million in the states coffers, which would have to be divided among all the recipients. Atlantic City casinos pay an effective tax rate of 9.25 percent on gross gambling revenue.

Before Caputo mentioned the possible tax rates Tuesday, Assemblyman Chris Brown, R-Atlantic, called Caputos resolution a gimmick, saying it is simply the same old song with a different verse that still fails to provide a specific tax rate and fails to answer how cannibalizing Atlantic Citys gaming market by causing the loss of another 14,000 jobs and the closure of more casinos will somehow help Atlantic Countys working families and retirees.

A portion of the proposed North Jersey casino revenue would be dedicated to providing job placement for workers who lost their jobs when casinos closed, according to the proposed resolution. Money also will be provided for continued promotional support for Atlantic City as a destination resort, the resolution states.

Sen. Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic, said there are still a lot of unanswered questions.

Right now we have no idea what the tax rate for the (North Jersey) casinos is going to be, Whelan said Monday. If you dont know what the tax rate is, then you dont know what Atlantic Citys cut is going to be.

The resolution includes guidelines for choosing a casino location, selecting licensed operators and the administration of programs to be funded by state revenues.

The revenues are expected to be used for fund the states senior tax freeze program, Meals on Wheels program and Pharmaceutical Assistance to the Aged and Disabled; public space and transportation improvements; and Atlantic City recovery initiatives, but the exact amount of how much each program would receive has not been decided.

Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo, D-Atlantic, said the failure to disclose the referendums full details and implications have doomed this misguided ballot question.

This is just further evidence that this disastrous referendum is on life support because residents across the state have concluded this is a bad deal for New Jersey and Atlantic County, which would face the loss of 10,000 more jobs, Mazzeo said.

Weve lagged behind in terms of being transparent, Caputo said Tuesday. Theres no use kidding anybody about that. The tax rate needs to be established.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact: 609-272-7046

Twitter @ACPressHuba
VINELAND  While its not clear what action Mayor Ruben Bermudez may take to get his name on the November ballot, the two other men who will vie for his office are writing him off as a candidate.

The City Clerks Office ruled on Thursday that Bermudez fell 10 nominating petitions short of reaching the minimum 377 nominating petitions needed to make it on the ballot.

Bermudez hasnt responded to requests by The Press of Atlantic City for comment on whether hell begin a legal challenge to the City Clerks Office ruling. City officials indicated me might take that action, something the other mayoral candidates are apparently discounting.

The process is the process, City Council President Anthony Fanucci said. Its unfortunate. Ruben didnt complete the process and I wish him well in the future.

Robert Romano said Bermudez ran in enough local elections - he previously served on City Council - to understand the election regulations and deadlines.

He cant claim that he didnt know the rules, said Romano, a former mayor. I dont think he has a leg to stand on.

Bermudez filed his nominating petitions shortly before the 4 p.m. deadline on Sept. 6. The City Clerks Office rejected about 100 of those petitions for reasons that included inconsistent addresses and no proof that some of the people who signed the petitions were registered voters. Bermudez needed to return at least 62 corrected nominating petitions by 4 p.m. on Thursday to make it on the ballot.

Romano is discounting a successful legal challenge to the City Clerks Office ruling.

The law is pretty clear, Romano said. If they change it for him, theyd be changing the law for the entire state of New Jersey.

A legal victory by Bermudez might also prompt legal challenges from two City Council candidates who, like Bermudez, didnt have enough correct nominating petitions to achieve ballot status.

I dont believe any judge would put the city in a position to do that, he said.

The City Clerks Office rejected about 100 nominating petitions turned in Miguel Cruz, and about 80 nominating petitions submitted by Wanda Stancil, on Sept. 6. They didnt return enough corrected nominating petitions by the Thursday deadline join the list of certified City Council candidates.

Until last weeks ruling by the City Clerks Office, this Novembers election posed some interesting dynamics from the 2012 race.

Romano and his City Council slate won the November 2012 balloting, but lost the runoff election a month later to Bermudez and his City Council slate. Bermudezs slate was formed after the November 2012 balloting and included City Council candidates who ran with Bermudez and Perry Barse, a former mayor seeking to reclaim the post.

The combined ticket included Fanucci. The political relationship between Bermudez and City Council began to sour after a few months, resulting in a strained relationship between Bermudez and the governing body.

As for this election, state Election Law Enforcement Commission records show Fanuccis Friends of Anthony Fanucci campaign account contained $58,084.89 at the end of the second quarter reporting period. ELEC records show that, for the same reporting period, Romanos Romano 2016 account had $2,062.74, while Bermudezs Bermudez for Progress account had $932.34.

Fanucci has also run at least one television commercial, in which he introduces himself to the electorate and explains how he and his ticket will discuss their plans for the city.
ABSECON  Unveiling a 16-foot piece of steel beam at the base of a new memorial Sunday, Absecon 9/11 Memorial Founders Committee President Jim Smith was choked up.

It means that we stepped through a window in time, we stepped back in time and touched the hearts of all of America, said Smith, of Absecon.

The city held a dedication service for the new monument Sunday on Mill Road near City Hall, marking the 15th anniversaryof Sept. 11, 2001. and drawing hundreds of local residents.

Smith said he has been working on the memorial for 1,460 days. His 21-member committee has been on the job for three years, he said.

The memorial features two 19-foot aluminum towers to symbolize the World Trade Center, with the steel beam recovered from the wreckage of 9/11 displayed before it. Five plaques serve as the base of flag poles that display the American and the New Jersey flags, as well as the New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania where nearly 3,000 people died during the terrorist attack.

Erica Spina of Galloway helped bring 15 senior citizens from Senior Care in Galloway to the memorial service Sunday

Weve been following this since it started, said Spina, whose husband, Al, is on the committee.

She said that Senior Care donated shoes to help raise funds for the memorial.

I wanted them to come today to see the importance of this not only locally, but for our whole country, Spina said. I am so proud to live here, locally, and to know that we have a part in it. Its just so much more beautiful than I could have anticipated.

Atlantic City remembers locals on 9/11 ATLANTIC CITY  The firing of shots and a cannon rung through the crowd of over 500 who came

The memorial was designed by the committee with architect William Haryslak, project construction manager Edward Vincent and engineer Lamont Czar of Czar Engineering.

During the dedication, Smith was presented with a steel cross for his efforts in having the memorial erected.

Haryslak noted that Absecon was becoming a trustee of a piece of American history.

What a privilege it has been, being selected to work on a project to memorialize such an important event in our nations history, he said.

Atlantic County Freeholder Richard Dase, a seventh grade social studies teacher at Galloway Township Middle School, said the memorial serves as a lesson to all those who werent yet born on that fateful day.

So its up to us to share with them what this day is all about, he said.

Absecon Mayor John Armstrong said that, 15 years later, the United State is still the best hope for freedom in this troubled world.

Absecon's 9/11 Memorial rises with an emotional tie to the towers ABSECON  A steel beam from the 39th floor of the South Tower at the World Trade Center has 

That horrible day is etched in our memory, said Armstrong. But in the aftermath of that act, has come countless acts of kindness and caring.

Contact: 609-272-7251
ATLANTIC CITY  Excavation work for the Gateway projects parking garage should begin this week, said Chris Paladino, of the Atlantic City Development Corp.

Excavation for the Stockton University Atlantic City Campus academic building and student housing should begin a week later.

Stockton's Quad, Atlantic City projects underway GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP  Another 500 parking spaces are being sacrificed to academia at Stockton 

We have given them notice to process, Paladino said of Joseph Jingoli, the general contractor on the project.

He said the project is still on schedule for an August 2018 completion so Stockton can open its new Atlantic City campus at the site of the former Atlantic City High School at the foot of Albany Avenue. He said some fill needs to be added to the site to raise it above new flood limits. Test pilings will be installed, and if everything goes well, the garage will start going up in early December, he said.

The $156 million Atlantic City campus will include an academic building, housing for 500 students and a parking garage in a public-private partnership with ACDevco. South Jersey Gas also will have offices at the site.

What A.C. needs to do for the Gateway Project to succeed Atlantic City must become a real city with a bigger population to fulfill the promise of the

One holdup had been liens on two small pieces of property ACDevco was purchasing from the city near the parking garage site. Both Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa and former city police Chief John Mooney had placed liens on the sites. The city owes Borgata about $170 million in tax appeals and, Mooney had a judgment against the city in a lawsuit. In August, a state appeals court ruled the city does not have to pay nearly $4 million to Mooney, although that case may be retried.

Paladino said once Atlantic City got promised loans from the state, the title company handling the sale agreed to a clause in which the city will indemnify the title company for the property. He said he expects to go to settlement later this month.

Contact: 609-272-7241

Twitter @ACPressDamico
A decade has passed since New Jersey jettisoned its ineffective death penalty, enough time for many to forget how pointless and costly it was. That means, of course, there's an opportunity for politicians to posture about being tough on crime by proposing to bring it back.

A few have seized the opportunity, including Assemblyman Ronald Dancer, representing parts of Ocean, Burlington and Monmouth counties.

He and others are trying to maximize the emotional appeal to the public of killing killers by limiting execution to the most hated criminals they can think of - murderers of children, police and correctional officers; terrorists; torturers; and hired killers.

For starters, since "children" would be defined as 17 and younger, an age range well within drug-gang membership, the numbers on death row might not be as limited as legislators imagine.

The more fundamental problem is that executing criminals on the basis of the emotions they evoke is an unacceptably vague standard. If the legislators want to try to make a case that some sorts of human lives are more valuable than others and that taking them deserves the ultimate public punishment, they're welcome to try but will surely fail.

So the desire to punish won't suffice. How about the death penalty as a deterrent to certain kinds of crimes society would especially like to prevent?

The problem is there isn't evidence that executing criminals deters others from crime.

The National Research Council of the National Academies reviewed more than three decades of research on the matter and reported in 2012 that existing studies claiming a deterrent effect on murder rates from the death penalty are fundamentally flawed, enough so that they shouldn't be used "to inform deliberations requiring judgments about the effect of the death penalty on homicide."

That doesn't rule out a deterrent effect, but the burden is on those claiming such an effect to provide reliable proof of its existence before putting people to death in service to it.

One thing death penalty research has shown is that too often people have been executed for crimes they didn't commit. Legislators who think that wouldn't happen again if executions resume are kidding themselves.

They almost certainly won't resume. New Jersey already has been through this wasteful cycle once.

After a U.S. Supreme Court crackdown on flawed procedures leading to executions, the state restored the death penalty in 1982. That resulted in 60 cases in which capital punishment was the jury verdict - and 57 times that verdict was overturned by the courts. Inmates waited on death row for executions that never came.

Legislators and citizens who hope to save money by executing criminals instead of imprisoning them for life should consider this: The N.J. Death Penalty Study Commission in 2007 found the cost of keeping an inmate on death row was $72,000 a year, while simply keeping them in prison cost $40,000.

When the death penalty was again abolished that year - leaving 1963 as the last year New Jersey executed a convict - the death sentences of the eight death row inmates were commuted to life in prison.

Surely the state doesn't want to return to that morally unsupportable and wasteful legal morass.

Our view
All workers should seek union-negotiated benefits

My husband and I were children of immigrants, starting out in New York City to raise our family of six children. The early days were difficult but he was a tradesman and the union helped us by eventually securing health and pension benefits. We were able to move to the suburbs of New Jersey.

As a widow with 13 grandchildren, all college educated, I note they all work longer than an eight-hour day with no compensation, and health benefits through their employers are expensive.

My four granddaughters who are teachers do have better work benefits but work many hours outside the classroom day doing prep work. They are expected to deal with the distracting social problems students bring to the classroom, and the overwhelming, everyday tech world that children live in.

The corporate world is doing well through business takeovers, unfair competition, dismissing long-time experienced staff, skimming of the work day of their employees, offering part-time work to eliminate benefit opportunities, and opposing wage increases.

This scenario is judged an injustice by some religions and is anti-democratic. No matter what color shirt people wear (white or blue), they should support a union and demand better benefits.

Betty Candran

Cape May Court House

War up to Congress

I have to laugh every time someone makes a comment about Donald Trump and how he is going to get us into a war. Some people did not pay too close attention when they were taught history. Only Congress can declare war, not the president.

Wayne Williams

Seaville

Officials need to work on lowering property taxes

The sale of Boyd Gaming's half interest in the Borgata casino hotel to MGM for $1.2 billion gives the Atlantic County tax assessment board a concrete number for the tax valuation of the Borgata. The Borgata recently posted the highest monthly win ever in Atlantic City. The rest of the existing casinos are also posting healthy profits again.

The reason this is important to taxpayers? They've had to fund part of the $165 million tax give back to the Borgata. The county's portion of property tax bills has risen astronomically. When the Borgata sale is finalized, Atlantic County should conduct a full reappraisal of all the casinos tax assessments. The new assessments would far outweigh the pilot program.

High property taxes in Atlantic County have made the sale of properties all but impossible. Reducing property taxes would make the sale of homes possible and affordable.

Another property tax generator is taxes on the hospitals for the hosting towns. More than three quarters of the nonprofit hospitals in New Jersey have settled on payments to their host communities. Why haven't area towns sent hospitals bills for their fair share of property taxes? Elected officials should get to work to lower property taxes. There is no time left for excuses.

Gary E. Jernee

Ocean City

Trump campaign garbage

I've always been a Hillary Clinton supporter and people can say what they will about her. I've heard it all and consider most to be a witch hunt, but having said that, what I've heard recently from Donald Trump may be the most idiotic bucket of campaign garbage I've heard.

According to him, Clinton is now a bigot. Seriously? He talks without listening and apparently has no idea how vacuous are his words, which translate into a fantastical and preposterous world that is only in his own mind. He is a bombastic, insecure bully who ultimately has no understanding of the issues and, more importantly, absolutely no human interest in any of us.

Sallie Gorohoff

Absecon
15 years ago life changed in America, Brigantine Mayor Philip Guenther said in front of the firehouse during his remarks at the ceremony Sunday honoring the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. We all remember where we were.

Joe and Eileen Kelly were shopping at Rices Market near their home in Churchville, Pennsylvania.

Thomas Lauer was at work for a pharmaceutical company in Conshohocken. Maria Lauer was making a doctors appointment from her office in Philadelphias City Hall. The receptionist told her about it.

I heard it over the radio. We were dismissed from work, Thomas said.

City Hall locked down in the wake of the attacks, Maria said.

I didnt think it was real, she said. I couldnt believe it happened home land.

The Kellys were equally shocked.

I thought it was an accident, Eileen said.

They all came out to the ceremony Sunday to pay respects.

Were paying tribute to those Americans who died, Thomas said.

Said Eileen, People died putting themselves in harms way.

Thomas worked for a when the attack occurred.

After a moment of silence, Acting Fire Chief Tige Platt read statistics about the attacks before introducing the Rev. John Scotland, who recited a prayer, followed by the tolling of a bell.

Mayor Philip Guenther stepped to the podium.

Three people with Brigantine ties died that day: Adam Larson, son-in-law of Patty Jackson; Pat Codey; and Brian Monaghan.

We saw the best of America in the aftermath, he said. The terrorists cannot touch the foundation of America.

Guenther called the passengers on Flight 93 the first to defend this countrys freedom.

He recalled the firefighters who first responded. They entered the building not knowing what lay ahead. Well never forget the acts of heroism and kindness that followed.

Three members of the Brigantine Fire Department responded to serve in the days that followed, Platt said: Ret. Lt. Joe Lavigna, the late Chief James Holl, and still-active Lt. Michael Lange.
Severe weather isn't alone in impacting the New Jersey coast.

Weather forecasts also have a big effect on people's lives and businesses here.

Now residents and visitors can ask a panel of meteorologists and emergency managers how they approach forecasting and planning for big weather events like hurricanes and nor'easters, at a severe weather conference at the Ocean City Music Pier Thursday evening.

"It will be audience-driven, with an all question-and-answer format," said Press of Atlantic City meteorologist Dan Skeldon, one of the panelists.

It's the first such conference in Ocean City since Hurricane Sandy in 2012, said Skeldon.

The recent failure of meteorologists to accurately predict the course of Tropical Storm Hermine over Labor Day weekend will likely be on people's minds, he said.

"With Hermine there were dire forecasts," Skeldon said, of heavy rains, winds and flooding for the South Jersey coast. Gov. Chris Christie declared a state of emergency for Atlantic, Cape May and Ocean counties.

But instead the storm veered out to sea.

Skeldon said the conference should be eye opening on all sides, as meteorologists talk about how they forecast, emergency managers talk about planning to save lives and property, and members of the public can ask questions and vent their frustrations.

Co-sponsored by the City of Ocean City and the Press of Atlantic City, the conference is free and open to the public. It will be live-streamed so people who cannot get to Music Pier can ask questions via social media, said Skeldon.

Participants will be:

-- Moderator Frank Donato, Ocean Citys Office of Emergency Management.

-- Kathy Orr, FOX 29 News Philadelphia meteorologist

-- Dan Skeldon, Press of Atlantic City and Longport Media meteorologist

-- Joe Miketta, National Weather Service in Mount Holly meteorologist

-- Jim Eberwine, retired National Weather Service meteorologist

-- Jonathan Carr, founder and forecaster of Weather NJ on Facebook and Twitter

-- Martin Pagliughi, Cape May County Emergency Management director

-- Vince Jones, Atlantic County Emergency Management director

-- Vince Maione, Atlantic City Electric region president

The flow of conversation is up to you, Skeldon said of the event. It's your chance to ask questions of anyone on the panel, express concerns, and make suggestions as we all talk South Jersey weather and how to better prepare it, forecast it, and communicate that forecast and emergency information.

View it live on pressofatlanticcity.com or after the event on Skeldon's Facebook page.

It will also be rebroadcast during the weekend on WOND 1400 AM on Saturday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. preceding The Jim Craine Show, and Sunday 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. leading into The Bill Cunningham Show.

IF YOU GO:

WHAT: The 2016 Cape-Atlantic Severe Weather Conference

WHEN: 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15

WHERE: The Ocean City Music Pier on the Boardwalk between Eighth and Ninth streets

COST: Free. Also live streaming on pressofatlanticcity.com and will be available on Dan Skeldon's Facebook page
For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME.

Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire.

Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III.





to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever.





Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation.





View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union.

Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history.

Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words.




AFIKIM, Israel, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Alerts farmers when labor starts, and again if labor is prolonged

Afimilk, Ltd., a global provider of dairy farm management solutions, has integrated a Calving Alert service, including a prolonged calving application, into its AfiAct II cow monitoring system. The new technology will help dairy farmers instantly identify and quickly assist cows experiencing difficult labor, also called dystocia.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160822/399915 )



"The new Calving Alert Service will help dairy farmers more accurately detect the onset of calving, and be better prepared for potentially costly events like dystocia," said Dr. Alon Arazi, DVM, a senior member of the Afimilk research team.

Difficult labor is associated with increased calf mortality and morbidity. Studies have shown that up to half of first-calf Holstein cows in the U.S. require intervention from a farmer or veterinarian during labor.*

"Monitoring cows for calving is very time-consuming, and highly dependent on observers' skills," said Dr. Arazi. "Automatic, continuous monitoring is more labor-efficient and allows for 24/7 control."

Edu Mesnik, a veteran farm manager, has experienced a dramatic reduction in calf mortality since installing the AfiAct II in his herd last year.

"We now have good control over the calving process, and dead calves in the morning are a rare sight," he said.

AfiAct II is the first leg-tag system programmed to issue notifications specifically for prolonged labor. Alerts are sent wirelessly from a leg-mounted sensor to a smartphone when calving begins, and again if calving is prolonged.

In addition to calving, AfiAct II detects other conditions based on activity and resting behavior, including estrus, abortion, cow comfort problems and illness.

Another monitoring system offered by Afimilk, Silent Herdsman, features a neck-mounted sensor that detects estrus, cyclic disorders and illness based on cow activity, rumination and eating patterns. Both monitoring systems will be on display at the SPACE International Livestock Trade Fair in Rennes, France, September 13-16, and at World Dairy Expo in Madison Wisconsin, October 4-8, 2016.

Afimilk is a global leader in farm management software, cow monitoring systems and milk analysis tools for dairy producers in 50 countries. For more information on the AfiAct II or Silent Herdsman cow monitoring systems, contact a local Afimilk dealer, or visit Afimilk.com.

* A.C. Barrier et al. Parturition progress and behaviours in dairy cows and calving difficulty. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 139 (2012) 209-217.

Contact:

Noa Yonish

Corporate Marketing Manager

+972-50-758-9973

noa@afimilk.com

Kim Parr

+1-(315)-476-1646, ext. 225

kparr@lpm-adv.com



SOURCE Afimilk, Ltd
AMSTERDAM, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Leading omni-channel banking platform, showcased ' 60 second onboarding ' in New York on the 8-9 September

Out of 72 companies that presented, the audience of banking professionals voted Backbase ' Best of Show ' for FinovateFall 2016

Backbase, well known to the Finovate conferences, previously received the award for 'Best of Show' at the Finovate conference 2014

Backbase, the omni-channel banking solution provider launched their new 60-second onboarding at FinovateFall 2016, the leading fintech conference in New York, United States. The demo showcased a streamlined, omni-channel on-boarding process and was voted 'Best of Show' by the audience of banking professionals.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121002/567102 )



It has become a necessity for banks to address their customers' need for a real time, effective process that enables them to engage with the bank in the way they choose, and across multi-channels, to initiate requests. Banks need to realize the importance of being able to obtain the customer's information at the first step of the customer journey and the customer lifecycle, regardless of the channel used.

The old manual, and paper-based onboarding processes during a typical customer onboarding process can cost up to 20 times more than computer-assisted, electronic document processing. However, the current computer-assisted onboarding processes are merely an online form, not a real engaging customer experience.

60-second onboarding leverages the latest modern mobile technology for simplified Know Your Customer (KYC) and seamless data-gathering technologies such as Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for scanning passports or credit cards combined with facial recognition. Powered by the Backbase Platform, the new solution will introduce true omni-channel onboarding across mobile, tablet and desktop. Banks will now be able to leverage these generic patterns and adopt the Backbase best-practice for fast, simple, seamless omni-channel onboarding.

"We are extremely excited to have been awarded 'Best of Show'", commented Jouk Pleiter, CEO of Backbase, "this award stands as recognition of our commitment to innovation and we have launched the right capabilities for financial institutions to leverage new technologies, reduce friction, and make onboarding a simple, seamless customer journey." He continued, "'You never get a second chance to make a good first impression' - this is also valid to customer onboarding. Onboarding is the first step to prove the kind of experience banks will offer to their customers. If not done right, it can kill the customer's trust and ultimately, acquisition."

About Backbase:

Backbase is on a mission to empower financial institutions to accelerate their digital transformation and effectively compete in a digital-first world.

We are proud to be the creators of the Backbase Omni-Channel Banking Platform, a state-of-the-art digital banking software solution that unifies data and functionality from traditional core systems and new fintech players into a seamless digital customer experience. We give financials the speed and flexibility to create and manage seamless customer experiences across any device, and deliver measurable business results. We believe that superior digital experiences are essential to stay relevant, and our software enables financials to rapidly grow their digital business.

More than 70 large financials around the world have standardized on the Backbase platform to streamline their digital self-service and online sales operations across all digital touchpoints. Our customer base includes Al Rajhi Bank, ABN AMRO, Barclays, CheBanca!, Credit Suisse, Fidelity, Hapoalim, Hiscox, ING, KeyBank, Legal & General, NBAD, OTP, PZU, PostFinance, Societe Generale de Banque au Liban and Westpac.

Industry analysts Gartner, Forrester and Ovum recognize Backbase as an industry leader in terms of omni-channel banking platform capabilities, and award the company high marks for its deep focus on customer experience management and unparalleled speed of implementation. Forrester named us a leader in the Forrester Wave for Omni-Channel Banking.

Backbase was founded in 2003, is privately funded, with headquarters in Amsterdam (HQ Global) and Atlanta (HQ Americas) and regional operations in London, Mumbai and Singapore.





Contact:

Cristina Danila

Global Marketing Manager

+31 652545956

cristina@backbase.com



SOURCE Backbase
BONN, Germany, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

British military base of Dhekelia is a 'paradise for poachers' - CABS

The British Eastern Sovereign Base Areas (ESBA) in Cyprus are the most rampant and professional stronghold of illegal songbird trapping in Europe, the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) said today. According to the NGO the key area for illegal poaching is the British military base (Sovereign Base Area - SBA) of Dhekelia in the east of the island which is considered property of the Crown and of the Defence Department. A study published by CABS in June revealed that each spring and autumn local trappers set up at least 800 illegal nets in Dhekelia with a total length of almost 10 kilometres. "We estimate that each year around 1.5 million songbirds perish in the illegal trapping grounds in Dhekelia," said Committee Chairman Heinz Schwarze.

Victims include Blackcap, Golden Oriole, Nightingale, Cuckoo, Warblers and numerous other endangered species caught whilst migrating through Cyprus. The illegal sale of the birds caught in the SBA to fuel the restaurant trade is a very lucrative business. According to the Cypriot Ministry of the Interior each year illegal bird trapping generates millions of euros for the black market. Despite a total trapping ban the risk of poachers being caught in the ESBA is practically nil. "In order to avoid conflict with criminals and the local trapping lobby the illegal killing is believed to be widely tolerated", Heinz Schwarze stated. "The inaction has turned Dhekelia into a paradise for bird poachers. Large parts of the trapping areas are now believed to be firmly in the hands of criminal gangs who do not shy away from violence against conservationists".

In order to get the politicians in Westminster to act, CABS have launched an international protest campaign. The aim is to convince the new government under Prime Minister May, to take a stand for the birds and against the widespread illegal poaching. This primarily requires a massive reinforcement of the authorities responsible for combating environmental crime - the military police - and adopting a zero tolerance policy towards convicted offenders. To achieve this goal, CABS has called upon all conservationists and bird lovers in the EU to add their voice directly to the Prime Minister.

Those who want to protest can use an e-card petition on the CABS website: http://www.komitee.de/en/protest/protest-campaign-sba-cyprus

Contact for photos, video footage and information: CABS Press Officer Axel Hirschfeld, Tel.: +49-228-665521, Email: CABS@komitee.de

The CABS field report from 2016 mentioned in the text can be found here: http://www.komitee.de/sites/www.komitee.de/files/wiki/2016/02/Cyprus%20Field%20Report%20Spring%202016%20(en).pdf

SOURCE Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The European Parliament will respect the results of the upcoming constitutional referendum in Azerbaijan, according to the Vice-President of the European Parliament, Ryszard Czarnecki.

"We will respect the result of this referendum," Czarnecki told reporters in Baku, "because for us the will of your nation is the most important."

Czarnecki joined a delegation representing the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists (AECR), which also comprised Italian and Polish members of the European Parliament. During their visit to Baku, they met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev as well as other key officials.

The AECR delegation issued a statement in which it "concluded that the referendum is being organised according to the laws of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Constitutional changes are broadly discussed in the public, and the preparations of the vote are in line with international standards."

The statement further noted that "the changes foreseen, if adopted, are expected by all stakeholders and political leaders of the different parties to increase democratic participation and representation, but also to streamline the functioning of state administration."

On September 26, over five million Azerbaijani voters will be asked whether they approve of 29 constitutional amendments, with a separate vote on each one. Among the key changes proposed are an extension of the presidential term from five to seven years as well as the introduction of the new position of First Vice President, who would become the country's number two, instead of the Prime Minister as is the case now.

In addition, the minimum age for presidential candidates (currently 35) would be abolished and anyone over 18 could now stand for parliament, bringing the lower age limit down from 25.

The changes "will have far reaching effects on the democratic life of Azerbaijan, on the way citizens will be represented in the legislative and on the dynamic and size of the executive," the AECR statement noted, adding that "the delegation welcomes the electoral process and preparation of the vote in order to ensure that the political plurality of the country will be safeguarded."

Expressing hope that the Azerbaijani government will continue close cooperation with the Venice Commission on the constitutional changes, the delegation further observed that "the atmosphere in the country is found to be stable and peaceful, with a calm pre-referendum period."

SOURCE Azerbaijan Monitor
DUBLIN, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "International Commercial Contracts School, Dubai" conference to their offering.

The Dubai Commercial Contracts School offers a wide-ranging and detailed understanding of contract law, drafting techniques, negotiation tactics and the law of damages under common law with comparisons to Civil Law jurisdictions. Presented by an international specialist in the field, the week shall enable participants to effectively draft and negotiate contracts with knowledge and confidence.



Unique format:



The International Commercial Contracts School offers a wide-ranging and detailed understanding of drafting techniques, negotiation tactics, contract law and the law of damages under English common law with comparisons to civil law jurisdictions. Presented by an international specialist in the field, this intense programme will enable participants to effectively negotiate and draft unambiguous contracts with knowledge and confidence.



Agenda

Part 1: Business and Contract Law for International Commercial Contracts



Day One



Tools, techniques and terminology when creating a formal contract

Practical Drafting Workshop

Pre-contract documents and enforceability

Offer and acceptance

Getting to grips with how the law changes what you thought you had agreed to

Understanding and effective drafting payment obligations

Including constructive performance obligations

Key clauses and how they are interpreted in different countries

Limit contractual risk for your organisation

Practical Drafting Exercise

In this session participants will practice drafting contract terms and receive practical advice and guidance on how they can develop in this area.

Day Two



Making defences to breach of contract

Termination  Understanding how and when contracts end

Successfully resolving contractual disputes

Practical Drafting Exercise

In this session participants will draft standard contract terms based on the skills and knowledge developed during the day under the guidance of the expert presenter.

Some typical agreements

This session will review the terms and conditions of some typical agreements to illustrate how to avoid the legal pitfalls and challenges faced.

Practical Workshop

Drafting and understanding boilerplate clauses

Part 2: International Contract Negotiation



Day Three



Essentials of negotiations

Preparing for negotiations  setting objectives and selecting strategy

Negotiating across national and organisational cultures

Negotiating styles

Practical Workshop  Negotiation of legal and commercial clauses

Communication skills

Situation tactics or ploys and counter-ploys

Negotiation Clinic

Get your queries answered on recent challenges you have faced in negotiation and how to overcome them.

Personal Action Plans

Part 3: Liabilities and Damages in International Commercial Agreements



Day Four



Identifying the areas of risk

Exclusions and limitations of liabilities

Liquidated damages and penalties defined

Workshop on exclusion and liquidated and ascertained damages clauses

Force Majeure

Workshop session (Part 1)



During this session, delegates will be given drafting exercises to put what they have learnt into practice.

Day Five



Direct and indirect damages

Time limits

Choice of law governing the contract

Litigation, arbitration and alternative dispute resolution

Workshop session (Part 2)



During this session, delegates will be given drafting exercises to put what they have learnt into practice.

For more information about this conference visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/zfxc3x/international



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SOURCE Research and Markets
LONDON, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Iptor Supply Chain Systems builds on industry and cloud services expertise to help businesses manage the 10% of orders that drive added value in distribution

International Business Systems (IBS), a leader in supply chain management, planning and logistics software and services, today announces its global rebrand as Iptor Supply Chain Systems. The new name reflects the company's strategic mission to help distribution-focused organisations solve their most complex order management and fulfilment challenges in a world where exceptions are the rule.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160908/405765LOGO )



The organisation's forward thinking approach is built on its expertise in cloud based systems and solutions that help its customers handle the full range of customer orders and fulfilment requirements. Recent research undertaken by Iptor Supply Chain Systems points to a fundamental truth: for many distribution businesses, about 90% of processes and orders are routine. The other 10% - the exceptions, the one-offs, the special requirements - can wreak havoc on the business if not managed properly.

Iptor Supply Chain Systems calls this the '90/10 rule' and it highlights the importance of being able to rule the exception in a distribution market that is ever-changing, increasingly complex, and highly competitive.

Jayne Archbold, CEO, Iptor Supply Chain Systems, comments, "This is more than just a rebrand - our name signals a fresh, refined approach to how we focus our experience and expertise to better serve our existing and future customers."

She continues, "The idea of ruling the exception was born out of customer research. Over 1,250 distribution businesses use our products and services to manage their operations. They operate in many sectors and in 40 countries yet they consistently tell us that a key challenge is handling the 10% of non-standard orders and added-value services that differentiate their offering. Without good systems support, these exceptions can disrupt established workflows and eat into operating margins. We partner with customers to help them not just manage, but rule the exceptions. We help them reduce complexity, improve efficiency and accuracy and we give them real time visibility across all their operations."

Boasting past expertise and industry knowledge, Iptor Supply Chain Systems has grown into a specialist supplier of ultra-reliable ERP and WMS solutions to the distribution and publishing sectors worldwide. Its software applications are backed by a global customer service team and can be delivered on-premise or as a managed cloud service.

Archbold adds, "Today, over 17% of our customers use our cloud services. And our expertise in cloud and managed services means that we can help customers integrate with their partners, upstream and downstream, and adapt quickly to new opportunities. It means that our customers can focus on their core business, and those exceptions, while we take care of infrastructure and connectivity. We are a full service partner, dedicated to helping customers solve their most complex order management and fulfilment challenges."

About Iptor Supply Chain Systems

Iptor Supply Chain Systems is a global leader in supply chain management, planning and logistics software and services. The company helps distribution-focused organisations solve their most complex order management and fulfilment challenges within fast-moving, multi-channel and global supply chains.

Serving 1,250 customers with 4,000 installations in more than 40 countries, Iptor Supply Chain Systems provides fully integrated enterprise solutions, with highly adaptable and robust software backed by world-class support from supply chain experts. Available on-premise or as a fully managed cloud service, Iptor Supply Chain Systems offers compelling value to customers across distribution, 3PL and publishing sectors.

For more information, visit: http://www.iptor.com

SOURCE Iptor Supply Chain Systems
BEERSE, Belgium, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

FOR MEDICAL AND TRADE MEDIA ONLY

Janssen-Cilag International NV (Janssen) announced today the submission of a Marketing Authorisation Application (MAA) to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) seeking approval of sirukumab for the treatment of adult patients with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis (RA). RA is a chronic, systemic inflammatory condition that affects approximately 6.2 million Europeans[1].

"At Janssen, we are committed to continued innovation in the field of rheumatoid arthritis through new therapeutic options, like sirukumab, that address the medical needs of people living with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis," said Newman Yeilding, MD, Head of Immunology Development, Janssen Research & Development, LLC. "We look forward to collaborating with the European health authorities with the goal of bringing sirukumab to patients living with rheumatoid arthritis who may benefit from this new biologic therapy."

Data from the Phase 3 SIRROUND clinical development program, which includes five studies (SIRROUND-D, SIRROUND-T, SIRROUND-H, SIRROUND-M and SIRROUND-LTE), is incorporated into the submission. Results from the SIRROUND-D study were recently presented at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2016), and results from the SIRROUND-T and SIRROUND-H studies are planned to be presented later this year.

About the SIRROUND Clinical Program

The Phase 3 clinical program in patients with active RA includes five studies investigating subcutaneously administered sirukumab 50 mg every four weeks and sirukumab 100 mg every two weeks in combination with conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) or as monotherapy. The comprehensive development program involves more than 3,000 patients, comprising the following five studies:

SIRROUND-D study: patients who had an inadequate response to DMARDs. This study is estimated to complete in 2017.

SIRROUND-T study: patients who had an inadequate response or were intolerant to anti-TNF agents. This study has completed.

SIRROUND-H study: patients with an inadequate response or who were intolerant to methotrexate (MTX) or for whom MTX was inappropriate. This study has completed.

SIRROUND-M study: Japanese patients who had an inadequate response to MTX or sulfasalazine. This study has completed.

SIRROUND-LTE study: a long-term extension study for patients completing SIRROUND-D and SIRROUND-T. This study is estimated to complete in 2020. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01856309.

About sirukumab

Sirukumab is a human monoclonal IgG1 kappa antibody that targets the cytokine IL-6, a naturally occurring protein that is believed to play a role in autoimmune conditions like RA. It is not approved as a treatment for RA or any other indication anywhere in the world.

About the Janssen-GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Partnership

In December 2011, Janssen and GSK entered into a licensing and co-development agreement with respect to sirukumab. Under the terms, GSK has exclusive rights to commercialise sirukumab in North, Central and South America, while Janssen retains commercialisation rights in the rest of the world, including such territories as EMEA and Asia Pacific with global profit shared equally between the two companies. Prior to the agreement, Janssen had been developing sirukumab for RA.

As part of the collaboration, a Phase 3 program began in August 2012 to investigate sirukumab for the treatment of moderately to severely active RA. Janssen is responsible for the EMA regulatory file. The agreement gives both companies the option to investigate sirukumab for other indications beyond RA.

About Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, systemic inflammatory condition that is characterised by pain, joint swelling, stiffness, joint destruction and disability. It is estimated that more than 23.5 million people worldwide are affected by the condition, for which there is no cure.[1]

About the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson

At the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, we are working to create a world without disease. Transforming lives by finding new and better ways to prevent, intercept, treat and cure disease inspires us. We bring together the best minds and pursue the most promising science. We are Janssen. We collaborate with the world for the health of everyone in it. Learn more at http://www.janssen.com/EMEA. Follow us on Twitter: @JanssenEMEA.

Cautions Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding new product development including regulatory submissions seeking approval of sirukumab. The reader is cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations of future events. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or known or unknown risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results could vary materially from the expectations and projections of Janssen-Cilag International NV, Janssen Research & Development, LLC, any of the other Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies and Johnson & Johnson. Risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: challenges and uncertainties inherent in product research and development, including the uncertainty of clinical success and of obtaining regulatory approvals; uncertainty of commercial success; competition, including technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges to patents; manufacturing difficulties or delays; product efficacy or safety concerns resulting in product recalls or regulatory action; changes to applicable laws and regulations, including global health care reforms; and trends toward health care cost containment. A further list and descriptions of these risks, uncertainties and other factors can be found in Johnson & Johnson's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2016, including in Exhibit 99 thereto, and the company's subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Copies of these filings are available online at http://www.sec.gov, http://www.jnj.com or on request from Johnson & Johnson. None of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies or Johnson & Johnson undertakes to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information or future events or developments.

1. World Health Organization. "The Global Burden of Disease: 2004 Update," p. 32. Available at: http://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/GBD_report_2004update_full.pdf . Accessed August 16, 2016.

SOURCE Janssen Immunology
PARIS, France and CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

New York Society of Gastroenterology (NYSGE) and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to Host Educational Program for Gastroenterologists Highlighting Confocal Laser Endomicroscopy



Mauna Kea Technologies (Euronext: MKEA, OTCQX: MKEAY) inventor of Cellvizio, the multidisciplinary confocal laser endomicroscopy platform, today announced the placement of a Cellvizio System at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, NY, which is ranked seventh in the nation for Gastroenterology and GI Surgery. This represents the 14th Cellvizio System in the New York metro area, highlighting strong adoption among leading hospitals and academic centers in the largest U.S. market.

"Adding Cellvizio to our armamentarium is key to ensure that we continue to offer our patients leading-edge medical technologies," said Christopher J. DiMaio, MD, Associate Professor and Director of Therapeutic Endoscopy at The Mount Sinai Hospital. "With the help of endomicroscopy, we can perform real-time, non-invasive evaluation of GI tissues during interventional procedures on patients suffering from pancreatic and biliary diseases, as well as more general GI disorders. As a consequence, we believe that we will be able to reduce our level of indetermination during our everyday endoscopic examinations and therapeutic procedures, which is one of our key objectives in order to improve patient care while eliminating unnecessary procedures."

On September 8, 2016, the New York Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (NYSGE) hosted an educational program titled "Gastric Cancer and Pre-Neoplastic Lesions of the Stomach" at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, that discussed the use of confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE) during a presentation on current and new diagnostic modalities for pre-neoplastic gastric lesions and early gastric cancer. David Carr-Locke, MD, Professor of Gastroenterology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Chief of the Division of Digestive Diseases at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, delivered the presentation, titled "Through the Looking Glass: Advanced Diagnostic Imaging for High Risk Lesions."

Dr. Carr-Locke, one of the world's most experienced Cellvizio users, commented, "We look forward to partnering with NYSGE and our local colleagues to support the continuing education of gastroenterologists and GI fellows in the management of gastric cancer and pre-neoplastic lesions of the stomach. This program, covering the unique benefits of confocal laser endomicroscopy as an advanced diagnostic tool for patients with these disorders, is opportune given The Mount Sinai Hospital's recent acquisition of a Cellvizio system. We have been using Cellvizio for many years at Mount Sinai Beth Israel for this and other applications."

Sacha Loiseau, Ph.D., Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mauna Kea Technologies, added, "We are pleased to bring the Cellvizio system to The Mount Sinai Hospital, which further highlights the growing adoption of CLE among leading institutions in the United States. With the recent endorsement by the American Society of General Surgeons and the white paper from the American Gastroenterological Association, we have reasons to be confident that both the adoption and the utilization of Cellvizio will continue to accelerate in the near future."

About Mauna Kea Technologies

Mauna Kea Technologies is a global medical device company focused on eliminating uncertainties related to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer thanks to real time in vivo microscopic visualization. The Company's flagship product, Cellvizio, has received clearance to sell a wide range of applications in more than 40 countries, including the United States, Europe, Japan, China, Canada, Brazil and Mexico.

For more information on Mauna Kea Technologies, visit www.maunakeatech.com

Disclaimer

This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning Mauna Kea Technologies and its activities. Such forward looking statements are based on assumptions that Mauna Kea Technologies considers to be reasonable. However, there can be no assurance that the anticipated events contained in such forward-looking statements will occur. Forward- looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties including the risks set forth in the registration document of Mauna Kea Technologies registered by the French Financial Markets Authority (Autorite des marches financiers (AMF)) on June 13, 2016 under number R.16-054 and available on the Company's website (www.maunakeatech.com), and to the development of economic situation, financial markets, and the markets in which Mauna Kea Technologies operates. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are also subject to risks unknown to Mauna Kea Technologies or that Mauna Kea Technologies does not consider material at this time. The realization of all or part of these risks could lead to actual results, financial conditions, performances or achievements by Mauna Kea Technologies that differ significantly from the results, financial conditions, performances or achievements expressed in such forward-looking statements.

This press release and the information it contains do not constitute an offer to sell or to subscribe for, or a solicitation of an order to purchase or subscribe for, Mauna Kea Technologies shares in any country.

Mauna Kea Technologies

Benoit Jacheet

CFO

investors@maunakeatech.com

United States

Zack Kubow / Lee Roth

The Ruth Group

646-536-7020 / 7012

zkubow@theruthgroup.com / lroth@theruthgroup.com

U.S. Media

Christopher Hippolyte

The Ruth Group

646-536-7023

chippolyte@theruthgroup.com

France and Europe

NewCap - Investor Relations

Florent Alba

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maunakea@newcap.fr

This is a disclosure announcement from PR Newswire.

SOURCE Mauna Kea Technologies
SYDNEY, NEW YORK and LONDON, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Continued stellar growth necessitates first office in Asia Pacific

Metamako, the leading specialist in deterministic network devices for the world's financial institutions, announced today the appointment of Denis Sweeney as Business Development Director for Asia Pacific. Sweeney will be heading operations in the region from Metamako's newly-opened Tokyo office.

On his appointment, Sweeney says: "I've been watching Metamako make waves in the financial markets for the last two years and I'm very excited by their commitment to bringing truly disruptive technology to the market; I'm impressed with their rate of growth and the instant benefits they're bringing to clients. I've worked in Asia for more than 20 years, representing some of the biggest names in the FinTech sector and thought I'd seen some fast-track companies, but Metamako's growth and success are impressive; I'm really looking forward to being a part of the Metamako team."

Kevin Covington, CEO of Metamako, says: "We're very happy to welcome Denis to our team and I know he will be an asset in our expansion strategy, both in Tokyo and across Asia. He has an excellent track record in the region, having represented major service providers at the highest level. I'm sure our clients will be quick to appreciate not only his financial knowledge and technical capabilities, but also his commitment to operational and service management."

With two decades of specialist fintech experience in Tokyo and across Asia Pacific, and having worked for NYSE Technologies, Sungard, Misys and Credit Suisse in Tokyo, Sweeney brings strong local and regional connections, which will quickly benefit Metamako.

Named one of KPMG's top 50 Emerging Stars, Metamako has continued its whirlwind growth; in 2015 it relocated its HQ and development centre to Stone & Chalk's tech-hub in Sydney, becoming a key participant in the FinTech ecosystem.

About Metamako

Metamako, founded in 2013, develops the world's fastest network devices, with the goal of simplifying networks, reducing latency, improving determinism and increasing flexibility.

To date Metamako has brought the following high-performance devices to market: MetaConnect 16, MetaConnect 48, MetaMux 32, MetaApp 32 and MetaMux 48. In addition, Metamako has released the MetaMux and MetaWatch applications to run on the Metamako platform.

In 2014 KPMG named Metamako in its first Global Top 50 FinTech Innovators report, and in 2015 Metamako was listed as an emerging star in KPMG's global Fintech 100.

The founders, Scott Newham, Dave Snowdon and Charles Thomas, have extensive experience engineering high-performance hardware and software for financial markets as well as other verticals, where keeping latency to a minimum and having a high degree of determinism are vitally important. Metamako's solutions have built-in intelligence and are rich in features, using state-of-art technology.

For more information visit http://www.metamako.com

Editorial contacts

Anne-Charlotte Duhaut / Alla Lapidus

Moonlight Media

Email: annecharlotte@moonlightmedia.co.uk / alla@moonlightmedia.co.uk

Tel: +44(0)20-7250-4770



SOURCE Metamako
BALI, Indonesia, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- To celebrate its 21st Anniversary as the world's leading company in the health industry, Tiens Group held a series of activities in Bali of Indonesia on September 10, 2016.

Photo - http://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20160912/0861609191

The event included a peace themed parade composed of hundreds of motors, the sacred flame of Tiens undertakings and a 3,700 sqm flag peace relay ceremony.

Over 8,000 Tiens employees from more than 50 countries and regions participated in the international gathering that advocated peace and friendship. Tiens made another peace themed visual miracle after the events in Nice, France and Madrid, Spain.

During the development in Indonesia over the past ten years, Tiens has showed it's friendly and responsible attitude toward foreign partners and helped many ordinary business partners succeed by instilling in them the health and wellness culture, providing business opportunities and instilling in them the ideals of peace and development.

So far, Tiens undertakings have been carried out in over 190 countries and regions around the world, bringing healthy and fashionable lifestyles to nearly 40 million families and winning the trust of consumers worldwide.

Other expeditions in the past included Nice, France, where 6,400 employees broke the Guinness world record by forming the longest human made phrase. In May this year, Tiens Group put on a 6,000 metre squared flag peace relay ceremony, with a creative and peace themed show in Spain. This was with the purpose of leaving a cultural exchange mark and building friendly bridges.

Tiens Group has been devoted to long-term social and philanthropic causes. Up to now, the company has made contributions to worthy causes valued at over RMB 1.5 billion in areas including environmental protection, poverty alleviation and education.

"New Beginning, New Development, New Future" is the defining idea of Tiens new development strategy. During the anniversary celebration Tiens will take the opportunity to promote the new compensation system worldwide, actively implement 'One Belt, One Road Initiative' and integrate Tiens global network resources.

Based on the diversified development involving the health industry, health care, e-commerce and an international university, Tiens will build a business platform through which 'All people can innovate and start their own business'. These new ideas will ensure and promote Tiens leading role in the global health industry.

SOURCE Tiens Group
LONDON, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Peruvian investors and Perus top public officials to travel to London in investment roadshow during Q3 of 2016

Peru's investment sector prepares an investment roadshow in the UK market to promote among London and international investors. The Andean country's top companies will promote investment projects, business climate and investment opportunities.

Francis Stenning, president of inPERU believes that with Brexit, the UKs withdrawal from the European Union, will not interfere with Anglo-Peruvian investment relationships.

inPERU, a non-profit Peruvian association founded by the main business organizations of the Peruvian market: APEF, APESEG, ASBANC, Asociacion de AFP, BVL, CAVALI, CONFIEP and PROCAPITALES, is the country investment platform to promote foreign investment and strength the relations between the international markets and Peruvian companies. InPERU and its members are showing interest in the City of London investors community.

Francisco Stenning De Lavalle, inPERU chairman and currently CEO of the Lima Stock Exchange stated: "It is crucial for the private and public sectors to be linked and that the rest of the world as well as agents linked to the markets and projects see that there is a positive coexistence between these two sectors. We consider this to be the virtue of our model and we believe that it is important to maintain it."

According to ProInversion, the UK is one of the top investors in Peru, representing 18% of Peru's Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and accounting to a sum of 4.422 million USD. This investment goes on to fund many sectors, two of which are most notable, mining and tourism, representing 41% and 39% of foreign investments, respectively.

Another fact worth noting is that the UK is one of the heaviest investing countries when it comes to funding Peruvian businesses.

SOURCE inPERU
SAN FRANCISCO, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The global proteomics market is expected to reach over USD 24.8 billion by 2024 according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The introduction of technology-enabled proteomics products is one of the high-impact rendering drivers for the proteomics market growth. These products find extensive applications in drug discovery, diagnostic services, and many other research areas. The increasing market penetration of these technologies, such as ESI-LC-MS (electrospray ionization liquid chromatography mass spectrometry), is expected to serve as a driver of this market.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150105/723757 )



Proteomics has become a powerful tool for treating various diseases such as diabetes, fatty liver, obesity, and deadly cancers. It is difficult to cure these diseases as body responses vary from person to person; to overcome this problem, researcher from Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne and ETH Zurich in Switzerland developed method to define metabolic differences between individuals. This is expected to drive the demand for proteomics over the forecast period.

The presence of organizations such as the Human Proteome Organization promotes the development of new techniques, technologies, and training pertaining to the field of proteomics. This is expected to propel the market growth over the forecast period.

Browse full research report with TOC on "Proteomics Market Analysis by Product (Instruments, Reagents, Services), by Technology (Microarray, X-Ray Crystallography, Spectroscopy, Chromatography, Protein Fractionation Systems, Electrophoresis, Surface Plasma Resonance Systems), by Application (Drug Discovery, Clinical Diagnosis), and Segment Forecasts to 2024" at: http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/proteomics-market

Further Key Findings From the Study Suggest:

The reagents segment dominated the product segment in 2015 and is expected to witness a lucrative growth with a CAGR of over 8.5%. Extensive usage of reagents for R&D activities and the introduction of novel biomarker-specific kits, such as Pro2PSA biomarker for prostate cancer and CA27.29biomarkers for breast cancer, are the factors responsible for its large market share.

The instruments segment is anticipated to show a significant growth over the forecast period. The major factor responsible for the growth is the rising demand for user-friendly, cost-effective, rapid, and accurate devices

In 2014, the protein microarray segment occupied over45% of the market share of the proteomics market, owing to the high usage rates of this technology. Microarray technology has the ability to track the protein interactions and performs chromatography and 2-Delectrophoresis in a comparatively lesser time.

The spectroscopy segment is one of the fastest growing segments of proteomics market. The introduction of novel technologies such as Orbitrap Mass spectroscopy and the increasing demand for rapid and accurate devices for complete analysis of proteins are the factors responsible for its fastest growth.

North America held the largest share of over 40% in 2015. The presence of favorable government initiatives and the growing adoption of personalized medicines are the key factors that can be attributed to the major revenue share in the market.

held the largest share of over 40% in 2015. The presence of favorable government initiatives and the growing adoption of personalized medicines are the key factors that can be attributed to the major revenue share in the market. Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing with a share of over 12% in 2015.The growing prevalence of chronic diseases in the developing countries is a key factor responsible for the fastest growth in Asia Pacific .

Browse related reports by Grand View Research:

Human Embryonic Stem Cell Market - http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/human-embryonic-stem-cell-market



Expression Vectors Market - http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/expression-vectors-market



DNA Diagnostics Market - http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/dna-diagnostics-market



Pre-packed Chromatography Columns Market - http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/pre-packed-chromatography-columns-market

Grand View Research has segmented the proteomics market on the basis of product, technology, application, and region:

Proteomics Market Product Outlook, by Revenue (USD Million, 2013 & 2024) Instruments Reagents Services

Proteomics Market Technology Outlook, by Revenue (USD Million, 2013 & 2024) Microarray Instruments X-Ray Crystallography Spectroscopy Chromatography Protein Fractionation Systems Electrophoresis Surface Plasma Resonance Systems

Proteomics Market Application Outlook, by Revenue (USD Million, 2013 & 2024) Drug Discovery Clinical Diagnosis Others

Proteomics Market Regional Outlook, by Revenue (USD Million, 2015 & 2024) North America U.S. Canada Europe Germany UK Asia Pacific Japan China Latin America Brazil MEA South Africa



About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.

Read Our Blogs - ni2014.org , grandviewresearch.com/blogs/healthcare

Contact:

Sherry James

Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Grand View Research, Inc

Phone: 1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com

Web: http://www.grandviewresearch.com



SOURCE Grand View Research, Inc.
LONDON, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Major new research commissioned by the Tobacco Manufacturers' Association (TMA) has revealed the size of the black market in tobacco in the UK. The survey (http://www.the-tma.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/UK-AIT-REPORT-2016-Final.pdf ) of 12,000 smokers, conducted in June 2016, found that 7 out of 10 smokers admit to purchasing tobacco from a variety of non-shop sources, e.g. abroad, friends and family, duty free, markets etc.

The research also reveals a number of regional trends across the UK's 12 regions & nations

London has the highest % of smokers using non-shop, the most prominent illegal internet sales activity, and the most visible underage selling activity

has the highest % of smokers using non-shop, the most prominent illegal internet sales activity, and the most visible underage selling activity Smokers in the NE are the most aware of illicit tobacco in their area. The NE also has the highest % of respondents who believe tobacco prices are excessive.

The average price for illicit cigarettes (pack of 20) purchased in the UK is 4.11. However, there is considerable variation in price between the regions of the UK. The lowest average price of a pack of 20 cigarettes is 3.79 (Yorkshire & Humberside) whilst the highest is 4.69 ( London ). The average UK RRP for 20 duty-paid premium cigarettes is 9.61

). The average UK RRP for 20 duty-paid premium cigarettes is 9.61 The average price for an illicit pouch of roll your own (RYO) tobacco (50g) purchased in the UK is 6.88. The lowest regional price is 6.55 ( West Midlands ) and the highest is 7.14 (East of England ). The average UK RRP for 50g of duty-paid RYO is 19.66

% of % of smokers % of % of smokers aware of smokers % of smokers Average who use illicit aware of smokers who believe price of Average non-shop tobacco illegal aware of tobacco illicit price of in local internet underage prices are cigarettes Illicit area sales* sales excessive (20 pack) RYO(50g) England 72 20 14 13 84 4.13 6.89 Scotland 67 17 14 13 85 4.15 6.56 Wales 62 21 13 11 85 3.84 7.08 N Ireland 72 27 6 14 86 3.84 6.77 East Midlands 70 21 12 12 83 3.86 6.73 East of England 68 19 17 11 85 3.99 7.14 London 82 26 23 19 75 4.69 6.74 North East 67 39 5 11 88 3.90 6.65 North West 70 22 12 14 87 3.93 6.98 South East 70 16 13 12 86 4.07 7.04 South West 66 19 16 12 85 4.05 7.06 West Midlands 66 20 11 12 83 3.84 6.55 Yorkshire and Humberside 70 18 6 11 87 3.79 6.87 UK - 2016 70% 20% 14% 13% 85% GBP4.11 GBP6.88 UK - 2015 n/a 19% 12% 12% n/a GBP3.84 GBP6.83

Regional figures for 2014 and 2015 are available from the TMA.

Reacting to the results, the TMA Director General Giles Roca said:

"The Government's high tax policy is shifting consumers towards illegal sources, losing the Treasury billions of pounds in lost tax. This survey also shows that black marketers are becoming more sophisticated in their sales techniques and are increasingly using social media to reach new customers."

Industry response

As part of their response to the evidence of growth of UK smuggling, the UK Tobacco industry has extended their highly successful advertising campaign in UK airports. This campaign began in 2014 at Glasgow and Edinburgh airports. In 2015, Heathrow, Cardiff and Aberdeen were added. The 2016 campaign marks the third year of this campaign and for 2016 the campaign has been further extended to include Dover, the world's busiest passenger port. The campaign runs from August to October 2016, to cover the busy summer months. Photos of the campaign are available from the TMA: media@the-tma.org.uk

SOURCE Tobacco Manufacturers Association (TMA)
"When it is complete in mid-2017, H Queen's will offer Hong Kong audiences the greatest concentration of art in Central," said Ms. Kristine Li, Deputy General Manager of Henderson Leasing Agency Company Limited. "Seven global art businesses have already embraced H Queen's as the new heart of the arts in Hong Kong. Together with our other premium tenants of both galleries and F&B, more than 50% of the total space has now been leased."

David Zwirner is H Queen's anchor tenant who has committed to two whole floors totalling close to 10,000 square feet. David Zwirner established his eponymous gallery in New York in 1993 and is now considered to be one of the world's most influential art dealers.

Internationally renowned Pace Gallery was established in 1960 in the United States. Since then, Pace has established strongholds around the world including London, Paris, and Beijing. Pace is one of the foremost runners to establish a gallery in Asia.

Other premium tenants announced today are Pearl Lam Galleries, a leading Asia-based gallery with a presence across Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore; Seoul Auction, the leading auction house in Korea; Tang Contemporary Art Gallery, which began in Bangkok and which is now active in Bangkok, Beijing and Hong Kong; Whitestone Gallery, which first established a presence in Hong Kong in 2015 and has now committed to two floors in H Queen's to showcase work by Japanese artists and Le Comptoir, the company behind the spectacular Bibo restaurant, which fuses art and gastronomy.

Hong Kong has long been synonymous with the worlds of banking, global trade, international business and high finance, especially in Central. But in recent years art and creativity have come to play a more important part in this mix. Art business is now big business in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is the world's third largest art market by auction sales and its art fairs and galleries now present new work by many thousands of artists every year. As the place with the highest concentration of art in Central, H Queen's may well be the most creative place in Hong Kong.

Please read H Queen's Purpose-built Features and Fact Sheet for Art Business from https://www.dropbox.com/s/ve2y3kh78xto36k/HQ_Factsheet_EN.docx?dl=0

More information of H Queen's and the public art programme can be found at its official website: www.hqueens.com.hk

SOURCE H Queen's
ALBANY, New York, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The sterile medical packaging market has witnessed impressive growth over the last few years owing to the significant increase in the demand for pharmaceutical and biologics products. Sterile medical packaging finds extensive usage in the packaging of medical equipment, medical supplies, and pharmaceutical and biological products due to its high performance and anti-contaminant properties. The global sterile medical packaging market is estimated to expand at a steady CAGR of 4.7% during the forecast period, amounting to US$38.3 bn by 2024.

The global sterile medical packaging market is led by companies such as Amcor Limited, Placon, Dupont, Steripack, Wipak Group, 3M Medical Packaging, Nelipak Healthcare Packaging, Oracle Packaging, Sonoco Plastics Europe, Billerkornas AB, and Ampac Group. Transparency Market Research has observed that a number of leading packaging companies have been adopting the outsourcing model in order to expand their footprint in the sterile medical packaging market and thus generate a high ROI.

"Contracting with local companies helps manufacturers lower the operational cost," the author of the study states. "Furthermore, packaging companies can benefit from better pricing by outsourcing sterile packaging."

North America to Continue its Lead in Global Sterile Medical Packaging Market

The vials and ampoules segment is estimated to account for the leading share in the sterile medical packaging market in terms of value by 2016-end. "However, this product segment is expected to register a marginal decrease in market share by the end of the forecast period, with the pouches and bags segment likely to emerge as the dominant segment by 2024," the lead analyst predicts. Nevertheless, the vials and ampoules segment will be one of the most attractive markets during the course of the forecast period.

Download Sample Report Copy or for further inquiries, click here: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=260

Plastics are expected to be the preferred material choice for vendors in the sterile medical packaging market. By application, the pharmaceuticals and biologics segment is estimated to account for 64% of the market by 2016-end. This is attributed to the growing demand for biologics across various therapeutic applications. Geographically, North America is expected to continue leading the sterile medical packaging market through 2024, accounting for over 36% by 2016-end. Latin America is projected to register a 6.7% CAGR from 2016 to 2024, emerging as one of the most lucrative markets for sterile medical packaging.

Surging Incidence of Chronic Diseases Driving Demand for Sterile Medical Packaging

Biologics has gained popularity in the recent past and has become the preferred choice for the treatment of chronic disorders such as diabetes and arthritis. However, the lead analyst at TMR finds that the manufacturing process is rather complex and requires a high degree of stability. "An increased level of expertise is needed to maintain and preserve biologics and this has led to the rising demand for innovative product packaging solutions among biologics manufacturers."

The growing incidence of chronic diseases worldwide has emerged as a major concern among the global population. This rise is, in turn, driving the demand for medical drugs and devices, which creates a favorable environment for sterile medical packaging.

Although the transportation of drugs and devices packed in bags and pouches requires extreme care and specific requirements, this restraint has driven manufacturers to develop flexible and sustainable packaging to overcome the shortcomings of sterile medical packaging solutions.

Browse Regional PR: http://www.europlat.org/sterile-medical-packaging-market.htm

This review is based on the findings of a TMR report titled "Sterile Medical Packaging Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024."

Sterile Medical Packaging Market, by Product

Pouches & Bags Gusset bags Header bags Liner tear bags Semi-ultra-clean bags Spout pouches



Thermoform trays

Vials & ampoules

Clamshells & lids

IV containers

Others

Sterile Medical Packaging Market, by Material

Plastic Films

Foils

Papers

Glass

Non-woven

Foam Sheets

Others

Sterile Medical Packaging Market, by Application

Medical supplies

Gloves

Scissors

Syringes and needles

Surgical tapes

Others

Sterile Medical Packaging Market, by Geography

North America

Latin America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Middle East & Africa

Recent Research Reports by Transparency Market Research:

Plastic Bags and Sacks Market:

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/plastic-bag-sack-market.html

Flexible Packaging Market:

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/global-flexible-packaging-market.html

End-of-line Packaging Market:

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/end-of-line-packaging-market.html

About Us

Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.

Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMR's syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.

US Office Contact

Transparency Market Research

90 State Street, Suite 700

Albany, NY 12207

Tel: +1-518-618-1030

USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453

Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com



Website: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

SOURCE Transparency Market Research
MOSCOW, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- After successfully holding the China-Russia e-commerce summit in April, OSell Group's offline affiliate Global OConnect will organize a sourcing fair in Russia on 12th September. Providing overseas buyers an opportunity to access Chinese products in their home country, linking China's capacity with overseas channels and creating a win-win situation for suppliers and buyers.

Around 355 local purchasers will attend, displaying electronic and household products. There will be more than 1,110 products on display.

One highlight is a strategic cooperation agreement that will be signed at the event between OConnect and Major, one of the largest logistics companies in Russia.

As OSell Group's overseas business developed rapidly, it is devoted to create a cross-border e-commerce ecosystem covering both online and offline services. OSell realized the need to cooperate with third-party firms and utilize local resources. After signing a contract with Comex in May, joining hands with Major reflect OConnect's determination to further integrate and optimize global resources.

With a wide range of services in the field of transportation and customs clearance, Major will assist OConnect solve problems that often happen in Russia. Although there are numerous logistics firms in Russia, most only provide part of the services, either transportation or warehouse storage. Information delivered by logistics firms and received by clients is uncoordinated due to the lack of transparent procedures. Working with top logistics firms will ensure service efficiency.

Major's advanced management system will facilitate OConnect to create an intelligent logistics system; for instance, adopting API technology will make the whole logistics procedure transparent. Combing with overseas warehouses helps OConnect to achieve a cross-border e-commerce closed-loop ecosystem, which eventually benefits local buyers and consumers. In turn, OConnect will bring Major massive business opportunities in all kinds of fields including logistics, customs clearance and warehousing. In the background of global economic recession, alliance with OConnect is a good way for Major to develop business in China.

The event provides a platform for suppliers and buyers to communicate, which will promote trade and benefit both parties. OConnect's strategy of connecting China's overcapacity to overseas channels so that to create a circle of cross-border e-commerce ecosphere has not only attracted overseas buyers but also third-party service providers. With more powerful strategic alliances established, OConnect's service will be upgraded and better meet clients' needs. It is a significant move to complete OConnect's full-chain service.

SOURCE Global OConnect
DUBLIN, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Drafting International Commercial Agreements in English" conference to their offering.

Most international agreements are drafted in the English language irrespective of the nationality of contracting parties. Language errors in the text and unclear and inconcise phrasing causes confusion and can ultimately lead to a dispute if it goes unnoticed. Gain a comprehensive understanding of the common pitfalls, key areas of risk and up-to-date drafting techniques in English to ensure you protect your organisation against unnecessary risk.



This programme is a highly interactive skills based course offering in-depth and hands-on training on the understanding, and drafting of international commercial agreements in English. The entire programme is built around practical learning in small groups under the guidance of the expert presenter. Pre-course testing ensures a compatible level of English in the groups. The programme delivered will be adjusted according to the prevailing requirements of the delegates involved. Each participant will receive clear guidelines to structure, formation and content to be used in exercises throughout the programme.



What are the objectives of this programme?



Learn how to recognise drafting inaccuracies to effectively re-draft poorly written clauses

Draft effective standard clauses that can be used across the organisation to manage exposure to legal risk

Understand the principles of using plain English within your contract to reduce uncertainty

Focus on agreement structure, linguistic clarity and accuracy to draft with confidence

Discover how to avoid over complex sentences and structures to limit the risk of dispute

Develop more effective legal writing skills that can be used in all your business communications

Agenda

Day One



Drafting contracts in clear English

Structure and terminology of contracts

Practical Exercise: Drafting Standard Clauses in English

Practical Exercise: Legal Vocabulary

Day Two



Email and letter writing with precision and clarity

Practical Exercise

Principles of proof reading legal documents

Contract drafting

Legal vocabulary

Delegate contributions

Day Three



Advanced drafting skills

Legal advice

Grammar

Exercises on the use of prepositions and countable nouns in a legal context.

For more information about this conference visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/pwbk9c/drafting



Related Topics: International Trade

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com



SOURCE Research and Markets
MUNICH, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Cooperation in the field of payment processing

Joint payment innovations in the pipeline

Wirecard and Sabre Corporation, a leading technology partner for the global travel industry headquartered in Texas, USA, will now cooperate in the field of payment. Within the framework of this partnership, Sabre will integrate Wirecard's payment services in its own payment platform. This platform allows Sabre to process all kinds of payment transactions from all sectors within the travel industry, including airlines, hotels and rental cars, etc.

Sabre customers now stand to benefit from Wirecard's comprehensive acquiring services. In addition, the partners are working together to develop payment innovations for the tourism industry. Currently, both companies are piloting a scheme called 'Sabre Mobile Concierge'. With this, Sabre can offer airlines a whole host of services such as check-in, excess baggage, on-board sales, upgrades and much more via a mobile device. In turn, this avoids long queues at the check-in counter and while waiting to board. Wirecard takes care of the relevant mobile payment with an innovative mPOS solution, in order to directly settle the cost of any services provided.

Michael Santner, Vice President Partner Management at Wirecard: "As a global market leader, Sabre is an important player within the travel industry and is redefining standards. Through this partnership, we can set payment trends within the industry and in future offer customers solutions from a single source."

About Wirecard:

Wirecard AG is a global technology group that supports companies in accepting electronic payments from all sales channels. As a leading independent supplier, the Wirecard Group offers outsourcing and white label solutions for electronic payments. A global platform bundles international payment acceptances and methods with supplementary fraud prevention solutions. With regard to issuing own payment instruments in the form of cards or mobile payment solutions, the Wirecard Group provides companies with an end-to-end infrastructure, including the requisite licences for card and account products. Wirecard AG is listed on the Frankfurt Securities Exchange (TecDAX, ISIN DE0007472060, WDI). For further information about Wirecard, please visit http://www.wirecard.com or follow us on Twitter @wirecard.

About Sabre:

Sabre Corporation is the leading technology provider to the global travel industry. Sabre's software, data, mobile and distribution solutions are used by hundreds of airlines and thousands of hotel properties to manage critical operations, including passenger and guest reservations, revenue management, flight, network and crew management. Sabre also operates a leading global travel marketplace, which processes more than US$120 billion of global travel spend annually by connecting travel buyers and suppliers. Headquartered in Southlake, Texas, USA, Sabre serves customers in more than 160 countries around the world.

Wirecard media contact:



Wirecard AG

Jana Tilz

Tel.: +49-0-89-4424-1363

Email: jana.tilz@wirecard.com



SOURCE Wirecard AG
Bijaoui has more than 20 years of hotel real estate and development experience in markets across EMEA and most recently served as Vice President Development Europe for InterContinental Hotel Group, where he defined and implemented the development strategy for the region. He has also previously held senior development roles with Rezidor, Club Med, HVS International, City Hotels S.A. and Groupe Immobiliere Hoteliere. Bijaoui has a Master of Business Administration with a focus on hotel and catering management from I.M.H.I. Cornell, and speaks multiple European languages.

"All around the world a rapidly growing middle class is discovering the excitement of international travel. Wyndham Hotel Group's development strategy is bold but simple  we work with local partners to bring quality accommodation to a diverse number of locations, so that, no matter where adventure leads, our guests can find the hotel brands they know and love," said Daniel Ruff, President and Managing Director EMEA for Wyndham Hotel Group. "Philippe has a stellar reputation in the EMEA development community, and I am confident he is the best person to lead our aggressive expansion plans for the region."

"I am very much looking forward to accelerating Wyndham Hotel Group's growth in EMEA. Destinations across the region are in need of an international standard of hotel accommodation for growing inbound and domestic visitor numbers, and Wyndham Hotel Group has only begun to tap the potential in these markets," said Bijaoui. "In addition, the breadth of brands ranging from economy to luxury, as well as the power of being part of Wyndham Hotel Group and Wyndham Worldwide, gives us tremendous opportunity to introduce new innovative products in markets where certain segments may be currently under represented."

This year Wyndham Hotel Group has reached important development milestones in EMEA, including introducing the Super 8 brand to Europe, opening the 50th hotel in Turkey, expanding into Greece with the Wyndham Grand Athens and announcing new hotels in emergent destinations such as Oman, Iraq and Ethiopia.

About Wyndham Hotel Group

Wyndham Hotel Group is the world's largest hotel company based on number of hotels and is one of three hospitality business units of Wyndham Worldwide (NYSE: WYN). As both a leading hotel brand franchisor and hotel management services provider, the company's global portfolio consists of nearly 8,000 hotels and approximately 683,300 rooms in 73 countries under the following brands: Dolce Hotels and Resorts, Wyndham Grand, Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, Wyndham Garden Hotels, TRYP by Wyndham, Wingate by Wyndham, Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham, Microtel Inn & Suites by Wyndham, Ramada, Baymont Inn & Suites, Days Inn, Super 8, Howard Johnson, Travelodge and Knights Inn. Wyndham Rewards, the company's guest loyalty program, offers more than 46 million members the opportunity to earn and redeem points at thousands of hotels across the world. For more information, visit www.wyndhamworldwide.com.

Related Links

http://www.wyndhamworldwide.com



SOURCE Wyndham Hotel Group
"This visual design challenge presents a unique experience for our visual communications students to apply skills learned within their curriculum to a real world design opportunity. Students will see their design concepts brought to life and showcased in a public venue," says Cynthia Patino, Director of FIDM Visual Communications.

The designs will be on display at this 99 Cents Only Stores location until September 22nd, 2016. Vote for your favorite design for a chance to win gift cards, event tickets, gift baskets and more courtesy of 99 Cents Only Stores.

To place your vote, follow these 3 steps:

Visit the 99 Cents Only Store located at 11040 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA , 90064. Take a picture of your favorite design. Post the picture to your Instagram or Facebook page using the designs designated hashtag.

#99Petals (Household Items)

#99Nightmares ( Halloween )

) #99PoundsLater (Food Packaging)

#99ItsTimeToParty (Party Supplies)

99 Cents Only Stores is proud to have opportunity to display these amazing displays for their customers to enjoy.

About 99 Cents Only Stores

Founded in 1982, 99 Cents Only Stores is the leading operator of extreme value stores in California and the Southwestern United States. The Company currently operates 394 stores located in California, Texas, Arizona & Nevada.

99 Cents Only Stores offers a broad assortment of name brand and other attractively priced merchandise and compelling seasonal product offerings.

About FIDM/Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising

FIDM/Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising is a private college for specialized professional education, accredited by WASC Sr. College and University Commission and NASAD, granting Associate of Arts, Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees.

FIDM is the home of "Project Runway Junior", starring Tim Gunn, on Lifetime Television.

Media Contact: Desiree Anderson, 213-393-5736 or [email protected]



Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160912/406491

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140211/LA62673LOGO

SOURCE 99 Cents Only Stores

Related Links

http://www.99only.com


AFIKIM, Israel, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Afimilk, Ltd., a global provider of dairy farm management solutions, has integrated a Calving Alert service, including a prolonged calving application, into its AfiAct II cow monitoring system. The new technology will help dairy farmers instantly identify and quickly assist cows experiencing difficult labor, also called dystocia.

Afimilk introduces Automatic Calving Alert Service. Picture credit BCEL Ouest-Pascal Lecoz

"The new Calving Alert Service will help dairy farmers more accurately detect the onset of calving, and be better prepared for potentially costly events like dystocia," said Dr. Alon Arazi, DVM, a senior member of the Afimilk research team.

Difficult labor is associated with increased calf mortality and morbidity. Studies have shown that up to half of first-calf Holstein cows in the U.S. require intervention from a farmer or veterinarian during labor.*

"Monitoring cows for calving is very time-consuming, and highly dependent on observers' skills," said Dr. Arazi. "Automatic, continuous monitoring is more labor-efficient and allows for 24/7 control."

Edu Mesnik, a veteran farm manager, has experienced a dramatic reduction in calf mortality since installing the AfiAct II in his herd last year.

"We now have good control over the calving process, and dead calves in the morning are a rare sight," he said.

AfiAct II is the first leg-tag system programmed to issue notifications specifically for prolonged labor. Alerts are sent wirelessly from a leg-mounted sensor to a smartphone when calving begins, and again if calving is prolonged.

In addition to calving, AfiAct II detects other conditions based on activity and resting behavior, including estrus, abortion, cow comfort problems and illness.

Another monitoring system offered by Afimilk, Silent Herdsman, features a neck-mounted sensor that detects estrus, cyclic disorders and illness based on cow activity, rumination and eating patterns. Both monitoring systems will be on display at the SPACE International Livestock Trade Fair in Rennes, France, September 13-16, and at World Dairy Expo in Madison Wisconsin, October 4-8, 2016.

Afimilk is a global leader in farm management software, cow monitoring systems and milk analysis tools for dairy producers in 50 countries. For more information on the AfiAct II or Silent Herdsman cow monitoring systems, contact a local Afimilk dealer, or visit Afimilk.com.

* A.C. Barrier et al. Parturition progress and behaviours in dairy cows and calving difficulty. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 139 (2012) 209-217.

Contact:

Noa Yonish

Corporate Marketing Manager

[email protected]

Kim Parr

[email protected]

Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160822/399915

SOURCE Afimilk Ltd

Related Links

http://www.afimilk.com


CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), a leader in the global specialty chemicals industry, announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Bolland Minera S.A., for the exclusive exploration and acquisition rights to a lithium resource in Antofalla, within the Catamarca Province of Argentina. Albemarle believes that this lithium resource will be certified as the largest lithium resource in Argentina.

Albemarle is uniquely positioned to develop the Antofalla lithium resource given its technical capabilities, operational experience in South America, and proven track record of establishing public-private-partnerships and community relations in the region.

"For the past 80 years, we have developed proprietary lithium extraction know-how which will enable us to evaluate the lithium resource," said John Mitchell, president of Albemarle's Lithium and Advanced Materials global business unit.

About Albemarle

Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), headquartered in Charlotte, NC, is a global specialty chemicals company with leading positions in lithium, bromine, refining catalysts and applied surface treatments. We power the potential of companies in many of the world's largest and most critical industries, from energy and communications to aerospace and electronics. Working side-by-side with our customers, we develop value-added, customized solutions that make them more competitive. Our solutions combine the finest technology and ingredients with the knowledge and know-how of our highly experienced and talented team of operators, scientists and engineers.

Discovering and implementing new and better performance-based sustainable solutions is what motivates all of us. We think beyond business-as-usual to drive innovations that create lasting value. Albemarle employs approximately 6,900 people and serves customers in approximately 100 countries. We regularly post information to www.albemarle.com, including notification of events, news, financial performance, investor presentations and webcasts, non-GAAP reconciliations, SEC filings and other information regarding our company, its businesses and the markets it serves.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Albemarle Corporation's business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111129/MM14279LOGO

SOURCE Albemarle Corporation

Related Links

http://www.albemarle.com


NEW YORK, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- WeissLaw LLP is investigating possible breaches of fiduciary duty and other violations of law by the Board of Directors of Apigee Corp. ("APIG" or the "Company") in connection with the proposed acquisition of the Company by Google. On September 8, 2016, the Company announced that it had reached a definitive agreement for Google to acquire all outstanding shares of APIG in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $625 million. Under the terms of the agreement, the Company's shareholders will receive $17.40 in cash for each APIG share they own.

WeissLaw is investigating whether APIG's Board acted to maximize shareholder value prior to entering into the agreement. Notably, at least one analyst set a target price of $19.00 per share, or $1.60 above the offer price. Additionally, the Company announced positive financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2016. In May, it reported revenues of $23.5 million, representing a 36% year-over-year growth when compared to the $17.3 million reported in the same period of the previous year. APIG also reported gross profits grew 46% from $11.25 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2015 to $16.4 million this year.

Given these facts, WeissLaw is investigating whether APIG's Board acted in the best interests of APIG's public shareholders to maximize shareholder value prior to entering into the agreement. If you own APIG shares and would like more information about your rights or our investigation, or if you have information to share with us, please contact Joshua Rubin by telephone at (888) 593-4771 or by email at [email protected].

WeissLaw LLP has litigated hundreds of stockholder class and derivative actions for violations of corporate and fiduciary duties. We have recovered over a billion dollars for defrauded clients and obtained important corporate governance relief in many of these cases. If you have information or would like legal advice concerning possible corporate wrongdoing (including insider trading, waste of corporate assets, accounting fraud, or materially misleading information), consumer fraud (including false advertising, defective products, or other deceptive business practices), or anti-trust violations, please email us at [email protected] or fill out the form on our website, http://www.weisslawllp.com/contact/report_fraud/.

SOURCE WeissLaw LLP

Related Links

http://www.weisslurie.com


"Earlier this year we proudly announced that the Keystone State and the historic and vibrant city of Philadelphia, which have been part of Aramark's success and growth for over half a century, will remain our home," said Eric J. Foss, Aramark's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Today, we are announcing a new riverfront headquarters that will provide our associates with a dynamic work environment and exciting amenities to enable us to continue enriching and nourishing the lives of our clients, consumers and communities we serve."

"As one of the largest international corporations headquartered in Philadelphia, it was extremely important to the state that Aramark continued to call Philadelphia its home," Governor Wolf said. "The commonwealth served as a strategic partner throughout the process, working to ensure that Aramark remained here. We made the decision to further support Aramark by making a commitment to support the public infrastructure and redevelopment at the company's site to ensure the high number of jobs and private sector investment remain in Pennsylvania."

"Aramark has been a pillar of the Philadelphia business community for over 55 years, and we look forward to working with them as the company begins a new era on West Market Street," said Mayor Jim Kenney. "The location at 2400 Market Street will provide Aramark with a larger space that is still easily accessible to employees coming from all corners of the city and beyond. Aramark has already demonstrated its commitment to the company's new neighborhood with its donation to the Schuylkill River Development Corporation, which will help support development efforts along the Schuylkill."

Aramark's future global headquarters will occupy five newly constructed floors with sweeping river views and housing approximately 1,200 management and support associates now at 1101 Market Street and 100 Penn Square East. Plans include designing contemporary, dynamic work spaces to promote collaboration, a state-of-the-art associate dining facility befitting a leading food service company, modern training facilities and a world-class fitness center. The building will also feature green space with more than 8,000 square feet of outdoor terraces. Aramark associates will have access to adjoined parking, with shuttle service to nearby public transportation hubs for SEPTA, PATCO and 30th Street Station. The company will begin transitioning people in the fall of 2018 with the move expected to be completed by year-end.

As part of its commitment to its new neighborhood, Aramark also announced today a $100,000 contribution to the Schuylkill River Development Corporation (SRDC) to support the continued transformation along the Schuylkill River Trail and River Banks, an 8-mile corridor between the Fairmount Dam and the Delaware River used heavily for recreation and alternative transportation, such safely biking or walking to work.

While final plans are still under development for 2400 Market Street, the four existing floors will be re-built to accommodate current and potential commercial and retail tenants. The project also will include a promenade overlooking the Schuylkill River Walk that links Chestnut and Walnut Streets.

Aramark expects to pursue sustainable practices for construction and building operation, including benchmarks and energy modeling that factor in employee well-being and the environment.

The building is owned by a joint venture of The Lubert-Adler Real Estate Funds and PMC Property Group, both of Philadelphia. The design work is being carried out by a team of two architectural firms: Gensler, Design Architect and Varenhorst, PC, Executive Architect. Cushman & Wakefield represented Aramark for the lease transaction, which runs through September 2034.

About Aramark

Aramark (NYSE: ARMK) delivers experiences that enrich and nourish people's lives through innovative services in food, facilities management, and uniforms. United by a passion to serve, our 270,000 employees make a meaningful difference each day for millions of people in 21 countries around the world. Aramark is recognized as one of the World's Most Admired Companies by FORTUNE, rated number one among Diversified Outsourcing Companies, as well as among the World's Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute. Learn more at www.aramark.com or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160912/406391

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131212/PH32713LOGO

SOURCE Aramark

Related Links

http://www.aramark.com


HAMILTON, Bermuda, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ardmore Shipping Corporation (NYSE: ASC) ("Ardmore" or the "Company") today announced that the Company has taken delivery of the first three of six MR product / chemical tankers that it agreed to acquire in June 2016. The Ardmore Endurance, Ardmore Explorer and Ardmore Engineer are 49,500 deadweight tonne Eco-Design IMO 2/3 MR product / chemical tankers constructed by STX Offshore and Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. in Korea in 2013, 2014 and 2014, respectively. The vessels delivered on August 31, 2016, September 7, 2016 and September 12, 2016, respectively, and are currently employed in the spot market.

The Company also announced that it has completed debt financing for its recent acquisition of six vessels. Four of the vessels are being financed through a new $71.3 million senior debt facility with ABN AMRO. The facility is an amortizing senior term loan with a final maturity date in 2023. The covenants and other conditions are consistent with those of the Company's existing credit facilities.

The remaining two vessels have been added to the existing credit facility with ABN AMRO and DVB Bank, which was completed in January 2016. The facility has been upsized by $36.6 million, and NIBC Bank has agreed to join ABN AMRO and DVB Bank as lenders under the facility. The upsized portion is in two tranches to coincide with the delivery of the two vessels, and the new tranches will mature in 2023. The covenants and other conditions are consistent with the original facility.

The Company further announced that it has agreed to sell the 2005-built, 29,000 deadweight tonne Eco-Mod product / chemical tanker Ardmore Centurion for a price of $15.7 million. The vessel is expected to deliver to the buyer in late September 2016.

Anthony Gurnee, the Company's Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"We are pleased to welcome these high-quality, modern MR product / chemical tankers to Ardmore's operating fleet. Alongside the three additional vessels that are scheduled to deliver to Ardmore in the coming weeks, these recent acquisitions will expand our long-term earnings power, enhance our cost efficiency and lower our breakeven costs. We also appreciate the support of ABN AMRO, DVB Bank, and NIBC Bank in providing bank financing for all of our newly acquired vessels."

About Ardmore Shipping Corporation

Ardmore owns and operates a fleet of mid-size product and chemical tankers ranging from 25,000 to 50,000 deadweight tonnes. The Company provides seaborne transportation of petroleum products and chemicals worldwide to oil majors, national oil companies, oil and chemical traders, and chemical companies, with its modern, fuel-efficient fleet of tankers.

Ardmore's core strategy centers around operating a modern, high-quality fleet of product and chemical tankers, building key long-term commercial relationships, and maintaining its cost advantage in assets, operations and overhead, while creating significant synergies and economies of scale as the Company grows. Ardmore provides its services to customers through voyage charters, commercial pools and time charters and enjoys close working relationships with key commercial and technical management partners.

Forward-Looking Statements

The statements in this press release that are not historical facts may be forward-looking statements, including statements about: the Company's future financing activities, including the timing and terms of share repurchases and the Company's plans regarding capital raising. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause the outcome to be materially different. These risks and uncertainties include, among others, changes in the Company's capital requirements and those discussed in Ardmore's public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Ardmore undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements unless required to do so under the securities laws.

Investor Relations Enquiries:

The IGB Group

Mr. Leon Berman

Tel: 212-477-8438

Fax: 212-477-8636

Email: [email protected]

Or

Mr. Bryan Degnan

The IGB Group

Tel: 646-673-9701

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Ardmore Shipping Corporation

Related Links

http://www.ardmoreshipping.com


BEZONS, France, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Atos, a global leader in digital services, announces having signed a share purchase agreement to acquire Anthelio Healthcare Solutions (Anthelio), the largest independent provider of healthcare technology solutions in North America, for an enterprise value of US$275 million (8.5xEBIT post-synergies in 2017). This acquisition, fully financed by cash, uniquely positions Atos to reach a broader customer base in the U.S. healthcare market by strengthening the scale and scope of its services. The combined organization will support Atos customer's need to better optimize financial performance, improve the patient care experience, engage patients through state-of-the-art applications and address the increasing demands of security, risk and compliance.

Anthelio generates about US$200 million of annual revenue growing at 8%. Thanks to strong revenue synergies, the Group expects the newly formed US healthcare practice to reach double digit organic growth in 2018.

"We are pleased to welcome the Anthelio team to Atos. With their strong and loyal customer base and our combined commitment to providing a world-class customer experience, our ambition with Anthelio is to reinforce our Healthcare footprint in the U.S. and to become the leader in digital healthcare solutions", said Michel-Alain Proch, Group Senior Executive Vice President and CEO North American Operations, Atos. "I am pleased that Asif Ahmad, a recognized leader in the healthcare technology sector, currently CEO of Anthelio Healthcare Solutions, will lead our newly formed healthcare practice in the US."

"This is an exciting development for Anthelio and its customers," said Asif Ahmad, CEO, Anthelio Healthcare Solutions. "Our vision has always been to drive high value for healthcare organizations by solving complex clinical and business problems. Combining Atos' leadership in global digital services with Anthelio's leadership in Healthcare Technology and Revenue Cycle Management is unprecedented. This acquisition addresses the many core clinical and financial processes that hospitals and physicians are faced with today".

Atos is acquiring Anthelio from Actis, a leading London-based growth markets investment firm, its majority shareholder since November 2010, as well as from McLaren Health Care Corporation, a leading fully integrated health network and the largest customer of Anthelio.

Philip A. Incarnati, President and CEO of McLaren Health Care Corporation said "As a long-time partner of Anthelio, I trust that Atos is the right choice to support McLaren's future growth and digital transformation through our renewed 5-year contract".

Anthelio is recognized by Black Book[*] for its outsourcing services in both HIM (Health Information Management) and IT Infrastructure, and also brings more than 1,700 healthcare professionals to Atos, of which 1,300 are in the U.S and 400 in India.

With strong reputation and quality-driven culture coupled with Atos' proven healthcare digital transformation solutions, this acquisition will provide customers with expanded technology offerings that provide sustainable value in today's evolving healthcare environment.

The intended acquisition received the unanimous support of both the Atos and Anthelio Boards of Directors. The transaction is expected to close before the end of September 2016.

About Atos

Atos SE (Societas Europaea) is a leader in digital services with pro forma annual revenue of circa  12 billion and circa 100,000 employees in 72 countries. Serving a global client base, the Group provides Consulting & Systems Integration services, Managed Services & BPO, Cloud operations, Big Data & Cybersecurity solutions, as well as transactional services through Worldline, the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry. With its deep technology expertise and industry knowledge, the Group works with clients across different business sectors: Defense, Financial Services, Health, Manufacturing, Media, Utilities, Public sector, Retail, Telecommunications, and Transportation.

Atos is focused on business technology that powers progress and helps organizations to create their firm of the future. The Group is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic & Paralympic Games and is listed on the Euronext Paris market. Atos operates under the brands Atos, Atos Consulting, Atos Worldgrid, Bull, Canopy, Unify and Worldline.

For more information, visit: atos.net

About Anthelio Healthcare Solutions

Anthelio is a driving force in the healthcare industry and is the largest independent provider of healthcare technology solutions to hospitals, physician practice groups and other healthcare providers. By provisioning hospitals across the US with innovative solutions in the areas of IT, EHR, HIM, Revenue Cycle Management, Patient Engagement and Enterprise Interoperability (EI), Anthelio impacts quality care to over 60 million patients. The acquisition of Pyramid Healthcare Solutions in 2015 broadened Anthelio's RCM service offerings while expanding its medical coding, coding audit, Clinical Documentation Improvement and HIM outsourcing services. Powered by cutting-edge technologies and thousands of healthcare professionals with extensive clinical and operational experience, Anthelio drives sustainable value to over 63,000 physicians and nurses in hundreds of healthcare organizations supporting their annual revenue of over $67 billion. Anthelio is headquartered in Dallas, Texas with several satellite offices across the US and globally.

For more information, visit: antheliohealth.com

About Actis

Actis is a leading investor in growth markets, delivering consistent competitive returns, responsibly. It has a growing portfolio of investments across Asia, Africa and Latin America and approximately US$6.3bn assets under management today.

For more information, visit: act.is

Disclaimers

This release contains "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties, including references concerning the Group's expected growth and profitability in the future which may significantly impact expected performance other than as indicated. These statements include projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives, intentions and expectations with respect to future financial results, events, operations, services and potential, and statements regarding future performance. Significant risks and uncertainties may be linked to factors out of the control of the Company and not precisely estimated, such as market conditions or competitors behaviors. Any statements made in this document that are not statements of historical fact, including statements about Atos' beliefs and expectations and statements about Anthelio Healthcare Solutions (Anthelio) and/or Atos' proposed acquisition thereof, are forward-looking statements and should be evaluated as such. Forward-looking statements include statements that may relate to Atos' plans, objectives, strategies, goals, future events, future revenue or synergies, or performance, and other information that is not historical information. Actual events or results may differ from those described in this document due to a number of risks and uncertainties that are described within the 2015 Registration Document filed with the Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF) on April 7, 2016 under the registration number: D.16-0300 and its update filed with the Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF) on August 4, 2016 under the registration number: D.16-0300-A01. Atos does not undertake, and specifically disclaims, any obligation or responsibility to update or amend any of the information above except as otherwise required by law.

[*] A leading independent research firm in the healthcare industry

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120727/DA47547LOGO

SOURCE Atos

Related Links

http://na.atos.net


LOS BANOS, Calif., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- On August 9, 2016, Pratap Kurra, M.D. was informed that papers related to his practice were found in a trash container in Los Banos, CA. Dr. Kurra immediately began an investigation into the matter and determined that on August 8, 2016, the day before, billing tickets used by his practice were accidentally thrown away during his move. Fortunately, all known records were retrieved within 24 hours, and upon further investigation, it was determined to have been a singular incident.

Dr. Kurra is notifying you of this incident because your ticket was among those potentially exposed. Specifically, the ticket contained your: name; procedure type; surgeon; Dr. Kurra's name as your anesthesiologist; hospital, date, and time of procedure; type of anesthesia used; and difficulty of case. Pertinently, no social security numbers, dates of birth, financial information, medical insurance information, patient identification numbers, nor contact information was included. Further, as mentioned, all tickets are believed to have been fully recovered within 24 hours.

In addition to the steps outlined above, Dr. Kurra was in immediate contact with hospital administrative staff, he discussed this matter with his staff to ensure such an event does not happen again, and he notified the appropriate state and federal agencies about this incident including the California Attorney General and Health and Human Services Department. Dr. Kurra takes the protection of information seriously and understands how important trust is in a physician-patient relationship.

Although no social security numbers, date of births, financial information, medical insurance information, patient identification numbers, nor contact information was included, you may still be inclined to contact the three credit bureaus and place a fraud alert on your accounts. If so, their contact information is: Equifax (1-888-766-0008; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374), Experian (1-888-397-3742; P.O. Box 4500,Allen, TX 75013), and TransUnion (800-680-7289; P.O. Box 2000, Chester, PA 19022-2000). You are also entitled to a free credit report every year from these agencies at www.annualcreditreport.com.

Protecting your information is incredibly important to Dr. Kurra, as is addressing this incident with the information and assistance you may need. If you have any questions or concerns, please call toll free number 844-749-5101, or write Dr. Kurra at P.O. Box 2295, Los Banos, CA 93635.

SOURCE Dr. Kurra
BOULDER, Colo., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- With a seasonal change to a colder weather not far off, asthmatics can normally expect a worsening of their breathing difficulties. "Breathe to Heal," a new book available September 15, offers comprehensive instructions on how the problem can be prevented by teaching people how to control their own breathing.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160909/406142

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160909/406143

An illustrated guide for adults and children, "Breathe to Heal" was authored by Sasha Yakovleva along with physicians K.P. Buteyko and A. E. Novozhilov. Yakovleva, who has a master's degree in journalism and is an expert in Russian healing arts, explains that the book is based in part on experiments scientists conducted on breathing in a secret laboratory in Siberia during the Cold War. Originally, she says, the research was meant to aid the Russian space program but it has been adapted to make it applicable to ordinary people.

"People with asthma who are having difficulty breathe too much," Yakovleva explains, "and that worsens their condition. When people have an asthma attack, their instinct is to take more breaths in quick succession, which is the opposite of what they should do. Breathing less helps people to become healthier and live longer."

Invite this entertaining and informative guest to answer:



What is the human body's most underappreciated organ?

Why does the average person consume 5-10 times more air than they should?

What simple breathing exercises stop stuffy or runny noses or coughing?

How can breathing patterns be modified to tame asthma and other breathing difficulties?

CREDENTIALS: Sasha Yakovleva is an advanced breathing normalization specialist and co-founder of Breathing Center, a company that exclusively represents the work of K.P. Buteyko and his clinic in Moscow. Her work has been featured in The New York Times and other publications, as well as on TV and radio programs. For the last nine years, she has been teaching Breathing Normalization internationally helping people to overcome various health problems by reducing air consumption. She was trained in Moscow and has lived in the U.S. for nearly 20 years.

AVAILABILITY: Colorado, nationwide by arrangement, and via Skype or telephone

CONTACT: Sasha Yakovleva, (303) 823- 5173 (CO); Email

www.breathingcenter.com/SashaYakovleva

SOURCE Sasha Yakovleva
HOUSTON, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Bayou City Energy ("Bayou City" or BCE") today announced its affiliate, BCE-MESA Holdings LLC ("BCE-MESA") completed the purchase of preferred stock in High Mesa, Inc. ("High Mesa"). High Mesa is a privately held Delaware corporation, of which the common stock is owned by management of High Mesa, and the preferred stock is owned by BCE-MESA and HPS Investment Partners, LLC ("HPS"). High Mesa has interests in oil and gas assets, most notably Alta Mesa Holdings, LP (the "Company", "Alta Mesa", or "AMH"). BCE-MESA, which is managed by BCE, includes an investment from affiliates of Intervale Capital, a middle-market energy services private equity firm. In connection with this investment, High Mesa appointed BCE Founding Partner, William McMullen, to its board of directors.

Alta Mesa was founded in 1987 and has a multi-decade track-record of creating value across multiple conventional and unconventional basins. Since drilling its first horizontal STACK well in 2012, the Company has emerged as a leading operator in the prolific STACK oil window of Kingfisher County, Oklahoma. Within Kingfisher County, Alta Mesa has over 95,000 net acres, is currently producing approximately 16,000 BOE per day and is currently operating four rigs across its position.

William McMullen said, "Through their continuous technical refinement and diligent approach to thoroughly understanding the STACK, AMH continues to execute on its operational objectives. We initiated our relationship with AMH and HPS in January through a drilling JV, and completion of this preferred equity investment is based on management's demonstrated success and bright outlook. We are thrilled to further strengthen our relationship with High Mesa, its management team and HPS."

AMH's CEO, Hal Chappelle, added, "We value our relationship with Bayou City Energy, and we believe their team is the ideal partner to invest alongside our existing partner, HPS, and to help our company continue to achieve its objectives in the STACK."

"HPS is excited for AMH to expand its relationship with BCE beyond the drilling JV and welcomes BCE as an additional preferred investor at High Mesa," said Don Dimitrievich, a Managing Director at HPS. "BCE, like HPS, shares management's vision and understands the tremendous growth potential and value of AMH."

Intervale Capital Managing Partner, Charles Cherington, said, "Intervale is truly excited to partner with BCE-MESA, AMH and HPS, and to assist with the growth of their already meaningful enterprise. This upstream investment, which represents an enhancement to Intervale's core focus on energy services, reflects the compelling results, team and assets AMH has assembled. Through the BCE-MESA investment, we can collectively leverage the operational efficiencies, technical expertise, and learning curve AMH has created to progressively expand their platform and advance their development program."

About Bayou City Energy

Bayou City Energy is a private equity firm focused on making investments in the North American upstream oil & gas sector. Bayou City targets privately negotiated investments through two complementary strategies: Providing buyout and growth equity capital for operators with current production and identified upside, and partnering with leading operators to provide dedicated drilling capital in off-balance sheet structures.

For more information about Bayou City Energy, please visit www.bayoucityenergy.com or email [email protected].

About HPS Investment Partners, LLC

HPS is a leading global investment firm with a focus on non-investment grade credit. Established in 2007, HPS currently has 94 investment professionals and is headquartered in New York with ten offices globally. HPS was originally formed as a unit of Highbridge Capital Management, LLC ("HCM"), a subsidiary of J.P. Morgan Asset Management. In March 2016, the principals of HPS acquired the firm from J.P. Morgan, which retained HCM's hedge fund strategies. As of August 2016, HPS has over $31 billion of assets under management and has invested over $3 billion in the energy and power industries since inception.

About Alta Mesa Holdings, LP

Alta Mesa is a privately-held company engaged in onshore oil and gas acquisition, exploitation and production with a seasoned management team, whose mission is to maximize the profitability of its assets in a safe and environmentally sound manner. The Company applies advanced engineering analyses and enhanced geological techniques to under-developed or over-looked conventional resource areas to create value. The Company employs disciplined management processes and have the flexibility to respond to the market. Alta Mesa has a large, long-lived and diversified reserve base, with a substantial inventory of low risk development projects. The portfolio of assets has large components of liquids-rich gas and oil reservoirs. The core producing assets are located in the Oklahoma Sooner Trend and in South Louisiana.

For more information about Alta Mesa, please visit www.altamesa.net.

About Intervale Capital

Intervale Capital is an energy-focused private equity firm with offices in Houston and Boston. Intervale invests primarily in middle-market energy services and manufacturing companies and related technologies. The firm has raised $1.3 billion of committed capital since its inception in 2006 and is currently investing from its third fund.

Intervale portfolio companies include Tier 1 Energy Solutions (wireline and completions in Canada), TEAM Oil Tools (completions equipment and services), Aegis Chemical Solutions (oilfield chemicals, water treatment and water transfer), Certus Energy Solutions (diversified oilfield rental equipment), Antelope Oil Tool (casing and cementing products) and Epic Lift Systems (artificial lift and compression), among others.

For more information about Intervale Capital, please visit www.intervalecapital.com.

SOURCE Bayou City Energy

Related Links

http://www.bayoucityenergy.com


NORTH BILLERICA, Mass., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Curriculum Associates, a leading education technology company based in North Billerica, Mass., has been honored as one of the Boston Business Journal's 2016 top charitable companies in Mass. list. In 2015, Curriculum Associates donated over half a million dollars to charitable organizations.

"The contributions these companies make to Mass. is incredibly impressive and go a long way toward helping strengthen the communities we live in," said Carolyn Jones, market president and publisher of the Boston Business Journal.

The Boston Business Journal's 2016 top charitable companies list includes 85 companies that gave at least $100,000 to Massachusetts-based charities in 2015. The region's top charitable companies were honored at the BBJ's 11th Annual Corporate Citizenship Summit on Sept. 8 at the EpiCenter at Artists for Humanity in Boston.

Curriculum Associates was founded in 1969 by a group of passionate educators who shared a simple yet powerful vision: to make classrooms better places for teachers and students. Committed to remaining privately held, Curriculum Associates believes the role of an education company is to help students and teachers succeed and not to maximize shareholder returns. As a result, the company is leading the adoption of print and digital curriculum for nearly 3.5 million K12 students across the country. The company's unique corporate structure underlines its focus on serving students, as its placement in a perpetual trust ensures the majority of profit distributions will go to educational charitable causes.

"We're honored to be included on the Boston Business Journal's top charitable contributors list alongside so many other conscious businesses," said Rob Waldron, CEO of Curriculum Associates. "As an education company that measures success by the impact we have on classrooms, it is part of our DNA to contribute to bettering the lives of students and teachersboth through our products and through our giving."

About Curriculum Associates

Founded in 1969, privately owned Curriculum Associates, LLC designs research-based print and online instructional materials, screens and assessments, and data management tools. The company's products and outstanding customer service provide teachers and administrators with the resources necessary for teaching diverse student populations and fostering learning for all students.

SOURCE Curriculum Associates
NEW YORK, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Business Talent Group (BTG), the leading platform for top independent consultants and executives doing project-based work, announced today that it has closed an $8 million Series B funding round led by NextEquity Partners. The round also includes participation from David and Katherine Bradley through the Bradley Family Trust; Ted Meisel, the former CEO of Overture and co-founder of AVIA Health Innovation; and numerous existing investors. NextEquity Managing Director Adam Hopkins will join BTG's board as will Frank Williams, CEO of Evolent Health and former CEO and Chairman of The Advisory Board Company. Ted Meisel and NextEquity Principal Rami Reyes, will join as board observers.

BTG also announced that it was named to Inc. Magazine's prestigious list of the 5000 fastest-growing private companies in America for the second year in a row.

"We started BTG to bring together the world's top independent professionals and leading organizations to enhance business performance and improve people's lives," said Jody Greenstone Miller, BTG's co-founder and CEO. "NextEquity's investment is an exciting vote of confidence in our vision and platform. BTG's success helping many of the world's leading companies harness independent talent for mission-critical work  even as it saves them money compared to traditional alternatives  is reflected in our rapid growth, and we appreciate Inc. Magazine's recognition. Now we're determined to make this new way to get work done ubiquitous  so that every company has this on-demand resource at their fingertips, and every talented professional has a new way to craft a career built on a steady flow of high quality, high impact projects."

The new capital, together with funds generated from BTG's ongoing operations, will enable BTG to accelerate growth by combining proprietary technology and data with the highly targeted client engagement model it has pioneered.

"BTG already serves 30% of the Fortune 100  and hundreds of other firms  in a space that has explosive growth potential," said Adam Hopkins, managing director at NextEquity. "Talented people increasingly want to work independently. Top organizations want more flexible, cost-effective ways to get work done. BTG's unique knowledge and experience bridging these two workplace trends positions them for continued leadership in a market they helped invent. We're thrilled to partner with BTG as it builds capacity to seize this opportunity."

BTG co-founder and President Amelia Tyagi added: "We look forward to continuing to innovate in this market. We are developing new products and new ways to engage with companies and talent that will help our clients integrate cost-effective independent expertise into every aspect of their operations. And, having access to the right professional with the right skills and industry experience at the right time is essential to competing effectively in today's fast paced economy."

Called a "workplace innovator" by Fast Company and a "disruptor of consulting" by Harvard Business School's Clay Christensen, BTG was an early leader in providing global companies, private equity firms and major non-profits with top independent consultants and executives who can meet essential project-based business needs. A May 2016 BloombergBusinessweek article explained why firms increasingly choose BTG over traditional consulting firms, stating that "Business Talent Group consultants don't carry big overhead" and citing satisfied clients who prefer targeted solutions because they "don't need a big team off in the corner working by itself."

BTG once again appears on the Inc. 5000 list, where household names such as Microsoft, Zappos, Intuit, Jamba Juice, Zipcar, Intuit, Chobani and Oracle first made their mark. BTG's revenue has grown 5 times between 2011and 2015. The rapid growth that enabled BTG to make the Inc. 5000 list twice mirrors the growth of the "Independent Economy," which a 2015 Freelance Union/Upwork survey pegged at almost 54 million people, or 1/3 of the U.S. workforce today. The rise of the independent professional has made it a strategic imperative for all companies to tap into this rich talent group. (The full Inc. list can be found at Inc.com).

"There's a reason that everyone from Clayton Christensen to The Economist and The New York Times has recognized the power of BTG's vision," said Tom Unterman, founder of Rustic Canyon Partners and a BTG Series A and Series B investor (in his individual capacity). "I've watched Jody and Amelia build a world class team that is ready for the next phase of rapid growth. I've watched Jody define the future of work through agenda-setting articles in the Harvard Business Review, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal and Fortune. Now I can't wait to watch BTG capture the fruits of what this thinking and action have made possible -- a globally significant technology-enabled platform that helps leading organizations and talented professionals meet their critical needs."

About Business Talent Group

Business Talent Group (BTG) is a leading global platform for top independent consultants and executives doing project-based work. BTG combines technology and highly targeted client service to connect major corporations, private equity firms, and non-profits with thousands of curated and vetted independent professionals who are experts in their fields. Clients include 30% of the Fortune 100 who rely on BTG to structure projects for success and provide on-demand, tailored solutions at a fraction of the cost of traditional alternatives. BTG has offices in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Austin, San Francisco, and Boston. More information can be found at businesstalentgroup.com.

About NextEquity Partners

NextEquity Partners makes growth equity and other venture capital investments in innovative technology and digital media companies. NextEquity is led by an integrated team of investors and operators with extensive experience working with high growth, market leading new media and technology companies and serving as trusted advisors and close business partners to management. NextEquity's leadership team includes Fred Anderson (former CFO of Apple and Co-Founder of Elevation Partners), Avie Tevanian (former Chief Software Technology Officer at Apple and Managing Director at Elevation Partners), and Adam Hopkins (a Managing Director of Elevation Partners). NextEquity draws upon its principals' deep technology, operating, and growth equity experience managing or investing in companies, such as Apple, Airbnb, Facebook, The RealReal and Yelp. For more information please visit www.nextequity.com.

For more information, please contact:

Nyssa Kourakos

o) 646-805-2032

c) 917-364-5531

e): [email protected]

SOURCE Business Talent Group

Related Links

http://businesstalentgroup.com


BEND, Ore., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Oregrown Industries, Oregon's premier farm-to-table cannabis company, has become a Platinum Sponsor of the local Chamber of Commerce in Bend, Oregon. The company's sponsorship will help underwrite the Bend Chamber's Young Professionals Network, bringing networking events, educational seminars, mentorship programs and interaction with area business leaders to professionals age 21-40.

"Oregrown has been a Bend Chamber member for more than a year, and we wanted to step up our engagement with our local business community," said Oregrown co-founder Aviv Hadar. "We are young professionals ourselves, so the program is a natural fit for us."

Oregrown is the first of the Bend Chamber's six cannabis business members to become a major partner in the nonprofit association. Rachael van den Berg, who helps oversee the Young Professionals Network, said the Bend Chamber recognizes that the legal marijuana industry is, and will be, a significant part of the local economy.

"The YPN Council is thrilled to have Oregrown as a Platinum Partner," van den Berg said. "With the support and inspiration of Oregrown, the council looks forward to offering high-value programs and events that engage, educate and empower young professionals to become the future leaders of business in the region."

Oregrown announced its partnership with the Bend Chamber on the heels of back-to-back wins for Central Oregon's Best Dispensary by readers of The Source Weekly.

"Partnering with the Bend Chamber to create new opportunities for young professionals is one way Oregrown is giving back to our local community," Hadar said. "Ultimately, our sponsorship is an investment in the future of Bend."

Oregrown is Oregon's premier farm-to-table cannabis company. Offering an upscale retail experience with an amazing staff and high-end products including solventless extractions and one-of-a-kind cultivars, Oregrown continues to innovate, develop and release world-class offerings, delivery methods and applications to patients and recreational customers.

The Bend Chamber, serving over 1,200 businesses and representing more than 24,000 jobs, is a vital strategic partner creating resources and opportunities for member success, quality of life, engagement and meaningful impact. For more information, please visit bendchamber.org

Contact:

Karynn Fish, Oregrown Industries

(971) 264-9067

[email protected]

Rachael van den Berg, Bend Chamber

(541) 382-3221

[email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160525/372454LOGO

SOURCE Oregrown Industries

Related Links

http://www.oregrown.com


MELVILLE, N.Y., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- In today's healthcare environment, it is essential to invest in solutions that help streamline workflows while having features that can assist healthcare professionals with their compliance efforts. Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, will showcase its teleretinal imaging solution during this year's Vision Expo West conference at the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada from September 15-17, 2016.

On display in the Canon booth (#MS11043) will be the Canon teleretinal solution, featuring the Canon CR-2 PLUS AF Digital Non-Mydriatic Retinal camera and imageSPECTRUM Image Management System software1, an intuitive software solution offering image management and portability to help improve workflow, which is sold separately. With the CR-2 PLUS AF camera and imageSPECTRUM Image Management software, healthcare professionals using the Windows 7 operating system or the Windows 10 operating system with SQL 2016 can perform retinal screenings then quickly transmit the images to doctors' offices thousands of miles away, both domestic and abroad2, to assist in making a diagnosis.

Visitors to the booth will have the opportunity to interact with the camera component of the Canon teleretinal imaging solution, the Canon CR-2 PLUS AF Digital Non-Mydriatic Retinal camera. The CR-2 PLUS AF camera captures ultra-high resolution images  quickly, efficiently, and automatically. Designed around advanced Canon EOS optics and CMOS image-capture technology, the CR-2 PLUS AF features a customized 18 megapixel digital camera. With the press of a button, users can switch between auto and manual focusing for ultimate control and ease-of-use. The Auto Capture function determines the appropriate moment to capture an image by analyzing when exposure and alignment are ideal. Most importantly, the camera includes a non-invasive Fundus Autofluorescence imaging mode that provides the reviewer with the ability to quickly assess the condition of the RPE layer.

In addition to high-resolution color retinal photography, the Canon teleretinal solution also includes imageSPECTRUM Image Management software (sold separately), which has digital RGB filters for the more critical viewing of suspect pathologies. With imageSPECTRUM Image Management software, healthcare professionals can use the opacity suppression selectable filter tool to subdue the effect of ocular opacities in an image to help correct blur and enhance the clarity of blood vessels, helping eye care professionals to take clear images of patients' eyes.

In addition to the CR-2 PLUS AF Digital Non-Mydriatic Retinal camera and imageSPECTRUM Image Management System software, visitors to the booth will have the opportunity to interact with eyecare solutions including:

CR-2 AF Digital Non-Mydriatic Retinal Camera: The CR-2 AF incorporates Canon EOS technology and provides superb retinal images under just about any condition. With integrated AutoExposure, AutoFocus, AutoFundus, AutoCapture and Image Error Detection, Low-Flash and Quick Preview modes, this retinal camera is a breeze to operate. Enhanced from the previous CR-2 Digital Non-Mydriatic Retinal Camera, the CR-2 AF features Canon contrast enhancement technology never before offered in a Canon retinal camera to emphasize the differences in "redness" and "brightness" of blood vessel structures relative to their surroundings.

The CR-2 AF incorporates Canon EOS technology and provides superb retinal images under just about any condition. With integrated AutoExposure, AutoFocus, AutoFundus, AutoCapture and Image Error Detection, Low-Flash and Quick Preview modes, this retinal camera is a breeze to operate. Enhanced from the previous CR-2 Digital Non-Mydriatic Retinal Camera, the CR-2 AF features Canon contrast enhancement technology never before offered in a Canon retinal camera to emphasize the differences in "redness" and "brightness" of blood vessel structures relative to their surroundings. CX-1 Hybrid Digital Mydriatic/Non-Mydriatic Retinal Camera: Using the non-mydriatic mode, this device not only saves time and resources but also makes the diagnostic procedure more comfortable for patients with smaller than 3.8 mm pupils. Plus, the hybrid design provides five photography modes including Color, Red-Free, Cobalt, Fluorescein Angiography and FAF.

Using the non-mydriatic mode, this device not only saves time and resources but also makes the diagnostic procedure more comfortable for patients with smaller than 3.8 mm pupils. Plus, the hybrid design provides five photography modes including Color, Red-Free, Cobalt, Fluorescein Angiography and FAF. RK-F2 Full Auto Ref-Keratometer : Including a Full Auto Mode which allows professionals to automatically align, focus, and acquire a reading for one eye and continue to the opposite eye to perform the same function  all with one touch of a button. This feature contributes to a comfortable, efficient screening process for the patient.

: Including a Full Auto Mode which allows professionals to automatically align, focus, and acquire a reading for one eye and continue to the opposite eye to perform the same function  all with one touch of a button. This feature contributes to a comfortable, efficient screening process for the patient. TX-20 Full Auto Tonometer: Designed to be compact and lightweight, the non-contact tonometer is easy to transport and install. With soft air puffs, the TX-20 tonometer easily measures Intraocular Pressure (IOP), enhancing patient comfort and allowing doctors to perform simple eye exams efficiently. The TX-20 Tonometer, as the RK-F2 Keratometer, also offers one-touch Full Auto Mode to automatically align, focus and capture readings.

For more information about Canon ophthalmic devices and solutions, please visit http://www.usa.canon.com/eye-care.

About Canon U.S.A., Inc.

Canon U.S.A., Inc., is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions to the United States and to Latin America and the Caribbean (excluding Mexico) markets. With approximately $31 billion in global revenue, its parent company, Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ), ranks third overall in U.S. patents granted in 2015 and is one of Fortune Magazine's World's Most Admired Companies in 2016. Canon U.S.A. is committed to the highest level of customer satisfaction and loyalty, providing 100 percent U.S.-based consumer service and support for all of the products it distributes. Canon U.S.A. is dedicated to its Kyosei philosophy of social and environmental responsibility. In 2014, the Canon Americas Headquarters secured LEED Gold certification, a recognition for the design, construction, operations and maintenance of high-performance green buildings. To keep apprised of the latest news from Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company's RSS news feed by visiting www.usa.canon.com/rss and follow us on Twitter @CanonUSA. For media inquiries, please contact [email protected].

Based on weekly patent counts issued by United States Patent and Trademark Office.

1 Requires Windows 7 or Windows 10 with SQL 2016 operating system. Windows is either a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

2 Requires internet access and imageSPECTRUM Image Management software to both send and receive data.

Canon U.S.A. Web site:

http://www.usa.canon.com

For sales information/customer support:

1-800-970-7227

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SOURCE Canon U.S.A., Inc.

Related Links

http://www.usa.canon.com


NEW YORK, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- CCRM New York has added two new physicians to meet the practice's growing demand for world-class fertility care. Board certified reproductive endocrinologists Jaime Knopman, M.D. and Sheeva Talebian, M.D. will start seeing patients on September 19, 2016.

"Drs. Knopman and Talebian are highly-skilled and compassionate reproductive endocrinologists and are committed to providing the best possible outcome for the patients they serve  they are an excellent addition to the CCRM Network," says William Schoolcraft, M.D., medical director of CCRM.

After graduating Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Knopman received her medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine where she was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. She completed both her residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology as well as her subspecialty training in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at New York University. Prior to joining CCRM, Dr. Knopman was an assistant clinical professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Mount Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Knopman currently serves as CCRM New York's director of fertility preservation.

Dr. Talebian graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University and went on to obtain her medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She continued her medical training at New York University were she completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology and fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. Dr. Talebian is the recipient of several surgical and teaching awards and recently named a Super Doctors Rising Star. Dr. Talebian serves as the director of third party reproduction at CCRM NY.

CCRM New York's newest physicians co-founded Truly, MD, a website designed to help patients navigate the complexities of fertility treatment and reproductive health. By providing an honest and no-nonsense platform to female health, they embolden women to make informed and confident decisions about their personal lifestyles.

CCRM New York is located at 810 7th Ave., 21st Floor in New York, NY. To schedule an appointment, call 212-290-8100 or visit www.ccrmivf.com.

CCRM New York

CCRM New York is a partner clinic of the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine ("CCRM"). Founded in 1987 by Dr. William Schoolcraft, CCRM is recognized as one of the top fertility treatment centers in the nation, providing a wide spectrum of infertility treatments ranging from basic infertility care to advanced in vitro fertilization (IVF) technology. CCRM has locations in Colorado, Atlanta, Houston, Minneapolis, New York, Orange County and Toronto, Canada. Dr. Schoolcraft and his colleagues achieve some of the highest pregnancy rates in the country. CCRM has been ranked "The #1 Fertility Center in the U.S. with the Greatest Chance of Success" by Child.com. To learn more, visit www.ccrmivf.com. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Contacts:

Katie Trexler Kern, Evolution Communications Agency

303.941.4118 or [email protected]

Sarah Stavros, Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine

303.761.0579 or [email protected]

SOURCE CCRM New York

Related Links

http://www.ccrmivf.com


DURHAM, N.C., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading Christian higher education resource, Christian Universities Online (http://www.christianuniversitiesonline.org/), has published a ranking of the 25 Most Beautiful Christian Colleges and Universities in the South 2017. Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, claimed the top spot on the list. Erskine College in Due West, South Carolina, and Faulkner University of Montgomery, Alabama, round out the top three. The ranking can be viewed at http://www.christianuniversitiesonline.org/25-most-beautiful-christian-colleges-and-universities-in-the-south-2017/

Other schools making the list include (in alphabetical order):

Anderson University - Anderson, South Carolina

Asbury University - Wilmore, Kentucky

Belhaven University - Jackson, Mississippi

Bluefield College - Bluefield, Virginia

Bryan College - Dayton, Tennessee

Campbellsville University - Campbellsville, Kentucky

Carson-Newman University - Jefferson City, Tennessee

Charleston Southern University - Charleston, South Carolina

Emmanuel College - Franklin Springs, Georgia

Liberty University - Lynchburg, Virginia

Mississippi College - Clinton, Mississippi

Montreat College - Montreat, North Carolina

North Greenville University - Tigerville, South Carolina

Regent University - Virginia Beach, Virginia

Shorter University - Rome, Georgia

Southeastern University - Lakeland, Florida

Southern Wesleyan University - Central, South Carolina

Trevecca Nazarene University - Nashville, Tennessee

Union University - Jackson, Tennessee

University of Mobile - Prichard, Alabama

Warner University - Lake Wales, Florida

Williams Baptist College - Walnut Ridge, Arkansas

This ranking employs the same methodology found in an earlier ranking from Christian Universities Online-- 50 Most Beautiful Christian Colleges and Universities in the US 2016. Both rankings give consideration to a variety of categories. Each category is given equal weight to provide a ranking with as much objectivity as possible. These are as follows: 1) continuity of campus; 2) architectural style; 3) signature building(s); and 4) natural setting. The scores in each category were standardized and combined to rank these top 25 schools. Each school included in this ranking is either a member of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) or considered member eligible.

Anna-Rebekah Orr, site editor, states that the goal of the ranking was to highlight schools whose campuses compliment their educational offerings with a visually appealing environment. Orr states, "While a beautiful campus is never the sole criterion for choosing a school, aesthetic appeal cannot be dismissed as unimportant. A beautiful college campus forms the backdrop of one's college experience, becomes the locus of fond memories, and has the potential to function as a haven for personal growth and learning. A regional ranking like this one, because it is more narrow in scope than a national ranking, allows some local schools to be showcased for their campus appeal. We hope this list will be a useful guide for students who are interested in attending college in the south."

Christian Universities Online (http://www.christianuniversitiesonline.org/) is an online resource for students and families researching Christian higher education. The site publishes rankings and reviews of the best Christian colleges and universities, information about Christian scholarships and financial aid, and many other resources for finding, getting into, and paying for a quality Christian education.

Contact:

Michael Templeton

Site Editor

(919) 858-6153

Email

SOURCE ChristianUniversitiesOnline.org

Related Links

http://www.christianuniversitiesonline.org


SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Amazon.com today announced plans to hire 1,500 full-time positions to support the increase of operations in Lagunilla and Calle Blancos. The roles include customer service associates and managers, merchant support, finance and software development positions among others.

"Our Amazon customer service organization has been operating in Costa Rica since 2008 and we've found talent in abundance here," said Alejandro Filloy, general manager of Amazon in Costa Rica. "We are proud to be creating more than 1,500 full-time jobs in diverse fields and to grow our footprint across the country."

Amazon has expanded rapidly in Costa Rica since it established operations in 2008. Currently, the company employs more than 4,000 full-time associates in many different business units.

"Amazon has grown immensely and has brought thousands of new jobs for the Costa Ricans," said Alexander Mora, Minister of Foreign Trade. "This announcement confirms the huge dynamism of this sector and the multiple opportunities for the country to boost development beyond its current level. We are proud of this attractive ecosystem and it fills us with satisfaction to know that Amazon continues to trust Costa Rica as a destination to carry out their very successful global operations."

"Amazon is one of the best examples in the country of how companies in the services sector evolve by integrating new processes in different areas," said Jorge Sequeira, managing director of CINDE. "Not only is Amazon one of the most important customer service centers operating in Costa Rica, and one of the largest employers in the services sector, but also as a multidisciplinary center of shared services and technologies. A world leader like Amazon has experienced this growth and diversification in the country speaks to the capabilities of Costa Rica as a competitive location for such operations."

Full-time employees at Amazon receive competitive wages and a comprehensive benefits package, including private health and life insurance, transportation, as well as extended maternity and parental leave benefits.

About Amazon

Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about

CINDE (the Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency) is a private, non-profit organization, with more than 30 years of experience in attracting high and medium-tech companies in sectors such as services, advanced and light manufacturing, life sciences, agribusiness and food to Costa Rica.

SOURCE Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency

Related Links

http://www.cinde.org


In June, IHG announced the Crowne Plaza Accelerate plan which includes a $200 million investment in the brand for the Americas region. The plan ensures that the brand remains at the forefront of the new way of doing business with design-led, culturally-relevant and technology-enabled solutions. The Crowne Plaza Accelerate plan was built to enhance brand performance and further create a guest experience with modern swagger.

Momentum by Timo Weiland, the new collection of hotel team uniforms for all Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts in the Americas region exemplifies another step forward in creating a new design-led guest experience. The sketches from the collection will be showcased at the Timo Weiland fashion show during New York Fashion Week.

Eric Lent, VP, Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza, The Americas said: "As part of the Crowne Plaza Accelerate plan we are pleased to be working with Timo Weiland as Style Director for the Americas region. Timo Weiland has an ambitious, fresh energy and draws on inspiration from travel and culture which makes them the ideal partner for the Crowne Plaza brand. Momentum by Timo Weiland embodies the confident, successful and trend-forward mindset that the brand's guests exhibit personally and expect from their favorite brands."

The innovative fashion minds of the Timo Weiland brandTimo Weiland, Alan Eckstein and Donna Kang will lead the uniform design process from ideation to final creation and production using inspiration from their own travels as well as meeting with team members at Crowne Plaza properties. The uniform design and launch of Momentum by Timo Weiland is one of the many ways that the Crowne Plaza brand is creating distinctive and sophisticated designs to Make Business Travel Work for today's modern business travelers.

Timo Weiland added: "The Timo Weiland designed Crowne Plaza brand uniforms for men and women embody a signature classic prep style with a modern, tech twist. The designs are elegant and handsome with ease-of-movement in the tailoring and refined details. The color palette, textures, and silhouettes set the tone aligning with the designled philosophy exemplified by the interiors of Crowne Plaza properties."

Momentum by Timo Weiland will be worn by all hotel team members at Crowne Plaza hotels starting in 2017. For more information about the Crowne Plaza Accelerate plan, Timo Weiland and to view sketches of the new uniform design collection, visit www.crowneplaza.com/accelerate.

About the Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts Brand:

Part of the IHG global portfolio, the Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts brand has over 400 locations around the world. The Crowne Plaza brand is dedicated to making business travel work for the modern business traveler. IHG recently announced the Crowne Plaza Accelerate plan which includes a $200 million investment in the brand for the Americas region. The plan ensures that the Crowne Plaza brand will remain at the forefront of the new way of doing business with design-led, culturally-relevant and technology-enabled solutions. Visit www.crowneplaza.com. Connect with us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/crowneplaza or Facebook: www.Facebook.com/crowneplaza..

About the Timo Weiland Brand:

Co-founded in 2010 by Timo Weiland, Alan Eckstein and Donna Kang, Timo Weiland is a New York based Womens and Menswear brand. Built around the ethos of creating clothes to live in, the collections are inspired by the multifaceted lifestyles of the designers and those around them. Drawing from a shared love of music, travel and contemporary culture, Timo Weiland presents an updated take on classic American sensibilities. Known for eclectic combinations of fabrics and detailing, the collection places focus on quality and wearability, while injecting touches of the designers' distinct brand of playfulness. Modern prep meets streetwear, with a touch of romance, the brand encompasses the adventurous spirit of New York City.

Notes to Editors:

IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is a global organization with a broad portfolio of hotel brands, including InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, HUALUXE Hotels and Resorts, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo, EVEN Hotels, Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites.

IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns more than 5,000 hotels and nearly 750,000 guest rooms in almost 100 countries, with more than 1,400 hotels in its development pipeline. IHG also manages IHG Rewards Club, the world's first and largest hotel loyalty programme, with more than 96 million members worldwide.

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Group's holding company and is incorporated in Great Britain and registered in England and Wales. More than 350,000 people work across IHGs hotels and corporate offices globally.

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SOURCE IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group)

Related Links

http://https://www.ihgplc.com


HIGHLAND PARK, Ill., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the Center for Disease Control, overdose from opioids is now the leading cause of death in people under the age of 50 years old. Soft Landing Recovery (SLR), a federally-licensed and regulated Opioid Treatment Program, has opened a new location in Downtown Highland Park, IL (1910 First Street, Suite 2N), to help fight opioid and prescription medication dependence as well as addiction to other drugs and alcohol. The program offers an innovative and highly-effective approach to medication assisted treatment (MAT), integrating buprenorphine-based medications and evidence-based behavioral health interventions, and boasts success rates four times industry averages. SLR's services are covered by most commercial insurance companies, and include psychiatric services, individual, group and family counseling.

The opening of SLR Highland Park is in response to a growing need on Chicago's North Shore and surrounding communities in northern Cook and Lake Counties. Unlike traditional recovery centers and rehab programs, SLR specializes in opioid addiction treatment and provides it in a high-end outpatient setting, with a program designed to treat the whole person, not just the addiction.

"Treatment for people suffering with addiction, and especially opioid abuse, needs a comprehensive, integrated approach that combines psychological, spiritual and biological methods of addressing the disease," says Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Abdel Fahmy, MD. "Aggressive medication assisted treatment is proving to be one of the most effective ways to mitigate the deadly pathology of opioid cravings."

To help ensure a complete and long-lasting recovery, SLR also incorporates massage therapy, acupuncture, yoga, hypnosis, meditation and other alternative therapies to alleviate stress and pain, promote physical and emotional wellness and stimulate the production of natural endorphins and other beneficial chemicals in the body. SLR provides long-term care and will support patients and their families throughout their recovery journeys, providing counseling and physician support as long as required.

SLR provides all of these services, including IOP groups, on a confidential, outpatient basis. "As a result, there's no checking into a hospital or residential facility, and no checking out from family and work. People with a stable home life and support system can go on with their lives throughout treatment. And, there's no sudden reentry into the 'real world' after treatment, reducing the risk of relapse," observes SLR's Regional Executive Director, Paul Getzendanner, JD, LCSW, CADC.

SLR Highland Park is easily accessible on the Metra line to serve patients from Chicago to Southeastern Wisconsin, and will complement the already highly successful programs established at SLR's Naperville and Des Plaines locations.

MEDICATION ASSISTED TREATMENT (MAT)

Research shows that SLR's treatment model is scientifically designed to produce the best clinical outcomes. According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), effective, evidence-based treatment for opioid addiction "must include four basic elements: detoxification, rehabilitative counseling, continuing care, and Medication-Assisted Therapy." According to Dr. Nora D. Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), MAT is regarded as the most effective treatment for opioid dependence and is "an essential component of an ongoing treatment plan, enabling opioid-addicted persons to regain control of their health and their lives."

Among MAT providers, SLR is unique, emphasizing buprenorphine-based medications, physician-driven, long-term treatment plans and evidence-based behavioral healthcare. This integrated, medical-behavioral approach is precisely what proves to be most effective for patients struggling with opioid-use problems.

Unlike a physician's office or group practice setting, where medications are prescribed with little or no counseling support or physician follow-up, SLR dispenses medications directly to patients who are committed to treatment and personal recovery. Patients are only dispensed what they can safely handle. Initially, patients will be given only 2-3 days of medication, gradually leading to monthly visits once the patient has demonstrated progress and the ability to manage that amount of medication. SLR physicians do not 'estimate' appropriate levels of medication; rather, medication begins with a monitored induction, which is a deliberate process based on the patient's individual withdrawal symptoms, opioid cravings and detoxification goals. Induction provides immediate relief from withdrawal symptoms, establishing a therapeutic dose of medication that permits the patient to focus on treatment and recovery.

As Dr. Fahmy explains: "Once evaluated, a small dose of medication is dispensed and monitored on site over a 2 to 4-hour period to see how the patient responds, and treatment and dosage can be adjusted up or down accordingly based on patient's feedback, which is a far more scientific and patient-friendly approach."

SLR's SUPERIOR PATIENT OUTCOMES

Based on their dedication to state-of-the-art MAT with integrated physical, emotional and mental health services, SLR patients enjoy success rates that far exceed industry averages. Compared to universal statistics for opioid-dependent patients where the relapse rate can be as high as 90 percent, only 13 percent of SLR patients have relapsed or returned-to-use at the one-year mark. Moreover, 86 percent of SLR patients remain engaged and successful in treatment after six months, compared to other programs that typically experience dropout rates of 67 and 55 percent for outpatient and residential treatment, respectively. And, while overdose deaths have literally skyrocketed, SLR has a zero percent mortality rate. In short, SLR provides patients and their families effective, evidence-based addiction treatment that produces the best results.

ABOUT SOFT LANDING RECOVERY

SLR is an innovative physician-driven drug treatment facility that first opened in DuPage County in 2007. As a SAMHSA-certified and CARF-accredited Opioid Treatment Program (OTP), SLR is one of only a handful of facilities in Illinois offering ambulatory detoxification and is among the first to integrate the medical and behavioral aspects of patient care in a harmonious and collaborative model.

SLR is licensed by Illinois' Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse, and is a member of the Lake County Opioid Initiative and Chicago Opioid Abuse Taskforce.

SLR Highland Park is located at 1910 First Street, Suite 2N, in Downtown Highland Park and has counselors available Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. There is no waiting list and physicians are on call 24/7. Same-day appointments and walk-ins are welcome.

The public is encouraged to call Soft Landing Recovery's confidential hotline for a free, 15-minute phone consultation to discuss how they can help break the cycle of addiction: Toll-Free 1-888-782-6966; Highland Park 847-813-2559; Naperville 630-261-9220; Des Plaines 847-813-2558.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Ilyse Strongin-Bombicino

312.285.7701 cell/847.432.4000 office

[email protected]

WEBSITE:

www.softlandingrecovery.com

SOURCE Soft Landing Recovery

Related Links

http://www.softlandingrecovery.com


SANTA MONICA, Calif., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Douglas Emmett, Inc. (NYSE: DEI), a real estate investment trust (REIT), announced today that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend on each share of its common stock of $0.22, or $0.88 on an annualized basis. The dividend will be paid on October 14, 2016 to shareholders of record as of September 30, 2016.

About Douglas Emmett, Inc.

Douglas Emmett, Inc. (DEI) is a fully integrated, self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT), and one of the largest owners and operators of high-quality office and multifamily properties located in the premier coastal submarkets of Los Angeles and Honolulu. Douglas Emmett focuses on owning and acquiring a substantial share of top-tier office properties and premier multifamily communities in neighborhoods that possess significant supply constraints, high-end executive housing and key lifestyle amenities. For more information about Douglas Emmett, please visit our website at www.douglasemmett.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

Except for the historical facts, the statements in this press release regarding Douglas Emmett's business activities are forward-looking statements based on the beliefs of, assumptions made by, and information currently available to us about known and unknown risks, trends, uncertainties and factors that are beyond our control or ability to predict. Although we believe that our assumptions are reasonable, they are not guarantees of future performance and some will inevitably prove to be incorrect. As a result, our actual future results can be expected to differ from our expectations, and those differences may be material. Accordingly, investors should use caution in relying on forward-looking statements to anticipate future results or trends. For a discussion of some of the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

CONTACT: Stuart McElhinney, Vice President  Investor Relations 310.255.7751 [email protected]

SOURCE Douglas Emmett, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.douglasemmett.com


Alberts' academic accomplishments, publications, leadership and clinical contributions have earned him national and international recognition, including the Neurologist Pioneering Award from the Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology. He is respected for his research, publications and lectures throughout the world at major medical meetings. Working collaboratively with physicians and healthcare providers across a spectrum of areas, Dr. Alberts has been acclaimed for helping develop national standards for hospitals to qualify as stroke centers.

In addition to his Institute role, Dr. Alberts will also provide leadership as Chief of Neurology at Hartford Hospital.

"Dr. Alberts is a nationally renowned physician leader, educator and healthcare executive," said Jeffrey A. Flaks, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Hartford HealthCare. "His clinical and leadership experience will help set world-class standards for our growing neuroscience programs. His track record in leading high-performing teams, and helping complex organizations gain recognition for their high quality neuroscience care, will be instrumental as we continue to develop Hartford HealthCare's Institute model."

Dr. Alberts comes to Hartford HealthCare from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, where he is vice chair of clinical affairs and hospital neurology for the Department of Neurology and Neurotherapeutics and medical director of neurology services for UT Southwestern University Hospitals. He is a professor of Neurology at UT Southwestern and is board certified in neurology and vascular neurology.

After receiving his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Duke University, Dr. Alberts earned his medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston with medical honor society honors. He has held leadership positions at Duke University Medical Center, Northwestern University Medical School and Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. He is a member of The Joint Commission's Technical Advisory Panel on Comprehensive Stroke Centers, a fellow of the American Heart Association and co-chair of the Brain Attack Coalition.

"It is a testament to the strength of our Institute model that we have been successful in attracting another renowned physician leader to Hartford HealthCare," Flaks said. "With superb leadership supporting our exceptional clinical expertise, we are realizing our vision to create true centers of excellence in core service lines. This is a key component of HHC's strategy to better serve our patients and customers, enhance access to top-quality care and grow the expertise of our system."

Hartford HealthCare is Connecticut's most comprehensive healthcare network. Our fully integrated health system includes a tertiary-care teaching hospital, an acute-care community teaching hospital, an acute-care hospital and trauma center, two community hospitals, the state's most extensive behavioral health network, a large multispecialty physician group, a regional home care system, an array of senior care services, a large physical therapy and rehabilitation network and an accountable care organization. The Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute provides coordinated care across five cancer centers, and is the charter member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance. Visit us at www.hartfordhealthcare.org

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SOURCE Hartford HealthCare

Related Links

https://hartfordhealthcare.org


MEMPHIS, Tenn., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- EdR (NYSE: EDR), one of the nation's largest developers, owners and managers of high quality collegiate housing communities, today announced the closing of the previously announced acquisitions of two communities at Colorado State University and one at the University of Arizona.

These acquisitions add a total of 505 beds at strong, growing universities to the EdR portfolio.

Urbane is a community that opened just before the start of the current academic year at the University of Arizona. It was recently acquired by EdR. Carriage House, which is adjacent to Colorado State University, is one of three new communities recently acquired by EdR.

"These communities fit the EdR portfolio perfectly," said Randy Churchey, EdR chief executive officer. "They appeal to students with a combination of location, amenities and technology that are unmatched in these desirable college communities that are experiencing tremendous growth."

Colorado State

Pura Vida and Carriage House, with a total of 194 beds, are new communities adjacent to campus, where EdR has the opportunity to develop additional beds. The amenities at each community include 24-hour computer lab, indoor bike storage, full-sized washer and dryer in the units and safety features that include cameras and electronic locks. With their more intimate size, Pura Vida and Carriage House cater to juniors and seniors who are seeking more privacy.

Nestled in the Colorado Front Range, Fort Collins, Colo., was named as one of the Top 10 college towns in America. CSU's 2015 enrollment was 32,236 and has been rising steadily over the past four years. The 2015 freshman enrollment was a record for the school and was nine percent larger than 2014. It offers bachelor's degrees in 65 majors and post-graduate programs in more than 90 fields. Colorado State was recognized by Forbes Magazine on its "America's Most Entrepreneurial Universities" lists in 2014.

University of Arizona

The Urbane, a 311-bed community, which opened last month, will be one of the most highly amenitized communities in the EdR portfolio. Amenities include large rooftop deck with pool, cabanas and an oversized hot tub; indoor and outdoor lounges, study areas and bed-bath parity with tiered amenity options in floor plans ranging from studios to five bedrooms.

The University of Arizona has an enrollment of more than 40,000 students, which has been growing steadily over the course of the last decade, on the Tucson, Ariz., campus. It is classified as a Carnegie Foundation very high research activity university. Arizona is a leader in space exploration research with its Lunar and Planetary Laboratory contributing to numerous NASA missions.

About EdR

EdR (NYSE:EDR) is one of America's largest owners, developers and managers of collegiate housing. EdR is a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust that owns or manages 86 communities with more than 44,000 beds serving 53 universities in 24 states. EdR is a member of the Russell 2000 Index, the S&P MidCap 400 and the Morgan Stanley REIT indices. For details, please visit the company's Web site at www.EdRtrust.com.

For more information, contact:

J. Drew Koester, Senior Vice President, Capital Markets and Investor Relations

901-259-2523 [email protected]

For media information or photography, contact:

Craig Wack, PR Coordinator

901-252-6809 [email protected]

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

Statements about the company's business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations. You should not rely on our forward-looking statements because the matters they describe are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause the company's future results, performance, or achievements to differ significantly from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Such risks are set forth under the captions "Item 1A. Risk Factors" and "Forward-Looking Statements" in our annual report on Form 10-K and under the caption "Item 2. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" (or similar captions) in our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and as described in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the dates on which they are made, and the company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any guidance or other forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise, unless required by law.

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SOURCE EdR

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More than three dozen naturalization ceremonies will be conducted by the federal judiciary at iconic sites through September, with most of the events on Sept. 16 .

. The National Park Service, as part of its 100  anniversary year, is partnering with the U.S. Courts and hosting naturalization ceremonies at Ellis Island, the Lincoln Memorial, and Great Smoky Mountains, Yosemite, and Grand Teton National Parks, among other sites.

In addition, teachers from Hawaii to Florida have signed up classes, schools and districts to participate in the "Preamble Challenge," at which students will recite, perform and celebrate the 52-word Preamble to the Constitution ("We the People..."). Thousands of students will take part in the challenge.

These events and others were organized by the 29 partners in the Civics Renewal Network, an alliance of nonprofit, nonpartisan organizations dedicated to raising the visibility of civics education by providing free, high-quality resources for teachers. Its partners include the U.S. Courts, the National Archives and Records Administration, the National Constitution Center, the Library of Congress, the NEH's EDSITEment! project, iCivics, ConSource: The Constitutional Sources Project and Annenberg Classroom.

Constitution Day is observed this year on Sept. 16 because the anniversary date, Sept. 17, is a Saturday.

Naturalization ceremonies

Naturalization ceremonies are deeply moving experiences for immigrants and their families. In the words of new citizens at last year's ceremonies:

"Being part of a great nation, I can finally fulfill most of my son's dreams and desires"

"We can have whatever religion we would like and they don't judge us."

"If you look around the world you see the impact that America makes and you want to be a part of it."

"I'm so happy. This is one of the best days of my life."

(For more, see the U.S. Courts' 2015 video here.)

This year's ceremonies on Sept. 16 include:

Ellis Island , N.Y., 11 a.m. The naturalization ceremony in the Great Hall for 300 people from 53 countries will be presided over by Second Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann . Media contact: Katie Tichacek , U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 202-420-9581, [email protected] .

, N.Y., The naturalization ceremony in the Great Hall for 300 people from 53 countries will be presided over by Second Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge . Media contact: , U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 202-420-9581, . Lincoln Memorial , Washington, D.C. Time to be announced. About 100 people will be naturalized in a ceremony presided over by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell , District of Columbia . Media contact: Jim McKinney , U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 202-272-1299, [email protected] .

, Time to be announced. About 100 people will be naturalized in a ceremony presided over by U.S. District Court Chief Judge , . Media contact: , U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 202-272-1299, . National Constitution Center, Philadelphia , 10:30 a.m. U.S. District Court Judge John R. Padova will administer the Oath of Allegiance to 50 immigrants from 30 countries. Media contact: Merissa Blum , 215-409-6645, [email protected] .

Naturalization ceremonies also will take place at the National Archives (Sept. 14) in Washington, D.C., at Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Sept. 15) and at Grand Teton National Park (Sept. 29). Ceremonies previously occurred at the Grand Canyon for the National Park Service's 100th anniversary (Aug. 25) and at Yellowstone National Park (Sept. 7). Media contacts: Mike Litterst, National Park Service, 202-245-4676, [email protected] and James R. McKinney of USCIS (listed above).

Preamble Challenge

The Preamble Challenge will kick off at 8:30 a.m. at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, as Constitution Center president and CEO Jeffrey Rosen leads a group of Philadelphia students in the Preamble on the front lawn.

Across the country thousands of students will be taking part in the Challenge. Find out more about it and sign up here: http://challenge.civicsrenewalnetwork.org/. Follow the events and tweet and Instagram your own: #ConstitutionDay2016.

Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, on Sept. 17, commemorates the signing of the Constitution in 1787. Since the passage of the Byrd Amendment in 2004, educational institutions that receive federal funds are required to hold an educational program on the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17.

To learn more about the Civics Renewal Network, go to civicsrenewalnetwork.org.

On Twitter: @CivicsRenewal. On Twitter and Instagram: #ConstitutionDay2016.

CRN contact: Michael Rozansky, 215-746-0202, [email protected]

U.S. Courts contact: Jackie Koszczuk, 202-502-2614, [email protected]

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SOURCE The Civics Renewal Network
NEW YORK, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- European Safe Cities & Public Events Security Markets - 2016-2022

The recent terrorist attacks have demonstrated that past measures to secure cities and public areas have failed. A major overhaul of the internal security of west European cities, towns and crowded public areas is already underway.

As is the case in Israel, this kind of terror does not have a "Silver Bullet" solution but it can be mitigated by state-of-the-art surveillance, intelligence technologies and trained security forces. The Israeli counter terror apparatus evaded 70-90% of urban terror attacks. That is a daunting challenge for Europe.

Based on 6 months of the "Europe's Terror & Migration Crisis Series" research, and over 65 face-to-face interviews and analyses, we forecast that the 2015-2020 market will grow at a CAGR of 19.2%, a 4 fold hike from the 4.2% CAGR during 2000-2015.

The "European Safe Cities & Public Events Security Markets  2016-2022" report + the bonus* "Global Homeland Security & Public Safety Industry  2016 Edition" report are the only

comprehensive reviews

of the European market available today. Their objective is to provide a

detailed, time sensitive and reasoned intelligence report

.

The market is set to undergo a major transformation from 2016-2022 through the following drivers:

Europol estimates that up to 5,000 European jihadists have returned to the EU after obtaining combat experience on the battlefields of the Middle East.

The ISIS-inspired complex and well-planned Paris and Brussels carnage (162 killed and 668 injured) sent shockwaves across the continent, unlike any other terror attacks since 9/11.

The present security infrastructure of European cities, towns & crowded public areas is no match for the 21st century ISIS-inspired and trained terrorists who use improvised explosives, military grade weapons, modern encrypted communication, make a remarkable use of social networks to recruit and train new jihadists and conduct excellent pre-attack intelligence.

With no "Magic Bullet" technology in sight, the challenge that remains unresolved is finding ways to stop terrorists from detonating explosives in crowded, unscreened public areas.European security services will do their best to replicate some of Israel's urban counter-terror strategies and technologies.

The EU and most of the rest of the European market for homeland security and public safety products are served by local companies. Even with a preference for locally manufactured products, foreign products can usually strongly compete on the basis of cost-performance. They do not encounter any EU direct trade barriers or quotas. Non-tariff, indirect trade barriers may be the approval process of dual use goods, which include many security market products.

This report is a resource for executives with interests in the market. It has been explicitly customized for the security industry and government decision-makers in order to enable them to identify business opportunities, developing technologies, market trends and risks, as well as to benchmark business plans.

Questions answered in this 207-page report + one* report include:

What will the market size and trends be during 2016-2022?

Which submarkets provide attractive business opportunities?

Who are the decision-makers?

What drives the customers to purchase solutions and services?

What are the customers looking for?

What are the technology & services trends?

What is the market SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats)?

What are the challenges to market penetration & growth?

Why Buy this Report?

A. Market data is analyzed via 3 key independent perspectives:With a highly fragmented market we address the "money trail"  each dollar spent  via the following 3 viewpoints:By 12 Country Markets including:UKFranceThe Netherlands & BelgiumSweden, Norway, Finland & DenmarkGermanyAustria & SwitzerlandItalySpainPolandHungary & Czech RepublicRussiaRest of EuropeBy 3 Revenue Sources including:Products Sales RevenuesAfter Sale Revenues Including: Maintenance, Service, Upgrades & RefurbishmentOther Revenues, including: Planning, Training, Consulting, Contracted Services & Government Funded R&DBy 2 Core Vertical Markets including:Public Events SecuritySafe CitiesB. Detailed market analysis frameworks for each of the market sectors, including:Market drivers & inhibitorsBusiness opportunitiesSWOT analysisCompetitive analysisBusiness environmentC. The report discusses directly or indirectly the following current and pipeline technologies:City-Wide Communication Interoperability, Video Surveillance, Analog Video Surveillance, Digital Video Surveillance, IP Surveillance Cameras, IP-Based Video Surveillance Systems, Safe City Video Analytics Technologies, Video Analytics Based Suspect Behavioral Analysis, Video Surveillance as a Service (VSaaS), Video Surveillance as Service Solutions: Vendors, Real Time Automatic Alerts Software, Image Segmentation Software, Item Tracking Video Analytics Software, Object Sorting and ID, Item Identification and Recognition, Multi-Camera Intelligent Video Surveillance Systems, Item Detection, Item Tracking Software, Intelligent Video Surveillance Systems, "Splitting" Items Algorithms, Dimension Based Items Classifiers, Shape Based Item Classifiers, Event Detection Methods, Vision-based Human Action Recognition, Video Derived Egomotion, Path Reconstruction Software, Video Cameras Spatial Gap Mitigation Software, Networked Cameras Tag and Track Software, Visual Intelligence Technologies, Visual Processing, Fusion Engine, Video Analytics, Standoff Video Analytics Based Biometrics, Video Surveillance Based Behavioral Profiling, Video Based Biometric Recognition Technologies, Video Based Face Recognition, Remote Biometric Identification Technologies, Fused Intelligent Video Surveillance & Watch Lists, Crowd and Riot Surveillance, Wireless Video Analytics, Online Video Analytics, Pulse Video Analytics, ,Physical Identity and Access Management (PIAM),Safe City Natural Disasters Mitigation & Management, Emergency Management systems, Public Events Emergency Services, WMD and Hazmat Detection, Command & Control Systems, Gunshot Location Technologies, Intelligent Transport Technologies, License Plate Recognition (LPR), Inductive Loop Detection, Video Vehicle Detection, Smart Transportation Security and Emergency Vehicle Notification Systems.D. The report includes the following 4 appendices:Appendix A: European Homeland Security & Public Safety Related Product StandardsAppendix B: The European Union Challenges and OutlookAppendix C: Europe Migration Crisis & Border SecurityAppendix D: AbbreviationsE. The report addresses over 300 European Homeland Security and Public Safety standards (including links)F. The supplementary* "Global Homeland Security and Public Safety Industry  2016 Edition" report provides the following insights and analyses of the industry including:The Global Industry 2016 statusEffects of Emerging Technologies on the IndustryThe Market TrendsVendor  Government RelationshipGeopolitical Outlook 2016-2022The Industry Business Models & StrategiesMarket Entry ChallengesThe Industry: Supply-Side & Demand-Side AnalysisMarket Entry StrategiesPrice ElasticityPast Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) EventsG. The supplementary (*) "Global Homeland Security and Public Safety Industry  2016 Edition" report provides a May 2016 updated extensive data (including company profile, recent annual revenues, key executives, homeland security and public safety products, and contact info.) of the leading 119 Homeland Security and Public Safety vendors including:

3M

3i-MIND

3VR

3xLOGIC

ABB

Accenture

ACTi Corporation

ADT Security Services

AeroVironment Inc.

Agent Video Intelligence

Airbus Defence and Space

Alcatel-Lucent (Nokia Group)

ALPHAOPEN

American Science & Engineering Inc.

Anixter

Aralia Systems

AT&T Inc.

Augusta Systems

Austal

Avigilon Corporation

Aware

Axis

AxxonSoft

Ayonix

BAE Systems

BioEnable Technologies Pvt Ltd

BioLink Solutions

Boeing

Bollinger Shipyards, Inc

Bosch Security Systems

Bruker Corporation

BT

Camero

Cassidian

CelPlan

China Security & Surveillance, Inc.

Cisco Systems

Citilog

Cognitec Systems GmbH

Computer Network Limited (CNL)

Computer Sciences Corporation

CrossMatch

Diebold

DRS Technologies Inc.

DVTel

Elbit Systems Ltd.

Elsag Datamat

Emerson Electric

Ericsson

ESRI

FaceFirst

Finmeccanica SpA

Firetide

Fulcrum Biometrics LLC

G4S

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc.

General Dynamics Corporation

Getac Technology Corporation

Hanwha Techwin

Harris Corporation

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Hexagon AB

Honeywell International Inc.

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd

IBM

IndigoVision

Intel Security

IntuVision Inc

iOmniscient

IPConfigure

IPS Intelligent Video Analytics

Iris ID Systems, Inc.

IriTech Inc.

Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd.

ISS

L-3 Security & Detection Systems

Leidos, Inc.

Lockheed Martin Corporation

MACROSCOP

MDS

Mer group

Milestone Systems A/S

Mirasys

Motorola Solutions, Inc.

National Instruments

NEC Corporation

NICE Systems

Northrop Grumman Corporation

Nuance Communications, Inc.

ObjectVideo

Panasonic Corporation

Pelco

Pivot3

Proximex

QinetiQ Limited

Rapiscan Systems, Inc.

Raytheon

Rockwell Collins, Inc.

Safran S.A.

Salient Sciences

Schneider Electric

SeeTec

Siemens

Smart China (Holdings) Limited

Smiths Detection Inc.

Sony Corp.

Speech Technology Center

Suprema Inc.

Synectics Plc

Tandu Technologies & Security Systems Ltd

Texas Instruments

Textron Inc.

Thales Group

Total Recall

Unisys Corporation

Verint

Vialogy LLC

Vigilant Technology

Zhejiang Dahua Technology

Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p03837920-summary/view-report.html

About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.

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SOURCE Reportlinker

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To make sure companies are prepared with well-rounded, updated plans, Experian's annual Data Breach Response Guide has been refreshed to focus on the importance of regularly updating a response plan. In addition, this year's guide includes new content regarding the importance of looking outside of one's own organization when creating a response plan and engaging essential external partners that can offer specific expertise in the face of a breach.

"Response plans are not documents that should be created and then forgotten about until they're actually needed during a breach," said Michael Bruemmer, vice president at Experian Data Breach Resolution. "A response plan should be a living, breathing document that is practiced and improved upon regularly, not only as the company itself changes, but as the business environment and outside threats, such as ransomware, evolve."

The complimentary guide can be downloaded at http://bit.ly/2c4kvZy.

The guide's new content includes a more in-depth section on selecting external partners, such as cyber insurers, and legal partners. The guide also includes a section on global breaches, as the new UK regulations have made this subject top of mind for many international companies. Organizations that have not yet developed a plan will benefit from content addressing the notification process and the public relations component of a breach response.

For additional data breach resources, including webinars, white papers and videos, visit http://www.experian.com/databreach. Read the Experian Data Breach Resolution blog at http://www.experian.com/blogs/data-breach/.

About Experian Data Breach Resolution

Experian Data Breach Resolution, powered by the nation's largest credit bureau, is a leader in helping businesses prepare for a data breach and mitigate consumer risk following breach incidents. With more than a decade of experience, Experian Data Breach Resolution has successfully serviced some of the largest and highest-profile data breaches in history. The group offers swift and effective incident management, notification, call center support and fraud resolution services while serving millions of affected consumers with proven credit and identity theft protection products. Experian Data Breach Resolution is active with the International Association of Privacy Professionals, NetDiligence, Advisen and the Ponemon Institute RIM Council and is a founding member of the Medical Identity Fraud Alliance. For more information, visit http://www.experian.com/databreach and follow us on Twitter @Experian_DBR.

About Experian

We are the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to our clients around the world. We help businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. We also help people to check their credit report and credit score and protect against identity theft. In 2015, we were named one of the "World's Most Innovative Companies" by Forbes magazine.

We employ approximately 17,000 people in 37 countries and our corporate headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; California, US; and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended March 31, 2016, was US$4.6 billion.

To find out more about our company, please visit http://www.experianplc.com or watch our documentary, "Inside Experian."

Experian and the Experian marks used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Experian Information Solutions, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

Contacts:

Jocelyn Kemly

Edelman

1 206 664 8616

[email protected]

Sandra A. Bernardo, APR

Experian Data Breach Resolution

1 949 567 3676

[email protected]

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SOURCE Experian

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SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Extra Space Storage Inc. (the "Company") (NYSE: EXR), a leading owner and operator of self-storage facilities in the United States, announced today that Spencer F. Kirk will retire as the Company's Chief Executive Officer effective December 31, 2016. Mr. Kirk will continue to serve on the Company's board of directors, while devoting significant attention to his non-profit foundation, Kirk Humanitarian. The board of directors has selected Joseph (Joe) D. Margolis to succeed Mr. Kirk as the Company's Chief Executive Officer, effective January 1, 2017.

Mr. Margolis, the Company's Chief Investment Officer since July 2015, had been a member of the Company's board of directors from February 2005 to July 2015 and served on its Audit Committee and Compensation, Nominating and Governance Committee. Prior to joining Extra Space Storage as Chief Investment Officer, Mr. Margolis served as Senior Managing Director and Partner at Penzance Properties in the Washington, D.C. metro area. Previously, Mr. Margolis was a co-founding partner of Arsenal Real Estate Funds from 2004 through 2011. Before forming Arsenal, Mr. Margolis held senior positions at Prudential Real Estate Investors from 1992 to 2004 in portfolio management, capital markets and as General Counsel. Mr. Margolis is a graduate of Harvard College and Columbia University School of Law.

Ken Woolley, founder and Executive Chairman shared, "We heartily welcome Joe as Chief Executive Officer. He has been intimately involved with Extra Space Storage since 1998. We are confident that Joe brings the right balance of real estate expertise and leadership skills to take Extra Space through its next phase of growth. We have a deep and experienced management team and a formidable platform to continue to execute our proven business plan and deliver outstanding shareholder results."

Mr. Woolley continued, "The board would like to thank Spencer for his contribution to Extra Space. He has been a phenomenal leader, and he will continue to influence our strategic direction for years to come. We are pleased to have him continue to advise Extra Space as a member of the board."

Mr. Kirk said, "I am grateful to have worked with a dedicated team and we should all be proud of what we are building together. Having worked with Joe for nearly two decades, I am confident that we share a common vision for the continued growth of Extra Space. The strength and dedication of our deep executive bench ensures that Extra Space will remain on a successful path, and I look forward to supporting a seamless transition with Joe and the team."

"It is both an honor and great responsibility to be appointed Chief Executive Officer of Extra Space Storage," said Mr. Margolis. "I have worked closely with Spencer, the board and the Extra Space team for more than eighteen years, and I have a deep respect and admiration for the strategic focus, track record and unique culture that has been built. Spencer is an exemplary CEO and I am confident that together we can make this a smooth transition. I look forward to leading a team that will continue the Extra Space legacy of consistently delivering a great product to our customers, providing an enriching workplace for our fellow team members, and striving to execute on our strategy to enhance shareholder value over the long term."

About Extra Space Storage Inc.

Extra Space Storage Inc., headquartered in Salt Lake City, is a fully integrated, self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust. As of June 30, 2016, the Company owned and/or operated 1,412 self-storage properties in 37 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. The Company's properties comprise approximately 945,000 units and approximately 106 million square feet of rentable storage space offering customers conveniently located and secure storage units across the country, including boat storage, RV storage and business storage. The Company is the second largest owner and/or operator of self-storage properties in the United States and is the largest self-storage management company in the United States.

For more information, please visit www.extraspace.com.

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SOURCE Extra Space Storage Inc.

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AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The FCA Foundation, the charitable arm of FCA US LLC, and the National Black Farmers Association (NBFA) today announced recipients of the National Black Farmers Association Scholarship. The 2016 class of 21 students, who represent the promise of a new generation of black farmers, will receive $100,000 in scholarships that will help them pursue agriculture-related college degrees.

"It is a privilege to support these remarkable young people as they pursue higher education," said Lesley Slavitt, Head of Civic Engagement, FCA US LLC, and CEO of the FCA Foundation. "Through advanced study these students will undoubtedly acquire the skills and knowledge to ensure they are transformational leaders who successfully address the challenges confronting food security."

2016 National Black Farmers Association Scholarship Recipients Student Hometown, State Educational Institution Major Demetrius K. Arnold Fayetteville, Ark. University of Arkansas Agricultural Systems

Technology Management L'Quaan C. Atkinson Greensboro, N.C. North Carolina Agricultural and

Technical State University Agricultural Education Ali Austin Tuskegee, Ala. Tuskegee University Agribusiness Anthony D. Bland Starkville, Miss. Mississippi State University Agribusiness / Accounting Cameron Bradshaw Manhattan, Kan. Kansas State University Agribusiness Candace Clark Tuskegee, Ala. Tuskegee University Agribusiness Ariel K. Demotte-Carter College Station, TX Texas A&M University Food Science Edra Fisher* Springfield, Ill. Lincoln Land Community College Agriculture Isabella G. Fisher* Springfield, Ill. Lincoln Land Community College Biology / Holistic Nutrition Gabrielle Galvan San Luis Obispo, Calif. California Polytechnic State University Animal Science Aaron Gauff Belleville, Ill. Lindenwood University Biology Taylor Gauff Dover, Del. Delaware State University Veterinary Science Peyton Greenwood Tuskegee, Ala. Tuskegee University Food Science Charisma Heath Fort Valley, Ga. Fort Valley State University Veterinary Science Bryant A. Hunter Prairie View, TX Prairie View A&M University Animal Science Marquan Jones Ithaca, N.Y. Cornell University Food Science Aaron F. Lewis Tuskegee, Ala. Tuskegee University Animal Science Xavier Price Tallahassee, Fla. Florida A&M University Ag-Science / Entomology Logan R. Quinn Corvallis, Ore. Oregon State University Breeding / Genetics Danelle Solomon Nashville, Tenn. Tennessee State University Agribusiness Michael D. Walker Baton Rouge, La. Southern University and

A&M College Agricultural Science

*Recipient of a $2,500 scholarship; all others received $5,000 scholarships

Scholarships of up to $5,000 each were awarded on a competitive basis to students pursuing agriculture-related study at an accredited two-year or four-year college, university or vocational-technical school.

"The plight of the black farmers and the loss of black-owned farms have been a major issue for well over 100 years," said John Boyd, Jr., President of the National Black Farmers Association. "In 1910, nearly 1 million black farm families owned over 15 million acres of land. Today, less than 45,000 black farm families own 3 million acres. The NBFA Scholarship program will begin to address black land loss.

"This year's recipients represent a new era of future farmers and agricultural leaders," Boyd concluded.

Since 2015, the National Black Farmers Association Scholarship has awarded more than $180,000.

About the National Black Farmers Association

The National Black Farmers Association is a non-profit organization representing African-American farmers and their families in the United States. As an association, it serves tens of thousands of members nationwide. NBFA's education and advocacy efforts have been focused on civil rights, land retention, access to public and private loans, education and agricultural training and rural economic development for black and other small farmers.

About the FCA Foundation

The FCA Foundation, the charitable arm of FCA US LLC, invests in charitable organizations and initiatives that help empower people, build strong, viable communities and generate meaningful and measurable societal impacts.

Additionally, FCA US seeks opportunities to support communities through its Motor Citizens volunteer program. This innovative program enables FCA US salaried employees to use 18 hours of paid time each year to be an Engine for Change by investing their time and talents in community service projects.

SOURCE FCA US LLC

Related Links

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PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- FMC Corporation (NYSE: FMC) today announced that Paul Graves, executive vice president and chief financial officer, will speak at the Credit Suisse Basic Materials Conference in New York City on Wednesday, September 14, 2016 at 8:00 a.m. ET. A live webcast will be available on the FMC Investor Relations website.

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The company also announced that it is confirming prior guidance for the third quarter and full year 2016. For the third quarter, FMC expects adjusted earnings to be in the range of $0.53 to $0.63 per share and expects full-year adjusted EPS to be in the range of $2.60 to $2.90(1).

Pierre Brondeau, FMC president, CEO and chairman, said: "We are seeing a more stable and predictable business in Ag Solutions in Latin America, and continue to see strength in our Lithium business. The stabilization of our Ag Solutions business in Latin America is due in large part to the specific actions the company has taken over the past twelve months to reduce cost, reduce channel inventory, rationalize our portfolio and focus on price and terms. As a result, we remain confident that our earnings for the third quarter and full year will be in line with our prior guidance."

About FMC

For more than a century, FMC Corporation has served the global agricultural, industrial and consumer markets with innovative solutions, applications and quality products. FMC acquired Cheminova in April 2015. Revenue totaled approximately $3.3 billion in 2015. FMC employs approximately 6,000 people throughout the world and operates its businesses in three segments: FMC Agricultural Solutions, FMC Health and Nutrition and FMC Lithium. For more information, visit www.FMC.com.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Act of 1995: Statements in this news release that are forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning specific factors described in FMC Corporation's 2015 Form 10-K and other SEC filings. Such information contained herein represents management's best judgment as of the date hereof based on information currently available. FMC Corporation does not intend to update this information and disclaims any legal obligation to the contrary. Historical information is not necessarily indicative of future performance.

This press release contains certain "non-GAAP financial terms" which are defined on our website www.fmc.com. In addition, we have also provided on our website at www.fmc.com reconciliations of non-GAAP terms to the most directly comparable GAAP terms. Amounts in this release focus on Adjusted Earnings for all EBIT and EPS references.

(1) Although we do provide forecasts for adjusted earnings per share and adjusted cash from operations (both of which are non-GAAP financial measures), we are not able to forecast the most directly comparable measures calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. Certain elements of the composition of the GAAP amounts are not predictable, making it impractical for us to forecast. Such elements include, but are not limited to restructuring, acquisition charges, and discontinued operations and related cash activity. As a result, no GAAP outlook is provided.

SOURCE FMC Corporation

Related Links

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PUNE, India, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The report "Fog Computing Market by Offering (Hardware, Software), Application (Building & Home Automation, Smart Energy, Smart Manufacturing, Transportation & Logistics, Connected Health, Security & Emergencies), and Geography - Global Forecast to 2022", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market size, in terms of value, is expected to grow from USD 22.28 Million in 2017 to USD 203.48 Million by 2022, at a CAGR of 55.6% between 2017 and 2022.

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Browse 37 market data Tables and 55 Figures spread through 126 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Fog Computing Market"

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/fog-computing-market-28314581.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.

The increasing Internet of Things connectivity, machine to machine communication, need for real-time computing for time-critical process and the rising demand for connected devices largely drive the fog computing market. The increasing business demand for enhanced operation efficiency, faster decision-making capability, and cost savings would make fog computing a dominant model for organizations across verticals in the future.

The market for software is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period

The market for fog computing software is expected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period. In fog computing, a large number of programs run on virtual machines on single host hardware. A number of software providers in the market are already providing software solutions and services for Cloud and IoT ecosystem and they would try to tap the opportunities generated by fog computing at various layers of architecture such as platform and applications. Moreover, new players who wish to enter the fog computing market could easily enter the software market as it requires less capital investment compared to hardware.

Smart manufacturing application to witness the highest growth rate in the fog computing market.

The Fog Computing Market for the smart manufacturing application is expected to grow at the highest rate between 2017 and 2022. This is mainly because of the high demand for process automation in the manufacturing domain due to the increased competition. The use of fog computing would help in increasing operational capability along with real-time monitoring and action-taking capability.

Americas expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period

The fog computing market in the Americas is expected to grow at the highest rates between 2017 and 2022. The market in the Americas consists of developed economies such as the U.S. and Canada which have a huge potential for the applications of Internet of Things, which would create a market for fog computing. The U.S. and Canada are among the most technically advanced countries in the world and are ahead in adopting new technologies, thus creating huge opportunities for the fog computing technology in this region.

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The major players engaged in the development of fog computing are Cisco Systems, Inc. (U.S.), Microsoft Corporation (U.S.), ARM Holding Plc. (U.K.), Dell Inc. (U.S.), Intel Corporation (U.S.), Fujitsu (Japan), GE Digital (U.S.), Nebbilo Technologies (U.S.), Schneider Electric Software, LLC (Japan), Toshiba Corporation (Japan), and PrismTech Corporation (U.S.).

Browse Related Reports

IoT Communication Protocol Market by Connectivity Technology (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Bluetooth, Smart), End-Use Application (Consumer Electronics, Automotive & Transportation, Building Automation, Healthcare), Region - Global Forecast to 2022

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/iot-communication-protocol-market-172564879.html

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DACONO, Colo., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Veterans Traveling Tribute Vietnam Wall is coming to the Carbon Valley area from September 15th  18th and will be at the Furniture Row located at 3440 E. I-25 Frontage Road, Dacono, CO 80516. It has been over twenty years since the wall was displayed in Weld County, Colorado and Furniture Row is honored to host the event.

At 360 feet long, the AVTT Traveling Vietnam Wall is an 80% replica of the permanent Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC and includes all of the names of the US service members who gave their lives during the Vietnam War. The wall will be escorted to Furniture Row during a highway procession on Wednesday, September 14th by the Patriot Guard, the American Legion, VFW Warriors motorcycle riders, the Weld County Sheriff, as well as the Fort Lupton and Dacono police departments arriving approximately at 4pm.

The Grand Opening Ceremony will begin at 1pm on Thursday the 15th and will include a four-jet flyover, a keynote speaker, and a display of 300 American flags. The wall will be on exhibit from 8am  8pm through the weekend and during this time, each name will be read at a podium. The Furniture Row Racing #78 Car will also be on site for the duration of the event.

"Giving the community a place to honor and remember our American heroes is a small, but sincere way that we can pay tribute to those who have offered the greatest sacrifice for our freedoms," said Furniture Row Owner and Vietnam veteran, Barney Visser. "I want to give people a weekend dedicated to honoring the sacrifices that so many Americans have made and continue to make for freedom. This event is not only to remember casualties of the Vietnam War, but to honor and show pride for all of our country's veterans."

The closing ceremony will end with the National Guard and Color Guard rendering honors on Sunday at 3pm. The weekend's entire event will be handicapped accessible and is free to the public.

About Denver Mattress Company

Using the same high-quality materials as other leading brand name manufactures, Denver Mattress manufactures its mattresses in its Denver-based factory and is able to eliminate the middleman and pass the savings on by taking on the role of manufacturer, retailer, and distributor. Their single factory system allows Denver Mattress to maintain high quality control standards and deliver a more consistent product at a lower cost than multiple factory producers. A Better Tomorrow Starts Tonight. Visit www.DenverMattress.com.

About Furniture Row Companies

The specialty stores of Furniture Row (Denver Mattress, Sofa Mart, Oak Express, and Bedroom Expressions) provide home furnishings, mattresses, and linens all at one convenient location. Family-owned and operated with more than 330 stores in thirty states, Furniture row is one of America's largest furniture and bedding retailers. Real Furniture. Real Value. Visit www.FurnitureRow.com.

Furniture Row also owns and sponsors the #78 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota driven by Martin Truex Jr. Visit www.FurnitureRowRacing.com.

Contact: John Knippenberg | Furniture Row Marketing

[email protected]

SOURCE Furniture Row Companies

Related Links

http://www.furniturerow.com


SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- GI Partners today announced that it has completed the acquisition of 1733 & 1833 Alton Parkway located in Irvine, California. The acquisition was made through DataCore, L.P. ("DataCore"), a $500 million fully discretionary core real estate fund managed by GI Partners on behalf of The California State Teachers' Retirement System ("CalSTRS").

The property is leased as a regional headquarters to a multinational defense contractor focused on providing avionics solutions and information technology systems to service both private and government customers. Together the buildings represent approximately 209,000 square feet of prime office and industrial space developed in 1972 and 1984; the property was substantially renovated in 2015.

"The Alton property represents DataCore's first acquisition in Irvine. We are pleased to gain access to this robust and growing market," commented Mike Armstrong, Principal of GI Partners. "The dynamism in the region is indicative of attractive long term prospects and the tenancy and use are consistent with our secular focus on technology real estate."

CalSTRS and GI Partners created DataCore in 2012 as a core investment vehicle to invest in technology-advantaged real estate in the United States, including data centers, internet gateways, corporate campuses for technology tenants, and life science properties, located in primary markets and leased to industry-leading tenants. Since inception, DataCore has acquired approximately 3 million square feet of properties throughout the United States.

About CalSTRS

The California State Teachers' Retirement System, with a portfolio valued at $193.4 billion as of July 31, 2016, is the largest educator-only pension fund in the world. CalSTRS administers a hybrid retirement system, consisting of traditional defined benefit, cash balance and voluntary defined contribution plans. CalSTRS also provides disability and survivor benefits. CalSTRS serves California's nearly 900,000 public school educators and their families from the state's 1,700 school districts, county offices of education and community college districts.

About GI Partners

Founded in 2001, GI Partners is a leading private investment firm based in San Francisco, California. The firm currently manages over $12 billion in capital commitments through private equity and real estate strategies for recognized institutional investors, including some of the largest state and sovereign pension funds in North America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and the Middle East. GI Partners' real estate team invests across a number of property types and investment strategies, including industrial, apartments, life sciences, and technology-oriented data centers and corporate campuses. For more information on GI Partners, please visit www.gipartners.com.

Contact:

Chris Tofalli

Chris Tofalli Public Relations

914-834-4334

[email protected]

SOURCE GI Partners

Related Links

http://www.gipartners.com


NEW YORK, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Executive Summary

The global business jets market was worth USD 20.9 billion in 2013 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.86% to USD 33.8 billion by the end of 2020. It is forecasted that the global demand for new business jets will reach 9,100 by 2025. Over the next decade, North America is expected to lead the market for new jets followed by Europe & Africa. It is the small and medium jets segment that will drive the demand for new business jets. The business jets sector is facing turbulence due to economic difficulties in Europe, China, and Brazil.



While both North America and Europe have a comparable size of economy, the private jet flight activity in North America is 3.5 times larger.At the end of 3Q 2015, North America accounted forapproximately 66% of global deliveries in the private jet market, up from 45% of the market share before 2008.With emerging markets experiencing pressure, North America has steadily gained market share in the past 3 years. In Europe, it is expected that, new aircraft deliveries will be offset by older jets exiting the market which will result in almost zero net fleet growth through 2020.



It is projected that in the next decade, the business aviation industry in India will grow three times and emerge as the third largest aviation market by 2020. Although the corruption crackdown and the new government's policies have slowed the economic pace of China, outlook is still bright. The Greater China area is expected to take delivery of 2,420 business jets in the period 2013 to 2032.



The Middle East business jets market has a promising outlook although currently the business jets fleet in the area represents just 3% of the world total. With the region's GDP projected to rise at an average of 3.8% over the next two decades, the prospects of the business jets sector are bright. Saudi Arabia has the biggest fleet of business jets in the Middle East at 188 aircrafts followed by Turkey at 157 and UAE at 135.



Why should the report be purchased?

The report 'Study of the Global Business Jets Market 2016' highlights key drivers of and trends emerging in the global business jet market. The current market scenario and future prospects of the sector has been examined in detail. The North America, Europe, China, India and Middle East's business jets market have been studied in detail. All key global players in the business jets industry including Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Bombardier Inc., Cessna Aircraft, Honeywell International Inc., Embraer S.A., Boeing and Dassault Aviation have been profiled. The report contains latest industry leader's opinion.

Research methodology and delivery time



Smart Research Insights has conducted in depth secondary research to arrive at key insights. Data collected from key public industry sources and publications has been scanned and analyzed impartially to present a clear picture of the industry. All recent developments which impact the sector dynamics have been captured and used to support the research hypothesis.



The report is available as single-site single-user license. The delivery time for the electronic version of the report is 2 business day as each copy undergoes thorough quality check and is updated with the most recent information available. The dispatch time for hard copies 2 business days, as each hard copy is custom printed for the client.



Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p03007369-summary/view-report.html



About Reportlinker

Reportlinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



http://www.reportlinker.com





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SOURCE Reportlinker

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DALLAS, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Goodnight Midstream, LLC, the professional fluids management company, today announced key additions to its team to support its growth initiatives in Texas and New Mexico. Goodnight Midstream designs, builds and operates reliable, high-quality saltwater disposal solutions to cost-effectively transport produced water via pipeline from the well site to the company's advanced disposal facilities.

Coby Washburn joined Goodnight Midstream in the newly created position of Vice President of Business Development and will focus his efforts on the Texas and New Mexico markets. Mr. Washburn served most recently as Vice President of Commercial and Business Development at Energy Transfer Partners (ETP). At ETP, he led the mid-continental region's business development efforts with accountability for its financial performance. Prior to Energy Transfer, Mr. Washburn served as Vice President of Business Development at Regency Energy Partners where he worked on acquisitions totaling more than $7 billion.

"Coby's extensive experience providing midstream solutions for Permian and Mid-Continent producers makes him the ideal person to lead us into Texas and New Mexico," said Patrick Walker, Chief Executive Officer. "Coby is a growth and expansion specialist. He understands the unique value proposition offered by our professionally managed, long-term and reliable water management and disposal solutions for reducing field level operating costs."

Co-Founder, Robert Rubey, assumed the additional role of Chief Commercial Officer as part of the expansion. As CCO, Mr. Rubey is responsible for strategic marketing, sales, solution development and customer service to drive growth and market share.

Walker continued: "Robert has been instrumental in growing Goodnight Midstream operations in North Dakota, which now handle more than 100,000 barrels of produced water per day through our network of 150 miles of gathering lines connected to 18 company operated saltwater disposal wells. His deep knowledge of water management solutions, vision and focus on customer needs makes Robert the ideal person to be the company's primary interface with new and existing customers."

In addition, Goodnight Midstream recently added Ralph Tijerina as Manager of Health, Safety, and Environmental and Lana Dial as Director of Human Resources. Mr. Tijerina most recently served in a similar role with Sandridge Energy, while Ms. Dial previously worked as Human Resources Manager at Regency Energy Partners and Human Resources Director at Balfour Beatty Construction.

About Goodnight Midstream, LLC

Goodnight Midstream provides trusted professional fluids management services to its customer base. The Company owns and operates an extensive network of water gathering pipelines and saltwater disposal wells focused on gathering and disposing of produced saltwater for oil and gas producers. Goodnight's midstream approach minimizes environmental impact and improves health and safety while lowering lease operating expense and improving reliability for its customers. Goodnight is supported by a team of highly experienced engineers and operating professionals. In addition to Goodnight's leading position in North Dakota, Goodnight has an emerging presence in Wyoming's Powder River Basin and the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico. For more information, please visit www.gnmidstream.com.

Contact:

Julie Walter

[email protected]

Goodnight Midstream, LLC

SOURCE Goodnight Midstream

Related Links

https://www.goodnightmidstream.com


ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Association of Professional Employer Organizations (NAPEO) today announced that Greg Packer, CEO of AccessPoint in Novi, MI, was elected chair of the board of directors last week at the association's annual meeting in Austin. He succeeds Abram Finkelstein, founder and president of Plantation, FL -based StaffLink Outsourcing.

"Greg Packer has been an outstanding leader within the professional employer organization (PEO) industry almost from its start, and we are thrilled that our association will have the benefit of his knowledge and insight in the coming year," said NAPEO President and CEO Pat Cleary. "Greg's high standards and commitment to the industry are unmatched, and it is fitting that he will be at our helm as the implementation of the IRS's voluntary PEO certification program continues and the first PEOs are certified."

Packer got his start in the PEO industry in 1984 and founded his first PEO, Amstaff Inc., in 1985. In 1997 the company was acquired by Automatic Data Processing (ADP) to form what is now ADP TotalSource. Packer then served as Midwest-area president with responsibility for all operations of ADP TotalSource in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. When he stepped down in 1999, the division had grown to exceed 25,000 worksite employees, more than $700 million in annual payroll, and was one of the most profitable markets for ADP TotalSource.

"As Chairman my goal is to maintain the momentum that has made NAPEO so successful," said Packer. "Being elected to this position by my industry colleagues and competitors is something I take great pride in. In the wake of federal legal recognition and the launching of the new IRS certification program, I think it is important to make integrity synonymous with the PEO industry. CPEO certification rewards PEOs that maintain high standards and creates value for small business owners while providing clarity for regulators on the federal, state and local levels."

"In addition, I believe IRS certification signals a new level of maturity for the industry. Over the years, the CPA and legal advisory communities have questioned exactly how PEOs fit -- those questions have been answered now," Packer concluded.

Previously, Packer served as chairman of NAPEO's Federal Government Affairs Committee. He played a critical role in the passage of legislation which created Public Act 603 in Michigan to codify the role of PEOs as employers of all worksite employees, including client company officers. Packer has been asked to testify before numerous Senate and Congressional hearing on PEO industry related issues, and is widely recognized as a leading expert on legislative issues that impact PEOs.





About NAPEO

The National Association of Professional Employer Organizations (NAPEO) is The Voice of the PEO IndustryTM. PEOs provide payroll, benefits, regulatory compliance assistance, and other HR services to small and mid-sized companies. Through PEOs, the employees of small businesses gain access to employee benefits such as 401(k) plans; health, dental, life, and other insurance; dependent care; and other benefits typically provided by large companies. PEOs provide services to between 156,000 to 180,000 businesses employing 2.7 and 3.4 million people and generate between $136 and $156 billion in gross revenues annually. For more information about the PEO industry and NAPEO, please visit www.napeo.org.

SOURCE National Association of Professional Employer Organizations (NAPEO)

Related Links

http://www.napeo.org


LOS ANGELES, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Hawthorne, the leader in brand response advertising, today announced that Hawthorne owner and CEO Jessica Hawthorne-Castro will serve as moderator for Marketing EDGE's first joint Student Career Forum Panel with Electronic Retailing Association (ERA) at the ERA D2C Conference on September 14. The panel discussion will take place at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel starting at 10:40 a.m. and will include panelists from Proactiv, Zappos and Get Fresh Companies.

For more than 25 years, Marketing EDGE has offered the Student Career Forum as a powerful way to introduce students to the world of digital and data-driven marketing. These Forums deliver practical information to students to help them optimize their time in school to best prepare for a career in marketing. The Forum also provides students with a glimpse into the day-to-day lives of marketers as well as providing them with valuable tips on how to land internships and that first job out of school.

"Students enter the marketing industry from a variety of fields of study, and that's particularly true now that the concept of data-driven campaigns has gained currency beyond direct response practitioners," Hawthorne-Castro observed. "I'm looking forward to hosting a lively discussion among the accomplished marketing professionals on the panel, who are ready to share their insights and advice with students, who are eager to apply what they've learned in an internship or entry-level job."

The event's organizers anticipate that dozens of students from local colleges will attend the panel discussion, representing an array of class years and majors. The panel program will span approximately 45 minutes, encompassing a discussion among the panelists and a question-and-answer session to enable students to interact directly with panelists. The discussion will focus on topics such as career paths, the impact of college work on career options, trends that may affect the industry in the future, hiring, the importance of mentors and what it's like to lead marketing organizations and campaigns.

As a leader in the advertising space who devotes considerable time and resources to mentoring projects, Hawthorne-Castro is uniquely qualified to moderate a panel discussion that addresses issues of interest to aspiring marketing professionals. She is an active member in a number of distinguished organizations, including TED and the Young Presidents Organization, and has been recognized for her leadership and mentoring efforts with numerous awards, including "Woman of Influence" by L.A. Biz and Biz Women, Direct Marketing News Top 40 Under 40 and even received Marketing EDGE's "Rising Star" award.

To learn more about Marketing EDGE, please visit http://www.marketingedge.org/. For more information on the ERA D2C Conference, please see http://site.retailing.org/d2c. Find out more about Hawthorne at www.hawthornedirect.com.

About Hawthorne:

Hawthorne, a creative, analytics and technology-driven advertising agency, specializes in strategic planning, creative development, production, media planning, buying and analytics, and campaign management for integrated marketing campaigns. With 30 years of proven excellence, the agency combines persuasive brand messaging with best-in-class analytic systems to create accountable, high performance advertising campaigns.

Hawthorne helps brands efficiently target their consumers, improve cost per acquisition, optimize the lifetime value of a brand's customers, and even drive consumer response to key retail outlets or corporate locations. As a leading analytic and data driven, accountable brand advertising agency, Hawthorne specializes in integrated campaign solutions. The company offers a full suite of integrated solutions with creative, media, digital and mobile services. Hawthorne maintains brand integrity and metrics to efficiently and effectively optimize the results of its clients' integrated media budgets via leading edge and proven data analytics.

Hawthorne has developed successful award-winning campaigns for countless Fortune 500 brands.

Please visit www.hawthornedirect.com and http://www.linkedin.com/company/hawthorne-direct for more information.

SOURCE Hawthorne

Related Links

http://www.hawthornedirect.com


WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Effective January 1, 2017, HEINEKEN USA will embark on a new era of business for its emerging global HEINEKEN brands, with the creation of Five Points Trading Company, a new venture aimed at incubating a range of popular global beers in the U.S. Under this new umbrella, Five Points Trading Company will assume U.S. importer of record responsibility for Red Stripe, Tiger, Birra Moretti, Affligem, Murphy's Stout, Prestige, Sagres and Mort Subite. With the development of Five Points Trading Company, HEINEKEN USA is now able to bring these emerging premium brands back in-house, while taking them to new heights by utilizing the resources and expertise of the company's established distribution network.

Named in reference to the five points of HEINEKEN's iconic red star and America's first melting pot neighborhood in lower Manhattan, Five Points Trading Company will embody the same energy, cultural diversity and entrepreneurial spirit of the historic neighborhood. The brands, which will be represented by Five Points, are established in the U.S market and currently imported and sold by other importing companies whose contracts are set to expire at the end of 2016.

Five Points Trading Company will be led by General Manager, Charles (Chas) Littlefield who, along with his team, will manage the new brands separately from HEINEKEN USA's current portfolio.

"Like its neighborhood namesake, Five Points Trading Company will provide a nexus for new thoughts, perspectives and cultural exploration, while tapping into the legacy and import expertise of HEINEKEN USA," stated Littlefield. "This portfolio of exceptional beers provides new opportunities to connect with millennial beer drinkers as they become more global and more adventurous with their taste. We are excited for the transition and are already hard at work developing our 2017 go-to-market strategy."

The brands represented under the new Five Points Trading Company include:

Red Stripe is a pale lager first brewed in Jamaica according to a recipe developed in 1938. Production of Red Stripe, in its beloved stubby bottle, was moved from Jamaica to the U.S. and U.K. in 2012 but has now returned to Jamaica under the leadership of HEINEKEN USA and Five Points Trading Company.

Tiger - Introduced in 1932 as Singapore's first locally brewed beer, Tiger quickly gained favor among Allied troops stationed in the Pacific during WWII. Today, Tiger remains one of the world's leading contemporary beer brands maintaining a strong social presence and community involvement. Brewed completely by the sun utilizing solar panels, Tiger is made with only the finest ingredients and brewed by a precise process that lasts over 500 hours. The result is a beer with an intensely refreshing, full-bodied taste that has won over 40 international awards and accolades.

Birra Moretti - First introduced for sale in 1860, Birra Moretti is a premium quality, award-winning Italian beer made in the traditional way utilizing a production process that has remained unchanged since 1859. Only the best raw materials along with a special blend of high quality hops are used to give Birra Moretti its unique taste and fragrance, and enhance its perfectly balanced bitter taste. The popular "man on the label" is associated with Moretti drinkers who personify authenticity, genuineness and tradition.

Affligem is a Belgian abbey beer, first brewed by monks in an abbey in Affligem, Belgium in the 11th century as a means to raise money, avoid drinking contaminated water and provide nutrition. All Affligem beers undergo a double fermentation and production process that remains close to the brand's roots. The second fermentation occurs in the bottle to impart more flavor as the beer rests for 14 days. While owned today by HEINEKEN, the monks continue to oversee all aspects of brand production and packaging.

Murphy's Stout - Brewed in Cork, Ireland, and renowned for "keeping it real", Murphy's Stout is an authentic Irish Stout introduced by the Murphy brothers in 1856. Considered to be smoother and less bitter than its chief competitor, Murphy's Stout flavor is evocative of caramel and malt and is free from any hint of carbonation. Every can of Murphy's contains a widget containing nitrogen gas necessary to create the draught flow effect and distinctive head when opened.

Prestige  brewed in the first and only Haitian brewery, Prestige is an American-style lager brewed using state of the art technology and only the finest ingredients  natural hops, two-row malt, quality yeast and crystal pure water. Prestige is a true Haitian brand that has become an emblem of national pride and an iconic cultural symbol.

Sagres  introduced in 1934 at the Portuguese World Exhibition, Sagres is a 100% natural lager style beer that delivers refreshing brightness, medium body, dry character and a pleasantly bitter taste. It's light and golden color and distinct taste celebrate the pleasures of Portugal  beach, sun, food, and humor  and reinforce Sagres as the beer of all Portuguese.

Mort Subite - a traditional Belgian lambic beer, Mort Subite is brewed with the highest levels of craftsmanship and slowly matured in oak barrels in which delicious fresh cherries are added. Mort Subite's signature hint of berries offers drinkers' fantastic flavor and taste, with a smooth finish.

Littlefield commented, "Keeping the Five Point and HEINEKEN USA portfolios separate will allow our current marketing and sales organization to maintain focus on our four core brands  Heineken, Dos Equis, Tecate and Strongbow - while enabling Five Points to direct its energy and resources to developing the potential of these new to the company acquisitions. We are grateful to our current wholesaler partners, whose enthusiasm and dedication to cultivating these brands, to date, has been integral to their success."

About HEINEKEN USA

HEINEKEN USA Inc., the nation's leading upscale beer importer, is a subsidiary of HEINEKEN NV, the world's most international brewer. Core brands imported into the U.S. are Heineken, the world's most international premium beer brand, the Dos Equis franchise, the Tecate franchise and Strongbow Hard Apple Ciders. HEINEKEN USA also imports Amstel Light, Newcastle Brown Ale, Red Stripe, Sol, Indio, Carta Blanca and Bohemia brands. For the latest information on our company and brands, follow us on Twitter @HeinekenUSACorp, or visit HEINEKENUSA.com.

Bjorn Trowery

HEINEKEN USA

[email protected]

Liz Benyon

NOVA Marketing Services

[email protected]

860.679.0288

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160912/406404LOGO

SOURCE HEINEKEN USA

Related Links

http://HEINEKENUSA.com


NEW YORK, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The candidate camp of Haitian presidential front-runner Dr. Maryse Narcisse, party of the Fanmi Lavalas, formally announced today that a private fundraising event was held at 7 p.m. on Sunday, September 11, 2016, at the Shelburne Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. The purpose of the private event was to not only fundraise but also draw a crowd of both political and celebrity VIPs for major campaign support. Among the 328 attendees were key figures, such as actor, director and political activist Danny Glover; Dr. Narcisse's Presidential Campaign Director, Senior Adviser, Leslie Voltaire, and a number of progressive celebrities. Glover not only attended as a key speaker for the evening but also released a video endorsement for the Haitian presidential front-runner. The endorsement comes on the heels of an initial election plagued by corruption in 2015. Dr. Narcisse's political party, Fanmi Lavalas, vigorously represents a majority of people across the country. The return of the party is welcomed within Haiti; it had been excluded from previous elections post the second coup d'etat of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. Dr. Narcisse hopes that this time; they will be provided with a fair and free election on October 9, 2016. Video of Danny Glover's endorsement can be seen here: https://youtu.be/ZiVayY3morU.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160912/406542

"I have the opportunity to come to New York on many occasions. And it is a great city. I have this specific opportunity to come on this occasion and do something that's very important. There is an election on October 9th in Haiti and it is an important election for the Haitian people because they have the opportunity to elect their president  the People's President, Dr. Narcisse," states Danny Glover. "I want to say that I am here as a Haitian at heart to say that I am in full support of her and so excited for the opportunity that the Haitian people have to have a president who cares, who fights, who will change the world and change their world. Thank you very much, Dr. Narcisse."

With a Doctorate of Medicine from the State University of Haiti, Dr. Narcisse is also a longtime advocate for democracy, health care and education. The candidate boasts previous seats as the National Coordinator of the Executive Committee of the Organization Fanmi Lavalas, Board Member of the Aristide Foundation, and Public Health Consultant to date. With her vast experience and popularity in Haiti, Narcisse is the likely front-runner to win the 2016 election and become the 42nd president of Haiti. Her election into the position would be subsequent to Haiti's former president, Michel Martelly, who was forced to resign as his five-year term ended in political and electoral crisis.

"As we move towards victory in Haiti, Mr. Glover's support comes at an opportune time as he has been involved in many issues regarding democracy, including those surrounding Africa, Haiti and Caribbean political affairs," states Dr. Narcisse's Presidential Campaign Director and Senior Adviser, Leslie Voltaire. "Serving as UNICEF Ambassador, he plays a critical role in raising awareness on the issues of disease, poverty and economic development that have plagued Haiti, which also aligns with Dr. Narcisse's plans to rebuild. As we run a clean democratic campaign our presidential rival Jovenel Moise is campaigning with Senatorial Candidate Guy Phillipe who is currently wanted by the DEA for allegedly participating in illegal drug trade."

Dr. Maryse Narcisse, along with her Presidential Campaign Director and Senior Adviser, Leslie Voltaire, is available for immediate interview about the Haiti presidential election. For more information on Dr. Maryse Narcisse or media inquiries, please email [email protected] or call 1.877.841.7244.

Monique Tatum

BPM-PR

(877) 841-7244

Email

SOURCE Dr. Maryse Narcisse, party of the Fanmi Lavalas
COCONUT CREEK, Fla., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- IHO-Agro International Inc. (IHO-Agro) an innovative international fertilizer company announced today it has received product testing and product results from IHO-Agro Distribution, Inc. (IHOD).

A brief history from IHOD  Bobby Lindsey began using the IHO-Bio product in the fall of 2014 on a 5 acre navel orange block that was under heavy stress from citrus greening  HLB. Mr. Lindsey was in the process of pushing, piling and burning the grove when he became aware of the IHO-Bio product and try it on the remaining 5 acres that had not yet been pushed. His initial interest was due to the possible efficacy in enhancing the immune system of citrus trees and possibly combating the effects of citrus greening. Changes in growth patterns were noticed following the second application, with substantial results and improvement seen in October 2015. At that time the last two flushes of growth did not show symptoms of greening and leaf samples from those latter flushes showed lower levels of HLB infection than earlier tests conducted by the USDA. Lindsey expanded the treated acreage in the Spring of 2015 to include pineapple and hamlin oranges in the St. John's Improvement District. Due to the success of the product and its effect on HLB there are 10 growers that are now applying the product in test blocks of their own. There is great potential for the expanded use of IHO fertilizer over the significant amount of crops to these growers.

On April 14, 2016, IHOD received a Fertilizer License from the Georgia Department of Agriculture. IHOD has since provided sample product to several growers of cotton and peanuts in Georgia. In addition, Triangle Chemical Company, which does business in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and North Carolina, has agreed to become a dealer for the IHO-Bio product in Florida, with other states to be considered pending grower testing in those states.

Mr. Ioan Hossu - President and CEO of IHO Agro International commented, "We are delighted with these results. Mr. Lindsey's experience in the citrus industry coupled with the superior products of IHO-Agro will benefit farmers and the industry immediately. The results we see on plant health, growth, yield and tolerance of the HLB bacteria are in line with our research and confirm the important value our products will add to the citrus industry and to the broader agricultural community."

About IHO-Agro Distribution and Mr. Lindsey: IHO-Agro Distribution is a newly formed company that will distribute IHO-Agro products for distribution in the United States. Mr. Lindsey will represent the products with his team and is based out of Vero Beach, Florida. Mr. Lindsey is a 5th generation Florida citrus grower with long standing ties and many years of service to the Florida Citrus industry. He also grows cotton, peanuts and timber in Colquitt County, Georgia, and has cattle in Vero Beach. He was born and raised in Vero Beach, Florida. He holds a B.S. in Chemistry and Biology from Mercer University and a Master of Science in Agriculture from the University of Florida.

About IHO-Agro: IHO-Agro is an international fertilizer company with its head office in Florida, and regional offices in Canada and Panama. IHO-Agro sells and markets its product in various regions around the world. IHO-Agro prides itself on marketing truly all-natural fertilizers that will change the way plants are grown around the world. IHO-Bio, an IHO-Agro product, is FiBL approved as being suitable for use in ecological agriculture in the European Union.

For more information on IHO-Agro please visit: www.ihoagro.com

About HLB (Citrus Greening): Huanglongbing (HLB), also known as citrus greening or yellow dragon disease, is one of the most serious citrus diseases in the world. It is widespread in Asia, Africa, and the Saudi Arabian Peninsula. In July 2004 it was reported in Brazil, and in August 2005 it was found for the first time in the U.S. in south Miami-Dade County. Huanglongbing is a bacterial disease that attacks the vascular system of plants. Once infected, there is no cure for the disease, and in areas where the disease is endemic, citrus trees decline and die within a few years. There are three known forms: Asian, African and Brazilian. The HLB bacteria is transmitted primarily by insect vectors (citrus psyllids), but can also be spread through plant grafting and movement of infected plant material. Even though the pathogens are bacteria, the disease does not spread by casual contamination of personnel and tools or by wind and rain. Though citrus is the primary plant host for HLB, other citrus relatives can also get the disease. Common HLB host plants include the Chinese box orange (Severinia buxifolia) and the curry leaf (Murraya koenigii). While HLB disease and the Asian psyllid share many of the same host plants, some host plants are specific to the disease and others to the psyllid. (Source  Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services).

SOURCE IHO-Agro International Inc.

Related Links

http://ihoagro.com


AUSTIN, Texas, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Advanced Discovery announced today the hiring of industry veteran Jeremy Lindahl as VP, Business Development, in Los Angeles. Jeremy is a seasoned professional in legal industry services, software and sales, including years of experience in eDiscovery - among them, past years as an Advanced Discovery team member.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160418/356399LOGO )

In his new role as VP, Business Development, Jeremy will focus on supporting existing client relationships in southern California and nurturing new ones, bringing his considerable experience as an account executive and manager back to the service of Advanced Discovery's clients. Jeremy's more than two decades of experience in legal software and data services make him an exceptional addition to the Advanced Discovery team.

Jeremy expressed excitement about returning to Advanced Discovery:

I am excited to be returning to Advanced Discovery - particularly during this time of national and international growth for the company. I know firsthand the quality of the software, services, and solutions that Advanced Discovery offers, and I look forward to once again helping bring those to more clients in California.

About Advanced Discovery

Advanced Discovery is an award-winning, end-to-end eDiscovery services and software provider, supporting law firms and corporations since 2002. Advanced Discovery and its global family of companies, Millnet, LPI and Ditto, offer project planning and budgeting, data preservation and forensic collection, early case assessment, hosted review, managed document review, and more, from numerous state-of-the-art facilities around the world. The company employs leading professionals in the industry, applies defensible workflows, and provides industry-proven technology across all phases of the eDiscovery lifecycle. This devotion to excellence has earned Advanced Discovery inclusion on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies in the US five consecutive years and recognition as a top provider by Legal Times, Texas' Best and other publications. More information is available at http://www.advanceddiscovery.com.

SOURCE Advanced Discovery
CHICAGO, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, the Surgeon General issued a letter to physicians urging them to take a part in combating the opioid epidemic. On the Surgeon General website, healthcare providers are encouraged to help solve the opioid epidemic - "Our nation faces an opioid crisis. Health care providers are uniquely positioned to help communities and their patients #TurnTheTide on the opioid epidemic. Providers can be the solution. Join the movement. Sign the pledge."

To understand reactions to the Surgeon General's letter, the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS) asks for the public and clinicians to complete this brief (two minute  five question) online survey to understand reactions to the Surgeon General's letter by clicking here.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/opioidepidemic

The Surgeon General cites resources from the CDC that primarily consist of three parts, explained Michael Wong, JD (Executive Director, PPAHS):

More education about how to treat pain safely and effectively.

Better screening of patients for opioid use disorder and provide or connect them with evidence-based treatment.

Talking about opioid addiction as a chronic illness, not a moral failing.

For more on these and other resources available to fight the opioid epidemic, Mr. Wong cited this article, "Prince and the Opioid Epidemic: 5 Ways for Addressing this National Crisis."

To take the survey on the Surgeon General letter, please to go https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/opioidepidemic.

About Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety

Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety is a non-profit 501(c)(3) whose mission is to promote safer clinical practices and standards for patients through collaboration among healthcare experts, professionals, scientific researchers, and others, in order to improve healthcare delivery. For more information, please go to www.ppahs.org.

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SOURCE Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS)

Related Links

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BOSTON, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Apples, almonds and 5Ks: three things that might seem unrelated to life insurance, until you take a closer look. With John Hancock life insurance with Vitality, you can be rewarded for the healthy choices you make  like seeing the doctor, running or walking a 5K and purchasing healthy foods. That's why John Hancock has teamed up with Cooking Light and Health to host the Fit Foodie Race Weekend in Tampa, Florida, September 16-18, and to reward participants with delicious and healthy experiences.

After getting in their healthy steps in the 5K or 15K, race participants can enjoy the ultimate post-race experience at the John Hancock Vitality Village, complete with:

Cooking demonstrations by celebrity chefs, including Chef Rene Marquis

Food and beverage samples

Fitness classes led by acclaimed professionals

Raffle prizes and giveaways from top health and wellness brands

Meet and greets with elite athletes, including "Boston" Bill Rogers , the four-time Boston Marathon and New York City Marathon champion, and Ryan Hall , the North and Central American record holder in the 20K, the 30K and half marathon.

Through these activities, John Hancock is showing people how fitness can co-exist with fun and healthy food experiences.

"Fitness without good nutrition is not nearly as impactful on your health as when you combine the two," said Michael Doughty, president, John Hancock Insurance. "That's why we're giving people the recipe for healthy living and rewarding them for simple activities like making healthy food choices, or even running a 5K like the Fit Foodie Race."

Rewards for Healthy Choices

John Hancock life insurance with Vitality rewards policyholders for the smarter choices they make every day to improve their health  like seeing the doctor, getting their flu shot and, now, purchasing healthy foods with the new Vitality HealthyFoodTM program.

Through the HealthyFood program launched in April 2016, policyholders can be rewarded with savings of up to $600 annually on healthy food purchases.1 They can also earn program points that can lead to immediate rewards and additional savings of up to 15 percent on annual life insurance premiums.2

John Hancock Vitality policyholders can save on their groceries at more than 16,000 participating stores nationwide. Policyholders also gain nutritional information to help them adopt healthier eating habits through a new collaboration with the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.

To learn more about John Hancock life insurance with Vitality, and for tips on how to live a healthier life, visit JHRewardsLife.com. Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with #RewardingLife.

For more information or to sign up for the John Hancock Hosts the Cooking Light and Health Fit Foodie Race Weekend in Tampa, Florida or San Diego, California, visit www.FitFoodieRun.com.

About John Hancock Financial and Manulife

John Hancock Financial is a division of Manulife, a leading Canada-based financial services group with principal operations in Asia, Canada and the United States. Operating as Manulife in Canada and Asia, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States, our group of companies offers clients a diverse range of financial protection products and wealth management services through its extensive network of employees, agents and distribution partners. Assets under management and administration by Manulife and its subsidiaries were $934 billion (US $718 billion) as at June 30, 2016. Manulife Financial Corporation trades as 'MFC' on the TSX, NYSE and PSE, and under '945' on the SEHK. Manulife can be found on the Internet at manulife.com.

The John Hancock unit, through its insurance companies, comprises one of the largest life insurers in the United States. John Hancock offers and administers a broad range of financial products, including life insurance, annuities, investments, 401(k) plans, long-term care insurance, college savings, and other forms of business insurance. Additional information about John Hancock may be found at johnhancock.com

About Vitality

The Vitality Group is a member of Discovery Ltd., a global financial services organization offering an incentive-based wellness program to employers as part of their benefits program. With a foundation based on actuarial science and behavioral economic theory, Vitality encourages changes in lifestyle that reduce health care costs, both in the short run and long term, by rewarding members for addressing their specific health issues. Vitality wellness programs serve companies in a wide range of sizes and industries, improving individuals' health and well-being as well as employers' bottom lines.

Vitality brings a global perspective through successful partnerships with large employers and best-in- class insurers around the world, in countries including the United States, United Kingdom, South Africa, China, Singapore and Australia. Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/VitalityUSA.

To view additional boilerplates, visit here.

HealthyFood savings are based on qualifying purchases and may vary based on the terms of the John Hancock Vitality program. Premium savings are in comparison to the same John Hancock policy without the Vitality program. Annual premium savings will vary based upon policy type, the terms of the policy, and the level of participation in the John Hancock Vitality program.

Vitality is the provider of the John Hancock Vitality Program in connection with policies issued by John Hancock. Insurance policies and/or associated riders and features may not be available in all states.

Insurance products are issued by: John Hancock Life Insurance Company (U.S.A.), Boston, MA 02110 (not licensed in New York) and John Hancock Life Insurance Company of New York, Valhalla, NY 10595. MLINY060616042

Contact:

Mary Kate Shea

John Hancock

617-922-9583

[email protected]

Devon Langin

Weber Shandwick for John Hancock

617-520-7006

[email protected]

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SOURCE John Hancock Financial

Related Links

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BOSTON, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- John Hancock Investments today announced three new additions to its ETF team. Steven L. Deroian has been named head of ETF strategy, reporting to Philip Fontana, head of product development. Michelle M. Fuller and Burns M. (Mac) Lowry have joined the firm as managing directors, ETF sales specialists, on the institutional sales team, reporting to Todd Cassler, president of institutional distribution.

In September of 2015, John Hancock Investments launched six strategic beta John Hancock Multifactor ETFs, with underlying indexes designed by Dimensional Fund Advisors LPa company regarded as one of the pioneers in strategic beta investingin line with Dimensional's time-tested factor-based approach. The firm expanded its ETF product lineup in March of 2016 by launching five sector multifactor ETFs, also with underlying indexes designed by Dimensional. John Hancock's original six strategic beta ETFs (JHML, JHMM, JHMC, JHMF, JHMH, and JHMT) have been added to Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.'s commission-free ETF program,* Schwab ETF OneSource. All are available for sale through financial advisors.

"With the successful launch of our ETF business and the overall growth of John Hancock Investments over the past decade, we have built first-class product and sales teams, and we are pleased to have Steve, Michelle, and Mac join us as we continue to expand," said Andrew G. Arnott, president and CEO. "All of us at John Hancock Investments are dedicated to offering a range of investment solutions to investors, and in the ETF area in particular we are committed to helping address the need for performance potential, backed by an investment approach rooted in decades of academic research."

Mr. Deroian, Ms. Fuller, and Mr. Lowry join Will Creedon, director of ETF capital markets, to collectively help build and support the ETF business at John Hancock Investments.

"Steve will ultimately be responsible for overseeing and managing our ETF business to ensure we are positioned in the best possible way for our shareholders," said Mr. Fontana. "Most recently with Rothschild Asset Management, Steve was responsible for developing and launching new smart beta products for the growing market."

Mr. Deroian has more than 20 years' experience in the asset management industry. He spent 18 years at Fidelity Investments, where he helped to build their ETF business, and also worked at F-Squared Investments, where he covered the relationships with many large ETF sponsors and ETF strategists. He is a graduate of Boston College.

"Michelle and Mac join our team as specialists, and will work with our wholesalers on the institutional and retail sales teams providing ETF sales support across distribution channels," said Mr. Cassler. "This is a growing area for us and we plan to add more specialists to the team."

Most recently, Ms. Fuller was senior vice president, ETF strategy, for PIMCO Investments. Prior to that, she held several positions over eight years with State Street Global Advisors, including vice president and senior national accounts manager. She received a bachelor's degree from the Pennsylvania State University, and holds the Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA) certification.

Mr. Lowry most recently was with BlackRock iShares as an ETF specialist focusing on the bank wealth management channel. He has also held positions with UBS Wealth Management, Bank of America, and Merrill Lynch. He is a graduate of Florida State University and the Securities Industry Institute's program at the Wharton School of Business, and holds CIMA and Certified Private Wealth Advisor certifications.

Each passively managed John Hancock Multifactor ETF seeks to provide investment results that closely correspond, before fees and expenses, to the performance of a Dimensional-designed index. They are:

John Hancock Multifactor Large Cap ETF (JHML)

John Hancock Multifactor Mid Cap ETF (JHMM)

John Hancock Multifactor Consumer Discretionary ETF (JHMC)

John Hancock Multifactor Consumer Staples ETF (JHMS)

John Hancock Multifactor Energy ETF (JHME)

John Hancock Multifactor Financials ETF (JHMF)

John Hancock Multifactor Healthcare ETF (JHMH)

John Hancock Multifactor Industrials ETF (JHMI)

John Hancock Multifactor Materials ETF (JHMA)

John Hancock Multifactor Technology ETF (JHMT)

John Hancock Multifactor Utilities ETF (JHMU)

About John Hancock Investments

John Hancock has helped individuals and institutions build and protect wealth since 1862. Today, we are one of America's strongest and most-recognized brands. As a manager of managers, John Hancock Investments searches the world to find proven portfolio teams with specialized expertise for every fund we offer, then we apply vigorous investment oversight to ensure they continue to meet our uncompromising standards and serve the best interests of our shareholders. Our unique approach to asset management has led to a diverse set of investments deeply rooted in investor needs, along with strong risk-adjusted returns across asset classes.

About John Hancock Financial and Manulife

John Hancock Financial is a division of Manulife, a leading Canada-based financial services group with principal operations in Asia, Canada, and the United States. Operating as Manulife in Canada and Asia, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States, our group of companies offers clients a diverse range of financial protection products and wealth management services through its extensive network of employees, agents, and distribution partners. Assets under management and administration by Manulife and its subsidiaries were $934 billion (US$718 billion) as of June 30, 2016. Manulife Financial Corporation trades as 'MFC' on the TSX, NYSE, and PSE, and under '945' on the SEHK. Manulife can be found at manulife.com.

The John Hancock unit, through its insurance companies, comprises one of the largest life insurers in the United States. John Hancock offers and administers a broad range of financial products, including life insurance, annuities, investments, 401(k) plans, long-term care insurance, college savings, and other forms of business insurance. Additional information about John Hancock may be found at johnhancock.com.

Investing involves risks, including the potential loss of principal. There is no guarantee that a fund's investment strategy will be successful. John Hancock Multifactor ETF shares are bought and sold at market price (not NAV), and are not individually redeemed from the fund. Brokerage commissions will reduce returns.



Dimensional Fund Advisors LP receives compensation from John Hancock in connection with licensing rights to the John Hancock Dimensional indexes. Neither John Hancock Advisers, LLC nor Dimensional Fund Advisors LP guarantees the accuracy and/or completeness of an index (each an underlying index) or any data included therein, and neither John Hancock Advisers, LLC nor Dimensional Fund Advisors LP shall have any liability for any errors, omissions, or interruptions therein. Neither John Hancock Advisers, LLC nor Dimensional Fund Advisors LP makes any warranty, express or implied, as to results to be obtained by a fund, owners of the shares of a fund, or any other person or entity from the use of an underlying index, trading based on an underlying index, or any data included therein, either in connection with a fund or for any other use. Neither John Hancock Advisers, LLC nor Dimensional Fund Advisors LP makes any express or implied warranties, and expressly disclaims all warranties, of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose or use with respect to an underlying index or any data included therein. Without limiting any of the foregoing, in no event shall either John Hancock Advisers, LLC or Dimensional Fund Advisors LP have any liability for any special, punitive, direct, indirect, or consequential damages, including lost profits, arising out of matters relating to the use of an underlying index, even if notified of the possibility of such damages.

A fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses should be considered carefully before investing. The prospectus contains this and other important information about the fund. To obtain a prospectus, contact your financial professional, call John Hancock Investments at 800-225-5291, or visit our website at jhinvestments.com/etf. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing or sending money.

John Hancock ETFs are distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC, and are subadvised by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP. Foreside is not affiliated with John Hancock Funds, LLC or Dimensional Fund Advisors LP.





* Conditions apply: Trades in ETFs available through Schwab ETF OneSource (including Schwab ETFs) are available without commissions when placed online in a Schwab account. Service charges apply for trade orders placed through a broker ($25) or by automated phone ($5). An exchange processing fee applies to sell transactions. Certain types of Schwab ETF OneSource transactions are not eligible for the commission waiver, such as short sells and buys to cover (not including Schwab ETFs). Schwab reserves the right to change the ETFs we make available without commissions. All ETFs are subject to management fees and expenses.

NOT FDIC INSURED. MAY LOSE VALUE. NO BANK GUARANTEE. NOT INSURED BY ANY GOVERNMENT AGENCY.

JHAN-2016-09-06-0401

MF316385

SOURCE John Hancock Investments
GREENWICH, Conn. and LONDON, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- L Catterton, the largest consumer-focused private equity firm in the world, today announced that Jean-Philippe Barade has been appointed Partner and Head of the London office, effective immediately.

Mr. Barade brings more than 15 years of experience in private equity with a focus on consumer and retail. Most recently, he served as Co-Founding Partner of B&B Investment Partners, a London-based investment fund sponsored by Walgreens Boots Alliance, focusing on growth investment opportunities in the consumer and healthcare sectors. Before B&B, he spent five years at Morgan Stanley Private Equity as a Managing Director and Partner, serving on the Morgan Stanley Capital Partners V Investment Committee. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Barade was a Principal of Permira Advisers where he served as a member of the worldwide consumer, retail and leisure team, leading and executing acquisitions including Birds Eye iglo Group and Cognis.

J. Michael Chu, Global co-CEO of L Catterton, commented, "We are delighted that Jean-Philippe is joining the L Catterton team. He has outstanding and relevant private equity experience in consumer and retail, and we are confident that his financial, operational and leadership experience make him the right leader to head our London office."

Philippe Franchet, Managing Partner of L Catterton Europe, added, "Jean-Philippe brings deep expertise in consumer-focused private equity and strong relationships that position us well to grow our franchise in Europe as we continue to extend our leadership. Looking forward, Jean-Philippe's talents and experience will help accelerate and enhance the growth of L Catterton Europe as he leads the London office."

"I am excited to join L Catterton, which has tremendous opportunities ahead both in Europe and globally," said Mr. Barade. "I am eager to begin working with the entire L Catterton team to help support and grow the firm's outstanding portfolio and to help identify the best opportunities in consumer growth investing."

Mr. Barade began his career at Credit Suisse First Boston as an Associate on the M&A team. He received his M.B.A from ESSEC in France.

About L Catterton

L Catterton, formed in 2016 through the partnership of Catterton, LVMH and Groupe Arnault, is the largest consumer-focused private equity firm in the world, operating multiple funds out of seventeen offices across five continents. Since its founding in 1989, Catterton has leveraged its category insight, strategic and operating skills, and network of industry contacts to establish one of the strongest private equity investment track records in the middle market. L Catterton builds on this heritage and the strong track record of LVMH and Groupe Arnault's existing European and Asian private equity and real estate operations, conducted under the L Capital and L Real Estate franchises. L Catterton invests in all major consumer segments, including: Food and Beverage, Retail and Restaurants, Beauty and Wellness, Fashion and Accessories, Consumer Products and Services, Consumer Health, and Media and Marketing Services, as well as real estate projects anchored by luxury retail. L Catterton's investments include: Hopdoddy, PIADA Italian Street Food, Mendocino Farms, CHOPT Creative Salad Company, Bruxie, Protein Bar, Snap Kitchen, Peloton, Restoration Hardware, CorePower Yoga, Sweaty Betty, Outback Steakhouse, Plum Organics, Noodles & Company, Vroom, Frederic Fekkai, PIRCH, Build-A-Bear Workshop, Wellness pet food, Nature's Variety pet food, Kettle Foods, Odwalla, P.F. Chang's, Ba&sh, Sandro & Maje, CellularLine, Zanotti, Cigierre, Gant, Nutrition & Sante, Pepe Jeans & Hackett, 2XU, Charles & Keith, Marubi, Bateel, Sasseur, Emperor Watch and Jewelry, Miami Design District and G6 in Ginza - Tokyo, to name a few. More information about L Catterton can be found at lcatterton.com.

Contacts:

Andi Rose / Jon Keehner / Julie Oakes

Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher

212-355-4449

SOURCE L Catterton
NEW YORK, Sept.12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ransomware, which holds business data hostage until a fee is paid, has taken a sharp upturn this year. In fact, a recent industry study found that nearly half of all U.S. businesses have experienced at least one ransomware attack in the past year alone. While organizations wrestle with the ever-pressing issue of whether to pay or not to pay if they're victimized, Logicalis US, an international IT solutions and managed services provider (www.us.logicalis.com), suggests CXOs focus first on how to protect, thwart and recover from a potential attack before developing a pay or don't-pay policy.

To learn more, register to attend tomorrow's Logicalis US anti-ransomware webinar: http://ow.ly/BMka303kh7z.

"Ransomware has become one of the most sophisticated criminal enterprises the world has ever seen," says Ron Temske, Vice President, Security Solutions, Logicalis US. "As anyone in the business of cybersecurity knows, we've long battled those who simply wanted to create chaos and disruption. We've seen nation states attack both military and civilian targets and 'hacktivists' who act for various social causes. But ransomware is different in one key way: It's all about the money. Ransomware is a business, complete with sophisticated cybercrime-as-a-service offerings and world-class customer support to ensure its victims' files are returned expeditiously once the ransom is paid. It's a service business approaching $1 billion in annual revenue, something that would be heralded as an accomplishment if it weren't based on such nefarious principles. The business of ransomware has even spawned a network of affiliates that provide redirection of an exploit kit for a cut of the profits."

Five Ways to Respond to the Threat from Ransomware

To be ready for an attack before it happens, to detect and stop it while it's happening, or to recover from it after it happens takes planning. To help, Logicalis' security experts have compiled a list of the top five ways to respond to the threat ransomware poses today.

Create a Modern Defense: Traditional signature-based anti-virus solutions are good to have, but they aren't up to the job of thwarting a sophisticated ransomware attack. Neither is your traditional stateful firewall. As a result, it is critically important to plan for the possibility of an attack by developing comprehensive visibility and access to extensive details on how the malware entered the organization's environment in the first place. IT pros who are serious about heading ransomware off at the pass should focus intently on modern next-generation anti-malware and firewall solutions that can stop an attack before it starts. Take an Architectural Approach: In some limited situations, point solutions can be effective, but not with ransomware. The most effective way to address the threat posed by ransomware and other pervasive cyberattacks is to take a holistic architectural approach to security that encompasses the entire network including its systems and endpoints as well as the organization's cloud and mobile strategies. Because so many of today's threats are automated, solutions that rely on human intervention to detect and respond are neither affordable nor effective, making automation and orchestration key principals in a solid security architecture design. Prevent the Spread of Malware: If an attacker's malware does enter the network, it has the ability to spread like a fast-moving cold among passengers on an airplane. The key at this stage is to compartmentalize data using network micro-segmentation strategies that make it more difficult for malware to spread laterally within the environment. Plan Your Recovery: The unfortunate truth is, despite the security industry's best efforts, no organization is entirely immune to attack. Therefore, it's critical to examine how the organization will recover if it is breached. First, be sure you're backing up. Second, test, test and re-test the backup and restore process; a backup is only valuable if the data can actually be restored when it's needed. It's also important to ensure that the restore can be done at the system level since file-based recovery may not be enough. Consider, too, how much redundancy is required; if the organization is hit, do you have an uncorrupted source from which you can immediately recover? And be sure to weigh the costs of various solutions against the cost of potential loss or downtime  not all data is equally valuable, which means not all data needs the same level of protection. Create a Pay or No-Pay Policy: Finally, the big question: To pay or not to pay? No vertical market is having a tougher time facing this question than healthcare is today; whether it's critical patient-care data that hackers hold hostage or the threat of hefty regulatory fines imposed when protected patient health information (PHI) is breached, healthcare organizations have become prime targets for ransomware attacks. Before any organization  healthcare or otherwise  pays a ransom, however, Temske suggests examining how much damage will be done if you don't pay. Do you have an uncompromised data backup from which you can restore? What is the cost to restore vs. pay  both monetarily and in terms of the business' ability to function in the meantime? Ultimately, the decision comes down to how business-critical the compromised data is to the organization. If you do decide to pay, Temske has one word of advice: "Negotiate. In most cases, you can talk the price down, so it may make sense to consider not paying the first amount offered."

Want to Learn More?

Is your company's data at risk from ransomware, and what can you do to protect it? Find out in a Logicalis US anti-ransomware webinar: http://ow.ly/BMka303kh7z.

Learn why your company is not safe from hackers, then explore 10 tough security questions every CIO must be able to answer: http://ow.ly/qFC3303Hjtt.

Your organization may not have been breached yet, but it will be; find out what you can do about it here: http://ow.ly/RAtV303HjAm.

About Logicalis

Logicalis is an international multi-skilled solution provider providing digital enablement services to help customers harness digital technology and innovative services to deliver powerful business outcomes.

Our customers cross industries and geographical regions; our focus is to engage in the dynamics of our customers' vertical markets including financial services, TMT (telecommunications, media and technology), education, healthcare, retail, government, manufacturing and professional services, and to apply the skills of our 4,000 employees in modernizing key digital pillars, data center and cloud services, security and network infrastructure, workspace communications and collaboration, data and information strategies, and IT operation modernization.

We are the advocates for our customers for some of the world's leading technology companies including Cisco, HPE, IBM, NetApp, Microsoft, VMware and ServiceNow.

The Logicalis Group has annualized revenues of over $1.5 billion from operations in Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific. It is a division of Datatec Limited, listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the AIM market of the LSE, with revenues of over $6.5 billion.

For more information, visit www.us.logicalis.com.

Business and technology working as one

To learn more about Logicalis activities through a variety of social media outlets, click here.

Media contacts:

Nickie Peters, Director of Marketing,

Logicalis US

[email protected]

920-338-7622

www.us.logicalis.com

Karen Franse, Communication Strategy Group for Logicalis US

[email protected]

866-997-2424

www.gocsg.com

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SOURCE Logicalis US

Related Links

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Money is a hot relationship topic for millennials with 74 percent discussing it weekly (and an additional 19 percent discussing it at least once a month). In fact, these discussions begin even before the first date, with nearly half (48 percent) of millennials surveyed who have used an online dating service discussing their finances before meeting, compared with 36 percent across all generations.

"Talking about money can be uncomfortable," says Ryan Bailey, Head of Consumer Deposits, Payments and Personal Lending at TD Bank. "Establishing a healthy dialogue about finances can help couples get on the same page from the start and result in happier relationships in the long run."

What's Mine is Yours? Not So Fast, Say Millennials



While more than two-thirds (68 percent) of millennials have at least one shared bank account, they are somewhat averse to sharing credit card accounts, with 60 percent stating they keep some separate or don't share any at all (compared with 55 percent of Gen Xers and 48 percent of boomers).

Across all generations, 76 percent of couples share at least one bank account, including 79 percent of those who said they are happy in their relationships. Moreover, 63 percent of all couples shared at least one credit card, including 68 percent of those who are happy.

Credit card debt is a significant factor when it comes to relationships and 44 percent say they are less likely to date someone with credit card debt.

More Millennials Are Saving for a Rainy Day

More than half of millennials budgeted for all surveyed categories: Groceries/alcohol (73 percent), eating out (67 percent), entertainment (62 percent), travel (53 percent), clothing/personal items (55 percent) and savings/unexpected expenses (68 percent).

Only 38 percent of millennials actually stick to their budgets, and dining out monthly is the first to go (65 percent).

When it comes to savings, however, millennials bettered their counterparts with 68 percent indicating it's budgeted for monthly compared with 61 percent of Gen Xers and 52 percent of boomers.

Keeping a Secret? It Could Ruin Your Relationship

Although millennials are twice as likely (one-in-five) to break up with their partners if they discover a financial secret, they're also twice as likely (one-in-five) to be keeping one (versus 10 percent overall).

The most common financial secrets across all generations are: a secret bank account (48 percent); significant credit card debt (37 percent) and a bad credit score (32 percent). Fifteen percent of those keeping a financial secret never plan to come clean.

"Secret bank accounts, or major debt not revealed, are secrets that can really impact trust and intimacy in a relationship," says April Masini, renowned relationship expert and author of the 'Ask April' advice column, who analyzed the results of the TD Bank survey. "The damage is never about the money  it's about the secret. The secret is the damaging dynamic."

Additional highlights are available on the TD Bank Media Room.

Survey Methodology

Research company MARU/VCR&C conducted the survey among a nationally representative sample of Americans who are currently in a relationship. The online fieldwork occurred between July 20th and July 29th, 2016. In total, 1902 completes were gathered in the U.S. Data has been weighted by age, gender and region to reflect the population. Margin of Error on the total sample is +/-2.9percent.

About MARU /VCR&C

MARU/VCR&C, formerly the Research & Consulting division of Vision Critical, is a professional services firm dedicated to improving its clients' business outcomes. It delivers its services through teams of sector-specific research consultants that have technology in their DNA, specializing in the use of Insight Community and Voice of Market technology. MARU/VCR&C's research drives decision-making across all aspects of customer experience, including innovation, product, branding, commercialization and communications.

About TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank

TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, is one of the 10 largest banks in the U.S., providing more than 8 million customers with a full range of retail, small business and commercial banking products and services at more than 1,200 convenient locations throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Metro D.C., the Carolinas and Florida. In addition, TD Bank and its subsidiaries offer customized private banking and wealth management services through TD Wealth, and vehicle financing and dealer commercial services through TD Auto Finance. TD Bank is headquartered in Cherry Hill, N.J. To learn more, visit www.tdbank.com. Find TD Bank on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TDBank and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TDBank_US.

TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, is a member of TD Bank Group and a subsidiary of The Toronto-Dominion Bank of Toronto, Canada, a top 10 financial services company in North America. The Toronto-Dominion Bank trades on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges under the ticker symbol "TD". To learn more, visit www.td.com.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160912/406376-INFO

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131120/MM21057LOGO

SOURCE TD Bank

Related Links

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WASHINGTON, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Falcon Cyber Investments, LLC today welcomes the addition of the Honorable Luis A. Aguilar, former Commissioner at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as a new partner to the firm.

"The Falcon Cyber team is proud and humbled to welcome Luis, a recognized leader at the nexus of cybersecurity, investor protection and publicly traded companies," said Rick Berry, partner at Falcon Cyber. "Luis' wealth of experience in law, the financial markets, investment banking and his most recent role at the Securities and Exchange Commission will help sharpen our focus on creating value for our investors and the investee companies. The cybersecurity market is unique, and our team is exceptionally positioned to help foster the innovative cybersecurity products and services to protect our most sensitive information."

"Cybersecurity is a major threat across all industries," said Luis Aguilar. "I spent a lot of time in my last two years at the Securities and Exchange Commission on this issue, and worked closely with Chair Mary Jo White in putting together the first cybersecurity roundtable in 2014. I understand firsthand the threats we face, and since leaving the SEC, I've been searching for the right platform to continue contributing to the cybersecurity field and work against the harm cyberattacks can cause. After careful consideration of the capabilities, opportunities and market reach of Falcon Cyber  I'm extremely excited to join the team."

Commissioner Aguilar is a member of the Board of Directors of Envestnet, Inc., a NYSE-traded company that is a leading provider of unified wealth management technology and services to investment advisors.

His previous experience includes serving as the general counsel, head of compliance, executive vice president, and corporate secretary of Invesco, with responsibility for all legal and compliance matters regarding Invesco Institutional. He was also Invesco's Managing Director for Latin America in the 1990's, and president of one of Invesco's broker-dealers. His professional career also includes tenure as a partner in various prominent national law firms.

Falcon Cyber was formed, from day one, to focus on the unique cybersecurity market by investing in companies that bring exciting new technologies and services to the marketplace. The addition of Luis Aguilar's expertise allows Falcon to continue to affiliate with the best and brightest in the cybersecurity ecosystem.

Falcon Cyber Investments is a multistage equity vehicle exclusively focused on Cybersecurity Investments  we partner with our portfolio companies to help them accelerate their success as they seize market opportunities to reduce the cyberattack surface for corporations, governments, and individuals around the globe.

www.FalconCyber.com

[email protected]

SOURCE Falcon Cyber Investments, LLC

Related Links

http://www.FalconCyber.com


ATLANTA, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Medical Asset Management, Inc. (Atlanta, Georgia) has an agreement to install two web-based software applications: iRCODER.COM and Procedure-Integrated Inventory Management System (PIIMS) in the Cardiac Catheterization Labs and Interventional Radiology Department at Little Company of Mary's hospital facility in Evergreen Park, Illinois.

iRCODER.COM utilizes proprietary intelligence, color-coded illustrations and Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) guidelines for timely, accurate charging of certain complex hospital procedures (interventional radiology, cardiac catheterization, electrophysiology, vascular and non-vascular).

PIIMS is an intelligent inventory management system that tracks use of inventory, monitors expired/expiring products on a real-time basis and tracks model and lot numbers for quick identification of recalled products. Unlike other inventory management systems, PIIMS includes comprehensive cost-tracking intelligence. Hospital staff now has immediate access to its inventory dollar value.

Game changing synchronicity occurs when both systems are used together. The intelligence built into both products recognizes when a device has been used in a procedure, but not charged. Conversely, it will not allow a device to be charged if it was not used in a procedure. Hospitals that rely on conventional inventory management systems to track inventory have not been as successful in using those systems to make sure inventory is always charged properly when used. PIIMS resolves this issue for the hospital.

"We're pleased that both iRCODER.COM and PIIMS will be installed at Little Company of Mary. When these products are used together, it results in phenomenal improvement in process flow, accurate charge capture and inventory management. Healthcare reform constantly requires hospitals to be more efficient in billing. Hospital viability requires the revenue cycle to be a top priority. Use of both products result in timely reimbursements," says Belinda Stanley-Majors, Principal of Medical Asset Management, Inc.

Gary Burns, Principal of Medical Asset Management, Inc. says, "Using the PIIMS inventory tracking system allows a hospital to avoid issues associated with expired inventory. Inefficient management of supply purchases, waste and financial losses are associated with inventory that cannot be used. A hospital also wants to avoid Joint Commission violations as well as legal issues associated with carrying expired products on its shelves."

Medical Asset Management, Inc. is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with hospital clients nationwide. For more information about these products, please visit www.ircoder.com or https://piims.ircoder.com.

SOURCE Medical Asset Management, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.medicalassetmanagement.com


Melia Hotels International, founded in 1956 in Palma de Mallorca, spans 370 midscale to luxury hotels in 40 countries; its brands include Gran Melia Hotels & Resorts, Melia Hotels & Resorts, ME by Melia, Paradisus Resorts, Innside by Melia, Sol Hotels and TRYP by Wyndham. There are nearly 40,000 associates interacting with and representing the brand to an increasingly global customer base.

Melia sees each associate as an extension of their brand and integral to delivering the warmth and flare of their Mediterranean heritage and the unique promises of their six brands. It's for this reason that the company is investing in their Service Culture. Where most brands take an insular approach to these types of efforts, Melia is inviting guests to help create what their service culture needs to look and feel like at every interaction. Starting in September, guests of each of the six brands are being invited to participate in a session in London and Miami to help design Melia's service culture.

"Rather than assume we know what guests want, we are inviting our guests to tell us. This will allow us to move beyond meeting the needs of our guests to anticipating them," said Alex Hugot, Melia's VP Global Brand Management. "The Spanish culture, a rich part of our heritage, is known around the world for its warmth and openness. It is our wish that every guest, at every one of the Melia properties, experience that culture with every visit."

Melia Hotels International has engaged North America-based Bond Brand Loyalty to partner with on this important work. Bond Brand Loyalty is a recognized leader in building brand loyalty and customer engagement for many of the world's most influential and valuable brands. "The experiences we talk about are the ones that create emotions. This is deeply human, and it is why our customer experience work focuses on the interactions between a brand's representatives and their customers," commented Bob Macdonald, President and CEO, Bond Brand Loyalty. "We applaud Melia Hotels International for the work they have done on the entire spectrum of brand and customer experience, and we are exceptionally proud to be supporting them."

Melia Hotels International is in a period of substantial growth, and a consistent service culture coupled with other strategic efforts already underway will impact not only the Melia properties of today, but also those of tomorrow.

About Bond Brand Loyalty

Bond Brand Loyalty, formerly Maritz Loyalty Marketing, is a management-owned agency that specializes in building brand loyalty for North America's most influential and valuable brands. Our mission is to make marketing more rewarding for customers, richer and more resilient for brands and more profitable for our clients. We build measurable, authentic and long-lasting relationships through a combination of services that includes loyalty solutions, customer experience, marketing research, customer analytics, live brand experiences, and proprietary loyalty technology platforms. Visit our website, follow us on Twitter or contact us at 1-844-277-2663.

About Melia Hotels International

Founded in 1956 in Palma de Mallorca (Spain), Melia Hotels International is one of the largest hotel companies worldwide as well as the absolute leader within the Spanish market, with more than 370 hotels (current portfolio and pipeline) throughout more than 41 countries and 4 continents under the following brands: Gran Melia Hotels & Resorts, Paradisus Resorts, ME by Melia, Melia Hotels & Resorts, Innside by Melia, Sol Hotels & Resorts and TRYP by Wyndham. The strategic focus on international growth has allowed Melia Hotels International to be the first Spanish hotel company with presence in key markets such as China, the Arabian Gulf or the U.S., as well as maintaining its leadership in traditional markets such as Europe, Latin America or the Caribbean. Its high degree of globalization, a diversified business model, the consistent growth plan supported by strategic alliances with major investors and its commitment to responsible tourism are the major strengths of Melia Hotels International, being the Spanish Hotel leader in Corporate Reputation (Merco Ranking) and one of the most attractive to work worldwide. Melia Hotels International is included in the IBEX 35 Spanish stock market index.

SOURCE Bond Brand Loyalty

Related Links

http://www.bondbrandloyalty.com


PUNE, India, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The 2016 Global Methanol Market Research Report provides a complete and informed review of the methanol industry structure along with a calculable and qualitative analysis of the development and status of the market, concentrating on the market size and trends, supply and future prospects. The report will streamline the operational and calculated decision making processes.

Complete report on methanol market analysing major companies and supported with table and figures is available at http://www.asklinkerreports.com/2434-methanol-market.

The key segments covered in this report are Methanol Industry Overview which includes topics such as Classification Analysis, Main Classification Analysis, Main Classification Share Analysis, Industry Chain Structure Analysis, Global Market Comparison Analysis, and Global Import Market Analysis. In addition, Methanol Global Export Market Analysis, Global Main Region Market Analysis, Global Market Comparison Analysis, and Methanol Global Market Development Trend Analysis have also been included. Along with it an encompassing study of the Methanol Industry in North America, Asia, and Europe has been made.

What makes the Global Methanol Industry 2016 Market Research Report more trustworthy for the new investors is the info on the Global Methanol apart from analyses on productions, supply, demand, forecast, market share, key trends etc. This report studies all the features of the present and forthcoming industry growth information which is crucial for all new players as well as the leading market players. For a deep insight of the Methanol market the report presents a deep study of the Capacity Production Trend, Production and Market Share Forecast, and Import and Export Consumption Trend. The report further highlights the Demand Analysis, Supply Demand Analysis, along with Methanol Production Cost Price Profit Trend.

With numerous company profiles supporting the Methanol market analysis, this research report provides key statistics on the state of the industry and is a treasured foundation of assistance and direction for companies interested in the market. The Global Methanol Industry 2016 Market Research Report as available on asklinkerreports.com aids clients with investment viability analysis, project SWOT analysis, and investment return analysis. Wholly, the report provides a detailed understanding of the global Methanol industry covering all vital factors. Order a copy of this report at http://www.asklinkerreports.com/contacts/purchase/2434 .

Another related report is Global Methanol Synthesis Industry 2016 Market Research Report. The report is a professional and depth research report on Methanol Synthesis industry that you would know the world's major regional market conditions of Methanol Synthesis industry, the main region including North American, Europe and Asia etc., and the main country including United States, Germany, Japan and China etc..

The report firstly introduced Methanol Synthesis basic information including Methanol Synthesis definition classification application and industry chain overview; Methanol Synthesis industry policy and plan, Methanol Synthesis product specification, manufacturing process, cost structure etc.. Then the report deeply analyzed the world's main region market conditions that including the product price, profit, capacity, production, capacity utilization, supply, demand and industry growth rate etc.

In the end, the report introduced Methanol Synthesis new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis and Methanol Synthesis industry. Complete table of content is http://www.asklinkerreports.com/toc/global-methanol-synthesis-industry-2016-market-research-report-2240.

Explore other new reports on chemical market http://www.asklinkerreports.com/category/chemical-market-research.

About Us:

AskLinker Reports is an aggregator of market research and industry intelligence reports providing data analysis of sectors including chemical, medical, machinery, food, energy, automotive, environmental protection, transportation, electric power, light industry, petroleum, electronics and other categories. These reports are by AskLinker Research team backed by research institutions as well as senior, expert researchers.

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SOURCE AskLinker Reports
FRUITPORT, Mich., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Motion Dynamics Corporation, a Fruitport, Mich.-based manufacturer of custom wire components for the medical, electronics, aerospace and military markets, today announced its strategic partnership with Vance Street Capital, a Los Angeles-based private investment firm.

Motion Dynamics manufactures some of the smallest and most difficult wire components in the world. The company focuses primarily on the design, engineering, production and assembly of high quality wire components and sub-assemblies for medical device applications.

"Our company has achieved significant growth and performance since its inception, and we have been seeking the right opportunity to significantly accelerate that growth and take our performance to an even higher level," said Chris Witham, president of Motion Dynamics. "Given this strategy, we believe that now is the ideal time to bring in a strategic investor to deliver on our business goals, and Vance Street Capital, with over two decades of experience and a proven track record, is the right partner to help us achieve that next level of growth."

Vance Street Capital is a private investment firm which primarily invests in middle-market businesses that are established leaders in providing highly engineered solutions for niche markets in the aerospace, defense, industrial and medical sectors.

Motion Dynamics was advised throughout the transaction process by Charter Capital Partners, exclusive financial advisor in the transaction. Principals of Charter Capital Partners acted on behalf of the company in their capacity as licensed investment banking agents of M&A Securities Group, Inc. Miller Johnson served as legal advisor.

"We worked closely with Chris to identify the best match to continue his vision of the company," said Jason T. Byrd, managing director at Charter Capital Partners. "With its unmatched expertise in providing strategic support and investment capital to companies in the medical and aerospace operations, Vance Street Capital presents a unique ability to assist current leadership in further enhancing the company's robust growth."

Chris Witham and the existing management team will continue to lead the company.

About Motion Dynamics Corporation

Motion Dynamics was founded in 1992 by Chris Witham's father, Dick Witham. The company operates and distributes its products out of a 40,000-square-foot facility in Fruitport, Michigan. The company specializes in fine and ultrafine wire diameters, unique alloy types and shapes, and high precision, tight tolerance products. Highly experienced with the demands of the product development and production process, the company offers some of the shortest lead times in the industry. To learn more, visit motiondc.com.

About Charter Capital Partners

Established in 1989, Charter Capital Partners is recognized as one of the Midwest's premier investment banking firms, with offices in Michigan and Indiana. The firm offers solutions covering the full continuum of capital, including buy-side and sell-side advisory, business valuation, exit planning, and capital raise for start-ups, acquisition and growth capital. To learn more, visit chartercapitalpartners.com.

About Vance Street Capital

Vance Street Capital is a Los Angeles-based private investment firm which invests in middle-market businesses in the medical, aerospace, defense and industrial sectors. For over two decades, Vance Street's partners have worked with management, family owners and other co-investors to accelerate revenue growth, improve operations and acquire strategic assets for the companies in their investment portfolio. To learn more, visit vancestreetcapital.com.

SOURCE Motion Dynamics Corporation

Related Links

http://www.motiondc.com


NEW YORK, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- RabbiCareers.com launched this week making it easier for a congregation, organization, or individual to find a rabbi for their needs. An easy to use job clearing house platform, RabbiCareers.com allows any community or individual to post a rabbinic position and reach a wide variety of rabbis.

Rabbi Rebecca W. Sirbu, Director of Clal's Rabbis Without Borders and the founder of the site says, "The need for RabbiCareers.com has become increasingly clear over the past couple of years. First, there has been a rise in the number of congregations unaffiliated with any Jewish denomination, these communities do not have access to the denominational rabbinic placement process and have a hard time finding rabbis. As the director of a strong rabbinic network, I have been receiving numerous calls from these communities to help them find rabbis. Since one of the goals of Rabbis Without Borders is to serve anyone anywhere, I wanted to create a better process for helping these communities find the rabbis they need. RabbiCareers.com will help these communities spread the word about their positions."

In addition, Rabbi Sirbu shared, "Almost fifty percent of the rabbinate is now employed in 'non-pulpit' positions. The role the rabbi can play in modern life is expanding, growing beyond the traditional idea of rabbis only supporting congregations. We can help build a bridge between a rabbi looking for a non-traditional job and an employer who is looking for a strong candidate. Rabbis often have a unique skill set that can be useful in many organizations." RabbiCareers.com will host every kind of job posting from pulpit positions to nonprofit jobs, chaplaincy, and Hillel positions, anything that a rabbi would be a good fit for.

Easy to use, RabbiCareers.com is taking the task of finding a rabbi and updating it for the digital age. The site is also a reflection on the changing trends of American religious life of decreasing denominational affiliation and increasing individual searches for spiritual leaders.

RabbiCareers.com is hosted by Clal's Rabbis Without Borders. Clal is a Jewish think tank, resource center, and leadership training organization. Rabbis Without Borders (RWB), is a network of over 200 rabbis representing all the denominations in Judaism who are united in their values of pluralism, innovation and service to all. RabbiCareers.com flows from Rabbis Without Border's commitment to serve anyone anywhere, making Jewish wisdom accessible and meaningful to all.

SOURCE Clal
SAN DIEGO, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- BP Logix, provider of BPM solutions for rapid workflow app development, today announced that Ogden-Weber Tech College implemented Process Director to replace a semi-automated, paper-based system for managing its key business processes. Seeking to gain efficiencies, reduce time and save money, Ogden-Weber wanted to implement a workflow-oriented solution that would automate and simplify those processes. Central to achieving that goal was reviewing the success achieved by its sister college, Davis Applied Technology College, then defining its own initiative and criteria.

Ogden-Weber Tech College was established in 1971 and moved under the auspices of the Utah State Office of Education in 1982. It was renamed the Ogden-Weber Area Vocational Center, which was changed to Ogden-Weber Applied Technology Center in the 1990s. In 2001 the college celebrated its 30th anniversary with a workforce of more than 150 employees, 300 + technical courses, 53 employment categories in 14 buildings and 9 locations. That same year the Utah State Legislature approved the tech college to be a Utah College of Applied Technology campus. The college currently serves over 6,000 adult and high school students each year. As a result of its high graduate job placement rate, Ogden-Weber Tech College has been chosen to receive a "Best of State" award in the "Education  Vocational Training  Public" category for the fifth year in a row.

Kyle Jensen is the Director of IT responsible for all IT functions of the college. Jensen's team supports 400 faculty and staff and 6,000 students. Prior to selecting Process Director, the College had relied on a document management system to track records, including purchase requisitions and admissions. Jensen envisioned a workflow-driven system that would create greater efficiencies and reduce costs. His vision also called for automating the key processes that would make an immediate impact and demonstrate a significant payback. Jensen selected Purchase Requisitions, New Hire Process and Enrollment/Admissions for the initial proof of concept. "We started with the Finance and HR processes, as they are core to campus-wide operations. We also recognized that we wanted to understand and refine the processes themselves, not simply automate what we had. We tore them apart and rebuilt them using Process Director. It was the right tool to automate our processes and accomplish our goals," he stated.

"We are excited about the vision that Ogden-Weber defined for this initiative," stated Jay O'Brien BP Logix CEO. "With Process Director deployed for these initial key processes, the College is already achieving the impact that Kyle identified," he concluded.

About BP Logix

BP Logix unites IT and business users enabling them to deploy sophisticated, form-based, workflow-driven enterprise apps in a fraction of the time and a fraction of the cost of traditional development. Our award-winning business process management (BPM) software powers workflow-driven solutions that cross organizational boundaries, embracing the C-suite, operations, sales, customers and prospects.

Customers including Abbott Labs, the City of West Allis, DuPont, IDEX, Leo Burnett USA, Memphis Light, Gas and Water, MultiPlan, Starwood Hotels and Resorts and Vulcan Materials Company rely on Process Director's full mobile support; SharePoint, MS Dynamics and MS Office integration, and social media support to build award-winning applications that deliver clear and measurable improvements in productivity, compliance and customer engagement.

The BP Logix name and logo are the registered service and trademarks of BP Logix, Inc.

Media Contact:

Ingrid Andrews

Andrews Marketing

760-613-2039

[email protected]

or

Marti Colwell

BP Logix

760-643-4121 ext. 3250

[email protected]

SOURCE BP Logix

Related Links

http://www.bplogix.com


The Omniwomen China event was hosted by Joanne Lao, CEO of TBWA Greater China, together with Serge Dumont, Vice Chairman Omnicom Group, Chairman Omnicom Asia Pacific, and Janet Riccio, Executive Vice President at Omnicom Group and Dean of Omnicom University.

During the event, a campaign to celebrate successful Omniwomen in Greater China was unveiled. This was followed by a panel discussion with the women featured in the campaign, and the announcement of a series of upcoming career nurturing initiatives to bring together female talent in an open and supportive environment for sharing, networking and learning.

The Omniwomen campaign developed by TBWA Shanghai includes a one-minute film and nine 30-second films featuring Omniwomen representing diverse agencies from the Omnicom network. The campaign uses real testimonials where women share their stories on how their personal passions are reflected in their professional lives. Omnicom has always provided opportunities for women who are passionate about their work and aspire to be at their best  they are our celebrated Omniwomen.

"The amount of talented women in our network in China is inspiring, and we are proud to share some of their stories. These women will be continuing to collaborate and learn from one another, and also celebrate career achievements throughout the network," said Janet Riccio, Executive Vice President at Omnicom Group.

Serge Dumont, Vice Chairman Omnicom Group, added, "Our industry's key resource is our people. The business case is clear: companies providing more equitable opportunities for women are known to perform better. But the simple fact is that women make up half the population. Our agencies must reflect that reality and be as diverse as the world of which they are a part. I am proud that Omnicom's recent promotions on merit to the roles of CEO Greater China in key agencies have involved women: Tzekiat Tan, BBDO; Rachel Catanach, FleishmanHillard and Joanne Lao, TBWA."

Omniwomen in Greater China is run by an Omnicom community of women leaders spearheaded by Joanne Lao, CEO of TBWA, and includes representatives from diverse Omnicom agencies including BBDO, DDB, Cosine, C_Space Jigsaw, Ketchum, Kreab, PHD, Porter Novelli, TBWA and TRO.

For more news from the TBWA network please visit: tbwa.com/news

About TBWA Worldwide

TBWA\Worldwide (www.tbwa.com) is a top ten-ranked global advertising network that holds Disruption at its core to develop business-changing ideas for brands. TBWA has 11,300 employees across 305 offices in 98 countries and also includes brands such as Auditoire, Digital Arts Network (DAN), eg+ worldwide, The Integer Group, TBWA\Media Arts Lab and TBWA\WorldHealth. TBWA's global clients include adidas, Airbnb, Apple, Gatorade, GoDaddy, Henkel, McDonald's, Michelin, Nissan, Pernod Ricard, Pfizer, Standard Chartered Bank, Singapore Airlines, Sotheby's and Vichy. Follow TBWA on Twitter and Instagram and like us on Facebook.

About Omnicom Group Inc.

Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (www.omnicomgroup.com) is a leading global marketing and corporate communications company. Omnicom's branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, digital and interactive marketing, direct and promotional marketing, public relations and other specialty communications services to over 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries.

Video - https://youtu.be/P6R1UvFGy4E

SOURCE Omnicom

Related Links

http://www.omnicomgroup.com


SYDNEY, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- ON24, the worldwide leading multimedia marketing platform, today announced the opening of ON24's Asia Pacific headquarters in Sydney, Australia. The move serves to meet rapid company growth and apparent market potential in the region.

Enterprise technology industry veteran Michael Savanis will lead operations as Vice President & Managing Director of Asia Pacific & Japan. Savanis is one of many new hires in the inauguration of Sydney, Australia-based operations.

"Our new Sydney office represents the extensive growth ON24 is undergoing," says Sharat Sharan, co-founder and CEO of ON24. "We are seeing a tremendous opportunity in the Asia Pacific market to deeply engage with marketers in the region. Opening the office in Sydney and bringing Michael Savanis on as our VP of Asia Pacific & Japan is the first step in engaging with local companies."

The ON24 Sydney operations will focus on further penetrating finance, life sciences, and high tech verticals.

"It's an exciting time to join ON24 as video is becoming more and more important to marketers in all industries," says Savanis. "It's imperative for marketers to establish trust with their customers and by expanding our operations in Asia we'll be able to tailor our offerings to each market. In addition, having these resources both locally and globally allows ON24 to offer comprehensive customer service every step of the way."

In order to scale in the Asia Pacific region, ON24 will focus on bolstering channel partnerships and strategic alliances with local partners through new hires in both the sales and delivery sides. ON24 also plans to develop deeper technical resources to help support the customer. Current customers in the region include VMWare, IBM, GSK, Oracle and HP.

The office opening comes at a time of accelerating growth for ON24. In 2015, ON24 hosted more than 60,000 webcasts, and is on pace to eclipse 100,000 in 2016. Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs announced a $25 million investment in ON24, coming after the company saw a 70 percent year-over-year revenue growth in 2015.

About ON24:

ON24 is the leading webinar marketing platform for demand generation, lead qualification and customer engagement. Its award-winning, patented, cloud-based platform enables companies of all sizes to deliver engaging live and on-demand webinars. Providing industry-leading analytics that can be integrated with all leading marketing automation and CRM platforms, ON24 enables marketers to optimize demand generation, enhance lead qualification and accelerate sales pipeline opportunities.

Additional applications for the ON24 product portfolio include virtual training, talent development and town hall meetings. More than 1,500 companies and organizations rely on ON24, including IBM, CA Technologies, Merck, JPMorgan Chase, Credit Suisse and SAP. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices throughout the world. For more information, visit http://www.on24.com.

Connect with ON24:

Read the blog: http://blog.on24.com

Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ON24

Visit on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ON24inc

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131016/SF98451LOGO-b

SOURCE ON24

Related Links

http://www.on24.com


VANCOUVER, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Orex Minerals Inc.  (TSX-V: REX OTCQX: ORMNF) ("Orex"), is pleased to announce that the Phase-III diamond drilling program continues to intercept silver mineralization on the Sandra Escobar Project in Durango, Mexico. These include holes SA-16-044 to SA-16-048 in the southeastern region of the project. The Sandra Escobar Project is being advanced by Orex under an option agreement with Canasil Resources Inc.  (TSX.V: CLZ) ("Canasil").

Highlights for this batch of holes include SA-16-048 in the Main Zone, which yielded 65.00 metres core length (56.00 m true thickness) grading 114 g/t silver, starting 15 metres below surface. In the Burro Zone, 300 metres to the southwest of the Main Zone, hole SA-16-044 intersected 24.30 metres core length (24.00 metres true thickness) grading 144 g/t silver, starting from surface.

Also, a low-grade permeable horizon, similar to the Main Zone in texture, has been identified stratigraphically below the Main Zone on several sections and may constitute a new silver target. Many of the previous holes did not go deep enough to test this level. The Main Zone is still open for expansion as illustrated by hole SA-16-048 being the southernmost hole on its section.

Orex's President, Gary Cope says, "The third phase of drilling continues to yield thick intercepts of disseminated silver mineralization showing strong continuity in the Main Zone of the Boleras Deposit. The adjacent Burro Zone is also of interest, as are other silver targets in the immediate area of drilling."

Sandra Escobar Project  2015-2016 Diamond Drilling Program  Holes 44 to 48 Hole From (m) To (m) Core Length (m) True Thick. (m) Ag (g/t)











BURRO ZONE











SA-16-044 0.70 25.00 24.30 24.00 144 Includes 2.00 22.00 20.00 19.75 161 Includes 4.00 8.00 4.00 3.95 260 Includes 5.00 6.00 1.00 0.99 395











SA-16-045 11.00 17.00 6.00 4.50 51 Includes 15.00 17.00 2.00 1.50 86 Includes 15.00 16.00 1.00 0.75 105











SA-16-046 3.00 14.00 11.00 8.25 32 Includes 10.00 12.00 2.00 1.50 48











MAIN ZONE











SA-16-047 8.00 66.00 58.00 46.00 113 Includes 15.00 54.00 39.00 30.93 124 Includes 53.00 61.00 8.00 6.34 159 Includes 54.00 56.00 2.00 1.59 204











SA-16-048 22.00 87.00 65.00 56.00 114 Includes 24.00 66.00 42.00 36.18 153 Includes 32.00 57.00 25.00 21.54 173 Includes 55.00 57.00 2.00 1.72 240 (lower int.) 102.00 106.00 4.00 3.45 32













Kluane Drilling Ltd. provides the drilling services utilizing an environmentally low-impact KD-1000 man-portable diamond drill rig.

Silver mineralization is hosted in a rhyolite volcanic dome. An altered and highly permeable crystal lithic tuff unit contains disseminations of silver bearing minerals and broadly spaced stockwork veinlets. The current working model has a porphyritic rhyolite unit as an impermeable cap, which may have focused mineralizing fluids into the host permeable volcaniclastic unit.

True thicknesses are estimated based on structural and stratigraphic interpretations. A map showing the locations of the drill holes is available on the Orex website.

Orex maintains a QA/QC sampling protocol for the diamond drilling program, including the insertion of commercial analytical standards and blank samples. Analytical testing is performed by Bureau Veritas. Silver values are determined by fire assay with a gravimetric finish. Multi-element analyses are also determined using a 4-acid digestion and ICP-MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry).

Sandra Escobar Silver-Gold Project, Durango, Mexico

Sandra Escobar is situated north of the town of Tepehuanes, Durango, in the heart of the "Mexican Silver Trend", midway between the mining districts of Tovar and Guanacevi and is 75 km west of Silver Standard's La Pitarrilla. This prolific trend hosts some of the world's largest silver camps and deposits, including Fresnillo, Guanajuato, La Pitarrilla, La Preciosa, Real de Angeles and Zacatecas.

The project consists of 6,976 hectares of mineral concessions and covers multiple mineralized epithermal quartz veins and breccia structures. These veins form a high level silver-gold-base metals system, hosted in andesitic and rhyolitic rocks, centered on a large rhyolite dome complex in the north and silver systems in smaller rhyolite dome complexes to the southeast. Intense alteration zones and fluid flooding in permeable formations indicates the presence of bulk tonnage targets. Excellent infrastructure exists in the Sandra Escobar area, including paved road access, electrical power, water and manpower from nearby communities.

Dale Brittliffe, P.Geo., and Ben Whiting, P.Geo., are Qualified Persons, as defined in NI 43-101, and take responsibility for the technical disclosure contained within this news release.

ABOUT OREX MINERALS INC.

Orex is a Canadian-based junior exploration company comprised of highly qualified mining professionals. Orex has several current projects: the Coneto Gold-Silver Project in Durango, Mexico, a joint venture with Fresnillo PLC, the Jumping Josephine Gold-Silver Project in British Columbia, Canada, plus this newest Sandra Escobar Silver Project in Durango, Mexico, with Canasil Resources Inc.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Gary Cope

President

This News Release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, potential mineral recovery processes, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements and Orex undertakes no obligation to update such statements, except as required by law.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE Orex Minerals Inc.

Related Links

www.orexminerals.com


CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Permabit Technology Corporation, the data reduction expert, today announced availability of its Albireo Virtual Data Optimizer (VDO) for Canonical's Ubuntu Server.

Permabit certified VDO with Ubuntu Server 14.04 LTS and has been qualified for use in OpenStack environments. In addition, Permabit will deliver support for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS next quarter. VDO data reduction enables organizations to reduce their storage footprint, increasing data density, and avoiding costly data center expansions. Global 2000 customers in the telecom and financial sectors are using VDO to fit more data into their existing storage. VDO is available through Permabit's network of integration partners.

Ubuntu is at the forefront of large cloud infrastructure deployments, thanks to Canonical's experience in building clouds for its customers and its involvement in the OpenStack project as a founding member. Ubuntu is also optimized and certified for the most popular public clouds  allowing organizations the opportunity to use Ubuntu wherever they choose to run their applications and services.

"We are pleased to partner with Permabit with their Linux data reduction offering VDO as they become part of Canonical's Juju Charm ecosystem," said Stefan Johansson, Global Software Alliances Director, Canonical. "Permabit recognizes the value of open storage standards, open source software, interoperability, and scale out infrastructure provided by Juju and Ubuntu OpenStack as key components of today's enterprise and cloud service provider data centers."

The leader in data reduction technology, Permabit Technology Corporation recently announced the latest release of its Virtual Data Optimizer (VDO) software, VDO 6 - the only modular data reduction solution available for the Linux block storage stack. VDO delivers the company's patented deduplication, HIOPS Compression and thin provisioning in a commercial software package for Linux for enterprise hybrid cloud data centers and cloud service providers.

"We are pleased to deliver the industry-leading Linux data reduction solution to Canonical service providers and community," said Tom Cook, CEO and President. "Now, with VDO, Ubuntu users can achieve greater density and realize massive savings on data center investment."

To learn more about Permabit VDO Data Reduction software visit:

http://permabit.com/products-overview/albireo-virtual-data-optimizer-vdo/

To learn more about the Ubuntu open source software platform visit:

http://www.ubuntu.com/server

About Canonical

Canonical is the company behind Ubuntu, the leading OS for container, cloud, scale-out and hyperscale computing. 65% of large-scale OpenStack deployments are on Ubuntu, using both KVM and the pure-container LXD hypervisor for the world's fastest private clouds. Canonical provides enterprise support and services for commercial users of Ubuntu.

Canonical leads the development of Juju, the model-driven operations system, and MAAS (Metal-as-a-Service), which creates a physical server cloud and IPAM for amazing data centre operational efficiency. Canonical is a privately held company.

About Permabit

Permabit pioneers the development of data reduction software that provides data deduplication, compression, and thin provisioning. Our innovative products enable customers to get to market quickly with solutions that cut effective cost, accelerate performance, and gain a competitive advantage. Just as server virtualization revolutionized the economics of compute, Permabit software is transforming the economics of storage today.

Permabit is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts with operations in California, Korea and Japan. For more information, visit www.permabit.com.

Follow Permabit on Twitter and/or LinkedIn

MEDIA CONTACT:

Judy Smith, JPR Communications

818-798-1475

[email protected]

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SOURCE Permabit Technology Corporation

Related Links

http://www.permabit.com


PUNE, India, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

RnRMarketResearch.com adds "Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis - Pipeline Review, H2 2016" market research report with comprehensive information on NASH therapeutic development complete with comparative analysis at various stages, therapeutics assessment by drug target, mechanism of action (MoA), route of administration (RoA) and molecule type, along with latest updates, and featured news and press releases. It also reviews key players involved in the therapeutic development for Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis and special features on late-stage and discontinued projects.

Complete report on H2 2016 pipeline review of Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis with 94 market data tables and 15 figures, spread across 342 pages is available at http://www.rnrmarketresearch.com/non-alcoholic-steatohepatitis-pipeline-review-h2-2016-market-report.html .

Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is liver inflammation caused by a buildup of fat in the liver. NASH can get worse and cause scarring of the liver, which leads to cirrhosis. The report also reviews key players involved in the therapeutic development for Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis and special features on late-stage and discontinued projects. The report enhances decision making capabilities and help to create effective counter strategies to gain competitive advantage. It strengthens R&D pipelines by identifying new targets and MOAs to produce first-in-class and best-in-class products.

Companies discussed in this Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis Pipeline Review, H2 2016 report include Akarna Therapeutics Ltd., AlbireoPharma, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Amunix Operating Inc., Aquinox Pharmaceuticals Inc., Arisaph Pharmaceuticals, Inc., AstraZeneca Plc, BiOrion Technologies B.V., Bird Rock Bio, Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Can-Fite BioPharma Ltd., Cardax Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Catabasis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cerenis Therapeutics Holding SA, Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc., Connexios Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd., ,Daiichi Sankyo Company Limited, DURECT Corporation, Dynavax Technologies Corporation, Eli Lilly and Company, Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Exicure, Inc., Galectin Therapeutics, Inc., Galmed Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Genextra S.p.a., Genfit SA, GenKyoTex S.A., Gilead Sciences, Inc., GRI Bio, Inc., iCo Therapeutics Inc., Immuron Limited, Inventiva, Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Ixchel Pharma, LLC, Jenrin Discovery, Inc., Kissei Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Kyorin Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Matinas BioPharma Holdings, Inc., Merck & Co., Inc., Mitochon Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Naia Limited, NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., Nimbus Therapeutics, LLC, Nippon Chemiphar Co., Ltd, Nitto Denko Corporation, Novartis AG, NovaTarg Therapeutics, Inc, Nuevolution AB, Pharmaxis Limited, Promethera Biosciences S.A., ProMetic Life Sciences Inc., Protalix BioTherapeutics, Inc., Saje Pharma, LLC, Shire Plc, Stelic Institute & Co., Inc., Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., TaiwanJ Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd., Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Therapix Biosciences Ltd, Tobira Therapeutics, Inc., Vascular Biogenics Ltd., Verlyx Pharma Inc., Viking Therapeutics, Inc., Virobay Inc., Zafgen Inc. and Zydus Cadila Healthcare Limited.

Order a copy of this report @ http://www.rnrmarketresearch.com/contacts/purchase?rname=674891 .

Drug Profiles mentioned in this research report are (leucine + metformin hydrochloride + sildenafil citrate), (leucine + PDE5 Inhibitor), A-4250, AC-261066, AM-0010, AMX-342, Antisense Oligonucleotides for Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis, AQX-1125, Aramchol, ARI-3037MO, AZD-4076, bertilimumab, BMS-986036, BMS-986171, BOT-191, CAT-2000 Series, CAT-2054, CDX-085, cenicriviroc mesylate, CER-209, CF-102, CNX-014, CNX-023, CNX-024, CNX-025, DRX-065, DUR-928, DV-1179, EDP-305, elafibranor, emricasan, etanercept biosimilar, evogliptin, GKT-831, GRI-0621, GRMD-02, GS-9674, HepaStem, IMM-124E, IONIS-DGAT2Rx, IVA-337, IXC-303, IXC-305, JD-5037, JKB-119, JKB-121, linagliptin, LJN-452, MAT-8800, MGL-3196, MGL-3745, MP-301, MSDC-0602, MT-2002, NC-101, NC-2400, ND-630, ND-654, ND-L02s0201, NDI-010976, NGM-282, NGM-313, NGM-386, NGM-395, NP-201 Program, obeticholic acid, PBI-4050, pentamidine isethionate, PXS-4728A, PXS-5033A, PZ-235, remogliflozin etabonate, RNAi Oligonucleotides for NASH, Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders, RTU-1096, RYI-018, saroglitazar, selonsertib, selonsertib + simtuzumab, simtuzumab, Small Molecule for Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis, Small Molecule for Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis and Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Small Molecule to Agonize FXR for NASH and Liver Fibrosis, Small Molecule to Inhibit DGAT-2 for Dyslipidemia and Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis, Small Molecule to Inhibit SCD-1 for Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis, Small Molecules to Activate AMPK for Fatty Liver Disease, Small Molecules to Antagonize Integrin for Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis, Small Molecules to Antagonize RORC for Immunology, Multiple Sclerosis and Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis, Small Molecules to Antagonize RORC for Immunology, Multiple Sclerosis, Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis, Small Molecules to Inhibit MLK3 for Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis, Small Molecules to Inhibit NLRP3 for Liver Cirrhosis and Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis, solithromycin, SPL-891.1, SR-9238, STNM-09, TEV-45478, TGFTX-3, tipelukast, TRX-318, VB-201, VB-703, VBY-376, VK-2809, volixibat potassium and ZGN-839.

Explore more reports on Therapeutics .

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PUNE, India, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The report "Polyurethane Foam Market by Type (Flexible, Rigid, and Spray Foam), End-Use Industry (Bedding & Furniture, Building & Construction, Electronics, Automotive, Footwear, Packaging), and Region - Global Forecast to 2021", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market size is estimated to grow from USD 46.05 Billion in 2015 to USD 74.24 Billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 8.4% between 2016 and 2021.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )



Browse 199 market data Tables and 68 Figures spread through 236 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Polyurethane Foam Market"

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/polyurethane-foams-market-1251.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.

Factors such as environment sustainability & energy conservation, versatility & unique physical properties of polyurethane foam, and growth of end-user industries in emerging nations are some of the factors driving the polyurethane foam market.

Building & construction end-use industry segment held the maximum market share in 2015

The building & construction segment dominated the market in 2015 and is projected to grow at a moderate rate during the forecast period. Polyurethane foam finds multiple applications in the building & construction industry. Flexible and semi-rigid foams are used in paints, coatings, and adhesives, which are extensively used in construction. Rigid foams are widely used as structural and insulation foams in buildings. Insulation is the most important application of polyurethane foams in the building & construction industry. Polyurethane foams are viewed as a reasonable and safe mode for reducing carbon emissions that prompt global warming.

Spray foam to witness the highest growth during the forecast period

Spray foam is basically a low-to-medium density foam. This foam primarily has two functions: insulation (both as open cell and closed cell) and flotation & roofing. It is also used for packaging applications. Spray foam is the fastest growing polyurethane foam type due to its increased utilization. Growth in the end-user industries, such as building and construction, is expected to boost the demand for spray foams in the coming years.

Make an Inquiry @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=1251

Asia-Pacific region to be the largest market for polyurethane foam during the forecast period

The Asia-Pacific region leads the market due to its large population and its growing market for end-use industries, such as bedding & furniture, building & construction, electronics, automotive, footwear, and packaging which directly impact the growth of the Polyurethane Foam Market. As polyurethane foam has widespread application in all these end-use industries, the Asia-Pacific region, which is witnessing major growth in these sectors, has become a large market for it. North America is the second largest market for polyurethane foam, followed by Europe, the Middle East, South America, and Africa.

The global polyurethane foam market is dominated by players, such as BASF SE (Germany), The Dow Chemical Company (U.S.), Bayer AG (Germany), Sekisui Chemical Co. Ltd. (Japan), Nitto Denko Corporation (Japan), Compagnie de Saint-Gobain S.A. (France), Huntsman Corporation (U.S.), Wanhua Chemical Group Co., Ltd. (China), Trelleborg AB (Sweden), Tosoh Corporation (Japan), Chemtura Corporation (U.S.), INOAC Corporation (Japan), Recticel NV/SA (Belgium), Vita (Lux III) S.a r.l. (Luxembourg), Armacell GmbH (Luxembourg), Foamcraft, Inc. (U.S.), FoamPartner Group (Switzerland), Future Foam, Inc. (U.S.), FXI-Foamex Innovations (U.S.), Rogers Corporation (U.S.), UFP Technologies, Inc. (U.S.), and The Woodbridge Group (Canada).

Browse Related Reports:

Polyols Market by Product Type (Polyester, Polyether) by Applications (Rigid Foam, Flexible Foam, CASE), and by Region - Trends & Forecasts to 2019

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/polyols-market-725.html

Know More About our Knowledge Store @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Knowledgestore.asp

About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets is the largest market research firm worldwide in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors.

M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers.

We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository.



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SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Sundance, a premier lifestyle retailer of women's and men's apparel, footwear, jewelry, accessories, art, and home decor, is pleased to celebrate 20 years since the Jewelry Catalog's first mailing.

20th Anniversary Jewelry Catalog Cover

Twenty years ago, the inaugural edition of the Sundance Jewelry Catalog dedicated to the artistry and beauty of jewelry making was created. Showcasing artisans and their craft from all over the world, the jewelry catalog quickly attracted loyal customers who appreciate the authenticity and originality of its collection. Two decades later, as Sundance continues to celebrate the community of jewelry artists who express their individual creativity through inspired use of mixed metals and gemstones, color and form, Sundance is renowned for the unique, yet timeless artisan pieces it offers.

To commemorate the 20th Anniversary, Sundance will introduce a limited edition collection of one-of-a-kind and exclusive pieces by some of today's premier jewelry artists. For the past 20 years, the Jewelry Catalog's commitment to the spirit of creativity and individuality has offered a unique platform for artists to reach their authentic creative vision, the core guiding value at Sundance. Many of the handcrafted works of the featured artisan partners can be found at www.sundancecatalog.com/20years.

In addition to the collection, Sundance will host two trunk shows at the Sundance Stores at Edina Galleria in Edina, MN and Bridgeport Village in Tigard, OR to commemorate the 20th anniversary. The trunk shows will feature long-standing Sundance artisan Jes MaHarry who will be showcasing her one-of-a-kind jewelry.

"From our beginnings in the mountains of Utah, to a beloved multi-channel national brand, we could not be more proud of celebrating this milestone with our most loyal customers," says President and CEO, Matey Erdos. "We take pride in curating exceptional and unique jewelry collections which embrace creativity and new discoveries for artisans and customers alike. These loyal relationships are the foundation of our success."

About Sundance

Famed actor, director, and visionary of independent filmmaking, Robert Redford founded Sundance Catalog in 1989 to promote the works of artists and craftspeople from across the country and around the world. From a small operation run out of the attic of the old Sundance Village firehouse, Sundance has grown to become one of America's preeminent lifestyle retailers. Offering a thoughtfully curated mix of unique, premium-quality women's and men's apparel and footwear, jewelry, accessories, art and home decor, Sundance elevates the traditions of authentic American heritage into a classic and creative style.

Sundance headquarters are located in Salt Lake City, UT. The company's unique product selection is available through its catalog, website and eight retail stores in Park Meadows, CO, Corte Madera, CA, Edina, MN, Dallas, TX, Southlake, TX, Scottsdale, AZ, Tigard, OR and an outlet store in Salt Lake City, UT. Visit: www.sundancecatalog.com.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160909/406137

SOURCE Sundance

Related Links

http://www.sundancecatalog.com


SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Salesforce [NYSE: CRM], the Customer Success Platform and world's #1 CRM company, today announced that Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff will speak at TechCrunch Disrupt 2016 on Tuesday, September 13.

Benioff will participate in a fireside chat with TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Matthew Panzarino, beginning at approximately 9:00 a.m. PDT. A live webcast of the event will be available at: https://techcrunch.com.

Connect with Salesforce

Like Salesforce on Facebook: http://facebook.com/salesforce

Follow @salesforce on Twitter: http://twitter.com/salesforce

Read the Salesforce blog: http://blogs.salesforce.com/

About Salesforce

Salesforce, the Customer Success Platform and world's #1 CRM company, empowers companies to connect with their customers in a whole new way. For more information about Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), visit: http://www.salesforce.com.

Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase Salesforce applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM." For more information please visit http://salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.

Salesforce and others are among the trademarks of salesforce.com, inc. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

 2016 salesforce.com. All rights reserved.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130612/SF30598LOGO



SOURCE Salesforce

Related Links

https://www.salesforce.com


FAIRFAX, Va., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Salient CRGT, Inc. a leading provider of Agile software development, data analytics, mobility, cyber security, and infrastructure solutions, today announced that Chuck McGann, Chief Cyber Strategist, will be presenting at (ISC)2 Security Congress on Monday, September 12, 4:30 PM EDT, in Orlando, Florida. Mr. McGann's presentation is titled, "After the Breach  Learning How to Get Through It". He will discuss his experience as the former Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at the United States Postal Service (USPS) about response and after actions. (ISC)2 Security Congress is a four-day training event for security professionals, focused on current and emerging issues, best practices, and challenges facing cybersecurity leaders.

"We are offering more than 90 education sessions in 11 tracks at this year's event," said Dan Waddell, CISSP, CAP, PMP, managing director, North America Region and director of U.S. Government Affairs, (ISC)2. "This is our largest event of the year, where we have the opportunity to focus on specializations within the cybersecurity field, like cloud and mobile security, which are increasing in importance through the government's 'Cloud First' mandate and the exponential growth of mobile device use."

Mr. McGann, formerly Corporate Information Security Officer at the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), is Salient CRGT's Chief Cyber Strategist and focuses on cyber security protection offerings for the federal and commercial markets. While serving at USPS, he oversaw security for one of the world's largest corporate infrastructures, supporting more than 30,000 locations; 600 enterprise applications; and over 500,000 employees across the agency.

"As technology changes through the growth of mobile, cloud, and the Internet of Things, cyber security has to evolve as well. The Identity Theft Resource Center states that hacking incidents increased 8.4% in 2015 over the previous year, reaching a nine-year high," said Chuck McGann. "The question is not whether you will have a breach, but rather how bad will it be. Cyber intrusions are a fact of life. We need to recognize that fact and take the appropriate steps to protect our data and our customers' data to the best extent possible.

In the analysis, will your team discover that they rely too heavily on cyber tools, or possibly that employees were inadequately trained? The most important questions we have to answer are, 'How did we get here?' and 'How do we fix these issues?'"

Mr. McGann holds CISSP and CISM certifications as well as an Information Assurance Methodology certification from the National Security Agency. He previously co-chaired the Government Advisory Board on Cyber Security, is a current board member; is a participant in the EC-Council Foundation initiatives; and previously served on the government education advisory board at Symantec and on the customer advisory board at RedSeal Networks.

For more information on the (ISC)2 Security Congress, click here.

[email protected]_CRGT Executive Joins Industry Leaders as Speaker at (ISC)2 Security Congress Educational Event http://bit.ly/1MGSz5l

About Salient CRGT

Salient CRGT provides Agile software development, data analytics, mobility, cyber security and infrastructure solutions. We support these core capabilities with full lifecycle IT services and trainingto help our customers meet critical goals for pivotal missions. We are purpose built for IT transformation supporting federal civilian, defense, homeland, and intelligence agencies, as well as Fortune 1000 companies. We use the most innovative talent delivery model in the industry, scientifically providing exactly the right people for the customers' most pressing requirements. Salient CRGT has earned a record of success with integration and operations of largescale, highvolume solutions. On September 15, 2015, Salient and CRGT announced closing of the merger transactions  visit newsroom. For additional information on Salient and CRGT, visit www.salientcrgt.com.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150914/266395LOGO

SOURCE Salient CRGT, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.salientcrgt.com


WASHINGTON, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. Secretary of Education, John B. King Jr. will visit Vance Middle School, a Partnership for 21st Century Learning (P21) 2016-2017 Fall Exemplar school, Tuesday as part of the Department of Education's seventh annual Back-To-School Bus Tour.

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P21 established the 21st Century Learning Exemplar Program in order to find and showcase schools and districts in the U.S. that have successfully transformed student learning through the P21 Framework. Vance Middle School's strong commitment to the development of the 21st century skills needed for success in college, career and life, is one of the main factors considered by P21 in designating it a P21 Exemplar.

"We are thrilled that the Department of Education and Dr. King have chosen to hold an event at one of P21's exemplar schools," affirmed Dr. Helen Soule, P21 Executive Director. "The P21 Exemplar program confirms that quality 21st century education is not only possible, but already happening across the U.S. We must now ensure that all students are prepared for life-long learning and success."

Vance Middle is just one of sixteen 2016-2017 Exemplars to be recognized this fall. The full list of exemplars will be released on September 14, 2016 and will be available at www.p21.org.

About the Partnership for 21st Century Learning (P21): P21 recognizes that all learners need educational experiences in school and beyond, from cradle to career, to build knowledge and skills for success in a globally and digitally interconnected world. Representing over 5 million members of the global workforce and over 2 million U.S. students in K-12, P21 is a catalyst organization uniting business, government, and education leaders from the U.S. and abroad to advance evidence-based education policy and practice and to make innovative teaching and learning a reality for all. Follow P21 on Twitter @P21Learning

P21 Members: American Camp Association, American Federation of Teachers, AT&T, Crayola, CreativeFuture, Destination Imagination, EF Education First, Education Networks of America, eLearning Solutions, Faber-Castell, First Five Years Fund, Fisher-Price, Ford Motor Company Fund, Future Problem Solving Program International, Goddard Systems Inc., Intel Corporation, Learning.com, LEGO Education, METEN, National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, National Education Association, National Speech and Debate Association, PBS, Pearson, People to People International, Playworld, Project Management Institute Educational Foundation, Qatar Foundation International, SKT Platform, VIF International Education, and The Walt Disney Company

P21 Leaderships States: Arizona, California, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin

Media Contact

Lizzette Arias, Program Coordinator, 202-750-1362, Email

SOURCE Partnership for 21st Century Learning

Related Links

http://www.p21.org


HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Secretary of State Pedro A. Cortes today reminded Pennsylvanians there is one month until the voter registration deadline for the November election. He encouraged applicants to use the state's online voter registration system.

Eligible citizens have until Tuesday, October 11, to apply for a new voter registration or make changes to their existing registration.

"The deadline is approaching quickly," Secretary Cortes said. "Registering is the first step in exercising our fundamental right to vote. The online system makes registration convenient, accessible and secure."

The online registration site can be found at register.votesPA.com. Applications for a new registration, or a change of name, address or party affiliation must be submitted online by midnight on October 11. Traditional paper registration applications must be postmarked no later than that date.

Eligible Pennsylvanians may also use 2Vote, a new voter registration text messaging service. Simply text "PA" to "2Vote" (28683) on a smartphone. The user will receive a link that provides direct access to the online voter registration application. Also included are links to check voter registration status, locate your polling place and find contact information for county offices and the Department of State.

Voters planning to vote by absentee ballot are advised to pay close attention to important deadlines. Although the deadline to request an absentee ballot is Tuesday, November 1, the voted ballots must be received by the county election office no later than 5 p.m. Friday, November 4.

Due to the 3-day time frame and cutbacks in service by the U.S. Postal Service, voters are strongly urged to mail their absentee ballot request no later than October 21, two weeks before the voted ballot must be received by the county office.

Voters may deliver their voted absentee ballots in person to county election offices or mail them if there is adequate time for delivery. A postmark is not sufficient for the ballot to be counted.

Pennsylvania voters will be electing the U.S. President and Vice President, one U.S. Senator and 18 U.S. House members, as well as the statewide offices of attorney general, auditor general and treasurer. Odd-numbered state Senate districts and all state House seats will also be on the ballot.

Individuals wishing to register to vote in the November 8 general election must be:

A citizen of the United States for at least one month before the election.

for at least one month before the election. A resident of Pennsylvania and the election district in which the individual desires to register and vote for at least 30 days before the election.

and the election district in which the individual desires to register and vote for at least 30 days before the election. At least 18 years of age on or before the date of the election.

The Department of State's website votespa.com, available in English and Spanish, offers printable voter registration applications, a polling place locator and county boards of elections contact information. It also includes tips for first-time voters and members of the military.

In addition, voters can familiarize themselves with the voting system they will use in their home county on Election Day.

For more information on voter registration, call the Department of State's toll-free hotline at 1-877-VOTESPA (1-877-868-3772) or visit VotesPA.com.

MEDIA CONTACT: Wanda Murren (717) 783-1621

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of State

Related Links

http://www.state.pa.us


Seven global art businesses have already embraced H Queen's as the new heart of the arts in Hong Kong.

David Zwirner1 is H Queen's anchor tenant who has committed to two whole floors totalling close to 10,000 square feet. David Zwirner established his eponymous gallery in New York in 1993 and is now considered to be one of the world's most influential art dealers.

Announcing the signing, Ms. Kristine Li said, "David Zwirner is one of the world's most progressive and innovative galleries so they are a perfect match for the most innovative commercial centre for art and lifestyle in Hong Kong. Together with our other premium tenants of both galleries and F&B, more than 50% of the total space has now been leased."

Internationally renowned Pace Gallery2 was established in 1960 in the United States. Since then, Pace has established strongholds around the world including London, Paris and Beijing. Pace is one of the foremost runners to establish a gallery in Asia. Pace Asia Partner Mr. Leng Lin expressed, "Hong Kong is becoming one of Asia's central Art Markets in terms of global positioning, and is gaining significance. Though Pace has been established in Hong Kong for three years now, the decision to expand and find a bigger space for our gallery is essential. By the time the gallery is ready, we hope to connect more closely with the artists and the art market in Hong Kong so that more exchanges between Western contemporary art and Asian contemporary art may happen."

Other premium tenants announced today are Pearl Lam Galleries3, a leading Asia-based gallery with a presence across Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore; Seoul Auction4, the leading auction house in Korea; Tang Contemporary Art Gallery5, which began in Bangkok and which is now active in Bangkok, Beijing and Hong Kong; Whitestone Gallery6, which first established a presence in Hong Kong in 2015 and has now committed to two floors in H Queen's to showcase work by Japanese artists and Le Comptoir7, the company behind the spectacular Bibo restaurant, which fuses art and gastronomy.

The new building known as H Queen's will change the way galleries and lifestyle businesses work in Hong Kong. In a conventional mall, each group of shops is linked by interconnected walkways. This pattern is repeated even when the mall is spread over several or many vertical floors. H Queen's has revolutionized this idea and has created the world's first art gallery sky arcade.

H Queens turns the idea of an arcade through 90 and replaces the promenade past each facade with a glass shuttle that allows visitors views of every interior from the ground to the 10th floor as they pass by.

The building also includes the unique combination of an external gondola and openable facades that can deliver artworks or other large objects direct to each gallery floor, as well as having high ceilings, floor plates of between 4,500 and 5,000 square feet and multi-functional layouts.

The high floors of H Queen's have been designed to accommodate a range of art and dining options. Expansive views from built-in verandas and terraces will help create an idyllic atmosphere in which to share art, food, wine and conversation with friends and enjoy spectacular alfresco views out over Central.

Hong Kong has long been synonymous with the worlds of banking, global trade, international business and high finance, especially in Central. But in recent years art and creativity have come to play a more important part in this mix. Art business is now big business in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is the world's third largest art market by auction sales and its art fairs and galleries now present new work by many thousands of artists every year. As the place with the highest concentration of art in Central, H Queen's may well be the most creative place in Hong Kong.

"The greatest concentration of art in Central"

H Queen's will have the most amount of gallery space in one place under management in Central, more than any other commercial building in Hong Kong.

"The most innovative commercial centre for art and lifestyle in Hong Kong"

No other commercial building in Hong Kong offers gallery and lifestyle businesses the flexibility afforded by the combination of an external gondola and an approximately 3.65m x 4. 65m opening facade that allows the delivery of artworks or other large objects direct to each gallery floor.

"The world's first "art gallery sky arcade""

Hong Kong has no shortage of vertical malls but H Queen's "Art Gallery Sky Arcade" is the first time a glass elevator has been used to create a new type of shared gallery space. This gives each floor a high degree of connectivity and has the effect of equalizing the economic value of each floor regardless of its distance from the ground.

"The most creative place in Hong Kong"

Art is a measure of creativity. As the place with the largest amount of gallery space under full time management in Central, H Queen's can truly be said to be the most creative place in Hong Kong.

More information of H Queen's and the public art programme can be found at its official website: www.hqueens.com.hk

1 David Zwirner is a contemporary art gallery with locations in New York (Chelsea) and London (Mayfair), which currently represents over fifty prominent and internationally recognized artists and estates, and has well over one hundred staff members. Since opening its doors over two decades ago, it has been home to important and pioneering exhibitions across a variety of media and genres. Active in both the primary and secondary markets, the gallery has helped foster the careers of some of the most influential artists working today, including Michael Borremans, Marlene Dumas, Neo Rauch, Luc Tuymans, and Lisa Yuskavage. 2 Pace Gallery is one of the world's leading contemporary art galleries representing many of the most significant international artists and estates, including Alexander Calder, David Hockney, Agnes Martin, Robert Rauschenberg, Mark Rothko, James Turell, Yoshitomo Nara and Zhang Xiaogang. With over 55 years of history, Pace was founded by Arne Glimcher in Boston in 1960 and is led by Marc Glimcher. Pace has been a constant, vital force in the art world and has introduced many renowned artists' work to the public for the first time. Today, Pace has ten locations worldwide, including the two Asia spaces: a 25,000 square-foot gallery in Beijing, and a gallery in Hong Kong. Both spaces are overseen by Asian Partner Leng Lin. 3 Pearl Lam Galleries, founded by Pearl Lam, opened its first space in Shanghai in 2006. The Gallery then opened its first permanent Hong Kong branch in the Pedder Building in 2012, occupying one of the largest gallery spaces. The Galleries expanded again in 2014, this time to Singapore, with a space in Gillman Barracks. In March 2015, Pearl Lam Galleries opened a second exhibition space in Hong Kong in Soho 189, where it occupies the largest gallery space. Soho 189 is situated in Sai Ying Pun, one of Hong Kong Island's most vibrant and fastest developing areas. Originally presenting a range of Chinese contemporary art and design, Pearl Lam Galleries has evolved over the last ten years into a leading Asian gallery, working with a number of eminent international contemporary artists including Chun Kwang Young, Jenny Holzer, Antony Micallef, Qiu Deshu, Yinka Shonibare MBE, Su Xiaobai and Zhu Jinshi, as well as promoting in Asia the work of distinguished Modern artists including Robert Motherwell and Sam Francis. 4 Seoul Auction was established in 1998 and is now Korea's oldest and leading auction house, holding at least one major auction per quarter. In 2006 the company was the first art business to be listed on the KOSDAQ, the SME Market Division of the Korean Stock Exchange. In 2015 the house achieved the milestone of cumulative sales in excess of KRW 100 billion. Seoul Auction opened their Hong Kong office in 2008. 5 Tang Contemporary Art was first established in 1997 in Bangkok and now has additional spaces in Beijing and Hong Kong. The gallery has carved out a very strong international reputation through a progressive and critically-driven program of groundbreaking exhibitions and projects. Tang Contemporary Art represents some of the best-known figures in Chinese contemporary art including Ai Weiwei, Huang Yong Ping and Zhao Zhao, among other artists from Asia such as Rirkrit Tiravanija and Sakarin Krue-On. 6 Whitestone Gallery was founded in Tokyo in 1967 to promote modern and contemporary Japanese artists and estates. In 2012 the Whitestone Art Foundation established the Karuizawa New Art Museum in the resort town of Kitasaku-gun in the mountains near Nagano in central Japan about 100 kilometres from Tokyo. In 2015 the gallery opened its first overseas branch in Hong Kong and now has two spaces in Hong Kong with an upcoming gallery to open in Taipei by the end of 2016. 7 Le Comptoir was established in Hong Kong in 2013 with the goal of redefining the boundaries of what an upscale restaurant experience can be. The group offers memorable dining and exemplary service in a variety of art-centric, visually spectacular venues. The group includes Bibo, the only Relais & Chateaux accredited restaurant in Hong Kong, which offers innovative French cuisine in a contemporary gallery setting.

Social Media

HQ's public art programme, Time & Scale: 10 Hong Kong artists at HQ, is being promoted on its Instagram account (@HQ_HK), and users are encouraged to post the hashtags below to add to the ongoing creative dialogue.

#HQueens

#artHQ

#PublicArtHQ

Appendix: H Queen ' s (HQ) Fact Sheet

Concept: An architectural icon that maximises Central's urban backdrop while showcasing the city's top artistic and lifestyle ventures.

The building's unique architecture provides maximum flexibility and eco-friendly features to accommodate a range of exhibition and entertainment needs. Address: 80 Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong Architect: CL3 Architects Completion Date: Mid-2017 Number of Floors: 24 General Design Features: Dual entrances at Stanley Street and Queen's Road Central

High energy efficient building with high-performance low-e glass

A grand and welcoming main entrance with 5 meter-high space

An iconic landmark design with all glass mullions at the podium portion to create a glass box effect Technical Features: Laminated IGU with fritted pattern

Exterior facades with computer-controlled LED lighting and high-resolution LED outdoor signboards

Operable windows and green features

Operable facade system

Floor loading rate of 5-10 kPA

Building maintenance unit featuring a gondola system to facilitate the delivery of artworks through the operable facade (approx. 3.65m x 4.65m) on each gallery floor

Glass shuttle lift that is specially designed to serve the lower zone from G/F to 10/F and to allow for full exhibition and art activity Awards & Accreditation: Asia Pacific Property Awards 2015 | Retail Architecture

China Property Awards 2014 | Best Commercial Development (Hong Kong)

LEED for Core & Shell Precertification in 2014 | Gold Level

China Green Building Design Label in 2015 | 3-Star Rating Instagram: @HQ_HK

Design Features for Art Galleries

Accessibility : Located in the busiest district of Central, H Queen's has direct access by MTR, tram, and ferry. The area is already a known art district, and H Queen's will offer Hong Kong audiences the greatest concentration of art in Central. A glass shuttle lift in the building also allows visitors to observe the vibrant art activities going on and showcases the full exhibition of the art galleries through the G/F to the 10/F.

: Located in the busiest district of Central, H Queen's has direct access by MTR, tram, and ferry. The area is already a known art district, and H Queen's will offer audiences the greatest concentration of art in Central. A glass shuttle lift in the building also allows visitors to observe the vibrant art activities going on and showcases the full exhibition of the art galleries through the G/F to the 10/F. BMU : in-house Building Maintenance Unit (BMU) features a gondola system to facilitate the delivery of artworks through the operable facade system (approx. 3.65mx4. 65m) on each gallery floor.

: in-house Building Maintenance Unit (BMU) features a gondola system to facilitate the delivery of artworks through the operable facade system (approx. 3.65mx4. 65m) on each gallery floor. Capacity: Floor loading rate of 5-10 kPA for heavier pieces of artwork and a floor space of 4 , 000-5 , 000sq. ft. for larger pieces.

Design Features for Dining Tenants

Dining-high : Each of the top floors is equipped with ceiling-to-floor glass windows, offering diners the ultimate dining-high experience: alfresco dining and a view of Central at new heights.

: Each of the top floors is equipped with ceiling-to-floor glass windows, offering diners the ultimate dining-high experience: alfresco dining and a view of Central at new heights. Elegance : An ideal location and design that offers an up market retreat for connoisseurs who seek the finest cuisine in a vibrant setting.

: An ideal location and design that offers an up market retreat for connoisseurs who seek the finest cuisine in a vibrant setting. Floor-space: With expansive views from open terraces and verandahs, minimum structural columns and corridor space, H Queen's offers diners the comfort and flexibility of space at this premium building.

Design Features for Retail Brands

Glass Box Design : Iconic glass box design on the podium portion using glass mullions, appropriate for large retailers to use for featured displays. Exterior facade with computer-controlled LED lighting and high-resolution LED outdoor signboards also an advertising advantage in an ideal location in Central.

: Iconic glass box design on the podium portion using glass mullions, appropriate for large retailers to use for featured displays. Exterior facade with computer-controlled LED lighting and high-resolution LED outdoor signboards also an advertising advantage in an ideal location in Central. HQ H Queen's: H Queen's location is the ideal headquarters for art lifestyle. Located at Queen's road Central and Stanley Street , each equipped with its own entrance - including a prominent 5-metre high entrance - the district around it has always had a vibrant art community, and H Queen's establishment will become an anchor for the district. Tailored to the needs of different retailers, there are a variety of choices in floor-spaces at H Queen's, from entire floors of the building to smaller shops, suiting the needs of all.

H Queen's location is the ideal for art lifestyle. Located at Queen's road Central and , each equipped with its own entrance - including a prominent 5-metre high entrance the district around it has always had a vibrant art community, and H Queen's establishment will become an anchor the district. Tailored to the needs of different retailers, there are a variety of choices in floor-spaces at H Queen's, from entire floors of the building to smaller shops, suiting the needs of all. Integrated Art and Lifestyle in Hong Kong : H Queen's art-related tenants help complete a full day of art-living: from coffee to cocktail, from gallery opening to savory dining , from "To-see" to "To Be-seen", and from sight-seeing to shopping.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160912/406319

SOURCE H Queen's

Related Links

http://www.hqueens.com.hk


SHANGHAI and LONDON, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Shanghai Newsummit Biopharma and HandInScan - an innovative infection control technology company - signed an agreement today to introduce the HandInScan technology in China through validating with leading hospitals and key opinion leaders. The signing took place at the Wenzhou Biomedical Innovation Center Healthcare Forum held during the week of the China G20 Summit in the presence of Mr. Dai Tao, Deputy Director of the Development Center for Medical Science & Technology of the National Health & Family Planning Commission, and Mr. Zhang Geng, Mayor of Wenzhou.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160210/331945LOGO )



The HandInScan Technology is the only quality-assured system focusing on hand disinfection quality control that can objectively determine hand hygiene effectiveness. The system is designed to teach and verify if protocols are followed properly.

Infectious diseases are a significant threat to patients worldwide including China and have a burden on healthcare spending. Among them healthcare associated infections affect 2-3% of the patients which can be significantly reduced with proper hand washing compliance and technique following the WHO guidelines. HandInScan brings that much needed hand hygiene education and control to an everyday practice integrating with the hospital's quality control system.

Dr. Jun Ren, CEO of Shanghai Newsummit Biopharma, said "We are proud to form an alliance with HandinScan, since their technology can deliver an effective solution to healthcare organisations. The technology is now utilized in over 20 countries worldwide, and healthcare organizations implementing the HandInScan technology are seeing the effect of patient safety and provider benefits that the system can deliver. We believe the healthcare system in China and Chinese patients can also benefit from this innovation."

Peter Rona, CEO of HandinScan added: "We believe that Newsummit is the right organization to bring healthcare related innovation into China. This partnership is an important milestone in our commercial strategy. We look forward to working with Newsummit in bringing the benefits of the systems to Chinese hospitals."

About HandInScan

HandInScan Kft. is a health-tech company focusing on the unmet and critical need of reducing healthcare-associated infections.

About Newsummit

Newsummit Biopharma is one of China's most prominent healthcare resource integrators, providing a full range of market entry/regulatory services to international and domestic companies, with unrivaled access to top clinical KOLs nationwide.

SOURCE DBH Investment
LONDON, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Smart Communications, the leader in enterprise customer and business communications, today announced that it has completed its spinoff from Thunderhead and has launched as an independent company led by its existing management team and backed by Accel-KKR, a leading technology focused private equity firm.

As an independent company, Smart Communications will continue to define and lead the next generation of cloud-enabled customer communications management (CCM) by focusing on scaling its growth in new and existing markets, broadening its industry reach, and accelerating innovation and product development.

Smart Communications is recognized by industry analysts as a category leader with its cloud-based solutions for customer and business communications. Its blue-chip customer base spans three continents and includes over 300 customers from a diverse range of industry sectors, including banking, insurance, healthcare, telecoms and retail, as well as the G15 investment banks and the U.S. Federal Government.

Smart Communications also offers simple, out-of-the-box integrations with vertical and ecosystem solution providers allowing them to provide Correspondence-as-a-Service (CaaS) to their industries and ecosystems.

The Smart Communications senior management team is led by George Wright, the company's chief executive officer and former SVP & General Manager of the Smart Communications Division. Smart Communications, which is headquartered in London, serves its customers from its offices located in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

"This is an exciting day for Smart Communications. The investment in our business by Accel-KKR validates our strategy for CCM and enterprise communication solutions built for the modern cloud-era," commented George Wright, the CEO of Smart Communications. "With Accel-KKR, Smart Communications will benefit from rapid growth into new markets and continued investment in its unique cloud offering. The Smart Communications team is looking forward to this new phase where we will focus on broadening the solution reach and further scaling our business to the benefit of our customers and partners."

"Smart Communications' cloud-based software provides an elegant solution for companies who need to communicate with their customers through multiple channels in a fully compliant way," said Jason Klein, Managing Director at Accel-KKR. "We are looking forward to working with the team to enter new verticals, extend its partnerships and continue to innovate its cloud solutions."

"Accel-KKR continues to look to Europe to find strong platform and add-on investments," according to Tom Barnds, Managing Director of Accel-KKR. "Smart Communications joins a growing number of Accel-KKR portfolio companies in the UK and across the Continent."

Kirkland & Ellis International LLP served as legal advisor to Accel-KKR. Financing for the transaction was provided by Goldman Sachs Private Capital.

About Smart Communications



Businesses around the world engage with their customers and each other everyday. As communications and interactions with customers and partners become more complex, businesses now recognize that communications increasingly take place in an interactive and real-time context and are critical to success.



The Smart Communications suite of solutions helps businesses to move beyond traditional enterprise communications using the most modern architecture and cloud capabilities.





Today, hundreds of brands globally from a diverse range of demanding industry segments including banking, insurance, government, retail and telecoms are using Smart Communications to deliver the new generation of customer and business communications.





Smart Communications is headquartered in London and serves its customers from offices located in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. To learn more, please visit www.smart-communications.com.

About Accel-KKR

Accel-KKR is a technology-focused investment firm with $4 billion in capital commitments. The firm invests in software and IT enabled businesses well-positioned for topline and bottom-line growth. At the core of Accel-KKR's investment strategy is a commitment to developing strong partnerships with the management teams of its portfolio companies and a focus on building value through significant resources available through the Accel-KKR network. Accel-KKR focuses on middle-market companies and provides a broad range of capital solutions from minority-growth investments to buyouts, recapitalizations, divisional carve-outs and going-private transactions. The firm has offices in Menlo Park, Atlanta and London. For more information, please visit www.accel-kkr.com.

Media Contact:

Todd Fogarty or Daniel Del Re

KEKST

+1 212 521 4800

[email protected] or [email protected]

SOURCE Accel-KKR

Related Links

http://www.accel-kkr.com


DENVER, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent study of college-student eating habits and expectations conducted by Fluent determined that the majority (65 percent) of students eat on-campus most of the time, with taste, price and quality being the key drivers behind their dining decisions. With the opportunity to grab market share and introduce the next generation to a better burger option, Smashburger announces its plans to expand the fast casual brand in college and universities across the country.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160909/406217LOGO

"Through the success of our Texas A&M and Notre Dame locations, we've seen firsthand the tremendous opportunity college and universities offer our brand," says Gregg Koffler, SVP of Franchising, Smashburger. "Our prototype flexibility and menu is ideal for the campus setting and busy, on-the-go students, making it the ideal fit for sophisticated franchise investors looking to serve the next generation of restaurant guests."

Smashburger's operation delivers an exceptional customer experience while meeting some of the unique opportunities in non-traditional venues such as colleges and universities. Smashburger has achieved efficiencies due to its one-of-a-kind smashing process which turns out fresh, juicy burgers and chicken sandwiches in just minutes  ensuring a quality product in even the highest volume environments. The cooking technique enables Smashburger's compact kitchen design, which maximizes every last square inch of space, allowing Smashburger to fit into virtually any size or space. In fact, the company can open locations in as little as 400 square feet.

Make Mine a Double

Slated to open in the first two weeks of September, Smashburger will double its college and university presence with openings at Eastern Michigan and Kean Universities. Students and faculty will have access to an upscale quality burger packed with flavor and served at a great value. Smashburger has adapted the menu at its college and university locations to offer variety, quality and convenience to on-campus diners. Aside from 100% Certified Angus Beef burgers, the menus will offer grilled or crispy chicken sandwiches, entree salads, and a selection of premium sides.

"We are very excited to have Smashburger as a part of our food lineup here at the Miron Student Center, providing our students and faculty a new experience with a better burger option," says Michael Frungillo, President of Gourmet Dining at Kean University. "Students crave a high-quality, customizable dining experience at a fast pace. We feel Smashburger is the perfect partner to fit this demand."

The Eastern Michigan University location is located inside the Student Center at 900 Oakwood St, Ypsilanti, MI 48197. Operating hours are 11:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday and closed on Saturday and Sunday. The store phone number is 734-487-6416.

The Kean University location is located inside the Miron Student Center at 1000 Morris Avenue Kean University, Miron Center, Union, NJ 07083. Operating hours are 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday and Wednesday, 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Tuesday, 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. Thursday, 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Friday and closed on Saturday and Sunday. The store phone number is 908-737-5163.

About Smashburger

Smashburger is a leading fast casual "better burger" restaurant known for its fresh never frozen, 100% Certified Angus Beef burgers that are smashed on the grill to sear in the juices, creating an upscale quality burger packed with flavor and served at a great value. In addition to burgers, Smashburger offers grilled or crispy chicken sandwiches, fresh salads, signature side items such as Haystack onions and Veggie Frites, and hand-spun Haagen-Dazs shakes. On each market menu, Smashburger offers locally inspired items like the regional burger, as well as regional sides and local craft beer. Smashburger began in 2007 with the vision of Rick Schaden and funding by Consumer Capital Partnersthe private equity firm that Rick and his father Richard own. There are currently over 371 corporate and franchise restaurants operating in 34 states and seven countries. Smashburger is actively seeking partnerships with experienced and seasoned franchisees at campus locations across the country and worldwide. For more information, visit Smashburger.com.

Media Contact

Jason Gilbreth

Trevelino/Keller

404.214.0722 x114

[email protected]

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com

SOURCE Smashburger

Related Links

http://www.Smashburger.com


NEW YORK, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- (OTC-PINK: "SOUP") Soupman, Inc. (www.originalsoupman.com), makers of the best tasting slow-cooked small-batch soups in the world, announced today that it has shipped its newest variety, Shrimp Bisque, to a number of major grocery chains around the country including Publix, HEB, Acme, Shaw's, Heinen's, Fairway and more. Original Soupman soups are available on grocers shelf in the soup aisle, next to Campbell's and Progresso, in Tetra Pak cartons which are environmentally friendly, shelf stable and designed to keep the product tasting great without preservatives.

The Soupman will be making personal appearances across the country introducing his Shrimp Bisque with the first appearances starting in Manhattan on September 12th at Fairway at 550 2nd Avenue from 3pm-5pm and then at Gristedes at 1644 York Ave & 87th Street from 6pm-7pm. At the events he will ladle soup, take photos with fans and sign autographs.

"Shrimp Bisque is a delicious soup made with loads of shrimp and is hearty and tasteful, but not too heavy. Our customers at our Original Soupman store on 55th street and 8th Avenue in NYC have raved about the unique flavor profile of our Shrimp Bisque for years and we are now making it available to grocery shoppers all across America. We compete head-to-head with Campbell's and Progresso in the soup aisles of the best grocers in the country, and now with the introduction of Shrimp Bisque which joins our other premium soups like Lobster Bisque, Crab Corn Chowder, Chicken Gumbo and Jambalaya, we are gaining traction and awareness with repeat purchases and new customers. This year alone, we have added new accounts such as Shaw's, BI-LO, Winn Dixie, Acme, Price Chopper, Key Foods, Gristedes, Heinen's and others because customers around the country are demanding our premium soups. We are on track to meet or exceed our internal sales projections for the balance of the year and to have a great soup season," said Jamieson Karson, Chief Executive Officer."

About Soupman, Inc.

In 1984, The Original SoupMan opened its doors at 55th Street & 8th Avenue in Manhattan and quickly became a worldwide destination. Rated #1 by Zagat's and praised by the New York Times as "Art, not Soup," our soups set the standard for innovation and excellence long before the famous "Seinfeld" episode made it a cultural icon. Larry Thomas, the actor who played the "Soupman" on Seinfeld is the face of our marketing campaign and makes TV, radio and personal appearances around the country as the "Soupman" on behalf of the company. Jamieson Karson, former CEO of Steve Madden Shoes, is our Chairman and CEO. Soupman Inc., is a fully reporting public company trading under the symbol SOUP. For additional information on our company please visit: www.originalsoupman.com. Follow us on Twitter @OriginalSoupMan and "Like" us on Facebook.

Safe Harbor Statement:

This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections made by management. The Company intends for the forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements. Words such as "anticipates", "expects", "intends", "plans", "believes", "seeks", "estimates" or variations of such words are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release include statements regarding our ability to continue to grow Soupman's brand presence. All forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements other than as required by law. The forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth or implied by any forward-looking statements, such as our ability to implement our multi-channel distribution strategy and continue to grow our brand presence, raise necessary capital, and the risk factors discussed in the Business and Management's Discussion and Analysis sections in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Annual Reports on Form 10-K and Current Reports on Form 8-K. Copies of these filings are available at www.originalsoupman.com.

All trademarks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies.

SOURCE Soupman, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.originalsoupman.com


NEW YORK, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Starboard Value LP (together with its affiliates, "Starboard") today announced a 4.6% ownership stake in Perrigo Company plc (NYSE: PRGO; TASE) ("Perrigo" or the "Company"), making it one of the Company's largest shareholders. Starboard also announced that it has delivered a letter to Perrigo's Chief Executive Officer, John Hendrickson, and the Company's Board of Directors.

Starboard Discloses 4.6% Ownership in Perrigo and Delivers Letter to the CEO and Board of Directors Starboard Discloses 4.6% Ownership in Perrigo and Delivers Letter to the CEO and Board of Directors Starboard Discloses 4.6% Ownership in Perrigo and Delivers Letter to the CEO and Board of Directors Starboard Discloses 4.6% Ownership in Perrigo and Delivers Letter to the CEO and Board of Directors Starboard Discloses 4.6% Ownership in Perrigo and Delivers Letter to the CEO and Board of Directors Starboard Discloses 4.6% Ownership in Perrigo and Delivers Letter to the CEO and Board of Directors Starboard Discloses 4.6% Ownership in Perrigo and Delivers Letter to the CEO and Board of Directors Starboard Discloses 4.6% Ownership in Perrigo and Delivers Letter to the CEO and Board of Directors

The full text of the letter follows and may also be viewed by clicking the following link: http://www.starboardvalue.com/wp-content/uploads/Starboard-Value-Delivers-Letter-to-Perrigo-Company-plc-CEO.pdf

September 12, 2016

Perrigo Company plc

Treasury Building

Lower Grand Canal Street

Dublin 2 Ireland

Attn: John Hendrickson, Chief Executive Officer

cc: Board of Directors

Dear John,

Starboard Value LP, together with its affiliates ("Starboard"), has an ownership interest of approximately 4.6% of the outstanding ordinary shares of Perrigo Company plc ("Perrigo" or the "Company"), making us one of the Company's largest shareholders. We believe that Perrigo is deeply undervalued and significant opportunities exist to create value for the benefit of all shareholders based on actions that should be within the control of management and the Board of Directors (the "Board"). We believe changes are needed to reverse the trajectory of poor operating and financial performance and reposition Perrigo for future success. We are writing to you and the Board to share our preliminary thoughts on issues facing the Company and opportunities for improvement, and to begin what will hopefully be a constructive engagement with the goal of driving value creation for the benefit of all shareholders.

In April 2015, Mylan N.V. ("Mylan") made an unsolicited proposal to acquire Perrigo for cash and stock worth approximately $205 per share, more than a 25% premium at that time. Even at current market prices for Mylan shares, this combination would have resulted in a current value of approximately $167 per share, or 88% more than the current Perrigo stock price of approximately $89. Management and the Board went to great lengths to oppose this proposed combination, spending more than $100 million in advisor fees relating to its defense, and promising shareholders that their standalone strategy would produce more value than the transaction given the robustness of Perrigo's future prospects. In order to convince Perrigo shareholders to reject Mylan's offer, management and the Board made aggressive promises of drastic improvements in both financial and stock price performance.

Unfortunately, since that time, results have gone decidedly in the wrong direction, and management's promises have been woefully unfulfilled. Specifically, the Company has severely mismanaged the Omega Pharma Invest N.V. ("Omega"; now Perrigo's Branded Consumer Healthcare business) integration, committed numerous execution errors, and significantly lowered financial guidance on the past two earnings calls. This has resulted in Perrigo shares losing more than half of their value since the Mylan offer. In addition, contrary to shareholders' interests, members of Perrigo management received special bonuses for their role in thwarting Mylan's offer.

Despite these recent missteps, which have badly damaged the credibility of management and the Board, we believe that Perrigo has a strong franchise with valuable assets.

Core Assets

Consumer Healthcare

The core Consumer Healthcare ("CHC") business is the largest provider of store-brand over-the-counter ("OTC") products in the U.S. with a dominant market share of approximately 70%. Its significant manufacturing scale and breadth of distribution provide high barriers to entry. This business has produced steady improvements in adjusted gross margin and adjusted operating margin through continued penetration of store-brand OTC products supplemented with new product introductions.

Branded Consumer Healthcare

The Branded Consumer Healthcare ("BCH") business is a market leader in European OTC, and complements CHC's OTC leadership position in the U.S. Similar to the CHC business, BCH possesses significant market share in several large European markets where it maintains high levels of brand awareness. The combination of CHC and BCH provide Perrigo with a unique global OTC market position.

In addition to Perrigo's core OTC businesses, Perrigo also owns several valuable, but non-core assets.

Non-Core Assets

Prescription Pharmaceuticals

The Prescription Pharmaceuticals ("Rx Pharmaceuticals") business develops and manufactures generic and specialty pharmaceutical products with a focus on extended topicals. It is expected to generate approximately $1.0 billion of revenue and adjusted operating profit margins in "the low 40% range" in 2016. Despite the recent increase in both manufacturer competition and customer consolidation, this business maintains strong margins with proven innovation capabilities. We believe that there are limited synergies between the Rx Pharmaceuticals business and the core OTC businesses. We also believe this would be a valuable business to several strategic acquirers.

Tysabri Royalty

Perrigo owns a royalty interest on global sales of Tysabri, a leading therapy for the treatment of multiple sclerosis marketed by Biogen Inc. Perrigo is entitled to 18% royalty payments on annual sales up to $2.0 billion and 25% royalty payments on annual sales above $2.0 billion. We estimate that the royalty is forecast to generate approximately $360 million in revenue with approximately 96% adjusted operating margins for Perrigo in 2016. While non-core in nature, the royalty produces substantial and, we believe, durable cash flows for the Company. This is purely a financial asset as Perrigo has no involvement in the marketing and sales of Tysabri.

Based on our analysis, we believe that both of these non-core assets have considerable value which is not being reflected in the current stock price. As management and the Board evaluate operational and strategic opportunities for improvement, we believe the Company could benefit from outside advice from a reputable investment bank or advisor on non-core asset divestitures or other broader strategic alternatives.

Core Business Opportunity

In addition to the opportunities highlighted above, we also believe a significant opportunity exists to improve performance in Perrigo's core businesses. For example, we estimate that BCH adjusted operating margins declined from approximately 18.8% in 2014 to 14.8% in 2015 and are expected to further decline to "low double digits" in 2016 based on management's most recent guidance. We fail to see why this should be the case  especially given the significant synergies between CHC and BCH  and believe that this illustrates a clear lack of focus and execution in the core business. Based on our analysis, we believe that there is a substantial opportunity to improve BCH adjusted operating margins above prior peak levels.

We believe the misguided confidence of management and the Board followed by deteriorating operating performance, which has been well below promised levels, has hurt the credibility of management and the Board, and, we believe, has resulted in a drastic rerating of Perrigo's once premium multiple. Historically, Perrigo traded in-line with well-performing consumer staples companies given the consistency of the Company's market-leading OTC businesses. However, the lack of focus and execution in the core business has severely depressed Perrigo's valuation. As illustrated in the chart below, from 2011 to 2015, Perrigo's valuation multiple was highly correlated with the valuation multiples of consumer staples companies. Unfortunately, since the operational and financial missteps began in 2015, Perrigo's valuation multiple has plummeted, trading nearly in line with specialty pharmaceutical companies that possess far different financial and risk profiles. The change in multiple implies that shareholders have lost confidence in the Board's oversight of management as well as management's ability to execute and think strategically on behalf of shareholders. We believe that with the proper portfolio changes, significantly better execution, and thereby renewed confidence in management and the Board, the multiple should rightfully be in line with peers that also operate high-quality assets.

1Mid-point of PRGO 2016E Management Guidance, updated Q2 2016

2Consumer Staples peers include: PG, CHD, CL, MJN & CLX

3Specialty Pharmaceutical peers include: MYL, TEVA

4Bloomberg Best P/E Ratio

Extremely Expensive Defense

Given Perrigo's possession of such high-quality assets and market leadership positions, it is not surprising that the Company caught the attention of Mylan in April 2015 when Mylan submitted an unsolicited offer to acquire Perrigo for $75 in cash plus 2.3 Mylan shares for each Perrigo share, or approximately $205 per share. Perrigo management was adamant that this proposal undervalued the Company and represented "a bad deal for Perrigo shareholders" that subjected them to "untenable risk." Following substantial public bickering between Mylan and Perrigo and multiple overly optimistic presentations by Perrigo management illustrating the potential future value of Perrigo shares, Mylan management was still able to convince a significant minority of Perrigo shareholders to tender their shares. However, Mylan subsequently cancelled its tender offer after failing to achieve a majority of Perrigo ordinary shares and having no success reaching a negotiated agreement with Perrigo.

As illustrated below, during the Mylan process, Perrigo outlined a path to continued earnings growth.

In addition, Perrigo claimed its standalone value was $202  $210 based on the 1-year average price / NTM EPS multiple. Furthermore, former CEO, Joe Papa, supported this belief, stating "I'd be surprised, as I said in the call, in a year, if Perrigo is not bigger, better and more valuable." It was these management and Board sanctioned claims that allowed Perrigo to persuade enough shareholders to reject Mylan's offer and support Perrigo's standalone plan.

Unfortunately for shareholders, management and the Board were far from prescient. Rather than retesting Perrigo management's target price of more than $200 per share, Perrigo lost more than half of its value since Mylan abandoned their tender offer. Additionally, after several consecutive downward revisions, current 2016 adjusted EPS guidance is $6.85  $7.15 ($7.00 midpoint) versus the $9.83 that was promised.

Over the past year, Perrigo substantially underperformed all of its proxy peers and sector indices. Ironically, despite all the aggressive rhetoric in opposition to Mylan, Perrigo has also significantly underperformed Mylan over almost any time period. The performance of Perrigo in the table below over the 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year time periods unequivocally illustrates that substantial change is necessary.

As a result of Perrigo's continued execution issues and operational missteps, shareholders have greatly suffered. Clearly, the status quo is unacceptable to shareholders and should be unacceptable to you and the Board. Although we recognize you are new to the CEO role and hope you will have fresh ideas, we also know that you have been at Perrigo for approximately 27 years, and, to date, no new plans have been announced for a meaningful change in strategic direction or operational excellence. Additionally, the same Board that endorsed the "just say no" defense against Mylan and conferred wildly optimistic promises has overseen the recent tremendous value destruction.

We intend to immediately engage with you to understand how you plan to materially improve Perrigo's strategy and execution for the benefit of the Company and all its shareholders. Perrigo needs real improvements and not incremental promises. The last two earnings calls since being appointed CEO have provided successive, substantial guidance reductions without illustrating a path forward. Surely, given your long tenure at Perrigo, you have an assessment of the issues Perrigo faces and should be able to provide shareholders with substantial insights into how you intend to materially and immediately address these pressing issues.

We believe that Perrigo trades at a significant discount to fair value and that there is substantial value to be created at Perrigo for the benefit of all its shareholders. However, these are challenging times for Perrigo, and we strongly believe that material change is necessary. For the Company to approach its historical growth trajectory and regain its appropriate multiple, immediate and aggressive actions are required from management and the Board. We look forward to constructive discussions to determine the most effective path to substantial value creation for all shareholders.

Best Regards,

Jeffrey C. Smith

Managing Member

Starboard Value LP

About Starboard Value LP

Starboard Value LP is a New York-based investment adviser with a focused and fundamental approach to investing in publicly traded U.S. companies. Starboard invests in deeply undervalued companies and actively engages with management teams and boards of directors to identify and execute on opportunities to unlock value for the benefit of all shareholders.

Investor contacts:

Peter Feld, (212) 201-4878

Gavin Molinelli, (212) 201-4828

www.starboardvalue.com

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160911/406288-INFO



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SOURCE Starboard Value LP

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SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Wuxi Suntech, one of the world's leading solar modules manufacturers was invited to participate in PV Magazine's 4th Quality Roundtable at Solar Power International (SPI) in Las Vegas. PV Magazine is partnering with DuPont to provide a forum for in-depth discussions of quality and reliability in large scale solar installations in the US, how to assess quality and have accountability for performance. It is being held on September 12th, 2016.

Suntech is the first Chinese solar manufacturer to achieve GW+ level solar module field performance data in the US market. And, Suntech has had a long partnership with key component suppliers of the highest quality materials for its modules that help ensure reliability and performance over time.

"DuPont has been Suntech's key material supplier for many years. Our two companies have the same pursuit for reliable products that perform for our customers and a green future. We believe our solid relationship with DuPont will contribute to the development of large-scale solar PV, and also the sustainability of our future!" says He Shuangquan, Executive President of Suntech.

About Suntech

Founded in 2001, Suntech has been supplying more than 10 GW of photovoltaic panels to more than a thousand customers in more than 80 countries. Leveraging its pioneering R&D and customer-centric innovations, Wuxi Suntech aims to provide reliable access, from private residences to global corporations, to nature's cleanest and most abundant energy source.

SOURCE Wuxi Suntech Power Co., Ltd.
To deliver optimal performance and flexibility across these deployment options, Teradata is enhancing core features of the Teradata Database. The newest MAPS architecture will provide elasticity to seamlessly expand or shrink a Teradata data warehouse to scale alongside changing business needs. MAPS will also provide higher concurrency and more consistent performance of tactical queries. Additionally, the Teradata Database's Adaptive Optimizer will automatically adjust to its host environment to provide the most efficient query plans, fastest query execution, and the most efficient system utilization.

"It's all about customer choice without sacrifice. Companies need their data and analytic environment to be agile, multi-faceted, and flexible," said Oliver Ratzesberger, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer at Teradata. "Teradata Everywhere means that the exact same Teradata Database can be deployed on-premises and in the cloud. Regardless of the combination, Teradata is leading the industry in delivering this capability. Companies can concentrate their energy on running analytics to improve their business rather than engineering compatibility between their environments."

Teradata Database is the first MPP analytic database customizable across multiple public clouds, managed cloud, VMware virtualization, and purpose-built appliances. Teradata Everywhere brings Teradata performance to these systems, and it is available globally unless otherwise indicated:

Teradata Database on Amazon Web Services

Teradata Database, already available on AWS Marketplace in nearly a dozen geographic regions around the world, is now available in a massively parallel processing configuration, scalable up to 32 nodes. The latest iteration of Teradata Database on AWS includes powerful performance, reliability, and convenience updates including: automatic node failure recovery; backup, restore, and querying of data in Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3); and one-click deployment automation via software ecosystem launch templates. Teradata Database on AWS is available now in all regions except AWS GovCloud, South America, and China.

Teradata Database on Microsoft Azure

Teradata Database will be available for the first time on Microsoft Azure Marketplace, giving customers the choice of full Teradata Database capabilities on-demand and on a pay-as-you-go basis. Coming soon to Azure Marketplace, Teradata Database on Azure will offer full features and a massively parallel processing configuration, scalable to up to 32 nodes. Teradata Database on Azure is targeted to be available in most regions in Q4, 2016, except US Gov Iowa, US Gov Virginia, West India, and China.

Teradata Managed Cloud in Germany

In addition to being served from Teradata-provisioned data centers in the United States, the Teradata Database is now available in the Teradata Managed Cloud in Europe, hosted on data center infrastructure in Germany. Monitored and overseen by dedicated Teradata experts, Teradata Managed Cloud allows customers to focus on analytics and business insight rather than on IT infrastructure management. Target availability in Europe is Q3, 2016.

Teradata Database on VMware

Teradata Virtual Machine Edition (TVME) delivers the full-featured Teradata Database in a preconfigured, ready-to-run virtual machine image for any company's VMware environment. Companies can utilize their existing virtualization infrastructure to deploy a Teradata data warehouse on up to 32 virtual nodes. TVME comes with flexible licensing terms which allow companies to scale configurations up or down as requirements change, even employing multiple instances for special purposes such as test or development. Target availability is Q3, 2016.

Teradata Database on IntelliFlex

Teradata Database takes full advantage of Teradata's next-generation IntelliFlex platform that offers independent scaling of processing power and storage capacity, advanced in-memory computing, and reduced downtime for system expansions. Teradata's cutting-edge platform will be further enhanced with even more powerful features:

2x performance density with up to 12 nodes per cabinet

2x memory with up to 1TB per node

All SSD configurations for maximum query responsiveness

IntelliFlex is available now, with new features targeted for Q4, 2016.

Teradata Database MAPS architecture

The Teradata Database MAPS architecture will provide high data availability across the analytical ecosystem. The feature eliminates data redistribution time following a system expansion by performing table-at-a-time online reconfiguration, selectively redistributing tables at the most convenient time. MAPS will provide:

~ 90% reduction in downtime when a system is being expanded

Cloud elasticity to expand/shrink a Teradata Database system

More consistent tactical query performance with higher query concurrency

Targeted availability is Q2, 2017.

Teradata Database Adaptive Optimizer

The Teradata Database's optimizer has long been heralded by customers and analysts as the gold standard for optimizers. Beginning in Q2, 2017, the Optimizer feature will be enhanced with in-stream query re-planning which modifies query steps during query execution using actual versus estimated results. New, adaptive platform-specific costing will recognize and adapt to the host platform, enabling Teradata Everywhere to deliver optimized, platform-specific performance.

"The ability of an organization to manage, analyze, and derive value from data will increasingly depend on optimal data management, which can be enhanced by having platform choices  ones that a business can quickly adapt to changing business requirements," said Dan Vesset, GVP, Analytics and Information Management, IDC. "Platform choices can help ensure that technology doesn't get in the way of business  rather choices support adaptability and optimal data management."

"Having the same Teradata Database with the same capabilities and SQL in our on-premises IDW and in the Teradata Managed Cloud gives us a live test system which also serves as an off-site disaster recovery system without using any data center floor space or management resources," said Brian Tournier, Director of BI Technology and Infrastructure, Meredith Corporation. "Adding the same Teradata Database in the public cloud to our mix would give us the perfect hybrid environment to cost-effectively handle peak loads or unexpected new applications without budgeting for excess capacity."

Teradata Everywhere works in tandem with Teradata Borderless Analytics to power business transformation and new business models. The various Teradata Everywhere product enhancements announced today will become generally available beginning in Q3 2016 through Q2 2017.

Relevant News Links

Gartner report: "Hybrid DBMS Cloud Defined, and Why You Want to Know!"  insight on the ramifications of hybrid cloud. To download this report, click here.

A new blog on Teradata Everywhere by Oliver Ratzesberger is posted here.

is posted here. The Teradata Borderless Analytics press release can be accessed here.

About Teradata

Teradata empowers companies to achieve high-impact business outcomes. Our focus on business solutions for analytics, coupled with our industry leading technology and architecture expertise, can unleash the potential of great companies. Visit teradata.com.

Get to know Teradata:

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/teradata

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Teradata

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/teradata

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV559dNBu0FRpuNLsrEKbzA

Teradata, Aster, and the Teradata logo are registered trademarks of Teradata Corporation and/or

its affiliates in the U.S. and worldwide.

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SOURCE Teradata

Related Links

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BEIJING, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- On the heels of the G20 Summit that shifted the world's attention to China this September, another conference held in the country is attracting global attention.

On September 9, 2016, the 2nd Global Social Entrepreneurs Forum opened at the Beijing Yanxi Lake International Convention & Exhibition Center, at which business leaders, corporate executives, representatives of NGOs and big names in the cultural and media sectors gathered in Beijing to discuss the theme of the forum, "Bearing the Mission of Our Times, Building an Eco-System Together", and provided advice on how to best fulfill one's corporate social responsibilities and find one's position in the new commercial landscape unfolding before us.

The event is a world-class financial and business forum bringing together global intelligence to solve economic problems facing the world. It is also an exchange and networking platform for entrepreneurs from all over the world, not only serving to indicate the direction of China's economic development but also offering an opportunity for entrepreneurs to maximize their value. At the three-day forum, distinguished guests, including Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Former German President Christian Wulff, renowned investor Jim Rogers, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and world's leading relationship specialist John Gray, will give keynote speeches, and engage in round-table dialogs with Chinese entrepreneurs.

The Global Social Entrepreneurs Forum was co-organized by Beijing Huaxia Management College, BIZ Media Group, AirMedia, Bright Oceans Corporation, Lutie Media, Sun Media Group, Flying Graduate Academy of Business, genshuixue.com, Shihua Zhiye Investment Group and Beijing Sharefar. The forum provided attendees with a fully open exchange platform through keynote speeches, round-table discussions and Q&A sessions.

The topic for the opening day was "Mission, Responsibility and Ecology". Jiang Lanxin, founder of the forum, chairman of Shihua Zhiye Investment Group and president of Beijing Huaxia Management College, addressed the opening ceremony. He noted that the world of the future will be managed by people who take a positive approach to dealing with issues, yet are accurate and precise in their application of knowledge, have faith in what they are doing and are influential in their community. The real crisis lies in ethics and faith rather than in finance might, so the fundamental solution requires a full update of what corporate social responsibility means and how to fulfill those obligations as well as a rebuild of the ecosystem, opening the way for more business operators to become social entrepreneurs with dedicated sense of duty in terms of social causes, values and responsibility, and guiding them in considering social value and wealth as the most important component of enterprise value and wealth.

The Global Social Entrepreneurs Forum is one of the largest, most forward-thinking and influential NGOs entrepreneur forums as well as one that has won broad attention and strong support from government agencies and the greater society.

Big names attending the opening day of the forum included: Huang Mengfu, Wang Chunyi, Yu Dan, Zhou Zhonghua, Ji Lianqiang, Liu Ji, Cao Dewang, Peng Qingyi, Chen Xiangdong, Lou Yulie, Deng Wei and Wang Wenbiao. In addition, distinguished guests including Master Yancan, Qian Daqun, Luo Chongmin, Qiu Jibao, Jiang Xipei, Xia Hua, Li Yanjie, Wu Kezhong, Chen Jiulin, Xiong Xinxiang, Buddha Jiacuo, Zhao Tao, Rong Hai, Zhang Daili, Mao Daqing, each of whom gave a spirited and enlightening speech during the event.

China is currently going through a complex phase in the course of its economic development. With the deepening of the globalization process and the large amount of advocacy around adoption of "Internet+", a Chinese government program to stimulate the use of the internet and e-commerce solutions among the country's manufacturers, new variables and patterns are emerging rapidly, rewriting the country's business ecosystem and economic structure and changing business relations at an unprecedented pace. Given the new landscape, the hosting of Global Social Entrepreneurs Forum kicked off a large-scale discussion as to the ultimate goal of enterprise development.

Action speaks louder than words. All participating entrepreneurs pledged to carry out their missions with their heart and soul, agreeing to adopt a dedicated and committed approach to their responsibilities, respect and protect nature, the society and the environment that we live in. They will work together to encourage more entrepreneurs as well as the companies and organizations that they lead to pay heightened attention to corporate social responsibility and our ecological civilization.

http://www.cnbizmedia.com/special-4.html

SOURCE Beijing Sharefar
NEW YORK, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Synopsis

'The Cards and Payments Industry in Oman: Emerging Trends and Opportunities to 2020' report provides detailed analysis of market trends in the Omani cards and payments industry. It provides values and volumes for a number of key performance indicators in the industry, including direct debits, check payments, payment cards and credit transfers during the review period (20112015).



The report also analyzes various payment card markets operating in the industry, and provides detailed information on the number of cards in circulation, and transaction values and volumes during the review period and over the forecast period (20162020). It also offers information on the country's competitive landscape, including the market shares of issuers and schemes.



The report brings together research, modeling, and analysis expertise to allow banks and card issuers to identify segment dynamics and competitive advantages. The report also covers details of regulatory policy and recent changes in the regulatory structure.



Summary

'The Cards and Payments Industry in Oman: Emerging Trends and Opportunities to 2020' report provides top-level market analysis, information and insights into the Omani cards and payments industry, including:



- Current and forecast values for each market in the Omani cards and payments industry, including debit card and credit cards.



- Detailed insights into payment instruments including direct debit, credit transfers, checks and payment cards. It also, includes an overview of the country's key alternative payment instruments.



- E-commerce market analysis.



- Analysis of various market drivers and regulations governing the Omani cards and payments industry.



- Detailed analysis of strategies adopted by banks and other institutions to market debit and credit cards.



- Comprehensive analysis of consumer attitudes and buying preferences for cards.



- The competitive landscape in the Omani cards and payments industry.



Scope

- This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Omani cards and payments industry.



- It provides current values for the Omani cards and payments industry for 2015, and forecast figures to 2020.



- It details the different demographic, economic, infrastructural and business drivers affecting the Omani cards and payments industry.



- It outlines the current regulatory framework in the industry.



- It details marketing strategies used by various banks and other institutions.



Reasons To Buy

- Make strategic business decisions, using top-level historic and forecast market data, related to the Omani cards and payments industry and each market within it.



- Understand the key market trends and growth opportunities in the Omani cards and payments industry.



- Assess the competitive dynamics in the Omani cards and payments industry.



- Gain insights into marketing strategies used for various card types in Oman.



- Gain insights into key regulations governing the Omani cards and payments industry.



Key Highlights

- To capitalize on the rising preference for Sharia-compliant banking and payment services among Omanis, banks are increasingly offering Sharia-compliant credit cards. In December 2015, Bank Nizwa collaborated with MasterCard to launch a range of Sharia-compliant credit cards. Similarly, in November 2014, Al Hilal Islamic Banking Services launched a Sharia-compliant Visa credit card which is available in Signature and Platinum variants. Cardholders are offered various value-added benefits such as unlimited access to more than 500 airport lounges around the world, a 24-hour concierge service, up to 25% discount at restaurants and free medical referrals.



- The central bank issued a circular in November 2015, allowing non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) to issue white-labeled credit cards in collaboration with domestic banks. NBFCs can brand white labeled cards as their own cards, without investing in the necessary infrastructure. While banks are responsible for administration and settlement processes, NBFCs are responsible for branding and marketing of these cards. This move helps serve those consumers who do not have access to formal financial institutions to obtain credit. This move is anticipated to push the growth of the credit card market.



- The central bank issued an advisory note in May 2014, requesting Omani residents and businesses to opt for non-cash payments and increase the use of ATMs and Cash Deposit Machines (CDMs) for routine transactions such as cash withdrawals, deposits and salary payments. This move was aimed at increasing the efficiency of the payment system by urging customers to use the existing banking infrastructure for electronic transactions. The shift towards non-cash transactions is anticipated to raise the use of debit cards.

Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04100758-summary/view-report.html



About Reportlinker

Reportlinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



http://www.reportlinker.com





__________________________

Contact Clare: [email protected]

US: (339)-368-6001

Intl: +1 339-368-6001

SOURCE Reportlinker

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NEW YORK, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Freepsychotherapybooks.org, a project of the non-profit International Psychotherapy Institute, has already distributed 750,000 FREE classic psychotherapy books in 223 countries Soon it will be millions. The internet offers opportunities for the distribution of scholarly work. Since there is no cost for paper, printing, binding, warehousing, shipping or billing, the books can be free.

Go to the site: freepsychotherapybooks.org. Check the books offered, the statistics of our distribution, and the comments from those who have downloaded these books. Your readers will be pleased to learn that this resource is available FREE to them.

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International Psychotherapy Institute

freepsychotherapybooks.org

Jason Aronson, M.D.

[email protected]

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com

SOURCE International Psychotherapy Institute
DENVER, CO, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc. (TSX: TCM) (OTCQX: TCPTF) ("Thompson Creek" or the "Company") today announced that the Company will hold a special meeting of shareholders on Tuesday, October 18, 2016, to consider and vote on a special resolution in connection with a previously announced plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) involving the acquisition by Centerra Gold Inc. of all of the outstanding common shares of Thompson Creek (the "Arrangement"). The special meeting will be held at 10:00 a.m. local time at the Company's offices at 26 W. Dry Creek Circle, Second Floor, Littleton, Colorado. Only Thompson Creek shareholders of record as of the close of business on September 12, 2016 will be entitled to notice of and to vote at the special meeting or at any adjournment or postponement thereof.

Subject to approval by Thompson Creek shareholders, the satisfaction or waiver of the applicable conditions to completion of the Arrangement, and the final order by the Supreme Court of British Columbia, the Arrangement is expected to close on or about October 20, 2016.

The Company has filed a definitive proxy statement and management information circular on EDGAR at www.sec.gov and SEDAR at www.sedar.com and expects to mail proxy materials on or about September 19, 2016. Please see the definitive proxy statement and management information circular for important information regarding the Arrangement and the special meeting of shareholders.

About Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc.

Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc. is a North American mining company. The Company's principal operating property is its 100%-owned Mount Milligan Mine, an open-pit copper and gold mine and concentrator in British Columbia. The Company's molybdenum assets consist of its 100%-owned Thompson Creek Mine, an open-pit molybdenum mine and concentrator in Idaho, its 75% joint venture interest in the Endako Mine, an open-pit molybdenum mine, concentrator and roaster in British Columbia, and its Langeloth Metallurgical Facility in Pennsylvania. The Company's development projects are the Berg and IKE properties, both copper, molybdenum and silver exploration properties located in British Columbia. The Company's principal executive office is located in Denver, Colorado. More information is available at www.thompsoncreekmetals.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and applicable Canadian securities legislation, and are intended to be covered by the safe harbors provided by these regulations. All statements other than statements of historical fact set forth or incorporated herein by reference are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements may, in some cases, be identified by the use of terms such as "believe," "project," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "strategy," "future," "opportunity," "plan," "may," "should," "will," "would," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result," and similar expressions. Our forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, statements with respect to: the timing of the special meeting, the timing of the mailing, the satisfaction or waiver of conditions for the Arrangement, receipt of the final order, and completion of the Arrangement, including the expected closing date of the Arrangement. Where we express an expectation or belief as to future events or results, such expectation or belief is expressed in good faith and believed to have a reasonable basis. However, our forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed, projected or implied by those forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results and events to differ from those described in such forward-looking statements can be found in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other documents filed on EDGAR at www.sec.gov and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although we have attempted to identify those material factors that could cause actual results or events to differ from those described in such forward-looking statements, there may be other factors, currently unknown to us or deemed immaterial at the present time that could cause results or events to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Many of these factors are beyond our ability to control or predict. Given these uncertainties, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc.

Related Links

http://www.thompsoncreekmetals.com


NORDERSTEDT, Germany, September 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Sysmex- Your partner in Flow Cytometry with our new antibody portfolio

Sysmex Europe GmbH announces the rollout of its new flow cytometry portfolio. By combining the expertise and knowledge of the global leader in haematology with that gained through the acquisition of flow cytometry pioneers Partec GmbH in 2014, Sysmex is now able to provide a complete offering to support biomedical research, the breeding ground for new diagnostic breakthroughs. The new portfolio includes immunophenotyping antibodies, tailored analysers and specialist software.

By expanding its technology base to include flow cytometry, Sysmex is embarking on a new journey of discovery. Initially, the focus of Sysmex's portfolio addresses biomedical research with single-color monoclonal antibodies reagents. Available in a wide range of fluorochromes, these reagents complement Sysmex's existing, upgraded flow cytometry product line including the Sysmex CyFlow Space and CyFlow Cube cytometers, as well as Celltrics disposable filters.

"Our expanded product portfolio, especially the CyFlow single-color monoclonal antibodies, represents our global commitment to academic, pharmaceutical, industrial and clinical researchers," said Martin Heiden, Flow Cytometry Director at Sysmex Europe. "We look forward to offering this product portfolio to flow cytometry research communities across our EMEA region. Together with our customers we will work on further portfolio expansions to meet the fast changing researchers needs in the years to come."

The product portfolio is now available for the following areas:

 Academic and clinical research

 Industrial applications: agriculture, aquamarine studies, water quality

 Pharmaceutical research: oncology, drug discovery.

Sysmex's new E-shop and website is now also online with an overview of the entire Sysmex flow cytometry product range for biomedical research: http://www.sysmex-flowcytometry.com.

About Sysmex Corporation

Sysmex Corporation is a world leader in clinical laboratory systemisation and solutions, including laboratory diagnostics, laboratory automation and clinical information systems. Serving customers for over 40 years, Sysmex focuses on technological leadership in diagnostic science and information tools that make a difference in the health of people worldwide. Headquartered in Kobe, Japan, Sysmex has subsidiaries in North America, Latin America, Europe, China and Asia Pacific and employs more than 6,000 employees worldwide. For more information see http://www.sysmex-europe.com.

Press contact:

Dr. Martin Heiden

Director Flow Cytometry

[email protected]

+49(40)527-26-0



SOURCE Sysmex Europe GmbH
Tom Albanese, CEO of Vedanta Limited, said: " The approval for the Vedanta Limited and Cairn India merger by both sets of shareholders consolidates our portfolio of attractive, Tier-I assets and simplifies the group structure. We remain committed to delivering superior value for the shareholders of the merged company through our diversified portfolio of world-class, low cost, long-life assets that have significant growth potential ."

The Scheme is now subject to the approval of the jurisdictional High Courts and other regulatory approvals and is expected to be effective by the end of this financial year.

The below announcement was made by Cairn India.

Cairn India Limited

Shareholders approve merger of Cairn India Limited with Vedanta Limited

The equity shareholders of Cairn India Limited have approved the Scheme of Arrangement of Cairn India Limited with Vedanta Limited ("Scheme"), with requisite majority.

The outcome of the Court Convened Meetings and of the postal ballot is as under:

1. Court Convened Meeting of the Equity Shareholders of Cairn India Limited

Pursuant to the orders dated 22 January 2016, 23 March 2016, and 22 July 2016 passed by the Hon'ble High Court of Bombay at Mumbai, the Court Convened Meeting of the equity shareholders, was held at 10.30 a.m. (IST) respectively on Monday, 12 September 2016 at Rangsharda Auditorium, K.C. Marg, Bandra Reclamation, Bandra (West), Mumbai  400050 to seek their approval in the matter of the Scheme.

Of the members present and validly voting, 65.41% in number, representing 92.86% in value, voted in favour of the resolution approving the scheme.

2. Postal Ballot seeking approval of the public shareholders for the Scheme

The scheme has also been approved by a majority of the minority shareholders. The public shareholders of the company representing 72.43% of votes in value, have voted in favour of the resolution.

Navin Agarwal, Chairman of Cairn India, said: "I am pleased that the shareholders of Cairn India have approved the merger of Cairn India with Vedanta Limited. We are confident that the financial strength and diversified portfolio of Tier-I assets of the merged company, with strong growth potential, will provide de-risked earnings and stable cash flows and drive long-term value."

Sudhir Mathur, CFO and Acting CEO of Cairn India, said: "The shareholders of Cairn India have approved the merger with Vedanta Limited, and I am confident that they will benefit from exposure to Vedanta's diversified portfolio of assets while retaining the upside from Cairn's strong oil & gas assets."

The Scheme is now subject to the approval of the jurisdictional High Courts and other regulatory approvals and is expected to be effective by the end of this financial year.

For further information, please contact:

Communications Roma Balwani President  Group Communications, Sustainability& CSR Tel: +91 22 6646 1000 [email protected]



Investor Relations Ashwin Bajaj Director  Investor Relations Vishesh Pachnanda Tel: +91 22 6646 1531 [email protected] Manager  Investor Relations





Sunila Martis

Manager  Investor Relations



About Vedanta Limited (Formerly SesaSterlite Ltd.)

Vedanta Limited is a diversified natural resources company, whose business primarily involves producing oil & gas, zinc - lead - silver, copper, iron ore, aluminium and commercial power. The company has a presence across India, South Africa, Namibia, Australia and Ireland.

Vedanta Limited is the Indian subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Plc, a London-listed company. Governance and Sustainable Development are at the core of Vedanta's strategy, with a strong focus on health, safety and environment and on enhancing the lives of local communities. The company is conferred with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) 'Sustainable Plus Platinum label', ranking among the top 10 most sustainable companies in India. To access the Vedanta Sustainable Development Report 2016, please visit http://sustainabledevelopment.vedantaresources.com/content/dam/vedanta/corporate/documents/Otherdocuments/SDreport2015-16/Vedanta%20SDR%20FY%2015-16.pdf

Vedanta Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange in India and has ADRs listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

For more information please visit www.vedantalimited.com

Vedanta Limited

(Formerly known as SesaSterlite Limited)

Vedanta, 75, Nehru Road,

Vile Parle (East), Mumbai - 400 099

www.vedantalimited.com

Registered Office:

SesaGhor, 20 EDC Complex,

Patto, Panaji (Goa) - 403 001

CIN: L13209GA1965PLC000044

Disclaimer

This press release contains "forward-looking statements"  that is, statements related to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address our expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "should" or "will." Forwardlooking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. For us, uncertainties arise from the behaviour of financial and metals markets including the London Metal Exchange, fluctuations in interest and or exchange rates and metal prices; from future integration of acquired businesses; and from numerous other matters of national, regional and global scale, including those of a political, economic, business, competitive or regulatory nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different that those expressed in our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150422/740375

SOURCE Vedanta Limited

Related Links

http://www.vedantaresources.com/


WASHINGTON, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Hundreds of Americans from across the U.S. will march outside the White House at 12:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday (September 13, 2016) to protest the unfounded and anti-scientific push by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to classify kratom, a natural herb in the coffee family, as a Class 1 narcotic. Organizers of the March will hold a news conference in Lafayette Park near the White House to present the White House with a petition signed by more than 100,000 citizens opposing the DEA's cynical attack on a legal product that is used without incident by hundreds of thousands of Americans.

What:

Under fire for failing to make headway in the opioid epidemic, the DEA is now seeking to distract the public and lawmakers by focusing unwarranted negative attention on kratom, or Mitragyna speciose, a tree in the coffee family native to Southeast Asia. Kratom leaves have been consumed in countries like Thailand and Malaysia for over 500 years. The herb is now available in the U.S. just like other herbal supplements. Kratom is not an opiate. Many studies have shown kratom to have positive medicinal benefits. Kratom is legal in 44 states. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement released a December 2015 report that found: "Kratom does not currently constitute a significant risk to the safety and welfare of Florida residents." Nonetheless, on August 31, 2016, the DEA, under fire for its inability to remedy the US opioid crisis, announced its intention to place kratom into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act in order to avoid a supposed "imminent hazard to public safety," which, in reality, does not exist. In truth, kratom has never been present alone in a single documented death and is as about as habit-forming as the coffee to which it is related. By contrast, pharmaceutical drugs are one of the leading causes of death in this country, killing one American every 19 minutes. Prescription opiate pain killers account for more than 475,000 emergency room visits annually.

Who:

Travis Lowin director, Botanical Education Alliance (previously the Botanical Legal Defense);

director, Botanical Education Alliance (previously the Botanical Legal Defense); Susan Ash , director, American Kratom Association;

, director, American Kratom Association; Andrew Turner , a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom who was injured in a subsequent military deployment, Hyattsville, MD ;

, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom who was injured in a subsequent military deployment, ; Joe Volpe , a retired school teacher who used kratom to replace prescription pain killers, Philadelphia, PA ; and

, a retired school teacher who used kratom to replace prescription pain killers, ; and Additional speakers TBD.

When:

12:30 p.m. EDT march and 1 p.m. EDT news conference.

Where:

Starting in front of White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and proceeding to adjacent Lafayette Park.

The Botanical Education Alliance (BEA) is an organization dedicated to educating consumers, lawmakers, law enforcement, and the media about safe and therapeutic natural supplements including Mitragyna speciosa, also known as Kratom. BEA's mission is to increase understanding in order to influence public policy and protect natural supplements. The vision of the Alliance is to create a society where every adult has the right to access safe and effective natural supplements. www.botanical-education.org/

The America Kratom Association (AKA), a consumer-based non-profit, is here to set the record straight, giving voice to the suffering and our rights to possess and consume kratom. AKA represents tens of thousands of Americans; each with a unique story to tell about the virtues of kratom and its positive effects on our lives. From Lyme Disease to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and even addiction, kratom can help offer relief. www.americankratom.org

SOURCE American Kratom Association; Botanical Education Alliance
HADDONFIELD, N.J., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

COURT ORDERED LEGAL NOTICE

If You Were Admitted Into The Union County Correctional Facility ("Jail") From May 1, 2006 To June 30, 2008 For A Non-Indictable Offense And Were Strip Searched Upon Arrival, You Could Get A Payment From A Class Action Settlement.

A $2,286,000.00 (two million two hundred eighty-six thousand dollar) settlement has been proposed in a class action lawsuit about the strip search policies of the Union County Correctional Facility (the "Jail"). If you meet the criteria explained below, you can share in this settlement.

The United States District Court for the District of New Jersey authorized this notice. The Court will have a hearing to decide whether to approve the settlement, so that the benefits may be paid.

Who's Included?

You are a class member and could get benefits if (1) you were admitted into the Jail from May 1, 2006 through June 30, 2008, (2) you were charged solely with a non-indictable offense(s), such as a disorderly persons offense, traffic violation, or held on a civil matter, and (3) you were strip searched upon entry into the Jail without reasonable cause to believe that you were concealing a weapon or other contraband.

What's This About?

The lawsuit claims that Defendant Union County and its Correction Officers booking procedures constitute an unlawful strip search of individuals admitted into the Jail without reasonable suspicion to believe the Individuals were concealing contraband. The County of Union has denied those claims. The Court did not decide which side was right, but both sides agreed to a settlement to ensure a resolution and to provide benefits to the people who were affected.

What Does the Settlement Provide?

Defendants agreed to pay a total of $2,286,000.00 (two million two hundred eighty-six thousand dollars) for claims, plus a $10,000 (ten thousand dollar) incentive award fee to the class representative, plus $379,000 (three hundred seventy-nine thousand dollars) for costs of administration, plus reasonable attorneys' fees and costs, not to exceed $1,200,000.00 (one million two hundred thousand dollars) to be applied for upon the motion for Final Approval to settle the case. There are 7,620 strip searches payable within the class period. You may make a claim, for each admission during the class period. Each class member who makes a claim will receive $300.00 for each time strip searched per admission during the class period.

How Do You Ask For A Payment?

A detailed Notice and Claim Form package contains everything you need. Just call 1-866-778-9623 or visit the settlement website, www.UnionCountyStripSearch.com , to get one. To qualify for a payment, you must send in a claim form. Claim forms are due by February 9, 2017.

What Are Your Other Options?

If you want to share in the settlement, all you need to do will be to obtain a claim form, as just explained, and return it according to its directions. If you don't want the settlement benefits or don't want to be legally bound by the settlement, you must exclude yourself by November 14, 2016. If you exclude yourself, you can't get any benefits from this settlement, but you could bring a separate case against the Defendants, if you want to. If you stay in the settlement, you may object to it by November 14, 2016. The detailed notice, available by calling or visiting the website below, explains how to exclude yourself or object.

The Court will hold a hearing in this case Takacs/Allen v. Union County, Civil Action No. 08-CV-711 on November 17, 2016 at 10:00 a.m., to consider whether to approve the settlement and a request by the lawyers representing all class members (William Riback, The Riback Law Firm, Haddonfield, New Jersey and Carl Poplar, Carl D. Poplar, P.A., Cherry Hill, New Jersey) for attorneys' fees and costs. You may ask to appear at the hearing, but you do not have to. For more information, call toll free 1-866-778-9623, visit the settlement website www.UnionCountyStripSearch.com , or write to: Union County Settlement, c/o A.B. Data, Ltd., P.O. Box 170500, Milwaukee WI 53217.

SOURCE The Riback Law Firm
BAODING, China, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited (NYSE: YGE) ("Yingli Solar" or "Yingli"), one of the world's leading solar panel manufacturers, today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Yingli Green Energy Americas (Yingli Americas) and Picasolar Inc. are the recipients of a prestigious SunShot award from the Department of Energy to advance Picasolar's innovative Hydrogen Super Emitter (HSE) into pilot production.

The U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative is a collaborative national effort that aggressively drives innovation to make solar energy fully cost-competitive with traditional energy sources before the end of the decade. Through SunShot, the Energy Department supports efforts by private companies, universities, and national laboratories to drive down the cost of solar electricity to $0.06 per kilowatt-hour. Picasolar has previously received two SunShot awards to develop the novel selective emitter approach for n-type solar cells.

The HSE process enables higher efficiency while reducing the amount of silver required during cell production. Laboratory demonstrations verified by a third party have shown over 1% absolute efficiency improvements while eliminating 15% of the silver grid lines. This collaborative SunShot project will combine Yingli's world class manufacturing expertise with Picasolar's award winning technology and will result in a pilot demonstration in 2017.

"Yingli is committed to delivering the highest performance modules at the best cost for consumers. Continued development of advanced solar cell technologies is a big part of achieving this goal," commented Sergiu Pop, Director of Strategic R&D for Yingli Americas. "Successfully completing this project will result in additional competitive advantages for Yingli and we are very excited to be working with Picasolar."

"Picasolar is thrilled to be working with Yingli and we are impressed by their commitment to long term value creation through technology development," said Douglas Hutchings, CEO of Picasolar. "Even the world's best technology doesn't have an impact unless it makes into manufacturing. Working with the team at Yingli we can help ensure that this technology gets to market."

About Yingli Green Energy

Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited (NYSE: YGE), known as "Yingli Solar," is one of the world's leading solar module manufacturers. Yingli Green Energy's manufacturing covers the photovoltaic value chain from ingot casting and wafering through solar cell production and solar PV module assembly. Headquartered in Baoding, China, Yingli Green Energy has more than 30 regional subsidiaries and branch offices and has distributed more than 15 GW solar PV modules to customers worldwide. For more information, please visit www.yinglisolar.com and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Weibo.

About Picasolar

Picasolar is a leading provider for advanced solar cell technologies. Headquartered in the Arkansas Research and Technology Park in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Picasolar focuses on high impact R&D for the solar industry. Picasolar's mission is to enable cost competitive solar manufacturing for every geography. For more information, please visit www.picasolar.com and join the conversation on Facebook.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements constitute "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "target" and similar statements. Such statements are based upon management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions, and relate to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond Yingli Green Energy's control, which may cause Yingli Green Energy's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in Yingli Green Energy's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Yingli Green Energy does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law.

For further information, please contact:

In China:

Eric Pan

Investor Relations

Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited

Tel: +86 312 8929787

E-mail: [email protected]

In the Americas:

Lily Arrieta

Marketing Communications Manager Americas

Yingli Green Energy Americas

Email: [email protected]

In Europe:

Carolin Stahler

Marketing Communications Manager Europe

Yingli Green Energy Europe GmbH

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited

Related Links

http://www.yinglisolar.com


If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here
New Delhi, Sep 7 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will begin on Thursday a four-day tour of poll-bound Punjab where he will release the AAP's Farmers' Manifesto, it was announced on Wednesday.

The Aam Aadmi Party leader will address a public rally in Moga on the last day of his visit before returning to New Delhi.

"Arvindji will leave for Punjab tomorrow morning. He will hold a Kisan Rally in Moga on September 11 and leave for Delhi the same day," an AAP leader told IANS.

This will be Kejriwal's first visit to Punjab after the AAP removed its Punjab convenor Sucha Singh Chhotepur over issues of corruption.

Kejriwal will interact with AAP volunteers and members in Ludhiana who are said to be agitated over various issues, party sources said.

"Kejriwal will hear their problems and address them. His visit will certainly boost the morale of party workers," a source said.

Chhotepur on Tuesday accused the party's Delhi leadership of selling tickets for the Punjab assembly polls to undeserving candidates for crores of rupees.

The AAP, which has denied his allegations, has emerged as a major player in Punjab where elections are due early next year.
Pune, Sep 7 : In a major development in the murder case of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, the CBI on Wednesday named a right-wing medico as the alleged prime conspirator.

The CBI has claimed that the chief conspirator was ENT specialist Virendra Tawde - of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti and also linked with the Sanatan Sanstha. He was arrested on June 10 and is now in judicial custody.

It has also identified Vinay Pawar and Sarang Akolkar - both absconders - as Dabholkar's killers in a 40-page chargesheet filed before a Pune court on Wednesday.

Akolkar, an accused in the Madgaon blast case, has a red corner notice issued against him while Pawar - who is not a history-sheeter - is absconding since 2009, according to the CBI chargesheet.

"The motive for the murder of Dabholkar was allegedly the long enmity/hatred that existed between the two private organizations headed by Dabholkar in Satara and Tawde in Kolhapur," the CBI said.

Dabholkar, 67, a renowned rationalist and founder of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS), was shot dead on August 20, 2013 by two unidentified motorcycle borne assailants while on a morning walk near Omkareshwar Temple in Pune.

The CBI said Dabholkar had founded the MANS, and the accused-conspirator had given up his medical profession in 2001 to set up the Sanatan Sanstha in Kolhapur.

"The activities of persons against the interests of the Kolhapur organisation got targeted and Dabholkar was an important target," the CBI chargesheet said.

It added that the Sanatan Sanstha's Durgesh Samant had assigned Tawde the task of opposing the then pending anti-superstitions bill in Maharashtra which was promoted by Dabholkar from 2007 till his death seven years later (2013).

The CBI step was welcomed as "good" by Hamid Dabholkar, the son of the slain rationalist, but he demanded that the other absconders should also be arrested without delay.

"However, Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar continue to abscond and the CBI must nab them as early as possible," Hamid told mediapersons.

He further claimed that the pattern of murders of Dabholkar in Pune in 2013, Communist leader Govind Pansare in Kolhapur in February 2015 and of Kannada writer M.M. Kalburgi in August 2015 in Karnataka were similar, so these absconding suspects posed a threat to society.
Tokyo, Sep 9 : Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday said the nuclear test conducted by North Korea was unacceptable and would be protested.

Abe also said that Japan would liaise closely on the matter with the US and South Korea as the situation unfolds, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Japanese Prime Minister said he had instructed all relevant officials in his office and applicable ministries to gather more information about North Korea's testing of a nuclear device.

His instructions followed Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) detecting an artificial earthquake centred in North Korea close to a previous test site, which it believes may have been a nuclear test.

An artificial quake of magnitude 5 was detected around 9.30 a.m. at North Korea's main Punggye-ri nuclear test site. The US Geological Survey said the tremor was a 5.3-magnitude earthquake.

In a press conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Friday the government is currently gathering more information about the possible nuclear test.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida also said that Japan would convene an emergency meeting of its National Security Council (NSC) to discuss issues relevant to the incident.

Government officials here have also said that if the test is confirmed, Japan will call for an emergency UN Security Council meeting on the matter.

North Korea is banned by UN sanctions from any tests of nuclear or missile technology. It conducted a fourth nuclear test in January this year.
Mumbai, Sep 9 : Actor Abhay Deol will be walking the ramp for a designer at Beetles Tech Fashion Tour 2016 to be held here on September 21.

The event, organised by Exhibit Technologies, will be held at St. Regis here.

Ramesh Somani, CEO and Founder, Exhibit Technologies, revealed that the "Happy Bhag Jayegi" star will walk the ramp at the launch of Tech Fashion Tour, which was announced by actress-filmmaker Divya Khosla Kumar.

"Abhay is going to be part of Tech Fashion Tour in a big way. He will be walking the ramp for one of the designers and showcasing the tech-infused fashion," Somani said in a statement.

It is an initiative of Exhibit Technologies with Beetle by Volkswagen being the title sponsor.

The list of designers who will celebrate the second edition include names like Falguni and Shane Peacock, who will open the fashion tour while designer Vikram Phadnis will close the gala.

Other names are Shravan Kumar, Nandita Mahtani, Rajat Tangri and European luxury brand Vizyon.

NGO Smile Foundation is the charity partner for the Tech Fashion Tour, where they are supporting their programme Mission Education #MYMISSIONEDUCATION of sending 25,000 children to school and gifting them a happy childhood.
Agartala, Sep 9 : A tug of war is going on between the Tripura Assembly Speaker and Trinamool Congress (TMC) over recognition of the party as main opposition party in the House.

TMC's Tripura unit chairman Ratan Chakraborty in a letter to Assembly Speaker Ramendra Chandra Debnath requested him to grant status of Leader of Opposition (LoP) to the party's newly-elected legislature party leader Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl as the party has the required strength in the assembly.

Six legislators after three-month long parleys were recognised as TMC MLAs by the assembly speaker on August 29. The Speaker, citing rules and Supreme Court verdict, refused to give opposition party status to the TMC in the state assembly.

Quoting the provision of the Tripura assembly rules of procedure and conduct of business, TMC leader Sudip Roy Barman said that the 1972 and 2008 rules categorically stated that an MLA could only have the eligibility to become LoP if his party has the largest numerical strength in the assembly.

"I would take a decision on the TMC's fresh demand next week and it would be communicated to them accordingly," Speaker Debnath said.

"If the speaker does not grant status of LoP to TMC, the party would take suitable steps in appropriate time," said Hrangkhawl, a veteran tribal leader and former Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee chief.

A TMC leader on condition of anonymity hinted that the party is likely to seek Governor or court's intervention if the Speaker does not grant LoP status or does not recognise it as the main opposition party in the house.

The six MLAs, led by former opposition leader Sudip Roy Barman, quit the Congress on April 7 and joined the TMC on June 7 in protest against the Congress' alliance with Left parties ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections.
Srinagar, Sep 9 : Dozens of civilians were injured in clashes with security forces in continuing protests in the Kashmir Valley on Friday as the army was set to be deployed in the restive southern districts.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in Panaji that the situation in the valley was "under better control than earlier" and "will be under complete control" in coming days.

The comments came as government sources in Srinagar told IANS that more paramilitary troopers were being sent to the valley and the army was being deployed in south Kashmir, the hub of the ongoing unrest on the streets.

However, the army, which is neither trained in nor equipped with non-lethal weapons, has been told not to get into mob control and react only in "self-defense" if their pickets and camps are attacked by stone-pelting protesters.

The sources said the army would launch a major offensive against militants believed to have crossed over from Pakistan and are fanning trouble in the aftermath of the July 8 killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani. At least 76 persons have been killed and over 12,000 injured in the violent unrest.

Also at Panaji, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said the increased deployment of troops was for anti-terror activities as the "army does not act in internal matters unless asked by the local authority".

"The local civil administration will have to ask (for) the army there like it happened in Haryana, where the (Jat) agitation took place. When the local administration called the army in, we went there only then and followed the orders of the local administration. We don't operate anywhere internally on our own," Parrikar said.

Significantly, Army chief General Dalbir Singh on Friday reviewed the security situation in the valley, especially in the south, defence sources said here. He also visited forward areas along the Line of Control in Kupwara district.

The street agitation, security restrictions, and separatist-called shutdown have disrupted normal life in the valley for 62 days now. Shops, businesses, schools and private and government offices have remained closed since July 9 - a day after Wani's killing.

The curfew, largely removed since the beginning of this week, was re-imposed on Friday as the authorities feared more violence. But people at various places in Srinagar, south and north Kashmir regions defied the restrictions to march on the streets, shouting anti-government and pro-freedom slogans.

The protesters threw stones at security forces at these places. The forces retaliated with pellet guns, leaving dozens of protesters injured.

The authorities also didn't allow congregational midday prayers at Srinagar's Jamia Masjid - the largest mosque in Jammu and Kashmir - for the eighth Friday in a row.

Police said curfew was imposed in the old city that houses the mosque to prevent post-Friday prayer stone-pelting protests in the volatile areas around Jamia Masjid.

Police also foiled a scheduled press conference of hardline separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani at his Hyderpora residence.

Geelani later issued a nearly 2,000-word press statement to the media in which he thanked Pakistan and China for their support to Kashmiris "in their fight for the right to self-determination".

The separatist leader vowed to carry on with the agitation as the "spirit of the struggle for freedom has been seamlessly passed on to the next generation.

"No fight is possible without people willing to sacrifice their lives and livelihoods," he said, hinting that the shutdown won't be called off even as the Muslim festival of Eid is being celebrated on Tuesday.
New Delhi, Sep 9 : India's civil aviation regulator on Friday prohibited the use of Samsung Galaxy Note7 smartphone on board aircraft.

According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the guidelines on the carriage and usage of the phone on board aircraft were issued after the recent safety related incidents involving the smartphone globally.

In a public notice, the regulator advised travellers and the airlines to ensure that the communication device is not turned on or its battery charged on board the aircraft.

The notice further detailed that the smartphone should not be stowed away in any checked-in baggage. However, the smartphone can be carried in a switched off mode in hand-baggage.

"The Ministry of Civil Aviation has issued a public notice prohibiting the use of Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 smartphone on board an aircraft," said an official statement.

"The Ministry has advised airlines and travelling public not to turn on or charge the said mobile during flights."

Earlier, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a warning not to charge or switch on Galaxy Note7 on board aircraft.

The stern warning came at a time when Samsung is dealing with a global recall of nearly 2.5 million Galaxy Note7 shipped so far across the world.

Three Australian airlines have already barred passengers from using or charging the smartphone during flights.

More than 35 cases of exploding batteries have been reported since the phone, which retails for $1,035, was launched on August 19.

The smartphone was launched last month in India for Rs 59,900 with iris biometric scanner for enhanced security, upgraded S Pen and a dual-curved screen.

Samsung on its part said that Galaxy Note7 sales have not started in India, and that the company has delayed sales to alleviate any safety concerns.

"We are aware of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) notice. Consumer safety and peace of mind are our top priority," a Samsung India Spokesperson said.

"Galaxy Note7 sales have not started in India, and we have delayed sales to alleviate any safety concerns. We plan to expedite new shipments of Galaxy Note7 soon to reduce any inconvenience for our customers."
Bengaluru, Sep 9 : Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to convene a meeting of chief ministers at short notice for resolving the Cauvery river water impasse with Tamil Nadu.

"I request you not only as the Prime Minister, but also as head of the federal system to call a meeting of the chief ministers of the states concerned at a few hour's notice to resolve the impasse," Siddaramaiah said in a letter to Modi on a day when Karnataka was shut down in protest against the release of Cauvery waters to Tamil Nadu following a Supreme Court order.

Citing a precedent when over 20 years ago, the Supreme Court had requested the then Prime Minister to resolve a similar issue, the Karnataka Chief Minister said the ongoing 'unrest' over the sensitive issue will have a serious impact on the state's economy as also the IT economy, which brought considerable revenue and foreign exchange to the country.

"The Supreme Court on December 28, 1995, had requested the then Prime Minister to resolve the issue of implementation of its order, which was then duly done to the satisfaction of all parties," Siddaramaiah recalled.

Drawing Modi's attention to the extreme unrest in the Cauvery basin, especially in Bengaluru on the release of 15,000 cusecs of the river water daily to Tamil Nadu for 10 days from Wednesday in compliance with the apex court order, the Congress Chief Minister said: "If it (releasing water) continued (beyond September 16), it would deprive not only the residents of Bengaluru of drinking water, but also farmers living in the river basin who use the water for growing crops.

"The unrest, if it continued, will also adversely impact the livelihood of the common man in large parts of the state," the letter said.

In this context, the Chief Minister referred to the present storage in the Mettur reservoir in Tamil Nadu and observed that the northeast rainfall in the neighbouring state would be more than sufficient to meet the water requirement for Samba crop sown by farmers in the lower riparian state.

Siddaramaiah brought to Modi's attention the state Bharatiya Janata Party leaders' alleged view that the apex court order ought not be implemented.

"As a constitutional chief executive of the state, I have taken it upon myself to obey the Supreme Court order to release the water though it had caused more unrest and disquiet in the state," the Chief Minister said in his letter.

The letter concluded with the hope for a favourable response from the Prime Minister.
New Delhi, Sep 10 : British rock band Coldplay has been confirmed to headline the debut edition of the Global Citizen Festival on November 19 in Mumbai. The organisers have refuted reports that tickets for the fest have been set at astronomical prices.

"We're so excited to be announcing that on World Toilet Day -- November 19th -- we're hosting the first-ever Global Citizen Festival in India, with an incredible lineup of international and Indian headliners including Coldplay," said a post on www.globalcitizen.org, the gala's official website.

This is a part of Global Citizen's launch of a 15-year campaign to mobilise social change in India. The event will also have a line-up of other international and Indian headliners.

Coldplay comprises Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman and Will Champion. Martin, who visited India last year for the Global Poverty Project to oversee innovative projects addressing sanitation in local communities, is the curator for the Global Citizen Festival.

While reports have been rife that a Coldplay gig will soon enthrall Indian fans, a news report claiming that tickets for the show will be priced at a whopping Rs 25,000 to Rs 500,000 left the fans in a tizzy. The social media was abuzz on Friday with how the prices had left fans "Coldplayed".

But putting at rest all such concerns, the organisers have said: "Just like our annual festival in Central Park, entry to the Indian Festival will be free. Fans will earn them through taking actions in support of education, equality, and sanitation campaigns."

All details around the ticketing will be revealed on Monday. However, it has been mentioned that interested people could 'earn' the tickets to the fest by signing up to become a Global Citizen and completing the festival's action campaigns at GlobalCitizen.IN.

In its first year, Global Citizen India will offer a wide cross-section of content and actions focused on creating meaningful impact in the areas of education, equality and clean water and sanitation.

In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had participated in the Global Citizen Festival in New York. And in 2015, Martin met Modi to discuss Swachh Bharat, Namami Gange and Beti Bachao - Beto Padhao.
Mumbai, Sep 10 : Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor has praised acid attack survivor Reshma Qureshi, who walked the ramp at the New York Fashion Week (NYFW).

"Brave, beautiful, confident Reshma Bano Qureshi, 19, an acid attack survivor, walks the ramp at the New York Fashion Week," Rishi tweeted on Friday night.

Reshma, along with Bollywood actress Sunny Leone, walked the NYFW ramp with for fashion designer Archana Kochhar who presented her collection A Tale of Two Travels. The collection was inspired by her travel to the Taj Mahal and a village of the Banjara tribe.

Reshma, who was left scarred in an acid attack, took to the ramp to show her quiet defiance as a survivor, and to promote the #TakeBeautyBack campaign. She sashayed across the runway at the show on Thursday to promote a ban on the sale of corrosive substances used to maim thousands of women and children each year.
Madrid, Sep 11 : Thousands of people took to the streets of Spanish capital Madrid to demand an end to the tradition of bullfighting, a media report said.

Protesters held up banners saying "Bullfighting, the school of cruelty" and "Bullfighting, a national shame", BBC reported.

Although, the number of bullfights is falling in Spain, nearly 2,000 events are still held every year.

In June, the government of Castilla y Leon banned the killing of bulls at town festivals.

The move targeted the controversial Toro de la Vega festival, in Tordesillas, where horsemen chase a bull before spearing it.

Recent opinion polls suggest public support for bullfighting has waned, but annual events, such as Pamplona's San Fermin, are still followed by a loyal crowd and many tourists.

Meanwhile, supporters of bullfighting said that the tradition is an ancient art form deeply rooted in national history.

Fans also organised demonstrations in favour of the tradition, attracting thousands of people.

In 2010, Catalonia became the second Spanish region after the Canary Islands to ban the tradition. Madrid's leftist mayor, who took over last year, has withdrawn subsidies for bullfighting schools.
Srinagar, Sep 11 : Kashmir remained shut for the 65th day with authorities deploying security personnel in Srinagar and other places in the Valley to maintain law and order on Sunday.

"There would be no curfew anywhere in the Valley today (Sunday)," a senior police official said.

With two youths killed in clashes in Anantnag and Shopian districts on Saturday, the death toll in the ongoing unrest rose to 79.

Around 11,500 others have been injured since July 9.

All educational institutions, main markets and public transport remained suspended.

Although the Eid-ul-Zuha festival falls on Tuesday, there was no traditional hustle and bustle in the Valley.

Separatists have asked people to stage a protest march to the headquarters of the UN Military Observers Group in Srinagar.
Tehran, Sep 11 : Iran supports the deal between Russia and the US to bring about a truce in Syria, an official said on Sunday.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has always welcomed the establishment of ceasefire in Syria and easier access to the humanitarian aid for the whole people of the country," Xinhua news agency cited Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi as saying.

A lasting ceasefire will require a comprehensive mechanism to monitor the situation and control the borders in order to prevent the inflow of new fighters, arms or financial resources into Syria, he said.

In the meantime, the pause in the fighting should not give the terrorist groups the opportunity to replenish forces, he added.

Qasemi also urged the international community to keep fighting against the extremists and terrorist in Syria seriously.

On Sunday, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari said that Tehran welcomes the cease-fire in Syria and the peace plan to stop deterioration of humanitarian situation.

The Islamic republic believes that the Syrian crisis has no military solution and this issue should be resolved through political means, Ansari said.

The US and Russia on Saturday announced a landmark agreement on a nationwide cease-fire in Syria, which would commence with the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

The week-long truce also includes improving humanitarian aid access and a joint military operation against banned terrorist groups.

According to the truce, all attacks and airstrikes will be stopped and unobstructed access will be allowed to besieged areas, including the city of Aleppo.

Iran, a major regional ally of the Syrian government in its fight against militant groups, has repeatedly acknowledged the presence of its military advisers in the Arab state.
Jammu/Srinagar, Sep 11 : Three militants and a policeman were killed in a day-long gunfight on Sunday between security forces and guerrillas in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, while four militants were killed in Kupwara as the army foiled an infiltration bid, the state police said.

The police said the militants in Poonch were killed when in the evening, army commandos stormed the under-construction mini secretariat building in Poonch town from where militants were firing.

Earlier, a policeman was killed while a sub-inspector and a civilian were injured in the firing exchanges which began in the morning.

"Army commandos had launched the final assault against the holed up militants today evening," said a senior police official, adding militants started firing from the under-construction state mini secretariat building near the headquarters of Brigade in Poonch town in the morning after which all escape routes for the militants were sealed.

In Kupwara, a gunfight broke out in Nowgam sector of the Line of Control (LoC) as soldiers detected and challenged a group of infiltrating militants. The infiltration bid was foiled and the engagement ended with four killed, said a police officer.

In Bandipora, another gunfight started on Sunday morning near the LoC in Gurez sector. Police sources said militants attempted to infiltrate into the Indian side of the LoC from Pakistan, but timely action by the army had forced them to withdraw.
New York, Sep 12 : Hillary Clinton has cancelled a two-day trip to California starting from Monday after the Democratic presidential candidate was diagnosed with pneumonia and has been advised to rest by her doctor.

The cancellation was confirmed by her campaign on Sunday night following Clinton's abrupt departure from a ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in downtown Manhattan because she felt "overheated", The Hill daily reported.

She was supposed to campaign in San Francisco and Los Angeles and was scheduled to make an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

The former secretary of state's doctor, Lisa R. Bardack released a statement revealing the diagnosis on Sunday evening, The Hill daily reported.

Bardack said Clinton had an examination at her home in Chappaqua after the incident, which was a result of dehydration and overheating.

She said the presidential candidate was "re-hydrated and recovering nicely".

Clinton left the Ground Zero ceremony after an hour and 30 minutes. Video posted by a bystander to Twitter appeared to show Clinton extremely unsteady and supported by aides, being helped from the curb into a vehicle.

A security official told the Guardian that Clinton had walked from the ceremony without support, got into a vehicle and was away.

Clinton recently sustained a coughing attack during a campaign event in Cleveland, fuelling suspicion about her health and leading to the creation of a hashtag, #HackingHillary.

Republican rival Donald Trump using the hashtag tweeted: "Mainstream media never covered Hillary's massive 'hacking' or coughing attack, yet it is #1 trending. What's up?" the Guardian added.

Rumours about Clinton's health appeared to have stemmed from a 2012 incident in which she fell, a mishap attributed to a stomach virus.

She suffered a concussion and a subsequent blood clot in the brain, which later testing showed to have cleared completely.
Perth, Sep 12 : An Australian fell into a river on Monday in Perth while playing the augmented reality smartphone game Pokemon Go, officials said.

West Australia (WA) police in a three-paragraph statement posted on Facebook said it had rushed to the Barrack Street Jetty at around 12.45 p.m. upon receiving a report from a security officer who witnessed the man falling from the jetty into the water, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Police attended with emergency lights and sirens and on arrival (but) the security officer had pulled the male person from the water onto the jetty," WA police said.

"Police spoke to the male person being concerned for his welfare only to be told he was leaning over the jetty attempting to get a Pokemon. True story."

Fortunately, the man was not injured.

The incident comes after the WA police had posted a community safety announcement about the popular mobile game Pokemon Go to social media in July.

In the post that went viral and shared over 1,200 times, police had urged West Australians in particular to stay safe and legal while playing Pokemon Go game in the state.
United Nations, Sep 12 : The toll from recent floods in North Korea rose to 133, while 395 others remain missing, the UN said in a statement on Monday.

The statement by UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) cited figures disclosed by North Korean authorities, adding that the floods also displaced around 1,07,000 persons.

Heavy rains at the beginning of this month led to immense floods in the northern provinces of North Korea bordering China, EFE news reported.

On September 7, Pyongyang authorities reported 60 dead and 25 missing due to floods.

The floods also inundated over 35,500 houses, 69 per cent of which may have been completely destroyed, besides 8,700 public buildings, including schools.
New Delhi, Sep 12 : Ahead of Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal visit to India later this week, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met the Himalayan nation's Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat here on Monday.

"Preparing the ground for an important visit. EAM @SushmaSwaraj receives FM Prakash Sharan Mahat of Nepal," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.

Prime Minister Dahal, popularly called "Prachanda", will arrive on September 15 on a three-day visit to India.

He became prime minister in early August after the ouster of K.P. Sharma Oli from the post.
New Delhi, Sep 12 : To give a major push for creation of high quality infrastructure in premier educational institutions, the Union Cabinet on Monday approved the establishment of a Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA).

"The HEFA would be jointly promoted by the identified promoter and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) with an authorised capital of Rs 2,000 crore. The Government equity would be Rs 1,000 crore," an official statement said, after the meeting of the union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The HEFA would be formed as a SPV within a PSU Bank or Government-owned-NBFC (Promoter).

"It would leverage the equity to raise up to Rs 20,000 crore for funding projects for infrastructure and development of world class Labs in IITs/IIMs/NITs and such other institutions," the statement added.

The HEFA would also mobilise CSR funds from PSUs or corporates, which would in turn be released for promoting research and innovation in these institutions on grant basis.

The HEFA would finance the civil and lab infrastructure projects through a 10-year loan. The principal portion of the loan will be repaid through the 'internal accruals' (earned through the fee receipts, research earnings etc) of the institutions. The government would service the interest portion through the regular Plan assistance.

All the centrally funded higher educational institutions would be eligible for joining as members of the HEFA.

For joining as members, the institution should agree to escrow a specific amount from their internal accruals to HEFA for a period of 10 years.

This secured future flows would be securitised by the HEFA for mobilising the funds from the market. Each member institution would be eligible for a credit limit as decided by HEFA based on the amount agreed to be escrowed from the internal accruals, the statement said.
Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 12 : With Onam at Kerala's doorstep, one thing common to all households would be the most popular 26 dish Onam sadya -- verily the Mother of all vegetarian meals in the state.

Of the three Onam days, including the first, second and third Onam, which begins from Sep 13, it's the "Thiruonam", the second day, which is the highlight as this is when the sadya is served on a plantain leaf and eaten with the hands.

Even though the common meal at most Hindu marriages in Kerala is the sadya, it's the one served on Onam that wins hands down simply because it binds practically every Keralite, as the harvest festival is celebrated irrespective of religion.

The mouth-watering lunch includes chips, poppadoms, various vegetables, a variety of sweet and sour pickles, the traditional aviyal, sambar, dal along with a small quantity of ghee, rasam, two different kinds of buttermilk, a chutney powder prepared from grated coconut and a series of payasams eaten either straight or mixed with a small ripe plantain.

"This is the first time in recent times that our family is coming together. It was a unanimous decision that this time we will celebrate Onam in its true sense and will prepare our sadya at our ancestral home. This is to relive the Onam that this house had seen for several years," said Malini Sukumaran who arrived in Thiruvalla with her family from Doha and is now waiting for the arrival of her three siblings.

But 70-year-old Devaki Nair, a retired teacher, is not pleased with the way things take place during Onam -- be it the meals or the festivities.

"I remember in my younger days, in the run-up to Onam, the activities would begin at least a month before. My father used to ensure that all the essential items, including vegetables, are either readied for harvesting or sourced from other homes or markets a few days before Thiruonam. As a result, the best produce used to be in our kitchen," said Nair, who lives alone at her home near Kottayam and is now waiting the arrival of her son and his family from Kuwait.

Sreedevi Karthikeyan, a homemaker, has adapted to the changing times and recalled with a smile how the minutest of details were taken care of before serving the sadya.

"My father was very particular about everything. Even the colour of the plantain leaf was taken note of and the way it was placed on the dining table or on the floor. There was even an order of serving the curries, the way the meal was eaten and the way it ended. Today, I really doubt if all the rules are followed," said Karthikeyan.

These days, many households, rather than preparing the Onam sadya in their kitchens, rely on caterers and restaurants, who provide the meal in neatly-packed containers.

This year, the cheapest packed Onam sadya starts from around Rs 200 and goes beyond Rs 2000 in five-star hotels.

(Sanu George can be contacted at sanu.g@ians.in)
Damascus, Sep 12 : Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made a rare public appearance on Monday at prayers of Eid al-Adha in the town of Daraya, which was recently surrendered by rebels.

In August, rebels and their families fled Daraya after years of indiscriminate barrel bombing and skirmishes, surrendering it to the Assad regime, the Independent reported.

According to the local media, Assad performed prayers of Eid al-Adha at the Saad Ibn Muaz Mosque in Daraya.

A photo published by the media showed Assad kneeling at prayer in a bare hall alongside the state's grand mufti and other worshippers.

And a video aired on state TV appeared to suggest that Assad drove himself to the mosque, as if to highlight the security of what was described as the newly "liberated" suburb.

Fighting continues across the capital's eastern outskirts, ahead of a nationwide ceasefire brokered between the US and Russia and due to begin at sunset on Monday.

Many of the rebels who left Daraya fled to Syria's rebel-controlled Idlib province, under a locally-brokered agreement between the warring sides. Some civilians were evacuated to other government-held areas near Damascus.

In total, Daraya was blockaded and bombarded by the government for four years. It was the scene of many now-familiar videos posted by opposition activists to social media, showing regime helicopters dropping bombs on built-up areas.

The suburb was home to a number of leaders of the civilian opposition. When they finally left last month, residents kissed the ground and said their last goodbyes to family graves, not expecting to return any time soon.
Bengaluru, Sep 12 : Security was tightened across Bengaluru on Monday to prevent attacks on people over the Cauvery river water controversy and for the Bakrid festival on Tuesday, said Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwar.

"We have intensified security and stepped up vigil in Bengaluru to ensure peace and maintain law and order. Additional police forces have been deployed in localities where pre-dominantly Tamils live, for their protection," Parameshwar told reporters here.

Platoons of Karnataka State Reserve Police have been rushed to Mandya and Mysuru for deployment on the state highways and protecting reservoirs in the river basin from being attacked by angry protestors over the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.

The additional measures were taken amid reports that miscreants had set afire two trucks with Tamil Nadu registration at Nice road on Bengaluru-Mysuru road and at Attibele near the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border on National Highway 7.

Pro-Kannada activists, led by Karnataka Rakshana Vedike members, protested in the city against attacks on Kannadigas in Chennai and damage to Karnataka registered buses earlier in the day.

"I appeal to the people, especially the protesters, not to attack anyone or damage public property, including buses, cars and transport vehicles," reiterated Parameshwar.

Expressing disappointment over the Supreme Court's Monday order, directing the state to release 12,000 cusecs of water daily to Tamil Nadu till September 20, the minister said though the state had respect for the court, the government would again approach it to modify the latest order due to water shortage in the reservoirs.

"We are not happy with the latest order. But we have to respect the order. We will again ask the court to modify its order, as we not in a position to release any more water due to the distress situation in the state," asserted Parameshwar.

Karnataka filed an interim petition on Saturday seeking modification of the apex court's September 5 order directing the state to release 15,000 cusecs daily from September 7 for 10 days (up to September 16).

"We have petitioned the court to modify its order and accept our offer to release 10,000 cusecs daily for six days instead of 15,000 cusecs for 10 days, as we need water for drinking purpose in the region till June next," Paremeshwar added.
Manila, Sep 12 : Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said on Monday that US special forces in southern Philippines should leave, media reported.

"The US special forces have to go," Xinhua news agency quoted Duterte as saying in a speech at the oath taking ceremony of newly appointed officials in the presidential palace.

The President said that during his attendance at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and the East Asia Summits in Laos last week, he wanted to mention the plan, but he did not raise this "out of respect."

"I do not want rift with America, but they have to go," he said.

Duterte said he wanted the US forces to leave Mindanao because they can be targeted by the kidnap-for-ransom groups.

Earlier, the President had said that the Philippines under his administration would pursue an independent foreign policy "without any interference" from any country.

In Vientiane, controversy hounded Duterte for making "strong remarks" against US President Barack Obama in connection with comments made by American officials on drug-related extrajudicial killings in the country.

Duterte's remarks prompted Obama to cancel a scheduled meeting with him on the sidelines of the Asean meetings.
Agartala, Sep 12 : The Speaker of the Tripura Assembly on Monday rejected the Trinamool Congress' (TMC) latest demand for the status of main opposition party in the assembly.

"I studied the TMC (Tripura unit) chairman Ratan Chakraborty's two fresh letters demanding recognition of the party as main opposition party in the state assembly. According to the Supreme Court verdict, Lok Sabha's act and Tripura Assembly's rules, the TMC cannot get the opposition party status in the house," assembly Speaker Ramendra Chandra Debnath told reporters.

He said: "The TMC in their letters referred to the Tripura acts of 1972 and 2008. Both the acts are relating to salaries and allowances of members of the assembly."

According to the same procedures, Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan had rejected the Congress' demand for recognition of the party as main opposition party and offering the post of Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha to Mallikarjun Kharge."

Kharge is the Congress' floor leader in the Lok Sabha.

TMC leader Chakraborty in his letters to the speaker requested him to recognise the TMC as main opposition party and to grant status of Leader of Opposition (LoP) to the party's newly-elected legislature party leader Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl as the party has the "required strength in the assembly".

After three-month-long parleys six legislators were recognised as TMC MLAs by the assembly speaker on August 29. The Speaker while recognising the TMC legislators, citing rules and Supreme Court verdict, had refused to give opposition party status to the TMC in the assembly.

Quoting the provision of the Tripura assembly rules of procedure and conduct of business, TMC leader Sudip Roy Barman said that the 1972 and 2008 acts categorically stated that an MLA could only have the eligibility to become LoP if his party has the largest numerical strength in the assembly.

The TMC leader had earlier threatened to take the speaker to court if he refused to recognise Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl as the Leader of the Opposition.

"As the speaker announced his final decision today (Monday), the party would take suitable steps in appropriate time," said Hrangkhawl, a veteran tribal leader and former Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee chief.

A TMC leader on condition of anonymity hinted that the party is likely to seek the Governor or the court's intervention as the speaker neither granted LoP status nor recognised it as the main opposition party in the house.

The six MLAs, led by former opposition leader Sudip Roy Barman, quit the Congress on April 7 and joined the TMC on June 7 in protest against the Congress' alliance with Left parties ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections in April-May.

Constitutional experts here said that G.V. Mavalankar, the first Lok Sabha Speaker, had said that the main opposition party's strength must equal the quorum -- which is 10 per cent of the total strength -- required for functioning of the House.

This point was later incorporated in Direction 121 (1) of the Directions by the Speaker, Lok Sabha, and The Leaders and Chief Whips of Recognised Parties and Groups in Parliament (facilities) Act of 1998, the experts said.

Like the current Lok Sabha, in 1980 and 1984, when Congress was in power, there was no recognised Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

The Election Commission recently granted national party status to TMC as the party headed by Mamata Banerjee has fulfilled the conditions required to become a national party after getting the status of state party in four states -- West Bengal, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura.
Kolkata, Sep 12 : Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt paid a courtesy visit to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the Nabanna state secretariat in neighbouring Howrah district on Monday.

Banerjee exchanged pleasantries and introduced the "Munna Bhai M.B.B.S" star to her cabinet ministers.

The Trinamool Congress supremo had good relations with Sanjay's star father, the late Sunil Dutt, and had rallied behind Sanjay who was sentenced to five years in jail in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.
Fort Pierce (Florida), Sep 12 : Investigators in Florida suspect arson behind a fire that broke out in a mosque attended by Omar Mateen, the gunman in the Orlando gay nightclub shooting which claimed the lives of 49 persons and injured dozens more.

Officials received a call around 12.31 a.m. (local time) on Monday reporting a fire at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, Florida, a police official said. Firefighters responded and extinguished the fire, ABC news reported.

The blaze broke out hours after the passing of the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, on the three-month anniversary of the June 12 Orlando massacre at the Pulse gay0 nightclub, and also on the same day as the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.

Investigators said evidence points to an intentional fire, and the police was investigating the incident as arson, officials said at a press conference.

A surveillance video showed an individual walking up to the east side of the building prior to a flash and a fire breaking out, an official said.

"Right now I don't want to speculate on a motive," the official said, adding "we all know the implications of the date and the time of year, this is the 9/11 anniversary. Is that related? I would not want to speculate but it is in the back of our minds."

"This is a horrible tragedy, not only for the Islamic Center, but also for our community," the official noted.

The mosque received multiple threats in the weeks following the Orlando massacre after it was revealed that Mateen attended the Fort Pierce mosque as a child and continued to visit the Islamic house of worship several days a week until the June 12 attack.
Srinagar, Sep 12 : With mobile and broadband services suspended on Monday, curfew to be re-imposed and few signs of any celebrations, the Kashmir Valley braced for a tense Eid on Tuesday with separatists calling for a march to the office of United Nations Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) here.

All mobile phone services, apart from BSNL's post-paid connections, were suspended across the valley on Monday, the 66th day of the shutdown, as intelligence officials said there were "inputs that separatists are planning large-scale violence on Eid in Srinagar and elsewhere".

Broadband Internet facility on fixed landlines was suspended later.

Authorities on Monday decided to impose curfew in all 10 districts of Kashmir Valley as well as in Srinagar to prevent the march to the UNMOGIP office in the Sonwar area of the summer capital.

Even as shops, businesses, schools and colleges, petrol bunks and offices remained shut on a call by separatists, now extended to September 16, some areas on Srinagar's outskirts had some shops selling essentials ahead of the festival, though two of the most sought-after food items on Eid -- mutton and breads -- remained largely unavailable to the people of the valley.

Separatists have appealed for austere Eid celebrations as a mark of respect for the victims of the ongoing unrest, sparked by the July 8 killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.

The toll in the unrest stands at 80, including two policemen, and several thousand injured, many of them partially or fully blinded by pellets used for crowd control.

Security personnel have been deployed in Srinagar and other places in the valley. Before the decision to impose curfew on Eid day, a senior police official had told IANS: "Restrictions have been imposed in Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama districts."

Curbs had also been imposed in Khanyar, Nowhatta and M R Gunj police station areas of Srinagar city, the official said. The valley will remain shut despite Eid celebrations on Tuesday, he added.

One civilian was killed and 17 others, including seven policemen, were injured when guerrillas lobbed a grenade on Monday evening at Sherbagh police station in Anantnag town, said a police official. Five of the seven injured policemen were critical and have been shifted to Srinagar for treatment.

Meanwhile, security forces found the body of a fourth militant inside an under construction mini secretariat building in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, where a gunfight began on Sunday.

A senior police official said while carrying out room-to-room searches in the building in Poonch town, security forces found the body, taking the toll of militants killed in the operation to four.

On Sunday morning, the holed-up guerrillas had started a gunfight with the security forces which resulted in the killing of three militants and one policeman.

Five others -- a police official, a civilian and three soldiers -- were injured in the attack.

Authorities said 'Carvan-e-Aman', the weekly bus service across the Line of Control (LoC) from Srinagar to Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-held Kashmir, was suspended on Monday because of Eid, and all passengers informed about the decision.

Despite the ongoing unrest in the valley, the bus service had continued uninterrupted carrying about 78 people who travelled across the LoC between the two parts of divided Kashmir during this period.

"The cross LoC bus service continued uninterrupted since July 9 except on July 11 and July 18 when the service was suspended because of the law and order situation in the valley," an official said here.

Meanwhile, Human rights watchdog Amnesty International accused India of using excessive force against protesters in Kashmir.

Executive Director of Amnesty International India, Aakar Patel, in a statement issued here, said: "Security forces are using arbitrary and excessive force in response to protests in Jammu and Kashmir."

He added, "India is violating international standards and worsening the human rights crisis in the state."

"Pellet-firing shotguns have injured and blinded even peaceful protesters and bystanders. Children have been hit by pellets from these shotguns while sitting inside their homes."

The statement quoted media reports of September 2, saying, "India's Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) approved the use of PAVA (Pelargonic Acid Vanillyl Amide) shells -- a chilli-based munition -- as an alternative to pellet-firing shotguns, to be used only in 'rare' cases."

"However, there have been over 100 reported cases of pellet injuries in the first week of September at hospitals in Srinagar," it stated.
Shillong, Sep 12 : The combined opposition Meghalaya People's Front (MPF) and Hill State People's Democratic Party (HSPDP) on Monday served a notice for moving a motion of no-confidence against the Mukul Sangma-led Congress government for its failure on all fronts.

The notice to move the no-confidence motion against the Congress-NCP-led government came two days after the assembly on Friday had admitted a resolution moved by opposition chief whip James Sangma seeking the removal of speaker Abu Taher Mondal.

Mondal had set the date for taking up the resolution for his removal as September 16.

The latest notice served by opposition chief whip James Sangma, HSPDP legislator Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit and United Democratic Party legislator Jemino Mawthoh was submitted to the Assembly Secretary before the start of the second day of the autumn session.

However, the speaker said that he will take a decision on the no-confidence motion against the government on Wednesday.

"I will take a decision on the no-confidence motion only after examining the matter whether to admit or not the motion against the government," Mondal told journalists.

Moreover, he said the no-confidence motion can be admitted provided that there are ten members of the House supporting the motion.

"We have decided to move no-confidence motion against the government because the general mood of the people today in the state is that this government has failed its citizens completely," Sangma said.

"As public representatives we feel it is our duty to take this feeling and bring it to the assembly in the most appropriate and strong form of dissatisfaction," he added.

Blaming the government for the prevailing law and order situation in the state, the opposition chief whip said, "Crime against women and children is on the rise which simply means the government is not competent to handle situation of law and order. Therefore, this government has failed in its duty to protect its citizens especially women and children."

Apart from the prevailing law and order situation, the Opposition accused the government of poor fiscal management.

"When the government fails to take responsibility for its failure, the Opposition has to tell them in the strongest possible way -- take the responsibility for it and admit there are a lot of problems," Sangma said.

In the 60-member assembly, the ruling Meghalaya United Alliance comprises 30 Congress members, two of the Nationalist Congress Party and 11 independents.

The opposition MPF comprises eight United Democratic Party legislators and two from Nationalist People's Party.

The opposition Hill State People's Democratic Party, which has four members, and two Independents are not part of the Meghalaya People's Front.
New Delhi, Sep 12 : The Congress on Monday targeted the BJP on the issue of black money and accused it of launching "tax terrorism" in the country under its income disclosure scheme.

"The BJP-led NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government has launched a reign of tax terrorism across the country under its income declaration scheme, which was launched in 2015," Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters here.

"Under this scheme, which applied to money undeclared in foreign banks, the total declaration made till August 30 was Rs 4,164 crore only," Tewari said, adding, "and the total tax collected was only Rs 2,428 crore."

"While the government estimated a tax collection of Rs 50,000 crore and estimated an income declaration of Rs 1 lakh crore," he added.

The Congress leader also said that in 1997, the then United Front government had launched voluntary disclosure of income scheme (VDIS) under which total declaration made was Rs 33,000 crore while total tax collected by the government was Rs 10,000 crore.

Tewari also accused the government of threatening the small businessmen and honest taxpayers, and said, "if today we go to any trading hub in the country there are these horror stories of how the small trader, the honest businessman, the honest taxpayer is being literally coerced in order to make declaration to fulfil the target under this income declaration scheme."

"While the oligarchs and crony capitalists and their friends in suit boot are making merry," he added.

The Congress leader also said that BJP leader L. K. Advani had released a report on black money in February 2011 which had estimated an amount of Rs 25 lakh crore as black money in the foreign banks.

Firing salvos at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Tewari said, "BJP had said there is Rs 25 lakh crore in foreign bank. Why have you been only able to recover Rs 2,428 crore. Where is the rest?"

"Why have you not brought that money back? Or was that task report only intended to throw sensational numbers into the public discourse?" the Congress leader asked.

"Income disclosure schemes work on incentives and not on intimidation," Tewari said.

The Congress leader also called upon the government to not use any coercive measures to fulfil any targets it has set for itself. "Don't convert the income disclosure scheme into a coercive income disclosure scheme. Don't perpetrate tax terrorism on honest tax payers for your fanciful targets."
Kathmandu, Sep 12 : Nepal on Monday announced the four-day state visit of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' to India from Thursday -- his first foreign visit after taking over as prime minister last month.

Prachanda is paying a state visit on the invitation of Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, said a Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement.

The Prime Minister will be accompanied by his spouse, Sita Dahal. He will be staying at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi as the State Guest of the Government of India.

Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat who is currently in New Delhi in preparation for the high level visit, will accompany the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister will attend a reception to be hosted by the Embassy of Nepal in New Delhi on Thursday.

On Friday, he will attend a Ceremonial Reception and inspect a Guard of Honour at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. He will then pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat.

On the same day, Prime Minister Prachanda will call on Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, and hold official meeting with Indian Prime Minister Modi. Some senior Cabinet members of the Government of India will call on Prachanda on the same day.

During the visit, Dahal will inspect the Nathpa Jhakri Hydropower Project in Himachal Pradesh and visit Patanjali Yogpeeth and its industrial/manufacturing units in Haridwar.

According to the statement, Prachanda is also to interact with the intellectual circle and business community in New Delhi as well as with the Nepali community in India during the visit. The PM and his delegation will return home on Sunday.

According to the statement, Ramesh Lekhak, Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport, Members of the Legislature-Parliament, Secretaries and other officials from different Ministries, media persons and representatives of business community will also be part of the delegation.

Announcement of the visit comes as Nepal Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat met his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj at New Delhi on Monday.

Mahat, who is in New Delhi to prepare the ground for the first foreign visit of the Prime Minister, discussed issues related to Prachanda's visit and other bilateral issues during the meeting.

Mahat also met some political leaders in New Delhi during the visit. These include Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Nationalist Congress Party general secretary D.P. Tripathi, Janata Dal (United) secretary K.C. Tyagi, Vijay Pratap of Socialist Font, among other leaders, the Kathmandu Post reported.

Mahat is to discuss about implementation of Pancheswor Project, solution to Nepal's energy crisis and other energy-related issues with Indian Power Minister Piyush Goyal.

He is to also meet Indian Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari to discuss construction of the Postal Road.

He returns home on Tuesday.

Prachanda was Prime Minister earlier from 2008 to 2009.
New Delhi, Sep 12 : Twenty two Keralites accused of leaving India to join the Islamic State are learnt to have reached "the caliphate" in Afghanistan in the first week of July, said investigators who grilled the arrested IS sympathiser Yasmin Mohd Zahid.

The 29-year-old Yasmin was arrested at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport while trying to exit India for Afghanistan on August 1.

She informed investigators that thirteen of the missing Keralites were men, six women and three children, and "they had left their houses in Kasaragod and Palakkad districts of Kerala between mid-May and the first week of July."

Citing Yasmin's statement, a National Investigation Agency (NIA) official, close to the investigation, told IANS that all of the missing Keralites had "exited India from Bengaluru, Hyderabad or Mumbai airports for Kuwait, Dubai, Muscat or Abu Dhabi from where they are learnt to have travelled to Afghanistan through Iran."

During custodial interrogation, Yasmin further said that she had got married to Abdul Rashid, 30, on May 3 this year in a nikah ceremony solemnised over phone. Rashid is one of the accused who left India along with other Keralites.

Investigators said that two other co-accused Ashfak and Yahya acted as witnesses of the nikah ceremony while another co-accused Shihas acted as "wali" (guardian) of the bride.

Yasmin also informed investigators that her husband Rashid used to send videos and messages to her on Telegram -- a messaging app -- in support of "the caliphate and Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi".

She told NIA interrogators that Rashid and his first wife Ayesha were in touch with a UK couple who were converts to Islam and were spreading messages in support of IS and the Caliphate over Telegram channel.

"Rashid had told Yasmin in the first week of July that he and other missing persons from Kerala had reached the Caliphate in Afghanistan," the NIA official said citing Yasmin's statement.

The officer said that Rashid had also given the ATM card of his first wife Ayesha to Yasmin and transferred Rs 1.5 lakh into the account in mid-July which Yasmin used for her travel preparations to Afghanistan.

"Yasmin had purchased flight tickets, paid for the Afghanistan visa and also purchased $620 using the money."

The NIA also said on Monday that the sister of another missing accused person Dr Ijas informed them that her brother and his wife Refaela were blessed with a baby girl on September 6.

The NIA had registered an FIR in the case in the last week of August.

The FIR has listed 19 missing persons as the accused. As many as 14 persons from Kasaragod district and five from Palakkad are on the list. The agency is probing whether the missing persons are linked with terror outfit IS.

The children, who are believed to have gone missing with their parents, have been excluded from the list of the accused. Sources with the NIA said some unidentified persons are also accused in the case. The FIR was registered at the NIA court in Kochi.

(Rajnish Singh can be contacted at rajnish.s@ians.in)
New Delhi, Sep 12 : The Delhi Police on Monday arrested a 70-year-old retired government official from east Delhi for the alleged murder of his son.

Ganesh Prasad Shukla allegedly shot dead his son on Friday afternoon following a heated argument after the former attacked and injured his daughter-in-law over a property issue, police said.

The incident was reported around 1.25 p.m. from east Delhi's Mandawali area.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Rishipal told IANS that Ganesh Prasad opened fire on his son Mahendra Nath Shukla, 30, following the argument.

During interrogation Ganesh Prasad stated that there were frequent quarrels in the family over the distribution of property between his son Mahender Nath Shukla and his daughter, the officer said.

According to police, Shukla wanted to gift half of his ancestral property to his daughter which was vehemently opposed by his son and daughter-in-law.

"On Friday, his daughter-in-law again quarrelled with the accused over the same issue and out of anger, the accused hit her with a stick. The daughter-in-law complained to her husband, Mahender."

"Mahender confronted his father over the issue. Ganesh then shot dead his son with a single barrel gun," the officer added.
Chennai, Sep 12 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa on Monday expressed serious concern at the mob violence targeting Tamils in Karnataka and urged the neighbouring state's government to provide them with necessary security.

In a letter to her Karnataka counterpart Siddaramaiah, she said: "As per the reports received, the violence has escalated and a large number of vehicles, including more than 40 buses, 45 lorries and many other vehicles bearing Tamil Nadu number plates have been burnt and damaged."

She said groups of protestors from Karnataka are regularly assembling at borders of two states near Hosur and threaten vehicles and commuters from Tamil Nadu.

Jayalalithaa said there has been several instances of mob violence targeting Tamil speaking persons and their property in Karnataka.

"Hotels and properties belonging to Tamils in Karnataka are being attacked and damaged. This is an alarming situation and is causing considerable anxiety," she said.

Referring to Siddaramaiah's letter to her on Monday Jayaalithaa said immediately after the Supreme Court issued the order to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu instructions to police were given to ensure maintenance of law and order and adequate protection provided to all Kannada-speaking people and their properties in Tamil Nadu.

"We have ensured that no major incidents of any kind targeting Kannada speaking people or their properties have occurred," she said.
New Delhi, Sep 12 : Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday assured full central assistance to chief ministers of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to deal with the situation arising out of the dispute over Cauvery river water sharing.

Home ministry officials said Rajanth Singh held a telephonic conversation with Tamil Nadu'sJ. Jayalalithaa and Karnataka's Siddaramaiah.

"Home minister has assured of full central assistance to the CMs of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to deal with the situation," an official said.

Widespread violence broke out in southern Karnataka on Monday over the apex court order to release Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu, with protesters torching over 20 buses in a bus depot in Bengaluru.

In Tamil Nadu, a group of unidentified assailants attacked the New Woodlands Hotel, owned by a Kannadiga, in Mylapore.
London, Sep 12 : Former British Prime Minister David Cameron has stood down as a Tory MP, triggering a by-election in his Oxfordshire seat of Witney.

Cameron, who resigned as Prime Minister after June's European Union referendum, said he did not want to be a "distraction" for new Prime Minister Theresa May, the BBC reported on Monday.

The 49-year-old said his replacement had "got off to a cracking start".

Cameron, who has represented Witney since 2001, became Conservative leader in 2005 and Prime Minister in 2010.

Speaking in his constituency, Cameron said it had been a "great honour" to be an MP for the area, but said it would be difficult for him to remain on the backbenches without becoming "a big distraction and a big diversion" from the work of the new government.

He denied his announcement was related to the government's moves towards allowing new grammar schools, a policy he rejected as Prime Minister.

He said the timing -- which came after a period of reflection over the summer -- was coincidental, adding that there were "many good things" in the proposed education reforms.

He said May -- his former Home Secretary -- had been "very understanding" when he told her of his decision.

Asked about his legacy, and whether he would be remembered as the prime minister who took Britain out of the EU, he said he hoped his tenure would be recalled for a strong economy and "important social reforms" and that he had transformed a Conservative Party that was "in the doldrums" into a "modernising winning force".

Cameron won a 25,155 majority in 2015 in Witney, which has been held by the Conservatives since 1974, the BBC reported.

He said he had not made any "firm decisions" on what to do next, adding that he wanted to continue to contribute to public life, the BBC added.

Conservative MPs paid tribute to Cameron on Twitter, saying he had been an "outstanding" Prime Minister who would be a "big loss" to Parliament.

Cameron initially became Prime Minister in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, before securing an overall majority in 2015.

He pressed ahead with his pledge to hold a referendum on Britains's EU membership -- campaigning hard for a Remain vote and warning of the economic and security consequences of Brexit.

But he finished on the losing side, announcing his resignation the day after the vote, saying outside Downing Street that "fresh leadership" was needed.

At the time, he said he would continue as an MP until the next general election.
Mumbai, Sep 12 : Bollywood actresses heaped praise on Shoojit Sarkar's "Pink" after watching the film at the special screening held here by Amitabh Bachchan on Sunday.

Gauhar Khan said, "I feel fortunate to be a part of this industry where an actor like Mr. Bachchan works. I am speechless and only want to say that please go and watch 'Pink'. I have no words to express. Tapsee and other girls are outstanding and no words for Mr. Bachchan. Just watch him."

Actress Dia Mirza expressed, "I think every Indian should watch the movie. It is very relevant and brings out the most crucial issue of our society. It's an outstanding movie."

After receiving much appreciation for her performance, an overwhelmed Tapsee said, "I still can't believe that all are appreciating the film so much and they really mean it."

"I think I am going to have a good sleep today," the actress smiled.

Other celebrities like Yami Gautam, Neha Dhupia, Sunidhi Chauhan and Shalmali Kholgade took to the social networking sites to applaud the film.

Actress Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari and debutant Andrea Tariang are playing the role of three young women in Delhi who face assault charges after being molested by a group of men and "Piku" actor Amitabh Bachchan portrays the lawyer for the three girls.

The courtroom drama-thriller directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury is written by Ritesh Shah and produced by Rashmi Sharma and Shoojit Sircar. The film also stars Piyush Mishra, Angad Bedi and Dhritiman Chatterjee. It is scheduled to release on September 16.
London, Sep 13 : An Indian-origin engineer arrived in Britain with his solar-powered tuk-tuk on Monday after making a seven-month, 6,200-mile overland adventure.

Naveen Rabelli, 35, who set off from India in February, reached Dover town in England five days later than expected because his passport and wallet were stolen in France.

After obtaining an emergency passport and crossing the Channel from Calais, Rabelli said of his epic journey was fantastic until he got to Paris where his some of his belongings were stolen and two battery packs died.

"The highlights have been the way people have helped me out along the way and supported me. People love the tuk-tuk, particularly in Iran and many other countries. They come forward and take selfies. And the moment I tell them it doesn't require petrol, their minds are blown," The Guardian quoted Rabelli as saying.

Rabelli, who was born in India and became an Australian citizen while working as an automotive engineer there, hopes to end his journey at Buckingham Palace.

While posing for pictures beside his tuk-tuk, he said he had his vehicle properly checked by British border officials "because he had been travelling for seven months and had an emergency passport".

His self-modified tuk-tuk is fitted with a bed, a seat for a co-passenger, a cupboard with food donated by people and a solar-powered cooker.

Rabelli embarked on the adventure to raise awareness of electric and solar-powered vehicles as a sustainable low-cost alternative mode of transport.

He said the idea of converting a fuel-based tuk-tuk to renewable energy came about when he and a friend were stuck in traffic in India surrounded by noisy, polluting tuk-tuks.

He started his trip in India before his tuk-tuk was shipped to Bandar Abbas in Iran.

His overland mission then began in earnest, he drove through Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Austria, Switzerland, Germany and France.
London, Sep 13 : In a major setback for the social media giant Facebook, the company has lost a legal bid to prevent a 14-year-old girl from suing it over a her naked picture that was posted on a "shame page" on the platform as an act of revenge.

A high court judge in Northern Ireland's capital Belfast on Monday rejected Facebook's attempt to have the claim by the girl struck out, The Guardian reported on Monday.

The victim is also taking a legal action against the man who allegedly posted the picture on Facebook.

A lawyer for the teenager even compared the publishing of the photo to a method of child abuse.

The girl has sought damages for misuse of private information, negligence and breach of the Data Protection Act.

Her photograph was said to have been posted on a so-called shame page on Facebook several times between November 2014 and January 2016.

The girl's legal team argued that Facebook had the power to block any re-publication by using a tracking process to identify the image to which a lawyer for Facebook said the claim for damages should be dismissed as the company always took down the picture when it was notified.

Facebook's lawyers relied on a European directive that they claimed provides protection from having to monitor a vast amount of online material for what is posted on one page.

The case against Facebook and the man who it is claimed originally posted the picture will now move to full trial in Belfast at a later date.
Ex Libris Leganto Celebrates One-Year Anniversary

Ex Libris, a ProQuest company, is pleased to be celebrating the first anniversary of the launch of the Ex Libris Leganto course resource list solution.

JERUSALEM, Israel, September 12, 2016  Ex Libris, a ProQuest company, is pleased to be celebrating the first anniversary of the launch of the Ex Libris Leganto course resource list solution. Today, tens of thousands of instructors, students, and librarians are using the collaborative, cloudbased solution, and other customers are joining the Leganto community at a rapid pace.

With Leganto, instructors easily create, manage, and evaluate course resource lists consisting of materials of all types; students have access to all their course materials from a single location; and the library becomes a more active partner in the teaching and learning process, able to optimally address the institutions academic goals.

The past year has been an exciting one for Leganto, which has been chosen by more than 20 customers in nine countries, with 10 sites in production. Institutions that have recently opted for Leganto include Australias Western Sydney University and Australian Catholic University, the University of Sheffield in the UK, and the University of Limerick in Ireland.

Leganto was developed to bridge the gap between instructors, students, and the library surrounding course resources. The contributions of five development partnersUNSW in Australia, Imperial College London and Kingston University in the UK, KU Leuven in Belgium, and the University of Oklahoma in the United Stateshelped Leganto meet the needs of academic institutions worldwide.

The key is for our academic staff to find the system intuitive and friendly, explained University Librarian Martin Borchert of the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia. Leganto makes the creation and maintenance of reading lists much easier for instructors. The result is that academic staff members recommend the system to their colleagues, increasing the adoption of Leganto across departments. In addition, Leganto has positioned the library extremely well to support our planned expansion of online learning, in accordance with the UNSW 2025 Strategic Plan.

Chris Banks, director of library services at Imperial College London, commented: The integration of reading lists with Alma is central to Leganto. It helps libraries scale up to support more courses and makes library work with academic staff and students much more efficient. As a development partner working with Ex Libris, Imperial started the Leganto rollout last year at two faculties. We have now expanded our use of Leganto to support all faculties and have seen a huge increase in uptake of the tool.

Leganto serves as a collaborative tool for academic staff, students, and librarians, increasing student engagement, said Dr Clarissa Wilks, dean of learning and teaching at Kingston University. Leganto has proven itself at Kingston from day one, with widespread adoption by both academic staff and librarians and a constant increase in day-to-day use. The integration of Leganto with Alma and with our virtual learning environment enables our academic staff and students to enjoy the benefit of course reading lists that are up to date and easy to create, manage, evaluate, and use.

Carl Grant, associate dean for knowledge services and the chief technology officer at the University of Oklahoma Libraries, was also impressed by the contribution of Leganto to librarian-instructor collaboration and noted, The need for such a solution was clear to us, so we decided to join the development partnership. With Leganto, instructors choices of course materials are automatically shared with the library, so we can make materials of all types available in a timely matter, mitigate the risk of copyright breaches, and ensure the proper use of our collections. What is more, Leganto Analytics helps us understand usage patterns and develop library collections that best support the needs of our faculty members and students.

Shlomi Kringel, Ex Libris vice president of discovery and delivery solutions, remarked, We are excited to see the growing adoption of Leganto by instructors and students and the number of lists and citations that are added on a daily basis. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with the Leganto community and helping libraries leverage their expertise and demonstrate their value to teaching and learning at their institutions.

About Ex Libris

Ex Libris, a ProQuest company, is a leading global provider of cloud-based solutions for higher education. Offering SaaS solutions for the management and discovery of the full spectrum of library and scholarly materials, as well as mobile campus solutions driving student engagement and success, Ex Libris serves thousands of customers in 90 countries. For more information about Ex Libris, see our website, and join us on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

About ProQuest (http://www.proquest.com)

ProQuest connects people with vetted, reliable information. Key to serious research, the companys products are a gateway to the worlds knowledge including dissertations, governmental and cultural archives, news, historical collections and ebooks. ProQuest technologies serve users across the critical points in research, helping them discover, access, share, create and manage information.

The companys cloud-based technologies offer flexible solutions for librarians, students and researchers through the ProQuest, Bowker, Coutts information services, Dialog, ebrary, EBL, and SIPX businesses  and notable research tools such as the Summon discovery service, the RefWorks citation and reference management platform, MyiLibrary ebook platform, the Pivot research development tool and Intota. The company is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with offices around the world.
ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc.

NEWS RELEASE TSX: PMN

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ProMIS Neurosciences to Present at Rodman & Renshaw 18th Annual Global Investment Conference

ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc. (ProMIS or the Company) today announced that the company will present at the 18th Annual Rodman & Renshaw Global Investment Conference, sponsored by H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC. The conference is being held September 11-13, 2016, at Lotte New York Palace Hotel in New York City.

Gene Williams, Executive Chairman of ProMIS, will provide a corporate overview and review product portfolio progress and development plans during the live presentation and will be available to participate in one-on-one meetings with investors who are registered to attend the conference.

The presentation will be webcast live and can be accessed through the Company's website at http://www.promisneurosciences.com, and a replay will be available on the website for 90 days.

Presentation Time

September 13, 2016

2:10 PM (Eastern Time)

Location: Kennedy I (4th Floor), Lotte New York Palace Hotel

About ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc.

The mission of ProMIS Neurosciences is to discover and develop precision medicine therapeutics for the effective treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, in particular Alzheimers disease and ALS.

ProMIS Neurosciences proprietary target discovery engine is based on the use of two, complementary techniques. The Company applies its thermodynamic, computational discovery platformProMIS and Collective Coordinates  to predict novel targets known as Disease Specific Epitopes (DSEs) on the molecular surface of misfolded proteins. Using this unique "precision medicine" approach, ProMIS Neurosciences aims to develop novel antibody therapeutics and specific companion diagnostics for Alzheimers disease and ALS. The company has also developed two proprietary technologies to specifically identify very low levels of misfolded proteins in a biological sample. In addition, ProMIS Neurosciences owns a portfolio of therapeutic and diagnostic patents relating to misfolded SOD1 in ALS, and currently has a preclinical monoclonal antibody therapeutic against this target.

The TSX has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This information release may contain certain forward-looking information. Such information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by statements herein, and therefore these statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. All forward-looking statements are based on the Company's current beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to it as well as other factors. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Due to risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties identified by the Company in its public securities filings, actual events may differ materially from current expectations. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For further information, please consult the Company's website at:

http://www.promisneurosciences.com,

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NATIONAL Equicom

Michael Moore: 858-886-7813, mmoore(at)national(dot)ca

Abby Garfunkel: 403-218-2887, agarfunkel(at)national(dot)ca

or contact

Dr. Elliot Goldstein

President and Chief Executive Officer, ProMIS Neurosciences Inc.

Tel. 415 341-5783

Elliot.goldstein(at)promisneurosciences(dot)com
A Lad Who Went to Sea: A Story of Salvation: the biography of a sailor who finds his place in this world in the heart of God. A Lad Who Went to Sea: A Story of Salvation is the creation of published author, Albert Guy Pearce, retired sailor, dedicated writer and author.

Albert explains, This is a story of a sailor, myself. After graduating from high school, I went to sea. From the age of eighteen to thirty, I sailed the seven seas, from Cooks Inlet in the north to the Straits of Magellan in the south and as far as the east is from the west. Ive been to fifty-four countries but never saw Canada, though I lived a hundred miles from the border when I was a child. Ive sailed up the Congo River, the Mississippi, and the Amazon. Ive seen penguins, a twenty-five-foot tiger shark, and a Kodiak bear in the wild, and I sang with dolphins. I saw volcanoes, waterspouts, and a giant whirlpool two hundred yards wide. I was a sailor like my grandfather before me, and like him, I could tell a tall tale. Hah! I have learned that seeing the world isnt all there is to life. The question is why we are here and for what purpose and the big question, Why God? Why is there pain and suffering in the world?

He concludes, "This is my story, the story of a spoiled, wide-eyed lad who went to sea to see the world. A lad who looked for all the answers and found pain and confusion in a lost world. Looking for a reason to live, I found the love of God."

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Albert Guy Pearces new book is an enthralling and honest biography about finding the love of God amidst a sea of confusion.

View a synopsis of "A Lad Who Went to Sea: A Story of Salvation" on YouTube.

Consumers can purchaseA Lad Who Went to Sea: A Story of Salvation at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, Kobo or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about A Lad Who Went to Sea: A Story of Salvation, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
VitalSigns provides C-suite executives and managers with powerful actionable data that allows them to make impactful decisions in a timely manner.

NobelBiz announced today that TMC, a global, integrated media company, has awarded VitalSigns a 2016 Communications Solutions Product of the Year & Contact Center Technology of the Year Award.

Congratulations to NobelBiz for being honored with a Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award, said Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC. VitalSigns is truly an innovative product and is amongst the best solutions brought to market in the past twelve months that facilitates business-transforming voice, data and video communications. I look forward to continued excellence from NobelBiz in 2017 and beyond.

Phil Grudzinski, President of NobelBiz, commented, we are honored to receive these two awards. VitalSigns is a game-changing platform as it aggregates and normalizes any type of data from any source possible for the contact center. He added, VitalSigns provides C-suite executives and managers with powerful actionable data that allows them to make impactful decisions in a timely manner.

Mr. Tehrani added, This years Contact Center Technology Award winners are industry leaders in hardware, software and services who have demonstrated a commitment to creating innovative products. All of the winners have substantially improved the processes of their clients businesses and enhanced their ability to create satisfied customers.
Our business is built around the fantastic work of the WordPress community, and were proud to support anybody that shares our mission of making the WordPress experience better.

Nexcess, a leading provider of performance-optimized WordPress hosting, has announced its sponsorship of WordCamp Ann Arbor 2016, a community-organized gathering of WordPress users, professionals, and developers.

WordCamp Ann Arbor 2016 takes place on October 14 - 15 at the Michigan Rackham Graduate Building in downtown Ann Arbor, MI.

WordCamps are informal community events, organized by local WordPress users. They are an excellent opportunity for all WordPress users to connect with like-minded members of their local WordPress community.

WordPress is the product of its community, and events like WordCamp Ann Arbor help bring that community together to celebrate WordPress and form lasting bonds of friendship, commented Chris Wells, President and CEO of Nexcess, Our business is built around the fantastic work of the WordPress community, and were proud to support anybody that shares our mission of making the WordPress experience better.

Nexcess is a global WordPress hosting company based in Michigan, with facilities throughout the US, the EU, and Australia. Nexcess sponsors many conferences around the world, but is particularly happy to support a community-driven event in its home state.

WordPress Ann Arbor 2016 is a must for WordPress users who are interested in learning about WordPress security, blogging, coding, and branding. This years mix of user, business, and developer-focused sessions include Joel Worshams WordPress Version Control workshop; WordPress, SEO, And You by Rebecca Gill; Immediately Practical Ways To Use The WordPress API by Brian Richards; and Business, Culture And Hiring For The Remote World by Krystle Herbrandson of Sucuri.

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About Nexcess

Nexcess is a Southfield, Michigan-based managed Magento hosting company founded in 2000, with data centers distributed throughout the United States, Europe, and Australia. Nexcess offers a variety of Magento hosting services ranging from entry-level packages to custom clustered/complex hosting configurations, with an emphasis on achieving maximum performance for high-profile stores. For more information, visit http://www.nexcess.net.
Einsteins hands-on approach is highly compatible with the Museums culture and practice of child-centered play and learning. We are very excited about this collaboration and what it will mean for our audience.

Boston Childrens Museum and Einsteins Workshop, an innovator in hands-on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art/design, math) learning for children, have announced a collaboration that will bring Einsteins Workshops popular classes and workshops to the Museum.

We are delighted to partner with Einsteins Workshop to bring these highly relevant STEAM-based learning opportunities to our members and visitors, said Carole Charnow, President and CEO of Boston Childrens Museum. Einsteins hands-on approach is highly compatible with the Museums culture and practice of child-centered play and learning. We are very excited about this collaboration and what it will mean for our audience.

Einsteins Workshop, headquartered in Burlington Massachusetts, offers a spectrum of hands-on learning opportunities in STEAM related content at its Burlington Campus. Its classes and workshops combine exposure to the process of creative problem solving, with instructor-led use of software and other tools such as 3D printers, and offers children learning opportunities that they would normally not have access to in school or at home. Part maker space and part classroom, Einsteins Workshop inspires children to explore, grow, and gain confidence with science and engineering concepts critical to innovation and future learning.

Boston Childrens Museum has an amazing 100 year legacy of engaging visitors through fun, hands-on learning experiences. We are excited for the opportunity to deepen that type of engagement through our classes and workshops. This partnership supports the missions of both our organizations quite well, said Henry Houh, founder of Einsteins Workshop.

Classes and workshops to be offered at the Museum are aimed at children in grades K-6 and include LEGO Robotics, Scratch Programming, Stop Motion Animation, 3D Design and Printing, and Virtual Space Mission with Kerbal Space Program. There also will be Parent & Me Workshops offered to allow parents to engage in learning with their children.

The 3D Design and Printing class will feature Einsteins Workshops own BlocksCAD software. The free web-based software program that allows young learners to design 3D printable objects using block-based programming commands, while providing math and programming learning opportunities. BlocksCAD is now being used in schools, makerspaces, and fab labs worldwide.

Courses and workshops will be offered in the Museum every Sunday starting September 25. Classes will meet each Sunday for 90 minutes for four weeks. Price for the classes is $199 for non-members of the Museum, and $169 for members. Standalone workshops are 1 hour in length and are $30 for non-members and $25 for members. For families unable to commit to 4 weeks of classes, single half-day seminars also will be available at a price of $99 for non-members and $84 for members. Details on these offerings and online registration information can be found at http://www.einsteinsworkshop.com/bcm.

About Boston Children's Museum

Boston Childrens Museum engages children and families in joyful discovery experiences that instill an appreciation of our world, develop foundational skills, and spark a lifelong love of learning. More information about Boston Childrens Museum can be found at http://www.BostonChildrensMuseum.org. Become a fan of the Museum on Facebook and follow us on Twitter

About Einsteins Workshop

Einsteins Workshop is a hands-on STEAM learning center headquartered in Burlington, MA. We help students develop fluency in the math, science and engineering concepts through friendly and intuitive hands-on learning opportunities in programming, robotics, making & inventing, Minecraft & more.

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Morrison & Foerster, a leading global law firm, is pleased to announce that Katie Thomson, former general counsel of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), has joined the firm as a partner in Washington, D.C. Ms. Thomson, also previously the chief counsel at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), will chair the firms Transportation Group. Ms. Thomson will counsel transportation clients on regulatory matters, civil and criminal litigation, internal and governmental investigations, compliance issues, and cybersecurity matters.

For the last eight years Katie has played a pivotal role in shaping national transportation law and policy, including those regulations at the intersection of transportation and technology like autonomous vehicles and drones, as well as critical energy and sustainability initiatives. With more than 25 years of experience in both the government and private practice, Katie brings an outstanding background to Morrison & Foerster and is a key addition to our already highly accomplished Transportation Group, Larren Nashelsky, chair of Morrison & Foerster, said. We are also pleased to welcome another partner with deep regulatory expertise to our rapidly growing Washington, D.C. office. Katie is joining an exceptionally deep bench of lawyers who are committed to meeting the increasing regulatory needs of our clients.

Bill OConnor, co-chair of Morrison & Foersters Airports & Aviation Group and its Drones / Unmanned Aircraft Systems Group, added: Katies tremendous regulatory and litigation experience with countless complex traditional and cutting edge transportation matters during her time at the DOT and throughout her career will significantly grow the firms Transportation Group. Katie is uniquely qualified to advise and understand the needs of innovative clients involved in the transition to more sophisticated, technology-based, and integrated transportation systems and networks. Her work at the DOT on vehicle safety standards, recalls, and autonomous vehicles, as well as what she did at both the DOT and FAA around integrating drones into the national airspace are particularly noteworthy.

As general counsel at the DOT, a position that she held from May 2013 to July 2016, Ms. Thomson was involved in numerous high-profile policy decisions, including setting standards for vehicle safety and recalls; improving the safety of crude oil transportation; advancing U.S. aviation priorities overseas; moving forward regulatory priorities for autonomous vehicles; forming new emissions standards for vehicle fleets, railroads, and shipping; instituting an international carbon dioxide standard for commercial aircraft; responding to the European Unions Emissions Trading Scheme; and establishing pipeline safety and hazardous materials transport regulation. Throughout her time at the DOT, Ms. Thomson was the point person on interagency initiatives coordinated by the White House. She also advised senior leadership on how to respond to crises and emergency situations, including the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 accident in San Francisco.

Before her tenure as general counsel at the DOT, Ms. Thomson was chief counsel of the FAA for two years, where her principal focus was on enhancing aviation safety and the integration of drones into the national airspace. Among other things, she settled the largest air carrier enforcement matter in FAA history and provided legal advice regarding the Boeing 787 (Dreamliner) lithium ion battery matter, including the development and implementation of airworthiness directives to improve the safety of the aircraft. Ms. Thomson is the only person ever to serve as both general counsel of the DOT and chief counsel of the FAA.

Ms. Thomson also spent three years as counselor to DOT Secretary Ray LaHood, with responsibility for managing the departments energy, climate, and environmental matters. In addition, the secretary appointed Ms. Thomson as the first senior sustainability officer of the department, putting her in charge of internal energy efficiency and sustainability goals, toward which the department made great progress.

Before joining the government in 2009, Ms. Thompson practiced for 19 years in the environmental group at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., where she focused on civil and criminal litigation, compliance counseling, and regulatory advocacy focusing on energy generation and hazardous materials transportation.

Ms. Thomson received her B.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Morrison & Foerster has an impressive national reputation for litigation, federal regulatory, and transactional work involving aviation, railroads, drones, ground-based autonomous vehicles, and other forms of transportation. MoFos comprehensive and global platform, as well as its vast pool of technology clients, provides an ideal opportunity for me to help build an even stronger, cutting-edge transportation practice at the firm with my new colleagues, Ms. Thomson said. I am also excited to join a firm that is growing at such a significant pace in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Thomson is the 15th new partner hired by Morrison & Foerster in Washington, D.C., as well as Northern Virginia, during the last two years, with key additions made across the firms Litigation and Corporate Departments. During just the last six months, the firm has welcomed a group of eight government contracts partners, including David Churchill, whom Chambers has referred to as a dean of the government contracts bar, and Mark Whitaker, who has significantly expanded the firms East Coast intellectual property litigation capabilities.

ABOUT MOFO

We are Morrison & Foerster  a global firm of exceptional credentials. Our clients include some of the largest financial institutions, investment banks, Fortune 100, and technology and life sciences companies. The Financial Times has named the firm to its lists of most innovative law firms in North America and Asia every year that it has published its Innovative Lawyers Reports in those regions. In the past few years, Chambers USA has honored MoFos Bankruptcy and IP teams with Firm of the Year awards, the Corporate/M&A team with a client service award, and the firm as a whole as Global USA Firm of the Year. Our lawyers are committed to achieving innovative and business-minded results for our clients, while preserving the differences that make us stronger.
Our customers sleep soundly as our natural memory foam perfectly contours their bodies to eliminate pressure and establish an unparalleled comfort level.

Essentia continues to build a healthy sleep system empire, opening its 16th store in North America in Las Vegas. Essentia is the only organic mattress maker that boasts a clean label with the natural components of its latex memory foam. With its allergy-safe, plant-based composition and posture support, Essentias sleep systems truly are changing the way our bodies heal through sleep.

Were here to help the city that never sleeps replenish their bodies, says Jack DellAccio, CEO and Founder of Essentia. Lack of sleep is detrimental to our bodies in so many ways; without sleep, our bodies are unable to recover from daily stresses and injuries. Thats where we come in.

Essentia provides a recovery haven for our bodies where other mattresses fall short. Essentia is unlike any other mattress maker, offering a clean-label rehabilitative and healing sleep system thats certified and backed by university studies. The company addresses six key elements to recovery including whole-body comfort, optimized sleep, proper posture, temperature control, a clean air environment, and an allergy tested safe sleep system.

A quality and natural mattress is not just a financial investment, but also an investment in your health. Maintaining a healthy sleep schedule is made possible with Essentia, says DellAccio. Our customers sleep soundly as our natural memory foam perfectly contours their bodies to eliminate pressure and establish an unparalleled comfort level.

The store will be located inside the Fashion Show Mall, 3200 S. Las Vegas Blvd., Suite 2470, representing the companys third store opening in 2016 alone and its growing impact on sleep health in North America.

About Essentia

Essentia is the worlds first and only natural memory foam mattress innovator, helping put the one third of your life spent in bed to the greatest use by providing an organic recovery haven. Essentia is driven by an ongoing journey to redefine the idea that sleep is just a state of unconsciousness. Essentias actual goal is to unveil sleeps true impact as a whole-body rejuvenating and healing system. Essentia prides themselves on being the only product line on the market able to address the 6 key elements to recovery, which include Whole-body Comfort, Optimized Sleep, Proper Posture, Temperature Control, Clean Air Environment and Allergy Tested, that allow the body to recover faster from daily stresses, injury and even concussions. Essentia didnt stop at making the healthiest mattress in the world, through patented technologies, they took it to the next level and revolutionized sleep! To learn more, visit http://www.myessentia.com and stay updated on Twitter and Facebook.
We are extremely excited to showcase the features and benefits of our flagship product

Impact Mailers, a US-based specialist in direct marketing and customer acquisition, is excited to introduce new direct mail solutions to the restaurant and hospitality industry. Focusing on the design and production of an innovative plastic postcard technology, Impact Mailers offers customers unparalleled ROI and return rates when compared to traditional direct mail campaigns.

Restaurant clients across the country have enjoyed success with our plastic mailers, using them as a platform for loyalty programs, digital integration, mobile marketing and of course, building customer count. explains Patrick Casey, VP of Marketing for Impact Mailers. We look forward to sharing examples of our work with prospective new clients in Orlando and helping them achieve similar success. Restaurants in America represent an over $780 billion-dollar industry.

Impact Mailers offers comprehensive marketing services to clients nationwide that include everything from mailing list selection to graphic design. Its flagship product, the Impact Mailer plastic postcard, is made entirely of plastic and can be customized to include a pop-out key tag or loyalty card to encourage customer retention. The smooth, glass-like finish of the plastic stands out in the mailbox and carries with it a perceived cash value by the consumer, similar to a gift card. With over 100 years experience in the direct mail industry, the Impact Mailers team augments marketing strategies in industries such as automotive, fitness, and retail.

This year marks the first time Impact Mailers will have a presence at the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Show. Hosted at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, the event will run for three days, from September 27-29. Over 450 vendors are expected to showcase their products and attendees will have the opportunity to learn more about trends in menu design, restaurant decor, and best business practices.

We are extremely excited to showcase the features and benefits of our flagship product, the Impact Mailer, at such a well-respected industry event in Florida, concludes Casey.

Impact Mailers is a direct mail provider servicing a variety of B2C industries. Applications include plastic postcards, gift cards, loyalty cards, and other marketing solutions designed to elevate perceived value and thus customer retention.

For more information on Impact Mailers catalog of products or their personalized marketing plans, contact Patrick Casey at 404-850-7603 or visit their website at http://www.ImpactMailers.com.

The was submitted by ClickReady Marketing of Atlanta.
API Europe (Athens, Greece), an affiliate of American Process Inc. (Atlanta, GA) is one of 14 partners under the BIOFOREVER PROJECT, BIO-based products from FORestry via Economically Viable European Routes, to receive funding from the European Unions Horizon 2020 program. A number of pretreatment and subsequent conversion technologies will be demonstrated by various partners, including delivering commercialization routes for the most promising value-added products. Woody biomass, including waste wood will be converted to lignin, nanocellulose and lignocellulosic sugars, and further converted to lignin derivatives and chemicals like butanol, ethanol and 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) on industrial scale.

API Europe will demonstrate production of lignocellulosic sugars and high-value nanocellulose co-product using the proprietary AVAP process. They will also provide the conceptual engineering design services for the project team, which will be employed to accelerate the transfer of successful technology demonstrations to full commercial implementation.

The demonstration project starts in September 2016 and will run for 3 years. The overall budget is  16.2 million with a  9.9 million contribution from The Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking, a new Public-Private Partnership between the European Union and the Bio-based Industries Consortium, which operates under Horizon 2020. Horizon 2020 is the largest EU Research and Innovation program ever with nearly 80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020).

Theodora Retsina, Ph.D., CEO of API Europe, commented We are delighted to be part of BIOFOREVER consortium and to collaborate with the other members on this exciting European project. Woody biomass is an important European feedstock to fuel the bioeconomy and we look forward to evaluating the many different types of biomass included in the BIOFOREVER project. Biorefineries, as envisioned in BIOFOREVER, that produce commodity fuels and chemicals as well as high-value co-products like nanocellulose will have the most financial viability and impact.

According to Stamatina Sideri, Business Development Manager for API Europe, The team of API Europe is committed to the future of renewable energies and a sustainable bioeconomy. Our office in Greece has participated in many such projects worldwide and we are delighted to be part of this project that is focused in adding value to European biomass and cooperation between many technology companies.

BIOFOREVER consortium partners include:



API Europe, Greece

Avantium Chemicals BV, Netherlands

Bioprocess Pilot Facility BV, Netherlands

Borregaard AS, Norway

Bio Refinery Development BV, Netherlands

DSM, Netherlands

Elkem Carbon AS, Norway

Green Biologics Ltd, UK

MetGen Oy, Finland

Nova Institute, Germany

Novasep Process SAS, France

Phytowelt, Green Technologies GmbH, Germany

Port of Rotterdam, Netherlands

SUEZ Groupe, France

About API Europe

API Europe, an affiliate of US-based American Process Inc., is an engineering, research and development firm in the biotechnology space specializing in the development and scale-up of technologies for the production of biobased fuels, chemicals and materials.

For more information about API Europes role in the project, please contact:

Stamatina Sideri

Business Development Manager

API Europe

Karvela 5, Agia Paraskevi

Athens, Greece, 15342

Phone: +302106014887

E-mail: ssideri(at)api-europe(dot)gr
So many people are already working to increase participation in the arts, said Bob Morrison, Director, NJAEP. We want to highlight those efforts and build on them through Arts Ed Now."

The NJ-based Arts Ed Now campaign will officially launch on September 12, 2016 during national Arts Ed Week - with advocates featuring the initiative at local and statewide levels all week long.

Spurred by the New Jersey Arts Education Partnership (NJAEP), NJ State Council on the Arts, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and Americans for the Arts, Arts Ed Now is a multi-year campaign designed to increase participation in arts education in schools across New Jersey.

Studies show that students who participate in arts education do better in school and in life. The longer students are engaged in arts education, the better the outcomes are overall. To heighten the outcomes in New Jersey, Arts Ed Now is focused on increasing participation in every school in the state.

Unfortunately, not all NJ students have the same access to arts education to be able to participate at high levels  or increase existing participation. Despite state education standards, many schools lag behind in offering all four disciplines of dance, music, theater and visual arts.

To achieve better results, the campaign set the following goals by year 2020:



All NJ students will have access to arts education

Increase the number of schools providing more than two art forms

Increase arts participation in elementary and middle schools to 100%

Increase participation in high schools to 60%

Increase school engagement with community resources

Develop a statewide network of local stakeholders

In 1987, Governor Tom Kean signed the law creating the Literacy in the Arts Task Force to examine the state of arts education in New Jersey. Arts Ed Now is the next generation of advocacy for excellent arts education in our state, said the former Governor in a statement about the campaign. I support this campaign and encourage everyone who cares about the future of New Jersey to engage, advocate, and do what you have to do to get results for the benefit of students everywhere.

Arts Ed Now centers its strategy on helping arts education advocates become good ambassadors to advance the issue forward. Through a statewide network, Arts Ed Now brings people together to share information, stories and best practices for increasing participation in arts education. Local communities provide opportunities to test ideas for advocacy, which then get added to the overall campaign tactics and shared statewide for more powerful results overall.

Additional leadership for the campaign includes: Art Educators of New Jersey, ArtPride NJ, Dance NJ, NJ Department of Education, NJ Music Educators Association., NJ Principals & Supervisors Association/Foundation for Educational Administration., Speech & Theatre Assoc. of NJ, and creative partner Social Impact Studios. Additional partners include the Education Law Center, New Jersey Education Association, New Jersey School Boards Association and the New Jersey PTA. NJTV is a campaign media partner.

So many people across the state are already doing great work to increase participation in the arts, said Bob Morrison, Director, NJAEP. We want to highlight those efforts and build on them to amplify the voices of those who care about arts education as strong local ambassadors with the help of Arts Ed Now.

One such effort is the pilot community of Newark, NJ. As a large local community addressing its own arts education needs, the Newark Arts Education Roundtable (NAER) is able to leverage the Arts Ed Now campaign to help ambassadors become even stronger advocates, said Lauren Meehan, Director, NAER. We are also able to provide the support as a pilot community to test and refine the statewide campaign tools  in an effort to serve as a model for other communities facing similar challenges as Newark.

Arts Ed Now will officially launch on September 12, 2016, which coincides with national Arts Education Week. A spotlight focus on activities across the state all week long will provide a springboard for the multi-year initiative.

During lead up to Launch Week, advocates can learn more and download basic campaign materials on the pre-website ArtsEdNow.org. Arts education advocates can also get behind-the-scenes updates now on the Arts Ed Now Facebook Group. Printed materials are also available now for anyone who wants to launch Arts Ed Now in their school, organization or community. Campaign stickers, posters and fact sheets can be requested by e-mailing info(at)socialimpactstudios(dot)com.

The full campaign central website will re-launch to kick off Launch Week on September 12th. The full site is designed as an activation hub for everyone involved in promoting the campaign. Visitors to the site can see how their school stacks up in providing arts education and get active right away in the campaign. Practical tools on the site can help ambassadors raise awareness, change policy or create their own local campaign to make change. The site will also provide resources, stories and highlights of ongoing action by local ambassadors.

About the New Jersey Arts Education Partnership

The New Jersey Arts Education Partnership (NJAEP) is the unified voice for arts education in New Jersey. NJAEP was originally founded in 2007 as a cosponsored program of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, with additional support from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, New Jersey Department of Education and Music for All Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the Prudential Foundation, and ArtPride New Jersey Foundation. The mission of the NJAEP is to provide a unified voice for a diverse group of constituents who agree on the educational benefits and impact of the arts, specifically the contribution they make to student achievement and a civilized, sustainable society. Additional information is available at http://www.artsednj.org.

Attachments:

Arts Ed Now Logo Graphics

Arts Ed Now Campaign Fact Sheet

Photos:

o Today an arts student. Tomorrow Samantha Davis, Somerset NJ, Dance student

o Yesterday an arts student. Today Governor Tom Kean



Highlighted Stats Infographics

Get more photos and infographics on the relaunched ArtsEdNow.org campaign central website starting September 12th.

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There is a strong desire amongst consumers to be unique and to show that uniqueness through their flower, color and style choices.

International Floral Distributors (IFD) will release Flower Trends Forecast 2017 on October 1, 2016 at http://www.FlowerTrendsForecast.com. The forecast reveals emerging consumer preferences for flowers and floral decor. Flowers have an immediate impact on happiness. In a Rutgers University study, participants expressed "true" or "excited" smiles upon receiving flowers, demonstrating extraordinary delight and gratitude. This reaction was universal, occurring in all age groups. For centuries flowers have been used to help celebrate lifes biggest occasions. Floral artists and designers use the wide array of cut flowers available to match todays fashion and lifestyle trends.

International Floral Distributors (IFD) Trend Forecaster, Michael J. Skaff, AIFD, PFCI, AAF has scoured the floral, fashion, and home decor industries to find the top styles trending in todays market. According to Skaff, this process often begins a full two years before the trends are actually released and is greatly impacted by what he notices in various trade shows, retail stores, and publications as well as during meetings for prestigious design groups. Flower Trends Forecast 2017 will reveal new consumer trends in flower colors and floral stylings.

Skaff noted how the current global social, political, and economic unrest has been affecting fashion and home decor trends. Throw in the fact that the United States is in the middle of a presidential election, Skaff believes consumers are going to notice a dulling of colors. These new complex colors reflect the current anxiety and unrest many individuals are feeling about their own government as well as the state of the world.

The current political upheavals and severe unrest amongst many demographics across the globe have also caused consumers to want more peace and acceptance of what is different. This desire is strongly led by Millennialsa generation who has strongly longed for an increased sense of inclusivity within each country and across the world. This generation also increasingly prefers communicate via images rather than verbal or textual communication.

Because of this, Millennials look for the story behind the ideasomething that will hook them emotionally into what is being said. Without this story, many consumers do not feel as if they are a crucial part of the process. Instead, they feel as if they are simply the target of a general marketing scheme.

As Millennials continue to be at the forefront of the consumer demographic, they will continue to steer the ways in which trends evolve, but flowers themselves continue to be the popular and preferred choice for celebrating lifes special occasions. Flowers and floral decorations at weddings and lifes special occasions continue to help create memories that last forever. To help celebrate the impact of flowers on our happiness, International Floral Distributors have created the video Flowers Create Memories that Last Forever, see the video at http://www.flowertrendsforecast.com/flowers-create-memories-that-last-forever.

About Flower Trends Forecast

Flower Trends Forecast is published by International Floral Distributors, Inc (IFD) to keep the flower industry up to date with changing consumer preferences. The annual report has been published annually since 2009.

More information on flower trends can be found at http://www.flowertrendsforecast.com/,

on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/FlowerTrendsForecast/,

and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/flower_trends.

About International Floral Distributors, Inc.

Flower Trends Forecast is published by International Floral Distributors, Inc (IFD). IFD is a consortium of floral distributors with nearly 60 locations across the United States providing quality fresh flowers and florist supplies to florists and event floral specialists. IFD is owned by 19 floral distributors who are dedicated to serving the unique needs of companies that specialize in floral products. For more information about IFD visit http://www.ifd-inc.org.

Additional information on the emotional impact of flowers study by Jeannette Haviland-Jones, Ph.D., of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, can be found at http://aboutflowers.com/health-benefits-a-research/emotional-impact-of-flowers-study.html.
Fifteen young environmental activists from around the world will be honored at the 14th annual International Young Eco-Hero Awards celebration on Saturday, October 8, 2016, from 2:00 - 5:00 p.m. at the Childrens Creativity Museum Theater in San Francisco. Ranging from age 8 to 16, and hailing from around the U.S. as well as Canada, India, Indonesia, Iraq, and Kenya, these youth are being recognized by the San Francisco-based nonprofit Action for Nature for their creative projects aimed at solving the worlds environmental problems.



Alfredo Gonzalez-Tax (age 12, Indiantown, Florida) designed a portable, low-cost loom in order to produce sleeping mats for the homeless, woven out of discarded plastic bags. Made from PVC piping, the loom allows a mat to be produced in 6.5 hours, and is currently being used by enrichment groups at five elementary schools in Marin County.

Joshua Zhou (age 16, Chapel Hill, North Carolina) invented a low-cost semiconductor material that, with just sunlight, detoxifies common air and water pollutants more efficiently than commercial and EPA-endorsed remediation methods. Deployed in a porous pad or pervious concrete, it can remove pollutants from incoming storm water, wastewater, and reservoir waters; as a transparent coating on building exteriors or domestic objects. It can remove smog, automobile fumes, and other pollutants from the air in both the city and the home.

Sonali Ranaweera (age 15, San Jose, California) collects discarded bottles and cans to fund her program, Recycling4Smiles. So far, she has donated $63,000 to cover the cost of 65 cleft lip surgeries, dental care for 1,300 kids in rural Sri Lanka, and school lunches for child brides through the World Food Program.

Himangi Halder (age 9, Chhattisgarh, India), spurred to action when a classmate was killed in an auto accident in front of her school, co-led an initiative to change the traffic patterns around the campus. Within three months, the project resulted in an 80% reduction in traffic congestion, leading to a decrease in accidents and pollution, and the elimination of the need for daily traffic monitoring by police.

Eric Li (age 15, Manvel, Texas) co-founded the nonprofit We Care Act with his two sisters in 2008. Together they have raised funds and collected more than 30,000 used items including clothes, books, and toys, distributing them to young victims of 12 natural disasters. Eric has also recycled hundreds of electronic items, delivering 46 refurbished computers, smart phones, and Kindles to organizations in Nicaragua, China, Nepal, South Sudan, and Houston, Texas.

Shirley Waskito (age 15, Bali, Indonesia) collects used cooking oil from local vendors and households, and uses it to produce homemade bio-diesel as well as household soap. Her efforts raise awareness about the health dangers of cooking with used oil while preventing it from being disposed of in a way that harms the environment.

Simon Omuthiambo (age15, Busio, Kenya) created a nursery to grow indigenous seedlings and educate his community about the benefits of planting trees. So far, he has raised 15,000 seedlings which he gives to his neighbors, and has helped 75 families plant trees.

Rupert and Franny Yakelashek (ages 11 and 9, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) are working with all three levels of Canadian government to formally recognize their citizen's right to live in a healthy environment. Through community organizing, letter-writing campaigns, speaking at council meetings, and lobbying civic leaders, they have contributed to 23 municipal declarations for environmental rights being made on Vancouver Island since 2014.

Olivia Russo-Hood (age 14, Deltona, Florida) created her own nonprofit, Save the Earth Projects, which has collected more than 22,000 pairs of gently used shoes that have been distributed internationally, reducing waste in landfills and providing shoes to those in need.

Abdulrahman Al-Rayyis (age 16, Kurdistan, Iraq) co-founded a student organization, Our Beautiful Nature, organizing environmental seminars at his school as well neighborhood clean-ups. Using social media and posters to raise environmental awareness, he is currently lobbying for a paper recycling plant in Kurdistan.

Joris Hutchison (age 8, Seattle, Washington) uses social media and old-fashioned lemonade stands to raise funds for a wildlife sanctuary in Namibia, so that they can buy GPS collars for their cheetah conservation efforts.

Miranda Andersen (age 16, British Columbia, Canada) created an educational website offering lesson plans shes designed and films shes created on environmental topics to be used by teachers with youth.

Silas Swanson (age 16, Saranac Lake, New York) is working to preserve and protect the Adirondack Park in upstate New York, and mobilize the local community to combat the effects of global warming. A member of the planning committee for the Adirondack Youth Climate Summit, he has presented on climate change to his town, village, and school boards, and is currently lobbying for a local tax on single-use plastic bags.

Free and open to the public, the awards celebration will feature keynote speaker John Muir Laws, a naturalist, author, educator, and artist who is the founder of the Nature Journal Club and a Research Associate at the California Academy of Sciences. Laws will speak about sustaining stewardship through a connection with nature. Honorees Olivia Russo Hood, Joris Hutchison, Eric Li, Sonali Ranaweera, and Rupert and Franny Yakalashek are expected to attend.

ATTN: CALENDAR EDITORS

WHAT: International Young Eco-Heroes Awards

WHEN: Saturday, October 8, 2016, 2:00 - 5:00 p.m. (Program, 2:00  4:00 p.m. with complimentary reception and silent auction to follow)

WHERE: Childrens Creativity Museum Theater, 221 Fourth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

ADMISSION: Free. RSVPs appreciated to mail(at)actionfornature(dot)org

CONTACT FOR PUBLICATION: mail(at)actionfornature(dot)org

MORE INFO: http://www.actionfornature.org

ABOUT ACTION FOR NATURE

Action For Nature is an international nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California, USA, that encourages young people to develop a love and respect for nature and to take personal action to protect the Earth's natural resources. The International Young Eco-Hero Awards recognize young people ages 8-16 who are taking important steps to solve tough environmental problems. Awarded annually, AFN's Eco-Heroes are determined by a panel of judges including experts in environmental science, biology, and education. Since 2003, Action for Nature has recognized more than 150 young people from 21 countries and 25 U.S. states.
"This confirms that our approach resonates in the marketplace"

iTEDIUM garnered an impressive award in August as Inc. magazine ranked the Kansas City company No. 2,336 on its 35th annual Inc. 5000, the most prestigious ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economys most dynamic segment its independent small businesses.

The team has moved the company into a new era of growth. Were honored to be counted among such great organizations, and look forward to many more years on the list, commented Robert Meyers, iTEDIUMs CEO. Our customers and employees make it happen every day. This confirms that our approach resonates in the marketplace.

This year has been a year of great growth for the Kansas City-based benefits administration company. In May, they opened a new sales and marketing office in Tampa, Florida and in June, they launched their new brand identity, iTEDIUM, and expanded their suite of services which now includes COBRA administration, direct billing, enrollment and eligibility, and billing reconciliation.

The 2016 Inc. 5000, is available online at Inc.com, and the companies represented have an aggregate revenue of $200 billion, and the companies on the list collectively generated 640,000 jobs over the past three years, or about 8% of all jobs created in the entire economy during that period. Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000.

"The Inc. 5000 list stands out where it really counts, says Inc. President and Editor-In-Chief Eric Schurenberg. It honors real achievement by a founder or a team of them. No one makes the Inc. 5000 without building something great  usually from scratch. Thats one of the hardest things to do in business, as every company founder knows. But without it, free enterprise fails.

To find out more about what iTEDIUM is up to, you can visit them at itedium.com, e-mail info(at)itedium(dot)com or call them at 913-499-4850.

About Us:

iTEDIUM (founded as COBRAGuard) simplifies complex benefits administration processes for large and small organizations  all in ways that are ideally suited to the individual needs of the organization. For more than15 years, iTEDIUM has integrated proven technology-driven processes and programs into the workstream of the organizations they serve, helping their clients save time and money while minimizing risk and liability.
"It is not down in any map; true places never are." -Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

September 28, 2016 On the 125th Anniversary of Herman Melvilles passing (09/28/2016), Woodlawn Cemetery will host Celebrating Melville: Writer For The World, a celebration of the life and works of this quintessential American writer.

Herman Melville is the world-renowned author of Moby-Dick, and is also known for his other works including Typee and Omoo. Melvilles poetry has been rediscovered and is now of intense interest to scholars.

The program will feature Dr. John Bryant, President of the Melville Society, founding editor of Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Studies, and Professor Emeritus of English, Hofstra University.

Limited complimentary seating is available for this event. Go to http://www.hermanmelville.org for more information.

About The Woodlawn Cemetery: Founded in 1863 and located in the Bronx, Woodlawn Cemetery is more than 150 years old. Still an active cemetery with new development ongoing, it is one of the largest cemeteries in New York City and is a designated National Historic Landmark. Woodlawn Cemetery is the final resting place of many persons of note. Celebrated lot owners include artists, religious leaders, writers, business moguls, civic leaders, entertainers, diplomats, jazz musicians, suffragists and more. Webster Ave. & East 233rd St., Bx, NY 10470. Find out more at http://www.thewoodlawncemetery.org.
Renogy ranked #444 on the 2016 Inc. 5000 list We believe that appearing on the Inc. 5000 list is a great honor; nothing short of an amazing accomplishment.

RNG Group Inc. (Renogy), a solar manufacturer and retailer, has just been ranked as the 444th fastest growing business in America by Inc. Magazine.

Located in Ontario, California, the Renogy office-headquarters are conveniently situated in a bustling business district of San Bernardino County. Hardly a stranger to solar power and alternative energy, Southern California has been a backdrop for several solar startups over the past two decades. Californias moderate climate and abundance of sunlight constitutes the ideal location for the housing, testing, and selling of solar products. For that very reason, it comes as no surprise that Renogy chose to relocate to the Golden State from Louisiana in 2013. Since the transition, business has amplified exceptionally over the past few years. On August 17th, Inc. Magazine awarded Renogy with a coveted slot in the top 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in America.

Inc. Magazine has been growing strong for thirty-seven years, ranking private American businesses, specifically, in revenue growth during a three-year period. In 1982, Inc. came up with its first 500 Fastest Growing Companies list. Later, Inc. expanded its rankings to 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies list and also extended the reach to companies in Europe. With a three-year growth rate of 864%, and a 2015 company record of $18.9 million in revenue, Renogy had qualified for this prestigious award. According to Inc.s rankings, the energy category experienced the fastest overall growth rate at an average of 227.7%. Filled with familiar faces, Renogy joins several other companies such as Dollar Shave Club, Suja Juice, MacStadium, BigRentz, and more on the reputable list. As stated by Renogys CEO, Dr. Yi Li, We believe that appearing on the Inc. 5000 list is a great honor; nothing short of an amazing accomplishment.

For those unfamiliar with Renogy, it began as an idea amongst a small group of students at Louisiana State University. In 2010, Dr. Yi Li, a physics PhD student, established and operated Renogy LLC (now RNG Group Inc.) from her Baton Rouge apartment. Early on, she sold solar products such as solar panels and renewable energy accessories through Amazon and eBay. Nearing the end of 2012, with four part-time employees, the company had moved its operations into a modest office-warehouse and launched its very own website, renogy-store.com (now renogy.com). Like many new online retailers, the first few months were particularly passive; however, revenue grew exponentially with advertising through word of mouth and regular appearances at tradeshows. It did not stop there; Renogy solar products were also sold on premium online retail outlets including Tool King, Newegg, Walmart, and Overstock. To quote the company CEO, Renogy started out as a modest venture with limited resources and cash flow. We made the best out of what we had and utilized our resources at LSU to grow this business. Renogy is a true start up, operating without the assistance of a parent company or mass funding.

In May of 2013 Dr. Li graduated from Louisiana State University with a PhD in Physics and left Baton Rouge for a post-graduate life in Southern California. That same year, Renogy was incorporated as RNG Group Inc. and hired ten new employees to work at the new 11,000 square-foot Chino, California office-warehouse. Through 2014, Renogy experienced a 400% growth in sales on renogy-store alone by branching its sales base beyond direct consumers and online marketplaces to installation professionals, entrepreneurs, and distributers. As a result of tremendous success in 2014, RNG Group Inc. continued to hire several new employees. By late 2014, Renogys solar product lines developed from traditional solar panels and accessories to portable battery packs and panels.

2016 can be described as a remarkably great year for Renogy from receiving awards to creating new solar products. This year the company has developed a state of the art portable solar generator, the Lycan Powerbox. The Lycan is a portable solar storage solution that puts abundant, natural energy right at the tips of your fingers. Lighter than the competitors products, the Lycan is particularly unique because it features a removable and replaceable lithium-iron-phosphate battery that can withstand 2000 cycles. The Renogy sales team has yet to see the total revenue that 2016 with bring, but at this point sales are exceeding expectations.

Essentially, Renogy started out small and is continuing to flourish without any end in sight. The product line expansion into portable solar generators is particularly promising, considering the demand for gas powered alternatives and quiet power generation. Dr. Li and the rest of the Renogy team are working hard to make sure that Renogy becomes a household name. Setting all goals and aspirations aside, Renogy finds both honor and appreciation in the recent Inc. 5000 award. It confirms that the assistance of Louisiana State University and the hard work of all the employees and consumers have, and will, continue to make a difference. To quote the internal operations manager, Shan Patel, The sky is the limit and we are training for success. Renogy would like to thank Inc. Magazine for acknowledging all the hard work, and would also like to thank all of the employees and customers that have made this business a great success.
PoliWall's Easy-to-Use Blocklist Interface Adding this automation to the already robust PoliWall/ProACT Threat Intelligence Platform, gives the small to mid-sized enterprise an essential weapon in the ongoing battle against cyber-attack and data leakage

Bandura, LLC, maker of the PoliWall/ProACT Threat Intelligence Platform, today announces the addition of STIX and TAXII capability to automate the use of industry block lists.

Adding this automation to the already robust PoliWall/ProACT Threat Intelligence Platform, gives the small to mid-sized enterprise an essential weapon in the ongoing battle against cyber-attack and data leakage, says Brian Peterson, COO/CFO Bandura. For example, we have a banking customer who is required to block a list of malicious IP addresses provided by the FBI. The customer was putting rules into the firewall by hand to accommodate the frequently updated mandate, which is labor-intensive and slow. With PoliWall, the customer just opens the block list screen and imports the list(s) they want auto-updated and auto-blockedliterally set it and forget it!

PoliWall/ProACT Threat Intelligence Platform with advanced filtering provides the highest level of automated security without slowing down the network. Beginning with PoliWalls best in class country blocking with granular exceptions. Bandura added ProACTs automation of multiple sources of threat intelligenceenriching the intelligence to make it relevant to the customers own network. The unified threat feed enters the PoliWall which automatically blocks threats, both inbound and outbound, according to your acceptable level of risk, using an intuitive dial-up/dial-down risk management dashboard. ProACT also allows real-time threat information sharing with other PoliWalls in the network stopping cyber threats in near real-time at each PoliWall node.

ProACT can run on any machine in a customers network, as well as in a public or private cloud, and has an open SDK and rest API for network device integration.

For a live web-demo, free trial, or more information, please visit us at http://www.bandurasystems.com and follow us on Twitter, @Bandurasystems.
According to a comprehensive research study on the economic impact of franchising, there are 732,842 business format franchise establishments providing more than 7.6 million jobs, generating $674 billion in economic output and 2.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the U.S. economy.

The Economic Impact of Franchised Businesses, Vol. IV, Sept. 2016, was commissioned by the International Franchise Associations Franchise Education and Research Foundation and conducted by PwC, one of the worlds leading professional services firms. The study shows the total franchise establishments, jobs, output and GDP and the economic contributions of franchising to the U.S. economy at the national, state, and congressional district level. Statistics are provided by business line and include the direct and indirect economic impact. The full study, with additional charts and public sentiment data from voters about franchises by state and congressional district, is available on the newly-launched http://www.FranchiseEconomy.com.

The study illustrates that franchise businesses are a critical component of the U.S. economy, fostering entrepreneurship by empowering local, independent and diverse small business owners who are creating jobs in many business sectors, said IFA President & CEO, Robert Cresanti, CFE. As Washington works to strengthen and renew our economy, policymakers should remember that franchising is making a difference in every local community across the country.

The PwC study incorporates the most recent data from governmental and private sources.



Franchise businesses provided more jobs in 2016 than wholesale trade; transportation and warehousing; nondurable goods manufacturing; and information (including software and print publishing, motion pictures and videos, radio and television broadcasting, and telecommunications carriers and resellers).

Taking into account the indirect impact of franchised businesses, business format franchises support more than 13.2 million jobs, $1.6 trillion in economic output for the U.S. economy and 5.8 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Jobs supported because of franchise businesses were at least 10 percent of the private sector nonfarm workforce in 33 states, and at least 6 percent in every state except the District of Columbia.

Quick service restaurants is the largest category, representing 25 percent of all franchise establishments, 45.5 percent of all franchise jobs, and 30.5 percent of GDP.

The number of people employed by franchises is greatest in California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, and Ohio.

Franchisees own and operate 88 percent of all business format franchise establishments and franchisors own and operate 12 percent.

Of the sectors shown below, only finance and insurance provided more jobs than franchised businesses:

The study was released in conjunction with IFAs Franchise Action Network Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. which brings together more than 300 franchise business leaders to raise awareness with policymakers about the industrys economic contributions and the regulatory and policy environment impacting their continued success. IFA launched its @OurFranchise campaign, a nationwide public awareness and grassroots campaign in a three state tour this summer.

"This is clearly a robust marketplace, but headwinds persist which may erode the value proposition of the franchise model if not addressed by Congress. Franchise businesses have created record numbers of jobs, generated opportunity and economic growth in communities nationwide and returned tax dollars to help support the localities in which we operate, added Cresanti. As we spend the next year educating the new Congress and administration our story through the IFA's @OurFranchise campaign, we hope to show policymakers from both sides of the aisle that this business model is worth promoting."

###

About the International Franchise Association

Celebrating 56 years of excellence, education and advocacy, the International Franchise Association is the world's oldest and largest organization representing franchising worldwide. IFA works through its government relations and public policy, media relations and educational programs to protect, enhance and promote franchising and the more than 733,000 franchise establishments that support nearly 7.6 million direct jobs, $674.3 billion of economic output for the U.S. economy and 2.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). IFA members include franchise companies in over 300 different business format categories, individual franchisees and companies that support the industry in marketing, law, technology and business development.

1900 K St., N.W., Suite 700 Washington, DC 20006 USA

Phone: +1 202/628-8000 Fax: +1 202/628-0812 http://www.franchise.org

Contact:

Matthew Haller, 202-460-8356

Jenna Weisbord, 310-995-0839

mhaller(at)franchise(dot)org

jweisbord(at)franchise(dot)org

@franchising411
Enterprise-IT-Security.com announced today that it will release version 4.1 of its unique and patented system dump and log anonymization solution SF-SafeDump for z/OS mainframes in mid-September. The softwares new capabilities include zIIP support of up to 95%, which will cut the cost of contractually and legally mandated anonymization procedures to a minimum. Version 4.1 also supports additional dump and log types.

Whenever systems or applications run into problems, or even crash, they create system dumps and logs. Exchanging these dumps and logs with software vendors has been standard practice for decadesbut is it safe? Far from being a harmless collection of technical information, dumps and logs frequently contain large amounts of sensitive company and client data or even top-level business and trade secrets as part of the captured computer memory. Sending such dumps and logs to software vendors technical support, whose teams mostly reside in other countries, may violate data protection laws or compliance obligations, such as SOX, PCI, DISA STIG, NIST 800-53, FISMA, HIPAA, Basel II or BSI, and could result in law suits or fines, says Stephen Fedtke, CTO of Enterprise-IT-Security.com.

Software vendors have known about these risks for some time. To avoid liability for themselves and their subcontractors, wherever these parties reside, most software vendors have drafted service and support terms that clearly state that their customers remain responsible for any sensitive data they submit. In the absence of a workable anonymization solution, data centers are practically forced to violate their legal and compliance obligations every time they want their software problems to be properly analyzed and fixed. A typical mainframe data center sends out more than one hundred dumps a year  with an average size of 2 GB each. This is a terrible position to be in  not to mention the problems it poses for large-scale data centers, such as those run by outsourcing and cloud service providers, the military, and the government. Its time for a change of policy  dumps and logs should never leave any company without prior anonymization in order to prevent such critical data leakage, says Mr. Fedtke.

Aside from the legal implications, dumps and logs represent a grave security risk as well. Mr. Fedtke says, Nobody knows what exactly happens to these dumps after they reach the software vendor  who will eventually have access to these files and in which countries do these parties reside? For expert hackers, a system dump of a mainframe production system represents an ideal blue print for planning the perfect attack. Just one dump in the wrong hands is enough to expose a company or even country to significant IT risks. Fact is, dumps have a value and could be sold, just like exploits. This should be of interest to cyber risk insurance providers as well.

To eliminate these legal and security risks, Enterprise-IT-Security.com launched its dump and log anonymization solution SF-SafeDump at the beginning of 2016. SF-SafeDump allows users to easily and effectively anonymize system dumps and logs before sending them out. This is not only crucial for U.S. data centers, but also for European mainframe users  who currently have to comply with data protection laws in the absence of Safe Harbor. SF-SafeDump currently supports IBMs z/OS mainframe platform, with support for other leading operating systems to be added in the near future. Whats more, with SF-SafeDumps new massive zIIP support, safely cooperating with software vendors has finally become not just easy and risk-free, but also cost effective.

About zIIP

The zIIP processor was designed to handle specialized mainframe workloads and other processing-intensive applications without affecting software charges. Offloading workloads to zIIPs reduces general purpose processor utilization, saves money and improves efficiency and effectiveness of mainframes.

About Enterprise-IT-Security.com

Enterprise-IT-Security.com is a leading provider of unique security and compliance solutions and services for both mainframe and client-server platforms. The Swiss company with worldwide operations specializes in critical IT infrastructure and partners with the world's largest companies and institutions to successfully achieve and maintain IT environments that fulfill the highest security and compliance requirements. Its Integrity 2.0 Initiative for System z, which launched in 2016, offers new and unique solutions for security and compliance at a level that far surpasses todays industry standards.

More Information

If you would like more information about this topic, please call Dr. Stephen Fedtke at ++41-(0)41-710-4005 or email stfedtke(at)enterprise-it-security(dot)com, or visit

http://www.enterprise-it-security.com/SafeDumpForSystemZ.htm

Contact Information

Dr. Stephen Fedtke

Enterprise-IT-Security.com

Seestrasse 3a

CH-6300 Zug

Switzerland

Tel. ++41-(0)41-710-4005

Fax. ++41-(0)41-710-4008

Trademarks

IBM, zIIP, z/OS, and System z are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
In an economic climate where talent is a scarce and essential resource for every companys success, Human Resources (HR) leaders play a pivotal role in attracting and retaining the human capital that fuels growth. NELSONtalks Business: Southern California offers these leaders the opportunity to learn from industry experts as they provide insights and resources for Southern California professionals to help lead the evolution of their companies HR and employment strategies. Attendees will network with local colleagues as they learn about the latest economic, HR and employment trends that help companies rapidly adjust to market conditions and drive innovation, playing an important role in strengthening the Southern California economy.

Sessions structured around timely updates crucial for todays informed HR and business professionals will include:



Taking a Deeper Dive Behind the Headlines: Whats Next for the U.S. Economy?

Kimberly Ritter-Martinez, Economist, Kyser Center for Economic Research

To understand the economy of Orange County, you must examine the economies of California and the U.S. as a whole. Kimberly Ritter-Martinez will walk through key economic indicators, including labor markets and housing data, that provide context for a deeper dive into the economy of Orange County.

The Ever-Evolving Workplace: An Overview of Recent and Upcoming Changes in California Employment Law

Heather Vigil Peck, shareholder at Littler Mendelson

It is crucial for HR professionals to have a comprehensive and up-to-date understanding of employment laws to protect the interests of their employers and employees. However, it can be nearly impossible to navigate the complexities of California Employment Law, as legislation, cases, and best practices are constantly changing and evolving. Heather Vigil Pecks presentation will provide insight into and help you understand several recent and upcoming challenges for employers, including wage and hour laws, pay equity issues, leave rules and best practices, and the use of medical marijuana.

The Humans Are Coming! The Humans Are Coming!

China Gorman, Board Member at Motivis Learning

Some companies are reaping the benefits of relating to their employees as people with lives, interests, and needs outside the workplace rather than resources who arrive at 9:00 and leave at 5:00; is yours? In this session, China Gorman will share personal observations from her experience as CEO/President as well as current research on the ROI of creating a more human workplace culture, including evidence showing that companies embracing their humanity outperform competitors.

Event details:



Date/Time: Wednesday, September 14, 8:00 a.m.  12:00 p.m. (breakfast included)

Location: Westin South Coast Plaza  686 Anton Blvd., Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Accreditation: Attendees have the opportunity to earn up up to 1 MCLE credit, 3 HRCI credits, 3 CPE credits, and 3 SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP credits.

Contact: Julie Hormaechea, Marketing & Events Manager, Nelson

Phone: 707.939.4026

Email: jhormaechea(at)nelsonjobs(dot)com

I always walk away with new ideas I can implement in my role immediately. Its also incredibly useful that Nelson provides a variety of continuing education credits for learning about these extremely relevant topics. This years event covers a number of topics that are crucial to me, as an HR professional, said Linda R. Fitzpatrick, Vice President, Human Resources for Rancho Mission Viejo, LLC.

Dont miss out on this unique opportunity to learn from nationally recognized professionals right here in the North Bay. Join your colleagues in paving the way for 21st-century HR and business strategies that will help foster your companys success by reserving your spot now!

For more information and to RSVP, please visit: http://www.nelsonjobs.com/nelsontalks-oc/

About Nelson

Founded in 1970 and recently named as one of the .Inc 500 fastest growing private companies, Nelson ranks among the largest independent staffing companies in the United States. Nelson offers a wide variety of workforce support services, including staffing and recruiting, and domestic and international independent contractor compliance, risk mitigation and payrolling. Matching more than 10,000 people with California companies each year, Nelsons recruiting specialties include: administration, human resources, wine and beverage, manufacturing, technology, engineering, digital media, legal, and accounting and finance. To learn more about Nelson, visit http://www.nelsonjobs.com
Timothy Kelley, Founder and Chair of Canyon Angels and Head of Entrepreneurship at Grand Canyon University (GCU), and Chase Norlin, CEO of Transmosis, were recently selected to join the Board of Directors for Invest Southwest, a non-profit focused on connecting accredited investors with the regions most promising early-stage companies.

Kelley brings expertise in entrepreneurship and international real estate finance, and currently serves as the COO of the Entrepreneur Opportunity Fund. He is also the owner and CFO of two education-related companies with more than 45 employees and several million in gross revenue. He is an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Economics at GCU, holds a Bachelor of Arts from Gonzaga University, an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management, and studied at both Oxford University and Arizona State University.

Kelley currently serves on the Board of Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona, The Governors Committee on Cross Border Real Estate at the Arizona Mexico Commission and the International Committee of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council. He is also the former chairman of the Thunderbird Angel Network.

Norlin serves as the CEO of Transmosis, an organization dedicated to the research and application of technology to strengthen the American workforce. Norlin is a seasoned Silicon Valley entrepreneur with multiple successful start-ups and exits to his credit. Prior to Transmosis, Norlin was the founder and CEO of Emerge Digital Group (EDG), which was named the eighth fastest growing company in America and the number one fastest growing company in Silicon Valley by Inc. Magazine. Norlins ventures have garnered national acclaim including Time Magazines Top 50 Companies.

Kelley and Norlin join the Invest Southwest Board of Directors and Executive Committee members who will guide the organizations strategic direction and mission for 2017.

Additional Board of Directors include:



Jonathan Ariano, Osborn Maledon, P.A.

Jonathan Coury, Hool Coury Law

Greg Head, software marketing veteran

Gabriel Hyams, Pinnacle Transplant

Base Horner, Desert Angels

Mario Martinez II, MRTNZ Ventures

Sandra Watson, Arizona Commerce Authority

Executive Committee Members include:



Nate Mortensen, Tallwave Capital

Karen Katzorke, Invest Southwest

Pat Stoner, Indecomm Technology Services Group

Susan Marie, Arizona Commerce Authority

James Goulka, Arizona Tech Investors

Christie Kerner, Arizona State University

Randy Gustafson, Arizona Commerce Authority

Keith Stoneback, Lanesborough, LLC

Noah Barrasso, Keyser

Preston Clarke, Arizona Venture Consulting

To learn more about Invest Southwest and its signature pitch contest event, Venture Madness scheduled for March 8  10, 2017 in Scottsdale, Arizona, please visit http://www.investsouthwest.org.

About Invest Southwest

Established in 1992, Invest Southwest is the premier organization for connecting investors with the best and brightest ventures in the Southwest region. In addition to providing valuable information on topics important to the investment community, Invest Southwest offers year-round opportunities for investors to connect with emerging growth companies. Its signature event, Venture Madness, is a unique competition presented in partnership with the Arizona Commerce Authority. Venture Madness pits 64 thoroughly evaluated emerging companies against one another in a bracket-style, head-to-head competition to crown the champion of champions. Visit http://InvestSouthwest.org for more information.
Bill Proudman, CEO of White Men As Full Diversity Partners, comments on the importance of diversity in the tech sector. Challenging the leaders of our client firms to eliminate bias within their respective organizations yields positive results in profitability.

Lack of diversity and inclusion in the tech sector has been an ongoing issue for some time now. In a recent report by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC),1 it was found that compared to private industry generally, the high-tech sector employed a larger share of whites (63.5% to 68.55%), Asian Americans (5.8% to 14%) and men (52% to 64%) over African Americans (1.4 % to 14.4%), Hispanics (8% to 13.9%) and women (36% to 48%).

Furthermore, according to USA Today, 2 the lack of diversity in Silicon Valley tech firms is magnified. Women, Hispanics and African-Americans comprise 30%, 6% and 3%, respectively, of employees in the top 75 tech firms. The report also confirmed that non-tech firms in the area have women holding 49% of the jobs, Hispanics at 22%, and African-Americans at 24%. Asian-Americans, who hold 41% of jobs in Silicon Valleys top tech firms, make up only 24% of the non-tech job force.

For Bill Proudman, CEO and co-founder of White Men As Full Diversity Partners (WMFDP), these daunting statistics are a great opportunity to work on positive results with leading tech firm clients on WMFDPs Fortune 500 roster, which includes Dell and Intel.

Challenging the leaders of our client firms to eliminate bias within their respective organizations yields positive results in profitability, Proudman said. They take it to heart when we tell them that the more diversified your workforce is, the more profitable your company will be.

One good example is Dell Inc., where Chairman & CEO Michael Dell said, A diversity of perspectives, backgrounds and experiences is the catalyst for innovation. That is how we deliver better results for our customers and our team members. For us, a diverse and inclusive culture is a competitive advantage. 3

Additionally, Marie Moynihan, Chief Diversity Officer and VP of Talent at Dell Inc. expanded on that philosophy saying, "Im a very strong believer in the value of diversity and the reason for that is I think it forces a more challenging conversation and ultimately better decisions. I do think things are changing for the better for women in leadership. Companies are just paying a lot more attention to the evidence thats out there now which says that a more diverse team can result in better return on equity."

Proudman applauds all of Dell Inc.s focus on diversity and inclusion. Dell is the first global tech company to fully embrace the engagement of male executives in their gender equity work, said Proudman. Working with WMFDP and the respected research firm, Catalyst and their MARC initiative, DELL has committed to having all their global execs engaged in MARC (Men Advocating Real Change).

Similarly, the first-ever White House Demo Day was organized last year to showcase women and minority founders in technology.4 The event, along with President Obamas call for action, prompted several major tech companies to announce new diversity initiatives. Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Amazon all jumped on the bandwagon to demonstrate their commitment to improving recruitment and hiring of women and minorities.

Proudman noted that the tech industry is one where innovative minds collaborating lead to the most success. With different backgrounds and cultures involved in the thought process, the opportunities for the tech sector are endless. Tech leaders who embrace diversity in all its facets end up being catalysts for change and are looked upon as leadersnot only in the highly-competitive tech industry, but also in the global marketplace.

About White Men As Full Diversity Partners (WMFDP):

White Men As Full Diversity Partners (WMFDP) is a diversity and leadership development firm founded in 1996 by Bill Proudman, Michael Welp, Ph.D., and Jo-Ann Morris in Portland, Oregon. WMFDP takes an unorthodox approach towards eradicating bias and discrimination in the workplace. Its client list includes BAE, Eastman Chemical, Kohler, The Nature Conservancy, NASA, Mass Mutual, Applied Materials Inc., and others. The majority of C-level executives are white and male, and they are frequently omitted from a vital role in diversity and equality. Proudman and Welp observed that these critical subjects were not being taken to the doorstep of these leadersall to the detriment of struggling minorities and the economy as a whole. Proudman and Welp have dedicated the last two decades to educating and engaging leaders of any race, color, gender and orientation. Welp is the author of the book, Four Days to Change. With an insightful foreword by Proudman, the book chronicles the journey from rural South Africa to the boardrooms of Americaall to lay the groundwork of a global paradigm shift.

1. https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/statistics/reports/hightech/?utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term.

2. http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/05/18/eeoc-more-diversity-needed-tech-hiring/84532454.

3. http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/uscorp1/diversity.

4. http://www.forbes.com/sites/bonniemarcus/2015/08/12/the-lack-of-diversity-in-tech-is-a-cultural-issue/#196b2dbb3577.
These are all nonprofits that have shown a real hunger to learn.

The Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University has named the 10 finalists for the 2016 Drucker Prize. The winning nonprofit organization, which will be announced on September 30, will receive $100,000.

The Drucker Institute also said that it has now released to the entire social sector all of the content from The Drucker Prize learning platform: readings featuring the timeless wisdom of Peter Drucker; videos showcasing insights from some of todays top thinkers on management and leadership; and other resources. All of this material is now available here for free to any interested organization.

The finalists for this years Drucker Prize are:



American Prairie Reserve for its Wild Sky Wildlife-Friendly ranching program, which created market incentives for ranchers to conserve prairie habitat.

BoardSource for an organization-wide innovation that expands the market reach of board development tools for the social sector.

Bowery Residents' Committee for its Mixed Model Pilot Program, an analytical management approach focused on addressing the systemic challenges to New Yorks disenfranchised homeless population.

Centro Community Partners for its mobile app technology, which provides low-income women in underserved communities with entrepreneurship education, financial literacy, mentorship and access to capital.

Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center for the ImproveCareNow (ICN) Network, which enables patients suffering from Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, their families, clinicians and researchers to collaborate more effectively by accelerating improvements in care and knowledge sharing.

Crisis Text Line for providing, via text messaging, free mental health support 24/7 for anyone in crisis.

Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, which mobilizes volunteers to create, online, maps that help responders reach people in need during disasters and other humanitarian crises.

MIND Research Institute for ST Math, a visual approach to teaching mathematics based on neuroscience research.

Rare Genomics Institute, which helps patients with rare and undiagnosed diseases obtain a genetic blueprint through advanced genomic sequencing and interpretation, providing hope for a treatment or cure.

SightLife for its Global Sight Restoration Program, which addresses corneal blindness in India by tackling systemic barriers to sight restoration.

The 10 finalists were selected from among 50 semifinalists announced on July 25. Leaders from these 50 organizations each went through a series of mini-courses on The Drucker Prize learning platform, where they explored different aspects of innovation and organizational effectiveness. They were then asked not only whether their organization currently utilizes the principles that were presented but, in addition, how they could put into practice any new ideas that they learned.

We know from Peter Drucker that all social sector organizations share the bottom line of changed lives, said Zach First, the Drucker Institutes executive director. Each of our 10 Drucker Prize finalists has a bottom line demonstrating robust results. Whats more, these are all nonprofits that have shown a real hunger to learn and try out new concepts to make their organizations even more innovative and high-performing. It is a privilege and an honor to put forward these 10 organizations for consideration by the final judges.

In addition to First, the final judges for the 2016 Drucker Prize are: Stephan Chambers, Director of the Marshall Institute for Philanthropy and Social Entrepreneurship at the London School of Economics; Sumita Dutta, managing director at Golden Seeds; Thomas Horan, Henry Y. Hwang Dean of the Drucker School of Management; Geneva Johnson, former president and CEO of Family Service America and Families International; Virginia Kelly Judd, Executive Director of Humana Foundation; Kevin McCoy, President of National Office Furniture; C. William Pollard, chairman emeritus of ServiceMaster Co. and an emeritus member of the Drucker Institutes Board of Advisors; Theresa Reno-Weber, Chief of Performance and Technology at Louisville Metro Government and a member of the Drucker Institutes Board of Advisors; David Styers, Manager of Program and Business Development at the Presidio Institute; and Jocelyn Wyatt, Co-Lead and Executive Director at IDEO.org.

Administered annually since 1991, The Drucker Prize, formerly known as the Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation, is given to a social-sector organization that demonstrates Druckers definition of innovationchange that creates a new dimension of performance. The judges look for programs that are highly effective and have made a difference in the lives of the people they serve, as well as for those organizations that demonstrate a capacity to further leverage the discipline of innovation.

Hailed by Businessweek magazine as the man who invented management, Peter Drucker not only consulted for major corporations; he also advised the Girl Scouts of the USA, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and countless other social-sector organizations. He called the nonprofit Americas most distinctive institution.

If you have questions about the application or prize process, please contact: DruckerPrize(at)druckerinstitute(dot)com.

About the Drucker Institute

The Drucker Institute is a social enterprise based at Claremont Graduate University. Our mission is strengthening organizations to strengthen society. Our programmingfor the corporate, nonprofit and public sectorsis built on a foundation of YESTERDAY/TODAY/MONDAY*. "Yesterday" refers to the fact that our work is grounded in Peter Drucker's timeless wisdom. "Today" speaks to the urgency that we know organizational leaders feel to successfully meet their greatest challenges and opportunities. And "Monday" points to our proven ability to help executives move quickly from ideas to action to results, just as Drucker urged his own consulting clients: "Don't tell me you had a wonderful meeting with me. Tell me what you're going to do on Monday that's different." For more, visit druckerinstitute.com.

About Claremont Graduate University

Founded in 1925, Claremont Graduate University is the graduate university of the Claremont Colleges. Our five academic schools conduct leading-edge research and award masters and doctoral degrees in 24 disciplines. Because the worlds problems are not simple nor easily defined, diverse faculty and students research and study across the traditional discipline boundaries to create new and practical solutions for the major problems plaguing our world. A Southern California based graduate school devoted entirely to graduate research and study, CGU boasts a low student-to-faculty ratio.
William T. DeRosa, DO, FACP is new chief of oncology services at Summit Medical Group MD Anderson Cancer Center. I look forward to working with the expert physicians and extremely talented professionals at Summit Medical Group MD Anderson Cancer Center as we strive to transform how healthcare and cancer treatment is delivered to our patients.

Summit Medical Group MD Anderson Cancer Center is pleased to announce that William T. DeRosa, DO, FACP, has been named its first chief of oncology services. Creating this position and appointing Dr. DeRosa to carry out the mission to advance and integrate quality cancer care is further example of the groups commitment to patients in northern New Jersey and the New York metropolitan area.

Dr. DeRosa will remain in clinical practice part-time and also will serve on the Summit Medical Group Clinical Council. Recognized by colleagues and patients for high-quality and compassionate care, Dr. DeRosa has consistently ranked among Best Doctors in America by Best Doctors Inc. since 2003. Among his responsibilities are ensuring continuous improvement in patient care and safety, smooth business operations, flawless regulatory compliance, positive clinical outcomes and implementation of value-based care. Dr. DeRosa is also charged with overseeing the hiring, performance and mentoring of physicians in the oncology service and guiding clinical research teams to expand patient access to clinical trials.

Dr. DeRosas experience and expertise in the field of medical oncology/hematology, as well as his commitment to compassionate care, is exactly in line with our patient-first philosophy, said Jeffrey Le Benger, MD, chairman and CEO, Summit Medical Group. Im confident that Dr. DeRosa is the right candidate to carry out our mission to bring a multidisciplinary approach to treating cancer patients.

To be the first named oncology chief at Summit Medical Group is a great responsibility, and I am honored to take on this crucial role, said Dr. DeRosa. I look forward to working with the expert physicians and extremely talented professionals at Summit Medical Group MD Anderson Cancer Center as we strive to transform how healthcare and cancer treatment is delivered to our patients.

Margaret Row, M.D., vice president, operations, MD Anderson Cancer Network, added: Dr. DeRosa is an excellent choice to head a high-caliber leadership team and growing cancer program. His leadership will be extremely valuable as we continue to strengthen our collaboration with Summit Medical Group and work together to deliver innovative care to patients in the region.

Dr. DeRosa attended the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in Kirksville, Missouri, completed his residency at Morristown Medical Center in Morristown, New Jersey, and was fellowship trained in hematology and oncology at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. He is board certified in internal medicine and medical oncology/hematology and is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Society of Hematology and the American College of Physicians.

Summit Medical Group MD Anderson, which provides medical oncology, surgical oncology, infusion and diagnostic imaging, is already in place at Summit Medical Groups flagship campus at 1 Diamond Hill Road in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. Plans are also underway to build a state-of-the-art 130,000-square-foot building adjacent to Summit Medical Groups new facility at 140 Park Avenue in Florham Park, New Jersey, with future services to include radiation oncology. Groundbreaking is expected at the new site this fall.

About Summit Medical Group MD Anderson Cancer Center

With a special emphasis on continuity of care, the Summit Medical Group MD Anderson Cancer Center was formed in 2016 through a partnership between Summit Medical Group (SMG) and MD Anderson Cancer Center to provide fully integrated, multidisciplinary cancer care for patients in northern New Jersey and the tristate area. An extension of MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper in Camden, New Jersey, Summit Medical Group MD Anderson Cancer Center is clinically integrated with MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper joined MD Anderson Cancer Network, a program of MD Anderson Cancer Center, in 2013. Summit Medical Group is one of four partner members of the network and contributes to MD Andersons mission to end cancer. For more information, visit http://www.summitmedicalgroup.com/service/Oncology-Center/.

About MD Anderson Cancer Center

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston ranks as one of the worlds most respected centers focused on cancer patient care, research, education and prevention. The institutions sole mission is to end cancer for patients and their families around the world. Last year, more than 135,000 individuals came to MD Anderson for not only the largest clinical trials program in the world, but also for its signature multidisciplinary care. MD Anderson in Houston employs almost 21,000 cancer fighters, including nearly 1,700 physicians and scientists.

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1SEO.com Digital Agency

Each year, the US Search Awards honors search and digital marketing professionals that have achieved notable success in the digital space. Among those honored this year is Bristol, PA-based 1SEO.com Digital Agency. In fact, 2016 marks the fourth year in a row that 1SEO.com Digital Agency has been shortlisted for the US Search Awards.

This year, the agency is being recognized for its accomplishments in 10 categories, including Best Large Agency. Other categories in which Philadelphias leading digital agency is being recognized include Best SEO Campaign, Best PPC Campaign, Best Social Media Campaign and Best Integrated Campaign. With 16 shortlisted campaigns, 1SEO.com Digital Agency has the strongest presence on this years US Search Awards shortlist out of all other contenders.

Were honored to have our team recognized for the results theyve produced for our clients, said Lance Bachmann, Founder and CEO of 1SEO.com Digital Agency. Were going 16 in 16! he added.

The world of digital marketing changes at a breakneck pace, and players in this space need to keep up. No one knows this better than 1SEO.com Digital Agency. Over the course of a mere seven years in business, the agency has swelled from a boutique agency with under 10 employees to a 50+ employee operation that offers a full suite of services including PPC, SEO, web development, social media and content writing. Ever-sensitive to digital marketings changing landscape, 1SEO.com Digital Agency continuously refines its strategies and processes, focusing on effortless communication and unsurpassed customer service.

Not only has the company helped hundreds of clients get found online by customers, but they have also earned widespread industry recognition for their efforts in doing so. Most recently, 1SEO.com Digital Agency was named an official Google Premier Partner. The companys accomplishments and continual focus on the future of digital marketing make them a major digital marketing player to watch in the years to come.

Meet the team at Philadelphias best SEO company and learn more about 1SEO.com Digital Agencys digital marketing services at http://www.1seo.com.

About 1SEO.com Digital Agency

1SEO.com Digital Agency is a Philadelphia, PA-based digital marketing firm that provides end-to-end solutions for their clientele, which is comprised of hundreds of businesses in countless industries that operate in several sectors, from the niche to the mainstream. Using a full suite of services like search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click (PPC), social media optimization (SMO), website design, content writing and email marketing, 1SEO.com Digital Agency helps their clients win online by cultivating online presences and harvesting leads, closes, conversions and profits.

To learn more, please visit http://www.1seo.com/.
Bryn Wesch, CFO of Novus Medical Detox Center, comments on the Surgeon Generals call to action for practitioners regarding opioids. By pinpointing addiction and dependency as a chronic medical disorder, the Surgeon General is helping many to realize the physiological component of this health issue.

Nearly 2 million Americans currently have a prescription opioid use disorder (1), while opioid overdose deaths have risen to 78 per day (2)leading U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to appeal to healthcare professionals nationwide to join together in combating the health crisis. Murthy recently sent letters to Americas 2.3 million prescribers to enlist their commitment and cooperation in addressing the epidemic.(1) Novus Medical Detox Center, a leading Florida-based drug treatment facility, regards the move as a potential game-changer for individuals with opioid use disorders, and hopes Murthys efforts will garner greater support for prevention, treatment and recovery.

Earlier this year, Murthy announced his intent to reach out to prescribers. He noted that early-1990s training materials claimed addiction to opioids is very rare in patients who have [legitimate] pain, and said many clinicians prescribing practices are still based on those erroneous teachings.(3) His letter asks healthcare providers to do three things:

1. Sharpen their prescribing practices and educate themselves on how to treat pain safely and effectively.

2. Screen patients for opioid use disorder and connect them with evidence-based treatment.

3. Shape how the public views addiction by talking about it as a chronic illness rather than a moral failing.(1)

Along with each letter, Murthy enclosed a pocket card that outlines key recommendations from the CDC Opioid Prescribing Guideline. The materials emphasize that opioids should not be prescribed as first-line treatment for chronic pain, and direct healthcare professionals to first consider alternate treatments such as non-addictive medications, physical therapy or cognitive behavioral therapy. They also advise clinicians to start low and go slow when prescribing opioids and to assess, tailor and taper prescriptions within several weeks.(4)

Bryn Wesch, CFO of Novus Medical Detox Center, applauds Murthys initiative and is optimistic that it will create positive changes for those suffering from addiction and dependency. The Surgeon General acknowledges that many healthcare providers have been misled as to the risk of opioid addiction. Rather than blaming or chastising prescribers, he urges them to explore new ways to safely treat chronic pain and to help those with opioid use disorders obtain proper treatment, she explained. He also aims to remove the stigma associated with substance use disorders, which should help empower individuals and families affected by opioids to request the support they need.

Murthy has asserted that there is a major treatment gap in this country that we have to close.(1) While the Obama administration has sought to improve access to treatment, additional funding and education will be required.(3) However, Wesch believes that if prescribers unite in support of Murthys proposals, patients who are addicted to or dependent on opioids will finally be identified, assisted and referred for treatment rather than shamed or vilified.

By pinpointing addiction and dependency as a chronic medical disorder, the Surgeon General is helping many to realize the physiological component of this health issue, said Wesch. Its not simply a matter of quitting opioid use. Many patients need medically supervised treatment to help them overcome the physical pain and discomfort of withdrawal before they can achieve successful long-term recovery, and they also need to be prescribed safer alternatives for chronic pain.

Novus offers medically supervised drug detox programs that help patients overcome dependency and addiction by minimizing the discomfort of opiate and opioid withdrawal. The Florida drug detox facility individually customizes each patients treatment plan based on proven medical protocols, including 24-hour access to nursing care and withdrawal specialists. Novus is acclaimed for its expertise in treating high-dose methadone cases, and is proficient in detoxing patients from other high-dose opioids just as comfortably, safely and effectively.

For more information on Novus Medical Detox Center and its opioid detox and treatment programs, visit http://www.novusdetox.com.

About Novus Medical Detox Center:

Novus Medical Detox Center has earned The Joint Commissions Gold Seal of Approval for Behavioral Health Care Accreditation as an inpatient medical detox facility. Licensed by the Florida Department of Children and Families, Novus provides safe, effective alcohol and drug treatment programs that are based on proven medical protocols and designed to minimize the discomfort of withdrawal. The facility is located on 3.25 acres in New Port Richey, Florida, in a tranquil, spa-like setting bordering protected conservation land. Intent on proving that detox doesnt have to be painful or degrading, Novus set out to transform the industry by bringing humanity into medical detox with individually customized treatment programs and 24/7 access to nursing care and withdrawal specialists. Today, Novus is renowned as a champion of industry standardization and a staunch advocate of patients fighting to overcome substance use disorders. Frequently recognized for its contributions to the industry and local community, Novus has become a regular source to media publications such as The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, and has ranked in the Tampa Bay Business Journals Fast 50, the Florida Business Journals Top 500 and the Inc. 5000 list of Americas fastest-growing companies. For more information on Novus medically supervised detox programs, visit http://novusdetox.com.

1. CBS News. Surgeon General Takes Unprecedented Step Amid Opioid Epidemic; CBS This Morning; August 25, 2016. cbsnews.com/news/vivek-murthy-surgeon-general-opiods-health-crisis-letter-clinicians-zika/

2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Understanding the Epidemic: Record Overdose Deaths; Opioid Overdose data on CDC website; last updated June 21, 2016. cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/

3. Kenen, Joanne. Surgeon General Uses Bully Pulpit to Combat Opioid Crisis; Politico; April 8, 2016. politico.com/story/2016/04/surgeon-general-uses-bully-pulpit-to-combat-opioid-crisis-221720

4. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Surgeon General of the United States. Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain; pocket card published on TurnTheTideRx.com; August 2016. turnthetiderx.org/treatment/
The Council for Educational Change, a statewide nonprofit, is formally launching the Lawyers Alliance to further its mission of strengthening leadership in public schools. Strong leadership leads to vibrant schools and a prepared workforce. On Tuesday, Sept. 13, at 6 PM, South Florida lawyers will gather for a cocktail reception at the offices of the Miami Parking Authority, 40 NW 3rd Street, Suite 1103, Miami. The event is an opportunity for lawyers to learn about the Councils program that will make a significant difference in our schools.

Since the inception of the Council for Education Change by the late Leonard Miller, lawyers have played an important role in our organization, said Dr. Elaine Liftin, the Councils President and Executive Director. Lawyers have created unique partnerships with school principals, providing mentoring and support on strategic planning, problem solving, team building, innovative thinking and a myriad of other leadership skills required to improve student education.

The Lawyers Alliance will supply civic and legal education to the classroom. The lawyers involvement will help create bridges between students and the legal community, including judges, court officials and law enforcement.

When legal professionals volunteer their expertise to local schools, they can teach kids about key legal matters that may impact them personally one day, said Michelle Abbs, Lawyers Alliance Coordinator. One important way to strengthen our judicial system is to teach students about their rights and duties as law-abiding citizens as they get older.

Members of the Lawyers Alliance will choose different activities to initiate at a school, including leading a mini lesson, hosting a courthouse visit and conducting a mock trial, among others. Each member of the Alliance will select the engagement style and frequency that accommodates his/her busy schedule. As a group, the members will confer regularly throughout the year on successful programs and future goals.

Perricones Marketplace & Cafe will provide hors d'oeuvres at the event. Attorney Evian White with Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc., Miami Parking Authority CEO Arthur Noriega, who is generously hosting the event at his facility, Dr. Elaine Liftin and a Miami Northwestern Senior High School student will briefly address the audience.

Some of the law firms that will be represented at the event include Kubicki Draper; Miami STREET Law Program; the Office of the Miami City Attorney; the US Attorneys Office, Romy Jurado; Berk, Merchant & Sims, PLC; Rudd & Diamond, P.A.; and the Legal Services of Greater Miami. The event is co-hosted by the Dade County Bar Association - Young Lawyers Section.

About the Council for Educational Change

The Council for Educational Change is a statewide, 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to focus on LEADERSHIP to improve student achievement and address critical issues in education. Leonard Miller founded the Council for Educational Change in 2003, as the successor organization of the South Florida Annenberg Challenge. Based in Weston, the Council is led by a Board of Trustees. Some of its accomplishments include the creation of the Executive PASS program, which forms a partnership between a business leader and a school principal to share business strategies to bring positive changes to the school. The Council also has a three-year matching grant executive partnership program in which a CEO mentors a school principal and commits up to $100,000 to develop and fund strategic plans to create a culture of excellence and success.

For more information visit: http://www.changeeducation.org

To RSVP, please, contact Alina Taranco at ataranco(at)changeeducation.org or call 954-727-9909

For media inquiries, please, contact Paola Iuspa-Abbott at 305.726.5848 or paola(at)topofmind-pr.com
Gaza Sky Geeks is the first initiative of its kind in Gaza. Roughly half of the organization's startups are run by women. Technology is the one sector of the Gazan economy that is not confined by borders or other constraints.

Best friends Mohammed Al Madhoun and Osayd Madi faced many challenges in pursuing their dream to become successful game designers, but with the support of tech accelerator Gaza Sky Geeks  run by the global organization Mercy Corps  the pair invented a game that was downloaded over half a million times in less than one month.

Called Ramadan Challenges, the app is free to download  available on a number of platforms including the google app store and GooglePlay store for Android -- and earns revenue from advertising and in-app purchases. Competitors complete a series of short Ramadan-themed puzzles. The initiative is one of several Gaza Sky Geeks-born startups that recently started to earn revenue. The next round of incubation will start in September 2016.

Technology is the one sector of the Gazan economy that is not confined by borders or other constraints, said Ryan Sturgill, Startup-Accelerator Director for Gaza Sky Geeks. For young entrepreneurs like Madhoun and Madi, Gaza Sky Geeks provides a unique opportunity to build self-sustaining, income-generating businesses that target markets across the Middle East and around the globe  all from within Gaza via the internet.

The only initiative of its kind, Gaza Sky Geeks is Gazas first startup accelerator, co-working hub and technology incubator. Launched in 2011 by Mercy Corps with support from Google.org, it aims to spark awareness of startups in Gaza and to conduct outreach, build a vibrant community that nurtures innovation and connect top teams and talent to global resources. More than 2,500 youth have learned in-demand technical and entrepreneurship skills with Gaza Sky Geeks. Despite a 60 percent youth unemployment rate, Gaza has a dense population of educated, optimistic and resilient young people who are hungry to participate in the local startup movement.

The self-taught 28-year-old developers and designers Madi and Madhoun recently quit other jobs in order to pursue their startup full-time with support from Gaza Sky Geeks. The pair credits their success in part to recognizing an unmet demand. There werent many games tailored for the Arab market, says Madhoun.

Another Gazan Startup, 5QHQH.com, has recently topped 250,000 visits to their online comedy site and meme messaging service, the first of its kind in the Arab world. Nearly a dozen startups that have participated in the organizations incubation program have received investment offers, and roughly half of the organizations startups are run by women.
We believe the marketplace needs and wants consistent, reliable team-driven service. While some in the LTL industry are backing off aggressive transit times, we are committed to providing the fastest, long-haul services at standard LTL rates.

Daylight Transport, the expedited domestic LTL carrier serving the long-haul industry since 1977, has announced the opening of two new key lanes.

Beginning September 12, 2016, Daylight Transport will begin service from South Florida to the Northeast. Additionally, Daylight will provide service from the Northeast to North Carolina. Both new service routes are part of an expansion plan which began in April with the addition of 2-Day service from the Northeast to points in the Southeast.

We believe the marketplace needs and wants consistent, reliable team-driven service. While some in the LTL industry are backing off aggressive transit times, we are committed to providing the fastest, long-haul services at standard LTL rates. stated Bill Christensen, Vice President of Sales & Marketing. Speed and innovation are in our DNA. Its who we are.

For more information on the services Daylight Transport provides visit http://www.dylt.com or call the general office at 800-468-9999.
Add interactivity directly over the web. Checking users' point-of-gaze with a heat map InstaVR allowed us a fast and effective way to reach our audience across multiple platforms - Stephen Paul, Visualization Manager and DCS Americas Marketing of AECOM,

InstaVR Inc (http://www.instavr.co), a virtual reality (VR) authoring, publishing, and analysis company, announced the close of a $2 million series A round of equity funding, led by The Venture Reality Fund (The VR Fund). The companys web-based solution enables companies to quickly and easily author interactive 360-degree VR apps for mobile and desktop devices. Additionally, InstaVR today launched with three marquee clients: Smithsonian American Art Museum, AECOM and transcosmos Inc.

Daniel H. Haga, Founder of InstaVR, said: Were focused on enabling companies to create rich customer experiences through emerging VR technologies, and doing it in a way thats easy and accessible. Both B2C as well as B2B companies are clamoring for ways to engage their end users with VR, and were poised to be the frontrunners in this market through our cloud-based app publishing platform.

Marco DeMiroz, General Partner at The VR Fund, said: InstaVRs industry-changing authoring and publishing technology enables a wide variety of industries to reach their customers with immersive VR apps. We look forward to seeing the variety and depth of new VR apps in the market created by InstaVRs platform.

Through the InstaVR publishing platform, the Smithsonian American Art Museum now offers an immersive 360-degree app experience, called the Renwick Gallery WONDER 360. Nine leading contemporary artistsJennifer Angus, Chakaia Booker, Gabriel Dawe, Tara Donovan, Patrick Dougherty, Janet Echelman, John Grade, Maya Lin and Leo Villarealcreated site-specific, gallery-sized installations inspired by the Renwicks grand spaces. The resulting exhibition, titled WONDER, attracted more than 730,000 visitors from November 2015 through July 2016 and created a sensation on social media. Users can install the free app on mobile devices:

iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/renwick-gallery-wonder-360/id1132642025?mt=8

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=edu.si.americanart.wonder360

AECOM, a multinational engineering firm with over 92,000 employees in 150 countries, utilizes InstaVR to publish a multitude of VR experiences for different constituencies, such as developing training modules for display on the Samsung Gear VR platform, and building immersive VR for community development meetings to allow the public to experience projects prior to voting on them.

Stephen Paul, Visualization Manager and DCS Americas Marketing of AECOM, said: InstaVR allowed us a fast and effective way to reach our audience across multiple platforms. We're very pleased, and looking forward to all the great developments to come.

InstaVR will also be exhibiting on Monday, September 12 at TechCrunch Disrupt SF, as part of the VR Pavilion at Startup Alley. The company will showcase its technology and allow attendees to experience apps created using InstaVR on iPads, Google Cardboard, and Gear VR devices.

During the InstaVR beta, over 2,000 companies registered to create thousands of 360-degree VR experiences across a wide array of industries, including real estate, hospitality, tourism, consumer goods, transportation, and construction. For more information and to access the InstaVR platform, visit http://www.instavr.co.

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About InstaVR Inc

Based in San Francisco, InstaVR is a virtual reality focused technology company, providing tools and services to enable professionals to author and publish interactive VR experiences. InstaVR is completely web-based and requires no specialized engineering knowledge. Since launching in early 2016, over 2,000 companies have created thousands of immersive 360-degree apps for iOS, Android, web, Gear VR and Google Cardboard, including Smithsonian American Art Museum, AECOM and transcosmos Inc. For more information and to access the InstaVR platform, visit http://www.instavr.co.

About The Venture Reality Fund

Based in San Francisco with a global reach, The Venture Reality Fund (The VR Fund) is the leading early stage venture capital fund solely focusing on investments in Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) companies. The VR Fund launched its debut fund in early 2016 with a target size of $50 million. The VR Fund is cofounded by Marco DeMiroz and Tipatat Chennavasin, who have founded, exited, taken companies public and invested in VR companies from seed to series C. By combining financing with unique sector expertise, resources and services to portfolio companies, The VR Fund is poised to be the global leader in earlystage VR and AR investments. To learn more, visit http://thevrfund.com.
If you've never been to a Paso Garagiste Wine Festival - and especially if you've never visited Paso - this is a fantastic opportunity to experience the spirit of these cutting edge winemakers and discover this amazingly beautiful and welcoming wine town.

The Garagiste Wine Festival returns to its birthplace, Paso Robles, from November 11th  13th for its sixth anniversary with three days of events that feature over 60 micro-production winemakers pouring over 200 wines. Tickets are on sale now at http://californiagaragistes.com/2016-paso-fest/.

Launched in 2011 in Paso Robles, which was recently named Americas Best Wine Country Town by Sunset Magazine, the Garagiste Festival was the first event to define, and shine a spotlight on, the garagiste* wine movement, which has exploded over the past five years, and features commercial artisan winemakers who handcraft under 1,500 cases a year and pay close, hands-on attention to every wine they make.

This year, the festivals spotlight is firmly on Paso Robles as it celebrates the regions wide range of varieties and unique blends, as well its renegade spirit. These qualities, along with its vibrant artisan garagiste winemaker scene, have made Paso Robles one of the worlds hottest wine regions -- and its renown has grown in tandem with the explosion of the American Garagiste movement. New events this year include a tasting seminar focusing on Illegal Blends!  innovative blends by Paso winemakers  and a Paso Garagiste Wine Passport day, offering special post-festival access to winemakers and their tasting rooms, vineyards, or wineries, as well as special Paso Robles weekend packages, including hotel discounts.

"All the recent Paso Robles accolades are true and deserved: we have always known that Paso is one of Americas Best Wine Country Towns and Happiest Cities. And, although we now have Garagiste Festivals in several locations, there is no substitute for meeting the winemakers in their native habitat where the festival originated, said Garagiste Festival Co-Founder Doug Minnick. The fun, friendly, no-snobs allowed camaraderie of Paso and the Garagiste movement is everywhere. If you've never been to a Paso Garagiste Wine Festival - and especially if you've never visited Paso - this is a fantastic opportunity to experience the spirit of these cutting edge winemakers and discover this amazingly beautiful, comfortable and welcoming wine town. Or you can sit in traffic in Napa. Your call."

In addition to being named Americas Best Wine Country Town, Paso Robles was named Wine Region of the Year by Wine Enthusiast Magazine; One of the Best Small Main Street Towns in America by Top Value Reviews; One of Americas Best Towns for the Holidays by Travel + Leisure; One of Americas Favorite Small Towns by Yahoo Travel; One of America's Happiest Cities by Yahoo Homes, and one of the Top 10 U.S. Spots by Lonely Planet.

Our festival is the go-to event to not only taste the flagship wines of our region, but also to dig into the remarkable Paso Robles terroir and the experimental craft of our garagiste winemakers. Emblematic of this is our first-ever Illegal Blends seminar, an introduction to, and celebration of, the no-rules approach of our regions winemakers, said Garagiste Festival Co-founder Stewart McLennan. Unbounded by the mandated-by-law regional blends France, Italy and the Old World have to contend with - and with a cornucopia of locally grown varieties  the seminar will demonstrate how our regions winemakers are able to experiment with blends to make a wine better than its usual parts.

Uniquely reflective of the range of soils and microclimates the garagiste winemakers have access to, over its six years the Garagiste Wine Festival has featured handcrafted wines from a diverse range of grape varieties including Albarino, Aglianico, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignane, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Cinsault, Counoise, Fiano, Grenache, Grenache Blanc, Lagrein, Malbec, Malvasia Bianca, Marsanne, Merlot, Mourverdre, Muscat Blanc, Nebbiolo, Petit Verdot, Petit Sirah, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Noir, Primitivo, Riesling, Rousanne, Sangiovese, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Symphony, Syrah, Tannat, Tempranillio, Teroldego, Trousseau Gris, Ugni Blanc, Viognier, Zinfandel and many more.

The festival also includes the Grand Tasting Main Event, Winemaker Shootout, Rare and Reserve Wine Tasting with Gourmet Grilled Cheese, and Keep It Rockin After Party. The festival takes place at the Paso Robles Fairgrounds and other Paso area locations, including Lefondusac in Pasos hot new winery district Tin City and the historic Carlton Hotel in Atascadero.

The sixth anniversary Paso Robles Garagiste Wine Festival marks the non-profit Garagiste Events fourteenth festival  festivals also take place in Solvang, Los Angeles and Oakland. The festivals have introduced hundreds of outstanding artisan winemakers to thousands of passionate wine consumers, members of the trade and media, raising the profiles of many of the winemakers nationally for the first time, and raising thousands of dollars for the education of future winemakers. Garagiste Festivals Inc. is a 5013c non profit organization and benefits the Garagiste Scholarship at Cal Poly Wine and Viticulture Department.

For full schedule details, go to http://californiagaragistes.com/2016-paso-fest/

Among the over 60 winemakers already scheduled to pour are:

Alta Colina, Amor Fati*, Ampere*, Ascension Cellars, Asuncion Ridge, Barton Family, Bodega de Edgar, Bon Niche, Brian Benson Cellars, Caldera Cuvee, Caliza, CCGP, Changala, Circle B Vineyard and Cellars*, Cloak & Dagger, Copia, Cutrozzola, Deno, Diablo Paso, Dilecta, Fableist Wine Company*, Hoi Polloi*, Hoyt Family, Hug Cellars, JPIII, Kaleidos Winery, Kendric Vineyards*, Last Light Wine Co.*, Last Summer Wines*, Levo Wine, Lions Peak*, Lynch Wines, MCV Wines, Michael Gill Cellars, Mollie Wines*, Mystic Hills Vineyard, Nicora, Nowell-Smith Wines*, Paix Sur Terre, On Your Left, Peloton Cellars*, Pulchella Winery, Ranchita Canyon, Rendarrio, Rockin R Winery*, RN Estate, Seven Angels,Seven Oxen, Stolo Family Vineyards, The Farm Winery, Tlo Wines, Top Winery*, Trojak-Knier*, Two Shepherds, Vinemark Cellars, Vino Vargas, West of Temperance*.

*Pouring for the first time at The Garagiste Festival

To preserve an intimate experience for consumers with one-on-one interaction with winemakers, tickets are very limited for the Garagiste Festivals and always sell out. To purchase tickets go to http://californiagaragistes.com/2016-paso-fest/. To learn more about The Garagiste Festival, and to get the latest event info, sign-up for The Dirt at http://garagistefestival.com/sign-up/. Or follow us on Twitter (@GaragisteFest) or Facebook.

Sponsors include:

Adelaide Inn, Bidwell Insurance, Carlton Hotel, ETS Laboratories, Farm Credit West, Farm Supply, G3/Diam, La Bellasera Hotel and Suites, La Quinta Inn and Suites, Laffort, LML Graphics, Paso Oaks Hotel, PRWCA, Tonnellerie St, Martin, TPRA, Umpqua Bank, WiVi Central Coast, XPressFill

For sponsorship info, email info(at)garagistefestival(dot)com.

*Garagistes (garage-east) is a term originally used in the Bordeaux region of France to denigrate renegade small-lot wine makers, sometimes working in their "garages" (anything considered not a chateau), who refused to follow the rules, and is now a full-fledged movement responsible for making some of the best wine in the world. The Garagiste Festivals were the first to shine a light on the American garagiste winemaker in 2011. Since then, the festival has helped thousands of consumers discover the remarkable wines of hundreds of true garagistes, who handcraft under 1,500 cases a year and pay close, hands-on attention to every wine they make.

About The Garagiste Wine Festivals

The Garagiste Wine Festivals (http://www.garagistefestival.com) are the first and only wine festivals dedicated to the undiscovered and under-recognized American artisan garagiste producers who are making some of the best, most exciting, handcrafted small-lot production wines in the world. Founded by fellow garagistes Stewart McLennan and Douglas Minnick, the Garagiste Festivals are committed to discovering the best and most innovative limited-production winemakers and promoting and showcasing them to a broad audience of discerning wine consumers. In addition to its flagship annual festival in Paso Robles, CA, the Garagiste Festival line-up includes Garagiste Festival: Southern Exposure, featuring Santa Ynez Valley garagistes; the Garagiste Festival: Urban Exposure, in Los Angeles; the Garagiste Festial: Northern Exposure, in the Bay Area; garagiste mini-tastings presented from So Cal to Tahoe; winemaker dinners, a newsletter, garagiste profiles and more. The festivals were named one of the Top Nine Incredible Epicurean Vacations in the world by ABC News,* one of the premier wine events of the year by the LA Times, and Best Festival by Sunset Magazines Best of the West. The festivals are produced by Garagiste Events, a non-profit dedicated to furthering the education of future winemakers and those training for employment within the wine industry. Garagiste Festivals Inc. is a 5013c non-profit organization and proceeds from the festivals support the Garagiste Festival Scholarship fund of the California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo Wine and Viticulture Department.

Media Contacts:

mWEBB Communications for The Garagiste Festivals

Melanie Webber, melanie(at)mwebbcom(dot)com, 424-603-4340

Crystal Hartwell, crystal(at)mwebbcom(dot)com, 714-987-1016
IGS president, Norma Alberico, accepts the Maritz Travel Supplier of the Year award for 2016. Being named Supplier of the Year is a very important accolade for myself and IGS.  Norma Alberico, IGS President

International Group Sales (IGS), a trusted leader in the industry of incentive travel and group meetings, has been awarded the prestigious title of Maritz Travel Supplier of the Year for 2016. The award, given recently at the 5th Annual Maritz Travel Collaborative in New York City, recognizes excellence within the recipients travel industry category and is voted upon by Maritz Travel employees.

This marks the first time IGS has won the award. IGS president Norma Alberico reflects, Being named Supplier of the Year is a very important accolade for myself and for IGS. We cherish our partnership with Maritz Travel and strive for excellence in service to our clients by setting the bar high with Maritz Travel standards.

Each year, the Maritz Travel Supplier of the Year award measures nominees using a set of criteria that ensures the suppliers selected are the best of the best in their industry category.

This year, a total of four awards were presented at the event, recognizing hotels and destination management companies (DMCs), singling out large and small suppliers. IGSs award is for the small chain hotels category, while Hilton Hotels were named Supplier of the Year in the large chain hotels category.

The award reflects a strong partnership between the IGS team and Grand Velas Resorts. Grand Velas Resorts is a AAA Five Diamond Award winning hotel chain with properties in Riviera Nayarit and Riviera Maya and expanding to Los Cabos, Mexico in December 2016. IGS represents clients including Grand Velas and AMResorts in the group sales market, offering a wide range of options for their clients planning corporate group travel and meeting events at key destinations.

The only way to win our Supplier of the Year award is to be the absolute best in providing service to our customers and their guests, said Rhea Stagner, vice president of sourcing and supplier relations at Maritz Travel. We consistently heard from our team and clients that the IGS/Grand Velas team is supportive, flexible, responsive and delivers the best customer service and products. They are great partners and truly deserve this award.

Jose Villela, former president of IGS and Norma Albericos father, adds, This Award is a true honor for IGS. I started working with Maritz Travel in 1979 after they signed my first contract for Fiesta Americana in Puerto Vallarta. When I founded IGS in 2001, they opened their doors for me with great support and have become our most important client. Villela stresses, The many connections I have made through the years can be traced back to Maritz Travel and I attribute a big part of our success to our great partnership filled with friendships and key industry contacts.

ABOUT International Group Sales

Serving the corporate community for more than 30 years, IGS represents a portfolio of luxury resorts and hotels in Mexico, the Caribbean & afar each of which is fully capable of accommodating complex meetings and events. For more information, visit http://www.internationalgroupsales.com or by emailing norma(at)IGSales(dot)net.

ABOUT Maritz Travel Company

Maritz Travel  A Maritz Global Events Company creates exceptional experiences that inspire people to achieve extraordinary business results. By designing and executing innovative corporate events, meetings and incentive travel programs, Maritz helps transform businesses and people. They focus on individual business objectives to provide business meeting planning and group incentive trips that drive business results and improve customer, employee and channel partner engagement. For more information, visit http://www.maritztravel.com or follow them on Twitter @MaritzTravel.

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MIMI TRAN will be showing at the Invitation Only Art Hearts Fashion event at the Angel Orensanz Foundation 172 Norfolk Street, New York this Wednesday. The highlight of the event is the unveiling of Mimis latest collection of exquisite evening dresses, ready-to-wear pieces, and culminating with a breathtaking bridal gown.

This season constitutes the emergence out of the chrysalis of Mimis timelessly elegant designs to deliver an unexpected burst of vibrant colors. This is truly the next step in the evolution of my designs, says Mimi. I was inspired by my wonderful and beautiful daughter who seems to be growing so fast, taking on new experiences and showing me the transformative power of embracing life at its fullest.

The collection will feature floor length dresses of fine fabrications, sensuously cut silhouettes in a kaleidoscope of turquoise, red, blush, white, and new pieces in her signature black and gold tones, all detailed with hand embroidered lace, beads, shimmering Swarovski crystals and leathers.

Kindly RSVP to kristina (at) mannfolkpr (dot) com.

ABOUT MIMI TRAN

Born in Vietnam, Mimi Tran relocated to Paris at the age of seven where she eventually attended boarding school and was recognized as a gifted child in free style art. At 14, her family moved to the United States where she later graduated from college with a bachelors degree in electrical engineering and began her career at Cisco. She earned an MBA in International Business Management from Santa Clara University, but her artistic side kept pulling her toward a means of creative expression. That calling consequently led her to found her own line in 2013 with form-fitting cocktail dresses that sculpted the body and accentuated feminine curves before she finally embraced the red carpet-ready glamour of evening gowns. Today she is based in San Francisco but is sold worldwide in specialty boutiques and stores. The showing of her Colors of Life Collection is her fourth and highly anticipated participation at New York Fashion Week and is of particular significance as she continues to explore the limitless possibilities of the Mimi Tran brand.
Tracey Carpentier My goal is to continue the growth and development of one of the strongest diversified BPO and financial organizations in the nation.

Account Control Technology Holdings, Inc. (ACT Holdings) a national leader in delivering debt recovery and business process outsourcing solutions, is pleased to announce the appointment of Tracey Carpentier as Chief Executive Officer. Tracey brings more than 20 years of experience leading numerous public and private companies and will be instrumental in continuing to strengthen ACT Holdings to sustain its position as a world-class finance and business process outsourcing (BPO) organization.

Tracey is a highly respected leader with proven senior level experience in delivering revenue and EBITDA growth for large multi-national, private equity owned and privately-held companies, states Dale Van Dellen, Chairman of ACT Holdings, Inc. Furthermore, having served on ACT Holdings Corporate Board of Directors for over a year, she is very familiar with our business making this appointment a seamless transition.

Prior to her CEO appointment, Carpentier served as the President of Precision Dynamics Corporation and Brady Security Group at Brady Corporation. She has extensive experience in leading businesses in multiple industries through growth, transformation and expansion in domestic and international markets. She is passionate about inspiring and developing people; driving innovation and growth; focusing on the customer and delivering results.

I look forward to working with the ACT Holdings teams and am honored to be chosen as the next CEO. It is such a privilege to be part of an organization that delivers high-quality services and innovative solutions to the best clients, develops the most talented professionals and does its part to improve the communities in which we serve, Carpentier said. My goal is to continue the growth and development of one of the strongest diversified BPO and financial organizations in the nation.

Tracey holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin  Milwaukee and a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from Indiana University.

About Account Control Technology Holdings, Inc.

Account Control Technology Holdings, Inc. provides comprehensive business process outsourcing and financial services to diverse industries. Our companies partner with clients to help them run the business behind their operations so they can focus on what they do best  whether its serving customers, educating students, caring for patients, or keeping communities moving forward. ACT Holdings companies include Account Control Technology, Inc. and Convergent, Inc. and has 18 offices and employs more than 4,800 employees. For more information, visit http://www.accountcontrolholdings.com

About Account Control Technology, Inc.

Account Control Technology, Inc. is a leader in providing consultative debt management, collection, call center and business office solutions for education, government, commercial and consumer entities. Established in 1990, ACT has been recognized as an Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private company for the past 10 years running. The company serves clients nationwide from all office locations. For more information, visit http://www.accountcontrol.com.

About Convergent, Inc.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Convergent, Inc. is one of Americas largest business process outsourcing firms. The company has more than sixty years of history serving a diverse customer base with consumer contact outsourcing services, commercial receivables management and healthcare revenue cycle management. Convergent empowers its clients with an innovative combination of an adaptable workflow engine, technology-enabled operations, next-generation analytics and professional services to deliver superior financial performance and high levels of client and consumer satisfaction. For more information, visit http://www.convergentusa.com.
The contributions Drs. Clozel have made to the PH community are vast. Their inspired work has changed the course of this rare disease for people around the world, said Brad A. Wong, president and chief executive officer of PHA.

The Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA) will recognize two pioneers in the field of pulmonary hypertension (PH), a rare, life-threatening disease too often misdiagnosed as diseases like asthma. PHA will honor Jean-Paul Clozel, M.D. and Martine Clozel, M.D at the Evening of Hope Gala, Sept. 22, at the Fort Mason Center, Gallery 308 in San Francisco.

Hosted by PHAs California chapter, the Evening of Hope Gala is a fundraiser that celebrates 25 years of groundbreaking advancements towards a PH cure. PH, or high blood pressure of the lungs, is caused by the tiny arteries in the lungs becoming narrowed or blocked. The increased pressure in the lungs forces the right side of the heart to pump harder to move blood through the arteries. This stress can lead to heart failure and death. Drs. Clozel are co-founders of Actelion Ltd., a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing treatments for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a rare form of PH, and other uncommon diseases. They will receive the 2016 California Chapter Legacy Award.

The contributions Drs. Clozel have made to the PH community are vast. Their inspired work has changed the course of this rare disease for people around the world, said Brad A. Wong, president and chief executive officer of PHA.

PHA connects and empowers PH patients, caregivers and families; healthcare professionals and scientists; and volunteers and donors. The association serves and integrates the multi-faceted PH community through in-person and online support and educational programs; advocacy and awareness initiatives; and funding for the search to find a cure to end PH.

While in some cases, theres no known cause for PH, the disease can be associated with coronary artery disease, systemic high blood pressure, connective tissue disease, HIV, sleep apnea, sickle cell anemia, liver disease and other conditions. Because symptoms include shortness of breath, fatigue and chest pain, the diagnosis often comes too late, as PH is often misdiagnosed as less threatening illnesses. The average length of survival for PAH is only 2.8 years after diagnosis without treatment. With early and accurate diagnosis, 14 available treatments extend and improve the quality of life for many who are diagnosed.

The Evening of Hope Gala honoring Drs. Clozel is made possible with generous contributions from a number of donors, including the events title sponsor, SteadyMed Therapeutics, and PHAs National O2 breathe sponsors, Actelion Pharmaceuticals, Ltd., Gilead, Bayer and United Therapeutics Corporation. The event will include a cocktail reception, dinner, silent auction and dancing. To purchase tickets and for more information, visit https://www.PHAssociation.org/California.

About the Pulmonary Hypertension Association:

Headquartered in Silver Spring, Md., the Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA) is the countrys leading pulmonary hypertension organization. Commemorating its 25th anniversary in 2016, PHAs mission is to extend and improve the lives of those affected by PH; its vision is a world without PH, empowered by hope. PHA achieves this by connecting and working together with the entire PH community of patients, families; healthcare professionals and researchers. For more information and to learn how you can support PH patients, visit http://www.PHAssociation.org and connect with PHA on Twitter @PHAssociation and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/PulmonaryHypertensionAssociation.

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Saga Solar, a Minnesota based photovoltaic solar panels manufacturer, and Aki Development, a tribally chartered indigenous owned company located on the Leech Lake Territory of the Ojibwa Nation in northern Minnesota, announced today that they will be entering into a definitive merger agreement under which Aki Development will acquire a majority stake in Saga Solar, SBC, a Public Benefit Corporation solar module manufacturer that produces solar panels compliant with the Made in Minnesota program. The Board of Directors of both companies have unanimously approved the merger, which is expected to rapidly be accretive upon closing by the end of this month.

Said Mike Myers, CEO of Aki Development, For many Indigenous cultures the sun is considered their Grandfather or oldest Brother, one of the creative forces who makes life possible and continues to sustain, empower and encourage our growth and development. Our acquisition of Saga and the promotion of growth in solar power and related green technologies offers Indigenous nations and peoples a way to continue their partnership with their Grandfather to work together for a cleaner, resilient and more sustainable future.

As a result of the acquisition, Saga Solars main production facility will be relocated from Saint Paul to Cass Lake Minnesota, the seat of the Leech Lake Ojibwas tribal government, and become the first and only solar panel manufacturer to be indigenously owned and located within the territory of a First Nations tribal land. Akis main focus for the acquisition is to create jobs, encourage Indigenous engineering, research, and innovation through partnership with their local tribal community college, and create sustainability  economically, environmentally, culturally and socially  by stimulating culturally based development, and fulfilling a responsibility to the Seventh Generation.

When reached for comment R. Marie Zola, Founder and CEO of Saga Solar said, I couldnt be happier to be a part of something that I hope is much larger than any one individual helping to make this partnership a reality. Ever since contacting Rob [Aitken, executive director of Leech Lake Financial Services] after reading about Senator Frankens efforts to help Indian Country in the Star Tribune, this merger seems to have been serendipity in motion. I always envisioned Saga fulfilling this sort of mission, and am a bit overwhelmed to see it actually coming to fruition.

About Saga Solar

Saga Solar is a Specific Benefit Corporation (SBC) committed to social responsibility and community outreach. Saga's stated specific public benefit is to support the adoption of carbon free energy solutions in Minnesota and throughout the United States. Saga fulfills this public benefit by sponsoring and participating in events that advance solar, supporting local solar organizations and legislation like Made in Minnesota, and by promoting and distributing disruptive solar technologies like the Sun Bandit solar hybrid energy system.*

To facilitate community involvement and charitable giving in 2016, Saga partnered with Rural Renewable Energy Alliance (RREAL), a 501(c)(3), tax-exempt nonprofit organization that has been delivering solar energy to low-income individuals and communities since inception to solve fuel poverty with solar energy. RREAL does this by balancing the use of advanced technology with the interests of the environment while bringing lasting independence, economic, and social change to communities.

*Sun Bandit is a trademark-registered, patented product innovation of Next Generation Energy
UNCF Washington area office will host the inaugural Howard County Leaders Luncheon on Sept. 29 at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Columbia, MD. United States Rep. Chris Van Hollen will serve as honorary chair, and Dr. Calvin Ball, chair of the Howard County Council, will deliver the keynote address. The event will be emceed by WJZ eyewitness news anchor Vic Carter.

As an educator and the only elected official of color serving on the County Council, I am honored to join UNCF and other stakeholders as we initiate Howard Countys Inaugural Leaders Luncheon, said Ball. It is incumbent upon us as community leaders and educational advocates to identify ways that make college more affordable for our youth so that their future continues to shine bright.

UNCF, the nations largest private provider of scholarships to minority students, provides support to 37 private member historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and awards more than 10,000 scholarships a year to students attending more than 1,100 colleges and universities across the U.S.

With the commitment of its sponsors, UNCF awarded nearly 400 scholarships totaling $3.6 million to students from the Washington-Maryland-Virginia area last academic year. UNCF also distributed more than $5 million last year to thousands of students who attend colleges across Washington, Virginia and Maryland. The inaugural Howard County Leaders Luncheon sponsors, include BGE, St John Baptist Church, Columbia Association Howard County Chamber of Commerce, Howard Community College, Comcast and Corporate Office Properties Trust.

The inaugural Howard County Leaders Luncheon continues UNCFs mission of empowering our young people to pursue a higher education, said Charles Thompson III, UNCF area development director. Through community support, we are securing better futures for us allpaying dividends for the next generation of leaders.

For more information on sponsorship opportunities, please contact Jennifer Coke at 202.810.0333, or jennifer.coke(at)uncf.org or visit UNCF.org/DMV .

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About UNCF

UNCF (the United Negro College Fund) is the nations largest and most effective minority education organization. To serve youth, the community and the nation, UNCF supports students education and development through scholarships and other programs, supports and strengthens its 37 member colleges and universities, and advocates for the importance of minority education and college readiness. UNCF institutions and other historically black colleges and universities are highly effective, awarding 21 percent of African American baccalaureate degrees. UNCF administers more than 400 programs, including scholarship, internship and fellowship, mentoring, summer enrichment, and curriculum and faculty development programs. Today, UNCF supports more than 60,000 students at over 1,100 colleges and universities across the country. Its logo features the UNCF torch of leadership in education and its widely recognized motto, A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Learn more at UNCF.org or for continuous updates and news, follow UNCF on Twitter at @UNCF.
Dr. Cliff Sales implants human acellular vessel, first in NJ. This is a first in New Jersey, and really first-in-class trial for patients with limited treatment options due to poor veins who rely on hemodialysis to save their lives, said Clifford M. Sales, MD, MBA, FACS.

Overlook Medical Center was the first hospital in New Jersey to place a human acellular vessel in a patients arm as part of a first-in-class clinical trial for patients with end-stage renal (kidney) disease.

For patients with renal disease or failure, hemodialysis, a process that filters blood from the patient through an external machine to remove waste and excess fluid, is the main treatment option. Many patients have an arteriovenous graft, a strong, semi-permanent tube usually made of plastic or other synthetic material, implanted into their arm that allows access for large quantities of blood to be removed from the patient and filtered through the hemodialysis machine.

The HUMANITY AV Access Trial sponsored by Humacyte is investigating an arteriovenous graft made from a bioengineered human acellular vessel (or HAV) instead of plastic or other material. This trial will compare HAV to standard-of-care plastic grafts in end-stage renal disease patients who are not candidates for fistula placement.

This is a first in New Jersey, and really first-in-class trial for patients with limited treatment options due to poor veins who rely on hemodialysis to save their lives, said Clifford M. Sales, MD, MBA, FACS, who implanted the states first HAV in the 50th patient enrolled in the nationwide trialat Overlook Medical Center on August 25.

When we use plastic or other materials for the grafts, there is an expected failure rate much greater than when we use the patients own tissue, said Sales. Using this bioengineered acellular tissuedesigned to be similar to that already in the bodywe hope to provide a longer-term solution for patients in need of durable renal replacement therapy.

According to statistics from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, at the end of 2009, more than 871,000 people were being treated for end-stage renal disease, with about 400,000 of them requiring some form of dialysis.

For more information about HUMANITY AV Access Trial, or to determine if you may be a candidate, visit: visit http://www.atlantichealth.org/research, or call 973-759-9000.

About the HUMACYTE Human Acellular Vessel (HAV)

The HUMACYTE Human Acellular Vessel is an investigational tissue-engineered vascular conduit that is being investigated to overcome the limitations associated with synthetic vascular grafts and autologous vessels. The HAV is a sterile, non-pyrogenic acellular tubular conduit composed of human collagen types I and III and other extracellular matrix proteins, including fibronectin and vitronectin.

About Overlook Medical Center

Overlook Medical Center, based in Summit, NJ, is a recognized leader in neuroscience care and home to some of New Jerseys top doctors, most compassionate care and most advanced technology and treatments. Atlantic Neuroscience Institute is the regions leader in neuroscience care, offering a broad range of advanced neurological, neurosurgical and neurodiagnostic services. Overlook Medical Center is home to the Brain Tumor Center of New Jersey and the largest and most experienced CyberKnife program in New Jersey. Overlook is certified as a Level IV Epilepsy Center and one of 10 sites in the United States to be designated a Tourette Syndrome Association Centers of Excellence. Overlook Medical Center is the only hospital in New Jersey recognized as one of Americas 100 Best Hospitals for Stroke Care and Critical Care in 2016 and New Jerseys only recipient to receive Healthgrades Distinguished Hospital Excellence Award and Stroke Care Excellence Award. U.S. News & World Report recognizes Overlook Medical Center among the best hospitals in central New Jersey and as a Best Regional Hospital for neurology & neurosurgery. Accredited for behavioral health care by The Joint Commission, Overlook Medical Center is also advanced certified by The Joint Commission as an Advanced Comprehensive Stroke Center. The hospital is also Joint Commission-certified in spine surgery, wound care, and primary care medical home (PCMH) for patient-centered, comprehensive and coordinated care. Overlook Medical Center is nationally accredited by the American College of Surgeons-Commission on Cancer and the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers. Overlook Medical Center is part of Atlantic Health System, one of the largest non-profit health care systems in New Jersey.

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More than 50 Members of Congress attended In Defense of Christians' international convention, which concluded Friday and addressed human rights and foreign policy concerns in the Middle East, with an emphasis on the religious persecution of Christians and other ethno-religious minorities in the region.

The three-day event, entitled "Beyond Genocide: Preserving the Future of Christianity in the Middle East", also garnered significant participation from political leaders, human rights experts, international activists and academics, to include former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, Pope Francis' Apostolic Nuncio the U.S., Archbishop Christophe Pierre, human rights activist Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Ashur Eskyra.

In March, both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. State Department declared the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) guilty of perpetrating genocide against Christians, Yezidis and other ethnic and religious minorities in the territories under ISIS control. (This historic moment was the result of months of close, bi-partisan collaboration between In Defense of Christians (IDC), U.S. Rep. Fortenberry (R-NE), U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), the Knights of Columbus and other activists, religious scholars and human rights experts.)

Now that the genocide designation has been made, the convention aimed to challenge American political leaders and to mobilize the American public to take the next steps towards protecting and preserving these communities. To that end, IDC and its partners can count some significant successes. During the convention, Members of Congress announced the introduction of critical legislation to address the protection and preservation of Middle Eastern Christians.

At the 7 September press conference that kicked off the three-day event, U.S. Rep. Dave Trott (R-IL), announced his historic resolution, "The Coptic Churches Accountabilty Act", stating, "Coptic Christians in Egypt are second class citizens, even though they are indigenous to the region." The press conference was held at the National Press Club.

Trott recounted that after the Muslim Brotherhood came to power in Egypt in 2014, Coptic Christians experienced the worst violence the community had seen seen since the 14th century. Dozens of churches were destroyed. And although President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has pledged to restore the rights of the Copts, said Trott, the U.S. government should encourage this progress and hold the leadership of Egypt to account.

On September 9, U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-IL) introduced a bipartisan resolution confronting the ISIS genocide by calling for the creation of a Nineveh Plain Province in Iraq. He announced that he would be introducing the bill, entitled Resolution on a Nineveh Plain Province in Iraq, at IDC's National Advocacy Day, part of the three-day convention, which was held in the Capitol on September 8 and featured more than 35 Members of Congress.

"The re-securitization and revitalization of the Nineveh Plain, allowing the repatriation of those who had to flee" is one next step that must be taken in follow up to the genocide determination made by the United States and the international community, Fortenberry stated.

"The Nineveh Plain was once a thriving, pluralistic area of Iraq with a rich tapestry of religious and ethnic diversity," he continued. "This resolution, which follows on the Government of Iraqs own initiative to create a province in the Nineveh Plain region, seeks to restore the ancestral homeland of so many suffering communities."

The resolution for the Nineveh Plain Province has been developed in joint partnership with In Defense of Christians, the Philos Project and the Institute for Global Engagement. Convention speaker Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett applauded these efforts.

"The vast majority of Americans know that our policies in the region have been inadequate, but jumping in without a vision is not a way ahead," said Lantos Swett. "Fortunately, we are presenting a vision today. It will need a commitment from the international community, which has to be led by the United States, but the vision you have presented today is real, concrete and sustainable. It will resonate with the American people because it makes sense."

Another piece of legislation hit the House floor on September 9. Congressman Richard Hanna (R-NY) introduced a bipartisan resolution highlighting the political and refugee crisis in Lebanon.The resolution, entitled Expressing the Sense of the House of Representatives on the Challenges Posed to Long-term Stability in Lebanon by the Conflict in Syria, also addresses the massive influx of refugees fleeing the conflict.

With approximately 1.5 million declared Syrian refugees and an additional half million undeclared, Lebanon is hosting more refugees proportionally than any country in the world. The refugee crisis has further depressed Lebanon's economy, which has a national debt of approximately 140 percent of its gross domestic product.

Congressmen announced the introduction of a number of other bills during the National Advocacy Day:

H.R. 5961 - Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act of 2016 - sponsors Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), co-sponsors Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ)

H.R.4017 - Save Christians from Genocide Act - sponsor Rep. Dana Rohrbacher (R-CA), co-sponsors Rep. Steve King (R-IA), Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH), Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX), Rep. John Duncan (R-TN), Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL), Rep Ted Poe (R-TX), Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), Rep. Scott Austin (R-GA) and Rep. Mike Bishop (R-MI)

Restitution for the Victims of Genocide - sponsors Rep. Dan Donovan (R-NY), Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) and Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD)

Pope Francis' Apostolic Nuncio the U.S., Archbishop Christophe Pierre, celebrated the Ecumenical Prayer Service, which was held on the first day of the convention, and provided the blessing at the Solidarity Dinner, which was held on the second day.

Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft keynoted the dinner, which was held at the Capitol Hill Club.

"When IDC was formed two years ago, I joined its board immediately," said Ashcroft. "I believe God's work is being done here... we have come together so that none should perish in the pursuit of freedom and liberty. And we should never be on the sideline when liberty is in question."

Ashcroft went on to thank IDC President Toufic Baaklini for inviting him to the evening and for allowing him to serve IDC. "I am not worthy, but I will put my oar in the water and pull along," he said.

During the dinner, IDC presented the Solidarity Award in Defense of Christians in the Middle East to Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Carl Anderson and to U.S. Representatives Eshoo and Jeff Fortenberry in honor of their tremendous work in getting the U.S. government to formally declare the genocide.

IDC's Policy and Awareness Symposium was held on the last day of the convention at the Dirksen Senate Office Building. IDC staff, human rights and policy experts, academics, journalist and religious activists participated in the following panels:

Genocide and Persecution: Past and Present

Preserving Christianity on the Nineveh Plain

Solutions to the Refugee and Political Crisis in Lebanon

During the first panel, Armen V. Sahakyan, board member of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), described the Armenian genocide and the need for the U.S. to officially recognize the crime and push ally Turkey to do so as well.

"During the Armenian Genocide, which lasted from 1915 to 1923, Turkey slaughtered more than three million people, including Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, Chaldeans and other minorities," said Sahakyan, who is the grandson of survivors of this genocide. "Turkey continues to deny this genocide. Is this the best we can do? I believe we can end the vicious cycle of genocide by acknowledging the Armenian Genocide. The U.S. and Turkey must recognize it. In doing so, Turkey will benefit and become a true beacon of democracy and reconciliation in the region."

The second panel focused on the need to establish a Nineveh Plain Province in northeastern Iraq once ISIS is rolled back from Mosul, which is expected in the coming months. Persecuted Christians, Yezidis and other ethno-religious minorities deserve to to return to their ancestral homelands in the Nineveh Plain, said the panelists,and a province which they administer themselves is one way to do this.

IDC Special Advisor on Iraq, Loay Mikhael, hails from the Nineveh Plain.

"There is a lot happening behind the scenes and under the table between the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), whose land borders the Nineveh Plain, and the Republic of Iraq. They are discussing what will happen in the region post-ISIS. Unfortunately, we the indigenous people are not part of this discussion."

Mikhael lauded the introduction of Fortenberry's bill, saying this "is a golden opportunity to secure safe passage and right of return of those who have fled the Nineveh Plain and to assure those who remain that they will have a say-so in the creation of the province. However, we are running of of time, as indigenous people are continuing to flee. If we wait too long and fall below the threshold of 300,000, the Iraqi government may come to us with the pretext that the Christian and Yezidi community is too small to administer the province."

Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Ashur Eskra, who is president of the Assyrian Aid Society of Iraq, said, "...the Iraqi government and KRG need to recognize that the Assyrian- Chaldean- and Syriac-Christians are indigenous, native people of Iraq, and we have rights therein."

During the third panel, leading experts discussed solutions to the refugee and political crisis in Lebanon, asking for U.S. and international support to return Syrian refugees to safe zones in Syria and for U.S. and international aid to address Lebanon's failing infrastructure, which is stretched to the breaking point from the influx of people fleeing the Syrian conflict.

Professor Alexis Mourkazel, former dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of the Holy Spirit, said "the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon threatens the social balance and foundations of Lebanese society. In a population of four million, one in four are Syrian Sunni refugees...the integration of these refugees in Lebanon can unbalance the delicate Shia, Sunni and Christian sectarian balance of our nation. Any supplementary pressure could launch a second civil war, which could generate more conflict, amplify existing conflict in the region."

"We have 350 displaced Syrian refugees per square mile in Lebanon," said IDC Board Member and President of INDEVCO Group, Neemat Frem. "In the United States, that would be the equivalent of 180 million refugees. Our infrastructure is already inadequate. We have six hours of blackout per day. Our road network is inadequate. Our water table is contaminated. Our schools are running night shifts to accommodate the 280,000 Syrian refugee students in our public schools."

The refugee crisis has further depressed the economy of Lebanon, which has a national debt of approximately 140 percent of the gross domestic product.

"We are talking about a disaster in the making," said Frem.

A list of convention speakers, participants and panelists can be found here.

*********

ABOUT THE CONVENTION

IDC's third annual convention, entitled "Beyond Genocide: Preserving the Future of Christianity in the Middle East", is being held in partnership with the Philos Project, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) and the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE).

BACKGROUND ON IDC

This pro-activity with regards to protecting ancient Christian communities is par for the course for IDC. In March, both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. State Department declared the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) guilty of perpetrating genocide against Christians, Yazidis and other ethnic and religious minorities in the territories under ISIS control. This historic moment was the result of months of close, bi-partisan collaboration between In Defense of Christians (IDC), U.S. Rep. Fortenberry (R-NE), U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), the Knights of Columbus and other activists, religious scholars and human rights experts.

IDC believes that the future of the region depends on multi-ethnic, multi-religious, pluralistic societies, where Christians and other minorities can live in freedom and peace and contribute to the dialogues and debates of future governance structures.

For more detailed event information, please visit http://www.nac2016.org. For press inquiries and questions, please contact melissa@indefenseofchristians.org / 540-226-7215
Texas Food Handler We are thrilled to be able to offer the Texas Food Handler program and training materials.

Paster Training, Inc. is delighted to announce the arrival of the SURE Texas Food Safety Employee manual and online course, created by Instruis Publishing Company. The SURE Texas Food Safety Employee program meets the food handler requirements set forth by the state of Texas, in which it is required that anyone who is involved in the preparation, storage, or service of food to have a Food Handler Card.

The Texas Food Handler classroom and online programs cover five key areas: Food Safety Basics, Preventing the Use of Contaminated Equipment and Utensils, Practicing Proper Personal Hygiene, Phase 1 Flow of Food (Purchase, Receive, Store, Prepare), and Phase 2 Flow of Food (Cook, Hold, Cool, Reheat, Serve). Upon going through the material contained in the Texas Food Handler classroom and online programs, participants will have the knowledge needed to safely serve and sell food. Once students have gone through the classroom or online course, they will receive a Texas Food Handler Certificate of Completion.

The Texas Food Handler manuals and online course will be available at an introductory rate. The manuals will be available for $4.25 per manual until December 31, 2016. Volume discounts are also available for the manuals. The online course will be available for $7.50 until December 31, 2016. To order the SURE Texas Food Safety Employee manuals or the online course, visit http://www.PasterTraining.com or call us at 866.394.1776.

About Instruis Publishing Company

Instruis Publishing Company is a privately held publisher based in Abington, PA, specializing in training for the hospitality industry. Follow Instruis Publishing Company on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/InstruisPublishing) and Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/Instruis) for up-to-date information on special deals and services.

About Paster Training, Inc.

Paster Training, Inc., the food and beverage industrys leading training organization, has more certified students than any other private training entity. Since 2001, Paster Training, Inc., under the leadership of President Tara Paster, has been dedicated to making the hospitality industry more efficient, effective and safe. They inspire employees at all levels within each organization to internalize best practices through education from farm to fork and from grain to glass. Follow Paster Training, Inc. on Facebook and Twitter for up-to-date information on special deals and services.
Limousines of Connecticut announces its updated 2016-2017 airport service fleet with the addition of several vehicles including 10 & 14 Passenger Mercedes Sprinter Vans. Getting a big group to and from the airport can be not only hectic but also quite expensive. Limousines of Connecticut has restructured its rates in order to accommodate multiple group sizes for airport services across Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

The limo selection allows clients now to select vehicles that are offered specifically for airport services. Whether in need for a fancy over the top stretch or a cost effective comfortable ride, there are vehicles available to suit any client. Some of the limousines included in the airport service fleet are:



Sedan (2-4 Passengers)

SUV (6 Passengers)

Stretch Limousine (8-10 Passengers)

Mercedes Sprinter (10-14 Passengers)

Super Stretch Limousine (18 Passengers)

Limousines of Connecticut is now reaching more clientele than ever before. This Connecticut based limo company has expanded services to surrounding airports including:



John F. Kennedy Airport

LaGuardia Airport

Boston Logan International Airport

Newark Liberty International Airport

and many more privately owned runways.

Limo-CT.com makes corporate travel for airport service much more convenient and cost effective for trips from CT to LaGuardia. This limousine company is no rookie when it comes to partnering with some of the most superior businesses in the Connecticut and New York area. If there is a way to make travel more beneficial on the customer, Limousines of Connecticut will apply it. Opening a corporate account with this leading limousine service in CT means that the customer is in control. Registered clients are now granted access to view all of their past, present and future bookings when accessing their account via the online portal.

Limousines of Connecticut also offers holiday airport transportation services to Newark airport. The holidays are fast approaching and will be here in the blink of an eye. Doing business with a company that has a good reliable reputation is extremely important during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Limo-CT.coms staff are extremely knowledgeable on holiday traffic delays and can give suggestions on how early to leave in order to be to the airport on time. This Connecticut airport service company is definitely pulling out all of the stops for its clients in more ways than one.
transcosmos inc. established transcosmos Taiwan inc. (Headquarters: Taipei, Taiwan; hereafter, transcosmos Taiwan) as its new global base and launched its operations in August 2016.

transcosmos Taiwan provides client companies in Taiwan with digital marketing services, e-commerce one-stop services, contact center services, as well as inbound services for visitors to Japan.



transcosmos Taiwan Company Overview

Company Name: transcosmos Taiwan inc.

Representative: General Manager Katsuro Ueda

Location: Xinyi District, Taipei City

Investing Company: Wholly-owned subsidiary of transcosmos inc.

Business Commencement: August 2016

Business: Digital marketing services, e-commerce one-stop services, contact center services, and inbound services for visitors to Japan

Katsuro Ueda, General Manager of transcosmos Taiwan, said:

transcosmos Taiwan aims to support and drive companies business expansion into Taiwan as well as their sales expansion in the market, which claims 23 million population with the worlds leading social media penetration rate, by providing digital marketing services, e-commerce one-stop services, and contact center services via chat and calls. In the future, we will support Taiwanese companies to break into the global market. At the same time, we will actively promote our inbound services for the Taiwanese who visit Japan, in the country which is said to have 3.68 million visitors in a single year. transcosmos Taiwan, working together with our local members as one team, will endeavor to build high-value-added, trusted business in order to unroll the business know-how we will accumulate through operating in the Taiwan market to our global bases.

transcosmos Taiwan marks the 10th opening of transcosmoss global branches and is the 163rd service base across the globe for the company.

transcosmos is a trademark or registered trademark of transcosmos inc. in Japan and other countries.

Other company names and product or service names used here are trademarks or registered trademarks of respective companies.

About transcosmos inc.

transcosmos launched its operations in 1966. Since then, we have combined superior people with up-to-date technology to enhance the competitive strength of our client companies by providing them with superior and valuable services. transcosmos currently offers Cost Reduction Services (contact center, back-office service for HR/Financial/Sales depts., order management and SCM, system development & operation etc.) and Sales Expansion Services (big data analysis, internet advertising, developing & operating website, smartphone/SNS utilization, telemarketing etc.). transcosmos continues to pursue Operational Excellence by providing these services through our 163 locations in 29 countries with a focus in Asia. Furthermore, following the expansion of e-commerce market on the global scale, transcosmos provides a comprehensive One-Stop Global E-Commerce Services to deliver our clients companies' excellent products and services to consumers in 45 countries around the globe. transcosmos aims to be the Global BPO Partner of our client companies, providing them with high quality BPO services on a global scale.
At least 151 people have been killed and 82 others injured in a deadly stampede in Seoul's Itaewon district as huge crowds of partygoers, many in their late teens and 20s, converge...
Last year PW, in association with the Frankfurt Book Fair, launched the Star Watch program, which recognizes the rising stars of our industry. This year, we received more than 300 nominees, from which a team of judges from PW, the American Booksellers Association, the Association of American Publishers, and the Frankfurt Book Fair chose 40 honorees and five finalists. Of those five, one will be deemed a superstar and awarded an all-expenses-paid trip to the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, courtesy of the fair.

Meet the PW Star Watch 2016 Finalists

Meet the PW Star Watch 2016 Honorees

The superstar will be revealed September 15 at a party in New York to celebrate all the honorees. Last year, the superstar was announced ahead of the party; this year, were letting the suspense build.

What hasnt changed is the vast talent that emanates from these dedicated professionals, who represent all facets of book publishing: literary agencies, bookstores, and every department found in publishing houses, from production to publicity, art to editorial.

Among the honorees, theres Ariele Fredman, who demonstrates her publicity chops with digital stars as well as traditionally published authors; Brianne Johnson, an agent who never gives up on clients; and Bria Sandford, who is undaunted by working with authors who were presidential candidates.

The finalists (pictured on this supplements cover) are Noah Eaker, an executive editor at Random House who has the Midas touch with debut authors; Vida Engstrand, director of communications at Kensington, who is laser focused on advocating for authors; bookseller Wintaye Gebru, who made St. Louiss Left Bank Books a part of the conversation about the police shooting of Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson, Mo.; Andy Harwell, whose editorial acumen has produced enviable successes at HarperCollins Childrens; and Eric Obenauf, whose indie press, Two Dollar Radio, is as much a literary movement as a publishing company.

With unsurpassed professionalism and dedication to books and authors, these men and women uphold one overarching principle: books matter. So read on and celebrate the bright future of publishing.
Tom Allen, CEO of the Association of American Publishers since 2009, has announced that he will retire in early 2017. Before he was named CEO of the AAP, Allen served for six terms in Congress representing Maine.

The AAP board of directors will begin a search for a new CEO and has retained the recruitment firm of Isaascon Miller to assist in the process.

AAP has grown to a nearly 400 member organization during Allens tenure as CEO. Under his leadership the organization added major commercial publishers, digital learning, educational and professional publishers, independent presses, nonprofit houses, university presses and scholarly societies.

In a statement Allen said: "After 20 years [of] commuting to and from Washington, its time for me to return to Maine and dedicate myself to part-time and mostly voluntary activities like environmental conservation, writing, and perhaps teaching about Congress and American politics.

He added: It has been a privilege to lead AAP these past seven years, and I am proud of all we have accomplished. I look forward to working with the AAP board and management team as we prepare for the leadership transition.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  A Purdue University archaeologist is studying how communities formed and thrived more than 3,000 years ago in northwestern Armenia, thanks to a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Ian Lindsay, an associate professor of anthropology, received $221,173 from the National Science Foundation for two years of fieldwork. He is looking at warfare, settlement patterns and political development in the Bronze Age and Iron Ages, which spanned from 1500 to 200 BCE.

He is excavating and studying cemeteries and fortresses - stone hillforts - in the upper Kasakh River Valley to better understand this society that, while mobile in caring for livestock herds, returned to the fortresses seasonally.

"We think the way these fortresses are used over a thousand-year period, from the second millennium to the first, really changed," said Lindsay, who has been excavating in the South Caucasus since 2000. "We want to understand how these structures were used politically, religiously and socially; we also want to know about the lifestyle of people who lived in the shadow of these forts."

The fortresses, which were built with extremely large stone boulders, overlooked plains and valleys. All that remains are foundations, so archaeologists do not know how tall the fortresses were.

Lindsay and his collaborators from Cornell University, the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, and New York University, conducted survey and excavations in Armenia this past summer and will return in summer 2017. By using traditional excavation, along with a tablet-based mobile GIS (geographic information system) data collection system and aerial site survey via drones, the researchers can view a larger perspective of their research area. For example, the aerial view provides a wide scope of the Kasakh Valley landscape, while the spatial technology also makes it possible to look closely at individual burial sites.

Lindsay is co-director of Project ArGATS, Archaeology and Geography of Ancient Transcaucasian Societies, that focuses on the history of the area while preserving modern Armenia's diverse cultural heritage.

He also is president of the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus. He is collaborating with colleagues from Armenia as well as Alan Greene from New York University, Maureen Marshall from the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, and Lori Khatchadourian and Adam T. Smith, from Cornell University.

Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, 765-494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu

Source: Ian Lindsay, 765-496-7400, ilindsay@purdue.edu
NORTH VERSAILLES, Pa. -- Eleven dogs greet visitors at the door of the lovely 115-year-old Victorian house. Theres a lot of slow-motion tail wagging, but very little barking and no jumping up and down.

Most of the dogs have a lot of white around their muzzles; several limp a bit; and some have the rheumy eyes that come with great age.

The dogs are happy to welcome people to the Gray Paws Sanctuary in North Versailles, where they live with Joe Brescia and his wife, Darla Poole-Brescia.

The oldest dogs are Harley, 15, Sammy, 14, and Licorice, 14. The four youngest are 11-year-olds Sunny, Faith, Reisling and Ginger. Four are beagles; four appear to be Labrador retriever mixes; one is a cattle dog mix; and two are mixed breeds of indeterminate origin.

The Brescias mission statement is providing quality forever care to abandoned senior dogs.

They stay with us until the day they die, Poole-Brescia said.

Because they incorporated their nonprofit sanctuary in 2014, theyve taken in 18 dogs. Seven have died.

Although they know their time with each dog will be relatively brief, you never get used to it when they die, Brescia said.

We just saw a need to help old dogs, his wife said, adding that they are sweet, loving and appreciative.

Many of their dogs were scheduled to be euthanized when elderly owners died or went to a nursing home. Some were relinquished by owners who were unwilling or unable to pay for veterinary care.

Seraphina, 13, and two others were strays, thought to be discarded hunting beagles. They were apparently dumped because they werent good hunters anymore.

Seraphina wears a pearl necklace and clearly prefers napping and lounging to chasing rabbits or anything else.

Gray Paws gets old dogs from shelters and rescues, including Forever Home Beagle Rescue and White Oak Animal Safe Haven. The dogs need to be able to mix and mingle peacefully with a good-sized pack in the cage-free sanctuary.

In case youre wondering, the house is enviably clean, though the couple work full-time jobs. It does not smell doggy, although old dogs are prone to problems with incontinence.

There are many large, cushy dog beds upstairs and downstairs. A doggy door gives residents unlimited access to the fenced backyard. All have the run of the house, but Hershey and Licorice arent able to make it upstairs.

We have too many stairs, Bescia said, so the couple are having a one-story modular home built on three acres they purchased in White Oak, Pa. Its custom-designed for dogs, with crates and resting nooks built in under counters. There is a separate utility room where they will be able to isolate sick dogs. They hope construction is completed by November.

Then they will sell their North Versailles home, which has hardwood floors, lots of beautiful wood trim and charming window seats.

The Brescias welcome donations, and they hold fundraisers, but vet bills and other expenses are paid largely out of their own pockets. For more information about the sanctuary, go to GrayPaws.org.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP)  Illinois' debt to the state's health care providers continues to grow in the wake of the failure by legislators and the governor to agree on a budget.

The Illinois Legislature's bipartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability reported in July that payment delays to insurance companies and providers for state employee health care now stretch up to 1 years and will get worse.

The commission's executive director, Dan Long, tells the

the amount owed by the state is growing by about $200 million per month and won't stop until there's legislation appropriating general revenue funds to pay the bills.
The Chicago Tribune reports that 34-year-old Myron Mason was sentenced by a Cook County judge on Friday after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in the April 21, 2015, slaying of Mechelle Lewis.

Prosecutors say Lewis pulled up to her home with the children, ages 8 and 5, in her van when Mason walked up and shot her several times. He was arrested a short time later after witnesses called police.

The children told detectives that their father had shot their mother.
Jaryn Franklin, of East Moline, who won the title of Miss Illinois on June 18, did not place in the top 15 at the Miss America contest Sunday. According to a news release, Ms. Franklin, who held the title of 2016 Miss Blackhawk Valley, spent the last seven months preparing for the state competition. For her talent she sang Dream a Little Dream of Me. Her platform is Special People Special Ways  Advocating for the Disabled.)
DAVENPORT -- Last fall, Rodney Perez bought a 2016 black Jeep with a plan to emblazon it with custom-made decals that honor the ultimate sacrifice that 343 New York City firefighters made responding to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Fifteen years after that tragic day -- which killed 2,977 people after hijacked airliners crashed into the World Trade Center, Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field -- Mr. Perez led a massive parade Sunday (with that solemnly decorated Jeep) from downtown Rock Island to Modern Woodmen Park, to salute the heroes who are the nation's first responders.

"I was invited two weeks ago, asking if I would lead," the 12-year veteran of the Peru, Ill., fire department, said before an afternoon presentation inside the stadium. "It's an honor to do something like that." Wearing an American flag shirt, Mr. Perez transported the parade's grand marshals, Scott Orr and Chad Stephenson -- Modern Woodmen employees who are military veterans.

"I think it's a great turnout, seeing all the people come together," said Mr. Perez, whose father was a firefighter, and brother Mike is now serving in the department with him. "Being a firefighter, you're all in a brotherhood."

Sunday's march across the Centennial Bridge and three-hour community event at the stadium capped Modern Woodmen's three-month long special volunteer project, "Be an Everyday Hero." It encourages employees, Quad-Citians and others throughout the country to show support for first responders and military members.

Police and fire departments from eastern Iowa and western Illinois, military members, emergency-medical services personnel, high schools, Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts, a bagpipe group, and others joined many Modern Woodmen volunteers in the parade (starting from the fraternal services organization's home office in Rock Island) -- which was filled with emergency vehicles' loud sirens, bright flashing lights and clanging bells.

Kenny Massey, Modern Woodmen president and CEO, said the event was meant to thank all these local agencies and personnel for providing public safety and protection. "Thank you for being an everyday hero," he said.

A recent 9/11 memorial event in Rock Island raised $11,000 for the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which builds smart homes for wounded warriors, Mr. Massey said. Members of MWA Chapter 26 raised $20,000 (including $10,000 from Lujack's) to purchase a K-9 officer for the Davenport Tactical Operations Bureau -- Dawn, who was featured on the field Sunday. And the company presented a $7,000 check to the Illowa Council of Boy Scouts of America for its Exploring program, focusing on careers.

"Be an Everyday Hero" included MWA employees performing 2,977 volunteer acts of kindness, including assembling 380 care packages recently sent to U.S. troops overseas, Mr. Massey said.

"It's good to remember exactly what it is that's at stake," Scott Orr, a Navy veteran and one of the grand marshals, said. He served 1999-2005, was part of a drug confiscation in South America on 9/11, and was deployed three times to the Persian Gulf. "When 9/11 happened, everyone banded together as a country. It makes you proud to see people pull together."

"It makes me proud to see this...It shows togetherness, unity," said Chad Stephenson, his fellow marshal, MWA employee and Coast Guard vet, of Sunday's forces. "Fifteen years later, we're still remembering and not wanting that to happen again."

A.J. Carlson of Orion, wearing a fire department T-shirt, came to the park with his family. His brother Brian is an Orion firefighter.

"They're taking the risk of their lives in helping other people," Mr. Carlson said. "It's great to see the two states come together."

On Rock Island's 2nd Avenue during the parade, Frank and Vivian Martin wore red, white and blue outfits, and she displayed a large American flag owned by their sons, who own Ultimate Fitness in The District. They were up there Sunday when they saw the parade, and stood right outside the building during the pomp and circumstance.

"We're honoring their selflessness," Mrs. Martin said of first responders. "They gave their lives to help people. It's a small thing I can do to let them know i appreciate what they do."

In addition to Mr. Massey, Sunday's presentation included remarks from Davenport Police Chief Paul Sikorski, Mayor Frank Klipsch, Exploring program executive Ken Brooks, and Davenport Fire Chief Lynn Washburn.

Not only the 343 New York firefighters, but 60 police officers and eight paramedics also lost their lives in lower Manhattan on 9/11, Chief Washburn said.

"Today, firefighters, police officers, EMTs and paramedics said goodbye to their families, put on their uniform and they have no assumption of what the day is going to bring," she said of Q-C crews. "At any moment, the quiet can be interrupted and they immediately respond to the call to help whenever it comes in."

Those New York first responders did the same thing 15 years ago, Chief Washburn said. "Their plans, though, and their futures were taken from them when they demonstrated service above self -- their mission to protect others."

"We cannot ever forget these brave souls, the tremendous impact of so many lives lost in one event," she added. "It forever changed the landscape of emergency response. It's still affecting lives today -- 2,000 emergency responders are facing cancers stemming from the toxic environment they were working in."

Emergency personnel need the public's support, "to complete their mission," the Davenport chief said, and prayers "for their safety today and every day."
September 7, 2016

WIU-QC Founders' Day Sept. 26

MACOMB/MOLINE, IL -- Faculty, staff and community members are invited to celebrate the history of Western Illinois University at the WIU-QC Founders' Day event beginning at 7:30 a.m. Monday, Sept. 26 in the Rock Island County Board Community Room (Rms. 103/104) in Riverfront Hall on the WIU-QC campus.

A light breakfast will be served prior to the ceremony. Individuals may register for the event by calling (309) 762-9481 or by emailing DJ-Kepple-Marmos@wiu.edu. The program, including President Jack Thomas' State of the University address, will begin at 7:30 a.m., and the ceremonial ship's bell will be rung in memory of Edwin DeCamp, who first rang the school bell Sept. 23, 1902 to signal the start of classes at Western Illinois State Normal School. Interim Provost and Academic Vice President Kathy Neumann and Vice President for Quad Cities and Planning Joe Rives will serve as host and emcee.

The Macomb campus Founders' Day celebration will be held Friday, Sept. 23 in the University Union Grand Ballroom.

The Founders' Day event, which began in 1994, celebrates the beginnings of the University that evolved from the Western Illinois Normal and Training School with 229 students to today's University, which offers a comprehensive curriculum to more than 10,000 students. In 1899, a bill to establish Western Illinois University (then called Western Illinois State Normal School) was passed by the state legislature. Three years later, on Sept. 23, 1902, Western opened its doors for the first official day of classes on the new campus.
The same qualities that make libraries ideal for studying and reading  unfettered public access, quiet corners and nooks, minimal interaction with other people  also make them appealing places to shoot up heroin, librarians are finding.

In Norfolk, Virginia, a 47-year-old man died after a patron found him in a library restroom. In Batesville, Indiana, and New Brunswick, New Jersey, police revived others in library restrooms using a popular overdose antidote.

The body of a homeless man who frequented the Oak Park Public Library in suburban Chicago might have been there for days, fully clothed and slumped on the toilet in a restroom on the quiet third floor, before a maintenance worker unlocked it on a Monday morning in April and discovered his inglorious demise. The empty syringe and lighter in his pockets and the cut soda can in the trash pointed to the cause, an accidental heroin overdose.

"On both a personal and a professional level, we were all very shocked and of course worried about how this could happen in our spaces," said executive director David Seleb, who fired the security company responsible for clearing the library before closing.

The country's heroin and painkiller problem has produced public overdoses in many places, including restaurants, gas stations, alleys and even hospitals, but the inherent attributes of public libraries leave them especially exposed. They're free and open for whoever walks in, and lingering is welcome, no transaction or interaction required.

"People need to know that this is happening everywhere and that public libraries haven't done anything wrong to cause it to happen in public libraries," said Josie Parker, director of the Ann Arbor District Library in Michigan.

Her library already had removed bathroom ceilings and toilet tanks where people could hide drugs and restroom entrances that could be locked  changes made over a decade ago to curb cocaine trafficking, Parker said.

She raised drug-abuse concerns again in 2014 when officials were discussing a proposed park next to the library. Though unpleasant, starting a public discussion about drug and alcohol abuse observed at the library spurred a beneficial community response, Parker said.

These days, police routinely walk through the library, and social workers set up shop there, checking in with folks. All that, Parker said, strips away some anonymity.

"Anonymity allows people to do things they wouldn't do otherwise in public places," she said, "and if you can take away anonymity, you can help change behavior."

In Ohio, peace officers from Toledo's library system are being trained to help the sheriff's Drug Abuse Response Team. Boston's libraries have needle drop boxes and have offered overdose prevention training for employees and residents.

At the Humboldt County Library in Eureka, California, a librarian turned life-saver when she realized a man apparently sleeping in a chair was actually unresponsive, his lips turning blue. Health officials had provided the overdose antidote naloxone  often known by the brand name Narcan  for the library, so librarian Kitty Yancheff injected it into the man's leg, then into a still-limp arm before he gurgled and fluttered his eyes.

"I felt grateful that we had this Narcan on hand and that we were able to save his life, but it was kind of surreal," said Yancheff, the library's public services division manager.

It was also a bit ironic, considering Yancheff had given a presentation titled "Librarians as First Responders" during a conference years earlier. She was talking about how libraries increasingly provide non-traditional services, such as job-search help and de facto daytime sheltering for the homeless; she hadn't figured on overdose rescue becoming part of the job.

Many librarians don't go that far, turning instead to emergency responders or security staff.

The American Library Association encourages librarians to get training on interacting with special populations, such as drug users and the homeless, but stresses the importance of partnering with groups such as police and social workers, said Julie Todaro, the association's president.

"Clearly when you have the epidemic that we have and the issues with the patrons that we have, we need to organize assistance," she said. "That doesn't mean we ourselves provide it."

___

Find Kantele Franko at http://www.twitter.com/kantele10. Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/author/kantele-franko.
Dr. Francine Garrett-Bakelman arrived at NASAs Johnson Space Center in the middle of the night, ready to get her hands on Scott Kellys blood.

She watched on a laptop as the astronaut stepped off a plane March 2 about 1:30 a.m., back in Houston after his record 340 days aboard the International Space Station. Then, in a nearby molecular biology lab, she set the centrifuge to the right temperature and looked over her pre-labeled test tubes.

Within an hour, a NASA staffer brought in two samples  one drawn just minutes before, and the other taken during Kellys final hours in orbit.

The physician-scientist shifted into high gear: Blood doesnt keep forever, and every minute counts. So does every drop  these tiny samples had to be split among several research groups.

Its a big responsibility, because you have four to five teams that are depending on you, she said.

The blood work is part of the NASA Twins Study, an ambitious research project that explores the long-term health effects of living in space. Understanding those risks  and finding ways to mitigate them  will be crucial if NASA makes good on its pledge to send astronauts to Mars by the mid-2030s.

Scott Kelly, who circled the globe about 16 times each day, is only half of this unusual experiment. The other is his identical twin, Mark Kelly, a former member of NASAs astronaut corps who spent the last year planted firmly on Earth. By studying both men at the same time, researchers hope to pinpoint the biological consequences of spending nearly a full year unshielded from radiation and untethered from gravity.

Space-farers experience well-known changes in microgravity: They get an inch or two taller, their faces puff up, and their bones become porous and weak. But the 10 teams participating in the Twins Study are going deeper, examining factors related to cancer risk, cardiovascular disease and immune system function.

Thats why Garrett-Bakelman spent six hours carefully processing Kellys blood  spinning test tubes, separating plasma and pulling out different cell types one by one. She didnt finish until 8 a.m.

Its very surreal, she said of the otherworldly feeling of handling blood drawn in space. Its a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The idea for the study came from Scott Kelly himself, said Craig Kundrot, life sciences lead at NASAs Office of the Chief Scientist in Washington. The agency was making plans to track the health of Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko over the course of the mission when Kelly asked whether any research would involve his brother, who flew four missions on the space shuttle.

Our immediate response at the program was no, Kundrot said. It was well past the usual window for soliciting research proposals.

But identical twin astronauts do not come around often. So NASA scrambled to put out a call to scientists.

The result was a collection of projects spanning physiology, microbiology, genomics and behavioral health.

One study out of Stanford uses flu vaccines to investigate how Kellys immune response changes in space. Two others, from Johns Hopkins and Cornell, examine the mechanisms underlying how gene expression changes in orbit.

Additional groups are analyzing how the gut microbiome fares in space and searching for molecular signals linked to problems that may result when the bodys fluids, freed from gravity, rush toward the head.

The leaders of the 10 chosen projects were called to the Johnson Space Center more than two years ago. Many had never worked with the space agency before.

University of California, San Diego molecular geneticist Brinda Rana, leader of the body fluid study, thought she might get a sample of about 10 milliliters of blood  a vials worth  each time the Kellys were sampled.

It quickly became clear that NASA would treat Scott Kellys biological samples like the moon rocks gathered by Apollo astronauts  precious scientific resources that must be doled out sparingly and shared by many.

NASA officials were polite but firm. Rana recalled the gist of their message: Youre only going to get one vial of blood during each session, and youre going to have to share that vial of blood between all 10 of you.

One reason for their thrift was that Scott Kellys blood had already been promised to several other experiments. Up against NASAs strict safety limits, he had little left to give.

So the Twins Study researchers spent months adapting their research routines to use every last drop of blood they were allowed.

The protein-rich plasma would go to Stanford University, where Michael Snyder was compiling a full chemical profile of the human body, including Kellys genome, proteome, transcriptome and metabolome. Several types of white blood cells  mainly certain B cells and T cells  would be shared by several teams.

We became like a family, said Dr. Andrew Feinberg of Johns Hopkins University, leader of a study on the twins epigenetic markers.

The scientists worked to perfect their methods in the months leading up to Kellys departure. Feinberg and his son Jason spent many late nights in the lab figuring out how to maximize the number of B and T cells they could extract from special test tubes, getting high-quality results with about one-fifth of the volume they would normally work with.

Once Kelly was in space, some blood samples could be frozen, but others needed to be processed first. The astronaut timed his blood draws so his samples could hitch a ride to Kazakhstan on a departing Soyuz spacecraft, then be whisked halfway around the world to Houston. That way, the blood could be processed within 48 hours of exiting Kellys arm.

You say, Oh, its just a blood draw, but even just a blood draw is not a simple thing when youre operating on the space station, said Susan Bailey, a radiation biologist at Colorado State University who is studying the twins telomeres for signs of accelerated aging.

The scientists put their trust in one another. One of them, such as Garrett-Bakelman, often processed and divvied up samples for several other groups.

Weill Cornell Medicine geneticist Christopher Mason, leader of a study on gene regulation and RNA modifications, said he often sent his colleagues samples that were just a few hundred microliters in volume.

Sometimes its frozen, and then when you thaw the blood, a lot of your cells have died, he said.

Even scientists who dont need biological samples have to deal with limited resources. Dr. Mathias Basner of the University of Pennsylvania, who is studying the astronauts cognitive function, shortened his battery of mental tests to fit into Kellys tight schedule.

It cant be too long, he said. Time in space on the ISS is very valuable.

The only scientists who didnt have to deal with such sample-limiting issues were the ones who needed stool, to study the twins microbiomes.

Its a very noninvasive procedure, Northwestern University neurobiologist Martha Hotz Vitaterna said.

Coordinating the twins hectic schedules to collect samples on or around the same day was another challenge, said Basner, who referred to Mark Kelly as the free-range sibling.

Mark Kelly, who retired from NASA in 2011, leads a very busy life. Hes married to former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who survived an assassination attempt in 2011. The couple now campaign for gun-control measures.

Scott Kelly retired from the space agency a few weeks after returning to Earth.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

The scientists have held off testing most of the twins biological samples for months, waiting to collect a few more from both Kellys on the ground. This is a precaution to avoid what are known as batch effects, variations that can crop up because of tiny differences in the way samples are handled.

Its sometimes a challenge because were all anxious to see whats going to come out of this, Vitaterna said. But its better science to wait and do it all together.

With Scott Kellys last integrated sample being taken last week, that prospect is finally within reach.

The biggest challenges may lie ahead, in integrating all of these different pieces of evidence into a coherent picture of the astronauts health, said Snyder, the Stanford genomicist.

Thats the fun part, he said. You can really see what the puzzle looks like.



2016 Los Angeles Times

Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
CHICAGO  Making the decision to help 15 years ago might end Garrett Goodwins life early.

Goodwin, 39, was one of tens of thousands of people at the World Trade Center right after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. A trained medic, he traveled from Tampa, Fla., to New York to volunteer.

Now, his lungs are failing him, and doctors say that will lead to his death. Goodwin is one of many volunteers who spent long hours toiling in the World Trade Center ruins, where toxic fumes made many sick or dead.

Most of the Sept. 11 responders were from the New York area. But about 9,500 came from elsewhere across the country, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

People really did come from all over, said Dr. Michael Crane, medical director of the World Trade Center Health Program at Manhattans Mount Sinai hospital.

Some of them might not be aware that cancer or a cough, diagnosed by a doctor in Ohio or California, could be connected to that work 15 years ago.

Crane estimates that 90,000 people helped in the area after the attacks. Right now, about 65,000 responders are in the WTC Health Program, run by NIOSH to track and treat them.

Theres still a good chunk of folks out there who responded to the event and most likely have not been seen by anybody yet, Crane said.

Federal officials hope to reach them.

A continuing public awareness campaign includes a May video with comedian Jon Stewart and a nationwide provider network to connect responders to help wherever they might be.

Their message? Sign up for the program, which provides medical care and monitoring through the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, named for a detective who became terminally ill after working at the World Trade Center site. In December, President Barack Obama signed a law extending funding through 2090.

More than 5,000 people in the program have Sept. 11-related cancer, Crane said. About 40 percent have a respiratory or gastrointestinal problem. Studies are regularly released monitoring Sept. 11-related health issues.

Goodwin remembers frantically trying to find anyone alive in the smoldering ruins.

You charge hard, and you dont quit, he said. You try to cover as many voids and spaces and move as much debris and get as deep as you can to try and save people.

But now, years later, his lungs arent working properly.

He said doctors explained to him last September that because of heart and lung issues, they estimate, he has one to seven years to live.

Im not even 40 yet, he said.

John Feal, founder of the FealGood Foundation, which advocates for responders like himself, said he knows many affected in various states, but that many with symptoms dont even realize theres a link.

Take into effect people from Illinois or other parts of the country that went to ground zero in the early weeks or months and went home and got sick, he said. Nobody knew why they got sick.

About 1,500 registry members live in Florida, where New York police and firefighters often retire.

Doctors have connected illnesses, like asthma and debilitating cancers, to the World Trade Center catastrophe. The most common ailments include respiration issues and cancers such as lymphoma and thyroid cancer.

Arthur Noonan got cancer.

He and fellow Chicago firefighters flew to New York days after the attacks. In Manhattan, they joined the line of workers clearing dust and debris on the pile.

He remembers the smell of fuel. And the dust.

It was all pulverized, he said. It was like a powder you were digging through, and it would clog the face pieces up almost immediately.

He has since been diagnosed with leukemia. In remission, hes thankful for extra years others did not get and the time to enjoy his eight grandchildren and his childrens weddings.

Its like living with a hand grenade under your belt, he said.

Noonan, like many responders, does not want attention for his illness. He and Goodwin spoke about their experiences in hopes it would prompt other responders to see a doctor.

Even among those who are healthy, cancer is a constant fear.

Mental issues are also an enormous, enduring obstacle.. Some who were there still have nightmares or anxiety near a city skyline. Terrorism headlines also are triggers.

According to registry statistics, 1 in 5 responders suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

These guys were really, really exposed to some horrifying sights, Crane said, adding that depression rates are similar to those of young war veterans. It left an impact.

Doctors continue to prepare for what lies ahead.

Part of that means trying to make it easier to monitor far-flung patients. Crane is thinking of responders who retire elsewhere; video checkups would be less burdensome than a trip to New York for care, for instance.

And some illnesses may occur years from now.

For example, dust contained asbestos, which can create lung problems and, in some cases, cancer as many as 40 years later, Crane said. Hence, the importance of monitoring as many people as possible.

Some research will come too late. More than 50 New York police officers have died from 9/11-related illnesses, more than twice the number (23) who died on Sept. 11.
FUHEIS, Jordan (AP)  It took gumption to pour millions of dollars into starting a brewery in an overwhelmingly Muslim country where many frown on consuming alcohol.

Jordanian beer pioneer Yazan Karadsheh is now taking his next risky step, sending a first shipment of his Carakale to the U.S., where it will compete with thousands of brands in a $22 billion-a-year craft beer market.

The 32-year-old Karadsheh is part of a small but growing brotherhood of Arab brewers in the Levant who want to nurture local beer-drinking cultures and compete against the brews of large companies, some of them multi-nationals that dominate the region's beer market.

Carakale is the first craft beer in Jordan. The West Bank already has three independent breweries  well-established veteran Taybeh, newcomer Shepherds and tiny Wise Men's Choice, made in a basement near biblical Bethlehem. Lebanese brands include Colonel, made at a large brew pub in the coastal town of Batroun, and 961, named after the country's international dialing code. Small breweries also sprang up in Israel over the past decade.

It's a modest revival in a region where beer-brewing traditions go back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, but lay dormant for centuries.

Demand is also up. Regional beer consumption increased by 44 percent over the past decade  though the close to 4 million hectoliters (105 million gallons) guzzled in nine Arab countries and Israel last year amount to a drop compared to U.S. consumption of 234 million hectoliters (6.1 billion gallons), according to industry figures and IWSR, an alcoholic drinks research company.

Karadsheh believes there's room for expansion.

"Obviously, they drink," Karadsheh, a member of Jordan's Christian minority, said of his compatriots. "Alcohol might be taboo, but you can find alcohol and buy alcohol easily in the market. Jordan is a very liberal place, compared to surrounding countries."

Karadsheh and other up-and-coming brewers  Shepherds founder Alaa Sayej in the West Bank and Colonel creator Jamil Haddad in Lebanon  stumbled onto their career-changing passion by chance.

Karadsheh studied engineering in Boulder, Colorado, a decade ago, but then got a second degree in brewing. Sayej, 27, earned a master's degree in finance, but began brewing in his U.K. dorm room. Haddad, 33, quit a job in advertising to turn his long-time beer brewing hobby into a business.

In liberal, diverse Lebanon, getting a brewing license was a simple procedure unfettered by social taboos, said Haddad. By contrast, Karadsheh and Sayej battled red tape and religious backlash.

Sayej said officials in the Palestinian self-rule government initially rejected his label featuring the drawing of a shepherd, insisting it was a depiction of Jesus and thus blasphemous on a beer bottle. Sayej, a Christian, said it took him three months to persuade the authorities otherwise.

There was also trouble in his home village of Bir Zeit, where he set up his brewery.

Once predominantly Christian, the village has a growing Muslim population. At a recent Bir Zeit heritage festival, Shepherds decided to remove its booth after a local Muslim preacher railed against the brewery at the local mosque, saying it's "haram," or religiously forbidden. Sayej said he withdrew because he didn't want to disrupt community relations, but that Shepherds later staged its own festival in Bir Zeit.

Karadsheh's initial land deal for his brewery fell through because the owner didn't want to be linked to alcohol production. Karadsheh found another plot near Fuheis, a predominantly Christian community close to Amman. During construction, a tile layer walked off the job, feeling it was wrong to work in a brewery.

Still, they managed to start brewing  Karadsheh in 2013, Haddad in 2014 and Sayej last year.

All three feel passionate about what goes into their different styles of beers, including seasonal brews for the summer and for Christmas, as well as staples like blond ale, wheat and stout beer.

Karadsheh and his onsite brewer, Jordan Wambeke, hope to break into the U.S. market with beers infused with distinctly Middle Eastern flavors, such as a coffee porter with a pinch of cardamom and a hint of date molasses.

"In general, people go to imports looking for something different, something they absolutely can't get locally, and something that is going to last the trip overseas," said Wambeke, 28, who is from Cody, Wyoming, and joined Carakale six months ago.

The first shipment of about 7,000 liters is to leave the Fuheis brewery in the coming weeks for a warehouse in New Jersey, for further distribution along the East Coast, said Karadsheh.

Carakale will be competing with products from more than 4,500 craft beer breweries in the U.S., where two more microbreweries open each day, said Bart Watson, chief economist at the Brewers Association, which represents independent brewers.

Watson said it's a challenge to break into the competitive U.S. beer market, worth more than $100 billion a year, but that consumption of craft beers and imports is growing. "Any company that can differentiate itself and offer something new has an opportunity," he said.

Sayej, who teamed up with younger brothers Khalid and Aziz  the company slogan is "brewed by brothers for friends"  also hopes to export. He said he has pre-orders from Italy, the U.K., Sweden, Belgium and the U.S., but is waiting to install pasteurization equipment this fall. Pasteurization helps beer survive a long journey, he said.

Sayej banks on the beer's origins for his marketing strategy.

"We have the best ingredient in the world to distinguish us," he said jokingly. "It's Holy Land water."

Veteran brewer Nadim Khoury, who launched Taybeh beer in the West Bank in 1994 and now makes 600,000 liters a year, takes pride in being the first to put Palestinians on the global beer map.

"We don't have a country," Khoury said of decades of failed efforts to set up a Palestinian state. "But we have our own beer."

Karadsheh wants the same for Jordan  to "create the first internationally recognized Jordanian beer."
For more than a century, Americans have celebrated Labor Day as a tribute to the accomplishments of working men and women.

Single moms who hold down two jobs to pay for college coursework. Small-business owners who take a pay cut before a single worker gets an untimely check.

Teenagers learning lifelong lessons in the most mundane tasks.But Illinois largest government-worker union doesnt care about working Illinoisans. Not the vast majority of them, anyway.

On the eve of the Labor Day weekend, one of the states largest labor disputes in recent history hit a mile marker. An administrative law judge issued a 404-page decision. She held that state negotiations with AFSCME have reached an impasse.Well, sort of.

The judge ruled that bargaining talks -- composed of 67 days of meetings and over 300 different proposals -- have come to a grinding halt on some issues but not others.

Mandatory overtime, vacation, holiday scheduling and leaves of absence: Yes.

Wages and health care benefits: No.

None of this will be sorted out before more mind-numbing rounds of legal proceedings take place.

But one thing has been made abundantly clear throughout this bitter battle: AFSCME has no interest in the concerns of the average worker.

The unions contract with the state expired June 30, 2015. The 35,000 workers the union represents have been in limbo since then, as their union demands an absurd contract that only further exemplifies how AFSCMEs rhetoric of protecting the middle class is nothing but talk.

Illinois middle class is reeling. But the .05 percent of the states workforce represented by AFSCME is doing just fine.

From 2005 to 2014, AFSCME worker salaries grew five times faster than Illinois workers earnings. They are now the highest paid state workers in the nation when adjusting for cost of living.

And yet, the union is demanding wage increases of 11.5 to 29 percent by 2019.

Its not all about the money. Just look at the perks in the expired contract: Up to 25 paid vacation days, 13 paid holidays, overtime pay after 7.5 hours of work and more.

Take Labor Day, for example. The expired contract deems it somewhat of a super holiday. If an AFSCME employee works that day, he receives 2.5 times his normal pay -- in cash. On most other holidays, AFSCME members receive double time in cash.

And the state worker who may have enjoyed the Labor Day weekend a little too much can rest easy knowing a late arrival on Tuesday morning will go unpunished.

His contract states there should be no general policy of docking for late arrival. So he gets paid for tardiness. And if tasks happen to pile up during his absence, he still gets overtime pay for any make-up work beyond his normal 7.5-hour shift.

Forget, if you can, late arrival. The contract also says hell get nothing more than a warning for his first 10 unauthorized absences. For the 11th time he doesnt show up to work, hell get a five-day suspension.

Who pays for all this? AFSCME hates that question.

When reasonable people respond with the correct answer -- taxpayers -- union apologists retreat to a ridiculous refrain. State workers pay taxes, too.

Good news: Nobody thinks government employees dont pay taxes.

But size matters. And 99.95 percent of Illinois workers are picking up the tab for the otherworldly demands of the union representing the remaining 0.05 percent.

Kowtowing to AFSCMEs most recent proposals would cost taxpayers an additional $3 billion over the life of the contract.

Theres a difference between taking a paycheck from state government and earning ones keep in the private sector.

Heres one: One of those groups isnt getting platinum-level health insurance at bronze-level prices. State workers do. And many receive free retiree health care for life. Those benefits cost taxpayers almost $15,000 per AFSCME worker every year.

State workers arent to blame for this mess. But their chief representative has gone off the rails. The state has reached agreements with 18 other unions in the past year, instituting reforms such as wage freezes and merit pay.

Those unions recognized the hardships most other Illinoisans endure.

AFSCME stares unflinchingly at a sputtering state, asking for more.
G'day! It's Murray here. I've put together a little quiz to test your musical knowledge. Think you can score top marks in Murray's Magic Music Quiz? Give it a go now!
Plasser American Corporation last month named Thomas Blechinger President.

Blechinger succeeds Dr. Gunther Oberlechner, who retired after a long and distinguished career at Plasser American Corporation spanning over more than 40 years.

Thomas Blechinger joined the railroad industry in Europe as an apprentice in 1991.

Over the last 25 years Blechinger served in various senior management functions, most recently as Vice President and General Manager.
Long-time rail industry supplier Strato, Inc., which designs and manufactures airbrake hose and components, freight and passenger car parts, castings and fabrications and provides custom product design and engineering services, has been named a Top 250 Privately Held Company by NJBIZ for the first time.

The Piscataway, N.J.-based company joins manufacturers, accounting and law firms, wholesalers and distributors, high-tech corporations, health care organizations and others from throughout the state in being honored by NJBIZ, a leading New Jersey business journal with a weekly print circulation topping 15,000 and 24/7 news on the NJBIZ.com website. Only New Jersey companies are eligible; final selection is based on annual revenue for the past two years.

Strato President and CEO Mike Foxx said the recognition in the firms home state gives us an edge when seeking the most talented candidates to continue our projected growth.

Owned by Harrisburg, Pa.-based Journal Multimedia NJBIZ is well-known throughout New Jersey for events honoring the states top companies and business professionals.
The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership has released its testimony from a Aug. 23 hearing regarding increasing rail service to western Pennsylvania. I think its one of the first times that Amtrak, PennDOT and Norfolk Southern were all at the same table answering questions from legislators on this issue, says Lucinda Beattie, Vice President of Transportation for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, a business advocacy group focused on the revitalization of Pittsburgh.

Following the Great Recession of 2008, Pittsburgh risked losing its one daily passenger rail connection to eastern Pennsylvania. Now, discussions have begun to increase frequency to three daily trips, over the Norfolk Southern rail line that connects Harrisburg to Pittsburgh.

The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership produced a report in 2014 advocating for this additional service, entitled On Track to Accessibility. The report estimates the additional service would cost between $10 million to $13 million per year.

Earlier this year, PennDOT asked Amtrak to determine these cost estimates. Norfolk Southern says it will participate in these discussions.

Beatties full Pittsburgh testimony is below:

I am here today to express the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnerships full support for additional passenger rail service on the Keystone West line between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. We believe this project should receive the highest priority of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and of PennDOT as it provides access to more transportation choices for those traveling between eastern and western Pennsylvania.

Three years ago as the Passenger Railroad Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 was being implemented, those of us in western Pennsylvania were faced with the very real possibility that PennDOT would not fund our one daily passenger rail connection with the East Coast. Today we are here because, not only were we able to save the Pennsylvanian in 2013, but also because communities along the route now want to add two additional daily trains to the existing one daily train.

In 2014 the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, working with Western Pennsylvanians for Passenger Rail, developed an affordable and implementable proposal for adding this additional service. I would like at this time to submit a copy of that proposal, On Track to Accessibility, into the minutes of this hearing.

Our proposal assumes that PennDOT would need to make a capital investment in new rolling stock amortized over 30 years, maintain certain fixed costs that would now be spread across all three trains instead of one train daily, and pay Amtrak the cost differential between fare revenues and operating costs. Our estimate of what it would cost to implement three daily trains along the Pennsylvanian route is $10M  $12.9M annually and we estimate that ridership, currently at 232,000 annually, would double to well over 414,000 annually. To put this cost into perspective, constructing a 4-lane highway in a rural or suburban area costs $4M  $6M per mile and $8M  $10M in an urban area. This project is not only affordable but it is very reasonable.

We know that other state departments of transportation, in particular those in Virginia and North Carolina, have worked with Amtrak and Norfolk Southern to successfully add service to their state-managed passenger rail routes. Virginia today has six state-sponsored passenger rail routes and is adding one to Roanoke in 2017, the construction for which began in November 2014. Where there is an existing rail line and some basic rail infrastructure, implementation of additional service is not a generational aspiration.

What is needed is political will on the part of the State and cooperation among PennDOT, Amtrak and Norfolk Southern. The challenge for us as Pennsylvanians is to ensure that we successfully work together to bring this level of passenger rail service back to Western Pennsylvania.

In closing, the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership appreciates this opportunity to bring our proposal for two additional passenger rail trains before this Committee. We look forward to continuing to work with you on this project and stand ready to assist you in any way we can.
VIA Rail Canada updated numbers of its record-breaking summer, to include record ridership numbers for the past Labour Day holiday weekend, September 1 to 6:

Close to 68,000 passengers travelled on trains heading across the country from September 1 to 6, an increase of 5.4% compared to previous year and new performance record.

Overall, more than 926,000 passengers rode on VIA Rail from June 21 to September 6, 2016, an increase of 4.8% compared to the summer of 2015, a record high.

The city of Toronto attracted the greatest number of travellers by far, followed closely by Montreal and Ottawa. These destinations were chosen by 269,000, 159,000, and 102,000 travellers respectively. Fridays were the busiest travel days, with an average of 14,000 people travelling per week on that day.

August saw the highest ridership of the summer season. The week of August 8 to 14 was the busiest of the summer. During the month, more than 344,000 people chose to travel on the train.

In addition, 63,000 people took long-distance trains between Montreal and Halifax (the Ocean), and Toronto-Vancouver (the Canadian).

Canada is one of the most beautiful countries in the world and the smarter way to preserve its natural beauty is to leave your car at home and discover it by train. said Yves Desjardins-Siciliano, President and Chief Executive Officer of VIA Rail. VIA Rails growing popularity is due in a large part to the commitment of the employees in our call centres, stations, on board the trains and in maintenance centres. They continue to demonstrate their commitment to satisfying the needs of our customers with professionalism and in a more human way.
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More Australians now hold subscriptions to video-on-demand services than to Foxtels pay-TV package, according to Roy Morgan Research.





Subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services including Netflix, Stan, Presto, Quickflix, YouTube Red and Foxtel Play, can now be found in the homes of 28% of Australian homes (some 5,595,000), with Netflix dominating the market. This compares to the 27% reach that Foxtels linear pay-TV has in the country.Although SVOD  and Netflix in particular  has taken Australia by storm since its launch in early 2015, the number of subscribers to Foxtels pay-TV offering has also risen by an average of nearly 100,000 per quarter, said Roy Morgan. Additionally, IPTV services offered by Fetch and Foxtel through T-Box, have also attracted more viewers in the past year, with a total of 629,000 subscribers  up by 100,000 since the start of 2015.In the six months to August 2016, 9.8 million Australians 14+ (50%) had access to one or more types of paid TV services in their home: SVOD, linear broadcast pay-TV and IPTV, said Roy Morgan.Foxtel CEO Peter Tonagh [has] announced the pay-TV provider plans to better compete with Netflix and Stan in the blossoming subscription video-on-demand market by both enhancing and discounting Foxtel Play . At the ASTRA subscription media conference in Sydney, he reportedly highlighted that the vast majority of TV viewing is still live and linear that is, watched via a broadcast  but that Foxtel knows it still needs to develop some kind of competitive foothold in SVOD, said Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan Research.Mr Tonaghs claim is correct, with free-to-air television reaching nine in ten Australians. However our latest research shows that, when it comes to paying for content, SVOD is already now more common than linear Foxtel.Foxtels long-term strength will, as Mr Tonagh noted, be in offering live sport and linear programming, including premium content sourced through its deal with HBO. However as more Australians choose to access content on demand, Foxtel will need to find creative ways to straddle both markets  which appeal to quite different people, with different budgets, tastes and habits, added Roy Morgans Levine.
Moscow school shooters parents to pay $39,000 to victims family

MOSCOW, September 12 (RAPSI, Yevgeniya Sokolova)  The Moscow City Court has upheld a lower courts ruling ordering parents of school student Sergey Gordeev, who took his classmates hostage and shot two people in February 2014, to pay 2.5 million rubles (about $39,000) to the family of the teens victim, geography teacher Andrei Kirillov, RAPSI reported from the courtroom on Monday.

Earlier the Butyrsky District Court of Moscow awarded the victims family compensation. They have to pay 936,000 rubles ($14,600) in material compensation as well as 700,000 ($11,000) rubles to mother of the victim and equal sum to his widow. Additionally, Gordeevs parents are to pay 34,000 rubles ($530) to the victims son each month, until he reaches the age of 18. Gordeevs parents appealed the ruling asking to overturn the ruling.

The incident took place on February 3, 2014, when Sergey Gordeev, 15, brought a rifle and a carbine to school. He killed a police officer and a teacher, injured one more person and took hostages.

The Investigative Committee found that the student had fired at least 11 rounds from a small caliber rifle before he was arrested.

Initially Gordeev has partially admitted his guilt while psychiatric evaluation showed that he is mentally fit, but last summer, the Moscow City Court confirmed the original courts ruling that the student should undergo a compulsory medical treatment.

In late September, relatives of victims filed a cassation appeal with the Presidium of the Moscow City Court. In their appeal, they requested that the original ruling of the Moscow Butyrsky District Court be overturned, as well as the ruling of the Moscow City Court. On November 13, the Moscow City Court Presidium revoked a ruling ordering Gordeev to undergo psychiatric treatment.

On February 8, 2016, the Moscow Regional Military Court ordered that the case be closed because of absence of elements of crime in the act, the defendant be discharged from liability and sent for forced medical treatment.
Telecoms giant VimpelCom fined $7,000 for SMS message spam

MOSCOW, September 12 (RAPSI)  The Moscow Office of Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has fined Telecommunications giant VimpelCom 450,000 rubles ($7,000) for dissemination of SMS message advertising, according to the FAS statement.

Following the consideration of administrative offence cases the Federal Antimonopoly Services directorate has given three rulings on instituting administrative action against VimpelCom, the statement reads.

According to FAS, cases have been opened from facts of disseminating SMS advertisement by the company without the prior consent of subscribers in the Moscow region.

VimpelCom is one of the largest telecommunications services in the world, providing services in Russia, Central Asia, Asia, Africa, and Europe. The company provides its Russian services under the Beeline brand.




At this years Insurtech Connect conference, Insider Engage spoke to Pranav Pasricha, Swiss Re's global head property and casualty solutions, Reinsurance, to discuss why the protection gap is the biggest challenge the reinsurance industry faces today and how Swiss Re is using technology to support clients to respond to new and emerging threats.
Panama Canal 2.0: Good News For U.S. LNG

A quiet revolution -- almost unnoticed outside the energy press -- started last December when Congress lifted America's 40-year-old ban on exporting crude oil.

In February Cheniere Energy of Louisiana was the first out of the gate with a tanker which left from its Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana bound for Portugal.

Since then, writes Forbes's Jude Clemente, "nearly 50 Bcf [billion cubic feet] of U.S. LNG was exported. We will be surging to a dominant role in less than five years, with five terminals operating on the Gulf Coast and in Maryland by 2020. U.S. LNG has already been shipped to the Middle East, Europe, South America, Asia, and perhaps could soon reach the most energy-deprived region on Earth, where a tragic 650 million humans have no electricity whatsoever: 'Sub-Saharan Africa May Help Soak Up Global LNG Glut' "

Clemente's highly detailed article delivers some bad news and some good. The bad: Global competition for market share has heated up and LNG is now targeted by some in the U.S. as one of those nasty carbon fuels that needs to "stay in the ground" lest we fast track "our collision course with climate catastrophe."

The good news is what one could call Panama Canal 2.0.

On June 26 the newly widened canal opened for traffic. This means savings of time and money. Clemente's chart (above) shows days saved, and, since time is money, he tells us that now large U.S. LNG tankers bound for Asia can save $3.2 million per round trip over the Suez Canal route and $2.8 million compared to Africa's Cape of Good Hope route.

Of course it's not just the U.S. benefiting from Canal 2.0. According to Forbes, 90% of the world's LNG fleet now has access to the shortcut, and that means faster relief to places like Sub-Saharan Africa.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/judeclemente/2016/09/11/good-news-for-u-s-liquefied-natural-gas-exports/2/#271045ea3b3d
Robert Mugabe was told by President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania that he had inherited the Jewel of Africa' when he became leader 36 years ago. He has ruined that inheritance but nevertheless has a chance to quit with some honour in the near future. If not, horror looms.
Property details:

Here's another opportunity for someone looking for land in Northern California, and this is one of the lots close to the highway and lake, and only 90 minutes from the San Francisco Bay Area and adjacent to the Napa Valley and beautiful wine country. You will be bidding on this residential lot that has a beautiful LAKE VIEW, approximately 5,800 square feet in size, and located about a quarter of a mile from Clear Lake, the largest natural lake entirely in the state. The property is located near ...

Price: $ 569 Seller State of Residence: California Property Address: 3798 Linden Trail State/Province: California City: Lucerne Type: Homesite, Lot Zoning: Residential Zip/Postal Code: 95458 Location: 928**, Orange, California

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Read the entire listing carefully and submit questions before you bid. FOR SALE BY OWNER15,000 Annual Points - June RenewalAnnual Points can be used at over 60 Bluegreen Resorts at more than 40 destinations under the Bluegreen Vacation Club Multi-Site Timeshare Plan. Bluegreen continues to add resorts to this plan.Visit Bluegreen Vacations bluegreenvacations.com DescriptionResort Name on Deed: MountainLoft ResortAccommodation Units/Weeks: 346/42F, 534/51FAnnual Points: 15,000Saved Points: 815 (u...

Price: $ 2,700 Seller State of Residence: Mississippi State/Province: Mississippi Location: 391**, Madison, Mississippi

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By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 09/12/2016



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.
Blac Chyna gave fans a glimpse of her growing baby bump in a new post on Thursday.

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The 28-year-old model, who is pregnant and expecting with fiance Rob Kardashian , bared her belly on Snapchat just days before the premiere of their E! series, "Rob & Chyna."

Blac Chyna and Kardashian discussed their wedding and baby plans on "On Air with Ryan Seacrest" the same day.

The expectant mom said during the interview that she wants some of Kardashian's sisters to serve as bridesmaids.

"We have a date picked out [for the wedding]," she revealed.

"We're just doing one step at a time. Like, first the baby and having these things come first, and then I feel like the wedding will follow after. I feel like the baby is more important right at the moment."

"Marriage is [still] the plan ... First, have a healthy baby, then hopefully a beautiful wedding. But obviously the baby comes first," Kardashian echoed.

Blac Chyna and Kardashian got engaged in April and announced the model's pregnancy the next month.

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"Rob & Chyna" will follow the couple as they prepare to welcome their baby and tie the knot.

"I wanted to show people my personality, that I'm not just a pretty face or what some people paint me out to be: this bad person, this stripper ho," Blac Chyna said of the series in the October issue of Elle.

"I want them to see me as a mom, a businesswoman, a growing being."

Blac Chyna is already mom to 3-year-old son King Cairo with her ex-fiance Tyga.

The 26-year-old rapper is dating Kardashian's half-sister Kylie Jenner, who showed off her promise ring from Tyga this week.
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What the HOPE Scholarship is supposed to provide for numerous Georgia college students is not on par with the financial burdens they still face, according to a new analysis by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.
It is never okay to push insulting, sexist and racist assumptions onto someone who has done nothing to you. Lena Dunham's words about Odell Beckham Jr. and their interaction at the 2016 Met Ball reek of privilege and self-involvement.
Bendzunas Glass is a family-owned and operated studio and gallery for glassworks, located in Comer, about 30 minutes from Athens. Working out of the family home and its attached workshop, the Bendzunas studio offers a gallery of pieces for purchase and the opportunity to see a master craftsman partake in the long upheld tradition of glassblowing.
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By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

NEW YORK (AP)  NBC News chief anchor Lester Holt will moderate the first of three scheduled debates between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on Sept. 26, with ABC's Martha Raddatz, CNN's Anderson Cooper and Fox News Channel's Chris Wallace lined up for the others.

The Commission on Presidential Debates also said Friday that CBS News' Elaine Quijano will moderate the vice presidential debate between Republican Mike Pence and Democrat Tim Kaine on Oct 4.

The third presidential debate, to be moderated by Wallace on Oct. 19, and first will be traditional question-and-answer sessions with the journalist choosing the topics. Raddatz and Cooper will team up for the second session on Oct. 9, a town hall-style meeting with half of the questions to be posed by audience members.

Each of the debates is scheduled for 90 minutes, with a 9 p.m. EDT start time.

Clinton has said she will participate in all three debates. Trump has not formally agreed, although he has reportedly been preparing to debate. There was no immediate reaction from the candidates to the chosen moderators. The campaigns have no say in who is selected.

Moderating is one of a journalist's most visible, and risky, roles. Millions of people will be watching and ready to critique performances. Trump's anger with Fox News' Megyn Kelly was one of the primary campaign's biggest stories, and it began because he didn't like a debate question she asked about his attitude toward women.

The commission is bringing in new faces; none of those selected has moderated a general election debate before, although Raddatz did the 2012 vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan. Before Wallace's selection, no Fox News personality had been a general election moderator.

It will be the first time since 1984 that the general election campaign's much-anticipated first debate won't be moderated by the now-retired Jim Lehrer of PBS. Two other 2012 moderators, Candy Crowley of CNN and Bob Schieffer of CBS, are also no longer active in TV news.

The leadoff position is a coup for Holt, who took over as NBC "Nightly News" anchor last year for Brian Williams and kept the broadcast on top of the ratings. The commission avoided potential political problems by not selecting Kelly or ABC's George Stephanopoulos, who was a White House aide of Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton.

Fallout, however, included a letter of protest sent to the commission Friday by the president and CEO of Univision, the nation's most popular Spanish-language network. Randy Falco said he wanted to express his "disappointment, and frankly disbelief" that no Latino journalist was selected as a moderator.

"It's an abdication of your responsibility to represent and reflect one of the largest and most influential communities in the U.S.," Falco wrote.

Univision's Jorge Ramos, who celebrates 30 years as anchor of the network's evening newscast this fall, said this week that it was "high time" a Latino journalist was considered. He said he was interested, and suggested others like Jose Diaz-Balart of Telemundo and Maria Hinojosa of NPR.

Quijano is of Filipino descent. At 42, she's the freshest face of Friday's selections. She's an anchor and leads political coverage at CBSN, CBS' 24-hour streaming service, and anchors CBS' Sunday evening newscast.

Although he hasn't done a general election debate, Wallace has moderated GOP primary debates with colleagues Kelly and Bret Baier. During the primaries, Cooper moderated two debates and seven town halls on CNN.

Fox's Wallace said he was excited by the opportunity.

"They knew I was interested," he said. "You kind of put the word out there to the debate commission, but you can't lobby for it. You can't do anything. They end up deciding it."

The commission, chaired by former Republican National Committee head Frank Fahrenkopf and former Bill Clinton press secretary Mike McCurry, says little about its selection process.
Nadim Fawzi Jouriyeh, a Syrian refugee who arrived in the United States this week with his family, pushes a shopping cart with sons, Farouq Nadim Jouriyeh, left, and Hamzeh Nadim Jouriyeh, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016, in El Cajon, Calif. Days after participating in a ceremony in Jordan to mark the United States hitting its target of taking in 10,000 Syrian refugees, the former construction worker and his family buy roasted chicken, milk and fruit for their new home outside San Diego. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

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By ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press

EL CAJON, Calif. (AP)  Nadim Fawzi Jouriyeh took part in a ceremony Sunday in Amman, Jordan, to mark the United States taking in its goal of 10,000 Syrian refugees in a year-old resettlement program.

By Wednesday, the 47-year-old former construction worker and his family were walking grocery aisles, stocking up on roasted chicken, milk and lemons for their new home outside San Diego.

It didn't take long for Jouriyeh, his 42-year-old wife and four children, ages 8 to 14, to feel welcome.

"America is a beautiful country," he said through an Arabic translator at the office of the International Rescue Committee in El Cajon, a San Diego suburb that has drawn Iraqis and, more recently, Syrians fleeing war. "The way they treat people and the people of America are very nice. ... When you go down the streets, everyone smiles at you. Even if they don't know you, they just smile at you."

San Diego, the nation's eighth-largest city, has received 626 Syrian refugees since Oct. 1, more than any other in the U.S. Many smaller cities have accepted outsized numbers of Syrians, including Erie, Pennsylvania (205); Toledo, Ohio (109); and Boise, Idaho (108).

California and Michigan are neck-and-neck among states for receiving the most Syrian refugees, followed by Arizona, Texas and Illinois. Cities with large numbers include Chicago (469); Glendale, Arizona (384); Troy, Michigan; (325) and Dallas (293).

Refugees are typically assigned to cities where they have family and friends or where there is an established community of immigrants who share their culture, said David Murphy, executive director in San Diego for the International Rescue Committee, one of nine organizations that help refugees settle in the U.S.

In El Cajon, population 100,000, some store signs on Main Street are in Arabic. Merchants, bank tellers and schoolteachers speak the language.

Three decades ago, an Iraqi Chaldean immigrant settled here and the effect snowballed into a large Arabic-speaking community, Murphy said. Iraqis have been coming for years, but Syrians are relatively new.

"It's really kind of tough to know how they're going to do. They haven't been here long enough to start businesses or anything like that," Murphy said.

Jouriyeh, who left school after ninth grade in his native Homs to work, fled his war-ravaged city for Jordan in 2014. Daily bombings frightened the children as the Syrian government retook the city. Jouriyeh had to stay indoors for three days straight because it was too dangerous to go to work.

A drive to the Jordanian border that would normally take two hours required three days as the family tried to avoid roadblocks, arrest and crossfire. Jouriyeh said about 80 people were killed in his convoy.

Extensive vetting by the International Organization of Migration and the U.S. State and Homeland Security departments in Jordan led him to San Diego.

The U.S. said it reached its target of resettling 10,000 Syrian refugees in the 2016 fiscal year on Monday, more than a month ahead of schedule and the night Jouriyeh reached San Diego. The U.S. resettlement program focuses on the most vulnerable refugees, including those who are subjected to violence or torture or are sick.

Close to 5 million Syrians have fled since 2011. Most struggle to survive in tough conditions in neighboring countries, including Jordan, which has nearly 660,000 Syrian refugees.

The U.S.'s future role may be tied to politics. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Wednesday that he would suspend arrivals from Syria, portraying them as a potential security threat.

Jouriyeh said his priorities are to find a job, enroll his children in school and find permanent housing. He wouldn't say if he would ever return to Syria.

"We hope our children succeed in education and be able to have a good future here," he said.

Their days are filled with chores like opening a bank account and getting a phone. The International Rescue Committee offers classes on English, job hunting and citizenship.

While grocery shopping Wednesday, a Syrian vendor who arrived in 2010 introduced himself to Jouriyeh and asked about his journey. The strangers chatted pleasantly for a few minutes, then parted ways.
Nathan Solis/Record Searchlight

Members of the Patriot Guard and Shasta Veterans Escort salute the giant American flag during a sunrise ceremony in Redding on Sunday, marking 15 years since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.



SHARE Nathan Solis/Record Searchlight The Enterprise Lion's Club lowered the giant American flag, which the club maintains, before the sunrise ceremony on Sunday, Sept. 11.

By Nathan Solis of the Redding Record Searchlight

The giant American flag overlooking Redding was lowered to half staff Sunday morning to commemorate Patriot Day in remembrance of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

A crowd of 300 people gathered for the ceremony on Bechelli Lane, along with law enforcement, firefighters and others from the community.

But earlier in the morning members of the Enterprise Lion's Club moved in the dark to prepare for the ceremony. They brought down the flag just before dawn.

Mike Ferrier, keeper of the flag, visits the location on Bechelli Lane every day to maintain the memorial around the 120-foot tall flag pole, which was put in place in 2002.

"People leave the strangest things here in commemoration. I found a nice guitar just placed right next to the memorial plaque. It's an honor to watch over it as it watches over us," said Ferrier.

Around 5:30 a.m. Frank Rose, of Redding, was the first to arrive.

"To be here under this flag, it's an honor  it's an honor for everyone. I'm grateful I was free today. On Sept. 11, 2001, I was working at Mt. Shasta Mall. I'm glad I'm not working today," said Rose.

Members of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's Pipes and Drums band performed and the Northern California Patriot Guard stood at attention throughout the event.

A declaration from the President's Office was read, making Sept. 11 a national day of service.

Keynote speaker Carl Bott, retired Marine Lt. Col. and KCNR radio host, said he wish there was no need for a memorial like the one on Sunday, but if there needs to be one "let's do it in a way that pays honor" to all the service men and women.

He said the names of soldiers who die in combat seem to go unnoticed now, 15 years after the worst terrorist attack on American soil. The last reported soldier to die in combat was Staff Sgt. Matthew Thompson, from Irvine, on Aug. 23. who was killed in the Helmand Province in Afghanistan.

The importance of America's honor was mentioned, but also how others perceive this nation.

"This country is one people come to. We are the shining beacon on the hill," said Bott.

He also emphasized its future and how the members of the Enterprise High School band would be its leaders.

"I know I'm laying a big burden on you," he said and added the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, brought the nation closer together.

Hailey May, 16, from the Enterprise High School band played taps on the trumpet to start the memorial.

To her the events of Sept. 11 are part of history and taught in school. May's mother, Stacy Mooney remembers watching the events unfold on television as she held her daughter, who was 1-year old at the time.

"What (Bott) said is true," May said, "He said Enterprise, but it's all of us who will be the leaders."
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Comedian Brian Regan had a great standup bit back in the day:

"I heard that the government will pay certain farmers to not grow corn. Wow. Where's my check?"

Sadly, U.S. agriculture policy really is that misguided  and far less funny.

Every few years, Congress passes a farm bill packed with pork, special-interest handouts and increased federal spending, not to mention agricultural subsidies: taxpayer dollars to financially aid agricultural producers of certain goods.

Why do agricultural producers need these massive subsidies to manage risk? Other businesses with major risks do just fine without such government intervention.

It's worth noting that most agricultural production comes from large producers.

Based on the last Census of Agriculture, just 4 percent of farms accounted for 67 percent of all agricultural sales. It's not surprising then that the vast majority of agricultural subsidies go to large business operations  not exactly starving homesteaders.

In the 1940s, agricultural subsidies acted as a type of social welfare because of the deep poverty of farmers.

That's far from the situation today. Farm households have greater median income than non-farm households and 10 times the median wealth of all U.S. households. As for the demise of family farms? That's a bit overstated, when 99 percent of farms are family farms, and the total number of farms has remained consistent, at about 2.1 million over the past 25-30 years.

These subsidies bring with them a lot of unintended consequences. Farmers are often incentivized to "farm" the subsidies themselves, by growing crops where they can maximize their subsidies instead of meeting the demands of the market. Subsidies also discourage innovation, distort prices and crowd out solutions that could be available to farmers. It may surprise Americans that their government essentially dictates the price of sugar, raising it artificially by limiting the amount of sugar that is sold.

But even that doesn't cover how absurd agricultural subsidies have become. They're no longer just a safety net: Farmers can have a bumper crop and receive federal crop insurance indemnities.

A major new program protects against shallow losses, which means farmers are shielded from shallow (or minor) dips in the amount of money they had expected.

Much of these dips would be attributed to ordinary business risk in any other industry.

But farmers are no less capable than other businesses in managing their risk.

They already utilize many private risk-management tools: use of off-farm income, diversification of their crops and business, hedging, and insurance.

There's a growing consensus that this price and revenue protection is not only bad economics for agriculture, but bad for the adaptability of the industry as a whole.

A new Heritage Foundation report recommends moving away from subsidies, but not all at once. To help smooth the transition, deep yield losses for farmers would still be covered. The federal crop insurance program would be strengthened by properly focusing the program back on what it was supposed to cover: disasters and yield losses.

The taxpayer-funded safety net for agriculture would become just a safety net, as it should be, not a wholesale insulation from normal market forces.

A healthy, subsidy-free agriculture sector will be more adaptable and resistant to disaster than one which has never had to compete in an open marketplace.

Jim DeMint is the president of The Heritage Foundation.
Bill Press

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Heresy comes in different shapes and sizes. In many ways, like pornography, it depends on the eye of the beholder. But if not buying the idea that Mother Teresa is now Saint Teresa counts as heresy, call me a heretic.

Unlike most of her critics, I'm willing to admit that Mother Teresa was a wonderful person who lived a saintly life devoted to helping the poor, in India and around the world. It's just too bad Pope Francis had to mess it up by declaring her a saint.

Let's face it, the whole concept of sainthood is so medieval, dating back to the days when uneducated masses actually believed in angels, dragons, leprechaun and miracles. The vast majority of today's educated faithful only laugh at the idea that there's a little band of saints floating around somewhere, just waiting, when called on, to intervene in human affairs in ways that defy reason or science.

Mother Teresa, in fact, was only canonized after the Vatican gave her credit for performing two miracles: curing a tumor-stricken woman in 2003 and a man with a brain infection in 2008. But doctors have questioned the authenticity of both so-called miracles, with some insisting the woman suffered from a cyst, not a tumor.

Which raises another question: Why only two? Surely, in the 19 years since her death, if she's as holy and powerful as Francis says she is, don't you think she could have managed to pull off a few more miracles? What about those thousands of ailing people who prayed to her and got nothing?

That's why the Catholic Church used to take years to declare sainthood. But no longer. Pope John Paul II, who welcomed Mother Teresa to the Vatican, started her canonization process in 1999, just two years after her death instead of the minimum five years spelled out in church protocol. Then John Paul II himself was rushed into sainthood, even canonized before her, by Pope Francis. One gets the impression the Church is so determined to stay relevant these days it's willing to bend the rules.

What's even more troubling is that there are also serious criticisms of Mother Teresa from other religious leaders and many doctors, who accuse her of allowing unsanitary conditions in her hospitals and being more interested in baptizing patients than saving their lives.

Just last year, in India, the head of the Hindu nationalist group RSS stirred up a storm of criticism when he criticized Mother Teresa for religious evangelism. "It's good to work for a cause with selfless intentions," said RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in February 2015, "But Mother Teresa's work had ulterior motive, which was to convert the person who was being served to Christianity." And, indeed, there are multiple reports of forced deathbed conversions in her hospitals.

In their 2013 report on her work worldwide, a group of Canadian researchers concluded that Mother Teresa was in fact not very "saintly." They criticized "her rather dubious way of caring for the sick, questionable political contacts, her suspicious management of the enormous sums of money she received, and her overly dogmatic views regarding, in particular, abortion, contraception, and divorce." They further found that clinics she founded were known for significantly poor hygiene, even unfit conditions, a shortage of real care, inadequate food, and no painkillers. They were, said the report, more "homes for the dying" than medical clinics.

Asked earlier about that criticism by journalist Christopher Hitchens, Mother Teresa confirmed that helping people get better was not her first priority: "There is something beautiful in seeing the poor accept their lot, to suffer it like Christ's Passion. The world gains much from their suffering."

One consolation: As more information comes out, that halo so prematurely and undeservedly placed on Mother Teresa could someday disappear. Not even saints last forever. As a kid, my favorite saint was St. Christopher, patron of travelers. Like most Catholics, we even had a plastic statue of him on the dashboard of the family car. Imagine our shock, then, to be told by Pope Paul VI there never was any holy man named Christopher. Somebody made the whole thing up.

Back in the 1960s, Christopher was only one of 40 venerated figures  including St. Ursula, St. Nicholas, and St. Barbara  to be stripped of their sainthood. The church admits it goofed on St. Christopher. How long before it's willing to admit it made a mistake on Mother Teresa?

Email Bill Press at bill@billpress.com.
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Economic growth depends largely on the dynamism and innovation of new businesses, yet the U.S. has seen a steady decline in entrepreneurship over the past 30 years or so.

"The nation's marked decline in new job and business creation is one of the fundamental dilemmas of our time," a July Daily Beast column cautioned.

With that in mind, CNBC's "Metro 20: America's Best Places to Start a Business" provides some measure of which areas are fostering economic growth, and which are impeding it.

The CNBC index was drawn from the nation's 389 metropolitan statistical areas, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, and whittled down to the 107 MSAs with a population of 500,000 or greater. It included criteria based on a survey of the U.S.-based members of YPO, which bills itself as "the premier chief executive leadership organization in the world."

"Members there cited quality of life, taxes and regulation as among the most important factors for choosing a place to start a business," CNBC reported.

This is certainly borne out in the results. Six of the top 20 metro areas for starting a business are located in Texas, which is not surprising, given how Texas has topped multiple lists and surveys of states with the best business climate. Austin topped the list, and fellow Lone Star State locales Houston (sixth), Dallas (eighth), San Antonio (10th), McAllen (12th) and El Paso (16th) also made appearances on the list.

Utah also fared well, with Provo ranking second, Ogden seventh and Salt Lake City coming in 18th. In fact, 17 of the top 20 metro areas came from states ranked in among the top 18 in the Tax Foundation's 2016 State Business Tax Climate  and most of them ranked in the top 10 of the Tax Foundation report.

Conspicuously absent from CNBC's analysis were any places in California. Despite being home to nearly one-eighth of the entire nation's population, not a single metro area from California made the top 20 list.

California was not forgotten, however. CNBC also put together a list of the 10 worst places to start a business, and California metro areas took five of the "top" six spots. Stockton fared the worst, followed by Modesto and San Bernardino, which was dinged for its bankruptcy and high poverty rate.

Santa Rosa ranked fifth-worst and Fresno came in sixth. In all nine of the 10 worst places to start a business were in states that ranked in the bottom half of the Tax Foundation's State Business Tax Climate Index.

Despite its well-earned reputation for spawning innovative tech startups in Silicon Valley, California's burdensome taxes and regulations have served to suppress and prevent business development in just about every other sector of the economy. Its recovery since the recession, built primarily on the tech boom at one end and low-paying jobs on the other, is not sustainable in the long run. Broad-based economic growth requires broad-based economic freedom from stifling tax and regulatory policies, which California's political leadership apparently has yet to learn.

This editorial originally was published in the Orange County Register.
The BJP leadership is understandably mulling all options on the roll-out of the GST, says A K Bhattacharya.

An analysis carried in Business Standard about the states that have already ratified the Constitution Amendment Bill on Goods and Services Tax (GST) provides revealing insights into the political possibilities that can arise out of the proposed indirect taxes regime.

It also brings out with great clarity the nature of the tough political resistance the new law and its enforcement could face.

Of the 18 states that have endorsed the GST Bill, 10 are ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies. This is not a surprise.

After all, the GST proposal in its current form has been spearheaded by the BJP-led government at the Centre.

What, however, is a surprise is the fact that so far the expected ratification has not come from quite a few of the states, ruled either by a BJP-led alliance or those parties that had supported the Constitution Amendment Bill in Parliament.

For instance, the Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal had initially planned to ratify the GST Bill at a special Assembly session, but it was dropped from the agenda at the last moment.

Andhra Pradesh is another state, where the government led by the Telugu Desam Party, despite its proximity to the BJP, is reluctant to ratify the Bill for fear of revenue loss.

The Jammu and Kashmir government is led by a coalition of the BJP and the Peoples Democratic Party.

Granted that the state is experiencing turmoil for several weeks and its Assembly passing the GST Bill is materially insignificant as it would not be enforcing the new tax regime as a result of its enjoying special status.

But its failure to endorse the Bill could be construed as a political signal not healthy for the GSTs national acceptance and compliance.

Similarly, Punjabs failure to ratify the GST Bill may raise uncomfortable questions on whether the BJPs political leadership has tied up all the loose ends on as crucial an issue as the GST.

The resistance from the Tamil Nadu Assembly to endorse the GST Amendment Bill is understandable as the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has made its opposition to the idea quite open.

But more puzzling is the role of several Congress-led states, as at least six of them have not endorsed the Constitution Amendment Bill on GST, because the Congress high command in New Delhi is yet to give them the green signal.

To be sure, three Congress-led states have ratified the GST Bill - two of them are from the Northeast and one is a hill state.

And as long as half the state Assemblies ratify the GST Bill, the Union government can move ahead with the follow-up legislative agenda.

But that is not what may be worrying the BJP leadership.

It is now being goaded by triumphant voices that are asking the Centre to bring in the remaining GST laws at the earliest without waiting for other states to send in their ratification.

But the dilemma for the Centre is: Should the government go ahead and run the risk of offending some of the political parties that had supported the Constitution Amendment Bill in Parliament but have not endorsed it by now?

Commentators have noted that the idea of GST is progressive economic reform but it is also a great political risk.

Examples of what happened to the Vajpayee government after it had championed privatisation and the roll-out of the state-level value-added tax system are being cited in this context. Surely, neither of the moves had yielded any political dividend for the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

Now that the Narendra Modi government is pushing ahead with some tough reforms and is keen on launching the GST, it is debating if waiting for other states to endorse the Constitution Amendment Bill on GST would be prudent and could safeguard the government against potentially trouble-making and disruptive politics from some parties such as the Congress.

The bitter memory of what happened to its move to change the land acquisition law is still fresh and the BJP leadership is understandably mulling all options on the roll-out of the GST.

That approach is not imprudent. Going ahead with the GST law, even when several important states like West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh are yet to ratify the Constitution Amendment Bill on GST, might in particular upset the two parties ruling these states - the Trinamool Congress and the Samajwadi Party. Why upset them and allow a build-up of political opposition to the GST at this stage?

GST is an indirect tax and unlike a direct tax, it could well be rolled out anytime in the course of the next financial year.

Photograph: Reuters
Shipping ministry to launch 16-km, 45-minute boat service on Yamuna

The National Capital Region (NCR) would soon have a unique mode of transport to ferry passengers to their destinations.

The Ministry of Shipping and Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) plan to launch a water taxi project on the Yamuna, which would run from Delhis Wazirabad barrage to Fatehpur Jat in Uttar Pradesh. The 16-km distance is expected to be covered by the water taxi in about 45 minutes.

The central government would spend Rs 28 crore, including the cost of building terminals, dredging and also the cost of vessels.

This would be a first-of-its-kind recreational project for the citys citizens and would also serve the purpose of transportation.

In April, IWAI invited bids from consultancy services for preparation of technical specifications and engineering, procurement and construction tender documents for the project.

Five potential terminal sites have been identified on the route.

The project was first announced by Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari in December 2014. He had said the government would consult a Netherlands-based government agency for the project as the European country has expertise in the subject.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had earlier put restrictions on any kind of construction on the Yamuna. IWAI filed an affidavit with the NGT, seeking permission to start construction activity on the Yamuna. However, IWAI was asked to file a fresh affidavit by the NGT to undertake any kind of construction on the river.

IWAI was subsequently allowed to undertake construction on the Yamuna and was also asked to build an approach road for the water taxi project by the green tribunal.

According to an official in the shipping ministry, the final project report would be completed by September 20 and thereafter the tender for the taxi service would be floated. Tender can be expected in the first week of October, the official said.

The shipping ministry has also sought views from the Delhi government on the proposal.

The shipping ministry had earlier envisaged such a project from Delhi to Agra, but sources said executing it would be very difficult as the water level in the Yamuna is abysmally low.

Image used for representation purpose only.

Photograph: Reuters
While regulators are trying to do their bit, the onus is on you to prove it.

Atypical sales pitch: Sir, we are selling an open-end mutual fund (MF) which will give tax-free returns. The scheme returned 15 per cent last year.

Ideally, your answer should be: The only MF scheme that can give me tax-free returns is an Equity-Linked Savings Scheme (ELSS) but it has a lock-in period of three years.

Most of us dont ask these questions and get hustled into buying something we dont know much about.

Worse, sometimes, investors are sold insurance schemes as MF schemes.

Obviously, regulators are worried. In the foreword to the recently issued annual report of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the governor promised to focus on mis-selling of insurance by banks.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) is also planning to have different commission structures for agents and the bancassurance channel.

In effect, the incentive for bank staff to mis-sell will come down.

While the regulators continue to grapple with the situation, the onus still rests on the buyer to protect himself against mis-selling.

Mis-selling by banks

Banks have emerged as the big culprits in mis-selling.

Sales persons from banks, under tremendous pressure to meet targets, mis-sell insurance products and MFs to many a lay investor.

They have got away with it so far because India has multiple regulators.

Banks selling of products like insurance and MFs falls in what is referred to as regulatory cracks or regulatory no-mans land. While banks are regulated by RBI, the third-party products sold by them are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (MFs) and Irdai (insurance).

According to Manoj Nagpal, chief executive officer (CEO), Outlook Asia Capital, Mis-selling by banks will stop only once RBI initiates punitive action against senior-level management, on whose direction the junior personnel do the mis-selling.

How is it done?

In the financial sector, this can be done in various ways. In many cases, it is the advice given that is wrong, and, hence, difficult to prove.

Insurance: While selling a traditional insurance product (like endowment), the seller could promise guaranteed returns of eight per cent annually plus bonuses.

Most buyers today are aware that Ulips (unit-linked insurance plans) dont offer guaranteed returns. But, many still get fooled into believing that traditional products do so, says Arvind Laddha, CEO, Vantage Insurance Brokers. Ideally, they should be showing two numbers: Returns at four per cent and eight per cent, as a mandate by Irdai.

However, many choose to show the higher number.

Sales of a high-value term cover to a senior citizen who doesnt any longer require protection against the risk of dying early is another common trend.

Health insurance: Say, a Rs 15-lakh product is sold to a 20-something couple. The question: Do they really need it?

The mis-selling here also lies in the fact that the couple could as well buy a Rs 5-lakh base cover and a Rs 10-lakh top-up, which would be cheaper.

Sometimes, in the case of high-value health covers, there could be a promise of both out-patient and hospitalisation expenses being covered, when only the latter is covered.

The seller could also promise that you would be covered globally whereas you are covered only within the country.

Mutual funds: Your investment horizon is three years or less but you could be sold a 100 per cent equity portfolio, as equity funds give higher commissions than debt funds.

Tax-saver funds are also sold to the extent of Rs 5-10 lakh for their higher commissions, when the tax deduction limit is only Rs 1.5 lakh.

Avoid buying ELSS beyond the tax benefit. Meet your investment needs through open-ended diversified equity funds, says Srikanth Meenakshi, founder-director, Fundsindia.com.

He also warns against buying closed-end funds.

Dont get into a fund which doesnt offer you the flexibility to exit if it underperforms, he adds.

Home loan: When a customer takes a home loan, he should ideally be sold a mortgage cover or a term cover, to insure against the massive liability he has taken on.

In fact, RBI does not allow bundling of products. So, in ideal circumstances, the bank or financial institution providing the home loan should not offer any products.

The common situation is that he is mis-sold an insurance-cum-investment product, on which the premium, and hence commission, is higher. Sometimes, purchase of the insurance is made a pre-condition for sanctioning of the loan.

Regulatory shift required

Today, the buyer finds it very difficult to prove mis-selling once he has signed the application form. And most sign them without reading them.

In India, the regulatory regime is that of caveat emptor or buyer-beware.

Globally, the regulatory regime is shifting towards caveat venditor or seller-beware.

Under this regime, if there is a complaint of mis-selling, the onus is on the seller to prove innocence.

Till this shift happens, one recommendation made by the Sumit Bose Committee needs to be implemented at the earliest.

With each financial product, there should be a single sheet on which all important disclosures about the product should be made in large, clear font. Here, it should be stated why the product is suitable for the customer-based on his age, income and risk profile. And, that sheet should be signed by the seller, says Prithvi Haldea, founder-chairman, PRIME Database and a member of the committee.
Set up by three former NDTV executives, the company is targeting premium restaurants in Delhi-NCR

Food tech start up IdeaChakki has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from leading industrialist Ratan Tata.

New Delhi based start up, which provides digital video menu for restaurants and allows customers to gift food and beverage experience across the world, has also partnered with investment bank Enablers for their next round of funding.

The funds raised from Tata will primarily be used for expansion into new geography, along with building the in-house team and strengthening the technology, IdeaChakki said in a statement.

The Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons has been actively investing in startups in India and abroad. Some of these firms include Snapdeal, Kaaryah, Urban Ladder, Bluestone, CarDekho, Sabse Technologies, Xiaomi, Ola, DogSpot.in, Tracxn, CashKaro, FirstCry and Teabox.

Set up by three former NDTV executives, the company is targeting premium restaurants in Delhi-NCR and aims to expand its operations in the country and set up its first international office in Paris.

"It feels great to have received a funding from Mr Ratan Tata. We are world's first video-based food tech to introduce such a concept, which change the face of hospitality world and lifestyle of users," IdeaChakki co-founder Gunjan Mehrish said.

Additionally, Tata's validation on idea will help in attracting more investors given his experience in managing and running Taj group of hotels, he added.

Photograph: Vijay Mathur/Reuters
'The nicest thing is that it is not my film.'

'People bring their own stories and life histories to the film.'

Shubhashish Bhutiani, 25, recently took his first feature film Mukti Bhawan (Hotel Salvation) to Venice to be screened as a part of the Biennale College Cinema programme.

After the screening, the audience gave Bhutiani and his team a 10-minute standing ovation.

The UNESCO jury awarded the film the XXIIIrd prix 'Enrico Fulchignoni'.

Butiani is no stranger to fame in Venice. His first short Kush, which he completed while he was in New York City's School of Visual Arts, won the Orizzonti Award for the Best Short film at the Venice Film Festival in 2013.

Kush, the story of a Sikh boy on a school trip immediately after Indira Gandhi's assassination, won numerous other awards around the world, including the National Award in India.

Mukti Bhawan is a moving, but hilarious story about an old man (Lalit Behl, who also played the father in his son Kanu Behl's film Titli) who one day announces to his family that he is ready to die and wants to check into a hotel for the dying in Varanasi.

His family, especially his son (an excellent Adil Hussain), thinks nothing of the old man's plan at first but finally, takes him to Varanasi.

Mukti Bhawan is essentially a story about a father and son reconciling their differences. It is a warm, sweet film and quite an accomplishment for young Butiani.

The director also cast Marathi actress Geetanjali Kulkarni (Court) and Palomi Ghosh (who wowed the audiences in the Goan musical Nachom-ia-Kumpasar) as well as theatre and television actress Navnindra Behl (Lalit's wife and Kanu's mother) in the supporting role of a woman who has been waiting to die in Varanasi for years.

Bhutiani spoke to Aseem Chhabra about the making of Mukti Bhawan and the challenges he faced along the way.

Did you make this film after you received a grant for winning the Orizzonti Award at Venice for Kush?

No, there wasn't any grant. I started from scratch. I started writing again after Kush.

I moved back to India and had a one year transitional period, settling down, after spending four years in New York. Then I had an idea for this film.

So the way it works is that I applied to the Biennale College Cinema, which is technically separate from the Venice Film Festival, although it happens parallel to the larger festival.

The Biennale has a new initiative where they help develop projects on a micro budget level. They accept many submissions, and then short-list 10.

They invite these 10 to Venice to develop the project on an island called San Servolo, which was once an insane asylum, and now is a university campus. It's really quiet; only one boat goes there.

So it feels weird that filmmakers are being sent there. I felt I was a character in Shutter Island!

When did you go for the Biennale project development sessions?

Last October.

At that time the script wasn't done yet?



No, it was at the story level. Out of the 10 projects, they fund three. This year they picked four.

They have a lot of restrictions on the amount of money they give and the time within which the film has to be ready.

So in 11 months, you had to produce a finished film.

Yes, for me it felt like a reality show. Ten filmmakers go to an island and only three survive (laughs).

I was there for 10 days and then I took a month to finish the script. After that, it went through many drafts and re-writing process.

We had many mentors from all over the world. They don't try to influence you or change your idea. There are constructive conversations.

Was the shooting rushed?

It was very intense. I shot in March and started the edit and post-production in April. We got the Asian Cinema Fund from the Busan International Film Festival. So we did the final post in Busan (South Korea).

When did you apply for the Busan funding?

These communities are very intertwined. When they hear you are working of a small limited-funded film, they approach you.

Are you planning to take the film to Busan?

Yes, we play it there in November. The film just got finished and we are submitting it to festivals.

The nicest thing is that it is not my film. People bring their own stories and life histories to the film.

When people walk up to me and tell me their stories and why they laughed in some scenes, I know it's not my film anymore.





IMAGE: Lalit Behl in Mukti Bhawan.

Did you have the cast in mind?

I first wanted to write the story and the script well. And I didn't know how we would approach the casting at the initial stage because we were working with very little money.

Someone said something very funny -- that we were making a love-budget film. I really liked that.

Only people who loved the project or loved me as a person would work on this kind of a movie.

I have all these stories about casting.

I selected Palomi because I saw her on a panel with A R Rahman where she started singing in front of the whole audience. I didn't know her at that time so I was wondering what she is doing.

You haven't seen her Goan film? She is excellent in it.

I haven't seen any film in a while. She told me that people in Goa think she is Goan.

Was Adil available? He is so busy with so many projects all the time.

He was very busy, but he moved around his schedule and made adjustments for our project. He didn't read the script initially, but 10 minutes into my talking to him and he was on board.

When he read the script, he understood the vision, the kind of humour we were going for.

You have cast Kanu Behl's parents in the film.

I wasn't even aware that Lalit Behl was Kanu's father. In fact, I didn't even know Kanu at that time.

When I was writing the script, I was thinking about a dominant man.

Since I had seen Titli, his was the only face I was thinking of when I was writing the script. His beard and eyes had this mystery to it.

How many times have you been to Varanasi?

The film didn't start as this story. It started with me as a traveler. I like going to strange places.

So I was going to Varanasi and had heard about these hotels. I was curious to see these places so I could tell people at a party that 'Can you believe this happens in India?'

The story, the germ of the idea -- what a father and son would go through if they went there, I started with that.

I wanted the story to come from an emotional place, rather than trying to document it.

You did a wonderful job of bringing out the humour.

I saw so much humour there. The humour aspect of the film came naturally to me even in the writing.

I wouldn't think that I would have to add a joke in the middle of a scene. It was completely organic.

The humour really balances the story because otherwise death can be such a sad and a downer subject.

You do show that some people are really dying and I know families bring their elders to Varanasi when they are about to die.

But your character just one day decides he is ready to die. That was strange and very funny. I love the Vimla character who has been living there for so long waiting to die.

Did you meet people like that?

I met many people like that.





IMAGE: Producer Sanjay Bhutiani and Shubhashish Bhutiani on the sets of Mukti Bhawan. Photograph: Shubhashish Bhutiani/Facebook

What about the other supporting cast?

We have about six or seven real actors.

I asked many people in Varanasi if they wanted to be in a film. Some of them were very excited even if they didn't have to do much.

Some of them were almost like cultural consultants where they would say yes, such things happen...

I love the scene towards the beginning when the old man donates the cow. The rest of the family is so matter-of-fact about it.

I was a little concerned because I didn't explain anything. But I think people will get the absurdity of the situation.

There are many myths around the idea of death, but I didn't want to over explain.

Tell me about the standing ovation you got in Venice. There is a video circulating on Facebook and Twitter.

If you see me in the video, I am just being pushed to one side because I just froze. I was very nervous through the screening. I didn't know how people would react.

I kept wondering who would come to watch such a small film. Maybe my crew and I will watch it and then we will go have dinner afterwards.

What are you doing in Venice after the screenings?

I am on a couple of panels where I will be talking how we made the film under extremely challenging circumstances. Hopefully, people will learn from our experiences and our mistakes.
'If you go to some of their homes, you won't notice anything Indian -- nowhere a little god, or the smell of spices in the kitchen.'

'Nothing in their dress, no trace of an accent.'

'Even the names have been changed: Motilal becomes 'Mac;' Harish becomes 'Harry'.'

Exclusive! An excerpt from Suketu Mehta's latest novella

Suketu Mehta is fascinated with the way many immigrants consciously or unconsciously attempt to erase the past in the new world.

They erase the symbols of their roots and sometimes even their memories. Just like Mahesh, the lead character in Mehta's new work, What Is Remembered.

Mehta began writing the novella -- published 12 years after his iconic Maximum City: Bombay Lost And Found -- in the 1990s in a bout of homesickness "not just for India, but for Jackson Heights, which is a kind of middle world between India and America," he tells Rediff.com's Monali Sarkar.

As he wrote, taking Mahesh through Jackson Heights -- the very Indian neighbourhood of New York City and his first home in America -- and memories of India, Mehta realised that the novella format was just right for the story: "Something longer than a short story, which is merely a taster, but shorter than a novel, perfect for our harried times."

What Is Remembered is published by Juggernaut Books and can be read on its app.

In an e-mail interview, Mehta discusses the novella and how he feels about new mediums of getting his story to the reader.

In What Is Remembered, Mahesh -- consciously and unconsciously -- leaves his desi-ness behind from the moment he steps onto American soil. Have you met many people like Mahesh? As someone who clearly did not do that, how do you react to such people?

I've become fascinated with the way many immigrants, including Indians, consciously or unconsciously attempt to erase the past in the new world.

If you go to some of their homes, you won't notice anything Indian -- nowhere a little god, or the smell of spices in the kitchen.

Nothing in their dress, no trace of an accent. Even the names have been changed: Motilal becomes 'Mac'; Harish becomes 'Harry'.

But sometimes, the memories are too strong, and the smallest thing -- a morsel of food, a snatch of music -- can trigger memories which overwhelm the carefully built fortifications around the new life, overpower the sentries around the persona, rush into the innermost chamber of the heart and capture you, drag you back as prisoner or emperor back to where you came from.

So Mahesh, in my story, experiences a flood of these memories, which lead him to some sort of reconnection. Whether it's genuine, or whether it will last, is left for the reader to interpret.

Did you one day wake up and realise that you had forgotten something about life in India? A name? A face? A memory that you couldn't quite ferret out?

Was there ever a time when you wanted to forget?

A writer is a voyeur into invented lives.

Although many of the scenes in the story are based on events in my own life, I've never experienced this kind of amnesia, or any desire to change my name or to distance myself from India.

But, yes, on some of my trips, when I've gone back to Bombay (now Mumbai), I';ve wanted to run back to America.

I write about this in Maximum City: On my first year back in Bombay, when I saw my children get sick by the bad air, the bad water, I wanted to pack up and run back to New York.

And the more I lived in India, the more I realised that America was my home too. That there was a huge part of me that was American. And that there was no contradiction in being both.

What do you remember about that moment when you first stepped off the plane in New York? What were your first memories of New York, of Jackson Heights?

I have two memories of first coming to JFK (the John F Kennedy International Airport in New York) in 1977: Someone rebuking my mother for cutting the line in customs, and a huge Alexander Calder mobile twirling in the international arrivals lounge.

In our first week in the studio apartment my father had rented in Jackson Heights, the landlord cut the power to our apartment because there were too many people in it (our family of five) and he wanted us out. That was our welcome to America.

I hated Jackson Heights when my family first brought me there. At the age of 14, I was thrown into an all-boys, all-white Catholic school and I was a representative of the waves of minorities that now dominate the area.

So I was bullied and hated. The teachers called me a pagan. One of the kids pushed me down a flight of stairs.

But now, Jackson Heights is the most diverse neighbourhood in the entire United States. There are lots of desis everywhere in the area, including in my old school.

We overwhelmed the racists by sheer force of numbers.

Mahesh asks the Expert Liar, 'Tell me, my friend, what I should say to my country about why I left.' Do you believe there always has to be a reason to leave? Can't one just leave... just because...

Anyone that, after a certain age, makes the decision to leave country and family to move to another country -- especially from the world's oldest continuing civilisation to the newest -- has to have a reason.

It's not accidental, like ending up on a plane to New York instead of to Baroda. And when one leaves, one has to explain the reason for one's desertion, as my father had to with my grandfather, who could never understand my father's decision.

In fact, I think my father never quite understood his decision. He's given his children various reasons, like he left because he saw Disneyland on a trip once and thought his children would like to visit it too; or that his kids should be drinking unadulterated milk; or that the family diamond business needed to be expanded.

The point is, we rationalise our desertion in a variety of ways, but each of us NRIs continually revisit the decision all our lives and come up with different rationalisations each time.

To me, the Expert Liar appears to be the mind and the 'gaunt man... with the agitated eyes' the heart. Is that the right takeaway?

That's an interesting takeaway, and certainly a valid one. But that does not rule out other interpretations of the story, and I hope each reader goes away with their own meaning.

I meant the story to be open-ended; we don't quite know if Mahesh has successfully recovered his mother's name or not at the end.

But isn't that the nature of memory: Contradictory, confusing, overwhelming.

I meant the story to be a provocation rather than an explanation.

Do you find the burden of 'too much history' a common trait among those who have left India -- or their country of origin -- behind?

It's not just among Indians.

Most people who have come to America over the centuries are running away from history, personal or political.

This country (America), unlike Europe, affords the immigrant the possibility to forge an entirely new history.

But there are people who live here who carry the burden of their history with them -- such as the Indians who live in a little Indian cocoon or bubble wherever they go, whether it's Jackson Heights or Silicon Valley, never having non-Indian friends, rarely partaking of non-Indian culture, with their TV always playing Bollywood films or soap operas, their dining excursions only to Indian restaurants.

I remember, when we lived in Jackson Heights, my uncle from Bombay visited us and advised me, 'Take the best from the East and the best from the West.'

It was sound advice, and implicit in it was the admission that the West also had something to teach us; that it wasn't just important to preserve our Indian values but to admit other values into our minds.

It is a paradox: This desperate desire among some who migrate to leave behind family ties and then feel the equally desperate angst of alienation.

The first stage of migration is claiming your place in the new country; soon after comes alienation.

You realise it on your first holiday back home. You realise that your leaving has consequences; you can never go back to what you were.

You are not Indian in the same way your friends who didn't leave are.

Your sense of the world has expanded; you now enjoy an Italian carbonara and a New Zealand pinot noir; you no longer know the words to the Gayatri Mantra.

This sense of alienation is much more pronounced among people like me, who left India in their teens, than among people who left for college or graduate school.

For us, we never finished growing up in India, and we were never well in our skins in the country we adopted, so we always went back and forth like a pendulum, attempting to compensate for lost time.

It's only when I moved back to Bombay to live there to write my book, and was accepted back in every way as an Indian, a Bombayite, that I realised that I could move back into the world, with confidence.

Would it be right to call What Is Remembered a return to magic realism? Can you tell us more about your journey, your inspirations in this genre since the time you were a student of fiction and doing a lot of magic-realist writing.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez once said that 'magic realism' is the realism of Latin America, because the magical is everyday there.

I prefer the term surrealism, or super-realism, for the events in this story.

We come from a background where the mythic and the quotidian are interwoven in everyday life.

In some ways, we are a race of dreamers and fantasists, because we've all been raised on the epics and on Bollywood films.

I studied fiction at the Iowa Writers Workshop and a lot of my earlier stories had this playfulness, this element of fantasy.

When I wrote nonfiction, all of this had to be cut out and so it was a relief to let the mind free again, to let it play with possibility.

It was, literally, fantastic.

What are your favorite books/essays about the Diaspora's experience in exile?

What are your favorite books/essays about India?

Naipaul's nonfiction trilogy about India, especially A Million Mutinies Now, Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, Upamanyu Chatterjee's English, August, and hundreds of others.

What Is Remembered is being published solely on the Juggernaut app.

Obviously, you are okay with that medium, but was it an easy transition? How do you feel about seeing your work in this medium when you have held the hard copy of your book in the past?

I started writing What Is Remembered in a bout of homesickness in the 1990s. Then I realised I was homesick, not just for India, but for Jackson Heights, which is a kind of middle world between India and America. Wembley in London occupies a similar position, these bridges between that world and this, between past and present.

I didn't know if it would grow into a full-fledged novel; at some point, I realised that the length was perfect.

I've always liked the novella format -- Saul Bellow's Seize The Day, Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, or Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist come to mind.

Something longer than a short story, which is merely a taster, but shorter than a novel, perfect for our harried times.

And besides, I realised I'd said what I wanted to say and didn't want to say any more. So, when Chiki Sarkar (founder and publisher, Juggernaut Books) asked me if I had anything that would be suitable for reading on a phone, this story immediately came to mind.

I like the idea of the story reaching many more people than would normally read a book (in India, a book that sells 3,000 to 5,000 copies still qualifies as a bestseller, but millions read things on their cell phones).

I'm a storyteller; I don't care what medium my audience gets my story on, whether it's on paper, on a screen, or in a podcast.

What Is Remembered is also available as a podcast, and will shortly be published as a physical book by Juggernaut.

~ Exclusive! An excerpt from Suketu Mehta's latest novella

Illustrations: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com
IMAGE: A view of the Krishnarajasagar Dam in Mysuru. Photograph: PTI

'The Cauvery river has become excessively politicised by all political parties.'

'They see a vote bank in an emotive issue of this kind.'

S Janakarajan, professorial consultant at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, is president of the South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies at Hyderabad.

Behind the formation of the Cauvery Family in 2003, where farmer leaders from both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu came together to find a solution to the dispute, he spoke to Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.

When we met earlier, you had described the Cauvery water crisis as the most difficult and the bitterest water dispute in independent India.

Do you think the problem will continue for a long, long time?

This will continue for a very long time.

The dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu is going to be bitterer and even worse.

It is because this dispute is different from the other water disputes in India. There are about 24 or so resolved and unresolved water disputes in India.

But the Cauvery water dispute is distinctly different from other disputes.

Is it because the Cauvery basin is not a surplus basin, but a deficit one?

Yes, in the case of most inter-state disputes in India, the primary issue is over sharing of surplus water but in the case of the Cauvery, since it is a deficit basin, the dispute is over re-sharing of available water or already utilised water.

At 50 per cent dependability, the available water in the basin is only 740 TMC feet, but in order to irrigate the available developed command area, we need around 1,250 TMC feet of water.

This is why this basin is called a deficit basin and this is the crux of the issue.

The dispute arises precisely for this reason and that too only in deficit years.

Karnataka upstream and Tamil Nadu downstream have over utilised water and both have large extent of the command area.

If you look back, you will see that the command area in Karnataka was around 300,000 to 400,000 acres initially while in Tamil Nadu, it was around 1.7 million to 1.8 million acres.

Today, the command area in Karnataka is over 2 million acres whereas in Tamil Nadu the irrigation command area has come down to 1.3 million acres.

The Kuruvai crop is virtually wiped out now. Even the samba crop, which coincides with the northeast monsoon, is becoming doubtful in the delta.

Can anyone blame the farmers of Karnataka for farming in more areas? Their argument is when they do not have enough water for their crops, how can they give to others.

I will not blame the farmers of both states. I will blame only the politicians.

The Cauvery river has become excessively politicised for many decades by all political parties and also the state and central governments.

They see a vote bank in an emotive issue of this kind.

The Cauvery water has become a matter of more intense political dialogue and an election issue ever since the non-renewal of the 50-year-old agreement in 1974.

Political parties in both states have championed the cause of the Cauvery farmers. People have shown emotional responses and cultural attachments to Cauvery water.

Unfortunately, political dialogues that have taken place so far in both states have only hardened the issue further.

The dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka at times seems to shake the very foundation of India's federalism despite the interventions of the central government and India's highest judicial authority.

The dispute has become deep-rooted, more delicate and bitterer.

Remember, the farmers of both states depend solely on Cauvery water for their livelihood.

Though Bangalore is not part of the Cauvery basin, this IT hub is dependant on Cauvery water for drinking.

Do you think the farmers will listen to the politicians?

Do you think farmers from all the villages in Karnataka come to agitate? No. Only some leaders who have political clout and who promote linguistic chauvinism demonstrate in a big way.

Further, political parties should not back such agitations and violence either directly or indirectly.

IMAGE: Protests in Karnataka over the Cauvery dispute.

You had started the Cauvery Family initiative with leaders from both states.

When I initiated the Cauvery Family dialogue in 2003, the situation was very tense and almost like what you see today or even worse.

The Cauvery Family dispersed the hostility that farmers of both states had.

When it was active, we never had this kind of violence.

I can tell you between 2003 and 2012 there was no violence in Karnataka as you witness today. That was because most of the farmers' leaders were part of the Cauvery Family -- K S Puttanniah, K Chandrasekar, Shanthakumar, Professor K C Basavaraj, Sunanda Jayaram etc.

There were lots of mutual respect and admiration for each other and farmers of one state visited the other state several times.

How did such a good initiative fizzle out?

It was a good initiative and all of us wanted the governments, the political parties of both states and also the tribunal to recognise it. But we did not get any recognition.

We identified five water sharing formulae and finally zeroed in on one which was acceptable to both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

We could find a solution, but without recognition, what could we do?

Even now, as the convenor of the Cauvery Family, I can convene a meeting, re-look, rethink, re-orient and arrive at a solution.

We started it in 2003 and it went on till 2012. We had invested a lot of time then without any support from any external agency but then without recognition, what could we do?

International organisations such as UNESCO applauded the initiative, but we failed to get support locally.

Do you think political parties felt you were taking the credit away from them?

I really don't know. Nobody is trying to take any credit away from anyone.

We as civil society also want a solution to a problem that started in 1974.

The original agreement that was signed in 1854 ended in 1974. Karnataka did not want to uphold a colonial agreement that was signed between the government of Mysore and Madras Presidency.

But we have many such agreements which we still respect as the Constitution says so, like the Mullaperiyar agreement. That's why Karnataka is not legally right.

They should realise that Tamil Nadu is a downstream state and people have been using water from the Cauvery for thousands of years. That's why both sides should talk.

Do you feel that is the only solution?

Coming face-to-face and talking is the only solution.

When people meet and talk, they become more humane.

I guarantee that when farmers of both states meet face-to-face and talk, there will not be any violence. They understand each other.

It was Tamil Nadu farmers (at the Cauvery Family meetings) who spoke of giving drinking water to Bangalore when the Mandya farmers in Karnataka opposed the idea.

I have seen this camaraderie with my own eyes.

I strongly feel that whether it's a good year or a bad year, both sides should share water.

Karnataka cannot use the Cauvery river as a drainage river, that is, releasing water only when the reservoir is full. This attitude should change.

Similarly, Tamil Nadu also cannot say we have used so much water for thousands of years and so we want that much now.

Whether surplus or deficit, it should be shared by both states.

A river becomes meaningful only when there is water flow.

The Cauvery delta in Tamil Nadu had access to water for thousands of years. The delta is formed only because of the river flow.

The delta is nothing but a plain sheet of land which is spread over close to the sea. This is an extremely important ecosystem which is an asset to the nation and needs to be protected.

The Cauvery delta was once the granary of south India, but miserably not any more.

Tamil Nadu has problems with all neighbouring states regarding sharing water.

Yes, Tamil Nadu is a downstream state, but a state shouldn't have such problems because of its position.

When nations themselves cannot survive independently, states within a country have to learn to share and live.

The degree of interdependence among states is increasing day by day. Farm produce from one state goes to other states where they are not produced.

People from all states migrate and live wherever they like. Therefore, state boundaries are becoming more and more meaningless.

Let me talk about the Cauvery. Yes, it is true that as per the tribunal, Tamil Nadu should get its legitimate share of water.

But Tamil Nadu is facing a number of problems in its backyard. The Cauvery has got four tributaries and an age-old canal.

The Kalingarayan canal, Amaravathi, Noyyal, Bhavani and Kodaganaru are heavily polluted, heavily exploited and heavily abused.

The Kalingarayan canal, which was so pure even in the 1980s, now carries nothing but sewage and industrial effluents. I will say it is almost dead now.

Bhavani carries huge quantity of industrial effluent from textile mills, dyeing industries, paper industry, sugar mills and urban sewage.

Amaravathi is also quite heavily polluted carrying along effluent load from dyeing and bleaching units.

Noyyal is the worst of the lot, which is practically dead due to over 900 dyeing and bleaching units.

A dam constructed across this river (the Orathapalayam dam) has never been opened for irrigation even once ever since it was commissioned in 1991.

The Kodaganaru carries effluent from 100 plus tanneries built on its banks.

All these rivers carry huge quantity of urban sewage too.

Industrialisation and rapid urbanisation have destroyed these rivers completely.

Finally the entire pollution reaches the Cauvery delta.

The second threat is sea water invasion in the delta. Only when the sediments from upstream reach the delta, the delta's elevation level could be maintained above sea level.

But due to construction of dams, sediment flow is reduced to insignificant level.

As a result, the Cauvery delta is sinking and may collapse as a result of sea water invasion and increasing salinity.

The threat may become much more glaring due to climate change threat and the consequent sea-level rise.

All these problems are man-made and this can affect the livelihood security, food security, ecological and environmental security.

Eventually, already impoverished farmers are burdened and pushed to commit suicide.

Therefore, while it is important to talk about sharing of water between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, it is equally important to discuss and clean up these tributaries of the Cauvery river.
The Congress, out of power in UP for 27 years is making a big pitch to bounce back, on a cocktail of caste politics and promises of agriculture debt waiver worth Rs 49,000 crore and power rate reduction for farmers hit by high input costs and diminishing returns., reports Amit Agnihotri.

IMAGE: : Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi with children at the Acharya Narendra Dev Park during his Kisan Yatra in Faizabad. Photograph: PTI

Anxieties in the Congress party are mounting. Party president Sonia Gandhi has met no one, due to indisposition, for almost two weeks. More and more, issues are being referred to Rahul Gandhi and the expectation is that he will be made working president, leaving his mother a nominal president.

However, the younger Gandhis predisposition for putting in charge persons who are only of a certain age is unsettling party leaders, especially those who have enjoyed power for decades. There is also the question of access. The Congress knows it will have to invest a lot of energy and resources to improve its tally in the 2017 assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Manipur, even as it prepares for the bigger battle of the 2019 national election.

Down to a mere 44 seats in the Lok Sabha in the 2014 polls, from 206 in 2009, the party understands that its plan to revive the organisation across the states is closely linked to its performance in the next round of elections.

Uttar Pradesh

Under the circumstances, action has already begun in UP, the home state of the Gandhis, where the bets are high and the contest multi-cornered, with the ruling Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Bharatiya Janata Party in a tough contest. Rahul Gandhi has launched a foot march from Deoria in east UP to Delhi, aimed at mobilising the support of poor and of marginal farmers.

He ran a high-profile campaign ahead of the 2012 assembly polls in UP, but the Congress could bag only 28 seats in a house of 403. This was marginally up from 22 seats in the 2007 polls. The 2014 Lok Sabha result, in which only the two Gandhis could retain their seats in UP, were a shocker for them. The National Democratic Alliance had swept the polls with 73 of the 80 seats (including two of its Apna Dal allies); the SP had to be content with only five. And, the BSP failed to win even a single seat.

As a stronger and richer BJP eyes power in UP next year, the Congress is hoping to leave no stone unturned to reverse its fortunes in the politically crucial state. Before Rahuls kisan yatra, Sonia Gandhis road show in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modis parliamentary constituency, was an open challenge to the BJP.

Sonias road show was like a wake-up call for the SP, BSP and the BJP in UP. It had to be cut short because of her ill health, said party veteran Anil Shastri, who belongs to UP. We are doing exceedingly well in UP and Punjab. Rahul Gandhis padyatra has already started making waves and is unnerving the SP and BSP, he claimed.

The Congress has been out of power in UP for 27 years and is making a big pitch to bounce back, on a cocktail of caste politics and promises of agriculture debt waiver worth Rs 49,000 crore and power rate reduction for farmers hit by high input costs and diminishing returns.

Wooing

Branding the Centre as a suit-boot sarkar, Rahul has been constantly nailing the message among the voters that the central government provided a Rs 1,14,000 crore waiver to corporate houses while neglecting farmers. There are about 22 million farm households in UP and 75 per cent are in the marginal category. This segment has suffered the most due to successive droughts, say party leaders.

The party is also trying to woo the Brahmin, Dalit and Muslim electorate, who used to be its traditional vote bank. To attract Brahmins, it had announced the former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit as its CM face in UP, while Imran Masood, accused of inflaming communal passions before the 2014 Lok Sabha election, has been elevated as the partys state unit vice-president. There are about 10 per cent Brahmin and 20 per cent Muslim voters in UP.

Shastri stressed the need to strengthen the organisation in the states, saying professional help from strategist Prashant Kishor was being taken in UP and Punjab. This is a double-edged sword. Older Congressmen are irritated at having to take orders from someone who has never himself fought an election. They also see a sinister plot: Kishor, they argue, is (Bihar chief minister) Nitish Kumars right-hand man. He has a government position in Bihar, he lives in the CMs residence. He has a lot invested in Nitish Kumar -- and it is his projection, not Gandhis, that Kishor is committed to.

Other states

Punjab is another poll-bound state, where the Congress is trying hard to grab power from the Akali-BJP combine which has ruled for 10 years. The Congress is banking heavily on state unit chief Amarinder Singh, face of the party in the northern state. Amarinder is doing hard work on the ground. The Congress can provide a stable government. The people are angry with the Akali-BJP government, said the general secretary in charge of Punjab affairs, Asha Kumari.

Gujarat, which will go to assembly polls towards the end of 2017, also provides hope to the Congress, trying to regroup and capitalise on rifts within the ruling BJP. In Uttarakhand, Chief Minister Harish Rawat is trying to consolidate his position and curb dissent, while announcing a slew of welfare schemes to woo voters. Congress insiders said Rawat is confident of a return to power next year, in the wake of its win in the recent political-legal battle when the Centre had dismissed his government, citing a constitutional breakdown in the form of a blocked state budget. The brighter side of that episode was that Rawats rivals, Harak Singh Rawat and Vijay Bahuguna, left the party to join the BJP with seven other MLAs.

In Goa, the Congress is trying to address organisational gaps, even as it prepares to list the shortcomings of the BJP government under Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar.

And, having learnt lessons in Uttarakhand, the All India Congress Committee has started addressing the concerns of Manipurs dissenting lawmakers, who were demanding changes in the party. AICC General Secretary B K Hariprasad says the Congress will benefit in the assembly polls next year from the central governments poor performance over the past two years. Price rise is hitting them and there are no jobs, as the Make in India programme has not taken off, he said.

Yet

However, the overall sense of the average Congress worker is that the party is standing on sands that are shifting rapidly. Power equations within are changing; the leadership is undefined and opaque; the partys mass base is moving away. A call for all non-Congress parties to unite in a rainbow coalition that embraces leaders like Mamata Banerjee and Sharad Pawar cannot be ruled out. The question is what that will mean for the current leadership and who will be the one to give voice to the call.

-- With inputs from Virendra Singh Rawat in Lucknow
IMAGE: Security personnel with pellet guns stand guard during 66th day of restrictions and strike in Srinagar. Photograph: Umar Ganie/Rediff.com



Kashmir is staring at a subdued Eid-ul Azha festival on Tuesday in view of the ongoing shutdown sponsored by the separatists, which has been paralysing normal life in the Valley since July 9.

On the eve of one of the biggest festivals, the usual festivities that mark Eid were missing on Monday in the valley where markets wore a deserted look as normal life remain paralysed.

Though the separatists have been relaxing the strike in the evening hours of most of the days, groups of youth have been fanning out in different markets and forcing shutdown during the relaxation period in the past.

These activities of the youth prompted even hardline Hurriyat Conference to issue a statement, asking people to follow the protest programme in letter and spirit.

Hurriyat has taken a strong note of some youth compelling the shopkeepers for shutdown during the relaxation time. Hurriyat has clarified once again that this period is part of the programme and is meant to get the essential commodities ... whosoever violates the joint programme is not a well wisher, Hurriyat said.

The separatist groups, which have extended the strike call till September 16, have urged people to observe Eid with austerity.

Shops and business establishments remained closed during the day due to the strike called by separatists even though a fair number of private vehicles were plying on some roads, especially the city centre Lal Chowk and adjoining areas.

The massive footfall of customers at bakeries, sweets shops and garment stores, a usual sight on the festival eve, was missing with all these outlets closed.

One of the famous confectionery-cum-bakery on the upmarket Residency Road -- Modern Sweets -- stuck a poster outside its store reading: No bakery available on Eid.

Sale of sacrificial animals is going on at many places in the city but very less than normal.

Our sale is around 10 per cent of what it used to be on the eve of Eid-ul Azha. I do not think there is any chance of it picking up with less than 24 hours left for the festivities, said Altaf Ahmad, a livestock dealer.

The Jammu and Kashmir government has also ordered a shutdown of internet services of all telecom networks and also mobile communications except of state-run BSNL for the next 72 hours as a precautionary measure.

Separatists have given a call for a march to the local office of the United Nations Military Observers Group on Tuesday to seek implementation of the UN resolutions on Kashmir, which is likely to be scuttled by the government by putting in place strict security measures.

Normal life in Kashmir Valley has been badly affected since July 9, a day after Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter with security forces in south Kashmir.

As many as 76 persons, including two cops, have been killed and thousands others injured in clashes with security forces over the past 65 days.
With the recovery of more bodies, the death toll in a fire tragedy at a food and cigarette packaging factory in Bangladesh on Monday climbed to 33, while authorities called in the army to join the combing operation at the still-smouldering accident site.

Four more bodies were pulled out of the rubble of the four-storey Tampaco Foils Ltd factory in Tongi, just north of capital Dhaka, Gazipur district authorities said.

Fire at the factory was still not doused completely more than 48 hours after the tragedy struck ahead of Eid festival.

There were about 100 people inside the factory when the explosion occurred on Saturday, and most of them were to leave for a week-long holiday for the festival.

Twenty two teams of firefighters and army were engaged in search and rescue operations.

The death toll on Saturday stood at 25 and four bodies were retrieved on Sunday. Around 70 people were also injured.

The latest victims were yet to be identified.

The fire was initially thought to have been triggered by a powerful boiler explosion but officials later said they have found the factory tank intact fuelling speculation that a gas leak could be the reason behind the blast.

The father of one of the victims filed a case against the factorys owner and six others last night. Owner Mokbul Hossain has been named the prime accused, bdnews.com quoted officer-in-charge of Tongi Police Station Firoz Talukder as saying.

Some people were still believed to have been trapped under the debris of the partially collapsed structure, but theres little hope that they could be found alive, officials said.

The Dhaka Medical College and Hospital conducted autopsy on 25 bodies and handed them over to the relatives.

More than half of them died due to impact of the explosion while others were burnt to death, said DMCH Forensic Departments Assistant Professor Md Sohel Mahmud.

The labour ministry has announced Tk 200,000 (Rs 1.7 lakh) assistance to the families of those dead in the tragedy.

The blaze was the latest in a series of industrial accidents in Bangladesh, where low-cost manufacturing is the mainstay for millions of people.

At least 13 people died in a fire accident at a plastic factory in Dhaka last year. In 2012, 112 workers died in another such mishap at a factory just outside the capital.

The country suffered an even greater tragedy in 2013 when the Rana Plaza garment complex collapsed on the outskirts of Dhaka, killing 1,135 people.

Image: Firefighters stand at the site of a fire at a packaging factory outside Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photograph: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has been diagnosed with pneumonia after she fell ill during a ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York, forcing her to cancel a trip to California to attend fundraising events.

Clinton, 68, has been advised rest and to modify her schedule, as concerns over her health grew after she abruptly left the 9/11 commemoration ceremony at the memorial in Ground Zero in lower Manhattan on Sunday from feeling overheated.

Her doctor Lisa Bardack released a statement on Sunday saying the former Secretary of State has been experiencing a cough related to allergies.

During a follow-up evaluation of her prolonged cough, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. She was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule, Bardack said.

Bardack added that Clinton became overheated and dehydrated at the ceremony.

She is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely, Bardack said.

The Clinton campaign said a planned trip to California on Monday or Tuesday has been cancelled.

Secretary Clinton will not be traveling to California (Monday) or Tuesday, spokesman Nick Merrill said.

Merrill had indicated she had returned to her residence in Chappaqua north of New York City sometime after 1 pm, and was not seen publicly the rest of the day.

Clinton had been scheduled to spend two days in the state for fundraisers and the taping of an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Clinton abruptly left the 9/11 memorial where she had gone to pay respects to the victims of the 2001 terror attacks. Her campaign said she had felt overheated and was taken to her daughter Chelseas apartment in the city.

Temperatures were in the high 70s F (over 21C) in New York, and humidity was also high.

During the ceremony, she felt overheated so departed to go to her daughters apartment, and is feeling much better, Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill had said in a statement.

However, a video posted on Twitter by a person who was at the memorial showed Clinton, surrounded by her staff and Secret Service agents, stumble and her legs buckle as she tried to get into her car. Two Secret Service agents then held on to her arms and helped her get into the car.

The footage shows that she could not get into the vehicle on her own and was hoisted into the car by the Secret Service agents.

Later Clinton, coming out of her daughters apartment, waved and smiled to the people waiting outside. Asked by reporters waiting outside if shes feeling better, Clinton wearing trousers and coat, replied, Yes. Thank you very much, as she smiled and waved and got into her car.

Clinton and her Republican rival Donald Trump had arrived separately at the 9/11 memorial in downtown Manhattan.

The Clinton campaign has been refuting allegations that her health is failing and has criticised Republican rival Donald Trump for parroting lies based on fabricated documents.

Trump had said at an election rally that Clinton lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS.

Earlier this month, Clintons opponents latched on to a coughing fit she had on a campaign trail to undermine her ability to lead the country.

Clinton was afflicted by an uncontrollable cough for several minutes which forced her to stop speaking during a rally in Cleveland. She had to take cough drops and drank water while the audience waited for her to recover.

IMAGE: US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton arrives for the ceremony to mark 15th anniversary of 9/11 attacks, in New York. Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters
Boding trouble for comedian Kapil Sharma, who kicked up a row through his bribe tweet, the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena on Monday filed a complaint against the artist for keeping mum on his allegation that he was asked money by the civic officials, and violation of building norms by him.

Sharma had kicked up a controversy last week by alleging that he had been asked to pay a bribe of Rs 5 lakh by an official of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation which, in turn, claimed that the actor had flouted norms not only in his Versova office building but also at his apartment in suburban Goregaon.

MNS group leader in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, Sandeep Deshpande on Monday filed the complaint against Sharma at Versova police station. He demanded that the complaint be turned into an FIR and an investigation be ordered into the matter.

Yes, I filed a complaint with Versova police through my advocate against the comedian under the section 176 of IPC as he kept mum on the alleged bribery issue and did not file a complaint nor brought this to the notice of the concerned authorities, Deshpande said.

A copy of the complaint, filed by Deshpandes lawyer, mentions that since BMC officials are public servants under section 21 of the Indian Penal Code, and if they have demanded bribe, it amounts to an offence under section 39 of CrPc.

Also, it is a duty of a person to lodge a complaint against that public servant with the concerned authority, and if he fails to perform his duties as per section 176, it amounts to an offence, the complaint further says.

In this case, Sharma did not act as a responsible citizen and failed to live up to his duty. Therefore, I have demanded the police officials to go into the merits of my complaint, convert it into an FIR and call him for further investigation, Deshpande said.

Besides, MNS general secretary Shalini Thackeray on Monday visited the tehsildar office in suburban Andheri along with her supporters and demanded officials concerned to register an FIR against Sharma for allegedly destroying the mangroves.

We have filed complaints against the comedian with tehsildar as well as with Versove police station to investigate the matter thoroughly. This is really very unfortunate that celebrities are given special treatment and they often take law into their own hands, Thackeray said.

Owing to our persistent demands, the concerned officials are going to do panchnama and forward their report to Versova police. We are going to take up this issue up to its logical end, she added.

The MNS had also last week reacted sharply to Sharma, seizing on a statement he reportedly made alluding to role of its workers.

The opposition Congress had used the issue to target BJP and Shiv Sena, who together control BMC.

However, the Shiv Sena had dared Kapil to name the bribe seeker.

BJP MLA Ram Kadam had earlier lodged a complaint with the cyber cell of Mumbai police and demanded to forward it to the Anti-Corruption Bureau to investigate into Sharmas allegations.

Kapil had on Friday tweeted his anguish and said, I am paying Rs 15 crore income tax from last 5 year and still I have to pay Rs 5 lakh bribe to BMC office for making my office @narendramodi (sic).

Yeh hain aapke achhe din? @narendramodi (are these your good days), he had sought to know in another tweet, referring to Modis 2014 poll slogan of good days are ahead.

Sharma has 63 lakh followers on his Twitter handle and since he tagged the Prime Minister, the tweet generated sharp reactions from all major political parties, with an eye on the forthcoming civic elections.

It also sparked an instant response from Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who requested Sharma to provide the authorities with necessary information to punish the culprit.

Later, in an apparent attempt to cap the controversy from escalating, Sharma said he did not seek to blame any political party.
Pakistan and Russia are set to hold their first-ever joint military exercises later this year, media reported on Monday, reflecting increased military cooperation between the two former Cold War rivals.

Around 200 military personnel from the two sides would take part in the joint military exercises, The Express Tribune quoted a senior Pakistani official as saying.

The move comes amidst increasing defence ties between Moscow and Islamabad as the latter was also thinking to buy advanced Russian warplanes.

Pakistans Ambassador to Moscow Qazi Khalilullah told the newspaper that this is the first time that military personnel from the two countries would be taking part in joint military drills called Friendship-2016.

He, however, did not divulge further details about the nature of the exercises or dates.

The development, Khalilullah said, reflected increased cooperation between the two countries.

This obviously indicates a desire on both sides to broaden defence and military-technical cooperation, he told a Russian news agency last week.

The joint military drill is seen as another step in growing military-to-military cooperation, indicating a steady growth in bilateral relationship between the two countries, whose ties had been marred by Cold War rivalry for decades, the paper said.

Islamabad decided to broaden its foreign policy options after its relations with the US deteriorated after secret Central Investigation Agency raid in Abbottabad killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in May 2011.

Pakistans relations with the US were soured recently when US lawmakers blocked funds for the sale of eight Lockheed Martin Corporations F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan.

Pakistan decided to look at alternative sources to purchase the aircraft including from Jordan.

Over the last 15 months, the chiefs of Pakistans Army, navy and air force travelled to Russia. The flurry of high-level exchanges between the two nations resulted in the signing of a deal for the sale of four MI-35 attack helicopters to Islamabad.

The formal agreement, which was signed in Moscow in August 2015, was considered a major policy shift on part of Russia in the wake of growing strategic partnership between the US and India.

Islamabad is eager to improve its ties with Moscow to diversify its options in the event of any stalemate in ties with Washington, The Express Tribune said.

After securing a deal of MI-35 helicopters, Pakistan is also exploring options to buy Su-35 fighter jets from Russia, it said.

For this purpose, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman visited Moscow in July.

The Pakistani ambassador said the PAF chief held fruitful discussions with Russian authorities but would not provide further details of new military purchases, including the multirole, air superiority fighter Sukhoi Su-35.
Sanctioning Pakistan or declaring it a state sponsor of terrorism could backfire, the United States lawmakers were warned at a congressional hearing.

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on US-Pakistan relations and had a lively debate on the issue whose transcript was released on Sunday.

Senator Bob Corker, the committees chairman in his opening statement expressed frustration with Pakistan's alleged lack of cooperation in defeating terrorist groups still active in neighbouring Afghanistan.

In order to make Pakistan cooperate, Senator Corker, a Republican, and Senator Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the committee asked the witnesses to explain what measures US policymakers could take.

In order to justify major policy shifts like eliminating aid, labelling Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism or enacting sanctions, US policymakers should be able to explain how such actions would make America's strategic predicament better, the Dawn quoted one of the witnesses Prof Daniel Markey of the Johns Hopkins University as saying.

He added that Islamabad would need to consider the possibility that coercion could backfire, raising tensions and making Islamabad less willing or able to advance any constructive agenda.

He was of the opinion that the next US president could take a far more coercive approach with Pakistan than the outgoing president Barack Obama.

Meanwhile, Toby Dalton, a co-director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said there was a vast difference between what the US should and could do.

Ideally, the United States and others should seek ways to convince Pakistan to flatten the growth curve of its nuclear programme. The honest assessment is, however, that since Pakistan embarked on a nuclear weapons programme, very little the US has tried, whether sanctions or inducements, has had an appreciable impact, he said.

Recalling that this May, the Senate put a hold on allowing Pakistan to use US funds for buying F-16 aircraft, which I think is appropriate said Senator Corker.

The senator claimed that the Afghan militant Haqqani networks leaders had been living in Pakistan and the Pakistani government knew where they lived but would not cooperate with US efforts to eliminate them.

While noting that banning Pakistan from using US funds to buy F-16s was very complicated, senator Cardin said that Islamabad was a strategic partner in the war against terrorism but the US still had major concerns about that relationship, as they seem to be very selective in fighting terrorism.

Senator Perdue meanwhile, said that of $19 billion (Rs 1,27,300 crore) provided to Pakistan since September 11, 2001, only $8 billion (Rs 53,600 crore) were actually for security efforts, while $11billion (Rs 73,700 crore) were for humanitarian purposes.

Prof Markey said US assistance to Pakistan should be divided into three categories.

Category one, things where they want and we want. Category two, we and they want similar things but they want to do it differently than we think is right. Category three, areas where we want to tell them what we think they should do and we believe they are not doing, he said.

Image used for representation only.
One person was killed and another injured in police firing in Karnataka as the Cauvery water sharing row with Tamil Nadu turned violent on Monday, escalating tensions between the two states.

IMAGE: Men ride a motorcycle past a lorry in Bengaluru, which was set on fire by protesters. Photograph: Abhishek N Chinnappa/Reuters

Widespread violence erupted on Monday in Bengaluru and some other parts of Karnataka, while sporadic trouble was witnessed in Tamil Nadu following Supreme Court's modified order on sharing Cauvery water by the two riparian states.

Police opened fire when a mob tried to attack a patrol vehicle at Hegganahalli in Rajagopal Nagar police limits as violence flared up in Bengaluru city with rampaging mobs setting fire to buses and trucks with Tamil Nadu registration plates.

"Two were brought with bullet injuries. One with bullet injury near the heart has died. The other is being operated for injury on right thigh," Dr. Giridhar, Managing Director of Lakshmi Multi-Speciality Hospital, where they were taken told PTI on Monday night.

IMAGE: Tamil Nadu bound buses in flames after they were torched by pro-Kannada activists during a protest over Cauvery water row, in Bengaluru on Monday. Photograph: PTI

Soon after the apex court gave its amended order, directing Karnataka to release 12000 cusecs of water daily to Tamil Nadu till September 20, violence and arson flared up in Bengaluru, with rampaging mobs setting afire at least 30 vehicles bearing Tamil Nadu number plates.

As violence broke out sending a wave of panic across Bengaluru, the city was brought under prohibitory orders till September 14.

A prominent transport company depot in the city bore the brunt with at least 30 buses going up in flames.

IMAGE: Protesters angry over the Cauvery water row, burn a tree trunk in the middle of a street in Mandya district on Monday. Photograph: PTI

Managing Director of Salem headquartered KPN Tours and Travels Limited Rajesh Natarajan claimed in Chennai 40 of his buses were set on fire.

Incidents of arson came even as police said they have made elaborate security arrangements with 15,000 policemen being deployed, bolstered by Karnataka State Reserve Police, City Armed Reserve Police, Rapid Action Force, Quick Reaction Teams, special forces, Central Industrial Security Force and Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force.

In view of the deteriorating situation, the Centre rushed 10 companies (about 1,000 personnel) of the special anti-riot paramilitary force RAF to Karnataka.

IMAGE: Tamil Nadu bound buses engulfed in flames after they were torched by pro-Kannada activists during a protest over Cauvery water row, in Bengaluru on Monday. Photograph: PTI

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh also called up chief ministers of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on Monday and assured them all central assistance in handling the law and order situation.

After Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah spoke to Singh, an official statement issued in Bengaluru described the situation as "fully under control".

The Union home minister responded "positively" to the request for aditional central forces, it said.

IMAGE: Kannada people holding a protest over Cauvery water row, near KRS dam in Mandya district on Monday. Photograph: PTI

Describing the violence in Karnataka as alarming, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa wrote to Siddaramaiah, seeking protection for Tamil speaking people and their property, hours after he had made a similar plea to her.

Jayalalithaa assured Siddaramaiah that safety of people from Karnataka will be ensured in Tamil Nadu.

Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara said government did not expect the protest to go to this extent.

"We expected that if the decision goes against us, there will be some protest, but definitely not to this extent."

He said 200 people been detained in connection with the violence.

He said forces have been deployed at sensitive points, particularly where Tamil population and establishments are located.

IMAGE: Firefighters trying to douse a fire in Tamil Nadu bound buses after they were torched by pro-Kannada activists during a protest over Cauvery water row, in Bengaluru on Monday. Photograph: PTI

Trucks with Tamil Nadu registration number plate were either stoned or set on fire also in Mandya, Mysuru, Chitradurga and Dharwad districts as Kannada activists gave vent to their anger over attacks on state vehicles and property of Kannadigas in the neighbouring state and also against the apex court'S modified order.

The Supreme Court, modifying its September 5 order, on Monday asked Karnataka to release a reduced amount of 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery River water to Tamil Nadu till September 20.

In its September five order, the apex court had directed release of 15,000 cusecs for 10 days to ameliorate the plight of farmers of the neighbouring state, which had triggered strong protests from farmers and pro-Kannada outfits with Karnataka observing a bandh against it on September nine.

IMAGE: Several buses were set ablaze to protest the Supreme Court's order. Photograph: Abhishek N Chinnappa/Reuters

Parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry too saw protests by fringe outfits, with some commercial and government establishments of Karnataka coming under attack, in an apparent retaliation for happenings in Karnataka.

As the Centre rushed 10 companies (about 1,000 personnel) of the special anti-riot paramilitary force RAF to Karnataka, officials said, if need arises, some of these personnel will also be deployed in Tamil Nadu.

IMAGE: A Tamil organisation activists vandalise a bus from Karnataka as they protest over Cauvery water row, in Rameshwaram. Photograph: PTI

In Delhi, the Cauvery Supervisory Committee also met but failed to arrive at a decision on quantum of water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states pursuant to the Supreme Court order and decided to meet again on September 19.

Earlier, voicing concern over violence against Kannada speaking people and their properties in Tamil Nadu over the past two days, Siddaramaiah wrote to Jayalalithaa to ensure adequate safety and protection to Kannada speaking people in Tamil Nadu.

"You would agree that the incidents of violence against Kannada speaking people that are being reported from Tamil Nadu would incite passions threatening peace in our state, which all of us should prevent," Siddaramiah said.

Siddaramaiah said his government was firmly committed to maintaining law and order in the state and had taken "utmost" precaution to ensure the safety and security of all citizens, particularly Tamil speaking people, in the state.

IMAGE: Tamil organisation activists vandalise vehicles from Karnataka as they protest over Cauvery water row. Photograph: PTI

Meanwhile, Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan expressed concern over the "attacks on Tamils" in Karnataka and put the onus of ensuring their safety on the ruling Congress.

In Bengaluru, as reports of arson and vandalism spread, office goers rushed back home, with many companies calling off work as a precautionary step and schools and colleges declaring holiday. The sudden rush caused traffic gridlocks in several parts.

The Metro, on which lakhs of commuters depend, also temporarily suspended its services.

Activists of disparate pro-Kannada outfits took control of streets in several areas and engaged in stone throwing and arson, targeting buses and trucks.

IMAGE: Activists from Karnataka burn the effigy of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J Jayalalitha after Supreme Court ordered to release Cauvery water at Chikmagalur in Karnataka on Monday. Photograph: PTI

Two Chennai-based hotels and mobile shops were attacked and vandalised in Bengaluru.

Schools and Colleges in Mandya, the epicentre of Cauvery protests schools and colleges have declared holiday till 14 September as a precautionary measure.

In Mandya district, two trucks were set ablaze and the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway was blocked.

IMAGE: Police personnel detain pro-Kannada activists during their violent protest over Cauvery water row, in Bengaluru on Monday. Photograph: PTI

Police made a lathicharge to disperse a violent mob, which tried to loot some shops. Several vehicles with Tamil Nadu registration number plates were damaged on the highway, police said.

In parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, protests by fringe Tamil outfits erupted with some commercial and government establishments of Karnataka coming under attack.

The protests came a day after a video purportedly showing a 22-year-old Tamil youth being beaten up by a group of men in Bengaluru for alleged "derogatory" remarks on social media against Kannada film actors went viral.

IMAGE: Additional security have deployed in the entire city in wake of protests . Photograph: ANI/Twitter

Outfits such as Naam Tamizhar Katchi and Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi hit the streets protesting the ongoing agitations in Karnataka opposing release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, police said.

A popular restaurant in Chennai and tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration plates in Rameswaram were vandalised, while protesters created a ruckus at a Karnataka Bank branch in neighbouring Union Territory of Puducherry, police said.
We're not responsible for his release, says JD-U after BJP's attack.

The convoy of former Rashtriya Janata Dal member of Parliament Mohammad Shahabuddin, which was en route to Siwan, crossed a toll plaza at Muzaffarpur without paying the charges.

The cavalcade of the gangster-turned-politician had started from Bhagalpur to reach Siwan, as the Patna high court has granted him bail in the much-publicised Rajiv Raushan murder case.

The entire incident was captured by the cameras installed at the toll plaza.

Muzaffarpur toll plaza Assistant Manager Dipak Chaube said they had police orders to let more than 200 cars in Shahabuddin's convoy pass without toll.

According to the rule they would have paid the toll. But if there is a VIP moment then we allow the cars to pass. Had police orders to let more than 200 cars in ex-MP Shahabuddin's convoy pass without toll. The convoy included many red beacon cars and many from the administration, he said.

The Patna high court granted bail to the tainted leader in the controversial Rajiv Roshan case.

Meanwhile, the ruling Janata Dal-United said on Monday that the Bihar government is not responsible for the former RJD MPs release from jail.

The court had sent him to jail and given him life imprisonment. He was released with the courts order itself. The Bihar government is not responsible for this, JD-U leader K C Tyagi said.

Resonating similar sentiments, another JD-U leader Sanjay Singh said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has always been a leader and would remain so.

No one can taint his image. Nitish Kumar has become a subject of discussion for his works. He has proved that he is the leader of Bihar by bringing the state back to track, he said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has continued to maintain that the development is an indication that jungle raj is back in Bihar and Nitish Kumar can do nothing, but be a mute spectator.

Emphasising that Nitish has no control over the current situation with Shahabuddin not even considering him as a chief minister, BJP leader Nalin Kohli said that its a matter of confirmation that gunda raj and jungle raj' has returned to Bihar and Nitish Kumar is willing to be a mute spectator to what the people are suffering.

However, Nitish on Sunday gave a terse response to Shahabuddins comments saying that he came to power only from the mandate of the public of Bihar and that he could not care less about what others said about it.

Shortly after getting released, Shahabuddin said My leader is Lalu Yadav, and dismissed Nitish Kumar as a chief minister of circumstance.

He had been sent to jail in November 2005 in connection with the murder of Rajiv Ranjan, a prime witness in the murder of his two brothers Girish Raj and Satish Raj. The brothers had been murdered in Siwan in August 2004.

IMAGE: Mohammad Shahabuddin being greeted by supporters after being released on bail after 12 years of imprisonment. Photograph: PTI Photo
Security forces gunned down one more terrorist in Poonch district, taking the total number of ultras killed in the operation, which is still underway, to four.

"One more militant has been eliminated. With this, the number of total militants killed in the encounter since yesterday (Sunday) has gone up to four," a Defence spokesman said on Monday.

Three terrorists and a policeman were on Sunday killed and six others, including a police officer, were injured in twin encounters between security forces and four terrorists in Poonch town.The cop was cremated on Monday in Poonch town.

Inspector General Johny Willian, who is in-charge of Rajouri-Poonch range, said the body of one more terrorist has been recovered from a house where one ultra was killed on Sunday.

Firing is going on in the under-construction Mini Secretariat and the operation is on, he said.

Security forces were engaged in day-long twin encounters with four terrorists holed up at two places near the under-construction Mini Secretariat in Poonch town since Sunday morning.

The fire fight broke out near the Mini Secretariat building close to Armys 93 Brigade headquarters, Poonch district and a house in Allahpir Mohalla in the town around 7.30 am on Sunday.

Four militants are involved in the two encounters at two different locations, Director General of Police Rajendra Kumar had said.

A civilian couple was safely evacuated from the house in which the terrorists had taken shelter on Sunday evening, police said.

The authorities had used drones to track down the terrorists in the Mini Secretariat complex and other places.

IMAGE: A security person takes position near a building where terrorists were hiding during an encounter near the under construction mini-secretariat at Allah Pir area in Poonch.Photograph: PTI Photo
Satish, Girish, and Rajiv Roshan were allegedly murdered by Mohammed Shahabuddin's henchmen.

Their parents are thankful that Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan will challenge the former RJD MP's bail order.

M I Khan reports from Patna.

IMAGE: Chandrakeshwar Prasad and his wife Kalavati Devi live in fear for their lives after Mohammed Shahabuddin was released from jail on September 10. Photograph: M I Khan

On Saturday, September 10, Chandrakeshwar Prasad and his wife Kalavati Devi lost hope when former Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Mohammed Shahabuddin was freed from prison after being granted bail by the Patna high court.

Babu's three sons -- Satish, Girish and Rajiv Roshan -- were allegedly murdered by Shahabuddin's henchmen.

Satish and Girish were kidnapped and murdered on August 16, 2004 in Siwan, the north Bihar district which is Shahabuddin's power base. The brothers were drenched in acid before being killed.

Rajiv Roshan, an eyewitness to the crimes, was killed in 2014 before he could depose in court.

Prasad, 70, and his ailing wife, who live in a small hovel in Siwan, said they do not have the resources to challenge Shahabuddin's release in the Supreme Court.

"We can only pray to God for justice as we have nothing left," he said.

Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan has now decided to challenge Shahabuddin's release in the apex court.

On September 11, Bhushan tweeted, 'Shameful that high court granted bail to notorious gangster/politico (RJD) Shahabuddin. Have agreed to seek cancellation of Bail in SC on victim's behalf.'

"At last, someone like Prashant Bhushan has emerged to challenge Shahabuddin's release," Prasad said. "We are thankful to him."

"I have not met him, but hope to one day meet him and personally thank him for this brave step," the grief-stricken father added.

His ailing wife Kalavati said they fear for their lives. "Our neighbours have left us. We have been abandoned by our own people," she said.

The couple, who live in poverty with a disabled son, said not a single leader from any political party has supported them in their fight for justice.



"When Shahabuddin was released from jail," Prasad pointed out, "thousands waited for him as he was a hero. It is a paradoxical situation in society."
Jyoti Vyas was seven months pregnant when two planes flew into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. She ran down 77 flights of stairs and 15 years later, she remembers how she survived the tragedy almost unscathed.

George Joseph listens in.

When their first child was born two months after 9/11, Jyoti and Jaldhar Vyas of New Jersey named her Shailaja. It is another name of Parvathy, daughter of Himavan. Our Shailaja too survived from the heights of tragedy, Jaldhar, an IT consultant, told Rediff.com.

Jyoti was seven months pregnant when the World Trade Center was attacked. She was on the 78th floor of Tower-2, working at Baseline Financial Services. When the first plane hit Tower-1, Jyoti wanted to immediately call Jaldhar. Since she did not know how to make a call from the receptionists phone there, she went down to the 77th floor, which was also part of the office.

It saved her. The second plane hit the 78th floor and four of her colleagues who were there perished, Jaldhar said.

She called him and told him about the attack. Then there was no message or information for almost four hours.

I felt (I was) going through hell those four hours. There was nobody to call, no one to help. People kept on calling to know about Jyoti. I had no word of her, Jaldhar remembers.

Jyoti was at the elevators, trying to get out. But in the mad rush, and in her pregnant state, she could not squeeze in. When the second plane hit, people in the office ducked under tables. She was unable to do that too.

As debris began to fall, somebody grabbed her hand and ran for the stairs. Through smoke and slippery stairs, they ran down 77 flights. It seemed to be ages before they arrived at the lobby.

Jyoti was breathless and could not feel the movement of her baby. When she told a rescue worker that she was pregnant and could not feel her baby, she was rushed to the hospital. An ultrasound scan proved that everything was alright with the baby. She heard the heartbeats of her child and calls it the most beautiful sound she had ever heard.

Jyoti then called Jaldhar, who was crying in terror. But he couldnt get to the hospital as there was a virtual curfew and no vehicles were moving about. The next day a police van brought Jyoti back home.

Jyoti and Jaldhar never sought any compensation. They were thankful that they escaped the tragedy unscathed.

Their story, in their own words:

"I cannot believe its been 15 years since the terrorist attacks on September 2001. It is still as real as it was on that day for me. It is always difficult around this time of year when I reflect on what happened on that day.

One of the most vivid reminders for me was when I visited the 9/11 memorial with my family. I put off going to see it for a long time because I was not sure if I could handle it. So, it was not until Christmas 2014 when we finally went. It was a surreal experience, especially for my daughter Shailaja and me.

Shailaja noticed a photo of me displayed on a big screen among other survivors. It had been taken by a New York Post photographer as I came out of the building assisted by a colleague and New York Police Department officer, Ramon Suarez, who went back in to assist others and died when the tower collapsed.

I was visibly pregnant, covered in dust and obviously in distress. However, I was alive, without any scratches and bruises. I feel incredibly lucky and blessed to be alive after coming so close to death. I am thankful for my daughter who will turn 15 this year and I am also blessed to have a son Nilagriva, who was born 3 years later."

-- Jyoti Vyas

"On 9/11 all I could do was watch helplessly on television as the twin towers fell. Not knowing whether my wife and unborn daughter were alive or dead. Thanks to Jyotis bravery I was spared the grief that so many others had to face that day. The first responders and our troops are also heroes and in comparison to them I am just a bystander.

They say time heals all wounds and today I do not feel the pain as vividly as I did then. Unfortunately, 15 years later, in places like Mumbai, Paris, London, Jerusalem and Syria there are still times when people have to worry whether their loved ones are alive or mourn their deaths. Let us not forget the victims and survivors of 9/11 and honour their memories by ending terrorism once and for all."

-- Jaldhar Vyas

"If I am being honest, no one ever really asks me about my opinions about 9/11. They mostly want to hear my moms side of the story and I suppose I havent really had an opinion until about two years ago.

In 2014 my family took a trip to the 9/11 memorial and it definitely changed my perspective. I felt infinitely more grateful to be alive. I see my mom as a survivor who did what she had to do to protect her family. Its hard for me to think of her as some kind of hero, but I only hope that if I am ever in a tough situation like that I can be as courageous as she was."

-- Shailaja Vyas
The church bells don't toll in Churachandpur any more.

The hill district in Manipur has been in mourning for more than a year.

Nitin Sethi reports on the nine dead, the three Bills and a state singed by clashes over identity and territory.

The youngest of the nine boys was 10. Now they are all dead, lying next to each other. Unburied. For more than a year.

Their bodies are kept inside the refrigerator that was recently installed in the bare-bone morgue at the back of the district hospital.

Over two days, six of them were shot dead by the police. Three died of burns and injuries.

Just outside the morgue, nine symbolic empty coffins serve as a shrine to the dead. Many people from the town, besides members of the bereaved families, gather every day around it, all day and late into the night.

To protest, pray, keep vigil, express solidarity and mourn. Protest and praying points, posters and reminders dot the rest of the town too.

This town in mourning is Churachandpur, a small valley and the headquarter of the southern hill district, also called Churachandpur in Manipur.

It is home to the Kuki-Zomi tribal people. The tribe, predominantly Christian, usually call the town by its old name, Lamka.

On August 31 last year, a young and angry mob burned down the homes of five local MLAs -- one of them a senior minister in the state. They claimed the politicians had not protected their interests when the state assembly passed three Bills.

"A friend of Paulianmang came over and told that the MLA's house in our locality had been torched. He went out to see. Messages on the local WhatsApp group poured in. Someone had been shot down by the police. I came to know it was my son," says Ngaikhanching, his mother, a widow.

Paulianmang was 22. He worked part-time at a nearby school to pay for his siblings' education. He was the first to die.

The WhatsApp message spread like wild fire across Lamka.

Next day, people came out in large numbers to take part in unarmed protests. By the end, nine were dead.

People refused to bury their dead in anger. Lamka turned into a mass of protest.

"For me, justice will be served when the three Bills are taken back and those who killed my son are given befitting punishment," says Ngaikhanching.

All the bereaved, gathered at the morgue have similar demands: either Sixth Schedule status for the hill district under the Constitution or withdrawal of the three Bills or exclusion of Churachandpur from their purview. And, justice.

Geographically, about 10 per cent of Manipur is a valley, traditionally home to the Meitei community. The other 90 per cent -- the hills -- are home to tribes from the Naga and the Kuki-Zomi groups.

Churachandpur is home to the Kuki-Zomi people who also inhabit areas in Myanmar and Mizoram.

A porous hill region, historically open to fluid migration of tribes, Manipur has seen its people struggle since it got fenced by freshly minted political boundaries, first by the British and then by the State of India.

As a result, strong currents of identity-centric sub-nationalism and insurgent movements have kept the state on the edge. The impunity provided to the state's armed forces and the manoeuvres of the political class and intelligence agencies to manage India's 'frontier,' coupled with the racism people from the region face in the mainland, have left generations alienated from India.

This, even as the support for insurgent groups has relatively dwindled, fuelled by degradation of the insurgencies' ideological base and rising aspirations of the new generation for peace and opportunities amid a fallow economy.

The hills, especially devoid of development over decades, blame both the Centre and the valley (which today dominates the electoral-democracy system) for its neglect, and seek political separation to different degrees.

The valley, surrounded by the hills, feels it is under a siege and wants to retain Manipur's political integrity.

The Meitei community has seen fertile paddy fields slowly turn into a dusty and congested semi-urban landscape.

As the agrarian economy withers away, job alternatives for the new generation continue to be the fast-saturating government employment and state patronage.

The influx of even more marginalised tribals down into the valley, gaining slowly from the scheduled tribe status they enjoy, miffs the people in the valley; the Meitei people are not allowed to buy land in the hills under a special Constitutional provision.

The Meitei, a majority of whom converted to Vaishnav Hinduism in the 17th century, enjoy scheduled tribe status

Against this backdrop, state Chief Minister Ibobi Singh, pressured by the agitation in the valley that also left one child dead, got three Bills passed in the state assembly. The valley had demanded protection against migrants.

"The three Bills were drawn without consultations with us in the hills. In the name of checking migrant influx from the plains, they target the tribal people and their lands," says Mangchinkhup, chief convener of the Joint Action Committee, the main civil society group spearheading the protest in Churachandpur.

One of the Bills set the definition for Manipur domicile: 'Persons of Manipur whose names are in the National Register of Citizens, 1951, Census Report 1951 and Village Directory of 1951 and their descendants who have contributed to the collective social, cultural and economic life of Manipur.'

"We all know back in 1951 what the level of literacy in the tribal hills was. Who kept the registers then? And, what does it mean to have contributed to the social and cultural life of Manipur? This will leave out many of us tribals," says an agitated Mangchinkhup.

He points to another law that, in his view, loosens the regime restricting the Meitei in the valley from buying lands in the hills. "The valley people are also trying to equate themselves with us hill tribals through the three laws and consequently seek the scheduled caste status," he says.

"It is about our identity, our territory. All we have is our land. There cannot be any compromise," says Muamuan Zomi, the 23 year old who turned leader after he, along with some others, dedicated his nights to keep the bodies from rotting -- constantly ensuring fresh ice slabs with bottle gourds to kill the stench -- till the local administration got a refrigerator for the morgue. He now heads the youth group, All Tribal Movement of Lamka.

Pradip Phanjoubham, editor of the Imphal Free Press newspaper, believes the chief minister, also a Meitei, likely thought the troublesome bits of the three bills would eventually be blocked by the governor and he could later claim that he had done his bit.

He recognises the desire of the Meitei to also seek scheduled tribe status as the Naga outfit NSCN-IM comes closer to a pact with the Government of India.

If this was the intention of the government, the cynical move backfired, as the hills took to agitation.

The governor referred the three Bills to the President, who has to now act on the advice of the Union government. Of course, the Bharatiya Janata Party wouldn't mind finding a solution that also helps tip out the Congress government in the state -- like in Arunachal Pradesh. The Bills have been pending with the President while the dead bodies lie in the morgue.

"This is not just about the Bills. It is also a movement against our own corrupt tribal political leadership. For the first time, Churachandpur has witnessed youth groups, women groups and other civil society all rise up -- without taking up arms. It has also united the hill tribes," says Benjamin Vualnam. He came back from Mumbai after his post graduation and is now part of the 'movement.'

Mobilisation, gatherings, prayers, protest and late night congregations continue across Lamka. Alongside, money is being collected by people to themselves build a 14-km highway stretch connecting Churachandpur to Mizoram and Myanmar -- an artery that shall leave the hills less dependent on supplies from the Imphal valley.

"One doesn't know how this will resolve, but one thing is certain after this people's movement, Churachandpur will not be the same again," says a senior priest who does not want to be named.

All churches, cutting across denominations, put their bells on silence to mourn the dead. But the unity between the tribes of Churachandpur is fragile and has been tested in the past few months.

Phanjoubham acknowledges some parallels to the recent reservation-centred troubles in Gujarat and Haryana -- an aspirational new generation of a historically dominant community feeling marginalised in the changing economic-scape. Social upheaval of a similar kind is palpable in Manipur as well.

IMAGE: Sahid Minar in Imphal, the capital of Manipur. Photograph: Kind courtesy, Beejen/Creative Commons. Kindly note: Image published only for representational purposes.
Disclaimer

This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.
DRC: UN mission extracts hundreds from national park on humanitarian grounds

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 11 September 2016 Cite as UN News Service, DRC: UN mission extracts hundreds from national park on humanitarian grounds, 11 September 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57d68de640e.html [accessed 30 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

11 September 2016 - Acting on humanitarian grounds and at the request of the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations mission in the country has extracted hundreds of individuals, including the former Vice-President of South Sudan, Riek Machar, members of his family and aides, as well as a number civilians from a national park in the DRC.

In a news release issued yesterday, UN Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) said that many of those extracted were wounded, acutely malnourished or in other life-threatening conditions.

Detailing the extractions undertaken at the Garamba National Park, located in the Haut Uele province in north-eastern DRC, the Mission noted that Mr. Machar along with his wife, son and 10 aides were extracted on 17 August; 291 individuals extracted between 24 August and 1 September; 62 individuals in critical medical condition on 9 September; and an additional 116 in similar conditions on 10 September.

In total, MONUSCO said that it has handed over 117 individuals, including Mr. Machar, his wife and son to the DRC authorities and that weapons were removed from all those who were transported by the mission.

It added that as of 8 September, some 183 individuals are in MONUSCO-run facilities in two locations, where security arrangements are in place. It further added that those injured or in need of medial care are receiving treatment or are recovering at UN facilities.

According the Mission, Mr. Machar had crossed into the DRC from South Sudan, accompanied by wife and son, and by several hundred others, including armed elements and civilians.

In the news release, the Mission also said that it is keeping the DRC authorities fully informed and UN Headquarters is engaging with both the DRC and South Sudan authorities, as well as regional actors, to encourage them to find a solution to the presence of South Sudanese armed elements in the territory of the DRC.
UN expert calls on Ukraine to step up its efforts to protect the rights of the internally displaced

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 9 September 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN expert calls on Ukraine to step up its efforts to protect the rights of the internally displaced, 9 September 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57d68e2240c.html [accessed 30 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

9 September 2016 - At the conclusion of an official visit to Ukraine, a United Nations human rights expert has called on the Government to step up its response to prevent and address internal displacement and to provide durable solutions to the persons already displaced.

"I urge the Government to intensify its efforts to protect the rights of IDPs from the conflict affected east of the country and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea," said the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, Chaloka Beyani, in a news release issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

According to the news release, Ukraine is among the countries with the highest number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world, and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes due to the ongoing conflict since April 2014.

The release further noted that during his visit, Mr. Beyani commended the Ukrainian Government for its continued efforts to address the IDPs' situation, including the adoption of a new law on internal displacement and the establishment of a ministry to deal directly with the issue.

However, he also noted the challenges affecting IDPs' welfare, including a system of payment of pensions and social benefits, which is based on verification of the place where they reside.

In particular, the Special Rapporteur emphasised: "Payment of pensions and social benefits must be delinked from registration, as this has led to problems in the verification of the residence of IDPs resulting in a suspension of such payments affecting some 500,000 to 600,000 IDPs in eastern Ukraine and this needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency."

Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Chaloka Beyani. UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferre

"Internally displaced persons should be able to receive their pensions and social payments wherever they are in the country," he stressed, warning that the combined effect of the registration system and the suspension of payments is causing secondary displacement as well as unsafe spontaneous returns.

In the release, the UN rights expert also underscored that in the areas controlled by the Government, the authorities must ensure freedom of movement and choice of place of residence. He further emphasized that in Non-Government controlled areas, the leadership of the territories under the control of armed groups are also bound by the same obligations, to the extent proportionate with national and public security measures.

"I have seen myself the issues around freedom of movement as I crossed the contact line: at the few available checkpoints along the contact line, people queue for hours or days, at great risk to their safety; there are no efficient special arrangements for the elderly, children, pregnant women or persons with disabilities," he said.

"With winter closing in, the situation is only bound to get worse," the human rights expert warned, underlying the need for all parties involved to guarantee unimpeded access for humanitarian actors on the ground.

Special Rapporteurs and independent experts are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.
UN concerned about conditions in former Boko Haram stronghold as hundreds of Nigerians return to ravaged villages

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 9 September 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN concerned about conditions in former Boko Haram stronghold as hundreds of Nigerians return to ravaged villages, 9 September 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57d68fe5410.html [accessed 30 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

9 September 2016 - Today the UN refugee agency expressed concern over basic services and security in a territory formerly controlled by Boko Haram insurgents, as hundreds of internally displaced people are returning to their devastated villages and towns in the north-eastern state of Borno - only recently liberated by the Nigerian armed forces.

"Comprehensive figures are not available but our field staff and partners are reporting both government-facilitated and spontaneous return in recent days of hundreds of people to places such as Mafa, Konduga, Benisheikh and Dikwa," Leo Dobbs, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told journalists at the regular press briefing in Geneva today.

UNHCR expects the number to grow in the coming weeks, while noting that government and aid agency assistance has been stepped up in Borno's 16 newly accessible districts.

"UNHCR and its partners have restricted access to 10 of these districts, where some 800,000 people need urgent help," Mr. Dobbs elaborated. "Some of those now returning to their homes in the liberated areas from places like the Borno capital, Maiduguri, appear to be happy to go back, citing dire conditions in the places where they have been living, including camps for the internally displaced."

However, UNHCR is concerned about the welfare of the people, who are returning to areas that have been devastated under Boko Haram rule.

"Many of the internally displaced will be going back to destroyed homes and infrastructure, and areas lacking health care and other services," said the refugee agency's spokesperson. "The returns should be voluntary, dignified and safe - people should be informed about conditions in their home areas.

In regular contact with state officials, UNHCR has raised its concerns and offered to work closely with them to help ensure that the reinstatements are conducted safely, with dignity and in accordance with international standards.

A woman carrying a baby smiles as she leaves a distribution site with a family hygiene and dignity kit, in the Dalori camp for internally displaced people, in the north-eastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri in Borno State. Photo: UNICEF/Andrew Esiebo

Mr. Dobbs pledged that the UN agency would continue to monitor the situation of returnees, especially the most vulnerable.

"Meanwhile," he said, "as we and partners scale up our operations in the north-east, security and access to the needy, especially those in the newly accessible areas, remain major challenges. A greater humanitarian response and presence on the ground is urgently needed, aid efforts must be better coordinated, and data collection improved."

In the past week, UNHCR began to deploy a 14-strong emergency response team, including experienced senior emergency coordinators and several protection officers.

Most of the displaced are women, children and the elderly. Priority issues include shelter, food, potable water and health concerns, including acute malnutrition and cholera prevention.

Mr. Dobbs explained, "Protection issues include sexual and gender-based violence, where we have had successes through community-based protection action groups that encourage dialogue and awareness."

In concrete terms, UNHCR continues to work through local partners to carry out vital protection monitoring in Bama, Monguno, Damboa, Konduga, Mafa, Dikwa and including Biu, Bayo, Hawul, Shani and Kwaya Kusar districts in southern Borno.

Over the past two weeks in Bama, the UN refugee agency provided 200 shelters for 1,000 people and distributed non-food items to 16,000 people, while in the Cameroon-Nigeria border town of Banki, it handed out aid items to 10,000 people. In Maiduguri, UNHCR constructed almost 2,000 semi-permanent shelters for around 10,000 people, and is building emergency shelters for 5,000 people in Dikwa.

The UN refugee agency also warned that Boko Haram continues to pose a real threat, despite the recent setbacks suffered by insurgents during joint regional military operations.

"Although the government has rolled back Boko Haram gains since last year, the insurgency has switched to terror attacks and remains a potent threat," concluded Mr. Dobbs.

The insurgency in the north-east of Nigeria has forcibly displaced more than 2.25 million people since 2014, including 2.066 million internally displaced people, and almost 190,000 refugees in neighbouring Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
UN emergency fund releases $7 million to strengthen protection for Somalis

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 9 September 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN emergency fund releases $7 million to strengthen protection for Somalis, 9 September 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57d6900e40e.html [accessed 30 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

9 September 2016 - To strengthen protection services to internally displaced people in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, the Somalia Humanitarian Fund recently released $7 million to scale up life-saving and life sustaining assistance.

According to a statement released today the new funding will provide support for education, food security, health, nutrition, protection, shelter, and water and sanitation activities in the Daynille and Kaxda districts near Mogadishu. These two settlements host the majority of the more than 120,000 displaced people.

"The internally displaced in Somalia face enormous challenges, and timely and focused humanitarian support is essential to address their urgent needs. Many displaced people who will benefit from this allocation were evicted from settlements in the city centre, where they originally sought refuge," said the Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Peter de Clercq.

The living conditions in these settlements have been described by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as deplorable; services are limited or non-existent and human rights violations are rife.

This is the second allocation to assist internally displaced people in Somalia this year. The first allocation of $7 million was released earlier in July for internally displaced people in Baidoa and Kismayo.

Pictuted, internally displaced persons in Baidoa, Somalia. OCHA CERF released $7 million in July to improve the living conditions of people living in Baidoa and Kismayo. Photo: OCHA/ Cecilia Attefors

"Humanitarian actors remain committed to alleviate the suffering of displaced people, support livelihoods and catalyse durable solutions linked to development efforts aimed at breaking the cycle of protracted displacement in Somalia."

The statement of the humanitarian coordinator points to clan conflicts, military operations in southern and central Somalia, natural disasters and forced evictions as main drivers causing displacements across Somalia. Currently the country's capital hosts some 400,000 internally displaced Somalis in over 400 settlements; more than 36 per cent of the estimated 1.1 million people who remain in protracted displacement across the eastern African country.

The emergency aid comes from the OCHA-managed Somalia Humanitarian Fund. Contributors to the Fund in 2016 have included Australia, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Iraq Kurdish authorities must end disgraceful detention of Yezidi woman who survived IS captivity

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 9 September 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Iraq Kurdish authorities must end disgraceful detention of Yezidi woman who survived IS captivity, 9 September 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57d690964.html [accessed 30 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) must immediately end the shocking and arbitrary detention of a Yezidi woman who has been held without trial for nearly two years after surviving captivity at the hands of the armed group calling itself Islamic State (IS), Amnesty International said.

Bassema Darwish, a 34-year-old mother of three from the Babira village in Ninewa Governorate, has been detained by the KRG since October 2014. She has been accused of complicity with IS forces who killed three members of the Peshmerga (KRG's armed forces) when they arrived at the house where she was being held captive in Zummar, north-western Iraq.

"Yezidi women abducted by IS have suffered truly harrowing abuses including rape and sexual slavery. In the case of Bassema Darwish, liberation from IS captivity did not put an end to her mistreatment. Instead of detaining her for nearly two years in violation of her rights, the authorities should ensure she receives medical and psychosocial assistance, as well as counselling, to help her overcome her ordeal in captivity," said Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International.

"Holding her indefinitely without trial or even a proper chance to challenge the lawfulness of her detention is cruel and unlawful. The authorities must either charge her with a recognizable criminal offence or release her immediately."

Relatives, activists and officials told Amnesty International that Bassema Darwish was abducted by IS fighters, along with her husband and 33 other relatives, on 3 August 2014 as they tried to flee the city of Sinjar. She was pregnant at the time. The abductees were initially moved to Tal 'Afar, where women and children, including Bassema Darwish, were separated from men. The fate of 31 of her relatives remains unknown.

She is currently detained at Erbil's Women and Juvenile Prison and gave birth to her daughter Nour Hussein while in custody.

IS fighters have committed systematic crimes under international law including war crimes and crimes against humanity. Yezidi women and girls have been held as sexual slaves, raped, murdered or tortured. Some were forced to witness the killings of their male relatives, forcibly separated from their children or forced to convert to Islam.

"It is shocking that the Kurdistan Regional Government, which has consistently condemned IS atrocities against the Yezidi community, is holding a survivor of these abuses on terrorism charges and denying her basic legal rights," said Philip Luther.

The head of investigations at the Anti-Terrorism Directorate, who met with Amnesty International in August 2016, said that when Peshmerga forces arrived at the site where Bassema Darwish was being held captive in Zummar, she deceived them by saying the house was empty. He claimed that IS fighters hidden inside then killed three members of the Peshmerga as they entered the house.

He argued that Bassema Darwish had been "radicalized", had deliberately tricked the Peshmerga forces, and was responsible for their deaths. He said that she is being held under the anti-terrorism law and that her case has been referred to court, but a hearing has yet to be scheduled.

Relatives of Bassema Darwish told Amnesty International she appeared in court in August at least once without a lawyer and was forced to sign four papers written in Kurdish without understanding their content.

The Anti-Terrorism Directorate denied Amnesty International's request to see Bassema Darwish in prison during a trip to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in August. Lawyers who sought to visit her in prison were also denied access. Amy Beam, the founder of the Amy, Azadi and Jiyan humanitarian NGO, told Amnesty International she has been threatened by the Asayish (KRG security agency) over her efforts to secure Bassema Darwish's release.

Amnesty International has raised Bassema Darwish's case with the authorities on multiple occasions to no avail, most recently in a letter to KRG President Masoud Barzani on 26 August.

"Bassema Darwish should be granted unhindered access to her relatives, lawyers and independent international monitors. Her right to a fair trial, including the right to challenge the lawfulness of her detention, to be informed of the charges against her in a language she understands, and to adequate legal defence, should be fully upheld," said Philip Luther.

Amnesty International is also calling on the KRG to release Bassema Darwish from custody until an ordinary, civilian court rules on the merits of any accusation against her, given her background, vulnerability and child-care responsibilities.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Human Rights Watch Testimony at Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission Hearing on Human Rights in Bahrain: Next Steps

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 9 September 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Watch Testimony at Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission Hearing on Human Rights in Bahrain: Next Steps, 9 September 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57d691b54.html [accessed 30 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Chairman McGovern, Chairman Pitts, members of the Commission, thank you for the invitation to testify on Bahrain. This hearing comes at the end of a week when Bahrain's most notable human rights defender had an op-ed in the New York Times, only to be charged the next day with "deliberate dissemination of false news and spreading tendentious rumors that undermine the prestige of the state." In response, the Times ran a stinging editorial which notes that relying "on rulers who have responded to dissent with torture, tear gas, jail cells and travel bans is not a defensible long-term strategy."

As you know, the majority of Bahrainis are Shiite but the country is ruled by the Al Khalifa family, a Sunni-dominated autocratic monarchy that has shown a clear aversion to meaningful reform, despite a number of cosmetic initiatives. In 2011, the authorities used lethal force to suppress a largely peaceful pro-democracy movement, which proved to be a turning point and required the government to engage more directly  and publicly  on structural reform. Unfortunately, although King Hamad appointed an independent commission  the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI)  to document human rights violations and dutifully accepted all of its recommendations, he has done little to implement the most substantive ones.

Current Context

It may look from afar that the government's crackdown has kept political unrest at bay: street protests have dwindled significantly and the November 2014 parliamentary election did see strong voter turnout. However, if you scratch the surface ever so slightly, you'll quickly see that demonstrations have decreased predominately because so many activists are incarcerated or exiled. And the election had high participation mainly from the Sunni community  which in turn endorsed a majority of the ruling family's supporters. The Shia-dominated main opposition  Al Wifaq  boycotted because of extreme gerrymandering and the government's hostility to meaningful reform. The cleavage reflects a deepening societal polarization to the point where the main opposition felt that participation in the election was an exercise in futility that would actually further their political disenfranchisement and badly undermine their standing with their supporters.

Indeed, since 2011, successive efforts to resolve the political impasse in Bahrain have been undermined by hardliners in the government who see the unrest exclusively as a security problem that requires a repressive and, increasingly, a sectarian response. The jailing of people like Nabeel Rajab and Wifaq leader Ali Salman, combined with intimidation of other dissenting voices, leaves frustrated youth with few political outlets other than violence. It also has the potential to confirm a political dynamic the hardliners, who now dominate the government, appear to be fomenting with repressive tactics. Ultimately, this can only backfire since the absence of space for peaceful dissent is likely to ripen the possibility for radicalization and instability.

On a trip to Bahrain earlier this year, Secretary Kerry asserted that Bahrain remains a "critical security partner" and an important member of the US-led coalition to fight ISIS, also known as Operation Inherent Resolve. And, while he did meet with Nabeel Rajab and several other critics of the government while in Manama, since that visit we've actually seen a marked deterioration in the human rights situation.

High profile activists are imprisoned on trumped up charges, creating a climate of fear for lower level activists. The government has started going after Shia clerics in a systematic campaign of harassment and subjected key civil society leaders and independent journalists to arbitrary travel bans. Statements calling for the release of Rajab and other opposition activists are important but their impact is limited given the mutual security interests that tend to drive the US-Bahrain partnership. An immediate shift in the partnership may not be imminent but these days it does seem dangerously narrow and perhaps even wholly inconsistent with the wider US interests laid out by the president himself, who noted in 2015 that, "When people are oppressed, and human rights are denied  particularly along sectarian lines or ethnic lines  when dissent is silenced, it feeds violent extremism."

Efforts to Stifle Activists

In March 2016, well-known activist Zainab al-Khawaja spent three months in jail, on the basis of five convictions, four of which violated her right to free expression and one of which was the result of an unfair trial. Once she was released in June, Al-Khawaja fled the country under the threat of renewed detention. In May, the country's most prominent opposition leader, Sheikh Ali Salman, saw his prison sentence doubled, by the First High Court of Appeals, from four to nine years despite strong evidence his initial trial was unfair. In June, Bahraini authorities dissolved Al Wifaq, the largest of approximately 20 licensed political societies (a term used because political parties are prohibited) on unsubstantiated accusations that they provided "a nourishing environment for terrorism, extremism, and violence." Also in June, Bahrain authorities once again detained Nabeel Rajab, solely on charges that violate his right to free expression. He was already facing 15 years in prison for criticizing Bahrain's participation in Saudi Arabia-led military operations in Yemen, and "offending national institutions," based on comments about the alleged torture of inmates in Bahrain's main prison. He now may face additional prison time as a result of his New York Times op-ed. Authorities have repeatedly denied his request to be released on bail  a clearly arbitrary and punitive move by the government. A verdict in his case is scheduled for early October.

One by one the Bahrain government is picking off its political opposition and rights activists. The trumped up charges and flawed trials that have led to their imprisonment appear to be part of a strategy to silence governmental opponents and intimidate others from speaking out.

Efforts to Stifle Shia Clerics

With the moderate opposition and activists now behind bars, the authorities in Bahrain have also started going after Shia clerics in a very deliberate and methodical way. On August 18, 2016, for example, a Bahraini court convicted Sheikh Ali Humaidan of "illegal gathering" and sentenced him to one year in prison for being part of a peaceful gathering outside the home of the spiritual leader, who authorities arbitrarily stripped of his citizenship a few months prior. Media reports indicate that at least eight others are facing similar charges and credible local sources told us that since June, the government has questioned or brought charges against at least 56 Shia clerics.

We recently spoke to four Shia clerics who told us that they were charged with illegal gathering; another three said they were questioned about it. The interrogation and prosecution of these clerics is an attempt to intimidate and intensify discrimination against Bahrain's Shia Muslim community. Inevitably, such tactics feed sectarian polarization in a manner that could lead to a greater political violence down the road  particularly if there is no outlet for the growing pressure amongst the wider population  none of which show any sign of diminishing.

Recommendations

Nearly five years after King Hamad accepted the findings and recommendations of the BICI report, hope for real change is virtually absent. That said, bold gestures by the government could generate a reset and break the political impasse it has created. The best way to do this would be to release Bahrain's imprisoned opposition leaders and activists, give the non-violent opposition and the Shia clerics the space to protest peacefully, and  over time  resume a genuine dialogue.

What can the US do to re-energize momentum for reform in Bahrain?

Public statements from the administration  and from Congress  are important and should continue. The US maintains a high degree of influence with the authorities in Manama. This is largely because of the longstanding security alliance, including the presence of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet. Over the past few years these public statements, particularly from the administration, have gotten stronger  and bolder  as the repression has intensified. This has been a welcome development because it also lets the opposition and the activists know there is renewed urgency within US policy. These statements are also important if Bahrain's rulers are testing the alliance and looking to see how much the US will tolerate  particularly given the current geopolitical dynamics in the region.

One venue that the administration should use to amplify its concerns is the UN Human Rights Council  the upcoming regular session starts next week in Geneva. The US could and should play a leading role in generating a joint statement from like-minded governments that call out the Bahraini government regarding the critical state of human rights there.

It is important to note, however, that as the situation in Bahrain continues to deteriorate, statements ring hollow if they are not backed up by concrete measures. In part, this means ensuring that US security assistance to Bahrain is not used for or to assist with repression or abuse and is not used by security force units with such records. It also means exploring alternative options for basing the Fifth Fleet and support to the aircraft now flying out of Isla airbase. This last step is not only important to up the ante in pressing the Bahrainis to resume political reform but it demonstrates just how concerned the US is by the repression, particularly against the country's Shia majority.

Finally, a global sanctioning regime like the one the Global Magnitsky bill intends to authorize could help add general pressure to the administration's push for meaningful political reform. Specifically, by denying visas and access to the US (and its banking system) to members of the security forces and judicial system credibly linked to serious crimes such as torture. By doing this, Congress could lead the administration in reasserting the commitment to accountability and the rule of law in Bahrain  a key but very absent component of any meaningful path forward.

Ultimately, if the Bahraini government believes that Congress, and the Obama administration during its final months in office, will coddle them regardless of the human rights situation, they are sure to be less responsive to US concerns. Showing a willingness to reconsider the status quo may be the best way to encourage genuine reform and to ensure the partnership doesn't go up in flames over the long term.

Copyright notice:  Copyright, Human Rights Watch
Nigeria: Corruption Fuelling Drug Trade

Publisher Institute for War and Peace Reporting Author Olajide Adelani Publication Date 12 September 2016 Cite as Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Nigeria: Corruption Fuelling Drug Trade, 12 September 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57d69b754.html [accessed 30 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Experts say that the fight against drugs in Nigeria is being hampered by corruption among the ranks of the National Drug and Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

There is also growing alarm over rates of domestic usage of illicit substances in Nigeria, a country once seen primarily as a drug transit point.

Established in early 1990, critics say that the NDLEA has failed to live up to its mission statement, which is "the total eradication of illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances; suppression of demand for illicit drugs and other substances of abuse" as well as recovering drug money.

NDLEA spokesman Jarikre Ofoyeju said that the agency was "working to bring about a balance between supply and demand reduction.

"We are targeting medium and high-level drug traffickers, seize their drugs, prosecute them and trace their illegal proceeds for forfeiture. Other areas of priorities include staff welfare [and] motivation, public enlightenment and treatment for problem drug users," he said.

The NDLEA has boasted of some major successes, with large hauls of drugs confiscated at border crossings.

In 2015 alone, narcotics worth N3.7 billion (11.5 million US dollars) were seized at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos.

This included 172kg of cannabis, 160kg of ephedrine, 114kg of methamphetamine, 96kg of cocaine, 45kg of tramadol and 5kg of heroin.

But critics say that this is merely the tip of the iceberg and stress that Nigeria remains a hub of organised drugs crime. According to the UN's 2016 World Drug Report, the third largest quantity of cocaine seized around the world was from Nigeria, with 50 to 70 per cent of the drug trafficked by air.

Debo Adeniran is the executive chairman of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), a civil society grouping. He said that he believed there had been a sharp rise in corruption within the NDLEA and that urgent action was needed to purge its ranks.

The organisation was incapable of owning up to its own problems, he said, adding, "It has been happening for a very long time."

NDLEA officials have been accused of directly colluding with the criminals they are tasked with pursuing.

In one ongoing case, an NDLEA staff member is being investigated over an alleged scheme to import drugs from Brazil.

NDLEA official Ali Bala Adamu was arrested in January along with four alleged co-conspirators - Ijeoma Ojukwu, Victor Umeh, Uche Igwelo and Egbuche Fidelis Osita - on charges of conspiring to import cocaine from Brazil.

According to the indictment, 20 million naira (60,000 dollars) worth of drugs were concealed in luggage abandoned at the arrival hall after the arrival of an Emirate Airline flight on December 28, 2015.

Osita came to the airport on January 1, 2016 to collect the bags, leading to the arrest of the other suspects.

HOW DRUGS ARE TRAFFICKED

One high-profile trafficking case involved Chief Akindele Ikumoluyi, popularly known as Ile Eru and a powerful figure in the West African drug market.

He was exposed and sentenced to ten years imprisonment in 2008 after a drugs mule, Abdul Fatai Olori, turned state's witness.

Olori told NAIJ.com that he had been introduced to Akindele in 2004 when he needed money to pay for medical treatment. Akindele agreed, but on the condition that Olori travel to Brazil and collect a "message" from one of his business associates. In early 2006, Olori made the journey.

"When I got to Brazil was picked up by a man who took me to a house where I was locked up for three weeks," Olori said. "I was provided with food but denied free movement. It was after three weeks that he came back with two bags containing cocaine.

"The message Akindele wanted me to 'collect' from his business associate finally became clear," Olori continued, who continues to maintain that he had no idea what he would be asked to carry.

He said he was scared that he would be arrested on his return to Nigeria but was assured that smooth passage through MMIA was guaranteed.

However, at the airport Olori was seized by NDLEA officials and accused of trafficking 10 kg of cocaine into Nigeria.

He made a full statement describing the circumstances in which he had been sent to Brazil.

But the following day, Olori claimed, he was asked by officials to produce another statement that did not implicate Akindele.

"I later called him [Akindele ] to come and explain things to the government people but he didn't answer me. He abandoned me and wanted me to rot and die in prison for what I did not know anything about"," he continued.

"I was very honest with the NDLEA people especially the prosecuting team," said Olori, who was granted bail after some months in detention. "I told them everything and that I was ready to cooperate with them so that Akindele can be arrested before many people fall into his trap.".

As a consequence, Akindele was sentenced to ten years imprisonment on March 18, 2008.

But Olori said that he believed that for every offender caught by the NDLEA, two were allowed to go free.

"If you have money those people will leave you alone. There are many bad people in this Nigeria," Olori said.

He said that Ikumoluyi had evaded arrest for so long because he had a network of informants.

This was corroborated by a high-ranking NDLEA official who asked to remain anonymous because of security concerns.

"Before NDLEA could catch him [Ikumoluyi], it took the commitment and diligence of a select few who were on the team set up to nail him. Each time they tried, he would escape because he had informants within the house," he said.

"There was a day that the taskforce had credible intelligence about Akindele's whereabouts and were about to set out to effect his arrest; a call came in and it was Akindele asking that a mutual agreement be reached between him and Olori. Everyone was surprised and shocked," the NDLEA official continued.

SUPPLY ROUTE

Nigeria is a key transit point for both heroin and cocaine en route to Europe, East Asia and North America.

But drug usage appears to be widespread within Nigeria, too. A visit to the cities of Sokoto, Kano, and Port Hacourt show that illicit substances are easily available.

In the ancient city and state capital of Kano in Nigeria's northwest, most of illicit drug activities appear to take place on the Aba and Emir roads. Drug dealers can be seen dispatching packages of cannabis to customers late each evening.

In Sokoto, in the extreme northwest of Nigeria, the Mammy market along Adullahi Fodio Road is a popular place to get drugs including Tramadol, an opioid analgesic and Benylin with codeine, a cough mixture.

An NDLEA official, who asked to remain anonymous as she was not authorised to speak to the media, served as a guide around the Sokoto market.

She said that most drug dealing began at five pm and ended at ten pm when the market closed. After that, business moved outside.

The NDLEA official said that she had lodged complaints about the rising incidences of drug abuse and the apparent impunity with which dealers operated, but no concrete steps had been taken.

Many young women in the market have turned to sex work to fund their habits.

One woman from Bauchi state, who said she had come to Sokoto to make money, offered full sex in exchange for N500.

"Are you interested or not?" she asked. "I didn't charge you that much now. I need the money now to get high. Even if you are not ready now I can give you my number so that we can catch up later outside Mammy gate when it is past 10 pm. I will do anything you want. Just give me the money first," she said.

Shuddering, and sweating profusely despite the mild weather, the woman grabbed the reporter's phone and punched in her contact details.

A number of cafes and shops in the market also appear to be hubs for local drug dealers.

"They also cater for the less privileged and those with low financial power," said Mohammad, a local trader.

Young men and women could be observed trooping in and to get drugs packaged in dark brown or green bottles.

The oil city of Port Harcourt in the south of the country also has a thriving drug business, with gangs in areas such as Rumoola and Rumokwuta specialising in cannabis while dealers in the Government Reserved Area (GRA) of the city control the cocaine supply.

Osas, a resident of Port Harcourt, gave an overview of how the system worked.

"You cannot just stand up and say you want to buy drugs. Even if it is cannabis, you have to properly do your intro or else the dealers will say you are government and they might hurt you or scamper away," he said.

"The routine is that you will be introduced by someone who is a regular customer. And the introduction which can be done over the phone depending on trust must carry your name, complexion, height, colour of attire worn and any other thing to describe you.

"You will then be given a point of collection where someone will then approach you for the drug-money exchange," he said.

LOOKING THE OTHER WAY

One former NDLEA official described how employees of the agency could be pressurised to turn a blind eye to corruption.

Salisu Usman (not his real name) began working at MMIA in 2003 but soon found himself unpopular amongst his colleagues. Eventually he was posted away to north-eastern Nigeria.

"I always questioned my colleagues as to why they would let some people go even when there is overwhelming evidence that the person is trafficking drugs," he said. "Sometimes they answered me politely and said that I am a round peg in a square hole. It was later that I then found out that there were some directives from God-knows-where that somethings should pass without explanations," Usman said.

When Usman at one point disobeyed one of these directives, he said that he was subtly warned to toe the line.

"The official said that I should be soft a little and follow instructions to the end if I don't want to be sacked, posted out or framed up," Usman said.

"It was not like a threat per se," he said. "It was more like an advice but any reasonable person can decode it wasn't an ordinary advice. It was a colleague that they sent. I knew it wasn't his idea and that he was directed."

Others explained how crime and graft was covered up due to fear of retribution.

Sam Adurogboye is a former journalist who is now spokesman for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.

"I did a story on drugs when I was still young and it was not published. So I asked my editor why the story was not published and he replied that he knows that I am a young boy and that he wants me to marry and have kids.

"They know these drug lords and barons. Most of them are usually highly placed personalities but they cannot be touched because of the power they wield. Am sure you know that some drug lords or mafias in some countries are the ones that decide who will rule or not. They can be powerful," he said.

Adurogboye said that such pressures should be borne in mind when considering what action to take against corrupt officials.

"On the contrary, instead of going hard on the NDLEA we need to understand the issues and put ourselves in their position. We need to sympathise with some who genuinely were pressured to aid drug trafficking. Imagine your family, job or anything dear to you being threatened," he continued.

NDLEA spokesman Ofoyeju said that the agency was aiming to ensure appropriate sanctions were applied in any instances of unprofessional conduct amongst its officials.

"The NDLEA has a standard operating procedure where it gets reports both from within and outside on the activities of officers," he said. "Interestingly, all reports are properly investigated and anyone found guilty are sanctioned accordingly. The certainty of disciplinary action against anyone found wanting has encouraged optimum performance and also enhanced service delivery in the agency.

"Let me assure you that the agency will continue to respect the rule of law in handling all cases of unprofessional conduct."

Nigerian journalist Olajide Adelani produced this report with support from PartnersGlobal and the Institute for War & Peace Reporting. It is one of a series of investigative reports produced under the Access Nigeria/Sierra Leone Programme funded by the United States Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement.

Copyright notice:  Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Afghan Province Lacks Any Female Prison Facilities

Publisher Institute for War and Peace Reporting Publication Date 8 September 2016 Cite as Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Afghan Province Lacks Any Female Prison Facilities, 8 September 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57d69c234.html [accessed 30 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The lack of even a single women's prison in the northeastern province of Kunar means that all female prisoners have to be sent to the neighbouring province of Nangarhar, an IWPR debate has heard.

Experts and officials discussed the issues in front of an audience of more than 100 men and women in Kunar's provincial capital Asadabad last month.

Suhaila Babar, head of Kunar's women's affairs department, said, "The fact that we have neither no detention facilities for women has led to serious problems for female prisoners in Kunar."

"When a women is convicted, everyone is confused and over what can be done with the guilty party. There is no alternative besides sending her to Nangarhar," said Noor Rahman Noor, head of Kunar's men-only detention centre.

"Being far away from relatives and the resulting limitations on meetings are the main problem for female prisoners," he continued.

"Building a female prison in Kunar province is vitally important," said Ghulam Hussain Bewas, representing the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) in the eastern zone.

Haji Sher Zameen, secretary of Kunar's provincial council, agreed this was a priority and all the panelists joined together to call for a women-only detention centre to be built.

Noor said the lack of a women's prison reflected wider problems with gender equality.

"We have just one female police officer and one female civilian working for the police department in Kunar," he said. "When people are not ready to let their daughters and sisters join the police force, how can they expect a women's prison to be built?"

Copyright notice:  Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Afghanistan: Beggars Accused of Intentionally Maiming Children

Publisher Institute for War and Peace Reporting Publication Date 9 September 2016 Citation / Document Symbol ARR 554 Cite as Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Afghanistan: Beggars Accused of Intentionally Maiming Children, 9 September 2016, ARR 554, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57d69c604.html [accessed 30 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Officials and human rights workers in Nangarhar province have warned that impoverished families may be deliberately harming their children so as to make more money while begging.

Nangialai Yusufzai, head of the Nangarhar Red Crescent, said that more and more professional beggars were arriving in the eastern province, many accompanied by sick or disabled children.

"One day I was walking down the street when I saw that a beggar had tied a child's foot up so tightly with a bandage that his toes had turned black, and I realised that the blood flow to his foot had been stopped," Yusufzai said.

"I unwrapped his foot and saw that otherwise it was completely fine," Yusufzai continued. "His mother told me that she had done it because she wanted people to feel sorry for her and give her money."

Most of the beggars are from the Jogi, an ethnic group whose counterparts in Europe and North America are often called gypsies.

Scattered across Afghanistan, the Jogi stand apart from the rest of Afghan society. They own no land or property, and spend most of their lives in tents. The men generally stay at home while the women go out to tell fortunes or beg in the cities or villages.

They have no civil rights, denied even the basic privilege of an Afghan tazkira, or identity card.

Like many outsiders, Jogi fall victim to negative stereotypes. Rumours are spread that they are not really Muslims, that they engage in promiscuity or have other outlandish practices.

Wasil Noor, the deputy minister of the ministry of social affairs and employment, said that they were looking into the situation.

"There are children who have clearly been drugged, but we have yet to find a case in which someone has intentionally been maimed," he continued.

"We closely observed the children who are with the beggars. We saw that the hands, legs, or heads of these children were tied with white bandages, with red colouring on them so that people would think they were injured and feel sorry for them."

Noor said that plan to deal with street begging had been developed during the tenure previous Afghan president Hamid Karzai but never implemented because the ministry of finance had not provided the budget.

"We have proposed this to the ministry of finance once again, and we will start rounding up the beggars and their children if our proposal is accepted."

Abdullah Abid is head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) children's department. Although Afghanistan had signed the International Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1994, they had completely failed to implement it, he said.

Abid recounted how his office had received a report of a boy who had been hurt by his own family and was begging in the streets.

"When we went to the place, a five-year-old boy, whose face was covered with a bandage, was sitting there," he continued. "We asked the child what had happened to his face. He replied that his mother had done this to him.

"We took the child back to his family, but and the child entered his home and didn't come out again. We tried hard to talk to his parents, but no one came to talk to us. We reported this problem to the police, but the police procrastinated. When we went there with the police the next day, they had left that house."

Abdul Hakim Shirzad, head of Nangarhar's department of social, martyrs and disabled affairs, said that he had also heard reports of such abuse but was yet to see any evidence.

"I have not yet seen that these families disable their children intentionally, but I have heard from others. I have asked the security authorities to investigate this issue."

Religious experts say that begging on the streets is frowned upon in Islam.

Mawlawi Abdul Ghafoor, a local scholar, said, "Some families force their women and children to beg for money, but Islam considers asking people for charity to be a big sin. Only people who face death due to poverty are permitted to beg."

Nangarhar police spokesman Hazrat Hussain Mushraqiwal said that if officers found evidence to prove beggars were hurting children intentionally to earn more money, they would make arrests.

"We have been told about this issue, but we have not made any arrests in connection with this," he said, adding that the beggars were a public nuisance.

"The beggars really disrupt the lives of these children, people are tired of them," he continued.

The beggars themselves, however, say they have no other options to earn a living and strenuously deny that they would harm their own children.

Near Talashi square in Jalalabad city, a female beggar sat in the sun with a naked three year old child lying in front of her.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed that her counterparts would pay the parents of disabled children two or three dollars a day to take them begging. She acknowledged that beggars would not pay as much to have healthy children accompany them. She herself earned between six and ten dollars each day.

But she said it was unthinkable for anyone to maim their own child so as to make money.

"No parent can bear their children experiencing even a little pain, so how can we do it? Aren't we human beings too?" she asked.

She explained that this was the only life she and her relatives knew.

"My black hair has turned grey from begging," she said, pointing to her head. "And all the members of my family beg."

Copyright notice:  Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Armenias Landmark Electoral Code Curtailed

Publisher Institute for War and Peace Reporting Author Gagik Aghbalyan & Suren Deheryan Publication Date 10 September 2016 Citation / Document Symbol CRS 825 Cite as Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Armenias Landmark Electoral Code Curtailed, 10 September 2016, CRS 825, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57d69cd44.html [accessed 30 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Armenias opposition parties have been left fuming after the country's Central Election Commission annulled landmark changes to a new electoral code.

The revisions, approved by the National Assembly in late May and again amended a month later, were designed to prevent election fraud.

Local elections on September 18 and October 2 would have been the testing ground for the new legislation ahead of parliamentary polls next spring.

But the changes were annulled on August 29 due to "technical reasons".

One of the amended code's provisions was the creation of a biometric voter registry to avoid multiple voting. The government said that there had not been enough time to put this registry in place.

Aram Manukyan, a lawmaker from the opposition Armenian National Congress, told IWPR that this was "not a serious explanation".

The timescale could have been considered earlier in the year, or a different company chosen to carry out the project in the available time, he continued.

"This is a very irresponsible attitude towards the adopted law," Manukyan said, arguing that the government had realised that the new rules could have had catastrophic consequences for them.

"It could have eliminated the possibility of falsifying elections, which, of course, scared them," he concluded.

Armenia adopted a new constitution last December, which required a new electoral code. Next year's polls will mark the countrys transition from a semi-presidential form of governance to a parliamentary republic.

In the upcoming local elections, about 650 out of 915 communities in Armenia will choose new leaders and municipal council members. Elections will also be held in the country's second largest cities of Gyumri and Vanadzor.

These elections were also seen as a litmus test for Armenias political parties to gauge voters leanings.

This has become even more important following the July political crisis when a group of armed men seized control of a police station in Yerevan. The standoff ended two weeks later amid a crackdown by the police on several hundred demonstrators who had sided with the gunmen, and the arrest of dozens of people.

Styopa Safaryan, the founder and head of the Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs (AIISA), said that Armenia's political forces were isolated from the electorate and no longer able to affect the public mood.

"When the constitutional changes were adopted, the opposition, as a part of the political system, was too passive and only demanded to keep the old constitution, and that was it. After recent developments [the July crisis], too, no agenda was drawn up by any political force," he told IWPR.

"The aftermath of the July crisis showed that political parties need to act in a more flexible manner and more thoughtfully [in the future] by adopting a multi-vector strategy," he added.

Safaryan said the ruling Republican party, which is headed by President Serzh Sargsyan and holds a majority of seats in parliament, will have no alternative in the future but to form a coalition.

"The Republican Party will need to form a government that will consist of reformist and ideologically savvy people, as well as to come to terms with other parties," Safaryan said.

Whether the ruling party is prepared to do that and form a government of national consensus, as mooted by Sargsyan as a possibility in a speech last month, will have to be seen.

After the unexpected resignation of Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan on September 8, the Republican party nominated former Yerevan mayor Karen Karapetyan to be the next head of government.

SWEEPING CHANGES

The new electoral code was approved by a special session of parliament on May 25 and ratified by Sargsyan three days later.

But the opposition in parliament believed additional changes were needed to make elections more transparent. To accommodate their demands, the Republican party and four major opposition groups jointly worked on amendments that were passed on June 30.

The opposition claimed that international donor organisations, including the European Union, were willing to help Armenias political parties find 16 million euros by September 1 to create the fingerprint registration system.

Before the parliamentary election next year, all citizens with a right to vote will have to pre-register in the passport departments of the police, leave their finger imprints and get a new identification card.

There were also plans to install video cameras in all polling stations and provide live coverage of the voting process.

Under the electoral code passed in May, the president will be elected by parliament rather than by the public. The next parliament will no longer automatically have 131 deputies, but depending on the distribution of votes may have as few as 101.

The number of constituencies in Armenia will be reduced from 41 to 13. Four of them will be located in Yerevan and nine in the regions.

Parliamentary elections will be held on the basis of proportionate representation as opposed to todays simple majority system.

Independent lawmaker Edmon Marukyan, who voted against the code, told IWPR said the new electoral system was much worse than the current one.

"Under the new system, political parties will put forward only 15 candidates in [each of the] 13 constituencies. Candidates from the Republican party with their administrative resources, business circles and so on will use all of this to their advantage and sideline the opposition," he explained.

"It may be that the procedure itself may appear to be very just, but under unequal conditions. Yes, there may be fraud on election day, or not. But the administrative resource will work for a specific party," Marukyan concluded.

Another amendment that has upset civil society is that the number of observers and reporters at a polling station cannot exceed 15 people. In the past, there were no such restrictions.

Avetik Ishkhanyan, the chairman of the Helsinki Committee of Armenia, said that the cancellation of the amendments to the new code showed that the ruling elite saw these changes as a threat.

"I believe you do not need millions to hold fair elections, but in our country, where electoral fraud has become part of the culture, in which all well-known political players had some share in since the 1990s, changes in the law or a new electoral code cannot become a guarantor for honest elections," he said.

The process simply aimed to win the approval of the international community, on which Armenia is financially dependent, Ishkhanyan continued.

Meanwhile, the authorities have announced that they are prepared to negotiate with civil society and other political forces to find a consensus before the parliamentary elections.

In turn, the opposition has said it expects to be "compensated" for the annulled amendments.

"We demand assurances from the authorities that the day after the parliamentary elections in 2017, all the lists with signatures by all those voters who have participated in the election will be published," Manukyan said.

This will give the opposition an opportunity to compare the actual number of votes with the election results announced by the Central Election Commission, he explained.

Any local discrepancies would mean opposition would demand election results be annulled in that location.

Gagik Aghbalyan is a reporter for Jnews.am. Suren Deheryan is IWPRs Armenia editor.

Copyright notice:  Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Orlando, FL -- (ReleaseWire) -- 09/12/2016 --Visit Florida, the state's official tourism and marketing corporation hosted their annual conference in Orlando, September 7-9, 2016, to showcase all aspects of tourism that makes Florida one of the top tourist destinations in the United States. All Star Travel, represented by Jeff Stanislow, presented on Thursday, September 8th.



Mr. Stanislow, a sponsor and partner of Visit Florida, contributed to a discussion on some of the challenges with International Travel as he showcases All Star Travel. His online travel agency is based in Tampa, Florida, and aims to supply travelers with low rates for rental cars, airline tickets, and hotels.



Jeff Stanislow from All Star Travel Agency said: "2015 saw record numbers visiting Florida, with 105 million tourists enjoying what we have to offer. I truly believe we can keep building on this success and make Florida the most visited destination in the world."



Florida's average occupancy rate increased to 72.0 percent in 2015, an increase of 3.24 percent from the previous year. With the local tourism industry generating $89.1 billion in 2015, and with a predicted income of $100 billion by 2020, this can only be good news for the local job market and reducing unemployment explained All Star Travel Agency.



"Florida tourism industry is going through an exciting time, and we hope to share our knowledge and experience and help Florida continue to break tourism records. More tourism means more jobs created and reducing the current 5.6 percent unemployment even lower.", said Jeff Stanislow.



Thousands of contributors gathered at the Hilton Orlando to discuss Florida tourism. This annual conference is a signature event of Visit Florida which includes keynote speakers, tourism experts, vendors, contributors, presentations, and exhibits. The tourism networking experience is like no other, and more vendors are registering each day.



About All Star Travel Agency

AST provides car rentals, airline tickets, and accommodations for travelers in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Latin America, Australia and other locations worldwide. Jeff Stanislow, CEO, started AST in 2013, and has been providing low rates for premium travel services through global and domestic partnerships. Visit https://www.allstartravel.com/ for more information, services and rates.



CONTACT:

Jeff Stanislow, CEO

All Star Travel

1-866-978-5072

support@allstartravel.com
The fall brings a busy time for Annaliese Scoggin, wildlife biologist for Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Scoggin replaced Kathy McGinty, who recently retired. She provides landowner assistance in Taylor, Nolan, Mitchell and Howard counties.

Scoggin, an Abilene native, received bachelor and master's degrees from Texas A&M University in Wildlife Management. Upon graduation, she taught biology at Blinn Junior College in Bryan, before accepting the position of Texas Trans-Pecos regional biologist, being station in Midland.

'Loved that region, working with the diverse wildlife of the Tran-Pecos including mule deer and pronghorn antelope,' she said.

Last year, the opportunity came for Scoggin to transfer back to her hometown and live on some family property.

In addition to being a field wildlife biologist, Scoggin is a noted range botanist. She is a highly requested resource for field days, first for plant identification. She has the ability to explain details and value of range flora.

'All factors go back to plants, since that is the source of survival for all wildlife, so I feel it is my duty to know as much as possible.' she said.

This fall will be interesting gamewise with similar conditions as experienced in 2015.

'We had an excellent whitetail fawn crop and with the spring rains are experiencing high survival rates,' reports Scoggin.

With excellent spring forage, antler growth should be above average.

The drought of 2011 and 2012 is still having a major effect on overall quality of larger bucks. During that time, fawn survival was near zero, so there just are very few 4-year-old bucks which should be at their prime.

Scoggin suggests a protein supplement in post rut in January-Feb and then late July as antlers are being developed. As a game manager, she stresses to monitor range conditions to more effectively supplement the needs of the deer herd.

'The 2016 dove season is going to depend on feed and water,' she said.

She predicts the numbers to be good, but concentrations will be spotted throughout the region.

One thing that she stresses is if a banded bird is harvested, please report it, since this information will provide needed data dealing with ongoing research of doves. Specific contacts are listed on the band or anyone can contact her with the harvest location.

Quail hunters are still enjoying the birds' rebound in numbers. Nesting conditions have been outstanding, and with the carry-over of birds, 2016 will again prove to be a banner year for quail. It is being noted that many birds were still trying to nest into the late summer, and if weather conditions are cool, we might have some late quail hatches.

Scoggin refers to the Rio Grande Turkey as the forgotten game bird in the fall. As in the quail, numbers are increasing due to nesting conditions. She reports that she has noted several young poults, and next spring, hunters will see a dramatic increase numbers of 'jakes' or young birds as they go into the annual spring turkey season.

With, the increase of other game species, Scoggin also reports that ferial hogs are also doing well in numbers. Being a 'opportunist,' the ferial hog is still a major problem in many areas.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist is a major resource to landowners who want to enhance their wildlife resources. A biologist can help in development of a wildlife plan which can also be used to qualify for a tax exemption from a tax appraisal district.

According to Scoggin, all it takes is a call. She can be contacted at 325-229-6359 plus other biologists can be found on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website, http://tpwd.texas.gov/
OKLAHOMA CITY  Congress should act swiftly and decisively to protect America's marginal oil and gas well owners and operators, said National Stripper Well Association Chairwoman Darlene Wallace.

Wallace and the National Stripper Well Association (NSWA) have been highly critical of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the agency's efforts to destroy the American small oil and gas industry and, additionally, for failing to meet their own deadlines. Wallace has called on Congress to protect the smallest, most economically-vulnerable domestic oil and natural gas companies, and has highlighted recent litigation.

'EPA should be aware of, and held accountable for, the economic damage done to small producers by forced compliance with regulations that simply shouldn't apply to stripper well producers,' Wallace said.

In May 2016, NSWA fought for an exemption of small producers from the effects of the new methane control rules, but in the issuance of the final rule, the exemption for low-producing wells was eliminated. This significant and radical change was unannounced for most producers, and they have been struggling to comply since, Wallace said.

Wallace cited an EPA Regulatory Impact Analysis that stated that within 60 days, EPA would issue a 'Small Entity Compliance Guide' to help stripper well producers comply with the rule.

'Yet, we are nearly 80 days from the May 12 announcement of the rule and 60 days from the June 3 Federal Register notice and the EPA implementation website contains no compliance guide,' she said. 'As unprepared as small producers were to be included in this rule, the EPA is as equally unprepared to give us guidance.'

Wallace said the failure of EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and the agency, to learn about the stripper well industry is no excuse for failing to meet their own deadlines to issue guidance.

'In the face of these failures, it should come as no surprise that this week, NSWA along with many other national and state trade associations filed notice of a lawsuit challenging this deeply misguided EPA rule,' Wallace said. 'Our hope is that the courts can recognize and undo the deep injustice done to small producers as a result of this radical rule change.'

In addition, NSWA continues to call on Congress to stop this rule or at least restore the small producer exemption originally proposed by EPA, she said.

'Failure to provide relief from this rule to small producers threatens our ability to conserve America's resources and harms the environment by jeopardizing existing facilities before their lifespan is complete,' Wallace said.
Representing the 19th District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives has been a great privilege and honor. West Texas and the Big Country are home to an incredible group of people who are part of the oil and gas industry. Lower prices for a barrel of oil are a cause for either heartbreak or joy, depending on whom you ask. The well worker who gets laid off because the company simply cannot afford to keep the same level of staff on $40 per barrel that they did on $100 knows the challenge of this market first-hand. The family that can now afford to take a vacation for the first time in years because gas is under $2 per gallon appreciates the opposite side of those market challenges.

Families and individuals are affected one way or another by every dip and rise in the oil industry. If the market were completely free, with open competition deciding the price of a barrel of oil, it would be hard to make a case for the federal government to weigh in. However, the playing field is not level. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and individual nations specifically attempt to manipulate the market in their favor.

To help level the playing field, Congress finally succeeded in lifting the U.S. ban on crude oil exports. In a win for the economy of our region and the country, Congress passed, and President Obama signed into law, legislation that included the elimination of the export ban last December. The ban was put in place in response to the 1970s Arab oil embargo, attempting to stabilize prices within the United States, but this 40-year old policy was preventing American producers from responding to changing market conditions.

Since the repeal of the ban, the Congressional Research Service reports that 29 million barrels of crude oil have been exported this year that would not have been otherwise. Our export volume is likely to increase further once global refiners have had more time to integrate U.S. crude oil into their mix.

Lifting the oil export ban was an important step towards enabling American oil producers to compete on the global stage and a major win for Texas. Higher prices for our West Texas producers through more refinery options and lower prices for American consumers at the pump benefit our entire economy. Lifting the export ban also put America in a better position to use our status as the world's top oil and gas producer to advance our foreign policy goals.

Another key to stability for American energy producers is bringing more regulatory certainty to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for oil and natural gas. The June ruling by a federal judge striking down an Obama Administration regulation preventing fracking on public lands was a good start toward clarity on this issue. As one of the major contributors to the United States overtaking Russia and Saudi Arabia as the world's top producer of oil and gas, new efficient and safe production technologies have been a tremendous tool for allowing us to access more of our resources. I support protecting these technologies from federal overreach.

To further protect the use of new production methods, the House recently passed legislation that includes a provision to prevent the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from implementing duplicative federal rules on hydraulic fracturing and methane emissions, which are already subject to state regulation. That same legislation also includes a provision to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from implementing or enforcing new regulations for methane in the oil and gas sector. I have heard from energy producers in Texas about how harmful these new regulations would be for jobs in our area and understand the work producers are already doing to address emissions. I encourage the Senate to also pass these provisions to prevent regulatory overreach as Congress considers legislation in the fall.

Oil and gas production in West Texas and the Big Country contributes jobs and revenue to our economy, as well as products that consumers here and across the nation rely on every day. I have worked hard to be an effective supporter of our local economy in Congress, and I will continue to advocate for common-sense regulation of oil and gas production as your representative.
If it feels like it's taking a longer time to get to work, that's probably true  depending on your daily route  with a recent explosion of construction projects in Abilene.

But while the recent work may create traffic snarls, it also creates opportunity for area construction firms.

The demand has made it a good time to be in the construction business, said Ashley Neves, accounts payable/accounts receivable for Bontke Brothers Construction, noting that the company had been 'very busy.'

Michael G. Rice, director of public works in Abilene, said that every city has a limit on resources, both internal and external  and that Abilene is 'blessed with multiple good contractors for public works projects.

'But the contractors have a limited amount of resources' responding to a demand for services from multiple sources, including the city, county, state (Texas Department of Transportation), school districts, and residential and commercial developers, he said.

A significant portion of the present work stems from $45 million in street projects approved by Abilene voters as part of an $80.7 million bond, which encompasses 130 lane miles of Abilene streets, while other projects come from the Texas Department of Transportation.

TxDOT contractor J.H. Strain & Sons of Tye began a $2.37 million contract to repair and rehabilitate a section of U.S. Highway 84 in Abilene, including both directions of U.S. 84 from near Old Bankhead Highway to near U.S. 83 (Winters Freeway).

Other TxDOT projects include a $7 million, two-mile access management project along SH 351 from I-20 to the eastern city limits of Abilene, and overlay work on Treadaway Boulevard, a $9.8 million project.

Steve Strain, president of J.H. Strain & Sons, said his firm had recently done work for the city on Judge Ely Boulevard had been working mostly at night on the aforementioned Treadaway project.

Asked if the construction crunch affected the ability to get workers, Strain said 'very much so,' including truck drivers, with insurance requirements  including mandatory drug screenings  a factor.

Strain said that superintendents heading projects for the firm rely heavily on a network of past workers, also making use of Labor Ready, a local temporary staff company, for personnel.

But the challenges of finding good people are manifold, especially given the demands of the job, making recruitment on 'kind of hard,' he said.

'The rest of the story is that we work 50-hour weeks and a lot of people don't like that,' Strain said. 'They don't want to work that hard.'

Work should slow down during the winter, Strain said, but the firm has plenty to keep it busy with projects in Ballinger and another in Concho County.

By contrast, except a few concrete laborers, Bontke is in good stead as far as employees, Neves said.

'We're balanced out,' she said.

Bontke has been working on Catclaw, reconstruction and realignment at North 5th and Victoria Streets, and a sidewalk project on East South 11th Street, Neves said.

'Catclaw is coming right along,' she said. 'We paved that last week, so it should be ready to go soon. North 5th was paved last week, as well.'

Public works completed projects in the last 12 months include three bond projects, two community development sidewalk projects and one capital improvement project, Rice said.

Construction began earlier this year on a slew of streets that included West Lake Road, Antilley Road, Catclaw and Judge Ely.

Projects on Catclaw and North 5th and Victoria should be completed around November  possibly earlier in the latter case, Rice said. The sidewalk project is expected to be completed on or before January 2017.

In the next 12 months, another flood of projects can be expected, including bond projects on Ambler, North 3rd Street, Texas Avenue, Hardwick Road, South 20th Street, the Central Business District and the South Downtown District.

A North 10th and Mockingbird intersection reconstruction will come from capital improvement funds, while a guardrail built at Elm Creek Bridge will come from the general fund. The city will also undertake a storm sewer pipeline rehabilitation project.
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Opposition lawmakers in Cambodia said Monday they will go ahead with planned mass demonstrations to demand political normalcy in defiance of Prime Minister Hun Sen who has vowed to crackdown on protesters at any cost.

The final straw for the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) may have been the five-month prison sentence and 800,000-riel (U.S. $194) fine handed down by a Cambodian court on Friday to embattled opposition deputy leader Kem Sokha.

The government revoked the lawmakers parliamentary immunity and prosecuted him on charges that he failed to appear as a witness in two cases related to his alleged affair with a young hairdresser. He has been hiding out in CNRP headquarters in the capital Phnom Penh for nearly four months to avoid arrest.

The CNRP and several human rights groups see the trial as part of an attempt by Prime Minister Hun Sens government to use Cambodias legal system to sideline the opposition before local elections in 2017 and national elections scheduled for 2018.

Hun Sen, who has ruled the country for more than three decades, responded in strong terms on Monday, saying he will not allow the demonstrations to take place and warning the CNRP it would face the consequences if it goes ahead.

He called the demonstrations illegal and vowed to suppress them, asking Minister of the Interior Sar Keng to mobilize forces to crack down on the protests, which he says will threaten the stability and peace of the nation and the people, according to the pro-government online newspaper Fresh News.

Hun Sen issued his warning immediately after the CNRP announced its plan to hold mass demonstrations to demand political normalcy after months of pressure and threats and ensure a safe environment for free and fair elections in 2017 and 2018.

The statement issued by the CNRP said its steering committee believes the party has no option but to go through with the demonstrations.

A committee to organize the mass demonstrations has been established, CNRP spokesman Eng Chhay Eang said. It is tasked with planning how many days will be needed for the demonstrations, along with other logistics.

Sunday conference

The CNRP convened a conference on Sunday at its headquarters in the capital Phnom Penh where Kem Sokha spoke directly to CNRP Youth Leaders, and party president Sam Rainsy joined in via Skype from exile.

During the conference, Kem Sokha told supporters: Only we ourselves can build democracy. Only we ourselves can protect our rights. I had always believed in a dialogue [with the ruling party]. Unfortunately, the people in power have taken this for granted.

I have holed up here for almost four months now expecting a dialogue to find a common solution for our nation, but all to no avail, for the ruling party has turned turn a blind eye to it, he said.

Rainsy, who is in self-imposed exile after leaving the country following his removal from parliament by the CPP in November over a warrant issued for his arrest in an old defamation case, told supporters that all Cambodians should express ourselves.

We should do so in the form of a mass demonstration like the ones in 2013 and early 2014, he said. Its not about just Sam Rainsy, Kem Sokha, or the jailed activists. Its about all of us.

The CNRP participated in demonstrations between July 2013 and July 2014 against Hun Sens government following widespread allegations of electoral fraud during general elections in 2013. The CNRP boycotted parliament, and a government crackdown on striking garment workers who were allied with the protesters in January 2014 led to the deaths of four people and the injuring of dozens of others.

The two political parties reached a deal on electoral reform later that year that ended the nearly yearlong deadlock.

Sam Rainsy's conviction

In July, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court convicted Sam Rainsy of defaming National Assembly president Heng Samrin, who is also a senior CPP leader, fining him 10 million riels (U.S. $2,440) and ordering him to pay Heng Samrin 150 million riels (U.S. $36,590) in compensation.

At the time, Sam Rainsy told RFA the conviction was based more on politics and corruption than on an impartial judicial review.

Sam Rainsy faces arrest upon returning to Cambodia. Kem Sokha has assumed his responsibilities as party leader while he is in exile.

Other CNRP members are also serving jail time on what they say are charges trumped up by the CPP.

CNRP media director Meach Sovannara is serving a 20-year prison term for allegedly fomenting insurrection against Hun Sens government during a 2014 protest in Phnom Penh. He and 10 other activists were jailed on insurrection charges for clashing with police over the closure of a protest site.

Sovannara is suing Hun Manet, the son of Hun Sen who is widely viewed at the prime ministers successor, and the country of Cambodia for the emotional and financial damage borne by his family for his wrongful imprisonment and torture.

Reported by Sereyvuth Oung, Sokunthea Hong and Maly Leng for RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Nareth Muong. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Buddhist monk Thich Khong Tanh, abbot of the Lien Tri Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City, discusses the iron-fist rule of the Communist Party 40 years after the Vietnam War, April 9, 2015.

Government authorities in Vietnams Ho Chi Minh City have destroyed a Buddhist pagoda from which they recently evicted monks, and have moved all of the temples contents to another location, the head of the religious institution said Monday.

On Sept. 8, authorities forcibly removed all monks from Lien Tri Pagoda, which belongs to the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam and is located in district two of the citys An Khanh ward, to clear the land for a lucrative development project. The Vietnamese government does not recognize the church.

Lien Tri Pagoda is more than 70 years old, but theyve destroyed the entire pagoda, and now it has become empty land, Thich Khong Tanh, the resident abbot in charge of the pagoda, told RFAs Vietnamese Service.

He has argued that only the citynot the districthas the authority to take the religious institutions land.

Authorities took away all the sites Buddha statues, pictures, furniture, and boxes containing human ashes to the citys Cat Lai area, where they have decided to relocate the pagoda and monks, he said.

Placing a deceased persons ashes in a pagoda following cremation is one of the three ways to dispose of the remains according to Buddhist tradition.

Some people took pictures of the pagoda, which now is just a derelict place where everything has been destroyed, Tanh said.

After the most recent eviction order was issued on Sept. 5, the thousands of people who worshipped at Lien Tri Pagoda had to go elsewhere, he said. Only a few hundred continued to go there until the place was destroyed.

District authorities also issued an eviction notice in July.

I had said before that if they eliminated the pagoda, I would become a monk without a pagoda just like a homeless person, Tanh said. I may have to apply for refugee status because I have no place to stay.

Government want to 'eliminate us'

So far, the abbot has refused to sign an agreement with district officials to take over the new place they assigned to the monks.

I said before that I would not accept it even if the government offered us 100 billion Vietnamese dong (U.S. $4.4 million), he said. We dont want to sell the pagoda or trade it for anywhere else.

The government just wants to eliminate us, using hundreds of policemen to evict us despite our protest, he said.

District officials have been threatening to close the Lien Tri Pagoda since August 2014, when they sent resident monks an initial notice after Vietnamese authorities declared their intention to tear down the structure along with two Christian churches to make way for the development scheme.

Authorities had offered a payment of 5.4 billion Vietnamese dong (then about U.S. $274,000) in compensation for the pagoda and its land. But Tanh refused to accept the money, saying that authorities were using the clearance order to eliminate the pagoda because it did not belong to the governments own state-controlled Buddhist church.

Besides serving as a place of worship, the pagoda provides shelter to many rights activists and victims of injustice who go to the city to pursue their quests for justice with government authorities.

Reported by Mac Lam for RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Viet Ha. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Another week, another cease-fire in Syria. Following a U.S and Russia-brokered deal, a "cessation of hostilities" between Bashar al-Assad's forces and opposition groups was set to go into force on September 12. This, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, would allow for cooperation to defeat the extremist group Islamic State (IS) and other jihadist groups.

The cease-fire deal, timed for the start of Eid al-Adha, comes in the wake of an intense round of fighting over the divided city of Aleppo. Optimists hope that it will at least enable aid to be brought into the beleaguered city. No one seems to think it will last for any serious length of time.

But while all eyes have focused on IS in Syria, developments in Iraq are proving equally, if not more instructive, in illuminating the group's changing fortunes and -- critically -- its changing strategy in response to them.

Iraq has been consistently central to IS's pursuit of its ideological goals. It was only when it captured the country's third-largest city, Mosul, in the summer of 2014, that its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi felt finally able to declare the accomplishment of the group's long-stated objective: the establishment of an Islamic caliphate that stretched across Syria and Iraq -- demolishing the colonial-era Sykes-Picot border between the two countries in the process.

Back in 2014, IS controlled an area larger than Great Britain. Two years on, things look very different indeed. As the Iraqi government and Kurdish forces --as well as Iranian-backed Shi'ite Muslim militias -- have fought back, IS has lost about half the territory it held at its peak, including control of vital oil fields. According to Reuters, by the end of July IS had lost access to three of the five Iraqi oil fields it once controlled. The article further reports that IS used to be able to sell at least 50 tanker truckloads of oil a day from the Qayara and Najma oil fields, south of Mosul. In the face of Baghdad's fight to restore control, this has dropped to around five small tankers. That analysis was written before Turkey's ground forces crossed into northern Syria on August 24 and captured 770 square kilometers of territory in just two weeks.

Financially weakened and under siege, IS now faces the imminent threat of losing Mosul to the Iraqi military, which, along with Raqqa in Syria, is one of the twin symbols of its claimed caliphate. Government forces and militia scored a big victory over IS when they recaptured the Qayyara air base just 65 kilometers south of Mosul this summer. According to commanders, a "big push" against the city could come as soon as late next month.

Vicious Sectarianism

But all is not as well as it might seem in the fight against IS. Part of the reason for the growth of IS in Iraq was the vicious sectarianism of former Shi'ite Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, which pushed many persecuted Sunnis, reluctantly, into the arms of IS. This is a problem that remains. As Rashad Ali, a resident senior fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in London, observes: "A major problem in defeating IS is that the Hashd al-Shabi [an umbrella group of around 40, mainly Shi'ite, militias] play a leading role in the fight against it, and have, upon defeating IS forces, committed atrocities against local Sunni communities in towns and cities they have 'liberated' from IS. These are not just problematic in themselves, but have also led to a greater level of grievance against Baghdad and pushed the population toward supporting more Sunni resistance and terror groups in the region."

Put simply: the forces battling IS often act as both its enemies and its recruiters -- continuing at a military level the persecution of Sunnis that Maliki conducted at the political level.

The second point of interest is IS's changing strategy in response to its increasing military defeats. As Ali observes: "Even the CIA have commented IS's military defeats actually create a larger likelihood of terror attacks both in the region and outside as fighters disperse and the organization seeks to continue to try to project power."

Islamic State 2.0

In essence, as it suffers more defeats Islamic State is changing its tactics accordingly; as it loses at home in Iraq, it has tried to "win" abroad in Europe. The IS attacks in Paris, Nice, and Brussels over the past year are a testament to a group that may be in the process of morphing essentially from a statelet with its own standing army into, once again, a more traditional terrorist group that employs guerrilla and insurgent-style activities on the battlefield, and urban terror attacks in the cities of the West.

Syria and Iraq have always been distinct arenas for IS. The strategic vacuum the civil war created in Syria meant that it was able to both take territory but also create a symbiotic relationship with Assad's regime -- one that lent each justification and legitimacy. For Assad: the presence of IS allowed him to claim he was fighting jihadists. For IS, Assad's Iran-backed slaughter of Sunnis enabled the group to present itself, as Ali notes, as the only real and effective alternative.

In Iraq, while the group has fed off of Baghdad's persecution (and slaughter) of Sunnis in a way similar to that in Syria, the military tactics of IS have always relied on defeating largely unmotivated, and often frightened, Iraqi military forces in strongly Sunni areas of the country. Unlike in Syria, they have not allowed themselves to become too attached to any city or town; often abandoning areas rather than risk losing too many of their core fighters -- using more traditional terror tactics like IEDs to cause as much damage to incoming coalition or Iraqi troops as possible. In Iraq, it has always been more of a terror group than the army it is in Syria.

This makes it likely that this year could see Baghdad make further gains on the ground. But Baghdad is not fighting an opposing army there and the response will likely be an intensification of the trend of more insurgent attacks rather than outright battles, while those in Europe must brace themselves for yet more terror atrocities.

In Iraq we may be witnessing the emergence of IS 2.0. No matter the reversals it faces, as the recently killed IS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, declared: "The battle of wills remains.


On September 2, Uzbekistan's government announced the death of longtime President Islam Karimov. While Uzbekistan has remained tranquil in the days immediately following Karimov's death, the fact that he did not publicly anoint a favored successor has increased the risk of a prolonged power struggle in Tashkent.

Many Central Asia experts fear that political instability could disrupt Uzbekistan's natural gas exports and make the country a nexus for Islamic extremism in the region.

The uncertainty surrounding Uzbekistan's leadership transition has caused particular alarm in China. Chinese policymakers fear that Karimov's death could cause Uzbekistan to strengthen its security ties with Russia. This would erode China's leverage over its most important Central Asian partner.

The Chinese government is also concerned that instability in Uzbekistan could disrupt Uzbek liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to China, and increase the threat posed by Uzbekistan-based Islamic extremist movements to China's security.



Why Karimov's Death Could Weaken The China-Uzbekistan Partnership



Even though Uzbekistan is a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and exports large quantities of LNG natural gas to China, Karimov's death could weaken the burgeoning alliance between Beijing and Tashkent. Karimov's pro-Chinese foreign policy stance was rooted in his disdain for Russia's hegemonic aspirations in Central Asia. The Uzbek government also viewed China as a consistent partner, as it defended Uzbekistan when the United States criticized Karimov for egregious human rights abuses.



The extent of China's loyalty to Karimov was revealed by Beijing's handling of the 2005 Andijon massacre. After that massacre, the United States called for an international investigation into the Uzbek government's repression of Andijon demonstrators. But China refused to condemn Karimov's conduct.



China supported Karimov's claim that 187 civilians were killed in the Andijon massacre, and rejected Western media allegations that Uzbek military repression caused the deaths of 750 civilians. Karimov rewarded China's loyalty to his government over the Andijon massacre by supporting China's territorial claims to Taiwan and strengthening counterterrorism cooperation with Beijing.



The absence of personal loyalty bonds between Chinese officials and Uzbekistan's new leader might cause Tashkent to drift away from China's orbit. The likelihood of a China-Uzbekistan rift would grow significantly if Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyaev -- who is serving as interim president until a December 4 election -- emerges as Karimov's successor.



Mirziyaev's rumored alliance with Rustam Inoyatov, the former KGB officer who heads of the Uzbek Internal Security Service, has caused some analysts to predict an imminent improvement in the Uzbekistan-Russia relationship.



The growth of Uzbek nationalist sentiments and Russia's economic recession make Uzbekistan's accession to the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) an unlikely scenario.



However, enhanced Tashkent-Moscow security policy coordination is more likely, as Uzbekistan was a Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member from 1992-1999 and 2006-2012. If Uzbekistan rejoins the CSTO, China's leverage over Uzbekistan's security policies will dramatically diminish.



Even if Uzbekistan's foreign policy does not radically change as a result of Karimov's death, Mirziyaev's history of impulsive violence and thuggish reputation could cause alarm in Beijing. China has strengthened its relationship with Uzbekistan, in part because it viewed Karimov as a steady-handed dictator presiding over a highly authoritarian regime.





If Uzbekistan's international conduct were to become more unpredictable under Mirziyaev's rule, China could redirect its investments and diplomatic energies towards strengthening its budding partnerships with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. A Chinese pivot away from Uzbekistan would be devastating for Tashkent, as Uzbekistan stands to benefit more than any other Central Asian country from China's One Belt, One Road funding.



If Mirziyaev's erratic conduct was to cause a schism within the elite that prevented him from maintaining complete dominance over Uzbekistan's political life, as Karimov did, Uzbekistan's relationship with China could suffer. Uzbek political analyst Anvar Nazirov recently told Eurasianet that Karimov's absolute control over the Uzbek media has restricted coverage of winter fuel shortages caused by excessive Uzbek gas exports to China.



If Uzbek elites opposed to the Samarkand clan's political hegemony foment anti-Chinese nationalist sentiments, many Uzbeks may no longer view alignment with China as a lesser evil to Russian neo-imperialism. This change in perception would weaken the soft power foundations of China's most important Central Asian alliance and cause considerable strains in the Uzbekistan-China relationship.



How Karimov's Death Could Undercut The China-Uzbekistan Security Partnership



Even though China elevated its relationship with Uzbekistan to a strategic partnership at the Tashkent SCO summit on June 22, instability in Uzbekistan resulting from Karimov's death could threaten China's strategic interests. Chinese policymakers are concerned that unrest in Uzbekistan could disrupt Uzbekistan's LNG sales to China.



Uzbekistan has drastically increased its gas exports to China in recent years to take advantage of Beijing's investments in Central Asian gas pipelines and dilute China's reliance on Russian gas. Three major Chinese-funded gas pipelines run through Uzbekistan. These pipelines contribute 20 percent of China's annual natural gas consumption. According to a recent Global Risk Insights report, Chinese investors are in the process of constructing a fourth pipeline that would pump an additional 30 billion cubic meters of gas from Turkmenistan to China via Uzbekistan.



As Uzbekistan's gas exports to China directly threaten Russia's interests, Moscow could offer Uzbekistan's new president security guarantees that require Tashkent to slow the growth of its gas exports to China. The resolution of the 2015 Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan dispute on Russia's terms provides a useful precedent for Russian President Vladimir Putin to apply to the Uzbekistan-China relationship.



Journalist Chris Rickleton suggested in a January 2015 article for Eurasianet that Russia offered to forgive Uzbek debt if Karimov agreed to resume gas exports to southern Kyrgyzstan. This implies that, if Russia provides Tashkent with the right incentives, Uzbekistan could align with Moscow's preferences and restrict China's access to Uzbekistan's natural gas reserves.





Chinese policymakers are also concerned that instability in Uzbekistan could strengthen Islamic extremist groups, like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and Islamic State (IS). The August 30 attack on the Chinese embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, has heightened Beijing's concerns about the threat posed by radical Islamists in Central Asia. As Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have a long-standing border dispute, Chinese officials are worried that radicalized Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan could cross the shared border and launch terror attacks against Chinese nationals in Kyrgyzstan.

To appease Chinese policymakers and maintain Uzbekistan's secular authoritarian system, Uzbekistan's new president will likely continue Karimov's repression of Islamist movements. But if Uzbekistan succumbs to a power struggle between the Tashkent and Samarkand clans, internal discord could empower Uzbek Islamic extremist movements, which direct their animosities towards China.



According to a Eurasianet report that cited an unnamed translator at a company working on Uzbekistan's Angren-Pap railroad project, many Uzbek Islamists disdain Chinese guest workers because the majority of Chinese expats are atheists. The IMU's official alignment with IS in mid-2015 has further increased the risk of religiously motivated terror attacks on Chinese Confucian institutes in Uzbekistan.



The Chinese government is also concerned that instability in Uzbekistan could fuel Uyghur terrorism in China's Xinjiang province. An estimated 55,000 Uyghurs live in Uzbekistan, and some Uyghur insurgents have a cordial relationship with the IMU. Some analysts have speculated that the IMU could militarize Uyghurs in Uzbekistan to attack Chinese-funded pipeline projects in Uzbekistan. This scenario could compromise China-Uzbekistan counterterrorism cooperation under the SCO umbrella, and undercut the security foundations of Beijing's Central Asian strategy.



Islam Karimov's death has plunged the future of the China-Uzbekistan partnership into a prolonged period of uncertainty. If Uzbekistan undergoes a smooth presidential succession to the rule of Mirziyaev or Finance Minister Rustam Azimov, Beijing-Tashkent relations will likely remain largely unchanged. But if Uzbekistan succumbs to inter-clan strife and the rising tide of Islamic extremism, China stands to lose a critical Central Asian ally.

Regardless of how Uzbekistan's political future unfolds, Chinese policymakers will be keeping a close eye on developments in Tashkent in the months and years to come.

Samuel Ramani is a DPhil candidate in International Relations at St. Antony's College, University of Oxford. He is also a freelance journalist. He can be followed on Twitter (@samramani2) and on Facebook (Samuel Ramani).


It has only been a few days since 34-year old Anna Kuznetsova replaced scandal-plagued Pavel Astakhov as Russia's children's rights commissioner, but she has already become embroiled in a controversy of her own.

Kuznetsova, who replaced Astakhov due to the fallout over his tendency to make callous, off-the-wall comments, is under the microscope for her alleged views on reproduction.

In a 2009 interview with Penza Medical Portal, a psychologist working as a "pre-abortion consultant" identified as Anna Kuznetsova discusses abortions and telegony, a widely debunked theory that every sexual partner a woman has ever had can physically and emotionally influence a child she gives birth to.

The theory -- which dates back to ancient Greece and was popular in the Middle Ages -- is often used to persuade women not to have premarital sex.

"Based on the relatively new science of telegony, we can say that the womb's cells have information-wavelength memory," the interviewee is quoted as saying. "So these cells remember everything that happened in them. For instance, if a woman has several partners, there is a significant chance of a baby being born weakened due to the mixing of information. This fact has an especially strong influence on the morals of a future child."

"An abortion, in its turn, is also a serious shock for a wanted baby, because the cells remember the fetus's fear before abortion -- they remember death."

Kuznetsova, a psychologist and mother of six children, told the RBK news portal she "doesn't remember" saying anything like that, and suggests that the topic was not something she was qualified to discuss.

"You know, it's a story of quite dubious origin," she said. "Besides, it seems like a qualified biologist, at the least a PhD, is speaking [in the interview]. I don't express myself like that," Kuznetsova said.

One 'Positive' Note

Her husband, Aleksei Kuznetsov, a senior priest in Penza Oblast, some 600 kilometers southeast of Moscow, also cast doubt on the interview.

"Some of our Penza journalists like to embellish their creations and add their thoughts to the article," he wrote on Facebook, speaking about local reports on the 2009 interview. Kuznetsov added that telegony is not a science and neither he, nor his wife "recognize its postulates, because there is a clear position of the church on the matter."

He did, however, find one positive note.

"I am happy that the commentators, without realizing it, promoted the topic of abstinence and morality :)," Kuznetsov wrote.

Tatyana Popadeva, the journalist who conducted the 2009 interview, confirmed that she had interviewed Kuznetsova, and defended her work while noting that people can change their mind or forget things from their past.

"We are not tale-tellers, we don't fantasize, don't embellish, don't invent," she said of journalists in an interview with the local 1PNZ news portal. "However, I want to protect my compatriots Anna and Aleksei Kuznetsov. Human memory is imperfect.... Can you imagine how many books you can read in seven years? How many of them can be scientific? In this time anyone of us could change their mind and worldview by 180 degrees."

Popadeva offered to conduct a new interview with Kuznetsova, noting the importance of her new position guaranteeing a precise account of the conversation. Popadeva concluded by saying: "Lying, it is a great sin for anyone."

The extent to which Kuznetsova's position has changed over the last seven years has been of little importance to many on Russian social media.

"Telegony of womb cells: do not forget, do not forgive!" tweeted financial analyst Slava Rabinovich.

"In the U.S., they're presenting the new iPhone, and we have telegony and a womb with wavelength memory," tweeted another user.

Amid the uproar, Pavel Chikov, a prominent Russian lawyer and rights advocate, alleged a new potentially damaging revelation about Kuznetsova. In a tweet, he claimed that she was a member of a group on VKontakte titled: "HIV/AIDS -- the biggest mystification of the XX century."

"I'd like to remind you that there are more than one million HIV-positive children in Russia and there is no money for their treatment," Chikov added.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has said a peace deal with the Hezb-e Islami militant group is close to being finalized, boosting hopes of progress toward ending decades of war.

Negotiations with the militant group, led by notorious warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, have been going on since March when a draft deal was signed.

But a final agreement has been held up with some in the Afghan government suspicious of bringing one of the most radical militants in Afghanistan into the fold.

"Some issues are left and those are issues that would be very important for implementing peace," Ghani said on September 12, the start of the three-day Eid al-Adha holiday. "These issues should be solved within a limited period of time."

Rights activists have expressed concerns about long-standing accusations of human rights abuses against Hekmatyar, who was responsible for some of the worst atrocities committed during the civil war in the 1990s.

Hezb-e Islami has also carried out deadly attacks against U.S. and Afghan forces since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

Kabul hopes a deal with Hezb-e Islami can convince the Taliban to end its insurgency and join the political process.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP
Two militants who attacked a hospital in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar have been killed by Afghan security forces.

Samim Khpalwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor of Kandahar, said the target for the attack was the deputy governor, who was visiting the Kandahar Mirwais Hospital, a large regional facility that provides medical services to war victims, including members of the army and police.

One Afghan security officer was wounded in the clashes.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, although Taliban militants have increased attacks against government forces in the country's restive south.

Taliban militants are fighting government forces in the opium-producing province of Helmand and have threatened to overrun the provincial capital of Uruzgan Province, Tarin Kowt.

With reporting by Reuters
Two opposition figures have won seats in the next parliament in Belarus, the first time the opposition will be represented in parliament in 20 years.

The Central Election Commission said Hanna Kanapatskaya of the United Civil Party won a mandate in the 110-seat lower house of parliament in the country's September 11 elections.

Independent candidate Alena Anisim, who has links to the opposition, also won a seat.

Kanapatskaya and Anisim will be the first opposition parliament deputies in Belarus since 1996. Parliament has been dominated by allies of the country's strongman president, Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

The commission reported that turnout was 74.32 percent. Of the 521 candidates that ran in the elections, 176 represented opposition parties.

The elections were monitored by more than 400 observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Belarus has not held a vote that was assessed free or democratic since the early 1990s, and authorities routinely punish dissent and keep a tight lid on the media in the post-Soviet country of around 10 million people.

Based on reporting by Reuters and Interfax
Russia and China have launched joint military exercises in the South China Sea, the site of heated territorial disputes between Beijing and its neighbors.

The eight-day Joint Sea-2016 exercises, which began on September 12, simulate "seizing and controlling" islands and shoals in the area, Chinese naval spokesman Liang Yang was quoted as saying.

Surface ships, submarines, aircraft, amphibious armor, and marine troops will participate.

The exercises are part of an annual effort to "consolidate and advance the Sino-Russian comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, and deepen friendly and practical cooperation between the two militaries," Yang said.

Joint drills have become increasingly common in recent years with Beijing and Moscow united in their suspicion of Washington and its allies in the region.

Tensions have been running high in the region after China claimed sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea and began building a network of artificial islands with military infrastructure.

The United States has repeatedly sent warships into the area to dispute Chinas claims and to keep international shipping lanes open.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP
For the first time in 20 years, official election results in Belarus show that candidates who are not allies of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka have won seats in parliament -- two seats out of 110, to be exact.

But independent analysts and election observers warn the results don't mean that Belarus has suddenly cleaned up its notoriously corrupt electoral system or that the beleaguered opposition's fortunes have dramatically improved.

They say the tally for the September 11 parliamentary vote was as fraught with fraud as ever.

This time, critics allege, Lukashenka has allowed two candidates with opposition sympathies to be proclaimed winners because of pressure from the West.

"The appointment of two independent deputies signals Belarusian authorities are ready for some sort of transformation, but they want to control this transformation and limit it very strictly," Andrey Dynko, editor in chief of the independent Our Field newspaper and website, told RFE/RL. "Simultaneously, these appointments are also snubbing the nose of the West and those in the opposition who wanted to mastermind the creation of some moderate opposition."

Lukashenka, he argued, "wants to show that he wants to select who will be the moderate opposition in his country."

On September 12, international observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) cited the weekend Belarus elections as "efficiently organized" but still beset by "systemic shortcomings." They criticized the country's "constitutional and legal framework" as insufficient to meet international standards, in addition to media bias and a lack of "fundamental freedoms."

None of the country's elections has been deemed democratic since referendums in the mid-1990s that ushered in a new constitution and consolidated Lukashenka's power, marginalizing the president's political opponents in the process.

'Concession' To Critics

The editor in chief of the Minsk-based analytical website Our Opinion, Valeriea Kosyugova, noted that Lukashenka has been under pressure to open up elections to the political opposition in order to improve diplomatic and economic ties with the European Union and the United States.

Kosyugova agreed that allowing a single opposition candidate and one independent candidate to win parliamentary seats was a concession to its international critics.

One of those candidates, Hanna Kanapatskaya from the opposition United Civil Party, was declared the winner in Minsk's 97th electoral district.

Her main rival was one of the best-known opposition candidates who did not opt to boycott the ballot: Tatsyana Karatkevich of the Tell The Truth movement, who had run against Lukashenka for president in October 2015.

An independent candidate from the town of Stouptsy, Alena Anisim, was also declared the winner in a race against the principal of a local, state-run elementary school.

Anisim is the deputy head of a nongovernmental group called the Belarusian Language Society, which promotes Belarusian culture and the use of the Belarusian language, which is frequently sidelined in favor of Russian.

'Appointed' To Parliament

Mikalay Statkevich, a prominent Belarusian opposition figure who was imprisoned for 5 1/2 years for organizing mass demonstrations after his unsuccessful 2010 presidential bid against Lukashenka, says both Kanapatskaya and Anisim were "appointed" to parliament by Lukashenka.

"Let's be honest," Statkevich told RFE/RL on September 12. "Lukashenka appointed these women because he thinks they are less dangerous" to his government and his political agenda than other opposition candidates.

Reporters at Dynko's Our Field documented evidence purportedly showing election officials altering the official turnout and early vote count in Kanapatskaya's race against Karatkevich.

Still, Dynko said, any favoritism shown by election officials for Kanapatskaya and Anisim would not be the fault of those candidates.

WATCH: Voting In Belarus 'Just A Wild Guess'

Despite the motive for any favoritism they may have been shown by election officials, Dynka said he sees the emergence of moderate opposition deputies in parliament as a positive development.

He said Kanapatskaya and Anisim are "real, opposition, and not some fake opposition as we've had in Belarus," in Russia, and in other former Soviet republics since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

He told RFE/RL that their ability to voice the opinions and agenda of the political opposition could expose new ideas to new audiences in Belarus.

And while the pair is unlikely to change the political landscape by proposing political reforms that would be passed by other lawmakers, he said he expects Lukashenka's allies will join with them to consolidate a Belarusian national identity and to promote Belarusian national sovereignty.

OSCE election monitors in Minsk concluded that, just like previous elections in Belarus over the past 20 years, the September 11 ballot was "still marred by a significant number of procedural irregularities and a lack of transparency" linked to "early voting and counting and tabulation procedures."

It said that despite the declared victories of one independent and one opposition candidate, Belarus has "yet to take steps towards democratic elections."

'No Way Free And Fair'

Kent Harstedt, the vice president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the head of the OSCE's observer mission in Minsk, told RFE/RL on September 12 that Belarus's elections "were in no way free and fair" and that "there were so many violations that they did not meet international standards."

In fact, Belarus has not held a vote that was assessed by international monitors as free or democratic since the early 1990s.

Authorities there routinely punish dissent and tightly control media -- leading to Western sanctions against Minsk for human rights abuses and severed diplomatic ties.

But relations between Minsk and the West have improved since Lukashenka hosted international peace talks on Ukraine's conflict and announced the release of political prisoners in 2015.

In February, the European Union ended five years of sanctions against Belarus as part of a push to encourage democratic change through engagement rather than isolation.

Washington has also relaxed some of its restrictions as it tries to counter what it sees as a newly aggressive Russia.

Belarus has also implemented some economic reforms in a bid to get loans from international lenders -- including a $3 billion loan it is seeking from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The economic crisis in Russia linked to falling oil prices and sanctions over Moscow's role in Ukraine's conflict has also hurt Belarus.

With 40 percent of Belarusian exports going to Russia, the Belarusian economy shrank by 3.9 percent in 2015.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Belarusian Service


MINSK -- The chief of the short-term OSCE observer mission in Belarus says the September 11 parliamentary elections were "in no way free and fair."

Kent Harstedt from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe told RFE/RL in Minsk on September 12 that "there were so many violations that they did not meet international standards."

There were some improvements in the way the elections were held, Harstedt said.

But he added that it was impossible to rely on the official results as Belarus needs to change its election laws and regulations for the registration of political parties.

Earlier, Belarus's Central Election Commission (CEC) said two opposition figures had won seats in the next parliament.

Hanna Kanapatskaya of the United Civil Party and independent candidate Alena Anisim are the first opposition parliamentarians to win seats in 20 years. Parliament has been dominated by allies of the country's strongman president, Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

The CEC reported that turnout was 74.32 percent.

Belarus has not held a vote that was assessed free or democratic since the early 1990s, and authorities routinely punish dissent and keep a tight lid on the media in the post-Soviet country of around 10 million people.

Based on reporting by Reuters and Interfax


This photograph, of the Northern Lights sparkling above a village in Belarus, has no artistic merit whatsoever -- according, that is, to a recent court ruling in a copyright dispute between a well-known photographer and Belarus's state-run television network.

On March 17, 2015, Anton Motolko drove 60 kilometers north of his home in Minsk to photograph the Northern Lights, a rarity in Belarus. After a spectacular and successful night working, he published the images on his social media accounts and they quickly went viral.

The next evening, Belteleradiocompany, a state-run television network in Belarus, ran a feature on Motolko's work that compared the hues in his photos to the red and green Belarusian flag. The television channel did not pay or credit Motolko, and had not asked permission to use the pictures.

The unauthorized use of their work is something photographers have become accustomed to in Belarus, Motolko told RFE/RL. "They [the television network] do it all the time."

But this time the photographer saw his images used in a way he never intended. "They used these photos like a f****ing government propaganda symbol," he told RFE/RL by telephone.

The red and green flag is similar to one used by the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic in the 1950s, and is associated with the government of strongman President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who brought it back as an official state symbol in 1995.

It replaced the white-red-white flag -- used by the Belarusian Peoples Republic of 1918 and after Belarus gained independence in 1991 -- that is seen as a symbol of the opposition.

Motolko decided to sue. "I was asking for about 1,000 euros ($1,100)," he said. But as the case wore on, he decided to drop the amount in damages he sought to just one kopek -- less than a cent. "I wanted to be clear that this wasn't about the money, that I just wanted professional respect."

In Belarus, going up against state-run organizations is a difficult proposition, but in this case the country's copyright laws were clear. Motolko felt he was fighting on behalf of the many photographers, two of whom he knows personally, he says have had their images used without permission on state television.

Last week, Motolko learned that his effort had ended in failure.

Key to the television network's case was testimony from an expert who said that Motolko's photographs did not have "any signs of creative freshness, originality, uniqueness, or exceptionality."

The images were deemed to be a commonplace record of a "social event," and therefore copyright protection did not apply. The case cost Motolko around $300, $40 of which was to pay for the expert who declared his work so unoriginal it was unworthy of copyright protection.

There has been outrage, as well as humor, on Belarusian social media in response to the ruling. One beer company came out with an "Autumn Fire" brew, using one of Motolko's photographs on the logo.

Team Brewery thanked Motolko for the "beautiful background that did not feature any creativity, or copyright restrictions."

But this is not the end for Motolko, who is waiting to see if his appeal to the World Intellectual Property Organization, an agency of the United Nations, has been accepted. "This is just the beginning," he was quoted as saying last week by Delovaya Gazeta.

A representative for Belteleradiocompany agreed to respond to RFE/RL's questions by e-mail, but as of time of publication RFE/RL had received no response, and further calls went unanswered.


Russian President Vladimir Putin says the world faces the most dangerous decade since World War II and predicted that the historical period of the West's "undivided dominance over world affairs" is coming to an end.

Speaking on October 27 at a conference of international policy experts in Moscow, Putin said the decade ahead is "probably the most dangerous, unpredictable and, at the same time, important...since the end of World War II."

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, Russian protests, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

Putin laid the blame for the situation at the feet of Western countries, which he said have cast aside the norms of international affairs in order to maintain dominance and hold down countries they see as "second-class civilizations."

The Russian leader also said he had no regrets about sending troops into Ukraine and sought to explain the conflict as part of the efforts by Western countries to secure their global domination.

Putin claimed in his speech to the Valdai Discussion Club, a think tank, that the West had helped incite the conflict and also seeks to stoke a crisis over Taiwan in an attempt to enforce global dominance.

Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, triggering the biggest military conflict in Europe since World War II and driving relations with Western countries that back Ukraine and its drive to be part of the European Union and NATO to their lowest depths since the Cold War.

Putin cast the conflict in Ukraine as a battle between the West and Russia for the fate of the second-largest Eastern Slav country. It is partly a "civil war," he said, as Russians and Ukrainians are one people. Kyiv has flatly rejected both of those ideas.

The goal of what Russia refers to as a "special military operation" is to take the eastern Donbas region, Putin said, adding that in his view the region would "not have survived" on its own had Russia not intervened militarily in Ukraine.

WATCH: A local official told Russian conscripts "You are not cannon fodder" in a video published online recently. The men responded by angrily shouting that, actually, that's exactly what they are.

But the war has gone far beyond the Donbas region, with Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure, residential buildings, and other nonmilitary structures, killing tens of thousands of Ukrainians across the country.

Putin used the speech largely to rail against the West, saying it has nothing to offer to the world "except its own domination," and the goal of globalization "is neocolonialism to dominate the world." He said Russia is only trying to defend its right to exist in the face these Western efforts.

Putin also asserted that more and more nations refuse to follow Washington's demands and Russia will never accept the West's attempts to dominate the world.

Citing gay pride parades and the acceptance of transgender people in Western countries, Putin also defended "traditional values" and said "nobody can dictate to our people how to develop and what society we should build."

He also said Russia has never considered the West an enemy and has many things in common with it but will continue to oppose the diktat of Western neoliberal elites.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Putin's speech presented no new ideas.

"We don't believe that Mr. Putin's strategic goals have changed here. He doesn't want Ukraine to exist as a sovereign, independent nation state," Kirby said.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Putin's speech can be described as "for Freud," referring to psychoanalysis founder Sigmund Freud.



"The person who invaded a foreign country, annexed its land, and committed genocide accuses others of violating international law and the sovereignty of other countries? One truth: The person who started a wind will get a storm. The storm is coming," he said on Twitter.

Answering questions from journalists after his speech, Putin reiterated the Kremlin's assertion that Ukraine plans to use a so-called dirty bomb on its own territory. The claim has been dismissed as false by Ukraine and its allies, who say Russia may have raised the matter because it plans to use such a bomb in Ukraine as a pretext for escalation.

"It was me who ordered [Defense Minister Sergei] Shoigu to inform by phone all his colleagues about it," Putin said, adding that Russia does not need to use dirty bombs in Ukraine.

Putin also said he supported plans by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit Ukraine's nuclear power plants for inspections.

"It must be done as soon and as openly as possible because we know that Kyiv authorities are now working to cover up such [dirty-bomb attack] preparations," Putin said, without giving any exact information proving the claim.

Ukraine invited IAEA inspectors to visit its nuclear facilities after the Kremlin made its unsubstantiated claim about the preparation of a dirty bomb -- which would use the explosion of a conventional warhead to spread radioactive material or chemicals over a wide area.

Ukraine said it would welcome inspections because it had "nothing to hide."

According to Putin, Russia has never talked about the use of nuclear weapons in the war with Ukraine despite his own promise to defend Russian territory with any means at our disposal" and saying his words were "not a bluff."

"We see no need for [using nuclear weapons in Ukraine]," Putin told reporters. "There is no sense for that, neither political, nor military."
Russia and China have launched joint military exercises in the South China Sea, the site of heated territorial disputes between Beijing and its neighbors.

The eight-day Joint Sea-2016 exercises, which began on September 12, simulate "seizing and controlling" islands and shoals in the area, Chinese naval spokesman Liang Yang was quoted as saying.

Surface ships, submarines, aircraft, amphibious armor, and marine troops will participate.

The exercises are part of an annual effort to "consolidate and advance the Sino-Russian comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, and deepen friendly and practical cooperation between the two militaries," Yang said.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said that ,as long as the drills were not threatening or provocative and were conducted in accordance with international law, "there's nothing that precludes them from doing that."

Joint drills have become increasingly common in recent years with Beijing and Moscow united in their suspicion of Washington and its allies in the region.

Tensions have been running high in the area after China claimed sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea and began building a network of artificial islands with military infrastructure.

The United States has repeatedly sent warships into the region to dispute Chinas claims and to keep international shipping lanes open.

Based on reporting by AP, AFP, and AP
Russian authorities have detained a man in the northwestern region of Karelia suspected of recruiting fighters for the Islamic State (IS) extremist group in Syria.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) office in Karelia said on September 12 that the suspect, whose name was not disclosed, is a 37-year-old native of Russia's predominately Muslim North Caucasus region.

According to the FSB, the man is suspected of propagating extremist views via the Internet with the goal of recruiting Russians to join IS militants.

In recent months, dozens of people have been detained or jailed in Russia and former Soviet republics for recruiting fighters for extremist groups in Syria and Iraq.

Russian officials have said at least 5,000 Russians and citizens of other ex-Soviet republics have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join IS extremists.

Based on reporting by TASS and Rk.karelia.ru
Bulat Barantayev is calling for the impeachment of Russian President Vladimir Putin and for all corrupt officials to be tried and imprisoned.

But that's not why he has no chance of winning a legislative mandate in Russia's September 28 Duma elections.

Barantayev, by his own admission, won't be representing Novosibirsk from the liberal Parnas coalition because he is one of the first openly gay men to run for the Duma in modern Russian history.

"For a long time now, I have used all opportunities to cultivate an audience for accepting LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender] people," Barantayev told RFE/RL when asked why he was running in a race he is certain he can't win. "By my example, I show that gays in Russia can create their own successful businesses, can meet with people, can have children, and can even run for the State Duma."

Aleksei Korolyov is another openly gay man on the Parnas ticket in the southern city of Krasnodar. He is also realistic about his chances but confident his candidacy is a step forward for Russia.

"The LGBT community now is in a desperate situation," he told RFE/RL, "and we need allies. It is good that we have been able to form an alliance with Parnas. The LGBT community gets new resources to defend itself and the party should get some new voters.... I decided to run because the ruling party has adopted an extreme homophobic position. The authorities are facilitating a homophobic discourse in society that is inciting hate crimes."

Moved To Action

Both Barantayev and Korolyov were moved to public action by Russia's 2013 law banning the "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relationships" to minors.

"The mechanism that the authorities are using to foster homophobia in society is very primitive," Barantayev said. "The LGBT community has been branded as enemies in order to divert the public's attention from real economic and political problems."

Barantayev, 33, has been open about his sexuality since he was 25, and in 2011 he created the local nongovernmental GORD gay-advocacy organization.

In 2009, he was inspired when opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead in Moscow in 2015, made a quixotic run to become mayor of the city of Sochi. He joined Nemtsov's Solidarity movement, the first step on his road to the current campaign.

Korolyov, 29, has been a gay-rights activist in the southern city of Krasnodar since 2012.

"For four years, I have been working to establish relations between the LGBT community and various democratic organizations, including the Yabloko party," he said. "Before the passage of the 'gay propaganda' law, many democrats said the topic isn't important and society won't respond positively. Now everyone understands that the LGBT community needs support."

The liberal Yabloko party even included support for the rights of sexual minorities as a plank in its party platform. Parnas, however, did not.

"Unlike Yabloko, our party is struggling to survive. We can't afford to get into particulars," Barantayev said when asked why. "Even in this silence, the democratic values of Parnas include the defense of LGBT rights."

Playing The Long game

Barantayev said that he doesn't feel in danger running for parliament.

"I am risking less than other candidates from our party," he said. "The leader of the Novosibirsk branch of Parnas, Yegor Savin, is under tremendous pressure. His assistant was recently assaulted. People who are distributing his leaflets have been threatened over the phone. The building where his business is located was set on fire."

"I'm of no interest to local officials, the police, or the United Russia party," Barantayev added. "The authorities believe there is no chance I'll be elected in today's Russia. So they don't pay any attention to me."

This contrasts sharply with his past experience of merely being gay in Russia.

"I have been attacked," he said. "I was called and summoned to the mayor's office in response to my application to hold an LGBT event. But outside the building, I was jumped by thugs and beaten up. When I return home late, young men that I don't know call me by name and shout obscenities. Because of the attacks, I am a little afraid to be out in public sometimes. But I don't have a victim complex. They treat us the way we let them treat us."

Both men are playing the long game and are optimistic that time is on their side.

"Maybe I'll be elected to the eighth Duma [in 2021]," Korolyov said. "We can't hide and be afraid. The discriminatory law has activated the LGBT community and has spurred development. We recognize that if we don't do politics, politics will do us."

In Novosibirsk, Barantayev also sees progress.

"These days, the best journalists come to LGBT events and report about them properly and positively," he said. "In 2016, being a homophobe is the same as having 'I'm a provincial rube' tattooed on your forehead."

Asked about pro-Kremlin television personality Dmitry Kiselyov, who notoriously said the organs of gays should be burned rather than used for transplants, Barantayev said: "Kiselyov is the opinion leader of provincials. He does not determine what happens tomorrow."


Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has accused the United States and its Western partners of "destroying the foundations of the existing world order from the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina to the wars in Libya and Iraq."

Shoigu spoke on September 12 after U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter accused Moscow of having a "clear ambition to erode the principled international order."

Carter said last week that Russia had engaged in "unprofessional behavior" in Ukraine, Syria, and cyberspace.

But Shoigu said in a statement that "the international order mustn't be mistaken with the American order."

He also said that "maintaining the international order is the prerogative of the entire international community -- not only the Pentagon."

"The sooner our U.S. colleagues realize that and begin to change, the sooner our accumulated disagreements could be settled, and not only on Syria," Shoigu added.

Based on reporting by AP and TASS
Russia's finance minister is planning to meet next month with his Ukrainian counterpart for talks on Kyiv's multi-billion-dollar bond default.

Talks mediated by Germany are being planned during International Monetary Fund (IMF) meetings in Washington in early October, Anton Siluanov said on September 12, adding that he is open to an out-of-court settlement.

It would be the first meeting between Siluanov and Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk, who was appointed to the post earlier this year.

In February, the Russian government filed a lawsuit at the High Court in London seeking to recover the $3 billion debt, which Ukraine failed to repay when it came due in December 2015.

Hearings are expected to start in early 2017.

Moscow claims it should be granted better restructuring terms than those accepted by Ukraines private creditors in a $15 billion debt overhaul last year, while Kyiv insists it cannot offer Russia a better deal than other creditors.

"If Ukraine continues to make the same demands as in previous meetings, the negotiations will be completely unconstructive," Siluanov said.

Based on reporting by TASS and Bloomberg


ON MY MIND

The upcoming State Duma elections will kick off the new political season in Russia that will culminate with the 2018 presidential election. But while Vladimir Putin has been busy ditching old cronies and bringing fresh blood into the Kremlin administration, it appears that the new State Duma will feature the same old parties and the same old faces.

We'll again see United Russia, A Just Russia, Vladimir Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democrats, and Gennady Zyuganov's Communists. Meet the new Duma, same as the old Duma.

But there is one way that this legislature may be different. Half its members will be elected from single-mandate constituencies in the regions -- which could make for a less manageable parliament for the Kremlin. Which is one of the reasons why rumors that Vlacheslav Volodin, the deputy Kremlin chief of staff and the regime's main political fixer, will be the next Duma speaker could just be plausible.

IN THE NEWS

Russian tycoon and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky has launched a project to identify replacements for Russian President Vladimir Putin in the 2018 presidential election.

Russia and China have launched joint military exercises in the South China Sea, the site of heated territorial disputes between Beijing and its neighbors.

Two opposition figures have won seats in the next parliament in Belarus, the first time the opposition will be represented in parliament in 20 years.

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency is again warning about Russia's computer-hacking abilities, saying the country has "exceptionally capable and sophisticated cyber-capabilities."

Greenpeace activists have been attacked in the Krasnodar region.

LATEST POWER VERTICAL PODCAST

On the latest Power Vertical Podcast, we looked at the anniversary of the 1999 apartment bombings and what they mean for Russia today. Joining me were co-host Mark Galeotti, a senior research fellow at the Institute of International Relations in Prague; David Satter, author of the recently published book The Less You Know, The Better You Sleep; and former State Department official Donald Jensen.

NEW POWER VERTICAL BRIEFING

On the new Power Vertical Briefing, I discuss Russia's upcoming legislative elections with Senior RFE/RL Editor Steve Gutterman.

WHAT I'M READING

Russia In American Politics

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat has a piece, Our Russia Problem, that takes a look at the Russia conundrum in U.S. politics.

"Russia's place in American politics used to be (relatively) simple. The further right you stood, the more you feared Ivan and his Slavic wiles. The further left, the more you likely thought the Red Menace was mostly just a scare story," Douthat writes.

"Now things are more complicated."

The Costs Of Cutting The War Machine

In a piece for BNE Intelinews, Mark Galeotti argues that as the Russian military faces cuts, Putin will lose muscle.

"Russias finance ministry has proposed a 6 percent cut to the defense budget, phased over the next three years. This is unlikely in any case to be fully applied, but nonetheless says something about the economic squeeze on Vladimir Putins ambitions. The implications are serious not just for Russias military, but also its defense industries," Galeotti writes.

Is Putin Winning?

In a piece in the Kyiv Post, Alexei Bayer asks: Is Putin winning his war with the West?

"With Putin turning 64 in October, he will reach Brezhnevs age in 1970, when the Soviet Union started to stagnate," Bayer writes.

"The same forces that caused the Soviet Union to rot and eventually crumble are very much at work in today's Russia. The Russian economy is inefficient, its population is backward and its adventurism abroad -- in Syria and Ukraine for now, but probably in Central Asia and again in the Caucasus next -- is costing it plenty and causing it to overextend. We may have to wait a while, but unlike Brezhnev, Putin probably won't have the luxury of growing old and decrepit in the Kremlin in today's more dynamic environment. Putin's Russia will eventually follow Brezhnevs Soviet Union to the dust heap of history."

The Putin Files

Benjamin Nathans has a piece in the New York Review of Books, The Real Power of Putin, looking at a series of recent notable books about the Kremlin leader.

Selective Leakage

According to a report in The Daily Dot, a "trove of hacked emails published by WikiLeaks in 2012 excludes records of a 2 billion euro transaction between the Syrian regime and a government-owned Russian bank."
Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev has arrived in Uzbekistan to pay his respects to late President Islam Karimov, who died of a stroke earlier this month.

The Kazakh president's press service said Nazarbaev arrived on September 12 in Samarkand, Karimov's home city and where he was buried on September 3.

According to the press service, Nazarbaev is also scheduled to meet with Karimov's relatives and acting Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyaev.

Nazarbaev's trip to Samarkand takes place nearly a week after Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the city to honor Karimov.

Both Nazarbaev and Putin were unable to attend Karimov's funeral because they were taking part in the G20 summit in China.

Karimov, 78, had ruled for 27 years at the center of a tight inner circle and ruthlessly applied the country's security and intelligence forces to keep a tight lid on dissent.

Nazarbaev is now the only surviving leader in the post-Soviet space who has ruled a former Soviet republic since Soviet times.
Muslims in many countries celebrated the first day of Eid al-Adha on September 12, marking the holiday with the slaughter of sheep and other animals. The feast of sacrifice pays tribute to the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham), who showed his willingness to sacrifice his first son as an act of supplication to God. Families traditionally keep some of the animal's meat for themselves, share some with friends and neighbors, and donate a portion to the needy. While Muslims in Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East started their celebrations, believers in Pakistan and other countries were still waiting for the holiday to begin one day later.
8 Pakistani bystanders gather at the site of a collision between an express train and a freight train on the outskirts of Multan. At least six people were killed and more than 100 injured. Railway officials blamed the accident on the passenger train engineer, saying he failed to heed a red signal that went up after the freight train had stopped. The freight train stopped so the driver could remove the body of a man who tried to cross the track and got crushed to death. (AFP/SS Mirza)
Virginias housing industry generated $47.8 billion in economic activity in 2015, with $21.8 billion in direct output, making it the sixth-largest private sector industry in Virginia in terms of direct output, according to a study released Sept. 2 by the Virginia Housing Policy Advisory Council.

The council develops policy initiatives aimed at addressing critical housing needs.

In addition to the employment and spending impact cited in this report, we are proud that homeownership uplifts individual families with the opportunity to build wealth through equity, creating even greater long-term economic benefits to individuals and to our entire state, said Bill White, 2016 president of the Virginia Association of Realtors and president of Joyner Fine Properties in Richmond.

The association is a stakeholder in the Virginia Housing Policy Advisory Council.

The housing industry in Virginia supported more than 314,000 jobs paying more than $14 billion in annual wages, salaries and benefits in 2015, according to the study. It provides about 8 percent of Virginias jobs.

The industry represents a diversified group of economic sectors, including construction, finance, retail trade, transportation, and professional and residential services.

The economic impact study showcases Virginias housing industry as an economic driver that generates thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity, making it a central component of our economic strategy, Gov. Terry McAuliffe said in a statement.

Housing is a key indicator of any communitys vitality, and we will continue to develop strong housing policies as we build a new Virginia economy.

The study was commissioned by the governors Housing Policy Advisory Council and is the first component of a larger research effort, Assessing the Importance of Housing for Virginias Economy, conducted by the Virginia Coalition of Housing and Economic Development Researchers.
A man asking the Virginia Supreme Court to clear his name of a 20-year-old rape conviction on the basis of new DNA evidence died in prison over the weekend.

The Virginia Department of Corrections said Nathaniel E. Epps, 66, died Saturday at the Greensville Correctional Center. The state medical examiners office said Monday that the cause and manner of death were still pending.

Olga Akselrod, Epps lawyer with the Innocence Project in New York, said she was told he fell ill a few weeks ago and was diagnosed with liver cancer a week ago. This just adds yet another layer of tragedy to this case, she said.

Epps and Percel F. Warren, who died in prison in 2012, were convicted in the Feb. 20, 1996, attack in which a woman was beaten and raped at gunpoint in her apartment. Epps was sentenced to 153 years and Warren to 160.

The DNA proves hes innocent and we are going to fight to clear his name, Akselrod said Monday, referring to Epps. We need to research what our options are to do that. At this point Im not sure.

She said the Virginia Supreme Court and the Virginia attorney generals office, which opposed Epps petition for a writ of actual innocence, have been notified.

The Innocence Project filed the petition for Epps in June reporting that the evidence available for testing  sperm from two males found on the victims jeans  was limited and required a type of DNA technology that is not as discriminating as some others.

But the results, said Akselrod, prove that at least one of the two men could not have been a contributor to the sperm. The prosecutions case was predicated on Epps and Warren committing the crime together.

DNA results excluding at least one of the defendants as the source of the sperm proves that they are both actually innocent, contends the Innocence Project. The victim, at the time 40 years old, said she had not had sexual relations with another man for almost a year.

The Virginia attorney generals office, however, opposed Epps petition, arguing that while it did not challenge the validity of the DNA testing, the record did not support Epps contention that the only possible source of the trace male DNA identified by testing came from the perpetrators. It could even have come from laundering the jeans.

Epps has not met his statutory burden to show that no rational juror would convict beyond a reasonable doubt when his new evidence is considered in light of the record, the attorney generals office wrote in a 58-page brief.

The Innocence Project disagrees and responded in papers filed last week that: Here, the weakness of the trial evidence provides further grounds to conclude that no reasonable juror would come to the same conclusion given the new DNA results.

Akselrod said Epps family has established a website  www.razoo.com/us/story/Soh0qf  to raise money to pay for funeral costs.
Kelley Williams-Bolar, alarmed after her home was burglarized, yanked her two daughters out of their Akron schools and enrolled them in her father's suburban school district nearby, using his address.

That way, said the single mom and teacher's aide, they could go to a safer home after school.

But Copley-Fairlawn district officials challenged the residency of her girls in 2007, when they were 9 and 13 years old. Williams-Bolar was convicted of felony records tampering.

She was jailed last month for nine days. The conviction also threatens her efforts to earn a teacher's license and could jeopardize her job as a teacher's aide. She plans to appeal.

Her case has become a rallying point for advocates of school choice, and it has outraged residents of her northeast Ohio community: some because of her dishonesty, others for the severity of the prosecution.

"My kids are not latchkey kids," said Williams-Bolar, who had to return her kids to Akron schools. "I am a mother, and I want to make sure my kids are safe, and I want to make sure that they're educated."

Her prosecution and incarceration are a high-profile example of how schools are getting tougher on parents who sneak their children into other districts, usually better-funded and higher-performing schools.

Districts are fighting back, having students followed by private investigators, fining or pressing criminal charges against parents, even sending them to jail.

The cases raise questions about school funding disparities and pit parents' pursuit of better academics or safer hallways against schools' interest in protecting their funding and quality.

There's little data that tracks how many parents register students using false addresses or those of relatives in violation of state, city or school regulations, but districts from New Hampshire to Texas to California report that it's a problem.

Jailing parents isn't common.

"I must say this is the first case I've ever heard of where somebody has been arrested," said Susan Gates, a senior economist who studies education issues at the RAND Corporation.

Copley-Fairlawn Superintendent Brian Poe said his district "has taken a certain amount of heat," with critics saying it should educate all children. "That's not the law in the state of Ohio, and that's not our board policy."

Recent letters to the Akron Beacon Journal capture high emotions on both sides of the issue. Hundreds of Williams-Bolar supporters recently rallied with the Rev. Al Sharpton, calling for her exoneration.

"To take a viable human being and cast her aside like a dangerous criminal again proves that the American justice system is only just for some people  certainly not poor, black and struggling members of society," wrote Mary L. Tabatcher of Mogadore.

But Donna Blair of Akron was sharply critical.

"Shame on Kelley Williams-Bolar," Blair wrote. "We all want what's best for our kids, but should we commit crimes to get them the best? The message she sent to her kids was that it's OK to lie, cheat and steal."

Cases typically are resolved when a parent moves a student out, changes homes or pays tuition. A few go to court.
Tony Pepper was a kid in the mid-1960s who was hoping to attend the College of William & Mary. His father, Joseph, wouldnt pay.

It was the latest disagreement between father and son, another dispute in what was a complicated relationship  a relationship not unlike that of many fathers and sons.

Pepper, a 1966 graduate of Thomas Dale High School in Chesterfield County, decided that to slip his fathers bonds, he would enlist in the Marine Corps.

He joined in October 1966. Less than two years later, Pfc. Anthony John Tony Pepper was dead, killed in the Battle of Khe Sanh in Vietnam. He was 20. His remains were never found.

He and our dad were always arguing. I know he just enlisted just to get away from home, said Carrie Pepper, Tony Peppers sister.

My dad was guilted-out for his whole entire life over that, she said. Dad was always giving him a hard time about going to college. ... (He) just made it really hard on him. ... But, of course, he regretted it afterward.

Nearly 50 years after he was killed in a battle the Marines call one of the most crucial and bitterly contested of the Vietnam War, Pepper is remembered by those who knew him as a sensitive and smart young man  a young man who could have gone to college but instead was killed in a controversial war and left behind for more than four decades.

Now, as his high school classmates plan their 50th reunion for Oct. 8, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency is preparing to leave Vietnam on Tuesday after excavating an area where it is thought Pepper and another Marine, Cpl. James Mitchell Trimble, died.

The agency was led to the spot where Ed Zimmerman, as a 19-year-old Marine working on a recovery mission after the Battle of Khe Sanh, said he last saw their bodies.

The search, if it proves fruitful, could bring long-awaited closure for Carrie Pepper.

I know they waited their whole lives wondering and waiting and hoping and praying, she said of her parents.

They went to their graves with it. They got divorced, you know, just like it happens to so many families. It just tore the whole family apart.

***

Carrie Pepper lives in California and has written a book about her brother, Missing on Hill 700: How Losing a Brother in Vietnam Created a Family in America.

The book, which will be released next month, is about how Tony has helped me to build a family  those who served with him, their families and all the far-reaching connections.

Carrie was 13 when Marines in uniform arrived at the familys home at 5432 Whetstone Road to deliver the news that Tony was missing.

She remembers being in an upstairs bathroom and hearing her fathers sighs.

She was in disbelief. She thought the news couldnt be real.

How could it be? There were no remains, no dog tags, nothing. The only thing that was shipped home was a box of clothes, but those were clothes that had been left at a camp in Vietnam.

They didnt find anything and there was no proof, so I never really believed it, she said. He just disappeared.

Its more real now than it was then, she said.

Tony Pepper was about seven years older than his little sister.

Carrie says that despite the age difference, she and Tony often would play together. He would pull her around on a sled during the winter and, like many big brothers, would torment her by sitting on her and tickling her until she cried.

He was a really good big brother, you know, she said.

She describes him as quiet and kind and someone whom people really liked.

Because of the issues with their father, Tony would spend a lot of time at friends homes.

He just deserved to be in a better place, she said. He was not a normal teenager. He was above average. He was smarter than most.

He read literature that was beyond his time. He was great in chemistry, which was a real tough subject.

Carrie said she was too young at the time to really understand what was happening in Vietnam.

Tony wrote to her three times while he was overseas. She kept all the letters.

In a letter sent around Christmastime, Tony told her he had just heard The Little Drummer Boy and thought of her because she loved the song so much.

He was very sensitive. Very much so, Carrie said. And all the guys that talked to me and wrote to me said he was wise beyond his years and didnt belong there.

Nobody really belonged there, but some didnt belong there more than others.

***

Tony Pepper was in the first class Jim Edmonson ever taught: 11th-grade U.S. literature at Thomas Dale High in 1965.

Edmonson was in his 20s when he landed the job while on winter break from William & Mary. He said that first experience convinced him he wanted to spend his career in the classroom.

He remembers Pepper as a good and intelligent kid.

I can see him right now  the desk he was sitting in and the row he was sitting in, Edmonson, who is retired from teaching but still lives in the area, said last week.

He was either very pensive-looking, thoughtful, or he had a smile on his face.

I wondered how he happened to get himself to Vietnam, he said. He was not the type, I thought, that would volunteer.

Edmonson, through Carrie Pepper, learned recently about the issues Pepper had with his father and says he should definitely have gone to college. He should never have gone into the service.

While at the school one day in 1967 or 1968, Edmonson got a letter from his former student now in Vietnam. In the letter, he thanked the teacher for introducing him to good literature.

Edmonson wrote back, but the letter was returned with the envelope stamped Deceased.

It was a really upsetting experience for me, he said. I was so opposed to that war anyway. He was such a good kid. You can just multiply the number of guys that Im sure we lost in that so unnecessary war.

***

Even though Tony Pepper has been dead for 48 years, he has never left one womans heart.

Laura Broaddus was a high school underclassman when she first met Pepper. He was a senior. She remembers him as if shed just seen him a minute ago.

Oh, those brown eyes, said Broaddus, then known as Laura Cifelli. He was so handsome. I loved him. How could you not love him?

Broaddus will tell you that she actually first met Pepper in a dream one night.

The next day, she was between classes when she saw a friend speaking to the same boy she saw in her dream. She had never noticed him previously, so she asked her friend who he was.

Funny, her friend said, hed asked her to introduce them.

It was the beginning of an on-and-off relationship that lasted until Peppers death. Even when they werent a couple, they would see each other occasionally and go out.

Once, Pepper called and asked her to go to a drive-in movie. She wasnt allowed to go to drive-ins, but he insisted that she ask her mother for permission.

Broaddus asked her mom who, surprisingly, said yes.

She found out later that he had already called her mom.

He had her wrapped around his little finger. He was just a very sweet, gentle person, Broaddus said.

Broaddus saw Pepper once more before he left for Vietnam. They began writing each other frequently while he was overseas.

I just remember one night, my parents had gone to bed and I was in the den watching the late news, Broaddus said. The news came on and said the Richmond area had lost two men in Vietnam. One of them was Tony. I just started screaming.

The next day, she called Peppers mother  despite the relationship, the two women had never met.

Peppers mother said Tony was still considered missing and that the military encouraged families and friends to keep writing.

So she did, and one day I got this huge stack of letters back.

I saw that his status was changed to killed in action, she said. It just wasnt real. He was extremely nice, extremely gentle, extremely handsome. And hes always been a part of me.

Several years after Pepper was killed, Broaddus was a freshman at William & Mary when she got a letter from Peppers mother.

The woman wrote that Pepper had loved Broaddus deeply and hoped that the young woman would find happiness.

A former husband later would burn all of Peppers and his mothers letters.

Half a century after Pepper was killed, Broaddus is remarried and has children and grandchildren. They all know about Pepper and what he meant to her.

She still cries when talking about him and still sees the dream she had as a young high school student as a sign that they were meant to be together.

Had he come back, I would have ... 

She pauses to compose herself. I would have lived my life happily with him. I think. I hope.

***

According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, 1,261 Americans are still listed as missing in Vietnam. Of those, 477 are considered non-recoverable.
Mayoral hopeful Alan Schintzius appeal to get on the ballot in Richmond will be heard in federal court Thursday, though a judge signaled at a hearing Monday that he doubted the case will ultimately be successful.

U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney denied Schintzius request for an injunction preventing city election officials from beginning the process of getting ballots printed, saying Schintzius is skating on thin ice on the likelihood of success of his lawsuit.

But he said the right to ballot access is important and that by setting the trial to take place Thursday, Schintzius could still appear on the ballot if he ultimately prevails.

To appear on the ballot, mayoral candidates were required to collect 500 signatures from qualified voters. Of those, 50 must be collected in each of the citys nine voter districts.

Schintzius collected more than 600 valid signatures, but he was seven short in the 8th District, prompting the electoral board to disqualify him.

The lawsuit names voters as plaintiffs whose signatures Schintzius alleges were improperly disqualified by the city voter registrars office because they had moved recently and had not yet updated their address with the office.

It alleges that the registrars method of relying on addresses to verify signatures disenfranchises low-income voters who tend to frequently change addresses.

Gibney questioned Schintzius contention that the registrars approach unfairly denied voters their rights. Its obviously pretty easy to get on the ballot, as evidenced by the number of people running, he said.

Schintzius was originally represented by his would-be opponent, mayoral candidate Joseph D. Morrissey, who is also a lawyer. But at the request of the defendants, the case was moved to federal court, where Morrissey is barred from practicing law.

Schintzius is now being represented by Mark S. Paullin and Morrisseys law partner, Paul Goldman.
Richmond police are looking for a group of teens who reportedly assaulted several people Sunday on Belle Isle.

Members of a group of about 10 to 12 youths threw rocks at or punched at least five victims and robbed one victim of a cell phone, police said.

Officers and a K-9 unit responded to the scene about 9 a.m. and tried to locate the suspects, who are believed to be between 14 and 18 years old. Police think the group left Belle Isle by walking over the dry rocks toward Riverside Drive.
A man has been entering unlocked homes in South Richmond, exposing himself and assaulting women, according to city police.

Police are warning people to lock their doors as a manhunt continues for the suspect, who is believed to have been involved in at least six such incidents from Aug. 29 through Monday.

All six incidents happened between 1 and 7 a.m. in the Ashley Park, Bramblewood Estates and St. Johns Wood neighborhoods off of Jahnke Road in South Richmond, police spokesman James Mercante said Monday.

The suspect in these incidents is knocking on windows and taking advantage of unlocked doors, Richmond police Capt. James Laino said in a statement. We urge residents to secure their homes by locking all doors and windows and report any suspicious persons or activity by calling 911.

The suspect has been described as a black male with a small but muscular build and short hair in twists or curls.

At the time of the incidents, the man wore all black or dark clothing. He might also be wearing a beanie or stocking-style hat, based on the reports.

Marguerite Chadwell, 24, who lives in one of the St. Johns Wood apartments, said Monday that she wasnt aware of the break-ins and assaults, but she said she has seen a man dressed in black wandering the complex at night recently.

That is freaky, she said. That doesnt make me feel safe.

After learning about the rash of crime, 33-year-old Claressa Jackson said she is concerned about the security in her apartment complex.

People are coming in and doing what they want to do, the St. Johns Wood resident said.

Mercante provided a timeline of the incidents based on information gathered:

Aug. 29:

In the 6900 block of Marlowe Road, the victim reported being awakened at about 6:15 a.m. by an unknown black male who was inappropriately touching her. She screamed, and when another resident entered the room, the suspect fled.

Sept. 2:

In the 500 block of Harrow Road, the victim awoke at about 2:15 a.m. to an unknown black male touching her inappropriately. Another resident came into the room and scared the suspect away.

Sept. 6:

Two incidents were reported in roughly an hour. At about 6 a.m., in the 6900 block of Marlowe Road, the victim turned on an outside light and saw a man then run away; police later found signs of attempted entry into the home. And at about 7 a.m., in the 1400 block of Brownleaf Drive, a second victim saw a man exposing himself outside of her window. In both of these incidents, the victims reported hearing knocking at a bedroom window.

Sept. 9:

In the 500 block of Rossmore Drive, a victim said an unknown black man entered her apartment at about 1 a.m., exposed himself and then fled on foot.

Sept. 11:

Just before 5 a.m., officers responded to the 1000 block of St. Anns Drive for a reported break-in and assault. The victim stated that an unknown black male entered the home, touched her inappropriately, and then fled through the back door of the residence.
Richmond School Board candidate Sean M. Smith is softening some earlier criticism of Superintendent Dana T. Bedden after a nearly two-hour meeting with the school districts chief late last week.

In a Facebook post Saturday and a follow-up interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Monday, Smith said that many of his largest concerns and criticisms were addressed.

He described the conversation as fruitful and progressive.

Smith, who is running for the 4th District seat being vacated by Kristen Larson, has been a critic of Bedden and said at an NAACP public forum last month that the superintendent was out of touch and has failed to deliver results in the time he has been here.

Then, right before the start of the school year, Smith said that, if elected, he would ask for a vote of no confidence or ask for Beddens resignation if significant improvements arent made in the first year hes on the board.

Im inclined to give him more time, Smith said Monday, adding that he would still like to see a report at the end of the first year showing where the school district stands and how issues will be addressed.

Bedden just began his third school year last week and will have to work with at least five new School Board members after Novembers election.

The average tenure for a superintendent in an urban school district is three years, and several candidates for School Board have said they would like to see the district go in a different direction.

Bedden, who declined to comment, and his supporters have argued for more time, saying that many of the issues facing Richmond schools are so deeply ingrained that change will come slowly.

Smith said Monday that Beddens team reached out shortly after the NAACP forum last month to see if he would be willing to sit down with the superintendent.

He said he did not feel the meeting was an attempt to win him over in an election year and told Bedden that he didnt agree 100 percent with your administration and the policies youre implementing.

I think he wanted to take the opportunity to sort of provide some insight from his perspective, Smith said.

Smith said they talked about progress within the district since Bedden came aboard, as well as about his plans moving forward, the internal challenges hes facing and resources hell need.

While Smith said hes feeling better about the direction of the district following last weeks meeting, he said he still believes the districts administration hasnt done a deep-enough dive to uncover all the ills its facing.

He said there are still many serious problems that need to be addressed, many of which have been years in the making.

Walking out of the meeting, I saw an individual, and maybe a part of his team, that was really stressed and really trying to play catch-up, he said. I still maintain that I dont think they did a completely holistic evaluation to see what their challenges were before trying to put forward solutions. But I also see an administration that lacks a lot of resources.
Officials in Ashland are throwing money behind an effort to fend off a potential aspect of a high-speed rail project linking Washington and Richmond that they contend would effectively destroy the town.

Ashland hired lobbyists from Richmond-based law firm Williams Mullen as it pushes back against the idea of adding a third track through town for the DC2RVA high-speed rail project. On Tuesday, the Ashland Town Council authorized its town manager to negotiate a contract not to exceed $50,000 with the firm.

We think this option is so disastrous, Mayor James Foley said in an interview Friday. We need to make sure that the right people at least know the facts.

Foley said the law firm will advise town officials as they oppose the idea for the third track, which is being studied by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation as one of three options for the portion of rail that would run in or around the town.

The other two options, which are referred to as alternatives by the DRPT, are a no-build option that would not require an additional train track but includes safety improvements to the two existing tracks that currently run through downtown Ashland as well as a bypass west of the town, which is also highly unpopular among residents who live in the mostly rural farmland where the bypass would sit.

Later this year, rail and transportation officials plan to release a draft of an environmental impact statement detailing their study of options for the entire corridor that will include recommendations.

Meanwhile, the town is working with Hanover County and other localities, including Fredericksburg and the counties of Stafford, Caroline and Spotsylvania, to compose a joint resolution expressing disapproval over what they view as shortcomings in how the state agency has handled gathering public input for the project, which officials say would shed between 15 and 20 minutes of travel time between Washington and Richmond.

I wish there was a real dialogue with DRPT on exploring other options, Foley said.

Chris Smith, director of policy, communications and legislative affairs with DRPT, said in an email that the agency would continue to work with the general public, local governments and other affected entities up and down the corridor.

Joshua Farrar, deputy town manager and finance director, assured the Town Council that Ashland can afford to hire the law firm, pointing to anticipated savings in the budget and a healthy reserve fund.

Im not really worried about spending the money for such an important task for the community, Farrar said, according to a video feed of the meeting.

The law firm will provide government relations to the town by advocating its position on the project to the legislative and executive branches of government, said Ken Hutcheson, director of government affairs for Williams Mullen. The firm, which also has offices in North Carolina, South Carolina and Washington, has represented localities on budget, public safety and taxing matters.

Another group in Hanover may likewise enlist outside help. Families Under the Rail, an organization formed by residents living west of the town and who ardently oppose the western bypass option, has sought legal help and is also prepared to seek lobbyists, according to a statement from the group.

Whether we do this with or without the town of Ashland is at this point unclear, the statement read. We have invited Town Council members to our weekly meetings to find a way to partner with the town for a larger and united voice to DRPT that the options on the table are unacceptable. At this time, one has accepted the invitation. We will make a final decision when DRPT makes its recommendation next month.
Splitting up to move on up Updated: 2016-09-12 06:53 By Wu Yiyao in Shanghai(China Daily)

Potential homebuyers examine a property project model in Yichang, Hubei province, Aug 23, 2016. [Photo/China Daily]

Couples in Beijing and Shanghai are considering divorce to buy a new home as rumors stoke anxiety over rule changes for property purchases

Beijing civil servant Li Zhen and his wife face a difficult decision: The couple may need to divorce to realize their dream of a bigger and nicer home.

If they do not split, at least legally, they may have to pay up to 1 million yuan ($150,000) in income tax if they sell either of their two small apartments, according to the current real estate policy. This would make their plan to upgrade financially impossible.

But if they divorce, with each taking ownership of one property, they could be spared the tax.

Time appears to be against them, too, as the market is rife with speculation that Chinese banks could tighten lending requirements for potential homebuyers, such as demanding higher down payments, from which unmarried people would be exempt.

"I know that if people work out what we're doing they'll despise me and even question my morality," Li said. "But what can we do?"

The Li family is not alone. Many happily married couples in Beijing and Shanghai who have seen house prices soar are facing a similar dilemma.

In Beijing, families with more than one property are required to pay a 20 percent tax on any profit made from a real estate deal. According to the regulations, families can own a maximum of two apartments.

Potential homebuyers read advertisements at a property expo in Beijing in April. [Photo/China Daily]

Some couples in the capital have also opted to divorce before selling to avoid the tax.

In Shanghai, civil affairs offices have been overwhelmed by couples who want to split up due to concerns over changes to the rules. Their anxiety was compounded on Aug 24 with a rumor that the city was to block divorcees from buying property with a 30 percent down payment within a year of their breakup.

The strategy is to get divorced in the morning, buy a property as a single person (with a down payment of just 30 percent of the full price if it's their first home) in the afternoon, and remarry the next day.

It's a method often used by couples who want a new house but don't want to meet the higher down payment requirement for a second home, which is at least 50 percent.

On Aug 25, the Shanghai housing authority took to social media to dismiss the rumor. Yet that did not prevent more than 130 couples applying for a divorce that day at just one of the city's civil affairs offices, double the daily average, China Economy Weekly reported.

The authority dismissed similar rumors twice in a week in early September, saying that policymakers were not considering changing the polices regarding property purchases.

By Thursday, five social media accounts had been closed permanently for spreading the rumors, with 13 more suspended for about a month. The next day, seven real estate agents were detained on allegations of starting rumors to boost their business.

"People would rather believe the rumor than risk becoming ineligible to buy a home with the current down payment requirement if a limit is placed on property purchases," said Ma Junjie, an agent for Homelink in Shanghai. "It's indeed herd mentality, but for some, to be one of the herd is better than being left behind."

Neighboring cities such as Nanjing and Suzhou, where home prices have risen by more than 30 percent year-on-year, have introduced measures to curb speculative buying, including pushing up down payment requirements for second homes and blocking people from applying for mortgages to buy a second or third home if they have not paid off their previous mortgage.

Industry insiders believe the gap between supply and demand is the key factor for the rising property prices.

Gao Jianfeng, a property market analyst at Numora Securities, also said that limits on home purchases only work on a temporary basis.

"In such situations, unless land supply rises significantly, measures to curb soaring home prices won't be very effective," he said.

The residential property market in China is diverging, with some cities struggling to reduce huge inventories and others facing overheated markets.

Albert Lau, CEO of Savills China, said in an interview this year that for lower-tier cities facing pressure to reduce inventory, one key task is to transform the local economy and make the city more attractive to potential buyers.

If a city does not provide enough employment opportunities or attract people to settle there, it won't generate the demand for housing, he said.
Shortly after Mary Ann Wilson felt her office building shake and saw through the window that a huge fireball had exploded in the north tower of the nearby World Trade Center, she noticed a young woman waving what appeared to be a red shirt from an office above the explosion  the result of a hijacked plane hitting the building.

It was an SOS, Wilson told a Richmond audience of more than 200 people Sunday, in what she recalled as one of her most vivid memories of the attacks she witnessed in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.

That woman could not be rescued, said Wilson, who said she had a clear view of the World Trade Center when it was first hit by a plane.

The heat proved too intense to carry out a mission that dangerous, Wilson said of the woman who could not be saved.

Wilson, who was in New York on 9/11 during a three-month assignment with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, was the keynote speaker Sunday during a ceremony at the Virginia War Memorial on the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. She later was the Virginia director for HUD.

Clay Mountcastle, the director of the Virginia War Memorial, referred to 9/11 as a milestone, with modern history being divided into pre-9/11 and post-9/11.

In a matter of hours, nearly 3,000 Americans were killed. Our country was shaken to its core, and by the time night fell, the words terrorism and homeland defense had emerged to dominate our social and political lexicon for the foreseeable future, Mountcastle said. From tragedy, we saw pride, determination and good will the likes of which we have rarely seen in our history.

It was a solemn ceremony that paid homage to those who died and others who risked their lives on 9/11.

During a flag retirement ceremony, an American flag was ceremoniously burned by members of the Navy Recruiting District in Richmond. United States flags are retired when they become worn, torn, faded or badly soiled, according to the war memorial.

The flag serves as a constant reminder to all Americans that we live in a country where our freedom has been purchased by blood, sweat, tears and the loss of life, the war memorial stated in a brochure for Sundays ceremony.

Jim Gilmore, who was Virginias governor at the time of the attacks, said that while remembrance is paid to those who were killed on Sept. 11, 2001, we also need to ask ourselves: What meaning is there in the deaths of these people?

And I think that its deeply meaningful, because it heralded some of the challenges that we face today, Gilmore said.
Authorities this morning are looking for an inmate who escaped from Lynchburg's Blue Ridge Regional Jail.

Lynchburg police said James Richard Pavlis, 22, is a white man with brown hair and hazel eyes, about 5-feet-10-inches tall and weighing 178 pounds.

Blue Ridge Regional Jail authorities reported that he escaped under a fence.

He has a large tattoo on his neck that reads "LOYALTY".

He is believed to be on foot in the downtown area and is believed to be wearing a white T-shirt with blue shorts and black boots.

Anyone who sees him is asked to call police.

Jail officials reported his escape shortly before 7 a.m.

Those who live within a one-mile radius of the jail were notified of his escape. Others were notified via the city's email notification system.

In 2010, Larry Wayne Dodson Jr. became the first person to escape from the Adult Detention Center in downtown Lynchburg.

The Pittsylvania County man reportedly slid more than 100 feet down a rope made of bed sheets and sparked a month long manhunt across the Southeast.

It ended in a high-speed chase and crash just outside of Savannah, Ga., and Dodson, who had been in Lynchburg awaiting transfer to a station prison on larceny and firearm convictions, was taken back into custody.
Asserting that many of the Confederate monuments nationwide are symbolic of the Lost Cause that has attempted to cover up racist ideology, a prominent Civil War expert from the University of Virginia has told the Charlottesville community he thinks the citys own Confederate memorials should remain in place.

At a meeting Thursday of the citys Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces, U.Va. history professor Gary Gallagher told the commission and the public that slavery was indeed the cause of the Civil War, but that personal motivations, collective memory and post-war revisionism have complicated the historical narrative in the 150 years since.

Gallagher is the John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War and director of the Nau Civil War Center at U.Va.

If you take slavery out of the picture, he said, it is absolutely inconceivable that anything like this would have happened  and nobody at the time was confused about this!

Arriving prepared with various handouts that included brief snippets of historic speeches and letters made by politicians from before and during the war, Gallagher used those primary sources to reinforce his statements.

Two examples he provided were Abraham Lincolns famous A House Divided speech from 1858, when the 16th president of the United States told the Republican state convention that he believed this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.

It will become all of one or all the other, said Lincoln, alluding to the institution of slavery and whether it would be abolished nationwide or made lawful everywhere.

Although some vigorously argue that Lincoln made the decision to invade the South for reasons other than abolition, Gallagher said secession and the Confederacy were predicated on keeping slavery legal.

He noted that Alexander H. Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy, said on March 21, 1861, that the Negro is not equal to the white man and that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition.

This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great philosophical and moral truth, Stephens said.

After essentially attempting to summarize a semesters worth of content into a 30-minute presentation, Gallagher took questions from members of the panel.

Commissioner Frank Dukes asked whether theres any scholastic discourse against the facts Gallagher presented. Gallagher said hes confident that his assertions are true, and that anyone who refutes slavery as the cause of the war is likely citing sources from the post-war era.

I dont want to read one word written after the war to try and understand whats going on in 1860 and 1861, Gallagher said. What they said then is, Of course its about slavery! 

Commissioner John Mason, perhaps one of the most outspoken commissioners when it comes to his beliefs about the citys statues, asked why Gallagher does not support the removal of the citys Confederate monuments despite his thoughts on what they represent.

Gallagher said he thinks more context should be added to the statues to explain their history and the period in which they were erected. He added that he would like to see another Civil War monument to honor those who have been overlooked and to provide greater diversity to the local landscape.

My solution (is) I would put up other monuments and rename the park, he said. I would invite people to use this space to think about the difference between history and memory.

The commission is expected to provide a progress report on its tasks to the City Council on Sept. 19.
Donald Trump says this White House is leaving behind a lot of red ink.

"Barack Obama has doubled, during his fairly short period of years, hes doubled our national debt. Doubled it. Its going to be close to $20 trillion when he leaves," Trump told supporters at a Sept. 6 rally in Virginia Beach.

Did Obama double the national debt? We checked.
The information marriage between Virginia and Northrop Grumman appears headed for a messy and potentially costly divorce.

Nelson P. Moe, the states chief information officer, informed legislators Monday that the Virginia Information Technologies Agency has declared the Northern Virginia-based company in breach of the $1.3 billion, 13-year contract to provide information services to thousands of government offices across the state.

VITA, as the state agency is known, delivered four letters alleging breach of contract to Northrop Grumman on Aug. 25 and a fifth declaring a default in an ongoing dispute over the companys failure to store and retrieve information critical to a court proceeding involving a state agency.

Moe said the letters are intended to encourage the company to correct the alleged breaches without legal action. But legislators on the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission made clear they want the state to lawyer up with outside attorneys if necessary to protect Virginias interests in disentangling itself from the Northrop Grumman contract.

Del. John M. OBannon III, R-Henrico, called the relationship between the state and company a whirlwind courtship, short honeymoon, rocky marriage, and now were heading for an ugly divorce.

The divorce metaphor hung over a grim briefing of the state watchdog commission by its staff on what JLARC Director Hal Greer called significant disagreements between VITA and Northrop Grumman over the companys obligations as the state transitions services to new vendors, as well as up to $10 million in disputed fees the company claims the state owes.

Greer called on Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Attorney General Mark R. Herring to become involved personally to address potential legal exposure, financial liabilities, and diminished service quality as the state seeks to transition from Northrop Grumman to an array of service vendors before the contract expires in mid-2019.

We recognize that this could become a complicated matter and are fully prepared to provide any and all services our clients may need, Herring spokesman Michael Kelly responded. We are fortunate to have highly skilled attorneys in this field and have even dedicated additional staff and resources to ensure that the interests of the commonwealth and Virginia taxpayers are protected.

Northrop Grumman did not speak at the JLARC meeting but issued a statement that defended its service record in Virginia and warned that the states new approach to providing information services to government agencies creates undue risk and increased costs for the commonwealth.

The company issued a similar warning exactly four months earlier, when it informed state officials that it would not seek to participate as a prime contractor in a service model that it said would increase risks and raise the states costs by $135 million to $200 million.

In its statement Monday, Northrop Grumman cited concerns expressed by JLARCs staff over the states incomplete planning for the transition.

The commonwealth appears not to have recognized the risks associated with transitioning these critically important services to multiple service providers, said Brandon R. Randy Belote III, vice president of strategic communications. We believe VITAs current disentanglement approach poses significant risks to the quality and security of services provided to the citizens of the commonwealth.

The JLARC staff urged the state to complete its transition plans by early October, but it also raised concerns about a decline in IT service under the contract as the state has begun disentanglement.

Some legislators cautioned their colleagues on the commission not to jump to conclusions about whos at fault without hearing directly from Northrop Grumman.

Northrop Grumman is not necessarily the bad guy here, said Del. David B. Albo, R-Fairfax.

But other legislators took a less charitable view.

Im very disappointed to say the least at where we are, said House Appropriations Chairman S. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, citing a meeting with Northrop Grumman officials in early March that the company failed to follow up with detailed concerns about the states plan for disentanglement.

The letters delivered to Northrop Grumman by VITA allege that the company has violated the terms of its Comprehensive Infrastructure Agreement with the state by withholding information and support services that are necessary for the agency to award contracts to new providers.

VITA awarded a contract for messaging services to Tempus Nova in late July, but the agency said Northrop Grumman had refused to provide operational support to the new provider as required under the contract.

As a result, the agency said the company has delayed the transition of state messaging services at a potential cost to the state of more than $1 million a month.

VITA alleged another contract breach by Northrop Grumman for not providing the software licensing and maintenance agreements necessary to move forward with procuring a new provider for the states IBM mainframe service.

JLARCs staff said the companys position is that the information requested is proprietary because it contains confidential pricing terms, but the dispute already has delayed procurement by four weeks and may result in higher service prices to the state.

In another letter, VITA alleges breach of contract because Northrop Grumman has tried to increase the Microsoft licensing fee to the state by almost $1.7 million a year, based on an agreement the company reached with the software provider in 2012-2013.

The company says the state owes an additional $4.2 million in licensing fees, according to the JLARC staff.

The state contends the higher fees cannot be imposed under its contract with Northrop Grumman, which it says has refused to disclose how it calculated the fees or follow the process for resolving disputes under the contract. At the same time, the state said the company is charging interest on the disputed fees.

VITA also has disputed Northrop Grummans attempt to charge an additional $914,205 a month for expanded capacity the state says it does not need on a Unisys mainframe system that it intends to phase out. JLARCs staff said the additional charges would cost the state more than $5.5 million over six months.

Considered together ... this group of letters shows that Northrop Grummans performance under the (agreement) is very troubled in many areas, Moe wrote the company Aug. 25.
For many years, liberals criticized American policy toward Communist China. Politicians would not have described Mao as a greater leader than American presidents.

Ronald Reagan lambasted Jimmy Carters approach to the Soviet Union. He would not have said he preferred Leonid Brezhnevs leadership to Carters.

Academics and historians could argue that Stalin was a greater wartime leader than Churchill or Roosevelt (the USSR bore the brunt of the Nazi assault) but no reputable politician would publicly have praised Stalin at Churchills or Roosevelts expense.

Donald Trumps flattery of Vladimir Putin identifies the GOP nominee as the worst major-party candidate in modern times. He is not worthy to lead a party dedicated to the red, white and blue. Republicans have spent eight years decrying what they consider Barack Obamas abuse of power. Trumps praise of a tyrant obligates them to censure one of their own.
WASHINGTON

Republican congressional leaders ardently want conservative members of the House to not force a vote on impeaching the IRS commissioner. The public does not care about John Koskinens many misdeeds. And impeachment will distract attention from issues that interest the public. And because Democrats are not ingrates, the required two-thirds of the Senate will never vote to convict Koskinen, whose behavior continues the pattern of doing what Democrats desire with the most intrusive and potentially punitive government agency.

These Republican leaders reasons are cumulatively unpersuasive. Resuscitating the impeachment power would contribute to revitalizing Congress Article I powers. Impeachments are rare  no appointed official of the executive branch has been impeached in 140 years. But what James Madison called the indispensable power to impeach should not be allowed to atrophy, as has Congress power to declare war.

Here are a few pertinent facts. At the IRS, Exempt Organizations Director Lois Lerner participated in delaying for up to five years  effectively denying  tax-exempt status for, and hence suppressing political advocacy by, conservative groups. She retired after refusing to testify to congressional committees, invoking the Fifth Amendments protection against self-incrimination.

Koskinen, who became commissioner after Lerner left, failed to disclose the disappearance of emails germane to a congressional investigation of IRS misbehavior. Under his leadership, the IRS failed to comply with a preservation order pertaining to an investigation. He did not testify accurately or keep promises made to Congress. Subpoenaed documents, including 422 tapes potentially containing 24,000 Lerner emails, were destroyed. He falsely testified that the Government Accountability Offices report on IRS practices found no examples of anyone who was improperly selected for an audit.

In June testimony to the House Judiciary Committee, Jonathan Turley of the George Washington University Law School noted that the Obama administration stands accused of effectively weaponizing the IRS. And the Koskinen controversy comes as Congress is facing an unprecedented erosion of its authority vis-a-vis the executive branch. The increasing obstruction and contempt displayed by federal agencies in congressional investigations reflects the loss of any credible threat of congressional action. Congress has become a paper tiger within our tripartite system  a branch that often expresses outrage, yet fails to enforce its constitutional authority.

The Koskinen controversy, Turley said, falls at the very crossroads of expanding executive power, diminishing congressional authority, and the rise of the Fourth Branch, which consists of federal agencies that exercise increasingly unilateral and independent powers. As Turley noted (and as Hillary Clinton can ruefully attest), private litigants like Judicial Watch are nowadays more successful than Congress in prying information from the executive branch. And (as the Lerner case illustrates) the administration has effectively foreclosed avenues like the referral of criminal contempt and other sanctions that should be imposed for providing misleading statements to Congress.

As a means of controlling the executive, the power of the purse has become something of a constitutional myth. This is particularly true now that Congress, inept at producing 12 appropriations bills, forfeits its leverage by funding the government indiscriminately with omnibus bills and continuing resolutions. So, Congress is left with impeachment as the only functional deterrence for executive overreach.

The Constitution authorizes impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors. Madison favored this language and interpreted it to include maladministration, which surely encompasses perjury and obstruction of Congress. The idea that an IRS commissioner is not a high enough official for impeachment ignores, Turley says, the realities of the modern regulatory state. Commissioners have authority over 90,000 employees collecting $2.5 trillion in revenues annually.

Andrew C. McCarthy, former federal prosecutor and Justice Department official, reminded the Judiciary Committee that the point of the Constitutions vesting of all executive power in a single official, the president, is precisely to make the president accountable for all executive branch conduct. And impeachment of a subordinate official, far from being a radical remedy, is much less drastic than impeaching the president or defunding the officials agency.

One of the articles of impeachment filed by the House against Richard Nixon was that he, acting personally and through his subordinates (emphasis added), had endeavored to use the IRS to violate Americans rights, causing IRS actions to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner. If presidents are, as McCarthy says, derivatively responsible for misconduct by executive branch subordinates, surely those officials are responsible for their own misconduct and that of underlings. Refusing to impeach Koskinen would continue the passivity by which members of Congress have become, in Turleys words, agents of their own obsolescence.
By David B. Rivkin Jr. and Andrew M. Grossman

This past July, the cronyist government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro threw out more than half of the signatures on a petition for a recall to remove him from office, citing unclear handwriting.

That is not a problem shared by Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, whose autopen machine traces a perfectly legible facsimile of his signature every time. Following the autocratic example of Venezuela and other rule-of-law pariahs, McAuliffe has his autopen working overtime to transform Virginia into a banana republic, one signature at a time.

The signatures  a mere 206,000 or so of them  are the centerpiece of McAuliffes scheme to circumvent the Virginia Supreme Courts July ruling striking down his executive order that suspended the Virginia Constitutions general rule stripping felons voting rights. The court agreed with legislative leaders who had challenged the order that it was not a legitimate exercise of the governors power to grant clemency in particular cases. It was, instead, an unlawful attempt to suspend the operation of a law simply because the governor disagrees with it.

Does he ever. The same day that the decision issued, McAuliffe told the press that he cannot accept it. A few days later, citing the venerable maxim that youve got to do what you got to do, he vowed that all 206,000 (felons) will have their rights back in a matter of weeks.

Thus, the autopen. Rather than a single bulk order suspending an entire felon-voting bar, McAuliffe would achieve the same result by issuing an individual order for each felon in Virginia who has completed his or her incarceration and supervised release. On Aug. 22, the governor announced that he had issued 13,000 orders restoring voting rights for the felons who had registered to vote under the order struck down by the Supreme Court and promised (many) more to come.

In response, the same legislators who defeated McAuliffes first order have asked the Virginia Supreme Court to hold the governor in contempt and act to enforce its prior judgment.

As their motion exhaustively describes, McAuliffes new orders amount to outright defiance of the courts earlier decision. That decision did not turn on the fact that McAuliffe had issued a blanket order, but instead focused on the practical effect of that order as nullifying the law. The new orders have the same effect as the old one, unilaterally suspending the operation of the constitutions felon-voting bar in precisely the same way, with respect to precisely the same persons. As the legislators contempt motion observes, the Court did not reduce the suspension clause of the Constitution to a printing requirement.

Indeed, seeking to foreclose further legalistic scheming, the court took pains to state that a Virginia governor cannot suspend unilaterally the enforcement of any criminal law in the Code of Virginia, based solely on his personal disagreement with it, simply by issuing categorical, absolute pardons to everyone subject to it. And it made clear that proper exercise of the pardon power requires a specific request by individuals seeking such relief and consideration of their individual circumstances.

So, whether the Virginia Supreme Courts decision got the law right or wrong, there is no disputing that McAuliffes current actions clash with what it ruled. And that is reason enough for the court to hold the governor in contempt and invalidate his flurry of orders.

But the stakes are far higher than in the last round. McAuliffes disrespect for the law and for a co-equal branch of government threatens the freedom and political rights of all Virginians. It is worth recalling President John Kennedys admonition, offered in response to defiance of the court-ordered desegregation of the University of Mississippi, that observance of the law is the eternal safeguard of liberty and defiance of the law is the surest road to tyranny. As Americans, we are free to disagree with the law but not to disobey it.

That principle applies with special force to those whom we entrust with the power and responsibility to carry out the law. Nicolas Maduro may be above the law, but Terry McAuliffe and his autopen are not.
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Developers bet on Chinese tourism in Vegas Updated: 2016-09-12 08:30 (Agencies)

Sin City and Asian investors are going all in on Chinese tourism, as some of Las Vegas' latest developments on and off the Strip target Chinese nationals and Chinese-Americans.

The Chinese have been regulars along the resort corridor for decades. Now officials and developers, intent on capitalizing on burgeoning Chinese wealth and Asian-American population growth, are courting them in a major way.

Nonstop flights from Chinese mainland are planned for the first time, and two Asian-themed casinos will be among the first post-recession additions to Sin City's glittering skyline.

The new hotel-casinos boast of plans to feature what some other resorts such as the MGM Grand, Wynn and Venetian have quietly offered for years. Guests will be treated to familiar foods, Chinese-speaking service employees and the table game of choice, baccarat.

"The Chinese do quite enjoy a very Chinese experience. They do gravitate toward Asian amenities. At Wynn Macao, it's mostly Chinese restaurants and menus in Chinese," said Alex Bumazhny, gambling analyst with Fitch Ratings.

The Lucky Dragon Hotel and Casino is expected to open this fall, and Resorts World Las Vegas is set to begin construction in earnest by the end of the year.

By Las Vegas' standards, Lucky Dragon is a modestly sized property set on 3 acres (1.32 hectares) just off the Strip. It will have 200 hotel rooms and a casino floor spanning 27,000 square feet (2,509 square meters).

Lucky Dragon executives said the new casino will focus on domestic Chinese gamblers, calling them an under-served niche market made up of Chinese-Americans and Chinese people who live in America's ethnic enclaves, including local Las Vegans, the reliable weekend hordes from California, and tourists from the Pacific Northwest and East Coast.

The mega resorts catering to Chinese gamblers target "ultra-high-end players", while the more casual Chinese bettors are left with more generic amenities designed for "American white people", said Dave Jacoby, Lucky Dragon's chief operating officer.

"We're playing on the existing market that isn't served well," Jacoby said.

The developer is a privately held entity known as the Las Vegas Economic Impact Regional Center. The casino is financed with money from Chinese investors through the EB-5 visa program, which grants green cards to foreigners in return for investments of at least $500,000 on job-creating projects. Jacoby said Lucky Dragon was an easy sell given Las Vegas' appeal in China.

For the years-delayed Resorts World on the Strip's northern end, the blossoming Chinese tourism business will be a bonus by the time it opens, now projected for March 2019.

The $4 billion casino resort property has been in the works since 2013, with an original opening date of 2016. It is planned to have 3,100 rooms and 100,000 square feet of gambling space, along with restaurants and shops spread across its 88-acre site. Plans for a convention center, panda habitat and 4,000-seat theater are on hold for the initial construction phase.

Resorts World marks the latest entry into the US market for the Malaysia-based Genting Group, which owns resort and casino properties around the world.

Gerald Gardner, the casino's general counsel and senior vice president of government affairs, said Resorts World expects to build its Las Vegas business through its existing branding among Chinese already familiar with its Asian properties. In Sin City, the primary target will be domestic visitors because no other Asian-themed properties exist on the Strip. On the radar, though, is a plan to capture Chinese tourists as they begin to visit in greater numbers.

"The real spikes in Las Vegas revenue occur when several things happen in a short period of time," Gardner said.

China's Hainan Airlines announced on Aug 4 that it was seeking final US approval to start nonstop flights between Las Vegas and Beijing. The service is expected to begin in December with flights three days a week at McCarran International Airport. The only other direct flights to or from Asia are offered on a Korean Air route out of Seoul.
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
NELSON COUNTY  After more than 15 years, the rehabilitation of the Blue Ridge Tunnel between Afton and Waynesboro is slowly nearing completion.

A few dozen Virginia residents were able to see the changes made so far and learn about the history of the tunnel, built more than a century and a half ago, during two sold-out tours Saturday.

Ive heard about it. I grew up in the area.  To see the enormous amount of hard work that was put forth just to get a train through a mountain, said Will McIntyre, one of those touring the 20-foot-high tunnel Saturday afternoon.  Its quite amazing. The height of it kind of blew me away.

According to Emily Harper, Nelson Countys parks and recreation director , monthly tours scheduled in September, October and November filled up within days.

Saturdays tours were led by Bob Dombrowe and Paul Collinge, who have led about half a dozen tours each.

I just really enjoy this, Dombrowe said after the tour.  Its a lot of fun. I learn something new every time.

As the tourists traveled along a gravel path, which stretched two-thirds of a mile from the entrance of the tunnel, Dombrowe and Collinge stopped and shared information about the history of the railroad tunnel as well as the significant progress made during the 15-year renovation project. .

According to Dombrowe, tunnel construction began in 1850s and took about eight years to complete. At nearly 4,300 feet, the Blue Ridge Tunnel was the longest in the United States when it opened in 1858.

Its architect was Cladius Crozet, a Frenchman who served as principal engineer for the Virginia Board of Public Works in the early to mid-1800s. Crozet oversaw the planning and construction of canals, turnpikes, bridges and railroads in Virginia.

The nearby town of Crozet in Albemarle County was named in his honor.

Crozet was also among the founders of Virginia Military Insitute and served as the Lexington schools first board president in 1839.

Dombrowe also demonstrated with a star drill how workers hand-chiseled the rock during construction.

Dug a decade before the invention of dynamite, it was considered to be a global engineering feat.

The tunnel was taken out of commission in 1944. In the 1950s, walls were put inside the tunnel to recreate gas storage reservoirs , but that plan was soon scrapped.

With the tunnel restoration yet to be finished, the tour Saturday took guests only to the first wall.

Collinge explained his favorite part of the tour is when guests get their first glimpse of the tunnel.

The best thing, really, is turning the corner and seeing the tunnel, Collinge said. Up to that point, youre trying to suck people out of the 21st century and get them to at least think about the effort that went into [the tunnels construction]. As soon as you round that corner, youre back in the 19th century, theres no doubt about it.

Among the afternoon tour group were people from Augusta, Albemarle, Henrico and Nelson counties, as well as a couple from Lancaster County in the northern neck of Virginia.

My mom has been tracking it for a couple of years now and was trying to get us in so that we could see the tunnel, said 15-year-old Anna Dolleris, a sophomore at Nelson County High School. We finally got in and bought four tickets as soon as we could.

Anna said she particularly enjoyed learning how people with different backgrounds all worked on the tunnel.

According to Dombrowe, Irish workers toiled to dig the tunnel, along with African-American slaves .

Anna and her 12-year-old brother, Russell, also took advantage of the chance to explore the tunnels damp interior environment, finding 11 salamanders, three frogs, a caterpillar and one slug, though they were disappointed they didnt find any crawdads. By the end of the tour, streaks of black from the soot on the walls of the tunnel covered Russells white shirt.

Russell also came out of the tunnel with a souvenir of sorts  a water bottle filled with the water that dripped and spilled out of the tunnels fractures.

So far, about $1.5 million has been spent on Phase 1 of the Blue Ridge Tunnel restoration project. That went toward initial design work, acquiring easements and creating a parking area in Afton.

After receiving $1.3 million in June from the Commonwealth Transportation Board, Waynesboro and Nelson County are in the process of consolidating remaining work, which includes rehabilitation of the tunnel, a walking-and-biking trail and parking at the tunnels western portal in Waynesboro.

Nelson County Administrator Stephen Carter said he anticipates the project could be completed in about 18 months. But he also said the timing depends on an updated grant agreement with the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration and the acceptance of a bid for construction costs.

The remaining money for the project totals about $2.8 million, Carter said .
Mainland investors own just 0.38% of Aussie farmland Updated: 2016-09-12 08:51 (China Daily)

Yin Jian Zhong, manager of farmland operated by Kimberley Agricultural Investment, a subsidiary of Shanghai Zhongfu Group, poses for a photograph in a field of chia in Kununurra, Australia. [Photo/Agencies]

Chinese investors hold just 0.38 percent of Australia's agricultural land, said Scott Morrison, Australia's treasurer, on Wednesday, citing a report which he said should allay concern among Australian voters that the Asian nation is buying up farmland on a massive scale.

A total of 13.6 percent of agricultural land is held by international investors, with 52 percent of that owned by UK investors, Morrison said, citing the first report from the Agricultural Land Register. The US is the next biggest holder, followed by the Netherlands and Singapore with China fifth.

"China is still well down the list" of foreign investors, Morrison said in a Sky News television interview on Wednesday. The information in the report "informs the quality of decision-making (in the Australian government), it informs the quality of policy-making and it informs, hopefully, the quality of the debate," he said.

The government ordered the creation of the Agricultural Land Register last year amid widespread concern that Chinese purchases of agricultural land had been increasing unchecked in Australia, the developed world's most China-reliant economy.

A survey released by the Sydney-based think tank Lowy Institute for International Policy in June showed 87 percent of respondents were against allowing foreign companies to buy Australian farmland.

Australia also tightened scrutiny for selling farmland to Chinese, Japanese and South Korean buyers last year, by requiring purchases of land worth A$15 million ($13.3 million) and over to be screened for approval. Americans don't need permission for similar deals under A$1.1 billion.

Morrison, who in April vetoed a Chinese-led group's bid for the iconic S. Kidman & Co cattle ranches that span 1.3 percent of the country's land mass, said on Wednesday that Australia has the right to act in the national interest.

"There's nothing wrong with Australia exercising its sovereign right to decide whether there can be agricultural land sold to foreign interests," Morrison said.

Bloomberg
Young entrepreneurs urge G20 leaders to support 'smart entrepreneurship' Updated: 2016-09-12 15:53 By Zhang Lei(chinadaily.com.cn)

The world's young entrepreneurs called on Thursday upon the leaders of the G20 to address global growth and unemployment concerns by committing to policies that promote entrepreneurship, innovation and enterprise education.

At the seventh annual G20 Young Entrepreneurs' Alliance (YEA) Summit in Beijing, more than 300 young entrepreneurs issued a communique calling upon the G20 leaders, meeting in Hangzhou, China, to adopt policies based on global consultations with thousands of young entrepreneurs and supported by research conducted for the Alliance by its knowledge partners, Accenture, EY and the G20/G8 Research Group.

"The link with B20 and the YEA is like a number of other engagement groups representing particular segment. There is obviously a much closer relationship between B20 and YEA than the others. Young entrepreneurs are the driving force for future business. The reason we do separately is that young entrepreneurs can very much be focused on again, and have that networking opportunity, as well as opportunities to talk about issues, for example, making innovation around entrepreneurship, easier around electronic world trading platform," said Robert Milliner, B20 Australia Sherpa.

As for new opportunities of doing business in China, Xia Bing, president of G20 YEA China, said: "Through the vast reforms and changing trends in recent years, it is apparent that the Chinese mindset toward the outside world has experienced massive change. China is proving to be a country adopting open-mindedness and embracing the international culture while finding synergies with its own. We hope that, in turn, this openness is also causing the outside world to better understand China, perceiving it in a more colorful, pluralistic way."
Moon cakes a testimony to Chinese ingenuity Updated: 2016-09-12 07:56 By BERLIN FANG(China Daily)

LUO JIE/CHINA DAILY

Living overseas, one quickly learns that Chinese cannot take credit or be blamed for all the things associated with them, such as Chinese waterboarding and Chinese fire drills. Chinese food is another example.

Almost all US towns have a Little Panda, Great Wall, Buffet King or all of them, even if they don't have a post office or fire station. These restaurants often serve Americanized Chinese food. I guess that is the fate of foods all over the world, which is unfortunate. In Texas we have Tex Mex, Mexican food with Texas characteristics.

I once had my car with a mechanic who sent a Mexican friend to pick me up. We talked about Mexican food in the United States. He complained that Mexican food here is only 8 percent authentic. I had no idea where he got the figure from, but he launched into a fury, which made his driving unpredictable. As he cursed, waved and indulged in all sorts of other gestures, he drove onto a wrong road, hit a curb and made turns I had seen only in action movies. Fearing for my safety, I said Chinese food in the US is worse, probably just 4 percent authentic. That injected some calm into him and I was able to get to the mechanic in one piece.

For a Chinese diner in an American Chinese restaurant, nothing is more bizarre than the fortune cookie, a crisp cookie with a piece of paper on which are written dubious Chinese proverbs, random lucky numbers or a few Chinese words. You don't see such things in China for obvious reasons. It was invented in San Francisco and for years, I thought it symbolized either the nostalgic memory or romantic re-imagination of a country far away for overseas Chinese.

It is amazing how moon cakes have evolved. When we were kids, there were very few varieties of moon cakes, most commonly with red bean paste or lotus seed paste fillings. Now you have roast pork, seafood, green tea, chocolate, cream cheese and even ice cream varieties. One to suit every palate.

Not long ago the prices for some varieties were insanely high in China, as moon cakes were traded as gifts to build relationships. A good price tag, believed many, made a gift-giver appear loyal or friendly. But there are fewer such complaints nowadays. Moon cakes have again become the good old moon cakes the average Chinese loves to eat.

I hope the world appreciates the richness and diversity authentic food brings.

But that could be just a hope, for I've heard that there are even Ramen noodle moon cakes now. Exactly how you mix noodles with moon cakes is a mystery. It is thus wrong to generalize that the Chinese are incapable of creativity and innovation. Like any other people on the planet, Chinese people are creative in things they care deeply about, such as moon cakes, or sending a spaceship to the moon, where the legendary ancient beauty Chang'e is supposed to live.

The author is a US-based instructional designer, literary translator and columnist writing on cross-cultural issues.
POLICE are trying to track down a man who threw a large rock at a train.

The rock narrowly missed the driver when it smashed through the cab window after being dropped from a footbridge.

Now British Transport Police want the publics help to find a man who was wearing a green jacket and was stood on the bridge.

The incident happened at around 5.30pm on Saturday when the train was travelling under the footbridge that leads from Highthorn Road in Swinton.

The train driver was not injured, but was extremely shaken by the incident.

Investigating officer PC Joseph Robinson said: This was an incredibly stupid thing to do, and could have resulted in the serious injury of the driver.

Have you seen anyone doing this, or know who the man in the green jacket might be? Please get in contact.

Anyone with information is asked to contact British Transport Police, quoting incident 377 of September 10.
Angola reduced its 2016 economic growth forecast last month due to weak oil prices, which battered state revenues.

Angola, the third-largest economy in Sub-Saharan Africa, was expected to register an economic growth of 1.3 percent this year down from the previous forecast of 3.3 percent, according the finance ministry.

Luandas spending would be cut to $24 billion from $30 billion projected in the original 2016 budget while revenues were also slashed to $18 billion from $24.4 billion.

The southern African nation drew nearly all of its export earnings and 80 percent of government revenue from crude oil sales.

Despite the shrinking government revenues, the country is now dealing with a resurgent rebel group that operates in the oil-rich Cabinda enclave.

Ironically, Angola surpassed Nigeria as the continents top oil producer this year due to attacks by militants on pipelines and rigs in the Niger Delta.

The high command of the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), which wants independence for a territory that accounts for half of Angola's oil output, had hardened its stance since the death of its 88-year-old founder Nzita Tiago earlier this year in exile in France, according to Reuters. Death toll in Cabinda since a flare-up early this month in the conflict had reached nearly 40.

However, analysts say the group does not have the ability to affect oil output in Angola, nearly all of which was offshore.

Reuters reports that men claiming to be rebels boarded an offshore Chevron gas platform in late May and threatened foreign petroleum workers in a rare sign of the simmering instability in heavily guarded Cabinda.

The incident cast doubt on Luanda's assertion that FLEC had fizzled out since a 2007 peace deal.

FLEC recently warned the Chinese government to repatriate all its citizens in the oil-producing area as their presence "constitutes a provocation".

With the slump in oil revenues coupled with the resurgent FLEC, the focus had been on diamonds as a serious contributor of revenue to the nations treasury.

However, diamond mining in Angola, just like oil production in Cabinda, had faced threats from rebel activities in the past.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Angola's artisanal miners, known in Portuguese as garimpeiros, played a pivotal role in the country's civil war, which lasted for 27 years and left at least a half-million people dead.

It also noted that the U.S.-backed troops of the Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or UNITA, which fought to depose a Soviet-supported socialist government, controlled much of the country's diamond territory.

UNITA enlisted peasant diggers from the neighboring Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo to fund their war effort.

Although the end of the war saw an increase in diamond production, as large mining companies such as Odebrecht SA of Brazil and Russia's state-owned Alrosa, formed joint ventures with the government diamond company Endiama, illegal diamond miners  some from the DRC  continued with their operations, which were allegedly met with the brutal force of the state machinery.

An Angolan journalist Rafael Marques de Morais claimed in his 2011 book, Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola, that 100 people were killed while hundreds more were allegedly tortured at the hands of security guards and soldiers in the diamond fields of Angolas Lundas region.

He was charged with defamation, but this was later dropped when reached an out of court settlement with the army generals he had accused of profiting from blood diamonds, accepting that they did not have direct knowledge of the atrocities.

However, his evidence of the atrocities themselves was not questioned.

Although, Angola was portrayed as one of the success stories of KPs efforts to stem the trade in conflict diamonds, Amnesty International was of the view that the problem of conflict diamonds had not gone away in the country.

Whether that was the case or not, there was no doubt that diamonds had a considerable role to play in Angola as the slump in oil prices taught national leaders a lesson on how not to rely on one commodity for economic growth.

Angolas diamond reserves are believed to be around 300 million carats and only 29 of the 108 potentially diamond bearing areas in the country had been explored.

Also the better part of Angolas diamond fields were represented by placer deposits, where the quality of diamonds was high.

Mining costs were also among the lowest in the world, making it attractive to mine diamonds in the country.

According to the global diamond watchdog, The Kimberley Process, Angola produced 9,016 million carats of diamonds worth $1,18 billion in 2015.

With new operations set to come on stream soon, there was no doubt that output would certainly grow leading to improved revenue, given that stones from Angola usually attract higher prices per carat.

However, the convalescing of FLEC, was a clear indication that the demons of the past that tormented the diamond industry in Angola, can easily resurrect from the graveyard of anarchy, threatening a seemingly stable industry tipped to help improve the countrys economic fortunes.

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished




City of Cincinnati

The U.S. Department of Transportations Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Acting Administrator Carolyn Flowers, Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley and other local officials gathered last week to celebrate the Cincinnati Streetcars grand opening.

The new line is described as the cornerstone of Cincinnatis push to enhance local transportation options, officials say.

Today, Cincinnati joins a growing list of cities across the country that have chosen streetcars to revitalize their downtown and improve mobility for citizens, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. Cincinnatis streetcar will attract new businesses and investment along the route and transform the neighborhoods surrounding the projectas other streetcars have in cities all over the United States.

Named the Cincinnati Bell Connector, the streetcar spans 3.6 miles in length and includes 18 stations. The USDOT allocated $16 million toward the project from a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant as well as an additional $29 million in other USDOT funds.

We are proud to partner with Cincinnati on its streetcar and usher in a new era for getting around in this vibrant city, Flowers said. The streetcar will expand transportation options for residents and visitors, spur economic development and connect workers to jobs, helping to build ladders of opportunity throughout the city.
FRA

Safety at crossings, stations and tracks in 14 states and the District of Columbia will be enhanced thanks to $25 million in grants awarded by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

FRA awarded funds to 23 projects. However, it received 40 eligible applications requesting $67.5 million, nearly three times the $25 million that congress provided in the 2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act that funds the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The Railroad Safety Infrastructure Improvement Grants fund safety improvements to railroad infrastructure, including the acquisition, improvement or rehabilitation of intermodal facilities; improvements to track, bridges, rail yards and tunnels; upgrades to railroad crossings and rail/road grade separations.

A safe railroad network requires continuous investment and upgrades, said FRA Administrator Sarah Feinberg. These grants will improve safety at hundreds of railroad crossings and make important safety upgrades at stations across the country. This is an investment that is desperately needed  and I urge state DOTs to join the FRA in investing more in improving safety at crossings.

Highlights of this round of FRAs safety grants include:

Crossing improvements: $5.15 million to New York State Department of Transportation. This includes $1.34 million to add highway traffic signal preemption to seven grade crossings on Metro-Norths Harlem and Port Jervis Lines in New York to activate the traffic signals at the intersections and allow queued traffic to exit onto the highway prior to the activation of the railroad grade crossing warning systems; $1.90 million to fund installing upgrades to three grade crossings to mitigate hazardous conditions between highway and rail traffic on a Metro-North grade crossing in North White Plains and two public crossings on Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in Deer Park and Oceanside, N.Y. The grants also included $1.91 million to install CCTV cameras to record grade-crossing movements at 43 identified grade crossings within MetroNorth territory in New York to investigate specific incidents and analyze crossing/traffic operations for targeted modifications to improve safety. MetroNorth Railroad and LIRR will work separately as subsidiaries of the Metropolitan Transit Authority on this project.

Crossing improvements: $1.06 million to Californias Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board to install new safety measures at 10 grade crossings, where more than 12,000 vehicles traverse each day. The measures include medians, traffic signal preemption, fences, gates, curbs, lighting and signs along the commuter rail line in San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Francisco counties.

Rail overpass: $3.56 million to the city of Grandview, Mo., to construct a dual-track overpass for Kansas City Southern that will increase pedestrian and motor vehicle safety measures along the interstate running underneath it, as well as improve rail safety and efficiency. After the existing single-track railroad crossing is replaced with the new double-track crossing, the city will widen Blue Ridge Boulevard to four lanes and add sidewalks under the railroad to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety.

Station: $2.69 million to the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District to add two platform access points at the East Chicago Train Station in East Chicago, Ind., to distribute passengers along the full length of the train to reduce congestion and improve egress operations. The project will also enhance safety and operational efficiencies, decrease passenger delays and reduce the probability of derailments through track geometric improvements and reconstructing turnouts to increase train approach speeds from 10 mph to 40 mph.

Station: $2.35 million Amtrak to provide a new emergency egress stairway and fire suppression system in the North Hangar and Clayton Concourse, which serve trains moving north and south out of Washington Union Station.

Station: $1.61 million to Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) to construct a new pedestrian underpass and two new rail bridges at SEPTAs Lawndale Station in Philadelphia, thereby enabling passengers to access the platform without crossing the tracks at grade. The project will also include other improvements, such as a new high-level platform, new signage and fencing, new catenary and ADA-related improvements.

Track improvements: $2.37 million to Providence and Worcester Railroad Co. to rehabilitate 12 miles of century-old rail to improve track conditions substantially with new continuous welded rail and ties along Providence and Worcester Railroad Companys Gardner Branch rail line in central Massachusetts.

Additional grants of under $1 million were awarded to the Indiana Rail Road Co., Indiana Department of Transportation, Maryland Department of Transportation, city of Buffalo, Minn., St. Louis and Lake Counties Regional Railroad Authority, Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern Railroad and South Carolina Department of Commerce, Division of Public Railways for crossing improvements.

The Finger Lakes Railway will be able to perform upgrades to its Auburn Yard through a $500,000 grant; the village of Cary, Ill., and Dallas Area Rapid Transit also received grants for under $1 million for station upgrades.

The city of Shelby, Mont., will perform station and crossing work with its under $1 million grant and the San Luis Central Railroad in Illinois and Ohio Rail Development Commission will both perform track upgrades from their under $1 million grants.
The Australian dollar weakened against the other major currencies in the Asian session on Monday.

The Australian dollar fell to nearly a 2-1/2-month of 1.4946 against the euro and a 2-week low of 77.06 against the yen, from last week's closing quotes of 1.4889 and 77.35, respectively.

Against the U.S. and the New Zealand dollars, the aussie dropped to nearly a 2-week low of 0.7521 and a 5-day low of 1.0268 from Friday's closing quotes of 0.7536 and 1.0284, respectively.

The aussie edged down to 0.9833 against the Canadian dollar, from an early high of 0.9856.

If the aussie extends its downtrend, it is likely to find support around 1.51 against the euro, 74.00 against the yen, 0.73 against the greenback, 1.01 against the kiwi and 0.96 against the loonie.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Associated British Foods plc (ASBFY.PK,ABF.L) said the underlying operating performance of the group has been ahead of its expectation in the second half and the further weakening of sterling during the period since the EU referendum has resulted in a translation benefit. With no material transactional effect in the period, as a result of forward currency purchases and fixed contracts, the Group's expectation for the full year results is now for earnings per share to be marginally ahead of last year. Operating profit for the group will now be ahead of last year.

The Group expects sales at Primark for the full year to be 9% ahead of last year at constant currency. Like-for-like sales are expected to be down 2%, affected by unseasonable weather - warm weather in the pre-Christmas period and a very cold March and April. As a result of the weakening of sterling, the Group expects sales at actual exchange rates to be 11% ahead.

Associated British Foods also announced that it has reached an agreement to sell its cane sugar in southern China to a consortium led by Nanning Sugar, a leading producer in the region which has the support of the Guangxi government. Upon completion of the transaction, the Group will receive consideration for its shareholdings in the business together with the repayment of related loans.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Cabot Corp. (CBT), a specialty chemicals and performance materials company, announced Friday that its unit Cabot (China) Ltd., has signed a joint venture agreement with Inner Mongolia Hengyecheng Silicone Co., Ltd or HYC, to form a joint venture to manufacture fumed silica in China.

Cabot will hold an 80 percent share in the joint venture and HYC will own the remaining 20 percent. The joint venture will invest approximately $60 million to build a world-class fumed silica manufacturing facility to be located in Wuhai, China.

The new facility will have a manufacturing capacity of 8,000 metric tons of fumed silica per year. Subject to obtaining the necessary governmental and regulatory approvals, construction of the plant is expected to begin in early 2017 and will be completed in 2019.

Cabot said the project will allow it to meet the growing demand for its high-quality, high-performance fumed silica, enabled by a long-term reliable source of feedstock.

Cabot, which has had operations in China for almost 30 years, currently operates four manufacturing sites in Shanghai, Xingtai, Jiangxi and Tianjin.

The new plant in Wuhai will become Cabot's seventh fumed silica plant throughout its network in Asia, Europe and the United States.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Canadian stocks may struggle to rebound from significant losses in the previous session Monday, despite news of a massive merger of fertilizer giants.

Agrium Inc. (AGU.TO, AGU) and Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. (POT.TO, POT) announced they have agreed to combine in a merger of equals.

The combined value of the agricultural product companies will be $36 billion.

Crude oil prices fell sharply Monday morning amid signs the global supply glut will worsen.

US rig counts are on the rise, while Iran is expected to keep pumping oil at a breakneck pace to make up for years of sanctions.

OPEC raised its forecast of oil supplies from non-member countries in 2017.

Crude oil was down 90 cents, or 2 percent, to $44.98 a barrel.

In corporate news, WestJet (WJA.TO) reported higher load capacity.

Open Text (OTC.TO) will buy Dell EMC's Enterprise Content Division, including Documentum. The purchase price of the deal is $1.62 billion.

On Friday, the S&P/TSX Composite Index plunged 263.38 points, or 1.78 percent, to 14,539.88, the worst daily performance since the Brexit crisis.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Market Analysis
Raptor Pharmaceutical Corp. (RPTP) announced Monday morning that it has agreed to be acquired by Horizon Pharma (HZNP) for $9.00 per share in cash, approximately $800 million.

Raptor Pharmaceutical has gapped open sharply higher this morning and is now up 1.51 at $8.96 on the highest volume of the year. The stock has broken out of a 3-week trading range and has set over an 11 1/2 month high.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
President addresses nation, promises granting amnesty to Yemenis misled by Saudi aggression





SANAA, Sept. 12 (SABA) - President of the Supreme Political Council Saleh al-Sammad delivered a speech to the nation on Sunday night on the eve of Muslim Eid al-Adh'ha feast, promising to proceed granting general amnesty to those Yemenis misled by the Saudi-led aggression.



"We repeat our call for those misled people from political forces, parties and military to arbitrate the differences and return to the right path," the president said.



"By taking this chance of Eid feast, the Supreme Political Council announces to proceed with issuing general amnesty to those abroad who strayed off course," he said.



"We tell them our hearts are open to anyone returns back to the right path and that the homeland can accommodate for all of us," he said.



"Let us start with a new page based on the principle of the partnership and the acceptance of the other, and to renounce all kinds of unilateralism, division, scatter, fighting, rivalry and conflicts," al-Sammad said.



"We urged them to go back home to their houses and children and to share the government and responsibility of defending the country.. and to work towards development and moving to achieve the people's aspirations," he added.



The president in his speech also condemned the Saudi continuing crimes against Yemen and Yemeni people for the second straight year of aggression, as well as the restrictions imposed on Yemenis for this year Hajj, warning of such Saudi hostile actions against Muslim nations and Yemenis in particular.



In his speech, al-Sammad also called on the international community, Muslim and foreign countries to stand by Yemeni people and reject the unjust Saudi-led aggression.



He called the international community to hold the aggression countries against Yemen responsible and press them to stop war.



Also, the President highlighted the unique role of Yemeni tribes, the army and popular committees in defending the nation against the Saudi aggression.



The President reaffirmed that the option of comprehensive and just peace is the only and one option that should lead every negotiations without preconditions to end the aggression war against Yemen.



MA



SABA

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[12/September/2016]
Death toll from Saudi air aggression against Arhab's village rises to 30, including children - UNHC



SANAA, Sept. 12 (SABA)  United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, said Monday that death toll from Sept. 10 Saudi aggression against a water well in Beit Saadan village north of Yemeni capital Sanaa increased to 30 civilians, including two children, and 17 injured, in a statement received by Saba.



"On September 10, on the eve of Eid Al Adha, 30 people were killed and 17 others wounded, including first responders and two children, as a result of several air strikes on a water well in Beit Saadan village of Arhab District, in the north of Sanaa Governorate," McGoldrick said in the statement.



"These events follow weeks of intensified air strikes and ground fighting across the country," McGoldrick said.



"I remain deeply disturbed by the unrelenting attacks on civilians and on civilian infrastructure throughout Yemen by all parties to the conflict, which are further destroying Yemens social fabric and increasing humanitarian needs, particularly for medical attention at a time when the health sector is collapsing," McGoldrick added.



McGoldrick also called on all parties to "uphold their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law, to recommit to the April 10 Cessation of Hostilities and to support the initiatives of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen."



On Saturday, the Saudi aggression warplanes launched a series of strikes against residents' houses and farms in Arhab district. The warplanes waged five airstrikes against a water well in in Beit Saadan village, and resumed with three other strikes when rescue teams tried to pull out possible survivors, said local officials and residents, adding that many of rescuers were killed at the scene.



MA



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[12/September/2016]
Millennial Moms Review: 2022 Acura MDX is pretty close to the perfect family car

I dont know if perfect is attainable, especially considering weve got the world of options when it comes to modern vehicles. Were spoiled and, as such, we have very specific needs and wants. Driving-wise, the 2022 Acura MDX is one of my favourite ...
Description

Geared to Veterans who are homeless or on the verge of being homeless, Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF)  a program of the Economic Opportunity Council of Suffolk Inc.  will hold an Open Enrollment Day on Monday, September 12, from 9am-4pm.

Eligible Veterans will be able to apply for temporary housing, help paying for utilities, legal advice, child care, transportation, benefits assistance, and more. Services are free of charge. Please bring ID and discharge documents. Call for an appointment; walk-ins are also welcome.

Pictured, an EOC of Suffolk staff member meets with a military Veteran at a previous Supportive Services for Veterans Families (SSVF) Open Enrollment Day.
It would be ridiculously easy to dismiss the 11th Commonwealth Womens Affairs Ministerial Meeting (W.A.M.M.) held in Apia last week as just another in a long string of talk fests.

We say would be, if the topics up for discussion and planning werent so important for all of us.

With the theme, Gender equality through sustainable development in an inclusive commonwealth, W.A.M.M. provides the opportunity for ministers, senior officials, civil society, private sector and partner agencies to discuss critical issues in advancing gender equality and womens empowerment.

The triennial meeting was launched last week by Samoas Deputy Prime Minister, Fiame Naomi Mataafa with a strong speech that spelled out her expectations for the meeting.

Participants would have been under no illusions about the urgency of finding solutions to the issues and putting them into practice.

But progress in the past on many of these issues has been disappointing to say the least.

Some of the solutions offered at previous meetings have proven unsuccessful and have stalled altogether or moved forward far too slowly for the expectations of many women.

In a pointed reminder to participants about the urgency of their deliberations and action to follow, Fiame said, I hope we have all dispelled the myth that gender equity will come right with time.

And further, Eleven out of 53 Commonwealth members countries achieved 30% for women in political leadership.

This is some progress given that only two countries were at this level in 2004, however it is not happening fast enough for half of humanity who continue to be second class citizens.

At a media conference after the close of the conference, Commonwealth Secretary General, Patricia Scotland said the meeting had been productive.

And while the agenda may have seemed too far reaching at times, there was step by step progress when it was generally accepted that financial viability paid a major role in decisions that women could make.

If they dont have the money to support their health and children, dont have the opportunity to be self efficient, or dont have the means to do find work or opportunities to find employment and gain property rights then the choices that they have whether they stay in an abusive relationship or leave, becomes more narrow, said the Secretary General.

There was also a chance to share strategies and successes.

Rwanda, which has had a difficult and horrific past in terms of wars and violence, was held up as an example to other countries with their record numbers of 64% of women in parliament.

It was also revealed that even creating legislation, women having equal qualifications and living in a developed country was still not a guarantee that women would be on an equal footing with men.

...in many of our countries now we have more women coming out of university with first class degrees than perhaps men.

[But] when you look at progression, men are still doing much better than women, so education and opportunity is clearly not the only thing we need to address.

How very true and while the Ms Scotland was speaking generally, she may not have realised how accurately she was describing the situation in Samoa.

Her final words were a message of hope.

We are looking at how we can pool information about what works to help members of the Commonwealth to leap frog over those impediments and to get us to be where we would most like to be.

[And] in due course we will be publishing a communique from the meeting which sets up the path way that ministers have committed to take in order to address these issues and trade the whole opportunity to make a more gender equal world for us all.

We look forward to that.
Many young lads these days dream of fancy cars, houses and girlfriends; but for a 22-years-old farmer from the village of Saleilua Falealili, his only dream is to provide for his family.

Sinapati Le'aupepe was spotted yesterday at the Fugalei market selling crops from his plantation to earn a bit of money for his parents and family.

I dropped out of university at the age of 18 and now I am 22 years old, he explained to the Village Voice.

I understood that my parents were struggling to keep me in school and it was also tough for me to learn much.

School may provide many opportunities for us but I decided with my parents that I will do something else to help the family out.

So since my family has a lot of land in the rural villages we decided that I will go an earn money from the plantation. This is because it only takes seven months for my crops at my plantation to be ready to be brought here to the market to sell.

For Sinapati, this is the only way his family can live; through his hard work.

We have nine people in my family and no one is employed, we live on this plantation, he said.

We bring baby and mature coconuts, palusami, taro and so on from Monday all the way till Sunday. No matter what we make its not enough because we have to put children through school, give to the church and the village.

I dont mind giving money to the church because we will get blessed.

But life as a farmer is great for teaching moral lessons. Sinapati recommends such a hard working life for all youths in Samoa.

My message to the youth is that we should all try out the life of a farmer, he said.

Its a waste of time and strength to come to town and cause trouble. Its so much better using that strength to help the family out through a plantation.

You make money and you are using your time wisely. Taking care of family should always be our main priority rather than hitting your shoulders against others.

Ever since I dropped out of school I made up my mind that I will never make my familys life any tougher than it is. I will make things easier for them.

Providing all that is needed for his family, Sinapatis only wish is water for his village.

In my village we are always having trouble with water, he explained.

My only dream is that we can get water to the people of my village, even if its just a water tank. We try and save up for one but the money goes as fast as it comes.

The money we make isnt enough but I want to see the day where we can get a source of water for my family and friends.
If youre passionate about your culture, you will do everything to uphold and maintain it.

This is the message from one of the well-known Samoan Dance groups based in New Zealand.

Le La o Samoa Dance Group is a group made up of passionate Samoan ladies.

They were in the country last week participating in the Teuila Festival.

The group also had the opportunity to host shows after the Teuila in some of the hotels in Samoa to showcase their talents.

On Thursday night, the group graced the stage for guests and visitors of Le Manumea Hotel with a lovely show.

The leader of the Group, Lanah Sellen Sua Aoina and the Treasurer and Secretary, Evelyn Lima Saena described their experience of the Teuila Festival as amazing.

It is always good to be back here in Samoa and it was a great experience to be part of the Teuila Festival this year, said Lanah.

It was one of our goals from the beginning of this year and our girls worked really hard to accomplish it and to be here; its an amazing thing.

And Evelyn couldnt agree more with what Lanah said.

She said, Its actually my first here for the Teuila. The atmosphere was very awesome and the hype that we got from there is just amazing. We are so blessed to have participated in this years festival.

The whole festival was great. We had a variety of groups from overseas and also some local groups sharing the stage and to get to see all the different talents of our people, it was just fantastic.

The success of their dance group, Lanah immediately credited to God.

Our success comes from Him and we put Him first in all that we do. We know that the talent that we have and strength comes from Him and we give all the glory to Him.

Moreover, Lanah and Evelyn also believe that the support from the community is another reason why they made it this far.

I honestly believe that if it werent for their words of encouragement, we wouldnt be here so we are grateful to them.

And we truly appreciate all the love and support from our families and friends.

As to what makes Le La o Samoa different from the other dance groups?

Lanah said, We are unique in a way, where we implement an expression of our own story through our music and the geography of our movement and formation, and also make it fun to captivate the audience.

We also pay a lot of attention to fine details of our geography to try and push ourselves to the very best of our abilities. It will not stop here.

Our goal is to maintain our traditional movements, gracefulness and help inspire the future generations.

Evelyn said, If youre passionate about your culture, you will do everything to uphold and maintain it.

For us, because we live abroad, its very hard for us to learn the language and our culture because of the environment that we live in.

But coming together as a group, we teach each other and we learn from one another. We truly believe that dancing plays an important part in maintaining our culture. And for us, this is something we love, and we are proud of what we do.

Lastly, their message for the youth of Samoa is simple.

Be proud, said Evelyn.

We are proud of our culture and our country. And we proudly carry our culture with us anywhere we go. We should never be afraid to showcase our talents from God.
I had such a great experience last year I was very keen to return. In fact I returned again last December for a holiday with my wife Michelle  without the bike. Its a goal to have to keep training over the Wellington winter. For me its all about my health and well-being so it keeps me motivated and something to look forward to.

What will be the biggest challenge this time?

The biggest challenge for me this time is the hills, heat and sleep. I have been working on my hill climbing so hoping to stay in touch with the leading bunch on the climbs and improve on my last years efforts. It is very much a race but everyone is very supportive and theres a lot of fun along the way. I didnt sleep much last year as I was so loaded with adrenaline  so need to slow it down a bit when off the bike.

Preparations for the tour I have tried to ride 10hrs per week with some longer commutes to and from work. Short hard hilly rides mid-week and longer endurance rides in the weekend with mates - and a few coffee stops.

My racing over the last twelve months has improved since last years tour. I achieved my goal of completing the Taupo Cycle Challenge (160km) solo in under 5 hrs last year with the help of the Samoa trip. I did a few club races around Wellington and Wairarapa over summer including a 3 stage 2 day tour in the Wairarapa. The next goal is the inaugural Abel Tasman Cycle Challenge (Nelson region) on 3 Dec.

Last year was my first time in Samoa. I was in awe of the scenery and the tranquillity of Savaii. Riding a bike around is such a great way to see the place and the people were are all so friendly. I loved the rides too. On the race it was being competitive in a few stages and doing much better than I thought I could as it was the first time I had been riding a week-long Tour.

What I loved about last years tour was the course itself and the Holiday package aspect to it.

Its a great team and Seti runs it smoothly and makes it enjoyable. Its good to race hard early in the day then relax by the beach in the afternoon or do some sightseeing. It is a nice mix for road riding. Savaii is the best place in the world to ride as the roads are good and there is little traffic to worry about  just the animals.

For this year, I am most looking forward to being with the group again. At the end of the day its all about the people  so looking forward to renewing acquaintances, spending a special week with my son  Oscar - who is one of the support team again this year. Oscar is a budding filmmaker so its a great experience for him as well to capture the tour.

The new course along the south coast of Upolu looks great and will complete the loop as it is a road that we havent ridden yet. The teams event will be fun and it will be nice to extend the peleton ride back into Apia to the community to join in the celebrations.

Ford Tour of Samoa starts early on Monday morning and finishes on Saturday afternoon with the Victory Ride to Apia. There are 25 riders from New Zealand and Australia, and 20 support crew and personnel.

Brent and his son Oscar came to the Tour last year. They both return for this years tour. Brent is riding, and Oscar is the videographer for the tour.
The current Miss Pacific Islands 2015-2016, Abigail Havora graced the Miss Samoa Pageant this year with her presence.

While she was in Samoa, Abigail also had the opportunity to experience and observe the Samoan culture close up during the Teuila Festival.

The purpose of us moving around is because I am an ambassador for the Pacific, and if I stay in my country alone, then whats the use of being an ambassador if you dont know much about whats happening around the rest of the Pacific?

As it was her first time in Samoa, Abigail said everything about Samoa impressed her.

Its exciting to be here, she told the Samoa Observer.

This is actually my first time here in Samoa and I was really impressed with all the cultural performances and the variety of the festival.

I enjoy the weather and the environment, and the people are so friendly so yeah, Im loving my time in Samoa.

Abigails visit here to Samoa is part of her role as an ambassador of the Pacific.

I was invited to come and attend the Miss Samoa Pageant.

Weve been going around the Pacific, and we just came from the pageant in Tonga, and we will also go to American Samoa for their pageant.

This is done so the Miss Pacific can go and witness the different pageants around the Pacific.

Nevertheless, she was very impressed with the Miss Samoa pageant, particularly the girls who competed this year.

They were all confident, smart and beautiful.

They expressed and presented themselves so well and I commend the girls for that.

I know its not an easy thing to do. You dont know how hard it is until you get up and do it.

The pageant was exactly what I had expected. The girls did well and they were very talented.

Finally, Abigail said she wants to encourage more young Samoan girls if they feel that they have what it takes to represent the country.

From my experience and from my journey so far, the pageant is about getting up and representing your people.

It can be really tricky because there are a lot of expectations and a lot of challenges. But if you are brave enough to do it, then no one should ever stop you.

The essential part about wanting to represent your people, is knowing who you are first.

And if you know who you are, you will confidently represent yourself and your culture.

Culture is the heart of everything that we do here in the Pacific.

It is a way of life, and its part of our identity and who we are.

The first thing I would encourage them to do, is to get in touch with their roots.

You should know where you come from.

The Pacific is made up of so many beautiful and intelligent women and our purpose is to show the world that Pacific women are able to do so many things. We are beautiful and smart and we need to carry that with us everywhere we go. And if you feel that you have something in your heart to show the world, then get up and show it, and dont let anyone hold you back.
Ministers and lawmakers at the Commonwealth Womens Affairs Ministers Meeting in Apia have received a cutting-edge resource to help beef-up East African laws that protect women against violence.

The Commonwealth East African judicial bench book on violence against women, is the first in a series of regionally specific legal guidelines to protect female victims of violence.

The production of a subsequent bench book for the Pacific was also announced and will be developed in partnership with judges and lawyers from across the region. Further bench books for Asia, Europe, the Caribbean and Americas are also in the pipeline as the initiative is rolled out globally.

In the Pacific, violence against women and girls is among the highest in the world. Evidence shows that up to 68% of Pacific women are affected. Produced by the Commonwealth Secretariat, the bench book will outline how the judiciary can apply national and international human rights law and standards to protect some of the regions most vulnerable women and girls.

Shortly after commencing her role at the Commonwealth Secretariat six-months ago, the first ever female Secretary-General, Patricia Scotland, assured that ending violence against woman and girls was one of her key priorities.

After presenting the judicial bench book for East Africa and announcing plans for a global roll out of the bespoke tool, Secretary-General Scotland said: This is a global campaign to end impunity and effectively address violence perpetrated against women and girls in the Commonwealth.

As a Commonwealth jurist, I am extremely proud of the work that the Secretariat, the judiciary, the lawyers and the civil society groups have undertaken in order to make this first judicial book available. There are echoes of truth within it for all of our regions - a lot of great lessons. Ultimately, the bench book will contribute to legal reforms with the potential of strengthening the capacity of judicial officers to effectively address violence against women.

Providing a tool and resources for promoting equality, the book contains a compilation of international cases on womens rights as well as the outcomes of the Pan-Commonwealth Case Law review on violence against women. By collating and sharing information, it aims to strengthen mechanisms for addressing violence against women and girls and paves the way for wider sensitization on the important role of judges and relevant stakeholders in tackling the issue. The East Africa book will serve as best practice for other Commonwealth regions.

Ugandas supreme court justice, Lillian Tibatemwa-Ekirikubinza, who also spoke at the ministerial meeting in Samoa, said: Discrimination against women is a universal problem. The importance of meeting together as Commonwealth countries is to be able to take best practices from each others jurisdictions. There are many ways in which judicial officers have done things across the board. I am able to tell the others that this is not the first time that this judicial remedy is going to be implemented, it has worked elsewhere.

After the regional launch of the judicial bench book in Nairobi in June, Bart Katureebe, Chief Justice of Uganda, said: The Judicial bench Book has the capacity to strengthen the jurisprudence of equality on violence against women, to provide current and cutting edge case law on violence against women in the region, and to assist in developing effective judicial strategies through benchmarking and adoption of best practices. A Judicial bench Book such as this is an essential tool for the achievement of gender justice.

The Commonwealth Secretariat will also provide technical assistance to member states to help the judiciary in East Africa adapt and implement the recommendations in the book.
While Gender Equity was one of the major talking points at the 11th Commonwealth Womens Affairs Ministerial Meeting last week, it was always in relation to other issues.

These included domestic violence, climate change, and increasing the number of women in parliament.

The importance of having the financial resources for women to call upon to make good choices was also an important aspect to ensuring success, agreed many of the participants.

In summing up, the Commonwealth Secretary General, Patricia Scotland said the conference had been a very productive meeting; it had a clear focus in terms of how sustainable development goals were to be delivered particularly focusing on SDG 5 which is in relation to the empowerment of women in gender equity.

We were looking in particular at the interrelationship between gender equality and climate change and because of the impact that climate change has on our world, she said.

It is an essential threat for many of the small island states both here in the Pacific and in the Caribbean but its a general global threat which is now recognised by everyone.

However, if you look at the impact of climate change it has a disproportionate impact on women and so that was part of the aspect that we were talking about together.

In the beginning of the week there were also side events and one of the side events was to look at domestic violence in Samoa and the ministers were looking at actions that they can take to change the issue.

Domestic Violence as you all know, according to the World Health Organisation, does in fact affect one in three women in the world.

[And] it is not affected by any form of impediment by way of race, colour, culture, religion, ethnicity, economic position so it doesnt matter if you are white or black, rich or poor or whatever religion you are.

This phenomenon which is domestic violence seems to cut across all of our countries and therefore it was very important that in this meeting, ministers heard experts and young people talk about how we can come together and change this.

[And] in due course we will be publishing a communique from the meeting which sets up the path way that ministers have committed to take in order to address these issues and trade the whole opportunity to make a more gender equal world for us all.

During the week-long conference, feedback from observers was that whenever they try to develop ideas there is always a barrier with culture in terms of financial backing.

We looked at the issues of financial sustainability and independence, we looked in the holistic ways and the issues of domestic violence have to be looked at that its a multifaceted multiagency approach and its something that is not dependant on the government but involves civil societies, the private sector and everyone else working together, Ms Scotland said.

[And] so there was a big push for an economic analysis of the cost of domestic violence to each of our countries to look at how we can save money as well as live safely.

There was a real understanding that if we have to give those victims and survivors of domestic violence real opportunities then we have to look at the realities of the situation that many of those individuals find themselves in; if they dont have any alternatives and places to go.

If they dont have the money to support their health and children, dont have the opportunity to be self efficient, or dont have the means to do find work or opportunities to find employment and gain property rights then the choices that they have whether they stay in an abusive relationship or leave, becomes more narrow.

So we did talk about the financial impact and the consequences of womens disempowerment when they dont have the financial ability to make those choices.

We talked about how we could together as members state and together as a secretariat create new pathways by sharing best practice, knowledge and working out what works and also sharing what does not work because many countries are at different stages of this journey of gender equality and no one has actually got there entirely but many of the countries in the commonwealth are further along the pathway.

So its the question of us all assisting each other to get further and faster in a way thats helpful so those were absolutely discussed.

The Secretary General was also asked about recommendations that they came up with for member countries of the Commonwealth to push the number of women to get involved in politics and become members of parliament.

The ministers addressed four areas which we are going to be prioritise and one of them was empowerment of women, she said.

One of the opportunities that we took during this meeting was to examine the methodology and the approaches which have succeeded in a number of countries in the Commonwealth.

She gave as an example, Rwanda.

They had had a very difficult history as many of you are aware but they now have 64 percent of women in parliament, she said.

Now they have gone from nothing to 64 percent in a very short period of time.

There are countries like South Africa, Kenya and a number of them who are at a different stage on that journey.

She went on to say that they will collaborate with all of those countries and instil the best practice of what works so it can be shared amongst all our nations.

We believe that if we work together on these issues sharing best practice, creating legislation but also finding ways to implement the legislation because many of our countries have good legislative provision, but its the implementation which is proved problematic, she said.

[And] its not just problematic for the developing countries if you analyse the developed countries; they have similar problems so even in those countries where womens education has improved, their opportunities have improved, womens power you would have thought has improved if you compare the likely success of a woman with similar skills to that of a man and yet a man is still exponentially more likely to succeed than a woman.

So in many of our countries now we have more women coming out of university with first class degrees than perhaps men.

[But] when you look at progression, men are still doing much better than women so education and opportunity is clearly not the only thing we need to address.

So drilling down an understanding what can change that paradigm is important because if you compare the pathway of many of the different countries, they are actually similar.

We are looking at how we can pool information about what works to help members of the Commonwealth to leap frog over those impediments and to get us to be where we would most like to be.
Think a minuteYou have heard the expression, What you see is what you get. Psychologists tell us that one of the most powerful influences on our life is our self-image. We live like the person we see in the mirror. We are what we think we are. If you do not think you will be successful, you most likely wont. You cannot be it if you cannot see it. Your life is limited to your vision. So if you want to change your life, you must change your vision of your life.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was not very famous in 1976 when he met with a newspaper reporter. The reporter asked Schwarzenegger: Now that youve retired from bodybuilding, what do you plan to do next? Schwarzenegger confidently answered: Im going to become the #1 movie star in Hollywood. The reporter was both shocked and amused at Schwarzeneggers bold plan. At that time, it was very hard to imagine how this muscle-bound bodybuilder who was not a professional actor, and who spoke poor English with a heavy Austrian accent, could ever hope to be Hollywoods #1 movie star!

When the reporter asked Schwarzenegger how he planned to make his dream come true, Schwarzenneger replied: Ill do it the same way I became the #1 bodybuilder in the world. First I create a vision of who I want to be, then I start living like that person as if it were already true. Sounds childishly simple, doesnt it? But amazingly, Schwarzenegger actually became the #1 highest paid movie star in Hollywood in his dayand later the Governor of California. Tragically, he did not have the same vision and ambition for his own moral character and marriage!

A successful businessman I know wears a shirt with these words on it: Dont pursue your dreams. Chase em down and tackle em! You only get one life to live, so why not live the best life possible! It only makes sense that the One Who designed and made life is the One Who knows the best way to live it. Wont you ask Jesus to forgive you for living your own, wrong way, and to take charge of your heart and life every day. He will help you start seeing and being the truly successful human being He created you to be. His way is the only way you can become genuinely and permanently fulfilled with what you see and get in life. Just think a minute
Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi has lent his voice to the issue of freeing West Papua at Pacific Island Forum meeting in the Federated States of Micronesia.

Speaking to journalists at F.S.M, Prime Minister Tuilaepa confirmed that the Civil Society representatives raised the issue of West Papua during the Forum, but declined to be drawn into what the Forum leaders would decide.

There are two issues involved here, Tuilaepa is quoted as saying.

That is human rights and self determination. Human rights is okay, we can address it in a normal situation but when it comes to the issue of self determination, then there are processes that we must follow.

In saying this, I did mention that what arises in West Papua is very similar to the situation of what my own country went through when we agitated to become independent.

Of course later the United Nations came in and guided us along the path to final independence in 1962. So the processes are there, and those are the formal ones to take.

Pushed by PACNEWS as to what his recommendations would be to his fellow, Tuilaepa replied: Well its already incorporated, and we will discuss this at the retreat.

At this time your question has been posed but I cannot disclose to you what we will talk about. This is why we arrange the meeting of the Forum to have retreats so that we can discuss.

As next years chair of Forum, will you push for some concrete decision on West Papua, he was asked. Many submissions have been received from the people of the Pacific for action on West Papua, just like last years Forum, but last year Forum did nothing on West Papua.

Yes, (laughs) you are trying to speculate. Never speculate on sensitive issues, he said.

So would you like to put the speculations to rest sir?

All I can say is, have faith in God, Tuilaepa responded.

At the meeting, Pacific civil society organisation representatives have put in a strong bid for Pacific leaders to support the involvement of the United Nations in the case of the people of West Papua.

This was one of the key points CSO reps submitted during their scheduled breakfast meeting in Pohnpei with members of the Pacific Islands Forum troika, comprising the past, current and future chair of the 16-member island group.

What was encouraging in the dialogue was the consideration and the recognition that the United Nations process is available, head of the Pacific Islands NGO Association, Emele Duituturaga told journalists at the end of the breakfast meeting.

We detected an acceptance that this possibly could be one of the pathways. I think the difference is that up until now, we always thought this is a Melanesian issue. In our recommendations, we tried to assist our leaders recognise some of the bilateral arrangements, bilateral assistance that somehow might be hindering the options we need to look at.

Duituturaga told PACNEWS later that her group of 16 CSO reps gave all they wanted to submit at todays meeting, and it is now up to the leaders to decide. Her group also raised the issues of youth unemployment, gender based violence, disability, decolonisation and self-determination.
They have become household names in Samoa.

For the Szegedi family who run the Treasure Box business in Apia, from the cold of Europe  namely Germany - where they came from, there is no other place they would rather be than Samoa.

But it has taken all 32 years of living to truly establish themselves on this island paradise. For Stefan Snr, Christa and their son Stefan Jnr, Samoa is home.

During an interview with the Samoa Observer, Christa recalled their early days in Samoa.

Their decision to leave German in pursuit of a dream life was not all roses. Christa said they wanted to start a life less stressful than theirs in Germany. They also wanted to own a business.

Making the decision to leave Germany, she said, was the easy part.

Then came the implementation.

On one hand, there was the cultural shock. Then there was the language barrier and of course all the challenges that come with relocating.

Keep in mind that we are talking about thirty years ago.

The communication means were not as good as today, Christa recalls. In those times, to communicate with my family I had to send a fax to my mother which she would receive two days later.

Communication is a two way street. And for her family in Germany, they were anxious and worried about how the Szegedis were getting on in a remote Pacific island.

For one thing, they didnt know where exactly Samoa is, she said.

Complicating matters was the fact our family had a new grandchild, just seven weeks old before we emigrated to Samoa. That was Stefan Jnr and many years ago.

Today, the family has settled in and well established. Christas parents have visited Samoa several times and have always enjoyed their new home, returning with many wonderful stories to share in Germany. They have also had friends and other relatives travel to Samoa and have left with the same experience.

Communication is so much easier these days, she said of the technology now available in Samoa.

Theres Whatsapp or Email. This is a real progress in comparison to 30 years ago when you had to write a letter which took four weeks to get from here to there. At that time, you had to wait a long time to find out about the news on the other side of the world. Thats all changed now.

Business-wise, the Szegedis first attempt to start one came through the establishment of a restaurant called the Apia Inn. That allowed them to interact with locals, learn the language and meet people.

Later came the Treasure Box, a business they are well known for in Apia.

Looking back, Christa said a lot has changed in Samoa.

Back then, there was only one bituminized street and there were less than two thousand cars. Now we have more than 25,000 cars with tar sealed roads all over the place."

Christa notes that one thing which has not changed in Samoa over the years is the passion with which Samoans have for their culture and traditions.

For the Szegedis, although they have come to love their adopted country, there are some traditions from Germany they have kept. One can see this for example, that for generations already, the male descendant is always named after the father, for the Szegedi family it is Stefan Jnr.

Christmas and Easter holidays are occasions to behold in Germany and the family does the same in Samoa. The big Christmas tree at home and the mad search for easter eggs shows a longing for home.

The family has also had to take on new traditions like their son Stefan Jnr embracing White Sunday while he was at that age.

Christa says that the secret to living away from home is learning how to adapt.

Keep the traditions of your home country but try and integrate the Samoan cultural conditions and circumstances by honoring and respecting the Samoan culture, even if youre sometimes thinking of things in a different way.

Thats very important to us. It has not been Samoa, calling for us to come here but it has been us who wanted to come here. Home is where your family is.

An important fact in their determination to come to Samoa is the history of Germany and Samoa. Christa said there are many Germans  or Samoans with German blood  and they find that very comfortable.

Today one will find lots of German tracks and traces in Samoa. For this purpose, you only need for example to have a look in the phone book and you will find there are lots of German names.

When talking with local people you can hear quite often "my German grandfather" or "my German great-grandfather."

Christa said the attitude of Samoans towards Germans is very positive.

So what do the Szegedis love the most about Samoa?

Well you guessed it; it is the peaceful life style they had left Germany to find. They love the social life and they live only minutes away from the sandy beaches where they spend most of their weekends.

The business is also growing with Treasure Box and Pearls & Rings.

This would probably not have been possible in Germany, Christa said.

In Germany, she was employed as a Procurement and Department manager for a Jewelry company.

So will they return to Germany?

With a smile, the answer is a firm no for now.

Her biggest challenges yet include learning to speak Samoan fluently.

But shes got time. Shes not planning to leave this paradise in a hurry.
The two men accused of stealing more than $10,000 from the Bank of the South Pacifics A.T.M machines last month appeared in the Supreme Court yesterday.

Yang Quigreen and Zhong Shuiming appeared before Justice Lesatele Rapi Vaai.

The Acting director of the National Prosecution Office, Muriel Lui appeared for the prosecution while Leota Raymond Shuster represented the accused men.

During the proceedings, Ms. Lui sought the Courts leave for the matter to be adjourned for two weeks to allow the Police to finalise the charges.

Leota did not object and the application was granted by Justice Lesatele.

As a result, Quigreen and Shuimings next appearance is scheduled for 26 September 2016.

According to the Acting Police Commissioner, Afamasaga Michael Soonalole, there are three men accused in the matter.

He said the Chinese men arrived in Samoa from Fiji. Afamasaga did not rule out the possibility of further charges.

According to Police Media Officer, Sua Muliaga Tiumalu he said the accused are between ages of 30 and 32 years old.

The accused were caught on security cameras and they were found by Police at a restaurant at Matautu.

The Police claim that they discovered machines used to make fake cards when they raided the place they were staying in at Matautu-uta.
The farmers in Savaii have stepped up to establish a new group for farmers on the big island called the Sosaiete Aufaifaatoaga Savaii (S.A.S.).

More than fifty farmers in livestock, fisheries and the taro industry have signed up with the Society established in Salelologa Savaii in June this year.

Members from S.A.S. took the ferry to Apia yesterday to have their first official meeting with the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Polataivao. The Associate Minister of Agriculture, Faasootauloa Pati Taulapapa was also present.

President of S.A.S., Papaliitele Siaosi Hansell spoke about the reason they have formed the group.

He said the division of the farmers' association in Upolu, which has now split into two associations, is a reflection of the differences within the group.

Papaliitele believes the divisions has a bigger ramification on farmers from Savaii whose voice is ignored.

The farmers in Savaii have met and we decided it is time to have our own association that can assist the people in the island directly, said Papaliitele.

Most of the time we dont know there are overseas markets that we can send our produces to because there is a breakdown in communication.

But that is a barrier that we want to break down with us having our own association to voice our needs and seek assistance in terms of developmentsI can tell you now that none of us (farmers) from Savaii have received any aid from the current associations in Upolu.

Papalii added it was also crucial for Savaii to have their own society to ensure that the government has not neglected the needs of farmers in Savaii and to keep the M.A.F. office in the island active.

Secretary of S.A.S., Tiatia Tauloa Siaaga agrees.

A farmer from the village of Faletagaloa Safune, Savaii, Tiatia gave an insight to the reality of things on the island.

I had only found out late last week that the agriculture office is looking to export Tahitian lime overseas, said Tiatia. For months our Tahitian limes on the island have been falling off trees and rotting and yet here there is a big market overseas that farmers from the island do not know about.

Farmers in Savaii are looking for markets to sell their produces but there isnt enough publicity and information from this side of the island out there for us to be informed about it.

So all this time, Savaii farmers are blindly developing their lands without knowing there is a bigger market we can sell them too.

Even though there are many more farmers in Savaii than Upolu, most of the aid and government assistances stay here in Upolu.

Having this association will help make things easier for farmers on the island to share our own ideas to develop the land and push for proposed projects, he said.

Savaii has more land than Upolu not only geographically but land with a lot of plantations development on it.

"We feel that our grievances are not being fully represented by the farmers association in Upolu and establishing our own group we can push for what is best for us."

The Minister of Agriculture, Laauli welcomed the establishment of the Society.

We have a lot of markets but we cannot meet its needs, the Minister said.

At the moment we have a demand of 20  30 containers of taro to export but so far we can only supply 10 containers.

"The governments work is to find markets for our farmers on the government to government levelthere is a very competitive market overseas and we are going against some of the neigbouring countries like Fiji and Niue.

Laauli said he will visit Savaii next week and government will look at ways to help the association  including the possibility of setting up an office.

Executive members of S.A.S. include Fonoti Fitu Wong Soon as the Vice President, and Treasurer, Sanele Tiatia Motootua.

The Society also invites other farmers in Savai'i to join - if they have not registered already.
Cabinet is still waiting for a proposal from Hope 4 Cancer Clinic to use the $4.2million tala Samoa Land Corporation (S.L.C) building at Tuanaimato.

Confirmed by the Minister of Public Enterprises, Lautafi Selafi Purcell, he said the government is not pressuring the company.

We are waiting for the proposal and there is more to be done to ensure their proposal is well prepared, Lautafi told the Samoa Observer.

Its not just the building (S.L.C. headquarters) they want to use but its the shift of their company that will be coming. We want them to be well prepared rather than rushing in just to fill in the (empty) house.

So we are not pressuring them. They are aware that government has accepted them to come in and there is a building for them.

Four months ago, the founder and Medical Director of Hope 4 Cancer Institute in Mexico, Dr. Antonio Jimenez made a presentation to Prime Minister and Cabinet ministers about their cause.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi had initially announced that the abandoned Medcen hospital at Vailima was to be used by the Group.

That later changed when Tuilaepa said the empty S.L.C. headquarters would be given to them instead.

Tuilaepa embraced the group.

These doctors from the United States of America are here with the hope to set up a clinic here in Samoa that will treat all illnesses especially Cancer by using different kinds of treatment rather than letting the patient go through chemo and radiation, he said.

This group is highly recommending healthy eating and natural healing, like us here in Samoa. There are a lot of cancer patients who dont want to go through the normal treatment of cancer like chemo and radiation but they would gladly go through what these doctors are bringing on the table.

He explained; The reason why they want to setup a clinic here in Samoa is because most of their patients are from New Zealand and Australia and so it would be easier for these patients to travel to Samoa rather than spending a lot of money going to America which is expensive.

They (cancer patients) also dont want to go through the hard treatment but rather take these treatments that are much easier and less painful.

Last month, Minister Lautafi said a special committee has been approved by Cabinet to prepare an agreement for the $4.2million headquarter that will house the Hope 4 Cancer clinic.

He said every detail of the lease will be included in the agreement.

While the government did not hold back its support for the Mexican own clinic, the Samoa Cancer Society had their concerns.

In a recent interview with the S.C.S. Executive officer, Shelley Burich she said it was wrong for patients to be denied the option of going through chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

What we want to say to the government is if they want to offer alternative treatment, then its okay. But dont do away the Overseas Medical Treatment (O.V.T.), she said.

They wont be doing chemo or radio. With the supplements they will be using I dont know about that. We dont know what is in it. So what we are pushing to the government is its wrong not to give that option of radio and chemo because not everyone would want to go the alternative way.
The lawyer representing suspended Police Commissioner, Fuiavailili Egon Keil, is seeking to quash the charges against his client.

Komisi Koria made his intentions known in the Supreme Court yesterday where he questioned the legitimacy of charges against the Commissioner.

Fuiava faces charges including unlawful detaining of a person, disorderly conduct in a public place, perjury and making a false statement in relation to the wrongful arrest of member of the public last year.

Yesterday, Commissioner Fuiava appeared before Justice Lesatele Rapi Vaai.

It was then that Mr. Koria told the Court they dont understand the nature of the allegations against his client and he is therefore seeking to quash them.

Given the poor state of the file that has been provided to us, and the obvious lack of evidence behind the way that charges have been filed, it is in our application that the police charges need to be quashed in Court to avoid further prejudice of evidence, said Mr. Koria.

The lawyer based his argument on the documents provided to his office by the National Prosecution Office (N.P.O), which filed the charges.

Mr. Koria drew the Courts attention to the charges of perjury and making a false statement to the Ombudsman.

The charges that we have been served do not particularise what the statement is that my client is alleged to have made knowing that statement is false, he said.

You cannot charge a person with an offence of perjury and not particularise what the statement is that he has allegedly made.

Mr. Koria said he has asked the N.P.O on several occasions to provide him with the details of the statement so he can understand the nature of the charges against Fuiavailiili.

However, Mr. Koria was told by the acting Director of the National Prosecution Office (N.P.O), Muriel Lui, that he needed to make a proper application before the Court to be given that information.

It is the Constitutional right for my client to be given all the information in relation to the charges to understand the nature of all the information against him, Mr. Koria said.

He added that it is the duty of the N.P.O to provide all of that information to them, something they have failed to do.

As for the other charges of unlawful detaining and disorderly conduct in a public place, Mr. Koria said his client was a secondary party to the alleged offence.

He said the charges again to not particularise how his client is alleged to have participated in the offences yet there is a primary offender.

Mr. Koria argued that if the charges had been properly investigated and properly considered, there is no way this matter would be brought before the Supreme Court.

Mr. Koria also told the Court the charges are baseless and there are insufficient evidence to prove them.

The Acting Director of the National Prosecution Office, Muriel Lui, objected to the claims from Mr. Koria.

While she confirmed a request from the Commissioners lawyer for information, she said she already informed Mr. Koria that he would have to do things the proper way and that involves an application before the Court.

But Justice Lesatele interrupted.

She asked Ms. Lui whether there is a need to file an application with the Court when they are in the position to provide the information needed in relation to the charges.

In the end, Justice Lesatele ordered the N.P.O to provide all the documents in relation to this matter to Mr. Koria and his client.

The matter has been adjourned until next Wednesday for a decision on the application to quash the charges.
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The Dr. Miles Medical Company faced tough competition when it introduced its pain-relieving antacid, Alka-Seltzer, in 1931. The market leader was a product called Bromo-Seltzer, which had been on the market since the 1890s. For years, both Alka-Seltzer and Bromo-Seltzer ads appeared in the Post, using a dry, factual approach to tell how their product offered relief for colds, indigestion, headaches, or, as was delicately hinted, hangovers.

Then, in 1951, Alka-Seltzer introduced a new spokesman: a puppet character named Speedy, named for the products new speedy relief campaign slogan. The puppet had an Alka-Seltzer tablet for its body and wore another tablet as a hat. Not long after appearing in magazines, an animated version of Speedy started showing up in television ads. For years, Americans heard his high, nasal voice singing, Plop, plop, fizz, fizz. Oh, what a relief it is!

Subscribe and get unlimited access to our online magazine archive. Subscribe Today

The original Speedy puppet was lost en route to the Philippines in 1971 and discovered five years later in an Australian warehouse. For a while, the popular puppet was insured for $100,000; today, it is stored in a vault in a Beverly Hills bank.


Memphis, TN -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/12/2016 -- Phillip R. Langsdon, M.D., F.A.C.S. of The Langsdon Clinic is celebrating 30 years in practice. The clinic was founded by Dr. Langsdon in July 1986, and began with an innovative idea of providing care focused on Facial Plastic Surgery. The clinic is still the only provider in the Mid-South that is solely dedicated to facial plastic surgery and facial aesthetic non-surgical treatments.



Named Best Cosmetic Surgery and Best Medical Spa for the past 6 years in Memphis Most, Dr. Langsdon has also appeared on the Today Show, Headline News, CNBS and CSPAN and many network affiliates. Dr. Langsdon has authored 42 medical publications including journal articles, textbooks and book chapters.



Since 1993, the clinic has been a training site for University of Tennessee doctors studying facial plastic surgery. The clinic also became a graduate medical education site approved by the American Academy of Facial Plastic Surgery in 2014 and has a full time fellow working with Dr. Langsdon.



In addition to training physicians, Dr. Langsdon has directed over 25 national medical educational courses hosted across the nation. These courses provide 30-40 CME hours to hundreds of medical professionals to keep current and learn the latest techniques in facial plastic surgery and non-surgical aesthetic procedures of the face.



The Langsdon Clinic was the first clinic in the Mid-South to offer laser treatments. Dr. Langsdon was involved in the early studies on Botox and the clinic continues to provide expertise in these procedures. Dr. Langsdon and wife Carol Langsdon, R.N.P., B.S.N. were pioneers in the medical spa industry and to this day continue to provide all injections, fillers, lasers, and chemical peels. They continue to research, speak, and publish on these treatments.



About The Langsdon Clinic

The Langsdon Clinic provides world-class expertise in Facelift, Rhinoplasty (nose job), Blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery), Otoplasty, Chin Augmentation, Lip Augmentation/Reduction and Hair Transplantation. Dr. Langsdon and his team use state-of-the-art equipment and believe in providing natural results and compassionate care, in a comfortable, personal, and private environment.



Media Contact:



Aesthetic Brand Marketing  Michelle Hartwell

E-mail: mhartwell@aestheticbm.com

Website: www.aestheticbrandmarketing.com



The Langsdon Clinic

Location: 7499 Poplar Pike, Germantown, TN 38138

Phone: 901-755-6465

Email: langsdonclinic@bellsouth.net

Website: www.drlangsdon.com
Lewes, DE -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/12/2016 -- As part of their deepening strategies, French operators, all of them being converged, are looking to migrate customers onto 4G and fibre networks in order to improve loyalty and monetise data services. Orange dominates both markets, especially in terms of fibre, where it has invested the most and owns the largest network - which might lead to future regulatory intervention to ensure greater competition.



The LTE market is more balanced, with new spectrum helping all operators in the country.



Key Data



- According to Arcep, there were 49.671mn mobile data users in the market at the end of Q116, of which 24.544mn were 4G subscribers.



- The fixed voice market ended Q116 with 38.976mn subscriptions, of which 26.638mn were based on IP services and the remainder on legacy PSTN networks.



- There were over 4.507mn Very-High-Speed Broadband subscriptions at the end of Q116, of which 1.585mn were on fibre networks.



For more information Visit at: http://www.marketresearchreports.com/business-monitor-international/france-telecommunications-report-q4-2016



We hold our positive outlook for the Kenyan mobile market in our Q416 quarterly report update and have once again made some positive forecast revisions, based on the higher than anticipated growth in the first half of 2016. Strong mobile market growth will be supported by low penetration rates, currently around 82.9%. Airtel has made significant investments into developing 4G services in the country and the operator is poised to launch its high-speed data service to rival the primacy of Safaricom this year. Airtel is set to release its 4G service before the end of 2016 and we are of the opinion that Orange will follow suit in 2017. Mobile financial services, in particular, will be a key driver for both subscription and revenue growth. However, we remain watchful of recent consolidation in the market, strong competition in the wireline sector, and Helios's acquisition of a 70% stake in Telkom Kenya. Furthermore, we are still of the opinion that the completed digital migration will free up new spectrum, easing the response to growth in the data market.



Latest Updates And Industry Developments



- The Kenyan mobile market grew by 9.2% y-o-y by the end of H116, with total subscribers reaching over 39.4mn.



- Airtel is set to launch its 4G LTE service in the country before the end of 2016 as it desperately seeks to compete with the growing primacy of Safaricom. Orange is expected to launch their high-speed data service in 2017.



- The regulator is planning to issue 4G spectrum concessions in the 800MHz band to all three operators before the end of August 2016 for a fee of approximately USD25mn each. The regulator envisions equitable holdings of the 800MHz spectrum by all three major operators to ensure healthy competition in the market for high-speed data.



For more information Visit at: http://www.marketresearchreports.com/business-monitor-international/kenya-telecommunications-report-q4-2016



Telenor's acquisition of Prabhu Money Transfer fits with the operator's strategy of buying licensed financial services institutions in key regional markets. Regulatory and consumer code compliance competencies are needed by telecoms operators that establish a direct presence in the mobile financial services (MFS) space, so this deal will strengthen Telenor's appeal in some highly competitive markets. A stronger MFS business would help Telenor attract and retain customers and encourage them to make greater use of their smartphones.



Latest Updates & Industry Developments



- Mobile subscriptions reached 44.111mn by the end of 2015, a penetration rate of 147.0%. Market leaders Maxis, DiGi and Celcom have outperformed smaller players, despite further winnowing-out of inactive prepaid subscriptions (a net loss of 233,000 was seen in 2015). Subscriptions will reach 47.54mnnb by 2020.



For more information Visit at: http://www.marketresearchreports.com/business-monitor-international/malaysia-telecommunications-report-q4-2016



The deployment of next-generation infrastructure is driving usage of premium non-voice services as well as complex, multi-screen converged services in Poland. Orange, Netia and Cyfrowy Polsat are benefiting to varying degrees. Although our outlook on the uptake of 3G/4G services is optimistic, the bids for spectrum in the auctions will temper any return on investment strategies, with a commensurate impact on pricing that will have to be borne by operators and end-users alike.



Latest Updates And Industry Developments



- The mobile market contracted sharply in H116 as more than 1.8mn subscriptions were shed. Orange and P4 (Play) performed well, signalling good underlying growth prospects deriving from customer deepening strategies. We forecast 53.423mn mobile subscriptions by 2020.



- Mobile expansion is being driven by 3G/4G migration. We forecast 48.364mn subscriptions by 2020, or 90.5% of the overall market, but the rate of growth will depend on operators' capex strategies as outlays on spectrum will weigh on their inclination to invest in networks.



For more information Visit at: http://www.marketresearchreports.com/business-monitor-international/poland-telecommunications-report-q4-2016



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Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/12/2016 -- This report provides strategic analysis of the global hazardous area sensors market, and the growth forecast for the period 2015 to 2023. The scope of the report includes competitive analysis of various market segments based on the types, application industry, and in-depth cross-sectional scrutiny of the hazardous area sensors market across different geographical segments. Hazardous Area Sensors refer to sensors which have been developed for usage in potentially explosive environments. The growing importance for 'Intrinsic Safety' across various industry verticals is primarily driving growth of the hazardous area sensors market. Additionally, increasing stringency of government legislations and policies across the globe, governing hazardous area certified products, have been compelling users of hazardous area equipment to adhere to strict classification standards and certifications. This in turn is also steadily boosting growth of the global hazardous area sensors market. Furthermore, the renewed interest in shale gas and 'coal gas' has led to growing explorations for gas beds which in turn has aided in increased application of hazardous area sensors. Considering the positive impacts of the factors mentioned previously, the hazardous area sensors market can be anticipated to grow steadily during the forecast period.



Complete Report with TOC @ http://www.mrrse.com/hazardous-area-sensors-market



On the basis of types, the hazardous area sensors market has been segmented into gas sensing, pressure sensing, current sensing, voltage sensing and temperature sensors. The market revenue for hazardous area sensors has been provided in terms of USD million, along with the CAGR for the forecast period from 2015 to 2023. Application industry covered under this report includes power, oil & gas, mining & metal, grain storage, healthcare, chemical, pharmaceutical, waste & sewage management, fertilizer among others. Each of these segments provide market size and forecast for the period 2015 - 2023, highlighting the key trends influencing and challenging factors for each segment. The regional market analysis gives in-depth analysis of the current trends in different regions including North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World (RoW). South America and Middle-East & Africa are covered in ROW.



To aid in strategic decision-making, the report also includes competitive profiling of leading players in the industry, their market share, various business strategies adopted by them, and recent developments. The key trends analysis provided in the report discusses the various technological advancements and sensor types available currently, with a focus on the future penetration of these products. The value chain analysis included in the report provides information on raw material suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and consumers. The market attractiveness analysis and Porter's five forces analysis included in the report provide insight into market dynamics, industry competition, and the most profitable segments in the hazardous area sensors market. The regulations section included in the report details the various regulations which are currently in effect across the globe. Additionally, the report also details the top players for each region and by each type, along with the top 10 suppliers of hazardous area sensors in each region.



The report also provides breakdown and assessment of various factors impacting the market growth, which are suitably described as market drivers, restraints, and opportunities. These factors determine various existing trends and their impact on market growth. Overall, taking into consideration the various factors affecting the hazardous area sensors market, the report includes a holistic analysis of the global hazardous area sensors market, and provides an estimate of growth for the forecast period 2015 to 2023.



Request a Free Sample Copy of the Report @ http://www.mrrse.com/sample/1961



Some of the leading players in the market Yokogawa Electric Corporation (Japan), ABB Group (Switzerland), Siemens AG (Germany), SICK AG (Germany), Endress and Hauser (Switzerland), ABB Group (Switzerland), Mettler-Toledo International, Inc. (U.S.), Neo Monitors AS (Norway), Honeywell International, Inc. (U.S.), Servomex Group Ltd. (U.K.) and Eaton Corporation Plc (U.S.) among others.



About MRRSE

MRRSE stands for Market Research Reports Search Engine, the largest online catalog of latest market research reports based on industries, companies, and countries. MRRSE sources thousands of industry reports, market statistics, and company profiles from trusted entities and makes them available at a click. Besides well-known private publishers, the reports featured on MRRSE typically come from national statistics agencies, investment agencies, leading media houses, trade unions, governments, and embassies.
Bangkok, Thailand -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/11/2016 -- For those who are interested in studying abroad for a career opportunity, the news that IDP Australian hospitality fair offering courses in tourism, hospitality management and restaurant management is gladdening. The Australian hospitality fair that starts on 24th September 2016 offers study and work placement opportunities to interested candidates.



IDP is the co-owner of IELTS which is a test to gauge the language proficiency of the candidates appearing for exams abroad. IDP education Australia provides education to more than 420,000 students from different parts of the world. It guides students to top most universities in various parts of the world such as New Zealand, Britain, America and so forth.



Quoting from the website, "IDP Australian Hospitality Fair offers a great opportunity to prepare for those who are interested to study in Australia. Courses in Hospitality Management Tourism and restaurant management are offered to the students. The concept of the seminar was to study the matter. "Experience and find your dream career while studying abroad" is the motto of this university.



Candidates can meet and learn from top most team of experts in tourism and hotel management from Sidney, Australia, with special seminars on the topic. "Study and work in Australia with leading companies" and meet with experts to attend the recommended route search for career with an internship in a related occupation. By winning the opportunity to gain work experience with leading brands of hotel chains such as Hilton, Intercontinental, The Ritz Carlton, Shangri-La and more, candidates can benefit and move ahead in their career graph."



"IDP Australian Hospitality Fair is an education fair wherein students and aspiring candidates can pursue their dreams and study with top brand companies within the industry. They can also meet world-class hospitality management institutes from Sydney, Australia, and join the exclusive seminar sessions on the topic "Study & Work Placement Program" and connect with Hospitality and Tourism industry experts who will help guide them to find career paths from each leading institute," comments a close correspondent.



To know more about IDP Australian Fair, please log on to: https://www.idp.com/thailand/studyabroad/lp/australian_hospitality



About IDP Education

It is a world leader in international student placement services. It has a global presence in more than 32 countries. IDP Education is the proud co-owner of IELTS (International English Language Testing System). IELTS is jointly owned by British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia and Cambridge English Language Assessment. Since its launch in 1989, IELTS has become the world's most popular high-stakes English language proficiency test.



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Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/12/2016 -- The report entitled Global Digital Music Market with Focus on Live Streaming: Size, Trends and Forecasts (2016-2020) analyzes the global digital music market with detailed analysis of market sizing and growth. It analyzes market by value and market share by sources with focus on streaming music.



A detailed overview of streaming music market is also discussed in the report. Streaming music market analysis has been done on the basis of value, volume and market segment. The report also provides an analysis of consumer behavior on the basis of consumer preference, spending nature of consumer, consumer interest in streaming services, consumer listening hours and consumers respond towards top streaming music players.



To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @ http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=810263



A brief regional analysis of the US and Germany digital music market is also being done in the report. The US is the largest market for digital music globally with the highest revenue. Germany is the largest digital music market within the European region and third largest in the world. The report provides detailed description of the US and Germany on the basis of value, volume and market share by segment.



The report also assesses the key opportunities available and summarizes the driving forces that are and will be accountable for growth of the industry. Growth of digital music market has also been forecasted for the period 2016-2020, taking into consideration previous growth outlines, growth drivers and the existing and forthcoming trends.



Furthermore, the report portrayed a competitive landscape of the digital music market with detailed comparison of top market players. Apple music is the market leader with highest revenue and number of paid subscribers in 2015.



A brief company profiling of major market players namely Apple Inc., Spotify Limited, Deezer and Pandora Media Inc. has provided in the report on the basis of aspects like business overview, financial overview and business strategies adopted by these companies.



Country Coverage



The US

Germany



Company Coverage



Apple Inc.

Spotify Limited

Deezer

Pandora Media Inc.



Make an Enquiry of this report @ http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=810263



Executive Summary



Music market has two major segments: Physical and digital. Physical music market comprises of music in the form of CD or vinyl whereas digital music market composed of audio content that is distributed to the music lovers through internet. Digital sector includes downloads as well as on demand digital streaming. Digital streaming is either subscription based or ad-supported which is free of charge. In ad-supported music, advertiser is liable to pay for the music streaming on behalf of customers. Current music marketplace offers a wide variety of digital options like download, streaming, cloud, music videos and ringtones.



The global digital music market is growing tremendously with astonishing growth rates over the past few years and is anticipated to grow further over the forecasted period (2016-2020). Major factors contributing in the growth of the market are rising smartphone penetration globally specially in developing economies, availability of cheap internet services, expansion of streaming format, technological advancements, change in consumer behavior and consumer desire to access latest music etc.



In the forecasted period, market will be pushed by increasing number of on- demand consumers, collaboration between music providers with social media platform, rising number of catalog software and blending of streaming music with wearable technology. In spite of high growth, market is still facing certain challenges that are hampering the growth of the market. Challenges encountered by the market are lack of unique services, rampant piracy, legal complexity and intense competition.



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Philadelphia, PA -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/12/2016 -- Pennsylvania 6 Philly, a popular restaurant and bar located in the heart of Philadelphia, PA, is pleased to announce that they are now booking 2016 holiday parties and events. One of the many benefits of choosing Pennsylvania 6 Philly to host a holiday party is that they give individuals the freedom to customize their events.



Whether individuals or organizations wish to have their parties during the afternoon or night, want to use one of their private dining spaces, or desire to utilize the whole restaurant for a couple of hours, the venue can accommodate. Additionally, Pennsylvania 6 Philly has a gorgeous party room on the third floor of their venue that will provide for a truly private holiday party. In addition to holiday parties, Pennsylvania 6 Philly can also play host to birthday parties, bachelor/bachelorette parties, weddings, and fundraisers. To learn more about the types of parties they host, or to book a date and time for an event, please email info@pennsylvania6philly.com, or call 267-639-5606.



Aside from booking holiday parties, Pennsylvania 6 Philly would also like to let everyone know that they will be continuing to serve brunch and bubblys every Saturday and Sunday starting at 11:00 AM. On Saturdays, the restaurant will offer $15 bottles of champagne with free mixers, and on Sundays, there are not only $15 bottles of champagne with free mixers but also $3 mimosas and Bloody Mary's. To learn more about having brunch at this Philadelphia restaurant, please also call or email them at any time.



When looking to have the best brunch in Center City Philadelphia, tasty cocktail, cold craft brew, or hot meal, look no further than Pennsylvania 6 Philly. The venue is known for boasting a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere, and has even been recognized by Zagat as having one of the "10 Must-Try New Sandwiches in Philly."



To learn more about Pennsylvania 6 Philly or view their menus, please visit their website today.



About Pennsylvania 6 Philly

Located just a few short blocks south of Market East Station, Pennsylvania 6 Philly is a contemporary American restaurant that features an extensive craft beer & wine list, along with a raw bar. Owned by Gary Cardi, Pennsylvania 6 is named after the oldest working phone number in NYC, which is the number of the Hotel Pennsylvania in Manhattan. The bar comes complete with white Carrera marble-topped tables, white subway tiles, dark wooden accents and large-scale photos of 1940's-era entertainers. Pennsylvania 6 Philly serves dinner, lunch and weekend brunch.



For more information, please visit http://www.pennsylvania6philly.com/.
Minneapolis, MN -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/12/2016 -- Premier SEO Ninjas, a skilled team of search engine marketers, social media marketers and managers, video marketers, reputation management consultants and branding experts have expanded to 5 other cities in the US namely San Diego (CA), Raleigh (NC), Portland (Maine), Detroit (MI), and San Antonio (TX). It is a highly innovative and results driven company offering a clear, focused and achievable action plan to generate increased sales and increased efficiency. Premier SEO Ninjas is poised in ensuring clients' satisfaction of services rendered through the provision of unmatched on page SEO, competitive research, content development, conversion optimization, link building and local SEO services.



Premier SEO Ninjas aims at repositioning the client's business by building functional and converting websites that rank at the top of search engine results and also ensuring every client is sent monthly reports. With worry free contracts, keyword analysis and strategy, website architecture optimization, code optimization, and content strategy and optimization, every business prospect can become customer. They also guarantee 1st page ranking in search engines.



With all these in place and adhering strictly to their Code of Work Ethics, Premier SEO Ninjas guarantees every client will gain financial effectiveness, positive increasing results and online exposure and revenue. The clients' brand will become trusted with creation of an outstanding website and ongoing results. Using their Discovery Form to start working with them is just the beginning.



Over the years, this Minneapolis SEO Company has helped companies achieve online sales by ensuring the company's site is optimized for search engines thereby endearing them to a large number of prospective clients. No wonder accolades in regards to the company's efficiency and magnanimity to service has continued to roll in. Real testimonials from satisfied customers are available on their website. According to Serkan Alp, Director, ThinkOn! Digital Marketing GmbH, "Finding someone that is skilled at online marketing and branding services isn't really easy. Many people claim they can do it; however, I know first-hand that Elizabeth can and does do it. She is absolutely incredible with her skillset and can really turn a business completely around."



More about Premier SEO Ninjas

As a company that thrives for excellence, it's important to provide services that will be a toast for many. That is why with Premier SEO Ninjas' expansion to 5 other cities in the US, professionalism, expertise and functionality are hallmarks not to be compromised. With almost a decade of experience in the website SEO world, 489 happy customers and 742 projects executed, every client is assured the best of service delivery and guaranteed page 1 ranking.



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[SINGAPORE] Three international development institutions are working together to design an information and communications technology (ICT) platform for agricultural development in line with the G20s latest call to facilitate sustainable agricultural development during their meeting in Hangzhou, China (4-5 September).

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) are currently doing an assessment of ICT cellular applications for farmers, non-cellular ICT applications and existing platforms, policy implications relating to governance and regulation, and potential mechanisms for scaling up.

This monitoring mechanism will allow to assure accountability and to measure progress in the different initiatives. Maximo Torero, IFPRI

The platform being designed will build upon IFPRIs 2014 assessment of the effects of ICTs on agricultural development. The review found that access to mobile phones has generally improved agricultural market performance at the macro level but impacts at the micro level are mixed. The rollout of extension programmes through ICTs is still at the early stage with minimal research conducted in terms of their impact.

Both connectivity and content need to progress simultaneously to witness positive gains, requiring sustained investment by both the public and private sector, Maximo Torero, IFPRI director for markets, trade and institutions, tells SciDev.Net on the use and potential of ICTs in agriculture.

Following two days of meetings, the G20 leaders issued a communique stating that the worlds 20 largest economies will continue to prioritise its work on food security, nutrition, sustainable agricultural growth and rural development as a significant contribution to implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

This follows the third G20 agriculture ministers meeting in Xian, China (3 June), which issued its own communique. The first agriculture ministers meeting was held in 2011 in Paris to discuss food price volatility and the second in 2015 in Istanbul to discuss food loss and waste.

Communiques are not directly comparable but they ensure continuity in the G20s actions in the area of food and agriculture, Boubaker Ben-Belhassen, director of FAOs trade and markets division, tells SciDev.Net. They all take stock of current issues and identify common ground for the way forward.

For the first time, the G20 agriculture ministers agreed in Xian to convene regular meetings but have yet to offer a schedule. Considering that G20 countries represent 65 per cent of all agricultural land, 77 per cent of global cereal production and 80 per cent of world trade in agricultural products, this decision can have remarkable impact over the coming years, says Ben-Belhassen.

Both Ben-Belhassen and Torero agree that the latest agriculture communique is comprehensive in terms of what has been agreed to. But Torero says its important to include a monitoring system to track all the initiatives that have started since the first agriculture ministers meeting.This monitoring mechanism will allow to assure accountability and to measure progress in the different initiatives, he adds.This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets South-East Asia & Pacific desk.

This article was made possible with support from Monsanto.
[Cairo] Born in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, Kamel Badawi has served Hajj pilgrims as a volunteer every season since he was a young boy. More recently, he turned his attention to innovation , cooperating with a Palestinian designer to create a smart umbrella with solar cells  not only to protect pilgrims from the sun, but also to supply electricity from solar energy

The umbrella  named Kafya by the designer, which means sufficient  has two layers of heat-insulating fabric on which 16 foldable, solar cells are distributed evenly across an area of 10 by 20 centimetres. A small fan is fitted in the middle, which a pilgrim can use to cool down. And at the end of the umbrella arm lies a flashlight, for anyone who wishes to read the Qur'an at night in the courtyards of the Grand Mosque of Mecca.

It also has multi-purpose USB outlets to charge mobiles and tablets, as well as a power bank.

The most important feature, Badawi explains, is that the umbrella is linked to a Global Positioning System (GPS) via a special code to its holder's smartphone. This means the holders name, phone number and personal photo can be tracked accurately, which can help reach them easily  especially useful in emergency situations, for example when an elderly person may fall ill during the Hajj.

All these benefits are combined in an umbrella that weights 400 grams, which a person weighing 100 kg can use as a walking stick. Kamel Badawi, volunteer

This also helps pilgrims to keep close to their travelling companions and rejoin them easily, reducing the problem of pilgrims wandering away from their missions.

The application is also connected to a geo-reference system: it sends out a warning when a group member goes beyond the geographical range specified by Hajj authorities for the rites of pilgrimage in Mecca.

The umbrella can perform its services for 35 continuous hours, before needing to be recharged, either by sunlight or directly through the grid, Badawi tells SciDev.Net.

All these benefits are combined in an umbrella that weights 400 grams, which a person weighing 100 kg can use as a walking stick, he adds.

The current available model of the umbrella is a prototype which was patented in June by the US Office of Patents and Trademarks, and pending another patent from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) patent office, according to Manal Dandis, the co-designer of the umbrella.

Our goal now is to have our innovation adopted by an international company or a government agency, and to launch the commercial production process, Manal tells SciDev.Net.

Magdi Murad, a professor in the Department of Engineering Applications of Lasers at the National Institute of Laser Enhanced Sciences at Cairo University, Egypt, tells SciDev.Net: The weight [of the umbrella] is perfect considering the services it provides, allowing other groups to make use of it  such as petroleum field and mine workers, and others who work for hours under the sun and away from power sources.

For Mohammed Aboud, manager of the Hadath Company for innovation and entrepreneurship in Egypt, the umbrella's biggest challenge is that it is equipped with solar cells. If its designers managed to provide high-quality cells, so as not to be affected with frequent folding and opening, and [if they can] lower the cost further, it will find its way into the markets easily.

Responding to Aboud's concerns, Manal says: We have taken into account, in the design, the ease of opening and folding the umbrella without affecting the efficiency of the solar cells.

As for the cost, Manal points out: We cannot determine it [the cost] now, but it will be more expensive than regular umbrellas, obviously, though cheaper than its components if you bought them individually.

This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets Middle East and North Africa desk
The World Conservation Congress, a high-level event summoning 8,000 of the worlds most prestigious environmental scientists, is taking place in Hawaii this month. The choice of location is a sensible one  islands are strongly affected by climate change and invasive species, their ecosystems are among the most fragile on the planet and islanders depend directly on nature for their livelihood.



Throughout the conference, the knowledge and experience of indigenous islanders was underlined as an important source of information to cope with climate change and degrading environments.



When we ask how to live within our means, indigenous people have the answer, Erik Solheim, the executive director of the UNs Environmental Programme, said during the events opening session.



But there is a darker undercurrent to the image of islands in perfect harmony with nature. The settlement of the Pacific, and even of Hawaii itself, is a story as much of destruction as it is of conservation.

As the conference goes into its final days, the warnings from Polynesian history are clear: ecological boundaries are crossed at humanitys peril. The Polynesians, in a sense, were lucky. When their ecosystems degraded, there were new shores to sail to for a better life. As the summit shows, thats no longer an option. Inga Vesper, SciDev.Net

The voyages of the early Polynesians are incredible human achievements  a credit to highly advanced marine and navigation technologies as well as intricate social relationships. They travelled thousands of miles in outrigger canoes across a vast ocean to discover unknown lands and trade with friends in known places.



But often, these voyages were forced by overpopulation and resource scarcity in the islanders homelands. Many islands in Southeast Asia lost all tree cover because of land degradation, while shortages of fresh water and overfishing led to conflict among ancient tribes. Human activity turned the Marchena and Easter islands in the Galapagos into barren wastelands. Trade introduced foreign species into previously pristine habitats.



Islanders are now stepping up to the task of protecting their ecosystems. Palaus effort to place 80 per cent of its marine territory under strict protection was lauded as a prime example of indigenous experience, passed down through stories and song, overcoming economic greed. The environment is our economy, Tommy Remengesau, the president of Palau, told the conference.

Others made clear that a combination of traditional knowledge and modern technology looks like the winning combination for conservation.

There is a lot of opportunity for indigenous people to use technology to preserve knowledge that they have, but also to contribute to planning tools that decide what happens to their environment, said MLis Flynn, who looks after indigenous partnerships for Australias Wet Tropics Management Authority.



As the conference goes into its final days, the warnings from Polynesian history are clear: ecological boundaries are crossed at humanitys peril. The Polynesians, in a sense, were lucky. When their ecosystems degraded, there were new shores to sail to for a better life. As the summit shows, thats no longer an option.
[NAIROBI] Simultaneous trials being conducted in 33 locations across five African countries are showing good resistance to two deadly cassava diseases: Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) and Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD).



The trials being undertaken in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda are part of a project that aims to identify disease-resistant cassava varieties suitable for various African sites.



The environment where cassava is grown varies greatly in soil fertility and altitude, says Edward Kanju, a cassava breeder with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, in an interview with SciDev.Net last month (9 August). We aim to identify the best suitable varieties for specific environments.

We expect that those varieties that meet farmers preferences will be highly adopted for wide cultivation. Edward Kanju, IITA

Kanju adds that the resistant varieties that were the earliest to be planted in Tanzania are to be harvested this month.



Earlier evaluation shows that the new varieties have promising results. For instance, whereas CBSD could be found in up to 70 per cent of fields with old cassava varieties, zero or nearly zero per cent of the fields with the new varieties has the deadly disease.



The four-year, US$5.7 million project, which is administered by the IITA, is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.



Kanju tells SciDev.Net: Farmers will be involved in the selection of varieties that meet their preferred characteristics in terms of agronomic, taste and end-use. We expect that those varieties that meet farmers preferences will be highly adopted for wide cultivation.



The outcome that will be increased cassava production and improvement in food security and poverty alleviation will be realised probably in more than five years after the project.



According to Kanju, scientists are conducting the trials using proper experimental design and recommended farming practices such as plant spacing and weed management.



Both CBSD and CMB cause yield losses valued at over US$1 billion annually, according to Kanju.



He notes that the collaboration across the five African countries is significant because the breeders agreed to share their elite genetic resources that have benefited each other.



Jane Ininda, a Kenya-based crop breeder and an associate programme director of Partnerships for Seeds in Africa, an institution that supports seeds producers in many African countries, says the initiative is timely given the two diseases affect many families in Sub-Saharan Africa where cassava is a major staple.

Cassava Brown Streak Disease started in Uganda and spread rapidly to almost all African countries in Eastern and Southern Africa. It has been reported in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and recently in Democratic Republic of Congo, says Ininda. It is a most prudent initiative to resolve this constraint at the household level across all countries in Africa.Ininda explains that the two diseases interfere with the quality of leaves that are used as vegetable and the tubers that are eaten, adding that cassava breeding could help produce varieties that appeal to consumers.According to Ininda, a cassava variety with resistance to brown streak disease could yield up to four times more than a susceptible variety.This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.
SpaceX founder and chief Elon Musk has described last week's explosion of his company's Falcon 9 rocket as the "most difficult [and] complex failure" experienced in 14 years. Musk and his company are still unaware what caused the incident, but he hinted of a possible mechanical failure.

While on its launch pad, Falcon 9 exploded and was completely engulfed in flames. The blast also destroyed a communications satellite from Israel's Space Communication, including an internet communications project by Facebook.

Musk took to Twitter and said his company has already started an investigation. SpaceX has also asked people to send videos, photos, or audios to report@spacex.com to help with its investigation. According to Reuters, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's Commercial Space Transportation office is overseeing the investigation.

The explosion happened during the routine test of Falcon 9's first stage at Launch Complex 40 in Florida on September 1. It was being refueled but a massive fireball engulfed the rocket. Why Falcon 9 exploded still remains a mystery.

Musk has been trying to pinpoint the cause, though he said "there was no apparent heat source," and the "engines were not on" during the test. He also added that investigators are still checking if the source of a "quieter bang" prior to the massive fireball came from the rocket itself or from something else.

The rocket was supposed to bring Spacecom's $200-million satellite into orbit, which Facebook would use to improve internet access in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. According to the Verge, Spacecom had previously said it would seek a compensation amounting to $50 million or could ask for a free flight from SpaceX after the blast. SpaceX will have another flight later this month at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Proxima b's discovery has been announced just a few weeks before, however the planet has been well studied since more than a century. Orbiting the Proxima Centauri, our nearest star beyond the Sun, Proxima b is possible the most habitable planet near Earth, as per reports. NASA Astro-biologists have been crunching all the data available about the rocky planet to figure out how likely it is to be habitable.

A strange thing about the Proxima b though is nobody has actually physically seen it. Astronomer believe it's there as they've seen the Proxima b gravity tugged on and "wiggle" Proxima Centauri, the red dwarf star that it orbits around. No telescopes in space or on ground can directly photograph the planet. Recently Russian billionaire Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking announced a plan to send probes in search of life to Proxima b.

What do scientists say?

Proxima b orbits around Proxima Centauri in the Goldilocks-like habitable zone, this means that the strength of light is just right there to melt water. But being just 4 million miles away from its Sun, the distance comes with a troublesome consequence. Astronomers believe that Proxima b is tidally locked to its Sun.This will mean that one side of Proxima b always faces its star: always in permanent daylight while the other side is trapped in an endless cold night.

Two researchers at Harvard believe that NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that is scheduled to launch in 2018, could find this out by merely sampling the star system's light. "It would take only a day's observing time," Avi Loeb, who is an astrophysicist at Harvard University, told Business Insider. "If Proxima b does really have an atmosphere", says Loeb, "it'd not only circulate warmth from the day side to night side of the planet, but it'd also prevent the planet's water from boiling off into the space."

He believes that the trick to rule out an atmosphere is to focus on using infrared light - the same "color" that shows warm but invisible light that our bodies do constantly emit. When a rocky planet gets warmed up by a star, it does absorb the sunlight and re-emits it in the form of infrared light. Rocky planets emit a different kind of infrared light than that given off by stars like Proxima Centauri.

And luckily, it just so happens that NASA's 'James Webb Space Telescope' has been specially designed to observe this infrared light. Hence, instead of trying to find a tiny planet in a Cluster of galaxies, JWST may only have to look for specific wavelengths of infrared light.

Loeb and Laura Kreidberg, a Harvard astronomer who studies exoplanet atmospheres, believe that if their observation reveals that the dark side of Proxima b isn't as cold as it's supposed to be, it'd mean that an atmosphere is hugging the planet redistributing warmth to the night side. If not, the Proxima b may be another bare and lifeless rock.

"With the light that we detect, we may ask if this world does look like a bare rock. And if it doesn't, there might be a possibility of an atmosphere, there might be an ocean as well, which life requires," said Loeb.
Google is quite certain that the future belongs to driverless vehicles but while that time comes, a trend has emerged to improve the driver's skills. Soon, cars are to have a built-in system that will keep an eye out for a sleepy driver.

General Motors Co., US's largest auto maker too aims to release its Super Cruise on a Cadillac next year that will feature eye tracking in the cabin. This is the first time a U.S. car maker has taken a step in that direction. Last Year, Seeing Machines, an Australia based company had created a compact system for monitoring the driver. By using infrared lights and built-in cameras, the devices captured images and extracts relevant information from the photos.

The coming year, General Motors is going to duel with Volvo's Pilot Assist and Tesla Motors's Autopilot, both driver-assistance systems that can control a moving vehicle. Tesla's Autopilot requires periodic control by the driver whereas GM's system is expected to increase the alertness of human drivers.

The Super Cruise's 2017 launch is going to be amongst a scrutiny of systems using cameras, sensors and radar to let the car do the driving at higher speeds. In May a deadly accident involving the Tesla's Autopilot had raised questions about how well these technologies work.

What's new?

Like other such Techs before it, GM's Super Cruise software can also detect if a driver has dozed off or isn't watching the road. The tech uses audible as well as visual alerts to grab the driver's attention. Not just this, if the alerts go unnoticed a representative of the auto maker's OnStar information service will activate the intercom and communicate with the driver. However, If the driver still doesn't respond the car will itself pull over on the side and stop.

The Detroit car maker has tested the eye-tracking system for a couple of years now and hopes to be leading its domestic competitors. GM hasn't yet officially announced the cost of the feature.

Mark Reuss, executive vice president of GM said, "The current way by which some of the auto makers monitor alertness of the driver is by monitoring the periodic touch on the steering wheel and that isn't sufficient because you can pretty readily defeat the hands-on-the-wheel devices." And that is why GM is going to use something that's pretty hard to get around, he added.

GM had a plan to launch the Super Cruise earlier but for several reasons the program was delayed. Mr. Reuss said that one of the GM's main goals is to refine the way by which the drivers interact with the semi-autonomous system. The extra layer of supervision of the Super Cruise will address concerns raised by regulators about a driver's tendency of not paying attention when a driving aid is active.

German auto makers that includes Audi are also expected to launch new eye-tracking systems in the future. Mr. Reuss stated that driver monitoring is one of the piece of GM's approach to a safer and well maintained self-driving platform. He added that Super Cruise will be limited only to highways that have detailed map information available. If the driver decide to leave the highway, Super Cruise will automatically shut down.
Everyone wants to play a video game in the comfort of his home together with his family and friends. With this, Sony is now offering the most advanced PlayStation console called the PlayStation 4 Pro, which is expected to be out commercially on November 10, 2016.

According to CNET, PlayStation 4 Pro has 4K resolution and high dynamic range (HDR). The console with a code name Neo has a 1TB hard drive, which becomes a faster processor. It is twice as much the capacity of the existing version and doubles the graphics power of the standard PS4. This can enhance the look of new and old games.

The PlayStation 4 Pro has 4K-capable Netflix and YouTube apps for streaming 4K video. On the other hand, it is not cited that it will support for Sony's Ultra 4K streaming app. It cannot also play the 4K Blu-ray discs, according to Sony.

The Eurogamer shared the PlayStation 4 Pro specifications. Its main processor is a custom-chip single processor. Its CPU is an X86-64 AMD"Jaguar," 8 cores with a GPU of 4,20 TFLOPS, AMD Radeon Based Graphics Empire. It has a memory of GDDR5 8 GB and a hard disk of 1TBx1x1. The optical drive (read-only) has BD 6-speed CAV and DVD 8 Speed CAV. Its power consumption is up to 310W. It has input and output---super-speed USB, (USB 3-1 Gen.1) port 3 x AUX port x 1.

The new console can be played with more advanced features. On the other hand, it still holds same features just like the other PS4. They have identical peripheral support, from the DualShock 4 to the PS Camera, have same library games and shared and equal PSN ecosystem. You can also save data, trophy and PSN account log-in with a similar user interface. Of course, both have the same PlayStation Store. The said new PS4 Pro can be purchased for $399.
The researchers from Helsingin Yliopisto (University of Helsinki) discovered that having more physical activity during midlife would have a better cognitive function in old age. These physical activities include vigorous and strenuous movements than walking.

The study was printed in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. It is handled by researchers from the University of Helsinki, University of Jyvaskyla and University of Turku, according to Science Daily.

The study involved following up 3,050 twins from the Finnish Twin Cohort. The participants shared information to the researchers on their exercise habits in their midlife. The team examined each individual then compared the pairs later. They found that one twin was more physically active than the other.

The results of the study indicated that a mild physical activity could have memory-protecting benefits. For those group of twins that were not physically active, there was an extensively increased risk for cognitive impairment.

Professor Urho Kujala from the University of Jyvaskyla stated that the study suggests that moderately vigorous physical activity, meaning more strenuous than walking, is linked with better cognition after an average of 25 years. He further stated that the finding is in accordance with earlier animal model studies, which have shown that physical activity heightens a number of growth factors in the brain and improves synaptic plasticity, as noted by UPI.

It is reported that there is a dominance of dementia with the aging populations in Finland and all around the world. Dementia has symptoms such as cognitive decline, forgetfulness, memory and communication impairment. If the dementia is severe, it can affect the daily activities of the patient. He could have difficulties in accomplishing the daily grinds of living. There is no treatment yet for degenerative dementia. On the other hand, its symptoms could be improved with some medications and could also prevent further brain tissue damage. Currently, there are some promising drugs and ways that are underway for treating Alzheimer's disease, which is one type of dementia.
Apple is reportedly "rethinking" its self-driving car technology, after laying-off dozens of staff related to the project code-named as Titan. But does this mean the world's most valuable tech company will ditch the "secret" project?

Maybe not, as according to The New York Times, citing an earlier Bloomberg report, Apple is shifting its focus to building technology and software needed to operate self-driving cars from previous reports of designing and producing automobiles. The newspaper cited three people who were briefed of the move as saying that the mass layoffs were a "reboot." They spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the move publicly.

NBC later said the move was confirmed by a person with knowledge of Project Titan. Apple has yet to comment but it had consistently never said anything about its self-driving car initiative.

Over the last two years, Apple has been rumored to develop the project. But according to The Drum, the company has only acknowledged the project at a shareholder's meeting this year. Last July, Apple tapped company veteran Bob Mansfield to oversee the project, as progress into it has since stalled because of technical delays.

The New York Times says Apple has made some progress into its autonomous vehicles. It cited people briefed on the plan, who said the vehicles are already "in the middle of testing in a closed environment."

Apple is not only the tech company that has ventured out into the automotive industry. Google, through its parent company Alphabet, has ramped up efforts and tests into technology to make self-driving cars work.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, says it will be releasing improvements to its Autopilot technology within two weeks' time. Tesla's self-driving feature has drawn criticism after an accident killed its test driver last May. As per reports, In a controversial move, Uber will start testing its self-driving cars in Pittsburgh this week.
Aircraft designed to transport back samples from a faraway asteroid was launched last September 8, 2016. It will travel 510 million miles away from Earth and arrive in asteroid Bennu which is estimated to last at least 2 years.

Scientists discovered asteroid Bennu back in 1999 by the NASA-funded Linear asteroid survey. It has a measurement of 1650 feet across and 60 million tons by weight and is also said to be almost the size of the Empire State Building. Since experts are the intrigue of the size and composition and have the capability of going there they launched OSIRIS-Rex to gather samples from the asteroid. Not only that the racket will gather samples, it will also orbit and map the said asteroid and go back to earth seven years after.

An asteroid like Bennu is called "Primitive Asteroid" which formed over 4.5 billion years ago and does not change recognizably. Experts were hoping to analyze the organic material found in the asteroid and give them an inventory of materials which will lead them to the role in the origin of life on earth, and maybe elsewhere. The university of Arizona, Principal Investigator on the OSIRIS-Rex mission, Dante Lauretta, said that the mapping and sampling of the space rock can potentially hold the answer if where does human being come from, according to Lake County News.

If the mission is successful OSIRIS-Rex will bring back the canister which can hold less than five pounds of the sample which are the layer of heterogeneous superficial material covering solid rock called "regolith." The challenge now is that scientists must be delicate to control the craft that has to be 11 feet away from the surface. Not only that they have to control the circular disks which manage by the space craft's arms, once it touches the surface the nitrogen will blast then the sample can be blown-up inside the canister.

If careful movements will lead them to success it will be the largest amount of material taken and brought back to earth since the Apollo missions in the 1960's and the 1970's. In line, scientists are hoping for the complete mission to pass for them to partially investigate the origins of the earth reported by Digital Trends.
A few months ago, on February 12, 2016, the German Aerospace Agency (DLR) decided to say goodbye to the Philae lander. Now, the European Space Agency team that guided the Rosetta exploration is preparing for the last operation in which the spacecraft will crash into the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which it has been circling for more than two years. The impact is told to be taking place on September 30th.

Rosetta is getting closer to the orbit of Jupiter, that means it'll eventually run short on solar power and also the bandwidth required to downlink necessary data to Earth. The early ideas, however, were to take Rosetta into hibernation as the comet headed towards aphelion and to awaken it again when the orbiter would reapproach the sun in four years' period. But the team finally decided against this as the aging spacecraft is not likely to survive another extended span in its hibernation.

During the coming weeks, Rosetta will be ordered to assume a series of looping elliptical orbits around the comet, terminating with a final "controlled crash landing" on the nucleus. The team hopes to get data from Rosetta until the very end. "Rosetta is going to continue the flow of current wealth of scientific data from 67P and will follow the comet's activity till its complete end," said Patrick Martin, Rosetta mission manager.

Achievements

The Rosetta story spans more than two decades since the very mission approval in 1993. Launched on the top of an Ariane 5 rocket on March 2, 2004, Rosetta cruised for an amazing 10 years and arrived in the orbit around the Comet 67P. Rosetta's discovery of organic molecules on 67P - the amino acid 'glycin' and phosphorus - supports the idea that material from comets could have played a major role in the appearance of life on Earth.

Rosetta has since then revealed the strange world of Comet 67P. One such amazing reveal is how dark the comet's surface is: with average reflectivity of just around 6 %. The decision to end Rosetta's journey also represents the end of an era for the ESA researchers and all those scientists who spent decades on this amazing journey.

The spacecraft is going to descend in a more leisurely fashion than that of Philae, and scientists do expect to bring 'Rosetta's Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis' (ROSINA) to study gases released from the still active comet. Similar applies for the OSIRIS (Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System) that will have a bird's eye view on its descent.

Landing the Rosetta is going to be tricky, with the starting changes to its trajectory already done in August. Scientists are still trying to figure out the exact location to set down Rosetta, but the descent is planned to be just 50 cm/s that is about half of Philae's landing speed.

"Planning this phase is far more complex than it was for Philae's landing," operations manager Sylvain Lodiot says. "The last weeks will be particularly challenging as we fly eccentric orbits around the comet -- this will be even riskier than the final descent itself."
The night sky in the island nation of Cyprus lit up as a suspected meteor flew over and exploded mid-air on September 9. One security camera in the coastal city of Paphos captured a car windshield reflecting the meteor.

Locals told police they saw a blue glow that streaked and illuminated the Trodos mountain range just past Thursday midnight. Authorities said residents reported a loud boom that might have come from the object. An official for the country's geological department said the object "exploded in the sky" as there were no indications of a ground impact.

A police official believed the object was likely a meteor, but told AFP they were still getting details about it. He also said police have started searching for debris from the object. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

Speaking to Reuters, Ioannis Fakas, the honorary chairman of the Cyprus Astronomical Society said the object "wouldn't have weighed any more than a few kilos," and that it had a "45 degree tilt" prior to exploding. He said the object ended up into the sea north of the country. According to Cyprus' civil aviation authority, pre-dawn flights had been normal during the event and that no airspace incidents were reported.

NASA estimates that about 100 tons of space debris, known as meteoroids, hit Earth every day. They can be as small as dust or as big as rocks. Meteors are meteoroids and are mostly small pieces of asteroids or comets. Upon getting into contact with Earth's atmosphere and gravity, these objects become fireballs. Their remnants striking the ground are known as meteorites.

The most recent meteor explosion happened in 2013 over Russia's Chelyabinsk Oblast. The meteor was about 13,000 metric tons heavy and estimated to be 20 meters long. It exploded mid-air, causing a massive shockwave that damaged nearly 7,000 buildings and injured nearly 1,500 people.
A Georgia Sanctuary for chimps, called Project Chimps, have recently welcomed a group of nine retired lab chimpanzees into their new home. All nine chimpanzees are female and will be housed in the 236-acre facility located near Blue Ridge, Georgia. Buttercup, Charisse, Emma, Genesis, Gracie, Jennifer, Latricia and Samira were all visibly excited to enter the premises on Thursday. They previously served at University of Louisiana's New Iberia Research Center. The sanctuary already is housing 211 such chimps and have maintained that these chimps have been housed by other facilities but never been used for research, in a report from Huffington Post.

After the 600-mile journey to their new home, the chimps were happy to be reunited in the special "party porch" area of the sanctuary where they hugged, kissed and groomed each other in celebration. The chimps will be able to access a special forested outdoor space and live in social groups and will also get to play with a variety of toys and puzzles.

The partnership between the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and Project Chimps promises to relocate more than 200 retired chimpanzees, making this the first time that a non-federal program has been devoted to release the entirety of its research chimps.

Project Chimps is highly active on social media and has received support in its endeavours by celebrities like Billy Joe Armstrong, Kat Von Dee, Rachael Ray and many others. It was during June 2015 that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had classified captive chimpanzees as "endangered" under the Endangered Species Act, according to a report by Mashable.

Baeckler Davis, who is a primatologist and was the executive director of North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance before she founded Project Chimps said that some chimps take time to get comfortable in a new habitat, while others get comfortable right away. She also adds that it's all about building trust between the caregivers and the residents of Project Chimps.

Davis is also confident that this project will inspire more people to take stricter action against using animals for research. The Georgia site is going to be the largest chimp sanctuary in the world and in order to continue maintaining it, Davis said that they will need a dedicated and excited team of supporters.
DILLON, S.C.  The Dillon Police Department arrested one suspect Saturday, Sept. 10 and are searching for another suspect in connection with the murder of Brandon A. Hargrove.

Hargrove was found dead Wednesday, Sept. 7 at a home on South 4th Avenue after suffering multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Dillon Police Department.

Following an investigation by the police department, Dillon County Sheriff's Office, South Carolina Probation and Parole and the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division, arrest warrants were issued for two suspects.

Dillon Police Chief David Lane said Allan McCall of Dillon was arrested Saturday in connection with Hargrove's murder. Another suspect, Tony McCants of Dillon, is being sought by police, Lane said.

Anyone with information about McCants whereabouts is asked to call the Dillon police Department at 843-774-0051.
FLORENCE, S.C.  Learning a foreign language in high school takes a lot of practice. Being a foreign exchange student learning English and another language takes a whole other set of skills.

But that is precisely what Trinity-Byrnes Collegiate School students Qi Qi Zhuang and Ying Jie Chung are doing.

Zhuang and Chung are part of the booming International Student program at Trinity-Byrnes. For the 2016-2017 school year, 21 international students, from five countries, are enrolled. Zhuang and Chung are among 17 students from China. There is also one student each from Korea, Germany, Vietnam and Thailand.

April Munn, the schools director of admissions and communications, said the program has been around for years.

This global initiative, which is what weve been calling it, has really taken off in the past year, Munn said. This school has always hosted international students, just not on this large scale.

Zhuang is a senior and Chung is a junior. Both of them are taking French at Trinity-Byrnes, among other coursework, such as math.

Zhuang said she wanted to study abroad to get a glimpse of life outside of China.

I wanted to experience another culture and see how it is like, studying here, Zhuang said. My parents were not surprised, They supported this idea (to study abroad).

She said her siblings are either living abroad now or have done so in the past.

I have three sisters, Zhuang said. One is in Atlanta, one is in Australia and one was at the University of Virginia. She graduated and is back in China to teach students English. My brother was in Detroit last year, and I told him about this school, so he decided to transfer here.

Both students agreed that although traditions are different, there was something else that was even more difficult to learn.

Probably language is the most difficult thing, Chung said. I just got here and talked to people. I took three years of English in China, but they basically teach you nothing.

Zhuang agreed that the language was a little bit of a barrier but said she had a little more experience with it.

The most challenging thing was the language, Zhuang said. I had English classes in China, but it was more vocabulary classes and simple grammar. I didnt really learn about English until one year ago when I got into the International School in China.

Customs and day-to-day life are quite different, they said.

In China, when we are walking on the streets, people dont look at each other and dont talk to each other, dont say hi to each other, Zhuang said. When I first got here and people would say hi to me, I was surprised, because I dont know them. People here are very friendly. It makes me feel like I am welcome here and makes me more outgoing. I like it.

I think the way Chinese think is very different from the way America thinks, like tips culture and paying for meals, Chung added. Here, people go Dutch.

All of the Chinese students at Trinity-Byrnes live on the Coker College campus.

Dr. Wyatt (Cokers president) has a daughter in school here, Munn said. In conversation one day, we were talking about international students and the program just exploding and us needing a place for them to live. He said that they had a house on their campus. That relationship led to that partnership. We actually have two houses now; it has really worked out nicely.

Munn said the other international students stay with host families, several of whom have become regular hosts.

It really is a commitment, Munn said. These students become another child for you to look after. They are responsible for them. They even go on vacations with their host families. I have never heard of it being anything other than a great experience. One family is even going to Germany to visit the student that they hosted.

The program is beneficial for both the visiting student and the traditional student.

The students here learn from them, Munn said. We learn about their countries and their traditions. They learn from us, too, asking questions about our traditions.

Both students say they would like to visit another country for higher education to continue to broaden their understanding of other cultures.
The arrests followed a coordinated effort between the Marine Nationale (Gabonese Navy), the ANPA (Fisheries Enforcement Agency) and Sea Shepherd to secure the Gabonese border with the Republic of Congo (Congo) from incursions made by illegal fishing vessels.

At the time of interception the Congolese pirogues were actively engaged in illegal fishing, with gillnets, inside Gabon's territorial waters. The wooden canoes, with 11 fishermen from the Republic of Congo, Benin, and Ghana on-board, were found with a combined total of approximately 150 sharks, including endangered scalloped hammerhead sharks and black tip reef sharks as well as devil rays in their fish holds.

After the arrests the M/Y Bob Barker escorted the pirogues to Mayumba, Gabon, where they will be held pending criminal investigation.

Launched in April, Operation Albacore is a joint campaign between Sea Shepherd, the government of Gabon and more recently the government of Sao Tome and Principe to tackle illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Gulf of Guinea.

Since the beginning of the 2016 tuna fishing season, marines from the Marine Nationale and officers with the ANPA have been stationed on-board the M/Y Bob Barker, working alongside Sea Shepherd crew to patrol Gabon's sovereign waters, under the direction of the government of Gabon.

In August Sao Tome and Principe authorities partnered with the Operation Albacore mission, following an accord signed with Gabon in late 2015, to extend patrolling grounds and increase the protection of critical tuna habitat in the region. The M/Y Bob Barker is being provided by Sea Shepherd Global in the joint agreement as a vehicle for law enforcement.

Sea Shepherd Operation Albacore Campaign Leader, Captain Peter Hammarstedt, said, Three months ago, a night time raid by Gabonese authorities, assisted by Sea Shepherd, resulted in the arrest of 3 illegal fishing trawlers from Congo. The recent arrest of two pirogues, using gillnets to catch endangered sharks, speaks to the importance of maintaining a constant patrolling presence to both detect and deter illegal fishing.

BACK TO OPERATION ALBACORE CAMPAIGN HOME
A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network.

MODERN FAMILY Season 8 Episode 1 Photos A Tale of Three Cities

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

SARAH HYLAND, NOLAN GOULD, ARIEL WINTER

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

SARAH HYLAND, NOLAN GOULD, ARIEL WINTER

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

SARAH HYLAND, NOLAN GOULD, ARIEL WINTER

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

SARAH HYLAND, NOLAN GOULD, ARIEL WINTER

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

SARAH HYLAND, NOLAN GOULD, ARIEL WINTER

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

TY BURRELL

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

JULIE BOWEN, TY BURRELL

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

JULIE BOWEN, TY BURRELL

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

TY BURRELL

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

SARAH HYLAND, JULIE BOWEN

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

NOLAN GOULD, ARIEL WINTER, TY BURRELL, JULIE BOWEN

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

JULIE BOWEN, TY BURRELL

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

NOLAN GOULD, ARIEL WINTER, SARAH HYLAND

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

NOLAN GOULD

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

NOLAN GOULD, ARIEL WINTER, SARAH HYLAND

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

JULIE BOWEN, TY BURRELL

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

JULIE BOWEN, TY BURRELL

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Peter Hopper Stone)

SOFIA VERGARA

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Peter Hopper Stone)

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

SARAH HYLAND, NOLAN GOULD, ARIEL WINTER

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

SARAH HYLAND

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

SARAH HYLAND, NOLAN GOULD, ARIEL WINTER

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

SARAH HYLAND, NOLAN GOULD, ARIEL WINTER

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

SARAH HYLAND, NOLAN GOULD, ARIEL WINTER

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

JULIE BOWEN, TY BURRELL

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

NOLAN GOULD, ARIEL WINTER, SARAH HYLAND

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

NOLAN GOULD, ARIEL WINTER, SARAH HYLAND

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

NOLAN GOULD, ARIEL WINTER, SARAH HYLAND

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

SARAH HYLAND, NOLAN GOULD, ARIEL WINTER

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric Liebowitz)

JULIE BOWEN, TY BURRELL

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Peter Hopper Stone)

JESSE TYLER FERGUSON

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Peter Hopper Stone)

JESSE TYLER FERGUSON, ERIC STONESTREET

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Peter Hopper Stone)

JESSE TYLER FERGUSON, ERIC STONESTREET, AUBREY ANDERSON-EMMONS

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Peter Hopper Stone)

JESSE TYLER FERGUSON, ERIC STONESTREET, AUBREY ANDERSON-EMMONS

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Peter Hopper Stone)

ARIEL WINTER, NOLAN GOULD, SARAH HYLAND, JULIE BOWEN, ERIC STONESTREET, JESSE TYLER FERGUSON

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Peter Hopper Stone)

SARAH HYLAND, NOLAN GOULD, ARIEL WINTER

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Peter Hopper Stone)

RICO RODRIGUEZ, TY BURRELL, JULIE BOWEN, ED ONEILL

MODERN FAMILY  A Tale of Three Cities  After recent trips take the Dunphys to New York; Mitch, Cam and Lily to the Midwest; and Jay, Gloria, Manny and Joe to Juarez, Mexico; the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan reunites in its eighth season premiere with all of the families converging at home for Fathers Day, on Modern Family, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Peter Hopper Stone)

ED ONEILL, SOFIA VERGARA, ARIEL WINTER, SARAH HYLAND, RICO RODRIGUEZ, NOLAN GOULD, JESSE TYLER FERGUSON, JULIE BOWEN, TY BURRELL, ERIC STONESTREET
ONCE UPON A TIME Season 6 Episode 1 Photos The Savior : Welcome to Storybrooke, a small town in Maine that you wont find on any map. This town is full of magic, populated by fairytale characters once cursed by the Evil Queen Regina to live in our worlddeprived of their memories and happy endings. Until Emma Swan came to town and changed everything. With the help of her son, Henry, Emma embraced her true identity as the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charmingthe Savior destined to break the Curse. But even after returning everyones memories, Emmas mission was far from over. With the Curse broken, Mr. Gold (aka Rumplestiltskin) was free to bring magic to Storybrooke. And magic ALWAYS comes with a price

As Once Upon a Time returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:009:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villainthe Evil Queen. Creators Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz (Lost, Tron: Legacy) invite you to join everyones favorite fairytale characters as they face-off against this supercharged enemy.

ONCE UPON A TIME Season 6 Episode 1 Photos The Savior

ONCE UPON A TIME  The Savior  As Once Upon a Time returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand)

JENNIFER MORRISON

ONCE UPON A TIME  The Savior  As Once Upon a Time returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand)

JENNIFER MORRISON

ONCE UPON A TIME  The Savior  As Once Upon a Time returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand)

RAPHAEL SBARGE

ONCE UPON A TIME  The Savior  As Once Upon a Time returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand)

COLIN ODONOGHUE, HANK HARRIS, JENNIFER MORRISON, JOSH DALLAS, LANA PARRILLA, JARED S. GILMORE

ONCE UPON A TIME  The Savior  As Once Upon a Time returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand)

COLIN ODONOGHUE, HANK HARRIS, JOSH DALLAS, JENNIFER MORRISON, JARED S. GILMORE, LANA PARRILLA, GINNIFER GOODWIN

ONCE UPON A TIME  The Savior  As Once Upon a Time returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand)

JENNIFER MORRISON, RAPHAEL SBARGE

ONCE UPON A TIME  The Savior  As Once Upon a Time returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand)

JENNIFER MORRISON

ONCE UPON A TIME  The Savior  As Once Upon a Time returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand)

HANK HARRIS

ONCE UPON A TIME  The Savior  As Once Upon a Time returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand)

JOSH DALLAS

ONCE UPON A TIME  The Savior  As Once Upon a Time returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand)

JENNIFER MORRISON

ONCE UPON A TIME  The Savior  As Once Upon a Time returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand)

HANK HARRIS

ONCE UPON A TIME  The Savior  As Once Upon a Time returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand)

COLIN ODONOGHUE

ONCE UPON A TIME  The Savior  As Once Upon a Time returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand)

LANA PARRILLA

ONCE UPON A TIME  The Savior  As Once Upon a Time returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand)

RAPHAEL SBARGE

ONCE UPON A TIME  The Savior  As Once Upon a Time returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand)

ROBERT CARLYLE

ONCE UPON A TIME  The Savior  As Once Upon a Time returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand)

JENNIFER MORRISON

ONCE UPON A TIME  The Savior  As Once Upon a Time returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand)

GINNIFER GOODWIN

ONCE UPON A TIME  The Savior  As Once Upon a Time returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand)

COLIN ODONOGHUE, HANK HARRIS, JENNIFER MORRISON, GINNIFER GOODWIN

ONCE UPON A TIME  The Savior  As Once Upon a Time returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand)

COLIN ODONOGHUE

ONCE UPON A TIME  The Savior  As Once Upon a Time returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand)

HANK HARRIS, JENNIFER MORRISON, JOSH DALLAS

ONCE UPON A TIME  The Savior  As Once Upon a Time returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand)

JOSH DALLAS, LANA PARRILLA, JARED S. GILMORE
The latest call adds a rail and water transport network as part of a unified blueprint for the city's transportation and logistics systems, local reports said.

We need and we are an advocate for a master plan that takes into consideration all forms of maritime transport, all forms of maritime needs, not just in Manila but everywhere else, ICTSI vp and head of Asia-Pacific region Christian Gonzalez said.

Gonzales said the infrastructure development plan of the current administration is very encouraging so far, but noted he has yet to see a unified master plan.

Today, no new roads, no railway, no barge nothing like that. The vast majority of cargo that comes into MICT or Port of Manila for that matter serves or is consumed in Metro Manila so for that, cargo trucks remain a primary source of transport, he said.

ICTSI a few years ago urged the previous administration to develop a road master plan for cargo to address congestion problems instead of diverting traffic from Manila to Batangas and Subic.
TechCrunch

Twitter's stock will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange on November 8, according to a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This comes a day after Elon Musk completed the company's takeover after a lengthy ordeal late Thursday. "The New York Stock Exchange hereby notifies the SEC of its intention to remove the entire class of the stated securities from listing and registration on the Exchange at the opening of business on November 08, 2022, pursuant to the provisions of Rule 12d2-2 (a)," the filing reads.
Photo: The San Francisco earthquake of 1906. It's possible that an earthquake of similar magnitude could be triggered by another quake on an unconnected fault, a new study reports. Credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons Earthquakes that occur on one fault can trigger quakes on other faults as well, a fact known for some time by scientists. Back in 1992, for example, a 7.3 quake that struck in the Mojave Desert,120 miles east of Los Angeles, caused ruptures on five other faults in the region. But In recent years, as we've previously reported, they've discovered that it happens much more frequently than they realized, which has led them to adjust future predictions of earthquake risks.

RELATED: New Earthquake Model Predicts a Bigger Quake: Why?

Now, a new study by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, published in the journal Science, shows that the cascading effect is frighteningly fast. A large earthquake on one fault can trigger large aftershocks on separate faults within just a few minutes, the researchers found.

The study's authors, Scripps geophysicist Peter Shearer and graduate student Wenyuan Fan, analyzed data from seismic stations that are part of the Incorporated Research Institution for Seismology's global network. They discovered 48 previously unidentified large aftershocks from 2004 to 2015 that occurred within 200 seconds after 27 different magnitude 7 to 8 earthquakes on other faults, some of which were as far as 207.5 miles away.

In one instance cited in the study, a magnitude 7 earthquake off the coast of Indonesia triggered two large aftershocks that were 47 and 137 miles away, respectively, from the main fault, within 68 and 120 seconds of the initial shock.

"The results are particularly important because of their seismic hazard implications for complex fault systems, like California," study-co-author Fan said in a UCSD press release. "By studying this type of triggering, we might be able to forecast hosting faults for large earthquakes."

While most aftershocks occur near the main fault rupture, the study proves that large early aftershocks can also be triggered by seismic waves that jump between faults that aren't directly connected.

RELATED: Could Fracking Cause a Major Earthquake?

"Multiple fault system interactions are not fully considered in seismic hazard analyses, and this study might motivate future modeling efforts to account for these effects," Shearer explained.

While most of the aftershocks that the scientists detected were in the 5.0 to 6.5 magnitude, which is considered moderate, the scientists wrote that "it is possible that this type of early dynamic triggered could lead to a great earthquake" -- that is, one with a magnitude greater than 8.0. That would make it comparable to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, whose magnitude has been estimated to be between 7.7 and 8.3. That event and its subsequent effects may have killed as many as 3,000 people, according to recent estimates.

The National Science Foundation funded the study.

WATCH VIDEO: How We Design Buildings To Survive Earthquakes
Do the clicks and whistling sounds made by dolphins form discrete words and even full sentences? They do, if you ask Russian scientists who say they have documented conversation between a pair of Black Sea dolphins.

In research published in St. Petersburg Polytechnical University's journal Physics and Mathematics, scientists from the Karadag Scientific Station recorded sound pulses between two bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and now suggest that each recorded pulse represents a "word" and that a "pack" of the pulses together form a "sentence."

RELATED: Image Shows How Dolphins See People

Researchers have long known that dolphin sounds carry meaning. They can convey information such as warnings about predators, information about foraging and navigation and emotions such as delight. They've even been shown, in recent research, to denote individual dolphin names.

But this study adds a new wrinkle to that understanding of the highly intelligent creatures.

By changing the volume and frequency of the clicks, the dolphins formed discrete words, using up to five of them in short sentences, the team found. "We can assume that each pulse represents a phoneme, or a word, of the dolphin's spoken language," they wrote.

The recordings "showed that the dolphins took turns in producing pulse packs and did not interrupt each other," said the researchers, suggesting that the marine mammals could be listening to the entire sentence before making responses of their own.

The exchange, they said, "resembles a conversation between two people. "

RELATED: Killer Whales Learn How to Speak Dolphin

The dolphins in the conversation, Yasha and Yana, were recorded in a pool the animals call home at the Karadag Nature Reserve in Russia.

Their chatter, say the scientists, was not likely idle.

"As this language exhibits all the design features present in the human spoken language, this indicates a high level of intelligence and consciousness in dolphins, and their language can be ostensibly considered a highly developed spoken language, akin to the human language," the researchers said.

Divining the meaning behind the pulses, they wrote, would be the next logical step, requiring the creation of new devices that could bridge the gap in understanding between human and dolphin communication.

"Humans must take the first step to establish relationships with the first intelligent inhabitants of the planet Earth," the scientists concluded.

WATCH VIDEO: Dolphins Give Each Other Unique Names
A long time ago, Mars had an atmosphere thick enough to allow running water on its surface. But today these vast gullies -- and features that some scientists interpret as ocean shorelines -- are bone-dry. Something thinned the Red Planet's atmosphere over time, and there's a mission in orbit to find out how, when it happened and how quickly. New results based on observations from MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN Mission) have found a possible new source for losing the atmosphere. For years, scientists have known that the solar wind -- that stream of charged particles coming from the sun -- can strip away hydrogen molecules on Mars. The new study suggests that interstellar clouds are also partially responsible. RELATED: Mystery Solved: Water DOES Flow on Mars "MAVEN made it clear that ionizing radiation from the sun is the main driver as we it see now. I agree with those results 100%, and am looking at geological timescales where encounters with interstellar clouds also becomes important," said lead author Dimitra Atri, of the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, in an email interview with Discovery News. The changes come as our solar system moves around the galaxy, Atri explained. From time to time, we move through interstellar clouds -- vast, dense clouds of gas and dust -- in events that last for about a million years. This has happened at least 135 times since the solar system was formed 4.5 billion years ago, Earth's geological records suggest. Each time, the gas and dust in the cloud strike the solar wind and create a bow shock. This shock accelerates charged particles (protons), which Atri suggests will make Mars lose 0.5% of its atmosphere each time.

Because each of these events is so long -- roughly a million years apiece -- Atri's calculations suggest that over time, they contributed to losing half of the Martian atmosphere. Other events attributed to Martian atmosphere loss, such as solar flares and supernovae, have a smaller contribution; Atri says even the strongest solar flare has eight times less magnitude on the escape of the Martian atmosphere than one pass through an interstellar cloud. WATCH VIDEO:Atomic Oxygen Found On Mars! What Does It Mean?

"This study can be extended to other planetary atmospheres as well," he added. "The most important thing I found was the planetary magnetic field. If a planet, like the Earth, has a strong magnetic field, these particles will not be able to penetrate its atmosphere and it will be able to preserve its atmosphere." Atri hopes to follow up with the research by looking at historical solar events and how they affect the Martian atmosphere. His current study was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. SEE PHOTOS: The Beauty of Mars Dunes

style="text-align: left;">Mars plays host to a huge number of dune fields -- regions where fine wind-blown material gets deposited to form arguably some of the most beautiful dunes that can be found on any planetary body in the solar system. Using the powerful High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on board NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, planetary scientists have an orbital view on these features that aid our understanding of aeolian (wind-formed) processes and Martian geology. Here are some of our favorite Mars dunes as seen by HiRISE. Pictured here are shell-like "barchan dunes" in the ancient Noachis Terra region of Mars. style="text-align: left;">Special thanks to Ari Espinoza of the HiRISE team at the University of Arizona for helping to compile this list. PHOTOS: The Weirdest Craters on Mars

style="text-align: left;">Dunes of many shapes, sizes and formation processes can be found on the Red Planet. Shown here are elegant "linear dunes" with deposits of larger rocks and possibly ices in their troughs. READ MORE: Sand Dunes Could Reveal Weather on Alien Worlds

style="text-align: left;">These slug-like dark dunes are striking examples of "dome dunes" -- elliptical accumulations of fine material with no-slip surfaces. These domes contrast greatly with the often jagged appearance of barchan dunes. Found at the bottom of Proctor Crater, they are darker than the surrounding crater floor as they are composed of dark basaltic sand that was transported by the wind. READ MORE: Slug-Like Dunes on Mars

style="text-align: left;">Looking like a wind-blown silk sheet, this field of "star dunes" overlays a plain of small ripples, another aeolian feature. The ripples move more slowly across the bottom of Proctor Crater, so the large dune field will travel over the smaller ripples. Dunes are continuously evolving and moving with the wind, ensuring that the Martian surface is never static. READ MORE: Bouncing Sands of Mars Blow in the Wind

style="text-align: left;">These "transverse dunes" are undergoing seasonal changes. Likely entering Mars summer, this region of dunes is stained with pockets of subliming ices -- likely carbon dioxide. As the ices turn from solid to vapor, dune material slumps, revealing dark, sandy material underneath.

style="text-align: left;">Resembling the mouths of a shoal of feeding fish, this is a group of barchan dunes in Mars' North Polar region. Barchan dunes betray the prevailing wind direction. In this case, the prevailing wind is traveling from bottom right to top left; the steep slope of material (plus dune "horns") point to the downwind direction. The HiRISE camera monitors barchans to see if they move between observing opportunities, thereby revealing their speed of motion across the Martian plains.

style="text-align: left;">This is the same barchan dune field, zoomed out, a "swarm" of dunes covering the plains.

style="text-align: left;">Not all barchan dunes "behave" and form neat "horny" shapes. They can become muddled and overlapping, creating "barchanoid dunes," as shown here.

style="text-align: left;">This very fluid-looking collection of barchans is accompanied by a wind-blown ridge in the Hellespontus region of Mars but...

style="text-align: left;">...only when zoomed out does the true nature of this fascinating region become clear. The prevailing wind is eroding the mesas (small hills) to the right of the image, carrying fine material downwind (from right to left), creating a startling pattern of barchans and a viscous-looking trail of sandy ridges across the plains.

style="text-align: left;">The band Train sang about the "Drops of Jupiter" -- what about the "Drops of Mars"? Sure, they're not made of any kind of fluid, but they do make for incredibly-shaped dunes. These raindrop-shaped dunes are found in Copernicus Crater and are known to be rich in the mineral olivine, a mineral that formed during the wet history of Mars' evolution. READ MORE: Mars' 'Raindrop' Sand Dunes Swarm

style="text-align: left;">These craggy-looking dunes are old barchanoids eroding away through seasonal processes (sublimation of sub-surface ices) and the persistent Martian wind.

style="text-align: left;">These linking barchan dunes are at the leading edge of a dune field -- grains of dust have been blown across a plain, deposited and left to accumulate in elongated arrow shapes.

style="text-align: left;">Dome-shaped dunes and barchans seem to "reach out" and touch their downwind partners with slumped material.
Nighttime was the right time for the world's first snakes, according to a new study that found these slithery reptiles were once nocturnal predators with tiny back legs complete with ankles and toes.

The study, published in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, also concludes that the first snakes likely emerged 128 million years ago in a warm and forested part of the then supercontinent Laurasia. (Laurasia included what are now North America, Europe and Asia.)

Photos: Iridescent Beauties of the Animal World

The research helps to clear up many long-standing debates over the earliest snakes.

"While snake origins have been debated for a long time, this is the first time these hypotheses have been tested thoroughly using cutting-edge methods," lead author Allison Hsiang of Yale University said in a press release.

She continued, "By analyzing the genes, fossils and anatomy of 73 different snake and lizard species, both living and extinct, we've managed to generate the first comprehensive reconstruction of what the ancestral snake was like."

Hsiang and her team identified similarities and differences between the 73 species, and used this to create a large family tree for snakes. They further noted some of the major characteristics of snakes throughout time.

Video: How Snakes Got Their Venom

The researchers believe that snakes originated on land as opposed to water, which had previously been theorized. The emergence of snakes during the Early Cretaceous coincided with the rapid appearance of many species of mammals and birds.

As for what the first snakes ate, the researchers believe that they could take on almost anything, but not super big prey like what some of today's snakes can handle. That's because the early snakes hadn't yet evolved the ability to use constriction as a form of attack, like today's boa constrictors.

The "ancestral" snake's nocturnal ways passed on to many generations, so that diurnal or day-living snakes didn't show up much until around 50-45 million years ago. That's when Colubroidea - the family of snakes that now make up over 85 percent of living snake species - came onto the scene. Colder night temperatures probably led to the daytime ways of these snakes.

How Snakes Lost Their Legs

As the years went on, the little legs of the snakes got in the way of their slithering and gradually disappeared. Vestiges of their existence, however, still remain in many snakes, such as in modern boas and pythons.

Snakes are some of the planet's most successful animals in terms of their worldwide distribution. While many species are threatened or endangered, it's not for lack of travel time on the part of snakes.

The researchers note that snakes can travel across ranges that are over 68 square miles in size. To put this into perspective, the figure is 4.5 times greater than the ranges of lizards. Many snakes also live in aquatic habitats now, showing how versatile these reptiles can be in adapting themselves to challenging environments.

Photo: Recreation of the first known snake. Credit: Julius Csotonyi
Press Release

September 11, 2016 Legarda Congratulates Lav Diaz, Charo Santos for Golden Lion

Win in Venice Senator Loren Legarda today commended independent filmmaker Lav Diaz and actress Charo Santos-Concio for winning the Golden Lion in the 73rd Venice International Film Festival for the film "Ang Babaeng Humayo" (The Woman Who Left). Legarda said she will file a Senate Resolution commending Diaz and Santos-Concio. "Congratulations to Lav Diaz for winning the highest honor in the world's oldest and one of the most prestigious film festivals! I also commend everyone behind the film, including lead actress, Charo Santos-Concio, who has, once again, showcased mastery of her craft," the Senator said. "Lav has been bringing honor to our country with his internationally-acclaimed films, but this time, he has brought great pride not only to the Philippines but also to the region," said Legarda, noting that among the entries in the In Competition category of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival, Ang Babeng Humayo is the only film from Asia. The Golden Lion is the top prize at the Venice International Film Festival, which is the oldest film festival in the world. This is the first time that a Filipino film won in the prestigious event. Diaz said Ang Babeng Humayo is about a wrongly convicted schoolteacher who seeks revenge against the ex-boyfriend who framed her. The film was inspired by Leo Tolstoy's short story, "God Sees the Truth, But Waits". "I am sure that this award will inspire more Filipino filmmakers to craft films that tackle challenging material and take the Philippine film industry to greater heights. I also hope that more Filipinos will appreciate independent films especially when these are shown in our local cinemas," Legarda said. In support of the local independent film industry, Legarda has filed Senate Bill No. 395, which will provide incentives to independent filmmakers who are given honor in notable international film competitions. The measure aims to encourage more independent filmmakers to continue doing world-class and uncompromising films.
Press Release

September 12, 2016 Message of Sen. Leila M. de Lima on the Celebration of Eid'l Adha Together with the Filipino people, I am one with our Muslim brothers and sisters in the celebration of the Eid'l Adha. Today, our Muslim community commemorates the sacrifice of Ibrahim when he demonstrated his strong faith and submission to the will of Allah. This meaningful feast reminds us all of the importance of solidarity and compassion for one another toward the achievement of our shared vision and goal. May the virtues of this solemn occasion continue to inspire the entire nation as we build an inclusive, just, and humane society. In the face of tremendous pressures and problems, let us remain steadfast and keep our faith that everything happens according to a divine plan. At all times, we are called to stand up for our Filipino values and to make our own sacrifice-- to overcome any challenge with a moral courage, speak up for what is right even if it is unpopular, and put the welfare of the greater majority before our own. May our resolve remain firm, our principles untarnished, and our faith be strengthened as we strive to bequeath a better future for the generations to come. Kul am wa antum bekhair, eid'l adha al-mubarak!
Press Release

September 12, 2016 Hontiveros speaks on harm reduction as strategy against PH drug problem "Upang maging matagumpay ang ating kampanya laban sa ilegal na droga at drug trafficking, importante na pag-aralan natin ang iba't-ibang modelo na nagtagumpay, at yung mga nabigo. The problem of illegal drugs is a multi-faceted issue. Thus, the need to address it through a broad lens, particularly through a public health framework This war on drugs should not be a war against people. Or worse, a war against the poor. With a death toll so far of at least 2,000, this so-called war cannot continue as it is. Harm reduction strategy lessens the demand for illegal drugs. If there is a strong demand, supply will always find a way. In a public health framework, we can win the war on drugs by reducing its demand, ensuring that those who need help will get the help that they need, and at the same time educating our population on the dire costs of addiction. Ladies and gentlemen, future medical professionals, let me end by saying that you will soon be taking your Hippocratic Oath. In its modern version, you will utter the words "First do no harm". This oath is poetic and at the same time revolutionary. Today, I ask you to fast track on that oath. We need more health advocates like you to speak out against the harm brought about by a limited war on drugs. Health professionals and public health advocates like you know that there are broader, even more efficient, tried, and tested ways to solve the problem of drug addiction. Solutions that railroad human rights are not solutions at all. Solutions should unite us, not divide us".
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As the big cardboard check was pushed into the hands of two teenage girls, they exchanged a glance.

In that moment, months of planning and research morphed suddenly into something real. Their project  a bid to use the cell phones of migrant girls in Cambodia as an avenue to send them educational materials and encourage literacy  had for so long seemed more theory than possibility. But now, they could make it happen.

Kathy Kong and Lillian Yuan, both 17, won one of two first-place prizes Friday in the Let Girls Build event, one of two nationwide contests at this years #BuiltByGirls competition in which teenage girls around the country pitch their tech projects in hopes of winning real money to make them a reality. The final pitch competition was held at Twitters San Francisco headquarters.

There were two tracks this year: the Future Founders contest, in which girls built tech companies aimed at turning a profit, and the Let Girls Build initiative, which awarded contestants for creating projects that promoted girls education around the world in line with first lady Michelle Obamas Let Girls Learn mission.

Tara, the name of Kathy and Lillians service, means star in Cambodias native Khmer language. The proposed service would use text messages to deliver learning tools, stories, information on local educational opportunities and self-defense tips to migrant girls traveling from rural villages to urban centers to seek work and help support their families.

Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

Cambodia, whose per capita income is among the lowest in the world, has a large population of migrant workers. A growing number of them are young and female. Many fall victim to human trafficking, sex slavery and labor exploitation. The risk of this is worse among young women who are uneducated and illiterate.

Though Internet access in Cambodia is not common among low-income families, Lillian and Kathy discovered that more than 90 percent of the population have cell phones. They decided delivering information via texts would have a greater reach than building an app or launching a website.

I dont think we will ever understand how difficult it is to be in their shoes, Kathy said. Weve done the research and read the statistics, but to really understand what theyre struggling through? Theres no way we can do that.

Ive been able to go to school my whole life, I know how lucky I am, and I want other girls to have that opportunity, Lillian said. We both really want to go to Cambodia now and meet these girls in person.

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The teens said if their project succeeds, they would want to expand its reach to other countries with high rates of internal migration, like India. To start, they aim to get help from nonprofits on the ground in Cambodia. Eventually, they said, they would want to see if they could also reach refugees who are fleeing their homes due to war, though it can be harder to reach those groups as they are continually on the move.

The pitch-day event, which ended with six groups of girls winning $1,000 to jump-start their companies and two projects earning $10,000, was sponsored by AOL and BBG Ventures, a San Francisco venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies with at least one female founder.

Erin Smith, 16, won the other first-place prize awarded Friday to support her ongoing research project, FacePrint, which uses a face-tracking app to detect bio-markers that indicate early stages of Parkinsons disease.

Marissa Lang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mlang@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Marissa_Jae
At Mission High in San Francisco last week, a teacher stood in front of her class and asked her students: What comes to mind when they think of 9/11?

I think of the annoying airport security and I think of tragedy and I think of firefighters, said Caleb Dubois, a 17-year-old senior sitting in a circle with his classmates.

I think of sadness and loss, a second student said quietly. Another mentioned people jumping out buildings.

Fifteen years on, the images from Sept. 11, 2001, remain fresh, and the emotions raw, for many Americans. But for teenagers like those in Fakhra Shahs class at Mission High, the connection to that day is very different.

They are part of a generation coming of age without memories of the terrorist attacks. They were infants or toddlers when the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., were hit by hijacked airliners. Behind them have come another 60 million or so youngsters born in the U.S. since that date.

Some of them may have sophisticated thoughts about the days meaning, but none have visceral, where-were-you-when stories like those their parents and teachers can recount, no recollection of the days disorienting shock, grief and fear.

Enough time has passed that there are soaring memorials to 9/11 to visit, and the attacks and their aftermath are discussed in their textbooks. For some students, though, its a lesson from history akin to the bombing of Pearl Harbor or the assassination of President John F. Kennedy  something important that happened, but not to them.

To older people who feel a near-constant connection to 9/11 and its fallout, the generational gap can be stark, even if understandable.

Its just history, just something I learned about and that happened before, said Oakland High junior Cameron Degale. I dont have any ties to it.

Nor does Dublin High senior Karyn Utsumi, 17, who recalls studying 9/11 during her sophomore year.

Left: The Chronicle front page from Sept. 12, 2011; Right: Front page marking the one-year anniversary of the attacks. (Click to enlarge)

Definitely my teacher was way more emotional than anybody in the class, she said. I was more disconnected from it. I dont want to say I dont care, but it didnt have the same impact on those in the class.

She was barely a toddler in September 2001. In the years since, she has seen coverage of numerous mass killings and terror attacks in the United States and around the world.

It just happens so often Im just desensitized to something like that, she said.

This disconnect to a moment of such significance is being confronted by parents, and especially teachers, who consider the topic critical. They know that even though young people didnt experience the tragedy, many are aware it changed their lives.

CHAO SOI CHEONG/ASSOCIATED PRESS

In some cases, these teens have grown up seeing family members fight, or die, in Iraq and Afghanistan. The attacks 15 years ago may have set the stage for their familys flight from a war-torn country. For many Muslim students, it fueled the Islamophobia they experience.

With all that in mind, teacher Shah, who is 35, dimmed the lights in her classroom last week and flipped on a projector. It played a video of one of the hijacked planes crashing into the south tower of the World Trade Center as the north tower, hit earlier, burned in the background.

The students, sophomores, juniors and seniors in Shahs class on social change and critical thinking, watched in silence.

What is your response after seeing that? the teacher asked as she turned the lights back on. What goes through your mind?

There were screams, one student answered, as if those watching the scene near the person making the video had lost hope of anyone in the towers surviving.

Who has not seen that before? Shah asked.

I dont think Ive seen that, said Jeimy Valdez, a 17-year-old junior who had only seen photos of the incident before. I didnt realize it was huge.

For young students, knowledge of the epochal event is drawn from media, school or family stories, said Jeremy Stoddard, an associate professor at the College of William & Mary in Virginia who has studied how the events of 9/11 have been incorporated into high school curricula across the country.

THOMAS E. FRANKLIN/Associated Press

These teenagers, he pointed out, do not have any sense of a distinct post-9/11 life in America, because they have nothing else to compare it to.

They do not remember what it was like to go through airport security with a cup of coffee, or to see someone off at a (boarding) gate, he said. They do not remember a time when the U.S. was not at war.

Stoddards research found that the way in which 9/11 is taught can vary depending on a schools location, and that it is often focused on memorializing the tragedy rather than learning the facts of what happened. He and a colleague discovered that key details of the event, such as how many people were killed, were sometimes not included in textbooks.

Ideally, he said, high school students should learn about the larger context of the al Qaeda-affiliated attacks, while also examining the domestic and foreign policies that followed.

They need to have some context  it cant just simply be an explanation that They hate us because of our freedom, he said. Otherwise you oversimplify the event.

The teaching of 9/11 continues to evolve. In the years immediately after the attacks, teachers struggled to find ways to address the anniversary with child-friendly lesson plans that wouldnt refresh fears their students felt. They often refrained from showing images of the planes hitting the towers and the towers collapsing.

But that has changed, at least in some classrooms. In Bob Reckards U.S. history classes at Pittsburg High, he teaches a unit on terrorism. The first lesson is 9/11. He shows news clips not only of the planes crashing into the buildings, but also of newscasters biting back tears and disbelief as they stand amid the dust and horror.

This is going to sound messed up, but I think the students need to experience that pain somehow, said Reckard, 33. We know we have to bridge that gap somehow.

Some youngsters, however, dont need such prodding.

On Thursday, a group of students at Raoul Wallenberg High School in San Francisco gathered with teachers and others in the library for a 9/11 commemoration discussion. Yet during an hour-long conversation, the events of Sept. 11, 2001, were mentioned only once.

The dozen or so students seated together in a circle were all Muslim. Their meeting, sponsored by the schools Arab-Muslim Culture Club, wasnt about the day of the attacks. It was about every day since.

Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

They discussed the insults and profanity often hurled at them because of their religion or the way they look. How some people switch seats on planes because they dont want to sit next to someone speaking Arabic or wearing a headscarf.

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Sometimes, when Im walking, people pull their kids away, said Sarah Alowdi, 17, who wears the head covering called a hijab. Walking down the street is not safe anymore. Were always expecting something to happen.

It still shocks me nothing has changed in terms of people hating Muslims, said Hamzh Mihtar, a sophomore.

After the meeting ended, Alowdi, the co-leader of the club, stayed behind. She too spoke of how 9/11 has been a catalyst for Islamophobia.

But, the young woman added: I dont know how it was before.

While some Bay Area teachers are struggling to make Sept. 11 meaningful, others, like Shah at Mission High, are drawing on their own lives to connect with students on a personal level.

After 9/11, she said, even friends family members and fellow college students would say hurtful things about Muslims. Her father rushed out to buy American flags so he could display them and show people his family loved America.

Shah told her students about what happened the day after Sept. 11, 2001, when her brother, a member of the U.S. Air Force, called and told her he was being deployed. At the time, he didnt know where he was headed.

She and her family didnt hear from him again for a month. That, she said, was really intense.

Also trying to engage young people more directly is Rita DeTar, a physical education teacher at Fremonts Thornton Junior High.

In 2001, her husband, who had just completed an Air National Guard deployment in Afghanistan, was on a plane heading to New York when the hijacked airliners hit the World Trade Center. His flight was diverted to Newfoundland, something DeTar would not learn for hours.

She went into work that morning anyway, hiding her fear from her students as best she could. The kids would come up to me and say, Hes going to be OK, she said, tearing up at the memory.

Now, she realizes the feelings once inspired by the attack are fading.

Its a little bit sad and disconcerting, she said. In one aspect, you dont want to live in fear, but you want people to remember there are a lot of people who sacrificed for us.

So DeTar tells her students about that day, about the bulky, old-school cell phone her husband borrowed to finally call and tell her he was safe. It was a defining moment in her life, she tells them, and a day to always remember, even if you dont remember it yourself.

We do the Pledge of Allegiance fourth period, she said. I explain to the kids: Were not messing around here.

Jill Tucker and Hamed Aleaziz are San Francisco Chronicle staff writer s . Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com , haleaziz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker, @haleaziz
A San Jose bail bondsman and an alleged bail-jumper were among three people killed Sunday when their small plane crashed on takeoff at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport, officials and a friend of the bondsman said Monday.

Bail bondsman Ed Mumbert died when the Piper Cherokee aircraft, scheduled to fly to San Carlos on the Peninsula, plummeted into a long-term parking lot at the airport about 6:15 p.m., said his close friend, Dick Bernal, pastor of the Jubilee Christian Center in San Jose.

Bernal said Mumbert, 45, and a woman who had skipped bail on him, and their pilot died in the crash.

Reno Fire Department / /

Its horrible, Bernal said Monday. Ed was like a son to me. He called me dad.

The Washoe County Coroners Office identified the others killed as the pilot, Robert Drescher, 57, of Stevenson Ranch in Los Angeles County, and Ronni Hernandez, 34, whose hometown was unknown.

Bernal said Mumberts sister called him late Sunday night to tell him that the bail bondsman was among those killed.

He said that just hours before the crash, he received a text message from Mumbert telling him he was in Reno apprehending a person who had jumped bail.

Brian Kulpin, spokesman fro the Reno-Tahoe International Airport, said the single-engine airplane had just taken off from runway 25 when it crashed into cars parked in the lot. He said 13 cars were damaged in the crash, including three that were totaled.

The aircraft was headed to San Carlos airport, which is a small airport in the Bay Area, Kulpin said. There were witnesses. At that time of the evening, theres a lot of people around. Its amazing that no one was hurt on the ground.

He said a team from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived at the airport Monday to investigate.

Bill Hutchinson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: bhutchinson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @bill_hutchinson
Sous chef Tinia Briggs stood over 2,000 tiny cream-topped chocolate ganache tarts and recited the saintly benefits of the cocoa bean.

Its our go-to coping mechanism, she said. It makes us calm down, puts us in a better mood. Its full of antioxidants.

Chocolate is a virtuous pursuit and only a heavenly and high-calorie sin when you add sugar, she said, putting her finishing-touch raspberries on the tarts.

And that meant there were a lot of sinners at Ghirardelli Square on Sunday for the 21st annual Chocolate Festival, a weekend extravaganza of chocolate in all its decadent and delicious forms.

There were chocolate brownies, chocolate macaroons, hot chocolate, cold chocolate milkshakes, chocolate ice cream, chocolate bars, chocolate beer, chocolate olive oil and dozens and dozens of hot fudge sundaes with a cherry on top.

In a rare co-mingling, out-of-town tourists sat side-by-side with locals, spoons in hand, smiles on their faces.

Paul Lenh, 32, visiting from Los Angeles, took a bite of his Treasure Island sundae, a concoction of ice cream, fudge sauce and a brownie. A hot chocolate chaser sat steaming at the side. He was with Alameda resident Mike Griffis, 59, who had opted for the traditional hot fudge sundae.

Its all good once in a while, Lenh said with a smile and another bite.

The event offered chocolate lovers samples from chocolate makers, bakers and brewers from around the area, with proceeds benefiting Project Open Hand, based in San Francisco, which delivers meals to seniors and the critically ill.

But it wouldn't have been a San Francisco event without quirky protestors. Joseph Amster was there with about 10 fellow demonstrators picketing the Ghirardelli ice cream parlor over the companys refusal to bring back the Emperor Norton sundae.

The treat honored Joshua Norton, who declared himself Emperor of the United States in 1859. The people of San Francisco played along until he died in 1880.

Amster, who dresses as Emperor Norton for city tours, has petitioned Ghirardelli to bring back the memorial concoction  a goblet glass lined with sliced bananas and cherries, two scoops of vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream, and a half a walnut  which disappeared from the menu 12 years ago.

We just think it's important to remember Emperor Norton in any way we can, he said.

Oblivious to the historical outrage, people lined up 20 to 30 deep to sample chocolate in various incarnations, their hands and mouths full from a visit to another booths offerings. Up near Waxmans restaurant, James Beard-winning chef Angela Pinkerton and chef David Nayfeld demonstrated to a full house how to incorporate the benefits of chocolate in savory street tacos.

Over near the Ghirardelli Square mermaid fountain, Margarita Ovando gripped her punch-card ticket, which allowed her to sample several of the offerings. She had already tried the ganache tart, brownies and milkshake and ranked them in that order, declaring the tarts divine. She wasnt nearly done, her card and belly ready for more.

But at a table down by the water on Beach Street, Nicole and Scott Gleason, who were in the city for a tourist day, stared into their cups, the detritus of fudge and chocolate lining the plastic. They exhaled, the kind of happy and queasy exhale that comes with a belly full of ice cream and fudge.

Nicole Gleason stared into her cup, which still had a few bites of ice cream left.

I cant even finish the chocolate, she said. It was a sin, she acknowledged, to not finish such a sinful chocolate concoction and she was already repenting: Im going to have to go to church after this.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ jilltucker
Revelations that Wells Fargo & Co. employees opened more than 2 million unauthorized accounts are highly disturbing and could hurt holders of the banks debt, Moodys Investors Service said.

The deficiencies uncovered by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other government investigators show that the banks vaunted cross-selling capabilities were inflated, the credit grader said Monday in a report. The bank encouraged pervasive inappropriate practices and managers didnt provide oversight of employees, Moodys said. Results of examinations by CFPB and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency are credit negatives, according to the report.
Apple plans to release a free coding education app Tuesday that it developed with middle-school students in mind, in the latest salvo among technology companies to gain share in the education market and to nurture product loyalty among children.

Apples app, called Swift Playgrounds, introduces basic computer programming concepts, like sequencing logic, by asking students to use word commands to move cartoon avatars through a fanciful, animated world. Unlike some childrens apps, which employ drag-and-drop blocks to teach coding, the Apple program uses Swift, a professional programming language that the company introduced in 2014.

When you learn to code with Swift Playgrounds, you are learning the same language used by professional developers, Brian Croll, Apples vice president of product marketing, said. Its easy to take the next step and learn to write a real app.

The introduction of Apples app coincides with a larger Silicon Valley campaign to press public schools to teach coding. Tech executives have argued that such training could help address socioeconomic differences among students, by providing them with marketable job skills. In January, President Obama said he was asking Congress to provide $4 billion in the budget for a computer science initiative in public schools. (Congress has not yet passed a budget.)

Tech companies are in heated competition for the education market. Apple devices and ones based on the Microsoft Windows have recently lost market share at U.S. public schools to Chromebooks, inexpensive laptops that run on the Google Chrome operating system.

The Apple coding app is free, but it requires an iPad, which has declining sales and which many schools and families may not be able to afford.

How much of the motivation is for selling of product, and what does that do for schools that cannot afford this technology? asked Jane Margolis, a senior researcher at the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies at UCLA, who has studied disparities in computer science education for more than two decades. The threat is that it is going to replicate current inequities.

Croll of Apple said the company was making the app free so that the coding lessons are accessible. While it is available for use in schools, individual students, parents and consumers could also use the app to teach themselves to code at home, he said. He added that Apple had created the app for the iPad to ensure a high-quality user experience.

Apple said that more than 100 schools and districts worldwide had agreed to try the coding app with their students.

We are hoping it will be a good transition between block-coding and language-coding, said Trang Lai, director of educational services at the Fullerton School District, a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade public school system in Fullerton (Orange County). Her district provides an iPad for every student in grades five through eight.

Lai said the district had previously bought coding apps that did not work well on iPads, and that it was eager to try Swift Playgrounds.

Right now, that is what is current, she said. That is what is available, and that is what is free.
Googles life-sciences spin-off, Verily, and French drugmaker Sanofi have unveiled Onduo, a joint venture to find ways to better manage diabetes.

Like other projects from the Mountain View companys health tech unit, Onduo is short on specifics. It promises to develop consumer software and biometric devices to help tackle a health crisis that is expected to afflict 592 million people worldwide by 2035, according to the International Diabetes Federation.

What were trying to do here is really follow a process which ... will create products to help people living with diabetes manage their care, Dr. Joshua Riff, Onduos newly appointed CEO, in an interview before Sunday evenings official launch of the independent company.

The name  Onduo  is a melding of the words on, as in moving forward, and duo, as in two or partnership. Riff said the name could have several meanings, but captures the concept of partnership as well as the spirit of working with patients.

One of Onduos first health partners is Sutter Health, the large hospital network from Sacramento that provides care throughout Northern California. Sutter will work with Verily and Onduo to conduct studies as well as testing.

Chris Waugh, Sutter Healths chief innovation officer, said the collaboration will help the hospital system develop incredibly personal care options for patients.

Because our integrated network focuses on Northern California, where we care for one of the most diverse populations in the world, we offer partners like Onduo the unique opportunity to work with us to test treatments and tools in various care settings that can influence the care for people of all races and ethnicities, Waugh said in an email.

Verily, which was hatched from Googles X lab for ambitious projects and is now under the umbrella of Alphabet, has worked with other large drugmakers including Johnson & Johnson, on developing medical robots, and GlaxoSmithKline, to create implants that could ultimately replace drugs by generating electrical pulses to help the body heal itself.

The new life sciences unit has been criticized for having goals that are pie-in-the-sky rather than practical, but Onduos Riff said his company wants to create solutions. He said hes focusing on what people need rather than when the company could rush something to market.

The question is going to be what can we bring to market that can have the greatest impact on people with diabetes, he said. Thats very different thinking than is seen in a traditional health care company.

Coming from working as an emergency physician and later running the health plan for Target, Riff said he saw the devastation of uncontrolled diabetes and understood the challenges of changing behavior. As a physician, Id spend my day telling people what I want them to do, he said. That may last a short period of time, but what we need to do is ask what consumers ... what can we do to make their lives easier?

Initially, Onduo will focus on Type 2 diabetes, which is linked to obesity, family history and lifestyle habits, by developing approaches that could help people make better decisions about their health, improving medication management. Over time, the company plans to expand its focus to include Type 1 diabetes, the form in which the body attacks the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas.

Sanofi, which also has a newly created diabetes unit focusing on developing therapies, has invested about $248 million into the joint venture. Onduos Riff says only that Verily is making an equivalent capital investment. The joint venture is based in Kendall Square in Cambridge, Mass.

Victoria Colliver is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vcolliver@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @vcolliver
This article was first published on NerdWallet.com.

Getting a business loan is a major hurdle facing small businesses, mainly due to tight lending standards by banks. But obtaining outside financing is often necessary to start or grow a business or cover day-to-day expenses, including payroll and inventory.

Although finding, applying for and getting approved for small-business loans can be difficult, the more prepared you are, the better. Heres how to get a business loan in five steps:

1. Ask yourself, why do I need this loan?

Lenders will ask you this question, and your answer will likely fall into one of these four categories:

To start your business.



To manage day-to-day expenses.



To grow your business.



To have a safety cushion.

2. Decide which type of loan is right for you.

Your reasons for needing the loan will dictate the type of small-business loan you get.

If youre starting a business, its virtually impossible to get a loan in your companys first year. Lenders require cash flow to support repayment of the loan, so startups are typically immediately disqualified from financing. Instead, youll have to rely on business credit cards, borrowing from friends and family, crowdfunding, personal loans or a microloan from a nonprofit lender. Heres more information on startup business loans.

To manage day-to-day expenses, youll want:

working capital loans, which give you money to cover regular expenses, for inventory purchases or to buy equipment;

a business line of credit, which allows you to borrow and repay only the money you need (similar to a credit card);

or invoice factoring, which provides upfront cash for your unpaid invoices.

If you want to grow your business by expanding to a new location, adding a new product or service or buying a new piece of large equipment, youll want:

business expansion loans, which provide a lump sum of cash that requires fixed payments. Your loan shouldnt outlast the product or equipment youre buying. For example, if youre purchasing a new pizza oven that you expect to use for five years, get a loan with a term of about five years.

If you dont need cash immediately but want a safety cushion in case of an emergency, youll want to get a line of credit or a term loan with the lowest rate possible. Ideally, you would get a bank line of credit long before you actually needed it, says Suzanne Darden, a business consultant at the Alabama Small Business Development Center. That way, you wont have to scramble for cash when an emergency strikes.



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3. Determine the best type of small-business lender.

You can get small-business loans from several places, including banks, nonprofit microlenders and online lenders. These lenders offer products including term loans, lines of credit and accounts receivable financing.

You should approach small-business-loan shopping just as you would shopping for a car, Darden says. Once you determine which type of lender and financing vehicle are right for you, compare two or three similar options based on annual percentage rate (total borrowing cost) and terms. Of the loans you qualify for, choose the one with the lowest APR, as long as you are able to handle the loans regular payments.

Use NerdWallets business loan calculator to figure out your monthly payment.

Use banks when:

You can provide collateral.

You have good credit.

You dont need cash fast.

Traditional bank options include term loans, lines of credit and commercial mortgages to buy properties or refinance. Through banks, the U.S. Small Business Administration provides general small-business loans with its 7(a) loan program, short-term microloans and disaster loans. SBA loans range from about $5,000 to $5 million, with an average loan size of $371,000.

Small businesses have a tougher time getting approved due to factors including lower sales volume and cash reserves; add to that bad personal credit or no collateral (such as real estate to secure a loan), and many small-business owners come up empty-handed. Getting funded takes longer than other options  typically two to six months  but banks are usually your lowest-APR option.

Use microlenders when:

You cant get a traditional loan because your company is too small.

Microlenders are nonprofits that typically lend short-term loans of less than $35,000. The APR on these loans is typically higher than that of bank loans. The application may require a detailed business plan and financial statements, as well as a description of what the loan will be used for, making it a lengthy process. Also, the size of the loans is, by definition, micro. But these loans may work well for smaller companies or startups that cant qualify for traditional bank loans, due to a limited operating history, poor personal credit or a lack of collateral.

Popular microlenders include Accion Kiva, the Opportunity Fund and the Business Center for New Americans.

Use online lenders when:

You lack collateral.

You lack time in business.

You need funding quickly.

Online lenders provide small-business loans and lines of credit from $500 to $500,000. The average APR on these loans ranges from 7% to 108%, depending on the lender, the type and size of the loan, the length of the repayment term, the borrowers credit history and whether collateral is required. These lenders rarely can compete with traditional banks in terms of APR.

But approval rates are higher and funding is faster than with traditional banks  as fast as 24 hours. See NerdWallets reviews of online business lenders.



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4. Find out if you qualify.

WHATS YOUR CREDIT SCORE?

Your place on the credit spectrum is one factor that will determine which loans youll qualify for. You can get your credit report for free from each of the three major credit bureaus  Equifax, Experian and TransUnion  once a year. You can get your FICO score for free from several credit card issuers as well as personal finance websites, including NerdWallet.

Banks, which as previously noted offer the least expensive small-business loans, want borrowers with credit scores at least above 680, Darden says. If your credit score falls below that threshold, consider online small-business loans for borrowers with bad credit or loans from a nonprofit microlender.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN BUSINESS?

In addition to your credit score, lenders will consider how long your business has been operating. You need to have been in business at least one year to qualify for most online small-business loans and at least two years to qualify for most bank loans.

DO YOU MAKE ENOUGH MONEY?

Many online lenders require a minimum annual revenue, which can range anywhere from $50,000 to $150,000. Know yours and find out the minimum a given lender requires before you apply.

CAN YOU MAKE THE PAYMENTS?

Look carefully at your businesss financials  especially cash flow  and evaluate how much you can reasonably afford to apply toward loan repayments each month. Some online lenders require daily or twice-monthly repayments, so factor that into the equation if thats the case.

To comfortably repay your loan each month, your total income should be at least 1.25 times your total expenses, including your new repayment amount, Darden says. For example, if your businesss income is $10,000 a month and you have $7,000 worth of expenses including rent, payroll, inventory, etc., the most you can comfortably afford is $1,000 a month in loan repayments. You can use Nerdwallets business loan calculator to determine your loans affordability.

(More tips: How to qualify for a small-business loan.)



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5. Now, gather your documents.

Once youve compared your options, its time to apply for the loans that fit your financing needs and that you qualify for.

You can apply for multiple small-business loans within a short time frame (about two weeks) without a negative effect on your personal credit score.

Depending on the lender, youll need to submit a combination of the following documents with your application:

Business and personal tax returns

Business and personal bank statements

Business financial statements

Business legal documents (e.g., articles of incorporation, commercial lease, franchise agreement)

FIND AND COMPARE SMALL-BUSINESS LOANS

NerdWallet has come up with a list of the best small-business loans to meet your needs and goals. We gauged lender trustworthiness, market scope and user experience, among other factors, and arranged lenders by categories that include your revenue and how long youve been in business.

Compare business loans

This post was updated Sept. 12, 2016.

Teddy Nykiel is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal finance website. Email: teddy@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @teddynykiel.

Steve Nicastro is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal finance website. Email: Steven.N@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @StevenNicastro.

The article How to Get a Business Loan in 5 Steps originally appeared on NerdWallet.
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A sexually exploited teenager whose testimony is central to a Bay Area police scandal remained jailed in Florida on Monday but was offered a plea deal that could hasten her return to California, where prosecutors say they are poised to file charges against seven officers.

The 19-year-old Richmond woman, who asked to be identified by her online alias of Celeste Guap, was arrested late last month on suspicion of felony battery after allegedly biting a security guard at a rehabilitation center in Floridas Martin County. But the assistant state attorney in Martin County, David Lustgarten, said Monday that he is charging Guap with misdemeanor battery.

The evidence did not lead me to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a felony was committed, he said.

Lustgarten said he offered a plea bargain to the young woman, who is being held on $300,000 bail. While he would not disclose the parameters of the deal, he said, I have a feeling this will be on the quick end of things.

Neither Guaps public defender in Florida nor her two attorneys in the Bay Area immediately responded Monday to requests for comment. But Martin County Assistant Public Defender John Hetherington said last week that his office had funds to help fly Guap back to California once her case was finished.

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy OMalleys goal is a speedy resolution to the battery case. She said Friday that her office planned to charge five current and former Oakland police officers, one former Contra Costa County sheriffs deputy and one ex-Livermore officer with crimes ranging from obstruction of justice to oral copulation with a minor in connection with contact they had with Guap.

At a Friday news conference, OMalley said Contra Costa County law enforcement officials should not have helped send Guap to a voluntary rehabilitation center across the country.

City and police officials in Richmond, as well as Contra Costa County prosecutors, have said Guap was simply offered resources available to crime victims.

Guap, who has worked as a prostitute, told The Chronicle that she had sex with 29 officers in the Bay Area in the past two years and that her relations with at least four officers occurred before she turned 18. A few officers paid her, and others warned her about antiprostitution stings or ran the names of people she knew through confidential databases, she said.

Ricardo Perez, a former Contra Costa County deputy who resigned in June, will be charged with felony oral copulation with a minor and two misdemeanor counts of engaging in lewd acts in public, OMalley said. A Livermore officer who recently resigned, Dan Black, will be charged with four misdemeanors: two counts of engaging in prostitution and two counts of engaging in lewd acts in public.

Oakland Officer Giovanni LoVerde will be charged with felony oral copulation with a minor, and Oakland Officer Brian Bunton will be charged with a felony count of obstruction of justice and a misdemeanor count of engaging in prostitution, prosecutors said.

Oakland Officer Warit Uttapa is to be charged with one count of misusing computer databases, and Terryl Smith, who has resigned, will face four counts of the same allegation. A retired Oakland officer, Leroy Johnson, will be charged with failing to report sexual misconduct despite being required to make such reports as part of his job, OMalley said.

If Guap is convicted at trial of misdemeanor battery in Florida, she faces up to one year in county jail.

Lustgarten said his decision to charge her with misdemeanor battery took into account that she was in a treatment center, was dealing with mental-health issues and had never been convicted of a crime. However, he said he did not take into consideration Guaps status as the central witness in the Bay Area case.

It was not factored at all, he said.

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov
Diners at the esteemed Chez Panisse had their meal interrupted Friday night when animal-rights activists entered the building, Berkeley police said.

Officers were called to the restaurant at about 11 p.m. with reports of 10 to 15 protesters causing a disturbance, said Lt. Alyson Hart with the Berkeley Police Department.
A Canadian judge is facing the possibility of removal from the bench after he faulted a 19-year-old woman who said she was raped for not doing enough to defend herself during the alleged attack and suggesting that she wanted to have sex.

Among Federal Court Justice Robin Camp's remarks during a 2014 sexual assault trial, according to a notice of allegations posted on the Canadian Judicial Council website:

"Why couldn't you just keep your knees together? Why didn't you just sink your bottom down into the basin so he couldn't penetrate you?"

Young women, the judge said, "want to have sex, particularly if they're drunk," according to the notice.

He also said that "some sex and pain sometimes go together" and "that's not necessarily a bad thing."

Camp's controversial remarks resulted in an investigation by the Canadian Judicial Council, a federal body that polices judges.

He is expected to testify Friday before a five-member committee as part of a week-long proceeding that began Tuesday and will end next week in Calgary, Alberta.

The committee will decide on Camp's fate after hearing evidence and testimony.

Camp made the comments during a five-day trial in June 2014. At the time, he was appointed to the Alberta Provincial Court Criminal Division in Calgary. He became a federal judge last year.

The woman had accused a Calgary man, Alexander Wagar, of raping her over a bathroom sink during a house party.

Camp acquitted Wagar in September 2014. The woman appealed, and the Alberta Court of Appeal overturned Camp's ruling, according to a statement of facts. Wagar is scheduled for a second trial in November.

The Canadian Judicial Council's investigation began in November 2015, after four law professors filed a complaint against Camp, who later recused himself from any cases involving sex crimes, according to the statement of facts.

Members of the public later followed suit in filing complaints.

In December, the Alberta attorney general filed a formal complaint against Camp and referred the matter to what's called an "inquiry committee," which is made up of three judges and two lawyers.

The committee will decide whether Camp should be removed from the bench.

According to the notice of allegations, Camp's "rude and derogatory" comments "belittle(d) and trivialize(d) the nature of the allegations." He also made "stereotypical assumptions about how someone confronted with sexual assault would or would not behave."

The woman, whose identity has been concealed, said the judge's remarks made her hate herself, CBC News reported.

"He made me feel like I should have done something, like I was some kind of a slut," she said.

During the proceeding, Camp's daughter, who said she herself is a rape victim, testified that her father's comments were "disgraceful."

But, she said, she stands behind her father, according to CBC News.

Lauren Camp wrote that although her father is "old-fashioned in some ways" and does not completely understand "how women think," he is not "an inherent or dedicated sexist," CBC News reported.

"I have seen him advance in understanding and empathy for victims, vulnerable litigants and those who have experienced trauma," she wrote.

Camp has since apologized for his conduct. His attorney, Frank Addario, argued that Camp has "consistently shown remorse," records say, and has taken steps "to educate himself and gain insight into his beliefs."

Addario also argued that although Camp made "insensitive and inappropriate" comments, his misconduct can be "remedied by education" and does not warrant removal from office, records say.

Camp also has gone through mentoring, counseling about how victims of abuse respond to trauma, and a crash course on the history and current state of sexual assault law.

Records say Camp did not receive any training or judicial education on sexual assault law or how to preside over sexual assault trials.

A law professor who called Camp's comments "rude and stupid" testified Thursday that she had five educational sessions with Camp and believes he is now familiar with how to deal with sexual assault cases, CBC News reported.

The 64-year-old judge is married with three children. He grew up in South Africa and attended the University of Stellenbosch, where he received degrees in commerce and law, according to a statement of facts from the Canadian Judicial Council.

He later practiced as a barrister in Johannesburg and has represented members of the African National Congress.

Camp moved his family to Botswana in 1992, then to Calgary in 1998.

His practice in Canada mostly focused on contractual, trust, oil and gas, and bankruptcy litigation.

In March 2012, he was appointed to the Alberta Provincial Court Criminal Division in Calgary. He became a federal judge in June 2015.
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A Marin County judge rejected an attempt to bar news reporters from portions of a preliminary hearing for two drifters accused in a pair of high-profile Bay Area killings  a motion by defense attorneys that was vigorously opposed in court Monday by The Chronicle.

Attorneys for 24-year-old Morrison Haze Lampley argued that the press should be excluded from key portions of the evidentiary hearing in order to protect his right to a fair trial.

Chief Deputy Public Defender David Brown contended that portions of the evidence to be presented by prosecutors at the hearing  including yet-to-be revealed statements to police made by Lampleys co-defendant, 19-year-old Lila Scott Alligood  may be inadmissible for trial.

The statements Ms. Alligood made wont be admissible unless she testifies, Brown said, citing a Sixth Amendment clause that requires the accused to be confronted by a witness at trial.

Potential incriminating evidence being put out in the public when it could be inadmissible is what were trying to address.

The preliminary hearing against the two defendants began on May 9 with the testimony of Lokita Carter, the widow of 67-year-old Steve Carter, whom the defendants are charged with shooting to death on a Marin County hiking trail.

A third suspect charged in the Carter killing, Sean Michael Angold, 25, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the slaying in a deal with prosecutors for his cooperation in the cases against Lampley and Alligood.

The preliminary hearing is scheduled to resume next Tuesday in Marin County Superior Court in San Rafael. In addition to Carters killing, Lampley, Alligood and Angold are charged with the killing of Audrey Carey, 23, a Canadian backpacker found shot dead in Golden Gate Park.

On Monday, Superior Court Judge Kelly Vieira Simmons denied the effort of defense attorneys to bar reporters from parts of the hearing after listening to arguments from defense attorneys, prosecutors and a lawyer representing The Chronicle and the Marin Independent Journal.

This is a very important process, and the public has a constitutional right to see it, said attorney Duffy Carolan, who represented the newspapers. This called out for broad access given that one victim is from Canada and many of her family members likely wont be able to attend the hearing.

Lampley, Alligood and Angold were all charged with killing Carey as she embarked on her first solo backpacking trip. Her body was found in Golden Gate Park on Oct. 3 during the second day of the massive Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.

Two days later, Carter was gunned down on a scenic hiking trail in the Loma Alta Open Space Preserve near Fairfax.

Prosecutors alleged Lampley was the triggerman in Carters killing, while it remains unclear who fired the fatal shot that killed Carey. Days after the slayings, the drifters were picked up outside a Portland, Ore., soup kitchen after authorities said they tracked them using the GPS in Carters stolen station wagon.

The three had the handgun that was stolen from a car in San Franciscos Fishermans Wharf on Oct. 1 and used in both slayings, police said. Also in their possession were Careys passport, airline tickets and camping gear, police said.

Lampley, wearing glasses, and Alligood were dressed in their Marin County Jail-issued clothing and were allowed to enter the courtroom without shackles during Mondays hearing.

The defendants, who have all grown shaggy, moplike coifs since their first court appearance when they sported buzz cuts, said nothing and sat calmly during the proceeding, which lasted more than an hour.

Browns nearly unprecedented attempt to exclude the media from covering next weeks public criminal court hearing was one of several motions filed by the defense and addressed by Simmons on Monday.

He also filed a motion asking that cameras be excluded from recording the preliminary hearing. Simmons conditionally permitted some video and still photography during the first day of the hearing.

We respect the judges ruling and will prepare in conjunction with them, Brown said outside court.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky
Bryan R. Smith/FRE

According to The Daily Mail, a British bachelor party took selfies with a sex doll at Ground Zero on the eve of the 15th anniversary of 9/11. Yep.

The group allegedly contained men who work at a bank in the area. A police officer apparently approached the group on the scene and told them to leave.
Russian police detain an opposition supporter during a rally in Moscow ahead of the 2012 parliamentary elections (AFP Photo/Natalia Kolesnikova)

Moscow (AFP) - Ilya Gushchin says the two and a half years he spent in prison for standing up to the Kremlin were a warning from the authorities for ordinary Russians.

"It was a threat to the population to quieten down," Gushchin, 28, told AFP.

"For society it showed that the authorities were willing to do whatever was needed to stay in power."

Russia is currently gearing up for parliamentary elections on September 18 that pro-Kremlin parties look set to dominate, and that message seems to have registered.

The last time the country voted in legislative polls five years ago, tens of thousands of ordinary citizens took to the streets for mass protests that became the biggest challenge to President Vladimir Putin's domination of the country since he took charge in 2000.

This time around there appears to be little chance of a repeat.

- 'They just showed up' -

In late 2011 and early 2012 Gushchin -- then a recent graduate who had just started dabbling in political activism -- was part of the crowds in Moscow demanding change after evidence of flagrant vote-rigging emerged.

The protests petered out after riot police violently cleared a demonstration on the eve of Putin's inauguration for a third term as president in May 2012. Gushchin was detained briefly after trying to pull an officer off a protester, but he thought little of it and carried on with life.

Then, out of the blue nine months later, police arrived at his door and arrested him.

"I had forgotten about it," he said. "Then they just showed up."

Gushchin was one of over 30 demonstrators -- prominent activists, students, pensioners -- who would be swept up seemingly at random by the authorities and charged with attacking the police.

Their cases -- which came to be known as the Bolotnaya affair after the square the demonstration took place on -- reverberated around the country, and rights groups denounced them as show trials.

Story continues

Eventually Gushchin, who now works for prisoner rights group Rus Sidyashchaya, was found guilty. In the summer of 2015, after more than 900 days behind bars, he was released.

- Rights 'curtailed' -

The legal onslaught against the demonstrators was not the only weapon the authorities used.

They simultaneously set about curbing the very right to protest.

"When Vladimir Putin returned to the Kremlin in May 2012, the authorities immediately rammed through a set of restrictive amendments to the law on demonstrations," said Tanya Lokshina from Human Rights Watch.

"The amendments significantly curtailed the right to free assembly and hugely increased fines for breaching assembly-related regulations."

Since then the laws have been tightened up still further as the Kremlin watched with horror the dramatic events that unfolded in neighbouring ex-Soviet Ukraine.

In 2014 huge protests deposed Russian-backed leader Viktor Yanukovych. For Putin, critics said, it was a nightmarish vision of what could happen to him at home.

"It certainly made Russian authorities even more resolved to crack down on protest activists," Lokshina said.

- Kremlin adapts -

In theory, with Russia mired in economic recession and living standards slipping, there appear many ingredients for demonstrations this time.

But beyond the clampdown, there are key reasons why the protest movement looks unlikely to fire up.

Putin is still enjoying high approval ratings after the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and some of that rubs off on the parties that support him.

Learning its lesson from last time, the Kremlin, while not relinquishing its tight grip on the controls, appears desperate to give the polls a sheen of legitimacy.

A new elections chief has been appointed to stamp out the most blatant corruption and more parties have been allowed to compete.

Meanwhile, Alexei Navalny -- who spearheaded the protests five years ago -- has been targeted by criminal cases and excluded from politics.

That leaves the remainder of the factious opposition rudderless and unable to counter the attacks from slavishly pro-Kremlin state-controlled media.

They are also struggling to shake off the chilling effects of the shooting of charismatic Putin critic Boris Nemtsov just yards from the Kremlin in February 2015.

Despite the years of his life he lost in jail, Gushchin insists that he would still be ready to go on to the streets if needed.

For now, however, there seems little chance of that.

"I am willing to take part in something that is worth it," he said.

"But these days... I don't see anything out there that is interesting in terms of politics."
Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton's recent health episode stirred speculation on what would happen if she dropped out of the race before Election Day.

A former Democratic National Committee chairman told Politico on Monday that the party should start coming up with a contingency plan should Clinton need to exit the race.

"Now is the time for all good political leaders to come to the aid of their party," said Don Fowler, who led the committee from 1995 to 1997. "I think the plan should be developed by 6 oclock this afternoon."

Fowler said "you would be a fool not to prepare" a back-up plan.

So what would happen if Clinton dropped out? The rules on replacing candidates vary from party to party.

The Democratic Party's rules, which are similar to the Republican party's, state that the party chairperson would have to call a special meeting to fill any vacancy on the national ticket, according to AFP. The decision on who should fill the vacancy would be based on a majority vote from those who attend the meeting.

The Republican rules are similar, AFP noted.

If the rules for replacing presidential candidates seem vague, it's by design.

"It gives them the opportunity to make the best decision, rather than tie their hands with some kind of process that would give them a nominee they will not be comfortable with," Jeanne Zaino, a professor of political science at Iona College in New York, told AFP.

Clinton is taking a break from campaigning while she recovers from pneumonia. She was diagnosed with the illness on Friday, and her campaign announced it to the public on Sunday when she had to leave a 9/11 memorial event early because she was feeling "overheated."

Campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said she expects to be back on the trail later this week, and Clinton herself tweeted Monday afternoon that she's "anxious to get back out there."

Story continues

But questions about her health have surfaced recently as she's been seen with a bad cough at speaking events.

Fallon, however, said "there is no other undisclosed condition" Clinton suffers from.

NOW WATCH: We spent an afternoon at the Trump Winery in Virginia and it wasn't what we expected at all





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There arent many limitations on what San Francisco Fringe Festival performers are and arent allowed to do with sets, costumes, props and projections.

Yet, however this years 39 Fringe Festival groups envisioned their shows, a single, general rule tends to rein in more elaborate design concepts: All shows must be able to load in and load out of their venues in 15 minutes or less.

In spite of that edict, the five shows that performed in the Exit Theatres main stage (one of five festival venues, including two at PianoFight) on Saturday, Sept. 10, conjured, in order, a hippie barn in Humboldt County (Tales of a Sexual Tomboy), a feminist cabaret (A Cabaret: Maiden, Mermaid, Crone), the U.S. Armys Cu Chi Base Camp during the Vietnam War (Hey, Hey, LBJ!), a visual art classroom (Lorraine Olsen Is Figuratively Speaking) and, finally, beyond the veil of illusion and into the future (i.e., the magician stage of Mysterium Show).

Camping out in that venue for a day (not to review, just to observe) reveals that, to hasten and simplify their setup and takedown, all the performers, marching in through the stage door from the Exits alley-like back patio, tend to use the same tools: hiking backpacks and roll-aboard suitcases. But some bags also come in unusual shapes and sizes.

For Tales of a Sexual Tomboy, Joyful Raven uses a massage table  its much quicker to move a bed onstage and off when you can fold it in half and zip it into a bag that slings over your shoulder. For A Cabaret: Maiden, Mermaid, Crone, an assistant to performer Olivia Hallie Lehrman carried what looked like a trampoline on his back. (It turned out to be a tablecloth that turned into a giant hoop skirt.)

Lehrmans show required the venues most complex setup for the day, including the fetching and climbing of a ladder, in order to hang a golden curtain from the ceiling. When asked if she had rehearsed her load-in in advance, to ensure it was as efficient as possible, Lerhman replied, Even if we had, wed probably be making it up.

Her show (which was a late entry into this years Fringe) shares that extemporaneous quality. Her first line was addressed not to the audience but to the sound booth: Is that track No. 1?

Such serendipity (coupled with goodwill from the audience) has long distinguished the Fringe, which this year marks its 25th anniversary. As an audience member, you dont know what youre going to get, if its going to work as planned or if it even had a plan.

When you select a show at random (and that is the authentic way to make a Fringe selection), you might sit through 55 painful minutes of unrehearsed or self-absorbed doggerel; you might also discover the next Mark Jackson or Rob Melrose (both of whom attribute their starts partly to Fringes past).

Its glamorous. Its so glamorous, Lorraine Olsen joked to early arrivals to Lorraine Olsen Is Figuratively Speaking, as, with collaborator Val Hendrickson, she lugged onstage, from a hitherto sealed closet, a chaise longue, one of the larger set pieces in the days bill.

If pre-show and post-show Olsen must schlep furniture, her piece itself actually is glamorous, joking aside. Lorraine Olsen Is Figuratively Speaking chronicles Olsens career as a professional art model, often in the nude; she describes the show as theater piece and drawing session, with sketchbooks and pencils handed out to the audience before the lights go down.

Fun as it is to sketch (and to flip through previous audience members renderings of Olsen in the sketchbooks early pages), the shows strongest attribute is the thoughtfulness with which Olsen retraces her path. One of the things Ive come to know and learned to believe, she shares, is that Im beautiful because of what I do.

That sort of introspection shared intimately is what keeps Robert Weston, 66, of San Francisco coming back each year. A frequent Fringer since 2005, he cautions, I cant say that all the shows are great. There are some shows I wish I hadnt seen. Still, a lot of it is very personal, revealing at a level I cant ever imagine seeing at a mainstream theater.

Its certainly tough to picture Ravens Tales of a Sexual Tomboy on a mainstream stage. The show opens with an abortion joke, proceeds through tales of early childhood sexuality, and before its even hit the halfway mark, embarks on a meditative passage about the relationship between adult sexuality and overall identity  a passage Raven delivers on all fours, punctuated by thrusts from the rear.

It might not be meant for ACT or Berkeley Rep, but its one of the funniest shows now on display on Bay Area stages  which isnt too shabby for a piece that takes 15 minutes to set up.

Lily Janiak is The San Francisco Chronicles theater critic. Email: ljaniak@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LilyJaniak

25th Annual San Francisco Fringe Festival: Through Sept. 24. $12-$14.99. Exit Theatre, 156 Eddy St.; S.F. PianoFight, 144 Taylor St., S.F. www.sffringe.org

To see a video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tluJrG0yUCw&app=desktop
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SACRAMENTO  Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill Monday that will give farmworkers in California overtime after an eight-hour day, a move advocates say will right a decades-old injustice.

The bill, AB1066 by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, will give the people who work in Californias farm fields the same overtime rights that other workers were granted under federal law during the Great Depression. Gonzalez called it a historic day that was long overdue.

These workers are doing backbreaking work so that we can eat, Gonzalez said. The fact is, they are not treated fairly under the law and thats wrong. This is a 78-year-old wrong, and there is nothing better than fixing that.

The agriculture industry, business groups and Republican lawmakers said the bill will hurt farmers, who are already facing rising payrolls through the states minimum wage increase and are suffering the economic effects of years of drought.

Under current law, farmworkers receive time-and-a-half pay only after a 10-hour shift or 60-hour workweek. AB1066 will gradually move that threshold down.

Beginning in 2019, farmworkers will receive time and a half after 9 hours in a day or 55 hours in a week. The daily threshold will decrease by a half hour each year until 2022, when farmworkers will receive overtime for working more than eight hours in a day or 40 hours in a week.

Smaller farms will have more time to comply with the law, with the first phase-in beginning in 2022. The eight-hour threshold for such farms will come in 2025.

Brown signed the bill without comment. The legislation was sponsored by the United Farm Workers union.

Under the bill, the governor can temporarily suspend the phase-in of overtime if the scheduled minimum-wage increase is also suspended amid an economic downturn. After 2025, however, the governor will no longer be able freeze the overtime requirement.

Farmworkers were excluded from wage protections and hour standards in the federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Gonzalezs proposal nearly died when the Assembly killed a similar bill of hers in June, but she revived the plan as AB1066, and the Senate and Assembly narrowly passed it before adjourning Aug. 31.

Brown had not indicated in advance whether he would sign the bill, but advocates were confident of his support.

Gov. Brown has a long history of understanding the plight of farmworkers and what goes on in the field, said Jim Araby, executive director of the United Food and Commercial Workers Western States Council, which represents 2,500 agriculture workers in the state. He understands despite the heavy lobbying from the agriculture industry, that this would not be a big loss for them. Its a $54 billion industry in California that is doing well.

Opponents of the bill said the added cost would hurt farmers and lead to decreased hours for workers. Critics said that to deal with the mandate, farmers will hire workers in shorter shifts, which will mean less money for workers.

Its the piling-on effect that is just killing business and industry in this state, said Tom Scott, state executive director for the National Federation of Independent Businesses, which represents 22,000 small businesses in California, including farmers. Whether its medical leave, sick leave, paid leave, minimum wage, overtime, all of the regulations that the small-business owner has to deal with to comply in California, its the piling-on effect that strangles businesses. All in the a name of executing a political agenda.

Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez
If you rent a unit via Airbnb or Homeaway/VRBO in Noe Valley without following the rules, beware.

Somebody appears to informing on illegal short-term rentals specifically within the boundaries of the affluent neighborhood known for its high stroller quotient.

An investigation by the real estate website Socketsite found that more than 400 complaints about illegal rental activity have been made across San Francisco since the beginning of the year.

Over the last week, 31 complaints were filed. Defying statistical probability, 90 percent of those 31 referred to properties within the boundaries of Noe Valley.

One reason someone might feel compelled to inform on Airbnb scofflaw landlords could be to reduce the competition. Or perhaps the person simply thinks unregistered short-term rentals are not good for the neighborhood.

More for you Airbnb acts to stamp out bias on vacation-rental platform

In June, San Francisco supervisors approved the Short-Term Residential Rentals and Hosting Platforms amendment. It requires that all hosting platforms, such as Airbnb, Homeaway/VRBO and FlipKey, verify that every unit offered for rent in San Francisco has been registered with the city prior to its listing. Fines for violations could theoretically reach million of dollars per day.

The law does not apply to listings on Craigslist and other sites that do not act as intermediaries.

Last month, the San Francisco Examiner reported that 28 percent of all complaints about tech buses in San Francisco came from one person, a retiree with a lot of time on his hands and a fierce dislike of shuttles for companies like Yahoo, Google and Netflix.

The cluster of complaints in Noe Valley suggests another serial complainer, albeit one with a different target, might be operating in the neighborhood.
As the format at New York Fashion Week continues to evolve this season, with more buy-it-now options at Banana Republic, the rise of in-season showing via Tom Ford, Burberry and others, fewer runway shows and more mobile-friendly presentations, one must not let the clothes get lost in the commotion. No amount of innovation in presentation can make up for a bad collection, whether its seen in person or on social media (snaps to Misha Nonoo for Snapchatting her collection earlier this fashion week).

Shayne Olivers cult favorite brand Hood By Air accomplished a fashion week first by having the show sponsored by adult video platform Pornhub. Porno chic was everywhere in the collection subtitled Wench, which is also the title of an upcoming album Oliver is working on with producer Arca. Bare breasts were plentiful and models watched XXX flicks on their phones as they walked the runway to the gasping, orgasm-meets-techno soundtrack that included a spooky cover of the Divinyls I Touch Myself. The clothes were Olivers signature deconstructed One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest asylum aesthetic, with puns on suiting (shirts and ties hanging from the models but not quite worn, undone tailoring barely holding itself together), double-sided cowboy boots (pointed front and back) and porno logo pieces namedropping Hustler, Pornhub and even a shirt with Never trust a church girl written across the back and a zippered dress that asked Do you know where your children are? In keeping with the theme, Jaden Smith and girlfriend Sarah Snyder put on a show of PDA in the front row while Naomi Campbell and Whoopi Goldberg abstained from public displays of affection.
ISTANBUL  Turkish authorities are accusing Kurdish militants of detonating a car bomb that wounded 50 people in front of the ruling partys municipal headquarters Monday in the eastern city of Van.

Van Gov. Ibrahim Tasyapan told the state-run Anadolu news agency that 46 civilians and four police officers were wounded in the attack at a police checkpoint outside the party offices. Tasyapan said two of the wounded were in serious condition.

An earlier statement by the governors office alleged the bombers were affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.

Hundreds of people have been killed and injured in Turkey in recent months in attacks the government says were carried out by Kurdish militants or the Islamic State group.

The governors office said security forces are working to apprehend the perpetrators of the car bombing.

The attack came a day after Ankara replaced 28 elected mayors with appointees, mostly in the Kurdish dominated east of the country. Turkeys pro-Kurdish party, the countrys main opposition party and the United States all have criticized the move.

Zahir Soganda, chairman of the ruling partys Van office, told the Anadolu agency he was aware that threats of such an attack had been made after the mayors were replaced.

The explosion occurred Monday around 10:50 a.m. local time on the first day of Eid al-Adha, an Islamic holiday. Governor Tasyapan said more people could have been hurt had nearby businesses not been closed.

Development Minister Lutfi Elvan condemned the attack, saying the car bombers had disrespected Islams most important holiday.

Of course the necessary response is being given to these traitors and will continue being given, Anadolu quoted Elvan as saying. Our nation and our state are strong. ... We are easily overcoming them and, God willing, we will root out this divisive terrorist organization as well as Daesh.

Daesh is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
TOKYO  North Korea is mobilizing to deal with a disastrous flood that killed more than 130 people, destroyed tens of thousands of homes and crippled infrastructure in its northernmost province.

Brigades of soldiers from around the country have been enlisted to help victims of the flooding, which began Aug. 29 and was caused by Typhoon Lionrock.

According to a U.N. report issued by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the floods displaced tens of thousands of people and destroyed homes, buildings and critical infrastructure. North Korean media said it was the worst single case of downpours and high winds since 1945, though that claim could not be verified.

Associated Press

The report said the government has confirmed 133 people were killed and another 395 are missing. It said more than 35,500 houses, schools and public buildings were damaged, with about 70 percent completely destroyed. It reported widespread inundation of farmland and at least 140,000 people in urgent need of assistance.

The hardest-hit areas, parts of which remain inaccessible, are Musan and Yonsa counties near the Chinese border.

North Koreas state media reported Sunday that high winds and heavy rainfall swept over several cities and counties, causing buildings to collapse and leaving railways, roads, parts of the electric power system, factories and farmlands destroyed or submerged. It said a mass recovery effort has been launched.

On Monday, North Korea reported construction units were arriving in the flood-hit areas from all over the country, including the capital, Pyongyang.

The countrys manpower and material and technical potentials are now concentrated on the flood damage rehabilitation, the Korean Central News Agency said. It said the ruling party has urged citizens to achieve the miraculous victory of converting misfortune into favorable conditions ... with the tremendous might of single-minded unity!

The North Korean media also said the focus of a 200-day loyalty campaign already under way to mobilize the nation behind leader Kim Jong Un in a mandatory show of devotion has been changed to a call for all citizens to support the recovery effort.

The U.N. agency said humanitarian agencies have released relief materials from their stockpiles inside North Korea, including food, shelter and kitchen kits, water purification and sanitation supplies and emergency health supplies.

The U.N. report said the government is urgently working to reopen roads, distributing relief goods and preparing to rebuild 20,000 houses by early October, before the onset of North Koreas bitterly cold winter.
MANILA  Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday he wants U.S. forces out of his countrys south and blamed America for inflaming Muslim insurgencies in the region, in his first public statement opposing the presence of American troops.

Duterte has had an uneasy relationship with the U.S. since becoming president in June and has been openly critical of American security policies. As a candidate, he declared he would chart a foreign policy that would not depend on America, a treaty ally.
BEIJING  The Chinese and Russian navies opened eight days of war games in the South China Sea on Monday, in a sign of growing cooperation between their armed forces against the backdrop of regional territorial disputes.

The Joint Sea-2016 maneuvers include ships, submarines, shipborne helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, along with marines and amphibious armored vehicles that will conduct live-firing exercises, according to a Defense Ministry statement.

Tasks will include defensive and rescue drills, antisubmarine exercises and the simulated seizure of an enemy island by marines from both sides.

The exercise is part of an annual program that aims to consolidate and advance the Sino-Russian comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, and deepen friendly and practical cooperation between the two militaries, Chinese navy spokesman Liang Yang was quoted as saying.

It will also improve coordination between the two navies on joint defense operations at sea, Liang said.

Chinas South Sea Fleet will make up the bulk of the forces, along with some elements from the North and East Sea fleets, Liang said.

The ministry didnt say exactly where the drills would be held in the South China Sea, the site of heated territorial disputes between China and its Southeast Asian neighbors. However, the official Xinhua News Agency said the Russian ships arrived early Monday in the Guangdong province port of Zhanjiang and the exercises would be held off the Guangdong coast, apparently in waters that are not in dispute.

Joint Chinese-Russian drills have become increasingly common in recent years  this weeks exercises are the fifth between the two navies since 2012  with the countries joined in their mutual suspicion of the U.S. and its allies.

Russia has been the only major country to speak out on Chinas behalf in its demand that the U.S. and other countries stay out of such arguments. That came as an arbitration panel in The Hague, Netherlands, issued a ruling invalidating Chinas claims to virtually the entire South China Sea, a result that Beijing angrily rejected as null and void.

Following the ruling, China vowed to continue developing man-made islands in the disputed Spratly island group and said it would conduct regular aerial patrols over the strategically vital sea through which passes an estimated $5 trillion in trade each year.

While China says the drills do not envision specific enemies or target any third parties, their location in the South China Sea has drawn criticism.

During a visit to China last month, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Adm. Scott Swift, said there are other places those exercises could have been conducted. He described them as part of a series of actions that are not increasing the stability within the region.

Xinhua rejected such sentiments in a commentary Monday, saying those viewing the exercises as threatening were either ill-informed ... or misled by their prejudice about China and Russia.
Fat Prophets Hot Stock  Evolution Mining (EVN.ASX)

A golden opportunity

Whats new?

Evolution Mining announced on the 24 August 2016 that it was raising up to A$401 million by way of an accelerated renounceable rights issue offer to its shareholders. The funds raised from the offer will be used to part fund the acquisition of an economic interest in the Ernest Henry copper gold mine in Queensland for A$880 million.

The entitlement issue is fully underwritten, so the company will receive the full funds required to complete the Ernest Henry acquisition. Settlement of the new shares will occur on 23 September 2016.

The shareholder entitlement offer is an accelerated renounceable entitlement offer to invest in new shares. The ratio is two (2) new shares for every 15 shares already held. The issue price has been set at A$2.05 per new share. The eligibility date to participate in the entitlement offer was 29 August 2016, with normal trading for the new shares west to resume on 27 September 2016.

Encouragingly for retail investor, the institutional component of the entitlement offer was accelerated, with settlement having occurred on 29 August 2016. The company has since advised that A$311 million was raised through institutions, with this making up the bulk of the $401 million target. Furthermore, the institutional entitlement was priced at A$2.22, compared to the retail entitlement price of A$2.05.

Outlook

In combination with the A$401 million expected to be raised from the entitlement offer, Evolution Mining will use a A$500 million debt facility to fund the balance of the A$880 million purchase of an economic interest in the Ernst Henry copper gold mine in Queensland.

The acquisition is expected to secure 100% of the gold produced by the Ernest Henry mine over the life of the mine and 30% of the copper produced. Over the estimated 11-year life of the Ernst Henry mine, the company will be required to contribute 30% of the future operating costs of the mine.

We consider the purchase price of A$880 million for Ernest Henry to be fair, given that Glencore as the seller is not a mainstream gold producer. We also see the potential of the Ernest Henry mine in the hands of Evolution, as a focussed gold producer as a major positive going forward.

The Ernst Henry mine region, we believe, hosts an ongoing potential to improve the value of the acquisition beyond the current life-of-mine of eleven years. Having delivered a record FY16 result, Evolution Mining is guiding to FY17 gold production in the range of 800,000 to 860,000 ounces, with AIC of A$900 to A$960 an ounce.

Price

Evolution Mining is currently trading at around 12 times the earnings estimate for FY17 with a prospective dividend yield of 1.5 percent. These metric are, in our view, complementary to Evolution Minings technical set up, which remains in favour of the bulls, as backed by the bullish moving average crossover in place since early 2015 (50-day moving average crosses above the 200-day moving average).

Worth buying?

We hold firmly to the belief that Evolution Mining is well placed to navigate through the turbulent gold price environment of the recent past. During that time, the company has made astute acquisitions that have positively impacted on its operations and shareholder value. In conjunction with acquiring new assets, the company has been able to extract further shareholder value from its existing asset base, through increased production and containing costs.

David Lennox is a senior analyst at investment research and funds management house Fat Prophets. To receive a recent Fat Prophets Report, CLICK HERE

Disclosure: Evolution Mining is held within the Fat Prophets Concentrated Australian Share, Mining & Resources and Small & Mid Cap portfolios.

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BENGALURU: Samsung ended up recalling their sold Galaxy Note 7 phones after numerous reports of its battery exploding surfaced. The most recent incident was that a mans jeep was set on fire after his Samsung phone exploded. The company apparently got trolled on the internet. That was until Apples iPhone 7 launch, which lacked innovative offerings to disappoint many users.

Both iPhone 7 and 7 Plus would be available in India from October 7. Although official announcements has not been made regarding the pricing as of yet, it is speculated to be starting from INR 60,000. A couple of modifications that annoyed users was the phones getting away with earphone jack and dimension change in the charging slot making it impossible to use old version chargers to charge the iPhone 7.

OnePlus, an emerging Android smartphone maker from China tweeted: You have headphones. The #OnePlus3 has a headphone jack. Its not rocket science ;). The wireless headphones which Apple brands as Apple AirPods can last up to 5 hours after a charge. The chips in AirPods can detect speech, activate Siri and automatically pauses when taken out of the ear. A 15 minute charge would guarantee three hours of performance, as per the official website. But it appears what people really wanted was wireless charging capability for the iPhone 7.

However, to listen to songs whilst charging would require a $49 lightning dock accessory as it features an integrated headphone jack. Mobile accessory specialist Belkin has unveiled AN alternative  the Lightning Audio + Charge RockStar adaptor whose availability in India is as of now pretty doubtful.

The iPhone 7 Plus has a dual camera at the rear meant to capture better imagery(2X optical zoom and 10X digital zoom) and new stereo speaker system which as Apple boasts is two times louder than iPhone 6S. The camera set up of both the phones is 12MP and 7MP HD capability with optical image stabilization and flash. And both the offerings also come at black and jet black colors (is Apple adopting a Blackberry strategy?). Being powered by a quad-core A10 Fusion processor embedded with two high-efficiency high-power cores each. Apple claims the battery will have at least two hours life more than the earlier versions. It is also important to note that there are no 16 and 64 GB variants of the iPhone 7 that leaves buyers with 32GB, 128GB and 256GB variants. A fingerprint sensor has also been built into the home button. The launch also saw the introduction of Apple Series 2 Watches.

It would also appear that the only significant difference between the 7 and 7 Plus model is the presence of dual camera in the latter model while there isnt even additional RAM allocation to the 7 Plus to cater to the needs of a dual real camera. It looks like Apple is in a serious lack of innovation as opposed to the Steve Jobs era. We ask: What is New in Apples latest iPhone Offering?!?

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MUMBAI: Tata Power International, the wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Power, and ICICI Venture on Friday announced the launch of a platform to facilitate investment in power projects.



The platform has investment commitments from Canadian pension fund Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ), Kuwait Investment Authority, and Omans State General Reserve Fund.



The platform will raise an initial capital of $850 million from sponsors and partner investors either directly or through their affiliates. The platform will target acquisition of controlling stakes in powergenerating companies.



This platform is one such step for assets that would be a win-win for all stakeholders, as it would be value-accreting, considering the assets would be near-completion or already operating, said Anil Sardana, chief executive officer and managing director, Tata Power.



According to Mohit Batra, executive director, ICICI Venture, the platform combines the complementary skills of the sponsors and investors. Insightful understanding of the lndian infrastructure ecosystem supported by discerning long-term global capital would provide a framework for investments with an optimum risk-return profile and also act as a catalyst for revitalisation and growth of the Indian power sector.

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BEIJING: A top provincial official of China's ruling Communist Party is facing corruption probe, becoming the latest bigwig to fall in President Xi Jinping's anti-graft drive as he continues to consolidate his hold with new appointments ahead of a key party meet.



Huang Xingguo, mayor of north China's Tianjin city where 162 people were killed and thousands displaced in a mysterious giant explosion last year, faced anti-corruption probe by the party.



Huang, 62, is being investigated for suspected "serious disciplinary violations," state-run Xinhua News agency quoted the Communist Partyof China(CPC), Discipline Inspection as saying today.



Huang, is also the acting Party chief of the port city, located close to Beijing and carries lot of political weight for city's proximity to the capital and as the economic hub.



He was made mayor of Tianjin in 2007 and took on the additional role of acting party secretary in 2014 but he had not yet been permanently appointed - an unusually long time in provincial politics, Hong Kong based South China Morning Post reported.



The anti-graft probe was announced 13 months after a deadly warehouse blast in Tianjin for which Huang previously said he bore "inexcusable" responsibility.



Huang is among thousands of "tigers and flies" who faced investigations for corruption in Xi's massive anti-graft drive in the last three years amid allegations that it is also being effectively used to purge the party and military of elements hostile to him as he is emerged as the most powerful leader, heading the party, the government and the military.



Before facing the probe, Huang was regarded as a contender for the party's powerful 25-member Politburo, possibly joining the decision-making body at next year's 19th party congress.



The Congress is held every five years.



The 18th Congress which was held towards the end of 2012 elected Xi as General Secretary and he is expected to continue till 2022.



Ahead of the plenum of the party which was expected to take place next month Xi, 63, has reshuffled the party heads of the various provinces placing his loyalists in key positions.



Speculation is rife that the plenum of the party will discuss change of key rule of collective leadership adopted by the party in 1980 and might be amended to further strengthenXi's leadership, giving him the iconic status enjoyed by party founder Mao Zedong and reformist leader Deng Xiaoping to continue for longer term.

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BENGALURU: The two south Indian neighboring states are tussling over the water issue of Cauvery River. The protests broke out in Karnataka after Supreme Court ordered the state government to release 15000 cusecs of water in the next 10 days. This decision was taken by the court to save samba crops in Tamil Nadu spread over 40k acres. After the SC court order, various farmers and samitis in Karnataka call for the state wide bandh.

The Cauvery water dispute started way back in 1924 after an agreement between Mysore and Tamil Nadu (than Madras Presidency) to build a dam in Kannambadi Village , Mandya District, Karnataka with a capacity of 44.8tmc ft. That agreement was valid for only 50 years, but after Independence both states declined to follow it and filed a case in the Supreme Court.

The Cauvery fact-finding committee was built in the 1970s to measure requirement of water in both the states. The Committee found that Tamil Nadu has more irrigation area then Karnataka therefore water was distributed on those grounds. Although both states need Cauvery water for drinking and irrigation purposes but government allotted 419tmc ft of water to Tamil Nadu and 270tmc ft to Karnataka.

The Karnataka state declined this proposal and filed a case in Supreme Court for the increase in demand for more water. The current agitation is because of less rainfall this year, Tamil Nadu government filed an application in Supreme Court to release 50.52tmc ft of water to save 4,000 acres of samba crops. Karnataka explained that there is only 80tmc ft of water in the reservoir and state will utilize it for drinking purposes.

The SC reviewed the application of Tamil Nadu and found that the state suffered water deficit in last couple of months that was not sufficient for the crop irrigation. Therefore, on 5th September court gave an order of water release but farmers of Karnataka started protesting against SC order. Karnataka wants to increase its water share to three times, which means Tamil Nadu portion will be reduced. Therefore, the Pro-Kannada outfits call for a bandh with the support of farmers and other local bodies.

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Traveling away from home has become a socially acceptable norm of students that have just finished school. But it has also become an extremely stressful period for both the students and their families.

The reason why this is true is because, without a way for the families to connect, people begin to stress. The biggest problem is knowing whether or not your child is saved or has enough money. For the students, it can also become very stressful as not being able to have the safety net of being able to phone home is one of the many worrying thoughts.

So how can you ensure that when traveling you can make sure your parents, family and loved ones back in India?

Well, to be honest, there are 3 main methods on how you can phone home.

1. Use a Phone Card

Using a phone card is not as bad as it sounds, as it is a reliable way for to contact people when your cellular devices have died or you are in a remote town with very little to no coverage.

All you have to do is find a phone booth, insert your phone card and dial your number and you are ready to talk and make the call home to India.

The only downside is that you will need to have a phone card, which actually isnt a massive problem to find, there are lots of companies that sell phone cards, like NobelCom.

The other thing about phone cards is that they work on a credit based system, so you can either buy a prepaid phone card while you travel, which could be hard to find. Or you can open an account with a company that offers that service.

2. Utilize an internet calling app.

An internet calling application is likely your best bet of contacting home. The reason why Is due to its ability to be able to make calls off any internet connections and not use normal cellular airtime.

This basically means that you can make calls to your loved ones in India, without having to pay extremely expensive rates, no matter where you currently are as long as you have a solid internet connection.

Another nice feature is the ability to be able to make both voice calls and video calls.

All you have to do is make sure you are connected to the internet, open the app, select the contact you want and connect!

Check out apps like Skype, WhatsApp Messenger and the NobelApp for ways to utilize internet calling.

3. Normal Cellular calling

This is the most expensive method as it uses your phone's airtime to make calls on another operators network. This can be a problem as you will have to have international roaming as an option on your sim package and any calls you make will be billed at the rate of the operator that you are currently connected to.

So those are the best ways you can call India when you travel.
BENGALURU: The U.S. is likely to give its nod to Indias request for state-of-the art Guardian drones for maritime surveillance, especially in the Indian Ocean. The move reaffirms the fact that India is seen as a big defense market for the US, after India was designated a major defense partner of the US in June.

The Indian Navy had sent an official letter of request (LoR) to the US Department of Defense for purchasing 22 unarmed high-tech Predator Guardian drones for maritime surveillance in the Indian Ocean. This is the first major request for arms by India after Washington designated New Delhi as a major Strategic Defense partner. The US government has not made a formal decision on it yet, but is believed to have given the nod.

Recently, India was designated a 'major defense partner' of the US, and this could have played a crucial role in the decision, reports TOI. Even though the US government is yet to make a formal declaration, it is believed that they have initiated the process regarding the sale of Guardian drones.

According to sources, the administration believes that a deal of such proportions would help in strengthening India US defense relationship, thus bringing a new level of comfort between the two militaries.

Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar and US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter have been in touch on the sale of predator Guardian UAV to take care of Indias maritime surveillance requirements. This process could well be done and dusted before Obama vacates his office in January 2017.

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NEW DELHI: Leaders from business, government and academia will deliberate on ways to enhance bilateral trade and investments between India and the US during a two-day summit here.

Starting from September 14, the Indo-US Economic Summit "will deliberate on augmenting the existing two-way trade to USD 500 billion and will focus on sectors that foster growth," Indo-American Chamber of Commerce said in a statement.

The chambers North India council is hosting the function.

It will be will be inaugurated by US Ambassador to India Richard Verma and will be addressed by Union Ministers, including Information & Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naiduand Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal along with global CEOs and top executives.

The summit will bring together more than 250 people, who are thought leaders from business, government, civil society and academia.

"As the Indian economy further globalises and expands, the Summit will provide a valuable opportunity to assess developments across India-US trade relationship, economy and society," Lalit Bhasin, Summit Chair and Regional President, IACC-NIC said.

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BENGALURU: With GST already having become a law, Karnataka Cabinet on Saturday decided to call off the special session of the legislature to be convened on September 14 to ratify the Goods and Services Tax Constitution Amendment Bill.

"Since the amendment has been approved by the President of India and has become law of the land, there is no necessity for the state legislative assembly to ratify the GST bill," Karnataka Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T B Jaya chandra told reporters after the cabinet meeting.

"The cabinet has decided to convey the message to Karnataka Governor (Vajubhai Vala) the needlessness of the convening the special session," he said.

The biggest tax reform was needed to be ratified by at least 15 state legislatures before the President could notify the GST Council which will decide the new tax rate and other issues.

"Since the ratification of GST by 17 state legislatures in the country has met the condition of the President to notify the GST Council to decide the new tax rate and sundry other issues, I reiterate that there is no necessity for us to ratify the bill in our assembly," Jaya chandra said.

The Congress government had decided to convene a special session of the legislature on September 14 to ratify the GST Constitution Amendment Bill.

Parliament earlier this month had passed the long pending bill to amend the Constitution that would facilitate roll-out of GST.

A Constitution amendment bill needs to be ratified by the legislative Assemblies of at least 50 per cent of the states.

The President gave his assent to the Bill on September 8 after as many as 19 States ratified it.

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U.S. Lawmakers To Visit India To Strengthen Indo-U.S. Ties:USIBC
HOUSTON: Four prominent Indian Americans and three Americans have been awarded by a Houston based chamber of commerce for their outstanding and tireless work as entrepreneurs and for "building bridges" betweenIndiaand America.



The awards were given by Indo-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston (IACCGH) at a gala event here.



The "Young Professional of the Year"was presented to Malisha Patel, 36, who is the Chief Operating Officer of Memorail Hermann Hospital Sugarland.



Woman entrepreneur award was presented to Revati Puranik, CFO, Worldwide Oilfield Machine, a company that specialises in manufacturing oil and gas equipment.



Bhavesh (Bob) Patel, CEOLyondellBasellwas awarded Business leader of the year, while entrepreneur of the year was given to Abezaar S Tayabji, founder and CEO Shipcom Wireless.



Lifetime Achievement awards were presented to three Americans- Marvin Odum, former ShellUsaPresident, Richard Huebner, former president Houston Minority Supplier Development and Dr John Mendelsohn, former President M D Anderson Cancer Center, for bridging barriers between Indiaand USA.



A gala event themed "Building Bridges" was attended by over 700 guests, comprising top business leaders, prominent community members, Counsil General of IndiaDr Anupam Ray, University of Houston Chancellor and President Dr Renu Khator.



Various elected officials likeCongresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Congressman Al Green and Pete Olson, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, Mayor of Houston Sylvester Turner, Council member Jack Christie, City of Houston Controller Chris Brown were also present.



The chief guest and keynote speaker was Bruce Culpepper, President, Shell USA.



Hilton Americas Executive Director Jagdip Ahluwalia said the Chamber has connected entrepreneurs, doctors, educators, technocrats in an informal setting to create lasting business relationships.



Consul General Dr Ray in speech said it is a good time to be a diplomat in the US and this is evident from the fact that a few days ago on the same day the US Secretary of State was inIndiaand the Indian Defense Minister was in Washington.



Both countries were talking about issues like defense, cybersecurity, increase in trade, he said.



"When you do business in Indiayou are essentially doing business with a country that is more like the US than many countries in the world", Ray said.



Houston Mayor Sylvestor Turner said the Indian presence in Houston makes it the most diverse city in America.



More than 700 companies in Houston do business with India.

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Clinton, Trump Battling For Ohio at Start of Final Campaign Stretch

Source: PTI
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- When you're looking to cruise in comfort, there's nothing like the feel of a '55 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible, according to Louis Sartini, who had his eye on the classic model since childhood.

"The '55 Chevy was actually the biggest-selling car of all time ... this was the biggest-selling convertible of all time," he said. "I always liked it from when I was a kid, before I even drove."

Fast-forward to 1975 when the Richmond resident eventually found a junked model and began bringing it back to life with whatever parts he could scrounge up. He wasn't looking for an exact replica of the classic ride like most collectors; instead, he wanted it to run solidly and without a fuss.

"I put in any parts I had at home ... made some parts," said Sartini, who paid $100 for the car. "It's a 1962 Chevy engine, two-barrel carburetor and runs about 175 to 180 horsepower."

Once Sartini got the car in good running shape a year later in 1976, it made a maiden voyage across the country to California.

Today, the maroon and white beauty looks as regal as ever. The interior is in good condition, the ride is smooth and the body shines. Sartini made some upgrades to the car, however, like disc brakes and a new radio, to name a few.

While the car isn't in perfect condition (there are noticeable scratches on the body), Sartini says it's perfect for going around town and even turns a few heads.

"It's not a show car, so I don't mind taking it out ... you don't have to worry too much about somebody coming by and scratching it or anything like that."

"A lot of people beep their horns or give a thumbs-up ... you get good stories from people and I enjoy talking to them."

The Bel Air convertible isn't the only car in Sartini's garage: It shares a space with not one, but two Corvette Stingrays he is currently restoring.

Watch the video above to see the Bel Air and hear about the classic car. Click the gallery below to see more photos.

For more classic cars, click here.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- If you want to know what a country looks like 15 years after a terrorist attack, you could look inside a certain kettle of boiling pre-fermented beer -- changing, restoring and improving with time.

This past weekend, Marine veteran Ray Sumner brewed a Georgia Peach Ale at Flagship Brewing Co. There, in Tompkinsville, he's doing his time as a 54-year-old intern, embarking on a third career in the beer industry.

It's the completion of a life's trajectory, which started when the Staten Island native saw the smoke and ashes rise out of lower Manhattan from St. George. Two years after the September 11 attacks, he got "the call that no Marine can resist."

"My general called and said 'Your country needs you,'" recalled Sumner, who was in the reserves at the time. The Marines were in desperate need of pilots like Sumner who had infantry training.

"Three weeks later I was on the ground in Iraq," the Huguenot resident said.

But in the middle of his second tour, a gunshot to the hip forced his retirement from the Marines, the end to an 18-year-long military career. Thrust into the civilian world, he struggled for years to find his next calling. Through brewing, he's pursuing the kind of passion that once compelled him to join the Marines in the first place.

And where the war was something he did for his country, his latest endeavor is different.

"I'm doing this one for me," he said.

REDISCOVERING RAY

When Sumner talks about his time in the military and how it ties into his new brewing career, his eyes take on a surreal coloring. Green on the outside, dark on the inside. The effect is one of widening pupils.

"Both the military and brewing were my dreams," the former captain said. "I miss the Marines, you always miss it -- the camaraderie. But you move on. You rediscover yourself."

Sumner didn't have much choice at first. In 2005, his platoon was clearing insurgents in Haditha, Iraq, when he was shot in the hip. The bullet severed an artery in his leg and landed him in a coma for 10 days.

His sergeant was among the nearly 50 killed and 450 wounded in his unit, which took on the most casualties of any other unit in the war. It took Sumner two years to learn how to walk again.

Knowing that he needed to go back to school if he was going to re-enter the workforce, Sumner earned his MBA from Vanderbilt University and went on to work for the defense contracting company Raytheon, teaching Afghans how to fly in the United Arab Emirates, then the Czech Republic.

On a whim, he drove up to Berlin and visited one of the most prestigious beer schools in the world, V.L.B. A homebrewer for nearly 30 years, the craft was his passion -- especially German beers. Going to the school would enable him to be a brewmaster. He realized it was time to start over, yet again.

He resigned from Raytheon and enrolled in the school, with the condition that he would have a 12-week unpaid internship at a brewery.

"It was a big change. But when you've been through something like that," he said of that day in Haditha, "then all the rest of your changes aren't going to be as hard."

FINDING HIS WAY HOME

Sumner applied to dozens of breweries. Few seemed to want a 54-year-old veteran, admittedly with no experience working in a brewery.

"I told them, 'I will do any job you don't want to do, I'll work seven days a week,'" he said. "But I don't bring anything to the table except for hard work."

It was his hometown brewery, Flagship Brewing Co., that offered him the internship.

"They took me in with hat in hand, and they took a chance on me. It's a testimony to their place in the community, and wanting to help the people here."

Flagship doesn't typically offer unpaid internships. But because Sumner was required to work in a brewery for course credit, and he was a Marine and Staten Islander, it seemed like a good fit, said Jay Sykes, Flagship's co-founder and COO.

"Taking him in was really mutually beneficial to us -- he picked up everything so quick," Sykes said. "But we did it because of who he was what he was trying to do."

A STRONG FINISH

Though his internship technically ended in August, Sumner's staying until he leaves for Berlin again in December. Here, he feels like he's in school again, every day -- a lot like being in the Marines, he said.

"I'm learning like I would be if I were 24, but I'm 54," he said. "Only now, if I make a mistake, they don't make me do pushups. We just talk about it over a beer."

This fall at Flagship, he's working on a sour Berliner Weisse, which he'll let age for as he returns to brew school in Berlin. He doesn't know what's next after he graduates, but he knows he'll come back to the brewery on 40 Minthorne St., to the staff and profession that helped him rediscover himself again.

"I'll come back after six months and open up that Berliner Weisse," he said. "And then we'll have a beer together."
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- State Assembly candidate Janine Materna filed a police report Sunday evening in the 123rd Precinct over a fake Facebook page that has been disparaging her online.

The page, which had been inactive since January, started up again on Aug. 21 with posts mischaracterizing her positions and showing her with prominent Democrats, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner, and a crudely photoshopped Hillary Clinton.

"Online physical threats and online bullying will not drive me out of the race," Materna said. "We have enough cyber bullying on Staten Island and we should be speaking out against it."

Materna is running for the Republican nomination for the 62nd State Assembly district seat against Assemblyman Ronald Castorina. The primary election is Tuesday.

Police are investigating the Facebook page as a case of aggravated harassment, according to the police report, but a spokesman for the NYPD did not have further details on the investigation.

"What I'm nervous about is that there are people physically threatening my life, and no one deserves that," Materna said.

One of the more well-shared posts on the page shows Materna's car parked in a handicapped parking spot with the caption, "To heck with the cripples and retards. I will park where I want!"

Materna admitted that it was her car, but clarified that the photo was taken in a private lot where her campaign headquarters is located, and that her campaign has sole usage rights to the lot.

"I would never call someone a retard, or a handicapped person a cripple," Materna said.

She added that the cause of the special needs community are very important to her because of an autistic cousin. She has a degree in special education, she said.

The page's pinned post -- meaning it will permanently appear at the top of the page -- shows a post from Materna's actual page that identifies the fake page as an "unofficial fan page."

Materna said she first discovered the page a few months ago and that she posted then that the page was not her.

She has since been blocked from posting on the page, and fears that people will take the posts seriously.

"This is totally misrepresenting me," Materna said. "I am not for affordable housing or homeless shelters in that district."

She said she hopes the page gets taken down and that voters see this as a form of harrassment.

"I've received a lot of support because of the page from people coming out against cyber bullying," Materna said.
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The ACT Greens have committed more than $50 million in an education package that will support teachers and fund school upgrades, signing up to the Australian Education Union's six-point public education pledge.

ACT Greens leader MLA Shane Rattenbury and fellow lead candidates Veronica Wensing, Indra Esguerra, Caroline Le Couteur and Michael Mazengarb, all signed the pledge at the AEU's Council meeting on Saturday.

"Putting the community first means ensuring we invest in our schools  both the infrastructure and our teachers"  ACT Greens leader MLA Shane Rattenbury. Credit:Jamila Toderas

Mr Rattenbury said nothing was more vital to the future of Canberra than its schools.

"Our plans for education are about putting the community first and giving our teachers and students the support they need," Mr Rattenbury said.
Canberra firefighters would stay in the ACT Emergency Service Agency's communications centre and receive a second Bronto under an ACT Liberal government, shadow emergency services minister Giulia Jones has announced.

The Libs unveiled plans to keep firefighters in the territory's triple zero call centre and invest in a second hydraulic platform truck through an $8.635 million package on Tuesday.

The ACT's fire service only has one Bronto aerial firefighting platform.

Both the move to replace firefighters with civilian call takers and ACT Fire and Rescue's resourcing have come under heavy fire by the United Firefighters Union in recent weeks.

"Canberra's firefighters are passionate about safety and they know what they need to enhance safety for people in emergency situations. Our firefighters have been calling for a second Bronto for many years and the Canberra Liberals will deliver one in government," Mrs Jones said in a statement.
Labor has promised to provide free vaccinations to every Canberra baby if re-elected, as it attempts to keep the focus of its early campaign on health.

The meningococcal B vaccinations would be made free for every baby under Labor's proposal, which has been costed at $12.3 million over four years.

Labor will give free meningococcal B vaccinations to every baby in Canberra if re-elected.

Meningococcal can kill up to one in 10 of those who contract the illness, according to federal Department of Health figures, while one in 30 survivors suffer severe skin scarring, loss of limbs or brain damage.

Meningococcal B and C infections are preventable through vaccination, and the C vaccine is free under the National Immunisation Program.
A Federal Government election pledge to move 175 public servants to Armidale in Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce's electorate could be abandoned when it faces internal Cabinet scrutiny.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce on Sunday told ABC TV he did not plan to release a $272,000 cost benefit analysis of the potential effects of the controversial decision to relocate the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority staff "at this stage".

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce does not plan to release the analysis.

The proposal has faced criticism given the potential costs of the move and a survey of about 100 authority staff showing many would not leave Canberra to stay with the agency if it was moved to Armidale.

In Question Time on Monday, Labor's agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon asked Treasurer Scott Morrison whether it was "government policy not to release a competing cost benefit analysis", and how much the document cost.
A slip of the tongue by Australian National University Vice Chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt suggested "interstellar" guests might soon be visiting the new centre at Mount Stromlo. The journey might be a long one, we'll probably know they're coming given the amount of work being done by the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics which is based there, but at least now they'll be able to get a decent cup of coffee.

The Southern X Cafe is part of the revamped Visitors Centre at Mount Stomlo. Credit:Jay Cronan

The opening of the new visitors' centre and cafe marks the completion of the renewal of the Mount Stromlo site which was decimated by the 2003 bushfires.

The redevelopment includes interactive astronomy exhibits, with a Skyzone space for children, and an accompanying app which features animations of some of the exhibits, virtual tours of telescopes and laboratories, and holograms of RSAA scientists.
The question though is how traders act after the unwinding of the various markets and the pricing in of the overnight moves. Specifically, I am keen to ascertain whether traders use this strength to sell into, or whether we see a genuine belief that markets can push higher here. Price action therefore from 10.30am AEST will dictate so much about market sentiment.

Traders will largely be keeping an eye on the China data dump at midday but I am not so sure this will rock sentiment too greatly, unless of course it's a disaster.

However, what we have seen of late is that boring is good and as long as China keeps off the front pages then we can look at other macro factors.

Today's price action holds many clues for both investors and traders on whether participants feel the recent spike in implied volatile is over or likely to raise its head again.

What happened yesterday

The Australian sharemarket suffered its worst day since the Brexit vote on Monday, with nearly $35 billion in value wiped off the board after global financial markets were hit hard by fears a September US rate rise is on the horizon. The benchmark S&P200 Index and the broader All Ordinaries Index each dropped 2.2 per cent to 5219.6 points and 5319.1 points respectively.

This column was produced in commercial partnership

between Fairfax Media and IG Markets
McIntyre was previously chief financial officer of PM&C from 2012. Before that, she was an assistant secretary in the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency; a consultant with the business management consultants Oakton and before that a manager with PWC. There is no clear track record of any long term expertise in women's policy, although insiders say she has displayed what one described as an "amateur" interest in gender issues and has operated internally as a gender champion within PM&C by organising events. Don't underestimate the importance of events for consciousness-raising and team-building but it's not women's policy.

Her new colleagues are highly praising, and a number described her as very strategically minded  and that's excellent. But surely out of all the choices available, someone with at least some experience in women's policy might have been a stronger choice. She leads a team of about 26  and there are still a few experts in there  but any team needs a leader with genuine expertise.

Similar comments could be made of some other recent appointments by the federal government in key women's advising jobs. In 2014, when long-serving director of WGEA Helen Conway announced her retirement, it took nearly a year to replace her. Her  acting  replacement Louise McSorley ran WGEA for about six months before the new director Libby Lyons was appointed. Lyons had previously tried to get Liberal Party preselection for the WA seat of Tangney and her track record doesn't scream women's policy either. Since Conway left, the agency has had a significant staff turnover, 13 resignations from a staff of 30. Conway provided generous notice of her retirement but still the government couldn't manage its recruitment processes in a timely fashion  and to some staff, that was a sign.

McSorley left WGEA to act briefly as head of Office for Women where she was on a temporary transfer from the Department of Employment. Larkins, the then acting deputy secretary social policy told the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Affairs in May last year that McSorley's contract, initially six months, had been extended. A few days later, Larkins wrote again, to say that the temporary transfer was not extended. McSorley is still in the public service.

And just poke your head into Senator Michaelia Cash's office. Cash of course is the Minister for Women in Malcolm Turnbull's Cabinet, and her brand new adviser on both employment AND women, Melanie Brown, also appears to have no experience at all in women's policy. Brown finished her undergraduate degree in 2013, according to her LinkedIn profile (which has been removed since I made some inquiries). Since then she spent a year at Barton Deakin, the political lobbying organisation home page of which says: "Barton Deakin is here to help business work more effectively with Liberal / National Governments and Oppositions across Australia and New Zealand." Then two years as adviser to Greg Hunt, the then Minister for the Environment.
It was a dodgy snap in another newspaper last week that showed up the stupidity and hypocrisy of those self-serving censorious media laws in the Senate.

The photo showed Senator Stephen Conroy standing over newbie Senator Hinch and seemingly lecturing him.

(He wasn't. Ironically, we were discussing Conroy's opposition to my campaign to relax Senate rules against still photographs in the upper house to bring them in line with camera guidelines in the lower house.)

The photo was "dodgy" because, at first glance, it appeared to be illegally shot, which would have automatically incurred the wrath of the usher of the Black Rod. She who must be obeyed. In the Senate, unlike the House of Representatives, photographers in the press gallery may only click the shutter when a senator is on his or her feet and addressing the Senate President; when they "have the call".
Australia's Jewish community has always understood that its fortunes will rise and fall with the fortunes of the nation.

And so, when Jews gather in their holy places, they pray for the welfare of this country in a tradition that originates in 594BC, when the Jews lived in exile in Babylon.

General Sir John Monash was a noted advocate of the co-ordinated use of infantry, aircraft, artillery and tanks.

"Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile," wrote the Prophet Jeremiah, " and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare."

These words, contained in a letter sent from Jerusalem to the leaders of the exiled community in Babylon, came at a time when the Jews faced a profound dilemma. Now also a people of the diaspora yet a distinct nation with enduring ties to their homeland, the Jews would need to reconcile their longing to return with their new reality of living as foreign subjects in distant lands.
Japanese activists hold the national flags on Uotsuri island, one of the islands of Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese. Credit:KYODO NEWS It also happened to come just four weeks after China's other land grab suffered a major political setback. Key elements of China's claim to 90 per cent of the South China Sea were ruled to have "no legal basis" by an international tribunal at The Hague. Former Chinese president Jiang Zemin at demonstration over Diaoyu/ Senkaku island between China and Japan. Almost as soon as that finding was delivered against Beijing, "China started ratcheting up the pressure again" on the dispute with Japan, even before last week's big round of regional summits, including the G-20 summit hosted by China itself, Medcalfe points out.

Xi met Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the G-20 last week. China's leader told Abe that they needed to make progress through dialogue on their dispute because "no progress means regression". Medcalfe continues: "And now that the G-20 is over, one assumes the Chinese will continue to ratchet up." But why? Why take the risk? It's part of the project that Xi calls "the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation". Medcalfe, speaking from Tokyo where he has been discussing the dispute with Japanese experts, explains: "They want to be able to isolate Japan as a maritime power. Ultimately, China doesn't want US allies to be able to support each other in a crisis." And Xi knows that, when he enters any clash with Japan, he is on a popular cause. A new piece of research by the respected US polling firm Pew explains why. Its title tells the story: "Hostile Neighbours: China v Japan." And the subtitle: "View each other as arrogant, violent; disagree on WW2 legacy."

The poll finds that 86 per cent of Japanese have a negative view of China. And the feeling is mutual. Eighty one per cent of Chinese hold a negative view of Japan. There has been a marked souring of sentiment in the last decade, according to Pew's polls over those years. The two peoples see a looming confrontation. Six in ten Chinese are concerned that their territorial dispute will lead to "military conflict" with Japan, according to Pew. The Japanese are even more troubled by the prospect - eight in 10 are concerned. A war would be disastrous for all; but with such underlying animosity dating back centuries, it could well prove popular in both countries. ANU's Medcalfe sees it as very unlikely: "The risk of an incident is real but manageable, partly because Japan has been very professional and disciplined in its management of the dispute, and while the Chinese are very busy they are no longer doing the extremely risky manoeuvres they were doing in the past."

If the worst were to happen, how would Australia react? Canberra has no settled doctrine on this. A lot would depend on which country was seen to be to blame, on who was seen to have "started it". Medcalfe says: "If Japan doesn't start it, it's hard to see the US not getting involved." Indeed, Barack Obama has stated unequivocally that the US military alliance with Japan would apply to a clash between Japan and China. "And if the US is involved, it's hard to imagine we wouldn't get involved, even if it's only supporting US operations through the use of the joint facilities, that is, Pine Gap." But would the Australian navy be taking aim at Chinese vessels? "Japan doesn't need us, although it does need the US," says Medcalfe. "But they would need and expect our moral support and unless they did something gratuitous and provocative I think they would get our clear diplomatic support."

In an effort to help condition Australian thinking about any such decision, a Sydney researcher has published a new paper that recalibrates Australia's economic partners. A former director of the Australia-Japan Economic Institute, Manuel Panagiotopoulos, has created a new index that looks at the quality, not just quantity, of Australia's economic relationships. He takes not only import and exports and investment stocks into account, but also geopolitical alignments because, he says, in times of crisis geopolitics trumps trade. He applies a "risk discount" to allow for the "misalignment" of strategic interests and finds that, applying a 12 per cent risk discount to China reorders Australia's strongest economic partnerships  it puts the US first, Japan second and China third. It's another pointer to the increasingly tense and contested matrix of Asian ambitions.
movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Premiere Movies (pay TV), 8.30pm

"This will begin to make things right," is the first line, spoken by Max Von Sydow no less, in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and it's difficult not to read it as both an apology and a promise by director and co-writer J.J. Abrams after the uninspiring and endless waste that was George Lucas' trilogy of prequels to his original mythmaking space opera. Abrams recaptures the interstellar derring-do, the confrontation of good and evil, and the rush of excitement that the original Star Wars imprinted onto successive generations. In fact, they've essentially remade the 1977 original, setting up a new generation alongside the greying remnants of the original cast, most notably Harrison Ford's Han Solo. Lucas' dreary digital world making has been replaced by sets, extras and even animatronics, and the film has a physicality that's matched by the committed performances of the new leads, particularly Daisy Ridley's compelling Rey. Craig Mathieson

Obama: Eight Years of Power

SBS, 8.35pm

As Barack Obama's historic presidency comes to a close, this comprehensive four-part documentary examines his time in office from inside the machine, with reflections from Obama and his advisers, as well as congressmen and women from both sides of the fence. An early clip in which Obama explains his message of hope shows the charismatic, almost Christ-like figure that injected the country with an optimism that was immediately tested by the Global Financial Crisis. How he and his staff navigated that and other key issues of climate change, health care, and the closure of Guantanamo Bay within the crucial first 100 days of his presidency reveals the frustrating reality of politics in comparison to an ambitious vision. Bridget McManus

Welcome to Leith, a chilling documentary about one man's reign of terror in a tiny North Dakota town. Credit:ABC

Welcome to Leith

ABC2, 9.10pm

This artfully filmed, chilling documentary about one man's reign of terror in a tiny North Dakota town, screened as part of ABC2's Pride Vs. Prejudice Week, could not come at a more poignant time for local audiences. As racist hate groups continue to rear their ugly heads across this country, it is sobering indeed to watch what can happen when the Second Amendment is thrown into the mix. Opening with eerie home video footage of two armed men patrolling the desolate streets of Leith, population 24, this film charts the impact that white supremacist Craig Cobb had on the community when he moved there in 2012 with plans to establish an Aryan headquarters. As it turned out, he picked the wrong town. Contrary to the stereotype of small-town Midwesterners, the residents of Leith are fair-minded, articulate and outraged that such a dangerous bigot has taken over their town. They resort to "packing" pistols at all times, taking their families with them when travelling for work, and protecting Leith's sole African American resident, who courageously refuses to budge. Extended interviews with Cobb and his sympathisers are difficult to digest, but offer a valuable insight into the warped ideology behind all acts of terrorism. Bridget McManus

pay The A-Word

BBC First, 9.30pm|

This British drama about a family trying to come to terms with a child's autism diagnosis quickly becomes compelling viewing, even if you're arriving to it late. The person seemingly least affected by the diagnosis is the child himself, five-year-old Joe (Max Vento), who continues happily wandering about, headphones glued to his ears, listening to old pop songs. And while mum Alison and dad Paul (Morven Christie and Lee Ingleby) might feel as though the world is suddenly standing still, it is in fact continuing to turn, with other characters and sub-plots keeping things from becoming an extended session of hand-wringing around the kitchen table. Tonight Alison finds Joe a brilliant therapist but has to confront the possibility that she might have bullied the woman while they were at school. Granddad Maurice (Christopher Eccleston)  who is conceivably somewhere on the spectrum himself  provides some poignantly humorous moments. Brad Newsome
A preliminary Auditor-General investigation into the Liberal Party's taxpayer funded use of the electorate software Feedback - operated by party-owned company Parakeelia - has concluded the arrangement doesn't breach any electoral or parliamentary rules.

In June, Fairfax Media revealed that Parakeelia - the company Liberal MPs direct taxpayer funds towards to monitor voter behaviour - has become a major source of income for the party, raising questions about whether taxpayers are indirectly donating to the Liberals.

Liberal Party federal director Tony Nutt gave his assurance the party would assist in any investigation into Parakeelia. Credit:Jessica Hromas

This prompted Labor frontbencher Brendan O'Connor to request that the Australian National Audit Office examine the use of taxpayer funds. But the ANAO has now decided not to probe the matter further after a preliminary review found no rules were broken.

In correspondence to Mr O'Connor dated September 9, Auditor-General Grant Hehir said the ANAO had conducted a "limited scope assurance review" which decided "no evidence was provided...that the arrangements contravene electoral and parliamentary entitlement frameworks".
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has raised the spectre of young people suiciding as a result of the Turnbull government's same-sex marriage plebiscite, in his strongest sign to date that Labor will block the bill.

Introducing a private member's bill for marriage equality to the lower house, Mr Shorten noted the higher suicide rate among sexually diverse Australians and said one suicide would be "one too many".

"Every piece of expert advice tells us young Australians who are gay are more likely to contemplate suicide and more likely to take their own lives," he said.

"The idea of young people, perhaps yet to come out, seeing the legitimacy of their identity debated on the national stage. That is not an ideal inflicted on any citizen when we have a better path.
The German term "amok laufer" or "someone who runs amok" describes a person who, following a long period of brooding, snaps and goes on a mass murder rampage.

After a 17-year-old Afghan refugee attacked several train passengers with a knife and axe in Wurzburg, Germany in July, the country's interior minister Thomas de Maiziere described the assault as "perhaps half-way between running amok and terror".

It's that vague half-way point that is the new challenge for authorities to identify in advance so they can stop such people before they attack. It may require a new algorithm for prioritising terrorism cases for monitoring.

Lindt Cafe gunman Man Haron Monis and Orlando gunman Omar Mateen were classic cases. When you added up all the worrying signs, the threat they posed seemed obvious in retrospect, yet they remained below the threshold on each individual metric.
Former Liberal Treasurer Peter Costello has delivered a passionate defence of the mining sector, saying it has been "treated shabbily" in Australia and questioning why learning about the industry is not part of the curriculum in Australian schools.

In a lecture to the Minerals Council of Australia in Melbourne, Mr Costello bemoaned that students learning about the mining industry would be more likely to learn of the sector's environmental impacts as opposed to its economic benefits.

Peter Costello says mining is not given the 'hero status' it deserves. Credit:Paul Jeffers

And Mr Costello took aim at Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's emphasis on "innovation", saying the preoccupation with creating the next Facebook or Uber ignored the enduring economic prowess and innovation witnessed in traditional industries like the mining sector.

The former treasurer said technology companies had consistently been overvalued and overhyped, culminating in the dot.com bubble bursting in the early 2000s, while so-called "old" sectors like mining and agriculture had continued to contribute to economic growth and exports.
He bills the public up to $435 a day in "travelling allowance" while away from home on official business. But could the minister responsible for the dole, Christian Porter, make just over half that amount stretch across an entire week?

Senior figures in the charity sector are calling on Mr Porter, the Social Services Minister, to experience what it's like to exist on $38 a day, the base level of the Newstart Allowance.

Tim Costello, chair of the Community Council of Australia, said Mr Porter should take the "Newstart challenge" of paying all his meals, travel costs and rent or housing-related costs on $260 a week.

Mr Costello, who used to oversee the 40-hour Famine challenge in his role as boss of World Vision, said it's only when something is experienced physically that real understanding occurs.
This is where we will leave you today, as we head to the Senate to cover the upcoming maiden speeches.

But first - what have we learnt?

The SSM marriage plebiscite dominated the sitting day - 'citizen panels' will help decide how the money allocated for the yes and no campaigns will be spent, Liberal Senator Dean Smith will cross the floor when it hits the upper house and Tim Wilson apologised to the Prime Minister over a party room 'misunderstanding'.

And the government and opposition did come to an agreement over the Coalition's omnibus savings bill - which Labor managed to announce first.

That's it for me - Stephanie Peatling, Andrew Meares and Alex Ellinghausen will be back with you Wednesday morning. Have a lovely evening and thank you for reading.
A south-west Sydney student charged over a terrorist stabbing tried to force his way into a suburban hair salon to continue his attack and then ran at police when they arrived to arrest him, new footage shows.

The footage of Saturday's attack at Minto shows grandfather Wayne Greenhalgh, 59, wounded and running for his life as his attacker chases him down Ohlfsen Road armed with a large knife.

The footage, obtained by A Current Affair, also shows how his brave neighbours intervened and fought his attacker, 22-year-old Ihsas Khan, who told them he was "prepared to die".

Mr Khan is also shown on the footage running, knife still in hand, at the first police patrol van that arrives at the scene.
A rule usually reserved for public health or safety emergencies was used to expedite a $1.6 million advertising campaign by the NSW government in support of its decision to ban greyhound racing amid an industry backlash.

The revelation is contained in documents tabled in the NSW Parliament that also reveal the manager of government communications feared the campaign would be received in a "propaganda style way".

The print, television and radio advertising blitz was launched amid furious debate about the Baird government's decision to close the industry from July 1 next year.

The decision followed the report of a special commission of inquiry that found up to 68,000 greyhounds were killed in the past 12 years "because they were considered too slow to pay their way or were unsuitable for racing".
Neighbours heard Rachelle Yeo, 31, scream for help in her North Curl Curl apartment but the man who would kill her said in a calm voice, "I've got it under control".

But former rugby player Paul Darren Mulvihill was seething with anger that his relationship with his former lover was over.

Paul Mulvihill is appealing his conviction and sentence. Credit:Edwina Pickles

He had stalked her at work, on Facebook and tracked down her new address where he waited for her to arrive home in July 2012.

Mulvihill, now 48, then broke into Ms Yeo's apartment and fatally stabbed her in the neck and the chest.
The businessman at the centre of the political furore over Senator Sam Dastyari wrote a cheque for $2000 to a Labor candidate at last year's state election who he has never met.

Kogarah MP Chris Minns says he has no idea how the businessman, Top Education Group chief Minshen Zhu, came to nominate his campaign on the cheque, written on March 17 last year.

The organiser of the Chinese Friends of Labor event for which donation was made, Labor MLC Ernest Wong, has previously said he has "no knowledge" of the donation.

But on Monday he said: "I suggest to members of the Chinese community that if they want to support Labor then they should do so in areas where there is a large number of Chinese people living there."
Sydney may be in the midst of one of its mildest starts to any spring but clouds are gathering over inland Australia in a big way.

On Monday the city clocked up its 10th day in a row above 20 degrees, and the Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting another seven at least.

If achieved, the 17 days would be the fourth-longest such stint for this time of year, Acacia Pepler, climatologist at the bureau, said. Tuesday may come close to breaking the series with a couple of millimetres of rain and a top of 20 degrees tipped.

Meteorologists and emergency services, though, are increasingly focused on the prospect of heavier falls and possible flooding in the coming weeks across large tracts of inland eastern Australia.
Brisbane has a 25-metre, clean inner-city beach with almost white sand as the Brisbane River reaches its cleanest point since the 2013 floods.

But an expert has warned the river's pristine condition could be short-lived.

Griffith University professor of water science and Australian Rivers Institute director Jon Olley said the Brisbane River is recuperating.

"We haven't had significant rain for a while now and whenever we don't have rain in the catchments, the river cleans up quite a bit," he said.
A Brisbane mother is reliving the trauma of seeing her newborn twins rushed to hospital after they were found unresponsive in the care of their nanny last week.

The twins, aged younger than three months, were unable to be woken by their mother late Monday night after she had taken a nap in-between feeds.

Both babies were rushed to hospital after they were found unresponsive by their mother. Credit:Michele Mossop

The pair were left in the care of a 41-year-old woman who has since been charged by police for operating without a Blue Card.

Ambulance crews rushed the twins to Lady Cilento Children's Hospital where they became responsive about 20 hours later.
Thankfully most small business owners only have to deal with the Australian taxation system. When a business manufactures in or provides services from Australia that are used overseas, the business is only subject to the Australian taxation system. When the goods are manufactured or the service is provided in an overseas country, the taxation rules of that country must be complied with.

Q. I am operating a small business as a sole trader and have just moved to Canada where I will be based for two years. Will I still be considered an Australian resident for tax purposes? My business provides consultancy and other services in different locations overseas, with the consultants coming from different countries.

Small businesses based overseas may still have to pay tax in Australia. Credit:David McNew

I understand that since I'm a sole trader I can't pay myself a wage as an employee for tax purposes. If the consultants I employ are of other nationalities, for example Serbian, do they need to pay tax to the Australian government? Would they need to pay tax to their own government or the country where the services are provided?

A. Whether you will be classed as an Australian resident for income tax purposes is dependent on a number of tests. The first test relates to the number of days that a person is absent from Australia. Under this test, when someone is overseas for more than 183 days they may be classed as a non-resident for Australian income tax purposes.
One of Australia's largest health insurers, Bupa, is examining thousands of rejected claims over the past five years and says it might have to compensate some people whose claims were rejected.

On Monday, the insurer said it was apologising to some of its customers for using an incorrect assessment process when reviewing cases involving pre-existing medical conditions.

Managing Director of Bupa Health Insurance Dr Dwayne Crombie

It said an internal review had identified that some customer claims between January 2011 to May 2016 had been rejected by assessors without review by a Bupa-appointed doctor. Medical review of pre-existing conditions is required in this process.

"Bupa now has a new team of doctors looking at all 7740 rejected PEC customer claims from the relevant period and is writing to all potentially affected customers to advise that their cases are being reviewed," the company's statement said.
Here's a bargain that's gone straight from the op shop to the cop shop.

A Ringwood second hand store got more than it bargained for when a gun was found in a donated box of shoes.

A gun has been donated to a St Vincent de Paul . Credit:John Shakespeare

Volunteers at the St Vincent de Paul shop in Ringwood made the surprising discovery last month after a member of the public contributed some second-hand goods.

The gun was found along with six live bullets.
A prisoner has been found dead in his cell at a maximum-security jail in Melbourne's west.

Guards at the privately run Port Phillip Prison found the 25-year-old inmate dead in his cell just before 8am on Monday.

Port Phillip Prison. Credit:Paul Jeffers

Ambulance officers were called to the prison, in Truganina, but were unable to revive the man.

Police also attended the scene and said the cause of death was not known but it was "not being treated as suspicious".
Towns in north-western Victoria have been put on high alert ahead of flash flooding, storms and damaging rain forecast for Monday night.

With heavy rainfall advancing across the state, the weather bureau has issued a severe weather warning for residents in the Mallee district, as well as parts of the Northern Country, Wimmera, North Central, Central and Southwest regions.

Up to 50 millimetres of rain is predicted in the 24 hours from midnight.

"It's quite a big fall," Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Michael Efron said.
Police have arrested a suspected car thief who allegedly tried to drive "over the top" of officers in Thornbury last month. The 27-year-old Thomastown man was apprehended in a vehicle on Red Box Street, in Coburg North, around 12.50pm on Monday. Police desperately try to smash the windows of the stolen Wodonga car after their vehicles were rammed. Credit:Blair Thomson He has been charged with more than 70 offences, including theft of a motor vehicle, possessing a firearm and assaulting police. The man is alleged to have rammed two police cars with a Holden Colorado after being corned in a dead-end street.

He allegedly almost ran over one detective, before smashing into a bystander's car a short time later as he made his escape. The 27-year-old will appear at Heidelberg Magistrates' Court on Tuesday. The charges come after a shocking spike in the number of police cars being rammed across Melbourne, with one senior sergeant saying he has "lost count" of the number of patrol cars that have been rammed over recent months. The latest incident involved a man ramming police vehicles in Wodonga, in Victoria's north, on Sunday after police shot at his stolen car. Superintendent Tim Hansen said people who endanger the lives of police and the wider community with dangerous driving can expect to be "thoroughly investigated".
"They cannot simply be explained away as a few bad apples spoiling the barrel," she said.

Ms Glass found that the overall system was not broken but identified problems in complex claims, which made up 20 per cent of claims.

Ombudsman Deborah Glass has released a report revealing the workers' compensation system has failed some "particularly vulnerable people".

Insurance agents working for WorkSafe have reaped rewards for unfairly denying payments to injured workers, Victoria's chief complaints investigator has found.

The report's release comes one day after Fairfax Media revealed insurance companies were using dirty tricks to avoid paying out entitlements.

The Ombudsman's investigation found agents had "unreasonably denied liability or terminated entitlements" for compensation claims.

Ms Glass conducted a detailed review of 65 cases, in addition to a random sample of email records and interviews with injured workers and executives from the five agents.

In one case a mother took her life after losing her medical entitlements for a stress disorder that originated from workplace sexual assault and harassment.

The Ombudsman made recommendations including improving workplace injury and compensation laws and preventing agents from using "preferred independent medical examiners".
Yesterday something uplifting happened with race relations in Perth. But no sooner it could blossom, it was crushed by a vocal undercurrent of  yes, I'm calling it! - racist commentary.

On Thursday a Perth dad of two little kids, Jarred Wall, was having lunch with his fiancee at a child-friendly East Fremantle cafe. He happened to overhear the conversation of two women sitting on the adjacent table talking about Aboriginal people. So Jarred, who happens to be of Indigenous descent, described the conversation as distasteful.

"It started with one saying 'I'm not racist, but...'", he told me on the phone on Sunday.

"Then they said '....he just got in because of the colour of his skin', and then it went into 'things Aboriginal people do'....like a lot generalisations. Pretty nasty things to be honest."
Beirut: Bags of body parts. Three young siblings killed along with their mother. A pregnant woman lying dead under a fallen roof.

These sights - described by Syrians after a marketplace bombing in the northern Syrian city of Idlib on Saturday - are just a small fraction of the carnage from Russian or government air strikes in the two days since Russia and the United States declared that a new cease-fire would begin on Monday night.

At least 91 people were killed and scores more wounded in two days of attacks on rebel-held areas around the country, mainly in Idlib and in the divided city of Aleppo, according to tallies by doctors, rescuers and monitoring groups.

The violence has deepened mistrust among Syrians that the cease-fire, agreed on late Friday night, will deliver on its promise to ground the government warplanes that opposition groups say cause the war's greatest death toll.
In the world of conspiracy theories, even a broken clock can sometimes be telling the right time. So it was that months of unhinged online speculation about Hillary Clinton's health finally intersected with reality on the campaign trail, as the Democratic candidate had a real health episode.

It is crucial to note that those doing the speculating did not employ forensic techniques or a laser focus. Rather, they deployed a trawler, which picked up all sorts of random information in the hope of creating a wall of anti-Clinton noise that no one could gainsay.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton waves as she walks from her daughter's apartment building on September 11, 2016, in New York, two hours after the incident. Credit:AP

However it is also true that Hillary Clinton has at times been her own worst enemy in abetting such speculation, the machine politician in love with information management. The question of her emails was from the beginning as much about her instinct to conceal as it was about the likely contents of the correspondence itself. And so it is that a man with no history in high office can cheerfully contradict himself and yet be contrasted with his opponent as a "straight talker".

Distinguishing between the truth and fables in a world obsessed with security has always been one of the foremost challenges of newsgathering. South Korea has responded to repeated weapons tests by North Korea by trying to win the war of information, and sometimes this has resulted in stories about the execution of leading Pyongyang figures that have seemed deliberately and exaggeratedly sensational. Is the revelation of planning to destroy Pyongyang in the event of a nuclear attack in this category? Could it be bluster that nevertheless makes the very renewal of conflict it is trying to prevent more certain? Or is it simply a bid for transparency - to show everyone what is at stake?
Seoul: South Korea has devised a plan to destroy North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, through intensive bombing if the communist regime shows signs of launching a nuclear attack. The announcement by Seoul came as North Korea was thought to prepare for another launch.

"Every Pyongyang district, particularly where the North Korean leadership is possibly hidden, will be completely destroyed by ballistic missiles and high- explosive shells as soon as the North shows any signs of using a nuclear weapon," reported South Korean news agency Yonhap, citing a military official.

"In other words, the North's capital city will be reduced to ashes and removed from the map."

The details of the operation came to light after the South Korean Defence Ministry unveiled the Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation (KMPR) plan in front of the National Assembly in response to the latest nuclear test by North Korea.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Representatives of NAGICO insurances had to cancel their second day information session they arranged to bring justice workers up to speed with the insurance policy that was taken out for them earlier this year when the Minister of Justice got the various unions representing justice workers to seek out the insurance companies and to choose a good and affordable package to cover justice workers.

The unions chose NAGICO insurance where Justice workers have to pay NAF 15.00 per month while the government will pay NAF10.00 for the NAF 25.00 policy per employee.

While the name of the company was never revealed, NAGICO insurances organized a two-day information session which was to be held on Tuesday and Wednesday last week. However, on the first day of the meeting last Tuesday several justice workers including police officers began asking severe questions about the policy in the presence of their union representatives.

SMN News learned that the justice workers wanted to know why they have to even pay for their insurance and pay more than the government. They also asked questions regarding the coverage, for example when a policyholder is eligible for payout. One of the surprising things that the workers learned on Tuesday is that if a police officer is shot from the back while in the line of duty his or her family is not entitled to the payout of NAF 400.000.00. Another surprise that hit the workers that attended the meeting is that officers that get maimed or handicapped while working would get their benefits faster than those that die in the line of their duties.

On the condition of anonymity, some of the justice workers told SMN News that when the posed questions pertaining to the policy, the information they got from representatives of NAGICO caused severe concerns which forced NAGICO to cancel the second-day information session which was scheduled for Wednesday. Justice workers that were supposed to attend the information session on Wednesday received an email informing them of the cancellation but no reasons for the cancellation were given.

The workers went as far as saying that the unions representatives that were present on the first day of the information session said that what was presented on Tuesday to the justice workers is not what they negotiated.

SMN News contacted the CEO of NAGICO insurances Dwayne Elgin for a comment late last week and Elgin said that based on the confidentiality clause they have with their client they are not able to release any information to the media. He further stated that the cancellation for the second day was done amicably.
The rate of change in the world today conceivably has never been faster. Many of the old systems applied to growth and development are rapidly changing into new forms too different to be fully understood.

The old pattern of a few countries mining the rest of the world for raw materials and reseeding just enough with goods and services to successfully repeat the cycle has been replaced by something else. Global growth and development are no longer almost solely reliant upon the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and one or two other global financial institutions; it now includes significant support from developing countries that once were the countries being mined as a raw material resource.

China is perhaps the indisputable leader of this new growth and development group. According to the Inter-American Dialogue, a non-profit group based in Washington, D C, Chinese banks sent nearly $30 billion in loans to Latin American and the Caribbean last year, more than double the amount from 2014. It's also more money than the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank gave to the region last year combined.

http://www.thedialogue.org/map_list/

Equally significant, the Inter-American Dialogue also points out, Chinese and IFI/Western banks do not overlap significantly in Latin America [and the Caribbean]. They give different size loans to different sectors in different countries. Chinese loans tend to focus on infrastructure and heavy industry, for example, while Western loans cover a range of government, social, and environmental projects. Chinese banks channel 87 percent of their loans into the energy, mining, infrastructure, transportation, and housing (EMITH) sectors. Only 29 percent of IDB loans and 34 percent of World Bank loans go to EMITH sectors, while more than a third is directed toward health, social, and environment sectors. Chinese banks have indicated that they prefer EMITH loans because they directly support economic growth.

http://ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/rp/GallagherChineseFinanceLatinAmericaBrief.pdf

These are immense winds of change and they are blowing ever stronger all over the globe and significantly so in Latin America and the Caribbean. Even now, millions of dollars in Chinese investments are being plowed into the island of Antigua and out of this will come world class hotels and other tourism developments affecting the entire region. This is in direct competition to St. Maartens tourism market, which makes up 80% of the revenues the country generates. Make no mistake; the Global marketplace is a highly competitive arena and it is relentless in its search for places to grow and develop.

Today, Sint Maarten finds itself in the enviable position of being such a place. The Chinese want to heavily invest in the country. "China Pearl of the Caribbean Project at Belair Beach St.Maarten"...St.Maarten is already considered one of the best destinations in the Caribbean and its face is Tourism...don't cover its face with a towel...

I say, go for it!

On Wednesday, September 07, Prime Minister William Marlin made a calm, clear presentation to various members of the press when he addressed the media at the Council of Minster's press briefing about the negotiations with a Chinese group to construct the Pearl of the Caribbean Resort on St. Maarten. He took special pains to dispel the misinformation, misunderstanding, and fear that some people seemed to possess that their island and their way of life was being taken over by foreign invaders. It is reasonable that there are those who feel varying degrees of unease about the Resort contract and this is almost certainly based not on what they know, but what they dont know; thus the close questioning and the Prime Ministers need to address all question forthrightly. This he did!

In matters such as these transparencies is vital and critical to the success of the project. It is to be expected that this course of action will continue to be taken by the Prime Minister and his Government as negotiations continue and the project commences. Nevertheless, the most productive course of action is for St. Maarten is to proceed with the Chinese partnership and then go even further by using this project to seek out even greater partnerships.

Rather than hesitate in doubt and fear St. Maarten should enthusiastically and fully take on the responsibilities for its growth and development. It should dispel the fear of growing up and becoming fully matured; making its own way in the world. As fear-provoking as it may be, we all have to grow up and take on the responsibilities of becoming mature individuals, ready to support and build our organizations so that we can create healthy communities and a great country  top down and bottom up. I see talks of independence for St.Maarten the first step is to move towards financial independence increase your GDP.

When presented with such opportunities one has to be ready to capitalize on them. Of course, there is always the need to proceed wisely in these matters, but nonetheless in a world faced with new and ever-expanding challenges, when great opportunities present themselves, one has got to take full advantage of them.

It is no longer viable to look to the Netherlands for funding; indeed, such subsistence and the growing debt it incurs never are the way to go. The Netherlands is a relatively small country with challenges of its own and with diminishing revenues earmarked for countries like St. Maarten; even though St. Maarten is a Constituent Country of the Netherlands. It should be no surprise then that the Netherlands is actively supporting a restructuring of its financial relationships to St. Maarten; encouraging the implementation of systems that promote St. Maartens self-sufficiency.

No country wants to be in the unenviable position of having insufficient funds to pay for all the goods and services it needs, having difficulty in its prospects of obtaining those funds and not attracting enough investors.

By now you as individuals may have come to the realization that you are St Maarten and St Maarten is you! And that as you go, so will St. Maarten!

There is no turning back. You cannot afford to and it will not be possible to do so. You now must forge on to build and create a St. Maarten that never existed before. It can be done!

All of St. Maarten has to become involved and create the energy that will produce the power for and of this greater vision. You cannot follow failed governmental policies, yours and those of others, and hope to succeed. The ways in which you educate, train and support the citizens and residents of St Maarten have to evolve to higher standards with much more effective outcomes. This is the only way to build stronger, more sustainable and productive organizations and thus a better St Maarten.

As your Finance Minister recently pointed out: Our budget every year is under stress and there is no fiscal space to take the necessary steps to combat unemployment, crime, or fix our infrastructural needs, such as weaning ourselves off of fossil fuel imports, food imports, solve our traffic problems, our communication deficiencies, electrical outages, and I can go on and on. What we need are foreign investments to boost our GDP. In the Caribbean, we are at the lowest in attracting foreign investments. In fact, for years we have not been able to attract any major investment until now.

You are already behind in the investment market, but you can close ground quite quickly because you have tremendous assets that you have yet to fully reveal to the global marketplace.

Again, as the Finance Minister went on to explain: We now have a breakthrough in attracting a foreign investment that is a behemoth of an investment and a structure and plan to generate travel to Sint Maarten from the entire Caribbean and Latin America for years to come. Besides this, [we will] also benefit from travel [to Sint Maarten from China]. The economic benefits this will produce for Sint Maarten and its people are immense.

The key to successful investment is a wise negotiation. The leaders of St. Maarten must take into consideration global, regional and local strategies from both perspectives (St. Maartens and the investor) to make sure short term and long term goals are met. There are diverse arrays of secondary projects and programs that can be generated from Chinese investments in the country. These can directly benefit local markets by producing jobs via goods and services.

The leaders have to reassess their assets (local markets) to see which are undervalued, unrecognized and misunderstood. For example, the entire system of culture, commerce and community are not as effective as it could be and as a result, culturally based economics, including cultural tourism and the capacity for local commerce are highly undervalued. In addition, whether St. Maarten is publicizing and marketing itself well enough in the global marketplace has to be examined.

It is pointless to spend vast sums of money and provide resources to create old development models of yesteryear. The models of today for economies on the scale of St. Maarten should increasingly be based on people and technology. This will require nationwide education and training; a transformation not only from the top down but also from the bottom up.

St. Maarten has to be unafraid, confident and highly ambitious. To quote the Finance for the final time: [The Chinese investment] is a cause for celebration . . . I can continue with debunking the negative comments, but no can deny the fact that the economic benefits this project offers cannot be pooh-poohed. In this uncertain world while we struggle to balance our budget, struggle to pay our debts, barely provide for the aged and the sick this project is a Godsend, even if it might have rough edges here and there. So let's embrace it and make it a success. We are badly in need of it.

Again I say, go for it!

By Leon Stubbs

Leon Stubbs has an extensive background in community development. His focus is on integrating culture, community ,commerce and technology (CCCT) in organizational, individual, and community development (OIC-D).He researches, promotes ,plans and manages (OIC-D)projects and programs. He has worked on projects and programs in Illinois, Massachusetts, Florida and Texas as well as in the Caribbean and the Bahamas.

He collaborates with Dr. Davidson Hepburn ,former UNESCO President, in promoting culture and commerce, especially in Small Island Development Environments.

He visited St.Maarten and St.Eustatius in September of 2011 where he was the guest speaker at the St.Eustatius Tourism Foundation event. Invited by Charles Lindo and Maya Leon-Pandt, Leon contacted by Arthur Lugisse of the Tallahassee -St.Maarten Foundation came and did his presentation pro-bono for TLH-SXMF in Statia. He has been working closely with Mr. Arthur Lugisse for many years in support of the Tallahassee-St.Maarten Foundation as one of their international consultant.

Leon Stubbs resides in the Greater San Antonio, Texas area USA.
Construction Halted on Federal Lands; Oil Company asked to Suspend Work Nearby

Protests across the country brought in a small victory for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and their many supporters when the U.S. government promised to temporarily halt all construction on government owned land.

Hundreds gathered in cities as far away as Denver and Tulsa to protest the fast-track approval given to Energy Transfer Partners and their subsidiary Dakota Access, LLC. Evidence indicates that approval sidestepped appropriate consultation with affected Tribes, as well as historical preservation requirements and environmental assessments.

The pipeline is planned to go under the Missouri River, the only water source for the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington rejected a request for a court order to stop the project, but the government blocked construction in a response to growing opposition.

Dakota Access made the bizarre decision last Saturday to leap ahead of their obvious construction route and sneak in on a holiday weekend to destroy a sacred site and burial ground that were due to be assessed by the North Dakota Preservation Office. When Native American "Water Protectors" from the nearby protest camp marched in to stop the destruction, they were attacked by a private mercenary security team armed with mace and dogs.

After five months of peaceful protest, the Sacred Stone Camp finally got attention from the national media.

Thousands of protesters have gathered at the camp, representing as many as 200 tribes from across North America.

"This case has highlighted the need for a serious discussion on whether there should be nationwide reform with respect to considering tribes' views on these types of infrastructure projects," the U.S. Departments of Justice, Army and Interior said in a joint statement released minutes after Boasberg's ruling.

After Judge Boasberg said in his ruling that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decision to fast-track the pipeline project was not illegal, tribal leaders quickly filed a notice of appeal.

In their joint statement, the three U.S. departments said they would schedule meetings with Native American leaders to discuss how the federal government can better consider the tribes' views and respect their land. They also said they respect protesters' rights to assemble and speak freely.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it would halt construction on its property until after officials can re-examined Native American concerns about the pipeline as well as some previous projects.

The Corps called on Dakota Access to halt work on other land, as well, but as of Friday afternoon Dakota Access has not said whether it would comply with the request.

Amnesty International has sent a human rights observer delegation to monitor the gathering of Indigenous rights defenders and police response.

The Dakota Access pipeline is meant to carry crude oil from the Bakken shale, a vast oil formation in North Dakota, Montana and parts of Canada, directly to the U.S. Gulf.

It would span from just north of land owned by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe to Illinois, where it would connect with an existing pipeline.

Across the several states affected, Dakota Access has also faced protests from landowners who object to the use of eminent domain to force the sale of privately owned lands. Some of the farmlands at issue have been owned and operated by the same families for generations.

Arrests were made in Iowa at a landowners' protest last week.

ETP stock shares fell 3.6 percent to close at $39.14 on Friday.

See also: http://www.smobserved.com/story/2016/09/09/news/oil-company-destroys-burial-sites-in-holiday-sneak-attack/1895.html
Therapy.Live Aims to Save More Lives through High Tech Suicide Prevention

Founder Ryan G. Beale and Co-Founder Dr. M. Ellis Jaruzel pose for quick picture following the successful launch of Therapy.Live at the American Psychological Association Convention in Denver, Colorado.

In honor of National Suicide Prevention Week, the Therapy Live team has released a new tool that is designed to save more lives. Located at http://www.Therapy.Live/Suicide, visitors will find a state of the art interactive map to assist clinicians and visitors to locate crisis resource centers within their communities.

"I am very proud of the tireless work that our team has invested towards our mission of altering the trajectory of mental health delivery and saving lives. Today's new feature that has been unlocked will enable clinicians, friends, family members, and individuals that are in crisis to locate local crisis centers and resources with a click of a mouse or the tap of their finger." Says Ryan G. Beale, founder of Therapy.Live, who is also a therapist and lost his brother to suicide.

Therapy Live is a state of the art multi-engagement platform designed for therapists to expand their reach and for clients to engage in mental wellness at the level with which they are most comfortable, with clinicians they feel most comfortable with.

"We are in a war to save minds, save lives, and to help people reach their potential. Mental health providers and educators are on the front lines of this war and we are dedicated to supporting them so they can do their job to the best of their abilities. The ripple effects of not appropriately addressing one's mental wellness does not live in a vacuum, it spreads to ones family, ones community and contributes to nearly $100 billion dollars in loss productivity annually to the U.S. economy."

The site includes a click and locate map.

The Therapy Live team has recently returned from their launch at the American Psychological Association convention in Denver, Colorado. In less than 30 days the Therapy Live team has launched several new tools, new powerful initiatives (www.Therapy.Live/betteroffwithme) and has begun attracting leading clinicians throughout the country.

Clinicians can join now and grow with Therapy.Live. "Whether you are a clinician looking to market your practice, increase your reach with article publishing or offering live seminars, or you are looking to engage in teletherapy in the near future, we will continue to offer the best value for clinicians as we grow into the future together." Click Here To Visit Dynamic Crisis Center Locator

Therapy.Live is founded by a survivor, a psychologist, and a missile defense expert dedicated to altering the trajectory of mental health delivery.
No Law Enforcement Present; Private Guards Attack Protestors

Tear gas and dogs were used by private guards to attack Native Americans trying to protect burial grounds from Labor Day weekend destruction by Dakota Access Pipeline bulldozers. Six people were bitten, and about 30 sprayed. One guard and two dogs were taken in for medical treatment.

The crowd dispersed quietly once law enforcement arrived.

Energy Transfer Partners is under fire from all sides as it tries to force its way across the prairie to construct the quasi-legal pipeline. Demonstrators have been camped out since April in protest of the damaging and possibly illegal construction.

The line is planned to go under the Missouri River, threatening the only water source for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal land. An original pipeline route proposal was rejected for posing exactly the same kind of water source threat to the city of Bismarck, ND.

On Saturday, Dakota Access came in and bulldozed both a sacred site and a grave site before the ND Preservation Office could get there to evaluate, after learning that the paper work and survey had been properly submitted to the court on Friday.

"This demolition is devastating" said Tribal Chairman David Archambault in a press release. "These grounds are the resting places of our ancestors. The ancient cairns and stone prayer rings there cannot be replaced. In one day, our sacred land has been turned into hollow ground."

Farmers in Iowa are also protesting the pipeline, which maneuvered to gain eminent domain rights and force the sale of private farmland, some of which has been in families for generations. 20 Iowa protesters were arrested and jailed at a march in Boone County last week.

The Army Corps of Engineers approved the pipeline without holding public hearings, as required by the Federal Historic Preservation Act. The route also comes close to protected eagle nesting grounds.

Without proper environmental clearance and ignoring treaties that require consultation with affected Native American tribes, Energy Transfer Partners has managed to sidestep many of the legal safeguards that are meant to protect U.S. citizens from the harm of corporate land projects.

Representatives from Native American groups across the nation have now gathered in support. It is the first time since the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn that all seven council fires of the Great Sioux Nation have camped together.

The encampment, Sacred Stone Camp, now has several thousand people in residence, and they have taken careful steps to provide food, sanitation, and even a school for the growing group.

This protest is completely legal, and organizations as diverse as the National Lawyers Guild, Amnesty International, and Black Lives Matter have spoken out in support.

Regional Law Enforcement has mostly been respectful of the protesters, greeting them politely and providing peaceful road access for marches. Officers have even removed their hats during religious services.

The Standing Rock Sioux have followed all appropriate legal steps to object to the violations that led to inappropriate construction approval, but Energy Transfer Partners is determined to undermine lawful efforts by pushing through with whole scale destruction before the courts can make any rulings.

"We're days away from getting a resolution on the legal issues, and they came in on a holiday weekend and destroyed the site," said Jan Hasselman, attorney for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. "What they have done is absolutely outrageous."

Latest Up[date: http://www.smobserved.com/story/2016/09/09/news/dakota-access-us-government-moves-to-temporarily-block-construction/1918.html

For more information go to http://sacredstonecamp.org/
Evan McMullin says Trump's Business Depends on Russian Oligarchs

Evan McMullin believes that America should be much more worried about presidential candidate Donald Trump's close ties to Vladimir Putin.

The former CIA agent and former Republican is so concerned about Trump's ties to Putin that he entered the 2016 presidential election as an Independent candidate in July in an eleventh-hour bid to bring some attention to the issue.

In an interview this week with CNN, McMullin asserts that his friends in intelligence have told him that Trump's previous business activities in Russia could have implications that jeopardize his candidacy.

"Donald Trump is dependent on Russian investments from Russian oligarchs associated with Vladimir Putin for his real estate development projects."

The potential for exposure by Putin puts the strong-arm Russian president in a position to coerce Trump into appointing Russia-favoring advisors and, should he win, implementing Russia-favoring policies as president.

"Vladimir Putin is one of the primary sources of instability in this world, and the thought that we would have a Republican nominee so 'in bed' with Putin, I think is so discouraging and really a bad thing for our country," McMullin said.

Since the Commander-In-Chief forum, McMullin has been even more critical about the constant praise Trump offers Putin, pointing out how unfortunate it is that we, as a country, have to debate on whether or not it's a good thing that a major party candidate is so fond of Putin.

"He is opposed to democracy, opposed to freedom, and opposed to our interests," McMullin said of the Russian leader.

McMullin believes that some of the appointments Trump has made to his staff support his claims. Paul Manafort, who was once Trump's campaign manager, was forced to resign from his position after his ties with a former Pro-Russian president of Ukraine became public knowledge.

He says other key members of Trump's staff have financial ties to Russia, including retired General Michael Flynn, who is also employed as an analyst by RT America. RT is a Russian cable network owned by the Russian government.

Trump actually invited Flynn, an employee of a Russian government-owned business, to join him at his intelligence briefing last week.

"An American president should never have these kinds of warm views of a Russian authoritarian like Vladimir Putin," McMullin said.

Evan McMullin: former CIA agent, former Republican, and the fifth U.S. presidential candidate.

McMullin is not the only former intelligence officer to suggest that Trump is being used by Putin.

"In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation," wrote Former CIA deputy director Michael Morell in a New York Times op-ed on August 5.

"He [Trump] may well pose a threat to our national security."

CIA officers are not known for liberal leanings. When men like McMullin and Morell question the reliability and loyalty of a major presidential candidate, it might be time for America to listen.

Evan McMullin is now either on the ballot or approved as a write-in in 20 U.S. States.
No fan of Donald Trump, Assange really hates Hillary Clinton. Release may come on eve of 3d debate

Julian Assange Claims to have the goods on Hillary, and is planning an election surprise.

He lives in exile in an embassy in London and considers himself a journalist, while the Obama administration and many Americans consider him to be a traitor.

Appearing on Megyn Kelly's Fox News program, WikiLeaks founder and editor-in-chief Julian Assange said on Wednesday that he planned to release "significant" information linked to the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Asked if the data could be a game-changer in the election, he said "I think it's significant. You know, it depends on how it catches fire in the public and in the media."

WikiLeaks released files in July of audio recordings taken from the emails of the Democratic National Committee. These were obtained by hacking its servers. That release, during the Democratic National Convention where Clinton was officially named the party's presidential nominee, was the second batch in a series that deeply rattled the Democratic party, and ultimately forced DNC chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, to step down--which Assange seemed to brag about tonight.

Kelly speculated that the timing of the dump would be just before Clinton's third debate with Donald Trump. Everyone would be tuned in then and it would do the most damage to Clinton, she said, referring to the Obama administration's hunt for Assange. It was led by then Secretary of State Clinton.

On 4 July 2016, WikiLeaks tweeted a link to a trove of emails sent or received by then-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton published on their website. The leak contained 1258 emails sent from Clinton's personal mail server which were selected in terms of their relevance to the Iraq War and were apparently timed to precede the release of the UK government's Iraq Inquiry report.

On 22 July 2016, WikiLeaks released approximately 20,000 emails and 8,000 files sent from or received by Democratic National Committee (DNC) personnel. Some of the emails contained personal information of donors, including home addresses and Social Security numbers. Other emails appeared to present ways to undercut Bernie Sanders and showed apparent favoritism towards Clinton.

WikiLeaks is an international non-profit group of journalists that publishes secret information, news leaks, and steals or appropriates classified media from anonymous sources.

Julian Assange Claims to have the goods on Hillary, and is planning an election surprise.

Its website, initiated in 2006 in Iceland by the organization Sunshine Press, claimed a database of more than 1.2 million documents within a year of its launch.

Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder, editor-in-chief, and director. Kristinn Hrafnsson, Joseph Farrell, and Sarah Harrison are the only other publicly known and acknowledged associates of Julian Assange. Hrafnsson is also a member of Sunshine Press Productions along with Assange, Ingi Ragnar Ingason, and Gavin MacFadyen.

The group has released a number of significant documents that have become front-page news items. Early releases included documentation of equipment expenditures and holdings in the Afghanistan war and a report informing a corruption investigation
AVST Facilitates a Mobile First Workplace With New Version of CX-E

FOOTHILL RANCH, CA  (Marketwired)  09/12/16  (AVST) today announced the newest version of its Unified Communications (UC) platform. With a focus on mobility features that bring greater levels of connectivity to the workplace, the new release accelerates a mobile first mindset for businesses of all sizes.

To facilitate the rapidly developing mobile workplace of its customers, AVSTs latest version of CX-E makes available to all users, as part of the base licensing, its secure mobile client. The mobile client separates business and personal communications effortlessly from an iPhone or Android. This version also includes a number of built-in security enhancements to ensure all data is protected from the ever-changing threats facing mobile devices. In addition, the new release of CX-E offers SMS notification through popular public cloud provider Twilio.

Its a fact  instant access, always-connected, 24/7 availability is now the rule and not the exception. The mobile lifestyle weve become accustomed to in our personal lives has transitioned into the workplace where the same levels of access and connectivity are expected. This is particularly true for Millennials, who are the largest generation in the U.S. workforce as of 2015, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The result is that most businesses today are embracing a greater level of mobility to enhance productivity and create a positive and more personalized user experience for their workforce. Organizations that adopt this mobile first strategy will have a competitive advantage to attract and retain Millennials.

Employees are bringing the technologies they already use at home into the workplace. The digital workplace delivers a more social, mobile, accessible, and data-driven work environment that is better able to exploit changing business conditions to improve productivity. According to Gartner, Make no mistake, social, cloud and information are also important ingredients for a successful digital workplace strategy, but the most visible, as well as the most impactful, element is mobile. (1)

AVST continuously enhances CX-E to feature the latest in mobile technology, said Tom Minifie, AVST Chief Technology Officer. Whether our customers use CX-E from the cloud or deploy it within their own IT infrastructure, we offer a number of powerful mobile features  from secure message management to sophisticated context-aware and speech-enabled personal assistant capabilities  to keep workers connected and productive while on the go.

Additional new features available in the latest release of CX-E are:

XMediusFAX FoIP offering

Support for VMware vSphere 6.0

Support for Neverfail with Microsoft Hyper-V

TeamQ team collaboration tool enhancements

The latest version of CX-E is now available through AVSTs reseller channels worldwide. For more information about AVSTs products, visit the company website at .

(1)Gartner: Make Mobile Part of Your Digital Workplace Strategy, Leif-Olof Wallin, Ken Dulaney, Matthew W. Cain, 26 March 2015, Foundational 25 July 2016

With more than 30 years of continuous innovation, Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (AVST) is a trusted developer of software-based enterprise-class Unified Communications (UC) solutions.

Our mission is to design, deliver and support communications solutions that transform the productivity of individual workers, teams and enterprises while leveraging the value of their existing and evolving IT infrastructure.

Thousands of businesses worldwide rely on AVST to meet their mission-critical communications requirements, align their business with key trends and, with the world-class interoperability and flexibility of AVSTs UC solutions, provide a bridge to their digital future.

Headquartered in Orange County, California, AVST maintains facilities in Seattle, Washington, Victoria B.C., Canada and the United Kingdom and has remote sales offices throughout the United States. AVSTs UC solutions are sold and supported worldwide by an extensive network of resellers and OEM partners. To learn more about AVST, our products and partners, please visit or you can follow us at , or .

Stephanie Olsen

Lages & Associates

(949) 453-8080
Noie: Of course Notre Dame was going to go away from home and do this

Notre Dame has played its best football far from South Bend this season. The Irish did it again Saturday in Central New York.
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An artist's impression of the binary star system HK Tau shows the stars' misaligned disks. Measuring the orientation of the stars in multiple-star systems like this one could help astronomers learn how the stars came together.

Stars that twinkle in the night sky may look like individual points of light when viewed from Earth, but these stars aren't as lonely as they appear. Most stars actually orbit with at least one stellar companion. Astronomers aren't sure how this happens, but new research finds that the way stars spin could offer evolutionary clues.

Stars are born when rotating clouds of dust and gas come together under the force of gravity. A cloud like this eventually collapses into a sphere that is surrounded by a "protostellar disk" of leftover stuff that may later form planets from a "protoplanetary disk."

Star formation in single-star systems is a straightforward process that is generally well-understood among astronomers. But when two, three or more stars occur in a gravitationally bound system, how they got together remains an open question. [Top 10 Star Mysteries]

Several existing hypotheses explain how such multiple-star systems could come together. Perhaps all stars are born alone, and some lasso others into their orbit with gravity. Or maybe the stars were born together from the same protostellar cloud. All of these hypotheses are difficult to verify, wrote the authors of the new study, because it's nearly impossible to observe these early evolutionary stages in action. Interstellar gas and dust get in the way, plus it can take around 100,000 years for a star to form.

Two models

Two models that describe the births of multiple-star systems rely on numerical simulations rather than observational evidence. One is turbulent fragmentation, which says that some type of turbulence within the core of a newly forming star causes multiple clumps of dense gas to separate at the center. Under this model, the clumps independently form stars, but the resulting stars end up orbiting a common center of mass.

The other model centers on a process called disk fragmentation. In this model, gravitational instabilities inside the protostellar disk can cause a rapid collapse of gas in a small chunk of the disk. This creates another, smaller disk inside of the existing disk, eventually producing a binary system of stars with different masses orbiting their common center of mass.

Stellar spins aligned

While there is no way to directly observe a star system and see how multiple stars came together, researchers may have a tool for narrowing down the possibilities to one of these two proposed models. In a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Stella Offner and colleagues showed how the angular momentum and alignment of stars in a multistar system can reveal how those systems initially formed.

To check the alignment of stars in a system, astronomers can look for the protostellar outflows, or jets, of material spewing from a young star's north and south poles, the study suggests. These jets line up with the stars' axes of rotation.

"The changing angular momentum of the accreting turbulent gas and the orbital interaction between the protostars causes significant spin evolution," or a change in the star's orientation, the authors wrote. "The angle differences [in a binary] are caused by changes in both spins rather than primarily one or the other."

Based on the models, stars in systems that formed via turbulent fragmentation would have misaligned spins and would orbit on axes that are not parallel. This is because each individual protostellar blob formed its own star independently, so their angular momentum is more randomly oriented, the authors wrote.

On the other hand, during disk fragmentation, a smaller protostellar disk forms within a larger disk and is not independent of its surroundings. These resulting stars should have aligned spins, the researchers suspected, because one is dependent on the other.

The team began its computer simulations with a spherical core of protostellar stuff, which they subjected to random turbulence. Of the 12 simulations, five produced single-star systems, five resulted in binary stars and two were triple-star systems.

Aligning with observations

To test the results against real observational evidence, the team created synthetic observations from its data and compared these to actual observations of protostellar outflows in young binaries.

The real observations came from a stellar survey called Mass Assembly of Stellar Systems and their Evolution with the Submillimeter Array (MASSES). The Submillimeter Array (SMA) is a network of radio telescopes located atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii, that is specially designed to look at cold interstellar gas and dust.

Offner's team found that its simulations of disk turbulence in new star systems were consistent with observations made by MASSES. The team's paper supports the idea that multiple-star systems containing misaligned stars likely formed via turbulent fragmentation and not via disk fragmentation. However, MASSES has surveyed only 19 binary star pairs, so the authors cautioned against jumping to conclusions before having more observational evidence to back up their findings.

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
More than a half century after the first NASA astronauts launched into space, one might think that there are no sweeping narratives left untold about the early years of the U.S. space program.

But there was at least one history remaining to be written: that of the women, and in particular the African-American women, who worked as the "human computers" at NASA's original research laboratory and provided the calculations necessary for sending American spacecraft and astronauts into space and to the moon.

It is not that the women of West Computing at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, were more crucial than their white woman counterparts in East Computing, or even the largely white and almost entirely male engineers who both divisions of women mathematicians supported at Langley. Nor were they more important to the program's early success than the teams who staffed Mission Control or, for that matter, the astronauts rode their work into orbit. The women, themselves, would be the first to ensure that was clear. [On 'Hidden Figures' Movie Set, NASA's Early Years Take Center Stage]

Rather it's their story, now documented within the pages of journalist and researcher Margot Lee Shetterly's "Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race" (William Morrow), that helps re-integrate the history of the women's rights and civil rights movements within the history of the space program.

These women, including Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson and Katherine Johnson, were hidden from that history until recently. Or, as Shetterly writes in the book, not hidden but waiting to be found.

"The title of this book is something of a misnomer. The history that has come together in these pages wasn't so much hidden as unseen  fragments patiently biding their time in footnotes and family anecdotes and musty folders before returning to view," she explains.

And now that history is not just being revealed in the book. Adapted for film even before Shetterly finished her writing, 20th Century Fox is set to release "Hidden Figures" as a movie in January, starring actors Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kevin Costner and Kirsten Dunst. ['Hidden Figures' Tells Story Of 3 African-American Women At NASA During Space Race (Video)]

"Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly. (Image credit: William Morrow)

collectSPACE.com recently spoke with Shetterly about how she came to author "Hidden Figures" and why it was an untold history until now.

collectSPACE: Though there have been books before that have discussed the space race within the larger context of the years when it occurred, few have focused in any detail how the civil rights and women's rights movements were as much of a factor at NASA as they were for the nation as a whole. What led you to recognizing this story and why do you think it has gone largely untold until now?

Margot Lee Shetterly: I think it was because those things connect, but not in obvious ways  it just so happens they connect to my life.

All of those stories directly pertain to my background and history and so in a way, writing about those was a way of me exploring how I came about. I grew up in Hampton, my dad worked at NASA, there were tons of people around who worked at NASA and there was the African-American history.

And I think another part of it was that we tend to put these histories in silos. Sometimes you will read a story about women and it's "women's history." You'll read a story about African Americans and it's "African-American history." You will read a story about space and it is "space history." And all of those things are American history. There is no reason for us to isolate them and see them as separate when they are all part of the same thing.

The way I see it, and the way I hope people will see this book and the movie, is that this is "capital 'H'" history that happens to be told through the eyes of these protagonists who are African American women. Or you could say this is "capital H" history that happens to be told through the eyes of a bunch of mathematicians. This is History that happens to be told from the point of view of people who became a space program. But it is all capital 'H' American History.

collectSPACE: There are people who worked at NASA at the time who today say they were unaware of the women, or at least were unaware of how many of them there were. Did you run into this during your research? Were there any communities who knew of the women already?

Shetterly: In Hampton, where I grew up, so many people knew about this story, knew about these women  black women, white women, women. They knew because it was like, "Oh! My grandma used to work at NASA" or "My mom worked at NASA" or "The lady at church worked at NASA."

So they knew about the story but most of them were like me, it was just normal. As a kid I'd think, "My dad works at NASA, he's a research scientist. Great, everybody's got a job, and that's what they do." Normal!

There were people in the area, and particularly now since the women have passed away, who were either unfamiliar with the story or were like, "Wow, we didn't think it was that important."

But strangely, outside of Hampton Roads, the public is like, "I just can't believe this story I had no idea!" Or, even at NASA, "Well, I didn't really know." Even some of the NASA historians I spoke with were like, "I kind of thought there were a couple of women who were doing this," but they did not know the scope or the extent of it. This was something that started in 1935 when the five computers were hired at Langley.

I think there were just so many little bits and pieces to this story hidden in different places, and the people who were doing it, these women, and engineers even, who were just doing their jobs. It was totally normal, like, "Yeah, I was called up by my country to be a mathematician and that is what I did and that's it."

So I think for any number of reasons, people either knew about it and did not think it was a big deal or they had not found it. But there were so many women doing this work. There were women computers at NASA Glenn [Research Center in Cleveland], obviously in Houston and there were women at Ames [Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.]. They were the computers. There were just a ton of women and it was no big deal kind of.

collectSPACE: In addition to being about these women, it is also a story about their being the computers, first for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and then for NASA. How did you decide how much to devote to the technical details of their work, and in a greater sense, the work being done at Langley?

Shetterly: Part of the thing about writing it was figuring out how much technical information to include. I had a lot of learning to do, but I thought the science was interesting. It is obviously critical to a key part of the story, but I had to figure out how interesting it would be to the general reader.

I started working on it in 2010. I would say it probably took three years of just research for me to just figure out how to tell the story. Really digging into these different strands of Virginia history, the history of these women.

When it started out, the obvious person to tell the story, to be the protagonist, was Katherine Johnson. I had known her growing up and within the Virginia and NASA Langely communities people knew her name. She was the obvious place to start.

But this is a huge story. There were so many women.

I think a lot of people, even now, kind of think [Johnson] was the only woman, or the only black computer, and there are so many women, black, white and other, who did this job.

It took a really long time of unearthing the details of all of these women, learning enough about the actual work that was going on at the time that Langley was doing. Going into these research reports and kind of connecting the dots with these women.

And reading up on my Virginia history. There is so much about Hampton that I didn't really know about Virginia and about World War II. That for me, was the most fascinating part of it.

So it took a really long time to get all this information and then it took a long time to figure out how to carve it back.

I think the first iteration of the book was a little more geeky. It was more about NASA and a technical history. It took time to figure out how to tell all the stories, to weave them together as one narrative and to tell it as much as I could through the eyes of the women as the protagonists of the story. It took a long time to unearth this narrative from what was an overwhelming amount of historical and technical information.

Continue reading this "Hidden Figures" Q&A with Margot Lee Shetterly at collectSPACE.

"Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly was released by William Morrow, a division of HarperCollins, on Sept. 6.

Follow collectSPACE.com and Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2016 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.
Blue Origin's newly announced New Glenn rockets will feature reusable first stages, and the two-stage and three-stage versions will be 270 feet (82 meters) and 313 feet (95 m) tall, respectively.

Billionaire entrepreneur Jeff Bezos announced this morning (Sept. 12) a massive new reusable rocket family in development for his private spaceflight company Blue Origin. The rocket, called New Glenn, will be used to launch satellites and people into space, according to Bezos.

In a newsletter from Blue Origin, Bezos unveiled an artist's concept of two- and three-stage versions of the New Glenn rocket. Both will stand taller than SpaceX's Falcon Heavy and United Launch Alliance's Delta IV Heavy, and the three-stage approaches the stature of NASA's Saturn V that boosted humans to the moon.

The New Glenn rockets are named for the first American to orbit Earth, John Glenn, and the design draws on what Blue Origin has learned from its reusable booster, New Shepard. That rocket has successfully launched into suborbital space and landed four times from West Texas since November 2015. New Shepard's next test, announced Sept. 8, will be an in-flight abort test to eject the rocket's crew capsule. (New Shepard is named for Alan Shepard, the first American in space.) [Blue Origin's Private Spaceships in Photos]

New Glenn is a step forward in bulkiness and range, and its three-stage version will be able to fly missions beyond low-Earth orbit, Bezos said.

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos leads Blue Origin, a commercial aerospace firm that hopes to send people on suborbital and orbital space trips. See how Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft works here (Image credit: by Karl Tate, Infographics Artist)

"New Glenn is 23 feet [7 meters] in diameter and lifts off with 3.85 million pounds of thrust from seven BE-4 engines," Bezos wrote in the statement. "Burning liquefied natural gas and liquid oxygen, these are the same BE-4 engines that will power United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan rocket.

"The two-stage New Glenn is 270 feet [82 m] tall, and its second stage is powered by a single, vacuum-optimized BE-4 engine," he added. "The three-stage New Glenn is 313 feet [95 m] tall. A single, vacuum-optimized BE-3 engine, burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, powers its third stage. The booster and the second stage are identical in both variants."

While New Shepard launches from Texas, New Glenn will launch from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, which hosted launches of Atlas rockets from 1962 to 2005. Blue Origin just broke ground on a 750,000-square-foot [70,000 square meters] rocket-manufacturing facility nearby for New Glenn. Bezos said that the new rocket should launch for the first time within the decade.

"Our vision is millions of people living and working in space, and New Glenn is a very important step," Bezos said. "Up next on our drawing board: New Armstrong," Bezos teased, referencing Neil Armstrong, the first human to walk on the moon. "But thats a story for the future."

Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
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Inmates strike against forced labor, and the movement has spread to more than 24 states. Friday, advocates announced that prisoners from several states would be taking part in a nationwide strike to protest conditions and wages behind bars.

The strike was launched on the 45th anniversary of the Attica Prison riot that occurred at the Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, New York in 1971. The riot is one of the most well-known and significant uprisings of the Prisoners Rights Movement.

On September 9, 1971, two weeks after the killing of George Jackson at San Quentin State Prison, more than 1,000 of the inmates in Attica began a riot. The prisoners took control of the facility and held 42 staff officers hostage. After four days of negotiations, authorities did not comply with the list of demands made by the prisoners prompting chaos that left 43 dead.

Like the inmates at Attica Prison, those in prison today are demanding political rights and better living conditions. Male and female inmates from 24 states including Florida, South Carolina, and Texas and activists said they hope the strike will change the labor conditions that they compare to slavery.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons stated that prisoners at federal facilities earn between 12 and 40 cents an hour for their work, while state prisoners earn about 40 cents or less depending on the facility where they are incarcerated.

However, in several states including Texas and Arkansas inmates do not receive any money for their work. Melvin Ray, who is incarcerated at the WE Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Alabama, is a member of Free Alabama Movement, and he said:

Work is good for anyone. The problem is that our work is producing services that were being charged for, that we dont get any compensation from.

The group led strike efforts, along with other prisoners, who are part of Free Ohio Movement, the Free Mississippi Movement, and the End Prison Slavery in Texas movement. Kinetik Justice, a founder of the Free Alabama Movement, who serves at the Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama, added:

These strikes are our method for challenging mass incarceration, the effort to push for a coordinated strikes came after we understood that our incarceration was pretty much about our labor and the money that was being generated through the prison system, the prisoners, as a result, began organizing around our labor and used it as a means and a method in order to bring about reform in the Alabama prison system.

The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), one of the groups organizing the strike, said they have been planning this for months, and stated:

This is a call for a nation-wide prisoner work stoppage to end prison slavery. They cannot run these facilities without us.

The Alabama department of corrections indicated that they have 45 inmates taking part in the strike. According to activists, South Carolina prisoners have made their demands known, and they will not return to work until they are met. Authorities in two prisons in Florida have put their facilities on lockdown to prevent chaos.

In 2013, more than 30,000 inmates in California went on a hunger strike to protest their living conditions.
Carla Denise Garrisons lawsuit against Target over a needle that stuck her palm has made her a multimillionaire. Last week, a jury in South Carolina awarded about $4.6 million to Garrison, who started the process hoping to get $12,000. Mrs. Garrison, who was overcome with emotion after the decision, was unable to comment on the case.

According to court documents, in May of 2014, Garrison and her then 8-year-old daughter, Kayleigh, drove to a Target store located in Anderson. While in the parking lot, the little girl spotted a needle on the ground and picked it up.

The mother panicked and rapidly swatted the needle out of Kayleighs hand. The move led to Garrison getting stuck in her right palm by the needle. Court documents showed that Garrison rushed to the store and reported the injury to a Target employee.

The person made an incident report where he noted that Garrison seemed worried about the injury caused by the needle. Documents showed:

Garrison was treated at AnMed Health, where she was tested for HIV and hepatitis. She was also prescribed medication because of the potential risk that she would contract HIV. She has tested negative for both HIV and hepatitis thus far.

The HIV drugs caused Garrison to fall ill and to be bedridden for a period. Carla Denise Garrisons husband, Clint Garrison, had to take time off work to care for her, according to Joshua Hawkins, her attorney.

Before heading to court, Hawkins asked Target to settle for $12,000, but the company declined thinking that a jury would side with them. They were wrong, a jury awarded Garrison $4.6 million, making it one of the largest amounts awarded in the history of Anderson County litigation, according to Clerk of Court Richard Shirley. Garrisons attorney said:

When we started this, we were just trying to get Target to make my client whole, to pay for her medical bills and the time that her husband had to take off work. We tried to be reasonable and not take this to trial. But Target took a really hard stance on it  and I think the jury sent a message.

Target spokeswoman Erika Winkels said the company will appeal. She said:

The final damages award has not yet been determined by the Court.Target is currently considering post-trial motions and appeal options.

Some experts are wondering if the notion of personal responsibility should have played a bigger role in the decision.
Based on Scottish Governments official weekly update on payments, the Union estimates that almost 40 million - or approximately nine percent  of funds due to be delivered as part of 2015 CAP schemes still remain outstanding as we enter the second week of September 2016. In addition, NFUS believes there are more than 1,000 businesses yet to receive any BPS payment and hundreds of others still awaiting their balance payments.

Mr Ewing, the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy and Connectivity is to update the Scottish Parliament on CAP Scheme payments on Tuesday 13 September.

Ahead of the statement, NFU Scotland President Allan Bowie said:

It goes without saying that industry had a justifiable expectation that  barring a few difficult cases  the 2015 payment debacle would finally have been concluded, all 2015 scheme payments would have been delivered to eligible farm businesses by this date and the plans for the 2016 payment run would be well in hand.

Regrettably, the Scottish industry remains some considerable distance from this being delivered. By our estimate, around nine percent of 2015 scheme monies remain outstanding; the rural economy is missing close to 40 million. Too many are still waiting for part or even all of their payment under different schemes. Given that it is more than a year since they applied for this vital support, that is unacceptable.

National pots of funding put in place by Scottish Government in the spring went some considerable way to filling the huge gap that the flawed IT delivery system had opened up in the rural economy.
The announcement was made at an awards evening held in Belfast, jointly hosted by BGS and Ulster Grassland Society. The competition and evening were kindly sponsored by Yara and DLF.

Mr Jenkins 400-cow herd of New Zealand Friesian cows, managed under a spring-block calving and grazing system, took him to the top of the 2016 competition, with judging criteria encompassing grassland and forage policy, grazing and forage management, livestock production and welfare, as well as how the farm approaches environmental issues.

When presenting the award, BGS President John Bax commented:

Whilst it is always a regret that there can only be one overall winner, I am delighted to reveal this years award goes to a grassland producer who truly demonstrates what can be acheived when there is a focus on grass and forage, in UK farming.

Stiff competition

Mr Jenkins was joined at the Belfast celebration by the two other exceptional entrants, who had succeeded through the tough regional rounds to become finalists in the competition.

The achievements of Richard Fryer, a dairy farmer from Cheshire and William Ingram, a sheep farmer from Aberdeenshire, were recognised in their making the final three.
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STAMFORD  The sentencing of a 63-year-old retired postal worker facing up to 30 months in jail for killing federally protected hawks at his mothers Cove home was postponed on Monday.

Thomas Kapusta, of Westbury, N.Y., appeared in Hartford federal court where Judge Robert Chatigny asked for more information from Kapustas attorney, Nathan Buchok, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Harold Chen before pronouncing sentence.

A new sentencing date was not immediately set.

Federal authorities said Kapusta set up the trap to protect his flock of racing pigeons, which he used as bait to capture the hawks.

Kapusta pleaded guilty in February to capturing and killing four red-tailed hawks and Coopers hawks, and one count of conspiracy to capture and kill another red-tailed or Coopers hawk.

Kapusta, who worked with the U.S. Postal Service for 34 years, faces up to six months in jail for each offense.

Deirdre Daly, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and Harold Chen, the assistant U.S. Attorney, wrote in a sentencing memorandum that evidence shows Kapusta and his friend, Adam Boguski, killed 11 protected hawks between December 2014 and October 2015. Kapusta captured and killed at least six of the hawks by himself, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Boguski, 43, of Stamford, pleaded guilty in August to capturing and killing two hawks and conspiracy to capture and kill another. He faces more than a year in prison when he is sentenced in October.

According to federal authorities, Kapusta, who grew up and went to school in Stamford and is a lifetime racing-pigeon enthusiast, kept about 100 of the birds in the coop at his mothers Weed Avenue home, near Cove Island Park. He regularly let them fly outside for exercise.

jnickerson@scni.com;
STAMFORD  For defense attorney Stephan Seeger, the case was one of free speech, plain and simple.

His client Joseph Caputo, of Stamford, went to Washington, D.C., last Thanksgiving to deliver his own rendition of the Constitution. He went to Pennsylvania Avenue, and with a flag draped across his back like a cape and his handwritten magna carta clenched in his teeth, leaped over the White House fence, where he was stopped immediately by secret service agents.

He is a politically conscious young man, and the way he chose to deliver his message of change conflicted with criminal law, Seeger said by telephone while traveling back from Washington, where Caputo on Monday accepted a plea agreement that will keep him out of jail. How do we deal with young Americans, who we encourage to have ideas and effect change? How do we deal with them when the act they employ to get their message out conflicts with the law?

Caputo pleaded guilty to unlawful entry onto restricted grounds. Prosecutors agreed not to seek jail time in the case but may ask for up to three years probation. At Caputos sentencing Dec. 6, Seeger will argue for a shorter sentence.

Seeger said the negotiations that produced the plea agreement were productive and Caputo was very involved in them. He is a bright, articulate young man and he has accepted responsibility for what he has done and is ready to put this chapter of his life behind him and become a productive member of society, Seeger said.

Another Stamford attorney, Lindy Urso, said despite his intentions, Seeger never had a chance to resolve the case on free speech grounds, even though he may have convinced the court that Caputo had no criminal intent when he got to the White House.

The Constitution as a whole is on life support. The Fourth Amendment is dead, the Second is under attack and the First Amendment seems the next to fall, Urso said adding, "If people dont get their noses out of their smart phones and start paying attention, it's going to be too late to save her (the Constitution).

Urso said that if the case had been taken to trial, Caputo would have had to give up a sweetheart deal while opening himself up to much greater penalties if his attorney did not prevail. I dont think the courts today would have ruled in his favor on a free speech argument, Urso said.

As part of the agreement, Caputo agreed not to enter D.C. during supervised release or probation, among other restrictions.

After the incident Caputo said he had no intention of harming President Barack Obama, who was sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner with his family at the time. He said he wanted to share his thoughts on what the country should stand for.

Following his arrest by the Secret Service, Caputo was released into the custody of his mother, given a curfew, was being electronically monitored and had his passport taken away until the case is resolved.

Caputo, who has Aspergers syndrome, was also ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, and he spent 72 hours following the incident under observation in a D.C. hospital.

In April, Caputo had turned down a different plea agreement that would have required him to admit wrongdoing and acknowledge that he knew what he did was against the law.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

jnickerson@scni.com
A quirky Fitzrovia alleyway around the corner from the pub where George Orwell and Dylan Thomas once supped feels like an unconventional home for a thrusting recruitment company, but its somewhat fitting for barrister-turned-entrepreneur Dupsy Abiola.

She comes from a family of outliers, in her words. Her cousin, the sprinter James Dasaolu, competed in Rio. Her father, Chief MKO Abiola, should have been president of Nigeria but was locked up a year after winning the 1993 election and died in suspicious circumstances on the day he was due to be released from prison.

MKO was a businessman as well as a politician, running dozens of ventures across Nigeria and West Africa, and he clearly passed on the entrepreneurs gene to his daughter.

She spotted a gap in the market for her business, Intern Avenue, five years ago and decided to bring the process of hiring interns and graduates kicking and screaming into the 21st century. She calls her firm an eHarmony for entry-level talent.

The seed of the idea came when the Oxford graduate was working at a law firm buried in the legal battle over the troubled construction of the new Wembley stadium. She was struck by how hard it was to find decent junior recruits. We were looking for future graduates to come in, and when youre looking for that type of talent your options are highly constrained in a way that doesnt really make sense in the 21st century. Youre used to hailing a taxi from your phone, finding a multitude of things online, but the process was very antiquated. You have got to go to career services, physically attend careers fairs.

The experience of her sister  looking to climb the first rung of a finance career ladder and feeling like a needle in a haystack  added water to the soil.

There was no discoverability there unless you are going to download a list of all the companies you might work for and go through one by one, there didnt seem to be a repository where these opportunities existed, Abiola explains. It was even hard to understand which of these businesses were interested. And there was a lot of nepotism there  do you know who to speak to, and know whos hiring? I felt there was a massive gap in the market so I quit my job.

Her website  which is completely free for students and graduates  has profiles of more than 60,000 wannabe interns and graduates looking for that first start. There are also more than 2000 employers on Intern Avenues books, from tiny companies looking for their first graduate hire to really large clients like the Department for Work and Pensions, which pay up to 500 a month to register.

The advantage for students is that they can be approached by would-be employers who like the look of their profile. The employers, meanwhile, can engage with career-seeking people far more quickly, short-cutting a process that could take months and months.

The whole concept is a fightback against the amateurish and antiquated way that a lot of junior hiring goes on  like the old saw about the boss who chucks half the CVs in the bin and says, I dont hire unlucky people.

The idea was good enough to attract 100,000 in backing from Dragons Den star Peter Jones, although hes since been bought out by a syndicate of tech and HR angels. The business is chaired by Amir Eilon, a former investment banker-turned-tech adviser who once sold another recruitment firm, Spring, to European giant Adecco. Another recruitment entrepreneur, Tony Goodwin, is also a shareholder.

The company enjoyed more than 200% growth in revenues last year, but Abiolas next target is the beginnings of our internationalisation by being able to place foreign students here.

Shes likely to raise more funding in the next 12 months, and shes not worried about Brexit. I believe it will be business as usual for the next two to five years. It offers more opportunity to people at the junior end because, frankly, theyre cheaper. We havent seen a drop  weve seen companies actually looking to invest more in their entry-level talent.

Above all, she takes inspiration from her late father. He really taught me about audacity, hard work, persistence. He was a huge influence  not just on me, but on millions. Its really humbling to be so close to someone who has had that level of impact. Everyones context is different, my life was what my life was. I didnt see him half as much as I would have liked, but our time together was really great.
U nless youre in the business, the last time youll have heard SVGs name was probably when its chairman said private-equity kingpins pay less tax than cleaning ladies.

Nine years on from Nick Fergusons candid outburst, the cleaners at HarbourVest are sweeping SVG away altogether.

While Mondays bid is opportunistic and undervalued, theres no doubt SVGs shareholders fancy an exit.

L&G, Aviva and Old Mutuals acceptances of the bid arent set in stone, but - just like the Americans dawn raid on the shares - they indicate a strong appetite for the deal.

Of course, HarbourVest says its offer is far from opportunistic. Its team explain that the value of SVGs investments are going nowhere for years. SVG has just pumped a whole bunch of cash into new projects which wont start bearing fruit for at least five years. We can wait that long, but can you, they ask.

As for the price, they tell you, were being generous.

Funds like SVG are measured by the discount between the share price and the worth of the underlying investments (the net asset value). The discount reflects running costs and the illiquid, risky nature of the investments. In SVGs case, the Americans are offering a 2.4% discount to the last NAV measure. Given that the discount has been 20% over the past two years, thats hardly stingy, Harbourvest says.

But it is: SVGs NAV temperature was last taken before Brexit. Since then, as most of SVGs investments are in dollar and euro-earning companies, its pretty safe to assume the valuation in pounds will have increased by 10% or so. In which case, Harbourvests offer price represents a discount of more like 12.5%. Hardly bite-your-hand-off territory.

I may be wrong about SVGs up-to-date value. But we only have to wait until next Tuesday to find out: thats when SVG is scheduled to announce its current NAV. As such, it seems crazy that shareholders are selling out today.

One which irrevocably accepted the bid from the get-go is Coller Capital.

Coller has fewer reasons than most to quibble over a few pence here and there on the share price. It invested 42 million in the rescue refinancing of SVG in 2009 and, even at todays low-ball offer, stands to pocket a profit of 225.5 million. If thats not one of the deals of the decade, what is?

All those years ago, Ferguson was criticising the low-tax treatment of carried interest, the method private-equity executives use to be taxed at the rate of corporations rather than people. Its been partly addressed in recent Budgets, but not entirely.

Jeremy Coller and his partners carry will be boosted by tens of millions of pounds from the SVG deal. I wonder how much the Exchequer will see of it.
J ohn Laing has called on Chancellor Philip Hammond to give Britains infrastructure a shot in the arm at this years Autumn Statement.

Andrew Charlesworth, a director of John Laing Infrastructure fund, said the UKs decision to leave the European Union was an opportunity for Theresa Mays government to embrace spending and infrastructure development and promote itself on the world stage.

Ive been banging the drum for many years about the opportunity infrastructure delivers and Brexit is a fantastic opportunity for the UK to grasp the form and get on with it, he said.

The attractiveness of the UK at the heart of Europe may not be so strong post-brexit but if we can provide the solution as an industry we can promote growth, Charlesworth added.

Debate about the Bank of Englands quantitative easing policy has led to many calls to Hammond for more money for roads, bridges and buildings.
S outh Korean electronics giant Samsungs latest warnings over the safety of its new Galaxy Note 7 smartphone knocked nearly 9 billion off the value of the firm on Monday.

The fall came two days after the company again urged customers to stop using the gadget which has seen some batteries overheat and catch fire.

It had already announced a global recall on September 2.

The USs Federal Aviation Administration has also issued a warning and said last week it strongly advises passengers not to turn on or charge these devices on board aircraft and not to stow them in any checked baggage. The smartphone maker has already apologised for the fault and said it would halt sales of them.

Shares fell nearly 7% today.

Separately, Samsung said it has agreed to sell its printer business to personal computer maker HP for $1.05 billion (791 million).

The deal opens up a path for HP to get its hands on key laser-printing technology.
T he first anniversary of Jeremy Corbyn becoming leader of the Labour Party is today, a cue for celebration from the grassroots supporters who voted him in and outright despondency on the part of the MPs who feel threatened by the Momentum movement that supports him and dispirited by his performance. Tonight we also get details of the new constituencies proposed by the Boundary Commission. Mr Corbyn should be safe but London is to lose five MPs. Most will be Tories  including the Education Secretary, Justine Greening  some of whose seats are smaller than the 70,000 population at which the commission aims, but Labour may be affected. If sitting MPs are to be pitted against each other it gives scope for grassroots movements such as Momentum to influence which of them wins. That holds true outside London to an even greater extent. There are attempts by Mr Corbyns opponents to undermine his leadership by, for instance, taking responsibility for electing the shadow cabinet, but they are unlikely to be successful.

It is the leadership contest which is the real focus for party division; the deadline for the return of ballot papers is next week. We have seen a conspicuously unimpressive candidate, Owen Smith  barely known in Wales and little known outside it  oppose Mr Corbyn. Given his performance so far and the fact his best known proposal is to overturn the Brexit vote, the chances that he would make Labour any more electable than Mr Corbyn are slim. Labours best candidates  the likes of Chuka Umunna and Dan Jarvis  are conspicuous by their absence. There is no way of knowing which way the new Labour members will vote  we will find out on September 24.

Jeremy Corbyn: One year as Labour leader

Whichever way the vote goes, the reality is that Labour will, for the foreseeable future, remain unelectable. There is no public appetite for the party to split and no good precedent for it. The Prime Minister may for now help unite Labour in opposition to her policies, such as reintroducing grammar schools, but for the purpose of Her Majestys Opposition holding the Government to account, the electorate must, alas, look elsewhere.

The fight against IS

At sunset this evening a seven-day truce begins in Syria. If successful, it will be followed by co-ordinated Russian and US air strikes against IS. The omens are not propitious but any cessation of hostilities which allows relief to come to besieged populations in cities like Aleppo is welcome.

As Patrick Cockburn observes on this page, the real difficulty lies in the make-up of the Syrian opposition and their willingness to cease fighting. It has always been difficult to treat these disparate groups as a coherent whole and equally difficult to sustain the illusion that those within Syria are moderates. But where there is ground for optimism is in the internationalisation of the conflict. Air strikes by Russia and the US may succeed if they are backed on the ground by Kurdish troops and the Syrian army. And the fight against IS must be our main priority.

Mayor meets ex-mayor

The Mayor, Sadiq Khan, meets his predecessor for talks at the Foreign Office this evening. It will be the first time the pair have met since Boris Johnson became Foreign Secretary and there is much to discuss, with Brexit negotiations top of the agenda. It is to be hoped that when Mr Khan urges Mr Johnson to give due consideration to Londons particular post-Brexit needs, he will be preaching to the converted. More than any others, these two politicians must recognise that a deal which works for London will benefit the whole of the UK.
T he agreement between the US and Russia on a ceasefire in Syria to begin at sunset this evening may work because these two powers are the heavy hitters in the Syrian conflict. They are powerful enough to get their allies and proxies to go along with the deal under which there will be a seven-day truce during which UN aid convoys will enter besieged areas.

But the agreement, spelled out in five documents that are not being published, contains a war plan as well as a peace plan. If the ceasefire is successfully implemented the US and Russia will begin an unprecedented military partnership under which they will target Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, the jihadist group which changed its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and formally ended its connection to al Qaeda.

The fact that Washington and Moscow negotiated the agreement over 10 months and will co-ordinate military action against Islamist extremists marks a transformation in the political landscape, not just in Syria but globally. Russia is back as a superpower  certainly in the Middle East  for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Can the agreement be implemented or will it be shipwrecked by the conflicting currents generated by the multiple confrontations that make up the Syrian conflict? The likelihood is that it will go ahead because the US and Russia want it to happen but it is vulnerable to divisions in Washington over the wisdom of the new accord.

President Bashar al-Assad has agreed to it not just because he depends on Russian airpower and weapons supply, but because it is in his interests to do so. His forces have been advancing in Damascus and once again encircle the rebel enclave in east Aleppo, so he may want to freeze the present battle lines while he consolidates his position.

There is a less obvious long-term reason why Assad may be happy to stop his air force attacking opposition areas and bombing civilian targets. The backbone of the non-IS armed opposition groups is Nusra, whose suicide bombers have led every successful rebel offensive. It is well organised, militarily experienced, fanatical and popular in the areas it controls. The Syrian political exiles and their sympathisers have always tried to mask the fact that these extreme Islamists dominate the armed opposition in Syria itself. The idea that there are moderate fighters available to replace them and fight Assad has always been a myth.

This is one of the weaknesses of the agreement. The Nusra leadership and its thousands of fighters, some of the toughest men on the planet, are meant to stand still while supposedly moderate fighters make themselves scarce and take refuge under a US-Russian air umbrella. It is much more likely that Nusra will take the offensive and seek to disrupt a ceasefire that is much against its interests. Some Nusra leaders will argue that, if their movement is going to be targeted like IS, then they might as well ally themselves with IS with whom they previously fought a bloody inter-jihadist civil war.

Will any of this bring the end of the Syrian conflict nearer? Syria is full of pessimists who think that the present ceasefire will evaporate like past abortive attempts to bring this horrific war to an end. But the cynics may well be wrong because the nature of the war here has changed over the past two years. It has become thoroughly internationalised since the US became militarily engaged in 2014 when it started air strikes to stop IS winning more victories after it had captured Mosul in Iraq. A year later Russia intervened with its air force to back up Assad as his army faltered under the assaults of Nusra and IS.

In the past there have been plenty of spoilers who torpedoed attempts at negotiations. But they may not be so willing to do so this time round. Support from the Turkish government was crucial for the armed opposition in Syria, because Turkey acted as a rear base through which passed weapons and foreign volunteers. But today Turkey is more interested in combating the Kurdish quasi-state in northern Syria than getting rid of Assad.

There is a peculiarity about the US-Russian agreement which makes it difficult to judge its chances of success. There are clearly side deals and understandings so some potential opponents of the deal will have been bought off by secret concessions. Why, for instance, were Damascus and Moscow so mute when Turkey invaded northern Syria last month if they had not been told previously that the extent of the Turkish advance would be limited. We are still a long way from a complete peace in Syria, but secret and open diplomacy rather than war have started to set the agenda.

The US and Russia will now co-ordinate air attacks on IS and Nusra but this is not going to be enough to eliminate either of these battered but powerful movements. Tactical air strikes work when they are called in by effective ground troops, as has been shown in Syria over the past 18 months when well-trained Syrian Kurdish infantry repeatedly defeated IS thanks to the massive fire power of the US Air Force.

The US and its allies will try to create a moderate armed opposition to replace Nusra and IS but it is unlikely that they will succeed. Previous attempts to do this have been laughably unsuccessful with vast expenditure producing only a handful of men. The extreme Islamists may be weakening in Syria and Iraq but they remain formidable opponents.

A US-Russian partnership is the only political and military combination that has the power to end the present war. But it is a fragile alliance of leaders and countries who do not trust each other; many in Washington object to doing business with their old Cold War rival. But none of these critics have put forward a feasible alternative policy for ending the war, so if this agreement does not work nothing else will.
I n the early 1990s Jeff Kennett had a problem. Jeff was the politician in charge of the Australian state of Victoria, where a big casino was about to open for the first time. The owners of the casino had a lot of political clout, and they were lobbying hard for a change to the licensing rules so their gambling house could have lots of places where punters could buy booze.

Jeff soon agreed to do what the lobbyists wanted, and created a special new type of alcohol licence for small bars, making it cheap and easy for the casino owners to do what they wanted. But then something unexpected happened. Canny entrepreneurs realised the new licence wasnt restricted to casinos  it could be used anywhere in the state, including its capital Melbourne.

At the time Melbourne was something of a cultural backwater. But suddenly small bars started springing up across the city, breathing new life to its backstreets and laneways. As a result, Melbourne quickly developed a reputation as a cool place to hang out, and creative people from across Australia began to move there. Media companies, start-ups and creative industries soon followed, bringing new jobs and investment in their wake.

Today, Melbournes creative economy is worth over 13 billion, and the city has a global reputation for being one of the best places for creative people to live and work.

Other Australian cities have followed suit. From Perth to Sydney, politicians have liberalised alcohol licensing rules for small bars to attract creative talent to their cities.

Unfortunately London is fast going in the opposite direction. Last weeks news that the iconic nightclub Fabric is being shut down is yet another damaging blow, following on from the shuttering of Madame Jojos in Soho, Club Colosseum in Vauxhall and so many other venues. Over the past decade 40 per cent of Londons live music venues have closed, leaving our city a sadly quieter and less exciting place.

Thanks to the work of the Night Time Industries Association and former deputy mayor Munira Mirza, the economic contribution of Londons clubs and music venues is now better understood, and Sadiq Khan has committed to creating a Night Mayor to push this agenda forward.

However, venues like Fabric will continue to close until we come to understand that the damage being done to London is about much more than just the night-time economy, as significant as that is.

Whats at stake is our citys attractiveness to what the US academic Richard Florida calls the global creative class: highly educated young workers who can choose where they want to live, and could just as easily be in Los Angeles, Melbourne or Lisbon as in London.

Brexit already means that many creative workers and entrepreneurs are thinking about whether to stay in London  or whether to move here in the first place.

In these months after the EU referendum, we should be pulling out all the stops to make our city more attractive to global talent, not less so. As Melbourne shows, places thrive when creative people want to be there, and that means having an effervescent night-time scene. So lets start by keeping Fabric open  and sending a signal to people around the world that London is heading in the right direction
T he rollercoaster of emotions had been building up since the day the judge confirmed that he would allow the face to face meetings with her son, so by the time Lynne Sandford climbed on board flight BA275 to Las Vegas her stomach was a knot of nerves.

She was about to see her 20-year-old son Michael for the first time in more than a year but their encounter would be across a table with wire mesh between them.

Its going to be emotional. I dont really know what to expect.

Michaels grandmother Christine and his four year old sister, Jessica, were travelling with her. The airline had allocated them seats in different parts of the plane but as soon as we were on board Ms Sandford set about finding them seats together.

She had been separated from her son, she was not about to be separated from her mother and daughter.

Ms Sandford, 46, is the glue who keeps the family together. Her mother, who is in her late 70s is happy to stay in the background.

Jessica, was clutching Tiggles, a cuddly toy animal originally bought for Michael when he was a toddler. The fluffy inheritance makes her brother feel closer.

The pictures of Michael Sandford, from Dorking, being frogmarched out of a rally in Las Vegas were beamed around the world. It is alleged he tried to grab an officers gun and said he wanted to kill Donald Trump.

I watched as Ms Sandford walked purposefully in the suffocating heat toward the court house in Las Vegas for the first meeting. She emerged two hours later.

We spent the entire visit hand to hand. I could feel his warmth through the mesh and then we were allowed a few moments together privately at the end and we just hugged the screen.

Michaels legal team now have a report which could form a key part of his defence. His lawyer Saimo Chahal said: Michael has been assessed by a psychiatrist and a very interesting piece of information has come forward.

He appears to have been acting under a very psychotic episode at the time he tried to pull out the (officers) gun. He was hearing a voice telling him to rid the world of Trump. So, it does seem he was in a very bad mental state at the time that he allegedly committed this offence.

The next two visits were at the Nevada Southern Detention Centre. A sign outside tells visitors to leave mobile phones, lighters and guns in vehicles.

It is privately run and newly built, but the facilities for visitors are far from ideal.

Ms Sandford explained: There were other families in the same room which had seven screens on one wall and seven on another. There was no privacy. Everybody could hear everyone elses conversations.

The meeting was particularly difficult for Michaels grandmother.

I dont think Ill ever see him again because Im elderly now and Michael thinks hes going to be there for some time, she said.

A tearful Ms Sandford said leaving her son after the final meeting was extremely difficult.

Turning around for the last time to say goodbye was the worst feeling possible. He looked so alone and dejected but I will never ever give up on him.

More than 32,000 has been raised on a crowdfunding page set up to help the family pay for legal fees.

Mr Sandford has been charged with being in the country illegally and disrupting government business. He faces up to 10 years in US prison if found guilty.

His trial starts on October 3.
F orget Shoreditch, the new capital of street art is Croydon. At least, that is, according to developers aiming to transform the borough with the help of a leading artist and hundreds of colourful murals from locals.

They hope the designs will attract Londoners taking their first step on the property ladder to the ex-office block Green Dragon House. Ben Eine, whose shutters decorate Tokyo, New York, LA and Paris, unveiled his latest mural Mesmerising on the 16-storey apartment block in Croydons art quarter.

Eine, whose painted letters feature in the East End, said areas like Croydon were realising the benefits of street art.

An exhibition of originals by Banksy, Eine and others has opened alongside the completion of the Green Dragon Houses communal living spaces.

The development has become a canvas to urban artists including Fuel and Dotmaster, with curation by Attollo Fine Art and Rise gallery.

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Review at a glance









A s courtroom dramas go, Denial just about has the lot.

In 1996, David Irving, the Holocaust denier and long-term writer about Nazi Germany, launched a libel suit in Britain against Penguin Books and the American historian Deborah Lipstadt, the author of Denying The Holocaust: The Growing Assault On Truth And Memory, for having stated that he was a deliberate falsifier of history.

David Hare has turned the true story of the High Court battle into an efficient script, fluently directed by Mick Jackson, the BBC veteran who scored big with The Bodyguard back in 1992.

Rachel Weisz is excellent, furiously intense, as Lipstadt, hardly needing the cute accoutrements of a lovely dog back home in the States and a penchant for jogging.

Remarkable: Timothy Spall as David Irving

Timothy Spall gives another remarkable performance as Irving, his face lined, pouchy and drawn but still maintaining a haughty defiance against the world. As Lipstadts lawyers, who decided that neither she nor any Holocaust survivors should be put on the stand for Irving to exploit, Andrew Scott is credibly smart as her solicitor Anthony Julius, but the actor who runs away with the film is Tom Wilkinson.

As the bibulous barrister Richard Rampton QC, Wilkinson makes having enormous presence as an actor, while never seeming just to play the same part, look so simple. If only that were true.

Denial takes a sombre excursion to the ruins of Auschwitz but the main action is all in court. The arguments  resulting in a massive written judgment in 2000, rejecting Irvings account and permanently labelling him a Holocaust denier, anti-Semitic and racist  are necessarily a bit skimped in the film, which had its world premiere in Toronto last night.

But Hares script makes it clear that winning such a case is a matter of legal strategy, more than sincere expression. You risk losing, not just for yourself, but for everyone, for ever, Rampton warns Lipstadt, when she wants to speak up. She accepts his advice.

Her joy at finally seeing an Evening Standard billboard proclaiming Irving the verdict: he lied  even the way she jogs up to the statue of triumphant Boad-icea by the Thames  is fully earned.

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T he newest addition to the cast of Kinky Boots today revealed she only got to see the West End hit a couple of days before she started  after producers banned her from the theatre.

Elena Skye, who did odd jobs for two years after graduating from the Royal College of Music, will play shoe factory worker Lauren in the musical, which just celebrated its first anniversary.

The 22-year-old said: I hadnt seen the show before I auditioned and in my second audition they told me not to go and see it. I think it was because they liked my interpretation and didnt want me getting ideas and changing things.

I was dying to go, then my parents went for my mums birthday and it was just agony that I was stuck at home. I asked them, How was it? What is the role like?

The show, written by Cyndi Lauper and four-time Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein, is based on the 2005 British film starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, which was in turn inspired by the real story of a factory that saved itself from closure by making womens shoes in mens sizes for cross-dressers. The producers finally let Elena see a performance just before she joined the cast, which includes Olivier award winner Matt Henry, at the Adelphi Theatre. She admitted her first few performances were a blur, adding: It is hard to explain, Ive not experienced anything like it and the audience reaction was incredible as well.

I think its the energy and the message of the show and the story and characters that [make] people just connect with them and feel for them.

Buy tickets for Kinky Boots with Evening Standard Tickets

@RobDexES

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P arents of children who use social media apps are being warned that heavy usage could lead to insecurities later in life, after a government study revealed that heavy users of such sites are unhappier with their appearance.

A survey of 10 to 15-year-olds found that of those who used Facebook and Twitter for more than three hours a night, only 53 per cent were happy with their looks - compared to 82 per cent among non-users.

The survey of 3,500 children, carried out over a number of years by Essex University, also found that heavy social media users were less satisfied with their relationships, with 17 per cent saying they are bullied a lot or quite a lot  compared with just 11 per cent of casual users.

And if youve been dealing with a terrible teen lately, your computer may be to blame, as children who are heavy users of social media are also more likely to argue with their parents, according to the study.

The survey found that some 44 per cent who surfed the internet for more than three hours quarreled with their mother more than once a week - a figure was nearly half of that for light and non-users of social networks.

The government polled over 40,000 households across the UK to gather the findings, which were published in a report titled Understanding Society.

The best apps for Londoners 1 /16 The best apps for Londoners Zip car Join, reserve, unlock and drive  it really is that simple. The capitals preferred car clubs app gives 24/7 access to cars and vans in your neighbourhood and lets you extend or cancel reservations on the go. Free Uncover Sick of being stuck on waiting lists? You need Uncover, which redistributes cancelled reservations at some of the capitals top restaurants, including The River Cafe and Nobu. Not for planning freaks, though  tables typically become free at 40 minutes notice. Free Uber So popular its become a verb, this private driver service has revolutionised travel in the capital. Its speedy and affordable, making it a welcome alternative to the night bus. Free Santander Cycles Launched this summer, the official app for Boris fifth child can be used to search for nearby docking stations and check bike availability. Theres also a journey planner featuring easy, moderate and fast routes to satisfy all cycling tribes. Free Plume Air Report This new app has been downloaded by 3,000 Londoners. Sensors gathering air pollution data submit updates every hour, resulting in a scale that ranges from fresh to extremely polluted. Free Nightcapp Heres an app that will have booze hounds raising their glasses. NightCapp is a map that pinpoints more than 1,500 London watering holes that stay open past 11.30pm. It also shows users when a bar is about to close by highlighting it in orange. Better get moving. Free Money Dashboard An award-winning budget planner, this helps you keep track of personal spending across multiple accounts, pay off credit cards and even makes suggestions on how to manage your finances better. Free Her Promising to introduce women to a lesbian that hasnt slept with any of your friends, this revamped dating app includes queer-themed news and blogs, upcoming event notices and an improved algorithm-matching system. Free FoodMood This new startup, which reckons its Tinder for food, pledges to narrow down your choice of lunchbreak destinations. Hit yum or yuk on photos of dishes in your area. Juvenile, but strangely addictive. Free Daily Yoga This offers more than 50 yoga sessions, as well as a database of 500 yoga poses. Suitable for all levels, programmes include yoga aimed at specific areas of the body and weight loss. Namaste to that. Free Coffee Meets Bagel Billed as the anti-Tinder, this new kid on the block delivers just a single match to users once a day. Coffee Meets Bagel uses Facebook profile information to recommend suitors based on friends of friends. Neither coffee nor bagels are included. Free. Bristlr Do you have a beard? Perhaps youd like to stroke one on a regular basis? This can be arranged. Unlike other dating apps, Bristlr is unashamedly all about hooking up the hairy with the hairless. Theres even a beard-rating option for aficionados. Free

Truancy rates were also found to be higher for heavy users, some 14 per cent admitting to 'bunking off' school, compared to 6 per cent of light users.

But its not all doom and gloom for parents of Facebook addicts, as there was one positive finding to emerge from the survey.

90 per cent of heavy social media users said they wanted to go to university compared to 87 per cent of casual users and 82 per cent of those who avoided social networks altogether.

So if you're sick of your teen hogging your iPad to check their Instagram feed - don't worry, they'll soon be flying the nest.

Follow us on Twitter: @eslifeandstyle
W ith a modest smile, Sarah Harrison is describing her role in the WikiLeaks network: Im not Snowden or Assange; Im just a blonde girl. But despite appearing to be a normal woman from Kent, with the most boring name ever, Harrison, aged 34, is at the centre of a powerful global group of activists working to uncover what they believe are government cover-ups and data breaches.

When NSA leaker Edward Snowden had his passport blocked by the US and was stranded at Moscows Sheremetyevo airport for 40 days in July 2013, it was Harrison who was by his side, working around the clock to get him asylum and not leaving the airport either. She lived off horrible coffee and Burger King, which I still cant eat.

Before that she was Julian Assanges personal assistant and girlfriend, spending a year holed up in Norfolk when he was under house arrest there in 2011, facing allegations of sexual assault in Sweden, and then visiting him every day at the Ecuadorian embassy.

The public latched on to the fact that a woman who went to the private Sevenoaks School in Kent was involved with Assange. Harrison is slim and tanned, with scraped-back curly hair and a gap-toothed smile. At first she is on edge and jumps when I say her name, but after that she relaxes and her manner is more like a friendly teacher than a hacker on the fringes of society.

This is her first time in London since 2013, when lawyers advised that her links to whistleblowers made it too risky for her to return home from Moscow, where she was with Snowden. She feared that if she returned she would be stopped by Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which gives police the power to detain people entering or leaving the country: I risked three months in prison, which isnt the end of the world, but they can also put you on no fly lists. Instead she settled in Berlin. But following an appeal ruling in January journalists are now effectively exempt from Schedule 7 and Harrison is delighted that she can come visit family and Julian, whose name she says with affection.

Julian Assange with Sarah Harrison in 2010 / Polaris / eyevine

Weve met to discuss Oliver Stones film Snowden, which is out on Friday. Unlike previous whistleblower film The Fifth Estate based on a book by people who didnt like us, Harrison is excited to see a good film about my friends and is full of praise for Joseph Gordon Levitt, who plays Snowden.

She advised Stone on the section about Snowdens escape, a period which she remembers in forensic detail. After Snowden leaked the NSA documents he contacted WikiLeaks for support and they sent Harrison to meet him in Hong Kong. From there she planned to take him to safety in Latin America, avoiding the US. I first met him en route to the airport. He was a calm mix of resigned and hopeful, dealing with a tense situation, she says.

You dont leak that many documents and think youll get away with it. He assumed he would be in prison or dead but we had a flight out so there was some hope.

They pretended to be a couple on holiday. I never realised there were so many stages to getting a flight. I remember holding my breath while they checked his passport. I lost perspective of time because it was so nerve-racking.

Once they made it to Moscow they went to check in for their flights to Cuba but Snowdens passport had been blocked. So began 40 days living in confinement with a man she had only just met, hiding from the world press in a tiny, windowless room that the nice airport staff gave them.

Harrison says that she could have left at any time but has a strong sense of duty. You cant abandon someone in that scenario. At each step there were more risks and it became more exciting so you keep going, but by that stage it was more that there was this great guy sitting next to me who needed help.

When Snowden was eventually granted asylum in Moscow, Harrison stayed with him for three months to make sure he was settled. Now he has made a new life there, even though he was originally not keen to stay, and his girlfriend, a dancer, has come to live with him. Their love story features heavily in the film, says Harrison sweetly. Its romantic. She must be a strong lady. He kept her in the dark so she wouldnt be implicated. Imagine waking up one day and seeing your boyfriend all over the news. But she stuck by him.

Snowden is not somebody who complains and that stopped Harrison from whining. Its like complaining that its raining to Julian Assange, who cant leave the embassy.

She thought of Assange while she was there. It gave me new-found respect for Julian. When I finally left the airport my eyes hurt focusing on long distances and I had bad headaches. I thought imagine what itll be like for Julian when he hasnt seen the horizon in four years.

Harrison now focuses on an organisation called Courage / Daniel Hambury/Stella Pictures

Are they still a couple? She laughs. Weve never talked about that to the press. Hes my friend and I havent seen him for three years until this summer so draw your own conclusions. There is more laughter.

She puts some of her public image down to sexism. So much of the press has tried to sexualise my role or play it down. I grew up with a strong mother and two sisters so never experienced any sexism until this. Assange is keeping strong. Its hard. The United Nations says he should be released and the US government ignored that. You do wonder how this scenario can be resolved.

She now focuses on an organisation called Courage, which provides practical support for people who have spoken out against the government, including British hacker Lauri Love, who has a hearing on Friday over extradition to the US. Working with Snowden, we noticed that nobody was able to help in the immediate need of these politicised cases.

The cases shes worked on with Courage have put her off wanting to come back to the UK. She is hopeful about Theresa May after the Prime Minister stood up to the US when they wanted to extradite British hacker Gary McKinnon, though she finds the Snoopers charter sad. You wouldnt expect a 50-year-old politician to know about cutting-edge encryption but they dont seem to get informed.

Inspiring British women on Instagram 1 /28 Inspiring British women on Instagram 1. Adwoa Aboah Model and founder of GURLS TALK @adwoaaboah "My story starts in London. I was born there. Ive spent most of my life there. It is my home. Instagram has helped me connect to girls all over the world, it has given me a platform to share my story, speak my truths and give other girls the opportunity to do the same." @adwoaaboah 2. Lucille Clerc Illustrator @lucille_clerc "My story reflects my experience as an illustrator between two cultures, being French and living in London. Its a door to my sketchbook, my personal research and techniques, and a way to raise attention on topics that matter to me." @lucille_clerc 3. Mabel McVey Musician @mabelmcvey "Strong female role models have always been very important to me and my story. When looking at a camera, it isnt about a man being on the other end, its about me. Its about feeling positive about myself and I want other young women to feel confident about themselves too." @mabelmcvey 4. Glacier Girl Activist @glacier996girl "My story is about raising awareness for climate change and adapting the aesthetic of eco-friendly to appeal to the iGeneration." @glacier996girl 5. Gill Button Artist @buttonfruit "Im a compulsive painter of faces. I seek to portray the confidence and power that people gain through self-adornment, but I always aim to show a hint of inner vulnerability. Instagram is the perfect environment to post my paintings and drawings. Its fantastic to get an instant reaction to new paintings Ive been working on, and it spurs me on to keep creating. The community of artists Im lucky enough to be part of is the most inspirational and supportive Ive known since leaving art college. It is also amazing that so many international clients find me on Instagram which has given my career a brand new lease of life." @buttonfruit 6. Iska Lawrence Model @iamiskra "My story is about showing the world that you can stand up for yourself when trolls or online bullies try and attack you and bring you down. Instagram has completely changed my life, opening up opportunities in my career and allowing me to find my voice. When I began posting honest and un-retouched photos on Instagram, I received hundreds and eventually thousands of supportive messages and comments. I felt more confident about my body and most importantly found a platform I could use to help others who struggle with body image and self-esteem." @iamiskra 7. Becky Jane Brown Vlogger and artist @BeckieJBrown "My story is that I battle depression and trichotillomania, where Im compelled to tear out all my hair. I strive to create more awareness for my disorder, whilst trying to bring hope to other sufferers around the world. I mainly use Instagram to document small but important moments from each day of my life, a combination of sad and uplifting experiences but all important regardless. My main focus is to show others that no matter what conditions or disorders we have, we can have normal lives and be happy." @BeckieJBrown 8. Nicky Baker Shepherdess @therunningshepherdess "My story is about a woman working in a predominantly male environment. I hope that it shows that although I may not be as physically strong as the men working on the farm, I am just as capable." @therunningshepherdess 9. Rachel Siegfried Flower farmer @gandgorgeousflowers "My story captures a life in flowers on our flower farm in Oxfordshire. I strive to show the changing seasons through palette of flowers and foliage that I grow which I use to inspire and create my floral designs. Instagram has helped me to champion British cut flowers and share how we sustainable grow them to produce naturally beautiful and stylish designs which reflect our gardens and landscape." @gandgorgeousflowers 10. Jools Walker Cyclist @ladyvelo "My stories is a narrative of my life on two wheels. Through my combination of positive images and words, I aim to redefine what the stereotype of cycling is and use my voice to encourage other women to do the same. Instagram has given me a platform to show diversity in cycling does exist. It allows me to reach other to other everyday women and inspire them to get out there and ride, smash stereotypes along the way and encourage them to share their stories." @ladyvelo 11. Carrie Anne Roberts Entrepreneur @mre.soeur "My story is about life as a single mother and small business owner. I believe in the power of sisterhood and the importance of sharing stories so I try to stay extremely candid with my posts, exposing the struggles and triumphs of motherhood and the early stages of a creative brand. Im passionate about forming real connections, celebrating women and throwing out waves of positivity and self-acceptance in order to build a sense of community." @mre.soeur 12. Olivia Bradbury Student @mathsbiochem "My story captures the changing attitudes towards teenage girls taking traditionally male-dominated subjects in school; showing them that subjects dont come with a gender." @mathsbiochem 13. Viviana Gomez Morales Skateboarder @ViviGomez12 "My story captures the strength and versatility of female skaters. In the world of skateboarding its common for a guy to say hes never seen a girl skateboarder. I hope that my photographs shine a light on the amazing ladies who are out there ripping the streets and encourage other women to get involved." @ViviGomez12 14. Sisters Uncut Activists @sistersuncut "Sisters Uncut is an intersectional feminist direct-action group that campaigns against cuts to domestic violence services in the UK. We often post photos of our actions on Instagram because its a way for us to share our demands amongst a wide audience. The further we can spread our message the more we can build a movement and reach people who might not have heard about us otherwise. Its important that we show our Sisters that we are fighting for and alongside them, and by capturing our actions and sharing them on Instagram people can connect with what we are doing online. There are many women and non-binary people on Instagram who inspire and encourage us." @sistersuncut 15. Munroe Bergdorf Activist and DJ @munroebergdorf "My story is one of self-empowerment and self-belief. Growing up, there werent any aspirational trans women of colour in the media I could relate to, so hopefully through documenting my achievements and experiences I can show younger trans girls and boys that their gender isnt something that should stand in the way of what they want to accomplish in life." @munroebergdorf 16. Helen Downie Artist @Unskilledworker "My story is about me waking up to painting at the age of 48 and committing and being disciplined to the action. I have learned more about myself through this process than in any other experience in my life. I post my work to Instagram and I consider it finished. At this point I am able to see the work outside of the environment it was created and in doing so, I gain a new perspective. Instagram has cut out the traditional gatekeepers which allows for my work to be seen by a wider audience." @Unskilledworker 17. Molly Gunn Entrepreneur @SelfishMother "My story is since 2011. The year I had my firstborn, Rafferty. The year I was a mixed-up new mum. The year I discovered sanity lay in my sense of self. The year my blogzine and brand Selfish Mother was born. Instagram is a window to Selfish Mother. A way to connect with our likeminded tribe." @SelfishMother 18. Dina Torika Designer and Vlogger @dinatokio "My story is all about inspiring women through style, in particular the Muslim modest dresser that loves expressing her individuality. Deconstructing the stereotype that the woman in a hijab is oppressed and reinventing what it means to be a British Muslim woman in todays society." @dinatokio 19. Davorka Andjelic Artist @tilly2milly "I use Instagram as a platform to connect with inspiring and creative people around the world. My main theme is paper dolls, which I make using magazines and newspapers. For me they represent a connection with raw emotion to which only children are privileged. They express my emotions of joy, sadness, hope and fear. Because of Instagram I started taking them on my travels and it is truly wonderful to find little corners of the world where they look at home." @tilly2milly 20. Jaz OHara Activist @theworldwidetribe "My story demonstrates how love and compassion come out on top. Despite the most difficult circumstances, humanity will prevail. My story took me on a journey from working in fashion in London, to living in a refugee camp in Calais, France after a post I wrote about my first visit there went viral. My story is about encouraging and inspiring responsibility and power within each of us to stand up for what we believe and create positive change." @theworldwidetribe 22. Amber Kirk-Ford Blogger @themilelongbookshelf "My story is about the importance of literature and how reading the right book can change your life. My aim is to show how fun and brilliant books can be and that theyre not boring, dusty tomes you might remember with dread from school." @themilelongbookshelf

But Harrison has been excited to visit. I got to see my parents house renovations. The first thing I did when I came back was fall over a new step in their house and cut my chin. I still have the scar  its ridiculous.

Her father works for Burton and her mother works with children who have difficulty reading. She has two younger sisters who live in Hong Kong and for their own protection Ive kept them out of the picture. Her family heard about Snowden, when most people did. Someone phoned my Mum and said Sarahs on the news.

It wasnt a surprise to them and they have met Assange. Ive always been headstrong, idealistic and ready to fight. When I was eight I wrote to John Major about homelessness so my family always assumed Id go into something quite idealistic. They approve, although Im not saying they dont get nervous.

Harrison says she puts puts some of her public image down to sexism / Daniel Hambury/Stella Pictures

Living off-grid, not knowing what country she will be in next, isnt too hard for her. Ive never had a phone anyway. Did it bother her family? They just had to learn some encryption if they wanted to speak to me.

The whistleblowers shes met share a certain mindset. Its not just seeing illegality that seems to push them over the edge. Its the hypocrisy they cant stand. Thats why you see so many from the US  it makes these beautiful statements and is held up on a pedestal but working behind the scenes you see the lies, which enrages people to the point where they have to do something.

Britains former counter-terrorism chief Cressida Dick has warned that Snowdens leak made the world a more dangerous place and handed the advantage to terrorists. What does Harrison make of this argument? This stems from propaganda spun by the government, she says, speaking quickly, suggesting that this is a well-rehearsed rebuff. They make these great rhetorical points but theres nothing to back it up. You see it with Chelsea Manning. The government was at great pains to try and find any harm that had come from the releases yet they couldnt find one person that had been harmed so came to the conclusion themselves that no harm had been done.

At the moment WikiLeaks is criticising Hillary Clinton. Julian said that choosing between Trump and Clinton is like choosing between gonorrhoea and syphilis. She smiles indulgently at this full-on way to put it.

Does it ever feel as if shes in the middle of an insurmountable challenge fighting against global governments, especially with Assange now in his fourth year at the Ecuadorian embassy? It does. But once youve learned something you cant unlearn it. If I were to walk away now Id be abandoning friends I respect and thats not in my nature. If I didnt care about the work there are many other things I could be doing. I wake up every day and hear about people in prison for years, hiding in rooms, seeking asylum and you dont walk away from that. My life is charmed compared to theirs.

She continues: People always wonder how I do such a risky job but it is living out my ideals. In many ways it is an incredibly exciting and privileged existence. I cant imagine doing anything else.

Follow Susannah Butter on Twitter: @susannahbutter
N ew openings in the Ethiopian Highlands are rare. When it comes to the Simien Mountains National Park, one of the richest wildlife areas in the country, visitors could previously stay either in the nearby town of Debark or, if keen to be inside the parks borders, the decade-old Simien Lodge. Limalimo Lodge, the second to be opened inside the National Park, offers something stylishly new.

Built on an escarpment within the recently expanded park boundaries, close to the village of Limalimo, the lodge has been a long time coming. Originally scheduled to open in September 2015, building work was still going on during my visit in May; the soft opening should (fingers crossed) become an official full opening once its all finished this month.

Limalimo is a smart 12-room boutique lodge, about an hour and a halfs drive from Gondar airport, to which Ethiopian Airlines flies from the capital Addis Ababa three times a day. Theres a deliberate earthiness about the place; the boxy cabins spread out across the wooded hillside and the main hilltop lodge are all made from rammed earth (soil collected from the site and compacted together), eucalyptus wood and thatch. The bar and restaurant had yet to be completed when I stayed but both are now ready and should make cosy areas for relaxing post wildlife-spotting. The star of the show, though, is the terrace, which looks out onto mountains, valleys and forests.

The Simiens has a deserved reputation for wildlife, home to, among others, gelada monkeys, who occasionally come wandering through the lodge grounds in the mornings and gather out on the escarpment most evenings before descending to their beds in the cliffs. You might see a bearded vulture (known locally as bone-breakers because they take bones from carcasses and smash them against rocks to get at the marrow inside) circling over the hillsides, or, at night, perhaps youll hear the grunts of a roaming leopard.

Gelada monkeys often pay a visit to the grounds

Opened by a small team of local Ethiopian guides and one of their wives, a British woman, the lodge was built almost entirely using a local workforce. And the majority of staff, from chefs and waitresses to the on-site handyman, are local too. Meals, especially dinner, are on the simple side, though its good to see the countrys national dish, injera (a spongy, sour pancake served with assorted stews) make a showing, along with surprisingly tasty Rift Valley wine.

Like the salt in the salt hotels of Bolivia, the rammed earth makes a novel, attractive natural material, which dominates the rooms. Decor is a little sparse, though; they could use some Ethiopian art or crafts to bring a bit of colour and life. It felt quite dingy in the evenings, too; additional lamps would be helpful. It can be chilly up in the mountains but theres talk of installing heating.

The main lodge

Beds are incredibly comfortable and warm, and theres also a window seat and lounging area. Big sunset-facing windows along the front look out onto the forest, but, a little disappointingly, the views dont really make the most of the Simien Mountain scenery thats out at the front of the lodge.

The area

The terrace perched on the escarpment in Ethiopias Simien Mountains National Park gives great views at breakfast

The escarpment-top location gives an exceptional view of the national park. Its quite something to eat breakfast on the terrace at the start of the day. The more basic Simien Lodge  the parks only other option  is deeper inside, however; accessing the key wildlife areas from Limalimo involves a 40-minute drive out of the park and back in again through the main gate.

As well as checking out the hordes of habituated geladas and other wildlife, including the endemic walia ibex, klipspringers, bushbucks, birds of prey and, if youre lucky, the endangered Ethiopian wolf, its also worth spending an afternoon hiking down to Limalimo to get an idea of daily life in the village. The lodge arranges guided community visits, which include spending time in the home of one of the villagers for freshly ground coffee, chunky wheat bread (dabo), barley and possibly a home-brewed beer (tella), as well as checking out the local church and taking in a fine view of the valley.

Limalimo Lodge, Simien Mountains National Park, Ethiopia (00 251 93 168 8062; limalimolodge.com). Doubles from US$300 (224) per night full board.

Rooms: 

Service: 

Value: 

Cazenove+Loyd (020 7384 2332; cazloyd.com) offers five nights full board at Limalimo Lodge, including flights, guides and transfers, from 3,515 per person.

Ethiopian Airlines (0800 016 3559; ethiopianairlines.com) flies from Heathrow to Addis Ababa from 505 return in economy and 2,065 in business class.
T his was the dramatic scene as five fire crews tackled a blaze which ripped through a house in north London.

The former farmhouse in Whitewebbs Road, Enfield was destroyed last night.

Police and firefighters have launched an investigation into the blaze, which was reported at about 8.40pm.

The house has no neighbours and there were no injuries.

Firefighters were at the property today making it safe for investigators.

A source said: There were two places the fire started, in the house itself and an outhouse.

"That suggests arson. It was a huge fire but thankfully no one appears to have been inside. There was fire at the property about a year ago.

A fire service spokesman said: A detached house was completely gutted by fire. A neighbouring single-storey barn was also gutted in the blaze.
A 20-year-old British man accused of attempting to shoot Donald Trump at a Las Vegas casino will plead guilty to lesser charges when he appears in court, his mother has said.

Michael Sandford, from Surrey, is due to stand trial later this month over the incident at a rally on June 18 in which he allegedly tried to grab a policeman's gun to attack the Republican presidential candidate.

But his mother, Lynne Sandford, told ITV News London he has signed a plea agreement, and the family's lawyer is hopeful the trial will be adjourned.

She said: "I was very relieved that he signed it.

"It was a bit of a battle because he is quite headstrong. But we all laid the options out there for him on the table and, of course, it is a gamble."

Mrs Sandford previously said her son, from Dorking, is extremely vulnerable and suffers from various mental health issues including autism, anxiety, depression and anorexia, and said he would not have foreseen the consequences of his actions.

The Briton faces three charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty, of disrupting government business and official functions, being an illegal alien, and possession of a gun.

According to ITV News London Sandford has agreed to plead guilty to being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm and disrupting government business.

He is expected to enter his plea before the US district judge tomorrow.

Mrs Sandford added: "There's no certainty. But he has signed the plea agreement. Now we have to wait to see if the judge will accept it and hopefully it's the end of one stage and the beginning of another stage.

"Every stage is a stage closer to him being able to come home."

The family's lawyer, Saimo Chahal, said she is also hopeful a psychiatric report will play a key part in Michael's defence.
A murder probe has been launched after a 25-year-old man was stabbed to death in south east London.

Police and paramedics rushed to the scene in Anchor and Hope Lane, Charlton, just before 8pm last night after reports someone had been stabbed.

The man was taken to hospital by ambulance where doctors battled to save his life but he was pronounced dead this morning.

Resident Dean Midgeley tweeted to say that the scene, near a huge retail park, was still cordoned off this morning.

He wrote: What's happened in anchor and hope lane se7? All taped off and forensics all over the place.

Detectives investigating the murder say they know who the man is but are still awaiting formal identification.

There have been no arrests so far.

Anyone with information should call police on 0208 721 4805 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
C riminals are paying cash-strapped foreign students in London for their bank account details to commit fraud, an investigation has found.

Gangs are offering hundreds of pounds to international students to launder money, using them as money mules, City of London Police said.

An undercover operation found some students were willingly giving their bank account details to fraudsters for a cash pay-out but an increasing number were being targeted and having details stolen.

Detective Inspector Craig Mullish, from the City polices money laundering unit, said: We are aware that students are being targeted as money mules.

"Their role is to collectively move monies around, hopefully under the radar, so a money mule will open a bank account, maybe pay in or have paid into their account a few thousand pounds, collectively in excess of 24 billion thats laundered through the UK every year.

He added: Lured by the promise of big cash pay-offs, it seems there is no shortage of international students in London who are willing to make their bank accounts available to fraudsters.

But other students, who have no criminal connections whatsoever, are also finding themselves drawn into the illicit business of money laundering. Their bank accounts are literally being hijacked.

An investigation by the BBCs Inside Out team also revealed cases where bank employees are involved in providing information to organised crime groups that enable them to compromise innocent peoples accounts.

A maths student, named only as Amrit, sold his details to a gang after moving to the UK from Delhi. He said: Im an international student here. When I first arrived I had only 200 in my wallet. I did not realise living in London would be so costly.

A fellow student told me that he could give me 500 if I gave him my banking details, like account number, sort code, everything. And so I did.

I knew it was wrong and that he would probably use my account to do something bad but at that time I just needed the money.

Another student, Tarun Gupta, 19, said his bank account was used after his details were stolen. The mechanical engineering student said: I found out that around 10,000 or so went into my Nationwide account so I called them up straight away.

In less than 24 hours, almost 50,000 had been siphoned through Mr Guptas accounts, effectively turning him into a money mule.

He said: Following the investigation the bank placed a fraud mark on my account, and I havent been able to apply for bank accounts, which in turn means I havent been able to apply for jobs. I havent done anything wrong and I am the one who is being punished.

Inside Out, BBC1 tonight at 7.30pm.


A Met special constable who called himself Curious Cat 007 as he bought a gun on the Dark Web had researched the murder of schoolboy Rhys Jones, the Old Bailey heard.

Dwain Osborne, 26, ordered a Glock 19mm pistol and 100 rounds of ammunition on a black market website.

He downloaded sophisticated software to mask the illicit purchase.

However, Osborne, a volunteer Met special constable whose day job was as a 22,000-a-year librarian at Brixton Prison, ordered the firearm from an undercover agent in the US.

The National Crime Agency were tipped off and officers raided Osbornes home in Penge after a fake gun was delivered in October last year.

Prosecutor Tom Forster said the small-time cocaine dealer had searched Rhys Jones gun  relating to the 11-year-old shot dead in Liverpool in 2007. And while setting up the gun deal, he asked: I was looking for a gun, preferably 9mm with ammo available.

He paid using BitCoins and had the gun disguised as a digital radio.

The former librarian pleaded guilty to firearm and ammunition charges.

He was remanded in custody and will be sentenced at a later date.
S cotland Yard today launched a fresh witness appeal in the Stephen Lawrence murder investigation after advances in technology led to a breakthrough 23 years on from his death.

Forensics officers have discovered a womans DNA on the strap of a bag found at the scene of the 18-year-olds stabbing in Eltham, south east London, on April 22, 1993.

The fresh clue comes ahead of an episode of Crimewatch this evening featuring a new reconstruction of the aspiring architects murder as well as an emotional interview with his father Neville Lawrence.

Scotland Yard is renewing its public appeal for information on the eve of what would have been Stephen Lawrence's 42nd birthday.

Clue: The black strap, 66cm in length and 1.7cm in width, is believed to have been left near to where Mr Lawrence was attacked / Metropolitan Police

The black leather strap, which did not belong to Mr Lawrence, is believed to have been left in Dickson Road, by the junction with Well Hall Road, near where he was attacked.

Officers say they have reviewed the evidence in the case and believe the strap may be of significance to the investigation.

Stephen Lawrence / Metropolitan Police/Getty

Senior investigator Chris Le Pere said: "So far we have been unable to identify the owner of the bag strap.

"While there is no evidence that a woman was at the scene of the attack, I need to establish who this bag belonged to, and why was it at the spot where Stephen was attacked."

A reconstruction and appeal for information about the owner of the bag will be shown on BBC's Crimewatch at 9pm on Monday.

Search: Officers continue to appeal for a possible witness in a distinctive green jacket to come forward / Metropolitan Police

In passionate remarks to be aired, Mr Lawrences father Neville says: I wanted my son to be famous for the buildings that he made, not being dead.

He adds: I still can't understand seeing somebody at the bus stop, not knowing the person, the person having done nothing to you, and yet you and your friends decided to pounce on that person and take their life.

I find it very, very hard to understand.

Around 110 people have been spoken to by officers in connection with this new line of inquiry, detectives said.

Fifty of these individuals gave DNA samples, 46 refused, 12 failed to respond to police requests and the remainder were eliminated for medical reasons.

Mr Le Pere added: "I am hoping that tonight's Crimewatch reconstruction, and the passing of time, will encourage people to come forward and assist us in determining the full circumstances of his death.

"Tomorrow would have been Stephen's 42nd birthday, as another year passes the Met will continue to explore all avenues to seek justice for his tragic death."

Mr Lawrence was stabbed to death by a group of up to six white men in an unprovoked racist attack as he waited at a bus stop in Well Hall Road with a friend.

The man was in an off-licence near the scene of Stephen's murder at 8pm on the night he died / Metropolitan Police

He was taken to Brook Hospital but was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

In January 2012, Gary Dobson and David Norris were found guilty of being involved in the attack on Mr Lawrence and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Police are still trying to trace a man reportedly seen in a distinctive green jacket with a V emblem near Well Hall Road Roundabout at about the time Mr Lawrence was attacked.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Met Police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
F ormer Justice Secretary Ken Clarke today urged ministers to tackle the issue of prisoners serving indeterminate sentences, as it emerged that as many are 2,000 languish in London jails.

Indeterminate Public Protection (IPP) sentences were banned by Mr Clarke four years ago but he said his reforms had not gone far enough.

He called for those sentenced before 2012 to have their IPPs removed retrospectively. Most lawyers regard IPPs as a stain on the justice system, he told the BBCs Inside Out programme.

It is just a question of when some minister has the courage to put up with the mornings bad press.

Getting rid of these IPPs was one of my top priorities. I favour tough sentences for people who have been ex-tremely violent but filling prisons up with an enormous open-ended supply of people, sometimes with excessive sentences for what they have actually done, is something I disapproved of.

Before they can be released, those serving IPP sentences must go before a parole board to prove they are no longer a risk to the public.

However, Inside Out reports that a severe lack of hearings, and of spaces on the offender behaviour courses IPP prisoners must complete, means 2,000 out of 4,000 inmates have still not been assessed for release. It is estimated that the backlog will take up to seven years to clear.

Rapists, murderers and paedophiles were the intended targets of IPPs, introduced by the Labour government in 2003. But some convicted of less serious offences such as fighting and shoplifting have also been imprisoned for public protection and never released.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: The Chairman of the Parole Board has made a number of recommendations to improve the parole system and reduce the backlog of IPP prisoners. We are considering these proposals and will update on our plans in due course.

Inside Out, BBC1 tonight at 7.30pm.
A man was assaulted and then hit by a bus in a violent attack outside a north London Tube station.

The 30-year-old man was assaulted at about 8.30pm on Thursday, outside Camden Town Underground station.

Police and parademics London Ambulance Service raced to the scene after the man was subsequently struck by the bus, and the victim was rushed to hospital.

Early enquiries indicated that the man had been assaulted before he was hit by the vehicle, police said.

The man's injuries were described by police as not life threatening.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said the bus driver stopped at the scene and assisted police with their enquiries.

He added that there were no reports of any persons injured on the bus, and that detectives from Camden Borough were investigating.

The spokesman said: "Officers and are appealing for anyone who was in or around the Camden Town Underground Station, that may or seen or heard the incident in which the victim was assaulted, to contact them.

"There have been no arrests and their enquiries continue."

Any witnesses or anyone with any information is asked to call the CID in Camden via 101. To give information anonymously contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or visit crimestoppers-uk.org.
T he Only Way is Essex star Michael Hassini today pleaded guilty to drink driving his Mercedes in central London.

The 21-year-old was nearly three times the drink drive limit when his car was stopped in Euston Road.

Hassini also had a wrap of cocaine in his pocket when he was arrested, it is alleged.

The reality TV star, who has been suspended from the show since the incident on August 15, admitted drink driving this morning.

Appearing at Westminster magistrates court in dark suit and black tie, Hassini bowed his head after entering the guilty plea.

Hassini pleaded not guilty to a charge of assault by beating and will stand trial on December 14.

It is said he attacked a female police officer while being held at Charing Cross police station, kicking her when she tried to wake him up.

Hassini is a relative newcomer to the popular ITVBe show, and is a self-confessed lothario who claims to have slept with more than 100 women.

District Judge Karim Ezzat imposed an interim driving ban on Hassini, of in Brentwood, Essex, until his sentencing hearing at the end of the assault trial.

He told him a prison sentence for drink driving is a possibility but added that a community order was the likely penalty.

Hassini pleaded guilty to drink driving, not guilty to assault by beating and no plea was entered on a charge of possession of class A drugs.
T his is the moment a young woman was attacked on her doorstep by a violent robber who dragged her to ground and stole her handbag.

Shocking footage of the attack has been watched online more than a million times after Tia Said, 24, posted the video on social media in an effort to unmask the robbers identity.

The jeweller was returning home from work when she was ambushed as she put the keys into the lock of the front door of her detached house in Wallington, south London.

The footage shows a man in a white hoodie follow her into the driveway, walking past a luxury BMW 4x4, before grabbing her around the waist and hurling her to the ground.

The black and peach coloured purse fell from the bag as he fled.

Miss Said today said the bag only held six coffee mugs which she had brought home from Albone jewellery shop, three miles away in Croydon, to wash up.

She was treated in hospital for concussion following the robbery at around 5.20pm last Tuesday.

She said: He just came out of nowhere.

He got away with my bag, but luckily my purse had fallen out while he was pulling it off me.

Id been bringing home six dirty mugs from the shop, and thats pretty much all he took.

The robber flees after stealing the woman's bag, which contained mugs that needed washing up

I had to go to hospital the next day with concussion. I havent had much news so far from the police, and they havent found my handbag, but I hope the guy gets caught.

Her boss Steve Albone also posted footage from the familys CCTV on YouTube, captioned: Help find the Wallington mugger.

He wrote: This low life is still out there and will probably attack again. This could be your wife, girlfriend, daughter, sister or your friend. Someone knows who he is, lets get him caught.

Detective Inspector Brett Roche, of Sutton Police, said: Police are appealing for information after a woman, was robbed of her handbag in Stanley Park Road, Wallington, on Tuesday, 6 September at around 5.20pm.

The victim was walking home and as she went to open her door she was grabbed from behind and thrown to the floor.

During the struggle the handbag fell to the ground. The suspect picked up the bag and ran off.

The suspect is described as a black man, aged 20 to 23, of skinny build with a small moustache.

He was wearing a light coloured hooded top with burgundy or dark red bottoms.

At this early stage of the investigation, this incident is being treated as an opportunistic robbery.

We believe the suspect may be local to the area. If you recognise the description or have any information, please contact us.

Anyone who recognises the suspect is asked to call police on 101.
A woman who knocked-down and killed a two-year-old girl in the car park of a north London supermarket has avoided jail.

Fahima Hassan, from Kingsbury, died after being hit by a car as she and her mother left Asda in Forty Lane, Wembley in September 2014.

Hoden Aden, of Macarthur Close, Wembley, was found guilty of causing death by careless driving on August 26 at Harrow Crown Court.

The 44-year-old believed her Vauxhall Tiguan had hit a trolley.

Today  almost two years to the day of the toddlers death on September 11 2014  Aden was handed a 14 month prison sentence suspended for two years.

She was also banned from driving for 18 months and ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work.

Aden must also pay court costs.
G ruffalo author Julia Donaldson today told how reading her new book to sick children at a London hospital made her quite tearful.

Her husband Malcolm, a retired paediatrician, was a junior doctor at Evelina London childrens hospital when it was based at Guys hospital. Last week the couple visited its new home, beside St Thomass hospital in Lambeth, to launch Zog And The Flying Doctors.

Donaldson, the UKs bestselling author, said: I got such a lovely feeling here. Because of everything wrong in the world, when you come to a place where everyone seems to care what they are doing and the atmosphere just seems  obviously not totally happy as children have serious illnesses  but as happy as can be in the circumstances. I was very impressed by the [hospital] school. That was amazing. When I wrote the story, though its got doctors in it, it was quite frivolous.

Doing the story about doctors and patients in a childrens hospital, and there were doctors and patients there, really brought it alive. It made me feel quite tearful actually, doing a story about doctors in this setting. Zog And The Flying Doctors is a follow-up to 2010s Zog, which has sold 1.5 million copies. In the new tale, Zog the dragon becomes an air ambulance for Princess Pearl and Sir Gadabout.

Donaldson, 67, a former childrens laureate, said: Some people think I started off with a feminist thing, because it is quite a feminist book because Princess Pearl doesnt want to be just a princess, she wants to be out in the world doing a good job and helping people. That is what the book has come to be about, but it wasnt my starting point.

Anne Hamilton, headteacher of Evelina hospital school, said it had been working with the charity Readathon, which organised Donaldsons visit, for three years.

Books come brand new and an author comes every half term, she said. This is creative, exciting, and it changes how the children negotiate with the pain they have and the treatment they are going through.

A giant mural, by Gruffalo and Zog illustrator Axel Scheffler, has also been installed in the hospital. Marian Ridley, director of Evelina London, said: Going to theatre will become Come and see Zog. It gives anxious parents something they can distract their child with.
G overnment social mobility czar Alan Milburn waded into the grammar schools row today by arguing selective education would increase inequality.

The former Labour cabinet minister said too often money and the best teachers were sucked towards already high-performing schools.

He said ministers had to do more to ensure pay, hiring and allocation systems led to more of the best teachers going to the poorest schools.

The Government was today publishing details of its controversial education shake-up that will allow the creation of new grammar schools.

Education Secretary Justine Greening was releasing a green paper and making a statement in the Commons this afternoon.

But in a collection of essays from prominent Londoners for right-of- centre think tank Bright Blue, Mr Milburn became the latest high-profile expert to oppose the reforms.

Theresa May on new plan for grammar schools

Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw has already said Theresa Mays plans would be a backward step and several Tory backbenchers, including former education secretary Nicky Morgan and education committee chairman Neil Carmichael, have criticised them.

However it was reported today that former education secretary Michael Gove would not join opponents of the plan, despite the fact he was against new grammars during his time in Government.

Mr Milburn wrote: Selective educational systems are not the best performers worldwide and tend to be associated with increased inequality and worse student attitudes towards learning.

Unless disadvantaged children have a real chance to access high-performing schools  and are not prevented from doing so by financial constraints or admission rules  global evidence suggests that competition will be less effective at improving the school system.

That evidence is also clear that a good quality teacher can add a years extra learning to a childs education compared to a poorly performing teacher but too often resources  financial and human  are sucked towards schools and pupils that are already doing well.

Mr Milburn said the dramatic improvement in Londons schools was arguably the greatest social mobility achievement of last 20 years but that it risked going backwards.

He said the proposal to end the ban on building new selective schools, which will struggle to pass through the House of Lords, risked creating an us and them divide within the education system.

But the Prime Minister has insisted her plans would give all children the chance to go to a great school. They include requirements for grammars to promote social mobility by taking a proportion of pupils from lower-income backgrounds or opening feeder primary schools in disadvantaged areas.
A thief has been jailed after he stole thousands of pounds worth of gold by hacking into a company computer system from his Canary Wharf home.

Adam Penny, 25, hid one of his laptops in the toilet at his lavish apartment in a bid to stop detectives discovering his operation.

The hacker stole the names, addresses and parcel tracking numbers of customers who were waiting for deliveries of gold bullion, which he passed on to three other men who acted as interceptors.

He sent the three thieves to wait outside of the addresses to interrupt the gold deliveries.

The group stole, or attempted to steal, six packages of gold with an estimated value of more than 88,000, which they then sold to an unsuspecting London jeweller.

When police raided Pennys home after he was arrested, they found six iPhones and two MacBooks  one which was found in the toilet cistern.

The devices contained Pennys instructions to the interceptors, as well as showing he had even tried to blackmail the gold bullion trading company for 50,000.

Penny, of West Tower, Pan Peninsula Square, was arrested in June last year and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal and computer misuse at Kingston Crown Court.

He was convicted of conspiracy to steal, unauthorised access to a computer and blackmail and was jailed for five years and four months.

Detective Constable Matt Burke, of the Met Polices cyber crime team, said: "Penny hacked into the computers of the company and got others to intercept the gold packages for him.

When even this wasn't enough for his lavish lifestyle, he blackmailed the company for 50,000.

At the time of his arrest Penny was living in a luxury apartment in the Canary Wharf area, despite having no paid employment that we could identify."

At one point Penny sent the interceptors to an address in Newcastle where they failed to intercept the gold delivery because the postman knew the victim and refused to hand over the parcel.

The three men also sentenced for conspiracy to steal for their role in intercepting the deliveries were Joshua Wilkins, 25, of Burns Road; Nour Mansouri, 24, of Hanley Road; and Daniel William Rabbitte, 25, of Stanley Road in Hornchurch, Essex.

Wilkins was jailed for 22 months, Mansouri was given 200 hours of community service and ordered to pay 1,000 and Rabbitte was given an 18 months jail sentence suspended for two years.

Detective Inspector Sanjiv Gohil, of the Cyber Crime Unit, said: "This case highlights the importance of robust cyber security systems for businesses and particularly those with an on-line presence.

In this case the breach was reported to the police and we were able to investigate and bring Penny to justice, without further compromise to the company and their customers."
H ospitals and mental health trusts are being urged to give patient details to police after the number of suicides and attempted suicides in the Square Mile doubled in the first eight months of this year.

Officers in the City say they are seeing an increase in people making repeat attempts to end their lives.

This year there have been 58 suicides and attempts in the Square Mile compared with 57 in all of 2015.

Superintendent Paul Clements, of the City of London Police, said: We have seen a 100 per cent increase [in suicides and attempts] so far this year.

In particular there has been an increase in people attempting to take their lives from bridges.

Officers are making more use of Section 136 of the Mental Health Act to take people to a place of safety, usually a hospital. But ambulances are often unavailable so officers resort to using police vans. Mr Clements said: We are almost criminalising people by transporting them in police vehicles.

Invariably, when patients are assessed they are not deemed to meet the threshold of admission to a mental health clinic and are released.

Police are asking NHS Trusts to provide details of patients so they know if they have been released.

Mr Clements said: It may be using Section 136 is not the right thing to do; we could take them home to relatives, for instance. Having this information means we can put a plan in place to safeguard them.

Homerton Hospital is for the first time telling police the outcome of referrals.

City police have also set up a Bridges Working Group including officials from NHS mental health trusts, the Samaritans, the RNLI and Coastguard.

For confidential support call Samaritans on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or attend a local branch.
F irefighters were this morning tackling a major blaze in a central London office block.

More than 35 firefighters and six fire engines were called to the scene of the fire on Soho Street, near Tottenham Court Road station.

Part of the fourth floor and the 'plant room' on the roof level were damaged by the fire.

An aerial ladder was also deployed to help fight the blaze, which London Fire Brigade were called to at 5.27 this morning.

The fire was under control just after 8am.

London Fire Brigade said the cause of the fire is not know at this stage.

A spokesperson said: "Six fire engines and an aerial ladder platform from fire stations including Soho, Euston, Dowgate and Islington are in attendance."
H undreds of rail passengers - including the deputy mayor for London's transport - were left stranded in south east London tonight after a broken down train caused travel chaos.

Commuters complained of "nightmare heat" and a "horrendous" two hours stranded aboard a Southern Rail train which broke down while heading out of London.

The 6.32pm train from London Bridge to Dorking was 10 minutes late and then broke down just minutes after leaving the station.

Passengers were forced to wait for around two hours before another train arrived to tow the disgruntled passengers to New Cross Gate where they waited for another train.

Valerie Shawcross, who was appointed deputy mayor for transport by Sadiq Khan earlier this year, said conditions were like a "hot sardine can".

James Kearsey was aboard the 6.32pm train and told the Standard: "It was delayed by 10 mins, then had six less carriages to what we normally have.

"We lost power outside New Cross Gate, took two hours for another train to arrive to push us to New Cross Gate for a 30 minute wait for the next train.

"From what usually is a 40 minute journey has become a four hour journey from London Bridge to Cheam.

Other passengers called the delays "horrendous".

Fellow passenger Joel Samuel said: "It would have been quicker to invent a time machine and travel back to the 1970s where coal powered trains had less problems."

Andie Parton said: "There are literally hundreds of people. We had maybe three or four announcements during these two hours.

"When we got to New Cross Gate they said there would be water but I didn't see any water."

On social media Southern Rail apologised for the delays and confirmed it was due to a broken down train.

They said passengers can claim for compensation via their website.

A spokesperson for Southern Rail said: We sincerely apologise to passengers on the 1832 service from London Bridge this evening, and also to those affected by the resulting delays on the network.

"The train came to a stand outside New Cross Gate and despite efforts to get it moving, a second train had to be sourced to assist it into the station, where passengers could get off to continue their journey.

"We will be undertaking a full investigation into the cause of this incident and we urge passengers on this service, or delayed elsewhere on the network by over 30 minutes, to claim compensation at www.southernrailway.com, and we once again apologise for the long delay suffered tonight."
 YOLO, moobs and more than 1,000 other new words have made it into the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

The acronym for You Only Live Once can be traced back to a 19th century translation of a French novel. Moobs is shorthand for 'man boobs'.

Westminster bubble and gender-fluid make the cut, while there are also a number of Roald Dahl-inspired entries on the centenary of the authors birth.

Dahlesque, meaning characteristic of Dahls works, splendiferous and scrumdiddlyumptious are included.

US colloquialism fuhgeddabboudit is another new word, used in the New York area to describe an unlikely or undesirable scenario.

Two new culinary terms are Bocconcini, meaning any small items of food or balls of mozzarella, and spanakopita, which is a Greek spinach and cheese-stuffed filo pasty pie.

The dictionary updated words including slacktivist and clicktivist, which both refer to a form of modern activism. The former involves doing the simplest, easiest things to support a cause while the latter is the use of digital media for facilitating change.

Yogalates, a fitness routine combining Pilates exercises with elements of yoga, was another word to make the list.

Michael Proffitt, chief Editor of the OED, said the latest edition includes more than 1,000 revised and updated entries.

He said: This confirms the OED as one of the largest and longest-running language research projects in the world.

The OED is the authority on the English language, including the etymology, history and pronunciation of more than 829,000 words.
J eremy Corbyns seat looks set to disappear in a new map of boundaries, the Evening Standard has learned.

The Labour leader is currently MP for Islington North, but this will cease to exist in a controversial review ordered by the Tory Government.

Leaked details of the proposals, which will be published overnight by the Boundaries Commission, say his seat will be carved up and the pieces allocated to neighbouring seats.

The development came as Mr Corbyn celebrated one year as Labour leader.

Jeremy Corbyn: One year as Labour leader

A big chunk will go to a new seat of Finsbury Park and Stoke Newington - which will also be allocated a slice of Diane Abbots current seat.

Small chunks of his seat will go to the new Islington constituency and to Holborn & St Pancras. Half of Ms Abbotts current seat will go into a new constituency called Hackney Central, which will also take half of nearby MP Meg Hilliers seat.

In future, there will only be one Islington seat, rather than two. And the majority of the seat will be made up of Islington South, which is held by Mr Corbyns ally Emily Thornberry.

Ms Thornberry, the shadow foreign Secretary, has a strong claim to stand in the seat under party rules because so much of it was already hers.

Under complex Labour Party rules, Ms Thornberry and Ms Abbott both have a strong claim to the two safe seats created with bits of Mr Corbyns seat  but he does not.

Emily Thornberry's Islington South seat will remain / PA

The rules say an MP has a right to stand if the new seat contains four-tenths of their old seat.

Another nightmare for Mr Corbyn is that if either of the two powerful women volunteered the step-aside for him, under the party rules they would normally have an all-woman shortlist.

Education Secretary Justine Greening, international trade minister Greg Hands and Treasury minister Jane Ellison are also in constituencies that are likely to be affected by the review.

Mr Handss Chelsea and Fulham seat is the third smallest in the capital, with only 62,958 voters. He looks set to be badly affected, with his current seat of Chelsea and Fulham losing safe Tory wards and gaining chunks of Labour-voting wards, and renamed Hammersmith & Fulham.

The Boundaries Commission aims to create 68 seats with between 71,000 and 78,500 voters each. Its report will conclude that 43 of the 73 existing London constituencies are too small.

The constituency of Education Secretary Justine Greening is also going to be under review / PA

Education Secretary Justine Greening could end up a winner from the carve-up, even though her Putney seat is radically changed. She is well-placed to be MP for a new constituency of Wimbledon Common & Putney, which adds on leafy parts of Wimbledon Common where the Tory vote is high.

Londons smallest constituency at present is Kensington, with just 55,432 voters, which means sitting Tory MP Victoria Borwick could be under threat. The biggest is Labour MP Lyn Browns West Ham with 86,902.

Other under-sized seats include Conservative MP Mark Fields Cities of London & Westminster, with 58,071 on the 2015 voters register

Boris Johnson will also see huge changes, with chunks of his current seat being divided up. But he stands a high chance of ending up as MP for newly-drawn Hillingdon & Uxbridge.

It was reported that ex-Chancellor George Osbornes seat of Tatton will also be among those abolished. Nationally, there will be 50 fewer MPs, with a reduction in the number of constituencies from 650 to 600.

Jane Ellison, the Treasury Minister, looks as though she will come under pressure from Labour. Her marginal Battersea constituency remains on the map  but is proposed to takes in a strongly Labour ward from Lambeth.

Overall, London loses five seats  two from south of the Thames and three from north  cutting the number of MPs in the capital from 73 to 68. MPs were anxiously studying the details to see how their majorities would be affected.

The changes are intended to make the number of voters in constituencies more equal and slash the number of elected politicians.

Chris Skidmore, minister for the constitution, said the changes were needed because the gap between large and small constituencies had grown bigger.

Equalising the size of constituencies in the Boundary Review will mean everyones vote will carry equal weight, he added.

But Labours Emily Thornberry said it was unfair because 150,000 Londoners who joined the register of voters recently were being discounted.

The boundary review process has been exposed as a gerrymandering sham, she said. The number of residents we represent in London is going up every year, and yet because many of them cannot register to vote, the population in constituencies like mine is deemed to be shrinking.

The four boundary commissions for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are announcing their initial proposals for changes to Commons constituencies this autumn.

They will be subject to a consultation, with MPs able to challenge the proposals. Nationally the number of MPs will fall from 650 to 600.

Jeremy Corbyn marked his first anniversary as Labour leader today with allies urging unity after the bruising leadership fight.

TUC general secretary Frances OGrady appealed: As soon as the contest is over, we are saying get behind whoever the leader is, get united. I think Labour needs to start focusing on what voters want.

Mr Corbyn was due to meet union leaders over a dinner at the TUC in Brighton, to seek backing to purge critics from Labour HQ.
T hree senior ministers could face a fight to keep their seats in the House of Commons when plans for a carve-up of parliamentary boundaries are published at midnight.

Education Secretary Justine Greening, international trade minister Greg Hands and Treasury minister Jane Ellison are all in constituencies that are likely to be affected by the review.

London will end up with five fewer MPs as a result of the changes, which are intended to make the number of voters in constituencies more equal and slash the number of elected politicians.

Mr Handss Chelsea and Fulham seat is the third smallest in the capital, with only 62,958 voters, and is certain to be changed radically, possibly taking in Labour-dominated wards from neighbouring seats.

The Boundaries Commission aims to create 68 seats with around 70,000 voters each.

Ms Greening has a 10,000 majority in Putney but her constituency will see at least 10,000 voters drafted in from next-door seats.

That puts her into conflict with Ms Ellison, who will resist any attempt to shift Conservative wards from her Battersea marginal.

Londons smallest constituency at present is Kensington, with just 55,432 voters, which means sitting Tory MP Victoria Borwick could be under threat. The biggest is Labour MP Lyn Browns West Ham with 86,902.

Other under-sized seats include Conservative MP Mark Fields Cities of London & Westminster, with 58,071 on the 2015 voters register

Boris Johnson and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn are also likely to be affected by the widespread changes.

Chris Skidmore, minister for the constitution, said the changes were needed because the gap between large and small constituencies had grown bigger.

Equalising the size of constituencies in the Boundary Review will mean everyones vote will carry equal weight, he added.

But Labours Emily Thornberry said it was unfair because 150,000 Londoners who joined the register of voters recently were being discounted.

The boundary review process has been exposed as a gerrymandering sham, she said. The number of residents we represent in London is going up every year, and yet because many of them cannot register to vote, the population in constituencies like mine is deemed to be shrinking.

The four boundary commissions for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are announcing their initial proposals for changes to Commons constituencies this autumn.

They will be subject to a consultation, with MPs able to challenge the proposals. Nationally the number of MPs will fall from 650 to 600.

Jeremy Corbyn marked his first anniversary as Labour leader today with allies urging unity after the bruising leadership fight.

TUC general secretary Frances OGrady appealed: As soon as the contest is over, we are saying get behind whoever the leader is, get united. I think Labour needs to start focusing on what voters want. Mr Corbyn was due to meet union leaders over a dinner at the TUC in Brighton, to seek backing to purge critics from Labour HQ.
P rime Minister Theresa May said she was "proud to serve" in David Cameron's government following his resignation today.

Mr Cameron today quit as MP in his constituency, announcing he is to go and work in the City.

While Mrs May praised his leadership for "achieving great things", former Cabinet minister Ken Clarke called Mr Cameron "the man who accidentally caused Britain to leave the European Union".

The former Prime Minister said he had thought long and hard over the summer and decided it was impossible to serve as a mere backbencher as he would be a distraction.

His resignation will be with immediate effect and has triggered a by-election in a safe Tory seat of Witney, Oxfordshire.

Stefan Wermuth/Reuters

This evening Theresa May said in a statement: "I was proud to serve in David Camerons Government  and under his leadership we achieved great things.

"Not just stabilising the economy, but also making great strides in delivering serious social reform.

"His commitment to lead a one nation Government is one that I will continue  and I thank him for everything he has done for the Conservative party and the country.

"I wish him and his family well for the future."

Cameron explains why he's standing down as UK MP

George Osborne said: "Sorry to see my great friend David Cameron stepping down - he loved being Witney's MP; I know how difficult this decision has been for him.

"We came into Parliament together, had a great partnership and I will miss him alongside me on the green benches over the coming years. Sad day."

Former Cabinet minister Ken Clarke said he was "disappointed" by Mr Cameron's decision but said the "chickens came home to roost" after the referendum.

He told BBC News: "I'm a friend of David's, so I regret to say, I think for history his legacy will be he's the man who accidentally caused Britain to leave the European Union.

"There's no getting away from the fact that that will overshadow every other feature of his premiership."

Labour leadership contender Owen Smith said: "David Cameron's legacy will be a country left reeling after six years of failed Tory austerity."

Former No 10 communications director Sir Craig Oliver said Mr Cameron did not want to be seen as a "back seat driver".

"He doesn't want to be the person that people go to cause disagreement or have disagreements with the Government."

"For him duty and loyalty and wanting the Conservative Party to succeed, wanting the Conservative Prime Minister to succeed, wanting Britain to succeed is very important to him and he doesn't want any sense in which he is standing in the way of that or appears to have a gripe or a problem about that."

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he wished David Cameron "all the best for the future", adding he got on well with him on a "human level".

The Treasury confirmed that Mr Cameron had been appointed to the office of Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead, the arcane method by which MPs resign from the House of Commons.

The post carries no salary or responsibilities, but as a Crown appointment renders the holder ineligible to sit as an MP.
S adiq Khan was taking his case for staying in the single market directly to Boris Johnson today as they came face-to-face for the first time since the Brexit vote.

The Mayor will argue that Londons financial services sector and the wider UK economy would suffer if the country pulls out of the EU trading bloc.

One City Hall insider said: Sadiq wants to protect the City and feels the best deal is absolutely imperative going forward. Mr Johnson believes Britain needs access to, rather than membership of, the single market and is looking for a bespoke deal with Brussels.

It emerged at the weekend that the Foreign Secretary is backing a new pressure group aimed at ensuring the Prime Minister delivers on her promise that Brexit means Brexit.

Former mayor Mr Johnson, a leading figure in the Vote Leave campaign, said the group Change Britain would ensure the UK gained control over laws, borders, money and trade as it left.

It is a potentially confrontational move as the group plans to push the Government for a rapid and comprehensive exit from the EU. But the Standard understands Mr Johnson will reassure his successor at City Hall that he has the capitals interests at heart.

A Whitehall source said: Boris has always been very confident that Brexit will be an opportunity for the City. The reality is the financial sector is world-leading  certainly Europe-leading  and he doesnt believe companies will suddenly rush away to Paris or Frankfurt. He believes the size of Londons financial sector and Britains economy is so important to Europe that theres likely to be a bespoke deal for the UK. Hes certainly not of the negative view that control of freedom of movement means a total end to the single market.

Sadiq Khan: The first 100 days

But Mark Boleat from the City of London Corporation today warned that a messy divorce from Europe would have disastrous consequences for the country and said: Londons success is not guaranteed.

City Hall sources said Mr Khan, off to Canada and the US later this week, would urge the Government to take its time on reaching a deal and will press for London to have a seat at the table in Brexit discussions.
B ritain's oldest tiger, Tango, who starred in the classic Esso adverts, has died at the age of 22.

Tango was among a number of the animals who appeared in the petrol firm's 1990s advert, promising to "put a tiger in your tank".

After starring in the ads, he appeared in a German circus but had to be rescued over claims of mistreatment.

He and his partner Julia were moved into Lincolnshire's Woodside Wildlife Park back in 2014 after a 250,000 rescue operation.

Tango: The famous Esso tiger has passed away / Damien Mcfadden/Daily Mail/Rex

Tango died at the park on Saturday, it has now been announced.

The park wrote on its Facebook page: "It is with great sadness that we must announce the passing away of Tango the tiger.

"Tango was Britain's oldest tiger at the age of 22 and has been at Woodside for a happy, peaceful 2 1/2 year retirement following his rescue from a European circus.

"We would be really happy if you would share your pictures of Tango and celebrate his life. RIP Tango."

Visitor Jo Reeder posted: "So sad to see you go Tango. You looked amazing when we saw you last week.

"Our thoughts go out to your keepers."

Jenny Young wrote: "RIP Tango. And thank you Woodside for stepping in and giving Tango (and Julia) the love and care that that they both deserved, even though it was only for such a short time in Tango's case.

"At least he didn't die without knowing that not all humans are cruel!! Thank you so much for that."

Glen Hughes wrote: "I felt so privileged to had got to see Tango in real life. Tango was such a handsome old tiger and had such a rough life until he was rescued."
P rince William and Kate will take Prince George and Princess Charlotte on their visit to Canada later this month, Kensington Palace has confirmed.

The trip marks their first official tour abroad as a family-of-four and promises to be William and Kate's most exciting foreign engagement yet.

The official trip starts in Victoria with an official welcome at the Legislature on September 24.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children, George, 3, and Charlotte, who turned one in May, will take a flight to Vancouver following the arrival.

The Royal family will then make stops in Kelowna, British Colombia, Whitehorse, and Bella Bella and Haida Gwaii before returning to Victoria for an official farewell in the Inner Harbour on October 1.

A Palace spokesman said "Their Royal Highnesses will arrive in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, on the afternoon of Saturday 24th September.

"I am very pleased to confirm that they will bring their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, with them to Canada.

"They have received so many wonderful messages from Canadians since the birth of their children and look forward to having the chance to introduce their young family to the country.

"The family will travel to Victoria with the Royal Canadian Air Force and will be greeted at Victoria Airport before moving to Government House - where they will be based throughout the tour  for a very brief stop," the spokesman said.
A man has been shot dead by his cousin while testing whether a bulletproof vest still worked, police say.

Joaquin Mendez died on Saturday night in Tampa Bay, Florida, after asking whether the protective garment was still functional, it is claimed.

The Tampa Bay Times reported his cousin Alexandro Garibaldi pulled out a gun and said "let's see."

He then allegedly blasted the 23-year-old with the weapon.

Police say they found Mr Mendez outside with a gunshot wound to the chest and a bullet hole in his vest.

He died later in hospital, the paper reported.

Garibaldi, 24, told police he was outside at the time of the shooting but has since been charged with manslaughter.

He was also charged with possession of a firearm.
A woman claims she and her 14-year-old cousin were gang raped and two relatives were murdered after being accused of breaking Hindu custom by eating beef.

The 20-year-old told the BBC that four men attacked her and her teenage cousin in northern India after accusing her of being a Muslim who ate the meat.

Her aunt and uncle were then beaten to death at Mewat in Haryana state, the woman claimed.

Cows are considered sacred in Hindu tradition and consumption of their meat is banned in the state.

Police said several people had been arrested and charged with rape and murder, which happened two weeks ago.

However, they told the BBC there was no evidence to suggest it was caused by a row over cows.

But the woman told BBC Urdu: "They said that we ate cow meat and that is why we were being disgraced.

They even threatened to kill me and my family if we ever told anybody what happened to us.

Earlier this month, it was reported that police in the area were checking dishes of mutton biryani to make sure they did not contain beef.
A mosque where the Orlando nightclub gunman worshipped has been burned down in an apparent arson attack.

Omar Mateen killed 49 people and wounded 53 when he opened fire at gay nightclub Pulse in June, making it the worst mass shooting in modern US history.

Florida police reported today that the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, where Mateen attended, was ravaged by fire in the early hours.

St Lucie County Sheriffs Office said it was investigating the fire as an arson after video footage appeared to show an individual approaching the building just before a flash is seen and the fire erupts.

Snapchat video from inside Pulse nightclub

Orlando shooting victims 1 /65 Orlando shooting victims Stanley Almodovar III Facebook Edward Sotomayor Jr Facebook Luis S Vielma Amanda Alvear Facebook/AP Luis Daniel Conde Facebook/AP Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera Facebook/Reuters Juan Ramon Guerrero Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20 Mercedez Marisol Flores Facebook/AP Peter O Gonzalez-Cruz, 22 Facebook Gilberto Ramon Silva Menendez Facebook/AP Franky Jimmy Dejesus Velazquez Facebook/AP Frank Hernandez Facebook/AP Angel L. Candelario-Padro Facebook/AP Rodolfo Ayala-Ayala Facebook/AP Jonathan Antonio Camuy Vega Facebook/AP Tevin Eugene Crosby Facebook/AP Enrique L. Rios, Jr Facebook/AP Kimberly Morris Facebook/AP Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon Facebook/AP Jean Carlos Mendez Perez Facebook Jason Benjamin Josaphat Facebook/AP Antonio Davon Brown Facebook/AP Oscar A Aracena-Montero Facebook/AP Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosad Facebook/AP Leroy Valentin Fernandez Facebook Simon Adrian Carrillo Fernandez Facebook/AP Eddie Justice Facebook Christopher Andrew Leinonen Facebook/AP Shane Evan Tomlinson Facebook/AP Darryl Roman Burt II Facebook/AP Martin Benitez Torres Facebook/AP Juan P. Rivera Velazquez Facebook/AP Javier Jorge-Reyes Facebook/AP Miguel Angel Honorato Jose Honorato/AP Brenda Lee Marquez McCool Facebook Anthony Luis Laureano Disla Anthony Laureano/Reuters Deonka Drayton worked at Pulse Facebook Akyra Murray Facebook Jean C. Nives Rodriguez Facebook Joel Rayon Paniagua Facebook Alejandro Barrios Martinez Facebook Juan Chevez-Martinez Facebook Yilmary Rodriguez Solivan Facebook/AP Jerald Arthur Wright Facebook/AP Paul Terrell Henry Facebook/AP Christopher Joseph Sanfeliz Facebook Geraldo Ortiz-Jimenez Facebook Composite of Orlando shooting victims. AP

In a statement, it said: A fire at any place of worship is alarming, regardless of the circumstances.

The Sheriff's Office is actively investigating this as an arson with the assistance of the St. Lucie County Fire District, the Florida State Fire Marshall's Office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Federal Bureau of Investigations.

As soon as we are able, we will release the video of this incident and ask for the public to assist us in identifying the person or persons responsible.

This investigation is at a very early stage and updates will be provided as new information is available.
D anny Dyer has revealed he would be nothing without his wife Joanne Mas.

The EastEnders actor tied the knot with his childhood sweetheart in a lavish ceremony in Hampshire earlier this month.

Speaking about the big day he described Mas as his "best girl" and the "love of my life".

"To be standing here with the girl I grew up with  looking so beautiful in her wedding dress  that is a lovely thing," he told HELLO!.

Hello! Magazine

"Jo is my best girl  the love of my life. Without her I would be nothing."

Mas said: "I have dreamed about this day my whole life and I just wanted it to be perfect."

Mas looked stunning in a white gown which she teamed with a fan boquet as a nod to her Spanish father.

Dyer opted for a grey suit, black tie and a deep red waistcoat.

A host of family and friends, including 30 members from the cast of EastEnders, joined the couple at the Chewton Glen hotel to celebrate their big day.

Kellie Bright  who plays Dyers onscreen wife  said she was honoured to be invited.

British Soap Awards 2016 red carpet - in pictures 1 /22 British Soap Awards 2016 red carpet - in pictures Kym Marsh Matt Crossick/PA Wire Lacey Turner Matt Crossick/PA Wire Alison King Matt Crossick/PA Wire Danny Dyer Matt Crossick/PA Wire Lucy-Jo Hudson and Alan Halsall Matt Crossick/PA Wire Gemma Atkinson Matt Crossick/PA Wire Vicky Pattinson and Alex Bowen Matt Crossick/PA Wire Paula Lane Matt Crossick/PA Wire Charley Webb Matt Crossick/PA Wire Debbie Rush Matt Crossick/PA Wire John Middleton and Charlotte Bellamy Matt Crossick/PA Wire Lucy Pargeter and Rudi Coleano Matt Crossick/PA Wire Jennie McAlpine Matt Crossick/PA Wire X Factor's Reggie and Bollie Matt Crossick/PA Wire Gillian Taylforth Matt Crossick/PA Wire Kellie Bright Matt Crossick/PA Wire Shona McGarty Matt Crossick/PA Wire

"I am very, very happy to be part of their day, she told Hello!. I couldn't be more honoured."

The couple flew to Italy for their honeymoon following the nuptials  but nearly missed their flight over the Black Lives Matter protest at London City airport.

Follow @StandardEnts or like us on Facebook for more news.
T he Great British Bake Off will move to Channel 4, it has been revealed.

The current series of the show will be BBC One's last after programme-makers Love Productions signed a new three-year deal, it emerged tonight.

The first Bake Off programme set to be broadcast on Channel 4 will be a celebrity version of the show in 2017, in aid of Stand Up To Cancer.

Jay Hunt, Channel 4's chief creative officer said they were "very proud" to be the baking show's new home.

She said: "I'm delighted we have been able to partner with the hugely talented team at Love Productions to keep this much loved show on free-to-air television."

Richard McKerrow, Love Productions creative director said: "We believe we've found the perfect new home for Bake Off.

Twitter reacts: BBC loses The Great British Bake Off

"It's a public service, free-to-air broadcaster for whom Love Productions have produced high quality and highly successful programmes for more than a decade.

"It's tremendously exciting to have found a broadcaster who we know will protect and nurture The Great British Bake Off for many years to come."

The news comes shortly after it was announced that the BBC had lost its contract to broadcast the show, which features judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood.

A BBC spokesman said the corporation would love to have kept the baking programme but that they were "a considerable distance apart on the money".

He added: "The BBC's resources are not infinite. GBBO is a quintessentially BBC programme.

"We hope Love Productions change their mind so that Bake Off can stay ad free on BBC One."

There have long been rumours that ITV was lining up to poach the series when the current contract with the BBC was up.

Great British Bake Off 2016 - contestants in pictures 1 /17 Great British Bake Off 2016 - contestants in pictures Full tent The bakers taking part in the Great British Bake Off 2016 have been revealed BBC/Love Productions Rav Age: 28

From: Kent

Bio: After studying Criminology at university, Rav went on to support students at City University, London. Hes experimental with his baking and is inspired by vegan baking and eastern cuisine

Speciality: Flavour combinations BBC/Love Productions Andrew Age: 25

From: Derby

Bio: Northern Irish-born aerospace engineer Andrew was taught to bake by his mum and gran. Hes a straight-A student who went to Cambridge University

Speciality: Structurally ambitious bakes BBC/Love Productions Louise Age: 46

From: Cardiff

Bio: Hairdresser Louise progressed her skills by making cakes for charity sales at work. She adventurous in her designs and in her hobbies  having completed a trek around the Andes and various other mountains

Speciality: Elaborate cakes BBC/Love Productions Lee Age: 67

From: Bolton

Bio: Builder-turned-theologist-turned-Pastor Lee used baking as a way to fill his days in the Eighties when an injury stopped him from playing cricket.

Speciality: Traditional flavours, including cherry, hazelnut, vanilla and chocolate BBC/Love Productions Kate Age: 37

From: Norfolk

Bio: Qualified nurse Kate is a Brownie leader and uses seasonal fruits which she gathers with her kids in her baking

Speciality: Sugar craft BBC/Love Productions Val Age: 66

From: Yeovil

Bio: Semi-retired substitute teacher Val incorporates her baking into her teaching. She does aerobics in her kitchen  but she might not do so in the Bake Off tent

Speciality: Traditional classics BBC/Love Productions Benjamina Age: 23

From: South London

Bio: Teaching assistant Benjamina takes inspiration from the likes of Instagram and Pinterest for modern takes on classic bakes. She takes feedback from her family to improve her creations

Speciality: Fresh and modern versions of traditional cakes BBC/Love Productions Michael Age: 20

From: London

Bio: Currently studying Politics and Economics in Durham, Michael has Cypriot heritage grew up making Greek pastries with his nan

Speciality: Big grand cakes BBC/Love Productions Selasi Age: 30

From: London

Bio: Ghanaian-born Selasi works in finance, and his hobbies include motorbikes, basketball, and travelling. He recently ran a 10k, half marathon, and trekked through Malawi for charity

Speciality: Delicate cupcakes BBC/Love Productions Jane Age: 61

From: Beckenham

Bio: Garden designer Jane wakes up at 5am to bake her bread. Her grandfather owned a bakery, and she s passionate about the classics

Speciality: Classic cakes, biscuits and pastry BBC/Love Productions Tom Age: 26

From: London

Bio: Rochdale-born Tom works for the Royal Society of Arts and is creative with his flavours and ingredients. He lost 30 kilos, and has a have your cake and eat it mentality

Speciality: Surprising twists BBC/Love Productions Candice Age: 31

From: Bedfordshire

Bio: Secondary school PE teacher Candice was taught to bake by her nan, and loves everything vintage. She lives with her boyfriend Liam and pug Dennis

Speciality: Baking the classics like her nan BBC/Love Productions

Last year's Bake Off final was the most-watched show of 2015, with 15.1 million people seeing Nadiya Hussain crowned champion.

The return of the show in August set an audience record, as 10.4 million people tuned in for the first episode of the seventh series.

The programme, currently airing on BBC One on Wednesday evenings, is hosted by Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins.

Love Productions said in a statement: After more than a year of exhaustive negotiations we have been unable to reach an agreement with the BBC for the renewal of The Great British Bake Off.

"We feel it is very important to let you all know as soon as possible because there has been a lot of inaccurate reporting in the media about the negotiations and we want you to be aware of the main facts.

"We are really saddened by this outcome because we always wanted to stay on the BBC. As recently as June we were convinced that was what would happen. This has never been about who might write the biggest cheque, but about where we can find the best home for Bake Off.

Are these the best Great British Bake Off innuendos ever?

"We will now be focusing on finding a new partner to develop the familiar show that the British public turn to in their millions.

"Love Productions would like to thank the BBC for the role it played in making this show such an enormous hit, and the faith they showed in us over the years to develop it.
L ast weeks ratings battle between Victoria and Poldark was a massively close call, with the BBC show triumphing at 9pm, but ITVs surpassing it with +1 figures added.

With no clear winner, there was extra pressure on both sides to deliver in the second week of the rivalry.

On Sunday night, Victorias fourth episode edged ahead of Poldarks second instalment, pulling in an average audience of five million.

Aidan Turners brooding war hero mustered 4.8 million, as Ross Poldark faced his trial.

While Poldark entered the head-to-head Sunday night battle with a well-loved first series under its belt, ITVs Victoria debuted a week before Poldark Series 2, and received praise from critics and audiences alike.

Still, the BBC seems to have continued faith in Poldark, with a third series already shooting now.

ITV's Victoria Premiere 1 /13 ITV's Victoria Premiere Leading lady Jenna Coleman arrives for the premiere screening of ITV's Victoria at The Orangery Tristan Fewings/Getty Images Sophie Cookson joins Adrian Schiller who plays Penge, the Household Steward Tristan Fewings/Getty Images Rising star Margaret Clunie plays the Duchess of Sutherland Tristan Fewings/Getty Images Husband and wife Tom Hughes and Jenna Coleman play Prince Albert and Queen Victoria in the drama Tristan Fewings/Getty Images Duchess Nichola McAuliffe plays the Duchess of Cumberland Tristan Fewings/Getty Images Lady in red Nell Hudson turns heads in a revealing red dress Tristan Fewings/Getty Images Suitably dressed Peter Bowles dresses for the occasion in a black suit Tristan Fewings/Getty Images In support World War Z actress Aggy K Adams steps out to support the cast Tristan Fewings/Getty Images Up and coming Tommy Lawrence-Knight plays Brodie the hall boy Tristan Fewings/Getty Images Joining the cast Eve Myles of Torchwood fame Tristan Fewings/Getty Images

The latest episode of Victoria saw the long-awaited whirlwind romance between the young queen and soon-to-be-Prince Albert.

With the instalment culminating in the pairs engagement, a future episode will bring the pairs wedding to the screen as the lavish royal drama continues.
T his was the episode weve all been waiting for in ITV's new period drama: the meeting of Queen and Prince, marking the beginning of a romance that would go down as one of the greatest in royal history. Did it live up to our expectations? Lets find out

So they met over a piano, in a breathy love-at-first-sight moment, and it was wonderful until the barking Dash disrupted it (might Dash It have been a better name for the dog?) That said, it added a touch of normality to what was otherwise a fairly stylised meet cute and set up what would come next: the total souring of the scene.

Victoria revealed herself to be ignorant in the matters of the Royal art collection, and the unimpressed Albert (Tom Hughes) gave her a stony glare. That was that: the battle lines had been drawn.

It was a great starting point for a romance  the pair finding each other attractive and irritating in equal measure. We felt for Victoria in this episode, for although she demonstrated some rather bratty behaviour at times, we couldnt really blame her

Albert was infuriating. He embarrassed her for giggling over the remarkable invention of the stamp; he sulked when his half-eaten plate was taken away (although Victoria had finished hers and that was the protocol); he moaned about the lack of a forest in Buckingham Palace (hardly her fault!); he complained that the Windsor uniform was rather heavy  seriously, is there no pleasing this guy?

Of course we loved it though; Victoria needed someone to say no to her, and Albert did it so well. "What would you prefer  flattery or truth?" It was an underlying theme.

There were many moments of magic  that second piano-playing scene for instance. Who knew playing a duet could be so sexy? Did you have to touch her quite so often, Alberts brother Ernest observed, as the audience surely cried: Er, yes he did!

ITV's Victoria Premiere 1 /13 ITV's Victoria Premiere Leading lady Jenna Coleman arrives for the premiere screening of ITV's Victoria at The Orangery Tristan Fewings/Getty Images Sophie Cookson joins Adrian Schiller who plays Penge, the Household Steward Tristan Fewings/Getty Images Rising star Margaret Clunie plays the Duchess of Sutherland Tristan Fewings/Getty Images Husband and wife Tom Hughes and Jenna Coleman play Prince Albert and Queen Victoria in the drama Tristan Fewings/Getty Images Duchess Nichola McAuliffe plays the Duchess of Cumberland Tristan Fewings/Getty Images Lady in red Nell Hudson turns heads in a revealing red dress Tristan Fewings/Getty Images Suitably dressed Peter Bowles dresses for the occasion in a black suit Tristan Fewings/Getty Images In support World War Z actress Aggy K Adams steps out to support the cast Tristan Fewings/Getty Images Up and coming Tommy Lawrence-Knight plays Brodie the hall boy Tristan Fewings/Getty Images Joining the cast Eve Myles of Torchwood fame Tristan Fewings/Getty Images

That said there were also moments of the absurd for instance the waltz at the dance. What the heck happened there? Noticing her corsage, Albert was overcome with emotion, revealing it was a flower his late mother used to wear  at which point he reached into his boot for a knife (really) and turned it in on his chest as if he were about to stab himself, before cutting through his shirt and shoving the flower down there, to be closer to his heart. All the while, the guests danced and apparently didnt notice that the Prince had just taken out a weapon and waved it in front of the Queens face.

As history relates, Queen Victoria really did propose that quickly

Sadly, that wasnt the last of the shirt ripping; indeed Albert appeared to have rather a thing for it. An adorable frolic in the woods between Victoria and Albert  complete with an almost-kiss  took a turn as they found Dash with a broken leg. Out came Alberts trusty knife, which he used to attack his shirt with vengeance once again (perhaps he just doesnt like wearing them?) to make a bandage for the dogs leg. It was supposed to be a manly moment, but honestly it was hard to take him seriously afterwards.

The crescendo, of course, was that final scene. How excitingly modern and thrilling it was that SHE proposed to HIM. Why has this not been made more of in history? It was slightly irksome that it all happened rather quickly  hadnt Albert just arrived? And what woman would propose marriage in the midst of a row? And what about her feelings for Lord Melbourne, conveniently forgotten?  but the rapidity of it was not a fault of the script. As history relates, Queen Victoria really did propose that quickly. Albert arrived in early October and by the 15th they were engaged. (Now thats how not to hang around)

Victoria - ITV trailer

The way Victoria stumbled over the actual proposal was quite sweet, and ever so romantic too that Albert wanted to kiss her before giving his answer. It was a relief when he told her, for him, it wasnt a marriage of convenience, with Victorias apt reply: No, I think it will be a marriage of inconvenience. And then they kissed. And then he lifted her up. And then we reached for the tissues to dab away the tears

So, the big question: was Jenna Colemans chemistry with Tom Hughes as good as it was with Rufus Sewell? On balance, yes. Not better, but theres still plenty of time for it to get there. Hughes German accent was excellent  truly excellent  as was his awkward intensity. Its hard to play a Clockwork Prince with suppressed emotion, but somehow he managed it. Coleman remained consistently good, giving ever more indication as to the powerful monarch she would soon become. Theres real hope that these two will deliver romantic TV gold.

On the red carpet at the premiere of new television drama Victoria.

It was hard not to feel for the unlucky Lord Melbourne. We saw those icy glares at Albert, we heard the snide remarks  Whats he looking at, the woman? Or the most eligible match in Europe?  and there was sadness at his realisation of the Queens transition of affections. In truth, I think the time has come for me to retire, he told Albert at Parliament.

Melbourne was honorable and decent  and his lines delivered so sincerely, by the brilliant Sewell. If this marks the end of his role in the show, it will be the poorer for it

So, what about next week? The preview snipped showed Victoria telling her now-fiance: We must get married as soon as possible Does this mean well have a Royal Wedding in the next episode? Time to prepare our Sunday best

ITV, 9pm
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When Whitney Gilbert and Shadese (DeeDee) Griffith began dating more than a year ago, neither could have expected that they and their family w
A teacher and several students, paired up and tightly clasping hands, attempted to cross East Broad on a bustling afternoon recently in downtown Statesville.

Before the students attempted to cross, the teacher first walked out into the crosswalk and motioned for drivers to stop.

Even with hands held outward in a stop motion, several vehicles drove past her and through the crosswalk.

It happens all the time, said American Renaissance School Administrative Assistant Sandy Durham when asked about the frequency of such events.

Durham said that there was once a stop sign in the middle of the road that notified drivers of the crosswalk, but it was knocked down and rendered useless by a vehicle.

In an effort to protect its students, American Renaissance plans to purchase a handheld stop sign for teachers to use in the crosswalks, Durham said.

American Renaissance has several locations downtown, and students often have to cross streets during the school day.

According to state law, vehicles must yield the right-of-way to pedestrians crossing the roadway within any marked or unmarked crosswalk, or near an intersection.

The NCDOT Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation released a handbook on its website about pedestrian laws in the state. The handbook says that pedestrians have the right of way at all intersections and driveways.

However, pedestrians must act responsibly, using pedestrian signals where they are available.

In 2012, the NCDOT began its Watch For Me NC campaign, aimed at reducing the number of pedestrian and bicyclist crashes with vehicles.

According to the campaigns most recent study in 2015, 18 municipal police agencies and two university police departments were involved in actively enforcing pedestrian- and cyclist-related laws. Of those, 148 citations for failure to yield for pedestrians were issued, along with 355 warnings. In the same year, the study found that 32 citations were given to pedestrians who failed to use the crosswalk, while 725 warnings were given.

Downtown Statesville Development Corporation Executive Director Marin Tomlin believes that the conflicts between downtown drivers and pedestrians have worsened over the years.

It is a terrible problem that I have witnessed more and more recently, she said.

She said that DSDC has been working on the issues for the past 10 years.

We worked with the city to have the mid-block crosswalk signs installed, which were very helpful, Tomlin said. (But) with the new streetscape design these no longer worked because of the three-lane configuration. 

The DOT then requested that the city install the tall yellow pedestrian crossing signs now found at each end of every crosswalk.

Tomlin added that the DSDC looks forward to working with the Statesville Police Department on the ongoing issue.

(We want to) create a public awareness program to re-educate our citizens about this law, Tomlin said.
New motor vehicle registrations (excluding agricultural vehicles) in Brazil totaled 183,890 units in August this year, up 1.4 percent compared to July and decreasing by 11.3 percent year on year. In the first eight months, the country's new motor vehicle registrations (excluding agricultural vehicles) decreased by 23 percent year on year to 1,348,834 units.
Monday, 12 September 2016 09:40:06 (GMT+3) | Shanghai

In August this year, the output and sales volumes of passenger vehicles in China amounted to 1.723 million units and 1.796 million units, up 0.3 percent and 11.9 percent month on month, while rising by 28.2 percent and 26.3 percent year on year, respectively, as announced by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). In the January-August period of the current year, the output and sales volumes of passenger vehicles in China totaled 14.541 million units and 14.442 million units, up 11.9 percent and 12.8 percent year on year, respectively.





As for commercial vehicles, domestic output and sales volumes in August amounted to 268,000 units and 276,000 units, up 11 percent and 11.4 percent month on month, while increasing by 17.4 percent and 12.0 percent year on year, respectively. In the January-August period of the current year, domestic output and sales of commercial vehicles totaled 2.305 million units and 2.313 million units, up 4.2 percent and 3.5 percent year on year, respectively.




The MOC stated that the US attributed this high rate of CVD on carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate to China for not fully cooperating with the investigation, while it actually deprived China s steel enterprises of defense opportunity by requiring them providing irrelevant information. The MOC said that the G20 leaders just reached a consensus for not resorting to new trade protection measures by the end of 2018 at the recently concluded G20 Summit in Hangzhou, while US decision against China s steel products ran counter to G20s wishes and would weaken each other's competitiveness in the global market. The MOC urged that the US should adhere closely to the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and avoid implementing unreasonable measures. To resolve problems, all countries should strengthen communication and cooperation instead of resorting to frequent trade protection measures, the MOC stressed.
Monday, 12 September 2016 23:04:33 (GMT+3) | Sao Paulo

Peruvian iron ore export prices declined 9.5 percent in July, year-on-year, according to data released on Friday by the nations central bank, BCRP.

According to government data, Peruvian iron ore export prices reached $26.7/mt in July, down from $29.5/mt in the same month of the year prior, but 17.6 percent up, month-on-month, from $22.7/mt in June.

Peruvian iron ore export prices were on an increasing trend from January to April this year, rising month after month to reach the years peak in April at $34.6/mt.

Then, in May, the commoditys export price fell to $30.2/mt and to $22.7/mt in June. Julys figure indicates a retake in the commoditys export prices.
Monday, 12 September 2016 11:32:03 (GMT+3) | Istanbul

The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (SEIFSA) has welcomed the decision by the G20 leaders to address excess global steel capacity.





SEIFSAs Chief Executive Officer, Kaizer Nyatsumba, said that the decision, announced at the G20 leaders summit in Hangzhou, China on Monday, September 5, was very important not only for domestic steel producers, but also for the international market.





The international steel glut has resulted in massive job losses in the sector around the world and the unavoidable imposition of punitive tariffs by most countries with steel production capacity. We can only hope that in the months and years to come, excess steel capacity will decline from its current levels of 700 million mt and eventually eradicated. More importantly, we hope that the current practice of subsidizing steel production through interest-free loans, which makes it possible for Chinese producers to undercut their global competitors, will also give way to fair international competition, Mr Nyatsumba said.




Monday, 12 September 2016 15:25:21 (GMT+3) | Istanbul

In August this year, Turkey 's motor vehicle sales totaled 73,269 units, decreasing by 13 percent year on year, according to the monthly statistics released by the Turkish Automotive Manufacturers' Association (OSD). In the same month, Turkey 's passenger car sales totaled 53,977 units, down 13 percent year on year. Meanwhile, in the January-August period of this year, Turkey 's motor vehicle sales amounted to 583,771 units, decreasing by seven percent on year-on-year basis.

In the first eight months of the current year, Turkey 's motor vehicle exports totaled 705,350 units, up 14 percent, while passenger car exports increased by 17 percent to 440,197 units, both year on year. In the same period, the country exported 237,024 small trucks, up 15 percent year on year. In the period in question, revenues from total motor vehicle and component exports increased by 12 percent to $15.4 billion, while the revenues from passenger car exports totaled $4.8 billion, rising by eight percent, both on year-on-year basis.

In August of the current year, Turkey 's total motor vehicle imports amounted to 52,865 units, decreasing by 11 percent year on year, while passenger car imports totaled 43,766 units, down nine percent, year on year. In the January-August period of this year, the country's total motor vehicle imports amounted to 397,389, falling by four percent, while passenger car imports totaled 330,302 units, narrowing by three percent, both compared to the same period of 2015.




Monday, 12 September 2016 23:08:14 (GMT+3) | San Diego

Federal Highway Administrator Gregory Nadeau spoke in St. Louis, Missouri today in the last in a year-long, nationwide series of 24 roundtables to discuss the freight economy, including an anticipated 45-percent increase in freight traffic in the next 30 years.

At the roundtable, Nadeau met with regional business leaders and local officials to discuss the economic opportunities and impacts of freight , including elements of national and state freight plans. He also invited state and local leaders to share ideas on improving freight movement for the region.

It is fitting that our conversations culminate in a city that is both strategically located and enjoys a robust transportation network, said Administrator Nadeau. St. Louis was a gateway for the nation in the 19th century, and is poised to do so again for the freight community in the 21st  important to both national and international markets and representing a premier freight hub in our nation.

The St. Louis metro regions transportation system offers four interstates  I-44, I-55, I-64 and I-70  and is at the nexus of the nations key north-south and east-west corridors.
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Taipei, Sept. 12 (CNA) While Apple Inc. unveiled its latest iPhone models last week, raising optimism toward Taiwanese suppliers' shipments, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, ) said Monday that global demand remains slow, so that Taiwan cannot count on the new iPhones to raise its exports for the rest of this year.
Once Anheuser-Busch InBev seals its $104.8 billion takeover of rival brewer SABMiller, it could find itself party to other smaller deals, involving Castel Group, Coca-Cola and Anadolu Efes .

A-B InBev, maker of Budweiser and Corona, already forged agreements to sell SAB's brands in Western Europe and its joint venture stakes in the United States and China to speed approval for one of the biggest deals in history. It also plans to offload SAB's assets in Eastern Europe, worth up to $7.9 billion, but has not agreed a buyer.

Besides those, SAB has a cross-shareholding with France's Castel Group that, three sources say, includes the first right to buy out the wine, beer and soft drink maker should it ever seek new owners outside the billionaire Castel family, helmed by Pierre Castel, who is nearly 90.

That right would transfer to A-B InBev, they say, giving it a path toward potential full ownership of Castel, which some analysts estimate is worth more than $30 billion due partly to it being the second-largest beer and soft drink maker in Africa.

The continent, with its increasingly thirsty middle class, is one of the main drivers of ABI's takeover - expected to close in October following a shareholder vote on 28 September.

Castel, which also boasts wine estates in Morocco, Tunisia and Ethiopia, is "such a jewel in the crown," according to Liberum analyst Alicia Forry, that A-B InBev would likely jump at the chance to own it.

"It's a very important relationship that we intend to continue to develop and evolve," A-B InBev Chief Executive Carlos Brito told analysts last month when asked about Castel.

It is unclear whether Castel, whose business has been hurt by the recent economic crisis in Angola, will ever sell out. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

BEER AND SOFT DRINKS

Aside from beer, which SABMiller has sold in South Africa since 1895, the brewer now owns 57 percent of soft drinks seller Coca-Cola Bottling Africa. Under an existing change-of-control clause, Coke will have the right to buy SAB's stake  estimated to be worth as much as $4 billion  once the takeover closes.

Coke declined to comment on its intentions but several analysts, including Bernstein's Trevor Stirling, believe it will buy the stake, in part to keep ABI away from its door.

With no more room to grow in beer, chatter among bankers has turned to whether the mega brewer will eventually move into soft drinks, a step that could put Coke at the top of its list.

"They know they're potentially next on the menu and the idea of them having a potential hostile acquirer as your key partner in Africa is not something I think will sit well with Coca-Cola," Stirling said, noting also that AB InBev is a large PepsiCo bottler in Latin America.

"So even if they weren't a potential acquirer ... that in itself would sit uneasily," he added.

A takeover of Coke - which has a market value of $188 billion - would be of unprecedented scale, even for the renowned dealmakers at A-B InBev. Yet a growing relationship between A-B InBev backers 3G Capital and major Coke shareholder Warren Buffett have led some fee-hungry bankers to imagine the legendary investor lending a hand, as he did when 3G Capital bought Heinz in 2013.

One other remaining asset is SABMiller's 24-percent stake in Turkish brewer Anadolu Efes, which is worth about $930 million, based on its current share price.

According to the companies' arrangement, Efes is the only possible buyer for the stake, sources say, if AB InBev decides to sell it. Analysts say Turkey is not a top priority for A-B InBev, but note that it could be interested in Efes's 50.3 percent ownership of Coca-Cola Icecek , which sells Coke drinks in 10 countries around the Middle East and Central Asia. A-B InBev declined to comment on its future plans and Efes was not immediately available.
The value of freight shipped through the St. Louis region is expected to increase 74 percent to $483 billion in 2045, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

That boom is part of a projected 45 percent growth in freight volume nationwide over the next 30 years. How to handle that uptick was the topic of a freight roundtable Monday in St. Louis.

It was the last of 24 such events held by the highway administration around the country. It included officials from the St. Louis Regional Freightway  the regions freight district that falls under the umbrella of Bi-State Development  as well as government and leaders from Boeing, Anheuser-Busch, Save-A-Lot grocery stores and trucking firms.

Gregory Nadeau, head of the highway administration, highlighted the 126-year-old Merchants Bridge as key to moving freight not only in the St. Louis region, but across the country.

Its importance to the national freight network is unquestioned, Nadeau said. Funding remains elusive to replace the aging structure, a project that would cost an estimated $222 million.

An average of 32 trains a day, including Amtrak, cross the half-mile rail bridge that spans the Mississippi River just north of downtown St. Louis, according to recent numbers.

Regionally, rail carried about a quarter of all freight tonnage in 2012.

Big changes to Interstate 270 also are being sought, including widening the road to six lanes from four between Illinois Route 111 and Lilac Avenue, estimated to cost from $350 million to $400 million, and replacing its bridge over the Mississippi with a six-lane span for between $160 million and $175 million.

Infrastructure upgrades being called for go beyond roads and bridges.

Paul Jaenichen, administrator of the federal maritime administration, said Monday that the nation isnt ready to handle the big ships of the future, citing aging and too-small ports.

Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge, director of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, stressed the importance of air cargo and the role that medium-sized airports with freight capacities can play.

Its really convincing the industry as a whole to make a change, she said, citing high costs to move freight in airports such as Miami, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Here are some other St. Louis-area statistics from the Federal Highway Administration:

 The regions industrial real estate market has more than 250 million square feet of distribution and manufacturing space.

 Pharmaceuticals were the most valuable commodities shipped through the St. Louis region; shipments in 2012 totaled $28 billion. That number is expected to grow to $67 billion in 2045 and account for 14 percent of the regions freight value.

 Cereal grains are expected to top the list of commodities shipped locally by weight in 2045, with a projected weight of about 38 million tons, followed by crude petroleum, other agricultural products, nonmetal mineral products and gravel.
CLAYTON  The St. Louis County Police Department and its governing civilian police board may not separate themselves in their legal battle against a former lieutenant accused of racial profiling and fighting for his old job back, a judge ruled Friday.

Associate Circuit Judge Joseph L. Green also ordered the county counselors office to unseal thousands of pages of transcripts from the former officers police board trial last year that the county sought to close from the public.

Greens decision comes after lawyers for former Lt. Patrick Rick Hayes appealed the police boards decision to reinstate and demote Hayes to patrol officer.

I find the police department, board and county are one entity, Green said Friday.

Former Chief Tim Fitch fired Hayes in March 2013 after he said an internal affairs investigation found Hayes had ordered officers to racially profile blacks by pulling them over in and around shopping centers in south St. Louis County.

Hayes appealed his firing to the civilian police board, which presides over the police chief. In March, the board recommended Hayes be reinstated as patrolman after a disciplinary hearing.

Hayes attorney, Neil Bruntrager, then appealed the police boards decision in civil court, saying his client should be returned to his former rank as lieutenant.

County counselors fought the police boards decision, saying Hayes should remain fired. St. Louis Countys lawyers then created an ethical wall within the office so separate attorneys would represent the police board.

Bruntrager in turn sought to dismiss the county and police departments appeal, saying no wall could separate the police department from its own board.

Green agreed. His ruling Friday ordered transcripts from Hayes police board trial be unsealed. Keeping them sealed when other pleadings by Hayes have remained open would give the public an incomplete account of how his case has been handled, he said.

This could potentially be misleading to the public, Green read Friday from his order. Such incomplete information runs the risk of having part of the record taken out of context and would undermine the impartiality and fairness of the judicial system (that) public policy seeks to protect.

The judges order gives the county counselors office two weeks to file unsealed transcripts  about 3,000 pages  from Hayes 11-day police board trial last year that the county counselors office wanted closed over objections from Hayes lawyer.

Bruntrager said Greens ruling is a victory for Hayes because the public will get to see what the police board saw  that claims by some of the officers were incredible.

This is a big deal, Bruntrager said. It will demonstrate that he didnt do those things.

Bob Grant, deputy St. Louis County counselor, disagreed with the judges decision and said the county counselors office will review the ruling and consider its legal options.

Green gave lawyers for both sides 30 days to agree on a hearing date for oral arguments that will help the judge decide whether to reinstate Hayes as a lieutenant or patrol officer.

The St. Louis County Board of Police Commissioners has five civilians appointed by the county executive and approved by the County Council to govern the police department. There are currently four members, as County Executive Steve Stenger has not appointed a replacement for John Saracino.
MARYLAND HEIGHTS  City leaders returned police Chief Bill Carson to duty Monday following a two-week paid suspension, but a top commander remains on leave following allegations of an "unfair work environment."

In a prepared statement, City Administrator Jim Krischke said Carson was returned to duty following a "preliminary review of its police department operations." He said Deputy Chief Joe Delia will remain on paid leave "until a more thorough review of the operation of the police department is completed."

Carson referred all questions to the city's spokeswoman.

A press release also quoted Mayor Michael Moeller as saying placing the long-time veterans on leave was the "best way to ensure a fair and unbiased examination of the personnel complaints and concerns weve received."

That review has so far shown that Carson was, "not the reason for these complaints."

Carson was also quoted as saying, in part, that the city received complaints about two weeks ago and "takes these matters seriously and took the steps necessary to look into these concerns with the consideration and responsiveness they require.

I am pleased to be back to work resolving these issues and protecting and serving the people of Maryland Heights, he continued.

A "thorough assessment" of the police department will begin this week, according to the release.

"Although other assessments of the department have occurred related to its Commission on Accreditation For Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) certification, this assessment will look at all areas of operations including personnel policies and practices," according to the statement.

Krischke's prepared statement assured residents that there are no staff reductions planned for the department, "nor were they ever discussed."

Over the next year, all city departments will be reviewed. Our mayor, City Council and I feel that we owe it to our residents and employees to make sure were operating as effectively and fairly as possible in all areas of service provision," he wrote.

In a press conference following the suspensions imposed Aug. 25, Delia and his attorney, Chet Pleban, accused city leaders of trying to reduce the police force.

During a Sept. 1 meeting, about 40 Maryland Heights residents and city-based employees on night urged the City Council to restore Carson and Delia to their longtime positions.

But the council offered no comment, voting only to confirm Capt. Mike Klos as acting chief.

In closed session, the council was to name a firm to review and assess police operations.

At the time of the personnel moves, Krischke, who took office this year, said there had been complaints from some officers of an unfair work environment. He offered no details.

About 10 residents, as well as representatives of the Maryland Heights Fire Protection District, Hollywood Casino and other groups, spoke in favor of restoration of Carson and Delia to their prior status, and all received loud applause.

Carson also serves as the chairman of the St. Louis Area Police Chiefs Association and is a member of the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis.

The police department has 77 full-time officers including command staff. Earlier this month, the City Council authorized Krischke to hire a firm to review and assess the departments operations. A ceiling of $40,000 was set for the review. A city spokeswoman said a contract is pending.

Pleban said Monday the move to return Carson to duty, but not his client, shows how "inept city leaders truly are."

He said city leaders are wasting taxpayer dollars by performing an assessment of its operations, given that the department has already undergone CALEA accreditation.

Police can appeal disciplinary decisions to a board of police commissioners in Maryland Heights. But Pleban said the city has told Delia in a letter that he is not entitled to appeal because the city does not believe it is a disciplinary move.

Pleban laughed at that, adding, "Now we have to decide whether to litigate."
BELLEVILLE  An original suspect in the stabbing murders of three people at a hair salon here 11 years ago has been charged after police uncovered new evidence, St. Clair County States Attorney Brendan Kelly said Monday.

A grand jury indicted Samuel L. Johnson, 50, formerly of Pagedale, on three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of two sisters and their hairdresser on March 2, 2005. Another man was tried in the case in 2010 and acquitted.

The victims  Michael J. Cooney, 62, who had the salon at 7813 West Main Street, and two of his customers, sisters Dorothy Bone, 82, and Doris Fischer, 79, all of Belleville  collectively were stabbed more than 50 times.

Belleville police considered Johnson the prime suspect early on, but he was never previously charged in the murders. Nine months after the killings, he was convicted of attempted burglary of the salon in 2003. Robert Haida, then states attorney and now a judge, said investigators could not link Johnson to forensic evidence.

Three years later, Haida filed murder charges against Darrell Lane, then 17, of St. Louis, based on a bloody fingerprint inside Cooneys stolen SUV. But a jury acquitted Lane in 2010. Prosecutors said then they didnt believe Lane acted alone.

Kelly said that beginning in 2014, Belleville police resumed the investigation, but he did not describe any new evidence. Bail for Johnson was set at $3 million.

Johnson is serving a seven-year sentence in the Southeast Correctional Center, in Charleston, Mo., for receiving stolen property, narcotics and firearms offenses.

He served time in Missouri during the 1980s and Georgia during the 1990s, and was convicted in St. Louis County in 1998 of stealing. He was released from a Missouri halfway house in November 2003, one month before the attempted burglary at Cooneys salon.

He already served his time for that crime before Lane went to trial. In that trial, two men testified they found the SUV abandoned and running in St. Louis and used it before turning it over to Lane and two of his friends.
KANSAS CITY, Mo.  The disappearance of a 21-year-old suburban Kansas City woman who hasn't been seen since Thursday is considered a suspicious missing persons case after her abandoned, burned vehicle was found near a road in south Kansas City, police said.

Jessica Runions, of Raymore, was last seen leaving a party on Thursday night. Her mother reported her missing Friday evening, and the search for her is ongoing.

On Sunday, 27-year-old Kylr Yust was taken into custody around 8:30 a.m. in Edwards, Mo., on charges of "knowingly burning" Runions' vehicle, Kansas City Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kari Thompson said in a statement.

KSHB-TV reported Yust, who currently faces no other allegations in Runions' disappearance, was being held on a $50,000 cash only bond. It wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney who could comment on his behalf.

Runions' mother, Jamie, said she is doing all she can to get the word out about her daughter on social media and plans to put up posters across the Kansas City area.

"I'm numb. I can't think," Runions told The Kansas City Star Sunday afternoon. "But right now I have positive news that my daughter wasn't in the car when they found it. And that's what's going to keep me going right now. There's hope."

Runions received a text from her daughter Wednesday evening and she posted a picture on Facebook Thursday afternoon. The family has heard nothing since then, Runions said.

The two were scheduled to meet at a doctor's office Friday afternoon because Jessica has been recovering since her appendix ruptured two weeks ago.

"That wasn't like her," Runions said. "She needed that doctor's appointment to go back to work. She loves her job."

Jessica works in the restaurant at Foxwood Springs senior living community in Raymore.

Detectives spent Saturday night interviewing people who may have seen Jessica Runions in the past few days.

"We're all praying every single minute," said Jessica's grandmother, Linda Runions. "Just to hear that she's OK."
EAST ST. LOUIS  Two drivers and several children had minor injuries after a bus and U.S. Postal Service van collided Monday afternoon.

The crash near College Avenue and 15th Street happened about 4 p.m. The bus had 18 children and included students at Gordon Bush Elementary.

Jim Love, safety and risk director for Illinois Central School Bus, said there were no life-threatening injuries in the crash. He said the van driver ran a stop sign and hit the bus. Love's company is the contractor for the East St. Louis school district.

Love said the school was supposed to notify parents about the crash. But several parents at the scene said they had not been alerted.

"I was concerned," said Archie Parker Sr., who came to check on his 8-year-old son. "I got down here real fast."

Parker's son was taken to a hospital to get checked out after the crash.

"We jumped," Archie Jr. said. "Everybody slid over and hit their heads."

Eric Ferguson found his 6-year-old daughter after the crash. She had a swollen eye. Ferguson said he also didn't get a call about the crash.

The van involved in the crash had heavy front-end damage. The bus was being towed from the scene.
JENNINGS  A pair of 14-year-old boys are in juvenile custody Monday in connection with the murder of a 71-year-old man.

Police say they are seeking a third suspect, another teen who is 16.

The victim, Steven White of Northwoods, was fatally shot early Friday in the 8700 block of College Avenue in Jennings.

Officers called to the scene at about 1:30 a.m. Friday found White lying on the ground in front of a residence. Police say he had been shot at least once. He died at a hospital.

White had lived in the 4600 block of Seattle Street.

The shooting scene is at College and McLaran avenues, one-half mile north of Jennings Station Road and West Florissant Avenue.

On Monday, St. Louis County Police Officer Benjamin Granda said the two 14-year-old boys were taken into custody in St. Louis and are being held by the St. Louis County Family Court.

Granda said police did not know a motive for the shooting.
COLUMBIA, Mo.  The University of Missouri School of Medicine is noncompliant in several areas and must address the issues within two years to maintain its accreditation, according to a report by a national group that accredits medical degree programs.

Among the findings in a June report by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education is that the number of Missouri medical students who reported experiencing gender discrimination is twice as high as the national average. The report was obtained recently by the Columbia Missourian through a Sunshine Law request.

The committee also found the school noncompliant regarding diversity programs, student mistreatment, curricular management and affiliation agreements, according to the 497-page report. The school needs monitoring in leadership, strategic planning, student observations, building renovations and assessments, according to the report.

The committee could put the school on probation if it doesnt make progress toward the standards within a year, and the school could lose accreditation if it doesnt make progress within two years. Normally, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education operates on an eight-year accreditation cycle.

In a written statement, Medical School Dean Patrick Delafontaine said that the school had been aware of many of the issues before the report was created and that he was proud of the school for receiving full accreditation.

We take the LCMEs recommendations very seriously, Delafontaine said. To that end, we have assembled a task force comprised of medical students, faculty and staff that is dedicated to continuous quality improvement in general, as well as to making specific quality improvements cited in the survey.

The committee met with administrators, faculty and students during a visit to the medical school in January.

The members found that about 14 percent of Missouri medical students said they had been denied opportunities based on gender at least once, compared with the national average of about 6 percent, according to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges. About 43 percent of Missouris students said they had experienced public humiliation at least once, compared with the national average of about 19 percent; and about 22 percent said they had been subjected to offensive or sexist remarks at least once, compared with a national average of about 14 percent.

Students specific examples of mistreatment were redacted from the report by the university.

The school established last fall a committee to review mistreatment reports, Missouri Health spokeswoman Diamond Dixon said.

The schools lack of diversity among faculty and students isnt a new problem. The school was deemed noncompliant in diversity in 2008, when the committee granted the school full accreditation. However, the number of black students in the medical school has dropped to 3.3 percent from 5 percent, and more than a third of students said they werent satisfied with the schools student diversity.

Delafontaine must submit an action plan, including a letter and detailed list of steps that will be taken, to the committee by Dec. 1.
ST. LOUIS  Throwing out election results on gotcha technical violations disenfranchised those who voted in the 78th District state representative race last month, and a circuit judges order for a new election should be overturned, an attorney for Penny Hubbard said before an appellate court Monday afternoon.

In arguing her case before the Missouri Court of Appeals, Hubbards attorney, Jane Dueker, said the votes of 4,316 people were taken away without evidence that any voter was prevented from casting a ballot for the person he or she supported, including the 530 who voted absentee.

Chief Judge Philip M. Hess did not say when a ruling would be issued but noted it is an accelerated case with the new election set for Friday.

Circuit Judge Rex Burlison on Sept. 2 called for a new election after a two-day trial centering on the absentee balloting process in the Aug. 2 Democratic primary between Hubbard and newcomer Bruce Franks Jr. Specifically, the case focused on the 142 absentee votes made in person at the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners office. As reported Aug. 28 in the Post-Dispatch, all absentee ballots must be placed into a sealed envelope under state law. However, those cast at the Election Board office were not.

These irregularities were more than petty procedural infirmities but abuses of the election law which cannot be ignored, Burlison said. The number of votes called into question exceed the margin of the apparent victor and is of sufficient magnitude to cast doubt on the validity of the initial election.

Hubbard won the election by 90 votes. Franks won nearly 53 percent of the vote on Election Day, Aug. 2, but Hubbard won 78.5 percent of the absentee ballots, giving her the victory.

Dueker had little time to present her arguments Monday. She and Dave Roland, attorney for Franks, were each given 10 minutes to present their case, with Dueker getting a two-minute rebuttal. However, both parties filed lengthy briefs with the court last week.

Dueker stated in her written arguments that the Election Boards failure to require the use of absentee ballot envelopes for in-person absentee voting on electronic voting systems, even if deemed an irregularity, in the absence of fraud, was not of sufficient magnitude to cast doubt on the validity of the initial election.

In court Monday, Dueker said calling for a new election disenfranchised people for irregularities that have no bearing whatsoever on a single vote. What (Roland) has not and cannot tell you is that any of the gotcha technical violations he is asserting had any impact on whether the registered voter voted for the person they wanted to. That, she said is fatal to his claim.

But the judges questioned whether a voter can be disenfranchised if a new election is granted. Dueker argued that a two-week time span from when Burlison threw out the initial results to Fridays special election is too little time to give the 530 people who voted absentee the opportunity to do so again. She predicted an exponential drop in the number of people who vote.

In his written argument, Roland said: Rather than disenfranchising voters, (state statute) provides a remedy that creates an additional opportunity for citizens to vote, at the same time ensuring that the new election will be free from the irregularities that marred the first one.

Dueker argued both before Burlison and the appellate court that tossing the election violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Roland said for that to be the case, Dueker must identify any voter who might be denied the right to vote as a consequence of the applicable state statutes or the trial courts judgment ... Neither the facts nor the law support this contention.
JEFFERSON CITY  Missouris prisons were largely quiet over the weekend against the backdrop of a nationwide threat by inmates to go on strike.

George Lombardi, director of the Missouri Department of Corrections, told a legislative panel Monday that the states 21 facilities experienced no uprisings as part of a push by activists aimed at highlighting labor conditions within prisons.

Were very fortunate we had none, Lombardi told members of the House Appropriations-Public Safety Committee.

There were problems in other states.

In Florida, two prisons were placed on lockdown after inmates in the nations third-largest prison system joined in the protest, meant to coincide with the 45th anniversary of the riots in Attica, a prison in New York.

In Michigans Upper Peninsula, prisoners damaged housing units at the Kinross Correctional Facility, forcing prison officials to call in reinforcements to calm the situation.

Lombardi said he believes Missouri 32,750 inmates stayed mostly quiet because they are less angry about their conditions than their counterparts in other states.

This business is always on edge. A problem could happen at any time, Lombardi said. Im not going to sit here and tell you there arent problems. Weve been really keeping our ear to the ground. We think were doing fairly well.
JEFFERSON CITY  Joining groups protesting in 25 other state capitals for a day of action, faith leaders and workers rallied in Jefferson City Monday to call for a $15 an hour minimum wage, Medicaid expansion and the rejection of a proposed photo ID requirement to vote.

An estimated 200 protesters, many donning tee shirts that read We are worth more, gathered in the Capitol rotunda just days before legislators are set to return for the annual veto session.

Efforts to raise the minimum wage and expand health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act have stalled in Missouri. The Fight for $15 protesters at the Capitol Monday are part of a national movement, known for one-day strikes that have led fast-food workers to picket lines around St. Louis and throughout the country.

The Missouri Legislature banned local minimum wages last year in a bill Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed. With GOP supermajorities in both chambers, the veto was overridden, blocking efforts in St. Louis and elsewhere to raise the wage at a city level. The law is being challenged in the Missouri Supreme Court.

Similarly, Medicaid expansion has been a no-go, but drew some attention recently after a group of clergy members were found guilty of trespassing while calling for expansion in the gallery of the Missouri Senate while lawmakers debated the issue.

It has largely become a partisan issue. Many Democrats have called for expanding the coverage, but Republican majorities in both chambers of the Missouri Legislature have rejected proposals, saying the state cant afford to pour money into a broken system at the expense of education or other programs

But protesters were also there to rally against a proposed constitutional amendment that would authorize a photo ID requirement in order to vote, a proposal voters will weigh in on in November.

Right now, they are trying to make sure that we dont all have access to the ballot box, said Rev. Cassandra Gould, executive director of Missouri Faith Voices, adding that the proposed change turns democracy on its head by allowing election officials to select their voters.

During the veto session, Republicans have vowed to overturn Nixons veto of a bill that would lay out how the voter ID system would be implemented if voters approve the plan.
JEFFERSON CITY  Backers of a Republican-led plan to loosen Missouris gun laws say they are confident theyll be able to override Gov. Jay Nixons veto of the measure during the Legislatures veto session Wednesday.

Senate Bill 656 would allow people to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. It was a priority for the GOP caucuses in the most recent legislative session. The package also included a lifetime concealed carry permit and added provisions for a stand your ground law in Missouri, giving people the legal right to defend themselves if they feel threatened.

Nixon, a Democrat, said last week that ultimately, the state would be less safe if his veto of the measure was overridden.

The firearms changes are among a handful of vetoes lawmakers are expected to debate on Wednesday. A proposal to require voters to produce photo identification at the polls is on tap for what could be a lengthy discussion.

Republicans control both the House and Senate with veto-proof majorities.

The gun measure passed in the Senate 24-8, and was approved by the House in a 114-36 vote, where three Democrats voted in favor of the bill and six Republicans were absent. To override Nixons veto, supporters need 109 votes in the House and 23 votes in the Senate.

That shouldnt be a problem, sponsoring Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Springfield, said, because concerns that have been voiced by the Democratic governor since the end of session were debated at length when lawmakers first voted on the bill.

The same objections Gov. Nixon brought up, we were able to argue against them. So I would have been concerned if the governor had any new information that had been brought to light, or if there were any technical errors with the bill, Burlison said. In this case, there arent any.

But Nixon isnt the only one with objections. The bill also has been denounced by law enforcement groups, including the Missouri Police Chiefs Association and the Missouri Fraternal Order of Police, who say that the consequences of the bill could be dangerous.

Make no mistake, we are staunch supporters of the Second Amendment, said Missouri FOP President Kevin Ahlbrand in a letter to the governor. We feel, however, that the enactment of SB 656, specifically the allowance of giving anyone not currently prohibited from possessing a firearm the ability to carry a concealed firearm without a permit, will cost not only citizen lives but will also be extremely dangerous to law enforcement officers.

Domestic violence concerns

Under current law, a person interested in getting a permit to carry a concealed firearm in Missouri must first submit to a criminal background check and complete a gun safety training course. Then, local sheriffs can issue permits to anyone with a clean record and no history of mental illness.

Burlison said that process was costly and infringed on Missourians constitutional right to defend themselves and their families.

So we currently have a situation where we make it difficult and expensive for people who want to express that right, Burlison said. Ive said before, we would find it appalling if we required citizens to pay a heavy fee, an expensive fee, and take classes in order to express their right to pray  or to vote.

Nixon has been vocal about the need for that training and background check, particularly for the safety of domestic violence victims.

Youve had thousands of permits that have been turned down by local sheriffs across our state, and I dont think its the job of Jeff City, especially after two and a half years ago we came up with a system thats working, Nixon said after speaking at the state fair last month.

In certain situations, like domestic violence and others, if a local sheriff thinks theres too much heat right now in a relationship to allow one of them to be walking around carrying (a gun) for a few months, then he ought to have the power to do that.

Colleen Coble, executive director of the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, said the impact on vulnerable Missourians, such as those in abusive relationships, was not a central part of the debate around the legislation.

This is not about the full realm of belief about Second Amendment rights, but about the point of agreement about those who have been violent against family members and their partners have forfeited those rights, Coble said.

If the Legislature chooses to sustain the veto, then the few elements in Missouri law remain to protect domestic violence abusers from having firearms, Coble added. If the veto is overridden, theres serious work to be done in January to ensure domestic violence victims arent in danger, she said.

Rep. Stacey Newman, D-Richmond Heights, who has sponsored stalled gun violence prevention bills, said that in an otherwise banner year for domestic violence prevention  the Legislature passed several protective measures for victims in its most recent session  there was a dichotomy between that work and the push for SB 656.

It tells you the power the gun lobby has on state legislatures, she said.

The National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund recently launched a statewide ad in Missouri, featuring a woman who defended herself against a violent attack with a firearm.

Gov. Nixon is blocking legislation guaranteeing your right to defend yourself, says a narrator in the ad.

Burlison said that there had been misinformation about the bill and that plenty of people would still undergo training for permits, particularly if they want to conceal and carry in other states and certain parts of Missouri.

There are 17 locations (in Missouri) where a person is not legally allowed to carry unless they have a permit. There are many reasons why its still important for a person to get a permit, and that permitting process isnt going away, he said.

House Speaker Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, said he would be watching to see if any Democrats supported the bill in light of the endorsement Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Koster received from the NRA.

This Legislature has a pretty strong track record of protecting Second Amendment rights. I think it will be interesting if they break ranks with their candidate for governor, Richardson said.

Voter ID

Nixon also cautioned lawmakers not to override his veto of a law that would require voters to show photo identification when they go to vote.

Although voter ID laws in North Carolina, Michigan and Texas have been successfully challenged in three recent court cases, Sen. Will Kraus, R-Lees Summit, the sponsor of the measure, said he was confident there were enough votes to get the legislation on the books.

I think the bill is very well written to make sure no one is turned away without having the opportunity to vote, Kraus said.

In his veto message, Nixon said the proposed law attempted to solve a problem that didnt exist.

Missouri already has strong protections in place to prevent voter fraud, and voter impersonation fraud is an extremely rare occurrence, Nixon wrote. Putting additional and unwarranted barriers between citizens and their ability to vote is wrong and detrimental to our system of government as a whole.

In comments to reporters last week, he said the measure would unfairly target racial and ethnic minorities and elderly people.

If you dont have a government ID, you have to stand in line, away from the rest of your citizens, and youre forced to have your picture taken, Nixon said.

Kraus said the absentee voter scandal in the 78th House District that triggered a judge to order a new election was an example of how people attempted to influence elections.

Voter fraud does happen, Kraus said.

However, the allegations in the 78th District do not involve identification.

Kraus said he expected some filibustering from Democrats on Wednesday. But, he said, if the House overrides the veto, Democrats know they dont have enough votes in the Senate to block it.

I think that they understood that this was a priority for the majority party this year, Kraus said.

Richardson said he was confident the measure would make it out of the House.

Voter ID is something weve been working on for a very long time in Missouri. I anticipate well have a real strong vote of support on that, Richardson said.

Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, said the push could backfire if it instead mobilized minority voters.

This could work against the Republicans. This is a systematic attempt to disenfranchise minority voters, Nasheed said. The Republicans are going to do what they do best, which is pander to their base during the election cycle.

Tax breaks

Nixon also used his veto power in June to nix a handful of proposed changes in state tax laws.

The governor said the tax breaks could draw as much as $60 million away from important state programs.

Included is a plan to provide tax breaks for farmers who suffer losses from natural disasters, which he said could cost $50 million. Another so-called budget buster would provide a tax break for business owners who sell their company to their employees.

The measure would allow a 50 percent break in the capital gains tax for the sale of stock in a company to an employee-owned stock option program.
ST. LOUIS  Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has bought a house in University City with an eye on practicing law or going into business after he leaves office in January  though he hasnt ruled out the possibility of a place in a Hillary Clinton White House.

What Nixon has ruled out, he said in an interview Monday, is a run for the U.S. Senate in 2018, or any other elective office in the foreseeable future.

Ive kept my (law) license. I dont have gainful employment yet, Nixon said in a meeting with the Post-Dispatch editorial board and others at the newspaper.

He would talk only in general terms about his plans. I dont want to make any ethical mistakes the last 120 days Im in office, so Ill begin making decisions later on about what Im going to do. Certainly the law is one opportunity, (and) there are business opportunities and whatnot. ... Im not going to be a lobbyist. I dont have any plans to run for office.

However, he added: If a president of the United States asks you to do something significant for the country, then you consider it.

Asked whether he has talked with the Clinton camp about any potential position in her administration should she win the presidency in November, Nixon paused for several seconds, then responded: Those arent the kind of things you succeed at if you spend a lot of time talking about them.

Nixon, 60, a Democrat, will leave office on Jan. 9, finishing his second term as governor. State law prevents him from serving a third term. His exit will cap a 30-year political career that has included stints in the state Senate, four terms as state attorney general and two failed attempts at the U.S. Senate.

Nixon specifically ruled out pursuing a third Senate run, saying: If you go there, you should go when youre young.

Nixon said he has bought a home in University Hills, which is part of University City.

St. Louis County property tax records confirm Nixon and his wife, Georganne, bought a home on Teasdale Avenue in that neighborhood for $738,000 on Aug. 8. The two-story brick home is 3,516 square feet with five bedrooms, three-and-a-half baths and a large backyard, according to a publicly listed description.

Nixon described the neighborhood as having some of the most unique old houses in this area.

Theyve met the Mitt Romney test: The trees are the right height, he quipped, referring to the 2012 Republican presidential nominees much-mocked description of his home state of Michigan.

Nixon faces a final battle this week with the Republican-controlled Legislature, which returns to Jefferson City on Wednesday to consider overturning his latest vetoes.

In other highlights from the wide-ranging interview:

 Nixon touted what he said is a legacy of fiscal responsibility, the rebirth of the auto industry, increases in education funding and other achievements wrought in a hotly partisan environment where too many people are bowing to either an elephant or a donkey.

 He decried political cynicism as a horrific disease for democracy to get and suggested that one symptom is the lack of real contested election races in the Legislature this year. Once youre in, its hard to beat you because of Missouris system of unlimited campaign funding, unrestricted gifts and other factors, he said.

 Asked about controversy over Clintons comments that half of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trumps supporters are bigots and other deplorables, Nixon counseled outreach. If people disagreed with me nine times out of 10, I see that as an opportunity to get them the 10th time, he said. But he also decried the ridiculous double standard that a woman with walking pneumonia at a fundraiser says something thats potentially not perfect, but the other nominee can go out and lambaste multiple groups without provoking the same outrage.

 On the race between Democrat Chris Koster and Republican Eric Greitens to succeed him as governor, Nixon criticized Greitens for what he said is a failure to address governance issues in detail. He termed it a Trumple-down effect, in reference to similar criticism of Trump.

Tim ONeil of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
This story was originally published Sept. 11, 2016. As part of our coverage for the 20th anniversary of 9/11, we're republishing content that highlights how we covered the day and its aftermath, plus its cultural meaning in American history.

BELLEVILLE  The warped metal beam points toward New York City, where it once helped hold up one of the World Trade Center towers.

On the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that brought down the twin towers, the September 11 Memorial Walkway of Southern Illinois was unveiled to a crowd of about 1,000 who gathered Sunday at the Belleville Fire Department Engine House No. 4.

After an hour-long ceremony, guests walked along a cement pathway reading plaques that tell the timeline of the day, from the time four planes took off in the morning to President George W. Bushs address to the nation that night.

The path ends at a pentagon-shaped plaza in honor of the military headquarters in Washington where one of the hijacked planes struck. There, two concrete posts hold up the beam from the World Trade Center, which lies horizontally in relation to where two planes hit each building.

It was overwhelming to have this show of support, said Sharon Stausbaugh of the memorial committee.

The beam was delivered to Belleville in 2012. More than 1,200 other portions of the towers wreckage were sent to cities nationwide, including Arnold and OFallon, Mo.

Last year it was announced that about 200 artifacts of the rubble that remained from the World Trade Center site, including mangled police cars, an elevator motor and mannequins from underground shops, would be given away by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on the condition that the items be publicly displayed.

Since receiving the steel beam, committee members in Belleville raised $115,000 from 250 donors for the first phase of the memorials construction. An additional $10,000 in donations was designated for a flag pole and engraved bricks. Construction of the first phase started just six weeks ago, with much of the labor donated.

Stausbaugh said organizers hoped to have the entire memorial completed by next years anniversary. They expect to raise an additional $200,000 for a portion devoted to Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania, additional landscaping, lighting and an area for gatherings.

The design includes several symbolic touches. The length of the walkway, 343 feet, commemorates the number of firefighters killed at the World Trade Center. On Sunday, organizers surpassed the goal of 343 firefighters from across Southern Illinois in attendance at the ceremony.

Kelly Waldrup, of Shiloh, brought her sons Jordan Uhles, 10, and Joshua Uhles, 8, to the ceremony to honor their uncle Drew Uhles, of Du Quoin. Uhles, a lance corporal in the Marines, was killed on duty in Iraq in 2004 at age 20.

Even though the boys were not born on Sept. 11 and never met their uncle, they understand the meaning behind the memorial, Waldrup said.

Theyve been very interested and like to read and ask questions, so they know what this is all about, she said.

Waldrup said the ceremony was very moving for their family, which includes her partner, a state trooper who helped lead the color guard, and a firefighter nephew, also in attendance. She teared up after the steel beam was unveiled.

Im glad it came to Belleville, she said.
Less than an hour after Arkansas' Savvy Shields was crowned Miss America, she had some advice for the presidential candidates.

After taking the crown Sunday night, Shields said she hopes at the end of her yearlong reign "we're starting to reward politicians for compromise."

During the interview part of the pageant in Atlantic City, the interviewer asked Shields what she thought of Hillary Clinton.

She answered that while both Clinton and Republican Donald Trump have done a good job thus far, "they also need to watch what they're doing." She later said it seemed both candidates seemed to be yelling at each other and they needed to focus more on compromise.

Shields topped a field of 52 contestants to win the crown and the title of Miss America 2017, succeeding the outgoing Miss America Betty Cantrell.

Shields is an art major at the University of Arkansas who wants to help people make better food choices. First runner-up was Miss South Carolina Rachel Wyatt and second-runner up was Miss New York Camille Sims.
For some reason, beauty pageants persist despite all of the hard-fought progress to stop judging women by their looks. Pageants such as Sundays Miss America competition have moved steadily toward greater emphasis on talents, intellect, social action, philanthropy, political awareness and diversity.

Yet theres no escaping the endurance of swimsuit and gown competitions as a continuing objective to put womens body parts on display. This years Miss America pageant took a turn for the better. Miss Missouri, Erin OFlaherty, became the first openly lesbian contestant.

She didnt win, but her nomination marked a step forward to expand public consciousness about sexual orientation and perhaps reverse some stereotypes still held by some members of the pageants viewing demographic. Lesbian and gay activists said it was time for one of their own to take the stage because members of their community have been involved in pageants for generations  in the closet or behind the scenes.

OFlaherty, 23, plans to use her position as Missouris reigning beauty queen to break down barriers and be a role model. She wants to demonstrate that being a feminine woman and a lesbian are not incompatible, and will advocate for suicide prevention. Her focus is the Trevor Project, an organization dedicated to preventing suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth.

Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that suicides and attempted suicides among gay teens are greater than among heterosexual teens. The CDC also says homosexual youths are more likely to be bullied, have unexcused school absences, use drugs and be depressed.

The Miss America pageant began in 1921 but didnt crown its first African-American winner, Vanessa Williams, until 1984. That marked a crucial milestone for racial diversity in the American mainstream. When young people see successful adults they can identify with, whether because of skin color, sexual orientation, ability or disability, they gain greater confidence and are more able to overcome intolerance they might encounter.

Beauty pageants still have a long way to go. The winners, like this years Savvy Shields from Arkansas, remain overwhelmingly white and conform to a physical standard that most women would find elusive. Theres got to be a better way to emphasize health and education over beauty.

Lets not fool ourselves; we all want to look our best. Physical beauty is a form of expression, but it shouldnt be the criterion that defines ones self-worth. OFlahertys nomination helped broaden Americas perspective.
Free-standing chain-link fencing can be put up in a very short amount of time at very little cost, and we all should commit to this solution until the killings in our schools stop.
Kelly Marsh

THE mum of a young Butlers Marston woman who was killed in a car crash caused by a young driver who had been drinking alcohol, spoke at a training event ahead of a charity bike ride from Land's End to John O'Groats.

Jane Marsh was a representative for the national road safety charity Brake, at a training event held at Stoneleigh Park, in June, before the team of employees took part in DHL's Deloitte Ride Across Britain.

The cyclists left Lands End, in Cornwall, on Friday (9th September), and are set to complete the 969-mile route at John OGroats, in Scotland, on Saturday (17th September).

During the training event, Jane spoke about the work road safety charity Brake does and then of her own personal experiences.

In November 2005, Kelly Marsh, a former Kineton High School and Warwickshire College student, was just 20-years-old when she was killed in a crash caused by a young driver who had been drinking alcohol.

Jane said that DHL and Deloitte support Brake, and for the past two years, they have carried out a huge fundraiser, giving half the money raised to the road safety charity.

She said: Last year they raised about 15,000, so it's a huge event for the Brake calendar.

I went along to Stoneleigh and I was amazed at all the logistics and preparation they have to go through to attempt the ride.

Jane continued: I didn't know until after I did my talk that their training route that day was to go past Kels tree and into Kineton and take a break at the Swan Hotel  thats where Kel spent her last evening. I was so shocked.

She added: Eventually I told the organisers, as we were all leaving. They said that they would tell the team, it will give them a real connection with Kel and me, so when their asking themselves Why am I doing this? when the pain kicks in, they've that connection to help focus on.

I just couldn't believe that they had planned to go that way and to the Swan as well, they had no idea of the connection either.

Jane will also be supporting Brakes annual National Road Safety Week, from Monday 21st to Sunday 27th November.
A new campaign has been launched to remind Warwickshire residents about the dangers of using their smartphone whilst driving.

In Warwickshire alone there have been eight serious road collision casualties, and 45 slight, since 2013 where the use of a phone/smartphone was a contributing factor. This does not account for damage only collisions or frequent near misses and its not just the UK where there is a problem.

Each year at least 70 fatal accidents on Britains roads have distraction in vehicle as a contributory factor. Driver using mobile phone is a factor in some 20 fatal accidents a year.

Warwickshire County Council is advising drivers to put their phone out of sight whilst in their vehicle, to let calls go to voicemail and to ignore notification sounds by putting their phone on mute.

Cllr John Horner, Warwickshire County Councils Portfolio Holder for Community Safety said: Smartphones are a particular concern due to the desire to constantly check or post updates.

This along with constant notifications can create a significant distraction to drivers. A problem that can only get worse as more and more people use their phone as a Sat Nav.

Cllr Philip Johnson, Warwickshire County Councils Chair of the Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee, added: Our Road Safety Team and Warwickshire Police will continue to monitor collision causation factors to determine the extent of the problem of phone distraction. This campaign aims to raise awareness of this growing problem in a bid to make our roads safer.

Find out more about the risks at www.warwickshire.gov.uk/justdrive
Activist hedge fund Starboard Value has taken a 4.6% stake in Perrigo (NYSE: PRGO) and is urging the company to refocus on its core business, the Wall Street Journal reported overnight.

Starboard has sent a letter criticizing the company for unsuccessfully living up to its performance targets it set while fending off Mylan's (NYSE: MYL) $26 billion takeover attempt last year.

Shares of PRGO are down over 50% over the past year.
A pumpjack brings oil to the surface in the Monterey Shale, California, U.S. April 29, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. shale production is expected to fall for an 11th consecutive month in October, according to a U.S. government forecast released on Monday, on the back of a two-year global rout in oil markets.

October oil production is set to drop by 61,000 barrels per day to 4.41 million bpd, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's drilling productivity report, the lowest output since March 2014.

The biggest decline was in the Eagle Ford in Texas, which saw a fall of 46,000 bpd to nearly 982,000 bpd. In North Dakota, Bakken oil production is set to drop by some 28,000 bpd to 914,000 bpd.

While oil prices are trading at less than half of their value from mid-2014, they have recovered from 13-year lows earlier this year, recently even reaching $50 a barrel . That has allowed at least some production declines to be tempered in the Permian, the largest U.S. shale basin by production.

Permian output from West Texas is set to rise by 22,000 bpd to nearly 2 million bpd, its second monthly increase.

Total natural gas production, meanwhile, is forecast to decline for an eighth consecutive month in October to 45.3 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd), the lowest level since March 2015, the EIA said.

That would be down about 0.3 bcfd from September, making it the smallest monthly decline since May, it noted.

The biggest regional decline was expected to be in the Eagle Ford, down 0.2 bcfd from September to 5.6 bcfd in October, the lowest level of output in the basin since November 2013, the EIA said.

October output in the Marcellus formation, the biggest U.S. shale gas field, was expected to ease by less than 0.1 bcfd from September to 17.8 bcfd. That would be the eighth monthly decline in a row, falling to the lowest level since December.

Separately, EIA added drilled but uncompleted (DUC) wells to its report this month. The report showed total DUCs declined by 34 in August from July to 5,031, the lowest since January 2015.

DUCs in the Permian rose by 38 to 1,348, its highest since at least December 2013, while Eagle Ford DUCs dropped by 36 to 1,261, its lowest since January 2015. In the Marcellus, DUCs fell by 16 to 642, its lowest since at least December 2013.

(Reporting by Catherine Ngai and Scott DiSavino; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Andrea Ricci)
Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: APC) announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the deepwater Gulf of Mexico assets of Freeport McMoRan Oil & Gas for $2.0 billion. The transaction, effective Aug. 1, 2016, is expected to close prior to year end.

TRANSACTION HIGHLIGHTS

Doubles Anadarko's ownership in the Lucius development to approximately 49 percent

Adds approximately 80,000 net barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) per day, more than 80 percent of which is oil

Expands Anadarko's operated infrastructure throughout the Gulf of Mexico

Generates an estimated $3.0 billion of incremental Gulf of Mexico free cash flow(1) over the next five years at current strip prices

Enables accelerated investment in Anadarko's Delaware and DJ basin assets

"This immediately accretive, bolt-on transaction strengthens our industry-leading position in the Gulf of Mexico and is a catalyst for the company's oil-growth objectives, with quality assets being acquired at an attractive price to create significant value," said Anadarko Chairman, President and CEO Al Walker. "We expect these acquired assets to generate substantial free cash flow,(1) enhancing our ability to increase U.S. onshore activity in the Delaware and DJ basins. Our current plans are to add two rigs in each play later this year, and to increase activity further thereafter, with an expectation of more than doubling our production to at least 600,000 BOE per day collectively from these two basins over the next five years. This increased activity would drive a company-wide 10- to 12-percent compounded annual growth rate in oil volumes over the same time horizon in a $50 to $60 oil-price environment, while investing within cash flows. Additionally, the transaction expands Anadarko's infrastructure in the Gulf, adds to our unmatched inventory of low-cost, subsea tieback opportunities, and bolsters optionality with new exploration prospects. The company's Gulf of Mexico position, with the addition of these properties, will have net sales volumes of approximately 155,000 BOE per day, comprised of approximately 85-percent oil."

DOUBLING OWNERSHIP IN LUCIUS

Anadarko's operated Lucius facility in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico continues to achieve strong reservoir performance and facility productivity. As a result of this performance, the company is increasing the estimated ultimate recovery of the field to more than 400 million BOE from the previous 300-plus million BOE. Additionally, gross oil sales volumes through the facility recently surpassed 100,000 barrels of oil per day (BOPD). Under the terms of the transaction, Anadarko will increase its working interest in Lucius to approximately 49 percent from its previous 23.8-percent ownership, enabling the company to further capitalize on additional future value-adding opportunities at Lucius.

ATTRACTIVE ACQUISITION METRICS

The acquisition and development cost of the acquired properties, excluding a total of approximately $300 million of materials inventory and seismic, is approximately $13.50 per BOE for the estimated proved reserves to be acquired. The assets are being acquired at an estimated EBITDAX multiple(1)(2) of 1.5 for the expected sales volumes over the coming 12 months, using the current futures strip price for oil and natural gas. Please see the supplemental information available at www.anadarko.com for additional details on the transaction.

GUIDANCE

Upon closing, the transaction is expected to add approximately 80,000 BOE per day to Anadarko's sales-volume guidance  more than 80 percent of which is comprised of oil. The company also is expected to increase its 2016 full-year capital guidance, not including the acquisition, to a range of $2.8 to $3.0 billion, primarily reflecting the increased activity in the Delaware and DJ basins.

Jefferies Group LLC and Latham & Watkins LLP are serving as advisors to Anadarko on the acquisition.

CONFERENCE CALL TOMORROW AT 8 A.M. CDT, 9 A.M. EDT

Anadarko will host a conference call tomorrow, Sept. 13, 2016, at 8 a.m. CDT (9 a.m. EDT) to answer questions regarding the transaction. The dial-in number is 877.883.0383 in the United States or 412.902.6506 internationally. The confirmation number is 3595942. For complete instructions on how to participate in the conference call, or to listen to the live audio webcast, please visit www.anadarko.com. A replay of the call will be available on the website for approximately 30 days following the conference call.

(1) Management has presented herein certain forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures, including free cash flow and EBITDAX. These non-GAAP financial measures exclude certain amounts that are included in the corresponding financial measures determined in accordance with GAAP as follows:

Free cash flow is a non-GAAP financial measure that Anadarko defines as net cash provided by (used in) operating activities before changes in accounts receivable; changes in accounts payable and accrued expenses; other items, net; and certain nonoperating and other excluded items less capital expenditures.

EBITDAX is a non-GAAP financial measure that Anadarko defines as income (loss) before income taxes; gains (losses) on divestitures, net; exploration expense; depreciation, depletion, and amortization (DD&A); impairments; interest expense; total (gains) losses on derivatives, net, less net cash from settlement of commodity derivatives; and certain items not related to the company's normal operations, less net income (loss) attributable to noncontrolling interests.

Due to the forward-looking nature of the above non-GAAP financial measures, management cannot reliably predict certain of the necessary components of the most directly comparable forward-looking GAAP measures, such as future impairments and future changes in working capital. Accordingly, Anadarko is unable to present a quantitative reconciliation of the aforementioned forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable forward-looking GAAP financial measures. Amounts excluded from these non-GAAP measures in future periods could be significant.

(2) EBITDAX multiple is defined as Enterprise Value (market value + debt  cash and cash equivalents + noncontrolling interests) divided by EBITDAX.
Seeking to add a leading comprehensive suite of smart city solutions enabled by its ThingSpace internet of things (IoT) platform to help communities increase economic development, drive citizen engagement and enable sustainability, Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) announced it has signed an agreement to purchase Sensity Systems Inc., a private company based in Sunnyvale, California.

Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed. The acquisition is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close in fourth-quarter 2016.

Mike Lanman, senior vice president - Enterprise Products and IoT at Verizon, said: "Sensity is a leading provider of IoT solutions for smart communities with a strong ecosystem of partners, and this transaction will accelerate the deployment of large-scale implementations that will drive the digital transformation of cities, universities and venues. Verizon is uniquely positioned through its infrastructure investments at the network, platform and application levels to provide holistic solutions that empower communities to address their most pervasive challenges."

Sensity Chairman and CEO Hugh Martin said: "Rapid urbanization is putting a huge strain on city services globally, coupled with inefficiencies caused by an aging infrastructure that currently supports critical functions, such as fire and emergency services, public transportation, lighting, sewer and sanitation systems. Sensity realized early on that IoT could be the key to breaking out of this dilemma. We have become the leader in the space by creating a visionary smart city IoT platform and forming a powerful ecosystem of technology partners. With Verizon, we look forward to delivering IoT connected systems on a massive scale to change how cities and communities operate around the world."

In connection with the transaction, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP acted as legal advisor to Verizon. Pagemill Partners acted as financial advisor to Sensity, and Fenwick & West LLP acted as legal advisor.

Verizon has developed an array of connected-intelligent solutions including parking, lighting, traffic management and security that improve livability, resiliency and public safety for local communities. The company's Smart Communities organization, which is a part of its IoT business, is also simplifying the creation of IoT applications through ThingSpace.

Sensity Systems capitalizes on conversions to LED lighting  a process that will affect 4 billion lights worldwide over the next few years  to create a high-speed, sensor-based, multiservice IoT platform. Sensity now has 42 smart city installations across the globe supplied through its ecosystem partners that have enabled facility and municipal lighting owners to link energy efficiency and cost savings to the improvement of business goals such as public safety, parking control, asset management and analytics. The World Economic Forum, which identifies the world's most innovative companies, has recognized Sensity as a Technology Pioneer.
A Chipotle Mexican Grill is seen in Los Angeles, California, U.S. on April 25, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo

By Tom Polansek

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A U.S. congresswoman urged the Labor Department on Monday to investigate Chipotle Mexican Grill for possible wage theft, another potential hurdle for the burrito chain as it seeks to rebound from food-safety problems last year.

U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat from Connecticut, said the department should probe allegations from about 10,000 current and former Chipotle employees who have joined a federal lawsuit that alleges the company did not properly pay them for hours worked.

Such actions, if true, would contradict federal law, DeLauro said in a letter to the department, "depriving workers of the wages and earnings to which they are legally entitled."

Chipotle said her call for an investigation was "misdirected."

"We have maintained from the outset that this case is without merit and will vigorously defend our employment practices," company spokesman Chris Arnold said.

The Labor Department had no immediate comment.

Chipotle has been working to revive sales growth after outbreaks of E. coli, norovirus and salmonella linked to its restaurants sickened more than 500 people last year and drove away customers.

Last week, activist investor William Ackman disclosed that his hedge fund had purchased a 9.9 percent stake in the company, saying it was undervalued.

The case over unpaid wages began two years ago when Leah Turner, who worked as a manager at a Chipotle restaurant in Colorado, alleged in a lawsuit that the company routinely required hourly paid employees to work "off the clock," according to court records.

The company used timekeeping devices that automatically punched employees off the clock, even if they were still working, the lawsuit said.

Since then, about 10,000 others from across the country have joined the lawsuit seeking to recover unpaid wages, said Andrew Quisenberry, an attorney representing the workers for law firm Bachus & Schanker. The large number of plaintiffs is "significant to us, showing that it's widespread across Chipotle," Quisenberry said.

The case is Tuner et al vs Chipotle Mexican Grill, U.S. District Court, District of Colorado, No. 14-cv-02612.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Peter Cooney)
HONG KONG, CHINA -- (Marketwired) -- 09/11/16 -- HITCON CTF -- an international information security contest in Taiwan -- will begin in October. The global preliminary of 2016 HITCON CTF will take place online on October 8 and 9. The top-10 winners at the preliminary will go to Taiwan for the final in early December. The champion team will be entitled to prize money of US$10,000 and qualified for DEF CON 25 CTF in the US. This is the 12th annual HITCON CTF held by the HITCON (Hacks in Taiwan Conference), and HITCON has therefore accumulated abundant experiences in organizing its HITCON CTF to make the 2016 event even more challenging.

In early August 2016, HITCON won the fourth place at DEF CON CTF in Las Vegas, entering the top four at DEF CON CTF for three consecutive years (2nd place in 2014, and 4th place in both 2015 and 2016). HITCON CTF was also announced a qualifier for the 2017 DEF CON for the second consecutive year, recognizing HITCON CTF's strengths in making the qualifying contest challenging enough to attract the top hackers to participate in the contest in Taiwan.

HITCON has been organizing its annual HITCON CTF since 2005, given that information security is critical to any individual, business, and county. Taiwan government organizations are also committed to the development of information security professionals and continue strengthening the development this year in order to speed up the growth of the industry. Assisted by the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB), under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) for the first time in 2015, HITCON CTF was expanded from an online event into both online and physical events implemented together with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), which also sets a precedent that a government unit takes the initiative to assist an international hackathon. 2015 HITCON CTF had 969 teams consisting of more than 1,500 people from Mainland China, Russia, South Korea, Vietnam, and the US in addition to Taiwan. This year the hackers will contend for prize money totaling US$18,000, in addition, the champion team will be qualified for DEF CON 25 CTF in 2017.

There are many hacker-level cybersecurity experts in Taiwan due to Taiwan holding the most important strategic location in the world in terms of information security: one-fourth of malwares around the world are first found in Taiwan. Taiwan seems highly susceptible to cyber attacks, but this potential vulnerability also offers Taiwan a vantage point as it helps create a wealth of cybersecurity data and a talent pool of hackers. HITCON CTF is an attempt to further stimulate the development of hacker and information security communities to cultivate more talents for information security innovation. For further information on HITCON CTF, please check out http://ctf.hitcon.org/.

Competition Schedule

Online Qualification: October 8th-9th; the top ten scoring teams qualify for the final.

On-site Final: December 2nd-3rd; the 10 qualified teams are invited to Taiwan for the final.

Prizes

First place: US$10,000 and an award certificate; qualification for 2017 DEF CON.

Second place: US$5,000 and an award certificate.

Third place: US$2,000 and an award certificate.

Organizer HITCON Team's Major Achievements in 2014-2016

2nd place of 2014 and 4th place of 2015/2016 DEF CON CTF (U.S.)

2nd place of 2014 HITB CTF (Malaysia)

2nd place of 2015/2016 SECCON CTF (Japan)

2nd place of 2015 and 1st place of 2016 Boston Key Party CTF (U.S.)

1st place of 2014/2015 BCTF (China)

1st place of 2015 0CTF (China)

1st place of 2015 XCTF (China)

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About HITCON After its hard work unknown to many others for eleven years, HITCON has won the respect and support from different sectors of Taiwan. In order to speed up its growth, HITCON organized itself as an association approved by the government in 2015. Different tries by HITCON are intended to provide more room for development of information security talents in Taiwan, call more business attention to the importance of information security, and convey the correct concepts about information security in order to prompt the government and private sector as well as hacker communities to together enhance information security.

News Contacts HITCON Phyllis Hsieh +886 927 162 491 Email Contact Chieh Huang +886 928 396 813 Email Contact Pallas PR Irene Chen +886 933 897 596 Email Contact Elsa Chang +886 953 129 126 Email Contact

Source: HITCON
CHICAGO, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Christopher Riley has joined McDonald Hopkins LLC, a business advisory and advocacy law firm, as an associate in the firm's Business department.

Based in Chicago, Riley will be advising clients on a multitude of issues, with a strong focus on mergers and acquisitions. Riley brings with him extensive experience with corporate transactions, including corporate governance and planning, capital raises and debt refinancing, and the sale and purchase of goods and services.

"We are excited to have Chris join our Chicago office team as we expand our M&A group's national practice," said Richard Kessler, managing member of McDonald Hopkins' Chicago office. "He brings a wealth of transaction experience that will help McDonald Hopkins continue to successfully guide our clients through complex acquisitions and divestitures."

Prior to joining McDonald Hopkins, Riley was an associate attorney at Lowis & Gellen LLP in Chicago. He earned a J.D. from Chicago-Kent College of Law and a Bachelor of Arts from Wake Forest University. Riley can be reached at 312.642.6705 or [email protected].

About McDonald Hopkins Founded in 1930, McDonald Hopkins is a business advisory and advocacy law firm with locations in Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Miami, and West Palm Beach. The firm's Chicago office opened in 2007 and is located in the 300 North LaSalle building on the Chicago River. For more information about McDonald Hopkins, visit mcdonaldhopkins.com.

CONTACT: Deborah W. Kelm McDonald Hopkins LLC 600 Superior Avenue, East, Suite 2100 Cleveland, Ohio 44114 Phone: 216.348.5733 Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE McDonald Hopkins LLC
HONG KONG, CHINA -- (Marketwired) -- 09/12/16 -- Only by re-designing climate financing can the commitments made in Paris at COP21 in December 2015 be realised, according to Indonesia's Asia Pulp & Paper Group (APP). Speaking at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Hawaii, Aida Greenbury, APP's Managing Director of Sustainability, called for current climate financing mechanisms, such as REDD+ to provide greater opportunities for smallholders and forest community to access upfront investment, citing this as a critical part of protecting and restoring the world's forests.

"The very way that current systems are set up to withhold payments until emissions reductions are achieved does not provide an incentive for urgent action by people on the ground. If donor funded schemes must stick to the payment-by-results mechanism then more needs to be done to channel funding towards supporting communities to meet their short-term needs whilst they wait for longer-term results-based payments to come through.

"The Paris Agreement included the ambitious target of mobilizing $100 billion by 2020, but it isn't just the amount of financing generated which will see us succeed, the mechanisms to effectively spend it also need to be in place, otherwise smallholders will be left behind," said Aida Greenbury, Managing Director of Sustainability.

Ms Greenbury highlighted the crucial role that private sector funding can play in encouraging a new approach to climate financing: "The companies dealing with forest based commodities have a major role to play in supporting climate finance initiatives, through direct financial contributions we can not only share the burden of the cost but crucially de-risk much bigger investments from donor countries or development financing." APP has invested millions of dollars to protect and restore forests in Indonesia since 2013. The business introduced its Forest Conservation Policy in 2013 which committed the company to halt all natural forest clearance.

APP is playing an active role at the Congress for the first time as part of a large Indonesia delegation. APP's most active project with the IUCN is the commitment to support the protection and restoration of degraded and deforested forest across ten key landscapes in Indonesia* as part of the wider Bonn Challenge process. APP remains the only company to have made a commitment to the Bonn Challenge following its decision to sign the New York Declaration on Forests in 2014.

Building on the major commitments to support marine conservation by President Obama at the event, Ms Greenbury also highlighted how efforts to support blue and green carbon need to be better integrated, "As we see in Indonesia, there are no clear boundaries between farming, forest, mangrove and the ocean. Just as we need an integrated approach across all actors to protect forest landscapes, we have to now work more closely with those focussed on blue carbon to ensure that all natural resources where the land meets the sea are protected."

Notes to editors 1.* The ten landscapes supported by APP in partnership with the Belantara Foundation across Sumatra and Kalimantan are Senepis, Kampar Peninsula, Giam Siak Kecil, Bukit Tigapulah, Berbak Sembilang, Dangku Meranti, Padang Sugihan, Kubu and Kutai landscapes. More information can be found at: http://belantara.or.id/landscapes/

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About Asia Pulp & Paper Asia Pulp & Paper Group (APP) is a trade name for a group of pulp and paper manufacturing companies in Indonesia and China. APP is responsible for delivering quality products to meet the growing global demand for tissue, packaging and paper. On any given day, our products find their way into the hands of consumers in various branded forms from all over the world.

Started in 1972 with Tjiwi Kimia producing caustic soda, now we run operations across Indonesia and China with an annual combined pulp, paper, packaging product and converting capacity of over 19 million tons per annum. Today, APP markets its products in more than 120 countries across six continents.

Over the years, we have expanded our operations significantly through the acquisition and expansion of several of our pulp and paper mills. It's our commitment to customer satisfaction that enables us to grow our share in paper sales worldwide and broaden our presence through offices in many countries. We believe 'tradition and modernity go hand in hand' which means we value long term relationships as part of our Eastern traditions, while we also are eager to embrace the modern values of innovation and efficiency.

Maintaining the integrity of our supply chain is also crucial to APP's operations as well as our commitment to our Sustainability Roadmap Vision 2020. Learn more about APP's path to operational excellence by reading our Sustainability Reports and Forest Conservation Policy at www.asiapulppaper.com.

About IUCN World Conservation Congress The IUCN World Conservation Congress -- the world's largest and most inclusive environmental decision-making forum -- will meet in Honolulu, Hawaii from 1 to 10 September 2016 to define the global path for nature conservation for the years to come.

The IUCN Congress will be held under the theme 'Planet at the crossroads', emphasising that nature conservation and human progress are not a zero-sum game, and that credible and accessible choices exist that can promote general welfare while supporting and enhancing our planet's natural assets.

This will be the first time the IUCN Congress will be hosted by the United States, home to over 100 IUCN Member organisations.

Key issues that will be discussed at the Congress include wildlife trafficking, ocean conservation, nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation, and private investment in conservation.

At the Congress, IUCN's 1,300 member organisations -- some of the most influential government and civil society organisations from more than 160 countries -- will collectively decide on actions to address the most pressing and often controversial conservation and sustainable development challenges. Around 100 motions are expected to be adopted by this unique global environmental parliament of governments and NGOs, which will then become IUCN Resolutions or Recommendations calling third parties to take action.

For further information, please contact: Lois Cheng Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) Tel: (852) 2733 0075 E-mail: Email Contact

Source: Asia Pulp & Paper
DUBLIN, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- FLY Leasing Limited (NYSE: FLY) ("FLY"), a global leader in aircraft leasing, today announced that its Chief Executive Officer, Colm Barrington, is scheduled to present at the Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference on Wednesday, September 14, 2016 at 2:30 pm PT.

A live webcast of the presentation will be available on the Events page in the Investor Relations section of FLY's website at: http://www.flyleasing.com/investor-relations/events/

An archived replay of the webcast will be available on the website for 90 days.

About FLY FLY is a global aircraft leasing company with a fleet of modern, high-demand and fuel-efficient commercial jet aircraft. FLY acquires and leases its aircraft under multi-year operating lease contracts to a diverse group of airlines throughout the world. FLY is managed and serviced by BBAM LP, a worldwide leader in aircraft lease management and financing. For more information, visit www.flyleasing.com.

Contact:

Matt DallasFLY Leasing Limited+1 203-769-5916[email protected]

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SOURCE FLY Leasing Limited
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Three workers were killed in an explosion at an ethanol plant in Thailand's northeastern province of Khon Kaen, police said on Monday.

The three workers were repairing the lid of a wastewater tank at an ethanol plant which belongs to Thai Ethanol Power Plc in the province of Khon Kaen, 390 km (240 miles) from the capital Bangkok, said Police Lieutenant Colonel Sarawut Dansuk.

"It could be that there was some kind of gas that leaked out and caused sparks when they were welding the tank lid and that set off an explosion," he said.

"An autopsy showed they were killed by the impact from the explosion."

The three killed were Thai nationals, he added.

Police are investigating whether the ethanol company was responsible for the accident.

(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat; Writing by Patpicha Tanakasempipat; Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Christian Schmollinger)
OMB APPROVAL OMB Number: 3235-0116 Expires: May 31, 2017 UNITED STATES Estimated average burden hours per response 8.7 SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549 FORM 6-K REPORT OF FOREIGN PRIVATE ISSUER PURSUANT TO RULE 13a-16 OR 15d-16 UNDER THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 For the month of September, 2016. Commission File Number 001-14598 RICHMONT MINES INC.

(Translation of registrants name into English) 161, avenue Principale, Rouyn-Noranda (Quebec) J9X 4P6

(Address of principal executive office) Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual reports under cover of Form 20-F or Form 40-F. Form 20-F [ X ] Form 40-F [ ] Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(1): [ ] Note: Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(1) only permits the submission in paper of a Form 6-K if submitted solely to provide an attached annual report to security holders. Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(7): [ ] Note: Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(7) only permits the submission in paper of a Form 6-K if submitted to furnish a report or other document that the registrant foreign private issuer must furnish and make public under the laws of the jurisdiction in which the registrant is incorporated, domiciled or legally organized (the registrants home country), or under the rules of the home country exchange on which the registrants securities are traded, as long as the report or other document is not a press release, is not required to be and has not been distributed to the registrants security holders, and, if discussing a material event, has already been the subject of a Form 6-K submission or other Commission filing on EDGAR. Exhibit 99.1 News Release dated September 12, 2016

SIGNATURES Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized. Richmont Mines Inc. (Registrant) Date September 12, 2016 By Nicole Veilleux (signed) (Signature)* Nicole Veilleux * Print the name and title under the signature of the signing officer. Vice-President, Finance SEC 1815 (04-09) Persons who are to respond to the collection of information contained in this form are not required to respond unless the form displays a currently valid OMB control number.

Exhibit 99.1



Richmont Mines Announces Positive Revisions to 2016 Guidance



Potential Production Increase at Island Gold of up to 45% over 2015 TORONTO, Ontario, Canada, September 12, 2016 - Richmont Mines Inc. (TSX - NYSE MKT: RIC) (Richmont or the Corporation) announces a positive revision to its 2016 operational guidance estimates driven by significantly better than expected performance from the Island Gold Mine. (All amounts are in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise indicated). Company-wide annual gold production guidance estimates have increased to between 98,000 and 106,000 ounces, from 87,000 to 97,000 ounces, supported by a potential 45% annual production increase at the Island Gold Mine.

The Corporation is also revising the Canadian to US dollar exchange rate assumptions to 1.33 Canadian dollars to the US dollar for the period January to June and 1.30 Canadian dollars to the US dollar for the balance of the year, due to the strengthening of the Canadian dollar during the year. The original guidance estimates issued on February 11, 2016 assumed an exchange rate of 1.364.

Company-wide annual cash cost 1 guidance estimates have decreased to between $885 and $945 per ounce (US$675 and US$720 per ounce), from $930 to $1,000 per ounce (US$680 to US$730 per ounce), supported by the increased contribution of higher quality, lower cost ounces from the Island Gold Mine.

Company-wide annual All-in Sustaining Costs 1 (AISC) guidance estimates have decreased to between $1,230 and $1,335 per ounce (US$935 and US$1,015 per ounce), from $1,275 to $1,390 per ounce (US$935 to US$1,015 per ounce), supported by the strong AISC performance from the Island Gold Mine. During the balance of the year, the Corporation will continue to leverage the higher gold price and weak Canadian dollar and has strategically increased and reallocated capital investment initiatives, which will best position the Island Gold Mine, this core asset for long-term success. Company-wide annual exploration expenditure guidance estimates have increased to $17.1 million (US$13.1 million), from $15.5 million (US$11.4 million), which includes an additional 22,000 metres ($1.65 million) of drilling at the Island Gold Mine that will focus on defining potential new resources in the fourth mining horizon located between the 860 and 1,000 metre levels, which could be incorporated into the short to medium term mine plan.

Company-wide annual sustaining capital investment guidance estimates have increased to $25.9 million (US$19.7 million), from $24.1 million (US$17.7 million), primarily related to advancing development of the east ramp ($1.3 million) at the Island Gold Mine, which had previously been allocated to project capital.

Annual project capital investment guidance estimates for the Island Gold Mine have increased to $46.1 million (US$35.2 million), from $43.4 million (US$31.8 million), primarily related to infrastructure improvements, including a new surface maintenance and warehouse facility ($2.9 million) and ventilation optimization ($1.5 million), partially offset by the $1.3 million related to development of the east ramp, which has been reallocated to sustaining capital. 1 Cash cost and AISC are Non-IFRS measures. Refer to the Non-IFRS performance measures section in the second quarter MD&A. RICHMONT MINES INC. PRESS RELEASE | Page 1







These positive revisions to our annual guidance estimates are supported by the strong performance from our cornerstone Island Gold Mine to date, demonstrating the potential of this quality, low-cost asset. We have also successfully completed the electrical upgrade at Island Gold, which was a key initiative for Richmont as it will support ongoing productivity improvements as well as expansion opportunities. stated Renaud Adams, CEO of Richmont Mines. He continued, At the Beaufor Mine, we are seeing improved production following the launch of stope mining in the higher grade Q Zone in August and we expect to report increased production and reduced costs over the balance of the year. 2016 Company-Wide Operational Estimates Revised 2016 Operational Estimates Original 2016 Guidance Revised 2016 Guidance Gold Ounces Produced (1) 87,000  97,000 98,000  106,000 Cash Costs per Ounce (CAD$) (2) $930 - $1,000 $885 - $945 Sustaining Capital per Ounce (CAD$) $250 - $280 $250 - $280 Corporate G&A per Ounce (CAD$) $95 - $110 $95 - $110 All-in Sustaining Costs per Ounce (CAD$) (2) $1,275 - $1,390 $1,230 - $1,335 Cash Costs per Ounce (US$) (2)(3) $680 - $730 $675 - $720 Sustaining Capital per Ounce (US$) (3) $185 - $205 $185 - $205 Corporate G&A per Ounce (US$) (3) $70 - $80 $75 - $90 All-in Sustaining Costs per Ounce (US$) (2)(3) $935 - $1,015 $935 - $1,015 Revised 2016 Capital and Exploration ($M) Original 2016 Guidance Revised 2016 Guidance Sustaining Capital (CAD$) $24.1 $25.9 Project Capital (CAD$) $43.4 $46.1 Company-wide Exploration (CAD$) $15.5 $17.1 Sustaining Capital (US$) (3) $17.7 $19.7 Project Capital (US$) (3) $31.8 $35.2 Company-wide Exploration (US$) (3) $11.4 $13.1 (1) Revised guidance estimates include 1,165 ounces produced from the Monique Mine in Q1 2016, which were not included in original guidance. (2) Cash cost and AISC are Non-IFRS measures. Refer to the Non-IFRS performance measures section in the second quarter MD&A. (3) An exchange rate of 1.36 Canadian dollars to 1.00 US dollar was used for the original 2016 guidance issued on Feb. 11, 2016. The revised guidance assumes an exchange rate of 1.33 for January to June and 1.30 for July to December. Island Gold Mine: 2016 Guidance Update Based on the strong performance during the first six months of the year from the Island Gold Mine and following the completion of a 25-day shutdown for an electrical upgrade in August 2016, operational guidance estimates have been positively revised. Annual gold production guidance estimates have increased to between 75,000 and 80,000 ounces, from 62,000 to 67,000 ounces, a potential increase of up to 45% over 2015 production.

Annual cash cost guidance estimates have decreased to between $800 and $840 per ounce (US$610 and US$640 per ounce), from $900 to $960 per ounce (US$660 to US$705 per ounce), a potential decrease of up to 23% over 2015 cash costs.

Annual AISC guidance estimates have decreased to between $1,040 and $1,110 per ounce (US$795 and US$845 per ounce), from $1,160 and $1,250 per ounce (US$850 to US$920 per ounce), a potential decrease of up to 29% over 2015 AISC. RICHMONT MINES INC. PRESS RELEASE | Page 2







Exploration expenditure guidance estimates for 2016 have increased to $16.0 million (US$12.2 million), from $14.4 million (US$10.6 million), which includes an additional 22,000 metres of drilling that will focus on defining new resources in the fourth mining horizon located between the 860 and 1,000 metre levels, which could be incorporated into the short to medium term mine plan.

Sustaining capital investment guidance estimates for 2016 have increased to $18.9 million (US$14.4 million), from $17.3 million (US$12.7 million), primarily related to advancing the development of the east ramp ($1.3 million), which had previously been allocated to project capital. Annual project capital guidance estimates for 2016 have increased to $46.1 million (US$35.2 million), from $43.4 million (US$31.8 million), which includes a new surface maintenance and warehouse facility ($2.9 million) and ventilation optimization ($1.5 million), partially offset by the $1.3 million in development of the east ramp, which has been reallocated to sustaining capital. Island Gold Revised 2016 Guidance Estimates Revised 2016 Operational Estimates Original 2016 Guidance Revised 2016 Guidance Gold Ounces Produced 62,000 - 67,000 75,000 - 80,000 Cash Costs per Ounce (CAD$) (1) $900 - $960 $800 - $840 Sustaining Capital per Ounce (CAD$) $260 - $290 $240 - $270 All-in Sustaining Costs per Ounce (CAD$) (1) $1,160 - $1,250 $1,040 - $1,110 Cash Costs per Ounce (US$) (1)(2) $660 - $705 $610 - $640 Sustaining Capital per Ounce (US$) (2) $190 - $215 $185 - $205 All-in Sustaining Costs per Ounce (US$) (1)(2) $850 - $920 $795 - $845 Revised 2016 Capital and Exploration ($M) Original 2016 Guidance Revised 2016 Guidance Sustaining Capital (CAD$) $17.3 $18.9 Project Capital (CAD$) $43.4 $46.1 Exploration (CAD$) $14.4 $16.0 Sustaining Capital (US$) (2) $12.7 $14.4 Project Capital (US$) (2) $31.8 $35.2 Exploration (US$) (2) $10.6 $12.2 (1) Cash cost and AISC are Non-IFRS measures. Refer to the Non-IFRS performance measures section in the second quarter MD&A. (2) An exchange rate of 1.36 Canadian dollars to 1.00 US dollar was used for the original 2016 guidance issued on Feb. 11, 2016. The revised guidance assumes an exchange rate of 1.33 for January to June and 1.30 for July to December. Beaufor Mine and Quebec Division: 2016 Guidance Update Gold production in the first six months of the year was impacted by lower grades mined in the upper zones and a delay in mining from the higher grade Q Zone, however production is expected to increase over the balance of the year as stope mining in the Q Zone began in early August. Annual gold production guidance estimates for the Quebec Division have reduced to between 23,000 and 26,000 ounces, which includes 1,165 ounces produced from Monique Mine in the first quarter. At the Beaufor Mine production is expected to significantly increase over the balance of the year as stope mining is focused in the higher grade Q Zone.

RICHMONT MINES INC. PRESS RELEASE | Page 3







Due to the lower than planned production levels from the Beaufor Mine in the first six months of the year, annual cash cost guidance estimates have increased to between $1,150 and $1,300 per ounce (US$875 and US$1,000 per ounce).

Annual AISC guidance estimates have increased to between $1,420 and $1,610 per ounce (US$1,080 and US$1,235 per ounce).

As production from the Beaufor Mine is expected to increase over the balance of the year, cash costs and AISC are expected to decrease, which we anticipate will result in positive free cash flow generation for the year. Quebec Division Revised 2016 Guidance Estimates Revised 2016 Operational Estimates Original 2016 Guidance Revised 2016 Guidance Gold Ounces Produced (1) 25,000 - 30,000 23,000 - 26,000 Cash Costs per Ounce (CAD$) (2) $1,000 - $1,060 $1,150 - $1,300 Sustaining Capital per Ounce (CAD$) $230 - $270 $270 - $310 All-in Sustaining Costs per Ounce (CAD$) (2) $1,230 - $1,330 $1,420 - $1,610 Cash Costs per Ounce (US$) (2)(3) $735 - $780 $875 - $1,000 Sustaining Capital per Ounce (US$) (3) $170 - $195 $205 - $235 All-in Sustaining Costs per Ounce (US$) (2)(3) $905 - $975 $1,080 - $1,235 Revised 2016 Capital and Exploration ($M) Original 2016 Guidance Revised 2016 Guidance Sustaining Capital (CAD$) $6.8 $7.0 Project Capital (CAD$) - - Exploration (CAD$) $1.1 $1.1 Sustaining Capital (US$) (3) $5.0 $5.3 Project Capital (US$) (3) - - Exploration (US$) (3) $0.8 $0.8 (1) Revised guidance estimates include 1,165 ounces produced from the Monique Mine in Q1 2016, which were not included in original guidance. (2) Cash cost and AISC are Non-IFRS measures. Refer to the Non-IFRS performance measures section in the second quarter MD&A. (3) An exchange rate of 1.36 Canadian dollars to 1.00 US dollar was used for the original 2016 guidance issued on Feb. 11, 2016. The revised guidance assumes an exchange rate of 1.33 for January to June and 1.30 for July to December. About Richmont Mines Inc.

Richmont Mines has produced over 1.6 million ounces of gold from its operations in Quebec, Ontario and Newfoundland since beginning production. The Corporation currently produces gold from the Island Gold Mine in Ontario, and the Beaufor Mine in Quebec. The Corporation is also advancing development of the significant high-grade resource extension at depth of the Island Gold Mine in Ontario. With 35 years of experience in gold production, exploration and development, and prudent financial management, the Corporation is well-positioned to cost-effectively build its Canadian reserve base and to successfully enter its next phase of growth. RICHMONT MINES INC. PRESS RELEASE | Page 4




St Pauls Church, Kynsey Road Celebrates 200 years of worship View(s):

The Church of St.Paul the Apostle, Kynsey Road, Colombo 8 celebrates 200 years of worship on September 18. The Celebration Sung High Mass will be held on the 18th at 5.30 p.m. presided over by Bishop of Colombo, the Rt. Rev. Dhiloraj Canagasabay. A Mission Service will be held on September 17 at 5.30 p.m.

The parish was originally located in Pettah, then a residential locality in Colombo, the Church having been dedicated for worship in 1816, near the Old Town Hall as the first Anglican Church in the neighbourhood.

Although in use in 1816, the church was not consecrated until 1821 by the Bishop of Calcutta, who also had the responsibility for Ceylon. This first Church building served the Parish till 1845, when it was badly damaged by a fire caused by fireworks falling on the cadjan roof. Resisting the suggestions to move the Church to another site, the loyal parishioners insisted on restoring the Church exactly where it stood and it was brought back to use in 1846.

In 1926, the decision was made to sell the Church premises and use the funds to build a new church, in closer proximity to the homes of the people whom the church should nurture and serve.The construction of this Church was initiated by Rev.Basil Jayawardene in June 1930. The church was built in Byzantine style based on the model of the St.Sophia Cathedral, in Istanbul.

The consecration of the church on Kynsey Road took place on January 24, 1934, on the eve of the feast of the Conversion of St.Paul the Apostle.

The Church today is known for an annual celebration of the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham and also for its long standing relationship with the Syrian Orthodox Church of Malabar
The soaring popularity of Prosecco has led to a new addition to the exclusive list of holidays for next year with a weekend to this burgeoning Italian wine region.

Over the last 30 years Arblaster & Clarke have travelled across the globe with fellow oenophiles  exploring everywhere from the classic regions of Burgundy and Bordeaux, to the beautiful New World vineyards of South Africa, Australia, and beyond.

2017 will also see the launch of a selection of exciting new wine cruises, long-haul tours in far-flung locales including California and New Zealand and joint tours with Arblaster & Clarkes sister companies Andante Travels and Historical Trips.

The Story of Experience will be making a debut; the eight tours are the perfect introduction with visits to superlative wineries and vineyards, mixed with gourmet adventures, exciting excursions, historical visits and city tours.

General Manager, Caron Fanshawe, looks back on 30 years of memories at Arblaster & Clarke.

From Burgundy to Barolo, Alsace to the Awatere, the Willamette to the Wachau and Rioja to the Rheinhessen  Arblaster & Clarke Wine Tours has always sought to provide wine holidays off the beaten track and to discover hidden gems in the more well trodden wine world, says Caron.

Arblaster & Clarke initially began on a smaller scale with Champagne Weekends and were the first company to offer escorted tours to this iconic region  still their favourite wine destination today. In 1993 they introduced the first small ship cruises, a highlight of the travel calendar.

New for 2017, they have two fantastic extended wine holidays to New Zealand and California. Wine lovers can escape the British winter for summer in the southern Hemisphere and enjoy year-round sunshine in California.

Arblaster & Clarke also offer bespoke wine tours with unparalleled access to the Worlds most famous wineries and chateau.
With improved capabilities over similar vehicles on the market, the ICTINEU 3 performances have not yet been beaten, as it provides the highest endurance in the class: up to 10 hours mission and 20 miles navigation underwater.

It offers the greatest weight to depth ratio as it can dive a crew of 3 down to 1.000 meters with only 5.500kg weight, a maximum dimensions of 4,8m x 1,95m x 3m and easy deployment from most vessels, yachts and harbours.

After completing certification by DNV-GL and by French Maritime Affairs, which ensures the highest standards in quality, safety and operation, the ICTINEU 3 has completed more than 50 dives between 30 and 1.000 meters depth. Among the fortunate passengers there are photographers, biologists and archaeologists who have been stunned by the great capabilities of the submersible.

Now the ICTINEU 3 team is preparing a one-month mission in cooperation with the Subaquatic Archaeological Centre of Catalonia, CASC, where the archaeologists will use the submersible to explore a wide area in order to improve the archaeological chart as they expect an increase of new shipwreck findings thanks to the capabilities of the submersible. The mission will last through October in the Costa Brava region, 150km North of Barcelona.

During this period, starting on the 2nd October, the ICTINEU 3 will be on display in the ports of Palamos and St Feliu de Guixols and will be available for demonstrations to clients and specialized media. For those attending the Monaco Yacht Show from overseas it is an opportunity to add a plus to their trips as the submersible will be on display following the Show dates.

Further on, new demo dives will be programmed at the ICTINEU 3 base port of St. Feliu de Guixols, a charming sea side town ideal for sea lovers.

With 10 years experience on submarine technology, intensive research and innovation, and submersible operation, the company Ictineu Submarins S.L. is ready to provide yacht owners with stylish, customizable, and powerful vehicles.
A local man rescued from the area suffering disorientation and hypothermia has been sent to prison in connection with the blaze

A helicopter flies over the affected area. ANTONIO MIRANDA

A wildfire that broke out last Friday evening in the area known as Hoz de Marin in Archidona was officially declared under control at 8pm on Sunday.

The blaze destroyed 119 hectares of mainly pine trees in the beauty spot, a steep gorge formed by a tributary of the River Guadalhorce, the Arroyo Marin.

Around 500 people took part in the firefighting operation which involved several vehicles on the ground as well as a firefighting plane and numerous helicopters, which used water from local reservoirs. Three rural properties were evacuated as a precaution.

While the cause of the fire is under investigation, initial indications point to it being intentional, said sources. A burnt-out Citroen Berlingo van found in the area is being investigated, as is a local man who was found in the area on Saturday. He was apparently disorientated, had scratches on his body and was suffering from hypothermia. He was taken to Antequera hospital and after receiving treatment, was questioned by the authorities.

He was held in police custody until Tuesday when a judge at the Archidona court approved a petition from the public prosecution service to provisionally send the man to prison without bail after receiving the results of tests carried out by the Guardia Civil and Infoca.

The central government representative for Andalucia, Jose Luis Ruiz Espejo, said on Sunday that this had been the biggest forest firefighting operation in the province of Malaga this summer. The fire had still not been extinguished completely by Tuesday night, when rainfall aided efforts and went some way to redressing the water deficit of the terrain.

The effect of the fire was worst on the steepest slopes where there was a chimney effect. Ruiz Espejo explained that the flatter area by the stream suffered less damage and that the autumn rains would help the natural regeneration of the area.

The Archidona Trail event organised to help Alzheimers charities was cancelled due to the fire and has been rescheduled for 12 October. A new registration period has been opened with extra funds raised going towards the reforestation of the area.

The mayor of Archidona, Mercedes Montero, said on Sunday: This has been a very sad weekend for Archidona, and for me as mayor. The affected area has always been a favourite spot among the local people for picnics and walks, she explained.
National Day fireworks. SUR

Saturday September 10th was National Day, a day of great celebration in Gibraltar, as thousands of people dressed in the Gibraltarian colours of red and white and partied the day away from early morning until late at night.

There was, however, a firm political message as well: If Brexit means Brexit, then British means British. No means No. Never means Never. Gibraltar is British forever, was the unequivocal message from chief minister Fabian Picardo at the political rally which was attended by thousands of people in Casemates Square, to uproarious approval from the crowd.

The event was also attended by 21 invited MPs and Friends of Gibraltar from the UK, but not all of them received a rousing welcome, especially those who had campaigned prior to the EU referendum to persuade Gibraltar that Brexit would be in their interests. In fact Jack Lopresti, the Conservative chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on Gibraltar in the House of Commons, was booed when he tried to defend Brexit. At the EU referendum in Gibraltar, 96 per cent of voters wanted Britain to remain in the EU.

September 10th 2016 marked 49 years since Gibraltarians voted overwhelmingly to remain British in their first sovereignty referendum. That determination to decide their own future is still very evident today, particularly with the prospect of having to leave the EU looming over them and pressure from Spain to agree to joint sovereignty in order to retain access to the single market. If anyone thinks that we are going to sell our homeland for access to Europe, they dont know the Gibraltarians, said Mr Picardo in his address to the crowd.

The political scene may be complicated at present, but Gibraltarians know how to set their worries to one side and enjoy themselves and that is exactly what they did, with music, dancing, activities for children and a spectacular firework display to bring this special day to a close.

This year, however one much-loved traditional event was missing: it was decided to discontinue the release of hundreds of red and white balloons after the political rally, on environmental grounds. Still, there was an alternative: thousands of red and white petals were dropped from a helicopter instead.
SYRACUSE, N.Y.--A Moravia man with seven prior drunk driving convictions was sentenced Monday by an Onondaga County judge to serve up to five years in prison for driving drunk and crashing his pickup truck into four parked cars.

As he sentenced Michael Keehfus, Judge Thomas Miller warned him that if he were brought up before him again on drunk driving charges "you should be prepared for the stiffest sentence I can impose."

Earlier Onondaga County Chief Assistant District Attorney Christopher Bednarski argued that the sentence of 20 months to 5 years in prison was not enough.

Keehfus, 51, of Moravia, was charged April 15 with being drunk when he crashed his vehicle into four cars parked outside a home on Route 174 in Marcellus. He already had seven prior driving while intoxicated convictions, Bednarski said. "The behavior in this situation is outrageous," the prosecutor said.

Keehfus declined to speak prior to his sentencing. He had earlier pleaded guilty to aggravated driving while intoxicated, driving while having a blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent or greater, and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, all are felonies.

Speaking for his client, attorney Paul Hadley said Keehfus was remorseful and accepted responsibility for his actions.

The judge told Keehfus before he was handcuffed and taken from the courtroom that the victims were "absolutely right to be outraged."

Victims Kim Furth and Morgan Varnum were in the courtroom during sentencing.

The night of the crash Furth was hosting a pizza and wings gathering for her daughter, and her daughter's friends including Varnum and her family. Her five-year-old daughter was on the other side of the home's wall when the crash occurred, Varnum said.

"It was a huge explosion," Furth said.

A sentence of 20 months to five years is not enough for someone who has had seven DWI's, and Keehfus should have been sentenced to more time, the women said.

"Unfortunately it's going to take killing someone," Varnum said. "I have no doubt it's going to happen."
Syracuse, NY - This week, the Erie Canal Museum kicks off a new series of nightlife events called "Wednesdays at the Weighlock."

Each event is one part educational and one part social (drinks available), ranging from trivia and candlelight tours to beer tastings and gingerbread house building.

Tickets include access to all museum exhibits, in addition to each evening's activities. The first event will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 14 from 5 to 8 p.m.

Sept. 14: Trivia Pursuits on the Yellow Fellow

Participants will board Syracuse's pedal-powered "barcycle," as they make their way around the block for 10-minute trivia cram sessions. Groups will then compete in a fast-paced trivia game to test what they learned. The event will also include live music by

Buddhish

and a cash bar.

Oct. 12: 'Eerie Canal' Costumes, Candlelight and Zombies

Explore the 1850 Syracuse Weighlock Building by candlelight, wear an "eerie" costume and taste food and drinks from local producers.

Nov. 9: Beer Week Taste & Talk with Don Cazentre

Want to learn about the history of beer in the Syracuse area? The Erie Canal Museum will host journalist

Don Cazentre

of Syracuse Media Group discuss the state of craft beer, while guests try samples from New York State breweries. This event is part of

Syracuse Beer Week

.

The Gingerbread Gallery at the Erie Canal Museum marks 30 years, Sat. Nov. 21, 2015. This version of the New York State Fair is credited to Lisa Leubner.

Dec. 14: Gingerbread Build & Sip

Syracuse has plenty of

paint & sip

events, but only the Erie Canal Museum has a build & sip night. While surrounded by the works 31st annual

Gingerbread Gallery

, create your own masterpiece out of graham crackers, icing and candies. All supplies will be provided. Ticket price includes one glass of wine, cider or beer.

Wednesdays at the Weighlock

Where:

Erie Canal Museum at 318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse.

When:

See dates above.

How much:

Tickets for each event are $15 for museum members and $25 for the general public. All nonmembers who purchase general public tickets will be given a one-year Erie Canal Museum membership, which can be used when purchasing tickets for future events.

All proceeds from Wednesdays at the Weighlock support ongoing programs at the Erie Canal Museum. Regular museum admission is free with a $5 suggested donation. Hours are Monday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with the exception of major holidays. The Erie Canal Museum shares 200 years of Erie Canal history through interactive displays, hands-on exhibits, narrative audio tracks and original artifacts.

Katrina Tulloch writes music and culture stories for Syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Contact her: Email | Twitter | Facebook
Upstate Medical University students will join thousands of Americans across the country in community service as they mark the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by participating in the Sept. 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance. Student went to Wilson Park and the center to help clean out a storage area, pick up trash around the park help in any way they could.

Sept. 11 was designated a National Day of Service by the 2009 Kennedy Serve America Act. The Corporation for National and Community Service leads the annual event, working with 9/11 Day and hundreds of nonprofit groups, faith-based organizations, schools, and businesses nationwide.
5414 Erik pipes copy.jpg

Erik Kibelsbeck, director of music at St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Ithaca, stands before the pipes of the new church organ to be dedicated this weekend.

(Photo courtesy of Rick Bair)

Free concerts, masterclasses and a solemn Mass will mark the purchase and installation of a new organ at St. Luke's Lutheran Church, Ithaca, Sept. 16 to 18. The instrument is designed to replicate as closely as possible the organs used by French composers of the late Romantic era at the end of the 19th century.

Built by Juget-Sinclair as "Opus 45," the two-manual, 21-stop organ has been hand crafted in a Montreal shop on the Lachine Canal. All functions except for the electric blower are mechanically operated.

"We chose Juget-Sinclair because of their commitment to the very highest quality work and their willingness to emulate the sound and console touch of the historic 1890 Cavaille-Coll organ," St. Luke's director of music, Erik Kibelsbeck, says. He declined to reveal the total cost of the project and installation other than to call it "significant." He said it has been financed by "a small cadre of faithful donors who value the enterprise highly enough to make gifts necessary of it to happen."

In an era of praise music and electronic instruments in church services, Kibelsbeck says the St. Luke's church community values the tradition of using great liturgical music in its worship services.

"This congregation subscribes to the notion that the most important voice in worship is that of the people together, speaking and singing," he says. "An excellent pipe organ has stood the test of time as being an effective way to support congregational singing."

French organ virtuoso Michel Bouvard will perform a free dedicatory concert at the church Sept. 16 at 8 p.m., preceded b a pre-concert talk about the organ. Other events are:

* Masterclasses: Sept. 17 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., by Bouvard, for students of organ from Rochester, Syracuse and Ithaca, and from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. by William Porter, who will address improvisation.

* Concert: Sept. 17 at 8 p.m., music for organ, other instruments and voices will be performed by organists David Higgs, Eastman School of Music; Annette Richards and Jonathan Schakel, Cornell University; Anne Laver, Syracuse University, and Jeffrey Snedeker of Ithaca. Also performing are the Cayuga Vocal Ensemble, directed by Carl Johengen; cellist Rosie Elliot; flutist Elizabeth Shuhan; soprano Megan Sharpe, and the St. Luke Brass, conducted by Kibelsbeck.

* Mass: Sept. 18 at 10:45 a.m., Louis Vierne Solemn Mass in the context of worship service with guest organists Barbara Adler and Snedeker with the St. Luke's choir.

Kibelsbeck, appointed at St. Luke's in 2004, says the new organ fulfills the congregation's vision of a magnificent instrument that is ideal for the specific late-19th century organ repertoire and extremely well suited to the broad variety of music to be played on it from any period.

"The master builders at Juget-Sinclair have provided us with a high quality instrument that is perfect in sound as well as in touch for the hands and feet," Kibelsbeck says. "Virtually unique outside of France, this organ will be an attraction for accomplished musicians from the area. We anticipate many future opportunities for the community to enjoy the beauty of this new organ."

The Details:

What: Organ dedication and concerts

Where: St. Luke's Lutheran Church, 109 Oak Ave., Ithaca, N.Y.

Sponsors: Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies; Cornell Department of Music; Friends of Music at St. Luke

When: Sept. 16 to 18

Tickets: Free, but must be reserved at ithacafrenchorgan@gmail.com
2016-06-07-tsk-COR1.JPG

Former lobbyist Todd Howe denied legal claims by COR Development Co. that Howe owes the company $85,000 for an unpaid loan.

(Tim Knauss)

Former lobbyist and consultant Todd Howe, who is reportedly a focus of federal prosecutors probing state-funded development deals, denies owing $85,000 to one of his former clients, COR Development Co., according to court papers filed Friday.

In addition to denying the debt, attorneys for Howe asked that COR's lawsuit to recover the money be moved from state Supreme Court to U.S. District Court.

COR sued last month, claiming that Howe signed a promissory note on Aug. 14, 2015, promising to repay $85,000 to COR by December 2015. The payment deadline was later extended six months.

COR, which was represented by Howe on several development projects over the years, did not submit a copy of the promissory note with its lawsuit.

Howe, a former lobbyist and longtime associate of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his father, the late Gov. Mario Cuomo, is at the center of a wide-ranging investigation by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, according to news reports.

Bharara's probe focuses mainly on Upstate development projects involving Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration.

COR, too, has been named as a subject in the federal investigation, according to published reports. No company or individual has been accused of wrongdoing.

Howe's attorneys -- Kevin Hulslander, of Syracuse, and Richard Morvillo, of New York City -- said the lawsuit belongs in federal court because it involves parties from different states and involves a sum of money over $75,000.

The New York Post reported Aug. 8 that Howe has signed a cooperation agreement with Bharara to provide details of his lobbying activities on behalf of several major state contractors in return for "favorable treatment" from prosecutors.


2016-09-08-tsk-Kennedy1.JPG

This vacant state-owned land off East Water Street in Syracuse is part of the former Kennedy Square housing complex that has been designated for development by COR Development Co.

(Tim Knauss)

To the Editor:

It's about time! The debacle concerning Kennedy Square ("How COR won prime state land in Syracuse with no bid, no money down," Sept. 8, 2016) needs to be examined thoroughly. What took the Post-Standard so long to point out the flaws in the deal between Upstate, COR Development Company and our present governor ... and the inestimable injury to our city with the demolition of the housing units at Kennedy Square?

Kennedy Square was a housing project "owned by the New York state development agency, Empire State Development Corp." The buildings were low-rise apartments subsidized for low-income families. They were close to the heart of the city services, on several bus lines and near hospitals and universities. Prime real estate.

Upstate Medical University and COR Development managed to assiduously avoid some SUNY regulations regarding open bidding and created a contract to develop the land once the buildings were demolished. Their proposals predicted a new biotechnology center, apartments, offices and retail establishments with the projection of 3,000 new jobs. The state even promised grants to COR for demolishing the remaining apartments. Five years later, there is one slim building and a parking lot with a huge fence on that acreage.

Looking at the contractual arrangements between COR and Upstate, it looks like COR had a sweetheart deal. With the changes in administration at Upstate and a public ethics commission review, any new advances are at a standstill.

Why should we be so outraged at these dealings? Syracuse is No. 16 on a list of cities with high poverty rates and here we are enabling a suburban company and a tax-free entity to control and remove subsidized housing for the city's low-income population.

Kennedy Square was becoming worn and tired but still viable as housing, albeit needing some upgrades. And what have we allowed -- loss of prime housing stock for those most in need of a stabilizing element in their lives -- an address. That is the first step on a path to self-sufficiency. These individuals are now forced to find other rental space with commercial landlords at much higher prices, thus increasing their poverty and their anguish. It is such a blow to any programs that our mayor is working on to care for these residents while dealing with the loss of jobs and the commensurate poverty that arises from no jobs or under-employment.

What else is new? The elites on the "inside" (pardon me for the sarcasm) manipulate our policies. Wonder what the new head of Upstate will do since she has the reputation of caring for disadvantaged children. That just becomes worse when they have sub-standard housing at a high price, exacerbating their poverty.

Rosemarie Pagano Bundy

Syracuse
Green Award and RightShip in joint agreement

The Green Award Foundation and RightShip have increased their collaboration to promote safe, sustainable shipping.

Green Award Executive Director Jan Fransen and RightShip CEO Warwick Norman signed the agreement to strengthen the recognition given to Green Award members in RightShips new online vetting platform - RightShip Qi. A ship that has passed the Green Award certification process and obtained a certificate will receive additional credit and a positive score adjustment in RightShips 5-star predictive risk rating. This rating, along with acknowledgement of Green Award membership, is prominently displayed in RightShip Qis new vessel dashboard, further improving the potential of Green Award vessels for preferential chartering selection. Green Award and RightShip have been working together since 2003, and their co-operation has strengthened over the years. Initially joining forces with Green Award as a supporter of the certification scheme, RightShips involvement is such that they are now viewed as a Green Award incentive provider. Green Award believes that shipowners and managers who go the extra mile to make their vessels safer and greener deserve to be recognised, said Green Award executive director, Jan Fransen. By rewarding good owners and managers we make high quality shipping economically sound, and move towards eliminating substandard ships from the market. At Green Award we are happy to see that RightShip continues to recognise the high performance of Green Award ships and link them with charterers. We have worked with Green Award for 13 years now and we are very pleased to strengthen our association even further, said RightShip CEO, Warwick Norman. Our new vetting platform, RightShip Qi, provides greater visibility into vessel information by highlighting memberships such as Green Award, and providing positive ratings adjustments to the vessels of Green Award members. Our data, collated over many years, shows us that the more environmentally friendly vessels also tend to be the safer vessels. Sustainability pays dividends to many stakeholders in many ways. Green Award has also recently welcomed Alba Graduate Business School and Deree  The American College Of Greece - as New Incentive Providers. A 10% scholarship will be given on their courses.




GulfNav settles NAT debt

Gulf Navigation Holding (GulfNav) and Nordic American Tankers (NAT) have signed a new settlement agreement resulting in the long standing debt that GulfNav owed to NAT being settled in full under the terms.

The Dubai-based company said that its new management has been and are working intensively to clear all historical liabilities and backlog in order to give GulfNav a new lease of life whereby new maritime and shipping businesses can be explored on a more positive footing. This settlement and clearing of liability with NAT marks a beginning of the end of the companys troubled past, it was claimed. GulfNav said that it was expected that this news would improve investor confidence and widen market interest for the company. The company is also in negotiations with its other major creditors and is hopeful of reaching fair settlements soon. Khamis Juma Buamim, board member, MD and Group CEO, said We are happy to have reached this important settlement with Nordic American Tankers and I thank them for their positive commitment during the negotiations. This is a step and an important milestone on the commitment we have made earlier to seek fair and amicable settlements with all our legacy debtors. I once again would like to assure all concerned that past and legacy issues will be resolved and the company will be on a solid ground to navigate the future with full commitment to its shareholders, the market and the industry at large, he said. Khamis added that GulfNav has now a fully energised management and that it is equipped with all the means and enablers in order to take a stronger market position by providing quality and cost effective services not only in the chemical tankers but also in other shipping business segments.




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ICS chairman spells out major challenges

The shipping industry must respond pro-actively to three major challenges, warned new ICS Chairman, Esben Poulsson.

These were - maintaining the authority of IMO; addressing the legitimate demand for even greater levels of environmental protection; and making policy makers better aware of the industrys existing achievements. Speaking at the annual International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) Conference in London this week, he said that with respect to protecting the global maritime regulatory system, provided so successfully by IMO, this is being challenged by the increasing tendency for EU member states positions to be co-ordinated by the EU, with negative impacts on the quality of IMO debates and its decision making. An example was the current discussion at IMO about the establishment of a global CO2 data collection system, which the EU is seeking to align with a regional regime for shipping which it has already adopted through regional legislation. Poulsson warned of the danger of the politicisation of IMO debates, instead of decisions being taken on the basis of their technical merits. He added that nations such as the US are taking similarly impractical, highly political stances with respect to issues such as the implementation of the IMO Ballast Water Convention by refusing to accept decisions that have been taken at IMO by other members. Poulsson cautioned: Unless we are very careful, IMO could eventually be reduced to merely rubber stamping decisions, which in reality will have been taken elsewhere, whether in Europe, the US or by the emerging powers in Asia. He then focused on the demands of society at large for increased environmental performance. This is one area where politicians can legitimately claim to be representing the views of the ordinary person with regard to concerns about the environment. We must be proactive in demonstrating that we are doing everything that we can to achieve a zero accident rate and pollution free environmental record, even if at present these goals are not fully achievable. We must respond to these genuine environmental concerns by supporting the development of progressive solutions at IMO, and acting constructively and with foresight on the understanding that society at large now expects far more from us, she said. He concluded his first major address, since his election to the Chair, by encouraging the shipping industry to continuously raise the bar  emphasising that the reputation of shipping, and the respect which national politicians have for unique institutions such as IMO, ultimately depends on the industrys safety record and environmental performance. We have to accept that society at large now expects far more from us, and even the smallest deficiencies will no longer be tolerated. Core to this is the question of how we are perceived by others, and whether the recognition our industry enjoys among policy makers and politicians needs to be further enhanced, he concluded.




Iran to export new crude grade

Iran is to open a pipeline and terminal to export a new grade of crude by the end of this year, according to a Reuters report.

A senior official from the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said on Monday that the terminal near Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf would be ready to export the new grade of crude, known as West Kharoon, after the facilities were completed "sometime by the end of this year," the agency reported. "As soon as (the pipeline and terminal are) completed, we will be able to segregate and export this crude," Seyed Mohsen Ghamsari, NIOCs director for international affairs, said. Initial production could be just under 300,000 barrels per day, making it key in boosting Iranian production, he said. The new grade was originally due to be introduced to the market earlier this year. The crude blend will be of similar quality to Iraq's Basra Heavy crude, with an API gravity of between 22 and 26 deg and a sulphur content higher than 2%. Ghamsari had said earlier that Iran is producing just over 3.8 mill barrels per day of crude and could reach 4 mill barrels per day in a few months. "We are ready to negotiate the level of production, as soon as we come back to the production before sanctions," Ghamsari said, adding that output was a little higher than 4 mill barrels per day before sanctions. Tehran's aggressive moves to recoup market share, lost under international sanctions, have paid off in Asia with July crude imports up 61% at 1.64 mill barrels per day from a year ago, Reuters reported. However, crude exports to Asia and Europe, Iran's key markets, are expected to stabilise this month after sharp rises in the first half of 2016. Iran is still in negotiations with Arab Petroleum Pipelines Company (SUMED) to lease storage tanks, although the producer has been able to increase exports to Europe without the facilities, Ghamasari said. Low freight rates have also reduced the cost of shipping Iranian crude to Europe, he added. In Iran, NIOC will reduce its gasoline imports and condensate exports once the first phase of its Persian Gulf refinery starts up by end-March 2017, he said. Gasoline imports have fallen this year as Iran uses more compressed natural gas to fuel cars, Ghamsari said without providing details.




Sovcomflot in $1.2 bill debt financing

SCF Group has announced that it has completed a series of financing transactions to the tune of $1.26 bill.

The deals include $750 mill of unsecured public debt and $512 mill of bank loans raised for funding the fleet renewal and expansion programme and for the refinancing of maturing debt. The latest in this series were new long term credit facilities amounting to $252 mill signed in August with Citibank, DVB, ING, Nordea and Unicredit. The funds will be used to finance the acquisition of nine Ice Class tankers and two icebreaking supply vessels, as well as refinancing the Groups existing bank debt. Nikolai Kolesnikov, executive vice president, CFO, said: With this latest round of financing, we have fully covered Sovcomflots capex funding requirements, including for the recently completed acquisition of nine ice class tankers and two icebreaking platform supply vessels, and addressed the Groups refinancing needs. These new transactions clearly demonstrate the confidence of international lenders and investors in SCF Group, and we are grateful to our long-standing financial partners for their continued support of SCFs business, M&A activity, and growth plans, he said. Earlier in June 2016, SCF returned to the international debt capital markets with a new $750 mill seven-year Eurobond offering. The proceeds from the issue were used to fund a simultaneous tender offer for the Groups outstanding Eurobonds, due in 2017 and to refinance other debt. The new financings have allowed the Groups debt repayment profile to be enhanced significantly, have improved its liquidity position, and have strengthened the Groups overall corporate credit standing. Sovcomflot is currently rated BB+(S&P), Ba1 (Moodys) and BB (Fitch). In another move, Sovcomflot, ABB and the Admiral Nevelskoy Maritime State University (MSU) have signed an agreement for research, technological and educational partnership. The agreement provides for the establishment of the Marine Propulsion Simulation Centre at MSU in Vladivostok. The operations of this centre which will be focused on preparing staff for work on vessels equipped with Azipod propulsion units. As part of this agreement, ABB will provide MSU with the equipment designed to simulate the operation of Azipod vessel electric power and propulsion units and provide further assistance with its installation, along with software. ABB will also assign engineers and instructors to operate the simulator. It is expected that the new simulation centre will be used to train MSU students, as well as to retrain and provide advanced training to commissioned officers of shipping companies' fleets. It will also conduct research, scientific and experimental activities in the area of vessel power supply automation and electric propulsion processes.




Final scores: Week 10's high school football games on the Treasure Coast

Football teams hit field Thursday and Friday for Week 10 with SSAC playoffs beginning and District 12-4S title game between Treasure Coast and Vero.




Reported Death Of TTIP  An Abhorrent Political Deception: Information Clearing House - ICH



to clandestinely impose TTIP rules on Europe. to clandestinely impose TTIP rules on Europe.

 TTIP is not alone. Its smaller sister deal between the EU and Canada is called CETA (the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement). CETA is just as dangerous as TTIP; indeed its in the vanguard of TTIP-style deals, because its already been signed by the European commission and the Canadian government. It now awaits ratification over the next 12 months.

The one positive thing about CETA is that it has already been signed and that means that were allowed to see it. Its 1,500 pages show us that its a threat to not only our food standards, but also the battle against climate change, our ability to regulate big banks to prevent another crash and our power to renationalise industries.

CETA contains a new legal system, open only to foreign corporations and investors. Should the British government make a decision, say, to outlaw dangerous chemicals, improve food safety or put cigarettes in plain packaging, a Canadian company can sue the British government for unfairness. And by unfairness this simply means they cant make as much profit as they expected. The trial would be held as a special tribunal, overseen by corporate lawyers. 

What is missing from this statement is that any American corporation headquartered in Canada can sue any nation in the EU via CETA for the same reasons  namely, loss of expected profits. They dont actually have to be Canadian corporations.

As Global Justice also confirms, Canada has itself fought and lost a plentiful and diverse range of legal cases brought by US corporations under the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) for outlawing carcinogenic chemicals in petrol, reinvesting in local communities and halting the devastation of quarries. If TTIP doesnt bring this horrific erosion of democratic power to the shores of Europe, CETA will. Brexit will mean for nothing. It will be sold to the British people as a global trade agreement which will be heralded as a great success and supported by much of the media who themselves have a vested interest in such deals.
COO Sheryl Sandberg has acknowledged that Facebook was wrong to delete posts showing an iconic image of a naked girl fleeing a napalm attack during the Vietnam war, according to a Reuters report. The admission came in a letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, which Reuters obtained on Monday.

Facebook last week repeatedly deleted the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo, The Terror of War, on grounds that it violated its nudity restrictions.

The companys reversal of course came in response to a global firestorm over its censorship. The controversy began when Norwegian author Tom Egeland posted the image as one of seven war-related photographs accompanying an entry on the history of warfare. The photo shows Pan Thi Kim Phuc, age 9  naked because her clothes had been burned off her body  fleeing in terror with several other children.

The Terror of War by Nick Ut / The Associated Press

The editor of Aftenposten, Norways largest daily newspaper, wrote an open letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, criticizing Facebooks handling of the issue. Facebooks Hamburg office had sent his publication an email demanding that it remove the photo from its page. Before the papers editor, Espen Egil Hansen, could respond, Facebook deleted the image and the accompanying article from the papers social media page.

Hansen blasted the action in his letter, telling Zuckerberg that Facebook, which funcitons as a powerful media platform, was engaging in censorship.

I think you are abusing your power and i find it hard to believe that you have thought it through thoroughly, Hansen wrote.

Support for the original post quickly became so widespread that Solberg reposted the image to her page, which Facebook also deleted.

What Facebook does by removing images of this kind, good as the intentions may be, is to edit our common history, Solberg wrote in a Facebook post. I hope that Facebook uses this opportunity to review its editing policy, and assumes the responsibility a large company that manages a broad communications platform should take.

Mounting Backlash

Before Facebook reversed course, free speech advocates, journalists and other critics called it out for ignoring the historical context of the photograph and relying far too much on its computerized algorithms.

The image of a naked child normally would violate Facebooks community standards and might be classified as pornographic in some countries, noted Facebook spokesperson Andrea Saul. However, the company realized after the outcry that the specific image in question had great historical significance.

Because of its status as an iconic image of historical importance, the value of permitting sharing outweighs the value of protecting the community by removal, so we have decided to reinstate the image on Facebook where we are aware it has been removed, Saul told TechNewsWorld.

Facebook would adjust its review mechanisms to permit sharing of the image going forward, she added.

The company will engage with publishers and other members of Facebooks global community to improve its policies in order to promote free expression, Saul said.

Algorithm Overkill

The controversy follows a series of moves Facebook and other social media companies have made to monitor the growing problems of online harassment, hate speech, and the use of social media for terrorist activities. Facebook and other social media platforms have made changes to their service agreements and algorithms to monitor more closely what many consider abusive behavior online.

Facebook came under fire in May after a report accused the company of biasing trending topics against conservatives. In response, it made several changes to the way it curates content, in an effort to take the human bias out of the picture.

Its possible Facebook went too far in relying on its technology to make common sense decisions about the content appearing on its pages, with censorship of legitimate imagery and speech becoming unintended consequences.

I think its one more demonstration that Facebook has taken a pivotal role in publishing, said Rick Edmonds, media business analyst at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

Its standards bear scrutiny, whether they are algorithmic or not, he told TechNewsWorld. Human editors make blunders too, but this action is egregiously illogical, as the affected Norwegian journalists say.
THE WALL OF SHAME

"The only thing [Trump's] mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin's c--k holster."

--STEPHEN COLBERT

"[Ivanka Trump] Your father is a racist birther. Steve Bannon an anti-Semitic opportunist. You and your husband are enabling hatred. F--- your shoes."

--BRADLEY WHITFORD

"Melania [Trump] is a hooker."

--JACOB BERNSTEIN

"And my job is to shut other white people down when they want to interrupt."

"We have to, at the DNC, provide training. We have to teach them how to communicate, how to be sensitive, and how to shut their mouths if they're white."

--SALLY BOYNTON BROWN

"And to our detractors that insist that this march will never add up to anything: F--- you! F---you!

"Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House."

--MADONNA

"Barron Trump looks like a very handsome date-rapist-to-be."

--STEPHEN SPINOLA

"Barron [Trump] will be this country's first homeschool shooter."

--KATIE RICH

"Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners, and if we kick 'em all out, you'll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts."

--MERYL STREEP

"There's a billion to one chance we're living in base reality."

[That means we're almost positively living in a simulation, like a video game.]

--ELON MUSK

"When I would deny that there was a significant racist component in some of the politics on our side, it was because the people I hung out with were certainly not. When suddenly, this rock is turned over, there is this'Oh shit, did I not see that?'"

----------------------------

"In any other scenario, Hillary Clinton's lying about her emails, and her pay-for-play relationship with the Clinton Foundation would be disqualifying issues. The only reason they're not disqualifying is because Donald Trump is a fundamentally more repellent, dishonest figure."

--CHARLIE SYKES

"I made a mistake in recalling the events of twelve years ago... I said I was traveling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire. I was instead in a following aircraft."

--BRIAN WILLIAMS

"I'm here to tell you if you elect me governor of this state, I will end the civil war."

--TOM BARRETT

"I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012. I might look at the constitution of South Africa. That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights, had an independent judiciary. It really is, I think, a great piece of work that was done."

--RUTH BADER GINSBURG

"Callista Gingrich. Karen Santorum. Ann Romney. Now, do you really think our country is ready for a white first lady?"

--ROBERT DE NIRO

"The death of Andrew Breitbart disproves the adage that only the good die young."

--JULIAN BOND

"The National Institute of Health has said that it is a danger to women's health and safety of their families that for 30 years to be exposed to the prospects of pregnancy."

--GWEN MOORE

"[Tea Party Republicans] have acted like terrorists."

--JOE BIDEN

"Why did- Couldn't the President have said at that moment, way back in December of last year, 'no game playing. No hostage-taking. No terrorizing this country with the debt ceiling. I'm not going to negotiate with you guys. You can't play it that way.' Could he have done that?"

--CHRIS MATTHEWS

"[T]he tea-party Hobbits could return to Middle Earth having defeated Mordor."

--WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL

"I remember distinctly an image of--we were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at [Obama's] pant leg and his perfectly creased pant, and I'm thinking, a) he's going to be president and b) he'll be a very good president."

--DAVID BROOKS

"I feel like calling her back and smackin' her around."

--FRED CLARK, DEMOCRAT

"The picture was of me, and I sent it."

--ANTHONY WEINER

"[I]f you go back to the year 2000, when we had an obvious disaster and - and saw that our voting process needed refinement, and we did that in the America Votes Act and made sure that we could iron out those kinks, now you have the Republicans, who want to literally drag us all the way back to Jim Crow laws and literally - and very transparently - block access to the polls to voters who are more likely to vote Democratic candidates than Republican candidates. And it's nothing short of that blatant."

--DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ

"This is probably one of the worst times we've seen because the numbers of people elected to Congress. I went through this as co-chair of the arts caucus. In '94 people were elected simply to come here to kill the National Endowment for the Arts. Now theyre here to kill women."

--LOUISE SLAUGHTER

"The protesters have proven today that theyre not going away. It was a pretty rough night last night. You can imagine if people said, well, we just cant fight the power. Instead, this morning, they came by tens, by hundreds, by thousands. By midday today, it was easily more than 10,000, perhaps as many as 15,000 people on the square here in Madison. Not organized by anyone, just grassroots citizens who came out just like the Minutemen in 1776."

--JOHN NICHOLS

"They're sitting on the money, they're using it for their own -- they're putting it someplace else with no interest in helping you with your life, with that money. We've allowed them to take that. That's not theirs, that's a national resource, that's ours. We all have this -- we all benefit from this or we all suffer as a result of not having it. I think we need to go back to taxing these people at the proper rates."

--MICHAEL MOORE

"Why don't we just raise the taxes and let these folks have their collective bargaining, have their union representation and go back to their jobs? Raise the taxes on the wealthy."

--DAVID LETTERMAN

"In 1933, [Hitler] abolished unions and that's what our Governor [Scott Walker] is doing today."

--LENA TAYLOR, Democrat State Senator

"So I would urge my Republican colleagues, no matter how strongly they feel -- you know, we have three branches of government. We have a House. We have a Senate. We have a president. And all three of us are going to have to come together and give some, but it is playing with fire to risk the shutting down of the government."

--CHUCK SCHUMER

"Well, when you start off with the Preamble of the Constitution, you talk about the pursuit of happiness."

--JOHN LEWIS

"I'm Rebecca Kleefisch. I performed fellatio on all the talk show hosts in Milwaukee. And they endorsed me and that's how I became lieutenant governor."

--SLY SYLVESTER

"Do you think this Constitution-loving is getting out of hand? I mean, is it a nod to the Tea Party?"

--JOY BEHAR

"We cant just leave it up to the parents."

"[Military leaders] tell us that childhood obesity isnt just a public health issue; they tell us that it is not just an economic threat -- it is a national security threat as well."

--MICHELLE OBAMA

"Actually, I did not take part in [the assassination of Sarah Palin]. I led it."

--KATHLEEN PARKER

"[The repeal of ObamaCare is] a kind of creeping genocide."

--JESSE JACKSON

"[Obama] has to realize that Mitch McConnell has virtually said so that politically he wants to cut out his heart and throw his liver to the dogs."

--DAN RATHER

"And the instructions are not to improvise a comedy sketch, but to elect a group of unqualified, unstable individuals who will do what they are told, in exchange for money and power, and march this nation as far backward as they can get, backward to Jim Crow, or backward to the breadlines of the '30s, or backward to hanging union organizers, or backward to the trusts and the robber barons.

"Result: the Tea Party. Vote backward, vote Tea Party. And if you are somehow indifferent to what is planned for next Tuesday, it is nothing short of an attempted use of democracy to end this democracy."

--KEITH "Reagan's dead and he was a lousy President" OLBERMANN

"I gotta wonder when people are gonna start wearing uniforms. I mean they've got an army out there in Alaska of militia people. You've got these guys going around acting like street thugs. I mean it isn't far from what we saw in the thirties, where all of a sudden, political parties started showing up in uniform."

--CHRIS MATTHEWS

"[Sharron Angle] is a moron on top of being evil... I'd like to see her do this ad in the South Bronx. Come here, bitch. Come to New York and do it. I'm not praying for her. She's going to hell. She's going to hell, this bitch."

--JOY BEHAR

"So people have been hurting and I understand that. And it doesn't give them comfort or solace for me to tell them, you know, but for me, we'd be in a worldwide depression."

--HARRY REID

"And to play Dick Cheney, all I had to do was find my Dick Cheney. And you can find all the villainy in the world in your own heart, and that's what an actor's job is. I always say to kids, inside you is Hitler and Jesus. And you got to find the appropriate person and bring them out."

--RICHARD DREYFUSS

"Because I live in the District of Columbia which is so predominantly Democratic, I am a registered Democrat. But I am an avowed neutral. And to put that into practice, I take my young daughter into the voting booth and she votes for me. She's now 14. We've been doing this since she was about age 4. She's now quite informed."

--BOB WOODWARD

"Sarah Palin's an idiot. Come on. This is a remarkably, stunningly, jaw-droppingly incompetent and mean woman."

"The Democrats may have moved into the center, but the Republicans have moved into a mental institution."

--AARON SORKIN

"Perhaps the greatest threat of all is the undermining of our Constitution and the systematic attack against the inalienable rights of the citizens of this nation, rights that are guaranteed by our Constitution. At the vanguard of this insidious attack is the Tea Party. This band of misguided citizens is moving perilously close to achieving villainous ends."

--HARRY BELAFONTE

"[Christine O'Donnell is] a witch who doesn't masturbate."

--JOY BEHAR

"Ah, the Tea Party, the nativist bed-wetters who somehow control our national dialogue. Yes, I call them the Pee Party, Jay, because they're always peeing in their pants about something. They're just, they're afraid of a mosque being built in New York. They're afraid of guns. You know, they think Obama, who like every other pussy Democrat has never said a single word about gun control, but they are very sure that he and his Negro army are coming after their guns. You know what? If you think that he's coming after your guns, you need to get out of your chat room and have your house tested for lead. He's not coming after your guns or your Bible or your fishing pole or your chewing tobacco."

--BILL MAHER

"That's a trade-off society is making because of very, very high medical costs, and a lack of willingness to say, you know, is spending a million dollars on that last three months of life for that patient, would it be better not to lay off those ten teachers and to make that trade-off in medical costs. But that;s called the 'Death Panel' and you're not supposed to have that discussion."

--BILL GATES

"NOT the 'whiteman's bitch'"

--IESHUH GRIFFIN

"[If Rush Limbaugh suffered a heart attack in my presence, I would] laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out. I never knew I had this much hate in me. But he deserves it."

--SARAH SPITZ

"You want freedom, you going to have to kill some crackers. You going to have to kill some of their babies."

--KING SAMIR SHABAZZ

"If this was Texas, which is the state that, that is directly on the border with Mexico, and they were calling for a measure like this, saying that they had a major issue with, you know, with undocumented people flooding their borders, I would say I would have to look twice at this. "But this is a state that is a ways removed from the border. And, um, it just, it doesn't make sense to me that when you google this subject, if you put in 'Arizona S.B. 1070,' that you see a picture of the governor of Arizona meeting with President Obama in May of 2010. If you have direct linkage to the president, there are already National Guard troops on the border in Arizona."

--PEGGY WEST

"Tell [the Jews] to get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land. It's not German. It's not Poland. [The Jews] can go home. Poland. Germany."

--HELEN THOMAS

"After the last eight years, it's good to have a president that knows what a library is."

--PAUL McCARTNEY

"By the way, I just want to point out I'm wearing my splash shield because I was told I was going to be in the splash zone (during Harry Smith's colonoscopy on live TV)."

--KATIE COURIC

"And that Word is, we have to give voice to what that means in terms of public policy that would be in keeping with the values of the Word."

----------------------------

"Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance or that people could start a business and be entrepreneurial and take risk, but not job loss because of a child with asthma or someone in the family is bipolaryou name it, any condition  is job-locking."

--NANCY PELOSI

"Back in World War II, we viewed the Japanese as 'yellow, slant-eyed dogs' that believed in different gods. They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. Does that sound familiar, by any chance, to what's going on today?"

--TOM HANKS

"The 'White Right' is trying to set Barack up to be assassinated.... Here are Christians praying for God to kill Barack Obama."

--LOUIS FARRAKHAN

"I refuse to accept the notion that the United States of America is not going to lead the world economically throughout the 20th Century."

--JOE BIDEN

"Obama's critics keep blasting him for Chicago-style politics. So, fine. Channel your inner Al Capone and go gangsta against your foes. Let 'em know that if they aren't with you, they are against you, and will pay the price."

--ROLAND MARTIN

"Martha Coakley is running to fill the rest of Ted Kennedy's term, and her opponent is a far-right tea-bagger Republican."

--CHUCK SCHUMER

"I tell you what, if I lived in Massachusetts, I'd try to vote ten times. I don't know if they'd let me or not, but I'd try to. Yeah, that's right, I'd cheat to keep these bastards out. I would. 'Cause that's exactly what they are."

--ED SCHULTZ

"We also see how revved up the tea baggers are at the thought of hijacking health care reform and every chance we have at making progress in Washington."

--JOHN KERRY

"A few years ago, this guy (Obama) would have been getting us coffee."

--BILL CLINTON

"I didn't realize I had written a column defending Roman Polanski and minimized his crime - are you sure it was me? I mean, I? There is, apparently, more to this crime than it would seem, and it may sound like a hollow defense, but in Hollywood I am not sure a 13-year-old is really a 13-year-old."

--TOM SHALES

"Joe Wilson yelled 'You lie!' at a president who didn't. But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!"

--MAUREEN DOWD

"One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game... During the 7th inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez."

--DAVID LETTERMAN

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasnt lived that life."

--SONIA SOTOMAYOR

"We all considered sexual abuse of minors as a moral evil, but had no understanding of its criminal nature."

--REMBERT WEAKLAND, Archbishop of Milwaukee 1977- 2002

"You know, you might want to look into this, [President Obama], because I think maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker, but he was so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight."

"Rush Limbaugh -- 'I hope the country fails.' I hope his kidneys fail."

----------------------------

"[Obama] told me I did a great job. The first lady said the same thing. I got a 'well done' from the president, I'm on cloud nine."

--WANDA SYKES

"Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less."

--COLIN POWELL

"[Tea Party goers are] just a bunch of wimpy, whiny, weasels who don't love their country."

--PAUL BEGALA

"I wouldn't want [gay marriage] to go to the United States Supreme Court now because that homophobe Antonin Scalia has too many votes on this current court."

--BARNEY FRANK

"Going forward, my mind will be open to every solution -- except one. We should not -- we must not -- and I will not -- raise taxes."

--JIM DOYLE, Liar

"He's a terrorist. Rush Limbaugh is a terrorist."

--JOY BEHAR

"You know, I just want to say to her (Sarah Palin), just very quickly...F--- you."

--JON STEWART

"Should I be worried about being a slave and being returned to slavery?"

--WHOOPI GOLDBERG

"I also believe that America is the greatest sin against God."

--FR. MICHAEL PFLEGER

"Those who think they can revive the stinking corpse of the usurping and fake Israeli regime by throwing a birthday party are seriously mistaken. Today the reason for the Zionist regime's existence is questioned, and this regime is on its way to annihilation."

--MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD

"We'll be eight degrees hotter in ten, not ten but 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals."

--TED TURNER

"Look, [Mitt] Romney comes from a religion founded by a criminal who was anti-American, pro-slavery, and a rapist. And he comes from that lineage and says, 'I respect this religion fully.'"

--LAWRENCE O'DONNELL

"Mexico does not end at its borders... Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico."

--FELIPE CALDERON

"The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that told me it's not a problem.' If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate that the baby is flame retardant."

--AL GORE

"Don't fear the terrorists. They're mothers and fathers."

--ROSIE O'DONNELL

"Is America ready for a black president? Well, I say we just had a retarded one. When did being black become a bigger deterrent than being retarded?"

--CHRIS ROCK

"Shut the f--- up! Shut up if you can't take a joke [about President Bush]!"

--BARBRA STREISAND

"Right, oh, yeah, Happy 9/11! Celebrate the day, right?"

--JAMES BROLIN, Mr. Barbra Streisand

"I think President Bush very well may have signed an authorization for the 9/11 attacks."

--KEVIN BARRETT, UW-MADISON Lecturer

"I said what I said. I am not guilty."

--SADDAM HUSSEIN

"Terri will not be starved to death. Her nutrition and hydration will be taken away."

--MICHAEL SCHIAVO

"On the eve of the election last month my wife Judith and I were driving home late in the afternoon and turned on the radio for the traffic and weather. What we instantly got was a freak show of political pornography: lies, distortions, and half-truths -- half-truths being perhaps the blackest of all lies. "

--BILL MOYERS

"I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for."

--HOWARD DEAN

"The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy.' They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win."

--MICHAEL MOORE

"And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the--of--the historical customs, religious customs."

--JOHN KERRY

"F---ing retarded."

"[Republicans] can go f--- themselves!"

--RAHM EMANUEL

"I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president."

--HILLARY CLINTON

"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is."

--BILL CLINTON

"And let me tell you something -- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment."

--MICHELLE OBAMA

"If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew, uh, as a janitor, makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honor."

----------------------------

"If you love me, you got to help me pass this bill."

----------------------------

"[F]or most of my lifetime, the United States was such a dominant economic power, we were such a large market, our industry, our technology, our manufacturing was so significant that we always met the rest of the world economically on our terms. And now, because of the incredible rise of India and China and Brazil and other countries, the United States remains the largest economic and the largest market but theres real competition out there. And that's potentially healthy. It makes -- Michelle was saying earlier I like tough questions because it keeps me on my toes. Well, this will keep America on its toes."

----------------------------

"If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, 'We're gonna PUNISH OUR ENEMIES and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us,' if they don't see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election, then I think it's gonna be harder and that's why I think it's so important that people focus on voting on November 2."

----------------------------

"We don't mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but THEY GOTTA SIT IN BACK."

----------------------------

"We can absorb a terrorist attack. We'll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever... we absorbed it and we are stronger."

----------------------------

"We're buying shrimp, guys."

----------------------------

"We are the ones we've been waiting for."

----------------------------

"We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers so I know whose ass to kick."

----------------------------

"We're not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that's fairly earned. I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money. But, you know, part of the American way is, you know, you can just keep on making it if youre providing a good product or you're providing good service. We don't want people to stop fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow the economy."

----------------------------

"If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."

----------------------------

"It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce these conflicts because whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them. And that ends up costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure."

----------------------------

"But I -- I think that the most important thing for the public to understand is, we're not handling any of these cases any different than the Bush administration handled them all through 9/11."

----------------------------

"One such translator was an American of Haitian descent, representative of the extraordinary work that our men and women in uniform do all around the world -- Navy CORPSE-MAN Christian [sic] Brossard. And lying on a gurney aboard the USNS Comfort, a woman asked Christopher: 'Where do you come from? What country? After my operation,' she said, 'I will pray for that country.' And in Creole, CORPSE-MAN Brossard responded, 'Etazini.' The United States of America."

----------------------------

"I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow was around, and so I want to give a shout-out to that Congressional Medal of Honor winner. It's good to see you."

----------------------------

"We are God's partners in matters of life and death."

----------------------------

"[T]he Cambridge police acted stupidly."

----------------------------

"I am going to teach [my daughters] first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."

----------------------------

"The reforms we seek would bring greater competition, choice, savings, and INEFFICIENCIES to our health care system."

----------------------------

"Over the last 15 months, weve traveled to every corner of the United States. Ive now been in 57 states? I think one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii, I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit, but my staff would not justify it."

--BARACK OBAMA
It's been estimated that Samsung's recall of the Galaxy Note 7 could cost the company around $1 billion, but as yet another report comes in of an exploding device - this time involving a six-year-old boy - the ultimate cost may be even higher.

Last week, a charging Note 7 caught fire and caused $1380 worth of damages to a Sydney hotel. The owner was sleeping next to the phone when it exploded, so he was lucky to escape without any injuries. The same can't be said for one Brooklyn resident, whose device "suddenly burst into flames" as he watched videos on it.

The fire caused by the phone was intense enough to set off the alarms in the family's home. The burns he suffered meant he had to be rushed to Downstate Medical Center. "He is home now," the victim's grandmother, Linda Lewis, told the New York Post. "He doesn't want to see or go near any phones. He's been crying to his mother."

Lewis said she has been in touch with Samsung but didn't comment further.

Despite Samsung's claims that only a tiny fraction of Note 7 batteries are at risk of overheating, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has advised plane passengers not to charge or turn on the devices while on board aircraft and not stow them in any checked baggage. Airlines in India, Australia, and the UAE have also placed restrictions on the use of Note 7s during flights.

The recall of Samsung's flagship phone has caused shares in the company to drop to a two-month low, wiping $14.3 billion off the South Korean firm's market value. "Some said initially the Galaxy Note 7 could be the best smartphone ever, but now it's possible the phone will go down as the worst ever," said IBK Securities analyst Lee Seung-woo.

There had been some reports that, in a bid to avoid any more incidents like the one in New York, Samsung was planning to remotely deactivate all defective Note 7s by Septemeber 30. However, the company has since refuted this, though in a statement to Android Central (below) doesn't seem to rule it out as a future possibility.
U.S. President Barack Obama has been honored in a unique way.

Researchers have discovered a new species of parasitic flatworms inhabiting turtles and has named it Baracktrema obamai, detailing their work in a study published in The Journal of Parasitology. Parasites are beautiful and resilient, so the researchers saw naming their discovery after Obama as an act of honor.

According to lead researcher Dr. Thomas R. Platt, the idea to name the parasite after the U.S. president came after he discovered that they are related: fifth cousins, twice removed. They have a common ancestor called George Frederick Toot, who lived in Middletown, Pennsylvania, between 1759 and 1815.

Long and thin and "cool as hell," the newly christened parasitic flatworms infect turtles.

"They 'face incredible obstacles to complete their journey (life cycle) and must contend with the immune system of the host in order to mature and reproduce,'" Platt said.

Platt, who is a retired professor of biology at Saint Indiana's Mary's College, called the parasite phenomenally incredible and eliciting profound respect.

"Baracktrema obamai will endure as long as there are systematists studying these remarkable organisms," he added.

Considering the unusual characteristics of the group of turtle parasites, the American parasitologists' team decided to categorize them into a separate genus and added as a new species. Characterized by threadlike bodies, the parasite was most prominently observed in the black marsh turtle (Siebenrockiella crassicollis), freshwater turtles and the Malaysian box turtle (Cuora amboinensis).

Once inside a turtle, the parasites penetrate the lungs and lay hundreds of fluke eggs. However, it is unclear how they infect the hosts in the first place.

Parasitologists are also of the belief that the turtle parasites could be the possible ancestors of the flatworms that are spreading the disease Schistosomiasis in developing countries and affecting millions of people.

In August, the death of thousands of fish prompted the closure of the popular Yellowstone River in Montana, as well as hundreds of miles of other waterways.

According to the state wildlife officials, the deaths were caused by a parasite not native to the area. This means it was likely introduced by people through contaminated boats or fishing waders or other means, although it is also possible for birds to have acquired the virus from another area and transported it to Montana.

Decontamination stations were set up by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks to help stem the problem. The agency also advised the public to be more mindful of cleaning their equipment when moving between bodies of water.

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An FBI investigation assisted Israeli law enforcement in the arrest of two Israeli teens suspected to be behind vDOS, which is a paid online service that is said to have perpetrated a majority of the distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attacks over the past few years.

DDoS attacks flood the resources or bandwidth of a targeted website or system with traffic, with the aim of making the target unavailable. A recent example is the attack launched by hacking group PoodleCorp against Blizzard's Battle.net, including servers for Overwatch and World of Warcraft.

Customers who wished to hire the services of vDOS were presented various subscription options, with prices depending on how long the DDoS attack will be requested to last.

According to security blogger Brian Krebs, vDOS has helped customers launch over 150,000 DDoS attacks, with the platform having earned over $618,000 since July 2014. It was also said that vDOS was behind the launch of over 277 million seconds of attack time between April and July this month, which is equivalent to about 8.81 years of traffic.

It should also be noted that the $618,000 earnings figure for vDOS is a conservative amount, as the service dates back to as early as September 2012. However, payment records are unavailable for services carried out before 2014. As such, Krebs wrote that vDOS has likely earned over $1 million over its lifetime.

The two teens, Yarden Bidani and Itay Huri, were arrested because of carelessness. The duo hosted vDOS in a server that is connected to Huri, with the e-mail and SMS notifications of the platform linked to the two teens.

Bidani and Huri even wrote a technical paper focus on DDoS attacks, and the old Facebook page of Bidani had a reference to the AppleJ4ck pseudonym that he uses when conducting business for vDOS. Lastly, vDOS did not accept requests to target Israeli websites because it was in the service's home country.

The two teens are out on bail, but officials have placed both of them under a 10-day house arrest. Their passports have also been confiscated, with no access to telecommunication devices for 30 days.

The arrest of Bidani and Huri and the takedown of vDOS will not stop the propagation of paid DDoS attacks. As the two teens showed, launching such a platform only needs a botnet and some basic skills in business.

However, with the FBI showing teeth in catching such paid services, DDoS providers might want to rethink their activities, especially if they have been careless in covering their tracks.

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The second annual Monarch Migration Festival was organized at South Lake Storey Road in Galesburg, Illinois on Saturday, Sept. 10, in an effort to conserve and boost monarch butterfly population in the country.

The population of monarchs in the country has fallen up to half than what it was a year ago and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources is striving hard to protect the beautiful creature, which is also the state's official insect.

The distinctly orange-colored insects migrate over 3,400 miles every year from Canada and the United States to Mexico. Over the past 20 years the butterfly population has reduced largely because of loss of habitat and issues like storms in Mexico last winter. The butterflies, which have a life span of about a month, will emerge and die during the course of migration.

In addition, the proliferation of herbicide-tolerant crops along the migration route lets farmers apply more herbicide, killing milkweed plants that support the life cycle of the monarch butterflies during migration.

The monarch, which is regarded as a "nearly threatened" species, is requested to be included in the "endangered species" list by some conservation organizations. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide on the issue by summer 2019.

Meanwhile, the Illinois Monarch Butterfly Summit has emerged to improve the situation. The summit aims to review all of the conservation efforts already being made in the state and to start laying down the foundation for a unified strategy.

One of these efforts is the Monarch Migration Festival, in which families learned about the monarch's life cycle, migration route and what it needs to survive. Participants were also allowed to tag a monarch butterfly before sending it on its way.

Illinois Department of Natural Resources Director Wayne Rosenthal said in the summit that monarch butterflies are not only an issue of the state and country but of the whole world.

Though monarch butterflies are not one of the most crucial pollinators, they deserve to be preserved for what they are.

"From an ecosystem standpoint, they aren't holding things together," Karen Oberhauser, co-chairwoman of Monarch Joint Venture, told the Chicago Tribune. "Monarchs are kind of like the 'Mona Lisa.' They're valuable just because they are."

Over in Iowa, a fundraiser organized by the Scott County Soil and Water Conservation District will offer interested people an opportunity to sponsor butterflies during a ceremony at the Nahant Marsh Education Center in Davenport on Saturday, Sept. 17. The event will be held between 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. and is open to everyone. However, to be able to sponsor a butterfly one has to pay $21.40 for a butterfly and $53.50 for three butterflies.

Photo: William Warby | Flickr

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Google's parent company Alphabet Inc.'s Verily Life Sciences LLC and French drugmaker Sanofi are teaming up for a new joint venture (JV) that aims to tackle diabetes.

As part of the JV, both Verily and Sanofi intend to invest nearly $500 million to leverage research and services in the area of diabetes, even as projections for people suffering from the disease are set to increase.

On Monday, Sept. 12, Sanofi announced the JV, dubbed Onduo, and revealed that it had been working since last year on a collaboration with Google in the area of diabetes.

"The company will leverage Verily's experience in miniaturized electronics, analytics, and consumer software development, with Sanofi's clinical expertise and experience in bringing innovative treatments to people living with diabetes," said Sanofi.

Onduo will persevere to assist individuals who suffer from diabetes to lead a healthy and fuller life by creating "comprehensive solutions" that will deploy medicine, software, professional care and devices to aid seamless and efficient management of diseases.

The drug maker's SVP of global diabetes franchise, Stefan Oelrich, shared that the good thing about the JV was that there is no reliance on the traditional development cycle for a pharmaceutical asset, which is usually 10 years long. Thanks to the JV, the innovation would begin right away.

Sanofi has 50 percent stake and is pumping in $248 million in cash for the JV. It is optimistic of staying different from competitors thanks to Onduo, as the competition in the space is heating up with more players entering the market. The rivalry surrounding pricing is set to stay, according to Oelrich.

The products Sanofi would be selling as part of the JV include devices, such as an insulin pen, and online services.

Onduo will initially channel its focus on the community suffering from Type 2 diabetes, particularly creating resolutions that would aid individuals in taking informed decisions pertaining to their day-to-day health. This would encompass not only better management of medication, but also better goals and habits.

Over 400 million people around the globe suffer from diabetes and nearly 90 percent have Type 2 diabetes. If proper steps such as lifestyle alterations and better treatment are not taken to counter the problem, the numbers are anticipated to grow further in the near future.

Sanofi is on course to revive declining revenue in the drugmaker's diabetes division. The company may be hoping the JV with Verily will recover its depleting fortunes and turn things around.

Photo: Victor Casale | Flickr

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HP will purchase Samsung's printer business for no less than $1.05 billion, a deal which should improve the company's footprint in copying and printing for office-based work groups.

The deal needs regulatory approval in order to come into effect, and the process is estimated to last about 12 months.

After te deal gets green-lighted, Samsung promised an investment ranging between $100 and $300 million in HP, via open-market purchases of shares.

Despite its solid arm in personal computers, HP gets the majority of its profit share from supplying toner and ink for its printers. Keep in mind that the company ranks first in the desktop-class printer market segment.

However, that side of the enterprise has been stagnant of late, as PCs are using printers less and less. In August, HP noted that its ink and toner revenue dropped by a whopping 18 percent in Q3, while its sales of printer hardware dipped by 10 percent.

HP's CEO, Dion Weisler, affirmed that his company will hit revenue growth by focusing on larger printer-copier devices (A3 format for our designer readers). HP will face harsh competition in the area from the likes of Canon, Xerox, Konica Minolta and Ricoh.

Within the printer deal, HP will receive the Samsung line of A3 machines, as well.

What is more, HP will get access to the manufacturing part of laser printers, aka printing engines. One major difference between Samsung and HP is that the former crafted its proprietary laser printers, printing engines included, while the latter traditionally relied on external suppliers. Despite the reliance on outward sources for its hardware, HP managed to build some of the best home printers on the market.

Enrique Lores, the helm of HP's imaging and printing business, affirms that his company should see boosted profit margins after the acquisition of the printer engine tech. According to Lores, controlling the core technology of the printers is crucial to improving them.

Inside the deal, Samsung will concede close to 6,500 of its printing-related patents, which should help HP broaden its business significantly. From the 6,000-strong Samsung workforce that will enter HP's ranks, nearly 1,500 are engineers.

Led by Lee Jae-yong, Samsung trimmed down its business portfolio while focusing more on its market among other tech companies.

The deal with HP will help the South Korean company to stay on target in its more future-proof areas.

Samsung is one of the global top manufacturers of smartphones, refrigerators and memory chips, and the enterprise occupies the fifth place in the hard-copy peripherals market. The first four companies are HP, Canon, Seiko Epson Corp. and Brother Industries Ltd.

Samsung bundles its printer business with its consumer electronics division, which markets TVs and appliances such as washing machines and refrigerators.

Seeing that the main part of Samsung's operating profit originates from its premium smartphone and chip divisions, it is no wonder that the company is attempting to shed parts of its consumer electronics division. In 2015, chips and handsets brought in 48.4 percent and 38.4 percent the operating profit respectively, while consumer electronics only scored 4.7 percent.

Experts estimate that Samsung's printer arm brings between $1 billion and $1.6 billion in yearly revenue.

What type of printer are you using at home? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Sony Announces A New Action Cam With BOSS Technology | TechTree.com

Thanks to the popularity of Go Pro, action cameras have become a rage. In this segment, the Japanese brand Sony is quite a serious competitor. In tie for the annual refresh, the Japanese tech-giant has announced the 4K FDR-X3000R. It is one of the first POV cams to feature the company's B.O.SS (Balanced Optical SteadyShot) technology. I know that's a terrible acronym. The technology is quite impressive though. In this, the lens and the sensor are fused together to enable more effective shake compensation. That's much like how Nokia had implemented the OIS (Optical Image Stabilsation) in the Lumia 1020. Such setup is particular helpful to achieve smooth footage form relatively smaller cameras.

The FDR-X3000R may be mounted on a bicycle, car, or simply used as a hand-held. The camera comes with fancy Live-View remote. You can wear it like a wristband and access all the essential controls without having to touch the camera. Of course, if you choose not to buy this accessory, you can use your existing phone or tablet with the free PlayMemories Mobile app.





In addition to shooting in 4K, the FDR-X3000R can snap images at 8.3 megapixel. It has an interval recording feature to help you create 4K time-lapse videos. You will have to do perform video stitching on a PC though. To let more light in for the clearer images, Sony uses the new Exmor R CMOS sensor backed by ZEISS Tessar Lens. Sony claims that the on-board BIONZ X image processor reduces "jaggie" effects. You can capture high-bitrate recordings in 4K at 100 Mbps, Full HD at 50 Mbps in the XAVC S format. Thanks to the dual mic setup, you get stereo sound.

The FDR-X3000R has a splash proof body. If you're planning to under water, it is supplied with a fully waterproof underwater housing too. The FDR-X3000R will start shipping in November with a 600 price tag, which translates to around Rs 45,000.





TAGS: Sony
Aviation Authorities Issue Safety Guidelines For The Galaxy Note 7 | TechTree.com

Recently, Samsung has been making headlines for the wrong reason. Its latest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy Note 7 is plagued with a serious battery issue. Instead of killing the competition such as the iPhone 7 Plus, the Note 7 seems to be busy in self-immolation. While the South Korean company is busy containing the situation, airlines and airport authorities around the globe are advising travellers not to fly with their Samsung Galaxy Note 7.



The US FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) has asked the passengers to refrain from turning on the Galaxy Note 7 or even stowing it in any checked in luggage:







Similarly, Transport Canada recommends against putting the the Galaxy Note 7 in the checked in luggage. The passengers are requested to carry these handsets in the cabin so that the accident is swiftly dealt with.







Following the suite, India's DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) has copy-pasted FAA's statement. Japanese people never let go of any opportunity to ridicule the Koreans. So don't be surprised if Japan's Civil Aviation Bureau officer smirked while saying this: "Until such time that safety measures are taken by Samsung, the ministry has requested that Japanese airlines strongly communicate instructions to passengers regarding bringing Galaxy Note 7 on board planes,"



In addition to these authorities, carriers such as AirAsia, Emirates, Singapore Airlines, SAS, Qantas, Jetstar Airways, and Virgin Australia are also advising the passengers to be extra careful when travelling with their Galaxy Note 7. On a related "note", the Galaxy Note 7 was supposed launch in India on 2nd September. In light of the critical safety issue though, the release has been delayed indefinitely. To make up for the inconvenience, Samsung is giving away a free Gear VR (Virtual Reality) headset to everyone who pre-ordered it in India.



TAGS: Samsung
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP)  Hillary Clinton plans to release additional health records, after an abrupt departure from a 9/11 anniversary ceremony Sunday raised concerns about her fitness to serve as commander in chief.

The questions about her health were compounded by the nearly eight hours of silence from Clinton and her team about the health scare, as well as the Sunday evening disclosure she had been diagnosed on Friday with pneumonia. A Clinton spokesman acknowledged Monday that information should have been released more quickly.

Clintons doctor said the 68-year-old former secretary of state became overheated and dehydrated at the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan. Dr. Lisa R. Barback said Clinton was examined at her home in suburban New York and is now rehydrated and recovering nicely.

The campaign has asked Barback to prepare Clintons medical records to be made public, according to spokesman Brian Fallon, and the Democratic nominee is expected to back on the campaign trail by mid-week. Late Sunday, she canceled plans to travel to California for two days of fundraising, campaign events and an appearance on Ellen DeGeneres talk show.

Theres no other undisclosed condition. The pneumonia is the extent of it, Fallon said, in an interview with MSNBC.

But less than two months from Election Day, it was a problematic visual for Clinton as she tries to project the vigor needed for one of the worlds most demanding jobs.

Clintons team tried to address some of the criticism on Monday morning, arguing that Clinton wanted to keep her full schedule and the fault for the lack of information rested with her staff.

In retrospect, we could have handled it better, Fallon said. He said that was the staffs responsibility and we regret that.

No longer can Trumps questions about Clintons physical stamina be summarily dismissed. The episode was also sure to fuel a vocal group of online conspiracy theorists, deemed healthers by some Clinton supporters, who point to videos and photos of Clinton as evidence of her poor health.

In phone-in television interviews Monday morning, Trump was uncharacteristically subdued about Clintons health issues. On CNBC, he said he takes no satisfaction from her problems. On Fox News, he said he hopes she gets well and gets back on the trail and well be seeing her at the debate. The first of three debates is scheduled for Sept. 26.

Trump also said he had a physical last week and will release detailed health information when he gets the results, which are expected in coming days. I think theyre going to be good. I feel great, he said on Fox and Friends.

Both candidates have so far released only limited health records.

The incident compounds a difficult time for Clinton as the race enters its final stretch. Despite Trumps numerous missteps, the race remains close and many Americans view Clinton as untrustworthy.

On Friday, Clinton told donors that half of Trumps supporters are in a basket of deplorables  a comment that drew sharp criticism from Republicans. Clinton later said she regretted applying that description to half of Trumps backers, but stuck by her assertion that the he has given a platform to hateful views and voices.

Trump on Monday called Clintons remarks the biggest mistake of the political season. On Fox, he said that being elected to the White House means: Youre the president of all the people.

On Sunday, Clinton left the 9/11 memorial an hour earlier than planned. She had spent about 90 minutes standing with other dignitaries in the sun on a warm and humid day.

Her departure was not witnessed by the reporters who travel with her campaign. Aides provided no information about why she left or her whereabouts for nearly two hours. Clintons spokesman Nick Merrill eventually said Clinton had gone to her daughters nearby apartment, but refused to say whether she had required medical attention.

Clinton exited the apartment on her own, wearing sunglasses and carrying a handbag. She waved to reporters and said, Im feeling great. Its a beautiful day in New York. She was then driven to her home in Chappaqua, New York.

Bardack said in the statement Sunday evening that Clinton has had an allergy-related cough, and that during an exam on Friday, was diagnosed with pneumonia, put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule.

Fallon said Clinton felt fine soon after the incident, saying she called aides from her car and played with her grandchildren at her daughters apartment. Others at the campaign have been ill recently, he said, attributing the sickness to the grueling pace of the campaign.

Unlikely previous presidential candidates, both Clinton and Trump have opted not to travel with whats known as the protective pool  a small group of journalists that follow the candidate everywhere.

The goal is to keep the public informed about their condition, whereabouts and official interactions at all times. For a president, who always travels with a protective pool, an hours-long gap without knowledge of their whereabouts could spark unrest in the financial markets and international concern.

Trump and his supporters have hinted at Clintons potential health issues for months, questioning her energy when she takes routine days off the campaign trail and reviving questions about a concussion she sustained in 2012 after fainting. Her doctor attributed that episode to a stomach virus and dehydration.

Doctors said Sunday that pneumonia is commonly treated quickly and effectively with antibiotics. Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University, said that based on the available information, this should not in any way impede her function going forward.
On Sept. 8, the state of Oregon signed a Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS), making it the fourth state, next to California, Minnesota and Colorado, to give its police access to AWS Cloud.The Oregon State Police is pleased to announce  [an] agreement that meets every requirement of the FBIs CJIS Security Policy," Maj. Tom M. Worthy, chief security officer of the Oregon State Police, said in an AWS blog . "This agreement gives Oregon agencies additional hosting options that enhance security, while meeting their business requirements pertaining to criminal justice information."AWS has turned a stronger focus toward the public sector this year, most recently announcing another iteration of its City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge, which seeks to recognize and promote best practices in innovation and data storage.Recent trend data collected by the Center for Digital Government indicates that cultural barriers to cloud adoption are diminishing, and that more IT leaders view the cloud as a viable and secure possibility for their organization's needs. More vendors are joining the CJIS bandwagon, including Microsoft, which announced last year that its cloud services were suitable for organizations bound by the FBI security requirements.
Elecciones presidenciales

El pais mas grande de la region elige este domingo a su proximo mandatario. Tras no lograr hacerse con la mayoria de los votos en los comicios del 2 de octubre, Luis Inacio "Lula" Da Silva y Jair Bolsonaro se disputan la Presidencia en una balotaje que enfrenta tendencias y valores contrapuestas. Con equipos en el terreno, Telam presenta una cobertura exclusiva con noticias, analisis, opinion, fotos y mas.
On the debate, two pollsters who conducted studies, agreed on Saturday that former president Lula defeated Bolsonaro. | Read More
PLATTSMOUTH  An Iowa man will serve both jail time and probation for driving drunk on a Cass County road last winter.

Douglas C. Heitman, 35, appeared in Cass County District Court Monday morning for sentencing on one Class I misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence of alcohol-.15+-second offense. Heitman accepted a plea deal earlier this year that reduced the states original Class IIIA felony charge of DUI-.15+-third offense.

Heitman is a resident of the Mills County town of Silver City. He was convicted of DUI in both December 2002 and July 2005. The first conviction happened in Mills County and the second conviction happened in Douglas County.

A Cass County Sheriffs Office deputy stopped Heitman on Dec. 2 near the intersection of Highway 75 and McKelvie Road. The deputy clocked Heitmans car traveling 76 miles per hour in a 60-mph zone. The deputy noticed the smell of alcohol and arrested Heitman on suspicion of DUI.

Deputy County Attorney Richard Fedde told the court the plea agreement also contained language regarding Heitmans drivers license. He said the two sides had agreed that Heitmans license should be suspended for 15 years. He said the recommendation included a provision that Heitman could obtain an ignition interlock permit.

He has proven alcohol has been a problem with him over the years, Fedde said. There should be a deterrent to make sure he doesnt drink and drive in the future.

Defense attorney Julie Bear told the court Heitman had recently completed an outpatient treatment program and was willing to seek other forms of help for his alcohol issues. She said she felt probation would be an appropriate sentence.

Interim District Court Judge Paul Korslund sentenced Heitman to 24 months of probation. Heitman must pay a $1,000 fine by Dec. 30, complete 20 hours of community service and regularly attend AA meetings. His drivers license will be suspended for 15 years. Korslund said Heitman could obtain an ignition interlock device after 45 days.

Heitman must also serve a mandatory term of 30 days in Cass County Jail. Korslund said he could serve his sentence on consecutive weekends. Heitman will begin serving his first weekend in jail on Friday afternoon.